RTHK: UK leader proposes banning paid lobbying by lawmakers
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed on Tuesday that lawmakers be banned from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists, after a row over second jobs posing conflicts of interest.
Johnson said the code of conduct for members of parliament (MPs) should be updated and those who are prioritising their outside interests over their constituents "should be investigated and appropriately punished".
The British leader has come under pressure from damaging media reports about lawmakers being paid for external work after his Conservative government sought to change parliamentary conflict-of-interest rules to protect a colleague threatened with suspension.
Johnson's handling of the affair has been criticised by some in his own party as well as opponents, and recent polls suggested it was having an impact on his standing, with surveys suggesting the opposition Labour Party was now ahead.
In a letter to the speaker of the House of Commons, he backed measures recommended by parliament's Committee on Standards in Public Life which would ban MPs from accepting paid work as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant, and all second jobs should be within "reasonable limits".
"They would also ban MPs from exploiting their positions by acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists," Johnson wrote. (Reuters)
This story has been published on: 2021-11-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: SAA eyes Lagos route
South African Airways (SAA) says it expects to expand its route network to include Lagos, Nigeria, from 12 December this year.
SAA interim Chief Executive, Thomas Kgokolo, said the move is part of the airlines gradual growth strategy after the airline was grounded for more than a year.
Local flights took off in September between Johannesburg and Cape Town with routes also opened to several other African countries.
Our intention is to continue to develop our route network driven by passenger demand and revenue potential. We are constantly evaluating opportunities, both locally, regionally and internationally, Kgokolo said.
He added that Lagos in particular is a significant route on the continent.
This specific destination takes SAA into one of the biggest travel markets in Africa and were delighted that we are again able to resume operations, providing a link between Africas two biggest economies, he said.
In a statement, the airline highlighted that it expects that the continuing revision of international travel restrictions by countries will lead to more visitors in the country and increased activity in the two countries tourism markets.
Not only does the new Johannesburg Lagos route function as a key economic link between the two countries but will also service the burgeoning tourism market in both countries. SAAwill continue in partnership with SA Tourism to promote the country in Nigeria in the expectation that it will lead to more visitors now that international pandemic travel restrictions are being revised. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Electoral Commission receives clean audit opinion
The Electoral Commission (IEC) has received a clean bill of health from the Auditor-General.
The clean audit opinion issued by the Auditor-General is one of the highlights contained in the Electoral Commissions annual report, which was presented before the National Assemblys Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, on Tuesday.
Commission Chairperson Glen Mashinini and Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo led a delegation which tabled the report which covers the 2020/21 financial year before the portfolio committee.
Both Mashinini and Mamabolo expressed pride at the achievement of the Commissions finance team led by Chief Finance Officer Dawn Mbatha, which achieved the first clean audit in five years.
I am immensely proud of this report for the reason that the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) issued us with a clean audit opinion.
Our institution is ever committed to the highest levels of financial probity. This financial year was like no other in that the Coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak health and economic havoc in South Africa and around the world.
Members of staff of the Electoral Commission were either infected or affected by the pandemic in one way or another, Mamabolo said.
Meanwhile, Mashinini told Members of Parliament that the Commission takes pride in having delivered a succession of credible, free, fair and successful elections in the past 27 years.
In delivering these elections, the Electoral Commission has met its Constitutional obligations. Important in any election is transparency, accountability and ethical conduct by all involved in this crucial exercise of democracy. Accountability and transparency are the main reasons we are here.
It is important to us that the Electoral Commission, established in terms of Section 181 of the Constitution, accounts on a regular basis to Parliament, said Mashinini.
In addition to appearing before this committee on a regular basis, our books are audited, on an annual basis, by the Auditor-General and we have, we are proud to disclose, received favourable and positive audit outcomes, he said. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Employment and Labour revamps Labour Activation Programme (LAP)
The Department of Employment and Labour is revamping its Labour Activation Programme (LAP) to deepen its impact in job creation initiatives and help integrate the unemployed into the labour market.
Speaking during his opening address at the departmental LAPs three-day workshop on Tuesday, the Director-General, Thobile Lamati, said the goal of the revamp is to shorten the response time and make impact immediate.
The workshop, held at Saint George Hotel in Irene, is being attended by senior departmental officials from various branches such as the Public Employment Services and those of its entities such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Fund and Productivity SA.
The objective of the LAP is to enhance employability, enable entrepreneurship and preserve jobs.
Lamati said the workshop needs to ask the question what type of LAP do we want to see?.
He said South Africas broad unemployment rate currently sitting at 42% was concerning and too high by any standard.
The Director-General added that the economy is faced with structural challenges in regard to skills mismatch and it is not growing fast to absorb the growing army of the unemployed.
Faced with this reality like any country, South Africa has adopted active labour market policy interventions. Active labour market policies are our shield. This means that we need to stimulate the demand and supply. LAP is part of our active labour market intervention policies to deal with unemployment, he said.
Lamati said the job of the department is to work with other stakeholders who are involved in job creation to help the unemployed into employment and business opportunities.
Over the next few days, we will look at the structure, monitor the impact of our interventions in responding to the needs of the unemployed. Labour activation has since its inception become an important cog of our unemployment interventions and a game-changer to work seekers in general, Lamati said.
Some of the models that will be considered include - the flexicurity, mutual obligation and active inclusion for all.
Through this proposed LAP revamp we want a high degree of efficiency - no matter the model. The focus is not institutional arrangement nor the structure. Our focus should be how best we make the programme highly efficient. The structure is not an overriding factor. We also need to protect existing jobs, he said.
Some of the LAP programmes that have been undertaken by the department includes the Training of the Unemployed (TOU), Enterprise Development (ED) Training Layoffs Scheme (TLS) and Turnaround Solutions (TAS). SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: National Assembly passes Second Special Appropriation Bill
A Parliament National Assembly (NA) hybrid sitting has passed the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill.
It will now go to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence, Parliament said on Tuesday.
In a statement, Parliament said the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill proposes to appropriate additional urgent funding allocations in the 2021/22 financial year, to the Votes of National Treasury, Social Development, Defence, Police, and Trade, Industry and Competition.
An amendment to the Bill enables the Minister of Finance to approve urgent expenditure for contingency funding. Section 213(2) of the Constitution provides that money may be withdrawn from the National Revenue Fund only in terms of an appropriation by an Act of Parliament.
The Bill was tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Finance on 23 August 2021 and was referred to the committees for consideration and report to the National Assembly, as prescribed in section 13 of the Act.
In processing the Bill, section 4(4)(c) of the Act also requires the committees on Appropriations in both Houses to consult with the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC).
In addition to consulting with the FFC, the committees also invited the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to comment on the Bill. They also consulted with stakeholders directly affected by the Bill, namely the South African Special Risks Insurance Association.
The 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill proposed an additional R26.7 billion to Social Development to cater for the Social Relief Grant, inclusive of R500 million (inclusive of the R250 million allocated through section 16 (1) of the Public Financial Management Act) to the South African Social Security Agency for system enhancements to improve application and payment processes, including a strengthened eligibility assessment system.
Parliament said the Bill also proposed an additional R700 million to Defence to fund the deployment of military personnel to assist police with bringing order after the July 2021 riots, mainly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Bill also proposed an additional R1.3 billion to Trade, Industry and Competition to support businesses affected by the July riots. The NCOP is scheduled to debate the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill in December.
Meanwhile, at the same plenary sitting, the NA agreed to the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend certain provisions of the Sectional Titles Act, 1986 (Act No. 95 of 1986) (the principal Act). The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, having deliberated on the content of the Bill, realised that it was necessary to amend provisions of the principal Act, which were not included in the Bill. The Bill will be sent to the NCOP for concurrence. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Sewing for change
Touched by the high unemployment rate in the Msinga area, Lelly Mntungwa felt she needed to do something to create job opportunities for the locals, particularly young women.
Mntungwa left her job at a financial institution to start sewing. Prior to sewing clothes, she conducted research of her own to see what she can do to create jobs as well as impart skills to her KwaZulu-Natal community.
Skills transfer is a sustainable gift that can empower people to become income generators and survive during difficult situations, she says.
She tells SAnews during a recent visit to her Msinga Clothing factory, that it was not easy to get the factory off the ground.
It was not easy. People did not understand what I was trying to do. Some were even laughing at me and my family when we were cleaning the building, she says of the factory located in Keates Drift.
Prior to its new lease on life, the factory was an abandoned and vandalized building, which in its previous life, had once served as a shoe factory that closed its doors 26 years ago. Its closure left 3000 families without a source of income.
Using funds she received from a previous employer package, it took seven years in total to get the factory up and running. The factory was established 2012 with the initial objective being to organise youth and women who were involved in sewing businesses within the area, and providing them with technical training.
Today the entrepreneurs factory employs 160 women who sew clothes for well-known clothing company The Foschini Group (TFG), which has assisted by donating cutting tables to work on when making garments.
The good work produced by the company, saw it attract government support and in April 2019 it received 30 sewing machines from the Department of Economic Development facilitated by the then Kwazulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Sihle Zikalala.
Furthermore, the Skills Education Training Authority (SETA), a body responsible for overseeing skills development and training, intervened and trained 60 women and youths on the manufacturing of sanitary towels, masks as well as school uniforms.
Currently, the factory makes garments for TFG, Mr Price as well as Ackermans.
Deputy Minister of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition Nomalungelo Gina, who visited the factory in April, hailed the company as a perfect example of what government and the private sector can achieve when working together.
This company is a perfect example of the public-private partnership in action. All spheres of government and various state-owned agencies were involved in making this company a success. This company exemplifies what government wants to do to ensure that the private sector plays a role in stimulating the economy of the rural areas and creating the much-needed jobs. As government we are also working hard to rejuvenate the clothing and textile sector to that it regains its importance as a significant contributor to our economy, said Gina at the time.
Developments at the factory speak directly to the Retail-Clothing, Textile, Footwear and Leather (R-CTFL) Value Chain Masterplan which is aimed at creating a noticeably and sustainable market for the Clothing, Textile, Footwear and Leather (CTFL) sector.
The factory has helped many women to put food on the table.
Since I came here, I have learnt a lot. Now I can sew clothes - something I couldnt do when I started here, says Ngendzeni Dumakude, an employee and mother of three who has been working at the factory since 2019.
Stakeholders in the sector have since committed to growing the market for local clothing, textile, footwear and leather producers.
The agreed target is to grow total clothing, textile, footwear and leather retail sales to R250 billion in 2030. It is envisioned that 333 000 jobs including 165 000 clothing, textile, footwear and leather formal sector manufacturing jobs will be created.
The 42-year-old Mntungwas vision is not only to provide job opportunities but also to start a school where people will be trained on how to operate sewing machines. She also aims to become a trusted brand in the clothing and textile industry not only provincially but in the rest of the country as well.
This also includes becoming a market leader in the knowledge of the industry and use of energy efficiency technology and becoming a trustworthy supplier to their clients.
As she continues to grow the factory, the entrepreneur was afforded an opportunity by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, to receive training in clothing and textiles, including cotton processing at Minjiang University, in Fuzhou, China in 2017, an experience she will not forget.
Over the years, government has appealed to South Africans to support local industries by buying local at a time when many jobs have been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The countrys national Buy Local campaign seeks to strongly influence procurement in public and private sectors, to increase local production, influence consumers to buy local and stimulate job creation.
Earlier in the year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said every effort must be made to support local businesses that were severely affected by COVID-19 in a bid to save existing jobs while also creating new ones.
Speaking at the annual Proudly South African Buy Local Summit and Expo, the President said the country needs to step up its efforts not just to get locals to buy local but also to improve the entry of South African goods and services into export markets as well.
Operating a business in the time of a pandemic is no easy feat but companies like Msinga Clothing are helping to create a tapestry that is changing the landscape from one of unemployment and despair to one where skills are imparted and jobs are created. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Creecy: Phase down of coal should happen in a just manner
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy says the Glasgow climate conference outcome on helping developing countries like South Africa accelerate the phase down of unfiltered coal to low-carbon energy should be done in a manner that takes into consideration national interests and availability of resources.
The Minister said this when she briefed the media on the outcomes of the recently concluded Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26).
The final text of the cover agreement at the end of the two-week COP26 negotiations with regards to the issue of coal contains wording that talks about the phase down of coal.
There is also wording there that talks about the recognition of national circumstances and the importance of a just transition.
And I think that what that language is all about is saying that for developing countries, there is a recognition of the enormous cost that transitioning economies to lower carbon growth paths and to climate resilient societies is going to have.
I think that there is been an estimation by the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] that developing countries will require in the region of US$4 trillion over the next 15 years to achieve these transitions.
And I think that text was really about saying that countries must be transitioning. Like our country, we have to do our fair share. But we have to be transitioning at a manner and at a pace that is determined by our national sovereign interests and by the availability of resources.
We cant be signing up to a situation that we are not ensuring that we have adequate financial support for the transitions that will be taking place, she said.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced that South Africa has secured a historic partnership with leaders of the world of a R131 billion highly concessional climate financing to help SA transition from coal to low-carbon energy.
Briefing the media on Wednesday, Creecy said the international community has united behind a shared objective to inject a greater sense of urgency to address the global climate crisis and to do so on the basis of international equity and latest available science.
She said the concluded Paris Agreement Work Programme will assist Parties to fully implement the Paris Agreement, in the context of a Just Transition and Sustainable Development, leaving no one behind.
The complex Glasgow package outcome strikes the right balance to accommodate the very different national circumstances and capacities among nearly 200 Parties, so that all are enabled and empowered to contribute their fair share and to enhance their climate ambition.
COP26 sets the international community on the right track to addressing the existential challenge of climate change. For the first time the Governing Bodies of the Convention and Paris Agreement have agreed to the importance of supporting developing countries in financing Just Transition elements of their climate actions, and to support the implementation of Just Transitions that promote sustainable development and the eradication of poverty, the creation of decent work and quality jobs, she said. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Police activate 72-hour plan after officer killed, two injured
Gauteng Police have launched the 72-hour activation plan after a police officer was killed and two others wounded in the last 24 hours.
In a statement, police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said in the first incident, an off-duty police officer attached to the Orlando Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigations Unit (FCS) was robbed of his service pistol by three males after being shot multiple times.
The member sadly succumbed to his injuries on scene. This incident happened in Freedom Park in Soweto on Tuesday evening just after 10pm, she said.
A case of murder and armed robbery have been registered and no arrests have been made as yet.
In the second incident, two members attached to the Pretoria Public Order Policing (POP) Unit were shot, while on patrol in a police Nyala in Extension 6, Akasia on Tuesday evening. The area was engulfed by unrests during the day due to evictions that were taking place.
The two front tyres of the police Nyala have also been damaged as a result of the shooting. A case of attempted murder and malicious damage to property have been registered. No arrests have been made thus far.
Mathe said both members were taken to a local hospital where they were receiving further medical treatment.
The SAPS called for a heightened collaborative approach and cooperation with communities in a bid to curb the scourge of police murders.
Police said communities remained the eyes and ears of all law enforcement agencies and are pivotal to the reduction of crimes, especially those that are serious and violent in nature.
Communities who may have information on both incidents are encouraged to call the Crime Stop Hotline Number on 086 00 10111 or download the MySaps App on any android or smart phone, Mathe said. SAnews.gov.za
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South Africa: Toilet hygiene for better health
The Department of Water and Sanitation has called on residents to value their sanitation facilities to prevent the spread of illnesses in communities.
We are calling out on residents to have renewed relationships with their toilets. What we have found over time is that conversations about toilets are uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this is a conversation we cannot put off as a department anymore, especially now as the world is faced with a global pandemic, department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said.
The call comes ahead of World Toilet Day, which is observed by the global community on 19 November.
The annual World Toilet Day aims to raise awareness about the significance of dignified and safely managed sanitation facilities.
It also inspires action to tackle the global sanitation challenges to help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which promises sanitation for all by 2030 and beyond.
Ratau said poor sanitation facilities have detrimental effects on the health of children and adults with underlying health conditions and can lead to other health problems including dehydration, anaemia, and malnutrition.
A poorly kept toilet has devastating consequences not only for ones health but also the environment, particularly in the poorest and most marginalised communities.
It is for this reason that as a department we are advocating for a new vision and approach to sanitation services provision which entails the notion that it should not all be about flushing, but effectively managed sanitation, Ratau said.
Ratau added that the need to value toilets is of paramount importance, as they are an integral part of peoples live hoods and deserve a decent social status.
According to Statistics South Africa, households with access to improved sanitation in South Africa increased from 49% in 1996 to 82.2% in 2019.
Ratau said the department is aware that there are still approximately 2.8 million households in the country without access to improved sanitation services, and it is working tirelessly to ensure improvement of access.
There is work being done, while wheels are set in motion to continue to eradicate the bucket toilet system in provinces such as the Free State, Eastern Cape, North West, Northern Cape and Limpopo Provinces. We urge members of the public to practice good upkeep of their sanitation facilities, Ratau said. SAnews.gov.za
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Hong Kong: EDB holds working meeting in SZ
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung and Ministry of Education officials held a regular working meeting in Shenzhen today.
Mr Yeung briefed Executive Deputy Director of the Office of Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Education Xu Yongji and other officials on the education policies and measures in the 2021 Policy Address.
He also updated them on the implementation of citizenship and social development curriculum and national security education.
Both sides also exchanged views on education issues of mutual interest and followed up on the progress of collaboration projects, including strengthening Mainland exchange activities for Hong Kong teachers and students.
They include Mainland study tours as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.
Also discussed were the plans of Hong Kong's universities and school sponsoring bodies to operate schools in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Mr Yeung said that the smooth implementation of various education initiatives in recent years have been conducive to Hong Kong developing an education system that is compatible with one country, two systems.
He added that it can leverage the advantages of local education to nurture students to become talent that the community needs, and help them extend their pathways by integrating into the national development and grasping opportunities in the bay area.
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RTHK: UK's Queen Elizabeth reappears in good health
Queen Elizabeth, who missed a Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph due to a sprained back, was shown standing and smiling while meeting Britain's most senior uniformed military adviser at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
The queen, 95, the world's oldest and longest-reigning monarch, met Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff.
The chief of the defence staff is the professional head of the armed forces and principal military adviser to the defence minister. Carter is due to step down from the role at the end of November. (Reuters)
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Hong Kong: FS promotes HK to US
Financial Secretary Paul Chan attended a webinar today to update the American business community on Hong Kong's core strengths as an international financial centre, its active role in national development and the ample opportunities for American businesses.
In his keynote remarks, Mr Chan highlighted the long-established relations between Hong Kong and the US in terms of trade and investment.
He said bilateral trade has grown resoundingly, with Hong Kongs exports to the US increasing more than 17% year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, while imports from the US soared nearly 21%.
At last count, almost 1,300 US companies called Hong Kong home, ranking third behind only the Mainland and Japan.
Mr Chan said that the National 14th Five-Year Plan supports Hong Kong in enhancing its status as an international financial, transportation and trading centre, a global offshore renminbi business hub and an international asset and risk management centre.
He said it also supports the city's development as an international hub for both aviation and innovation and technology.
The plan points out the need to improve Hong Kong's integration into the overall development of the country, deepen co-operation in the Pearl River Delta region and promote high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Mr Chan highlighted that the launch of Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect in the Greater Bay Area in September has enabled residents in Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong to carry out cross-boundary investment in wealth management products distributed by banks in the area.
The Financial Secretary said the Wealth Management Connect opens up a broader market for the financial and relevant professional sectors, bringing enormous business opportunities for international financial institutions.
Hong Kong's role as an important gateway for capital flowing into and out of the Mainland, as well as its position as the global offshore renminbi business hub and an international asset management centre will be further reinforced, he added.
Mr Chan emphasised the restoration of social stability in Hong Kong, providing a safe and secure environment conducive to business and investment for companies and investors from all over the world.
Despite challenges in the past two years, Hong Kong's financial market has remained stable, and the Linked Exchange Rate System and various segments of the financial market have been functioning well.
Meanwhile, the banking system has remained robust and the financial services sector has been performing well in different aspects.
He noted that the citys financial institutions will continue to proactively grasp development opportunities in Hong Kong and the Mainland.
The webinar was co-organised by the Hong Kong economic & trade office in Washington, DC, and the US-China Business Council and was joined by around 100 participants.
Mr Chan also discussed the city's anti-epidemic measures, the Government's policies and support for the financial services sector as well as the Hong Kongs future growth areas and competitive edge during the webinars question-and-answer session.
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Under the Previous Administration, Wall Construction Cost American Taxpayers Up To $46 Million per Mile, Shortchanged the Military, and Caused Serious Risks to Life, Safety, and the Environment
Address the root causes of migration from Central America. The Budget provides an $861 million investment in the region as a first step toward a 4-year commitment of $4 billion.
Make our legal immigration system operate more fairly and effectively. The Budget includes $891 million for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, including funds to support 100 new immigration judges to reduce immigration court backlogs, and $345 million for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reduce asylum backlogs and modernize systems.
Advance 21st century solutions for border management. The Budget provides roughly $1.2 billion for border infrastructure, which includes: modernization of land ports of entry; investments in modern border security technology and assets; and efforts to ensure the safe and humane treatment of migrants in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody.
$10 million for the Missile Field Expansion at Fort Greely in Alaska. The field is part of the U.S. defenses against North Korean ballistic missiles, and was due for an expansion to add two missile interceptors.
More than $25 million for the 2nd Radio Battalion Complex in North Carolina. Congress provided funds for the new complex to co-locate two battalions, improve intel fusion capability and efficiencies in training for combat readiness, and meet the growing threat of cyber warfare.
$79 million for Spangdahlem Elementary School for U.S. Military Children in Germany. The school, which currently supports over 600 military children, lacks proper air conditioning, plumbing, and security systems and was due for replacement when the prior Administration diverted funds to the wall.
More than $25 million for the Fire/Crash Rescue Station at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. The station is designed to support up to 15 fire-fighting vehicles and provide space for physical fitness, training, and living quarters for military personnel.
More than $9 million for a Small Arms Range in Indiana. The range is needed to enhance readiness of the Air Guard unit through marksmanship training.
Should Beaufort County's commissioners be resolved to ask the federal government to defend our Southern Border by ending the Biden /Harris Open Border policy in regards to that one border that is intentionally made wide OPEN? Yes, Illegal Migrants are a huge expense to local governments. No, the cost of Undocumented Immigrants is insignificant in our providing a pathway for Dramatic Demographic Upheaval.. I do not care about important issues since I only consider my own pleasures. 125 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?
The Biden Administration inherited a broken immigration system - one that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars and neither kept the American people safe nor adhered to our values. Wall construction along the Southern border in recent years is just one example of the prior Administration's misplaced priorities and failure to manage migration in a safe, orderly, and humane way.In total, the previous Administration built 52 miles of wall where no barrier previously existed, with some wall segments costing American taxpayers up to $46 million per mile. The effort diverted critical resources away from military training facilities and schools, and caused serious risks to life, safety, and the environment. It also took attention away from genuine security challenges, like drug smuggling and human trafficking.On his first day in office, President Biden issued a Proclamation terminating the redirection of funds for border wall construction, pausing all wall construction to the extent permitted by law, and requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to develop plans for funds concerning the Southern border wall.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have developed plans reaffirming the Administration's commitment to serious policy solutions. Under these plans, DHS and DOD are: 1) canceling wall projects funded with resources diverted from military construction and other efforts and return the remaining available funds to their original appropriated purposes; 2) ending wall expansion to the extent permitted by law; and 3) addressing safety and environmental issues resulting from border wall construction under the previous Administration.Additionally, the Administration is reiterating its call for Congress to cancel funds it previously appropriated for border barrier projects so that these resources can instead be used for modern, effective border management measures to improve safety and security.This Administration is focused on strategies that facilitate fair and orderly migration at the border and keep border communities safe. This includes addressing the root causes of migration, driving 21st century technological solutions for border management, and giving people options to apply for asylum and other legal pathways in their home country.Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border and costs American taxpayers billions of dollars is not a serious policy solution or responsible use of Federal funds. Most contraband is likely to come through legal ports of entry. And many families fleeing the violence in Central America are voluntarily presenting themselves to border patrol officials. Fixing our immigration system will require investments in flexible solutions and technologies that expand the ability to detect illicit activity and improve the effectiveness of border management operations.Agency plans for border wall funds build on the Administration's commitment to real policy solutions, including proposals in the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 to:Additionally, the Administration continues to call on Congress to pass the U.S. Citizenship Act to put in place long-term reforms and allocate additional resources necessary to update a broken immigration system.To build a wall along the Southern border, the previous Administration redirected billions of dollars Congress provided for supporting American military personnel and their families and for investing in military installation infrastructure and vehicles, aircraft, and ships.The Biden Administration is committed to properly equipping American military personnel and caring for their families. Under the agency plans for border wall funds, no more money will be diverted for the purposes of building a border wall, and DOD has started cancelling all border barrier projects using the diverted funds. DOD is also announcing today that it is returning the more than $2 billion remaining in unobligated military construction funds to 66 previously deferred projects in 11 states, 3 territories, and 16 countries. This action will restore funds for on-base schools, hangars, housing, and essential operational and training facilities, including:Although most of the funds used for the border wall were diverted from other purposes, Congress provided DHS with some funding for border barrier projects. DHS is legally required to use the funds consistent with their appropriated purpose.The Administration will uphold the rule of law, and utilize all legal authorities to stop wall expansion. The President's Budget proposes no new funding for border wall construction, and calls on Congress to cancel any border barrier funds that remain at the end of the year so that these resources can instead be used for modern, privacy-protective, and effective border management measures like enhanced technology between points of entry and improved infrastructure at Land Ports of Entry. Unless and until Congress acts on the request, the Administration will continue to use the funds responsibly for their appropriated purpose, as required by law, and DHS has developed a plan to do so.As part of its plan to use appropriated funds responsibly and consistent with their appropriated purpose, DHS is announcing today that it will prioritize the remaining border barrier funds to address urgent life, safety, and environmental issues resulting from the previous Administration's wall construction. For instance, DHS has already started work to repair the Rio Grande Valley flood protection system that the prior Administration compromised, and to remediate dangerous soil erosion due to improper soil compaction along a 14-mile wall segment in San Diego, California. Neither safety project involves expanding the border barrier, and the projects will be paid for with funds Congress provided DHS for fiscal year 2021.Additionally, DHS is announcing today that it will also prioritize using the remaining appropriated funds consistent with their appropriated purposes for necessary clean-up of construction sites formerly funded by DoD, including drainage, erosion control, site remediation, and material disposal. And appropriated funds could also be used for mitigating some environmental damage caused by border wall construction.For those projects that are not urgently needed to address urgent life, safety, and environmental issues, DHS will engage in a comprehensive review that includes detailed environmental impact analysis and remediation, and robust and substantive engagement with relevant stakeholders, including border community residents, their elected representatives, tribal communities, and environmental and other interested non-governmental organizations and advocates.DHS will also review the status of all pending border wall land eminent domain actions and reassess the extent to which land acquired in prior years remains necessary after environmental planning activities have been completed. If DHS determines use of the land will be necessary, particularly for life, safety, environmental, or other remediation work, it will initiate robust landowner engagement. If DHS determines it no longer requires the use of such land, it will work to return the land to its prior owners.DHS is also returning remaining Treasury Forfeiture Fund resources to the Department of Treasury.
Two rare langurs rescued in Thanh Hoa
A man in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa has rescued a mother langur and its child and handed it over to local authorities.
Tran Duc Manh, 27, from Lang Chanh District saw the two exhausted grey langurs hanging at a cliff. He quickly took them home and contacted local authorities.
The two langurs have been rescued
The animals have been brought to the Cuc Phuong National Park's the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre. They are being taken care of by experts at a special quarantine site.
The male child langur weighs around one kilo and is 4-5 months old.
According to Nguyen Manh Cuong, director of Vietnam's rare primate rescue project, this was the first time the centre had received a male grey langur. The national park now has six female grey langurs and one male one.
"Well try our best to take care of the male grey langur. This will help the development of this species in Vietnam in the future, Cuong added.
Cuong noted that over the past time, many individuals and organisations have contacted the centre to donate wild animals, demonstrating better community awareness of the need for environmental protection.
Currently, Vietnam is home to around 500 grey langurs.
Vietnam receives additional 1 million Covid-19 vaccine doses donation from US
A batch of one million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine donated by the United States arrived in Vietnam on November 17.
Vietnam receives additional 1 million Covid-19 vaccine doses donation from US on November 17. Photo from the US Embassy
According to the US Embassy in Hanoi, the latest shipment raised the total number of Covid-19 vaccines donated by the US to Vietnam to more than 16 million, making the US Vietnams largest vaccine donor.
Earlier, more than 2.87 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine supported by the US through the COVAX Facility were delivered to Vietnam on November 6, 7, and 8.
Besides vaccine donations, the US committed USD26.7 million in grants to help Vietnam respond to the pandemic and more than USD1 billion to develop local health infrastructure.
The US Department of Defence has also delivered 77 out of 111 ultra-low temperature freezers to Vietnam to help store vaccines.
In June, US President Joe Biden pledged to share a total of 80 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines worldwide. He said about 75 percent of the vaccines will be delivered through the COVAX Facility, while the remaining 25 percent will be distributed directly.
Vietnam Airlines to launch first regular flight to US soon
National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will operate its first regular commercial flight to the US from November 28.
The information was given by Le Hong Ha, General Director of Vietnam Airlines.
According to Ha, the flight will depart Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City for San Francisco International Airport in California, taking around 13 hours and 50 minutes.
An airplane of Vietnam Airlines
On the return route, it would leave San Francisco on the evening of November 29 (local time) for HCM City 16 hours and 40 minutes later.
From December this year, there will be two fights per week. The frequency will be raised by one weekly when the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled better. The carrier will use the Airbus A350 for the route.
On November 4, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Vietnam Airlines had secured a licence to conduct direct flights for both passengers and cargo. This was the final permit required from the US side for Vietnam Airlines to carry out the route.
On November 16, Charles Ranado, Senior Commercial Officer of the US Embassy in Vietnam, presented the licence to Vietnam Airlines. He expected that the air route would help to contribute to boosting the relationship between the two nations.
Vietnam Airlines' General Director Le Hong Ha said that the national carrier has considered opening flights to Los Angeles in the coming time.
Vietnam, Israel look toward bilateral FTA next year
Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has hailed Israel as a promising market of Vietnam in West Asia.
At the working session (Photo: VNA)
During a working session with Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Nadav Eshcar in Hanoi on November 16, Dien said Israel is now the fifth largest trade partner of Vietnam. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic last year, two-way trade still hit 1.6 billion USD, up 36.4 percent annually. The figure went up 14.3 percent year-on-year to 1.3 billion USD in nine months of this year.
Vietnams major exports to Israel include mobile phones, computers and accessories, aquatic products, cashew nuts, apparel, footwear, coffee, pepper, machinery and equipment, natural rubber, beverages, plastic and wooden products, chemicals, handicrafts and ceramics.
Dien suggested the ambassador offer support to the country in trade promotion, both directly and indirectly, to bring more Vietnamese goods such as pepper, cashew nuts, coffee, fruits and vegetables, leather and footwear to Israel.
According to him, both sides should consider a mechanism on sharing of information regarding technical requirements for exports, contributing to lifting two-way trade.
Eshcar, for his part, said negotiations on a free trade agreement between Vietnam and Israel are in the final stage which will create a new breakthrough for bilateral ties. If the deal is signed, two-way trade could increase to 3-4 billion USD each year quickly.
The Israeli side is urging agencies concerned to complete the talks this year and look to sign the deal next year, he said.
The host wished that the Israeli firms would invest more in support and electronics industries in Vietnam, as well as offer more assistance in investment, digital transformation, and technological infrastructure.
Vietnam is ready to step up negotiations towards reaching a bilateral FTA with balanced interests for both sides, he said./
Xi's explanation on CPC landmark resolution released
Xinhua) 08:04, November 17, 2021
A ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Ga)
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- An explanatory address delivered by Xi Jinping on a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the past century was made public Tuesday.
Entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered the speech to the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.
The resolution was deliberated and approved at the plenum held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11.
CONSIDERATIONS
"Our Party has always attached great importance to reviewing its historical experience," said Xi when he explained the considerations on the session agenda.
He hailed the significance of reviewing the Party's century-long journey, saying it will help build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all Party members and rally and lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
Xi also noted "taking a clear-cut stance against historical nihilism" and clearing up confusion and misunderstandings over certain major questions in the Party's history.
Xi briefed the session on the priorities in drafting the resolution:
First, the resolution must focus on the Party's major achievements and historical experience over the past century, he said, noting the move will help "pool our wisdom, strengthen our unity, and boost our confidence and morale."
On the previous two resolutions on the Party's historical issues, adopted in 1945 and 1981 respectively, Xi said "their basic points and conclusions remain valid."
Second, the resolution must highlight the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi said, noting this will help further fortify confidence among all Party members and focus on the current endeavors.
Third, the resolution's appraisal of major historical events, significant meetings, and important figures must be consistent with the CPC Central Committee's existing conclusions, Xi said.
The basic points and conclusion that have already been made for the major events, meetings, and figures in Party history prior to its 18th National Congress were to be upheld in the new resolution, he said, adding that the resolution should reflect the CPC Central Committee's updated understanding on the Party's century-long history.
A ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Tian Dingyu)
DRAFTING PROCESS
In March, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided that the sixth plenary session would focus on a comprehensive review of the Party's major achievements and experience in its century-long history, Xi said.
A drafting group was established, with Xi as its chief, and Wang Huning and Zhao Leji as deputy chiefs.
On April 1, the CPC Central Committee issued a circular to solicit opinions from Party members and non-Party figures within an appropriate scope.
The consulted localities, departments and sectors widely held that the invaluable experience gained in the past century merits a systematic review, according to Xi's explanation.
They suggested that the review focus on the new era and on the historic achievements and historic shifts and the latest experience that the Party has gained during this period, according to Xi.
The text of the draft resolution was issued on Sept. 6 to select Party members, including retired senior Party officials, for consultation. Opinions were also sought from leaders of other political parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and prominent figures without party affiliation, Xi said.
The feedback indicated full endorsement of the draft resolution, he said.
The drafting group analyzed the solicited opinions and suggestions. A total of 547 revisions were made to the preliminary draft.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its Standing Committee held multiple meetings during the drafting process before the draft document was submitted for deliberation at this session, according to Xi.
FRAMEWORK &MAJOR CONTENT
In addition to a preamble and a conclusion, the document has seven sections.
The first section is "A Great Victory in the New-Democratic Revolution."
It analyzed the historical background of the founding of the Party and reviewed the revolutionary struggle in this period. It also highlighted the achievements including the establishment of Mao Zedong Thought, according to Xi.
This section emphasized that the founding of the People's Republic of China, national independence, and the people's liberation represented China's great transformation from a millennia-old feudal autocracy to a people's democracy, he said.
The second section is "Socialist Revolution and Construction."
This part reviewed the Party's great achievements following the founding of the People's Republic of China. It also included the rational appraisal of Mao Zedong Thought, according to Xi.
The section emphasized the great transformation from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large population to a socialist country, he said.
The third section is "Reform, Opening up, and Socialist Modernization."
This part highlighted the great significance of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, and documented the historic contributions made by the Chinese communists with Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao as their chief representatives, Xi said.
This section commended the great achievements which made possible the Chinese nation's tremendous advance from standing up to becoming prosperous, he said.
The fourth section is "A New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics."
With a focus on the original ideas, transformative practices, new breakthroughs, and landmark accomplishments over the past nine years, the section highlighted the great achievements and historic shifts in the new era in 13 areas.
The great achievements in this period provided better institutional conditions, stronger material foundations and a source of inspiration for realizing national rejuvenation, Xi said.
The Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and becoming prosperous to growing strong, he said.
The fifth section is "The Historical Significance of the Party's Endeavors over the Past Century."
The section spelled out the CPC's historic contributions to the Chinese people, the Chinese nation, Marxism, the cause of human progress, and the development of Marxist political parties, Xi said.
The sixth section is "The Historical Experience of the Party's Endeavors over the Past Century."
This section summarized the Party's historical experience in 10 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.
"All of us must cherish them, uphold them over the long term, and continue to enrich and develop them in practice in the new era," Xi said.
The seventh section is "The Communist Party of China in the New Era."
It called on the whole Party, the military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to make tireless efforts to realize the second centenary goal and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
Full Text: Xi's explanation of resolution on major achievements and historical experience of CPC over past century
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Du Mingming)
Full Text: Xi's explanation of resolution on major achievements and historical experience of CPC over past century
Xinhua) 08:08, November 17, 2021
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- An explanatory address delivered by Xi Jinping on a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the past century was made public Tuesday.
Entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered the address to the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.
The resolution was deliberated and approved at the plenum held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11.
Please see the attachment for the English translation of the full text of Xi's explanatory address. Enditem
Full Text: Xi's explanation of resolution on major achievements and historical experience of CPC over past century
Explanation of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical
Experience of the Party over the Past Century
Xi Jinping
On behalf of the Political Bureau of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), I will now brief you on the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century and related issues.
I. Considerations on the Agenda of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee
Our Party has always attached great importance to reviewing its historical experience. As early as in the Yanan period, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out, We will not be able to achieve greater success unless we have a clear understanding of our history and of the roads we have traveled.
In 1945, at the critical juncture for securing final victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Sixth CPC Central Committee convened its seventh plenary session and adopted the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party. The resolution reviewed the history of the Party and the experience it had gained and lessons it had learned since its founding in 1921, especially those in the period between the fourth plenary session of the Sixth Central Committee in January 1931 and the Zunyi Meeting in January 1935. It drew conclusions on major historical issues of the Party, leading to a broad consensus among all Party members, particularly high-ranking officials, on fundamental questions pertaining to the Chinese revolution. It served to strengthen the solidarity of the Party, paved the way for the convocation of the Seventh CPC National Congress, and helped advance the Chinese revolution significantly.
When our country entered a new period marked by the launch of reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping noted, The experience of successes is invaluable, and so are the lessons learned from mistakes and setbacks. Principles and policies formulated on the basis of the experience gained and lessons learned will unify all Party members in thinking. The unity so formed is most reliable.
In 1981, at its sixth plenary session, the 11th Party Central Committee adopted the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the Peoples Republic of China. The resolution reviewed the Partys history in the period before the founding of the Peoples Republic and summarized the experience it had gained in the course of socialist revolution and construction.
The resolution gave assessments of certain major events and important figures, particularly a correct appraisal of Comrade Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought. It drew a clear distinction between right and wrong and corrected the erroneous Leftist and Rightist viewpoints existing at the time. Through the resolution, the Party came to a clear consensus and was more united than ever in support of a forward-looking approach. All this provided a strong impetus to the Partys endeavors in reform, opening up, and socialist modernization.
Seventy-six years have passed since the adoption of the Partys first resolution on historical issues, and 40 years since the second. The past four decades have witnessed tremendous progress in the cause of the Party and the country and tremendous advances for the Party in theoretical and practical terms.
We have now arrived at a new historic milestone. As we look back and set our sights on the future, we have both an objective need and the subjective conditions for a full review of our Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century, especially those in the 40-plus years of reform and opening up.
The Central Committee considers it important in both a practical and historical sense to have a comprehensive review of the major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century as we celebrate its centenary and the fulfillment of the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and move on toward the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. This review will help build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all members and rally and lead Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
The Central Committee understands that the Party has gone through an extraordinary journey over the past century. The great endeavors of the Party span a long period of time, cover a wide range of fields, and involve many issues that merit our careful study. As a general requirement, we need to review our history and understand the underlying dynamics of its development so as to prepare for the future with greater confidence.
To this end, we need to relive the glories of the Party and appreciate how the Party has rallied and led the Chinese people in making magnificent achievements. We need to take stock of the invaluable experience the Party has gained in carrying out revolution, construction, and reform, and summarize the Partys theories and practices that have proved successful in advancing the cause of the Party and the country since the 18th CPC National Congress.
To be more specific, we need to revisit the Partys century-long history of leading the people in carrying out revolution, construction, and reform. We need to review the Partys great historical course of achieving one victory after another and the historic accomplishments the Party has achieved in the interests of the country and the nation.
We need to revisit the Partys century-long history in which the Party has advanced Marxism in the Chinese context by adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to Chinas realities and fine traditional culture, and we need to gain a deeper understanding of the Partys innovative theories for the new era.
We need to revisit the Partys century-long history in which the Party has maintained unity and upheld the Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We need to appreciate the significance of enhancing the Partys political development, which is a distinctive feature and political strength of a Marxist party such as ours.
We need to revisit the Partys century-long journey in pursuit of happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. We must always bear in mind that the Party and the people are inextricably connected and rise and fall together. It is only with such understanding that we Party members can better devote ourselves to the benefit of the people and rely on them in our endeavor for greater accomplishments.
We need to revisit the Partys century-long journey in which it has grown stronger through self-improvement and self-reform. We must never falter in exercising full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and must see this as a mission that is forever ongoing so as to make sure that the Party always remains a powerful leadership core in the endeavor to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
We need to fully appreciate the laws and prevailing trends of history, seize the historical initiative in the cause of the Party and the country throughout our new journey in the new era, and galvanize even greater courage and strength for keeping to our set goals and striding ahead with pride and confidence.
The Central Committee considers it essential to follow the methodology of dialectical and historical materialism in the review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century. We need to look at the Partys history from a concrete, objective, and holistic perspective while recognizing that it is interconnected and evolving.
We need to maintain a rational outlook on Party history and see history from a broader perspective so as to develop an accurate understanding of the underlying trends and defining features of the CPCs history of evolution.
We need to properly address the mistakes and setbacks that have occurred on the Partys path forward. We should draw experience from our successes and learn lessons from our mistakes so as to score new victories.
We need to do better at setting things straight, taking a clear-cut stance against historical nihilism, strengthening ideological guidance and theoretical analysis, and clearing up confusion and misunderstandings over certain major questions in the Partys history.
The Central Committee has made it clear that the following are the top priorities in drafting the resolution to be adopted at this session:
1. The resolution must focus on the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century.
Our Party has already produced two resolutions on historical issues. These settled controversies on major issues in Party history in the period from its founding to the early stage of reform and opening up, and their basic points and conclusions remain valid.
Since reform and opening up began, the cause of the Party and the country has generally speaking made smooth progress in the right direction with achievements that have earned worldwide recognition, despite certain problems that have occurred in the Partys work. In view of this, the resolution to be adopted at this session should focus on a review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century. This will help pool our wisdom, strengthen our unity, and boost our confidence and morale.
2. The resolution must highlight the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
This resolution places emphasis on the new era, mainly reviewing the historic achievements and the historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country, and the latest experience that the Party has gained during this period. This is because the previous two resolutions on historical issues were devoted to Party history during the new-democratic revolution period, the period of socialist revolution and construction, and the period between the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee in 1978 and its sixth plenary session in 1981.
As for the achievements and experience from the period marked by reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the Central Committee has already conducted earnest reviews on the occasions of the 20th and 30th anniversary celebrations of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. I also gave a systematic analysis of the achievements and experience from this period in my address at a gathering marking the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up.
Therefore, the resolution before us needs to focus on the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics along with a brief summary of Party history prior to the 18th National Congress based on existing reviews and conclusions. This will help further fortify confidence among all Party members, focus on our current endeavors, and enable us to forge ahead on the new journey with greater morale and make still greater contributions in the new era.
3. The resolutions appraisal of major events, significant meetings, and important figures must be consistent with the Party Central Committees existing conclusions.
The previous two resolutions, along with the Partys long list of important literature, document the major events, meetings, and figures in Party history prior to its 18th National Congress, and contain well-considered conclusions on historical issues. These points and conclusions are to be upheld in the new resolution.
Since the 18th National Congress, I have spoken about Party history and the Partys conclusions on historical issues on a number of important occasions, including events marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Liberation Army, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, and the Partys centenary in particular. These statements represent an updated understanding on the part of the Central Committee of the Partys century-long history. This updated understanding needs to be reflected in the new resolution.
IIThe Drafting Process
In March of this year, the Political Bureau decided that the sixth plenary session of the 19th Party Central Committee would focus on a comprehensive review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience in its century-long history.
To this end, a working group was established to draft the document under the auspices of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. I am chief of this group, and my colleagues Wang Huning and Zhao Leji serve as its deputy chiefs. The groups membership is composed of other Party and state leaders, as well as heads of relevant central departments and localities.
On April 1, the Central Committee issued a Circular on Soliciting Opinions on the Agenda of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee of Focusing on a Full and Systematic Review of the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party, in order to seek comments and suggestions from Party members and non-Party figures within an appropriate scope.
From their feedback, we can see unanimous agreement among all consulted localities, departments, and sectors that the decision of the 19th CPC Central Committee to focus its sixth plenary session on a comprehensive review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century is a well-considered decision of historic and strategic significance.
They believe the decision reflects the Partys firm resolve to stay true to its original aspiration and founding mission and remain vibrant as ever. It demonstrates the Partys keen understanding of the general trends of history, its strong sense of mission and responsibility, and its commitment to always taking the initiative in advancing the cause of the Party and the country. It also embodies the Partys broad and farsighted vision, its willingness to learn from history, and its commitment to remaining firmly grounded while setting its sights on the future.
They expressed their unanimous endorsement of the Central Committees decision to focus the session on a review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century. They have also come up with many constructive comments and suggestions on what issues should be covered in the resolution.
They all agree that the Party has united and led the Chinese people in a continued endeavor to carry out revolution, construction, and reform during all periods of its century-long history; that the Party and the people have created miracles which will go down in the annals of the Chinese nation, world socialism, and human society; that the Party and the people have fundamentally changed the course of the Chinese nations history in modern times and written a brilliant chapter in the history of world socialism, adding new dimensions to Marxism; that the Party and the people have scored indelible achievements toward national rejuvenation and made significant contributions to human progress; and that the Party and the people have gained a wealth of invaluable experience on this great journey. All of these merit a systematic review.
The localities, departments, and sectors involved in the consultation suggest that the review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century must focus on the new era and on the historic achievements and the historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country, and the latest experience that the Party has gained during this period.
Under the planning of the Central Committee, the drafting group first carefully studied the Partys major historical documents. Following a thorough review of all major issues in the Partys history and based on comments and suggestions from the localities, departments, and sectors consulted, the group then began drafting the resolution.
In accordance with a decision made at a meeting of the Political Bureau, the text of the draft resolution was issued on September 6 to select Party members, including retired senior Party officials, for consultation. We also sought the opinions from leaders of other political parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and prominent figures without party affiliation.
The feedback we have received indicates full endorsement by the consulted localities, departments, and sectors of the text of the draft resolution and its general framework and main content. They all agree that the most salient feature of the document is its focus on facts and its respect for history.
They also agree that the document highlights the Partys commitment to its original aspiration and founding mission in all its endeavors over the past century. It is a facts-based document and its descriptions and appraisals of major events, meetings, and figures are consistent with the descriptions and conclusions in the Partys existing historical documents. It also demonstrates the Party Central Committees updated understanding of Party history in the period after the Partys 18th National Congress.
Under the sub-heading, Historical Significance of the Partys Endeavors over the Past Century, the document provides a comprehensive, in-depth, and systematic summary of the Partys historic contributions to China and humanity.
Under the sub-heading, Historical Experience of the Partys Endeavors over the Past Century, the document summarizes the Partys historical experience and also highlights its significance for guiding ongoing and future endeavors.
All consulted localities, departments, and sectors agree that this resolution is a political declaration of the Chinese communists adherence to their original aspiration and founding mission and their commitment to upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It is a guideline for the Party to create a brighter future and achieve national rejuvenation by learning from history.
They also agree that the resolution is imbued with the same spirit as the two previous resolutions on historical issues while also reflecting the spirit of the times. It will inspire the whole Party to strive for greater achievements on the journey ahead.
Over the course of soliciting opinions, we received many valuable comments and suggestions from the localities, departments, and sectors consulted. The drafting group analyzed these opinions and suggestions individually and incorporated as many of them as possible. Following multiple discussions and careful consideration, a total of 547 revisions were made to the preliminary draft. The revised draft therefore fully reflects the input of those consulted.
During the drafting process, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau met three times and the Political Bureau twice for the purpose of discussing and finalizing the draft. The current draft for your consideration is a product of these meetings.
III. The General Framework and Main Content of the Document
In addition to a preamble and a conclusion, the document has seven sections.
1. A Great Victory in the New-Democratic Revolution
This section outlines the major tasks of the Party during the new-democratic revolution period, namely opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, and working for the nations independence and the peoples liberation, so as to create the fundamental social conditions necessary for realizing national rejuvenation.
This section analyzes the historical background of the founding of the Party, and highlights the revolutionary struggle waged by the people under the Partys leadership as well as the great accomplishments they made in the early days of the Party and during the periods of the Great Revolution, the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation. It also highlights the Partys major achievements, such as establishing Mao Zedong Thought, and initiating and advancing the great project of Party building.
This section emphasizes that the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, national independence, and the peoples liberation represented Chinas great transformation from a millennia-old feudal autocracy to a peoples democracy. With these accomplishments made through tenacious struggle, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people showed the world that the Chinese people had stood up and the time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others was gone and would never return. This marked the beginning of a new epoch in Chinas development.
2. Socialist Revolution and Construction
This section specifies the Partys major tasks during this period, which were to realize the transformation from new democracy to socialism, carry out socialist revolution, promote socialist construction, and lay down the fundamental political conditions and the institutional foundations necessary for national rejuvenation.
It reviews the Partys great achievements during the period following the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, in which the Party led the people in surmounting many tough challenges to consolidate the newly-established state power, completing the process of socialist transformation, establishing the socialist system, launching large-scale socialist construction on all fronts, and breaking new ground in foreign affairs.
It recaps the efforts of the Party to build up its capacity as the governing party, and summarizes preliminary experience gained in this regard. It gives a rational appraisal of Mao Zedong Thought based on a summary of the creative theories put forward by the Party during this period.
The section also highlights the great achievements the Chinese people made under the Partys leadership, which brought about a great transformation from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large population to a socialist country. With these accomplishments made through tenacious struggle, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people showed the world that the Chinese people were not only capable of dismantling the old world, but also of building a new one, that only socialism could save China, and that only socialism could develop China.
3. Reform, Opening up, and Socialist Modernization
This section recounts the major tasks of the Party during this period, which were to continue exploring the right path for building socialism in China, unleash and develop the productive forces, lift the people out of poverty and help them become prosperous in the shortest time possible, and fuel the push toward national rejuvenation by providing new, dynamic institutional guarantees as well as the material conditions for rapid development.
This section highlights the great significance of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, and documents the historic contributions made by the Chinese communists with Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao as their chief representatives. It reviews the spectacular progress and resounding success the Party made in this period in leading the people in setting things right in all sectors, developing the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, advancing reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, effectively responding to the many risks and trials confronting Chinas overall reform, development, and stability, promoting national reunification, safeguarding world peace and pursuing common development, and launching and advancing the great new project of Party building.
This section commends the great achievements scored by the Party and the people during this period, which made possible the Chinese nations tremendous advance from standing up to becoming prosperous. With these accomplishments made through tenacious struggle, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people showed the world that reform and opening up was a crucial move in making China what it is today, that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the correct road that has led the country toward development and prosperity, and that China has caught up with the times in great strides.
4. A New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
This section outlines the major tasks of the Party during this period as accomplishing the First Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, launching a new journey to realize the Second Centenary Goal of turning China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, and continuing to advance toward the ultimate goal of national rejuvenation.
This section elaborates on the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which represents a new historical phase in Chinas development. It reviews the achievements the Party has made in theoretical innovation since its 18th National Congress, and thoroughly analyzes the conditions, risks, and challenges faced by the Party in the new era.
With a focus on the original ideas, transformative practices, new breakthroughs, and landmark accomplishments of the past nine years, the section highlights the great achievements and historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country in the new era in the following 13 areas:
--upholding the Partys overall leadership;
--exercising full and rigorous self-governance;
--pursuing economic development;
--deepening reform and opening up;
--advancing political work;
--comprehensively advancing law-based governance;
--driving cultural advancement;
--promoting social advancement;
--spurring ecological advancement;
--strengthening national defense and the armed forces;
--safeguarding national security;
--upholding the One Country, Two Systems policy and promoting national reunification; and
--bolstering the diplomatic front.
This section emphasizes that the great achievements the people have made under the leadership of the Party during this period provide better institutional conditions, stronger material foundations, and a source of inspiration for realizing national rejuvenation. With these accomplishments made through tenacious struggle, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people have shown the world that the Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and becoming prosperous to growing strong.
5. The Historical Significance of the Partys Endeavors over the Past Century
Based on a thorough review of the Partys major achievements over the past century, this section highlights the historical significance of the Partys endeavors from a broader perspective in the following five respects:
--fundamentally transforming the future of the Chinese people;
--opening up the right path for achieving rejuvenation of the Chinese nation;
--demonstrating the strong vitality of Marxism;
--producing a profound influence on the course of world history; and
--making the CPC a forerunner of the times.
It spells out the CPCs historic contributions to the Chinese people, the Chinese nation, Marxism, the cause of human progress, and the development of Marxist political parties.
This five-point summary is rooted in Chinas experience, but represents a vision for the future of humanity. It reflects the close bond between the CPC and the Chinese people and nation, and the connections between the CPC and Marxism, world socialism, and the development of human society. It also embodies the historical, theoretical, and practical logic of the Partys endeavors over its century-long history.
6. The Historical Experience of the Partys Endeavors over the Past Century
The historical experience of the Party is of fundamental and far-reaching guiding significance. This section summarizes this experience in 10 aspects:
--upholding the Partys 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.
These 10 points form a systemic, interconnected, and indivisible whole. They are critical to the continued success of the Party and the people. They are the source of the Partys inviolable strength, and are the very reason why the Party has always been able to seize the historical initiative. They are essential for the Party to preserve its advanced nature and integrity and always stand at the forefront of the times.
This section reiterates that the 10 points represent valuable practical experience the Party has gained on its century-long journey and they are intellectual treasures created through the joint efforts of the Party and the people. All of us must cherish them, uphold them over the long term, and continue to enrich and develop them in practice in the new era.
7. The Communist Party of China in the New Era
This section focuses on the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. It calls on all Party members to make unremitting efforts to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the determination to never let up until we reach our ultimate goals and the attitude that the last leg of the journey marks the halfway point only.
This section stresses the importance of adhering to the basic theory, guideline, and policy of the Party, and of grounding our work in this new stage of development, applying the new development philosophy, fostering a new pattern of development, and pursuing high-quality development. It calls for coordinated nationwide efforts to make our people prosperous, our nation strong, and our country beautiful.
This section reiterates the need to forever maintain the Partys close ties with the people and the need to better realize, safeguard, and advance the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. It reminds us that one may thrive in adversity and perish in laxity, requires us to see things from a long-term, strategic perspective, and always remain mindful of potential dangers, and inspires us to continue advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era. It stresses that we must cultivate the people who will carry on the cause of the Party from generation to generation.
It calls on the whole Party, the military, and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to remember the glories and hardships of yesterday, rise to the mission of today, and live up to the great dream of tomorrow. It also calls on us to learn from history, work hard, forge ahead for a better future, and make tireless efforts to realize the Second Centenary Goal and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
Comrades,
The key task of the present session is to review and adopt the resolution. I hope that in doing so you will act in accordance with the requirements of the Central Committee, and adopt a holistic perspective on the past, the present, and the future of our Party.
I also hope you will carry out in-depth discussions on the draft resolution and come up with constructive ideas and suggestions based on your collective wisdom.
Let us work together to make this session a great success and produce a well-revised version of the resolution.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Du Mingming)
Xi, Biden pledge to steer China-U.S. relations back on right track
Xinhua) 08:19, November 17, 2021
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
-- The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
-- The two Presidents agreed that their meeting is candid, constructive, substantive and productive.
-- The meeting helps increase mutual understanding, adds to the positive expectation of the international community for this relationship, and sends a powerful message to the two countries and the world.
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping had a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday. The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
President Xi pointed out that both China and the US are at critical stages of development, and the "global village" of humanity faces multiple challenges. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the US need to increase communication and cooperation, each run their domestic affairs well and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development. This is the shared desire of the people of the two countries and around the world, and the joint mission of Chinese and American leaders.
SOUND, STABLE CHINA-US RELATIONSHIP URGED
President Xi stressed that a sound and stable China-US relationship is required for advancing the two countries' respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. China and the US should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation. President Xi expressed his readiness to work with President Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction. Doing so will advance the interests of the two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community.
President Xi pointed out that the most important event in international relations over the past 50 years was the reopening and development of China-US relations, which has benefited the two countries and the whole world. The most important event in international relations in the coming 50 years will be for China and the US to find the right way to get along. History is a fair judge. What a statesman does, be it right or wrong, be it an accomplishment or a failure, will all be recorded by history. It is hoped that President Biden will demonstrate political leadership and steer America's China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism.
President Xi highlighted that a review of the experience and lessons learned in growing China-US relations shows that for the two countries to get along in the new era, three principles must be followed. First, mutual respect. The two countries need to respect each other's social systems and development paths, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and respect each other's right to development. They need to treat each other as equals, keep differences under control, and seek common ground while reserving differences. Second, peaceful coexistence. No conflict and no confrontation is a line that both sides must hold. The US side has suggested coexistence between China and the US. One more word can be added to make it peaceful coexistence. Third, win-win cooperation. With their interests deeply intertwined, China and the US stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. The world is big enough for the two countries to develop individually and collectively. The right thing to do is to choose mutual benefit over zero-sum game or the I-win-you-lose approach.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
President Xi identified four priority areas where China and the US should focus their efforts on.
First, shouldering responsibilities of major countries and leading global response to outstanding challenges. China-US cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-US cooperation. The global initiatives China has proposed are all open to the US. We hope the reverse is also true. Second, acting in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit to move forward exchanges at all levels and in all areas and generate more positive energy for China-US relations. President Xi expressed his readiness to stay in touch with President Biden through multiple means to set the direction and inject more momentum into bilateral relations. The two countries, with broad common interests in a wide range of areas including economy, energy, mil-to-mil, law-enforcement, education, science and technology, cyber, environmental protection and sub-national interactions, should complement each other to make the cake bigger for China-US cooperation. The two sides could fully harness the dialogue channels and mechanisms between their diplomatic and security, economic and financial, and climate change teams, in an effort to advance practical cooperation and resolve specific issues. Third, managing differences and sensitive issues in a constructive way to prevent China-US relations from getting derailed or out of control. It is only natural for the two countries to have differences. The key is to manage them constructively so that they don't magnify or exacerbate. China will certainly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. It is important that the US properly handle the relevant issues with prudence. Fourth, strengthening coordination and cooperation on major international and regional hotspot issues to provide more public goods to the world. The world is not tranquil. China and the US need to work together with the rest of the international community to defend world peace, promote global development, and safeguard a fair and equitable international order.
President Xi compared China and the US to two giant ships sailing in the ocean. It is important for the two sides to keep a steady hand on the tiller, so that the two giant ships will break waves and forge ahead together, without losing direction or speed, still less colliding with each other.
CHINESE PEOPLE'S ASPIRATION FOR BETTER LIFE CANNOT BE STOPPED
President Xi explained China's development path and strategic intentions. The just concluded sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee took stock of the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC in the past 100 years. Over the past century, the CPC has kept to its founding aspiration and mission of striving for the happiness of the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A lot has been accomplished in this direction, but that is far from enough. More needs to be done. President Xi said that when he took office, he said publicly that the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the goal to strive for. The Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the biggest internal driver for China's development and an inevitable trend of history. Any attempt to stop this historical trend will be rejected by the Chinese people, and will by no means succeed. President Xi said that as China's leader, serving the 1.4 billion Chinese people and working with them for a better life is a great challenge and a great responsibility. "I shall put aside my own well-being and live up to people's expectations," President Xi said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
President Xi pointed out that the Chinese people have always loved and valued peace. Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of the People's Republic, China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries. China has no intention to sell its own development path around the world. On the contrary, China encourages all countries to find development paths tailored to their respective national conditions.
President Xi stressed that opening-up is a fundamental state policy and a hallmark of China. China will not change its determination to open up at a higher level. China will not change its determination to share development opportunities with the rest of the world. And China will not change its determination to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. The new development paradigm that China is working to establish is aimed at expanding domestic market, fostering both domestic and international circulations with greater scope and scale, and building a business environment that is more market-oriented, law-based and up to international standards. All this will provide a bigger market and more opportunities to other countries.
President Xi highlighted China's commitment to peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity. Drawing ideological lines or dividing the world into different camps or rival groups will only make the world suffer. The bitter lessons of the Cold War are still fresh in memory. We hope that the US side can meet its word of not seeking a "new Cold War" with concrete actions.
President Xi stated China's principled position on the Taiwan question. He noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and ascribed the tensions to the repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China. Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt. The one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiques are the political foundation of China-US relations. Previous US administrations have all made clear commitments on this question. The true status quo of the Taiwan question and what lies at the heart of one China are as follows: there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China, and the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China. Achieving China's complete reunification is an aspiration shared by all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts. That said, should the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
MULTILATERALISM WITHOUT CHINA-US COOPERATION IS INCOMPLETE
President Xi highlighted that civilizations are rich and diverse, and so is democracy. Democracy is not mass produced with a uniform model or configuration for countries around the world. Whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide. Dismissing forms of democracy that are different from one's own is in itself undemocratic. China is ready to have dialogues on human rights on the basis of mutual respect, but we oppose using human rights to meddle in other countries' internal affairs.
President Xi pointed out that China and the US need to uphold the international system with the UN at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Multilateralism without China-US cooperation is incomplete.
On trade ties, President Xi described the China-US economic and trade relations as mutually beneficial in nature. Business is business. Economic and trade issues between the two countries should not be politicized. The two sides need to make the cake bigger for cooperation. China takes seriously the wishes of US business community to travel to China more easily, and has agreed to upgrade fast-track arrangement, which will further enhance economic and trade exchanges between China and the US and boost the recovery of the two economies. The US should stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese businesses. It is imperative for China and the US to maintain communication on macroeconomic policies, support world economic recovery and guard against economic and financial risks. The US should be mindful of the spillover effects of its domestic macro policies, and adopt responsible macroeconomic policies.
On energy security, President Xi noted the need for China and the US to call on the international community to jointly protect global energy security, strengthen cooperation on natural gas and new energy, and work with other countries to keep global industrial and supply chains safe and stable.
On climate change, President Xi recalled China-US cooperation that helped bring about the Paris Agreement. He pointed out that, as both countries are transitioning to green and low-carbon economy, climate change can well become a new highlight of cooperation. President Xi reiterated his belief that clear water and green mountains are as valuable as gold and silver, and that we must protect the environment the way we protect our own eyes, and treat the environment the way we treat our own lives. Today, ecological conservation has become a household concept and social consensus in China. China will make the world's biggest cut in carbon emission intensity in the shortest time frame in history, a task that will require extraordinary efforts. China means what it says. It only commits to what it can deliver, and never makes a promise it cannot keep. China is still the largest developing country in the world. The issue of unbalanced and inadequate development still stands out. All countries need to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strike a balance between addressing climate change and protecting livelihoods. What the world needs is less finger-pointing or blame game, but more solidarity and cooperation. Words matter, but actions matter even more. Developed countries need to earnestly fulfill their historical responsibilities and due obligations, and maintain policy consistency.
On public health, President Xi pointed out that the pandemic once again proves that humanity lives in a community with a shared future. There is no higher priority than people's lives. Solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon for the international community to defeat COVID-19. Response to any major disease must be based on science. Politicizing diseases does no good but only harm. The pressing priority in the global COVID response is to address the vaccine deficits and close the vaccination gap. President Xi said that he suggested making COVID vaccines a global public good at the early stage of the pandemic last year, and put forth a Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative just recently. China is among the first to offer vaccines to developing countries in need, delivering over 1.7 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to the world. We will consider making additional donations in light of the needs of developing countries. COVID-19 will not be the last public health crisis facing humanity. China and the US need to call for the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for global public health and communicable disease prevention and control, and promote further international exchanges and cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
US HAS NO INTENTION TO CONFLICT WITH CHINA
President Biden said that the US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relations in the world. As two major countries, the US and China have a responsibility to the world as well as to our people. The two sides need to have open and candid dialogues to enhance understanding of each other's intentions, and make sure that competition between the two countries is fair and healthy and does not veer into conflict. President Biden echoed President Xi's comment that history is a fair judge, and that they should make the relationship work and not mess it up. China has been a major power since 5,000 years ago. Biden reiterated that the US does not seek to change China's system, the revitalization of its alliances is not anti-China, and the US has no intention to have a conflict with China. Biden reaffirmed the US government's long-standing one-China policy, stated that the US does not support "Taiwan independence", and expressed the hope for peace and stability to be maintained in the Taiwan Strait. The US is willing to work with China on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, increase communication, reduce misperception, and handle differences constructively. Biden emphasized the need for the US and China to work more closely in areas where their interests align, respond to global challenges such as the COVID pandemic and climate change, and deliver better lives to the two peoples. We should encourage the younger generation to interact more and be more exposed to each other's culture, which will help make the world a better place.
The two sides also exchanged views on Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear issue, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and other international and regional issues of mutual interest.
The two Presidents agreed that their meeting is candid, constructive, substantive and productive. It helps increase mutual understanding, adds to the positive expectation of the international community for this relationship, and sends a powerful message to the two countries and the world. The two sides agreed to maintain close communication in different forms and steer China-US relations back on the right track of sound and steady development, for the good of the people in both countries and around the world.
Ding Xuexiang, Liu He, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi were present at the meeting.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Du Mingming)
China's WTO entry facilitates globalization, benefits global growth -- U.S. economist
Xinhua) 08:39, November 17, 2021
"China is a big supporter of the multilateral system, and this is exactly what we need right now," says Jeffrey Sachs. "Most of our problems are global scale. Unless we have effective global institutions, we won't be able to solve these problems."
NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) two decades ago was "a tremendous push to globalization," benefiting both China and the world, a renowned U.S. economist has said.
"Without (China's) membership in WTO, a lot of economic growth and integration would not have taken place," Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Sachs said he believes in globalization, "because we really have a benefit of sharing each other's knowledge, of travel and tourism, of different cultures, of different ways of knowledge, of different ways of innovation."
He noted that China has developed as a significant player over the past decades, becoming "the major trading partner for most of the world now," which is not only "a remarkable accomplishment," but also "a huge benefit for the world."
In the past 20 years, China's global ranking of trade in goods has risen from the sixth to the first, while that of its trade in services has jumped from the 11th to the second.
Calling China's sustained efforts to develop economic and trade ties with other countries an "excellent strategy," Sachs said the world's second largest economy is recommended to "continue to increase its trade with other parts of the world," adding China "can play a hugely positive role" in development in regions such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa.
Moves like the Belt and Road Initiative are very important for helping finance development in other places, upgrading the infrastructure and building the economies that are still lagging behind, which in the long run are "mutually beneficial," he noted.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, speaks at a symposium of the university in New York, the United States, Nov. 5, 2021.(Xinhua/Liu Yanan)
Sachs, who is also a senior United Nations advisor, lauded China's role in safeguarding multilateralism.
"China is a big supporter of the multilateral system, and this is exactly what we need right now," he said. "Most of our problems are global scale. Unless we have effective global institutions, we won't be able to solve these problems."
Sachs also highlighted China's "very constructive role" in stabilizing the global supply chain, noting other countries should also play their distinct part in mitigating the current supply-chain disruptions.
Meanwhile, he underscored the importance to keep "the international trading system open," as "an open international trading system is good for the world."
Sachs cautioned about the consequences of the U.S. obsession with the so-called "decoupling" theory, while emphasizing the need and urgency for closer collaboration between the world's two leading economies.
"Those who say we should decouple could lead us to conflict, which would be very dangerous. I like the interdependence," he said.
"It's extremely important that China and the United States find cooperative approaches" to address their differences, keep normal economic relations with each other and work together to solve some big problems like climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the conservation of ecosystems, he added.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
5G energizes Chinas iron and steel industry
09:06, November 17, 2021 By Shen Zhilin, Jiang Xiaodan ( People's Daily
The integration of 5G technology into the industrial Internet has helped improve the quality and efficiency of Chinas traditional iron and steel industry by accelerating the application of products with big data-based functions such as remote control, collaborative operation and troubleshooting in recent years.
Workers monitor steel production remotely at the central control room of a plant under Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in central Chinas Hunan province. (Photo/State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hunan Provincial Peoples Government)
At the steelmaking zone of a wide and heavy plate plant run by Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (Xiangtan Steel) in Xiangtan, central Chinas Hunan province, four large electromagnetic bridge cranes were busy attracting scrap steel with a weight of several tons and then moving it accurately onto a truck.
The bridge cranes were remotely controlled by Tan Bin, who sat in a spacious central control room and accomplished loading and unloading tasks by simply pulling or pushing levers and pressing buttons in front of a screen.
Work was so much tougher when I had to stay in the operators cab of bridge crane before remote control was possible, Tan recalled.
The operators cab was noisy, and would sometimes be infiltrated by dust. So we needed to wear masks all the time in work, the operator added.
Taking advantage of the ultra-high reliability and ultra-low latency of new technologies, the plant realizes the ultra-high-speed uploading and downloading of data, thus allowing workers to control the equipment accurately and remotely, according to He Wei, deputy director of the production equipment department of Xiangtan Steel, who said that the integration of 5G into bridge cranes has greatly improved operators work efficiency.
Shougang Jingtang United Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in Tangshan city, north Chinas Hebei province, has set up a management system that can monitor in real time the operation of the four main devices of coke ovens, an essential facility for iron and steel companies, namely coke pusher, coke barrier vehicle, coke quenching vehicle and coal charging car. These machines playing different roles are closely connected with each other and form an organic and unified whole through the transmission of signals.
Besides real-time monitoring of the four main devices of coke ovens, the management system enables man-machine dialogues, allowing workers to give orders to machines.
The four devices can send their operating data to the central control room, explained Ding Hongqi, a staff member at the coking department of the iron and steel company in Tangshan.
A slag adding robot is busy performing its tasks at a plant under Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in central Chinas Hunan province. (Photo/State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hunan Provincial Peoples Government)
However, due to low bandwidth, image transmission was often troubled by network latency in the past, Ding said, adding that the problem has been solved after the company employed 5G technology.
As a typical process manufacturing industry, the steel industry is characterized by continuous production process and requires timely transmission of large amounts of information in a complex environment, something that the companys former information system can no longer sustain. Therefore, the industry is in urgent need of intelligent transformation.
In 2019, the coking department of the company applied 5G in the remote operation of the four devices to realize their intelligent and synchronous connection, making the remote operation of the equipment more reliable, efficient and safer.
We have realized the stable, safe and fast transmission of images, said Ding, adding that after analysis and logical judgment, the central control room gives corresponding instructions to the programmable logic controllers of the four devices, thus ensuring their collaboration.
Since 2019, the company has promoted the transformation and upgrading of steel manufacturing technologies and equipment by integrating 5G into the industrial Internet, increasing its production efficiency by about 15 percent.
After upgrading key basic equipment by combining 5G and the industrial Internet, Ansteel Information Industry Co., Ltd. based in Dalian, northeast Chinas Liaoning province, has enabled data collected by sensors installed in equipment, such as temperature, vibration, pressure, and flow, to be transmitted to a cloud platform in real time to realize real-time monitoring, diagnosis and troubleshooting for equipment with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis, according to Liu Jiawei, chief researcher of the company.
Since the application of 5G technology and the industrial Internet, data on the current of motors on each one of the roller beds of the companys 1,780-milimeter hot strip mill production line has been collected in real time. Whenever an abnormality occurs, the equipment automatically sounds alarm and locates the fault accurately.
In the past, after spotting scratches on products caused by motor failure, we needed to examine over 400 roller beds of the production line one by one, which took 30 minutes to one hour. Now we can determine the problems basically within 10 minutes, said Ma Liang, a worker at the production line.
While the maintenance efficiency has improved and the downtime of equipment shortened, the percentage of rejects and degraded products has dropped from about 7 percent to 3.8 percent, which has helped the company cut costs, Ma added.
Besides breakdown recovery, the application of 5G technology and Industrial Internet has also enabled active maintenance of equipment.
Thanks to relevant applications, the experience of veteran workers has been converted into data models, which help achieve scientific maintenance and full lifecycle management of equipment based on data analysis, Liu said.
For the 1,780-milimeter hot strip mill production line, the number of emergency shutdowns and troubleshooting has decreased by 20 percent and the operating rate of equipment increased by 5 percent after the transformation of the production line, Liu pointed out.
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Congo, China should strengthen local government cooperation: Congolese PM
Xinhua) 09:06, November 17, 2021
BRAZZAVILLE, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Republic of the Congo and China should promote their partnership by further strengthening cooperation between the local governments of the two countries, the Republic of the Congo's Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso said Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the 4th China-Africa Local Government Cooperation Forum.
The forum, which was held online on Tuesday, brought together about 300 political leaders from African countries, and officials of local governments and relevant institutions from China and Africa.
In his speech via video link from Brazzaville, the Congolese Prime Minister lauded "Congo's regular participation in the meetings of this forum", an event that demonstrates "the excellence of multifaceted relations" between the two countries.
Noting that his government places "special" emphasis on developing and promoting cooperation between its local communities and other local governments, especially those of China, Makosso highlighted the fruits of the bilateral partnership at the local government level.
From twinning program between bilateral cities, to the donation of anti-COVID-19 medical equipment from Chinese municipalities, as well as reciprocal visits of delegations, the two countries have benefited from the "constant strengthening of the Congo-China partnership at the level of local government," he said.
The two countries should promote the partnership between their local governments, so as to serve the interest of their peoples, said Makosso, calling on both sides to rise to the challenges, especially urban governance, poverty reduction, public health and innovative development.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
"Double 11" online shopping festival reflects huge potential of Chinese consumption market
09:08, November 17, 2021 By Wang Ke, Luo Shanshan ( People's Daily
Singles' Day shopping festival that falls on Nov. 11 each year, also known as "Double 11", is one of the most anticipated date of the year for Chinas consumers.
Employees of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com sort express delivery packages at a logistics park of the company in Luquan district, Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province, Nov. 11, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Liang Zidong)
This year, "Double 11" transaction data delivered by major e-commerce platforms in China still kept an upward trend, signaling the huge potential of the Chinese consumption market.
E-commerce giant JD.com said transaction volume on its platform totaled 349.1 billion yuan ($54.6 billion) during the Single's Day period, and the figure exceeded what the company had witnessed last year. In particular, the value of household appliance orders placed on the company's platform surpassed 2 billion yuan in the first five minutes after 20:00 pm on Nov. 10.
Tmall, online marketplace of Chinese multinational Alibaba, reported gross merchandise volume of 540.3 billion yuan during the annual online shopping spree.
A number of small- and medium-sized brands achieved leapfrog growth on the platform. A total of 698 such brands that racked up over one million yuan during last year's "Double 11" witnessed their turnover hitting 10 million yuan in the first 11 days of November this year.
Li Zhengbo, an expert with the China International Electronic Commerce Center, an institute under the country's Ministry of Commerce, noted that the sales promotions represented by the "Double 11" have become important shopping events recognized and accepted by many consumers. The "Double 11" not only demonstrates the huge potential of China's consumption market, but also will further boost consumer confidence, the expert added.
The sales performance of agricultural products was a highlight of this year's "Double 11," as e-commerce platforms both expanded sales channels of these products and improved farmers' income. For instance, apples directly sourced from Gansu province, were sold out immediately after they were placed on Taote (Taobao Special Edition) , an e-commerce platform of Alibaba. On JD.com's platform, the sales of king crabs surged 600 times from a year ago, and that of kiwifruits produced in Xiuwen, southwest China's Guizhou province also grew tenfold.
A woman shops in a duty-free store in Haikou, south China's Hainan province, Nov. 11, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Wang Chenglong)
Just minutes after JD.com officially started the "main course" part of the online shopping spree on the evening of Nov. 10, a man surnamed Lin in Weinan, northwest China's Shaanxi province got a box of kiwifruits he ordered on the company's platform. It was the one millionth order received by the JD.com smart supply center in Wugong county, Shaanxi province since the center started trial operation.
Li believes that the "Double 11" has reshaped consumers' shopping habits over the past years. The consumers now pay more attention to the quality of commodities and the delivery service as well, and they have also become more rational when shopping, the expert explained.
These changes have released new consumption demands and raised higher requirements for e-commerce platforms, he pointed out. Merchants and logistics enterprises must enhance their capability to process orders in peak hours, so as to reinforce consumers' loyalty with constant, stable and high-quality services.
Sales data during the online shopping spree, as an important indicator of China's consumption market, mirrored the trend of consumption upgrading in the country.
The transaction volume of an oxygen concentrator produced by Yuwell, a Chinese medical equipment solution supplier, exceeded one million yuan just one minute after the "Double 11" started on JD.com. The platform's official online pharmacy also witnessed a 100 percent growth in transaction volume in five minutes after the shopping spree began.
An employee of an agricultural e-commerce company in Daoxian county, Yongzhou, central China's Hunan province sells navel orange on a livestream platform, Nov. 6, 2021. (People's Daily Online/He Hongfu)
Online retailer Suning.com said middle- and high-end household appliances were hot during this year's "Double 11." The sales of appliance sets grew 46 percent from a year ago, and that of low-energy-consumption appliances went up 39 percent.
Service consumption was another keyword of this year's "Double 11" as housekeeping, auto maintenance, physical check-ups, and home decor services received huge attention from the consumers. The number of auto maintenance orders on Chinese car maintenance start-up Tuhu increased nearly 40 percent year on year.
Li Yongjian, a researcher with the National Academy of Economic Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told People's Daily that the "Double 11" just showed new characteristics for its in-depth integration of online and offline services. On one hand, online platforms, by employing new technologies such as AI, further optimized consumption experiences. On the other hand, offline shopping also went through a transition to offer more convenience for the consumers.
The online shopping spree, experiencing a constant optimization on the supply side, is conducive to releasing more consumption potential on the Chinese market, and will give consumption a bigger role in the building of a new development stage, the researcher said.
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Xi Jinping: an inspiring and visionary leader
People's Daily Online) 09:14, November 17, 2021
In August 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote back to representatives of foreign participants at the Global Young Leaders Dialogue, encouraging them to further exchanges and mutual learning, and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Here, five young leaders share their feelings after reading the letter.
(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
China builds international consumption center cities to release potentials of domestic demands
09:14, November 17, 2021 By Luo Shanshan ( People's Daily
Earlier this year, China's State Council approved Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing to take the lead in developing international consumption center cities.
People visit Nanjing Road, one of the most famous shopping streets in Shanghai, Sept. 10, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Yan Daming)
It was a move made according to the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, which plans to build international consumption center cities and a batch of regional consumption hubs.
Modern international metropolises shall play as international consumption centers to significantly facilitate and drive consumption.
Since China's reform and opening-up, the country's consumption market has embraced rapid development, with its consumption structure on a constant upgrade. Some of the cities in the country, with their massive scale, rapid development and strong potential in consumption, have become much more international and been playing a stronger catalytic role. They have the necessary prerequisites for building themselves into international consumption centers.
The five cities have a clear positioning for themselves in developing international consumption center cities. They have also implemented forceful and distinctive measures in this regard with their respective focuses.
An livestream show introducing the food of Chongqing municipality is held at a shopping mall in the municipality, Aug. 17, 2021. (People's Daily Online/ Sun Kaifang)
Taking advantages in its huge market and circulation, Shanghai has developed a strong capability in consumption supply. It is striving to build itself into a center of global launch events and an international consumption destination.
Beijing is currently building a batch of consumption landmarks of international influence. The capital has proposed ten action plans to drive consumption.
Guangzhou enjoys a big market and strong consumption power. Its manufacturing and service sectors are also in a leading position in the country. At present, the southern city is building a consumption city cluster of international influence in collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao.
As an important industrial and commercial center, as well as a transport hub in north China, Tianjin has bolstered areas of weakness, consolidated its foundation and established new platforms, so as to make its urban characteristics in rivers, sea, ports and exotic buildings even more prominent.
Chongqing has proposed to build itself into a globally renowned city for its shopping atmosphere, food, exhibitions, tourism and culture, as well as an international consumption center city with local features that radiates the western region and is particularly open to Southeast Asia and South Asia.
Citizens pose for pictures at Haixinsha on the central axis of Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province, May 16, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Wei Jinsong)
The measures taken by the five cities manifest their own local characteristics, and help them better integrate into the national market, which is conducive to the consumption restructuring.
In the first three quarters of this year, final consumption contributed 64.8 percent to economic growth, becoming the largest driver of China's growth.
In a long-term perspective, the establishment of a "dual circulation" development pattern in which domestic economic cycle plays a leading role while international economic cycle remains its extension and supplement will offer more support for China's economic development.
The building of international consumption center cities will encourage the national market to release its consumption potentials and lay a solid foundation of domestic demand for building the "dual circulation" development pattern. Meanwhile, the international consumption center cities are also expected to enhance China's position in the international consumption market, and lead the upgrading of China's supply side with high-quality consumption.
China has entered a new development stage, which has lifted its people's living standard onto a higher level and spurred a wave of consumption upgrade. The building of international consumption center cities will further accelerate the upgrading of the consumption market, improve cities' consumption capability and internationalization, and contribute to China's high-quality development.
Photo shows the Beijing central business district sandwiched between the 3rd Ring Road and the 4th Ring Road in the east of the city. (People's Daily/Yu Kun)
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China's free trade port unveils opening-up plan
Xinhua) 09:22, November 17, 2021
Photo taken on April 5, 2021 shows Lingshui Li'An international education innovation pilot zone in Li'An peninsula of Lingshui Li Autonomous County, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)
HAIKOU, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- South China's Hainan Province plans to lock in three sectors, including duty-free shopping, international medical care and international education, in its drive to become an international tourism and consumption destination, according to its 2021-2025 development plan.
The island province is a free trade port. The plan recently published sets the target for its tourist industry to contribute to 17.8 percent of its total economic growth by 2025.
Efforts will be made in the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone to introduce and cultivate a batch of high-end and professional medical institutions to promote the research progress on stem cell, immune cell and gene therapy, plus other new techniques in the biomedical sector.
The medical pilot zone also encourages people from the countries joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to come for treatment. By 2025, Lecheng is expected to attract about 500,000 people to receive medical service in Hainan, the plan noted.
In regards to education, Hainan encourages overseas colleges and educational institutions to settle on the island.
The number of international students in Hainan is expected to reach 10,000 by 2025. The province will also introduce about 15 international high schools and kindergartens and more than three overseas high-level universities and vocational colleges in science, agriculture and medicine by 2025.
Last June, China released a master plan to build the southernmost province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Experts say Xi-Biden virtual meeting sends positive signal on China-U.S. ties
Xinhua) 09:24, November 17, 2021
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Political experts and scholars around the world view the virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, as a strong signal that would enhance positive expectations of the international community on bilateral ties.
The two heads of state had a virtual meeting on Tuesday. The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-U.S. relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, told Xinhua that the virtual meeting is an applauding step in navigating the bilateral relationship to the right direction.
Noting that the meeting was "exceedingly important" and "a small uptick in the right direction, he said the importance of the online meeting has been "significantly elevated" as the world is facing serious challenges that could hardly be tackled without the U.S.-China cooperation.
Kenneth Quinn, president emeritus of the World Food Prize Foundation and former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, told Xinhua that close collaboration between the two sides is "absolutely essential" to enable humankind to meet the great challenges in the future, including food shortage, the negative impact from climate change, and public health risks.
Calling the meeting "very encouraging," Lyazid Benhami, vice-president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship, said that the two countries have obligation not only to their peoples but also to the rest of the world.
Cavince Adhere, an international relations scholar in Kenya, said that the world expects to see more stable and sustainable relations between the two countries. This raises prospects for a more stable international system which can facilitate global cooperation for the benefit of mankind.
"The rest of the world can make little progress in addressing the international challenges without full participation and cooperation of China and the United States," he said, referring to such issues as the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate crisis.
Herman Tiu Laurel, founder of Philippine-BRICS Strategic Studies, said that China and the United States, two major powers on earth, shoulder the hope of the entire world for a safe, secure and healthy place attaining prosperity for all, which can only be achieved by the partnership of the two.
Faced with common challenges, the commitment and efforts towards durable and permanent peace, as well as stable international political and diplomatic environment is paramount for the major powers to promise and pursue, Laurel added.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Villages around Mount Fanjing in SW China find green paths to prosperity
09:28, November 17, 2021 By Wan Xiubin, Cheng Huan ( People's Daily
By taking advantage of local ecological resources, villages around Fanjingshan (Mount Fanjing) National Nature Reserve in southwest Chinas Guizhou province have found their roads to prosperity.
Photo shows Fanjingshan (Mount Fanjing) National Nature Reserve in southwest Chinas Guizhou province. (Peoples Daily Online/ Wang Hua)
At the monitoring center of the management bureau of the nature reserve, several white light spots, which seemed to be moving, suddenly appeared on the fire alarm system of a large screen supported by infrared thermal imaging technology.
It doesnt signify a fire, said Lei Xiaoping, deputy head of the management bureau, who realized immediately that a group of gray snub-nosed monkeys entered the monitoring range of the system.
Mount Fanjing, situated in Tongren city of Guizhou, has preserved a mid-subtropical island mountain ecosystem and is rich in biodiversity.
In 2018, Mount Fanjing was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) World Heritage List, and the Fanjingshan scenic spot was granted a 5A rating, the topmost level of the countrys tourist attraction rating system.
Mount Fanjing is a gene pool of flora and fauna. It is home to over 7,000 wild animal and plant species.
Zhaishadong village at the foot of Mount Fanjing in southwest Chinas Guizhou province is ablaze with lights and crowded with tourists, July 10, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Li He)
To maintain the authenticity and integrity of the natural ecosystems of Mount Fanjing, the municipal government of Tongren issued regulations on the protection and management of the mountain in 2018.
To put under comprehensive protection the animals and plants at the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve, which covers a large area, the management bureau of the nature reserve has set up a team of over 100 rangers and installed infrared cameras and surveillance devices to realize integrated management for work including ecological investigations, fire prevention and protection, fight against unlawfully felling trees and poaching as well as the approval of construction activities, according to Lei.
Zhaishadong village at the foot of Mount Fanjing was once a typical poverty-stricken mountainous village. In 2010, the per capita net income of residents in the village was less than 2,000 yuan ($313.4).
To alleviate poverty, the local government decided to explore eco-tourism to stimulate economic development while protecting ecological resources.
While relocating all residents in the core areas of the nature reserve, the local government began to develop rural tourism moderately at some experimental zones of the nature reserve, creating more income sources for villagers nearby.
Since 2011, taking advantage of the unique geographical gifts and cultural tourism resources of Zhaishadong village, the local government has gradually changed the village into a pristine eco-tourism destination that combines folk culture, B&B, catering services, and live performances.
After being added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, Mount Fanjing has won increasing fame and attracted more tourists from across the country.
Many tourists come to Zhaishadong village after their tour of Mount Fanjing. They live in B&Bs, enjoy local food, and take part in bonfire parties of the Dong ethnic group, said Xia Yongfa, a resident of the village who has transformed his old house for agritainment business.
During holidays, tourists usually need to make a reservation for a room at our B&Bs half a month in advance, Xia noted, adding that the agritainment business brought him an annual income of several hundred thousand yuan the year it was opened.
The successful experience of Zhaishadong village has effectively inspired and driven the development of its neighboring villages.
At present, more than 1,200 villagers living near the Fanjingshan scenic spot engage directly in tourism services such as catering, accommodation and performance.And more than 10,000 residents see their income increased and become better-off by being indirectly employed in the tourism industry.
Tourists enjoy a bonfire party in Zhaishadong village at the foot of Mount Fanjing in southwest Chinas Guizhou province, July 10, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Li He)
Besides developing eco-tourism, Tongren has explored deep processing of special agricultural products according to local conditions, blazing a new path to prosperity for local people.
The city has a long history of tea planting and has been a famous production base of the Tongren tea since ancient times.
In May 2017, GuiTea, a Guizhou-based tea company, decided to build an industrial park in Jiangkou county, Tongren city. Merely several years passed and it has grown into a well-known matcha enterprise.
In addition to matcha drinks, the company has also created a series of highly processed products, including matcha coffee, cakes, noodles, and facial cleansers, which not only sell well across China, but are exported to over 10 foreign countries and regions.
Mount Fanjing has an extremely high forest coverage rate and is inhabited by over 100 improved varieties of wild edible fungus.
Tongren city has formed a complete industrial chain featuring agaric, shiitake, and three other kinds of edible fungus. During the first half of this year, the city cumulatively planted 558 million sticks of edible fungi, which generated an output value of over 2.2 billion yuan.
Today, a green industrial system dominated by tea, camellia oleifera, edible fungi, poultry eggs, and Chinese medicinal herbs has been gradually established in Tongren, helping villagers near Mount Fanjing live a happier life.
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Chinese court rules to confiscate illegal gains of Red Notice fugitive
Xinhua) 09:47, November 17, 2021
WUHAN, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- A court in central China's Hubei Province has ruled in favor of an application to confiscate the illegal gains of Red Notice fugitive Xu Jin, who is suspected of embezzlement and bribery.
The Wuhan Intermediate People's Court on Monday ruled to confiscate the right of use to over 780 mu (52 hectares) of state-owned land as well as eight real-estate properties, three parking spaces and a vehicle obtained through bribery.
The court trial found that Xu took advantage of his position as the government head of Wuhan's Huangpi District to embezzle over 197 million yuan (about 30.83 million U.S. dollars) to pay the charges for the assignment of land-use rights, and provided assistance in matters such as land transfers and commercial projects for others. In return, Xu accepted large amounts of money and gifts between October 2006 and May 2011.
The evidence proves that Xu committed the crimes of embezzlement and bribe-taking, according to the court, adding that the ruling on confiscation was arrived at in accordance with relevant legal procedures.
Xu fled overseas in May 2011 and remains at large.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
State councilor stresses level playing field in market
Xinhua) 10:00, November 17, 2021
Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong addresses the 7th BRICS International Competition Conference in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- State Councilor Wang Yong on Tuesday underscored efforts to ensure a level playing field in the Chinese market and called for global antitrust cooperation.
Wang made the remarks while addressing the VII BRICS International Competition Conference in Beijing.
He gave credit to China's persistence in reforming its mechanism for anti-monopoly supervision and conducting fair competition reviews, which helps protect the legitimate rights and interests of market entities and consumers.
The country will continue ramping up regulation in key areas to create a level playing field for all market players, Wang said.
Wang also called on the BRICS countries to implement the consensus reached at the 13th BRICS Summit, coordinate competition policies and deepen cross-border antitrust cooperation.
Joint efforts should also be made to seek new regulatory methods for the digital economy and fine-tune the international competition rules, he added.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China-LAC Business Summit kicks off in China's Chongqing
Xinhua) 10:03, November 17, 2021
CHONGQING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The 14th China-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Business Summit kicked off in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday to further boost trade ties and corporate investment.
Political, business and academic representatives from China and the LAC region attended the conference online or offline.
Gao Yan, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the LAC region is an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative. In recent years, China-LAC economic and trade cooperation has entered the fast lane.
China is the second-largest trading partner of the LAC region, and the annual bilateral trade volume has exceeded 300 billion U.S. dollars for three consecutive years. The LAC region is also the second-largest destination for China's outbound investment, with more than 2,700 Chinese-funded enterprises operating in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Chongqing Initiative by Business Communities of China and LAC Countries was released at the summit. Representatives of business communities from China and LAC countries held an in-depth exchange of views at the summit and reached a consensus on deepening areas of cooperation in a new development paradigm, including economic, trade, infrastructure and finance cooperation.
The initiative included jointly tackling the challenges of COVID-19, firmly embracing openness, continuing to promote infrastructure connectivity, effectively promoting financial integration, vigorously engaging in cooperation on innovation, and fully supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Commentary: Xi-Biden virtual meeting charts course for bilateral ties
Xinhua) 10:08, November 17, 2021
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday held their first virtual meeting since Biden came into office, setting the direction and injecting impetus for the development of bilateral ties.
Right now, China-U.S. relations are at a critical historical juncture. The meeting between the two heads of state, which was "candid, constructive, substantive and productive," covered issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance.
The two countries should learn to get along well in the new era, and Xi's proposal of "three principles" -- namely mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation -- is thought-provoking.
Equality and mutual respect are the preconditions for state-to-state relations.
Mutual respect involves respecting each other's social systems and development paths, respecting each other's core interests and major concerns, and respecting each other's right to development. China will certainly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests, and it is important that the United States properly handle the relevant issues, such as the Taiwan question, with prudence. Any connivance with and support for the "Taiwan independence" forces would only boomerang in the end.
While it is natural for China and the United States to have differences, the key is to manage them constructively. The world's two largest economies should not only pursue coexistence, but also "peaceful coexistence," and jointly hold the line of no conflict and no confrontation.
The significance of China-U.S. ties has gone far beyond the two countries, and has implications for the future of the world. During the meeting, the two heads of state both voiced opposition to the so-called "new Cold War," which is a positive signal. It is hoped that the United States will implement the consensus and stop drawing ideological lines or forming various small cliques to suppress China.
With the interests of China and the United States deeply intertwined, it is important for the two countries to cooperate in a wide range of areas, including economy, energy, military-to-military cooperation, law-enforcement, education, science and technology, cyberspace, environmental protection and sub-national interactions, to deliver benefits to the people in the two countries and the world.
As Xi said during the meeting, "China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation." The world has high expectations that the two countries will shoulder the responsibilities of major countries and lead the global response to address both urgent issues like COVID-19 response and outstanding challenges like climate change.
It is hoped that the two sides will implement the consensus of the two heads of state, look ahead and press forward, and move bilateral relations back on to the right track of sound and steady development.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Chinese Premier stresses closer China-Africa local government cooperation
Xinhua) 10:16, November 17, 2021
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang addresses the 4th Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said that China and Africa should expand their pragmatic cooperation to create a better future for the 2.7 billion Chinese and African people.
Li made the remarks during his address at the 4th Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation, which he attended via video link.
Noting that the friendship between China and Africa is unbreakable, Li said China is willing to increase the aid of vaccines and anti-epidemic materials to Africa according to its needs, so as to build a solid defense line for people's health.
China is willing to further align each other's development strategies, strengthen the exchange of experiences in urban governance, poverty eradication, social construction and agricultural modernization, and promote cooperation between friendship cities, Li said.
He added that China will work with Africa to safeguard the common interests of developing countries, maintain the friendly tradition of mutual respect, equality, unity and cooperation, adhere to multilateralism, and support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.
Stressing the significance of exchanges and friendship between Chinese and African people, Li said with joint efforts of both sides, there is much to be achieved through cooperation between local governments of China and Africa.
About 300 political leaders from African countries and officials of local governments and relevant institutions from China and Africa attended the conference both online and offline.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Commentary: Responsible Washington needed for sound China-U.S. ties
Xinhua) 10:22, November 17, 2021
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Under an earnest global gaze, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed in a productive virtual meeting on Tuesday to steer the world's arguably most important bilateral relationship back on track.
The encouraging consensus, along with other positive outcomes of the first meeting between the two heads of state since Biden took office in January, has delivered a direly needed shot of optimism to China-U.S. ties and the struggling world as well.
With the world having entered a period of new turbulence and transformation, and both China and the United States having reached a critical stage of development, building a sound and steady relationship between the world's top two economies is particularly crucial.
Just as Xi pointed out in a phone call with Biden in September, whether China and the United States can handle their relationship well "is a question of the century to which the two countries must provide a good answer."
China's answer has been clear and consistent. It seeks to foster a healthy and stable relationship with the United States that features mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and it has been moving responsibly towards this goal.
It is high time that the United States started to act in a truly responsible fashion and join China to build on the hard-won momentum and advance their relations for the benefit of both nations as well as the world at large.
A responsible Washington ought to uphold mutual respect with China with all its heart.
Mutual respect is the foundation of the edifice of China-U.S. relations. It means the two countries should treat each other as equals and respect each other's social system and development path, core interests and major concerns, as well as right to development.
Thus Washington needs to stop slinging mud at China's system, path and institutions, which have been chosen by the Chinese people in line with China's unique conditions and have led the world's largest developing and most populous country to the two miracles of rapid economic growth and enduring social stability.
What is particularly imperative now is that the United States should respect the one-China principle, honor its pledge not to support "Taiwan independence," and cease playing with fire on the Taiwan question, the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations. No provocation or threat would make China budge an inch.
It is also a far cry from mutual respect if one side just invents some so-called "rules of the road" on its own or through a clique, and then imposes them on the other side. Mutual respect entails genuine consultation.
A responsible Washington ought to seek peaceful coexistence with China in good faith.
With no conflict and no confrontation being the bottom line both sides have to hold, the two countries should adopt a constructive approach to managing their differences and sensitive issues, which naturally exist but should not be allowed to metastasize or even undermine the overall relationship.
In retrospect, the most important development in international relations over the past half century is the reopening and development of China-U.S. relations, which has delivered enormous benefits to both countries and the rest of the world.
Looking ahead, Washington should work with China to increase communication, learn from the ups and downs in the historical trajectory of their ties, and chart the right course for the future development of their consequential relationship.
Given its behavior over recent years, Washington needs to take concrete actions to prove that its call for properly managing U.S.-China ties and proclamation of not seeking to contain China are a strategic choice, instead of a tactical gambit.
A responsible Washington also ought to pursue win-win cooperation with China in real earnest.
Considering their giant economies and complementary strengths, it would amount to a regrettable squandering of great opportunities and resources should China and the United States merely seek to coexist in peace.
Meanwhile, the world has witnessed over the past 50 years that if they cooperate, the two countries can do so much to boost each other's development, improve their people's well-being and make the world a better place.
As Xi pointed out in the Tuesday meeting, China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation. Pandemic response, climate change and many other common challenges demand their concerted efforts.
Without doubt, competition does exist between China and the United States. However, it is unhelpful and irresponsible to use the ominous term of "strategic competition" to define such an important relationship with such great positive potential for the whole world.
As Xi vividly pointed out, China and the United States are two giant ships sailing in the ocean, which should break waves and forge ahead together without losing direction or speed, let alone colliding with each other.
For that to happen, the United States should join China to act responsibly. The time to start is now.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
880 stranded tourists to leave east China's Jiangxi amid COVID-19 resurgence
Xinhua) 10:24, November 17, 2021
NANCHANG, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 880 tourists stranded in Yanshan County, a popular tourist destination in the city of Shangrao, east China's Jiangxi Province, will return home in succession starting from Wednesday.
The county has carried out 13 rounds of mass nucleic acid testing during the recent COVID-19 resurgence and none of the stranded tourists have tested positive for the virus, said local authorities in Shangrao during a press conference on Tuesday.
Yanshan, located at the northern foot of China's renowned Wuyi Mountains, is the first in the province to report new COVID-19 cases amid China's latest coronavirus resurgence.
On Oct. 30, Yanshan County registered one locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case, a person who worked in a local restaurant at a holiday resort. From Oct. 30 to 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, the city of Shangrao had logged 21 locally transmitted confirmed cases and 60 asymptomatic carriers, of which 32 had been cured and discharged from hospital.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Philippines thanks China for "life-saving vaccines"
Xinhua) 16:23, November 17, 2021
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
MANILA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Philippine government official thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines.
Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, told reporters at the airport in Manila that the fresh delivery completes the vaccines the Philippines purchased from the Chinese vaccine maker.
"Sinovac has truly been a very reliable partner of the Philippine government," said Galvez.
He said it was the China-donated Sinovac vaccines that helped his country kick-start a national vaccination program.
China has sustained the COVID-19 vaccine supply to the Philippines since the first delivery on Feb. 28. The Southeast Asian country kicked off its vaccination drive on March 1.
"We will not forget your kindness and compassion. You are really a friend who helped a friend in need," Galvez told China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, who was also at the airport to receive the vaccines.
With the arrival of the latest batch of Sinovac vaccine, Galvez said the Philippines is closer to achieving population protection by year end.
In a brief statement to reporters at the airport, Huang expressed hope that the newly delivered vaccines will further bring down the infections in the Philippines and pave the way for the country's early recovery from the pandemic.
Philippine Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Robert Borje, who represented President Rodrigo Duterte, lauded the partnership between China and the Philippines. "As we can say, this is a partnership that works under Duterte's independent foreign policy," he said.
The Philippines has administered nearly 71 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Tuesday. More than 31.8 million people have been fully vaccinated. The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 percent of its 110 million population this year.
To date, the Philippines has received more than 124 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from different vaccine makers. More than 40 percent of the country's vaccine stockpile came from China.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has more than 2.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 45,808 deaths.
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
A staff member transports a cargo containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian (R) and Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of Philippine government's measures to combat COVID-19, are seen in front of cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China, Africa boost trade cooperation despite COVID-19
Xinhua) 16:40, November 17, 2021
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- China and Africa have maintained robust economic and trade cooperation, despite COVID-19, as their bilateral trade has set a record high in the January-September period.
Trade between China and Africa rose 38.2 percent year on year to 185.2 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period, reaching the highest level in history for the same period, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said Wednesday.
China's direct investment in Africa hit 2.59 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months, up 9.9 percent, year on year. The growth rate is 3 percentage points higher than China's overall outbound investment, Qian said, adding that the growth rate outperformed the pre-pandemic level in the same period of 2019.
Chinese enterprises signed 53.5 billion U.S. dollars in new contracts in Africa in the period, up 22.2 percent year on year, with a turnover of 26.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.6 percent year on year.
These figures fully demonstrated the confidence of Chinese enterprises in Africa's future development, Qian said.
The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) takes place in Senegal at the end of November.
Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the 55 FOCAC members will gather again, which shows the strong willingness of China and Africa to deepen cooperation, Qian said. Qian believes the conference will boost the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and chart the course for sustainable and high-quality development of China-Africa cooperation. He also said it would play a positive role in building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.
China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trade partner for 12 years straight. The bilateral trade defied pandemic pressure to hit 187 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
Ever since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, trade between China and Africa and China's direct investment in Africa have increased 20 and 100 times, respectively, said Xu Bu, president of the China Institute of International Studies, at a forum in October.
China-Africa trade is generally balanced from a long-term perspective. Since 2000, China has imported 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars of goods from Africa and exported 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars of goods to Africa, Qian said.
Regarding sustainable development, Qian said China is ready to strengthen policy coordination with Africa. China would boost green, low-carbon, and clean energy cooperation and conduct technology exchanges to support Africa in enhancing its capacity to adapt to climate change and achieve sustainable development.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
HEFEI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The fourth World Manufacturing Convention will kick off Friday in east China's Anhui Province under the theme of "Innovation-Driven, Digitally Empowered: Global Manufacturing Industry Aligned for High-quality Growth."
The four-day event, scheduled until Nov. 22 in the provincial capital Hefei, is set to promote high-quality manufacturing and boost cooperation between China, a global manufacturing powerhouse, and the rest of the world, according to the organizers.
The convention, covering an area of more than 43,000 square meters, will feature various industrial seminars, business matchmaking events, and exhibitions of new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, imported products, among others.
As the event's guest of honor, the Republic of Korea will set up a national pavilion and hold a number of cooperation and exchange activities.
"Over 400 enterprises have signed up for the convention, and about 800 guests from home and abroad will attend the event, including foreign diplomats, officials of relevant international organizations, senior managers of Global Fortune 500 companies," said Liu Guang, deputy director of the provincial department of commerce.
The just-concluded fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) has created a spillover effect for the convention, as a number of companies that attended the CIIE will also participate in this convention, Liu added.
A total of 1,752 projects with investments of 1.8 trillion yuan (around 282 billion U.S. dollars) were signed at the previous three conventions, of which more than 80 percent had kicked off construction by the end of October 2021.
The sixth plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee is held in Beijing, from Nov 8 to 11, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua] Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has called for adopting a rational outlook about the Party's history and drawing on the experience and lessons of the past century to blaze a path toward new victories. Xi made the remarks when explaining the draft of the resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC's 100 years of endeavors, which was passed by the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee held on Nov 8 to 11. Xi's speech about the explanation of the draft document at the meeting and the text of the adopted resolution were released on Tuesday. Explaining the draft of the resolution to the meeting's participants, Xi called for resolutely opposing "historical nihilism"which refers to some political thoughts that seek to distort the history of the Chinese revolution, the CPC and the armed forces. He underlined the need to see history from a broader perspective in order to develop an accurate understanding of the underlying trends and defining features of the CPC's development. "We need to properly address the mistakes and setbacks that have occurred on the Party's path forward. We should draw experience from our successes and learn lessons from our mistakes so as to score new victories," Xi said. The landmark resolution highlighted Xi's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the whole Party as well as the significance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in advancing the cause of the Party and the State. It reflected on the Party's great achievements in the country's new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, reform and opening-up as well as the socialist modernization process, and underscored the accomplishments it has made since the country entered a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics following the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. The resolution also stressed the historical significance of the Party's endeavors over the past century, saying they have fundamentally transformed the future of the Chinese people, opened up the right path for achieving the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and had a profound influence on the course of world history. The resolution listed 10 items with respect to the Party's historical experience, including upholding the Party's leadership, putting the people first, staying independent, following the Chinese path, maintaining a global vision, and remaining committed to self-reform. While noting that the nation is closer, more confident and more capable than ever of realizing the goal of national rejuvenation, the resolution cautioned that there remain many risks and challenges on the journey ahead. It urged all Party members to have a precise grasp of historical trends, stay true to the Party's founding mission and not be intimidated by any risks or led astray by any distractions. The review of the major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century "will help build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all members and rally and lead Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era", Xi said at the sixth plenary session.
China has ramped up energy production and reined in prices to secure sufficient energy for factories and support the economy, assuaging concerns over stagflation. Energy prices have surged globally since the start of this year amid a supply crunch. In China, energy strains caused power outages in September, hitting families in certain regions and forcing some factories to halt production. "China has worked to boost coal production and bring coal prices back to a reasonable range," Meng Wei, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, told a regular press conference Tuesday. HIGHER OUTPUT, LOWER PRICES China's coal output grew 4 percent year on year to 360 million tonnes in October, and coal production is maintaining steady growth this month, showed data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The coal stockpiles of the country's power producers rebounded, with power plants nationwide reporting a total of 129 million tonnes of coal in their inventories on Nov. 14, sufficient for 22 days of consumption. This is nine days more than the level at the end of September. Increased coal output and inventories at power plants helped drive down the once-soaring coal prices, with coal futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange diving nearly 60 percent from their peak within a month. Apart from coal, China also cranked up the production of natural gas to ensure adequate supplies. Since Nov. 7, China's daily supply of natural gas has reached more than 1 billion cubic meters, about 100 million cubic meters more than the same period last year. "Gas companies must enhance production to increase domestic supplies," Meng said. EASING STAGFLATION CONCERNS A surge in commodity prices once raised concerns of stagflation in the world's second-biggest economy, an economic phenomenon in which prices rise yet business activity stagnates. Stagflation leads to high unemployment and reduced consumer spending power. The once-soaring energy prices increased production costs to companies and exacerbated stagflation concerns. There seemed to be some signs of stagflation due to the pandemic, natural disasters, international commodity price hikes, and tightening supplies of raw materials. These were "caused by short-term factors, and the situation will be temporary," said NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui. The country's economy has maintained sound recovery, according to NBS data on Monday, with retail sales and factory output beating expectations and the unemployment rate remaining low in October. China's value-added industrial output increased 3.5 percent year on year in October, compared with 3.1 percent in September. Retail sales of consumer goods increased 4.9 percent year on year last month, 0.5 percentage points higher than a month earlier. The surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 4.9 percent in October, 0.4 percentage points lower than in the same period last year. UBS analyst Wang Tao echoed Fu's view, dismissing risks of stagflation, partly because the energy crunch has eased. "We expect the producer price index to wane next year as energy shortages get addressed, and the whole year's consumer price index to hit 2 percent, so the country will be unlikely to go through stagflation," Wang noted.
HEFEI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were killed and eight others injured following a collision of a bus and a heavy truck on a highway in east China's Anhui Province on late Monday, local authorities said Tuesday.
The accident happened at 10:11 p.m. at an intersection in Bowang Township in the city of Ma'anshan.
The injured are being treated in a local hospital and are in stable condition.
The cause of the accident is being investigated. Enditem
By Wang Junsheng
At the 76th session of the UN General Assembly this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in once again reiterated his proposal for a declaration to formally end the war on the Korean Peninsula. As a key step in instituting the peninsular peace mechanism, the end-of-war declaration is nothing new and has been discussed many times. During the six rounds of four-party talks held among China, the US, DPRK and ROK from December 1997 to August 1999, a key objective was establishing a peace mechanism for the peninsula, and the September 19 Joint Statement reached at the Six-Party Talks in 2005 pointed out that the directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum .
Given the dramatic changes in the strategic environment on the Korean Peninsula, the Korean Armistice Agreement signed in 1953 can no longer regulate the behaviors of relevant actors, and a new peace regime, including an end-of-war declaration, must be created. In the past year, relevant country on the peninsula has constantly test-fired strategic weapons like submarine-based missiles and cruise missiles, pushing the peninsula to the brink of an arms race.
China has taken an active part in the efforts to bring about the end-of-war declaration, which is a reasonable move according to international law, whose basic principles dictate that a multilateral agreement shall not be altered or terminated by an international document signed by only some of the contracting parties. A formal termination of the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953 requires the presence and approval of all signatories. The agreement was jointly signed by the DPRK, China, ROK and the United Nations Command back then. Leaders of certain countries repeatedly claimed that the end-of-war declaration was more a political gesture than a legal document, but whatever it is, any document that intends to formally terminate it would need the approval from China, a signatory of the 1953 agreement.
On the other hand, it is known to all that China is a main participant in the Korean War with numerous soldiers of the Chinese Peoples Volunteers devoting their lives to it. If China isnt involved in the declaration of the formal end of the war, it would be theoretically wrong and emotionally and morally disrespectful for the Chinese martyrs fallen on the battlefield of the peninsula.
Should the end-of-war declaration be signed by leaders of three parties or four? I believe, in terms of both international law and common sense, it should be the four parties DPRK, China, the US and ROK negotiating the termination of the Korean Armistice Agreement and jointly pushing for the signing of a new peace agreement on the Korean Peninsula.
We should also see that the establishment of a peninsular peace regime, including an end-of-war declaration, is closely linked to the denuclearization of the peninsula as a piece of paper wont be able to guarantee peace unless the peninsulas denuclearization process makes some substantial progress. Therefore, the negotiation for the end-of-war declaration should be combined with denuclearization efforts. In other words, the declaration should be something more than just a symbol it should be genuinely conducive to building mutual trust between DPRK and the US and advancing the denuclearization process on the peninsula.
During a virtual meeting in November with Noh Kyu-duk, the ROK's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese governments special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, said, as an important party of the peninsula affairs and a signing party of the Korean Armistice Agreement, China is willing to play a constructive role by maintaining communication with relevant parties on matters including the promotion of peace talks and the announcement of the end-of-war declaration. He reiterated Chinas hope that relevant parties and the international community take more positive actions to contribute to the political settlement of the peninsula issues.
(The author is a senior researcher and director of the Department of Chinas Regional and Global Strategy, National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Editor's Note: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
A "Flying Tigers" veteran(right) poses with a man for a picture at a 2015 ceremony in Kunming, Yunnan province commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. [Photo/IC]
Tales of friendship forged in war offer timeless lessons on how efforts can be pursued to open the door wider to cooperation between China and the United States. That consensus emerged during an online event that envisaged not only a better future for the two countries but also for the world.
On Tuesday, participants gathered virtually to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Flying Tigers' arrival in China. The heroism of the US fighter pilots and the Chinese forces they served alongside were recounted at the event, which sought to help keep alive the spirit of cooperation in a world facing shared threats including the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
"What we have learned from the story of the Flying Tigers is that, human beings are different in races, languages, and cultures, but for the sake of world peace and justice, as well as the welfare of all peoples around the world, the Chinese and American peoples are fully able to work in solidarity and fight side by side," said Lin Songtian, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the organizer of the webinar.
In 1941, the volunteer pilots who went on to become celebrated as the Flying Tigers began to help China drive back the Japanese invaders.
They also flew over the Himalayas, helping to ship strategic supplies to China to help the Chinese break through the Japanese blockade. The US pilots left China in 1944.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said the Flying Tigers are a symbol of the deep friendship between the two peoples, and their example also sheds light on ways to address the challenges of today and tomorrow.
"China and the US should carry on the legacy of the spirit of solidarity and friendship, instead of heading to the road of misunderstandings and conflicts," said the envoy, who called on the two countries to share responsibilities to meet challenges and find a way toward a better future for humankind.
The event also drew veterans who recounted the stories shared and the friendships forged with Chinese people.
Bill Peterson, a 95-year-old Flying Tigers veteran, told of how he and his fellow airmen would go to nearby villages when they had a night off and give the children and their parents food packages.
"We could not speak Chinese, but we could tell from their eyes what they felt in their hearts," he said. "I just plain love the Chinese people."
The veteran said he has done everything he can to promote good relations with China. "I mention China at least three times a day to people I interact with," told the gathering.
"If the US people could meet the Chinese people in person, they could understand how peaceful and loving they truly are."
Larry Jobe, president of the Flying Tiger Historical Organization, praised the special bond forged 80 years ago, which opens a door to boosting mutual understanding and cooperation in the present and the future.
"Emulating the Chinese people and Flying Tigers of World War II in confronting a seemingly unbeatable enemy as a team of friends working together for the good of all is demanded today if we are to succeed against the current enemies of our troubled world," he said.
"Certainly the crisis of climate change, COVID, other diseases yet to surface, lack of fresh water due to drought, starvation and many ills, are common enemies today, enemies against which we all need to unite in a fight for the common good."
Harry Moyer gestures after landing on the ground in San Luis Obispo, California, the United States, Oct. 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)
"We must keep the bond between the US and China alive. It was forged in blood and honor," said Harry Moyer, a veteran pilot who flew with the famed "Flying Tigers" 76 years ago in China to help the Chinese combat the Japanese invasion.
Moyer celebrated his centennial birthday on Friday by taking a solo flight. He was feted by a joyful crowd of family, friends, the press and well-wishers at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, where they had all gathered to celebrate his birthday and contribution to WWII victory.
Moyer spoke from the heart about his love for flying and his eventful war years in the "Flying Tigers," before taking off into the skies in his Mooney MK21 plane.
"Out in that wide, blue sky, dipping in and out of the clouds -- the sense of space, of freedom," he mused. "Nothing compares to being up there," he told the gathering.
Moyer joined the US Army Air Corps in 1942. He is noted for serving with distinction in combat in different theaters of operations during WWII.
Moyer's squadron joined the 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th Air Force in China in 1944 and was primarily responsible for protecting Chinese airfields and the B-29 bombers stationed there tasked with counter-attacks on Japan.
"We just did what we had to do," he said humbly.
Growing up, Moyer told Xinhua, he had always felt a connection with China. His father had Chinese friends who owned a restaurant in town, so he became friends with the owner's son. Then he read "The Good Earth" by Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winner, Pearl S. Buck, which made him long to visit China.
So, even though he had already served his allotted time as a fighter pilot during WWII and was due to go home, when he heard General Claire Lee Chennault, who he considered a visionary wartime leader, was looking for pilots to serve in China, Moyer didn't hesitate to go.
"I really respected the man and his farsighted fighter tactics," he said of Chennault. "I was so happy to be able to work with him and the Chinese. That was the highlight of my flying career."
"It was wartime, so we had a hard time over there, but nothing compared to the suffering the Chinese had to bear from the indiscriminate bombing raids of the Japanese," he told Xinhua.
He praised his Chinese worker friends who toiled, at the risk of their own lives, to build dozens of airfields in China using only picks, shovels and massive stone rollers pulled by hand.
The "Flying Tigers" protected the vital shipments of war munitions coming into China by air and rail, such as guns, bullets, and bombs.
"I was happy the Flying Tigers were able to come and do their part to help protect Chinese villages and runways when help was most needed," said Moyer.
He told Xinhua he remembers his time in China fondly, despite the wartime horrors. "Those memories and occasions were special. We and the Chinese shared with each other, flew with each other, and fought together ... Serving side-by-side against a common enemy established a bond that really meant something."
"That bond that we forged with the Chinese people has never been broken and it must be honored," he added. "The Chinese people still honor it more than our younger American generations do."
"The Chinese were good to us. They knew we were there to help them and they made us feel appreciated. They still rolled out the red carpet for us over there," Moyer said, recalling the extraordinary hospitality and welcome he received there when he returned to China after the war.
Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, which brings WWII servicemen back to China and co-organizes special events between the United States and China, also believed it is essential to keep that special bond alive.
"The Chinese and American people share a common heritage that was forged in the skies above China during the Second World War," said Greene.
"During World War II, a large number of young American pilots, including you came to China to fight a just war with the Chinese people against the Japanese aggression," wrote Deng Lan, director general of the Research Center for People-to-People Diplomacy of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, in a congratulatory letter to Moyer, adding that those young US pilots "were fearless of danger, difficulty and sacrifice and have forged deep friendship with the Chinese people."
"You are truly a glorious member of the Flying Tigers, a witness to the China-US friendship and to peace and justice of the world. We will always cherish our friendship with you as you are an old friend of the Chinese people," Deng said in the letter.
A virtual meeting between the leaders of China and the United States on Tuesday comes as the two nations' ties arrive at a "key crossroads" and is a major event concerning not only bilateral ties but also international relations, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The people of China and the US, as well as the international community hope the meeting will yield results that benefit both countries and the world, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will have a candid, in-depth and full exchange of views on strategic issues concerning the future of bilateral relations and other important issues, Zhao said.
The US should strengthen talks and cooperation with China, manage differences effectively, handle sensitive issues properly, discuss with China the way for the two major countries to get along while respecting each other and bring bilateral relations back to the right track of sound and steady development, Zhao said.
The US has further complicated bilateral ties with recent actions encouraging "Taiwan independence" forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke recently of US "interest in peace and stability "across the Taiwan Straits and "commitments" to Taiwan.
Zhao said that the US statements on the Taiwan question had been distorted and regressed over the past 40 years, "and deviated from the consensus it reached with China when the two countries established diplomatic ties". He added that the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques are important political consensus between the two countries and form the political foundation of bilateral ties.
The so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" and the "Six Assurances" the US made in 1982 were "a pure concoction by some forces in the US "running counter to the three China-US joint communiques, and are "illegal and void", Zhao said.
The root of the current tension across the Taiwan Straits lies in the fact that the Democratic Progressive Party-led authorities and separatist forces in Taiwan have been colluding with external forces to seek "Taiwan independence", Zhao added, emphasizing that China's reunification is an unstoppable trend, and that it is the consensus of the international community to stick to the one-China principle.
"Any kind of behavior to support and embolden 'Taiwan independence' forces is interference in China's domestic affairs and goes against the peace and stability of the Straits," he said, urging the US to observe the one-China policy and the three China-US joint communiques and deal with the Taiwan question properly.
By Ma Hanzhi
Coups have taken place in Niger, Mali, Guinea, and Sudan in Central and Western Africa and the characteristics of local political and security turbulence in Africa have further emerged since the beginning of this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has resonated with the inherent historical, religious, regional, and political conflicts in Africa and brought increased political turmoil.
Historically, Central and Western Africa have a high incidence of coups. From 1952 to 2019, there have been 17 coups or failed coups in Sudan, 10 in Ghana and Sierra Leone; eight in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau; seven in Chad and Niger. However, since the beginning of the new century, the number of coups in Africa as a whole has dropped significantly. In the past 20 years, the number of coups in Africa has been reduced to about two times a year. The military coups that occurred this year are mainly concentrated in high-incidence areas in history, highlighting the historical continuity of the political turmoil in the above-mentioned countries.
The occurrence of military coups in the above-mentioned countries has a common mechanism. First, the countries face persistent political and economic difficulties. Since the pandemic, Africa has encountered severe economic and social crises. Countries such as Guinea, Mali, and Sudan, which have a single economic structure, are particularly troubled by crises. The full-scale crisis magnified by the pandemic has completely cost the "performance legitimacy" of the current government and the military then "naturally" seized power.
Second, military forces continue to play an important role in the above-mentioned countries. Military forces have been deeply involved in political life in some West African French-speaking countries. Among them, the middle and senior military officers have become the "main force" involved in politics. In addition, compared with a weak and inefficient government, the military itself has stronger capabilities of organization and mobilization and it can quickly oust the current government through its mastery of the state's machinery of violence.
Third, the loss of autonomy or interests of military organizations is the direct cause of the coups. Officers and soldiers seek to control the supreme power of the country in order to protect their own interests. The direct fuse that triggered the mutiny in Guinea was the government's attempt to cut military and police spending due to the stretched state treasury, which was approved by the National Assembly of Guinea.
In the context of the raging pandemic and the aggravated political and economic crises in Africa, certain coups can meet the expectations of some people to a certain extent. Coups in Africa usually use the excuses of anti-corruption, anti-nepotism, anti-waste of public funds, economic reform, welfare improvement, and the establishment of security. However, after the honeymoon period, the problem of how to overcome the shortcomings of the previous government and re-establish the legitimacy of its own governance becomes prominent. The history of Africa shows that the coup leaders cannot solve the political, economic and social problems left by their predecessors in a short period of time. However, coups have brought devastating effects to the African people in all fields.
Military interventions set a precedent for future military coups. When there is its first coup in a country, this is usually a sign of more coups in the future. The current successive military coups in Central and West African countries have a certain connection with Mali's coup detat in 2020 and the recognition by the African Union.
Finally, officers and soldiers who come to power through a military coup will generally increase their spending on the troops and national defense, and even push the entire country astray into "militarization". More importantly, compared with the civil government, the military regime's lack of experience in governing the country cannot bring real benefits to the people.
The African Union, Africa's sub-regional organizations and major countries need to truly proceed from the needs of Africa and create conditions for Africa to explore the path of independent development. In response to the ongoing military coups in Africa, some Western media have strongly advocated that international organizations, the US and the West increase external intervention in African politics. This is obviously a wrong solution. To a certain extent, the continuous interference of the US and the West is precisely the cause of the continuing turmoil in Africa.
During the Cold War, the US, the UK, France and other countries disgracefully contributed to coups in African countries and even participated directly. In the past coups in Sudan, Mali, and Guinea, the US and France used their own "democracy" and "human rights" standards to interfere and reform the above-mentioned countries and created continuous political tension and confrontation. The frequent coups indicate the urgency for Africa to explore the path of independent development, rather than the necessity of gross interference from the West.
Since 2001, the African Union has launched clear regulations that governments that come to power in violation of the Constitution will not be accepted to participate in the activities of the union. However, due to the lack of necessary means, such regulations are not well enforced. Next, the international community should increase multi-dimensional cooperation with the African Union, sub-regional organizations and African countries. The international community should increase "creative intervention" in the democratic process of African countries while respecting the sovereignty of African countries, rather than gross interference from the West. In addition, the international community should support the African Union in tapping local "democratic resources" of African countries, enriching the democratic practices of African countries, and making up for the shortcomings of Western-style democracy.
(Ma Hanzhi is an assistant researcher at the Department for Developing Countries Studies, China Institute of International Studies)
Editor's note: This article is originally published on thepaper.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century
Adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on November 11, 2021
Preamble
Since its founding in 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has remained true to its original aspiration and mission of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. Staying committed to communist ideals and socialist convictions, it has united and led Chinese people of all ethnic groups in working tirelessly to achieve national independence and liberation, and then to make our country prosperous and strong and pursue a better life. The past century has been a glorious journey.
Over the past hundred years, the Party has led the people to a number of important milestones: achieving great success in the new-democratic revolution through bloody battles and unyielding struggles; achieving great success in socialist revolution and construction through a spirit of self-reliance and a desire to build a stronger China; achieving great success in reform, opening up, and socialist modernization by freeing minds and forging ahead; and achieving great success for socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era through a spirit of self-confidence, self-reliance, and innovating on the basis of what has worked in the past. The endeavors of the Party and the people over the past century represent the most magnificent chapter in the millennia-long history of the Chinese nation.
A review of the Partys major achievements and historical experience over the past century is necessary for the following purposes:
--starting a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects in the historical context of the Partys centenary;
--upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era;
--strengthening our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership;
--enhancing our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics;
--resolutely upholding Comrade Xi Jinpings core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and upholding the Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership to ensure that all Party members act in unison;
--advancing the Partys self-reform, building all Party members fighting capacity, strengthening their ability to respond to risks and challenges, and maintaining the Partys vigor and vitality; and
--uniting and leading all Chinese people in making continued efforts to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
All Party members should uphold historical materialism and adopt a rational outlook on the Partys history. Looking back on the Partys endeavors over the past century, we can see why we were successful in the past and how we can continue to succeed in the future. This will ensure that we act with greater resolve and a stronger sense of purpose in staying true to our Partys founding mission, and that we more effectively uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
The Party adopted the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party at the seventh plenary session of its Sixth Central Committee in 1945 and the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the Peoples Republic of China at the sixth plenary session of its 11th Central Committee in 1981.
These two resolutions embody a facts-based review of major events in the Partys history, as well as important experience gained and lessons learned. These documents unified the whole Party in thinking and action at key historical junctures and played a vital guiding role in advancing the cause of the Party and the people. Their basic points and conclusions remain valid to this day.
I. A Great Victory in the New-Democratic Revolution
In the period of the new-democratic revolution, the main tasks of the Party were to oppose imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, seek national independence and the peoples liberation, and create the fundamental social conditions necessary for realizing national rejuvenation.
With a history stretching back more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation is a great and ancient nation that has fostered a splendid civilization and made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization. After the Opium War of 1840, however, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society due to the aggression of Western powers and the corruption of feudal rulers. The country endured intense humiliation, the people were subjected to untold misery, and the Chinese civilization was plunged into darkness. The Chinese nation suffered greater ravages than ever before.
To save the nation from peril, the Chinese people rose to fight back, and patriots of high ideals sought to pull the nation together, putting up a heroic and moving struggle. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898, and the Yihetuan Movement rose one after the other, and a variety of plans were devised to ensure national survival, but all of these ended in failure. The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen brought down the absolute monarchy that had reigned over China for thousands of years, but it failed to change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature of Chinese society and to alter the bitter fate of the Chinese people. China was in urgent need of new ideas to lead the movement to save the nation and a new organization to rally forces of revolution.
With the salvoes of Russias October Revolution in 1917, Marxism-Leninism was brought to China. The May 4th Movement of 1919 spurred the spread of Marxism throughout the country. Then in July 1921, as the Chinese people and the Chinese nation were undergoing a great awakening and Marxism-Leninism was becoming closely integrated with the Chinese workers movement, the Communist Party of China was born. The founding of a communist party in China was an epoch-making event, and from then on the Chinese revolution took on an entirely new look.
The Party was keenly aware that the conflicts between imperialism and the Chinese nation, and those between feudalism and the people constituted the principal contradiction in modern Chinese society. To realize national rejuvenation, it would be essential to initiate an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle.
In the early days of the Party and during the Great Revolution, the Party formulated the program of the democratic revolution, launched movements of workers, youths, peasants, and women, promoted and supported the reorganization of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and the founding of the National Revolutionary Army, and led the great anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle across the country, bringing about a surge in the Great Revolution.
In 1927, the reactionary clique within the KMT betrayed the revolution, brutally massacring communists and other revolutionaries. Meanwhile, the Right deviationist ideas within the Party represented by Chen Duxiu grew into Right opportunist errors and came to dominate the Partys leadership. The Party and the people were unable to mount an effective resistance, resulting in a disastrous defeat for the Great Revolution under the surprise attack of a powerful enemy.
During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Party realized in light of harsh realities that without revolutionary armed forces, it would be impossible to defeat armed counter-revolutionaries, win the Chinese revolution, and thus change the fate of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. The Party would need to fight armed counter-revolution with armed revolution.
The Nanchang Uprising of 1927 fired the opening shot of armed resistance against KMT reactionaries. This marked the start of the Communist Party of Chinas journey to lead the revolutionary struggle independently, build the peoples armed forces, and seize state power by force. Soon afterwards, the policy of carrying out agrarian revolution and organizing armed uprisings was established at the August 7th Meeting. The Party led the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising, and uprisings in many other areas. Due to the great disparity in strength between the enemy forces and our own, most of these uprisings ended in failure. The fact of the matter was that in view of objective conditions at the time, the Chinese communists could not follow the example of Russias October Revolution and win nationwide revolutionary victory by taking key cities first. The Party urgently needed to find a revolutionary path compatible with Chinas actual conditions.
The shift from attacking big cities to advancing into rural areas was a new starting point of decisive importance in the Chinese revolution. Led by Comrade Mao Zedong, soldiers and civilians established the first rural revolutionary base in the Jinggang Mountains, where the Party led the people in overthrowing local despots and redistributing the land. The Gutian Meeting of 1929 established the principles of strengthening the Party ideologically and the military politically. As progress was made in the struggle, the Party established the Central Revolutionary Base as well as the Western Hunan-Hubei, Haifeng-Lufeng, Hubei-Henan-Anhui, Qiongya, Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi, Hunan-Jiangxi, Zuojiang-Youjiang, Sichuan-Shaanxi, Shaanxi-Gansu, and Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou bases. In addition, the Party also set up Party organizations and other revolutionary organizations in KMT-controlled areas and launched revolutionary mass struggles.
However, the fifth counter-encirclement and suppression campaign in the Central Revolutionary Base ended in failure as a result of the misguided leadership of Wang Mings Left dogmatism within the Party. The Red Army was forced to make a strategic shift, and arrived in northern Shaanxi Province after enduring the extraordinarily bitter and arduous journey of the Long March. The errors of the Left line caused enormous losses to revolutionary bases as well as revolutionary forces in KMT-controlled areas.
In January 1935, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee convened a meeting in Zunyi on the Long March, at which Comrade Mao Zedong was confirmed as the de facto leader of the Central Committee and the Red Army. The meeting laid the groundwork for establishing the leading position within the Central Committee of the correct Marxist line chiefly represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, as well as for the formation of the first generation of the central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. The meeting opened a new stage in which the Party would act on its own initiative to address practical problems concerning the Chinese revolution, and saved the Party, the Red Army, and the Chinese revolution at a moment of greatest peril. It also subsequently enabled the Party to defeat Zhang Guotaos separatism, bring the Long March to a triumphant conclusion, and open up new horizons for the Chinese revolution. The Zunyi Meeting is therefore considered a pivotal turning point in the Partys history.
After the September 18th Incident in 1931 during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the conflict between China and Japan gradually overtook domestic class conflict as the issue of primary importance. As Japanese imperialists intensified their aggression against China, the country was plunged into an unprecedented national crisis. The Party was the first to propose that China should fight Japanese aggression with armed resistance, and launched extensive resistance movements. It also facilitated a peaceful settlement of the Xian Incident, thus playing a historic role in promoting a second period of cooperation between the KMT and the CPC and the united resistance against Japanese aggression.
Following the July 7th Incident in 1937, the Party implemented the right policy on the Chinese united front against Japanese aggression, and adhered to the line of all-out resistance. It devised and executed the strategic guidelines for a protracted war as well as a whole set of strategies and tactics for a peoples war, opened up vast battlefronts behind enemy lines, and developed bases for the resistance. The Party led the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, the Northeast United Resistance Army, and other forces of the peoples armed resistance in brave fighting, and they were the pillar of the entire nations resistance until the Chinese people finally prevailed. This marked the first time in modern history that the Chinese people had won a complete victory against foreign aggressors in the war of national liberation, and was an important part of the global war against fascism.
During the War of Liberation, as the KMT reactionaries flagrantly launched an all-out civil war, the Party led soldiers and civilians in gradually shifting from active defense to strategic offensive. It secured victories in the Liaoxi-Shenyang, Huai-Hai, and Beiping-Tianjin campaigns as well as the Crossing-the-Yangtze Campaign, advanced triumphantly into the central-south, northwest, and southwest, and wiped out eight million KMT troops, thus overthrowing the reactionary KMT government and the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism. With the support of the people, the Party-led peoples army demonstrated heroic mettle and unyielding resolve as they fought to the last against these fierce enemies, making a historic contribution to the victory of the new-democratic revolution.
In the course of the revolutionary struggle, Chinese communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, adapted the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism to Chinas specific realities and developed a theoretical synthesis of Chinas unique experience which came from painstaking trials and great sacrifices. They blazed the right revolutionary path of encircling cities from the countryside and seizing state power with military force. They established Mao Zedong Thought, which charted the correct course for securing victory in the new-democratic revolution.
In the course of the revolutionary struggle, the Party carried forward its great founding spirit comprised of the following principles: upholding truth and ideals, staying true to its original aspiration and founding mission, fighting bravely without fear of sacrifice, and remaining loyal to the Party and faithful to the people. The Party initiated and advanced the great project of Party building, introduced the principle of focusing on strengthening the Party in ideological terms, and upheld democratic centralism. It stuck to the three fine styles of conduct, namely combining theory with practice, maintaining close ties with the people, and conducting criticism and self-criticism; it developed the three important tools of the united front, armed struggle, and Party building, as it strived to build a national Marxist party of the people, which was fully consolidated in ideological, political, and organizational terms. The rectification movementa Party-wide Marxist ideological education movementwas launched in 1942 and yielded tremendous results. The Party formulated the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party, which helped the entire Party reach a common understanding of the basic questions regarding the Chinese revolution. At the Seventh National Congress, the correct line, principles, and policies were formulated for building a new-democratic China, and as a result the Party became united as never before in ideological, political, and organizational terms.
On October 1, 1949, the founding of the Peoples Republic of China was proclaimed after 28 years of bitter and courageous struggle carried out by the people under the leadership of the Party and with the active support of other political parties and democrats without party affiliation, thus realizing the independence of the Chinese nation and the liberation of the Chinese people. This put an end to Chinas history as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, to the rule of a handful of exploiters over the working people, to the state of total disunity that plagued the old China, and to all the unequal treaties imposed on our country by foreign powers and all the privileges that imperialist powers enjoyed on our land, marking the countrys great transformation from a millennia-old feudal autocracy to a peoples democracy. This also reshaped the world political landscape and offered enormous inspiration for oppressed nations and peoples struggling for liberation around the world.
It has been proven through practice that history and the people have chosen the Communist Party of China, and that without its leadership, it would not have been possible to realize national independence and the peoples liberation. Through tenacious struggle, the Party and the people showed the world that the Chinese people had stood up and the time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused was gone and would never return. This marked the beginning of a new epoch in Chinas development.
II. Socialist Revolution and Construction
In the period of socialist revolution and construction, the main tasks of the Party were to realize the transformation from new democracy to socialism, carry out socialist revolution, promote socialist construction, and lay down the fundamental political conditions and the institutional foundations necessary for national rejuvenation.
After the founding of the Peoples Republic, the Party led the people in surmounting a multitude of political, economic, and military challenges. It cleared out bandits and remnant KMT reactionary forces, peacefully liberated Tibet, and unified the entire mainland. It stabilized prices, unified standards for finances and the economy, completed the agrarian reform, and launched democratic reforms in all sectors of society. It introduced the policy of equal rights for men and women, suppressed counter-revolutionaries, and launched movements against the three evils of corruption, waste, and bureaucracy and against the five evils of bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing of economic information. As the stains of the old society were wiped out, China took on a completely new look.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Peoples Volunteers marched valiantly across the Yalu River to fight alongside the Korean people and troops. They ultimately defeated a powerful enemy that was armed to the teeth, demonstrating the gallantry of our army and our country, and the unyielding spirit of our people. Chinas resounding victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea safeguarded the security of the nascent Peoples Republic, and testified to its status as a major country. The new China thus gained a firm foothold amid complex domestic and international environments.
Under the Partys leadership, a government of peoples democratic dictatorship was established and consolidated, which was led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants. This created the conditions necessary for the countrys rapid development.
In 1949, the Common Program of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was passed at the CPPCCs first plenary session. In 1953, the Party officially set forth the general line for the transition period, namely gradually realizing the countrys socialist industrialization and socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce over a fairly long period of time. In 1954, the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China was adopted at the first session of the First National Peoples Congress. In 1956, China basically completed the socialist transformation of private ownership of the means of production, and put into practice public ownership of the means of production and distribution according to work, thus marking the establishment of the socialist economic system.
Under the Partys leadership, China established the system of peoples congresses, the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy, providing institutional guarantees for ensuring that it is the people who run the country. Under the Partys leadership, China also forged and strengthened unity among people of all ethnic groups, established and developed socialist ethnic relations based on equality and mutual assistance, and achieved and cemented unity between workers, peasants, intellectuals, and people from other social strata across the country. As a result, a broad united front was consolidated and expanded. The establishment of the socialist system laid the foundation for all of Chinas subsequent progress and development.
In light of the domestic situation following socialist transformation, the Party propounded at its Eighth National Congress that the main contradiction in China was no longer the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie, but rather that between the demand of the people for rapid economic and cultural development and the reality that the countrys economy and culture fell short of the needs of the people. Therefore, the major task facing the nation was to concentrate on developing the productive forces and realize industrialization in order to gradually meet the peoples growing material and cultural needs. The Party called on the people to redouble their efforts to build China step by step into a strong socialist country with modern agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology, and it led them in carrying out large-scale socialist construction across the board.
Through the execution of several five-year plans, an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic framework were established, the conditions of agricultural production were markedly improved, and impressive progress was made in social programs such as education, science, culture, health, and sports. With continuous breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies, including nuclear weapons, missiles, and satellites, Chinas defense industries underwent steady growth after starting from scratch. The Peoples Liberation Army continued to grow in strength, expanding from ground forces alone into a composite military force comprised of the navy, air force, and other specialized units. This provided firm support for the Peoples Republic to consolidate the newborn peoples government, establish Chinas position as a major country, and defend the nations dignity.
The Party adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, championed and upheld the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and firmly defended Chinas independence, sovereignty, and dignity. It provided support and assistance for other oppressed nations in seeking liberation, for newly independent countries in their pursuit of development, and for various peoples as they put up just struggles, and stood opposed to imperialism, hegemonism, colonialism, and racism. The humiliating diplomacy of the old China was put to an end.
The Party adjusted its diplomatic strategies in light of evolving circumstances, worked to restore all lawful rights of the Peoples Republic of China in the United Nations, opened up new horizons for Chinas diplomacy, and fostered commitment to the one-China principle among the international community. The Party put forward the theory of the differentiation of the three worlds and made the promise that China would never seek hegemony, earning respect and acclaim from the international community and developing countries in particular.
The Party fully foresaw the new challenges it would face after assuming power over the whole country. As early as at the second plenary session of its Seventh Central Committee which was held shortly before nationwide victory was attained in the War of Liberation, the Party called on all members to remain modest, prudent, and free from arrogance and rashness in their work, and to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle. After the founding of the Peoples Republic, the Party focused on the major issue of Party building in the context of governing, and worked to strengthen the Party and consolidate Party leadership ideologically, organizationally, and in terms of conduct. The Party bolstered efforts to encourage officials to study theory and increase their knowledge, improved its capacity for exercising leadership, and demanded that all members, especially high-ranking officials, act with a greater sense of purpose to safeguard Party unity and solidarity. Rectification campaigns were carried out throughout the Party to strengthen education within the Party, consolidate primary-level organizations, raise membership requirements, and oppose bureaucratism, commandism, graft, and waste. The Party was on high alert against corruption, worked hard to prevent degeneracy among officials, and responded to corruption with firm punishment. These important measures strengthened the integrity of the Party and the solidarity of all Party members, built closer ties between the Party and the people, and accumulated essential starting experience for building a governing party.
During this period, Comrade Mao Zedong proposed a second round of efforts to integrate the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism with Chinas realities. Chinese communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought by taking stock of new realities, and put forward a series of important theories for socialist construction. These included recognizing that socialist society was a long historical period; strictly differentiating between two types of contradictions, namely those between the people and the enemy and those among the people, and properly dealing with these contradictions; handling the ten major relationships in Chinas socialist construction appropriately; finding a path to industrialization suited to Chinas realities; respecting the law of value; implementing the principle of long-term coexistence and mutual oversight between the Communist Party and other political parties; and applying the principle of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend to scientific and cultural work. These creative theoretical achievements maintain important guiding significance to this day.
Mao Zedong Thought represents a creative application and advancement of Marxism-Leninism in China. It is a summation of theories, principles, and experience on Chinas revolution and construction that has been proven correct through practice, and its establishment marked the first historic step in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The living soul of Mao Zedong Thought is the positions, viewpoints, and methods embodied in its constituent parts, which are reflected in three basic pointsseeking truth from facts, following the mass line, and staying independent. These have provided sound guidance for developing the cause of the Party and the people.
Regrettably, the correct line adopted at the Partys Eighth National Congress was not fully upheld. Mistakes were made such as the Great Leap Forward and the peoples commune movement, and the scope of the struggle against Rightists was also made far too broad. Confronted with a grave and complex external environment at the time, the Party was extremely concerned about consolidating Chinas socialist state power, and made a wide range of efforts in this regard. However, Comrade Mao Zedongs theoretical and practical errors concerning class struggle in a socialist society became increasingly serious, and the Central Committee failed to rectify these mistakes in good time. Under a completely erroneous appraisal of the prevailing class relations and the political situation in the Party and the country, Comrade Mao Zedong launched and led the Cultural Revolution. The counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing took advantage of Comrade Mao Zedongs mistakes, and committed many crimes that brought disaster to the country and the people, resulting in ten years of domestic turmoil which caused the Party, the country, and the people to suffer the most serious losses and setbacks since the founding of the Peoples Republic. This was an extremely bitter lesson. Acting on the will of the Party and the people, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee resolutely smashed the Gang of Four in October 1976, putting an end to the catastrophic Cultural Revolution.
From the founding of the Peoples Republic to the eve of reform and opening up, the Party led the people in completing the socialist revolution, eliminating all systems of exploitation, and bringing about the most extensive and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation and a great transformation from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large population to a socialist country. Despite the serious setbacks it encountered in the process of exploration, the Party made creative theoretical achievements and great progress in socialist revolution and construction, which provided valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material foundations for launching socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new historical period.
Through tenacious struggle, the Party and the people showed the world that the Chinese people were not only capable of dismantling the old world, but also of building a new one, that only socialism could save China, and that only socialism could develop China.
III. Reform, Opening Up, and Socialist Modernization
In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the main tasks facing the Party were to continue exploring a right path for building socialism in China, unleash and develop the productive forces, lift the people out of poverty and help them become prosperous in the shortest time possible, and fuel the push toward national rejuvenation by providing new, dynamic institutional guarantees as well as the material conditions for rapid development.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, the Party stood at a crucial historical juncture in which it was confronted with the question of which course the Party and the country should take. The Party came to recognize that the only way forward was to launch a program of reform and opening up; otherwise, our endeavors in pursuing modernization and building socialism would be doomed to failure. In December 1978, the 11th Central Committee held its third plenary session. At the session the Party decisively abandoned the policy of taking class struggle as the key link, and initiated a strategic shift in the focus of the Party and countrys work, thereby ushering in a new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. This marked a great turning point of far-reaching significance in the Partys history since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. The Party also made the momentous decision to completely renounce the Cultural Revolution. Over the more than 40 years that have passed since then, the Party has never wavered in following the line, principles, and policies adopted at this session.
After the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee, Chinese communists, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as their chief representative, united and led the whole Party and the entire nation in conducting a thorough review of the experience gained and lessons learned since the founding of the Peoples Republic. On this basis, and by focusing on the fundamental questions of what socialism is and how to build it and drawing lessons from the history of world socialism, they established Deng Xiaoping Theory, and devoted their efforts to freeing minds and seeking truth from facts. The historic decision was made to shift the focus of the Party and the countrys work onto economic development and to launch the reform and opening up drive. Chinese communists brought the essence of socialism to light, set the basic line for the primary stage of socialism, and made it clear that China would follow its own path and build socialism with Chinese characteristics. They provided sensible answers to a series of basic questions on building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and formulated a development strategy for basically achieving socialist modernization by the middle of the 21st century through a three-step approach. They thus succeeded in founding socialism with Chinese characteristics.
After the fourth plenary session of the 13th Central Committee, Chinese communists, with Comrade Jiang Zemin as their chief representative, united and led the whole Party and the entire nation in upholding the Partys basic theory and line, deepening their 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. In the face of complex domestic and international situations and serious setbacks confronting world socialism, they safeguarded socialism with Chinese characteristics, defined building a socialist market economy as an objective of reform and set a basic framework in this regard, and established a basic economic system for the primary stage of socialism under which public ownership is the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership develop together, as well as an income distribution system under which distribution according to work is the mainstay while multiple forms of distribution exist alongside it. They opened up new horizons for reform and opening up across all fronts and advanced the great new project of Party building. All these efforts helped to successfully launch socialism with Chinese characteristics into the 21st century.
After the 16th National 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. They gained a deep understanding of major questions such as what kind of development to pursue and how to pursue it under new circumstances, and provided clear answers to these questions, thus forming the Scientific Outlook on Development. Taking advantage of an important period of strategic opportunity, they focused their energy on development, with emphasis on pursuing comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable development that put the people first. They worked hard to ensure and improve peoples wellbeing, promote social fairness and justice, bolster the Partys governance capacity, and maintain its advanced nature. In doing so, they succeeded in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics under new circumstances.
In order to promote reform and opening up, the Party re-established the Marxist ideological, political, and organizational lines, thoroughly refuted the erroneous two whatevers policy, and correctly appraised the historical position of Comrade Mao Zedong and the value of Mao Zedong Thought as a scientific system. The Party made it clear that the principal contradiction in Chinese society was that Chinas underdeveloped social production was unable to meet the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people, and hence the central task of the Party was to resolve this contradiction. On this basis, the Party put forward the goal of building China into a moderately prosperous society.
The Party restored and formulated a series of correct policies in all fields of work, and began the process of readjusting the national economy. Under the leadership of the Party, comprehensive steps were taken to set things right ideologically, politically, and organizationally, and extensive efforts were made to redress wrongs suffered by those who were unjustly, falsely, and wrongly accused and to regulate social relations. The adoption of the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the Peoples Republic of China marked the successful conclusion of the Partys efforts to rectify its guiding principles.
The Party came to recognize that to open up new prospects for reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, it needed to steer the advancement of its endeavors with theoretical innovation. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, When everything has to be done by the book, when thinking turns rigid and blind faith is the fashion, it is impossible for a party or a nation to make progress. Its life will cease and that party or nation will perish. With this understanding, the Party led and supported extensive discussions on the criterion for testing truth, upheld and developed Marxism in light of new practices and the features of the times, and effectively answered a series of basic questions regarding socialism with Chinese characteristics, including development path, stage of development, fundamental tasks, development drivers, development strategies, political guarantee, national reunification, diplomacy and international strategy, leadership, and forces to rely on, thereby forming the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics and achieving a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.
At its 12th through 17th national congresses, the Party made consistent overall plans for advancing reform, opening up, and socialist modernization in view of evolving circumstances at home and abroad and new requirements for the countrys development. The Central Committee convened several plenary sessions dedicated to planning major initiatives for promoting reform, development, and stability.
The introduction of the household contract responsibility system in rural areas marked the initial breakthrough in Chinas reform, further steps were gradually taken to reform the economic structure in the cities, and reform initiatives were then carried out across the board. Oriented toward the development of a socialist market economy, this reform gave greater and broader play to the basic role of market in allocating resources, while upholding and improving Chinas basic economic and income distribution systems. While resolutely advancing economic structural reform, the Party simultaneously carried out political, cultural, and social structural reforms as well as institutional reforms related to Party building, which led to the formation and development of vigorous institutions and mechanisms that suited the conditions of contemporary China.
The Party designated opening up as a fundamental national policy. Under this policy, China progressed from establishing special economic zones in Shenzhen and a few other areas to opening up more parts of the countryPudong in Shanghai, key inland cities as well as areas along the coastline, borders, the Yangtze River, and major transportation routes. It also acceded to the World Trade Organization, and went from bringing in to going global. In this process, we fully utilized both domestic and international markets and resources.
With continuous progress in reform and opening up, China achieved the historic transformations from a highly centralized planned economy into a socialist market economy brimming with vitality, and from a country that was largely isolated into one that is open to the outside world across the board.
In an effort to accelerate socialist modernization, the Party led the people in promoting economic, political, cultural, and social development and made immense achievements.
The Party continued to take economic development as the central task, stood by the conviction that development is of paramount importance, and put forward the notion that science and technology constitute the primary productive force. It implemented major strategies such as invigorating China through science and education, pursuing sustainable development, and developing a quality workforce. It advanced large-scale development of the western region, revitalized old industrial bases in the northeast and other regions, promoted the rise of the central region, and supported the trailblazing development of the eastern region in an effort to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and different regions. The Party promoted the reform and development of state-owned enterprises, encouraged and supported the development of the non-public sector, and accelerated the transformation of the economic growth model. It stepped up environmental protection and promoted sustained and rapid economic development. All of this enabled Chinas composite national strength to increase by a large margin.
Upholding the unity between the Partys leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance, the Party worked to develop socialist democracy and promote socialist political progress and advanced reform of the political system in a proactive and prudent manner. With a commitment to integrating the rule of law with the rule of virtue, a new Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China was formulated, China built itself into a socialist country under the rule of law, and a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics took shape. The Party made earnest efforts to respect and protect human rights and consolidated and developed the broadest possible patriotic united front.
The Party stepped up education on ideals and convictions, advanced the development of the core socialist values, promoted cultural-ethical progress, and fostered an advanced socialist culture, thus pushing socialist culture to flourish.
The Party accelerated social development with a focus on improving public wellbeing. It worked to improve peoples living standards and rescinded taxes on agriculture. It devoted constant effort to ensuring access to education, employment, medical services, elderly care, and housing and to promoting social harmony and stability.
The Party put forward the overall goal of building a strong, modern, and standardized revolutionary military, and it made winning local wars in the information age the focal point in preparation for military struggle. It advanced military transformation with Chinese characteristics by following an approach of having fewer but better troops.
Facing a rapidly changing international landscape, the Party upheld the Four Cardinal Principles, eliminated all kinds of interference, and calmly responded to a series of risks and trials related to Chinas overall reform, development, and stability.
The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed the demise of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern European countries. In the late spring and early summer of 1989, a severe political disturbance took place in China as a result of the international and domestic climates at the time, and was egged on by hostile anti-communist and anti-socialist forces abroad. With the peoples backing, the Party and the government took a clear stand against the turmoil, defending Chinas socialist state power and safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people.
The Party led the people in successfully responding to the Asian financial crisis, the global financial crisis, and other economic risks. We successfully held the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. We overcame natural disasters, such as severe flooding on the Yangtze, Nenjiang, and Songhua rivers, the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, and the SARS epidemic. All these victories demonstrated the Partys ability to withstand risks and cope with complicated situations.
Defining national reunification as a major historical task, the Party worked tirelessly to complete it. Comrade Deng Xiaoping introduced the creative and well-conceived concept of One Country, Two Systems, paving a new path for achieving reunification through peaceful means.
Through arduous work and struggle, the Chinese government successively resumed its exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao, thus ending a century-long history of humiliation. Since Hong Kong and Macaos return to the motherland, the central government acted in strict compliance with Chinas Constitution and the basic laws of the special administrative regions and maintained lasting prosperity and stability in the two regions.
Keeping in mind the big picture with regard to resolving the Taiwan question, the Party set forth the basic principles of peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems and facilitated agreement across the Taiwan Strait on the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle. It advanced cross-Strait consultations and negotiations, established comprehensive and direct two-way mail, transport, and trade links across the Strait, and launched dialogues between political parties of the two sides. The Party pushed for the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law, resolutely deterred separatist forces seeking Taiwan independence, promoted national reunification, and thwarted attempts to create two Chinas, one China, one Taiwan, or Taiwan independence.
Based on a judicious assessment of global trends and the features of the era, the Party put forward the concept that peace and development are the themes of our times. In line with this concept, China upheld its fundamental foreign policy goal of preserving world peace and promoting shared development. It adjusted its relations with other major countries, developed friendly relations with neighboring countries, and deepened friendly cooperation with other developing countries. It actively participated in international and regional affairs and created a new comprehensive and multi-layered framework for foreign relations.
The Party promoted the development of a multipolar world and the democratization of international relations and pushed economic globalization in a direction toward common prosperity. China took an unequivocal stand against hegemonism and power politics, endeavored to safeguard the interests of developing countries, worked for a new international political and economic order that would be fair and equitable, and promoted lasting peace and common prosperity in the world.
The Party has always stressed that to do a good job of governing the country, we must first do a good job of governing the Party, and that means governing it strictly. With this in mind, it focused its efforts on strengthening the Party and launched the great new project of Party building.
The Party formulated the Code of Conduct for Intraparty Political Life, strengthened democratic centralism, promoted democracy within the Party, and normalized intraparty political activities. It launched a party-wide rectification campaign through a well-planned, step-by-step approach in order to address the problems of defects in terms of thinking, conduct, and organization within the Party. The Party also worked to fortify its ranks with the aim of cultivating younger, more revolutionary, better educated, and more specialized officials, and it made a strong point of promoting young and middle-aged officials and advancing the process of succession.
With a view to addressing the two historical challenges of improving the Partys leadership and governance and bolstering its ability to resist corruption, prevent moral decline, and withstand risks, and with its focus on enhancing its governance capacity and advanced nature, the Party made a series of decisions on major issues including strengthening its ties with the people, its style of work, and its governance capacity. It also carried out education campaigns on the importance of study, political integrity, and rectitude, on the Theory of Three Represents, on preserving the advanced nature of Party members, and on studying and applying the Scientific Outlook on Development. The Party defined efforts to improve Party conduct, uphold integrity, and combat corruption as issues concerning the very survival of the Party and the country, and pushed forward the development of systems for preventing and punishing corruption.
On the 40th anniversary of the launch of reform and opening up, the Party held a grand ceremony to mark this important event. In his address at the ceremony, Comrade Xi Jinping reviewed the great achievements made and valuable experience accumulated over those four decades. He stressed that reform and opening up represented a great awakening for the Party and a great revolution in the history of the Chinese nations development, and he called for continued efforts to see this process through. Our countrys impressive achievements in reform, opening up, and modernization attracted the whole worlds attention. China achieved the historic transformation from a country with relatively backward productive forces to the worlds second largest economy, and made the historic strides of raising the living standards of its people from bare subsistence to moderate prosperity in general and then toward moderate prosperity in all respects. All these achievements marked the tremendous advance of the Chinese nation from standing up to growing prosperous.
Through tenacious struggle, the Party and the people showed the world that reform and opening up was a crucial move in making China what it is today, that socialism with Chinese characteristics is the correct road that has led the country toward development and prosperity, and that China has caught up with the times in great strides.
IV. A New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
Following the Partys 18th National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. The main tasks facing the Party in this period are to fulfill the First Centenary Goal, embark on the new journey to accomplish the Second Centenary Goal, and continue striving toward the great goal of national rejuvenation.
The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has implemented the national rejuvenation strategy within the wider context of once-in-a-century changes taking place in the world. It has stressed that the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is an era in which we will build on past successes to further advance our cause and continue to strive for the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics under new historical conditions; an era in which we will use the momentum of our decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects to fuel all-out efforts to build a great modern socialist country; an era in which Chinese people of all ethnic groups will work together to create a better life for themselves and gradually realize the goal of common prosperity; an era in which all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation will strive with one heart to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation; and an era in which China will make even greater contributions to humanity. This new era is a new historic juncture in Chinas development.
Chinese communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have established Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era on the basis of adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to Chinas specific realities and its fine traditional culture, upholding Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, thoroughly reviewing and fully applying the historical experience gained since the founding of the Party, and proceeding from new realities.
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era makes the following clear:
The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and that the Party is the highest force for political leadership. Therefore, all Party members must strengthen their consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership; stay confident in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and uphold Comrade Xi Jinpings core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and uphold the Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership.
The overarching task of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is to realize socialist modernization and national rejuvenation, and that on the basis of completing the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, a two-step approach should be taken to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the 21st century, and to promote national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernization.
The principal contradiction facing Chinese society in the new era is that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the peoples ever-growing needs for a better life, and the Party must therefore remain committed to a people-centered philosophy of development, develop whole-process peoples democracy, and make more notable and substantive progress toward achieving well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all.
The integrated plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics covers five spheres, namely economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement, and that the comprehensive strategy in this regard includes four prongs, namely building a modern socialist country, deepening reform, advancing law-based governance, and strengthening Party self-governance.
The overall objectives of comprehensively deepening reform are to develop and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to modernize Chinas system and capacity for governance.
The overall goal of comprehensively advancing law-based governance is to establish a system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and to build a socialist rule of law country.
China must uphold and improve its basic socialist economic system, see that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and the government plays its role better, have an accurate understanding of this new stage of development, apply a new philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development, accelerate efforts to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy but features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows, promote high-quality development, and balance development and security imperatives.
The Partys goal for military development in the new era is to build the peoples armed forces into world-class forces that obey the Partys command, that are able to fight and to win, and that maintain excellent conduct.
Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics aims to serve national rejuvenation, promote human progress, and facilitate efforts to foster a new type of international relations and build a human community with a shared future.
Full and rigorous self-governance is a policy of strategic importance for the Party, and the general requirements for Party building in the new era include making all-around efforts to strengthen the Party in political, ideological, and organizational terms and in terms of conduct and discipline, with institution building incorporated into every aspect of this process, continuing the fight against corruption, and ensuring that the political responsibility for governance over the Party is fulfilled. By engaging in great self-transformation, the Party can steer great social transformation.
These strategic concepts and innovative ideas are the important outcomes of the Partys theoretical development based on a deeper understanding of the underlying laws of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Comrade Xi Jinping, through meticulous assessment and deep reflection on a number of major theoretical and practical questions regarding the cause of the Party and the country in the new era, has set forth a series of original new ideas, thoughts, and strategies on national governance revolving around the major questions of our times: what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics we should uphold and develop in this new era, what kind of great modern socialist country we should build, and what kind of Marxist party exercising long-term governance we should develop, as well as how we should go about achieving these tasks. He is thus the principal founder of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This 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 Jinpings 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 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.
The significant achievements attained in the cause of the Party and the country since the launch of reform and opening up have laid a solid foundation and created favorable conditions for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. At the same time, however, the Party has remained soberly aware that changes in the international environment have brought about many new risks and challenges and China faces no small number of long unresolved, deep-seated problems as well as newly emerging problems regarding reform, development, and stability. Moreover, previously lax and weak governance has enabled inaction and corruption to spread within the Party and led to serious problems in its political environment, which has harmed relations between the Party and the people and between officials and the public, weakened the Partys creativity, cohesiveness, and ability, and posed a serious test to its exercise of national governance.
The Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has demonstrated great historical initiative, tremendous political courage, and a powerful sense of mission. Keeping in mind both domestic and international imperatives, the Central Committee has implemented the Partys basic theory, line, and policy and provided unified leadership for advancing our great struggle, great project, great cause, and great dream. Acting on the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, it has introduced a raft of major principles and policies, launched a host of major initiatives, pushed ahead with many major tasks, and overcome a number of major risks and challenges. It has solved many tough problems that were long on the agenda but never resolved and accomplished many things that were wanted but never got done. With this, it has prompted historic achievements and historic shifts in the cause of the Party and the country.
1. Upholding the Partys overall leadership
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has made continued efforts to strengthen and improve its leadership, providing fundamental political guarantees for the cause of the Party and the country. However, there have remained many problems within the Party with respect to upholding its leadership such as a lack of clear awareness and vigorous action as well as weak, ineffective, diluted, and marginalized efforts in implementation. In particular, the Central Committees major decisions and plans were not properly executed as some officials selectively implemented the Partys policies or even feigned agreement or compliance and did things their own way.
The Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made it clear that the leadership of the Party is the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the pillar upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend. All Party members must maintain a high degree of unity with the Central Committee ideologically, politically, and in action. We need to enhance our capacity to conduct sound, democratic, and law-based governance, and ability to chart our course, craft overall plans, design policy, and promote reform. We must ensure that the Party fully exerts its core role in providing overall leadership and coordinating the efforts of all sides.
The Party has clearly stated that it exercises overall, systemic, and integrated leadership, and that its lifeblood lies in maintaining its solidarity and unity. The centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee is the highest principle of the Partys leadership, and upholding and strengthening this is the common political responsibility of each and every Party member. In upholding Party leadership, all Party members must, first and foremost, take a clear stance in maintaining political integrity to ensure that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee.
The Code of Conduct for Intraparty Political Life under New Circumstances was approved at the sixth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee. The regulations of the Political Bureau on upholding and strengthening the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee were also issued. These documents were designed to strictly enforce the Partys political rules and discipline, to counteract and prevent self-centered behavior, decentralism, liberalism, departmentalism, and the nice-guy mentality, to cultivate a positive and healthy intraparty political culture, and to foster a sound political ecosystem featuring honesty and integrity within the Party.
The Central Committee has required leading officials to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation; to remain mindful of the countrys most fundamental interests; and to be loyal to the Party, obey its command, and fulfill their duties to it.
The Party has strengthened its leadership systems. It has improved the institutions for Party leadership over the peoples congresses, the government, the CPPCC, the supervisory, judicial, and procuratorial organs of the state, the armed forces, peoples organizations, enterprises and public institutions, primary-level peoples organizations for self-governance, and social organizations, thereby ensuring that the Party plays its role of providing leadership in all these organizations.
The Party has practiced democratic centralism. It has put in place sound systems for ensuring its leadership over major work of the state. The functions and roles of the Central Committees decision-making, deliberative, and coordinating institutions have been strengthened, and the mechanisms for ensuring implementation of the Central Committees major policies have been improved. The Party has strictly implemented the system for requesting instructions from and submitting reports to the Central Committee; tightened political oversight and inspection; investigated and handled cases of deviation from the Partys line, principles, and policies as well as instances in which the Partys centralized, unified leadership has been undermined; and rid the Party of members who acted duplicitously. All these measures have helped ensure that the whole Party maintains a high degree of unity with the Central Committee in terms of political stance, political orientation, political principles, and political path.
Since the 18th National Congress, the Party Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership have remained robust, the Partys leadership systems have improved, and the way in which the Party exercises its leadership has become more refined. There is greater unity among all Party members in terms of thinking, political resolve, and action, and the Party has significantly boosted its capacity to provide political leadership, give guidance through theory, organize the people, and inspire society.
2. Exercising full and rigorous self-governance
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has upheld the principle of the Party exercising effective self-supervision and practicing strict self-governance, making notable progress in Party building.
However, there was a certain period in which we failed to supervise Party organizations effectively or govern them with the necessary stringency. This resulted in a serious lack of political conviction among some Party members and officials, misconduct in the selection and appointment of personnel in some localities and government departments, a blatant culture of pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, and a prevalence of privilege-seeking attitudes and behavior. To be more specific, some officials engaged in cronyism and ostracized those outside of their circle; some formed self-serving cliques; some anonymously lodged false accusations and fabricated rumors; some sought to buy popular support and rig elections in their favor; some promised official posts and lavished praise on each other for their promotions; some did things their own way and feigned compliance with policies while acting counter to them; and some got too big for their boots and made presumptuous comments on the decisions of the Central Committee. Such misconduct interwoven with political and economic issues led to a startling level of corruption that damaged the Partys image and prestige and severely undermined relations between the Party and the people and between officials and the people, arousing the discontent and indignation of many Party members, officials, and members of the public.
Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel and that Chinas success hinges on the Party, especially on the Partys efforts to exercise effective self-supervision and full and rigorous self-governance. With this understanding, we must make strengthening the Partys long-term governance capacity and its advanced nature and integrity the main tasks, make enhancing the Party politically the guiding principle, make firm commitment to the Partys ideals, convictions, and purpose the foundation, and make harnessing the whole Partys enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity the focus of our efforts. We must keep improving the efficacy of Party building and build the Party into a vibrant Marxist governing party that stays at the forefront of the times, enjoys the wholehearted support of the people, has the courage to reform itself, and is able to withstand all tests.
With the attitude and resolve to make Party building an unceasing endeavor, the Party has practiced rigorous self-governance and put the spotlight on leading officials, the key few. It has worked to ensure that responsibilities for taking charge and exercising supervision over self-governance are properly fulfilled, bolstered the enforcement of oversight, discipline, and accountability, and integrated the requirement for full and strict self-governance into all aspects of Party building. The Central Committee has convened meetings on Party building in various sectors and made effective plans in this regard, thus promoting all-around progress in Party building.
The Central Committee has consistently stressed that our Party comes from the people, has its roots among the people, and is dedicated to serving the people. Once the Party becomes disengaged from the people, it will lose its vitality. To exercise strict self-governance in all respects, we must first address issues concerning Party conduct that the people are strongly concerned about.
For this purpose, the Central Committee started with formulating and enforcing an eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and worked to improve the Partys style of work through a top-down approach, with members of the Political Bureau and leading officials taking the lead. The Political Bureau holds meetings every year to hear reports on implementation of the eight-point decision and to engage in criticism and self-criticism on this subject.
With the persistence to keep hammering away, the Central Committee has made consistent efforts to tackle pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance. It has opposed privilege-seeking attitudes and behavior, shut down extravagant and wasteful spending and use of public funds for non-work-related gifts, dining, or travel, and worked to solve prominent problems that invite a strong public response or harm the publics interests. The Central Committee has reduced burdens at the primary level, and encouraged frugality while opposing wasteful spending. Thanks to these efforts, certain unhealthy tendencies that were once considered impossible to control have been reined in, and certain problems that had long plagued us have been remedied, while Party, government, and social conduct have significantly improved.
The Party has always stressed that the whole Party must maintain firm ideals and convictions, well-constructed organizational systems, and strict rules and discipline.
Our faith in Marxism, the great ideal of communism, and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics are our source of strength and the anchor of our political soul as Chinese communists, and they constitute the ideological foundation for maintaining the Partys unity. The Central Committee has stressed that ideals and convictions are like essential nutrients; without them, we would become frail and susceptible to corruption, greed, degeneracy, and decadence.
The Party has remained committed to integrating efforts to strengthen the Party ideologically with those to bolster self-governance through institutional building. In recent years, it has launched campaigns for advancing study and implementation of the mass line; for pushing Party members to be strict with themselves in practicing self-cultivation, exercising power, and maintaining self-discipline and to be earnest in their thinking, work, and behavior; for requiring Party members to study the Party Constitution, Party regulations, and General Secretary Xi Jinpings major policy addresses and to meet Party standards; for raising awareness of the need to stay true to the Partys founding mission; and for encouraging study of the Partys history. Through these efforts, the Party aims to equip its members with its new theories and to turn itself into a learning party. It has worked to educate and guide Party members and officials, especially leading officials, so that they can keep the roots of their convictions healthy and strong and absorb the mental nutrients they need to maintain the right line in their thinking, and ultimately preserve their political character and the backbone of their identity as communists.
The Party has introduced and implemented an organizational line for the new era. It has specified a set of criteria for good officials, which include firm convictions, devotion to serving the people, a strong and pragmatic work ethic, a willingness to take responsibility, and a commitment to being clean and honest. In appointing officials, the Party has adopted a rational approach with a greater emphasis on political integrity. It has adhered to the principle of selecting officials on the basis of both integrity and ability, with greater weight given to the former, and on the basis of merit regardless of background, and it is intent on appointing those who are dedicated, impartial, and upright. The Party has opposed the selection of officials solely on the basis of votes, assessment scores, GDP growth rates, or age, or through open popularity contests. It has strengthened the role of Party organizations in exercising leadership and final oversight in order to rectify misconduct in the selection and appointment of officials.
The Party has mandated that leading officials at all levels cultivate a proper worldview, outlook on life, and sense of values, all of which serve as the master switch for their conduct, and that they appreciate the power entrusted to them, manage it well, and use it prudently. They must willingly submit to the oversight from all sides, share the Partys concerns at all times, make contributions to the country, and work for the peoples wellbeing.
The Party has adhered to the principle of the Party supervising personnel, pursued a more proactive, open, and effective personnel policy, implemented the strategy of invigorating China by developing a quality workforce in the new era, and moved faster to build world-class hubs for talent and innovation, thus bringing together the brightest minds from all corners.
The Party has constantly strengthened its organizational system with a focus on improving the organizational capacity of Party organizations and enhancing their political and organizational functions. By attaching greater attention to the primary level, the Party has promoted full coverage for its organizational framework and initiatives.
The Party has upheld the principles that Party discipline should be even more stringent than the law and that discipline and law enforcement efforts should go hand in hand. It has conducted four forms of oversight over discipline compliance,[ The four forms are: 1) criticism and self-criticism activities and oral and written inquiries which are to be conducted regularly, to ensure that those who have committed minor misconduct are made to redden and sweat; 2) light penalties and minor organizational adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in the majority of cases; 3) heavy penalties and major adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in a small number of cases; and 4) investigation and prosecution, which are to be undertaken in a very small number of cases involving serious violations of discipline and suspected criminal activity.] strengthened political and organizational discipline, and promoted stricter observance of discipline on all fronts. The Party has remained committed to exercising rule-based governance over the Party, strictly abided by the Party Constitution, and developed a sound system of intraparty regulations. It has worked to ensure strict compliance with all Party institutions, and to make Party building efforts more rationally-conceived, institutionalized, and procedure-based.
The Central Committee has stressed that corruption is the greatest threat to the Partys long-term governance. The fight against corruption is a major political struggle that the Party cannot and must not lose. If we let a few hundred corrupt officials slip through the cracks, we would let down all 1.4 billion Chinese people. We must confine power to an institutional cage and ensure that powers are properly defined, standardized, constrained, and subject to oversight in accordance with discipline and the law.
The Party has made integrated efforts to see that officials do not have the opportunity, desire, or audacity to engage in corruption. It has used punishment as a deterrent, strengthened institutional constraints, and promoted heightened consciousness, so as to ensure that the powers conferred by the Party and the people are always used for the peoples benefit. The Party insists that no place is out of bounds, no ground is left unturned, and no tolerance is shown in the fight against corruption. It has imposed tight constraints, maintained a firm stance, and strengthened long-term deterrents against corruption. It has punished both those who take bribes and those who offer them and ensured that every case is investigated and all perpetrators of corruption are punished. The Party has shown the determination to adopt powerful remedies and the courage to take painful measures for the sake of the bigger picture, and taken firm action to take out tigers, swat flies, and hunt down foxes.
The Party has intensified efforts to address corruption that occurs on the peoples doorsteps, hunt down corrupt officials who fled overseas and recover state assets they had stolen, and root out all corrupt officials. The Party has focused on dealing with cases involving both political and economic corruption, prevented interest groups from arising within the Party, and investigated and punished corrupt officials such as Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Sun Zhengcai, and Ling Jihua for their serious violations of Party discipline and the law.
The Party has taken the lead in improving Party and state oversight systems, promoted the establishment of the National Commission of Supervision and local supervisory commissions at all levels, and developed an oversight network that facilitates coordination in disciplinary inspections conducted at different levels and mechanisms for promoting coordination between various types of oversight with intraparty oversight playing the main role. Through these efforts, we have strengthened checks and oversight on the exercise of power.
By taking resolute action since the 18th National Congress, we have given full play to the role of full and strict Party self-governance in providing political guidance and guarantees, significantly strengthened the Partys ability to improve and reform itself and maintain its integrity, and addressed the problem of lax and weak governance over Party organizations at the fundamental level. An overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, and this momentum has been consolidated across the board. As serious potential dangers in the Party, the country, and the military have been rooted out, our Party has grown stronger through revolutionary tempering.
3. Pursuing economic development
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has concentrated on economic development as the central task, and led the people in working diligently to bring about a miracle of rapid growth. Chinas economic strength has thus risen by a significant margin.
However, there existed problems such as undue emphasis on the rate and scale of growth in some localities and sectors and an extensive growth model. They, combined with the impact from sluggish world economy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, led to a stack-up of institutional and structural problems in Chinas economy. Imbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable development hence became a glaring issue.
The Central Committee determined that Chinas economy had reached a new normal of development, and was transitioning from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. Our traditional growth model could no longer be sustained in the face of a complex situation in which we must deal with a slowdown in economic growth, make painful structural adjustments, and absorb the effects of previous economic stimulus policies all at once.
The Central Committee noted that applying a new development philosophy represented a profound shift affecting Chinas overall development. The GDP growth rate could not serve as the sole yardstick of success for development. Rather, it was imperative to achieve high-quality development in which innovation is the primary driver, coordination is an endogenous trait, eco-friendly growth prevails, openness to the world is the only way, and shared growth is the ultimate goal, with a view to propelling transformative changes in the quality, efficiency, and impetus of economic development.
The Party stepped up strategic planning and unified leadership over economic work, and improved its institutions and mechanisms for leading economic development. Through the fifth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee, the 19th National Congress, the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee, and a series of central economic work conferences, it rolled out new plans and made major decisions in this regard. They were as follows: focusing on the main theme of high-quality development and the main task of supply-side structural reform; building a modern economic system; expanding domestic demand as a strategic priority; and fighting effectively in the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution.
The Party has worked with unswerving commitment to consolidate and develop the public sector and to encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector. It has prompted state capital and state-owned enterprises to grow stronger, better, and larger, established a modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics, and worked to make the public sector more competitive, innovative, risk-resilient, and capable of exerting a greater level of influence and control over the economy. A cordial and clean relationship has been cultivated between government and business, and steps have been taken to facilitate the healthy growth of the non-public sector and encourage those working in this sector to achieve success.
The Party has been committed to the innovation-driven development strategy. It has made self-reliance in science and technology the strategic pillar for the countrys development and developed a new system for mobilizing the resources nationwide for this purpose. It has strengthened Chinas capabilities in strategic science and technology, intensified basic research, and spurred breakthroughs and original innovation on core technologies in key fields. The Party has bolstered the creation, protection, and application of intellectual property rights, and moved faster to build China into a country of innovators and a global leader in science and technology.
The Party has carried out supply-side structural reform on all fronts. It has worked to cut overcapacity, reduce excess inventory, deleverage, lower costs, and shore up weaknesses, and implemented the principles of consolidating gains made in this regard, strengthening the dynamism of micro entities, upgrading industrial chains, and ensuring unimpeded flows in the economy. It has increased efforts to build China into a manufacturer of quality, build a modern industrial system, expand the real economy, and develop the digital economy.
The Party has improved its macroeconomic governance, adopted innovative ideas and approaches in macroeconomic regulation, shown greater initiative in macro policymaking, and implemented a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy. The Party has pressed forward with efforts to streamline administration, delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services. Steps have been taken to ensure food, energy, and resource security as well as the security of industrial and supply chains. The Party has worked to ensure that the financial sector better serves the real economy, strengthened financial regulation across the board, taken measures to prevent and defuse economic and financial risks, and stepped up market supervision and anti-monopoly regulation. The Party has also taken measures to prevent runaway expansion of capital, maintain order in the market, galvanize market entities of all types, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises, and protect the rights and interests of workers and consumers.
The Party has introduced a coordinated regional development strategy. It has promoted coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta, ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin, and high-quality construction of Xiongan New Area to a high standard. The Party has prompted a new phase in the large-scale development of the western region, new breakthroughs in the revitalization of the northeast, and high-quality development of the central region, and encouraged the eastern region to accelerate its pace of modernization. The Party has provided assistance for improving working and living conditions in old revolutionary base areas, areas with large ethnic minority populations, border areas, and impoverished areas. It has promoted a new, people-centered type of urbanization and improved urban planning, development, and management.
The Party has always made issues relating to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents a top priority. It has introduced a rural revitalization strategy and accelerated the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. It has adopted a food crop production strategy based on farmland management and the application of technology, implemented the strictest possible system for the protection of farmland, and worked to increase self-reliance in seed technology and ensure that Chinas seed resources are self-supporting and under better control. With all these efforts, the Chinese peoples food supply has remained firmly in their own hands.
Since the 18th National Congress, our economic development has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable. Chinas GDP has exceeded 100 trillion yuan, while per capita GDP has topped US$10,000. Chinas economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities, and composite national strength have reached new heights, and our economy is now on a path of higher-quality development that is more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and secure.
4. Deepening reform and opening up
After the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee, Chinas reform and opening up embarked on a remarkable course and scored achievements that captured the attention of the world. Nevertheless, as practice changed, certain deep-seated institutional problems and impediments from vested interests became increasingly evident. Chinas reform thus entered a critical phase fraught with tough challenges.
The Central Committee is keenly aware that evolving in practice, freeing minds, and reform and opening up are processes without end. Reform is always ongoing and can never be completed, and halting or reversing course would get us nowhere. Therefore, it is imperative to deepen reform in all areas through greater political courage and wisdom, to be well prepared to tackle tough issues and brave risky areas, to make institutional development a priority, to increase interconnectivity and synergy between reforms in different sectors, and to clear a path forward for reform by cutting away institutional barriers on all sides.
At its third plenary session, the 18th Central Committee made arrangements for reforms of economic, political, cultural, and social systems and those pertaining to ecological conservation, national defense and the armed forces, and Party building. It defined the overall objectives, key strategic targets, ranking of priorities, focal points, working mechanisms, methods of implementation, timetable, and roadmap for the endeavor of comprehensively deepening reform.
The third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee was an epoch-making event that ushered in the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. In the same way, the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee was also of epoch-making significance. It enabled the transformation of reform from trials and breakthroughs limited to certain areas into an integrated drive being advanced across the board, and thus marked the beginning of a new stage in Chinas reform and opening up.
The Party has worked to ensure that reform stays on the right path, that it is inspired and guided by the objectives of promoting social fairness and justice and improving peoples wellbeing, that it follows a problem-oriented approach, and that it focuses on further freeing minds, unleashing and developing the productive forces, and unlocking and boosting social dynamism. The Party has strengthened top-level design and overall planning, pursued reform in a more systemic, holistic, and coordinated manner, stimulated peoples creativity, and deepened and consolidated reforms in key areas.
The Party has taken swift yet steady steps to promote and deepen reform in all areas, scoring multiple breakthroughs in the process. As we have gone from laying foundations and defining initial structures, to making overall progress and building momentum, to achieving systematic integration and efficient coordination, we have seen basic institutional frameworks put in place in various areas, and witnessed historic, systemic, and holistic transformation in multiple fields.
The Central Committee is keenly aware that opening the door brings progress, while closing it leaves one behind. For Chinas development to gain the upper hand, seize the initiative, and have a good future, it is essential that we follow the tide of economic globalization, leverage the strengths of Chinas massive market, and pursue a more proactive opening up strategy. Adhering to the principle of achieving shared growth through consultation and collaboration, China has promoted high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We have advanced a large number of cooperation projects with significant implications for fueling economic development and improving peoples lives in countries along the BRI routes, and worked to build the BRI into an initiative of peace, prosperity, openness, green development, and innovation that brings different civilizations closer, and a widely welcomed public good and platform for international cooperation in todays world.
While ensuring that its efforts to open up internally and externally reinforce each other and better integrating the bringing in and going global strategies, China has worked to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, build a globally oriented network of high-standard free trade zones, including pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port, and expand opening up on the institutional level in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. Through these efforts, we are advancing opening up on a larger scale, across more areas, and in greater depth, and establishing an open economy that is diverse, balanced, secure, and efficient and brings benefit to all. In this way, China is consistently building new and greater strengths in international economic cooperation and competition.
Since its 18th National Congress, the Party has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is now more mature and well-defined, and the modernization of Chinas system and capacity for governance has reached a higher level. The cause of the Party and the country now radiates with fresh vitality.
5. Advancing political work
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has led the people in keeping to the path of socialist political advancement with Chinese characteristics and developing socialist democracy, and has achieved substantial progress in this regard. Learning lessons from successes and failures in political development both at home and abroad, the Party has become deeply aware of the following: to have full confidence in the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must first and foremost foster strong confidence in the political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics; to promote socialist democracy and socialist political advancement, we must ensure that the political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is deeply rooted in China; and mechanical copying of the political systems of other countries will get us nowhere, and could potentially lead our country to ruin.
We must uphold the unity between the Partys leadership, the running of the country by the people, and law-based governance. Efforts must be made to actively develop whole-process peoples democracy, and advance comprehensive, extensive, and coordinated development of the systems and institutions through which the people run the country. We must establish diverse, unimpeded, and well-organized democratic channels, diversify forms of democracy, and expand the peoples orderly political participation at all levels and in various fields, so as to ensure that Chinas governance and institutions in all sectors give full expression to the will of the people, protect their rights and interests, and spark their creativity. We must remain on guard against the erosive influence of Western trends of political thought, including the so-called constitutionalism, alternation of power between political parties, and separation of powers.
With a view to maintaining the long-term governance of the Party and the long-term stability of the country, the 19th Central Committee at its fourth plenary session outlined an overall plan for upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernizing Chinas system and capacity for governance, and also laid out major plans for upholding and improving the fundamental, basic, and important systems that underpin socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The Central Committee has stressed the importance of upholding the principal position of the people and ensuring their law-based participation in democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight.
The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of peoples congresses. We have supported and safeguarded the right of the people to exercise state power through peoples congresses, supported peoples congresses in exercising their statutory powers of enacting laws, conducting oversight, making decisions, and appointing and removing officials, and conducted decisive investigations of vote rigging and election bribery cases. Through these efforts, we have upheld the authority and dignity of the system of peoples congresses, and given full play to its role as Chinas fundamental political system.
The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, and to improve systems through which the central committees of other political parties conduct special oversight over the implementation of major decisions and plans and make suggestions directly to the CPC Central Committee. We have stepped up institutional development in promoting the CPPCCs role as a specialized consultative body, advanced extensive, multilevel, and institutionalized development of socialist consultative democracy, and put in place a system of consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics.
The Party has worked to consolidate government and improve democracy at the primary level, and to increase transparency in administration in order to protect the peoples rights to be informed, to participate, to be heard, and to exercise oversight.
We have further reformed Party and government institutions to achieve thorough and systematic restructuring of their functions. In this process, we have followed the principles of upholding the Partys overall leadership, committing to a people-centered approach, promoting greater optimization, coordination, and efficiency, and ensuring law-based governance in all dimensions.
The Party has worked to uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, followed a correct and uniquely Chinese path to dealing with ethnic affairs, and made fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation the main task in its work related to ethnic affairs. The Party has established policies for the governance of Tibet and Xinjiang in the new era, consolidated and developed socialist ethnic relations characterized by equality, solidarity, mutual assistance, and harmony, and pushed for all ethnic groups to work together in pursuit of common development and prosperity.
In line with the Partys basic policy on religious affairs, we have upheld the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation, and provided active guidance for the adaptation of religions to socialist society.
The Party has worked to build a broad united front with the goal of expanding common ground and the convergence of interests and creating a mighty force to drive our push toward national rejuvenation.
The Party has promoted reform and innovation within trade unions, Chinese Communist Youth League organizations, womens federations, and other peoples organizations with the objectives of strengthening their political consciousness, their advanced nature, and their ability to represent the people, so that these organizations can play their role more effectively.
We have worked to promote human rights in all areas, with top priority given to safeguarding the peoples rights to subsistence and development.
Since the 18th National Congress, we have made sweeping progress in improving the institutions, standards, and procedures of Chinas socialist democracy, and given better play to the strengths of the Chinese socialist political system. As a result, our political stability, unity, and dynamism have been reinforced and grown stronger.
6. Comprehensively advancing law-based governance
Since the launch of reform and opening up, the Party has upheld law-based governance and kept advancing socialist rule of law. However, we have also faced serious problems such as laws being ignored or not being strictly enforced, lack of judicial impartiality, and violations of the law going unpunished, while judicial corruption occurring from time to time. Some judicial and law-enforcement personnel have bent the law for personal gain, or even provided shelter for criminals. These phenomena have seriously undermined the authority of the law, and had a negative impact on social fairness and justice.
The Party is deeply aware that power is a double-edged sword. If it is wielded in accordance with the law and rules, it can bring benefit to the people, but if it is abused, it will invariably bring disaster to the country and the people.
The Central Committee has stressed that when the rule of law prevails, the country will prosper, but should it weaken, the country will descend into chaos. Comprehensively advancing law-based governance is an essential requirement and important guarantee for socialism with Chinese characteristics; it is also a profound revolution in Chinas governance. Law-based governance and law-based exercise of state power begin with compliance with the Constitution. We must remain committed to the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; implement Chinese socialist rule of law theory; pursue coordinated progress in law-based governance, law-based exercise of state power, and law-based government administration; promote integrated development of the country, the government, and society based on the rule of law; and comprehensively enhance peoples awareness of the need to respect, study, and abide by the law and their ability to apply the law.
At the fourth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee and the central conference on the rule of law, dedicated efforts were made to analyze the issue of advancing law-based governance in all respects. Top-level designs and major plans were put forward on ens
BEIJING, Nov. 17 -- Recently, nearly 100 teachers and students from more than ten secondary schools in Hong Kong (HK) and the "Future Star" Alumni Association of Dagong Wenhui Media Group visited the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison Exhibition Center .
The exhibition mainly displays China's achievements in national rejuvenation, PLA's glorious history, and the efforts made by the PLA Hong Kong Garrison to implement the "One Country, Two Systems" Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Visitors had a vivid Chinese history class through diversified exhibition forms such as models, graphics and videos.
"Dreams can lead to development," said Qiu Wanguang, principal of the Po Leung Kuk Vicwood K. T. Chong Sixth Form College, noting that the Chinese Dream Exhibition Hall impressed him the most.
Zhou Wolin, a student from Pui Kiu Middle School in Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China, and the PLA Hong Kong Garrison has been defending national sovereignty like a magic cudgel. He also expressed his great pride in the growing comprehensive strength of China.
It is understood that since the opening of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison Exhibition Center in July this year, it has received more than 5,000 visitors, with local students and residents as the main body. The exhibition center has been gradually developed into an important site for national defense education.
New measures are being investigated to allow local residents to gamble at domestic casinos, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Choung Byoung-gug said on Wednesday.
At present, Koreans are banned from playing the tables in 16 of the country's 17 casinos, with the exception of one hotel resort in Gangwon Province.
Choung said at a breakfast meeting held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry that domestic casinos should be open to Korean nationals, and he vowed to plough ahead with efforts to amend the current regulations. It is absurd to ban Korean citizens from entering gambling halls while at the same time encouraging foreigners to do so, he added.
"I will look for ways for allow locals to enter casinos," he said. "I'm not sure if I will be able to accomplish this during my term, but I will push ahead with the project." Choung assumed his current role with the ministry in January.
Of the 16 casinos that cater only to foreigners, Seoul accounts for three and Jeju Island has eight. There are another two in Busan, and one each in Incheon, Daegu and Sokcho.
The only place Koreans can gamble is at a hotel resort known as Kangwon Land that operates under a special law which was passed to develop the local economy.
"Since many Koreans disapprove of opening casinos to local citizens, those who want to gamble go abroad and spend their money in foreign countries," Choung said. "The result is that we end up losing out on what should be a highly lucrative and high-end tourism draw."
He said repealing the ban was not likely to generate negative side effects. Taking Las Vegas as an example, he suggested such a move could in fact lead to other revenue-generating developments and spin-off industries.
"Las Vegas used to be a playground for gambling, but now it is more focused on the convention industry and has turned into a city for shopping," said Choung.
Korean online fashion retailers are becoming more popular in Japan and elsewhere thanks to K-pop bands and TV series. Musinsa, Korea's No. 1 online fashion retailer, chose Japan as its first overseas market and established a branch office there. Zigzag, a shopping app that sells trendy clothes from the Dongdaemun garment district of Seoul, launched trial marketing services in Japan after joining hands with popular influencers there. Brandi, another online retailer selling Dongdaemun brands, joined hands with Internet portal Naver to start doing business in Japan. And mobile fashion app A-bly launched a Japanese version in January.
Korea's TV series "Vincenzo" appears as the most-viewed on Netflix Japan, in this grab from the video streaming platform.
Last month, cable channel tvN's recently-ended series "Vincenzo" became the most viewed program on Netflix Japan. An Internet search on Yahoo Japan leads to postings about the formal suits featured in the drama as well as clothes worn by the female lead, Jeon Yeo-been. Musinsa is not increasing its physical presence in Japan but gives clothes makers here the support they need in marketing their products there. Zigzag, which was acquired by Kakao earlier this year, introduced a fashion e-commerce app called Naunau in Japan to pave the way for Dongdaemun apparel makers to sell their products there. Brandi is selling its products through an online store in Japan run by Naver. Industry insiders say Naver and Kakao plan to expand their online fashion sales worldwide using Japan as a launching board. Some small online fashion retailers had already pioneered the Japanese market before these big names. An industry insider said, "Japan's fashion market centers on offline retail shops and specialty stores, but demand for online fashion malls surged last year due to the coronavirus pandemic."
The screenshot of Zigzag's Japanese app Naunau on its website
Japanese consumers are discerning fashionistas, and the garment businesses of Dongdaemun are expert at keeping up with the latest trends and responding promptly, so they are well suited to meet the demand. Another favorable factor is the similar climate to Korea, which creates similar demand for seasonal clothing. Another business insider said, "We thought about selling our clothes in Southeast Asia, but the biggest drawback was that demand there is for summer clothes only." Another appeal of Japan is that younger Japanese consumers are rarely swayed by the notoriously fractious relations between the neighbors. Unlike China, where customers are testily patriotic and ever ready to join government hate campaigns and boycotts, Japan is a dependable market. "Korean fashion houses tend to prefer Japan, where customers are less political," one retailer said.
The White House readout said Biden "underscored that the United States remains committed to the 'one China' policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances, and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait." These are references to existing U.S. policy on Taiwan, set in place under past U.S. administrations.
China has escalated the dispatch of its military planes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone in recent months, with a record number of sorties flown last month.
Officials said Biden made U.S. interests clear to ensure that there are "no unilateral changes to the status quo" across the Taiwan Strait during their virtual meeting that lasted for about three-and-a-half hours. Biden "was quite direct about his concerns about some of Beijing's behavior that he believes is at odds with" the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, said a senior U.S. administration official during a phone briefing after the virtual meeting.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held "an extended discussion" on Taiwan Monday night, broaching a long-running point of disagreement between the two that many worry remains a flashpoint for conflict.
The Chinese readout, however, struck a different tone, excluding the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances that the U.S. deemed as fundamental to its long-standing policy. "The 'One-China principle' and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques are the political foundation of Sino-U.S. relations," said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Some people in the United States intend to use Taiwan to contain China. This trend is very dangerous. It is playing with fire, and playing with fire must burn oneself," added the Chinese statement, published following the virtual meeting. That is "pretty provocative language to use in this type of setting," said Ryan Hass, who is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
During a webinar on Tuesday, Hass said Beijing is doing so "because they're frustrated" as the United States continues to "demonstrate visibly its support for Taiwan" and make "progress in internationalizing the Taiwan issue."
"There's been a real effort to raise awareness of the international stakes of Taiwan's security in a way that frustrates Beijing's efforts to isolate, intimidate Taiwan and to treat Taiwan as a feature of U.S.-China competition," he added.
The U.S. says its one-China policy is "distinct" from Beijing's one-China principle, under which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asserts sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. has never accepted the CCP's sovereignty claim over Taiwan and has refrained from taking a position on sovereignty over Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that someday will be reunified with the mainland. Taipei considers the island a sovereign state. "The U.S. and China are trying to signal the intention to each other, and it is worth noting how the U.S. and China put out policy guidance differently," said Professor Yeh-chung Lu, who chairs the Department of Diplomacy at Taiwan's National Cheng-chi University.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. considers any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the western Pacific area and of grave concern. The U.S. also maintains "the capacity of the United States" to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people who live on the island.
Lu sees the regular transits by U.S. Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait as "reassuring," as the Chinese military intensifies its warplane flights into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. The U.S. is telling China "not to change the status quo," Lu told VOA in an email, adding, "There is a similarity" with 25 years ago. He was referring to the Taiwan Strait crisis in March 1996.
At that time, the U.S. dispatched two carrier battle groups to waters surrounding Taiwan as China conducted missile tests during the run-up to Taiwan's first democratic presidential election. The Pentagon still conducts Taiwan Strait transits in accordance with international law. A State Department spokesperson told VOA that the transits "demonstrate U.S. commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."
The U.S. and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship. Next week, the U.S. and Taiwan will hold economic talks, the so-called Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD) which was launched last November, with the resilience of global supply chains among the topics.
The 1979 U.S.-China Joint Communique switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Relations between the U.S. and Taiwan have been governed by the Taiwan Relations Act that Congress passed in April 1979, under which the U.S. provides defense equipment to Taiwan.
Under the "Six Assurances" offered by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration, the U.S. did not agree to prior consultation with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan, nor did it agree to take any position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. also promised it will never pressure Taiwan to negotiate with Beijing.
The Chinese readout said Biden stated during Monday night's virtual meeting that the U.S. does not support "Taiwan independence." "On the question of Taiwan independence," a senior U.S. administration official told reporters after the meeting, "It is not something that the United States supports" but it is not a U.S. policy "that's particularly new."
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has said there is no need for Taiwan to declare independence as the Republic of China (R.O.C.) has been established since 1912.R.O.C. is Taiwan's formal name.
Tsai staked out her government's approach to the sensitive issue during her 2021 National Day Address. "Let us here renew with one another our enduring commitment to a free and democratic constitutional system, our commitment that the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China should not be subordinate to each other, our commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty, and our commitment that the future of the Republic of China (Taiwan) must be decided in accordance with the will of the Taiwanese people," Tsai pledged.
Natasha Kassam, director of the public opinion and foreign policy program of the Australia-based Lowy Institute, recently wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times that "most in Taiwan -- 87 percent, according to a recent poll -- want to maintain some form of the status quo."
Kassam added the status quo means maintaining de facto independence but avoiding retaliation from China. And she wrote the percentage of Taiwan's people who want to maintain the status quo indefinitely is growing.
An Antarctic glacier has been named in honor of the Korean port city of Incheon.
The U.K. Antarctic Place-names Committee named one of nine previously unnamed glaciers along the Getz coast in West Antarctica "Incheon Glacier," the city said Tuesday.
The committee named the glaciers after cities that have hosted major climate change conferences. Incheon hosted the 48th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference in October 2018. The others are Bali, Berlin, Geneva, Glasgow, Kyoto, Paris, Rio and Stockholm.
The move is aimed at raising awareness of the rapid melting of icecaps due to the global warming. According to a study by the Korea Polar Research Institute, the University of Leeds and Swansea University in February, 14 glaciers in West Antarctica, including the nine that have been newly named, are melting rapidly.
The pace of melting is 23.8 percent faster than in 1994. The Incheon Glacier is the slowest, melting and moving toward the sea a mere 2.9 percent faster than 25 years ago.
Satellite observation shows that a staggering 315 billion tons of ice vanished from the region from 1994 to 2018, enough to raise the sea level by some 0.9 mm.
The letter, presumed to have been sent to a childhood friend by a Japanese diplomat who was involved in the murder, was found in Japan and could add more details to the enduring puzzle.
A recently unearthed letter throws new light on the assassination of Empress Myeongseong by the Japanese in 1895.
According to the Asahi Shimbun on Tuesday, a total of eight letters written by Kumaichi Horiguchi, a consular assistant at the Japanese Consulate in Seoul at that time, have been found recently.
Horiguchi part of a gang of assassins consisting of soldiers, diplomats and civilians who raided Gyeongbok Palace in the early hours of Oct. 8, 1895 and assassinated Empress Myeongseong under the command of Goro Miura, a former army officer and the then Japanese minister to Korea.
Horiguchi was merely suspended from work for a year right after the incident.
The eight letters were sent to his childhood friend, Teisho Takeshi, between Nov. 17, 1894 and Oct. 17, 1895. They include a letter dated Oct. 9, 1895, the day after the assassination, the only one that was double-sealed and details the incident, the newspaper reported.
"I led the raid. We murdered the queen after climbing over the wall... and reaching her bedroom with difficulty," Horiguchi writes. "I was very surprised as I found it easier than I thought."
The letters were found by Steve Hasegawa (77), a Japanese American living in Nagoya, in a flea market.
Golden couple have travelled the world since marriage
By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-11-17 19:11
While many newlyweds these days like to take a honeymoon overseas, in Shanghai, there is a golden couple (a couple that have been married for 50 years) who have been travelling ever since tying the knot.
(A photo of Zong Zhenjun and Shen Xiujuan alongside Lake Taihu in 1971)
Five decades ago when Zong Zhenjun married Shen Xiujuan on October 1, 1971, the newly-weds decided on a whim to go on a trip. After the ceremony in the morning, they hopped on a train to Nanjing and then went all the way to Wuxi and Yixing, before finally returning to Shanghai.
Over the ensuing 50 years, the couple has been to 87 countries and regions. They even took a boat to Antarctica. Their travel was not suspended until the outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020.
The couple have kept the photos they have taken during their travel across the world. Zong made several travel log albums, saying that the photos represent the nice time cherished by them and happy memories of their mutual support and companionship with each other.
(Photos/xinmin.cn)
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The Florida Department of Health in Leon County Observes The Great American Smokeout
November 17, 2021
Florida Department of Health in Leon County Calls for Quit Attempts During the Great American Smokeout
Tallahassee, Fla. With the annual Great American Smokeout taking place November 18, Tobacco Free Florida in Leon County is using this observance to encourage people to make a plan to quit smoking using the free tools and services available to Floridians.
Tracing its history back more than 40 years, the American Cancer Societys Great American Smokeout marks a date when smokers are encouraged to use the date to either make a plan or to begin their quit journey.[1] This year, the American Cancer Society is highlighting tobacco-related disparities during the Great American Smokeout.
While rates of cigarette smoking have declined, some groups smoke at higher rates and suffer disproportionately from smoking-relates illnesses. The health burden of tobacco use is especially high among racial and ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, the LGBT community and those with mental health conditions.[2] Additionally, lower-income populations have less access to health care, making it more likely that they are diagnosed at later stages of diseases and conditions.[3]
Quitting smoking can add up to 10 years to life expectancy.[4] The health benefits of quitting smoking include reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke, improving lung function and lowering the chances of getting an array of different cancers.[5],[6]
Even if you just join the Smokeout for 24 hours, you will prove to yourself you have the power to quit, said Claudia Blackburn,Florida Department of Health in Leon County Health Officer. If you can stretch your personal participation in the Great American Smokeout to weeks, months, and years, youll have made an essential commitment to yourself, your family, and your community the rest of your life.
Information on the history of the Great American Smokeout, national activities to support quitting and other materials can be found at https://www.cancer.org/healthy/stay-away-from-tobacco/great-american-smokeout.html. Tobacco Free Floridas quit tips, tools and more are available by visiting www.TobaccoFreeFlorida.com or by calling 1-877-U-CAN-NOW (1-877-822-6669).
Submitted by:
Pamela Saulsby | Public Information Officer
###
About Tobacco Free Florida
The Florida Department of Healths Tobacco Free Florida campaign is a statewide cessation and prevention campaign funded by Floridas tobacco settlement fund. Since the program began in 2007, more than 254,000 Floridians have successfully quit using one of Tobacco Free Florida's free tools and services. There are now approximately 451,000 fewer adult smokers in Florida than there was 10 years ago, and the state has saved $17.7 billion in health care costs.[7] To learn more about Tobacco Free Floridas Quit Your Way services, visit www.TobaccoFreeFlorida.com or follow the campaign on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TobaccoFreeFlorida or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tobaccofreefla.
[1] "History of the Great American Smokeout." American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/healthy/stay-away-from-tobacco/great-american-smokeout/history-of-the-great-american-smokeout.html. [accessed 10 August 2020.]
[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices User Guide: Health Equity in Tobacco Prevention and Control. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2015.[Accessed 2021 September 21]
[3] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Tobacco and Socioeconomic Status [PDF56.2 KB]pdf iconexternal icon. Washington, D.C.: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2015 [Accessed 2021 September 21]
[4] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014. [accessed 10 August 2020.]
[5] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). (2014). Let's Make the Next Generation Tobacco-Free: Your Guide to the 50th Anniversary Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health (Consumer Booklet). Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. [accessed 10 August 2020.]
[6] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A Report of the Surgeon General. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010 [accessed 2020 August 10].
[7]Mann, Nathan M, Nonnemaker, James M., Thompson, Jesse. "Smoking-Attributable Health Care Costs in Florida and Potential Health Care Cost Savings Associated with Reductions in Adult Smoking Prevalence." 2016.
Al-Jazeeras Khartoum bureau chief, Sudanese Al-Moussalami al-Kabbachi, was released on Tuesday, the Qatari channel announced, while hundreds of arrests have taken place since the October 25 coup in this East African country.
Arrested on Sunday at his home, Mr. Kabbachi had been transferred to prison even though the prosecutors office had ordered his release, according to Al-Jazeera, before finally being released on Tuesday.
The army has not yet announced the reason for his detention, the satellite TV station said, while the editor of the armys daily newspaper accused him on Tuesday of publishing false information and old videos and inviting hostile personalities to sow discord.
Khartoum had already closed the office of Al Jazeera and withdrawn the accreditation of its journalists in 2019, the year in which the army deposed the dictator Omar al-Bashir under the pressure of a popular revolt.
The new government installed by General Abdelfattah al-Burhane regularly ignores court decisions.
Prior to Mr. Kabbachis arrest, many journalists from the official media had been banned from returning to their posts. Private radio stations transmitters were also seized.
Sudan ranks 159th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Saudi Arabia will initiate discussions with China for the development of the hydrogen as the Gulf country envisagesto reach net zero by 2060.
The cabinet, Arab New notes citing state-run news agency SPA, has delegated the Kingdoms Energy minister to discuss and sign a potential Memorandum of Understanding in the field of hydrogen energy with China.
It is unclear when the discussion will begin but the move is line with the kingdoms plans to reduce to reach net zero by 2060, without diminishing its position as the worlds leading oil producer.
Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the facto leader, has pledged to $187 billion in climate action this decade, Arab News notes.
Saudi Arabia is joining the race of hydrogen development in the region for energy transition. Early this month, the UAE announced it aims to capture 25 percent of the global hydrogen fuel market by 2030.
The Arab country also indicated that it was implementing more than seven ambitious hydrogen projects, targeting main export markets including Japan, South Korea, Germany and India, in addition to other markets in Europe and East Asia.
Hydrogen is derived through water electrolysis, which uses electricity to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, according to experts.
Green hydrogen is also produced using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind to drive the chemical reaction, without emitting carbon byproducts.
According to a press release published by the government of the UK on November 16, 2021, an Intergovernmental Framework Agreement was signed in London. This document continues to progress on joint projects to develop the capabilities of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as agreed in June when the UK, Ukraine, and industry signed a Memorandum of Implementation to collaborate to boost Ukraines naval capabilities.
Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link
Sandown class minehunter HMS Blyth (Picture source: Royal Navy of Scotland)
The agreement concerns two Sandown-class minehunters, eight Barzan-class fast attack craft, and a frigate.
The Sandown class is a class of fifteen minehunters built primarily for the Royal Navy by Vosper Thornycroft. The Sandown class also serves with the Royal Saudi Navy and the Estonian Navy.
The first vessel was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 9 June 1989 and all the British ships are named after coastal towns and cities. They have a secondary role as offshore patrol vessels.
The Sandown Class is equipped with two underwater PAP 104 mk5 remote-controlled mine-disposal vehicles, supplied by Societe ECA. The vehicle is controlled via a 2,000 m fiber-optic cable. A lighting system, low light level black and white camera, and a color camera are fitted.
The vehicle is also fitted with high-resolution sonar. The sensor data is transmitted back to the operations control center on the ship.
The Barzan class is a class of 4 British-designed fast attack missile boats for the Qatari Emiri Navy, also known as Super Vita.
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When Royce Mann told his political science class he was running for office, some werent sure he was serious. With the citywide race now behind him, Mann plans to continue his efforts to engage and energize young voters. Photo courtesy of Mann.
Royce Mann doesnt like to sit still. Days after he came up short in securing a spot in the runoff for a seat on the Atlanta Board of Education and after antibiotics conquered a nasty sore throat the Emory University sophomore was out canvassing for two Atlanta City Council candidates vying for wins in their runoffs later this month.
He and his supporters are also taking steps toward forming a nonprofit to focus on reversing the trend of abysmal youth voter turnout at local elections. Recruiting the most engaged and passionate high school and college-aged people to run for office, such as school boards, would also be a priority for the new group.
We want to energize those new voters around candidates their own age, Mann says.
Were the future, but we are also the present, he continues. And if we want to create the best future for our generation and generations to come then we have to have young folks at the table.
Mann, an Atlanta native and Atlanta Public Schools graduate, turned 20 five days before Election Day on Nov. 2. He took the semester off from Emory to focus on his campaign but is resuming classes in the spring.
Talking to voters and participating in forums were energizing and educational, Mann says. The experience continues an already impressive journey of social and political activism.
In 2016, as Black Lives Matters protesters marched in cities across the country, a video of Mann performing his slam poem White Boy Privilege went viral. He was 14, an eighth grader at The Paideia School, and was inspired to write the piece after taking a course called Class, Race and Gender.
Dear everyone who isnt a middle or upper-class white boy, Im sorry, he says in the piece. I have started life on the top of the ladder while you were born on the first rung.
The poem led to invitations to speak at conferences and serve on panels across the country, including an invitation to the Obama Foundation Summit.
He met numerous accomplished organizers and political leaders who gave him confidence in his voice to spur change. He realized he and other young people could have an impact on their communities and the world.
The biggest lie that adults have been telling us isn't about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, Mann says. It's that we have to wait to have political power and to really make change.
If I could have any sort of impact with my words, then the possibilities were endless if I would put my actions behind them.
Advocating for change
Mann soon told his family he was done with private school. He wanted to finish his high school years at Grady High School.
He was very specific about why he wanted to do so it was about diversity, says his mother, Sheri Mann Stewart.
But Mann wasnt prepared for the segregation he saw when he entered the Midtown school. Despite the schools diversity, it was as if there were two different schools under one roof, most visible in the cafeteria during lunchtime, he says.
I simultaneously fell in love with APS and fell desperately into this sense of feeling a responsibility to try and fix the things I saw, Mann says.
He became involved in student government, started a chapter of Amnesty International and was appointed by the principal to be the student member of the local school governance panel.
He helped lead the student movement to successfully rename Grady High School to what is now Midtown High School. He was a lead organizer of the Atlanta March for Our Lives rally.
Mann interned with the Board of Education and was appointed to the school districts LGBTQ+ task force. He became heavily invested in finding a way to get APS student representation on the Board of Education and was also part of Georgias high-profile U.S. Senate races as co-founder of Students for Ossoff and Warnock.
A model of whats possible
Mann was not sure what college he wanted to attend and had offers from other universities across the country. He chose to stay in his hometown and go to Emory to study political science after being awarded the universitys prestigious Woodruff Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship.
The bonus as an Emory student, he knew he would run for a seat on the Atlanta Board of Education on a platform of ending segregation, ensuring equity for all students and prioritizing culturally relevant curriculum.
Mann garnered nearly 10,000 votes in the election. He finished fourth out of a field of five for the open, citywide seat. Turnout was disappointing, he acknowledges. But he says many young people reached out to him to tell him they were inspired by his campaign.
He hasnt ruled out a future run for public office but is not sure politics is the direction he wants to take after he graduates from Emory. The values of community service and civic engagement are traits his parents have instilled in him, no matter what career path he may pursue, he explains.
I'm definitely interested in the advocacy side of things and doing work with different nonprofit groups, he says.
Public education is likely to remain a passion and teaching is a possibility. Its in public schools where he sees the best opportunities to address societys inequities.
Education is the great equalizer, he says, quoting Horace Mann (no relation), the politician and education reformer who advocated for American public education in the 1800s.
And it can be, but when we have students coming into the same school from really diverse parts of the city and then we continue to uphold these inequities by segregating students across racial and economic lines, its clearly not being the great equalizer.
Michael Leo Owens, associate professor of political science, taught Mann in his Political Science 367 Urban Politics course. The students election loss was not surprising, Owens says, because voters tend to be biased against young people and running a citywide campaign is difficult for even the most experienced politicians.
But Manns knowledge of and involvement in local politics is a rarity among undergraduates. When Mann announced over Zoom during class this spring that he was running for school board, Owens says he and the other students were unsure at first if he was serious.
But, yes, he was for real, Owens says. Most undergraduates don't pay any attention to local politics. So to have a young adult make it very plain that they're serious about running for local office makes them an outlier.
Edmund Goode is Manns primary academic advisor as part of the Emory College Woodruff Scholars Program.
The fact that he chose Emory is actually important because I think Atlanta really matters to him, Goode says. It is a theme that just sort of threads its way through everything he does.
He knows Mann is disappointed he didnt win the election, but as an educator, Goode believes Manns willingness to put himself out there will contribute to his success and will impress upon his peers that they can also become involved to make change.
The courageousness of what he did, the boldness, this is what we saw in Royce, Goode says. He is a model of what's possible. He is part of this programs legacy of creating a better community.
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The right educator, offering the right guidance at the right time, can be a transformative figure in the lives of college students, and Jennifer Robinson has committed herself to being that type of difference-maker at Auburn University.
The Alumni professor from the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts is adored by her students, whom she provides with knowledge through top-flight instruction, experience-driven advice from a caring heart and the foundation for successful careers after graduation. For her commitment to her students, her dedication to life-changing research and service to military veterans, Robinson has been selected to receive the Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Gerald and the late Emily Leischuck, 1964 graduates and retired Auburn University administrators, created the Endowed Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching in 2005 to recognize two full-time, tenured faculty members who have demonstrated effective and innovative teaching methods, along with a continuing commitment to student success through advising and mentoring. Robinson was selected for this years distinction and a $10,000 prize along with Paul Holley, professor and director of the Center for Construction Innovation and Collaboration in the College of Architecture, Design and Constructions McWhorter School of Building Science.
The special honor has been motivational for Robinson, not only personally, but to urge other professors to put themselves out there for similar distinctions.
I think its an incredibly special honor when your students feel that strongly and highly of your investment in them, said Robinson, an Auburn professor since 2012. Its also nice to get recognition as a faculty member. I hope that some day Ill be able to provide that same kind of recognition or a similar mechanism for faculty, because I think its really important. Im so grateful to the Leischucks for providing such a distinguished award.
You feel a sense of responsibility to usher forward the same mission that got you where you are and to also just encourage other faculty who are doing amazing things to apply for Auburns faculty awards. I do feel like there is a responsibility that comes with this type of recognition to continue teaching at the highest level and try to be both inspirational and motivational. I think in the last year, weve really been tested to keep the classroom, which can sometimes be a computer screen, engaging.
Robinsonwho earned masters and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology from Case Western Reserve University in Clevelandteaches both undergraduate and graduate students. Her classes range from cognitive neuroscience and introduction to psychology to research methods in psychology, and she is heavily involved with the Auburn University MRI Research Center.
An inherent passion for the work, as well as a love for the students, is what drives Robinson.
Auburn is just such a special place, said Robinson, who holds appointments in the School of Kinesiology and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. I love what I do, so, that is very helpful. I think when you are doing things that you love, it intertwines with your regular life. So, Im sure my work-life balance is a little off, but I also find a lot of joy in what Im doing, so, its soul-filling.
It really is a pleasure, and honestly, my students are phenomenal. My graduate students make life a lot easier on me, and they pick up that it takes a village to accomplish anything. They are kind, brilliant and hard-working team players, and Ive found that when you surround yourself with really great people, great things happen.
Mentoring as a methodology
Robinson remembers what its like to be a college student, including one who may not be sure about where their path may lead.
I thought for sure I knew what I wanted to do until I was a year away from graduating and found something else I was way more interested in, she said. I was like, Oh, shoot, now what?
Helping her students not only learn the material, but also have the light bulb moment is a thrill for Robinson.
I think thats the beauty of this career, that you get to see those moments regularly, and not many people have a career where you get that constant reinforcement, said Robinson, the 2017 Psi Chi International Honor Society Teacher of the Year. Theres nothing really like it to see that light bulb go off or even see them go off into a field because they found inspiration in your class. Helping them find their passion is pretty special.
Robinson is no stranger to lofty honors, winning the 2020 College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award and the 2019 Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award. She takes her role as a mentor seriously and thinks about the emotions of students parents who may be trepidatious about their children leaving the nest for college life.
I have these young adults who are at such an awesome time in their life, and theyre very vulnerable and malleable, and theyre trying to figure things out, said Robinson, who serves on the Auburn Graduation Committee, the College of Liberal Arts Budget Committee and the Auburn Institutional Review Board. Its such an honor to be a part of that journey, and to get to share that time with them.
Then I think from the parent side, the parents are letting go of their kids for the first time into a new environment where theyre trying to figure out life. We have the honor of taking that position to a degree and being mentors and trying to help them navigate that next step which sets the foundation for the rest of their life. To me, that is such a tremendous honor.
Robinson has spearheaded the Auburn University Brain Camp, or AUBC, for high school students since 2013 and provides opportunities for students to learn about functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, and psychophysiology as part of their curriculum. She promotes an engaging and welcoming atmosphere in class and the laboratory, committing herself to four key qualities of emphasiscommitment, enthusiasm, respect and scholarship.
Her students know Robinson cares about them and has their best interests at heart.
In the classroom, Dr. Robinson epitomizes what is expected of educators at the collegiate level, wrote Kate Conkey, an Auburn doctoral candidate and active-duty colonel in the U.S. Army who was a student of Robinsons, in a recommendation letter. Intelligent, informed and personable, Dr. Robinson connects easily with students and creates a classroom where students are engaged and enjoy learning. Her passion for education and dedication to student development is an undeniable asset to Auburn University.
Cutting-edge research changing lives
Robinson runs the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, or CAN Lab, participates in the Human Brain Mapping Mentor Program and directs the Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, or CaBS, doctoral program. She uses those endeavors to further research about the brain, examining how different regions are interconnected and relating her findings to topics like post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Robinsons research uses fMRI and psychophysiological techniques to investigate the interplay of emotions and cognitive thought, and her lab is one of the only labs in the world to combine these technologies.
I dont know of any university Ive been at that makes imaging and scanners so accessible to students, said Robinson, who has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to two books. Auburn is very unique in that the Auburn University MRI Research Center, housed in the [Ginn] College of Engineering under the direction of Tom Denney, is so gracious and generous about allowing us to use the scanner for teaching, and obviously, for research. Having the opportunity to show students the magnificence of their own brain is a powerful teaching and learning tool.
To be able to say, Every thought that youve had, every memory, every personality trait is housed in this small organ in your head. And we can take a picture of that in a couple of minutes, and we can see how it works.
Robinson, who serves as associate editor of Frontiers Brain Imaging Methods journal and has been a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, has long been fascinated by the brain.
Everything comes from that command center, said Robinson, who won the 2016 Presidents Outstanding Collaborative Units Award for a neuroscience partnership with seven other professors. I think giving students an appreciation for just how important that is and how unique that organ is compared to all the others is important. Its fascinating how impressive our brains are.
Ive always been interested in the mind-body connection, and just how much of our mental health can affect our physical health. So, I was always interested in medicine and making peoples lives better. I have a servants heart, and helping others brings me a lot of joy.
Through her research, Robinson hopes to advance science and learn more about the brain.
We dont know enough about the brain, so I think inspiring the future generations of neuroscientists and getting folks interested in the brain is crucial, said Robinson, who has been awarded more than $300,000 in grants the last five years. We dont have a cure for almost all neurological or psychiatric conditions. We have treatments that can slow progression, but we really dont have cures. So, Im hoping that this new generation will be able to usher in a new age of medicine.
A service to those who serve
Her servants heart has carried over into the military realm. Robinson works routinely with the Veterans Resource Center, from obtaining grants to helping veterans deal with PTSD.
Theres always been a very special place in my heart for folks who have fought for our country and given me opportunities that most dont get, said Robinson, the 2019 Veterans Advocate Award recipient from the Auburn Student Veterans Association. Unfortunately, women dont get opportunities to go and get Ph.D.s everywhere in the world. I think sometimes we forget just how privileged we are to live in the United States, and I dont think we have done a terribly awesome job of taking care of veterans when they come back home from war.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is just tough to deal with in general because its so complex and so different. I never wore a uniform, but I feel like this is the way I can give back in that capacity, to try and help on the back end of things. I guess the goal of most research is to learn so you can apply it to practical things to make peoples lives better.
An environment in which to thrive
Robinson is invigorated by being part of a team of elite faculty in the Department of Psychological Sciences.
Psychological Sciences has some pretty phenomenal educators who balance everything really, really well, she said. I think being surrounded by faculty who have figured out how to be successful educators and researchers who are willing to mentor junior colleagues creates a culture of excellence.
An Auburn resident for nearly a decade, the Ohio native has a special place in her heart for the Plains.
Its been a dream come true and so fun, Robinson said. Its not just that Im blessed to be in a career that I love, but the Auburn community is extraordinary.
Its a vibrant community, really. I love my hometown of Lakewood, Ohio. It set the bar very high, but Auburn does a really good job of making me feel at home. I love it here.
MoU aimed at exploring long-term business opportunities and sharing knowledge
The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at exploring long-term business opportunities and exchanging information, with S & Royal Group Mongolia, a Mongolian-based investment firm involved in industries such as energy, infrastructure, foreign trade and construction.
Under the MoU, both organisations will establish a long-term business relationship which includes exchanging expert knowledge, opinions and ideas on potential business prospects, as well as explore the possibility of importing and exporting goods between UAE and Mongolia.
S & Royal Group will also explore becoming a permanent member of DGCX and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC).
Les Male, CEO of DGCX, said: Mongolia is a land that is rich in natural resources and potentially lucrative opportunities, and this MoU with S & Royal Group Mongolia - a leading investment of the country - is aligned with our goal of fostering greater cross-border collaboration and enhancing our knowledge base. The potential benefits of this agreement are vast, and we see this MoU as merely the first step in a long and beneficial relationship.
Serjbudee Dolgorsuren, president of S & Royal Group Mongolia, said: We are delighted to partner with the DGCX. Mongolia and the UAE have a rich, historical relationship that dates back a quarter of a century. Our companys ambition is to become a gateway to the Mongolian market as well as support the country as a major hub for the whole Central Asia region. We look forward to a fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation with the DGCX.
The MoU agreement comes after the UAE and Mongolia recently celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations, as well as the announcement that Mongolia plans to open an embassy in Abu Dhabi.Established in 2004, S & Royal Group currently owns and manages a portfolio of four sister companies including Yokohoma Tire Mongolia, Gas Service Corporation of Mongolia, Royal Electric Corporation, and Royal Infrastructure Development which are all collectively aimed at implementing long-term strategic projects that will make a significant contribution to Mongolian economic development.
business@khaleejtimes.com
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The 11-year-old Shanghai Phil gelding Champagne Phil fired off a pocket ride to secure a trip to the winners circle in the $10,000 Horses & Geldings Preferred 3 Pace on Tuesday (Nov. 16) at The Raceway at Western Fair District.
Driver Natasha Day settled the Kenneth Oliver trainee behind pacesetter JKNR Liketell, who set an uncontested clip of :28.2, :58.2 and 1:27. Jaydens Place attempted a first-over bid out of fourth passing the half, but stalled up the backside with Homey Joe in tow from second over.
JKNR Liketell cruised around the final turn while Champagne Phil continued to loom on his back. And once around the corner, Champagne Phil charged after JKNR Liketell and powered through to a half-length victory over the favourite in 1:56. Homey Joe rallied for third, another four lengths behind, while Mo Bettor took fourth.
Owned by ICR Racing, Champagne Phil won his sixth race from 21 starts this season and his 49th from 246 overall, pushing his earnings to $632,651. He paid $10.70 to win.
To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Tuesday Results - Western Fair Raceway.
Trotting freshmen competed in the second leg of their Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund series on Tuesday (Nov. 16) at Dover Downs, with the five $20,000 preliminary events two for fillies, three for colts and geldings establishing the finalists for the $100,000 dashes next Tuesday (Nov. 23).
Our Last Penny completed a sweep of her preliminary events with a 2:02.3 score in the first filly division over Just Pump It and Giant Arbitration. Trainer-driver Rod Allen owns and bred the daughter of CR Commando and CR Penny Lane.
Shes All Woman captured the second split in a lifetime-best 2:00. Jared Moyer steered Anders Bluestone-Wark Woman filly for trainer John Wagner and owner-breeder Pamela Wagner. Miss Timber Wolf finished second and Xactly What I Want took third via disqualification.
Shes All Woman winning her DSBF preliminary Shes All Woman winning her DSBF preliminary
Among the trotting males, Rivers took top honours with a 1:57.4 score in the first division in line to Corey Callahan. The son of Anders Bluestone and Stargazer Lily, trained by Nicholas Callahan for Stuart Chambers Racing, Divine Horse Racing, Cinbrew Enterprises and BCJM Inc., defeated LGs Reed O Wen and Tua. The Callahan and ownership team came back in another division to win with Wolfpack Russ, a Winbak Farm-bred son of Glidemaster and Emilys Ego who defeated JAS Bluestone and Canoe Trip to take a mark of 2:00.1 in the final colt and gelding division.
Wolfpack Russ winning his DSBF preliminary Wolfpack Russ winning his DSBF preliminary
Navy Blue took a lifetime record in the second colt and gelding division, defeating Big Daddy D and Brief Legacy in 1:58.4. Trainer-driver Art Stafford Jr. co-owns the son of Anders Bluestone and Overnight Hit with Wyatt Starkey.
Northern Express upset the heavy favourite Morairtime in Tuesday's $25,000 Open Handicap Trot.
Northern Express and driver Russell Foster cut fractions of :27.4, :58, and 1:26.4. Morairtime, the 1-5 publics choice in the wagering, and driver Jack Parker Jr. pulled from the pocket to challenge Northern Express nearing the three-quarter pole. The two trotters dueled gamely in the stretch, however, Northern Express prevailed to win by a half-length in 1:54.1 and paid $9.60 for the win. Morairtime finished second and Great Unknown finished third.
Northern Express (Muscle Massive) is owned and trained by Arty Foster Jr.
The $35,000 Progress Pace elimination highlights the Wednesday card. Ten three-year-old colt and gelding pacers go postward. The top eight in the official order of finish will qualify for the $310,000 final on November 24. Two-year-old pacing fillies will also contest their second leg of the DSBF series on Wednesdays program. Post time is 4:30 p.m. (EST).
(DSBF & Dover Downs)
By Trend
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) stands ready to help Azerbaijan boost investment in the green economy, Kamola Makhmudova, EBRD head in Azerbaijan, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"The government of Azerbaijan has made a strategic decision to develop its renewable energy sector. To that end, it has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 35 per cent and to producing 30 per cent of its total electricity generation from renewables by 2030, in line with the countrys commitments under the Paris Agreement.
In order to support these objectives, the EBRD stands ready to help Azerbaijan boost investment in the green economy, as we see huge potential for the renewable energy sector and aim to make a real impact in this area," she said.
Makhmudova noted that indeed, one of the EBRDs key priorities in its 2019-24 country strategy for Azerbaijan is to support a green economic transition.
"As part of this strategy, the EBRD is prominently supporting the energy sector of Azerbaijan through a number of policy engagements, following a letter of intent signed with the Ministry of Energy in September 2017.
The letter of intent focused on ways to foster the development of renewable energy and support market liberalisation through the establishment of an independent energy regulatory agency," said the EBRD country head.
By Trend
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) held a foreign currency auction with the participation of the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) on November 16, Trend reports via the CBA.
According to the CBA, the demand of local banks for the foreign currency amounted to $90.1 million and was fully met.
At the end of the auction, the weighted average rate of the manat to the US dollar amounted to 1.7 AZN/USD.
The first foreign exchange auction for a long time was held with the participation of SOFAZ on March 10, 2020, during which Azerbaijani banks purchased $323.2 million.
The CBA began to conduct currency auctions through a one-way sale of currency in a competitive environment from mid-January 2017.
A decision was made in March 2020 to hold extraordinary currency auctions due to the increased demand of the population for foreign currency amid the failure of the OPEC + deal, which led to a sharp drop in oil prices.
By Trend
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan are holding a joint commission for road transport on 15 and 16 November 2021 in Baku.
Javad Hedayati, the head of the Road Maintenance and Transport Organization (RMTO) in Iran, is heading Iran's delegation to Baku to discuss the facilitation of road traffics and removing barriers against bilateral trade between the two countries.
Iran and Azerbaijan have 4 formal border crossings along a 750 km-long border that makes it a unique opportunity for mutual cooperation, added Hedayati.
North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) is an important common ground for regional cooperation. In this sense, Iran is seeking ways for further road traffics to link the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea, he stated.
Anar Rzayev, the head of the State Road Transport Service of Azerbaijan Republic, also emphasized transport collaborations between the two countries and pointed to the long-lasting relationships and numerous commonalities that ease future cooperation.
The commercial transactions between Iran and Azerbaijan had been increasing during the last 10 months, but the officials are dissatisfied with the $340 million volume of trade as they believe it should be further expanded.
By Trend
Cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan in the field of the agro-industrial complex is progressively developing in all major areas, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia told Trend on October 19.
According to the ministry, Azerbaijan is the most important strategic partner of Russia and is one of the largest buyers of domestic agricultural products.
The ministry noted that the main platform for discussing topical issues of interaction in this area is the Russian-Azerbaijani working group on cooperation in the field of agriculture.
"At present, our ministry is considering the issue of sending a representative of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture to Azerbaijan in order to intensify bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector," the ministry said.
By Trend
The Board Chairman of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmens Association of Turkey (MUSIAD) Mahmut Asmali and the head of the department for diplomatic relations of the association, Osman Nuri Onugoren, shared their impressions from the 25th International Business Forum (IBF), recently held in Baku, within Trend's video project "Relevant with Sahil Karimli".
The Turkish guests also talked about the great interest that businessmen from various countries show to Azerbaijan, the desire of hundreds of businessmen to invest in Azerbaijan, the strengthening of mutual trade ties, and future goals.
The forum was attended by 550 businessmen from 30 countries. For the first time, the event in Azerbaijan brought together such a number of business representatives.
It was organized by the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan (SMBDA) and MUSIAD with the aim of developing bilateral trade and economic relations between countries, creating models of sustainable cooperation, strengthening ties in the field of investment and business. The IBF Forum, founded in 1995 by MUSIAD and held once a year, organizes panel discussions, presentations, bilateral meetings and other events.
Trend News Agency, Day.Az and the TURKIC.World media projects were the official media partners of the IBF.
By Trend
Azerbaijans Alat Free Economic Zone (FEZ) will be able to receive the first investors and businessmen, being ready to organize their activities there, by the middle of 2022, the board chairman of the authorized structure of the Alat FEZ Valeh Alasgarov said, Trend reports on Nov. 17.
Alasgarov made the remark during a business mission of Russian companies for the development of the "Smart City" urban infrastructure in Baku.
"At the next stage, its planned to expand the territory of the Alat FEZ and create new opportunities for businessmen," he noted.
Speaking about the conditions created in the free economic zone, the board chairman said that there are no more attractive conditions for doing business anywhere in the world.
"A distinctive feature of the Alat FEZ is that there businessmen are exempted from all types of payments on permanent basis. Besides, our legal framework envisages the exclusion of all potential risks for the businessmen. The framework prevails being the main basis for doing business in the FEZ," he added.
Alasgarov also stressed that government agencies dont interfere with the activities of the FEZ, either request any information about the companies.
"All business procedures, issuance of licenses, registration of companies, and others are carried out exclusively on the territory of the Alat FEZ by its authorities. We also exempt businessmen from taxes and payments on imported and exported goods," concluded the official.
By Azernews
By Laman Ismayilova
Over 400 dancers from Agjabadi, Ganja, Shaki, Baku and Aghdam have gathered at Karabakh Open Dance Cup 2021 to show their best in choreography art.
The final night was held in Aghdam's Guzanli village. The dancers performed in various dance types, including classical, modern, acrobatic, folk, Indian dance and stylization of folklore (author's dance).
The event was co-organized by the Azerbaijan Dance Association and the Youth Union.
Speaking about the dance cup, president of the Azerbaijan Dance Association Aziz Azizov noted that there was particular tension during the competition in formation dance category due to large teams.
"To make a decision on this nomination, the judges had to take a technical break. The cup system does not imply the latter, third and other places. After a long discussion, the decision was made in favor of the Alov team (Baku) led by Emil Panakhov. However, Khamsa dance team (Ganja) was named best among ensembles (from 12 to 24 dancers)," said Azizov.
The list of Karabakh Open Dance Cup 2021 winners included dance ensembles Alov, Ayan, Buta, Cimbeybi (Baku), Khamsa (Ganja), Turaj? (Agdam).
In conclusion, he congratulated all professionals who focuses on development of the country's young talents in the region and those who contributes to the renovation of dance art in Azerbaijan.
Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az
By Trend
The Azerbaijani draft state budget for 2022 was discussed in the first reading of the plenary session of the Azerbaijani parliament on November 16, Trend reports.
Following the discussions, the document was put to a vote and adopted in the first reading.
The discussions of the draft state budget will continue in the parliament on Nov. 17.
The revenues of the Azerbaijani state budget next year, according to the official forecasts, will reach about 26.8 billion manat ($15.8 billion), increase of 5.4 percent compared to 2021.
At the same time, state budget expenditures are planned to reach 29.9 billion manat ($17.6 billion) next year, which is by 4.7 percent more than this year.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijan marks National Revival Day on November 17.
Starting from early 1988 Armenia waged its open aggression against Azerbaijan. The anti-Azerbaijan rhetoric and activities gained momentum across Armenia and in Azerbaijans Khankandi city mostly populated by Armenians.
As a result of Moscow's indifference to these events, Armenians began widespread deportations of Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands in Armenia under the instruction of its government.
Over 200,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were forced to leave their native lands and several thousand of them were subjected to mass slaughter by Armenians.
The Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev did not adequately react to the Armenian vandalism against innocent Azerbaijanis.
In February 1988, Armenians living in Azerbaijan's historical Karabakh region staged revolts and even proposed merging the region to Armenia.
In response to the processes in Armenia and Karabakh, the Azerbaijanis expressed their protest to the government, which failed to take effective measures against Armenian aggression.
Initially, the slogans, photographs, and banners carried by Azerbaijani civilians at the period demonstrated their faith in Moscow and local authorities.
People from all around the republic came to Baku and congregated on Azadlig Square (former Lenin Square at the time), conducted rallies, and clearly showed their dissatisfaction after receiving no real response from Moscow and the local Soviet administration.
On November 17, 1988, Azerbaijani citizens began an infinite mass demonstration on Azadlig Square against the USSR's anti-Azerbaijani policy. It was a genuine national liberation struggle.
On 22 November, a curfew was imposed in Baku, and contingents of Soviet army divisions, together with Internal Troops and the Militia, began to be deployed to the city, with the local units activated to prevent protest actions. On December 3, protesters were dispersed by force and approximately 400 people were arrested.
In Azerbaijan, these events are seen as the beginning of the national liberation movement and the main factor in gaining the country's independence.
As a result, Azerbaijan became an independent state in 1991 just three years after the historic demonstrations.
Since 1992, November 17 has been marked as National Revival Day in Azerbaijan.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijani and German military legal experts have discussed military legislation at a meeting in Baku, the Defence Ministry reported on November 15.
The meeting was held under the annual military cooperation plan signed between the Azerbaijani and German defence ministries, the report added.
As a part of the meeting dedicated to military law, the experts exchanged views on matters such as mutual exchange of experience in the military legislation sphere, as well as issues of administrative execution and carrying out the line of duty investigation.
The officials also focused on studying advanced practices for the activities of military lawyers and discussed other aspects.
Germany recognized Azerbaijans independence on January 12, 1992, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on February 20, 1992. Azerbaijan opened its first embassy in Western Europe, in Germany on September 2, 1992.
The countries have signed various agreements that cover different spheres of bilateral relations. The defence ministries of the two countries signed a document on military cooperation on March 9, 2006.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
The Military Prosecutors Office has launched criminal proceedings into the case of mine attack against Amys Maj-Gen Hikmat Hasanov, the Prosecutor-Generals Office reported on November 16.
The case is under investigation under Azerbaijani Criminal Code Articles 29, 120.2.7 (attempted murder of two or more persons) and 29, 120.2.12 (attempted murder with national, racial, religious hatred or hostility), the report added.
It should be noted that Hasanov was injured in an armored vehicle as a result of the mine explosion during his visit to liberated Aghdam region on November 20, 2020.
Armenia deliberately and constantly laid mines on the Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security and cooperation.
Some 160 Azerbaijanis have been killed or injured in the explosion of mines planted by Armenians in Azerbaijans formerly occupied regions since the end of the war in autumn 2020 that saw Azerbaijan liberate most of its territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
On June 12, Azerbaijan handed over 15 Armenian prisoners in exchange for a map detailing the location of 97,000 mines in formerly-occupied Aghdam.
On July 3, Armenia submitted to Azerbaijan maps of about 92,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines planted during the occupation of Fuzuli and Zangilan regions.
In his interview to CNN Turk channel on August 14, President Ilham Aliyev said that the accuracy of the maps provided by Armenia at the latest stage is only 25 percent.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered peace agreement on November 10, 2020, to end 44 days of fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
Two Armenian citizens will stand trial in Azerbaijans Ganja city on terrorism charges, Trend reported on November 17.
The preliminary investigation into the criminal case of terror suspects Sargsyan Ishkhan Ashot and Rafaelyan Vladimir Otari has been completed, the report added.
According to the report, the criminal case materials were submitted for consideration to the Ganja Grave Crimes Court.
Earlier, both Armenian citizens were reported to be charged under Article 214.2.3 (terrorism committed with the use of firearms and objects used as weapons) of Azerbaijans Criminal Code.
Prime Minister Ali Asadov earlier said that Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged 122 servicemen and detainees with the participation of Russian peacekeepers from December 2020.
Asadov underlined that Azerbaijan fully complies with the paragraphs of the trilateral ceasefire deal signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan in November 2020, which also envisaged the transfer of detained servicemen.
"With the participation of Russian peacekeepers, a total of 122 servicemen and detainees have been returned since December 22, 2020. Of these, 105 returned to Armenia and 17 to Azerbaijan," the prime minister said.
Referring to the 62 Armenian servicemen who were detained on the Azerbaijani territory after the signing of a trilateral statement, Asadov stressed that "according to all international laws they are not considered prisoners of war.
"They were detained after the war, entered our territory with a subversive purpose, and the status as prisoners of war does not apply to them. However, Azerbaijan returned 29 of them to the Armenian side. Thirty-three of this group were convicted by our courts and will be held responsible," he added.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
The Military Prosecutors Office has launched criminal proceedings against the latest Armenian provocations on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, the Prosecutor Generals Office reported on November 17.
The criminal proceedings were initiated under Azerbaijani Criminal Code Articles 120.2.12 (murder motivated by national, racial, religious hatred or enmity) and 29, 120.2.12 (attempted murder motivated by national, racial, religious hatred or enmity), the report added.
The prosecutor's office of the Republic of Azerbaijan carries out the necessary documentation and collects evidence in order to ensure that servicemen of the Armenian armed forces who have committed various crimes are brought to justice and punished in accordance with international law, the Prosecutor-General's Office said.
It added that on November 16, under their military and political leadership's instructions, the Armenian armed forces shelled the Azerbaijani army positions in Kalbajar and Lachin regions in violation of the terms of the trilateral declaration signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan on November 10, 2020, as well as fundamental norms and principles of international law.
As a result of measures taken by the Azerbaijani armed forces, the provocation committed by Armenia on the state border was prevented.
However, seven Azerbaijani servicemen - Umud Niftaliyev, Orkhan Jabbarov, Natig Aliyev, Elchin Aghayev, Emin Alizade, Elchin Aliyev and Murad Khalilov were killed and 10 were wounded.
On November 17, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry stressed that the Armenian military-political leadership bears the entire responsibility for the tension and confrontation that arose on the state border of the two countries.
By Trend
The Council of Europe expresses concern over the incidents on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Trend reports on Nov. 17 referring to the statement of Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pej?inovi? Buri?.
I am concerned about reports of on-going incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan that have already cost human lives, Buri? said. News of a ceasefire is welcome and I call on both sides to maintain it.
When joining our organization more than twenty years ago, both Armenia and Azerbaijan committed themselves to solving conflict by peaceful means, Secretary General added. This commitment remains unchanged and must be strictly respected.
We stand ready to facilitate dialogue between these two member states, with a view to building confidence and promoting reconciliation, Buri? said.
Seven servicemen of the Azerbaijani army were killed and 10 were wounded as a result of the military provocation committed by Armenia on November 16 on the state border with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on measures to improve the material and technical supply of the housing and communal services of the city of Baku on November 17.
According to the decree, in order to provide communal equipment for the housing and communal services of the Executive Power of Baku city, 18.8 million manat ($11 million) were allocated from the reserve fund of the President of Azerbaijan envisioned in the state budget for 2021 to the Executive Power of Baku.
The Finance Ministry was instructed to provide funding in the amount specified in this decree, and the Cabinet of Ministers - to resolve issues arising from it.
By Azernews
By Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijani Security Council Secretary Ramil Usubov has attended a meeting of secretaries of the CIS countries' security councils held in Moscow, Trend reported on November 17.
The participants discussed national, regional and international security issues at the meeting, the report added.
Addressing the event, Russian Security Council Chairman Nikolai Patrushev urged the CIS countries to develop new biological safety rules amid the emergence of new infections and the development of genetic engineering.
Furthermore, problems such as biological threats, challenges in the information sphere, issues related to artificial intelligence, and its role in ensuring national security were discussed during the meeting.
The video conference meeting of the heads of the Security Councils of the CIS countries was held in 2020.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was founded in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Meetings are held periodically on a rotating basis at the CIS countries capitals. An informal summit was held in Sochi, Russia in July 2001. Forums include the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Prime Ministers, and the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The CIS performs its activities on the basis of the Charter, adopted by the Council of Heads of States on 22 January 1993, which stipulates the goals and principles of the Commonwealth, and the rights and obligations of the countries.
The Charter states that the Commonwealth was formed on the basis of sovereign equality of all its members and that the Member States were independent and equal subjects under international law. The Charter also states that the CIS serves the development and strengthening of friendship, inter-ethnic accord, trust, mutual understanding, and cooperation between States.
The Commonwealth does not have supranational powers. Countries interaction within the CIS is accomplished through its coordinating institutions: the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Heads of Government, the Councils of Foreign Ministers, Defense Ministers, Border Troops Commanders, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Executive Committee, and the Interstate Economic Committee of the Economic Union.
The Collective Security Council adopted documents such as the Collective Security Concept, the Declaration by the Collective Security Treaty States, and the Basic Guidelines for Deepening Military Cooperation among the Collective Security Treaty States.
By Trend
We want to translate our cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan into a practical track, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Dmitry Gora said to reporters during his visit to Baku, Trend reports.
According to Gora, a memorandum of cooperation was signed in Baku between the Institute of the Investigative Committee of Belarus and the Scientific Center of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan on November 16.
Specific areas of scientific, in particular educational, activities were worked out yesterday. In this context, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has a very rich experience. All this experience, this knowledge must be passed on to our investigators. The future of our departments depends on this. This is the key to successful work, he said.
The chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus also noted that the memorandum defines the main directions, the main approaches in the scientific and educational spheres.
All other issues are resolved in working order. During this visit, so far, we have already held, we can say, informal negotiations, where we come to concrete forms and methods of training our specialists. We exchange experience in many areas, including scientific literature and scientific developments," Gora said.
In addition, Gora emphasized the existing prospects for cooperation of the Investigative Committee of Belarus both in general with the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan, and in the direction of the study of specific criminal cases.
"Now crime is acquiring an international character, but what worries us in the first place is cybercrime, i.e. high-tech crime. I think that we will cooperate and develop further interaction in this direction," he said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent congratulation to the Sultan of Oman - Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Azertag reported on November 17.
"I convey my sincerest congratulations and best wishes to you and through you, to your people on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the national holiday of the Sultanate of Oman," the president said.
"I believe that the Azerbaijan-Oman relations will continue to evolve and our collaboration will expand within international institutions, and particularly in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement. On this festive day, I wish you strong health, success in your activities, and everlasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Oman," the head of state wrote.
By Trend
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has appointed a new defense minister - fourth during his four-year ruling as Armenia's Prime Minister.
Suren Papikyan has been appointed the new Defense Minister, with his predecessor being Arshak Karapetyan.
"Arshak Karapetyan was remembered for his provocative actions, his illegal trips to the Azerbaijani lands liberated from the Armenian occupation and provocations against Azerbaijani servicemen in Lachin district and the recent aggravation of the situation, Azerbaijani MP, political analyst Rasim Musabayov told Trend.
He said that the frequent appointment in the Armenian Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Ministry shows that Pashinyans regime cannot properly regulate power.
Karapetyan committed many provocative actions, all this was a problem for Pashinyan, Musabayov added. I think that Russia did not like such behavior of Karapetyan.
The Azerbaijani MP said that all these factors forced Pashinyan to appoint new people in the defense ministry.
It is difficult to say how well the new minister will be able to control the situation, Musabayov said. This will depend on his skills, willpower, Pashinyans support, including an assessment of the real situation and adequate behavior.
Military expert Adalat Valiyev told Trend that the dismissal of Karapetyan is connected with the tough position of the Azerbaijani side after his illegal visit to Karabakh region on November 6-8.
It is known that after the victory in the second Karabakh war, two high-ranking Armenian officials, namely, ex-foreign minister Ara Ayvazyan and ex-defense minister Arshak Karapetyan visited Karabakh region, Valiyev said.
He added that the fact that after these illegal trips, both were immediately dismissed from their posts, openly demonstrates Pashinyans position in connection with trips to Karabakh region.
Valiyev noted that the fact that the current minister of defense is a civilian rather than a military man shows that Pashinyan has no choice.
New Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan was appointed Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia three months ago, Valiyev said. He was a peaceful official.
The expert said that apparently, Pashinyan has no other option but to appoint a civilian to this position because the Armenian military elite consisting of 60 people signed an appeal against Pashinyan.
The appointment of one of the generals who signed this appeal would mean Pashinyans defeat in front of the military elite, Valiyev said.
According to the Armenian media, new Armenian Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan taught history in one of Yerevans schools in 2010-2016. Moreover, Papikyan, known as the "asphalt tycoon", has a criminal record. A criminal case was filed against him for stabbing a commander while serving in the army.
Suren Papikyan, found guilty of a criminal act, was imprisoned for 2 years and 3 months on March 27, 2006. He was released as part of amnesty on February 23, 2007.
By Trend
The subsistence minimum for 2022 has been approved in Azerbaijan, Trend reports on Nov. 17.
This issue was discussed at the session of the Azerbaijani parliament.
So, the subsistence minimum for next year for the country was set at 210 manat ($123.5), for the working-age population - 220 manat ($129.4), pensioners - 176 manat ($103.5), and for children - 193 manat ($113.5).
By Trend
It is necessary to amend the rules for the payment of tax by medical institutions in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani MP Rashad Mahmudov proposed at the meeting of the Milli Mejlis (parliament), Trend reports on Nov. 17.
According to Mahmudov, medical institutions in Azerbaijan operate in four different systems.
"These are institutions operating under TABIB (Azerbaijani Management Union of Medical Territorial Units), institutions operating under the Ministry of Health, medical institutions operating under separate state structures, and private clinics. All of them are medical institutions, but their tax payment rules are different. It would be appropriate to consider eliminating the differences," MP said.
The Saudi British Bank (SABB) and the Saudi Export-Import Bank (EXIM) have signed a documentary credit Insurance policy agreement.
The agreement was signed during the 9th Annual Saudi Trade Finance Summit in Riyadh, by Saad Alkhalb, CEO of EXIM, and Tony Cripps, Managing Director of SABB, in the presence of Majed Najm, Deputy Managing Director, Corporate and Institutional Banking at SABB.
The agreement will allow SABB to accept more documentary letters of credit and enhance its dealings with international banks issuing LCs, as insurance coverage contributes to increasing opportunities for Saudi products to enter new markets. In addition, the two banks inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate in developing export capabilities and facilities to their clients.
Furthermore, SABB presented its views on developing the future of trade finance in Saudi Arabia at the 9th annual Saudi Trade Finance Summit. The summit, recognized as the most significant event in the trade finance sector in the Kingdom brings together CEOs, Group CFOs and Treasury heads and key government agencies. This year the theme was Resilience in Trade, Supply Chain, and Treasury Management.
During the discussion sessions, David Leslie, General Manager of Global Trade and Receivable Finance at SABB, delivered a keynote presentation titled End-to-end digitization of trade finance in which he highlighted boosting efficiency, automation, and risk mitigation through technological innovations, underlining the importance of digitalization in accelerating growth in addition to leveraging block-chain based infrastructure to increase efficiency, reduce costs and open up new prospects in trade finance.
SABB, as the leading Trade Finance bank in Saudi Arabia attended the summit as a platinum sponsor and provided ground breaking input on building financial resilience strategies, developing trade finance tools, as well as discussing laws and strategies that will contribute to the growth of the Saudi economy. TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has announced the launch of a new control tower designed to support Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic)s operations at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam.
The control tower will be jointly managed by Mawani, Sabic, Saudi Global Ports Company (SGP), and Tabadul, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Using latest technologies, the control tower regulates the entry of trucks to the port and monitors the loading of containers to drive improved efficiency throughout Sabics export operations. Its advanced capabilities include the ability to integrate into the port community system and be able to check for confirmation of all customs x-ray procedures and other related logistics processes in a seamless setup.
The new control tower further enhances King Abdulaziz Ports efficiency by optimising its operations, ensuring the smooth flow of cargo, and achieving faster turnaround times, bringing a number of benefits to the ports key stakeholders.
The launch comes as part of Mawanis continued efforts to develop world-class ports and logistics services in Saudi Arabia and transform the Kingdom into a unique logistics hub connecting continents, positioning Saudi Arabia as a more competitive logistical hub.
Mawani is accelerating the progress of Saudi Arabias maritime sector in line with the Vision 2030 goals by promoting investment opportunities, adopting state-of-the-art technology, improving infrastructure, and revamping the regulatory and operational frameworks to offer greater customer-centricity and transparency.
Egis, a leading global player in the construction engineering and mobility services sectors, has joined hands with Israeli rail cybersecurity specialist Cylus to deliver the first Rail Security Operations Centre (SOC) through their joint cybersecurity Center of Excellence which opened in 2020.
A SOC provides round the clock cybersecurity services to monitor, detect, identify, and respond to impending threats. The proposed SOC, by Egis and Cylus, will be the first to combine both IT and OT (operational technology) security services in the rail and urban transit sector.
The heart of the SOC will be CylusOne, a revolutionary feat of engineering and artificial intelligence, delivering a real-time analysis of communications between critical systems and network interfaces - designed specifically for the rail industry.
The SOC will be operated by a team of security experts on a rota to ensure 24/7/365 availability.
Egis and Cylus expect the global-first rail SOC to be operational by January next year. The main SOC premises will be strategically located in Indian city of Mumbai and will be available to rail and urban transit customers globally.
"We are excited by the most recent innovation to come out of our fruitful partnership with Cylus - the proposal to collaborate on a global-first rail Security Operations Centre," remarked Olivier Bouvart, Chief Excutive officer Rail, Egis.
"Both teams have been working hard to realise this vision and we eagerly await the launch of the first SOC in early 2022."
The development of this very innovative service was agreed in Dubai with the official signing of an agreement between both parties.
It is a testament to the strength of partnership between Egis and Cylus, and the rapid advancement of the realm of rail cybersecurity. This global-first SOC is the culmination of shared expertise, innovation, and a drive to meet the needs of rail companies today, he added.
Cylus said its proprietary machine learning-driven platform, CylusOne, is the backbone of the SOC. In addition to cutting-edge threat detection capabilities, CylusOne enables SOC teams to achieve operational excellence through smarter and smoother practices.
On the tie-up, CEO Amir Levintal said the Egis-Cylus partnership has proven to be at the forefront of rail cybersecurity innovation. The new Security Operations Centre in India will be the first of its kind; combining security for a wide array of critical rail assets, networks, and systems."
"After working closely with dozens of leading rail companies worldwide, we came to the realization that the need for a specialized, rail-specific SOC is of paramount importance," he noted.
"In addition to cutting-edge threat detection capabilities, CylusOne enables SOC teams to achieve operational excellence, through smarter and smoother practices," explained Levintal.
"With the platform, security experts can focus on advanced threat analytics and forensic investigations, instead of more mundane, manual procedures. This, of course, results not only in improved security operations, but also in immediate ROI for the rail company," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Global technology company SAP, the Innovative Enterprise Software Partner for Expo 2020 Dubai, has launched the SAP House featuring how real-time customer experience innovations can transform the economy, society and environment.
Inspiring innovative customer experience solutions from SAP and its partners include: an immersive tunnel, an interactive gamification of equestrian sports, the PODway platform for people of determination, and SAP Customer Checkout for retail innovation.
As SAP global partners, Deloitte is revealing what it takes to navigate relentless disruption and the futures uncertainty by becoming an intelligent enterprise, and Google Cloud is showcasing how the cloud is fueling digital transformation.
Expo 2020 Dubai running in real-time on SAP solutions is a globally-leading example of how mega-events can transform exhibitor and visitor experiences, as well as operations, said Claudio Muruzabal, SAP President for Southern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
In line with the Expo 2020 Dubai theme of Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, our SAP House, at 900 square metres, is a showcase of how SAP and our partners are providing the latest innovations in cloud and emerging technologies to develop the future of business.
Customer and citizen experience is a priority in the region, especially in the government and public sector. For example, among government IT decision-makers, 97% in Saudi Arabia and 94% in the GCC agree that technology is vital for transforming citizen experiences, according to new research by YouGov.
The SAP House at Expo 2020 Dubai is an unparalleled immersive zone for real-time technology to solve the current eras most pressing challenges, including supporting people of determination, said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Middle East North. With 94% of GCC government IT decision-makers agreeing that technology can transform citizen experiences, enabling the future of a Networked Economy is vital. Together with our partners Deloitte and Google Cloud, we are showcasing how cloud-based digital transformation can create the future through new levels of innovation.
SAP is powering end-to-end Expo experiences with the SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite and the SAP Analytics Cloud for real-time operations. The SAP Customer Checkout application is already processing an expected 300,000 daily sales transactions from 500 retailers and more than 1,000 points of sale. SAP Ariba solutions are digitising and automating procurement for more than 25,000 local and global suppliers, who have already transacted more than AED1 billion in spend on the platform.
SAP is also marking the debut of PODway, a platform that provides people of determination or those with disabilities an offering to safely navigate the Expo and ask for assistance as needed and provide feedback on their journey at Expo 2020. PODway also enables Expo 2020 to understand and work on the feedback and requests from the people of determination visiting the event and provide them a unique experience tailored to them.
The SAP Co-Innovation Lab in the UAE, HERE Technologies, and Expo 2020 collaborated on the platform. PODway runs on a variety of real-time SAP solutions including the SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Cloud Platform, the SAP CF Mobile Services, and SAP Qualtrics.
Leveraging the power of SAPs global partnerships; Deloitte, a global services partner, and Google Cloud, a global cloud hyperscaler, are the SAP House Partners at the heart of Expo 2020 Dubai. Over the course of six months, SAP, Deloitte, and Google Cloud will be co-hosting a myriad of thought-provoking workshops and events in line with the Expo-themed weeks on Sustainability, Health, Tolerance, and inclusivity, amongst others.
Deloitte, which provides industry-leading audit and assurance, consulting, tax, financial, and risk advisory services to many of the worlds most admired brands, is demonstrating at the SAP House how it helps organisations to become intelligent, cloud-based enterprises that are built to evolve using SAP technologies. Recognising its success, Deloitte recently won four SAP Pinnacle Awards for outstanding contributions as an SAP partner.
The SAP House at Expo 2020 Dubai is the ideal global showcase to demonstrate how Deloitte is helping transform organisations enabled by technology to become Kinetic Enterprises that can reimagine everything, innovate rapidly, and evolve with confidence, said Tim Parr, Managing Director and CEO for the Consulting Practice at Deloitte Middle East. Deloitte has over 70 ready-to-use assets enabled through the SAP Cloud Platform that can be used to accelerate transformation. Middle East and global organisations that leverage these assets can rapidly drive innovation, optimise operations, and enhance customer experiences.
Visitors to the SAP House can also experience Google Clouds business transformation solutions. Worldwide, Google Cloud serves as a global strategic cloud partner for the RISE with SAP offering, and also offers organisations the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. SAPs enhanced ties with Google Cloud is part of the joint strategy to offer customers more choice for their SAP S/4HANA implementations on more hyperscaler cloud platforms and to integrate Google Cloud technologies.
At the SAP House at Expo 2020 Dubai, Google Cloud is demonstrating to a global audience how organisations can digitally transform in a future-proof, secure, innovative, and low-latency environment on the industrys cleanest cloud, said Tarek Khalil, Director Middle East and North Africa, Google Cloud. With the Middle Easts rapid adoption of RISE with SAP, Google Cloud provides the advanced technology that supports customers in their digital transformation plans.
During Expo, SAP University Alliances and SAP Next-Gen are hosting several academic and innovation sessions to explore the future of work, education, diversity and inclusion, and how youth will contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.-- TradeArabia News Service
The UAEs Tawazun Economic Council has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to purchase 100 VRT500 helicopters from Aeroter at a total value of Euros 216.9 million ($248.5 million) for use across some government entities.
The delivery of the 100 helicopters is expected by the end of 2023, reported Emirates News Agency WAM.
Ahmed Ali Al Harmoodi, Chief Acquisition Management officer of Tawazun, said the LoI comes as part of Tawazuns new mandate of managing the UAEs strategic procurement and acquisition process.
He revealed that the LoI also entails setting up of a helicopter service centre in Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with an Emirati Company. "Supported by the SDF, Aeroter is currently engaged in talks with a number of national companies on forming a strategic partnership to operate and manage the centre," he added.
Al Harmoodi further stated that the strategic deal will result in the transfer of capabilities and operations to the UAE, in alignment with Tawazuns commitment to enable the industry for future growth and to support the countrys strategic investments.
Abdulla Nasser Al Jaabri, Deputy Chairman of Aeroter, said: "We are pleased to close this contract for VRTs single light engine helicopter, which is characterized by various design advantages in terms of safety, performance and cost-effectiveness, to meet the customers expectations."
Alexander Okhonko, Chief Executive Officer of Aeroter, said: "We are very pleased with this strategic partnership and we look forward to entering the UAE market, which we see as our launching pad to new markets in the Middle East & North Africa and other markets of the world.
"VRT helicopters have a unique set of capabilities and designs for use in urban environments, medical and VIP transport, passenger support, crop spraying, aerial construction, seismic support, firefighting and other oil and gas operational activities.
Aeroter is a leading player in helicopter industry, with capability to design and manufacture modern helicopters, including VRT 500, a light single-engine, seven-seat helicopter, perfectly suited for emergency and security transport.
Strategic Development Fund, the investment arm of Tawazun Holding, is focused on financial return and economic impact within UAEs strategic sectors, through equity investment in local and international partnerships and developmental funding towards UAEs private sector.
EDGE Group entity, Halcon, a regional leader in the production and supply of precision-guided weapons, has won an AED3.2 billion ($880 million) contract from the UAE Armed Forces for its Thunder and Desert Sting range of precision guided munitions.
The Thunder range consists of different variants of aerial munitions (distinguished by weight and warhead size) all based on the same technology building blocks. It is a cost-effective, short-range system that combines an inertial measurement unit and global navigational satellite system measurements to guide it to pre-programmed target coordinates. A semi-active laser seeker can optionally be fitted to enhance precision.
Desert Sting is a light weight guided weapon with a custom designed warhead that operates with a Halcon-designed stores interface unit (SIU) and can be deployed on multiple weapon (2 or 4) racks on aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles - independent of the level of integration with the aircraft.
Saeed Al Mansoori, CEO of Halcon, said: At AED3.2 billion, this is a significant contract on a global scale for this type of weapons system. It is with a great sense of responsibility for having been entrusted with this undertaking that we move ahead in confidence that the performance of our systems will fully justify the UAE Armed Forces trust in us.
Halcon now boasts autonomous technology capabilities in areas including guidance and control, navigation, aerodynamic design, weapon flight control computers, warheads, and servo systems. Most significantly, it has also boosted its capacity in fuze manufacturing compatible with the Mk81, Mk82, and Mk83 series of aerial munitions.
Lahab, a sister EDGE company, is charged with filling the Desert Sting warhead, which is manufactured in the Halcon production facilities at Tawazun Industrial Park, in Abu Dhabi.
Halcon is part of the Missiles & Weapons cluster within EDGE, an advanced technology group for defence and beyond that ranks among the top 25 military suppliers in the world. - TradeArabia News Service
The Saudi Advanced Technologies Company (Wahaj) entered agreement with Honeywell as an accredited importer for aircraft spare parts, where Wahaj will manufacture and export a variety of spare parts to Honeywell Aerospace in the US, Europe and Asia.
Wahaj is among companies that have received the AS9100 accreditation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and works in manufacturing high precision components and other parts in the aviation industry, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
As part of the agreement, Wahaj will provide Honeywell original spare parts, such as tyres, brakes, energy systems, and the aero and thermal systems, and assisting energy units for several main platforms, including Airbus 350, 330, 320 neo, Boeing 737MAX and 777, Dassault Falcon 8X/M1000 and McDonnell Douglas 11.
DP World's flagship Jebel Ali Port received MV CUL HUIZHOU, the first vessel of China United Lines Ltd (CULines) to call on the Middle East from Qingdao, China.
This call reinforces Jebel Ali Ports position as a global maritime hub and one of the fastest-growing ports in the region that connects 150 ports globally, a WAM report said.
Shahab Al Jassmi, Commercial Director, DP World UAE, welcomed the vessel and its crew led by Captain Wang Lei. Al Jassmi handed over a plaque to the Master of the vessel in the presence of Darico Dai, Owners Representative, CULines and other senior officials.
Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO and Managing Director, DP World UAE and Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), said: "The arrival of MV CUL HUIZHOU is a significant milestone for the Jebel Ali Port that has reaffirmed its leading status. It is encouraging to see that the global shipping industry continues to acknowledge the ports role in world trade by introducing new lines that will enhance bilateral trade ties between countries and benefit the global trade and logistics industry."
Bin Damithan added: "Jebel Ali Port is complemented by Jafza, DP Worlds leading trade and logistics hub in the Middle East. In 2020, the Dubai China non-oil bilateral trade stood at AED38.6 billion of which Jafza contributed AED11.5 billion, accounting for 30% of the total trade value.
The new service will further contribute to these achievements by boosting the confidence of Chinese traders and giving them access to economies in the Middle East. Furthermore, in conjunction with the Projects of the 50, we are certain that this significant connection will contribute to the UAEs goal of increasing the current AED257 billion trade volume by AED40 billion each year."
Raymond Chen, Chairman and CEO, China United Lines Ltd. (CULines) said: "CULines focuses on Southeast Asia and the Mainland China to Taiwan Cross-strait services. In the past two years, CULines grew gradually. In particular, in the first half of 2021, we launched a regular bi-weekly China-Europe service. In July, more than ten vessels were deployed into the Trans-Pacific service between China and the West Coast of the US. We currently rank 23rd on Alphaliner in terms of fleet capacity, in line with this over 64,000 TEUs of new containers were ordered in 2021.
With the support of DP World, CULines has entered the Middle East market. CULines hopes to have more cooperation with DP World in the future. To aid this, a maiden voyage of the weekly service AGX (consortium named GCS) in cooperation with RCL/PIL/KMTC will be scheduled to call at DP Worlds terminal on December 13, 2021."-- TradeArabia News Service
Al Habtoor Group (AHG), a leading business conglomerates in Mena, has reported a strong performance for the first ten months of 2021, with revenues for the year expected to soar at an average of growth of 37 per cent compared to 2019.
Earlier in March, Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman of AHG, forecasted a healthy UAE economic growth in 2021 and is pleased that the results have exceeded his expectations. The World Bank has projected real GDP will average 3.4 per cent between 2021 and 2023.
Al Habtoor said: All sectors of the economy are faring well due to one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, rebound in tourism, and activities related to the major events and conferences held in the country. And I believe this will continue in the coming years, supported by the strategic vision to stimulate the economy. Events like the COP28 climate conference in 2023, the Retire in Dubai campaign and many other initiatives reinforce the positive outlook for our economy.
He added: As a diversified Group, we have seen this reflected in all the sectors in which we operate. Al Habtoor Motors, our automotive division, maintains its number one distributor position for Bentley and Mitsubishi, with double-digit revenue growth. The Groups car leasing business, Diamondlease, increased its fleet by more than 20 per cent in 2021 to reach more than 12,000 vehicles, with 90 per cent utilization.
All our hotels in the UAE are performing exceptionally well. And Hospitalitys year-to-date forecast for Q1 of 2022 registering a 43 per cent increase over the same period in 2020.
Emirates International School-Jumeirah, one of only a handful of schools worldwide to offer all International Baccalaureate Programmes, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this academic year, offering excellence in education to more than 3,680 students in both branches.
He concluded: This good performance in 2021 is only the beginning. I am expecting a great year ahead in 2022, as the numbers are showing.
The UAEs success is down to the excellent crisis management, the collaboration between the private and public sectors, as well as a united, determined community across the board, focused on the future.
As a Group, we operate in several destinations around the globe, but more than 80 per cent of our investments are in the United Arab Emirates. My belief is stronger than ever, that the UAE is the haven of the world for investors, businesses and those looking to offer a safe and stable life for their families. I am proud of the UAEs achievements; the land of opportunities. TradeArabia News Service
Tradeling, the hyper-growing eMarketplace focused on business-to-business (B2B) transactions in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to enable Taiwan-based manufacturers, retailers and brands to export their goods and services to the Mena region on Tradelings e-commerce platform.
The agreement will allow both entities to exchange information on trade, policies, goods, services and partnership possibilities that may be available from either side and to create partnerships by introducing each other to key service providers ranging from system integrators to logistics companies, a statement said.
Tradeling will also provide logistics support and services such as trade finance and product registration and certification to Taiwanese companies to facilitate trade opportunities without the need for travel to the region.
Commenting on the agreement, Marius Ciavola, Chief Executive Officer of Tradeling, said: Countries in the Mena region and Taiwan have long enjoyed strong trade relations across multiple sectors from petroleum oil to consumer electronics, and this agreement will further enhance these relations by allowing the SME sectors to have quicker access to products from Taiwan and vice versa. In addition, we will be organizing meetings, webinars, and seminars to inform the business community about the investment potential available and the efficiencies being achieved through B2B ecommerce.
Fu-Tai Wei, Director of Taiwan Trade Centre, Dubai, said: As Taiwan's foremost non-profit trade promoting organization, we are glad to have a trust-worthy partner here in Dubai to help Taiwan do business in the Mena region. Tradelings local know-how, e-commerce platform and total solution services will definitely enhance the trade between Taiwan and Mena.
According to the Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs, bilateral trade between Taiwan and the UAE totaled $4.3 billion in the first 3 quarters this year, an increase of 47.4% over last year, including an increase of 10.3% in exports to the UAE.
Led by a team of experienced technology start-up builders, Tradeling ensures a reliable and smooth trade process in addition to providing logistics and financing solutions. Connecting global suppliers with Mena-based demand, the platform leverages advanced technology to optimise the supply chain and creates economic value in addition to mitigating risks. Today, Tradeling has over 100,000 registered buyers and sellers from 55 countries with gross merchandising value growth of more than 65% month over month.TradeArabia News Service
Hitachi Energy, the global technology and market leader in power grids has launched its game-changing IdentiQ, digital twin solutions for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and power quality solutions.
IdentiQ will help to advance the worlds energy system to be more sustainable, flexible and secure, accelerating the transition towards a carbon-neutral future.
IdentiQ is the digital twin of a HVDC converter station, STATCOM or other power quality solution. It provides all the relevant asset information, analytics and operational data in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate dashboard, which users can customise to match their needs.
IdentiQ includes 3D interactive visualisation of the complete asset, combined with one-click access to all the associated plant and equipment information, including engineering docu-mentation, operational and maintenance procedures, safety training and live operational data for monitoring and analytics.
IdentiQ is a game-changing digital twin solution built on our unique domain expertise and leadership in power grid technologies and innovation, said Dr Mostafa AlGuezeri, Managing Director of Hitachi Energy for the UAE, Gulf, Near East and Pakistan.
He added: It is a significant addition to Hitachi Energys digital offering and supports our customers efforts to continuously enhance the efficiency and reliability of their grid investments.
IdentiQ will enable customers to improve the management of power grid assets by clustering all information into one digital location for seamless access by all operational functions. This approach stands at the core of Hitachi Energys vision for digital twin technology: delivering the right resources and information to the right people at the right time for optimised operations and smarter decision making.
IdentiQ makes HVDC and power quality assets more:
Sustainable and eco-efficient by enabling comprehensive remote analysis and support and by digitalising paper-based information on older installations;
Flexible by adapting to continuously changing asset performance needs over the entire life cycle;
Secure by complying with industry-leading cybersecurity standards and protecting all asset data and information from being misplaced or destroyed; and safer, by providing virtual training on on-site procedures, required clothing and evacuation routes before visiting a site.
Digitalisation is essential to making electricity the backbone of the entire energy system and advancing a sustainable energy future for all. It is key to the integration of bulk and distributed renewables, as well as the electrification and decarbonisation of sectors like transportation, industries and data centres; and empowering countries and companies to meet their carbon emission reduction goals.
IdentiQ integrates with a range of enterprise business systems, including Hitachis Lumada platform and the Lumada suite of Asset and Work Management software, and together they provide system-wide visibility from the site to the boardroom. IdentiQ is part of Hitachi Energys ambition to drive the pace of digital and eco-efficient innovation in power grid technologies and accelerate the transition towards carbon-neutral energy systems. The launch builds on a year of powerful innovation from Hitachi Energy, including:
Lumada Asset and Work Management launched in January 2021, to enable asset-intensive industries to be more adaptive, collaborative, insightful and predictive. Lumada features technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, hybrid cloud management and cybersecurity; and
EconiQ launched in April 2021, providing an eco-efficient portfolio of products, services and solutions that deliver an exceptional environmental performance compared to conventional solutions.
Both portfolios are integral to Hitachi Energys Sustainability 2030 strategic plan, which draws on the UNs Sustainable Development Goals to deliver social, environmental and economic value.-- TradeArabia News Service
Sitecore, a top marketing technology company, has announced the appointment of its new Regional Vice President, Goncalo Mateus, who spoke at the CX Live event in Dubai, positioning Sitecore as a major player of the marketing technology industry.
Mateus joins Sitecore with more than 10 years of experience in the martech and adtech space, having held leadership roles with one of the worlds largest software solutions providers. Mateus also spoke on a panel at CX Live in a dedicated session where he addressed how digital hubs transform the customer journey and retain to them with effective communication strategies.
Mohammed Al-Khotani, Area Vice President Middle East and Africa, Sitecore said: I am pleased to congratulate Goncalo Mateus on his new role as the Regional Vice President and am confident that he can be a driving force to further strengthen Sitecores presence in the region.
At CX Live, we showcased Sitecores fundamental role in unleashing new business potential and developing global reach for regional businesses. The Middle East market has seen a reorganization of the marketing stack over the past year with an emphasis on personalized customer experiences, thanks to a massive shift toward e-commerce and hybrid retail models.
The two-day event, held on November 15 and 16, saw Sitecore as a Silver Sponsor, where the brand showcased its capabilities and capacities in customer experience management and marketing software. The event was also home to various talks about CX and Digital Transformation, changes in workplace culture and Design thinking.
San Francisco-headquartered Sitecore is a global leader in customer experience management and marketing software. TradeArabia News Service
Kissflow, a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) company with customers in over 160 countries, has signed partnership agreements with four Saudi IT firms Raqmiyat, LABS KSA, Nuummite Consulting, and Multisolutions. The tie-up will enable them to support a broader set of local enterprises in achieving their cloud transformation goals.
With Saudi Arabia accounting for 50% of the Kissflows MEA revenues, the company is doubling down on investments in the kingdom as it targets 40% growth in the country in 2022.
The recent Saudi Arabia CIO Survey by IDC has found that more than 25% of enterprises in Saudi Arabia have plans to deploy cloud infrastructure. Recognising this market demand, through 2021, Kissflow has established itself as a key enabler of cloud and digital transformation for Saudi enterprises with its market-leading No-code citizen developer platform.
The companys flagship product, Kissflow Workflow is being utilised by a number of large enterprises and conglomerates in the country, including market leaders in the oil & gas, automotive, and banking sectors. This accounts for 50% of the companys business across the entire MEA region.
With the onboarding of its dedicated technology partners in Saudi Arabia and the imminent launch of its Low-code platform, the company is now looking to double this customer base over the next nine months.
The 'Cloud First Policy' introduced by Saudi Arabian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology advises that for any new IT investment, civilian and government entities should consider Cloud solutions as opposed to traditional solutions. Commenting on how his company is enabling organisations in the kingdom to align with this commendable vision, Vaidy Panchabikesan, Regional Director at Kissflow said: If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that customers and employees now expect services at their fingertips. The kingdom's ambition of catering to this demand by evolving into a smart economy is dependent on digital transformation and cloud initiatives. Kissflow is committed to Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030, and our mission is to empower our customers in the country to be truly Cloud Ready.
As organisations in the kingdom look to comply with the ZATCAs e-invoicing mandate, Kissflows Procurement Cloud platform has emerged as a highly effective and popular solution.
By unifying advanced functionalities for purchase orders and requisition, vendor management, purchase invoicing, and integrations into a single platform, Kissflow Procurement Cloud enables end-to-end management of procurement lifecycles, along with the ability to enhance efficiencies and identify cost savings opportunities through data analytics.
The company is gearing up to roll-out its Low-Code platform in Saudi Arabia. The platform eliminates technical skills barriers and enables non-IT staff such as line-of-business managers and department heads to collaborate and easily develop customised applications that automate and streamline business processes.
This will empower Saudi businesses to rapidly create powerful, full-feature digital applications for both employees and customers, thereby accelerating digital transformation.
Partnering with local Saudi IT companies is central to Kissflows strategy in the country which is centred around a deeply consultative approach. Explaining how each of the four new partners excels in a specific domain that is fundamental to the successful digital transformation of Saudi businesses, Panchabikesan said: Raqmiyat is an established leader in developing digital workplace programmes that facilitate the delivery of exceptional employee experiences. With their vast pools of software developers, LABS and Multisolutions offer impressive application development capabilities and are therefore perfectly positioned to enable our customers to realise the full potential and value of our Low-code platform. These systems integration and custom development capabilities are rounded out by the professional services expertise of Nuumitte Consulting who specialise in understanding complex business operations and automating processes to drive efficiency.-- TradeArabia News Service
Lufthansa Technik Middle East (LTME) and Sanad will cooperate to develop innovation and technology solutions to digitalise maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations within the aviation industry.
LTME and Sanad aim to support the growing digitalisation requirements of MRO businesses by investing in research and development as they prepare for a digitalised future.
Both partners intend to use digital capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to digitalise their MRO processes and optimise their overall market offerings. In line with the UAEs strategic initiative Operation 300bnand its focus on deploying Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies, the two companies aim to streamline their maintenance processes through these digital capabilities by developing and implementing digital solutions set to reduce turnaround times and costs, ultimately to better serve their end-customers.
For this, Sanad, the global aerospace engineering and leasing solutions leader wholly-owned by Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (Mubadala), signed a Technology Collaboration Agreement with LTME during this weeks Dubai Airshow 2021, which concludes at Dubai World Central on November 18.
Our collaboration with Lufthansa Technik has identified common areas of improvement across MRO processes, and this agreement will seek to address these by reducing turnaround times, Mansoor Janahi, Deputy Group CEO, Sanad said. The partnership plays a vital role in enhancing our processes and will enable our teams to be able to support a greater number of customer projects and maintain our position as a leading global MRO service provider.
In the expected return of the MRO business to post-Covid growth, digitalisation will play a decisive role, said Ziad al Hazmi, Chief Executive Officer of LTME.
Therefore, we are proud to join forces with Sanad in order to jointly advance our capabilities in this field even further. I am confident that this new cooperation will not only improve our competitiveness, but will also open up whole new possibilites and capabilities for MROs in the Middle East. And most importantly, it will soon also yield the first benefits for our valued local and international customers.
The collaboration with Sanad, and use of new technological tools should help LTME digitalise MRO processes and eliminate redundant ones, along with regulatory approvals for remote inspection; ultimately leading to a more timely exchange of information.
LTMEs contribution to the collaboration can build on Lufthansa Technik Groups long-standing experience in the digitalisation of MRO processes, that in the past already stretched from advanced robotics and virtual as well as augmented reality to private networking, artificial intelligence and predictive algorithms, just to name a few.-- TradeArabia News Service
Louvre Abu Dhabi will open the inaugural edition of its new annual contemporary art exhibition, Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here2021, on November 18, showcasing artworks by the seven shortlisted artists for the first Richard Mille Art Prize.
The exhibition will be on view at Louvre Abu Dhabis Forum until March 27, 2022.
In its first edition, the shortlisted artists for The Richard Mille Art Prize Cristiana de Marchi, Latifa Saeed, Mays Albaik, Mohammed Kazem, Nasser Alzayani, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, and Taus Makhacheva were selected by the prizes jury following an open call for proposals from UAE-based artists.
Participants were asked to respond to this years theme of Memory, Time and Territory, addressing questions of memory and belonging, and exploring the geography of identity through the artists personal relationships with territories.
Each of the seven artists responded to the theme with their own unique interpretation, bringing each of their visions to life through different mediums. Cristiana de Marchi will present hand-embroidered canvas with her artwork Mapping Gaps:Beirut, whilst Latifa Saeed uses glass for her artwork The Pathway. Mays Albaiks Awaiting Weightlessness is an installation of aluminium video sculptures, and Mohammed Kazem will display his photographic series Photographs with Flags.
Nasser Alzayani uses sand artefacts, collected recordings and works on paper in his installation Watering the distant, deserting the near, Tarek Al-Ghoussein will present prints from his ongoing Odysseus series, and Taus Makhacheva has employed a mix of video and body-oriented objects for her work Mining Serendipity.
Manuel Rabate, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: We are proud to offer greater visibility to these incredibly talented UAE-based artists for this inaugural edition of the exhibition and prize. Living in the UAE, they were uniquely placed to respond to this years theme of Memory, Time and Territory, especially in a year where the nation reflects on 50 years of progress and development.
Richard Milles timepieces have always sat at the intersection of watchmaking tradition, art, design and architecture, said Peter Harrison, CEO, Richard Mille Middle East. The Richard Mille Art Prize celebrates the thriving art culture here in the UAE, and in the region as a whole; establishing a platform dedicated to creativity, dialogue and diversity. The Prize will lay down the foundations for what is certain to be a very exciting chapter in the development of the regions rich and nuanced art scene.
The artists have really shown a deep understanding of the theme and have responded with incisive, nuanced works. This exhibition and art prize are a significant addition to the contemporary art ecosystem of the UAE, and this focus on contemporary artists is an important extension of the universal storytelling our exhibitions and collection convey. We look forward to announcing this years winner and next years theme, said Dr. Souraya Noujaim on behalf of the jury panel.
The shortlisted artists were selected by a distinguished four-member jury including HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Chairman of UAE Unlimited and an art collector and patron of the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum and Sharjah Art Foundation; Christine Macel, Chief Curator at the Musee national dart moderne, Centre Pompidou and an art critic; Hala Warde, founding architect of HW Architecture and long-term partner of Jean Nouvel, who was the lead of the Louvre Abu Dhabi project; and Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Louvre Abu Dhabis Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director.
The winner of The Richard Mille Art Prize will be selected by the prizes jury from the seven shortlisted artists, to be announced at a ceremony in January 2022.The winner will be awarded $50,000.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021exhibition falls within the UAEs cultural season that includes Abu Dhabi Art, new exhibitions at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Dubai Design Week, Art Dubai, as well as this years Expo 2020 Dubai. TradeArabia News Service
Young Adipec this year has Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) with the Arts (Steam) integrated across all workshops and hands-on learning experiences.
Students can explore STEM jobs of the future at the Adnoc Young Adipec stand.
Young Adipec, the annual youth outreach initiative by the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) - the global energy industrys largest, most important and influential event - has continued its successful work to promote the energy sector as a source of fulfilling careers for young Emiratis welcoming 500 students from 20 schools to its 9th edition, taking place from November 15 to 18 at Adnec in Abu Dhabi.
Aimed at high school students aged 14-17 years old, more than 3,300 students from across the UAE have benefitted from the pioneering programme since its creation in 2013, and the Young Adipec programme has received praise and recognition from across the energy industry.
Held under the patronage of Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, and supported by Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), Young Adipec 2021 includes five components: the Ambassadors Programme, the Alumni Programme, the Experiential and Edutainment Programme, the Young Adipec Talks, and several Industrial field trips.
Christopher Hudson, President of dmg events, organisers of Adipec, said: For this 2021 edition, we have integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) with the Art (Steam) across all workshops and hands-on learning experiences to continue to encourage students to explore what the industry has to offer.
500 students have had the opportunity to participate in robotics workshops, engineering workshops by Abu Dhabi University, technology & innovation workshops by Zayed University, STEM of for life workshops by Adnoc, and the Oil Storage and Refinery educational journey by Broog Energy.
As a progressive, technology-focused energy company committed to building a more sustainable future, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has partnered with Young Adipec to teach visiting students about Careers of the FutureToday and encourage them to consider future careers at Adnoc through a fun and interactive exhibition at Adipec covering topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced engineering.
Adnocs support for Young Adipec is in line with its broader initiatives to promote STEM education in the UAE. As many as 45,000 students from almost 900 schools across the UAE have benefited from Adnocs STEM Education programme since it was launched in 2017 and Adnoc plans to increase this number to 200,000 students by 2030 as it expands the programme.
Adnoc is committed to the learning and development of students as they are crucial to enabling the UAEs long-term socioeconomic goals as it prepares for the next 50 years. Young Adipec provides an excellent platform to enhance their learning, stimulate creative thinking and provide exposure to state-of-the art technologies and future careers in the energy sector.
As the UAE celebrates its Golden Jubilee, Young Adipec has developed a dedicated workshop Year of the Fiftieth with support with INPEX/JODCO, inspiring youth to have their vision about UAEs ambitions for the next 50 years.
During the Year of the Fiftieth workshops, students shared their vision for the UAEs developments in sectors including education, health, energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, environment and space for the year 2071.
This year, Weatherford hosted 15 Khalifa Bin Zayed school students at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi. Students toured the manufacturing ADM plant for an opportunity to learn more about the wireline production services, different kind of drill pipes and were introduced to a wide range of essential tools and equipment that are used in drilling oil. Students also learned about health and safety rules and regulations within the oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, the Young Adipec talks were hosted over 12 sessions tailored to build an ambitious youth culture through a youth social innovation incubator, a collective youth community enabler and a think tank and research nucleus. Also, the Young Adipec Alumni programme allowed students to meet Engineer Mohamed Almazrouei, Drilling Supervisor at Adnoc, to hear how Young Adipec 2013 had inspired him to his future career.
Young Adipec is supported by ADEK, Adnoc, Abu Dhabi University, Broog Energy, Coretrax Technology, ExxonMobil, INPEX/JODCO, Technip Energies, Weatherford, and Zayed University.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, Adipec is hosted by Adnoc and supported by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, the Department of Municipalities and Transport, the Abu Dhabi Chamber, the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism and the Department of Education and Knowledge.-- TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) have signed an agreement to create a clean energy powerhouse with a total generating capacity of 30 Gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030.
The new venture solidifies the UAEs global position in energy transition, paving the way towards the nations Net-Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.
The new strategic partnership will focus on domestic and international renewable energy and waste-to-energy projects as well as the production, processing and storage of green hydrogen and ancillary activities.
It will leverage Adnocs energy and hydrogen capabilities and Taqas renewables expertise for local and international growth.
The agreement was signed by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Adnoc Managing Director and Group CEO, and Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Chairman of TAQA at the ONGOING abu dhabi international petroleum exhibition and conference (Adipec).
Also present was Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Adnoc).
Dr Al Jaber said: The strategic partnership between two Abu Dhabi energy giants future-proofs Adnocs business model, creating compelling business and commercial opportunities, as we fully embrace the energy transition. This innovative and collaborative venture is a bold new initiative, as it combines both companies respective areas of expertise and paves the way for our viable entry into the clean energy space.
He said the platform will enable Adnoc to capitaliSe on the many renewable energy and hydrogen opportunities, both locally and globally.
Dr Al Jaber also called on other partners to join this promising new venture on its exciting journey.
As the UAE looks ahead to hosting COP 28 in 2023, our nation pledges an inclusive energy ecosystem, enabling sustainable future economic growth, for the benefit of Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
Alsuwaidi said: This partnership between Taqa and Adnoc will be a powerful catalyst to unlock significant potential for accelerating the green hydrogen market and rapidly expanding renewable energy. Taqa is supporting Abu Dhabis aim to be a green hydrogen hub using our expertise in low-cost solar PV and desalinated water: two critical elements for green hydrogen.
The UAE offers several strategic advantages that provide a robust platform to enable this partnership, including being home to some of the largest and lowest-cost solar plants in the world.
This partnership will also benefit from the availability of low-cost renewable energy in the UAE and the countrys proximity to significant future demand centers for hydrogen and its carrier fuels.
In October, Sheikh Khaled launched a new clean energy partnership between Adnoc and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), which will see up to 100 per cent of the Adnocs grid power supplied by EWECs nuclear and solar clean energy sources.
Moelis and Company is financial advisor to Adnoc, with Citi to TAQA. Tradearabia News Service
The National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) has signed a strategic MoU with The Petroleum Projects and Technical Consultations Company (Petrojet). It seeks to explore engineering procurement and construction (EPC) services that will enhance NPCC's global geographic footprint.
The agreement was signed at the Adipec Exhibition, the worlds most influential meeting place for oil, gas and energy companies and professionals, organised by Adnoc.
NPCC, a subsidiary of UAEs National Marine Dredging company, signed the agreement with Egypts Petrojet for mutual cooperation in the fields of oil and gas for exploring EPC project opportunities in UAE and Egypt.
The MoU was signed by Eng Ahmed Al Dhaheri, CEO of NPCC and Waleed Lotfy, Chairman of Petrojet, in attendance of Eng Tariq El-Mulla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt, Eng Yasser Zaghloul, Group CEO of NMDC and other senior officials from both companies.
Petrojet has proven capabilities in the execution of petroleum, petrochemical, industrial and marine projects of different nature and size inside and outside Egypt.
The MoU is a step towards exploring major opportunities in offering the vast experience of both companies and expand the business into new areas of interest.
NPCC is a world-class EPC company that has been providing total EPC solutions to offshore and onshore oil and gas, petrochemicals and renewables sectors for over four decades in Mena and the Indian Subcontinent.
Eng Yasser Zaghloul, Group CEO of NMDC, said: The MoU signed by NPCC further underline the confidence of global energy sector majors in its competencies in the EPC sector. Such partnerships are significant not only in growing the companys operations in the region, especially in the sectors such as downstream, but also to build our geographic footprint and add further value to our stakeholders and partners.
Eng Al Dhaheri said: We continue to build on our partnerships with Petrojet through the strategic agreement to explore growth opportunities that benefit all the entities. The MoU highlights our proven track-record in delivering complex EPC projects as well as defines our strategic ambition to expand to new sectors, supported by our vision to be a global EPC major.
Eng Lotfy said: Though this partnership we will be expanding our footprint and share expertise within the sector, and we will continue our focus on co-developing the localised solutions and capabilities required to enable us to respond to local and global market needs, while continuously improving the quality of service we provide to our customers.
Being a part of National Marine Dredging Company, NPCC has plans to enter and explore new countries to further fulfil the EPC sector with world class services, solutions and expertise.-- TradeArabia News Service
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the results of its 2021 Global Passenger Survey (GPS), which delivered two main conclusions: Passengers want to use biometric identification if it expedites travel processes; passengers want to spend less time queuing.
IATAs Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security Nick Careen said: Passengers have spoken and want technology to work harder, so they spend less time being processed or standing in queues. And they are willing to use biometric data if it delivers this result.
"Before traffic ramps-up, we have a window of opportunity to ensure a smooth return to travel post-pandemic and deliver long-term efficiency improvements for passengers, airlines, airports and governments.
Biometric identification
According to the survey, 73 per cent of passengers are willing to share their biometric data to improve airport processes (up from 46% in 2019), while 88% will share immigration information prior to departure for expedited processing.
Just over a third of passengers (36%) have experienced the use of biometric data when travelling. Of these, 86% were satisfied with the experience.
Data protection remains a key issue with 56% indicating concern about data breaches. And passengers want clarity on who their data is being shared with (52%) and how it is used/processed (51%).
Queuing at boarding was identified by 55% of passengers as a top area for improvement; 41% identified queuing at security screening as a top priority for improvement; and 38% identified queuing time at border control / immigration as a top area for improvement.
With additional document checks for Covid-19, processing time at airports is taking longer. Pre-Covid-19, the average passengers spent 1.5 hours in travel processes (check-in, security, border control, customs, and baggage claim). Current data indicates that airport processing times have ballooned to three hours during peak time with travel volumes at only about 30% of pre-Covid-19 levels.
The greatest increases are at check-in and border control (emigration and immigration) where travel health credentials are being checked mainly as paper documents.
This exceeds the time that passengers want to spend on processes at the airport. The survey found that:
- 85% of passengers want to spend less than 45 mins on processes at the airport if they are travelling with only hand luggage
- 90% want to spend less than one hour on processes at the airport when travelling with a checked bag.
IATA, working with industry stakeholders, has two mature programmes which can support a successful ramping-up of aviation post-pandemic and provide travellers with the expedited experience they are demanding.
IATA Travel Pass is a solution to manage the complex myriad of travel health credentials that governments require. The app offers a safe and secure way for travellers to check the requirements for their journey, receive test results and scan their vaccine certificates, verify that these meet the destination and transit requirements and share these effortlessly with health officials and airlines prior to departure and using e-gates.
This will reduce queuing and congestion for document checks - to the benefit of travellers, airlines, airports and governments.
One ID is an initiative that is helping transition industry towards a day when passengers can move from curb to gate using a single biometric travel token such as a face, fingerprint or iris scan. Airlines are strongly behind the initiative.
The priority now is ensuring there is regulation in place to support the vision of a paperless travel experience. One ID will not only make processes more efficient for passengers, but also allow governments to utilise resources more effectively.
Careen said: We cannot just revert to how things were in 2019 and expect our customers to be satisfied. Pre-pandemic we were preparing to take self-service to the next level with One ID. The crisis makes its twin-promises of efficiency and cost-savings even more urgent.
"And we absolutely need technologies like IATA Travel Pass to re-enable self-service or the recovery will be overwhelmed by paper document checks. The GPS results are yet another proof point that change is needed.-TradeArabia News Service
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Following the killing of two civilians in an encounter at the Hyderpora area of Srinagar, the family members of the slain duo have rubbished police claims that their slain kin were involved in militancy. The families are demanding bodies of the slain as Jammu Kashmir Police has constituted an enquiry to probe the controversial shootout.
Auqib Javeed | TwoCircles.net
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SRINAGAR A massive outrage has erupted in Kashmir valley after the family members of two civilians who were killed in an encounter contested the police claims that the slain were working with militants.
On November 15, the Jammu and Kashmir police said that an encounter broke out between militants and security forces in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar city. The encounter ended with the killing of four persons, including the owner of the house and his tenant. The other two slain were alleged militants.
The slain militants were identified as Bilal Bhai, apparently from Pakistan and the other is a local militant from Ramban Gool, according to J&K police.
The owner of the house was identified as Muhammad Altaf Bhat and his tenant Mudasir Gul, a dentist turned businessman. Both, according to J&K police, were killed in the operation.
The Police said that Mudasir Gul was a militant associate and was involved in militancy, while Altaf was a house owner and both were killed in cross-firing during the encounter.
However, the families of both the persons contested the police claims and said that the duo were killed in cold-blooded murder and were used as human shields.
You killed my innocent uncle Mohammad Altaf Bhat in cold-blooded murder. In Hyderpora, you used him as a human shield and now you are saying he was OGW. Return us his body, tweeted a journalist Saima Bhat.
You killed my innocent uncle Mohammad Altaf Bhat in cold blooded murder In Hyderpora, you used him as human shield and now saying he was OGW. return us his body @JmuKmrPolice @SrinagarPolice @IGP saimabhat (@saimabhat) November 15, 2021
As the news spread out on Tuesday morning, the family of both the persons demanded the bodies of the duo and urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to hold an impartial enquiry into the killings.
Just hand our body to us, Abdul Majeed, brother of Altaf Ahmad Dar, told reporters at his home. Altaf is survived by his wife and three kids.
While narrating the incident, Dar said, At 5 p.m. security forces came and there was cordon. The shops were asked to be closed, he said, adding, Then around 30-40 persons were confined in Honda shops. Then there was a burst (firing). Then my brother was taken out and was told that the search was to be carried. After some time, they again confined our children in the shop. Later they brought a drone etc. and they took my brother again, saying that a fresh search is to be carried. After some time, he was again kept with these persons. The third time, they again asked him to come out for searches. This time he was killed, he said.
The families of both the civilians held a protest at press enclave Srinagar and demanded that the bodies of their loved ones be returned for a proper burial, who as per the police were buried in Handwara keeping in view the law and order situation.
Family of Dr. Mudasir Gul who was killed during an encounter at Hyderpora Srinagar demand return of his body, reiterating that he had no links with militants pic.twitter.com/kGjyAyHxM8 Basit Zargar () (@basiitzargar) November 16, 2021
Police should return the body of our son, said the wailing mother of slain Mudasir, adding that her son was innocent. She also appealed to LG Manoj Sinha to direct the police to return the body of Mudasir to their family so that they can see him one last time.
Other family members and relatives of slain Mudasir out rightly rejected police claims that the slain was an OGW stating that Mudasir had no militant links and was innocent.
Regret killing of house owner: Police
Shortly after the outrage, Inspector General of Police, Vijay Kumar called a press conference in Srinagar and told reporters that police received information that there are militants present near Hyderpora on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. A cordon was laid and a search operation was started, he said.
There were three rooms in the top storey (atop shops run by owner Altaf Ahmad Dar). The location was not known. The owner (of the house) Alfaf Ahmad Dar and one doing business there, Mudasir Gull. They both knocked and militants did not open the door. Again they were given the opportunity; then again the door was knocked. The militants started firing and in self-defence our troops opened fire and an encounter started, he said, adding, We then stopped the encounter and tried to rescue both of them and the place where they got trapped, it was hard to rescue them. Both were killed and in the ensuing encounter, two militants were also killed.
The IG said police approached Altafs and Mudasirs families to participate in the funeral. Since we apprehended the law and order situation, we did not give bodies to families. Bodies were taken to Handwara (in north Kashmirs Kupwara district) where this morning they were buried, he said.
The IGP said I want to share that Altaf Ahmad Dar had given rooms on rent to Mudasir Gull who was a contractor by profession and was running an unauthorized call centre. Six cabins and in one room there was a militant hideout where a lot of things were found.
I want to share that two pistols were found from the encounter site and six phones from militants and 4 phones were recovered from the room. Six computers and six CPUs were there. Warm clothes were found. Also, injections used by (militants) during injury were recovered, he said, adding, I want to share with you that there was firing on police party in downtown (Nawa Kadal) in which one of our policemen sustained the injury in the neck. The same militant was involved. Mudasir had ferried him in his own vehicle to this building. Also, Mudasir was running this in the garb of business. He was ferrying militants from south to north and then keeping them in his house and militants used to carry activities.
Regarding the owner, he said, Since militants were in his house, we will include him in harbouring and we will include him among OGW. Since his death took place in cross-firing, we regret the same. We tried to save him but it was difficult as firing was going from both sides. Mudasir was top-ranked OGW and was involved in militancy.
On asking why the Police were including Altaf for harbouring militants when he had rented out the premises, the IGP said, See if you are giving premises on rent, it is your responsibility. We were not given any information who was given (the premises) in rent.
He said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police has been constituted to probe hi-tech hideout.
Asked that the family claimed that Altaf has been killed in cold-blooded murder and demanded body, I, myself, said that Altafs death occurred in cross-firing.
When an encounter takes place, nobody knows whose bullet hit and caused death. If there is pistol fire, 100 per cent death is due to militant fire and it will be revealed in postmortem, he said.
Meanwhile, the political parties in Kashmir have questioned the encounter and police claims and demanded a probe into the sequence of events that led to the killing of the duo.
The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) while demanding a thorough and impartial investigation into the Hyderpora encounter urged the LG administration to immediately hand over the dead bodies of civilians to their respective families for the funeral rites.
According to the JKPC spokesperson, the party has urged the LG administration to probe the claims of the family members of the slain civilians, who have contested the official version and refuted the allegations made by the police.
Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti hit out at the government of India over the use of civilians as human shields during gunfights.
Using innocent civilians as human shields, getting them killed in cross firing & then conveniently labelling them as OGWs is part of GOIs rulebook now. Imperative that a credible judicial enquiry is done to bring out the truth & put an end to this rampant culture of impunity. https://t.co/QOJonQ0kyS Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 16, 2021
The PDP president made the comments after the niece of one of the slain persons tweeted that: You killed my innocent uncle Mohammad Altaf Bhat in cold-blooded murder In Hyderpora, you used him as a human shield and now saying he was OGW. return us his body.
Auqib Javeed is a journalist based in Kashmir. He tweets at @AuqibJaveed.
New Chaldean Bishop Has Firsthand Experience of ISIS' Campaign of Genocide
Chaldean Father Thabet Al-Mekko welcomes Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., Sam Brownback, then U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and USAID's Mark Green in Karemlesh in July 2018. Karemlesh, Iraq -- An Iraqi priest whose family home was destroyed by ISIS has been consecrated bishop in a church he has spent the past four years restoring.
Chaldean Bishop Thabet Habib Yousif Al Mekko, a popular priest who for many years has dedicated himself to serving the faithful in his native Nineveh Plain town of Karemlash, was consecrated Bishop of Alqosh on Oct. 22 by Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon.
In this Nov. 14 email interview with the Register, Bishop Mekko shares his reaction to his appointment, describes the current challenges facing Christians in northern Iraq four years after liberation from ISIS, and shares his hopes for the beatification of Father Ragheed Ganni and companions, who were martyred in 2007.
Father Ganni, who studied at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, was buried in Karemlash in a church that Bishop Mekko has spent the last few years helping to restore, after it was ransacked by the Islamic State militant group in the mid-2010s.
Bishop Mekko told the Register much still needs to be done to help restore the ancient Christian communities in the region, a major task, he said, that requires the charitable aid of the international community as well as commitment and dedication of the local faithful.
What is your reaction to the news of your appointment?
Being chosen as bishop was truly surprising, and I was embarrassed because I was very attached to the parish I had been serving. I had many projects there relating to the restoration of the village of Karemlash, as well as many goals, both pastoral and social, to achieve as a priest. However, the call of the Lord triumphed and guided me to give my consent to accept this grace that I do not deserve.
Consecration Mass of Bishop Thabet Habib Yousif Al Mekko in St. Adday church, Karemlash, whose restoration work he led.
How do you hope to exercise your ministry as a bishop to help local Christians?
Zeal for the Church has been energy-giving for me, so I hope to continue with more strength and zeal proclaiming the word of God and helping my Christian brothers have more confidence in their Christian calling in Iraq. The service I began as a priest aimed to create a means through which faith is integrated with social commitment and fidelity to our Christianity in Iraq.
What is the situation like at the moment in Alqosh?
The Diocese of Alqosh has its own particular challenges. One moves between areas of the diocese through checkpoints that belong to KRG [Kurdish Regional Government] and others manned by the federal government of Baghdad, the PMF [Popular Mobilization Forces of the Iraqi government]. Also, there are destroyed areas that must be reconstructed, and very many continue to be displaced as a result of the former ISIS [occupation].
The political and administrative situation is unclear because of the problems between the KRG and the federal government. Unemployment and young people are without work, so many families have gone away, leaving behind a void and problems that arise from this complicated situation. The government is providing services in accordance with its capabilities, but there are many things they could do better.
How safe are Christians in the region? What are the current challenges they are facing, and how many have returned since the ISIS occupation of 2014-2017? And what is the status of rebuilding churches after their destruction and damage caused by ISIS?
Now the zone is secure, but always there are concerns that an ISIS-type scenario will return. When the federal government of Baghdad has forces in these areas, the security is strengthened, and Christians have more confidence. The problem is when there are Kurdish forces on one side of a Christian village and PMF forces on the other. Concern rises when there is disagreement and confrontation between these two sides.
In the various regions of the diocese that ISIS occupied, 1,500 families have returned -- almost 50% of the original number.
In the region of Tellskof, the churches have been restored, but still there is work to do. In Batnaya, where over 80% of the structures had been destroyed, the churches and religious sites have still not been restored; the houses even more so. In the village of Bakofa, the church has still not been rebuilt.
How concerned are you about the rise of the Taliban and other Islamic extremist groups in Afghanistan and the effect it could have on Iraq and the region?
We would hope that the Iraqi government would be alert to the challenges of exporting Islamic militants from Afghanistan to Iraq. If there are concerns about this, they will lessen if the government is strong, and the international community helps it in its war against terrorism.
What is the situation like in your native Karemlash? What is the latest news on the cause of Father Ragheed Ganni, who is buried there? Will a shrine be built in his memory?
Karemlash still has many burned houses and needs restoration work. Families still have to return, and there are concerns about demographic changes there. We are waiting for the beautiful news about the beatification of Father Ragheed and his companions.
In the Church of St. Adday, where tomb of Father Ragheed lies and where the remains and relics of Father Ragheed and his companions are placed in anticipation of them being proclaimed "Blessed," I have had a chapel constructed. We hope to build a shrine to them. In nearby Qaraqosh is a Chaldean community that Father Ragheed served. He founded a pastoral house there, and today we are building a small church in the town for those faithful. I think this church in Qaraqosh will be a beautiful memorial to him.
What can the faithful do to help you and your work there?
A bishop without priests and the faithful gives his existence no meaning, so the local faithful of the diocese can do a great deal, first of all by receiving the Word of God and enabling the gifts of the Holy Spirit within them in order to serve in the Mystical Body of Christ.
Concerning our faithful brothers in the world, we hope that they help to meet the charitable needs of the diocese in its pastoral work and reconstruction, knowing that their brothers in the Diocese of Alqosh are incapable of ameliorating the harsh situation alone.
by Shafique Khokhar
Rasulan Bibi, 65, allegedly stole 5,000 rupees from a Muslim family. After five months, the case seems to have been solved thanks to the intervention of some activists. Police officers had been told not to consider the case.
Toba Tek Singh (AsiaNews) - For five months Rasulan Bibi fought to have charges of theft brought against her by a Muslim family for which he worked withdrawn. The matter was only recently resolved thanks to the intervention of human rights organisations.
Rasulan, a 65-year-old Christian widow, has been working as a domestic worker in various homes for some time. In July, she was accused of stealing 5,000 rupees (about 2,550 euro) from the family she had worked for for eight years.
"I am a 65-year-old woman, I have worked very honestly all my life," the Christian woman commented. "In order to withdraw the charges against me, they had pressured me to convert to Islam. My children and I also went to the High Court in Lahore to seek justice, but it was all in vain.
One of Rasulan's sons, Amir, claimed that Waseem Sarwar, head of the Toba Tek Singh District Police Department, had forced the officers to disregard his mother's words, advising her to convert instead. "When we went to the police for help at first they welcomed us," Amir explained to AsiaNews. "But when we came back to be updated they stopped helping us. The officials and officers told us they could not do anything for us."
Saleem Iqbal, a human rights activist from Lahore, said he himself went to speak to the police superintendent about Rasulan's case. The officers said it was evident that the Muslim family was using its influence. "The first information report filed by the police was only done to harass the woman and her children," Iqbal explained. "We have assured them that they will get justice and will soon be free from this case."
Prolonged lockdowns and restrictions have led to an increase in domestic violence. From 688 cases in 2019 to 2853 in 2020. Homicides from 17 to 26, at least 13 committed by a partner. Reports of abuse and threats in the couple grew by 11.6%. Wizo activist: long-term programs to "treat post-traumatic disorders".
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - In 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic characterized by prolonged lockdowns and heavy restrictions on travel, domestic violence against women in Israel increased by 315%.
The shocking figure is similar to that recorded in other nations of the world, confirming that the forced coexistence within domestic walls to contain the spread of the new coronavirus has triggered other emergencies of a social nature. First of all, that of abuse c in the family which, in the Jewish State, increased from 688 cases in 2019 to 2853 in 2020, not counting hidden or unreported abuse.
The figures are contained in the annual report published in recent days by the Women's International Zionist Organization (Wizo), based on data provided by ministries, government agencies, the state auditor's office, the police and the prison department. Homicides of women in the family environment increased from 17 in 2019 to 26 last year; of these, at least 13 were the work of partners (husbands or partners) and, in four cases, complaints of mistreatment and abuse had been filed prior to the commission of the crime.
In addition, 31.2% of the suspected homicides were already known to law enforcement. The increase in violence recorded last year is also confirmed by calls to 118, the number dedicated to complaints, with a figure for calls rising from 2286 in 2019 to 5866 in 2020. The report is published on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is celebrated on November 25, and reports 20140 complaints collected by the police for abuse and threats within the couple, an increase of 11.6% over the previous year.
Everywhere you look, it's as if someone has lit a fire," Rivka Neumann, director of WIZO's Division for the Advancement of Women, told the Media Line. "During [COVID-19] lockdowns women and children found themselves stuck inside homes with an abusive person." "There was no way for them to go outside and they couldn't go to school or work," Neumann said. "This combination of locking people indoors and being [in close proximity] to a violent man resulted in a rise in domestic violence cases."
For the Wizo activist, these troubling numbers are expected to improve within the next few years as pandemic-related restrictions are loosened, though the damage caused by 2020 will have repercussions for years to come. In addition, people with post-traumatic stress disorder (Ptsd), will require extensive help. "Trauma is like a wound if you dont take care of it, it will get infected and spread, she explained. I call on the Israeli government to take on these findings and translate them into long-term [programs] because we have many more families that have entered the cycle of violence and were seeing new types of complex post-traumatic stress disorder..
Today's headlines: UAE announces purchase of South Korean anti-missile system. US and China agree on visas for journalists. Japan tests first self-driving superfast train. Protests in Kazakhstan over high prices. India reopens export of Covid vaccines. Tensions between Indonesia and Vietnam over fishing rights.
ARMENIA-AZERBAIGIAN
Azerbaijani forces have killed and captured Armenian soldiers in a resumption of clashes for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region; Yerevan also admits the loss of two defensive positions; Baku reports the wounding of two soldiers. Last night the parties agreed to a ceasefire. Last year clashes between the two armies resulted in more than 6,000 deaths.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-SOUTH KOREA
The Gulf monarchy announced that it will purchase the "Cheongung II" anti-missile system from Seoul: a .5 billion deal. The South Korean government confirmed that the negotiations are in the final stages The defensive weapon is capable of intercepting and shooting down an enemy missile at an altitude below 40 km.
CHINA-US
After the Biden-Xi summit, Beijing and Washington reached an agreement to make it easier for their journalists to travel to each other's countries; the understanding removes some restrictions on granting entry visas. In February 2020, the U.S. classified Chinese state media as foreign "missions" and applied more controls to them. China responded a month later by expelling 13 U.S. newspaper reporters.
JAPAN
The East Japan Railway Co. will test the first fully self-driving superfast train today. The test will be conducted in Niigata Prefecture. The vehicle will be remotely piloted from a control center.
KAZAKHSTAN
In Almaty, hundreds of people have turned to the Financial Market Regulation Agency, protesting price increases, reduced wages and a general deterioration in the quality of life. The protesters almost all have bank debts that they are no longer able to repay. They hope for an amnesty, but the banks are unable to promise it.
INDIA
The Modi government has authorized the resumption of exports of Covid-19 vaccines. A batch of doses will be distributed to African nations under the WHO's Covax program; Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Iran will be the first to benefit from the reopening. Delhi had blocked the export of vaccines after a new wave of infections broke out in the spring.
INDONESIA-VIETNAM
Jakarta repatriated 166 Vietnamese arrested earlier for illegal fishing in Indonesian waters. The issue has long been a source of conflict between the two countries. Together with Chinese boats, Hanoi's vessels often venture into the waters of the Natuna Sea, an area part of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
by Melani Manel Perera
For two days, police have questioned Fr Cyril Gamini Fernando, a member of a committee representing victims, after he accused the intelligence services of failing to follow certain leads in connection with the 2019 massacres.
Colombo (AsiaNews) The investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday massacres shows no progress; yet the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been questioning Fr Cyril Gamini Fernando for days on end. Today, he refused to be questioned for a third consecutive day.
The clergyman is a member of the National Catholic Committee for Justice to Easter Sunday Attack Victims, a group set up in the wake of a series of attacks against three churches and four hotels on Easter Sunday in 2019 that left 280 people dead and more than 600 wounded.
At an online forum on 23 October, Fr Gamini said that intelligence operatives had provided assistance to Zahran Hashim, the leader of the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), a movement blamed for the attacks.
Major General Suresh Sallay, director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), branded the claim as false, and filed a complaint against the priest two days later.
For his part, Fr Cyril noted that Former Attorney General Dapula de Livera made a very serious statement about a grand conspiracy behind the Easter attack. Yet, neither the CID nor the police have taken any statement from him so far.
What is more, no one has acted upon the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, nor has any victim be questioned.
Two and a half years have already gone by without the truth being revealed, Fr Cyril laments. Behaving like this is completely unjust.
by Steve Suwannarat
While boasting about its interethnic harmony, the Singaporean of Indian origin and immigrants with an Indian background are refused housing by Chinese landlords because of their smelly cuisine. Members of Singapores ethnic minorities complain of hidden racism. Indo-Singaporeans represent 9 per cent of the countrys population.
Singapore (AsiaNews) The curry conundrum is becoming a controversial issue in Singapore.
Increasingly, landlords and property managers are taking into account the ethnic background of people looking for a place to live, often rejecting applicants with an Indian background, both locals and immigrants.
The odours of Indian cuisine are being used as means of racial profiling against people who can trace their origins back to the Indian subcontinent. The latter represent 9 per cent of the population of the city-state.
Discrimination is often indirect in a multiracial society like Singapores, where strict laws and a constitution promote social and racial harmony despite diversity.
This leaves those who encounter such discrimination perplexed. This was the case of young British-Indian couple who sought a new life in Singapore. After a deal was reached for a flat, when they went to close it in person, the landlord backed out.
More than others, their story seemed to open the eyes of the countrys mass media to a situation that cannot always be solved by sifting through real estate ads.
Tense relations between people of Indian origin and Chinese owners are nothing new. So much so that since 2017, listing site PropertyGuru has required agents not list owners ethnic or racial preferences, threatening to suspend any who do.
Still, Singapore has no anti-discrimination legislation in the housing sector; consequently, steps to raise awareness or dissuade have obtained few results.
Questions like Do you cook with spices? and statements such as "I hope you are not related to the Indian race will continue; indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, hate speech and interethnic tensions have increased.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long recently announced plans to introduce a bill on racial harmony, noting however that it would not include punitive measures against violators.
At the same time, he denied that ethnic Chinese (75 per cent of the population) are privileged, this despite the fact that the government mandates ethnic quotas in public housing, which represents 80 per cent of the market.
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SeaRail (Botswana) (Pty) Limited, a logistics and transport company is expected to open a new office in Gaborone in the first half next year, a top official of the business has disclosed Botswana Guardian.
The company was formed in 2013 to develop and operate a Dry Port land leased by Botswana government in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary company of Botswana Railways, itself a 100 percent government entity.
In order to cultivate more business on the Botswana market and in an effort to divert Botswana cargo through other regional ports to Walvis Bay the company is working on establishing an office in Gaborone by June 2022. The target is for Sea Rail to control over 50% of market share on container volumes going to Botswana, said an upbeat Acting Managing Director of the Sea Rail, Derick Mokgatle.
The opening of the Botswana office will fall under the companys five year turnaround strategy which is expected to further prop up the companys revenue, and eventually its bottom line. Mokgatle is confident that Botswana, its home country, offers so many opportunities, which are yet to be fully tapped. He added, such opportunities can be fully harnessed if Sea Rail partners more with the local private sector and parastatals.
He disclosed that, they have partnered with Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) to explore opportunities for easing Botswana exports into the lucrative Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) market through infrastructure and transport solutions. Sea Rail also has a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed in February 2020 which amongst others is for BITC to refer investors wishing to set up in Botswana to liaise with Sea Rail for logistics solutions via Walvis Bay. BITC is the main investment promotion authority in Botswana.
Sea Rail is also working on new MoUs with Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) and other stakeholders in Botswana. Sea Rail is determined to grow partnerships with clients and other stakeholders to grow volumes for the dry port and these include transporters, and institutions like SEZA and other parastatals and non-governmental organisations, he stressed.
In addition to providing dry port services of bonded storage facilities and cargo handling Sea Rail offers freight forwarding solutions that include transport and customs clearing to make it a one stop shop for cross border clients wishing to route their goods via the Port of Walvis Bay. Mokgatle, who is Motswana has also announced that, in collaboration with the Walvis Bay Corridor Group, they are currently planning a road show to all the mines in Botswana in February 2022 as well as to hold an information session in conjunction with the Botswana Chamber of Mines (BCM) in Gaborone to promote the Walvis Bay route.
Botswana is currently experiencing a boom in the mining sector, more especially in the non-diamond sector. Mines which have opened in the past few years include the Botswana Stock Exchange listed Minergy which mines coal in Media village, within the Kweneng district. Khoemacau has also opened a copper mine near Toteng in the North West district. Sandfire Resources is also expected to open a new copper mine in Gantsi sometimes next year. Vision Ridge Investment has also just opened a new iron ore mine in Ikongwe, central district. More mines are also expected in the coming few years as most companies are at advanced stages of exploration and drilling.
But, now that I have the luxury of being able to say what I really feel, I was delighted to see that at age 80, the Country Preacher was still on the case, despite his Parkinsons disease, his recent hospitalization for a fall and his hospitalization along with his wife in August after testing positive for COVID-19.
In the last 30 days, one in four Chicago COVID cases have been in children under age 18, whereas over the whole pandemic, its been about half that, one in eight. Some of this is because theres more testing happening, of course, in schools that weve talked about, but this is also just a reflection that many children are only now getting the opportunity to be vaccinated.
As a teacher of writing, Graywolfs books in the The Art of series have been indispensable resources for teaching topics like The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter and The Art of Description by Mark Doty. Its awesome when a student comes to you with struggles and you can say, read this and call me in the morning, knowing that theyll return lit on fire by what theyve read.
Haynes' meticulous eye and steady hand allow the performances to dominate. Since seeing the film in May at the Cannes Film Festival and in a second viewing more recently, I've wondered if everything Blanchett does is scaled correctly. Some moments feel a little big, in an outsize theatrical way. (It was certainly true of her Oscar-winning work in "Blue Jasmine.") And yet, Blanchett's a formidable technician, a performer of serious wit and fire. She serves "Carol" well and truly throughout. Mara, who won the best actress award at Cannes, initially takes the more passive character, and half the time you don't know what Therese is really thinking, just as you're intrigued by Mara's ability to hold back, keep us guessing.
I do not have an intention to impose some sort of foreign vision for this museum from outside, Morales said in an interview with the Tribune. I believe in institutions that grow from within and that are responsive and tied to the communities that they serve. Chicago happens to have a very dynamic, complex artist community and as a city, it is so unbelievably rich. I hope to find my inspiration in the city itself.
Ironically, Busk was one of the last things this writer saw before the pandemic shutdowns. Coincidentally, the company that performed it, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is where Fisher-Harrell appointed as Hubbard Streets artistic director in February after 11 years of leadership by Glenn Edgerton spent the bulk of her career as a performer. Fisher-Harrells first professional job was at Hubbard Street. She left Juilliard at age 19 to dance for the company from 1989 to 1992, then led by founding artistic director Lou Conte. From there, Fisher-Harrell moved on to Ailey, where she danced for 13 seasons before moving into teaching roles in her hometown at Towson University, Baltimore School for the Arts and Ailey Camp Baltimore.
Chansley, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, was among the first rioters to enter the building. He has acknowledged using a bullhorn to rile up the mob, offering thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and scratching out a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence saying, Its Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!
At least four pedestrians had been standing in the 1200 block of West Randolph Street around 12:45 a.m. when gunshots rang out, authorities said. Three men and one woman were hit; none of their injuries were considered life-threatening. The wounded included:
(Monday) morning, a GardaWorld crew was the target of violent and foiled robbery attempt while servicing a client ATM location on the South Side of Chicago, the statement read. Two of our employees were critically injured and taken to (a) hospital. One of our employees succumbed to their injuries while the other remains in (the) hospital. A third employee was on-site but did not (suffer) any serious injuries.
Our community has been terribly shaken by the tragic killing of Shaoxiong Dennis Zheng, and we extend our condolences and deepest sympathies to his family, friends and loved ones, the university said in a statement. The problem of violence in our city has reached the level of a public health crisis, and it demands a commensurate response. We share the concerns of students and other members of the University community, and their input is actively helping inform our ongoing actions to address public safety. People must feel safe where they live, study and work, and this is a top priority for the University.
In addition to the cash bribe, Presta admitted in his plea agreement that he solicited campaign donations from Maani in January 2018, during his unsuccessful run for county commissioner. The two agreed to disguise payment from Maani by having him pay cash to cover an invoice from an advertising firm, according to the plea.
In his plea agreement with prosecutors, Mirkhaef admitted he also provided cash and other benefits over a three-year period to another elected official, identified only as Public Official A, in return for the official using his position to attempt to benefit and not interfere with the operation of Mirkhaefs business.
The defense objected to jurors seeing the drone video, which the teens attorneys repeatedly have tried to ban. They have filed a motion for a mistrial, in part, because they contend the prosecution gave them a shorter, lower-resolution version of the recording than what was shown to the jury. The prosecution said it sent the video file via email at the defense teams request and that it was compressed in transmission from a Kenosha detectives iPhone to a defense attorneys Android phone.
Schroeder has given Rittenhouse wide latitude to present his defense, offering rulings that local attorneys say are standard for the longtime jurist. For some watching on television particularly many people of color the case has become a symbol of racial inequities in the justice system when it comes to who has the ability, and money, to tell their side of the story.
Ronald Reagan led the 1980 conservative takeover of the GOP, but he made common cause with moderates even choosing one of them, Bush, as his running mate. In his day, it was said that Democrats look for heretics while Republicans look for converts. Lately, though, the Republican Party seems to be taking lessons from The Spanish Inquisition for Dummies.
Our hubris has reduced the natural world to an object to study, a resource to exploit or a recreational pastime. Animals and plants are intelligent in complex ways that we are just beginning to discover and understand. We need to engage in a more radical and long-term reconsideration of our relationship with nature or our efforts will never amount to more than a temporary patch. We need to reeducate ourselves. To understand and value the importance of biodiversity in nature can also teach us to value human diversity. The positive potential at stake is enormous.
The officers have the right to choose their union leaders, just as Chicago voters have a right to choose their political leaders. But the city also looks to its police officers in the hope that they will keep their cool, politically and professionally, even as others around them may be losing theirs. Catanzaras history suggests the opposite.
Chicagoans who appear on the citys controversial gang database will have a way to try to get their names removed under a plan backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that the City Council passed Wednesday, over the objections of several aldermen who said the change doesnt go far enough to fix the deeply flawed list.
The report, filed last week to the Police Board, recommended that Officer Ella French be suspended for three days because French did not activate her body camera in a timely manner and failed to document her interaction with someone who she and other officers stopped outside of Youngs home on the night of the raid.
I am running for Secretary of State to build the long-needed foundation our state needs to thrive, Brady said in a statement. I will focus on partnering with the brightest innovators and technology experts this state has to offer, addressing not only service efficiency, but issues of cyber-security and identity protection.
The Shenyang Palace Museum in northeast China's Liaoning Province celebrated the 95th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday.
The museum, one of the two well-preserved ancient palace complexes in China, currently has over 50 exhibition halls open to the public, said Li Shengneng, person-in-charge of the museum.
Shenyang Palace Museum, where the former imperial complex of three emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was located, was set up in 1926 and opened to the public in 1929. In 2004, it was added to the World Cultural Heritage List.
The museum has witnessed a thriving cultural and creative industry. It is estimated that the total revenue of cultural and creative products sold in the museum surpassed 1.25 million yuan (about 195,750 U.S. dollars) during the Labor Day holiday in May this year alone.
Pianist seeks to revive the soft appeal of the fortepiano.
One day in 2014, Wang Yuehan, then a student at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in the United States, met her teacher Elisabeth Wright, a professor of harpsichord and fortepiano at the school's Historical Performance Institute.
The fortepiano was popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It has a softer sound and smaller frame.
Wang says Wright asked her if she wanted to take fortepiano as a major. Wang had fortepiano as an elective course for a semester earlier.
"I was excited and nervous," Wang says about meeting Wright, adding that her teacher answered all her questions about learning fortepiano. "That afternoon I made a decision that led to my career."
Wang received her master's degree from Jacobs School of Music, double majoring in piano and fortepiano, in 2017.
One year before her graduation, Wang bought a fortepiano made in the Czech Republic, a faithful replica of a fortepiano made by the Viennese piano maker Anton Walter in 1805.
She returned to China in 2017 and has been promoting fortepiano since then.
On Nov 11, when she turned 31, Wang released an album, titled Mozart Fantasie & Rondo, performing the composer's numbers: Fantasie in C Minor, K 396; Fantasie in D Minor, K 397; Fantasie in C Minor, K 475; Rondo in D Major, K 485; and Rondo in A Minor, K 511.
All pieces were performed on the fortepiano.
Walter's pianos were highly regarded by Mozart, Beethoven and other prominent composers, and historical records show that Mozart bought a Walter piano around 1782, using it for composition of his highly successful piano concertos, according to Wang.
"I played Mozart's music on the fortepiano. It authentically brings back the music of his time," she says.
Fortepiano, an early version of the piano, has changed tremendously since Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori invented it. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the instrument itself and keyboard music changed dramatically.
Wang says that compared to modern pianos, fortepianos have a smaller range and softer timbre.
Older musical instruments, like fortepianos, are key to understanding the history of classical music and how those great composers created the classics, Wang says.
When she started to learn the modern piano and fortepiano at the same time, Wang says she felt challenged by the two instruments. She tried to capture the spirit of composers and deliver the essence of music to the audience.
During her days in the US school, Wang played harpsichord in the morning, fortepiano at noon and the piano in the afternoon, in a variety of styles, like jazz.
"I got a sense of how different it is to perform with the instruments-I have to think differently when performing on them," she says.
Born and raised in Wuhan, Hubei province, Wang studied the piano like many children in the country.
From 2006 to 2012, she made trips between Wuhan and Beijing to study piano with veteran pianist Sheng Yuan.
Sheng says there are few pianists willing to devote their time to researching and playing fortepiano in China. Many of his piano students refused to learn the instrument "because it would be hard to find jobs-the fortepiano is not popular anymore and no one listens to it now".
"I really admire Wang's courage and passion for the old instrument, which will inspire more young Chinese pianists to learn," Sheng says. "Besides doing research, Wang plays fortepiano beautifully."
The album, Mozart Fantasie &Rondo, has been produced by a new Chinese record label, Hearing the Silence, founded by Feng Hanying. The name refers to classical music concert etiquette, whereby audiences enjoy silence when music fades at the end of a note.
"When we recorded the album, we tried to capture the most authentic and real sounds of fortepiano," says Feng.
"Wang's performance offers the audience a close feeling about the old instrument."
You are here: Arts
Over 20 star dancers of the Beijing Dance Academy performed in a gala showcasing the beauty of traditional Chinese dance in Shanghai on Nov 13.
Highlights include dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin, who performed her award-winning dance piece, Wu Shan Dan Qing, or Silky Fan and Ribbons, and dancer Hua Xiaoyi, who performed Dian Jiang Chun, or Crimson Lips Adorned.
A female group dance, Xiang He Ge, which was featured in a new show titled Dancing Through the Millennium, co-produced by Henan TV and Chinese video platform Bilibili, where it premiered on Nov 6, was also staged during the gala.
The gala was first staged in Beijing in the end of October and is touring Chinese cities, including Qingdao, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, through December.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, speaks at a symposium of the university in New York, the United States, Nov. 5, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) two decades ago was "a tremendous push to globalization," benefiting both China and the world, a renowned U.S. economist has said.
"Without (China's) membership in WTO, a lot of economic growth and integration would not have taken place," Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Sachs said he believes in globalization, "because we really have a benefit of sharing each other's knowledge, of travel and tourism, of different cultures, of different ways of knowledge, of different ways of innovation."
He noted that China has developed as a significant player over the past decades, becoming "the major trading partner for most of the world now," which is not only "a remarkable accomplishment," but also "a huge benefit for the world."
In the past 20 years, China's global ranking of trade in goods has risen from the sixth to the first, while that of its trade in services has jumped from the 11th to the second.
Calling China's sustained efforts to develop economic and trade ties with other countries an "excellent strategy," Sachs said the world's second largest economy is recommended to "continue to increase its trade with other parts of the world," adding China "can play a hugely positive role" in development in regions such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa.
Moves like the Belt and Road Initiative are very important for helping finance development in other places, upgrading the infrastructure and building the economies that are still lagging behind, which in the long run are "mutually beneficial," he noted.
Sachs, who is also a senior United Nations advisor, lauded China's role in safeguarding multilateralism.
"China is a big supporter of the multilateral system, and this is exactly what we need right now," he said. "Most of our problems are global scale. Unless we have effective global institutions, we won't be able to solve these problems."
Sachs also highlighted China's "very constructive role" in stabilizing the global supply chain, noting other countries should also play their distinct part in mitigating the current supply-chain disruptions.
Meanwhile, he underscored the importance to keep "the international trading system open," as "an open international trading system is good for the world."
Sachs cautioned about the consequences of the U.S. obsession with the so-called "decoupling" theory, while emphasizing the need and urgency for closer collaboration between the world's two leading economies.
"Those who say we should decouple could lead us to conflict, which would be very dangerous. I like the interdependence," he said.
"It's extremely important that China and the United States find cooperative approaches" to address their differences, keep normal economic relations with each other and work together to solve some big problems like climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the conservation of ecosystems, he added.
A ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
An explanatory address delivered by Xi Jinping on a landmark resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the past century was made public Tuesday.
Entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered the speech to the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.
The resolution was deliberated and approved at the plenum held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11.
Considerations
"Our Party has always attached great importance to reviewing its historical experience," said Xi when he explained the considerations on the session agenda.
He hailed the significance of reviewing the Party's century-long journey, saying it will help build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all Party members and rally and lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
Xi also noted "taking a clear-cut stance against historical nihilism" and clearing up confusion and misunderstandings over certain major questions in the Party's history.
Xi briefed the session on the priorities in drafting the resolution:
First, the resolution must focus on the Party's major achievements and historical experience over the past century, he said, noting the move will help "pool our wisdom, strengthen our unity, and boost our confidence and morale."
On the previous two resolutions on the Party's historical issues, adopted in 1945 and 1981 respectively, Xi said "their basic points and conclusions remain valid."
Second, the resolution must highlight the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi said, noting this will help further fortify confidence among all Party members and focus on the current endeavors.
Third, the resolution's appraisal of major historical events, significant meetings, and important figures must be consistent with the CPC Central Committee's existing conclusions, Xi said.
The basic points and conclusion that have already been made for the major events, meetings, and figures in Party history prior to its 18th National Congress were to be upheld in the new resolution, he said, adding that the resolution should reflect the CPC Central Committee's updated understanding on the Party's century-long history.
A ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
Drafting process
In March, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided that the sixth plenary session would focus on a comprehensive review of the Party's major achievements and experience in its century-long history, Xi said.
A drafting group was established, with Xi as its chief, and Wang Huning and Zhao Leji as deputy chiefs.
On April 1, the CPC Central Committee issued a circular to solicit opinions from Party members and non-Party figures within an appropriate scope.
The consulted localities, departments and sectors widely held that the invaluable experience gained in the past century merits a systematic review, according to Xi's explanation.
They suggested that the review focus on the new era and on the historic achievements and historic shifts and the latest experience that the Party has gained during this period, according to Xi.
The text of the draft resolution was issued on Sept. 6 to select Party members, including retired senior Party officials, for consultation. Opinions were also sought from leaders of other political parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and prominent figures without party affiliation, Xi said.
The feedback indicated full endorsement of the draft resolution, he said.
The drafting group analyzed the solicited opinions and suggestions. A total of 547 revisions were made to the preliminary draft.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and its Standing Committee held multiple meetings during the drafting process before the draft document was submitted for deliberation at this session, according to Xi.
Framework & major content
In addition to a preamble and a conclusion, the document has seven sections.
The first section is "A Great Victory in the New-Democratic Revolution."
It analyzed the historical background of the founding of the Party and reviewed the revolutionary struggle in this period. It also highlighted the achievements including the establishment of Mao Zedong Thought, according to Xi.
This section emphasized that the founding of the People's Republic of China, national independence, and the people's liberation represented China's great transformation from a millennia-old feudal autocracy to a people's democracy, he said.
The second section is "Socialist Revolution and Construction."
This part reviewed the Party's great achievements following the founding of the People's Republic of China. It also included the rational appraisal of Mao Zedong Thought, according to Xi.
The section emphasized the great transformation from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large population to a socialist country, he said.
The third section is "Reform, Opening up, and Socialist Modernization."
This part highlighted the great significance of the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, and documented the historic contributions made by the Chinese communists with Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao as their chief representatives, Xi said.
This section commended the great achievements which made possible the Chinese nation's tremendous advance from standing up to becoming prosperous, he said.
The fourth section is "A New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics."
With a focus on the original ideas, transformative practices, new breakthroughs, and landmark accomplishments over the past nine years, the section highlighted the great achievements and historic shifts in the new era in 13 areas.
The great achievements in this period provided better institutional conditions, stronger material foundations and a source of inspiration for realizing national rejuvenation, Xi said.
The Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and becoming prosperous to growing strong, he said.
The fifth section is "The Historical Significance of the Party's Endeavors over the Past Century."
The section spelled out the CPC's historic contributions to the Chinese people, the Chinese nation, Marxism, the cause of human progress, and the development of Marxist political parties, Xi said.
The sixth section is "The Historical Experience of the Party's Endeavors over the Past Century."
This section summarized the Party's historical experience in 10 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.
"All of us must cherish them, uphold them over the long term, and continue to enrich and develop them in practice in the new era," Xi said.
The seventh section is "The Communist Party of China in the New Era."
It called on the whole Party, the military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to make tireless efforts to realize the second centenary goal and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
Full Text: Xi's explanation of resolution on major achievements and historical experience of CPC over past century
The 2021 Conference on Overseas Chinese Pioneering and Developing in China opened Tuesday in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, attracting more than 500 guests from home and abroad.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Ding Zhongli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, acknowledged the contributions of overseas Chinese in China's process of revolution, construction and reform.
The overseas Chinese are expected to carry forward the tradition of patriotism and love for their hometown, and actively participate in the implementation of China's major strategies as well as the friendly cooperation and exchanges between China and foreign countries, said Ding.
The event is co-organized by the Hubei provincial government, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, and the Wuhan municipal government.
Since its launch in 2001, the conference has become an important platform to attract talent and investment from overseas Chinese and promote cooperation and exchanges between China and foreign countries.
On Monday, China released a swathe of economic data for October, surpassing expectations by economists. Its retail sales had grown by 4.9% year on year compared to an estimated 3.5%, while industrial production increased by 3.5%, up 0.4% from the previous month and an improvement on the prediction of 3.1%. Finally, fixed asset investment grew by 6.1%, which is relatively consistent with the estimated 6.2% but short of the forecasted 7.3%.
The data demonstrates the continued resilience of the Chinese economy and its ability to face challenges, especially in regard to the keystones of growth: manufacturing, exports, and consumption.
Throughout the month of October, much was made of a global commodity crisis, which caused the price of coal to surge. That led to a ripple effect on China's power supply and caused some factories to shut down due to their enormous energy requirements to fulfill production. Despite challenges, China brought the commodity crisis under control very fast.
By adopting a series of measures, the country dramatically increased its supply and local capacity, punished rumor mongers who were artificially driving prices up for profits, and coordinated price controls. The result is that in the space of a month, state planners had brought the energy problem under control and offset the damage to the industry, allowing growth which has also been buoyed by strong demand overseas to recuperate. This proves that it continues to have one of the most resilient and reliable supply chains.
Moreover, China's consumption was also up faster than expected, demonstrating the success of its pandemic prevention and control. There has been a growing debate in the West surrounding China's COVID-19 prevention and control policy, arguing that it will ultimately be detrimental to growth and consumption.
However, there is no evidence to prove this. China has been able to save lives and offset economic damage through fast, targeted, and localized measures, keeping disruption to a minimum. This has allowed the public to remain broadly confident in their economic and spending activities, as opposed to the constant hesitation, uncertainty, and doubt in some Western countries regarding whether life will return to normal.
Therefore, China's growth in retail sales was better than anticipated, and its pandemic prevention and control measures for small outbreaks are far more advantageous than long periods of restrictions, or alternatively, doing nothing. In contrast, deaths in the U.S. now amount to over 750,000.
Moving beyond the pandemic, it should be noted that during last week's Singles Day shopping spree, e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD smashed their own records, reeling in $139 billion of sales and once again demonstrating continued growth in China's consumption.
On the current trajectory, China will most likely go on to end the year in a better condition than what is currently anticipated, which will see a surge in exports and manufacturing, combined with getting energy prices under control.
Despite the overall stability, there remain uncertainties internationally and domestically. The country has to do everything it takes to defeat the virus while making stronger efforts to keep its economy recovering steadily.
Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain and the U.S. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/TomFowdy.htm
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Flash
Chinese President Xi Jinping had a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday. The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-U.S. relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
President Xi pointed out that both China and the U.S. are at critical stages of development, and the "global village" of humanity faces multiple challenges. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the U.S. need to increase communication and cooperation, each run their domestic affairs well and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development. This is the shared desire of the people of the two countries and around the world, and the joint mission of Chinese and American leaders.
Sound, stable China-U.S. relationship urged
President Xi stressed that a sound and stable China-U.S. relationship is required for advancing the two countries' respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. China and the U.S. should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation. President Xi expressed his readiness to work with President Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-U.S. relations forward in a positive direction. Doing so will advance the interests of the two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community.
President Xi pointed out that the most important event in international relations over the past 50 years was the reopening and development of China-U.S. relations, which has benefited the two countries and the whole world. The most important event in international relations in the coming 50 years will be for China and the U.S. to find the right way to get along. History is a fair judge. What a statesman does, be it right or wrong, be it an accomplishment or a failure, will all be recorded by history. It is hoped that President Biden will demonstrate political leadership and steer America's China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism.
President Xi highlighted that a review of the experience and lessons learned in growing China-U.S. relations shows that for the two countries to get along in the new era, three principles must be followed. First, mutual respect. The two countries need to respect each other's social systems and development paths, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and respect each other's right to development. They need to treat each other as equals, keep differences under control, and seek common ground while reserving differences. Second, peaceful coexistence. No conflict and no confrontation is a line that both sides must hold. The U.S. side has suggested coexistence between China and the U.S. One more word can be added to make it peaceful coexistence. Third, win-win cooperation. With their interests deeply intertwined, China and the U.S. stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. The world is big enough for the two countries to develop individually and collectively. The right thing to do is to choose mutual benefit over zero-sum game or the I-win-you-lose approach.
President Xi identified four priority areas where China and the U.S. should focus their efforts on.
First, shouldering responsibilities of major countries and leading global response to outstanding challenges. China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation. The global initiatives China has proposed are all open to the U.S. We hope the reverse is also true. Second, acting in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit to move forward exchanges at all levels and in all areas and generate more positive energy for China-U.S. relations. President Xi expressed his readiness to stay in touch with President Biden through multiple means to set the direction and inject more momentum into bilateral relations. The two countries, with broad common interests in a wide range of areas including economy, energy, mil-to-mil, law-enforcement, education, science and technology, cyber, environmental protection and sub-national interactions, should complement each other to make the cake bigger for China-U.S. cooperation. The two sides could fully harness the dialogue channels and mechanisms between their diplomatic and security, economic and financial, and climate change teams, in an effort to advance practical cooperation and resolve specific issues. Third, managing differences and sensitive issues in a constructive way to prevent China-U.S. relations from getting derailed or out of control. It is only natural for the two countries to have differences. The key is to manage them constructively so that they don't magnify or exacerbate. China will certainly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. It is important that the U.S. properly handle the relevant issues with prudence. Fourth, strengthening coordination and cooperation on major international and regional hotspot issues to provide more public goods to the world. The world is not tranquil. China and the U.S. need to work together with the rest of the international community to defend world peace, promote global development, and safeguard a fair and equitable international order.
President Xi compared China and the U.S. to two giant ships sailing in the ocean. It is important for the two sides to keep a steady hand on the tiller, so that the two giant ships will break waves and forge ahead together, without losing direction or speed, still less colliding with each other.
Chinese people's aspiration for better life cannot be stopped
President Xi explained China's development path and strategic intentions. The just concluded sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee took stock of the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC in the past 100 years. Over the past century, the CPC has kept to its founding aspiration and mission of striving for the happiness of the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A lot has been accomplished in this direction, but that is far from enough. More needs to be done. President Xi said that when he took office, he said publicly that the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the goal to strive for. The Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the biggest internal driver for China's development and an inevitable trend of history. Any attempt to stop this historical trend will be rejected by the Chinese people, and will by no means succeed. President Xi said that as China's leader, serving the 1.4 billion Chinese people and working with them for a better life is a great challenge and a great responsibility. "I shall put aside my own well-being and live up to people's expectations," President Xi said.
President Xi pointed out that the Chinese people have always loved and valued peace. Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of the People's Republic, China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries. China has no intention to sell its own development path around the world. On the contrary, China encourages all countries to find development paths tailored to their respective national conditions.
President Xi stressed that opening-up is a fundamental state policy and a hallmark of China. China will not change its determination to open up at a higher level. China will not change its determination to share development opportunities with the rest of the world. And China will not change its determination to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. The new development paradigm that China is working to establish is aimed at expanding domestic market, fostering both domestic and international circulations with greater scope and scale, and building a business environment that is more market-oriented, law-based and up to international standards. All this will provide a bigger market and more opportunities to other countries.
President Xi highlighted China's commitment to peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity. Drawing ideological lines or dividing the world into different camps or rival groups will only make the world suffer. The bitter lessons of the Cold War are still fresh in memory. We hope that the U.S. side can meet its word of not seeking a "new Cold War" with concrete actions.
President Xi stated China's principled position on the Taiwan question. He noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and ascribed the tensions to the repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for U.S. support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China. Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt. The one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques are the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. Previous U.S. administrations have all made clear commitments on this question. The true status quo of the Taiwan question and what lies at the heart of one China are as follows: there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China, and the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China. Achieving China's complete reunification is an aspiration shared by all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts. That said, should the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures.
Multilateralism without China-U.S. cooperation is incomplete
President Xi highlighted that civilizations are rich and diverse, and so is democracy. Democracy is not mass produced with a uniform model or configuration for countries around the world. Whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide. Dismissing forms of democracy that are different from one's own is in itself undemocratic. China is ready to have dialogues on human rights on the basis of mutual respect, but we oppose using human rights to meddle in other countries' internal affairs.
President Xi pointed out that China and the U.S. need to uphold the international system with the UN at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Multilateralism without China-U.S. cooperation is incomplete.
On trade ties, President Xi described the China-U.S. economic and trade relations as mutually beneficial in nature. Business is business. Economic and trade issues between the two countries should not be politicized. The two sides need to make the cake bigger for cooperation. China takes seriously the wishes of U.S. business community to travel to China more easily, and has agreed to upgrade fast-track arrangement, which will further enhance economic and trade exchanges between China and the U.S. and boost the recovery of the two economies. The U.S. should stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese businesses. It is imperative for China and the U.S. to maintain communication on macroeconomic policies, support world economic recovery and guard against economic and financial risks. The U.S. should be mindful of the spillover effects of its domestic macro policies, and adopt responsible macroeconomic policies.
On energy security, President Xi noted the need for China and the U.S. to call on the international community to jointly protect global energy security, strengthen cooperation on natural gas and new energy, and work with other countries to keep global industrial and supply chains safe and stable.
On climate change, President Xi recalled China-U.S. cooperation that helped bring about the Paris Agreement. He pointed out that, as both countries are transitioning to green and low-carbon economy, climate change can well become a new highlight of cooperation. President Xi reiterated his belief that clear water and green mountains are as valuable as gold and silver, and that we must protect the environment the way we protect our own eyes, and treat the environment the way we treat our own lives. Today, ecological conservation has become a household concept and social consensus in China. China will make the world's biggest cut in carbon emission intensity in the shortest time frame in history, a task that will require extraordinary efforts. China means what it says. It only commits to what it can deliver, and never makes a promise it cannot keep. China is still the largest developing country in the world. The issue of unbalanced and inadequate development still stands out. All countries need to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strike a balance between addressing climate change and protecting livelihoods. What the world needs is less finger-pointing or blame game, but more solidarity and cooperation. Words matter, but actions matter even more. Developed countries need to earnestly fulfill their historical responsibilities and due obligations, and maintain policy consistency.
On public health, President Xi pointed out that the pandemic once again proves that humanity lives in a community with a shared future. There is no higher priority than people's lives. Solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon for the international community to defeat COVID-19. Response to any major disease must be based on science. Politicizing diseases does no good but only harm. The pressing priority in the global COVID response is to address the vaccine deficits and close the vaccination gap. President Xi said that he suggested making COVID vaccines a global public good at the early stage of the pandemic last year, and put forth a Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative just recently. China is among the first to offer vaccines to developing countries in need, delivering over 1.7 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to the world. We will consider making additional donations in light of the needs of developing countries. COVID-19 will not be the last public health crisis facing humanity. China and the U.S. need to call for the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for global public health and communicable disease prevention and control, and promote further international exchanges and cooperation.
U.S. has no intention to conflict with China
President Biden said that the U.S.-China relationship is the most important bilateral relations in the world. As two major countries, the U.S. and China have a responsibility to the world as well as to our people. The two sides need to have open and candid dialogues to enhance understanding of each other's intentions, and make sure that competition between the two countries is fair and healthy and does not veer into conflict. President Biden echoed President Xi's comment that history is a fair judge, and that they should make the relationship work and not mess it up. China has been a major power since 5,000 years ago. Biden reiterated that the U.S. does not seek to change China's system, the revitalization of its alliances is not anti-China, and the U.S. has no intention to have a conflict with China. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. government's long-standing one-China policy, stated that the U.S. does not support "Taiwan independence", and expressed the hope for peace and stability to be maintained in the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. is willing to work with China on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, increase communication, reduce misperception, and handle differences constructively. Biden emphasized the need for the U.S. and China to work more closely in areas where their interests align, respond to global challenges such as the COVID pandemic and climate change, and deliver better lives to the two peoples. We should encourage the younger generation to interact more and be more exposed to each other's culture, which will help make the world a better place.
The two sides also exchanged views on Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear issue, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and other international and regional issues of mutual interest.
The two presidents agreed that their meeting is candid, constructive, substantive and productive. It helps increase mutual understanding, adds to the positive expectation of the international community for this relationship, and sends a powerful message to the two countries and the world. The two sides agreed to maintain close communication in different forms and steer China-U.S. relations back on the right track of sound and steady development, for the good of the people in both countries and around the world.
Ding Xuexiang, Liu He, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi were present at the meeting.
Flash
Six people including three suicide bombers were killed and 33 others injured in twin bomb blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Tuesday, police said.
Fred Enanga, police spokesperson told reporters that three suicide bombers detonated themselves at a checkpoint at the Central Police Station and on the parliamentary avenue.
Enanga said the injured were rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital while counter-terrorism response teams managed to pursue a fourth suicide bomb attacker.
"They shot and injured him, and immediately after, recovered an unexploded improvised explosive device, at Nansana-Katooke, at his home, which the bomb squad were going to neutralize. We are now pursuing other members of the terror groups," Enanga said.
He said today's attacks show that there is still need to pre-empt, penetrate and prevent deadly attacks by domestic extremists in the days to come.
"For now, the bomb threats are still active, and cannot be solved in one go, which calls for the popular intelligence and vigilance of the community," he said.
Enanga said the blasts bear the hallmarks of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an affiliate of the Islamic State in central Africa.
"It clearly shows that the ADF linked radicalized groups, still have a desire to carry out lethal attacks, on soft targets, with suicide attackers and improvised explosive devices (IED)," Enanga said.
"These kinds of threats remain significant because IEDs and suicide bomb jackets can easily be built from common household items found in local markets, retail shops, and supermarkets," the police spokesperson added.
The latest attacks came about three weeks after two separate blasts, blamed on the ADF, killed two people and injured several others in central Uganda.
Flash
A gas explosion on Tuesday morning rocks a market in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, killing at least five people and injuring some others, an official said.
Ibrahim Farinloye, coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) in the Lagos state, told Xinhua on the phone a gas explosion happened at about 8:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday at a liquefied petroleum gas retailing center in a popular market in Lagos, resulting in casualties.
"Four adults, comprising three males and one female, were recovered dead," Farinloye said, adding a 10-year-old boy who was rescued alive died on his way to the hospital.
He said responders have put the fire out as rescue and recovery of bodies were ongoing.
Balogun Mubaraq, a resident in the area, told Xinhua many people with various degrees of burns have been rushed to a local hospital.
You are here: World
Flash
Law enforcement authorities from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand joined forces on Tuesday to conduct the 111th joint Mekong River patrol.
Two Chinese vessels departed for the patrol at 9 a.m. Tuesday from Jingha Port in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, said the Yunnan public security department.
Prior to the operation, the law enforcement authorities held video conferences to jointly analyze the current COVID-19 pandemic and public security situations in the river basin.
During the patrol, the four countries will carry out joint law enforcement activities in key waters of the river, and make every effort to ensure the security and stability of the river basin.
The Mekong River, known as the Lancang River in China, is a vital waterway for cross-border shipping.
China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have been carrying out joint patrols of the river since December 2011.
Flash
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday said that China and Africa should expand their pragmatic cooperation to create a better future for the 2.7 billion Chinese and African people.
Li made the remarks during his address at the 4th Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation, which he attended via video link.
Noting that the friendship between China and Africa is unbreakable, Li said China is willing to increase the aid of vaccines and anti-epidemic materials to Africa according to its needs, so as to build a solid defense line for people's health.
China is willing to further align each other's development strategies, strengthen the exchange of experiences in urban governance, poverty eradication, social construction and agricultural modernization, and promote cooperation between friendship cities, Li said.
He added that China will work with Africa to safeguard the common interests of developing countries, maintain the friendly tradition of mutual respect, equality, unity and cooperation, adhere to multilateralism, and support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.
Stressing the significance of exchanges and friendship between Chinese and African people, Li said with joint efforts of both sides, there is much to be achieved through cooperation between local governments of China and Africa.
About 300 political leaders from African countries and officials of local governments and relevant institutions from China and Africa attended the conference both online and offline.
Flash
Rehabilitation International (RI) held a virtual meeting for the Executive Committee of RI and the Governing Assembly of RI members Nov. 12 and 13.
Zhang Haidi, chairperson of RI, presided over the events.
The meetings were an opportunity for committee members to discuss the organization's finances, funds, centenary anniversary celebration and collaborative projects.
Likewise, the Governing Assembly of RI members passed the organization's financial audit report, membership application, work plan for 2022 and budget.
During her speech, Zhang said that with the support and participation of all members of the RI Executive Committee and RI members, it has made positive progress in its work.
RI has collaborated on multiple projects with various United Nations agencies, including the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization, Zhang said.
The group has also issued proposals on fostering more inclusive spaces for women with disabilities alongside the China Disabled Persons' Federation and the ESCAP, which was submitted to the UN secretary-general, Zhang said.
RI established and presented the RI Award for Outstanding Achievements, and proactively appealed to the international community to protect the rights and interests of individuals with disabilities, as the community fights against the COVID-19 pandemic. These endeavors have significantly enhanced RI's global influence, Zhang noted.
RI has funded a number of its members' projects related to people's wellbeing in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa. Additionally, RI used its website to outline its experience with the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has provided essential medical supplies to its members in hard-hit regions, as well as resources for children with disabilities. These activities have strengthened the organization's vitality and cohesion, said Zhang.
Notably, RI successfully held its 24th World Congress via video links.
Zhang pointed out that next year marks the centenary anniversary of the organization, and that RI should prepare for the celebration, and continue to present the RI Award for Outstanding Achievements.
She stressed that RI needs to optimize its organizational structure, secure additional funding, create more branded campaigns and promote the sustainable development of its cause.
The day before, I had walked out of the cafe without paying for my scone and coffee. Today I was back for another coffee and to make amends for my misdeed.
As the waitress heard my apology and was assessing my bill, she asked me how my day was. I told her that I had just received my second Pfizer jab this morning and was feeling fine. I had even been for a walk along the beach.
The waitress replied that I was fortunate. When she had received her first Pfizer jab, she had an adverse reaction which affected her heart and she was now on medication. The same thing had happened to her father but her mother had no adverse reaction to the vaccine.
She was worried about having the second jab and was undecided at the moment. She needed to balance concerns about her personal health with protecting her 10 year-old son from the virus.
After listening to her with empathy I responded, You should not feel under any pressure to take the second jab.
My words gave her some comfort.
The 90:10 rule
In New Zealand, there has been significant government pressure to take a double dose of the Pfizer vaccine and an inoculation target has been set at 90 percent.
Because of the government vaccination mandate, teachers, nurses, mid-wives and those on the frontline facing Covid at the border are being stood down if they refuse to take the vaccine.
Currently there is talk about introducing vaccine certificates after we reach the 90 percent threshold and operating a traffic light system that gives much more freedom to those who have been vaccinated compared to those who are not.
This means that unvaccinated people will not be able to go to public events, the hairdresser and restaurants if Covid is still in the community after 90 percent of the population are vaccinated.
The 90 percent vaccination target and proposed vaccine certificate plans are causing much division and angst in society.
It will also have an effect on church services with those who are unvaccinated being excluded from large church gatherings, and there would be a need for the church to police those who are vaccinated and those who are not.
I have friends who are fully vaccinated and a number of friends who do not wish to take the vaccine including a medical professional. Those against vaccination have weighed up the evidence and decided not to take the vaccine for various reasons, whatever the personal cost to them.
In some quarters, people who do not wish to take the vaccine are being painted as selfish, ignorant and conspiracy theorists.
I was at a public meeting last week when the issue of Covid in the community was raised and a person yelled out, Those people who are not fully vaccinated should be refused medical treatment. There were some nods in the room, such is the fear mongering around Covid.
There are many people who are taking the vaccine because they feel they have little choice.
I cannot remember a time when there has even been such a divisive issue since the Springbok rugby tour of 1981.
And I cannot remember a time in my lifetime when there has been a such a loud call for the persecution of a people group.
Whatever the perceived health reasons, the calls to persecute the unvaccinated are a grave injustice and representative of a society that feeds on punishment.
This is not the Christian way.
As Christians we dont follow the ways of the world. We demonstrate compassion, love and grace and make amends in this lost world. If someone is crushed we build them up.
I am not going to sit back and watch my non-vaccinated friends being persecuted. If they would like a coffee I will buy them a coffee. If they need a hairdresser I will find them a hairdresser.
Jesus did not bully people. Jesus healed the lepers (Luke chapter 17, verses 11-14) and had dinner with the tax collectors (Matthew chapter 9, verse 10). Jesus stood in the gap for our sins.
And never in recent times, has there been a greater call to faith. Faith in our traditional beliefs as followers of Jesus that there is only one way to walk in the light. Faith in the power of the cross, the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit.
I am going to try and walk in the way Jesus would, in love and grace, and make amends for those who do not wish to take the vaccine in this age of persecution and punishment. A voice of peace in these troubling times.
And may God shine His light on this situation, reveal the truth and set people free so his Word will bloom like the beautiful words in Psalm chapter 85.
Psalm chapter 85, verses 10-12
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
San Francisco, 17 Nov 2021: The Report Inhaled Nitric Oxide Delivery Systems Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Pediatric, Adult), By Application (HRF, AHRF), By Product (Disposables, Systems), By End User, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028
The global inhaled nitric oxide delivery systems market size is estimated to reach USD 434.2 million by 2028 registering a CAGR of 6.9%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. A rise in the cases of respiratory failure among neonates, increased pollution levels leading to lung diseases in adults, need for quick treatment response, and reduced complications are the factors driving the adoption of inhaled nitric oxide therapy. The presence of several small-scale manufacturers and research initiatives undertaken by major players to prove treatment efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 virus further enhances market growth.
Safe and effective treatment regimen, a rapid offset of action, reduced toxicity, high concentration of drug at the target organ, avoidance of systemic adverse reaction, and reduced dose of medication are some of the advantages of INO over other medications. This leads to the improved adoption of INO, potentially driving the market growth. Market leaders like Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals are providing fundings to conduct clinical trials of INO therapy to treat complications in COVID-19 patients. Such initiatives are said to boost the market growth during the forecasted period.
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Inhaled Nitric Oxide Delivery Systems Market Report Highlights
The pediatric type segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020 due to the rising usage of INO therapy on account of its efficacy and reduced complications
The Hypoxic Respiratory Failure (HRF) application segment held the largest revenue share in 2020
Hospitals was the largest revenue-generating segment in 2020 owing to the presence of funds and well-established infrastructure in this end-user setting
Asia Pacific was the largest regional market in 2020 due to the growing pediatric population, rise in the cases of respiratory diseases, and presence of local manufacturers of disposables
Some of the prominent companies are Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Getinge, Vero Biotech, LINDE, Beyond Air, SLE, Nu-MED, Bellerophon Therapeutics, Air Liquide Healthcare, and Circassia Pharmaceuticals
List of Key Players of Inhaled Nitric Oxide Delivery Systems Market
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
Getinge
Vero Biotech
LINDE
Beyond Air
SLE
NU MED
Bellerophon Therapeutics
Air Liquide Healthcare
Circassia Pharmaceuticals
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SINGAPORE, 17 November 2021 There are many individuals who are giving priority to their skin health because it is essential to have glowing skin to look younger and beautiful. A majority of people are trying to enhance the glow on their skin and eliminate acne by using several beauty products. On the skin, stubborn acne is the primary reason behind the frustration of many individuals. Using some beauty products can be problematic for people because some products create several skin problems. Many individuals also break the acne that leads to permanent scars on the skin. Due to the scars, people feel ugly, and they use many oils and creams to eliminate their acne scars. There are many individuals who are finding a perfect solution to get rid of acne scars, and they can obtain many acne scar removal treatments that can provide satisfactory results to everyone.
In the health universe, people have many treatments to eliminate scars, like radiofrequency microneedling, TCA Cross, fractional CO2 laser, erbium YAG lasers, fractional radiofrequency treatments, and much more, but it is quite confusable for people to choose one acne scar treatment. With the help of the best acne scar treatment, people get desired results in an effective way. A recent report stated that different individuals have different kinds of skin, and every kind of skin requires a different treatment to get better skin health. As far as acne scars are concerned, several kinds of acne scars are experienced by people, for example, icepick scars, rolling scars, boxed scars, and hypertrophic scars. A number of individuals in Singapore are struggling with these scars, and they want better treatment. There is a most trustworthy clinic named Ozhean Zoey that has the potential to provide the best treatment. Better is to click here or visit our official website to know more about the acne scar treatment singapore.
This clinic provides the best acne scar treatment to every individual and provides better results as soon as possible. It has highly skilled doctors who provide the best services to every person. The PICOMAX Laser Treatment Program, which is the most effective treatment, is a combination of three laser treatments, and it provides better results safely. This program contains three different lasers that have a huge role in improving skin health, for example, pro yellow laser, advanced nanolaser, and PICO laser. It provides services at a very reasonable price to every individual. One can visit this site to get complete insights about acne scar removal singapore.
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Global Facial Fat Transfer Market: Information by Target Area (Naso-Labial Folds, Lips, Marionette Folds, Temples, Chin, Under-Eye Area), Treatment (Dermal Fillers, Fat Injection, Others), End-User (Hospitals, Cosmetic Surgery Clinics, Others) and Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific & Middle East & Africa) Forecast till 2027
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Facial Fat Transfer Market is estimated to be valued at USD 7789.1 Million by 2025 and is expected to register a CAGR of 11.05% during the forecast period.
Facial fat transfer is a minimally invasive surgical procedure to move fat from an area of the body where it is plentiful and transfer it to the face to restore lost volume. The fat is gently removed using modern liposuction techniques and is then prepared for injecting into the face. Several dermal fillers are available in the market, designed to improve different parts of the face.
Segment Analysis
The Global Facial Fat Transfer Market has been segmented based on the target area, Treatment, End-User, and Region. Based on the target area, the market has been divided into naso-labial folds, lips, marionette folds, temples, chin, and under-eye area. Based on treatment, the market is further sub-segmented as dermal fillers, fat injections, and others. On the basis of end user, the market has been divided into hospitals, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others.
Regional Analysis
Geographically, the Global Facial Fat Transfer Market has been segmented into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. As per MRFR analysis, Americas were the largest market for facial fat transfer in 2018 and is expected to remain dominant during the review period. Increasing awareness regarding body aesthetics and the introduction of advanced technology in the facial rejuvenation industry are major factors that drive the growth of the facial fat transfer market in the American region.
Europe accounted for a significant market share and is projected to be the second-largest market during the forecast period. The increasing demand for minimally invasive cosmetic procedures is fueling the facial fat transfer market growth in European countries. For instance, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, in London, 2019, over 28,000 cosmetic procedures took place in 2018.
The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to register a significant growth rate during the forecast period. The majority of the companies in Asia-Pacific are committed to investing in research and development of facial fat transfer treatments, which will ultimately boost the growth of the market.
The growth of the Middle East and Africa facial fat transfer market is majorly attributed to developing healthcare infrastructure, and continuously increasing demand for facial fat transfer products. Africa holds the least share of the market due to the limited availability of funds and medical facilities.
Market Players
Market Research Future (MRFR) recognizes DR. Korman (Israel), Galderma Laboratories, L.P. (US), Integra LifeSciences Corporation (Israel), Merz Pharma (Germany), Allergan (Ireland), SciVision Biotech Inc (Taiwan), Suneva Medical, Inc (US), Bausch Health Companies Inc (Canada), Teoxane Laboratories (Switzerland), Ipsen Pharma (France), Sinclair Pharma (UK) as the key players in the Global Facial Fat Transfer Market.
Key Findings of the Study:
The Global Facial Fat Transfer Market is projected to reach over USD 7789.1 Million by 2025 at an 05 % CAGR during the review period of 2019 to 2025.
North America accounted for the largest market share, with the US being the major contributor to the growth of the market.
Based on the target area, the naso-labial folds segment is projected to register the highest CAGR of 11.51% during the forecast period owing to the rising prevalence of facial fat transfer cases.
On the basis of treatment, the dermal fillers segment accounted for the largest market share of 49.76% in 2018.
Based on end user, the hospitals segment accounted for the largest market share of 49.20% in 2018
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At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.
Market Highlights
Global Epilepsy Devices Market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.56% during the forecast period and is expected to hit USD 551.2 Million by 2027.
In epilepsy, the brain activity becomes abnormal, resulting in seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness. Although it could affect anybody irrespective of age and gender, its prevalence is significant and continuously increasing in the geriatric population.
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Epilepsy Research, UK (ERUK) launched a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) Grant Scheme with the aim of capacity building of the UK epilepsy research environment. ERUK is currently inviting applications from research institutes to apply for multiple linked Ph.D. studentships to commence 2021-2023. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the USS National Institutes of Health, had appropriated USD 154 million in 2017 for research on epilepsy. The appropriation rose to USD 188 million in 2019 and is estimated to reach USD 203 million by 2020. The notable studies and research institutes that NINDS has funded include The Epilepsy 4000 (Epi4K), The Center for SUDEP Research (CSR), The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBiosS4Rx), The Channelopathy-Associated Epilepsy Research Center (CAERC), and The Epilepsy Multiplatform Variant Prediction (EpiMVP). The Epilepsy Foundation awarded USD 200,000 to two of the finalists who competed in the 9th Annual Shark Tank Competition on August 27 at the 2020 Epilepsy Pipeline Conference, Maryland, US. This included a grant of USD 125,000 to a researcher for a medical-grade smart-mattress device known as Chorus to reposition individuals and stimulate them post-seizure to prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Similarly, National Institute for Health Researchs (UK) Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) program has awarded USD 6.6 million to fund a project investigating epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa in February 2020.
Segment Analysis
Global Epilepsy Devices Market has been segmented based on Product Type, Technology, Seizure Detection and Prediction Devices, and End Use.
On the basis of product type, the global epilepsy devices market is segmented into wearable devices, conventional devices, and implantable devices. The wearable devices segment is further segmented into watches, bracelets, camera devices, mattress devices, anti-suffocation pillows, and others.
On the basis of technology, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as vagus nerve stimulation, responsive neurostimulation, deep brain stimulation and accelerometry.
On the basis of seizure detection and prediction devices, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as seizure detection and prediction devices, electroencephalogram, intracranial EEG, surface electromyography, electrodermal activity, electrocardiography, video detection systems, implanted advisory systems, and others.
On the basis of end use, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as hospitals & clinics, neurology centers, home care settings, and others.
Regional Analysis
Global Epilepsy Devices Market, based on region, has been divided into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas accounted for a larger share of the global epilepsy devices market. The large share is majorly attributed to the presence of key device manufacturers, increasing adoption of innovative software for detection of seizures, technological advancements, and high disposable income. Boost in the research funding in the European region, rising government initiatives, increasing number of patients suffering from epilepsy, an increasing number of manufacturers, improving economies, high disposable income per individual, and increased healthcare spending are resulting in the high the growth of the market in this region. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to grow at a lucrative CAGR over the forecast period. A study funded by the Global Health Department of Sanofi and Grand Challenges Canada (grant number 032504) found that epilepsy affects more than 50 million people worldwide, 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). n Southeast Asia, the prevalence was moderate (6%). Around 1012 million people with epilepsy reside in India. A significant number of patients do not receive appropriate treatment, leading to a large treatment gap. A high prevalence and incidence of epilepsy has been reported in onchocerciasis-endemic regions in Central and East Africa. There is compelling epidemiological evidence suggesting that this high burden is caused by onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE).
Key Players
MRFR recognizes the following companies as the Key Players in the Global Epilepsy Devices Market Boston Scientific Corporation, Medpage Ltd (Easylink UK), Cerbomed GmbH (TVNS Technologies GmbH), Liva Nova (Cyberonics), Compumedics, Nihon Kohden, MC10, Empatica, Inc, Medtronic Plc, Neuropace, Inc, and Natus Medical Incorporated.
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At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
Market Highlights:
The Global Cochlear Implants Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.86% and is due to reach USD 3,203.8 Mn over the forecast period of 2017-2023, projects Market Research Future (MRFR) in a detailed report.Cochlear Implants are medical devices that are surgically inserted to provide a sense of sound to a person with hearing loss. The last few years have witnessed a significant increase in the demand for cochlear implants owing to the rise in a number of patients with hearing impairment who generate demand for diagnosis and treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that by 2025, 900 Mn people are likely to suffer from hearing impairment.The rise in global geriatric population is also expected to be a positive factor influencing the growth of the global cochlear implants market. The aged populace is more susceptible to hearing loss which induces high demand for cochlear implants.
There has been increased interest by medical device manufacturers to invest heavily in R&D activities which have led to the development of advanced cochlear implants. The increasing use of next-generation metals, polymers, ceramics and biomaterials in cochlear implants has resulted in enhancement of the value of surgery and improvement of surgical outcomes which has further accelerated the growth of the market.Other factors boosting the growth of the market include a rise in a number of clinical trials, improving reimbursement scenario in developing countries and an increase in the number of FDA approvals. Conversely, the cost of cochlear remains a significant hurdle to the growth of the global cochlear implants market. The estimated cost of a cochlear implant can go up to high amounts which might not be affordable to middle-class and low-income class population.
Segmentation:
Cochlear Implants Market Growth has been segmented based on product, type, and end user.
By Product, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into a cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.
By Types, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.
By End User, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, research & academic institutes, and others.
Regional Analysis:
The Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa are the key markets for cochlear implants. The Americas represent a significant market for cochlear implants owing to the presence of a vast patient population. Rising geriatric population, increasing demand for advanced treatment options and affordability are key factors determining the growth of the Americas market.Europe accounts for the second largest share of the global cochlear market. The Europe market is driven by strong government support, availability of funds for R&D activities and high expenditure on healthcare.
Asia Pacific follows Europe closely and is slated to be the fastest growing market over the forecast period. Rapid advancement in medical technology in the region and the presence of considerable patient pool in the region drives the market for cochlear implants. Also, improving reimbursement scenario, the growing need for better medical devices, and expanding expenditure on healthcare due to a rise in disposable income has created a conducive environment for the growth of the market. China and India are the key contributors to the APAC market.The MEA market accounts for the least share of the global cochlear implants market. Limited availability of medical facilities, poor economic conditions, and lack of awareness restricts the growth of the Africa market. Meanwhile, the well-developed economy in the Middle East offers growth opportunities for cochlear implants.
Competitive Landscape:
The notable players in the global cochlear implants market MED-El (Austria), Microson S.A. (Spain), Widex (Denmark), GAES MEDICA (Spain), Cochlear Ltd (Australia), William Demant Holding Group (Denmark), Advanced Bionics AG (Switzerland).
Industry Updates:
In August 2018, Advanced Bionics, a global leader in cochlear implants, announced FDA approval for its new HiRes Ultra 3D Cochlear Implant. The new cochlear implant is hassle-free and pain-free choice for patients and is equipped with a unique magnet technology.
In November 2018, researchers at Asan Medical Center (AMC) developed artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction platform for cochlear implant surgery. The platform can provide rapid diagnoses, treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing loss.
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Medical Ceramics Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027
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Minister Gautam Reddy said that in order to support hybrid working models as well as work from anywhere for extended periods, AP is providing co-working spaces closer to employees homes with facilities like uninterrupted power supply, high speed broadband connectivity through leased lines, dedicated workstations and clean spaces. (DC Image)
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh is launching Work from Hometown (W@HT) centres for IT and ITeS employees /employers and freelancers in 29 locations on a pilot basis.
AP Information Technology, electronics and communications department in coordination with APSSDC, APNRT, APIS, APSCHE would set up these centres in various engineering colleges and APIS facilities in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Tirupati.
Minister for IT, Mekapati Gautam Reddy, launched the website of the project at an event here on Tuesday. He said AP is the first in the country to launch these centres to help those in these sectors who worked from home due to the Covid19 pandemic and are facing difficulty with critical requirements such as high-speed internet, uninterrupted power supply, dedicated work space etc.
He said that as pandemic was seemingly receding, IT/ITeS companies are evaluating options like going back to the pre-Covid scenario of working from offices, letting employees work in a hybrid model by letting them work for a few days a week from anywhere and continuing to let them work remotely full time.
Minister Gautam Reddy said that in order to support hybrid working models as well as work from anywhere for extended periods, AP is providing co-working spaces closer to employees homes with facilities like uninterrupted power supply, high speed broadband connectivity through leased lines, dedicated workstations and clean spaces.
Work from Hometown pilot centres are being set up in locations across the state. Each centre shall have a seating capacity that could accommodate a minimum of 30 employees. Request from any IT/ITES company requiring a dedicated centre for itself will be considered, he said.
Officials said, based on demand, the ITE&C department also plans to scale up and expand the Work from Hometown spaces by leveraging existing infrastructure in 102 CM Excellence Centres, 500 colleges, 20 engineering colleges, as also APIS and APIIC facilities in the near future. These could accommodate nearly 100,000 IT/ITeS employees.
Interested IT/ITeS employees and employers may contact 9988853335 or visit www.apit.ap.gov.in/wfht/ for further information and registrations, officials added.
This after the Telangana State government and the wholesale fruit commission agents and traders of Gaddiannaram Market stuck to their guns over the issue of shifting of the market from Gaddiannaram to Batasingaram by filing several petitions. (DC Image)
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court decided to ascertain facts about the facilities and infrastructure provided on a temporary basis at the Batasingaram fruit market till the Koheda Market premises works are completed for full-fledged trading.
This after the Telangana State government and the wholesale fruit commission agents and traders of Gaddiannaram Market stuck to their guns over the issue of shifting of the market from Gaddiannaram to Batasingaram by filing several petitions.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satishchandra Sharma and Justice Rajashekar Reddy on Tuesday appointed advocate K Vinaykumar as the Court Commission to report on the ground situation at the Batasingaram market. They would inspect the premises and take statements from traders, who have already commenced the business activities there.
This directions were issued by the division bench while dealing with the contempt case and other appeals and petitions filed by the wholesale fruit commission agents association, complaining that they were not being allowed into Gaddiannaram market, despite the court orders dated October 4, 2021.
In this order, the court had directed the state government and the agricultural market committee to allow the agents and traders to do trading activities at the Gaddiannaram market premises till further orders.
The bench questioned the official respondents as to why they were disregarding the court orders and noted that there are no subsequent directions supporting the government decision in declaring a holiday for Gaddiannaram market. The court said trading activities must be allowed.
The court responded positively to a request from government counsel Aandavelli Sanjeev Kumar to appoint a Court Commission and send it to immediately ascertain the ground situation at Batasingaram market premises before issuing any directions.
Further, counsel submitted that the government will comply with the orders issued by the court once the report of the commission is received. He prayed before the court that facts will come out by evening if the commission would do an inspection immediately.
He submitted that a group of traders who are not interested in the shifting of the market from Gaddiannaram is trying to buy time by filing the petitions. But, the government is firm that it would build a super specialty hospital in 22 acres of the Gaddiannaram market area and some of funds have been allocated. If there is a delay in shifting, the construction of the hospital would be delayed, he said.
Gangaiah Naidu, senior counsel for traders, informed the court that the AMC officials with the help of the police are not permitting trade to take place at the Gaddiannaram fruit market despite court orders asking the officials not to force the traders to shift from there. He disputed the contentions of Sanjeev Kumar and said the facilities created at Batasingaram are not sufficient and it is not conducive for the traders and commission agents to shift to Batasingaram and perform the trading there.
The petitioner traders have earlier submitted to the court that they were ready to shift the market to Koheda, which is a permanent place created by the government, after the works are completed there. But, they opposed shifting to Batasingaram, it being a temporary place.
The government`s contention is that the works will be completed at Koheda in a years time. If it waited till then, the hospital project would be delayed.
The team has completed its month-long training and will be deputed to drive the solid waste management vehicles in different Taluks. (Photo source: Arrangements with Zilla Panchayat)
Karwar: For the first time in the region, a womens team is ready to drive the waste management vehicles in the rural areas of Uttara Kannada districts.
Uttara Kannada district has 12 Taluks and major portion of the district is covered by villages. The Uttara Kannada Zilla Panchayat is concentrating on effective solid waste management in every Panchayat through the Self Help Groups (SHGs). In this effort, it is also concentrating on deploying women in the task.
Ten women who expressed interest were provided training at Canara Bank RSETI at Haliyal. The team has completed its month-long training and will be deputed to drive the solid waste management vehicles in different Taluks.
These women are not just drivers but will be in charge of head solid waste collection in their respective units. They will drive the solid waste collection vehicles, ensure segregation of the waste and also hand over the plastic, dry waste to the concerned vendors.
All this needs proper training, which was provided at the RSETI.
We identified 10 women from various SHGs and provided them free training for 30 days. They will be sent to respective Panchayats. We will start the training for the second set by this month-end. Looking at the first batch, we expect more women to express their interest, Zilla Panchayat CEO Priyanga M told Deccan Chronicle.
The women will also be provided financial awareness, Yoga training, and packing system, she added.
New Delhi: Determined on an impartial, fair and just investigation into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Supreme Court Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the probe by Uttar Pradesh SIT which will also get three IPS officers who are not the natives of the state.
Observing that while investigating such offences, justice must not only be done, but also be seen and perceived to be done, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana ordered reconstitution of the SIT and ordered the induction IPS officers -- S B Shiradkar, Padmaja Chauhan and Preetinder Singh.
Shiradkar, an IPS officer of 1993 batch from Maharashtra and presently serving as ADG Intelligence in Uttar Pradesh, will head the SIT, the apex court said in its order.
We thus deem it appropriate to reconstitute the SIT hereinafter to preserve the faith and trust of people in the Criminal Administration of the Justice System. Further, to assure full and complete justice to the victims of crime, we are inclined to order that the ongoing investigation be monitored by a retired High Court Judge, who too may not have his roots in the State of Uttar Pradesh.
We, therefore, appoint Justice (Retd.) Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the ongoing investigation so as to ensure transparency, fairness and absolute impartiality in the outcome of the investigation in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident which is to be conducted in a time-bound manner, said the bench which also comprised justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli,
Stressing on the need of a fair and just probe, the top court said that given the nascent stage of the investigation, it was reluctant to make any observation on the merits of the case as that would have an impact on the parties involved and influence the prosecuting agency as well as the courts which would ultimately look into the case.
This Court is equally concerned about guaranteeing an impartial, fair, just and thorough investigation into the incident which has resulted in such a tragic loss of lives of protesters as well as some other persons, it said while proposing to appoint the former Judge to monitor the probe and inducting new members in the SIT to conduct the investigation uninfluenced by any consideration.
The UP government consented to the proposal leading to the appointment of the former judge and the reconstitution of the SIT which has been asked to make all efforts to conclude the investigation expeditiously and file the charge sheet.
The State of Uttar Pradesh is directed to provide all perks, facilities, emoluments, secretarial assistance and any other related requirements equivalent to the post of a sitting High Court Judge (minus the pension) to the learned Monitoring Judge. Post the matter for hearing on receipt of a Status Report from the Monitoring Judge, after the charge sheet is filed, the bench ordered.
The top court, which had expressed disapproval on the slow pace, manner and outcome of the investigation conducted so far, took note of the fact that the present SIT predominantly comprised middle level/subordinate level police officers posted in district Lakhimpur Kheri and ordered reconstitution.
It appears to us that in spite of their perceived commitment and sincerity in carrying out the investigation, there may still be a lurking suspicion in respect of the fairness and independence of such an investigation.
"We, therefore, deem it appropriate to direct reconstitution of the SIT infused with directly recruited IPS officers who do not hail from the State of UP though are allocated to UP Cadre. It goes without saying that the SIT shall utilise the latest forensic investigative methods to reach the truth, the order said.
The newly constituted SIT shall be free to seek assistance or include local officers for taking the ongoing investigation to its logical conclusion under the continuous monitoring of Justice Jain, it said.
The CJI had said earlier in the day that the bench had decided to appoint Justice Jain to supervise on a day-to-day basis the Uttar Pradesh SIT's probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.
The CJI had said that the detailed order will be passed later in the day.
Now we have verified and contacted the concerned judge we had thought of. This is Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and he will monitor the ongoing investigation so as to ensure transparency and fairness, the bench said.
The UP government on November 15 had agreed to the apex court's suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SIT's probe.
Prior to this, the apex court had said it had no confidence and did not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the UP government to continue the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government earlier to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
We are inclined to appoint a former judge of a different high court to monitor the investigation on a day-to-day basis and then see how the separate charge sheets are eventually prepared, the bench had said.
Speaking for the bench, Justice Surya Kant had suggested the names of justices Ranjit Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, both former judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and said that they are experienced in the field of criminal law and would oversee the probe of the SIT till filing of the charge sheets in the cases.
The police have 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 the matter of 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.
Sanjay Kumar interacted with paddy farmers at Chivvemula paddy purchasing centre and assured them to fight for their problems.(DC Image)
CHIVVEMULA (SURYAPET): BJP state president and MP Bandi Sanjay was confronted by ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) activists during his second day of visit to Suryapet district on Tuesday, while trying to visit paddy purchasing centres.
Waving black flags, TRS activists raised slogans Bandi Sanjay go back at VK Pahad Crossroad in Chivvemula mandal. A few activists allegedly pelted stones on the convoy of BJP president at Chivvemula and Atmakur (S) villages. The police resorted to mild lathi-charge to disperse the unruly mob.
Due to the protest of TRS activists, Sanjay Kumar was forced to sit in his vehicle for half-an- hour. As a result, vehicular traffic on Suryapet-Khammam road was disrupted. BJP leaders argued with the police officers to allow them to visit paddy farmers. Finally, Sanjay Kumar interacted with paddy farmers at Chivvemula paddy purchasing centre and assured them to fight for their problems. The police were deployed in large numbers during the BJP presidents visit and to prevent any untoward incident.
Speaking on the occasion, Sanjay Kumar said for the last one month, farmers were waiting to sell paddy. On the pretext of moisture content and foreign matter, officials refused to purchase paddy, he alleged. Sanjay Kumar demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao should respond to the distress of paddy farmers and immediately take up paddy procurement.
Meanwhile, speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Venkat Reddy, a farmer of Chivvemula village said they were waiting to sell paddy at Chivvemula primary agriculture cooperative society paddy purchasing centre. For the last two days, we have been trying to dry up the paddy to get the minimum support price, he said. There are no middlemen to purchase the paddy, we depend on Indira Kranthi Patham purchasing centres, he explained.
YSRCP leaders and activists celebrating after winning the Municipality elections at the Central office near Tadepalli on Wednesday. (Photo:DC)
Nellore: Showcasing its grip over the district once again, the YSR Congress recorded a spectacular victory in the Nellore Municipal Corporation and grabbed the Buchireddypalem Urban Local Body. The ruling party leaders are on cloud nine and its cadre is in a celebratory mood across the state.
In Nellore, the party won all the 54 divisions. YSRC leaders especially Nellore city legislator and water resources Minister Anilkumar Yadav and Nellore rural legislator Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy said they were confident of a clean sweep right from day one, after the filing of nominations for the civic polls.
The two started identifying strong candidates for the 54 divisions two months before the notification and managed to woo many TD contenders into the YSR Congress fold. On the other hand, TD poll managers had a tough time identifying candidates and the selection process remained incomplete till about the eleventh hour. To their shock, some of the contesting candidates of TD withdrew from the fray after collecting B-forms.
In spite of the setbacks, TD was hoping to win at least 5 to 10 divisions but drew a blank. In the backdrop of rumours over some TD leaders working against party nominees and joining hands with the ruling party, feelings are rife that the time has come for TD and its chief Chandrababu Naidu to introspect the reasons for the humiliating defeat.
Notably, the TD had lost all the 46 ZPTC seats to the ruling party a few months ago. As a result, there is no opposition to the ruling party both in Nellore Municipal Corporation and the Zilla Parishat.
Sources in YSRC said they are likely to pick Deverakonda Sujatha, Corporator from 53rd division, for the Mayor post and Roopkumar Yadav (40th division), a close associate of minister Anilkumar, for the deputy mayor post. The second deputy mayor post is likely to go to a Reddy.
Meanwhile, the YSRC won 18 wards in Buchireddypalem Urban Local Body and the TD ended up with just two wards out of the total 20. Kovur legislator Nallapareddy Prasannakumar commended the local party leaders for the victory.
A rendering of the early plan for the US 27 Corridor in Newport shows the one lane going each way with a turn lane down the middle. by Robi...
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Joe Biden neglects the UK seeking a trade deal after the UK PM Boris Johnson has lobbied personally and supported the US president over several issues. This is what the so-called special relationship has come to, a big nothing which should force London to consider if the actions of the US president befit what amounts to a snub.
How the UK will react in the apparent disinterest shown by a key ally depends on the PM.
Instead of bolstering Downing Street, Washington let it down by choosing the European Union in the Northern Ireland protocol. Another is sustaining French leader Emmanuel Macron in the fishing rights and saying the AUKUS deal was terrible.
US chooses trade deal with EU instead of Brexit only
The US leader, according to sources, will push Brexit aside and go to the EU for a free trade deal, stated an expert about what could amount as appeasement to get bloc favor, reports the Express UK.
Biden once again leaves Boris Johnson, but before this, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has secured more free trade deals with other nations.
More than ever, the ties between London and Washington are one on geopolitical issues. But many US leaders have chosen a European bloc that included the UK, not just Britain only.
Previously the White House told the British PM, who was looking for a trade deal in September, did not seem interested in free trade deal, cites AP News. But despite how the British PM made a top priority, Joe Biden ignored the UK, seeking a trade deal again.
Read Also: Does the Special Relationship Still Hold Between the US President, UK PM After No Agreements Reached in Several Meetings?
An expert's prognosis on free trade deal with US
According to Professor Rob Singh, an expert in US politics and policy at Birkbeck, University of London, the Biden Administration wants a united Europe since World War Two, and Brexit is not preferred. If the UK were still a part of the EU, that would get it a trade deal, but that's not the case even with the special relationship.
But Prof. Singh said there are still ties with Washington, but Britain going solo has been traumatic with Brussels, some chinks are showing. The White House may be very inclined to impose its will on the European nation like Article 16.
On a sour note, the professor said that Downing Street might be seen as asking for scraps from Joe Biden. He added that Britain and the United States are not in synchronicity, and the current White House will not accord the particular relationship importance, noted News 7 Trends.
One of the reasons to push for Brexit is that it will be easy to access free trade deals with Washington, but it was not so beneficial, especially in the case of Joe Biden.
Prof. Singh remarked that an FTA (free trade deal) is a pipe dream, but he added if the White House gave one, it would not be suitable for Britain.
Most of the trade deals that are still in effect are legacy agreements carried over from EU membership. He stressed that any trade deal is vital for Brexit though it's not that big. But the US wants the EU as its partner, so London is way sided.
Joe Biden neglects the UK seeking a trade deal. As explained by Prof. Singh, maybe Brexit should move on and pursue other partners who would respect history like a special relationship, which is disregarded.
Related Article: Joe Biden Abandons Britain in the North Ireland Protocol, Threatens Similar Appeasement in Favor of the EU
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Plain as day, Putin outfoxes NATO on the Ukraine Border with overwhelming forces that can move at a moment's notice. It would leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in an unprepared state that would be deadly for its troops.
The EU has regarded Russian President Vladimir Putin as an adversary, especially the US using NATO allies to bait the Kremlin.
Movement ordered by the Kremlin in exercises that have moved personnel and armor the Ukrainian border has defanged any timely reaction by the NATO forces. Kyiv and the Allies are shocked by the move of the Russian army.
Kyiv can be taken?
Jen Stoltenberg remark how the allies should be aware of the threat the Russian Army poses. A report by US intelligence claimed the Kremlin might be trying to start an invasion, like in 2014 when Crimea was annexed, reported the Express UK.
This time, the immigrant surge continues close to the Belarusian and Polish border that has placed the EU at odds. Although they are saying in Brussels, it's all the handiwork of the Kremlin leader.
Stoltenberg remarked to the military drills ordered by the Kremlin in the west part of Russia, where the last few weeks had a massive movement of troops that was not the usual.
Russian mobilization in the town Kamensk-Shakhtinsky. ~14km away from the border with Ukraine. Tried to count. It's something about 2300 vehicles with a margin of + - 200#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/0y1JFIbNAM Amun (@Amun369) November 2, 2021
He added that Moscow is ready to deploy that kind of military capability to start aggressive actions directed at Ukraine, cited News 7 Trends. NATO is alert and keeping tabs on the situation, coordinating their movements with the European Union and Kyiv over the moves of Russian assets. Although mentioning that any sign of aggression is to be dealt with, Putin Outfoxes NATO on the Ukraine Border.
#ALERT
Hundreds of Russian tanks are now parked on the Ukrainian border, as #Russia continues aggressive military build-up on its border with #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/7mOoMUqkDl Terror Alarm (@terror_alarm) November 12, 2021
Read also: Ukraine Fears Russian Reprisal After Drone Attack; Putin Deploys Armored Units To Protect Cities Close to Shared Border
War fears on the border
Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba met with the NATO chief and spoke about the threat of Moscow's advanced hardware and military organization; he is seemingly primed to overcome his nation's defenses.
It is not comforting that satellite images show a massive Russian force that gathered close to the Ukraine border in the past weeks.
Most of the advanced hardware is arrayed in the area close by the Donbass region, where the Ukraine secessionists are encamped for the meantime.
Mr. Stoltenberg stated that the Kremlin be more transparent about how it deploys its forces in the region. Or there will be an undue escalation that should be vented off.
He added that Ukraine has a friend in NATO. Also, NATO will not agree to the illegal annexation of Crime; another is to stop support for the separatists at Donbass, noted Euro News.
NATO allies are together in condemning what Russia is doing on the border. Immediately, the Kremlin called the alliance too jumpy. It is not Moscow but NATO trying to provoke Russia, the reverse of everything.
The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is charged with the influx of migrants to overload the Polish border and sow chaos with Latvia and Lithuania. He is under sanctions from Brussels too.
Belarus from October 2020 has been under restricted measures as well. One of the reasons is the elections of 2020 where Lukashenko won were not legitimate. Lukashenko represses free speech against his regime; he contests the sanctions.
Putin outfoxes NATO on the Ukraine Border that says keep out of Kremlin business. One more America cannot stop Russia either. It is using the alliance as cannon fodder. The EU is overloading at the Polish border that tells how ill-prepared for a war it is.
Related article: Putin Says That the EU Should Recompense Belarus to Stem Migrant Flow Into Poland; Citing Turkey in 2016
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Beachgoers in Crimea, Ukraine was shocked when they noticed bones stick out from the sand in what was assumed to be a Karaite Jewish cemetery. The scene would have come out of a horror movie from Hollywood, except this was the actual thing.
Skeletons on a Crimean beach
No one knows how old the Jewish ancient burial site is yet, so it's speculation for now. The police were informed of the human bones in the sand but later verified it came from an earlier undetermined burial date, so no further investigation was needed. It horrified beachgoers as the human remains were exposed by the erosion of the old beach site in Ukraine, reported the Sun UK.
Images of the scene recorded on video showed human bones partly revealed by the crumbling cliff, including a spinal column, skull, and other bones protruding from the sand. Over time, the rain has eroded the bank that had several skeletons exposed, speculated to be those buried in the Jewish time.
Alexander Shkonda, the local council chairman in Okunevsky, Crimea, spoke to the media about his request to keep the cemetery a protected area in 2015 but was not granted till now, cited Techno Trendz.
One problem he encountered was that the beach was not public land, and the local authorities could not decide on the matter. Because of that, the skeletons and gravesite are vulnerable and cannot be protected, and now there are fears of the skeletons falling onto the beach below.
Landowners are supposed to start building but halted upon discovering the old Jewish burial site in Ukraine, which they never expected to come across. They stopped the construction even after all the materials were ready.
Read Also: Archaeologists Discover Almost 10,000 Skeletons in Hidden Medieval Graveyard in the City of Hull with Mysterious Finds
Efforts in preserving the burial site
Mr. Shkonda has started another appeal to the government to issue a protective edict for the graves. He added that scholars are not definite when the cemetery dates from, although there were other instances when eroded earth has revealed skeletons in Ukraine.
Locals think it's a Karaite Jew graveyard, not too many remain of them. Most are found in Ukraine, the US, and Israel, where they live mostly. In other places like in the United Kingdom, a month ago, there were 80 skeletons discovered on a building site that sent an investigation rolling after, noted the Mirror UK.
Many of the bodies found had their hands tied behind them. These bodies were dug up in a strip of farmland in Birmingham, thought to have laid there for several hundred years.
Initially, it was thought to be a simple strip for erecting a structure that would have been a 72-bed home for the elderly. The developer was able to get an archaeological investigation for planning when it was uncovered a year earlier.
everything was done, the human remains were taken from the West End Farm off Brackley Road. What was left was the hole where they dug up all the skeletons. However, the archeological report was not shown.
Finding out all the bones were taken from the plot of land and no investigation on the site, one local councilor asked how the bones were taken by whoever. The Buckinghamshire Council is supposed to have a report on the incident. Looking at the sorry state of the Jewish burial site with bones sticking out in the beach located in Ukraine gave creepy horror vibes that need protection and preservation.
Related Article: Deadman's Island Is Off-Limits to Visitors As Human Remains, Open Coffins Surround the Area Resembling Horror Movie Scenes
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The EU is caught in the center of turmoil, as Joe Biden is scoured for enabling Russia to use geopolitical weapons like gas and the pipeline used to make Brussel wince for energy, causing crisis for the bloc, while the Kremlin runs circles around the US and its allies.
For Vladimir Putin, its just business as usual keeping the nation's interests, and the EU at bay. But his activities put US President Joe Biden in hot water with his allies, as his critics are not happy about the domino effect of his actions.
Biden empowered Russia through the Nord Stream 2
Biden has been shellacked for allowing the gas pipeline to be used against the European Union that Putin has managed to its advantage, reported the Express UK.
The source of the wave of criticism that should have been a top priority is the Nord Stream 2, which has been transformed into an effective geopolitical weapon. The Russian president has allegedly used it to control the EU.
Building the pipeline from Russia to Germany is smart because it bypasses Poland and Ukraine, to avoid EU laws. However, Putin allegedly lessened the amount of natural gas through the system to starve Europe of gas supplies.
Before Brussels realized that the Kremlin had controlled the supply of the natural gas market, came a high gas price that would be followed by an energy crisis.
Tensions rise as gas prices skyrocket
Amid the energy crisis, Vladimir Putin and Gazprom, Russia's biggest supplier of gas, acknowledged they were keeping up with the contracts with its client nations. But, the two came under fire from the international community.
Read also: Russia Probes EU's Reaction in the Ongoing Migrant Crisis at the Poland-Belarus Border
Brussels was angry that Putin was had used the Nord stream 2 and weaponized it against them as a geopolitical weapon, cited The Swift Headline.
It gets overboard as the tension is getting sky-high, with natural gas hitting a trickle in Ukraine. More problems surface as a buildup of 100,000 Russian forces are knocking at Kyiv's doorstep, noted the DW.
Russia-Ukraine war could break out
Yuri Vitrenko, CEO of Naftogaz, had stated that a war between Ukraine and Russia is just close by, which sent shudders to NATO and the US, especially the unsuspecting benefactor in the White House.
Vitrenko said that the worst that can happen is for the pipes in Ukraine to go dry, next is alleged blackmail that will follow to a full-on war.
He added that the Kremlin can forego Crimea, get Donbass and the occupied regions. For Vladimir Putin who will add Ukraine as another annex to Russian territory.
For many it is Joe Biden's weakness in doing something preventable but he allowed it to happen, which Trump would be more decisive by far. Biden was warned not to let up on the Kremlin but he allowed it.
In the US, the GOP of Arizona that he is why gas prices are climbing fast, and he will shut down another pipeline, that is a big mistake.
Joe Biden is scoured for enabling Russia to control the gas flow, then he blames Russia and OPEC for not increasing the supply. His energy policies do not seem not sound which leads the Kremlin getting the upper hand, which places the west in Putin's palms.
Related Article: Moscow Calls UK Foreign Secretary Insincere, Blames the EU for the Border Mess
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During a virtual meeting on Monday night, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed tensions and deepening disputes over Taiwan.
Despite escalating tensions with China over Taiwan, the US has restated its "rock-solid" support for the self-ruled island. Although the People's Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan, it claims sovereignty over the island, which it regards as part of its territory under the "one China" principle.
Biden reaffirmed US' commitment to Taiwan
Last month, Biden surprised onlookers when he claimed the US was "committed" to protecting Taiwan from a Chinese military strike, Newsweek via MSN reported. Soon later, the White House pulled back the statements. During a news conference prior to the Biden-Xi summit, a senior administration official emphasized that US policy on Taiwan had been constant.
The White House said that at the conclusion of the three-hour virtual summit, President Biden reaffirmed the United States' commitment to its own "one China" policy, which is distinct from China's "principle" policy and is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances.
Taiwan, or the Republic of China, has been self-governing since 1949, following a split at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Following the normalization of ties with China, formal diplomatic contacts between the United States and Taiwan were severed in 1979. Since then, though, Washington and Taipei have maintained a strong informal relationship.
China wants to "reunify" Taiwan and has never ruled out a military invasion of the democratic island. The prospect of American military participation in the event of a conflict has remained a particularly complicated matter in US-Chinese relations. "Strategic ambiguity" refers to the purposeful opacity surrounding the American reaction.
Read Also: Russia Starts Delivering Advanced Defense Missile Supplies To India Despite US Sanctions Risk
US, China agree to cooperate on several issues
Per SCMP, when they met for a virtual summit on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US colleague Joe Biden both emphasized the significance of cooperation. While there is no full record of the meeting, which lasted over three hours and included a wide variety of issues, the Chinese foreign ministry and the White House have provided readouts summarizing the events.
According to a White House statement, Biden expressed concern over China's "practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as human rights more broadly." Xi again emphasized the significance of "respect" between the US and China, but he did not specifically address the Xinjiang, Tibet, or Hong Kong concerns.
"Although it's not as good as a face-to-face meeting. I'm very happy to see my old friend," Xi said as the summit got underway, as per 7News.
Given the deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing and the reality, acknowledged by administration officials, that managing the US relationship with China will amount to Biden's most important international objective, it was an auspicious start to some of the most important talks of Biden's presidency.
Biden also restated his commitment to working with allies and partners, including Australia, to "stand up for" the United States' "interests and values."
Biden said the US government intended to "ensure the rules of the road for the twenty-first century promote an international system that is free, open, and fair," citing the need to unite with Australia and other international partners to take on the problems of our time.
Related Article: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping Virtual Meeting: US To Focus More on Infrastructure Despite Questions Swirling Over COVID-19 Origins and Hunter
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United States President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping recently held a virtual summit where they would discuss various international issues, including nuclear weaponry and Taiwan's independence amid rising tensions.
As the talks began, Democratic Biden said that he had spent a lot of time discussing with Xi in previous meetings, expressing his hopes of having a meaningful summit with the Chinese president. Xi showed a similar demeanor while sitting inside the Great Hall of the People of Beijing.
Biden-Xi Virtual Summit
When the summit started, the Chinese president said that while he was disappointed he was unable to see Biden face-to-face, he was happy to see an "old friend." The talks marked a hopeful start to what many consider to be the most critical talks between the two leaders during Biden's presidency.
In recent months, Washington and Beijing have suffered a deteriorating relationship due to various international issues. Administration officials acknowledged the situation while they were managing the U.S. relationship with China that they consider being the Democratic president's most crucial international goal, CNN reported.
During their talks, the two presidents agreed to arms control talks as China is looking to boost its nuclear armament, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday. The virtual summit between Biden and Xi lasted for three hours and had the U.S. president raising the need for "strategic stability" as his relationship with the Asian nation continues to be on shaky grounds.
Read Also: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping Seem To Disagree on Everything in First Summit; China Warns US is "Playing With Fire" Over Taiwan
In a virtual panel with the Brookings Institute, Sullivan said that Biden and Xi were looking to develop this strategic stability. The official argued that it was only right for everyone to carry the process from here on out.
Plans on having such talks were not announced by either the White House or China's foreign ministry after the virtual summit. However, the two parties' agreement to hold arms control discussions signals a turnaround of decision from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Fox News reported.
International Issues
One of the most controversial topics that Biden and Xi discussed during the virtual summit was Taiwan's independence and China's continued aggression to reclaim the island nation. Beijing sees Taiwan as a province that separated itself from the mainland and wishes to unify the two regions.
While the United States recognizes and has formal ties with China, it has also committed to supporting Taiwan to defend itself in case of an attack. Amid the rising tensions between China and Taiwan, Beijing blamed the issues on "repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China," said the China-run Global Times newspaper.
The state-run media added that such moves were "extremely dangerous" and compared it to playing with fire, arguing that anyone who does so will only get burnt. In a statement, the White House said President Biden "strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," BBC reported.
Related Article: China Defends Joining India on Coal "Phase Down" Instead of "Phase-Out" as Beijing Hits Production at All-Time Highs
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Kim Jong Un, North Korea's leader, made his first public appearance in over a month, visiting a new state-developed alpine metropolis branded as a "model" communist "utopia," as he seeks to secure his legacy amid severe food shortages.
Kim's journey to the northern city of Samjiyon, which was announced in state media on Tuesday, comes as he enters his tenth year as leader of a country, cut off from the rest of the world since the coronavirus outbreak began.
With its ski slopes, commercial and medical facilities and housing for tens of thousands of people, the city on China's border paints a totally different picture than a country beset by great poverty.
Kim Jong Un visits "model rural city"
Per the Washington Post, experts say Samjiyon is a big economic initiative planned by Pyongyang to demonstrate that the country is flourishing despite international sanctions over its nuclear program.
Kim claimed that the city's structures symbolize the "lofty allegiance, powerful will, and sweat of our people," as well as North Korea's "iron will" to "achieve prosperity our own way," according to the regime's official Korean Central News Agency.
The city lies close to Mount Paektu, which is revered as the birthplace of North Korea and from which the Kim family claims descent. It was supposed to be finished by last year's 75th anniversary of the country's ruling Workers' Party, but the pandemic hampered work.
Kim's visit coincided with the completion of the final phase of construction, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. "As Kim Jong Un approaches his 10-year anniversary, this is all about consolidating his legacy," said Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Wilson Center. "Kim wants to bolster the illusion that he is carrying out a divine mandate to govern."
Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, has recently been the target of health-related speculations. Kim hasn't been seen in public since last month, when he delivered an address at a defense exhibition. On Tuesday, official media claimed that he had visited the building site of a new city near the Chinese border.
North Korea has not provided an official reason for Kim's absence. His disappearances from official media have sparked speculation about his health and location in the past, as per Express.co.
Read Also: Russia, US Reach Agreement To Continue Monitoring Emissions; What's Behind Kremlin's Shift in Tune on Climate Change?
North Korea joins hypersonic missile race
Last month, South Korea's spy service claimed that Kim was in good health. Kim vanished from public view for many weeks in April 2020. His disappearance sparked rumors that he was recuperating from heart surgery, had acquired COVID-19, or had died. Regardless, the North Korean leader reappeared in state media reporting, putting a stop to speculations of his illness.
North Korea declared the launch of a hypersonic missile in September, possibly placing the Hermit Kingdom on the verge of deploying one of the world's most advanced offensive weapon categories.
According to official media agency KCNA, the new missile, designated the Hwasong-8, is a major priority under the country's five-year military development program. The phrase "strategic" was used by North Korean authorities to describe the new weapon, implying that the Hwasong-8 is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The missile's parameters are unknown at this time. The lone photo accompanying the testing shows, but does not prove, that the Hwasong-8 is a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle (HGV) system, according to analysts. HGVs are one of two types of hypersonic missiles, with hypersonic cruise missiles being the other.
HGVs are launched from a conventional rocket booster before detaching and gliding toward their destination. Experts say these missiles are extremely difficult to intercept due to their extreme speed and unpredictable flight path.
While the Hwasong-8 made the news on Wednesday, the KCNA article disclosed another "bombshell" that might just be as significant. North Korea's hypersonic goals have been in the works for years, National Interest reported.
Related Article: Kim Jong Un's Longest Absence in Seven Years Sparks Fresh Health Rumors After North Korean Leader Disappeared for Over a Month
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In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will get surprise stimulus payments of $2,000 and $1,000. As part of their state-level COVID-19 rehabilitation program, a number of states aim to assist citizens who live there. The bonus money will be distributed to 14 different entities in 14 different states.
Unemployed citizens in Arizona can take use of the state's back-to-work program. Those who return to part-time employment are entitled for a $1,000 stipend. Those who return to full-time employment may be eligible for a $2,000 bonus.
Who's eligible in every state's stimulus checks?
Per The Sun, California citizens who had to submit their 2020 tax returns 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 stimulus checks being mailed.
California citizens earning $30,000 to $75,000 per year were eligible for $600 while those with children under the age of 18 were eligible for $1,100. 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 stringent criteria, including information on when citizens filed for unemployment and how long they have been unemployed. Residents must also have found work to be eligible for the stimulus payment.
Teachers and principals in Florida will get $1,000 in stimulus money for their dedication to education throughout the pandemic. Teachers and principals in Georgia will get $1,000 in stimulus money for their dedication to education throughout the pandemic.
While the prospects of a fourth stimulus in all US states are little to none, citizens of the New England state of Maine have been promised more assistance. The Maine State Tax Accessor will be mailing $285 payments to taxpayers sometime after November 15, resulting in 524,754 persons receiving a surprise check in the mail.
The checks are available to those with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $150,000 for married couples filing jointly, $112,000 for heads of household, or $75,000 for individuals.
However, not everyone earning less than these amounts qualifies. You must have worked consistently during the outbreak in 2020, and dependents are not eligible, as per AS.com.
However, not everyone earning less than these amounts qualifies. People classified as dependents are not eligible, and you must have worked constantly in 2020 throughout the pandemic. Consider them more akin to the hazard payments than other states, such as Florida, have been distributing than a uniform stimulus.
As a n expression of gratitude for working during COVID-19, the southern state has awarded teachers an additional money. Through the Florida Heroes Initiative, the state of Florida is also providing financial assistance to first responders. Over the following six weeks, the state will issue 5,000 to 25,000 checks every day, with a $149.8 million budget set out for these payments.
Read Also: Some Americans To Receive $1,400 Stimulus Checks in April 2022 With Others Getting $1,800 Child Tax Credit Payment Next Year
Petition calls for more federal stimulus payments
Per Newsweek via MSN, an online petition requesting $2,000 monthly stimulus checks throughout the length of the epidemic is just over 45,000 signatures short from reaching its target of 3 million.
However, enthusiasm for the campaign has diminished in the final stretch as cases and fatalities continue to plummet across the country, following a summer increase in support amid a deadly wave of COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant.
Stephanie Bonin, a Denver restaurant owner, started a Change.org petition calling for the US. The House and Senate should enact legislation that would offer "immediate payments of $2,000 for adults and $1,000 for children, as well as recurring checks for the length of the crisis."
As of Saturday, the petition has received over 2,956,600 signatures, with just roughly 29,000 new supporters in the last month and 5,000 in the last week. If it fulfills its objective of 3 million signatures, it will become one of Change.org's most popular petitions.
As families battled to withstand the economic consequences of the pandemic during the summer Delta wave, the campaign garnered enormous traction, reaching heights of over 100,000 new supporters in a week.
Related Article: Find Out If You Will Get Up to $1,200 Surprise Stimulus Check as Millions of Americans Demand for Another Round of Federal Payment
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Former United States President Donald Trump's lawyers urged a federal judge on Tuesday not to dismiss a lawsuit that aimed to block the Treasury Department and IRS's attempts to acquire the Republican businessman's tax returns and give them to the House Ways and Means Committee.
In the more than three-hour-long courtroom arguments, Trump's attorneys said that committee chair Richard Neal's reasons for seeking the tax returns were simply a pretext to look for something embarrassing regarding the former president. On the other hand, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden was having difficulties with the issue.
Trump's Tax Returns
The official said that Trump's parties were able to get a variety of statements, including one from Chairman Neal, that could suggest that there was something other than legal proceedings that are going on. However, House officials said that the reason the committee was requesting the documents was a genuine legal reason.
Lawyers said that federal courts had no authority or power to examine the motives of Congress to determine whether or not its actions that sought information of the former president were proper under the Constitution.
"The committee had a valid reason to look at the IRS program for auditing presidential returns and considering whether it should be required by a statute," said a representative for the Ways and Means Committee, Douglas Letter, NBC News reported.
Read Also: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping Seem To Disagree on Everything in First Summit; China Warns US is "Playing With Fire" Over Taiwan
The situation comes as former President Trump is the first American leader in the last 40 years that has not publicly disclosed his tax returns. The Republican businessman's decision to withhold these documents is considered by some as his attempts to hide the details of his massive wealth and the activities of his family's company, the Trump Organization.
In 2019, the House Ways and Means Committee sued Trump for a forced disclosure of his tax returns and continues despite the former president already having left office 10 months ago. Patrick Strawbridge, Trump's lawyer, was the one who told McFadden that the committee had no legitimate reason to acquire his client's tax return documents.
Validity of the Requests
McFadden argued that Democrats had contradicting statements about why the Ways and Means Committee wanted Trump's tax return documents. Some of the public statements suggest that the reason was that they wanted the former president's tax returns to consider legislation, Reuters reported.
However, the judge said he was reluctant to second-guess Neal's motivations, suggesting that he may allow the case to move forward despite opposition. McFadden said he will issue a written decision in the next three weeks answering whether or not the lawsuit should progress.
But in one instance during an exchange, McFadden questioned the Biden administration's Justice Department lawyer over the agency's reversal in the case. He asked that if Congress changed hands in the next few years and a Republican chairman sought Biden's tax returns, would they just simply hand over the documents.
It remains unclear how McFadden, who was appointed by Trump, might rule in the case or whether or not he believes that Democrats' requests were valid, The Hill reported.
Related Article: Corey Lewandowski Shares Shocking Detail Regarding Donald Trump's 2020 Election Fraud Claims
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Boston elected its first female Asian-American mayor when Michelle Wu was sworn in on Tuesday after the 36-year-old won against fellow Democratic candidate and city councilor Annissa Essaibi George.
Before Wu's election in the city's general election and becoming Boston's first Asian-American mayor, there have only been white men elected into the mayoral office. After taking the oath of office, the new Boston mayor said that the city government was a special kind of service.
New Boston Mayor
Wu argued that city government officials were at the level of government that was the closest to the people of the region. She said that they had to do both the big stuff and the small stuff, arguing that every streetlight, pothole, park, and classroom laid the foundation for greater change.
"After all, Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise that things don't have to be as they always have been, that we can chart a new path for families now, and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity," said Wu, Business Insider reported.
Just a few hours before swearing in as Boston's mayor, Wu had already named several key advisers who will make up her core staff for the next few weeks. The new mayor's campaign team said she revealed her choices to help ensure a "seamless" transition into office.
Read Also: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping Seem To Disagree on Everything in First Summit; China Warns US Is "Playing With Fire" Over Taiwan
Previously, Wu said that her vision of a complete administration will not be completed until January, which will be when she has a more formal inauguration with other City Council members. But because of the requirement for a more rapid transition after the Nov. 2 elections, she said that the new appointments will help her make up the core of her administration beforehand.
Wu's list of new appointees includes Mary Lou Akai-Ferguson, who was the new mayor's campaign manager in her run for office. The official will be serving as the new Boston mayor's interim chief of staff, BostonGlobe reported.
Several members of Wu's City Council staff will be coming to the new mayor's administration to serve as Wu's senior advisers. The list of individuals includes Brianna Millor, the former civic engagement director, Tali Robbins, the former policy director, and Dave Vittorini, the former chief of staff.
Three Steps
Wu faced a tough run for office despite her historic win to become Boston's first female Asian-American mayor. The new mayor said three steps became the threshold that she could never forget during her run for office.
During the new Boston mayor's speech after swearing in, she spoke to attendees at the City Council chamber on Tuesday where she talked about the floor. The establishment's floor had a dropped floor with three steps down in the center.
Wu said that the feature that included other architectural flair embedded in the building was striking. However, the three steps represented what she considered to be difficult and perhaps an insurmountable problem.
The new mayor argued that the steps presented a challenge for people in wheelchairs and residents who had mobility challenges. Wu said that because they changed the structure of the building and reshaped it to be accessible to everyone, bringing the floor up three steps, Boston reported.
Related Article: Corey Lewandowski Shares Shocking Detail Regarding Donald Trump's 2020 Election Fraud Claims
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New information regarding Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has just been released. In Jonathan Karl's new book, "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," the author revealed that the ex-POTUS recorded several messages addressed to his supporters and the Capitol rioters, but most versions were rejected.
After all, Trump reportedly continued lying about the election result by telling the rioters that he should've won. And he also refused to urge the rioters to go home even though chaos was already taking place at the US Capitol at the time.
The final version of the ex-president's video showed him telling his supporters that they need to have peace, so it's best if they go home. He also told them in the clip that he loves them and thinks they're very special. Trump also assured the rioters that he understood their pain.
However, the previous versions of Trump's recorded message got rejected because the then-president refused to ask his supporters to go home.
"A White House aide who was there as the president taped it told me that in the earlier rejected versions, Trump neglected to call on his supporters to leave the Capitol. He complained about the election. He empathized with their anger, but he didn't call on them to go home," Karl wrote via the Huffington Post.
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
Donald Trump accused of inciting violence
Earlier this year, hundreds of Trump's supporters flocked to the US Capitol to prevent the Senate from declaring Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
Prior to this, some of them attended Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally, where he urged Republicans to fight for what they think is right. Trump also said that they should go to war to reclaim the top stop.
Investigations are currently ongoing as to whether Trump incident violence ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. And he and his legal team are doing everything they can to ensure that the White House won't release the documents pertaining to the insurrection.
Donald Trump doesn't want documents to be released
Last week, Trump asked a federal appeals court to postpone the release of the White House documents to lawmakers investigating the incident. The files were supposed to be given to the House select committee on Friday, according to CNBC.
Even though Trump has been out of office for almost an entire year, he still has not gotten over some of his lies regarding the election.
Ex-POTUS calls Alyssa Farah a clown
Earlier this week, former White House communications director Alyssa Farah claimed that Trump told her he knew he lost to Biden. Shortly after Farah's interview aired, the ex-POTUS released a statement calling his former staff a clown and a nobody, according to MSN.
Trump also claimed that he never spoke to Farah following the elections, and it seemed as though she didn't even exist at the White House.
Melania Trump's husband also went as far as saying that Farah was terrible when she appeared in "The View."
Related Article: Donald Trump Accused of Lying After Saying Nov. 3 Is the Real Insurrection Due to 'Fake' Election Results, Not the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
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A Georgia ambulance driver tried to give the patient that he was transporting CPR in an attempt to save his life but failed.
According to reports, Kevin McCorvey picked up the 66-year-old patient, later identified as Wilton Thomason. The latter was being transported in a non-emergency capacity when McCorvey's ambulance overturned in a ditch. Reports also confirmed that Thomason was not properly restrained while inside the ambulance.
Georgia ambulance driver fails sobriety test
Investigations revealed that the 34-year-old ambulance driver was heavily intoxicated. McCorvey admitted to smoking marijuana, drinking beer, and taking Adderall while driving the ambulance.
Following the incident, Fairburn police responded to the crash and said that they had to break the ambulance's windows to rescue another passenger. The latter did not sustain serious injuries, and their identity has not been released to the press.
However, reports confirmed that McCorvey and his passenger - who was later identified as another ambulance staff - tried to flee from the accident scene via Uber, but they were stopped by the officers that responded to the accident, according to Fox News.
McCorvey was arrested and taken to the Fulton County Jail, where he is being detained. The ambulance driver faces multiple charges, including first-degree homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence of various substances, and reckless conduct.
According to Macon, McCorvey was subjected to a sobriety test at the crash scene, and results showed that he failed.
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Road accidents in Georgia are not uncommon
Georgia is not alien to vehicular accidents. Last year alone, the state recorded 4,999 road accidents that killed 450 people. These figures considerably increased compared to the number of accidents in 2019 that were recorded at over 5,000. However, more deaths were reported two years ago at 481, according to Agenda.GE.
Georgia arrests are becoming more rampant
Other than the recent accident, Georgia also made headlines this week amid reports that a 22-year-old former youth pastor is facing charges of sexual exploitation and sexual battery.
According to AJC, Steve Macallin Thomas served as a youth pastor at the Restoration Worship Center in Metter. He reportedly turned himself in amid claims of abuse.
The same publication also reported the arrest of a former Evans High School teacher that allegedly sent his student sexually explicit images.
Anthony Alberti sent the images to his student while he was the band director in April 2020. He resigned from his job months later, and his license was also suspended.
During a recorded investigation, authorities asked Alberti if he had an inappropriate relationship with his student, and he said yes. When asked if he sent inappropriate text messages to the student, the former teacher said he was having a conversation with the unnamed girl. The investigator asked if Alberti was trying to deny that the text messages were sensual in nature, and he said no.
Alberti was reportedly indicted by a grand jury two months ago and was arrested last weekend. However, he was able to post bail on the same day.
Related Article: Georgia Police Officer Shot in the Neck While Sitting in His Patrol Car, Kills Suspect
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Uganda authorities reported that at least three residents were killed while dozens of others were injured after suicide bombers riding motorbikes targeted the region's capital Kampala and police headquarters.
Officials are expecting the number of dead victims to increase as the powerful blasts sent human body parts flying across streets in the area. After the horrific attack, the Islamic State (IS) group took responsibility for the blasts that killed residents at the scene of the incident.
IS Suicide Bombers
Each of the explosions came within three minutes of each other and officials discovered more bombs in several other parts of the city. Fred Enanga, a spokesman for the police, said that bomb threats in the area were still active and that they were especially cautious of other suicide bombers.
Police officials said that they believed there were still more suicide bombers lurking in the area, including the suicide bomb squad members created by the ADF. Authorities were able to arrest a fourth attacker who was found with an explosive vest. Officials said that two of the victims that were killed by the blasts were police officers, BBC reported.
Read Also: Corey Lewandowski Shares Shocking Detail Regarding Donald Trump's 2020 Election Fraud Claims
Media outlets broadcasted scenes from the area of the blasts that showed bloodied office workers running from the sites of the explosions. Officials reported that the powerful blasts occurred after 10:00 a.m., causing residents to empty the streets of Kampala in fear for their lives.
The bombings mark the latest attacks in a series of deadly assaults in Uganda that were the works of regional terrorist groups. An explosion on Oct. 23 targeted a restaurant in a Kampala suburb and killed one resident and injured seven others. After two days, a suicide bomber triggered his bombs inside a bus but only killed himself.
The ADF, also known as the Allied Democratic Forces, is an Islamist group that was founded in Uganda but have extended their reach and now mainly operates in remote areas of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. In recent years, a cooperative effort between Ugandan forces was able to suppress the militant group's activity in the country, the Washington Post reported.
Uganda's Predicament
Enanga said that a team of forensic experts were still trying to document the scene of the blasts and had not yet given a finalized number of victims. Police said that CCTV footage captured the moment an adult male carrying a backpack detonated a bomb he had on himself at 10:03 a.m. near the Central Police Station.
The other two suicide bombers who were riding motorbikes triggered their explosives near Raja Chambers and Jubilee Insurance Building along the central Kampala Parliament Avenue. In a Twitter post, Ugandan state minister Kabbyanga Godfrey Baluku Kiime announced the events of the explosions on the social media platform.
Enanga urged the public to remain aware and vigilant because of the potential threat of active bombers. Kampala residents struggled with traffic in the area following the blasts, with officials telling people to temporarily close down their businesses and leave the area, CNN reported.
Related Article: Kyle Rittenhouse Claims Innocent of Murder in Kenosha as Self-Defense; Will It Be a Biased Verdict?
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George Clooney believes that what happened on the set of "Rust" last month was a terrible accident. During a recent interview, Clooney said that he doesn't think Alec Baldwin intended to hurt anyone on set.
The "Ocean's Eleven" actor also revealed that one of his good friends died after being accidentally shot on the set of "The Crow" in 1993. At the time, Brandon Lee was just 28, and he had just started his acting career.
George Clooney is cautious when handling prop guns
According to Clooney, the untimely passing of Lee encouraged him always to follow safety protocols when he's handling guns on set. And Amal Clooney's husband handled multiple guns onset between 1998 and 2010.
"Every single time I'm handed a gun on the set, I open it, I show it to the person I'm pointing it to, I show it to the crew. Every single take, you hand it back to the armorer when you're done and you do it again," Clooney said via the Huffington Post.
The actor also said that every time he holds a gun on set, he opens it and looks at the barrel and the cylinder to ensure that there are no live rounds inside the armor.
George Clooney infuriated following 'Rust' shooting
Clooney couldn't also believe that the people behind "Rust" hired producers and armorers with little to no experience. He said that this is what infuriates him about the accident.
The "Up In the Air" actor also said that he's never heard of the term "cold gun" that was being used in the reports. And Clooney said that this is another thing that infuriated him, according to the New York Post.
Read Also: Alec Baldwin Kills Cinematographer, Injures Director After He Discharged a Prop Firearm on the Set of His Movie in Mexico
Investigation still underway following the accidental set shooting
Last month, Baldwin accidentally shot and killed the assistant director of "Rust," Halyna Hutchins, and he also injured the movie's director, Joel Souza.
After the incident, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who reportedly said she's holding a cold gun, is still being investigated. Her lawyers claimed that she had no idea where the live rounds came from.
Hours before the incident, several camera crew members protested and left the set over unsafe working conditions. To push through with filming, the camera workers were reportedly replaced by non-union workers.
Baldwin's lawyer banned him from releasing statements to the press following the accident. But his brother, Daniel Baldwin, recently came to the actor's defense.
Alec Baldwin's brother comes to his defense
Daniel said that they shouldn't blame his brother for what happened during his conversation with Domenick Nati. Instead, the armorer should be held responsible because she's the one responsible for the weapons.
Daniel also said that the protocol exonerates his brother because the AD should've witnessed an empty weapon being handed over to the actor, according to CNN.
The actor's brother is also convinced that he is being targeted because of his political beliefs. Baldwin is an outspoken liberal who has been making fun of Donald Trump for years. As of late, Baldwin has not been charged following the accidental death of Hutchins.
Related Article: Unionized Hollywood Workers Complained About Safety on Set Before Alec Baldwin Accidentally Fired A Prop Firearm But No One Listened
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United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shifted her forecast of when the country could reach its debt ceiling, pushing it forward to Dec. 15, warning lawmakers on Tuesday but giving Congress more time to strike a deal from her initial estimate of Dec. 3.
Yellen's latest projection gives an additional 12 days before the federal government could reach the debt ceiling. However, she still warned lawmakers to act quickly to raise the debt ceiling because there are scenarios in which the Treasury would have not enough resources to fund the operations of the government beyond her given date.
Raising of Debt Ceiling
In a statement, Yellen said that it was crucial for Congress to raise or suspend the debt limit of the government as soon as possible. In October, lawmakers voted along party lines in an attempt to raise the borrowing cap by a staggering $480 billion.
The proposal was seen as a short-term fix that followed weeks of negotiations on Capitol Hill between officials. Republican lawmakers repeatedly prevented Democrats' attempts to raise the ceiling and demanded that the latter use the budget reconciliation process that is part of deliberations on U.S. President Joe Biden's sweeping social spending bill, Fox Business reported.
Read Also: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping Seem To Disagree on Everything in First Summit; China Warns US Is "Playing With Fire" Over Taiwan
If lawmakers fail to raise the debt ceiling in time, the United States federal government would default for the time in history. Yellen sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telling the latter that the revised estimate was in part a result of Biden's enactment of the $1 trillion infrastructure plan signed into law earlier this week.
In Yellen's letter, she noted that Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which appropriates $118 billion for the Highway Trust Fund. The Treasury Secretary added that the funds of the bill must be transferred into the Highway Trust Fund within a month after the legislation is enacted, which will happen on Dec. 15.
"While I have a high degree of confidence that Treasury will be able to finance the U.S. government through December 15 and complete the Highway Trust Fund investment, there are scenarios in which the Treasury would be left with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date," said Yellen, CNBC reported.
Risking Millions of Americans' Well-Being
Despite the 12-day extension, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned after last month's vote that no Republican senator will be willing to cooperate with Democrats on "any future effort to mitigate the consequences of Democratic mismanagement."
In a letter sent to Biden last month, McConnell said that the Democratic president's allies on Capitol Hill now had all the time they said they needed to address the debt ceiling crisis through standalone reconciliation. The senate minority leader added that opposing party officials now also had the tools to do it. McConnell argued that Democrats cannot make up another crisis and request his assistance.
Last month, Yellen said that American lawmakers' failure to raise the debt ceiling would more likely cause a recession. The Treasury Secretary warned that if Congress were unable to act and address the issue, it would be putting Social Security payments at risk for 50 million American people and withholding paychecks for military members. She also argued that 30 million families would have their child tax credit payments placed in jeopardy, NBC News reported.
Related Article: Corey Lewandowski Shares Shocking Detail Regarding Donald Trump's 2020 Election Fraud Claims
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Paul Gosar could reportedly be expelled after he insulted President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez online.
Last week, Gosar uploaded an anime video on Twitter, and it depicted him killing Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Biden. The clip has since been deleted, but it did not sit well with Ocasio-Cortez, who called Gosar creepy.
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 hell face no consequences bc @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses.
Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions dont protect woc https://t.co/XRnMAKsnNO Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2021
Nancy Pelosi waiting for the House's decision regarding Paul Gosar
Days later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she would give the House floor to decide whether they should censure Gosar. Pelosi said that she came to this decision to allow a censure resolution to be in place because she believes that Gosar insulted the institution and endangered a fellow member of Congress.
According to The Huffington Post, a censure is very seldom used because it serves as one of the most severe forms of discipline within the legislative branch. If the majority votes in favor of censuring Gosar, the latter would be asked to stand in front of the House as Pelosi reads a censure resolution denounces his actions.
CNN published a copy of the three-page censure resolution against the GOP representative. It states that Gosar even defended the video as a symbolic cartoon even after he was slammed for posting it in the first place.
Read Also: Joe Biden Announces New Policy for US Veterans That Links to His Late Son Beau Biden
Paul Gosar's digital director comes to his defense
Following its release, Gosar's digital director, Jessica Lycos, also came to his defense and urged the public to relax.
"The left doesn't get meme culture. They have no joy. They are not the future. It's a cartoon. Gosar can't fly and he does not own any lightsabers. Nor was violence glorified. This is about fighting for truth," she told The Washington Post.
The resolution also states that Pelosi has made it clear that threats against Congress and the president will not be tolerated. The speaker of the House also asked the Committee on Ethics and law enforcement to investigate the video.
Before a decision is made, Ocasio-Cortez said that she supports the resolution to censure Gosar. Even though she thinks that the representative deserves to be expelled, she doesn't believe this will happen because the Republican Party and its leader are reportedly cowards.
Democrats furious with Kevin McCarthy
As of press writing, Gosar's posts have already been deleted. He also released a statement but has not directly apologized to Biden and Ocasio-Cortez.
His statement resulted in Democrats urging House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to take action. Democrats initially wanted Gosar to be removed from his committees, but they eventually agreed with the censure resolution.
A spokesperson for McCarthy later said that GOP leaders disagree that Gosar should be punished. This revelation angered Democrats who believe that punishment is necessary because of the violent nature of the anime videos that he posted, according to Politico.
As of press writing, Biden has not directly responded to Gosar's anime video.
Related Article: Donald Trump Recorded Multiple Messages Addressed to the Jan. 6 Capitol Rioters That Got Rejected, New Book Claims
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Google is making its biggest ever investment in Australia, where the tech giant government threatened to shut down its search operations earlier this year.
Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, announced on Monday that the company would invest 1 billion Australian dollars ($736 million) in Australia over the next five years.
Part of the money will be used to launch the company first research center in Australia and help develop Australia cloud computing industry.
Google (GOOGL) also plans to work with Australian government agencies on scientific research, including projects on clean energy and protecting the Great Barrier Reef. The company will also work with a local university on quantum computing.
Google, which has been in Australia for 20 years and now employs nearly 2,000 people there, said the new scheme was expected to help create new jobs and spur innovation.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday praised the move, calling it a "billion-dollar vote of confidence" in Australia economic strategy. Mr. Morrison government has previously outlined plans to "turn Australia into a top digital economy by 2030" in an effort to strengthen its capabilities in areas such as artificial intelligence.
"Our challenge is that in a challenging world, we emerge from this pandemic and secure Australia economic recovery," Mr. Morrison added. "This is the challenge we face going into 2022, and Australia digital strategy is critical to ensuring recovery."
Tensions between the two sides came to a head in January, when Google threatened to pull out of its Chinese search engine if the new law went ahead.
But as the vote on the bill neared, Google took a different tack. It tried to beat the legislation by announcing partnerships with some of the UK biggest newsrooms, including Rupert Murdoch News Corp and Seven West Media.
Meanwhile, much of the attention is focused on Facebook. In February, Facebook abruptly banned news content in Australia because of the proposed law.
Facebook later restored access to those pages after making some code changes in Australia.
The bill was finally passed in February, and Google strategy was welcomed by media organizations and politicians.
Morrison on Tuesday addressed some of the company past problems, saying: "Google decided to invest the way they did... Seal partnerships."
"We are already working with the tech industry in many areas and we need to work in many more," he said.
Google is making its biggest investment ever in Australia may be beneficial to the market of round lcd display . F or more information or get the latest price of round lcd display, feel free to send an email to: sales@risinglcd.com .
The market trend of round lcd display
Due to the impact of the global spread of COVID-19, the global MARKET size of LED display screens in 2020 is estimated to be $5.7 billion, down about 10% year-on-year. It is estimated that the global outdoor LED display market will reach 12.9 billion yuan in 2021, and 23.9 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.0%. However, certain application areas, such as outdoor transportation, advertising billboards, and some municipal-related application places, are expected to pick up in the second half, and round lcd display will also benefit from the government economic stimulus. Regarding the development of the next few years, if there are no big macroeconomic changes, it is expected that the global LED display will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 18% from 2021 to 2026, among which the small spacing display is still the biggest driving force for market growth.
The world leading outdoor LED display manufacturers include Daktronics, Samsung, Unilumin and Leyard, etc. The top four manufacturers in the world account for more than 40% of the market share. At present, China is the world largest Outdoor LED Display market, accounting for more than 60% of the market, followed by North America, accounting for nearly 15% of the market.
The market distribution of round lcd display
In terms of regional market pattern, North America and EMEA are the most severely affected regions this year, which are expected to decrease by 7.7% to 6.7% respectively, and their share will also decrease accordingly. China is now slowly recovering from the impact of the epidemic, and stimulated by new infrastructure policies, the Chinese market round lcd display is expected to maintain the world fastest growth rate of about 3.8% this year.
The markets most affected this year are mainly applications related to clustered events, such as cinemas and commercial and retail venues. However, for security monitoring or control room, it will benefit from the government new infrastructure policy this year. It is estimated that this will be the fastest-growing round lcd display application market this year, with the market share expected to increase from 13.3% to 13.9%.
With the decline of LCD cost, size continues to enlarge, currently can see more than 80 inches of LCD TV, electronic whiteboard into commercial, coupled with the rise of LED display market, commercial projector in enterprise conference space shipment quantity will also decrease year by year.
However, the outdoor LED display screen is different from the indoor LED display screen. Since it is applied to outdoor scenes, in addition to meeting the display function, the round lcd display screen needs to ensure the transmission quality under direct sunlight, so it needs to meet the requirements of a high brightness display. In addition, the outdoor environment is changeable and harsh, so the outdoor LED display should have strong weather resistance, fully adapt to all kinds of bad weather, and can be used for a long time.
The high - quality round lcd display supplier -RISINGLCD
Outdoor LED display module market classification
There are currently two types of outdoor LED display module on the market:
Architectural landscape: The hardware is grid LED, and most of them are displayed on the external facade of the whole building. The form of display is a mostly light show. Limited by the clarity of the display and the shape of the building, the display content is mostly text-based.
Advertising LED screen media: The hardware is a large-area LED screen, and the display form is a regular brand advertising display. The display content is mainly pictures and videos.
In terms of resource distribution, it is divided into urban commercial office district architectural landscape, urban commercial district architectural advertising media, and urban arterial road architectural advertising media.
From the perspective of resource ownership, the site property rights, screen ownership, and screen management rights of resources are divided into several situations:
The building owner holds the property rights of the site and the ownership of the screen: the owner builds the screen itself and owns the property rights of the site and the ownership of the screen. However, the owner does not necessarily hold the right to operate the screen.
The operator holds the property rights of the site and the ownership of the screen: the operator and the owner sign a long-term lease or purchase the right to use the site, invest in the construction of the screen, own the ownership of the screen, and engage in independent operation.
The operator holds the right to operate the screen: the operator buys the right to operate the screen from the owner of the screen, and only has the right to operate advertising.
Outdoor LED display module resource management
The operators of outdoor LED display module resources mainly have several forms of cooperation according to the situation of resource ownership:
1) The building owner builds its own screens, and the owner builds its own advertising media company to operate and is responsible for its own profits and losses, such as Jingcheng Media.
2) The building owner leases the right to use the site, the advertising media company invests in the construction of the screen and operates it independently, and the media company pays the owner for the use of the site, such as Phoenix City Media.
3) Screen equipment manufacturers hold the owners of the screens, operate by self-built advertising companies, and pay or not pay for the use of the venues, such as Lianjian Optoelectronics and Lianjian Cultural Media.
4) The screen owner outsources the operation to a professional advertising company, and the professional advertising company pays the screen owner to the screen owner.
The resource-dependent building has architectural value and regional value, but it does not directly bring value to the media resource itself. The operator manages resources from the following aspects:
1) Management in the form of traditional outdoor advertising media
The geographic location characteristics of the packaging point resources, and the revenue from the advertising time of the selling point resources.
2) Operate by way of video media
The electronic outdoor LED display module possesses the technical capabilities of multi-terminal simultaneous release, selection, and control of advertising time slots. Operators operate screens in the form of video media or TV media and provide advertisers with diversified time products, that is, video websites and TV advertisements are copied to the big screen. Under this business form and philosophy, the operator is not considering the value of location but is doing traffic in front of this screen to enhance the traffic value of this media screen. For example, Phoenix Media combined with Phoenix Satellite TV\'s content to permanently broadcast the city network news content on its screen; Windows Internet uses video content operation to transplant common interactive forms on the mobile phone to the large screen, thereby enhancing the value of time.
Outdoor LED display module advertiser
Advertisers advertise on outdoor LED display module, essentially not because they want to market the people covered by the big screen, but because of the topic. These advertisements posted on large screens attached to landmark buildings have their own attention and topical hot spots. Passing audiences take pictures of these large-scale, fresh, and interesting advertisements and upload them to social networks, combined with various media platforms. Create momentum, which aroused the attention of the second spread.
Advertisers placing advertisements on outdoor LED display module are not only a recognition of the geographical location of the large screen, but the large screen or the building attached to the large screen as a unique IP locally, even nationally, and globally.
The display module application
1.Information display: passenger flow in the scenic spot, publicity in the scenic spot, event announcements, broadcast announcements, etc.;
When there is a lot of traffic during holidays, the display module will play a bigger role. The RISINGLCD display module can show scenic spots, release warm reminders, real-time environmental monitoring information, temperature reports, etc., which not only allows scenic visitors to take the lead in enjoying the beauty of the scenery but also makes playing more convenient, safe and enjoyable.
2. Performing stage beauty: folklore art performances, presenting wonderful moments;
Now the scenic spots will fully excavate local art and folk culture to produce rich programs to attract tourists. RISINGLCD display module makes full use of its excellent video playback function and color display effect. The stage is designed with a display module, a flexible and changeable background, and the sound and light effects of the stage are also true and magical. It brings a strong visual impact to the visitors, makes the audience feel immersive, and allows visitors to appreciate the strong Regional style stage performances.
3. Inquiry and interaction: practical interactive screens in scenic spots;
For example, query maps, tour routes, watch introductions to scenic spots, conduct interactive visits, and other rich activities (query interaction). At present, the RISINGLCD display module has been widely used. Ticket collection machines, inquiry machines, etc. all use the Internet + cultural tourism to realize the conversion from offline to online and increase user retention.
RISINGLCD display module relies on the advantages of excellent performance, ultra-high price, spot supply, and localized services. The installation of S-LCD displays in scenic spots has become a trend and trend in the development of smart tourism. In the future, S-LCD displays will undoubtedly have more room for development and penetrate into more application areas in scenic spots.
The display module supplier
RISINGLCD (WITH BRAND OF RISING STAR) is a professional highlight LCD manufacturer from China, as a superior global supplier, a modernized high-tech enterprise with 100 employees including 20 highly qualified and well-trained engineers. Due to our 2, 000 square meters factory and a monthly production capacity of 10, 000 pieces, we can meet your demands. Specializes in manufacturing and distributing all types of LCD modules, LCD monitors, LCD digital signage, Touch Screen, etc. Now our products have been widely used in games, finance, communication, electricity, transportation, hospitals, estates, travel and government lines, stations, 4S shops, museums, exhibitions, libraries, hotels, and entertainment KTV. Our markets cover Asia, North America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Central, and South America, and Oceania. For more information about LCD, welcome to contact us via: sales@risinglcd.com
After installing an update on their Samsung device, a user complained about Samsung S21 freezing and crashing problems.
The user also shared the same sentiments as other users.
The user said via the Samsung forum: "Two updates in the past couple months have messed my phone up. The first one made my entire screen go black, I couldn't do anything to it and had to take time off work to drive 45 mins away to have it fixed. I'm thankful of the year warranty for covering it. This newest update has now started freezing videos in various apps."
The user further stated that they did a factory reset, but it did nothing to solve the "annoying" issue.
Finally, the user concluded that there is a bug on the new update and asked the tech giant to fix it and "leave [it] well enough alone."
With that, here are the recommended action steps to take to undo the Samsung S21 freezing according to Samsung.
Samsung S21 Freezing
It can be really stressful when a phone freezes or crashes.
The good news is that this is most likely fixable without sending the phone in for repair. Simple measures, such as rebooting and updating the program, are just a few of the things users may do to avoid future freezes and crashes.
How To Fix Samsung S21 Crashing
First, check your phone's battery life.
Check to see if the users' phone has enough battery life.
Check that the phone is at least 5% charged. The phone may not turn on after the reboot if the battery is below 5%.
A completely depleted phone should be charged for at least 15 minutes with the included wall charger.
Second, restart your phone.
Depending on the phone a user has, rebooting it will be a little different.
For devices with a Power key, simultaneously press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys for about 10 seconds.
For devices having a Side key, simultaneously press and hold the Volume down and Side key for about 10 seconds.
Third, Normal Boot is the option to choose.
Users should be able to use their phones normally now.
Use the Volume keys to go through the options if the Maintenance mode screen appears. Then, to select Normal Boot, hit the Power or Bixby keys.
However, if these steps failed to fix the Samsung S21 crashing and freezing, users should try to update their Samsung Galaxy device or Samsung tablet, as advised by Samsung.
Read Also: Why Is Samsung Not Downloading Apps From Google Play Store? 8 Ways to Fix the Issue
How to update your Galaxy phone or tablet
Manually download updates.
Navigate to and open Settings on your device. Swipe to a Software update or System updates, then tap. It will differ depending on the model. Choose from two options: Download and install or check for system updates. If an update is available, it will begin downloading automatically, however certain devices may require you to press Download Now. When the download is complete, install the update by following the on-screen instructions.
Smart Switch can also be used to check for updates.
It will show the last time the phone or tablet checked for updates. To download an update, users must be connected to the internet.
Whether you're having problems, make sure your device has enough space.
Before installing a software update, make sure the phone or tablet is connected to the internet and has a battery charge of at least 50%.
Some carriers will not allow you to update using mobile data unless you have access to a Wi-Fi network.
Learn how to get out of a boot loop if an error occurs during a software update and your phone or tablet continues restarting.
If your phone or tablet is running out of storage, you can use Device Care to free up some space. Users can also use Smart Switch or your Samsung or Google account to back up other files.
After the update, check your phone or tablet.
If you had problems before the software update, try using your phone or tablet normally to check if the issue has been resolved.
Related Article: Is Your Samsung Phone Overheating? Possible Reasons and 10 Ways to Prevent Damage
A Russian missile launch has reportedly destroyed a satellite in space, prompting astronauts on the International Space Station to seek safety.
The conduct has been condemned by the US State Department, with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson describing it as "irresponsible" and "destabilizing."
Russian Satellite Explosion
A new, potentially catastrophic debris field formed by a Russian anti-satellite test forced seven crew members aboard the International Space Station to seek emergency refuge in a spacecraft linked to the ISS on Monday, Nov. 15.
After a Russian missile exploded one of the country's dead surveillance satellites over the weekend, the astronauts hid inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Russian Soyuz spacecrafts.
Russian Satellite Debris
As stated by Radio Free Europe, France and NATO have joined the United States in condemning Russia for conducting a missile test that blew up a defunct Russian satellite, creating a debris cloud that endangered the ISS and its crew.
The anti-satellite missile test generated more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris, and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces, the US officials said.
According to NASA, the debris forced the crew aboard the space station, which includes four Americans, a German, and two Russians to shelter into their docked spaceship capsules for two hours as a precaution to allow for a quick evacuation had it been necessary.
Russian Missile Test
As reported by CNET, a spokeswoman for the US State Department denounced the anti-satellite test.
"The Russian Federation carried out a reckless satellite test of a direct ascent and anti-satellite weapon against one of its own satellites," Ned Price told journalists.
According to Price, the test "substantially increases the risk to astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station, as well as many other human spaceflight missions."
Price's comments backed up earlier claims from the US Space Command of "a debris-generating event in outer space," which was thought to be the result of a Russian weapons test by the US authorities.
Read Also: NASA Hubble Images: Online Tool Lets You Check What Space Telescope Saw During Your Birthday!
NASA on Russian Anti-Satellite Missile
NASA administrator Bill Nelson noted that it was "unthinkable" for the country behind the test to not only endanger international partner astronauts aboard the ISS, but also "their own cosmonauts."
Nelson further called Russia's actions as "dangerous" and "reckless."
Besides the ISS and its crew, the Chinese space station and its taikonauts on board were also nearly jeopardized by the said missile test.
The debris cloud left behind from the test could be identical to that left behind by a Chinese weapons test in 2007 and could remain in low Earth orbit for years.
The ISS narrowly avoided space debris from the 2007 test just a few weeks ago.
The radar data from private space debris tracking company LeoLabs "confirm the presence of many objects near the estimated location of Cosmos 1408."
Cosmos 1408, also known as Kosmos-1408, is a long-defunct Russian spy spacecraft launched in 1982.
Fortunately, the astronauts in space in the International Space Station have safely been able to return to work in the main station and are now collaborating with NASA.
The collaboration is meant to track the numerous debris in space.
In an effort towards the astronauts' safety, they made an initiative to alter their sleeping patterns due to caution with the threatening debris still in orbit.
Related Article: NASA Hubble Images: Space Telescope Celebrates Moon Night With Stunning Galactical Photos
ByteDance's hit app TikTok has agreed to pay a fine of $92 million as a result of a TikTok class action lawsuit.
With that, users in the United States may be eligible for a portion of the multi-million class-action lawsuit settlement against TikTok, as well as its sister app, Musical.ly.
TikTok Class Action Lawsuit
If any user were using TikTok or its sister app Musical.ly before September 30, they may be eligible to file a claim on behalf of themselves or minors who used the service with the representation of their parents or guardians.
The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois filed a complaint against TikTok, alleging that the firm violated Illinois' biometric privacy rules by acquiring and exploiting users' personal data without "sufficient notice and consent."
TikTok's Lawsuit Violation
Plaintiffs alleged that the TikTok app infiltrated its users' devices and extracted a broad array of private data, including biometric data and content, which Defendants use to track and profile TikTok users for the purposes of, among other things, ad targeting and profit, according to the settlement agreement filed in February 2021.
Despite the fact that TikTok rejected all of the allegations, the Chinese-owned company ByteDance agreed to resolve the matters on a settlement.
A great result that came out from this is that in June, TikTok amended its privacy policy.
TikTok sent a notification to U.S. users on Monday, November 15, announcing the settlement and providing a link to a website with instructions on how to file a claim.
So, how do you go about applying?
The hit short video app published a settlement notice within the apl, referring users to Tiktokdataprivacysettlement.com, regarding any concern about how to process their claims.
Read Also: TikTok Live Gifts: How Can TikTokers Earn Diamonds, Exchange It For Money?
How To File A Claim For TikTok Lawsuit
Who Can Apply For TikTok Lawsuit Claim?
According to Mashable, anybody using TikTok in the United States before September 30, 2021 is eligible to file a claim.
Anyone who used the app or created films in it within Illinois before that date is also eligible. If users fall into the latter category, users may be eligible for a six-fold increase in their payments.
This is due to the fact that certain claims in the case are only applicable to Illinois residents.
In the case of minors, their parents or guardians can register on their behalf.
When Can Users Apply To TikTok?
According to court documents, to claim the TikTok settlement, users must be able to submit a claim form by March 1, 2022. So, there's still enough time for users to register for the ByteDance compensation.
Furthermore, on May 18, 2022, a final approval hearing will be held, and payments will not be made until that time.
How Do Users Claim Their Compensation?
First, users must submit a legitimate claim form if they are eligible.
Users can apply for a by completing out this online form or mailing it in - users can print the claim form here.
If a user applying to the claims is a minor, the parent or guardian assisting the claim is required to provide proof and basic information for the child and themselves.
Users' TikTok usernames and payment selections, such as PayPal, Venmo, a virtual prepaid card, or an actual check, are all stored here.
Related Article: TikTok Famous: 5 Highest-Paid Stars 2021 and How Much They Are Making
Rescuers in Pennsylvania have located a plane crash and the father and daughter riding it through the iPad of one of the survivors.
In relation to this, it is worth noting that there is a possibility that the Find My app installed on an Apple devices might be the app used by rescuers.
iPad Signal Helps Rescuer Locate the Plane Crash Survivors
According to Pennsylvania State Police, a plane traveling from Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania went missing on their radar shortly after takeoff, per CNN. The authorities added that the sole passengers inside the two-seat, single-engine Cessna 150 were the father who piloted the plane, a 58-year-old male, and his daughter, a 13-year-old girl.
A five-hour general investigation was conducted in collaboration with the US Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Shortly after, the plane, as well as its passengers, were discovered in a heavily wooded location seven miles southeast of Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport.
Since it is a densely forested area, Chief James Serafin with the Bear Creek Volunteer Hose Company told CNN that from what he has seen and heard, locating the survivors was difficult especially in the area where the airplane crashed.
"They had to go through trees and everything else. It definitely was a miracle," Chief Serafin furthered on CNN.
With regards to how they were rescued, the rescuers relied first on the last known location, and approximately 30 other individuals began a grid search in the woods, though the rescue operation came up short, per 9to5Mac.
Serafin furthered that once the pilot was identified, rescue teams contacted the pilot's wife, who had been waiting for her husband and daughter at their destination. Through this conversation, authorities have acquired the pilot's mobile phone number, in which authorities used it to ping the survivors' location.
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"They (rescue team) were able to ping the cell phone and they found out that the daughter had an iPad and with certain iPads, you're able to ping signals to it and once we got that coordinate, that's where we located them," Serafin explained.
In addition to this, Sgt. John Richards, with the Pennsylvania State Police, stated in an interview with News Nation Now that he believed that every responder was expecting the plane crash incident to be a recovery rather than a rescue, per People. Moreover, he was even more surprised when he discovered that the survivors were still alive.
The two were discovered in a pre-hypothermic state, as they were huddled together trying to keep warm. They also sustained minor injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently examining the crash, but no further information is available, per 9to5Mac.
How Can an iPad Help Locate a Person?
According to the blog post posted by the Cupertino-based technology company, Apple device owners can locate a missing device by using the Find My app. The feature enables them to view location, play a sound, mark as lost, remote erase, notify when found, and notify when left behind.
In the case of the plane crash incident, it is worth noting that there is a possibility that rescuers utilize the view location feature, in which they can access the location through the installed map on the daughter's iPad.
For those curious to know how it works, these are the following steps that Apple device owners must use to locate someone through the Find My app.
Head to the "Find My" app option on the home screen. Once the Find My app was tapped, choose the device they wish to locate. Right after, select the gadget to view their location. Lastly, choose directions to open its location in Maps.
Related Article: Concerned Your iPhone Touch Screen Is Not Working? Ultimate Trick Can Help You Save It
American hedge fund manager, investor and entrepreneur Ken Griffin predicts big changes for Ethereum and Bitcoin. He believes Ethereum and its conceptual design might replace Bitcoin. But ultimately, both would be replaced by the next generation cryptos, which feature higher transaction speeds and lower costs.
Just last week, many cryptocurrencies reached new all-time high. Bitcoin peaked at $68,530, while Ethereum reached $4,743. However, current market performance shows bearish trading. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $59,030 and Ethereum is at $4,106, per Coindesk.
On the recent DealBook Online Summit, Griffin explained his views on cryptocurrency market trend.
Billionaire Issues Warning About Bitcoin Price
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency up to date. Its coin currently costs multiple times more than any other cryptocurrency available. However, Bitcoin has its weaknesses. Its system is expensive to manage, and its hardware is a major contributor to global warming. Because of this, Griffin said investors might take an interest in different cryptocurrency markets.
Ethereum, on the other hand, uses a programmable ecosystem that features both smart contracts and proof-of-stake. It also features block-chain based decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) functionality. Both these industries are effective promotions to the digital payments lifestyle. This is why Griffin believes that ETH could overtake Bitcoin in the long run.
Unfortunately, ETH also has its fair share of weaknesses. Transaction speeds are extremely slow, and the cost per transaction is expensive. If new generation coins could properly fix this issue, then they might quickly replace Ethereum in the market.
Read Also: Shiba Inu Price Update: Cryptocurrency Value Declining; Does Elon Musk Have the Meme Coin?
Bitcoin Price Prediction: The Future of Crypto
However, regardless of which crypto coin emerges dominant, Griffin emphasized the security risks of cryptocurrency. He said, "a number of issues that haven't been addressed by crypto (is) how payments will be made more efficient," per Forbes. Griffin explained that the lack of security might discourage future businesses and customers from using the digital mode of payment.
As an example, Griffin compared cryptocurrency to card companies like Visa and Mastercard. Based on the contract conditions, these companies said they are willing to cover costs against fraud and theft. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies offer no such benefit. This means investors and businesses have to be accountable for their own money and safety.
Griffin pointed out that the pandemic-induced lockdowns might have boosted the financial systems temporarily. "(The pandemic) created a whole new class of savers because we couldn't spend money a year ago, like the meme stocks and like cryptocurrency. People are very focused on the world of new ideas and new creations. I worry that some of this passion is misplaced when it comes to cryptocurrencies," per Forbes.
The last thing to note about cryptocurrency is its highly volatile market. Its values often rise and fall without any indication, so readers should take Griffin's prediction with some pinch of salt.
Related Article: Crypto Will Rapidly Grow in 2022: Where to Invest Aside from Bitcoin, Ethereum
Installation view of Georg Baselitz's solo exhibition, "Hotel garni," held at Thaddaeus Ropac in Hannam-dong, Seoul / Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul
By Park Han-sol
Having opened its doors last month in Hannam-dong, Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul is currently hosting an exhibition of the latest paintings and drawings by celebrated German artist Georg Baselitz.
Named "Hotel garni," which refers to a small inn in French, the show features a series of paintings of female figures suspended upside down in an undefined, black void. Although they are inspired by his wife and frequent muse, Elke Baselitz, they are not her portraits; rather, they are abstracted representations of human forms and physicality, in general.
The titles of the pieces provide a hint of where his subjects are supposed to be located: "Einzelzimmer, Einzelbett" (Single Room, Single Bed) and "Do not disturb." The series is his way of making a visual reference to the brothel-inspired scene captured in Picasso's iconic "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907) painting.
Baselitz's decision to invert his pieces in 1969 in an attempt to diverge from his earlier, more figurative works and highlight the form itself was a revolutionary one. To this day, he continues to expand new styles and practices most recently through what he calls "a transfer method."
He first blackens the piece of canvas on the ground. The artist then brings a second canvas, onto which he paints human figures, and presses the two together while they are still wet. The resulting product is a "transferred" figure, the shapes of which vary depending on the degrees of pressure.
"I do this in a very childlike, rather foolish way; however, I keep in mind how it will be transferred later," the 83-year-old artist said in an interview with the gallery. "This process is quick, and the simpler this model, the greater the prospect that it will succeed."
With this exhibition, Thaddaeus Ropac, which operates in London, Paris and Salzburg, has joined the group of internationally renowned galleries that have noticeably begun expanding their presence in Korea.
Pace Gallery, Barakat Contemporary, Lehmann Maupin, Perrotin and Konig Galerie are among some of the major players that have opened new outposts in Seoul in the last five years.
"There is a burgeoning group of younger collectors who have the financial ability to collect art in Korea," John R. Stomberg, the Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, told The Korea Times during a recent interview. "The economy in Seoul is strong enough so that a significant population can now collect art. And that has always driven the galleries and the art market."
The exhibition, "Hotel garni," runs through Nov. 27 at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul.
By Anna J. Park
Local private equity companies are increasing their investment in Southeast Asian venture capital businesses, as they see further growth potential in the region.
Vietnam, in particular, is one of their favored areas. Korea-headquartered STIC Investments recently decided to participate in the Series E round investment for Tiki, one of Vietnam's largest e-commerce businesses.
The e-commerce company raised about $258 million in the Series E funding, boosting its corporate valuation to nearly $1 billion from the round.
Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund also participated in the fund raising, alongside global insurance firm AIA, Taiwan Mobile and Yuanta Fund.
STIC Investments, which has diverse investment portfolios in the Southeast Asian region, including Vietnam and Malaysia, also stepped up as one of major shareholders of Carousell a Singapore-based online market place start-up a couple of months ago. The Korean PEF led the latest $100 million round of investment, bringing the start-up's valuation to over $1 billion.
STIC Investments was also one of many Korean private equity funds Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, LB Investment and LINE Ventures that together invested $33 million in Indonesia's online grocery delivery service, HappyFresh. As Indonesia boasts a large population and a fast-growing market, the country has been one of the favorite investment locations among Korean PEFs.
Korea Investment Private Equity also injected $200 million into Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Group the country's major food and beverage company taking a 2 percent to 3 percent stake in the company.
IMM Investment invested in Vietnam's Masan Group in 2018; and Vingroup in 2019, along with SK Group.
According to Preqin's alternative investment research report, the private equity and venture capital market in 10 Southeast Asian countries has more than doubled over the past five years. The amount of private equity and venture capital invested in the region stood at $37 billion, a 117 percent jump from $17 billion in 2015.
Some market insiders say one of reasons why Korean PEFs are actively placing bets in Southeast Asian regions is the growing uncertainty regarding regulatory policies in China. The Southeast Asian countries' large populations along with booming e-commerce platforms looks promising to Korean PEFs in generating solid returns on investment.
Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung attends a meeting with Financial Supervisory Service Governor Jeong Eun-bo in Seoul, Nov. 3. Joint Press Corps-Yonhap
By Lee Min-hyung
Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung is honing in on the United States for his first roadshow, if possible, amid growing hopes for the group's complete privatization by no later than the end of 2021, after state-run Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) completes the sale of its 10 percent stake in Woori to other investors.
Details of his itinerary have not been fixed, but the Woori chief will soon head for the non-deal roadshow (NDR), according to a spokesman from the financial holding firm.
"After a two-year hiatus, we decided to hold the event for overseas institutional investors amid eased COVID-19 lockdown restrictions," the Woori official said without elaborating further. The Woori chief is considering visiting New York and Boston if his intended trip to the United States becomes a reality.
But chances are he would attend meetings in Asian countries just as he has done for the past few years. The Woori chief has been active in holding such overseas NDRs in Hong Kong and Singapore. Son held the event in the two countries in 2018. He was in Tokyo and Hong Kong for four days in 2019 on business centered on a series of meetings with officials from sovereign wealth funds and global asset management firms.
Woori hopes to widen its appeal to foreign investors, as most financial holding firms including Woori here are relatively lesser-known to major investors overseas. The government's ownership in the financial holding firm has long been considered a negative factor holding back Woori's stock growth.
But in light of its planned privatization, the lender is expected to tighten its internal management structure, allowing it to push for more aggressive investment and business expansion.
Data showed that foreign investors' stake in Woori has been on a gradual rise since 2020. As of the end of 2020, the portion of foreign-held stakes in Woori reached 24.84 percent and rose to 25.91 percent at the end of June this year. The figure also increased to 29.17 percent as of the end of October.
Woori's stock price is also showing signs of bouncing back to the previous level after a sharp fall coinciding with the pandemic shock early last year. The lender is widely expected to enhance its corporate valuation due to earnings growth. It reported a record net profit of 2.2 trillion won for the first three quarters combined, up 92.8 percent from the previous year.
Medical workers at Seoul Medical Center monitor COVID-19 patients in an incentive care unit, Wednesday. Yonhap
Emergency risk evaluation to be conducted when over 75% of ICU beds are occupied
By Jun Ji-hye
The government has decided to shorten the interval between regular COVID-19 vaccine doses and booster shots from six months to four months for elderly residents over the age of 60 as well as inpatients and employees at nursing homes and geriatric hospitals.
This will also be applied to those working at medical facilities.
The interval will be reduced from six months to five months for citizens over the age of 50 in addition to soldiers, police officers and firefighters.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced the decision, Wednesday, as part of measures to cope with a continued increase in breakthrough infections involving people who are testing positive for COVID-19 even after having been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
"Speeding up administering booster shots has become an urgent task to prevent further breakthrough infections," Kim said during a government meeting he presided over. "Under this plan, 13.78 million residents are expected to receive booster shots by the end of the year, nearly double the number of people who were on the initial list."
Kim noted the decision is also aimed at protecting the elderly amid a rapid increase in the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients in recent weeks, as those over the age of 60 account for 82 percent of the critical cases and 97 percent of the deaths.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks during a government meeting on COVID-19 responses at the Government Complex Sejong, Wednesday. Yonhap
Costa Rica's President Carlos Alvarado Quesada will make a state visit to South Korea next week to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues with President Moon Jae-in, Moon's office said Wednesday.
The Costa Rican president will arrive in South Korea on Sunday for a four-day visit and hold a summit with Moon on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee told reporters.
The summit is aimed mainly at enhancing bilateral economic cooperation, particularly in the fields of space and hydrogen technologies, in the post-pandemic era, Park said.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss ways to strengthen diplomatic cooperation and boost collaboration on global issues, including climate change, Park said.
Costa Rica is an important partner in Central America, and the visit by the Costa Rican president is expected to help South Korea bolster its presence in the region, Park said. (Yonhap)
A computer generated image of an envisioned light aircraft carrier released by the Republic of Korea Navy, Nov. 8. Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy
By Jung Da-min
The Republic of Korea Navy's plan to launch a light aircraft carrier development project next year is in serious jeopardy following a major budget cut at the National Assembly.
Although developing indigenous technologies for the carrier was one of President Moon Jae-in's election promises, the military has failed to persuade lawmakers of the necessity of the project. Considering Moon's term ends in May next year, it is uncertain whether the project will be revived under the new administration.
On Tuesday, the Assembly National Defense Committee cut the related budget from the proposed 7.2 billion won ($6.07 million) by 93 percent to 500 million won.
This was the second time the committee cut the budget related to the project. In November 2020, the committee reduced the proposed funding of 10.1 billion won to 100 million won only to be used to conduct research or hold debates on the feasibility of the project. After the failure of its first attempt to launch the project with a basic design process, the Navy reduced the project budget proposal by 30 percent to win the committee's approval, but has suffered another setback.
While at least 4 billion won is needed for the basic design process of the light aircraft carrier, the 500 million won allocated for next year can be used only for data collection and research.
Members of the committee, both from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), have said a careful approach is needed for the project when its necessity has yet to be proven. Rep. Shin Won-sik of the PPP said there has been no consensus on the need for the light aircraft carrier project and further cost analysis is needed.
A computer generated image of a vertical take-off and landing aircraft taking off from an envisioned light aircraft carrier released by the Republic of Korea Navy, Nov. 8. Courtesy of Republic of Korea Navy
By Bahk Eun-ji
People in Seoul will be able to buy fresh produce and other products from various parts of the country at a farmers' market which will be running this Friday and Saturday.
The annual event was canceled last year due to COVID-19.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said that the farmers' market will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in three locations around the capital Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, Mallidong Square west of Seoul Station and Digital Media City in Mapo District.
A total of 111 farms from 74 cities and counties will participate, offering fresh agricultural products recommended by local governments for up to 30 percent below supermarket prices.
A special sale section will also be held at Seoul Plaza for agricultural and marine products that haven't been selling well due to the cancellation of local festivals where they are traditionally sold. This will include hairtail from Jeju Island, ginseng from Geumsan County, South Chungcheong Province, and rice from Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province. Hairtail will be sold at 6,000 won ($5.09), about 70 percent off the supermarket price.
The city government will limit the maximum number of shoppers to 100 at all times, with fever checks and visitors' logs being recorded.
Ahead of the winter kimchi-making season, a separate shopping event for kimchi ingredients will be held at Garak Market in Songpa District this Saturday.
About 45 tons of kimchi ingredients, including pickled cabbage, radish, salted shrimp, garlic, chives and red pepper powder, can be purchased at the market at 30 percent below market price.
"We hope this event will be an opportunity to help promote the healthy and fresh agricultural products by farmers who have had difficulty selling them due to COVID-19, so that it will revitalize the economy," a city government official said.
The ruling Democratic Party (DP) has threatened to conduct a parliamentary investigation into the finance ministry for underestimating this year's surplus tax revenue, ratcheting up pressure on the government to endorse the DP presidential nominee's push to provide universal COVID-19 relief funds.
DP floor leader Rep. Yun Ho-jung said during a YTN radio interview Tuesday that this year's excess tax revenue is expected to reach 50 trillion won ($42.2 billion), which is 19 trillion won more than the ministry's estimate of 31 trillion won in July.
Yun said the extra 19 trillion won can be used to finance a package of COVID-19 relief measures, including universal handouts, and blasted the ministry for the accounting error.
"(The ministry) must be held accountable for this," he said. "I believe they should apologize to the people."
When asked if the discrepancy appeared intentional, Yun said, "If it was intentional, I think we should even conduct a parliamentary investigation, for example."
DP presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung has proposed giving relief handouts of 300,000-500,000 won to all people despite the government's repeated opposition over concerns of fiscal soundness.
The party recently revised the amount downward to 200,000-250,000 won in consideration of the estimated tax revenue surplus and has pushed to give the handouts in January.
The ministry released a statement Tuesday afternoon acknowledging the mistake but denying it was deliberate.
"An intentional underestimation of the tax revenue is unthinkable and we clearly state that we did not do so," it said, adding that the extra 19 trillion won in surplus tax revenue will first be used to compensate small merchants for their COVID-19 business losses and then be transferred to next year's tax revenue.
The public discord between the DP and the government is expected to intensify as parliamentary deliberations on the government's 2022 budget proposal get under way. (Yonhap)
Deutsch Motors Chairman Kwon Oh-soo, center, enters the Seoul Central District Court, Tuesday, for the court to review whether to issue an arrest warrant for him over him having allegedly rigged his company's stock price. The court issued one later that day. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Kim Kun-hee, the wife of main opposition People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl, is seen during the ceremony at which Yoon was appointed the prosecutor general at Cheong Wa Dae, July 25, 2019. Joint Press Corps
Korean Air B787-9 / Courtesy of Korean Air
By Baek Byung-yeul
Naver's new CEO Choi Soo-yeon, right, and new CFO Kim Nam-sun / Courtesy of Naver
In this handout photo released by State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus on Nov. 16, Polish officials use a water cannon during clashes with migrants at the checkpoint "Kuznitsa" at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus. AP-Yonhap
Polish forces at the border with Belarus used water cannons and tear gas Tuesday against stone-throwing migrants, as Warsaw accused Belarusian authorities of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier.
The events marked an escalation in the tense crisis on the European Union's eastern border, where the West has accused President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis.
The Poland Border Guard agency posted video on Twitter showing water being sprayed across the border at a group of migrants who threw debris, and the Defense Ministry also said tear gas was used against the attackers. Polish authorities said nine of its forces were injured seven policemen, one soldier and a female border guard.
Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gather at the checkpoint "Kuznitsa" at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 15. AP-Yonhap
Some 2,000 migrants were at the frontier in makeshift camps in the freezing weather, but only about 100 were believed involved in attacking the Polish forces at the crossing near Kuznica, said Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska. The crossing has been closed since last week.
Police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka later said the migrants there had been ''pacified.'' He added that the attackers had been given smoke grenades by the Belarusians and threw stones at the Polish police, with the events monitored by the Belarusian services using a drone. The Polish Defense Ministry also said Belarus gave some migrants flash-bang grenades.
Belarus' State Border Guard Committee and the Foreign Ministry said they would investigate Poland's actions.
''These are considered violent actions against individuals who are on the territory of another country,'' committee spokesman Anton Bychkovsky was quoted as saying by Belarus' state news agency Belta.
Lukashenko on Tuesday again rejected accusations of engineering the crisis and said his government has deported about 5,000 illegal migrants from Belarus this fall.
''We're not collecting refugees all over the world and bringing them to Belarus, as Poland has informed the European Union. Those who come to Belarus legally, we accept here, the same way any other country would. Those who violate the law, even in the slightest, (we put) on a plane and send back (home),'' he told a government meeting dedicated to the situation at the border.
In May, however, he had railed against the EU sanctions imposed on his country for its harsh crackdown on internal dissent, saying: ''We were stopping migrants and drugs now you will catch them and eat them yourself.''
On Tuesday, Lukashenko said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Monday by phone that neither Belarus, nor the EU would benefit from an escalation of the crisis. He said he proposed a resolution but did not elaborate, adding that Merkel is discussing it with other EU leaders.
Some of the migrants have children with them at the border in their desperate bid to reach the EU. Most are fleeing conflict, poverty and instability in the Middle East and elsewhere. At least 11 deaths have been reported in recent weeks as the weather has turned colder and they are trapped in the dank forest between the forces of the two countries.
While some have managed to get into the EU before Poland, Lithuania and Latvia bolstered their borders, passage appears to be much harder now.
A man pulls down the fence during clashes with Polish border guards at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 16. AP-Yonhap
Poland's Defense Ministry said Belarusian forces tried to destroy border fences, and its Interior Ministry posted video apparently showing migrants trying to tear one down. It said the migrants are using the smoke grenades and similar weapons given to them by Belarusian troops who no longer seem to be trying to conceal their involvement.
Poland has taken a tough stand against the migrants' illegal entry, reinforcing the border with riot police and troops, rolling out razor wire, and making plans to build a tall steel barrier. The Polish approach has largely met with approval from other EU nations, who want to stop another wave of migration.
But Poland also has been criticized by human rights groups and others for pushing migrants back into Belarus and not allowing them to apply for asylum.
A man throws a stone during clashes with Polish border guards at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Nov. 16. AP-Yonhap
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is greeted by Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Raychelle Omamo, as he arrives at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 17. Reuters-Yonhap
NAIROBI U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged Africans to watch out for rising threats to democracy as he began a three-nation tour of the continent where he is also seeking momentum to end Ethiopia's year-long war.
Blinken, who will also visit Nigeria and Senegal, wants to demonstrate a new U.S. commitment to Africa with a focus on democracy, climate change and Covid-19 at a time when China is making steady inroads into the continent.
The top US diplomat spoke for an hour and a half with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at a meeting that was originally scheduled for 10 minutes.
Kenyatta paid a surprise trip to Addis Ababa on Sunday in the hope of pushing peace efforts, adding to a flurry of international diplomatic activity over the conflict.
Blinken also held talks with civil society leaders and asked for ideas on how to stop the "bad actors" who test democratic institutions and threaten a free media.
"We have seen over the last decade or so what some call a democratic recession," he said.
"We have seen the same challenges here that we see in many parts of the world misinformation, political violence, voter intimidation, voter bribery."
President Joe Biden has vowed to pay attention to Africa and draw a distinction with his predecessor Donald Trump, who made no secret of his lack of interest in the continent.
Kenya's Foreign Minister Raychelle Omamo called on Blinken to seek concrete progress, especially on security concerns.
"There are important signposts to erect so that the whole world knows that the US is indeed back and interested in the advancement of our continent," she said.
In his remarks to civil society, Blinken acknowledged that threats to democracy also existed in the United States, where a mob loyal to Trump attacked the US Capitol on January 6 in a bid to overturn the election result.
"The United States is hardly immune from this challenge," Blinken said.
"We've seen how fragile our own democracy can be." (AFP)
A view of the preparations at a Christmas market in Hamburg, Germany, Nov. 16. Reuters-Yonhap
DRESDEN, Germany (AFP) The mulled wine is brewing and the chestnuts are ready to roast, but with Covid-19 cases soaring the festive season is hanging in the balance for Germany's famous Christmas markets.
As the government scrambles to respond to a dramatic rise in infections over the past two weeks, some of the traditional markets have already been cancelled while others are still waiting nervously for decisions.
The Striezelmarkt in Dresden, the oldest Christmas market in Germany which draws around three million visitors annually, is due to open on Nov. 22.
Stallholders have already built their wooden huts and are busy hanging decorations and assembling wooden figures. But they might have to take it all down again at any moment.
"I can't describe what we are going through at the moment," Karin Hantsche, who has been selling traditional gingerbread at the market for 32 years, tells AFP. "We are not sleeping at night, we are so nervous and tense."
The state of Saxony has said the markets can go ahead, but local authorities in Dresden are due to meet on November 25 and could take a different view.
The central government and the leaders of Germany's 16 states are also due to meet this week to discuss new national measures.
With the country's seven-day incidence rate striking a new record high for the 10th day in a row on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel described the situation as "dramatic."
"The fourth wave is hitting our country with full force," she said. "The number of daily new infections is higher than ever before... and the daily death toll is also frightening."
For Hantsche, whose company brings in 50 percent of its income over the Christmas period, the closure of the market would be a disaster.
"Not everyone will survive this, and for me I can't say yet," she says.
A screen at a restaurant in Beijing, China, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping attending a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, Tuesday. Reuters-Yonhap
China and the U.S. have agreed to ease restrictions on each other's journalists amid a slight relaxation of tensions between the two sides.
The official China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that the agreement was reached ahead of Tuesday's virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden
The agreement represents a degree of progress on an issue that has long aggravated relations, but details remain to be ironed out. COVID-19 travel restrictions and long-standing obstacles faced by foreign media within China are also factors standing in the way of a major breakthrough in media relations.
Under the agreement, the U.S. will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists and will immediately initiate a process to address "duration of status" issues, the China Daily said. Beijing will reciprocate by granting equal treatment to U.S. journalists once the U.S. policies take effect, and both sides will issue media visas for new applicants "based on relevant laws and regulations," the report said.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian gave no information on a timeline for implementation, but called the agreement a "hard-won achievement that is in the interests of both sides and should be cherished."
"We hope that the U.S. will keep its promise to put the relevant measures and policies in place as soon as possible and work with China to create favorable conditions for both (nations') media to continue to work and live in each other's countries," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
In a statement to The Associated Press late Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said China had committed to issuing visas for a group of U.S. reporters "provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations."
"We will also continue issuing visas to (Chinese) journalists who are otherwise eligible for the visa under U.S. law," the statement said.
China also committed to increase the length for which U.S. journalist visas are valid from the current 90 days to one year.
"On a reciprocal basis, we are committing to increase validity of U.S. visas issued to PRC journalists to one year as well," the State Department statement said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
Not mentioned in either statement were press conditions in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, where both local and international media have come under increasing pressure. The Economist said last week that Hong Kong refused a visa renewal for its correspondent Sue-Lin Wong. Authorities have not explained the rejection.
Limits on journalists have fueled tensions between the two countries for more than a year after the U.S. cut 20 visas issued to Chinese state media journalists and required those remaining to register as foreign agents, among other changes.
China responded by expelling journalists working for U.S. outlets and severely restricting conditions for those continuing to work in the country.
The new agreement "was the result of more than a year of difficult negotiations over the treatment of media outlets in both countries," China Daily said.
"It is hoped that more good news is ahead for the two countries' media outlets through further China-U.S. cooperation," the newspaper added.
The State Department said it has "remained in close consultation with the affected outlets, as well as other outlets facing personnel shortages due to PRC government policy decisions, and we are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work. We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps."
It added that it would continue to work toward expanded access and better conditions for U.S. and foreign media in China, where they face considerable obstacles ranging from questioning by police, harassment preventing them from doing their work, personal threats and lawsuits brought by people they interview.
"We will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values," the U.S. State Department told the AP.
Asked about Wong's case, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the issuing of visas is at the "autonomy and the discretion of any government." Lam added that the authorities do not comment on individual cases but will continue to facilitate the operation of overseas media based in Hong Kong "in a legitimate manner" according to the city's mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.
The city's Foreign Correspondents' Club said it was "deeply concerned" over the denial of Wong's employment visa.
"We again call on the government to provide concrete assurances that applications for employment visas and visa extensions will be handled in a timely manner with clearly-stated requirements and procedures, and that the visa process for journalists will not be politicized or weaponized," the club said in a statement last week.
Wong is the latest in a string of journalists in Hong Kong to be denied visas.
In 2018, Hong Kong authorities refused to renew the work visa of Financial Times senior editor Victor Mallet after he chaired a lunchtime talk at the Foreign Correspondents' Club with the leader of a now-banned pro-Hong Kong independence party. The authorities did not say why Mallet's application was rejected.
In 2020, Hong Kong did not renew a work visa for Chris Buckley, a New York Times reporter who had been working in Hong Kong after being expelled from China, as well as for Irish journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas, who was then an incoming editor for the independent media outlet Hong Kong Free Press. (AP)
Description Children's Home & Aid invites you to join our team of mission-driven staff who share a common vision: an equitable world where all children and families thrive in strong communities. As a leading child and family service agency with more than 20 locations across Illinois, our mission is to advance the well-being of children by investing in families to disrupt the systemic and multi-generational cycle of racial, social and economic inequality. Our full-time staff receive competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, including a paid leave accrual rate that starts at two weeks annually and grows to more than five weeks of paid time off each year. We hold ourselves and each other accountable for fostering an inclusive work culture where we can be our authentic selves, where we create and have equitable opportunities, and where our voices are supported and encouraged. The Home Visitor is a critical member of the Early Head Start team, providing comprehensive home-visiting services within a strength-based, family-centered model to expectant Spanish-speaking parents and families with young children. As a Home Visitor, you will assess the strengths and needs of children and families, partner with parents to establish family and child development goals, and support families in expanding their support systems. Staff are be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to submit proof of their vaccination status before their start date unless they have an agency approved medical or religious exemption. Staff with an exemption will need to provide proof of weekly testing. For more information about our COVID-19 safety practices, please . What you'll do: Meet weekly with expectant parents and families with young children in their homes to complete assessments, develop goals, and provide services aligned with the strengths and needs of the child and family.
Provide observations of parent-child interactions, including assessing for effective communication and empathic responses, and engage parents in reflective dialogue on the developing parent-child relationship.
Work closely with other Early Head Start program staff, including Family Support Specialists, to link families with appropriate referrals and community supports. Who you are: You have at least an Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education or a closely related field with at least five courses that include life plan or infant development and family relations.
You are at least 19 years old per state and federal guidelines.
You are adept at communicating effectively in both English and Spanish - both in writing and verbally.
Experience working with children and families preferred.
You are able to attend in-person family visits and meetings, and you have a valid driver's license, insurance, and a reliable vehicle.
You enjoy working autonomously but also value working with a team to reach shared goals.
You collaborate effectively and enjoy developing relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
You value data and rely on it to drive meaningful change and improved outcomes. The details: Location: Hybrid (on-site/community-based/remote): Work is completed at home-based and other community-based locations in and Counties, with the need to work from the 2-3 times per week for team meetings and other program needs. Some opportunities for flexible/remote work options.
Schedule: Full-time, hourly; general business hours with some flexibility required for evening family visits and special projects.
Salary: Range starts at $16/hr; offers are commensurate with experience and bilingual candidates may receive additional financial compensation.
Noncash benefits: Medical/dental/vision insurance, paid time off plus 11 paid holidays, supplemental insurance options, 401(k) with match () Where you work matters. You're considering a new position, so no one knows better than you that where you work matters. We believe that by building diverse teams of passionate advocates for youth and families, we can continue to show up for Illinois families, putting those families at the center of every decision, and strengthening the communities where we all work, play, and live together. () We invite you to become an active member of a team that supports, inspires, and challenges each other, and grow your career in an organization that celebrates emerging leaders and provides development and training opportunities aligned with your individual goals and aspirations. If you are looking for an opportunity to do meaningful work, including raising your voice to disrupt the status quo, we encourage you to apply today. Review our agency's blueprint for impact: Review our agency's blueprint for impact:
Education Bachelors of Early Childhood Education (preferred)
Associates of Child Development (required)
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)
Category
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Education
Associate's Degree
Job type
Full time
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How and why will we use your personal data?
Personal data, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
(1) Enable you to subscribe to our hard copy publications;
(2) Send you information about our work, campaigns, organisations and any other information, products or services that we provide (this will not be done without your consent);
(3) Provide you with the services, products or information you have requested;
(4) If you request, put you in touch with other supporters in your area (who have also provided such consent);
(5) Handle the administration of any donation or other payment you make via credit/debit card, cheque, standing order or BACS transfer;
(6) Collect payments from you and send statements and/or receipts to you;
(7) Conduct research into the impact of our activity / campaigns;
(8) Deal with enquiries and complaints made by you relating to the website or us in general;
(9) Make petition submissions to third parties, where you have signed a petition and the third party is a target of the campaign to which the petition relates; and/or
(10) Audit and/or administer our accounts.
Supporter Analysis
Google Analytics
We may use some of your personal information to analyse our digital performance, for example to see how our website can be improved to help us achieve the purposes set out in section 9 below, to record how you are using our website or to assess the popularity of different articles / campaigns.
For more information on how we use your personal information in relation to Google Analytics, please view our cookie policy by clicking this link cookies policy
You can opt-out of the collection of information for such purposes here: http://www.aboutads.info/choices
Communications, updates, fundraising
Where you have provided appropriate consent, we will contact you by telephone and e-mail, with targeted communications to let you know about our events and/or activities that we consider may be of particular interest; about the work of In Defence of Marxism; and to ask for donations or other support.
Donations and other payments
All financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through either:
PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. (PayPal), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read PayPals privacy policy (available at https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full?locale.x=en_GB ) prior to effecting any transactions with us through PayPal; or
GoCardless Ltd (GoCardless), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read GoCardlesss privacy policy (available at https://www.gocardless.com/legal/privacy) prior to effecting any transactions with us through GoCardless.
We will provide your personal data to PayPal / GoCardless only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.
Childrens data
We do not knowingly process data of any person under the age of 16. If we come to discover, or have reason to believe, that you are 15 and under and we are holding your personal information, we will delete that information within a reasonable period and withhold our services accordingly.
Security of and access to your personal data
We endeavour to ensure that there are appropriate and proportionate technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss, destruction, misuse, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or of access to your personal information.
Your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and volunteers.
We may also use agencies and/or suppliers to process data on our behalf. We may also merge or partner with other organisations and in so doing transfer and/or acquire personal data.
Please note that some countries outside of the EEA have a lower standard of protection for personal data, including lower security requirements and fewer rights for individuals. We may transfer and/or store personal data collected from you to and/or at a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Such personal data may be processed by agencies and/or suppliers operating outside the EEA. If we transfer and/or store your personal data outside the EEA we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your personal data.
Otherwise than as set out in this Privacy Policy, we will only ever share your data with your informed consent.
Your rights
Where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes or to be unsubscribed from our email list at any time. You also have the following rights:
(1) Right to be informed you have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This Policy and any other policies and statements used on our website and in our communications are intended to provide you with a clear and transparent description of how your personal information may be used.
(2) Right of access you can write to us to ask for confirmation of what information we hold on you and to request a copy of that information. Provided we are satisfied that you are entitled to see the information requested and we have successfully confirmed your identity, we have 30 days to comply.
(3) Right of erasure as from 25 May 2018, you can ask us for your personal information to be deleted from our records.
(4) Right of rectification if you believe our records of your personal information are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records to be updated.
(5) Right to restrict processing you have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted if there is disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage.
(6) Right to data portability to the extent required by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) where we are processing your personal information (i) under your consent, (ii) because such processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contact or (iii) by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you or another service provider in a machine-readable format.
To exercise these rights, please send a description of the personal information in question using the contact details in section 15 below. You can also unsubscribe from our email list by sending a blank email to news-unsubscribe@marxist.com
Where we consider that the information with which you have provided us does not enable us to identify the personal information in question, we reserve the right to ask for (i) personal identification and/or (ii) further information.
Lawful processing
We are required to have one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. Only 4 of these are relevant to us:
Personal information is processed on the basis of a persons consent Personal information is processed on the basis of a contractual relationship Personal information is processed on the basis of legal obligations Personal information is processed on the basis of legitimate interests
(1) Consent
We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you electronic communications such as newsletters and and fundraising emails, and if you ever share sensitive personal information with us.
(2) Contractual relationships
Most of our interactions with supporters are voluntary and not contractual. However, sometimes it will be necessary to process personal information so that we can enter contractual relationships with people. For example, if you subscribe to one of our publications, or purchase merchandise online.
(3) Legal obligations
Sometimes we will be obliged to process your personal information due to legal obligations which are binding on us. We will only ever do so when strictly necessary.
(4) Legitimate interests
Applicable law allows personal information to be collected and used if it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate activities (as long as its use is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact individuals rights).
We will rely on this ground to process your personal data when it is not practical or appropriate to ask for consent.
Achieving our purposes
These include (but are not limited to) promoting socialist policies
Governance
Internal and external audit for financial or regulatory compliance purposes
Statutory reporting
Publicity and income generation
Conventional direct marketing and other forms of marketing, publicity or advertisement
Unsolicited messages, including campaigns, newsletters, and fundraising appeals
Analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop and promote or strategy and improve communication efficiency
Personalisation used to tailor and enhance your experience of our communications
Operational Management
Maintenance of suppression files
Processing for historical, scientific or statistical purpose
Purely administrative purposes
Responding to enquiries
Delivery of requested products or information
Communications designed to administer existing services including subscriptions, administration of petitions and financial transactions
Thank you communications and receipts
Maintaining a supporter database and suppression lists
Financial Management and control
Processing financial transactions and maintaining financial controls
Prevention of fraud, misuse of services, or money laundering
Enforcement of legal claims
Reporting criminal acts and compliance with law enforcement agencies
When we use your personal information, we will consider if it is fair and balanced to do so and if it is within your reasonable expectations. We will balance your rights and our legitimate interests to ensure that we use your personal information in ways that are not unduly intrusive or unfair in other ways.
Data retention
The length of time each category of data will be retained will vary depending on how long we need to process it for, the reason it was collected, and in line with any statutory requirements. After this point the data will either be deleted, or we may retain a secure anonymised record for research and analytical purposes.
In the event that you ask us to stop sending you direct marketing/fundraising/other electronic communications, we will keep your name on our internal suppression list to ensure that you are not contacted again.
Policy amendments
We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and reserve the right to update from time-to-time by posting an updated version on our website, not least because of changes in applicable law. We recommend that you check this Privacy Policy occasionally to ensure you remain happy with it. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.
Third party websites
We link our website directly to other sites. This Privacy Policy does not cover external websites and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external websites you visit via links on our website.
Updating information
You can check the personal data we hold about you, and ask us to update it where necessary, by emailing us at webmaster@marxist.com
Contact
We are not required by law to have a Data Protection Officer however we have a Data Protection Manager.
Please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed by emailing the Data Protection Manager at webmaster@marxist.com
State
ASER 2021: Enrolment in Govt schools decline in Nagaland
DIMAPUR, NOV 17 (NPN) | Publish Date: 11/17/2021 12:48:03 PM IST
Contrary to all-India trend, enrolment in government schools in Nagaland has declined from 46.2% in 2018 to 34.8 % in 2021, even as enrolment in private schools increased.
Further, there has been an increase in proportion of children currently not enrolled from 1.8% in 2018 to 19.6% in 2021 in the State.
These facts came to light in the 16th Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2021 or ASER that was released online on Wednesday.
As per the report, there has been a clear shift from private to government schools at an all-India level.
For children in the age group 6-14, enrolment in private schools declined from 32.5% in 2018 to 24.4% in 2021. This shift has been seen in all grades and among both boys and girls.
The national increase in government school enrolment was driven by large northern States like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, and southern States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. In contrast, government school enrolment fell during this period, while the proportion of children not enrolled in school increased in many North-eastern States.
Among older children (15-16), there was an increase in government school enrolment from 57.4% in 2018 to 67.4% even as the proportion of out-of-school children in this age group declined from 12.1% in 2018 to 6.6% in 2021.
Meanwhile, as smartphones became the predominant source of teaching-learning as schools were shut down due to Covid-19 pandemic, smartphone ownership too almost doubled during this period.
Interestingly, while the availability of smartphones increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021 across the country, in Nagaland, this increased from 50% to 92.9%.
At an all-India level, more children in private schools had a smartphone at home (79%) as opposed to government school-going children (63.7%).
The report however noted that smartphone availability does not translate into access for children. Although over two thirds of all enrolled children have a smartphone at home (67.6%), over a quarter of these have no access to it (26.1%). Also, more children in higher classes have access to a smartphone as compared to children in lower grades.
What is worrisome is that the proportion of children in 6-14 age group not currently enrolled in schools increased from 1.4% to 4.6%.
The period under review also witnessed a big increase in children taking private tuition. As per ASER, less than 30% children took private tuition classes at an all-India level in 2018, which jumped to almost 40% in 2021. In Nagaland, this proportion increased from 27.9% to 47% during the same period.
The incidence of tuition has increased across all States except Kerala.
The proportion of children with parents in low education category taking tuition increased by 12.6 percentage points, as opposed to a 7.2 percentage point increase among children with parents in high education category.
Fewer children whose schools reopened were taking tuition, while tuition classes were more common among children whose schools were still closed at the time of the survey.
On the other hand, the proportion of enrolled children who received learning support at home decreased from three quarters of all enrolled children in 2020 to two thirds in 2021, though learning support for children in Nagaland slightly increased from 73.1% in 2018 to 75.4% in 2021.
Conducted in 25 States and three Union Territories, ASER 2021 reached 76,706 households and 75,234 children in the age group 5-16 years, besides teachers or head teachers of 7,299 government schools offering primary grades.
With the pandemic extending into another year, field-based survey operations were still not possible on a national scale. As a consequence, ASER 2021 followed the same format of a phone-based survey.
Conducted in September-October 2021, 18 months after the first lockdown, the survey explored how children in the age group 5-16 studied at home since the onset of the pandemic and the challenges that the schools and households now face as schools reopen across States.
National
Lakhimpur: ex-judge Jain appointed to monitor SIT probe
NEW DELHI, NOV 17 (PTI) | Publish Date: 11/17/2021 1:01:34 PM IST
The Supreme Court Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to supervise on day-to-day basis the Uttar Pradesh SITs probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli also took note of the names of the IPS officers provided by the state government, and appointed three officials as part of the state SIT.
Now we have verified and contacted the concerned judge we had thought of. This is Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and he will monitor the ongoing investigation so as to ensure transparency and fairness, the bench said.
The apex court further said that the UP SIT will have to be re-constituted to accommodate the three IPS officers including the IG rank police officer Padmaja Chauhan.
The investigation will be continued by the SIT under the supervision of the former high court judge and the matter will be listed again after the charge sheet and the status report filed by the learned judge, the bench said.
The CJI said that a detailed order will be passed shortly.
The UP government on November 15 had agreed to the apex courts suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SITs probe.
Prior to this, the apex court had said it had no confidence and did not want the one-member judicial commission appointed by the UP government to continue the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava was named by the state government earlier to enquire into the eruption of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
We are inclined to appoint a former judge of a different high court to monitor the investigation on a day-to-day basis and then see how the separate charge sheets are eventually prepared, the bench had said.
Speaking for the bench, Justice Surya Kant had suggested the names of justices Ranjit Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, both former judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and said that they are experienced in the field of criminal law and would oversee the probe of the SIT till filing of the charge sheets in the cases. The police have so far arrested 13 accused, including Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishras 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 Centres 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.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 01:29:49|Editor: huaxia
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A man walks past a closed restaurant in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 16, 2021. Restaurants and cafes across Greece remained closed on Tuesday while a demonstration was held in Athens demanding further state support under the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by the government this autumn to tackle the latest surge in infection rates. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
ATHENS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants and cafes across Greece remained closed on Tuesday while a demonstration was held in Athens demanding further state support under the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by the government this autumn to tackle the latest surge in infection rates.
The restrictions have drastically reduced the revenues of thousands of businesses and further state support is urgently needed, the Panhellenic Federation of Restaurants and Related Professions (POESE) said in a press release. The POESE has called for a 24-hour strike.
"Catering stays closed throughout Greece," read banners on the closed doors of restaurants and cafes.
The protesters demanded a reduction of value-added tax (VAT) rates from 24 or 13 percent to six percent, as well as rent subsidies, exemptions from municipal taxes and other measures to ease the pressure on businesses, avoid closures and the loss of thousands of jobs.
"We are here to unite our voice with other small professionals to claim substantial measures for our health and our income," labor union activist Iro Genetzaki told Xinhua during the protest.
Under the latest set of measures in effect since Nov. 9, in order to be served at cafes and restaurants, either indoors or outdoors, customers are obliged to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or of recovery from the virus.
Unvaccinated individuals must present a recent negative rapid or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test to be allowed to enter retail shops, hair salons, public services or banks.
Claims that the government has failed to support the real economy, and in particular catering, are unfair, Adonis Georgiadis, minister of development and investments, told the local Open TV channel on Tuesday, adding that the state has provided as much aid as possible to all professionals since the start of the pandemic.
Protesters should be angry with the unvaccinated, who do not help with their stance to end the pandemic, he said.
To date, some 6.4 million people in Greece have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Since the announcement of the new restrictions, about 200,000 appointments for a first vaccine dose have been made.
Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases continues to hit record highs in Greece, exceeding 7,000 per day, putting a lot of pressure on hospitals and staff. According to the Health Ministry, on average nine out of ten of those hospitalized are unvaccinated.
In a public statement issued on Tuesday, Health Minister Thanos Plevris called on the country's doctors working in private clinics to volunteer their services in state-run public hospitals, else the authorities would be forced to assign them as an order. Enditem
A man walks past a closed restaurant in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 16, 2021. Restaurants and cafes across Greece remained closed on Tuesday while a demonstration was held in Athens demanding further state support under the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by the government this autumn to tackle the latest surge in infection rates. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
People walk past a closed restaurant in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 16, 2021. Restaurants and cafes across Greece remained closed on Tuesday while a demonstration was held in Athens demanding further state support under the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by the government this autumn to tackle the latest surge in infection rates. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
A man walks past a closed restaurant in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 16, 2021. Restaurants and cafes across Greece remained closed on Tuesday while a demonstration was held in Athens demanding further state support under the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by the government this autumn to tackle the latest surge in infection rates. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 07:33:19|Editor: huaxia
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Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, addresses the UN Security Council meeting "Peace and Security Through Preventive Diplomacy: A Common Objective to All UN Principal Organs," at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 16, 2021. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Preventing conflicts requires closing development gaps, reducing inequality, and offering hope to people around the globe, senior UN officials said at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
"History has shown that conflicts do not emerge out of thin air, nor are they inevitable," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
These problems are caused either by a lack of access to basic services and life staples such as food, water, and health care - or by gaps in the security, laws, and governance systems.
Conflicts can also be sparked by gaps in public trust, both in institutions and in one another, he added.
"These gaps are potential flashpoints for violence and even conflict," the UN chief stressed.
The solution means not only defusing tensions through dialogue, but also ensuring that no mother is forced to skip a meal to feed her children. Closing development gaps and giving people hope can help stabilize societies and reduce inequalities that stoke conflict.
The UN chief noted that for 76 years, the UN has provided a platform for dialogue as well as tools and mechanisms needed for peaceful dispute settlement.
Citing the judicial dimension of prevention - provided by the Hague-based International Court of Justice - as well as the Economic and Social Council's work to advance sustainable development, he also recalled his own calls for a surge in diplomacy and conflict prevention efforts.
These efforts have included the review of all tools comprising the UN's peace architecture, a better integration of prevention and risk management, and more innovation and foresight.
Moreover, the UN's growing partnerships with regional and subregional groups, including the African Union, provide in-depth knowledge of dynamics on the ground.
The top UN official highlighted the Our Common Agenda report, which takes a holistic approach to global security and proposes a new social contract.
Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, said that over the decades the UN has learned more about the link between socioeconomic factors and conflict.
Among the most critical emerging challenges of the 21st century, he cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated socioeconomic struggles and inequality; the climate crisis, which threatened displacement; and ineffective institutions which left people without hope.
Meanwhile, the absence of democratic participation, political freedoms and equality deprives entire populations of their human rights.
While global security will always fall under the Security Council, he maintained that it can be complemented by the Assembly and the Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) efforts to build more resilient and prosperous communities.
ECOSOC President Collen V. Kelapile recalled that the organ's mandate to promote the economic and social advancement of all peoples, protect human rights and oversee the UN's development and humanitarian systems - drawing links to conflict prevention.
Suffering continues in Africa's Sahel region "because of the failure to appreciate the complex interplay of human survival, in a very fragile and culturally diverse environment," he said.
And extreme poverty in South Sudan is rooted in over 50 years of conflict, while Haiti's vast challenges stem from historical and structural inequality, governance deficits and vulnerability to climate change.
However, despite the UN's interlinked mandates to address such crises, interactions between them have remained sporadic and ad hoc.
"Today's complex challenges require more institutionalized collaboration," Kelapile underscored.
Joan E. Donoghue, president of the International Court of Justice, also spoke to the council about how the body can contribute to conflict prevention.
According to her, the court may be used to defuse tensions over resources, land or water borders, or other sources of potential conflict.
She explained that while the circumstances and requirements of each case vary, all the principal UN organs have the opportunity within their respective remits to help implement the court's judgments and contribute to the promotion of peace, security, and justice.
"The court itself stands ready to receive any requests for advisory opinions that relevant UN organs and specialized agencies may make," she stressed. Enditem
Collen Vixen Kelapile, president of the Economic and Social Council, addresses the UN Security Council meeting "Peace and Security Through Preventive Diplomacy: A Common Objective to All UN Principal Organs," at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 16, 2021. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 10:18:17|Editor: huaxia
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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Political experts and scholars around the world view the virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, as a strong signal that would enhance positive expectations of the international community on bilateral ties.
The two heads of state had a virtual meeting on Tuesday. The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-U.S. relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, told Xinhua that the virtual meeting is an applauding step in navigating the bilateral relationship to the right direction.
Noting that the meeting was "exceedingly important" and "a small uptick in the right direction, he said the importance of the online meeting has been "significantly elevated" as the world is facing serious challenges that could hardly be tackled without the U.S.-China cooperation.
Kenneth Quinn, president emeritus of the World Food Prize Foundation and former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, told Xinhua that close collaboration between the two sides is "absolutely essential" to enable humankind to meet the great challenges in the future, including food shortage, the negative impact from climate change, and public health risks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
Calling the meeting "very encouraging," Lyazid Benhami, vice-president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship, said that the two countries have obligation not only to their peoples but also to the rest of the world.
Cavince Adhere, an international relations scholar in Kenya, said that the world expects to see more stable and sustainable relations between the two countries. This raises prospects for a more stable international system which can facilitate global cooperation for the benefit of mankind.
"The rest of the world can make little progress in addressing the international challenges without full participation and cooperation of China and the United States," he said, referring to such issues as the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate crisis.
Herman Tiu Laurel, founder of Philippine-BRICS Strategic Studies, said that China and the United States, two major powers on earth, shoulder the hope of the entire world for a safe, secure and healthy place attaining prosperity for all, which can only be achieved by the partnership of the two.
Faced with common challenges, the commitment and efforts towards durable and permanent peace, as well as stable international political and diplomatic environment is paramount for the major powers to promise and pursue, Laurel added.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 10:36:31|Editor: huaxia
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A medical worker prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Pingxiang City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nov. 16, 2021. Pingxiang recently launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged 3 to 11. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Tuesday reported eight new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Wednesday.
All of the new local cases were reported in Liaoning, said the commission.
Also reported were 23 new imported cases, according to the commission.
Two new suspected cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in Shanghai on Tuesday, said the commission.
No new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday, it added.
A total of 9,919 imported cases had been reported on the mainland by the end of Tuesday. Among them, 9,541 had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, and 378 remained hospitalized. No deaths had been reported among the imported cases.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland had reached 98,368 by Tuesday, including 1,257 patients still receiving treatment, 18 of whom were in severe condition.
A total of 92,475 patients had been discharged from hospitals following recovery on the mainland, and 4,636 had died as a result of the virus.
A total of 15 asymptomatic cases were newly reported, of whom 14 were from outside the mainland. There were a total of 500 asymptomatic cases, of whom 352 were imported, under medical observation as of Tuesday.
By the end of Tuesday, 12,388 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 213 deaths, had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), while 77 cases had been reported in the Macao SAR, and 16,498 cases, including 848 deaths, had been reported in Taiwan.
A total of 12,099 COVID-19 patients in the Hong Kong SAR had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, while 76 had been discharged in the Macao SAR, and 13,742 had been discharged in Taiwan. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 12:40:22|Editor: huaxia
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Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
MANILA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Philippine government official thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines.
Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, told reporters at the airport in Manila that the fresh delivery completes the vaccines the Philippines purchased from the Chinese vaccine maker.
"Sinovac has truly been a very reliable partner of the Philippine government," said Galvez.
He said it was the China-donated Sinovac vaccines that helped his country kick-start a national vaccination program.
China has sustained the COVID-19 vaccine supply to the Philippines since the first delivery on Feb. 28. The Southeast Asian country kicked off its vaccination drive on March 1.
"We will not forget your kindness and compassion. You are really a friend who helped a friend in need," Galvez told China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, who was also at the airport to receive the vaccines.
With the arrival of the latest batch of Sinovac vaccine, Galvez said the Philippines is closer to achieving population protection by year end.
In a brief statement to reporters at the airport, Huang expressed hope that the newly delivered vaccines will further bring down the infections in the Philippines and pave the way for the country's early recovery from the pandemic.
Philippine Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Robert Borje, who represented President Rodrigo Duterte, lauded the partnership between China and the Philippines. "As we can say, this is a partnership that works under Duterte's independent foreign policy," he said.
The Philippines has administered nearly 71 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Tuesday. More than 31.8 million people have been fully vaccinated. The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 percent of its 110 million population this year.
To date, the Philippines has received more than 124 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from different vaccine makers. More than 40 percent of the country's vaccine stockpile came from China.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has more than 2.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 45,808 deaths. Enditem
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
A staff member transports a cargo containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian (R) and Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of Philippine government's measures to combat COVID-19, are seen in front of cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Staff members transport cargos containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the government's measures to combat COVID-19, thanked China for the "steady and timely delivery of the life-saving vaccines" after the country received on Wednesday one more batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 15:48:30|Editor: huaxia
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Photo taken on Feb. 5, 2021 shows the China-Laos Railway's Luang Prabang bridge across the Mekong River in northern Laos. (Photo by Pan Longzhu/Xinhua)
KUNMING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Law enforcement authorities from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand joined forces on Tuesday to conduct the 111th joint Mekong River patrol.
Two Chinese vessels departed for the patrol at 9 a.m. Tuesday from Jingha Port in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, said the Yunnan public security department.
Prior to the operation, the law enforcement authorities held video conferences to jointly analyze the current COVID-19 pandemic and public security situations in the river basin.
During the patrol, the four countries will carry out joint law enforcement activities in key waters of the river, and make every effort to ensure the security and stability of the river basin.
The Mekong River, known as the Lancang River in China, is a vital waterway for cross-border shipping.
China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have been carrying out joint patrols of the river since December 2011.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 20:15:54|Editor: huaxia
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Photo taken on Nov. 17, 2021 shows a traffic jam on Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)
by Mao Pengfei, Nguon Sovan
PHNOM PENH, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Traffic jam, usually a kind of annoying experience in modern big cities, now signals vigor and hope of the recovering Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.
It took half an hour more time on Wednesday morning by driving from downtown to the Phnom Penh International Airport, than months ago when the Southeast Asian country struggled to curb COVID-19 with strict restrictions on social and business activities.
With China's timely and regular vaccine supply during the past months, Cambodia has reached herd immunity earlier than planned and has recently reopened all sectors in the kingdom.
Chheang Lida, a 34-year-old fruit vendor at the Old Market in the Cambodian capital, is swamped with clients on Wednesday as her sales have almost returned to the pre-pandemic era after the country has fully reopened, buoyed by its high vaccination rates.
Selling fresh fruits such as bananas, oranges, persimmons, grapes and strawberries, Lida said sales have recovered after the government allowed wedding ceremonies and religious functions to be resumed, which resulted in the growing demand for fresh fruits.
"During the pandemic restrictions, there was no even a client in an hour, and sales were on the sharp decline, earning only 70 U.S. dollars in revenue a day, but the sales have now recovered around 80 percent, making around 500 dollars in revenue a day," she told Xinhua.
"I'm elated to see the reopening of all sectors in the country after disruptions caused by COVID-19 for nearly two years," she said. "We hope that our economy will rebound soon."
Lida and all of her family members, with the youngest aged five, have been fully vaccinated with two doses of China's COVID-19 Sinovac vaccine.
"We are totally confident in the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine in protecting us from the COVID-19," she said.
Cambodia has so far administered at least one dose of vaccines to 14.08 million people, or 88 percent of its 16-million population.
"Cambodia has become one of the most fully COVID-19 vaccinated countries in the region and around the world, that has achieved a solid herd immunity," Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said at the capital's airport while receiving a new batch of 2 million doses of China-donated Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.
"Cambodia's success in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign is inseparable from China's vaccine supply," he added.
The Southeast Asian nation has so far received a total of 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from three sources through bilateral procurement, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVAX Facility, and donations. Of them, over 90 percent were bought from or donated by China.
Hun Sen said Chinese jabs have protected public health and saved the lives of the Cambodian people, as well as helped restore Cambodia's economy in the new normal.
"China is a true ironclad friend who always provides timely support to Cambodia in difficult times without any strings attached," he said.
"China's vaccine supply to Cambodia and other countries is a testament to China's commitment to promoting COVID-19 vaccines as the global public goods and to campaigns against COVID-19," he added.
Yon Saosopheap, a teacher at the Tuol Svay Prey High School in Phnom Penh, said Chinese vaccines have helped Cambodia achieve herd immunity and reopen its borders to all fully vaccinated international travelers.
"They not only help protect people from COVID-19, but also enable the kingdom to reopen its social and economic activities in all sectors, especially in education and tourism sectors," he told Xinhua.
"China's help will undoubtedly lift our two countries' ties to a new high, and we will keep this kind support in mind forever," he said.
Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian said he is pleased to see Phnom Penh has regained its former vigorous scene, as businesses have been reopened, and he hoped that the kingdom's socio-economic development would recover soon.
"I'd like to reiterate that our assistance to Cambodia will not stop until the pandemic is finally defeated," he said. "The Chinese people will always stand with the Cambodian people to fight against this pandemic."
Cambodia reported 51 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, pushing the national total caseload to 119,687, the Ministry of Health said, adding that five new fatalities were confirmed, bringing the overall death toll to 2,881. Enditem
People drive vehicles on Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 17, 2021. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)
A vendor prepares fruits at a market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 17, 2021. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 20:21:33|Editor: huaxia
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Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2021 shows the inauguration ceremony of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)
XIAMEN, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Enterprises from BRICS countries are strengthening ties and finding more cooperation opportunities despite COVID-19, partly thanks to an innovation center launched last December in the Chinese city of Xiamen.
Benefited from the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, Xiamen Rockwise Information Service Co., Ltd., a stone trading platform, has attracted around 30,000 stone suppliers, including over 700 dedicated to stone imports from other BRICS countries.
Despite COVID-19, stones worth more than 60 million yuan (about 9.4 million U.S. dollars) were imported from Brazil, India, and South Africa to China in the first ten months of this year through the platform, said Lu Ni, one of the partners at the company.
Lu said the establishment of the innovation center, which focuses on policy coordination, talent cultivation, and project development, has enhanced their confidence to expand the stone business with other BRICS countries.
BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market bloc that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It is home to over 40 percent of the world's population and about a quarter of the world economy.
The BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center was launched in Xiamen in December last year. At the center's inauguration ceremony in September, 28 projects with a total investment of over 13.4 billion yuan were inked by BRICS enterprises.
It has provided a foothold for companies to use technological innovation and digital transformation brought by the new industrial revolution.
Huanchuang (Xiamen) Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the disposal of solid waste and service operations. Its customers are in Russia, India, and South Africa.
"The innovation center provides a new communication channel for BRICS enterprises and helps us expand overseas markets," said Li Xuefeng, deputy general manager of the company. "And the local government offers us more services involving talent and technology support."
Li's company plans to launch more high-tech products and promote their equipment and production lines. They also want to provide integrated solid waste disposal solutions to other BRICS countries.
In early November, the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center held a virtual meeting with Russia's "Silicon Valley" Skolkovo innovation center to seek cooperation opportunities.
Yuri Saprykin, vice president of the Skolkovo Foundation, said the Skolkovo innovation center attaches importance to and looks forward to deepening cooperation with Xiamen's innovation center. The center expects both sides to speed up collaboration and promote the development, operation, and market expansion of Russian and Chinese entrepreneurs in the two places.
Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira, distinguished professor of public policy at Tsinghua University, said Xiamen's innovation center is an excellent example of building the industrial revolution partnership between BRICS countries, which was meaningful not only for BRICS but a positive experience for the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 21:10:19|Editor: huaxia
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Balloons are released during a ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), held in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11, has adopted a landmark resolution on major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century.
It is the century-old Party's third resolution on historical issues. Seventy-six years have passed since its first resolution on historical issues and 40 years since the second.
Noting that learning from history is a vital characteristic in Chinese culture, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has stressed that the Party has consistently attached great importance to reviewing its historical experience.
From that consideration, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in March decided that the sixth plenary session would focus on a comprehensive review of the Party's major achievements and experience in its century-long history. A working group was established, with Xi as its chief, to draft the document.
Xi also chaired the first meeting of the group in April, officially starting the drafting work.
At that meeting, Xi stressed that the drafting of a document of high quality on the Party's history is arduous but glorious work since this process would build a broader consensus and stronger unity in will and action among all Party members. It would also rally and lead Chinese people of all ethnic groups in achieving new and great success in building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
When the framework of the draft document was taking shape, Xi presided over another plenary meeting of the group on the drafting work.
A ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is held at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)
On July 1, members of the drafting group came to Tian'anmen Square in downtown Beijing to listen to Xi's speech at a grand gathering celebrating the CPC centenary, which has become the key basis of the drafting work.
Xi has reiterated the need to promote democracy and draw on collective wisdom during the drafting process to make the draft resolution a solid document, epitomizing collective wisdom and consensus.
As early as April 1, the CPC Central Committee issued a circular to conduct discussions and solicit opinions on the agenda of the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee from both within and outside the Party.
In more than 20 days, 109 views and suggestions from various regions, departments, and sides were gathered, and the drafting group compiled a summary of 753,000 Chinese characters accordingly.
On Sept. 10, Xi chaired a symposium to solicit non-communists' views and suggestions on the draft resolution, at which non-communists voiced their opinions and submitted 10 written materials.
Xi gave specific instructions that all pertinent suggestions should be absorbed and embodied in the resolution.
During the drafting process, Xi convened a series of meetings of the drafting group, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and its Standing Committee.
He also studied and edited each draft of the resolution and offered concrete suggestions and requirements.
On behalf of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi delivered a work report at the plenary session on Nov. 8 and explained the draft of the resolution to the session.
Plenum attendees were divided into 10 groups for deliberation on the draft documents. They offered 138 suggestions, based on which 22 revisions were made to the draft.
On Nov. 11, the resolution, with over 36,000 Chinese characters, was unanimously endorsed.
This landmark resolution sounded the clarion call for the century-old CPC marching towards the future, which will lead the Chinese nation to its great rejuvenation.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 16:38:49|Editor: huaxia
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BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- China and Africa have maintained robust economic and trade cooperation, despite COVID-19, as their bilateral trade has set a record high in the January-September period.
Trade between China and Africa rose 38.2 percent year on year to 185.2 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period, reaching the highest level in history for the same period, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said Wednesday.
China's direct investment in Africa hit 2.59 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months, up 9.9 percent, year on year. The growth rate is 3 percentage points higher than China's overall outbound investment, Qian said, adding that the growth rate outperformed the pre-pandemic level in the same period of 2019.
Chinese enterprises signed 53.5 billion U.S. dollars in new contracts in Africa in the period, up 22.2 percent year on year, with a turnover of 26.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.6 percent year on year.
These figures fully demonstrated the confidence of Chinese enterprises in Africa's future development, Qian said.
The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) takes place in Senegal at the end of November.
Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the 55 FOCAC members will gather again, which shows the strong willingness of China and Africa to deepen cooperation, Qian said. Qian believes the conference will boost the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and chart the course for sustainable and high-quality development of China-Africa cooperation. He also said it would play a positive role in building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.
China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trade partner for 12 years straight. The bilateral trade defied pandemic pressure to hit 187 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
Ever since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, trade between China and Africa and China's direct investment in Africa have increased 20 and 100 times, respectively, said Xu Bu, president of the China Institute of International Studies, at a forum in October.
China-Africa trade is generally balanced from a long-term perspective. Since 2000, China has imported 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars of goods from Africa and exported 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars of goods to Africa, Qian said.
Regarding sustainable development, Qian said China is ready to strengthen policy coordination with Africa. China would boost green, low-carbon, and clean energy cooperation and conduct technology exchanges to support Africa in enhancing its capacity to adapt to climate change and achieve sustainable development. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 18:48:18|Editor: huaxia
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Investigators collect samples from the scene of a bomb blast at the parliamentary avenue in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 17, 2021. At least six people were killed and 36 others injured in twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital here, according to government figures. The blasts took place on Tuesday near a police station and on a street near the parliament building. The area has been cordoned off following the bombings. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua)
KAMPALA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and 36 others injured in twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital here, according to government figures.
The blasts took place on Tuesday near a police station and on a street near the parliament building. The area has been cordoned off following the bombings.
President Yoweri Museveni issued a statement hours later, assuring the public that security agencies will handle renewed threats.
He said the blasts were carried out by two suicide bombers and the third suspected bomber had been arrested.
Museveni blamed the attacks on a sleeper cell of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an affiliate of the Islamic State in central Africa.
"We are working with the neighbors to deal with those operating from outside. They have exposed themselves when we are more ready for urban terrorism. They will perish," Museveni said.
According to the police, the attackers belong to the same cell as those who launched attacks last month.
Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, said the war on terror can only be won by joint actions between security agencies and the public.
"We have managed to counter several bomb threats, and neutralized several suspicious packages and device-related incidents across the nation," said Enanga, calling for public vigilance as bomb threats remain.
The twin suicide bombings have aroused worldwide condemnation. United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the attacks as despicable, noting that the perpetrators must be swiftly brought to justice.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, said that the continental body stands with Uganda and condemned the bombings in the strongest terms. Enditem
Investigators collect samples from the scene of a bomb blast at the parliamentary avenue in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 17, 2021. At least six people were killed and 36 others injured in twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital here, according to government figures. The blasts took place on Tuesday near a police station and on a street near the parliament building. The area has been cordoned off following the bombings. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua)
Investigators inspect the scene of a bomb blast at the parliamentary avenue in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 17, 2021. At least six people were killed and 36 others injured in twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital here, according to government figures. The blasts took place on Tuesday near a police station and on a street near the parliament building. The area has been cordoned off following the bombings. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua)
An investigator collects samples from the scene of a bomb blast at the parliamentary avenue in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 17, 2021. At least six people were killed and 36 others injured in twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital here, according to government figures. The blasts took place on Tuesday near a police station and on a street near the parliament building. The area has been cordoned off following the bombings. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 19:28:30|Editor: huaxia
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by Xinhua writer Ding Lei
NAIROBI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The relationship between Africa and China is expected to strengthen further through various cooperation mechanisms and the future looks bright for such cooperation, a former senior African Union (AU) Commission official told Xinhua recently in Nairobi.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua ahead of the forthcoming Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Erastus J.O. Mwencha, ex-deputy chairperson of AU Commission, noted that the partnership between the largest developing country and the youngest continent has led to remarkable outcomes in the past two decades since FOCAC was established in 2000.
"Trade and economic cooperation between Africa and China have grown tremendously. China is becoming a driving force in promoting Africa's industrial capacity. And people-to-people exchange has become stronger as China is now one of the largest countries providing human resource training and capacity building support to Africa. China is also offering more scholarships to African students than western governments. We must keep doing what we're doing and continue to scale it up," he said.
The career diplomat, who held a top role within the pan-African bloc for two terms from February 2008 to January 2017, gave infrastructure development as an example of the highlights of close ties between the two economies.
"China has been a big supporter of Africa's infrastructure. If you look at countries like Kenya, (you will see) the implementation of the SGR (Standard Gauge Railway). The same as the Tanzania-Zambia railway, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, the SGR in Nigeria, and the Light Rail Transit under construction in Egypt. The same thing has also happened in many other countries in ports, air transport, roads and other infrastructure," said Mwencha.
According to him, China is the second largest financier of African infrastructure after African nations, while international development finance institutions and other bilateral countries lag some way behind.
Infrastructure remains one of the biggest obstacles to Africa's investment, economic diversification and growth. Estimates by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) put the continent's infrastructure needs between 130 billion U.S. dollars and 170 billion U.S. dollars annually, with a financing gap in the range of 68 billion U.S. dollars to 108 billion U.S. dollars.
"The Chinese saying that if you want to prosper, build roads. We have truly seen it. With strong infrastructure, you attract investment and improve the lives of people in general and can become competitive in the world," he said.
When asked about how he would view some negative tones about Africa-China friendship, Mwencha observed that Africa has become a battlefield for global conflict and yet Africa has not stopped any country from investing in its territory and there is a lot of space on the continent.
"Africa needs investment and trade. They just want China to stop. But there is no solution offered," he added. "If you look at the attendance of the upcoming FOCAC, African leaders know, and they are not moved in any way. We believe that in the long run, the reality will prevail," he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented threat to Africa's hard-earned achievement. According to an AfDB report in March, real gross domestic product in Africa is projected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021 after contracting 2.1 percent in 2020.
Despite the headwinds, trade and economic cooperation between China and Africa has maintained dynamic momentum. Newest data from China's General Administration of Customs showed that China-Africa trade rose 37.5 percent year-on-year to 207.07 billion U.S. dollars in the first ten months of 2021.
"It really shows how strong the ties are between China and Africa and how the two economies are now getting interlinked," said Mwencha.
In the face of the severe shocks of COVID-19, Mwencha acknowledged the importance of global cooperation and dialogue as solutions to global problems must involve all countries and all regions, especially Africa.
"If we are going to be able to have global harmony, global peace, and address global pandemics, we must work together to support each other. Africa cannot do it alone and the rest of the international community cannot exist in an island. So there is a mutual responsibility for all of us to work together for global harmony and development," he added.
In late September, Chinese leader proposed a Global Development Initiative in steering global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth. Mwencha expressed support for the initiative as it advocates the spirit of open and inclusive partnership, which is extremely vital to Africa against the current backdrop of rising anti-globalization and protectionism forces.
On future cooperation, Mwencha said he expects China and Africa to further enhance engagement in the areas of COVID-19 pandemic management, post-pandemic recovery, infrastructure, technology, particularly technology related to digital economy, human resources development, industrialization, inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, food security, climate mitigation, and peace and security.
The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC, an important platform for collective dialogue and effective mechanism for practical cooperation between China and Africa, is slated to take place between November 29 and 30 in Dakar, Senegal, with the theme of "Deepen China-Africa Partnership and Promote Sustainable Development to Build a China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in the New Era". Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 23:27:49|Editor: huaxia
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NAIROBI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday to begin his three-nation tour in Africa.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Blinken held a talk in Nairobi over regional peace and security, according to a brief statement issued by the Kenyan presidency.
The two countries are working together to address regional priorities, particularly ending the crisis in Ethiopia, fighting terrorism in Somalia, and restoring the civilian-led transition in Sudan, according to the U.S. State Department.
Before his talk with Kenyatta, Blinken also met with local civil society leaders in Kenya, the U.S. top diplomat said in Nairobi.
After his stop in Kenya, Blinken is scheduled to travel this week to Nigeria and Senegal. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 23:52:40|Editor: huaxia
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WINDHOEK, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's President Hage Geingob on Wednesday said the country has a unique opportunity to lead the discourse on combatting climate change globally as well as reap the substantial economic rewards that come with it.
While giving a briefing on his trip to the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Geingob said these ambitions are matched by the highest levels of political commitment domestically.
"As the most vulnerable country in Sub-Sahara Africa to climate change, adaptation is a priority in our updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). But clearly given our natural endowment for renewable energy, we need to do more to reduce our own emissions which are a mere 0.003 percent of global emissions. We are not the main culprits when it comes to warming the earth's atmosphere, but we suffer the consequences, nonetheless," he said.
This is why I have explicitly included the development of a green and blue economy, as well as a green hydrogen industry, as cornerstones of the Second Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP-II), Geingob said.
While at the conference, Namibia announced the winner of the Green Hydrogen project which will see the country aiming to generate about 5 gigawatts of renewable energy.
According to Geingob, the announcement signaled Namibia's commitment to accelerating the development of green hydrogen that could be used to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors regionally and globally. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 23:58:40|Editor: huaxia
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NAIROBI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday sacked top prison commander following the escape of three terror convicts who were serving jail terms for terrorism-related crimes.
Kenyatta, in a statement, replaced Wycliffe Ogalo as the Commissioner-General of the Kenya Prisons Service with John Kibaso Warioba, a retired army brigadier.
"It is also notified that the president had earlier today revoked with immediate effect the appointment of Wycliffe Ogalo as the Commissioner-General of Kenya Prisons Service, paving way for the new appointment," the presidency said.
The new appointment follows the briefing Kenyatta received from senior ministry of interior officials responsible for Correctional Services regarding the security breaches at the heavily guarded Kamiti Maximum Security Prison that led to the escape of three inmates.
The Kenyan leader also directed the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and all security formations to take all actions necessary and pursue the Kamiti escapees with all the available resources. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-18 00:04:47|Editor: huaxia
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NAIROBI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The fourth edition of the Shandong Export Commodities Expo opened in Kenya's capital city Nairobi on Wednesday to help deepen China-Kenya commercial ties.
Zhang Yijun, Minister-Counselor at Chinese Embassy in Kenya said that the three-day event will provide a broad platform to showcase Chinese advanced manufacturing and machinery to Kenyan companies.
"The expo will also establish a long-lasting thriving avenue leading to a bright trade and economic cooperation future between China and Kenya," Zhang said.
According to the organizer, Afripeak Expo Kenya, altogether 103 companies are participating in the exhibition, amongst which 83 are foreign exhibitors mainly from China.
The fourth edition of the exhibition will adopt a virtual and physical event model and showcase modern Chinese made agricultural machinery, construction machinery, hardware and tools, solar and new energy products, auto parts, chemical products and medical equipment.
Zhang said that enhancing unity and cooperation with Africa has always been high on China's diplomatic agenda.
The Minister-Counselor observed that China is the largest trade partner and project contractor of Kenya.
He noted that through the first nine months of 2021, the total trade volume between China and Kenya jumped by 29.9 percent to reach 560 billion shillings (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Zhang, last year, the Chinese direct investment in Kenya reached 172 million dollars and the amount of newly signed contracts reached 3.2 billion dollars.
Zhang added that China is willing to work with Kenya to share growth opportunities and draw up a growth blueprint in pursuit of a better tomorrow.
Gao Wei, CEO of Afripeak Expo Kenya, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy, and in order to promote local industry, a Kenyan pavilion was added to the Expo in order to provide 20 local companies with an opportunity to showcase their products and link up with potential Chinese buyers.
Erick Rutto, first vice president of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), said that the exhibition is a fitting launch-pad for growing trade cooperation between China and Africa.
"It is an important signal to the world that China remains open for business despite the growing wave of trade protectionism," he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-18 00:46:07|Editor: huaxia
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NAIROBI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to promote the creation of green jobs in order to achieve sustainable development, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Simon Chelugui, cabinet secretary of Ministry of Labor, said in Nairobi that the labor sector must play its role in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases so as to mitigate against climate change.
"My appeal to all leaders in the labor sector is that they promote the creation of decent green jobs," Chelugui said during the launch of the third generation decent work country program for Kenya (2021-2024).
Chelugui said that the program has also outlined key priorities, outcomes and outputs to mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on the labor market and ensure an employment-oriented post-COVID-19 recovery.
According to the ministry of labor, preserving the environment has a direct impact on economic growth and employment creation.
"As leaders in the labor sector, we must be at the forefront in promoting the nexus between inclusive economic growth and better employment opportunities that ensures greater economic security for all, without compromising environmental protection," Chelugui said.
He added that sustained and inclusive economic growth can drive progress, and create decent green jobs that will improve the living standards for all.
The official revealed that Kenya will ensure that its economic growth generates green jobs that result in employment opportunities with fair income, workplace security and social protection, and allow flexibility of working arrangements and hours.
Chelugui observed that green jobs ensure that individuals have disposable income which they can spend in the local economy. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-18 00:49:31|Editor: huaxia
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DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) is making strides in conforming to trading requirements under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with plans underway to finalize the EAC tariff offer, the EAC said in a statement on Wednesday.
The EAC Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (SCTIFI) has directed the EAC secretariat to convene meetings with experts by Dec. 15, 2021, to finalize the EAC tariff offer, said the statement issued by the EAC headquarters in Tanzania's safari capital Arusha.
The statement said the EAC secretariat was directed to undertake an assessment of the number of additional tariff lines that have been moved by each member state from various categories.
Peter Mathuki, the EAC secretary general, said that a lot needs to be done to kick off trading under the AfCFTA agreement.
"Regional economic communities are major building blocks in the realization of the AfCFTA. EAC is keen on implementing policies, decisions, and directives, to ease trading under the agreement set to widen integration and increase intra-Africa trade," he said.
African countries began officially trading under the AfCFTA on Jan. 1, 2021, in a pact connecting 1.3 billion people across Africa. The EAC member states are Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 09:16:58|Editor: huaxia
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Container ships berth at the Pasir Panjang container terminal in Singapore on Nov. 17, 2021. Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew by 17.9 percent in October, compared to the revised 12 percent growth in the previous month, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, announced on Wednesday. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)
SINGAPORE, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew by 17.9 percent in October, compared to the revised 12 percent growth in the previous month, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, announced on Wednesday.
The electronic NODX expanded by 14.9 percent year on year in October, extending the 14.1 percent increase in September. Meanwhile, the non-electronic NODX grew by 18.9 percent, following the 11.4 percent rise in September.
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, Singapore's NODX increased by 4.2 percent in October to 16.4 billion Singapore dollars (about 12.09 billion U.S. dollars), following the previous month's 1 percent rise.
Singapore's non-oil re-exports (NORX) grew by 17.8 percent year on year in October, following the 16.4 percent rise in September. Both electronic and non-electronic NORX grew. Enditem
Container ships berth at the Pasir Panjang container terminal in Singapore on Nov. 17, 2021. Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew by 17.9 percent in October, compared to the revised 12 percent growth in the previous month, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, announced on Wednesday. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 12:53:49|Editor: huaxia
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DHAKA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has begun administering COVID-19 vaccines to slum dwellers in capital Dhaka.
Thousands of dwellers took their first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine at Dhaka's mega Korail slum on Tuesday morning.
Md Selim Reza, chief executive officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, told journalists that the campaign to vaccinate slum residents began at 25 booths, with the aim of inoculating 15,000 people on the first day.
After the vaccination at Korail slum, which houses around 300,000 people, he said the campaign will be expanded to inoculate other slum dwellers in the city.
Bangladesh launched the vaccine rollout in January. However, it had to suspend the operation in April after India halted export due to a supply crunch. The vaccination drive resumed in June with China-donated Sinopharm vaccines, after the drug regulator authorized emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 14:03:30|Editor: huaxia
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KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A trader was freed from a kidnapper gang's custody and four suspects were arrested in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, authorities said on Wednesday.
"The personnel of General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) freed Noor Ahmad, a local trader, from kidnappers' clutch and arrested four suspects, including three women, following an operation in Helmand province," GDI, the country's national intelligence agency, said in a statement.
The trader was kidnapped a couple of days ago in surrounding areas of the province, 555 km in the south of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, according to the statement. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 14:37:15|Editor: huaxia
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ISLAMABAD, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and six others including children were injured in a gas cylinder explosion in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday, the police said.
The incident happened inside a multi-storey building in Lyari area of Karachi, the provincial capital of southern Sindh province, police officials in the area told local media.
The residential building was also partially damaged due to the cylinder blast, said the police, adding that the cause of the blast has not been ascertained yet, but it might happen due to gas leakage.
The injured people were shifted to a nearby hospital and being treated for severe burn injuries. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 17:22:22|Editor: huaxia
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KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has written an open letter to U.S. Congress, calling on the United States to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets, the ministry confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.
"Despite the fact that following the signing of the Doha Agreement in February 2020, we no longer find ourselves in direct conflict with one another nor are we a military opposition, what logic could possibly exist behind the freezing of our assets?" Muttaqi was quoted in the statement as saying.
"At a time when we have an excellent opportunity for positive relations, reaching for the option of sanctions and pressure cannot help improve our relations," he said.
The Afghan economy after the Taliban's takeover in mid-August has suffered from the U.S. freezing of over 9 billion U.S. dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank as well as a halt in funds by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"It is necessary for both sides to take positive steps in order to build trust," Muttaqi said.
Afghanistan is concerned that with no change in the current situation, the Afghan people will face greater difficulties and the country will become a source of mass migration in the region and the world, which will create more humanitarian and economic problems for the world, he noted. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 18:43:42|Editor: huaxia
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BAKU/YEREVAN, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan and Armenia on Wednesday announced their respective casualties in clashes that broke out along the border on Tuesday.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement that seven Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, and 10 others wounded in the clashes.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Defense Ministry said one Armenian soldier was killed, and 24 others missing in the clashes, adding that 13 Armenian soldiers were captured by the Azerbaijani forces.
Two Armenian military positions were taken by the Azerbaijani side, said the Armenian Defense Ministry.
Both sides have accused each other of launching provocative attacks.
Hours after the clashes, the two countries reached a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement. Both confirmed on Wednesday that the clashes had stopped, and that the border situation was stable since the ceasefire.
The last round of major armed clashes between the two South Caucasian countries broke out in late September last year, causing heavy casualties and property losses. It ended with a Russia-brokered truce in November 2020. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 19:36:11|Editor: huaxia
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HO CHI MINH CITY, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's pandemic hotspot Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday announced that people who have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines or recovered from the disease are permitted to engage in socio-economic activities.
This is part of the temporary measures adapted for the flexible, safe and effective control of COVID-19 issued by the city's administration on Tuesday.
Children who haven't reached the age eligible for vaccination can also take part in socio-economic activities, but they have to be accompanied by inoculated adults.
The activities include participating in large gatherings such as festivals, cultural and sport events, using public transport, working at public workplaces, and attending classes, among others.
The activities themselves can also be subject to certain restrictions depending on the COVID-19 risk levels of each area, which are classified mainly by vaccination rate and the number of infections among population.
The city has also allowed non-essential businesses like bars, night clubs, and karaoke parlors to resume full operation in low-risk areas and at half capacity in medium-risk ones starting from Tuesday. These services cannot operate in places still classified at "high" or "very high" risk.
After over six months of closure as part of COVID-19 restrictions, these are among the last services to reopen in the southern Vietnamese city. Most of the normal activities and services have been resumed since early October after months of stringent social distancing measures.
Ho Chi Minh City remains Vietnam's largest pandemic hotspot with more than 1,000 new cases reported per day. It has so far logged over 446,000 COVID-19 infections in the latest wave of infection which started in late April, according to the municipal center for disease control. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 19:52:37|Editor: huaxia
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KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- At least four civilians were killed and two others wounded in a bomb attack targeting a public mini-bus in the western part of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan on Wednesday, an eyewitness said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 20:08:52|Editor: huaxia
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PHNOM PENH, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- An aircraft carrying 2 million more doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine donated by China arrived in the Cambodian capital on Wednesday.
The vaccine arrival was greeted by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Phnom Penh International Airport.
The event was livestreamed on the prime minister's official Facebook page, the state-run National Television of Cambodia (TVK), Fresh News, the kingdom's largest online news provider, and several other TV channels.
Speaking at a ceremony held at the airport, Hun Sen said that with China's timely and regular vaccine supply, Cambodia has achieved herd immunity earlier than originally planned and recently reopened all sectors in the country.
From Monday, the Southeast Asian country allowed quarantine-free travel for fully vaccinated international travelers. Under the new scheme, the travelers will be free to visit anywhere in the country if they test negative for COVID-19 72 hours prior to departure and have a negative result of a rapid test upon arrival.
"Cambodia has become one of the most fully COVID-19 vaccinated countries in the region and around the world, that has achieved a solid herd immunity," Hun Sen said. "Cambodia's success in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign is inseparable from China's vaccine supply."
The Southeast Asian country has so far got a total of 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from three sources, through bilateral procurement, the World Health Organization (WHO)-led COVAX Facility, and donations. Of the total, over 90 percent were bought from or donated by China.
The prime minister added that to date, Cambodia has administered at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 14.08 million people, or 88 percent of its 16-million population. Of them, 13.2 million, or 82.6 percent of the total population, are fully vaccinated with two required shots, and 2.07 million, or 13 percent, have got a third or booster shot.
Hun Sen said Chinese jabs have protected people's health and saved the lives of Cambodians, while helping Cambodia recover its economy in the new normal.
"China is a true, ironclad friend who always provides timely support to Cambodia in difficult times without any strings attached," he said.
Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian said it was the seventh batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China to Cambodia.
"Now, we're pleased to see that Cambodia has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in world, and the number of confirmed cases has dropped to double digits, and most of them are mildly ill," he said.
The ambassador said he was elated to see Phnom Penh has returned to its energetic former self as businesses have reopened, and that he hoped the kingdom's socio-economic development would be back on course soon.
Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said the Chinese donation is a new testament to the ironclad friendship between the two countries.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed," he told Xinhua. "Cambodia-China joint COVID-19 fight is a good example for cooperation between countries. Undoubtedly, it will help raise bilateral relationship to a new high and our people-to-people bonds will be further strengthened."
Thong Mengdavid, a research fellow at the Phnom Penh-based Asian Vision Institute, said China's vaccine donation highlighted a close friendship between the countries, promising support and joint efforts in combating COVID-19 as well as in post-pandemic economic recovery.
"With China's vaccines, Cambodia is able to accomplish the nationwide vaccination program, achieve a strong herd immunity and reopen the country to fully vaccinated foreigners," he told Xinhua. "Cambodia is now safer to conduct business activities and traveling in the new normal." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 21:34:17|Editor: huaxia
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KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Refugee Affairs of the Taliban caretaker government in Afghanistan has signed agreements with three leading aid agencies in a bid to support hundreds of thousands of displaced families ahead of winter, the ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement that it has recently signed three memorandum of understandings with ACTED-Afghanistan, Organization for Relief Development (ORD), and International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The total budget from the three aid organizations reaches more than 9 million U.S. dollars to provide aid for the war-displaced families, according to the statement.
Since the start of the year, over 634,000 people have been forcibly displaced by conflict. About 5.5 million people have been displaced since 2012, according to official figures. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 22:56:47|Editor: huaxia
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HANOI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's central Quang Nam province on Wednesday welcomed 29 foreign tourists, the first quarantine-free international travelers to the country in 20 months, amid efforts to revive tourism post-COVID-19 restrictions.
The arrivals came from Australia, France, South Korea, and the United States, and will go on a package tour covering flights and accommodation in Quang Nam as part of a quarantine waiver for visitors fully vaccinated against COVID-19, local media VnExpress reported.
The province is scheduled to welcome some 300 other foreign tourists in the next few days under the vaccine passport program which is being piloted by the Vietnamese government.
All tourism staff at resorts and tourist facilities chosen for the trial program have been fully vaccinated, according to provincial authorities.
The central province, home to popular tourist spot Hoi An ancient town, is one of the first five localities allowed to welcome back fully vaccinated tourists from November onwards along with the northern Quang Ninh province, the central Da Nang city and Khanh Hoa province, and the southern Kien Giang province.
Also under the program, the island city of Phu Quoc in Kien Giang will welcome some 200 foreign tourists on Saturday, the first international visitors to the island after nearly two years of tourism freezing due to COVID-19, Vietnam News Agency reported.
Vietnam closed its border and grounded all international flights in March last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only allowing entry for Vietnamese repatriates, foreign experts and highly-skilled workers with certain quarantine requirements.
The Southeast Asian country hosted just more than 3.8 million international arrivals in 2020, plunging 78.7 percent from a record number of over 18 million in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 broke out, according to its General Statistics Office. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-16 01:21:07|Editor: huaxia
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THE HAGUE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The first full Dutch version of the "Dream of the Red Chamber," a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story masterpiece in the country's classical literature, has recently hit the bookstores in the Netherlands following 13 years of hard work by three Dutch sinologists and translators.
The 2,160-page, four-volume book, which includes all 120 chapters of the original Chinese epic novel, is the result of a long-lasting partnership between Silvia Marijnissen, Mark Leenhouts and Anne Sytske Keijser.
"It was a longer and more difficult process than we had imagined," Keijser told Xinhua.
The "Dream of the Red Chamber," one of Chinese literature's Four Great Classical Novels, was written by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty.
Initially, the three co-translators had planned to complete the work in about eight years. "But obviously, that wasn't enough. We really wanted to create a translation that would read well in Dutch," Keijser said.
The Dutch sinologist said the translated version is aimed at the general public.
"The strength of this novel is that it can speak to its readers, even across time and place. Even though Dutch readers will be unfamiliar with many aspects of life and society depicted in the novel, we will be able to identify with the main characters on an emotional level," she said.
This novel is "the epitome of Chinese classical literature and culture," she said. "We were overjoyed when (the publishing house) Athenaeum said it was interested in publishing the novel."
In a favorable and enthusiastic review in the widely read Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, scholar Henk Propper thanked the translators for their effort. "Cao Xueqin's Chinese has become delicious, sparkling Dutch," he wrote.
The Dutch version of the masterpiece, entitled "De Droom van de Rode Kamer," is available in bookshops across the Netherlands and in online bookstores.
"We are convinced that historical masterpieces should be made available for today's readers, as these are the stories that had, and still have, a strong influence on today's literature, art and life in general," Sander van Vlerken, publisher of Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep, told Xinhua.
"Cao Xueqin is a classical writer that can't be missed," van Vlerken said.
"It is my strong opinion that the Dutch interest in Chinese culture in many of its forms is quite keen and that one of the appealing aspects of the 'Dream of the Red Chamber' for the Dutch reader is the theme of Buddhism/Taoism in contrast with the everyday life of the main characters in their noble lives, and how Baoyu will find his way," he said.
Baoyu refers to Jia Baoyu, one of the principal characters in the book.
"And isn't that the process we all have to go through: how to make the right choices in life, no matter what the circumstances?" the publisher commented.
The book will be formally launched in early December at Amsterdam's SPUI25 academic and cultural center. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 16:04:52|Editor: huaxia
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SOFIA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria's head of state will be decided in a runoff on Sunday, according to the country's election commission.
According to the final results of the first round on Nov. 14, Bulgaria's incumbent President Rumen Radev received 49.42 percent of the votes and will head to a runoff with Anastas Gerdjikov who received 22.83 percent, the country's Central Election Commission said on its website on Wednesday.
Radev and Gerdjikov were the top two candidates among 23 contenders.
The total number of eligible voters was 6,691,150 but only 2,687,307 cast their ballots, the commission said.
No president was elected because fewer than half the number of eligible voters cast a ballot, and none of the candidates received more than half the actual votes cast, the commission said.
The runoff winner is the candidate who secures the most votes, with no regard to voter turnout, according to the Bulgarian Constitution.
In the first round, 58-year-old Radev was backed by several political formations such as Continue the Change, Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such A People, while his opponent was supported by Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party.
The president of Bulgaria is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and has prerogatives such as appointing a caretaker government and dissolving parliament.
The president is elected directly by the people for a period of five years. Radev's term will expire at the end of January 2022. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 22:00:28|Editor: huaxia
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LONDON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- British Brexit Minister David Frost said Wednesday that Britain and the European Union (EU) are likely to reach a deal by Christmas on changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol to smooth post-Brexit trade.
"I think it can be done, whether it will be done is a different question," Frost told the BBC, after Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the issues with the protocol could be resolved "before Christmas".
"I would like to progress this as fast as we possibly can, I'm glad there's ambition on the EU side from what Simon says," Frost was quoted by the BBC as saying.
The question of how goods move from Great Britain into Northern Ireland is obviously at the heart of the talks and there is no reason why goods going to stay in Northern Ireland need to go through processes, Frost said.
As part of the Brexit deal, the Northern Ireland Protocol stipulates that Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market and customs union to avoid a hard border between the region and the Republic of Ireland. However, this leads to a new "regulatory" border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Britain and the EU view changing the protocol as a long-term solution to post-Brexit trade disruption in Northern Ireland. Britain outlined its proposals in a government paper in July, which observers interpreted as an intention to renegotiate the protocol.
In response, the EU published its own package to facilitate the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, including cutting customs formalities, simplified certification, and an 80 percent reduction of checks on retail goods for Northern Ireland's consumers.
It said it would guarantee an uninterrupted supply of medicine to the people of Northern Ireland, by changing EU rules.
However, the two sides remain poles apart on the more challenging issue of the oversight role of the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 23:20:36|Editor: huaxia
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MOSCOW, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia's leading TASS news agency signed a memorandum of cooperation with the state space corporation Roscosmos on Wednesday to open a permanent representation on the International Space Station (ISS).
"The first correspondent in space will be Hero of Russia, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin," TASS head Sergei Mikhailov said after inking the document with Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin.
Misurkin is scheduled to leave the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the ISS on Dec. 8 together with a Japanese billionaire and his business assistant onboard the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft for a commercial mission.
"It is an incredible honor for us to call our Russian cosmonauts colleagues. We look forward to news and amazing footage from space," Mikhailov said.
Rogozin said at the ceremony that the idea is not "extravagant" because many Roscosmos cosmonauts have already been actively documenting their activities in orbit.
Following a thorough discussion, the state space corporation decided to accept Mikhailov's interesting and important proposal, he said.
"We really want everyone in our country and abroad to understand that space exploration is about overcoming fear, disbelief and ignorance. When a few very courageous people engage in it, I would like this to be for the sake of all mankind, our entire society, showing space as it is," said Rogozin. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-18 01:19:22|Editor: huaxia
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MINSK, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel on Wednesday held another telephone conversation about the problem of migrants at the borders of Belarus with EU countries.
According to a Belarus Today report, the politicians agreed that the problem would be brought up to the level of Belarus and the EU, and officials would immediately enter into negotiations to resolve the existing problem. Refugees' wishes to obtain asylum in Germany would be addressed in the same context.
Thousands of refugees, with most of them coming from the Middle East, are trying to enter Poland, Lithuania and other EU countries from Belarus. On Nov. 8, thousands of refugees seeking asylum in Germany camped on the border with Poland. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-17 18:54:59|Editor: huaxia
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BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed that China and the United States have reached three consensuses, including one on the issuance of one-year multiple entry visas to journalists, to create favorable conditions for the media representatives of both countries.
"After multiple rounds of consultations, China and the United States have recently reached three consensuses based on the principles of mutual respect, reciprocity and mutual benefit," spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily press briefing when answering a media inquiry.
The two sides agreed to ensure that journalists from either country currently based in the other country can enter and leave that country normally on the premise of strictly observing laws and consular regulations, he said.
The two sides also agreed to issue one-year multiple entry visas to journalists from the other country, and the U.S. side pledged to immediately initiate domestic procedures to address the "duration of status" issues for Chinese journalists. The Chinese side promised to give equal treatment to American journalists in China after the U.S. policies enter into force, Zhao said.
Additionally, both parties will approve visas on an equal footing for new journalists who meet application requirements in accordance with laws and regulations, he said.
"This achievement was hard-won, meets the interests of both sides, and is worth cherishing," Zhao said, expressing hope that the United States will honor its words, implement the relevant policies as soon as possible, and work with China to continue creating favorable working and living conditions for the media of both countries. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-18 04:18:24|Editor: huaxia
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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- A pilot died after his single-engine air tanker crashed Tuesday night while responding to a wildfire in the U.S. state of Colorado, authorities said.
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office said in a release that the incident was reported approximately 6:37 p.m. Tuesday local time and resources were immediately deployed to search the area near the wildfire dubbed Kruger Rock Fire.
"At approximately 9:49 p.m., the plane crash site was located near the south end of Hermit Park. We are sad to report that the pilot and only occupant of the aircraft did not survive," said the Sheriff's Office.
The Kruger Rock Fire, burning in very steep terrain, was first reported Tuesday morning southeast of Estes Park, a town near the Rocky Mountain National Park, and spread quickly. It had burned 133 acres with 15 percent containment as of Tuesday evening.
The flight was believed to be the first time in the United States that a fixed-winged aircraft was being used to fight a fire at night using night vision goggles, KUSA, an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Denver, reported.
The plane departed from Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland and was reportedly sent to monitor the fire, according to another news outlet based in Colorado, CBS owned-and-operated KCNC TV station, adding that an aerial attack on the blaze didn't happen Tuesday because of the high winds, but fire managers used one or more planes to survey the fire activity.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet Wednesday that the small plane is an Air Tractor AT-802A and the agency is investigating the crash. Enditem
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said by-elections would go ahead even if the opposition boycotts them to protest his failure to implement reforms that would guarantee free and fair polls.
Mnangagwa made the remarks while addressing about 6 000 party supporters in Dulivhadzimo Stadium in Beitbridge. Most of the supporters were bussed from different parts of the province.
Mnangagwa claimed victory was certain for the ruling party.
We are going to have by-elections in 2022 and tinovasvasvanga (we will trounce them). In 2023, we will then have general elections tovarakasha (we will beat them), Mnangagwa boasted as the crowd cheered.
The opposition has hinted that they will boycott the elections, but we will hold them all the same.
Mnangagwa has said the by-elections will be held during the first quarter of next year.
There are 133 vacant Parliamentary and local government seats following the recall of MDC Alliance legislators and councillors.
Mnangagwa, who was in the border town to preside over the commissioning of 28 houses for civil servants, accused opposition-run councils of failure to provide efficient service.
We expect local authorities to take the leading role in the provision of houses. We expect them to address housing, but we have no local authorities, they are dead. They should be complementing government in the provision of houses, but both rural and urban local authorities fail, he said.
While Mnangagwa was addressing the Beitbridge crowd, his spokesperson George Charamba went on Twitter, to claim that the announcement of by-elections by Mnangagwa caught the MDCs by surprise, and unprepared.
Not only are they unprepared and broke; they mortally fear that a thorough thumping by the ruling Zanu PF will remove the benefit of the doubt on which they hoped to fundraise ahead of 2023, Charamba said.
By-election results, particularly margin of defeat and inability to rouse their apathetic supporters will make them un-bankable in the eyes of their Western sponsors. Further, I made the point that those pretending to agitate for the opposition by demanding by-elections, were not only out of touch with the thinking in the opposition; they were actually singing a hymn the opposition does not find melodious. At Kopa in Chimanimani, the President called the bluff and hinted by-elections will come in the first quarter of 2022, he said.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said a clear roadmap of reforms was non-negotiable.
The consistent position thats been taken by the MDC Alliance is that any proclamation for elections must be accompanied by a clear reform roadmap that paves the way for an undisputed election. The bad governance and legitimacy crisis that continues to plague Mr Mnangagwas regime is a direct result of the disputed election of 2018, Mahere said.
She said the MDC Alliance was unwavering in its call for the alignment of electoral laws with the Constitution, adding that there was need to disband the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
MDC-T spokesperson Witness Dube said: It is regrettable that he (Charamba) chose to be verbose to mask Zanu PFs fear for electoral reforms while totally misrepresenting our position on the same to mean that we are scared of by-elections.
Mnangagwa was accompanied by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, former Vice-President Kembo Mohadi, Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri and several senior government officials. Newsday
THE MDC Alliance Bulawayo province has intensified its voter registration campaign by providing transport to prospective registrants to travel to the main provincial registration offices in Belmont ahead of by-elections slated for early next year.
Revelations are that the opposition party is targeting 500 000 voters in Bulawayo during the 21-day Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) registration window period.
The campaign is being undertaken at a time when Zec warned that the city stands to lose two or three constituencies in the next delimitation exercise as the number of registered voters falls far short of the minimum threshold.
The opposition partys provincial MDC Alliance spokesperson Swithern Chirowodza yesterday told Southern Eye that they were mobilising eligible people to register as voters during the by-elections and 2023 plebiscite.
We are targeting to register 500 000 voters.
We have registered big numbers and do not intend to intimidate our competitors by revealing exact details. We are offering transport to the registration offices, Chirowodza said.
The only time we will not be providing transport is when Zec sets up voter registration kiosks in Bulawayos districts.
There are huge numbers of prospective registrants who will get an opportunity to register to vote once Zec sets up voter registration kiosks in Bulawayos districts.
Recently, MDC Alliance youths launched a pilot door-to-door voter registration campaign targeting to register 90 000 new voters ahead of the delimitation exercise.
In June, government announced that a population census will be held in April next year with results expected in August.
It said the delimitation exercise and creation of new electoral boundaries would begin in October and end in December 2022. Newsday
New York, US (PANA) - Preventing conflicts requires closing development gaps, shrinking inequality and bringing hope to people around the globe, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Tuesday
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) Tuesday gave approval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to children aged between 15 and 17 years, local media reported
Oil production at biggest U.S. shale field set to hit new record
By Jessica Resnick-ault / Reuters
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld 11 16 2021
Crude oil production from the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oil field, is set to surpass its pre-pandemic record in December, a swift turnaround that has not been replicated in the country's other oil regions.
Oil output from the Permian, located in Texas and New Mexico, is forecast to reach a record 4.953 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, as output has come back with the surge in economic demand.
The Permian is the primary driver of U.S. output, but its percentage of U.S. overall production is even more than at the end of 2019, when the United States was producing 13 million barrels a day.
December's forecast production will surpass the previous record of 4.913 million bpd set in March 2020, according to a monthly forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
U.S. total oil output dropped by more than 2 million barrels a day in 2020 due to coronavirus-induced demand destruction. Production has returned gradually, with numerous other oil fields, such as the Bakken in North Dakota, still far from their peak production levels.
"Permian Basin wells tend to be the most prolific wells compared to other basins, so if you have more limited capital, you would go there first," said Andrew Lipow, president of consultancy Lipow and Associates in Houston.
The Permian's importance is augmented by its proximity to major pipeline hubs and connections to export centers, making it more advantaged than other basins.
Overall shale production across seven major shale regions is forecast to rise by 85,000 bpd to 8.316 million bpd, with the bulk of the increase seen in the Permian, where output is expected to rise 67,000 bpd.
Gas production from the seven shale regions is expected to rise 0.2 billion cubic feet per day to 89.4 bcf/d in September.
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Kremlin says 'patient' after Nord Stream 2 approval delay
Pjotr Mahhonin
Spirit of Europe Sign Nord Stream - The new gas supply route for Europe.
By AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld 11 17 2021
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it would be patient following the latest setback to Russia's controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline after Germany temporarily halted its approval process.
"The certification of Nord Stream 2 is a fairly complicated process and this was known from the start," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"From the very start it was clear that we needed to be patient."
He added that the Kremlin is "convinced that the project is important for Europe."
"It is important for us and for European consumers," Peskov added.
Germany's energy regulator on Tuesday said it was suspending the certification process of the Baltic Sea pipeline over a legal hurdle.
To resume the approval process, the Switzerland-based operator of Nord Stream 2 will need to create a German subsidiary that will own and operate the German segment of the pipeline.
The regulator's approval is one of the final steps before the commissioning of the pipeline that is expected to double Russian gas supplies to Germany.
The delay comes as Europe, which receives a third of its gas from Russia, is battling surging energy prices ahead of winter.
But critics say the recently completed pipeline will increase Europe's energy reliance on Russia, with some Western countries calling it a geopolitical weapon.
The pipeline also bypasses Ukraine's gas infrastructure, depriving the Western ally of much-needed transit fees.
______________________________________
Oil-exporter UAE accepts future is not oil: US delegation
Getty
The UAE announced net zero carbon goals at the COP26 event
By Talek Harris / AFP
DUBAI
Petroleumworld 11 17 2021
The United Arab Emirates accepts that oil is not its future despite being one of the world's top exporters, a visiting delegation of US politicians told AFP on Friday.
The UAE's leaders "recognise that their future is not going to be in oil", Senator Ben Cardin said at the end of a trip that also included the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Both the UAE and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the number one oil exporter, announced net zero carbon goals in the build-up to the UN environmental meeting, which ends on Friday.
The targets were set despite plans to ramp up oil production. Net zero refers to emissions created within a country, not by products sold and consumed abroad.
But UAE officials "recognise reality", delegation member and House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said after talks with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
"They know the world is working very hard not to be in a position to buy their product anymore, because they're going to alternative energy," he said at the Dubai Expo world fair, which has sustainability as one of its major themes.
"So I think they also want to make sure that they diversify at this point in time because they know their economy cannot be based long-term on a product that the world thinks is harmful to use."
Hoyer said the UAE's hosting of COP28 in 2023 shows it is committed to clean energy, and would provide an extra "incentive" to move away from fossil fuels.
"The crown prince (Sheikh Mohammed) made it very clear that yes, they were a country that was advantaged by fossil fuels, but that they believe that fossil fuels was yesterday and alternative energy will be the future," he said.
Cardin led a team that also included Senator Bob Casey and Representative Emanuel Cleaver. They also visited Israel before the UAE, their final stop.
The visit comes just over a year after the UAE broke with Arab consensus and normalised ties with Israel, with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan following suit under a series of US-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.
The UAE and Bahrain are currently engaged in naval exercises with Israeli and US forces in the Red Sea, where Iran has been accused of carrying out attacks.
"What I think the Abraham Accords have done is take us to another level psychologically (in) the relationship between the Arab world and Israel," Hoyer said.
______________________________________
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri violence probe and to ensure fairness and independence in the investigation.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said: "We appoint Rakesh Kumar Jain (retired judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court)...to ensure absolute impartiality in the investigation of the case."
The top court also ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to include three senior IPS officers, which includes a female officer Padmaja Chauhan, present IG of Uttar Pradesh, on the SIT, which it said would continue with the investigation, under supervision of Justice Jain. The top court said it will list the matter after the charge sheet is filed in the case, and a detailed order will be uploaded on it.
On November 15, the Supreme Court had said it will also consider the names of some retired apex court judge or high court judge to monitor day-to-day investigation in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident.
The top court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to upgrade its task force investigating the matter with some high-ranking officials.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, submitted that the top court can appoint a retired judge to monitor the SIT probe. The top court said, "Now, we have a lot of freedom for a retired SC or HC judge. Let us see..." The bench had noted that it will find out a judge who is willing to take up the assignment.
During the hearing, the top court emphasized that the UP government should upgrade the task force investigating the matter. It said the officers must be high-ranking officers, currently there are local Lakhimpur Kheri, sub-inspector level and DSP level officers on the task force.
The bench told Salve that it needs one more day's time to finalize the name of the judge. "We are considering Rakesh Kumar Jain (former Punjab and Haryana HC judge) or others. We have to consult them", said the bench.
Salve submitted, "Judge can be appointed from any other state". Earlier, the top court had said it wanted to appoint a judge outside of Uttar Pradesh.
Concluding the hearing, the top court asked the UP government to look into grievances of victim's families, who have not been paid compensation. Additional advocate general Garima Prasad submitted that the state would take necessary steps.
The violence occurred on October 3, resulting in the killing of eight persons, including four farmers who were allegedly mowed down by the vehicles in the convoy of Ashish Misra, the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Misra.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Tripura government on a plea against its decision to invoke the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against two lawyers, and a journalist.
A bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant said: "Issue notice. No coercive steps..."
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, submitted that the FIR was lodged against them after the advocates went for a "fact finding" job in connection with the violence in the state.
The bench decided to seek response from the state, but declined for now, the request by Bhushan to tag the matter with a pending plea against constitutional validity of the provisions of the UAPA.
On November 11, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea challenging the Tripura Police's decision to invoke the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against several lawyers, activists and journalist Shyam Meera Singh.
Initially, the top court asked advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, to move the concerned high court in the matter, but later agreed to hear the matter.
Bhushan submitted before the bench that the petitioners are also challenging the constitutional validity of certain widely misused provisions of UAPA and the wide definition of 'unlawful activities'.
The petitioners said the present petition is being filed under Article 32 of the Constitution in relation to the targeted political violence against the Muslim minorities in Tripura during the second half of the month of October, 2021.
"The subsequent efforts by the State of Tripura to monopolise the flow of information and facts emanating from the affected areas by invoking provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (hereinafter, UAPA) against members of civil society including advocates and journalists who have made the effort to bring facts in relation to the targeted violence in the public domain", said the plea.
Recently, the Tripura Police had booked a journalist and other activists for offences punishable under the UAPA. The petitioners - Mukesh, Ansarul Haq Ansari, and Shyam Meera Singh -- moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the first information report (FIR) registered against them.
According to the petition, the fact finding report titled as "Humanity Under Attack in Tripura #Muslim Lives Matter," published on November 2, by Lawyers for Democracy, on the findings of a four member fact finding team comprising advocate Ehtesham Hashmi (Supreme Court), advocate Amit Srivastav (member, coordination committee , Lawyers for Democracy), advocate Ansar Indori (National Secretary, NCHRO), and advocate Mukesh (Member, PUCL Delhi) has brought on record evidences into the orchestrated and targeted violence perpetrated by political right wing forces on the minority Muslim community in Tripura in October - purportedly as a counter to violence perpetrated on minority the Hindu community in Bangladesh, which continued until October 26.
Pakistan will be providing professional training to Afghanistan's aviation staff in areas of security, traffic controlling, firefighting, air forecast, and airport management, Khaama Press reported.
A statement by the Afghan embassy in Pakistan said that the bilateral agreement in this regard was reached during the visit of Afghanistan's foreign minister to the country.
Kabul and Islamabad also agreed to be conducting ten flights every week between both capitals, among them two would be carried out by large planes and the rest by small ones.
"The number of seats will be increased from 1,000 to 1,500 and planes will be able to fly from any airport of Pakistan to Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Kandahar," reads the statement.
In the meantime, Afghanistan's planes will also be allowed to fly to the airports of Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar, the report said.
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/17/2021 -- The report "Composite Film Market by Resin Type (Epoxy), Curing Type (Autoclave, Out-of-autoclave), Function (Lightning Strike Protection, Surface Protection), End-use Industry (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025" The global composite film market size is expected to grow from USD 245 million in 2020 to USD 328 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period. Due to the increase in the demand for high-performance materials with properties such as high strength to weight ratio, good tensile strength, electrical conductivity among others, the global composite film market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.
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Epoxy resin film comprises a major share of the composite film market in terms of value and volume.
Epoxy resins are thermoset resins known for their excellent mechanical, electrical, and high-heat resistance properties. They are available in a wide range of curing-agent variations. They have better physical, mechanical, adhesion, and low shrinkage properties in comparison to other resin films. High strength and resistance to moisture are obtained when these epoxy resin films are applied to composite panels.
The autoclave curing type accounted for the largest market share in the global composite film market during the forecast period in terms of value and volume.
Autoclave curing type produces denser, and void-free molding because high heat and pressure are used for its curing. Autoclaves are in high demand as it helps in producing high-value composite films, and are widely used in the aerospace industry to fabricate high strength-to-weight ratio parts for aircraft. This curing type method generally uses high-temperature matrix resins, such as epoxy, which has higher properties than conventional resins. Thus, autoclave curing is widely used in aerospace & defense, automotive, and other end-use industries.
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The lightning strike protection function holds a significant revenue share in the global composite film market during the forecast period.
The aerospace & defense end-use industry caters to the high demand for lightning strike protection composite film. Every airplane in the US commercial fleet gets struck by lightning more than once a year, according to Lightning Technologies Inc., which increases the demand for the lightning strike protective composite film on composite panels. Also, Airbus and Boeing's forecast for the next two decades has clearly stated that there would be an increase in passenger traffic, resulting in the manufacturing of new aircraft, which would require a huge amount of composite film.
The aerospace & defense end-use industry accounted for the largest market share in the global composite film market during the forecast period in terms of value.
The aerospace & defense industry is a major consumer of composites, which in turn increases the demand for composite films. Leading aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus are increasing the use of carbon composites, and composite films in their commercial aircraft. Composite films are also used in fuselage, wings, tail, tail fin, wing box, trailing edge, engine nacelles, engine, and other structural parts of an aircraft. Growing environmental concerns and search for high strength lightweight materials to increase fuel efficiency has put composites and simultaneously composite films under the limelight in the automotive industry. As, the composite structures used on automotive would require Class A protection from extreme climates, and scratches.
North America accounted for the largest market share in the composite film market during the forecast period.
North America holds the largest market for the composite film market. The key reason for this includes the demand for composite films in the aerospace & defense industry in the region. The demand for composite film in aerospace & defense, automotive, and other industries is projected to improve due to product innovation and technological advances made in this sector. According to the 24/7 Wall St. a Delaware corporation, in the US, parts of Florida experience an average of 100 thunderstorm days annually, making Florida the most likely place in the country for lightning strikes. Also, along the US West Coast, annually, an average of 10 thunderstorms is experienced. These factors drive the demand for composite films during the forecast period.
Key players in the market include 3M(US), Henkel AG Co. KGaA(Germany), Hexcel Corporation(US), Gurit (Switzerland), Solvay(Belgium), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Socomore(France), Park Aerospace Corp.(US), and Axiom Materials Inc.(US), among many others. These companies are involved in adopting various inorganic and organic strategies to increase their foothold in the composite film market.
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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/17/2021 -- The crane and hoist market size is projected to reach USD 33.0 billion by 2026 from an estimated USD 26.0 billion in 2021, at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2021 to 2026. Significant demand from construction industry, expanding mining industry, increased use in shipping industry are among the factors driving the growth of the crane and hoist market.
Mobile cranes segment is projected to register the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2026
The growth of the mobile cranes segment is majorly driven by their features such as high mobility, high traveling speed, and requirement of less time to set them up on construction sites. The use of mobile cranes in the mining, construction, aerospace, shipping & material handling industries has gained popularity, where lifting and lowering activities require extensive displacements of objects, materials, or equipment.
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Hybrid operations segment is projected to register the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2026
Hybrid-powered cranes are advanced cranes that use both hydraulic and electric power for the operation. These cranes are more efficient and are used for customized solutions. Hybrid cranes are powered using an electrical supply and diesel generators. Some hybrid cranes are equipped with a large battery energy storage system (ESS) to store electricity. The cranes' operation is based on the principle of regenerative power. The energy generated while lowering the load is used to charge ESS and supplied as additional power for lifting and hoisting activities. Hybrid cranes are designed to reduce fuel consumption and operating cost.
Construction segment is projected to register the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2026
The construction industry is expected to hold the largest share of the crane market during the forecast period. The construction industry has undergone substantial changes in recent years because of the global recession, which has led to the downsizing of the industry in developed markets. However, the investments regarding construction in most emerging markets have continued to grow at a moderate rate despite the global crisis. Earth-moving equipment is mainly used for construction works such as digging the earth, lifting, loading and unloading weight, and leveling. Applications of cranes in earth-moving equipment include heavy loading, high cycle rating, and accurate movement. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global construction industry by delayed projects and decreased investments in the infrastructure sector. With the development of vaccination against COVID-19, the real estate and infrastructure projects across the globe are expected to slowly gain pace and lead to the growth of the construction industry. China has already launched the "New Infrastructure" campaign to offset the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors are expected to result in a high growth rate of the crane market for the construction industry.
APAC to lead crane and hoist market in 2020
Asia Pacific is the most rapidly growing market and offers high opportunities for the construction industry, which is driven by the growing population. Construction and material handling industries have boomed rapidly and consequently have driven the market for cranes in India, China, and Australia. The growing awareness related to automation and the increasing emphasis of leading economies such as China and Japan on construction and material handling industries are some of the primary factors contributing to the largest market share of APAC. Besides, the rapid growth of the automotive, construction, and aerospace & defense industries in emerging economies, such as China and India, is also supporting the growth of the crane market in APAC.
Key Market Players
Konecranes (Finland), Liebherr (Germany), Tadano (Japan), Terex (US), Zoomlion (China), Ingersoll Rand (US), Palfinger (Austria), Columbus McKinnon (US), Kito (Japan), Kobelco (Japan), Sumitomo Heavy Industries (Japan), ABUS Kransysteme (Germany) are among a few major players in the crane and hoist market.
Berlin, Germany -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/17/2021 -- The International Procurement Instrument was first proposed back in 2012 but it has taken until this year for its intention to be put into effect. Finally, after nine years of negotiating, the ambassadors of 27 member states reached an agreement in June of this year, allowing the International Procurement Instrument to go ahead. This will allow European companies to have access to third countries' procurement markets, in the same way as foreign companies currently have access in Europe. The instrument is basically a trade offensive tool that should provide Europe with some negotiating leverage to ensure that there is reciprocity when it comes to access to procurement markets and to defend European businesses against restrictive and discriminatory practices. The International Procurement Instrument still has a number of hoops to jump through before it can be fully effective, in particular that the European Parliament still has to adopt a position on it.
Procurement careers are continuously going through evolution thanks to the impact of technology and digitisation, as well as changing regulatory landscapes. DSJ Global is well placed to provide expert support to talented people in procurement careers looking to take a positive next step towards a brighter future. The firm also has a wealth of expertise in hiring for other connected areas, including supply chain, technical operations and logistics roles. DSJ Global was established in 2008 and now has a nationwide presence that extends to major hubs including Berlin and Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne. It is also part of an international workforce of 1,000+ that is a major asset given the global nature of end-to-end supply chain and procurement careers today. A combination of permanent, contract and multi-hire solutions ensures that the firm can cater to every need and it is also well resourced, for example thanks to the database of more than a million mid-to-senior professionals that the firm has built up over the years.
DSJ Global isn't just a robust presence in procurement careers in Germany, as the firm's international reach is extensive. This is partly due to bebing the recruitment partner of choice to hundreds of world-leading companies as a member of the Phaidon International group, which operates across six countries. A truly cross-border approach to hiring has been perfected at DSJ Global where the team has always sought to streamline the recruitment process to make it more mutually beneficial and simple for all those involved. The internal team at the firm is a vital asset in this mission. Consultants are trained on an ongoing basis and the firm invests heavily to ensure that all work with best-in-class technology and strategies so that the highest standards can always be maintained. There are currently many different roles available via DSJ Global including Team Leader Production Planning, Senior Warehouse Manager, Supply and Demand Planning Expert and Logistics Director [Automotive].
"Like for many sectors, 2020 marked a defining moment for recruitment. Challenged by uncertainty, but unwavering in our commitment to our clients, we have endured through 2021 with a sense of duty to clients and candidates" commented Matt Wood, Director at DSJ Global. He went onto say, "as we reflect on the challenges of virtually securing and retaining talent, we're inspired by a team who have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and continue to help all our clients secure top talent on a global scale."
To find out more about Procurement careers in Germany visit https://www.dsjglobal.de
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For all other enquiries please contact DSJ Global DE: +49 30 72 62 11 444.
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Calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO 3 ) is arguably the most geochemically important phase in the Earths lower mantle, because it concentrates elements that are incompatible in the upper mantle. No one has ever successfully retrieved this high-pressure compound from the lower mantle before. This is because CaSiO 3 -perovskite is unquenchable, meaning that it cannot retain its structure after being removed from its high-pressure environment. In a new study, U.S. geologists have finally found the first calcium silicate perovskite from Earths lower mantle in a diamond from the Orapa kimberlite pipe in Botswana.
Calcium silicate perovskite is among the most geochemically important minerals in the lower mantle, largely because it concentrates elements that are incompatible in the upper mantle, including rare-earth elements and radioactive isotopes that make an important contribution to the heat of Earths mantle, said lead author Dr. Oliver Tschauner from the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his colleagues.
Although theorized for decades, to date, no one has ever successfully retrieved a high-pressure phase silicate from the Earths lower mantle, largely because they cannot retain their mineralogical structure after being removed from a high-pressure, high-temperature environment.
The only other high-pressure phase silicate mineral confirmed in nature, bridgmanite, was found inside a highly shocked meteorite.
In the new study, the researchers identified and characterized an inclusion of the high-pressure CaSiO 3 -perovskite within a deep-earth diamond using synchrotron X-ray diffraction.
The unique diamond was unearthed from Botswanas Orapa mine the worlds largest diamond mine by area in the 1980s.
A gem dealer sold the diamond in 1987 to a mineralogist at the California Institute of Technology.
For jewelers and buyers, the size, color, and clarity of a diamond all matter, and inclusions those black specks that annoy the jeweler for us, theyre a gift. I think we were very surprised. We didnt expect this, Dr. Tschauner said.
The crystalline compound the researchers found was named davemaoite in honor of the prominent experimental high-pressure geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao and confirmed as a new mineral by the Commission of New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association.
This honor is a fitting tribute given the profound impact Daves work has had throughout the geosciences, said Dr. Richard Carlson, director of the Earth and Planets Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
His contributions have shaped our understanding of our world and now a piece of the world will forever bear his name.
The structural and chemical analysis of davemaoite showed that it is able to host a wide variety of elements in its structure, including potassium, thorium and uranium three of the major heat-producing elements.
The findings support the existence of compositional heterogeneity within the lower mantle and, given the minerals overall abundance, suggest that davemaoite likely influences heat generation in the deep mantle.
We believe davemaoite originated between 660 and 901 km (410-560 miles) below the Earths surface, Dr. Tschauner said.
The discovery of davemaoite inspires hope for finding other difficult high-pressure mineral phases in nature, said Dr. Yingwei Fei, a researcher in the Earth and Planets Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Being able to obtain more direct samples from the inaccessible lower mantle would fill in our knowledge gap regarding the chemical composition and variability of our planets depths.
The discovery of davemaoite is described in two papers in the Mineralogical Magazine and the journal Science.
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Oliver Tschauner et al. 2020. Davemaoite, IMA 2020-012a. Mineralogical Magazine, 84; doi: 10.1180/mgm.2020.93
Seed germination a crucial stage in the development of all plants normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother plant. In some infrequent instances, precocious germination a type of viviparity or vivipary occurs when the seed sprouts while still within the fruit. In a new paper published in the journal Historical Biology, Oregon State Universitys Professor George Poinar Jr. described the first case of precocious germination of a fossil plant involving a number of seeds that have germinated in a pine cone embedded in a piece of 40-million-year-old (Eocene epoch) Baltic amber.
Crucial to the development of all plants, seed germination typically occurs in the ground after a seed has fallen, Professor Poinar said.
We tend to associate viviparity embryonic development while still inside the parent with animals and forget that it does sometimes occur in plants. Most typically, by far, those occurrences involve angiosperms.
Angiosperms, which directly or indirectly provide most of the food people eat, have flowers and produce seeds enclosed in fruit.
Seed germination in fruits is fairly common in plants that lack seed dormancy, like tomatoes, peppers and grapefruit, and it happens for a variety of reasons. But its rare in gymnosperms.
Precocious germination in pine cones is so rare that only one naturally occurring example of this condition, from 1965, has been described in the scientific literature.
Thats part of what makes this discovery so intriguing, even beyond that its the first fossil record of plant viviparity involving seed germination, Professor Poinar said.
I find it fascinating that the seeds in this small pine cone could start to germinate inside the cone and the sprouts could grow out so far before they perished in the resin.
At the sprouts tips are needle clusters, some in bundles of five, associating the fossil with the extinct pine species Pinus cembrifolia, which was previously described from Baltic amber.
According to the scientist, viviparity in plants typically shows up in one of two ways.
Precocious germination is the more common of the two, the other being vegetative viviparity, such as when a bulbil emerges directly from the flower head of a parent plant, he said.
In the case of seed viviparity in this fossil, the seeds produced embryonic stems that are quite evident in the amber.
Whether those stems, known as hypocotyls, appeared before the cone became encased in amber is unclear. However, based on their position, it appears that some growth, if not most, occurred after the pine cone fell into the resin.
Research on viviparity in extant gymnosperms suggests the condition could be linked to winter frosts.
Light frosts would have been possible if the Baltic amber forest had a humid, warm-temperate environment as has been posited, Professor Poinar said.
This is the first fossil record of seed viviparity in plants but this condition probably occurred quite a bit earlier than this Eocene record.
Theres no reason why vegetative viviparity couldnt have occurred hundreds of millions of years ago in ancient spore-bearing plants like ferns and lycopods.
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George Poinar Jr. Precocious germination of a pine cone in Eocene Baltic amber. Historical Biology, published online November 8, 2021; doi: 10.1080/08912963.2021.2001808
Today NZME Limited (NZX: NZM , ASX: NZM) (NZME) will deliver its 2021 strategy update through a virtual Investor Day.
The NZME 2021 Investor Day Presentation is attached to this announcement.
NZMEs Chairman Barbara Chapman highlights NZMEs significant transformation into a digitally focussed media business, supported by strong brands, platforms, and people.
Digital audience and revenue transformation are illustrated across all three of NZMEs strategic pillars Audio, Publishing and OneRoof.
Ms Chapman also attributes NZMEs achievements during 2021 to a commitment across the business to its key strategic priorities and to the Boards guiding principles introduced during 2020.
These principles are now firmly established, ensuring NZME delivers to the expectations of its customers, and through them to NZMEs shareholders:
Customer First
Win with Quality
Digital Acceleration
Audience Expansion
Top Performance
CEO Michael Boggs outlines how NZMEs focus on its three strategic priorities has supported NZMEs achievements across 2021 including revenue market share growth across all platforms and audience growth to record levels especially across NZMEs digital platforms.
NZMEs strategic priorities are:
New Zealands Leading Audio Company
New Zealands Herald
OneRoof Your Complete Property Destination
In the presentation NZME executives provide performance and achievement updates across NZMEs Audio, Publishing and OneRoof business units.
The presentation also includes the following Outlook Update:
Despite the restricted operating environment, 4th Quarter revenues have been encouraging
Real Estate markets have shown signs of a positive recovery over recent weeks
Our audiences have been at record levels particularly on our digital platforms nzherald.co.nz and iHeartRadio as we Keep Kiwis in the know
NZME has been adapting to the economic and operating environment as the Covid-19 restrictions have continued. NZME continues to expect to deliver EBITDA1 in the range of $63m to $67m for the full year 2021 (2020 EBITDA1 of $67.3m)
We are engaging with Google and Facebook with regards to them accessing and supporting editorial content
Please see the links below for details
Digital acceleration delivering on NZME's 2023 strategy
NZME Investor Day 2021 Presentation.pdf
Source: NZME Limited
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A first quarter update was released for Vital Healthcare Property Trust today. The attached report will be sent to unitholders by email and mail over the coming week.
Key achievements over the start of FY22 (including October 2021) include:
1. Continued Deployment of 5-Year Portfolio Strategy
Vital acquired a Cancer Centre of Excellence in Adelaide known as Tennyson Centre for ~A$93m in mid-October 2021. Tennyson Centre is located between Adelaides Airport and CBD and is ~300m from Ashford Hospital. Tenants are primarily engaged in the identification, assessment and treatment of cancer through oncology, radiotherapy, imaging and consulting with tenants such as ICON Cancer, Genesis Care, Sonic and Nexus Day Hospitals.
Also in mid-October, Gold Coast Surgery Centre was sold for ~A$13m (before costs) ~5% above its book value. The sale removes an asset with persistent vacancy from the portfolio.
2. Delivering Value for Unitholders
Vitals development of Playford Health Hub in Adelaide has recorded success across all three stages:
Stage 1: ~A$22m multi-deck car park and retail suites is due for completion in mid-Nov 2021. The project was anchored via a long-term lease to SA Health for ~50% of the car park with the retail component now substantially pre-leased.
Stage 2: ~A$39m Specialist Medical Centre is ~60% pre-leased and design work has significantly progressed. Construction is expected to commence in mid-2022.
Stage 3: ~A$50m (plus expected capital contribution from operator in excess of $25m) for 100+ bed private hospital advanced discussions underway.
~NZ$74m of new and extended brownfield developments were approved across five of Evolution Healthcares facilities in New Zealand: Grace Hospital, Tauranga (which Evolution operates in a joint venture with Southern Cross); Royston Hospital, Hastings; Royston Day Surgery Unit, Hastings; stage 2 of Wakefield Hospital, Wellington (stage 1 opened during the quarter); and Bowen Hospital, Wellington.
Full details of current developments are included in the attached release.
3. Balance Sheet Strengthened Further
A$315m of new debt facilities were secured increasing funds available to support the activities noted previously, diversifying lenders (syndicated banks increased from two to six) and extending weighted average debt term from 2.5 years to 3.9 years (pro forma as at 30 June 2021).
NZ$142.8m of new equity capital was raised primarily from existing unitholders via a NZ$115m placement and a NZ$27.8m unit purchase plan with all of Vitals unitholders who opted to participate able to do so at or above pro-rata. The proceeds will support the developments and acquisitions referred to above.
FY22 guidance
Vital remains on track to achieve FY22 earnings guidance of at least 11.8 cents per unit (at least 2.0% above FY21) and distribution guidance of 9.5 cents per unit (7.0% above FY21).
Please see the link below for details
Vital First Quarter Update FY22
Source: Vital Healthcare Property Trust
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India has managed to upstage China in Maldives but the situation is very fluid due to internal political dynamics and religious extremism
by Ashok K Mehta
Maldives is the worlds ninth smallest country at 90,000 sq km, geographically dispersed with four lakh people inhabiting 200 of its 1,192 islands, with some used for agriculture and tourism. Its pivotal location in Channel 8 enables command over shipping routes from the Gulfs of Aden and Hormuz to Malacca Straits. Maldives belongs to the Sunni Shafi school wherein Islam is central and laws based on Shariah. It has the dubious distinction of having exported per capita highest numbers of Maldivians to the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria but all are believed to be dead. The ISs front organisation, Idharaa Khidmat-e-Khalq, established a toehold and sleepers might still be there. Its economy is tourism-based, contributing 56 per cent of the GDP.
Maldives follows an India First policy since 2018 before it was considered lost to China. Beijing is still heavily invested in Maldives and owns Finalu island, where it is building hotels. Former President Abdullah Yameen had changed the Constitution for this. Maldives signed the first FTA with China and owes it $1.4bn. Beijing is on the lookout for atolls where Chinese expertise in land reclamation adds to space for strategic posts. Chinas String of Pearls was effectively demonstrated in Maldives as was the extension of Maritime Silk Route. It was due to Chinese pressure that Indias GMR contract for building Male airport was cancelled. The contract was given by President Nasheed of Maldivian Democratic Party, which tilts towards India. But China has a strong base among the Opposition parties.
Internal developments will determine whether Maldives will be China or India First. While Yameen is in jail for corruption, the main Opposition Progressive Party of Maldives has been taunting MDPs president Solih for selling Maldives to India and started an India Out campaign. The rift between Solih and Nasheed is a power struggle as the latter returned last month from Berlin and London after treatment following a terrorist assassination attempt. Nasheed, who has asked Solih to course correct before it is too late following his pandering to religious extremism, has also been advocating the parliamentary system. Unity within MDP (there were reports of a likely split) will influence the outcome of the September 2023 elections.
The Opposition has been attacking the Government for allowing India a consulate in Addu atoll, calling it a possible safehouse for Indian spies. Indias refusal to take back two Dhruv helicopters based in Addu had caused an outcry. Addu is the second largest city with a population of 30,000 and a strategic outpost. Maldivian sensitivities on Indias presence are interpreted as boots on the ground. The decision on Addu Consulate appearing in Indian media first also irked Maldivians. India is building a police training facility and Coast Guard harbour. The Solih Government does not share details of agreements with India, citing national security. The India First policy has led to anti-India rhetoric and even a threat to blast the Indian High Commission.
The India-Maldives relations are ancient with ups and downs. Indias Operation Cactus (1988) to prevent PLOTE mercenaries seizing Male, New Delhi being the first responder during tsunami 2004, Indian naval ships providing drinking water during the water crisis of 2014 and ongoing medical and vaccine supplies during the pandemic are some highlights. Nearly 85 per cent of the population is now double-jabbed. India has become the biggest donor with projects worth $800mn being implemented across 34 islands. Total investment is now valued at a significant $1.3bn. The Greater Male Connectivity project is the largest-ever Indian enterprise in Maldives. It consists of a 6.4km bridge and causeway which will connect three populated islands. An air bubble has been created between the countries, involving 60 direct flights from five cities with Indian tourists being maximum and Chinese nearly zero. This has boosted receipts by 104.5 per cent after COVID had contracted the economy by 33.2 per cent.
Defence cooperation is central to bilateral relations. Political uncertainty in an environment of religious extremism will likely breed radicalisation. Arms and drugs smuggling, terrorism, piracy and environmental fragility are threats. Besides signing defence protocols with India, Maldives recently committed to the US and Japan for the Maritime Research and Coordination Centre. The India-Maldives-Sri Lanka maritime pact will soon include Mauritius, Seychelles and Bangladesh. Indian Dorniers, Dhruv helicopters and coastal radars are suitably located for surveillance and maritime rescue operations. Maldivian military personnel train in India. Maldives recently hosted the Indo-Pacific Intelligence Conference with US Pacific Command and was attended by 17 countries where Maldivian Chief of Defence Forces, Maj Gen Abdulla Shamal, praised India for providing assistance and expertise to meet military challenges, including non-traditional ones. A Maldivian officer is now posted at the Maritime Fusion Centre in Gurgaon. Interestingly, India has submitted a DPR on the erstwhile British strategic base at Gan island that the Chinese have been eyeing for long.
After being edged out by China, India is back in business. But the situation is fluid due to political dynamics and religious extremism. India has to play its cards carefully to maintain its primacy in the face of Maldivian Opposition and Chinese opportunism.
(The writer, a retired Major General, was Commander, IPKF South, Sri Lanka, and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff. The views expressed are personal.)
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:
29: ... 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(0x7f3fe7170308)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe7238bd0)', '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(0x7f3fe7170308)') 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(0x7f3fe7238bd0)') 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(0x7f3fe716f858)') 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(0x7f3fe7238bd0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe7238bd0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe685c650)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe71d9428)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe71d9428)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: 29: ... 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(0x7f3fe6d0bce8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe7138868)', '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(0x7f3fe6d0bce8)') 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(0x7f3fe7138868)') 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(0x7f3fe6d838d0)') 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(0x7f3fe7138868)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe7138868)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe682bba0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe7115a30)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe7115a30)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: 29: ... 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(0x7f3fe7194e58)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe71905f8)', '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(0x7f3fe7194e58)') 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(0x7f3fe71905f8)') 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(0x7f3fe7190268)') 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(0x7f3fe71905f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe71905f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe682b480)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe705a790)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe705a790)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
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: 29: ... 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(0x7f3fe6cfe5c8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6c1c118)', '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(0x7f3fe6cfe5c8)') 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(0x7f3fe6c1c118)') 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(0x7f3fe6d4f9f8)') 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(0x7f3fe6c1c118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6c1c118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe682b5d0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe682b180)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe682b180)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
Karl Meinzer DJ4ZC made DARC honorary member
Former AMSAT-DL President Prof. Dr. Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, who was first licensed in 1957 aged 17, has been named a new DARC honorary member
A translation of the DARC post reads:
This was announced by DARC chairman Christian Entsfellner, DL3MBG, at the virtual conference of the amateur council - in replacement of the canceled general meeting - on November 13th. OM Meinzer developed an enthusiasm for amateur radio at a young age. At the age of 17 he obtained his amateur radio license in 1957.
He passed the Abitur [educational qualification] along with a degree in physics and graduated with a doctorate. He spent his professional life at the University of Marburg, especially in the development laboratory for electronics until his retirement in 2005. The rooms of the ZEL were also the headquarters of the AMSAT-DL. Numerous OSCAR satellites were created in the laboratories in Marburg: AO-10, AO-13, AO-21, AO-40. Phase 3E is de facto finished, but is still waiting for a suitable start. A special operating system works in all satellites built by AMSAT-DL, on which Meinzer played a key role.
Meinzer doesnt skimp on sharing his expertise and so he is still in close contact with the board of AMSAT-DL today. It is not surprising that DJ4ZC was one of the first radio amateurs to work on QO-100.
In addition, Prof. Dr. Karl Meinzer carried out further technical radio tests. He was obsessed with testing whether radio signals could be reflected off the planet Venus. In fact, he succeeded in doing this with 5 kW at 2.4 GHz, including a water-cooled magnetron. He had a special permit from the Federal Network Agency [BNetzA] specifically for these experiments.
But even in earlier years he achieved amazing things: In 1964 he set a course record of 70 cm between his home town of Iserlohn and Switzerland. And even then he was QRV on 433 MHz EME and contacted Puerto Rico. "He is one of the few old-timers who keeps pace with modern technology," explains Christian Entsfellner, DL3MBG.
"There are only three Keplerian laws, everything can be done in them," said Meinzer once, according to DL3MBG. "Unfortunately, he is reluctant to present his skills, but the AMSAT board always likes to refer to his expertise," said the DARC chairman, who later wishes him a happy 82nd birthday.
The DARC has unanimously decided to award you honorary membership for your services. I am happy to welcome you as a new honorary member, concluded DL3MBG.
DJ4ZC expressed his thanks. My life has always been shaped by amateur radio. Some of the services were only made possible by other people, explains Meinzer. I hope to continue to contribute something for amateur radio and DARC in the future.
Unfortunately, communication behavior in society has changed. So it's a challenge for the DARC. However, I have the hope that technology will gain more importance again. Ultimately, amateur radio has to prove that it is useful for society, said Prof. Dr. Meinzer in conclusion.
Source DARC https://darc.de/
Radio amateurs assist in rescue of firefighters buried in cave On Sunday, October 31, the State Network of Emergency Radio amateurs REER-SP provided support in the care of the disaster that occurred in Altinopolis / SP
A translation of the LABRE post reads:
Twenty-eight civilian firefighters were carrying out an exercise in the Two Mouths Cave when part of the cave collapsed, leaving nine deaths among the victims buried. The search and rescue operations were carried out by the Fire Department of SP, with the support of the State Civil Defense.
THE REER-SP had important participation providing communication between the Command Post, installed about 800m from the basement, and the rescue area, difficult to access. To overcome this distance, it took between 30 and 40 minutes of narrow trail walking in dense forest. The volunteers of REER-SP involved the work in the early hours of the morning, continuing until 8 pm.
The participation of the radio amateurs was effective, providing infrastructure and radio equipment to enable communication between the Operation Command and the rescue teams, who were without contact due to lack of telephone signal or internet. The support of the radio amateurs brought greater agility to the operations, enabling the command to receive and transmit messages directly to the rescue team.
We're sorry for the nine fatalities, we offer condolences to the family members.
In this operation, these were directly involved:
REER SP - Sao Paulo State Radio Amateur Emergency Network.
PY2GMG Gilmar de Moura Gaspar (Regional Coordinator of REER-SP), coordination of activities of radio amateurs at the disaster site.
PY2ALA Rafael Malagutti Silva, availability and assembly of the local disaster communication structure.
PY2PCR Ricardo da Costa Paschoali, transport logistics, provision and assembly of communication structure at the disaster site.
PY2VGG Julio Cesar Valera, radio operator on the analogue link digital PY2KAO - PY2KAR - DMR / Zello application / WhatsApp application
PU2UMF Mauricio Rogerio Falsarella, in support of the analogue digital link PY2KAO - PY2KAR - DMR / Zello application / WhatsApp application
PU2XGA Gabriel Mendes de Castro, for supporting the assembly of the link between the Zello application and the PU2KAO 146.930MHz analog repeater (Altinopolis/SP)
PY2BBQ Hilton Telles Libanori - General Coordinator of REER SP and RENER Brazil.
PU2YZS Rodrigo Coelho Salvatori - Operations Coordinator REER SP.
PY2IV Igor Vicente Munhoz, assistance in TG8 clusters and monitoring of the Brandmeister DMR network.
PY2LY Fabio Poli Rosa da Cruz, assistance in TG8 clusters and monitoring of the Brandmeister DMR network.
PY2KAR 146.670MHz Repeater - Ribeirao Preto /SP (House of Radio Amateur of Ribeirao Preto).
PY2KAO 146.930MHz Repeater Altinopolis/SP (Home of the Amateur Radio of Ribeirao Preto and the maintainers of this repeater).
We also have the support of dozens of radio amateurs, who have been supplying the teams with information and technical data.
Source LABRE https://IARU-Brazil
Sino-Bangladesh relations, started in 1976, were limited to trade deals until the first decade of the 21st century.
by Hussain Shazzad
Bangladesh, the second highest recipient of Chinas investment in South Asia after Pakistan, imports the highest volume of goods from China making it Bangladesh's largest trading partner. This is the beginning of the story where China offers Bangladesh financial assistance and development experience for its big-ticket megaprojects to fulfill its vision-2041- a well-crafted dream to be a developed country. The overwhelming funding from China makes the critics pessimistic to ask a question, citing the example of Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Is China trying to bait Bangladesh with its debt-trap diplomacy?
Debt-Trap Diplomacy, a widely used narrative against China, is thought to be originated from infrastructure war between China and Western Allies. It's an apple of discord if China really has any Machiavellian Strategy as Chinese projects in Bangladesh are too fragmented to achieve such cunning strategic objectives. Once The Sleeping Giant now the Second Economic Superpower, China follows socialist ideology in political affairs but adopts open market policy with the name market socialism. The historical data demonstrates that China always has strong affiliation with South Asian countries because of the regions Big Bazar. The geo-political eminence & commercial noteworthiness of Bangladesh has made China pay special heed to catch this money-making market.
To utilize the potential of becoming economic hub of South Asia, Bangladesh needs external funding for its flagship development programs financing of which goes beyond domestic affordability. This leads Bangladesh to look for external funding options with conducive conditions. Bangladeshs loss of substantial financial assistance from global lenders in the recent years e.g., World Banks rejection to finance the Padma Bridge, and the attractive nature of Chinas investment created a gateway for China to step into Bangladesh's economy. On the other hand, China, as a part of its external orientation, comes closer to Bangladesh by affiliating the country with different China-led regional platforms e.g., AIIB, BRI etc.
Sino-Bangladesh relations, started in 1976, were limited to trade deals until the first decade of the 21st century. The bilateral relations have experienced two different phases before and after the initiation of the BRI. The cozy relations turned into strategic partnership after 2010 when the countries signed a number of trade, transit and defense procurement agreements. Both countries are working to alleviate the huge trade-deficit by establishing the Free Trade Zones. China is trying to prove itself as Bangladesh's time-tested friend by entwining diplomatic, defense and economic ties.
Though China and Bangladesh have distinct political and social status quo but collaborative efforts brought them closer. China's non-intervention principle to the domestic affairs of its partners leads Dhaka to welcome more and more investment from Beijing. As an emerging economy, Bangladesh requires hefty investment to tackle its socio-economic problems which is clinched by China. On the other hand, Bangladesh is all-important in Chinas strategic calculus since it can connect the southeastern landlocked province of China. Besides, the cheap workforce of Bangladesh offers China an opportunity to relocate its sunset industries. Yet, critics give a contentious look on this relationship by denouncing Chinas role in resolving Rohingya crisis.
According to the World Bank and IMF, that a country will cross the danger mark if its external debts exceed 40% of GDP ensures Bangladesh is in safe zone as its total foreign loan is less than 15% of GDP. Flow of External Resources into Bangladesh, a publication of the Ministry of Finance, reported total foreign loan outstanding of the country was $4409.51 crore depicting per capita loan is around $278 in 2019-20 fiscal year. This shows clearly how reality begs to differ from the misconception that Bangladesh is overburdened with external debts. Another misreading that Bangladesh is going to be a victim of Chinas debt trap pointing finger to the growing Chinese investment also doesnt reflect the ground reality. Bangladeshs total external debt, in the fiscal year 2019-20, consists of 38% from WB, 24.5% from ADB, 17% from JICA, 6.81% from China, 6.14% from Russia and 1.3% from India. This self-explanatory data shows that Bangladesh is travelling along the right trajectory in contrast to aforementioned misconceptions.
The strategic advantage of cross-border trade tilted Bangladesh exponentially towards China which leads critics say that too much reliance on China's money will make the country beholden to China. But Bangladeshs diplomatic maneuvers of the last few decades demonstrate that the country has been striking a fine balance among the donors. By pumping money to Bangladesh, China is actually trying to take the longstanding relations to a new height. Albeit, there is a narrative that Bangladesh is going to be a victim of 'payday loan diplomacy, but the counter narrative explains how Chinese soft-loan reduces the pressure of western donors for economic and political reforms.
Bangladesh perceives Chinese investment as a welcome addition to existing sources along with creating a competitive environment. Before reaching to foregone conclusion by tagging China's debt trap with Bangladesh, it needs to be kept in mind that the funding options for Bangladesh are very limited. Besides, a loan becomes burden if it is not optimally utilized. To date, all the Chinese-funded projects in Bangladesh have been proved to be financially viable. There is no such instance where Bangladesh has accepted all the diktats, while signing financial agreement, blindfolded.
The current stronger position of Bangladesh, in terms of external debt from China, will alter with the rise of Chinese investment, but long-run return will be more attractive if funds are effectively utilized. Bangladesh needs to negotiate carefully before inking any financial agreement, focus more on soft-loan and ensure timely implementation of projects. Along with taking funds for infrastructural boost, Bangladesh may also leverage the development experience of China to create win-win situation. Not to mention, the macro-economic management policy of Bangladesh is prudent enough to avoid Chinas Debt-Trap, even if there is any.
Writer's Bio: Hussain Shazzad, a strategic affairs and foreign policy analyst, completed his M.B.A from the Department of International Business, University of Dhaka. He can be reached at pksf.shazzad@gmail.com
By Libby Eggert
eggertli@grinnell.edu
Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf and Feven Getachew `24 spent the summer organizing the rededication of Smith Gallery to properly recognize its namesake and the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College, Mrs. Edith Renfrow Smith. Beauboeuf and Getachew wanted to reconcile the lacking recognition from the College to the pioneer, who is still alive at age 107.
Beauboeuf said, The institution [Grinnell College] has neglected this woman for much of its history. Feven and I were trying to correct that a little bit. But I dont think this should be the end of attempts to recognize her.
Gretachew was in Beauboeufs tutorial last year, Beyond the Little Mermaid. Getachew reached out to Beauboeuf with the idea of doing something for Mrs. Smith when Getachew stayed on campus over the summer.
After researching and learning more about Mrs. Smith, Beauboeuf and Getachew got in contact with Professor Emeritus Dan Kaiser, history, who wrote the book Grinnell Stories: African Americans of Early Grinnell, which includes stories of Mrs. Smith. He connected them to her, Alice Frances Smith. Beauboeuf and Getachew traveled to Chicago in the summer of 2021 to meet Mrs. Smith, where she lives now.
There are no good words. You know, the word remarkable is useful, but it doesnt get to it, said Beauboeuf about first meeting Mrs. Smith.
I felt honored. I felt empowered, inspired, disappointed, disappointed that I didnt know about her [Mrs. Smith] before I came, said Getachew.
On Thursday, Oct. 28, there was a ceremony in the Smith Gallery attended by Mrs. Smith and her family to formally rededicate the space. The gallery was filled with photos discovered by Getachew during the summer spent researching with Beauboeuf.
My idea was to be able to make the exhibition as wholesome as possible and represent different points in her life at different times, said Getachew, who chose the photos to highlight in the exhibit.
The exhibit ran from Thursday, Oct. 28, until Nov. 6. There were photos of Mrs. Smiths family, her high school years, her life in Grinnell and her life in Chicago where she now resides.
During the event on Thursday, Beaubeouf opened the ceremony. Getachew spoke about designing the exhibit, meeting Mrs. Smith and why she embodies the idea of A True Grinnellian, referencing the title of the exhibit. President Anne Harris officially rededicated the space. Finally, Mrs. Smith spoke and expressed her gratitude, saying it was one of the most beautiful tributes she had ever received.
The rededication revealed a new plaque on the wall outside the gallery describing the life and legacy of Mrs. Smith, which replaced the former plaque that read The Smith Gallery, so future students can learn and understand who Mrs. Smith is and celebrate her life.
The rededication was both of us working together to say, can we understand the namesake for the space because everyone refers to that gallery as the Smith Gallery and may assume all sorts of people, none of whom were Edith Renfrow Smith, said Beauboeuf.
Mrs. Smiths grandparents were born into enslavement. She was born to Eva Craig and Lee Renfrow in Grinnell. Mrs. Smith graduated from Grinnell College in 1937 with a major in psychology and a minor in economics. She was the only Black student at Grinnell during her four years on campus and no Black students attended the school for 10 years after she graduated.
Getachew described how Mrs. Smiths time at Grinnell College as the only Black person on campus demonstrated her perseverance. I cant imagine graduating and being a pioneer, it takes a lot of labor. You know, it takes a lot of active choice to love a place that really is saying that theyre not fit for you, said Getachew.
Beaubeouf and Getachew reported having no difficulty receiving approval for the exhibit. The Department of Humanities provided funding for the project, and the Art Department helped set up use of the gallery, which they operate.
Getachew found most of the pieces from Mrs. Smiths family members, and from Grinnells Digital Archives. She also had help from Drake Community Library and Justin Hayward in finding and displaying the photographs.
Mrs. Smith also met with other parts of the community during her visit, such as the middle school, high school and community members in town.
I felt really strongly that that needed to happen because shes never had the opportunity to speak as one Grinnellian to another Grinnellian, said Beauboeuf.
Beauboeuf said the failure of the college to recognize Mrs. Smith means there are other firsts we could be ignoring or missing history on. What is the actual history of including Black students, Black and brown students, indigenous students, different international groups of students? I would hope our students start to get curious about and do research to find who they are.
Mrs. Smith is my hero, said Getachew. I believe she is an embodiment of the core values Grinnellians have in my opinion, and I aspire to be a Grinnellian like her.
By Eleanor Corbin
corbinel@grinnell.edu
With three challengers winning over the incumbent candidates, the Grinnell-Newburg School Board has undergone drastic turnover. Tyler Harter was elected as School Board chair and Chris Starrett and Roger Belcher were elected as Grinnell School Boards newest at-large directors. Starrett and Belcher gained publicity for their positions against mask mandates and the Culturally Responsive Scorecard in Grinnell schools. The close results have reminded members of the College community how important their vote is.
Nat Jordan `21, co-chair of the campus Democrats, worked to encourage Grinnell students to vote in the days approaching November 2. He saw a clear distinction between the candidates running, and the possible implications that could have on the local community.
Local politics are crucial, he said, and I think, unfortunately, a lot of students failed to realize that.
Seeing that two of the challengers were running on only a couple of issues, like mask mandates and critical race theory, Jordan worries about their capability to effectively serve on a school board. These worries intensified after he watched the League of Women Voters forum with the candidates.
I thought it was pretty concerning that there was a question asked about budgeting and they [Starret and Belcher] basically both said oh I know nothing about budgeting, he said, and thats the number one job of a school board.
The close margins of the election solidify Jordans stance that student involvement is more important than ever, with only 39 votes deciding a victory for Tyler Harter over Helen Redmond. Essentially, Grinnell students alone could have changed the results.
Going forward, Jordan hopes to continue to encourage students to vote in local elections, and deeply believes that students do have a role in shaping the Grinnell local community. He argues that Grinnell is a students home for four or five years and that professors and staff make decisions on where to work based on factors like local politics and quality of the school district.
He also hopes that the administration will play a larger role in making the voting process easier for students.
There is a dearth of voting information on the [Grinnell College] website, he said, which is startling. If you look up basically any other peer institution, they will have voting information on their website.
Ross Haenfler, beyond being the department chair of sociology, is a parent to a 3rd grader and 7th grader attending Grinnell local public schools. As such, he is directly affected by the outcome of the schoolboard elections.
While he does not think that there will be immediate radical changes within Grinnell schools as a result of the elections, he does fear for the way the new directors could affect how the School Board is conducted.
It could make School Board meetings, which are typically non-partisan, more contentious, he said.
Similar to Jordan, Haenfler also feels that the two-issue nature of these candidates could affect their actual ability to serve on a School Board.
It [Starrett and Belchers victory] could embolden other challengers that Im not sure have the best sense of what the School Board does in terms of budgets and oversights and are really just honing in on some of these hot-button cultural issues, he said.
That being said, while he will continue to stay informed politically and financially contribute toward candidates that he supports, Haenfler also recognizes the importance of staying engaged with those he may not agree with. According to Haenfler, the issues that became hot button topics in the Grinnell election is part of a larger national pattern.
I try to strike a balance between holding people in my community accountable, and at the same time knowing that its bigger than us, he said. This was a manifestation of a broader pattern: this sense of frustration and anger and backlash.
Belcher and Starrett both did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
By Lilli Morrish
morrishl@grinnell.edu
Multicultural organizations from across campus convened to introduce a funding change proposal specific to groups of the MLC (Multicultural Leadership Council) at a Student Government Association (SGA) senate session on Nov. 7. The member groups proposing the change in funding allotment are the South Asian Student Organization (SASO), the Chinese Student Association (CSA), Grinnell QuestBridge Scholars, the International Student Association (ISO), Concerned Black Students (CBS), the Asian American Association (AAA), the Japanese Cultural Association (JCA) and the Student Organization of Latinxs (SOL).
The proposed budget change is to have a portion of the Interim Allocation Committee (IAC) budget that is, the budget that funds events in the period between the start of the school year and the development of the Senate reserved every year for MLC member organizations so that they can proceed with programming and events early in the semester, regardless of the state of SGA or Senate.
The groups proposal comes out of some organizations inability to secure timely funding for events earlier in the current semester. Budgets over $1,000 need approval from the Senate, but this semester, the Senate was not formed until October, leaving the IACs budget to cover five weeks of programming in the interim when it was only meant to cover two. This led to one of the major impetuses for the creation of the budget proposal, which was the CSAs struggle to get funding for their Mid-Autumn Festival event.
The reserved amount would be determined and approved at the end of the previous school year. This change would allow MLC member organizations to bypass IAC approval for student welcome programming, which student representatives at the Senate meeting emphasized as critical to marginalized students sense of safety and community at a predominantly white institution like Grinnell.
It [MLC welcome programming] helps to know who we can bond with, said ISO treasurer Evaan Ahmed `23. Who are the upperclassmen who have been through the difficulties we have faced, you know? Who have learned the reality the hard way so that we dont have to do that.
In addition to funding welcome programming, this reserved interim budget would ensure that MLC member organizations have access to the funds they need to host date-specific cultural events that take place earlier in the semester.
One example of the need for this interim funding came with the delay of the CSAs Mid-Autumn Festival event this year. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most significant Chinese holidays and takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which this year fell on Sept. 21.
We first applied for funding about early September, around Sept. 1 or Sept. 2. It wasnt until early October that we received our funding, said CSA president James Chen `24.
Its caused us to celebrate our Mid-Autumn Festival a month later than the actual right date, said Chen. Its like celebrating Christmas in late January or something.
Representatives from SASO said that they were worried the same delays would affect the organizations Diwali funding, but ultimately the Senate was formed in time for them to get funding. Several representatives from other organizations also expressed that they had not been reimbursed for past event expenses, with one student saying that they had not been reimbursed for an event as far back as March 2021 under last years SGA administration.
Regarding what shes looking for out of this proposal, incoming ISO treasurer Jivyaa Vaidya `23 said she wants a mutually acceptable solution that works for all of us and doesnt put undue pressure on both the multicultural organizations and SGA.
Many SGA members and Senators seemed in favor of exploring the proposal further, with SGA President Fernando Rodriguez `22 saying to the groups present, I completely support this and Im also so, so sorry.
For the budget change to become a reality, the proposal will need to go to the Financial Committee and then the Reform Committee, where, if approved, the SGA Constitution and By-Laws will be revised to include it. A vote of Senate endorsement for the proposal to be passed on to the SGA Financial Committee resulted in 14 senators voting in support, none voting against, and two senators voting to abstain.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said the depth of the Bahraini-Brazilian relations and their strength and development, and pointed out that they are destined for further growth in various areas and at different levels.
President Bolsonaro said he was pleased and honoured to be the first Brazilian president to visit Bahrain, reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
After the opening of the Brazilian embassy in Bahrain, we look forward to strengthening cooperation on multiple levels, especially in light of the common base shared by the two countries, President Bolsonaro said in a speech at the King Hamad Global centre for Peaceful Existence.
His Highness Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Shura Chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh, Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, , Chairman of King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence Dr. Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, senior officials and guests attended the event.
In 2020, the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence chose Brazil to announce the Memorandum of Understanding for South American countries, and the opening of the Brazilian embassy will strengthen the prospects of cooperation and partnership between Brazil and Bahrain, President Bolsonaro said.
During my visit to the Kingdom, a number of agreements were signed, including the agreement on peaceful coexistence and freedom. religious and human rights, he added.
The president valued his visit to the Kingdom and commended the delegation accompanying him and all the officials who contributed to the success of the visit.
"We are peoples who seek to promote peaceful coexistence and harmony among all segments of society and its components. Perhaps this is one of the most important things that Brazil and Bahrain share together. The near future will witness more features of cooperation between the two countries, and we welcome everything that would deepen cooperation and participation for the benefit of the two friendly countries, he said.
Deputy Chair of the Centre Betsy Mathieson said it was an honour to welcome President Bolsonaro to Bahrain.
We thank you Mr. President for the heartfelt speech you made during our National Day Celebrations held in Brasilia and the beautiful tribute you paid to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the People of Bahrain, when the Statue of Christ The Redeemer was bathed in the National Flag of The Kingdom of Bahrain whilst our National Anthem was being played, she said in her remarks.
His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Excellency President Jair Bolsonaro are two inspiring leaders and that is why Brazil feels like home to Bahrainis and we are thrilled to welcome our Brazilian brothers and sisters to their second home, the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The official opening of the o Brazilian embassy in Manama and the signing of several important accords between our countries are very welcome beginnings, she concluded.
Malaysia is showcasing the country's extensive capabilities in managing a global halal ecosystem and simultaneously, attract global players to use the country as a viable hub at Expo 2020 Dubai.
For this the Halal Development Corporation Berhad (HDC) and the Malaysia External Trade and Development Corporation (Matrade) are hosting the Halal Cluster Week from November 15 to 20, 2021 at the Malaysia Pavilion.
At the Halal Cluster Week, HDC is organising daily thought leadership and pocket talks sessions, networking engagements and business meeting sessions throughout the five-day business mission to drive investor interest, raise awareness and initiate potential partnerships and collaborations.
HDC also announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exchange between HDC and the Chartered Institute Logistics and Transport (CILT) International, which will culminate in the development of the Halal Supply Chain Management System (HSCMS).
"The Halal Cluster Week in Dubai is an opportunity for us to increase global awareness of Malaysia's capabilities in halal production and promotion, be it for halal funding with Islamic finance, or for halal integrity and traceability in the logistic industry which is today one of the key sectors that is ripe for further development and investment," said HDC's CEO Hairol Ariffein Sahari, during the launch of Halal Cluster Week.
Matrade will be hosting its Halal Business Showcase, featuring business meetings and business matching sessions via the Export Acceleration Mission (EAM) on Digital Halal Ecosystem, where a total of 19 Malaysian halal-certified and export-ready companies to be physically showcasing and offering various halal products and services for the global marketplace.
UAE is a key economic partner for Malaysia and has consistently been Malaysia's major trading partner in the West Asia region. In 2020, amongst the West Asia countries, UAE has been Malaysia's largest trading partner, largest export destination and second largest import source.
From the first eight months of 2021, Malaysias total trade with UAE was valued at RM13.97 billion ($3.39 billion), increasing 8.6% as compared to the corresponding period last year. Malaysia's total exports was valued at RM6.44 billion (1.56 billion) increasing by 17.8% while total imports similarly increasing by 1.8% to RM7.53 billion ($1.83 billion).
Malaysia will conclude its partnership with key trading partners through knowledge sharing, logistics and supply chain connectivity and market expansion through digital platform.
These include HDC's partnership with the African Institute of Islamic Finance (AIIF), Halal Supply Chain & Logistics training sessions and Malaysia's Halal Digital platform showcase that features the Halal Integrated Platform (HIP) and Digital Augmented Reality Showcase (Dash).
On Islamic Finance, the launch of the Financial Assistance Facility Fund by Standard Chartered Saadiq, in collaboration with HDC is expected to benefit both Malaysian companies expanding overseas and foreign companies planning to establish commercial presence in Malaysia's Halal Industrial Parks.-- TradeArabia News Service
Islamic finance industry is projected to reach $4.94 trillion in 2025 according to the Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI) 2021 released by Refinitiv, a London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) business.
The report highlighted new trends this year, including the expansion of the fintech industry and digital banks led by Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. The Southeast Asian nations Malaysia and Indonesia retained their top rankings for the second year in a row.
According to the report, global assets for the industry maintained double-digit growth, rising 14% to $3.374 trillion in 2020. Sukuks, the second-biggest sector in Islamic finance, grew by 16% in 2020 driven by the GCC and Southeast Asia.
The report indicated that Saudi Arabia's Islamic finance assets soared by 18% in 2020 to $826 billion. With developments in governance as well as its leading position on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) indicator, Saudi Arabias IFDI score rose from 64 in 2019 to 74 in 2020, pushing it from fifth into third place behind Malaysia and Indonesia.
Ventje Rahardjo, Executive Director of National Committee for Islamic Economy and Finance (KNEKS), Indonesia, said: Indonesia successfully maintained its second place on the IFDI 2021. The country managed to get higher scores in most indicators mainly education, research, awareness and government support. We will continue growing the Islamic financial industry as part of our strategy to strengthen our national economic resilience."
The Islamic finance industry will contribute to the implementation of the Saudi Economic Vision 2030. We believe that this industry provides substantial support to the growth and sustainability of the private sector in Saudi and across global markets, said Ahmed Mohmmed Asery, Director of Islamic Finance Division, Saudi Central Bank.
Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), said: One of the key drivers of Malaysia Islamic finance development is the adoption of the Value-based Intermediation (VBI) by Malaysian Islamic banks since 2017 and more recently by the Takaful operators. We believe that Islamic financial institutions will leverage on this experience and continue to roll out sustainability initiatives."
The Islamic finance industry continues to attract new players and evolve its products and services to become a more active participant in the world's march towards achieving climate goals, said Mustafa Adil, Head of Islamic Finance, Refinitiv, a London Stock Exchange Group business.
The key Islamic finance jurisdictions are focused on sustainability and environment, social and governance (ESG) policies. Looking back at 2020, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia were notable actors as they leveraged Sukuks to finance social and green projects, he added.
Moving forward, we expect to see more developments as the central banks of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia award their first digital banking licenses. Islamic fintechs coming out of the UK and USA also continue to attract attention and we expect to see newer entrants from Pakistan and Central Asia, Adil noted.
The report derives its analysis from the Islamic Finance Development Indicator (IFDI) based on statistics from 135 countries around the world. As a barometer of the state of the global Islamic finance industry, the report measures country scores across knowledge, governance, corporate social responsibility, and awareness metrics. TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain-based Axa Gulf, recently acquired by GIG (Gulf Insurance Group), has formed a new board of directors, bringing together a diverse range of skills and expertise along with a wealth of experience in the insurance profession.
The new board, approved by the Central Bank of Bahrain, is led by Jamal Al Hazeem as Chairman, Khalid Saud Al Hassan as Vice Chairman and Paul Adamson, Bijan Khosrowshahi, Jean Cloutier, Farid Saber, and Osama Kishk, as members of the Board of Directors.
Commenting on his appointment, Axa Gulf Chairman, Jamal Al Hazeem, said: Axa Gulf has enjoyed a presence in the region for more than 70 years. I look forward to building on these solid foundations and establishing Axa Gulf as Menas largest and most successful insurer.
The prospect of collaborating with a new board of directors to help create the next chapter in the Axa Gulf story excites me, and their experience, insight and knowledge will be invaluable in ensuring we achieve our strategic goals.
Axa Gulf Vice-Chairman, Khaled Saoud Al Hasan, said: The new board is expected to usher in a new future for the company and play a pivotal role in helping shape the strategy and direction of the insurer following its acquisition by GIG in September. The Gulf Insurance Group will support Axa Gulfs operations in all the markets of its presence in order to achieve the best services for customers and partners.
Paul Adamson, CEO of Axa Gulf and one of the new board members, said: Axa Gulf serves the needs of over 1 million customers across UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, offering a wide range of insurance products and services for corporates, SME and individual customers.
With the GIG acquisition behind us, we are working hard to improve our products and services, enhance our digital capabilities, and expand our support for the local businesses and communities we serve under the strategic direction of the new board of directors." TradeArabia News Service
UAE and Bahrain ministers discussed ways to enhance prospects for cooperation in the space sector as well as the latest developments in joint space projects in their meeting today during the Dubai Airshow 2021.
The meeting took place between Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, discussed with Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation and Communications and Chairman of the National Space Science Agency in Bahrain.
Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri said: The UAE cherishes the longstanding ties with the Kingdom of Bahrain. Under the guidance and support of the leadership, The UAE Space Agency gives special importance to strengthening constructive cooperation and exchanging experiences and knowledge with the National Space Science Agency in Bahrain. We are pleased to see the remarkable development in bilateral relation between the two agencies.
The meeting also covered the UAE Space Agencys participation in the upcoming Bahrain International Airshow to be held late next year. The two parties also signed a letter of intent expressing the UAE Space Agencys interest to participate in the event, marking a reflection of the distinguished partnership between the UAE Space Agency and the National Space Science Agency in Bahrain.
She added that the constructive cooperation between the UAE and Bahrain is moving forward in order to achieve the ambitions and plans of the two countries in the space sector, while joint projects, led by the Light-1nanosatellite, are witnessing rapid developments that confirm the determination of the two countries to raise their cooperation to new heights.
Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed said: We are focused on supporting and strengthening the deep, special and longstanding ties between Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Space, science and technology have a profound impact on our daily lives and both nations are determined to enhance collaboration and leverage the social and economic benefits these knowledge-based industries offer.
It was a pleasure to speak to Her Excellency Sarah Bint Yousef Al Amiri today to discuss the latest progress on our joint nanosatellite Light-1 project as well explore ways we can contribute to the growth of our respective space industries in the future.
During the meeting, several topics were discussed, most notably the latest Light-1 nanosatellite developments. Built and designed in collaboration between Khalifa University, New York University Abu Dhabi, NSSA and UAE space agency. The nanosatellite will monitor and study terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs). It is scheduled to launch on board SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket which will travel to the International Space Station in December 2021.
The meeting also dealt with the most prominent developments in the national space sector in countries, as well as the latest future plans, initiatives and upcoming projects.
The two parties also reviewed a number of aspects of cooperation between them in accordance with the previously concluded memorandums of understanding, praising the distinguished role of the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research in training of members from Bahrains National Space Science Agency. It has served to upskill them on space technologies and involving them in the implementation of several projects, which contributed to their qualification and experience in the space sector. TradeArabia News Service
The Israel National Cyber Directorate, which is responsible for all aspects of cyber defence in the civilian sphere, led an international drill on November 16, in Dubai, simulating a multinational cyber attack on the aviation industry.
The event was held in the Israeli Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, in partnership with the Cybersecurity Council of the UAE. Yigal Unna, Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, and Dr. Mohammed Al-Kuwaiti, Managing Director of the National Data Centre, were in attendance.
Participating in the event were representatives from airports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, civilian aviation authorities, cyber authorities and cybersecurity companies from countries including Israel, the United States, Germany, Greece, Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE, according to a statement from the Cyber Directorate.
This was the first time that representatives from a number of countries gathered to simulate a cyber attack of this kind and worked together on how to handle it.
According to Tamir Goren, Director of Special Technologies in the Technology Unit of the Israel National Cyber Directorate and a former pilot, "International organisation and collaboration on this issue is necessary, as over the past decade, we have seen an upswing in the number of attempted attacks on the aviation sector around the world at different levels of sophistication.
"Aviation has become more digitally advanced, and communications between various threats has significantly increased the possibility of attacks. There have not yet been any attacks that have damaged aviation safety, nevertheless, the aviation sector and cyber authorities are intensifying efforts in this field in order to ensure the continued safety of aviation and functional continuity.
"The Israel National Cyber Directorate and the Civil Aviation Authority are leading these efforts in Israel."-TradeArabia News Service
Afghanistan urges US to unfreeze its central bank assets
Kabul, Nov 17 (UNI) Afghanistan's Interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in a letter to the US Congress has urged for the release of its central bank assets that were frozen by the American government.
TOLOnews quoted the minister as saying that following the signing of the Doha Agreement, the Islamic Emirate and the US is no longer neither in direct conflict or in military opposition.
It is quite surprising that with the announcement of the new government, the administration of the United States of America slapped sanctions on the assets of our Central Bank. This goes against our expectations as well as the Doha Agreement, the letter reads.
New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved a project to provide mobile connectivity to over 7,000 villages in 'Aspirational Districts' across five States - Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha.
The Cabinet also gave its approval to the proposals for continuation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-I and II upto September 2022 for completion of balance road and bridge works.
The Project envisages to provide 4G based mobile services in the 7,287 uncovered villages of 44 Aspirational Districts across the five States at an estimated cost about Rs 6,466 crore including operational expenses for five years.
The project would be funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The project will be completed within 18 months after the signing of the Agreement and likely to be completed by November 23.
The work related to provision of 4G mobile services in identified uncovered villages will be awarded through open competitive bidding process as per extant USOF procedures, an official statement said. The CCEA also approved continuation of Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) upto March 2023.
"The present proposal for provisioning of mobile services in the remote and difficult uncovered areas of Aspirational Districts across five States will enhance digital connectivity useful for self-reliance, facilitate learning, dissemination of information and knowledge, skill upgradation and development, disaster management, e-Governance initiatives, establishment of enterprises and e-commerce facilities, provision of adequate support to educational institutes for knowledge sharing and availability of job opportunity and fulfilling the vision of Digital India promoting domestic manufacturing and fulfilling the objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat," said the statement.
On the extension given to projects under the PM Gram Sadak Yojana, an official statement said najority of pending works under PMGSY-I and II are in the North-East and Hill States due to factors such as COVID lockdown, extended rains, winters, forest issues. The States have been requesting the Central Government for extension of time to complete these crucial works related to rural economy.
Extension of time upto September, 2022 is being granted to help these states to complete the balance works.
Construction of 32,152 km roads to connect far-flung areas would be undertaken. Roads would be built in villages in LWE districts, and the tribal areas across the country. These projects would cost Rs. 33,822 crore. Center would spend Rs. 22,978 crore.
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Jhansi, Nov 17 (UNI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday called for achieving "strategic" freedom through promoting indigenous defence manufacturing, as he paid tribute to Rani Lakshmibai and highlighted the increasing participation of women in defence forces on the first day of a three day defence festival being held here.
The Defence Minister, speaking at the Rashtra Raksha Samarpan Parv which culminates on Rani Lakshmibai's birth anniversary on November 19, said the queen of Jhansi, a hero of the first war of independence of 1857, rejuvenated "woman power" in the country and is an inspiration for all.
"The courage of Rani Lakshmibai rejuvenated woman power. Being a woman was never a barrier for her in the battlefield. Many in our society believe women are weak, but they should remember heroes like Rani Lakshmibai, Jhalkaribai, Avantibai. They proved women can play a decisive role in security," the Defence Minister said.
"Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose also had a Rani Lakshmibai regiment in the INA. Unfortunately after independence, women did not get to play a role in national security, but now the situation is changing fast," the minister said.
He said since PM Narendra Modi has taken charge, women's participation is increasing in all forces.
"When I was the Home Minister I had issued an advisory to have at least 33 per cent women in police. Number of women in paramilitary forces increased after this advisory was issued. I am also happy to say the number of women is increasing in the police forces as well. Doors of the three forces are also being opened for women," he said.
"Now doors of NDA are also open for women, this is the true tribute to Rani Lakshmibai. In the recent exam of NDA, over two lakh girls gave the exam across the country," he said.
He also said that women are also being granted permanent commission.
The Minister pushed for indigenous defence production. He said the meaning of independence has changed over years, and quoted Mahatma Gandhi saying freedom cannot be complete without 'swadeshi'.
"At one point 'independence' was about freedom from a foreign nation... The meaning today is that we have to be 'atmanirbhar'. Just as India got political independence, we now need to get 'strategic' independence and within a decade half, all weapons that have been imported so far will be manufactured in India. We want 'strategic independence' so we have adapted the path of Swadeshi," he said.
"Respectable Bapu had the view that independence does not mean freedom on paper. As long as 'purna swaraj' and 'swadeshi' are not achieved, independence is incomplete," the minister added.
He also said that ensuring national security is a big challenge which cannot be met without enhancing indigenous defence production.
"As an independent country, securing our independence, sovereignty and unity is a challenging responsibility. Having a strong armed force is important, but it is also important to have a self reliant defence industry to fulfill all needs of the forces. We have decided the weapon and platforms used by Indian forces, there are 209 items that were being imported, but would be made in India now," he said.
The three day festival being held in Jhansi will see launch of 100 new Sainik Schools, schemes and programs for NCC, laying of foundation stone of a Rs 400-crore project in the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor.
PM Modi will address and launch several projects on Friday. He will also handover to the Indian Air Force the Light Combat Helicopter, designed and developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
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New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) India did not introduce the term phase down of coal in lieu of phase out in the final COP26 text, but it was a compromise text agreed to by all countries, and Indias Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav was asked to read out the amended text by the COP26 chair, and countries are now pointing to India as the fall guy for that, said sources.
India is planning to officially protest the criticism levelled at it by COP26 chair Alok Sharma over inclusion of the term phase down for coal used in the final COP26 declaration text, sources said.
COP26 chair Sharma has said that China and India will have to explain themselves to climate-vulnerable nations over the change from "phase out" to "phase down" in the deal agreed to in Glasgow.
The chair Alok Sharma chose to ask one of the members, in this case Indias Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, to read out the compromise text. And our minister was quite clear when he read it out that this is not Indias national position, and that this is what everybody had agreed to, but it got drowned out in the din of it, said sources in the know of the deliberations at the Glasgow climate summit.
The compromise text by everyone there was articulated by our minister. India did not ask for phase down to be introduced; it was a proposal that came to us, and we agreed to the final text. We were trying to achieve a consensus, to find a language that would ensure an outcome for the COP26, the sources added.
In fact, the sources said, the term phase down is part of the US-China Joint Glasgow Declaration issued on November 10, which says China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five Year Plan, which the climate negotiators used in the final text.
On the issue of phasing out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies, the sources emphasized that India is dependent on coal for its energy needs. We do have concerns regarding coal, but you cant tell us to shut down our main energy source. Countries (developed ones) that are done with using coal are now using natural gas, and oil, which too are fossil fuels, the sources pointed out.
If you (developed countries) tell us phase out coal, phase out fossil fuels, we have a problem with that. We are dependent on coal. We will have to enhance the goals, we dont have an immediate solution to it.
On subsidies, the sources said the government is providing LPG subsidy to help people move away from biomass, to help them have a basic subsistence level. And to compare that with 20 times the level of usage that is happening in developed countries (using gas and oil) is unfair, the source added.
The LPG subsidy is helping people move away from biomass to cleaner fuel, but developed countries want India to phase it out without targeted support, the sources said.
India is okay with removing fossil fuels, but there needs to be equity in that. Indias energy requirement is going to go up in per capita basis and aggregate basis, but developed countries are picking and choosing what they want to phase out. For coal they say phase it out, but for other fossil fuels, like gas and oil, they say yes, because they are using it en-mass.
India said that if the final text has to include the term phase out then it should be subject to the inclusion of phrases like National circumstances, poor and vulnerable. That was the kind of language we wanted to put in.
According to the sources Whenever there are disagreements over text, they go back to the last agreed text, and in this case it was the US and Chinas Glasgow Declaration, which used phase down. So phase down came out of that.
But the Small Island Developing States wanted phase out for the inefficient fossil fuel subsidy, and we were okay with that.
So it was not Indias proposal, but it was a way to close the COP26 after one day of delay, the sources said.
But towards the end it turned out to be a blame India game".
India had mentioned its concerns about phasing out coal right through the deliberations, the sources said.
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New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday reconstituted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
A three-Judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana and also comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Surya Kant, passed the order for reconstitution of SIT, which will comprise of three senior IPS officers, namely SB Shirodkar, Deepinder Singh and Padmaja Chauhan.
The top court of the country had heard the arguments from the petitioner, respondent and from the Uttar Pradesh government in the case.
The Court said it will hear the case next after the charge sheet is filed and a report is received from the retired judge.
The apex court also in its order appointed Rakesh Kumar Jain, former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to monitor and supervise the investigation to ensure transparency, fairness, and absolute impartiality in the case.
The Supreme Court had earlier suggested former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judges - Justices Ranjit Singh/ Rakesh K Jain) to supervise the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the alleged October 3 Lakhimpur Kheri incidents mowing down of 4 farmers, lynching of 3 accused and murder of a journalist.
SC was hearing the petitions seeking a CBI probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence wherein 8 people had lost their lives, including farmers, who were allegedly mowed down by a four-wheeler belonging to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3.
The Apex Court registered the petition on its own, on the basis of letters written by two lawyers, seeking investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the brutal incident.
Eight people lost their lives, including farmers, after being allegedly mowed down by a four-wheeler belonging to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3.
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Pak to train Afghan's aviation staff in security, traffic controlling, firefighting, air forecast
Islamabad, Nov 17 (UNI) The Afghanistan embassy in Pakistan has said Islamabad will be providing professional training to Kabul's aviation staff in security, traffic controlling, firefighting, air forecast, and airport management.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday, a bilateral agreement was signed btween the two countries during the visit of Afghanistan's Interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to Islamabad.
Kabul and Islamabad also agreed to be conducting ten flights every week between both capitals among them two would be carried out by large planes and the rest by small ones, The Khaama Press reported.
UWs Educational Opportunity Centers Awarded Five-Year Federal Grants
Two federal grants have been awarded to the University of Wyomings Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) program, housed in the office of Student Educational Opportunity, to help encourage higher education.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded five-year TRIO grants totaling $852,000 annually. UWs EOC program was selected among 289 proposals submitted in the grant competition to help individuals in Wyoming who are less likely to enter or succeed in college.
UWs 10 EOC staff members across Wyoming serve more than 2,600 adult learners and other underserved populations statewide. The program also reaches Big Horn, Carbon and Yellowstone counties in Montana. The latest program funding supports those served by EOC to successfully seek higher education degrees.
Included are first-generation and limited-income individuals; adults wishing to begin a degree program; adult learners who left college and wish to return; high school students who need assistance preparing to apply to college; students who left school before earning their high school diploma; and other groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education, such as homeless youth and youth aging out of foster care.
The many services provided by EOC staff include completing college admission and scholarship applications; high school and college course advising; career guidance; financial and economic literacy information and workshops; FAFSA completion assistance; preparation and financial assistance completing alternative high school credentials, such as GED and standardized tests; college visits; and assistance transferring from a two-year to a four-year degree program.
Congress established the EOC program in 1972, and it is part of the group of federal educational opportunity programs known as TRIO. TRIO programs are funded to ensure that low-income and first-generation students, adult students and students with disabilities have the capacity to enroll in, persist and complete college, and are prepared to successfully enter fulfilling careers.
For more information, call Christina Millemon, EOC project director, at (307) 766-6189 or email cirion@uwyo.edu.
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The 20th Meeting of the Administrative Committee for the Convention on Temporary Admission (Istanbul Convention) and the 17th Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Customs Convention on the ATA Carnet for the Temporary Admission of Goods (ATA Convention) were held jointly on 15 and 16 November 2021 in a hybrid mode allowing for remote participation with the KUDO application and on-site participation at World Customs Organization (WCO) headquarters in Brussels. Due to the unprecedented situation marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of the report will be done via the CLiKC! platform and by email in the coming days. Delegates from 33 Contracting Parties to the Istanbul Convention and 34 Contracting Parties to the ATA Convention, as well as 14 observers and 5 international organizations registered, and the meeting was attended by approximately 80 delegates.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation, welcomed Contracting Parties and observers to the joint Meeting of the ATA/Istanbul Convention Administrative Committee. He thanked the International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation (ICC WCF) for playing a leading role in the implementation of the electronic ATA Pilot Project, stressing the importance of digitalization of the Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission (ATA) Carnet for simpler, safer, cheaper and more efficient ATA Carnet procedures both for Customs and private sector stakeholders. He welcomed the electronic Carnet de Passages en Douane (CPD), developed by the Federation Internationale de lAutomobile (FIA) for greater facilitation of the temporary management of vehicles. He informed the Meeting that the Russian Federation had accepted Annex D of the Istanbul Convention in June 2021 and the Republic of Peru had acceded to the Istanbul convention with acceptance Annexes A, B.1 and B.2, becoming the 73rd Contracting Party in July 2021.
The Committee elected Mr. Dmitry Subochev (Russian Federation) as Chairperson of the Meeting, and Mr. Ofri Orenstein (Israel) as Vice-Chairperson.
The Committee took note of the work progress concerning the development of the eATA Carnet and eCPD system, which had been discussed at the Meeting of the eATA Working Group held on 31 August 2021. Even though the schedule had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee confirmed that the production period of the eATA system, which had been prepared by the ICC, would start in 2023 with more participation in Pilot project and the collection of more test results. The Committee was also informed of the first issuance of an eCPD carnet managed by the FIA, and of the recent cooperation between the FIA and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in support of the digitization of the relevant UN Conventions on temporary importation of vehicles.
The Committee shared recent progress on the eATA system, including the experiences from the Russian Federation and the European Union, and discussed an interpretation issue of the Istanbul Convention regarding the pre-arrival notification function. The Committee agreed to update the ATA and Istanbul Convention Handbooks and E-learning course on the CLiKC! platform, which would help to facilitate the application and implementation of the Conventions on temporary importation.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)
Today
Overcast. High near 80F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..
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Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-03-22 19:35:06|Editor: huaxia
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THIMPHU, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Bhutan received the second consignment of 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine from India on Monday.
As per the government sources, the consignment comprise of 400,000 doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccines. Covishield is the Oxford-AstraZeneca-developed vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
This consignment of vaccines was brought to Bhutan by DrukAir, a state-owned airline.
In January India has gifted Bhutan with 150,000 doses of Covishield vaccines. The Indian Air Force delivered the first consignment of vaccines at Paro airport on Jan. 20.
The Indian Ambassador to Bhutan Ruchira Kamboj will officially hand over the vaccines to Bhutan's Foreign Minister as part of the protocol, local news sources said.
Bhutan has recorded a total of 869 positive COVID-19 cases, of which 867 were declared recovered, one still active and one died due to the virus.
The Health Ministry is urging every citizen to register for COVID-19 vaccination, which will be rolled out from March 28. As of Monday, more than 495,028 people have registered for vaccination, stated the ministry. Enditem
Microsoft Joins the Java Community Process
You'd think I'd have seen it coming. All the signs were there. There was the day Microsoft announced that it had joined the OpenJDK project back in 2019. Then there was the company's decision to upgrade its status at the Eclipse Foundation to Strategic Member in August of this year. And when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella proclaimed in September that "We use more Java than one can imagine," I just should have known that Redmond would soon be joining the venerable technology standards and specifications organization behind the evolution of the Java language and platform, the Java Community Process (JCP).
Bruno Borges, Principal Program Manager for Microsoft's Java Engineering Group, revealed that the company had signed the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JSPA) to officially join the JCP in a blog post earlier this month.
"As we have collectively learned since the announcement of the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK in April 2021," Borges said, "Java usage within Microsoft has grown way beyond Minecraft. We have more than 500,000 JVMs in production running hundreds of internal Microsoft systems. In addition to significant internal Java usage, there are many customers and developers coding and running Java on Microsoft Azure and GitHub. Joining the JCP is a major, yet natural step forward for Microsoft in helping shape the future of the Java Platform."
And the Chair and Director of the JCP, Heather VanCura, gave the new member her blessing: "For the past 23 years, the JCP program has guided the specification of the Java platform in cooperation with the international Java developer community. The JCP program welcomes participation and membership from corporate, open source, individual, and Java User Group participants. We are delighted to welcome Microsoft to the JCP program; it continues to represent the vibrant Java ecosystem. We look forward to seeing their contributions.
I sent her an email, but she hasn't gotten back to me. When she does, I'll try for a less PR-sculpted comment. To be fair, the JCP has been through the ringer over the past decade, and VanCura helmed that troubled ship through some treacherous waters. She helped developers and vendors adapt to the faster Java release cadence, spending most of 2019 demonstrating, teaching, and working with developers and teams. She also led the JCP through the often-painful process of untangling that JSPA Nadella and company just signed, which was notoriously byzantine, and which her predecessor, Patrick Curra,n once described to me simply as "big and scary."
Then there's that other Bruno, Mr. Souza, the one in South America who founded the Brazil-based SouJava, largest Java User Group (JUG) in the world. He was one of the initiators of the Apache Harmony project to create a non-proprietary Java virtual machine. He serves on the Executive Committee of the JCP, and was one of my first guests on "The WatersWorks Podcast."
"The JCP is the place where we define and discuss the future of Java, and where we need the collaboration of all the Java community," Souza said. "Microsoft has been an important part of this community, with their involvement in OpenJDK but also supporting Java User Groups and community events. Because of all that, Microsoft has become a strong partner of SouJava, and we are excited to have them go even deeper on their commitment with the Java community."
RedMonk analyst James Governor sees this development as further evidence of Microsoft's commitment to a future in which Java continues matter. "Java remains a key context for IT today and for the foreseeable future," Governor said.
Boy howdy.
Circulan rumores falsos en redes sobre las razones del cierre de la Embajada en 2a mitad del 2022. El cierre se debe al proceso normal de adaptacion del servicio exterior de #Suecia. #Peru seguira siendo un socio apreciado. Mas info https://t.co/fYDnCpj14M
"The Government has the best of intentions. We do not pursue a repression policy. We have pursued a way to channel this conflict through dialogue. Today we are taking an important step to solve underlying problems and to make you believe in the State again," she added.
The gathering featured Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez, as well as Energy and Mines Minister Eduardo Gonzales.
Also participating in the meeting were deputy ministers from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), the Ministry of Education (Minedu), and the Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation (MVCS), as well as mayors of Coata, Caracoto, Huata, population centers, and provinces of Puno and San Roman de Juliaca.
En el segundo dia de dialogo, la premier @MirtyVas y las autoridades y dirigentes de las comunidades afectadas por la contaminacion del rio Coata, suscribieron un acta de acuerdos para atender demandas socioambientales y se comprometieron a levantar sus medidas de fuerza. pic.twitter.com/HrrrQeBGEA
Director General de America, Emb. Felix Denegri, recibio hoy a la Directora General de Sudamerica y Asuntos Interamericanos en @GAC_Corporate, @SaraDCohen, con quien abordo los principales asuntos de la agenda de trabajo bilateral entre Peru y Canada.
??https://t.co/EPclHSBS3g pic.twitter.com/ogzZqGK6kR
" " Who's a good boy? Who wants a treat? Who randomly gets called Fido ... and why? Hero Images/Getty Images
You may have met a furry Ace, Bandit, Jack or Sparky. You may have even met a Bella, Max or Cinnamon but the chance of being introduced to Fido are much, much lower. These days Fido doesn't even make the top 100, but the once-popular name for male dogs has become a generic shorthand for "dog" itself, much like Kleenex has for tissues or Dumpster has for large trash bins.
So just why is the dog name Fido such a part of the American lexicon? The credit goes to Abraham Lincoln, America's 16th president. While he was still a pre-commander-in-chief and still living in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln's household included several dogs and cats. Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, wrote about the dog's role in Lincoln's life, musing about Honest Abe that "if exhausted from severe and long-continued thought ... he would get down with a little dog or kitten to recover."
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" " Before moving to the White House, the Lincoln family allegedly had several photographic portraits made of their beloved dog Fido, though historical research calls the timeline specifics into doubt. nostri-imago/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
One particularly therapeutic dog was Fido, a mixed-breed dog of yellow hue whose name is Latin for "faithful." Fido became Lincoln's near-constant companion about five years before the then-lawyer became president. According to the Presidential Pet Museum, Fido enjoyed scraps from Lincoln's plate at meals, patiently waited outside the barber shop or any other establishment Lincoln patronized, and generally became well known as a good-natured "dog around town."
In 1863, as he prepared to move to the White House, it became apparent that Fido was a little too friendly, and perhaps ill-mannered, for high office. (A 1954 profile of Fido published in Life magazine called him a "frisky mongrel.") The Lincolns also worried that the bustle and noise of life in Washington, D.C., might upset the dog. Upon moving to the White House, the Lincolns welcomed a dog named Jip, as well as goats named Nanny and Nanko, into their lives.
To ensure Fido had a good life back in Springfield, Lincoln decided to have John Roll, a local carpenter, and his family take care of Fido, leaving them detailed instructions for the dog's proper care and spoiling. Fido was never to be chided for having muddy paws in the house and he was to be given scraps from the table at mealtime. Lincoln even gave the Roll family a couch he built himself; an outsized sofa custom-made to accommodate the 6'4" lawyer, it was Fido's favorite couch to sleep on. And to help soothe the sense of loss his sons and presumably, he himself felt, Lincoln had Fido's formal portrait taken with the relatively new photographic technology.
" " A vintage Civil War-era print shows Abraham Lincoln pictured in front of his former Illinois home, riding on horseback as a crowd cheers. The inscription reads: "Abraham Lincoln's Return Home, After His Successful Campaign For The Presidency Of The United States, In October, 1860." John Parrot/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images
(Or so the story goes. Historian Dr. James Cornelius, the curator of the Abraham Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, uses local historical research to call into question the date Fido's portrait was actually taken, and points to the Life magazine profile as the first mention of that specific motivation for the picture's creation.)
Regardless of its provenance, the photo made its way into numerous newspaper and, shortly thereafter, Fido both the dog and the name skyrocketed in popularity. The name's meteoric rise continued during Lincoln's presidency and was further fueled by his assassination in 1865. As mourners flocked to Springfield for the president's funeral, Roll returned to Lincoln's home with Fido and let the mourning public meet the dog. One person later wrote that petting Abraham Lincoln's former companion "brought me comfort in this time of grief, as touching this dog must have brought the President comfort during his life."
Just as Fido's master was killed by another man, so too did Fido meet an unfortunate end at the hands of another. In 1866, a year after Lincoln's assassination, Fido ever the trusting and people-loving dog came across a man apparently sleeping on a sidewalk. Fido started to lick the man's face, which prompted the man, who was drunk at the time, to awaken, panic and pull a knife at the sight of the dog's mouth so close to his face, stabbing Fido in self-defense.
With the popularity of the name peaking in the late 1800s, Fido made its way into the public consciousness during an era when mass media was taking hold in the country, and remained there for years to come. While Fido met a tragic end, his name lives on in popular culture, signifying the Platonic ideal of a friendly, faithful pooch.
Now That's Interesting Over the years, the presidential residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. have kept all sorts of pets in the White House, from bears and horses to hyenas, sheep and, allegedly, even alligators.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. On November 16th Lilit Makunts, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America, held a virtual meeting with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D Maryland), the Embassy of Armenia in US said in a statement on social media.
Ambassador informed Senator about the aggression unleashed by the Azerbaijani armed forces and the infiltration into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
Ambassador Makunts stressed the importance of condemnation of the provocative actions of Azerbaijan by the international community.
Senator Van Hollen expressed his concern over the situation and noted that he will bring the issue to the attention of his colleagues in the Senate.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a statement following the November 16 Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia at the eastern parts of the border.
The United States is deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We urge both sides to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation. We also call on the sides to engage directly and constructively to resolve all outstanding issues, including border demarcation.
As noted in the Minsk Group Co-Chairs statement on November 15, the recent increase in tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan underscores the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the statement says.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. US Congressman Frank Pallone expressed his concern about the latest Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia.
Azerbaijan's escalation of violence on Armenian soil is unacceptable. This increase of deadly violence against Armenia will only continue unless the US Mission to the OSCE, the State Department and the international community take immediate and decisive diplomatic action.
Claims that both sides are at fault ignore the fact that Azeri troops are attacking within the sovereign territory of Armenia and terrorizing innocent civilians. This is a purposeful violation of international law that will only further embolden Aliyev if he is not stopped, Rep. Pallone said on Twitter.
WASHINGTON D.C., NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. United States Congressman and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff condemned the November 16 Azerbaijani attack on Armenia.
I am deeply disturbed by todays reports of Azerbaijani forces attacking Armenian soldiers at the border, including the reported murder or illegal detainment of more than two dozen Armenian soldiers, Congressman Schiff said in a statement released on social media.
This unprovoked attack is in direct violation of Azerbaijan and Armenias ceasefire agreement, and a grave reminder that the United States must be doing everything we can to deter Azerbaijans ongoing aggression.
I urge the State Department to act immediately to use every diplomatic channel and lever available to avert another mass humanitarian disaster and show our unwavering support for the Armenian people and their sovereignty.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Parliament passed at second reading the government-authored bill on cutting the number of New Year holidays.
Before, Armenia had a week-long holiday starting December 31st (New Year holidays until January 2nd, then until January 5th pre-Christmas holidays, January 6th Christmas, and the 7th of January was observed as Merelots (Day of Commemorating the Dead).
By the new law, only December 31st, January 1st and 2nd , as well the January 6th will be non-working days.
The law passed with 57 votes in favor.
The Armenian Church had recommended January 5 (Christmas Eve) and January 7 (Merelots) to remain non-working days, but the proposal was not approved.
The recommendation on cutting the number of holidays was brought forward by Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan, who says that the week-long holidays negatively impact the GDP and production volumes in different branches of the economy, as well as foreign economic activities and the implementation of contract relations with domestic and foreign organizations. Kerobyan said earlier that the move would lead to economic benefits and GDP growth.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. On 16 November, the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations Mher Margaryan delivered a statement at the United Nations Security Council open debate on Peace and security through preventive diplomacy, the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN said on social media.
In his statement Mher Margaryan drew the attention of the Security Council to the armed attacks by Azerbaijan against the territorial integrity of Armenia in recent days in breach of the UN Charter, the international law and the provisions of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020. He stressed that the aggressive actions of Azerbaijan are detrimental to the efforts of the international community to de-escalate the situation and are severely undermining the prospects of peace in the region.
The Permanent Representative of Armenia underlined the need for urgent and effective steps by the international actors aimed at prevention of the further escalation and ensuring unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the territory of Armenia.
The UN Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, the President of the ECOSOC, and the President of the International Court of Justice made presentations during the meeting presided by Mexico.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Parliament is debating the 2022 state budget draft during todays session.
The budget draft set security issues, education system and inclusive infrastructure development as a key target for 2022, Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan said during the debate.
The solution of these issues must create grounds for the high economic results of the coming years, which in turn will ensure conditions for programs directed to health and social insurance, settlement of public life and other key issues, the minister said.
Minister Khachatryan said that the government is targeting long-term high economic growth, at least 7% annually, and in case of a favorable external environment 9%.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has informed the President of the United Nations Security Council about the November 16th attack of Azerbaijan on Armenias sovereign territory, MFA spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said in a statement, in response to the questions of media outlets.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry has already informed the President of the UN Security Council about the current situation. We would like to note that the use of all tools of international law and diplomatic practice is being considered for protecting Armenias territorial integrity and sovereignty, he said.
The spokesperson also added that Armenia is in direct and multi-level contact with its ally Russia. Mr Hunanyan reminded that yesterday the Armenian Prime Minister and the Russian President held a telephone conversation during which Nikol Pashinyan presented the situation to Vladimir Putin. In this context, the leaders of the two countries discussed the possible joint steps the implementation of which is enshrined by a bilateral legal-contractual base and is in accordance with the allied relations, Vahan Hunanyan said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Despite the situation having stabilized at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border it cant be ruled out that Armenia could still apply to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for help, the Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan told RIA Novosti.
Its difficult to say, it depends on how the situation will develop, we have what we have, he said when asked whether or not Yerevan intends to request help from the CSTO. Lets see how the developments will unfold.
The situation in the eastern border of Armenia, which came under attack by Azerbaijani armed forces on November 16, is relatively stable as of 10:00 November 17, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said in a statement earlier on November 17.
It said that the ceasefire agreement is mostly holding.
The Ministry of Defense also issued information on casualties of the Azerbaijani military in the November 16 actions.
The Azerbaijani military suffered up to 70 casualties of personnel, including KIAs and WIAs, as well as significant materiel losses, namely 4 BTR armored personnel carriers, 1 Sandcat vehicle and 5 other automobile vehicles (Kamaz, Ural, UAZ).
1 Armenian soldier was killed in action and 13 others were taken captive by the Azerbaijani military. Another 24 Armenian troops are missing-in-action after contact with them was lost during combat.
Intensive works are underway to find the servicemen. Two military positions have gone under adversary control. Russian-mediated negotiations are ongoing over resolving the situation and returning the captured Armenian servicemen.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Anahit Avanesyan sees a tendency of decline in the new cases of COVID-19 in the country, but she notes that the high mortality rate is still being maintained.
We hope that the number of new cases will decline also in the coming week. The decline in the new cases allows us to provide the citizens with hospital resources, as we do not have any person waiting for hospitalization. All persons, who need to be hospitalized, are being hospitalized at this moment, which is very important in terms of providing proper and timely medical care, she said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia says the governments 2022 state budget draft is quite ambitious. According to the CBA, there will be a certain decline in the debt burden in 2022.
Overall, it can be said that the 2022 state budget draft is quite ambitious, compared to the governments medium-term expenditure program, it supposes significant acceleration of the economic growth and potential, CBA President Martin Galstyan said during todays debate of the budget draft in the Parliament and reminded that 7% economic growth has been forecast for 2022.
He said that the economic growth of 2022 will be based on large-scale state investments in infrastructure and human capital development areas.
The quick restoration of gross demand, connected with the increase in both the domestic and external demand, will continue in 2022, he said, while presenting the CBA conclusion on the budget draft.
As a result of economic recovery, tax administration and legislative reforms, it is expected that the taxes-GDP rate in 2022 will have a 0.9% growth, in case of which the state budget revenues will have a restraining effect on the gross demand. On the other hand, the 2022 state expenditure policy will be directed to growth promotion, targeting the significant increase in share of public investments and management of the efficiency of spending, at the same time returning to the set fiscal rules, he said.
Cut in state budget deficit is expected in 2022, by 1.6 percentage point against GDP. According to our estimations, it will comprise 3.1%, a 0.7% decline in government debt-GDP rate, which will comprise 60.2%, Martin Galstyan said. It is estimated that the smooth consolidation behavior and the preservation of the fiscal rules as enshrined by the 2022 state budget draft will contribute to reducing Armenias state debt burden and ensuring macro-economic stability.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Russia will continue the mediation efforts to settle the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In any case we think that the only way for the stabilization of the situation is the implementation of the trilateral agreements. And we think that all countries must first of all follow their commitments, which will become a guarantee for non-repetition of such incidents, Peskov said.
On November 16, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched a major attack on Armenia from the eastern border. The Azerbaijani military deployed artillery, various caliber firearms and armored equipment in the attack. The fighting stopped through a Russian-mediated ceasefire later in the day.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Holding a trilateral summit between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan will be a necessity at some point, but this would require consent of all three sides, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to RIA Novosti.
Definitely, at some phase such contacts will be a necessity, and the consent and readiness of all three sides is required for that to be possible, he said.
On November 16, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched a major attack on Armenia from the eastern border. The Azerbaijani military deployed artillery, various caliber firearms and armored equipment in the attack. The fighting stopped through a Russian-mediated ceasefire later in the day.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian authorities expect that Russia, as a strategic partner, will help resolve the issues pertaining to the situation which was created at the border as a result of Azerbaijans actions, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan told Kommersant newspaper in an interview when asked what specific assistance Yerevan expects from Moscow as part of the 1997 treaty.
Grigoryan, who is in Moscow for the CIS Secretaries of Security Council meeting, noted that now the Azerbaijani armed forces are located on sovereign Armenian territory. This is an act of aggression. In 1997 Armenia and Russia agreed to help one another in such cases. This is exactly why we applied to Russia, he said.
Asked if Armenia expects military or diplomatic assistance, Grigoryan elaborated: We are in favor of a diplomatic solution to the issue. But if this wont be possible to do diplomatically, then the issue must be resolved militarily.
Grigoryan said that in this matter Armenia prioritizes Russia and the CSTO. But if a solution isnt found we will start considering other opportunities too, he said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. According to the data updated in October 2021 of the Investigative Committee, the death toll in the 2020 war stands at 3788, which includes 3712 servicemen and 76 civilians, the Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan said in parliament in response to a question from Hayastan faction.
Another 222 servicemen are missing-in-action, and 21 civilians are also missing.
The total number of Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan is 40, 37 of whom are servicemen and 3 are civilians, he said.
Mkrtchyan added that 114 servicemen and civilians were returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan during this period.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met with President of Singapore Halimah Yacob, the Armenian Presidents Office reports.
The two Presidents discussed the current agenda of the bilateral relations.
President Sarkissian presented information about the current situation following the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war, the humanitarian problems and Azerbaijans continuous aggressive actions, including the latest incursion into the sovereign territory of Armenia.
The meeting sides also discussed the development potential and opportunities of the Armenian-Singaporean partnership. President Armen Sarkissian said Singapore is a good example of rapidly developed successful state for many countries, including Armenia.
The President of Singapore said they are ready to assist Armenia with their experience in a number of fields.
The two presidents also praised the Armenian community of Singapore, highlighting its significant role during the history of Singapore, contribution to trade, economy, culture and other areas.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Russia is in contact with both Azerbaijan and Armenia for bringing the situation to a peaceful level, ARMENPRESS reports official representative of the Russian MFA Maria Zakharova said in a weekly briefing.
She reminded that on November 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu had telephone conversations with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts.
As a result of these mediation efforts, the fights and clashes stopped last night. Joint efforts to defuse tensions continues. We call on both sides to show restraint, not to allow new incidents, to resolve all disputes exclusively through political-diplomatic means," Zakharova said.
She noted that Russia is ready to further assist these countries in establishing peace and stability in the region.
Recent events confirm the need for an immediate start of the demarcation and subsequent delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as well as the commencement of the work of the relevant commission on the basis of previously submitted Russian proposals, Zakharova said.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The regular meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council will be held in Yerevan on November 18-19, in connection with which the Heads of the Governments of the EEU member states will arrive in Armenia.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, a number of issues related to the development and strengthening of integration processes in the Eurasian space will be discussed at the narrow and then expanded-format sessions.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, who is in Singapore, had a conversation with Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong. They referred to the current level of the relations between Armenia and Singapore and the development prospects of those relations.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, the President of Armenia presented information to the Prime Minister of Singapore about yesterdays provocative and aggressive actions of Azerbaijan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
"President Sarkissian and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about the development of bilateral cooperation in a number of areas. It was noted that there is a great potential for cooperation, especially in the fields of high technology, artificial intelligence, science and education. According to President Sarkissian, the development path of Singapore is a good example for Armenia and the Singaporean experience in a number of spheres can be useful for our country, reads the statement.
Referring to the development opportunities of small countries in the modern rapidly changing world, the interlocutors agreed that in the new realities, small and smart countries have great opportunities for development and success.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The EPP is greatly concerned by recent military hostilities at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
We strongly condemn the violations of the internationally recognised border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We unequivocally reject the use of force or threat of force as a means to achieve political goals in the region.
We underline the vital need for international prevention mechanisms and for an international investigation of military clashes, including meaningful relevant sanctions against aggressors.
Long-lasting peace in the region is possible through comprehensive and negotiated resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, grounded on the Basic Principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. U.S. congressman Jim Costa condemned Azerbaijans military actions against the sovereign territory of Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports he made a note on his Facebook page.
I condemn Azerbaijan's aggressive actions against Armenia. I urge the State Department to help de-escalate this situation before more lives are lost. America must stand against human rights violations, he wrote.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier assesses the military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan against the eastern borderline of Armenia as another attempt of Aliyevs regime to grab new lands, ARMENPRESS reports Speier wrote on her Twitter page.
Azerbaijans attacks on Armenian territory are yet another sign of how far Aliyevs regime will go to seize Armenian land and spread violence and hate. Were witnessing Aliyevs attempted land grab in real time. We must act now to prevent further bloodshed and destabilization, she wrote.
Despite the situation having stabilized at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border it cant be ruled out that Armenia could still apply to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for help, the Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan told RIA Novosti.
November 17, 2021, 12:50 Armenian Ambassador to Russia doesnt rule out applying to CSTO for assistance
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Its difficult to say, it depends on how the situation will develop, we have what we have, he said when asked whether or not Yerevan intends to request help from the CSTO. Lets see how the developments will unfold.
The situation in the eastern border of Armenia, which came under attack by Azerbaijani armed forces on November 16, is relatively stable as of 10:00 November 17, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said in a statement earlier on November 17.
It said that the ceasefire agreement is mostly holding.
The Ministry of Defense also issued information on casualties of the Azerbaijani military in the November 16 actions.
The Azerbaijani military suffered up to 70 casualties of personnel, including KIAs and WIAs, as well as significant materiel losses, namely 4 BTR armored personnel carriers, 1 Sandcat vehicle and 5 other automobile vehicles (Kamaz, Ural, UAZ).
1 Armenian soldier was killed in action and 13 others were taken captive by the Azerbaijani military. Another 24 Armenian troops are missing-in-action after contact with them was lost during combat.
Intensive works are underway to find the servicemen. Two military positions have gone under adversary control. Russian-mediated negotiations are ongoing over resolving the situation and returning the captured Armenian servicemen.
The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain committed to solving conflict by peaceful means.
November 17, 2021, 15:04 Council of Europe stands ready to facilitate dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan Secretary General
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS: I am concerned about reports of on-going incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan that have already cost human lives. News of a ceasefire is welcome and I call on both sides to maintain it.
When joining our organization more than twenty years ago, both Armenia and Azerbaijan committed themselves to solving conflict by peaceful means. This commitment remains unchanged and must be strictly respected, the CoE Secretary General said.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric stated that the Council of Europe reiterates its full support to the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in their continuing efforts to help Armenia and Azerbaijan find a peaceful solution to their differences.
We stand ready to facilitate dialogue between these two member states, with a view to building confidence and promoting reconciliation, Marija Pejcinovic Buric said.
According to the data updated in October 2021 of the Investigative Committee, the death toll in the 2020 war stands at 3788, which includes 3712 servicemen and 76 civilians, the Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan said in parliament in response to a question from Hayastan faction.
November 17, 2021, 15:58 2020 war death toll is 3788, another 222 missing-in-action
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Another 222 servicemen are missing-in-action, and 21 civilians are also missing.
The total number of Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan is 40, 37 of whom are servicemen and 3 are civilians, he said.
Mkrtchyan added that 114 servicemen and civilians were returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan during this period.
By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A former U.S. Marine serving a nine-year jail sentence in Russia has ended a hunger strike after nearly a week, lost a lot of weight and is ill, according to a message he sent his family.
Trevor Reed, a university student from Texas, was convicted last year of endangering the lives of two policemen in Moscow while drunk on a visit in 2019. He denies the charges and the United States called his trial a "theatre of the absurd".
His family said last week he had begun a hunger strike in protest at his incarceration and alleged violations of his rights. The prison service denied he was refusing food or that his rights were being abused.
In Nov. 15 comments shared by his family, Reed said he ended the strike on the morning of Nov. 9, having refused food and drunk only water since the evening of Nov. 3.
"They (prison staff) were ALL aware of my hunger strike. They asked me on video every day if I wanted food and I refused. They did not weigh me or give me a medical inspection," he said.
In a statement to Reuters, the prison service in Mordovia region where Reed is in jail again denied he had stopped eating or that he had told them he had started a hunger strike.
Reed said he had a cough, headache, congestion, mucus in his lungs and back pain, and that a doctor had given him vitamins.
He said he was due to be moved from his cell to a punishment cell but did not say why.
A family spokesman said: "Trevor's new complaints about his health are alarming and it's quite clear Russian authorities aren't taking them seriously. The Reeds continue to urge the (U.S.) Administration to make a deal to bring their son home."
Reed and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on spying charges he denied, have been touted as possible candidates for a prisoner swap.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Peter Graff and Timothy Heritage)
Womens advocacy group and party-list Gabriela condemned bogus election paraphernalia, allegedly planted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG), in an effort the group called a desperate attempt to red-tag (Gabriela and other progressive groups).
The dead giveaway? A typographical error of the word babae (Filipino for woman) in the groups slogan, spelled as babe.
Earlier local reports surfaced that the PNP and CIDG arrested supposed members of communist groups Communist Party of the Philippines, New Peoples Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), and found cash and explosives in their possession. They reportedly also unearthed supposed election paraphernaliaincluding banners, stickers, and T-shirtsrepresenting Gabriela and Bayan Muna. Both are legitimate partylists elected to Congress and belong to the Makabayan bloc, a progressive coalition in the House of Representatives.
Gabriela denied that any election materials with the misspelled slogan were theirs.
We categorically disown the tarpaulins with the slogan Para sa Babe, Bata at Bayan, as such slogan digresses from our original slogan Para sa Babae, Bata at Bayan,' the womens group wrote on Facebook.
Maybe the police officers have been so accustomed to using babe in their flirtatious relations with several women, or they were rushing to print the fake tarps ahead of our own printing without diligent proofreading, Gabriela added, calling the PNP and CIDGs actions a desperate attempt at red-tagging the group.
Being professional in planting evidence and peddling disinformation, the PNP and CIDG elements has once again conducted black propaganda tactics against progressive electoral groups, Girls For Peace, a campaign network for young women, wrote. This strategy is clearly a part of their attempt to legitimize the Duterte administrations harassment, intimidation, and attacks against groups and institutions critical of its anti-people and anti-democratic policies, the network wrote.
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This incident comes after the Senate finance committee slashed earlier this month the proposed budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the Duterte administrations counter-insurgency body, by P24 billion, leaving the task force with P4 billion for 2022. Senators said that the bulk of the NTF-ELCACs proposed budget was realigned to fund crucial pandemic response programs, including the compensation of health workers.
In an earlier statement, Gabriela welcomed the Senates move but said that bringing it to zero would be better, adding that the P24 billion can be reallocated for cash aid programs, and called attention to a separate P2 billion NTF-ELCAC fund tucked under different agencies and urged lawmakers to realign the budget for government-run hospitals in 2022.
These red-tagging gimmicks, while not new, seek to place the lives and safety of our members and leaders on the line. We strongly condemn these publicly funded gimmicks and assert our firm stance against red-tagging and fake news, Gabriela said.
The group added that they will explore possible legal remedies after gathering more information on the incident.
READ: PCOO wants a P1.91-billion budget for 2022, and the Senate says but why?
The first use case will target one million existing consumer and small business customers with an instant issue Visa card
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., November 16, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--i2c Inc., a leading provider of digital payment and banking technology, today announced a partnership with Omise, a leading online acceptance and payments platform serving Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. The deal, part of a broader collaboration between the two companies, has already confirmed partnerships to instant issue Visa cards for approximately one million consumers and small business customers.
As a result of this collaboration, Omise will be able to help its clients design and deploy virtual and card-based payment programs for a burgeoning Southeast Asian payments market, helping local banks, fintechs and others to launch and manage their own modern card programs throughout the region. Omise plans to launch this service in the first quarter of 2022.
"Were proud to partner with i2c to address the unprecedented hypergrowth that our markets are currently experiencing," said Ezra Don Harinsut, CEO of Omise. "i2cs complementary tech stack, reach and reliability will allow our clients to deploy robust new payments capabilities and help us improve cashflow for millions of consumers and small businesses very soon," he added.
"Omise is a true pioneer and leader in a key region and were delighted to have them as partners," said Kevin Fox, EVP, Americas Sales for i2c, citing reports that last year Southeast Asia added 40 million new internet users and is poised to grow to over $300 billion in gross merchandise value by 2025. Fox further relayed, "With our combined platforms and Omises impressive client roster, we believe this partnership will help extend and modernize issuing for the region in a meaningful way."
About Omise
Established in 2013, Omise is a payments platform which provides businesses with a modern end-to-end infrastructure to accept, process and send payments online. Working with Omise, merchants have access to powerful payment tools, comprehensive risk management solutions, as well as connection to card networks and consumers' preferred payment methods. Omise enables revenue growth and seamless payment experiences across online, in-store and in-app.
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Omise is present in Southeast Asia and Japan. The company is the payments platform of choice for thousands of brands today.
For more information, please visit www.omise.co
About i2c Inc.
i2c is a global provider of highly-configurable payment and banking solutions. Using i2c's proprietary "building block" technology, clients can easily create and manage a comprehensive set of solutions for credit, debit, prepaid, lending and more, quickly and cost-effectively. i2c delivers unparalleled flexibility, agility, security and reliability from a single global SaaS platform. Founded in 2001, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, i2c's next-generation technology supports millions of users in more than 200 countries/ territories and across all time zones. For more information, visit www.i2cinc.com and follow us at @i2cinc.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116005010/en/
Contacts
Heather Clifton
Chief Marketing Officer
media@i2cinc.com
Philippines group seeks to bar Marcos from presidency over tax evasion FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators hold protest following Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr's presidential bid in Quezon City
By Karen Lema
MANILA (Reuters) - The son of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, an early frontrunner for the May election, is facing a second petition seeking to bar him from the presidential race, centred on a tax evasion conviction nearly three decades ago.
The complaint, filed on Wednesday at the election commission by a group called the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law, argued the conviction should have perpetually disqualified Ferdinand Marcos Jr from holding or running for office.
He was found guilty in 1995 of failing to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 while governor of Ilocos Norte province, a verdict upheld two years later by an appeals court.
"He has continuously neglected his penalty and disrespected the rule of law by running and filing his candidacy knowing in fact that he is a convicted criminal," lawyer Howard Calleja told reporters after the filing.
Marcos's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The internal revenue code states that a public officer convicted of a tax crime will be barred for life from holding public office, voting and participating in any election.
Since his conviction, however, Marcos has been elected governor, congressman and senator and ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency.
The Marcos family is one of the most famous dynasties in the Philippines and despite its fall from grace after a 1986 "people power" revolution, it has retained its wealth and far-reaching and powerful connections.
Sara Duterte-Carpio, the president's popular daughter, will be the running mate of Marcos.
Antonio La Vina, a law and politics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said election authorities would typically only disqualify a barred candidate if a complaint is made first.
"People will only complain if you are winnable," he said, adding the case against Marcos could go either way.
Asked if Marcos had ever faced a disqualification case, election commission spokesperson James Jimenez said: "Not that I can recall, no."
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Marcos, whose father ruled the Philippines for almost two decades, much of that a harsh era of martial law, led an opinion poll conducted last month on preferred presidential candidates.
The poll body has scheduled a preliminary conference for Nov. 26 on an earlier disqualification complaint against Marcos filed by a group representing political detainees, human rights and medical organisations, who has said that petition "is without merit and has no legal basis".
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Martin Petty)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put the kibosh on VanEcks latest attempt to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Youre reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.
When (spot) ETF?
The narrative
Staffers at the SEC shanked yet another spot bitcoin ETF application last Friday, ending VanEcks hopes to one-up those shiny new futures ETFs with a physically backed product.
Why it matters
Investors have long seen a spot bitcoin ETF as a milestone in cryptos breakthrough to mainstream investing. Octobers rack of futures-linked ETF launches may have already captured headline pizazz (and billions of dollars to boot) but that ultimate goal, and its promise of more efficient returns, remains elusive. The reason? SEC staffers are just as skeptical of market manipulation on spot bitcoin as ever.
Breaking it down
Was anyone surprised that the SEC denied another bitcoin ETF application?
I certainly wasnt. When the the SEC rejected VanEcks application last Friday, it followed a longstanding tradition of stonewalling any and every physically backed crypto ETF product. That history began in summer 2018 with the Winklevoss twins falling flat. Three plus years later and the song remains the same.
Has it, though? Not quite. For starters, other countries like Brazil have jumped ahead of the U.S. by green-lighting their own bitcoin ETFs; Canada even has an ether product. And there are any number of crypto exchange-traded products in Europe.
U.S. investors havent been left entirely in the dark. Last months bitcoin futures ETF launches capped a multi-year battle to bring bitcoin exposure to the investing masses. All it took was a crypto-savvy SEC chair spelling out exactly what kind of product could hope to make it through.
But the war is far from won. Critics of the bitcoin-linked ProShares and Valkyrie funds by happenstance VanEck launches its own today, too will argue the products are inefficient and expensive mechanisms through which investors gain bitcoin price exposure. Quirks of the futures market and regulatory concerns hamstring their usefulness. In short, theyve got nothing on the real thing.
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Something is better than nothing, though. Getting even an inefficient and pricey bitcoin vehicle through the SECs gates is a watershed for crypto. It shows the regulator slowly warming to the reality that people want bitcoin exposure. It shows a regulator accepting that it can make that reality happen and still exercise super-tight control.
Last weeks rejection shows a true blue bitcoin ETF is far, far from approval for all the same reasons It represents a lack of control. The SEC spelled it out in the VanEck denial letter: Bitcoin markets are too prone to market manipulation to let an ETF tracking spot prices go live.
Theyve said it all before; their arguments have not changed. Like a vindictive professor flunking a student, the SEC gave VanEcks latest spot application which the regulator at times called repetitive, illogical and poorly sourced a resounding F.
Its doubtful that another hopeful issuer could soon succeed where VanEck floundered. The SEC is simply too suspicious of the bitcoin markets and their potential for manipulation to let it slide. Anyone arguing that bitcoins decentralization makes the token uniquely resistant to funny business (proving this quality is one way around the blockade) takes on a Sisyphusian task. Avenue 2 establishing a surveillance sharing agreement seems equally unlikely to win any time soon.
For a bitcoin ETF to win the day its issuer must establish what the SEC calls a surveillance sharing agreement with another major, compliance-minded market upon which the asset trades. Its a simple argument, really. Any would-be manipulator would need to influence one market to reap gains on the other. If both those markets share data, then better the chances to catch the crook.
CMEs bitcoin futures market would seemingly fit this model. Trading over one billion dollars in bitcoin futures contracts daily, its a major, heavily regulated outpost for the crypto markets. But its a drop in the bucket of bitcoins global footprint. According to the SEC, its far too small to matter; it doesnt lead the market. Spot ETF application DENIED.
And yet here we are mid-November 2021 with a rather odd assortment of facts. CME futures contracts are good enough to be an ETF benchmark, but not good enough for a separate products behind-the-scenes role.
It all makes you think: How much longer will the largely pliant crypto industry play nice?
I wonder how long before one of the spot bitcoin ETF sponsors gets sick of arguing with a brick wall & decides to sue the SEC for an APA violation, tweeted Jake Chervinsky, a crypto law veteran who is now head of policy for industry lobbyist The Blockchain Association.
I get why nobody did this before, but the case is stronger now with futures ETFs live, & the incentive to play nice is much weaker.
Bidens Rule
Key: (nom.) = nominee, (rum.) = rumored, (act.) = acting, (inc.) = incumbent (no replacement anticipated)
Its been a quiet week in Bidenland with no confirmation movement of note.
Elsewhere
Solana Throws a Three-Day Party for Itself : Over 2,000 trading degens, venture backers and project devs descended on Lisbon to celebrate one of the hottest tokens of 2021. CoinDesk was there to capture the debauchery.
I Think Were Doing This: Inside One DAOs $20M Plot to Purchase the US Constitution: A crazed idea to crowdfund the purchase of a first-edition copy of the U.S. constitution is fast gaining steam with ConstitutionDAO channeling its 8,000 strong discord on a mission that would make Nick Cage proud.
Outside CoinDesk:
( WSJ ) Bitcoin mining farms are driving their neighbors nuts in this clear-eyed look at the human downside to thousands of whirring fans next door.
(Politico) All those Substacks and CoinDesk inbox fodder kinda make you wonder: Have we reached peak newsletter? Probably not, argues media columnist Jack Schafer in a recap of where the industry can fly next.
#RIP Infrastructure Week jokes, we had a good run Sean Tuffy (@SMTuffy) November 15, 2021
If youve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback youd like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Twitter @nikhileshde.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
See yall next week!
Mr Kotick has been involved in Activision for two decades
Workers at game-development titan Activision Blizzard have staged a walkout, after reports chief executive Bobby Kotick had long been aware of harassment allegations.
The Wall Street Journal published an extensive investigation into the company, alleging Mr Kotick had "intervened" in at least one case.
Mr Kotick called the report "inaccurate and misleading".
He has not been personally accused of any misconduct amid the scandal.
Senior staff
The scandal erupted in July, when the company, which makes Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, was sued by the state of California over its "frat boy" culture.
And in the months since, the company has lost several key senior staff, including the namesake of one of its popular characters.
Separately, Blizzard head J Allen Brack stepped down in August, in the immediate aftermath of the revelations and following an initial staff walkout.
The newspaper's investigation said Mr Kotick had been aware of sexual-misconduct claims "for years", including at least one rape allegation as far back as 2018, but failed to report the matter to the board of directors.
It also alleged when a senior figure at one of the publisher's studios was accused of sexual harassment, and an internal investigation launched, Mr Kotick "intervened to keep him".
Mr Kotick is also accused of leaving a voicemail, in 2006, threatening to kill a female member of staff.
The Wall Street Journal also covered a previously reported incident, from 2007, when he was accused of firing a flight attendant on his private jet after she complained of sexual harassment by the pilot.
Both cases were settled out of court.
After the report was published, the ABK Workers Alliance - an employee's group for Activision's umbrella of companies - tweeted it was staging a walkout later that day and calling for Mr Kotick to step down.
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We have instituted our own Zero Tolerance Policy. We will not be silenced until Bobby Kotick has been replaced as CEO, and continue to hold our original demand for Third-Party review by an employee-chosen source. We are staging a Walkout today. We welcome you to join us. ABetterABK ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) November 16, 2021
Supporters estimated 150 people had gathered outside one of the main offices in Irvine, California, despite the short notice.
Games journalist Jason Schreier, whose reporting specialises in internal industry mechanics and working conditions, tweeted the turnout was "an impressive number, considering it was called two hours ago (and most employees are working from home)".
The Wall Street Journal's extensive report also alleged Jennifer Oneal, who stepped in to lead Blizzard amid the scandal, had sent an email, in September, detailing her personal experience of sexual harassment and expressing a lack of faith in the company to change its culture.
She also recalled a 2007 company event involving strippers, which Mr Kotick attended, the newspaper said.
Earlier this month, Activision announced Ms Oneal would leave the company at the end of the year.
'Inclusive workplace'
Mr Kotick pre-empted publication of the Wall Street Journal's report by sending a video message to all employees, on Tuesday, stressing his efforts to reform the company amid the scandal.
"There will, of course, be continued media attention about us and our industry over the next few months," he said, according to an official transcript.
"In fact, there's an article today that paints an inaccurate and misleading view of our company, of me personally, and my leadership.
"Anyone who doubts my conviction to be the most welcoming, inclusive workplace doesn't really appreciate how important this is to me."
'Zero-tolerance policy'
Activision said it was "disappointed in the Wall Street Journal's report, which presents a misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO".
"Instances of sexual misconduct that were brought to his attention were acted upon," a representative said, alleging changes being made currently were being ignored.
"The constant desire to be better has always set this company apart.
"Which is why, at Mr Kotick's direction, we have made significant improvements, including a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate conduct."
The board of directors also issued a statement, saying: "The board remains confident that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention.
"The goals we have set for ourselves are both critical and ambitious.
"The board remains confident in Bobby Kotick's leadership, commitment and ability to achieve these goals."
The reason that so few people know about President Millard Fillmore is because there never was a biography written about our 13th president not until 1995.
The author of the Fillmore biography was Robert Scarry, a retired history teacher (now deceased) who taught in Moravia's high school.
Prior to Scarry's book, it was only the residents of that village where Fillmore grew up that knew anything about him, and that's still true today.
If asked, most Auburnians would not be able to state any of President Fillmore's accomplishments!
Among the more notable accomplishments was his ordering the War Department to do the survey work for the transcontinental railroad, a feat completed during Lincoln's administration.
It was Fillmore who first opened trade between the U.S. and Japan when Commodore Perry sailed his three ships into Tokyo's harbor.
He was opposed to slavery during the time he was in office, but the federal government had no control over it at the time of its enforcement.
When he was comptroller in New York state in 1847, he was instrumental in ending imprisonment for debt with the passage of the bankruptcy bill.
President Fillmore's wife, Abigail, died while he was in the White House. Their daughter died tragically within the first decade after his leaving office. He also witnessed his son's death.
Just about all presidents of the United States have buildings dedicated to them except President Fillmore. However, there does exist a collection of his personal effects, memorabilia and papers in two rooms of the History House, the headquarters of the Cayuga-Owasco Lakes Historical Society in Moravia. (It's because visiting hours vary, depending on the time of the year, that visitors are asked to call [315] 497-3906 and make an appointment if they want to view the collection.)
There exists on the campus of Buffalo University a full-sized statue of Fillmore in front of the administration building. He was a founder and first chancellor of the eight-year college.
This past year, a hardback copy of Scarry's biography of Fillmore was donated to Seymour Library in Auburn so it can be checked out by the public. Likewise, paperback copies of his biography were donated to 10 high school libraries in the Cayuga County area.
Although an essay contest was scheduled for last year, it was postponed due to the fact students would not be in school as usual due to COVID-19. This year's seniors will be asked to participate in an essay contest about President Fillmore. The best essay from each school will be the beneficiary of a wristwatch. The overall best winning essay will be the recipient of a cash scholarship that (is hoped) may rise to $1,000 from the sale of raffle tickets.
Over the past year, a donated handmade quilt (made by the Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Moravia) has been displayed at several local businesses, where $1 raffle tickets were sold. At this time, the new Quilts By Commission store in the Nolan Block will be selling raffle tickets through the forthcoming holidays.
Judges that will read the essays include Cayuga County Historian Dr. Ruth Bradley and past presidents of the Cayuga-Owasco Lakes Historical Society Sue Stoyell and Esther Thornton.
I am the organizer of the contest, and also a descendant of President Fillmore. I felt it important to become involved in this effort because of the lack of reliable information about him. I also felt the urgency that the biography of Fillmore be in the local school libraries, and an essay contest about him be made possible so that the seeds of information about him might be implanted in the minds of the young about this little-known president. It certainly might also raise some awareness that this man was also someone who contributed to the growth of this nation!
The Rev. Joyce Hackett Smith, N.D., is an ordained minister who also believes in natural healing and holds a doctorate degree in naturopathy.
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They are there from within the first few days of a newborn's life through early childhood, elementary school and into adolescence. They are tr
Maserati took to the streets to spread the energy of its upcoming Grecale SUV that is set to make a global debut next year. The Italian brand created a 100-metre long outline of its Trident logo using 80 prototypes of the SUV. While the base of the logo was formed by cars camouflaged in blue, the top three arrows were created by cars in white, yellow and black.
Similar Cars
The initiative was taken in order to maintain people's interest in the smaller crossover which was earlier scheduled to launch on November 16. The delay has been caused because of the ongoing semiconductor crisis and supply chain issues. The vehicle has technology that requires microchips to be used. The exact new date of unveiling of the vehicle has not yet been revealed.
Currently, 250 Grecale SUVs are being tested in countries like Japan, the US, the United Arab Emirates, China, Finland and Italy.
(Also read | Maserati aims to tap into demand in Tier II, Tier III cities of India)
The new SUV from Maserati is expected to feature large and bold looking mesh front grille with the Trident logo at the centre. It will likely get LED headlamps with integrated LED DRLs, large and aggressive looking alloy wheels, and LED taillights, among other design upgrades. As evident from the camouflaged prototypes, the SUV's front end gets a sporty appearance with large openings in the grille. Its rear seems to be rounded.
On the inside, the Grecale SUV is expected to come with the brand's analog clock on the center stack while the infotainment screen will likely sit below it. Under the hood, the SUV is expected to get a 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio which is capable of producing a maximum output of 510 hp and 600 Nm of peak torque. It could also get the 3-litre V6 twin-turbo engine that debuted on the MC20, which can churn out 630 hp of power and 730 nm of peak torque.
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.
Baidu Apollo L4 test surpass 10 million miles
Apollo L4 has accumulated over 10 million test miles, up 189% year over year, and has received 411 autonomous driving permits, Baidu said in its third-quarter financial report.
JiDu to unveil first concept car in 2022
JiDu, joint venture between Baidu and Geely, will launch its first concept car at the Auto China 2022 in Beijing. It aims to realize mass production in 2023.
Photo credit: Baidu
Daily passenger vehicle sales fall 23% YoY in second week this month
According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), daily retail sales of passenger vehicles in the second week of November dropped by 23% from a year ago to 46,000 in China. Thanks to the production improvement, the retail sales in November are expected to see obvious growth.
CATL buys stake in battery related company
CATL has become the largest shareholder of a Shenzhen-based company with a stake of 70%. The Shenzhen company, founded in 2018, has a business scope covering the development of lithium battery production technology and the design of integrated circuit.
Shalong unveils more about first model
Shalong, a premium brand from Great Wall Motor, today unveiled more information about its first model. The new model will be equipped with dual MDC intelligent driving computing platform.
SGMWs Wuling NanoEV goes on sale, starting at 49,800 yuan
SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), General Motors' joint venture with Chinese partners SAIC Motor and Guangxi Automobile Group, saw a new Wuling-branded full-electric mini car model, the NanoEV, hit the market on Nov. 17. The new model comes with two common trim levels and one limited edition, whose guidance prices stand at 49,800 yuan ($7,800), 54,800 yuan ($8,590), and 59,800 yuan ($9,370) respectively.
Pony.ais automaking project said to stall
Chinas high-profile autonomous driving startup, Pony.ais recently announced automaking project is stalled, according to local media 36kr.
Trunk.Tech bags hundreds of millions of yuan investment
Chinas commercial vehicle autonomous solution developer, Trunk.Tech announced today that it has raised hundreds of millions of yuan in the latest round of financing.
HT Aero to have European test flights in H1 2022
HT Aero, an UAM (urban air mobility) company and an affiliate of XPeng Inc., plans to start trial flights for the Voyager X2, the company's fifth-generation flying car in Europe in the first half of 2022, Zhao Deli, founder and president of HT Aero, said on Nov. 16 at the 2021 European Rotors.
NavInfos Cennavi partners with HollySys for intelligent highway development
Chinas location big data provider Cennavi partnered up with HollySys, automation and IT solutions provider, to co-develop products and solutions for intelligent traffic systems.
LONDONPineapple Support will host Community Collaboration UK," a free, online roundtable discussion with leading European organizations that provide resources to the adult industry. The event, which is sponsored by AdultWork, will take place tomorrow, Thursday at 6 p.m. GMT/11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern.
The roundtable discussion is free for members of the adult industry and will feature representatives from London-based sexual health clinic 56 Dean Street, FSC Europe and non-profit community interest company Support Network for Adult Professionals (SNAP).
Pineapple Support was founded by British performer Leya Tanit in 2018, after the death of several performers in the adult industry due to depression and other mental illnesses.
Join us for this important discussion to find out what resources are available to you and how the impact of the last 18 months has affected change within the industry, Tanit said.
The Community Collaboration UK roundtable discussion will take place via Zoom. To register and for more information, visit PineappleSupport.org or click here.
For specific questions for any of the speakers listed above, email [email protected].
Al Ahram Weekly, by Nevine El-Aref (Link: Luxor: The great Procession)
Plans are afoot for Luxor to bathe in the international spotlight, and hopefully attract large numbers of tourists, as the city prepares to recreate an ancient festival with a modern twist.
Luxor is receiving a massive facelift in preparation for the launch of a major campaign promoting the city as the worlds greatest open-air museum. It is hoped that the celebrations marking the launch of the campaign will focus the worlds attention on Luxors awe-inspiring Theban monuments, the dazzling Nile, the charming traditional market and horse-drawn carriages, and host of other tourist attractions.
The centrepiece of the launch will be a re-enactment of the ancient Egyptian Opet festival, which is being resurrected with a contemporary twist.
The serenity of Karnak and Luxor temples has been disturbed by workers installing lights, extending cables, erecting wooden stages and fixing backdrops for the festivities. Conservators and archaeologists, armed with brushes, sticks, trowels, sieves, hand-held blowers and buckets, stand on scaffolding brushing accumulated debris from the temples columns and walls, revealing long concealed colours. Or else they sift the sands along the Avenue of Sphinxes where huge banners are being installed, ready to host an exhibition of archive photographs, the majority taken in the 19th century, documenting the history of the excavation of Luxor and Karnak temples and the major discoveries that occurred during the process, and illustrating finds connected to the royal kings and queens who participated in the construction of the avenue and the ancient festival.
Excavation work on the Great Processional Path, known as the Avenue of Sphinxes, began seriously in 1949 when Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Ghoneim unearthed the first eight ram-headed statues, explained Mahmoud Mabrouk, advisor to the minister of tourism and antiquities. Ghoneims pioneering work was then taken up by other archaeologists who plotted the course of the ceremonial way.
Beyond the archaeological sites, workers are busy in streets and squares upgrading Luxors infrastructure. New street lighting is being installed, squares are being tidied up, shop fronts polished and streets repaved. The whole city has become a hive of activity. A promenade along the Nile has been constructed, major streets and squares are being newly landscaped, and information boards erected to inform pedestrians of the ancient sites past which they are walking.
While the date of the launch is shrouded in secrecy, a source at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the upcoming celebrations will include a modern riff on the Opet festival and showcase all of Luxors attractions, from traditional felucca rides and luxury cruises on the Nile to hot air balloons over the Valleys of the Kings and Nobles, and performances of traditional music.
Zahi Hawass, former minister of antiquities, said that during the annual Opet festival ancient Egyptian priests would process from Karnak to Luxor along the Avenue of Sphinxes carrying a wooden barque holding the shrine of the Theban triad of deities, Amun-Re, Mut and Khonsu, in a celebration intended to recreate their marriage. The ritual was held annually from the New Kingdom onwards.
The rituals associated with the Opet festival, pointed out Hawass, are detailed in Luxor Temple where inscriptions reveal many features of the feast, including music, dance, military marches, the presentation of offerings, and horse shows.
Hangovers from the ancient festival can still be witnessed in Luxor, not least in the celebration of Moulid Sidi Abul-Haggag. Abul-Haggag was a 13th-century Sufi sheikh whose mosque was built next to a Coptic church, both of which lie within the confines of Luxor Temple.
The magnificent Avenue of Sphinxes, along which priests and Pharaohs once walked in procession, connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak. Many of the 1,350 sphinxes, human heads with the bodies of lions, that once lined the avenue have been restored.
The 2,700-metre-long avenue was built during the reign of the 13th-Dynasty Pharaoh Nectanebo I. It replaced an earlier processional way, as queen Hatshepsut recorded on the walls of her red chapel in Karnak Temple. Hatshepsut built six chapels dedicated to the god Amun-Re on the route of the avenue during her reign.
The avenue was originally lined with sphinxes with ram rather than human heads, sitting on sandstone plinths opposite one another along the course of the ceremonial route. Over the centuries the avenue was lost. Some of the sphinxes were destroyed, and the road eventually obliterated beneath sand on which, in may areas, random housing was built.
Within the framework of plans to restore the citys ancient Egyptian monuments and develop the entire Luxor governorate into an open-air museum, work began on uncovering the lost sections of the avenue. The sphinxes were restored, and while the attempt to restore the ceremonial way was very much a stop-start affair, contingent on the political upheavals of recent years, work is now complete and visitors to Luxor can explore most of the sacred route.
Mustafa Al-Saghir, director general of Karnak Temple, revealed that excavations carried out along the avenue had unearthed not only fragments of the sphinxes but many other objects. A wall dating to the Roman Period was found, together with the foundations of Roman buildings and workshops for the manufacture of clay pots, amulets and statues. A number of bas reliefs were uncovered, as were pots for plants which, in the New Kingdom, were placed between the statues. Wine presses from Roman times were also discovered, and the excavations, said Al-Saghir, had revealed much about the economic and social life of the residents of Thebes.
Restoration work at Karnaks Great Hypostyle Hall is now complete, with many of the intricate bas reliefs showing traces of their original painting. The open court of Karnak has been developed and visitor facilities upgraded with new sunshades, seats and signage. Both Karnak and Luxor temples also boast new lighting systems.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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At this year's Singles' Day shopping spree, domestic brands filled up the shopping cart of Wang Xinyi, a college student from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
"Most of us choose domestic products nowadays because they are cost-effective and high in quality," said Wang, who purchased daily necessities, clothes and digital products made by local brands during last week's shopping festival.
Wang is among many young Chinese who increasingly opt for domestic brands that understand consumer needs and incorporate traditional Chinese style and culture.
According to a report released in September by Aurora Mobile, a big data solutions platform, nearly 70 percent of post-90s and around 80 percent of post-00s generations prefer to buy domestic brands for their daily consumption.
A similar report jointly released by Internet giant Baidu and an institute under People.cn also showed that Chinese people's interest in domestic products soared by 528 percent compared with 10 years ago.
Improvements in quality and branding have injected impetus into domestic products in growing sectors, including clothing, automobiles and cosmetics, with their popularity triple that of foreign counterparts this year, said the report.
Mumu (a pseudonym), a postgraduate from Beijing Foreign Studies University, became attracted to a locally-made coffee brand for its quality and environmental awareness.
"After saving a certain number of coffee boxes, you can exchange them for some other products. It's really encouraging for people like us who care about the environment," she said.
Besides good quality and customized products, domestic brands have become a rage among young consumers due to their innovative use of traditional Chinese elements and culture, Mumu added.
To woo young customers, the Palace Museum, one of the most visited museums in the world, has launched a collection of cosmetic products inspired by traditional Chinese architecture and astrology.
"Some designs with traditional Chinese elements like the crane and phoenix or embossed patterns always stick with me," said Pu Dongfang, a student from Chongqing University.
The robust enthusiasm has driven the growth of domestic brands during this year's Singles' Day shopping spree. The turnover of Anta Sports, China's largest sportswear company, exceeded 4.65 billion yuan (US$728 million) by the end of November 11 on various e-commerce platforms, up 61 percent year on year, the company said.
Experts say the rise of domestic brands is not limited to the growth in consumption data but more about recognizing the country's growing strength in culture, technology and the economy.
Young consumers, represented by post-00s who grew up when the country's economy and wealth were taking off, boast stronger confidence and a higher sense of national identity than those of other groups, according to a report on post-00s generation released by Chinese Internet giant Tencent.
Mumu hopes local brands can continue to improve the design and quality of their products and keep innovating to meet Chinese customers' evolving needs.
If theres something Lutherans are known for other than great hymnody and potluck dinners, its keeping their heads down. Lutherans typically are a staid bunch, not big on revivals or drum kits in the sanctuary. And they havent exactly produced many celebrity preachers (to their everlasting glory).
Theyre also not known for taking prominent, which is to say public, roles on social issues. Preaching is for proclamation, and by proclamation, Lutherans mean the gospel. Youll rarely if ever hear politics coming from confessional (aka orthodox) Lutheran pulpits, nor will you see them marching in the streets (the one glaring exception being the annual March for Life).
But that doesnt mean traditional Lutherans dont have opinions or care about whats going on in the culture around them. Take as one great example the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty. Part of the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod (LCMS), the largest confessional Lutheran church body in the United States, the Center in its own words provides input, education, advice, advocacy, and resources in the areas of life, marriage and religious liberty and seeks to engage in discussions in Washington, D.C., to establish partnerships and resources in our nations Capital for the sake of our churches, schools, universities, and seminaries.
I asked Dr. Gregory Seltz, the Centers director, to talk about contemporary religious-liberty issues. Dr. Seltz has been in involved in urban ministry in places like New York City, Dallas, and Los Angeles for more than 30 years. From 2011 to 2017, Seltz was also the voice for The Lutheran Hour, a Christian outreach radio program with over 1 million listeners, airing on more than 1,600 stations across North America, as well as on the American Forces Network.
Seltz holds a bachelors degree in New Testament/biblical languages from Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., a master of divinity in systematics/New Testament, a master of sacred theology in systematics, and a Ph.D. in theology and culture from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (his thesis: Black Liberation Theology and Its Challenge to LCMS Urban Ministry). He was also awarded the doctor of divinity degree from Concordia University Irvine.
Youve had a varied and rich career in academia, church startups, The Lutheran Hour. What motivated you to enter the world of religious liberty issues?
My initial foray into liberty issues started with dealing with the political reality of New York City as it pertained to launching ministries in the city. As an urban church planter in the 1990s in one of the most exciting yet politically challenging cities in the country, I found it maddening to discover that church work that empowered the neighborhood often conflicted with the citys politics of dependency. We had to discover ways to deal with real issues such as preschool, childcare, even working with the poor, etc., as an extension of being the Church in the community for the sake of the community.
Another impulse had to do with Obamacare and its federal demand that we provide abortifacients as part of our private healthcare, which was clearly against our teaching and against the consciences of our members.
What are the biggest religious liberty issues facing churches today?
With the federalization of virtually every aspect of healthcare, the government is intricately woven into issues from the beginning of life to its end. The temptation of the government to stand against clear moral teachings that are fundamental to many Christians and religious people of the country is one thing, but the coercive capability of such an expansive intrusion into areas of conscience is another. Weve seen that in the Obamacare mandates and more recently in the COVID-19 restrictions on the Church, virtually reclassifying it as a secondary institution. Such a reclassification stands in stark contrast to the constitutional protections of religious liberty enshrined in the First Amendment.
While those issues are troubling, the most pressing issue is the reclassification of gender identity as a protected class like race, sex (male/female), ethnicity, or religion. Differences of opinion are one thing, but the notion that the Church must change its teaching regarding marriage and the healthy, biblical directives for sexual expression within the marriage bond now stands not merely as a different understanding of sex, sexual practice, and intimacyit may become hate speech, defining one side of the equation as constitutional and the other as not. We are seeing this already in Europe with the prosecution of Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Paivi Rasanen in Finland merely for publicly teaching that marriage is defined as the lifelong union of a man and woman and sex is part of the marriage bond.
To what extent have the COVID lockdowns and mandates affected religious liberty? How might they continue to affect it even post-COVID (assuming there ever truly is a post-COVID era)?
Again, the big concern was the governments reclassification of the Church as a secondary institution. Doctors and nurses were vital. Grocery store workers were vital. Yet ministers and spiritual leaders and the worshipping/serving body of the churches were not. Worship services and hospital calls by pastors were deemed unnecessary. If doctors and nurses could be masked up for their service, surely pastors could as well. With people literally dying from COVID early on, the voice of the pastor sharing the gospel with them, praying with them, offering Communion to them especially at the possible moment of their death was much more vital than the mere physical issues associated with the pandemic.
Even worse was the politicization of health issues whereby free citizens were literally deprived of their right to work, to worship, and to deal with the risks of life on their own terms, faithful to their families, to their church, and yes, to their communities. The notion that one governing person has the power to make those kinds of decisions for 330 million was and remains ridiculous.
Lutherans have a reputation for political quietism, standing on the sidelines during the great social churnings, focusing strictly on gospel proclamation. Is that reputation deserved? If so, do you see yourself as trying to alter that image, opening up a space for Lutherans as Lutherans to enter the political arena?
Im biased here, of course, but I think that the representation isnt well deserved. Some would point to the German Lutheran state church and Hitler, but there were plenty of churches speaking out and even acting against the secular takeover of the state church and the state itself. Here in America, many of the foundational Supreme Court casesHosanna Tabor, Trinity Lutheran, and othersare the result of Lutheran churches standing up to government encroachment when the time is right. I think the label of quietism comes from a misunderstanding of our teaching of Two Kingdoms. Richard Niebuhrs book Christ and Culture is a good example. There the Lutheran position is defined as Christ and culture in tension rather than in the proper differentiation of God the Fathers preserving work (through Caesar, through peoples vocations) and Gods unique saving work in Christ for all.
Differentiation does have a limited view of what good government can do, and that may be why we are not leading the charge on many of the political issues of the day. Such a view also supports a healthy limitation of what government should do. But that doesnt imply nonaction.
I think my work in D.C. is trying to bring more clarity of that engagement strategy for the sake of the culture and the mission of the Church. So, yes, it is a change in what most people view the Lutheran position is vis-a-vis the culture in some sense. But it is also a needed response to the secularizing of our culture and our institutions.
What kind of response have you received from Lutherans in the pew to Center activities?
Weve been very well received. There are a few people, of course, who think that were getting more political, which they think confuses people about the Churchs main work. But in reality were trying to depoliticize many of the issues of the day so the Church can bring its unique message to the people in ones community. When the government can limit the moral and gospel voice of God at a time of overt trial and suffering (like with COVID), that is the issue that concerns us most.
How receptive have folks been on the Hill to Center initiatives and concerns?
There are many people who share not only our concern for government intrusion into issues where it doesnt belong but also our view of the moral issues foundational for a civil, humane society, issues like the sanctity of all life, religious liberty/assembly, equal justice under the law, the dignity/equality of all people rooted in our being created by God and not defined by government. Of course there is another religious position on the Hill that tends to fuse the commands of the Bible to deal kindly with the poor and marginalized, not with the personal actions of believers in community, but with government action. Such a fusion of the gospel with government benevolence programs is not only bad preaching; its also bad government, since the governments coercive capability undermines its benevolence. Those who hold that fusion view on the Hill dont tend to receive our voice very well.
Most religious-liberty cases have been resolved in favor of churches, yet attempts to suppress the free exercise of religion continues. Is this more a hatred for religion, for Christianity, or is it a genuine concern for church-state violations?
People often argue that America is not a Christian culture because the Constitution isnt overtly Christian. Thats an odd argument because the Constitution is a limiting document, not an expansive document. To limit the government to very specific things does not argue against the religious nature of the culture; it argues against the notion of an expansive state. The moral framework of the Ten Commandments is essential to self-government, and the key idea of our politythat of universal, human dignityis rooted in the allegiance to the God who created us, not the government that organizes us.
That said, there is a secularizing move in our culture and in all cultures of the West that seeks to supplant the Church and the biblical worldview as essential and foundational presuppositions for freedom and liberty. James Davison Hunters books (The Culture Wars, To Change the World, The Death of Character) are helpful in this regard.
As one example, however, of the vitriol toward religion today, this Robert Reich quote is instructive:
The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face.
I believe that Reich, former labor secretary for Bill Clinton, is still teaching public policy at UC Berkley. Its amazing that such vitriol exists for the Christian worldview today when the secular, benevolent state, often expressed in socialist and communist polities, were the centerpiece ideologies of the most brutal regimes in the most brutal century in human history, the 20th century.
If you could affect one key piece of legislation to secure religious liberty, what would it be?
Side-tracking the so-called Equality Act. That legislation is the greatest threat to religious liberty in the U.S. presently. The uncoupling of gender from its biological reality redefines the States coercive power in quasi-religious terms. The ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges and Bostock created a right to marriage that is not in the U.S. Constitution (neither for different-sex nor same-sex couples). The Churchs fundamental teachings on marriage, sex, and sexuality are now technically unconstitutional. The narrow perspective of the rulings is already being set aside for the greater goal of either changing the Churchs teaching or legislating its influencing voice out of the culture.
The Equality Act overturns First Amendment protections of religion, of conscience, and dismisses the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well. Making sure that the Equality Act does not become law is the key to securing religious liberty anew, then challenging the narrative that our identities are all wrapped up in race, sexual practice, and group identity rather than being in the image of God. We must also fight the caricature that moral, biblical limitations on the notion of sex and healthy sexual practice are hateful when they are in fact, directives from the loving God who created and redeemed us. Thats the work we must attend to now because legislation by itself will not ensure religious liberty if we lose the narrative battle in the culture.
Shit got downright biblical in Egypt in recent days. Storms and flooding destroyed homes led to several deaths near Aswan, Egypt. The catastrophic weather was immediately followed by an onslaught of so-called "deathstalker" scorpions scurrying into mountainside villagers' homes. According to local reports, more than 500 people were bitten by the scorpions on Friday night alone. From the New York Times:
There were hundreds, if not thousands: yellowish four-inchers with as many as six pairs of eyes and a tail full of venom so toxic that the species is known, unscientifically, as the deathstalker[]
Scorpion experts said the flooding in Aswan had probably driven them from the mountainous desert that surrounds the area and into the villages[]
Hospitals around Aswan were forced to dig into their antivenom stashes, and a Health Ministry graphic circulating on Facebook over the weekend warned of the most common symptoms of scorpion stings: severe pain at the sting site, high fever, sweating, vomiting and diarrhea[]
"Professionals can catch the scorpions from the tail by hand," [Suez Canal University scorpion researcher Mohamed] Abdel-Rahman said. "But I don't recommend doing that."
Christopher Belter, now 20, raped several younger teens and was convicted in 2018. This week Niagara County Judge Matthew Murphy, sympathising with his plight from the bench, told him he would not be going to jail.
"It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn't appropriate, so I am going to sentence you to probation." The judge issued a lengthy list of probation rules for Belter, who now lives in the City of Lockport. He also had a stern warning about following the rules.
This despite the judge admitting Belter failed to follow those already placed upon him and presents an "above average risk" to reoffend.
Judge Murphy said of Belter "we now know from his documented failure to to follow the rules imposed by the Court about abstinence from pornography that this defendant does not hesitate to ignore the rules when they compete with his own carnal appetites."
Judge Murphy recently went as far as to order local media not to publish Belter's name, despite the fact he is now an adult.
From this reportage it isn't even clear just how many girls Belter raped. This story in the Buffalo News says four. He plead guilty to two counts of second degree sex abuse, third degree attempted abuse and third degree rape.
Local news coverage implies local support for Belter, including from his fancy school and his affluent community. This item from 2018 reports the original allegations of booze-on-tap parties thrown at his parents' vast McMansionand outrage among their rich friends that he (and they) would even be charged.
The charges against the teenage son and the detailed allegations listed in the criminal complaint against his guardians have rocked the affluent community where they live, as well as Canisius High School, the elite private boys school he attended.
The now-former student's friends were stunned when news of the charges came out on November 7th , according to a Canisius staff member who spoke to 7 Eyewitness News on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from school officials.
"No boy knows where the hammer might fall next," the staffer said.
The blithe admission that rape is business as usual for the rich kids of Lewiston, N.Y. notwithstanding, what hammer? Here's the lawyer of one of Belter's victims:
Cohen represents one of the victims and is outraged with the sentence. Cohen says there were "zero consequences" for violating his previous probation. "He is privileged. He comes from money. He is white. He was sentenced as an adult, appropriately for an adult to get away with these crimes is unjust," Cohen remarked. Cohen noted how difficult it was for his client to hear Belter will not go to jail. "I believe she's in the bathroom throwing up, right now"
Judge Murphy said he "agonized" and prayed over the sentence. So you can consider its leniency God's will.
France has urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to respect a 2020 ceasefire, saying it was worried by new border clashes erupting between the two foes.
Armenia reported that some of its troops had been killed and that it had lost control of two military positions near the border with Azerbaijan, which accused Armenia of provoking the clash.
"France expresses its deep concern over the worsening of the security situation along several stretches of the border," a foreign ministry statement said.
"France calls on all parties to respect the ceasefire to which they committed after the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020" signed between both countries and Russia, the statement said.
France said it was particulary alarmed by reports of use of heavy weaponry "which has caused many deaths, especially on the Armenian side".
The statement said any changes to the border needed to be negotiated, and could not be imposed by military action on the ground.
France is home to the largest Armenian community in the European Union.
(with AFP)
FILE PHOTO: Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building in Vienna
DUBAI (Reuters) - A top delegation from the United Arab Emirates will visit Tehran soon as the Gulf state works to de-escalate tensions with Iran, senior Iranian and Gulf officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
A Gulf official said a high-level delegation is expected to visit Teheran soon but they declined to confirm whether UAE's top national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan would lead the visit.
Sheikh Tahnoon is a brother of the countrys de facto ruler Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and chairman of state investor ADQ.
A senior Iranian official said an Emirati official would visit soon but declined to give more details.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE president, said on Monday that his country was "taking steps to de-escalate tensions with Iran as part of a policy choice towards diplomacy and away from confrontation."
Gargash said the UAE remained deeply concerned about Iran's behaviour in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, are closely watching talks between global powers and Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear pact. They believe the deal was flawed for not addressing Iran's missile programme and network of regional proxies.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Aziz El Yaakoubi, Writing by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra and Bernadette Baum)
CMMB Kenya reached 23,557 children under-five-years old and 5,222 pregnant women with health and social services in 2021.
Improving Newborn Health through Health Systems Strengthening and Kangaroo Mother Care
CMMB Kenya reached 23,557 children under-five-years old and 5,222 pregnant women with health and social services in 2021.
CMMB Kenya reached 23,557 children under-five-years old and 5,222 pregnant women with health and social services in 2021.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An estimated 2.8 million pregnant women and newborns die every year, or 1 every 11 seconds. Kenya has a very high maternal mortality rate, and over 90 percent of all newborn deaths are preventable. In response, CMMB has increased investments in health system strengthening to address maternal and child health inequities and to reduce preventable deaths.
This year, CMMB built, equipped, and staffed three maternity wards with delivery rooms and postnatal care rooms in Kitui County, Kenya. CMMB also equipped and staffed two newborn unitsdoubling the capacity of the entire county for immediate newborn care. In addition to investments in infrastructure, training healthcare workers has been crucial.
CMMB Kenya has trained 220 healthcare workers to build their skills in emergency obstetrics and in early essential and newborn care. We know that skilled care before, during and after childbirth can make the difference in health outcomes. It is critical for reducing maternal and newborn illness and deaths, said Dr. James Kisia, Country Director of CMMB Kenya.
Skilled birth attendants are saving lives, often through low-cost and high impact interventions. For example, babies born prematurely typically need help with temperature regulation. These infants often go into traditional incubators, but CMMB Kenya also employs another intervention called kangaroo mother care. Our healthcare workers teach new mothers to hold their babies on their chest skin-to-skin and to exclusively breast feed, when possible. This naturally helps regulate the babys temperature and improves their chances of survival, said Dr. Kisia.
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Research shows that starting kangaroo mother care immediately after birth can save up to 150,000 more lives each year. Growing evidence also indicates it can save more lives than traditional incubator care.
In Kenya and around the world, women and newborns are dying of diseases that we can treat, said Mary Beth Powers, president and CEO of CMMB. Globally, most maternal and newborn deaths can be prevented through access to basic health services and emergency obstetric care when needed. To save more mothers and babies, we need to address the root causes of health inequity by creating health facilities and training staff to respond to community concerns and needslife saving practices only work when people are willing and able to use them. Kangaroo mother care is an intervention that is low cost and integrates well with local cultural practices.
The early effects of CMMBs work for women and newborn children in Kenya are promising. But decades of progress are at stake right now. Recent research shows the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to a rise in maternal deaths and stillbirths. We need to redouble efforts now or the world will not be able to meet the sustainable development goals for maternal and child health, said Ms. Powers.
CMMB has worked in Kenya since 2006. The country office has a strong track record of strengthening health systems, implementing maternal and child health programs, and providing quality HIV prevention care, treatment, and support services. CMMB Kenya supports Our Lady of Lourdes Mutomo Mission Hospital in Kitui County. Opened in 1964, the hospital is the only referral hospital in the region and serves over 195,000 people in the county.
Dr. James Kisia and Mary Beth Powers are available for a limited number of interviews. For questions about the information contained within this press release or about CMMB and its programs, please contact the Director of Communications, Luke Dougherty at LDougherty@cmmb.org
About CMMB
CMMB (Catholic Medical Mission Board) provides long-term medical and development aid to communities affected by poverty and unequal access to healthcare. Focusing on womens and children health, we deliver sustainable health services in Peru, Haiti, Kenya, South Sudan, and Zambia. For over a century, we have worked to strengthen and support communities through healthcare programs and initiatives, the placement of volunteers, and the distribution of medicines and medical supplies. CMMB has delivered over 3,000 shipments to 88 countries over the last ten years, with a total value of more than $4 billion worth of medical aid.
Learn more at: https://cmmb.org/
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CONTACT: Luke Dougherty Catholic Medical Mission Board 212-609-2582 LDougherty@cmmb.org
FILE PHOTO: Pro-democracy protesters attend a rally to demand the government to resign in Bangkok
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's legislature shot down on Wednesday a draft bill aimed at strengthening democracy, in which its backers sought to scrap or overhaul of key institutions they said had been hijacked by the military elite.
A joint session of the lower house of parliament and the Senate voted 473-206 to reject the bill, with six abstentions, which called for a constitution passed under a military junta in 2017 to be changed to ensure a clear separation of powers.
Thailand's government is still led by the architects of a 2014 coup, who remained in power after a 2019 election that its rivals say was stacked in the military's favour.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the coup leader, has denied that.
The draft was backed by 130,000 petitioners and sought to abolish the 250-seat, junta-appointed Senate, and restructure the Constitutional Court and key state agencies.
The government's critics, including a formidable student-led protest movement that emerged last year, say democracy has been subverted by the military and its royalists allies, who wield influence over independent institutions.
"The 2017 constitution protects and enables General Prayuth to extend his power by providing mechanisms of control through the Senate and independent agencies," one of the bill's proponents, Parit Wacharasindhu, told legislators.
Since 2019, 21 bills have been proposed to parliament seeking constitutional amendments, only one of which has passed, which sought changes to the balloting system.
Pro-government lawmakers defended the constitution, reiterating that it was endorsed in a referendum and that the coup was necessary to address a political crisis.
"To only fix the problem of coup and its consequences without addressing the political problems that came before that, will that lead to a perfect democracy?" lawmaker Wanchai Sornsiri said during the debate.
Thailand has seen 20 constitutions and 13 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Senator Richard Gordon on Wednesday questioned the supposed attempt of a Pharmally lawyer to hide his previous connection with Malacanang.
Gordon, who heads the Senate probe into the governments allegedly anomalous deals with Pharmally, said Atty. Daryl Valles denied being from Malacanang when he visited on Tuesday his detained clients, the firm's executives Mohit and Twinkle Dargani.
We do not understand why there was a need for the subterfuge, why there was a need to hide an important fact, the senator said in a statement.
According to Gordon, the Senate looked into Valles background and found out that per Office of the President directory, he is a Director IV at the Office of the Special Assistant to the President, the position then occupied by Senator Bong Go.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles confirmed Valles employment under the Office of the President, but added that the lawyer resigned in March. Upon quitting, he then worked for an office under the House of Representatives, Nograles added.
Valles only admitted he held a Palace post when asked again by the Senates sergeant-at-arms after his visit, Gordon said.
Here, the attempt to hide a fact raises more questions as a result, the senator wrote, adding that in the first place, the Darganis are entitled to hire whichever lawyer their money can buy.
Earlier, Gordon said the Pharmally issue all leads to Malacanang. He noted it was President Rodrigo Duterte who appointed ex-Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao and former economic adviser Michael Yang, both of whom have been involved in the controversy.
After previously defending Lao and Yang, Duterte, in his more recent public addresses, denied protecting Pharmally, saying he doesnt care what happens to its officials as a result of the probe.
Mago leaves House custody
Meanwhile, Pharmally official Krizle Grace Mago is now out of the protective custody of the House of Representatives after more than a month.
Rep. Michael Aglipay, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said on Wednesday that Mago left the House premises on Monday morning.
Mago was placed under protective custody in October upon her request, following her bombshell admission that Pharmally may have swindled the government by tampering with the expiration dates of face shields bought by the government for healthcare workers.
On the Pharmally probe committee report, Aglipay said they now have the first draft and are eyeing completion by year-end.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) President Rodrigo Duterte has endorsed Senator Bong Go and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for the 2022 polls, according to a lawmaker.
DIWA party-list Rep. Michael Aglipay told reporters on Wednesday that Duterte pushed for the tandem during a meeting with House leaders in Malacanang this week.
Standing order [Senator Bong Go] Sara [Duterte] for 2022, Aglipay said, citing Dutertes speech during the dinner event Tuesday which he attended along with over 90 other solons.
But Aglipay noted that House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez who leads Lakas-CMD, the party of Sara Duterte was not present.
RELATED: Sara Duterte accepts Lakas-CMD chairmanship
The Palace earlier confirmed Dutertes dinner meeting, saying it was an informal and relaxed gathering with lawmakers.
With active COVID-19 cases now on a steady decline and now that we are feeling the positive impact of the government's vaccination, we expect the President to join similar gatherings with friends and allies in the future, Dutertes acting spokesperson Karlo Nograles said.
Go, who joined the meeting, thanked the House officials for their support and reiterated his plan to continue the current administrations programs should he get elected next year.
The former aide of the chief executive is seeking the presidency under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan, an allied party of the PDP-Laban faction which he is a part of.
Meanwhile, Duterte's daughter Sara decided to vie for the vice presidential seat, filing her candidacy over the weekend as the substitute bet for Lakas-CMD.
Go earlier expressed hope that the Davao City mayor will consider being his running mate for the upcoming polls. But the camp of fellow presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos said his tandem with the younger Duterte is already official.
CNN Philippines' Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) Reelectionist Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian will push for the inclusion of more schools in the pilot implementation of in-person classes in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I am pushing to increase the number of pilot schools, hopefully more than a thousand across the different parts of our country," he told CNN Philippines.
One hundred public schools in low-risk areas finally reopened on Nov. 15 as the Department of Education launched its pilot run of limited face-to-face classes.
Thousands of kindergarten, Grades 1 to 3, and senior high students returned to their classrooms after almost two years of online learning.
Gatchalian said the resumption of in-person classes this week was successful, as seen by efforts of school administrators to ensure health protocols are followed.
But in order to improve the country's education system, Gatchalian said it is important to invest more on teachers. This can be done by providing additional support through better benefits, salaries, and training, the senator noted.
(CNN) Violence erupted at the Poland-Belarus border on Tuesday, as migrants desperate to cross into the European Union threw stones at Polish border guards who responded with water cannon and tear gas.
Polish and Belarusian authorities have blamed one another for the ratcheting of tensions on the border, where thousands of people have traveled in the hope of making it into the EU only to find themselves stuck in freezing conditions.
There were chaotic scenes on the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing, where crowds of migrants could be seen breaking up concrete blocks and gathering tree branches to throw toward the Polish side.
Loud bangs rang out over the crowds and a dense cloud of smoke hung overhead. Belarusian state media BeITA reported that the water cannons used by Polish forces sprayed a yellow liquid that caused burning, and that people were suffocating and feeling sick from the smoke. A CNN team was hit by the water fired by Polish guards.
According to BelTA, the deputy head of the Belarusian Armed Forces' Department of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection and Ecology, Igor Malyk, told reporters that Polish security forces had used "toxic chemicals" against refugees.
"Today we have witnessed how the Polish security forces on the Belarusian-Polish border used special means containing toxic irritating chemicals against refugees, including women and children," Malyk said.
Seven police officers were injured after being hit by projectiles, according to the Polish police.
Women and children who, just a day before, had been camped out in tents near the border fence had moved back, and men, many of them voicing their anger about being left in limbo in awful conditions, were amassing in the most dramatic clashes to date. "We are fighting to stay alive," one man told CNN.
The Polish Border Guard said Tuesday that migrants camped out near the Bruzgi-Kuznica checkpoint were behaving "aggressively," throwing stones and various objects at the Polish services. "In order to prevent illegal border crossing, water cannons were used against aggressive foreigners," the security agency said on Twitter.
Poland's Ministry of Defense shared footage on Twitter showing Polish officers and soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder with riot shields as rocks were lobbed over the barbed wire border fence, describing the scene as an "attack of migrants." The ministry also accused Belarusian services of equipping migrants with "stun grenades."
The spokesperson for Poland's security services, Stanislaw Zaryn, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday about the clashes, congratulating Polish forces for successfully repelling the "first wave of attacks on the border."
BelTA reported "an aggravation of the situation" on the border on Tuesday, as migrants try "by all means to get to Poland" and Polish authorities respond with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon, "pouring water on people in the cold."
"People say they are tired of waiting and are ready to break through," according to BeITA.
'We're going back to Iraq'
Anton Bychkovsky, a spokesman for Belarus's State Border Guard Committee, told BelTA that the agency was launching an investigation into the "incident" on Tuesday.
It's unclear what sparked Tuesday's confrontations but there is a growing sense of frustration among migrants that Europe is not welcoming them. They're now facing conditions the United Nations has called "catastrophic," suffering from hunger and hypothermia camped out in flimsy tents in makeshift camps at the border.
Rumors have been swirling over the past 48 hours in the camps that the Polish government might open the border and allow a humanitarian corridor through to Germany. Poland has adamantly denied this and people amassed in the area have received text messages from Polish authorities saying the information was a "total lie and nonsense."
The SMS message, also received by members of the CNN team in the area, reads in part: "Poland won't let migrants pass to Germany. It will protect its border. Don't get fooled, don't try to take any action."
Polish forces appeared to have dispersed crowds from the border checkpoint as night fell on Tuesday, with some returning to a camp in the woods while other vulnerable people were being taken indoors.
Belarus's border agency told CNN that some migrants -- including women, children and those with medical conditions -- were being moved 1.5 kilometers to a processing center, where they will receive shelter, food and medical treatment. Officials also told CNN a decision will be made on whether to deport them back to their home countries. Most of those gathered on the border are from the Middle East and Asia.
Families could be seen walking away from the scene of clashes, with exhausted children in tow, some carried aloft on their parent's shoulders. Asked by CNN where he was going, one man said: "Back to Iraq. Goodbye Belarus."
BelTA also reported on Tuesday night that Lukashenko had instructed the local governor of Grodno to help prepare a logistical center to receive refugees.
Lukashenko putting migrants lives 'at risk'
The crisis has led the EU to prepare fresh sanctions on Belarus, which it accuses of manufacturing the crisis on the bloc's eastern frontier.
President Alexander Lukashenko's government has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for the crossings and accusing it of poor treatment of migrants.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said the military alliance is "deeply concerned about the way the Lukashenko regime is using vulnerable migrants as a hybrid tactic against other countries, and this is actually putting the life of the migrants at risk."
He was speaking ahead of a meeting with EU defense ministers on Tuesday, and a day after warning Moscow that NATO would support Ukraine against "potential aggressive actions" amid a large concentration of Russian troops near Ukraine's borders. Ukraine is not a member of NATO or the EU.
The military moves continue to test a fragile political order in the region and deepen concerns over the potential for a wider geopolitical crisis.
Lukashenko spoke Tuesday with ally Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation on Belarus' border, days after the two countries flexed their military might near Poland in joint paratrooper drills.
The leaders also discussed the situation in neighboring Ukraine and US-led exercises near Russia's borders and in the Black Sea, Lukashenko's office said.
Russia, Belarus' largest political and economic partner, continues to defend Minsk's handling of the border crisis while also denying any involvement in it.
The EU and NATO have restated their support for Poland. The EU's Foreign Affairs Chief, Josep Borrell has called on Belarus to take "urgent action" to ensure the restoration of security at the border.
Jakub Kumoch, the head of the Polish President's International Policy Bureau, said in a statement on Tuesday night that any new sanctions on Belarus should be "lasting" and "touch as many people as possible responsible for leading to this tragedy."
This story was first published on CNN.com, "Violence erupts on Poland-Belarus border as Polish guards fire water cannon on migrants throwing rocks."
Editor's note: Dr. Neha Chaudhary, child and adolescent psychiatrist, is chief medical officer of BeMe Health and faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
(CNN) The holiday season is right around the corner, and for many that means more time spent with family across generations. Before you demand that your children drop their smartphone to talk meaningfully about gratitude at the Thanksgiving dinner table, take a moment to consider what you're asking.
When it comes to generational divides, it's hard to find one bigger than technology use, especially social media. How to talk to teens about technology use (and reduce it) is one of the most common questions I get from parents in my child and adolescent psychiatry clinic.
Adults worry that technology overuse is taking a toll on their children's mental health. For teens, it's more complicated. Whether it's social media, gaming or online chat forums, the digital landscape has become fundamentally integrated into their everyday life.
Faced with that conflict, I typically ask parents and caregivers not only how much their kids are using technology, but how they are using it and how that use is impacting their headspace. Once we know the answers to those questions, we collaborate to find solutions.
Rather than try to fight the use and engage in a tug-of-war, families can focus ahead of the holiday season on how they use social media. Knowing that some social media use negatively impacts mental health, families can together can shift to a social media strategy that supports teens' social and emotional health.
It's important that parents and caregivers spend some time in careful reflection in partnership with teens. (Parents, don't try to do this alone.) Here's my four-step framework to help navigate this new space together and make productive, healthy changes:
Step 1: Help teens evaluate how they are using social media
Talk about the quality of the content your children are consuming online. Is it generally positive, like inspirational quotes or pictures of cute babies? Or is it negative, like politically charged news or memes that make fun of certain groups? All content is not created equal, and without intentionally and critically evaluating which bucket the content falls in, it's harder to figure out what to consume more of versus less.
Your teens' pattern of use is just as important. Do they typically find themselves on social media when they are feeling happy, down, bored or angry? Do they scroll through social media to distract themselves from uncomfortable feelings or to avoid doing homework that's been piling up into a mountain? What happens when they step away from their device?
By asking teens to reflect on the link between real life and when they pick up their phone to open Instagram or TikTok, you might identify an underlying problem that needs more attention, like anxiety. Or you could help them identify better ways to cope with uncomfortable feelings, like calling a friend or listening to music.
Step 2: Ask how social media use is serving them
This is where it's time to ask your teens to be real with you about the impact of social media on their mental health. Ask them how they feel after scrolling on social media. Do they notice a difference in how they feel when they view one type of content, like puppy videos or body-positive posts, versus another, like heavily edited and unrealistic photos of influencers or content from someone in a negative headspace?
Often, teens will admit that the thought of breaking from social media makes them incredibly anxious at first. But when they do separate themselves from their device, they end up feeling better. It's not that surprising, as taking time away from social media altogether can help you stay present in the moment in a way that's helpful for your mood and overall mental health.
The more links teens can make on their own between how they use social media and how that usage pattern serves them or makes them feel, the more likely they will be to want to make changes for themselves, if it's on their terms.
Step 3: Encourage teens to identify the changes they want
Ask your teens if they want to change the way they are using social media right now, and if so, how. Perhaps they have identified that they want to spend less time on social media. Maybe they have noticed that they feel badly about themselves after comparing their lives to those of others, and they wish the content left them feeling better about themselves instead of worse. Whatever the changes are, it's a good time to catalog them intentionally and set specific goals.
It can be especially helpful to focus on what they would get out of the changes. Are they looking to gain some time back for more offline activities? Are they looking to boost their mood or self-esteem? Are they looking for more authentic connection and experiences?
It's critical that your teen set their goals for themselves. It's how they will buy into the process and likely follow through with any changes.
Step 4: List and commit to the steps needed to get there
Now is the time to get concrete. What is it that needs to happen for your teens to achieve their stated goals? Do they need to take screen-time breaks, or place restrictions on their phone? Does the phone need to go into a basket at dinner, or be left in the common space when it's bedtime?
Or maybe they are happy with how much time they are spending online but want to focus on what they are consuming. What accounts that make them feel bad do they need to unfollow or block, and what types of accounts will they look to follow? How will they approach spring-cleaning their feed? Will they replace five negative accounts with five positive ones per day, or do they have another method they'd like to try?
Some teens have noted that disabling comments, making their accounts private, or keeping their social media use within certain bounds, like particular hours of the day, are helpful tricks to regaining some peace of mind.
With a generation of digital natives sitting across the Thanksgiving table from generations who grew up solely playing outside with the next-door neighbors, it can feel like both parties are coming from different planets when it comes to topics like technology and social media.
Rather than try to fight where teens are coming from, accepting that technology use is part of their way of life, and instead focusing on quality over quantity, will allow for more productive conversations. That's the space in which real, healthy change can happen.
This story was first published on CNN.com, "For teens who are glued to social media, this 4-step plan can help."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Fully vaccinated healthcare workers are formally given the liberty to choose the COVID-19 vaccine brand they want to receive as their booster shot as the program rolled out on Wednesday.
The Department of Health issued the 15-page guidelines on the administration of booster doses for the A1 priority sector.
The approved booster shots for 1.6 million health workers are a single dose of Pfizer, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca, and half the regular dose of a Moderna shot.
Getting the booster shots are purely voluntary. Medical frontliners need to inform the vaccination site what brand they prefer, so it can be prepared in advance.
They can opt to use the same vaccine brand (homologous) or a different one (heterologous) from the initial series they received. The approved mix-and-match combination was laid down by the DOH.
If the vaccinees opt to get a different brand as their booster, they may receive the following:
-Sinovac: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna (half dose)
-AstraZeneca: Pfizer, Moderna (half dose)
-Sputnik V: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna (half dose)
-Janssen: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna (half dose)
-Pfizer: AstraZeneca, Moderna (half dose)
-Moderna: AstraZeneca, Pfizer
The Health department recommended using Pfizer or Moderna as booster if the health worker received AstraZeneca as the first series.
Those who received AstraZeneca as their first two doses can receive the same brand as their booster, but it should be used with precaution based on the emergency use authorization granted by the Food and Drug Administration, the DOH said.
"Vector-based vaccines (e.g. AstraZeneca) are recommended to be boosted with a different vaccine platform due to the theoretical possibility of pre-existing immunity attenuating or weakening the immune response on the second or third dose," DOH memorandum No. 0484 read.
A fully vaccinated health worker can only receive one booster shot. It shall be given at least six months after if they received Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac, Sputnik V, and AstraZeneca as their first series, then three months after if they got the single-shot Janssen vaccine.
Booster shots are given to those whose immunity is going down over time after completing their first series.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said studies are ongoing to determine how long the booster shots can provide protection vs COVID-19.
"Ang booster dose ang layunin nito ay maitaas muli ang sapat na antibody protection, which over time alam natin bumababa ito," he said.
[Translation: The purpose of the booster dose is to increase the antibody protection again, which we know goes down over time.]
Majority of health workers in the country received Sinovacs COVID-19 vaccine when the inoculation drive started six months ago since it was the first brand to arrive in the country.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., one of the first personalities to get vaccinated with Sinovac in March, said he would receive the same brand as his booster shot.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Certain segments of the Filipino youth were found to be more likely to fall for misleading or false information, according to a survey led by the Ateneo School of Government.
A total of 7,428 college students were covered by two survey rounds from May to September. In both instances, about two-thirds of the respondents said they were confident about their ability to distinguish facts from so-called fake news, but many failed when they were put to the test.
According to Ateneo associate professor and researcher Dr. Imelda Deinla, two-thirds of the respondents only got six or fewer correct answers out of a 10-item "What the Fake" online quiz, where they were asked to discern if quotes attributed to political personalities were true or not.
In the second round, respondents had an average score of 6.9, missing the passing mark of seven, illustrating a "mismatch" between a student's perceived ability to identify correct from false information and their actual capacity to do so.
More than half of the respondents scored 6 to 8 points, indicating "average" skills in detecting false news items and statements.
False information is also a trigger for political division, Deinla said. The study also found that young Filipinos who indicated they are likely to support President Rodrigo Duterte were more likely to fall victim in misinformation compared to those who said they were supporting Vice President Leni Robredo.
Deinla pointed out that while the quiz items included more pro-administration figures, their supporters were still unable to distinguish real from manufactured materials.
"This finding is not actually new this behavior was likewise observed among Republican supporters in the United States," said the Boses Pilipinas convenor, referring to supporters of former US President Donald Trump.
"It is possible then that these partisan tendencies to fall for misinformation is a product of the same disinformation networks that both groups are exposed to, or because of the possible impact of constant or high exposure to fake news being the new normal thus, to regard facts in a different way."
Those who said they are "politically engaged" and will definitely vote in the May 9 polls were also found less likely to be deceived by false news.
The study also showed that individuals relying less on traditional media like TV, radio, and newspapers struggled more in discerning real information.
"Ang mga respondents na nagtitiwala sa social media ay mas madaling maniwala sa fake news at mas nahihirapan na makakilala ng totoong balita [Respondents who put more trust on social media are more likely to believe fake news and find it more difficult to recognize legitimate news]," Deinla said.
"Trust in social media decreases the odds of correctly identifying both real and fake news by 3% and 14%, respectively. Trust in social media and Facebook are shown to impair one's ability to detect misinformation," she added.
Commission on Elections director Elaiza Sabile-David said the poll body is looking to release guidelines for candidates in campaigning through social media later this month, but clarified these will focus more on ad spending rather than sanctions for fake news peddlers.
"I dont think we still have that capacity, especially nga na wala pang batas [when we don't have a law yet] to regulate the use of social media," Sabile-David said during the Wednesday forum.
"We are partners with some social media providers gaya [like] ng Facebook. Kapag may mga na-spot na fake news, pwedeng i-report namin 'yun at aalisin naman ng Facebook [When we spot fake news, we can report that and Facebook will take it down]."
The Comelec currently does not set a limit on how much or how many ads a candidate can spend for advertising and campaigns on social media, but said its looking to use online platforms in 2022 amid the threat of COVID-19.
READ: Social media influence on Philippines' internet-driven elections
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced he has once again tested positive for COVID-19.
Lorenzana told CNN Philippines he took the swab test on Tuesday after physically attending a Senate budget hearing.
"Yes, confirmed, I am positive. I had my test yesterday afternoon. The result came out this morning," he wrote in a text message on Wednesday.
Lorenzana, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, said he has no symptoms. He added that he will undergo another swab test after observing his condition in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Senate budget debates will be suspended until Monday as a precautionary measure, according to Senate President Tito Sotto.
"To play safe, we will suspend budget deliberations until all those who were exposed to him yesterday will have an RT-PCR test by Saturday or Sunday," he said, adding disinfection will also be done in the meantime.
Because of this, the entire 2022 budget will be delayed, he noted.
Sotto also announced tighter protocols for those visiting the Senate. Visitors should present results of their RT-PCR or anti-gen tests taken within 24 hours to be granted entry.
A photo posted on the Senate's Facebook page showed Hungarian delegates were present during Tuesday's session, as the upper chamber presented a resolution commending the National Assembly of Hungary for strengthening its inter-parliamentary ties with the Philippines.
Several lawmakers were photographed without face masks, although Lorenzana was not present in the picture.
The 73-year-old Defense chief returned last Sunday from an official trip to Europe, where he met with his counterparts in Spain and Poland, Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong said.
He also tested positive for COVID-19 last April.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) If elected in 2022, labor leader and presidential aspirant Leodigario "Ka Leody" De Guzman vowed to pursue a government that does not protect the interests of big businesses but of the working class, unlike previous administrations.
"'Yun ang aking gustong baguhin sa ating pulitika dahil sa mahabang panahon, ang nasa likod ng mga pulitikong tumatakbo puro mga big business - mga kartel, mga monopolyo - ng mga kilalang pangalan sa mga negosyante, na 'yun ang nananaig na mga interes pagkapanalo," De Guzman told CNN Philippines' News Night on Wednesday.
[Translation: That is what I want to change because for the longest time, big businesses have backed people running for office - the cartels and monopolies of known names in business - whose interests prevail when their candidates win.]
He mentioned the prevalence of contractualization and the Rice Tariffication Law as examples of policies that favor businessmen over the needs of workers.
"Babaguhin ko 'yung mga batas at patakaran na naglelegalize sa pagyaman ng iilan at pagpapahirap sa mga mamamayan," De Guzman said.
[Translation: I will change the laws and policies that legalize making the few richer and ordinary citizens poorer.]
On contractualization, the labor leader explained that companies are carrying out this malpractice through the use of manpower agencies. Contractualization means hiring workers short-term - depriving them of the benefits that regular employees are entitled to.
De Guzman also earlier said that if he wins, he would issue an executive order on a labor first policy that will put an end to contractualization. The policy, he noted, will include an aggressive job creation program and set the national minimum wage at 750. The benchmark minimum wage in Metro Manila is 537.
Meanwhile, the Rice Tariffication Law removes quantitative limits on rice trading and puts a minimum 35% tariff on imports. Farmers said the rule resulted in billions of pesos worth of losses for their sector.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Some local governments are now crafting ordinances that will prohibit unvaccinated children from entering public spaces like malls, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Wednesday.
Si Secretary [Eduardo] Ano po ay kinausap na ang mga mayors at sila ay inatasan na pag-aralan na ang bagay na ito Marami na pong mga LGUs ang nagbabalangkas ng kanilang mga ordinansa, said DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya during the Laging Handa press briefing.
[Translation: Secretary Eduardo Ano talked to the mayors and they were told to review such policy Many local government units are now crafting their ordinances.]
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier urged local governments to implement measures that would limit the entry of minors, especially the unvaccinated ones, to malls and other establishments.
Duterte made the statement following reports that a two-year-old child tested positive for COVID-19 after going to a mall. The Department of Health said it was an isolated case.
The Inter-Agency Task Force recently allowed minors to enter malls in areas under Alert Level 2. They must be accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult.
Malaya also said the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has formed a technical working group that would review the policy on allowing minors to enter establishments.
Ayon po kay chairman [Benhur] Abalos ng MMDA, meron na silang technical working group composed of the various city health officers para pag-aralan kung babaguhin ba yung polisiya on minors entering malls, shopping centers and similar establishments, he said.
[Translation: According MMDA chairman Benhur Abalos, they already have a technical working group composed of the various city health officers to study if there is a need to amend the policy on minors entering malls, shopping centers and similar establishments.]
Meanwhile, Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro and Muntinlupa City Mayor Jaime Fresnedi are proposing that Metro Manila should have a unified guideline for the entry of minors to the malls. They also assured that they would immediately issue an ordinance.
Moreover, the DILG reminded the managers of malls and similar establishments to follow minimum health standards and to always check if visitors are vaccinated upon entry. The agency warned establishments that their safety seals would be revoked and they would be ordered to close if they would not follow health protocols.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Davao City Mayor and vice presidential hopeful Sara Duterte has accepted the offer to be the new chairperson of Lakas-CMD, her camp confirmed Wednesday.
"I am honored to accept the chairmanship of Lakas-CMD. Together with the party, I look forward to waging a successful campaign for BBM-Sara, with the invaluable support of our fellow Filipinos," the mayor said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Lakas-CMD chairman Senator Bong Revilla, Jr. offered his post to Duterte, saying he has "full trust and confidence" the presidential daughter will lead the party to victory in the 2022 polls.
"In full support of Mayor Sara Duterte's candidacy for vice president, I am offering her my post as Chairman of Lakas-CMD," Revilla said in a statement.
Last week, the Davao City mayor quit her regional Hugpong ng Pagbabago party to join Lakas-CMD and later filed her candidacy as its vice presidential bet for next year's elections.
At least two parties the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) and the People's Reform Party moved to adopt Duterte as their candidate for the second highest post.
But presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos, who is running under PFP, said Tuesday that his tandem with Duterte was already official.
RELATED: 'Hurting' Bong Go wants Sara Duterte to be running mate
Beginning tomorrow, healthcare workers may again roll up their sleeves, this time, for booster shots.
The Food and Drug Administration approved four brands: Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Sinovac, and Sputnik.
Only Sputnik can be used for people who received a different brand for their primary shot.
The Health Department has yet to release the complete guidelines for the booster dose.
A copy of the department's letter seen by CNN Philippines indicates, the DOH is still asking hospitals for a list of fully vaccinated personnel for the last six months.
Officials are also considering additional doses for other priority groups.
(CNN) Brazil is looking to partner with SpaceX to expand internet connection to rural schools and protect the Amazon, the country's Communications Minister Fabio Faria tweeted on Tuesday.
Faria's tweets include a video and photo of himself with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, whom he met in Texas.
"We're looking forward to providing connectivity to the least served people in Brazil...especially to schools and hospitals in rural areas," Musk says in the video, shaking hands with Faria.
"With better connectivity we can help ensure the preservation of the Amazon and monitor the Amazon to make sure there's no illegal logging activity and deforestation," Musk also says.
It is unclear what the terms of such a partnership might look like.
SpaceX's Starlink project offers broadband internet through a satellite network. According to its website, the service is "ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable."
"We want to join the technology they have developed with the Communications Ministry's own Wi-Fi Brazil program," Faria said in a statement from his ministry.
"Our aim is to take the internet to rural areas and remote places, as well as helping to control fires and illegal deforestation in the Amazon forest."
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) already tracks deforestation in the Amazon via satellite imaging. However, Claudio Almeida, Amazon monitoring coordinator at INPE, told CNN he had not received any consultation regarding potential monitoring collaboration with SpaceX.
SpaceX did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
This story was first published on CNN.com Brazil touts partnership with SpaceX to connect rural areas and monitor Amazon forest
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Another 3.53 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country on Wednesday.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the latest shipment completes the delivery of Chinese-made Sinovac vaccines procured by the government through the Asian Development Bank.
Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, meanwhile, pledged China will donate two million more shots of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Galvez said these shots will be used as booster doses of healthcare workers and during the three-day national vaccination drive set on Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.
The Philippines has received 54 million doses of Sinovac vaccines, including donations of the Chinese government.
(CNN) Six arrest warrants have been issued in Thailand as a result of CNN's investigation into a scam that saw millions of fake and second-hand medical gloves sold to American companies, as demand for the product worldwide surged during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a press conference on Monday, Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau said the arrest warrants were for individuals alleged to have committed public fraud by scamming $2.6 million out of an American investor, Louis Ziskin.
"[A] Thai court has approved arrest warrants for 6 individuals, they are the subjects which are in the interest of CNN's report," Police Lt. General Jirabhop Bhuridej said.
Among the people being sought are Luk Fei Yeung Yeung, a Hong Kong national who ran Paddy the Room Trading Company. CNN's investigation found the company brokered deals with American firms to provide millions of dollars of medical-grade nitrile gloves, but instead sent lower-quality vinyl or latex gloves hand-packed into boxes claiming they were medical grade. Some were even soiled and clearly second-hand.
The Thai Central Investigation Bureau told CNN on Tuesday that Luk Fei had left the country. Paddy the Room did not respond to multiple requests for comment over several months during CNN's investigation.
American businessman Louis Ziskin responded to the news of the arrest warrants, telling CNN: "It's a great first step, but without a second, third, and fourth step, it means nothing."
"For this to benefit the Thai people, the corruption behind this industry of fraud must also be exposed. I am hopeful that the United States, Thai, and Taiwanese governments will take this matter seriously at the highest levels," he continued.
Ziskin told CNN he has been co-operating with Thai police in their investigations.
Thai police also announced that the CEO of SkyMed, a company that sells medical gloves, Kampee Kampeerayannon, has been released on bail after his arrest earlier this month.
According to Thai police, he faces charges of public fraud and distributing false information by computer and has denied all charges against him.
Thai Police said they have expanded their investigation into SkyMed by raiding the company's factory, where Kampee claimed to have machines capable of producing nitrile gloves on a large scale.
Police allege this claim lured investors to transfer large amounts of money to him. No glove-making machines were found by Thai authorities inside the factory during the raid, only empty boxes branded as SkyMed.
Responding to the police findings, Kampee told CNN the factory did not have the 1,000 glove-making machines he had previously claimed "because that enormous amount of money [from investors] didn't come... But we will continue to carry out our plan by building a super machine."
Last year, the Thai FDA raided Paddy the Room's warehouse and found dirty, soiled gloves packaged into SkyMed boxes.
In a recent interview with CNN, prior to his arrest, company CEO Kampee Kampeerayannon denied his company was part of any repackaging operation occurring in the warehouse when it was raided. "The owner of the warehouse, they just wanted to repack our brand and export it," he said.
Kampeerayannon said if any gloves are exported from Thailand under the SkyMed brand it is, "not under our permission," he told CNN.
This story was first published on CNN.com, "More arrest warrants issued in Thailand over medical gloves scam following CNN investigation."
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FSS (Financial Software and Systems) is collaborating with Bangladeshs BRAC Bank to facilitate digital commerce in the market.
Under the agreement, FSS will provide its Omni-channel Acquiring Platform to BRAC Bank to onboard merchants and enable digital payment acceptance across multiple touchpoints. The platform is modular, and consolidates online, mobile, and in-store payment acceptance onto a single system to help merchants expand their digital business.
The platform supports a wide range of global and alternate regional payment methods and adapts to any channel. Merchants can introduce a range of payment capabilities such as Quick Response (QR) codes on standard POS and e-commerce channels or contactless (tap and pay) payments to deliver superior, secure transacting experiences to customers.
According to the eCommerce Association of Bangladesh (e-Cab), over the last three years digital payments have recorded 100% year-on-year growth. The e-commerce industry is expected to grow to US$3 billion by 2023, driven by growing consumer preference for online and touch-free payments.
Archit Mylandla, Executive Director of FSS, said: We look forward to collaborating with BRAC Bank to expand its merchant payment capabilities and advance adoption of digital payments in Bangladesh. Our globally proven technology platform gives BRAC Bank the scalability and the flexibility needed to evolve with the market through continual product innovation and delivery of superior payments experiences to merchants.
Khairuddin Ahmed Bappy, Head of Merchant Acquiring at BRAC Bank, added: The partnership helps us to lead the development of Bangladeshs payments ecosystem and connect it with the wider regionand the rest of the world.
Africell and Industry Five are launching a pilot project that will see mobile phones assembled in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the first time.
From January 2022, up to 30,000 of Africells proprietary featurephone handsets will be assembled at a specialised Industry Five facility in Kinshasa. If the Afriphone handsets meet strict performance standards, they will be made available to DRCs population of 90 million + people, with further monthly production runs following.
Industry Fives factory in Kinshasa will be equipped with award-winning modular and mobile workstations. Highly trained local technicians will assemble Afriphone devices on site, assisted by state-of-the art collaborative robots. Performance testing and quality checks will also occur at the facility.
We want to encourage a critical mass of the skills and functions necessary to the production of mobile technology to take root in DRC, says Milad Khairallah, CEO of Africell DRC, part of US-owned Africell group. This is why we are collaborating with Industry Five. By assembling consumer mobile technology here in DRC, we hope to energise the local supply chain, mitigate the supply risks inherent in a highly globalised industry, and direct more of the benefits of booming mobile usage back into DRCs economy.
Africell and Industry Five expect the first DRC-made Afriphones to be ready from February 2022. After an initial shakeout phase, production will increase and up to a half a million Afriphone handsets could be assembled in the following twelve months. The production process can also be decentralised, meaning that future technical activity could happen at sites in Lubumbashi, Goma, or Bandundu in addition to Kinshasa, DRCs capital city.
Industry Five Groups Chairman, JP Folsgaard-Bak, believes that assembling Afriphones locally is a big step forward in the development of the DRCs telecommunications sector. This initiative challenges a common view that the only viable way to get mobile phone into the hands of African consumers is to import them box-ready, he says. Instead, we are investing in the workforce and facilities that will bring a key section of the supply chain onto African soil. Advantages include the creation of jobs, more competitive pricing, and a mobile sector in the DRC that is better able to withstand global supply shocks.
The decision to assemble Afriphones in DRC reflects a broader commitment by both Africell and Industry Five to developing the regional market. In 2021, Africell undertook a record-breaking network expansion in the country, extending infrastructure and launching telecommunications services in several new provinces. Meanwhile, Industry Fives facilities in DRC are expected to produce a growing range of technology devices, including tablets, laptops, high performance servers, and data storage solutions. The company expects to generate up to five thousand skilled technical jobs in DRC within five years.
Our mobile network business is meant to be a platform for growth and innovation, says Sam Williams, Africells Group Communications Director. By assembling Afriphones in DRC, we are stimulating supply chain innovation and making a long-term bet which could transform the economics of mobile provision in our African operating markets.
The initiative also gives momentum to an important DRC government strategy; namely, to promote higher-tech sectors of the economy.
"Africells collaboration with Industry Five combines entrepreneurship and innovation to make mobile technology more accessible, says DRCs Minister of Telecommunications, Augustin Kibassa Maliba. The government is pleased to back the local production of mobile handsets, an activity which is essential link in the telecoms value chain and a project that brings us closer to ideal of full digital inclusion in the DRC.
Statement by Ambassador Byrne Nason at the UNSC Briefing on Somalia
Statement
Thank you Mr. President,
Thank you SRSG Swan for his briefing. Thank you also to Special Representative Madiera and I also welcome my colleague the PR of Somalia. In particular, I want to say thank you to Ms. Siyad for your powerful and frank remarks this morning.
Mr President,
The finalisation of elections to the upper house of Parliament in Somalia is welcome, and it gives momentum for the next and admittedly more complex phase of elections for the Lower House. The quicker this process is completed, the sooner Somalias leaders will be able to refocus on the expectations of their own people for a peaceful, prosperous and stable Somalia. The collaboration we have recently seen between the President and Prime Minister is encouraging and we call for this to continue.
There is an opportunity now to aim for completion of all elections, including the Presidential election, by end January. It is clear that technically, financially and from a security perspective, Somalias leaders can achieve this. Any further delays risk cost over-runs, risk interference from Al-Shabaab and risk upsetting the delicate political balance that now exists. These are risks we do not need to face. We urge the federal government and member states leaders to reconcile their differences and give renewed impetus to the crucial state-building work, which will assure a brighter future for Somalia.
As DSG Amina Mohamed said during her visit to Somalia, and again when she came to this Council, womens participation in political, social and economic life is a game changer - participation and representation are pre-conditions for lasting peace. Ireland, while recognising efforts so far, still regrets that Somalia missed the 30 per cent target for the upper house elections. However, as we know there is now an opportunity, with the elections to the House of the People, where the overall target could be met. We join the call for Somalias leaders to now identify which 85 seats will be reserved exclusively for women candidates.
Mr President,
Ms. Siyads remarks underlined the critical nature of acting urgently on this issue. Ms. Siyads own reference to limited and insignificant progress is very worrying. We need to do better to end womens misery and struggle by ensuring their equal participation.
The threat of terrorism, armed conflict and violence continue to loom over the Somali people as well as over the countrys institutions.
I deeply regret that the most vulnerable are suffering the most, as incidents of conflict related sexual violence and grave violations against the most vulnerable, children, are on the rise. I echo the UNSGs call for accountability for these violations, whoever carries them out. Somalias leaders at local and national level must do all they can to end this unacceptable scourge. It is their duty.
As elections and the struggle for power continues, it is vital that the Government prevent killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as other actions to repress freedom of expression and political participation. The Government must also ensure that those who commit violations are held to account. We look forward, in this regard, to the outcome of impartial investigations into the killing of Ms Ikran Tahlil.
Ireland reiterates its condemnation of Al-Shabaabs heinous attacks, which are exerting a considerable human toll. Their threat extends beyond Somalias borders and throughout the region, and is only heightened by recent instability. It makes it all the more urgent that the Government of Somalia, the African Union, and the UN find a path forward together on the future configuration of AMISOM and the eventual handover to Somali security forces. The EU stands ready to assist. It has long been a strong and committed partner of Somalia. But there must be agreement reached on the way forward.
It is clear that the already dire humanitarian situation is being exacerbated by climate change. In this context, the work of UNSOM on climate and security is more important than ever: we look forward to further tangible outcomes of that work. And we are following the work with interest and expectation.
Meanwhile, as we have heard this morning, with the extended drought conditions causing displacement and raising the spectre of worsening food insecurity, that 7.7 million people are expected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022 is simply shocking. Yet it is the grave reality we face today.
It is vital therefore in this context that Somalias leaders keep the interests of the Somali people at the fore, move as rapidly as possible to end this period of political uncertainty, and create the space to fully focus on tackling the fundamental issues facing Somalias people.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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Aircraft of Vietnam Airlines are seen at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on October 4, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
A one-way ticket from Vietnam to the U.S. will cost around $1,000 and be available on the Vietnam Airlines website in a few days, the carrier has said.
There would be a reduced number of passengers to lower the aircrafts weight to ensure no fuel stops are needed, CEO Le Hong Ha told reporters Tuesday.
On the Boeing 787 and Airbus 350 planes Vietnam Airlines uses, this means a maximum of 210-220 passengers instead of the full complement of 300, he said.
The 2.2 million Vietnamese-Americans in the U.S. would be the main targets in future, he said.
The Vietnam-U.S. direct route would not be profitable for five to 10 years, but it is better to fly to sustain cash flows, he said.
Passengers allowed to enter Vietnam from the U.S. now amid Covid-19 are experts, businesspeople and high-skilled workers.
The first regular direct flight to the U.S. will leave HCMC in the evening of November 28, achieving a dream conceived nearly two decades ago.
It will arrive in San Francisco 13 hours and 50 minutes later.
A tidal sluice on the Muong Chuoi Canal in Nha Be District, a part of HCMC's VND10-trillion ($435-million) urban flooding prevention project, April 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Work has resumed on a VND10-trillion ($435-million) urban flooding prevention project in HCMC after months of delay following contractual problems.
The project, which covers 100 hectares (250 acres) in districts 1, 4, 7, 8, Binh Chanh and Nha Be, is building a new drainage system with six tidal sluice gates to control flooding over a 750-square-kilometer area. It is expected to benefit around 6.5 million people in downtown HCMC and those residing by the Saigon River.
The project was more than 90 percent complete and with work being resumed now, it will be completed within next year, Dang Phu Thanh, deputy director of the municipal Department of Construction, told constituents at a meeting of the city's National Assembly delegation Tuesday.
The project began construction in June 2016, with city-based Trung Nam Group as the lead investor under a build-transfer (BT) contract.
While the project was expected to be completed within three years, construction was briefly stopped in April 2018 due to a lack of capital, and then delayed again starting November 2020 because the city administration had yet to extend the project's completion deadline. The contract had expired in June 2020.
Since the contract was not extended, the bank had refused to disburse the remaining sum of VND1.8 trillion ($77.6 million) for Trung Nam to continue the project, the company's CEO Nguyen Tam Tien had said at a meeting with city authorities last December.
In April, the then Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, ordered HCMC to work with the central bank and BIDV to provide funds for the project.
Attending the Tuesday meeting with constituents, city chairman Phan Van Mai, who took office in late August, said the city has spent a lot of time and effort recently on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, and not paid enough attention to the project.
Residents of Vietnam's biggest city are eager for a respite from the chronic flooding they have been suffering for two decades.
The tardy implementation of several anti-flooding projects has meant that roads and houses in HCMC continue to get submerged during high tide and heavy downpours.
Burmese security forces have torched entire villages, including churches and hundreds of homes, in the countrys embattled Chin state. The United States is gravely concerned over these human rights abuses, atrocities, and the Burmese militarys continued intensification of military operations and violence against the people of Burma.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price condemn(ed) such brutal actions by the Burmese regime against people, their homes, and places of worship, which lays bare the regimes complete disregard for the lives and welfare of the people of Burma.
Spokesperson Price called on the international community to hold the Burmese military accountable and take action to prevent gross violations and abuses of human rights, including by preventing the transfer of arms to the military.
Burmas military overthrew the democratically elected government on February 1 and deposed its leaders, many of whom, including former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi remain in detention today. Since then, the regime has launched a violent crackdown against the people, killing more than 1,200 people and arresting more than 9,000 others including government officials, activists, journalists, and foreign citizens.
Burmas military has stepped up offensives in many parts of the country, leading to massive displacement of residents and a serious humanitarian crisis compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ned Price expressed deep concern over the Burmese security forces intensification of military operations in various parts of the country, including in Chin State and the Sagaing Region. He called on the regime to immediately cease the violence, release all those unjustly detained, and restore Burmas path to inclusive democracy.
The United States will continue to promote accountability for the horrific violence that has been and continues to be perpetrated by the regime against the people of Burma, said spokesperson Price. We will continue to support the people of Burma and all those working toward a restoration of Burmas democratic path and a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
The United States has designated Libyan national Osama Al Kuni Ibrahim pursuant to Executive Order 13726, based on his involvement in serious human rights abuse against migrants in Libya.
Al Kuni is the de facto manager of the al-Nasr Detention Center in Zawiyah, Libya, colloquially named the Osama prison due to his involvement. Al Kuni, described as a migrant-smuggling kingpin, is involved in the systematic exploitation of African migrants at the detention center. Al Kuni, and/or the individuals under his direction, have been involved in serious human rights abuse against migrants at the detention center, including through sexual violence, beatings, starvation, and other mistreatment.
In view of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, (Department of the) Treasury is taking this action to promote accountability and expose the illicit activities of those abusing and exploiting migrants transiting Libya in pursuit of a better and more secure life, said Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Andrea Gacki. We will continue to align with the international community by using sanctions and other tools to support the victims of such inhumane treatment and isolate those involved in such abuse of human rights.
As a result of this designation, all property and interests in property of Al-Kuni that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, We will continue to work with the international community and use all the tools at our disposal to support victims and identify those involved in abuses of human rights. We call on Libyas Government of National Unity to hold accountable (Al Kuni) and others perpetrating human rights abuses.
Tampa Bay is a region located on Floridas western shore of the Gulf of Mexico that consists of several large cities: Tampa, Clearwater, Bradenton, Largo, St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Pinellas Park and Tarpon Springs.
In the early 19th century, it was believed that this portion of Florida coined as Tampa Bay was commonly invaded by a Spanish pirate named Jose Gaspar, or Gasparilla, which the city considered as the legendary pirate who supposedly terrorized the coastal waters of western Florida in the late 18th and 19th century.
So why the Buccaneers?
In 1975, when the city of Tampa was welcoming the new N.F.L. franchise, team owner Hugh F. Culverhouse held a name-the-team contest. Out of 400 original submissions, Culverhouse and local sportswriters decided to go with the name that resembled the long history of the Gasparilla invasion, the buccaneers.
Today, and for the past few decades, there is an annual festival that takes place in January bringing people from all over the country and beyond, celebrating the Gasparilla Pirate featuring a huge parade, festivities and much more.
So technically, both a true story and a myth resulted in the Buccaneers pirate-inspired label and mascot.
The event, held in Quyet Tam hamlet of Dinh Hoa districts Trung Luong commune, took place in celebration of the 91st founding anniversary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (November 18, 1930 - 2021).
NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (third from left) presents the financial aid for building houses for the poor at the festival on November 16 (Photo: VNA)
Quyet Tam hamlet is home to 193 households with 680 residents belonging to six ethnic groups, namely Kinh, Tay, Nung, Dao, San Chi, and Hoa. About 80 percent of the population works in agriculture.
Expressing his delight at local development, Chairman Hue congratulated Trung Luong commune on meeting all the 19 criteria for a new-style rural area. Meanwhile, Dinh Hoa district is also striving to become a new-style rural district in 2022.
He noted despite enormous difficulties and challenges to national development amid the fourth wave of COVID-19, Vietnam has still managed to sustain positive growth in the first nine months of this year, and the economy has begun bouncing back since October.
He attributed the achievement to the regimes superiority and the strength of the great national solidarity, especially efforts by frontline forces and the peoples consensus, which have helped Vietnam surmount all difficulties and challenges.
The more difficult it is, the more strongly the great national solidarity is brought into play, he emphasised.
Agencies of the NA and the Government are preparing for an additional parliamentary session in late December or early January 2022, which is an unprecedented move, so as to soon identify overall financial and monetary solutions for supporting socio-economic recovery and social security, according to Chairman Hue.
On this occasion, the NA leader, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee Do Van Chien, and other officials presented 2.5 billion VND (109,600 USD) sourced from the Fund for the Poor to Trung Luong commune to build houses for low-income earners.
The same day, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue paid a working visit to the Thai Nguyen General Hospital./.
Photo for illustration (Source: danviet.vn)
Agricultural product shipments reached nearly 17.4 billion USD during the period, a year-on-year increase of 12.7 percent. Exports of forestry and animal husbandry products earned 12.8 billion USD and 379 million USD, up 22.3 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.
Exports of aquatic products, meanwhile, declined 0.8 percent to 6.9 billion USD in the January-October period, reported the Vietnam News Agency.
The US remained Vietnams largest importer, buying over 10.8 billion USD worth of agro-forestry-aquatic products, accounting for 27.9 percent of the total.
A majority of the USs imports from Vietnam (68.4 percent) were wood and timber products.
China came second, with 7.5 billion USD, representing a market share of 19.3 percent. China spent mostly on Vietnams vegetables and fruits.
Japan ranked third with 2.6 billion USD worth of products imported from Vietnam, accounting for 6.8 percent of the total.
Vietnamese Doctor honored by Australia
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh, a Vietnamese senior lecturer at RMIT University in Australia, has just been voted by national daily newspaper The Australian as Australia's leading researcher on composite materials in 2021, with the researching theme of manufacturing fireproof materials to protect houses and other structures from being destroyed by forest fires.
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh (Photo: VNA)
Within the framework of an independent research project, funded by the L'Oreal-UNESCO Foundation for Women in Science, Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh has successfully manufactured a fireproof material that can be used to cover the walls of houses, creating a protective outer shell as well as filling the gaps on the exterior of the house.
Not only having the effect of preventing fire and increasing the efficiency of insulation for houses, this coating is also sustainable for the environment, because it is made from industrial and construction waste.
It is expected that this new material will be available on the Australian market within about a year.
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh said that Australia is greatly affected by climate change, with the frequency and severity of forest fires increasing, causing major threats to people's lives, environment and houses.
Although they are devastating, forest fires are often fast-moving and in most cases the structures the fire impacts only have to deal with the heat and flames for a short time.
This is the reason why she came up with the idea of manufacturing an additional coating on buildings that can help prolong the time of resistance until the fire has passed.
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh added that in order to ensure fireproof safety for houses, it is important to consider the safety level of each type of material used and the suscepti bility of the whole building to catch fire when different materials in different textures are combined.
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh, 38, went to Australia as a PhD student in civil construction at the University of Melbourne in 2011, after she graduated from Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
Currently, Dr. Nguyen Thuy Quynh is the leader of a research group on fireproof materials and advanced construction systems at RMIT University.
Vietnams trade surplus in 10 months reaches 125 million USD
The General Department of Vietnam Customs said that Vietnam racked up a trade surplus of US$2.74 billion during October to bring its trade surplus during the opening 10 months of the year to US$125 million.
This comes following the countrys total import and export value of goods in October expanding by 2.4% to US$55 billion from the previous month.
Photo for illustration (Source: VOV)
Of the figure, export value surged by 6.8% to US$28.87 billion, while imports dropped by 2.0% to US$26.13 billion.
These represent positive signs for the national economy due to exports bouncing back and demand from the global market showing gradual recovery.
Photo for illustration (Source: moit.gov.vn)
In the reviewed period, the countrys total import and export value enjoyed a surge of 22.6% to US$539.42 billion against the same period from last year, of which exports and imports rose by 17.4% and 28.5% to reach US$269.77 billion and US$269.65 billion, respectively.
Photo for illustration (Source: congthuong.vn)
Furthermore, the foreign-invested sector grossed US$197.49 billion from exports throughout the reviewed period, an annual increase of 20.8%, while the sector's imports surged by 31% on-year to US$176.54 billion.
Vietnamese trade exchanges with Asia soared by 23.6% on-year to US$349.12 billion, thereby accounting for the highest proportion of 64.7% in terms of the nations total import-export value.
Moreover, the countrys trade turnover with the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Africa also picked up by 23.1%, 12.9%, 44%, and 24.2%, respectively./.
Ambassador Pham Viet Chien and Vietnamese businessmen (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
Vietnamese enterprises operating in construction materials, farm produce, electrical appliances and transport services attended the events.
At the events, the Bangladeshi side announced the Governments policy of inviting investment in 100 economic and processing zones nationwide with a number of incentives, with priority given to information technology, telecommunication, farm produce processing, aquaculture, apparel for export, and tourism infrastructure.
They said the country is reforming and simplifying administrative procedures to facilitate inward investment.
In addition, participants highlighted a need to hold similar events to increase exchange and soon launch direct flights between Vietnam and Bangladesh to facilitate travel and business.
A majority of Bangladeshi enterprises expressed interest in cooperating with Vietnam in the fields of apparel, agro-fisheries, processed food, construction materials, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
The General Statistics Office said that two-way trade between Vietnam and Bangladesh reached 981 million USD as of September 2021, of which over 90 percent were Vietnams exports to the South Asian country, up nearly 80 percent annually. The figure is expected to reach 1 billion USD this year./.
Ambassador Pham Thi Kim Hoa meets the Vietnamese community in Suriname (Photo: thoidai.com.vn)
The Vietnamese community in Suriname was established in 1999, most of them are Vietnamese crew members in fishing boats of Suriname, the Republic of Korea, or India. After fishing in the waters of Suriname, they decided to stay and work there. The special thing about the Vietnamese community in Suriname is that they all come from Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh province.
The Vietnamese community in Suriname includes the owners of 5 fishing boats. They are happy to have asserted themselves in Suriname. Captain Ngo Van Quynh shared that they can catch 10-15 tons of shrimp in each trip given favourable conditions, and each fishing boat creates jobs for about 20 Vietnamese employees and those who process seafood on shore.
Mr. Ho Nhat Thu, owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Suriname, shared that his dream is to develop his Vietnamese restaurant more spaciously so that he can introduce to Suriname people as well as foreign tourists more about Vietnams cuisine.
Mr. Ho Van Mau, a successful Vietnamese in construction of large projects in the capital Paramaribo, Suriname, shared that everyone is busy with work to affirm and integrate in the country of Suriname, but on occasions of Lunar New Year Festival or major national holidays, they gather together, and support each other to develop. They contribute to constructing and developing Suriname and also support their relatives in Vietnam./.
Ms Men Sam An, President of the Cambodia Vietnam Friendship Association (Photo: Fresh News)
After receiving the gift of 267,500 medical masks, 100 medical protective suits and VND20 million on March 8 from the Vietnam - Cambodia Friendship Association to the Cambodian people for preventing the COVID-19 epidemic, President of Cambodia - Vietnam Friendship Association Men Sam An sent a letter of thanks to Mr. Vu Vuong Viet, Vice Chairman of Vietnam - Cambodia Friendship Association.
The letter said this was a vivid expression of the precious tradition of helping each other, mutual love and affection in difficult circumstances. Thank you to all my colleagues at the Vietnam - Cambodia Friendship Association for the practical and meaningful gift," the letter said.
Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Sengphet Houngnuan (Photo: VNA)
After receiving more than VND600 million and 225,000 masks from VUFO and the Vietnam - Laos Friendship Association to Lao people for preventing COVID-19, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Sengphet Houngboungnuan on May 19 stated that VUFOs interest and support and the Vietnam - Laos Friendship Association is a great source of spiritual encouragement to help the Lao people overcome difficulties; affirming the close neighborly relationship and traditional sustainable friendship in all periods between the two countries. In the current difficult situation, Vietnam's sharing and concern with the Lao people is very precious, nothing can be compared with it, he said.
The Vietnam India Friendship Association provides VND231 million for Indian people. (Photo: VUFO)
Meanwhile, First Secretary of the Indian Embassy in Vietnam Sushil Prasad said that the noble gesture of the Vietnam - India Friendship Association, the Vietnam Red Cross, as well as the Vietnamese people, is the timely concern and sharing, demonstrating the friendly cooperation and good tradition between India and Vietnam in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sharing his feelings when coming to the National Lung Hospital (Hanoi) to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on July 13, Mr. Michael Brosowski, co-executive director - founder of the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, said that he was very impressed with the policy of the Vietnamese Government in giving free vaccination against COVID-19 for foreigners in Vietnam. We came to be vaccinated and saw that VUFO's officers and employees were doing everything for us: registration procedures, health checks, ordering, keeping distance, and disinfecting, he said.
Ms Heidi Quine from Animals Asia Foundation said that although Vietnam still needs a vaccine for everyone, it gives vaccines to foreigners. I feel lucky and really grateful for the support of the Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Health and VUFO to help foreigners working in Vietnam like us get vaccinated, she added.
Henry Chisom Nonso Chukwuma from Nigeria receives presents from the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organizations. (Photo: TDO)
Sending a message to the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organizations, Henry Chisom - Nonso Chukwuma from Nigeria wrote emotionally that, from the bottom of his heart, he wanted to say thanks for coming to help him. During the pandemic, the gifts from Hanoi and Vietnam helped me overcome difficulties. I will never forget this wonderful gesture. Thank you, thank you to the organizations that help foreigners in Hanoi, he said./.
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- A landmark resolution of the Communist Party of China (CPC), released on Tuesday, hailed the achievements the Party made in exercising full, rigorous self-governance.
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, by taking resolute action, the Party has given full play to the role of full and strict Party self-governance in providing political guidance and guarantees and significantly strengthened its ability to improve and reform itself and maintain its integrity, said the resolution on major achievements and historical experience of the Party over the past century.
The problem of lax and weak governance over Party organizations has been addressed at the fundamental level, the document said.
An overwhelming victory has been achieved in the fight against corruption, and this momentum has been consolidated across the board while serious potential dangers in the Party, the country, and the military have been rooted out, it added.
The resolution was adopted at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee convened in Beijing from Nov. 8 to 11. Enditem
Editor: Zhang Zhou
-- Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited Xihaigu four times over the past 25 years, which proved pivotal to the transformation of the area once deemed unfit for settlement by UN experts.
-- The poverty-alleviation measures promoted by Xi have changed the fate of countless people in Xihaigu. Over the past 40 years, around 1.23 million people from Xihaigu have been relocated to more hospitable areas.
-- "Organizing the country's eastern regions to assist western regions in poverty alleviation on such a scale and for such a long time is a feat that could only be done by our Party and nation worldwide," Xi said.
YINCHUAN, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-four years ago, villager Huang Tongshuai had the opportunity of seeing the man who would change his life.
"In 1997, I was only 11. I saw a group of adults talking around a well in the village, and then I saw him," recalled Huang, who lives in an area called Xihaigu in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Huang was talking about Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. He has visited Xihaigu four times over the past 25 years, which proved pivotal to the transformation of the area once deemed unfit for settlement by UN experts.
Xi lived and worked in Liangjiahe Village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province from 1969 to 1975. Still, when he arrived in Xihaigu, he could not believe what he saw.
"I have seen and lived in poor places, but in the 1990s, seeing that there were still poor places like this in China was shocking," Xi said.
The poverty-alleviation measures promoted by Xi have changed the fate of countless people in Xihaigu. Over the past 40 years, around 1.23 million people from Xihaigu have been relocated to more hospitable areas, and a greener and more prosperous Xihaigu began to take shape.
Aerial photo shows a view at the Minning Town in Yongning County of Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
MODEL FOR PAIRING-UP SUPPORT
In 1997, Xi, then deputy Party chief of east China's Fujian Province, was in charge of a "pairing-up" poverty alleviation program between Fujian and Ningxia. Water shortages, Xi said, were the major cause of poverty in Xihaigu.
"Xi came to our village and helped us dig a small round well to pump water for irrigation. The destiny of so many people has changed," Huang recalled.
Over the past 25 years, Fujian has helped Ningxia build around 15,000 wells and cisterns, providing drinking water for 300,000 people. Local villagers call them "life-saving wells."
After becoming a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese vice president, Xi continued to keep an eye on the Fujian-Ningxia cooperation projects. He made inspection tours to Xihaigu in 2008.
In 2016 and 2020, Xi made his third and fourth visits as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Farmers pick mushrooms at a planting base in Minning Town of Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, March 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
The "Minning model," a portmanteau out of the abbreviations of Fujian and Ningxia, was crucial to the poverty alleviation approach nationwide, epitomizing a "Chinese program" that relies on cooperation and support between localities to realize shared prosperity.
"Organizing the country's eastern regions to assist western regions in poverty alleviation on such a scale and for such a long time is a feat that could only be done by our Party and nation worldwide," Xi said.
On Nov. 16, 2020, Xiji, the last poor county in Xihaigu, was removed from the poverty list, which was a historic achievement for both the region and the whole nation.
RELOCATING TO A BETTER LIFE
In his first visit to Xihaigu, Xi pushed for a relocation project, which would see whole communities from Xihaigu move from their barren, inhospitable ancestral lands to a new area at the foot of the Helan Mountain nourished by the Yellow River. Xi named it "Minning Village."
"Minning Village is now a sandy land, but it will be a fertile land in the future," Xi said then.
Xie Xingchang (2nd R) and his family enjoy a family reunion dinner in Minning Town of Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
Xie Xingchang was among the first to move to the village and later became its first Party chief. "Although Minning Village was still desolate at that time, to me, it is a place of hope. It is very promising," he said.
Xi has always been very concerned about environmental protection in Ningxia, an important ecological security barrier in northwest China. During his inspection in 2008, he planted trees with Wang Youde, a respected national sand control hero.
Thanks to policies such as relocation of communities, grazing bans and the regreening of farmland, Ningxia's forest coverage rate increased from 1.5 percent in 1958 to 15.8 percent in 2020, with the forest area exceeding 820,000 hectares.
On July 19, 2016, Xi visited Yuanlong Village in Minning, which had been transformed into a bustling township of 60,000 people over the past two decades, with local life much improved.
During his fourth visit to Xihaigu in June 2020, Xi visited Hongsibu District, one of the largest settlement areas for relocated people.
Xi met Liu Kerui's family, who had moved from a mountain village. Liu handed Xi an old photo, saying "We have gotten rid of poverty!"
"You will live a better life in the future!" Xi told the Liu family.
Editor: WXL
Photo taken on Nov. 13 shows black-necked cranes spotted at the Caohai National Nature Reserve in Weining Yi, Hui and Miao Autonomous County, soutwest China's Guizhou Province. The first batch of more than 1,400 overwintering black-necked cranes has arrived at the Caohai National Nature Reserve, which is one of the main wintering habitats for black-necked cranes in China. From November of this year to April of the following year, a large number of black necks will fly to Caohai for overwintering. (Han Xianpu/Guangming Picture)
Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Dmytro Sennychenko has submitted a letter of resignation, a source close to the State Property Fund has informed the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
In turn, the publication LB.ua, citing its sources, says that one of the main reasons for Sennychenko's dismissal is "the dissatisfaction of certain representatives of the politician with privatization, which has successfully started, but may have a peculiar effect on the ratings of the authorities."
In turn, ex-MP, member of the supervisory board of Ukrzaliznytsia Serhiy Leschenko also wrote on the Telegram channel that the head of the State Property Fund is being fired.
"The reason is the scandalous privatization of the Bolshevik plant, which took place in favor of one participant. He did not answer my message about Sennychenko's resignation," the message says.
On September 18, 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Dmytro Sennychenko as the head of the State Property Fund (SPF), dismissing Vitaliy Trubarov from this position.
The issues of expanding cooperation were discussed in a telephone conversation by the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelensky praised Turkey's continued support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, as well as active involvement in the work of a new international mechanism - the Crimea Platform, the press service of the Ukrainian president said on Wednesday morning.
Zelensky thanked the leader of Turkey for the expressed condolences over the death of Ukrainian soldiers in the east of our state.
The President of Ukraine paid special attention to the issue of dismissing Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by Russia.
Zelensky and Erdogan exchanged views on the security situation in the region, as well as on relevant initiatives to strengthen security in the Black Sea region.
The presidents discussed issues of cooperation in the defense sector. The parties stated that the strategic partnership is already strengthening the armed forces of the two countries. The implementation of a number of important projects in the aircraft construction and development of the Navy was noted, as well as the prospects for deepening such interaction.
The head of the Ukrainian state, in particular, informed Erdogan about the start of serial production of the An-178 transport aircraft.
"I invite Turkey to join the circle of its customers," Zelensky said.
The leaders noted their willingness to complete the preparation of an Agreement on a free trade area in the near future. Attention was also paid to the state of implementation of the agreements reached on a number of projects on the bilateral agenda, in particular, the construction of housing for representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. The parties discussed issues of interaction in the energy sector, among other things, ways to diversify the supply of energy resources.
The presidents agreed to hold the 10th anniversary meeting of the High-level Strategic Council in Kyiv in February 2022. It was noted that this important event should be preceded by thorough preparations, in particular, the holding of the second meeting of the Quadriga at the level of the foreign and defense ministers in December this year.
Some 36% of Ukrainian citizens are not ready to be vaccinated against COVID-19, those who do not want to be vaccinated are more present among young respondents, according to a study by the Sociological Group Rating conducted on November 10-13.
According to the survey, 46% of respondents noted that they have already been vaccinated (first or second vaccination), 16% indicated that they are ready to be vaccinated, while 36% are not ready.
It is noted that the survey was conducted only among the adult population of Ukraine, while the official statistics of the number of vaccinated are displayed among the entire population. Over the past month, the number of vaccinations has increased (from 36 to 46%). Relatively more reluctance to get vaccinated is seen among young respondents.
At the same time, 55% support compulsory vaccination of representatives of certain spheres (teachers, doctors, government officials), 35% are against it. The ban on visiting public institutions without a COVID certificate or test is supported by almost 40%, against - 53%. Almost 30% support the ban on using public transport, 65% do not.
According to the study, 71% of the respondents consider it a violation of their rights to impose restrictions on unvaccinated people, 26% are of the opposite opinion. There are more of the latter in Kyiv present among the oldest respondents and those who have already been vaccinated.
At the same time, 49% do not support politicians who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, 35% of respondents are indifferent to this, and 14% support such figures.
Also, 61% of respondents believe that Ukraine is capable of developing its own vaccine against coronavirus, 37% do not.
According to the survey data, 40% of respondents believe that no one is to blame for the increase in the incidence of coronavirus. Every fifth (21%) blames people who refused to be vaccinated for the worsening epidemiological situation, 15% blame the Ministry of Health.
At the same time, the president and the Cabinet of Ministers are considered guilty by 7-8%, local authorities - 2%. Those who do not want to be vaccinated are more likely to believe in the spontaneous causes of the increase in the incidence. Those vaccinated and those who intend to do so are more often blamed for the growth of the epidemic on those who do not intend to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The opinion poll was conducted using the CATI method (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews - telephone interviews using a computer) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers among the population of Ukraine over 18 years old in all regions, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas.
The sample is representative in terms of age, gender and type of settlement. Sample population is 2,500 respondents. The error of the representativeness of the study with a confidence level of 0.95: no more than 2%.
Russia-occupation forces again shelling Nevelske village in Donbas, damage seven houses, destroy two of them
The police are documenting the consequences of shelling the village of Nevelske, Pokrovsky district, for the second time in a week, damage to seven houses was recorded, no one was injured, police of Donetsk region have said.
"At 06:45 in the morning, the police received a message from local residents that at 02:30 the village of Nevelske came under fire from illegal armed groups. Law enforcers are examining the village, documenting the consequences of the crime and finding out what kind of help the local residents need," the message says.
The police noted that as of 11:00 damage to seven houses was recorded, two of which were destroyed. There are no casualties among the population. The examination is ongoing.
The issue of opening criminal proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war) is being resolved. The sanction of the article provides for imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years.
Law enforcers stressed that this is already the second shelling attack by the fighters in the village over the past week.
As reported, on Sunday, November 14, as a result of the shelling of Nevelske, nine houses were damaged.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov has held a meeting on providing housing for military personnel, during which he stated the need to make relevant proposals to the budget for 2022 and develop a clear and transparent mechanism for providing military housing, the press service of the NSDC said on Wednesday.
"In this context, the Ministry for the Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine has been instructed to conduct an examination of proposals, capacities and workload of house-building companies," the message says.
It notes that Danilov also called for an analysis of the list of existing facilities of unfinished construction under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The European Union has allocated 700,000 euros for humanitarian assistance to migrants, who are staying in Belarus, the European Commission website said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Responding immediately to an appeal, the European Commission has allocated 200,000 in humanitarian funding to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The funding is part of the EU's overall contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund, managed by the IFRC. This immediate EU funding will support the IFRC and its national society, the Belarus Red Cross, to deliver much needed relief assistance, including food, hygiene kits, blankets, and first aid kits," the statement said.
The European Union has mobilized an additional 500,000 euros in humanitarian funding and is currently in contact with its humanitarian partner organizations for the implementation of the funds.
The EU is supporting its humanitarian partners to help people stranded at the border and in other parts of Belarus, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said. "I am calling for continuous access of humanitarian organizations from both sides to reach this large group of refugees and migrants to provide them with urgent assistance," he said.
A plan for the detention of a group of mercenaries suspected of participating in hostilities in Donbas prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, was approved by the political officials of Ukraine in July 2020, the Bellingcat investigators said.
"According to three former security officers who spoke to Bellingcat, including the former director of GUR MOU Vasily Burba, presented to end and approved by Ukraine's political leadership in early July 2020. It included the capture and detention of 33 mercenaries by staging the emergency landing on Ukrainian soil of an aircraft carrying the targets to their fictitious deployment destination," the investigators said in the report.
The city of Dnipro is interested in establishing cooperation with the Israeli city of Netanya - the Embassy
The state and prospects of cooperation between Ukraine and Israel at the regional level in the economic, investment and humanitarian spheres, as well as cooperation between the cities of Dnipro and Netanya were the subject of an online meeting between Ukrainian Ambassador to the State of Israel Yevhen Korniychuk and Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov. The Embassy of Ukraine in Israel reported this at Facebook.
Given the potential of the city, as well as its dynamic development, it was agreed to expand the twinning by establishing cooperation between the Dnipro and Netanya. The priority steps for the expected future have been agreed, in particular the joint participation of the Dnipro and Netanya mayors in the Ukrainian-Israeli Innovation and Investment Summit to be held on December 15, 2021 in Kyiv under the slogan Ukraine-Israel: 30 years of friendship and cooperation. And the Dnipro-Netanya online conference in the second decade of December 2021, - the statement reads.
In addition, the idea of organizing a common ecosystem - Israeli-Ukrainian Startup / Business Accelerator Program - aroused mutual interest.
As well as regional business events, primarily a road show to present the economic and investment potential of the city of Dnipro in Israel, - the Embassy noted.
On Thursday, November 18, at 14.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference by Global 100% RE Ukraine platform entitled "Energy efficiency as national idea." Participants include Chairman of the Board of the Global 100% RE Ukraine platform Oleksandr Dombrovsky; Chairman of the Board of the Association of Energy Service Companies of Ukraine Oleksiy Korchmit (moderator); Chairman of the Association of Energy Auditors of Ukraine Vadym Lytvyn; President of the Association of Housing Managers Vasyl Liman; UNDP Industrial Development Project Coordinator Oleksiy Paschenko (under consideration) (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. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot.
BTS Reminds Everyone They Are Style Icons, Showcase Classy, Edgy Airport Looks While Leaving For LA
BTS Reminds Everyone They Are Style Icons, Showcase Classy, Edgy Airport Looks While Leaving For LA (Photo : Newsen/CC BY 3.0)
The Bangtan Boys made an uber-stylish public appearance at Seoul's airport on November 17, reminding everyone that they rule the fashion game, in addition to K-pop, ahead of their flight to Los Angeles.
BTS members Suga, RM, J-Hope, Jungkook, Jimin, Taehyung, and Jin are all set for their "PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LA" concert in Los Angeles, US.
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The Bangtan Boys looked effortlessly fashionable as they greeted fans and the paparazzi at the airport. Suga and Jungkook were seen rocking the biker look in all-black attire and leather jackets. Jin and Jimin looked classy in their trench coats.
Jin paired his grey long coat with a white T-shirt, black pants, and white sneakers, while Jimin wore his green-colored coat over a black T-shirt and pants. Fans also noticed Jimin's new, different hair, and soon the phrase "Jimin Has Highlights" trended on Twitter.
Kim Taehyung, also known as V, looked classy in all beige attire. He was wearing a nude-colored outfit with an undershirt, dress pants, trench coat, and Gucci Vegas Bit Loafer.
It was noted that the Gucci loafers, which he wore, sold out after his airport pictures surfaced, once again cementing his position as the "sold out fairy" of K-pop. Incidentally, the Korean media compared Kim Taehyung's walk at the airport to a scene from a movie.
J-Hope was dressed in a black blazer, black pants, and accessorized it with a printed yellow scarf. RM teamed a black long coat over a white turtleneck and black pants.
The Bangtan Boys also took to Weverse app and Twitter to share updates with the ARMY before heading to LA.
The upcoming concert will be the boy band's first in the US after two long years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. BTS has various performances and shows appearances lined up for this US visit.
The South-Korean artists will be performing their remix of "Butter" with Megan Thee Stallion at the 2021 American Music Awards on November 21. On November 24, the boys will make a studio appearance as well as put up a performance on "The Late Late Show with James Corden".
The group's long-awaited and highly-anticipated in-person concert "PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LA" will be held at the SoFi Stadium on November 27-28 and December 1-2.
Egypt has codified a host of COVID-19 restrictions, including those regulating facemasks and public gatherings, assigning jail penalties and fines for violators in accordance with the newly issued epidemics and pandemics law.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out with profanity at Benjamin Netanyahu for congratulating President Joe Biden on his victory in last year's election, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.
The Egyptian equipment and crews will remove debris and rubble from buildings destroyed by last month's devastating Israeli air strikes on Gaza
Egypt has sent a massive engineering equipment and crews to participate in the Gaza Strip reconstruction efforts after last month's devastating Israeli bombing campaign crossed the Rafah border crossing on Friday, state-owned MENA agency reported.
The crews and equipment, which includes a large number of trucks, bulldozers and cranes, will participate in removing debris and rubble from the buildings that were destroyed by the 11-day Israeli air strikes and bombings of the strip last month.
The re-construction convoy comes under a pledge by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to contribute $500 million as part of an Egyptian initiative for reconstructing the Gaza Strip, with the participation of Egyptian companies, in order to mitigate the suffering of Palestinians and restore normalcy in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, the Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza - deemed the most serious Israeli assault on the strip since 2014 - killed more than 250 Palestinians, injured 1,900 and destroyed 2,000 residential and commercial buildings, leaving thousands homeless.
The densely populated Gaza Strip is home to two million Palestinians, most of whom are refugees from the 1948 war.
Egypt, Gaza
Egypt, Gaza
On 21 May, Egypt mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas along with other Palestinian factions.
Since then, Cairo has launched intensive diplomatic efforts to cement the ceasefire and lay the ground work for the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Meanwhile, Egypt has already sent a ton of medical and humanitarian aid to Gaza to help the Palestinians deal with the aftermath of Israel's deadly offensive on the strip.
Egypt also continues to open its Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip to allow stranded Palestinians and humanitarian cases to cross the border in both directions.
Medical and administrative teams are stationed at the terminal to facilitate the passage of the injured and their escorts to hospitals.
Egypt, Gaza
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The aid convoy sent to the strip includes 60 tonnes of medical equipment, foodstuff, and COVID-19 preventive equipment
The Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) has dispatched on Thursday, in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration (IOU), a medical and food aid convoy to Gaza to provide support for the strip after Mays deadly Israeli bombing campaign.
The aid convoy sent to the strip includes 60 tonnes of medical equipment, foodstuff, and COVID-19 preventive equipment.
The convoy comes under efforts by the ERC, in coordination with their Palestinian counterparts and regional and international partners, to deliver donated aid to affected citizens and help in mitigating the impact on Palestinian society.
The dispatching of the convoy was attended by Egyptian Social Solidarity Minister Nevine El-Qabbaj, IOMs Chief of Mission to Egypt Laurent De Boeck, Executive Director of the ERC Ramy El-Nazer, and representatives and ambassadors of Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Finland, and the European Union.
Last month, the Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza deemed the most serious Israeli assault on the strip since 2014 killed more than 250 Palestinians, injured 1,900, and destroyed 2,000 residential and commercial buildings, leaving thousands homeless.
The densely populated Gaza Strip is home to two million Palestinians, most of whom are refugees from the 1948 war.
Egypt
Egypt
On 21 May, Egypt mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas along with other Palestinian factions.
Since then, Cairo has launched intensive diplomatic efforts to cement the ceasefire and lay the groundwork for the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Egypt has sent tonnes of medical and humanitarian aid to Gaza to help Palestinians deal with the aftermath of Israel's deadly offensive on the strip.
Egypt also sent a massive convoy of bulldozers and cranes to Gaza in order to remove the rubble and debris from buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes as part of the country's efforts in the reconstruction of the strip.
Egypts Rafah crossing remains open to allow stranded Palestinians and humanitarian cases to cross the border in both directions.
Egypt
Egypt
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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
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Iran has invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency for talks after the UN official expressed concern over a lack of contact with Iranian authorities, Tehran said Monday.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi "has been invited" to Tehran and a visit date has been put forward, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, without providing specifics on the possible timing of the trip.
Grossi is expected to meet with Iran's foreign minister and the country's atomic energy chief, Khatibzadeh told journalists, adding, "we await his response".
Grossi had been hoping to visit Iran before the next meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors starts on November 22, but on Friday described a lack of contact with the Iranian government as "astonishing".
"There's a long list of things we need to discuss," he said.
Grossi last visited Tehran in September, where he clinched a deal over access to surveillance equipment at Iran's nuclear facilities.
Days after that visit, the IAEA complained that it had been denied "indispensable" access to a centrifuge component manufacturing workshop where it needed to service equipment.
The invitation comes as talks are expected to resume on November 29 in Vienna aiming to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The deal, which offered Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, was torpedoed when the US unilaterally pulled out in 2018.
Talks have been on hold since June following the election of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
On Monday, Khatibzadeh reiterated Iran's demands for guarantees that the US would not pull out of the deal again, adding that progress in negotiations was contingent on the lifting of sanctions.
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Iran is "absolutely serious" about nuclear talks expected to resume late this month, its President Ebrahim Raisi told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call Tuesday.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is absolutely serious about the negotiations and we are equally serious about our people's rights to have sanctions lifted," Raisi said, according to a statement published on the presidency's website.
His remarks come one day after Tehran invited the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, to visit and meet Iran's foreign minister, after the UN official expressed concern over lack of contact with Iranian officials.
Nuclear talks, which have been on hold since Raisi's election in June, are set to resume in Vienna on November 29 in a bid to revive a 2015 deal that offered Tehran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear activity.
The deal was torpedoed when the US unilaterally pulled out of it in 2018 under the administration of president Donald Trump.
The other parties to the deal -- Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France -- will participate in the Vienna talks in the presence of European negotiator Enrique Mora.
The US will meanwhile take part in the negotiations indirectly.
According to a Kremlin statement, Putin expressed hopes "that the talks scheduled for late November will be constructive".
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had called on the West not to make "excessive demands" on Tehran in the talks, in a call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov earlier this month.
In September, Lavrov called on the US to be "more active" in its approach to help resume the stalled nuclear talks, criticising the sanctions on Iran.
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Hanafy El-Gebaly, the speaker of Egypt's House of Representatives, announced on Tuesday that Egypt and Hungary have decided to set a parliamentary friendship association during his visit to Budapest.
"This association will be an effective channel for fostering parliamentary cooperation and coordination between the two countries on issues of mutual interest in all regional and international forums and in a way that reflects the growing political relations between Egypt and Hungary," said El-Gebaly.
Meanwhile, Laszlo Kover, the speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly said that "this visit is very important to us because it reflects the growing political and economic relations between Egypt and Hungary."
He added that he hopes the new association will give a big push to political and parliamentary cooperation between Egypt and Hungary.
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Seven Azerbaijani troops have been killed in border clashes with Armenia near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials in Baku said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces engaged in their worst clashes since going to war last year over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The six-week conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 6,500 people, ended last November in a Russia-mediated deal that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.
The clashes on Tuesday along the Caucasus neighbours' shared border sparked fears of another flare-up in their territorial dispute.
"Seven servicemen died and 10 more were wounded in the clashes provoked Tuesday by Armenia," Baku's defence ministry said, adding that the situation at the border "stabilised on Tuesday evening."
Armenia's defence ministry said one Armenian soldier was killed, 13 were captured by Azerbaijani forces and 24 more servicemen were missing.
It said "the situation at the border's eastern sector was relatively calm and a ceasefire agreement was being respected" on Wednesday morning.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday accused Azerbaijan of "targeting Armenia's statehood, sovereignty, and independence."
Baku said Armenia was responsible for a "large-scale military provocation."
Armenia appealed to ally Russia for military support under the Collective Security Treaty Organisation pact, which obliges Moscow to protect it in the event of a foreign invasion.
A ceasefire was reached Tuesday evening following mediation by Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The European Union, France, the United Nations, and the United States have called on both sides to de-escalate tensions.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and an ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.
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Egypt is set to form a committee to prepare for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), which will be held in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh in 2022.
The committee will be presided over by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and will comprise a number of ministers and other officials, a statement by the cabinet said, adding that the committees first meeting will be held soon.
Madbouly said in the statement that holding the summit in Egypt presents an opportunity to highlight the countrys ability to organise such high-profile international events.
Alok Sharma, the UKs president of the recently concluded Glasgow COP26, has handed over to Egypt the presidency of the summit.
In preparation for the event, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered the upgrading of Sharm El-Sheikh's roads and services as well as the conversion of public transport there to operate on natural gas instead of diesel fuel.
In a speech delivered to the COP26 earlier this month, President 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.
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.
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.
Egypt is growing more concerned about climate change, as it faces losing 12 to 15 percent of the total area of the Nile Delta in an expected rise in the Mediterranean Seas water level and the intrusion of saline water.
Climate change has also led to longer heat waves that are having a negative impact on the countrys food crops and water supply.
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The head of Libya's unity government on Wednesday accused Belgium of seeking to confiscate his country's assets, frozen by the United Nations since 2011.
"We have a problem with Belgium," Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah told a cabinet meeting.
"The Belgian authorities... are trying once again to seize Libyan funds in Belgium."
He said Belgium had sought permission from the UN Security Council's sanctions committee to seize the funds.
The UNSC placed Libya's foreign assets in receivership during the country's 2011 uprising against longtime dictator Moamer Gaddafi, to avoid possible theft.
The Gaddafi regime had built a vast portfolio of assets across the world, including an estimated 14 billion euros ($15 billion) in Belgium.
His fall and killing by rebels sparked years of legal wrangling between those states and Libya.
The funds in Belgium are the subject of a dispute that also involves Belgian Prince Laurent, brother of King Philippe.
The prince has been seeking compensation from Libya after his charity, the Global Sustainable Development Trust, invested tens of millions of euros in a reforestation project that never went ahead due to Gaddafi's fall.
"I call on Belgium to respect Libya," Dbeibah said.
"We want to protect and defend our money."
He said a Libyan delegation would head to Brussels to try to settle the matter.
Libya has Africa's largest proven oil reserves, but a decade of conflict has left many of its citizens in poverty and created an ongoing liquidity crisis.
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An Egyptian emergency state security misdemeanour court sentenced lawyer and former MP Ziad El-Eleimy to five years in prison on Wednesday for spreading false news on social media among other charges
The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Mones and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges.
El-Eleimy served as an MP representing the Egyptian Social Democrartic Party in the 2012 Parliament.
The prosecution charged the 13 defendants with crimes including cooperating with a group established in violation of the law, disseminating false news and information about the political and economic conditions in the country in order to destabilise public peace and undermine trust in state institutions.
In June 2019, El-Eleimy, Mones and Fouad and the rest of the defendants in the case were arrested for what the interior ministry described at the time as a hostile plot dubbed Hope Cell to disrupt the national economy.
In the same case, Activists Mohamed Bahnasy and Hossam Nasser received three years. Meanwhile, Labour activist Fatma Abul-Maaty received a three-year sentence in absentia.
The court also imposed a fine of EGP 500 on all defendants in the case.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Unlike ordinary courts, emergency state security court rulings cannot be appealed.
The defendants, however, have the right to petition for clemency.
In April last year, a Cairo criminal court said the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood leaders had tasked members and associates of the group in Egypt, including the Hope Cell defendants, with providing logistical support and weapons to carry out the scheme against the state.
According to the court, the plot sought to "provide financial support for hostile actions against the Egyptian state with the aim of harming national interests and economic security, and carrying out aggressive actions against the army and the police to topple the regime."
In July of this year, the Court of Cassation upheld a ruling placing the 13 defendants in the case on the country's terrorism list for five years.
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Egypts Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Al-Azhar condemned on Tuesday the terrorist attacks conducted in each of Liverpool and the Ugandan capital of Kampala this week, affirming its solidarity against terrorism.
In a statement, Egypts leading Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, condemned a bombing outside a maternity hospital in Liverpool on Sunday which forced authorities to raise the national terror threat level.
Police named the bomber as 32-year-old Emad Al-Swealmeen, an asylum-seeker from the Middle East.
Al-Swealmeen, the only casualty of the attack, is believed to have blown himself up with his alleged homemade device while being the sole passenger in a taxi. The taxi driver only sustained minor injuries.
Police denounced the attack as an act of terror, but investigators have not yet found an ideological motive behind the attack, a matter that is essential to confirm that the attack was an act of terrorism.
Police did not immediately disclose the exact nationality of the bomber. Al-Swealmeen was baptised in 2015, the Guardian cited a cathedral spokesperson as saying.
Cyril Ashton, an assistant bishop of Liverpool, said that although the church takes confirmation seriously, it seems that Al-Swealmeen chose a different path for his life.
In a statement on Tuesday, Al-Azhar denounced the attack, calling for international solidarity in the face of terrorism.
Al-Azhar confirms its solidarity with the United Kingdom to counter all forms of extremism, violence, and terrorism, the religious institution said.
In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry also expressed the countrys full solidarity with the government and people of the UK.
Moreover, Egypt assured its unwavering stance towards combating and eradicating all the hateful phenomena of terrorism, violence, and extremism.
Egypt condemns Ugandas suicide attacks
Egypt also strongly condemned a series of suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on Tuesday which killed and injured many people. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The Ugandan police said that six people were killed in the attacks, including three bombers and three police officers, Reuters reported.
Authorities moved 33 injured people to the hospital, the police said, including five who are in critical condition.
Egypt extends its sincere condolences to the government and people of sisterly Uganda, wishing the injured people a speedy recovery, a statement by the foreign ministry read.
Egypt also affirmed its full support for Uganda in the face of all forms of terrorism and extremism.
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Egypt has so far partially vaccinated 27.4 million citizens against the coronavirus and fully inoculated 14.4 million others, Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, the minister of higher education and acting health minister, said in a statement on Wednesday following the weekly cabinet meeting.
Egypt started its vaccination campaign in January this year and is aiming to immunise 40 percent of its 102-million population by the end of 2021.
The country is currently administering seven vaccines Sputnik V, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac, Pfizer, and Moderna in nearly 1,000 fixed vaccination centres nationwide.
Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly reaffirmed during the meeting that all citizens will be banned from entering any government institution without being vaccinated starting December.
Furthermore, since 15 November, Egypt has been barring university students and state employees from entering their campuses and workplaces without being vaccinated at least with one dose.
Madboulys remarks came one day after Egypts parliament approved a new law to fight pandemics and epidemics by allowing the premier to impose emergency measures or declare a state of pandemic emergency to preserve the health and lives of citizens.
Meanwhile, Abdel-Ghaffar highlighted the Together, We are Assured campaign, which offers 14 walk-in vaccination centres in metro stations, has been successful so far in inoculating 482 thousand citizens throughout the 27 governorates.
There are plans to expand the campaign to cover all three lines of the Cairo underground metro, Abdel-Ghaffar said.
Egypt which is currently witnessing the peak of its fourth wave of the pandemic has so far recorded 345,848 COVID-19 cases, including 19,636 deaths and 288,879 recoveries.
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Egypts Dar al-Ifta, the official body responsible for issuing religious edicts, said on Wednesday that forging COVID-19 vaccine certificates is religiously prohibited.
Dar al-Ifta issued the statement following reports of an increase in forgeries after the government announced it would prohibit unvaccinated public servants from entering their workplaces.
Forging the COVID-19 vaccine certificate is prohibited religiously for what it entails in lying and causing other harm. It is a sin for both owner of the forged certificate and the person who forges it, Dar al-Ifta said in its short statement.
The fatwa issued by the countrys highest religious authority comes after the ministry of healths warning earlier of faking the vaccination certificate.
Health ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel-Ghafer has said that faking the vaccination certificate constitutes forgery of an official document and carries a criminal penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Starting Sunday, the government will bar public servants from entering their workplaces unless they are vaccinated or take a weekly PCR test.
The government will also bar unvaccinated citizens from entering governmental institutions nationwide unless vaccinated starting 1 December.
Acting Minister of Health Khaled Abdel-Ghaffer on Wednesday that Egypt has so far partially vaccinated 27.4 million citizens against the coronavirus and fully inoculated 14.4 million others.
Egypt is planning to vaccinate 40 million people by the end of 2021.
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Egypts Alexandria governorate declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in anticipation of the seasonal El-Maknasa rainstorm.
El-Maknasa (the sweeper) usually hits Egypts northern coast between 16 to 20 November, accompanied by heavy rains and cold wind. It is one of numerous seasonal storms that hit Alexandria in winter.
In a statement, Alexandria governorate urged drivers to avoid going over 60 kms/hour and to maintain a long trailing distance. They should also avoid parking on storm drains or in places where trees might fall.
Pedestrians should avoid walking under old or rickety balconies, the statement added.
In case of lightning, people should avoid public places or proximity to metallic bodies or fences.
The governorate has also designated a hotline (114) to ask for assistance for homeless citizens who need urgent help.
The governorates emergency room will also be available to receive emergency and urgent complaints on the same number around the clock, the statement added.
Rainfall and thunder hit parts of Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh on Tuesday night.
Over the recent years, authorities have been working on upgrading Alexandria's aging rain drainage system, which has repeatedly failed to contain rainwater.
Alexandria was hit with disastrous rain storms in 2015, 2019, and 2020, leaving several people dead and many more injured. The 2015 disaster resulted in the resignation of Alexandria governor Hani El-Messeiri.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) said moderate to heavy rainfall is expected in parts of the northern coast and northern Delta on Wednesday, including Matrouh, Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said, Beheira, Kafr El-Sheikh, Daqahlia, and Gharbia.
On Thursday and Friday, parts of South Sinai and the northern coast are expected to see mild rainfall.
The EMA also expects unstable weather accompanied by varying amounts of rains and a drop in temperature on Saturday in various parts of northern Egypt and Greater Cairo.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened his first official visit to Africa in Kenya with an appeal Wednesday for the preservation of democracy and inclusion in politically and ethnically fractured societies.
His message was delivered amid worsening crises in neighboring Ethiopia and Sudan.
With insecurity wracking both of those countries, Blinken began a three-nation African tour in a country with its own turbulent history of democracy.
Kenya will face another test of stability in a presidential election next year yet has emerged as a player in attempting to ease the growing Ethiopian conflict.
Before meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta and other senior Kenyan officials, Blinken spoke with civic leaders about the importance of combatting what he termed ``democratic recession'' around the world, including challenges in the United States that show ``just how fragile our democracy can be.''
``This is an important time,'' he told a small group of human rights, labor, and anti-corruption advocates at a Nairobi hotel. ``Around the world, we've seen we've seen over the last decade or so what some have called 'democratic recession'.''
``Even vibrant democracies like Kenya are experiencing these pressures, especially around election time,`` Blinken said, alluding to the presidential election set for August 2022. Combatting misinformation, political violence, voter intimidation, and corruption is critical to halting the backsliding.
Blinken is looking to boost thus-far unsuccessful US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening conflicts in Ethiopia and in Sudan and to counter growing insurgencies elsewhere, like Somalia.
His visit to Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal this week follows months of Biden administration attempts to ease both situations that have yet to bear fruit despite frequent lower-level interventions.
The top US diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee, was in Khartoum earlier this week and will be joining Blinken in Nairobi to discuss her efforts in Sudan.
In addition to trying to cool tensions in the region, Blinken's trip is also aimed at raising Washington's profile as a player in regional and international initiatives to restore peace and promote democracy as it competes with China for influence in developing countries.
The Biden administration's competition with China for influence didn't get off to a great start in Africa.
The coronavirus pandemic canceled A planned early summer visit by Blinken to the continent. The trip was rescheduled for August, only to be postponed again due to the turmoil in Afghanistan that preoccupied Washington.
Now, three months later, Blinken hopes to deliver the administration's ``America is back'' message to Africa. Despite its importance in the US-China rivalry, Africa has often been overshadowed by more pressing issues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and even Latin America despite massive US contributions of money and vaccines to fight the pandemic and other infectious diseases.
All the while, China has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure, and other projects that Washington sees as rip-offs designed to take advantage of developing nations.
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Ethiopia's human rights watchdog said Wednesday it had been barred from visiting detainees rounded up in mass arrests under a wartime state of emergency.
The state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) estimated thousands have been caught up in the latest sweeps, which lawyers and rights groups say appear largely to target Tigrayans based on their ethnicity alone.
The government says the operations are a legitimate effort to stamp out the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group -- its adversary in a year-long war in the country's north.
The EHRC "is highly concerned that it can't collect information relating to detainees' conditions since the announcement of a state of emergency on November 2," the body said in a statement.
While EHRC staffers visited detention centres in two of 11 districts in Addis Ababa, officials in other locations said "they won't give information unless there is an order that comes from above," the statement said.
"It's estimated (that) in Addis Ababa alone thousands of people have been arrested with the arrests continuing across districts in the city," it said.
"Up to 300 people" have been arrested in Dire Dawa city in eastern Ethiopia, it added.
"Not enough efforts are being made to ensure that the tipoff-based arrests and the origins of the tipoffs aren't based on ethnicity."
On Tuesday the UN's human rights agency voiced alarm about the surging arrests which have ensnared dozens of UN staff and contracted drivers.
'Very crowded' centres
Detainees also include lactating mothers, the mentally ill, people who need "regular medical care" and people who are older than 80, the EHRC said Wednesday, calling for such groups to be released.
The police stations where many are being held "are very crowded, don't have enough toilets, and don't receive enough air and light," it said.
Some have been transferred outside Addis Ababa, and in other cases detainees' relatives do not know where they are, it said.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to topple the TPLF, a move he said came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
Though he promised a swift victory, by late June the TPLF had retaken most of the region including its capital Mekele, and it has since advanced into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions.
The war has killed thousands and pushed hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray into famine-like conditions, according to the UN.
Abiy's government accuses the international community of overlooking human rights abuses perpetrated by the TPLF in recent months.
On Wednesday the government said "millions of people need humanitarian assistance" in Amhara and Afar.
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Iraqi wheat farmer Khamis Ahmad Abbas lost it all when his battle with drought forced him to abandon his land, pushing him into unemployment.
Experts have warned that record low rainfall, compounded by climate change, are threatening social and economic disaster in war-scarred Iraq.
"Growing wheat and barley is a gamble. It all depends on the rain," said the 42-year-old father of nine.
Unable to make ends meet, Abbas quit his land in the Plains of Nineveh, northeast of Mosul, part of the so-called Fertile Crescent where agriculture was born 12,000 years ago.
With temperatures soaring above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and little rain, Abbas's fields quickly dried up.
Three months ago, he packed up his family -- two wives and nine children -- and moved to Mosul.
"Now I am unemployed," he told AFP, as he whiled away the time in a coffee shop in Iraq's second city.
Once the seat of the Islamic State group's self-styled "caliphate", Mosul is still rebuilding after the devastating 2017 battle which ousted the jihadists.
"Sometimes I get small jobs, just enough to feed my family," said Abbas bitterly, who longs for the old days when he harvested wheat and barley like his father and grandfather before him.
His plight is shared by many farmers in the Nineveh Plains.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 447 families who were forced from their land in Nineveh by IS and then returned to it after the jihadists' defeat were forced to leave again between June and July this year because of the drought.
"Nearly all, if not all, the families were displaced due to inability to feed their cattle," the IOM said.
'Most affected'
For centuries, the Nineveh Plains were the breadbasket of Iraq, with 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 square miles) of arable land, said agriculture ministry spokesman Hamid al-Nayef.
But this year, Nineveh province has been Iraq's "most affected" by drought and exceptionally high temperatures.
In 2020, 927,000 tonnes of wheat were harvested in Nineveh, making it a "self-sufficient" province, said Abdelwahab al-Jarjiri, who heads the local cereal authority.
This year production plunged to 89,000 tonnes because of the drought.
The effects of low rainfall have been exacerbated by falling water levels on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as a result of dam-building in neighbouring Turkey and Iran, said Samah Hadid of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
"Iraq is facing its worst drought in modern times. This is due to record low levels of rainfall, reductions in water flow from its neighbours -- which has primarily hit the Euphrates and Tigris rivers -- and there is no doubt climate change has contributed to this crisis," she said.
"Far from being a problem in the distant future, climate change is already taking effect in the region and we see this clearly in parts of Iraq."
This month, a dam near the northern town of Zawita dried up completely for the first time since its construction in 2009, the head of the local irrigation authority Hega Abdelwahid said.
The dam, which used to contain up to 50,000 cubic meters of water, was fed by melting snow but there was very little rain this year, Abdelwahid said, and all that is left is cracked earth.
'Displacement and instability'
The severity of the drought has forced many farming families to leave their land and seek a living in urban areas.
Akram Yassin, 28, is one of those considering such a move.
He has already sold some of his 500 sheep and some land just "to survive", he said.
"I might have to change careers, my financial losses are more than my gains," he added.
In October, UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), called for "urgent action" to avert a disaster in Iraq.
Before that in August, 13 aid organisations, including the NRC, warned that seven million people in Iraq risk losing access to water, forcing more from their homes.
But the exodus to urban centres like Mosul, Kirkuk and Basra could spark "instability" because they are ill-prepared for such an influx, said Roger Guiu, director of the Iraq-based Social Inquiry research centre.
Guiu said Mosul had been left in ruins by the months-long battle to oust IS and "reconstruction has been slow".
The city's roads and sewers have been rebuilt but in the health sector only 30 to 40 percent of services have been rehabilitated, district prefect Zuhair al-Araji told AFP.
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The United States and China have agreed to ease restrictions on journalist visas shortly after a long-awaited virtual summit between its two leaders, with Beijing on Wednesday calling the move a "hard-won" achievement.
Washington regularly denounces the deterioration in China's treatment of US media members and has taken measures against Chinese media on US soil that have been accused of being Beijing's propaganda organs.
In 2020, Beijing expelled Americans working for several major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal as tensions soared between the two countries.
But in the wake of a virtual summit between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, officials from both countries said they had agreed to allow new journalist visas to be issued.
A State Department spokesman said Tuesday that discussions in recent months had led to "some initial progress" in "a few areas" of the media environment.
The official said China had "committed to issue visas for a group of US reporters, provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations."
Beijing also promised to "permit US journalists already in the PRC (People's Republic of China) to freely depart and return, which they had previously been unable to do," the US official said.
Chinese state media said both sides had reached an agreement, including to "reciprocally approve" the visas of new journalists.
Both sides agreed to extend the validity of journalist visas to one year after both countries had largely capped permits to three months.
Asked about the agreement Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters that "this hard-won achievement is in line with the interests of media on both sides, and is worth treasuring."
He added that Beijing hopes "both sides will put in place the relevant policies and measures as soon as possible."
The US official added that Washington would continue to push for "expanding access and improving conditions for the US and other foreign media," and for broader freedom of the press in general.
The State Department believes these measures will allow US media correspondents to return to China "to continue their important work."
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The opening of the fifth edition of the Awladna International Forum of Arts for the Gifted was held on Tuesday at the Cairo Opera House, with the Egyptian ministers of culture, tourism and antiquities, planning, and emigration attending the event.
The opening was presented by known TV host Sherif Madkour and featured many of the forums participants showcasing their various talents alongside professional artists, including Moroccan star Samira Said, who collaborated with the budding artists in her new song Gehaz Tasgeil.
A number of ambassadors, artists, journalists, and cultural personas attended the opening that was directed by renowned Walid Awny to show their support for special needs talents and put their cause in the limelight.
With 32 countries participating in the event, various art forms will be presented in workshops, masterclasses, and performances.
Running until 23 November under the slogan of Rejoice Together, the forum this year is also allowing budding artists to meet artists from the Afro-Chinese Arts and Folklore Festival, which is also taking place during the forum
Many renowned artists from different disciplines will be participating in workshops, juries, and various activities, including directors Omar Abdel-Aziz, Attiya Adel Khairy, and Hisham Atwa; actors Hala Sedky and Latifa Fahmy; composer Sherif Gad; and artists Morad Darwisch, Carelle Homsy, Amina Salem, Neamat El-Diwany, and Mohamed Khedr.
Under the helm of forum president Sohir Abdel-Qader, the mission of Awladna is to develop and enrich the talents of gifted individuals through cultural interactionand by emphasising their cultural and artistic achievements.
Backed by the countrys President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the event, sponsored by both the state and the private sector as well as international entities, is mainly taking place in Cairo, with some activities set to be held in other cities, including Al-Fayoum and Al-Alamein.
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On 8 November, Egypt and Israel formally announced an amendment to the peace treaty they signed on 26 March 1979. It is the first time the treaty has been amended. In a coordinating meeting, a joint [Egyptian and Israeli] military committee succeeded in amending the security agreement to increase the number and capacities of the border guards in the border area in Rafah, said Egyptian Armed Forces Spokesman Colonel Gharib Abdel-Hafez. He explained that the development was part of Egypts efforts to safeguard national security which necessitated tightening security along the northeastern border.
The Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty comprises eight articles. Paragraph 4 of the Article 4 states the security arrangements provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article may at the request of either Party be reviewed and amended by mutual agreement of the Parties, a provision that reflects the acceptance at the time that the agreement needed to allow a degree of flexibility in the face of changing circumstances.
Egypt has succeeded in undermining the terrorist environment in Sinai and controlling the borders by destroying cross-border tunnels. This required exceptional troop deployments, measures that Israel questioned under former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The agreement sanctioning a larger Egyptian troop presence in Rafah signals greater Israeli understanding of Egypts security requirements under Netanyahus successor, Naftali Bennett. This understanding is reflected not just in the provision allowing for higher troop levels in the area, but in the provision pertaining to the equipment permitted. Previously, the Israeli government had opposed qualitative improvements to the capacities of the forces deployed there, which could only carry personal weapons.
The changes underline the importance of the agreement as a mechanism for maintaining the Egyptian-Israeli peace. As the agreement states, amending it requires agreement by both sides.
The amendment highlights Egypts ability to interact effectively with Israel within a framework that serves the interests of both sides. The treaty was signed in 1979, when Menachem Begin, a staunch hardliner, was prime minister of Israel. President Anwar Al-Sadat, nonetheless, succeeded in securing Egypts interests through the accord which provided for Israeli withdrawal from the rest of Sinai and the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the peninsula, strategically changing the situation in favour of Egypt.
The same applies today. The Bennet government could well be the most right-wing government Israel has ever had. Yet Egypt has once again negotiated from a position of strength and won a strategic victory. Egypt has mounted a successful counter-terrorist operation in Sinai and is simultaneously pursuing major development projects in the peninsula. Further strengthening Cairos hand is Egypts ability to communicate effectively with Israel and the Palestinian factions, giving it a unique mediating capacity that allowed Cairo to negotiate an end to the fourth Gaza war earlier this year.
The amendment has set a precedent for an approach that could be developed further if necessary. Although Egyptian forces in the border strip have been increased before (by 750 troops: 250 active, 250 on leave rotations, 250 in the camps), this occurred under the Salaheddin Passage, or Philadelphi Corridor, agreement. Israel had long refused to amend the original peace treaty itself.
The signing of the amendment to the Camp David accord coincides with two critical events. The first is the lifting of the state of emergency in Egypt. The spread of terrorism in Sinai was one of the main reasons for imposing the state of emergency. Lifting it is a gauge of the success in restoring security in Sinai in general, and in Rafah and the border area in particular. The new arrangements will help safeguard this progress. For years the area had seen the infiltration of terrorist elements from Gaza into Sinai through the border tunnels which at one point numbered close to 3,000 as cross-border infiltration and smuggling operations increased sharply under Islamist rule in Egypt.
The second event was the Egyptian-US Strategic Dialogue that took place in Washington last week, with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken heading their countries delegations. One achievement of the dialogue is that it reaffirmed Washingtons crucial role in the peace treaty.
The stability of the treaty not only reflects the relationship between its parties, it encompasses much of the Palestinian question. The Egyptian mediated ceasefire to the fourth Gaza war opened the doors to the reconstruction drive in Gaza which could, in turn, provide greater leverage to press for a long-term truce between Israel and Palestine.
Egypt has also been closely involved in successful prisoner exchange negotiations, and mediated the prisoner exchange deal that secured the release of the Israeli POW Gilad Shalit. The added value of all these developments is that they combine to bolster Egypts role in propelling with Washingtons help the Palestinians and the Israelis to resume the peace process.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 November, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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Headlines were made from Argentina to all over the world as a native woman was announced to be miraculously cured from HIV.
The woman is one of the very few patients in history to ever contract the autoimmune disease and somehow fully recover from it.
Why is HIV so problematic and complicated?
A simplified answer would be that HIV evades the normal immunity system mechanisms for getting rid of cells infected by viruses.
HIV is notoriously difficult to purge from the body because it infects certain long-lived immune cells known as viral reservoirs that can spend lengthy periods of time in a resting state.
This keeps the viral DNA that is encoded into those cells under the radar of standard antiretroviral treatment, which can only attack the virus in infected cells when they are actively churning out new copies of HIV.
Nevertheless, HIV, which was once an ambiguous nightmare when it initially appeared in the eighties, has now become a manageable chronic condition once it is controlled by antiretroviral therapy; failed treatments are usually attributed to poor drug adherence, wherein medication doses are frequently missed, or treatment is interrupted.
But completely recovering from the disease is more or less impossible, which is why the Argentinian ladys story has made headlines across the globe.
The woman is known in the media now as the Esperanza Patient, after the town in Argentina where she lives. In English, Esperanza means hope.
The now cured patient was first diagnosed in 2013, and after eight years of follow-ups, 10 tests found no detectable levels of the virus in her blood or tissue, and no one knows exactly how this miracle happened.
For decades, scientist have been pursuing the dream of either curing HIV or producing a vaccine to no avail.
According to data from the WHO, 38 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and only two of them have ever been cured of it; and both cases required complex and dangerous stem cell transplants.
The study announcing the cure of the Argentinian lady was published on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the case serves as proof that curing the virus is apparently possible through natural immunity.
Another success story that has driven scientists to intensify their research efforts is the case of the two men who researchers succeeded in prompting a sterilising cure the American Timothy Ray Brown and London resident Adam Castillejo.
The men received stem cell transplants to treat acute myeloid leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma, respectively, from donors with a rare genetic abnormality that made their cells resistant to HIV.
After more than four years passed since Castillejos stem cell treatment and with no sign of the virus resurging, the physician was ready to assert for the first time that the British man was cured of HIV.
In 2019, Bjorn Jensen of Dusseldorf University Hospital presented the case of a third man, known as the Dusseldorf Patient, whom the German physician and his colleagues said had likely also been cured through this method.
This man has still not experienced a viral rebound three years after being taken off his antiretroviral treatment.
While these three cases have stirred considerable excitement, the treatment the men received is too toxic to attempt as a cure for HIV in anyone who is not also facing cancer treatable with a stem cell transplant.
Since Browns case was first published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009, scientists have failed a number of other times to cure HIV in individuals through similar means.
The Esperanza Patient reminds us of Loreen Willenberg, a now-67-year-old Californian who was diagnosed with HIV in 1992 and has an immunity system that apparently vanquished the virus entirely.
Willenbergs case of an apparent natural cure of HIV is quite similar to the Esperanza Patients.
The experts first theories posit that each of these women may have produced a particularly strong T-cell response to the virus naturally, dubbed the extraordinary elite control of HIV.
37.7 million people worldwide currently live with HIV, which can lead to AIDS if left untreated.
HIV spreads through bodily fluids, usually after unprotected sex or needle-sharing.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population reported in 2020 that over 13,000 Egyptians are living with HIV/AIDS.
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The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial deliberated a full day on Tuesday without reaching a verdict over whether he was the instigator in a night of bloodshed in Kenosha or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property.
Kyle Rittenhouse pulls numbers of jurors out of a tumbler during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. [Photo: Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool]
The case went to the anonymous jury after the judge, in an unusual move, allowed Rittenhouse himself to play a minor role in the selection of the final panel of 12 people whose job was to decide his fate.
Rittenhouse reached into a raffle drum and drew numbered slips that determined which of the 18 jurors who sat through the case would deliberate and which ones would be dismissed as alternates.
That task is usually performed by a court clerk, not the defendant. Judge Bruce Schroeder said later in the day that he has been having defendants do it for Im going to say 20 years, at least.
The jury will return Wednesday morning to continue its work.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted as charged for using an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men and wound a third during a night of protests against racial injustice in Kenosha in the summer of 2020. The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot.
Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors argued he provoked the violence. The case has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over guns, racial-justice protests, vigilantism and law and order.
The jury appeared to be overwhelmingly white. Prospective jurors were not asked to identify their race during the selection process, and the court did not provide a racial breakdown.
As the jury deliberated, dozens of protesters some for Rittenhouse, some against stood outside the courthouse. Some talked quietly with those on the other side, while others shouted insults. One woman could be heard repeatedly calling some Rittenhouse supporters white supremacists.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who faced criticism over his response to the Kenosha protests in 2020, urged calm as the jury deliberated. He announced last week that 500 members of the National Guard would stand ready for duty in Kenosha if needed.
Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state, Evers tweeted. He added: "I ask all those who choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in every community to do so safely and peacefully.
The large protests that some had anticipated did not materialize during the trial's testimony phase. On most days, only a few demonstrators gathered on the courthouse steps, and the high fence that protected the building during last year's unrest is gone.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he went Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, in what he said was an effort to protect property from rioters in the days after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white Kenosha police officer.
In a fast-moving series of clashes in the streets, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Thomas Binger said that Rittenhouse was a wannabe soldier who set the deadly chain of events in motion by bringing a rifle to a protest and pointing it at protesters just before he was chased.
But Rittenhouse lawyer Mark Richards countered that Rittenhouse was ambushed by a crazy person Rosenbaum.
Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum chased him down and made a grab for his rifle, causing him to fear the weapon was going to be used against him. His account of Rosenbaum's behavior was largely corroborated by video and some of the prosecution's own witnesses.
Huber was shot after he hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard. And Grosskreutz admitted he had his own gun pointed at Rittenhouse when he was shot.
In his instructions to the jury, Schroeder said that to accept Rittenhouses claim of self-defense, the jurors must find that he believed there was an unlawful threat to him and that the amount of force he used was reasonable and necessary.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 18, 2021 - 00:01 | All, Japan
The leaders of Japan and the Philippines agreed Wednesday to consider the launch of security talks involving the two countries' foreign and defense ministers in an apparent bid to bolster cooperation in dealing with China's growing maritime assertiveness in the region.
The idea of holding the so-called two-plus-two talks was discussed when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke by phone with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, during which they also agreed to step up efforts to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific, according to the Foreign Ministry.
If realized, the Philippines would be the ninth country Japan holds the periodic ministerial security talks.
Japan has already formed the two-plus-two framework with the United States, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, India, Indonesia and Russia.
During the phone talks, which lasted about 25 minutes, Kishida expressed his "strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the East and South China seas," according to the ministry.
Duterte is quoted as saying Japan is "a friend closer than a brother."
The ministry said that the two also agreed to promote concrete cooperation on the "ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific," an initiative aimed at maintaining peace, freedom, and prosperity in the region, and work closely on issues related to North Korea, including Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
By Miya Tanaka, KYODO NEWS - Nov 18, 2021 - 18:32 | All, World
A flare-up in territorial tensions between Japan and South Korea led to the cancellation of a three-way news conference with the United States on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Washington's hopes of presenting a unified front to the challenge of a nuclear-armed North Korea.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Japan decided to pull out of the press event, that was to be held after trilateral talks in Washington, due to a recent visit by South Korea's top police official to a pair of Seoul-held, Tokyo-claimed islets in the Sea of Japan.
The event was instead held alone by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
Sherman explained at the press conference held at the U.S. State Department that one of multiple bilateral "differences" between Tokyo and Seoul, which was "unrelated" to the trilateral meeting, led to the change.
But she added that the vice-ministerial meeting was "very constructive," which "demonstrates exactly why the trilateral format with the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea is so important and powerful." The Republic of Korea is South Korea's formal name.
The incident, however, would likely please North Korea and China. The South Korean police chief's visit Tuesday to the islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, was reportedly the first from someone in the position in more than a decade and drew strong protest from Japan.
The State Department had been planning a joint press conference involving Sherman, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong Kun after their meeting, which lasted for more than three hours.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been striving to promote cooperation between Japan and South Korea, viewing trilateral relations -- despite the wartime history and territorial disputes between two of its allies in Asia -- as vital in the face of North Korean nuclear threats and China's assertiveness in the region.
The gathering on Wednesday was the first trilateral vice-foreign ministerial-level meeting since Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took office in October. The joint press conference was apparently a chance to showcase enhanced ties.
Japanese Foreign Ministry sources said the Takeshima issue was not discussed during the trilateral meeting. But the government decided that it was "not appropriate" to hold a joint press conference when Tokyo is protesting to South Korea over the matter.
According to a press release issued by the U.S. State Department, the three officials reaffirmed that trilateral cooperation "is essential to tackling the most pressing challenges" in the region and across the globe, while sharing a commitment to maintaining a rules-based international order.
They also discussed the importance of the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, while sharing concerns over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and an intention to closely cooperate toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The deputy secretary of state said the United States will continue discussions to explore the best way forward to ensure Pyongyang's denuclearization, with South Korea proposing the declaration of a formal end to the Korean War as part of confidence-building measures with North Korea.
"On (the issue of the) end of war...we are having good consultations amongst us and with other allies and partners and we will continue to do so," Sherman said.
The United States and North Korea remain technically in a state of war as the 1950-1953 Korean War -- in which U.S.-led U.N. forces fought alongside the South against the North, backed by China and the Soviet Union -- ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
North Korea has called for the United States to abandon its "hostile policies." A security guarantee is seen as a prerequisite for North Korea to give up its nuclear arms.
But diplomatic sources have previously said that Tokyo is reluctant to support the idea, believing it would only create a conciliatory mood without clear prospects that Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear weapons and resolve the issue of its past abductions of Japanese nationals.
One of the two Japanese Foreign Ministry sources who briefed on Wednesday's trilateral meeting acknowledged discussions regarding the declaration are under way based on "respective positions" on the issue, but did not elaborate.
After the trilateral talks, Mori and Choi had a bilateral meeting, during which they sparred over the Takeshima issue.
Mori said the South Korean police chief's visit to Takeshima was "unacceptable," given that the islands are "an inherent part of the territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based on international law," according to the other Foreign Ministry source.
Mori also expressed his awareness that the bilateral ties remain in a "very difficult" state due to disputes stemming from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, such as compensation over forced labor and the "comfort women" issue.
But the two agreed to continue communication through their diplomats to put relations back on a sound footing, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry's press release.
Speaking at a press briefing in Seoul on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Choi Young Sam repeated South Korea's position on the disputed islets.
"Dokdo is clearly our inherent territory," Choi said. "We will firmly respond to Japan's unreasonable claims over the islets."
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Japan, S. Korea fail to narrow gap over wartime history issues
KYODO NEWS - Nov 17, 2021 - 21:50 | All, Japan
Japan is preparing to meet a request by the United States to shoulder more costs for hosting American troops from fiscal 2022, with the two sides possibly reaching an agreement next month, government sources said Wednesday.
Japan has asked the United States to consider using the increase in Tokyo's contribution to fund expenses such as the maintenance of facilities used jointly by the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, rather than covering utilities at U.S. bases as before.
The Japanese government believes that such financial contribution from Tokyo will help strengthen the long-standing security alliance and make it easier to win public support.
For the current fiscal year through March, Japan will shoulder 201.7 billion yen ($1.76 billion) in so-called host nation support, which includes utilities, wages for Japanese staff, and training relocation costs.
The increased contribution requested by the United States has not been disclosed. But the amount now under consideration will likely not be as much as what was being asked for by the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a Japanese diplomatic source.
"Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a final decision," the source said.
To stipulate that Japan's increased contribution be appropriated for joint training and other activities, the government will consider adding a clause in the agreement, which will remain in effect for five years through fiscal 2026, according to the sources.
In negotiations, the United States is believed to have cited the importance of its military presence in the region, in the face of China's military expansion and North Korea's nuclear and missile development, as reasons for Japan to increase its burden.
Japan has said it wants the United States to understand that Tokyo cannot massively increase its spending due to its strained finances.
The two allies had working-level talks in early August in Washington before officially beginning full-fledged negotiations. Japan is aiming to strike a deal on the issue before the Cabinet approves the budget for fiscal 2022 in late December.
An idea has been floated to have Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi sign the agreement during a meeting involving the two allies' defense and foreign ministers, according to the sources. The next round of the so-called two-plus-two talks was expected to be held within the year but could be delayed until early 2022.
Bilateral cost-sharing agreements are usually signed to cover a five-year term.
But for fiscal 2021, Japan and the United States settled for a one-year extension of a five-year pact that expired in March 2021, as their negotiations were affected by the transition of power in Washington from Trump to current President Joe Biden.
Related coverage:
Japan Kishida, U.S. Biden agree to beef up alliance in 1st in-person talks
FOCUS: Biden's Indo-Pacific shift under scrutiny as AUKUS alliance is formed
U.S. urges Japan to shoulder more for hosting American troops
KYODO NEWS - Nov 18, 2021 - 01:02 | All, Japan
A 23-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly punching his 1-month-old daughter in a fatal assault in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kagoshima last year, police said.
Natsuki Nakashima admitted to the charge, with the police quoting him as saying, "I hit her because she would not stop crying. I was suffering from stress."
According to the police, Nakashima is suspected of punching his daughter Kokona in the head in his apartment in the town of Kimotsuki during the night of Feb. 26, 2020, resulting in cerebral bleeding. The girl was taken to a hospital but pronounced dead the following day.
The police said they will investigate whether the man had been committing child abuse on a regular basis.
After the incident, Nakashima called for an ambulance and reported that his daughter was not breathing. Hospital staff handling the case notified police of the possibility of child abuse.
The man lived with his wife and four children including Kokona. At the time of the incident, his wife and two of the children were out, the police said.
KYODO NEWS - Nov 17, 2021 - 22:17 | World, All
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday the United States will start negotiations with allies early next year on a new Indo-Pacific economic framework.
Raimondo, who arrived in Singapore the previous day after a visit to Japan, said during a forum that the framework would be aimed at securing supply chains.
"I'm here in the region beginning the discussions, laying the groundwork" for the negotiations, Raimondo said. "We are likely to launch a more formal process in the beginning of next year, which will culminate in a proper economic framework in the region."
Raimondo's tour of Japan, Singapore and later Malaysia comes on the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden's announcement last month about developing an Indo-Pacific economic framework to define "shared objectives" with partners on trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology.
The framework could be seen an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, to which the United States has not returned since withdrawing in 2017 under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
Regarding the possibility of Washington rejoining the deal, formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Raimondo said, "For various reasons, that is not going to happen now."
But she stressed, "We are very serious in re-engaging economically with the Indo-Pacific," adding the framework would strengthen supply chains for such essential goods as semiconductors.
What the United States is launching is "broader in some ways and a little bit less restrained or constrained" than traditional free trade agreements, Raimondo said.
In responding to a question about China and Taiwan having applied in September to join the TPP, she said their accession would depend on the member countries.
Before leaving for Malaysia on Thursday, Raimondo will meet with her counterparts from Australia and New Zealand.
Related coverage:
Japan, U.S. to resolve dispute over Trump-era extra steel tariffs
Biden, Xi agree to communicate amid tension, but no breakthrough
China, U.S. hold 3rd economic talks in 2 weeks over phone
Srinagar:
The celebrations of Eid-ul-Fitr were marred by violence in Kashmir as clashes broke out between security forces and protestors in Srinagar and some other parts of the valley. According to reports, stone-pelters also waved flags of Pakistan and held banners in support of banned Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and slain militant commander Zakir Musa.
Clashes between protestors and security forces were reported after Eid prayers in Srinagar's near Jama Masjid. There were no reports of anyone getting hurt in these clashes, they said.
Similar clashes were reported in Sopore in north Kashmir and Anantnag in south Kashmir, the officials said.
The protestors, mostly youngsters, had their faces covered and pelted stones on security personnel, who were trying to disperse them.
Jammu and Kashmir: Stones pelted at security forces near Jamia Masjid in Srinagar; and posters supporting terrorist Zakir Musa and UN designated terrorist Masood Azhar seen in the area. pic.twitter.com/qu7uea90YO a ANI (@ANI) June 5, 2019
Stone-pelters held posters with their photos and placards saying "Kashmir Banega Pakistan" and "Musa Army", reported ANI.
Hafiz, chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was the key mastermind behind 2008 Mumbai attacks which claimed around 164 lives. Masood Azhar is the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, terror outfit that carried out Pulwama attack killing over 40 security personnel.
Security forces exercised maximum restraint while dealing with the law and order situation and the situation elsewhere in the valley remained peaceful, officials said.
Meanwhile, a woman was shot dead and a man was injured after the terrorists targeted civilians in Jammu and Kashmiras Pulwama on Wednesday.
aTerrorists fired upon a man and a woman at Singoo-Narbal in Pulwama district today. While the lady succumbed to injuries, the injured man has been rushed to a hospital," a police official was quoted as saying by PTI.
The victim has been identified as one Nigeena Bano. A report by Times Now said that the woman was allegedly targeted for being an informer of the Indian forces. The report said that Nigeena was shot outside her home in cold blood. In the scuffle, one of her family members was also injured.
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United Nations:
A United Nations emergency relief coordinator says more than 2 million men, women and children could die of starvation in Somalia by summer's end if international aid is not sent quickly to the drought-stricken African country.
UN Undersecretary-General Mark Lowcock says about USD 700 million is needed after a rainless season that has killed both livestock and crops.
He said Tuesday that the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund has allocated USD 45 million to cover food shortages, water and daily necessities in Somalia as well as parts of Kenya and Ethiopia affected by droughts.
Of a Somali population of 15 million people, more than 3 million are struggling just to meet minimum food requirements, he said, and the shortages are about 40 per cent worse now than this past winter.
"What was forecast to be an average rainy season in Somalia is now one of the driest on record in over 35 years," he said.
"Communities that were already vulnerable due to past droughts are again facing severe hunger and water scarcity and are at risk from deadly communicable diseases." The UN aid complements efforts by governments of the three countries to assist their people, especially those with disabilities or who are internally displaced.
Somalia's humanitarian fund is currently depleted. If financial aid is delayed, the cost of saving lives on the margin of death are much higher, Lowcock said, adding that the option then is to turn to expensive, therapeutic feeding programmes.
"We could have a quick response now, which would be cheaper, reduce human suffering and more effective, or we can wait for a few months until we get all those horrible pictures on our TV screens and social media of starving kids," Lowcock said.
Lowcock, who heads the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs, said that in past decades droughts came about every half dozen years but recently they have hit every two or three years.
"There's not really any question in my mind that these more frequent droughts are related to global warming and climate change," the UN official said.
"So the only middle- and longer-term response is to look at alternative livelihoods a different way to make a living."
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New Delhi:
The two Canadian citizens, who were attending Kumasi Technical University, were kidnapped on Thursday on an exchange program in the West African nation of Ghana.
Guillaume Berube, spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, told The Associated Press that the Canadians have been kidnapped in Ghana and theyre providing assistance to the individuals families. However, the department didnt specify how many Canadians were abducted.
Berube further said that no other information is being released so as not to compromise ongoing efforts or endanger the safety of Canadians. He said, The Government of Canadas first priority is always the safety and security of its citizens. For this reason, we will not comment on or release any information which may compromise ongoing efforts or endanger the safety of Canadians.
Importantly, this is the second time in less than a month that foreigners have been targeted in the south-central city of Kumasi. Back in April this year, an Indian national was also abducted. However, he was rescued later in Kumasi.
Following the abduction of an Indian national, Ghana's president Nana Akufo-Addo vowed to crack down on those committing kidnappings.
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New Delhi:
Avdhesh Dubey, a hawker from Gujarat, who was arrested for mimicking politicians while selling toys in trains, has been finally released on bail late Monday evening. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested Dubey from the Surat Railway station on May 31, after a video purportedly showing him mimicking and mocking a host of politicians went viral on social networking sites. The six-minute-long video shows the railway hawker doing a parody of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Following his arrest, Dubey was sentenced to 10 days jail term by a Judicial Magistrate First Class court in Surat, but walked a free man on Monday after Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma personally intervened into the matter. The move comes amid a huge uproar with support pouring in for Dubey from different quarters of the society. Sharma, the Surat city police chief, too was saddened to hear the news of Avdhesh's arrest and decided to help the man.
Speaking to the Times of India, Sharma said, "It is a very petty offence and Dubey being very poor was unable to pay Rs 3,500 fine slapped by the court". According to RPF officials Dubeys family did not have money to hire a lawyer for bail and, therefore, was provided financial aid to get an early release on humanitarian grounds.
Avdhesh was found guilty of offences under several sections of Railway Act, including section 44 (prohibition on hawking and begging), 145 B (spreading nuisance or using abusive language in railway carriage), 147 (unlawful entry into train), among others.
READ | Watch Video: Train hawker seen mimicking politicians like PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi; arrested
Dubey, who found it hard to believe the news about his bail, told The Indian Express, "I had an impression that I will not see my family members and children for 10 days, till June 8. I was worried for my family. Suddenly on Monday night, the jail authorities came to my barrack and told me that I have been granted bail. I was shocked".
"How could this happen? Who would have done this? Immediately, I got dressed and came out from the barrack. The jail guard took me to the office where I met Surat police officials who had helped me get the bail. They took me to the office of Police Commissioner, and for the first time I saw a Police Commissioner (Satish Sharma) in front of me. I thanked him. He too was happy," he went on to describe further.
Being asked about his future plans, the hawker said, "Comedy is in built in me, and I want to explore it through television shows, so that many people could watch me perform. I have spoken to some of the people who have assured to help me in this new venture. Now, everybody knows me by my name, and I feel like a celebrity. I am thankful to Surat police".
Dubey, who hails from Uttar Pradeh's Varanasi, had migrated to Gujarat's Valsad two years ago. Since then, he has been selling toys to train passengers travelling between Vapi and Surat.
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New Delhi:
The demand for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya reached its peak as soon as the Bharatiya Janata Party registered a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The Shiv Sena is also now stepping up the pressure on ally BJP for construction of Ram temple.
According to the sources, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be visiting yodhya with all the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the party before the beginning of the monsoon session of Parliament. As per the information from the sources, Uddhav Thackeray is likely to be in Ayodhya from June 15 till June 17. "There will be an announcement about the visit soon. Uddhav-ji will elaborate on the visit and the party's stand," the sources added.
"It is true that Thackeray has decided to visit Ayodhya. The plan is to visit before the parliament session starts on June 17," India Today quoted Harshal Pradhan. "There will be an announcement about the visit soon. Uddhav-ji will elaborate on the visit and the party's stand," he added.
Harshal Pradhan is a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray and media in-charge of the Shiv Sena.
Interestingly, the arrival of Shiv Sena chief and 18 MPs of Maharashtra will be on the same day when the seers are expected to pass a resolution asking for the construction of Ram Mandir from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It is to be noted that the Shiv Sena chief had visited Ayodhya in November last year and demanded that Ram temple be constructed at the disputed site before the Lok Sabha elections. Thackeray had also performed Sarayu Aarati (offer prayers to River Sarayu).
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New Delhi:
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has officially released the final answer key for NEET 2019 Medical Entrance Exam earlier today. The candidates who have appeared for the NEET 2019 examination can check the Answer Key by visiting the official website i.e. ntaneet.nic.in. NTA NEET 2019 result will also be available on mcc.nic.in. Given that the NEET final answer key has been released, the NEET result will be released shortly.
As per media reports, NTA Chairperson has told that the results will be declared on 6th June 2019 after 12 PM. However, there is no official confirmation of these reports.
For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the steps through which the candidates can download the NEET Final Answer Key:
Step 1: Go to official NEET website: www.ntaneet.nic.in.
Step 2: Click on the Final Answer Key link on the homepage.
Step 3: The final answer key is in pdf format.
Step 4: Download the pdf and check the answer key.
The NEET 2019 examination was conducted on May 5, 2019, except in Odisha where the examination was conducted on May 20, 2019, due to the unfortunate occurrence of 'Cyclone Fani'.
To qualify in NEET exam, a general category student must be in the 50th percentile. For OBC, SC, and ST category students, minimum qualifying criteria is 40th percentile. For general category candidates with benchmark disabilities, minimum qualifying criteria is 45th percentile and for those in OBC/SC/ST category, it is 40th percentile.
Islamabad:
In an unprecedented voluntary move, Pakistans military has decided to cut the defence budget for the next fiscal year amid an austerity drive launched by the government to solve the cash-strapped nations economic woes. Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General (DG) Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) -- the media wing of the military, in his twitter message on Tuesday said that voluntary cuts in the defence budget for next fiscal year would not be at the cost of defence and security.
Voluntary cut in defence budget for a year will not be at the cost of defence & security. We shall maintain effective response potential to all threats. Three services will manage impact of the cut through appropriate internal measures. It was important to participate in development of tribal areas & Balochistan, Ghafoor said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said Tuesday that he was very appreciative of the Pakistan militarys unprecedented voluntary initiative of stringent cuts in their defence expenditures especially in light of the countrys financial situation.
Khan said he was grateful for the move that came despite multiple security challenges that Pakistan faces.
Khan said that the funds saved will be used for the development of the newly-merged tribal areas as well as in Balochistan.
Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry said this was not a small step at all.
Only a strong civilian-military coordination can rescue Pakistan from the deep problems of Governance and economy, Chaudhry said.
Prime Minister han, after assuming office last year, launched several austerity measures. He moved into a modest three-bed room house of his military secretary along with two servants.
On May 28, the Prime Ministers Special Assistant on Information, Firdous Ashiq Awan, had announced that the federal budget will be presented on June 11.
Last month, the government announced that all civil and military institutions would contribute to the austerity-oriented federal budget for 2019-20.
There will be austerity in the coming budget. We will try to keep government expenditures to the minimum possible level, Prime Ministers Adviser on Finance and Economic Affairs Hafeez Shaikh had said.
Pakistan in 2018 was the 20th biggest military spender in the world with an expenditure of USD 11.4 billion, a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said in April.
The military spending of 2018 made up for four per cent of Pakistans gross domestic product (GDP) which is the highest level since 2004, according to the report by the Sweden-based institute.
The top military spender in the world is the United States, which spent USD 649 billion on its forces last year. The US military spending, however, has decreased by 17 per cent over the past decade, the report said.
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Pune:
A 19-year-old sailor allegedly committed suicide at INS Shivaji, the Indian Navy's base near Lonavala in Pune district, Wednesday, police said.
Akash Sainath Kannala was found to have hanged himself from ceiling fan by using a bedsheet at a recreation center on the base around 4.30 am, a police official said.
No suicide note was found on the spot, and the Navy has ordered an inquiry, he said.
Kannala, who was undergoing Direct Entry Engineering Mechanics course, hailed from Pardi village in Nirmal district of Telangana, the police official said. Lonavala police are conducting further probe, he added.
Earlier, A 28-year-old merchant navy officer Shravan Mahendra had committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan of a hotel room in Dehradun on March 30, 2019.
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New Delhi:
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday urged the chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal to join the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
According to a statement from the health ministry, the minister had also spoken to Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee, the respective chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal, and was trying to connect with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Taking stock of the situation that the three states and one Union Territory (UT) were yet to join the AB-PMJAY, Dr Harsh Vardhan, in his letter to the chief ministers, said, "It is important that the benefits of a visionary scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all the deprived and vulnerable people in the country.
"I will make all efforts to convince the remaining states and the UT to bring the benefits of the scheme to their people and ensure that no eligible person is deprived of these benefits," he added.
He further said that it was due to the transparent processes, ease of access and benefits to a large section of the poor population that 32 states and UTs had accepted the scheme, which was running successfully and providing financial protection to crores of people.
Urging the states to join the scheme, the minister also noted that they would gain in terms of resources, national portability, state-of-the-art technological platforms, implementation systems and world-class analytics systems at no additional cost.
They would also benefit from a well-proven fraud monitoring-and-control system and the exchange of key learnings and best practices of other states towards equitable healthcare, he added.
Minister Harsh Vardhan also made it clear that financial resources would be made available to the states with adequate flexibility in the spirit of cooperative federalism.
He further pointed out that implementing the scheme would not only prove highly beneficial for the states, but also for the people and all the stakeholders.
"The ultimate beneficiary of this collaboration will be poor and vulnerable people. Due to the portability of services, the states will gain from the nationwide network of hospitals and will also help provide services in their own states to those from outside their states," the minister said.
In the letter, he assured full support and cooperation to the states in aligning their own schemes with Ayushman Bharat.
The AB-PMJAY scheme aims to provide a coverage of Rs five lakh per family annually, benefitting more than 10.74 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled healthcare providers.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday urged the chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal to join the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). According to a statement from the health ministry, the minister had also spoken to Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee, the respective chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal, and was trying to connect with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Taking stock of the situation that the three states and one Union Territory (UT) were yet to join the AB-PMJAY, Dr Harsh Vardhan, in his letter to the chief ministers, said, "It is important that the benefits of a visionary scheme like Ayushman Bharat should reach all the deprived and vulnerable people in the country. "I will make all efforts to convince the remaining states and the UT to bring the benefits of the scheme to their people and ensure that no eligible person is deprived of these benefits," he added. He further said that it was due to the transparent processes, ease of access and benefits to a large section of the poor population that 32 states and UTs had accepted the scheme, which was running successfully and providing financial protection to crores of people. Urging the states to join the scheme, the minister also noted that they would gain in terms of resources, national portability, state-of-the-art technological platforms, implementation systems and world-class analytics systems at no additional cost. They would also benefit from a well-proven fraud monitoring-and-control system and the exchange of key learnings and best practices of other states towards equitable healthcare, he added. Minister Harsh Vardhan also made it clear that financial resources would be made available to the states with adequate flexibility in the spirit of cooperative federalism. He further pointed out that implementing the scheme would not only prove highly beneficial for the states, but also for the people and all the stakeholders. "The ultimate beneficiary of this collaboration will be poor and vulnerable people. Due to the portability of services, the states will gain from the nationwide network of hospitals and will also help provide services in their own states to those from outside their states," the minister said. In the letter, he assured full support and cooperation to the states in aligning their own schemes with Ayushman Bharat. The AB-PMJAY scheme aims to provide a coverage of Rs five lakh per family annually, benefitting more than 10.74 crore poor families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation through a network of empanelled healthcare providers.
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New Delhi:
The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha has announced the results of class 12 Science examination on June 3 (Monday), 2019. Pass percentage for Science students this year is 72.33%. 20,806 candidates have scored 1st Division. The candidates can check the results on the official website of the board i.e. chseodisha.nic.in and orissaresults.nic.in. The declaration of the results have sealed the fate of thousands of students who have appeared for the examination. The results of class 12 Science will be declared at 12 noon through a press conference from the Soochana Bhawan. The HSC results will be available at the websites soon after the declaration of results, Lopa Mudra Mohanty, Secretary, CHSE Odisha told the indianexpress.com.
Alternatively, the candidates can also check the results by clicking on the link given below. Every year, CHSE Odisha announces the result for the Science stream first, followed by that of Arts and Commerce streams. The results of class 12 Arts and Commerce are likely to be declared by Friday, June 7.
Click Here For Odisha Board Class 12 Results 2019
LIVE UPDATES:
12.26 pm:
12.17 pm: CHSE Odisha Plus 2 Result 2019 for Science Stream have been announced. 75.02% girls have passed. Passing percent for boys is at 70.40%. 29.42% students have scored 1st division, 33.81% have scored 2nd division and 35.87% have scored 3rd division. Best result was recorded from Bhaleshwar with 86.56% pass percentage 9 colleges have Zero result while 29 colleges have 100% result (all students have passed). 60 students have scored above 90%.
12.13 pm: CHSE Odisha 12th Result 2019 has been declared. Pass percentage for Science students this year is 72.33%. 20,806 candidates have scored 1st Division.
12.10 pm: Pass Percentage 72.33
12.09 pm: The Odisha board class 12 results have been announced.
12.06 pm: Press conference is going on. Result to be out aytime soon.
11.59 am: Odisha Plus 2 Result 2019 would be released in a short while. CHSE Odisha would be releasing only the Plus 2 Science Result 2019 today. The Arts and Commerce Result would be released at a later date
11.55 am: CHSE Class 12 Science Results to be declared in few minutes. Press conference begins.
11.43 am: For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the steps through which the candidates can check the results:
Step 1: Visit the official website of the board i.e. english.newsnationtv.com/board-results and click on Odisha Result page
Step 2: Input all the important information like name, birth date, and roll number
Step 3: Click on the submit button
Step 4: Check your Result 2019
Step 5: Download soft copy PDF / take a printout for future reference
11.40 am: The result will be available on chseodisha.nic.in and orissaresults.nic.in at 12 noon.
11.35 am: Keep checking the official links- chseodisha.nic.in and orissaresults.nic.in for results. The result can be checked through the roll number or registration number. This year the overall pass percentage is expected to increase. Last year the pass percentage for Science stream was 76.98 percent and thoverall pass percentage was 77.98 percent.
11.29 am: The Board will begin the press conference soon and announce the result.
11.01 am: One hour from now, the Odisha Board class 12 results will be available on the official website of the board.
11.01 am: In 2018, the pass percentage for Science stream Plus Two examination was 76.98%.
10.49 am: According to the reports, the results will be out at 12 pm.
9.36 am: The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha, had last year announced the class 12 science result on May 19. Of the 95,096 students who had written the HSC examination, 73, 211 students (77.98 per cent) passed it.
9.35 am: A total of 3.69 lakh students, including 2.35 lakh students in Arts, 99,000 students in Science and around 27,200 students in Commerce appeared for the CHSE Plus Two examinations, which were conducted from March 7, 2019 to March 30, 2019.
About the Odisha Board
There are two separate boards for regulating High School Education and Higher Secondary Education. The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha is in existence since the year 1982 and was established in accordance with the Odisha Higher Secondary Education Act 1982. The duties of CHSE, Odisha include regulating and monitoring the policies to develop Higher Secondary Education in the state of Odisha.
The Board of Secondary Education, Odisha is a Body Corporate constituted under the Odisha Secondary Education Act, 1953. The BSE is located at Bajrakabati Road, Cuttack and is functioning as an education body since 1955. It conducts the High School Certificate Examinations (HSCE) and other related examinations. Its duties and jurisdiction involve the development of curriculum, supervision in the implementation of state academic policies and conducting examinations for the purpose of evaluating the students at the higher secondary level.
New Delhi:
As expected, newly appointed Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly hit the ground with the Kashmir issue. According to news agency IANS, Shah has many crucial things on his agenda including redrawing the long pending delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. A report by Times Now suggests on Tuesday, the Home Ministry deliberated upon the proposal to lift the freeze on delimitation in the state. Shah held a meeting with J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik to discuss the issue.
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was created in 1939. The Sheikh Abdullah government in the state brought 43 seats in Kashmir, 30 for Jammu and two for Ladakh region. At present, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has 87 seats of which Jammu has 37, Kashmir has 46 and Ladakh has four.
Zee News reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is mulling the appointment of a delimitation commission to study the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly constituencies and come up with its recommendations. The panel will take into account the population and area of different regions of the state and come up with relevant recommendations.
In 2010, the Supreme Court upheld the freeze imposed by Jammu and Kashmir government on delimitation of assembly constituencies in the state till 2026 and dismissed the plea that it violated the basic structure of the Constitution.
Rejecting J&K Panthers Party chief Bhim Singhs argument that it deprived Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the right to represent the Valley, the apex court in a judgment said courts cannot interfere in matters of delimitation as there was an express Constitutional bar on such interference.
By an amendment to Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act 1957 and Section 47(3) of the Constitution of J&K made in 2002, the state decided to freeze the delimitation exercise till 2026. The last census operation in the state was completed in 2001 but the delimitation was done in 1995.
According to the 2011 census, the total population of Jammu Division was 5,378,538 of which Dogras were the dominant group comprising 62.55 per cent of the population. Jammu has 25.93 per cent of the area and 42.89 per cent of the population.
Against this, Kashmir Division or the intermountain valley population in 2011 was 6,888,475 with 96.40 per cent Muslims. Though it has 15.73 per cent of the state's area, it holds 54.93 per cent of the population. Ladakh has 58.33 per cent of the area accounting for 2.18 per cent of the population, a mere 274,289 people reside there of which 46.40 per cent are Muslims, 12.11 per cent Hindus and 39.67 per cent Buddhists.
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Khartoum:
Sudanese protest leaders on Wednesday turned down an offer by the ruling military council for talks and demanded justice for a crackdown that doctors said has left 101 people dead. Security forces believed to include former members of the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia which shocked the world over atrocities in Darfur, moved in to brutally disperse a protest sit-in on Monday.
The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors close to the protest movement said on Wednesday that at least 101 people had been killed in the crackdown, including 40 bodies that were recovered from the Nile river.
Sudan has been controlled by a military council since it ousted veteran president Omar al-Bashir in April after protesters demanded an end to his authoritarian rule before agreeing a three-year transition period to a civilian administration.
But army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said following the crackdown that the agreement had been ditched and an election would take place within nine months -- a plan rejected by demonstrators.
On Wednesday, however, Burhan said those in "the military council open our arms to negotiate with no restriction", an offer that the protest leaders were quick to reject.
"The Sudanese people are not open for talks," said Amjad Farid, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) which spearheaded protests that led to the ouster of Bashir.
"The Sudanese people are not open to this TMC (Transitional Military Council) that kills people and we need justice and accountability before talks about any political process," he told AFP.
Farid said both the SPA and umbrella protest group the Alliance for Freedom and Change would "continue using all non-violent tools and civil disobedience in resisting the TMC".
The rejection came after the commander for the Sudanese paramilitary forces accused of carrying out the deadly crackdown insisted the country would not be allowed to slip into "chaos".
"We will not allow chaos... we must impose the authority of the state through law," Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy chief of the military council, told troops in a televised address.
Dalgalo, known as Himediti, leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that protesters say is responsible for the "bloody massacre".
The general singled out makeshift barricades erected across streets by demonstrators that are aimed at blocking the security forces. Hospitals in Khartoum said they were struggling to cope with the number of wounded after security forces on Monday raided a weeks-long sit-in outside army headquarters.
"The situation is very difficult. Most of the hospitals have taken in more casualties than they have capacity for," a doctor who works at two hospitals in the city told AFP.
"There's a shortage of medical staff, a shortage of blood, and it's difficult to do surgery because some operations can only be done in certain hospitals," said the doctor, who asked not to be named.
"Among the wounded there are still people in a serious condition and I expect the number of deaths to rise."
There was a heavy security presence as worshippers in some neighbourhoods came out to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival. In Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, security forces were seen patrolling in trucks mounted with what appeared to be anti-aircraft and machine guns and other weapons including rocket-propelled grenades.
Protest leaders have called on their supporters to take part in "total civil disobedience" to topple the military council.
On Wednesday, hundreds of residents of north Khartoum blocked off streets with rocks, and waited by them in silence, a witness told AFP.
In the distance gunfire was heard.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said it held "the militias of the (military) council... responsible for this massacre."
The Sudanese Doctors Union accused security forces of attacks on hospitals and staff across the country, and alleged some women had been raped in an area of the capital without giving details of how the group had learned of the assaults.
A push for the UN Security Council to condemn the killing of civilians and call on the military and protesters to work together was blocked by China, which was backed by Russia, during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Eight European countries instead issued their own joint statement criticising "the violent attacks in Sudan by Sudanese security services against civilians".
The British ambassador to Khartoum, Irfan Siddiq, called for an end to the internet outages that have plagued the country since the crackdown.
"In these critical times it is essential that everyone can communicate, particularly to urge messages of keeping things calm and peaceful," he tweeted.
Top US envoy David Hale, under secretary of state for political affairs, underlined the importance of a transition to a civilian-led government in a phone call with the Saudi deputy defence minister, Khalid bin Salman, the State Department said.
Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the military rulers, called for a resumption of "dialogue between the various parties of Sudan".
(AFP via PTI)
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Damascus:
Syria on Sunday accused Israel of targeting an airbase in Homs province, in the second such attack in 24 hours. Our air defences thwarted an Israeli aggression and destroyed two of the rockets that targeted the T-4 airbase, a military source told state news agency SANA.
The remaining rockets killed one soldier, wounded two others, and damaged an arms warehouse, the source added. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported five killed, including one Syrian soldier.
It said the attack also destroyed a rocket warehouse. In addition to the Syrian army, Iranian fighters and Hezbollah paramilitary forces are also stationed at the airbase, according to the monitor.
The attack comes hours after Israel announced that it had carried out strikes in Syria in response to rare rocket fire from the neighbouring country. The Observatory said 10 were killed, including Syrian soldiers and foreign fighters in the attack south of the capital.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria, most of them against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Israel says it is determined to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran backs President Bashar al-Assad in the countrys eight-year war which has killed more than 370,000 people.
The Jewish state insists that it has the right to continue to target positions in Syria held by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah out of self-defence. The latest reported strike comes amid soaring tensions between Iran and the United States.
The stand-off had been simmering since the US last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear treaty which Iran reached with major world powers. In recent weeks Washington has accused Iran of alleged threats and deployed an aircraft carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf.
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Cairo:
Egyptian security forces have killed 14 suspected militants during a raid carried out in the restive Sinai Peninsula in response to a deadly checkpoint attack, the authorities said.
Wednesday's attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, left dead eight policemen southwest of El-Arish, capital of North Sinai, and five militants were killed in exchanges of fire that ensued.
Some other suspected militants fled the scene before security forces tracked down and killed 14 of them in the raid, the interior ministry said in a statement.
"Following the route of escaped elements responsible for the attack led to a group of terrorist elements in an abandoned hideout in an empty lot," the ministry said.
The security forces surrounded the suspected militants before engaging "in a heavy shootout" which killed 14 of them, it added.
They also found 14 guns, three explosive devices and two explosive belts in their possession.
Pictures of the slain militants lying in pools of blood were also circulated along with the statement.
A medical source sent AFP a list naming the eight police personnel killed, which a security source confirmed.
AFP also received a recording from a police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, of security forces communications that appeared to confirm that a military plane destroyed a tank hijacked by a militant during the attack.
In a statement released by its propaganda wing, Amaq, the Islamic State group said its fighters had launched "two simultaneous attacks on two police checkpoints" in El-Arish.
The attack took place on the day Egyptian Muslims marked the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
In February 2018, the army launched a nationwide offensive against the Islamist militants, focused mainly on North Sinai.
The troubled hotspot has long been a centre of insurgents affiliated with IS that Egypt has battled against.
According to official figures, around 665 insurgents have been killed since the start of the operation, while the army has lost some 50 soldiers.
No independent statistics are available and the region is largely cut off to journalists, making verification of casualty figures extremely difficult.
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Dubai:
Unfazed by the recent Indo-Pak tensions, a Dubai-based Indian businessman has installed over 60 hand pumps in a poverty-stricken district of Pakistans southeastern Sindh province, according to a media report. Joginder Singh Salaria set up nearly 62 water pumps in Tharparkar district with the help of local social workers after knowing the plight of the area through social media. He also sent bags of grains to the community.
Salaria, who has been a UAE-resident since 1993 and runs a transport business said he reached out to social workers in Pakistan via social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, established contacts with them and funded the entire operation.
While India-Pakistan tensions were high following the Pulwama incident, we were installing hand pumps in these poor villages, Joginder Singh Salaria, who launched the Pehal Charitable Trust, was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times.
Tension between India and Pakistan were at an all-time high after 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on February 14 when a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) attacked their bus in Pulwama district.
India responded by launching air strikes across the LoC and destroyed terror camps in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The philanthropist said he spent weeks and months researching the plight of people in Tharparkar and a lot of it was done through social media.
Bheal Khangar, a social worker, coordinated with Salaria for the entire project.
There are very few roads in the villages. The nearest hospital is 50km away, and people need to walk 25km to reach the main road. Schools are also very bad in those areas. Most children cant go to school due to lack of opportunities, lack of easy access to school and lack of schools, he said.
The Khaleej Times quoted a United National Development Programme report as saying that the Tharparkar district has some of the lowest social and development indicators in Sindh province and across Pakistan with poverty head count of 87 per cent.
Over the past decade, high levels of deprivation have resulted in a steady increase in the multi-dimensional poverty head count in the district, the report said.
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New Delhi:
The police on Wednesday in Nimta area of West Bengals 24 Parganas arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of Nirmal Kundu, Trinamool Congress president of Ward 6 of North Dum Dum Municipality, who was shot dead by two bike-borne persons on Tuesday evening.
Uttam Mondal and Rabindranath Sil are allegedly linked to the shooting and have been produced before the Barrackpore sub divisional court on Wednesday. According to the police, two more suspects have been arrested and they would be produced the court soon.
Kundu, 44, was talking to some people near by his house at Patna area in Nimta on Tuesday evening when he was shot at. He was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead. He was received bullet injuries in his head. After the incident, tension grips the area. On Wednesday morning, a CCTV footage which shows the incident went viral. In the footage, Kundu was seen talking to locals at a tea stall when two people on a motorcycle drove past and the pillion-rider shot twice at him.
In the footage, the body is seen slumping to the ground as the motorcycle speeds away by cutting through the crowd that had begun to gather there.
All seven phases of the just concluded Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal were marred by violence, with both the BJP and the TMC trading blame over the issue. The BJP has made deep inroads into the Trinamool citadel by winning 18 Lok Sabha seats and cutting the TMC down to size by limiting its win in only 22 seats against 34 it bagged in 2014. In the Lok Sabha polls, BJP secured a clear majority with 303 seats, while Congress was at a distant 52.
Tuesday's incident took place a couple of days after a BJP worker, who had gone missing since Saturday was found dead in West Bengals Basirhat. The victim was identified as Ajay Mondal. The 36-year-old was reportedly hacked to death. His bruised body with multiple injuries was found in a roadside canal at Bajitpur on Sunday morning. The police said that the body has been sent for autopsy to know.
On Monday, an infant was killed while a person sustained a bullet injury and several others were injured as there seemed to be no respite from continuous political violence between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP in West Bengal. Activists of both sides were beaten up while incidents of ransacking houses and damage to vehicles were reported across districts.
Trinamool activists alleged a woman at Sildanga area in North 24 Parganas' Ashoknagar was physically abused allegedly by one of her relatives and a local BJP leader for "not agreeing to support the saffron party" and her child sustained an injury while she was heckled.
Earlier, another BJP worker was stabbed to death in West Bengal's West Burdwan district on Thursday. Sushil Mondal, 49, was killed allegedly by a Trinamool Congress activist following an altercation over putting up BJP flags at Panduk village under Ketugram police station limits. Local TMC leaders, however, claimed Mondal was a victim of the party's internal feud. The police said Mondal's wife has lodged a complaint against three persons who are on the run.
On May 25, a 23-year-old BJP worker was shot dead in Nadia district of the state. Santu Ghosh (23), a resident of Tapaban area in Chakdaha town was shot at from a close range after he went out of his house following a phone call.
He was taken to Chakdaha State General Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. As a result, BJP leaders and workers staged a road blockade on National Highway 34, the police said.
West Bengal has witnessed widespread tension since the Lok Sabha Elections were announced in March earlier this year. Sporadic violence was reported during the 7-phase-long polls across state. Both the BJP and Trinamool have blamed each other for the bloodbath.
It should be noted that family members of over 40 BJP workers, who were killed in political violence in West Bengal, were also invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on May 30 last month. It was the very reason for which Mamata Banerjee had turned down the invite and said that the BJP was trying to politicise the oath-taking ceremony.
The rift has only deepened since the May 23 verdict which saw the BJP creating history in Bengal. The saffron party won 18 seats in the state with ruling Trinamool Congress getting 22 seats. The double-digit growth has given the BJP every reason to cheer. How important is the Bengal win was reflected in BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shahs victory speech at party headquarters in New Delhi on May 23.
The highly polarised elections in Bengal saw many firsts also. In an unprecedented move, the Election Commission of India had barred campaigning a day early, before the seventh and final phase, after a bout of clashes led to the damage of property, including a bust of reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
(With PTI inputs)
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New Delhi:
The onset of monsoon could be delayed further by a day to June 7, the India Meteorological Department said Tuesday. On Saturday, private weather forecaster Skymet too revised its forecast from June 4 to June 7. Last month, announcing the expected day of monsoon arrival over Kerala, IMD said it could happen on June 6, with an error margin of plus or minus four days.
Cross equatorial flow over southern parts of South Arabian Sea and over the Bay of Bengal is likely to increase gradually favouring further advance of southwest monsoon over some more parts of South Arabian sea, Maldives?, Comorin area, southwest, southeast and central Bay of Bengal during next 24 hours.
An east?west shear zone at 3.1 kilometres above mean sea level is very likely to develop across extreme south peninsula from tomorrow onwards leading to favourable conditions for onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala during the subsequent 72 hours, it said.
Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan had also indicated that monsoon could hit the Kerala coast on June 6-7.
Several parts of the country are reeling under severe heat waves with temperatures touching 50 degree Celsius in some parts.
Vardhan said monsoon is likely to be 96 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA), which falls on the border line of normal and below normal category.
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Kathmandu:
Under pressure after a deadly season on traffic-clogged Mount Everest, Nepal is considering tightening access to the world's highest peak, but mountaineering experts fear the proposed changes could amount to little more than lip service.
Eleven people died during the climbing season that ended this week, as record numbers lined the route to the summit. Although overcrowding was blamed for at least four deaths, many say inexperience is a bigger killer.
"People who know nothing of climbing, never been on a mountain, came and tried to climb Everest," Chilean mountaineer Juan Pablo Mohr told AFP after returning to Kathmandu.
"A lot of people didn't know how to put (on) crampons or (use) the fixed ropes," he said, adding they relied on an army of sherpas or Nepali guides to help them accomplish such basic tasks.
For years, Kathmandu has issued permits to anyone willing to pay $11,000, regardless of whether they are rookie climbers or skilled mountaineers.
But after a devastating spring season, officials told AFP they are considering imposing more restrictions.
"We are looking into having a minimum requirement for climbers, fixing more ropes or taking more oxygen and sherpas," said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, secretary at Nepal's tourism ministry.
For veteran mountaineers, the announcement of new rules amounts to little more than a futile annual exercise -- with the government each year promising tougher measures that fail to materialise by the following spring.
Russell Brice, whose company Himalayan Experience (Himex) has been organising Everest expeditions for decades, told AFP his meetings with government officials over the years had left him in no doubt about their indifference towards the industry.
"The ministry is in denial of overcrowding, of issuing too many permits, not checking what people are doing and so on," Brice said.
"It is just stupid words," he said, adding, "they are not interested." In 2014, Kathmandu said it would double the number of fixed ropes near the summit to prevent traffic jams. It never happened.
The government also said it would station soldiers and police at Everest base camp for assistance.
An AFP visit to the area in 2015 revealed no such deployment.
Unlike Tibet, which caps the number of Everest climbers at 300, there are no limits on the Nepali side, making for an exceedingly profitable -- and dangerous -- business.
As cheaper operators have entered the fray, the number of climbers has shot up, creating deadly bottlenecks en-route to the top of the 8,848-metre (29,029-feet) peak -- especially when bad weather cuts the number of summit days, as it did this year.
Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, who has guided clients on Everest for over a decade, told AFP one of the climbers who died should never have been allowed to go up, given her excessively slow pace.
But the woman, who was in her fifties, "would not listen" because she had paid the fee and wanted to see the summit, he said.
"Such climbers are increasing on Everest. They force us, they want to climb no matter what. Their stubbornness is killing people on the mountain," he said.
The situation has deteriorated to such a degree that Nepal's Mountaineering Association, which represents operators, is lobbying the government for stricter rules.
The association's president, Santa Bir Lama, told AFP the high number of deaths this year was due to the increased presence of inexperienced climbers.
"Climbers should be self-reliant. It would be best if there is a criteria set for issuing permits," he said.
For years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Everest in 1953, access to the world's most famous peak was a rare prize, offered only to solo mountaineers charting new routes or to climbers belonging to national teams or boasting major sponsorship deals.
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MANILA (Philippines): Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and a vice-presidential candidate in the 2022 elections, has declared her support for presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is now topping the poll.
Duterte-Carpio, 43, spoke for the first time since launching her candidacy on Saturday, pleading for Filipinos to vote for her. Duterte-Carpio expressed her confidence in Filipinos' ability to help and support them until the elections are won, despite the hurdles, in a video posted on Facebook. Duterte-Carpio stated that her choice to join forces with Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was not made with the intention of derailing the campaigns of other candidates. "Our goal is not just to carry out President Duterte's proposals, but also to improve the administration's programmes," she said, urging unity.
In a second statement, Marcos, 64, the only son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, acknowledged their collaboration. Duterte-Carpio was approved by Marcos' party shortly after the Davao City mayor filed her candidacy on Saturday. The president and vice president of the Philippines are chosen separately under Philippine law.
Duterte's long-time aide-turned-senator Christopher Go went to the Commission on Elections office in Manila with the president shortly after the presidential daughter's filing last Saturday to change his application, submitting his certificate of candidacy for president and withdrawing his certificate of candidacy for vice president.
Sara Duterte-Carpio to run for Vice President in 2022 polls
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Home Business Nepal receives no foreign grants in the first quarter of the fiscal year
Kathmandu, November 17
The government has set a target of receiving Rs 59.92 billion in foreign grants in the current fiscal year. However, it did not receive a penny in the first quarter of the year.
Ritesh Shakya, a joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance, says the government, nonetheless, received commitments for Rs 5.81 billion in this period. Green Climate Fund, Asian Development Bank and the Swiss government have expressed their commitments for grants in this period.
Shakya says the amount of foreign grants the government receives in a certain period depends on the progress made in the projects run with such assistance in the past.
Meanwhile, economist Govinda Raj Pokharel says the Covid-19 crisis might be the reason for the decrease in the grant amount. Nonetheless, the amount of foreign grants that Nepal receives is on the decline for the past five years.
Mountains have always fascinated Vinayak Jaya Malla. Growing up in Mallaj in Parbat district of western Nepal, he would often stare at Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain in the world, and wonder what it would be like to stand on top of it. The mountain appealed to him like nothing in the world, but coming from a family that was not into mountaineering, he knew that climbing Dhaulagiri was a farfetched dream.
Fast-forward 30 years, things have changed for Malla. While he is yet to reach the summit of Dhaulagiri, through hard work and determination, he has climbed numerous mountains including Everest, Manaslu and Ama Dablam, and is one of few Nepalis certified as a mountain guide by the IFMGA. Initially, an outsider in Nepals mountaineering scene where 99 per cent of Nepal mountain guides are from the Sherpa community, Malla has defied all odds and done something only a few do.
Now, he wants to continue climbing and create a space for the younger generation of climbers as he wants to share what he has learnt in the past decade to aspiring and next generation of mountaineers along with creating a space for alpinism in Nepal.
Bringing the dream closer
Malla on the top of the true summit of Manaslu.
I knew nothing and had to spend a lot of time learning. I want to give back what Ive learnt, he says.
Vinayak Jaya Malla grew up in the village near Parbat and spent most of his free time helping his parents look after the farm and animals. The rest of the day he would spend with his friends, playing around the village, climbing trees and hiking looking for firewood and fodder for the cattle.
Life was tough but simple, he recalls.
He was as far away from the mountains as one could imagine. But things slowly changed when he moved to Kathmandu for his higher education.
It was during the civil war. The Maoists had started to recruit young boys from our village to join them fight the war. My parents were afraid theyd take me and, hence, sent me to Kathmandu.
In Kathmandu, he finished his intermediates and started pursuing a degree in business. It was then that he learned more about mountaineering as he had to prepare a report about tourism and mountaineering. During his research, he heard about trekking and mountaineering guides and learnt about their lives. That fascinated him.
I was interning at an investment firm. I had to put on a neat shirt and go to work on a packed public bus, Vinayak Jaya Malla remembers, But, by this time, Id already started climbing walls and hence didnt last more than six months there.
When he first climbed a wall, he started to get a feeling he belonged there. He was a natural. Climbing trees and hills in his village had prepared him for this. But, he had no idea about ropes and the ins and outs of climbing.
I could easily climb the normal routes. Some, I had to practise a lot.
From passion to profession
Malla has spent nearly a decade learning the art of mountaineering.
By 2011, he started taking courses too. He knew he did not belong to an office. He wanted to be out and about. He started off as a trekking guide. On the other side, he kept practising rock climbing as he was hooked on it.
An adventurer at heart, Malla kept on pushing and started winning climbing competitions held at Pasang Lhamu Climbing Centre and Astrek Wall Climbing. He had also started to attend mountaineering training at the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA). He knew that he wanted to climb mountains and being a trekking guide, and walking to the base of mountains made him sure that it was what he wanted to do.
Malla climbed his first peak around the same time. An avid traveller, he asked his employers if he could join a Japanese group that was climbing Scout Peak in Langtang. They agreed, and after that, there was no turning back for Malla.
I had no gear or boots. I asked people to lend me their gear and rented some and reached the top of that peak.
Other mountains soon followed him as he reached the top of Mera, Island and Lobuche as he continued taking advance training from the NMA. As he was doing that, he also heard about the IFMGA, an international umbrella for mountain guide associations from more than 20 countries. He enrolled in that organisation and started attending its mountaineering courses.
This was different from the training provided by the NMA. It was more detailed and provided a lot more technical know-how. It took me a little over six years to complete that.
By 2016, he was hooked on mountaineering. It was what made him feel alive. Going to places where the air was thin got him excited. Summiting mountains made him happy.
Looking at other peaks from the summit of a mountain is something every outdoor lover should experience. It mustnt be a big mountain; even small mountains have their charm.
Standing out
Malla stood first in his class of mountain guides at the IFMGA and that, he says, has helped a lot to get jobs because getting to climb mountains in Nepal if you are not from the Sherpa community is tough going. People do not believe you can climb and that doubt can get into you.
After training, I wanted to climb 8,000-ers, but no one really believed that I could climb. Everyone felt what I could do on a mountain like Everest or Manaslu. They felt I didnt belong there.
But, that did not deter him. He carried on training and hoped he would get a chance. In 2017 spring, he got the chance to be an assistant guide on the worlds highest mountain. That was a great opportunity for him, a person not from the Sherpa community, to show expedition agencies that he belong there.
Climbing Everest was a big moment for him too. Everest is considered a benchmark. Whenever an aspiring mountain guide looks for a job, the first question people ask is if that person has climbed Everest.
When Malla stood on the summit of Everest, he felt he made it. It was a feeling I cant express.
But, Everest also gave him a reality check. Walking past dead bodies, he soon realised that the consequences of climbing and that one mistake can lead to death. But, like these lifeless bodies, Malla had chosen to be there and he was as alive as he could be.
It taught me to be extra careful.
Aspiring for alpinism
Malla attempting Manaslu in alpine-style in January 2021.
In the autumn of 2017, Malla reached the summit of his second 8000-metre peak, Manaslu, and since then, he has not looked back.
He has continued climbing peaks and guiding people to the summit mountain. He also completed his IFMGA training and topped it. When asked what his parents felt about him being a mountaineer, he says they were disappointed at first, but are gradually understanding his choices.
Nepali parents typically want their children to work for the government or become a banker or a doctor, but I didnt want to do anything like that. That disappointed them a bit, but they understood that this is what I was passionate about.
Now, Malla also wants to try to do new things. Last winter, he and Tenji Sherpa tried climbing Manaslu in full alpine style. But, they had to cut their summit bid short because of poor weather.
This project was dear to both of us but due to a lot of snow, we had to cut short our summit bid.
Although he wants to do projects like these, the lack of sponsorships and support care causes problems for him. He says while it is easy for foreigners to get sponsorship deals, for Nepalis, that still seems very farfetched.
Look how much Nimsdai had to do to get sponsorships.
However, he is not disheartened. He says he will be concentrating on training aspiring and next generation of mountaineers as he wants them to learn about mountaineering. He is helping a lot of them too by providing gear and equipment as he does not want them to go through the same struggle he did.
He further wants to pave way for alpinism in Nepal as he believes there are so many mountains in Nepal that can attract people.
For that, we need to do a lot of work and everyone needs to be on the same page. It wont happen overnight and we need to change a lot of things.
Workforce
Vaccine mandate, holiday travel season loom for TSA workforce
The holiday travel season is cranking into gear as the deadline for federal employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 approaches next week. That requirement includes workers at the Transportation Security Administration.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 45,000 frontline screening officers at TSA, told lawmakers at a subcommittee hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday that the union is concerned with staffing shortages at the agency. TSA has long struggled with low morale, high turnover and pay dissatisfaction among frontline screening employees.
"There's such a high turnover, and the fact that we've not done an exceptional job making sure that the workforce is replenished this is what's going to make the challenge," Kelley said.
"It's certainly my belief that the lack of staffing is not really related to the mandate" he said. "The lack of staffing and the issues that we may have come this holiday season will be because of the fact that we just did not replenish the workforce."
He said that the frontline screener workforce has shrunk by "several thousand" during the course of the pandemic, and that although the agency is hiring, many new hires remain in training.
The agency set a goal of hiring 6,000 TSOs in early 2021, which it met by Sept. 30. The agency is continuing to hire as part of its normal recruitment activities, a TSA spokesperson told FCW.
Republicans at the hearing and elsewhere on the Hill have expressed concern that the vaccine mandate could deplete the TSA workforce.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has also publicly urged the agency to create a contingency plan for the holidays regarding potential disruptions due to the vaccine requirement.
"The administration's mandate that all federal employees be fully vaccinated from COVID-19 by next week, Nov. 22, could contribute to a lack of staffing at airports," said ranking member of the subcommittee, Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.).
TSA itself says it isn't expecting that.
"We do not anticipate any disruptions because of the vaccination requirements," the TSA spokesperson told FCW.
TSA has "made good progress," said the TSA spokesperson. "The compliance rate is very high, and we still do not have full data yet."
On Oct. 13, TSA Administrator David Pekoske told CNNthat about 60% of the TSA workforce was vaccinated.
The upcoming deadline is not a "cliff, but a step to further counsel any unvaccinated employees," the TSA spokesperson said.
White House officials have said that unvaccinated feds will face education and counseling once the deadline passes before any discipline or termination occurs.
Kelley and other witnesses representing federal employees said during the hearing that their organizations want the administration to extend the deadline for feds to be fully vaccinated to Jan. 4, as it did for federal contractors. The National Federation of Federal Employees also joined the call for the administration to delay the deadline last week.
AFGE's push for this is in the name of "consistency" and "fairness" for feds working alongside contractors with the January deadline, Kelley said during the hearing.
Kelley told the committee that "that's the reason why we're asking the administration to at least give some sense of parity [between feds and contractors] when it comes to the vaccine mandate deadlines." However, Kelley said he did not believe that the vaccination mandate was the sole reason for high turnover among TSOs.
"If I say that it's not going to affect it, I would be incorrect, I know that," he said. "I'm just saying that there are a lot more reasons why [TSOs] are leaving the jobsite [other] than the vaccination."
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Baked Goods Market - Forecast and Analysis Report 2021-2025", the market witnessed a YOY growth rate of 5.43% at an accelerating CAGR of 6.12% between 2020 and 2025.
Attractive Opportunities in Baked Goods Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025
Revenue Generating Segment
The baked goods market share growth by the bread and rolls segment will be significant during the forecast period. The bread and rolls segment of the global baked goods market primarily includes products such as whole wheat bread, sourdough, rye bread, pita bread, focaccia bread, multigrain bread, white rolls, hot dog rolls, and sub rolls. The increasing demand for gluten-free bread and rolls is a major factor driving the growth of the segment. The increase in demand for free-from products such as bread, pies, and cakes is expected to encourage other major vendors to offer such products during the forecast period.
Revenue generating segments highlights and insights on market analysis of coming years - View FREE Sample
The report is segmented by product (bread and rolls, cakes and pastries, cookies, and others) and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA).
Vendor Insights
The global baked goods market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.
The growing competition in the market is compelling vendors to adopt various growth strategies such as promotional activities and spending on advertisements to improve the visibility of their products. Some vendors are also adopting inorganic growth strategies such as M&As to remain competitive in the market.
For Instance,- In April 2020, Campbell Soup Co., the snack brand, Goldfish, partnered with America's hot sauce brand, Franks RedHot, in order to create a spicier version of the crackers called Goldfish Franks RedHot crackers. Similarly, In April 2021, Mondelez International Inc partnered with Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), a supplier of cocoa beans and cocoa ingredients.
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The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:
Associated British Foods Plc
Britannia Industries Ltd.
Campbell Soup Co.
Flowers Foods Inc.
Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV
JAB Holding Co. Sarl
Kellogg Co.
Mondelez International Inc.
Warburtons Ltd.
Yamazaki Baking Co. Ltd.
Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors & their product offerings. Read Free Sample Report .
Geographical Market Analysis
APAC will provide maximum growth opportunities in the Baked Goods market during the forecast period. According to our research report, the region will contribute 34% of the global market growth and is expected to dominate the market through 2025.
China and Japan are the key markets for the baked goods market in APAC. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions. The expansion of global players in the region through organic and inorganic organizational developments will facilitate the bakery market growth in APAC over the forecast period.
Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. https://www.technavio.com/report/bakery-market-industry-analysis
Key Market Trends & Challenges:
The growing demand for organic and gluten-free products is one of the significant baked goods market trends expected to stimulate market growth in the coming years. Health-conscious consumers prefer organic baking products and ingredients such as aluminum-free baking powder, gluten-free flour, and organic baking flour. Several market vendors are launching new products in organic variants to capitalize on this opportunity. Organic coconut flour, whole-wheat, and multigrain-based products are gaining popularity.
Fluctuations in raw material prices may hamper the market. The prices of all the ingredients are rising due to the increasing costs of production. As a result, manufacturers of bread and rolls incur more costs on raw materials. Furthermore, the supply of raw materials may be affected due to adverse weather conditions, national emergencies, strikes, governmental controls, natural disasters, supply shortages, or other unexpected events. This increasing cost, in turn, increases product prices. This becomes a challenge for marketers to introduce new product varieties with specific ingredients that enrich the taste and attract more consumers.
View free sample for highlights on market Trends & Challenges affecting the baked goods market.
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Baked Goods Market Value Chain Analysis
It includes the following core components:
Inputs
Inbound logistics
Operations
Outbound logistics
End-customers
Marketing and sales
Services
Innovations
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Baked Goods Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 6.12% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 165.49 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.43 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 34% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, Brazil, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Associated British Foods Plc, Britannia Industries Ltd., Campbell Soup Co., Flowers Foods Inc., Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV, JAB Holding Co. Sarl, Kellogg Co., Mondelez International Inc., Warburtons Ltd., and Yamazaki Baking 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.
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SOURCE Technavio
While aging infrastructure remains a concern, focus on cybersecurity and grid modernization reflects rising challenges for service providers
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., November 16, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Facing mounting demand to integrate increasing amounts of renewable energy onto the grid and elevate their resilience to power-disrupting weather events and wildfires, U.S. electric utilities continue to wage a transformation keying on their need to modernize in a decarbonizing world. Black & Veatchs new survey-driven Electric Report puts into focus the blend of challenges and opportunities for a sector tasked with bolstering their reliability in a rapidly evolving energy ecosystem.
Applying its expert analyses to survey data from nearly 500 electric industry stakeholders and released on the heels of the influential COP26 global summit about climate change Black & Veatchs 15th annual report details a path forward for the sector as "new energy" from solar and wind and the ascension of hydrogen continue to reshape the domestic power landscape.
Highlighted during the recent U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, unrelenting demands from governments, corporations, activists and shareholders for lower carbon footprints also are prompting utilities to balance their energy portfolios with cleaner, more environmentally friendly options. Cyber threats and the pressing need to invest in charging infrastructure for a proliferating electric vehicle (EV) market add to such headwinds as the industry prepares for a surge in demand after more than a decade of slow growth.
Detailing the push for utilities and power developers to become more sustainable, reliable and resilient, the report offers key insights, including:
While aging infrastructure has been a relative constant as the industrys most-cited top challenge for more than a decade, roughly one-third of survey respondents now rate the integration of renewables as their No. 1 challenge, moving up one spot from last year. Cybersecurity jumped four spots to second place, with aging infrastructure now third.
Over the next decade, the energy sector expects to see solar and wind power as critical to meeting clean energy goals and/or cutting their emissions and carbon output. Those numbers drop considerably beyond 10 years, giving way to more deployments of hydrogen the most-cited option beyond the next decade and battery energy storage.
Industry concerns regarding the future of renewables at scale center on three major barriers, with cost leading the way.
With no universal approach in preparing grids for extreme climate events, each energy asset owner and provider will need a customized strategy that accounts for system constraints, geographic location, asset vulnerabilities, budgetary considerations and workforce availability.
Government incentives and policies, along with increased governmental pressure and influence, are the top two factors driving the respondents renewable energy investments in their regions.
"As the surge of clean energy fuels, advancements in energy storage and extreme weather events and wildfires continue to have a profound impact on the U.S. power grids resilience, electric utilities must embrace the opportunity to innovate and repower themselves," said Mario Azar, president of Black & Veatch's energy and process industries business. "Its a pivotal time for forward-looking, proactive energy approaches that deliver the reliability and lower carbon impacts that consumers and enterprises, big and small, demand from critical infrastructure services."
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Other notable findings in the report include:
Nine out of 10 respondents expect energy storage investments to increase in the next five years in their region, up from 80 percent last year. More than half 56 percent expect their generation capacity investment in hydrogen to rise over the same half-decade time frame, double the 26 percent of respondents who anticipated as much in 2020.
Nearly 80 percent of respondents are committed to reducing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gas emissions while furthering their own clean energy goals. More than half (57 percent) are doing this independently from any regulatory mandate.
Seventy-five percent of respondents say they are directing their capital toward clean renewable energy investment, yet less than 10 percent believe a 100-percent clean energy generation model has been validated.
Four out of five respondents consider asset hardening to be more important today than in previous years. This may be due to the immediacy of this years weather issues or reflect the business communitys awareness of the significant financial and reputational risk they face from extreme weather events.
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents acknowledge there is local pressure on their utilities to commit to decarbonization. Roughly one-third of respondents say theyre feeling increased demand for clean energy solutions from commercial and industrial clients, up nearly three-fold from last year.
Editors Notes:
Black & Veatchs report is based on a survey of nearly 500 electricity industry stakeholders. To download a free copy of the report, click here.
About Black & Veatchs Industry Reports
Black & Veatchs high-impact reports, in a series previously known as Strategic Directions publications, provide industry insights and analysis based on market-leading research. Encompassing several annual reports examining the electric, water and other sectors, the series serves to inform and educate industry players on key issues, challenges and opportunities. Visit https://www.bv.com/reports to learn more.
About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2020 exceeded US$3.0 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.
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TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - Takeda Canada is pleased to announce that Canadian Blood Services (CBS) has awarded a three-year tender for ADYNOVATEi [Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant) PEGgylated] as part of its request for proposal for recombinant Factor VIII Standard Half-Life (SHL) process as part of its formulary product mix. The three-year term is the second consecutive time Takeda has won the CBS tender for ADYNOVATE, which includes two 1-year option years.
Takeda Canada Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Takeda Canada Inc.)
"Being able to continue to provide Canadian hemophilia patients with this important treatment option is a tremendous source of pride for Takeda," said Rute Fernandes, General Manger, Takeda Canada. "Adopting a holistic approach that incorporates real world evidence, delivers personalized care, and support services that address the needs of patients beyond their treatment, underscores Takeda's commitment to patients and providing value to the healthcare system. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Canadian Blood Services, and through it, being able to extend the benefits of ADYNOVATE as well as the support services we are committed to making available for patients."
As part of the tendering process in response to the Canadian Blood Services' value-based criteria, Takeda presented a model that transitioned from one that was strictly price-based to one that included value-based criteria. This transition represents a significant milestone towards a more sustainable procurement model, and ultimately a better, more holistic approach to supporting the hemophilia A community.
ADYNOVATEii is a pegylated recombinant Antihemophilic factor (ADVATEiii) and is indicated in patients with hemophilia A (congenital factor VII deficiency) for: control and prevention of bleeding episodes; prophylaxis to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes; perioperative management.
About Takeda Canada Inc.
Takeda Canada Inc. is the Canadian marketing and sales organization of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, headquartered in Japan. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502)(NYSE:TAK) is a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader committed to bringing Better Health and a Brighter Future to patients by translating science into highly-innovative medicines. Takeda focuses its R&D efforts on four therapeutic areas: Oncology, Gastroenterology (GI), Rare Diseases and Neuroscience. We also make targeted R&D investments in Plasma-Derived Therapies and Vaccines. We are focusing on developing highly innovative medicines that contribute to making a difference in people's lives by advancing the frontier of new treatment options and leveraging our enhanced collaborative R&D engine and capabilities to create a robust, modality-diverse pipeline. Our employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients and to working with our partners in health care in approximately 80 countries and regions.
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Additional information about Takeda Canada is available at www.takeda.com/en-ca.
SOURCE Takeda Canada Inc.
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MSNBC
Chris Christies whole political persona is as a straight-shooting tough guy who tells it like it is. Yet despite being pressed repeatedly by MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, the former New Jersey governor declined to aim his fire at Fox News for peddling lies and conspiracy theories.
Christie, who is laying the groundwork for a 2024 Republican presidential run, has been a ubiquitous presence on the talk-show circuit in recent days. Promoting his new book, Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden, Christie has openly criticized ex-President Donald Trump while urging Republicans to let go of their false belief that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election.
But while he has blamed Trumps rhetoric and embrace of election conspiracies for the violence of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, Christie hasnt ruled out voting for Trump if hes the GOP nominee in 2024. That stance has prompted some to remind the ex-governor that he was the first mainstream politician to glowingly endorse Trump during the 2016 election and accuse him of trying to have it both ways.
With Christies political rehabilitation tour bringing him to MSNBCs Deadline: White House on Tuesday, Wallace wondered aloud why the tough-talking ex-governor didnt address Fox News inflammatory content in his latest book.
The book is about conspiracies and lies, and yet you really dont take on Fox News, the former George W. Bush spokesperson said. Why not? Have you seen the Tucker Carlson program?
Christie claimed that he doesnt watch Carlsons show, adding that hes not really aware of what the primetime Fox News star does or says on his show. Wallace noted that Republican Rescue is a book with truth deniers, conspiracy theorists on the cover, and you attack CNN, The New York Times, and MSNBC, yet steer clear of Fox.
The former governor insisted the section of his book about the media was mostly about bias, leading Wallace to fire back: Is bias more dangerous to the country than conspiracy theorists?
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Christie, for his part, asserted that it was another section of his book that centers on conspiracy theories and truth denying, noting that it focused on QAnon, Pizzagate, and the election situation. He also groused that Wallace was conflating them, only for Wallace to keep the pressure on Christie.
I dont think its an intellectually honest case to make about conspiracy theories without taking on Fox News, she said.
Listen, you can write that in your book, Christie snidely retorted.
Well, Im not trying to rescue the Republican Party, the MSNBC host shot right back.
Wallace then asked Christie what his relationship with Fox News is going to be like if hes president. After first claiming he hasnt actually said hes definitely running in 2024, Christie then deflected by saying he wont make that decision for another year.
Furthermore, when pressed on whether he thinks Fox News in primetime is good for the country or bad, Christie demurred and merely said there are shows he likes and others he doesnt like.
Are you afraid to question the purveyors of conspiracy theories? Wallace questioned the ex-governor.
While still claiming that he doesnt watch Carlsons show and is unaware of what Tucker does from night to night, Christie said he enjoys the programs of other Fox primetime hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham because theyre not purveyors of conspiracies.
So you may or may not support Donald Trump in 2024. You may or may not run for president, and you wrote a book about liars and conspiracy theorists but dont have anything to say about Fox News? Wallace finally asked Christie, essentially summing up his current stance.
Hannity, who peddled the false Seth Rich story that resulted in a lawsuit settlement, devoted much of his airtime before Jan. 6 to pushing baseless election fraud claims. Ingraham, meanwhile, was one of the first major media figures to peddle the falsehood that antifa was responsible for the Capitol riot.
Carlson, of course, not only has repeatedly said the 2020 election was rigged but has advanced many baseless claims about the Capitol riot, including that it was orchestrated by the FBI. And Fox News and several of its stars have been hit with billion-dollar defamation lawsuits from voting software firms Dominion and Smartmatic for pushing false claims that the companies were involved in widespread election fraud. The network has filed motions to dismiss both suits, citing First Amendment protections.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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FILE PHOTO: Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan speaks during an interview in his office at the bank's headquarters in Dallas
By Ann Saphir
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has kicked off a search for a new president to replace Robert Kaplan, the bank's previous top executive who left last month after a scandal over his personal financial transactions.
The bank's search is being led by its non-bank directors, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The bank hired the executive search firm Egon Zehnder to assist in recruiting candidates.
Kaplan and former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren drew criticism in September after revelations that they had made extensive personal trades in 2020 during the height of the pandemic crisis and the Fed's efforts to stabilize markets and rescue the economy.
Both said their trades were in line with the Fed's ethics guidelines at the time and agreed to divest their stock holdings. But the furor did not subside and ultimately both left their posts. Kaplan retired Oct. 8.
The scandal has been a headache for Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who is under consideration for a second four-year term. To deal with the fallout, Powell launched a review of the Fed's trading rules. That resulted in a rewrite of guidelines that now bar the kind of individual-stock trading that Kaplan undertook. The new rules limit the types of holdings and transactions permitted for policymakers.
The Dallas Fed's job description includes a requirement for "unwavering ethics, character, and integrity."
The bank did not provide a timeline for its search, but similar efforts at other banks and at the Dallas Fed itself have typically taken six to 12 months. The Dallas Fed chief rotates into a voting spot on the Fed's policymaking panel in 2023.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Dan Burns, Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman)
NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the research report " Digital English Language Learning Market - Forecast and Analysis Report 2021-2025 ", the market will witness a YOY growth rate of 13.30% in 2021 and is expected to accelerate at a CAGR of almost 17% between 2020 and 2025. The report is segmented by end-user (non-academic learners and academic learners), deployment (on-premise and cloud-based), and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA).
Attractive Opportunities in Digital English Language Learning Market by End-user, Deployment, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025
APAC is the largest market for digital English language learning. The increasing incorporation of English language education in the school curriculum and the rising demand for digital English language learning solutions among non-native speakers of English are providing significant growth opportunities for market players in APAC.
View FREE Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years.
Vendor Insights
The global digital English language learning market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as forming strategic alliances and product delivery through multiple distribution channels to compete in the market.
Pearson Plc - In November 2019, the company acquired Lumerit Education LLC, an ed-tech company that helps address the issues of college degree completion and affordability in the consumer and corporate markets.
The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:
Apollo Global Management Inc.
Cambridge University Press
Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc.
EF Education First Ltd.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co.
eSplice Ltd.
New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc.
Pearson Plc
Rosetta Stone Ltd.
Sanako Oy
Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings. Read Free Sample Report .
Geographical Market Analysis
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APAC will provide maximum growth opportunities in the digital English language learning market during the forecast period. According to our research report, the region will contribute 45% of the global market growth and is expected to dominate the market through 2025.
In addition, countries such as China, the US, India, the UK, and Germany are expected to emerge as prominent markets for digital English language learning 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/digital-english-language-learning-market-industry-analysis
Key Market Trends & Challenges:
The use of artificial intelligence and chatbots is one of the prominent trends that is likely to drive the market growth. Vendors in the market are focusing on incorporating AI and chatbots in their offerings to provide customized learning solutions for students. It also helps educators track student progress, which is revolutionizing digital teaching methods and digital language learning solutions. Also, the use of chatbots that aid in personalized dialogue exchange is enhancing the learning experience. Such developments are expected to foster market growth over the forecast period.
However, the introduction of hearables and potential innovations in the global wearable devices market is expected to hamper the market growth. The excessive adoption of smart wearables such as smartwatches, wristbands, smart footwear, jewelry, and wearable cameras have led to the development of language translation and interpretation devices, also known as hearables. They are used as in-ear devices and facilitate the instant translation of languages. The introduction of these devices is expected to reduce growth opportunities for market players during the forecast period.
View free sample for highlights on market Trends & Challenges affecting the Digital English language learning market.
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Digital English language learning Market Value Chain Analysis
It includes the following core components:
Inputs
Inbound logistics
Operations
Outbound logistics
Marketing and sales
Service
Support activities
Innovations
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Business English Language Training Market by End-user, Learning Method, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025
Digital English Language Learning Market in APAC by End-user, Deployment, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025
Digital English Language Learning Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of almost 17% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 12.38 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 13.30 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 45% Key consumer countries China, US, India, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Apollo Global Management Inc., Cambridge University Press, Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc., EF Education First Ltd., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co., eSplice Ltd., New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc., Pearson Plc, Rosetta Stone Ltd., and Sanako Oy 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.
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Technavio Research
Jesse Maida
Media & Marketing Executive
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UK: +44 203 893 3200
Email: media@technavio.com
Website: www.technavio.com/
Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio)
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SOURCE Technavio
Delivering fast and reliable machine learning business solutions.
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ElectrifAi, one of the world's leading companies in practical artificial intelligence (AI) and pre-built machine learning (ML) models, is showcasing pre-structured ML models today with SquareOne at Smart Data Summit in Dubai.
ElectrifAi
ElectrifAi has one of the largest libraries of pre-structured ML models that has been built and battle-tested since 2004. We have also developed advanced Computer Vision models that drive workplace safety as well as reduce costs. Combined with our Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) offering, we are helping companies quickly realize the benefits of AI and ML.
Most companies understand that their data is a powerful, untapped asset. However, companies struggle simply to access and clean their data. Many of these same companies conclude machine learning is a distant possibility reserved only for the largest, most sophisticated Tier One players. Not anymore. With ElectrifAi's MLaaS, large and small companies alike can extract value from their data and turn it into a strategic weapon to drive revenue, reduce costs, and/or risk. MLaaS makes it easy for companies struggling with their data or who lack robust data science and data engineering teams.
MLaaS enhances the efficiencies and convenience of ML. It is developed, maintained, and operated by ElectrifAi. Delivered as a full business function powered by AI and ML, it seamlessly connects to our client's cloud or on-premises workloads and no ML experience is needed. We ensure the MLaaS offering provides our clients with a faster, better, cheaper, and substantially less risky way to achieve ML. With ElectrifAi's MLaaS, clients can get ML solutions fast without the time-consuming hassle and expense of building ML from scratch.
Part of our MLaaS offering are the following pre-structured ML models: Computer Vision, Demand Forecasting, Inventory Optimization, Dynamic Pricing, Scheduling Optimization, Predictive Maintenance, Customer Engagement, A/R Collections and Invoice, as well as SpendAi and ContractAi. The Computer Vision models include solutions for Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream oil and gas companies.
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ElectrifAi's pre-structured ML models are business-ready and proven in the real-world. With a fast time-to-deployment and lower project risk, we do all the heavy lifting for our clients. Clients describe their business use case and we tell them what data is needed to run the best ML solution to solve their business problems. We train, operate and deploy the models and quickly deliver results.
"We are excited to showcase our pre-structured machine learning models and MLaaS at the Smart Data Summit. It's all about time-to-value and turning data into a strategic weapon with high ROI use cases. With our pre-structured models, companies who struggle with data or who lack deep data engineering and data science expertise can quickly enjoy the benefits and power of machine learning and computer vision. Similarly, larger companies who have invested in platforms or who have capable internal technical teams can further accelerate with ElectrifAi's MLaaS and pre-structured models. Why wait for machine learning? With our MLaaS offering, you can achieve machine learning in 8-12 weeks versus 8-12 months to build new models." Edward Scott, CEO, ElectrifAi
About ElectrifAi
ElectrifAi is a global leader in business-ready machine learning models. ElectrifAi's mission is to help organizations change the way they work through machine learning: driving revenue uplift, cost reduction as well as profit and performance improvement. Founded in 2004, ElectrifAi boasts seasoned industry leadership, a global team of domain experts, and a proven record of transforming structured and unstructured data at scale. A large library of Ai-based products reaches across business functions, data systems, and teams to drive superior results in record time. ElectrifAi has approximately 200 data scientists, software engineers and employees with a proven record of dealing with over 2,000 customer implementations, mostly for Fortune 500 companies. At the heart of ElectrifAi's mission is a commitment to making Ai and machine learning more understandable, practical and profitable for businesses and industries across the globe. ElectrifAi is a global company with offices in Miami, Jersey City, Shanghai and New Delhi.
About Square One
SquareOne helps organizations exponentiate their potential by partnering up with industry leaders in solutions, providing our clients a complete digital vision leveraged by the latest in tech and complete implementation with our team of experts. Square One helps organizations in their digital transformation journey with visionary, world-class software applications, powered by an experienced and committed professional team with vast experience and focus on customer delight. Square One spot early global technology trends in the digital initiatives space, partner with the best and furiously learn and bring these platforms and solutions to the region. SquareOne is the region's leading provider of business transformation technologies, powered by best-in-class software solutions and profound knowledge of local enterprise needs from over a decade of experience, enabled by a passionate team of professionals whose expertise spans across multiple industry verticals.
SOURCE ElectrifAi
John Keppler, Chairman and CEO of Enviva, is recognized as a bold and innovative entrepreneur who is helping transform our world for the better
BETHESDA, Md., November 17, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE: EVA) ("Enviva"), the worlds largest producer of industrial wood pellets, announced today that John Keppler was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 National Award winner by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US). Recognized as one of the most prestigious business award programs in the world, winners of the EY National Award are chosen after being evaluated on their entrepreneurial leadership, talent management, financial performance, societal impact, degree of difficulty in navigating and overcoming obstacles to make their companies successful, and originality, among other core contributions and attributes.
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John Keppler, Chairman and CEO of Enviva, accepts EY's Entrepreneur of The Year 2021 National Award. (Photo: Business Wire)
"I am deeply honored to be recognized by EY as a National Entrepreneur of the Year award recipient," said John Keppler, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Enviva. "The core of Envivas value proposition is our commitment to fighting climate change and decarbonizing economies around the globe. I am proud of the hard work and dedication my colleagues bring to our company every day, and this award underscores that their efforts are being noticed on a national scale. However, combating climate change remains the biggest global challenge of our time, and there is still a lot of work to be done. I look forward to working alongside many fellow entrepreneurs in this program to collectively make a significant impact in the fight against climate change."
The vision behind Envivas founding and its tremendous growth have propelled John to this moment. Looking to fundamentally change the complex equation of energy and the environment, John co-founded Enviva in 2004 to produce a renewable energy source from low-value woody biomass that could help decarbonize the global energy and power supply. John and his team saw the tremendous value of sustainably sourced woody biomass as a low-carbon, cost-effective, dispatchable energy source for use in power and heat systems. Today Enviva is a $4 billion company that is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EVA) and owns and operates more than a dozen plants and terminals across the southeastern United States that sustainably produce approximately 6.2 million metric tons of wood pellets per year. Starting with a handful of employees, John is proud that Enviva now employs almost 1,400 people and supports many other jobs and businesses in the rural South, strengthening communities where jobs and economic opportunities are sometimes scarce. Enviva drives more than $2 billion in annual economic activity, and Enviva strives to both hire locally and procure from local businesses so that the communities in which it operates and their residents directly benefit from the financial impact of its operations.
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Envivas demand creates a market for low-value and residual wood that generates income for rural landowners and incentivizes landowners to keep the forest as forest. As a result, Enviva plays a critical role in promoting sustainable forest management and forest growth in the southeastern United States while fighting global climate change in the process.
"In an unprecedented era for business, all of our national winners showed an exceptional level of resilience, agility and innovation," said Andrew (AJ) Jordan, EY Americas Entrepreneur of The Year Director. "These national winners demonstrate the true spirit of entrepreneurial leadership, pivoting as necessary to keep their commitment to society at the forefront, while also continuing to build companies rooted in uplifting their employees and community stakeholders."
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards program. Since 1986, EY US has honored entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, spirit of innovation, and tenacity have driven their companies success, transformed their industries, and made a positive impact on their communities. On Saturday, November 13, 2021, the national winners were announced during a celebration held at the Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, California. The national winners will go on to become lifetime members of the esteemed multi-industry community of award winners, with exclusive, ongoing access to the experience, insight, and wisdom of fellow alumni and other ecosystem members in over 60 countries all supported by a wide variety of EY resources.
The 2021 national award follows John Kepplers regional win as the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 for the Mid-Atlantic. To reference the full list of 2021 national winners and/or to view photos and videos from Strategic Growth Forum Awards Gala, click here.
About Entrepreneur of The Year
Entrepreneur of The Year is the worlds most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National overall winners go on to compete for the title. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.
About Enviva
Enviva (NYSE: EVA) is the worlds largest producer of industrial wood pellets, a renewable and sustainable energy source that is produced by aggregating a natural resource, wood fiber, and processing it into a transportable form, wood pellets. Enviva sells a significant majority of its wood pellets through long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts with creditworthy customers in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan. Enviva owns and operates 10 plants with a combined production capacity of approximately 6.2 million metric tons per year in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. In addition, Enviva exports wood pellets through its deep-water marine terminals at the Port of Chesapeake, Virginia, the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi, and from third-party deep-water marine terminals in Savannah, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, and Panama City, Florida.
To learn more about Enviva please visit our website at www.envivabiomass.com. Follow Enviva on social media @Enviva.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006194/en/
Contacts
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jacob Westfall
media@envivabiomass.com
+1-301-657-5560
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Executives from F3 Intelligence Corp, the nation's leading business intelligence firm, were in attendance as VIP guests for the first annual Texas Blockchain Summit. The summit's purpose was to bring leaders in the industry together, discuss how blockchain technology is changing industries, and address Texas' role as the growing center for this activity within the United States. Notable speakers at the event included Senators Ted Cruz and Cynthia Lummis, and SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce.
F3 Analyst Wilberto Robles, Analyst Zachary Hunter, CEO Richard Ring, and COO Daniel Ruiz
One of F3 Intelligence Corp's key tenants is constantly staying on the cutting-edge regarding technology and industry disrupters. Specializing in due diligence and corporate intelligence, F3 Intelligence Corp's clientele span the gambit of fortune 500 companies, hedge firms, venture capitalists, as well as the healthcare, environmental, and banking sectors. F3 clientele represents industries that live or die by accurate industry intelligence, which is why F3 analysts make it a point to stay educated in emerging technologies. This knowledge and foresight are vital to providing their clients the intelligence and solutions they've come to trust and expect.
"Blockchain was just not something we could ignore, and rather than being scared of it, we decided to lean into it headfirst," F3's COO Daniel Ruiz stated. Currently, F3 is working with leaders in the industry to integrate blockchain technology within their operations and the company's non-profit, F3 Mission Children's Intelligence Agency. "To be able to share and document intelligence in a way that is secure, quick, and with immutable trust layers is vital for what we're trying to do in the industry," Mr. Ruiz further elaborated.
Crypto and blockchain technology first came to the attention of the analysts at F3 in 2019 when they started noting executives and companies using the technology to move and hide assets. F3 CEO Richard Ring was quick to point out, "Sure, some companies are moving money into crypto as a hedge against inflation or as a way to diversify their organization's portfolio. However, we'd be pretending if we didn't say that we've been seeing people do it to evade and hide assets for various reasons. Anyone that understands this technology knows that everything can be tracked on the ledgers, but that's IF someone even knows that they should be looking."
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F3 prioritizes staying educated on industry disrupters and then educating clients on how those disrupters specifically affect their organization. Mr. Ring stated, "We've had a lot of fun educating our clients on this technology. Many of our clients have gone from viewing blockchain technology as "how do we mitigate our risk?" to "how do we harness and integrate this technology to dominate?" According to F3 Analyst Zachary Hunter, "Clients across all industries are starting to wake up to what this technology is. If you're viewing this as a currency, you're missing the point." According to F3, blockchain technology represents secure cross-border transactions, network security, preventing entertainment piracy, secure contracts, supply chain management, and a whole lot more.
F3 Intelligence Corp continues to be the industry leader in business intelligence. Through their deep bench of talent, multi-intel discipline approach, and cutting-edge methodologies, they support top 100 law firms and clients across multiple industries. F3 Intelligence Corp has redefined what is possible in the world of corporate litigation support, capital market research, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, corporate governance, and board advisory.
Media Contact:
Richard Ring
407-676-1442
323709@email4pr.com
F3 CEO Richard Ring speaks with Hedera CEO President Mance Harmon regarding new use cases for Hedera's hashgraph HCS.
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SOURCE F3 Intelligence Corp
LAS VEGAS, November 29, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First paragraph of release dated Nov. 16, 2021, should read: Flower One Holdings Inc. ("Flower One" or the "Company") (CSE: FONE) (OTCQX: FLOOF) (FSE: F11), the leading cannabis cultivator and producer in Nevada, today announced that it is filing its third quarter 2021 financial results and accompanying managements discussion and analysis (the "Q3-21 filings") on Monday, November 29, 2021 after markets close and will hold its conference call on Tuesday, November 30, at 10:00 a.m. ET (instead of ... before markets close ...).
The updated release reads:
FLOWER ONE RESCHEDULES RELEASE OF THIRD QUARTER 2021 FINANCIAL RESULTS AND EARNINGS CALL
Flower One Holdings Inc. ("Flower One" or the "Company") (CSE: FONE) (OTCQX: FLOOF) (FSE: F11), the leading cannabis cultivator and producer in Nevada, today announced that it is filing its third quarter 2021 financial results and accompanying managements discussion and analysis (the "Q3-21 filings") on Monday, November 29, 2021 after markets close and will hold its conference call on Tuesday, November 30, at 10:00 a.m. ET.
As previously announced on October 11, 2021, Flower One hired its new CFO, Araxie Grant. Since her appointment, Ms. Grant has completely rebuilt the Companys financial department and implemented financial processes to ensure the Company is operating at an enhanced level of best practices. With the implementation of these processes, the Company has elected to reschedule its Q3-21 filings to a later date within the allotted filing deadline.
Conference Call Details: Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2021 Time: 10:00 a.m. ET Call: 1-877-407-0789 (Canada and US) 1-201-689-8562 (International) Conference ID: 13724959 Webcast: A live webcast will be available on Flower Ones website or at ViaVid
All interested parties are invited to participate. 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.
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For those unable to join the live webcast, a replay will be available until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 29, 2022. To access the archived webcast, please visit Flower Ones website.
About Flower One Holdings Inc.
Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer, and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. By combining more than 20 years of greenhouse operational excellence with best-in-class cannabis operators, Flower One offers consistent, reliable, and scalable fulfillment to a growing number of industry-leading cannabis brands (Cookies, Kiva, Old Pal, Heavy Hitters, Lift Tickets, The Clear, HUXTON, and Flower Ones leading in-house brand, NLVO, and more). Flower One currently produces a wide range of products from flower, full-spectrum oils, and distillates to finished consumer packaged goods, including a variety of: pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, topicals, and more for top-performing brands in cannabis. Flower Ones Nevada footprint includes the Companys flagship facility, a 400,000 square-foot high-tech greenhouse and 55,000 square-foot production facility, as well as a second site with a 25,000 square-foot indoor cultivation facility and commercial kitchen. Flower One has built an industry-leading team focused on becoming the first high-quality, low-cost brand fulfillment partner.
The Companys common shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the Companys symbol "FONE", in the United States on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol "FLOOF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "F11". For more information, visit: https://flowerone.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of United States securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from historical results or from any future actual results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "belief," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "potential," "should," "may," "will," "plans," "continue" or other similar expressions to be uncertain and forward-looking.
Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, timing of the release of the Q3-21 filings, timing of the conference call to discuss such financial results, the Companys ability to operate at an enhanced level of best practices, statements relating to the Companys position as a leader in the Nevada cannabis market, the Companys leadership as a cannabis cultivator, producer, innovator and full-service brand fulfillment partner, and the production of a wide range of products for the nations industry leading brands.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, the "Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Information" section contained the Companys managements discussion and analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 (the "MD&A"). All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the Companys public securities filings with the Canadian securities commissions, including the Companys MD&A. Although Flower One has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.
Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. Flower One disclaims and does not undertake any intention or obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116006452/en/
Contacts
Flower One Investor Relations
ir@flowerone.com
Kellen OKeefe, President & CEO
702.660.7775
Flower One Media
media@flowerone.com
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortis, a high-growth commercial bank serving small- to medium-sized privately held businesses in Colorado and Utah, announced the hiring of four new banking teams in Salt Lake City, UT.
Fortis (PRNewsfoto/Fortis)
Mr. Kristopher Adams will be responsible for the continued expansion and growth of the Fortis SBA Lending strategy. Mr. Michael Borys, Mr. Jon Moir and Ms. Lindsey Williams will lead teams in the Utah Commercial Banking market.
"We are pleased to continue to expand our presence in Utah, furthering our commitment to serving the market and supporting the local community," stated Chris Luce, Fortis Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. "Fortis continues to build teams of bankers who bring breadth and depth of industry experience and do not require layers of middle management to be successful. We are fortunate to have welcomed nine veteran bankers over the past year in both Colorado and Utah."
"Our new teams fit perfectly into the Fortis business model that our clients have come to appreciate and expect," stated Josh Peters, Fortis' Chief Lending Officer. "We expect consistent growth within our commercial, specialty and treasury management departments and look forward to the continued expansion of our SBA products and offerings. Our focus on the development of our people and products will enhance our market position as our clients continue to grow, so they can focus on what matters most to them: running their businesses."
"Bankers chose Fortis because of our lack of bureaucracy," continued Mr. Luce. "This gives them the ability to better serve their clients compared to the regional or money center banks. We reward our bankers with a simple, performance-based compensation model that continues to deliver superior results to our clients."
About Fortis
Fortis is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a state-chartered bank with offices in the Denver and Salt Lake City metropolitan areas. The bank provides business and personal clients with a full suite of loan, treasury management and deposit products, with an emphasis on Commercial and Specialty clients. To learn more about Fortis, visit www.fortisprivatebank.com.
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Contact
Laura Hildreth, Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources
lhildreth@fortispb.com
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SOURCE Fortis
Coquitlam, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2021) - Greenbriar Capital Corp. (TSXV: GRB) (OTC Pink: GEBRF) ("Greenbriar") is pleased to announce that it has executed an agreement for long-term solar energy supply with West Lake Energy Corp ("West Lake"), a leading privately owned independent Canadian oil and gas producer based in Calgary, Alberta. Under the agreement's terms Greenbriar will build, own and operate 90MWac of solar energy production with the first solar site having a capacity for 30MWac. West Lake agrees to purchase all solar power generated from the project and has the option to purchase from the second site which will provide the remaining 60MWac.
West Lake intends to become a leader within the Canadian oil and gas industry by being one of the first pure upstream oil and gas producers taking the significant step towards carbon neutrality. As part of this goal, West Lake is working towards having a significant portion of its electricity needs met through clean energy.
"This relationship represents a very exciting step for West Lake," says Bruce McDonald, CEO of West Lake. "In addition to providing a secure, low-cost power supply for our operations and carbon credits from the project, our agreement creates a strong partnership with Greenbriar, leveraging their experience in the renewable sector in North America and providing a model for future renewable projects. We intend to bolster participation in renewable energy sources as part of our journey towards carbon neutrality, becoming a leader in the renewable energy transition."
Greenbriar and West Lake have agreed to a framework to work together in future solar production facilities. With the goal of increasing capacity to 400MW over the next several years, the two companies intend on being the premier solar energy provider to other independent upstream oil and gas producers who do not have the capacity and expertise to build and own their own renewable energy facilities
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Greenbriar's award-winning and experienced management, board and advisory team, has built, financed, owned or operated over 50,000 MW of renewable energy facilities totaling over US $180 Billion of capital expenditures.
The projections for 90MWac of solar energy generation facilities should have an approximate 10-year annual levelized EBITDA of CDN $19,500,000 and a CAPEX of approximately CDN $105 to $120 Million. CAPEX will vary subject to changes in equipment, interconnection and construction costs. Greenbriar has engaged Nu-E Corp. for the construction of the solar energy facilities. Nu-E is a proven leader in the renewable energy construction industry.
Jeff Ciachurski, the CEO of Greenbriar states: "We are excited about the leadership and vision from West Lake Energy Corp. To be part of a first-class upstream oil and gas producer's primary energy needs and assist them in their transition to carbon neutrality, speaks volumes to their exemplary leadership for the environment, social practises and governance. This is a major milestone in the upstream oil and gas business."
About West Lake Energy Corp:
West Lake Energy Corp. is an intermediate privately held Calgary-based oil and natural gas producer focused on development and exploration in western Canada with annual revenues greater than $200 million per year. West Lake's operations are focused in the Provost medium oil region, the Lloydminster heavy oil region, and the Brazeau area of West Central Alberta. These three core areas contain over 90% of West Lake's production. Committed to sustainability, West Lake is implementing a growth strategy of selective acquisitions and exploration and development of its core areas through a combination of primary, secondary and enhanced oil recovery techniques to increase reserves, production and cash flows at attractive returns on capital. At the same time, West Lake is dedicated to strong environmental, social and governance practices, including potential future energy transition opportunities. Additional information about West Lake can be found on the company's website at www.westlakeenergy.ca.
About Greenbriar Capital Corp:
Greenbriar is a leading developer of renewable energy and sustainable real estate. With long-term, high impact, contracted sales agreements in key project locations and led by a successful, industry-recognized operating and development team, Greenbriar targets deep valued assets directed at accretive shareholder value.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
"Jeff Ciachurski"
Jeffrey J. Ciachurski
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Greenbriar Capital Corp
For information please contact:
E: info@greenbriarcapitalcorp.ca
P: 949.903.5906
www.greenbriarcapitalcorp.ca
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103922
Project with Mellower Coffee uses technology to help SMEs and growers to increase their working capital
SINGAPORE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore's GUUD (Finance) Pte. Ltd. ("GUUD Finance"), the financing pillar of the GUUD group, a leading trade technology company, has inked an agreement with Mellower Coffee ("Mellower"), one of China's leading speciality coffee chains to provide working capital loans across its coffee supply chain. The agreement marks the GUUD group's first foray into the coffee market and is also significant as it allows GUUD to provide credit access all the way upstream to the farmers or growers of coffee beans.
The GUUD group's vision has always been to simplify trade processes so that anyone and everyone can access global trade. As a key player enabling financing for all businesses in the global trade cycle, this project is important to GUUD, as it allows everyone in the supply chain, whether coffee growers, roasters, or retailers to be able to access trade financing via traditional and alternative sources, and to free up their funds to be re-deployed into the day-to-day working capital needs of their respective businesses.
As part of this agreement, GUUD Finance will provide working capital support of up to USD12 million for Mellower by financing the purchase of coffee beans of Chinese origin from Yunnan during the harvest season, providing farmers and growers with access to the working capital they need. GUUD Finance will also finance the purchase of coffee powder and other coffee related products of Chinese origin earmarked for export, helping smaller businesses in China gain access to working capital so they can further grow their export volumes.
Mellower Coffee is a plantation-to-cup coffee chain from Shanghai that believes quality specialty coffee is synonymous with a high quality of life. As the leading specialty coffee brand in China, Mellower currently operates a chain of 72 retail stores in Mainland China, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.
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Ms Cathy Lei, Founder of Mellower shared, "We are pleased to be partnering GUUD Finance as we continue to grow our business and start to expand to more markets internationally. By providing working capital financing for all the businesses upstream and downstream in the coffee supply chain, GUUD Finance has been helping all our partners and producers access funding, giving them the opportunity to take in more stocks for sale. Their overall expertise in navigating global trade, use of sophisticated technology to track shipments and monitor goods as well as ability to facilitate financing, especially for businesses like ours, is invaluable as we expand to even more countries."
GUUD Finance has been working closely with Mellower Coffee to implement asset-backed financing across its supply chain, using internet-of-things (IOT) for goods tracking and optimising trade flows and processes since mid this year. They completed their first successful financing deal earlier this month.
Mr Desmond Loh, Chief Executive Officer of GUUD Finance shared, "Helping smaller producers and SMEs access working capital finance has always been a priority for GUUD Finance. We are extremely happy to have this opportunity to partner Mellower Coffee as they continue their expansion plans globally, supplying great coffee to businesses and retail chains around the world. In particular, we hope to assist companies that have been impacted by the various supply chain disruptions and are required to aggregate their products for sale earlier. Similarly, we want to help companies that have been looking to store more buffer stock compared to the Just-In-time solutions that they have been traditionally working with. We look forward to supporting more of such businesses in the agriculture commodity business and to help them gain access to financing solutions that help meet their working capital needs."
GUUD Finance, which forms the "Pay" pillar of the GUUD group, helps businesses gain access to finance so they can trade greater volumes of goods with ease. GUUD's digital trade ecosystem, the only one in the world that connects all stakeholders in the trade facilitation process, helps businesses bypass long-standing barriers to global trade, enabling them to import or export goods seamlessly to any part of the world.
GUUD Finance recently launched RYTE in July 2021, an intelligent trade financing technology platform designed to simplify complex and traditionally manual trade finance processes, connecting business users to both banks and alternative financiers, allowing them greater opportunities to access funding options to meet their working capital requirements.
GUUD is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Singapore, with offices strategically located in Indonesia, China and Kenya, and projects spanning more than 17 countries.
Notes to editors:
About GUUD
GUUD, a new digital way to trade globally, is a technology platform and group of businesses under the vCargo Cloud umbrella. The GUUD group references the UN/CEFACT Buy-Ship-Pay model to cover all aspects of trade facilitation, bypassing long-standing barriers to trade, and digitally transforming trade processes so they become simpler, more efficient and more inclusive.
Led by a strong team of industry and IT professionals, GUUD aspires to help anyone and everyone, especially micro, small and medium enterprises, to become a player in global trade and to export and import from any part of the world.
Our mission is to Trade for Good, and guided by UN's sustainable development goals, we pursue what is good for people, businesses and economies, helping improve livelihoods, generating prosperity and creating technological efficiencies and improvements everywhere we go.
For more information, please visit www.guud.company
About Mellower Coffee
Established in 2011, Mellower coffee is a leading specialty coffee brand in China, operating a chain of 72 stores in Mainland China, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam. The company prides itself as the key player, introducing excellent coffee products and advanced specialty coffee culture into China coffee market.
With its unique and integrated industrial chain, Mellower aims to be the top player in the Chinese coffee industry, and it not only has its own plantation of 3,000 mu in Yunnan but has also established strategic agreements with leading specialty coffee farmers in Ethiopia, Panama and Colombia, ensuring premium quality and stable supply. Mellower also owns its own roasting factory in Shanghai.
The only OEM partner of NESTLE in China, and the supplier of well-known beverage brands, such as Never Coffee, Nongfu Spring, LaiYiFen, Take-Away Cafe, Mellower has established itself as a top beverage company and it also cooperates with top beverage companies worldwide in continuously developing new products.
SOURCE GUUD Pte Ltd
TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Yields on Japan's 10-year government bonds ended flat on Wednesday as investors showed scant response to a moderately weak outcome of Bank of Japan's bond-buying operations.
The market also shrugged off a rise in U.S. Treasuries yields overnight after strong retail sales data.
The 10-year JGB yield was flat at 0.070%.
U.S. Treasuries and benchmark 10-year note yields reached as high as 1.646% in early Asia, a three-week high.
Yields on longer-end notes rose, with the 20-year JGB yield gaining 0.5 basis point to 0.470% ahead of an auction for the debt with the same maturity on Thursday.
The 30-year JGB yield also rose 0.5 basis point to 0.680% and the 40-year JGB yield rose one basis point to 0.730%.
The two-year JGB yield was flat at minus 0.125% and the five-year yield fell 0.5 basis point to minus 0.085%. Benchmark 10-year JGB futures fell 0.04 point to 151.62, with a trading volume of 17,078 lots. (Reporting by Tokyo markets team)
Customer data and marketing automation leader experienced 679% revenue growth from 2017 to 2020
BOSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Klaviyo , a leading customer and marketing automation platform, today announced it ranked 201 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and 15th in the New England region. Now in its 27th year, the list is a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America. Award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal revenue growth from 2017 to 2020; Klaviyo grew 679% during this period.
Klaviyo (PRNewsfoto/Klaviyo)
"Our team has worked incredibly hard to build the infrastructure for our customers to take ownership of their growth and success, and we're honored to be recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing companies in North America," said Andrew Bialecki, co-founder and CEO of Klaviyo. "But more importantly, we're excited to be creating real value and revenue for our customers, particularly as we enter the busiest shopping season of the year."
Overall, 2021 Technology Fast 500 companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 212% to 87,037% from 2017 to 2020, with median growth of 521%.
To learn more about Klaviyo, visit www.klaviyo.com
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
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About Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a leading customer data and marketing automation platform dedicated to accelerating revenue and customer connection for online businesses. Klaviyo makes it easy to store, access, analyze and use transactional and behavioral data to power highly-targeted customer and prospect communications. The company's hybrid customer-data and marketing-platform model allows companies to grow by fostering direct relationships with customers, without giving up their valuable data to popular big-tech ad platforms. Over 275,000 innovative companies like Unilever, Custom Ink, Living Proof and Huckberry sell more with Klaviyo. Learn more at www.klaviyo.com .
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
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SOURCE Klaviyo
Hong Kong, China--(Newsfile Corp. - November 17, 2021) - META FANTASY, a metaverse technology company, announces that it has partnered with Grayscale Asia-Pacific to develop metaverse and decentralized network in the Asia-Pacific region.
META FANTASY aims to take the metaverse concept to the next level with its decentralized metaverse project, FantaVerse that utilizes the BIGANT technology. BIGANT (Blockchain, Interactivity, Game, AI, Network, Token Economy) is a proprietary design & technological ecosystem by META FANTASY that works comprehensively for the development of the metaverse and realizes the elements of the metaverse, including decentralization, creator economy, anywhere, variety, economy & civility, virtual social, immersive and low friction.
META FANTASY has completed its economic and ecological modules and has accelerated its technological development since the beginning of the year, making breakthroughs and revolutionary advancements to date.
Grayscale is currently expanding into the Asia-Pacific markets with plans to invest and acquire companies in Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia. The Asia-Pacific region will be the centre of its decentralized data processing infrastructure and data centres with the aim to empower decentralized technological developments in the region. Grayscale-Asia Pacific will also increase the deployment of low-energy, green and eco-friendly mining technologies within the next two years, and deploy blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, big data and 5G to create and enhance digital economies, distributed data storage, decentralized cloud computing infrastructure in the region.
As a strategic partner, Grayscale's expansion and development roadmap empowers META FANTASY's vision of creating a decentralized metaverse that brings the virtual world to life and unlocking the infinite possibilities of the metaverse. "We are confident that the cooperation with Grayscale will accelerate the creation and development of FantaVerse, and become an industry leader in metaverse technology and decentralized network. We will take lead in the pilot construction of decentralized network in South Korea," said Albert, COO of META FANTASY. In the first quarter of 2022, users will be able to experience metaverse products that utilizes META FANTASY's BIGANT technology.
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Contact:
META FANTASY
3109209996
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103966
Retail giants are offering to pay for employees' college education in a bid to attract more talent amid a historic race to fill open positions.
Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) is one of those companies but it's also charting a unique course.
Unlike Amazon (AMZN), Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and other companies offering free tuition for employees who wish to upgrade their skills in almost any field at in a variety of colleges, Microsoft is honing in on community colleges to fill a specific but urgent need: More cybersecurity professionals.
Looking at the demand for educational programs they launched after the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft found that "the appetite is there," Naria Santa Lucia, general manager of digital inclusion and U.S. community engagement at Microsoft Philanthropies, told Yahoo Finance.
The company also realized that "people weren't completing the course pathways as much as we would have liked," Lucia added, "and what we realized is we need to get really targeted and look very carefully at the roles that we know are going to expand."
Microsoft Corporation Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, gestures as he addresses the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bangalore on February 25, 2020. (Photo by Manjunath Kiran / AFP)
'There is more the private sector can do'
Microsoft identified cybersecurity as a field with a massive shortage of workers, and is hoping to fill 250,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. by the middle of the decade. (With an increase in the number of data breaches and hacks, the need is urgent.)
The company is hoping to help train and recruit about 250,000 people into cybersecurity by 2025. Some may end up working with Microsoft, its clients, or other employers across the country.
"Then we thought about, 'Hey, what's the best way we can really reach scale in this?' And we really believe that the community college system in the United States is just a great resource," Lucia explained. "There are community colleges everywhere. The tuition is generally affordable. If you are lower income, you can apply for aid and sometimes get that fully covered. It's diverse. People go part-time [or] full-time. I think the average age is often about 26 years old in a given space. ... It just offers a broad range and opportunity."
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Microsoft's approach is markedly different from what other retail giants have offered to workers in a bid to attract more talent.
A student at The Los Angeles Community College campus on Monday August 30th of Los Angeles City College (LACC) in the LACCD, the nation's largest community college district. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images).
Partnering with community colleges, for instance, is different from Amazon's and Walmart's efforts, given that the company is investing in "not necessarily on the current employees at Microsoft, but on society as a whole," Lucia added.
For instance, if a worker was currently employed in a retail job or a different industry and wanted to try out something new, Microsoft is hoping to create a runway for that person to pursue a role in cybersecurity at a low cost.
Microsoft, according to its press release, is providing funding and training for faculty at 150 community colleges, and scholarships and resources to 25,000 students.
The tech giant's interest is likely a boon to some two-year colleges, given that enrollment has taken a beating at these institutions.
According to early data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, undergraduate enrollment continued to decline in fall 2021 by 3.2% after dropping last year amid the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment at community colleges dropped by 5.6%, more than at public four-year colleges, which dropped by 2.3%.
Already, colleges have started benefitting from the program. El Paso Community College was recently reported to have received a $50,000 grant from Microsoft for the its cybersecurity program.
Store employees wait for customers during the grand opening of a flagship Microsoft Corp. retail store in New York, October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
According to Lucia, working with community colleges made sense because of the outcomes.
When Microsoft partnered with nonprofits to deliver its content, completion rates "went through the roof," she explained. "And that was the way when we realized, yes, there is a breadth offering that's important, but let's really double down and partner with those that are already in the space so already trusted by the learners, like community colleges to really do something different and take a different approach."
Lucia also hinted at more commitments coming down the pike in the near future.
"If it is a PR push for companies, I say we should all push more," she said. "There is more the private sector can do to partner with the public sector, with nonprofits, with the higher education system. This is a moment where we all have to have hands on deck with the changes in the labor market."
Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.
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Lead Plaintiff Deadline Is January 11, 2022
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a federal securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Novavax, Inc. (Novavax or the Company) (NASDAQ: NVAX) in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of those who purchased Novavax common stock between March 2, 2021 and October 19, 2021, inclusive (the Class Period).
All investors who purchased shares of Novavax, Inc. and incurred losses are urged to contact the firm immediately at classmember@whafh.com or (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774. You may obtain additional information concerning the action or join the case on our website, www.whafh.com.
If you have incurred losses in the shares of Novavax, Inc., you may, no later than January 11, 2022, request that the Court appoint you lead plaintiff of the proposed class. Please contact Wolf Haldenstein to learn more about your rights as an investor in Novavax, Inc.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CASE
The filed Complaint alleges that Defendants misrepresented the Companys progress toward successfully developing its COVID-19 vaccine (NVX-CoV2373), including:
overstating the Companys manufacturing capabilities and downplaying manufacturing issues that would impact the approval timeline for NVX-CoV2373;
concealing that the Company was unlikely to meet its anticipated EUA regulatory timelines;
exaggerating the regulatory and commercial prospects for NVX-CoV2373.
On August 5, 2021, the Company reported that it expected to file for NVX-CoV2373s EUA in the fourth quarter of 2021, rather than the third quarter of 2021. On this news, the Companys stock price fell by more than 19%.
Then, on October 19, 2021, Politico published an article entitled They rushed the process: Vaccine makers woes hamper global inoculation campaign. The Politico article reported that the Company faces significant hurdles in proving it can manufacture a shot that meets regulators quality standards with respect to NVX-CoV2373. The Politico article cited anonymous sources as stating that the Companys issues are more concerning than previously understood and that the Company could take until the end of 2022 to resolve its manufacturing issues and win regulatory authorizations and approvals.
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On this news, the Companys stock price fell another 14.7%.
Wolf Haldenstein has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation.
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this case, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com, or visit our website at www.whafh.com.
Contact:
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP
Patrick Donovan, Esq.
Gregory Stone, Director of Case and Financial Analysis
Email: gstone@whafh.com, donovan@whafh.com or classmember@whafh.com
Tel: (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 8, 2021, Mr. Jermaine Irby filed suit against the U.S. Army alleging retaliation for filing a sex discrimination complaint in 2015.
Wiley Walsh, P.C. (PRNewsfoto/Wiley Walsh, P.C.)
"I hope my lawsuit proves that the Army is subject to the same laws that everyone else is and that no employer can retaliate against an employee who complains of discrimination," Mr. Irby said.
According to the complaint, in 2013, Mr. Irby started working for the Army's Sexual Harassment Assault Response Program, which is also known as SHARP. He was promoted shortly after that to an instructor/trainer position.
In 2015, Mr. Irby filed a sex discrimination complaint against his supervisor Jeffrey Gorres. That complaint resulted in a settlement where Mr. Gorres was required to attend training on communication issues.
Since then, according to the complaint, Mr. Gorres has retaliated against Mr. Irby in several ways. For example, in 2018, despite not having been Mr. Irby's supervisor for approximately two years, Mr. Gorres inserted himself into a complaint against Mr. Irby and expressly brought up Mr. Irby's prior EEO complaint in explaining how Mr. Irby created a hostile environment.
In 2019, according to the complaint, Mr. Gorres ensured that Mr. Irby was denied necessary credentials he needed to do his job as a SHARP trainer. These denied credentials forced Mr. Irby to have to find other employment outside of SHARP.
In September 2019, Mr. Irby requested an EEO hearing with the Army. To date, no Administrative Law Judge has been assigned to the case. Therefore, Mr. Irby has exercised his right to file a lawsuit in federal court.
Mr. Irby is represented by Colin Walsh and Jairo Castellanos of Wiley Walsh, P.C. Colin Walsh is a board certified specialist in labor and employment law.
Related Links
https://www.scribd.com/document/540416188/Complaint-Irby-v-Wormuth
https://www.wileywalsh.com
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SOURCE Wiley Walsh, P.C.
The Essential Housing Campaign's Kickoff Trailer
The Essential Housing Campaign's Kickoff Trailer
The Essential Housing Campaign's Kickoff Trailer
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the price of housing continues to surge in cities across the country, the middle class is being left behind, with the supply of affordable homes falling far short of current demand. In Los Angeles County, the median price of a home increased 12% annually to a record $795,000 in September - far above what an average household can afford, estimated to be approximately $300,000 based on the County's latest estimated $73,000 median household income.
To tackle this dilemma, a new coalition of leading public and private organizations in the community and housing development industry has recently formed to launch 'The Essential Housing Campaign', organized by The Housing Innovation Collaborative (HICo), the Los Angeles-based nonprofit housing R&D organization, in partnership with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
The goal of the new Campaign, running now through 2030, is to build 130,000 new homes throughout Los Angeles County, priced to be affordable to residents earning up to 120% of the area's median income, using limited public subsidy.
"While there are many obstacles ahead, this essential middle-income housing can be built in the Los Angeles region using existing private market funds, existing construction methods, and existing available land - we just need the policies and incentives in place to encourage more equitable housing development," said Charly Ligety, Director of HICo.
"The Los Angeles region is not building housing for middle-income workers anymore - many nurses, teachers, firefighters, public safety and transportation personnel, among other essential workers, cannot afford to live in the communities they serve," said Ligety. "If left unchecked, the problem of housing affordability for middle-income workers is projected to get worse," he continued.
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This phenomenon, known as 'the missing middle', is present in many high-growth cities around the world where the supply of new homes has not kept up with demand and most new development is priced only for the highest end of the market.
Based on the latest projections by Los Angeles City Planning, only 1,000 new homes for middle-income workers are expected to be built by 2030, less than 0.5% of the more than 310,000 housing units expected to be built in the City. The projected number is consistent with recent development trends in Los Angeles - since 2014, only 827 units of more than 117,000 new homes built in the City were affordable to the middle-income segment.
The goal of 130,000 new homes by 2030 is based on a timeline set by California's latest state-mandated housing production goals, which went into effect in October and runs through the end of 2029. The call to action to build an unprecedented 130,000 new middle-income homes is joined by local and regional political leaders.
"Our essential workers are the foundation that keeps our city running, and this new pledge to create affordable housing in the communities they serve will help ensure they can access prosperity," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) - the nation's largest metropolitan planning organization - is also helping lead the effort.
"Providing tools and developing new approaches to affordability and public-private collaboration will be vital in our efforts to build middle-income housing projects throughout the region," said Clint Lorimore, President of SCAG.
The coalition has been working on a comprehensive action plan, and has already hosted more than 30 public presentations of solutions in the housing development space that can be deployed, ranging from proven approaches in policy, land use, finance, design, construction, along with various operational and process reforms to help accelerate and drive down the cost of housing development.
For more information about The Essential Housing Campaign, visit housinginnovation.co/essential. The Housing Innovation Collaborative ("HICo") is a solution-oriented, non-profit housing R&D organization based in Los Angeles, CA, focused on accelerating the next generation of design, finance and policy to address the housing crisis, more at housinginnovation.co.
Press Contact: Charly Ligety, charly@housinginnovation.co.
Related Images
Image 1: The Essential Housing Campaign's Kickoff Trailer
On a mission to build more than 130,000 new middle-income homes in Los Angeles. Image courtesy of The Housing Innovation Collaborative.
This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.
Attachment
BERLIN and ERFURT, Germany, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - Greenrise Global Brands Inc.'s (formerly AMP Alternative Medical Products Inc.) (Frankfurt: C4T) (ISIN: CA39540L1085) (CSE: XCX), wholly-owned subsidiary, AMP Alternative Medical Products GmbH ("AMP"), a pharmaceutical supplier of medical cannabis products to German pharmacies, announces the launch of a new dronabinol medical cannabis product available in pharmacies beginning in January 2022.
Greenrise Global Logo (CNW Group/Greenrise Global Brands Inc.)
Dronabinol is pure Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and is registered as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).
AMP's dronabinol product is "Made in Germany." It will be offered at a competitive price and completes AMP's product portfolio supporting any therapy requiring medicinal cannabis products for the growing range of therapies approaches being prescribed by a growing number of doctors.
Dronabinol has been a prominent medical cannabis product in Germany for many years, and it is frequently prescribed by doctors for pain management. In comparison to the procedure of preparing vaporized forms of medicinal cannabis, many patients find dronabinol prescriptions easier to ingest. Doctors believe that the THC concentration of dronabinol is more accurate than that of flowers or extracts, making dosage monitoring easier. Pharmacists use Dronabinol to fill doctor-prescribed medicine prescriptions for patients, usually in the form of drops or solutions.
Dronabinol is Germany's most often prescribed medical cannabis product, accounting for 35% of all medical cannabis prescriptions and 46.5 million in sales in 2020. In Germany, total medical cannabis sales of reimbursed prescriptions totaled 165 million, accounting for almost 90% of the medical cannabis market in 2020.
AMP's national sales team is presently receiving training with medical professionals to learn about the benefits of dronabinol for doctors' patients and prescription preparation methods for pharmacists.
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AMP selected a German partner as its dronabinol supplier. Doctors and pharmacists can find more information about the product or order on the AMP website: https://amp-eu.com/doccheck-login
"We are expecting strong sales from this new product as dronabinol is well known to doctors and insurance companies who often reimburse dronabinol prescriptions," said Dr. Stefan Feuerstein, Managing Director of AMP, and President and Director of Greenrise Global. AMP's dronabinol product offers the best quality for patients and the best value for pharmacists and insurance companies compared to the limited number of other products in the market currently."
About Greenrise Global Brands Inc.
Greenrise Global helps people realize the beneficial properties of cannabis. Greenrise Global is a Canadian publicly traded corporation with two German operating subsidiaries: Greenrise GmbH ("Greenrise Wellbeing") and AMP Alternative Medical Products GmbH ("AMP"). Greenrise Wellbeing is a CBD wellness firm based in Hamburg, with brands including Herbify and CANAVEX in its portfolio. AMP is based in Erfurt and supplies medical cannabis products to pharmacies across Germany, including medical cannabis brands from Aphria, Bedrocan, Little Green Pharma and AMP's branded line of products and sold through its nationwide sale team. AMP complies with the German Narcotic Drug Act (BtMG) and the Free State of Thuringia's regulatory requirements, ensuring that products imported from around the world and sold in Germany meet the European Union's Good Manufacturing Practice (EU-GMP) standard.
For more information about Greenrise Global, please visit www.greenriseglobal.com
Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding its business and the economic environment in which it operates, including with respect to its business plans and milestones and the timing thereof. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements do not guarantee future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to control or predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them publicly to reflect new information or the occurrence of future events or circumstances unless otherwise required to do so by law.
SOURCE Greenrise Global Brands Inc.
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The UK's largest grocer Tesco enhances product buying through partnership with global product sourcing platform RangeMe, creating visibility to over 200,000 suppliers. Having expanded to the UK this summer, RangeMe is now working with buyers at a range of retailers.
SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The UK's largest grocer Tesco has partnered with the world's largest product sourcing platform RangeMe to support their product buying teams with access to the most relevant products their customers demand.
The UK's largest grocer Tesco enhances product buying through partnership with global product sourcing platform RangeMe, creating visibility to over 200,000 suppliers. Tesco will leverage RangeMe to help their buyers scale product sourcing efforts with streamlined submissions and simplified discovery tools. Buyers can filter searches to find brands and products meeting exact sourcing needs, seamless connectivity and collaboration with suppliers, and access curated collections.
Tesco will leverage RangeMe to help their buyers scale product sourcing efforts with streamlined submissions and simplified discovery tools. Buyers can filter searches to find brands and products meeting exact sourcing needs, seamless connectivity and collaboration with suppliers, and access curated collections to help identify and understand category trends and emerging brands.
RangeMe first launched in 2014 and is used today by over 12,000 retail buyers in the UK, Benelux region, North America, and Asia Pacific. It has quickly established itself as the industry leader for retail product discovery and sourcing by becoming the world's largest source of brands and products purchased by retail buyers.
RangeMe is the global online platform where retailers and suppliers can discover, connect, and grow their business. Suppliers can showcase their range, bring new products to market, increase brand visibility, and grow sales, while retail buyers use RangeMe to discover new products, search trends, and communicate directly with brands.
"We launched in the UK a few months ago and today Tesco, the largest grocer and supermarket chain in the country, has joined forces with us. We welcome them to our community of top retailers from around the world to transform their product sourcing experience. This is also an extraordinary opportunity for British suppliers to showcase their products directly to Tesco buyers and put their best foot forward" said Nicky Jackson, CEO of RangeMe.
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This news presents suppliers around the world and especially in the UK a front-row audience with one of the biggest names in retail. RangeMe helps suppliers grow their retail relationships with a platform that gives them the tools and insights to manage their products, market their brand, and build awareness.
About RangeMe
RangeMe , an ECRM company, is the leading online platform that streamlines new product discovery between suppliers and retailers. The platform empowers retail buyers to efficiently discover innovative and emerging products, while streamlining the inbound product submission process. For product suppliers, RangeMe enables them to grow their retail relationships with a platform that gives them the tools to manage their products, market their brand, and build awareness. Now integrated into the ECRM product offering, RangeMe adds increased breadth and depth to the industry's most complete sourcing solution for top retailers and product suppliers.
Press Contacts:
U.S.
Dan Dyer
E-mail: 324015@email4pr.com
Phone: 513-478-7818
Europe
Bilal Mahmood
E-mail: 324015@email4pr.com
Phone: +44 (0) 20 3640 7759 and +44 (0) 771 400 7257
"We launched in the UK a few months ago and today Tesco, the largest grocer and supermarket chain in the country, has joined forces with us. We welcome them to our community of top retailers from around the world to transform their product sourcing experience. This is also an extraordinary opportunity for British suppliers to showcase their products directly to Tesco buyers and put their best foot forward." - Nicky Jackson, CEO of RangeMe
Cision
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SOURCE RangeMe
During the event, Santander Chile announced that the entity will be the first local bank to build solar plants for its own energy source
SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For the second year in a row, Santander Chile held a virtual event with investors, where the advances of the Bank were explained by Claudio Melandri, President of the Bank, and its CEO, Miguel Mata. In this opportunity, the focus was ESG themes (Environmental, Social, and Governance), highlighting the efforts Santander has done to help its clients transition towards a greener economy and how it has reduced its own impact on the planet.
The road forward
The Bank is currently preparing its first ESG Framework which should be launched soon. Under this mechanism, the bond issues will have an official seal as ESG bonds. This framework will include a Second Party Opinion to ensure that funds will be allocated to projects, complying with the principles of the International Capital Markets Association. Initially, US$1.5 billion in initiatives have been identified that will be financed through this program. The ESG bonds will be linked to energy efficiency, renewable energy, pollution reduction, financial inclusion, and social projects.
Miguel Mata announced the ten responsible banking commitments that we have established to meet in the coming years:
To be the best company to work for in Chile: we are currently the number 1 company in the Great Place To Work ranking in 2020 in companies with more than 1,000 workers and we have the Top Employer certification. We seek to maintain this leadership position.
Increase the percentage of women in managerial positions: currently 25% of managers are women and our goal is to reach 30% by 2025.
Eliminate the gender pay gap: we currently have a 3.1% gender pay gap and our goal is to eliminate it by 2025. The Equal Conciliation Seal, delivered by the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, gives us a path and an official commitment to advance on this issue.
Work to financially empower people: between 2019 and 2020 we contributed to financially empower 921,779 people. Through our financial products such as Life we want to financially empower more than 2 million people by 2025.
Grant green financing to our clients: We have defined a goal for 2025 to finance our own projects and those of our clients for at least US$ 1.5 billion through our ESG framework.
Increase energy from renewable sources: 28% of our energy comes from these types of sources. In addition, we are committed to ensuring that 100% of the electrical energy we use comes from renewable sources.
Mitigate 100% of our carbon footprint and gradually reduce it: since 2019 we mitigate 100% of our carbon footprint. We will also continue to make progress in measuring the carbon footprint of our loan portfolio and we join the Group's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Regarding our own operations, the goal is to be carbon neutral by 2025, without the need to offset the footprint with the purchase of carbon credits.
Eliminate single-use plastics in our operation: This year we will eliminate 100% of single-use plastics.
Deliver scholarships, internships and entrepreneurship programs: in 2020 we awarded 2,951 scholarships for education and entrepreneurship at the local level. Our goal is to award 13,541 scholarships between 2019 and 2024.
Support people through our community contribution programs: during 2020 we supported 103,792 people through our education programs and other support measures for the benefit of people in vulnerable situations. In social matters between 2019 and 2024 we hope to help 493,852 people through our community programs.
We also want to continue generating ROE at 17% -19% with core capital levels above 10% in BIS III.
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During the event, there was also a deep dive into each theme of Environmental, Social, and Governance and how the Bank has integrated these into its strategy:
Environmental
The financial solutions linked to ESG criteria has been one of the value added offers the Bank has put forth to companies that seek to advance in these themes. Through different financing alternatives, Santander Chile has driven the local market to move towards a greener economy. We have been part of important projects such as Desaladora Spence, Cerro Dominador, and other projects with ESG criteria that are linked to the achievement of ESG KPIs. All structured projects above US$10 million pass through the evaluation of the Equator Principles, a strict risk policy for restricted activities.
Santander Verde is a comprehensive value proposition for our clients that promotes various eco-friendly products such as:
A Green Mortgage, where homes or real estate projects with sustainable construction certificates are financed at a preferential rate and offset their carbon footprint.
Consumer credit, focused on reconditioning and energy efficiency projects. This credit provides a preferential rate to the client and also the bank compensates 1 ton in Carbon Bonds to mitigate the impact of the product.
Carbon footprint offset program, where clients can choose to offset their footprint through the purchase of carbon bonds or choose to make a direct contribution to environmental projects in Chile.
Electric car loans, with the launch of a credit line for electric cars sold by SKBerge and a discount for electric cars sold by VoltEra.
PYME Verde is an initiative in conjunction with Sistema B that is supporting some 300 small companies to measure their ESG footprint and thus be able to start a certification process.
Santander Asset Management Green Mutual Fund, which allows investment in companies committed to the environment, society and good corporate governance practices.
During the ESG Talk, Claudio Melandri announced that the entity will be one of the first large companies in Chile and the first local bank in producing its own renewable energy. An agreement was signed with Gasco Luz and Fourtrees Capital where six solar plants of 300kW each will be built in the Coquimbo, Valparaiso and Metropolitan Region and will be fully operational by 2022. The contract consists of a 10-year lease of these solar plants that are already under construction for an annual payment of US$240,000.
100% of the energy produced in these plants will be used for energy consumption within the Bank, thus reducing its carbon footprint by 1,380 tons each year. In this manner, the energy generated in these plants will be incorporated to the national grid, permitting Santander to compensate its consumption through this contribution.
These energy plants are in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In effect, in 2019 the Santander Group set as an objective to have 100% of its energy come from renewable resources in 2025 in countries where it was possible to certify the energy resource. In addition, the loan book will also be carbon neutral by 2050, in line with the Net Zero Banking Alliance, which Santander adheres to.
Social
In the Social dimension, we are focused on the contribution towards a more sustainable development for communities. The employees of the Bank are important stakeholders, and the Bank has made many efforts to promote the development of its employees, so they can fully deploy their potential and contribute to the sustainability of the organization. In 2020, we achieved first place in Great Place to Work for companies with over 1,000 employees. In 2021, we became the first bank to receive the seal Iguala Conciliacion by the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, ratifying our commitment to continue to increase diversity throughout the workforce and consolidate its first place as the best place to work.
We also focus on three main areas to contribute to the progress and the inclusive development of communities: Social Inclusion, Financial Education and Entrepreneurship. In total, all of our social aid and financial inclusion programs have helped more than 1.5 million people throughout the country since 2019.
We are one of the companies with the most clients in the country. In total, as of September 2021, the total customer base was 4.0 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Customers with current or debit accounts totaled 1.8 million as of September 2021 with a 44% growth and our digital clients were growing 30% at the same date, totaling 1.9 million. The success with our clients is especially due to progress in digital banking and the constant improvement in service quality. This has allowed us to resume our vocation for financial inclusion in a responsible way and without over-indebting clients. We are the bank with the highest levels of satisfaction and NPS in the industry, reaching a historically high level of 59 points and opening the gap even more with our competitors.
Governance
Santander Chile has three layers of ring-fencing to protect the interests of all investors equally.
The first layer is regulatory. The Bank complies with the regulations of the CMF and the Central Bank of Chile and also the SEC regulations for foreign issuers, the Sarbanes Oxley Law of the United States, the corporate governance standards of the NYSE and, as it is part of Grupo Santander , we are monitored by the European Central Bank. It is one of the most regulated companies in the region.
The relationship with the Group is also key and is the second layer of protection. The Santander Group has adopted a multiple points of entry structure. While Santander Chile enjoys sharing best practices, corporate frameworks, policies, and know-how with the Group, it is completely independent in terms of capital, liquidity, and financing, protecting the interests of all investors equally.
The third layer is the Board of Directors, the highest governing body in Santander-Chile. The Board of Directors is made up of nine regular members and two alternates. A key aspect of the Board of Directors is its independence and diversity. Of the 11 directors, seven are independent from the main shareholder. All eleven directors have vast experience in many fields to ensure a widespread view of global issues.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Robert Moreno
Investor Relations
Banco Santander Chile
Bandera 140, Floor 20
Santiago, Chile
Tel: (562) 2320-8284
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In fact, a third equate holiday shopping to getting a root canal!
CHERRY HILL, N.J., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, announced today that while the holidays are often thought of as "the most wonderful time of the year," not everyone is excited to break out their holiday decorations just yet. According to TD Bank's 2021 Merry Money Survey, more than half of Americans (52%) describe the holiday shopping experience as painful. Of this group, 33% actually equate the pain of holiday shopping to a root canal.
America's Most Convenient Bank. (PRNewsFoto/TD Bank)
TD Bank polled 1,004 U.S. consumers to gauge their shopping, spending, money management habits and overall sentiment during the holiday season. The survey found that while Americans are increasingly responsible with their holiday spending, with 73% creating a budget up from 66% in 2018 two-thirds (66%) of consumers say the financial aspect of the holiday season makes them anxious.
There's no place like home for the holidays
Perry Como was onto something: there really is no place like home for the holidays. In addition to making Americans more budget-conscious, the pandemic also changed how people feel about the holidays. The survey finds that 84% of Americans felt like celebrating the holidays during the pandemic was more about the time spent with loved ones versus spending money on gifts.
While many are excited to resume in-person events this year, 56% of Americans admit they liked having the excuse the pandemic provided of not having to attend holiday gatherings in recent years. This year, most Americans are looking forward to more intimate celebrations, with 83% preferring small family gatherings. In fact, more than half (52%) wish they didn't have to travel as much during the holidays and another 52% wish they didn't have as many obligations.
On Dasher, on Dancer, on Fido and Mittens
Americans are also thinking of their four-legged family members this holiday season. Sixty-three percent of Americans plan to buy gifts for their pets this year, especially millennials (76%). In fact, 14% of millennials plan to spend more than $100 on each of their pets, making sure to include their furry friends in their holiday celebrations.
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The most stressful time of the year
Feelings of anxiety when budgeting for the holidays are especially prominent among younger shoppers, with 79% of millennials saying that holiday shopping makes them anxious, more so than their Gen X (68%) and Baby Boomer (51%) counterparts.
Previous spending mishaps may be responsible for the stress experienced during the holidays. According to the survey, 69% of Americans say they have previously overspent during the holidays and 41% say they experienced a negative financial situation because of holiday spending. An additional 31% have tapped into emergency savings to pay for holiday expenses.
"As people prepare to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones, perhaps for the first time in-person since the pandemic began, there are still many things weighing on their minds," says Matt Boss, Head of Consumer Products at TD Bank. "Holiday shopping, travel, hosting and celebrations all have costs associated and due to supply chain issues, we're seeing cost increases that will make joining in even more of a challenge for some. Doing what's best for you could mean staying home from travel or scaling back on gift-giving, but it will help make the holiday season more enjoyable. Set your limits whether financial or personal and stick to them."
Ho-Ho-Hold up
While the holidays can bring pressure to spend, consumers need to stop and evaluate what makes financial sense for them. There are several steps shoppers can take to ensure they are prepared to shop smartly and avoid overspending:
Don't just make a budget stick to it : Of Americans who create a holiday budget, more than a quarter (27%) don't stick to it. What's more, only 31% of consumers strongly agree that they feel confident in their ability to create an effective budget for holiday spending. When creating a budget, shoppers should use the tools and resources they find most helpful. A physical planner or notebook was the most common tool cited for budgeting (41%), while others may find digital tools and applications linked to bank accounts useful for staying on track.
If you're using plastic maximize those rewards : Forty-two percent of Americans cite using a debit card for most of their holiday spending. While shoppers should use the payment method that works best for their financial situation, using rewards-based credit cards can help shoppers earn cash back or points as they spend.
Start early: Amid supply chain challenges impacting delivery times and store inventory, 63% of Americans say they'll start their shopping earlier to avoid delays. In fact, 60% say they will shop two months in advance of the holidays. Many consumers start saving early, too with 63% setting aside money throughout the year for holiday spending by stashing cash in jars, saving gift cards or reward points, or using a separate account.
"Consumers who are spending this year are looking for a deal 90% of millennials surveyed are planning to shop on Black Friday," Boss adds. "However, more than a quarter of consumers say these sales are the primary reason they overspend, which signifies the importance of not only creating a holiday budget, but also using tools that track spending and help eliminate impulse purchases, no matter how irresistible the deal."
Methodology
Engine surveyed 1,004 Americans 18 years of age and older who celebrate the holidays. The online survey was conducted Oct. 26-28, 2021.
About Engine
ENGINE is a global, full-service media and marketing services company that empowers clients to outperform in the present and win in the future with its vast range of marketing solutions including insights, creative, media, data and technology. Founded in 2005, ENGINE has global headquarters in New York and 16 offices across North America, the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Find out more at enginegroup.com and follow @engineworldwide.
About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank
TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9.6 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,100 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.td.com/us. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US and www.twitter.com/TDNews_US.
TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com/us.
Cision
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SOURCE TD Bank
With a bit of perspective, we can see what ought to have been clear all along. Tiger King was a tawdry little episode in TV history, a moment of collective hysteria when millions of viewers 64 million in four weeks, if we believe Netflixs reports tuned in to rubberneck a gruesome car crash of working-class Americana. The tale of Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, an eccentric country musician-turned-tiger park owner, and his war with the animal rights activist Carole Baskin, was a three-way hybrid of true-crime documentary, circus freak show and Attenborough. With the world locking down, it was the right series at the right time. If the pandemic created the viewing conditions, Netflix provided the opportunity.
Eighteen months later, everyone should know better, but here we are again, with Tiger King 2. Joe Exotic might be behind bars, serving 22 years for tiger-related crimes and (mostly) for attempting to get Baskin murdered, but that hasnt stopped the Tiger Kingdom. His quasi-martyrdom has only increased his notoriety. The soap opera has only grown less edifying since last March.
The first episode is a hotchpotch that revisits the fallout from the first series, before attempting to provide some more context to Exotics life. Theres the tough childhood in Texas, then the first career as a policeman, where he was persecuted for being a gay cowboy. But then the story hops forward again to last year. With Trump in charge, Exotics supporters sensed the opportunity to appeal for a presidential pardon. It was just the kind of wacky thing he might do. They hired a battle bus, limos, a tiger-liveried private plane. As Trump egged on his supporters to reject the 2020 election result, Exotics supporters were right there. The series seems keen to imply that Exotic and co were more than a sideshow, somehow involved in subverting democracy.
Whatever else you might say about the first Tiger King, it was an extraordinary yarn, and the directors and producers spent many years polishing a peerless piece of sensationalism. For all its new interviews and revelations and scratchy audio from Joe in prison, the second outing has none of that depth. At times, it feels like a self-congratulatory cuttings show, a didnt-we-do-well lap of honour for Netflix and its battalions of attention span engineers. Somehow, they stretch it to five episodes, going over the death of Caroles second husband, Don Lewis, whom Joe and his crew suspect was murdered by Baskin, and looking at what Jeff Lowe, who took over the park after Joes imprisonment, has done with the business. Its all icky.
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In a saner entertainment market, that would be an end to it all. I wouldnt bet on it. If the real victims of Tiger King are the blameless animals, the hero is money. People are driven to wild acts by lust for it, and lack of it. There are the people paying money for a tiger experience, the people making money selling the experience, the damaged people forced into working for this eccentric ringleader. Everyones on the grift: Joe, his husband Dillon Passage, Joes former employees and enemies, Netflix, sundry lawyers and hangers on. Baskin and her husband, Howard, predictably refused to cooperate with the new programmes. She is reportedly suing Netflix. When the pots this big, everyone has an angle. Sitting at home, watching, were not much better.
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Attributes 526% Revenue Growth to Massive Enterprise Demand for its Conversational Automation Platform that uses AI to Modernize and Democratize Customer Experiences
PALO ALTO, Calif., November 17, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Uniphore, the leader in Conversational Automation, today announced it ranked 248th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 27th year. Uniphore grew 526% during the evaluated period of 2017 to 2020 based on fiscal year revenue growth.
This latest recognition comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for Uniphore. In 2021, Uniphore announced several key milestones, including its $150M Series D funding, as well as the strategic acquisition of two innovative companies Emotion Research Labs and Jacada. These acquisitions, combined with the existing hiring plans for the year, have doubled Uniphores workforce over the course of this calendar year and established new global offices in Spain, Israel and Atlanta.
As part of this hypergrowth phase, Uniphore has also expanded its customer base to more than 100 large enterprise organizations, including some of the worlds largest BPOs, telecom providers, insurance companies and financial service organizations. As a result, Uniphore now supports over 175,000 customer service agents who can handle more than 120 million engagements every month.
Uniphores in-house innovation, combined with the acquisitions of Emotion Research Labs and Jacada technologies, have allowed the team to expand its existing Conversational Automation Platform and create a comprehensive solution that combines Conversational AI, workflow automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), low-code/no-code capabilities and a business friendly UX to transform and democratize customer experiences, and help deliver highly effective, personalized and empathetic interactions.
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"As we continue to work through the pandemic and into a post-pandemic era, customer experience has never been more important. At Uniphore, we are bringing the best in AI and automation to that experience while maintaining the critical component of human empathy in the mix. These important technical innovations, combined with an easy-to-use interface and an incredible team at Uniphore dedicated to our mission of making sure every conversation is understood and actioned have put Uniphore at the forefront of a new era of customer experience with tremendous growth," said Umesh Sachdev, CEO and founder at Uniphore. "We are excited to be recognized in the Deloitte Fast 500 and look forward to continued momentum in the next year and beyond."
"Each year the Technology Fast 500 shines a light on leading innovators in technology and this year is no exception," said Paul Silverglate, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader. "In the face of innumerable challenges resulting from the pandemic, the best and brightest were able to pivot, reinvent and transform and grow. We celebrate the winning organizations and especially the talented employees driving their success."
"The pandemic has underscored the urgent need for tech solutions in a variety of areas across health care, fintech, energy tech, entertainment, to name a few, so reliance on innovators like the winners of the Technology Fast 500 is more important than ever," said Christie Simons, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP and industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications within Deloittes audit & assurance practice. "These companies are not only at the cutting edge, transforming the way we do business, but most importantly, recognize the strategic importance of ongoing innovation, especially in the ever-changing world of technology."
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the companys operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About Uniphore
Uniphore is the global leader in Conversational Automation. Every day, billions of conversations take place across industries customer service, sales, HR, education and more. Whether they are human to human, human to machine or machine to machine, conversations are at the heart of everything we do, and the new currency of the enterprise.
At Uniphore, we believe companies that best understand and take action on those conversations will win. We have built the most comprehensive and powerful conversational automation platform that combines conversational AI, workflow automation and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) with a business user friendly UX in a single integrated platform to transform and democratize customer experiences across industries.
Follow our blog and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005675/en/
Contacts
North America
Marjaneh Ravai, Uniphore
marjaneh.ravai@uniphore.com
India/Asia Pacific/Middle East
Cynanda Noronha, Uniphore
Cynanda@uniphore.com
TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARHT Media Inc. ("ARHT Media") [TSXV:ART], the global leader in the development, production and distribution of high-quality, low latency hologram and digital content, is proud to announce that world-renowned scientists will be beamed into the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum's flagship program: Masterminds, Masterclasses from around the world. Using ARHT's patented HoloPresenceTM technology, these scientists will present live from Europe, appearing as life-sized and lifelike holograms.
From the 16th to the 18th of November 2021, "Masterminds, Masterclasses" will showcase world-renowned scientists sharing their thought-provoking and inspirational research experiences and discoveries. The scientists include Shaw Laureates, recipients of the Breakthrough Prize, CNRS Gold Medal recipients, Fields Medal recipients and Royal Medal recipients for three disciplines, namely Life Science and Medicine, Astronomy, and Mathematical Sciences.
Given that the presentations will cover not only research topics and their applications, but also the presenters' research journeys and the experience that they gained during the process, we envision that these presentations will be thought-provoking, inspirational and will appeal to a vast and diverse audience, in particular fellow scientists, young scientists and the younger generation who are interested in science, says Professor Timothy W. Tong, Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum.
Keynote speakers beaming into Hong Kong from Paris and Berlin include female Astrophysicist Professor Francoise Combes, as well as Shaw Laureates recipient Astronomy Professor Simon DM White and Mathematical Sciences Professor Jean-Michel Bismut.
"As the pace of learning accelerates, we are seeing increased demand to bring the very best minds in a variety of disciplines to a much broader audience using our HoloPresence technology. Client research has shown that experts presenting using HoloPresence score higher for engagement and content retention than when those same presenters appear in person, so why not have greater impact and reduce carbon emissions while inspiring, colleagues, clients and other stakeholders," stated ARHT CEO Larry O'Reilly, "We are honoured that the Council of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum has embraced our technology to bring these impressive scientists to Hong Kong without having to leave their home cities."
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About ARHT Media
ARHT Media's patented HoloPresence technology is a complete end-to-end solution that creates a sense of presence for audiences as though the holographic presenter was actually live in the room. With no noticeable latency, ARHT Media makes two-way live communication with a 3D holographic presenter anywhere in the world possible. We can also playback pre-recorded content and 3D animations on our HoloPresence displays to deliver rich holographic experiences. Add to this our capability to stream the same content online on our premium Virtual Global StageTM.
Connect with ARHT Media
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ARHTmedia
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ARHTmediainc
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/arht-media-inc-
For more information, please visit www.arhtmedia.com or contact the investor relations group at info@arhtmedia.com.
ARHT Media trades under the symbol "ART" on the TSX Venture Exchange.
ARHT
Salman Amin
ARHT Media
samin@arhtmedia.com
This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the intention to exercise convertible securities of the Company; disclosure related to the Company's sales funnel; the Company's technology; the potential uses for the Company's technology; the future planned events using the Company's technology; the future success of the Company; the ability of the Company to monetize the ARHT Media technology; the development of the Company's technology; and interest from parties in ARHT's products. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic and competitive uncertainties; regulatory risks; risks inherent in technology operations; and other risks of the technology industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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.
The Taliban has renewed calls for Washington to release Afghanistans Central Bank assets frozen by the U.S. Federal Reserve, as the war-ravaged nation faces one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises.
In a letter to the U.S. Congress, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting foreign minister of the Taliban-led government, said that the situation in Afghanistan is getting increasingly dire as winter approaches.
The U.S. decision to freeze the assets of a nation already plagued by poverty, war, drought, and the coronavirus pandemic has been hurting ordinary Afghans, Muttaqi said in the letter, released on November 17.
He warned that if the crisis continues in Afghanistan, it could fuel a refugee crisis impacting the whole world.
After the Taliban takeover in August, the United States froze nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistans Central Bank and stopped shipments of cash.
The move was part of a pressure campaign aimed at getting Afghanistan's new rulers to create an inclusive government and respect the rights of women and minorities.
Also, the International Monetary Fund said earlier this year that Afghanistan will no longer be able to access its resources.
The World Bank has also halted funding for projects in Afghanistan, which has also been hit by an exodus of foreign aid. Afghanistan is suffering from a severe drought, as well.
The UN's World Food Program (WFP) warned in October that millions of Afghans could face starvation due to a combination of the drought, conflict, and COVID-19 this winter unless urgent action is taken.
More than half of the Afghan population -- about 22.8 million people -- faces acute food insecurity, while 3.2 million children under the age of 5 could suffer acute malnutrition, the WFP said.
WFP chief David Beasley said that Afghanistan is now among the world's worst humanitarian crises, if not the worst.
Facebook says it took action earlier this year to block hackers from Pakistan who targeted people tied to Afghanistan's former government and security forces in the months leading up to the Talibans seizure of power in August.
Facebook said on November 16 that the Pakistani group was one of four malicious groups it disrupted by disabling their accounts, blocking their domains from appearing on Facebook, alerting people it believed were targeted, and sharing information with other social-media platforms.
The other three were from Syria and targeted opposition or government critics and humanitarian organizations in that war-torn country.
The Pakistan-based group, known as SideCopy, targeted people who were connected to the previous Afghan government, military, and law enforcement in Kabul, according to cybersecurity officials at Meta, Facebooks parent company.
This malicious activity had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation while obfuscating whos behind it, the official said in a news release on November 16.
Meta did not describe what the ultimate motive appeared to be but said the campaign ramped up between April and August by primarily sharing links to websites hosting malware.
The groups tactics also included "romantic lures" used to build trust with potential targets and get them to click on phishing links or download malicious chat applications.
They operated fake app stores and also compromised legitimate websites to host malicious phishing pages to manipulate people into giving up their Facebook credentials, Meta said in describing some of SideCopys tactics.
Similar to the campaign from Pakistan, the Syrian campaign primarily targeted people using social-engineering tactics to trick them into clicking on links or downloading malicious software.
The company did not provide figures on the number of accounts potentially affected or the nature of the information hacked.
With reporting by AFP
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A family celebrates Kwanzaa. The Kinara (candle holder) and the Mishumaa Samba (the seven candles) are symbolic of Kwanzaa. The candles and holder represent the Seven Principles, or the minimum set of values by which African people are urged to live.
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Empty Stocking Fund benefits 20 health and human service agencies in the Pikes Peak region who serve over 350,000 neighbors in need from birth to end of life. One donation. 20 agencies. A whole community served.
Give now at EmptyStockingFundCO.org, or call 719-476-1673 to make a credit card or stock donation. Make checks payable to Empty Stocking Fund and mail to P.O. Box 910942, Denver, CO 80291-0942.
An 11-year-old Westminster girl who was reported missing for nearly 24 hours was found safe Wednesday afternoon, the Westminster Police Department announced.
Police said the girl was found in unincorporated Jefferson County thanks to a tip from a citizen. More information about the nature of her disappearance will be released Wednesday evening, police said.
The girl went missing after leaving her Westminster home around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to walk to a park. Her mom called the police at around 5:30 p.m. when she didnt return home.
Police said they searched for the girl nonstop since she was reported missing, including door-to-door searches and combing the neighborhood and surrounding parks and lakes using foot patrols, a bloodhound, thermal cameras and drones.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert and an Endangered Missing Alert for the girl Wednesday, hours before she was found.
In a statement, Westminster police said they were concerned about the girl's safety because of the length of time she was missing and the cold weather in the area overnight.
The agencies involved in the search included the Lakewood, Thornton, Arvada, Broomfield, Wheat Ridge and Golden police departments, Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, CBI, FBI, Ralston House, Westminster Fire Department and more.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo received a rare clean report of inspection from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, joining just three organizati
Aurora police officers stand outside the main entrance of Aurora Central High School after a shooting occurred at nearby Nome Park on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Aurora, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Gazette)
In the week following Halloween, Colorado College detected 88 COVID-19 cases among mostly vaccinated students, however the school says the outbreak is already under control thanks to its quarantine policies.
Colorado College, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Community College all say they are controlling the spread of the virus well in classroom settings and most of the spread connected with their campuses is happening in social settings. All have instituted mask mandates and they all have also seen a similar number of cases since the beginning of the semester.
Colorado College and the UCCS both have vaccination mandates along with many other colleges in the state that adopted them to slow the spread of the virus. It's a measure that Colorado College considers a success because none of the students with the virus have needed hospital care, said Leslie Weddell, a spokeswoman for the school.
Pikes Peak Community College will start enforcing a vaccine mandate next semester that will require students and staff to either get shots or get tested weekly, school spokesman Warren Epstein said. The school currently asks its students to stay off campus if they have experienced symptoms, he said.
Most community college students are spending most of their time off campus and that's contributing to the spread, he said.
The virus is widespread in El Paso County with about 2,600 cases detected in the last week and a positivity rate of 12%. The percentage indicates how many people on average are testing positive and such a high rate means that cases are likely getting missed in the community.
However all the institutions have taken slowing the spread of disease seriously.
Colorado College first detected its post-Halloween spike on Nov. 4 and then tested all students so that those with the virus could be isolated and have already brought their average number of tests down to pre-spike levels, Weddell said.
"It is important to do our part, isolating students who receive positive test results, in order to mitigate risk to others and to not contribute to the already high number of people needing hospitalization in the community," she said.
The college has seen a total of 177 cases since the beginning of the school year and they have achieved a vaccination rate of 90% or higher among students, staff and faculty, according to the school's website. The school's student body is about 2,200.
In response to a question about whether Halloween was responsible for the surge Weddell said that spikes tend to follow holidays when people are gathered in private homes with poor ventilation.
Pikes Peak Community College, a school without a vaccination mandate, has had 152 cases among students and 22 among staff members and faculty, Epstein said. Although some cases may have been missed. The schools student body is about 18,000.
Epstein said he estimates the school's vaccination rate is about 70% and they have been encouraging students and employees to get vaccinated by offering $100 gift cards.
The school has seen some pushback to its new vaccination or testing mandate, but expects its enrollment next semester will be on par with current enrollment and its intended to help ensure the spread of COVID-19 doesn't start on campus, he said. He was not aware of any resignations as a result of the new vaccine rules.
At UCCS, 202 people have tested positive since the beginning of the semester, the schools' website said. The school has a student body of about 12,000 and about 80% of them are vaccinated, according to the school.
Contact tracing at the UCCS has shown the virus is spread by family members, at work and at social gatherings, said Chris Valentine, UCCS spokesman.
Colorado College has found a similar trend with cases getting transmitted during indoor unmasked social gatherings where multiple households mix, restaurants, Weddell said.
" " Pope Francis waves to his flock as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly mass in September 2017 in Vatican City. The pope suffered a black eye after hitting his head on the Popemobile when his vehicle stopped suddenly. Franco Origlia/Getty Images
They can be embarrassing reminders of less-than-graceful moments or a marks of profound pride: However you choose to view bruises, they're pretty fascinating. The variety of colorful patterns they create on the skin is reason enough to want to learn more about these weird, sometimes painful, spots that everyone has coped with at one point or another.
Otherwise known as a contusion, a bruise is a mark that appears when blood is trapped under the surface of the skin. Bruises occur when some type of trauma or injury crushes tiny blood vessels (known as capillaries), but doesn't break the skin. As a result of the injury, the broken capillaries leak out red blood cells, which get trapped under the skin, collecting in a pool that forms the blue/purple/red/black blemish.
"A bruise is an area of discolored skin on the body caused by a rupture of underlying blood vessels secondary to a blow or impact," explains Dr. Navya Mysore, a New York City-based primary care provider.
Bruises can feel tender when they first form, and can be accompanied by some swelling. They usually take about two weeks to heal, but some bruises can last months. During the healing period, the body breaks down and reabsorbs the pooled blood that produced the mark. As this happens, the color of the bruise can fade from dark to light and take on all kinds of interesting hues along the way.
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End of the Rainbow
"Right after the injury, bruises are usually red or purple as it's the color of the blood that has pooled underneath the skin," Mysore says. "As the bruise heals, the body breaks down the blood that has accumulated under the skin from the broken vessels. As this happens, the bruise turns different colors varying from black, blue, green to yellow."
To break that down a bit: When a bruise first forms, it's usually some shade of red, thanks to the fresh blood just below the skin's surface. It takes about a day or two for hemoglobin (the protein that transports oxygen) to start imbuing the bruise with blue, purple or even black tones. Oxygen is what gives blood that red color in the first place, so when an injury causes hemoglobin to rapidly lose its oxygen, the red tone darkens and changes.
After a few more days, the mark usually fades to green or yellow before being hit with a hint of brown and fading away completely. This color change occurs as the body reuses the iron in the hemoglobin to form new red blood cells the unused, decomposed hemoglobin transforms into a green pigment called biliverdin, which then converts into a yellow or light brown-tinged compound called bilirubin. As all these products are either reabsorbed or purged from the body, the mark fades and disappears.
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Who's a Bruiser?
Just about everyone gets bruises, but some people are more prone to them than others. Elderly people, for example, may be more likely to bruise due to thinner skin and softer tissue. Other factors, like certain diseases, medical conditions and medications, can also increase a person's risk for bruising.
So what do you do when you get a hickey, a shiner or any other form of contusion? Usually, time really does heal all wounds (eventually).
"Typically, mild bruises will resolve in a week," Mysore says. "More moderate to severe bruises can take two weeks to even a month to completely resolve. If the injury is forceful you can develop a hematoma, which is a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues and this can take many months to resolve but they do on their own."
And while there are plenty of urban myths and tales about how to magically banish bruises in a snap, the only legit healing method is to chill literally and figuratively. "Rest the injured area as much as possible and apply ice to the bruise right after the injury happens," Mysore says. And if that isn't helping things move along, try applying some heat to increase blood flow and speed the healing process up a bit.
Now That's Interesting If you find yourself constantly battling bruises, you might want to talk to a doctor to investigate whether you have a nutrient deficiency. Because your blood requires vitamin K to clot properly, if you don't have enough, you might bruise more easily. Vitamin C is also important to protect your blood vessels.
November 16, 2021
Media contacts:
Deidre McCabe, Director, Office of Communications, 410-767-3536
Andy Owen, Deputy Director, Media Relations, 410-767-6491
Travel-Associated Monkeypox virus infection confirmed in Maryland resident
Individual presented with mild symptoms; public health authorities currently following up with potentially exposed people, no special precautions recommended for the general public
Baltimore, MD The Maryland Department of Health, in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in a Maryland resident who recently returned from Nigeria. The individual presented with mild symptoms, is currently recovering in isolation and is not hospitalized. No special precautions are recommended at this time for the general public.
Public health authorities have identified and continue to follow up with those who may have been in contact with the diagnosed individual, said MDH Deputy Secretary for Public Health Dr. Jinlene Chan. Our response in close coordination with CDC officials demonstrates the importance of maintaining a strong public health infrastructure.
Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox but generally causes a milder infection. It can be spread between people through direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or contaminated materials such as clothing or linens. It can also be spread through large respiratory droplets which generally cannot travel more than a few feet, and prolonged face-to-face contact is required.
Illness typically begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes, progressing to a widespread rash on the face and body. Most infections last 2-4 weeks. The individuals identified as having been potentially exposed to this case will be monitored for symptoms of monkeypox for 21 days after exposure.
Human monkeypox infections primarily occur in central and western African countries and have only rarely been documented outside of Africa. Although all strains can cause infection, those circulating in western Africa, where Nigeria is located, generally cause less severe disease.
Travelers returning from central or western Africa are advised to notify their health care provider if they develop symptoms of monkeypox, particularly flu-like illness, swollen lymph nodes or rash. Clinicians are urged to maintain a high index of suspicion for clinically compatible illness.
Additional details about human monkeypox cases are available on the CDCs website.
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" " Jim Crow laws mandated segregating mainly blacks from whites, right down to water fountains. The New York Public Library
For the better part of a century, African Americans lived under the burden of what now are known as Jim Crow laws. This racist system of segregating people, mainly blacks from whites, infected virtually every sector of American life, and reached far beyond the South where it was best known and most cruelly practiced.
Worse yet, Jim Crow and the deep wounds it inflicted on American society are not relegated to the past tense. Its legacy is still felt, in many ways, today.
"Jim Crow was about so much more than laws," says Stephen Berrey, a professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan and the author of "The Jim Crow Routine: Everyday Performances of Race, Civil Rights, and Segregation in Mississippi." "It really was an all-encompassing system that involved political practices, economic practices, social practices, cultural practices. Some of that was about legal things, but some of it wasn't.
"One of the challenges why Jim Crow often seems like it's in the past, people tend to think that, 'Oh, it was a few laws, and we got rid of segregation laws, and we got the Voting Rights Act, so that must have taken care of it.'
"It didn't."
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Who Was Jim Crow?
The real-life person, Jim Crow, never was. Crow was a fictional character in a minstrel show, a representation of a black man an exaggerated, stereotypical, racist representation carried out by a white man onstage, in blackface, in the early part of the 19th century. The New York actor's singing, babbling, raggedy version of "Jim Crow" was a hit with many audiences, and by 1838, the term "Jim Crow" had become a racial epithet. As states began passing laws to restrict the rights of slaves freed at the end of the Civil War, the laws came to be known as Jim Crow laws.
These laws were said to be enacted for many reasons, but the simplest explanation for them is this: They aimed to maintain white people's claim to first-class status in American society, and to forever keep black people as second class. From the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan:
The Jim Crow system was undergirded by the following beliefs or rationalizations: whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.
" " Jim Crow laws intended to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for the white and colored races at places like the Rex Theater in Leland, Mississippi. The New York Public Library
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The Birth of Jim Crow Laws
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed all slaves from states that had seceded from the Union, and in the following years, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution the 13th (in 1865, abolishing slavery), 14th (1868) and 15th (1870) guaranteed "equal protection" to all citizens (14th) and the right to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (15th).
The South, humiliated by its loss in the Civil War and what it felt was punishment meted out by the U.S. government, responded by enacting a series of laws over several years to severely restrict the rights that had been granted to blacks. A few early examples:
1866: The Tennessee legislature passed a bill requiring separate schools for blacks and whites. Between 1866 and 1955, Tennessee passed 20 Jim Crow laws, including ones that outlawed miscegenation and required segregation in public accommodations.
1877: The new constitution of the state of Georgia included requirements that primary schools be segregated and established a separate university for blacks. It also instituted a poll tax, which disproportionately affected poor, black people, effectively stripping them of the right to vote.
1890: The Louisiana Railways Accommodation Act (also known as the Separate Car Act) required railways "to provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." That law would be the basis of a chilling Supreme Court decision later that decade.
Laws like these kept blacks from voting, and thereby having a say in governance; barred them from holding public office, slanting the justice system against them; restricted them socially (requiring blacks to use different phone booths, drinking fountains, restrooms, etc.); stymied them economically; and, in all, prohibited them from gaining equal footing with white citizens.
By themselves, the Jim Crow laws were devastating. But, as Berrey points out, the legal aspect of Jim Crow was only part of the problem. Blacks also were subjected to widespread violence and murder implicitly condoned by much of white society and rarely prosecuted that continued well into the 20th century. The Ku Klux Klan, originally a club for Confederate veterans, was born in the aftermath of the Civil War and has terrorized black people for decades.
The Equal Justice Initiative in 2015 released a report, "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror" that documented, in the period between 1877 and 1950, almost 4,000 lynchings.
From the report:
Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime.
All this the suffocating laws, the extreme violence had its desired effect. Black people lived in everyday fear. They felt powerless. They were, in every way, made to feel inferior to whites and forced to live that way.
"There's this tendency to think of both Jim Crow, specifically, and racism more broadly as being this overt form that looks like the KKK that looks like a cross burning that looks like dramatic acts of violence. Sometimes it is that," Berrey says. "But often it's much more subtle. It's in the air that we breathe and the water that we drink."
" " White demonstrators hold signs and American flags protesting the admission of the Little Rock Nine to Central High School in 1957. Buyenlarge/Getty Images
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The Growth of Jim Crow Laws
Up until 1896, Jim Crow laws were limited to state and local regulations. But in a landmark case that year, the U.S. Supreme Court codified the laws nationally.
In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court upheld the Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890. The law's "equal but separate" doctrine, though never stated as such in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, opened the door for even more restrictive Jim Crow laws in the coming years, including:
1903: In Arkansas, it was unlawful for "any white prisoner to be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a negro prisoner."
1911: In Nebraska, "Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood."
1926: Atlanta passed a law that stated, "No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls."
Thanks to the green light provided by Plessy v. Ferguson, these laws proliferated throughout the country. In California in 1894, the state's constitution was amended to strip voting rights from anyone "who shall not be able to read the constitution in the English language and write his name." Rights of blacks and other minorities continued to be slashed. Worse, blacks continued to be beaten and lynched, even as African Americans fought and died for their country in World War I and World War II.
Pockets of resistance to Jim Crow formed from time to time, Berrey says, especially after black soldiers returned home and pressed for equal treatment for their sacrifices. But the system of oppression remained strong. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, a white mob in Blakely, Georgia, lynched William Little in 1919 for refusing to take off his uniform after returning home from World War I.
"African-Americans always challenged the system. They always pushed back. Sometimes it came just in terms of teaching your children how you survive this system," Berrey says. "Not only, 'We want you to know these rules so that you're safe,' but 'We also want you to know that you're just pretending.'
"The poet Paul Laurence Dunbar referred to this as, 'We Wear the Mask.' The idea was you're wearing this mask and pretending to go through the rules, but you're learning that that's not who you really are. That you're not really inferior even though you're following those rules that are meant to tell you that."
" " (L-r) Julia Aaron and David Dennis are escorted by Mississippi National Guardsmen on a Freedom Riders bus in the segregated southern United States in 1961 between Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi. Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
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The Death and Legacy of Jim Crow Laws
Three years after the end of World War II, July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military, perhaps one of the first real steps toward the downfall of Jim Crow laws. It wasn't until 1954's Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, though, which ruled that separating school children on the basis of race was unconstitutional (overturning the idea of "separate but equal" expressed in the Plessy decision almost 60 years earlier) that Jim Crow laws were truly dealt a fatal blow.
"World War II was a huge turning point," Berrey says. "People are always pushing back and fighting. There's this constant struggle. But it became more visible [then], and you do get this mobilization in the mid-1950s."
The struggle to free black Americans from Jim Crow had more setbacks to come. The Cold War was a hard time for anyone to question American values, for fear of being branded a communist. But the turbulent 1960s, with the full-throated protests of the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1968, helped to solidify the idea that Jim Crow laws were a thing of the past and that segregation had no place in American society.
Author Jerrold M. Packard, in "American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow," wrote that "Jim Crow was a disease that once permeated every fissure and fold of American society."
Yet photos of politicians in blackface are still surfacing. In the past few years, voter suppression measures have been introduced by the hundreds. Blacks in America today are incarcerated at a rate more than five times that of whites.
Jim Crow laws may be dead. Jim Crow, though, is not.
NOW THAT'S INTERESTING The effect of Jim Crow laws on voting, and the disenfranchisement that came along with that, can't be understated. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, in 1896, Louisiana had 130,334 black voters. Eight years later, as Southern states limited the right to vote with poll taxes, literacy tests and other laws, only 1,342 blacks in Louisiana could pass the new rules and vote.
" " Malcolm X served as Nation of Islam leader from 1953 to 1964, expanding the organization's membership astronomically. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
In the summer of 1963, a young Sudanese student at Dartmouth College named Ahmed Osman was walking through Harlem with a friend when he decided to pop into Muhammad's Temple No. 7. There he encountered a charismatic, 38-year-old minister named Malcolm X, who was delivering a passionate talk on the theology of the Nation of Islam.
At the time, Malcolm X was expounding the philosophy of his spiritual leader, Elijah Muhammad, who, among other things, asserted that the white man was the devil. After the talk, there was a Q&A session and Osman challenged Malcolm X, noting that the Islamic faith was a religion that welcomed people of all backgrounds and ethnicities.
It was the beginning of a long friendship, which would see Malcolm X through his pivotal rejection of Elijah Muhammad and his conversion to Sunni Islam. And it was Osman who arranged for his friend to perform hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The hajj was a watershed moment in Malcolm X's life a multi-ethnic gathering of peoples united not by culture or skin color, but by faith. This was a revelatory experience for someone who had grown up in a society permeated by racism.
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Malcolm's Early Life
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. It's a lesser-known fact that he could just as easily have been born in Montreal, Quebec. That's where his parents met in 1917. His mother, Louisa Langdon Norton, was a recent immigrant from Grenada, who had moved to the Little Burgundy neighborhood of Montreal to live with her uncle. Malcolm's father, Earl Little, had left his first wife and three children in small-town Georgia and joined the Great Northward Migration, eventually landing in the City of a Hundred Steeples.
Earl and Louisa met after joining the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded by the Jamaican visionary, Marcus Garvey. Garvey's Pan-African perspective would have a life-long influence on Malcolm's thought. As activists in the movement, his parents moved first to Philadelphia, and then to Omaha to man an outpost of the organization there. It was dangerous work. Earl Little received numerous death threats and one night, when he was out of town, hooded Klansmen bearing torches came looking for him. When a pregnant Louise informed them that he was away, they shattered every window in the house before leaving.
After Malcolm's birth, the family moved several times, eventually taking up residence in Lansing, Michigan. There, despite being burned out of the family's new house mostly likely by white neighbors Earl continued his activism on behalf of the UNIA, taking his favorite child, 5-year-old Malcolm to meetings.
In September 1931, Earl died after being cut nearly in two by a street car. Although his death was ruled as accidental, many suspected that he'd been murdered by a local white supremacist organization.
Earl's death was a pivotal event in Malcolm's childhood. His mother never fully recovered from the shock of it and the sudden burden of becoming an impoverished single parent. She suffered a breakdown and her children ended up in foster care and orphanages. By 1946, Malcolm was in Boston, where he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
" " Malcolm X was considered the radical voice of the civil rights movement, offering a different solution for those who wanted an alternative to Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent approach. Truman Moore/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images
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Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam
He spent seven years behind bars before being paroled. During that time, he read widely and joined the Nation of Islam, the sect of Black Muslims his brother Reginald had joined. They preached and embraced an ideology of Black nationalism that pushed for Black Americans to establish a state separate from white Americans. He changed his name to Malcolm X before he was released from prison in 1952.
Once out of prison, Malcolm X quickly established himself as the Nation of Islam's most articulate and successful spokesman. He worked with Elijah Muhammad to further expound the Nation of Islam's message from Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston where he was a minister.
His teachings and speeches were militant in style he preached that whites were not to be trusted. He suggested Black people use "any means necessary," including violence, to gain their freedom.
His electrifying speeches rang true with Black crowds, and by the 1960s, he became the radical voice of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X offered a different solution for those looking for an alternative to Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent approach.
Under Malcolm X's leadership, national membership in the Nation of Islam increased from 1,200 in 1953 to as many as 75,000 by 1961. But that influence also earned him the unwanted attention of the FBI, which infiltrated the Nation of Islam with agents who bugged and wiretapped members. It later emerged that one of Malcolm's bodyguards was, in fact, an FBI agent.
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His Journey to Mecca
All this time, Malcolm X strictly adhered to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, including his commitment to celibacy until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. This made it even more painful when he learned in 1963 that his spiritual leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly carrying on illicit relationships with six different women, some of whom had borne his children, violating his own teachings.
It was at this point that Malcolm broke with Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, founded his own organization, Muslim Mosque, Inc. and went on hajj. It was in Saudi Arabia that he also converted to Sunni Islam and changed his name again to El-hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He returned to the United States with a renewed faith in the civil rights movement and race relations.
But because of his enormous influence on the Nation of Islam, such a cataclysmic shift was bound to create dangerous waves. The FBI agents in his circle learned that he was marked for death by elements of the Nation of Islam. His house was firebombed, though none of the family was injured.
" " After his split from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X had a renewed faith in working with civil rights leaders. Here he's seen in 1964 with (from left) Lawrence Landry (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Chicago), Gloria Richardson (Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee), comedian Dick Gregory and Stanley Branche (Committee for Freedom Now). Bettmann/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
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His Assassination
But the net was closing in. On Feb. 21, 1965, as he was preparing to give a talk in the packed Grand Ballroom of the Audubon in Washington Heights, Manhattan, a disturbance broke out in the crowd. As two men tussled in the audience, Malcolm's security guards moved to intervene, leaving him alone on stage. A man in the front row stood, walked quickly to within 15 feet (4.5 meters) of Malcolm X, pulled a sawed-off shotgun from under his winter coat and opened fire. Two other gunmen followed him. In all, they shot Malcolm X 15 times. He was dead by the time he got to the hospital. He was just 39.
Tens of thousands of people viewed Malcolm X's body and at his funeral, his friend, the actor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy. Three men were arrested for the assassination and eventually sentenced to life in prison. One of them, Tommy Hayer, was caught at the scene and confessed to the crime, but he insisted that the other two men convicted were actually innocent. Years later, after the death of Elijah Muhammad, Hayer revealed the names of his four other co-conspirators, all members of the NOI. None of them had been paid, he insisted. They believed at the time that they were doing right thing.
In the wake of his assassination, Malcolm X only gained more fame. His autobiography, co-written by Alex Haley, became an international bestseller and an enormously influential work. Years later, Spike Lee's feature film treatment of Malcolm's story reignited interest in the life and teachings of one of the 20th century's most important cultural figures.
" " After his assassination, thousands of mourners lined up outside of Unity Funeral in Harlem to pay their respects to Malcolm X. Library of Congress
Now That's Interesting On Nov. 17, 2021, the Manhattan district attorney said two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who were found guilty for the assassination of Malcolm X, will likely have their convictions overturned. After a 22-month found that prosecutors, the FBI and New York Police Department withheld key evidence during their trial that likely would have led to their acquittal.
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Originally Published: Mar 11, 2021
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Actress Sues Over Contingent Compensation from `Hustle & Flow
A Hustle & Flow actress is suing a production company formed by the late director John Singleton, saying she is owed contingent compensation from the 2005 film he co-produced.
Taryn Mannings Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against Crunk Pictures LLC alleges breach of contract and seeks an accounting. She maintains that under a May 2004 agreement with Crunk Pictures she is entitled to 1% of 100% of the net profits derived from exploitation of the picture. Manning alleges she is owed at least $812,245 in the suit brought Friday. A Crunk Pictures representative could not be immediately reached.
Mannings accountant and attorney contacted various people about the money she is allegedly owed and a Crunk representative said on Sept. 21 that the company does not owe plaintiff anything in connection with the picture, the suit states. The 43-year-old Manning is best known for portraying Tiffany Pennsatucky Doggett in the Netflix original series, Orange Is the New Black.
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Hustle & Flow starred Terrence Howard as a Memphis hustler and pimp who aspired to become a rapper. The movie was an Academy Award for best original song for, Its Hard out Here for a Pimp. The film was produced by Singleton and Stephanie Allain. Singleton, who founded Crunk Pictures in 2004, died in April 2019 of a stroke at age 51.
Costco Alerts Customers to Recall of Kool-Aid Mix Due to Possible Metal, Glass
Costco is warning its customers about a recall of Kool-Aid Tropical Punch drink mix that was sold in some of its business centers and warehouses in the Los Angles area.
According to a notice from the Kraft Heinz Co. and circulated to Costco members, the recall is due to the potential presence of foreign material, specifically small pieces of metal or glass. Costco indicated that the drink mix was sold in business centers and stores in the Los Angeles area and in the Northwest.
The affected drink mix is Costco item #95740, and has a Best When Used By date of 8-31-2023 or 9-1-2023. People who purchased the mix are being urged to return it to a Costco store for a full refund.
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LA County To Probe Alleged Beating of Fostered Boy, DCFS Policies
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to have the Office of Child Protection investigate the circumstances of a 4-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured and beaten by his foster mother, leaving the boy in a coma.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents Norwalk, where the boy was living, called for the probe shortly after the boys extended family went public with his story.
If these allegations are true, we put him in the care of an abusive foster mother who hurt him so severely he had to be hospitalized, Hahn told her colleagues during a virtual meeting Tuesday. We not only need to know how this was possible but we also need to question why he was removed from his mother in the first place.
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Both Hahn and Supervisor Hilda Solis suggested that language or cultural barriers may have played a role in social workers decision to remove the boy from his family.
Its really tragic what happened to this little boy and probably could have been avoided had we done a better job of assessing the young child and really understanding his cultural and linguistic abilities, Solis said.
The motion also directs the Department of Children and Family Services to assess the experience and tenure of the social workers involved, as well as to review the departments policies and training on forensic evaluation and referrals to medical care. Several residents and activists told the board the child welfare system needs to be changed.
Chris Martin, a co-leader of the Reimagine Child Safety Coalition and a lawyer who has represented parents seeking to maintain custody of their children, said DCFS policies target and harm Black, brown and Indigenous families. The coalition estimates that 40% of foster children are Black, far out of proportion to the 9% of county residents who are Black.
Ive personally seen DCFS unnecessarily ruin the lives of countless families, Martin said. Some of these parents have gotten their kids taken away because they smoke marijuana. Others because they are victims of domestic violence (who reached out to the police). Martin also said children should not be separated from their parents simply because the parents use or have used drugs.
A drug test is not a parenting test, Martin said. The sad thing here is that a number of these kids are going to go into homes where they are even more traumatized by foster parents. Martin urged the board to review the coalitions demands, which include a call to end the partnership between the DCFS and law enforcement.
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The group says about 25% of DCFS calls originate with law enforcement, and social workers work together with police or sheriffs deputies to enter homes and remove children, a practice they say further traumatizes kids. Both Hahn and Solis expressed interest in the coalitions ideas. We do have to reimagine what the services look like because it is dysfunctional, Solis said.
The L.A. County Sheriffs Department confirmed last week that the boys foster mother, Gabriela Casarez, was arrested Oct. 29 on suspicion of child abuse, one day after the Special Victims Bureau was called to a location in the 14700 block of Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk.
The boy identified as Andres F. in a criminal complaint filed against his foster mother sustained grave injuries and was admitted to an intensive care unit. An update on his status was not available Tuesday, although Hahn said she was continuing to pray for his recovery.
Casarez pleaded not guilty to three felony counts two counts of child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death and one count of assault on a child becoming comatose, according to court records.
Last Monday, the boys aunt came forward to say his extended family is struggling to get more information on what happened, and has been barred from visiting the boy.
The aunt, Maria Jacinto, spoke out during a news conference that morning, standing alongside lawyer Michael Adler. They dont deserve this at all. No kid deserves this, in any care, under anybodys care, Jacinto said. Were just asking for justice and information.
Jacinto appeared to be referencing both Andres F. and his 2-year-old brother, Emiliano, who is also reportedly in foster care. Adler said Andres was in the care of his foster family when he was severely beaten.
We have no evidence that he was with anyone other than this foster family, and theres clear evidence that he was tortured and beaten into a coma, Adler said.
The criminal complaint against Casarez names Emiliano F. as a second victim of abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death. In the case of both Andres and Emiliano, the complaint cites the date of abuse as occurring on or between June 4 and Oct. 28. Casarez is being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail and is due back in court Dec. 6, according to court records and the LASD.
The DCFS issued a statement last week saying that confidentiality protects children and families and prohibits the release of specific information. But the department defended the process of choosing foster families.
Licensure of resource families involves rigorously examining the suitability of potential families to identify safe, nurturing and supportive homes for children in foster care, the statement read in part. The DCFS oversees the care of approximately 32,000 children countywide. A report on the investigation is expected back in 45 days.
The drug maker Pfizer has signed a deal with a United Nations-supported group to permit other producers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill.
The agreement could make the medicine available to more than half of the worlds population.
In a statement released Tuesday, Pfizer said it would permit the Switzerland-based organization Medicines Patent Pool to produce the antiviral drug. That would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries. About 53 percent of the worlds population live in those 95 countries.
The agreement does not include some countries that have struggled with large numbers of coronavirus deaths. For example, a Brazilian drug company could be permitted to make the pill for export to other countries, but the medicine could not be made for use in Brazil.
But health officials note that because the deal was reached even before Pfizers drug has been approved anywhere, the agreement could help to end the pandemic sooner.
Esteban Burrone is head of policy at Medicines Patent Pool. He said, Its quite significant that we will be able to provide access to a drug that appears to be effective and has just been developed, to more than 4 billion people.
He estimated that other drug makers would be able to start producing the pill within months. But he said he understands that the agreement may not make everyone happy.
We try to strike a very delicate balance between the interests of the (company), the sustainability required by generic producers and most importantly, the public health needs in lower and middle-income countries, Burrone said.
As part of the agreement, Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in poor countries. Royalties means money that is paid to the creator of a product based on how much of the product is sold.
Pfizer will also not get royalties on sales in any countries included in the agreement while COVID-19 remains a public health emergency.
Earlier this month, Pfizer said its pill cuts the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90 percent in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections. Health experts said the company should stop its trials based on such good results.
Pfizer said it would ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other agencies to approve the pill as soon as possible.
Since the pandemic started spreading last year, researchers around the world have worked to create a drug to treat COVID-19 at home and keep people out of the hospital. Currently, most COVID-19 treatments must be taken through the bloodstream.
Britain approved Mercks COVID-19 pill earlier this month. In a similar deal with the Medicines Patent Pool announced in October, Merck agreed to let other drug makers produce its COVID-19 pill. It is available in 105 poorer countries.
Doctors Without Borders said it was disheartened that the Pfizer deal does not make the drug available to the whole world. The group noted that the agreement announced Tuesday does not include countries like China, Argentina or Thailand.
Yuanqiong Hu is Doctors Without Borders. She said, The world knows by now that access to COVID-19 medical tools needs to be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, if we really want to control this pandemic.
Although Pfizer has agreed to share its COVID-19 drug, the company and others have not released their vaccine instructions for use in other countries. The World Health Organization in South Africa invited pharmaceutical companies to share online their messenger RNA vaccine instructions and technologies. But no companies have taken part.
Less than 1 percent of Pfizers COVID-19 shots has gone to poorer countries.
Im Dan Novak.
The Associated Press reported this story. Dan Novak adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
experimental adj. made or done in order to see how well something works
generic adj. not sold or made under a particular brand name
significant adj. large enough to be noticed or have an effect
delicate adj. easily broken or damaged
sustainable adj. able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed
income n. money that is earned from work, investments, business, etc.
access n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone
A new report finds that more international students are coming to the United States after a sharp drop because of the coronavirus health crisis last year.
About 15 percent fewer international students studied in the U.S. or took classes from U.S. universities online during the school year that ended last spring compared to the year before.
Those findings were released recently by the Institute of International Education, IIE, based in New York City in partnership with the U.S. State Department. The IIE published the yearly Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.
In 2021, the group found that students are coming back to the U.S. About four percent more students came to America for the 2021-2022 school year compared to last year.
During a presentation Monday, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Education said the coronavirus pandemic changed educational exchange a lot.
Matthew Lussenhop is the Acting Assistant Secretary for the State Departments Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. He said he is hopeful about the strength and resilience of the worlds educational community during the last 20 months. He said the U.S. government knows how important international exchange is to building a more understanding world.
We will continue to work together to expand access to global learning and engagement opportunities for international and American students, scholars and researchers.
Fewer new students
IIE research showed that about 55,000 fewer Chinese students studied at U.S. universities last school year. That was the biggest drop. China sends the most students to the U.S. About 30 percent of the international student population in America comes from China. India is second with 18 percent.
The most popular fields of study for international students are engineering, math and computer science. Over 40 percent of international students study those subjects each year.
The pandemic cut by 45 percent the number of new international students studying in the U.S. The report included students taking classes in person and those attending classes by video from home. About 45,000 fewer international students worked on graduate degrees during the 2020-2021 school year compared to the year before. The IIE report showed that the number of students already studying in the U.S. did not change very much, dropping just three percent.
The recent report was not as worrying as some people expected based on the increase in coronavirus infections over the summer. The Associated Press reported that a slowdown in visa processing, vaccinations and international travel for young people were the reasons for the lower numbers.
For example, Vinh Le is a student from Vietnam studying at the University of San Francisco. He only made it to California on November 1 because of travel restrictions at home. He was not able to get vaccinated and to Ho Chi Minh City for a flight to the U.S. Instead, he took classes by computer from home for two months.
He said his professors were very supportive and helped him by recording classes so he could watch them in Vietnam.
Some Chinese students who are supposed to be taking classes at New York University, NYU, but cannot get to the U.S., are using the universitys center in Shanghai for study. In normal times, that center is used by NYUs American students studying in China.
NYU is doing better than in 2019. The school said 14 percent more international students are taking classes this year compared to before the pandemic.
At the University of Illinois, the school lost 28 percent of its international students last school year. But this year, student numbers have returned to the level of 2019-2020.
"A return to normal"
Andy Borst is the University of Illinois director of undergraduate admissions. Undergraduates are students who have not yet earned a college degree. He said those students increased the most. India sent 70 percent more students than before the pandemic.
He called the numbers a return to normal for our international populations. He said the demand for higher education was pent-up.
Lussenhop, from the State Department, said the U.S. expects the increase in student interest to continue because students continue to value a U.S. education.
Some people give credit to the administration of President Joe Biden for speaking in support of international students. In July, U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recorded video messages that welcomed international students to the U.S.
Rachel Banks is director of public policy and legislative planning for NAFSA, an organization that supports international education based in Washington. She said the new administration is telling the world international students are important for the U.S.
Experts are worried, however, that the increase in students will only help schools that are already popular. They think smaller schools and community colleges may not recover. Across the U.S., the two-year schools suffered a 24 percent loss of international students.
In addition, researchers are still trying to find out if the jump in students will continue past this school year. Universities in Canada, Australia and Great Britain were competing for students with the U.S. even before the pandemic.
Im Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press and information from IIE. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
Do you think the number of international students in the U.S. will continue to grow after this year? Tell us in the Comments Section and visit our Facebook page. Quiz - International Students Returning to US Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz
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Words in This Story
resilience n. the ability to be strong enough to recover quickly after a crisis
engagement n. the act or state of being involved with something scholars n. someone who has been given a scholarship
graduate degree n. a degree given by a college or university to someone who has already received an undergraduate degree
pent-up adj. held or kept inside; not released yet
Russia has denied that a missile test that destroyed an orbiting satellite endangered the crew on the International Space Station (ISS).
U.S. officials said Monday the missile hit an old Russian satellite, which burst into more than a thousand pieces. They said this debris thrown into orbit at about 28,000 kilometers per hour could cause major damage to the ISS.
The American space agency NASA said all seven members of the ISS crew were directed to seek safety in their spaceship capsules for two hours. The crew includes four American astronauts, a German astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the satellite strike reckless and irresponsible behavior. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told The Associated Press the action had put ISS astronauts at four times greater risk than usual.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed Tuesday it carried out a missile test and destroyed a non-operational satellite that had been in orbit since 1982. But the ministry added that the strike was planned and carried out carefully. It said any resulting debris did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg agreed with U.S. officials that the Russian strike had put the space station at risk. He told reporters in Brussels the action was also concerning because it demonstrates that Russia is now developing new weapons systems that can shoot down the satellites.
Experts say such tests create clouds of small debris pieces that can crash into other objects, sometimes leading to a chain reaction of dangerous flying objects through Earths orbit.
NASA said the increased threat could delay some science research and other planned ISS activities. Four of the seven crew members just arrived at the station Thursday night.
A similar weapons test by China in 2007 also resulted in a large amount of debris. One of those pieces threatened to come dangerously close to the ISS last week, but was later ruled out as a risk.
The U.S. carried out missile tests on similar satellites in 2008, as did India in 2019. But those tests took place well below the ISS, which orbits around 420 kilometers above Earth.
Im Bryan Lynn.
Reuters and The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports 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.
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Words in This Story
debris n. broken or torn pieces that come from something larger
capsule n. the part of a spacecraft that people live in
reckless adj. showing a lack of care about risks or danger
pose v. to cause a problem
chain reaction n. a series of events in which each one causes the next one to happen
Gue Gue used to be a travel guide in Mandalay, Myanmar, an ancient royal city that has moved quickly into the 21st century. Today, it has shiny new shopping centers, well-dressed students and popular eateries.
Gue had never thought of herself as politically active. But that changed earlier this year. Myanmars military seized power in a coup on February 1, overthrowing the civilian government. In the months that followed, hundreds of protesters were killed by troops on the streets.
Now, Gue is in a hidden rebel training camp.
The members of the resistance say they will fight the final battle against military rule.
Todays generation of young people have grown up in a world of smartphones and greater political freedom, unlike their parents. They say they are ready to pay any price in order to overthrow a government that threatens to take them back to a dark past.
On an April evening, Gue Gue secretly left her family home. A few weeks later, she was in a rebel training camp in the jungle. There, she had a medical emergency her appendix was infected and had to be removed. The operation was carried out in a poorly equipped medical center without any medicine to take away the pain. She had to stay awake during the operation.
Since the coup, Gue Gue had seen many of her generation killed by troops on the streets of her hometown as they called for democracy. There was hope that the international community would take action against the militarys increasing violence. When no action was taken, thousands like Gue Gue decided the only choice was force.
Two faces of the resistance
The army has been the most powerful institution in the country since it became an independent nation in 1948. The military has stood against popular uprisings and civil war for many years. That includes the 1988 uprising that led to the appearance of Aung San Suu Kyi as a human rights leader.
The men and women rebelling against Myanmars military say they will be the last generation to live under the control of the countrys military. In the months since the February coup, university teachers, day laborers, technology workers, students, artists and others have become guerrilla fighters.
The International Crisis Group reported in October that hundreds of armed groups have begun operating across the country. Many groups call themselves Peoples Defense Forces, or PDFs. Famous people and actors, wanted by the officials for supporting the protests, have appeared on social media holding guns.
Tayzar San is a 32-year-old librarian. He and others like him have been hiding in cities, organizing secret demonstrations, sending money to striking workers and planning. He lives out of a backpack, moving from place to place. The government has offered a $5,600 reward for his capture. He has not seen his wife and daughter in many months.
The junta has promised to hold elections within two years. Speaking in October, army chief and coup leader Min Aung Hlaing said the junta was working on a plan to reach a true union based on democracy and federalism. He said the leadership was working to change the country peacefully.
The country of 55 million people once seemed to be on its way to becoming Asias newest semi-democratic nation. In the 70 years since it won independence from colonial Britain, it has had less than 25 years of civilian governance.
House arrest for Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned in her home for 15 years. She was freed to take part in elections and, in 2015, won. In the following years, Suu Kyi drew criticism for standing by the military as they carried out what the United Nations called a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
But Suu Kyis government made some steps toward weakening military power and gaining foreign investment. The Myanmar kyat became Asias best-performing money. The World Bank was predicting economic growth in the country even with the COVID-19 health crisis.
That all came to an end in the early hours of February 1. Suu Kyi and her leadership were arrested. The junta declared a direct return to military rule.
The rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP. says more than 1,200 people have since been killed in attacks by junta troops.
Hundreds have also been killed by the resistance, according to the junta and local media reports. They say newly formed guerrilla groups have killed suspected informers and troops.
The fighting spread across the country.
Longtime activist Bo Kyi is a co-founder of the AAPP. He believes the junta can now be defeated. He said the young rebels have creative ideas and good political understanding. They are trying to unite the countrys many ethnic groups. Smartphones and the internet have made it harder for the military to hide its actions. On social media, reports of acts of violence spread widely in minutes.
The librarian
Three days after the coup, Tayzar San and some friends gathered outside the medical university in Mandalay. They held signs that read Protect democracy, Peoples protest against military rule and Respect the peoples votes. They left quickly, but minutes later police arrested four of the young men.
Their actions helped set off a wave of protests around the country.
Tayzar San left his family to keep them safe. He began to organize daily protests. On Facebook, he called on people to take to the streets: Dont look for a leader, dont wait All the people in the community, please come out.
At home, his daughter has turned two years old and only sees him on television.
The jungle
In April, after the long bus ride from Mandalay, Gue Gue and her friends were led by their contacts to an old school in a village close to the jungle. One of them said Gue Gue was the first woman to go for the training there.
They told me that they dont accept women, because they havent prepared anything, Gue Gue said. It will be so tiring, they said. I told them: I dont care whether it is tiring. I must join.
From there, they traveled to the training camp, and several more women arrived. Together, they built up the camp.
Over the phone, Gue Gue said she now understands she had never done anything truly difficult in her life before. She said she never dreamed she would be living in the conditions she was in.
After weeks of silence, Gue Gue sent a short message to Reuters reporters in early September. Her group had to move its camp because the military was coming their way.
I dont want the people to forget about the young people who are sacrificing their lives on the ground, Gue Gue said by phone. Were still here.
Im Jill Robbins.
Poppy McPherson and Shoon Naing reported on this story for Reuters news service. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
jungle n. a tropical forest where plants and trees grow very thickly
institution n. an established organization
uprising n. a usually violent effort by many people to change the government or leader of a country
reward n. money or another kind of payment that is given or received for something that has been done or that is offered for something that might be done
librarian n. a person who works in a library (a place where many books are kept and may be borrowed)
backpack n. a bag for carrying things that has two shoulder straps and is carried on the back
junta n. a military group controlling a government after taking control of it by force
according to prep. as stated, reported, or recorded by (someone or something)
infrastructure n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly
What do you think of the young Burmese who are fighting the military government? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
Welcome to the Center of Taiwan Studies (CTS)
In partnership with Taiwan's Ministry of Education, the Department of Asian Studies has expanded the Taiwan Studies program into the Center for Taiwan Studies, a multidisciplinary facility dedicated to promoting Taiwans society, history and culture on the UT campus.
Asian Studies Professor Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang spearheaded the development of the center, receiving a grant from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for her proposal to broaden Taiwan Studies to include the wide array of UT activity related to Taiwan. UT has long been recognized as an institution committed to research on Taiwan literature and its socio-historical contexts, launching one of the first Taiwan studies programs in the country in 2009.
The creation of the Center for Taiwan Studies was announced at a signing ceremony on campus on March 22, attended by Texas state representatives, leaders from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Houston and faculty from the College of Liberal Arts.
The agreement was signed by Dr. Sonia Feigenbaum, senior vice provost for global engagement and chief international officer, and TECO Director-General Robert Fu-Wen Lo. Attendees included congressman Michael McCaul, associate dean of Liberal Arts Robert Crosnoe, chair of Asian Studies Donald Davis, professor Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, associate professor Tse-Min Lin, executive assistant to senior vice provost for global engagement Cheryl Lane, TECO Division Director Patrick Ho, TECO Education Division Director Andrea Yang, Texas state representative Angie Chen Button and Carl B. Mica, state director of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Among all of the things weve accomplished in the last 12 years, I take the greatest pride in the fact that the Taiwan Studies Program offered 42 Taiwan-focused courses on 24 different topics spread over seven departments in three different colleges, Chang said. There are now over 1,000 UT students who have taken at least one semester-long course on some Taiwan-related subject. I believe the knowledge theyve acquiredand the very experience of taking the coursewould make a meaningful difference to their personal lives, and to the State of Texas, once these students graduated and entered society.
The signing builds upon a long history of engagement between UT and Taiwan. Taiwanese international students represent one of the largest populations studying at UT, and many Taiwanese alumni are now serving in faculty and leadership positions at higher education institutions in Taiwan. Hundreds of UT students have studied, interned and conducted research in Taiwan. Texas Global recently awarded a Global Virtual Exchange grant to education associate professor James Patton to teach a virtual exchange course in collaboration with the National Taiwan Normal University.
Among the many activities at the center, Taiwan Studies brings distinguished visitors from Taiwan to campus, supports student and faculty research on Taiwan, hosts a variety of international symposia and offers courses in language, culture, history and society of Taiwan.
Story Orginally from Texas Global
Fig. 1: BH3-mimetics and BH3-only proteins upregulate BCL-2 and MCL-1 causing apoptotic resistance. a Schematic model of the mitoprimed system. b HeLa tBID2A cells were treated with venetoclax (ven) and imaged over time. Percentage of dead cells was determined by staining all cells with Syto 21 and dead cells with propidium iodide. n = 3 independent experiments; mean values s.e.m.; unpaired, two-sided t-test at 24 h. c HeLa tBID2A cells were treated with 500 nM venetoclax, harvested at the indicated time points and protein expression was analyzed by western blot (representative blot of three independent repeats). d HeLa tBID2A cells were treated for 48 h with 500 nM venetoclax followed by replacement with regular growth medium (washout). At the indicated times post medium change cells were harvested and protein expression was analyzed by western blot (representative blot of three independent repeats). e HeLa tBID2A cells were treated with or without venetoclax as indicated for 48 h followed by treatment with venetoclax and the MCL-1 inhibitor S63845. Cell death was then monitored by Sytox Green staining and Incucyte imaging. n = 3 independent experiments; mean values s.e.m. f Control or BAX BAKCRISPR HeLa tBID2A cells were treated with 500 nM venetoclax in combination with 10 M qVD-OPh as indicated for 48 h, harvested and protein expression was analyzed by western blot (representative blot of three independent repeats). g Control or BAX BAKCRISPR HeLa cells were transfected with tBID-GFP plasmid, harvested after the indicated times and protein expression was analyzed by western blot. Fold change normalized to loading control is stated below (representative blot of three independent repeats). Credit: DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26613-0
Glasgow scientists have uncovered important information about how cancer cells become resistant to certain treatments, according to research published in Nature Communications.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute have found that dying cancer cells release a protein called FGF2, which helps neighboring cancer cells temporarily cheat death and gives them the opportunity to regrow into new drug-resistant tumors.
The scientists believe that this crucial information could help make chemotherapy more effective, reducing the chances of relapse in cancer patients.
In the lab, the scientists tested cancer cells with a drug called venetoclax, which stops cancer from growing by activating the cell's self-destruct mechanism, known as programmed cell death. Venetoclax is commonly used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
The scientists found that adding dead cancer cells, which had been given venetoclax, to live cancer cells resulted in those live cancer cells becoming resistant to the drug. They identified that FGF2 was responsible for protecting the live cancer cells from death caused by venetoclax. Further experiments showed that removing FGF2 made the cells susceptible to the drug again.
Professor Stephen Tait from the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, who led the research, said: "Drug resistance is a major complication in many different types of cancer. Our study has shown for the first time how cancer cells can become resistant to treatment and how we can overcome that resistance.
"Cancer will take every opportunity it can find to cheat death, but we believe we can stop it from escaping by using existing treatments more effectively."
Interestingly, when the scientists looked at tissue samples from cancer patients and examined the levels of FGF activation in those samples, they found that those patients with higher levels of FGF activation were given a poorer prognosis by their doctor. This finding suggests a potential link between the cancer's ability to cheat death and the patient's chances of long-term survival.
Professor Tait said: "Understanding how drug resistance builds in cancer will allow us to use existing treatments more effectively, as well as helping us to develop new treatments that minimize the chance of cancer coming back.
"Further research is needed to confirm the clinical significance of our findings, but we believe our research could help us target treatments more effectively to the characteristics from each patient's tumor."
Leukemia is the 12th most common cancer in the UK. There are around 9,907 new cases in the UK each year.
Graeme Sneddon, Cancer Research UK spokesperson for Scotland, said: "This research increases our understanding of how drug resistance develops in cancer at a cellular level.
"It shows for the first time how cancer cells can temporarily cheat death and regroup, with significant implications for how we use chemotherapy. With this vital information, we can stop cancer from fighting back by smarter use of existing treatments.
"Further studies are now needed in patients to see which drug combinations and doses work best to overcome potential resistance and help more people survive cancer."
Explore further Two drugs are better than one in fight against leukaemia
More information: Florian J. Bock et al, Apoptotic stress-induced FGF signalling promotes non-cell autonomous resistance to cell death, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Florian J. Bock et al, Apoptotic stress-induced FGF signalling promotes non-cell autonomous resistance to cell death,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26613-0
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Hospitals in Michigan and Minnesota on Tuesday reported a wave of COVID-19 patients not seen in months as beds were filled with unvaccinated people and health care leaders warned that staff were being worn down by yet another surge.
Michigan had slightly more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals this week, the first time it had crossed that threshold since spring, while nearly all hospital beds were occupied in Minnesota. Both held the unflattering rank of national virus hotspots.
It "should be alarming to all of us," Bob Riney, chief operating officer at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, said of the hospital crush.
The overall outlook has improved significantly in recent weeks in the U.S., with coronavirus hospitalizations standing at about 40,000, compared with more than 90,000 at the peak of the delta surge. Virus spread has slowed in the South to the point that more locations are doing away with mask restrictions.
But pockets of the country are seeing surges, including the Northeast, Rockies and Upper Midwest.
Henry Ford Health and Spectrum Health across the state in Grand Rapids, Michigan, together reported 700 COVID-19 patients in their hospitals, the majority of whom were not vaccinated. Positive test rates were running above 20%.
Michigan had the country's highest seven-day COVID-19 case rate at 503 per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Minnesota was No. 2 at 490.
"All of us had hoped that we'd be in a very different place as we approach this Thanksgiving season. But we really are not," Riney said.
When he listens to front-line staff, Riney said they are disheartened to see more COVID-19 cases, especially when vaccines are available.
"These are the women and men that the community celebrated last year," he said. "Parades were held in their honor. They were touted as the heroes they are. ... They haven't gotten a break."
In Minnesota, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said she's ready to expand access to the booster vaccine by the end of the week if the federal government doesn't act first.
An influential U.S. advisory panel will discuss expanding eligibility booster shots to all adults Friday, a move that could make the shots available nationwide as early as this weekend. Pfizer asked U.S. regulators last week to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to sign off on Pfizer's application before the advisory panel meets Friday. The final stepthe CDC's official recommendationcould come soon after the meeting.
"As we now head indoors for the winter and gather for the holidays, this booster protection is particularly important and timely," Malcolm said.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans are getting boosters. Arkansas this week joined California, Colorado, West Virginia and New Mexico in offering them to anyone 18 or older instead of only giving them to people at a greater risk for COVID-19 or age 65 and up.
Elsewhere, some communities in the South were easing virus restrictions as a result of high vaccination rates and low numbers of positive tests.
Louisiana State University dropped an indoor mask order on campus. More than eight out of every 10 students and 79% of staff are vaccinated against COVID-19.
"We are moving forward with confidence but with caution," President William Tate said.
Masks and social distancing now are optional in Florida courthouses. Chief Justice Charles Canady noted that nearly 70% of eligible Florida residents were fully vaccinated and the rate of new COVID-19 cases had dropped.
In Orange County, Florida, which includes Orlando, county employees are no longer required to wear masks indoors, although masks still are recommended. Local virus transmission risk was downgraded to moderate.
Explore further Colorado governor says all adults can get COVID booster shot
2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A case of monkeypox in a traveler who returned to the United States from Nigeria is being investigated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Maryland Department of Health.
The infected person is currently in isolation in Maryland.
Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that typically begins with flu-like symptoms and swelling of the lymph nodes, and then progresses to a widespread rash on the face and body.
The strain in the infected person matches the strain that reemerged in Nigeria in 2017, after more than 40 years of no reported cases in that country.
The CDC said it's working with other officials to seek out airline passengers and those who may have had contact with the patient, and to assess their potential risks.
Travelers on the flight were required to wear masks, so it's believed that there's a low risk that the monkeypox virus spread through respiratory droplets to other passengers, according to the CDC.
Since 2017, 218 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in Nigeria and eight cases have been reported in international travelers from Nigeria, including a case in Texas in July 2021 and the latest case, the agency said.
The symptoms of monkeypox are similar to but milder than the symptoms of smallpox. The main difference in symptoms is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell while smallpox does not, the CDC says. The incubation period for monkeypox is usually 7 to14 days, but it can range from 5 to 21 days.
The agency asked that health care providers be on the lookout for poxvirus-like lesions, particularly among travelers returning from Nigeria. Because of the health risks associated with even a single case of monkeypox, clinicians should report suspected cases immediately to state or local public health authorities.
More information: Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on monkeypox
Provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
The Covax scheme aimed at equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines has now delivered more than 500 million doses around the world, figures showed Wednesday.
Covax was established to ensure poorer countries get COVID jabs but the facility has been hit by setbacks as wealthy nations hog doses straight off the production lines.
Covax, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, had said at the beginning of the year it hoped to deliver two billion doses in 2021.
"Thanks to incredible hard work and dedication from partners and health workers, Covax has delivered 500 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 countries and territories," Gavi chief executive Seth Berkley said on Twitter.
The 92 poorest participating territories can access jabs for free via Covax, with donors covering the costs.
"Covax has faced challenges in 2021 in the form of export bans, supply shortages and vaccine nationalism. Arrivals in countries are now rapidly ramping up as we strive to ensure countries have as many doses as they are able to administer," said Berkley.
"When donors and manufacturers give us visibility on when doses arrive, countries can plan large-scale national roll outs. This is the only way we will bridge our dangerous global vaccine divide."
More than 7.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered around the world, according to an AFP count.
Some 143 doses per 100 people have been injected in high-income countries, compared to fewer than seven per 100 people in low-income nations.
Gavi said Tuesday that five of the world's poorest countriesChad, the DR Congo, Congo, Haiti, South Sudan and Yemendid not even have enough doses to reach two percent of their populations.
The Covax collective development and procurement scheme was set up to counter the likelihood that much of the world would be shut out from access to any eventual vaccines.
According to its forecasts, it should truly come into force throughout 2022.
Meanwhile the WHO said that more than 3.3 million new coronavirus cases were reported last weekup six percent on the previous week.
Just under 50,000 new deaths were registered, with all regions reporting stable or declining trends, apart from Europe which recorded a five-percent increase.
Explore further Covax eyes vaccines for just 20% of people in poor nations in 2021
2021 AFP
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
About 9% of cancer patients experience complications while hospitalized that lead to a deterioration in their condition, a transfer to the intensive care unit or even death. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a machine learning-based early warning system model to predict this deterioration and improve patient outcomes.
Chenyang Lu, the Fullgraf Professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering, with collaborators including Marin Kollef, MD, the Golman Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine and director of the medical intensive care unit and respiratory care services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and Patrick Lyons, MD, instructor in medicine at the School of Medicine, recently developed a new predictive model for hospitalized cancer patients that integrates heterogeneous data available in electronic health records (EHR).
Using historical, de-identified data from more than 20,000 hospitalizations of patients with cancer at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Lu and Dingwen Li, a doctoral student in his lab and first author of the paper, found a way to integrate two types of valuable data in deep learning models that might offer clues about a patient's condition: static data, or data collected at the time of admission, such as demographics, other medical diagnoses or information from previous hospitalizations; and time-series data, which is collected repeatedly during a hospital stay and includes body temperature, blood pressure, medication and test results.
Li presented results of their work Nov. 3 at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Information and Knowledge Management.
As static and time-series data contain complementary information related to clinical deterioration, it is important for a predictive model to exploit both types of variables to maximize its accuracy, Lu said.
"There are early signs hidden in the data that suggest that a person will develop clinical deterioration in a few hours or a few days," said Lu, an expert in the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems and clinical artificial intelligence. "Humans cannot see these hidden patterns or trends in the data, so this is where machine learning is very good at picking up these patterns."
Lu and his team used a recurrent neural network (RNN) model that originally was designed for the time-series data and enhanced it to incorporate the static data using a multimodal fusion approach. Their end-to-end model, called CrossNet, learns how to predict deterioration events while accurately imputing any missing static or time-series data. This novel approach to incorporate both static and time-series data combines the power of deep recurrent models and the benefits of heterogeneous data in EHR.
Ideally, an early warning system would learn from a patient's data the signs that the patient is deteriorating, which would activate an alarm calling health-care providers to the bedside. However, one of the risks with such a system is that an alarm would sound so frequently, possibly triggered by false alarms, that the health-care providers would develop alarm fatigue and eventually stop responding.
In a case study under realistic in-patient care settings, Lu and the team set a threshold of 48 notifications in a 24-hour period, or one every 30 minutes. The team then implemented a more proactive early warning system where the alarm rate can be high, but the number of false alarms is limited to avoid alarm fatigue. With the same false alarm rate, the team's CrossNet model captured 39.5% of clinical deterioration events, while an existing model used by many hospitals called the Modified Early Warning Scores (MEWS) captured only 3.9% of the same events.
While the model has potential, Lu is working with the physicians on the team to determine the best way to implement it in a hospital setting.
Kollef said Barnes-Jewish Hospital has been using a simpler early warning system for about 15 years. After some evaluation, alarms from that system are sent to an early response team that can assess and triage patients.
"An alert is meaningless unless it's tied to intervention," Kollef said. "It's easy for someone to pull data from a machine and analyze it, but what do you do with it? That's the challenge."
Kollef, who has worked in the intensive care unit for 35 years, said an early warning system is a step in the right direction, and collaborators such as Lyons are key to implementing such a system.
"Patients with cancer are often very sick and fragile and are already monitored intensely," said Lyons, an informatics-based clinician. "With chemotherapy and other treatments, they generate a lot of data that is hard to sort through in a meaningful way. We would like to use this model to distill what data is going to point health-care providers toward a clear direction."
Lyons said the team is seeking funding to build an infrastructure around their model and test it to see if it improves the processes of care. In the meantime, he is doing focus groups with patients and nurses to determine their priorities.
Explore further Early warning system model predicts deterioration of hospitalized cancer patients
More information: Dingwen Li et al, Integrating Static and Time-Series Data in Deep Recurrent Models for Oncology Early Warning Systems, Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management (2021). Dingwen Li et al, Integrating Static and Time-Series Data in Deep Recurrent Models for Oncology Early Warning Systems,(2021). DOI: 10.1145/3459637.3482441
(HealthDay)The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve Pfizer's COVID booster shots for all American adults as early as Thursday.
That would make tens of millions more Americans eligible for the booster doses, sources familiar with the plan told The New York Times.
The FDA is expected to make its decision without the input of its own expert panel, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent panel of vaccine experts plans to meet Friday to discuss the safety and efficacy of the booster dose.
If both agencies give Pfizer the green light, it will come just a bit more than a week after the company first applied for emergency authorization. Approval would mean that any adult who received a second dose of the vaccine at least six months earlier would be able to get a booster as soon as this weekend.
"This comes as welcome news, especially with the holidays fast approaching as families gather together, triggering a spike in domestic and international travel," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
'The reality, however, is that many people have already received boosters in the past several months, even if they didn't qualify based on the FDA's initial ruling in September," Glatter added. "Because multigenerational families living in close quarters may be at higher risk for spread of the virus, seeking boosters before official FDA approval became commonplace, to mitigate risk sooner than later."
More than 30 million Americans have already gotten booster shots, with the number often outpacing the number of first shots given each day across the country, according to the CDC.
"The bottom line is that with surging cases and hospitalizations in many European citiesincluding Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and the UKthe concern is that the next surge to follow may be in the U.S.," Glatter noted. "Lockdowns in Austria further serve as a reminder that the virus is not finished with us."
In addition to Pfizer's booster request, it's expected that Moderna will soon also ask the FDA to expand eligibility for its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, the Times reported.
Some state and local officials have already taken matters into their own hands: New York City health officials on Monday encouraged all adults who want boosters to seek them out. Meanwhile, Arkansas, California, Colorado and New Mexico have already moved to expand access.
In September, the FDA authorized Pfizer booster shots for adults 65 and older, those with underlying medical conditions, and those with jobs that put them at risk. In October, the FDA approved booster shots for everyone who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and for vulnerable people who received Moderna's two-dose vaccine.
President Joe Biden wanted to start offering boosters to all adults in September, but faced pushback from public health experts. However, there's growing evidence of reductions in vaccine efficacy and in protective antibodies in fully vaccinated people.
"Antibodies decay with time. That's not just a coronavirus vaccine story," FDA advisory committee member Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Harvard's Boston Children's Hospital, told the Times. "Vaccines vary in the durability of the protective response. We are starting to see waning in other age groups as well."
Explore further Boosters for all adults in US closer with panel meeting set
More information: Visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more on Visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more on COVID vaccines
Copyright 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Two years ago Laetitia Defoi suffered serious health complications from a blood transfusion gone wrong.
The 31-year-old Frenchwoman has sickle cell anaemia and her blood, though B+, contains genetic material that makes it rare complicating the regular transfusions she requires to be able to walk.
"My body rejected B+ blood because it didn't exactly match my type," Defoi told AFP after nearly two years of difficulties posed by incompatible transfusions.
A programme of events in France this week seeks to encourage blood donations from members of certain ethnic groups who possess rare blood groups and themselves may be more at risk of sickle cell.
The rare types number as many as 250 but are found in just one in 250 people.
The drive is particularly seeking to increase donations from donors with blood types highly sought for transfusions, including those from African, Caribbean and Indian Ocean backgrounds, according to the French Blood Establishment (EFS) website.
Members of those groups can also be at greater risk of sickle cell, which in turn increases demand for therapeutic transfusions.
Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders characterised by the presence of an abnormal protein in the red blood cells, causing swellings, fatigue, jaundice, and episodic or chronic pain.
"(Rare groups) are defined by two factors: a prevalence of less than 0.4 percent in the general population, and the fact that they have no alternative for transfusions," said Jacques Chiaroni, a professor at the EFS which organised the awareness campaign.
Some groups are especially rare with those dubbed "Bombay" found in one in a million people, and Rhesus null found in some 50 people globally who can in turn donate to anyone.
When transfusions are required, patients need a blood type as close as possible to their own with "incompatible" blood "at the very least risking an ineffective transfusion, or at worst risking (the patient's) death", according to Chiaroni.
Detected by chance
The prevalence of a blood group in any given region is down to humans adapting to their environments, with genetic characteristics forged over centuries.
"Genetic diversity is greatest in Africa where the human presence goes back furthest since that's where man first appeared," said Chiaroni.
The global distribution of blood groups is linked to historic migrations meaning that a group that is rare in one area is not necessarily uncommon in another as a result of population movements.
Chiaroni highlights the presence of a group in Eurasia "the distribution of which aligns with the Mongol expansion in the 13th century".
"I am Rhesus negative, and in China I am untransfusible" because the trait is rare therebut 15 percent of Europeans have it, he said.
As a result of shortages it can be necessary to import rare blood as happened recently for a child undergoing a bone marrow transplant in France for whom supplies were flown in from the United States.
Rare blood carriers can be detected by chance during pre-transfusion checks or screening campaigns, with their siblings subsequently approached because of the likelihood they have the same type.
Defoi said that her sickle cell condition had caused bone complications with the need for additional operations and transfusions.
"If I walk, it's partly thanks to the transfusions," added Defoi whose organisation Drepacare supports those with the illness.
Explore further Understanding sickle cell disease
2021 AFP
Credit: Institute of Cancer Research
The last decade has brought major advances in the way we diagnose and treat prostate cancer and men with advanced disease are living longer than ever. We spoke to our scientists about the most exciting research areas that have the potential to revolutionize prostate cancer treatment in years to come.
About 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer at some point in their life. This makes prostate cancer the most common cancer in men, and the second most common cancer overall in the UK. Over 50,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK every yearthat's more than 100 each day.
Ongoing prostate cancer research is looking at new treatment and early detection approaches, such as genetic screening, PSMA-targeting drugs and new targeted therapies, including precision medicines like PARP inhibitors and immunotherapies.
The ICR's scientists, including Professor Ros Eeles, Professor Johann de Bono and Professor Nick James, are advancing our understanding of prostate cancer and how to treat itso that many more men can live longer, better lives in the next decade.
Targeted screening based on individuals' genetic profiles
As our understanding of the genetics behind prostate cancer expands, it's possible that simple tests could reveal someone's risk of prostate cancer, meaning those at highest risk could benefit from more frequent screening.
Professor Ros Eeles has been studying prostate cancer genetics at the ICR for more than 25 years. She has led research identifying more than two thirds of the currently known genetic variants that increase prostate cancer riskand could identify many more in the next decade.
"One of the main research areas undergoing a revolution in cancer research is the use of genetic discoveries to group and separate populations into different levels of risk, so that we can target early detection to those men that need it the most," she said.
At the ICR, Professor Eeles is leading studies like GENPROS, an international study following men with changes in genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2, MMR or HOXB13, and following their prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. The aim is to better understand how well treatments work in these men at higher risk.
Prostate cancers can often grow too slowly to threaten a man's life. For this reason, many men who have early disease and do not carry a mutation linked to cancer would normally just be watched closely by clinicians, as the disease is unlikely to progress further.
What Professor Eeles and her team are trying to figure out as part of GENPROS is: should we use the same 'active surveillance approach' with men who carry certain mutations, such as BRCA2, for example?
Along with GENPROS, Professor Eeles is also leading PROFILE and IMPACT, two other studies investigating the most appropriate screening and management of prostate cancer in different groups of men at higher risk.
Improving diagnosis through liquid biopsies
"Once we know who is more likely to benefit from screening, we can work to achieve early diagnosis. This is where a second revolutionary area of research becomes important: developing and using new types of diagnostic techniques. For example, liquid biopsiessimple blood tests aiming to identify changes specific to the tumor which can direct the clinician as to where they should try new targeted treatments," says Professor Eeles.
Liquid biopsies could transform clinical practice in the future, as they enable a new, more personalized approach to cancer treatment. Instead of using conventional tissue biopsies, which involve surgically removing a piece of the tumor and are invasive and painful, to analyze tumor DNA, researchers can use blood tests that pick up tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream.
Last year, Professor Johann de Bono and his team used liquid biopsies to predict how well men with advanced prostate cancer responded to treatment with abiraterone with or without ipatasertib. Their research suggested these simple blood tests could replace some of the existing methods used to characterize and track the disease in the clinic.
When they analyzed cancer DNA from the blood tests, researchers found specific genetic changes associated with drug resistancewhich indicate that men are at risk of early relapse.
"These simple blood tests could help us track how cancer changes and stops responding to treatment. We are already using them as part of clinical trials and they are likely to eventually become part of routine care. Liquid biopsies are minimally invasive, cost-effective and can be performed often and with ease. Tracking prostate cancer with a blood test instead of a painful surgical biopsy could significantly improve patients' quality of life," said Professor Johann de Bono.
Delivering a radioactive payload directly to cancer cells
Professor Johann De Bono has also been working on research involving a new 'search-and-destroy' medicine known as PSMA therapy. The treatment acts like a guided missile, consisting of a radioactive particle that can be delivered directly to cancer cells.
The treatment, sometimes known as Lutetium-177 PSMA, uses a 'homing device' to seek out cancers by detecting the presence of a target molecule called prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) on the surface of cancer cells. Once in contact, it delivers a radioactive payload to kill them.
Professor De Bono's team found that the treatment's PSMA target is present at higher levels on the surface of cancer cells in some patients than others, making it possible that a genetic test could pick out men who are most likely to benefit from the therapy.
This year a phase III trial called VISION, involving Professor Johann De Bono, showed for the first time that the therapy is effective and can keep patients with advanced prostate cancer alive and healthy for longer.
Around a third to a half of the 10,000 men a year diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer have tumors with high levels of PSMA and could therefore benefit from the treatment. For this reason, PSMA therapy, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year, could be a game-changer in years to come.
Targeted drugs that are kinder to patients
Increasingly, we are moving away from a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to cancer care and we are getting better at tailoring treatment to individuals.
The benefit of targeted treatments is that they involve fewer side effects and can help prostate cancer patients live longer but also with a better quality of life.
In the next decade, we are hoping to increase access to targeted treatments that already exist, bringing them to more patients, and we are also hoping to discover and develop new ones.
Abiraterone, a targeted hormone therapy discovered at the ICR and developed in partnership with our partner hospital The Royal Marsden has already given hundreds of thousands of men around the world extra years of life without the side effects of other treatments.
Another precision drug, olaparib, is known for its use in breast and ovarian cancer, but Professor Johann de Bono has led trials showing that olaparib can be effective in men with prostate cancer who have tumors with mutations in specific genes involved in DNA damage repair, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. It is now available in Scotland as a treatment for some men with prostate cancer.
Better clinical trials with adaptive, smarter designs
It is thanks to well-conducted clinical trials that new cutting edge drugs eventually become available to patients.
STAMPEDE, led by Professor Nick James, is an innovative multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) trial which also helped change the standard of care for men with advanced prostate cancer. Three of the treatments tested have shown substantially improved survival: abiraterone, docetaxel chemotherapy and prostate radiotherapy in men with disease that has spread at diagnosis.
"When we started the STAMPEDE trial back in 2005, the survival of advanced prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of the body was around three and a half years, on average. Now, it's around seven to ten yearsand abiraterone and the other advances from the STAMPEDE trial can claim a lot of the credit for that," said Professor James
STAMPEDE is an adaptive clinical trialmeaning researchers can add in new treatments to the trial and drop ineffective treatments early. In other words, MAMS trials help us answer multiple research questions simultaneously and compare more than one treatment under a single trial protocolsaving money, time and resources, while also generating evidence more quickly and accelerating the delivery of the next game-changing treatments for patients.
The MAMS approach has famously been used to trial potential COVID-19 treatments in the RECOVERY trial, the world's largest clinical trial into treatments for COVID-19, involving more than 40,000 participants across 185 trial sites in the UK.
"Rather than waiting to set up a new trial to test a new treatment, you can just add a new treatment arm to a trial that is already ongoing. Additionally, recruitment to a trial takes a long time to build up, but by adding a new arm to an existing trial, recruitment becomes less of an issue as the set up process has already happened," said Professor James.
"As STAMPEDE progresses, we've been adding new comparisons to the trial, which should help us answer even more questions, allowing us to figure out what the best way of treating men with newly diagnosed advanced prostate cancer is, faster. So far, STAMPEDE has tested ten different treatment combinations, with three more new ones in set up."
Training the immune system to fight cancer
The immune system is able to kills cells that are harming the body, including cancer cells. However, cancer can often turn off the body's natural 'anti-cancer immune responses." One way in which our scientists are trying to defeat cancer is by reawakening the immune system, encouraging immune cells to attack cancer cells.
Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that has been very effective in other cancers, including skin cancer, but we are just beginning to make it work for men with prostate cancer.
However, investigating the immune response in prostate cancer is already starting to show promise. Professor Johann de Bono has been working to understand and target a protein known as CD38, displayed on the surface of immune cells. He will soon be leading a clinical trial in this area, which is a first in prostate cancerlooking at drugs which target CD38, which could hold promise against prostate cancer by reawakening the anti-cancer immune response and fighting cancer's 'cloaking' strategy, which allows it to hide from the immune system.
Another trial looking at an immunotherapy showed that some men with advanced prostate cancer with mutations in genes involved in DNA repair, like the BRCA genes, and who had exhausted all other treatment options could live for two years or more on the immunotherapy pembrolizumab.
Manipulating 'gut bugs'
More and more evidence is showing that the microbiomethe community of microorganisms living in and on us, which are essential to our development and immunityplays a role in many diseases, including prostate cancer.
Recently, Professor de Bono and his team found that common gut bacteria can become 'hormone factories' and sustain prostate cancer's growth, progression and resistance to hormone therapyopening up a whole new research avenue.
In future we might see bacterial 'fingerprints' used in the clinic to pick out patients at high risk of developing resistance to treatment. These patients could then benefit from strategies to manipulate their microbiomefor example, men could undergo fecal transplants to alter their intestinal microbiota, reducing the number of certain potentially harmful bacterial strains.
Ultimately, researchers hope to come up with a yogurt drink enriched with bacteria that could also switch the microbiome to a more favorable profile and avoid or delay resistance to hormone treatments.
Cutting edge radiotherapy
There have also been many advances in the field of radiotherapy, including new courses of radiotherapy, known as 'hypofractionated radiotherapy," delivering higher doses of radiotherapy in fewer sessions. This supports a shorter treatment plan that allows men to finish treatment soonerreducing the number of trips to hospital without negatively affecting men's quality of life in the long term.
Another recent advance is the MR Linac, which combines two technologiesan MRI scanner and a linear accelerator. This technology, which is currently being trialed by researchers at the ICR and The Royal Marsden, allows radiographers and clinicians to precisely locate tumors, tailor the shape of X-ray beams in real time, and accurately deliver doses of radiation even to moving tumors. This is particularly important for cancers that can move during radiotherapy, or between scanning and treatment, including prostate cancer.
Innovation still to come
Professor de Bono shared his thoughts on the future:
"The last decade has been historic for prostate cancer research, many advances have been madewe have started to use genetic information to personalize treatment, reduced side effects thanks to targeted therapies and we are just beginning to train the immune system to combat prostate cancer.
"But we're already looking ahead, and there is no doubt that the most innovative years in prostate cancer research history are yet to come."
Explore further New BRCA-targeting drug could offer hope in treating advanced prostate cancer
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Many people lucky enough to have grown up with doting grandmothers know that they can burnish a child's development in unique and valuable ways. Now, for the first time, scientists have scanned grandmothers' brains while they're viewing photos of their young grandchildrenproviding a neural snapshot of this special, inter-generational bond.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B is publishing the first study to examine grandmaternal brain function, conducted by researchers at Emory University.
"What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy," says James Rilling, Emory professor of anthropology and lead author of the study. "That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them. If their grandchild is smiling, they're feeling the child's joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they're feeling the child's pain and distress."
In contrast, the study found that when grandmothers view images of their adult child, they show stronger activation in an area of the brain associated with cognitive empathy. That indicates they may be trying to cognitively understand what their adult child is thinking or feeling and why, but not as much from the emotional side.
"Young children have likely evolved traits to be able to manipulate not just the maternal brain, but the grand maternal brain," Rilling says. "An adult child doesn't have the same cute 'factor,' so they may not illicit the same emotional response."
Co-authors of the study are Minwoo Lee, a Ph.D. candidate in Emory's Department of Anthropology, and Amber Gonzalez, a former Emory research specialist.
"I can relate to this research personally because I spent a lot of time interacting with both of my grandmothers," Lee says. "I still remember warmly the moments I had with them. They were always so welcoming and happy to see me. As a child, I didn't really understand why."
It's relatively rare, Lee adds, for scientists to study the older human brain outside of the problems of dementia or other aging disorders.
"Here, we're highlighting the brain functions of grandmothers that may play an important role in our social lives and development," Lee says. "It's an important aspect of the human experience that has been largely left out of the field of neuroscience."
Rilling's lab focuses on the neural basis of human social cognition and behavior. Motherhood has been extensively studied by other neuroscientists. Rilling is a leader in researching the lesser-explored neuroscience of fatherhood.
Grandmothers interacting with grandchildren offered new neural territory.
"Evidence is emerging in neuroscience for a global, parental caregiving system in the brain," Rilling says. "We wanted to see how grandmothers might fit into that pattern."
Humans are cooperative breeders, meaning that mothers get help caring for their offspring, although the sources of that help vary both across and within societies.
"We often assume that fathers are the most important caregivers next to mothers, but that's not always true," Rilling says. "In some cases, grandmothers are the primary helper."
In fact, the "grandmother hypothesis" posits that the reason human females tend to live long past their reproductive years is because they provide evolutionary benefits to their offspring and grandchildren. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes a study of the traditional Hadza people of Tanzania, where foraging by grandmothers improves the nutritional status of their grandchildren. Another study of traditional communities showed that the presence of grandmothers decreases their daughters' interbirth intervals and increases the number of grandchildren.
And in more modern societies, evidence is accumulating that positively engaged grandmothers are associated with children having better outcomes on a range of measures, including academic, social, behavior and physical health.
For the current study, the researchers wanted to understand the brains of healthy grandmothers and how that may relate to the benefits they provide to their families.
The 50 participants in the study completed questionnaires about their experiences as grandmothers, providing details such as how much time they spend with their grandchildren, the activities they do together and how much affection they feel for them.
They also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure their brain function as they viewed pictures of their grandchild, an unknown child, the same-sex parent of the grandchild, and an unknown adult.
The results showed that, while viewing pictures of their grandchildren, most participants showed more activity in brain areas involved with emotional empathy and movement, compared to when they were viewing the other images.
Grandmothers who more strongly activated areas involved with cognitive empathy when viewing pictures of their grandchild reported in the questionnaire that they desired greater involvement in caring for the grandchild.
Finally, compared with results from earlier study by the Rilling lab of fathers viewing photos of their children, grandmothers more strongly activated regions involved with emotional empathy and motivation, on average, when viewing images of their grandchildren.
"Our results add to the evidence that there does seem to be a global parenting caregiving system in the brain, and that grandmothers' responses to their grandchildren maps onto it," Rilling says.
One limitation to the study, the researchers note, is that the participants skewed towards mentally and physically healthy women who are high-functioning grandmothers.
The study opens the door to many more questions to be explored. "It would be interesting to also look at the neuroscience of grandfathers and how the brain functions of grandparents may differ across cultures," Lee says.
An especially gratifying aspect of the project for Rilling was personally interviewing all the participants himself. "It was fun," he says. "I wanted to get a sense of the rewards and challenges of being a grandmother."
The main challenge many of them reported was trying not to interfere when they disagreed with the parents over how their grandchildren should be raised and what values should be instilled in them.
"Many of them also said how nice it is to not be under as much time and financial pressure as they were when raising their children," Rilling says. "They get to enjoy the experience of being a grandmother much more than they did being parents."
Explore further The impact of relatedness on grandmothers' desire to care for their grandchildren
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Even with nearly 63% of Californians fully vaccinated, some public health officials worry that big gatherings this holiday season could lead to big outbreaks of COVID-19. But families looking to reunite have at least one infection-averting tool that they didn't have last year: rapid at-home testing kits.
The kits aren't foolproof, and most aren't as reliable as the lab-based alternative when it comes to detecting infections in their earliest stages. Also, the cost can be high if you have to check a houseful of people.
If used in the right circumstances, however, an at-home test can warn you in a matter of minutes if Cousin Antoine's cough or Aunt Maggie's muscle aches are signs of a potentially grave threat to the rest of the family. Even better, the tests can make it easy for your invited guests to check for an active infection before they trundle off to your home.
One other crucial caveat: If you haven't been fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions against traveling to that holiday get-together. And if you're determined to travel sans vaccination, the CDC recommends doing so only if you get a negative COVID test one to three days days before departure, then quarantining for seven days after arrival (or fewer, if you test negative again).
Here's a rundown of how the tests work, how reliable the results are, who makes them, where to find them and how much they cost.
What are at-home rapid COVID tests?
The key word here is "rapid," as in delivering results in about 15 minutes. Unlike the self-testing kits that you have to send to a lab for processing, the rapid kits let you process your samples at homein fact, most of them let you watch the results slowly emerge on a test strip, the way you might watch an image form on a Polaroid (but with higher stakes).
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given emergency-use authorization to two kinds of rapid tests: molecular and antigen. The molecular tests, which boast higher sensitivity but carry a higher cost, examine the genetic material in your sample for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The antigen tests look for the presence of a protein that binds to the coronavirus' RNA.
Only one of the three approved home molecular teststhe Lucira CHECK-IT kitis easily found online, and it's pricy: Amazon sells it for $89 per test.
A quick search for antigen tests, on the other hand, found six of the nine approved tests available to U.S. consumers in stores or online, one from two different manufacturers:
iHealth$14 for a two-pack at the company's website.
QuickVue$20 to $24 for a two-pack at local pharmacies.
BinaxNowabout $24 for a two-pack at local pharmacies.
CareStart$24 for a two-pack at RiteAid.
BD Veritor$26.50 for a two-pack at Amazon.
Inteliswab$29 to $40 for a two-pack from medical supply stores online.
On/Go$35 for a two-pack at Amazon, Walmart and the company's website.
One other antigen test, by Celltrion, is available in bulk quantities from medical supply stores online for about $10 per test.
Different antigen test kits come with different featuresfor example, some have smartphone apps that can display your test result, which would be useful if you're asked to show proof of a negative test. And the performance of the tests may vary, although all did well enough to win the FDA's emergency authorization.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said the BinaxNow test has been the most widely used, so it has more of a track record than the other tests. But he said people shouldn't pay too much attention to brand names, given that the tests have been in relatively short supply. "Any of the tests that you can find are way better than not having tests," he said.
How reliable are the results?
The coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease can take several days to build up steam (or "viral load"), which means you aren't likely to show symptoms or be infectious to others immediately after you've caught it. That's why public health officials advise you not to get tested immediately after you've been exposed to people who might be infectious.
Molecular tests, however, use chemical techniques to amplify the amount of genetic material in a sample, enabling them to detect the presence of the coronavirus at a very early stagein some cases, even before a person can pass along the infection to others. On the other hand, they may also find leftover traces of the virus after a person is no longer contagious. And like any test, they are subject to contamination and other glitches that can cause erroneous results, including the occasional false positive. It's not common, but it's more likely to happen in communities that have few cases of the disease.
Antigen tests have proven to be as good as molecular tests at avoiding false positive results. And according to the CDC, these tests are also just as good when it comes to detecting COVID in someone who is showing symptoms of the disease, such as a cough, a fever and a sore throat.
Where the tests fall short, the CDC warns, is with people who have the virus but show no symptoms, especially if they're in the early stages of infection and may not yet have enough of a viral load to infect others. The agency recommends that people perform a second antigen test a few days after the first one, which is why the kits are sold as two-packs.
If you haven't been vaccinated and you've come into close contact sometime in the previous two weeks with someone who had COVID, the CDC recommends that you get a molecular test just to be sure you're not infected.
What's the best use of rapid tests?
Testing can reduce the risk in a variety of holiday scenarios, but Jha and Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, said it makes the most sense in two situations: if unvaccinated people will be joining you for the holidays, or if people in your group would be at high risk of deadly complications if they contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19. "Other than that, while it could render a gathering a smidgen safer, it doesn't feel worth it to me to spend a few hundred bucks testing 10 or so people," Wachter said in an email.
Another factor weighing in favor of testing is when there is a high rate of COVID infections in the community, Jha said. But which community determines the amount of risk? That may be hard to figure out if you have guests coming from several parts of the country.
When and how often you should take a test depends on the nature of the gathering. "Rapid tests are a measure of contagiousness," Jha said, "and so you want to test as close as you can of getting together with people." If it's just a Thanksgiving day meal, Jha said, "The ideal situation would be to test on Thursday morning."
But if it's a holiday weekend visit, he and Wachter suggested testing more than oncesay, just before arriving and again in a day or twoespecially if you'll be in the presence of unvaccinated people. "Two negative tests, you're really good to go," Jha said, adding that if you're around people at high risk of COVID complications, you could even take a test daily.
"In an unvaccinated population, one single test is probably not good enough," Jha said. For proof, he pointed to the ceremony President Trump held last year for new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Attendees had to have gotten a negative test result to gain admission but it still turned into something close to a superspreader event.
How do you test yourself?
The typical process starts with taking a sterile swab from the kit and tracing the inside of each nostril several times. That gathers the sample. The next step depends on the type of test.
With molecular tests, the swab is inserted into a small container, where the sample is mixed with a reagent, a substance that starts the process of revealing the sample's genetic makeup. The container is then placed in a base unit, where the magic (technically, the isothermal amplification) happens. The results appear on the base unit or in a smartphone app.
With antigen tests, the swab is placed in a disposable reader (often made of paper) where it meets a test strip. You add a few drops of the kit's reagent, then watch to see whether the strip shows a positive, negative or inconclusive result.
Be sure to read and follow the instructions carefully to collect a proper sample and avoid contamination. With the popular BinaxNow test, for example, you're supposed to swab each of your nostrils for 15 seconds and rotate the swab three times after placing it in the reagent.
2021 Los Angeles Times.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Table 3. Risk of depression in child if mother had depression, adjusting for deprivation (clustering on mother ID). Credit: Brophy et al., 2021, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Children who live with a parent who has depression are more likely to develop depression and to not achieve educational milestones, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Sinead Brophy of Swansea University, UK, and colleagues.
Maternal depression is a known risk factor for depression in children and is associated with a range of adverse child health and educational outcomes including poorer academic attainment. To date, however, risk factors associated with paternal depression have been less well examined. Understanding the effects of timing of both maternal and paternal depression of offspring outcomes has implications for prevention and early intervention.
In the new study, Brophy and colleagues used data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank assembled as part of the Born in Wales Study funded by the Welsh Government. Information on children born in Wales from 1987 to 2018, as well as their mothers and fathersor stable, adult male figure in the same householdwas used in the study. Both parental and child diagnosis of depression was attained from general practitioner records in the SAIL databank.
Overall, 34.5% of mothers and 18% of fathers/stable men had a diagnosis of depression. In offspring, 4.34% of all children, 2.85% of boys, and 5.89% of girls were diagnosed with depression. Children were more likely to develop depression if their mother had depression before their birth (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.21-1.43), after their birth (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.96-2.05), or both before and after their birth (HR 2.25, 95% CI 2.15-2.35). The risk of depression was also increased when their father/stable man had depression before their birth (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.18-1.74), after their birth (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.58-1.74), or both before and after their birth (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.25-1.73). In addition, the odds of achieving milestones at the end of primary school were significantly decreased if either parent had depressionfor instance, the odds of passing Key Stage 3 (KS3) tests was 0.57 (95% CI 0.55-0.60) if a child's mother had depression both before and after their birth and 0.56 (0.490.63) if their father/stable man had depression both before and after their birth. Other risk factors for children's depression identified in the study included being female, their mother taking antidepressants and having no stable man in the household. The authors conclude that the impact of paternal depression requires more attention than has previously been given, and suggest that holistic approaches to whole family wellbeing and depression will help ensure positive outcomes for children.
The authors add: "Children who live with a parent (mum or dad) who has depression are more likely to also develop depression and not achieve as well in school, compared to children who live with a parent with treated depression. Working with families and treating parental depression (in dads as well as mums) is likely to have long-term benefits for children's mental health and educational attainment. This has never been more important than after lockdown and COVID, as depression is contagious too."
Explore further Increased risk of depression for young people if their mothers experienced depression during or after pregnancy
More information: Brophy S, Todd C, Rahman MA, Kennedy N, Rice F (2021) Timing of parental depression on risk of child depression and poor educational outcomes: A population based routine data cohort study from Born in Wales, UK. PLoS ONE 16(11): e0258966. Journal information: PLoS ONE Brophy S, Todd C, Rahman MA, Kennedy N, Rice F (2021) Timing of parental depression on risk of child depression and poor educational outcomes: A population based routine data cohort study from Born in Wales, UK.16(11): e0258966. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258966
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For the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to engulf the globe, fueled in part by novel variants and the uneven distribution of vaccines. Every day, hundreds of thousands of new COVID-19 cases and thousands of new deaths are still being reported worldwide, creating a need for drugs that can combat the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.
Now, new research led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital points to a well-known and widely available drug called disulfiram as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
In the retrospective study, published Oct. 28 in PLOS ONE, patients taking disulfiram for alcoholism were less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2, and those who did get infected were less likely to die from COVID-19 than those not taking the drug.
The researchers caution that since the study was observational, it cannot establish a cause-and-effect link between disulfiram and disease development. However, they say, the results are encouraging enough to warrant further study and clinical testing. The precise mechanism of the drug against SARS-CoV-2 is not yet known, but researchers have hypothesized that it may prevent the virus from taking hold by interfering with an enzyme it requires to replicate. Additionally, disulfiram may blunt the symptoms of severe COVID-19 by inhibiting a protein involved in hyperinflammation. If disulfiram's effect against SARS-CoV-2 is confirmed, it could become a useful tool against the virus.
A Pandemic Pivot
In spring 2020, SARS-CoV-2 was rapidly spreading across the world, and it was quickly becoming apparent that the most severeand deadlysymptoms of COVID-19 are caused by an intense inflammatory response to the virus. At the same time, Judy Lieberman, HMS professor of pediatrics at Boston Children's, and Hao Wu, the Asa and Patricia Springer Professor of Structural Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, were investigating whether disulfiram, an oral medication widely prescribed for alcoholism, could be repurposed to treat inflammation. In May 2020, they published a study in mice demonstrating that disulfiram reduced inflammation caused by sepsis by blocking a key protein involved in the process.
Realizing that their research could be relevant to inflammation associated with COVID-19, the duo reached out to Chris Sander, professor in residence of cell biology at HMS.
"They approached me and asked, can you find any evidence computationally whether this drug works against COVID-19?" Sander recalled. "I just thought, the world is going to pieces here, let's do something useful. I wanted to help them take their research one step further."
Springing into action, Sander worked with Lieberman and Wu to assemble a team of epidemiologists and public health experts, including Nathanael Fillmore and Nhan Do at the Boston VA Cooperative Studies Program Center. The researchers used computational techniques to analyze a large database of clinical records from the national Veterans Affairs health care system.
The analysis included 944,127 veterans who had at least one SARS-CoV-2 test between February 2020 and February 2021; of these, 2,233 had been prescribed disulfiram for alcoholism. Veterans taking disulfiram had a 34 percent lower incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than those who weren't. Moreover, no one on disulfiram who was infected with the virus died, compared with 3 percent of those infected and not on the drug.
"There's evidence that disulfiram not only reduces the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but it may actually reduce the number of deaths," Sander said. He noted, however, that the study, being retrospective, can only establish an association between disulfiram and SARS-CoV-2and thus the findings must be confirmed in randomized clinical trials.
A small randomized phase 2 clinical trial of disulfiram in patients with moderate COVID-19 is nearing completion, and another is underway. The authors hope that the study will motivate large international phase 3 trials of the drug. Noting that it would be unrealistic to give the drug as a preventative measure, they are especially interested in how patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 fare on disulfiram.
The researchers are also eager for further research on the mechanism underlying disulfiram's effect against SARS-CoV-2. One possibility is that the drug inhibits a key protease that SARS-CoV-2 needs in order to replicate, thus preventing the virus from proliferating inside cells. "That's a plausible mechanism, but it must be confirmed with further research. It's a work in progress," Sander said. Disulfiram may also tamp down hyperinflammationwhich can cause respiratory issues in patients with severe COVID-19by inhibiting a protein called gasdermin D that is needed for this inflammatory response.
If disulfiram does indeed reduce infection with SARS-CoV-2 and death from COVID-19, it could become part of a growing arsenal in the global fight against the disease.
The drug is FDA-approved and has been prescribed for over 60 years as a treatment for alcoholism. It is safe, inexpensive, familiar to physicians, and widely used in many countries.
"This is a great candidate for a repurposed drug," Sander said. "It could easily be made available worldwide if we can prove it has a positive effect on patients with COVID-19."
More information: Nathanael Fillmore et al, Disulfiram use is associated with lower risk of COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Nathanael Fillmore et al, Disulfiram use is associated with lower risk of COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259061
The study identified and measured 8,938 proteins, providing a comprehensive view of the proteins expressed during the development of the lung. Credit: Stephanie King and Geremy Clair | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Researchers have compiled the most comprehensive road map of the protein composition of human lungs, providing a clearer picture of the healthy development of this essential organ that made terrestrial life possible.
The study, led by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, describes how thousands of molecules are modulated in a coordinated fashion during the formation of pulmonary tissue. The findings are expected to provide a gateway for further study of human lung formation and function.
The study was published in the Nov. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The findings lay the groundwork for progress on a host of diseases that affect more than 35 million Americans, according to the American Lung Association. The study's authors say the molecular road map of the lung's proteins will help physicians understand lung development. This should help guide strategies to help premature infants and lead to new ways to explore tissue regeneration in adults. Common lung diseases include asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and COVID-19.
"We examined proteins in early development stages and we looked at how they are changing during the development of the organ," said PNNL research scientist Geremy Clair, the study's lead author. "The idea was to learn things about development that we have not seen with previous biomedical studies. Those studiesmostly derived from animalspainted part of the picture, but the data we have generated provide insights on previously unknown details."
Protein power
The lungs are a complex organ with around 40 cell types, and proteins are the engines powering the bulk of their cellular processes. Researchers analyzed the protein composition and molecular maturation in pulmonary tissue from nearly 50 donors, from birth to 8 years. Scientists identified and measured 8,938 proteins.
The team found that the immune system in the lungs continues to develop for years after birth. While scientists know that the immune system develops throughout our lives, the extent of change in the lungs in childhood surprised researchers. It's a welcome phenomenon because the lungs are one of the main gateways for pathogens to enter the body throughout our lifetime.
"The take-home message is that this is a first-of-its-kind analysis of how the protein building blocks of the lung change as a child grows from birth to mid-childhood," said Dr. Gloria Pryhuber, a study coauthor and professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. "This study provides a reference map for future investigators to work on certain subsets of the changing proteins, whether they be enzymes or structural proteins."
Lung development, normal and abnormal
The research provides greater clarity about lung development. For example, while it's been known that lung development continues after birth, the study showed more precisely when to expect further stages of development.
"The lung is not completely developed when a baby is born," Clair said. "There is a little sac at the end of the airwaysthe major passages of the lungsthat has to divide into grape shapes called alveoli. Our study helps us better understand how this process works. Sometimes that development does not take place as expected. Our findings will help provide answers for that unfortunate circumstance, too."
Medical professionals will be able to use the protein map to help diagnose a variety of lung ailments as well as assess lung malfunction and disease in adults, Clair said. The data of the study are publicly available on Lungmap.net.
"This study will be a resource in understanding developmental biology," Clair said. "It has relevance for lung transplants, for cystic fibrosis in children, for pulmonary fibrosis, as well as for idiopathic fibrosis."
Pryhuber concurred that the study will have practical benefits for patient care.
"But that won't happen overnight," Pryhuber said. "Much work remains to be done. Now that it is known that these nearly 9,000 proteins are there and change with age, some may be studied as biomarkers of health or disease and others as potential targets for therapies."
Lungs of the future
Clair also said the study could play a role in COVID treatment. "That may not happen right away," he said. "But so many of the patients who survive COVID have experienced difficulties in breathing. We don't know the long-term implications for those patients in years to come. But this studyalong with otherswill provide information that likely will assist in the development of therapeutic strategies."
Ultimately, Clair said the lung protein data could provide some of the pieces to create artificial lungs.
"Right now, there is a shortage of donor lungs for people who need transplants," he said. "We need to find ways to regenerate lungs, or potentially make new lungs from cells of existing lungs. Technology today is much better than it was 20 years ago. We may have better technology 20 years from now. This study is part of the data that may make this possible."
The research was performed through the LungMAP project, which includes investigators from around the world working together to develop a molecular atlas of the developing human lung. In addition to researchers from PNNL and the University of Rochester, scientists from the University of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the University of Washington and the University of Texas contributed to this project.
The protein analyses were done at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility at PNNL.
Authors from PNNL, in addition to Clair, include Lisa M. Bramer, Song Feng, Vincent G. Danna, Harsh Bhotika and Joshua N. Adkins, as well as former PNNL scientist Charles Ansong, now at NIH.
Explore further Novel glimpses into early lung development
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Maryland and Massachusetts, soon to be followed by other states, now allow taxpayers to begin the sign-up for health care coverage on their tax returns, aiming to draw many residents into low- or no-cost plans they may not know they qualify for.
The effort is intended to gather in many of the last Americansmore than 28 million of themstill without health insurance, despite the gains achieved by the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
A quarter of those people are eligible for Medicaid, the public health plan for low-income Americans, according to an analysis of the uninsured by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than a third could get federal tax subsidies to help them pay for at least part of the premiums for private plans.
"As surprising as it may seem, there are many people out there who don't know there are insurance options for them," said Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, a state agency that helps enroll residents. "People are just surviving out there. They don't know what's available to them."
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed Maryland's first-of-its-kind measure into law in 2019. For the past two years, Maryland income tax forms have included a box that taxpayers can check to indicate they do not have health insurance. With the taxpayer's permission, the state comptroller submits the household's income and family size data to the state's health insurance exchange for possible enrollment in Medicaid or subsidized private insurance.
The Massachusetts legislature adopted a similar measure this year, which will be implemented next year.
Other states are following suit.
Colorado and New Jersey have passed legislation, both with strong bipartisan support, to implement their own easy enrollment plans via tax returns. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law. In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has said he strongly supports the measure, but asked for some small technical changes, which the legislature is likely to adopt next month.
The idea also is gaining steam, either legislatively or administratively, in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Meanwhile, in Congress, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, introduced a bill last month that would put a similar check-off box on federal tax returns.
Van Hollen cited the success in Maryland, which has enrolled nearly 7,000 residents over the past two years, according to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. The state's uninsured rate was 6% in 2019, the last year for which statistics are available. Nationally, according to last year's census, the percentage of those without health insurance is 8.6%.
President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill before Congress would increase federal subsidies for health insurance and make millions more people eligible for Medicaid. Proponents say a check-off box on federal tax returns would alert many of those taxpayers of their options and usher them into health insurance plans.
In 2020, the first year of Maryland's Easy Enrollment program, 60,645 Maryland taxpayers checked the box indicating they didn't have health insurance. The state determined that 53,146 were eligible for either Medicaid or a federal tax credit. Of those, 4,015 people, or 7.6%, ultimately enrolled in a health plan.
This year, 29,020 individuals checked the box, 27,223 were found eligible and 2,962, or 10.8% of those deemed eligible, enrolled.
"We're pleased with that 10%," said Eberle. "Although it sounds low, it's 10% more than we would have gotten otherwise."
Most of the other taxpayers didn't respond to the state's outreach. Nevertheless, Eberle said the information collected from the tax returns could help her office to better target its marketing and education campaigns.
Maryland now puts this check box on its tax returns to initiate a process for enrolling residents in health insurance. Image credit: Maryland Health Benefit Exchange
Of those who enrolled in health care plans through their Maryland tax return, Eberle said nearly a quarter identified as Black and 20% as Latino. More than 40% were ages 18 to 34, a group notorious for low rates of insurance.
Nearly three-quarters of the new enrollees joined Medicaid. The rest enrolled in commercial plans, and about 95% of them qualified for federal tax credits, Eberle said.
Kentucky found another way to piggyback on a government agency's functions to help boost health insurance enrollment.
Last year, as thousands of people were laid off in the first months of the pandemic, Kentucky's Medicaid agency followed up with those who applied for unemployment benefits to enroll them in health plans. Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said in an interview that outreach contributed to a 130,000-person bump in the state's Medicaid rolls during the pandemic.
Friedlander called Maryland's Easy Enrollment "a great model" that he hopes Kentucky also will eventually adopt. And Eberle said Maryland is looking into leveraging unemployment benefit applications for health insurance enrollment as well.
In Massachusetts, which has the lowest rate of residents without health insurance at 3%, officials have been frustrated at the hurdles to getting everyone into health plans, said Audrey Morse Gasteier, chief of policy and strategy at the Massachusetts Health Connector, the state's health insurance exchange.
"We've devoted lots of resources and efforts into marketing and outreach and community engagement into getting people enrolled," she said. "That remaining 3% is very vexing to us, and we remain committed to reaching that population."
With that goal in mind, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker's administration pushed a new law that will introduce a program next year like Maryland's.
The Easy Enrollment concept in Maryland originated in the Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission, a panel comprising lawmakers, hospitals and other providers and consumer advocates that the legislature created to recommend measures to improve access to health care in Maryland.
One of the commission goals, said Vinny DeMarco, a member of the commission and president of the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, was to scoop up the last 6% of Marylanders without health insurance.
And one way to do that, he said, was to leverage residents' interactions with government bureaucracy, such as tax-collecting agencies.
"The success of the ACA is terrific, but we need to get the rest of the way for health care for all Marylanders and Americans," he said.
Explore further Millions who joined medicaid during health emergency could soon lose coverage
2021 The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Spain's panel of vaccine experts approved Wednesday the use of a COVID-19 booster shot for people between 60-69 years old and for health workers, as part of an effort to combat an uptick in infections.
The final go-ahead for the shot must be given by Spain's health minister and the country's regional health chiefs.
Spain has already given 2.7 million booster shots to people age 69 and over and to people of all ages with suppressed immune systems.
A highly successful vaccination program has inoculated 89% of Spaniards age 12 and over. That amounts to some 37 million people.
While the increase in infections in Spain is still lower than the sharp spikes seen in other European countries, some Spanish regional governments are considering the use of a vaccine pass for access to indoor public spaces.
Spain's reports an official infection rate of 96 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days.
Explore further Spain to give different booster to strengthen J&J vaccine
2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Nearly 10 million children in lower-income countries like Nigeria and Pakistan have never been vaccinated, leaving them vulnerable to deadly diseases like polio, measles and pneumonia. Two-thirds of these "zero-dose" kids live below the international poverty line, their families subsisting on less than $2.35 a day in poor villages, in urban slums, in conflict zones.
Over the last 20 years, international organizations spearheaded by GAVI, The Vaccine Alliancein partnership with national governments, the World Health Organization and UNICEFhave ensured that significantly more children in poor countries in Africa and elsewhere get routine vaccinations: 81 percent today versus 59 percent in 2000.
And that has had a major impacta 70 percent drop in child mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases over two decades. As an anchor donor to the Gavi Alliance, Canada has played a major part in this success.
But what about the root causes of non-vaccination of the young: is the problem one of poverty alone, of the failure of domestic governments and their public-health departments to reach the most vulnerable communities, or simply of an inability to overcome deep-rooted social disadvantages? A new Canada-India study of tens of thousands of zero-dose children in India suggests that the causes of low-vaccination rates in lower-income countries is all of those and more.
Published today in the Lancet Global Health and led by Universite de Montreal public-health professor Mira Johri with colleagues S.V. Subramanian at Harvard University and Sunil Rajpal at FLAME University in Pune, the study analyses a quarter century of national survey data to better understand how social, economic and geographical inequalities in India shaped the chances of children remaining unvaccinated between 1992 and 2016.
The researchers analyzed data over four survey rounds from close to 73,000 babies between 12 and 23 months, the standard age when immunization data are assessed. They found that India had made tremendous progress in reaching children with routine immunization: the proportion of zero dose-children in India declined threefold in a quarter-century: from 33 percent in 1992 to 10 percent in 2016.
But they also found that, in 2016, children remained concentrated among disadvantaged groups, including the lowest-income households and children born to mothers who had no formal education.
As well, compared with vaccinated children, zero-dose children were more likely to suffer from malnutrition. For instance, in 1992, 41 percent of zero-dose kids had severely stunted growth, versus 29 percent of vaccinated kids; by 2016, the numbers had declined but were still disproportionate, with 25 percent of zero-dose kids severely stunted versus 19 percent of vaccinated ones. All told, in 2016, there were an estimated 2.9 million zero-dose children in India, concentrated in less developed states and districts and several urban areas.
"Over a 24-year period in India, child zero-dose status was shaped by large-scale social inequalities and remained a consistent marker of generalized vulnerability," the researchers concluded.
"Interventions that address this cycle of intergenerational inequities should be prioritized."
At UdeM, Professor Johri pointed to the uniqueness of the work of her and her colleagues. "It's the first to trace aggregate patterns in zero-dose children over time globally and in India," said Johri, who is an overseas citizen of India as well as a Canadian citizen.
Added Subramanian, a professor of population health and geography at Harvard: "Over the 24 years we analyzed, the proportion of zero dose-children in India declined by just over 23 percent in absolute terms, with more rapid reductions among the worst off. This is a tremendous national achievement."
However, said Rajpal, an assistant professor of economics at FLAME, "these children continue to be concentrated among socially disadvantaged groups, including rural households, poorer households, Muslims, mothers with less education, and expectant mothers who do not benefit fully from health services."
More globally, the Indian experience suggests that "child zero-dose vaccination status is an important marker of vulnerability linked to systematic disadvantage over the life course," Johri said. "Identifying zero-dose children and intervening early to address the complex sources of disadvantage they face has the potential to transform life opportunities and combat intergenerational inequities. It should be a top priority for the international community."
"Progress in reaching unvaccinated (zero-dose) children in India, 19922016: a multilevel, geospatial analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys," by Mira Johri, Sunil Rajpal, and S.V. Subramanian, was published Nov. 16, 2021 in the Lancet Global Health.
Explore further Disparities found in vaccination coverage by age 24 months before COVID-19
More information: Progress in reaching unvaccinated (zero-dose) children in India, 19922016: a multilevel, geospatial analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys, Lancet Global Health, www.thelancet.com/journals/lan (21)00349-1/fulltext Journal information: The Lancet Global Health Progress in reaching unvaccinated (zero-dose) children in India, 19922016: a multilevel, geospatial analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys,
A researcher at work in the Ryu lab. Credit: Hackensack Meridian Health
The secret to melanoma's metastatic spread could be a complex natural pathway it hijacksone which may be a therapeutic target in combination with other targeted therapies and immunotherapies, according to new research published by Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) scientists.
The laboratory of Byungwoo Ryu, Ph.D., and colleagues at the CDI demonstrated the pathway centered around a bone morphogenetic protein known as BMP6 might be the main way melanoma seeks to take over the body, according to the publication in the journal Molecular Cancer Research.
"Metastasis is the main reason cancer patients die," said Ryu, an associate member of the CDI, and also a research member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, of which Hackensack University Medical Center's John Theurer Cancer Center is part. "If we can prevent cell motility, we can prevent cancer from spreadingand save lives. That is what we are aiming to do through our science."
"This is good work by the Ryu laboratory, and the findings are therapeutically relevant for melanoma, in terms of preventing metastases in the future," said Benjamin Tycko, M.D., Ph.D., member of the CDI and also an author of the paper. "This is the kind of translational work that could be a veritable boon for patients in the near future."
Melanoma starts as a localized lesionbut once it reaches the point of metastasis, it becomes a killer: just 27 percent of the patients who reached stage 4 of the disease survive, even with the latest immunotherapies, according to the American Cancer Society.
Cancers are all known to take over natural processes of the body in order to promote their spread. Ryu and colleagues identify perhaps the main culprit in the spread of melanoma: the silencing of a protein known as BMP6 (bone morphogenetic protein 6).
In a complex chain reaction, the BMP6 is silenced by an epigenetic "eraser complex" known as SIN3A-HDAC1/2 fostered by the cancer. The lack of BMP6 expression then cascades into abnormal silencing of an intracellular signaling pathway mediated by a protein called SMAD5 (Small Mothers Against Decapentaplegics 5). The ultimate effect downstream is the aberrant over-production of yet another protein, FAM83G/PAWS1.
This final step is exactly what the cancer seeks to spread beyond the initial lesion: since the FAM83G/PAWS1 promotes cancer cell motility and cell migration, it allows the cancer cells to spread more quickly through the body, as Ryu and team demonstrated in an animal model of melanoma metastasis using clinical skin cancer samples.
The molecular "chain reaction" connections were shown through the use of a noble small molecule compound called Corin, developed in the lab of Philip Cole, M.D., another one of the authors on the paper, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The Corin was synthesized in Cole's laboratory to inhibit HDAC1/2 and KDM1Ameaning it cuts off the cascade right at the beginning with the "eraser complex" at the start, before BMP6 is impacted.
"We showed that, using the Corin, the cancer was not actively spreading and proliferating in the model," said Ryu. "We believe the compound could be a therapeutic agent that could be extremely effective in combination with other clinically approved melanoma drugs. It could make a big difference for keeping the cancer cells from spreading and recurrence."
The Ryu laboratory is conducting follow-up work using cutting edge technologies such as transcriptome and proteome analysis and building a better metastasis model. Two questions they hope to answer in the laboratory: how the FAM83G at the end of the epigenetic cascade resulting in metastasis regulates the intrinsic machinery of cell motility that cancer cell hijacks for spreadingand whether this FAM83G itself is a viable target for preventing melanoma from spreading, perhaps via adjuvant drugs in combination with other molecularly targeted therapies.
Additionally, the team is investigating other epigenetic "eraser complexes" such as CoREST and NuRD complexes which may be involved in metastatic cancer development and therapy resistance.
"This is the kind of bench science which promises great bedside benefits in the future," said Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., FACS, the chief research officer and president of the Northern Region for Hackensack Meridian Health. "The CDI's work is an investment into the health of our years to come."
More information: Dongkook Min et al, Epigenetic Silencing of BMP6 by the SIN3AHDAC1/2 Repressor Complex Drives Melanoma Metastasis via FAM83G/PAWS1, Molecular Cancer Research (2021). Journal information: Molecular Cancer Research Dongkook Min et al, Epigenetic Silencing of BMP6 by the SIN3AHDAC1/2 Repressor Complex Drives Melanoma Metastasis via FAM83G/PAWS1,(2021). DOI: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-21-0289
Provided by Hackensack Meridian Health
A banner at the Acacia fraternity house reads, "Anything but yes means no," during a protest Aug. 31 against the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity chapter at the University of Iowa. Protests at large public universities have spread across the country.
Students have packed board meetings with university leaders. They have gathered hundreds-strong outside fraternity chapters. In some cases, they've flipped cars.
Though the specifics of the incidents and messages differ, a fresh wave of student protest has catalyzed around fraternities with members that have been accused of sexual assault.
The protests started with the beginning of the fall semester at large public universities, such as the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Kansas and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The movement has since spread to campuses in states including Alabama, California, Mississippi and New York.
College students often protest without incident or news coverage, but the demonstrations at Greek chapters have stood out for their frequency and fervor.
Some of the protests stemmed from nameless posts on social media, especially the platform Yik Yak, an app that allows students to post anonymously within a limited radius. Several involved allegations that men at fraternities drugged their peers. In many cases, the protests have served as rallying cries against universities that students say have been unwilling to crack down on Greek organizations whose members commit sexual violence.
Frats under pressure for years, with little change: Young men died in fraternities every year for two decades.
Its unclear whether these short-term actions will result in long-term change, especially since impassioned undergraduates typically graduate and move on after a few years. Some advocates have pushed for universities to cancel Greek life altogether. Defenders of fraternities say that unfairly paints all fraternities and shutting down chapters drives students to gather in secret.
Something has changed, said Sarah McMahon, a Rutgers University professor who studies sexual violence within higher education. Undergraduates want administrations to do more than issue statements condemning sexual violence on campus, she said. They want a cultural change, too.
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If institutions are willing to say theyre committed to having safe, inclusive campuses, they need to take a real look at whats prohibiting that, she said. Theres enough thats gone wrong with fraternities that there needs to be some engagement and looking at that system.
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Are fraternities the problem on college campuses?
About 1 in 4 college women report they have been assaulted as an undergraduate, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. (The advocacy group cautioned the actual numbers may be higher because some women opt not to report.)
More than half of the sexual assaults committed on college campuses take place during the fall months when many students are new to higher education, the organization said.
Its difficult to say whether fraternities commit more acts of sexual violence than their peers on college campuses. Other all-male groups, such as athletic teams or military groups, have come under similar criticism, McMahon said.
Some research indicates men who join fraternities have attitudes that are more supportive or accepting of sexual violence, she said. But some studies have found fraternity members have about the same level of sexual aggression as other male college students.
Eastern Michigan University student Taylor Malpass holds a sign that says, "Rapists belong in jail not on campus," during a protest against fraternities Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Tau Delta in Ypsilanti on Oct. 19.
Fraternity culture varies from college to college, and protests have taken place at public and private institutions small and large. The wave started with demonstrations in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska in late August and early September. Since then, a protest has followed nearly weekly.
In early November, students at the University of Colorado, Boulder, held a protest after two women filed police reports saying they were assaulted at the local chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha. The Denver Post reported 500 to 600 protesters showed up.
Social media helps to drive protests
Though the protests take place now, the sentiments behind them have been brewing for months or years. Prisha Sujin Kumar, a senior at Boston University, and two other women started a group and Instagram account called Campus Survivors in spring 2020.
That group posts anonymous stories on Instagram from people who said they experienced sexual assault, mostly at Boston University. The group doesnt verify the submissions, and it generally doesn't include information that would identify someone. Some posts do include locations, universities or groups by name.
Other Instagram accounts posting anonymous assault stories have sprung up at Arizona State University, Brown and the University of Vermont.
Sujin Kumar said the Boston University account serves two purposes. First, the creators wanted a space for people who have experienced sexual assault to be able to share their experiences. Many women, Sujin Kumar said, dont feel comfortable sharing their stories with law enforcement or their universities. Second, they wanted to show people sexual assault may be happening on their campuses.
That heightened awareness has driven this year's protests, Sujin Kumar said.
When students see that its not just their college, it brings even more anger, Sujin Kumar said.
Sexual assault hotline calls set a record during the pandemic: Many reaching out are children.
Are protests unfair to fraternities?
Jud Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, is unequivocal about stamping out sexual assault within Greek life. But Horras, whose trade association unites 57 national fraternities and more than 6,000 chapters, disagrees with some of the approaches by critics.
Specifically, he is frustrated with protesters who demonstrate against fraternities that report and take action when they encounter sexual assault. The NIC instructed fraternities to create a plan to address sexual misconduct and to report any incidents to their university and police.
Horras called for activists to hold students accountable publicly, rather than encouraging anonymous accusations on social media.
Few chapters, he said, have closed as a result of the latest movement.
University of Delaware students protest a fraternity Oct. 13 after one its members allegedly attacked a female student.
Fraternities bring value to campus, he said. Men in the groups are often more engaged with their campus and often have higher grades than their peers. Some fraternity members have even joined the protests.
He said abolishing Greek life would be counterproductive: Students are going to gather in groups even if they're not recognized by the university, so colleges should want to continue official groups they can sanction.
Secret frats are real: What else to look out for during college fraternity rush
'It's a very uphill battle'
The pressing question for the activists remains: Will anything change?
Theres mixed evidence. Universities have expelled students, as was the case at the University of Delaware. The University of Nebraska announced it would increase resources for survivors of sexual assault on campus. It issued a five-year suspension to the chapter at the center of the protests, citing an infraction of the university's alcohol policy.
In other instances, fraternities expelled members or voted to halt social activities for the year.
After starting their account, Sujin Kumar and the founders of Campus Survivors noticed many of the stories were tied to one fraternity: Kappa Sigma. That group had been suspended at Boston University in 2015 but was allowed to reopen.
She and her co-founders reported what they found to the university. Kumar wrote open letters to the university detailing her concerns.
When that didnt get the traction they wanted, they protested the fraternity in February and again in October. Boston University has since suspended the chapter for holding a party and meeting while the group was supposed to abstain from social activities.
Kenneth Elmore, an associate provost, told the university's in-house news service the university needed to speak to members of the fraternity while it investigated.
"I told them that before they did any more programming, they would need to get my approval," Elmore said of the chapter. "They did not do that, so we moved to suspend them."
Sujin Kumar said she was glad to see the university take action, but it feels like administrators still haven't gotten the point.
"It's just really frustrating, to say the least. They are being forced to change," she said. "But it's a very uphill battle."
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/online and receive confidential support.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fraternity protest over sexual assault: Can college Greek life change?
Murray State University recognized as a Phi Kappa Phi Circle of Excellence Gold Chapter
By Alex Pologruto | Nov 17, 2021
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi the nations oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines recently recognized the Murray State University chapter of Phi Kappa Phi as a Circle of Excellence Gold Chapter, the second-highest commendation a chapter can receive from the organization.
MURRAY, Ky. The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi the nations oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines recently recognized the Murray State University chapter of Phi Kappa Phi as a Circle of Excellence Gold Chapter, the second-highest commendation a chapter can receive from the organization. The award is given to chapters that exceed expectations in chapter operations and who demonstrate sustainability and vitality as a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
The Circle of Excellence program was introduced in 2018. The program recognized 74 chapters this year, including 23 with the Gold distinction. Phi Kappa Phi currently has chapters on more than 325 select campuses in the United States, its territories and the Philippines.
Our chapters are the lifeblood of Phi Kappa Phi. Were proud to recognize and celebrate their success with a Circle of Excellence Award, said acting Society Executive Director Traci Navarre.
The Circle of Excellence Gold honor is given to chapters who scored a 95-99 out of 100 on a criteria scale that evaluates chapter health indicators. By receiving the Gold distinction, the Murray State chapter is recognized as a thriving organization that holds annual initiations, upholds the Society Bylaws, regularly attends chapter training opportunities and submits a chapter-endorsed nominee to the Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship Program.
"I cried after reading the email from the Society headquarters that we were a Gold Chapter," said chapter president Dr. Melony Shemberger. "The chapter officers worked extremely hard last academic year during a pandemic to offer opportunities for members to participate during our university's Scholars Week (both semesters), to be included in the commencement programs, to publicize efforts to all members, and to induct new members in April. How a small crew of faculty and student officers achieved all this is still beyond me. I am blessed to work with members who hold Phi Kappa Phi near and dear to their hearts as much as I do."
Chapters achieving the Circle of Excellence Gold distinction receive:
a commendation letter from the Society sent to chapter officers and campus administration special recognition on the Phi Kappa Phi website specially-designed logo for use in chapter communications a $200 cash award
To learn more about the Circle of Excellence program, please visit phikappaphi.org/2022Excellence.
FSM President David W. Panuelo poses with T.H. Elina Akinaga, CEO Jared Morris, and representatives from the Department of Resources & Development and Vital
Signage at the entrance to Capricciosa Ristorante Italiano informs customers that because of the governor's executive order they will have to show proof of vaccination, as seen on Aug. 24 in Hagatna.
What Calistoga officials not too long ago described as an eyesore is now a first-class wine tasting room, promising to elevate the eastern gateway to Calistoga, on Lincoln Avenue.
Owner Mario Sculatti and his business partner, Trevor Mallett, have transformed Roam Antiques into Vault Wine + Artifacts, with a mix of American and European antiques, and offering a variety of Napa Valley wines.
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The buildings industrial nature has been masked with velvet chairs and original glass-blown lighting fixtures, adding to the luxurious ambiance, along with new landscaping and a flagstone patio out front.
Sculatti has also added two more glass-paned garage doors to the original one, which allows for a wide entrance space into an interior that is both opulent and inviting, with an already lived-in feel.
We used reclaimed materials wherever we could. As an antique guy I love history, and I love patina, Sculatti said. This is my version of a really cool industrial, historical space.
The center of the tasting room is dominated by a show-stopper of a Roman press, with a limestone basin. The limestone is from Italy, and the press itself could have come from Austria or Italy, Sculatti said. Another press bears an inscription in German, which translates as In good times and in bad times we still make red and white wine.
Our idea was to offer this awesome collection of great, Napa Valley wines, surrounded by historical, winemaking artifacts, he said.
Sculatti operated Roam for about five years as an antique shop, and Vault is now the sister property to Sculattis Rutherford Wine Vault, a vintner and collector storage space with a members-only lounge.
There are still wine-related antiques for sale at Vault, like Sculattis corkscrew collection, highlighted in a large glass display case. Ive been a corkscrew collector for too long, he said.
The biggest pieces are not for sale, he said, because I love them way too much.
The Sculatti family has deep roots in Napa Valley. He grew up in St. Helena and his ancestors were straight off the boat from Italy, he said, and went to work in St. Helena vineyards. His great-grandfather was a sharecropper on a vineyard that is now Bill Harlans Napa Valley Reserve, and his grandfather planted and managed all of Beringers holdings. Sculattis father, Ron, also helped create the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the historic 1973 Paris tasting, he said.
The family has also owned two retail stores in St. Helena for about the last 40 years. Sculatti himself as has built his winery brand, along with Wheeler Farms in St. Helena. He and his wife and son now reside on a ranch in Pope Valley.
The wines in Sculattis collection range from entry level to reserve, with a Zinfandel at $28 a bottle, a Chardonnay at $10 a glass, and coming soon a $250 bottle of wine, he said.
No food service is offered at Vault, for now, but patrons have the option of a variety of experiences, from wine by the glass, or entire winery portfolio tastings.
There is also a private room at Vault, for a party of eight or less, that includes a secret door disguised as a large mirror. It leads to a library, for future use as a private tasting room. The room also holds an old display case Sculatti acquired from Steves Hardwares Gary Menegon in St. Helena. The case is imprinted with the name Fisher, and as it turns out, is from a Calistoga jewelry store dating back to 1910.
Sculatti said his vision for the future of the tasting room includes fun wine release events featuring antique cars, another of his passions.
You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at 942-4035 or csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com.
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Bookmark Napa Valley, the fundraiser benefiting the St. Helena Public Library, Friends & Foundation, returns Jan. 30 after a one-year hiatus.
The sixth annual event will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, at Tre Posti, 641 Main St.
Tickets are $180 and include appetizers, a three-course seated dinner and wine, plus moderated interviews with three guest authors. As of last week, 90 seats were still available out of 160.
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Ted Habte-Gabr will interview authors Alka Joshi, Lisa Napoli and Sheldon Siegel.
Ted Habte-Gabr
Habte-Gabr is the founder and producer of Live Talks Los Angeles, which was the culmination of a lifetime love of conversation and community dating back to his days as a student in Iowa chairing the universitys lecture series.
He has worked as a consultant advising colleges and nonprofits on creating live event experiences in pursuit of institutional advancement.
Alka Joshi
Joshi was born in India and raised in the U.S. since the age of 9. She has a bachelors degree from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts.
Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, became a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and is being developed into an episodic TV series. The recently released sequel, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, will be followed by a third book in the trilogy in 2023.
Lisa Napoli
Napoli, a past featured author and moderator at Bookmark, was born and raised in Brooklyn. She moved to Southern California in 2004 to work on the public radio show Marketplace.
Her journalism career has spanned CNN, New York Times and public radio, with books including Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24 Hours News, and Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away. Her most recent book is Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR.
Sheldon Siegel
Siegel is the bestselling author of the Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez series of courtroom dramas featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. He is also the author of the thriller The Terrorist Next Door featuring Chicago homicide detectives David Gold and A.C. Battle. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into a dozen languages.
Siegel has been an attorney for more than thirty-five years, and he specializes in corporate and securities law with the San Francisco office of the international law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP.
Bookmark Napa Valley
Proceeds from Bookmark Napa Valley go to library's nonprofit Friends & Foundation, which augments funds the library receives from the City of St. Helena.
The city funds full-time staffing and things like electricity, heat and water, said Paige Pohlers Meek, executive director of the Friends & Foundation, St. Helena Public Library. We support part-time staffing, programs and services.
Bookmarks corporate sponsors include Boeschen Vineyards, the Napa Valley Vintners, Tierra Roja, Frank Family Vineyards, Alpha Omega Winery, Alila Napa Valley, Napa Valley Reserve, CAMi Vineyards and 55 Degrees.
For tickets and sponsoring and advertising options, go to bookmark2022.eventbrite.com.
Tuesday, Nov. 9
0717 A manhole cover popped off near Tainter/Oak.
1123 A driver said hed struck a dog on Silverado Trail.
1842 Report of a possible drunk driver on Silverado Trail.
2034 A caller said the traffic light at Main/Mitchell was malfunctioning. An officer observed it, and it seemed to be working fine.
Wednesday, Nov. 10
0647 Police arrested someone following a traffic stop at Main/Adams.
1409 Police contacted a pedestrian on Main Street and arrested the 42-year-old St. Helena man for three misdemeanor bench warrants. He was cited and released with a promise to appear in court.
Thursday, Nov. 11
0952 Report of someone on Hunt Avenue using a leaf blower on a holiday.
1016 Water was leaking from an Oak Avenue building.
1128 Liquid was being discharged from a commercial building at Main/Hunt.
1342 A caller warned police about a phishing scam thats going around.
1540 Report of a dog barking near Fulton Lane.
1603 Medical aid for a man feeling sick on Pope Street.
2348 Report of a water leak on Railroad Avenue.
Friday, Nov. 12
0121 Medical aid for an unconscious man on Main Street.
0751 A branch was hanging low over Spring Mountain Road.
1146 A man got upset about a pump not working at a Main Street gas station. He reportedly burned rubber and almost ran someone over as he drove away in his black Lincoln.
1242 A tool was reported stolen from a parking lot on Vintage Avenue.
1342 A white luxury bus was parked in the wrong direction near Oak/Adams, creating a traffic hazard.
1458 Police took a report on a non-injury accident at Main/Britton.
1632 Seven guests were being verbally combative and refusing to leave a restaurant on Charter Oak Avenue.
1823 Non-injury accident on Main Street.
1905 Report of three juveniles possibly intoxicated near Main Street. Police checked the area.
1956 The unruly restaurant patrons from a previous call were now reportedly calling the restaurant, making threats and using racial slurs.
2051 Following a traffic stop at Main/Grayson, police arrested a 32-year-old Chicago woman on suspicion of DUI.
2250 An intoxicated man was refusing to leave a Main Street property.
2307 Report of an intoxicated woman trying to get into a house on Charter Oak Avenue.
Saturday, Nov. 13
0004 Report of vandalism on Charter Oak Avenue.
0201 Report of loud music, singing and talking since 8 p.m. on Oak Avenue.
0519 Report of a reckless driver on Main Street.
0740 Medical aid for a woman having a seizure on Pratt Avenue.
1339 A fallen tree branch was blocking the northbound lane of the elm tunnel.
1348 A man threw coffee all over an Oak Avenue building during what was described as a domestic altercation.
1641 Report of two reckless motorcyclists swerving in and out of traffic on Main Street.
1918 Report of a reckless driver passing illegally on Main Street.
2024 Report of a verbal dispute between a man and a woman at Britton/Main. Police took a report.
2102 St. Helena police assisted Calistoga police responding to a shooting on Washington Street.
Sunday, Nov. 14
0136 Following a traffic stop at McCorkle/Allison, police arrested a 22-year-old St. Helena man on suspicion of DUI.
1224 Report of a dog wandering around Allyn Avenue.
1422 Non-injury hit-and-run on Silverado Trail.
1636 Police were asked to check on a small child in a car seat in a vehicle near Hunt Avenue, with no adults around.
1807 Non-injury hit-and-run on the Pope Street Bridge.
2148 Loud amplified music on Main Street was audible from McCorkle Avenue. An officer asked for it to be turned down.
Monday, Nov. 15
1803 A broken-down pickup was blocking one lane of Starr Avenue and needed to be moved to Monte Vista.
Tuesday, Nov. 16
0405 Medical aid on Redondo Court.
LONDON (AP) A book about a wealthy American family whose actions helped unleash the United States opioid epidemic described by its author as a story of hubris won Britains leading nonfiction book prize Tuesday.
Patrick Radden Keefes Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty was awarded the 50,000 pound ($67,000) Baillie Gifford Prize during a ceremony at Londons Science Museum.
Keefes book chronicles the billionaire Sackler clan, owner of Purdue Pharma, whose members used their fortune to fund museums and art galleries around the world. A reckoning has come with the revelation that much of that fortune was based on OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller that the company developed in the 1990s and marketed aggressively to doctors.
Empire of Pain traces the rise of the familys fortunes under three doctor brothers and their children, and its downfall in a web of lawsuits and bankruptcy proceedings.
Keefe said it was a portrait of three generations of one family behaving very badly, but also on a deeper level a story about systems and about impunity.
I think in some ways its a story about hubris, he said. In a lot of ways its a story about denial."
Amid protests over its role in the opioid business, the Sackler name has been removed in recent years from wings and galleries at institutions including the Louvre in Paris and the Serpentine Gallery in London. Institutions including Britains National Portrait Gallery and the Tate galleries have stopped taking the familys donations due to its role in the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. alone since 2000.
Some opioid deaths have been attributed to OxyContin and other prescription painkillers, though most are from illicit forms of opioids such as heroin and illegally made fentanyl.
Sackler family members have denied wrongdoing, although their company has pleaded guilty twice to federal crimes over their opioid practices. In September a U.S. federal judge gave conditional approval to a settlement that would remove the family from ownership of Purdue and reorganize the business into a charity-oriented company whose profits would go to government-directed efforts to prevent and treat addiction.
Accepting the prize, Keefe thanked all of the many lawyers who advised me about what to do with all the incoming mail when facing threats from the Sackler family during his work on the book.
It wasnt a situation where I ever thought about bailing, particularly under pressure from the family, he told The Associated Press. If anything, some of the pressure that I got persuaded me that I was probably on the right track.
The Baillie Gifford Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.
Empire of Pain beat five other finalists: Cal Flyns environmental exploration Islands of Abandonment; Harald Jahners Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 19451955; Kei Millers essays on discrimination, Things I Have Withheld; John Prestons media mogul biography Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell; and Albanian writer Lea Ypis memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Jazz represented freedom to me, said Larry Vuckovich, jazz pianist extraordinaire. It represented the United States. As a boy, I lived under Nazi and then Titos repression in Yugoslavia but jazz, especially improvisation, was freedom.
Vuckovichs family was given refugee status and allowed to immigrate to the United States in 1951 when he was a teenager. They settled in San Francisco. He and his wife now live in Calistoga.
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San Francisco in those days had over 20 jazz clubs; it was hard to decide which to choose.
Trained as a classical pianist, Vuckovich became mesmerized by all types of jazz: boogie-woogie, bebop, Big Band to Cuban Latin and beatnik poetic jazz. He listened to the greats including Miles Davis and John Coltrane as well as the Big Bands of the day. He was the only student Vince Guaraldi ever taught.
Jazz music takes in all the world. It comes from African music, but its shared by all people, Vuckovich said. Its always evolving. Jazz takes Latin and South American music and gives it a rhythm of its own. Theres Middle Eastern, gypsy, and romantic jazz.
Hes happy to share the origins of jazz and has many stories of the legendary jazz performers hes known and with whom hes shared the stage. Sometimes solo and other times with invited artists, he plays jazz and tells anecdotes on his weekly Saturday night streaming presentations (www.larryvuckovich.com). Past presentations are also archived on the site.
Besides an opportunity to play my streaming programs, it also gives me a chance to share my experiences in jazz with listeners, and at the same time I give them some history about the great masters who created this music," he said.
Larry Vuckovich performs Dec. 23 Larry Vuckovich Bay Area All-Stars will perform Dec. 23 at Yoshi's on Jack London Square in Oakland at 8 p.m. in a wide-ranging program of blues, ballads, swing/bebop, Latin salsa, Balkan ethnic and funky boogaloo sounds. Tickets at yoshis.com.
Also, the wonderful composers are mentioned. What is so unique about America is that a number of great standards were written by people who came from other countries. Look at these tunes and how much more American can you get? Autumn in New York, I Cant Get Started, You Make Me Feel So Young. These were written by Russians, immigrants of Russian descent. The famous song Flamingo, which Duke Ellington recorded, featuring wonderful vocalist Herb Jeffries, was written by a Romanian.
I am fortunate to have played with so many greats, learned so much from them and heard meaningful stories, said Vuckovich in a follow-up email. I think the Napa Valley audience will enjoy knowing some of experiences with (just to name a few) Tony Bennett, Jon Hendricks, Vince Guaraldi, Cab Calloway, Dexter Gordon, Bobby McFerrin and others.
When Mel Tormes tours stopped in San Francisco, Vuckovich was his first-call pianist. He was the house pianist from 1974 to 1984 for KGO radio. He got to know Lenny Bruce and opened for him several times.
Vuckovich has received numerous accolades including being named a Jazz Legend at the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center in San Francisco, having his birthday proclaimed Larry Vuckovich Day in San Francisco, receiving the Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Jazz Pioneer Award and getting the Lifetime Achievement Award from his former country of Yugoslavia. He said of that award, Im the only cat from the old country living in the U.S. who has played with so many greats over a period of six decades.
Hes also a composer and performed his original composition on albums and CDs for his production company Tetrachord Music. One of his favorite local memories was being commissioned by the late Richard Miami to write an accompanying piece for one the classic Saturday movie showings at Copia. The haunting composition, titled View from Telegraph Hill, fit the dark film noir tones for the 1951 film House on Telegraph Hill, and was later featured on Vuckovichs album High Wall. The album placed in the Top 10 of the JazzWeek National Public Radio charts.
I want to mention a historic jazz event that happened in Napa Valley in 2013, Vuckovich said. Bruce Hopewell presented a tribute to the highest-selling jazz recording of all time - 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis."
"At the time, the last living member on the recording, former Miles Davis drummer Jimmie Cobb, was the headliner. I was honored when presenter Bruce Hopewell asked me to organize the band and play in this production at the Lincoln theater in Yountville. This is only one of my many exciting jazz experiences, but at the same time one of the highlights of jazz events that Napa Valley ever had.
If he had a chance to go back in time, what would he like to do?
If I could take what I know now, Id go back and play with the great (alto saxophonist) John Handy, who was my instructor at San Francisco State," he said. "Id want to play also with (bebop tenor saxophonist) Dexter Gordon. It would be good to go back with the experience, knowledge and strengths I have today.
He added, I want to say when I started playing jazz, there was no racism, and we were all good with the brotherhood of the spirit and nature of the music. What we played was more than notes and music theory. The good ones talked the music. When you listen to (tenor saxophonist) Lester Young play 'Stardust,' it hits you, it talks to you.
Vuckovich finds much of todays music boring and unimaginative.
Jazz is always evolving but with pop music, everythings packaged, he said.I have been fortunate to have played with so many greats, learned so much from them and heard meaningful stories. I look at my performances as a way to pay back the masters of this great music, who dedicated their lives to living it and playing it."
"I want to spread the word of the music they produced; pass it on to the audiences whose spirits can be uplifted in these difficult times. The audiences, I believe, feel good about learning something new and getting inspiring musical messages.
Napa Valley College has accepted a $10 million gift to its wine education program and will label its future home with the benefactors name.
The board of the two-year community college last week formally accepted the largest donation ever made by the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation, a gift first announced in September by the foundations namesake magazine. Funding will support an expansion of NVCs Viticulture, Wine and Technology program as well as construction and expansion at its facilities, which will be named the Wine Spectator Wine Education Complex at the Napa Valley College.
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Both the gift and the naming of the wine center won unanimous approval from the seven-member NVC board Thursday night.
Wine Spectators donation, which also may include up to $1.2 million of contingency funds, is intended to spark more support of NVC from the wine community, according to editor-publisher Marvin Shanken, who first began traveling to the Napa Valley in the 1970s but said he only became aware of the colleges wine education program about five years ago.
If there was ever an educational institution poised for significant contributions to the growth of the California wine industry, this is it, he told the Napa Valley Register in September as the gift was being announced. It is our hope that the door for learning opens wider for young adults from all walks of life, providing a platform for future leadership in the wine industry.
Talks between Wine Spectator and the Napa Valley College Foundation about a donation took place over five years, according to the foundations executive director Jessica Thomason.
Wine Spectator Foundation donates $10 million to Napa Valley College The Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation is donating $10 million to Napa Valley College to support the construction and expansion of the school's Viticulture, Wine and Technology program.
Plans call for building a new sensory classroom and converting an existing space into a wine laboratory for instruction and production. An existing historic building will be overhauled to contain indoor and outdoor areas for teaching hospitality, sales, and marketing, and also will include a public tasting room.
The expansion of the wine education center would take place in three phases, according to plans shared by Thomason with the NVC board.
The first stage, expected to cost $8.15 million, would feature the construction of a 6,080-square-foot sensory classroom with a 100-student space that could be divided into two smaller spaces, and equipped with lighting and acoustic design specially suited to wine sensory classes. A second phase budgeted at $922,395 would include the creation of the wine lab and other lab stations and air purification for tasting instruction, among other improvements.
The third phase would cost $2.15 million and include a rebuilt, seismically sound wine sales training center with indoor and outdoor teaching spaces, as well as both instructional and public tasting rooms and a retail center for the college winery.
In addition to imprinting the Wine Spectator name on the NVC complex, the agreement also will rechristen the facilitys branches after the magazine its classroom building, laboratory, and tasting room.
A team of advisers from NVC and Wine Spectator have recommended entrusting the projects design with TLCD Architecture, a Santa Rosa firm that previously planned the colleges library, North Gym, and life sciences buildings, according to Thomason.
Napa Valley College to break ground on campus housing this fall, aims for fall 2023 opening This autumn, Napa Valley College plans to start work on the first student housing development on its main campus in its 57-year history.
NVCs wine program enrolls 800 to 1,000 students annually at a site that includes a 5-acre vineyard and commercial winery. Students can earn certificates or associates degrees in viticulture, enology, and wine marketing and sales, and a majority of students are current wine industry workers seeking to advance their careers.
Created in 1982, Wine Spectators foundation has donated more than $20 million in grants and scholarships to help train future wine industry leaders, including support for UC Davis students and for programs at Sonoma State University, Washington State, Cornell University, and the Culinary Institute of America.
Earlier this year, the foundation also donated $100,000 to the Roots Fund, a nonprofit organization that aims to open pathways in the wine businesses for students of color.
Thomason of the NVC foundation also said the college is close to announcing another major donation, from the estate of a past donor, potentially as significant as the Wine Spectator gift, although no other details were released Thursday.
The wine education center is one of two major additions planned for the main NVC campus on Highway 221 in south Napa. A housing development with apartments and dormitories for more than 500 students, estimated to cost more than $83 million, is scheduled to break ground next spring and open in stages in 2023 and 2024.
You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com
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One of the Napa Valleys early Christmas season celebrations will return this weekend, as the Yountville Town & Tree Lighting resumes Sunday after being scaled back in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-sponsored by the town and the Yountville Chamber of Commerce, the ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. in the plaza of the Community Center at 6516 Washington St. and will feature music, a toy collection, and a visit by Santa Claus before a countdown to the illumination of the tree.
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Last years tree lighting took place as scheduled, but with an Internet video stream instead of an in-person ceremony to promote social distancing.
Performing at the celebration will be Ken Clarke and the Ding-a-Lings, a bell ensemble based at the nearby Veterans Home of California. Visitors also are encouraged to bring unwrapped toys to benefit the holiday toy drive of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley.
Those unable to attend the tree lighting in person may view a livestream Sunday on Facebook at Explore Yountville, or via Instagram at @yountvilleca.
Late-year events return to Napa Valley Expo after extended COVID-19 shutdown The Napa Valley Expos calendar is filling up again and with it, a fairground that stood largely idle during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sundays tree lighting opens the towns fifth annual Holidays in Yountville, an array of craft classes, cooking classes, and in-person and virtual wine tastings.
For more information on the Yountville celebration, visit townofyountville.com/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/6517/
Holiday festivities will continue in the city of Napa later in the week, when the city hosts its annual tree lighting ceremony at 6 p.m. Nov. 24 at Veterans Memorial Park, followed by its Christmas Parade starting at 5 p.m. Nov. 27 on Second, Brown and Third streets downtown.
The global supply chain crisis is daunting. Congestion and bottlenecks across the West Coast have left large cargo vessels stranded at anchor for weeks on end. Across the country, our supply chain has faced major disruptions, driving up costs for consumers and inevitably causing major delays in delivery of essential goods.
Last week, I testified before the Senate & Assembly Select Committees on Ports and Goods Movement to offer policymakers solutions to address these challenges.
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Early last year during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic California ports saw significant decreases in trade with record-breaking impacts. But demand rose for medical equipment, along with home improvement items, exercise equipment, and office furniture as consumers grappled with adapting to a new world that revolved around remote work and virtual learning.
The surge in cargo has created unprecedented challenges across our states coast. California ports stepped up and took action to help address supply chain disruption.
Operationally, California ports have proactively taken steps to alleviate supply chain congestion. These steps include: creating policies that incentivize terminal operators to move trucks faster and more efficiently, extending operating hours at port terminals, and implementing best practices to make use of existing cargo capacity.
While the steps taken by California ports are significant, addressing the global supply chain crisis demands intensive public policy initiatives and reform at every level of government.
As president of the California Association of Port Authorities, Ive asked how the most consequential system of ports in the nation could receive so little resources from the federal government. Over the past decade, the federal government has invested roughly $11 billion in the eastern Gulf coast ports, but only $1 billion in the West Coast ports.
I urge the Legislature, governor and federal policymakers to work with California ports to advance initiatives to mitigate supply chain disruption. This includes:
Ongoing long-term funding for projects that address land capacity challenges and infrastructure;
A designated supply chain czar within state government to work with the industry to create and implement a state freight and goods movement policy; and
Identifying incentives for American companies making equipment like chassis and containers to allow the ability to move containers currently clogging port property.
The issues facing our global supply will not disappear overnight. Our elected leadership must take action to help get goods moving. That requires a holistic policy approach that addresses the consistent underfunding of California ports and a reinvestment in infrastructure, technology, and data-driven methods that will get us back on track.
Last weeks Legislative hearing on the ports and goods movement was a significant step in addressing these goals. The California Association of Port Authorities stands to work as a partner with these leaders to address and advance solutions.
Home to our nations three largest container ports and responsible for handling 40% of containerized imports in the nation, California should play an important role in fixing Americas broken supply chain. But to do that, our state must take immediate and bold action by embracing the maritime industry and commit to ongoing, critical investments in the global supply chain. At the California Association of Port Authorities, we look forward to working with the governors office and the Legislature to meet this moment with long-term solutions.
Danny Wan is the executive director of the Port of Oakland and the president of the California Association of Port Authorities. He wrote this for Calmatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias Capitol works and why it matters.
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YEREVAN. Zhoghovurd daily of Armenia writes: The Republic of Armenia yesterday appealed to the Russian Federation [(RF)] to defendunder the agreement between the two countries since 1997the territorial integrity of the country, as there was an attack on the sovereign territory of Armenia.
According to Article 3 of the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance signed between the two countries in [19]97, "the parties shall jointly take all available measures for them to eliminate the threat to peace, the breach of the peace, or to counteract the aggression launched by any state against them, and provide necessary assistance to each otherincluding military."
Let us note that in May, when the Azerbaijani troops entered the territory of Armenia, an application was made [from Armenia] to the CSTO, but later the assistance was considered unproductive. In turn, the [Armenian] foreign ministry, noting that Azerbaijan's offensive actions have resulted in casualties, calls on international partnersRF, the CSTO, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairsto express a clear and targeted response to these actions of the Azerbaijani side, which undermine the regional peace and security, and undertake effective steps aimed at its prevention, as well as unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces from the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
YEREVAN. As of 10am on Wednesday, the situation on Armenias eastern border, where the Armenian positions were attacked Tuesday by the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces, is relatively stable, and the ceasefire agreement is generally observed.
As a result of Tuesdays hostilities, the adversary has up to 70 killed and wounded soldier, as well as considerable losses of military equipmentin particular, 4 armored personnel carriers, 1 armored vehicle, and 5 military vehicles, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.
The Armenian side has 1 fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment. Intensive work is underway to find these soldiers.
Two Armenian military outposts are now under the control of the adversary.
Negotiations are underway, with the mediation of the Russian side, to resolve the situation and to have the captured Armenian servicemen returned.
David Cicilline, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, has issued a statement condemning the Azerbaijani military aggression on Armenia.
Azerbaijans attack on Armenias eastern border is a clear violation of last years peace deal & cant be tolerated. 6,000 died in last years conflict, not one more should be lost to this dispute. Azerbaijan must acknowledge & respect Armenian sovereignty, the Congressman Cicilline wrote on Twitter.
At around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has 1 fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
Vahan Hunanyan, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, on Wednesday responded to the questions of the media.
Regarding Armenias appeal to Russia, Hunanyan said: The Republic of Armenia is in direct and multilevel contact with its allythe Russian Federation. As you know, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the President of the Russian Federation held a phone conversation, during which Nikol Pashinyan briefed Vladimir Putin on the situation. In this context, the leaders of the two countries discussed possible joint steps, the implementation of which is enshrined in a bilateral legal framework and is in line with allied relations.
At around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
Azerbaijan has reported seven military casualties during its aggression Tuesday against the territorial integrity of Armenia.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, these servicemen were killed in the aforesaid aggression: Lieutenant Umud Niftaliyev, Noncommissioned Officer Orhan Jabarov, Junior Sergeant Natig Aliyev, and Privates Elchin Aghayev, Elmin Alizade, Elchin Aliyev, and Murad Halilov.
At around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
Vahan Hunanyan, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, on Wednesday responded to the questions of the media.
With respect to Armenias appeal to the UN Security Council, the MFA spokesperson said: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has already informed the President of the UN Security Council on the situation. I would like to note that for the protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia we consider the implementation of all the toolkits of international law and diplomatic practice.
At around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
MOSCOW. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko on Wednesday had a telephone conversation with Toivo Klaar, the European Union (EU) Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia, reported the press service of the Russian foreign ministry.
They discussed the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
As reported earlier, at around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
Moscow calls for restraint to the parties to the conflict on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and is in favor of maintaining the trilateral agreement, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to TASS.
"Indeed, the resumption of hostilities on the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] border is what caused serious concern yesterday. But thanks to the mediation efforts of the Russian side, it was managed to call on the conflicting parties to show restraint," the Kremlin representative added. "The Russian side will continue to do that. Nevertheless, we hope that the only way to stabilize the situation is to fulfill the trilateral agreements."
As reported earlier, at around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment.
The Armenian authorities expect from Russia that their strategic partner will help resolve the issues related to the recent actions of Azerbaijan. Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, told this to Kommersant daily of Russiaand within the framework of the Moscow meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the CIS countries .
He responded the question as to what kind of assistance Yerevan expects by petitioning to Moscow within the framework of the 1997 agreement.
Earlier, Grigoryan had called on Russia to "protect the territorial integrity of Armenia." "A written [respective] petition is being prepared," he had added.
"Currently, the Azerbaijani armed forces are in the sovereign territory of Armenia; this is an act of aggression. In 1997, Armenia and Russia agreed to help each other in such cases on a reciprocal basis. That was the reason why we [i.e., Armenia] petitioned to Russia," Grigoryan responded to Kommersant.
To the question as to exactly what kind of assistance this is about, Grigoryan responded: "We are in favor of resolving this issue through diplomacy. But if it is impossible to resolve it through diplomacy, then the issue must be resolved by military means."
Earlier, the secretary of Armenias Security Council had made it clear that, "Yerevan can also ask for help from international partners." In his interview with Kommersant, he assured that Russia and the CSTO are the priority in this regard. "But if a decision is not made, we will consider other possibilities as well," he added.
"The hostilities [on Tuesday] have stopped thanks to the active participation of the Russian side. But the problem has not been resolved because the Azerbaijani armed forces continue to remain in the sovereign territory of Armenia," Armen Grigoryan said on Wednesday. "According to all the maps that existed during the USSR, all those territories are sovereign territories of Armenia."
As reported earlier, at around 1pm on Tuesday, the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the Armenian positions located in the direction of the eastern border of Armenia. Also, the adversary used artillery, armored vehicles, and firearms of various calibers in this attack.
And according to the agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, the exchange of fire was stopped at 6:30pm, and the situation has relatively stabilized.
The Armenian side has one fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, the contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment. And the Azerbaijani defense ministry has reported seven casualties and ten wounded on their side.
The purpose of our meeting is to present to you the details of the provocative and aggressive actions of Azerbaijan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border yesterday. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated this Wednesday at the beginning of an urgent meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia.
Subsequently, Mirzoyan presented the aforesaid details, and added as follows, in particular: "We can not call this anything other than aggression against the Republic of Armenia. (). I would also like to inform [you] that in our deep conviction, this behavior of Azerbaijan is a consequence of the fact that our international partners and the international community in general did not respond properly and in a targeted manner to the use of force by Azerbaijan during the [military] aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] that started back on September 27 last year, and then during these months, too.
In our conviction, the response of the international community to all the provocative, aggressive statements and actions I have mentioned has not been targeted and proper. The continuing statements equating the parties were directly perceived by Azerbaijan as an incentive to continue this behavior.
We expect that our partner and friendly countries will respond promptly and in a targeted manner to these actions, and will use their direct influence on the Republic of Azerbaijan to urge [it] to end the provocative actions and encroachments on the Republic of Armenia.
(). And from this moment on, the entire accountability for the further escalation of the situation falls directly on the Republic of Azerbaijan.
I want to talk about another political nuance, too. In our conviction, by shifting the tension on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, the territory of the Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan is attempting to divert the attention of the international community from the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. I would like to emphasize once again that the Republic of Armenia will defend both its territorial integrity and the right of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination. "
And at the end of the meeting, Ararat Mirzoyan responded the questions of those in attendance.
My stance is the following: a corridor cant be provided to Azerbaijan, and no country, including our enemy country Azerbaijan, can receive that corridor by force. This is what deputy of the Civil Contract faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Armen Khachatryan told reporters in parliament today.
This will turn into a large-scale war, and Armenia and our people wont tolerate encroachment on our country. Now they are trying to achieve ceasefire and move forward peacefully. If the hostile encroachments continue, there will be zero tolerance. The enemy cant achieve any success in Syunik Province, regardless of military advantage, he said.
Asked if Azerbaijans action was conditioned by the desire to receive the corridor, the deputy said he couldnt say why Azerbaijan took this action, but added that the corridor could be one of the options.
When told that deputy of the Civil Contract faction Eduard Aghajanyan stated that there were 15 casualties yesterday and the Ministry of Defense reported only one casualty, Khachatryan said there is no communication with other soldiers and failed to state a figure since he hadnt verified the number 100%.
The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) has been in touch with Congressional leaders and Biden Administration officials following Azerbaijans recent full-scale attack upon Armenias southern regions. Support for legislative and Administration application of Section 907 sanctions and other measures against Azerbaijan to re-assert United States credibility and save lives is growing, for which the Assembly is grateful. Further, the continuing role of NATO-member Turkey in military actions against Armenia is a betrayal of the principles underlying the alliance. An end of the day ceasefire announced by Russia is expected to be as ineffective against Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyevs genocidal pattern of behavior as past ceasefires, and as the relatively small presence of Russian peacekeepers attests.
Since crossing Armenias borders in May 2021, the Azerbaijani military has occupied approximately 41 square kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory and continues to stage assaults in its quest to have a corridor run though southern Armenia to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan. Todays attacks occurred along the narrowest part of Armenia, and are clearly designed to cut the country in two. The recent attacks resulted in the deaths of several Armenian soldiers and the capture of 12 Armenian prisoners of war.
This latest assault is in clear violation of the November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 ceasefire terms, which Azerbaijan has repeatedly undermined, and is in clear disregard of the U.S., French and Russian-led OSCE Minsk Groups repeated statements, as well as UN resolutions, to resolve matters peacefully and to respect ceasefire conditions. Ironically, Turkey is supposed to be a member of the mediating Minsk Group but has openly and actively coordinated and often led military and diplomatic policies with the Aliyev regime. Armenias National Security Council Secretary met with U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy earlier today and emphasized the current siege as a blow to democracy. Azerbaijans escalation of violence on Armenian soil is unacceptable, said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ). This increase of deadly violence against Armenia will only continue unless the OSCE Minsk Group, the State Department, and the international community take immediate and decisive diplomatic action. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that this unprovoked attack is in direct violation of Azerbaijan and Armenias ceasefire agreement, and a grave reminder that the United States must be doing everything we can to deter Azerbaijans ongoing aggression. To that end, it is imperative that the Administration end the waiver to Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which prohibits direct U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, and to halt U.S. military assistance to the autocratic regime in Baku, which increased to over $100 million in Fiscal Year 2019. Now is the time for the Biden Administration and Congress to take decisive action. As President Biden stated in his address to Congress last April, We will meet the challenge...by proving that democracy is durable and strong. Autocrats will not win the future. The Assembly calls upon the Administration to end the waiver to Section 907, support Armenias democracy, and strongly condemn Azerbaijans ongoing ceasefire violations, which continue to destabilize the South Caucasus region.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the digest on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border situation as of 17.11.21:
According to an agreement reached through the mediation of the Russian side, starting from 6:30 p.m Tuesday firing stopped in the eastern direction of the border of Armenia, the situation has become relatively stable.
Yesterday, at around 1 p.m., the units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan launched an attack on the Armenian military posts deployed in the given direction of the border. The adversary also used artillery, armored vehicles,, and firearms of various calibers.
As a result of Tuesdays hostilities, the adversary has up to 70 killed and wounded soldiers, as well as considerable losses of military equipmentin particular, 4 armored personnel carriers, 1 armored vehicle, and 5 military vehicles, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia noted.
The Armenian side has 1 fallen and 13 captured servicemen. Also, contact with another 24 soldiers was lost during the hostilities, and their fate is unknown at the moment. Intensive work is underway to find these soldiers.
Two Armenian military outposts are now under the control of the adversary.
Talks are underway, with the mediation of the Russian side, to resolve the situation and to have the captured Armenian servicemen returned.
The Armenian authorities expect from Russia that their strategic partner will help resolve the issues related to the recent actions of Azerbaijan, Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, told Kommersant daily of Russia within the framework of the Moscow meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the CIS countries.
He responded to the question as to what kind of assistance Yerevan expects by petitioning to Moscow within the framework of the 1997 agreement.
Earlier, Grigoryan had called on Russia to "protect the territorial integrity of Armenia." "A written [respective] petition is being prepared," he had added.
The judicial farce against the Armenian captives continues in Azerbaijan.
According to the Azerbaijani media, the investigation into the criminal case against two Armenian citizensIshkhan Sargsyan and Vladimir Rafayelyanwho are accused of terrorism, is over.
The materials of the criminal case were sent to the Ganja Grave Crimes Court.
These two Armenian nationals are charged under Article 214.3 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan; that is, Terrorism committed with the use of firearms and objects which are used as weapons.
International officials and organizations are calling Armenia and Azerbaijan to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they are deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
We also call on the sides to engage directly and constructively to resolve all outstanding issues, including border demarcation," he added.
Meanwhile, according to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov "thanks to the mediation efforts of the Russian side, it was managed to call on the conflicting parties to show restraint."
In her turn, the Canadian FM calls Armenia, Azerbaijan for de-escalation of the situation.
Our thoughts are w/ the victims families, loved ones & the community, Melanie Joly noted.
The Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, has also made the statement concerning relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
News of a ceasefire is welcome and I call on both sides to maintain it," she noted.
Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan today attended the ninth meeting of the Secretaries of Security Councils of the CIS, as reported the Security Council Bureau of Armenia.
The risks emerging from the territory of Afghanistan, the cooperation of CIS countries in the migration and humanitarian sectors, as well as the key issues of security that have emerged as a result of the development of biotechnology were pinpointed and discussed during the meeting, and the CIS countries expressed their willingness to expand the scope of cooperation.
In his speech, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan touched upon the invasion of Azerbaijani troops of the territory of Republic of Armenia and the current situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. He particularly stated that Azerbaijan not only fails to maintain the ceasefire regime, but also fails to implement the agreements that have been reached. Grigoryan added that Armenia views Azerbaijans hostilities as an act targeted against Armenias territorial integrity.
The Secretary of the Security Council emphasized that Armenia stays committed to the peace process and is ready to launch the process of delimitation and demarcation, but alongside this, it will resolutely retaliate after any military aggression.
In regard to the unblocking of communications, Grigoryan stated that Armenia attaches great importance to the format of the Deputy Prime Ministers and is ready to put in all efforts to implement, in an unobstructed manner, the agreements reached on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021.
The 41 square kilometers werent formed as a result of the operations that were carried out yesterday or the day before that. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan declared in parliament today.
The balance hasnt changed in any way as a result of yesterdays operations. Its not like the 41 square kilometers were under the full control of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. I have stated several times that as a result of the process that took place after May 12, the positions of the Azerbaijani and Armenian Armed Forces in different sectors are sorted out like the figures on a chessboard.
Even before May 12, nearly 40 and more square kilometers of territory of Armenia was under Azerbaijans control, as a result of the first war in Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result of the first war, there are territories of Soviet Azerbaijan that are under Armenias control. It is due to these circumstances that great importance is attached to demarcation and delimitation. The International community is telling Armenia and Azerbaijan to start the process of demarcation and delimitation and determine the methodology and legal grounds for the process so that the issue is resolved once and for all, Pashinyan said.
The situation in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was extremely tense yesterday. At around 1 p.m. the units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan launched an attack on Armenian military posts. The adversary used artillery, armored vehicles and firearms of various calibers. Starting from 6:30 p.m. the fighting stopped and the situation became relatively stable, based on an agreement reached through Russias mediation.
The Ministry of Defense reported that today at 10 a.m. the situation on the eastern border of Armenia is relatively stable, and the ceasefire agreement is mainly maintained.
The Ministry of Defense has reported only one casualty, that is, the death of contractual serviceman Meruzhan Harutyunyan (born in 1991). There are 13 captured servicemen, communication with 24 servicemen is lost, and their fate remains unknown.
Based on the statements by representatives of Baku and Yerevan, it becomes clear that the sides have diametrically different evaluations of the situation and blame each other for what happened, and Russia is in contact with Armenia and Azerbaijan in order to move the situation to the peaceful path, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova said today.
Zakharova recalled that yesterday the President of the Russian Federation held phone talks with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, and Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoygu held talks with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, after which the clashes ended in the evening after the mediation efforts.
We continue the joint efforts to weaken the tension. We call on the sides to show restraint, prevent new incidents and settle all disputes exclusively through the political and diplomatic way. We are ready to continue support to ensure peace and stability in the region. The latest events affirm the importance of the speedy launch of demarcation and the process of delimitation after that.
As far as the activities of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are concerned, Zakharova reminded the statement of November 15. The Co-Chairs continue their active mediation efforts. The trio is currently in Vienna to discuss the current situation. Again, we state the importance of the Co-Chairs visit to the region, she said.
Touching upon the possibility of using the Treaty between Armenia and the Russian Federation on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance signed on August 29, 1997, as well as the mechanisms of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Zakahrova stated that Moscow treats the bilateral and multilateral agreements seriously. Relevant bilateral consultations are being held. As far as the CSTO is concerned, the CSTO is closely following the current situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Armenia calls on its international partners to strictly condemn the actions of Azerbaijan that are posing a serious risk for peace and security in the region and believes the only solution is the unconditional and complete pullout of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the territory of the Republic of Armenia. This is what Ambassador of Armenia to the Holy See Karen Nazaryan told local presses on Nov. 15 and 16, as reported the Embassy of Armenia to the Holy See.
While Azerbaijan talks about peace, the countrys armed forces attack the eastern border of Armenia and have invaded the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, causing human casualties and devastations. This is continuity of Azerbaijans consistent policy on occupying Armenian territories, the foundation for which was laid with the infiltration into the Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces in May of this year, he said, adding that, according to the United Nations Charter, Armenia is entitled to repel the use of force against its territorial integrity and sovereignty by all means.
In his comments, Nazaryan touched upon the issue of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians being held and stated the following: We attach importance to and appreciate the fact that our international partners, including the Holy See continue to raise the issue on bilateral and multilateral platforms and call on Azerbaijan to release all the captives and civilians held, in accordance with the countrys commitments assumed within the framework of international humanitarian law and the trilateral statement.
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The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami congratulates Kate Reid, M.M. 96, D.M.A. 03, Director of Jazz Vocal Performance and Associate Professor of Jazz Voice, Studio Music, and Jazz Department, on receiving the prestigious 2021 Phillip Frost Award. Professor Reid was recognized by a Selection Committee of her peers as an exemplary faculty member for her outstanding contributions as an educator, scholar, and practitioner in the music industry.
"I am truly humbled by the recognition my colleagues and peers have bestowed upon me with this honor. To be acknowledged for the delicate balance of education, performance, and scholarship that makes up my position means such a great deal to me. The true privilege, however, is the amazingly talented students and exceptional colleagues I get to work with every day at the Frost School of Music," Professor Reid said.
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Apart from overseeing all aspects of the Jazz Vocal Performance program, Professor Reid directs two of Frosts three jazz vocal ensembles -- Frost Extensions and Frost Jazz Vocal I. Dr. Reid also teach jazz improvisation, sight-singing, and music theory and she maintains a full jazz voice studio of undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Reid enjoys a busy career as a guest artist, conductor, clinician, and adjudicator at all-state jazz and choral festivals throughout the United States and Canada. She has also participated in the Manhattan Concert Productions Jazz Series and has conducted the California, New York, and New Hampshire All-State jazz choirs.
Dr. Reid enjoys a multi-faceted career as an educator, recording and performing artist and has appeared regularly with her own quartet She has performed with such renowned artists as John Clayton, Robin Eubanks, Jon Hendricks, Grady Tate, Mercer Ellington, Don Shelton, Mark Murphy, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Liza Minelli, Mark Murphy, Rosemary Clooney, Diane Schuur, and Dr. Billy Taylor.
Her voice can be heard on several network television series, to commercial spots for Ace Hardware, T-Mobile, and Suntory Whiskey, and to recordings by such artists as MUSE, X Japan, and Josh Groban.
Dr. Reid is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 47, Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Recording Artists (SAG-AFTRA), The Recording Academy (formerly NARAS), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Phi Beta Kappa, and the Jazz Education Network (JEN).
The Carmen and Joe Unanue Family Foundation, led by alumnus Andy Unanue, has donated $3.3 million to the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School in honor of Unanues late parents, who led philanthropic initiatives in education and health care through the foundation that carries their names.
The donation, matched by the Herbert Challenge Endowment Gift Match for a total of $5 million, will strengthen the schools capabilities to prepare graduate students to successfully enter the workforce or advance their careers upon graduation.
The Unanue Family Foundations gift is part of the University of Miamis recently announced Ever Brighter: The Campaign for Our Next Century. The most ambitious in the universitys history, the campaign has already raised more than $1.6 billion toward a goal of $2.5 billion and is set to conclude in 2025, when the University will celebrate its centennial.
We are honored and grateful to be the stewards of the Joseph and Carmen Unanue Graduate Career Advancement Center, said Virginia Ginger Baxter, assistant dean of graduate career advancement and engagement and director of the newly named graduate career center. The donation will purposefully advance the career and professional development of graduate students and alumni and transform the way we connect, collaborate, and co-create experiences.
Funds will be used to increase networking opportunities, specialized training, and participation in more national and international case competitions and student conferences. Added resources will also enable continued innovative responses to a rapidly changing hiring climate fueled by technology and a trend toward work-life integration.
For Unanue, who is president of the Carmen and Joe Unanue Foundation, the goals align with his parentsand now his owndedication to elevate job opportunities for students.
My parents always wanted to help educate people and prepare them for the real world so that they could get good jobs with which to provide for their families, he said. The gift will hopefully help prepare the students to get the jobs that they want and that they will be happy in, whether entering the workforce or creating their own businesses.
The New Jersey native recently established the headquarters of his firm AUA Private Equity Partners in West Palm Beach, bringing him back to South Florida after living in several cities around the country and abroad since graduating from Miami Herbert in 1991. Unanue also serves as a member of the deans advisory committee at Miami Herbert and as the Miami Herbert chair of the Universitys Ever Brighter campaign.
We are grateful for this generous gift which underscores the Unanue familys commitment to help drive the University forward, said Josh Friedman, senior vice president for development and alumni relations. It also brings together two philanthropic familiesthrough the Herbert matchwho believe in the power of education, and in particular the University of Miami, to change lives, and are investing in the future of our students so they can become the business innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Unanue said that he learned from my parents that we should never forget where we came from, that there are always people who help us along the way, and that we need to help and give back in return. The University of Miami helped me with my education, along with my niece and nephew, and was one of the building blocks to make me who I am. And I am now in a position to help the students at the University through a helpful hand up, not a handout.
His efforts already nurture a philanthropic spirit among students.
Those of us striving to become business leaders are inspired by donors who invest in our potential and we hope to one day soon be in a position to do the same for others," said Sushant Koppikar, an MBA candidate and president of the Graduate Business Student Association.
Unanues dedicated support extends to potential future Canes, as well. AUA Private Equity Partners, where he serves as the managing partner, recently joined forces with First Generation Investors, a nonprofit that teaches high school students and young adults how to invest and thrive in the financial sector. Through the partnership, AUA now sponsors half of the cohort of FGI students at the University. The sponsorship meets the needs per student for their investment account as they embark on real-life investing.
Miami Herbert Dean John Quelch acknowledges Unanues growing impact on the University and Miami Herbert, especially as his donation to the Ever Brighter campaign occurs as an endowed gift, which enables the charitable objectives in perpetuity.
We cherish the generosity of the Unanue family, Quelch said. Andy Unanue is continuing his parents legacy graciously, and we honor his contributions to help develop the next generation of principled leaders.
'Resignation of AmCham head a wake-up call for govt'
'Resignation of AmCham head a wake-up call for govt'
An economics scholar on Wednesday said the resignation of the head of the American Chamber of Commerce should serve as a "wake-up call" for the SAR government.
Tara Joseph, who is currently in the US, told Reuters News Agency that she was quitting because she didn't feel she could appeal to the administration to ease its Covid-19 travel restrictions if she was undergoing quarantine herself.
Kevin Tsui, an associate professor at Clemson University in the US, said Hong Kong officials should rethink the requirement that people arriving in the territory spend up to 21 days in hotel quarantine.
"If other countries are doing the same thing, then we are not in a disadvantaged position," he told RTHK.
"But given the fact that other countries are trying to open up the borders, even countries like Singapore which is our competitor, that's an additional factor that makes foreign companies reconsider [whether] they should have their headquarters in Hong Kong."
Tsui said other places don't have such "rigid" quarantine requirements as Hong Kong, as long as travellers are vaccinated.
"I think it's kind of a wake-up call to Hong Kong that the government should pay attention to," Tsui said, noting that it's unclear how long the the city will adopt a "zero-Covid" strategy.
The government has said its priority is to resume quarantine-free travel with the mainland.
Meanwhile, AmCham has issued a statement thanking Joseph for her service and saying the board will launch a global search for a replacement.
"The Chamber was saddened to learn that Tara was stepping down, and appreciates her service and investment in the future of AmCham Hong Kong. A date has not been set; the chamber is grateful for Taras leadership and support of the transition into 2022," the statement said.
Hong Kong reports three new imported Covid cases
Hong Kong's latest imported Covid-19 cases are from Pakistan and South Korea. Image: Shutterstock
Health authorities on Wednesday reported three new Covid-19 infections involving patients flying in from Pakistan and South Korea.
The three patients are fully vaccinated and were found to be carrying the L452R mutant strain.
A man from Pakistan tested positive upon arrival at the airport on Monday. In another case, a woman flying in from South Korea last week tested positive during hotel quarantine. Meanwhile, a 45-year-old man from Pakistan, who is a close contact of two previously confirmed cases, tested positive in the Penny's Bay quarantine centre.
Health officials also reported two suspected re-positive overseas cases, who had returned from Indonesia and Singapore in October.
They involved a 29-year-old foreign domestic helper from Indonesia and a fully-vaccinated 65-year-old man from Singapore.
Meanwhile, health authorities said Covid-19 was found on the package of a parcel sent to Hong Kong from Inner Mongolia during a routine check.
It said the recipient had disposed of the package immediately upon receiving the parcel and had washed the clothes contained in it.
Authorities said the recipient had been asked to take a Covid test. They also said environmental samples at a local logistics warehouse where the parcel had been kept came back negative, and staff who might have had contact with the parcel were asked to undergo tests.
It added that the risk of the parcel carrying a transmissible live virus after arriving Hong Kong is relatively low, as the virus generally cannot survive over a few days under a non-chilled environment.
Authorities also said they are banning Air India flights from New Delhi for two weeks from November 17 after a passenger of one of its flights was confirmed to have Covid-19 while another passenger was found to have flouted infection control measures.
For those looking to spend more time eating turkey this Thanksgiving, and less time in the kitchen preparing it, these 18 local restaurants have you covered.
The restaurants that follow are either serving pre-cooked, to-go Thanksgiving dinner meals that only require reheating before enjoying, or are offering both take-out and in-person dining (noted by the *) on the holiday.
135 Grill Steak House
672 Waverly St., Framingham
This restaurant is offering Brazilian-style take-out options in orders serving either 10, 20 or 30 people.
There are five options for meat, including turkey, a maca de peito (the thicker end of a brisket) and pernil assado (slow-roasted pork leg or shoulder).
Sides include dishes like rice with vegetables, beans and salads. To order, call 774-432-5744.
*3 Restaurant
461 West Central St., Franklin
This contemporary bistro is offering a three-course meal in its dining room on Thanksgiving Day from noon to 6 p.m. Next to a 10- to 14-pound whole roasted turkey costing $95, several other entrees will also be offered, including butternut squash ravioli and rigatoni bolognese, and other starters and desserts.
To book a reservation for a party of any size, call 508-528-6333.
Thanksgiving dinner packages to-go are also being sold, running for $399 and individual dinners costing $39. Orders must be placed by 9 p.m. Nov. 18. Call 508-528-6333 to order and confirm a pickup time for either Nov. 24 from noon to 4 p.m. or Thanksgiving Day from 9 a.m. to noon.
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Alumni Restaurant and Bar
391 East Central St., Franklin
This family restaurant is offering Thanksgiving take-out orders with either oven-roasted turkey breast or spiral ham with glaze.
The turkey dinner includes seven sides, including butter-whipped mashed potatoes, butternut squash and buttered corn, and the ham dinner includes mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, glazed baby carrots and dinner rolls. Each dinner serves 4-6 people and costs $120. Pies, including apple, Boston creme, pumpkin and lemon meringue, are $12.99 each.
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Orders can be placed by phone at 508-528-8804 or through email at alumnirestaurant391@gmail.com. Orders can also be placed via a Google Form on their Facebook page. Orders must be placed by Nov. 22 with pickup being Nov. 24 from noon to 8 p.m.
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Arturos Ristorante
54 East Main St., Westborough
This Italian restaurant is offering Thanksgiving meal kits to-go, which includes 5 pounds of cooked and sliced all-white turkey breast, a quart of gravy, stuffing, roasted butternut squash with cranberries, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with crispy pancetta and cranberry orange compote.
Meals cost $175 and feed 6-8 people. Kits can be picked up the day before Thanksgiving from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; only 50 are available. To order, visit arturosristorante.com.
BR Takeout
326 Concord St., Framingham
This Brazilian restaurant is offering limited packages of family-style take-out dinners. The first features Greek-style rice with turkey, pork loin and chicken salad. A second features carne assada, chicken with white sauce, white rice and beans. The third meal includes mashed potatoes, vegetables, carne assada with madeira sauce and chicken breast with bacon.
Prices range from $267 to $567, depending on which dinner and size you choose, which includes a 10-person meal, a 25-person meal and a 45-person meal.
Order online at Brtakeout.com or call 508-872-3312. Orders can be picked up or delivered.
Civic Kitchen and Drink
121 West Main St., Westborough
To-go Thanksgiving dinner packages are being offered, available in two-person ($39) and four-person ($78) serving sizes. The meal includes sliced roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, corn, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls. Sangria for four can be added for $30 extra.
Orders must be placed by noon Nov. 23 and can be picked up the next day between 3-9 p.m. To order, call 508-329-5178 or place an order at civickitchenanddrink.com.
At Firefly's BBQ, an apple cider brined wood-smoked turkey is one of the take-out dinners it'll be offering for Thanksgiving Day.
Fireflys BBQ
350 East Main St., Marlborough
This popular barbecue restaurant is offering take-out dinner packages featuring apple cider brined wood-smoked turkey, spiral sliced honey maple glazed artisan ham, wood-smoked beef brisket, homemade corn bread and a dozen sides like collard greens, mac n cheese and sweet potato pecan pudding. Freshly-baked pies and apple crisp can also be ordered, ranging from $15-33.
Firefly's BBQ is offering take-out dinner packages for Thanksgiving Day, which includes meats like wood-smoked beef brisket and sides like collard greens and corn bread dressing.
Complete dinners range from $120-$310 and items can also be ordered separately.
Meals must be ordered by Nov. 20 and picked up Nov. 24. To order, call 508-357-8883.
*Framingham Station
417 Waverly St., Framingham
This Brazilian steakhouse is serving both Thanksgiving dinners to-go and will be open for dine-in eating.
Framingham Station will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Here, Fran Medeiros shows off a slow roasted turkey, Nov. 12, 2021.
For take-out orders, the restaurant will serve slow-roasted turkey with stuffing, gravy, orange cranberry sauce, corn bread, rice, potato salad and pineapple farofa.
The restaurant will also be serving the same meals in-house that day, along with its all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbecue rodizio, which includes other cuts of meat like beef, lamb, pork and chicken.
From left, Ze Pereira (with beef ribs), owner Bruno Oliveira and Monike Santos (with pork sausage) at Framingham Station, Nov. 12, 2021. The restaurant will offer in-house dining on Thanksgiving Day.
To place an order, call 508-424-5911 or book a reservation online at framinghamstation.com/thanksgiving.
GlenPharmer Distillery
860 West Central St., Franklin
Thanksgiving dinners to-go for 4-6 people are being offered, which include sage and apple-roasted turkey breast, house cornbread sausage stuffing, sour cream whipped potatoes and pecan pie made with GlenPharmers Dark Tide Rum.
Some of the distillerys other festive spirits include its BOG vodka, which is infused with cranberries from Decas Farms in Carver, and its Reserve Spiced Rum, which is distilled from 100% molasses and blends nine warming spices and flavors including Madagascar vanilla, clove, cardamom and cassia cinnamon.
GlenPharmer Distillery in Franklin is offering a complete Thanksgiving to-go menu along with its festive GlenPharmer BOG vodka, which is made with infused with cranberries from Decas Farms in Carver.
Orders may be placed online at glenpharmer.com or by calling 508-528-4000 before 5 p.m. Nov. 21. Orders can be picked up from 2-8 p.m. Nov. 24.
Kith + Kin
40 Washington St., Hudson
This modern restaurant is offering $15 individual dinners to-go, featuring roasted, white and dark sliced turkey, gravy, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, local sourdough stuffing and cranberry sauce. Additional sides are also offered, like truffled cauliflower mash and green bean casserole with caramelized onions.
Pies from Harvard Sweet Boutique will also be sold, including apple, gluten-free apple, and pumpkin. Orders must be placed by Nov. 18 and can be picked up Nov. 24 until 7 p.m. Visit bit.ly/KnKThanksgiving to order.
La Cantina Italiana
911 Waverly St., Framingham
This cozy Italian restaurant is offering turkey dinners to-go, which includes 3.5 pounds of roasted white meat turkey, 3 pounds of stuffing, 3 pounds of mashed potatoes, 3 pounds of butternut squash, a quart of gravy and a pint of cranberry sauce. Apple and pumpkin pies can also be ordered for $14 each. The dinner runs for $99 and feeds 4-5 people.
Orders can be placed at golacantina.com/online-ordering/ and must be made by 2 p.m. on Nov. 22. Meals can be picked up on Nov. 24 before 6 p.m.
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*Longfellow's Wayside Inn
72 Wayside Inn Road, Sudbury
This famously historic restaurant is open for both take-out and in-house dining on Thanksgiving Day. For dining, the Thanksgiving buffet will return for parties of 13 or more, serving roast turkey and traditional sides like cornbread and whipped potatoes. Several other options are included, from Dijon-crusted salmon and roast prime rib of beef to lobster bisque and salads.
A three-course meal will also offered with those same options and more.
For take-out, two family meals are being offered: roast turkey breast ($295) and roast prime rib of beef ($395). Meals feed 8-10 people. Included in the turkey meal are eight sides, which includes two quarts of clam chowder and a pumpkin pie. The prime rib meal includes all those same sides, except the cornbread.
To book a reservation or order for take-out, call 978-443-1776. Take-out orders must be received by 2 p.m. Nov. 21 and can be picked up Nov. 24 in the afternoon or 10-11 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
New England Steak and Seafood
11 Uxbridge Road, Mendon
One size, to-go turkey dinners with all the fixings are being offered for Thanksgiving, fit to feed about 10 people.
The $299 meal includes an approximately 20-pound turkey with cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas with pearl onions and an apple pie. Other items include cinnamon rolls, onion rolls and pumpkin bread, which all run for $15.99 per dozen. Apple pies cost the same.
Orders must be placed by Nov. 20 and picked up on Thanksgiving Day between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. To order, call 508-478-0871.
PJs Smoke 'N' Grill
112 Main St., Medway
A $325 Thanksgiving dinner is being offered to-go, including smoked boneless turkey breast, cornbread or stuffing, Red Bliss mashed potatoes, smoked butternut squash, pan gravy and cranberry sauce. It also comes with a choice between apple pie, pumpkin pie or apple crisp.
Dishes can also be ordered separately.
To order, call 508-321-1193. All orders must be placed by Nov. 19 and can be picked up Nov. 24 between 3-5 p.m. or before noon on Thanksgiving Day.
Prezo Grille and Bar
229 1/2 East Main St., Milford
A takeout package for Thanksgiving is being offered, costing $99 and serving about six people. Included is either turkey or ham, a root vegetable medley, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls.
To place an order, call 508-634-0101. Orders can be picked up from noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 24.
Primavera
20 Pleasant St., Millis
This family restaurant is offering three sizes of takeout dinners.
The basic meal ($199) feeds 4-6 people and includes 5 pounds of turkey breast with mashed potatoes, butternut puree, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, dinner rolls and a cannoli kit.
The deluxe meal ($299) feeds 6-8 people and includes 6-8 pounds of turkey with the same sides, but also with salad, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, peas, corn and a choice of apple, pumpkin, pecan or blueberry pie.
Finally, the feast ($399) feeds more than 15 people and includes 16-20 pounds of turkey with all of the above sides.
Add-ons, like stuffed shells and eggplant parmesan, can also be ordered. To do so, call 508-376-2026.
Restaurant 45
45 Milford St., Medway
Thanksgiving meals to-go are being offered, with each meal including boneless roast turkey breast, stuffing, Red Bliss mashed potatoes, whipped butternut squash, green beans almondine, homemade gravy, cranberry sauce and Italian bread.
Meals serving up for five people cost $110 and meals serving up to 10 people cost $220.
Restaurant 45's regular full catering menu will be available. Orders must be placed Nov. 21 and picked up 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 24. To order, call 508-533-8171 or visit 45restaurant.com.
Zaftigs Delicatessen
1298 Worcester Road, Natick
This traditional Jewish eatery will be offering three to-go Thanksgiving meal packages and the option to order a 25-pound turkey $120 uncarved, $15 extra to carve. Numerous sides, like challah bread stuffing, knishes, honey-roasted carrots, Brussels sprouts and apple pies, will also be sold.
Its first meal package, featuring a 10-pound turkey, runs for $149.45. A second package, featuring a 12-pound turkey, runs for $220.95, and the third package features a 14- to 16-pound turkey running for $310.95.
Each package includes sides.
Orders are due by Nov. 19 and can be made by calling 508-653-4442 or emailing natickcatering@zaftigs.com. Pickup occurs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 24.
Lauren Young writes about business and pop culture. Reach her at 774-804-1499 or lyoung@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Thanksgiving dinners: Restaurants serving dine-in and take-out meals
The development follows a 22-month investigation into the case
Two of the three men convicted of killing Malcolm X will have their convictions thrown out following a lengthy investigation into who killed the civil rights leader.
The development follows a 22-month investigation into the case that was conducted by the Manhattan district attorneys office and the Innocence Project, which represents the two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam. Investigators found that prosecutors, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York Police Department withheld key evidence that would have led to the mens acquittal, per The New York Times.
Breaking News: Two of the men found guilty of the assassination of Malcolm X are expected to have their convictions thrown out, validating long-held doubts about who killed the civil rights leader. https://t.co/SwkXOS5rlE The New York Times (@nytimes) November 17, 2021
This wasnt a mere oversight, said Deborah Francois, a lawyer for the men. This was a product of extreme and gross official misconduct.
Malcolm X was gunned down in Harlems Audubon Ballroom during a speech on Feb. 21, 1965. Three members of the Nation of Islam were ultimately arrested and charged with the assassination. At the time, Mujahid Abdul Halim was known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan, Aziz was known as Norman 3X Butler, and Islam was known as Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Former Nation Of Islam leader and civil rights activist El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (aka Malcolm X and Malcolm Little) poses for a portrait on February 16, 1965, in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Islam and Aziz maintained their innocence but were convicted despite the lack of physical evidence and the contradictory testimony of several eyewitnesses. The men spent decades in prison before Aziz, 83, was released in 1985. Islam was released in 1987 and died in 2009. Halim was reportedly granted parole in March 2010 and was released from prison a month later.
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These men did not get the justice that they deserved, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said of Islam and Aziz. Both men are expected to be cleared Thursday, according to the report.
Vance and the Innocence Project confirmed to NBC News that they would move to vacate the wrongful convictions of two individuals for the murder of Malcolm X on Thursday afternoon.
The investigation did not identify who really killed Malcolm X.
This latest development comes months after lawyers representing Malcolm Xs estate requested that his case be reopened in light of new evidence that may reveal the conspiracy to have him killed, theGRIO reported.
circa 1962: American political activist and radical civil rights leader, Malcolm X (1925 1965) standing at a podium during a rally of African-American Muslims held in a Washington, DC arena. (Photo by Richard Saunders/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
According to ABC News, the family and attorney of former undercover NYPD officer Ray Wood disclosed the discovery of a death bed confession letter in November 2020. The letter allegedly states that the NYPD and the FBI conspired to ensure the killing of Minister X.
Last February, Netflix released the docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X, which chronicled historian Abdur-Rahman Muhammads years-long research to unravel inconsistencies in the Malcolm X murder case.
In the series, Muhammad worked to reveal evidence that two of the three men convicted for Malcolm Xs death were in fact not present at the Audubon on the day of this murder.
Its really pulled back the veil on this historic crime, that was really an open wound, in not just the African-American community, but the world community, Muhammad said in an interview with PBS. And, you know, the fundamental understanding of who pulled that shotgun, who were involved. Yes, we answer that question.
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PROVIDENCE A 34-year-old Providence man whose body was found under a highway overpass in the Olneyville neighborhood is the city's 22nd homicide, the police said Tuesday.
Providence police Maj. David Lapatin identified the man as Augusto Alonzo Cortiz and said he could not comment on the nature of his death.
Cortiz's body was mostly covered by an object when construction workers discovered it in an area near Route 6 and Troy Street around 8:30 a.m. Monday, Lapatin said.
More: Two arrested in the fatal shooting of Jorge Garcia at a Providence breakfast counter
Investigators do not believe Cortiz was killed at that location, he said.
Cortiz's family had lost touch with him a few days prior to the discovery of his body, Lapatin said.
"Everything is fluid," Lapatin said. "We're moving along."
The case presents "a lot to look at," he said.
There were 18 homicides in Providence in 2020, 13 in 2019 and 10 in 2018.
More: Providence's gun deaths are up in 2021, but that's just part of the story
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence identifies victim of city's 22nd homicide of 2021
A complaint filed against the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office alleges it worked with federal immigration agents in violation of a California law protecting undocumented residents. The California Values Act, or Senate Bill 54, prevents state and local resources from assisting federal immigration enforcement, and that schools, hospitals and courthouses are deemed safe spaces. The bill was signed into law October 2017 and went into effect in 2018. The American Civil Liberties Union's complaint mentions that Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones has touted cooperation with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement "and has fiercely opposed SB5 and similar laws.
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Setting a clear goal for retirement savings is one of the first steps in planning for your future. One of the simplest ways to set retirement goals is to figure out what your ending annual salary will be and assume you'll need 10 times that amount. You can figure out your final salary by estimating the number of years left to retirement and assuming you'll get a 2% annual raise from your current salary.
Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei has warned about political correctness in the U.S., saying its perpetuation has already turned the country into an authoritarian state without people knowing it.
About Ai Weiwei: Ai, 64, is a contemporary artist who openly criticizes the Chinese Communist Party. In 2011, he was imprisoned for 81 days during a government crackdown that targeted writers, human rights lawyers and other activists.
Ais protest against government oppression is reflected in his work. His 2014 project @Large transformed San Franciscos infamous Alcatraz prison into a gargantuan exhibition that featured 176 portraits of prisoners of conscience and political exiles from all over the world, according to The New York Times.
Ais passport was revoked at the time. Upon its restoration in 2015, he moved to Berlin to start a new life; however, it wasnt until the summer of 2017 that he got to see the portraits, which were made from 1.2 million Legos, at the exhibition in Washington, D.C., as per Smithsonian Magazine. Ai now resides in Portugal after living in Berlin and the U.K.
What hes saying: Ai shared his bleak outlook of the U.S. while promoting his memoir in a new interview on PBS Firing Line. He pointed out that authoritarians cannot be by themselves and instead must rely on a system that supports their views.
In his book, Ai described Mao Zedongs directives during the Cultural Revolution, which were distributed at night. He compared them to former President Donald Trumps midnight tweets.
Ai disagreed, however, when asked if he thought Trump was authoritarian. He stated that the U.S. is already behaving like an authoritarian state, and much of it has to do with efforts for people to be unified in a certain political correctness.
In many ways, youre already in the authoritarian state. You just dont know it, Ai told Firing Line host Margaret Hoover, who asked him to elaborate.
Ai explained that with todays technology, we know so much more than we actually understand. The information [has] become jammed, but we dont really ... have the knowledge, because you dont work. You dont have to act on anything. You just think youre purified by certain ideas that you agree with. That is posing dangers to society, to an extremely divided society, he said.
Reactions: Ais remarks have drawn mixed reactions on social media. Meanwhile, an opinion piece for the Chinese state-run Global Times noted that the artist, who is typically hailed as an outspoken hero by Western elites, did not receive the usual praise for his comments.
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Political Correctness is NOT the Language of a Free People, one YouTube user wrote.
Another paraphrased his comment as: Everything woke turns to sh*t.
The Global Times piece, for its part, criticized American hypocrisy: The U.S. elites often preach that If you are not free to criticize, then praise is meaningless in countries it regards as a foe. But when it comes to criticizing its own system, the U.S. elites are hypocritically not so tolerant.
Featured Image via PBS/Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
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Families and friends traditionally gather to express gratitude during this time of year. Many also participate in acts of service and charity as a way of giving back to their local communities.
As communication scholars who study intercultural communication, we have studied how the many languages around the world have their own unique words and expressions for saying thank you. In turn, these expressions reveal very different assumptions about how human beings relate to one another and about the world we collectively inhabit.
Not everyone says thank you
Americans are known the world over for saying thank you in many everyday situations. Though some of these thank yous are undoubtedly heartfelt, many are also routine and said without much feeling. Given how often Americans say thanks, it might be surprising to know that in several other cultures around the world, people rarely say thank you.
In many cultures in South and Southeast Asia, including in India, where the expression in Hindi is , spelled out as dhanyavaad in English. A deep degree of unspoken gratitude is assumed in interpersonal relationships through this expression.
In an article in The Atlantic, author Deepak Singh, an immigrant from northern India to the United States, explains that in the Hindi language, in everyday gestures and culture, there is an unspoken understanding of gratitude.
A Sikh man folding hands in a namaste before another man.
In many relationships for instance, between parents and children or between close friends saying thank you is considered inappropriate in these countries because it introduces a sense of formality that takes away the intimacy of the relationship. Thank you is appropriate when it is deeply and truly felt, and in situations where a person goes above and beyond the normal expectations of a relationship. Then too it is said with great solemnity, with eye contact, and perhaps even with hands at heart center in namaste position.
The economic rhetoric of gratitude
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In American English, many of the expressions of gratitude are couched in transactional language that involves expressions of personal indebtedness. We say, I owe you a debt of gratitude, Thanks, I owe you one, One good turn deserves another, and How can I ever repay you?
Thinking of gratitude as a kind of transaction can indeed encourage people to form mutually beneficial relationships. But it can also lead people to see their personal and impersonal relationships in economic terms as transactions to be judged by market criteria of gain and loss.
The American language of gratitude tends to reflect the fact that many of us might see relationships as interpersonal transactions. But if we were to enter into relationships only on the premise of what benefits us personally, and potentially materially, then it can be very limiting.
This is why, we argue, it can be enlightening to look at other languages of gratitude.
Thanking earth, sky and community
Many Chinese people, for example, use the phrase , or xie tian, which literally means thank sky as a way to express gratitude to all things under the sky. In a famous essay included in many high school textbooks called Xie Tian, writer Zhifan Chen noted, Because there are too many people that we feel grateful to, lets thank sky then. The writer redirects individuals gratitude toward an all-encompassing universe, one that includes all things and all beings.
In Taiwanese, people say , or kam-sim, which means feel heart, to express gratitude. In complimenting a good deed, the word is also meant to highlight how people who witness the act but do not directly benefit from it are touched by the benevolence. It encourages people to recognize that the impact of good deeds is not limited to its direct recipients but to other members of the community as well.
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To say kam-sim is to recognize that our actions have effects that ripple outward, potentially strengthening and solidifying the social fabric, which ultimately benefits us all.
Every time we express gratitude, we invoke a social world. Often, we invoke a world without realizing its full force. For instance, when we use a language of gratitude characterized by economic metaphors, it can shape our view of the world and our social relationships, encouraging us to see life itself as a series of transactions. Being more conscious about our linguistic conventions and the potentials of our choices can empower us to create a world we really desire.
Learning from other languages of gratitude, perhaps we can make our thank you less casual and more heartfelt.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jeremy David Engels, Penn State and Elaine Hsieh, University of Oklahoma.
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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
(Bloomberg) -- Cher Scarlett, an Apple Inc. engineer who created a protest movement within the company over pay transparency and other workplace issues, is leaving the iPhone maker after reaching a settlement.
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Scarlett wouldnt provide details about the settlement, but her lawyer said she is requesting a withdrawal of a complaint she filed with the National Labor Relations Board. In a Sept. 1 filing with the agency, Scarlett alleged that Apple human resources had interfered with efforts by employees to gather wage data, and that management had engaged in coercive and suppressive activity that has enabled abuse and harassment of workers organizing.
The matter was settled privately and the request for withdrawal is pending before the board, Scarletts lawyer, Alek Felstiner, told Bloomberg News. We hope the crucial organizing work at Apple will continue.
Scarlett said her departure from Apple was voluntary and that her last day is Friday. Other Apple workers who publicly raised concerns about working conditions -- including Ashley Gjovik and Janneke Parrish -- were fired after speaking out and have filed their own recent labor board complaints. Apple said both of those former employees were terminated for sharing private information.
Apple declined to comment about Scarletts departure. The company has said previously it doesnt comment on specific cases out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved.
For several months, Scarlett had been a leader in a movement inside Apple via Slack channels and other forms of social media that came to be known as #AppleToo -- a riff on #MeToo. It spurred many staffers to speak out online about conditions, both publicly and anonymously. The protest was a rarity inside a company known for keeping employees quiet about their work.
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Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook expressed frustration in a September memo about employees leaking information. His email followed media reports about a companywide internal meeting at which management fielded questions about pay equity and Texas anti-abortion law, as well as reports that revealed details of a product launch event ahead of time.
In a filing with the NLRB, Gjovik alleged that Cooks email and various Apple employee handbook policies violated the National Labor Relations Act, which protects U.S. workers rights to communicate with one another and engage in collective action about workplace issues.
(Updates with additional context in second paragraph.)
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Sunisa Suni Lee, a first-generation Hmong American Olympian who won three medals at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, was named alongside swimmer Caeleb Dressel as Athletes of the Year at the 2021 Sports Illustrated Awards. New achievement: Lee, 18, was named by the American sports magazine as Female Athlete of the Year, while Dressel was named the Male Athlete of the Year. The awards show was held at Hollywoods Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Florida on Tuesday, according to Sports Illustrated.
Min Xiao-Fen and River Guerguerian perform Nov. 21, 2021, at Isis Music Hall.
Renowned local percussionist River Guerguerian was actually in California performing when he heard a Nation Public Radio story about a Chinese-born pipa master moving to Asheville. Even more astounding to Guerguerian was that this uber-talented musician, Min Xiao-Fen, would perform a local show with an old touring mate of his.
I was intrigued that a Chinese musician was moving to Asheville and bringing her traditional and new sounds to the area, said Guerguerian, who performs with the jazz trio Free Planet Radio, among others. It blew my mind that the concert she was doing in town (in June) was with an old musician friend of mine, Rez Abbasi. Rez and I played in an experimental trio together between 1988 and 1992 in New York City. I rushed over to the Orange Peel after a gig to see them and hang a little.
That initial encounter has led to a musical bond between Xiao-Fen and Guerguerian and to an upcoming show. The duo will perform together, for the first time, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 at Isis Music Hall.
I was surprised to learn that River and I have many things in common: we both share a background in traditional music, but we enjoy crisscrossing cultural genres. We also lived in New York City and worked with Grammy and Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, said Xiao-Fen, who plays a pipa, which is a four-string plucked lute.
The two missed each other in New York City, she said, so we never have a chance to meet each other, yet somehow, I felt like I already knew him. Later, I went to his studio and attended a Free Planet Radio concert. I was impressed by his masterful skills, creative sounds and rhythms. Plus, River is a great human being. Im really looking forward to our first collaboration and feel so honored to work with him.
The show with these two masterful musicians will include a variety of solos and duets on multiple instruments, including some quite ancient instruments. They will also perform two newly composed pieces, Echo in the Valley and Follow the Dragon.
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Xiao-Fen said she first visited Asheville in 2019 when she attended the Brevard Summer Music Festival. She and her husband made the decision to move after only four days of visiting when, she said, we quickly fell in love with the natural beauty, artistic energetic and super friendly people.
Asheville has already begun to inspire my musical journey. Chinese traditional music has always been associated with nature, she said. The pipa has over two thousand years of history, and one of the most important styles in its large repertoire is the lyrical style. This music describes nature: flowers, trees, water, mountains and the four seasons. The melodies are subtle and sensitive, expressing inner feelings of love and sorrow.
Guerguerian researched Xiao-Fen checking out her website and talking to mutual collaborators before he invited her to jam together.
I was totally fascinated by her story and music. We shared a lot of things in common, like learning traditional styles and jazz, yet mostly being interested in creating new music, he said. I am looking forward to the possibilities that Min and I have for collaborating together, fusing the variety of musical traditions that we have studied and exploring the shared vision of creating new sounds.
2 big shows downtown
Jeff Dunham is scheduled to perform in Jacksonville in June.
Downtown Asheville will host two big shows Nov. 21, as a comedian with his puppets and the son of a legendary drummer will both perform.
Jeff Dunhams Seriously Tour will stop at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena for a 3 p.m. show. while Jason Bonhams Led Zeppelin Evening will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
Dunham, who is known for his mature audiences only shows even though puppets participate, has had a string of Netflix stand-up specials and is a renowned comedian who also performs as a ventriloquist with characters like Peanut, Walter, Jose Jalapeno, Bubba J. and Achmed the Dead Terrorist. He has grown a large following through social media and has had numerous performances on the Comedy Channel and late-night shows.
Jason Bonham, pictured at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre on August 1, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Jason Bonhams father, John, was the drummer of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin and he has carried on that bands music over the years. He will perform a set of the groups music as part of a five-piece band that meticulously recreates the Hall of Fame bands songs.
Blues-Soul guitarist at Salvage Station
Atlanta native Eddie 9V got his first guitar at the age of 6 and fell in love with performers like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf.
Eddie 9V, the on-stage moniker for Brooks Mason, has played in other bands in the past, like The Georgia Flood and Preachervan, before he became a solo performer.
Now at 25-years-old, the blues guitarist is showcasing his own stellar playing to the country. He recently released his second album, Little Black Flies, and is out on the road. He plays at 8 p.m. Nov. 20 at Salvage Station.
Roots rockers to play Jack of the Wood
Little Lesley and the Bloodshots will bring its roots rock, rockabilly and Americana sounds to town again with an 8 p.m. show Nov. 20 at Jack in the Wood.
The group, led by singer Lesley Swift, is known for its playing around the Carolinas, bringing a high energy show each time it performs.
The group released Love Songs on Western Star records in 2020.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville events: Jeff Dunham, Jason Bonham, River Guerguerian, more
KMSP
The Minneapolis Police Department is warning residents after an uptick in robberies and home invasions. In these scenarios, they say two or more suspects follow a person to their homes, then rob and sometimes assault them. One family living near Lake Nokomis thinks they could be the latest victims of this sort of brazen crime.
WASHINGTON (AP) American officials are unsure why Russian President Vladimir Putin is building up military forces near the border with eastern Ukraine but view it as another example of troubling military moves that demand Moscow's explanation, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.
Well continue to call on Russia to act responsibly and be more transparent on the buildup of the forces around on the border of Ukraine, Austin told a Pentagon news conference, adding, Were not sure exactly what Mr. Putin is up to.
He said the troop buildup has the Pentagon's attention and that the Russians should be more transparent about what they're up to.
Austin also criticized Russia for using a missile to shoot down one of its old satellites on Monday, an action that created hundreds of pieces of space debris that U.S. officials have said will be a long-term hazard to space operations.
Whats most troubling about that is the danger that it creates for the international community, Austin said. It undermines strategic stability, and as you know, theres a debris field there now thatll be there forever. And its a safety concern. And so we would call upon Russia to act more responsibly going forward."
Austin's language on Russia's use of an anti-satellite missile was milder than that of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has called the move dangerous and irresponsible. Blinken on Monday said it showed Russia is willing to imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations.
Russias Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed destroying a defunct satellite that has been in orbit since 1982, but it insisted the U.S. knows for certain that the resulting fragments, in terms of test time and orbital parameters, did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities. It called remarks by U.S. officials hypocritical.
The Russian military buildup near Ukraine is of potentially bigger concern. 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.
Russia has supported a separatist insurgency in Ukraines east that erupted shortly after Moscows 2014 annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and has left more than 14,000 people dead.
Earlier this year, a massive buildup of Russian troops in the Russias west raised concern in Ukraine and in the West, fueling fears of an escalation of hostilities. Russian officials said the troops were deployed for training, casting them as part of measures to counter security threats posed by the deployment of NATO forces near Russian borders.
CANADA-FLOODING-ENVIROMENT A view of flooding in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford British Columbia, Canada, on November 17, 2021. (Photo by Don MacKinnon / AFP) (Photo by DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images)
British Columbia Premier John Horgan has declared a state of emergency after flooding and landslides devastated the southern part of the province.
Horgan says the declaration will preserve basic access to service and supplies for communities across the province.
He says the government will bring in travel restrictions to ensure that essential goods and medical and emergency services are able to reach the communities that need them.
The Canadian Press
President Joe Biden called on US regulators Wednesday to look into the causes of the nationwide spike in gasoline prices, which he says are hurting workers.
The president last week made fighting inflation a top priority after data showed consumer prices hit a 30-year high in October, fueling a slump in his public approval.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Biden took aim at oil companies he says are raising prices at the pump even as their expenses decline and profits soar.
He instructed the agency to look into whether "illegal conduct" is behind the energy price spike.
"I do not accept hard-working Americans paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or otherwise potentially illegal conduct," Biden said in the letter.
Despite signs the US economy has bounced back strongly from the damage inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden has paid a political cost as global supply chain snarls have caused shortages and driven an uptick in prices of everything from cars to food to gasoline.
Biden said the prices at the pump are not justified by the fundamentals of the market, noting that while the cost of unfinished gasoline has dropped more than five percent over the past month, retail prices rose three percent.
At the same time, oil companies "are generating significant profits," with the two largest on track to nearly double net income compared to 2019 and planning major stock buybacks, he said in the letter.
Biden instructed the FTC to "bring all of the commission's tools to bear if you uncover any wrongdoing."
The agency declined to comment on its investigations, but spokesman Peter Kaplan told AFP, "The FTC is concerned about this issue, and we are looking into it."
In response to a previous request over the summer from Biden to examine gas prices, FTC Chair Lina Khan pledged to investigate any collusion that might be fueling the inflation, as well as take a closer look at mergers in the industry that reduce competition.
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In June, the regulator ordered 7-Eleven and Marathon Petroleum to sell off nearly 300 gas stations after their $21 billion merger violated antitrust rules by leaving hundreds of communities without alternatives to buy fuel.
Average US prices at the pump fell to $3.41 a gallon as of Monday, 11 cents higher than a month ago, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
That average is 81 cents more than in 2019, before the pandemic hit and kept most Americans at home.
"Unfortunately, the ongoing tight supply of crude oil will likely keep gas prices fluctuating, instead of dropping, for some time," AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement this week.
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President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to arms control talks as the communist nation looks to beef up its nuclear stockpile, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.
The world leaders held their most extensive talks to date Monday with a virtual three-hour meeting, during which Biden raised the need for "strategic stability" as tensions with China remain heightened.
CHINA SAYS ITS AN 'IMAGINARY ENEMY' OF US, CLAIMS HYPERSONIC MISSILE TEST WAS 'ROUTINE'
"The two leaders agreed that we would look to begin to carry forward discussions on strategic stability," Sullivan said during a virtual panel with the Brookings Institute. "It is now incumbent on us to think about the most productive way to carry it forward from here."
US President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 15, 2021. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Neither the White House nor Chinas foreign ministry mentioned any plans to hold such talks following the summit, but agreeing to discuss arms control would mean a stance reversal by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
China flatly rejected nuclear treaty talks after Donald Trump threatened not to renew the New START Treaty, a 2010 agreement between the U.S. and Russia that places limits on the nation's nuclear stockpiles.
The treaty was ultimately renewed by the Biden administration, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House would continue to push China on countering its expanding nuclear arsenal.
CHINA CLAIMS BIDEN DENOUNCED 'TAIWAN INDEPENDENCE,' BUT WARNS US IS 'PLAYING WITH FIRE'
Sullivan said any talks with China would not reflect the same kind of long-held dialogue with Russia, noting those agreements are "far more mature."
"What President Xi and President Biden really reinforced to one another at multiple points last night was that this relationship needs to be guided by consistent and regular leader-to-leader interaction," the national security adviser said.
It remains unclear what nuclear arms talks with China would look like, as the communist nation has repeatedly pointed to its relatively small arsenal as justification for its continued efforts in developing warheads.
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According to data from the Arms Control Association, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world with more than 6,255 warheads on hand. The U.S. comes in second with 5,550 warheads.
China ranks a distant third with 350 nuclear warheads.
Sullivan said the virtual talks Monday were "fundamentally different" from previous calls the leaders have held, adding the discussion was a "more intense, engaged session."
Biden and Xi described their conversation as candid, though neither leader offered solutions to some of the biggest geopolitical hurdles facing U.S.-China relations.
President Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 15, 2021. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
While Chinas alleged commitment to engage in nuclear non-proliferation talks with the U.S. would be championed by the Biden administration, Sullivan said the White House would not view such actions as a "favor."
"Chinas act of good faith on global issues is not a favor to the United States," he added. "It is something that is expected of all responsible states."
Associated Press
The NCAA has placed the Auburn men's basketball program on four years probation for unethical conduct involving former associate head coach Chuck Person and imposed a two-game suspension on coach Bruce Pearl for failing to monitor his assistant and adequately promote compliance. An NCAA Committee on Infractions panel issued its findings Friday. The NCAA, however, mostly accepted Auburn's self-imposed penalties in the case dating back to September 2017, when FBI agents arrested Person as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption in college basketball.
The new infrastructure legislation sets aside $65 billion for Americas spotty broadband system, the culmination of a years-long effort to make changes to how Americans get online.
And the money may mean a break on your internet bill as well as the promise of new providers and faster speeds, especially in rural areas.
It's "certainly pretty significant considering we havent seen these kinds of stimulus support in this industry ever, Charlie Vogt, CEO of DZSi, a telecommunications company based in Plano, Texas, told Yahoo Finance Live.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will oversee much of the broadband money. She recently told reporters the focus now is on implementing this in partnership with our partners on the ground to achieve the president's goal of making sure that every American, regardless of where they live or the color of their skin or their income, has access to broadband.
It represents a generational and hopefully transformational investment, the head of US Telecom, an industry group, said about the provisions.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks about broadband provisions in the infrastructure deal at the White House Nov. 9. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Relief on your internet bill
The $65 billion is divided into a few areas, including $42.45 billion for grants to states for broadband projects and $14.2 billion for a program to provide vouchers. There are billions more for things like digital inclusion projects and rural broadband programs.
As Raimondo has noted on the new voucher program, "affordability is just as important as access [because] it does a family no good if there's broadband in their community but they can't afford it."
The program will create a permanent $30-a-month-subsidy program to give low-income Americans a break on their internet service expenses. It will replace a temporary program, which offers up to $50-a-month for some Americans.
The previous program, called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, was signed into law by then-President Trump in 2020 and has enrolled over 6 million households this year. It allocated $3.2 billion for vouchers. The new infrastructure bill puts aside over 4 times more for that purpose.
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The money is designed to flow through existing internet providers which will pass along the savings to customers. Raimondo said everyone who gets a penny of this money is required to offer a low-cost, affordable plan, and be more transparent about pricing.
In a recent statement, the National Consumer Law Center praised the provisions. This bill makes great strides in closing the digital divide, said Olivia Wein, staff attorney for the NCLC.
President Joe Biden (3rd-R) talks to Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (2nd-R) as Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (R) and Vice President Kamala Harris (L) look on after signing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as he is surrounded by lawmakers and members of his Cabinet during a ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House on November 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. The $1.2 trillion package will provide funds for public infrastructure projects including improvements to the countrys transportation networks, increasing rural broadband access, and projects to modernize water and energy systems. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
A push to have cities offer internet service directly
The bill includes $42 billion for grants to states, that they can then use for a broadband projects like laying new or better cables to provide access or higher speeds.
Data from Microsoft has found that somewhere around 120 million Americans even those who have a nominal connection dont currently use the internet at broadband speeds, defined as download speeds of 25 mbps and upload speeds of 3 mbps.
Vogt highlighted how the bill is structured to direct money to the least-connected states. While every state gets $100 million automatically for broadband programs, that leaves $37 billion to be allocated based on each states justified need.
Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of USTelecom, has said the deal recognizes the private model of broadband deployment in the United States with targeted public support in unserved or hard to reach communities is the key to achieving 100 percent connectivity. USTelecom is a Washington-based group that represents broadband and technology companies like AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), and scores of smaller network providers.
The group also calculated in a recent Broadband Capex report that private companies invested about $80 billion in broadband and networks in 2020, approximately twice the amount the infrastructure bill has set aside for deployment in coming years.
A technician makes some repairs on a cell tower near Meeker, Colorado. Broadband in Rio Blanco county and Meeker is some of the best in the state for rural areas. (Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Raimondo promises to work closely with business, and said we have to make sure that we don't spend this money overbuilding, referencing an industry concern that an influx of government money could end up creating duplicate networks.
The money will be managed by states and overseen by the Commerce Department, and is expected to support private companies.
Some voices are calling for more government-run providers, and the funds could spur new city-run internet services. According to the latest data, there are more than 600 communities currently served by some form of a municipal network and an effort led by Vice President Kamala Harris would encourage more of them.
Advocates for municipal networks have examples of positive effects when a municipal network competes with a private company. Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, has noted in the past that when a community starts offering a service, the prices typically drop.
The debate essentially boils down to whether the Biden administrations goal of 100% coverage is achievable through existing broadband providers and strategic public/private partnerships for hard-to-reach areas.
As Spalter noted, the nitty gritty implementation details will matter a lot.
Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
Maximizing infrastructure impact means 'routing new dollars through old plumbing': Transportation Secretary
Bidens infrastructure plan could push more cities to offer internet service directly
Microsoft president: Shame on us if we fail' to provide broadband internet to more Americans
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Davidson
WOOSTER - Buehlers Fresh Foods announced in a recent news release that Mike Davidson has been promoted to president and CEO of the Ohio-based supermarket chain effective Jan. 2, 2022.
He will take over from Dan Shanahan who announced his retirement in early November, according to the release.
On behalf of our board of directors and ESOP trustee, we couldnt be more proud in naming Mike as president/CEO," Shanahan said in the release. "Mike has been with us for six years as EVP of store operations and more recently as EVP of sales and marketing. Hes had a significant impact on the success of our company and our culture. We are confident that he has the leadership skills to take Buehlers to the next level."
Previous to joining Buehlers, Davidson was with Price Chopper supermarkets in Schenectady, New York, as senior vice president of store operations. Prior to Price Chopper, Davidson worked with Ahold companies Finast and Tops Markets. While at Tops, Davidson was regional VP of operations and VP of operations and merchandising.
Davidson holds a bachelors degree in accounting, a masters degree in business and attended the Cornell University food executive program. He is chairman of the Ohio Grocers Association, past board member with the Muscular Dystrophy association, board member of the Wooster Christian School and is a member of Rotary. He and his wife Joanna reside in Wooster; have three children and 10 grandchildren living throughout the United States.
I would like to thank Dan and our Board of Directors for the confidence they have placed in me," Davidson said in the release. "Since our management-led buyout in 2017 a solid foundation has been established at Buehlers Fresh Foods and I look forward to building on that. Being an ESOP allows all of our employees to think and act like owners. I am honored to be leading the team.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Buehlers Fresh Foods promotes Mike Davidson as its new president/CEO
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) A court in Cambodia on Wednesday denied the bail requests of 14 detained members of a dissolved opposition party who have been charged with treason for taking part in nonviolent political activities over the past several years.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court said it denied the requests from the former members of the disbanded Cambodia National Rescue Party because their cases will come to trial soon, on Dec. 7 and 9, said Am Sam Ath, a representative of the local human rights group Licadho.
After an appeals court last week freed 18 activists from prison, including a prominent labor leader who has been a longtime critic of the government, there had been hope among friends and family of the 14 that they would be released.
But the denial of bail tamped down speculation that last weeks releases signaled a liberalizing trend for the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for 36 years and has often been accused of heading an authoritarian regime.
The 14 are charged with conspiracy to commit treason and incitement to commit a felony, and all have been in pre-trial detention for more than a year. Defense lawyer Sam Sokong said most of the defendants are accused of organizing a failed trip back to Cambodia in November 2019 by former opposition leader Sam Rainsy.
Sam Rainsy, the co-founder of the party, has been in exile since 2016 to avoid serving prison sentences on defamation and other charges. He says the cases against him are politically motivated, and his attempted return was blocked by the government.
Separately, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced this week it has ordered the sale of a building owned by Sam Rainsy that had been used as the party headquarters.
Money from the sale is to go to several top government officials and the government itself for legal judgments they won against Sam Rainsy.
As the sole opposition party in Parliament, the Cambodia National Rescue Party had been expected to present a strong challenge to Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party in the 2018 general election. But in late 2017, Hun Sen launched a sweeping crackdown on his opponents and the CNRP was forced by the high court to disband and its lawmakers were removed from Parliament. Many people believe the court acted to ensure that Hun Sens party won the polls. It ended up sweeping all the seats.
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The wife of Kak Komphear, one of the defendants to stand trial next month, said the group pleaded at Wednesday's court hearing for their release on the grounds they are in poor health and their families are suffering because their money earners are in prison.
Prum Chantha, a member of Friday Wives, a group organized to support the defendants, said they also promised not to flee and to appear in court when summoned. Her husband has been in detention since May 2020.
Their 16-year-old son, Kak Sovannchhay, who is autistic, was convicted earlier this month of incitement to commit a felony and public insult for comments he made in a Telegram chat group defending his father, and for sharing Facebook posts criticizing Hun Sen.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison but released on Nov. 10 after his case drew international attention.
Canada is sending the military to help evacuate and support communities hit by "catastrophic" flooding, with the death toll expected to rise after record rainfall on the Pacific coast triggered a state of emergency Wednesday.
Officials said downpours in British Columbia this week trapped motorists in mudslides that left at least one dead and four missing, forced thousands of people to flee their homes, and cut off Vancouver and its port.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Washington ahead of meeting with his US and Mexican counterparts, said the heavy rains caused "historical and terrible flooding that has disrupted the lives and taken lives of people across BC."
"I can confirm there are hundreds of Canadian Armed Forces members currently headed to British Columbia to help with everything from supplies to evacuation to whatever is needed," he said.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan declared a state of emergency and imposed a travel ban, telling reporters "catastrophic" rains, winds and flooding "have devastated entire communities of our province."
"We expect to confirm even more fatalities in the coming days," he added.
This week's extreme weather comes after British Columbia suffered record-high summer temperatures that killed more than 500 people, as well as wildfires that destroyed a town.
"These events are increasing in regularity because of the effects of human-caused climate change," Horgan commented, just days after world leaders met in Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference.
- Airlifted to safety -
By Tuesday afternoon the torrential rains had let up. An estimated 300 motorists trapped on highways by mudslides have been airlifted to safety and a few evacuation orders have been rescinded.
But Henry Braun, mayor of hard-hit Abbotsford east of Vancouver, told a briefing: "We're not out of this yet."
"If we have another weather event like we just went through, we are in deep doo doo," he said.
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Meanwhile, searches continue for more possible victims, after a woman's body was recovered from a mudslide near Lillooet, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver.
Motorist Kathie Rennie told public broadcaster CBC she witnessed "the whole side of the mountain coming down and taking out these cars... everything just being swept away. Just complete panic."
Canadian police, Staff Sergeant Janelle Shoihet told AFP late Wednesday, "have received a fourth missing person report related to the Lillooet mudslide."
As the season's first snow flurries started falling over inland towns covered in mud and partially inundated, residents scrambled for food, heat and water.
Many grocery store shelves were empty, as supply chain disruptions led to panic buying.
Horgan urged citizens not to hoard: "You do not need 48 eggs. A dozen will do, and leave the rest for somebody else."
On the outskirts of Vancouver, livestock were pulled from hundreds of flooded farms on the Sumas Prairie -- including a cow towed behind a jet ski through a meter of water to higher ground.
"We have thousands of animals that have perished," with many more in "difficult situations," said British Columbia Agriculture Minister Lana Popham.
Overnight almost 200 people were airlifted from the area to safety.
- Vancouver cut off -
Key highways remain closed. As a result, motorists wanting to travel to or from Vancouver have to go south to the United States and back up into Canada.
Landslides also cut off rail traffic to and from Vancouver -- one of Canada's busiest freight sea ports.
"We're working diligently to assess the damage and make sure that we can get those supply roads back in shape as quickly as possible," Horgan said. "But the conditions are severe."
Environment Canada said up to 250 millimetres (almost 10 inches) of rain -- what the region normally gets in a month -- fell Sunday and Monday in and around Vancouver, which was also hit last week by a rare tornado.
Meteorologists blamed an "atmospheric river," or narrow strip of moisture carried from tropical regions toward the poles, for the deluge.
amc/dva
Nov. 16The Freeman Caregiver Support Group will present attorney Luke Boyer, from the Boyer Law Firm, during the group's monthly meeting from 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Freeman Hospital East conference rooms.
Boyer will discuss options for planning a trust or will. He will also talk about the importance of having power-of-attorney documents.
The support group is facilitated by Jennifer Berry, assistant director of adult outpatient services at Ozark Center. Physical distancing and mask wearing are practiced. Refreshments and door prizes are provided.
RSVP to Kathy Mason at kdmason@freemanhealth.com or 417-347-8463.
A businessman preparing to buy a California caviar company stayed with state Treasurer Fiona Ma and her aides at a property they were renting for work trips, the lawyer for a former employee suing the treasurer said.
At the time, Ma and the businessman were copied on emails about a potential tax break for the company. The company ultimately did not file an application for the tax break, which is administered by Mas office.
Waukeen McCoy, who is representing former Treasurers Office employee Judith Blackwell, told The Bee that Eugene Fernandez, who purchased Sterling Caviar in October 2020, stayed with Ma and her staff more than five times that year at a short-term rental the Treasurers Office used for state business trips.
The claim that a non-state employee stayed with the treasurer and her staff is the latest issue to raise questions about Mas conduct as the states banker, a position she was elected to in 2018. Previous reporting by The Bee revealed Ma is the only statewide official who routinely expenses lodging in Sacramento, where she would frequently stay with staff. Experts have said its inappropriate and risky for a superior to share lodging with a staff member.
McCoy is representing Blackwell in a lawsuit that alleges Ma sexually harassed her while the two stayed together on business trips in Sacramento. Ma has denied the allegations in the lawsuit, and says she is confident the truth will come out in court.
During the time Ma and her staff were staying at rentals, a company that works with businesses to secure tax breaks from the state was communicating with Fernandez about helping Sterling apply for a sales tax exclusion program run by her office, according to the state emails, which The Bee obtained through a California Public Records Act request.
McCoy said Ma rented the property first, then Fernandez did. He said he could not provide further details on the timing.
McCoy said his client told him Fernandez would stay in one of the rooms of the rental while Ma and her staff stayed in other rooms. Fernandez would eat at restaurants with the treasurer and other staffers and would bring caviar for them, which they ate at the restaurants and at the rental property, McCoy said.
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I did not stay at corporate housing rentals with non-state employees, Ma responded in a statement. This is the latest in a series of false public allegations by Judith Blackwells attorney in a desperate attempt to use the media to coerce settlement and avoid a trial, where the facts will come out.
Ma did not respond to follow-up questions about what she meant by corporate housing rentals, whether she had ever stayed with Fernandez at any kind of rental or whether he had ever brought caviar to rental properties or meals with her and staff.
In response to a question about whether he had stayed with Ma in Sacramento, Fernandez said he never stayed at a rental property where Fiona Ma or the state paid the bill. He said he has known the treasurer for more than four years.
Asked if he ever brought caviar to Ma and her staff, he wrote in an email that he would on occasions bring Caviar for social gatherings like I still do with friends.
Elected officials must report any gifts, including meals, that they receive from any source who gives them more than $50 worth of gifts in a year, and cannot accept gifts from a source totaling more than $520 in a year. California makes exception for gift exchanges on birthdays, holidays and similar occasions, where officials can exchange gifts of roughly equal value with others.
Mas financial disclosure forms do not list any gifts from Fernandez. She has reported gifts from other sources, including a $70 bottle of wine from the Napa County Farm Bureau and $4,800 in airfare, lodging and meals for trips to Portland and Seattle from the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy.
If Fernandez did bring Ma and her staffers caviar, or if she ever stayed in a rental he paid for, she likely should have reported it, said Dan Schnur, the former head of Californias political ethics watchdog agency.
Its one thing if he bought the treasurer and her staff a hamburger or a soda, but caviar in any type of quantity almost certainly would require gift reporting, said Schnur, who teaches politics at UC Berkeley, Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California.
In May 2020, Alex Tran of California Incentives Group, a company that helps businesses apply for tax breaks, wrote to Fernandez saying, Hi Eugene as a follow up to our call. See below for the opportunities that we believe we can secure for Sterling Caviar by year end.
The email included a description of how California Incentives Group could help Sterling apply for two sales tax exclusions through the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, a program within the Treasurers Office that gives tax breaks to advanced manufacturing and transportation companies working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tran forwarded the pitch to Mas Gmail account in June 2020, the emails show, and attached several memos drawn up by the California Incentives Group for Sterling about applying for the tax breaks.
Tran did not return a call from The Bee asking about the emails.
Ma did not respond to a question about whether she had discussed the possibility of Sterling applying for a tax exclusion with Fernandez.
Fernandez told The Bee he had NEVER explored applying for a sales tax exclusion through Mas office. He did not respond to a follow-up question about the email and memos from the California Incentives Group.
Sterling does not appear to have formally applied for or received one of the sales tax exclusions, according to a list of companies that have applied.
Five days after Tran emailed Ma about Sterling, one of her staffers emailed her saying he wanted to talk about Grants for Eugene and linked to a webpage on grant programs administered by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Ma forwarded the email to Fernandez with the message: Check these out?
Schnur said the emails dont suggest Ma did anything improper related to Fernandez, as long as she acted similarly when dealing with other business owners.
Theres nothing wrong with elected officials helping business owners. It only becomes a problem if theyre showing preferential treatment, Schnur said. If she didnt do anything for him that she wouldnt have done for others in a similar situation, then she simply needs to make that clear publicly.
Loyola Law School Professor Jessica Levinson said the actions McCoy described and the records obtained by The Bee dont suggest that Ma violated any laws or regulations, but she noted that the situation described was weird.
A lot of what this brings up is larger questions about how shes spending taxpayer dollars and who might have influence in her office, said Levinson, whose work focuses on politics and government ethics.
Blackwell couldnt understand the relationship between Ma and Fernandez and didnt know why he was staying with them, McCoy said.
Expense reports filed by the treasurer show that she rented properties in Sacramento for four four-night business trips in May and June 2020. The expense reports make no mention of Fernandez, but one does specify that the treasurer stayed at a three-bedroom rental property with 4 staff. Another notes that a property was rented for 2 guests, but gives no further details. Expense reports for the other rentals dont specify whether other people stayed with the treasurer.
Ma declined to say who stayed with her at the rentals, saying she could not answer the question because of the pending litigation.
In her lawsuit, Blackwell says that, while she was working in the Treasurers Office as the director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, Ma encouraged her to share rooms and lodging with her in Sacramento instead of making a one-hour commute home after work. While the two were staying together in hotel rooms and at a rental property, Blackwell says Ma exposed herself and crawled into bed with her.
Ma has denied the claims in the lawsuit.
Mas chief of staff Genevieve Jopanda, who frequently shared lodging with Ma, reported renting rental lodging for six additional trips from August through December of 2020. She doesnt specify in her expense reports whether she stayed with other people in those rentals.
A Sacramento Bee review of Mas travel expenses previously revealed that Ma frequently shared lodging with staff. Business experts told The Bee that the practice is risky for a public official like Ma because it opens her office to liability and puts staffers in a position where they may not feel they can say no if they dont want to share lodging with their boss.
Historians, Native American leaders and a descendant of Capt. John Mason will gather at the state Capitol Thursday to debate the future of a statue honoring the colonial-era war hero who lead a massacre of Pequot Indians in 1637.
It is the latest in a national reckoning over how to recognize once-revered historical figures, from Mason to Christopher Columbus to Thomas Jefferson. The Mason statue presides over the exterior of the north side of the Capitol, just a few blocks from the statute of Columbus that the city of Hartford removed last year.
Nearly 350 years after the deputy governor of Connecticuts death, critics saying the statue must be removed because of Masons participation in the genocide that virtually eliminated native people from the New World. Some scholars counter that Masons statue should remain with the addition of statues of Indigenous leaders, such as the Mohegan sachem Uncas and the Pequot Sachem Sassacus.
Is this a man we should celebrate posed Rodney Butler, Chairman, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, in testimony submitted in advance of Thursdays hearing. He urged the committee to move the Mason statue to the Old State House where Masons place in history can also be viewed in the context of the atrocities he committed.
There is no doubt Mason engaged in what we now call genocide. The question for us in the year 2021, is whether a man who burned alive over 500 men, women, and children, systematically hunted and slaughtered any remaining members of the tribe, and attempted to eradicate an entire cultural identity, language, and heritage deserves a place of distinction on the face of Connecticuts state Capitol? I submit to you that he does not.'
Masons victories led to his appointment as a major general with control of the Connecticut militia. He also was given hundreds of acres of land in southeastern Connecticut, including Masons Island, at the mouth of the Mystic River, and much of what is now Norwich. Later in life, he was repeatedly elected deputy governor of the colony, and held the position until his health failed. He died at 72 in Norwich.
It was an ugly, complicated and conflicted past, State Historian Walter Woodward said earlier this year. There are no good guys in this. It was not a case of the terribly bloodthirsty English and the mild-mannered, peaceable Indigenous people. There was enough atrocity on both sides to make your head spin. In our desire to correct for centuries of injustice to Indigenous people, we have adopted an interpretation of much of the past events that downplays one side of the story and builds up another side of the story.
Woodward is scheduled to speak to Thursdays hearing, along with other historians and scholars of Connecticut and Native American history. Also on the agenda is Marcus Mason Maronn, a descendant of Mason, who wrote in the New London Day last year that John Mason was the commander in the Pequot War but he was no more of a genocidal butcher than Uncas or Sassacus. Actually, they were all prominent warriors, who fought for their survival.
President Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations after touring a Clayco Corp. construction site for a Microsoft data center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. The fate of Biden's vaccine mandate for larger private employers may come down to cases now heading for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
Challenges to President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers will be consolidated in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel dominated by judges appointed by Republicans.
The Cincinnati-based court was selected Tuesday in a random drawing using pingpong balls, a process employed when challenges to certain federal agency actions are filed in multiple courts.
The selection could be good news for those challenging the administration's vaccine requirement, which includes officials in 27 Republican-led states, employers and several conservative and business organizations.
They argue the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have the authority to impose the mandate.
The challenges, along with some from unions that said the vaccine mandate didn't go far enough, were made this month in 12 circuit courts. Under an arcane system, it was up to the clerk of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict litigation to select a pingpong ball from a bin to choose where the cases would be heard.
It was a favorable outcome for Republicans. Eleven of the 16 full-time judges in the 6th Circuit, which sits in the Potter Stewart Federal Courthouse in downtown Cincinnati, were appointed by Republican presidents.
Accounting for one of the Republican-appointed judges, Helene White, who often sides with judges appointed by Democrats, and adding senior judges who are semi-retired but still hear cases, the split is 19-9 in favor of Republicans.
Six of the 6th Circuit's full-time judges were appointed by former President Donald Trump. One Trump appointee to the 6th Circuit, Amul Thapar, was one of those in the running when Trump named a replacement for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Judge Raymond Kethledge, a George W. Bush appointee to the 6th Circuit, also was under consideration for the nomination that went to Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The 6th Circuit covers cases from Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.
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Another court where a majority of judges were nominated by Republicans, the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, issued a ruling that put the mandate on hold.
It's not clear whether the court that will hear the case will act as the 5th Circuit did and side quickly with the Republican challengers. But legal experts have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the politicization of both federal and state courts, raising questions about whether justice is fairly administered or dispensed through a partisan lens.
Allison Orr Larsen, a professor at William & Mary Law School, coauthored a study published this year that found growing partisanship in federal judicial decisions. For decades, the study found that rulings on cases in which all judges in a circuit weighed in generally were not decided along party lines based on the presidents who appointed the judges.
We did see a concerning spike starting in 2018 that led us to wring our hands, Larsen said in an interview.
The increasing partisanship in a branch of government that is supposed to be blind to partisan politics was seen in judges appointed by presidents of both parties, but Larsen said it's not clear why that was or whether it will last.
Some of the federal courts moved to the right when Trump was president and Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate, which confirms judicial nominees. Trump appointed 54 judges to the circuit courts, which are one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, including filling one seat twice. That represents nearly 30% of the seats on the circuit courts, where cases are most often considered by three-judge panels.
Trump's appointees flipped the 11th Circuit in the South to Republican control and expanded the GOP-appointed majorities in the 5th, 6th and 8th circuits in the Midwest and South. Biden's three appointees switched the New York-based 2nd Circuit to Democratic control.
Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups mostly filed their challenges in circuit courts dominated by conservative judges, while the unions went to circuits with more judges nominated by Democratic presidents.
In all, 34 objections have been filed in all 11 regional circuits plus the one for the District of Columbia.
Thats where the pingpong balls came in to play.
How the cases ended up in Cincinnati
Under federal law, cases challenging federal agency actions get consolidated upon the agency's request if they are filed in multiple circuit courts. Each circuit where a challenge is filed within the first 10 days of the agency taking action has an equal chance of being selected.
It was up to the judicial panel's clerk, John W. Nichols, to select a pingpong ball from a bin, according to a Tuesday court filing by the panel. The office denied a request by the Associated Press to allow media access to the drawing.
Previously this year, the lottery had been used to assign just two cases. One involved fallout from a National Labor Relations Board ruling on an anti-union Twitter message by Tesla founder Elon Musk where objectors filed in two circuits. The other was over orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in which objectors filed in three.
The employer vaccine mandate is higher profile and further reaching. It calls for businesses with more than 100 workers to require employees to be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or wear masks and be tested weekly for COVID-19. Exemptions are provided for religious reasons and for those who work at home or only outdoors.
Because it's an unusual rule from the workplace safety agency, there is no consensus among lawyers on how the challenges will go. OSHA has issued just 10 emergency rules in the half century since it was formed. Of the six challenged in court, only one survived intact.
The Biden administration has insisted its on strong legal footing. It also has the backing of the American Medical Association, which filed papers in support of the mandate.
The AMAs extensive review of the medical literature demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved by FDA are safe and effective, and the widespread use of those vaccines is the best way to keep COVID-19 from spreading within workplaces, the group said in its filing.
Among those challenging the rule is a consortium of construction contractors. They say they want their workers vaccinated, but that a requirement only on larger companies is just pushing vaccine-hesitant workers to take jobs with companies that have fewer than 100 employees.
Crafting an unworkable rule that will do little to get construction workers vaccinated is an approach that is not only wrong, but likely counterproductive, said Scott Casabona, president of Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance.
Officials with the workplace safety agency say theyre considering extending the mandate to smaller employers.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit extended the stay of the OSHA rule in an opinion released last Friday, expressing skepticism that the agency had authority to implement the vaccine requirement. The 6th Circuit could modify, revoke or extend the stay.
It had not yet been determined which judges from the 6th Circuit will be on a three-judge panel to hear the case, or whether it will be considered by all the judges.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the selection of the court.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati to decide COVID-19 vaccine mandate
Associated Press
A former deep-sea treasure hunter is preparing to mark his sixth year in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of 500 missing coins made from gold found in an historic shipwreck. Research scientist Tommy Thompson has been held in contempt of court since Dec. 15, 2015, for that refusal. Despite an investors lawsuit and a federal court order, Thompson, 69, still won't cooperate with authorities trying to find those coins, according to court records, federal prosecutors and the judge who found Thompson in contempt.
WASHINGTON Less than two weeks into the effort to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11, the White House is seeing encouraging uptake statistics for this youngest cohort, according to internal Biden administration figures shared with Yahoo News, with more than 2.5 million already partially vaccinated.
At least 2.6 million children are on their way to being protected from COVID-19, thanks to the presidents efforts to prepare an entirely new infrastructure to reach parents and their children where they are with vaccines, a White House official told Yahoo News. With our kids' program just hitting full strength 10 days ago, we are already seeing that our effective rollout is helping parents and families across the country breathe giant sighs of relief.
Related: Your questions on coronavirus vaccines for children, answered >>>
If the current pace holds for the rest of the week, and all the children who have received their first dose of the vaccine also receive their second (childhood dosing calls for three-week spacing, as is the case with adults), as many as 3 million young early adapters could be fully vaccinated by Christmas Eve. Individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose, as that period gives the immune system sufficient time to develop antibodies against the coronavirus, according to public health officials.
That could be a monumental gift for family holiday gatherings in late December, though too late to make for an entirely worry-free Thanksgiving. The 2020 holiday season aligned with only the earliest vaccine distribution efforts, meaning that much of the anxiety about traveling and gathering with others remained in place for many Americans.
A 9-year-old receives a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in New York City. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
This year, though, vaccinated Americans should be confident about celebrating with others, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Biden, said earlier this week.
Inoculations of 5- to 11-year-olds began on Nov. 3, shortly after a modified dose of the Pfizer vaccine one-third of what adults receive received final approval from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty-eight million children became eligible for vaccination with that decision. Vaccines for children below the age of 5 have not yet been approved.
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A White House official who shared childhood vaccination figures with Yahoo News explained that the estimate of 2.6 million childhood vaccinations by the end of the day on Wednesday was reached by correlating state-level data, including from pharmacies and state health departments. The CDC has not yet released a public-facing tracking tool for childhood vaccination, as it has for other demographic groups.
Last week, the White House announced that 900,000 first shots had been administered in the first week of childhood vaccinations. Since then, the pace appears to have doubled, suggesting a high level of enthusiasm in many parts of the country. And with months of experience, public health officials appear to have mastered distribution logistics too, with the White House estimating that 30,000 sites around the United States are now vaccinating children.
The internal document shared with Yahoo News pointed out that, whereas it took less than two weeks to vaccinate 10 percent of eligible children, adults needed 50 days to reach the same threshold when vaccines first became available in late 2020.
First lady Jill Biden and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy visit with children getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Houston. (Justin Rex/AP)
The childhood vaccination effort is being closely watched, because after more than a year of remote learning in many parts of the country, the desire to keep schools open is running high. Moreover, simply getting more people vaccinated regardless of age gives the coronavirus less ability to spread. Vaccinated people are much less likely to become infected with or transmit COVID-19 than unvaccinated people.
According to the internal documents, which are expected to be the focus of a White House pandemic response team briefing on Wednesday morning, 12 states have already surpassed the 10 percent benchmark for inoculations of children ages 5 to 11. Those states, the White House says, are Maryland, Virginia, Hawaii, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Illinois.
The childhood vaccination figures are a bright spot for a White House that has seen 60 million eligible adults and adolescents decline to get immunized, despite having been eligible for weeks or months.
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Explore how the Delta variant correlates with the national political landscape in this 3D experience from the Yahoo immersive team.
A group of organizations hoping to improve youth mental health in Colorado released The Children and Youth Mental Health Playbook on Tuesday, which leaders in the health community said gives local, state and federal governments solutions to the ongoing crisis.
The plan calls for $150 million to be allocated from the state's budget to address youth mental health.
The release of the playbook and call for funding comes six months after Childrens Hospital Colorado, one of the agencies on this project, declared Colorado in a state of emergency due to its youth mental health crisis. In October, the same step was taken on the national level as the Children's Hospital Association declared a national emergency for children's mental health.
Government officials at the local, state and federal level have a responsibility in partnership with families, health care providers, advocates in schools to urgently prioritize mental health policies and funding allocations that will support children, youth and families, said Jake Williams, executive director of Healthier Colorado, another participant in the coalition.
Rebecca Doughty, program director of Four Corners Youth Clinics and representative of the Colorado Association for School-Based Health Care, said the pandemic has clearly exacerbated an already existing problem for young Coloradans.
Two years ago, one in five of our students were reporting depression and anxiety. Today, thats grown to four in five students now reporting depression and anxiety, she said.
PSD's school-based health news: Lincoln Middle School is getting a health center. Here's what that means.
The main solution this group is calling for? Better funding.
The Playbook calls on government officials at each level to prioritize the American Rescue Plan Act funding for youth mental health, Williams said. ARPA funding is meant to help all of us recover from the pandemic. We cannot fully or equitably recover without addressing the mental health crisis exacerbated by COVID-19.
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In his proposal for next years budget, Gov. Jared Polis allocated $550 million to address behavioral health issues. In June, $100 million of that was spent on Senate Bill 21-37, which works to expand the states behavioral health offerings.
This coalition is now asking Polis to allocate $150 million of the remaining money one-third of it to childrens behavioral health, noting that children make up about one-third of the states population.
Much of that money, if received, would go to workforce support and building a stronger network of youth mental health providers, said Zach Zaslow, senior director of government affairs for Childrens Hospital Colorado.
In addition to strengthening the pipeline and training new folks, doing loan repayment programs, we also need to multiply the workforce, Zaslow said, with the goal of having kids be able to get service in their area rather than reaching a crisis point and getting care in an emergency setting.
Connor Cahill, a spokesperson for the governor's office, confirmed the state set aside $500 million of ARPA funding "to transform our behavioral healthcare system." He said the state has called upon local governments who got ARPA funding and hospitals to "match our investment" for children and adult mental health.
"We know that COVID-19 has put a tremendous strain on young people and the behavioral health continuum for children requires strategic investments to ensure appropriate care... While that is a tremendous investment we know its not enough to fully solve the problem," Cahill said.
In addition to Children's Hospital Colorado and Healthier Colorado, the Colorado Education Association, Partners for Children's Mental Health, Colorado Association for School-Based Health Care and the Colorado chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics were involved with the playbook.
Related: Colorado is offering children 3 free counseling sessions. Here's how to sign up.
Jenna Glover, a clinical child/adolescent psychologist and director of psychology training at Childrens Hospital Colorado, said the playbook gives state and local leaders the ability to "take responsibility for failures of the current system" and work toward rebuilding a better one.
COVID has taken a lot from our kids, and we truly at this moment have an incredible opportunity to give them something they desperately need, Glover said.
It's a generational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild the system by strengthening the mental health workforce by building on the success of telehealth that we have experienced during the pandemic.
Other solutions the playbook identified, specifically at the local level, were:
Investing in respite care providers and programs to offer short-term support for caregivers with children and youth who have more complicated mental health needs.
Utilizing existing local services to stabilize children and youth in the home setting while additional longer-term needs and services are assessed and identified.
Establishing prevention programs to limit access to potentially lethal items.
Establishing local programs that enable a mental health crisis intervention team to work in partnership with those who respond to emergency calls in the community.
CSU ahead of the game: Colorado State police to launch mental health co-responder program
Molly Bohannon covers education for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Advocates call for $150 million to improve Colorado youth mental health
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group has dissolved several district-level units of Fangchebao (FCB), its online real estate and automobile marketplace, due to shrinking capital and business, Chinese media outlet Cailianshe reported on Wednesday, citing sources close to the embattled developer.
FCB had planned for an initial public offering (IPO) late this year or early next year. Evergrande in March sold 10% of the company to 17 investors for $2.10 billion, at a pre-financing valuation of over 150 billion yuan ($23.48 billion).
Evergrande did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The world's most indebted property developer, with more than $300 billion in liabilities, has been scrambling for funds to pay its many lenders as well as contractors.
It had hoped to spin off businesses including FCB and bottled water to raise fund.
($1 = 6.3880 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Columbus City Council approved the creation of a housing fund this week to ease the resettlement process of about 350 Afghan evacuees who fled their home country earlier this year and are set to start their new lives in the city.
The initiative, called the Afghan Neighbors Rental Assistance Fund, will set aside $50,000 to cover rent costs for Afghan families should they default. The goal is to reassure landlords that they will get their payments even in the event that tenants fall behind on rent, said councilmember Emmanuel Remy, who sponsored the legislation.
Like other refugee groups, all Afghan evacuees are entitled to a one-time federal stipend of $1,225 to cover personal expenses. A portion of that money goes toward paying for their rent before they find a job. Despite the federal assistance, however, landlords are sometimes reluctant to rent to refugees because most new arrivals do not have rental histories, credit scores or incomes when they first come to the United States, Remy said.
Afghan evacuees: Hundreds of displaced Afghans are coming to Columbus. Here's how to help.
This is a great example of public-private partnerships in solving a problem that we saw with the Afghans that are being relocated, Remy said. It appears that Congress did not address their housing problem, so it's fallen on local governments like us to try to come up with creative solutions to make sure that these people have adequate housing.
Columbus two resettlement agencies, Community Refugee and Immigration Services and US Together, will hold on to the money from the city program and reimburse landlords if a tenant cannot pay rent. At the end of the 12-month program, the agencies will give back to the city any unspent money.
Remy said that given past experience, he does not expect many families to default on their rent, and he believes agencies will use only a small percentage of the fund.
Councilmember Emmanuel V. Remy
Immigrants have demonstrated that they work very hard to provide for their families, Remy said. We know once they get here, they'll find a job, so we just need the landlords to understand that the city is backing their residency for 12 months.
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Afghan evacuees: First Afghan families, evacuees start to arrive in Columbus, hundreds more to follow
The city also is working with the Columbus Apartment Association and Columbus Realtors to have landlords waive the Afghans application fees, streamline the approval process and accept background checks that the United States government conducted when the evacuees first entered the country.
The challenges will be the tight housing market that we are experiencing in Columbus and placing large families, said Laura Swanson, executive director at the Columbus Apartment Association. CAA will work with the city and begin contacting our members as soon as we have more program details in place.
Nadia Kasvin, director at US Together, said she hopes the new initiative will help open the door for landlords to work with other refugee groups in the future. In addition to the approximately 350 evacuees from Afghanistan, Columbus two resettlement agencies are preparing to welcome about 1,600 refugees from other countries this fiscal year.
We just want to have the door open to us so we can explain to them all the support that refugees are getting and how the default rate is low because of their early employment and self-sufficiency, Kasvin said.
My hope is that this fund will allow us to develop relationships with more landlords and then we will be able to secure housing for other refugees as well.
Refugees: Columbus' resettlement agencies expect 1,600 refugees in new fiscal year as Biden raises national refugee cap
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for the Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
ycheng@dispatch.com
@ChengYilun
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus' new housing initiative to help Afghan refugees with housing
Protesters marched through the nearby town of Street
The shoe retailer Clarks has agreed to allow mediators to help resolve a strike at its warehouse in Street, Somerset.
The conciliation service Acas confirmed that it is in contact with the company and the union about arranging talks.
Staff at the warehouse have been on strike since 4 October over pay and conditions.
Clarks wants the workers to accept new contracts, which would cut pay for a number of long-serving employees.
The Community union, which represents the strikers, says Clarks is using the controversial "fire and rehire" tactics, where a company dismisses workers and re-employs them on less favourable contracts.
An Acas spokesperson said: "Acas is in touch with both sides involved in the Clarks dispute to work towards having talks as soon as possible."
Conciliation is a dispute resolution process held by an independent, neutral third party. Acas says nine out of 10 workplace disputes can be resolved this way.
This weekend Adrian Axtell, Community's national secretary, called for mediation but told the BBC "it has got to be a serious attempt to try to resolve this matter".
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the trade union confirmed that it had been approached by Acas and agreed immediately to meet with them and Clarks."If reports are correct and the company have agreed to meet with us and Acas we look forwards to entering the process," they said.
"We are hopeful that we can come to a resolution that works in everybody's interests, protects our members livelihoods and recognises their loyalty to the company."
The BBC understands that Clarks is not likely to submit to binding mediation, but the company hopes that Acas's non-binding conciliation process will help resolve the dispute.
Clarks says that 69% of warehouse workers have accepted the new contracts, up from 53% last week, though some of those who have signed are still taking part in the strike.
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Last week Clarks improved its proposal to all affected employees by 5.6% to 10.03 per hour.
This would still represent a pay cut for long-standing workers, who say they stand to lose out by as much as 20%.
Community says that between 120 to 230 workers are taking part in the strike, though Clarks says the true number is lower.
The dispute has become increasingly bitter in recent days. The union accused Clarks of using agency workers to cover the duties of striking workers - Clarks says it has always acted within the law.
Last week Clarks also wrote to Community to complain about alleged harassment and intimidation at the site. The union says it has always acted in accordance with the law, and has addressed concerns about behaviour at the picket.
This weekend workers held a protest march in the town.
Clarks has been restructuring its business to reduce costs after the company was hit with disastrous losses during the pandemic. Sales were down 44%, and the company lost 172m last year.
The Clark family, which has owned the business since its founding nearly 200 years ago, sold a majority stake to the Hong Kong-based private equity group LionRock in March to ensure the company's survival.
Since then Clarks has cut hundreds of jobs and imposed new terms and conditions in other areas, including its head office.
Clarks declined to comment on the talks.
A Colombian nun who was kidnapped and held by jihadists in Mali for more than four years returned to her home country on Tuesday.
"Welcome, welcome, our heart welcomes you," sang a dozen nuns waiting for her at the airport in Bogota, while Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez hugged each one of them.
The 59-year-old nun was taken hostage on February 7, 2017 in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso, where she had been working as a missionary.
"The Lord gave me the joy of having brothers and sisters," said the nun, who was freed on October 9. "I thank you with all my heart."
"Your strength amazes me," said Colonel Gustavo Camargo, deputy director of the anti-kidnapping police who had gone to Mali to press for her release.
Returning to her homeland, which was itself plagued by kidnappings in a conflict that lasted more than half a century, Narvaez spoke out for victims of abduction.
"I was thinking of all the suffering that people go through when they are kidnapped right here in Colombia, in the whole world, there in Mali, how many people are left," said the nun, whose mother died in September 2020 while awaiting the release of her daughter.
Kidnappings are common in Mali, mired in unrest of its own, and especially in the center of the country, a hotbed of jihadist violence.
Since March 2012, several areas have been in the hands of groups linked to Al-Qaeda.
Before returning to Colombia, the nun visited Pope Francis at the Vatican.
lv/vel/ag/jh/caw
The Columbia City Council on Monday for a third time this year voted down a request to replat lots at 1611, 1615 and 1617 University Ave.
The Columbia City Council on Monday night for a third time this year voted down the Fyfer's Subdivision replat and development on University Avenue after extensive public comment and council discussion.
Matt Pitzer was the lone council member in favor of the proposal, which was denied 6-1.
If passed, three lots would have been replatted to allow the development of three apartment buildings each three stories tall which would house 72 students combined in the East Campus neighborhood. The lots would be about the same size as the current lots, attorney Robert Hollis said on behalf of the applicant.
"We must replat in order to obtain building permits," he said in his presentation Monday.
Many residents spoke during public comment in opposition to the revised plans the developer brought before the council, citing concerns about noise and parking.
Ann Mehr, a representative from the East Campus Neighborhood Association Board, spoke on behalf of residents against the proposal.
"We're opposed to the request because the proposed development is detrimental to the adjoining properties and the neighborhood," she said.
Previously: After Columbia City Council denies replat at East Campus, another moves forward at Greek Town
Reasons for opposition include lowering property values, adding to traffic congestion, and the destruction of the William C. Knight House, which is part of the East Campus Neighborhood Historic District, she said.
The neighborhood association board unanimously voted against the development, agreeing the planned changes would be detrimental to the neighborhood.
Ruth Tofle, a homeowner in the area of the proposed development, spoke on her concerns related to the buildings causing potential issues with stormwater as well as the high-density nature of housing planned for the new plats.
Pitzer spoke in favor of the replatting, saying the newly revised plan would create lots very similar to the ones that already exist in the neighborhood.
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"I am a little bit concerned about what we are saying in voting this down," Pitzer said to his colleagues. "I hear and understand the concerns of the neighborhood ... but I think we are going down a dangerous path by not allowing something that is completely consistent with most of the other lots on that same block."
From May 2021: City Council votes unanimously to protect historic East Campus from development
Similar plats in other neighborhoods would likely be passed with no opposition, he said.
Pitzer cited how Hollis said the decision was based only on the plat rather than the actual land use, while most opponents at the meeting spoke just about the land use.
In the original design brought before the council May 17, developers sought to combine the three lots into one for an apartment building housing over 50 people. Developers brought a modified plan to the council Aug. 2. Council members unanimously voted down the design plans in both May and August.
There is no rule that keeps developers from continually returning to the council with design changes to reconsider, said Tim Teddy, community development director.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia votes down Fyfer's Subdivision replat for third time
ARCADIA Just in time for holiday baking, the Pecan Harvest is set for Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Arcadia Farmers Market.
Recently harvested pecans, most from Oklahoma groves, will be sold whole and shelled during the outdoor market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Division Street and historic Route 66.
For customers who prefer that someone else do the cooking for them, vendors also will offer pecan-laden pies, candy and other ready-to-eat treats, said Lori Seagraves, manager of the Arcadia Farmers Market.
Lending atmosphere to the festive day will be a fire pit with smores, a petting zoo, a bounce house and live music by Joe Baxter and the Round Barn Ramblers. Food trucks will offer breakfast, lunch and hot drinks.
In addition to the bounteous pecan harvest, vendors will be on hand with autumn and holiday decorative items, home-canned jelly, pickles and syrup, fall produce, local honey, handmade furniture and doll clothing sewn with love.
Vendors also will offer handmade pottery, handcrafted soap and candles, gluten-free baked goods and gourmet coffee and tea.
The Arcadia Farmers Market General Store, 210 N Odor St., also will be open during those hours with much of the same merchandise, as well as locally raised meat, farm-fresh eggs and Oklahoma-made cheese and yogurt. The general store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
For more information or to reserve booth space for the Pecan Harvest, call Seagraves at 405-226-0346.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Pecan Harvest is coming up at Arcadia Farmers Market
Congress is about to repeal a president's authorization to use military force for the first time in about half a century, kicking off a debate about restoring its role in authorizing future wars.
Why it matters: Democrats are eager to declare they've succeeded in facilitating an official end to America's "endless wars." The 2002 AUMF that justified the Iraq war was cited as recently as the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad.
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Critics say the authorization was never intended for such an operation and letting it linger could trigger misuse by future presidents.
Some Republicans fear repealing it could embolden Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, which have carried out attacks against U.S. troops stationed there.
Biden, who supports repealing it, has acknowledged the U.S. has "no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis."
The repeal of another resolution passed in 2001, which also has been exploited, would be a heavier lift.
Between the lines: The 2002 authorization gave President George W. Bush the domestic authority to invade Iraq and topple the government of Saddam Hussein.
Nearly 20 years later, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is down to 2,500 from a peak of about 170,000, and the Iraqi government is an ally of the United States.
The Senate on a rare bipartisan basis is expected to vote as early as this week to repeal it as a component of approving the National Defense Authorization Act.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) concedes it will be repealed but is expected to speak out against the move, aides told Axios.
Driving the news: Part of the Democratic impetus is to rebound from the heavy criticism Biden and their party took for the administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A repeal of the 2002 AUMF also would lay the groundwork for another effort to replace the 2001 AUMF for the post-9/11 "war on terror."
Critics label it a blank check cited for operations in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Niger, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and the Philippines.
It's also been used to justify the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Lawmakers who support repealing and replacing the 2001 authorization insist they're a long way off from that vote. Instead, they see their plans to deal with the 2002 AUMF as a necessary first step.
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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who's been leading the effort, said he and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are in discussions with the White House about repealing and replacing the 2001 AUMF.
"But the idea was always we would get another [AUMF] repealed first, he said.
What they're saying:
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the foreign relations panel, told Axios: "I think that when Congress authorizes the use of force, when the purpose of its use has ended, then it should repeal it so no one can misuse it.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was evasive, saying, I am a strong believer in Congress exercising its authority of war fighting."
"At the same time, some of the Democratic efforts in this area are really about giving a green light to Iran and the ayatollah, and trying to tie the hands of any military response to a nuclear Iran," Cruz said. "I think thats a mistake."
Menendez cautioned that acting on the 2001 AUMF "is much more difficult." He said, "2001 is not just about repeal; its about replacement."
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a proud libertarian, told Axios: "I think it would be great" to repeal the 2002 AUMF. But he also warned the 2001 AUMF, which he supports repealing, is "a bigger hurdle.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), told Axios he's far more interested in repealing the 2001 AUMF because its been interpreted by a president to do just about anything he wants to."
"And I dont agree with that interpretation. But now four administrations have interpreted 2001 as broad powers," Cardin said.
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Nov. 16WATERFORD A Waterford man was charged Monday with second-degree threatening after state police said he made several threats to Gov. Ned Lamont on Twitter.
Jonathan D. Wright, 41, of 18 Laurel Crest Drive was served with an arrest warrant Monday at his residence.
According to the warrant application, state police began investigating Wright on Oct. 26 for a tweet made on Oct. 23 in response to a tweet by Lamont. The tweet, posted under the profile name Jonathan Wright (@Jonatha661946), stated, "You are scum living on borrowed time. President Trump knows what you did to the elderly Covid patients that were sent to nursing homes. All is known and you will meet your maker courtesy of a noose and a trap door. Treason = Death."
State police said they also uncovered two other tweets made by Wright previous to the post on Oct. 23. In response to Lamont's posts, one tweet on Oct. 20 stated: "Where you are going, it's not going to matter. Crimes against humanity = DEATH PENALTY."
On Oct. 21, Wright tweeted: "You shouldn't be proud of any of us because we are not proud of you whatsoever. And we will NOT be happy until Justice is served and you are IN PRISON or take a one-way NUREMBERG CODE trip to Guantanamo Bay."
In his post, Wright also claimed the tweet was approved by Donald J. Trump.
State police visited Wright's residence on Oct. 28. Wright, who admitted to making the posts, said he did not mean anything threatening when he wrote them. He said he was just angry about what he had heard.
Wright told the investigators he is a veteran who served in the Air Force for eight years, and that he held a top-secret clearance.
His reasoning behind the tweets was based largely on incorrect information.
In a written statement, Wright said he signed into a Twitter account about a month ago. He stated he'd heard that Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York had resigned in regards to his handling of COVID-19 patients.
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While he and his administration were facing criticism for undercounting COVID-19 deaths linked to nursing homes, Cuomo resigned as governor of New York in August after that state's attorney general released results of an investigation that found he had sexually harassed at least 11 women.
Wright also claimed that nursing homes were making money off of COVID-19 deaths and deaths were wrongfully labeled as COVID deaths. He heard erroneously that government leaders had been putting COVID-19 patients into nursing homes to get the elderly sick.
He said he thought if Cuomo was guilty of those actions, then Gov. Lamont could be guilty of them, as well. He said if the governors were guilty, they should not get a "get out of jail free card."
Wright posted a $30,000 bond that had been set by the court. He is scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court on Nov. 29.
j.vazquez@theday.com
COVENTRY Police on Tuesday identified and arrested a student in connection with an overheard threat about having a weapon that led to a four-hour lockdown at Coventry High School on Monday.
No weapon was found in Monday's search of the entire school, everyone in it, and all their belongings.
In a news release, Coventry police said the student does not have access to firearms.
The person was charged with disorderly conduct and the case was referred to Family Court, the news release said.
Coventry High locked down: All 1,500 students searched, but no gun found
dnaylor@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7411
On Twitter: @donita22
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Student arrested in connection with overheard threat at Coventry High School
NORTH DAKOTA- North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer joined Senator John Boozman (R-AR) on a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy questioning the U.S. Postal Services authority to implement a banking pilot program that includes check-cashing services.
In the letter, the senators call the new USPS pilot program a threat to mail delivery and a misguided attempt to federalize financial services.
We are concerned that the pilot program exceeds the Postal Services legal authority and fails to comply with relevant regulations and procedural requirements, the members wrote.
The USPS launched its postal banking pilot program in September without notifying Congress. It comes on the heels of losses of more than $75 billion from 2007-2019. Last month the USPS announced it will further slow service and increase prices in attempt to fix its own notoriously poor financial footing.
Given that these losses occurred during a period of time in which the Postal Service was exclusively focused on mail delivery, it would be imprudent to shift attention and resources toward an area in which the agency lacks expertise," the letter said. "It is essential that the Postal Service address this revenue shortfall by focusing on fixing inefficiencies with its mail delivery system, not pivoting to financial products and offerings with which the agency has no expertise, the members continued.
This article originally appeared on Devils Lake Journal: Cramer denounces postal services misguided banking expansion
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A crew member working on the Western movie "Rust" said in a lawsuit on Wednesday that the script never called for a gun to be fired during a scene that Alec Baldwin was rehearsing when he killed a cinematographer last month.
Script supervisor Mamie Mitchell alleges Baldwin should have checked the gun himself for live ammunition rather than relying on the assistant director's assertion that the Colt .45 revolver was safe to use.
"In our opinion, Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette when he fired a gun without checking it and without having the armorer do so in his presence," Mitchell's attorney Gloria Allred told a news conference.
Mitchell, who said she was in the line of fire, alleges assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm and is seeking unspecified damages in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"I relive the shooting and the sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again," said Mitchell, who made the emergency call to authorities immediately after the Oct. 21 incident.
The lawsuit, the second to be lodged over the incident, names Baldwin, the movie's producers, assistant director Dave Halls and Hannah Gutierrez, the armorer who was in charge of the weapons used in the movie.
Representatives for Baldwin, the producers, and Halls did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Gutierrez said he had yet to see the lawsuit.
Baldwin has said he is heartbroken and is cooperating with the law enforcement investigation. Production company Rust Movie Productions is conducting its own probe.
Authorities in New Mexico have said they are investigating how a live bullet ended up in a gun Baldwin was using as he rehearsed a scene inside a church on Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. No criminal charges have been filed.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin had been told was safe fired off a live bullet, investigators have said.
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Other live rounds have also been found on the set.
The lawsuit said the "Rust" script called for three tight camera shots for the scene - one of Baldwin's eyes, another of a bloodstain, and a third on Baldwin's torso "as he reached his hand down to the holster and removed the gun."
Baldwin "intentionally, without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired the loaded gun even though the upcoming scene did not call for the cocking and firing of a firearm," the lawsuit asserts.
Allred said she believed Baldwin's behavior on the set was "reckless" and alleged that other safety protocols had been flouted or ignored.
Last week, chief electrician Serge Svetnoy filed a negligence lawsuit https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rust-crew-member-files-negligence-lawsuit-over-fatal-shooting-2021-11-10 against the producers.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Richwine;Editing by Mark Heinrich and Howard Goller)
1.
"I had an interview at a job that didn't have an address. They proceeded to give me very complicated instructions, like, 'Turn left when you see the green building.' I got lost multiple times getting there and ended up being over an hour late. During the interview, I asked how they got mail delivered, and they said they didn't receive mail. When I walked out of the building after the obviously failed interview, I looked around and found their building number on the side of the building behind some bushes. I still wonder to this day if I failed some strange interview test."
hammerb123
2.
"In 1990, I had an interview with a natural cosmetics store. I was well groomed and clean but never got the interview. The manager refused and threw me out of the shop for having acne. She said, 'We don't have people with spots working here. Staff here look clean!'"
jborrett793
3.
"When I interviewed for residency positions, I did one-month-long rotations at my top-choice hospitals to see if Id be a good fit. The last week of one of my rotations, I was supposed to meet with the two program directors. I met with one in the morning, and he asked some personal questions, like if I was planning on getting married or having kids. He probably wasn't supposed to ask these things, but I answered honestly and said no to both. I felt like it was going well I was being myself, cracked a few jokes. Well, later that day I went to knock on the other program director's office door for our meeting, and I heard her and the other director talking. He was talking about my interview, mocking my answers and calling me a freak. I still interviewed with her and made it through the rest of the week, but I really wish Id been brave enough to say something."
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marmalady
4.
"I had two companies interview me in the same week. As I was pulling up to an interview at the second company (which I was less excited about), I got a call from the other place saying I'd gotten the job. YAY! I figured I would follow through and tell the interviewer that I had accepted another position, thank you, etc. I wasn't even fully seated before she berated me for what I was wearing (black pants, white blouse, black cardigan). Then said she only did this interview out of courtesy for my friend who referred me, and that I wouldn't be getting the job. I smugly told her that it was OK, I got hired elsewhere. Why this shocked her, no idea. What a bitch."
witchyribbon84
5.
"I had an interview at a youth crisis shelter. I was super interested, and the first interview went well. They scheduled me for a second one where I'd be 'shadowing' a worker in one of the emergency placement shelters. I showed up, and the woman from my first interview walked me in and said she'd be back soon. I sat down and got to know the kids there a bit, played some card games, asked the staff on duty some questions about the job. Several hours had gone by, and she never came back. I kept asking if someone could contact the front office for me and get ahold of the interviewer, but they kept brushing me off.
"I was there so long, a shift change happened. Because they didnt give me any sort of visitor pass, the next set of staff thought I was a teen living there! It was a high-security shelter, and nobody believed that I wasnt a resident. I was there for six hours in total. When I finally got someone to call the office, the original woman thought I had been let out and left after an hour. She called me for a third interview, but I just let the phone ring."
toriwarrior
6.
"Owner to me: 'Youre not a feminist, are you? Because (ha ha) none of us are!'"
tuffyrama
7.
"I interviewed for a hostess position at a top restaurant in Manhattan. The chef was very well known and had several restaurants across the world. He was conducting the interview himself, which I found unusual but went along with it. The first thing he did was tell me to 'let down my hair' from its bun because 'presentation is everything' and I'd be the face of the restaurant. Then he asked me to show him my boobs. WTF? When I just stared at him wondering if I'd really heard him correctly, he doubled down by repeating that 'presentation is everything' and he wants all his girls to be beautiful and hot."
lunallee212
8.
"I was interviewing for a new job, and they asked why I'd left my old one. I explained that the place I'd been working at closed because of legal issues I had no part in. They demanded to know why, and while I didn't have the specifics I tried to explain the best I could. These motherfuckers pulled out a newspaper op-ed article that went into detail about the closing, then said, 'How do you explain this?' I mean, how could I explain someone else's opinion? This obviously wasn't going to work, and I said it was best for me to leave. For some reason, they tried having me come back in for a second interview."
mirandroidj
9.
"When I was in the teaching credential program at my college, we had to go on 'mock' interviews at a real school district where we could potentially be offered a job if the staff liked us enough. Understandably, I was very nervous I stuttered several times and didnt do my best overall. But instead of the teachers/principals that interviewed me being understanding or sympathetic because I was in training, they laughed in my face. It was horrible, and I left feeling completely dejected and decided that teaching was not for me after all."
Cats4EverBoysWhatever
10.
"I had an interview during which the job's hours were revealed to me, and they were all over the place: 102 on Monday, 14 on Tuesday, 49 on Wednesday, etc. I told the interviewer that the job wasn't for me, and she started CRYING! She told me tearfully that she and her team were so impressed with my CV and that they'd been trying to fill the job for months. I awkwardly thanked her for her time as she tearfully led me out of the building."
aaronh18
11.
"When I was maybe 20, I applied for a bartending job. The job interview went pretty well, until the owner of the bar asked if I had a boyfriend. I was so confused as to why this would be an issue. As a gay woman, I tend to feel unsafe in situations regarding my sexuality (especially in a basement of a bar), so I said yes. The owner then asked me more invasive questions, like when was the last time I had sex, what kind of sex did I like, and how old was I when I lost my virginity. I tried to leave, but the owner stood between me and the only exit. He didn't let me leave until I told him I'd call the police. After this, I have always recorded my job interviews. I have thankfully never had an issue like this again, and every interview since, I've always interviewed in an open area."
lunaed
12.
"I had an interview where the dude was literally like, 'We said $30 on the posting because that's what we used to pay, but we've realized that with the economy as it is, we can get great applicants anyway, so we're only paying $15. If you don't take it, someone else will, but you can work up to the normal wage in five years or so if the economy improves.'"
tanya
13.
"A few years ago, I was interviewing with a hospital for an admin position. We decided over email that the interview time was 1 p.m. The day of the interview, the same person called me at 10 a.m. pissed that I wasn't there. When I referenced our email, she got all annoyed and asked if I could come in right now. I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet that day! I said I couldn't, and we still met at 1 p.m., but she was clearly annoyed at me for her mistake. IDK why I went to the interview after that first phone call, tbh. That should've been red flag number one."
caaklemm
14.
"At an interview years ago, I was asked if I was taking any medications, and if so, they wanted to know what I'd been prescribed. Holy cow, not cool!"
shauna_malwae-tweep
15.
"I applied for a job as a cookie decorator at a popular cookie and cake bakery in my hometown. I sent in my resume and a portfolio of all my art, and the woman was so impressed, she called me in for an interview right away.
"Now, I'm mixed Im Afro-Cuban and Italian. I have ear gauges, tattoos, and dreadlocks. I understand that not everyone is OK with hiring people who look like me, but this was something different. I showed up to the interview, she looked me up and down, and she then pointed out all of the things about me that she would never accept in an employee.
"She said my hair made me look like a 'feral child' who had never seen a brush or a shower. She said that the fact that I thought my tattoos were OK proved that I wasn't fit for this or any job. She criticized my makeup and said my ear gauges were 'the most repulsive thing' she'd ever seen and that she didn't want her customers 'vomiting on the food' because of how disgusting my appearance was.
"I was only 16 years old, and the whole experience really fucked up my self-esteem and confidence for a while. Eventually I just left."
Mmmermzeep
The death toll from a weekend attack by suspected jihadists on a gendarmerie in northern Burkina Faso has risen to 53, the government said Wednesday.
The attack was one of the deadliest to hit the West African country's defence and security forces since jihadist violence erupted six years ago.
Gunmen travelling on pick-up trucks and motorcycles attacked the Inata gendarmerie near the Malian border before dawn on Sunday, leading to drawn-out clashes, a security source on the same day said.
On Monday the death toll was reported as 32.
But government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura said Wednesday that a total of 53 people were killed, 49 gendarmes and four civilians.
"Fortunately, we have found 46 gendarmes" alive, he said after a cabinet meeting.
However local sources said that around 150 gendarmes were stationed at the facility in Inata, meaning the toll could yet rise further.
Hundreds of people protested in several cities across the country on Tuesday to demand resignations over the "inability to stop the terrorist attacks".
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore on Wednesday criticised "substantial dysfunction" within the army, including in food provision.
"It's inacceptable, and that's why I really do understand the... angry reactions," he said as he left the cabinet meeting.
Tamboura said earlier that the head of the armed forces in the north of the country had been removed from his post following Sunday's attack.
The country has been declared in mourning from Tuesday until Thursday.
Burkina Faso has been hit by jihadist attacks since 2015, mostly in the northern and eastern regions close to Mali and Niger -- countries facing their own struggles against jihadists.
Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, often coupled with ambushes and attributed to movements affiliated to the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, have killed more than 2,000 people and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.
ab/pid/ah/pvh
A donkey. Illustrated | iStock
The generic congressional ballot a national poll question on which party should control Congress has been moving toward the Republicans. While there is some variation among pollsters, the RealClearPolitics polling average has the GOP ahead by over 3 points, and FiveThirtyEight has the parties effectively tied.
These numbers are probably better than what Republicans need to erase the Democrats' razor-thin congressional majorities in the midterm elections. And this lead is coming earlier in President Biden's term than a comparable ruling party slump in former President Obama's administration and without the same kind of organized opposition supplied by the Tea Party. (Granted, the angry parents at local school board meetings who helped turn the Virginia governor's race evoke memories of protesters at congressional town hall meetings discussing ObamaCare.)
Maybe that's a good thing for Republicans. The public has gradually lost confidence in Biden's ability to restore normalcy and even in his basic competence. To register their disapproval of Biden and the Democrats, voters have little choice but to vote for Republicans even if they still don't like them very much.
It's also an ironic thing for Biden. He won in large part because he succeeded well enough in defining the election as a referendum on the incumbent president rather than a left-right binary choice. His party may lose power in the midterms and he himself may be defeated in 2024 because voters still see the election as more of a referendum on the incumbent.
Republicans are no longer defined by one leader, despite Virginia Democrats' best efforts to keep former President Donald Trump at the forefront (not to mention Trump's own efforts to the same end). Now Democrats are under scrutiny, and voters have turned against them.
Democrats know they need to change that to win the midterms, let alone the next presidential race. They had some success with this strategy in the California recall election, where conservative commentator Larry Elder was easier to tie to Trump than Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) in Virginia. But that is an especially blue state. Trying the same tactic with parents who take issue with their children's public school curricula, as some Democratic operatives reportedly propose doing to opponents of critical race theory, is much riskier in terms of the potential backlash, albeit not a complete longshot.
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Unless Democrats can succeed at making the midterms a binary choice, Republicans are poised to mirror Biden's 2020 win. It's their turn to benefit from joining forces with voters outraged by the political system in general. Rinse and repeat.
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GettyThe parents of one of the survivors of the deadly Oxford High School shooting last week have accused the school principal of brushing off warnings of potential violence days before the bloody rampage.In twin $100 million federal lawsuits filed Thursday, Jeffrey and Brandi Franz, the parents of two students caught in the middle of the massacre, place the blame for the bloodshed squarely on school officials. Their daughter Riley was struck in the neck during the Nov. 30 shooting, and her sist
In the video Bui Tuan Lam, a 38 year-old beef noodle seller from the central city of Danang, flamboyantly sprinkles green onions into a bowl of noodle soup and ceremoniously slices meat in the signature style of chef Nusret Gokce, also known as "Salt Bae," who went viral on the internet in 2017.
Last week, Gokce uploaded a video of himself feeding Vietnam's Minister of Public Security, To Lam, the gold leaf steak at his London restaurant, where a steak sells for up to $1,960.
Many in Vietnam questioned how such a high-ranking Communist Party official allowed himself to be filmed indulging in such expensive food amid crackdown on corruption.
Lam, who described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as "Green Onion Bae" said his video was not made to mock any particular individual.
"The video I made was for fun and for advertising my beef noodle shop. More customers have been coming since I posted it," said Lam, who added it was not clear if the police summons was because of his video.
He has previously criticised authorities on Facebook - he said police had previously summoned him for a meeting in April, without saying why.
Danang police did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
SpaceX's Starlink could provide internet to remote areas in Brazil and help monitor deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Britta Pedersen/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk met a Brazilian minister to discuss a partnership between the government and SpaceX.
SpaceX's Starlink could provide internet to people, schools, and health centers in rural areas.
Starlink could also monitor illegal deforestation, which Brazil wants to stop by 2028.
Elon Musk met Brazil's communications minister in Texas Monday to discuss bringing SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet to the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government said.
The government said in a translated press release Tuesday that Starlink technology could provide internet to indigenous communities, remote schools and health centers.
Starlink could also help monitor illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, according to the release. Satellites have previously been used by conservation organizations to track environmental changes, such as forest fires.
Brazil announced at the recent COP26 climate summit in Glasgow that it was bringing forward to 2028 a previous commitment to end illegal deforestation by 2030, Reuters reported.
Fabio Faria, Brazil's minister of communications, posted a video on his Twitter account on Tuesday of himself and Musk talking about a new partnership.
"We're looking forward to providing connectivity to the least-served people of Brazil," Musk said in the video. "With better connectivity we can help ensure the preservation of the Amazon."
Faria said in the press release that SpaceX and the government are working towards closing "this important partnership."
"Our objective is to bring the internet to rural areas and remote places, as well as to help control fires and illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest," Faria said in the press release.
Faria also met with SpaceX's COO Gwynne Shotwell in California, according to the press release.
Starlink currently serves around 140,000 users in 20 countries, and has 1,800 satellites in orbit, according to a presentation filed by the company to the Federal Communications Commission dated November 10.
The company recently set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India with plans to roll out 200,000 user terminals in the country, signalling its expansion into Asia.
Read the original article on Business Insider
(Reuters) - The Estonian government summoned 1,700 reserve soldiers on Wednesday for an unannounced exercise which will include installing a razor wire barrier along 40 km of its border with Russia, as the migration crisis in nearby Belarus intensifies.
The EU has accused Belarus of flying in thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa and pushing them to cross into EU and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for sanctions already imposed on Minsk. Belarus has denied deliberately fomenting the crisis.
The EU neighbours of Belarus, which is a close Russian ally, have warned that the crisis could lead to a military clash, and have declared states of emergency and deployed military forces near their borders.
Estonia has a similar geopolitical history to Lithuania and Latvia, although it has no border with Belarus.
The snap exercise is scheduled to last until Nov. 25 and was called to test rapid response of the national chain of command, the Estonian government said.
The reserve solders will help install 40 km of razor wire in places along Russian border, where risks of illegal crossings are highest, Estonian police and border guard said in a statement.
"What is happening in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia also requires the strengthening of the border infrastructure in Estonia," said chief of Police and Border Guard Elmar Vaher.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Toby Chopra and Peter Graff)
(Reuters) - The European Union urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday to disengage their troops and respect the ceasefire agreed the previous day, after reports that seven Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in border clashes.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, discussed the situation in phone calls with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, and called for urgent de-escalation, according to an EU statement.
The bloc also reiterated its offer to work with both countries to overcome long-running tensions between them.
On Tuesday, they agreed to a ceasefire at their border after Russia urged them to step back from confrontation following the deadliest clash since a war last year over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave that killed at least 6,500 people.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by John Chalmers)
The European Union should be prepared for more migrant crises like the ones on the Greece-Turkey and Poland-Belarus borders, the head of the EU's border agency told AFP in an interview.
Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri also said the agency was working with Polish authorities to organise repatriations of up to 1,700 migrants to Iraq by charter flights in the coming weeks.
"This is not the first time that the EU has been faced with attempts at -- call it blackmail, call it geopolitical blackmail, call it a hybrid threat," Leggeri said.
He compared the current situation to the days of clashes seen in February 2020 when Greece tried to block tens of thousands of migrants who were deliberately let through by Turkey.
"It should open the eyes of people who have not understood that migration flows can be manipulated for political ends against the European Union to obtain something," he said.
"We have to prepare ourselves for situations like this which can arise quite quickly," he said, speaking at Frontex's headquarters in a Warsaw skyscraper.
- Charter flights planned -
Created in 2004, Frontex has become the first EU agency to build up a standing, uniformed force. It aims to have 10,000 border guards by 2027, up from the current 2,200 officers.
While it is not directly involved on the Poland-Belarus border, it has around 100 border guards and 40 vehicles stationed on the Lithuania-Belarus border.
Leggeri said Frontex was also working with Polish authorities and the EU to obtain necessary permission from Iraq to set up a series of charter flight for repatriations.
"We will have potentially 1,500 or 1,700 people to repatriate in the coming weeks," he said.
A few thousand migrants are believed to be currently at the border between Poland and Belarus, including a group of around 1,800 near the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing.
The EU accuses Belarus of deliberately bringing the migrants to the border as a way of putting pressure on the EU.
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Belarus denies this and says Poland should let them in.
Leggeri said there were 25,000 Polish soldiers and border guards deployed in the area, as well as thousands more police.
Poland has also said it will begin building a permanent barrier on the border next month -- a plan that Leggeri said would help the work of border guards because it would reduce the number of irregular crossings and therefore of controversial returns.
"At least when there is a barrier we are not accused of pushbacks because we know where the border is and people physically cannot create a situation that is legally ambiguous for us," he said.
"A very annoying part of the job for border guards is when there are legal ambiguities," Leggeri said.
Poland has been heavily criticised by non-governmental organisations for its policy of pushbacks, which have left many migrants stranded between the two countries often for weeks on end in dire conditions and freezing temperatures.
Frontex has itself been accused by non-governmental organisations of failing to intervene in illegal pushbacks of migrants on the Greece-Turkey maritime border.
dt//pvh
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union unveiled new rules for companies selling six major commodities in a bid to curb global deforestation.
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The European Commission, the 27-nation blocs executive arm, wants the regulation to cover soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee, as well as some derived products such as chocolate, leather and furniture. The plan will require backing from member states and the European Parliament to enter into force.
Its about our responsibility as one of the largest economies, which unfortunately drives deforestation and forest degradation in other regions, EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said in an interview. With this proposal were sending a very clear message that were leading the way in addressing this issue.
The bloc also unveiled measures to make it easier to ship waste between member states in a bid to boost recycling, while curbing exports to non-EU countries. About 15% to 30% of waste shipments may currently be illegal, equivalent to around 9.5 billion euros ($10.7 billion) each year. Separately, the commission wants to address soil health within the region and will propose legislation by 2023.
The EU seeks to be the worlds leader in the fight against climate change. The deforestation proposal will help preserve biodiversity and cut annual carbon emissions by at least 31.9 million tons, according to commission estimates. That would translate into economic savings of at least 3.2 billion euros a year.
Under the proposed law, operators would have to collect the geographic coordinates of where the commodities originated and competent authorities in member states will ensure that only deforestation-free products enter the EU market. The rules will prohibit the placement of commodities and products produced on land deforested or degraded after Dec. 31, 2020, or in breach of the country of productions laws.
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The rules will be the same for all companies, both from the EU and third countries, who want to sell their products to Europe, according to Sinkevicius.
We received a lot of support from companies, he said. Some are already doing that and theyre happy that were finally going to apply the regulation to all and that theres not going to be any greenwashing or fooling the consumer.
There will be a benchmarking system run by the commission to classify countries according to their level of risk for deforestation and that information will be used to determine the obligations on companies and member states. For example, due diligence will be simplified for goods from lower-risk areas, while more stringent demands will be placed on products coming from higher-risk ones.
Companies and member states will have about a year from the adoption of the rules to fully prepare, according to Sinkevicius. The commission plans to routinely update the regulations, potentially adding new products as scientific data becomes available and deforestation patterns change.
This is already a very ambitious, ground-breaking proposal, which hasnt been proposed anywhere in the world, Sinkevicius said.
(Updates with proposal on waste in fourth paragraph.)
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Aerial view of the Bryan County megasite.
The nature of the economic development game is a deal isn't really done until the new facility is built, open and producing goods.
Even then you can't take anything for granted. My mother, who worked in the Honda sedan manufacturing plant in Ohio for years, often spoke of how all the assembly line equipment, including the fixed machinery, was on wheels. She wasn't joking.
So it came as little surprise this week to learn that the early favorite to become the tenant on the Bryan County megasite, electric vehicle maker Rivian, is close to committing to another site. According to reports from our colleagues at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rivian is in discussions with Georgia's economic development leaders about locating a new plant along Interstate 20 east of Atlanta.
That joint popping sound you hear is Savannahians shrugging their shoulders.
The reality is we've heard little about the Bryan County site since the state closed on the properties in August. At the time, Savannah's lead economic development official, Trip Tollison, predicted the site wouldn't be tenant-less for long.
But again, time is relative in economic development.
The site is raw. It was attractive because of its location - behind the I-16 weigh station near the Black Creek exit - not because of its infrastructure. We've seen activity on adjacent properties and at the existing Interstate Centre across I-16 in the time since, but the megasite remains mega-quiet otherwise.
Meanwhile, the local economic development authority is seeing successes elsewhere, such as on the "old megasite" - the one in Pooler home to Mitsubishi and soon to Amazon and newly announced paper recycler Celadon. Recruitment continues for the Savannah Advanced Manufacturing Center and the Rockingham Farms e-commerce/warehouse park as well.
As for Rivian, Savannahians are relegated to the spectator's role. The automaker is in "late-stage" negotiations with state officials on the I-20 site, the exact location of which has not yet been disclosed.
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We'll wait for that intel as well as the details. Then the facility buildout, the hiring of the workforce and those first trucks and SUVs to roll off the assembly line. Only then will the deal be done.
Scroll down for the week's best opinion columns. Also check out
On the Commute podcast, Coastal Health District Director Dr. Lawton Davis unpacks the latest on COVID-19 ahead of the Thanksgiving ho.
The Difference Makers podcast is on sabbatical but will return in the months ahead.
Subscribe for free to listen: Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Written by Opinion Editor Adam Van Brimmer. Read more posts like this in the Savannah Town Square Facebook group.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: EV automaker may be headed for Georgia, just not Bryan County ...
By Andreas Rinke
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, marked her 50th birthday by listening to a lecture by a neuroscientist - and her 60th with a talk by a historian.
As the famously cerebral politician ages, her interests are shifting away from the natural sciences on which she spent the first part of her career, Merkel told Reuters in an interview. Now 67, she said she planned to devote her retirement to the big questions of social and historical development.
"Thats the direction that my thoughts are increasingly going in," she said. "How can we understand the course of history, how can we compare it at the global level? How has China developed over 2,000 years? What about Europe?"
Merkel has previously hinted that she might return to academia, but otherwise given few clues about how she will occupy herself on leaving the chancellery after 16 years.
On Tuesday it was announced that she would maintain a staff of nine at public expense after the chancellorship, two more than her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder took into retirement. That suggests she plans to remain active.
She will not, however, return to the quantum chemistry that she researched in East Germany in the 1980s. Too much time has passed and she is no longer up to date - though she said she was very excited about the way her field had developed.
"I can see myself regularly speaking out about the connection between our prosperity, research and innovation but Im sure I wont be doing any scientific work," she said.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
With its latest $400 million funding round, announced Tuesday, online wholesale marketplace Faire is now worth $12.4 billion a whopping increase of nearly $5.5 billion in just five months.
Durable Capital Partners, D1 Capital Partners and Dragoneer Investment Group led the Series G. With its third round in just over a year, total funding-to-date climbed above $1 billion, according to the company. Roughly this time last year, its $170 million round put its valuation at $2.5 billion. In June, which brought $260 million, Faire was worth $7 billion.
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The company launched operations in the U.S. in 2017, then announced its expansion to 15 more markets across Europe and the U.K. this summer, essentially connecting small businesses to Europe.
The latter move notably outperformed the initial domestic business: according to the company, it only took six months for its annualized sales volume in Europe to blow past $150 million, a benchmark that took almost three years to achieve in North America. In the region, Faires brand base jumped more than 10 times, it said, with total products for sale increasing 800 percent and allowing access to more than 400,000 unique items. It facilitated more than 160,000 orders between North America and Europe, with over 2 million connections between platform businesses.
In all, the business now connects more than 300,000 retailers with 40,000 brands globally, tripling the size of its marketplace in just one year. And it took less than five years to break annual volume of $1 billion.
The wild success of its overseas expansion stood out to investors. With their continued investment in the U.K., Europe, and beyond, we believe that Faire will transform the global wholesale market, Anouk Dey, partner of Durable Capital Partners LP, was quoted as saying in Faires announcement.
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Essentially, the company offers smaller stores a way to connect with global brands, carving a path typically defined by the massive purchasing power of retail giants like Walmart and Amazon.
Faires meteoric rise might have happened anyway, at least eventually, but the appeal of cross-border distribution, online tools and data intelligence is hard to overestimate, especially with the pandemics heightened pressures on retail. Add services like shipping, payments, shopping features and marketing, and the business may seem like a godsend for mom-and-pop operations.
With our global reach, Faire is providing an even greater opportunity for the independent retail community to compete against big-box giants, explained Max Rhodes, Faire cofounder and chief executive officer. By removing the traditional growth hurdles our customers face, we have enabled more opportunities, more connections, and more possibilities for the entrepreneurs who use the platform.
Our ability to deliver local and cross-border demand to brands, and in turn offer retailers access to a more expansive, data-driven selection is how Faire will define the future of retail.
The news comes as the peak holiday season approaches, buoyed by what looks like a growing appetite for consumerism: on Tuesday, the U.S. Commerce Department announced an uptick of 1.7 percent in retail sales last month.
Alicia Greene and her daughter, Khloe Harris, 9, place signs and teddy bears at a small, makeshift memorial near a crash site in 2018 in Rochester. Three kids from the same family were hit and killed by a pickup as they crossed Indiana 25 to board a school bus. A fourth child was hit and critically injured in the crash.
ROCHESTER Recently obtained records reveal that a school corporation in Fulton County paid nearly $3.5 million in a settlement to the families of the victims in a 2018 crash that killed three children and seriously injured another.
The settlement, from the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp., was signed in June 2019, less than seven months after Alyssa Shepherd hit and killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and the girls 6-year-old twin half brothers, Xzavier and Mason Ingle, at a Fulton County bus stop.
The crash also severely injured 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, who is unrelated to the three siblings.
According to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Tribune, the Tippecanoe Valley district paid $2.575 million to the parents of the three children who died in the crash, with approximately $1.24 million going to an estate created in the childrens names, $206,250 to the father of Alivia Stahl and a little over $1.13 million to the mother of the children, Brittany Ingle, and her husband Shane Ingle.
In addition, the district paid $900,000 to the family of Maverik Lowe.
Representatives from the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. provided a copy of the settlement after the Tribune submitted a records request, but did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment on the agreement.
More:Families of kids killed in Rochester bus crash seek restitution, oppose driver's release
Shane Ingle declined to comment Tuesday, citing a confidentiality clause in the settlement. Attorneys who represented the Ingles and Lowes in the proceedings did not return phone calls from the Tribune.
The settlement was agreed to around nine months before an investigation into the crash by the National Safety Transportation Board concluded the school districts inadequate safety assessment of school bus routes was a contributing cause in the crash.
Emergency personnel responded to a scene of a collision that killed three children crossing Ind. 25 as they were boarding their school bus north of Rochester, Indiana on Oct. 30, 2018.
The report published by the NTSB a federal agency that investigates major transportation crashes listed Shepherds failure to stop for the school bus on the early morning of Oct. 30, 2018 as the primary cause of the crash, even though the bus had clearly visible warning lights and a stop arm, in addition to a roadway sign indicating an upcoming bus stop.
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However, the report also found the corporation had inadequate safety procedures for bus stops. The bus stop where the crash occurred on Indiana 25 in Fulton County required children to walk across a 55-mph speed limit road to board the bus.
The school district also failed to establish a clear policy for bus drivers to determine when it was safe to signal students to cross a road, the report said.
As a result of its investigation, the NTSB recommended that the school district keep track of parent, student and bus driver complaints about the safety of routes and to train drivers and students on safe crossings.
Dangerous bus route: Unsafe school bus route was a factor in Rochester crash that killed 3 kids, report says
In the days after the crash, the school district moved the stop on Indiana 25 into a nearby mobile home park and established a transportation safety review committee. The settlement stipulates the district does not admit liability regarding the crash.
New school bus safety laws were also adopted in 2019 as a result of the Rochester crash.
The report also found that Shepherd was driving a pickup truck 41 mph when she struck the children. Shepherd has said she didnt see the bus or the children until it was too late.
Shepherd was sentenced in December 2019 to four years in prison, with three years of house arrest followed by three years on probation.
Due to Indianas jail time credits and Shepherd completing a bible study course while in prison, she could be released as early as Dec. 20 of this year.
Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs and family members of the victims have opposed Shepherds early release into a community transition program. Judge Greg Heller could rule on Shepherds release by the end of the month.
Lowes family is also waiting to hear what Hellers ruling on restitution will be. The family is hoping to receive $36,556 in restitution payments from Shepherd to pay for lost wages, lodging expenses and a handicap-accessible car, though Shepherd's attorney contends state law does not allow restitution to be paid for the items Lowe's family is requesting.
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Bus crash that killed 3 kids ends in settlement with school district
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Susan Walsh-Pool/Getty Images
US daily COVID-19 cases need to fall below 10,000 to get "a degree of normality," Dr. Fauci said.
The US recorded more than 80,000 cases per day over the past week, Johns Hopkins data shows.
Fauci said high case numbers were "predictable" when 60 million Americans remained unvaccinated.
For the US to get back to "a degree of normality" the number of new daily COVID-19 infections must drop by at least 70,000, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, has warned.
Fauci told CNBC on Tuesday that if new daily cases fall "well below 10,000, I think that would be a level that I think would be acceptable to us to get back to a degree of normality."
The US recorded about 85,000 cases per day on average in the week to Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The number of new US daily infections hasn't dipped below 10,000 since March 2020, according to Oxford University's Our World in Data.
Fauci said that case numbers leveling above 80,000 showed the country had "really bad control" over the pandemic, per CNBC. The US could be "in for some trouble" heading into winter if people didn't take precautions, he said.
Fauci told CNBC that cases might need to fall as low as 3,300 before the US gets control of the virus. He cautioned that his figures were estimates, not "definitive statements."
In a separate interview on Monday, Fauci told "The News with Shepard Smith" that getting to 80,000 cases per day was "predictable" when about 60 million Americans eligible for a COVID-19 shot remained unvaccinated. "And those eligible to be boosted, go get boosted," Fauci added, citing data from Israel that suggested boosters reduce the risk of severe COVID-19.
Fauci urged people to get vaccinated, have a booster when eligible, and wear a mask indoors when they don't know if others are vaccinated. But there's no reason not to avoid "a typical" Christmas or Thanksgiving with close friends if you're all vaccinated, he said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Public Domain
To hack an FBI email system, it takes a lot of motivation, even more technical skill, and, perhaps, a dash of humor.
Over the weekend, someoneor a team of someonescompromised an FBI email system and sent out a flurry of bogus messages to state and local law enforcement about a supposed cyberattack. But instead of trying to wreak havoc, the purpose of the hack seems to have been to troll one particular information security executive: Vinny Troia, the founder and head of security research at Shadowbyte.
At least, thats Troias version.
The tale turns out to involve a number of mysterious characters, including Troia, a hacking collective thats been going after the likes of Netflix and Montana schools, and someone that goes by the online alias of Pompompurin.
Why MAGA Social Media Is a Hackers Wet Dream
As of Wednesday, the FBI hadnt confirmed Troias suspicions about why he was named in the email, and it didnt respond to a request for comment for this story. What isnt disputed, however, is that someone accessed an FBI email system and sent a message pinning a cyberattack that didnt happen on Troia.
We identified the threat actor to be Vinny Troia, whom [sic] is believed to be affiliated with the extortion gang TheDarkOverlord. We highly recommend you to check your systems, the hacker wrote in the duped messages. Stay safe.
TheDarkOverlord, an extortion-focused hacking collective, has run hacking schemes that have garnered headlines around the nation in recent yearsthe collective is behind the attack against Netflix in 2017, when it leaked Orange Is the New Black episodes before airing. Its the same collective that has been hitting health care organizations for years, and a group by the name TheDarkOverlord Solutions, suspected to be the same collective, which ran an extortion scheme against schools in Montana, while issuing a healthy dose of death threats and ominous references to school shootings.
Troia, whose company recently rebranded to Shadowbyte from Night Lion Security, published a report in July 2020 detailing what he claims are the identities of the members and puppeteers of TheDarkOverlord hacking collective. And he told The Daily Beast that he believes the hacker behind the fake FBI email is somehow linked with TheDarkOverlord. His theory is they named him in the message as revenge for exposing members of their collective.
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For now, Troias story remains unconfirmed. He published a blog post about his suspicions Tuesday that does not confirm with certainty who was behind the attack.
But Troia has been known to fudge the reality of events in previous hacking incidents. In a recent publication, Troia admitted he staged a hack against his own site, and then bragged about it on a cybercrime forum, ostensibly to see which criminals clamored for more. He has also attempted to sell leaked data on a cybercrime forum, only to claim he later didnt really intend to sell it, according to investigative reporter Brian Krebs.
This time, however, there appears to be some credence to Troias story about the FBI hack.
For one, Krebs reports that a hacker that goes by the alias Pompompurin told him in an interview this week that they were behind the FBI compromise and the fake emails. The hacker claimed they discovered a poorly set up email system and then sent the messages to spread awareness about the misconfiguration so the FBI could fix it.
Inside a Ransomware Negotiation: This Is How Asshole Russian Hackers Shake Down Companies
Its unclear who runs the Pompompurin aliasPompompurin did not return a request for commentbut Troia does have a long-standing rivalry with this Pompompurin.
Troia and the alias send barbs back and forth over Twitter with frequency. Troia says Pompompurin has accused Troia of being a pedophile. And Troia has claimed Pompompurin previously hacked his Twitter account to send out explicit, sexual messages to his contacts.
Just for the Lulz
Regardless of who took over the FBI email system briefly this weekend, the entire incident has left cybersecurity pros and law enforcement officials scratching their heads at why whoever is behind the incident didnt take advantage of their access to the FBI email to issue more damaging fake messages.
For instance, they could have laced the legitimate-looking emails with malware or malicious attachments that could have compromised the FBIs trusted partners. And yet, the emails didnt appear to contain any malware, and were likely not aimed at this kind of broader hacking campaign, according to Spamhaus, a non-profit that tracks spam and digital threats. Instead, the hacker or hackers behind this operation appeared to just be messing around, Carel Bitter, the head of data at Spamhaus, told The Daily Beast.
There are far, far worse things you could do than this. If you have this, you say, Im just going to have fun with it? Thats just a big middle finger, said Bitter, whose group first caught onto the bogus message flurry. They made the FBI look bad. Using something like that for something thats sort of a joke like this is quite brazen.
The fact that the hacker or hackers didnt lace any malware or malicious attachments in the messages indicates they could have just stumbled across the misconfiguration and decided to take advantage to gain a name for themselves in the underground forums, where showing youre capable of hitting high-value targets earns street cred, said Austin Berglas, the former chief of the FBIs New York Office Cyber Branch.
A Mysterious Network of Twitter Bots Promote Alleged NRA Hack
In Berglas telling, the hackers could be looking to say, Hey guys were the group responsible for compromising the FBI unclass email, and use that to elevate their status on the forums.
It would have been very, very easy for someone to load up that email that went out with malicious attachments and own hundreds of thousands of additional accounts, Berglas added.
But the movehacking for shits, giggles, and maybe personal vendettasis a bit unusual these days. The age of cybercriminals just hacking to play pranks has been on a bit of a downturn in recent years.
I think the lols and the jokey, doxxing type has really reduced also because a lot of the splinter cells and the collectives have not been as proliferating, added Berglas, who investigated one of the most prominent groups, Lulzsec, which hacked websites to embarrass them.
Making a big show of it is one way for the hacker or hackers behind the operation to say, look I exploited weak code in the portal, I got in there and I didnt use it to its fullest capacity. I just used it as a way to send out a silly message. And oh, by the way, thats because I can get into anything, Berglas told The Daily Beast. Hackers do that just to show they can.
The FBI, for its part, did issue a statement over the weekend about the breach, noting it was aware of a software misconfiguration that temporarily allowed an actor to send fake emails.
Once we learned of the incident we quickly remediated the software vulnerability, warned partners to disregard the fake emails, and confirmed the integrity of our networks, the FBI said.
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Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto has backed the idea of Formula 1 drivers lining up in reverse order for sprint races.
This season has seen sprint races trialled at the British, Italian and Brazilian Grands Prix, with those Saturday events serving as qualifying sessions for the main event on Sunday.
Each sprint race has had its own qualifying session on a Friday, but Binotto believes that those sessions should be scrapped. Instead, drivers should simply line up in reverse order from the result of the last grand prix, the Italian has said.
I think it does [increase drama] honestly, because of so many overtakings, and so much fun, he told Motorsport.com.
I think we should really consider it, and thats obviously for the sprint race format. Having seen what happens, I think its even not debatable.
A penalty meant Lewis Hamilton was forced to start at the back of the grid for last Saturdays sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and the Briton produced a stellar performance to finish fifth before winning Sundays race from 10th on the grid.
However, Hamilton has previously criticised the concept of a reverse grid for sprint races, saying the idea was conceived by people who did not know what they were talking about.
Hamiltons old rival Sebastian Vettel shared the Britons views when the idea was floated last year, saying it was complete b******t.
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Nov. 16Two people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation after an overnight fire at a Medford hotel room converted into a shelter for Almeda fire survivors.
The room was "severely damaged," fire officials said.
The fire at 200 N. Riverside Ave. site of the former Inn at the Commons, which is being redeveloped into an apartment complex known as The Merrick at the Commons was reported at 12:27 a.m. Monday, according to Medford Fire Department Deputy Fire Marshal Mark Shay.
Firefighters knocked down the fire 12 minutes after the first call, and contained the fire to a single room, according to Shay.
Four nearby units are out of commission due to smoke damage, but Shay said "there was no fire intrusion." The remainder of occupants in the building are back inside.
The building had been used as temporary shelter for Almeda fire survivors.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
Just a few months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis press secretary got called out by the Associated Press for abusive behavior toward a reporter, shes at it againbut this time with a notorious antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Amid a flurry of tweets mocking pandemic-related restrictions, Christina Pushaw singled out the Republic of Georgia for its new policy requiring citizens to hold a Green Pass in order to enter public establishments like restaurants and theaters to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic. (The passes do not require that one be vaccinated; those who have recovered from the virus and can provide proof of a negative COVID test can also use the passes.)
While the system largely resembles similar measures put in place worldwide, Pushaw appeared to employ some deeply revolting (and flawed) logic to suggest the system is part of a nefarious Jewish plot.
Georgia decided to enact a Green Pass system (biomedical security state). Immediately after that, the Rothschilds show up to discuss the attractive investment environment in Georgia (lol). No weird conspiracy theory stuff here! she wrote Tuesday.
Pushaw attached a screenshot of a tweet from the Government of Georgia as supposed evidence of the Rothschild family having their hand in the countrys COVID response. The tweet said that the Georgian prime minister had, in fact, met with the managing director of Rothschild & Co.but that meeting was way back in June.
Twitter
The Rothschilds have long been used as a kind of antisemitic boogeyman to fearmonger about Jewish families secretly controlling the world and global banking. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) put forth perhaps the most batshit conspiracy theory ever when she argued in a now-infamous 2018 Facebook post that lasers in space owned by the Rothschilds might be to blame for Californias deadly forest fires.
The belief that the Rothschilds manipulate currency and influence global events for personal enrichment and world domination is a staple of antisemitic conspiracy theorists, the ADL Florida said in a statement after Pushaws comments. Its deeply disturbing to see these kinds of conspiracies promoted by a member of @GovRonDeSantis staff.
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As Pushaws tweet was met with mounting outrage Wednesday, she said the comment was really an attempt at sarcasm that could have been misinterpreted.
The Rothschilds feature prominently in conspiracy theories, and I felt that the government of Georgialike other governmentsis intentionally feeding existing conspiracy theories around vaccine passports so that they can dismiss anyone who opposes vaccines passports as a conspiracy theorist, she told The Daily Beast.
It was not immediately clear how the Georgian governments Green Pass initiative is feeding existing conspiracy theories. Pushaw deleted the tweet in question after being asked to clarify it, though she told The Daily Beast she took it down when she realized how it could be perceived, insisting that she is completely opposed to anti Semitism and would never want to inadvertently fuel anti Semitic tropes.
After being asked about the tweet, Pushaw also preemptively warned her followers of an imminent hit piece against her, tweeting out this reporters author profile.
This is not the first time Pushaw has raised eyebrows on Twitter. In late August, the platform temporarily suspended her account after the Associated Press called her out for harassing behavior against a reporter.
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So much has changed for Jordan Travis since his last trip to Boston College.
Leading up to the Seminoles' trip up to Chestnut Hill in 2019 -- the first game after head coach Willie Taggart was fired -- FSU was 4-5 and needed two wins in its final three games to reach bowl eligibility.
Travis, a redshirt freshman quarterback who had transferred from Louisville the previous offseason, had not yet made his FSU debut.
That day, just over two years ago on Nov. 9, 2019, Travis made one of the more unexpectedly promising debuts in recent program history.
The other side of FSU's game-winner: FSU wide receiver Andrew Parchment building off huge catch as he looks for strong finish
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On his first touch in an FSU uniform, he rattled off an awe-inspiring 26-yard touchdown run that showed his athleticism. He followed that up with a 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that put that game out of reach, finishing with a pair of touchdown runs and 94 rushing yards on three carries.
"It feels like yesterday. That changed my career, in reality," Travis said of his first career appearance at BC.
"(Interim head) Coach Odell (Haggins) and (offensive coordinator Kendal) Briles put me in the game and blessed me. ... If I didn't get in that game there, I have no idea where I would be at right now. That day really changed my life. It was a blessing from the man upstairs."
This time, Travis heads to Chestnut Hill having established himself as the starting quarterback for the second straight season. The Seminoles (4-6, 3-4 in ACC) need a win over the Eagles (6-4, 2-4) in their noon game on Saturday to keep their hopes of bowl eligibility alive.
In his first game at FSU back in 2019, Jordan Travis had two touchdown runs on three carries in the Seminoles' 38-31 win at Boston College.
Travis is coming off what FSU head coach Mike Norvell deemed the best game of his career in the Seminoles' comeback win over Miami.
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"Everybody will always point to his legs, but you look at the times where he was able to step up into the pocket to make those decisive throws..." Norvell said.
"Thats the growth you need to see. Sometimes we get caught up, Jordan is still very young in the process of starting games. Hes been very productive in the opportunities that he's had, but were excited with what were seeing from him...
"You see the confidence emerging. For it to show up in that moment (on the fourth and 14 pass to Andrew Parchment), it was critical, it was a game winner. Thats what you need from your starting quarterback and you see that confidence thats really starting to come from him play in and play out."
This season, Travis is sixth out of 14 eligible ACC quarterbacks in passer rating (153.84). In eight games -- the same number he played in 2020 -- he's completed over 9% more of his passes, thrown nearly twice as many touchdowns (11 to 6), fewer interceptions (5, down from 6) and thrown for slightly more yards and more yards per pass attempt.
His legs have again been a major factor as he's run for 405 yards and six touchdowns this season after leading the Seminoles in rushing yards last season. But he's changing the narrative around his present and potentially his future, something the FSU coaching staff is all too happy to point out.
In eight games this season, Jordan Travis has thrown 11 touchdowns, nearly twice as many as the six touchdown passes he had in eight games last season.
"I couldn't be more pleased with his development as a quarterback, not a runner. Everybody keeps saying runner, runner, the kid's a quarterback and there's no question about that..." FSU offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said.
"I knew he had the ability, I believed in it, I saw it and it was let's get you consistent with your feet and then I'm gonna believe in you and I'm going to support you. I think he believes in himself now and that's one of the most important things. He believes in himself. I think people are starting to believe in him. And whenever other people start to believe in you, that obviously helps, which hasn't always been the case around here. I think he's making some people start to believe in things that I saw 20 months ago. I just couldn't be happier for the kid."
FSU offense on a run of red-zone success
The limitations of FSU's offense have been a factor in the Seminoles' lack of consistency at times this season.
That being said, FSU has definitely been making the most of its prime scoring chances over the last two months.
Entering Saturday's game at Boston College, FSU has scored points on its last 25 red-zone trips, a streak that dates back all the way to the start of its fourth game of the season against Louisville.
It's the longest-such active streak in the ACC and third-longest active streak in the country. It's FSU's longest streak of consecutive red-zone scores since the Seminoles scored on 31 straight red-zone trips across the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
"We try to emphasize that throughout the course of the season, fall camp. We invest a lot of time in that," Norvell said of the red-zone success.
"Whether it's study for us as a staff to make sure we're putting our guys in the best position to achieve success and then the guys have ownership of it. Early in the season, we struggled and there were some moments where it really cost us games. I will say that the guys understanding the importance of it, really buying into that and continuing to build upon those experiences has helped us."
FSU looks to avoid letdown at BC: After worthy celebration of Miami win, Florida State turns its attention to Boston College
What time is FSU's rivalry game at UF?: Florida State football vs. Florida: Kickoff time, network announced
After FSU started off scoring on just six of its 10 red-zone trips over the first three games of the season, it has been on a tear lately. Led by three games where FSU scored on all six of its red-zone trips against Syracuse, UMass and Miami, the Seminoles' 88.57% red-zone scoring percentage is now fourth-best in the ACC.
Perhaps even more impressively, 19 of FSU's 25 red-zone scores over that recent stretch have been touchdowns (76%). This recent stretch has boosted FSU to a 71.43% red-zone touchdown percentage that is best in the ACC and tied for 18th nationally.
This and that
Norvell said Wednesday at his final media availability before Saturday's game that he's "very confident" that running back Lawrance Toafili will be available in some capacity against BC. Toafili has missed the last two games after suffering an injury on the final play of FSU's loss to Clemson Oct. 30.
2022 four-star defensive lineman Tyre West was out at FSU practice Wednesday morning. West, the No. 89 overall recruit and No. 14 defensive lineman in the 2022 class out of Tifton, Ga., has been committed to Georgia since December of 2020. However, a run of multiple crystal ball predictions from recruiting experts expecting his commitment to flip to FSU have been submitted since Tuesday afternoon.
Florida State at Boston College
When: Saturday, noon
Where: Alumni Stadium, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
TV/Radio: ACC Network/94.9 FM
Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU football: Jordan Travis growing as quarterback since debut vs. BC
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WikiCommonsThe FBI is on alert after a number of local media outlets in Albany, New York, received disturbing letters from someone purporting to be the Chinese Zodiac Killer.The contents of the letters have not been disclosed, but they have prompted the Bureau to ask all media outlets not to open any forthcoming letters to try to preserve forensic evidence. Did the Zodiac Killer Lead a Bomb-Making, Bear-Slaying Youth Posse?Police have determined that the Zodiac Killer is responsible for the
Fujifilm has unveiled the Instax Mini Evo, its new flagship instant film camera with a premium build, higher resolution than previous models and improved smartphone integration. As with other Instax cameras, you can take photos and instantly develop them to Fujifilm's credit card-sized Instax Mini film, but it offers a number of features not available on previous models.
As a hybrid camera, you can review photos on the LCD monitor and choose the ones you want to print. However, the new model is the first Instax camera with a print lever and lens/film filter dials. That lets you take a picture then choose among 100 combinations of effects (including "Soft Focus," "Light Leak," "Monochrome" and "Retro") and print the image afterwards by pulling the print lever. Fujifilm said the camera also delivers better quality prints as it has twice the exposure resolution of previous models.
Fujifilm's hybrid Instax Mini Evo camera has double the resolution of past models
The Instax Mini Evo is also effectively a mini-printer for your smartphone. You can transfer images from your phone to the Evo Mini wirelessly, then print them using the "Direct Print" button. And for the first time, you can transfer snaps you take with the Mini Evo back over to your smartphone, complete with the film border. Finally, you can use your smartphone to take pictures remotely with the camera.
Fujifilm also unveiled a new Instax Mini film format called "Stone Grey" with a gray background. The new camera arrives in Japan on December 3rd and will come to the US in February with a price of $200.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia's hunger-striking former president Mikheil Saakashvili is being mistreated in a prison hospital and urgently needs special treatment in intensive care, a Georgian human rights group said on Wednesday.
Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than a month and a half, may soon face various health complications, including heart failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and coma, the Public Defender of Georgia, or human rights ombudsman, said in a statement.
"As the patient's condition is critical, it is immediately recommended to continue his treatment in a functional and well-experienced... hospital, in particular in the intensive care unit," the Public Defender said.
Experts have visited the clinic where Saakashvili is being treated kept and concluded that the requirements of the 53-year-old former president, including high-tech examination, cannot be met by the prison, according to the rights group.
The Public Defender group said earlier this week the prison hospital treating Saakashvili lacks proper medical equipment and other inmates there have threatened and abused him.
Saakashvili was arrested on Oct. 1 after returning from exile to Georgia to rally the opposition on the eve of local elections, in what he described as a mission to save the country. He faces six years in prison after being convicted in absentia in 2018 of abusing his office during his 2004-2013 presidency, charges he rejects as politically motivated.
Saakashvili is the most prominent and divisive living figure in Georgia's post-Soviet history, having come to power via a peaceful "Rose Revolution" in 2003 and led the country into a disastrous war with Russia five years later.
His case has drawn thousands of his supporters onto the streets in recent weeks and raised political tensions in the country of 3.7 million people. The state security service has accused him of plotting a coup.
Georgian authorities have said Saakashvili will not be pardoned.
(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh)
A vaccination centre in Gibraltar. (Getty Images)
Gibraltar has cancelled official Christmas celebrations after it saw a spike in COVID cases.
Despite being one of the most heavily vaccinated parts of the world, the government announced there would be no official parties, receptions and similar gatherings due to a rise in infections.
Gibraltar, a small British territory on the southern tip of Spain with a population of around 33,000, has seen 212 new coronavirus cases since Monday, with a total of 564 active cases.
Officials said the public should exercise their own judgment when deciding to hold Christmas functions but added it strongly advises against having them in the next four weeks, while the vaccine booster programme is rolled out.
Gibraltar daily COVID infections and deaths. (Reuters)
The government said in a statement: Given the exponential rise in the number of cases, the government, for example, intends to cancel a number of its own functions including official Christmas parties, official receptions and similar gatherings.
The public, at this stage, are ultimately called upon to exercise their own judgment in this respect bearing in mind the current advice given.
It added: "The government strongly advises against any large informal social events, parties or receptions being held over at least the next four weeks while the vaccine booster programme is rolled out."
The vaccine rollout in Gibraltar has been phenomenally successful, the territory administering 94,937 COVID jabs so far, including 39,815 second doses, with an additional 14,241 booster jabs - a vaccination rate of 139.5%.
Their actions send a warning signal to nations across Europe amid fears a new wave of the virus is bearing down on some populations.
On Monday, UK prime minister Boris Johnson urged people to come forward for COVID booster shots to avoid the need for a Christmas lockdown.
As of Wednesday, 46,065,838 people have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus in the UK, with 13,494,890 receiving a booster.
The UK has an 82.1% vaccination rate for people over the age of 12.
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The prime minister also warned that storm clouds are gathering" over parts of Europe with a new wave of COVID sweeping through the continent.
Read more:
Second European country to force lockdown rules on unvaccinated people
'Monster' who raped seven teenagers and women dies from COVID in prison
Chart shows how badly countries are being hit by new COVID wave
Soaring infections across the Continent are prompting governments to reintroduce unpopular lockdowns.
Austrian coronavirus infections hit a new daily record on Wednesday, on the third day of a lockdown for those not fully vaccinated.
Around 65% of Austria's population is fully vaccinated against the virus, one of the lowest rates in western Europe.
It also has one of the highest infection rates on the continent, with a seven-day incidence of 925 per 100,000 people.
A man receives his booster jab in east London. (Getty Images)
The Netherlands re-imposed some lockdown measures last weekend for an initial three weeks to slow a resurgence of coronavirus, but infections have continued to spread.
On Tuesday, the National Institute for Health (RIVM) reported a record of more than 110,000 cases in the week ended 16 November, an increase of 44% from the week before, with the strongest rise among children aged 4-12.
Germany's coronavirus situation is dramatic, chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, calling for a push to distribute booster shots faster and appealing to those sceptical of vaccination to change their minds.
On Wednesday, it reported 52,826 new infections a jump of a third compared with a week ago and another daily record, while 294 people died, bringing the total to 98,274, as the pandemic's fourth wave tightened its grip on Europe.
Watch: Prime minister unclear if Europe COVID wave will 'wash up on UK shores'
Data: Google Trends; Maps: Jacque Schrag/Axios
The issue of critical race theory is most potent in the Boulder area not, as some might expect, in conservative congressional districts according to an Axios analysis of Google Trends data.
What we found: One year out from the 2022 midterm elections, Axios and Google Trends are launching a first-of-its-kind project to track which political issues voters are searching for in each congressional district.
Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
The first installment covers Nov. 24, just after the 2021 election.
Why it matters: Both parties will try to use data and technology to pinpoint issues that resonate locally, and wage political battle for voters' short attention spans through the 2022 midterms, writes Axios' Stef W. Kight.
What you're searching: On four main issues critical race theory, inflation, immigration and unemployment Colorado's congressional districts are mostly on par with national trends.
In the state, interest in critical race theory is highest in the 2nd District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse represents Boulder.
In the 3rd District, a seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, searches for inflation are below the national average.
What's next: Look for us to revisit the data in coming months.
Go deeper
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WASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force conducted a test of its Rapid Dragon palletized munition system concept Nov. 3, which could one day pave the way to launching a barrage of cruise missiles out of the back of mobility aircraft.
The Air Force Research Laboratory said in a Tuesday release that it deployed a long-range cruise missile separation test vehicle basically a cruise missile without its engine or warhead from an MC-130J Commando II aircraft.
During the flight demonstration at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the MC-130s crew an operational group from Air Force Special Operations Command obtained new targeting data for its onboard battle management system while it was flying to the drop zone, the release said. The battle management system then uploaded that new data to the weapon on the pallet, allowing it to find its new target.
This was the first time the battle management system, using a beyond line-of-sight command-and-control node, received and uploaded new targeting data into such a separation test vehicle, the Air Force said. The services previous beyond line-of-sight retargeting demonstrations had used a cruise missile emulator.
When the MC-130J neared the target, it airdropped the Rapid Dragon deployment system carrying the unarmed cruise missile, as well as three weights each simulating the mass and shape of cruise missiles. Within a few seconds, parachutes deployed to stabilize the pallet, and the cruise missile and the weights began to release sequentially to avoid collisions. The missiles wings and tail popped out, it began to pull up, and then it glided toward its new target.
AFRL said this could lead to the first deployment of a live long-range cruise missile, operating under powered flight, from an MC-130J flown by Air Force Special Operations Command. And future programs following up on this effort will look at whether Rapid Dragon can handle other types of weapons and multiple effects capabilities.
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An airdropped palletized munition system is shown carrying a production long-range cruise missile with no warhead or engine immediately after being airdropped from an MC-130J. (U.S. Air Force)
In future conflict scenarios against strategic competitors, the ability to cost-effectively deliver long-range standoff weapons en masse from nontraditional platforms expands warfighting flexibility and introduces new deterrence options, Rapid Dragon program manager Dean Evans said.
AFRL spokesman Bryan Ripple said the next test will be a live-fire event, expected to take place in December.
The Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Office is leading the Rapid Dragon program. The other organizations that took part in the demonstration were the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, the Standoff Munitions Application Center, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, System Technologies, and the Safran Electronics and Defense subsidiary Parachutes USA.
AFRL said in the release that the demonstration also showed previous successful tests could be replicated, such as conducting high-altitude airdrops, jettisoning multiple weapons from Rapid Dragon, and deconflicting weapons during their release by cleanly separating the unarmed cruise missile and the three other simulated missiles.
And AFRL said Rapid Dragon would be able to easily roll on and off of mobility aircraft without any modifications to the planes.
Once parachutes stabilized the falling palletized munition deployment system, the cruise missile and three weights were released sequentially. This photo shows the successful separation of the cruise missile following the weapon release, followed by the deployment of its wings and tail. (U.S. Air Force)
The Air Force has been looking for ways to arm its airlift planes with multiple weapons strapped to smart pallets, which could upload targeting information to the weapons. This bomb bay in a box concept, as the Air Force once termed it, is intended to allow aircraft such as the C-130 and C-17 to release several weapons that could strike enemies from a distance, while itself staying out of danger.
But while the Rapid Dragon program could represent an advancement in the way the Air Force launches palletized munitions from mobility aircraft, it would not be the first time weapons were delivered from those planes. In 2017, an MC-130 from a special operations unit at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico dropped a GBU-43/B known as the MOAB, or Massive Ordnance Air Blast, on a tunnel complex in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, used by the Islamic State Khorasan militant group.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of Greeks marched peacefully through the capital Athens on Wednesday to commemorate a 1973 protest in which dozens died when the army cracked down on students opposing military rule.
Hundreds of police guarded the peaceful march to the Embassy of the United States, which provided tacit support to a seven-year military dictatorship that collapsed in 1974.
At the front of the procession, individuals held a blood-stained Greek flag which belonged to students engaged in the revolt that triggered an army crackdown.
Dozens are thought to have been killed when army tanks smashed through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic in 1973, where students had been staging a protest against the colonels ruling Greece since 1967.
The junta unravelled in 1974, amid a public outcry over a coup they instigated in Cyprus, triggering Turkey's invasion of the island just days later.
The annual march is often a focal point for the public to vent anger at authorities. More than 20,000 people participated in the demonstration, which brought most of central Athens to a standstill.
Police deployed about 6,000 officers and two helicopters hovered over the city centre.
(Reporting By Lefteris Papadimas and Costas Baltas; Editing by David Gregorio)
Hallie Jackson
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In a segment of Hallie Jackson's new show, Hallie Jackson Now, the NBC News and MSNBC political journalist sits outside talking to her producer about the "deep shame" she's been working through in regard to her mental health. The segment was shot at a wellness retreat in North Carolina, which Jackson attended in both a professional and personal capacity. For the show, she interviewed other attendees including healthcare workers and a man who lost three family members in the Surfside Condo collapse this summer who were present to process burnout and grief. But Jackson also attended sessions to work through her own mental health issues and the set up put her in an unusual position, one in which she's both reporting as a journalist, feeling as a human being, and navigating between the two roles.
Jackson's new daily primetime show launches today on NBC News NOW, the network's two-year-old streaming service, and with it Jackson attempts to strike the balance to create an accessible, engaging show that reconfigures how people relate to and engage with news, and to decide how and when to bring her personal life into the stories.
Hallie Jackson Now covers general news, Jackson says, not politics. Though viewers know her as a senior Washington correspondent for NBC News and host of Hallie Jackson Reports on MSNBC (Jackson also co-hosted a Democratic presidential debate in 2020), the new show has expanded her scope of storytelling. She searches for stories that have flown under the radar in the hustle of political coverage, or for a different way to talk about the big story of the day. Coverage spans national and international news, culture, sports, and tech including stories on "virtual influencers" (influencers that have millions of followers but aren't human), and "stalkerware" apps, the invasive software that helps abusive spouses monitor and control victims.
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"This is the news for people who like the news," Jackson tells InStyle during the last day of rehearsals ahead of the show's premiere, which she describes as "awesome and terrifying." Part of the goal of the show, she says, is talking about the news on air with the same energy and in the same way Jackson talks with correspondents, producers, and reporters on the scene.
Hallie Jackson
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The show is broken into segments that allow Jackson to dive deeper into specific stories. Originals, for example, features a story you're not seeing anywhere else, containing original reporting from Jackson or another correspondent. Then there's Backstory, one of Jackson's favorite segments, in which reporters show how a story came together, taking audiences behind the scenes of how it was created and what gets included. In tech rehearsal, journalist Antonia Hylton joined Jackson to talk about her exclusive story on James Whitfield, who was suspended from his job as the first Black principal of Texas' Colleyville Heritage High School for emails in which he insisted on the existence of systemic racism. (He was accused of pushing "critical race theory," the misappropriated catchall often used by conservatives.)
Jackson spoke to Antonia about how she came to the story, who she spoke with, who wouldn't talk to her, and where the story is headed next. The segment offers new context, and is another way to tell an important narrative. Still, Jackson is quick to clarify the show isn't media analysis; it's about giving reporters and correspondents and their stories a chance to shine.
Jackson has long known that she lives and breathes Washington politics, but the new show, she says, has given her the chance to try different ways of telling the story.
"We are really trying to figure out how we can peel back the curtain a little bit, tear down that fourth wall," Jackson says. "The idea is: let's talk like normal human beings, just have a conversation the way that normal humans would actually speak and talk."
But for Jackson, part of drawing back the curtain on news means figuring out what it means to reveal parts of herself along the way, something she's frank in acknowledging is not a place of comfort for her. Topics like mental health are inherently political, profoundly impacted by political policy and who has what resources. They're also inherently personal, and sometimes that makes Jackson bristle. But the streaming space feels more intimate, she says, and it feels more natural to talk about her own experiences.
There's still a line she's not willing to cross, though. In the segment on mental health and burnout, parts of the sessions Jackson participated in were too personal for the show to air. "I come out of one of these sessions and my face is streaked with tears and my producer is like, 'Oh my god, are you OK?'" Jackson says. In that moment, she reevaluated her role, telling herself "OK, let me not be a journalist for this hour. I'm going to be like a participant here." She reiterates that it's uncomfortable, despite a retreat leader's private reassurance that if she can bring her authentic self to the space, her journalism would be better as it related to the topic. "I thought that was really powerful because I am not somebody who ever really feels OK connecting my personal life to my journalistic life," Jackson adds.
RELATED: NBC News' Hallie Jackson Gets Personal in a New Special on Pandemic Parenting
"My own sort of mental health issues predated the pandemic," she adds. Her network was supportive, she says, but "I felt really ashamed of talking about it. I still do."
As Jackson tells it, she's a type-A go-getter, something that has served her well professionally. That mentality became problematic in her personal life around the time she was the Chief White House Correspondent leading coverage on the end of the Trump presidency, the election, and the transition. It didn't help that her daughter, Monroe, was born in March 2020, right as the world began shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic and right before Jackson embarked on coverage of 2020 presidential campaign events and conventions. "It was, in some ways, agonizing to feel like I was going through a lot of this in my own personal life, but then still working 18 hours a day and doing the newscast, all of those things that I love doing," she says.
She recalls a story she did in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, interviewing Rep. Dan Kildee, who opened up about his PTSD from that day. When she followed up with him, she heard he'd gotten a mixed response to the interview: Some people thanked him for sharing his story, but a vocal minority also attempted to shame him for struggling. "And to see that, it just made me realize that we've come a long way as it relates to mental health coverage, but we still have a really long way to go," Jackson adds.
While she's excited for the new show, which comes in addition to her reporting for nightly news and the TODAY show, she recognizes it all adds up to time out of her day. There are moments she looks at her daughter and thinks, as every working parent does, about whether she's spending enough time with her. She misses her.
About a month and a half ago, Jackson called a timeout: She wanted a break before the show launched, which the network supported. "It's tough to be at the top of your game professionally if you're having a hard time personally," she explains. "Listen, I don't know what's going to be like in 10 years when people are talking about mental health." All she knows is that perhaps she can do a bit to open those doors, to commit to covering it and talking about it. "Then maybe those little steps will add up to make a difference down the road."
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The head of the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP), once a dominant force in Danish politics and in the vanguard of a populist surge across Europe, said on Wednesday he would step down following disappointing results in local elections.
The elections held on Tuesday were also a disappointment for the ruling Social Democratic Party, popular for its early lockdowns in the coronavirus pandemic but facing an investigation into its handling of an illegal mink cull last year.
Kristian Thulesen Dahl, DPP leader since 2012, said he would request an extraordinary party assembly to elect a new chairman. He would not run for re-election, he said.
The DPP has been part of the political establishment for more than two decades and used to be the toughest on immigration.
But with most other mainstream parties backing harder immigration measures, the nationalist party has lost its edge since gaining more than one-fifth of votes at the 2015 national election.
At the last election in 2019, support for the party plummeted to 8.7%. In Tuesday's municipal election, support more than halved from the previous election four years ago to 4.1%, according to results released on Wednesday.
MINK PROBE
Support for the Social Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, slipped 3.9 percentage points in support in elections to 98 municipal councils. Still the party remained the biggest with 28.5% of votes.
Frederiksen ordered the country's entire mink herd culled last year in response to the rising spread of coronavirus from mink to people, denting support for the party.
"Mette Frederiksen faces her most serious political crisis as prime minister," broadcaster DR's political analyst, Christine Cordsen, wrote in an analysis.
The votes have been counted in 89 of 98 municipalities and the Social Democratic Party has so far won 39 mayoral posts, compared with 47 at the last election. The party managed to cling on to the three largest cities, including the capital Copenhagen.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Nick Macfie and Angus MacSwan)
Seized products
HENDERSON, Ky. -- Henderson police recently seized over $30,000 of marijuana products from local businesses.
Following a tip received in July, the Henderson County Police Department began investigating products distributed to local businesses that they suspected contained amounts of Delta 9, or marijuana, which is illegal in Kentucky. The products were labeled Delta 8 and Delta 10, two derivatives of the cannabis plant which are legal in the state.
At a state narcotics conference in September, Henderson Police Department Detective Daniel Burden learned that similar incidents had occurred in eastern Kentucky, which prompted Henderson police to perform controlled buys at 10 locations throughout the city.
I had to find a test kit to see if stores in my area were testing positive for marijuana, said Burden.
More: Henderson district offers teachers $11 an hour to clean schools
According to the detective, Delta 9 was found in vape cartridges and gummies at all 10 locations. Police say the gummies looked like childrens candy. Burden declined to name the locations involved.
My biggest concern was the fact that it looked like candy, Burden said. A kid that is 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 years old is not going to know not to eat it so you have that problem. The other problem is that those products are going to appeal to your high school age kids. Its one thing for adults to be using these products but another thing for high school kids, and heaven forbid a young kid.
From Oct. 26 through Nov. 10, police seized merchandise from the businesses. According to Burden, store owners were "shocked" at the findings, and all of them cooperated.
They all seemed upset but nobody was mad or upset with me. They were upset they had been deceived, as well, said Burden.
The businesses receive product from different distributors and its still unknown where the mislabeled packages originated. The incident is still under investigation. No charges have been filed.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Illegal marijuana products seized by Henderson police
Chicara Hearns, deputy for the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office, is recovering after a suspect shot her Tuesday. Sheriff Morris Young said her bulletproof vest saved her life.
HAVANA Robert Rodriguez and his wife were at their home down a secluded dead end road in Havana on Tuesday when they heard a loud bang followed by multiple gun shots.
He opened his front door and saw a Gadsden County deputy later identified as Chicara Hearns crawl out of her patrol car, bleeding and injured. He helped her up the porch stairs into the living room. As she lay on the couch, she told him to lock the door and call 911.
Everything happened so fast, Rodriguez said. I couldnt believe it.
Taking instructions from a 911 dispatcher, he untied and removed Hearns bloody bulletproof vest, and his wife, Melody, applied pressure to a gunshot wound.
At approximately 11:45 a.m., a Gadsden County Sheriffs Office (GCSO) Deputy was intentionally rammed by a suspected stolen vehicle on Jamieson Road just south of Forest Drive North in Gadsden County.
Within minutes, an off-duty deputy arrived and rendered first aid. Not long after, the deputy stood her up, walked her to his car and rushed her to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
The shooting happened along a secluded stretch of Jamieson Road in Northern Gadsden County, after Hearns came upon a stolen truck she and other officers were trying to find. The man behind the wheel was Dexter Lawson, a 38-year-old felon from Quincy.
Deputy Chicara Hearns: Gadsden Sheriff's Office: Man fired multiple shots at deputy after ramming her patrol car
She noticed him, said Lt. Anglie Holmes, a spokeswoman for the Gadsden County Sheriffs Office. He was heading in her direction and just rammed her head-on and pinned her in a ditch. (He) got out and opened fire on her.
A grey work truck rammed into a Gadsden County Sheriff squad car on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021.
Lawson fired three rounds, with two stopped by Hearns' bulletproof vest and another striking her, Sheriff Morris Young said in a news conference Wednesday. It missed all of her major organs but remains inside her, Young said. Doctors hope to remove it later.
This vest along with the good Lord saved our deputy yesterday, Young said as he held up her bulletproof vest.
Lawson, his stolen truck disabled from the crash with Hearns patrol car, fled into nearby woods. More than two dozen Florida Highway Patrol troopers scoured the area, calling in police dogs and drones to find Lawson.
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He was apprehended within hours and taken to the Leon County Detention Facility, where he remains without bond. He's facing charges of attempted murder, grand theft of a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.
Hearns continues to recuperate in the hospital. Young said she wanted to thank the community and fellow law enforcement officers for their outpouring of support and help.
Shes in high spirits, Young said. She is so grateful of her law enforcement community who came to assist and backed her up.
Sheriff: 'I hope and pray he goes away for a long time'
Lawson, a designated violent felon, has been in and out of jail or prison for much of his life, according to court records. He first went off to prison in 1999 when he was just 15 years old for armed robbery and stealing a car. He served five other prison stints on charges that include dealing in cocaine and marijuana.
A Gadsden County Sheriff's Office vehicle is riddled with bullet holes.
He was twice convicted of fleeing and eluding law enforcement. In 2005, he got a two-year sentence for battery after throwing bodily fluids at a correctional officer in Santa Rosa County.
In 2017, he was arrested in Orange County after police pulled over a Dodge Dart stolen out of Tallahassee. Lawson, a passenger in the car, was found with marijuana, crack cocaine and stolen credit cards, according to police reports, and later sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Young called Lawson a "career criminal" with more than 25 felony and multiple misdemeanor arrests who didn't want to go back to prison.
I hope and pray that he goes away for a long time, the sheriff said.
State prison records show Lawson was last incarcerated for a single day in April after he was sentenced for violating his probation in the Orlando case. He was sentenced to two years in prison but given the same amount of credit for time served.
More recent Tallahassee-area shootings:
'A wonderful human being and a hero'
Deputy Hearns, who was born and raised in Havana, graduated from the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy in 2017, earning a bachelor's degree in criminology from Florida State University that same year.
She worked at Wakulla Correctional Institute before joining the Sheriff's Office in 2019. In a Facebook post last year honoring Women's History Month, the Sheriff's Office said she was working as a bailiff at the courthouse.
Her favorite scripture is from First Corinthians: "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong."
Rodriguez, the Good Samaritan who helped her, said he recognized Hearns as she limped to his porch from an earlier domestic violence call involving a family member and her boyfriend.
Robert Rodriguez, 72, stands on his porch reflecting on his experience helping an injured deputy on Nov. 17, 2021.
I had to help her because she helped us before, he said. She was an awfully sweet woman that was friendly and tried to help ... as much as she could."
Rodriguez said he and his wife prayed for Hearns' recovery all night after the shooting.
I am so happy to hear that shell be alright," he said. "Shes a wonderful human being and a hero.
Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.
Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gadsden County deputy Chicara Hearns recovering after confrontation, shooting
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Disneyland will close for a day on Wednesday for staff to take compulsory COVID-19 tests after authorities found one person who visited the theme park over the weekend was infected with the coronavirus.
Disneyland, majority-owned by the city government with Walt Disney holding a minority stake, said in a statement the closure was out of "an abundance of caution" and advised visitors to reschedule.
Any person who visited the park, which had to close multiple times for prolonged periods since the start of the pandemic, on Nov. 14 between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. would also have to get tested by Thursday, the government said separately.
Despite barely recording any local coronavirus cases in recent months, authorities in the global financial hub have tightened up quarantine and patient discharge rules.
Hong Kong is following Beijing's lead in retaining strict travel curbs, in contrast to a global trend of opening up and living with the coronavirus. The city government hopes the tighter rules would convince China, its main source of economic growth, to gradually open its border with Hong Kong.
At Shanghai Disneyland last month, guests who were already inside were told to undergo tests at the exit related to COVID-19 investigations linked to other Chinese provinces and cities.
International business lobby groups have warned Hong Kong could lose talent and investment, as well as competitive ground to rival finance hubs such as Singapore, unless it relaxes its restrictions on travel.
The president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said on Tuesday she is resigning as she cannot appeal to authorities to ease COVID-19 restrictions at the same time as having to undergo quarantine herself.
JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who was in Hong Kong on Monday and was exempt from quarantine under current rules for some executives, said the city's COVID-19 policy was making it tougher to retain staff.
(Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Marius Zaharia; Editing by Stephen Coates)
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to censure Representative Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.) and remove him from his committee assignments after he posted a violent animation of him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).
The resolution to censure Gosar passed in a 223 to 207 vote; Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) voted in favor of the resolution, while Representative David Joyce (R., Ohio) voted present.
During a House debate on the issue, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) argued that lawmakers cannot dismiss Representative Gosars violent fantasies as a joke because people look up to us and take our lead.
So, when a member posts a video of himself killing a colleague, thats obviously going to have an impact on the way people approach their politics, Scanlon said.
The controversy began last week when Gosar tweeted out an anime-style cartoon that was created by his congressional staff and showed him killing the progressive Squad member and attacking President Biden.
The congressman said in a statement last week that the video was meant to be a symbolic cartoon about immigration policy and that he does not espouse violence or harm towards any Member of Congress or Mr. Biden.
The video depicts the fight taking place next week on the House floor and symbolizes the battle for the soul of America when Congress takes up Mr. Bidens massive $4 trillion spending bill that includes amnesty for millions of illegal aliens already in our country and was not meant to depict any harm or violence against anyone portrayed in the anime, he said.
However, the censure resolution argued that the January 6 Capitol riot shows that such violent rhetoric can cause real threats against lawmakers, particularly female legislators.
The House Rules Committee on Wednesday, meanwhile, adopted an amendment to the resolution that will remove Gosar from the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.
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The House has only ever censured one if its members 24 times including Gosars censure in its history.
Representative Tom Cole (R., Okla.) noted that the video was provocative and inappropriate during debate on Wednesday, but expressed concern about the precedent that would be set by removing Gosar from his committees.
Throughout the history of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority have respected the right of each of their conferences to assign their respective members to committees, Cole said. This continues to set an extremely. dangerous precedent for future Congresses.
More from National Review
Youngkyu Park
Illegal copies of "Squid Game" are circulating in North Korea after being smuggled into the country, a new report says.
The North Korean government imposed stiff punishments for anyone caught enjoying South Korean entertainment.
A Pyongsong resident said North Koreans can relate to the financial struggles felt by characters in the show.
Illegal copies of popular Netflix hit "Squid Game" are now spreading in North Korea amid the country's crackdown on foreign media, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday.
The popular dystopian Korean survival drama, which debuted on Netflix in mid-September, follows 456 adults with mounting debt playing children's games to win 45.6 billion won (about $38 million USD).
Those who are unable to complete the challenges are literally eliminated from the series of games killed by either the deadly consequences of the activity or by the mysterious mask-donning workers operating the games.
In January, the North Korean government threatened to punish anyone caught enjoying South Korean entertainment with stiff fines or prison time, Reuters reported. Despite the threat of retribution, smuggled copies of the South Korean series still made their way into the country, RFA reported.
"'Squid Game has been able to enter the country on memory storage devices such as USB flash drives and SD cards, which are smuggled in by ship, and then make their way inland," a resident of Pyongsong, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA.
The Pyongsong resident said one of the show's characters, Kang Sae-Byeok (Player 067), portrayed by actress Jung Ho-Yeon, was of particular interest to North Korean audiences because Kang is a North Korean defector who participated in the deadly games with hopes of using the prize money for her younger brother and to help her mother escape the country.
"One of the characters is a North Korean escapee and they can relate to her," the source said, adding that young people in the North Korean capital Pyongyang "secretly watch the show under their blankets at night on their portable media players."
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Like many South Koreans who say the show emulates their life in their country amid a mounting national debt crisis, the Pyongsong resident, who remained unidentified, told RFA that the show resonates with North Koreans as well.
"They say that the content is similar to the lives of Pyongyang officials who fight in the foreign currency market as if it is a fight for life and death," the resident said.
"They think the show's plot kind of parallels their own reality, where they know they could be executed at any time if the government decides to make an example out of them for making too much money, but they (government officials) all continue to make as much money as possible," they continued.
Read the original article on Insider
Illinois State Police are investigating the Nov. 13 death of a man found dead in the Greene County town of Roodhouse.
Jarrod E. McDonald, 44, was found dead along Northeast 450 Avenue, according to a news release from state police in Collinsville. The Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 6 was asked to investigate.
``The official cause and manner of death will be released by the Greene County Coroners office once a final autopsy and toxicology reports are received, the release states.
Roodhouse police, the county sheriffs office and the coroners office assisted in the investigation, according to the release. This is an active and ongoing investigation, and no additional information will be released at this time, the release states.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India is likely to bar the use of cryptocurrencies for transactions or making payments, but allow them to be held as assets like gold, shares or bonds, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday.
Citing sources familiar with the government's thinking, the newspaper said this approach would avoid implementing a complete ban, though the government was keen to stop crypto companies, including exchanges and platforms from actively trying to attract new investors.
The crypto community has made several representations to Indian authorities asking to be classified as an asset rather than as a currency, in order to gain acceptance and avoid a ban.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week chaired a meeting to discuss the future of cryptocurrencies amid concerns that unregulated crypto markets could become avenues for money laundering and terror financing, sources had said on Saturday.
A person aware of discussions at that meeting said that the overall view within government is that steps taken should be proactive, "progressive and forward-looking" as cryptocurrencies represented an evolving technology, the newspaper reported.
Sources told the newspaper that details of a bill were still being finalised, and the cabinet could receive the proposed legislation in the next two to three weeks for its consideration.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) could be designated as the regulator, though that has not been finalised, the newspaper reported.
The Reserve Bank of India has so far appeared very reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies, expressing concerns over potential risks to macroeconomic and financial stability, and capital controls.
India's digital currency market was worth $6.6 billion in May 2021, compared with $923 million in April 2020, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reiterated the central bank's concerns at an event on Tuesday, saying there was a need for deeper discussions, and noting the lack of a well-informed debate in the public domain.
(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
While the Indian government has recently softened its stance on cryptocurrencies, the countrys central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) remains against them.
The blockchain technology has been there for 10 years and can grow without cryptocurrencies, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave on Tuesday. When the central bank says we have serious concerns from the point of view of macroeconomic and financial stability, there are far deeper issues involved.
Das criticized industry players for cursory discussions on the issues involving cryptocurrencies and called for serious analysis.
The RBIs anti-crypto stance is well known by now. The central bank had banned all regulated lenders from holding or facilitating cryptocurrency transactions in April 2018. However, the decision was set aside by the Supreme Court of India in March 2020.
Das latest comments come on the heels of the Indian governments assurances to take progressive and forward-looking steps on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Das had also said earlier that the number of Indians reported to be investing in crypto could be exaggerated.
The Indian government is looking to ban the use of crypto as a payment method, but will allow and regulate trading of crypto as assets, according to a report.
Heritage Images
At 1 p.m. on July 22, 1981, the rabbi in charge of Judaisms most sacred place of worship received a phone call from his construction manager.
He told me about an amazing discovery of a big hall behind the Western Wall, wrote Rabbi Yehuda Getz in his diary. Excited, Getz rushed from his office by the Western Wall Plaza to a nearby metal door. Unlocking the gate, he walked briskly through ancient, vaulted rooms originally excavated by British archaeologist Charles Warren more than a century before. Then he entered the well-lit but perpetually damp passage leading north. Begun in secret by Israeli rabbis after the Six Day War in 1967, the tunnel was intended to expose the foundations of the massive wall that lay concealed beneath the citys Muslim Quarter.
The passage was, on average, five feet wide and seven feet high, bored through the stone of medieval foundations and floored with wooden boards that covered yawning cisterns. The lower courses of the Western Wall were on his right. Beyond them, to the east, lay the honeycombed interior beneath what Jews call the Temple Mount, the site of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary, a platform supporting the Dome of the Rock marking the spot where the prophet Mohammad was said to have embarked on a mystical journey to heaven.
Near the tunnels end, Getz reached an ancient gate uncovered by Warren that once led into the interior of the sacred platform but had been walled up centuries before. There he found what he later said was a two-foot-wide hole puncturing the long-sealed entrance leading into the sacred platforms bowels. Under the prevailing status quo, no one was permitted to broach this border. The rabbis diary does not explain who made the opening or why.
A long hour I sat there, helpless, with boiling-hot tears running down from my eyes, wrote Getz. Eventually, I gathered courage and with awe and compassion I entered. The rabbi seated himself on the stairs leading into the chamber and said the Tikkun Chatzot, the midnight prayer expressing mourning for the destruction of the temple.
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Then he stood. A set of stone stairs led down from the inside of the gate into a vaulted hall. Twenty-six feet wide, thirty-three feet high, and nearly one hundred feet long, it was partially submerged in the typical underground Jerusalem cocktail of water, mud, and sewage.
Getz suspected the passageway was used by priests to access the Jewish temple before it had been blocked on both the eastern and western ends to create the cistern. He consulted with his excavation engineer. The two agreed that the first step was to remove the water and muck. Then he ordered the hole to be temporarily sealed for security reasons and called Israels chief rabbis: Shlomo Goren, the leader of the faiths Ashkenazim, and Ovadia Yosef, the leader of the Sephardim. Getz also called the minister of religions, Aharon Abuhatzira, nephew to a famous Kabbalah sage from Morocco.
By 6 p.m., the four men were examining the interior of the cistern. Goren chanted a few Psalmssomewhat theatrically, according to Getzand assured him that no one would stop his excavation team. He walked Getz to his Jewish Quarter home, saying mysteriously, Now we will know the whole truth. Im blessed that I got that privilege.
The next morning, Getz ordered the project electrician to install lights in a corner of the cistern. The water pump, however, proved ineffective at draining the cistern. The following day, he called the director of Jerusalems fire department, who agreed to provide a more efficient electric pump and suggested sending a crew of Arab workers to help. We refused, of course, the rabbi wrote.
On the afternoon of July 30, Rabbi Yosef and several rabbinical judges arrived to discuss turning the drained cistern into a synagogue. Entering the Noble Sanctuary was a Jewish religious taboo. Since the location of the Holy of Holiesthe innermost part of the vanished temple--was not known, it might be tread upon by accident. The rabbis, however, believed that it was acceptable to worship beneath the Temple Mount.
But word of the rabbinic discovery leaked. At 8:00 a.m. on August 27, the hourly bulletin on Israel National Radio opened with a report on the tunnel. Early that same afternoon, Arab workers sent by administrators of the waqf, the Islamic charitable trust charged with managing the Noble Sanctuary, entered the cistern from two manholes in the ceiling and began carrying building materials into the space to seal up the wall. Alerted to the news, Getz rushed from his home in the nearby Jewish Quarter. His alarmed wife followed and was shaken to find him standing in the cistern, now filled with Arabs holding tools. She ran out of the tunnel to the plaza and called on worshippers to protect the rabbi from what she thought was certain death.
I stood alone in front of them, he said later. I was not about to go down quietly. He shone a bright construction light on the workers to intimidate them, and then left to call Goren on a nearby phone to beg for help.
Getz went back to the cistern to face the Muslims by himself. I found that the Arabs had entered the synagogue intending to block the entry and allow their men to build a wall, he wrote in his diary. Backed alone in the corner, I could not stop them. One report had him pulling a gun on the Arabs. When Goren arrived at the Western Wall, he saw what he described as hundreds of police, including the chief of police, and hurried to the opened underground gate. He claimed there were also hundreds of Arabs in the cistern coming in from all sidesand crying and shouting. Goren said he called for help from students from a nearby yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, and a few hundred came with weapons.
Isam Awwad, the waqfs chief architect, told a less dramatic tale. He and his colleagues had been closely monitoring the Israeli incursion and decided it was time to stop the invaders. We sent ten of our Arab workers into the cistern with bricks and mortar to seal up the wall, he said in an interview. I was there inside with them.
Whatever the precise numbers, Jewish worshippers broke into the space and began to fight with the Arab workers, one of whom was injured by a broken bottle. A border policeman had to be restrained from opening fire with an M-16 automatic rifle, and the two sides were persuaded to withdraw, according to the Guardian. Two people were slightly injured in the brief scuffle, and the police arrested several Jews and at least one Arab. A bloodbath was narrowly prevented. The waqfs decision to quickly seal the gate and an immediate Israeli government denial of any role in the penetration of the sacred platform prevented what might have sparked a regional war.
That night, before going to sleep, Getz wrote bitterly, I have never felt the humiliation of Jews like todayand in our own sovereign state! Police later questioned the rabbi, noting that witnesses claimed he gave orders to kill Arabs, which he dismissed as a lie. He was never charged with any crime and maintained his important position until his death in 1995.
In his diaries, Rabbi Getz comes across as a deeply pious man, one who simply wanted to create a prayer space as close to the Holy of Holies as possible. Yet his writings dont tell the full story. What exactly was the mysterious inheritance that he longed for on the night of September 4, as he stood beside the now-sealed gate? And what was the whole truth that Goren had alluded to?
It was only much later that the true goal of Getz, and the secret participation of senior Israeli government officials in the effort, came to light. They had been seeking the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred box that the Hebrew Bible said contained the Ten Commandments and which had sat in the Holy of Holies in the temple built by King Solomon. They were guided in part by Maimonides, the twelfth-century Jewish philosopherknown by some as the Ark of Godwho wrote that Solomon anticipated the temples destruction and built a structure in which to hide the Ark, down below in deep and twisting concealed places. That belief persisted.
Getzs daughter, Lily Horowitz, confirmed the quest. Dad was striving to find the Ark of the Covenant buried beneath the Temple Mount by King Josiah of Judah, she said. He wanted to find the Ark of the Covenant to bring salvation closer. Because of its sacredness, my father was willing to risk his life. This was part of the redemption that comes with resurrection.
One of the rabbis grandsons, Adiel Getz, added that his grandfather had long been convinced that the cistern could lead to the chamber where the Ark is concealed, and above it, on ground level, to the place of the altar. Another grandson, Yiftach Getz, said that the dig for him had a messianic meaning. With the discovery of the place of the altar, he hoped, the righteous Messiah could reveal himself. He wanted to find the Ark of the Covenant. He hoped it would be found in the tunnels.
Decades later, a more detailed version of Getzs incursion implicated one of Israels most notorious intelligence agents in the operations planning and execution. That man was Rafi Eitan, best known for leading the team that captured Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official who helped devise the Holocaust. In 1960, Eitan brought him from Argentina for trial in Jerusalem, where Eichmann was hanged.
As the excavation of the tunnels progressed, I met with Rabbi Getz almost daily, he told author Hila Volberstein. Together with him, I studied the structure of the Holy Temple and its dimensions. We drew conclusions as to the location of the Holy Temple and the Holy of Holies. He was eager to explore beyond Warrens Gate, which they both believed had been used by the temple priests to access the sanctuary. We assumed that if we made an opening in the wall to the east, we could move forward and eventually reach the Holy of Holies. This was where they expected to find the ark, along with other valuable temple treasures. But we waited for the right time to make the opening.
Eitan was not the only senior official aware of the search for the Ark. The incident alarmed the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who was already fuming at the countrys recent bombing of an Iraqi nuclear facility and an attack on Beirut that killed hundreds of civilians. Under pressure from the Americans, the Israeli government set up a panel to investigate the Temple Mount penetration. The committee determined that the hole made in the gate was no accident, and that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon had personally given the green light. A surviving member of the panel, Israeli archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov, later said that the minister of religious affairs ordered that conclusion stricken, and the blame instead put on a botched attempt to fix a water leak. How could we otherwise show our faces to the Americans? Ben-Dov recalls him saying.
Until shortly before his death, Getz remained publicly silent on the true goal of the excavators. In the early 1990s, however, he insisted that he had seen the Ark with his own eyes before being foiled in his effort to recover the sacred artifact. I can confirm to you that we know the exact location of the Ark, he wrote in response to a 1993 query. It is a claim that archaeologists consider to be as fantastical as the Harrison Ford movie. Yet Muslim officials on the Noble Sanctuary remain on alert. Twice a day, their guards measure the water levels in the many cisterns beneath the platform, to see if the Israelis have drained water to access the subterranean world beneath their feet. Forty years later, Ark fever still exerts a grip on the imaginationand a threat to world peace.
Adapted with permission from Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler. Courtesy of Doubleday.
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JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's counter-terrorism police have arrested a member of a top Islamic council on charges of raising funds for the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group blamed for deadly bombings, police said on Wednesday.
The raid was carried out near Jakarta on Tuesday during which Ahmad Zain An-Najah, a member of the Indonesian Ulema Council, was arrested along with two associates, national police spokesperson Rusdi Hartono said.
JI set up a charity organisation to get funding "for education, social activities...some of the funds are used to mobilise JI," Rusdi told a news conference, adding that Ahmad was a member of the charity's religious board.
The organisation operated in cities on Sumatra and Java islands, including Jakarta, he said.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country and a resurgence in militant attacks in recent years has been linked to hundreds of Indonesians who went to Syria and Iraq to fight for Islamic State before returning.
JI is accused of orchestrating the 2002 bombings of Bali nightclubs, which killed more than 200 people.
Ahmad was a member of the Ulema Council's commission that issues Islamic edicts, said the body's head Cholil Nafis. His work at the council had nothing to do with militant activities, he said.
(This story corrects paragraph 3 to show the charity was set up by JI, not by Ahmad, who was a member of the charity's religious board)
(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
The Israeli governments diplomatic efforts have been focused in recent days on securing the release of two Israeli tourists arrested in Turkey on espionage charges.
Why it matters: The incident has the potential to become another major crisis in the already strained Turkish-Israeli relationship.
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The backstory: The Israeli couple, bus drivers in their 40s, visited the highest structure in Istanbul the Camlica Tower and began to take photos of the city, including of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans residence.
A worker at the tower's restaurant, who had apparently become suspicious of the couple, called the police. They were arrested and the case was transferred to Turkish intelligence.
The Israeli government was not notified of the arrest and only learned of it two days later when the Turkish lawyer who was appointed to the couple contacted the consulate in Istanbul.
The couple was indicted on Friday for spying, and their detention was extended until the beginning of a trial.
Behind the scenes: Israel and Turkey don't have ambassadors in each other's countries and channels of communication are limited. Several days of inquiries from the Israeli side went unanswered, and it wasn't even clear at first if they had reached senior officials in Ankara.
The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency also reached out to his Turkish counterpart to offer assurances that the couple did not work for Israeli intelligence.
Bennett and Lapid also released unusual public statements stressing that the arrested Israelis were innocent civilians.
The Turkish government has been largely silent on the issue in public, but Turkish officials have told the Israelis in private that their messages are being taken into consideration.
Between the lines: Israeli Foreign Ministry officials say they still don't know if this was an incidental arrest that escalated or whether there is political motivation behind it.
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The officials say they're concerned Erdogan might want to use the couple as bargaining chips to extract some kind of concession from Israel.
What to watch: The Israeli couple appealed the decision to extend their arrest until the trial. Israeli officials hope the appeal might present an off-ramp and that the couple might be deported to avoid a deeper crisis.
Worth noting: Just last month, Turkey's Sabah newspaper reported that 15 alleged members of a Mossad spy ring had been arrested in Turkey.
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Jake Angeli, the Phoenix man who joined the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with his face painted and his head topped with a fur hat with horns, was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
Given the 11 months he has already served since his January arrest, Angeli will serve about 2 more years in a federal prison. The judge said he expected it would be a minimum security unit.
Before the judge passed sentence, Angeli addressed the court for about 30 minutes and accepted responsibility for his crime. But he said he was not a danger to society.
"I may be guilty of this crime, absolutely," he said. "But I am in no way, shape or form a dangerous criminal. I'm not a domestic terrorist. I'm not an insurrectionist.
"I'm a good man who broke the law," he said.
Angeli said that he was, in a way, grateful, for his confinement, giving him the time to evaluate his actions. "You really dig when youre locked up 22 hours a day," he said.
Angeli said he asked himself how Jesus Christ or Mahatma Gandhi would act and decided that Jesus would respect and understand his captors and that Gandhi would accept responsibility.
"The hardest part of all of this is, I know I am to blame," Angeli told the court. "Most people will never have any idea to know what it's like to look in the mirror and say, 'You know, you really messed up."
Judge Royce Lamberth told Angeli that he thought he had genuine remorse, but could not justify deviating down from the sentencing guidelines for the felony crime.
"Although you have evolved in your thinking, clearly, and reverted your thinking in many ways," the judge said to Angeli, "what you did here was horrific."
Angeli, 34, was not accused of any violence nor property damage during his time in the U.S. Capitol. But, prosecutors said, Angeli played a key role by goading on the crowd through shouts blasted from his megaphone.
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For subscribers: How Jake Angeli went from being a Phoenix character to a face of the U.S. Capitol raid
Angeli also took the dais of the U.S. Senate, which had been hurriedly cleared moments earlier, and left a note for then-Vice President Mike Pence that warned him: Its only a matter of time. Justice is coming!
Speaking to Judge Lamberth on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall said that note was particularly chilling because Angeli was not writing that from his Phoenix home, but while in D.C. while Pence was close by.
Paschall said Angeli's actions have been described by himself and others as peaceful. But she showed videos to the court that showed Angeli entering the building and shouting an obscenity in the Senate chamber.
"That is not peaceful. That is chaos," she said. "That is not peaceful. That is criminal obstruction."
Angeli, who was charged under his legal name, Jacob Chansley, had pleaded guilty to a single felony count of obstructing a civil proceeding
The government had asked that Angeli be sentenced to 51 months. Angelis lawyer, Albert Watkins, asked that his client be freed, arguing that the 11 months he has already spent in solitary confinement was punishment enough.
In court on Wednesday, Watkins said the sentencing provided a unique opportunity for the judge to both "mete out justice" and to "bridge this great divide" in the country's political climate.
Investigation: QAnon, false flags and baby-eating liberals: How Arizona Patriots build community around conspiracy theories
Watkins has argued that Angeli thought he was acting at the behest of then-President Donald Trump, who had requested his supporters show up to D.C. on Jan. 6, the day a joint session of Congress would certify that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 general election.
He was not an organizer, Watkins wrote of Angeli. He was not a planner. He was not violent. He was not destructive. He was not a thief.
Watkins has also, in interviews and in court briefs, discussed the mental deficiencies of his client. He has described Angelis life as being filled with abuse and neglect. In his filing to the court ahead of Angelis sentencing, Watkins said Angeli found the supportive community he had long craved among followers of Trump.
Watkins said that Angelis mental health has deteriorated in custody, where he has been kept in isolation due to restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic.
He suffers from severe anxiety, panic attacks, and a constant feeling of claustrophobia while he is locked alone in his cell each day, Watkins wrote.
Angeli had become a fixture at protests and marches throughout the Phoenix area since at least 2019.
For subscribers: Before the US Capitol raid, Jake Angeli and other Trump supporters staged attempt in Arizona
He originally painted his face black and white, but switched to red, white and blue during the 2020 election year.
Angeli would parade around shirtless, showing off a chest decorated with elaborate tattoos, each he said a symbol of his shamanistic beliefs.
He donned a fur helmet with tails that draped his face and was topped with horns. "You mess with the bull, you get the horns," Angeli would say when asked about the hat.
Angeli also carried a 6-foot spear that had a real tip. Though, his attorney said in court filings, that it was not secured properly and would fall off if tilted too far.
In interviews with The Republic, Angeli said he intentionally picked his outfit as a way to draw attention to himself and the message he would shout in a booming voice that resonated even without amplification.
At times, he didn't need the excuse of a protest or march to get into his outfit.
Angeli would at times, literally when he felt the spirit moved him, stand outside the Arizona Capitol or the building that housed The Arizona Republic newspaper, and unleash a steady stream of impromptu thoughts. His booming, guttural voice allowed his message to penetrate walls and windows.
Angeli talked, or more accurately shouted, about corruption endemic in government and how it would soon be exposed.
He carried a sign that said, Q Sent Me, showing his fealty to the QAnon movement.
That false conspiracy theory believes that a person with Q-level top-secret military clearance was, through cryptic postings on obscure bulletin boards, sharing information about the looming end of global leaders. Followers, who debated and parsed meanings from Qs posts, expected mass arrests of political figures and celebrities as Trump would break up a massive global child sex trafficking ring.
For subscribers: 'The audit is The Great Awakening': How QAnon lives on in Arizona's election audit
Angeli had, at the ready, a well-rehearsed answer should someone ask who Q was.
Q is the highest level in the military and the intelligence community, he would say in a rapid-fire response.
Q was disseminating above top secret information to patriots in the republic like myself and the people in the Q movement to take back our country from evil globalists and communists," he would say, not pausing for breath, "who are attempting to monopolize all of the resources and all the labor in our country and all over the world so they can create a new world order, one world government.
Angeli said he had long ago discovered what the so-called globalists were up to while doing his own research. He said that the Q movement verified much of what he already knew.
Angeli, who had served in the U.S. Navy, said he made the self-realization that he was part of a top-secret cadre of super soldiers. That revelation, he said, made the twists and turns he had gone through in life make sense to him, finally granting him a cohesive narrative.
In court filings, his attorney said that a military mental health examination found Angeli suffered from a personality disorder, but deemed he was fit to serve. And, his attorney wrote, the Navy did not tell Angeli he had the disorder, which his attorney named as schizotypal personality disorder.
Watkins, in court Wednesday, said that since learning of his diagnosis, Angeli had become a "new man." Watkins said that was because Angeli "had an answer to a question he had been consumed with for all of his knowing life."
Angeli self-studied as a shaman, giving himself the name Yellowstone Wolf. He offered lessons for $55.55 in topics such as spiritual self-defense through his virtual Starseed Academy. It provided what he said was his only, if spotty, income.
Angeli drove to Washington, D.C., with others from Phoenix. He has not said whom he traveled with, but his attorney said that Angeli had been cooperating with authorities investigating the U.S. Capitol raid.
He was one of the first people into the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors said, entering through a door that security camera footage showed had been busted open from the inside by rioters who had entered the building through smashed windows.
Prosecutors said that based on an analysis of video footage that Angeli was in the Capitol building for about an hour.
His final stop was the U.S. Senate chamber. As he left, prosecutors said, he shouted one final word: Freedom.
Angeli gave an interview to NBC News the next day, while traveling back to Arizona, and downplayed his actions. I walked through an open door, dude, he said. Although he said he did feel a sense of accomplishment for making members of Congress run for cover.
Angelis image was one of the first distributed by authorities hoping to identify him, with his costume earning him a nickname in the national media: the QAnon shaman. Aware he was being sought, Angeli contacted the FBI and arranged to go to the Phoenix office upon his return for what he thought would be a follow-up interview.
He was arrested when he showed up and has been held in custody since.
Agents searching his car found the fur hat with horns and spear inside.
Angeli had planned, after the meeting with the FBI, to drive to the Arizona Capitol and start another one of his signature protests.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jake Angeli, QAnon shaman, sentenced to 41 months in Jan. 6 raid
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) Nikolaj Ehlers, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mark Scheifele scored in the second period, and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Western Conference-leading Edmonton Oilers 5-2 Tuesday night.
Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor also scored for the Jets, and Josh Morrissey had two assists. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 32 shots as Winnipeg finished 5-1-1 on a seven-game homestand.
We needed some good defense, some physical play, good sticks, 1-on-1s, good offense, Dubois said. We needed a lot out there tonight and we did a good job of that.
NHL-leading scorer Leon Draisaitl had a pair of power-play goals early in the third period for Edmonton, giving him 17 goals and 33 points on the season. Connor McDavid, second in league scoring, assisted on both goals to up his point total to 29 and give him at least a point in every one of the Oilers' 15 games this season.
I dont think we were as bad as maybe it looked on the score sheet, but if you go down 4-0 youre probably not going to win, Draisaitl said.
Mikko Koskinen stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced before being replaced by Stuart Skinner to start the third period. Skinner had eight saves.
The Oilers lost three of five on its road trip.
I didnt like our game as much in St. Louis (but) we got a win there, Edmonton coach Dave Tippett said. And we came in here and you could tell we were low on energy to finish the trip. To get down early like that and chase the game, we just didnt have the oomph to come back.
It was the first meeting between the clubs since the Jets swept the Oilers in the first round of last seasons playoffs. They have a rematch in Edmonton on Thursday.
Lowry got the Jets on the scoreboard at 2:09 of the first period with a blooper goal Koskinen should have stopped. The Jets' forward got the puck near his blue line and headed toward the goalie. He took a shot from the top of the circle and the puck hit Koskinen, went under him and started dribbling toward the goal line. He tried to swipe it away with his stick but missed.
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Both goalies made some tough saves in the second.
After Koskinen stopped Morrissey on a close shot during a power play, Ehlers scored at even strength with a slap shot from the top of the circle to make it 2-0 at 6:59.
Sixteen seconds later, Draisaitl was given a four-minute minor for high sticking and Winnipeg took advantage when Dubois redirected Morrissey's shot for his ninth of the season at 10:01.
Koskinen was screened for Scheifeles goal with 38 seconds remaining in the period to make it 4-0.
Andrew Copp was called for tripping at 1:19 of the third, and Logan Stanley took a boarding penalty at 2:26 to give the Oilers a 5-on-3.
Draisaitl scored his first goal 6 seconds into the two-man advantage at 2:32. His second goal at 3:38 was initially waved off for goalie interference, but Edmonton coach Dave Tippett challenged and it was determined the Oilers' player had been pushed into Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck made a key save with 5:05 left when Jesse Puljujarvi took a shot just outside the crease.
Connor scored his team-leading 12 goal of the season into an empty net with 1:37 remaining.
UP NEXT
The teams meet again in Edmonton on Thursday night.
HUNTINGTON WOODS, Mich. American journalist Danny Fenster, freed after nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, said he feels incredibly fortunate" to be back home in suburban Detroit after his uncertain time behind bars.
Fenster, 37, was greeted by family and friends Tuesday night as he returned to Huntington Woods. He was sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labor in Myanmar, but was handed over Monday to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate his release.
He had been in detention since his arrest at Yangon International Airport on May 24.
I feel incredibly fortunate to be home, I cant believe the amount of effort that went into it that was necessary to make this happen overwhelming gratitude, said Fenster, who returned to the U.S. earlier Tuesday on a flight that landed in New York.
Fenster, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials or publishers who have been detained since the Myanmar military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
More: Huntington Woods journalist Danny Fenster freed from Myanmar jail days after sentencing
More: Myanmar court sentences journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in jail
American journalist Danny Fenster speaks at a news conference at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, after arriving in the United States following a six month detention in Myanmar.
He was convicted of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations. Days before his conviction, Fenster learned he had been charged with additional violations that put him at risk of a life sentence.
Now bearded and shaggy-haired, Fenster said he passed his time in jail by doing a lot of reading. A lot of sitting around thinking and staring at walls."
He said bi-weekly visits from his wife kept him sane during his incarceration. She remains in Myanmar, but is expected to be back in the U.S. before Thanksgiving.
She came when they let her which was every other week and delivered a huge food parcel to me and we wrote each other love letters, he said.
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Fenster said his release would not have been possible without help from his older brother, Bryan, saying he worked tirelessly with U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan and others to secure his release.
Weve always been incredibly close, he said of his brother.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Journalist Danny Fenster returns home to Huntington Woods
HUNTINGTON WOODS, Mich. (AP) American journalist Danny Fenster, freed after nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, said he feels incredibly fortunate" to be back home in suburban Detroit after his uncertain time behind bars.
Fenster, 37, was greeted by family and friends Tuesday night as he returned to Huntington Woods. He was sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labor in Myanmar, but was handed over Monday to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate his release.
He had been in detention since his arrest at Yangon International Airport on May 24.
I feel incredibly fortunate to be home, I cant believe the amount of effort that went into it that was necessary to make this happen overwhelming gratitude, said Fenster, who returned to the U.S. earlier Tuesday on a flight that landed in New York.
Fenster, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials or publishers who have been detained since the Myanmar military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
He was convicted of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations. Days before his conviction, Fenster learned he had been charged with additional violations that put him at risk of a life sentence.
Now bearded and shaggy-haired, Fenster said he passed his time in jail by doing a lot of reading. A lot of sitting around thinking and staring at walls."
He said bi-weekly visits from his wife kept him sane during his incarceration. She remains in Myanmar, but is expected to be back in the U.S. before Thanksgiving.
She came when they let her which was every other week and delivered a huge food parcel to me and we wrote each other love letters, he said.
Fenster said his release would not have been possible without help from his older brother, Bryan, saying he worked tirelessly with U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan and others to secure his release.
Weve always been incredibly close, he said of his brother.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) An Iraqi refugee initially accused of committing a killing for the Islamic State terror group before coming to the U.S. is eligible to be deported because he lied on his immigration papers, a federal judge decided Tuesday.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Tara Naselow-Nahas ruled that Omar Abdulsattar Ameen lied when he was filling out his refugee application to gain entry into the United States. Among other things, she found he wasn't being truthful when he said he had never interacted with, knew or had involvement with various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq.
But she rejected other allegations, including that he provided support, engaged in terrorist activity, participated in harming another person, or misrepresented that he was a member of such a group.
Naselow-Nahas found that Ameen interacted with a cousin who is clearly a member of an armed terrorist group. She also found the government proved that he lied when he said his father had been fatally shot and that his brother had been kidnapped.
He should be deported to Iraq, or if not there to his last home of Turkey, the judge said, based on the governments recommendation.
Attorneys for Ameen say he faces likely execution if he is returned to Iraq. Another federal judge in Sacramento in April refused to allow his extradition. U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund Brennan said that cellphone evidence shows Ameen was in Turkey at the time of the slaying in 2014.
Federal authorities have tried since 2018 to return Ameen to Iraq under a treaty with that nation, and he was quickly seized by immigration authorities after Brennan's ruling. Ameen will continue to fight deportation, and he will seek to be released on bond, said his lawyer, Siobhan Waldron.
He can now object that he faces too much danger to be deported, even though he was found to be eligible. He will go before Naselow-Nahas for a week of hearings set for late January and early February, and if she rules against him can seek review by the Board of Immigration Appeals and then the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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The fight is far from over, Waldron said. She contended that this is all based on unfounded rumors.
FBI investigators testified over days of intermittent hearings scattered over several months that Ameen told inconsistent stories under questioning, and that close family members also have ties to terrorist groups. Ameen has argued he felt under duress during the interviews out of fear for his family.
Federal prosecutors said he returned to Iraq that same month and killed a police officer in the town of Rawah after it fell to the Islamic State group. Ameen arrived in the United States five months later to be resettled as a refugee in the Sacramento, California, area.
The Iraqi government said Ameen was part of a four-vehicle Islamic State caravan that opened fire on the home of the Rawah police officer. Iraqi documents said Ameen then fired a fatal shot into Ihsan Abdulhafiz Jasims chest as he lay on the ground. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the slaying on social media.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Ameen kept his membership in two terrorist groups secret when he applied for refugee status, and again when he later applied for a green card.
Ameen fled to Turkey in 2012. He was granted status as a refugee in the United States in June 2014 on the grounds that he was a victim of terrorism.
Brennan said in April that cellphone records showed Ameen was in Turkey, not Iraq, on the day of the murder. The judge noted Ameen passed a lie detector test and said he had serious doubt on the reliability of witnesses who placed Ameen in Iraq at the time of the killing.
Nov. 16A federal judge in Portland has suppressed drug evidence that a Maine State Police trooper accused of racial profiling obtained during a traffic stop more than two years ago.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen marked the second time in 13 months that drugs Cpl. John Darcy obtained during stops of Black drivers and passengers had been tossed out of federal court or led to a case's dismissal.
The decision to suppress evidence could lead to the dismissal of charges stemming from the June 26, 2019, traffic stop in which Darcy pulled over a vehicle on I-95, about six miles north of the York toll plaza.
The U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday that it is reviewing Torresen's suppression order and had no comment on whether the charge would be dismissed.
Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine State Police, also said the agency is reviewing "the ruling and the supporting investigation documentation.
"It would be inappropriate for us to provide a statement without such a review," she said.
Darcy pulled over the vehicle, driven by a Black driver with a Black female passenger, because it allegedly was going just 45 mph, because it crossed out of the lane and into the breakdown lane at least three times, and because it was late at night.
But Torresen found that video from Darcy's dashboard camera contradicted the trooper's testimony at a suppression hearing held last month. She found that the video did not show the vehicle crossing from the right lane over the fog line and going into the breakdown lane, as Darcy testified.
Torresen also cast doubt on Darcy's claim that the vehicle was traveling 45 mph, based on the time that elapsed between Darcy's call to a dispatcher to run the license plate number and his pulling the vehicle over.
The traffic stop came six minutes after that call to the dispatcher, and it happened about 6 miles north of where Darcy first spotted the minivan, meaning the vehicle was likely traveling about 60 mph, the judge wrote.
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"These reasonable inferences further undermine Darcy's claim that he pulled the vehicle over in part because it was traveling forty-five miles per hour," Torresen said.
Even if the car was going 45 mph, as Darcy claimed, that is the lowest legal speed limit on the interstate, the judge noted. She also rejected the trooper's contention that his decision to stop the car was due to the late hour, 10:24 p.m.
In the August 2019 stop on Interstate 95 northbound in York, Darcy was recorded talking to another trooper on a cruiser microphone saying that the motorist "looks like a thug" because "he's wearing a wifebeater" and "he's got dreads," according to court documents.
A "wifebeater" is a reference to a sleeveless undershirt.
Darcy told the other trooper he was not racially profiling the driver.
"I hate when people try to make it seem like that's what it is," Darcy said. "I care about where people are from, and the way they seem, you know what I mean? Do they seem like they can be involved in drug dealing or gangs or something? I don't give a [expletive] if someone's Black or white."
Federal prosecutors dismissed the charges in the case stemming from the August 2019 stop after a motion to suppress the drug evidence was filed.
The Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case stemming from the June 2019 stop, arguing that the evidence should be suppressed.
"This case is just one example of the racial profiling that is pervasive in Maine and across the country," Emma Bond, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, said Tuesday. "The Maine Legislature has approved a law that requires law enforcement officers to collect demographic data about every stop they make. We need data to understand the scope of the problem, so that we can tailor appropriate solutions. It is incumbent on Maine law enforcement agencies to wholeheartedly support and implement this law."
The ACLU defines racial profiling as the discriminatory practice of "targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin."
Darcy was named 2019 Trooper of the Year by the Maine State Police.
In July, the Maine State Police's Office of Professional Standards, in consultation with the attorney general's office, examined more than 1,000 of Trooper John Darcy's traffic stops and found no evidence or patterns of racial profiling, according to Moss.
Kansas City police officers generally should not shoot at a moving vehicle but are given the latitude to do so if they are in split-second, life-threatening situations, according to a police spokesman.
An officer fired shots at a vehicle late Monday after it allegedly was speeding and drove toward the officers patrol car. No injuries were reported in the shooting near U.S. 40 and Interstate 435.
The departments firearms policy addressing that, generally officers should not fire into moving vehicles, said Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a police spokesman. But it does relieve latitude, obviously for life-threatening situations. Each situation is its own and to be taken in conjunction with the totality of circumstances.
An officer on patrol near East 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard reported shortly before 11 p.m. that a vehicle was speeding eastbound on 31st Street.
A second officer near U.S. 40 and I-435 noticed the vehicle still speeding eastbound. That officer shot at the vehicle after its driver allegedly drove toward the officers patrol car, police said. The vehicle then sped away from the shooting.
Becchina said investigators have not determined whether anyone was struck by the officers gunfire. They also did not have a complete description of the vehicle or a description of the driver.
The departments violent crimes unit is investigating the shooting. They will determine how fast the vehicle was traveling when the officer opened fire. The traffic unit will likely reconstruct the crime scene.
Police have not said exactly where the officers were standing when the vehicle sped towards them. He wasnt aware if the patrol officers had time or enough space to deploy a tire deflation device to force the vehicle to stop.
Thats why we bring all those investigators into it to get a really accurate picture of them, Becchina said. So that we are able to say upon completion of that, we are able to answer all of those questions. We have the same questions you guys do at this point in time.
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In October, a federal judge approved a $100,000 settlement for a toddler who was shot in the foot six years ago by an on-duty officer who fired his service weapon into a car that eluding officers.
That officer fired nine rounds, striking a 1-year-old girl, in August 2015.
The lawsuit alleged the officer acted outside of the police departments policy at the time by firing at the car.
That policy was recently updated and allows officers to evaluate the totality of the circumstances at that time, when using force, Becchina said.
He said in a 1989 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court set the standard for police uses of force.
And the use of force is objectively reasonable, given the totality of the circumstances at that time, he said. Thats why that verbiage is exactly the way it is in that policy to say that generally they shouldnt. Although, it does have latitude.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir late Wednesday detained over a dozen relatives of two civilians killed in a controversial gunfight, eyewitnesses said, hours after they staged a protest in the disputed regions main city while pleading with authorities to return the bodies so they could bury them.
Police officials wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles swooped on a protest site in Srinagar minutes after lights were turned off in the locality. They dragged the relatives into a police van amid slogans by the family members in the freezing cold, eyewitnesses said.
In dramatic video clips that circulated on social media, one family member grabbed the barrel of a rifle from a police official and pulled it to his chest while shouting: Shoot me, terrorists.
Four people, including two civilians and two suspected rebels, died Monday night in a raid by government forces on alleged militants in Srinagar, police said. They said the rebels included a Pakistani citizen, but offered no evidence.
Police said the civilians died in the crossfire between government troops and the rebels. However, witnesses and families of the civilians said Indian troops used them as human shields during the standoff.
Indian authorities later secretly buried the bodies in a remote northwestern village as part of a policy that started in 2020. Since then, authorities have buried the bodies of hundreds of suspected rebels and their alleged associates, including civilians, in unmarked graves in remote areas, denying their families proper funerals.
The family members of the two civilians, identified as trader Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudassir Ahmed, a dental surgeon and real estate dealer, assembled in an area of Srinagar where several media offices are located and demanded the return of the bodies. They shouted slogans and some carried signs reading Stop innocent killings & atrocities and We want justice.
Saima Bhat, a relative of Bhat, said they had little hope of justice.
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Justice is a long journey. We just plead right now that the bodies of our loved ones be returned, she said. At least respect the dead and allow us to give them a dignified burial.
The protest continued into Wednesday night and the victims' relatives held a candlelight vigil despite the severe cold.
Also Wednesday, government forces were deployed in half a dozen villages in the southern Gool area to enforce a ban on the assembly of more than four people, after family members of one of the men slain in Mondays raid threatened to block a highway.
The man, 24-year-old Amir Magray, whom police described as a militant, was a salesman at a shop in Srinagar, his father, Abdul Latief, said. Latiefs home has been protected by police guards since he killed a militant with a stone in 2005.
Denial of the body of my son is the reward of the fight against terrorists. My home is still guarded by police, Latief was quoted by New Delhi Television as saying. Tomorrow the security guards can kill me and claim that I was a militant.
Authorities say the policy of not returning rebels' bodies to their families is aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus and to avoid potential law and order problems during funerals. The policy has added to widespread anti-India anger in the region and some rights groups have fiercely criticized the move, calling it a violation of religious rights.
Kashmiris for years have accused Indian troops of targeting civilians and committing abuses with impunity. Such allegations include staging gunfights and then saying the innocent victims were militants to claim rewards and promotions. Indian officials acknowledge the problem but deny abuses are part of a strategy. They say the allegations are mostly separatist propaganda meant to demonize troops.
Meanwhile, police late Wednesday said government forces killed five suspected rebels in two separate gunfights in villages in southern Kulgam district. A tweet attributed to the region's head of police, Vijay Kumar, said one of the slain men was a local commander of the Resistance Front rebel group. Officials did not immediately provide any other details and there was no independent confirmation of the incidents.
Both India and Pakistan claim the divided territory in its entirety. Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhis rule since 1989.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
(Independent)
Police officers were seen removing a man armed with a rifle from outside the courthouse where the jury is deliberating the verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Video posted online by Fox News shows two officers asking the man for identification and for his permit to carry a concealed weapon close to the steps of the Kenosha County Courthouse in Wisconsin on Wednesday morning.
The man was wearing body armour and carrying a rifle slung across his body.
What happened to saving water?
18-million-gallon wave park 16.6-acre private use wave pool.
What?
I was absolutely appalled when I read the Desert Sun article Nov. 12.
The article focused on the 80-foot lighting proposal (what about the Dark Skies plan) and concerns from adjacent communities about the impact of traffic and noise. What about water use and other environmental effects?
I find it ironic that the developer is working with the city of La Quinta and planning commission for approval during excessive drought in Southern California and the Southwest and during negotiations by 200 countries seeking solutions at the COP26 climate summit. My response was simply you have got to be kidding!
I would like to know how much water will evaporate daily and what its source is.
The planning commission should not approve developments that include manmade lakes with lakefront homes, plus water feature parks. We are in an extremely serious situation with agriculture, wildfires and bird migration all experiencing the effects of water shortages.
The decision to move forward with the wave park is irresponsible, short sighted and counter to the efforts of sensible individuals and local and state agencies that are committed to saving and carefully using our valuable water resources.
Jan Olson, Palm Desert
A new handout for illegal immigrants
From Fox News, something that I believe everyone should be made aware of:
"Tucked away on page 1647 of the Build Back Better Act, the Democrats' social spending package, is a provision that would repeal the Social Security number requirement to obtain child tax credits. This change would expand child tax credits to parents of illegal immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers."
This could ultimately cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Wonder why we have an influx crossing the border?
Kay Hillery, Indian Wells
Democrats' skepticism of Trump proven right
Richard A. Lanpheer's letter of Nov. 16 attempted to establish a false equivalency between Aaron Rodgers' belief in crackpot remedies to both prevent and cure COVID, in lieu of medical science and vaccination, and the initial skepticism expressed by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Andrew Cuomo in connection with vaccines first being developed to prevent COVID.
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Biden, Harris and Cuomo recommended at the time that these vaccines be tested by labs outside the Trump administration because they didn't trust the Trump FDA.
Mr. Lampheer must have missed the disclosures last week that the Trump administration manipulated and suppressed CDC research and guidance in connection with COVID, solely to advance the political ambitions of Donald J. Trump, who believed that full transparency in connection with the severity and the spread of COVID would hurt his re-election.
It would appear that at the time, the suggestion of independent testing of the vaccines was not ill-founded.
Franc Martarella, Rancho Mirage
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: La Quinta wave park is a terrible idea in the midst of drought
A syringe is filled with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11 at Native Health Central clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 5.
Lawrence County has administered more than 44,047 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Nov. 15, according to data from the Indiana Department of Health.
That's up 1.76% from the previous week's tally of 43,284 COVID-19 doses administered.
In Lawrence County, 45% of people living in Lawrence County are fully vaccinated as of Nov. 15. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers someone fully vaccinated two weeks after they've been given a single-dose shot (Johnson & Johnson) or a second shot (either Pfizer or Moderna).
Indiana reported 1,055,549 total cases of coronavirus, an increase of 2% from the week before.
The five counties with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated in Indiana as of Nov. 15 are Hamilton County (72%), Boone County (67%), Hendricks County (62%), Hancock County (60%) and Warrick County (59%).
Here are the latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Lawrence County as of Nov. 15:
How many people in Lawrence County have received a COVID-19 vaccine?
48% of people in Lawrence County have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 21,946 people
45% of people in Lawrence County are fully vaccinated, for a total of 20,656 people
For a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
How many people in Indiana have been vaccinated so far?
56% of people in Indiana have received at least one dose of the vaccine, for a total of 3,685,442 people
51% of people in Indiana are fully vaccinated, for a total of 3,384,472 people
COVID vaccinations for kids and boosters
The percentages in this story reflect the total share of the population that has received vaccines. That now includes people as young as 5 years old, for whom vaccines have been authorized.
These weekly stories will be updated as more data on vaccination rates in children, as well as booster vaccination rates, are released.
We pull data on local vaccine distribution on a weekly basis. Check back for our next weekly update mid-week for the latest numbers.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Lawrence County Indiana vaccine rate: How many people are vaccinated?
SALEM, Ore. (AP) Amanda Metzler, a licensed cannabis grower, has beefed up security around her property and no longer dares to go out alone after dark because of illegal marijuana farms in her region.
Elin Miller, a vineyard owner, said the illegal sites have lured away so many field workers that grape growers and wineries are suffering labor shortages, particularly at harvest time.
Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler says the crime rate, associated with the thousands of illegal marijuana farms that have sprung up this year in southern Oregon, has gone through the roof.
Weve had stabbings, robberies, thefts, burglaries, homicides, sex crimes, motor vehicle accidents, DUIs, all related to the influx of the marijuana-cannabis industry in our in our valley, Sickler said. It is certainly an issue we deal with on a daily basis here.
The three were among witnesses who testified Tuesday before a committee of the Oregon Legislature, in an effort to seek help in stemming the proliferation of illegal grow sites in southern Oregon.
The managers of the sites which were brazenly erected last spring primarily in Jackson and Josephine counties in the largely rural region near the California state line have stolen water from rivers, creeks and aquifers during a severe drought and abused immigrant workers, officials have said.
Many illegal marijuana farms are operating under the guise of being legal hemp farms. Steven Marks, director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, said that tests conducted at some 400 self-proclaimed hemp sites from July 28 to mid-September showed that most plants had higher amounts of THC, the component that gives cannabis its high, than is legally allowed for hemp.
So the upshot is 54% of all the tests we successfully conducted were positive and presumptive for marijuana, Marks said.
Managers of 73 sites told state inspectors to go away, and barred access. Many sites are guarded by gunmen.
Sickler described an explosion of growth in marijuana farms.
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We dont have the resources in Jackson County to deal with something like that, Sickler told the House Interim Committee On Economic Recovery and Prosperity.
Rep. Pam Marsh, a Democrat from Ashland in Jackson County, agreed.
I can tell you that on the ground, the ubiquitous presence of these structures, often with very little effort meant to shield them from the public view, has been shocking, Marsh said.
There arent enough inspectors to test for THC content at each site to determine which ones are legal and which are not, officials have said. Police said they do not have the capacity to raid all the suspicious sites, with each raid requiring an investigation and search warrant.
First and foremost, we need to allocate significant funding to support law enforcement and code compliance operations," Marsh told the committee. "Jackson County alone has estimated a cost of $7.3 million a year to enable the county to adequately tackle illegal grows. Josephine County is likely to have a similar need.
Vineyards are also feeling the impact of the illegal pot farms, said Miller, chair of the Oregon Wine Council.
We are already facing challenges finding enough workers to support our operations, particularly during peak harvest seasons, Miller said. The unfair and often illegal labor practices of these illegal operations are compounding that issue by paying workers in cash at significantly higher wages than those of us who ... are adhering to all labor laws.
With tons of marijuana having been recently harvested and the illicit business largely conducted in cash, gunmen are now preying on the illegal farms and marijuana processing sites.
Crews from eight different states have come to Jackson County to perform home invasion robberies of marijuana farms or individuals associated with marijuana industry with money, Sickler said.
Rep. John Lively, the committee chairman, said its members would draft legislation to help the situation. But he pointed out that the next legislative session, which starts in February, is a short one, lasting barely a month, giving little time for a raft of bills to pass committees and both the House and Senate.
And so the more complex the legislation, the more problematic its going to be, Lively said. So how many issues do we try to address or not address in the short session, versus something else?
Marsh warned that there won't be a quick fix.
We know that it will take several years of significant effort, perhaps three to five before we can expect to have the issue corralled, she said.
The illegal farms produce tons of marijuana that is sold outside the state. Officials believe that foreign cartels selected southern Oregon because its part of the the fabled marijuana-growing Emerald Triangle, a zone in which Californias Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties form the major part.
Federal drug agents and representatives of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Oregon met on Tuesday with local law enforcement and other officials to hear about the challenges theyre facing.
Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel called it a beginning coordination meeting between agencies.
We all are being affected by the illegal market in so many ways that we need to work together as united as we can be, Daniel said in an email. The illegal marijuana market has no borders or boundaries.
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This story has been updated to correct the details of testimony by Amanda Metzler.
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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
Editorial cartoon
Urge senators to advance voting law
Do you want free, fair and secure elections? Would you like to know what billionaires are donating to Super PACs and buying our elections? Are you against partisan gerrymandering where elected officials choose their voters rather than the other way around? Do you want access to vote by mail? Do you want consistent voter identification laws? How about requiring our voting machines to be made in America eliminating any question about foreign countries' influence? All of these provisions are in the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA.)
The FTVA is a bipartisan bill that passed the House of Representatives but that Senate obstructionists will not even allow to go forward for debate. Both Florida senators are on the wrong side of this issue for the fifth time!
Please contact Sen. Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott and ask: Senator, please allow the Freedom to Vote Act to come to the Senate for debate and the opportunity to pass this important law.
Linda Richardson, Port Charlotte
Enough of governor's tactics
Gov. DeSantis has punished school boards by withholding funds if they defy state law concerning vaccine and mask mandates. He is threatening businesses with fines if they follow federal OSHA regulations concerning similar mandates. Our federal system gives federal law precedence over state law. Perhaps the federal government will retaliate by withholding federal funds the governor is counting on to balance the budget. Enough already.
Peter Fagan, Naples
State hasn't provided better COVID option
I am a seasonal resident from a blue state. Back home the goal shared at the federal, state, and local level is to defeat COVID and get back to normal. The shared plan to meet the goal is get everyone vaccinated ASAP. Mandates like we had for diseases like polio or smallpox are OK when community health is in jeopardy.
Here in Florida, the state and local governments are at odds with this plan, but they dont seem to have a better or more fair plan to get the job done. They seem intent on obstructing efforts to get people vaccinated and have no alternatives to offer. There may be alternatives like financial incentives, but nobody seems willing to pay. If there is a better option to mandates, lets hear it.
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Bob Schmidt, Sanibel
Polarization prevents progress
Its OK to agree with our political rivals once in a while. We might hope that cooperation among those who represent us wouldnt inspire a backlash from the small-minded. Regrettably, the Republicans in the House (13) and the Senate (19) who voted for the infrastructure bill have been targeted as traitors by the obstructionists who hate to give Biden a win. The very nasty twice-impeached ex-president and his particularly odious acolytes like Gaetz, Greene, Cruz and McCarthy were less than gracious. For these and other hardliners, its their way or the highway.
The naysayers actually wanted an infrastructure bill when it was touted by the former promising prez who failed to deliver. But when it was proposed by a Democrat, the popular bill to rebuild our roads and bridges, increase internet access, and clean our water was unacceptable to Trump worshippers. For them, partisanship trumps good government.
There is stubbornness on both sides. Six progressive Democrats couldnt bring themselves to accept half a loaf. They too get poor grades in getting along with others.
Polarization prevents progress. Both sides have to be willing to compromise. If we cant get consensus on the easy stuff, the country is in big trouble.
Kevin McNally, Bonita Springs
Hope for return to normalcy
Maybe there is hope. Perhaps a nation divided along political and racial lines can be saved by party moderates. In the recent elections in Virginia and nationwide, pundits and polls missed the mark badly. Ignoring extremists in both parties and disruptive factions like The Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter, voters spoke loud and clear. They sought a return to normalcy.
For decades Backs and other minorities have bought into the artificial benevolence of the Democratic Party but are becoming more receptive to Republican messages, seeking more than unfulfilled promises. They are demanding full equality.
For America to rebound from our current malaise we have to stop buying into political propaganda further perpetuated by a biased media. Throwing money at problems by an inept leader is not a viable solution. Neither is supporting a former president with a dictator mentality. America needs new faces offering fresh ideas instead of dubious promises of progress. Genuine progress benefits all, not a select segment of either party.
Gerald Ponder, Cape Coral
Editorial cartoon
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, November 17, 2021
FREEHOLD - A former Long Branch police officer accused of turning his basement into a methamphetamine lab is facing a 10-year prison term after pleading guilty to two crimes related to the discovery in May of the illegal facility.
Christopher Walls, who had been a 19-year veteran of the Long Branch Police Department making $125,531 a year, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Jill G. OMalley to creating a widespread risk of injury, a second-degree crime carrying a prison term of five to 10 years, and manufacturing methamphetamine, a third-degree crime carrying a prison term up to five years, acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said.
Walls plea agreement calls for a 10-year prison sentence with no chance for release on parole before serving two years, Linskey said. The agreement also calls for his permanent forfeiture of public office as well as forfeiture of his firearms and firearms identification card, the acting prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Mitchell Ansell said Walls had served on the Long Branch force for 19 years without a blemish, and he expects his client would be released from prison after serving two years.
How they reacted: Arrest of Long Branch cop on charges of running a meth lab in his home stuns department
Christopher Walls is a police officer accused on running a meth lab out of his Long Branch basement
Walls, 50, of West End Avenue, Long Branch, had faced a more serious charge of first-degree maintaining or operating a controlled dangerous substance facility, as well as additional charges of possessing a firearm during a drug offense, child endangerment and possession of methamphetamine.
"The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office recognized that what Chris was doing did not rise to the level of a first-degree crime and accordingly extended a plea offer to Chris that he believes was fair, in light of all the factors and circumstances involved," said Ansell, of the Ocean Township law firm Ansell, Grimm and Aaron.
In 2019, Walls began experimenting with chemicals as a hobby, and that led to his purchases of chemicals and glassware that he used to conduct experiments in a shed in his backyard, Ansell said.
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"Eventually, this experimenting led to the production of methamphetamine, something that Chris obviously knew was illegal," the defense attorney said.
Long Branch crime: Man killed in hail of police bullets in Long Branch had lengthy criminal record
In entering his guilty pleas, Walls admitted that his experimenting with chemicals, which led to the production of methamphetamine, created the potential risk of widespread injuries to neighbors within close proximity of his shed, Ansell said.
"He is extremely remorseful for putting his family and neighbors in a potentially harmful situation by conducting these experiments," the defense attorney said of his client.
Long Branch Public Safety Director Domingos Saldida declined to comment on Walls' guilty plea.
"When this incident occurred, we were all outraged at Mr. Wall's betrayal to his oath of office, to the Long Branch Police Department and the community as a whole,'' said Long Branch Mayor John Pallone. "We're grateful to the Office of the Monmouth County Prosecutor for bringing this matter to a close.''
Walls has been compared to Walter White, the fictional chemistry teacher in the hit television series Breaking Bad," who turned to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine to provide financial stability for his family after being diagnosed with cancer.
The drug lab was discovered on Walls' property on May 15 when police were called to his home on a report of a domestic disturbance. When police responded, Walls wife told them she suspected her husband was involved in suspicious drug activity, according to the affidavit of probable cause to arrest Walls. Walls wife provided police with photographs she took of books belonging to her husband about making methamphetamine, explosives and poison, the affidavit said.
The New Jersey State Police Hazmat Unit responded to the home and, in the basement and a shed on the property, found all the materials needed to make methamphetamine. In addition, they found residue of the drug on glassware, as well as a large, open and unsecured gun safe accessible to a child living in the home. The gun safe contained two long guns, four handguns, eight high-capacity magazines and a large quantity of ammunition.
At Walls detention hearing before Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon in May, Assistant Prosecutor Melanie Falco said the defendant had a conversation with a fellow officer about the main character in Breaking Bad."
The defendant made a statement indicating Walter White made a lot of money making meth," Falco said at the hearing.
I think there are some parallels between the fictional story of 'Breaking Bad' and Walter White to Mr. Walls situation," Escandon said at the hearing. He then went on to order Walls release from jail.
Judges with the appellate division of Superior Court, however, reversed Escandons decision, and Walls remained jailed without bail to await the outcome of the case.
OMalley scheduled Walls sentencing for Jan. 15.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues, unsolved mysteries and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Long Branch cop who ran meth lab pleads guilty to charges
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisianas governor said Wednesday that he will definitely sign a posthumous pardon for Homer Plessy, whose 1892 arrest for refusing to leave a whites only railroad car wound up making separate but equal U.S. law for a half-century.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said he wants relatives of people on both sides of Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed Jim Crow laws discriminating against Blacks, to be with him when he signs the pardon.
Keith Plessy, a descendant of one of Plessys cousins Homer Plessy had no children and Phoebe Ferguson, a great-great-granddaughter of Judge John Ferguson, created a foundation to advocate for civil rights education.
The pardon should draw proper attention to just how historic this is to take away that conviction for something that should have obviously never ever been a crime, Edwards said on his monthly radio call-in show.
The 30-year-old shoemaker's purchase of a ticket and his seating choice sprang from a late 19th century effort to overturn a segregation law. Instead, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1896 that as long as accomodations were equal, it was fine to make them separate. The decision thus sanctioned state and local governments to segregate housing, neighborhoods, schools, transportation and other public accomodations.
Plessy pleaded guilty in 1897 to violating the Separate Car Act and paid a $25 fine. The conviction was on his record when he died in 1925.
Louisiana's Board of Pardons voted unanimously Friday to recommend a pardon. The Orleans Parish district attorney got the issue before the board at the request of Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson.
Keith Plessy told the Board of Pardons that members of a 20th century civil rights group told him that Homer Plessy was the first freedom rider.
By James Davey and Juby Babu
LONDON (Reuters) - British retailer Marks & Spencer warned the UK government on Wednesday that proposals set out by the European Union to ease the transit of goods to Northern Ireland risked increasing the administrative burden rather than reducing it.
In a letter to UK Brexit Minister David Frost seen by Reuters, M&S Chairman Archie Norman said the EU's proposals "sound reasonable, but could result in worsening friction and cost and a high level of ambiguity and scope for dispute."
Last month, the EU offered Britain a package of measures which stopped short of the overhaul that London is demanding.
The EU's executive said the measures could halve customs paperwork and cut checks on meat, dairy and other food products coming to Northern Ireland from mainland Britain by 80%.
In return for concessions, the EU wants proper sharing of live data, reinforced monitoring of supply chains and labelling to ensure British products do not slip into the EU single market via a Northern Ireland back door.
Norman said the proposals could end up more costly to implement than full EU custom controls, with the relief offered in lighter touch border controls insufficient to offset the extra cost of labelling.
He said that labelling the circa 90 million products M&S sells annually in Northern Ireland would cost the retailer 9 million pounds ($12.1 million) a year.
Norman also noted that under the proposals a vet would need to oversee certification of 95% of product volume sent from the UK to Northern Ireland.
"This adds cost and a minimum of 4 hours per day into the supply chain which - with the other delays - means goods will take 1.8 days (45 hours) more to get to store than prior to the UK's departure from the European Union," he said, adding that the product range available for consumers would be impacted.
Norman said the best solution is for Britain and the EU to agree a time-limited equivalence arrangement.
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Frost said on Wednesday Britain's preference is to strike a deal to improve post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland and that the agreement can be reached by Christmas.
Norman's letter to Frost was first reported by the Financial Times.
($1 = 0.7412 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey in London and Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
Stella Cook had just arrived in Florida when she received a call, informing her that her husband had been attacked while he was at work in Clarksville.
Cook testified Tuesday morning about those moments and the ones that followed, when her family was forced to do the unthinkable.
(L to R) Shelby Silvey, Tavares Harbison, Jevon Brodie, and Vicki Carriker watch a 2018 video of the Teddy Cook laundromat attack during trial in Montgomery County courthouse Nov. 16, 2021.
We had to make the decision to unplug him," Stella Cook said, crying on the stand while she testified during the trial of two teenagers, accused of beating her husband Teddy Cook, 71, to death.
The widow said Cook suffered from serve seizures after the incident.
The two had been together for 28 years before he died in 2018, she said in court.
Previous coverage: Motive takes center stage as trial begins in Teddy Cook laundromat beating death
Teddy Cook was working at the Clarksville Super Suds Laundromat and Car Wash on May 30, 2018, when he was attacked. He'd only worked there for a handful of years, his wife said.
By the end of the night, Teddy Cook was being treated in a local hospital. Nine days later, he died.
Police identified three teens as suspects in connection with Cook's death: two 14-year-olds and one 13-year-old. The three allegedly robbed Cook of $34, stole his truck and beat him that night.
Jevon Brodie, Tavares Harbison and Harrison Smith, now ages 17 and 18, were each charged as adults with first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with Cook's death earlier this year, and he may testify this week.
'I can hardly stand up'
During trial, jurors listened to the 911 call Teddy Cook made after the attack.
CPD detective Nathan Lee shows a Montgomery County jury a BB gun rifle used to assault Teddy Cook in the 2018 laundromat attack, Nov. 16, 2021.
On the phone, Teddy Cook described how he was beaten badly by three boys and needed assistance, as he was alone and bleeding from the head.
They kicked me. They stomped me," Teddy Cook said, his voice recorded during the 911 call. I just need some help.
"I can hardly stand up."
The jurors watched footage of the incident from several different cameras inside the laundromat. According to a witness who worked at the laundromat, there were three cameras inside and two outside the business.
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Discovery in shed
Clarksville Police Detective Nathan Lee testified how officers arrived at Smith's home and discovered a nearby, door-less shed the day after Teddy Cook's assault.
Inside the shed were clothes, multiple small piles of coins that totaled to $34.15, laptops and backpacks.
There was also a BB gun rifle hanging inside the shed, Lee said.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Forensic Expert Gregory Fort told the jury Tuesday afternoon that he'd performed a DNA analysis on the rifle found in the shed, matching Brodie's DNA. There was a second DNA match, but the results were inconclusive, Fort testified.
Medical experts: Manner, cause of death
Tristar Skyline Medical Center Trauma Medical Director Darrell Hunt detailed Teddy Cook's injuries and cause of death Tuesday afternoon.
Teddy Cook was considered a level two trauma transfer when he arrived at Tristar, Hunt said, noting the patient was stable for the first 2-3 days of his stay in the hospital. His health started to decline over time.
Teddy Cook had several strokes, continuous brain bleeding and blood clots, Hunt testified.
Teddy Cook
Teddy Cook had a brain surgery intended to help with blood drainage, but he did not regain consciousness afterwards, Hunt said.
After signs of declining health, Hunt recalled telling the family, "we were in a no-win situation."
Multiple kicks to the head started the brain bleed, Hunt said.
It was determined that Teddy Cook did not have skull fractures to the head, but visible abrasions to the face and body.
The defense looked into Cook's previous medical history and medications.
Stella Cook testified that her husband had two open heart surgeries in the 1990's, leading to the installation of a mechanical heart valve. Teddy Cook took blood thinner medication and had a history of hypertension.
Defense Attorney Shelby Silvery pointed out that Teddy Cook's health declined after the brain surgery. She also mentioned that Teddy Cook had more bleeding in the brain after being put back on blood thinner medication following the surgery.
But Hunt was quick to argue that despite Teddy Cook's medical and or health conditions, "without being kicked in the head, Mr. Cook lived a normal life."
Metropolitan Nashville Chief Medical Examiner Feng Li, who performed the autopsy on Teddy Cook, said despite his significant health conditions, Teddy Cook's cause of death was the result of complications from blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide.
Trial is set to resume Wednesday morning.
Alexis Clark can be reached at aclark@gannett.com or 931-217-8519. Follow her on Twitter @Lexclark_. To support her work, sign up for a digital subscription to TheLeafChronicle.com.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Teddy Cook's cause of death discussed during laundromat beating trial
A groundbreaking lawsuit in New Mexico could serve as a blueprint for how government officials deal with armed militia groups that deploy to public spaces and act like law enforcement officers despite having no authority to do so.
The civil suit, filed by a district attorney in Albuquerque and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center, seeks an injunction against members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, an armed group that sent its members to demonstrations last year under the pretense of providing security. The injunction would ban the group and its members from engaging in behavior the plaintiffs argue is dangerous and unlawful.
But the case has hit a snag: The plaintiffs argue that they need Meta, the company that runs Facebook, to provide key evidence linking members of the New Mexico Civil Guard to posts on the social media site. Meta has dragged its feet for 10 months, the plaintiffs say, and the company now says it can't provide the records because they were deleted when the militia members were banned from Facebook.
Albuquerque police detain members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, an armed civilian group, following the shooting of a man during a protest over a statue of Spanish conquerer Juan de Onate on Monday, June 15, 2020, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The plaintiffs' attorneys don't believe that. They've asked Meta's chief technology officer to sign a declaration saying the records no longer exist, but the company has refused to do so.
Monday, the plaintiffs filed a petition against the company in California to force it to cough up the records or provide proof that they have been permanently deleted.
"If Facebook is going to allow itself to be used as a platform for recruiting and training and directing extremist, malicious activity, then at a minimum, they have a basic ethical and legal responsibility to maintain account information," said Raul Torrez, the Bernalillo County district attorney who brought the lawsuit.
Illegal militias: Why haven't authorities cracked down on armed groups?
The case against Grandmaster Jay: Black people formed one of the largest militias in the US. Now its leader is in prosecutors' crosshairs.
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Rare action against an unauthorized militia group
In June 2020, a protest in Old Town Albuquerque over the proposed removal of a statue of Juan de Onate, the Spanish conquistador and colonial governor of New Mexico, turned violent.
Dozens of protesters calling for the statue's demolition faced off against counterprotesters, including heavily armed men wearing military-style fatigues members of the New Mexico Civil Guard.
This bronze statue of Juan de Onate leading a group of Spanish settlers outside the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico was at the center of a protest that turned violent in June 2020.
One man was shot in the scuffle. Though militia members were not involved in the shooting, their presence as an unlicensed, unsanctioned, armed security force in a public space got Torrez's attention.
"They're invading the province of traditional police authority, which is a highly regulated space that the state and the government must maintain a monopoly over," Torrez said. "The police have the authority to use deadly force under very limited circumstances, but we expect them to be highly trained."
Torrez began searching for a legal mechanism to prevent members of the group from intervening in protests or pretending to have authority they don't possess. He started working with Mary McCord, executive director of Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
McCord and her team have been sounding the alarm on illegal armed militia groups for years. They have collated a wealth of information about laws across the country against such groups, and they've long questioned why prosecutors don't take an active role in enforcing laws against such groups.
New Mexico's Constitution forbids private military units from operating in the state. Statutes outlaw engaging in paramilitary activity like firearms training or, particularly relevant to the 2020 case, exercising the functions of a peace officer.
All 50 states have similar bans, ranging from prohibitions in state constitutions some of which are somewhat vague to criminal statutes outlawing paramilitary activity and training.
Gun rights advocates and members of unauthorized militia groups gather in Richmond, Virginia, on Jan. 20, 2020, to protest potential gun control bills.
Prosecutors have been slow to use these laws, McCord said, even as armed groups have become a more visible and dangerous feature of the political landscape.
Armed protests hit a peak in 2020 and began rising again after a cooling-off period following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Protests where arms are present are six times more likely to turn violent as protests where no guns are present, the group concluded in a recent study.
"I really applaud Raul's willingness to say: 'I do have this tool. I'm going to use this tool under my statutory authority,'" McCord said. "But too few very few have done anything similar."
Paul Kennedy, the Albuquerque attorney representing the New Mexico Civil Guard defendants, did not respond to a request for comment.
Case hits a snag
The lawsuit against the New Mexico Civil Guard claims that Facebook posts by its members outline illegal activity and recruiting efforts. Facebook was a major organizing platform for the group, plaintiffs say. The plaintiffs say they have reams of evidence posted publicly on Facebook by accounts connected to the group.
There's just one problem: The company removed the accounts connected to the New Mexico Civil Guard in 2020 under its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. Plaintiffs don't have the metadata that would definitively connect those posts to the defendants and show who the administrators of the militia-related pages were.
The plaintiffs first asked for these records in June 2020. In a court filing, they say they have been asking for them ever since.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone sent USA TODAY a statement saying the company always responds to requests from law enforcement to preserve account information.
The company "will provide it, in accordance with applicable law and our terms, when we receive valid legal process. When we preserve data we do so for a period of time, which can be extended at the request of law enforcement, Stone said in the statement.
McCord said Meta is essentially hiding behind its processes to avoid giving up the records.
Somewhere in the company's vast data banks these records must still exist, McCord said. And if they don't, the plaintiffs have offered Meta an alternative: to have the company's chief technology officer sign a sworn declaration that the deleted records can't be retrieved.
Meta has declined to do so.
Are the records gone?
In lieu of the declaration sought by the plaintiffs, Meta has offered to have an official custodian of records for the company make a sworn declaration that the records no longer exist.
McCord said that's insufficient. The records may not exist in their original form, and a custodian of records can state as much, but that doesn't mean Meta doesn't retain the data in some other form, she said.
Federal law governing the retention of customer data by social media companies is so outdated that even the companies have called for it to be updated.
William Null stands in the gallery of the Michigan Senate Chamber in the Capitol during a rally organized by Michigan United for Liberty to demand the reopening of businesses in April 2020.
McCord and Torrez said there's a problem with Meta's position in the case: If the company intends to ban people it labels "dangerous individuals," how can it learn from its past when it keeps no record of which people have been banned for violating its policies?
"This is a company that literally is built on monetizing every last, tiny, insignificant bit of everyone's personal information on their site," Torrez said. "Yet, when they find an organization or an individual that's too dangerous to be on the site, they delete it and put it in some form that can never be accessed again.
"If that's true, that's troubling. And if it isn't true, that's also troubling."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Mexico DA sues militia group but needs Facebook records
MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexico will deploy a battalion of National Guard troops to its Mayan Riviera in the wake of a spate of shootings that have put the crown jewel of the countrys tourism industry on edge.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval, speaking Wednesday in Cancun, said that 1,445 guard members will be sent to Quintana Roo states Caribbean coast to reinforce the regions security. The deployment will include the establishment of a base in the beach town of Tulum, where two foreign tourists were killed and three wounded Oct. 20 in the crossfire between drug dealers.
He said the Navy would contribute an additional 100 elements to the effort and increase intelligence gathering efforts in the area.
The additional security will begin operations by Dec. 1, Sandoval said.
The more recent incident was a Nov. 4 shootout on a beach in Puerto Morelos south of Cancun, involving a squad of armed men who left two alleged drug dealers dead. The daytime bloodshed sent tourists scrambling for cover at two large hotels where local drug gangs were apparently competing for drug sales.
That cant happen again, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. We have to avoid that happening. Thats why theres this plan to reinforce security.
Earlier this month, Quintana Roo state prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca said authorities had detected 12 gangs running street-level drug sales in Tulum and Puerto Morelos.
Mexico has continued to struggle with stubbornly high levels of violence through the first three years of Lopez Obradors administration. He has been criticized for his heavy reliance on the military rather than reformed policing, while also insisting that a previous strategy of pursuing drug kingpins was mistaken.
COVID-19 boosters will soon be available to anyone who wants one here in Minnesota.
Driving the news: Department of Health commissioner Jan Malcolm said Tuesday that the state will expand booster eligibility to all Minnesotans this week, whether or not the federal government gives the green light.
The announcement comes as the Biden administration prepares to expand authorization to all adults in the coming days, per Axios' Caitlin Owens.
Why it matters: Minnesota currently has some of the highest case rates in the nation. On Tuesday, the average seven-day test positivity rate exceeded 10% for the first time in almost a year.
Booster shots are an added layer of protection against illness amid the ongoing surge.
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Context: Data shows that while the shots continue to offer strong protection against serious illness, vaccine effectiveness has waned over time and with the rise of Delta, Caitlin writes.
While there's disagreement among some experts about whether all adults need a booster, studies show the extra doses, administered months after the first shots, can restore protection to higher levels.
What they're saying: Malcolm told reporters in a press call that concerns about the current surge and an increase in breakthrough cases drove the decision to move ahead.
"The data are so compelling on the value of boosters to increase that level of protection that we think it's quite urgent to move," she said.
Yes, but: Demand for boosters or additional doses has been relatively low so far among those already eligible, a population that includes seniors, people with health conditions that make them more vulnerable and anyone who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
About 715,000 third or booster doses have been administered in Minnesota so far. For context, more than 3 million residents are fully vaccinated, per MDH data.
Between the lines: Approval from state and federal officials could encourage more Minnesotans to seek the booster dose, but many residents are already eligible given the current criteria.
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Existing guidelines, for example, allow anyone with a BMI over 25 to get a shot. Two-thirds of the population meets that criteria.
What to watch: Given the current levels of community transmission, upcoming Thanksgiving gatherings and travel could worsen or elongate this fall surge.
More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
LOS ANGELES Hollywood studio Miramax sued director Quentin Tarantino on Tuesday over his plans to sell digital collectibles based on his 1994 film "Pulp Fiction."
Tarantino recently announced that he will sell a series of unique non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, based on his handwritten screenplay for the 1995 Palme d'Or winner, a movie described by the Cannes film festival as a set of "dime-store stories set in lowlife LA."
A website for the NFT sales says they will include a digital version of the film's profane and "iconic 'Royale with Cheese' scene," as well as a recording of Tarantino revealing "secrets" about the project.
The lawsuit by Miramax, which produced the film and is owned by Bein Media Group and ViacomCBS, alleges that Tarantino also plans to sell NFTs of page scans and digital film props.
Tarantino's attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday, Miramax is wrong plain and simple."
"Quentin Tarantinos contract is clear: he has the right to sell NFTs of his hand-written script for 'Pulp Fiction' and this ham-fisted attempt to prevent him from doing so will fail," Freedman said. "But Miramaxs callous decision to disclose confidential information about its filmmakers contracts and compensation will irreparably tarnish its reputation long after this case is dismissed."
According to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, a lawyer responded to Miramax's Nov. 4 cease-and-desist letter by saying Tarantino holds reserved rights to print publication of the script.
Miramax argued in the suit that print publication and NFTs are not the same.
"The proposed sale of a few original script pages or scenes as an NFT is a one-time transaction, which does not constitute publication, and in any event does not fall within the intended meaning of 'print publication' or 'screenplay publication,'" the suit says. "The right to sell NFTs of such excerpts of any version of the screenplay to Pulp Fiction is owned and controlled by Miramax."
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In the suit, which was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Miramax argues that Tarantino essentially signed away rights to "all media" for "Pulp Fiction" in perpetuity when the film was under development in 1993.
"Miramax holds the rights needed to develop, market, and sell NFTs relating to its deep film library," the suit says.
CORRECTION (Nov. 17, 2021, 8:21 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled Quentin Tarantinos attorneys first name. He is Bryan Freedman, not Brian Freedman.
Elijah Lewis, the five-year-old son of Danielle Dauphinais, who compared the boy to serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer four months before his body was found in the woods (New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office)
A mother in New Hampshire sent her friend a text comparing her five-year-old son to the prolific serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer months before the boys body was found in the woods.
"I want him gone," the woman, Danielle Dauphinais, allegedly wrote to her friend, according to The Boston Globe. The recipient of the texts, Ms Dauphinais' friend Erika Wolfe, shared the messages with the paper.
According to Ms Wolfe, she had not spoken with her friend in several years, but Ms Dauphinais reached out to sympathise over a post Ms Wolfe had made on Snapchat complaining about her teenager's attitude.
I call him the next Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, Ms Dauphinais wrote about her five-year-old son Elijah Lewis. Its so sad but I have no connection with this child.
Ms Dauphinais told Ms Wolfe that she had been keeping Elijah in his room because she could not "trust him anymore," and suggested the boy would play in his own faeces and urinate on his clothes and bed.
Hes been getting worse and worse, she told Ms Wolfe. I want him gone. I cant handle it anymore.
She described life with her son as a "nightmare that I can't wake up from."
The boy had been living with his mother for less than a year. Before moving in with his mother, he had lived with his father, but was sent away for reasons that are still unclear. According to the newspaper, Elijah's father had previously called his ex-wife "violent and impulsive" and claimed she had "a history of domestic violence and substance abuse."
New Hampshire authorities began searching for Elijah on 14 October, though his mother had not reported him missing prior to that date.
Law enforcement searched five states for the boy, eventually discovering his body in the woods in Massachusetts on 23 October. Days prior, on 17 October, Ms Dauphinais and her boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, were arrested and charged with witness tampering and child endangerment.
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The witness tampering charges allege that they each asked other people to lie about Elijah and where he was living, knowing that child protection service workers were searching for Elijah, local authorities said in a statement on 17 October. The endangerment charge alleges that they violated a duty of care, protection or support for Elijah.
Ms Wolfe said she forgot about the messages until she saw news reports that Elijah was missing. She then sent the texts to a relative a day before Ms Dauphinais' arrest. The family member reportedly forwarded the texts to the police. According to Ms Wolfe, she was never questioned about the messages.
Ms Dauphinais and Mr Stapf have pleaded not guilty, and have not been charged with the murder of or in connection with Elijah's death. The boy's cause of death has yet to be determined.
Three Munroe Falls officials have signed an agreement to end a 3-year legal battle that a fired police sergeant waged against the city.
Bob Post is set to receive more than $500,000 from the city and various insurance policies as part of the agreement signed by Mayor James Armstrong, Law Director Thomas Kostoff and former Police Chief Jerry Hughes.
The city has spent at least $111,525 on legal costs in the case since 2018, with more fees expected to be billed next month.
More: Former police Sgt. Bob Post, Munroe Falls agree to settlement
"We're proud of this result as it allows Mr. Post to receive his full back wages and retire with dignity like he deserves," Post's attorney Chris Lalak said. "It allows the parties to put the matter behind them.."
Hughes announced in April 2018 that Post was relieved from his dutiesfollowing an investigation as the result of a citizens complaint.
Post's complaint, filed in December 2018 and handled in U.S. District Court in Youngstown, named the city, Armstrong, Hughes and Kostoff as defendants, accusing them of First Amendment retaliation, defamation, malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy. He sought compensation for lost earnings and benefits, as well as damages, court costs and attorney fees.
According to the agreement, Post will receive $522,976.41, including:
$256,089.48 in back wages, including contractual raises, through his retirement eligibility date of Nov. 17, 2021.
$49,937.45 from the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund.
$196,049.48 for attorneys fees and costs incurred.
An additional $20,000.
As part of the settlement, the city and the three officials "do not admit any violation of law, liability or invasion of any rights," with the defendants expressly denying the accusations.
Earlier this month, Munroe Falls City Council approved a resolution to contribute up to $135,000 out of the general fund to contribute to the settlement, and on Tuesday Armstrong said that the city contributed about $131,000, or roughly 25% of the total settlement.
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More: Munroe Falls to pay former police sergeant up to $135,000
The majority of the remaining balance will be paid from the city's insurance policy, and about $50,000 will be paid from homeowner insurance policy shared by Armstrong and his wife.
Armstrong said neither Hughes nor Kostoff are contributing to the settlement.
"[The city's] insurance approached mine, and my insurance carrier stepped up and basically covered me on the case," Armstrong said. "Now, why mine was the only one, I can't really speak specifically to that."
He said he was satisfied that the terms of the settlement meant Post could not return to his job with the city and that the cost to taxpayers was less than the litigation costs.
"We estimated [legal costs] were going to be $180,000 to $200,000 because we had the trial, the court of appeals case and an entire two or three day hearing under arbitration," Armstrong said. "The only reason to try the case was my own ego, and I wasn't willing to use taxpayer dollars for that."
The settlement comes as the three city officials named in the suit are in transitional periods of their careers.
Hughes retired Nov. 1 after five years as police chief, and Armstrong announced he will resign in January to become director of legal services with Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board.
More: Jerry Hughes announces retirement as Munroe Falls Police Chief
More: Munroe Falls mayor stepping down in January
Meanwhile, Kostoff's appointment as law director expires Jan. 31.
Council is currently considering his reappointment, and the resolution to rehire him for a a one-year term had its first reading on Tuesday.
Council President Chris Ritzinger, however, recommended that the legislation be tabled at the second or third reading in December.
"This is in no way any negative with Mr. Kostoff," Ritzinger said. adding that after Armstrong retires "it will be council president after the Jan. 3 meeting who becomes mayor. I feel that person should have some input in that...that gives that individual and the mayor some time to talk and help with that decision."
Reporter Krista S. Kano can be reached at 330-541-9416, kkano@thebeaconjournal.com or on Twitter @KristaKanoABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Munroe Falls, former police sergeant finalize settlement over firing
"I Voted" stickers. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
A Las Vegas man whose claim he had evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election was amplified by the Nevada Republican Party pleaded guilty on Tuesday to voting more than once in the same election.
Last November, Donald "Kirk" Hartle told KLAS that someone cast a ballot in the election for his wife, Rosemarie Hartle, who died of breast cancer in 2017. It was "sickening," he said, and "made no sense to me, but it lent some credence to what you've been hearing in the media about these possibilities and now it makes me wonder how pervasive this is?" The Nevada GOP pounced, tweeting video of the interview with a caption asking, "How did the forged signature pass Clark County's signature verification machine? And this isn't the only case of a deceased person voting in NV."
The Nevada secretary of state and attorney general's offices, which investigate allegations of voter fraud, filed charges against Kirk Hartle, accusing him of mailing in his late wife's ballot and voting twice in the election. Hartle agreed to plead guilty to avoid serving time in prison, and was sentenced on Tuesday to probation and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. "Ultimately to me, this seems like a cheap political stunt that kind of backfired and shows that our voting system actually works because you were ultimately caught," Judge Carli Kierny said.
In a statement, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said that "though rare, voter fraud can undercut trust in our election system. This particular case of voter fraud was particularly egregious because the offender continually spread inaccurate information about our elections despite being the source of fraud himself." The Nevada GOP has not deleted its tweet about Hartle's false claims, or responded to KLAS's requests for comment.
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Vincent Conte and Ron Marinosci are sipping from small paper cups on the sidewalk patio at Tivertons Coastal Roasters (1791 Main Rd, Tiverton). Retired and relaxed as they soak in the early autumn sun, the two meet here most mornings to shoot the breeze and drink coffee. I come from Warren for this coffee, says Conte, holding up his cup. For me, its worth the trip.
Its so fresh, says Marinosci, the more garrulous of the two. It doesnt get much better. Plus, I come for the company, he smiles.
Coffee beans are processed at Coastal Roasters in Tiverton.
An average of 400 customers visit Coastal Roasters each day, for the company, the view of the Sakonnet River, and some of the freshest, best-tasting coffee around.
We roast between 45,000 and 50,000 pounds of coffee every year, says Donald Machado, who owns and operates Coastal with his ex-wife, Lisa. Dressed in a yoga tank top and his trademark flip flops, he exudes the chill vibe of Tivertons laid-back style. I think our customers like to see that what theyre getting is as fresh as it can be. From crop to cup. They see me roasting and they feel good about what theyre buying.
Our customers were telling us that there was no good coffee in town and we listened.
Donald and Lisa opened Coastal back in 2002. They both had corporate backgrounds but were feeling burned out. An opportunity arose to buy the space a former fish market, among other things and they jumped on it without thinking. Although Donald had done a little home roasting of his own, I dont know what possessed me to think that I could run a coffee business just cause I could home roast, he says. But I did.
With Lisa running operations and staffing, Donald devoted his efforts to roasting, sourcing product and absorbing the coffee arts. He learned commercial roasting on the fly and was able to determine after giving away lots of free cups of coffee what his customers were looking for. Initially, I envisioned just roasting coffee for a living. I really wasnt planning on being a cafe operator, he says. But our customers were telling us that there was no good coffee in town and we listened. By the fall of 2002, the so-called Third Wave of Coffee a phenomenon referring to the post-Starbucks local cafe scene had kicked in and Coastal became a fully operating cafe.
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Donald Machado roasted beans at home before opening Coastal Roasters.
While buying high-quality green coffee beans in bulk from trusted sources (largely fair-trade coffee growers) is labor-intensive, controlling the roasting process is more profitable and provides consumers with a gently artisan, bespoke product. And when the roasting is done in-house, it builds a dedicated local clientele, and gives that clientele a special place to invest their time and money a community sanctuary.
Roasting gave us a fresh product and total control over the entire process, Donald says. We are in touch with the coffee brokers, we do the cupping as well as the roast profiling, and so we know exactly what were selling to our customers. People would come in and see me roasting in the back of the store and think it was a novelty. It wasnt, but my customers got a kick out of it.
As a roaster, Donald sticks to the basics. Many Third Wave roasters experiment with different approaches to different beans, seeking out exotic coffees with unique flavor profiles. Not Donald. The science hasnt evolved over the years, he says, pushing a few windblown strands of blonde hair off his tanned forehead. The machinery hasnt changed, either. Theres not a lot I can do with it. Im happy not to. I know that theres more going on in the industry and newer, younger people pushing the roasting process. But Im fine with the established style that we have, and my customers really like it.
Over in Middletown, a lovable old dog named Blue pads into Custom House Coffee at 796 Aquidneck Avenue, his owner seeking a fresh cup of coffee. There he is, theres Blue! says one of the baristas. The reception is overwhelming, and the happy dog is soon attended to by a half-dozen members of the Custom House staff.
Bob Mastin checks the beans as theyre roasting. The beans are heated to around 420 degrees for a lighter roast and 460 degrees for a darker roast.
Bob Mastin, the establishments president, general manager and roaster, loves the welcome Blue gets because, he observes, it says a lot about his place and the homey vibe his customers feel when they come in. Were like a family here, he says, literally opening his arms to the scene. I feel like the father figure, and Im very grateful for all of them.
A Navy veteran with a background in both accounting and engineering, Mastin started at home with a simple air roaster and some green coffee beans he purchased online. Now he has a successful business with a staff of 20 and two coffee roasting machines responsible for roasting between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of beans a week. I left the Navy knowing I wanted to start this business, and its been a real journey ever since, he says.
Bob Mastin stocks the display at Custom House Coffee. The bean selection includes 20 different varietals and 1015 blends.
The shops original machine, a Diedrich IR-12, roasts in 26-pound batches. Their current workhorse (by the same manufacturer) doubles that capacity and requires an afterburner to keep excessive smoke and ash from escaping into the environment. Back in 2001, when I had just gotten started, I flew out to Idaho to meet with Stephen Diedrich, the guy who designed these roasters, Mastin says. He taught me everything I know about running a production like this and roasting great coffee.
Mastin takes a classic, conservative approach to his roasting. Over the years, he has determined what his customers like a medium- to dark-roasted coffee and has served it up, as fresh as possible, to his regular clientele. You can experiment all you want with flavor profiles, he says, but your customers might not like it. Id rather just focus on giving them the kind of coffee they like to drink.
More: An entrepreneur leaves his mark on Tiverton Four Corners.
In his two decades of coffee roasting, Mastin has built a steady, successful business with that approach, both retailing and wholesaling his fresh-roasted coffee beans. Forty percent of his roasted beans are wholesaled to clients like Clements Marketplace, and both Cru and Belles cafes. The operation requires attention to detail especially trying to keep all of those roasted beans fresh. Oxygen is the enemy of freshness,
he says.
Custom House Coffees Bob Mastin examines a shipment of green coffee beans.
Mastin now offloads most of the roasting responsibility to his staff, including his head roaster, Steve Demeter (better known as The Coffee Guy, for his frequent appearances at local farmers markets and festivals). Also helping with roasting are Felicity McDonough, the green coffee buyer, assistant general manager Jessica James, and store manager Kaitlin Welch. Like everything else at Custom House Coffee, roasting is a team effort.
Still, Mastin controls the final product. His roasts, like the roasts at Coastal, are traditional. He doesnt dabble much in light-roast, as most regular coffee drinkers prefer their beans a little darker. Medium-roast coffees reach between 400 and 430 degrees Fahrenheit and are typically roasted a little beyond first crack, but not all the way to second crack, Mastin explains, noting that the first crack is a stage where the vapors inside the beans break through the outer wall and create a cracking noise.
Thats the sweet spot, he says. But some beans have a different sweet spot. You just have to work a little to find it.
More: Looking for a new furry friend? This new cafe in Tiverton lets patrons meet and adopt cats
Over on Broadway in Newport, in the Empire Tea & Coffee nerve center (aka roasting room), its business as usual. CJ Barone and Tim Boughton are filling a 32-gallon container with freshly roasted beans. Barone shovels out a handful with a big metal scoop. This is our light roast, he says. Theres no surface oil on the bean. He walks over to another barrel. This is our espresso. The bean is nearly as light, with only a hint of surface oil. And so our discussion about the nuances of roasting coffee beans begins.
More: Eight places you've got to try to get coffee around Newport County
Empire Fills a void in Newport
Barone started Empire in 2004, but the company began roasting its own beans just eight years ago. There was a void in Newport at the time, he says. There were few places offering specialty coffees back then, besides a few competitors and Starbucks. The cafe started out wholesaling its coffee from Mastin at Custom House Coffee, then diversified their sources. Finally, they invested in roasting machines to gain full control of the process.
Empire Tea & Coffee owner CJ Barone prepares tp check the flavor of a roast a process called cupping.
At first, we were roasting some coffee and were doing it really light, he says. Since Barone and his coworkers dont take their coffee with cream or sugar, they were very pleased with the results. Unfortunately, their customers, who usually add cream and sugar, didnt think so. When you add cream and sugar to a light roast, those things became overpowering, and they told us it tasted like water, Barone says. A darker roast, like the coffee at the Custom House, stands up to cream and sugar really well.
It didnt take Barone long to recalibrate, and to start roasting for his customers tastes. Still, that didnt pre-vent him from focusing on the lighter side of roasting, but finding the fullest flavor possible. If you like really dark roasts, were definitely not the place for you in general, he admits. We tend to be more in the medium to just-past-medium roast range. But even our dark roast is not dark. Its roasted for a dark profile, so it has a ton of great flavor, but its not oily.
Empire Tea & Coffees Jarron VanCeylon makes a pour-over mug of coffee.
People ask for my advice on coffee all the time, he adds. I just tell them, However you like it, thats how you should make it.
In the end, however, coffee is only part of the story. Were all just here to add a place for you to have a conversation, a great cup of coffee, Barone says. Why should we try to move the world in any other way than being a place to come, relax and enjoy getting away from everything else? Theres enough competition in this world. Theres enough to worry about. It can just be about us spending time together.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport-area coffee roasters work the beans to bring you a better cup
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) In their first four games, the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins have won by an average of 31 points. After their latest win, a 98-57 romp over Mount St. Marys coach Brenda Frese said that the teams biggest victory of the season wasnt good enough for her.
I still wasnt pleased tonight, Frese said. If theres a team thats a lesser opponent than us, were looking for perfection in everything that were doing.
Angel Reese scored 18 points and had a career-high 15 rebounds, Mimi Collins scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Ashley Owusu had 16 as Maryland rolled to a 98-57 win over Mount St. Marys on Tuesday night.
Katie Benzan had 14 points and eight assists. Chloe Bibby added 13 points and nine rebounds. and Shyanne Sellers had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Mount St. Marys was led by Aryna Taylors 21. Kendall Bresee had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Maryland (4-0) scored the games first 16 points and didnt allow a field goal until Taylor hit a 3-pointer with 2:13 left in the first quarter.
The Terrapins led 23-7 after one, and increased their lead to 53-28 at halftime, shooting 61.1% in the first half.
Mount St. Marys (1-2), which rolled over Division III Valley Forge 102-15 on Saturday, had no answer for bigger, more athletic Maryland. The Terrapins outrebounded the Mount 51-31.
Weve just got to make it uneasy, Mount St. Marys coach Antoine White said.
Some of their looks were a little bit too easy.
Owusu, who rolled her left ankle early in the third quarter in Sundays game at James Madison, practiced on Monday, and showed no ill effects during her time in the game.
Maryland played without star junior guard Diamond Miller, whos missed the first four games with a sore right knee.
BIG PICTURE
Mount St. Marys: After their lopsided win against overmatched Valley Forge, and this difficult loss against a highly ranked team, the Mount has two games, against Lehigh and Howard that they should be competitive in.
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Maryland: The Terrapins continue to methodically defeat their opponents, and beginning Sunday face a tough week of games against No. 6 Baylor, No. 5 NC State and No. 7 Stanford.
HOT START
Frese had no complaints about how quickly Maryland began the game.
I loved our start, Frese said. I loved that first quarter. When youre talking about seven points, I thought it was a pretty complete game for us.
Walker, in his first season as Mount St. Marys coach had a different perspective about Marylands big start.
They were practice shots for this team, and if you give this team practice shots, theyre going to knock them down a a high clip.
STAT OF THE GAME
Maryland had 20 assists to nine turnovers while Mount St. Marys had 13 assists and committed 19 turnovers.
REESES NUMBERS
With so many difficult teams in the near future, Reese tried to make certain the team didnt let up.
I was letting the game come to me per usual, she said. My teammates were feeding me, and they were much smaller than us, and taking advantage of the inside-out was a big thing.
UP NEXT
Mount St. Marys: Visits Lehigh on Friday
Maryland: Hosts UNC Wilmington on Thursday
___
More AP womens college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
A Hamilton, Ontario youth under the age of 18 has been arrested and charged for alleged involvement in the theft of $46 million worth of cryptocurrencies bitcoin and bitcoin cash.
Hamilton Police say the victim was located in the United States.
The arrest was the result of a joint investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force that started in March 2020.
"The victim had been targeted by a SIM swap attack, a method of hijacking valuable accounts by manipulating cellular network employees to duplicate phone numbers so threat actors can intercept two-factor authorization requests," Hamilton Police allege in a news release.
"As a result of the SIM swap attack, approximately $46 million CAD worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the victim. This is currently the biggest cryptocurrency theft reported from one person."
Police say the alleged perpetrator was arrested for theft over $5,000.00 and possession of property or proceeds of property obtained by crime.
Police say a gaming username led to the arrest. "The joint investigation revealed that some of the stolen cryptocurrency was used to purchase an online username that was considered to be rare in the gaming community," allege Hamilton Police.
"This transaction led investigators to uncover the account holder of the rare username."
According to Hamilton Police, it seized $7 million worth of cryptocurrency, and that the matter is now before the courts.
Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, those under 18 years of age charged or convicted of a crime cannot be named.
Hamilton Police say it is not looking for anyone else involved in the alleged theft.
Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains.
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(Bloomberg) -- Traffic at Canadas largest port has been cut off by what local officials are calling the storm of the century, the latest snag to hit the North American supply chain.
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Days of torrential rain have pelted British Columbia, triggering floods and landslides that have blocked the tracks of the nations two major railways and washed away parts of its main east-west road artery, the Trans-Canada Highway.
Its the second time in less than five months that British Columbia -- a major conduit to Asian markets and home to one of the busiest ports on the West Coast -- has been paralyzed by extreme weather: wildfires and a record heat wave choked the region in the summer. This time the disruptions threaten the movement of goods ahead of the busy winter holiday season.
Flooding has halted rail services to and from the Port of Vancouver and also shut all main routes by road, the port said in a statement. Its not yet known when Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. will be able to re-open their lines, it said. Nearly 1,000 rail cars carrying grain are idled in the Vancouver corridor, according to estimates from Ag Transport Coalition.
British Columbia Transportation Minister Rob Fleming called it the worst weather storm in a century at a news conference late Tuesday. Highway 3, an older route that runs roughly parallel to the U.S. border, may be the first to re-open, he said, without providing a time frame. The Trans-Canada and another major artery, known as the Coquihalla, will take longer, he said, noting the dramatic images emerging out of the region, including chunks of highway falling into rushing waters. The infrastructure damage there is significant.
This has been an extreme weather event, said Mike Farnworth, the deputy premier of British Columbia. The impacts have been significantly greater than expected.
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About two-thirds of containers in British Columbia are transported by rail, said Dave Earle, chief executive officer of the B.C. Trucking Association. Theres going to be disruption, he said by phone. We just dont know how much for how long.
There is enough grain at port terminal elevators to keep exports moving for a few days and perhaps a week, said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., a grain transportation monitoring company in Edmonton, Alberta. After that, its about the wait.
Port Congestion
Port terminals rely largely on railways to deliver containers to load on ships, as well as transport imported and exported goods. When the cycle of inbound rail cars stops, thats when congestion starts to build at the port terminals, Hemmes said.
Canadian Pacific said its track remains closed near Hope, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Vancouver. Canadian National said multiple mudslides and washouts have damaged tracks and that repairs are progressing, but that outbound and inbound traffic in Vancouver is still affected.
The flooding is also disrupting energy infrastructure. Enbridge Inc. shut a segment of the Westcoast Pipeline, which delivers gas from the interior to the Vancouver region, as a precautionary measure early Tuesday due to heavy rain and increased river flow, spokesman Jesse Semko said by email.
Some of the worst flooding has been in Merritt, whose 7,000 residents were ordered to evacuate on Monday. The town lies only 60 kilometers east of Lytton, which grabbed global headlines in June when it burnt to the ground after recording the highest temperature ever in Canada -- 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit).
Earlier this week, some 275 people were airlifted by helicopters to safety after their vehicles were trapped on a highway between two landslides. So far, one fatality has been confirmed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
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JERUSALEM (AP) A Palestinian teen was fatally shot on Wednesday after stabbing two Israeli border police officers in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said.
The Israeli police officers were hospitalized, one in moderate condition and another with minor injuries, police said. Private security and police officers shot the teen, identified by police as a 16-year-old from east Jerusalem, and paramedics with the United Hatzalah rescue service pronounced him dead.
Security camera footage of the incident released by police appeared to show the teen attack the officers, who were patrolling near a section of the Via Dolorosa. The assailant appeared to stab one of the officers with a knife, at which point the second officer begins grappling with the attacker, who then is shot by a third person.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security personnel in recent years. Palestinians and rights groups contend some of the alleged car-rammings were accidents and accuse Israel of using excessive force.
The incident took place on a main thoroughfare of Jerusalems Old City, which is home to holy sites to Christians, Jews and Muslims and is the emotional epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move unrecognized by most of the international community.
The Palestinians seek the occupied West Bank and Gaza for a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
WALL Parents and residents spoke out with frustration and anger about the ongoing investigation into alleged hazing by some members of the Wall High School football team during an emotional school board meeting that included calls for resignations.
One graduate told the Tuesday night crowd that the controversy brought back memories of similar abuse from long ago.
About 200 people, some sporting Wall football attire, filled the high school auditorium for what marked the first public discussion of the investigation launched last week that already has prompted the suspension of three coaches, Athletic Director Tom Ridoux being placed on administrative leave and the cancellation of two football games, including the annual Thanksgiving Day match-up.
Before anyone had a chance to speak, the controversy took another turn as it was announced that board member Russell Gartz had resigned. The parent of a football player, Gartz was not in attendance, but his resignation letter was read to the crowd prior to other action being taken.
More: Monmouth County Prosecutor takes control of Wall football hazing probe
More: Wall football Thanksgiving game canceled amid hazing investigation
He wrote that his service on the board is "not worth the risk anymore," citing "visceral, mean-spirited comments about many children and their families over recent days" that have "made being in a volunteer position no longer valuable for me and my family."
Wall Township parents at the Nov. 16 Board of Education meeting where several spoke out about the ongoing football team alleged hazing investigation
Then, for more than an hour, those in attendance addressed the board with a mix of criticism about how the probe has been pursued and concern over the impact on the students involved.
I have a big problem with how this whole thing was handled, resident Betsy Cross told the board. I sent a number of emails, nothing gets replied to, nothing. What is going on here? We do not see this in neighboring towns. We dont trust you.
On several occasions meeting attendees shouted out complaints and demands for information, while a few urged that board members resign.
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Mike Buono, a high school parent, said information was not properly disseminated and people were left to guess the facts.
These boys sat for a week without any direction from you guys, you didnt support them emotionally, you didnt tell them when practice was, he said about the football players. By doing what you did and not doing what you didnt do you created a big firestorm and you further victimized a greater number of people by canceling a playoff game that these kids worked for for 12 years. It is important.
He added, You further victimized another 30, 40, 50 kids, the cheerleading staff, the marching band and people who look forward to Thanksgiving.
Several alumni offered up their views of past incidents, saying this is not the first time alleged hazing and abuse by students on classmates has occurred.
This is nothing new, said Alison Connolly, a past graduate and one-time board president. I do hope that you are listening, there is a toxic culture in this district and this community, and it is literally killing children.
Rebecca King, who graduated in 2020, offered a similar recollection.
I have personally heard stories of racism, homophobia, sexual assault and sexual harassment. It is clear to all Wall alumni that these are not isolated incidents. They speak to a larger corrupt pattern of administration shrugging off incidents in order to save face and protect those they deem most valuable students.
More: Wall superintendent blasts 'misinformation' around high school football hazing allegations
Eric Duchak, a member of the Class of 1997, recalled two occasions when he said he was attacked in the football locker room and found no help from administrators.
I was kicked, whipped with towels and helmets, he said.
Duchak said he had reported the incident and school officials did nothing.
He described the experience as a profound personal violation that I have carried with me for 27 years.
Superintendent Tracy Handerhan opened the meeting with a declaration that nothing was being brushed aside and said that officials had taken appropriate action from the beginning.
In response to the rumor that Wall Township Schools is sweeping this under the rug my response to that is that it is absolutely false, she said to the crowd. When we heard rumors we actively sought information to determine validity.
But she said while many were spreading information on social media and among the community, the district was having difficulty gathering facts from those who might know.
There were reports of what people had seen and had been aware of, but they did not report it to us, she said. The school and the school district can only act upon information that it has.
She then urged calm, Now is the time to come together and support each other. It is time to take a collective breath.
Board member Chris San Fillipo agreed: As a community we need to sort of step back from ourselves and Facebook and things that are posted. Im heartbroken for this school, Im heartbroken for every single kid who has had to suffer trauma.
Elections: Wall school board, not for the faint of heart, awaits count of nearly 2,000 write-in votes
District leaders earlier Tuesday canceled the annual Thanksgiving game against longtime rival Manasquan and effectively ended the season, while the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office announced the investigation had been taken away from local police to avoid the appearance of impropriety because two of the coaches involved had police ties.
Since Board President Ralph Addonizio first acknowledged last week that an investigation was underway related to a student matter, district leadership had been silent about details of the alleged locker room incident.
At the same time, however, rumors of hazing and physical abuse and the apparent existence of at least two videos purporting to show the conduct in controversy have circulated, joined by social media posts accusing school officials of secrecy and spreading unsubstantiated charges.
Handerhan first addressed the situation in a letter to parents Friday that attacked what she termed a circulation of misinformation surrounding the ongoing investigation, but she has so far declined to discuss what has been turned up in the inquiries.
She also urged residents to avoid spreading rumors and to wait until an investigation is completed.
More: Wall High School state playoff football game canceled amid hazing allegations
I am aware of many social media posts and media reports that are grounded in rumor, Handerhan said in a letter to district parents late Friday. This circulation of misinformation is compounding an already difficult and challenging situation. Contributing to this type of messaging is hurtful to the students, school community, and to the greater Wall Township community.
District officials also have provided counseling for students who wish to discuss the situation and partnered with a local mental health group for further guidance.
Several senior parents issued a statement Friday defending their youngsters and criticizing the initial district response.
This is by no means the culture of Wall football and it is terrible to have this negative light shined on us because of the actions of a few individuals, the statement read, in part. This incident in no way involved our entire team.
School officials have not commented on the existence of videos purporting to portray the alleged conduct. Some media reports have alleged that physical abuse and even the use of a broomstick or other foreign objects were involved, but with no first-hand accounts.
Two parents who claim to have seen two videos contend it shows nothing more than harmless locker room antics and wrestling with no sign of assault or hazing.
I would describe them as boys being boys in a locker room, said one of the parents who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Boys are boys, they wrestle and goof off and jump around and squeeze each other and a lot of these boys have been buddies forever.
That view is counter to reports claiming other parents described the actions in the videos depict criminal wrongdoing.
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Wall high school football hazing: Parents pack out emotional meeting
Authorities in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night were searching for two elementary school-age girls who officials said were taken by gunpoint by their father, a former police officer.
The girls "may be at special risk of harm or injury," a Pennsylvania State Police bulletin said.
State Police identified them as Aaminah Vicosa, 6, and Giana Vicosa, 7, and police said they were searching for Robert Vicosa, 42.
Joy Stewart, a spokeswoman for Maryland's Baltimore County Police Department, said Vicosa had worked as an officer until he was terminated in August. Officials did not detail why he was fired.
Robert Vicosa. (York Area Regional Police Dept. via Facebook)
He is accused of committing a home-invasion robbery at gunpoint and holding a woman captive before grabbing the girls and fleeing in the woman's vehicle, according to authorities in York County, Pennsylvania.
The invasion happened in Windsor Township in York County, and a vehicle was later found in the nearby borough of Red Lion, the York Area Regional Police Department said in a statement.
"Vicosa's children are to believed to be in extreme danger," the statement reads. "Do not approach Vicosa as he is armed with at least one firearm."
Arnold Westbrook Jr. was appointed as the Interim City Councilor for Petersburg in Ward 7 on Nov. 16, 2021.
PETERSBURG - Petersburg City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to appoint Arnold Westbrook Jr. as the interim councilor for Ward 7. He succeeds former councilor John Hart, who resigned from his seat earlier this month.
Westbrook comes to the city with a background in education. He is currently a Professor in Virginia State University's English Department and does work with its honors college. Before that, he also worked at Petersburg City Public Schools. He comes from a line of educators - his father was also a professor at VSU and his mother was a teacher at PCPS.
Westbrook says one of his greatest achievements is the creation of the #crownHIM initiative for Black Male empowerment. He previously served on the Appomattox Regional Water authority. Westbrook has also worked with at-risk city youth through Trio Upward since 2011.
He earned a master's degree in American and English Literature at VSU and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Economics from Morehouse College.
Mr. Westbrook has the experience, commitment and passion needed as we move Petersburg forward, said Mayor Sam Parham. He was born and raised in Petersburg and has continued to be involved in the community by mentoring city youth and serving as Chairman of the Social Services Advisory Board. Mr. Westbrook is a team player with vision.
The city appointed Westbrook to the interim position less than two weeks after Hart's resignation. He assumes the remainder of his predecessor's term, which expires in Dec. 2022. The city received two applications for the Ward 7 vacancy.
Westbrook was immediately sworn in Tuesday evening where he took part in his first legislative meeting.
He introduced himself as a member of First Baptist Church on Harrison street, where he was baptized, and now attends Good Shepherd Baptist Church.
He outlined three specific areas where he wants to make an impact - the first being education. Through his experience on advisory boards he also wants to help residents get access to services they need. The third area mentioned was economic development, amid Petersburg's growing profile.
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A city press release also outlined other objectives:
Improving health outcomes by supporting programs and activities that help people make healthy choices
More revitalization programs and overall city cleanup
Poverty reduction
Infrastructure and technology upgrades
Respecting and promoting the Citys history while enhancing the tourist experience for younger and diverse visitors.
I am committed to help grow Petersburg and improve quality of life for all, said Mr. Westbrook. To love something, as I do Petersburg, you must give of yourself and stay dedicated to community service and residents.
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: Petersburg names Arnold Westbrook Jr. to vacant Ward 7 council seat
By Karen Lema
MANILA (Reuters) - The son of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, an early frontrunner for the May election, is facing a second petition seeking to bar him from the presidential race, centred on a tax evasion conviction nearly three decades ago.
The complaint, filed on Wednesday at the election commission by a group called the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law, argued the conviction should have perpetually disqualified Ferdinand Marcos Jr from holding or running for office.
He was found guilty in 1995 of failing to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 while governor of Ilocos Norte province, a verdict upheld two years later by an appeals court.
"He has continuously neglected his penalty and disrespected the rule of law by running and filing his candidacy knowing in fact that he is a convicted criminal," lawyer Howard Calleja told reporters after the filing.
Marcos's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The internal revenue code states that a public officer convicted of a tax crime will be barred for life from holding public office, voting and participating in any election.
Since his conviction, however, Marcos has been elected governor, congressman and senator and ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency.
The Marcos family is one of the most famous dynasties in the Philippines and despite its fall from grace after a 1986 "people power" revolution, it has retained its wealth and far-reaching and powerful connections.
Sara Duterte-Carpio, the president's popular daughter, will be the running mate of Marcos.
Antonio La Vina, a law and politics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said election authorities would typically only disqualify a barred candidate if a complaint is made first.
"People will only complain if you are winnable," he said, adding the case against Marcos could go either way.
Asked if Marcos had ever faced a disqualification case, election commission spokesperson James Jimenez said: "Not that I can recall, no."
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Marcos, whose father ruled the Philippines for almost two decades, much of that a harsh era of martial law, led an opinion poll conducted last month on preferred presidential candidates.
The poll body has scheduled a preliminary conference for Nov. 26 on an earlier disqualification complaint against Marcos filed by a group representing political detainees, human rights and medical organisations, who has said that petition "is without merit and has no legal basis".
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Martin Petty)
Race is never an easy conversation to have.
I believe it's the glass-shattering moment, sending us to an uncomfortable and awkward place that makes it hard for these conversations to be had.
I too have experienced these glass-shattering moments.
Last weekend, for instance, I went to my hometown of Tullahoma, Tennessee to visit family and friends. While eating lunch with my friends, a conversation about the city's two community centers came up.
It was then that I learned CD Stamps Community Center, named after long-time Davidson Academy Principal and Educator Crosby Dewitt Stamps, is located in the historic Black neighborhood of the city, while the D.W. Wilson Community Center is located in what was the white side of town.
I've lived in Tullahoma since I was a child and never put one and two together. And when I asked my friends, "Why hasn't anyone addressed this?" they all just stood frozen, hoping to leave this awkward recollection of history.
Critical race theory is a collective-glass shattering moment our country has taken, well, not so good.
Critical race theory in Tennessee: Tennessee lawmakers banned critical race theory, but educators teach facts, not feelings | Opinion
Gov. Lee inflames the discussion with 'American exceptionalism' tweet
Tennessee has banned the K-12th grade teaching of CRT in hopes to keep the mirror safely in its place. But we should also keep in mind that CRT was not taught in any school in the state.
As children head back to class, the CRT debate will heighten as teachers and school boards determine what curriculum falls under the theory.
Efforts have already been made to seemingly gloss over CRT.
On Aug. 11, Gov. Bill Lee announced the schools and districts who've earned the 2020-21 Tennessee Excellence in Civics Education while unveiling the Governors Civics Seal at McConnell Elementary in Hamilton County.
"In TN, our students will be taught unapologetic American exceptionalism," Governor Lee tweeted on the same day.
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In TN, our students will be taught unapologetic American exceptionalism. Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) August 11, 2021
We cannot achieve American exceptionalism, as the governor put it, if we treat CRT and its guidance as a boogeyman.
The first step towards getting our minds around this theory is to dig into the books and studies that men and women have worked on for the last four decades since CRT was formed.
But sadly, many opponents and skeptics of critical race theory frankly have no grasp of the theory or how it came to be. That is dangerous.
Stop Critical Race Theory demonstration outside of Northwest Local School District Monday, August 10, 2021.
Debunking critical race theory myths
To gain a better sense of CRT, I began to read "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Third Edition" by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefanicic.
The theory is built upon two social movements, critical legal studies and radical feminism.
Beginning as a legal theory, CRT is still in the process of forming into an educational curriculum.
Those most associated with the theory, whether you believe me or not, actually discredit the effectiveness of liberalism.
"Critical race scholars are discontented with liberalism as a framework for addressing America's racial problems. Many liberals believe in colorblindness and neutral principles of constitutional law."
Hardly a Marxist view.
(State lawmakers wrote in a June 2 guest essay in The Tennessean that they voted to ban CRT because the "tenants of CRT are based on the Marxist ideals of critical theory").
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What do Black Tennesseans say critical race theory is?
Just giving the scholarly definition would be enough to change minds. So I tried a different approach and reached out to members of the Black Tennessee Voices Facebook Group, regular people like you and me, to hear their personal definitions of CRT. Here's what three members gave:
Critical race theory is an academic concept that has existed for more than 4 decades. The core idea is that race is a social construct and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies that we all navigate each day.
Alyssa Dituro
Critical Race Theory is an academic framework whose function is quite simple: To look at a given outcome and ask, Is this outcome inequitable along racial lines? If so, why? This question should always be asked about outcomes for large groups, never individuals. And it should always be followed by, And why is that? several times in order to find actionable root causes. Finally, it should eventually lead us to ask, What can I do about that?
Jeff Stewart
Critical race theory is a legal framework derived from a group of scholars who analyzed legal cases and made explicit connections to the racial biases that were inherent within those cases and subsequently within structures of society. Critical race theory acknowledges that there are racial biases within the systems and policies that we interact within. To negate this when we have so much evidence - past and present - for how racism persists to suppress groups of people is literally another example of the oppression and suppression that critics of CRT are denying. My concern for secondary schools is that although critical race theory isnt taught, educators will steer away from addressing/discussing/engaging in the realities that the construct of race and racial discrimination have had on the progress and lack of progress of groups of people over time, the ways in which people continue to be oppressed and thwarted from opportunity, and the reckoning that must take place in order to progress from the warped ideology (e.g. myth of white supremacy) that has haunted our nation.
Lagra L. Newman
People are actively researching and seeking knowledge of what critical race theory is. We can have our differences on the matter but having the facts will create civility in the CRT debate.
Is critical race theory pessimistic or optimistic?
To further iterate my beginning thought, race is a less than desirable topic. But the current condemnation for people brave enough to stay in this space needs to stop.
Paraphrasing a prompt in the book, is medicine pessimistic because it focuses on the disease? Is someone bad because they look deeper into situations more than others?
American exceptionalism is a pinnacle citizens cannot reach without accepting the truths about our country's past. Governor Lee and others like him turn cold to the idea of systemic racism
Fear, currently, has shown to be a huge factor in how Americans conduct themselves. Sometimes that fear is validated, and sometimes it be turned into a moment of clarity by simply opening a book.
We can disagree, but let us do it with logic, not fear.
LeBron Hill is an opinion columnist for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and the curator of the Black Tennessee Voices newsletter. Feel free to contact him at LHill@gannett.com or 615-829-2384. Find him on Twitter at @hill_bron or Instagram at @antioniohill12.
How do you define critical race theory?
Send your definition of critical race theory in 250 words or less to letters@tennessean.com by Wednesday at noon CST. Include your name, city or town and ZIP code. The Tennessean will work publish a selection of the responses on Sunday, Aug. 22.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Critical race theory debate: Tennesseans must use knowledge not fear
Several spiritual leaders, including one who offered to exchange his life for Julius Jones's life, tried unsuccessfully to meet with Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday as Jones's scheduled execution drew closer.
Julius Jones, 41, is on death row for the fatal shooting of Paul Howell during a 1999 carjacking in Edmond. He has maintained that he did not commit the murder. Jones is scheduled to be executed on Thursday.
Staff members in the waiting room outside the governor's office told the ministers and Jones's sister, Antoinette Jones, that Stitt was unavailable.
More: Julius Jones' mother, supporters seek meeting with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt
A receptionist in Gov. Kevin Stitt's office talks to the Rev. John A. Reed, left, and Rev. Derrick Scobey on Tuesday as the Rev. Marvin L. Morgan of Charlottesville, Virginia, waits.
"I am here on behalf of my family. I feel like if he (Stitt) can meet with the Howell family, then he can definitely meet with the Jones family," Antoinette Jones said, referring to reports that the governor had met with Paul Howell's family members.
"As citizens of Oklahoma, he is for the people, not just for certain particular people."
The Rev. Marvin L. Morgan, of Charlottesville, Virginia, was also told the governor wasn't available to meet with him. He submitted a letter to the governor's staff in which he asked to take Julius Jones's place in the execution chamber if the death-row inmate is denied clemency.
Julius Jones execution: Oklahoma governors have granted clemency to men facing execution before
Julius Jones supporters stand vigil outside Gov. Kevin Stitt's office on Tuesday at the Oklahoma Capitol.
"I am here in Oklahoma today because I've made an offer to Gov. Stitt that if another Black man is going to be killed under the guise of capital punishment, that it could be any Black man," he said.
"So I would like the governor to allow me to lie on that table and to die in place of Julius Jones."
Morgan, an interim pastor in the United Church of Christ denomination, said he had made such an offer several years ago in Georgia for another death-row inmate, Troy Davis, but the state of Georgia executed the man.
More: Gov. Kevin Stitt challenger Joy Hofmeister says she would grant Julius Jones clemency
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The Rev. Marvin L. Morgan of Charlottesville, Virginia, waits in the hall outside the governor's office on Tuesday at the state Capitol.
The minister said the situation in Oklahoma is different from Georgia because it is up to Stitt to decide if he will grant clemency.
"One person holds the key to life or death for Julius Jones. The governor holds that key," he said.
Morgan said he wasn't a "lone ranger" and had the backing of many ministers across the country, including the Rev. Malika Cox, who is a minister at The Table OKC. He said he made his "genuine" offer to the governor because there would be backlash against the elected official should he accept the unusual request, showing how capital punishment is wrong.
'Part of justice is fairness': Thunder's Mark Daigneault among NBA voices to address Julius Jones case
More faith leaders call on Gov. Kevin Stitt to grant Julius Jones clemency
Meanwhile, several local pastors and Antoinette Jones said they had hoped to persuade Stitt to consider his own Christian faith and morals and grant clemency for Julius Jones.
"We are here just to ask the governor to make the right decision, to accept the decision made by the parole board, and that he make his decision based on the spiritual and not the political," said the Rev. John A. Reed, leader of the Concerned Clergy for Spiritual Renewal and Oklahoma City Baptist Ministers Association.
Antoinette Jones, the sister of death-row inmate Julius Jones, prays with ministers and other Julius Jones' supporters in the waiting room at Gov. Kevin Stitt's office.
Antoinette Jones offered similar comments.
She said she was optimistic about the governor's decision because she is a person of faith and an optimist at heart. She said she was also frustrated that a decision had not come by early Tuesday afternoon.
Jones said she is not angry that Stitt was unavailable to meet with her. She said she is simply praying that he has heard her family's pleas on behalf of her brother.
"I'm praying that he's heard my mother's words, my words, my brother's words and my family's words," she said.
"He said he was going to make a decision swiftly. I'm just wondering what 'swift' means to me. We're asking that he takes the recommendation of his pardon and parole board. That's why I'm here today."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Preachers, Julius Jones' sister denied meeting with Gov. Kevin Stitt
El Salvador and Honduras nationals seeking asylum in the United States sit outside the El Chaparral border crossing on February 19, 2021 in Tijuana, Mexico
US President Joe Biden entered the White House promising to tackle immigration challenges that have remained unsolved for decades.
Yet since he took office in January, the US has seen a record influx of migrants at its southern border, prompting criticism of the administration's policies from across the political spectrum.
Some two million "encounters" between government agents and migrants near the border are expected by the end of 2021, Mr Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told US senators on Tuesday - including about 125,000 unaccompanied minors who have already been taken into the government's care.
In a contentious hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr Mayorkas repeatedly defended the Biden administration's handling of immigration and border issues.
But he admitted that rebuilding "a broken immigration system" will take time.
Will things get worse before they get better?
Here's what we know about the situation.
Why the spike under Biden?
While the number of migrants at the border had been steadily increasing since April 2020, the numbers spiked sharply after Mr Biden took office.
Economic problems in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba worsened during the pandemic, forcing some to take on a long and perilous journey north. Gangs and violence have also been given as reasons why some left home.
There was also a sense shared by some that the new US president would adopt a more relaxed border approach than his predecessor Donald Trump.
US-Mexico border crossing graphic
Though he has avoided Mr Trump's rhetoric, Mr Biden has repeatedly called on migrants, including asylum seekers, not to attempt the journey to the US.
Despite the slight decline in September, the number of migrant encounters still represents about a 33% increase from the 144,000 recorded in May 2019 - the highest total of the Trump administration.
There's also been a sharp increase in the number of children crossing the border.
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How do they get into the US?
Migrants cross the border in one of two ways. Those who believe they "have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution" in their home country are eligible to apply for asylum when they present themselves at a port of entry for admission into the US.
Others may evade border officials by hiding in cars or travelling undetected across unprotected - and often treacherous - parts of the US-Mexico border.
According to the Pew Research Center, at least 40% of unauthorised migrants in the country entered legally on short-term visas and overstayed.
Biden defends a Trump policy
On Covid, Mr Biden kept a Trump-era emergency policy to automatically expel almost all undocumented migrants seeking entry, bypassing normal immigration laws and protections.
The policy - known as Title 42 - is aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19 in holding facilities, officials say.
The measure sparked controversy in September when the Biden administration used Title 42 to deport nearly 4,000 Haitian migrants who had been detained at the border city of Del Rio, Texas.
The Biden administration has defended the Trump-era policy in courts, where civil rights groups have argued that it violates existing US asylum laws. Politicians from Mr Biden's own Democratic party have also spoken out against the policy.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in August that the policy will remain in effect until the spread of Covid by non-citizens stops being a "serious danger" to public health.
It plans to review the situation every 60 days.
In contrast to Mr Trump, however, Mr Biden has decided not to refuse entry to unaccompanied minors and some families.
Separating families
One of the most substantive changes in border policy under Mr Biden has been a shift in how the government deals with migrant families.
A so-called "zero-tolerance" policy under Mr Trump meant families divided by US authorities, in some cases with parents being deported back to their home countries without their children.
Mr Biden has reversed that specific practice, and some families - but not all - have been reunited.
A task force set up by the president estimated that 3,913 children had been separated from their parents.
As of September, authorities were still trying to reach the parents of 303 children separated from their families, according to a court filing.
Unaccompanied children
As mandated by US anti-trafficking laws, Mr Biden's administration has been transferring non-Mexican minors to shelters overseen by the government.
Critics of the administration previously suggested that holding children in those facilities harkened back to a Trump-era policy, though children were being held for less time under Mr Biden.
In May, the number of children held in detention facilities declined by nearly 90% after they were transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for temporary resettlement.
Remain in Mexico policy
On Mr Biden's first day in office, his administration suspended a controversial Trump-era policy that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US immigration hearings.
Since it was introduced in January 2019, about 70,000 migrants were enrolled in the programme informally known as Remain in Mexico.
In February, the Biden administration began to gradually process these would-be asylum seekers, allowing them into the US while their cases are heard.
It has since allowed about 13,000 people to enter the country to await the outcome of their cases.
The initiative has become the focus of intense legal wrangling.
In August a federal judge said that ending the Remain in Mexico programme was unlawful after two states brought suit against the Biden administration.
Democrat Joe Biden has promised to undo the 'cruelty' of Trump-era immigration policies
The decision was appealed, but in late September, Texas' attorney general filed a lawsuit to try to force the administration to reinstate the Trump policy.
Border wall
Mr Biden signed an order on his first day in office to pause all wall construction and to end the national emergency declaration on the southern border.
He later ordered that military funds Mr Trump had tapped for the project be diverted, leading to a Republican-requested inquiry into whether Mr Biden had inappropriately re-directed congressionally approved funds.
Property owners near the border have complained that despite the pause, the government is still seeking to seize borderlands for future construction using a process known as eminent domain.
Dozens of eminent domain cases brought by the federal government remain open and could take years for the courts to decide.
Some wall construction sites remain abruptly abandoned, with building materials strewn about, as construction had continued right up until the moment of Mr Biden's order to halt.
Refugee cap
On 27 September, the US Department of State announced that the government plans to increase the number of refugees allowed into the US to 125,000 for the fiscal year that began on 1 October.
With the move, Mr Biden fulfilled one of his campaign promises. During his presidential bid, Mr Biden repeatedly criticised Mr Trump's decision to set the annual refugee cap at 15,000 - a historic low.
Mr Biden had stunned his supporters in April by announcing plans to only allow 15,000 refugees into the US in 2021. The annual refugee cap was set by Mr Trump the year before. Following intense public backlash, he raised the number to 62,500 refugees.
About 110,000 refugees were admitted to the US in the last year of President Barack Obama's final term.
Mr Biden also called for more refugees to come from Africa, the Middle East and Central America, and for an end to restrictions on resettlements from Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
The new logo aims to champion the brands London heritage (Pret A Manger)
Pret has unveiled a rebranding for its US coffee shops that emphasises the chain's London "touch" in a bid to appeal to American consumers' love of the capital.
Prets American cafes will soon be fitted out with the new "Pret: London 1986" logo. Bosses said the new logo aims to "champion" the brand's London heritage.
The chain's founders, friends Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, launched their first Pret A Manger (the French for "ready to eat") 35 years ago on Victoria Street. The cafe's French moniker - and the sophistication it implies - appealed to Londoners, along with its organic produce.
They broke into the US coffee market in 2001, opening a store on New Yorks Broad Street, and the US is now the chain's most significant market outside the UK.
Today, announcing the rebrand, Pret's US president Jorrie Bruffett said: What were bringing is that touch of London while serving delicious food with friendly service.
The rebrand is set to coincide with the launch of a refurbishment across the chain's American estate.
Pret, synonymous with office life and a somewhat unwilling pandemic bellwether, has closed more than 70 stores and slashed 3,771 jobs since Covid hit. It was forced to secure emergency bank funding in April 2020, before receiving an 185 million capital injection from its owner, Luxembourg-based group JAB.
Bruffett added: Its been an incredibly tough few years but we are focused on reinvesting and innovating to improve the customer experience while staying true to what we do best. Weve got a great future ahead.
Pret's chief executive Pano Christou, who took the reins in October 2019 after a 20-year career with the company, has been aggressively adapting the UK business model to the reality of hybrid work - including launching a delivery service, dinner menu, frozen croissants for retailers, and a 20 monthly coffee subscription.
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It has also opened a small number of shops within large Tesco stores as the retailer also looks for ways to attract customers into bricks and mortar sites. Sainsbury's also launched a similar trial with Carluccio's owner Boparan Restaurant Group this summer.
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Psychiatric centers fail many children. North Carolina keeps spending gobs of money on them.
When North Carolina puts a child in a psychiatric residential treatment facility, it costs taxpayers hundreds of dollars every single day for just that one child.
The costs mount across the Carolinas and seven other states where children have been placed, week after week reaching more than $100 million in a year. Some of the cash goes to for-profit companies, who do very well.
The toll these centers take on some kids lives is expensive, too.
A 94-pound boy suffered a broken arm when a 6-foot-6, 220-pound worker at a psychiatric residential treatment facility pressed a door open against him.
A youth at another facility could be heard yelling Stop choking me, before a worker uttered a homophobic slur and said, The only reason you are here is because your parents dont love you.
Words on a notebook at Piney Ridge treatment center in Arkansas capture feelings about the locked psychiatric facility. Failed therapy and other problems one boy experienced at Piney Ridge are a common part of life in psychiatric residential treatment facilities that North Carolina relies on to help children who have been abused and neglected.
Our review of state inspection records, documents and interviews with former clients and workers shows the state continued to pay facilities when they repeatedly broke rules meant to ensure the safety and well-being of clients.
These are children; were not in a third-world prison, said Randy Hood, an attorney representing a North Carolina family over care in a psychiatric center they had to find in South Carolina because of lack of treatment options nearby. Were in the United States with children.
Hood pulls no punches when discussing psychiatric residential treatment facilities, labeling them the modern day versions of insane asylums of the 1940s and '50s.
The psychiatric centers siphon money out of Medicaid, the joint state and federal program that helps pay for healthcare for the poor, including children in the state foster care system.
North Carolina pays facilities an average of $423 per day for each child. In some cases, advocates for children say, the state spends as much as $800 a day for kids with complex needs.
A state report released earlier this year harshly criticized North Carolina for spending more money on psychiatric residential treatment facilities and other institutional care than community-based programs. Research shows community programs are cheaper and better at improving kids lives.
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Spending more in the long term
Amy Hannon has spent months wishing she could see her two teenage sons again.
She adopted the siblings as small children after they were removed from the custody of their biological mother, who struggled with drugs and alcohol.
As they began to grow, however, the trauma they suffered appeared to impact their behavior more and more. They threatened Hannon with violence, they ran away from home and stole from a store.
Her sons grew up with a normal childhood in North Carolina, including sports, the outdoors and family vacations, said Amy Hannon. But as they got older, symptoms from likely fetal alcohol syndrome appeared. They stole, threatened violence and were sent into the troubled North Carolina teen residential center system.
Adopted sons of Amy Hannon. [PHOTO COURTESY OF AMY HANNON]
When they were young, Hannon believes, the state should have paid for the boys to be tested for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a condition that can impact learning and behavior that is caused when the mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy.
There are only a few places in the state that offer such testing and the state is hesitant to authorize it because the exams can cost thousands of dollars, advocates for children said. Instead, the state paid to send Hannon's sons to psychiatric residential treatment facilities, where they did not get better.
It just hurts my heart, she said.
No tracking of children's outcomes
North Carolina officials dont know what they are getting for taxpayers money.
The state did not promise to start tracking what happens to children after they leave each psychiatric residential treatment facility until this year, roughly 15 years after the first such facility opened in North Carolina.
The state Department of Health and Human Services plans to track educational outcomes, engagement in treatment and involvement in the criminal justice system three months and six months after discharge.
There is no proof psychiatric residential treatment facilities are effective, said Paul Lanier, a University of North Carolina professor. There is not a lot of leverage the state has to incentivize these facilities to improve quality or to be accountable for anything, Lanier said. Amy Hannon's son, seen in this family photo, has suffered in the system for years, according to the mom.
North Carolina did track some outcomes at selected facilities during a one-year period in 2019 and 2020, state officials said in a written response to questions from USA TODAY Network.
Less than a third of children discharged from the centers went to a community-based program, a desired goal. Some were sent to another psychiatric residential treatment facility, a possible sign that treatment failed.
Paul Lanier, a professor of social work at the University of North Carolina, is part of a research team that found there is no proof psychiatric residential treatment facilities are effective. There is not a lot of leverage the state has to incentivize these facilities to improve quality or to be accountable for anything, Lanier said. The state has very few tools they can use to hold them accountable.
In written responses to questions from USA TODAY Network, North Carolina officials said they are attempting to build up the number of community-based programs in the state. They said keeping children in psychiatric residential treatment facilities for lengthy periods is sometimes necessary because of a lack of alternative services.
Big business for long stays
Some psychiatric residential treatment facilities are operated by nonprofits, while others are for-profit businesses driven by earnings.
One group, Strategic Behavioral Health, is run by a company started by one of the richest and most well-known families in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Dobbs family, whose business empire was started in the 1920s with car dealerships and restaurants, now reaches into furniture manufacturing, construction equipment, trucking parts and beer distribution.
On his first night at Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health in Leland, said one child, his air-filled pillow deflated when he rested his head. He slept on a towel instead, a practice he said he repeated every night during his five months at the facility.
In 2006, Dobbs Management Service, LLC, launched Strategic Behavior Health, which operates psychiatric residential treatment facilities across the country, according to the company website.
The company received at least $1 million from Medicaid from January 2019 to December 2020 for treating children from North Carolina in two centers that operated in the state during that time. That includes at least $576,000 from Carolina Dunes in Leland.
What began as an argument between his child and his wife led to Bill Garrity's son, seen here at a younger age, becoming involuntarily committed into a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Garner and drugged with anti-psychotics without his parents' consent. The lead nurse told Jordan right in front of me that I was no longer Jordans father. She said she was now his father and mother.
From January of 2019 to April 2021, state regulators have cited Carolina Dunes more than 40 times for rules violations. The citations ranged from cracked floors, graffiti and damaged walls in the building to allegations of sexual abuse.
Strategic refused comment.
Jordan was 16 when he spent five days at a different Strategic Behavioral Center near the state capital, Raleigh.
On the Raleigh facilitys website, it says its highly trained medical and professional staff helps children find the self-acceptance and confidence they need to be successful in their families, communities, and schools.
Instead, Strategic has been cited by the state Department of Health and Human Services for medication errors, physical abuse and a lack of documentation of fights or other incidents, police calls and rule violations.
Jordan, during his stay in 2019, slept on a thin mattress in a cold room and he could hear the screams and distress of other kids in the facility at night. They were trapped behind military-grade doors that made the facility feel more like what he would imagine prison feels like. Not a wellness center.
Jordan saw multiple fights break out between facility staff and children. He watched upset kids being physically restrained.
Although Jordan struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, he had never taken medication before. At Strategic, he was given different anti-psychotic drugs that kept him sleepy and lethargic.
Bill Garrity's son was 16 when he was treated at Strategic. The psychiatric children's center has been cited by the state Department of Health and Human Services for medication errors, physical abuse and a lack of documentation of fights or other incidents, police calls and rule violations.
In March, the state released a report detailing violations by the facilitys operator. The report says nurses gave children medications like Benadryl, Vistaril, Zyprexa and Thorazine injections without notifying doctors or documenting the distribution.
I think the people at the top just put (children) in those facilities and whatever happens, happens, said Jordans father, Bill Garrity.
They say, were just going to look the other way.
One of the main journalists on this project, Rachel Berry, is the Northern Kentucky reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer. When she started the "Locked Away" project, she was a reporter for the Burlington Times-News, Asheboro Courier-Tribune and Lexington Dispatch in North Carolina. She can be reached at rberry@enquirer.com.
UPCOMING
Our final "Locked Away" installment Nov. 18 explains why one North Carolina family wants to keep their teen out of psychiatric centers and what alternatives there could be, if changes are made.
MORE IN THIS SERIES
Punching, predators, neglect. Traumatized NC children suffer inside dismal psychiatric centers.
North Carolina ships abused, neglected kids to out-of-state facilities. Some are traumatized again.
I miss my damn charmed life': At risk for suicide, Ariel navigated chaos in youth centers
Foster kids just needed a bed. Lacking one, North Carolina sent them to psychiatric lockup instead.
Psychiatric centers fail many children. North Carolina keeps spending gobs of money on them.
'They're the boss of your child.' Why one NC teen's parents want to keep her from a psych unit
The team behind the Locked Away Investigation
REPORTING: Fred Clasen-Kelly, Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria, Rachel Berry, Brad Zinn, Kristen Johnson, Brian Gordon
VISUAL JOURNALISM: Ken Blevins, Andrew Craft, Amanda Rossmann, Kim Luciani
EDITORS: Fred Clasen-Kelly, William Ramsey
NARRATIVE STORYTELLING: Jeff Schwaner, Donnie Fetter
DIGITAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: Spencer Holladay
FACT-CHECKER: Rachel Berry
PROOFING: Amy Dunn
SOCIAL MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND PROMOTION: Kara Edgerson
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NC pays psychiatric units that break rules millions to care for youth
Jacob Chansley Brent Stirton/Getty Images
"QAnon Shaman" Jacob Chansley has been sentenced to over three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
A judge on Wednesday sentenced Chansley, who prosecutors described as the "public face of the Capitol riot," to 41 months in prison and three years of probation after his release, CBS News reports. Chansley, who was seen wearing horns and fur during the riot, pleaded guilty to obstructing Congress during the certification of President Biden's election win.
"What you did here was horrific, as you can now see," District Judge Royce Lamberth said during the sentencing hearing, per CBS News.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 51 months for Chansley, who they said was "among the first 30 rioters to penetrate the U.S. Capitol building" on Jan. 6 and "stalked the hallowed halls of the building, riling up other members of the mob with his screaming obscenities about our nation's lawmakers, and flouting the 'opportunity' to rid our government of those he has long considered to be traitors." Prosecutors also said Chansley left a note for then-Vice President Mike Pence that read, "It's only a matter of time, justice is coming."
During the hearing, Chansley expressed regret for his actions, saying "the hardest part about this is to know that I'm to blame," per CNN. "To have to look in the mirror and know, you really messed up. Royally." He spoke out earlier this year, telling CBS News the fact that then-President Donald Trump never pardoned him "wounded me so deeply" and "disappointed me so greatly."
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One of the women pulled off a plane at Doha airport and forced to undergo an invasive gynaecological search told AFP Wednesday that she feels "disrespected and disregarded" by Qatari authorities and is still "terrified" of travelling a year later.
The French woman in her fifties, who asked not to be named, was among a group who were subjected to intrusive examinations in October 2020 as authorities tried to identify the mother of a newborn abandoned in an airport bathroom.
The country's prime minister issued a public apology, while an airport police officer who oversaw the searches was reportedly convicted.
Qatari officials said apologies had been conveyed through direct channels with Australia, while training was rolled out to airport staff to ensure the incident was not repeated.
Seven women are now launching legal action against Qatar Airways and Qatari authorities, seeking redress for an ordeal that sparked condemnation and global attention ahead of the country hosting the 2022 World Cup.
The woman said she remained "absolutely terrified" at the thought of travelling again.
"I don't think that there's been a single day when I haven't thought about it," she told AFP. "It's still very much present in my mind."
She was among a group of female passengers escorted off a Sydney-bound plane late at night without explanation.
The woman said she grew increasingly nervous as they were led through Hamad International Airport and split into smaller groups, before being taken to the tarmac where armed officers stood near several parked ambulances.
"It was intimidating because there were a lot of policemen around and they all (had) heavy guns," she said.
Finally, an official told the assembled women they would be checked to see if one of them was the mother, sending her into "panic mode" at the thought of the gynaecological examination.
"I didn't feel, and I think that none of the women felt, that we had a choice," she said.
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"They didn't ask for consent, they didn't say 'You have a right to say no'... They just said you do that, and then you go back to the plane."
Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights from Doha were subjected to the searches, including citizens of France, New Zealand and Australia, where the legal case is now being brought.
The woman, who was travelling alone, said the experience was "traumatic" and left the affected passengers in shock.
- 'We've been disrespected' -
Facing potentially devastating commercial and reputational damage when the incident became public, Qatar last year vowed to guarantee the future "safety and security" of passengers.
"The subsequent procedures taken by the authorities at the airport, including examining a number of female passengers, revealed that standard procedures were violated," the government said in a statement on October 30.
"Those responsible for these violations and illegal actions have been referred to the public prosecution office."
The prime minister "expressed Qatar's sincerest apology for what some female travellers went through as a result of the measures".
But the woman said she had not been contacted by the airline, the airport or the Qatari authorities in the wake of the incident, while fellow passengers had been similarly ignored.
Qatar Airways directed AFP's requests for comment to the Qatari government, while the country's embassy in Canberra did not respond.
The woman said she wanted a personal, written apology as well as compensation and evidence that Doha airport had overhauled its processes.
"We don't want retaliation, but we want to be acknowledged. Because so far we feel we've been disrespected and disregarded and we want someone to be accountable for that," she said.
The woman said she hoped the lawsuit would help bring her closure, and protect other travellers transiting through Qatar in the future.
"I would like women to know, especially women travelling on their own, that they have to make decisions about the best companies to use and the best routes to use, because there are parts of the world that I wouldn't advise them to go," she said.
Qatar is an ultra-conservative Muslim monarchy, where sex and childbirth outside of marriage are punishable by jail.
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, the country has struggled to reassure critics that its promises on women's rights, labour relations and democracy are credible.
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Lourdes Leon has already proven that she is paving her own path. The 25-year-old dancer, choreographer, and model has landed some pretty major campaigns including Swarovski, collaborations with Stella McCartney, Rihannas Savage X Fenty and so much more. Each step of the way, Lourdes has completely set herself apart from her famous mom, and in []
Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday held a face-to-face audience with Britain's highest-ranking military officer, almost a month after her last public appearance.
The 95-year-old monarch withdrew from an annual event remembering Britain's war dead on Sunday with a "sprained back", the latest of several cancelled appearances that have added to fears about her health.
But she welcomed chief of defence staff Nick Carter at her Windsor Castle residence west of London to mark his departure from the role.
Carter was in full ceremonial uniform chatting to the queen, who was wearing a green, orange and white floral dress in the castle's Oak Room and standing unaided, weeks after she had been seen using a walking stick.
Video footage showed Carter being greeted by the monarch's dachshund-corgi cross, Candy, who lay on the red-carpeted floor by the door as they spoke.
It was the first time the queen had been seen carrying out an in-person engagement since hosting a reception at Windsor for global investors on October 19.
The following day Buckingham Palace announced she had pulled out of a planned two-day trip to Northern Ireland and had been advised to rest on medical grounds.
But within 24 hours, royal officials were forced to confirm a newspaper report that she had spent the night at a private hospital in central London after unspecified tests.
Aides insisted the overnight stay was for "practical reasons" and she had resumed "light duties", including holding video calls with incoming ambassadors.
Speculation about her health was fuelled on October 26, however, when she withdrew from a planned appearance at the UN climate change summit this month.
Again, it followed "advice to rest" from doctors and instead sent a video message to world leaders, urging them to take collective action to halt runaway global warming.
Her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, 73, attended the event in her absence and is currently representing her on an overseas visit to Jordan and Egypt.
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Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to reassure the public about the queen's health.
On Sunday, he said he had an audience with her, but without cameras, last Wednesday, telling reporters: "She was very well."
Palace officials have blamed the queen's hectic schedule since she returned from her annual summer holiday to her Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland.
She has kept up her public engagements since the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, in April, including hosting G7 leaders at a summit in Cornwall in June.
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Young Dolph Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET
Rapper Young Dolph is reportedly dead at 36 after being fatally shot in Memphis, Tennessee.
The rapper behind albums like Rich Slave was shot and killed at a Memphis bakery on Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement sources told FOX13. The owner of Makeda's Butter Cookies told the outlet he came into the store to buy cookies around 1:00 p.m. when someone drove up and shot him.
The Memphis Police Department confirmed in a tweet that officers were on the scene and a male victim was pronounced dead, but officials didn't confirm the name of the victim. There was no information provided about the suspect. Young Dolph's attorney, Scott Hall, told TMZ he was in the area for a Thanksgiving giveaway and was on his way to hand out turkeys.
"The world has lost an icon, a great man and beloved artist who has been taken too soon," a representative for the agency APA told Variety. "His dedication, drive, hard work and loyalty to all those around him always came first and he will be deeply missed."
Young Dolph released his debut album, King of Memphis, in 2016, and his fifth solo album, Rich Slave, was released in 2020. He also collaborated with rapper Key Glock on the albums Dum and Dummer and Dum and Dummer 2, the latter of which debuted earlier this year. He had two children.
LL Cool J tweeted Wednesday he was "sending love" to Young Dolph's family, friends, and fans, writing, "Rest in power young Brother. I pray your children and family are covered and lifted up by the almighty." Megan Thee Stallion also said she was "sick" and in "disbelief" over the death of "my friend" and "a true legend," while Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland called the shooting "another reminder of the pain that violent crime brings with it."
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Red Cross responders arrived to help after a fire at a multiple-family residence Tuesday afternoon in Madison.
Nashville fire crews responded to reports of a structure fire at the 400 block of East Old Hickory Boulevard around 1:40 p.m., according to Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney. When they arrived, the scene had heavy smoke.
There are no reported injuries, according to Loney.
Loney said that the fire crews had extinguished the fire and were performing for salvage and overhaul at 2:06 p.m.
Red Cross was on the scene to help those displaced by the fire by 4:09 p.m., according to Sherri McKinney, regional communications director for the American Red Cross in Tennessee.
McKinney said that it sounded around three to four units were displaced, but she was unsure of the number of affected people at the time.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Multiple families displaced by residential fire in Nashville suburb
Hundreds crossed the Bowen Bridge to protest the death of George Floyd in Asheville May 31, 2020. Two months later, the city passed a historic reparations initiative to repay Black residents for injustices from slavery to Jim Crow to present day inequities.
Application submissions for the historic Asheville reparations commission will open on Nov. 19 after a month-long delay to collect more feedback, city officials said, and amid criticism ranging from the need for such a commission to inadequate outreach to the Black community.
Submissions to become a member of the Community Reparations Commission were originally slated to begin on Oct. 18, but city spokesperson Polly McDaniel said timeline elements changed after the initial Oct. 12 presentation because Asheville City Council asked for it to be extended.
The formation of the commission will drive the citys reparations process, which was supported by a unanimous resolution passed by council in July 2020 to account for centuries-old wrongs against Black Americans, from slavery to Jim Crow to current-day inequities in education, health care, criminal justice, income and elsewhere.
The resolution does not mandate direct payments, but rather will make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities.
Asheville Racial Justice Coalition Community Liaison Tre Williams said the group has been following the process closely. He said at the root of the process must be the individuals that the process is for, namely the Black population of Buncombe County and Asheville.
While he said the city had made attempts to listen to community concerns by slowing down the application process to make time for a community engagement survey, the method of engagement was not enough to reach Black community members.
Future efforts will require outside of the box thinking, he said, and the facilitators of the reparations process to be meeting community members where they are.
The Black community is not a monolith, so if youre going to do reparations for the Black community, youve got to go around and actually talk to Black folks, Williams said. And thats whats lacking from the reparations process, so far.
How the application process will proceed
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The city is accepting nominations and applications for the commission Nov. 19-Dec. 22, according to a city update Nov. 16.
The 25-member commission will develop recommendations for what form of compensation Black residents should receive for historic wrongs. Thirteen seats on the commission, according to the initial outline, were to be reserved for representatives nominated by impacted neighborhoods, including Burton Street, East End/Valley Street, Shiloh, Southside, Stumptown and public housing communities. However, a Nov. 17 press release from the city said that number is now 15.
Related: Asheville, Evanston, Tulsa reparations leaders call for Black census, grassroots movements
Of the remaining 10 seats, five will be picked by the council and five by the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. Those will be selected based on experience in criminal justice, economic development, education, health care and housing areas identified in the council's reparations resolution.
According to the release, the Community Reparations Commission members will contribute approximately five to 10 hours per month over a two-year term.
It also stated members will be compensated for their time and participation, and the city will work to remove barriers to service by providing support such as technology, transportation and childcare as needed.
According to the update, the city will hold informational meetings for the community to ask question about the process on Nov. 18, Dec. 1 and Dec. 15. Registration is required to attend.
The reparations effort is overseen by project manager Debra Clark Jones, president of Durham nonprofit TEQuity, which was picked for the $366,000 contract. Her hiring and the amount of the contract has been criticized by Keith Young, the former City Council member who wrote the city's historic initiative.
Young said the work should have been done by the city's Equity Office instead of paying an outside consulting fee, which will come from $2.1 million currently set aside for reparations. The contract represents 17% of that fund.
The city has yet to name an equity director. Brenda Mills was named interim director of the citys Equity and Inclusion Office in July.
Brenda Mills is the acting director of Asheville's Equity Office.
Rather than launch its application process in October, the city opened a survey on the process that ran Oct. 19 through Nov. 1.
The survey sought input from residents about the contents of the application, proposed changes, community interest in the commission and other concerns.
Related: Asheville George Floyd protest organizer, long-time activist Hayes running for mayor
Mills said staff has been making updates to the application and process based on the feedback.
According to data from the survey page, it received about 80 responses.
Of those, about 52% of the responders were from the impacted neighborhoods, or parts of the city disrupted by urban renewal. 37% identified themselves as Black or African American on the survey, and 54% did not indicate race.
Responses varied from outright objection to reparations as a concept, to interest in getting involved with the commission.
Some respondents were still concerned that not enough time had been allotted for the applications, or enough effort made to reach the citys underserved communities. Others worried the time commitment of the commission would be a deterrent for many interested.
Rob Thomas, strategic coordinator with the Racial Justice Coalition, said the survey was not sufficient and only succeeded in reaching those the city already was.
I see it as an attempt to check off another box, Thomas said. He added the only way forward is involving every Black voice.
According to the draft process outlined in the survey, neighborhood selections are not vetted by council and are determined by neighborhood groups. After conducting a nominee selections process, each group makes its decision and final nomination forms are submitted to the city.
The first informational meeting is on Nov. 18. Residents can register online.
An updated timeline provided as part of the survey anticipated that appointments would be finalized in February. For more information, visit the reparations webpage at publicinput.com/avlreparations or the city boards and commissions webpage at ashevillenc.gov/department/city-clerk/boards-and-commissions/.
Information about how to apply or nominate someone will be posted on the reparations web page at publicinput.com/avlreparations or the city boards and commissions web page at ashevillenc.gov/department/city-clerk/boards-and-commissions/.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville reparations commission starts accepting applications Nov. 19
Michael Rogers, director of the UF/IFAS Center for Citrus Research and Education, moderates a panel discussion between scientists and growers during the CREC Open House and Field Day in Lake Alfred on Tuesday.
LAKELAND Researchers shared science-based tactics for growers to use against citrus greening disease during an open house Tuesday at the Lake Alfred experiment station.
While there still remains no cure for the disease that has decimated the citrus industry in Florida, the latest research offered growers hope for making profits from infected groves throughout the peninsula.
To kickstart the event, a morning discussion with University of Floridas Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences citrus faculty dived deep into nutrients, watering and environmental factors to help growers squeeze a profit from their groves infected with HLB, or Huanglongbing, the original name for citrus greening that was first identified nearly a century ago in Asia.
More: Citrus World growers cooperative reports higher sales than last year
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Citrus researcher Fred Gmitter picks out a sample of a new mandarin variety for Bryan Long , a citrus grower from Fort Pierce, during the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center Open House and Field Day in Lake Alfred on Tuesday.
HLB is a bacterial disease spread by an insect, the Asian citrus psyllid. Symptoms include blotchy or yellow-veined citrus leaves, among other signs of the disease. Generally, the disease reduces fruit size, increases fruit drop and negatively impacts the quality of the harvest, including the shape and taste of the fruit.
The disease reached Florida in 2005 and within three years, it had spread to the majority of citrus farms.
After the panel session, Michael Rogers, the Citrus Research and Education Center director, summarized the discussion entitled, What growers can do now to improve tree health, presented by UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center panelists.
"This is not one single solution," Rogers said. Each grove is different with its own environment and the spraying and watering regiment varies for each grower. But getting all of these balanced correctly can make citrus growing profitable, he explained.
Citrus researchers answer grower questions during the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center's Open House and Field Day.
"All of these things are cumulative for your success," Rogers said.
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After the panel, more than 20 hands-on exhibits featured the latest research findings to help growers keep their diseased trees productive, increase yield and fight fruit drop.
The longest line at Ben Hill Griffin Jr. Citrus Hall was for an in-person tasting survey of many varieties of juices from oranges as well as fresh fruit samples of oranges, grapefruits and tangerines, among other citrus.
Peter Chaires, executive director of the New Varieties Development and Management Co., stood anxiously awaiting the result of the taste-testing surveys by participants, which included many growers eager to learn which varieties will be the best to plant.
"That information will be compiled and shared with the research team," Chaires said of the survey results.
The NVDMC supports growers by helping to provide grants for new variety research in Florida for fresh and processed uses of citrus. The hope is that someday a variety will be developed that is immune to citrus greening. For now, the opinions of the growers and other industry taste testers will determine the most popular fruit from the varieties for drinking or eating.
Dianne Busch and Dale Hemmelgarn taste test a sample of a new mandarin variety Tuesday.
Regarding the flavors and sweetness of the samples, Chaires noted that as the ethnic diversity of the U.S. consumer of citrus has changed, so have the offerings at the taste testing.
"We want to have things that are pleasing to everyone," he said. He explained that consumers with Caribbean ancestry, for example, may have a different palate than previous generations of Americans.
While growers want citrus juice that tastes good, the fruit also needs to clear additional hurdles such as how many seeds are in each piece of the fruit, or is it the best size to meet the needs of processors, packers and shippers.
Also in attendance was Michael Sparks, executive vice president of Florida Citrus Mutual. He said he was pleased to see the Citrus Research and Field Trial Foundation Inc. program now operating for a couple of years and starting to show results.
Florida Citrus Mutual is the industry trade group. Its activities include lobbying state and federal legislators. The group, which claims a membership of 3,000 growers, was established in 1948 after the industry became unprofitable in the 1940s when the cost of production was too high and profits too low for growers to earn a living.
The CRAFT program was designed to work as a cooperative effort between growers and researchers in order to provide examples of economically feasible production management practices and programs for Florida growers to utilize in the era of HLB.
Citrus researchers Christopher Vincent , Tripti Vashisth and Nian Wang answer grower questions.
Sparks noted that multimillion-dollar grants had been provided to UF/IFAS for the research that the growers learned at the event.
Its good to finally see some of these dollars paying back, Sparks said. There is still work to do."
Citrus greening is the leading cause for the steep decline in the industry. The peak of citrus production was 244 million boxes during the 1997-98 season.
In October, the USDAs bellwether report forecasted 47 million boxes of Florida oranges for the 2021-22 season, which was down 11% from the 52.8 million boxes harvested the year before.
In addition to disease, other factors have contributed to the decades-long decline, such as urbanization, hurricane damage to groves and the younger generation of grower families showing little interest in continuing the business.
While the information from the researchers was a lot to digest, Lindsay Raley, who has been a grower for 35 years, remained optimistic about the citrus industry. He was walking the exhibits after hearing about nutrients and micronutrients, including zinc and magnesium, and kaolin clay spraying and irrigation research in addition to numerous other data.
I think part of this is to filter down what is not pertinent to your operation, said Raley of Raley Groves in Winter Haven.
Raley, 61, was not optimistic his children, who all work for companies outside of the original family business, would take over someday. But that hasn't been decided yet, he said.
The afternoon session featured field tours, including the site of a new Jackson grapefruit trial featuring HLB-tolerant trees and a project looking at reflective mulch, kaolin clay, protective covers, and their impact on nutrition, irrigation, plant pathology and overall tree growth.
Signaling a possible upturn for the industry in years to come, J. Scott Angle, senior vice president of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the leader at UF/IFAS, explained that of the recent citrus tree plantings, 30% have yet to start bearing fruit and will in the future.
"Here at UF/IFAS we believe there are things that can be done," he said.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Researchers share tactics with citrus growers fighting greening
The cast of Harry Potter is reuniting for a TV special to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, from the blockbuster film franchise.
Actors Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint will join others in an HBO Max series titled Return to Hogwarts to discuss the making of the film.
The director of the first two films, Chris Columbus, will also join the TV special to honour the magic behind the making of the films and the beautiful family created at Warner Bros Studios London two decades ago.
Scheduled to be broadcast on 1 January 2022, the special wont be attended by writer JK Rowling, whose comments about transgender issues have been condemned by multiple stars.
Rowling will however appear in the retrospective via archived footage.
This retrospective is a tribute to everyone whose lives were touched by this cultural phenomenon - from the talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into this extraordinary film franchise to the passionate fans who continue to keep the Wizarding World spirit alive 20 years later, said Tom Ascheim, who is the president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics.
For the first time ever, the legendary cast returns to where the magic started. Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: #ReturnToHogwarts, streaming New Years Day, only on HBO Max. International release coming soon. pic.twitter.com/53bHAf0WTY HBO Max (@hbomax) November 16, 2021
All the stars including Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) will return to the original Hogwarts boarding school sets in London, where the first film was made.
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The TV special is one of the many events planned by Warner Bros, including a TV quiz contest for Potter fans hosted by Helen Mirren.
In addition to its release on 1 January on HBO Max, the 20th anniversary special will also air on TBS and Cartoon Network in spring 2022, just before the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
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A protester carries a rifle outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis., during the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial. AP Photo/Paul Sancya
A rifle-toting demonstrator showed up outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday.
Inside the courthouse, jurors are currently deliberating in Kyle Rittenhouse's homicide trial.
Meanwhile, law enforcement has been bracing for a verdict.
A rifle-toting demonstrator showed up outside the Kenosha County courthouse on Wednesday where jurors are deliberating in Kyle Rittenhouse's homicide trial as law enforcement organizations brace for a verdict.
The demonstrator was alone and carrying a megaphone, though it's unclear what he was saying, Kenosha County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sergeant David Wright told Insider.
In a video tweeted by Fox News, Kenosha County Sheriff's Department officers could be seen asking the man for identification and a permit to carry the weapon.
The man told officers that he did not have a valid permit, and the officers said he needed to have one in order to carry the gun within 1,000 feet of a school.
He was then asked by officers to voluntarily put his gun away which he did, Wright told Insider.
No other action was taken at the time, Wright said.
Meanwhile, around 500 National Guard troops were activated by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Friday ahead of a verdict in Rittenhouse's case.
"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 said in a statement.
Jury deliberations in Rittenhouse's homicide trial began on Tuesday.
Protesters outside the courthouse have been demonstrating both for and against Rittenhouse, including Mark and Patricia McCloskey the St. Louis couple who pointed their guns at Black Lives Matter marchers in June 2020.
Businesses have not been boarded up and there's no fencing around the courthouse, local news station ABC7 reported on Monday.
Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges he faced and has said he acted in self-defense.
Read the original article on Insider
Sedgwick County Jail
When police responded to a shooting at a Wichita, Kansas home around 12:50 a.m. Tuesday morning, they found a 27-year-old man on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim, identified in local reports as Matthew Rodriquez, made comments about taking his life before shooting himself once in the head, said investigators. That initial shot was deemed self-inflicted, Capt. Jason Stephens of the Wichita Police Department told reporters at a Tuesday press briefing.
What happened next, according to Stephens, was murder.
After Rodriquez fired the first bullet, his roommate, Charles Ian Burnham, 28, immediately thereafter retrieved the same gun and shot the victim two additional times, Stephens said. As a result we have booked Mr. Burnham into the Sedgwick County Jail for one count of first degree murder.
Stephens would not provide additional details as to why Burnham was arrested on murder charges after Rodriquez had already shot himself, citing an ongoing investigation.
But, he said, one of the elements of first degree murder is premeditation. So that being the case, there was, I can say this, conversation that took place between victim and suspect that led up to the suspects involvement in the shooting incident.
Burnhams brother, who also lived in the home, was asleep in another room when the shooting occurred and is not accused of any wrongdoing, Stephens said. Burnham was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail shortly after 6 a.m. on Tuesday, according to jail records.
Reached by phone, a relative of the Burnhams said she had nothing to say and asked for privacy.
We don't have any comment, Deborah Burnham, 32, told The Daily Beast. I would like it if you did not contact any of the other family [members].
Rodriquezs family was unable to be reached.
No further information about Rodriquez or Burnham has yet been shared by authorities.
There is no indication at this time that drugs or alcohol played a role in the incident, said Stephens, who added that he doesnt have any information at hand that leads me to believe that weve had any problems with any of these individuals previously.
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Burnham is being held on $500,000 bond.
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By Vladimir Soldatkin and Susanna Twidale
MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - European gas prices surged again on Wednesday after a delay in the approval process for a major new pipeline from Russia, which German government sources said might not now be commissioned until March next year.
Germany's energy regulator suspended https://reut.rs/3wUi5Vb the process for getting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline up and running on Tuesday, dimming hopes that it will provide any significant gas supplies to Europe in the crucial winter months.
Delays in the approval process have raised fears that Europe, which gets a third of its gas from Russia, could face power outages https://reut.rs/30ABBdC due to low supplies.
Nord Stream 2 has faced stiff opposition from the United States and some European states, which say it will make Europe too reliant on Russia for gas.
But other European governments say the new link is vital to secure energy supplies, with higher prices already ramping up inflation rates. On Wednesday the price of gas next month in the Netherlands, considered a benchmark for Europe, jumped 8% to 101.60 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh).
The contract has risen almost 60% in November, although it is still well below a 155 euro peak on Oct. 6.
"I expect that the start of Nord Stream 2 could be delayed until March 2022," one German government source told Reuters.
The German-Eastern Business Association said it trusted the regulator's independence even if it regretted that the decision would cause delays. The group added that it was in the interests of European gas customers as well as the pipeline operator that the project was "legally unassailable and can deliver energy to Europe reliably and safely".
The price of gas at the beginning of next year also rose, with the market not now expecting any major flows through Nord Stream 2 until late in the winter heating season, by which time demand may have already peaked.
The Dutch contract for gas in January leapt 7.8% to 101.61 euros per MWh, while the British wholesale gas price contract for the first three months of 2022 surged almost 12% to 2.45 pounds per therm.
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Some analysts said the certification process could drag on for months because Brussels will still need to give it the green light once German regulators have made their recommendations.
"We now estimate that the certification can only be completed around April next year at the earliest, with ample potential for an extension through to August 2022, given the likelihood of an even more stringent evaluation at the next review stage of the European Commission," Rystad Energy's gas markets analyst Zongqiang Luo said.
INFLATION
Europe's governments are scrambling to soften the blow for consumers and businesses with measures such as price caps and subsidies.
Higher energy prices in Europe and around the world are already feeding through to inflation, which may in turn push policymakers to raise interest rates sooner than expected.
Data published on Wednesday showed inflation rates in both the European Union https://reut.rs/3Fseu42 and Britain https://reut.rs/3Fq6K2c jumped above 4% in October, more than double central bank targets, with gas prices paid by British consumers, for example, sky-rocketing 28%.
Gas prices in Europe were also buoyed by a decline in exports this week from Norway, another key supplier to Britain and the EU, due to maintenance work on its infrastructure.
Germany's energy regulator said it had halted the certification of Nord Stream 2 because the Swiss-based consortium behind the pipeline needed to form a German subsidiary under German law to secure an operating licence.
In its first comments since news of the delay, the Kremlin said certification was a "complicated process" and that it did not see politics behind the decision.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the consortium deals with requests from the German regulator in a timely fashion and Russia must be patient.
Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying that Moscow expects no change to the deadline for the certification process.
Meanwhile, Russian gas flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany were steady and above levels at the weekend, data from German network operator Gascade showed.
The pipeline, which runs through Belarus, which is in the midst of a migrant crisis and a stand-off with the West, is one of the major routes for Russian gas exports to Europe.
Adding to concerns about possible interruptions of gas exports from Russia, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has warned https://reut.rs/3qLNLLx that he may shut the pipeline in a row with the EU.
Flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline into Germany at the Mallnow metering point on the Polish border were running at an hourly volume of over 12,500,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) on Wednesday, roughly the same as Tuesday, the data showed.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Susanna Twidale and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, Robert Muller in Prague, Vera Eckert and Andreas Rinke in Frankfurt, Kirsti Knolle in Berlin; Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by David Clarke and Pravin Char)
The second Black Friday of the pandemic is nearly underway, and Salisbury businesses are preparing for the high traffic shopping day.
Vernon Powell Shoes, Kaiju Records and Barefoot Baby Boutique shared what they are anticipating ahead of the Christmas season this year.
"Shopping local is extremely important for the community," Vernon Powell President Joe Wright said. "When (people) shop local, more dollars stay here. Think about that before trying to click and buy this year."
Black Friday deals
All three stores plan to offer special deals on Black Friday this year.
Wright said Vernon Powell plans to offer some deals, though they could be more selective based on inventory availability.
At Barefoot Baby Boutique, styles and prints of clothing in which there is only one item left will be discounted by 50%, according to owner Martha Ogburn.
Barefoot Baby Boutique owner Martha Ogburn, holds some of the "folk festival" themed items that she will be offering in her store.
Kaiju Records plans to discount used records by 10%.
The record store will also extend its hours on Black Friday. Owner Shawn "Bip" Roberts anticipates large crowds, especially since Black Friday is also Record Store Day, a national recognition of independently owned record stores that occurs biannually.
To combat the coronavirus, many stores like Kaiju Records will enforce social distancing guidelines and capacity limits.
"Even though we want people to come out and shop, we want people to be smart," Roberts said.
Supply chain issues and staffing shortages
Nationwide, excitement for the holiday season has also brought concerns about supply chain issues and labor shortages.
Wright said Vernon Powell has experienced these issues firsthand.
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The shoe store is witnessing shipment delays and operating with fewer employees than before the pandemic.
"We have (products) on order, we just don't know when (they) will arrive," he said. "It's a wait-and-see situation."
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Wright said products could arrive on time, arrive late or never show up.
Though he described this as "scary," he said the store is still carrying merchandise and is "ready to go" for the holidays.
Additionally, Wright shared optimism for the future.
Joe Wright, company president, poses in Vernon Powell Shoes in Salisbury, Maryland, on May 20, 2020.
"Once we get the supply chain fixed, we'd love to get back to business as usual and be open the hours we are typically open and have the number of stuff we're used to," he said.
Pandemic takeaways
Each store experienced the pandemic differently. For Vernon Powell, the pandemic brought an "extremely challenging" year and a half.
Like small businesses across the country, the shoe store struggled to pay bills, bring in customers and maintain employees, according to Wright.
However, Vernon Powell is "rebounding now," in Wright's words.
Kaiju Records experienced the pandemic differently perhaps due to the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records. In 2020, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time since the 1980s.
Roberts speculated this could be because many people became interested in vinyl while stuck at home during the beginning months of the pandemic.
Shawn "Bip" Roberts stands in his Kaiju Records store in downtown Salisbury, Maryland, on Nov. 12, 2020. Bip opened the small shop in April 2019, and remains optimistic about its future as downtown grows.
"I think the pandemic did wonders for the vinyl industry," he said.
Meanwhile, Barefoot Baby Boutique seemingly lucked out at the beginning of the pandemic. The boutique, which sells organic and eco-friendly clothes and toys, changed locations the week before the shutdown in March 2020.
The months of lockdown allowed Ogburn to set up her new store and prepare for customers.
Ogburn said she is well stocked and looking forward to the holiday season. Though the pandemic can be disheartening for businesses, she said it is important to look at the big picture.
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"It's the long haul that counts," Ogburn said. "You can't get caught up in the moment and get pulled down and get negative. You have to see the long haul and go for that."
Maddie Aiken is the community reporter for Delmarva Now/The Daily Times. Have a story tip or idea? Send it her way at maiken@delmarvanow.com. Follow her on Twitter @madsaiken.
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Black Friday: Shop local Salisbury businesses urge for Christmas 2021
Associated Press
A former cadet who was expelled from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy after becoming a father filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging the school's policy that prohibits students from being parents. Isaak Olson was two months from graduating from the academy in 2014 with a degree in mechanical engineering and a commission as an officer when he disclosed that his fiancee had given birth to their first child several months earlier, according the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut. The academy expelled Olson under a regulation that requires cadets to either resign or be disenrolled if they incur a parental obligation from a pregnancy over 14 weeks, according to the lawsuit.
web_plus145_treatment_credit-shutterstock.jpg
A new collaborative effort aims to cure HIV using a novel block-lock-excise approach and is backed by a $26.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The multidisciplinary group of researchers, known as the HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics Collaboratory, is being led by scientists at Gladstone Institutes, Scripps Research, and Weill Cornell Medicine.
The biggest hurdle to curing HIV has been the viruss ability to hide a reservoir of latent copies within immune cells. Up to now most viable cure efforts have aimed at reactivating that virus reservoir in order to kill it with antiretroviral therapy an approach called shock and kill or kick and kill. Unfortunately, those approaches havent been able to wake every single copy of the latent virus (at least not without also bringing about severe side effects).
The HOPE Collaboratory is taking a fundamentally different approach to targeting HIV than what everyone else has been trying, Dr. Melanie Ott, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and program director for the collaboratory, explained in a press statement.
The new alternative tactic, block-lock-excise, targets latent HIV without reactivating it. The inspiration for this tactic arose from the fact that researchers have found ancient viruses that are integrated into the human genome but are no longer active or viable.
The central concept behind [this] strategy is inspired by the way our cells naturally cope with the remnants of ancient retroviruses that have integrated into our genetic material during evolution, said Cedric Feschotte, one of the investigators and professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornells College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Feschotte studies these so-called endogenous retroviruses, which make up about 8 percent of modern humans DNA.
Identifying which proteins are used by our immune cells to lock up endogenous retroviruses opens the way to developing new repressive molecules that can target HIV and lock it permanently, Feschotte said. The concept is exciting, and it makes sense. We want to accelerate what evolution has already achieved with thousands of relatives of HIV previously defeated and buried in every human[s] cells.
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The researchers have also found that these ancient inactive viruses are missing several elements that HIV contains. Theyve identified two elements in particular, one a sequence of DNA and the other a protein called Tat, which are necessary for latent HIV to reactivate and begin replicating again.
We have shown that blocking Tat with certain drug-like small molecules can lock HIV in its dormant stage, and this block stays in place for some time, even if antiretroviral therapy is interrupted, said Susana Valente, also a principal investigator and associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research. With the block and lock approach, we basically want to push HIV into becoming like a harmless, ancient virus.
The pharmaceutical solution would block the Tat protein and alter the structure of the virus, making it harder for other proteins to access the HIV genes and potentially turn them on. This could prevent the virus from awakening and reactivating. That would keep HIV from returning even after someone goes off antiretroviral treatment.
The idea is not only to lock HIV so it cannot replicate without using drugs, but essentially to throw away the key, keeping it locked away forever, unable to do any more harm, Valente said.
The excise part of the new approach uses recent advances in genome editing. By employing CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology, researchers could delete the remnant HIV hiding in the DNA of immune cells. That would eliminate all traces of HIV and any chance of the virus rebounding.
The collaborators are drawn from 12 institutions around the globe, three pharmaceutical companies, clinical groups in Africa and Brazil providing data and samples from people living with HIV, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which will bring insights and perspectives from people living with HIV.
Its absolutely key that this is a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary approach, said Gladstones Danielle Lyons, program manager for the HOPE Collaboratory. Bringing together this diverse group of people with expertise across various disciplines is what will really drive the discovery of a cure for HIV.
The HOPE Collaboratory is one of 10 groups awarded a five-year grant under the Martin Delaney Collaboratories program, the flagship program on HIV cure research at the NIH.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Shares in Siemens Healthineers rose on Wednesday after the German health group said it expected its newly-acquired Varian business to grow faster than other divisions in the coming three years, boosting the group's revenue.
Healthineers said revenue at Varian, the U.S. cancer treatment specialist it bought earlier this year in a $16.4 billion deal, should grow between 9% and 12% each year with operating return on sales rising to well over 20% until 2025.
The company raised its synergy targets from the Varian takeover to more than 350 million euros ($396 million) by 2025, from a previous goal of 300 million euros.
Shares in Healthineers were up 4.8% at 0822 GMT, topping the German blue-chip index.
It expects annual comparable revenue growth of 6%-8% between 2023 and 2025 for the group, up from the 5%-7% forecast it expected for the fiscal year 2022, excluding COVID-19 tests.
Earnings per share would rise 12%-15% each year between 2023 and 2025, it said, adding its dividend policy to distribute 50% to 60% of the net income would remain unchanged.
"With fiscal year 2022 we started the next chapter of strategy 2025," Chief Executive Bernd Montag told the company's Capital Markets Day.
Healthineers will focus more on fighting cancer, cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases, leveraging its market position in imaging and robotics.
($1 = 0.8842 euros)
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Emma Thomasson and Edmund Blair)
Will Smith said that he wanted to date his "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" costar Karyn Parsons.
Smith said he "tried to explain that we were not really cousins so it would be fine if we dated."
The actor said that in response, Parsons was "smart enough to tell me 'hell no.'"
Will Smith said he was interested in dating his "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" costar Karyn Parsons, but she turned him down.
In his self-titled memoir released on November 9, Smith spoke candidly about his experience on the hit '90s sitcom, which marked his acting debut.
"Fresh Prince" centered on Smith's character having a fish-out-of-water experience as he left his hometown of West Philadelphia to live with his Uncle Phil (James Avery), Aunt Viv (Janet Hubert), and three cousins named Hilary Banks (Parsons), Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro), and Ashley Banks (Tatyana Ali) in their lavish Bel-Air mansion.
Smith described Parsons as "the least experienced next to me" and said that she "beat out a slew of Hollywood big hitters to win her role." The actor said that Parsons also knew that it was in their best interests to remain professional.
"Was smart enough to tell me 'hell no' when I tried to explain that we were not really cousins so it would be fine if we dated. ('I swear it won't mess up our working relationship.' She knew better than that good call KP)," Smith said.
Smith ended up meeting his first wife, Sheree Zampino, at a taping of "A Different World" on a nearby set and married her three months later. Their first and only child together, Trey Smith, was born in November 1992.
Smith and Zampino's divorce was finalized in 1995 and the actor dated Jada Pinkett Smith, who he first saw exiting a casting office for "Fresh Prince."
They got married on December 31, 1997 and welcomed two children together: son Jaden Smith (born in July 1998) and daughter Willow Smith (born in October 2000).
Read the original article on Insider
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Korea on Wednesday reported 3,187 new cases of the coronavirus, nearly matching a one-day record set in September, a worrisome development in a country that eased social distancing rules in recent weeks to lessen the pandemics economic impact.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said more than 2,550 of the new cases came from the greater capital area, including a record 1,436 in Seoul. The countrys death toll is now 3,137, after 21 deaths were reported on Wednesday, the 16th consecutive day of double-digit fatalities, including a record 32 on Saturday.
The delta-driven spread has raised questions about whether the country was too quick to ease pandemic restrictions at the start of November in what officials described as a first step toward restoring some pre-pandemic normalcy.
In allowing larger social gatherings and expanding indoor dining hours at restaurants, officials had hoped that the countrys improving vaccination rates would keep hospitalizations and deaths down even if the virus continues to spread.
But there has been a rise in serious cases and fatalities among senior citizens who rejected vaccines or people in long-term care settings whose immunities have waned after being inoculated early in the vaccine rollout, which began in late February.
Officials are now pushing to speed up the administration of booster shots for people who were fully vaccinated more than six months ago. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, the No. 2 government official behind President Moon Jae-in, said during a virus meeting Wednesday that the interval will be reduced to four months for people who are in their 60s or older, and for patients in nursing homes or long-term care hospitals. People in their 50s will be eligible for booster shots after five months, Kim said.
The St. Louis couple who made headlines for pulling guns on Black Lives Matter protesters last year and spoke at the GOP convention two months later attended Kyle Rittenhouses murder trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday.
They listened to closing arguments as prosecutors contended the teenager who killed two unarmed protesters and wounded a third person should be jailed. The defense argued the gunman was defending himself.
Jurors deliberated Tuesday for more than eight hours without reaching a verdict. They will resume deliberation on Wednesday.
Mark McCloskey said he and Patricia McCloskey were supporting Rittenhouse because they feel for the him, according to Insider.
Mark McCloskey stood outside his home on June 28, 2020 holding an AR-15 as civil rights protesters passed by on June 28, 2020. Rittenhouses weapon of choice was an AR-15-style gun during his encounter with activists in August 2020. Patricia McCloskey was armed with a handgun.
Mark McCloskey, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, and his wife Patricia McCloskey walk outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis., during the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial.
We think hes been politically prosecuted, as were we, and were hoping that the jury finds him not guilty on all counts and he can go home a free man, Mark McCloskey told Fox News.
Some protesters shouted at the 64-year-old personal injury attorney, while other showed support as he tried to speak to a reporter outside the courthouse. The staunch conservative is running for a senate seat in Missouri. He blamed cancel culture for Rittenhouses predicament.
Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and Patricia McCloskey to second-degree harassment in June. They were both later pardoned by Missouris GOP governor in August.
Standing outside a St. Louis courthouse after that pardon was granted which is a roughly five-hour drive from where Rittenhouse in being tried Mark McCloskey said, Id do it again.
TAVARES The 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorneys Office will not prosecute a Lake County Sheriffs Office deputy who can be seen in body cam footage shooting and wounding an unarmed man in May.
The announcement by Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie came Tuesday regarding the shooting of Daniel Sayre, a 49-year-old mentally ill convicted felon, who was shot in a heavily wooded area of DeLand.
In a sworn statement, the deputy who shot Sayre said he lost his balance in the pursuit and accidentally fired as he was falling.
"I have no recollection of forming any intent to pull the trigger," Brian Schneider wrote in his statement.
In his report, Forgie explained why the shooting did not meet the statutory requirements for prosecution, but advised that the LCSO may need to review some of its policies.
Forgie made the decision after reviewing an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The first report: FDLE investigating deputy-involved shooting in Lake County
More information comes out: New report, paired with footage, shed more light on Lake County Deputy-involved shooting
'Hes mentally ill': Woman wonders why brother was shot, critically injured by Lake deputy
What happened on May 2
Schneider was among a handful of deputies who responded to 1:12 p.m. calls from multiple people on May 2 about an armed man spooking horses in a pasture.
I saw a man holding a rifle or a shotgun, property owner Gwendolyn Granade told the Daily Commercial shortly after the incident.
She said she heard a deputy shout, Show me your hands, and then a single shot.
It was Schneider who was calling out the orders.
After initially ignoring the commands, Sayre stopped and sat up on his knees turned away from Deputy Schneider (still ignoring the repeated commands to lie on his belly), the prosecutors report said. Approximately six seconds after sitting, Sayre swatted his hand at Deputy Schneiders firearm as if he were going to push it away or try to grab it from him.
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Twenty seconds later, Sayre was on his feet again, despite Schneider telling him to stop moving.
The video appeared to show Sayre jerking suddenly to try and get away, and then he was shot.
While officers attended to his injuries, it was determined that Sayre was not armed at the time of the incident. Sayre had dropped or discarded his gun in a wooded area across the street from the shooting scene, where it was later recovered by law enforcement, the report stated.
Schneider later provided the following sworn statement to investigators:
At one point he reached back with his hand and swiped and hit the barrel of my rifle. For a few seconds the suspect stopped moving. The other deputy who was approaching to back me up called out asking my location; at that moment the suspect got up in an attempt to flee. When he got up, I lost my balance when his ankle was no longer under my foot, and I attempted to regain my balance and get my rifle re-aimed at the suspect. During this split-second action, while my finger was on the trigger and I was losing my balance, a shot was fired that struck the suspect as I was falling down onto my right knee. I have no recollection of forming any intent to pull the trigger.
'Enough is enough'
Sayre was airlifted to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford where he underwent surgery on his stomach, colon and small intestine.
His sister, Elizabeth Turner, was furious. She was on her way to pick him up after he called her. Turner told deputies that he had been in an ambulance earlier in the day, a clear indicator that something was amiss, she said. The report quoted her as saying that he was out of his mind.
Turner told the Daily Commercial that he is bipolar. The report quotes her as telling deputies that he is schizophrenic.
People with mental illnesses are constantly shot by police, Turner told the Daily Commercial after the shooting. Enough is enough.
Sayre told rescue workers that he had taken methamphetamine before the incident, the prosecutor noted.
Sayre has 12 prior criminal convictions, including multiple felonies, two prior violent crimes, and two drug-related offenses," the report stated.
Its been 20 years, Turner told the Daily Commercial, referring to an aggravated battery charge that led to a one-year prison sentence.
Law enforcement and the mentally ill: 911 operators need more training to handle mental health crisis calls. Here's why it matters.
Ryan LeRoux: Intersection of mental health, police and race takes the life of another young Black man
LCSO policy comes into question
Key to the prosecutors decision not to pursue charges against the deputy is the fact that to prove aggravated battery with a firearm, the state must prove the suspect intentionally or knowingly caused bodily harm to an individual and in doing so used a firearm," the report said.
"In this incident, there is no evidence to support the statutory elements" the report continues. "The video evidence and sworn statement of Deputy Schneider substantiate the fact that Deputy lost his balance at the time the single round was fired and there was no intent to discharge his weapon.
Nor did his actions meet the requirements to charge him with culpable negligence, Forgie noted. That law demands proof of reckless indifference or grossly careless disregard of the safety of others.
The report did add, however, there are policy matters that will need to be considered by LCSO, but did not specify what those matters are.
I have not attempted to review this matter for compliance with Lake County Sheriffs Office policy or good police practices," Forgie wrote. "Such review is properly left to the sheriff.
LCSO Lt. John Herrell would not go into specifics, but said the department will conduct an internal affairs investigation, including a review of training and policies.
Forgie ended his findings by stating that his office will take no further action, except to prosecute Sayre for possession of a firearm by a felon, armed trespassing and resisting without violence.
Were it not for Sayres unlawful actions preceding the shooting, he would not have been shot, the report said.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: State Attorney: Florida deputy didn't intend to shoot unarmed man, won't be prosecuted
Steve Bannon, who was a top adviser to former President Donald Trump, filed a motion Wednesday pleading not guilty to charges of contempt of Congress.
"I do hereby waive formal arraignment and enter my plea of NOT GUILTY to the indictment," Bannon said in the filing. The motion still has to be signed off on by the judge hearing the case.
The move is unusual, because Bannon, 67, is still expected to attend a conference in the case before the judge on Thursday.
In the filing, Bannon said the request obviates "the need to conduct an arraignment during the virtual status conference scheduled for November 18, 2021, which I will attend with my attorneys."
Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He told CNBC that the early plea would "help make the process more efficient."
A federal grand jury indicted Bannon last week on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas and refusing to answer questions from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
One of the counts is for refusing to appear for a deposition to answer questions about what he knew about the planning for the riot, and the other is for declining to produce documents requested by the committee. Bannon's attorneys have said he did so to honor the wishes of Trump, who planned to invoke executive privilege.
The committee has contended that executive privilege should not extend to Bannon, because he was not working for the White House at the time of the riot, and that he should have at least appeared for questioning and told the panel what documents are in his control.
If he is convicted, Bannon could face up to a year behind bars and a fine of up to $100,000.
He sounded a defiant note before he surrendered to federal authorities Monday, declaring, "We're taking down the Biden regime."
"They took on the wrong guy this time," he said.
Steve Bannon leaves the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of Roger Stone in November 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to 2 misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress.
Bannon surrendered to the FBI on Monday morning.
The DOJ indicted Bannon last week after he failed to comply with a Jan. 6 select committee subpoena.
Steve Bannon on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to two counts of contempt of Congress.
The Justice Department charged Bannon on Friday after he 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.
The Justice Department has previously declined to enforce criminal contempt referrals, but both Democrats and Republicans on the select committee said they expected that to change under the Biden administration.
Bannon surrendered himself to the FBI on Monday morning but remained defiant while speaking to reporters.
"We're taking down the Biden regime," he said.
Bannon is not the only associate of former President Donald Trump who's failed to comply with the January 6 select 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."
An attorney for Bannon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Read the original article on Business Insider
CADIZ, Spain (AP) Metalworkers burned street barricades for a second straight day in Spain's southern city of Cadiz on Wednesday, as trade unions demanded wage increases in line with a recent spike in inflation across the European Union.
Workers cut some roads leading into Cadiz for a brief period during the morning. They set alight several cars and clashed with police, who responded with rubber bullets. Two police officers suffered minor injuries. Nobody was arrested.
Juan Linares, the provincial head of the industrial department of the CCOO union, one of Spain's largest, said he was not optimistic about a quick resolution to the walkout.
The situation is at a standstill. There are no phone calls, no situation that would lead us to open negotiations," Linares told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.
The inflation rate in Spain has risen to its highest in years, driven up by energy costs. In October, it stood at 5.5%.
Nadia Calvino, a deputy prime minister and economy minister in Spain's government, asked for the violence to stop so that a deal could be struck.
We have total respect for the demands of the workers and the freedom of demonstration and expression, but it is not to possible to behave violently within the framework of a negotiation of a collective or labor agreement," Calvino said.
Most of the employment in the province's metal sector is in shipbuilding. Cadiz, a city of 116,000 people located on the coast near the Strait of Gibraltar, is a blue-collar city where trade unions have deep roots.
Labor groups called for more demonstrations on Thursday.
The high-tech riverside 'super homes' are being demolished after failing a building inspection. (SWNS)
Three high-tech super homes with artificial intelligence worth 600,000 each are to be demolished after they failed a building inspection.
The ultra-modern homes in Cambridge were set to feature artificial intelligence to control heating, lighting and security.
But inspectors said the steel frames of the partially-built homes, part of a small development called 'Cityglade,' failed building standards and deemed them unsafe.
Now the detached homes are being demolished and razed to the ground before being rebuilt by a new contractor, causing months of delays for the prospective buyers.
The homes in Cambridge were set to feature artificial intelligence to control heating, lighting and security. (SWNS)
The detached homes are being demolished and razed to the ground before being rebuilt by a new contractor. (SWNS)
David Lewis, chief executive of county council-owned homebuilder This Land, said that buyers of the homes had been informed of the need to rebuild.
Hadham Construction, who designed and built the steel frames on the three houses, has had its contract terminated and it is now the subject of legal proceedings, Lewis said.
A spokesman from Hadham Construction denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the company was owed 250,000 for the work.
They said that it will challenge Cambridgeshire County Council in pending legal proceedings.
The spokesman added: "There have been two independent investigations into the structure and installation of these three houses and both have stated that the houses are perfectly capable of completion by HCL to the required standard to obtain full warranties.
The houses were part of a 14-home county council-led development consisting of two, three and four-bed properties. (SWNS)
"Various approaches have been made to This Land Ltd but no response has been received whether to company letters or solicitors letters.
The houses were part of a 14-home county council-led development consisting of two, three and four-bed properties.
A promotional brochure describes the Cityglades homes as "truly unique" and says they will feature artificial intelligence to control heating, lighting and security.
The other 11 homes were unaffected by the steel-frame issues.
Watch: How does the 95% mortgage scheme work?
Dozens of cargo ships bringing goods from overseas sit stuck at anchor off the California coast, waiting for spaces at ports to become available so they can unload.
Supply chain issues linked to that bottleneck have forced Jesse Borjon this fall to cancel about 60% of the orders he's made for Red Door Home Store, the Topeka business he owns with his wife, Stacie Borjon, at 2131 S.W. Fairlawn Plaza Drive.
Jesse Borjon said he canceled those orders because the companies supplying the goods either were unable to provide an estimated time of arrival or gave an ETA that was unacceptably late.
"In some cases, the company didn't even know where the product was," he said.
Fortunately, Jesse Borjon said, Red Door Home Store is able to provide its customers "a full store" this holiday season because he saw those problems coming early this year and "overbought" on pretty much everything it sells.
A 'wait and see' game
Jesse Borjon, owner of Red Door Home Store, 2131 S.W. Fairlawn Plaza Drive, arranges a few holiday items for sale Tuesday morning. He said the business is able to provide its customers "a full store" this holiday season because he saw those supply chain problems coming and "overbought" on pretty much everything it sells.
The Borjons are among local small business owners dealing this holiday season with global issues hampering the supply chain that provides goods to U.S. consumers. The breakdowns are making the retailers' lives more difficult.
Supply chain concerns still face Absolute Design by Brenda, 629 S. Kansas Ave., said business owner Brenda Price.
"My understanding is that everything I'm missing is on land now," she said.
Price's store offers items including flowers, wreaths, cards, gifts, stuffed animals, women's clothing, women's jewelry, home accent, home decor and wall decor items, its website said.
Price said she received an email Tuesday from the main company she's been working with.
That email said the company is arranging for its employees to work double shifts. It's asking customers to be patient as it seeks to provide them their goods, Price said.
"It's a 'wait and see' game," she said.
Price did receive some items Tuesday from another company with which she works, she said.
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'Better success' with eastern ports
Jesse Borjon stands behind the Red Door Home Store sales desk Tuesday as he talks about how he spends most of his days working.
Plants, furniture, mirrors, pillows, artworks, figurines and cards, many of them Christmas-themed, were among items available for purchase Tuesday at Red Door Home Store.
The business relies heavily on holiday season revenues and maintains a seasonal pop-up store in Leawood, said Borjon, who is also a Kansas legislator.
Some of the things Red Door Home Store sells are available only from overseas, he said.
"A lot of these items come in through California ports," he said. "We've had much better success with shipments coming in through eastern ports."
Some of the goods Borjon has had problems acquiring recently have included Christmas trees, Christmas ornaments and pretty much anything involving glass, he said.
Furniture orders are taking 36 weeks to arrive, when it used to be about 10, Borjon said.
In addition, he said, products coming from overseas cost more because virtually every company his store works with has added surcharges to offset fast-rising costs they face for the containers they use to ship their goods.
Major suppliers Target and Walmart are chartering their own container ships in an effort to avoiding shipping delays.
Unfortunately, small business owners can't afford to do that, Borjon said.
He said scrambling to deal with inventory challenges caused this year by supply chain issues has required "three times" as much effort as his business had to put forth in past years.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka stores greet holiday season, deal with supply chain concerns
The Conversation
Used car and truck prices are up 31% over the previous year. AP Photo/David ZalubowskiConsumer prices jumped 6.8% in November 2021 from a year earlier the fastest rate of increase since 1982, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data published on Dec. 10, 2021. The biggest jumps during the month were in energy, used cars and clothing. The Conversation U.S. asked University of South Carolina economist William Hauk to explain whats driving the recent increase in inflation and how it affects
A Nueces County district court judge has recused herself from the punishment phase of Derek Parra's trial after she and other court personnel allegedly watched the jury deliberate on camera without sound before last week's verdict.
Court documents show that Nueces County First Assistant District Attorney Angelica Hernandez filed a motion for 214th District Court Judge Inna Klein's removal from Parra's case on Monday the same day Parra's punishment phase was set for.
More: Corpus Christi man found not guilty of murder, aggravated assault in 2019 killing
Parra, 41, pleaded guilty to a charge of felon in possession of a firearm .
"Judge Inna Klein in violation of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure ... watched the jury deliberation by the use of her courtroom camera system," the motion states. "Judge Klein not only watched them, but she allowed members of her staff, defense counsel, and state prosecutors to watch the jury deliberations."
Nueces County District Attorney's Office
The motion says Klein was "vocal in watching the deliberations" and that the "broadcast of the jury deliberations went on for hours."
Klein, who was in her courtroom preparing for the punishment phase of Parra's trial when she learned of the motion, could be heard on camera telling court personnel, "Unfortunately, some technical issues have come up where I'm going to reset this case to this Wednesday."
Klein recused herself from Parra's case the same day.
Court documents also show Parra's defense attorney, Victora Muniz, responded to the state's motion for Klein's recusal by saying she knew of no one who violated the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
Additionally, Muniz claimed the Nueces County District Attorney's Office had known about the incident for six days and only chose to file the motion 40 minutes before Parra's punishment phase was set to begin calling the filing of the motion "untimely."
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However, Hernandez claims she only found out about the incident the day before Parra's punishment phase Sunday, Nov. 14, according to court documents.
Judge Missy Medary, the presiding judge of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region, is responsible for appointing a new judge to Parra's case.
That judge will be responsible for deciding Parra's punishment, as well as holding a hearing to determine whether Klein and other court personnel accused of watching the jury deliberations should be "held in contempt and jailed, fined, or both."
"It's a hard situation because we do have assistant district attorneys that were also present at the time this was happening. But, you know, there has to be accountability and equal treatment under the law," Hernandez told the Caller-Times. "That applies to a judge, to a bailiff, to an assistant district attorney, to a defense attorney to anyone who was in there. There has to be equal treatment under the law."
Hernandez confirmed the Nueces County Sheriff's Office has been asked to investigate the incident for possible criminal charges.
Kailey E. Hunt covers breaking news and public safety in South Texas. Help support more local coverage with a subscription at caller.com/subscribe.
More: Man accused in Ayers Street killing appears in court
More: Man accused of Ayers Street murder extradited to Nueces County Jail
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Nueces County judge accused of watching jury deliberate on video
Cymbio, a Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $20 million in a Series B round, which saw the participation of two new backers, Chris North, an ex-Amazon executive, and Jeff Weiser, formerly of Shopify.
The funding was led by Corner Ventures, with participation from Udi Angel, Vertex Ventures and Yuval Tal, founder and president of Payoneer.
Cymbio, a B2B drop-ship automation platform, is planning to use the new funding to grow its global footprint by establishing an office in Europe and expanding its team in the U.S.
The company was founded in 2015 by Roy Avidor, Mor Lavi and Gilad Zirke, driven by their passion for e-commerce and a realization of the challenges faced by brands and retailers in digital commerce. The platform was built to connect brands with retailers and/or marketplaces.
Cymbio is laser focused on serving brands, enabling sales growth while relieving manual, error-prone and time-consuming processes, said Avidor, the startups CEO.
We are humbled and excited to work with so many trailblazing operators and visionaries, and together join our mission of creating a connected commerce world. This next stage allows us to continue innovating and supporting brands growth with additional product offerings, expanding partnerships and our global footprint.
Cymbio Founders
Left to right: Roy Avidor, co-founder and CEO; Gilad Zirkel, co-founder and CTO; Mor Lavi, co-founder and COO. Image Credits: Cymbio
Todays new funding announcement comes about seven months after the startup raised $7 million in a Series A round, which the company used to expand its sales and marketing team, and its technology.
Cymbio is also planning to add new offerings to its core automation platform to expand actionable data analytics and enhance its low-code integration capabilities, which will allow brands to easily connect with hundreds of retailers and marketplaces with only a few clicks.
Cymbios technology stack is paving the future for brands that sell online. The company has built the infrastructure for the next generation of e-commerce, with a platform that uniquely supports brands growth, said co-founder and general partner at Corner Ventures, Marvin Tien.
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The platform was built to help brands sell on any e-commerce platform, with the goal of increasing their targeted visibility and sales. For maximum benefits, before listing, brands first have to establish the cost of setting up, the ability of retailers to deliver on sales and margin projections.
Cymbio does end-to-end handling, including the listing of the products, inventory integration, tracking and returns.
All the brand needs to do is kick off work with any retailer and then Cymbio does the rest. In the past few months, we picked up significant tailwinds as retailers and marketplaces that we support started introducing us to brands they wanted to sell on their drop-ship programs or marketplaces, Avidor told TechCrunch.
At the same time, we received many referrals from third party logistics and software vendors, which generated a network effect (where more brands brought more marketplaces, who brought more brands who brought more vendors to the Cymbio network) which helped us scale up quickly.
The company said that it has so far tripled its revenues in 2021, when compared to a similar period last year, and has grown its enterprise customers fourfold. The over 400 brands it is currently supporting includes New Balance, Steve Madden and Authentic Brands Group.
With the rise of marketplaces (most large retailers are operating a marketplace or a drop-ship program today) brands need to comply with every retailers requirements, some of which are very challenging to accommodate. Cymbio supports hundreds of retailers and became the go-to solution for outsourcing all marketplace and drop-ship needs for brands, said Avidor.
Connecticut regulators, cracking down against another electric supplier, announced Wednesday that it has fined a Dallas company $500,000 over allegations of improper billing practices and said the supplier lacked the managerial capability to serve Connecticut customers.
As part of the settlement with the state, Clearview Electric Inc. withdrew from the Connecticut marketplace for six years.
Its the latest action against a third-party electric supplier that has drawn consumer complaints. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has documented chronic troubles with the third-party electric suppliers and run-ins with customers.
Regulators said they have received complaints that Clearview charged a rate different from what was stated in the contract. Clearview blamed a processing error, PURA said. Other complaints said Clearview tried charging early termination fees, assessing incorrect re-enrollment rates and additional problems.
Regulators also said they have reason to believe Clearview currently lacks the managerial capability to serve Connecticut customers. Clearview corrected complaints filed by customers but was unaware of problems until it received complained complaints or was ordered to investigate, the agency said.
PURA also said Clearview customers failed to have their enrollment and renewals processed or be notified of the processing failures.
A representative of the company did not respond to a request for comment.
PURAs Office of Education, Outreach and Enforcement has enforced settlement payments of more than $1.7 million and about $52,000 in restitution credits to customers since July 2020, the agency said.
In July, the office led negotiations for a settlement agreement between the state and Mega Energy of New England LLC to resolve claims the companys marketing included unfair or deceptive marketing practices. Mega paid a $250,000 fine and at least $47,000 in customer restitution credits.
It also resolved allegations against Town Square Energy LLC after customers accused the company of various marketing violations, PURA said. It resulted in a $400,000 penalty to a nonprofit energy assistance organization.
Connecticut, with many other states, allows consumers to sign up for third-party energy suppliers intended to introduce competition into the energy market and give consumers more choice. State regulators and consumer protection officials have fielded numerous complaints from consumers about deceptive and inaccurate information, prompting legislation to toughen state rules.
Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
A Texas woman is suing her former employer after she says the strip club stopped scheduling her when she was pregnant in 2019.
Bexar County resident Sara Soto says San Antonio Mens Club violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex and pregnancy discrimination. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 11 in the U.S. District Court of Western Texas in San Antonio.
35 Bar & Grill, LLC, which does business as San Antonio Mens Club, could not be reached by McClatchy News. A call to the strip club went unanswered.
The lawsuit says Soto was hired by the business in November 2017 as a sever before she was promoted to bartender in 2018. She typically worked five shifts a week and would sometimes be called in for extra shifts on her days off.
In January 2019, she told her general manager that she was pregnant. Two months later, in March, Soto was being scheduled for fewer shifts, according to the lawsuit. First, she would be scheduled for three shifts a week, and then that dropped down to two per week.
On April 2, 2019, Soto texted her scheduling manager about her reduced schedule.
She told him in her text messages I cant pay my bills on 2 days a week, the lawsuit says. He responded: I am suppose to let u go till ur done with the pregnancy but was tryn to give u some shifts.
The general manager also told Soto that she didnt fit into their fantasy and people dont want to see someone pregnant while at the strip club, according to the lawsuit.
Sometimes its not about right and wrong its about business and its not personal, he said, according to the lawsuit.
Fellow employees of Soto planned a baby shower at work for her, the lawsuit says. But as she attended the event, she saw she was no longer on the schedule for future shifts.
She was never scheduled for work again, according to the lawsuit.
Soto filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in July 2019 on the grounds of discrimination due to pregnancy. In June 2020, the EEOC issued a determination saying the evidence obtained during the investigation indicates that after Charging Party (Ms. Soto) notified her employer of her pregnancy, her work schedule was severely reduced until she was entirely removed from the schedule, according to the lawsuit.
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The document also says her pregnancy was the motivating reason for the adverse actions taken against her.
Soto is suing for compensatory damages, including lost income and benefits, and for emotional pain and inconvenience.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp on Wednesday pulled out of a pledge to support members of the British armed forces in order to "preserve the safety and neutrality of our reporters" after complaints from some current and former Reuters staff that it would compromise the news agency's reputation for independence.
Thomson Reuters, the Toronto-based parent of Reuters, on Aug. 31 signed the British Armed Forces Covenant, which pledges to help and support those currently serving in the British armed forces as well as veterans and their families.
After Thomson Reuters' support for the covenant became public, a number of current and former Reuters journalists said the pledge called into question the impartiality of the global news agency, which is obliged by the Trust Principles to act at all times with integrity, independence and freedom from bias.
They also raised concerns that the pledge could endanger reporters working in certain countries because the agency could be cast as supportive of Britain's armed forces or of its foreign policy. "We have decided we must withdraw our signature to preserve the safety and neutrality of our reporters," a Thomson Reuters spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"The covenant is not affiliated with any political party and the initiative was signed with the best intentions, but our participation led to concerns that such a public pledge could undermine the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles and compromise the newsroom's independence and safety of our journalists."
The Armed Forces Covenant says it "supports serving personnel, service leavers, veterans, and their families."
The British defence ministry says the covenant demonstrates an organisation's "intention to support the Armed Forces community". A spokesman for the ministry declined immediate comment on the withdrawal by Thomson Reuters.
Thomson Reuters said it signed the covenant as "an extension of our longstanding support" for Britain's poppy appeal, in which tens of millions of people buy a red paper or metal poppy to remember the war dead and help armed forces families.
It said the decision to withdraw did not affect its commitment to being an inclusive organisation that supports people from all backgrounds, including military veterans.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
Ari Brisbon, 32, of Bristol, appears in District Court in Providence on Wednesday.
A 32-year-old Bristol man faces felony charges including a count of attempted murder Wednesday in the aftermath of an early-morning shooting that involved a man who had followed him to his home, according to a prosecutor.
The other man told police he had followed Ari Brisbon after he saw him striking a woman in a car ahead of him, said the prosecutor, Jessica Villella, who spoke at Brisbon's appearance in District Court in Providence.
After arriving at 402 High St., Brisbon retrieved a 9 mm handgun from the residence and opened fire on the witness, grazing the man's clothing, hitting a headrest in the car, and scattering at least 11 shell casings at the scene, Villella told Judge Melissa DuBose.
The shooting incident generated a large police response, an hours-long standoff and the evacuation of some residents and also delayed the start of classes at three Bristol schools. A state police tactical team was deployed.
It all started around 1:30 a.m. when the witness saw what he believed to be an incident of domestic violence in another vehicle, according to Burke. The witness followed the car to an apartment at 402 High St., said Bristol police Maj. Brian Burke.
Earlier this year: Warren shooting suspect's death ruled suicide; Bristol police release details of firefight
After the couple went inside, a man emerged from the first-floor apartment and fired multiple shots at the witness's car while the witness was talking to the Bristol police on the phone, according to Burke. One bullet smashed a window and grazed the witness's clothing near the shoulder; he was not injured, according to Burke.
The police believe the man who fired the shots was the same man involved in the alleged domestic incident, Burke said earlier. (The witness initially told police it was a rifle but the police later determined it was a handgun, according to Burke.)
Police seized a handgun at the home, Villella said.
Survivor of Warren shootings: 'I was sitting there talking to the kid before he shot me'
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Responding to the call, Bristol police officers and Rhode Island State Police troopers set up a perimeter around the apartment building and told residents via Facebook to stay away.
The police evacuated residents of the second and third floors of the apartment building. At about 6 a.m., a state police tactical unit approached the apartment building, "engaging" both Brisbon and the woman with a loudspeaker, according to Burke. They came out separately and were taken into custody, he said.
Shortly after 6 a.m., the police posted the following message to Facebook: "The scene is now safe/secure. No longer an active situation. Please remain clear of the area for investigation that is still underway."
The start of classes at the following schools was delayed two hours, according to the police: Guiteras Elementary School, Colt Andrews School and Mount Carmel School.
According to the police, Brisbon faces the following charges: assault with intent to commit specified felonies; felony assault/dangerous weapon or substance; discharge of a firearm when committing a crime of violence; lacking a license or permit required to carry a pistol and firing shots in a compact area.
Later, Wednesday, Brisbon appeared in court. Villella asked DuBose to set bail at $150,000.
Calling the charge "very serious," DuBose set bail at $75,000, which meant he had to deposit $7,500 with the court to go free or give the court a lien on property worth $75,000. He was held immediately after his appearance.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bristol shooting: Witness to domestic violence grazed by gun shot
The future leaders of our state are in our classrooms today. It is in our collective interest for every child to reach their full potential.
Where a child lives whether it's an urban, suburban or rural community should not be what determines whether they have the resources they need to achieve their dreams and receive the kind of education that allows them to live a fulfilling life.
We believe there is no better time than now to modernize the way Tennessee funds education by improving our school funding formula so every child has what they need to become the best version of themselves.
Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.
The current funding formula for school is not focused on student achievement
The states resource-based model has forced our school leaders into equating more money with more staff and overhead rather than thinking about what students need the most and then directing the money to meet those needs in the classroom.
Thats why we advocate for and support a new student-based formula that focuses on the students and their unique needs first.
Parents and school faculty members attend the student-focused public education funding town hall meeting on October 27, 2021, in Hendersonville, Tenn. This is the first of eight state-led town hall meetings to discuss revising the state's education funding formula.
We're focusing on asking all the right questions:
Are our students learning at grade level? If not, why not?
How many students come from low-income backgrounds?
How many are English language learners?
What special needs do our students have?
What extra supports do they need to succeed?
Are we adequately funding those specific needs?
A formula that answers these questions is a formula for the future and one that our students deserve. Sadly, the states current formula, the Basic Education Program (BEP) forces school leaders to seek the money first before asking these critical questions.
Even though education spending in Tennessee has continued to increase over the years, too many of those tax dollars are simply not making into the classrooms to directly serve our students and teachers.
According to a recent analysis by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, only about 53% of our states education funding actually makes it into the classroom, while the remainder of the funds that were originally meant for students is actually being spent on administrative costs and overhead. This is bad for everyone and helps too few children across our state reach their full potential.
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Hear from Tennessee's Black Voices: Get the weekly newsletter for powerful and critical thinking columns.
It's time to reassess the Tennessee's school funding formula
Governor Lee, Commissioner Schwinn and our legislative leaders are beginning the process to reimagine state funding. I applaud them for their leadership on this issue.
Victor Evans
It's my honor to serve as chairman of the Economically Disadvantaged and Highly Mobile Students Subcommittee. It's my job to help lead the school funding discussion and to zero in on the needs of those students who were most at risk of falling behind academically before the pandemic began and those who need our help now more than ever.
We need a bold approach for the future, and we can't pay for that approach with an outdated funding system that prioritizes where a child lives over who a child aspires to be.
I am excited to be a part of this change and urge all Tennesseans to join in the once-in-a-generation effort to improve education for all of our children. Implementation will be key.
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We must train and support school leaders to shift from compliance-based budgeting to strategy-based budgeting that is firmly focused on students. In order to make that happen, we must balance any increase in flexibility and funding with transparency and accountability.
As schools and educators are given more flexibility to spend directly on student needs, parents and taxpayers must clearly know how they are spending those dollars, and easily assess whether students are learning and growing academically.
Change is never easy especially when you are talking about half of the states annual budget. But the time has come for a new school spending reform and funding formula that is firmly focused on the unique needs of all students.
Victor Evans is a former classroom teacher and the executive director of TennesseeCAN.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee education: Why a student-focused school funding plan is key
Tom Holland has revealed that hes done secret bar work in London to prepare for his upcoming role in Unchartered.
The Spider-Man star opened up about his secret job in a new interview with GQ.
The interviewer and Holland meet at the Chiltern Firehouse, a luxury hotel in Marylebone, where Holland tells the interviewer that he used to come and do shifts at the bar with staff.
In Unchartered, there is a scene where Hollands character Nathan Drake works behind a bar.
The interviewer explains that Holland told him he would come in to do shifts with the staff, learning how to mix cocktails, practice trick pours, toss bottles around, in preparation for his role.
In the same interview, Holland also opened up about working with his co-star on the film, Mark Wahlberg, who had worked out for the part.
I saw him walk onto set in his costume and I was like, F***, he is twice my size, Holland joked to GQ.
The first trailer forUncharted was released back in October.
The film will see Holland play a younger version of video game hero, Nathan Drake, and Wahlberg as his mentor, Sully.
Antonio Banderas also will play a villainous rival treasure hunter.
The trailer features several nods to scenes from the popular video game series, which follows Drake and Sully as they embark on adventures to recover lost treasure.
Uncharted will be released on 18 February 2022.
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Tom Holland has claimed he and Zendaya were robbed of [their] privacy after being photographed kissing in a car.
The Spider-Man co-stars were caught in what appeared to be an intimate embrace by a paparazzi photographer in July, though the pair had not publicly addressed a romance.
In a new interview, both Holland and Zendaya expressed disappointment at the pictures, which they said were taken without their permission.
One of the downsides of our fame is that privacy isnt really in our control anymore, and a moment that you think is between two people that love each other very much is now a moment that is shared with the entire world, Holland told GQ Magazine.
The actor added that he would not confirm a romance with his co-star without her, explaining I respect her too much to say This isnt my story. Its our story. And well talk about what it is when were ready to talk about it together.
Zendaya who contributed to the profile called the photographs strange and weird and confusing and invasive, adding: The equal sentiment [we both share] is just that when you really love and care about somebody, some moments or things, you wish were your own.
The pair will next be seen in sequel Spider-Man: No Way Home. Holland shed a tear while watching the films trailer with fans yesterday (16 November).
Since the trailer was released online, fans have celebrated the returns of several villains from past Spider-Man films, including Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Electro (Jamie Foxx).
It has also been speculated that the film could feature a major twist concerning one of the franchises beloved characters, with the new trailer dropping hints that there could be a changing of loyalties in the offing.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is released in cinemas on 17 December.
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In just a few short years, Tom Holland has become one of Marvels breakout stars, starring as the iconic Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) in five movies to date four of which have made more than $1 billion each.
But while the world watches his heroic adventures on the big screen, Holland is the first to tell you that just because he's famous doesnt mean he's immune to the same insecurities non-famous people face.
"One of my biggest faults is that I'm an impossible people pleaser," Holland told GQ in its latest cover story. I dont like the idea of people not liking me. So I will do whatever I can do to make that not the case."
Standing at 5 foot 8, that feeling of wanting to be liked has bled into other aspects in his life, such as obsessing over his height, body and always wanting to "be on" for his fans.
"I'd do this thing on red carpets where I would stand closer to the photographers than the people behind me [to look taller]," he explained, adding that he's learned to focus on what he can control. "I cannot do anything about my height. I can put on more muscle."
And that he did. In 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the costume department put him in a muscle suit. And over the course of six movies, the suit got smaller. "Now I just have a penis cup," he said.
His fitness routine extends beyond just Spider-Man. In the upcoming Uncharted, in which he stars alongside Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas, Holland credits Wahlberg for inspiring him to bulk up for the role.
"I saw him walk onto set in his costume and I was like, 'F***, he is twice my size,'" he said. After the [COVID] lockdown, we had five months off, and I just ate and trained and ate and trained. When I got back on set, the first thing he said to me was, 'Wow, somebody has been training.'"
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This kind of dedication, he said, began as a young boy after being discovered by a West End choreographer, who saw his potential and eventually cast him in the West End production of Billy Elliot. On the day of his debut, he came down with tonsillitis.
Not wanting to disappoint anyone, Holland decided to push through.
"I was like, 'I cant miss this, because all of these people are coming,'" he said. He delivered an epic performance but was later forced to take a week off. It was a moment that stuck him, even to this day. "I got the nickname Sick Note, which frustrates me to my core," he said. "Now as an actor I push through everything, because I'm not going to be Sick Note."
As he's gotten older, however, Holland began to learn the power of saying no and embracing the responsibility that comes with fame something his girlfriend Zendaya has helped him realize.
"Having her in my life was so instrumental to my sanity," he said. She is so good at being the role model for young guys and girls. When anyone comes up, like, 'Can I have a picture?' it's never a bad time. Whereas my initial reaction was: 'Why are you talking to me? Leave me alone.'"
Age has also made him realize the power of realizing his own limitations, which he plans to carry with him in the years ahead.
"Now as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm like, It's good to have things to work for. Just dont give 100 percent of your energy towards it. I'm trying to live my life a little bit more freely," he said. "People mistake my kindness as weakness. Sometimes I see people trying to take advantage of me because I'm a nice person. Let me tell you, when you're a 19-year-old kid, they really do take advantage of you. You dont know any better. Now I look back and go, 'Wow, I wish someone had told me that I could say no.'"
Plants and lights have gone in on South Bend's Coal Line Trail at Vassar Avenue. This is looking west on Tuesday as the trail, which hasn't been finished or opened yet, goes behind Holy Cross School.
If youre like me, you glance carefully each time youre on South Bends Portage Avenue crossing the bridge over the future Coal Line Trail. Contractors with Selge Construction Co. have kept busy since work began early this fall to build the first half of the 1.5-mile path, linking Lincoln Way West and the Riverside Trail.
If the dump trucks and excavators dont give you a clue, the orange barrels and signs tell you that the trail isnt open or done yet. But heres what we can observe as of Tuesday:
Concrete pavement has gone down for the path directly along Wilber Street for one block north of Lincoln Way. The concrete then angles onto the tree-lined corridor to Vassar Street, where several trees had been cleared out behind Holy Cross School. Lights line that section.
Beyond that, though, there are just a few lights erected as contractors are still digging and hauling dirt. Nothing has been paved there. One of the tasks in this project is to install pipes that will drain the standing water to which this section is prone. Lots of the trees and growth that had made the former rail line dark and forbidding below Portage have been cleared, leaving a long slope of dirt.
Watching wildlife: Trail cams spot animals on Sycamore Land Trust preserves
City Planner Chris Dressel says the project team feels they can "substantially complete" the main route up to Portage in 2021, if weather cooperates. But the trail out to Riverside and amenities such as a plaza at Lawndale (the edge of Muessel Grove Park) will finish in 2022.
Work on the second half of the Coal Line Trail is due to begin next year. That would turn the old rail bridge over the St. Joe River at Riverside and Angela Boulevard into a pedestrian bridge and link this trail to the East Bank Trail.
Crews move dirt Tuesday on the route of South Bend's Coal Line Trail. This is looking west from the Portage Avenue bridge, which had been obscured by trees and growth before construction began.
East Bank closure
We expected the East Bank Trail in South Bend to fully reopen sometime this month, following a summer and fall when significant portions were closed for construction. That may still be the case, but, as of Monday, parts of the trail were still closed south and north of North Shore Drive. As you recall from my prior reporting, Indiana Michigan Power has been installing a new underground transmission line right along the trail.
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Now the trails bridge over Leeper Avenue is closed until spring because of a different issue.
This shows damage to an iron support of the East Bank Trail over Leeper Avenue in South Bend, caused by an accident on Oct. 1.
On Oct. 1, one of the Leeper bridges iron supports was bent when a hydraulic excavation truck drove along Leeper underneath the bridge, according to the police departments crash report. The driver told police he figured his vehicle, at 12 feet 4 inches tall, could make it under the bridge because a sign labeled the bridges clearance as 12 feet 9 inches. But the top of the vehicle reportedly struck the bridge, causing the truck to roll onto the drivers side. The driver suffered scratches to his eye.
The city has hired a consultant to determine the full extent of the damage, Cara Grabowski, spokeswoman for South Bends Department of Public Works, says. Repairs could begin next spring. Until then, she says, the trail bridge will be closed, along with Leeper Avenue and its sidewalks near the bridge. The bridge had supported a rail line before it became a trail. This affects the trail between Michigan Street and North Shore.
South Bend's Coal Line Trail heads east from the sidewalk along Van Buren Street and runs behind Holy Cross School, to the left. The trail hasn't been finished or opened yet.
Lights on 933 trail
A series of 30 lights went up this fall on the trail along Indiana 933 between Holy Cross College and the Inn at Saint Marys. The idea was to boost safety for the students who use the trail, which was completed a year ago by Saint Marys College, the University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, Holladay Properties and the Holy Cross order of brothers, sisters and priests, according to Saint Marys. The lighting project was financed with $218,000 from grants from the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative and county tourism dollars.
Officials who built the trail have said they hope to see improvements to Indiana 933 to make it safer to cross, especially at three key intersections that students often use along the newly lighted section.
Sadly, a 69-year-old woman was killed Saturday as she walked one of those crossings. Winifred Hale, 69, was on foot when she crossed at St. Marys Road, which links Saint Marys and Notre Dame and which has a crossing signal and stoplight. She was hit by a northbound vehicle. Police were called to the scene at 5:53 p.m. Police say impairment of the driver didnt appear to be a factor.
On Nov. 10, the town of Shipshewana shared this photo on Facebook of newly installed bike racks at the new end of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail.
Pumpkinvine gaps
Almost all of the work was completed this fall to extend the eastern end of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail for 1.2 miles into Shipshewana. All thats missing is a flashing light at the trails critical crossing of busy Indiana 5. That equipment, Town Manager Bob Shanahan, is ordered but is delayed by supply issues. Until thats installed, he said, the trail isnt officially open for safe operation, though people have been using it.
Otherwise, the trail pavement is down, along with some benches along the way and at least 32 bike racks and a bike repair station at the new terminus at Town Park, just east of the Wolfe Community Building, which contains town hall. There are also picnic tables, a pavilion and bathroom building that had previously been built in anticipation of the trail.
This has been a long-awaited connection, because, until now, the trail has ended at County Road 850, leaving trail users to follow County Road 250 North to reach town.
Now, the Friends of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail are raising money to fill the final half-mile gap between Middleburys county roads 35 and 20. That would finally avoid forcing trail users onto the road for that gap. And then, this 17-mile trail between Goshen and Shipshewana would finally be complete.
The Prairie Trails Club posted this photo on Facebook of the dedication in October of two miles that have been added to the Erie Trail east of North Judson.
Coast-to-coast link
The Erie Trail, anchored to the west by the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, recently grew from nine to 11 miles. State officials gathered for the Oct. 22 dedication because this flat, straight line through Starke Countys rural landscape is pegged as a connection on a developing transcontinental paved trail. The Erie Trail, about 20-30 miles southwest of Plymouth, is paved but has an adjacent natural surface for horses.
It would be a link in the Great American Rail-Trail, a route using existing and future trail connections that the advocacy group Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is promoting from Washington, D.C., to Washington state. About 55% of the routes 214 miles across Indiana have been built -- namely, the Cardinal Greenway through Muncie and Richmond, the Nickel Plate Trail through Peru and Rochester, and snippets of other trails in northwest Indiana.
The Erie Trail already is part of the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail, a mix of on- and off-road routes, and the similar U.S. Bike Route 35 that now spans from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., to Indianas southern border.
Carolla Heilstedt, president of the Prairie Trails Club that maintains the Erie Trail, quipped, We are eager to welcome visitors from across the country.
The extra 2.1 miles were tacked on to the eastern end of the Erie Trail, which has now moved to County Road South 700 East. The new section is almost three miles north of Tippecanoe River State Park. And that's just north of Winamac, where volunteers are raising money and working through obstacles to extend the 22-mile Panhandle Pathway five miles north to the state park.
The railroad museum is the best, easiest-to-find starting point on the Erie Trail at 507 Mulberry St., North Judson (hoosiervalley.org). The museum is open for free from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time each Saturday. It will offer rides on its Santa Train out to English Lake and back, with Santa on board, departing at 10 a.m. and 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Central time on each Saturday from Nov. 27 through Dec. 18. Cost is $14 for ages 3-15, free if younger and $20 for ages 16 and older. Masks are required. Book tickets online or call 574-896-3950.
Financing for the trail included a $390,750 grant from the states Next Level Trails program. Applications for the next round of Next Level grants for a total of $35 million are due Dec. 1.
Follow Outdoor Adventures columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures. Contact him at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Trails: Construction jobs continue for local neighborhoods
Two lawsuits were filed against Alabama's proposed congressional and legislative maps on Monday, alleging the proposals unconstitutionally pack Black voters into districts to mute their political voices.
The suits, from a coalition of groups including Greater Birmingham Ministries and Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, join two other lawsuits seeking to create a second congressional district in Alabama with a substantial Black population. A hearing on one of them, Singleton v. Merrill, has been scheduled for Jan. 4.
Thomas v. Merrill alleges that nine state Senate districts and 21 House districts are drawn in ways aimed at separating white and Black voters. It alleges that both of the River Region's state Senate districts and three of its House districts 75, 76 and 78 were drawn to mute Black voices in the political process.
"District 78 looks like a dinosaur," the lawsuit says. "It begins its lengthy trek along the Alabama River on the border with Lowndes County, following the river until it gets east of the city of Montgomery, where it drops down to pick up Black precincts."
Milligan v. Merrill argues, like other lawsuits, that the state's proposed congressional map are racial gerrymanders that violate the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and limit Black political participation.
MORE: Alabama's 2022 congressional maps are in. And so are the lawsuits
"Alabamas steadfast refusal to provide Black voters with adequate representation in Congress is a product of intentional discrimination and directly linked to the states history and present conditions of discrimination against Black people," the lawsuit said. "The states intentional policy of disempowerment and discrimination has resulted in the denial of equal opportunity for Black people to participate in the political process in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the VRA."
The lawsuits want the courts to declare the maps unconstitutional and direct the state to draw new ones, delaying the Jan. 28 qualifying date for primaries if necessary. Milligan v. Merrill seeks the drawing of a second majority-minority district in the state.
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Democrats during the redistricting process charged that the proposed maps separated more counties than necessary. Jefferson County Democrats have complained for years that the county's delegation includes representatives who live outside of it and have sway over local legislation.
They also argued that a second congressional district with a substantial Black population could make the state congressional delegation 28% Black, close to the Black proportion of Alabama's population (26%).
MORE: Republicans block John Lewis Voting Rights Act in Senate vote
Republicans said it was impossible to draw a second majority-minority district without violating the Voting Rights Act, and said the proposed map splits fewer counties overall than the maps approved in 2010. The proposed congressional maps reduce a three-way split in Montgomery County to a two-way split.
A federal judge on Tuesday sent Caster v. Merrill, a lawsuit filed against the congressional maps in U.S. Middle District of Alabama to the U.S. Northern District of Alabama.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Two more lawsuits filed against Alabama's proposed congressional, legislative maps
CAIRO - (Reuters) - Two protesters were shot dead in Sudan's capital Khartoum on Wednesday, the Central Doctors Committee said in a statement.
"The coup forces are using live bullets extensively in separate areas of the capital injuring dozens and some are in critical condition," the Committee added.
(Reporting by Alaa Swilam; Editing by Toby Chopra)
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a document which clarifies the meaning of communion and who can receive the sacrament, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The effort to produce the document was partly ignited by questions surrounding President Biden, the first Catholic president since John F. Kennedy, and whether his support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving communion.
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The vote, which did not mention any politician by name or specifically single out abortion, passed 222-8, with three abstaining, according to the Post.
What they're saying: "Laypeople who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to form their consciences in accord with the Churchs faith and the moral law," the document reads.
Catholics also have the responsibility to "serve the human family by upholding human life and dignity," it says.
The backdrop: Last month, Biden told reporters that Pope Francis believes he should continue to receive communion, adding that the pope said he was a "good Catholic."
Francis has previously said that Catholic bishops should not let politics influence pastoral decisions.
Most U.S. Catholics believe Biden should be allowed to take communion despite his stance on abortion, according to polling by Pew Research Center.
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that an Indo-Pacific economic framework could be launched at the start of next year, and her Asia visit was to lay the groundwork for potential partnerships.
"We are likely to launch a more formal process in the beginning of next year, which will culminate in a proper economic framework in the region," Raimondo said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
When asked whether that would mean an actual agreement, she said: "yeah, exactly."
President Joe Biden said last month that Washington would start talks with partners in the Indo-Pacific about developing a regional economic framework.
Raimondo said she was in Tokyo before her trip to Singapore and would be visiting Malaysia next.
Critics of U.S. strategy for the region point to its lack of an economic component after former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2017 from a U.S.-inspired trade deal, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
China said in September that it had filed an application to join the CPTPP trade pact, which was signed by 11 countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand in 2018.
"This isn't about China. This is about developing robust commercial and economic relationships with our partners in the Indo Pacific where we have had a robust relationship for a long time, but for the past few years," Raimondo said.
(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Editing by Martin Petty)
LONDON (AP) Britains top Brexit official lowered the temperature in the U.K.s trade feud with the European Union on Wednesday, saying he believes it is possible to reach agreement with the bloc.
Chief U.K. negotiator David Frost said there were still gaps between the two sides, but added: Im glad theres ambition on the EU side...I think it can be done.
Whether it will be done is a different question, Frost added during a visit to Belfast to update political leaders on U.K.-EU talks aimed at resolving differences over Northern Ireland trade.
Negotiations have dragged on for a month, with Britain threatening to suspend parts of the legally binding divorce agreement between the two sides if no solution is found soon.
Frost said triggering an emergency break clause known as Article 16 is a very real option for us if there is no deal. But he added that its certainly our preference to try to resolve it without using Article 16.
Article 16 lets either side suspend portions of the Brexit agreement in extreme circumstances. A move by Britain to use it would trigger EU retaliation and could spiral into a trade war between the 27-nation bloc and its increasingly estranged former member.
Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. and shares a border with EU member Ireland. Under the Brexit deal agreed before the U.K. left the blocs economic structures at the end of 2020, it remains inside the EUs tariff-free single market for goods, to ensure there is an open border on the island of Ireland a key pillar of Northern Irelands peace process.
That has created a new customs border in the Irish Sea for goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., even though they are part of the same country.
It has also brought red tape for businesses, and has angered Northern Irelands British Unionists, who say the checks undermine Northern Irelands place in the U.K. and destabilize the delicate political balance on which peace rests.
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The Democratic Unionist Party, which leads Northern Irelands power-sharing government, is demanding the agreement be scrapped, though many businesses simply want the new trade arrangements to work more smoothly.
The EU has agreed to make changes to the deal, offering to reduce checks on food, plants and animals entering Northern Ireland by as much as 80% and to cut paperwork for transport companies in half.
Britain is demanding the EU go farther and remove its top court from its role in resolving any disputes over the agreement an idea the bloc flatly rejects.
Frost and his EU counterpart, Maros Sefcovic, are due to meet Friday to assess the state of the talks.
___
Follow all AP stories on post-Brexit developments at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.
At least 200 University of Chicago students, many of them international, gathered at the campuss Main Quadrangle Tuesday a week after the fatal shooting in Hyde Park of Shaoxiong Dennis Zheng, a recent graduate to demand further safety measures from the university.
They held handmade signs echoing their concerns: We want safety, Who is next? No longer safe under daylight, We are here to learn not to die.
Following the shooting of Zheng, students quickly banded together with help from local activists and student groups to come up with a list of demands for the university and to organize the rally.
Da Teng, a 23-year-old doctoral chemistry student, said that Chinese people in America are traditionally known for being more politically inactive.
But we really want to be heard this time, he said.
Teng said he can no longer tell students back in China that it is safe to study in Chicago.
The next one to be shot could be anyone in this crowd, Teng said. We need actions right now to stop the violence.
Iris Xiao, a 22-year-old masters student studying public policy, said many students who are from China came to the University of Chicago because of its academic prestige, but now she is also telling students back home applying for college to skip the University of Chicago if they have major safety concerns.
My mom actually asked me to consider transferring ... because a diploma is not as important as your life, she said. Its just so devastating to see something like this.
Zheng, 24, was fatally shot just before 2 p.m. Nov. 9 in the 900 block of East 54th Place while walking home from campus.
Alton Spann, 18, was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in the killing. A judge denied him bail during a hearing Saturday.
Prosecutors said that Spann confronted Zheng and tried to rob him. When Zheng refused to give up his bag, Spann pulled out a gun. Witnesses said they saw Zheng fall to the ground as Spann stood over him, pointing a gun.
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Zheng died of a gunshot wound to the arm and was pronounced dead less than an hour after the shooting at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Two days after Zheng was killed, University of Chicago leaders held a webinar where they outlined measures being taken to increase safety around the school. This included increased police patrols, added surveillance cameras and an extension of the universitys Lyft Ride Smart program.
Zheng is the third U. of C. student or recent graduate fatally shot this year in Chicago.
In January, 30-year-old Yiran Fan, a graduate student, was killed during a shooting spree that ended with the gunman killed during a shootout with police in Evanston. Fan received a posthumous Ph.D. from the university.
In July, 20-year-old Max Lewis died three days after he was fatally struck by a stray bullet while riding on the Green Line.
Students at the rally Tuesday had a list of eight demands including further extension of the Lyft program, extended coverage of the shuttle routes, real-time alerts for any crime within the Hyde Park area, annual safety and security training for students and staff, life insurance for all university members who are not covered, options for off-campus protections and regular updates from the university police on investigation outcomes following every security alert.
Students took turns speaking into a megaphone that one of the organizers bought earlier in the day at a Target.
Victor Zhang, a 20-year-old economy student from China, stood on a chair as he addressed the crowd.
We need all of you to voice out your concerns, Zhang said. What we need is action, and for that reason, we need to make that voice stronger.
He then started a chant: What do we need?
The crowd yelled back: Action!
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry
The self-proclaimed "shaman" whose bare chest and horned fur headgear made him the face of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
Jacob Chansley, 34, had pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding after taking part in the storming of the US Senate chamber by supporters of former president Donald Trump.
The court heard how, after entering the chamber, Chansley took then-vice president Mike Pence's seat on the dais, leaving behind a message saying: "It's only a matter of time. Justice is coming."
"Men of honor admit when they're wrong," Chansley told the court. "I was wrong for entering the Capitol. I had no excuse."
In a long, rambling statement, Chansley praised the judge and made references to Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha and US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
"I'm not an insurrectionist. I'm certainly not a domestic terrorist," he said.
The sentence matched the stiffest yet meted out to the hundreds of Trump supporters who took part in the assault.
Democrats have labeled the attack an insurrection that sought to block the Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory over Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.
Federal prosecutors had sought as much as 51 months in prison for Chansley, a promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theories who had traveled the country appearing at pro-Trump rallies.
- 600 people charged -
Ahead of the sentencing, Assistant US Attorney Kimberly Paschall played for the court videos of Chansley in the Senate chamber, moments after Pence and senators had been evacuated due to the attack.
In the video, Chansley, carrying a spear with a US flag attached and his face painted in red, white and blue, gives a long howl and shouts "time's up," adding an epithet.
"If the defendant had been peaceful on that day, we would not be here... The defendant's activities were anything but peaceful," Paschall told the court.
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But Chansley's lawyer Albert Watkins said Chansley has long suffered from diagnosed mental illness and was genuinely remorseful.
"He is accountable and wants to be held accountable," Watkins said.
Chansley recounted a difficult childhood and family life and said he had been diagnosed with a personality disorder.
He was one of more than 600 people charged over the January 6 attack, which succeeded in delaying for several hours the certification of Biden as the incoming president.
Most of the sentences, mainly for charges of illegal entry into the Capitol, have been fairly light.
But many of the more serious cases, relating to conspiracy and assault on police officers, have yet to be heard.
One assailant, Scott Fairlamb of New Jersey, was sentenced in early November to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty for his part in the attack and for assaulting a police officer.
Also on Wednesday, Trump advisor Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty after his arrest on charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify on the violence.
Investigators believe Bannon and other advisors to Trump could have information on links between the White House and the mob that invaded the Capitol.
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US annual drug overdose deaths surged to more than 100,000 for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis driven mainly by fentanyl and exacerbated by a flood of fake online pills, officials said Wednesday.
Experts say people with substance use disorders have been hit hard by daily life disruptions, while authorities are seizing record numbers of counterfeit and sometimes deadly medicines from Mexico.
"As we continue to make strides to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot overlook this epidemic of loss, which has touched families and communities across the country," President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Between April 2020 and April 2021, the country saw 100,306 fatal overdoses, an increase of 28.5 percent compared to the same period the previous year -- equal to one death every five minutes.
Overall, opioids accounted for 75,673 of the 100,306 fatalities, with the vast majority from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.
"It's time to face the fact that this crisis seems to be getting worse. We need all hands on deck," health secretary Xavier Becerra said in a call with reporters.
"We see it in the faces of grieving families and all those overworked caregivers. You hear it every time you get that panic 911 phone call.
"You read it in obituaries of sons and daughters, who left us way too soon... and since Covid-19 hit, it's gotten worse."
Deaths from psychostimulants like methamphetamine, as well as from natural and semi-synthetic opioids, such as prescription pain medication, and cocaine were also up.
Covid-19 killed around 508,000 people in the same time frame, according to Our World in Data.
"Many of the challenges left behind by the pandemic will actually make people more vulnerable to mental illness and substance use disorders," Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said in the briefing.
At the same time, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has warned Americans about prescription pills available online that are made to look like real Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax or Adderall, but contain lethal doses of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
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The DEA has seized more than 14 million pills this year, with the vast majority produced in Mexico from chemicals supplied by China.
The fake pills are widely available on social media and e-commerce platforms.
In 2019, the latest year for which national data was available, heart disease was the leading cause of death, with some 660,000 fatalities, followed by cancer, with around 600,000 deaths, and unintentional injuries, at 175,000.
- Life-saving nasal spray -
Biden's administration meanwhile announced the release of a "model law" it wants states to adopt that would widen access to naloxone, a life-saving nasal spray that reverses overdoses.
"I believe that no one should die of an overdose simply because they didn't have access to naloxone," said Rahul Gupta, director of national drug control policy.
"Sadly, today that is happening across the country."
The act includes provisions that would grant immunity to individuals who administer naloxone, require physicians to co-prescribe it when prescribing opioids, ensure health insurance covers the medicine, and seek to educate more people about the benefits.
Tom Wolf, the governor of Pennsylvania, said Wednesday his administration wanted ordinary citizens to carry the medicine, which is available to the public throughout the state's pharmacies.
In his statement, Biden touted a stimulus package that passed in March and delivered $4 billion to expand services for substance abuse and mental health.
ia/bgs
Associated Press
Australia's military said Friday it plans to ditch its fleet of European-designed Taipan helicopters and instead buy U.S. Black Hawks and Seahawks because the American machines are more reliable. The move comes less than three months after Australia canceled a deal to buy French submarines in favor of building nuclear-powered submarines that use U.S. and British technology in a switch that deeply angered France. Australia has 47 Taipan helicopters that were designed by Airbus and were supposed to last until 2037 but have been plagued with groundings.
Police said a woman was hit by a vehicle Monday afternoon in front of Berkeley Glenn Elementary School in Waynesboro.
WAYNESBORO Authorities in Waynesboro continue to investigate after a pedestrian was struck Monday and seriously injured in front of an elementary school, according to the Waynesboro Police Department.
On Monday shortly after 4:30 p.m., police said the pedestrian, 51-year-old Valerie Weiss of Waynesboro, was struck by a vehicle in the 1000 block of Jefferson Avenue.
Weiss was airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. On Tuesday afternoon, she was listed in critical condition, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Police said a preliminary investigation revealed that Richard Lee Hale, 53, of Waynesboro, was driving south in the 1000 block of Jefferson Avenue in a 2014 Ford car when he struck Weiss, who was walking northbound in the same block. Hales vehicle reportedly also hit a parked 2006 Honda Accord.
Police said Weiss was in the road when she was hit.
The incident took place in front of Berkeley Glenn Elementary School. On Tuesday, police were seen in the area taking measurements on Jefferson Avenue.
Police said the crash remains under investigation.
No charges have been filed.
Weiss is a veterinarian at the Animal Hospital of Waynesboro. According to her profile on the company's website, Weiss has been at the animal hospital since 2003. The profile said Weiss studied biology and also taught science.
While managing the health problems of her own animals, her interest in veterinary medicine grew and she eventually applied to the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, where graduated in 2003, the profile said.
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Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Waynesboro PD: Woman hit by car in Waynesboro
A week after voting 6-0 to remove all "sexually explicit" books from school libraries, Virginia's Spotsylvania County School Board voted 5-2 on Tuesday to rescind that decision. The two board members who voted to keep last week's ban on sexually explicit books, Kirk Twigg and Rabih Abuismail, raised eyebrows and hackles by suggesting the board burn those books. (They now say they were not serious about burning books, The Washington Post reports.)
The short-lived ban was prompted by a mother and father who complained at a Nov. 8 meeting about two books Call Me By Your Name, about a gay relationship, and 33 Snowfish, an American Library Association 2004 Best Book for Young Adults. The mother said a search of the school system's online library catalog turned up 172 hits for "gay" and 84 for "lesbian."
Dozens of students, parents, and teachers showed up at Monday's board meeting to protest the book ban. One high school student said censorship is "contagious and leads to much worse," The Free Lance-Star reports, while a county librarian said that "if you have a worldview that can be undone by a novel, let me suggest that the problem is not the novel."
High school students protesting against censorship at the #Spotsylvania School Board meeting tonight. Abuismail is absent. pic.twitter.com/TrRKOwBBME Adele Uphaus-Conner (@flsadele) November 15, 2021
Board member Baron Brasswell said the school district attorney had warned the Spotsylvania board their order probably wasn't constitutional, and Brasswell also told the Post he wouldn't have voted for the ban in the first place if he had known the school district already has a mechanism for parents to complain and challenge school library books. "None of us, for certain, ever believed in censorship or burning books. That's just not who we are," Braswell insisted. "Everybody was caught off guard last week."
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(Bloomberg) -- Vodafone Group Plc and Orange SA are both eyeing potential deals in Spain as a way of reining in competition in one of Europes most cut-throat markets for telecommunications services.
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We are actively thinking about the Spanish market and its structure, Orange Chief Financial Officer Ramon Fernandez said Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference. If there is a good M&A option involving us directly, we will consider it of course.
Vodafone outlined similar ambitions in a trading statement Tuesday when it said its pursuing opportunities for in-market consolidation in Spain.
According to Vodafone, the number of brands in the country now stands at about 80 from about 60 in 2017. That plethora of operators explains why many struggle to record significant returns on capital in a crowded market that forces carriers to compete on price to carve out market share.
Earlier this month, Angel Vila, chief operating officer of Spanish market leader Telefonica SA, said that most of the large carriers in the country are operating with low or insufficient returns of capital employed, a key financial metric. Thats not sustainable in the long-term and could lead to further consolidation, he said, adding it would be a trend that Telefonica would welcome.
Orange is Spains second largest operator, followed by Vodafone in third place. The fourth is Masmovil Ibercom SA, which was delisted last year after a leveraged buyout by three private equity funds.
Larger carriers have all been facing increasing pricing pressure from Romanian carrier Digi Communications NV, which is rolling out its on fiber-optic broadband network in Spain and competing aggressively in the low-end of the market.
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(Adds Digi in the last paragraph)
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Turnout gear for a pair of fire fighters sits on the ground next to a Wabash Township Fire engine, Tuesday, June 22, 2021 in Wabash Township.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Optimistic Wabash Township Board members took steps Tuesday to restore full-time firefighters to the township in 2022 by approving a resolution for their salaries.
There is no money set aside in the approved 2022 budget to pay for full-time firefighters positions, but there will be after an additional appropriation in January, Board President Angel Valentin said.
The additional appropriation also will include money for the firefighters' salaries, benefits and pensions, Valentin said.
Tuesday's resolution included pay for three full-time firefighters and a fire chief.
The trustee, clerk and board members' salaries are already funded in the 2022 budget, but the board approved a salary resolution for those positions, too.
Hiring full-time firefighters and a fire chief currently falls to the trustee, Valentin said. Approving the funding for the jobs is the responsibility of the board.
Trustee Jennifer Teising logged onto the meeting remotely with about 10 minutes remaining in the meeting. She did not participate.
If the trustee and the board reach a contract agreement with the firefighters' association, the hiring of the fire personnel, as well as management of the department, might fall to the fire department's leadership.
There should be sufficient funds left over from the 2021 budget to fund the firefighters' salaries. Additionally, the board approved a one-time transfer of $500,000 from fire cumulative funds into the fire operating budget in the spring as a way to shield the former firefighters from termination.
The $500,000 was sufficient to fund the fire department's personnel through the end of 2023, Valentin said in June.
Teising called the transfer illegal and refused to cooperate. She recently changed her stance and will transfer the money for use beginning in 2022.
She also had moved forward with negotiating a contract with the firefighters' association, which, if approved, would allow the fire department to manage itself without interference from the trustee's office.
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More: Wabash Township Trustee Teising reportedly calls $500K transfer illegal
More: Trustee Teising agrees to transfer funds four months too late to save firefighters' jobs
The board's resolution on Tuesday allotted $65,112 for a full-time fire chief, $53,040 for a senior firefighter, and $45,760 for two full-time firefighters.
This is a 4% increase over the salaries budgeted for this year's wages.
Additionally, the salary resolution also planned to spend $18 an hour for part-time firefighters, who will fill in for full-time firefighters who are ill or on vacation. The resolution planned for the part-timers to be used up to 66 days in 2022.
The salary resolution approved Tuesday also set $35,729 for the trustee's annual wages, and $28,417 for a clerk's wages. Additionally, the resolution sets board members' annual salaries at $2,500. These amounts are identical to the 2021 salaries for these positions.
The optimistic restoration of four paid-firefighter positions, including a chief, is the latest in a year-long battle over the township's fire protection.
Teising, who is indicted on 21 felony charges of theft, terminated the township's three full-time firefighters at the end of June, citing a lack of funding for the positions.
Teising failed to get signatures for a fire protection district in the first quarter of 2021. She intended to use that increase tax revenue from a fire district to fund full-time firefighter positions. After she failed to secure that revenue stream, she followed through on her plans to terminate the full-time firefighters at the end of June.
The board adopted the one-time transfer of $500,000 in June to remove Teising's explanation for firing the full-time positions.
She fired the full-time chief in December 2020, accusing him of insubordination.
Ed Ward, the former fire chief, has a civil lawsuit pending against Teising and the township, alleging he was wrongfully terminated.
As a way to fund full-time firefighter positions going forward, it has been proposed initially by the firefighters' association and the board, and more recently by Teising that the board approve a population adjustment.
The board must file that population growth appeal for increased tax levy in the first quarter of 2022, which, if approved, the township taxpayers would begin to pay in 2023.
Rough estimates are that the population adjustment might increase the tax levy for fire protection between 10 and 15 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, Valentin said Tuesday.
Thats doesnt mean just to be clear that the taxes immediately go up 10 to 15 cents," Valentin said. "It just means we have the opportunity to really look at what the future of our department looks like and plan ahead and build over the coming years to meet the needs of our community.
At its 6 p.m. Dec. 14 meeting, the Tippecanoe County Planning Commission will present details about the changes in the township over the last few decades and suggest what the township might want to consider going forward.
Dec. 14 also is the last day of Teising's bench trial for theft.
Grand jurors accused Teising of receiving her paycheck while allegedly living outside of the township, which is against Indiana law.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Wabash Township Board lays plans to restore full-time firefighters
Will Rowlands has withdrawn from the Wales squad with concussion (David Davies/PA) (PA Wire)
WillGriff John and Will Rowlands have been ruled out of Wales match against Australia at the Principality Stadium on Saturday with concussion.
Both players have been released from the squad after sustaining head injuries in last weekends win against Fiji
Prop John and lock Rowlands were forced off as Wales secured a 38-23 victory.
The news will come as a blow to Jonathan Humphreys and his injury-ravaged squad following a punishing Autumn Nations Series campaign.
Johns fellow tighthead Tomas Francis is following return-to-play protocols after being concussed in training last week.
Wing Josh Adams, who was withdrawn from the starting line-up just before kick-off against Fiji due to a calf muscle issue, is also being monitored ahead of the Wallabies clash, along with number eight Aaron Wainwright (shoulder).
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The United States and China have agreed to ease restrictions on journalist visas shortly after a long-awaited virtual summit between its two leaders, with Beijing on Wednesday calling the move a "hard-won" achievement.
Washington regularly denounces the deterioration in China's treatment of US media members, and has taken measures against Chinese media on US soil that have been accused of being Beijing's propaganda organs.
In 2020, Beijing expelled Americans working for several major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal as tensions soared between the two countries.
But in the wake of a virtual summit between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, officials from both countries said they had agreed to allow new journalist visas to be issued.
A State Department spokesman said Tuesday that discussions in recent months had led to "some initial progress" in "a few areas" of the media environment.
The official said China had "committed to issue visas for a group of US reporters, provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations."
Beijing also promised to "permit US journalists already in the PRC (People's Republic of China) to freely depart and return, which they had previously been unable to do," the US official said.
Chinese state media said both sides had reached an agreement, including to "reciprocally approve" the visas of new journalists.
Both sides agreed to extend the validity of journalist visas to one year, after both countries had largely capped permits to three months.
Asked about the agreement Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters that "this hard-won achievement is in line with the interests of media on both sides, and is worth treasuring."
He added that Beijing hopes "both sides will put in place the relevant policies and measures as soon as possible."
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The US official added that Washington would continue to push for "expanding access and improving conditions for US and other foreign media," and for broader freedom of the press in general.
The State Department believes these measures will allow US media correspondents to return to China "to continue their important work."
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The Washington State Ferry Wenatchee heads for Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor on Friday, Sept. 4, 2020.
Washington State Ferries is moving toward bringing back sailings that were cut last month as it struggled to staff its vessels, but it appears it will take some time for the agency to get back to its previous service levels up and down Puget Sound.
Speaking to the state Senates Transportation Committee Monday afternoon, WSF Assistant Secretary Patty Rubstello, the agencys head official, pointed to new agreements with employee unions that would allow the agency the flexibility to move crew members from vessels that are tied up for maintenance or because of lack of crewing to other locations where they are needed. Prior to those agreements, she said, deck crews stayed assigned to a particular route and engine room staff would stay with a particular vessel.
We now have the ability to move people around where we need it the most, Rubstello said. Our strategy right now is to utilize that flexibility to return service first in Anacortes-San Juans and incrementally bring service on to these other routes.
Rubstello said she hoped that the agency would be able to pilot the new staffing approach this week. Her presentation noted that service would be restored slowly, one route at a time, ensuring we can reliably do so before adding the next route.
I hear from our customers frequently that they want realistic service, and so we want to make sure that were setting expectations appropriately, she said. Were going to pilot this and then as we see how things are working out then commit to that service coming back.
After bringing back service in the San Juan Islands, WSF would then bring back service on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle route next, then on the Mukilteo-Clinton run, then on the Kingston-Edmonds run, then on the Fauntleroy-Southworth-Vashon Island run, then lastly on the Bremerton-Seattle run.
Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, noted Bremertons spot on the list last and questioned Rubstello on the position: I understand why the San Juans, and kids getting stuck after school is a high priority, but if we look at an equity lens with working class folks who depend on the ferries to get to their jobs, I would think that Bremerton would be higher up on the list.
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Rubstello said island communities were prioritized and then the agency looked to traffic volume to order its list.
I understand every community has its needs, and its been really hard to figure that out, just because there are a lot of needs out there, but thats the approach weve taken in prioritizing which ones comes first and which ones come later, she said.
After pulling a boat from its Bremerton-Seattle run in early September, the agency announced broader service cuts to routes throughout the system in mid-October, saying that it was attempting to provide more predictable and reliable travel to customers, as sailing cancelations prompted by a staffing issues piled up. Since then, the agency has at times been able to staff vessels to bring back additional service.
Numbers provided by the agency show how the staffing problems became a growing issue over the summer: in July, there were 40 canceled sailings because of crewing; in August, 130 canceled sailings; in September, 171 canceled sailings, in October, 350 canceled sailings.
Rubstello on Monday pointed to the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant and the loss of 132 employees because of the states vaccination mandate as contributing factors. The agency has also noted its aging workforce and the recruiting struggles that the maritime industry has seen worldwide.
Rubstello said that the agency has moved to continuous, year-round staff recruitment, rather than only recruiting in the spring ahead of the summer peak season, and is bringing on an external recruiter to help the agency reach not only our traditional-type staff, but more diverse staff as well. According to the agency, 167 new deck, engine room and terminal employees have been brought onboard in 2021.
Other potential staffing options Rubstellos presentation noted include boosting wages to attract and keep employees, expanding to the ferry system a state Department of Transportation program that provides funding for support services and pre-apprenticeship training to women, minorities and disadvantaged people, increasing training options for employees, and replacing the current crew dispatch system with an automated solution.
Nathan Pilling is a reporter covering Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap and Washington State Ferries for the Kitsap Sun. He can be reached at 360-792-5242, nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter at @KSNatePilling.
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This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: WSF: Service will be restored "slowly, one route at a time"
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday the future of the U.S.-China relationship can best be categorized by placing future bilateral engagement into four "buckets."
Why it matters: President Biden held a 3.5-hour, late-night virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. Sullivan helped fill in the blanks with a public readout on the talks at the Brookings Institution.
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Bucket No. 1: Working together on "urgent" issues in which U.S. and Chinese interests align, such as implementing the COP26 climate deal and vaccinating the world to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bucket No. 2: Addressing challenges in which the U.S. and China have historically worked together and now face important tests, including Iran nuclear talks and North Korea's escalating missile tests.
Bucket No. 3: Improving direct communication to effectively "manage differences," including over Taiwan. Sullivan said Biden reminded Xi he voted for the Taiwan Relations Act as a senator in 1979, and deeply understands what U.S. law says about support for the island's self-defense.
Bucket No. 4: Resolving outstanding issues in the Phase One trade deal, while continuing to use "the full range of tools available to us" to confront China's unfair economic practices.
Sullivan also revealed Biden asked Xi to launch talks on "strategic stability," following growing concerns about China's rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal.
"That is not the same as what we have in the Russian context with the formal strategic stability dialogue that is far more mature and has a much deeper history to it," Sullivan cautioned.
"There's less maturity to that in the U.S.-China relationship. But the two leaders did discuss these issues. And it is now incumbent on us to think about the most productive way to carry it forward from here."
Zoom out: Though officials stressed there were no "deliverables" from the meeting, the State Department did confirm to Axios the U.S. and China have agreed to to ease Trump-era visa restrictions for journalists on a reciprocal basis.
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Irina Izmestieva complained of feeling unwell for days prompting speculation among neighbours in Cottesmore Gardens in Kensington that she had been poisoned
The wife of a Russian tycoon jailed in Moscow for plotting a string of murders has been found dead in mysterious circumstances at her home in one of Londons most expensive streets.
Friends of Irina Izmestieva, 52, also known as Irina Ford, called for MI5 to conduct an investigation after she was found dead on her sofa.
She had complained of feeling unwell for days, prompting speculation among neighbours in Cottesmore Gardens in Kensington that she had been poisoned.
Ms Izmestieva, a film director and producer, had moved to the UK in 2007 after her husband, Igor Izmestiev, a member of Russias parliament, was arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of leading a criminal gang and plotting several murders.
The conviction came after he reportedly fell out with Murtaza Rakhimov, the long-time governor of his native Bashkiria region, and he has insisted he is innocent.
Mrs Izmestieva, a mother of two 21-year-old daughters, was found dead at home after an incident was reported to emergency services.
The body of Irina Izmestieva was discovered in her home on November 12
Oxana Mason, who has been Ms Izmestievas personal assistant for 12 years, told The Telegraph that she was an absolutely beautiful and healthy woman.
Ms Mason said that she was the person who discovered Ms Izmestieva at her home in Kensington after becoming suspicious when she wasnt answering her phone on Friday.
She let herself into Ms Izmestievas house with the spare key she owned and was the one who called police after finding her body.
A tragedy and nothing to do with politics
Describing herself as Ms Izmestievas closest friend in London, Ms Mason said her friends death was nothing to do with politics and was simply a tragedy that just happened.
She called the rumours of poisoning absolute nonsense and said her husband being in prison had nothing to do with Irinas death.
Ms Mason added: She had nothing to do with politics at all, shes living her life here in London, raising two beautiful girls and that is a tragedy and the first impression is that its likely something to do with the heart or with a blood clot.
Story continues
Ms Mason told The Telegraph: I spoke to her on [November 10] and she said she had a little bit of finger numbness and a little bit of heart pain so its either [a] stroke - and thats actually thats what they said from the first glance.
They said, its a natural death and its either stroke or blood clot. Thats what they told me the day when they found her. But an investigation will show.
Ms Izmestieva was booked to have her first coronavirus vaccine on November 20 and was not unwell with the virus at the time of her death, Ms Mason said.
Suicide speculation dismissed as nonsense
When asked about the suicide speculation, Ms Mason said this was absolute nonsense and that she loved her life here in London and would have no reason to do that.
She had a filmmaking company, shes an absolutely beautiful and healthy woman who raised two beautiful daughters, Ms Mason added.
Ms Izmestieva knew none of her neighbours in Cottesmore Gardens, according to Ms Mason, and was very much involved in Londons Russian community.
I dont like that her name was mixed with Russian politics, Ms Mason said.
She added that she was currently arranging Ms Izmestievas funeral.
Neighbours have reported seeing police, including officers in white forensic suits, and ambulance crews at the scene on Friday night, although Scotland Yard said on Wednesday it had no record of attending.
In a statement, London Ambulance Service said: We were called at 7.11pm on Friday 12 November to reports of an incident at a residential address in Cottesmore Gardens, W8. We sent an ambulance crew and two medics in cars. Sadly, a person died at the scene.
The cause of death remains unknown and a post mortem is still to be carried out.
Suspected foul play
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a Russian businessman who moved to London more than a decade ago and lived next to Mrs Izmestieva between 2009 and 2013, wrote on Facebook that he suspected foul play.
In the past few years Irina Izmestieva has been involved in a property dispute that I have no right to elaborate on, he stated. And now they found her dead after a new development in that dispute. I very much hope that British intelligence will hold a proper investigation so that we can hopefully know one day what happened. I can say for myself that she was a very healthy person.
Mr Chichvarkin has said that Mr Izmestiev had been close to Vladimir Putin up until about 2005, when the president had even presented him with a gold metronome.
Igor Izmestiev was a member of Russias parliament and was arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of leading a criminal gang and plotting several murders
Miranda Mirianashvili, a friend of Mrs Izmestieva, said on Instagram that the former politicians wife had recently developed a cough, was taking antibiotics, felt unwell for a few days but that it was not Covid-19.
She was found sleeping on the sofa at her London home. She was already dead, Ms Mirianashvili said.
She described Mrs Izmestieva as a wonderful mother, heroic wife and my brilliant friend.
She had run a film production company based in London and had cemented herself in British society, attending parties and events and even being photographed with Prince Harry in 2012.
Her husbands case has drawn high profile criticism in Russia and human rights activists had petitioned Mr Putin personally to have him released.
The death of his wife will inevitably fuel speculation of wrongdoing after a series of mysterious deaths of Russian dissidents and exiles living in the UK, including Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium by assassins sent by Mr Putin.
Mr Izmestiev was a member of Russias upper house of parliament between 2001 and 2006, before he reportedly fell out with Mr Rakhimov.
He was found guilty of leading a criminal gang as well as plotting several murders, including an assassination on Mr Rakhimovs son. He is now serving a life sentence in Russia.
The convicted murderer whose testimony helped to convict Mr Izmestiev later admitted that he gave false testimony in court.
Mr Izmestiev, who pleaded not guilty, had accused Mr Rakhimov, who stood down from power in 2010, of faking the assassination in order to stay in power.
Residents say police attended the scene
Residents told The Telegraph they saw ambulances and a police presence outside the dead womans 10m house on Friday evening, with two describing officers in forensic suits.
One said: There was an ambulance and some police presence. I saw a guy in a forensic suit. Theres a lot of speculation because its a Russian lady who lived there and her husband is in Russia in jail.
Another neighbour confirmed she saw men in what appeared to be forensic suits. I saw men in the white suits, so I knew it must be something, said the neighbour.
False Covid death reports, a vast gender gap, Nazi "fan fiction": These are some of the perils an international crowd of volunteers battle across Wikipedias tens of millions of online entries.
The world's largest internet encyclopedia is often the first result to pop up when users ask the internet a question -- and thus a massively influential source of free information but which also reflects humanity's faults.
With entries that can in theory be written by anyone with an internet connection -- in some 300 languages -- it comes down to editing by mostly anonymous volunteers to police the site.
"I always carry my laptop along wherever I go, to edit Wikipedia," said Alaa Najjar, who is based in the Middle East, but asked that specific details about his identity be omitted to protect his privacy.
"It is an addiction, as my friends say. I prefer to say it's my passion," he told AFP by email
Najjar said he contributes to almost 500 entries a week, and as a medical doctor he has been busy fighting a flood of false information unleashed during the pandemic.
Among the strains of misinformation that surfaced on Wikipedia, he has spotted false reports Covid-19 had killed notable people and inaccurate boosting of some nations' death and case numbers.
"I reviewed hundreds of articles during the Covid-19 pandemic, and rejected many misleading or erroneous amendments," said Najjar, who got the platform's top honor in 2021 for his work.
The 20-year-old encyclopedia -- which even has an article devoted to its own controversies -- has received positive accolades in recent years for its fact-checking capacities.
Though it's a sprawling platform, the site does not seek to make money and so avoids the profit-over-safety criticism that has battered Facebook, for example.
Instead, Wikipedia has volunteers who are deeply invested in the site's stated mission of providing access to a written compendium of all branches of human knowledge.
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Of course, it can be a thankless job to kick dubious reports off the platform.
"One particular editor called me a 'vandal' for removing unsourced information," said Ksenia Coffman, who has battled what she termed "fan fiction" about World War II on Wikipedia, including how Nazis and German generals were depicted.
A strand of writing that ignores historical context regarding war-time atrocities such the Holocaust, and instead romanticizes German forces, has influenced a subculture that has found its way to the platform.
"Why am I getting pushback when I am trying to correct this to remove these unsourced globs of text that just glorify these supposed Nazi war heroes?" asked Coffman, who lives in California but grew up in the Soviet Union and contributes around 200 edits per month.
She said the pushback from the subculture's believers as well as from editors who didn't like to be challenged was a "tactical mistake" by her detractors that in fact motivated her to stick around and take on the issue.
And other dark spots in human history have a way of popping up on Wikipedia, too.
Women have been less well-covered than men in published written works in general, which creates a barrier to women appearing in equal numbers to men in Wikipedia's articles.
The platform requires reliable, published sources from news outlets or academia to underpin an article, noted Dublin-based volunteer editor Rebecca O'Neill.
"Wikipedia is an uncomfortable mirror to show the world because it reflects back all of the systemic knowledge gaps that we have," she said, adding that she puts in about 40 minutes per day on the platform.
In 2015 it became clear that only 15 percent of English language biographies on the platform were about women, sparking an effort to try to balance out the disparity. Six years later, the figure has risen to over 19 percent, said O'Neill.
Last year she was writing Wikipedia articles at the clip of one per day, and in the ratio of 19 biographies on women for every one she did about a man.
"I as an individual can offer something. I'm just going to set aside the time and just do it and not turn it over too much in my head," she added. "It's something I can do."
jm/caw/dw
Concern is growing over the welfare of Peng Shuai (Nigel French/PA) (PA Archive)
The head of the WTA has expressed increased concern for the welfare of Peng Shuai after a letter purportedly from the Chinese player appeared on state media.
Peng, a former world doubles number one, has not been heard from since making allegations of sexual assault against Chinas former vice-premier in a post on the social media platform Weibo two weeks ago.
The post was quickly removed and there has been mounting worry for Peng, with Naomi Osaka among those taking to social media to draw attention to the situation.
Statement by Steve Simon, WTA Chairman & CEO:
The statement released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts. Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any source. wta (@WTA) November 17, 2021
The letter on the China Global Television Network Europes Twitter page, which the broadcaster claimed was sent from Peng to WTA chairman and CEO Steve Simon, read: Regarding the recent news released on the official website of the WTA, the content has not been confirmed or verified by myself and it was released without my consent.
The news in that release, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true. Im not missing, nor I am unsafe. Ive just been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me.
The WTA released a strong statement on Sunday, with Simon calling for an investigation into Pengs allegations, while he told the New York Times the issue could jeopardise the tours future in China despite the huge sums of money at stake.
Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has sent an email to Steve Simon, the WTA Chairman & CEO, CGTN has learned. The email reads: pic.twitter.com/jb6yXwxENA CGTN Europe (@CGTNEurope) November 17, 2021
Writing on Wednesday, Simon said: The statement released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts.
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I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her.
Peng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government. The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe.
I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communications, to no avail. Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any source.
Her allegation of sexual assault must be respected, investigated with full transparency and without censorship. The voices of women need to be heard and respected, not censored nor dictated to.
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The site of the former Hutton Stone Quarry on McCrory Lane in Nashville, Tenn. is embroiled in a legislative battle over whether or not the flooded inoperable quarry can be drained and filled with natural rock and soil from construction projects.
A zoning change approved by the Metro Council Tuesday blocks the owners of Bellevue's former Hutton Stone Quarry from filling the pit with any waste from construction sites.
The former quarry, now a pit filled with water that residents of nearby neighborhoods call "Hutton Lake," has been at the heart of an evolving legislative battle since its purchase in 2006.
Metro Council passed the bill, sponsored by Council member Dave Rosenberg, unanimously on its consent calendar.
The land's owners want to drain the pit and fill it with "clean" rock and dirt from construction sites a plan adamantly opposed by nearby residents.
NEW TOWNHOMES: New townhome communities popping up in south, north Nashville
MORE: Metro Parks $1.9M fund request deferred; Council says funds not meant to address homelessness
Crom Carmichael, a member of ownership group McCrory Lane Partners, told members of the Metro Planning Commission late last month that he views the rezoning effort as a "downzoning" that will deplete the land's value and the group will "take appropriate action if the council passes this."
The group also says the unfilled quarry is a liability and "public nuisance" plagued by trespassers. A 13-year-old boy drowned in the quarry in 2008 while swimming with a group of teens.
Numerous local restrictions would prevent McCrory Lane Partners from filling the quarry with rock and dirt from construction sites even under its previous zoning, but the ownership group pushed for state legislation to nullify those restrictions.
The site of the former Hutton Stone Quarry on McCrory Lane in Nashville, Tenn. is embroiled in a legislative battle over whether or not the flooded inoperable quarry can be drained and filled with natural rock and soil from construction projects.
Tennessee House Bill 871, sponsored by two East Tennessee legislators, would exempt former quarries from local zoning, landfill approval, traffic, noise and proximity restrictions if they agreed to receive fill from state highway construction projects.
But the bill, which will go before the House's Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee in 2022, does not override the land's base zoning. The former quarry's new zoning prohibits any type of landfill at the site, even if the pending state legislation passes.
Story continues
RELATED: Debate over filling Bellevue's Hutton Stone Quarry sparks legislative battle
Landowners first attempted to fill quarry in 2006
This is the latest chapter in the property owners' long-fought battle to fill the 12.2-acre pit.
McCrory Lane Partners member Townes Duncan and Carmichael purchased the 72.24-acre parcel containing the quarry for $1.3 million in 2006, planning to use the abandoned quarry as a landfill for construction and demolition waste.
That effort failed, due in part to state restrictions on construction and demolition landfill proximity to scenic rivers. The Harpeth River lies a few hundred feet away from the quarry.
Soon after, McCrory Lane Partners split the land into two parcels: a 30-acre parcel and a 42.24-acre parcel containing the quarry. The owners then prepared to sell the 30-acre plot, applying for specific plan zoning in 2006 to build 180 apartment units as a condition of the sale.
The Metro Planning Commission at the time stipulated that it would only approve the residential zoning with conditions: McCrory Lane Partners would need to install barriers to keep residents from accessing the quarry, and the quarry could not be filled to protect the water quality of the Harpeth River.
McCrory Lane Partners maintains that the condition is not legally binding.
After securing the SP zoning, the company sold the 30-acre lot for $1.89 million in 2007. Today, the company's remaining 42.24-acre lot containing the quarry is worth approximately $79,200.
MORE: Metro Nashville Planning Commission votes to prevent fill of Bellevue's Hutton Stone Quarry
McCrory Lane Partners secured an Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit to fill the quarry with "clean rock and soil" in September 2020. The permit lays out regulations and plans for filling the quarry but does not preclude local laws restricting the project.
Metro Code considers rock and dirt from construction sites no matter how "clean" to be construction and demolition landfill. The quarry pit is too close to residentially zoned land and the nearby Harpeth River State Park to fit narrow conditions required for landfill approval under the previous zoning, Metro Planning Commission member Mina Johnson said at the commission's Oct. 28 meeting.
The Metro Planning Commission unanimously recommended the zoning change's passage.
"We are not taking away any land use currently allowed, Johnson said during the meeting. "Rather, we are enforcing (current ordinance)."
Reach reporter Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephenson@tennessean.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Zoning change blocks landfill at Bellevue's former Hutton Stone Quarry
Members of the media were invited to view a test run of Japan's first self-driving bullet train.
The 12-car Shinkansen train operated by East Japan Railway Company is equipped with an Automatic Train Operation system. It made three round-trip runs along a 5-kilometer stretch of line in the central prefecture of Niigata on Wednesday.
A driver was on hand during the tests but did not touch any of the controls. Everything from starting and stopping the train to adjusting the speed was carried out automatically.
The train smoothly accelerated to about 100 kilometers per hour during the tests.
The company has been developing self-driving bullet train technology out of concerns that there could be a shortage of drivers in the future due to Japan's aging population and low birthrate.
In the fall of 2021, at the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Las Vegas, the Honda Aircraft Company unveiled the HondaJet 2600 concept.
This aircraft is Honda Aircraft's vision of how they can enter the light business jet market in a segment slightly larger than the original HondaJet.
The aircraft, competing in size and weight with such planes as the PC-24, Citation CJ4 and Phenom 300, should significantly surpass them in range and become a more versatile machine, even claiming a part of the mid-sized aircraft segment.
However, for now, all these possibilities are just speculation and it is not yet clear what stage Honda is currently at with their new aircraft. If they can create such an airplane, it will be cool.
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This was one unique Airbnb. You opened the front door and were greeted by a 5-foot-tall gorilla statue sitting quietly on a bench in the entry way. Then you walked into the living room that had a tree in the corner with branches and paper leaves that stretched across the ceiling. Two giraffe
Indianapolis, IN (46208)
Today
Showers and thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low near 55F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%..
Tonight
Showers and thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low near 55F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Ranchers in British Columbia have been using Jet Skis to herd cattle. Photo: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
In Glasgow over the past couple of weeks, we were treated to one vision of the climate future: halting, inadequate policy progress coupled with ever-rising hyperbole and rhetorical alarm. In British Columbia, Canada, right now, a different vision is unfolding: one climate emergency following in the wake of another, indeed made possible by the previous disaster, and in a prosperous, modern, well-governed corner of the global north, absolutely overwhelming local infrastructure and the capacity of public officials and local bureaucracy to manage the crisis.
In June, the Pacific heat dome shattered temperature records throughout B.C., forcing climate scientists to reconsider their models and killing hundreds of humans and more than a billion marine animals, along with harvests of whole regions of farmland the cherries roasting on trees. The wildfire season overall burned more than 3,000 square miles this year, an area of land about the size of Puerto Rico, releasing probably a hundred million tons of carbon into the atmosphere and destroying the city of Lytton. And now, as happened in California with much more modest rainfall after the historic wildfire season of 2018, a storm of the century powered by an atmospheric river has hit Canadian mountains totally stripped of tree protection, producing mudslides and rockslides and landslides, trapping hundreds of cars on roads suddenly piled with debris including families in cars without food or medications. The storm closed major highways, downed power lines, forced the evacuation of thousands, shut down two of the countrys biggest railroad lines and its largest container port, and literally washed away parts of the regions chief east-west roadway, the Trans-Canada Highway. A thousand train cars carrying grain are currently idling, and its estimated that the railroads wont reopen for weeks. Some of the highways may take longer. Farmers have been trying to save their livestock by towing them in boats in water that was five feet deep. Others have been herding cattle by Jet Ski.
The storm itself was historic, but the impacts would have been impossible had the prior destruction not paved the way for these climate cascades. Just look at these images.
The Coquihalla highway is completely snapped in two. Surreal to see from the air. #bcstorm #bcfloods @GlobalBC pic.twitter.com/IRNUmlsoLl Kamil Karamali (@KamilKaramali) November 16, 2021
Video of some of the ongoing #Merritt flooding sent to @CFJC_Today by Cody Harris. Devastating to see. #Kamloops pic.twitter.com/2VY27AA2es Dylana (@DylanaKneeshaw) November 15, 2021
Highway 1 in #Abbotsford shut down due to rising flood waters pic.twitter.com/g9EW4Ap9F7 Harpreet Pandher (@HarpPandher) November 16, 2021
I'm told by a friend at the epicentre of the latest crisis in Canada that the terrible floods and landslides are aggravated by the fires this summer, which burnt much of the forest and baked the soil, so the water now flashes straight off. It's a classic compound climate disaster pic.twitter.com/eugNRjqaOI George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) November 16, 2021
My kids hockey team is trying to get home from Calgary.
The flooding in Princeton, BC.
Credit: Michael McRea - fellow hockey dad #StormBC #BCFlood #BCStorm #PrincetonBC #flooding pic.twitter.com/psoGwXazSO Matthew Campbell (@YellowJerseyAdv) November 15, 2021
A look from yesterday afternoon at #BCHwy8
Via @DriveBC - Closed due to flooding between Porcupine Ridge Rd and Petit Creek Rd for 33.5 km (east of #SpencesBridge to 17km west of #Merritt). Assessment in progress. Estimated time of opening not available. https://t.co/KlVsUcVW9g pic.twitter.com/NEbfiHRvcJ BC Transportation (@TranBC) November 17, 2021
It came down faster than the speed of sound, one local resident said of a mudslide in a vivid interview with the CBC. I just turned around, and Im just watching the whole side of the mountain coming down and taking out these cars everything just being swept away. Just complete panic. She watched with her husband and 9-year-old son as three cars were carried off by the mud. No sooner do we get back into our vehicles, the people that were in front of us are just screaming and running, she said. The look on their faces, it was like a tsunami was coming. It was the scariest thing that Ive ever seen.
A water-treatment facility in Merritt was flooded, mixing the local drinking water with sewage. A floodwall in Mount Vernon completed in 2016 and designed to withstand a crest of 38 feet barely held the Skagit River reached 36.79 feet on Monday night.
Incredible flooding in #MountVernon is putting the citys flood wall to the test for the first time. All day crews have been adding those silver panels along the water front hoping to keep downtown dry. #KING5 pic.twitter.com/hXiSDDOCgA Kalie Greenberg (@KalieG_KING5) November 16, 2021
There were neither road nor flood warnings, one resident of Vancouver told The Guardian. It seems nobody expected the storm to be so devastating. The rain was just incessant for 24 hours.
The impacts have been significantly greater than expected, acknowledged Mike Farnworth, the deputy premier of British Columbia, echoing the language of bewilderment and disorientation that accompanied the heat dome this summer as well.
This is Canada. We arent just failing to address the growing climate crisis to come; were unprepared even for the impacts already here in part because they keep surprising us with their intensity and in part because, in places across the global north, we cant seem to fathom our genuine vulnerability.
iSTAR Medical receives European market approval for glaucoma implant MINIject
The only commercially available, minimally invasive supraciliary device for glaucoma now approved
First commercial implantations of MINIject successfully carried out by world-leading ophthalmologist Prof. Dr. Burkhard Dick at the University Eye Hospital Bochum, Germany
European launch represents pivotal milestone in iSTAR Medicals commercial strategy to bring MINIject to patients globally
WAVRE, Belgium 17 November 2021: iSTAR Medical, a medtech company pioneering novel minimally-invasive implants for glaucoma surgery (MIGS), today announced that its breakthrough MIGS device, MINIject, has been approved in Europe for open-angle glaucoma patients. MINIject enables more patients to be effectively treated with MIGS because of its powerful and sustained performance combined with an excellent safety profile.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness affecting around 100 million people worldwide.1,2 MIGS represents the most promising and fastest-growing glaucoma therapy, due to its enhanced safety profile compared to traditional surgery. Data reported to date by iSTAR Medical across four trials in over 150 patients, consistently show that MINIject demonstrates a balance of powerful and sustained intra-ocular pressure (IOP) reduction with a positive safety profile.
MINIjects powerful efficacy and safety make it optimal for treatment in a broader glaucoma population, meaning flexibility for use in a greater number of procedures. iSTAR Medical is now rolling out MINIject commercially in select regions across Europe and is delighted that its first commercial implantations have already taken place in Germany.
Michel Vanbrabant, CEO of iSTAR Medical, commented: With todays European approval, MINIject becomes the only commercially available MIGS device targeting the supraciliary space as a natural outflow pathway for IOP reduction. This is a major milestone for iSTAR Medical and our mission to bring truly next-generation MIGS devices to the glaucoma community. I want to thank our team, our investors, and our medical partners for their continued belief in a safer and better way to manage glaucoma by targeting the supraciliary space, with an implant powered by our proprietary STAR material.
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Positive two-year results from iSTAR Medicals STAR-II European trial were recently presented at the 125th American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting in New Orleans, LA (USA) demonstrating a sustained powerful efficacy and safety outcome in patients with open-angle glaucoma, consistent with all MINIject trial outcomes to date.
Professor Dr. Burkhard Dick, Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at University Eye Hospital Bochum, Germany, and one of the MINIject STAR-II trial investigators, treated the first patient with MINIject after European approval. He commented: Im very pleased that Im now able to offer the MINIject supraciliary device as a treatment option to my mild-to-moderate glaucoma patients, the first of which was treated successfully today, he said. Based on results so far, MINIject may open up new treatment paradigms for patients with glaucoma across Europe.
David Stocker, VP Sales & Marketing at iSTAR Medical added: The launch of our first product in Europe sets iSTAR Medical on a very promising trajectory for future value generation. With its unique product characteristics, MINIject has the potential to gain a significant share of the growing wider market for glaucoma treatments and amongst its peers in the MIGS segment. Our ambition is to make this novel MIGS solution available to a broad patient community and grow the organisation, our network and our international footprint to meet the size of the opportunity.
Furthermore, MINIject is currently being investigated in iSTAR Medicals pivotal STAR-V study, which was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2021, the results of which will be instrumental to gain commercial access for MINIject in the US market. The study will enrol over 350 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.
- 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 is committed to delivering breakthrough eye care solutions. Our most advanced product, MINIject, is approved in Europe for the treatment of open-angle glaucoma the leading cause of irreversible blindness2 and is progressing towards market approval in the US. MINIjects unique tissue-integrating capabilities unlock a safer, and more effective option for patients. We are building an exceptional team and pipeline of best-in-class products such as MINIject to establish new treatment paradigms in eye care conditions with the highest patient needs. For more information, please visit: 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 affecting over 100 million people globally, of which primary open-angle glaucoma is the most common form.1,2 IOP reduction, through medication or surgery, helps delay disease progression.3 Medication is generally the first line treatment, but the progressive addition of multiple drops can burden patients with side effects, compliance challenges and costs.1,3 Invasive surgery can present risks with irreversible complications.1,3 MIGS is the most promising and fastest-growing glaucoma therapy due to its enhanced safety profile.1 MINIject is potentially best-in-class for its promising long-term efficacy and safety.
1 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
2 Jonas JB, Aung T, Bourne RR et al. "Glaucoma". Lancet 2017; 390: 208393
3 European Glaucoma Society Terminology and Guidelines for Glaucoma, 4th Edition: British Journal of Ophthalmology. 2017;101:1-195 https://bjo.bmj.com/content/101/5/73
news
Gov. Asa Hutchinson presented the Ouachita Baptist University Department of Nursing with the 2021 Governors Quality Award earlier this semester during a banquet hosted by the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence (AIPE), award sponsors, in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Little Rock.
I couldnt be more pleased with the progress our nursing program has made in such a short period of time, said Dr. Tim Knight, dean of the J.D. Patterson School of Natural Sciences at Ouachita. To be recognized in this way affirms our efforts to have a quality nursing program at Ouachita.
According to its website, the AIPE works in partnership with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce to offer training and assessment for all industries throughout the state in order to encourage excellence in performance, as well as economic growth. The Governors Quality Award honors outstanding progress in areas including strategic planning, leadership, workforce, knowledge management, operations and accomplishing results.
Dr. Brenda Trigg (right), Ouachita's director of nursing, receives the Governor's Quality Award from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
One of 12 organizations from across Arkansas to be honored this year, the Ouachita Department of Nursing is the only nursing program that received the Governors Quality Award independent of its governing organization. Dr. Brenda Trigg, director of nursing at Ouachita, accepted the award from Hutchinson on behalf of the department.
Trigg said that feedback from the AIPE about the selection process indicates Ouachitas nursing program received the award based on the departments overall practices and quality awarenesswhich includes support from Ouachitas administration, financial support, student and faculty resources and an effective, systematic plan for evaluation to ensure that Ouachitas nursing students meet end-of-program learning outcomes.
We are excited to receive this prestigious award from Gov. Hutchinson, Trigg said. Ouachitas nursing program is fortunate to have faculty members who value and implement program assessment and evaluation, noting the work of Dr. Carol McKeever, assistant professor of nursing, and Dr. Becky Parnell, associate professor of nursing. She also credited the departments utilization of Baldridge Excellence Framework, a tool that helps organizations innovate, promote diversity and inclusion, digitize and build resilient, competitive programs.
The Governors Quality Award comes as Ouachitas Department of Nursing embarks on a new phase of expansion. In Fall 2018, Ouachita launched its nursing program with a distinctive RN-to-BSN dual enrollment completion program in partnership with Baptist Health College Little Rock. The Department of Nursing has since added a fully-online RN-to-BSN degree program for students who already have a valid registered nurse license.
Additionally, Ouachita has developed a third degree track, a four-year, residential pre-licensure program offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. The new program has been granted prerequisite approval by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. Pending initial approval, from the ASBN, new students will be able to enter the program in the Fall 2022 semester. Currently enrolled freshmen and sophomore nursing majors, which number approximately 70, will have the option of continuing in the on-campus program without delaying their graduations.
Renovations also are underway on a 6,600-square-foot Nursing Education Center at Ouachita. This simulation and teaching center will be home to a clinical skills lab, five simulated hospital patient rooms, a pharmacy and several high-fidelity mannequins that will allow students to perfect their assessment, clinical and communication skills.
For more information about Ouachitas Department of Nursing, contact Dr. Brenda Trigg at triggb@obu.edu or (870) 245-5384.
Lead photo: Ouachita faculty, staff and students who attended the Governor's Quality Award luncheon are (front row) Rebecca Martinez, administrative assistant in the School of Natural Sciences; President Ben Sells; Dr. Brenda Trigg, director of nursing; Dr. Carol McKeever, assistant professor of nursing; Dr. Tim Knight, dean of the School of Natural Sciences; (back row) Dr. Becky Parnell, associate professor of nursing; Department of Nursing students Jana Milam, Suzette Handwork and Jacob Moreno; and Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for institutional advancement and chief of staff.
news
Three Ouachita Baptist University students received awards for their nonfiction work featured in Assayers 30, the annual publication by Ouachitas Department of Language and Literature.
Cora Saddler
The top three winners from this year's publication are Cora Saddler, a senior English and Spanish double major from Cabot, Ark.; Sydney Motl, a sophomore English major from Arkadelphia, Ark.; and Sabaoot Esho, a junior graphic design and psychology double major from Erbil, Iraq. Their work was chosen by a panel of faculty members led by Dr. Doug Sonheim, professor of English and holder of the Clarence and Bennie Sue Anthony Chair of Bible and Humanities at Ouachita.
Other students whose submissions were included in Assayers 30 are Aubree Seibert, a senior chemistry, biology and applied physics triple major from Wylie, Texas; Lizzie Horton, a freshman from Arkadelphia, Ark.; Meredith West, a sophomore kinesiology/leisure pre-professional studies major from Sherwood, Ark.; and Elaina McKenzie, a senior English major from Gulfport, Miss.
Submissions from 2021 graduates Ashley Harrison, a communications & media/film and Spanish double major from Argyle, Texas, and Russell Wallace, a biology major from Bryant, Ark., were also included.
Assayers began 30 years ago as a tool to teach nonfiction writing and research skills to Composition 101 students, though submissions are not limited to this class. The collection includes both personal and research essays from students.
Saddler was awarded first place for her essay, The Bartleby Dilemma, on the short story Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville.
My essay is about the story of Bartleby, the Scrivener and the ways peopleboth in the book and critics of the work itselfhave, I think unfairly, interpreted Bartleby as a symbol or concept that ultimately reflects anything but Bartleby himself, Saddler said. My goal was to bring back his humanity and try to argue for an interpretation of Bartleby with more emotionality and sympathetic imagination.
Saddler said she hopes readers will learn the importance of keeping an open mind and not be defined by their past selves.
I hope readers are encouraged not to let other people define their sense of self, and that they keep an open mind and do the same for others, she added. We are more than the work we put out, and we don't have to be defined by the people we used to be. Bartleby defies easy categorization, and I think we do too.
Sydney Motl
Motl won second place for The Art of a Woman, a research essay that analyzes a painting by Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi.
The painting is called Judith Slaying Holofernes and it depicts Judith, a Jewish woman, beheading an Assyrian general who is attempting to invade her town, Motl said. What is interesting about Artemisias depiction is that Artemisia herself was raped and chose to bring that to trial; when keeping that in mind, the details that only a woman who has experienced violence herself can paint really come to life.
Through her essay, Motl sought to bring awareness to victims of sexual assault or abuse through knowledge of gender.
I would love for more to be aware of the new perspective that a thorough knowledge of gender can provide, she said. Having the ability to view art, literature or the world through the lens of gender can bring a whole new awareness of the issues facing those around them, especially victims of sexual assault or abuse.
Sabaoot Esho
Knowing My Mama, the third-place essay by Esho, tells the parallel stories of her life and the life of her mom.
Knowing My Mama is a comparison between me and my mom. When COVID-19 hit, I couldn't go back home to Iraq; I was really sad, and it brought me down, reflected Esho. It got me thinking about who my mom was before she had me and how when she was in college; she was away from home and family because there was a war going on. It's basically me drawing strength from my mom and her story.
Esho was inspired by a newspaper editorial by Edna Lepucki that describes the connection between mothers and their daughters.This writer had asked all different girls to send pictures of their mamas before and after they gave birth. It was talking about how those women were the same women that they were before, Esho said.
The award winners and other writers featured in Assayers 30 were honored at a brief ceremony on Sept. 2.
Dr. Jennifer Pittman, acting chair of the Department of Language and Literature, said she sees the value of sharing this work with the Ouachita community.
I think its really important for the students who write to showcase what they have done because they all work really hard on those papers, Pittman said. I also think it is important for students in the community to see their classmates writing and see that good work can be done in all the classes.
For more information about Assayers 30, contact Dr. Doug Sonheim at sonheimd@obu.edu or (870) 245-5554.
I can hear the tune just by reading the name
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who said i was inviting you?
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Howling! One of my all time favorite sp episodes!
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I fucking love this so much.
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Really unique place, this will be cool
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So awesome. And now I want sopapillas
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Dang this turning out to be really sweet!
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As long as they don't change the cafeteria line and the colored napkins and the window into the kitchen.
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it still blows my mind that this is an actual place lmaooooooo
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How do you think I feel, learning that this way?
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i found out through here i think so thats like the circle of life, or something
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lol i found out on ONTD too. The gift that keeps on giving..
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Honestly, I love this. Id love to buy and reopen some fave places I grew up with in my home town.
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omg saaaame. there was a cafe where I grew up called the Flight Line because of all the pilots and mechanics from the airport that would go there but it shut down :( they had the best southern food.
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I've been there and it's such cheesy fun. It's wild that Trey and Matt are the owners now lol
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I still regret not going when I had the chance
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i've wanted to go for so long and am glad i now have even more reason to someday
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Thats so awesome omg
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I have no idea what a sopapillas is but great for Dana Rodriguez.
I've never been to a Casa Bonita but this would make for a great cooking reality show.
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Are sopaipillas just gorditas or tortas fritas?
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i hope to go one day. i have my problems with south park but god it has some absolute bangers and casa bonita is one of them lmfaooo, iconic
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It's nice that they hired a really enthusiastic chef of Mexican heritage. I read an article about it and she seems really eager to basically take the concept but improve on it.
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this place was the most randomly weird sober experience i had in my early 20s, it felt like a fever dream. the food was beyond disgusting, so im glad theyre gonna change that and maybe next time im in denver ill go again.
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The newly resuscitated Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) has been authorised by the government in Baghdad to directly negotiate with U.S. oil giant, Chevron, for it to develop the long-delayed Nasiriyah oil field in the southern DhiQar province, according to several domestic news sources.
The idea of developing the 4.36 billion-barrel Nasiriyah oilfield has been mooted by a rapid succession of governments in Iraq since it was discovered by INOC in 1975. The original plan to develop the field on a standalone basis was shelved in the lead-up to the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980 and lasted until 1988. The field eventually came on-stream in 2009 and was listed on the 2009-2010 fast-track development plan, which aimed to raise its output to at least 50,000 bpd in the first phase.
In the first half of 2009, Chevron was one of four international oil companies (IOCs), along with Italys ENI, Japans Nippon Oil, and Spains Repsol, to be invited to submit bids to develop the field on an engineering procurement construction (EPC) contract basis. The Japanese consortium led by Nippon Oil, and comprising Inpex, and JGC Corporation, then looked set to win the contract before negotiations broke down again.
In 2014, a serious push was made to resuscitate the development of the Nasiriyah field within the broader scope of the Nasiriyah Integrated Project (NIP) that also included the development of adjunct lesser oil sites to the main Nassiriyah site and the construction of a 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery. Bids for this wider project were encouraged by the government-ordered changes to the original Iraq technical service contract (TSC) that were aimed at addressing the concern of many IOCs that saw the contract model as falling short of the production sharing contracts model that they preferred.
Unlike the previous contracts, the new TSC variant offered investors a share in project revenues, but only when production began, and the Oil Ministry would pay recovery costs from the date of commencement of work. This differed from the previous contract where the costs were only paid when the contractor raised production by 10 per cent. This said, investors would still have to pay 35 per cent taxes on the profit they made from the Nassiriya project, the same amount as in previous deals.
At that point in 2014, the international engineering and construction firm Foster Wheeler had already completed a front end engineering and design study for the refinery, and 12 potential bidders were on the list. These comprised: Indias Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Essar Oil, Russias Rosneft, Lukoil, and Zarubezhneft, Frances Total, and Maurel & Prom, Chinas CNPC, the U.S.s Brown Energy, a Japanese joint bidding team from JGC and Tonen General, and South Koreas GS Engineering & Construction.
Given longstanding IOC concerns about legal, accounting, and financial transparency in Iraq, this 2014 initiative to develop the Nassiriyah oil field foundered. As summarised by the independent international non-governmental organisation, Transparency International (TI), in its Corruption Perceptions Index, Iraq demonstrates: Massive embezzlement, procurement scams, money laundering, oil smuggling and widespread bureaucratic bribery that have led the country to the bottom of international corruption rankings, fuelled political violence and hampered effective state building and service delivery.
In 2017, China relaxed its directive of the previous two years to all state-owned hydrocarbons companies to cut budgets. From the Iraqi side, this coincided with a fresh impetus for expediting as much production from the south of the country ahead of the chaos in oil supplies from the north that was likely to result (and did) from Kurdistans independence referendum to be held in September.
These factors then led to Chinas Sinopec and PetroChina proposing a deal that would see the NIP being rolled out as part of the broader Integrated South Project (ISP). The ISP (later rebranded as the South Iraq Integrated Project) aimed to boost output across Iraqs southern oilfields, and also to build out related infrastructure, including pipelines, transport routes, and the construction of the Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP).
The Chinese said that they would spend US$9 billion on the [NIP-related] refinery and the first phase of developing Nassiryah but as, under the terms of Iraqi oil contracts, the Iraqis would have to pay back this cost to the Chinese from the value of oil recovered, a source who works closely with Iraqs Oil Ministry told OilPrice.com. The initial reaction from the Oil Ministry was to decline the offer, and to say that the development should only cost around US$4 billion, which the Chinese in turn flatly turned down.
The Chinese had other demands that grated on Iraq at that time as well. China also wanted its firms to receive their costs back in a much shorter timeframe than most other similar projects, said the source. This meant that they were effectively asking for a per barrel remuneration fee at a 15 per cent premium to the highest maximum fee being paid to any company in Iraq for a regular crude oil producing field, which was US$6 per barrel to PetroChina for al-Ahdab, he added. This would mean that the Chinese would get around US$6.90 per barrel, more than [Angolas] Sonangol for its heavy oil extraction at Najmah [US$6 per barrel] and Qairayah [US$5 per barrel] and would dwarf the US$1.49 per barrel that [Malaysias] Petronas was getting for the same type of field of Gharraf, he told OilPrice.com. China also demanded that it was given [Iraq] dinar-denominated government-backed bonds for the entire amount [US$9 billion] that could be cashed in if the development did not start to generate large amounts of oil quickly, he underlined.
Given the negative history of dealing with China over the Nassiriyah project and the fact that Russia is occupied elsewhere in the country and the region, the U.S. might be in an unusually positive position to take a significant role in either the Nassiryah field development alone or in the broader NIP. This has been bolstered by the apparent willingness of Iraqs de facto leader - radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to engage with U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, and by the shift in tone from one key player in Iraqs influential al-Hakim family.
Whether this shift in attitude towards doing substantial and enduring business with the U.S. across its oil, gas, and petrochemicals sectors is genuine, or whether it is just the usual games-playing by Baghdad to keep the money flowing from Washington, remains to be seen but the slew of deals signaled recently appear propitious at this stage.
By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com
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President Joe Biden has asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to release more crude oil from its reserves in concert with the U.S., in a bid to stabilize international oil prices.
Thats according to a South China Morning Post report citing an unnamed source familiar with the topics that Biden and Xi discussed during a virtual meeting this week.
China released gasoline and diesel from its reserves earlier this month to halt a price rise in some parts of the country that was beginning to make people nervous. Two months earlier, Beijing held its first-ever crude oil auction, at which it offered 7.4 million barrels of crude from the strategic national reserve. The news of the auction pushed prices lower, but the effect did not last.
In the United States, members of the Biden administration have mentioned the release of oil from the petroleum reserve as one possible move to arrest the climb of fuel prices. Democratic legislators have called for this, although experts warn that it will not have the desired effect.
One of the pressing issues for both sides is energy supply, said the South China Morning Post source. Currently, the energy departments from both sides are negotiating the details.
China, according to the source, is open to a concerted release of crude oil from the two national reserves but has not yet made a specific commitment, noting that it needed to first take care of local consumption needs.
The proposal appears to be yet another tool in President Bidens box for handling gas price troublea box that has been often referred to by his administration but rarely in any detail. One other suggestion that a group of Democratic senators made earlier this month was to ban crude oil exports so there is more crude for the domestic market.
The idea did not win support from the oil industry.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Demand for flights is set to soar this winter as travelers finally have a chance to get back on planes after almost two years of covid restrictions
Increased fuel prices driving up flight costs doesnt seem to be deterring winter travelers who are eager to get back on the plane after almost two years of Covid restrictions curbing tourism and business travel. Airlines and travel agencies are forecasting a significant increase in the number of travelers over the Christmas period, as lockdowns continue to ease, and several international travel routes reopen. Airlines and travel companies are finally reporting profits and a more optimistic outlook for the rest of 2021 and throughout 2022, following losses of 35 billion in 2020. The International Air Transport Association (IETA)s end-of-year report suggests air cargo has recovered above 2019 levels and is expected to continue to increase. Meanwhile, the financial performance across airlines is expected to recover in all regions in 2022.
But jet fuel is at its highest price since 2014 due to the elevated price of oil, with the U.S. jet fuel benchmark at $2.27 a gallon last week, a 25 percent increase from three months ago. While people are eager to book flights once again, they may be in for a shock when they see ticket prices that were significantly lower in previous years. With most airlines no longer receiving government financial support, which helped many firms keep afloat during the worst of the pandemic, companies are having to employ and pay more pilots, flight attendants, travel agents, and airport staff to meet the growing demand with their own finances, betting on the return.
For flights booked before the price of jet fuel increased so much, it seems likely that airlines will take a loss, increasing the price of future flights to make back some of this money. The winter rush is bittersweet, as airlines must contend with higher flight and employment costs, betting on the stability of the international Covid situation where lockdowns are minimal and travel routes remain open - to reap the rewards.
Southwest has responded to the increase in demand and difficulties in staffing by offering flight attendants, pilots, and other operations staff up to 120,000 Rapid Reward points, at a value of over $1,400, to work 36 days over the next two busy festive months. This follows an increase in the number of airline staff calling in sick. Southwest is trying to avoid a repeat of its Columbus Day weekend failings when the airline was forced to cancel over 2,000 flights, at an estimated cost of $75 million.
In Europe, flight reservations are also on the up. Spains flight numbers are already edging above pre-pandemic levels. Spains ALA airline association president Javier Gandara stated last month, "There are currently 1.9% more flights programmed for this winter period - roughly from November to March - compared to 2019. Adding, "for the Canary and Balearic Islands, planned flights are over 10% higher than in 2019."
AirFrance-KLM is expecting a 75 percent increase in passengers over the festive period. Reservation figures went up after the U.S. announcement that it would be permitting travel from 26 Schengen Area countries, with announcements of border openings in Canada and Singapore supporting the trend. Related: Taking A Flight Soon? Prepare To Pay More As Oil Prices Rise
Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM Group Board of Directors stated, For the first time since the beginning of this Covid-19 crisis, the Q3 results show a positive operating result which encourages us to continue our efforts. Revenue figures for quarter three total around $5.16 billion, up from $2.3 billion during the same period in 2020.
But airlines are concerned with managing this dramatic increase in flight and passenger traffic after almost two years of reduced services. Increased congestion in Europes skies could lead to flight delays and cancellations if not well-managed. In addition, there is a concern around waiting times in airports as well as coordination across different countries owing to the need for more passenger documentation. Passengers now are often required to provide proof of vaccination, a negative PCR or antigen test, and in some cases the reason for essential travel, all of which vary from country to country.
Airlines are now hedging the price of fuel, essentially buying it forward, to protect themselves from rising fuel prices, with experts predicting that the Brent oil benchmark could reach $90 per barrel before the end of the year, and continuing to rise. Some European budget airlines are relying on this tactic to cut costs, with 80 percent of Ryanairs fuel requirements already hedged for 2022.
But higher fuel costs, meaning increased flight prices, does not appear to be dampening consumer demand for winter travel. In fact, the forecast this month from the World Tourist and Travel Council (WTTC) is predicting that U.S. travel in 2022 could surpass that of 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The WTTC also expects travel expenditure to increase over the next year. This is expected to have a knock-on effect on employment, with more job opportunities opening up.
While the cost of fuel is concerning for airlines that are still trying to win back their customers after almost two years of pandemic restrictions, as well as battling against climate change concerns and a generally weakened global economy, the added expense doesnt seem to be deterring travelers, offering travel companies a reason to be optimistic.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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Commodity analysts have been on a forecasting binge recently as oil prices climb higher amid surprisingly strong demand and unsurprisingly short supply. Most believe oil has a lot higher to go. Others have reason to doubt that. One of the dissenters is Citis Ed Morse, who earlier this week told Bloomberg that while prices will continue to rise this quarter, next year the U.S. could surprise everyone with its production growth, suggesting that we might see an end to the oil rally as more supply comes online.
Another of those not sharing the strong bullish view is Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser of Allianz and chair of Gramercy Fund Management. This week, El-Erian cautioned against too much optimism in oil prices because the higher oil prices went, the greater the pressure would be on oil demand.
Speaking to CNBC, the expert noted that the current situation is a result of two unforeseen circumstances. On the one hand, El-Erian said, nobody had expected demand to rebound so quickly and so strongly. On the other, nobody had expected the energy crunch and the challenges in the energy transition.
Calling these two unthinkable just a year ago, El-Erian essentially highlighted how limited the horizon of most oil price forecasters is. A limited horizon, in turn, makes for quite imperfect predictions. Indeed, 18 months ago, the very thought of oil rebounding to $80 per barrel must have seemed far-fetched even to some Big Oil CEOs. Now, theres talk about Brent hitting $100 or more.
This is unlikely to happen, according to El-Erian, for a very simple reason: the higher the price, the more reluctant people will be to buy a commodity. This is perhaps one of the simplest market principles, and it is the principle that drives the cycles of commodity industries.
If you were to focus only on the supply side, you could get to oil at $100, because there has been underinvestment in the industry in general, and demand will stay robust, he explained. But if you look at what is happening on the demand side, there you get some questions. Demand is robust today but will it be robust in six months time? There are some really big questions in terms of demand destruction people buying less because prices are higher and in terms of whether policy becomes contractionary or not.
Related: Russia And Saudi Arabia See Oil Oversupply In 2022
Uncertainty about demand is what OPEC says makes it stick to its original production increase agreement despite increasingly frantic calls for more supply from large consumers such as the United States. The cartel made a special note of this in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report.
In it, OPEC revised its oil demand growth forecast for this year down by 160,000 bpd to a total of 5.7 million bpd. For this quarter, OPEC cut its oil demand growth by a lot more330,000 bpdsaying a slowdown in the pace of recovery in 4Q21 is now assumed due to elevated energy prices. In other words, the energy crunch that first benefited oil prices is now apparently hurting demand for the commodity.
Yet, the price-driven pressure on oil demand is only one side of the coin. The other is supply and energyrather than oildemand. In his interview with CNBC, El-Erian noted that the energy crunch was related to the fact that alternatives to fossil fuels were not amply available. Meanwhile, IHS Markits Daniel Yergin has warned that markets could see a series of crunches because supply will continue to fall short of demand.
Yergin noted what he calls a disconnect between the dynamics of oil markets and energy policies being implemented, CNBC reported, citing the oil expert. It is perhaps this disconnect that would lend additional upward pressure to oil prices, countering the natural downward pressure that excessive prices normally have on oil demand.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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At the start of 2021, Venezuelas Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami announced that national oil company PDVSA was targeting petroleum production of 1.5 million barrels per day by the end of the year. When he made that statement in March 2021, Venezuelas national oil company was pumping, according to OPEC, an average of 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day, or a third of that target. A week ago, PDVSA gave a clear indication of just how unrealistic that target was by reducing that daily average production target by roughly a third to one million barrels per day by the end of 2021. There are signs that even the reduced output is beyond the capability of Venezuelas national oil company. If this ambitious new target were achieved, it would generate considerable income for Maduros near-bankrupt regime, as well as a capital-starved PDVSA. That cash could then be directed to urgently required maintenance and to the overhaul of Venezuelas rapidly deteriorating energy infrastructure. Despite Maduros, El Aissamis, and the PDVSAs hype, the new numbers are still unrealistic and will not be achieved until critical geopolitical dilemmas are resolved. OPECs latest Monthly Oil Market Report for November 2021 shows, from secondary sources, that during October 2021 Venezuela only pumped on average 590,000 barrels of crude oil per day. This represents an impressive 10.7% increase compared to September and is a stunning 61% greater than for the same period a year earlier, although it is still well below both the formidable production target set by El Aissami earlier this year and PDVSAs amended number.
Source: OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report November 2021 and U.S. EIA.
For the first nine months of 2021, Venezuela only pumped an average of 525,200 barrels of crude oil daily, compared to 500,000 barrels for 2020 and 796,000 barrels per day during 2019.
Source: OPEC.
This represents a steep decline from the pre-Chavez peak of 3.1 million barrels per day attained in 1998. Those numbers indicate that Venezuelas crude oil output stubbornly remains a third of El Aissamis ambitious goal and half of PDVSAs revised objective, despite Beijing bolstering investment and operations in Venezuela, indicating that PDVSA is struggling to grow its crude oil output to meet the desired target.
There is a range of reasons for this, the most prominent being the severely dilapidated state of Venezuelas energy infrastructure, which will stay in that state for as long as strict U.S. sanctions remain in place. Washingtons measures aimed at triggering regime change prevent PDVSA and Maduros autocratic regime from accessing foreign energy and capital markets. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for PVDSA to sell the crude it produces internationally. This, in turn, prevents the oil giant from generating the capital needed to perform crucial maintenance and overhaul activities of Venezuelas severely dilapidated energy infrastructure. It is western oil majors that are essentially the only energy companies with the necessary resources and expertise to rebuild Venezuelas shattered petroleum industry. These companies, however, are unwilling to make the significant investment required to rebuild Venezuelas hydrocarbon infrastructure.
Estimates regarding the amount of investment required to rebuild Venezuelas shattered petroleum industry vary wildly. PDVSA claims that $58 billion is sufficient to return production to pre-Chavez levels of around three million barrels per day, but other sources outside of Venezuela believe that is insufficient. Baker Institute for Public Policy Fellow In in Latin American Energy, Francisco J Monaldi, in a February 2021 policy brief stated it will take $10 billion to $12 billion annually over a 10-year period to lift production to 2.5 to 3 million barrels daily. Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodriguez, a key opposition figure, believes it will take as much as $15 billion to $20 billion annually for up to 10-years, meaning as much as $200 billion is required. In Guaidos plan (Spanish) to fix Venezuela, economist Jose Toro Hardy estimated it will take several years and an investment of $25 billion to $30 billion per year, a total of at least $175 billion, to restore crude oil production to 3 million barrels per day.
Related: Could An Energy Crunch Lead To A Worldwide Financial Crisis?
The difficult conditions associated with operating in Venezuela, a country long associated with the nationalization and state control of energy assets, are not only deterring investment but causing major energy companies to abandon the country. The latest was Japans Inpex which chose to exit Venezuela by selling its interest in two operations with PDVSA. Inpex sold a 70% stake in the Gas Guarico partnership with PDVSA to Caracas-based Sucre Energy and its 30% holding in the Petroguarico venture to PDVSA, which held the controlling 70% interest. Before that TotalEnergies and Equinor exited their operations in Venezuela abandoning their 30.32% and 9.67% respective stakes with PDVSA in the Petrocedeno heavy oil operation. That divestment saw both companies incur a loss and leaves the Petrocedeno extra-heavy crude oil operations 100% owned by PDVSA. These events bode poorly for Venezuela being able to obtain the necessary capital, parts, and skilled labor to conduct overdue critical maintenance and overhauls on industry infrastructure.
Those developments are weighing heavily on Caracas fragile fiscal position, which is so dire that by March 2021 Maduros authoritarian regime had been in default for nearly three years. This was resolved by Caracas securing a restructuring deal in late March with individual creditors, which made the debt less onerous allowing Venezuela to move out of default. The financial pressure on Maduros regime because of the collapse of Venezuelas economic backbone, its oil industry, and harsh U.S. sanctions is considerable. The OPEC members economy shrank by 30% during 2020, and the IMF expects it to contract by 5% this year along with another 3% decline during 2022.
PDVSAs recently revised target, along with Venezuelas crude oil output only averaging 525,200 barrels per day for the first 10 months of 2021, indicates that Caracas is incapable of lifting petroleum output to the level required to initiate an economic recovery. The looming arrival of peak oil demand and growing pressure to decarbonize the world economy means that time is fast running out for Caracas to exploit its vast petroleum reserves, which at 304 billion barrels are the worlds largest. This adds a sense of urgency to Venezuelas quest to exploit its crude oil reserves, which is the only viable means of rebuilding the petrostates shattered economy and restoring both Caracas and PDVSAs finances. That simply will not occur, despite Maduros overtures regarding reduced regulation and increased foreign control of petroleum assets, because Washingtons sanctions impact those energy companies which possess the capital and expertise required to rebuild Venezuelas petroleum industry. For those reasons, it is difficult to see how PDVSA can expand crude oil production to one million barrels let alone be pumping 1.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2021.
By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com
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Belarus is reducing the flow of oil via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Poland for three days due to "unplanned maintenance" while the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border escalates.
Belarusian operator Gomeltransneft Druzhba has limited the pumping of oil through the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Europe, which crosses Belarus because of unscheduled repair works on one of the branches, Igor Demin, a representative of Russia's Transneft pipeline monopoly, told reporters on Wednesday, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.
The Druzhba oil pipeline carries oil to Belarusian oil refineries and then via two branches to Ukraine and the EU member states of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Polish pipeline operator PERN said on Wednesday that it had been informed by Transneft that oil flows to Poland and Germany would be "slightly reduced" and there would be no change in the monthly volume of deliveries. Poland's crude oil system is fully secured and operational, the operator added.
The reduction of oil flows to Poland and Germany takes place amid rising tensions on the Belarus-Poland border, where violence erupted on Tuesday in clashes between migrants and Polish border guards.
The EU said on Monday it was broadening the scope for sanctions against Belarus "to tackle hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants."
"The EU will now be able to target individuals and entities organising or contributing to activities by the Lukashenko regime that facilitate illegal crossing of the EU's external borders," the EU said.
Last week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to halt natural gas supply at the key Yamal pipeline from Russia to Germany passing through Belarus if the European Union imposes additional sanctions on the country in response to the migrant crisis at the Belarus-Poland border.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, however, was quick to respond to the threat. Putin said Lukashenko had not consulted Moscow on the issue, and if he did, he risked a response from the Russian side.
Despite the threats by Lukashenko, German authorities reported that gas flows via the Yamal pipeline had actually increased over the weekend.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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A federal judge has retained jurisdiction over a lawsuit involving the Line 5 oil pipeline that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer wanted moved to a state court.
The AP reports that the case "is properly in federal court," according to the judge's opinion, which also stated that the case was "under consideration at the highest levels of this country's government."
Line 5 operator Enbridge and the state of Michigan are in litigation over Michigan's withdrawal of the easement for the pipeline's operation, while Canada has officially invoked bilateral negotiations with the United States over the fate of the pipeline that brings oil and propane to the Midwest.
Last year in November, the Michigan Governor and the director of the state's Department of Natural Resources revoked Enbridge's easement for the operation of the twin Line 5 pipeline, citing repeated violations of the easement and the need to protect the Great Lakes.
Michigan's notice required Enbridge to cease operations of the pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac by May 12, 2021. Enbridge ignored the notice and has continued to operate the pipeline. The company says that only a court and the U.S. federal government have authority to order Line 5 shut down. This is how the case ended up in a federal court.
"This is both a federal and international law issue," Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said this week. "Line 5 is vital, critical infrastructure which is operating safely and is in compliance with all applicable laws."
On the other hand, "Michigan's sovereign rights and duties regarding the use of our own lands and the protection of our Great Lakes are matters that belong before the state courts of Michigan," Governor spokesman Bobby Leddy said. "Regardless of today's ruling, we remain committed to getting the Line 5 dual pipelines out of the water as quickly as possible."
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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As U.S. oil companies show a new brand of fiscal discipline even as oil prices continue to climb, oil companies spent nearly $192 million on drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interiors Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Wednesdays Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 brought in $191.7 million in high bids for 308 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The money received for the tractsincluding high bids and rental and royalty paymentswill go to the U.S. Treasury; to the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; to local governments; to the Land and Water Conservation Fund; and to the Historic Preservation Fund.
Wednesdays sales saw 33 companies participate, with $198 million in bids submitted. Lease Sale 257 offered 15,148 unleased blocks up for grabs located anywhere from three to 231 miles offshore.
It is the eighth offshore sale held under the 2017-2022 National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program, according to BOEMs press release.
The interest around the sale was significant in part due to the low carbon footprint of the crude extracted from these waters, compared to the higher footprint of foreign plays or U.S. onshore wells.
The top high bidder, according to BOEM, was Chevron U.S.A, with more than $47 million in high bids spread across 34 tracts. Anadarko, BP, Shell, and Exxon rounded out the top five high bidders.
The sale generated pushback from environmentalists who chastised the administrations foray into oil and gas lease sales despite coming fresh off the heels of COP26.
But the sale comes after a U.S. District Court issued an injunction of the Biden Administrations suspension of oil and gas leases on federal lands. Meanwhile, the administration continues to review its leasing programs.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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The Majority Leader of Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says the 2022 budget should be able to raise more money for the development of the country.
According to him, borrowing nowadays has become difficult due to the Covid-19 as many well-to-do countries in the world are also struggling to stabilize their economies, making borrowing almost impossible.
He added that the outbreak of the pandemic has compelled the government to take drastic measures against the original plan of the country; thus, the health sector has to be looked at.
He maintained that the Covid-19 has hit hard at businesses as many companies had to fold up and others were unable to recover from the shock of the pandemic.
He stressed that the cost of food is expensive even abroad, making such a challenge difficult to borrow money to develop the country.
He admitted that the debt of the country is already high and therefore going to borrow again will shoot the country's debt higher; hence, it is important to look within for money to develop the country.
Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs asserted that it takes money to run the affairs of the country, hence, the Finance Minister with his 2022 budget presentation will indicate how the country will raise funds for the development of the country.
But the Suame Lawmaker cautioned against overtaxing Ghanaians even though the country needs money to develop.
If we are not careful and you load people with too much taxes, they will break, he cautioned.
He, however, suggested that in order to raise resources from within, the tax net should be broadened to enable as many people as possible to contribute to the development of the country.
He noted that it is the belief of the government to make private enterprises thrive as the development of the sector will take care of the unemployment situation in the country.
"We want to promote the private enterprises so that the country can develop eventually. I am expecting that the budget will address the businesses that are down in the country. We want to hear how the businesses will be promoted to increase employment," he indicated.
Watch video below
Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com
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The pan-African banking Group, the Ecobank Group, is supporting the Intra-African Trade Fair 2021 taking place from November 15-21, 2021, in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
This Trade Fair promises to help accelerate Africas commercial and economic growth and development, a core mission of the Ecobank Group.
Akin Dada, Group Executive, Corporate and Investment Banking, Ecobank Group said: The Intra-African Trade Fair provides Africas businesses with unique opportunities for unrivalled networking to establish new business contacts from every country across the African continent.
This is coming at a time that the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement is breaking down the historic barriers to intra-African trade and investments by creating a huge single market. At the Ecobank Group, we recognise that this will feed through to exponential growth in the demand and need for the convenience of a reliable and secure payments ecosystem and we already have the established scale to facilitate this as the payments bank of choice across Africa.
IATF2021 will play a vital role in raising awareness and helping Africas businesses to leverage the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), grow and expand their international reach.
In conjunction with improvements in market information about the goods and services that are available in other African countries, it will increase intra-African trade and negate the longstanding but unnecessary importation of such products from outside the African continent, while boosting sourcing from within Africa.
As a key supporter determined to play a significant role in helping to achieve the objectives of the AfCFTA, the Ecobank Group is sponsoring the IATF2021 which promises to be an important vehicle in making the vision of one African market a reality.
The Ecobank Group already has in place numerous solutions to facilitate the exponential growth in intra-African trade growth being created by the AfCFTA.
These include its scalable digital payments ecosystem which can facilitate trade and e-commerce payments across Africa; its nurturing and supporting of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through its provision of financial and non-financial support to help them grow and succeed; smart cash management functionalities; its Ecobank Marketplace providing a ready-made and accessible e-commerce solution for sole traders and MSMEs to grow their customer base and sales; its range of training programmes to upskill businesses management abilities; and the provision of innovative funding solutions.
The Ecobank Groups intent is to be the go to bank for payments and trade finance in Africa.
In addition, the Ecobank Group has a series of webinars specially designed for African entrepreneurs to help them grasp and maximise the opportunities being created by the AfCFTA.
As the Best 2021 SME Bank of the Year, the Ecobank Group is continuously focusing on new solutions to meet its diverse customers needs. A recent example is its multi-award-winning Ellevate programme. Ellevate by Ecobank provides women-led/owned or focused businesses and entrepreneurs with a full suite of products, services and tools financial, educational, growth and advisory to empower them and help their businesses thrive.
Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com
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The eight-year-old cancer survivor, Breanna Fosua Addai, says the incorporation of childhood cancers into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come as a big relief to children with cancers and their parents.
Her comment followed an announcement made by the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo on Monday during the NHIS week to include childhood cancers onto the NHIS benefit package.
Breanna Addai, who has been advocating for childhood cancers and hoped to become ambassador for children with cancer first made the appeal during the inauguration of the ultra-modern 54-bed hostel built by the Rebecca Foundation for children with cancer at Korle-Bu in Accra.
She expressed gratitude saying "For years we have struggled, The cost of childhood cancer treatment, Far beyond our reach. For years we have hoped, For years we have prayed, For years we have pleaded Include childhood cancers on the NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME (NHIS)!
Today, what was merely a dream is becoming a reality. The hopes and dreams of the entire childhood cancer family Coming to life."
Little Breanna Addai also commended Paediatric Oncology staff and associates including United Nations Children's Fund and other organisations for supporting the fight against Childhood cancer in Ghana.
"Thank you, Paediatric Oncology staff and associates all around the country. Our voice has been heard! Thank you, Mama Rebecca! Our own sweet mother! We thank you for always pushing the childhood cancer agenda," she stated.
She also applauded National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for leading the role to expand the NHIS benefit package to include childhood cancers.
"Thank you, NHIA. Today we can smile.Cure is finally within the reach of every precious child. God bless all of you," she said.
She therefore called on authorities to pay much attention to childhood cancer issues in the country even though much is being done to reduce the canker.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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US drug company Pfizer has penned a deal to allow its experimental Covid-19 treatment pill to be made and sold in 95 developing nations.
The deal with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool not-for-profit could make the treatment available to 53% of the world's population.
But it excludes several countries that have had large Covid-19 outbreaks, including Brazil.
Pfizer says the pill lessens the risk of severe disease in vulnerable adults.
In a statement on Tuesday, Pfizer said the agreement will allow local medicine manufacturers to produce the pill "with the goal of facilitating greater access to the global population".
Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in lower-income countries and said it would waive royalties in all nations included in the agreement while Covid remains a World Health Organization-designated public health emergency.
In early November, Pfizer said clinical trials suggest that its Covid-19 pill, Paxlovid, cuts the risk of hospital admission or death by 89% for high-risk adult patients.
Charles Gore, director of the Medicines Patent Pool, said in a statement the license was important as "this oral drug is particularly well-suited for low- and middle-income countries and could play a critical role in saving lives".
Most of the countries included are in Africa or Asia. However, nations like Brazil, China, Russia, Argentina and Thailand, which have experienced major outbreaks, are not part of the deal.
Some experts say this is not enough to address inequalities in access to Covid-19 treatments and vaccines.
Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies have also pushed back against calls to lift patents on their Covid jabs.
Source: BBC
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Former President, John Dramani Mahama, has eulogized former Transport Minister Dzifa Attivor, who passed away on Monday, November 15, 2021, after a short illness.
Mr. Mahama, in a tweet, indicated that the deceased minister was a very dedicated member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who contributed immensely to the growth of the party.
He mentioned that the party, together with friends and sympathizers, were still struggling to come to terms with her departure.
May the soul of our sister and mother, Dzifa Aku Attivor, rest peacefully. Dzifa was a very dedicated comrade; she was always ready and willing to get things done for our party, the NDC, and help others in need. We are struggling to come to terms with her departure. She will be sorely missed by all, especially the Volta Region NDC and the teeming number of our people operating under the Volta Caucus across the country. My deepest condolences to her family, friends and the NDC, in the wake of this painful loss, he said.
Tributes have been pouring in for Dzifa Attivor since news of her demise became public.
Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has described her as someone who was passionate about national transformation.
You were passionate about national transformation and contributed your quota with hard work and infectious zeal as epitomized by Ghanas multiple-award-winning Terminal. Your dedication to the NDC and the Volta Region was most remarkable. Rest in Glory, Mama Dzifa Attivor, he indicated in a tweet.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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It has emerged that the Police detectives who arrested the infamous MV Benjamin vessel which was ferrying tonnes of cocaine under-declared the quantity of the illicit substance in the vessel.
The police service, in 2006, based upon a tip-off arrested some persons in connection with an offshore vessel MV Benjamin believed to be carting narcotic drugs into Ghana.
A member of the detectives in an interview on Angel FM Monday, October 15, 2021 said that the media at the time reported that 77 parcels of cocaine were in police custody.
However, Detective Norbert Anane Dei, who partook in the arrest of the suspected cocaine smugglers, said that he together with his three colleague officers connived to retain some of the seized parcels of cocaine before submitting the remaining parcels to the police CID Headquarters.
Despite not revealing the exact number of stolen parcels due to security reasons, Detective Anane Dei confessed to Kofi Adoma that the reported figure was far less than what they initially confiscated. He also alleged that the persons they arrested for possessing the drugs bribed the police for their release.
When we arrested them, they gave us a 35,000-dollar bribe on the spot to let them go. We took the money and still arrested them, he said in Twi on the show.
Narrating the incident further, the detective said that he ended up being a drug addict in an attempt to sell the cocaine they kept to themselves.
Out of curiosity, I tasted the drugs and became hooked and since then I frequently abused it till it cost me my marriage and my job, he lamented.
Narrating how the arrest happened, Detective Anane Dei explained that some disgruntled fishermen gave him a tip-off that there was a vessel loaded with cocaine docked offshore around the Kpone-Prampram beach.
The fishermen noted that they have been contracted to cart the drugs ashore but their employers cheated them they were paid $20,000 instead of the agreed $50,000 thus the reason for exposing them.
The then detective Anane reported the tip-off to his superiors after which an ambush was laid to arrest the people involved.
Subsequently, some five persons including the vessel owner, Joseph Kojo Dawson, were tried and handed a 25-year jail term.
The news media also reported that some five slabs of the 77 parcels of cocaine retrieved from MV Benjamin went missing from the Narcotics Control Board (NCB).
Source: angelonline.com.gh
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Dr Wilberforce Aggrey, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) lecturer, who is currently in police custody following a new evidence allegedly linking him to the disappearance of his wife, Rhodaline Amoah-Darko has been denied bail by the Kumasi High Court.
Dr Aggrey was last Friday (November 12) remanded in police custody by the Asokwa District Court.
This was after the police charged him with kidnapping.
He is to re-appear on November 26, 2021 at the Asokwa District Court.
The court has also granted an order for the police to submit him for psychiatric examination following some incoherent responses to police questions.
Not satisfied with the decision of District Court to remand him, Dr Aggrey applied to the High Court for bail and when the case was called Tuesday, November 16, 2021, the Kumasi High Court denied the application.
This followed an argument by the prosecution that, a new evidence linking Dr Aggrey to the disappearance of his wife is being investigated and that should the court grant him bail, he may interfere with the investigations.
Graphic Online's Kumasi reporter, Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor who was at the Kumasi High Court Tuesday reports that the court presided over by Justice Priscilla Dikro, upheld the objection to the bail application by the Attorney General who told the court that new evidences were emerging and the accused person may interfere with the evidence when granted bail.
The court therefore denied the accused person and dismissed the case.
Dr Aggrey is with the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the KNUST.
Substantive case
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.
Rhodaline Amoah-Darko, a staff of the Lands Commission in the Ashanti Region was reported missing after she allegedly left home at Gyenyase in Kumasi on August 30, 2021 and did not return.
After Rhodaline allegedly 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 [Nov 12] told the court that the husband in reporting the case said Rhodaline had been kidnapped from their home and he could not 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.
Related: We have no evidence linking husband to disappearance of Lands Commission staffer - Police
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 people 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
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Residents of Akyempim in the Tarkwa Municipality of the Western region were on Monday evening horrified following the murder of Prophetess Rose Boafo of the local Word of Knowledge Church.
Prophetess Mrs Rose Boafo was murdered by unknown assailants at about 4pm at the premises of her church at Akyempim near the offices of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) shortly after Monday afternoon church service.
The Western Regional Police Command through the Tarkwa Police Division has taken over investigations into the murder of the prophetess.
Consulting room
The Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ms Olivia Ewuraabena Adiku told Graphic Online that the police are hunting for the perpetrators.
She said Mrs Boafo, aged about 37-years, was murdered in a small apartment attached to the church building which she used for one-on-one consultation with members who wish to discuss issues privately.
At the scene the victims body had part of her neck slashed with several cuts and stabbed multiple times in the abdomen. The body has since been deposited at the Tarkwa Government Hospital, she said.
At present we are looking for the perpetrators and will also appeal to members of the general public to volunteer information to the police to help in the apprehension of the perpetrators, she said.
Strange visitor
A member of the community and a friend of the church said the husband of the murdered prophetess told them after the incident that the wife had received information that a visitor wanted to see her at the church and so she left the house to go to the church.
The friend of the church said the husband indicated he and his wife had presumed the visitor to be a tiler they were expecting to tile the floor of the church.
Phone calls
The Word of Knowledge Church sits on a hill not far from the couples residential facility. A cook in the house called the prophetess several times to ask what dish to prepare for dinner but she did not answer her phone.
The cook is then said to have gone to the husband to ask what to cook, after complaining that the prophetess was not answering her phone. The husband also called her phone a number of times but to no avail.
The husband decided to verify from the church and to his shock, he met the lifeless body of his wife resting in a pool of her blood with her intestines gushing out.
Source: graphiconline.com
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Flyers of Joseph Yammins bid to contest the National Organizer slot for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are currently circulating on social media.
Flyers of the former Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC have since gone viral on social media suggests hes ready to help build Ghanas largest opposition party as they fight for power in 2021.
He confirmed days ago on Accra-based Power Fm that he is coming to breathe in a new life in the party that has deviated from its radical approach in dealing with issues as a result of the timid crop of leadership.
Mr. Yammin wants members of the party to apply the law of Moses of an eye for an eye in order not for the NDC to take advantage of them.
On the flyer, however, Jospeh Yammin proves that hes ready to battle as he focuses on the grassroots and the need for representation in executive portfolios.
His motto reads Grassroots must lead.
If Joseph Yammin should take up the challenge, he will be contesting for the position of Joshua Akamba who is currently the National Organizer of the NDC.
It is not certain on whether Joshua Akamba will contest for the National Organizer position when the party opens its nominations for party executive positions at the National level.
Source: GNA
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Peacefmonline.com can authoritatively confirm that the Vice President, HE Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, will today not be in Parliament to observe the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Government Economic Policy.
Though it was often not the usual occurrence for a President or even the Vice President to be present during a budget reading, it had become a regular feature since the advent of the Fourth Republic for Ghanaians to see Dr Bawumia seated in Parliament, and somewhat providing moral support for the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, as he presents the governments economic policy.
However, on Wednesday, November 17th, this spectacle which used to be as constant as the Northern Star since the Akufo-Addo led NPP administration assumed office, will be markedly missing.
Why Dr Bawumia Can't Be In Parliament!
The Vice President, is currently acting as president, - since President Akufo-Addo is on leave - and as such will have to be ushered in a special way done to any president who enters the chamber.
Additionally, the President, by constitutional mandate allows the finance minister to read the budget on his (president's) behalf, so should Dr Bawumia (acting president) make a appearance in Parliament today, he will be required to read his own budget.
It is in this regard that the Vice President will not be in parliament for the budget presentation.
Previous Appearances
The Veep has constantly joined Parliamentarians for the presentation of the budget in accordance with Article 111 of the 1992 constitution.
Article 111 which talks about Attendance in Parliament of Vice President and Ministers states that, "The Vice-President, or a Minister or Deputy Minister who is not a member of Parliament, shall be entitled to participate in the proceedings of Parliament and shall be accorded all the privileges of a member of Parliament except that he is not entitled to vote or to hold an office in Parliament."
The Vice President is the head of the Economic Management Team.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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The government's decision to continue with the Nations Builders Corp (NABCO) has received major criticism from one of the pressure groups in the country- the Citizen Watch.
According to Citizen Watch, the government cannot sustain the current model of NABCO hence the need to redirect the program to the private sector.
With the ongoing digitalization program, we believe the government should reduce its labour strength, and redirect NABCO to the private sector. This would help ease pressure on the wage bill, which accounts for almost 60 percent of our total revenue," the Citizen Watch said in a statement issued and signed by Francis Agbenyegah, the Convener of the group.
For the past three years, the government has spent over GHc 3billion as wages on 100,000 NABCO recruits.
This, Citizen Watch is of the view that, the monies could have built factories across the country through the support of the private sector where the youths would be in outsourcing program and also be part of the agricultural value chain, which is more sustainable.
The statement reiterates that the GHc 3billion spent on the NABCO recruits could have been channeled through the banks for the private sector to access and build factories across the country to ease the high rate of unemployment in the country, as they would have been absorbed by the private sector and also participate as forming small and medium enterprises.
The GHc 3 billion could have be channeled through ADB Bank, GCB Bank, National Investment Bank among others for the incubation of SMEs to create a more sustainable income generating ventures. We need to build entrepreneurs in the country to propel growth as we keeping saying the private sector is the engine of growth, it said.
"We are grateful to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta for letting us know the true state of affairs and any further expenditure on NABCO from the government without integrating them into the private sector would be a waste of resources. The government should realign and also program the NABCO to be more private sector driven.
Citizen Watch research has revealed that out of 500 NABCO recruits interviewed, 80 percent of them either sit idle at work or dont show up for work, but receive their monthly allowances due to lack of monitoring, which clearly shows that the program is a failed venture hence needs a redirection.
Source: Ruth Aboagye
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The beleaguered Member of Parliament for Madina, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu has been seen in Parliament today, Wednesday, November 16, 2021, ahead of the 2022 Budget presentation by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.
His presence in Parliament has come as a surprise to many journalists as the Kaneshi Court was for the second time yesterday forced to adjourn the case involving the MP to November 29, as he was said to have travelled out of the country on Parliamentary duty.
The Legislator has been charged for unlawfully blocking a public road and the destruction of public property.
When the case was called on Tuesday (Nov 16), counsel for the legislator, Mr Victor Kwadjoga Adawudu, told the court that his client was still out of the country and was expected to return next week.
He, therefore, prayed the court to adjourn the case to November 29.
For his part, the prosecution, represented by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sylvester Asare told the presiding judge that the Police had not received any communication to indicate the inability of the accused person to attend court.
Letter
The judge, in his response, indicated that he had received a letter on his file signed by the Deputy Clerk to Parliament, Eric Owusu Mensah which read: Please refer to your letter No. KDC/202/22 and dated 9th November, 2021 which attached a Hearing Notice on the above matter for service on the Honourable Member for Madina Constituency, Hon. Francis-Xavier Sosu.
The letter further read; I have been directed by the Rt. Hon. Speaker to bring to the attention of the Hon Court that the Hon. Member is attending at the proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the 1st Session of the 8th Parliament which commenced on Tuesday 26th October 2021 and is also currently representing Parliament and the Country in a conference in the United States of America.
Pursuant to article 117 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic, I am unable to bring the service to the attention of the Member of Parliament as requested the letter dated the 10th of November 2021 indicated.
After the court had read the letter, ASP Asare requested a certified true copy of the said letter for police records.
The court subsequently adjourned sitting to 29 November 2021.
Background
The MP joined his constituents of Ayi-Mensah, Danfa and the Otinibi in a demonstration over poor roads on Monday, October 25, 2021.
During the protest, some of the protestors allegedly blocked roads, burnt tyres and destroyed some public property.
Following the demonstration, the police have been unsuccessful in their attempts to arrest Mr Sosu with Parliament upholding its privileges and requesting proper procedures for MPs who must face criminal prosecution.
It is the case of the police that Mr Sosu had questions to answer in respect of the criminal act the protestors engaged in they tried to invite the MP to assist with investigations.
However, the MP had been on the defence that he followed due process in organising the protest and, therefore, stated that there was no basis for his arrest.
After the first attempt to arrest him, Mr Sosu filed a formal complaint in Parliament accusing the Greater Accra Regional Operations Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Isaac Kojo Asante, and the Adentan Divisional Commander, ACP Mr Eric Winful, of contempt of Parliament.
The Speaker of Parliament has since referred the complaint against the two police officers to the Privileges Committee of Parliament.
He was first expected to appear in court on Monday, November 8, this year but was absent.
The prosecution notified the court that the Police had received a letter from the Speaker of Parliament indicating that Lawyer Sosu was out of the country on Parliamentary duties, a situation which compelled the court to adjourn the case to today (Nov 16).
Source: kasapafmonline.com
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" " Sen. Ed Markey speaks alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Congressional Democrats during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 7, 2019 as they unveil their Green New Deal resolution. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Green New Deal is nothing if not wildly, proudly, unapologetically ambitious. It's a bodacious cards-on-the-table challenge to everyone who doubts the seriousness of climate change and to everyone who lacks the sense of urgency or the guts to act on it.
So to think, after the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted in late March to quash the Green New Deal (though technically was a non-binding resolution, meaning in no way would it have become law; the Senate shot down even talking about it), that this pie-in-a-clean-sky idea has gone belly-up for good is not giving it nearly enough credit. The Green New Deal, in oft-changing but always-bold forms, isn't going anywhere.
"I think the Beltway mentality that, 'Well, the resolution didn't pass, so this goes away'... most people aren't necessarily following what happens in Congress," Nicole Ghio, the fossil fuels manager for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, says. "What [people] demand is not based on a vote a very cynical vote that happened in the Senate. What we're going to see is people continue to mobilize around the country for meaningful action on climate. That already has changed the debate and will continue to change the debate."
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What Is the Green New Deal?
The Green New Deal, as many know it today, is a resolution that was sponsored in the Senate by veteran Democrat congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts and, in the House, by freshman Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. It calls for the creation of a new federal program, a Green New Deal, that would combat climate change and do nothing less than recast the nation's economy, addressing a huge number of national ills from income inequality to social and racial injustice to health care to a living wage in doing so.
It takes on more, too. Way, way more. The Green New Deal is crazy ambitious, and in that way not unlike its namesake, Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" of the 1930s, designed to lift America out of the Great Depression.
"In the past, when we've confronted this type of stagnation and this type of systemic threat as a country ... the answer has been an ambitious and directed mobilization of the American economy to direct and solve our biggest problems," Ocasio-Cortez told a town hall-type meeting on MSNBC. "To get us out of this situation, to revamp our economy, to create dignified jobs for working Americans, to guarantee health care, and elevate our educational opportunities and attainment, we will have to mobilize our entire economy around saving ourselves and taking care of this planet."
The Green New Deal is, to its many critics, naively impractical and prohibitively expensive. It calls for a completely clean-energy future for America, carbon-neutral, by 2030. That means goodbye coal, goodbye fossil fuels, goodbye nuclear, goodbye anything that runs on "dirty" energy (including, notably, the economy as we now know it).
The devil of the Green New Deal is, of course, in the details. But the resolution, simply and admittedly, doesn't sport many of those. To be fair again, it's just a resolution, not legislation. It is considered by many to be a starting point.
Still, the Green New Deal is clear in its goals, which include:
Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming
Creating millions of good jobs
Investing in infrastructure
Securing clean air, water, healthy food, a sustainable environment, access to nature and "climate and community resiliency"
Promoting justice for people of "frontline and vulnerable communities"
" " The Green New Deal would mean an end to all fossil fuels, including the coal mined from places like the Savage Energy Terminal in Price, Utah seen here. George Frey/Getty Images
It should be pointed out that this current Green New Deal is just the latest, hottest incarnation of a Green New Deal. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman may have coined the term in 2007. President Barack Obama put the idea on his platform, without much ado, in 2008. Green Party candidate Jill Stein ran for president with a Green New Deal in the 2016 election. The Sunrise Movement pushed for a Green New Deal in a protest in the offices of Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the 2018 midterm election.
This in-the-news version has its defining characteristics, but it's much like others, past and present, in that it would require a huge, unprecedented economic investment. Or, as Friedman put it back in 2007:
"We will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables. And that is a huge industrial project much bigger than anyone has told you. Finally, like the New Deal, if we undertake the green version, it has the potential to create a whole new clean power industry to spur our economy into the 21st century."
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What Happened with This Green New Deal?
On March 26, 2019, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed for a vote on the Markey Green New Deal resolution, attempting to get senators on the record on a plan that some have ridiculed in outrageous fashion. (Republican Sen. Rob Bishop of Utah, ate a hamburger on camera before, as he said, the GND outlaws cows! Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, said the Green New Deal aims to end air travel! The Green New Deal says neither.)
In an only-in-politics show of solidarity and with the realization that, in the Republican-majority Senate, the resolution would be defeated (again, before it was even considered or assigned to committees or debated or any of that) Democrats (most of whom backed the resolution) instead voted "present" when McConnell forced the vote. The resolution, of course, died anyway.
In the House, the Ocasio-Cortez companion resolution still lives on, though its future is uncertain. For her part, Ocasio-Cortez is not backing down. She assailed lawmakers who ridiculed the Green New Deal, calling them "fools," and in floor speech warned that the costs of a Green New Deal are nothing compared to what lies ahead without one.
"We're going to pay for this whether we pass a Green New Deal or not," she said on the House floor. "Because as towns and cities go underwater, as wildfires ravage our communities, we are going to pay. And we're either gonna decide if we're going to pay to react, or if we're going to pay to be proactive."
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What Next, Then?
"I think a lot of that is political posturing," Nathaniel Keohane, the senior vice president of climate for the Environmental Defense Fund, says in regard to the Senate vote. "What I think is most striking there is the kind of thinking behind that is already out of date, in the sense that there is overwhelming and increasing popular support for climate action."
A March 2019 Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans, for the first time since 2001, are what Gallup calls "concerned believers;" that is, they are "highly worried about global warming, think it will pose a serious threat in their lifetime, believe it's the result of human activity, and think news reports about it are accurate or underestimate the problem."
More than 60 percent of Americans told Gallup pollsters in 2018 that the government is doing too little to protect the environment. That's a 12-year high on that topic.
That kind of grassroots sentiment, Friends of Earth's Ghio says, is beginning to trickle up. Politicians, despite what happened in the Senate, are starting to get the message. Virtually every Democrat who is running for president in 2020 has backed the idea of a Green New Deal, if not the current congressional resolution. House Republicans have introduced at least one resolution that addresses climate change.
"I think what we're seeing happen is that people across the country are engaging and they're demanding action. They're demanding action because they've been fired up about the ideas represented in a Green New Deal, but they're also demanding action because Americans are seeing, first-hand, the damage in climate change, whether it's in drought or floods or increased storms," Ghio says. "They realize we need action now."
Many groups are working on blueprints to provide details on a new GND, including what the latest congressional resolution did perhaps better than any previous version linking a clean-energy future to jobs and a new economy that would ease many of society's problems.
The trick, now that the idea is picking up steam, is to come up with plans that are acceptable to a majority of Americans ... and then convince politicians to enact them.
"Right now, we think we are at a time where getting more voices into the discussion and more ideas on the table is critical," Keohane says. "I think the Green New Deal has done an amazing job of energizing the conversation in a way that it hasn't been in a decade. I think that can only be a good thing for the cause of climate policy."
For real change to be affected, though, it will take more than conversation. It will take those ideas, Keohane says, from all corners of the economy, ideas that result in designed policies that provide economic incentives for individuals and companies.
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Time Is of the Essence
A wrinkle: There may be little time to waste. In November 2018, a multi-agency government report that warned of the dangers of climate change included this line: "Without more significant global greenhouse gas mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause substantial losses to infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century."
Yet President Donald Trump reacted this way: "One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but we're not necessarily such believers."
That's the kind of thinking that those supporting a Green New Deal the one just presented in Congress or any other versions of it are still fighting. At least for the time being.
"I don't want to rule out anything in terms of how fast this could move, given the trends in public opinion, given the enthusiasm behind the Green New Deal, given the fact that we're starting to get bipartisan voices," Keohane says. "But if you look at an effort like this, to pass major new legislation, it often does take presidential leadership, and I don't think that's something we're seeing with this administration.
"I think that's where we need to be going, in terms of the national discussion ... what are going to be the priorities for the next president, whoever that is."
NOW THAT'S SCARY The fourth National Climate Assessment, that sobering government report released in November 2018, has a wealth of information on our warming planet. One must-see highlight: an interactive chart of the "Indicators of Change," showing alarming moves in things like the Western U.S. snowpack (way down), an almost ninefold increase in U.S. ocean level in the past century and a tenfold increase over the past 10 years in acres lost to U.S. wildfires.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Scientists warn that without good biosecurity measures, 'alien organisms' on Earth may become a reality stranger than fiction.
Published in international journal BioScience, a team of scientists, including Dr. Phill Cassey, Head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Adelaide, are calling for greater recognition of the biosecurity risks ahead of the space industry.
"In addition to government-led space missions, the arrival of private companies such as SpaceX has meant there are now more players in space exploration than ever before," said Associate Professor Cassey. "We need to take action now to mitigate those risks."
Space biosecurity concerns itself with both the transfer of organisms from Earth to space (forward contamination) and vice-versa (backward contamination). While the research points out that at present the risk of alien organisms surviving the journey is low, it's not impossible.
Dr. Cassey said: "Risks that have low probability of occurrence, but have the potential for extreme consequences, are at the heart of biosecurity management. Because when things go wrong, they go really wrong."
The research provides clear evidence of how humans have spread organisms to the remotest regions of the earth and sea, and even into space.
To address the risks of invasive species from space travel, the authors suggest the emerging field of 'invasion science', which deals with the causes and consequences of introducing organisms into new environments, could offer valuable learnings. This includes the fact that insular systems such as islands, lakes, and remote habitats, are most vulnerable to invasion threats.
Further insights that could be applied include protocols for early detection, hazard assessment, rapid response and containment procedures currently used in response to invasive species threats.
Dr. Cassey said: "It is far cheaper to prevent biological contamination by implementing protocols on Earth than it is on Mars, for example."
Both Dr. Cassey and co-author Dr. Andrew Woolnough from the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide suggest that with some of the best biosecurity in the world Australia is well-positioned to contribute expertise in this area.
"We have a fantastic opportunity to contribute to international policy and to develop biosecurity mitigation measures that can be used by the expanding private space industry. This is an untapped economic development opportunity," Dr. Woolnough said.
Despite the value to space biosecurity, the authors state that invasion biologists have yet to be involved in Committee on Space Research Planetary Protection planning. In the research they argue this should change because "greater collaboration between invasion biologists and astrobiologists would enhance existing international protocols for planetary biosecurityboth for Earth and for extraterrestrial bodies that could contain life".
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Credit: Ascannio/Shutterstock
Since the end of the 20th century, daily life for most of us has increasingly moved into the digital sphere. This has led to the rise of the so-called "onlife" dimension, which represents the intimate intertwining of our online and offline lives. One day we may see the creation of the so-called metaverse, a perpetual online environment providing new digital spaces where people can interact, work and play as avatars.
The result is that people's rights and freedoms are increasingly shaped by the rules set by big technology firms. Twitter's decision to silence the former US president Donald Trump in the aftermath of the violence at Capitol Hill, Facebook's banning of Australian publishers and users from sharing or viewing news content, and the decision of YouTube to block anti-vaccine content from spreading misinformation, are just some examples of how tech firms have expanded their role not only as global gatekeepers of information but also as private powers.
These examples raise constitutional questions about who has legitimacy, who should have power, and how democracy can best function in the digital age. This points to the rise of digital constitutionalism, a new phase where individual rights and public powers are "relocated" among different groupssuch as technology companieson a global scale.
A new power play
Digital constitutionalism does not mean revolutionizing the roots of modern constitutionalism, the principles of which include responsible and accountable government, individual rights and the rule of law. Rather, it is about reframing the role of constitutional law in the digital age.
Modern constitutionalism has always pursued two missions: protecting fundamental rights and limiting powers through checks and balances.
In the digital age, one of the primary concerns regards the exercise of public powers which threaten rights and freedoms, such as internet blackouts or surveillance. This was underlined by the Snowden affair, where a CIA employee leaked documents revealing the extent of surveillance of the US's National Security Agency (NSA), prompting debate about national security and individual privacy.
But private companies now dominate the internet and enforce terms of service or community guidelines which apply to billion of users across the globe. These rules provide alternative standards which compete with the constitutional protection of fundamental rights and democratic values.
The challenge for constitutional democracies no longer comes from state authorities. Rather, the biggest concerns come from formally private entities but which control things traditionally governed by public authoritieswithout any safeguards. The capacity of tech firms to set and enforce rights and freedoms on a global scale is an expression of their growing power over the public.
For example, when Facebook or Google moderate online content, they are making decisions on freedom of expression and other individual rights or public interest based on private standards that do not necessarily reflect constitutional safeguards. And these decisions are enforced directly by the company, not a court.
This situation has led to calls for transparency and accountability. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, which highlighted the extensive collection of personal data for political advertising, and the recent revelations that Facebook's own research showed the potentially harmful effects of social media on young people's mental health, have increased the debate around the responsibilities of these big tech companies.
Addressing big tech powers
Constitutional democracies are still figuring out how to deal with tech firms' powers. And though they share the same global challenge, countries don't always react in the same way. Even if constitutional democracies generally protect rights and freedoms as part of everyday life in a democratic society, this does not mean that this protection is equal across the world.
In Europe, the Digital Services Act and the General Data Protection Regulation arose from the desire to make tech firms more accountable when it comes to content moderation and data protection.
But the US still sees self-regulation as the best approach to protect freedom of expression in the digital age. Even the US Supreme Court has underlined that the internetand particularly social mediaplays a critical role as a democratic forum.
As a result, online platforms have lost no time in consolidating their policy. The introduction of social media councils like the Facebook Oversight Board has been welcomed as a critical step for transparency and accountability. But this could also be seen as another step towards the consolidation of powers by adopting the veneer of more institutional system such as a "supreme court," as Facebook has also done.
Digital constitutionalism offers a variety of perspectives to analyze the protection of rights and the exercise of power by big tech companies. It should also prompt us to raise the debate about how individual rights and freedoms are not just subject to the powers of the state, but increasingly to big tech companies too.
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
White-crowned Manakin. Credit: Phillip Edwards, Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of ornithology.
Study of a perky little bird suggests there may be far more avian species in the tropics than those identified so far. After a genetic study of the White-crowned Manakin, scientists say it's not just one species and one of the main drivers of its diversity is the South American landscape and its history of change. These results are published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
"We found that the White-crowned Manakin probably originated in the highland forests of the Andes Mountains in northern Peru," explains lead author Jacob Berv. "Today, this bird is also found across the Amazon Basin, in the lowland rainforests of Brazil, Peru, and many other countries, including parts of Central America." Berv conducted this research while a Ph.D. student at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is currently a Life Sciences Fellow at the University of Michigan.
"This study shows that there is a lot of evolutionary history embedded in what is commonly referred to as a 'single widespread' species in Amazonia," says co-author Camila Ribas at Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research. "The White-crowned Manakin is an example of a phenomenon that is probably more the rule than the exception in Amazoniadiversity is vastly underestimated by the current taxonomy."
Around 2.5 million years ago, populations of this manakin species expanded out of the Andes, though many populations remain there today. Those that moved eventually became isolated in pockets of habitat defined by mountains, plains, rivers, and climate. Over the course of time, White-crowned Manakin populations evolved independently, accumulating differences in their songs and plumage patterns. Study authors suggest many of these pocket populations are now different enough from one another that they should be recognized as separate species. This is especially true if the variations in song make it unlikely that isolated populations would be able to recognize one another and breedthe biological definition of a species.
Over a few million years, ancestors of the White-crowned Manakin expanded from the Andes Mountains into a wide variety of other habitats and became isolated by landscape features. Map markers indicate the locations and number of genetic samples used in the study. Credit: Manakin illustration reproduced with permission from the Handbook of the Birds of the World.
"In order to understand evolutionary processes in Amazonia we need many more studies like this one, with dense geographical sampling," Ribas says. "For this we need to support biological collections that are able to accumulate samples through time." Study authors say underestimating the number of species in South America has important consequences for conservation, especially for endemic species threatened by ongoing loss of habitat. "We've basically just scratched the surface," notes Berv. "If what holds true for this species is indicative of what's taking place in other poorly studied species, then we have hugely underestimated the amount of biodiversity in the South American tropics."
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More information: Jacob S. Berv et al, Genomic phylogeography of the White-crowned Manakin Pseudopipra pipra (Aves: Pipridae) illuminates a continental-scale radiation out of the Andes, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2021). Journal information: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Jacob S. Berv et al, Genomic phylogeography of the White-crowned Manakin Pseudopipra pipra (Aves: Pipridae) illuminates a continental-scale radiation out of the Andes,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107205
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
For Kent Moore, the excitement of making a discovery is often tinged with sadness.
That's because Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto Mississauga, focuses on the impact of climate change.
"I wish I could discover things that weren't an impact of the change in climate. But unfortunately, everywhere you look on the Earth, you're seeing these changes and most of them are happening because the climate is changing," says Moore, who is also vice-principal, research at U of T Mississauga.
After the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) came to a close last week, Moore says he feels a sense of deja vuand frustration.
"Countries have committed to certain levels at COP26, but the problem is, we've never been able to meet any of our commitments," he says. "It's a challenge. I don't think it's going to be easy to meet these targets, but if we don't... our children and grandchildren will have to deal with the consequences of our actions and that's what really saddens me."
His research is a constant reminder of the consequences of climate change.
In a study published over the summer, he and other researchers found a 3,000 square kilometer hole, or polynya, opened up for two weeks in May of 2020 in an area of the Arctic known for having the oldest and thickest ice. The findings suggest the "Last Ice Area" may be undergoing rapid changes that reduces its suitability for ice-dependent species.
"When we study the Arctic sea ice we focus on the area of ice, which is decreasingbut what we don't focus on is that it's also getting thinner," Moore says.
He and his co-authors suggest that a strong storm with anti-cyclonic winds (that rotate clockwise) caused the polynya to forma phenomenon that may become more common as Arctic ice gets thinner due to climate change.
If nothing changes, Moore predicts that most of the ice in the Arctic will be lost in the summer by about 2050 and that the Last Ice Area will be a rare refuge for plants and animalsincluding polar bearsthat depend on the ice for their survival.
"This Last Ice Area will be the last area where these ecosystems will be able to survive, and we're hoping this ice will persist through a period of time until we get our CO 2 emissions under control," Moore says.
Many scientists estimate that the average global temperature has increased by more than one degree Celsius in the last 150 years, leading to more frequent extreme weather events such as wildfires, droughts and heatwaves.
"Everything we're experiencing now, we will experience in the future," Moore says, "and it will be even worse than that because we aren't taking any heat out of the system now."
Climate targets set out at COP26 will make it hard to stay within the global average surface temperature increase of 1.5 C, Moore says. And if the temperature jumps just half a degree to 2 C, it will have devastating consequences.
"At 1.5 C, if we jump forward to the end of the century, there still will be some summers where there is ice in the Arctic. At 2 C, there won't be any. It will be ice-free during the summer," Moore explains. "We hear a lot about stresses on coral reefs, which are complex ecosystems, at 1.5 C, but the corals will survive. They'll be under a lot of pressure, but they'll survive. At 2 C, they probably won't."
The difference in half a degree would also affect people. About 14 percent of the world's population will experience extreme heat in the summer with a 1.5 C increase. That number jumps to roughly 37 percent of the population at 2 C.
Moore says that, while individuals are being urged to do their part by driving electric cars and using less plastic, it's ultimately up to governments to ramp up their climate commitments to make a greater difference.
For now, he thinks many countries are making more modest promises with the intention of protecting their economies in the short term.
"I think they understand that if they really move on this file, they'll suffer a lot of political heat and they won't get much benefit from it because the benefits will be accrued in 20 to 30 years," he says. "I don't think there's the political will to do it."
He says he commends young climate activists who are pressuring their governments to make more ambitious environmental commitments.
"They're the ones that understand that it's going to be them that's going to clean up this mess. They're really frustrated, and I totally understand their frustration. I feel it too," Moore says. "These changes really are significant, and they're going to be impacting the Earth for a long, long time."
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Deforestation in regions like the Amazon has Europeans worried.
The EU plans to bar food and wood imports from deforested areas, according to a proposal unveiled Wednesday aimed at using its trade power to drive sustainability.
The draft law, which Brussels wants to turn into binding rules for all 27 European Union nations, would require companies show their soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and wood products are certified "deforestation-free".
It follows an international pledge made at the COP26 summit last week to end deforestation by 2030.
"This proposal is a truly ground-breaking one," the EU commissioner for climate action policy, Virginijus Sinkevicius, told a media conference.
"It targets not just illegal deforestation but also deforestation driven by agricultural expansion," he said.
Under the EU plan, two criteria would have to be met: that the commodities are produced in accordance with the origin country's laws; and that they were not produced on land deforested or degraded since the beginning of 2021.
Imports from higher-risk countries would be subject to tighter checks.
The European Commission did not say when it hoped to have the new legislation adopted.
The rules could impact countries such as Brazil, where European disquiet at razing of the Amazon rainforest by cattle farmers is holding up implementation of an EU-Mercosur trade deal.
Clearing of the Amazon hit a new record last month, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.
The environmental protection group WWF says the huge EU market is responsible for 16 percent of global deforestation linked to international trade.
It and other NGOs welcome the EU plan as a first step, but say it does not go far enough. Greenpeace says it does not address deforestation from other commodities such as rubber and maize, or from pig and poultry farming.
Waste and soil
Other sustainability proposals presented alongside the anti-deforestation rules were on waste management and improving the health of soils.
"These initiatives show that the European Union is serious about the green transition and just keeps moving forward with it," said the Commission vice president in charge of overseeing the EU's Green Deal, Frans Timmermans.
On waste, the Commission wants to see "circular economy" principles attached to the way it sends abroad its millions of tonnes of discarded metals, cardboard, plastic, textiles and other detritus.
Waste exports to non-OECD countries would be restricted and allowed only if those destinations agree and were able to handle them sustainably. Currently the two top destinations for EU waste in that category are Turkey and India.
Shipments to OECD countries would be monitored and suspended if grave environmental problems arose. Those destinations include Britain, Switzerland and Norway.
The soil strategy aims for a mix of voluntary and mandatory measures to increase soil carbon in farmland and fight desertification, to get soil ecosystems healthy by 2050.
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2021 AFP
An egg chamber expressing fluorescently tagged Pavarotti (red), which localizes to the ring canals, and Squash (cyan) which also localizes to ring canals transiently and delineates the cell boundaries in the epithelium. Credit: Imran Alsous et al.
Clonal dominance is a phenomenon that occurs when descendants (i.e., clones) of one or more founder cells in an organism contribute disproportionally to the system's final structure as the tissue grows. This phenomenon is associated with numerous biological processes, including bacterial growth and the genesis of tumors. While numerous studies have investigated clonal dominance, its origin is still is poorly understood.
Researchers from Princeton University, the Flatiron Institute in New York, and Jozef Stefan Institue in Slovenia have recently carried out a study investigating clonal dominance in the egg chamber of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a biological system in which the collective growth dynamics of cells can be easily reconstructed. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, suggests that clonal dominance can emerge spontaneously in excitable cell networks.
The fruit fly egg chamber is a multicellular system made up of a cluster of 16 germ cells, encased by a layer of epithelial cells. The cells in both these types of tissues are connected by ring canals, stabilized intercellular bridges that connect the two daughter cells arising from a division. Therefore, scientists can reconstruct cell lineage trees simply by tracing the ring canal connections between cells.
Lineage tracing techniques, a set of tools used to identify and track cell populations in vivo, have advanced significantly over the past few years. These are particularly promising for studies examining complex, 3D and heterogeneous tissues, containing 10s or 100s of thousands of cells. The egg chamber epithelium, which has fewer cells that form a single layer, is much simpler and is therefore well suited for lineage tracing.
"In the egg chamber epithelium, descendants remain, for the most part, connected to each other through ring canals, making cell lineage tracing more straightforward," Jasmin Imran Alsous and Jan Rozman, two of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "In addition, this system has a relatively clear start and end points for cell divisions: starting with ~50 cells and ending with ~1,000."
A series of past studies led by Lynn Cooley at Yale Medical School and Alan Spradling at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, identified the various ring canal proteins, as well as the number and location of founding stem cells that give rise to the epithelium, respectively. The recent work by Imran Alsous, Rozman and their colleagues built on these previous findings.
"In our previous work, we focused almost exclusively on the cluster of 16 germ cells where ring canals are quite large, growing from ~1 micron to ~10 microns in the larger egg chambers, and allowing passage of most RNAs, proteins and organelles," Imran Alsous said. "Using 3D imaging, image processing and theory, we showed that as these cells grow, they do so unequally and that the resulting differential growth pattern could be rationalized by accounting for polarized transport through the ring canals."
In a subsequent paper, Imran Alsous and her colleagues also investigated how these germ cells pack within an enclosure, given the topological constraints they uncovered. In the summer of 2018, they received a vial of fruit flies from another researcher, in which a protein that localizes to the ring canals was labeled, so that ring canals could be seen through fluorescence microscopy. They thus decided to investigate the extent of cell connections in the epithelium.
"In the germ cells, ring canals have been shown to be important for synchronizing the divisions that give rise to the 16-cell clustergoing from 1 cell to a 2-, 4-, 8-, and eventually a -16 cell cluster," Imran Alsous explained. "Previous studies had already shown that ring canals in the epithelium are actually smaller than those connecting the germ cells, on the order of ~300 nm, but are nonetheless large enough to allow protein equilibration between connected cells through diffusion."
Using the sample they received from their colleagues, the researchers decided to trace cell connections in the epithelium in egg chambers at various stages of development, where epithelia had anywhere between ~50 cells and ~1000 cells. Their study was conducted largely out of curiosity.
"When we first started this project, in the summer of 2018, I was set to leave Princeton relatively soon," Imran Alsous said. "My co-author, Jan, was on a summer internship at Princeton."
When they first started tracing cell connections in their sample, the researchers quickly realized that connected cells formed clusters that varied greatly in size. While some of these clusters contained a few or a dozen cells, others could contain hundreds of cells. The team expected to find a certain degree of variation in the size of cell clusters, however the differences they observed were far more pronounced than they anticipated. Their observations suggest that while some cells divided often, others rarely did.
After they observed large clusters of cells, Imran Alsous, Rozman and their colleagues set out to explain the origin of these clusters. Previous studies gathered valuable insight that informed their efforts, specifically delineating two facts about the fruit fly egg chamber epithelium. Firstly, studies found that in this system, the ring canals connecting cells are large enough for proteins to move through them and cross between cells. Secondly, researchers observed cell divisions in adjacent cells more often than one would expect to observe if cell division was randomly initiated.
"Combining these facts, we came upon the hypothesis that dominance could emerge because cell divisions are coupled in the epithelium (i.e., when a cell starts to divide, mitosis promoting factors could diffuse through ring canals into adjacent cells, inducing them to also divide)," Imran Alsous and Rozman said. "To test this hypothesis, we developed a mathematical model for the growing egg chamber epithelium, based on an older model that notionally represented the spread of forest fires."
The original version of the 'forest fire' model adapted by Imran Alsous, Rozman and their colleagues shows spaces on a grid that can either be filled by a normal tree, a burning tree or nothing (i.e., they previously contained a tree that burned down). The trees could catch fire either spontaneously (representing, e.g., a lightning strike) or from an adjacent burning tree. Empty spaces in the grid, on the other hand, could potentially host a newly grown tree.
In the adapted version of the model devised by the researchers, the tree grid was replaced by a network of cells connected by ring canals. Trees corresponded to a cell that can divide, burning trees to cells that were in the process of dividing, and empty spaces to daughter cells that resulted from a cell division, which are in turn not yet capable of dividing.
"Cells could divide either spontaneously or be induced to divide by a linked dividing cell, reminiscent of a fire jumping between trees," Imran Alsous and Rozman said. "Unlike a traditional 'forest fire' model, each new division also added a new node (i.e., the new cell emerging from the division), thereby growing the network. Using this representation of the growing epithelium, we showed that coupling of cell divisions could indeed lead to the sizes of dominant clones observed in the egg chamber, capturing their statistics and dynamics of their emergence."
The study offers new insight about clonal dominance in the fruit fly egg chamber epithelium. Most notably, it outlines a possible explanation for the emergence of dominant clones resulting from cell division coupling.
In addition, the findings offer additional evidence for the excitable nature of cell cycle and gene regulatory processes. The excitable nature of these processes, already highlighted by past studies, was also previously confirmed by both genetic and biochemical experiments.
"Our opinion is that the study almost opens as many questions as it answers," Imran Alsous and Rozman said. "For example, while it shows a possible means for the emergence of dominant clones, it is not clear if and how clonal dominance and division coupling confers an advantage to the developing system. Speculatively, it could result in faster growth or play a role in tissue scale coordination such as cell divisions stopping at ~1,000 total cells."
In their next studies, the authors also plan to explore how topological links (i.e., the ring canals) affect the tiling of surfaces and tissue-scale dynamics, as they have previously done in a study focused on the packing of the 16 germ cells.
"The 'forest fire' model in the paper is topological in nature and it doesn't account for the spatial constraints of the tissue and how growing clusters can interact or affect each other's' growth," Imran Alsous and Rozman added. "Therefore, a much more extensive model and experimental measurements would be required to understand this."
Explore further Oocyte growth relies on physical phenomena that drive smaller cells to dump their contents into a larger cell
More information: Jasmin Imran Alsous et al, Clonal Dominance in Excitable Cell Networks, Nature Physics (2021). Jasmin Imran Alsous et al, Clonal Dominance in Excitable Cell Networks,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-021-01383-0 Jasmin Imran Alsous et al, Collective Growth in a Small Cell Network, Current Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.038 Journal information: Current Biology , Nature Physics
2021 Science X Network
Nina Wootton examines samples of fish to see if theyve ingested plastic. Credit: Nina Wootton
More than 35 percent of fish caught in the waters off southern Australia contain microplastics, and the problem is most acute in South Australia, with plastic found in 49 percent of fish, according to research from the University of Adelaide.
While Australian waters remain cleaner than many international fishing zones, lead researcher Nina Wootton found that many commercial and recreational fishers in the South Australian fishing industry weren't aware that Australia even had an ocean plastic problem, in research published in Marine Policy this month.
"We wanted to find out what people knew about microplastic pollution in fish, from fishers to fishmongers to consumers," Nina said. "It varied, but about half weren't aware it was an issue because South Australian oceans had such a reputation for being clean."
"We still have time to make sure Australian seafood products remain some of the cleanest in the world, but we need the seafood industry, and the general public, to recognize the problem and start taking positive actions now."
The fishing industry can take a lead in solving the problem: previous studies estimate that 10% of plastic pollution in the ocean comes from fishing sources, so fishers can improve the quality of their own product by limiting their use of plastic where possible.
While fishers and other stakeholders were worried about the cost and inconvenience, simple actions like replacing plastic fishing equipment with natural materials, or using biodegradable bags at fish markets, could quickly reduce the amount of plastic ending up in the ocean. The researchers suggest an education program to raise awareness of the problem and provide solutions that the industry could implement easily to maintain the quality of locally caught fish.
Michael Violante, who has been part of the family-run fishmongers Seafood Works for nearly 25 years, said he was initially shocked by the findings.
"Fresh local seafood is a big part of my life, and to know that South Australia is not completely exempt from the plastic problem has got me thinking," he said. "I am open to making changes to the way I use plastic and encourage others to do the same. From the fishers to the consumers, we all share this planet and can all do our small part to help lead the way to a cleaner and healthier ocean."
The study shows the importance of bringing all stakeholders to the table to chart the way forward.
"We know that by bringing fishers into conversations around policy, we encourage the acceptance of new management ideas within the industry," Nina said. "There is lots we can do to mitigate the problem of ocean plastic but we cannot begin unless people are aware there is a problem."
This isn't just a South Australian problem, or even an Australian oneabout 75% of the fish we eat is imported from overseas. Future research could include a global audit of plastic in the fishing industry, and an evaluation of ways in which the industry can adopt new practices quickly and affordably.
Explore further Banishing bandits: Other countries bear the cost
More information: Nina Wootton et al, Perceptions of plastic pollution in a prominent fishery: Building strategies to inform management, Marine Policy (2021). Journal information: Marine Policy Nina Wootton et al, Perceptions of plastic pollution in a prominent fishery: Building strategies to inform management,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104846
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Since July, every weekly update from state wildlife officials has set a new record for the most manatee deaths counted in a single year. On Wednesday, Florida crossed an especially tragic threshold: More than 1,000 manatees dead.
The exact count, through Nov. 12, was 1,003 manatees, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
That is up from 637 all of last year and far above the previous record, 830, in 2013. Florida passed the previous high halfway through 2021. Manatee death reports are filed each Friday and published by the state the following Wednesday.
"It makes me sad and angry," said Patrick Rose, executive director of Save the Manatee Club, a conservation nonprofit.
The bad year got off to a quick start. Manatees took shelter from cold water by warm discharges from a power plant in the Indian River Lagoon off Brevard County, scientists say. The area is a typical wintering spot, but years of algal blooms there have killed tens of thousands of acres of seagrass. That destruction left manatees without enough food. Many starved.
"It could've been prevented," Rose said. The algal blooms that have decimated the lagoon are fueled by human pollution, like septic and sewer overflows and fertilizer runoff during rainstorms.
Starvation is not the only culprit for manatee deaths, though. Nearly 100 have been killed in collisions with boats or other watercraft, according to Conservation Commission data. Red Tide has also contributed. The Tampa Bay and Pinellas shorelines were hit hard by a toxic bloom this summer.
The die-off in 2021 has left some with fears for the long-term health of one of Florida's most beloved and iconic species. Manatees are listed as a threatened animal, after federal wildlife regulators improved their status from endangered in 2017. The Conservation Commission in recent years estimated at least 7,520 were alive.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., introduced a bill in August to return manatees to an endangered status. If passed, HR 4946 could draw more funding and attention, Buchanan said, which he hopes would help protect the creatures.
"I represent Manatee County. Manatees are so beloved there, but also across Florida," Buchanan said. "People are very passionate about it."
Manatees aren't only cute, Rose said. Their health is a signal for the well-being of the overall ecosystem. Many fish and turtles also eat or live in seagrass, and poor water quality affects human health.
The damage that caused the die-off last winter is not easily repaired. State scientists and conservationists fear a repeat if manatees around Brevard County again struggle to find food this winter.
Explore further 2021 broke the Florida record for manatee deaths in a year in just 6 months
2021 Tampa Bay Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The empirical model built by the research team. Credit: Wei He
Artificial intelligence (AI) recommender tools are widely used by industries such as e-commerce, media, banking and utilities. The tool's algorithm uses website visitors' past online activity and other data, both implicit and explicit, to predict what that visitor would like to view or buy next, and then presents those options to them. This can be highly beneficial; for example, for customers, the recommender can save them time by suggesting options tailored to their tastes and needs. While, for companies, it can encourage consumers to spend more via their website and increase customer loyalty: in the case of streaming giant Netflix, it's estimated that its recommendation engine generates $1 billion annually.
A group of researchers from China, Finland and Korea set out to uncover the potential negative effects of these AI tools. As co-author Sihua Chen, from China's Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, explains that "every coin has two sides, and with the penetration of AI recommenders in our lives, the downsides are becoming more apparent." The research was first published online August 10, 2021 in the Journal of Management Science and Engineering, and is scheduled to be published in print December 2021.
After reviewing previous research on the topic, the team built an empirical model, which reveals how a customer's preferences influences their purchase decisions, and the role that AI recommendation plays in that process. They were particularly interested in exploring the internet 'information cocoon' phenomenon: when facing a large volume of information online, people tend to see only what they want to see.
The researchers conducted two experiments using Jingdong and Taobao, the two biggest online shopping platforms in China. According to author Jian Mou, of Korea's Pusan National University, they "found that AI recommendation augmented the information cocoon effect. In other words, people see what they want to see, and then the website's AI recommender algorithm selects content for them based on those preferences. This negatively impacts the quality of the customer's purchasing decisions."
Co-author Mikko Siponen, of Finland's University of Jyvaskyla, adds that "as with many other new technologies, AI recommendation is a source of unintended consequences. Our findings have important implications for consumers, particularly in the e-commerce industryif they want to take independent purchasing decisions, they need to avoid the overwhelming influence of AI recommender tools."
More information: Sihua Chen et al, When more is less: The other side of artificial intelligence recommendation, Journal of Management Science and Engineering (2021). Sihua Chen et al, When more is less: The other side of artificial intelligence recommendation,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jmse.2021.08.001
Provided by KeAi Communications
The fortified settlement of La Bastida (Totana, Murcia). This is one of the largest and best excavated settlements of El Argar. Credit: ASOME-UAB
The third millennium BCE is a highly dynamic period in the prehistory of Europe and western Asia, characterized by large-scale social and political changes. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Copper Age was in full swing in around 2500 years BCE with substantial demographic growth, attested by a large diversity of settlements and fortifications, monumental funerary structures, as well as ditched mega-sites larger than 100 hectares. For reasons that are still unclear, the latter half of the millennium experienced depopulation and the abandonment of the mega-sites, fortified settlements and necropolis.
In southeastern Iberia, one of the most outstanding archaeological entities of the European Bronze Age emerged around 2200 BCE. Known as the El Argar culture, one of the first state-level societies on the European continent, it was characterized by large, central hilltop settlements, distinct pottery, specialized weapons and bronze, silver and gold artifacts, alongside an intramural burial rite.
A new study led by researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Max Planck Institutes for the Science of Human History (Jena) and Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) and published in Science Advances, explores the relation between dynamic shifts at population scale and the major social and political changes of the third and second millennia BCE by analyzing the genomes of 136 ancient Iberians, ranging from 3000 to 1500 BCE.
Genetic turnover and melting pot
Including published genomes from Iberia, the new study encompasses data from nearly 300 ancient individuals and focuses specifically on the Copper to Bronze Age transition around 2200 BCE.
"While we knew that the so-called 'steppe'-related ancestry, which had spread across Europe during the third millennium BCE, eventually reached the northern Iberian Peninsula around 2400 BCE, we were surprised to see that all prehistoric individuals from the El Argar period carried a portion of this ancestry, while the Chalcolithic individuals did not," says Max Planck researcher Wolfgang Haak, senior author and principal investigator of the study.
Female (right) and male (left) individuals of burial 38 of the settlement of La Almoloya (Pliego, Murcia). This is one of the richest burials found in an El Argar settlement. Credit: ASOME-UAB
The genomic data reveals some of the processes underlying this genetic shift. While the bulk of the genome shows that Bronze Age individuals are a mix of local Iberian Chalcolithic ancestry and a smaller part of incoming ancestry from the European mainland, the paternally inherited Y chromosome lineages show a complete turnover, linked to the movement of steppe-related ancestry that is also visible in other parts of Europe.
The rich new data from the El Argar sites also show that these two components do not fully account for the genetic make-up of the early Bronze Age societies. "The causes of this disappearance of the previous diversity of the Y chromosome are still very difficult to explain," says Cristina Rihuete Herrada, UAB researcher and co-author of the study.
"We also found signals of ancestry that we traced to the central and eastern Mediterranean and western Asia. We cannot say exactly whether these influences arrived at the same time as the steppe-related ancestry, but it shows that it formed an integrative part of the rising El Argar societies, attesting to continued contacts to these regions," adds Vanessa Villalba-Mouco, postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study.
UAB researchers already pointed to possible Mediterranean connections when they discovered in 2013 the monumental fortification of the Argaric settlement of La Bastida, in Murcia, to explain the originality of some architectural elements. "The genetic study argues in favor of this hypothesis: the data show that this unknown Mediterranean connection would have been sustained over time until the end of the period of El Argar, around 1500 BCE," says Rafael Mico, UAB researcher and co-author of the study.
Social implications
"Whether the genetic shift was brought about by migrating groups from North and Central Iberia or by climatic deteriorations that affected the eastern Mediterranean around 2200 BCE is the million-dollar question," says co-principal investigator and senior author Prof Roberto Risch from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. "It would be foolish to think that it can all be explained by a simple, one-factor model. While the temporal coincidence is striking, it is likely that many factors played a role."
Copper Age collective burial of Camino del Molino (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia), where a total of ~1300 individuals were buried between 2900-2300 BCE. The image shows the last burial layer, dated between 2500-2300 BCE, from which six individuals have been analysed. Credit: Universidad de Murcia. Fotografia de Francisco Ramos
One of these factors could be pandemics, such as an early form of the Plague, which has been attested to in other regions of Europe around that time. While not found directly among the tested individuals in southern Iberia, it could be a cause or driver for the movement or disappearance of other groups in the region.
"In any case, we can now conclude that the population movement starting in the eastern European steppe zones around 3000 BCE was not a single migratory event, but required over four centuries to reach the Iberian Peninsula and another 200 years to appear in present-day Murcia and Alicante," adds Risch.
The archaeological record of the El Argar group shows a clear break with previous Chalcolithic traditions. Burial rites, for example, changed from communal to single and double burials within the building complexes. Elite burials also indicate the formation of strong social hierarchies. Testing for biological relatedness, the researchers found that males are on average more closely related to other people at the site, indicating that the group was likely patrilineally structured. Such a social organization could explain the stark reduction of the Y-lineage diversity.
"We observe similar patterns of social organization and increasing stratification also in other parts of Early Bronze Age Europe, in fact broadly around the same time and with similar characteristics of early state-like formations. This suggests a structured restart or resetting following some form of crisis or unstable, highly dynamic times," summarizes Haak.
In the research have participated, among others, these institutions: Adelaide University, Danube Private University, Basel University, Fundacion Vasca para la Ciencia, Universidad de Valencia, Cape Town University, Universidad de Alicante, Museo Arqueologico de Alicante, Museo Arqueologico Municipal de Lorca, Universidad de Murcia, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute y Universidad de Sevilla.
Explore further Central European prehistory was highly dynamic
More information: Vanessa Villalba-Mouco et al, Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia, Science Advances (2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi7038 Journal information: Science Advances Vanessa Villalba-Mouco et al, Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7038
A baby Coquerels sifaka tries some of her first solid foods. Credit: David Haring
Dr. Cathy Williams knew something wasn't right. The veterinarian had felt off for weeks after her 2014 trip to Madagascar.
At first she just felt bloated and uncomfortable and wasn't interested in eating much. But eventually she developed a fever and chills that sent her to the emergency room.
When tested, doctors found that what she had wasn't just a stomach bug. She was suffering from an infection of Clostridium difficile, a germ that causes severe diarrhea and abdominal pain and can quickly become life-threatening if not treated promptly.
"It was horrible," Williams said.
The condition is often triggered when antibiotics disrupt the normal balance of bacteria that inhabit the gut, allowing "bad" bacteria such as C. difficile to multiply unchecked and wreak havoc on the intestines.
To get her infection under control, Williams asked her doctors if they could try an approach she and other veterinarians had used for decades to treat lemurs with digestive problems at the Duke Lemur Center. The procedure, known as a fecal microbiota transplant, involves taking stool from a healthy donor and administering it to the patient to add back "good" microbes and reset the gut.
Lemur researchers make a case for fecal transplants to reduce the side effects of antibiotics. Credit: David Haring, Duke Lemur Center
At the time it was considered too experimental for clinical use in human cases like Williams." She was prescribed the standard treatment and was sent home from the hospital, though she wouldn't feel well enough to go back to work for another month. But now new research in lemurs is confirming what Williams and others long suspected: That this ancientif gross-soundingtreatment can help an off-kilter gut microbiome get back to normal.
In a recent study in the journal Animal Microbiome, a research team led by Duke professor Christine Drea, former Ph.D. student Sally Bornbusch and colleagues looked at the gut microbiomes of 11 healthy ring-tailed lemurs over a four-month period after receiving a seven-day course of the broad-spectrum antibiotic amoxicillin.
The lemurs were split into two experimental groups. One was a wait-and-see group, with continued follow-up but no further treatment after the antibiotics. The other group was given a slurry of their own feces, collected prior to antibiotic treatment and then mixed with saline and fed back to the same animal after their course of antibiotics was over.
"It sounds crazy," Williams said. But she has used a similar procedure since the 1990s to treat illnesses in Coquerel's sifaka lemurs, whose infants are known to eat their mother's poop during weaningpresumably to get the microbes they'll need to transition to solid food.
Drea, Bornbusch and team used genetic sequencing techniques to track changes in the lemurs' gut microbiome before, during and after treatment.
As expected, even a single course of antibiotics caused the numbers of microbes in their guts to plunge compared with controls, briefly wiping out species diversity in both experimental groups before returning to baseline.
Ring-tailed lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina. Credit: David Haring, Duke Lemur Center
"Antibiotics had dramatic effects, even in healthy animals," Drea said.
But in terms of which types of bacteria bounced back and when, the patterns of recovery in the two groups were different. Lemurs that received the "poop soup" treatment started to stabilize and return to their pre-antibiotic microbiome within about two weeks. In contrast, the bacterial composition in the wait-and-see group continued to fluctuate, and still hadn't quite returned to normal even after four months of observation.
This kind of therapy isn't new. Reports of using fecal transplants to treat people suffering from food poisoning or diarrhea date back as far as fourth century China. The evidence for its effectiveness in captive settings has Bornbusch advocating for freezing stool at Smithsonian's National Zoo, where she is now a postdoctoral fellow.
"If we can bank feces from animals when they're healthy, that can be a huge benefit down the road," Bornbusch said. "It can help the animals get better, faster."
And now if any of her lemur patients were to get sick with C. difficile like she did, Williams said, "I would absolutely go with a fecal microbiota transplant."
"People are put off by it," Drea said, "But the disgust for this approach might actually have been holding up a fairly cheap and useful cure."
Explore further Drug-resistant bacteria found in the guts of lemurs who live around humans
More information: Sally L. Bornbusch et al, Antibiotics and fecal transfaunation differentially affect microbiota recovery, associations, and antibiotic resistance in lemur guts, Animal Microbiome (2021). Sally L. Bornbusch et al, Antibiotics and fecal transfaunation differentially affect microbiota recovery, associations, and antibiotic resistance in lemur guts,(2021). DOI: 10.1186/s42523-021-00126-z
A setup of one of the camera prototypes in the laboratory. Credit: Florian Willomitzer/Northwestern University
Northwestern University researchers have invented a new high-resolution camera that can see the unseenincluding around corners and through scattering media, such as skin, fog or potentially even the human skull.
Called synthetic wavelength holography, the new method works by indirectly scattering coherent light onto hidden objects, which then scatters again and travels back to a camera. From there, an algorithm reconstructs the scattered light signal to reveal the hidden objects. Due to its high temporal resolution, the method also has potential to image fast-moving objects, such as the beating heart through the chest or speeding cars around a street corner.
The study will be published on Nov. 17 in the journal Nature Communications.
The relatively new research field of imaging objects behind occlusions or scattering media is called non-line-of-sight (NLoS) imaging. Compared to related NLoS imaging technologies, the Northwestern method can rapidly capture full-field images of large areas with submillimeter precision. With this level of resolution, the computational camera could potentially image through the skin to see even the tiniest capillaries at work.
While the method has obvious potential for noninvasive medical imaging, early-warning navigation systems for automobiles and industrial inspection in tightly confined spaces, the researchers believe potential applications are endless.
"Our technology will usher in a new wave of imaging capabilities," said Northwestern's Florian Willomitzer, first author of the study. "Our current sensor prototypes use visible or infrared light, but the principle is universal and could be extended to other wavelengths. For example, the same method could be applied to radio waves for space exploration or underwater acoustic imaging. It can be applied to many areas, and we have only scratched the surface."
Willomitzer is a research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering. Northwestern co-authors include Oliver Cossairt, associate professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering, and former Ph.D. student Fengqiang Li. The Northwestern researchers collaborated closely with Prasanna Rangarajan, Muralidhar Balaji and Marc Christensen, all researchers at Southern Methodist University.
Intercepting scattered light
Seeing around a corner versus imaging an organ inside the human body might seem like very different challenges, but Willomitzer said they are actually closely related. Both deal with scattering media, in which light hits an object and scatters in a manner that a direct image of the object can no longer be seen.
"If you have ever tried to shine a flashlight through your hand, then you have experienced this phenomenon," Willomitzer said. "You see a bright spot on the other side of your hand, but, theoretically, there should be a shadow cast by your bones, revealing the bones' structure. Instead, the light that passes the bones gets scattered within the tissue in all directions, completely blurring out the shadow image."
The goal, then, is to intercept the scattered light in order to reconstruct the inherent information about its time of travel to reveal the hidden object. But that presents its own challenge.
"Nothing is faster than the speed of light, so if you want to measure light's time of travel with high precision, then you need extremely fast detectors," Willomitzer said. "Such detectors can be terribly expensive."
Tailored waves
To eliminate the need for fast detectors, Willomitzer and his colleagues merged light waves from two lasers in order to generate a synthetic light wave that can be specifically tailored to holographic imaging in different scattering scenarios.
"If you can capture the entire light field of an object in a hologram, then you can reconstruct the object's three-dimensional shape in its entirety," Willomitzer explained. "We do this holographic imaging around a corner or through scattererswith synthetic waves instead of normal light waves."
Over the years, there have been many NLoS imaging attempts to recover images of hidden objects. But these methods typically have one or more problems. They either have low resolution, an extremely small angular field of regard, require a time-consuming raster scan or need large probing areas to measure the scattered light signal.
The new technology, however, overcomes these issues and is the first method for imaging around corners and through scattering media that combines high spatial resolution, high temporal resolution, a small probing area and a large angular field of view. This means that the camera can image tiny features in tightly confined spaces as well as hidden objects in large areas with high resolutioneven when the objects are moving.
Turning 'walls into mirrors'
Because light only travels on straight paths, an opaque barrier (such as a wall, shrub or automobile) must be present in order for the new device to see around corners. The light is emitted from the sensor unit (which could be mounted on top of a car), bounces off the barrier, then hits the object around the corner. The light then bounces back to the barrier and ultimately back into the detector of the sensor unit.
"It's like we can plant a virtual computational camera on every remote surface to see the world from the surface's perspective," Willomitzer said.
For people driving roads curving through a mountain pass or snaking through a rural forest, this method could prevent accidents by revealing other cars or deer just out of sight around the bend. "This technique turns walls into mirrors," Willomitzer said. "It gets better as the technique also can work at night and in foggy weather conditions."
In this manner, the high-resolution technology also could replace (or supplement) endoscopes for medical and industrial imaging. Instead of needing a flexible camera, capable of turning corners and twisting through tight spacesfor a colonoscopy, for examplesynthetic wavelength holography could use light to see around the many folds inside the intestines.
Similarly, synthetic wavelength holography could image inside industrial equipment while it is still runninga feat that is impossible for current endoscopes.
"If you have a running turbine and want to inspect defects inside, you would typically use an endoscope," Willomitzer said. "But some defects only show up when the device is in motion. You cannot use an endoscope and look inside the turbine from the front while it is running. Our sensor can look inside a running turbine to detect structures that are smaller than one millimeter."
Although the technology is currently a prototype, Willomitzer believes it will eventually be used to help drivers avoid accidents. "It's still a long way to go before we see these kinds of imagers built in cars or approved for medical applications," he said. "Maybe 10 years or even more, but it will come."
Explore further Non-line-of-sight imaging with picosecond temporal resolution
More information: Fast non-line-of-sight imaging with high-resolution and wide field of view using synthetic wavelength holography, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Fast non-line-of-sight imaging with high-resolution and wide field of view using synthetic wavelength holography,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26776-w
Fig. 1. Proteoforms: Distinct protein forms arising from a single gene. Credit: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0734
Now that the Human Genome Project has officially wrapped, an international team of researchers will map the entire collection of proteins in the human body.
Plans and goals for the Human Proteoform Project were outlined in a paper published last week (Nov. 12) in the journal Science Advances. The large undertaking will characterize known proteoforms (specific protein molecules) as well as aim to systematically discover and analyze new ones in human tissues, cells and fluids.
"We are all built of proteins, and most drugs target proteins," said Northwestern University's Neil Kelleher, a world-renowned proteomics pioneer and corresponding author of the paper. "But understanding proteins is an open frontier. Like other seminal moments in science and technology, this project will serve as a major achievement that can help us more fully understand proteins' role in all types of disease, aging and new therapeutics."
Kelleher is the Walter and Mary Glass Professor of Molecular Biosciences and professor of chemistry in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of medicine in Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He also is director of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP) and faculty director of Northwestern Proteomics, a center of excellence within CLP that develops novel platforms for drug discovery and diagnostics. Kelleher co-authored the paper with the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics.
Credit: Northwestern University
The human body comprises at least 20,000 individual genesand from each gene, proteins are processed into various forms (or proteoforms). So, for the 20,300 genes, there are millions of unique proteoforms created due to genetic variation, modification or alternative splicing.
"There is a proteoform family for every human gene," Kelleher said. "And proteoforms have a life of their own. They can be activated or repressed after they are produced, and their diversity varies widely in our different cell types in unknown ways. Understanding the exact proteins we are made of is complex and challenging and will require a major global effort."
The Human Proteoform Project's ultimate goal is to establish a definitive and comprehensive Human Proteoform Atlas, a reference set which will be public and available to all, including the many proteomics companies recently advancing in the private sector. In order to develop this extensive, high-quality atlas, researchers must accelerate development of new, powerful, state-of-the-art technologies for deep proteoform analysis.
Kelleher said he hopes researchers, physicians, clinicians, scientists and engineers will help contribute to the global effort.
"With our global collaborators, we are excited to bring about the next generation of proteomics," Kelleher said. "Defining the human proteome will allow us to really accelerate the pace of biomedical research and discovery."
Explore further A chemistry pioneer works to improve a flawed test for a common cancer
More information: Lloyd M. Smith et al, The Human Proteoform Project: Defining the human proteome, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances Lloyd M. Smith et al, The Human Proteoform Project: Defining the human proteome,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0734
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
In an in-depth cross-country analysis considering the impacts of large-scale agriculture and industry on the human right to drinking water, Dr. Naho Mirumachi, Reader in Environmental Politics, from King's College London has called for renewed political commitment to ensure everyone can enjoy access to clean, drinkable water.
There are Currently 2.2 billion people, or nearly a third of the global population, who lack safely managed drinking water. Of this figure, 450 million children face poor drinking water services and water scarcity, putting them in situations of high or extreme water vulnerability. The labor costs of water collection, including that of time spent to collect water and associated security risks, disproportionately fall on women and girls, affecting 8 out of 10 households without water.
Businesses from the food, textile, energy, industry, chemicals, pharmaceutical and mining sectors contribute to the majority of water use and pollution, which are often facilitated by foreign investment. These sectors are continuing to undertake activities, such as water intensive crop production, and withdraw from fresh water sources in areas where water access is already unreliable at a human cost.
Consumption of one country can have an impact on another because of the global food trade. The water embedded in that food trade or, virtual water 'trade' means that countries are interdependent and have a high water footprint. The UK is the sixth largest net importer of virtual water in the world. Over half of that water footprint comes from countries facing water scarcity. The study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, further highlights:
It is estimated that global meat consumption will increase by 14% in the next decade as the population increases and income rises. Accordingly, a further 50% increase in food production is required by 2050 to feed the population. This growth in demand for agricultural products will strain the already unsustainable levels of water use.
Temperature and precipitation changes resulting from climate change will contribute to the uncertainty of water availability and instances of drought and flooding. Water quality will be exacerbated by climate-induced algae blooms
By 2040, water consumption in the energy sector will increase by about 60%.
The demand for biofuels is underpinned by global shifts towards cleaner forms of energy. Biofuels impact other water uses, especially when these crops are irrigated for commercial production. There are concerns this will drive up prices and make food less affordable, in particular, for people below the poverty line.
Whilst behavior changes such as eating less red meat would ease pressure on production elsewhere, reduce virtual water 'flows' and relieve water stress, this alone is not enough. It is necessary to strengthen corporate due diligence and corporate accounting. Voluntary mechanisms will only go so far in addressing the impact of businesses on human rights. States need to put in place mandatory measures for corporate accountability.
The analysis was requested by the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, funded by the European Parliament, and the copyright is with them. The content of study is the sole responsibility of the authors, and any opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament.
Explore further Regional variations in freshwater overconsumption
More information: The Human Right to Drinking Water: Impact of large-scale agriculture and industry. The Human Right to Drinking Water: Impact of large-scale agriculture and industry. www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData A(2021)653649_EN.pdf
A research group at the University of Gottingen has long been researching manufacturing processes for products made of popcorn that are sustainable and efficient. The University has now agreed a license agreement with the Bachl Group for the commercial use of the process and the products for building insulation. Credit: Karl Bachl GmbH & Co. KG
Building insulation has become an increasingly important topic in recent years. Good exterior insulation reduces heating costs, which means lower CO 2 emissions. Nowadays, sustainable natural insulation materials are already available for the interiors of buildings. But what does sustainability really mean? It means the material should be environmentally friendly and made from renewable raw materials, it must have good thermal insulation and fire protection, and it must be easy to recycle at the end of its useful life. A research group at the University of Gottingen has long been researching manufacturing processes for products made of popcorn that are sustainable and efficient. The University has now agreed a license agreement with the Bachl Group for the commercial use of the process and the products for building insulation.
The market is dominated by conventional insulation materials made of plastics or mineral fiber with about 90% of the market share. In fact, plastics derived from petroleum are used for exterior insulation. Could plastic exterior insulation also be replaced by sustainable materials? A research group at the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology Chemie und Verfahrenstechnik von Verbundwerkstoffen (chemistry and process engineering of composite materials) at the University of Gottingen has now succeeded in developing a novel process. Based on its many years of experience in the field of renewable raw materials, the group has managed to develop a process by which insulation boards made of "granulated" popcorn can be produced that have excellent thermal insulation properties and good protection against fire. The great advantage of this granular material is that it is a plant-based, environmentally friendly and a sustainable alternative to the products derived from petroleum currently used in the industry.
"This new process, based on that of the plastics industry, enables the cost-effective production of insulation boards at an industrial scale," explains the head of the research group, Professor Alireza Kharazipour. "Especially in the field of insulation in construction, this ensures that natural insulation materials are no longer just niche products." In addition, the new popcorn products have water-repellent properties, which opens up even more opportunities for practical applications and extends their useful life.
Michael Kublbeck, group Managing Director of the exclusive divisional licensing partner Bachl, adds: "We are delighted to be launching such an innovative insulation product using popcorn onto the market together with the University of Gottingen. For us, this is another important milestone in our strategic development towards becoming an integrated, multi-material insulation supplier. Popcorn insulation complements our quality range perfectly and means we can respond even more precisely to the different requirements of the market and our customers."
The license agreement between the University and Bachl was brokered by MBM ScienceBridge GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Gottingen Public Law Foundation. The agency acts for a total of nine universities and scientific institutions in Lower Saxony: It examines scientific inventions for the possibility of a patent application and for economic potential. It then takes care of worldwide marketing and negotiates, supervises and monitors licensing agreements. The current portfolio includes projects from the fields of bio-medicine, medical technology, metrology, chemistry, physics, forestry and agricultural sciences.
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Japanese researchers have crafted a "super clone" of an Afghan mural destroyed by the Taliban, using a mix of traditional and digital techniques that they hope will salvage the work's "spirit" for future generations.
Not a single fragment remains of the seventh-century cave painting demolished in 2001 along with two massive Buddha statues and other artefacts in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, sparking global condemnation.
But a precise replica, the result of three years of state-of-the-art reproduction efforts, went on display at a museum in Tokyo in September and October, just weeks after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul.
The mural on the ceiling of a cave near the famous statues depicted a blue Bodhisattvaor someone on the path to becoming a Buddha.
At six metres long and three metres high (20 by 10 feet), the intricate full-size copy has been dubbed a "super clone" by the reproduction team at Tokyo University of the Arts.
"We have succeeded in recreating a very precise representation in three dimensions," from its texture to the type of paint, said the team's co-leader Takashi Inoue.
Japan is a major donor to Afghanistan and has long been involved in heritage protection efforts at Bamiyan, a crossroads of ancient civilisations considered to be one of the birthplaces of Japanese Buddhism.
The team digitally processed more than 100 photographs taken by Japanese archaeologists of the mural before it was desecrated, to create a computerised model of its surface.
They then fed this data into a machine, which carved the exact shape into a styrofoam block.
To complete the replica, artists applied a traditional paint in a lapis lazuli shade similar to the one used for the original mural.
Through this process, "we can reproduce designs that are very close to the real ones again and again, to hand down their spirit to future generations," said Inoue, a professor specialised in Eurasian cultural heritage.
"Let's stop vandalism. Let's preserve priceless culturethe heritage of mankindtogether."
'Everything can be digitalised'
Days ahead of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in August, the Taliban overran Kabul, sparking fears of a return to their brutal reign of 1996 to 2001.
The new regime insists it wants to protect archaeological heritage from destruction.
For historian Kosaku Maeda, a co-leader of the Tokyo reproduction team, the "massively shocking" images of the giant Buddhas disappearing into clouds of dust are still a vivid memory.
"I was worried that such an act would be inflicted on the remains once again," said the 88-year-old, who has visited the valley repeatedly for more than half a century.
But their work shows that vandalism is "meaningless" in the face of modern technology, as "everything can be digitalised", he said.
On a recent visit to Bamiyan by AFP journalists, Taliban gunmen stood guarding the rock cavities that once housed the two Buddha statues.
Construction work on a $20-million UNESCO-backed cultural centre and museum was still under way in Bamiyan when the AFP team visited the area in Octoberalthough its planned inauguration this year was delayed by the Taliban takeover.
Maeda said his dream is to build a separate "peace museum" in the valley and, if possible, display the replica cave painting there.
"We can't put it back in its original place, but I want to bring it to Bamiyan as a historical legacy that local people can inherit," said Maeda, also a member of UNESCO's committee for the safeguarding of Afghan cultural heritage.
"A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive," he added, reciting the message written on a banner hung at the entrance of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.
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2021 AFP
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Back and forth transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between people and other mammals increases the risk of new variants and threatens efforts to control COVID-19. A new study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, used a novel modelling approach to predict the zoonotic capacity of 5,400 mammal species, extending predictive capacity by an order of magnitude. Of the high risk species flagged, many live near people and in COVID-19 hotspots.
A major bottleneck to predicting high-risk mammal species is limited data on ACE2, the cell receptor that SARS-CoV-2 binds to in animals. ACE2 allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter host cells, and is found in all major vertebrate groups. It is likely that all vertebrates have ACE2 receptors, but sequences were only available for 326 species.
To overcome this obstacle, the team developed a machine learning model that combined data on the biological traits of 5,400 mammal species with available data on ACE2. The goal: to identify mammal species with high 'zoonotic capacity' the ability to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and transmit it to other animals and people. The method they developed could help extend predictive capacity for disease systems beyond COVID-19.
Co-lead author Ilya Fischhoff, a postdoctoral associate at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, comments, "SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, originated in an animal before making the jump to people. Now, people have caused spillback infections in a variety of mammals, including those kept in farms, zoos, and even our homes. Knowing which mammals are capable of re-infecting us is vital to preventing spillback infections and dangerous new variants."
When a virus passes from people to animals and back to people it is called secondary spillover. This phenomenon can accelerate new variants establishing in humans that are more virulent and less responsive to vaccines. Secondary spillover of SARS-CoV-2 has already been reported among farmed mink in Denmark and the Netherlands, where it has led to at least one new SARS-CoV-2 variant.
Senior author and Cary Institute disease ecologist, Barbara Han, says, "Secondary spillover allows SARS-CoV-2 established in new hosts to transmit potentially more infectious strains to people. Identifying mammal species that are efficient at transmitting SARS-CoV-2 is an important step in guiding surveillance and preventing the virus from continually circulating between people and other animals, making disease control even more costly and difficult."
Binding to ACE2 receptors is not always enough to facilitate SARS-CoV-2 viral replication, shedding, and onward transmission. The team trained their models on a conservative binding strength threshold informed by published ACE2 amino acid sequences of vertebrates, analyzed using a software tool called HADDOCK (High Ambiguity Driven protein-protein DOCKing). This software scored each species on predicted binding strength; stronger binding likely promotes successful infection and viral shedding.
Co-lead author and Cary Institute postdoctoral analyst, Adrian Castellanos, says, "The ACE2 receptor performs important functions and is common among vertebrates. It's likely that it evolved in animals alongside other ecological and life history traits. By comparing biological traits of species known to have the ACE2 receptor with traits of other mammal species, we can make predictions about their capacity to transmit SARS-CoV-2."
This combined modeling approach predicted zoonotic capacity of mammal species known to transmit with 72% accuracy and identified numerous additional mammal species with the potential to transmit SARS-CoV-2. Predictions matched observed results for white-tailed deer, mink, raccoon dogs, snow leopard, and others. The model found that the riskiest mammal species were often those that live in disturbed landscapes and in close proximity to peopleincluding domestic animals, livestock, and animals that are traded and hunted.
The top 10% of high-risk species spanned 13 orders. Primates were predicted to have the highest zoonotic capacity and strongest viral binding among mammal groups. Water buffalo, bred for dairy and farming, had the highest risk among livestock. The model also predicted high zoonotic potential among live-traded mammals, including macaques, Asiatic black bears, jaguars, and pangolinshighlighting the risks posed by live markets and wildlife trade.
SARS-CoV-2 also presents challenges for wildlife conservation. Infection has already been confirmed in Western lowland gorillas. For high-risk charismatic species like mountain gorillas, spillback infection could occur through ecotourism. Grizzly bears, polar bears, and wolves, all in the 90th percentile for predicted zoonotic capacity, are frequently handled by biologists for research and management.
Han explains, "Our model is the only one that has been able to make risk predictions across nearly all mammal species. Every time we hear about a new species being found SARS-CoV-2 positive, we revisit our list and find they are ranked high. Snow leopards had a risk score around the 80th percentile. We now know they are one of the wildlife species that could die from COVID-19."
People working in close proximity with high-risk mammals should take extra precautions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 spread. This includes prioritizing vaccinations among veterinarians, zookeepers, livestock handlers, and other people in regular contact with animals. Findings can also guide targeted vaccination strategies for at-risk mammals.
Han concludes, "We found that the riskiest mammal species are often the ones that live alongside us. Targeting these species for additional lab validation and field surveillance is critical. We should also explore underutilized data sources like natural history collections, to fill data gaps about animal and pathogen traits. More efficient iteration between computational predictions, lab analysis, and animal surveillance will help us better understand what enables spillover, spillback, and secondary transmissioninsight that is needed to guide zoonotic pandemic response now and in the future."
Explore further Which animals can catch the coronavirus?
Credit: ESA-P. de Maagt
A specially upgraded radio-frequency chamber in ESA's technical heart is testing what is set to become the smallest radar system to be flown in space, hosted aboard a breadbox-sized spacecraft.
Scheduled to fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system with ESA's Hera mission for planetary defense in 2024, the compact radar aboard the Juventas CubeSat will perform the first ever radar sounding inside an asteroid. Juventas will peer up to 100 m deep within the 160-m-diameter Dimorphos moonlet of the 780-m-diameter Didymos asteroid.
CubeSats are mini-satellites built up from standardized 10-cm boxes. Juventas is a '6-unit' CubeSat, measuring 10x20x30 cm, while its quartet of radar antennas measure 1.5 m long each. So the test campaign includes a structural model of the Juventas CubeSat, to evaluate how the body of the miniature spacecraft might affect the radar signals.
The test campaign is taking place inside the "Hybrid European Radio Frequency and Antenna Test Zone' or Hertz chamber at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. However testing here only became feasible after a skillful upgrade.
"An essential element of anechoic test chambers like Hertz are the radio-absorbing foam spikes lining the inside walls, allowing tests to mimic the infinite void of space," explains ESA antenna engineer Paul Moseley.
"But typically Hertz can only test down to 400 MHz, while Hertz's main antennas will radiate at 60 MHz. At this frequency the spikes no longer absorb signals, so instead of a dark room the chamber would be turned into a hall of mirrors, throwing out multiple radio reflections that interfere with the accuracy of our measurements."
ESA's Hertz team worked with MVG in Italy to devise a new setup making lower frequency testing possible, initially as part of a general upgrade but then specially targeted to enable Juventas testing.
Paul adds: "It's a combination of hardware and software that allows us to measure in this environment but still reconstruct the correct results, including fiberglass support towers that are transparent to antennas and software that combines measurements made at many different points across the room, in order to cancel out the reflection effects."
Franco Perez Lissi of ESA's CubeSats Systems Unit is overseeing the Juventas testing: "We're measuring the radiation pattern in a full sphere surrounding the antennas- the results of which should also be very useful for Juventas's critical design review, taking place next monthas well as the total radiated power. This entire campaign additionally serves as a dress rehearsal of sorts for the flight model of Juventas, which is scheduled to be tested here in early 2023."
The radar aboard Juventas is developed from the Rosetta spacecraft's CONSERT radar system, which peered into the interior of Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko. It is a synthetic aperture radar design, meaning it will take advantage of Juventas's orbit 3 km above the surface of Dimorphos to integrate together multiple signal reflections and resolve them into images.
"We are proud to see Rosetta's legacy living on in the next generation of deep-space missions," adds Alain Herique of the University of Grenoble, Principal Investigator of Juventas's JuRa low-frequency radar.
Juventas is being led for ESA by GomSpace company in Luxembourg with GMV in Romania, with its radar developed by the Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble group at the University Grenoble and Technical University Dresden, with Astronika in Poland constructing the antennas and EmTroniX in Luxembourg contributing the signal generation system.
Hera will also be embarking a second deep space CubeSat, the Italian-led Milani, which will employ a multispectral imager to prospect the asteroid's surface composition. Hera will be preceded to the Didymos asteroids by NASA's DART spacecraft which will perform a test deflection of the smaller body. DART is due for launch next Wednesday, 24 November.
Butterflies land on branches at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
There is a ray of hope for the vanishing orange-and-black Western monarch butterflies.
The number wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population, whose presence is often a good indicator of ecosystem health, reached an all-time low last year. Experts pin their decline on climate change, habitat destruction and lack of food due to drought.
An annual winter count last year by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California's Mendocino County to Baja California, Mexico, in the south in the 1980s. Now, their roosting sites are concentrated mostly on California's central coast.
This year's official count started Saturday and will last three weeks but already an unofficial count by researchers and volunteers shows there are over 50,000 monarchs at overwintering sites, said Sarina Jepsen, director of Endangered Species at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
"This is certainly not a recovery but we're really optimistic and just really glad that there are monarchs here and that gives us a bit of time to work toward recovery of the Western monarch migration," Jepsen said.
A butterfly is illuminated by the late-morning sun at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread across the country once warmer weather arrives in March.
The Western monarch butterfly population has declined by more than 99% since the 1980s.
On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States across thousands of miles to spend the winter in western Mexico. Scientists estimate the monarch population in the eastern U.S. has fallen about 80% since the mid-1990s.
Whether the population of monarchs that fly to Mexico from the eastern side of the country has rebounded is not yet known. Results of an annual county by experts with the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico won't be released until next year.
A butterfly flies near a cluster of butterflies gathered on a pine tree at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
Monarchs from across the West migrate annually to about 100 wintering sites dotting central California's Pacific coast. One of the best-known wintering places is the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, a city-owned site in the coastal city of Pacific Grove, where last year no monarch butterflies showed up.
The city 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of San Francisco has worked for years to help the declining population of monarch. Known as "Butterfly Town, USA," the city celebrates the orange-and-black butterfly with windowpane patterns in its wings with a parade every October. Messing with a monarch is a crime that carries a $1,000 fine.
"I don't recall having such a bad year before and I thought they were done. They were gone. They're not going to ever come back and sure enough, this year, boom, they landed," said Moe Ammar, president of Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce.
Leslee Russell of Livermore, Calif. takes a picture of her husband Dave Russell in front of a mural outside the Butterfly Grove Inn near the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
This year a preliminary count showed more than 13,000 monarchs have arrived at the site in Monterey County, clustering together on pine, cypress and eucalyptus trees and sparking hope among the grove's volunteers and visitors that the struggling insects can bounce back.
Scientists don't know why the population increased this year but Jepsen said it is likely a combination of factors, including better conditions on their breeding grounds.
"Climatic factors could have influenced the population. We could have gotten an influx of monarchs from the eastern U.S., which occasionally can happen, but it's not known for sure why the population is what it is this year," Jepsen said.
Scientists say the monarch population had sharply dropped because of the destruction of their milkweed habitat along their migratory route as housing expands into their territory and use of pesticides and herbicides increases.
People photograph butterflies at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
A butterfly lands on a branch at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
People walk into Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
Butterflies flutter through the sky above Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
A butterfly sits on a leaf at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
A cluster of butterflies sit on a pine tree at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury
Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarch's threatened extinction, disrupting an annual 3,000-mile (4,828-kilometer) migration synced to springtime and the blossoming of wildflowers.
"California has been in a drought for several years now, and they need nectar sources in order to be able to fill their bellies and be active and survive," said Stephanie Turcotte Edenholm, a Pacific Grove Natural History Museum docent who offers guided tours of the sanctuary. "If we don't have nectar sources and we don't have the water that's providing that, then that is an issue."
Monarch butterflies lack state and federal legal protection to keep their habitat from being destroyed or degraded. Last year, they were denied federal protection but the insects are now among the candidates for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Explore further Monarch butterfly population moves closer to extinction
2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Figure 1. Zoonotic disease emergence feedback loop. Key anthropogenic drivers of zoonotic disease emergence (eg, including land-use change, wildlife trade, intensive livestock production, and climate change) increase the likelihood of zoonotic disease emergence, which could result in public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Such crises could have negative effects on biodiversity and ecosystem health, as COVID-19 has had and could continue to have (appendix pp 1121). These effects can consequently exacerbate the drivers, leading to further emergence of zoonosis and potential future health crises with their own suite of effects. The continuation of this cycle would reinforce a feedback loop with substantial implications for human health, economies, society, and the environment. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00258-8
Scientists have investigated the links between the COVID-19 pandemic and the deterioration of the world's ecosystems and their biodiversity, discovering feedback loops that suggest a potential increase in future pandemics.
University of Queensland Master of Conservation Biology graduate Odette Lawler, collaborating with a team of students and fellows contributing to the study in Professor Salit Kark's Biodiversity Research Group, said that the links between biodiversity loss, habitat degradation and zoonotic disease transfer had long been understood, but it's taken an international pandemic to bring the issue to public attention.
"COVID-19 has shown the world that human health and environmental health are intricately linked," Ms Lawler said.
"We've long known that issues like land-use change, intensive livestock production, wildlife trade, and climate change drive the emergence of zoonotic diseases, as they increase human-wildlife interactions.
"Now we've also found that these issues are being compounded by outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in feedback loops that are likely to promote future zoonotic disease outbreaks.
"For example, research has found that rates of deforestation have substantially increased in many regions around the world over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is likely due to some combination of pandemic-related factors, including decreased enforcement of forest protections, relaxation of sustainability agreements and environmental deregulation, increased pressures on low-income communities, and threats to Indigenous land managers.
"This means that COVID-19a pandemic sparked by a pathogen spilling from animal to human populationshas played a part in fuelling further deforestation, which in turn increases risk of future zoonotic disease emergence by increasing human-wildlife interactions."
The research team stressed that responses to COVID-19 must include actions aimed at safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems.
Senior researcher UQ's Professor Salit Kark, who led and supervised the study said that such responses would benefit from adopting what is known in public health and conservation circles as a One Health approach.
"One Health is a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach that aims to optimize health outcomes for communities arising from factors operating, for example, at the intersections between people, animals and their shared environment," Professor Kark said.
"It's an approach that can help holistically address outbreaks before they happen, working closely with the community and engaging people in preventative ecosystem and human health.
"Here in Australia, the emphasis should be on developing close, long-term collaboration and engagement with First Nations communities and other partners to address these risks.
"And, internationally, Australia has so many valuable ties, which can be strengthened through working together with other nations to address the drivers of zoonotic disease emergence. In this paper, for example, the team closely collaborated with a group based in Nepal working in the area.
"It's vital we invest in protecting biodiversity and ecosystem health and address the drivers of zoonotic disease.
"If we don't, we really are increasing the likelihood of future zoonotic disease emergence and further pandemics arising, and we now all know just how world-altering and high-impact they can be."
Explore further Shut down 'risky' meat markets to stop disease
More information: Odette K Lawler et al, The COVID-19 pandemic is intricately linked to biodiversity loss and ecosystem health, The Lancet Planetary Health (2021). Odette K Lawler et al, The COVID-19 pandemic is intricately linked to biodiversity loss and ecosystem health,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00258-8
Directional circulation of current around a triangle of atoms due to a synthetic magnetic field. Credit: Andy Wild
A pair of theoretical physicists, from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and the University of Zaragoza (Spain), have developed a quantum theory explaining how to engineer non-reciprocal flows of quantum light and matter. The research may be important for the creation of quantum technologies which require the directional transfer of energy and information at small scales.
Reciprocity, going the same way backward as forward, is a ubiquitous concept in physics. A famous example may be found in Newton's Law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The breakdown of such a powerful notion as reciprocity in any area of physics, from mechanics to optics to electromagnetism, is typically associated with surprises which can be exploited for technological application. For example, a nonreciprocal electric diode allows current to pass in forwards but not backwards and forms a building block of the microelectronics industry.
In their latest research, Downing and Zueco provide a quantum theory of non-reciprocal transport around a triangular cluster of strongly interacting quantum objects. Inspired by the physics of quantum rings, they show that by engineering an artificial magnetic field one may tune the direction of the energy flow around the cluster. The theory accounts for strong particle interactions, such that directionality appears at a swathe of energies, and considers the pernicious effect of dissipation for the formation of non-reciprocal quantum currents.
The research may be useful in the development of quantum devices requiring efficient, directional transportation, as well for further studies of strongly interacting quantum phases, synthetic magnetic fields and quantum simulators.
Charles Downing from the University of Exeter explains: "Our calculations provide insight into how one may instigate directional transport in closed nanoscopic lattices of atoms and photons with strong interactions, which may lead to the development of novel devices of a highly directional character".
"Non-reciprocal population dynamics in a quantum trimer" is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, a historic journal which has been publishing scientific research since 1905.
Explore further The best of both worlds: Combining classical and quantum systems to meet supercomputing demands
Members of the campus community help to install UC Berkeleys American Cultures exhibit displayed in Doe Library. Credit: Victoria Robinson
As opponents of critical race theory continue to gather at school boards across the country protesting its use in classrooms, it has become evident that the study of racism in America continues to be seen, by some, as trivial.
But UC Berkeley ethnic studies lecturer Victoria Robinson said that understanding the history of America's structurally racist roots can be just as nuanced as research done in a science lab. And more importantly, it should be celebrated as education that can help bridge communities in a country currently divided along politically racialized lines.
"This history and curriculum has never been more important. It's something really worth fighting for," said Robinson, who has taught courses about the impact of race in America's carceral system for over 25 years. "It reminds us of the hard work and the possibilities that can happen when we collectively organize together and imagine together: that incredible things are possible."
Since 2006, Robinson has led Berkeley's American Cultures Center, which supports the American Cultures (AC) program requirement, first instituted in 1991 to introduce students to courses rooted in examining the diversity of American experiences throughout history.
The program, which offers courses in more than 50 departments and disciplines, will celebrate its 30th anniversary today (Nov. 16) at Berkeley's Doe Library. The event will include the unveiling of a new library exhibit, "Tumbling the Ivory Tower," a display that chronicles the history of the American Cultures requirement and its impact on Berkeley and beyond.
Berkeley News spoke with Robinson recently about why it's important for communities to embrace education centered around structural racism, and how discussions around race can truly forge the way for a just future based on "collective care and joy."
Berkeley News: When Berkeley's American Cultures requirement was first proposed in the 1980s, it got similar critiques in the public discourse that critical race theory (CRT) is currently receiving. How does American Cultures fit into this current discussion?
Victoria Robinson: What we call critical race theory, a decades-long set of works, is a legal philosophy that comes out of research and expertise of folks like civil rights activist and lawyer Derrick Bell and law school professor Kimberle W. Crenshaw.
It's a legal framework for understanding the structural racism driven through American policies, institutions and culture.
The American Cultures requirement has never shied away from tackling the more complicated nuances of how race and racism impact our daily lives. Therefore, we have had similar pushback.
But the current controversy of teaching about race in education is so prevalent now because certain people in privileged majority spaces are feeling the wearing of our social and political seams, and the unraveling of historic mythologies centered in white supremacy.
They're reacting to the impact of race on history, and it being taught in their children's classrooms. The unwillingness to accept the teaching of these curriculums is an attack on the truth.
Why can some of us not face the great difficulties of American history?
I actually think this is a misnomer for the fact that children have always been taught about race in their communities. It's often how people in communities of color have survived.
Can you expand on that? How have communities of color taught students about race in the past?
Parents have had to teach their Black children what they should or shouldn't do when pulled over by a police officer or how to act or speak in predominately white spaces, and what to expect from people in places of higher education, or other institutions with white supremacist foundations.
They have had no choice but to understand and analyze how race impacts their lived experiences.
That education is necessary for communities of color because of the racist structures that are rooted in America's history. A history that needs to be taught without filters.
How can teaching this history to those in the privileged majorities benefit them?
It's not about individual benefit: This work is about the necessity of truth-telling and cultivating critical thinking skills.
Understanding the histories of those communities affected the most by these racist structures can teach all of us about how we might survive this current moment we are in, a moment that has pitted us against each other along racial, political and class lines.
And more than that, a lot of this history is about the politics of imagination around solidarity and coalition-making. So, why not talk about that?
The freedom movements of the 1960s and 1970s, where communities came together and asked each other what it means to see our individual liberation through a collective liberationthat is a history worth teaching.
What do you say to people who think that American Cultures courses and critical race theory focus too much on racial issues and make people racist?
We have observed many acts that we can absolutely name as racist that occur in our society. But the foundation of what builds that behavior is where the curriculum really wants to be.
What caused a group of people, who were predominately white, to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6? Why is there a call for more law enforcement amidst the increase of violence targeted at Asian and Asian American communities, versus a call to defund the police just 18 months earlier after the murder of George Floyd?
We're not making racists out of the curriculum, we're providing students with the tools to understand how race is intertwined within our history and current events. I would actually ask the question, "Do we have enough time for this work, for this discussion?", not whether we are having too many discussions.
But the study of race/racism is not seen as a form of research in certain academic circles.
Right, and I'll always remember a moment that Berkeley sociology professor Troy Duster described to me that relates to this.
He was on a panel that the American Cultures Center was hosting with a couple of his colleagues from the STEM departments. They were talking about how the study of race was structured research in STEM versus the social sciences and humanities.
One of his colleagues turned to him and said, "I don't get it. Race isn't rocket science." And Troy turned to this person and said, "You're right. It's so much more complicated."
That, in a nutshell, is how I feel about that criticism.
As an educator, how have you seen the impact these courses have had on students?
One instance I will always remember was something one of my former students, a white man from Illinois, said to me a few years back after taking my Introduction to Abolition class.
He was a political science major and hadn't learned about the Attica Prison massacre of 1971 and the different histories that have contributed to the disproportionate racial demographics of America's prisons.
"You know, I'm kind of angry with you," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I can never switch this off now," he responded. "I'm so mad that I wasn't taught this before. Why didn't I know?"
He had this massive anger that he felt the history of what he called his nation, his country, was not a history that he'd actually been given a choice to fully understand.
I think it's important to let people make up their minds on their own. When you choose not to share certain histories, you don't give them that opportunity to have those complicated conversations that many of us need to have with ourselves and our communities.
But what about the critique that these types of curricula are more a reflection of what liberal academics find significant in history?
We become irrelevant, if we are a set of elite people at some of the top universities who think we know what others need. It has to be the other way around.
The American Cultures requirement was born out of the activism of Oakland's longshore workers and their fight against South African apartheid. This curriculum is based on the reality of our communities, and not some ivory academic tower.
But I don't think anybody owns these histories. We're part of a genealogy of hundreds of years and multiple generations of struggle against injustice. And we have to think through how to educate each other about that historical struggle in order to bring collective joy to one anotherto flourish, together.
What is the best way to bring this analysis of race in America to everyone? Does it belong in high schools?
It belongs everywhereour dinner tables, our community centers, our screening rooms, our potlucks, and yes, our high schools and college classrooms. And who says it's not already there?
In the classroom, what we study and how we study, puts us in a position to activate and realize the possibilities of a just future. A lot of what we're seeing right now in the backlash against CRT, ethnic studies and teaching about race in generalis fear.
It's a fear from those in power, that if we had the opportunity, across divergent points of origin and racial backgrounds, to talk together and come up with ideas togetherwe'd be damned dangerous, together.
How will the American Cultures exhibit and anniversary celebration help people understand the importance of teaching about race and racism in the classroom?
It matters that Berkeley has a particularly powerful story in that narrative, because people do look to the strengths that we have as a big public university. And I think this exhibit and the celebration is going to give people the opportunity to look at that historical arc that Berkeley fits into.
I'm really hoping that people are put into a moment of seeing themselves in those histories and wondering where they were, what they were thinking, and how they were reacting during those moments.
It's really important to put these complicated narratives and historical truisms together to again remind us of the hard work and the possibilities that can happen when we collectively organize together, and imagine together.
That incredible things are possible.
Explore further Moving past conflation of race and genetics
Harmonized carbon footprints of IT software and service (ITSS) companies. Analysis is based on CDP responses of 2019 and corporate reports of the corresponding reporting period. For each company the sum of the initial carbon footprint, as provided in the corporate report, and the omitted emissions form the harmonized carbon footprint. Omitted emissions results from sources of errors such as reporting inconsistency, boundary incompleteness, and activity exclusion. See supplementary data: sheet 2.12.3 for calculations. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, Integrated Reporting (IR) framework, or Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards are ticked in case the corporate report was prepared in accordance with them. Credit: DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26349-x
Companies in the digital technology industry are significantly underreporting the greenhouse gas emissions arising along the value chain of their products. Across a sample of 56 major tech companies surveyed in a study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), more than half of these emissions were excluded from self-reporting in 2019. At approximately 390 megatons carbon dioxide equivalents, the omitted emissions are in the same ballpark as the carbon footprint of Australia. The research team has developed a method for spotting sources of error and calculating the omitted disclosures.
For policy makers and the private sector to set targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to know how much CO 2 companies are actually emitting. However, there are no binding requirements for comprehensive accounting and full disclosure of these emissions. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol is seen as a voluntary standard. It distinguishes three categories of emissions: Scope 1 refers to direct emissions from a company's own activities, scope 2 refers to emissions from the production of purchased energy, and scope 3 to emissions from activities along the value chain, in other words all emissions from raw material extraction to the use of the end product. Scope 3 emissions often represent the majority of a company's carbon footprint. Past studies have also shown that these emissions account for most reporting gaps. Until now, however, it was not possible to quantify these gaps or determine their causes.
Lena Klaaen and Dr. Christian Stoll at the TUM School of Management of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a method for identifying reporting gaps for scope 3 emissions and used it in a case study to determine the carbon footprints of pre-selected digital technology companies. Their paper has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Companies publish inconsistent figures
Klaaen and Stoll determined that many companies submit different greenhouse gas emission figures depending on where they are reporting them. They focused mainly on the companies' own reports as compared with voluntary disclosures to the non-profit organization CDP. The annual survey of companies conducted by CDP is regarded as the most important collection of data based on the structure of the GHG Protocol. Most companies disclose lower emissions in their own reports than in the CDP survey. This could be partly due to the fact that the CDP report is intended mainly for investors, while corporate reports are addressed to the general public.
In addition, CDP leaves it up to the reporting companies to choose which of the 15 GHG Protocol categoriesranging from business travel to waste disposalare relevant to them. The studies show that this discretionary freedom results in some companies ignoring certain categories or not fully reporting the related emissions. Most companies have reporting gaps simply because they do not receive emissions data from all suppliers and do not fill the gaps with secondary data.
To close the gaps, Klaaen and Stoll calculate the emissions by applying the values of several comparable companies which report complete figures. They take into account whether these companies are from the same industry and are comparable in terms of key indicators such as sales, profits and workforce size. To apply a uniform benchmark, they assume that GHG Protocol categories are relevant to a company unless it specifically states that emissions are non-existent in this area.
751 vs. 360 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalents
Klaaen and Stoll applied this method to quantify the scope 3 emissions of 56 digital technology companies. Due to its high energy consumption, this industry is seen as a major source of CO 2 emissions, but has frequently claimed that it is committed to a low-carbon business model. The case study investigates software and hardware manufacturers which were included in the 2019 Forbes Global 2000 list, ranking the world's largest public companies, and have participated in the CDP survey in the same year.
The calculations show that in 2019 the analyzed tech companies did not disclose more than 50% of greenhouse gas emissions along the value chain in their own reports and/or the CDP survey. Instead of the reported 360 megatons carbon dioxide equivalents (the standardized unit for all greenhouse gases), the study arrives at a total of 751 megatons. The 391 megatons discrepancy is comparable to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Australia.
Significant differences between companies
Half of the companies submitted data to the CDP that did not agree with the data disclosed in their own corporate reports. It was especially common for these reports to ignore GHG Protocol categories that contribute substantially to emissions. For example, 43 percent of the companies neglected emissions from the use of sold products and 30 percent neglected purchased goods and services.
The differences in the quality of companies' disclosures was significant. Whereas some companies omitted only one GHG Protocol category, others ignored all classes of scope 3 emissions. In the biggest discrepancy found by the researchers, the publicly disclosed emissions and the figure calculated differed by a factor of 185. The closest amounts differed by just 0.06%. Hardware companies had omitted more than half of their overall emissions, and software companies somewhat less than half. Companies that have announced ambitious CO 2 reduction targets were relatively accurate in their reporting. Here the difference between the disclosed and adjusted quantities was less than 20%.
'Consider adopting binding regulations'
"The often unsystematic and inaccurate reporting of companies' carbon footprints is a problem for policymakers, stakeholders and the companies themselves," says Lena Klaaen. "The lack of transparency makes it difficult to set realistic targets and develop effective strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the proper assessment of companies." In addition to further research on other branches, the authors believe, that a new regulatory framework is needed. "In light of the current underreporting we have observed, it seems unlikely that voluntary guidelines alone can bring about more accurate disclosures in the future," says Christian Stoll. "Consequently, policy makers should think about binding guidelines with clear rules on how greenhouse gas emissions are reported."
Explore further Study says tech firms underreport their carbon footprint
More information: Lena Klaaen et al, Harmonizing corporate carbon footprints, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Lena Klaaen et al, Harmonizing corporate carbon footprints,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26349-x
Credit: KMDI
In a bid to shine a spotlight on their research and make it more accessible, academics around the world are following in the footsteps of their students and taking to TikTok to share videos.
The trend is being highlighted by a team of researchers at the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. The researchers looked at the different ways academics, educators and scholarly communities are using TikTok, the popular social media platform that specializes in short-form user-generated videos, to share knowledgefrom Gothic architecture explainers to weight loss tips.
In particular, the researchers examined user behavior, concerns about youth engagement, data and privacy implications, the technical features of the app and the visual aspect of scholarly contribution.
"If watching YouTube is like sitting in a lecture, then using TikTok is like having a conversation," says study co-lead JP King, a sessional instructor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design who works as KMDI's data visualization and graphic designer. "TikTok provides a fun place to create new forms of accessible learning shared outside of classrooms, textbooks, and conference halls.
Led by King and Associate Professor Sara Grimes, director of KMDI, four graduate students with an interest in critical media literacy reviewed TikTok videos made by academics for the study. The team also analyzed more than 100 journal articles, books and research papers focused on TikTok, social media, technology and digital rights. Their study recommends some best practices for academics using TikTok, which ranks as the fourth most popular social media platform after YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.
The researchers found that TikTok videos often tend to be "amateurish" and offer a peek behind the scenes. The estimated 20 million-plus daily users, who are mostly under 30, embrace a less professional approach and don't feel the need to make everything perfect. They may simply record themselves with their smartphones with no special lighting or makeup. While this might feel out of place on Instagram or YouTube, it is acceptable if not expected on TikTok.
TikTok is also unique in how it encourages active engagement. Users can remix one another's videos or produce creative responses towards others' content. At the same time, however, users risk having their video or audio remixed or repurposed without their permission if they don't adjust their privacy settings accordingly.
"You might make a sincere video explaining your research that someone else turns into a song or a joke," the study warns academics. "Decide now if you're comfortable with that possibility."
The study's authors attributed the phenomenon at least partly to a generational shift around intellectual property. Without bibliographies or citations, TikTok videos can challenge the sense of ownership that academic communities have traditionally had around ideas. "It's more difficult to maintain ownership of your ideas online, and you can't control how people will use your imagery or audio. Researchers must be aware of this fact, and be thoughtful when they are publishing content," King says.
The researcher say that academics also need to understand the large impact that a single video could have on their personal brand. If their personal views clash with institutional values, there could be pushback from the academic community and repercussions from administrators. Even though tenured faculty members have academic freedom, they may not get a free pass if they use TikTok in ways their colleagues consider out of line, the researchers warn.
What's more, an outsized social media profile won't necessarily enhance a scholar's professional status. "In simple terms, a million followers won't guarantee you tenure or a promotion," says King.
Above all, it's a way to spread the word, possibly dispelling popular myths with facts and encouraging an audience to think about a topic from a different perspective. Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, runs a popular TikTok account that often challenges viewers to consider the problems with Facebook's domination of the online experience. It's possible to imagine a teenager finding one of Fiesler's videos tucked between dance trends and dog tricks and questioning Facebook for the first time, according to King.
"TikTok offers enormous potential for the discovery of critical ideas," he says. "This is why using TikTok effectively is crucial. Sharing research with an audience outside of the academy brings together people with diverse educational backgrounds. TikTok offers an exciting new way to find like-minded thinkers, makes research accessible, and start important conversations."
Here are a few of the study's recommendations for best practices on how scholarly communities can engage:
Keep your videos short and simple: Less than one minute is ideal because online attention spans are shorter than in-person ones
Use storytelling and humor to make your content more accessible: You are competing with all the other content online, so lighten the mood by telling a story or adding unique humor
Find ways to engage people instead of speaking to them: Invite users to try out an experiment for themselves and create a video reply with their results
Get your data from TikTok so you know what's being tracked. Remember social media lives forever: You might be surprised by how well TikTok knows you. Download your data and decide for yourself if you are comfortable with TikTok having this information and selling it without your knowledge
Be aware that your video or audio may be remixed or repurposed without your permission, unless you change your privacy settings: You might make a sincere video explaining your research that someone else turns into a song or a joke. Decide now if you're comfortable with that possibility
Explore further TikTok says it has over 1 billion users
Copper-rich minerals indicating widespread volcanic activity at the end-Permian mass extinction in different regions in southern China (A: Taoshujing locality; B: Lubei locality; C: Guanbachong; D: Taoshujing locality; E: Longmendong locality). The minerals are all copper sulfides, mostly Malachite--the minerals' green patches. Credit: H. Zhang, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology.
A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago. Its analysis of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano eruptions produced a "volcanic winter" that drastically lowered earth's temperaturesa change that added to the environmental effects resulting from other phenomena at the time.
The research, which appears in the journal Science Advances, examined the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), which was the most severe extinction event in the past 500 million years, wiping out 80 to 90 percent of species on land and in the sea.
"As we look closer at the geologic record at the time of the great extinction, we are finding that the end-Permian global environmental disaster may have had multiple causes among marine and non-marine species," says Michael Rampino, a professor in New York University's Department of Biology and one of the authors of the paper.
For decades, scientists have investigated what could have caused this global ecological catastrophe, with many pointing to the spread of vast floods of lava across what is known as the Siberian Trapsa large region of volcanic rock in the Russian province of Siberia. These eruptions caused environmental stresses, including severe global warming from volcanic releases of carbon dioxide and related reduction in oxygenation of ocean watersthe latter causing the suffocation of marine life.
The team for the Science Advances work, composed of more than two dozen researchers, including scientists from China's Nanjing University and Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry as well as Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and Montclair State University, considered other factors that may have contributed to the end of the Permian Period, which stretched from 300 million to 250 million years ago.
Specifically, they found mineral and related deposits on land in the south China regionnotably copper and mercurywhose age coincided with the end-Permian mass extinction in non-marine localities. Specifically, these deposits were marked by anomalies in their composition likely due to sulfur-rich emissions from nearby volcanic eruptionsthey were covered by layers of volcanic ash.
Schematic showing the formation process of copper-rich deposits within the EPME interval in South China. Credit: NIGPAS
"Sulfuric acid atmospheric aerosols produced by the eruptions may have been the cause of rapid global cooling of several degrees, prior to the severe warming seen across the end-Permian mass-extinction interval," explains Rampino.
The team's findings suggested that the Siberian Traps eruptions were not the sole cause of the end-Permian mass extinction, and that the environmental effects of the eruptions in South China, and elsewhere, may have played a vital role in the disappearance of dozens of species.
Explore further Researchers unearth 'new' extinction
More information: Hua Zhang et al, Felsic volcanism as a factor driving the end-Permian mass extinction, Science Advances (2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abh1390 Journal information: Science Advances Hua Zhang et al, Felsic volcanism as a factor driving the end-Permian mass extinction,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh1390
Sake bottles and mushrooms at a standing bar in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, in 2018. Credit: Eric Rath.
In Japan, the proverb "Sake wa honshin o arawasu" translates to "sake reveals the true heart."
But that's one of the few things translated when it comes to the country's signature alcoholic beverage.
"Surprisingly, despite the growing interest in sake in the U.S., there's hardly any research about the history of sake in English," said Eric C. Rath, professor of history at the University of Kansas.
"So in my translation and in a book that I'm writing, I want to give readers an understanding of sake's evolution and cultural significance."
His new article, "Sake Journal (Goshu no nikki): Japan's Oldest Guide to Brewing," provides the first English translation of the earliest Japanese manual for brewing sake. It appears in the winter issue of Gastronomica.
"Sake is sometimes translated as 'rice wine,' and that's a mistake since it's made more like beer than wine," he said.
That's not the only thing Westerners tend to misunderstand about the fermented drink.
Rath said, "Sake also has a higher alcohol content than wine. Unlike most other alcoholic beverages, sake can be enjoyed at a variety of temperatures. Cooling or heating the same sake yields remarkable changes in the taste. And sake goes well with a lot more than just Asian food. It's meant to be savored, not thrown into beer to make a 'sake bomb.'"
The original "Goshu no nikki" was a secret manuscript that was strictly safeguarded, its information kept primarily through oral tradition. It represented the earliest guide to brewing sake and one of the most significant sources for understanding its history in medieval Japan (11921600). Rath's article includes several translated recipes for sake, along with the directions for pasteurization.
"Back in the 14th century, brewers relied on ambient yeasts, and they had not yet perfected the best ways to ferment sake and maintain the alcohol content. They also used brown rice, which with the wild yeasts would have given it a gamier taste, far from the premium sake today that uses highly polished specialty rice and tends to be lighter, finely grained and leans toward having a melon bouquet," he said.
A curious amount of folklore surrounds the origins and processes around the beverage. One story asserts it began with the custom of virginal women chewing grains and using their saliva to render the sugars in the starch. Rath notes how modern sake brand names include words such as "maiden," "daughter" and "beauty," which can be construed as intentionally sexualizing the drink.
"Similar types of (chewed) sake were produced in Okinawa until very recently," he said. "At some point, though, this type of sake came to be associated with young women in Japan, perhaps because when the story was retold, the idea of virgin girls chewing and spitting was more appealing to older male sake drinkers."
Rath's first taste of sake came in high school, when he and some friends realized they could be served alcohol at Japanese restaurants in his hometown of Chicago.
"I recall having sake one of the times we went out for sushi. I remember that the taste was like warm rubber cement, the type of clear glue that's sold with the brush inside the lid. I was never a fan until I went to Japan and discovered there was a lot more variety to sake than the two brands I was familiar with in the U.S.," he said.
Rath recently published "Oishii: The History of Sushi" (Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press, 2021), the first comprehensive chronicle of sushi written in English. He is also the author of the books "Japan's Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity," "Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan" and "Japanese Foodways, Past and Present" (with Stephanie Assmann).
Explore further Mutation threatening high-quality brewing yeast identified
More information: Eric C. Rath, Sake Journal (Goshu no nikki), Gastronomica (2021). Eric C. Rath, Sake Journal (Goshu no nikki),(2021). DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2021.21.4.42
Young workers have been quicker to adapt. Credit: Wayas Saeed/Unsplash, CC BY-SA 4.0
Governments had to take unprecedented measures to control the spread of the COVID pandemic, shutting down whole sectors and encouraging many people to work from home. The UK and other countries designed whole new systems of support for workers from scratch and deployed them in a matter of weeks.
Economists advised governments in this task using real-time data, including from rapid online surveys, which helped to highlight which workers were worst hit in the initial lockdown. For instance, much attention was focused on younger workersthe "COVID generation"since they were more likely to be employed in shut-down sectors such as hospitality, and saw the largest initial declines in employment.
However, early effects like these may have distorted our view of the pandemic's lasting consequences, and the policy challenges that governments will face in the coming months and years.
To get a better impression of how different workers have fared and adapted, my colleagues and I, in work funded by the Nuffield Foundation, examined the results of a detailed survey conducted regularly throughout the pandemic (the "Understanding Society COVID study", conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex). In various ways, the findings are different to what might have been expected earlier in the pandemic.
Challenges facing older workers
Between February and April 2020, the proportion of 20- to 29-year-olds in employment fell five percentage points more than those aged 3049. However, what has received less attention is that these workers' employment prospects recovered much more rapidlyparticularly compared to workers over 50. By March 2021, employment of the over-50s was 5.3 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels, while the equivalent rates for 2029 and 3049 age groups were respectively 1.5 and 1.3 percentage points down.
Partly this is because over-50s adapted less quickly to the changed circumstances. Under-30s who stopped working in April 2020either through losing their jobs or being furloughedwere more likely than older workers to resume paid work in a new job or industry. Nearly one third of under-30s who stopped working in the first lockdown had found work in a new industry by March 2021, compared to just 7% of over-50s.
This doesn't mean we don't need to worry about scarring effects on younger workers, since career changes can be disruptive. It does however mean that older workers have been the slowest to return to the labor market, and there remains a real risk that many could drop out of it altogether.
The government introduced new schemes to help younger workers back into work (including the Kickstart scheme). But older workers might need additional support and encouragement to keep working too.
Men v women
Another area where first impressions may be misleading is the pandemic's effects on men and women. Men's jobs tend to be more exposed to the economic cycle, but the 2020 pandemic recession was atypical in this respect. In the US, for example, it was women who were more likely to lose their jobs, and many other countries experienced something similar.
This was not the case in the UK, where employment declines were comparable for men and women in the first lockdown and throughout the pandemic. Average hours worked per week also fell by less for women than for men.
Women fared better in some respects than men. Credit: Jia Ye/Unsplash, CC BY-SA 4.0
Does this mean that fears the pandemic would widen gender inequalities were unfounded in the UK? Not quite. Comparing workers in similar jobs, married women with children who were working in February 2020 were more likely to have stopped doing paid work than married men with children. The unequal distribution of increased childcare responsibilities may partly account for this.
So despite women not being more adversely affected in the UK in terms of overall employment or hours, the pandemic may still have unequally affected women and may have more significant implications for their future career progression.
Ethnic comparisons
Ethnic minorities in the UK were doubly hit in 202021, being both more seriously harmed by the health crisis, but also more likely to lose their jobs at the start of the pandemic. Yet as the pandemic went on, the employment and hours of ethnic minorities recovered faster than the white ethnic majority. By March 2021, the gap in employment rates between ethnic minorities and the white ethnic majority had fallen back to its pre-pandemic level.
Part of this is again explained by the fact that ethnic minorities were more likely to switch jobs. As many as 21% of ethnic minority workers who were working in both February 2020 and March 2021 had changed jobs, compared to 11% in the white ethnic majority.
And among those who stopped doing paid work in the first lockdown, members of ethnic minorities were more likely to resume working with a new employer or in a different industry. But again, individuals in these groups may have experienced greater career disruption, so they may experience lasting effects.
Clearly the true effect of the pandemic on workers is more complex than a simple look at employment figures would suggest, often contradicting what happened in the initial stages. The government will need to continue to pay close attention to the experiences of different groups in the labor market as we emerge from this crisis to ensure that its unequal impacts do not become entrenched.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Presenting Orlena Nwokah Blanchard Outstanding Industrial Engineer Class of 2020
Orlena Nwokah Blanchard is an entrepreneur, marketing strategist, and innovative leader behind social impact movements and marketing programs for brands. She has more than 26 years of experience building value for Fortune 500 companies and startups. Her current venture, JOY Collective, is an award-winning cultural insights, marketing and creative agency specializing in brand building in today's complex, poly-cultural world. As JOY's President & COO, Orlena has helped reframe marketing with high cultural competency for JOY's diverse portfolio of clients including the United States Naval Academy, Dove, Dove Men+Care, OWN, WW, Tory Burch, Diageo, SheaMoisture, Google Fiber and more. She previously served in various executive positions including Executive Director of the Black Media Matters Consortium, a trade association founded by BET Networks, and as head of digital media for TV One. Orlena has also worked for world-renowned brands such as Andersen Consulting (Accenture), American Express, and the Corporate Executive Board. Orlena is an executive board member of Digital Pioneers Academy, a public charter school in Washington, DC, and a former Brand President of the Washington, DC chapter of of the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). Orlena received her BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and earned an MBA, from the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and three sons.
Nadia Numa Ph.D. Student
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Graduate Assistant
Minority Engineering Program E-Mail: nnuma@purdue.edu
Nadia Numa, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, received her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a concentration in Propulsion and a minor in International Relations in December 2015. During her undergraduate studies, Nadia participated in various organizations that afforded her the opportunity to serve the surrounding communities through programs and outreach. As the Vice-President of Society of Women Engineers, a Senator/Parliamentarian in National Society of Black Engineers, and a McNair Scholar, Nadia led and participated in education programs and outreach events to encourage women and minority students to consider a career in STEM.
In May 2019, Nadia received a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University with a focus on experimental plasma-assisted combustion. Simultaneously, Nadia became an active member of the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA), AAE Graduate Women Gatherings (GWG), and Women in Aerospace (WiA) where she held leadership positions and aided in planning events such as the Amelia Earhart Aerospace Summit. Nadia has also volunteered at Purdue Space Day (PSD), encouraging STEM education among students in grades 3-8.
Nadia is currently a Ph.D. student in Astrodynamics and Space Applications at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering and is a member of Kathleen Howell's Multibody Dynamics Research Group. Her current research focuses on trajectory design and optimization for cislunar missions requiring the use of propellant depots.
Nadias professional experiences include internships at both General Electric and Boeing Company. Following her undergraduate studies, Nadia worked as a Propulsion Product Development engineer with a focus on engine nacelle design and engine-airplane integration at Boeing. She also worked as a mission architecture associate engineer at SpaceX in 2018 a role where she worked with the Mission Assurance Team to ensure both flight and mission reliability for five commercial space missions.
Nadia hopes to continue to serve the community through teaching programs and outreach events to further MEPs vision and mission. She hopes to engage and encourage minority students to pursue their passions while leveraging the skills obtained from their STEM education.
" " No telling when that grocery store apple was picked. d3sign/Getty Images
There's nothing like biting into a crisp, juicy apple to evoke the spirit of autumn. Though today they're available year-round in many parts of the world, apples were once strictly a fall-time treat, and they remain one of the cornerstones of seasonal cooking in the U.S.
If you live in the United States, your apples probably didn't travel too far to reach you. Only 5 percent of the apples sold in the U.S. are imported; the rest are grown domestically in temperate states like Washington, New York and Michigan.
But the apples in grocery store bins are usually not sold when they're harvested. Instead, they might have been in storage for up to a year. Unless you take a trip to your local orchard, how do you know whether the apples you're buying are actually fresh? And if they're not, does that matter?
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One Bad Apple
Picture yourself walking down the aisle of your local grocery store, strolling past piles upon piles of shiny round apples. How do you know which ones to buy? Start by looking at the surrounding apples.
"Apples are a climacteric fruit, meaning the fruits continue to develop and ripen after they are removed from the tree," says Jessica Cooperstone, a food scientist at The Ohio State University, by email.
Apples and their ilk are highly sensitive to ethylene, the chemical compound that causes fruits to convert starchy cellulose into sugars (otherwise known as ripening). As they ripen, apples release more ethylene, which leads the fruit around them to ripen faster as well. In this way, one bad apple actually can spoil the whole bunch. Other climacteric fruits include bananas and avocados, while non-climacteric fruits include things like strawberries and cherries.
Since ethylene is pretty much a universal chemical signal for "ripe" in climacteric plants, it will even help ripen fruit across species. (You can harness its power for yourself: Try putting a hard avocado in the same bowl as an apple and see how much quicker the avocado ripens.)
Apple-harvesting season is very short (about two months in the fall), so in order to extend their lives after picking, apples are usually treated with a gaseous compound called 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) that blocks ethylene.
That's not all. "By modifying the environment that apples are stored in (mostly by modifying oxygen, carbon dioxide and ethylene and keeping apples cool), certain varieties of apples can be stored up to one year," says Cooperstone. "This is a really impressive feat of post-harvest storage technology, and most of this development happened in the first part of the 20th century."
It's called Controlled Atmosphere storage. When apples are exposed to less oxygen and more carbon dioxide than what's found in the air, they in a sense "go to sleep" and don't finish the ripening process. So, these apples won't spoil. The exact combination of gases and temperature will vary with the type of apple.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the types of apples that can handle this process like Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp and Red Delicious are the ones you are most likely to encounter in a mass-market grocery store. But not every apple is equally storeable. Some fragile-skinned types, like Cortland, Jonagold and Crispin, should be eaten soon after they are picked. Otherwise, they might become too soft and mealy for non-cooking applications. Of course, these days science can step in to create new types of more resilient fruit.
"Apple producers are always looking to develop new varieties that keep their fresh characteristics for as long as possible," Cooperstone says. For example, the RubyFrost apple, which was developed by Cornell University especially for wintertime consumption. These hybrids a cross between Braeburn and Autumn Crisp are bred to reach peak sweetness in mid to late January, months after they're harvested.
While some new types of apple, like the RubyFrost, are the product of careful selective breeding, others are the result of more direct genetic engineering. Arctic Apples, which are genetically modified to resist browning, became one of the first GMO fruits to be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2015.
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How Do You Like Them Apples?
There isn't a way to tell when an apple was picked just by looking at it in a grocery store. And in some ways, it doesn't matter. But you still want to make sure the apples you buy will be tasty and ripe. In general, a ripe apple is red or yellow. But some red varieties will be red even if not yet ripe. Touch might be a better bet. The apple should be firm but not hard (press it with your thumb) and not have bruises, according to the University of Wiconsin-Extension.
Once you bring them home, store the apples in a cool, dry place, like your refrigerator's crisper drawer. But even non-crunchy apples have uses. "If I've kept apples for a long time and find they're shriveling enough that I don't want to eat them fresh, I will use them in a cooked application," says Cooperstone, like oatmeal or a pie.
A slightly wrinkly apple may not look as pretty as a freshly picked one, but both are totally safe to eat. In the days before refrigeration, drying apples was a standard way to store up food for the winter.
While wrinkled or even bruised apples can still make for good eating, you definitely want to avoid apples that have mold growing on them or that have begun to ooze liquid. Your chances of getting food poisoning from an apple are slim, but not zero, so it's important to wash your apples before you chow down as well.
Once your apples are out of storage and thoroughly cleaned, it's time for some good old-fashioned fall cooking. From caramel to crumble to cider and cake, the possibilities are all delicious.
Now That's Interesting Johnny Appleseed, also known as John Chapman, was an actual person who famously went around the U.S. planting apple seeds to sprout new trees. However, very few of those trees would have produced good eating apples they were extremely sour wild varieties that were mostly destined to become hard cider.
Downtown Los Olivos on Saturday will be sprawling with cinephiles and festivalgoers as NatureTrack's fourth annual film festival kicks off with the screening of dozens of documentaries and short films shot from various locations around the world, in combination with the town's annual "Day in the Country" festival.
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.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
" " Since 2016, U.S. government employees have complained of bizarre neurological symptoms, like headaches, ringing in the ears, vertigo and even memory loss. The government has now admitted these symptoms were likely caused by directed pulses of high-power microwaves fired at the individuals by some unknown agent. Wavebreakmedia Ltd/Getty Images/Wavebreak Media
In a suburb of Washington, D.C., a woman was walking her dog. Suddenly, an intense ringing filled her ears. Her head began to ache, her face to tingle, and reportedly, her dog suffered convulsions. At the time November 2019 the woman, according to reporting by GQ, was on staff at the White House.
A year later, in November 2020, another U.S. official had the same symptoms while crossing a park just outside the White House building. For the Department of State, the two cases must have felt like deja vu. Each marked a suspected instance of "Havana Syndrome," a bizarre illness that had plagued overseas U.S. government employees for half a decade. Only this time, it was happening on U.S. soil.
Recently, experts have concluded that this strange condition is likely caused by directed pulses of high-power microwaves fired at a target by some unknown agent. It sounds like something out of a Dan Brown novel, but "Havana Syndrome" is terrifyingly real.
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What Happened in Havana?
In late 2016, around two dozen U.S. government employees stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba were all struck with a variable and mysterious set of symptoms. Many reported an odd ringing in the ears; some experienced sudden headaches coupled with disorientation. In severe cases, the symptoms escalated, blossoming into memory problems and bouts of extreme vertigo.
Even more worrying was the pattern that emerged as the employees came forward. "These were not random individuals," says James Giordano, a professor of neurology at Georgetown University and senior fellow in biosecurity at the Naval War College. "These were individuals with specific job descriptions and particular career history."
Later, when the government personnel who were potentially exposed had their brains scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), experts found that they had significantly less white matter than expected a clinical sign usually associated with head trauma. None of their skulls, however, showed any sign of injury. It was as if they had somehow been given a contactless concussion.
And their issues didn't go away. Four-and-a-half-years later, a number of the afflicted personnel still report neurological side effects, like periods of disorientation and difficulty recalling words. "Upon subsequent reevaluation, in many cases," Giordano says, "their symptoms had gotten worse."
The Havana incident quickly became a medical mystery: What could have caused these symptoms to crop up, seemingly out of nowhere, in otherwise healthy individuals?
In 2020, the precisely named Standing Committee to Advise DOS on Unexplained Health Effects on U.S. Government Employees and their Families at Overseas Embassies released a report assessing evidence from this case, as well as a similar one at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. It concluded that "many of the distinctive and acute signs, symptoms, and observations reported by DOS employees are consistent with the effects of directed, pulsed radio frequency (RF) energy."
Those radio frequency pulses are known by another name microwaves. But instead of popping popcorn, they're being put to a much more destructive use.
" " U.S. Marines stand outside the Embassy of the United States of America in Havana, in February 2018. Two years earlier, around two dozen U.S. government employees stationed there were struck with a mysterious set of symptoms, now known as 'Havana Syndrome.' ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images
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Micro Waves, Big Impacts
High power microwave pulses have all sorts of technological applications, from returning energy collected by orbiting solar panels to jamming enemy communication in combat zones. Aimed at a human body, the effects are not pleasant.
In enclosed, fluid-filled spaces the inner ear, for example microwave pulses can create an effect known as "cavitation," in which the fluid essentially bubbles. And since the blood vessels connected to the inner ear run directly to the brain, these bubbles can make their way into the brain itself. There, they can cause problems similar to the decompression sickness (the bends) divers sometimes experience after surfacing too quickly.
Another issue is vibration. Microwaves cause molecules to vibrate rapidly ( this is how a microwave oven heats up your food). Inside the body's cells and tissues, this agitation can trigger a runaway inflammatory response resulting in all kinds of structural damage, including neuropathy.
But wouldn't microwave activity leave burn marks? Not necessarily, according to some experts.
In a livestream with the Santa Fe Council on International Relations, Edl Schamiloglu, a plasma physicist and engineer at the University of New Mexico, pointed out that short microwave pulses wouldn't singe their target. "There's hardly any energy content in them," he said, and so "you're not going to have any burns." However, repeated exposure to such pulses could culminate in severe neurologic symptoms.
So it seems possible, even probable, that the so-called "Havana Syndrome" is caused by high power microwaves. But if that's the case, what kind of technology could deliver those pulses? And, more importantly, who is responsible for wielding it?
" " The exterior of the White House is seen wrapped with security fencing March 7, 2021. But can President Joe Biden and other White House staff be protected from a microwave attack from an unknown source? Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
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From Russia, With Love?
It's hard to say for sure. As Schamiloglu pointed out in his CIR livestream, the gear necessary to create direct high power microwaves isn't something you can pick up at your local hardware store. "This technology is not something that a tinkerer can put together in their garage," he said, "This is a nation state developed technology."
The groundwork for such a device has been in development in Russia since the early 2000s, and similar technology was recently unveiled in China. But these systems are roughly the size of a lounge chair not exactly portable or discrete. The real breakthrough for a high-power microwave weapon would be in scaling it down. Assuming that is the type of device at play here, it represents a real technological leap forward.
There are ways to protect against microwave attacks, but most of them involve wrapping a room (or an individual) in a continuous sheet of metal, which is not a terribly practical solution. However, new defensive technologies may be in development.
Giordano is not at liberty to get into specifics, but notes that he is "very encouraged" by the Biden Administration's response to the D.C. cases. Though none of the most recent attacks are in his professional portfolio, he believes that they utilized the same mechanism as the Havana incidents, a tie that should be closely examined in order to protect U.S. officials. "The new administration certainly takes this seriously," he says, "As they should."
Now That's Interesting Decompression sickness, also known as the bends, is caused when tiny nitrogen bubbles are released from bodily tissues into the blood due to extreme pressure changes.
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Seguin Police Officers Dustin Kincade and Sarah Wallace wave and talk to music star and television host Kelly Clarkson on her television show "The Kelly Clarkson Show." The officers and department were recognized by the music star for their kindness in the community.
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"Time For Justice The Urgent Need For Second Chances In Pennsylvanias Sentencing System" | Main | Notable Sentencing Project fact sheet on "Parents in Prison"
Henry Montgomery back in 2016 won in the US Supreme Court with his claim that the landmark Eighth Amendment decision in Miller v. Alabama must be applied retroactively. But that win only garnered him a chance to be paroled after serving more than 50 years on a murder charge as a teenager in the early 1960s. Montgomery was in February 2018 denied parole as detailed in this post, and he was denied parole again in April 2019 as detailed in this post. But I am pleased to now be able to report that the third time was a charm for Montgomery as reported in this UPI piece headlined "Longtime inmate and key figure in juvenile sentence reforms finally wins parole." Here are some of the details:
A Louisiana man who's spent the vast majority of his life in prison for killing a sheriff's deputy when he was a minor almost 60 years ago -- and whose case has been instrumental in freeing hundreds of inmates who were sentenced to life for crimes as juveniles -- is finally getting his chance to walk free.
Henry Montgomery on Wednesday appeared at his third hearing before a Louisiana parole board. The first two turned him down. The third gave him his freedom after 57 years behind bars.
For years, advocates have said Montgomery is serving an unconscionably long sentence for a crime he committed as a minor, in spite of state Supreme Court rulings that determined that life sentences for juveniles amount to "cruel and unusual punishment."...
Montgomery was 17 when he shot and killed East Baton Rouge Paris Deputy Charles Hurt in 1963, after the lawman caught him skipping school. He's now 75. He was initially sentenced to death, but that sentence was overturned in 1966 when the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that he did not receive a fair trial. After a retrial, he was sentenced to life without parole.
Montgomery has been locked up in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as "Angola" after the former plantation that occupied the area. "Through his personal growth, maturity, and maintenance of an excellent record of conduct while in prison, Henry proves daily that he is no longer the 17-year-old child he was in 1963," Marshan Allen, national policy director of Represent Justice, said in a tweet before Wednesday's decision....
Montgomery's case was at the center of a legal fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and resulted in a ruling that's allowed nearly 1,000 people who were sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile to be freed....
At his first two parole hearings -- in 2018 and 2019 -- he was denied release. At both hearings, two of the three board members voted to grant him his release from prison and one voted to keep him imprisoned. At the time, parole decisions had to be unanimous. Earlier this year, however, Louisiana changed its law to require only a majority vote if an inmate meets certain conditions -- meaning Montgomery would be freed if he got another 2-1 vote in his favor.
The dissenting voter who voted against releasing Montgomery in 2019 said that he hadn't presented enough programs in prison. But Andrew Hundley, one of the people who was released as a result of Montgomery vs. Louisiana and director of the Louisiana Parole Project, said that Angola did not offer such programs for decades of his sentence. "It was the most violent prison in America. There wasn't this idea of rehabilitation and that prisoners should take part in programming to rehabilitate themselves," he told The Atlantic. "That culture didn't exist and there weren't programs. You just woke up every day trying not to get killed."
Hundley added that he's felt like it's his "life's work" to get Montgomery and others like him out of prison. "Henry was in prison 18 years before I was born. And I've been home five and a half years now."
New OIG report assails BOP failures in implementation of FIRST STEP Act | Main | Henry Montgomery (of Montgomery v. Louisiana) finally granted parole at age 75
The title of this post is the title of this notable new report written by Emily Bloomenthal, Director of Research at FAMM. Here is part of how the report's executive summary gets started:
Too many people in Pennsylvania are serving long prison terms that dont make communities safer. People who do not pose a risk to public safety languish in prison for decades because Pennsylvanias laws dont give them a second chance. This report, which focuses on people serving minimum sentences of 20 years or longer, looks at the harms and injustices of extreme sentences in Pennsylvania, as well as opportunities for reform.
Key findings:
Pennsylvanias prison population has been shaped by some of the harshest sentencing policies in the country.
In 2019, Pennsylvania imprisoned more than seven times the number of people that it did in 1970. That growth was driven by punitive policy choices, not increases in crime, and it did not make Pennsylvanians safer.
Pennsylvania is a national leader in imposing extreme sentences. This ranking is largely driven by two laws: the mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment required for first- and second-degree murder, and the denial of parole eligibility to anyone serving a life sentence. In Pennsylvania prisons, 13.4% of people are serving life without parole (LWOP), compared to only 3.6% nationally.
The population serving extreme sentences in Pennsylvania has surged over the last few decades. There were more than nine times as many people serving extreme sentences in 2019 than there were in 1980.
Pennsylvanias extreme sentencing practices have overwhelmingly impacted people of color, especially Black people, who make up less than 11% of Pennsylvanias population but 65% of people serving life sentences and 58% of those serving non-life sentences of 20 years or longer.
Pennsylvanias extreme sentencing practices have created a large (and growing) elderly prison population, which increased thirtyfold from 1979 to 2019.
Pennsylvanias extreme sentences are a high-cost, low-value proposition for taxpayers.
Researchers have found no evidence that severe sentencing policies discourage people from choosing to engage in crime.
Extreme sentences are not necessary for preventing recidivism, because the vast majority of people who commit crimes even very serious crimes naturally grow out of criminal behavior as they age and mature. For example, of the 174 Philadelphia juvenile lifers all originally convicted of homicide who were resentenced and released following landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, only two (1.1%) had been reconvicted of any offense as of 2020.
Based on average incarceration costs, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) is spending $220 million per year to incarcerate 3,892 people who have already served at least 20 years. The true cost is undoubtedly higher, because incarceration costs increase dramatically as people age and need more medical care.
The average cost for incarcerated individuals in skilled or personal care units is $500 per day (or $182,625 per year), more than three times the cost for the general population.
Kala Manickam and Dr Tan Cheng Bock on a walkabout at Nee Soon GRC. PHOTO: Kala Manickam/Facebook (left) and Yahoo file photo (right).
Update: Kalayarasu Manickam has responded via her lawyers on her lawsuit against PSP.
SINGAPORE A former member of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has taken the PSP to court over what she alleges was her wrongful termination from the opposition party.
Kalayarasu Manickam, who competed in PSPs Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC) slate of candidates in last years General Election (GE), is applying for a declaration that her termination was wrongful and invalid.
Kala is also seeking to claw back $10,000 which she claims to have contributed as part of election expenses for the GE.
PSP, founded in 2019 by veteran politician Dr Tan Cheng Bock, is challenging the application, which was filed in the High Court in July this year.
When approached, Kala's lawyers from ADTLaw said, "The $10,000 referenced in the affidavits is in respect of the required contribution on account of election expenses all candidates were to have made, which our client duly paid to the party in full from her own funds.
"Our client's claim for this sum is based on the party's alleged stoppage of resources to her in the course of campaigning for GE 2020, despite her aforesaid payment on account of election expenses."
The lawyer added that Kala's case arose from events post-GE, in which she sought an explanation for the resources that were stopped, and was also based on the "alleged violation of her due process rights".
Kala's affidavit documents, seen by Yahoo News Singapore, stated that she was terminated without regard to "the rights of due process" laid out in the party constitution.
According to the party constitution, disputes between members are to be heard in a Special Party Conference. However, no such conference was convened, according to Kala.
Kala also alleged that she was "kept in the dark" about charges against her by other members, and had been "suddenly suspended" from all Nee Soon-related matters from 12 September last year, while she was serving a quarantine order.
Story continues
While she was told that an investigation sub-committee would be formed to investigate her alleged disciplinary issues, she said that she was never told of its results.
PSP's response
Court documents filed on behalf of PSP, seen by Yahoo News Singapore, stated that Kala was terminated from PSP on 24 December last year after efforts to reconcile her with the party were unsuccessful, with PSP chair Dr Tan stating that her termination was a "last resort".
Affidavits from at least seven party members were submitted on behalf of PSP. They include Dr Tan, current secretary-general Francis Yuen and two Nee Soon GRC candidates, Muhammad Taufik Supan and Damien Tay Chye Seng, who contested alongside Kala in 2020.
In his affidavit, Yuen said that Kala's application to be compensated $10,000 has "no basis". Each candidate contributed $10,000 towards the PSP's election expenses as the party did not have enough funds to cover all such expenses.
The contribution was also to underscore the candidate's serious intention in contesting, Yuen said. Kala's expenses ran up to $33,627, and the party forked out $23,637, he added.
Fellow candidates: Kala conducted her own walkabouts
In their affidavits, Taufik and Tay described Kala's behaviour during the GE campaign trail as "uncooperative" and "disruptive".
Tay, who led the Nee Soon GRC team, said that Kalas behaviour had undermined the cohesiveness of the Nee Soon team, which comprised Tay, Kala, Taufik, S Nallakaruppan and Bradley Peter Bowyer, who has since resigned from the party.
According to Tay, Kala did not join the team for morning meetings at coffeeshops and walkabouts, even though all candidates had agreed to do so. Kala also demanded that things be done her way, with no regard to anyone elses opinion.
She would go for walkabouts on her own with her own volunteers rather than party volunteers, and only turned up at two team walkabouts in the nine days of campaigning, claimed Taufik.
This meant that the candidates could not appear as a team in front of the media and residents, Tay added. Kala had also ranted about Tay being a lousy leader and went behind his back to arrange a walkabout with Dr Tan and PSP member Lee Hsien Yang.
The purported problems with Kala culminated in a petition filed by 17 party members and a party volunteer to PSPs central executive committee on 26 August last year, calling for her removal. The petition cited Kalas alleged disrespect towards Tay and her controlling attitude, amongst other reasons.
An investigation sub-committee then recommended that Kala be redeployed to "start anew" as she could still be an asset to PSP should she be persuaded to change her attitude.
Dr Tan: Kala's conduct tantamount to insubordination
In a separate affidavit, Dr Tan said that Kalas termination was due to her "uncompromising attitude", even though she was "resourceful, outspoken, and had strong fighting spirit".
On 25 November last year, Dr Tan and three CEC members met with Kala in an attempt at reconciliation, but her conduct was far from conciliatory, said Dr Tan. I recall that when (Kala) entered the meeting room on 25 November 2020, she appeared composed but confrontational, as if she was raring for a fight.
As Dr Tan started to explain the objective of the meeting, Kala allegedly cut him off and insisted she had done nothing wrong.
Each time any of us tried to stop her to say something, she would shout over us and continue with an angry spiel about the wrongdoings of the other members of the Nee Soon GRC team. (Kala) then aggressively questioned if we had any proof of her wrongdoings by shouting, 'WHAT PROOF? WHAT PROOF?'" stated Dr Tan.
The meeting ended with a CEC member asked to speak to Kala privately to propose a reconciliation. However, Kala allegedly proposed her own conditions, including continuing being a member of the Nee Soon GRC team.
The CEC then held a meeting, during which it declined to accede to Kalas conditions. The CEC concluded that PSP was unable to work with Kala and decided to terminate her membership. It gave Kala a week to tender her resignation from 17 December last year. When Kala did not do so, the party terminated her membership on 24 December last year.
Her termination letter, signed off by Dr Tan, stated that her conduct in the 25 November meeting "was disrespectful and tantamount to insubordination".
Kala unsuccessfully appealed the termination on 30 December. On 19 February this year, Kala again sought to appeal, addressing an email to the party conference of cadre members.
On 28 March this year, 66 out of 71 cadre members attended the PSP party conference and voted on her appeal, with the majority voting to reject her appeal.
The case has been transferred from the High Court and is now pending before the State Courts.
When approached by Yahoo News Singapore, PSP declined to comment on the matter.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
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Climate challenges mount for California agriculture
Posted on 17 November 2021 by Guest Author
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jan Ellen Spiegel
California agriculture has experienced just about every form of climate change-induced calamity: Heat, drought, fire, floods. None bodes well for the future of farming in this state that is the U.S. king of agriculture.
But there are a couple of less headline-worthy factors that may determine what crops will survive if climate change trends dont at least slow down. One is the states winters yes, winters and the other is its management of groundwater.
Challenges ahead for sure. In the end, however, there for some is optimism that the California agriculture communities ability to continue adapting gives reasons for hope.
The importance of chill hours for key crops
Wintertime lows have gotten warmer, says Dan Sumner, the Frank H. Buck, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis and a California farming region native. We all talk about it in the middle of the summertime because its hot outside, but the real news is the wintertime lows.
The reason? Perennial crops, comprising the bulk of Californias top farm commodities, need off-season dormancy to regenerate, so temperatures must remain below a certain threshold for at least a minimum amount of time. That concept is called chill hours. Its crop-specific, and the fruits and nuts that are among the bedrocks of California agriculture are the ones most needing the right number of chill hours. Otherwise fewer buds, smaller fruits, lower yields.
According to the most recent census data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California still provides more agricultural product than any other state, accounting for 11% of the national total. That output includes more than two-thirds of the nations fruits and nuts and more than one-third of the nations vegetables.
Californias top 10 agricultural commodities among its more than 400 in order are: dairy products, almonds, grapes, pistachios, cattle, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes (largely for processing), floriculture, and walnuts.
Those are largely perennials needing their chill hours to make them as productive as they need to be, and therefore worth growing. Crops such as nut trees and grapes are large investments, so low yields may make them money losers.
Crop diversification to diffuse risks
A 2018 publication Climate Change Trends and Impacts on California Agriculture: A Detailed Review provides an overview of the prevailing research around temperature, precipitation, and other factors and how they are likely to affect the states agriculture over time.
The report, led by University of California Merced climate change extension specialist Tapan Pathak, indicates that higher minimum and maximum temperatures are resulting in lower numbers of chill-hours.
The authors of that study say that by around 1950 growers in the Central Valley could rely on having between 700 and 1,200 chilling hours, depending on the location of their orchard. But currently, they say, for crops requiring more than 700 hours apricot, kiwifruit, peach, nectarine, plum, and walnut only between one-quarter to one-half of the valley is suitable. By 2080-2095, they project, only about 10% of the valley will remain viable for those crops.
Fruits such as apples, cherries, and pears needing chill hours of at least 1,000 hours were already barely suited to Central Valley conditions 20 years ago, according to the publication.
Perennial crops also make agricultural systems less flexible and therefore less able to deal with whatever climate change throws at them. Annual crops, on the other hand, can be changed year-to-year to accommodate climatic changes.
You really dont want to miss a year, says Nathan Mueller, an assistant professor of ecosystems science and sustainability and soil and crop sciences at Colorado State University. Diversification in general is going to help diffuse that risk, says Mueller, who studies world-wide climate risk agricultural trends,
And, he says, it all intersects with water. Not having enough makes everything worse.
Striving for balance in the water/heat dance
Drought and heat exacerbate themselves and each other. When its hot, whatever precipitation there is evaporates faster, often not making it into the soil to become groundwater. The warming climate also likely means precipitation will come in the form of rain rather than snow, even high up in the Sierras so crucial to Californias water supply.
The result can be a smaller snowpack, which in turn means that what Mueller calls a free giant reservoir will melt earlier and at higher elevations than long has been the case. So there will be less of that gradual melting that in normal years constantly re-supplies surface and groundwater without wasting too much of those resources.
Add to the equation that heat spells, now more frequent than previously in winter months, can result in more off-season melting. Furthermore, extended dry conditions may mean that when it does rain, the water may simply run off hard-packed soils without helping parched crops or soaking into groundwater supplies.
So essentially, the drier it gets, the drier it continues to get.
It means the waters largely are going out the Golden Gate without even doing the ecology very much good, Sumner says, referring to the situation around the San Francisco Bay area. If its warmer in the summer like it was this year, hotter and drier, then you have less water to start with for your irrigation and greater demands for irrigation in terms of the climate.
In effect, it becomes a cycle, an endless loop, and that becomes quite severe, Sumner says.
Another critical issue: California agriculture mainly relies on irrigation. About 80% of human water consumption in the state goes to agriculture, leaving the remaining 20% for residential, industrial, and other uses.
When groundwater use is not metered or priced, guess what happens
On top of that, in California most agricultural groundwater is not priced, while residential is. Agricultural operations have to pay for only the costs to extract the groundwater, not for the water itself.
Groundwater also isnt metered, so its unclear how much farms are using, but its estimated that groundwater makes up about 40% of farm use in what used to be considered an average year, meaning a year with less intense drought. In a drought year, that farm use share can jump to about 80%.
But the outlook now is likely on the verge of changing, as the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed in 2014, is about to go into effect. It requires the development and implementation of locally based groundwater sustainability plans to prevent overuse of groundwater.
Katrina Jessoe, an associate professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics and the associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, and Ellen Bruno, an assistant cooperative extension specialist at UC Berkeley, think they know whats going to happen on the agricultural front if farmers have to start paying for groundwater.
Theyve been looking at agricultural water use in some areas that had already been charging for groundwater, such as the Pajaro Valley along the central coast. There they were able to look at both changes in water use and agricultural land use.
Pajaro has had pricing and metering since 1994, with a price increase in 2010 so Jessoe and Bruno could look at actual changes over 10 years.
They say farmers responded immediately to the price increase by reducing production of lower value crops. In years two to five they found that farmers beginning to retire agricultural land or temporarily take it out of use. At first, the farmers actions were driven by a reduction in use of fallowed land, they say. But over time, especially after five years, they found farmers also reducing their irrigated acreage.
Were going to see a contraction of agricultural land, a reduction in the acreage of agricultural land, a reduction in farm size as measured by acreage, says Jessoe. It could be a preview of how water scarcity or reduction impacts agricultural land use in California.
But just what constitutes a lower value crop is a little hard to know.
Bruno suggests its a combination of how much water is required and the economics of various crops. Were assuming that farmers are optimizing and that the switch were seeing due to the increase in price is a switch to the crops that give you the most bang for your buck now that waters more expensive, she says.
At end of day, hope for adaptation and no nightmare
California grows such a diversity of crops, its hard to even think of a staple having a huge disproportionate impact that ripples through the system, Bruno says. Were not talking about millions and millions of acres of corn and soybeans all being hit the same way.
In the end, she and others dont see a nightmare scenario despite the burned and plowed-under crops from fire, heat, and drought this summer.
It undersells the adaptive capacity for agriculture, she says. That might be true if we couldnt adapt to anything, but we constantly find ways to adjust both through policies and farm level changes and technological advances.
One October morning in 1977, Maria Rubio was in her small green stucco house in southeastern New Mexico, preparing her husbands lunch. It was 6 a.m., and she was making burritoscooking beans, scrambling eggs, and preparing tortillas from scratch. And then she saw it, as she was putting together the second burrito: a burn mark on one of the tortillas, in the shape of a little face. Maria felt chills, and she could sense her body moving, though she wasnt sure if it was out of joy or fear.
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Maria shouted at her 17-year-old daughter, Rosy, to come into the kitchen. She asked Rosy what the burn mark looked like to her. Oh, my God, Rosy recalls thinking. That looks like the face of Jesus. Maria agreed. She hadnt wanted to say it out loud, because she didnt want Rosy to think she was crazy.
Marias husband, Eduardo Rubio, had slept through all of this. Now, Maria told him to get up. There was something he needed to look at. At first, when Eduardos wife and daughter explained what theyd seen, he scoffed. But when he inspected the tortilla, he saw it, too.
That image was about an inch tall and an inch wide. If you look at photos from back then, the likeness is unmistakable: Its Jesus Christ in profile, complete with a beard and a crown of thorns. Maria and Rosy were overwhelmed with excitement. But Eduardo felt warier. He worried the tortilla might be a bad omen.
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When Rosy left for school that morning, the Jesus tortilla, and the debate over what it meant, was a private matter. When she got back home that afternoon, everything had changed. There were people swarming outside her parents house. And inside, visitors crowded around the tortillascrutinizing it, marveling over it, and questioning where it came from.
That was only the beginning. In the years that followed, Maria Rubio would be besieged by believers and gawkers and the national press. Shed be called a visionary, and a fool. But for the Rubios, the tortilla wasnt just a public spectacle. It was the miracle that changed their family. And 44 years later, theyre still reckoning with the way it upended their lives.
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This story is adapted from an episode of Slates One Year podcast. The new season of One Year launches Thursday and takes on the most interesting stories of 1995the ones youve forgotten and the ones youve never heard of. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to hear a new episode each week.
Maria Rubio was born in the Mexican town of Ojinaga in 1940. Her family moved across the border when she was 14 years old. Maria says that back then, the schools in New Mexico did a poor job teaching English to immigrants. To this day, shes a monolingual Spanish speaker. (I interviewed her and her husband, Eduardo, with the help of an interpreter.) We arrived here with only one suitcase, very little clothes, a couple of pillows, a couple of blankets, and a pan for food, she says. We didnt have a car. We didnt have a house or anything like that. We had a lot of problems.
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She met Eduardo in New Mexico, on a ranch where theyd both found work cleaning cotton. They got married when she was 17, and she gave birth to four children within five years.
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It was a hard life. The Rubios were very poor, often living in the houses of farmers who employed Eduardo. Maria struggled with depression and anxiety. My mother was a very timid, submissive person, remembers Rosy, the second oldest of Marias children. Her depression pretty much dictated her life.
There were people swarming outside the house. And inside, visitors crowded around the tortilla.
I understood what she was going through, says Rosys younger sister Corina, but there was nothing really you could do at 8 years of age. I just knew that I never wanted to be like that.
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In those days, Marias relationship with Eduardo was on very shaky ground. I remember always being a little nervous during the weekends because I knew that thats when my dad was going to drink. And he was a mean drunk, Rosy says. That was just the way things were. I just figured, This is a normal life.
By the fall of 1977, the Rubios had their own home in Lake Arthur, New Mexico, a remote desert town with one store and about 300 people. Maria was 37 years old. She was struggling, and she was looking for solace. And so, she prayed, and she made tortillasfor breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every day.
Maria says she didnt have a specific recipeshed just use flour and salt and powder and lard. You just have to have the right mixture so that its not too hard or too sticky, Rosy says. And my mom was perfect in making the dough to perfection.
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Maria prepared her tortillas in a traditional Mexican style, on a flat, cast-iron griddlea comal. She laid the first side down on the comal and flipped it over as quickly as possible, then let the second side burn a little before flipping it again. Once that initial side was burned a bit too, the tortilla was done.
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The burn mark Maria saw on that Wednesday morning in 1977 had stayed dry when other parts of the tortilla got soaked with green chile. After Maria showed the tortilla to her husband, and after Rosy went to school, the Rubios carefully snipped out the face of Jesus, wrapped it in a napkin, and went to see their priest.
Joyce Finnigan was skeptical. He blessed it for them, says Rosy, but he also told them it wasnt a big dealthat they shouldnt read too much into it. Maria respected Finnigan, who had been their priest at the church in Lake Arthur for many years. She thought that what he was saying must be true. But there were other people at the church, and when they saw what Maria was holding, they thought it was a big deal. The news just spread like wildfire, Rosy says. By that evening, between 75 and 100 people had converged on their small green home.
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Six days later, a local reporter found cars lined up and down the Rubios block. When Rosy and her brother and sisters wanted to get inside, people pushed them back, telling them to get in line. The Rubio siblings figured out a way to bypass the crowds entirely, avoiding the front door by squirming in through a window.
Maria didnt think it was her place to turn people away. If someone came to see the tortilla, she felt it was her duty to share it with them.
All those visitors strengthened Marias faith. She treated the tortilla with reverence and care, displaying it in a glass and metal case atop a bunch of cotton ballslike it was floating on a cloud. That case sat on the Rubios dining room table, surrounded by flowers.
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By the end of 1977, more than 6,000 visitors had signed Marias guest books. People streamed in from all over New Mexico, many of them Latino, drawn by word of mouth and local news stories. We related a lot more to the Mexican Catholic people, Rosy says. Those were the people I remember just coming in with a lot of faith, with a lot of intention. The visitors prayed for sick relatives and lit votive candles. One woman said that she was looked down upon because she [was] poor and Mexican American. She believed that Jesus had appeared in a poor persons house to show people are all the same.
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Finnigan didnt appreciate all this hubbub. He worried that his flock was being led astray. The priest said to me, there are more people coming to your house than to church, Eduardo recalls. I said, And what can I do? And he said, Well, tell them not to, to come to church, that this is where God is. And I said, You know what, I cant. I cant kick out anyone from my home because they believe in that little piece of tortilla.
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Eduardo and Maria kept their front door unlocked. People showed up at 6 a.m., and after midnight. Maria answered all their questions and prayed when they asked her to pray. And when reporters quizzed her on what the apparition meant, she spoke with the confidence of a true believer.
Maria told the press that the burn mark was a message from God that all human beings should get together and stop fighting among themselves. She volunteered that shed been planning to separate from Eduardo, but the tortilla had brought them back together. Maria said that seeing Jesus on a tortilla had changed herthat shed been impatient but now was filled with serenity and love.
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Thats what Maria Rubio was saying publicly. The truth, she says now, was a lot more complicated. Some part of her did believe that the tortilla was a godsend. But that burn mark in the shape of Jesusit had also made her life excruciating.
People wouldnt stop asking me things, Maria says. And as soon as someone would come in, someone else would be there and another one and everybody wanted me to tell them what had happened.
Visitors would ask her to heal them, and she would tell them that she didnt know how to heal. She struggled to eat and sleep. She didnt want to profit off the tortilla, so she agonized about how to give away the donations shed been getting. Some people even accused her of faking the whole thingof painting the image, or burning it into the tortilla herself. She started to wonder if the tortilla might be cursed, or a tool of the devil. Sometimes, she would speak directly to the tortilla, asking it if it was a good thing or a bad thing. It never answered her.
She became scared of it, says Rosy. She would tell me that it was kind of taking a life of its own.
Maria felt like she was going crazy. She stopped going to church or to the grocery store by herself, and she sometimes wished that the tortilla had happened to someone else.
But despite the pain the tortilla caused, Maria wasnt about to get rid of it. She believed that Jesus had appeared before her, and she couldnt just reject him. Maria continued to welcome visitors into her home in Lake Arthur. And as 1977 turned into 1978, those people started coming from further and further away. The Rubios were no longer just dealing with a local sensation. The Jesus-on-a-tortilla story had gone national.
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In the summer of 1978, Cindy Tate Badger rode 500 miles from Oklahoma City to Lake Arthur, New Mexico, on the back of her boyfriends motorcycle. Badger, a 26-year-old single mother, had read about Maria Rubios tortilla in a syndicated newspaper column, and she wanted to know if it was real.
When Badger and her boyfriend got to Lake Arthur, no one answered the door at the Rubios house. But there was a sign out front. Badger remembers it saying: Come on in, the tortillas on the right.
Badger walked down a hallway, and there it was, sitting on a pedestal. She stared in amazement. It really does look like the face of Jesus that you see in Sunday school books and Bibles and such, she says. It truly does.
She became scared of it. She would tell me that it was kind of taking a life of its own. Maria Rubios daughter Rosy
After a few minutes, Maria Rubio walked into the room. She was just the most wonderful lady, Badger says. She would have talked to me a long time, but its all in Spanish and I could not follow her conversation worth a darn. And I regret that I didnt have a translator there to hear her firsthand story.
I asked Badger how often shes thought about the tortilla since she took that trip. From time to time, she says. I dont talk about it very much for this reason: I will not listen to somebody scoff and make fun of it. They werent there. They didnt see it. They know nothing about it.
A good number of people did see the Jesus tortilla in the 1970s and 80s. Some came from the East Coast. Others came from Europe. The first round of media coverage spawned a second round, and a third. The AP and UPI wire services both sent reporters to Lake Arthur. There were also pieces in the National Catholic Reporter, the Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek.
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As the tortilla story spread around the nation, so did a new wave of skepticism. One reporter said the burn mark looked less like Christ than like the boxer Leon Spinks. Magician Ricky Jay developed a trick in which he talked about Maria Rubios discovery, then conjured up a gift for someone in the crowd: a tortilla seared with a happy face. A television segment that aired on Showtime played up the strangeness of the Rubios tale and the oddity of their cuisine.
It was a perfect story for that eras America, says Gustavo Arellano, who wrote about the Jesus tortilla in his book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Mexican food is not as ubiquitous across the United States as it is today. You still have to explain to people what a tortilla is. I mean, if they know about tortillas, its in a can.
From the point of view of the white news media and white consumers, the Jesus tortilla was weird news. Heres how Arellano glosses that mainstream perspective on Maria Rubios story: Dumb Mexican woman, Catholic no less, says that she saw Jesus on a flour tortilla in New Mexico, which is a weird state as it is. Oh my God. Lets laugh at her and lets put her into this carnival of freaks.
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Arellano never saw it that way. Visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are a hallowed part of Christian tradition. And the founding myth of modern-day Mexico is one such vision: the Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared before the Aztec Juan Diego in 1531. When he told the Catholic authorities, they didnt believe him. The archbishop was only swayed when the virgins image appeared a second time, on the inside of Juan Diegos cloak.
Religious leaders in the 20th century didnt think Maria Rubios vision was a miracle on that orderor, really, a miracle at all. This image here in Lake Arthur, itsits just a little image, said a local Franciscan priest.
But for Arellano, tortillas are holy objectsa humble, simple food made by one of the most fucked-over countries in the world, and thats saying somethingMexico.
Of course Jesus is going to appear on a tortilla, Arellano says. Hes not going to appear on fucking caviar.
In Angelica Rubios very first memory, shes watching an episode of Threes Company and eating a bowl of ramen noodles when someone knocks at the door.
They would always just say, Were here to see the Jesus tortilla. And I was like, OK. I always saw it like I was some tour guide. And it was just sort of ruining my life, in the sense of it was just interfering with my TV time.
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I will not listen to somebody scoff and make fun of it. They werent there. They didnt see it. Cindy Tate Badger, who saw the tortilla in 1978
Angelica is the youngest of Maria and Eduardo Rubios six children. She was born in 1979, two years after the tortilla joined the Rubio household. Her mother believed those two events were connected. Before Angelica, Maria had been told she could never have another child. But the tortilla arrived and then came one more daughter. That made Angelica feel special. But I also know, she says, that so many of my own emotional issues have a lot to do with this huge idea of what the tortilla was.
Growing up, Angelica couldnt escape the tortilla, or her connection to it. This one boy that I had the biggest crush on started calling me the tortilla kid, she says. I just remember going home and just crying, because that was the most disappointing day of my life.
The tortilla loomed just as large for Angelicas older sister Rosy. But for her, the tortillas continued presence wasnt an annoyance. It was a sign. If you know anything about tortillas, if you dont eat them after three, four, five days, they start molding. And this never happened, Rosy says. To me, that was a very clear indication that this was something big and something special.
Rosy was always close with her mother. She wanted to protect Maria but also help her share her story. Since her mother spoke only Spanish, Rosy became the familys media spokesperson.
Maria and Rosy did a lot of interviews. But the one they taped in 1994 was their biggest yet. The Phil Donahue Show was recorded in front of a live studio audience in New York City. That trip was the first time that Maria had ever been on a plane. As they took off, Maria said, I think Im going to die now. For Rosy, it was thrilling to be in New York, but Maria was overwhelmed. When they went to a nice dinner downtown, Maria was too nervous to eat her apple pie.
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Filming the show itself wasnt any easier. The studio audience started laughing less than 30 seconds in, when Donahue uttered the phrase Jesus in a tortilla.
During the segment, Maria barely spoke at all. All she said was that Jesus had appeared before her to send a message. The whole time Maria was onstage, she never let go of her daughters hand.
On The Phil Donahue Show, Maria and Rosy got presented as potential scammers. If you give up your caution and your common sense, one guest, a well-known debunker of phony religious miracles, said, any charlatan with a pocketful of magic tricks can come in and take your money and sometimes your life. Later in the episode, an audience member told Donahue, Although Im not much for tortillas, I am going to keep a close eye on my potato chips.
On the outside, Rosy managed to keep her composure. But on the inside, she says, I remember just seething. What she wanted to do most of all was give that potato chip woman the finger.
After that experience in New York, Maria told Rosy that she was done with TV interviews. The next year, when The Oprah Winfrey Show called, Rosy went to Chicago without her mother. But her second big television appearance didnt go much better than the first. I just dont know why Jesus would want to be on a tortilla, Oprah said. And the crowd roared with laughter.
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For Angelica Rubio, it was painful to watch her family get laughed at. It made her feel angry, and a little bit guilty. Ive sort of always known that people exploited my moms story, she says. And yet I did very little. I feel like I was sort of an accomplicejust not really defending her. I think it was mostly being ashamed. I mean, think about it, just saying my mom was famous for making a tortilla with the face of Jesus on it.
By the 1990s, Jesus on a tortilla had become a kind of small-scale meme. Kurt Cobain wrote in his journal, I saw Jesus on a tortilla shell. The Simpsons referenced it. (Now, if youll excuse me, I have to appear on a tortilla in Mexico, God tells Homer.) Theres even a feature film, Tortilla Heaven, about Jesus image miraculously appearing on a tortilla in New Mexico. The Rubios werent consulted for that movie, which critic Justin Chang called as flat as a tortilla and considerably less nourishing.
In Tortilla Heaven, everyone tries to make a buck off the holy image, charging admission fees to see it and selling tortilla merchandise. That was the popular conceptionthat anyone who saw Jesus on a tortilla surely had impure motives. But for Maria, the tortilla was always a duty. Something shed been asked to share, for reasons she didnt understand. In 1977, she opened her home to the entire world. But over many years, very gradually, that sense of obligation to the public started to go away.
The first step was reclaiming the inside of her home by moving the tortilla outside. In the mid-1980s, Maria and her sister built a small chapel for the tortilla: a capilla, with glass doors, an altar, and a candle that always stayed lit. Hanging on the wall were strings adorned with small metal figurines, tiny icons left behind by visitors. Many were shaped like body partshands and feet in need of healing.
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That capilla stood on the Rubios front porch for about 10 years. In the 90s, after The Phil Donahue Show, they moved it to the back of the house. And eventually, they took the capilla down entirely.
The tortilla broke sometime around 2005. My mom says she lent it out to one of my nieces, Angelica says. But she thinks nobody wants to tell the real story. Theyre afraid of what might happen, she says, which is nothing. Like, the tortillas a tortilla, it was bound to break at some point. The tortilla now sits in pieces, and the part with the actual burn mark has gone missing.
Angelica Rubio is a politician now, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. In the past few years, shes been thinking a lot about the tortilla and what its meant for all of them. There was already suffering in our family, she says. But the tortilla is what it took to help her family to believe that things could be better.
My mom back then was weak, she was sick, Angelicas sister Edubina recalls. There was times when my dad would be drinking that she, I think at times, just wanted to be done with life. And I think she would have given up hope completely.
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Rosy feels similarly. At some point we believe that Jesus, God, the higher power, had to make an intervention, she says. And that was the intervention for us. That it was like, Come on, people, maybe you dont have a great life, but you have life.
Back in the 1970s, Maria had told reporters that her husband, Eduardo, stopped drinking when Jesus showed his face in their home. But that didnt last. The problem was quite advanced and I couldnt just quit all at once, Eduardo says. Because how I was living, I was not happy. I thought I was, but I wasnt.
It was only after Mariawith support from their childrenseriously threatened to leave him that he committed to stopping. He asked Jesus for help. If I leave this, he remembers praying, show me something that I can fill that emptiness with. He remembers Jesus telling him: Youre going to join a church choir and youre going to sing there every Sunday and you dont need to drink to sing. During our interview, I asked him to sing something that hed perform with the choir. He chose a song of love for the Virgin Mary.
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Eduardo Rubio hasnt had a drink in more than 30 years. He and Maria have been married for 64 years. She can no longer make tortillas, because of arthritis in her hands. What makes Maria so special, Eduardo says, is that she has un buen corazona good heart.
Marias children say their mother has overcome a huge number of challenges in her life. But she sometimesshe just really has a hard time, Edubina says. I think she just has a lot of anger towards having had to put up with so much for so long.
Angelica says Maria has never sought out the mental health support that she, as Marias daughter, believes her mother deserves. Marias strength, Angelica says, comes from trusting in the unseen.
There are moments, Maria says, where shes happy she saw Jesus on the tortilla. And then there are moments when she wonders why it happened, or whether it was true at all. One always has doubts, she says. But she wants very much to think that it was a good thing. I do believe in miracles, she says. Every day is a miracle because every day I wake up alive. And every day, Im fine.
Season 2 of One Year launches on Thursday. Listen to the trailer below and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts for a new episode each week.
Beto ORourke is running.
Again.
And this time his eyes are on the Texas governors mansion.
ORourke announced his candidacy in a video on Monday, with the Texas hills in the background and a common man approach. He spoke about his mobilization efforts during the Texas power outages earlier this year, of the unprepared officials who literally left their constituents out in the cold, and of the need to build public trust.
This is ORourkes third campaign for a major office after losing a Senate race to Ted Cruz in 2018 and a failed attempt at the White House in 2020. Republicans immediately responded to his candidacy by linking him to President Joe Biden, who has a 35 percent approval rating in Texas, and calling his positions reckless and dangerous.
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Expect to see a lot more of that, says Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston who specializes in Texas politics and has experience working on campaigns for both major parties, Green Party candidates, and independents in the state. Our conversation about ORourkes chances has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Julia Craven: So, is ORourke a viable candidate?
Brandon Rottinghaus: The problem for ORourke is that hes well known in Texas, but hes not well liked in Texas, and the polling bears this out. Hes got strong name identification, but lags in approval of his political approach. Thats problematic for him, because most Democratic candidates for governor have had the opposite problem. His favorable numbers are pretty low. And Greg Abbott is a political juggernaut. He has got a turnout advantage, since midterm elections tend to favor Republicans, and hes got poll position as an incumbent whos built a tremendous ground game and has a massive war chest.
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To put it bluntly, winning as a Democrat in a midterm election with a president who is unpopular in Texas, a sour economy, and a strong incumbent is not a good recipe for Democrats.
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Theres an ad Gov. Abbott put out that morphed Beto into Joe Bidens face. This definitely telegraphs where the Abbott camp intends to go politically. Abbott doesnt need to run against ORourke when he can run against Joe Biden instead. Its an interesting dynamic. Texas politics used to be a unique entity unto itself, but as the national trends have seeped into the politics of the state, its become much more about universal issues of Republican versus Democrat. If that is the nature of the race, then its an advantage for Abbott. If this is a base versus base election, given the context of where things are, the Republicans have got a major advantage.
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Democrats were hoping for a well-known, well-funded figure to run against Abbott. They got their wish, but that wish is tempered by the realization that ORourke is not the perfect candidate for them.
ORourke came out the gate swinging at Abbotts record. But how does his own record play outparticularly his comments during his presidential campaign where he famously said: Hell yes, were going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, a position he has not backed down from.
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In some ways, the gun debate is more a metaphor for the cultural fights that the states been involved in over the last year, which the Republicans would like to play up in 2022. Most people dont have assault weapons. But the point that Republicans are emphasizing when they bring this up is that there are cultural differences between the Democrats and the Republicans that will connect to bigger issueslike whether or not people who are transgender should participate in certain sports, whether or not critical race theory should be taught or race in general should be identified in core curriculum. These are questions that the Republicans are going to use as a wedge against Democrats.
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How will recent gerrymandering affect ORourkes bid?
The new district lines wont directly affect ORourkes bid because hes running statewide. However, if Democrats are demoralized in races down ballot because of fewer opportunities to win or have fewer incumbent Democratic candidates to vote for because of retirements, it might mute voting enthusiasm. ORourke needs all the turnout boost he can get in a rough year for Democrats nationwide.
Weve seen voter groups, particularly Black voter groups, flip states like Georgia and Pennsylvania by getting more people out to the polls. Is that a possibility for ORourke, especially when you take into consideration his ground game during the power outages earlier this year?
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I think it is. Texas added 4 million new voters since Greg Abbott was first elected. There are a sizable number of new Texans who dont know who Greg Abbott is and who are unsure of who Beto ORourke is. So there are opportunities for both parties to fill in that information and to use that to their advantage. The 2020 exit polling said that more people who were first-time voters in Texas voted for Joe Biden.
I guess thats what ORourke is hoping for: a whole new electorate in Texas who can be persuaded about the correctness of his policies and the problems that Republicans have faced since theyve been in office for 20-plus years. I also think he hopes to harness the tremendous amount of young energy thats emanating from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Texas. But it is a challenge in an off-year election when theres been a bit of an enthusiasm gap for Democrats.
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ORourke can fix that problem because hes electric for so many Democrats. The problem is that as much as he elevates Democrats, he also draws the ire of Republicans. Hes a polarizing figure, and that can create opportunities for Democrats in some places, but also may close off other opportunities such as trying to pull in the rural vote.
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Why is he so polarizing?
Running against Ted Cruz became a red versus blue battle. And that initially puts him into a position where it looks like hes much more aggressively partisan than he actually was in that race. By the time he ran for president, he was perceived as being pretty far to the left. The things he said during the campaign also kind of magnified that factthe way he talked about the gun issue and border security.
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These are things that made him look like he was to the left of most people in the Democratic Party. I think that narrative took root. Theres also a case to be made that hes polarizing because it looks like hes abusing his privilege. He comes from a political family. Hes married into wealth. Theres a sense, for Republicans, that hes not who he portrays himself to be, so that tends to polarize things too. Heres a good example of that: His nickname is Beto, right? His real name is Robert. Republicans still call him Robert Francis even though Beto has been his nickname from birth.
What about his chances with Latino voters?
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ORourke underperformed among Latino communities in 2018, but investment since then and the fact hes kicking off his tour in South Texas shows hes serious about winning them over. The Latino community is not homogeneousRepublicans in Texas have historically gotten 30 to 35 percent of the Latino vote. But younger Latinos who typically live in urban and suburban areas are more progressive, and those are the voters ORourke needs to excite and turn out to vote.
Should Bidens performance with Latino voters in 2020 change the way ORourke approaches them? Are there any lessons to learn?
There are concerns that the Democrats have taken Latinos in Texas politically for granted. Long-term engagement early and often is key. This means not just running ads in Spanishit means holding events, engaging with local community leaders, being attentive to community interests. The Latino community in some parts of the state are more working-class, so left-leaning policies like guns and abortion rights and abolishing ICE wont fly. ORourke has to talk about the issues that affect people in these communities, not repeat points from a progressive party platform. Hell have to shade some of his past liberal statements.
Is there a centrist Democrat in Texas who would be a better, safer bet?
There are many elected, and not elected, centrist Democrats in Texas, but none are as high-profile as ORourke. A Texas Democratic candidate has to walk a fine line ideologicallythey need to be liberal enough to excite the base but centrist enough to appeal to leaning Republicans and moderate independent voters.
But given the natural advantages Gov. Abbott has and the national landscape, going for a high-risk, high-reward candidate like ORourke might be the best strategy for the Democrats.
Over the past year, Ive seen so many school board meetings. Angry meetings. Meetings where parents were dragged out the door. Meetings where whole contingents of observers jeered and then sang The Star-Spangled Banner. But Ive never seen a school board meeting quite like this. At a San Francisco school board meeting in January, held over Zoom, the president of the board kicked things off by saying, We want to make sure you feel welcomed and heard, especially during a time when so much pain and hurt is persisting.
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The way she speaks herewith a lot of talk of holding space and lifting people upthat is the vibe the board is cultivating. There are a lot of good-natured shoutouts among this crew. But it all takes a lot of time. The school board meetings often go for seven or eight hours, well into the evening, says Jill Tucker, who writes about education for the San Francisco Chronicle. She says the problem with all this talking is that it was happening as a lot of San Francisco parents were struggling. At this point in the pandemic: Kids had been out of school buildings for almost a year. San Francisco still didnt have a firm reopening date on the schedule. But you wouldnt know any of that if you tuned in to the first few hours of this meeting, because reopening the buildings was way down the boards priority list, tucked under the 11th agenda item. They didnt even get to it until seven hours into the meeting.
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By the time they did get to it, people were mad. Listening to hours of testimony from this day, nowthe anger being lobbed at this board, it seems prescient. A few weeks after this meeting was livestreamed, a couple of parents hatched a plan to recall as many school board members as they could. Last month, they succeeded in getting this recall put on the ballot.
On Wednesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Jill Tucker about San Franciscos twist on the school board wars. It turns out the debate over how kids learn isnt just happening in swing states. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Mary Harris: The funny thing about this school board recall effort in San Francisco is that while it certainly heated up around the pandemic, thats not the whole story. This fight has been animated by some of the same cultural issues around race that have set off school board battles everywhere else. The groundwork was laid a few years back, when the school board weighed in on a controversial piece of art.
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Jill Tucker: It goes back to when they decided to address a controversial mural in Washington High School. Its this huge mural from the depression area, a WPA work considered very historic by many, many people. And the mural has some images in there, including white settlers stepping over a dead Native American and slaves in the fields. Theres been a lot of consternation over the decades about the mural, about how kids would say something like, Oh, Ill meet you by the dead Indian for lunch.
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And I guess the question is: What do you do? Because its a work of art that is, in and of itself, a historic piece. But do you want it around kids, shaping their education?
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Exactly. Removing this muralits a fresco. Its not just hanging on a hook. Its painted into the wall. The issue became: Do you destroy it? Do you cover it up? Or, do you educate the kids about it?
Which did the school board choose?
Well, they initially chose to destroy it, to paint it over, to literally cover it with white paint. And then they realized that that was probably going to be a long legal battle, and expensive. So they then reversed that at another meeting and decided to cover it up with panels or curtains or something that would semi-permanently obscure it, so that the kids didnt have to look at it.
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How did the community feel about that?
A lot of people felt at the time that the school board was not doing its due diligence in terms of understanding the process of how you would need to make a decision like this about something historic. People were also frustrated by the fact that first they voted to destroy it and then they reversed that and voted to cover it up. And the artist actually painted those images in the mural to illustrate that Washington was not a saint, that he was part of slavery, that he was part of the destruction of Native American populations and culture. But that was not part of the school boards conversation. So, for a lot of people, it didnt feel like the school board was in control of the debate.
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The response from the school board sounds a little herky-jerky. Theyre very into social justice, but a lot of the things theyre talking about maybe come off as performative and also expensive. And so its just touching a lot of hot buttons.
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Oh, 100 percent. This board has been accused many times of being performative and paying no mind to their finances. And of course, this was happening as the district was already facing about a $60 million deficit. And the board just continued to ignore that and focused on other issues, including the mural, which was going to cost upwards of $800,000 to $1 million, depending on which option they chose.
What did that incident tell you about how the school board sees its job?
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It demonstrated that the school board was very committed to these types of decisions at the expense of other types of decisions that typically school boards would make. A lot of things that they have taken up have been very directed toward the superintendent and very administrative tasks. At one point, the superintendent threatened to leave and then decided to stay if they stepped back and let him do his job.
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So they were making trouble for everyone.
This is a board that likes to stir the pot.
This well-intentioned focus by the school board on more symbolic issues continued through the pandemic. In January, as more kids around the country began returning to classrooms, the San Francisco school board made headlines againthis time for an expensive push to rename schools within the district, all while parents waited impatiently for guidance on reopening.
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For a while there have been some schools that the parents and the community and the teachers wanted renamed. And so they created this task force to come up with which schools should be renamed. The idea was any schools associated with a person connected to slavery or oppression would be renamed. The task force then went through every school name and reportedly did their own research to determine whether that person had a connection to slavery or colonization or other types of things. They went down through the list, and out of about 118 schools, they pulled 44 names.
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Thats a huge percentage.
And even school board members that supported the process were like, Oh my gosh, 44 school names!, including Dianne Feinstein. At least one of the board members whod been on the board years earlier had voted to name the school after Dianne Feinstein. So there was a lot of controversy about some of these name changes. The research was very questionable.
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Even the mayor, London Breed, came out with a statement saying, I cant understand why the school board is advancing a plan to rename all these schools when there isnt a plan to have kids back in those physical schools.
So not only was the process of renaming the schools questioned, but it was happening during the pandemic, when kids werent in school, when they were suffering, when there was a lot of issues that the district and the schools and the teachers and the families were facing. And the idea that the school board was raising this issue of renaming 44 schools, a lot of people considered it to be something akin to tone-deafness in terms of what was really mattering.
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Of course, there are a lot of schools that would be widely supported in terms of renaming. But the question is: Is now the appropriate time? Ultimately, that issue gave momentum to the recall effort.
When the school board was facing pressure to reopen, were they not seeing reopening as an equity issue?
Thinking back to their public statements, it was hard to avoid the fact that the closure of schools was disproportionately affecting students of color, low-income students, those that didnt have the resources at home to be able to study or have parent support. But as the pandemic wore on, they were passing these resolutions symbolically addressing the needs of different demographic groups in the district, when these kids were struggling mightily during the pandemic
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And werent in school.
They were in online school and in some cases, not in school at all. There was a lot of folks at the time that were very concerned, saying, How are we going to get these kids back in school? Theyre suffering, they dont have Wi-Fi, etc. This led to a lot of angst among the community that the pandemic and reopening appeared to be something of an afterthought seven hours into meetings
Around the time the board was catching so much heat for renaming schools, Tucker interviewed the president of the school board. She asked about equity issues, and whether keeping buildings closed was disproportionately affecting those on the margins. But the president seemed unmoved, insisting that children were learning more about their families and their cultures by staying home. She dismissed the idea of learning loss too, saying kids were just having different learning experiences than the ones we currently measure.
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Her statements in that story definitely didnt reflect what a lot of parents were feeling. It was very stressful and the mental health of young people was really harmed for many.
Over the past year, problems for the San Francisco school board began to pile up. Parents were caught off guard when the board suddenly changed admissions criteria at a selective high school, opening it up to a lottery in the interest of equity. One board member was accused of sending anti-Asian tweets. So this recall effort, it ended up being about a stew of hot-button issues.
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It caught fire because there was already so much anger brewing.
What did the recall effort look like? Did it look like people on street corners with clipboards or what?
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Yeah, exactly. It looked like people at farmers markets, and it looked like people literally on street corners in various parts of the city. Its a tough haul, though, to get 10 percent of registered voters to sign a petition in a city.
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In San Francisco, thats like 50,000 people.
Thats an awful lot of signatures, during a pandemic, when people are not outside.
One thing that surprised me about this school board battle is when I saw the mayor of San Francisco say that she was supporting the recall of three school board members. Even though shes a Democrat, and theyre all Democrats. One of these people, she appointed it. It made me wonder a little bit if the school board had burned bridges with their mayor.
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The mayor, London Breed, who is African American, expressed concern about the financial stability of the district, about the priorities that the school board had during the pandemic and that this was a grassroots parent-led recall. And she was behind the parents for change.
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How had the boards decisions affected the finances of the school district?
When people say they focused on social justice or these other issues rather than reopening or the finances, I think thats true. The question is: Could they have done all of that at the same time? I certainly think that that was possible. They just chose not to. A lot of these decisions did have price tags with them. And in a district that was struggling financially, they basically just chose not to deal with it. Instead, they passed resolutions that continued to cost money or add money to the budget expenditures. Recently, the state had to appoint a fiscal expert to come in to the district because they are facing such a massive shortfall$125 million next yearand if they dont come up with a plan in December, it triggers a process that could lead to a state takeover.
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So the recall election is coming up in a couple of months. It seems somewhat likely that you might have a slew of new school board members coming in. Mayor London Breed would appoint them if any of these members did get recalled. Do you have advice for anyone who might be coming to a school board like San Franciscos fresh, after all of this?
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Oh, gosh, I dont have any advice for them, and those members would have to choose a new superintendent because the current one is retiring, and they would have to somehow figure out how to balance the budget and make cuts that are going to be incredibly difficult.
It doesnt sound like a fun job.
Im not sure the school board member job description ever includes fun. Thats always been the question of school boards across the country: Who wants to be on the school board? Who ends up being on the school board because of the type of job that it is? I do think across the country right now and in San Francisco, people are realizing the power of these people that are elected by often a very small percent of the voting population. People dont really know whos running necessarily. They dont pay attention. They might just check yes for the incumbent. But people are realizing that school boards have some very powerful tools to make change, whether thats banning critical race theory or banning vaccine mandates. People are waking up to the fact that the school board isnt just a bunch of boring people sitting there voting yes or no on library books or whatever, that they can play a very powerful role in the culture wars of a community.
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A pair of deeply strange articles appeared in the Washington Post this week, raising questions about whether Democracy Dies in Darkness, the papers motto, has a carveout for Gilead. Last Sunday, under the headline What Happens When People in Texas Cant Get Abortions: Diapers Save a Lot More Babies Than Ultrasounds, Casey Parks profiled Tere Haring and the anti-abortion nonprofit she runs in Texasa pregnancy center that distributes diapers and baby formula to what she calls abortion-minded women in untenable financial situations. Haring, who believed it was her Catholic duty to help women who didnt get abortions, has seen a huge uptick in the need for the services she provides after S.B. 8 became law. (God had steered these women away from abortions, Haring believed. Now, it was up to Him to give Haring the money to help them raise a child.) The second piece, published three days later, is titled, A Maternity Ranch Is Born, and offers another window into How evangelical women in Texas are mobilizing for a future without abortion. Its currently among the most read on the site. The profile, by Stephanie McCrummen, is of Aubrey Schlackman, another Texas woman who has built:
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a place for struggling pregnant women who decide to have their babies instead of having abortions, a Christian haven where women could live stress-free during their newborns first year of life. It would have individual cottages for mothers. Host homes for couples who would model healthy marriages. A communal barn for meals. Bible study.
The first story recounts how the Harings ended up in Texas in the first place: They moved in 1986 after John, Teres husband, a lawyer who defended clinic protesters, was arrested outside the Ladies Center Inc. in Pensacola, Fla. The family decided they should move to Texas to get away from the anti-abortion movement. (At least one of their children followed in their fathers footstepsthe piece notes that in 1994, after Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, one of their kids was arrested on charges of trespassing at a clinic in Little Rock, Arkansas.) In August 1994, Tere Haring opened Allied as a nonprofit crisis pregnancy center.
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That her program involves mandatory Bible study, silver bracelets for moms that say I am free, and insistence on heterosexuality and religious primacy of males over females is elided, or maybe just downplayed.
Harings work procuring food and diapers for babies and their moms in the name of God is moving. The piece also truthfully notes that critics say crisis pregnancy centers are often criticized for dishonest tactics and copying the language and signage of abortion clinics to confuse patients. It even explains that Haring refuses funding from Texas Alternatives to Abortion program, which, although set up to assist women who carry to term, spent up to 100 times as much counseling patients against abortion as on maternity clothes, as the Austin Chronicle found in 2018. But even with these additions, the bulk of the piece is framed as a redemption story, about renouncing anti-abortion violence to embrace love. It reads like an uncritical, unvarnished tribute to Harings generosity and purpose.
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The Post story approaches the religious complications of Harings work respectfully. It explains why Haring rejects government money: State and federal law prohibits recipients from proselytizing or pushing religious activity on the people they serve. She prefers to be openly faithful and keeps what she calls a little chapel in the back of the center. Its a small chapel where, the Post reports, Haring sometimes prays for women in need. Hardly any of her clients go in it. But Haring doesnt want to change what she does, and she doesnt want to lie to the state. The takeaway is that having to hide or separate her faith is not worth the extra funding.
The second story details the ways in which Texas passage of S.B. 8 bolstered a growing sense among evangelical Christians that the end of Roe v. Wade was no longer a dim possibility but a near certainty. Happily, it would seem, for the subject, the time had come for the next phasea new era in America when the church would establish a kind of Christian social safety net where motherhood was not only supported but exalted as part of Gods plan for the universe. Again, Aubrey Schlackmans story and charitable efforts are admirable. Hers is a deep and loving faith. But the explicit religious valence here cannot be missed. The ranch Schlackman is creating would be part of a huge cultural shift, she says: Churches helping. Christians opening their homes. Christian safe havens all over Texas. Maybe all over America. That her program involves mandatory Bible study, silver bracelets for moms that say I am free, and insistence on heterosexuality and religious primacy of males over females is elided, or maybe just downplayed. The message of both stories seems to be a kind of one-two theological neck punch: Sure, Texas has craftily ended all abortions after six weeks, but it all works out in the wash because the church is stepping into the void!
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Nowhere do these pieces mention the deep suffering of women who may become pregnant but dont want to go to ranches or wear bracelets or pose for pregnancy portraitsa professional photo shoot in which they wore flowing goddess gowns. Both seem to have been lobbed at readers with the tacit understanding that, yes, sure, Texas nullified Roe v. Wade this fall and made no exceptions for rape, incest, or maternal well-being, but hey, it sure did bring about a new spirit of charity! Seen through the lens of new reporting about the Washington Posts actions toward Felicia Sonmez, a survivor of sexual assault who was repeatedly told by the paper that she was not neutral on the subject and could therefore not report on it, it feels a bit like another example of what can go wrong when a publication apparently believes there are two sides to human rights atrocities and rape. In that light, it looks a bit like the pair of love songs to the gap-filling faithful are the deeply strange result of a commitment to both siderismas though the Post, in casting around for an upside to taking away womens life choices, has determined that the upside is More Kindness/More God.
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More Kindness/More God may well be outstanding in life, but it doesnt cancel out the need for basic health care, or for services to be delivered to the nongodly, or for pregnant people to be treated as moral agents with control over their own futures. This framing trapthat those on the abortion side are godless and those seeking to end abortion are people of faithis one of the most hackneyed political cliches of the last decades. Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Womans Health, an entity that offers holistic abortion care services, told me as much in an email: As a progressive Christian abortion provider I am appalled by what these organizations are doing and how they frame Christianity, and I am stunned that the Washington Post would cover these organizations as if this is normal, sensible activity.
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That there is a place in America for faith-based charitable service is uncontroversial. That has been the case since the founding. But good people who provide good service to good people who make certain choices only when their other choices are taken away is not freedom, even if it comes engraved on a silver bracelet. I keep wondering about the rest of storywhat happens AFTER the halcyon period of prayer and birth? What happens to women disinclined to sign an agreement to attend Bible study and a series of activities? Who is taking in the non-Christian mothers in a country founded on freedom from religious coercion? The words maternity ranch can sound generous and loving, but they also fundamentally distort the fact that substituting Huggies for broad freedom represents a big step backward for human agency.
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Writing in Politico last year, medievalist Cord Whitaker pointed out the extent to which the idea of chivalry motivates revanchists and white supremacists. They apply it, he wrote, to multiple objects. They defend their families. They defend their neighborhoods. They defend their way of life. The flag. Western Civilization. The police. Always they use the language of honor. In their minds, they merely defend the defenseless. For years now, the charity and good works of crisis pregnancy centers and religious efforts of state legislatures have been similarly dressed as chivalric, when the story right below that layer is simply and obviously an attempt at upholding patriarchy and forced pregnancy. The pregnant in Texas must be defended not just from abortion service providers but also from their own false understanding of their own circumstances. If they can be denied access to reproductive choice, they can then be remolded. As one client explains, the Bible lessons showed me that choosing your child over whatever circumstances youre inthat God is giving you this child as a blessing. This is religious paternalism. Recall that when the Supreme Court afforded broad speech rights to both CPCs and anti-abortion counselors, it was because they were doing good work, holy work, work that is posited by its enthusiasts as curative to the sinful work of terminating pregnancies.
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Nobody should be knocked for helping the unfortunate. There is plenty of need for good and inspiring news of human kindness. But stories that are premised on the idea that taking away a womans bodily and economic choices has made more space for cute cottages and gated communities and Bible study is not both sides journalism. Faith-based charity is not a substitute for accessible and constitutionally protected freedoms. This isnt the stuff of happy endings for those who have fewer options. Everyone wants to see the upside, and everyone is tired of reading shitty news about women and their dwindling options. But feting as heroes the people who step in when all choice has been removed and replaced with Bible study and male dominated doctrine about family is not sober objectivity. Its falling prey to the oldest, most paternalistic tropes in the book, then passing it off as progress.
ARCHIVED - Renfe celebrates Black Friday with bargain rail tickets throughout Spain
Rail passengers can buy cheap tickets to Malaga and Alicante in addition to some destinations in France
Spains state-owned rail service Renfe is offering bargain-basement tickets for travel throughout 2022 as part of its Black Friday promotion. The deal offers significant discounts on its AVE, long distance and Avlo routes in Spain and France and is valid for purchases made between November 15 and 19 this year.
According to the rail company, the drive behind the promotion is to encourage Spaniards to travel more following the restrictions which accompanied the coronavirus pandemic.
Special offers
Renfe is offering discounts for travel to cities in Spain such as Madrid, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Valencia, Alicante, Zaragoza or Barcelona, in addition to Montpellier, Paris or Lyon from Barcelona.
As an example, under the promotion, tickets for journeys between Madrid and Barcelona will start at just 10.90 euros, while a trip from Alicante to Madrid will cost 16.60 euros. Passengers travelling from Malaga to Madrid can expect to pay 20.30 euros.
In all, Renfe is offering a discount on 23 routes this Black Friday.
Image: Renfe
ARCHIVED - Spain considers third Covid vaccine for over 60s
With coronavirus cases increasing in Spain, health authorities are looking at offering a booster jab to more age groups
Despite the fact that Spanish authorities decided against administering a top-up Covid jab just last week, the Ministry of Health is set to meet on Wednesday November 17 to make a decision on whether to offer a booster vaccine to people aged between 60 and 69 years, as well as healthcare workers. The ministers will come to a conclusion based on the data offered in the latest Vaccine Report, which is expected to support the additional inoculation given the recent surge in cases in Spain.
If the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, decides tomorrow that a third jab is appropriate, then the decision will go to the Public Health Commission for approval.
The move to triple-jab the older population was made because research has shown that immunity against Covid depletes with age. Regarding the younger generation, most people in this age bracket were vaccinated with AstraZeneca once its use was discontinued in younger populations.
In the case of those aged between 60 and 69, Spain is suggesting offering a booster of messenger RNA vaccines Pfizer or Moderna and many communities have also asked the Government to provide a top-up to health workers, something which the Vaccine Committee already supports. In fact, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDE) made this recommendation a few weeks ago, and Austria, Ireland and Romania are already administering a third dose to their medical personnel.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, since May 2020, some 150,975 Covid cases have been reported in healthcare workers in Spain, with just 480 infections recorded in the last seven days.
Image: Archive
ARCHIVED - Weather alert for the first winter DANA in Spain
Snow and heavy rain are forecast from Sunday November 21 across much of Spain
Following a scorcher of a summer and a relatively mild autumn so far, the State Meteorological Agency, Aemet, has warned that some adverse weather conditions are on the horizon.
From Sunday November 21, an intense influx of cold air, rainfall and snow will make its way towards Spain, leading to a dramatic change from early next week, according to the experts. Francisco Martin from Meteored predicts that the cold front would be generated by an isolated depression at high levels called DANA and driven by a maximum of winds in height of the north component that could generate a storm on the surface.''
If this weather front arrives, Mr Martin expects an early wintery period to descend on Spain, whereby heavy rainfall would enter the northern part of the country first before spreading westwards and reaching coastal areas during the second half of next week.
The precipitation will likely turn to snow in the Cantabrian Sea, the Pyrenees and throughout central Spain, according to the expert, and will be accompanied by strong winds which will intensify the feeling of cold. Both the Balearic and Canary Islands have been put on alert for heavy rain also.
Although a DANA is possible, the meteorologist was quick to assure that it wont be at the same level as Storm Filomena , which ravaged Spain and left a widespread trail of destruction in its wake earlier this year. Rather, the storm predicted to begin on Sunday and continue into next week is a normal situation in November while Filomena was a very exceptional, rare and extraordinary case.
Likewise, Aemet has confirmed that the chances of another storm of Filomenas magnitude occurring again this year is extremely low, around 1%, as weather phenomena of this kind are usually only seen once every 100 years.
In general, Aemet predicts that temperatures will be higher than normal in most of Spain between now and the end of January 2022, particularly along the Mediterranean coast.
Image: Archive
Opposition parties, far right and anti-vax groups held gatherings in the capital on the national holiday.
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Ten protest gatherings were announced in Bratislava on November 17, the national holiday marking the 1989 Velvet Revolution under the official name the Day of Fight for Freedom and Democracy.
Most of the protests were organised by the opposition, far right groups and anti-vax groups.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the parliament building near Bratislava Castle for a protest organised by the opposition Smer party. Robert Fico laid wreaths at the memorial of Prague Spring leader Alexander Dubcek.
The LSNS renegades who founded the Republika party addressed a separate gathering at Safarikovo Square near the Comenius University main building. In the days running up to the protest, they repeatedly posted announcements on social networks that buses would be transporting people for the gathering from mostly central-Slovak towns.
In both cases, the participants criticised the ruling coalition and blamed them for the bad state the country is in. They particularly objected to the anti-pandemic measures and vaccination efforts.
In the evening, the protest participants moved across the centre of Bratislava to the Government's Office building at Freedom Square. They blocked the traffic on some of the main traffic routes in the area. Most tram lines running through the centre were limited.
https://sputniknews.com/20211116/india-urges-action-from-australia-after-life-sized-statue-of-mahatma-gandhi-vandalised-in-melbourne-1090767365.html
India Urges Action From Australia After Life-Sized Statue of Mahatma Gandhi Vandalised in Melbourne
India Urges Action From Australia After Life-Sized Statue of Mahatma Gandhi Vandalised in Melbourne
The bronze statue a gift from the Indian government was unveiled by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Australian Indian Community Centre in... 16.11.2021, Sputnik International
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On Tuesday, Indias diplomatic office in Canberra sought action against the offenders who vandalised Mahatma Gandhis statue in Melbourne.India has raised the matter with the local authorities as well as the Foreign Ministry of Australia, a government statement read. Earlier in the day, the former state chief of Uttar Pradesh and a socialist leader, Akhilesh Yadav, demanded the culprits be caught and punished harshly. "Our country should raise its voice around the world for this. This is an attack on the father of our nation as well as the global image of India and all Indians," Yadav said, filled with indignation over the incident.The Victoria police said an unknown number of offenders tried to behead the statue some time between 5.30pm on Friday and 5.30pm on Saturday, reported ABC News.The Knox Crime Investigation Unit detectives are investigating the matter. Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison dubbed the incident "disgraceful and extremely disappointing." The Indian government donated the statue to Australia as part of its celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of its independence. As part of its festivities India, as well as staging events all over its country, has planned events in the nations where there are large numbers of Indians living, such as Australia, the US, and China. In his address at the Australian Indian Community Centre in Victoria on Friday, Morrison had said he would participate in India's independence day celebrations and hoped to receive Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next year. In 2018, the local population rejected a proposal to erect the statue, floated by the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria. However, FIAV again pushed the proposal after the Liberal party won the election. Matthew Guy had promised in the election that Gandhis statue would be installed at the Indian Community Centre.
https://sputniknews.com/20210609/australia-mulls-keeping-india-returnees-at-controversial-christmas-island-detention-centre-1083108154.html
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melbourne, mahatma gandhi, narendra modi, australia, scott morrison, victoria, india
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/as-eric-zemmour-climbs-in-polls-scholar-discusses-what-it-might-mean-for-israel-and-frances-jews-1090793030.html
As Eric Zemmour Climbs in Polls, Scholar Discusses What it Might Mean for Israel and France's Jews
As Eric Zemmour Climbs in Polls, Scholar Discusses What it Might Mean for Israel and France's Jews
France's presidential race is set for April 2022 and one leading right-wing candidate has already created a gap with Marine Le Pen, another conservative... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T08:34+0000
2021-11-17T08:34+0000
2021-11-17T08:34+0000
france
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Eric Zemmour, one of the right-wing contenders in the French presidential race known for his controversial comments against Muslims, keeps climbing in polls, despite the fact that he hasn't formally declared his candidacy.According to a Harris Interactive opinion poll that was conducted earlier this month, the conservative commentator is projected to win 18-19 percent of first-round votes in the race set for April 2022, thus widening the gap with Marine Le Pen, the leader of the right-wing Rassemblement National party.President Emmanuel Macron is still leading in those polls, but the chances that Zemmour will be facing him in the second round of the presidential race is no longer a far-fetched prospect.No Political CorrectnessDr. Emmanuel Navon, an Israeli expert specialising in France and Israel-French relations at Tel Aviv University, pins Zemmour's rising popularity on a number of factors."But they also love the fact that he is unapologetic, he is not politically correct. He is talking to the elites, looking them straight in the eye, and he does it in a sophisticated manner. The right-wing public has been waiting for such a person."Jews Are Divided Over ZemmourHowever, France's Jews, says Navon, are rather divided over their attitude towards Zemmour and his opinions.Some, especially those who live in blighted neighbourhoods and must suffer on an almost daily basis from the harassment of Muslim immigrants, are more prone to vote for Zemmour.Others, who belong to the religious institutions, seem to oppose the right-wing contender, primarily because they are close to the country's liberal circles, specifically Macron.However, closeness to Macron is far from being the only factor, and Navon says Zemmour's views have been a major deterrent as well.French Interests FirstIf Zemmour comes to power, he is unlikely to make any concessions to France's Jewish citizens. Nor will he make compromises when it comes to Israel, believes Navon."Zemmour is supportive of Israel and he believes that the Jewish state has the right to defend itself. But at the same time, it is not the centre of his attention. Domestic issues are. At the end of the day, he will do what's best for the French interests," summed up the scholar.Those interests often contradict Israel's, and history remembers a number of instances, when the two states didn't see eye-to-eye with each other.In 1967, during Israel's Six Day War, France imposed an arms embargo on the region that primarily hurt the Jewish state. Decades later, in 2016, Paris decided to label Israeli products manufactured in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and more recently, it slammed officials in Jerusalem for proceeding with settlement activity in territory outside the country's pre-1967 borders.Zemmour is likely to continue this and similar policies vis-a-vis Israel. Will that harm relations between the states? It's highly improbable, not when trade between the two nations continues to be a strong pillar.
Hess Another pack of lies by Blade. Zemmour is an ardent Zionist, a dirty anti-Muslim Fascist. He was found guilty of hate crimes. In fact, he has a criminal record. And has often described himself as an Israeli Jew first, a French second. France will be Europe cesspool of racism and violence if Zemmour wins. 6
Alel Europeans if they have some conscious.. things could be different..but they are like ameridiots SLEEPING.dream on suckers.. thats why you EURO stupids 5
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Elizabeth Blade
france, israel, middle east
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/bolton-claims-us-should-oust-belarus-lukashenko-to-nice-villa-on-riviera---report-1090810634.html
Bolton Claims US Should Oust Belarus' Lukashenko to 'Nice Villa on Riviera' - Report
Bolton Claims US Should Oust Belarus' Lukashenko to 'Nice Villa on Riviera' - Report
Thousands of migrants, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, have congregated at the Poland-Belarus border amid cold weather in a bid to get into the EU... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T20:57+0000
2021-11-17T20:57+0000
2021-11-17T22:49+0000
belarus
us
poland
alexander lukashenko
coup
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john bolton
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John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, stated that the US should come up with a way to remove Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko from power in order to thwart Russia from reclaiming the neighboring former Soviet republic, CNBC reported Wednesday.The Biden administration should look into finding the authoritarian leader "a nice villa on the Riviera," Bolton is quoted in the report as saying.Thus, Bolton figures, the US must prepare a strategy on "how to get Lukashenko out of power and find him a nice villa on the Riviera or something like that."The former adviser's remarks come as the European Union intensifies its efforts to impose sanctions on Belarus in response to an escalating migrant crisis along the EU's border with Poland. In order to deter attempts by migrants to enter its territory, Poland has reinforced its border guards and deployed the military. Brussels has accused Minsk of engineering the border crisis in retribution for sanctions, while Belarus has denied the allegations.The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has rejected claims that it is behind the immigration problem as "absurd," arguing that border controls had been improved and that state-owned airline Belavia was not transporting illegal migrants into the nation. Minsk has also said that it is the Western states' military ops in the Middle East and Africa that are to blame for the refugee influx.Bolton, who served in Trump's White House for 17 months between 2018 and 2019 before departing on tumultuous grounds, has a long history of provocative statements, having advocated for increasing US pressure on such countries as Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. Trump once said that if he ever listened to what Bolton said, a third world war would be imminent.On Monday, the Russian president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russia could help resolve the migrant crisis on Belarus' borders with the EU as a negotiating mediator. Putin earlier stated that Russia is ready to help in every possible way to resolve the situation with migrants that has developed on the EU-Belarus border.
https://sputniknews.com/20211112/scholars-eu-poland-need-to-talk-with-minsk-instead-of-fanning-enmity-against-belarus--russia-1090688744.html
keyboardcosmetics Iran (Venezuela) is going to attack us even if we have t do it ourselves ~ Bolton. 12
vot tak Why hasn't war criminal/zio-asset/traitor bolton been prosecuted yet. 2
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belarus, us, poland, alexander lukashenko, coup, migrant camp, john bolton, migrant, migrant crisis
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/calling-americas-bluff-xi-biden-talks-confirmed-true-extent-of-us-ambiguity-on-taiwan---analyst-1090809827.html
Calling Americas Bluff: Xi-Biden Talks Confirmed True Extent of US Ambiguity on Taiwan - Analyst
Calling Americas Bluff: Xi-Biden Talks Confirmed True Extent of US Ambiguity on Taiwan - Analyst
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden spoke by video uplink on Monday in their first face-to-face talks since Bidens inauguration in... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T18:39+0000
2021-11-17T18:39+0000
2021-11-19T06:35+0000
joe biden
xi jinping
analysis
talks
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Mondays virtual talks between Presidents Xi and Biden were successful in the sense that they allowed China and the US to signal to one another that they did not want tensions to spill into open conflict, but did not, and could not, resolve the root causes of the competition between the superpowers, political observers, academics and think tank fellows queried by Sputnik suggest.I do think it is a successful meeting in that both sides can at least use the occasion to signal to the other party that it wants to stabilize the relationship, says Dr. Zhang Baohui, director of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies at Hong Kongs Lingnan University.Characterizing the talks as an exercise in benign signaling, Zhang said that they have the potential to ease tensions after years of escalation.In international relations, especially for countries trapped in competition, benign signaling can moderate rivalry and make cooperation more likely. In that context, the meeting was a success. However, it must be mentioned that the root cause of Sino-US strategic competition is not resolved by this meeting and nobody expected that, the academic explains.John Renie Short, a political analyst and professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, says Beijing and Washington have very different viewpoints on what these root causes are, with the US establishment fearing that China is challenging Americas global hegemony, while the Peoples Republic fears that Washington is flexing its military might to try to hem Beijing in.Ralph Cossa, president emeritus of the Pacific Forum think tank in Hawaii, also believes that Mondays meeting, could be characterized as successful, in that it demonstrated to the world and [Xi and Bidens] respective publics that the two leaders were committed to managing the relationship to ensure tensions did not spill over into conflict.Taiwan TensionsXi and Biden discussed a broad range of topics during their meeting. In a press release, the White House said the two sides brought up the need to manage strategic risks to prevent tensions from spilling out into open conflict, as well as the existential nature of the climate crisis, energy, trade, and regional challenges including Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran. Biden also also brought up Washingtons concerns about the human rights situation in China, its unfair trade practices, and the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to the readout.On Taiwan, President Biden underscored that the United States remains committed to the one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances, and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the press release indicated.Chinas Xinhua news agency quoted Xis message to Biden directly on the Taiwan issue, with the president reportedly warning the US not to cross Chinas red lines.We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts. [But if] the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures, Xi warned. He added that any attempt by the US to use the island to try to contain China was just like playing with fire, and that whoever plays with fire will get burnt.The sharp comments prompted Biden to stress Tuesday to reporters that the US was not going to change our policy [on Taiwan] at all, and that they have to decide they, Taiwan, not us and we are not encouraging independence.Xi's remarks come in the wake of recent revelations that US troops have secretly been stationed on Taiwan as far back as 2008, in violation of diplomatic agreements between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Taiwan's defence ministry confirmed that over 600 US troops visited the island since 2019 alone.Calling America's Bluff?China has a clear policy goal towards Taiwan, Dr. Short says, commenting on the uncharacteristically sharp remarks by Xi. It sees it as an integral part of the PRC. What has changed is the strategies and tactics to achieve this unification, the professor suggests.CSISs Cossa has a different view, accusing Xi of saber-rattling with his comments and suggesting that Taiwan has done nothing to provoke Beijing, and has certainly not crossed any red lines.The US supports the peaceful resolution of the cross-Strait issue and has a commitment to help Taiwan defend itself. As Beijing acts more aggressively toward Taiwan, the need to increase US support to help improve Taiwans defenses increases and the US is responding accordingly, Cossa believes.Dr. Zhang disagrees, pointing to the major upgrade in US-Taiwan defence ties observed in recent years, starting with the Trump administration and continuing under Biden, and its impact on Chinas calculations.Fortunately, Zhang believes, Mondays talks may have helped to bring about a new consensus in China-US relations, which might ease tensions over the long term.Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, just recently said that it will be a mistake for the US to try to change Chinas political system. The US just wants a stiff competition with China. This could relieve Beijings concerns and sooth their relations, Zhang summed up.
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/white-house-clarifies-chinese-president-xi-absolutely-not-an-old-friend-of-bidens-1090786467.html
https://sputniknews.com/20211109/us-troops-have-been-secretly-stationed-on-taiwan-since-as-far-back-as-2008-pentagon-data-shows-1090598800.html
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/change-of-colors-democratic-texas-state-rep-leaves-for-gop-to-oppose-liberal-agenda-1090788272.html
Change of Colors: Democratic Texas State Rep. Leaves for GOP to Oppose Liberal Agenda
Change of Colors: Democratic Texas State Rep. Leaves for GOP to Oppose Liberal Agenda
Guillen's decision reportedly came after Republican-led redistricting in Texas turned the lawmaker's already Republican-leaning district into firmly red... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T03:02+0000
2021-11-17T03:02+0000
2021-11-17T03:02+0000
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Texas State Representative Ryan Guillen announced that he has left the Democratic Party to join the Republican Party.According to the Texas Tribune report, the lawmaker, who was originally elected to the Texas House in 2002, spoke in person alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan on Monday morning."Everybody has known that Ryan Guillen is really a Republican who is attached to the wrong label," Abbott said at the press conference. "Ryan, we're glad you finally came out of the closet."Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, expressed her delight at Guillen's decision to switch parties, writing on Twitter that she would "like to welcome state Representative Ryan Guillen to the Republican Party."Last month, Guillen also defied his now-former party by voting for a bill that would prevent transgender school athletes from joining teams that corresponded to their gender identity. He was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of the bill, which Abbott eventually signed into law.According to the report, Representative J.M. Lozano was the last state legislator to switch parties in 2012. He was also a South Texas Democrat who switched to the Republican Party after redistricting.
DuvalKingpin63 Gerrymandering is horrible America. 3
vot tak The pork belly looks like a republican, so might as well be one. No doubt he got a pat on the back from massa netanyahoo. :-D 3
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/china-builds-warships-for-fighter-jets-that-could-sink--kill-occupants-report-claims-1090787825.html
China Builds Warships For Fighter Jets That Could Sink & Kill Occupants, Report Claims
China Builds Warships For Fighter Jets That Could Sink & Kill Occupants, Report Claims
Expert: China Builds Warships For Fighter Jets That Would Sink & Kill Occupants, Report Says
2021-11-17T02:08+0000
2021-11-17T02:08+0000
2021-11-17T02:08+0000
military & intelligence
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us-chinese standoff in south china sea
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Sam Armstrong of the Henry Jackson Society think tank has claimed that China is secretly constructing military vessels that are capable of carrying fighter jets, the Sun reported on Tuesday.Referring to recent reports about China constructing a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier for missile attack training, Armstrong pointed out that there is no need for such efforts unless the country is planning a bombing raid on an aircraft carrier.Analysts have of late been almost unanimous in the view that the US may soon lose its naval advantage. Chinese naval modernization includes a wide range of programs for the production of new ships, aircraft and weapons, improvement of maintenance and logistics, along with the development of a naval doctrine and the improvement of naval personnel.The exact size and composition of Chinas naval force have never been revealed by Beijing. To date, it is believed that the country has at its disposal 355 warships, including large surface ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, landing and minefield ships. According to The Washington Times, China is set to acquire a total of 460 warships by the end of this decade.Apart from that, China has introduced a new naval component of its nuclear triad, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) of Type 094. The warships are capable of firing ballistic missiles with a range of 7,200 kilometers, which means that they could reach the US' Hawaii and Alaska as well as the US West Coast.Reports of Chinas increasingly powerful naval forces were accompanied by news of its two alleged testings of hypersonic weapons earlier in the summer.The Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea have been deemed the Near Seas by Beijing, an area the country considers to be a core national interest. The Near Seas are bounded to the west by an island chain that includes Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippine, with all of them being mainly controlled by the US. A potential area of local military conflict between the US and China is believed to be in the area surrounding Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
https://sputniknews.com/20211115/navigating-red-lines-on-taiwan-in-quest-for-common-ground-reportedly-key-to-biden-xi-summit-1090745128.html
Holger H. The US Navy just need to F*ck off from the south China Sea and the risk of sinking that vessel and killing its occupants will be over... 9
vot tak The title is nonsensical. The article is about some propagandist making a big deal about what most country's militaries do. Training. And is worth about as much as the title. Thumbs down. 6
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/congress-politician-plans-to-sue-bollywood-actress-kangana-ranaut-for-insulting-mahatma-gandhi-1090802012.html
Congress Politician Plans to Sue Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut for Insulting Mahatma Gandhi
Congress Politician Plans to Sue Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut for Insulting Mahatma Gandhi
Last week, actress Kangana Ranaut claimed that India only attained independence in 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. Several... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T14:37+0000
2021-11-17T14:37+0000
2021-11-17T14:37+0000
mahatma gandhi
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Legal action is being taken against Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for making defamatory remarks against Indian freedom struggle icon Mahatma Gandhi, Maharashtra State Congress chief Nana Patole said on Wednesday, adding that the party will register an official complaint against her with the city police.Regarded as the "Father of the Nation" in the country, Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of India's non-violent independence movement against British rule.Kangana on Tuesday took a swipe at Gandhi and said freedom fighters Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh got no support from him. She even claimed that there was evidence suggesting Gandhi wanted Singh to be hanged.She went on to poke fun at Gandhis philosophy of non-violence. Kangana also said that freedom fighters were "handed over" to the British by those "who had no courage" to fight oppression but were "power-hungry" and "cunning."She shared an old newspaper article from the 1940s with the headline, "Gandhi, others had agreed to hand over Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose)" and wrote, "Either you are a Gandhi fan or Netaji supporter. You can't be both, choose and decide."Urging her fans to choose your heroes wisely," Kangana said it's about time people know their history and their heroes. "Because just placing them all [political leaders] in one box of your memory and every year wishing them all birth anniversaries is not enough in fact it's not just dumb but highly irresponsible and superficial," she added. During a TV interview with Times Now last week, Kangana claimed that India attained its real independence in 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.In 2014, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a thumping victory in the general elections throwing Congress the party of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his descendants out of office.Several politicians have called out the actress for insulting India and the freedom fighters and wrote to the Mumbai Police demanding a case be filed against her. In the past, Kangana has sparked several controversies for being outspoken on social media about a number of issues such as the sudden suicide of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, nepotism in the film industry, the ongoing farmer protests in India, drugs, and much more.
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mahatma gandhi, actress, indian national congress, congress, controversy, india
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/ex-daesh-financial-chief-reportedly-says-groups-income-reached-12bln-a-year-in-most-active-years-1090797452.html
Ex-Daesh Financial Chief Reportedly Says Group's Income Reached $1.2Bln a Year in Most Active Years
Ex-Daesh Financial Chief Reportedly Says Group's Income Reached $1.2Bln a Year in Most Active Years
MOSCOW (Sputnik) The income of Daesh* during the years of its intense activity reached over $1.2 billion per year, the organisation's former deputy and... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T10:17+0000
2021-11-17T10:17+0000
2021-11-17T10:17+0000
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In October, the Iraqi authorities announced the arrest of Jasim, who served as a deputy of late Daesh* leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Jasim was also close to the current Daesh* leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.Jasim said the terrorists received their main income from oil smuggling. Oil products were offered to owners of small refineries and plants. The group also sold part of the oil to neighbouring countries. Another part was sold on the black market at $180 per tonne, he said.Moreover, the fighters were reportedly engaged in robberies, thefts, collecting tribute from controlled territories and extortion.We took tribute from wealthy people, gas station owners, companies, traders and doctors under the pretext of helping the organization's fighters. Some wealthy people were killed for refusing to pay. We blew up the houses of others, kidnapped them or a member of their families. Tributes in Nineveh Governorate reached over 500,000 dollars per month. Half went to al-Baghdadi, and the other half was placed at the disposal of the governor of Nineveh," the newspaper quoted Jasim as saying.The terrorist said that in 2016, after his appointment as the head of the group's financial department, the treasury had $250 million and 3 tonnes of gold. According to Jasim, Daesh* issued its own currency pure gold coins. Daesh* fighters reportedly received over $30,000 for every car bomb used to attack the security forces, he added.In October 2019, then-President Donald Trump said that late Daesh* leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself during an operation by US special forces in Syria's Idlib. The American leader thanked Iraq, Russia, Syria and Turkey for assistance in this operation.In November 2020, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Daesh* had intensified its activities in the country, including in Al Anbar, Kirkuk, Diyala, Nineveh governorates.*Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.
https://sputniknews.com/20211113/over-5000-completely-vetted-afghan-commandos-may-turn-to-daesh-if-not-evacuated-1090704487.html
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/goodbye-kamala-white-house-may-be-preparing-to-oust-vice-president-reports-suggest-1090788705.html
Goodbye, Kamala?: White House May Be Preparing to Oust Vice President, Reports Suggest
Goodbye, Kamala?: White House May Be Preparing to Oust Vice President, Reports Suggest
Goodbye, Kamala?: White House May Be Preparing to Oust Vice President, Reports Suggest
2021-11-17T04:11+0000
2021-11-17T04:11+0000
2021-11-17T04:11+0000
us
vice president
kamala harris
biden administration
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The relationship between the current US president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris may be bad enough to lead to her dismissal, despite the fact that the White House does not want to give the impression there is a split between the two, Fox News The Five suggested Tuesday.Other hosts noted that the White House has tried to tackle the rumors head on, with spokesperson Jen Psaki tweeting that the vice president is not only a vital partner to the president, but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.A recent report by Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram was also mentioned, in which he said that theyre preparing something in Congress that they have not done in many, many years Its about the process by which you go about confirming a new vice president.Later Pergram said in a podcast that he had received a letter with a call to "start to familiarize yourself with the confirmation process not just in the Senate, but in the House, for a vice president."Taking her post in January, Harris became not only the first female vice president, but also the first non-white woman to hold the position. As a reflection of the high hopes large circles of anxious Americans had for her, she was even placed on the cover of Time magazine.Soon after the immigration crisis at the border began to take on an unprecedented urgency, Harris was designated as the presidents representative on the issue. Apart from that, she was assigned to address electoral issues, in particular, promoting controversial voting rights reform. The difficulty of these issues and measures undertaken was so unpopular among many Republicans and other parts of the political establishment that some even speculated that she purposely was being given difficult assignments to undermine her. Criticism also came after a number of Harris' foreign policy initiatives, including her recent trip to France.A poll showed last week that Harris approval ratings have hit the bottom with just 28 percent supporting the vice president, while Biden is currently at 38 percent.Following a number of setbacks, especially regarding US immigration policy, a number of former and current Harris aides along with members of the administration, Democrats and other officials in interviews with CNN have criticized the vice president, saying that she is "not prepared" for her duties. The vice president herself also reportedly complained that she felt limited in her political activities, according to some sources.
https://sputniknews.com/20211116/despite-photo-ops-biden-harris-admin-clearly-experiencing-less-unity---gop-strategist-1090762107.html
Hajj Qassem No, the world had turned their back on US because of him...even US military had to talk him out of war, can you imagine?! The guy was nuts, just like all of the rest. 16
iamanyam The Dimcrats had known that Harris is light-weight. They cynically got her for ideological reason: female and non-white, to appeal to the left wing, not for proven abilities or potential performances. Of course, she was meant to replace dementia-ridden Biden. Too bad, she has proven too stupid even for the Democrats. 9
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Alexandra Kashirina
us, vice president, kamala harris, biden administration
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/greek-protesters-burn-us-flags-at-annual-march-marking-pro-democracy-uprising-1090813494.html
Greek Protesters Burn US Flags at Annual March Marking Pro-Democracy Uprising
Greek Protesters Burn US Flags at Annual March Marking Pro-Democracy Uprising
ATHENS (Sputnik) Greeks burned American flags on Wednesday as tens of thousands marched to the US embassy in Athens on the anniversary of a 1973 anti-junta... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T22:16+0000
2021-11-17T22:16+0000
2021-11-17T22:16+0000
greece
athens
us
police
march
demonstration
junta
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The United States has been blamed for backing the far-right military regime that seized power in Greece in 1967. The junta rule culminated in a pro-democracy protest at Athens Polytechnic, in which an unknown number of people were killed when a tank was rammed into the university gate.Protesters chanted "US out, NATO out" and "Americans are murderers of peoples" as they converged on the embassy, which was cordoned off by police buses, a Sputnik correspondent said.An American flag was also set on fire outside the US consulate general in Greeces second-biggest city of Thessaloniki where a smaller demonstration was held. Public broadcaster ERT reported scuffles between protesters and police outside a trade fair center.
vot tak Cool. :-D 0
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greece, athens, us, police, march, demonstration, junta
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/hackers-reportedly-go-on-global-hacking-spree-targeting-media-governments-using-israeli-spyware-1090804917.html
Hackers Reportedly Go on Global Hacking Spree Targeting Media, Governments Using Israeli Spyware
Hackers Reportedly Go on Global Hacking Spree Targeting Media, Governments Using Israeli Spyware
Israels US ally recently slapped sanctions on NSO Group makers of the infamous spyware Pegasus, after the spyware was shown to have been used by governments... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T14:01+0000
2021-11-17T14:01+0000
2021-11-17T14:01+0000
middle east
israel
hacking
uk
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A computer hacking tool developed by Candiru, a Tel Aviv-based surveillance and cyberespionage technology firm catering to government clients, has been used to systematically attack websites in the UK, Iran, Syria and Yemen, ESET, a Slovak internet security company has discovered.The victimized websites belong to media outlets in the UK, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, as well as Hezbollah; to government institutions in Iran (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Syria (including the Ministry of Electricity), and Yemen (including the Ministries of Interior and Finance); to internet service providers in Yemen and Syria; and to aerospace/military technology companies in Italy and South Africa. The attackers also created a website mimicking a medical trade fair in Germany, ESET said in a comprehensive analysis published Tuesday.The ultimate goal of the attacks were said to include collecting IP geolocation data and the targeted computers system information, and, if desired, to enable attackers to hijack the infected machines.The affected websites include the Middle East Eye a UK-based news site focused on Middle Eastern affairs, the site of Hezbollahs Al Manar television channel, and Yemens Almasirah a media outlet affiliated with the Houthis. thesaudireality.com, a Saudi dissident website critical of the monarchy, was also reportedly among those attacked.Among other targets were Piaggio Aerospace, an Italian arms maker, and Denel, a South African aerospace and military tech giant.Of the 21 websites attacked, eight are based in Yemen, three are Syrian, and three are operated by Hezbollah.The Middle East Eye announced that it was considering legal action against parties which it suspects of involvement in the attacks in the attacks, without elaborating on who it believes may be responsible.In a report in July, the University of Torontos Citizen Lab software developer reported, citing a lawsuit brought by a former Candiru employee, that the companys clients include the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Singapore and Uzbekistan.In the wake of ESETs reporting, a Candiru spokesperson assured Forbes that the company itself does not carry out attacks on clients behalf, and that it does not have any knowledge about how clients use its tools. The company is selling its products to government agencies onlythe company and its product dont hack websites, the spokesperson said.Candiru was founded in 2014, and is named after a parasitic catfish. The company is so secretive that it does not have public website, and little information exists online about its earnings, employees, and other basic information. The firm is only allowed to export its products if Israels Defence Ministry grants it an export license.The source or sources of the attacks are unclear. They reportedly ceased abruptly in mid-2021, after Citizen Lab researchers issued a report on Candirus use by governments to target journalists and activists in Armenia, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Yemen, Spain, the UK, and Turkey, and to have been operated from inside nations including Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.The US Commerce Department surprisingly slapped Candiru and its more famous cousin, NSO Group, with sanctions earlier this month. NSO Groups Pegasus spyware, which can infect phones using zero clicks (i.e. without any user interaction), and is impossible to remove, came into the public spotlight in July after the non-profits Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International shared a list of over 50,000 people whose phones were targeted. The software is capable of hijacking a phones camera and microphones, essentially turning it into a mobile spying device, and allows operators to access users contacts, message and call history, and more.The victims of the military-grade spyware package reportedly included over a dozen world leaders, among them French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi President Barham Salih, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and others, as well as a bevy of former heads of state and government, UN and WHO officials, journalists, dissidents, and opposition politicians.NSO Group defended itself by claiming that it sells its spyware to governments only for use against terrorists and criminals, suggesting that Pegasus had saved tens of thousands of lives. Instead, it was used by governments to target foreign adversaries and domestic opponents, with Mexican drug cartels also reportedly getting their hands on the software and using it to intimidate journalists.
https://sputniknews.com/20211031/iran-zionist-regime-the-americans-behind-massive-hack-attack-on-gas-station-network-1090363581.html
https://sputniknews.com/20211028/hackers-breach-leak-personal-data-of-israeli-defense-ministry-servicemembers-emails-of-benny-gantz-1090265544.html
https://sputniknews.com/20211103/us-slaps-israeli-pegasus-spyware-developer-with-sanctions-1090455697.html
mandrake Latest revelation. The crime-group in tel aviv needs to be destroyed and the jews kicked all the way to hell out of palestine! 5
mandrake With certainty close to 100 pct, its the jewish government in tel aviv behind this 4
4
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/india-conducts-military-exercise-to-augment-winter-stocks-for-troops-along-china-border-1090798044.html
India Conducts Military Exercise to Augment Winter Stocks for Troops Along China Border
India Conducts Military Exercise to Augment Winter Stocks for Troops Along China Border
India and China have furnished their troops with military assets and improved logistics so they can remain on duty in forward posts of the Line of Actual... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T13:28+0000
2021-11-17T13:28+0000
2021-11-17T13:28+0000
pla
c-130j transport aircraft
china
indian army
military aircraft
indian air force (iaf)
people's liberation army (pla) navy
india
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army have carried out a joint airlift exercise, Operation Hercules in forward areas of the western sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This is where Indian troop deployment is equal to that of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).The ministry added that the aircraft used in the airlift included Boeing C-17 troop and cargo transporters, the four-engine strategic airlifter Ilyushin IL-76, and the Antonov An-32 for military transport, which took off from one of the forward bases of Western Air Command based in Leh.The effort was a real-time demonstration of the inherent heavy-lift capability of the Indian Air Force, which has played a major role in ensuring the ability to respond quickly to any contingency during the past, the statement read.In October, Indian army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said: "The military build-up by China in the eastern Ladakh region and new infrastructure development to sustain the large-scale deployment are matters of concern.If the PLA continues its deployment, the General emphasised that India will maintain its presence across the sectors. The army has already stockpiled vast amounts of fuel, rations, engineering and medical provisions, clothing, and climate-appropriate vehicles. It has also built several hundred camps with adequate electricity, water, heating, and other facilities in eastern Ladakh.On 9 November, Chinas Global Times released a video displaying the deployment of logistics in the forward areas to remain prepared for winter. This means that logistics is a key factor for border troops to overcome the winter, and in this area, China has big advantages over India, a Chinese military observer noted.The PLA has also equipped its frontline troops with portable oxygenators, oxygen chambers, and individual oxygen supply devices, Chinas Defence Ministry said in the first week of November. The Indian and Chinese armies clashed in June last year near the Galwan Valley resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and four PLA troops. The two sides have held 13 rounds of talks to ease the tensions but have remained unsuccessful since June last year.
https://sputniknews.com/20211029/india-deploys-us-weapons-including-chinook-helicopters-to-ramp-up-defence-at-disputed-china-border-1090308276.html
china
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pla, c-130j transport aircraft, china, indian army, military aircraft, indian air force (iaf), people's liberation army (pla) navy, india
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/india-france-commit-to-enhance-intel-sharing-to-counter-radicalisation-extremism-in-asia-1090792480.html
India, France Commit to Enhance Intel Sharing to Counter Radicalisation, Extremism in Asia
India, France Commit to Enhance Intel Sharing to Counter Radicalisation, Extremism in Asia
France has supported India on several multilateral platforms, including the UN Security Council, in New Delhis push to sanction organisations engaged in the... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T13:42+0000
2021-11-17T13:42+0000
2021-11-17T13:42+0000
afghanistan
pakistan
france
narendra modi
emmanuel macron
us
afghanistan
taliban
radicalization
terrorism
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India and France have stressed the need for all countries to take concerted action against all the terrorist networks, including Al-Qaeda*, Daesh*, and various Pakistan-based groups.The two strategic partners have also pledged to designate more entities and individuals as terrorist or extremist, and pursue various sanctions.They also focused on the growing misuse of the internet for terrorist or violent extremist purposes. High-rank officials of the two countries stressed the need for all countries to ensure those territories that are under their control cannot be used to plan, launch terrorist attack against any other country, or shelter or train terrorist fighters.The meetings took place in Paris amid increasing interactions among countries on the issue of Afghanistan. After the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue and Troika plus (US, Russia, China, and Pakistan) summits held last week, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West visited Moscow and New Delhi on Tuesday. West has assured India it would work together with allies to address shared interests in order to secure a stable and peaceful Afghanistan.Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said on Wednesday that with the elimination of the country's opposition, no threat is posed to the region or world from Afghanistan, and a pathway has been paved for positive cooperation.* terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
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pakistan, france, narendra modi, emmanuel macron, us, afghanistan, taliban, radicalization, terrorism, extremism, indo-pacific, india
Warsaw Will Not Recognise Any Deal on Migrants Reached Between Germany and Belarus Without Poland
Poland will not recognise any agreement between Germany and Belarus on the migration crisis reached without Warsaw, Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday, commenting on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone call with Belarusian and Russian leaders.
"I told the president [of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier] that Poland will not recognize any agreements made, as the saying goes, over our heads," Duda said during the press conference in the capital city of Montenegro, Podgorica.
According to Duda, Steinmeier explained to him that in conversations with Lukashenko and Putin, Merkel only expressed Germany's "firm position" on the migration crisis.
"The president said that Merkel's conversations with both Putin and Lukashenko ... concerned only the presentation of Germany's firm position, which is based on the fact that they should abandon attacks on the border, stop generating this crisis, this hybrid attack," Duda said.
On Monday, Merkel and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed by phone the prospects for resolving the migration crisis and providing humanitarian aid to migrants at the Belarus-Poland border. On 10 November, Merkel also discussed the issue of the migration crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thousands of migrants amassed just inside Belarus along the border with Poland, near the Bruzgi checkpoint in the Grodno region, in hopes of getting onto the territory of the European Union.
Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania have accused Belarus of facilitating the movement of migrants to the EU to get back at Brussels for sanctions and urged for more punitive measures against Minsk. The latter rejects the accusation and maintains that it is unable to tackle the influx of migrants under the weight of Western sanctions.
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/migrant-crisis-continues-at-belarus-poland-border-1090790095.html
Situation at Belarusian-Polish Border After Migrants Made Attempts to Storm It
Situation at Belarusian-Polish Border After Migrants Made Attempts to Storm It
Thousands of migrants have been crowding at the western border of Belarus for the past few weeks. Poland has advanced its border guard and deployed the... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T08:02+0000
2021-11-17T08:02+0000
2021-11-17T11:11+0000
belarus
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poland
poland-belarus migrant crisis
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Live from the Belarus-Poland border as migrants have set up tents near the Bruzgi crossing point.On Tuesday, Polish security forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons against migrants on the border with Belarus, who attempted to tear down fences and cross into Polish territory.The Belarusian Health Ministry has said that 21 migrants from Morocco, Turkey, Cuba, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Syria, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sudan had sought medical help since border tensions escalated last Wednesday. Four people were hospitalised, including three children.Since July, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have reported an increase in the number of illegal migrant crossing from neighbouring Belarus. In September, Poland declared an emergency in the regions bordering Belarus, sending military personnel and additional police forces to the border and erecting barbed wire fences at various sites.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More!
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belarus, europe, poland
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/negotiations-ongoing-after-armenia-azerbaijan-conflict-reignites-biden-xi-meeting-concludes-1090787514.html
Negotiations Ongoing After Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Reignites; Biden-Xi Meeting Concludes
Negotiations Ongoing After Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Reignites; Biden-Xi Meeting Concludes
Armenia's security council secretary Armen Grigoryan has requested military assistance from Russia after border clashes resulted in casualties on its border... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T08:20+0000
2021-11-17T08:20+0000
2021-11-17T08:21+0000
nicaragua
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cuba
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azerbaijan
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Negotiations Ongoing After Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Reignites; Biden-Xi Meeting Concludes Armenia's security council secretary Armen Grigoryan has requested military assistance from Russia after border clashes resulted in casualties on its border with Azerbaijan.
Dr. Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and global history at New Mexico State University, joins us to discuss China. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden seemed to work around some of the difficulties between the two world powers in a virtual meeting. Biden is reported to have reassured the Asian leader that the US would continue with the "One China" policy and not support Taiwan's independence.Professor Danny Shaw, author, activist, and professor of Latin American studies, joins us to discuss South America. The US empire and its client states have combined to levy sanctions against Nicaragua after incumbent President Daniel Ortega won another landslide victory. Also, Bolivian President Luis Arce argues that Latin America can no longer operate under the Monroe Doctrine, in which the US empire assumes administrative power over the entire continent.Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia's security council secretary Armen Grigoryan has requested military assistance from Russia after border clashes resulted in casualties on its border with Azerbaijan. In November, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and border districts of the Syunik Region of Armenia worsened sharply.Dr. Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joins us to discuss the economy. The Democrats are demanding a tax cut for the rich, which will be the most costly part of President Biden's "Build Back Better" program. Economists are arguing that it is a political gift to the GOP, which will use it to increase their victories in 2022.Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, joins us to discuss foreign policy. Scott explains the reality of America's narcissistic "Rules-Based Order" campaign in which the US organizes a world order that maintains its status as the unipolar power. He argues that this system is outdated and no longer feasible as other world powers arise.Randi Nord, writer and activist, joins us to discuss the Saudi war in Yemen. There is another push in Congress and amongst international peace organizations for the US to stop supporting the brutal military campaign against the impoverished nation.Steve Poikonen, national organizer for Action4Assange, joins us to discuss Julian Assange. The recent cover-up of the US Air Force's slaughter of civilians in Syria demonstrates the danger of the Assange prosecution precedent. The US military made significant efforts to cover up and conceal the damage done at every step.Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss Cuba. The Black Alliance for Peace has written a document to condemn the US empire's attempt to overtly undermine the integrity and territorial sovereignty of Cuba. They argue that the reactionary anti-government protests were funded and supported by US State Department operatives in violation of international law.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com
Truth 101 "International rules based order" --- Everyone striving to enrich themselves upon the misery of those with less education, less wealth or less whiteness of skin. As evidenced by the educated upper-half of society hoarding all the land, wealth and political power. 0
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nicaragua, joe biden, cuba, armenia, azerbaijan, the critical hour, president xijinping, , radio
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/nicaraguan-supreme-court-urges-president-to-quit-organization-of-american-states-1090811944.html
Nicaraguan Supreme Court Urges President to Quit Organization of American States
Nicaraguan Supreme Court Urges President to Quit Organization of American States
MANAGUA (Sputnik) - Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua called on the country's president on Wednesday to denounce the Charter of the... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T21:25+0000
2021-11-17T21:25+0000
2021-11-17T21:25+0000
nicaragua
sovereignty
general election
organization of american states (oas)
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On Friday, the majority of participants of the 51st assembly of the OAS adopted a controversial resolution on Nicaragua. The document condemns the recent general election in the country, calling them "neither free, nor fair," and advises the Permanent Council of the organization analyze the situation before the end of November and take countermeasures.On November 7, the president's ruling Sandinista Front gained a majority of votes in the election, where observers of the OAS were not admitted. The incumbent president and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, won the election.Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada told Sputnik that the OAS was an American tool of aggression and meddling in Latin American countries.
NthrnNYker59 "condemns the recent general election in the country, calling them "neither free, nor fair," " ---- The same drivel regurgitated by fascist amerika and it's stooges about Equador --- see how THAT turned out. 4
Ladyshadow The entire world would be better off if the US minded its own business. 4
2
nicaragua
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nicaragua, sovereignty, general election, organization of american states (oas)
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/rittenhouse-prosecutors-case-reportedly-on-brink-of-collapse-after-they-withhold-key-evidence-1090808118.html
Rittenhouse Prosecutors Case Reportedly on Brink of Collapse After They Withhold Key Evidence
Rittenhouse Prosecutors Case Reportedly on Brink of Collapse After They Withhold Key Evidence
Antioch, Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two men and wounded a third during the August 2020 riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin sparked by the... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T16:40+0000
2021-11-17T16:40+0000
2021-11-17T16:40+0000
trial
evidence
mistrial
kyle rittenhouse
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The prosecutions case in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial threatens to come apart at the seams amid claims that the state willfully held back high definition drone footage of the Kenosha shootings, and provided the defence with a low quality video instead.The footage in question was turned into one of the central pillars in the prosecutions case, and features Rittenhouse, 17 at the time of the incident, pointing his assault rifle at one of his victims, giving the state grounds to say that he provoked the 25 August 2020 violence which left two people dead and a third injured.The drone video shows Rittenhouse sprinting away from Joseph Rosenbaum one of the two men he would end up fatally shooting, through a parking lot, reeling around at one point to point his semi-automatic rifle at Rosenbaum, then continuing to run, and spinning a second time and emptying several rounds into the 36-year-old as he approached within less than a meter of the teen.On November 5, the fifth day of trial on this case, the prosecution turned over the defense footage of a drone video which captured some of the incident from August 25, 2020. The problem is the prosecution gave the defense a compressed version of the video. What that means is the video provided to the defense was not clear as the video kept by the state, the motion obtained by the Mail reads, noting that the defence was not given the better quality video until two days before closing arguments, and after the deadline on the submission of evidence.The motion specified that while the file size of the defense video is 3.6 MB, the states was 11.2 MB. Further, the dimensions of our video are 480 x 212, [while] the states [are] 1920 x 844.On the basis of the new information, Rittenhouses defence called for a mistrial, and for teen to be protected from a new trial under constitutional rules prohibiting double jeopardy (being tried twice for the same alleged crimes).The failure to provide the same quality footage in this particular case is intentional and clearly prejudices the defendant, the motion alleged.The new grounds for a mistrial being cited by the defence comes following their earlier allegations of prosecutorial mistrial and over-reach over the alleged violation of Rittenhouses right to remain silent, and Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bingers attempt to enter new evidence which Judge Bruce Schroeder had explicitly excluded. Both of the earlier actions prompted Schroeder to angrily explode at Binger.America on Edge Over Rittenhouse TrialJudge Schroeder threw out the misdemeanor charge against Rittenhouse on possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor on Monday, ruling that the law on possession was unclear. Jury deliberations in the Rittenhouse case began the same day, with the teen facing life in prison on charges including intentional homicide if convicted.The Rittenhouse trial has bitterly divided Americans over whether he acted as a vigilante or a civic-minded activist, with liberal progressives also alleging that there was an element of racism involved in his suspected crimes even though all his victims were white.Along with Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse also shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, with his rifle, which he brought with him to the riot after traveling several kilometers from his home in Antioch, Illinois. All three of Rittenhouses victims have criminal records, with Rosenbaum convicted for the sexual abuse of minors, Huber having two domestic abuse convictions involving his siblings, and Grosskreutz facing charges, but not convicted of, noise violations, disobeying police and felony burglary, plus a misdemeanor for use of a firearm while intoxicated, which he was convicted on. The prosecution says the victims criminal records have nothing to do with the case.Rittenhouse's defence maintain that their client is innocent, and that he acted in self-defence.
TEP Maybe there will be riots whatever the verdict ... just 'because'. 8
Dang! NOT GUILTY!! GO KYLE!! 7
10
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Ilya Tsukanov
trial, evidence, mistrial, kyle rittenhouse
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/russia-hopes-us-will-abandon-plans-to-dominate-black-sea-foreign-ministry-says-1090809413.html
Russia Hopes US Will Abandon Plans to Dominate Black Sea, Foreign Ministry Says
Russia Hopes US Will Abandon Plans to Dominate Black Sea, Foreign Ministry Says
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia expects the United States to abandon plans to dominate the Black Sea, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T18:06+0000
2021-11-17T18:06+0000
2021-11-17T18:06+0000
news
russia
us
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Earlier, the US Navy's 6th Fleet announced that its command flagship Mount Whitney was heading to the Black Sea for joint operations with NATO forces."This is, of course, an open attempt to test the Russian reaction, to increase tensions in the Black Sea region," Zakharova said at a briefing. "All this fits into the concept of containment, the creation of some very aggressive situations, the destabilization of the situation in general.""This all leads to a decrease in predictability, seriously increases the risk of escalation. I hope that common sense in Washington exists and that it, if available, will prevail over irresponsible plans to achieve dominance in the Black Sea," she said.On Seized Diplomatic PropertyRussia is fundamentally not going to sell the diplomatic property seized from it in the United States, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday."There was no practical conversation, there were only hints that Russia could be helped to sell this dacha. Russia, in principle, will not agree to this," the source said.He clarified that the Russians still did not have access to this property."The Russian Embassy in the United States sends notes every two weeks with a request to provide it to all selected objects, but receives a polite refusal," he added.Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Washington continued to deny Russian diplomats access to Russian diplomatic property in the United States, and even the idea of selling it had been voiced. She noted that the Russian diplomatic property, despite its status, was subjected to searches, and was actually seized at the moment.
LINDADREW i hope you can stop them russia 5
vot tak The israelis want war in order to keep the wrst under their control. That's what this boils down to. 4
6
us
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news, russia, us
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/russia-rejects-attempts-to-divide-syria-create-quasi-states-instead-special-envoy-says-1090812198.html
Russia Rejects Attempts to Divide Syria, Create Quasi-States Instead, Special Envoy Says
Russia Rejects Attempts to Divide Syria, Create Quasi-States Instead, Special Envoy Says
DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - Russia does not accept attempts to divide the Syrian Arab Republic and create quasi-states on its territory and will continue to help... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T21:41+0000
2021-11-17T21:41+0000
2021-11-17T22:47+0000
russia
syria
israel
bombings
sovereignty
settlement
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"Russia is aimed at further searching for ways of the Syrian settlement in the interests of preserving the independence, unity and territorial integrity of the state. Any attempts to divide the country and create quasi-state formations, regardless of the pretexts under which such attempts are made, remain unacceptable to us," Lavrentyev said in during a roundtable, which took place in Damascus as part of the visit of the Russian interdepartmental delegation.He stressed that the internal Syrian dialogue should take place naturally and without any external pressure."The situation cannot be allowed to overcome the line after which the existence of Syria as a unified state would be impossible. We will continue to assist the Syrian leadership in achieving national and inter-religious harmony in the country," Lavrentyev concluded.Russia Opposes Israeli Bombings of Syria"As for the issue raised regarding the illegal bombings of Syrian territory by Israel: we strongly oppose these inhuman actions and call for contacts at all levels with the Israeli side on the need to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity of Syria and stop these bombings," Lavrentyev said during a round table in Damascus as part of the visit by a Russian interdepartmental delegation."In this context, a military response would be counterproductive, because no one needs a war on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic," he said.Lavrentyev said such actions by Israel go beyond the framework of international law.
smilingjack Again - the sound voice of reason. Russia. 11
Hess Syria is a civilised nation with civilised people. By contrast, Israel is a barbaric terrorists entity with uncivilised leftover Europeans. 8
11
russia
syria
israel
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russia, syria, israel, bombings, sovereignty, settlement
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/russian-exporters-present-their-solutions-for-smart-cities-in-baku-1090801114.html
Russian Exporters Present Their Solutions for 'Smart Cities' in Baku
Russian Exporters Present Their Solutions for 'Smart Cities' in Baku
Moscow (Sputnik) More than 30 Russian companies presented their products in Azerbaijan during a two-day business mission organised by the Russian Export... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T13:15+0000
2021-11-17T13:15+0000
2021-11-17T13:15+0000
baku
russia
azerbaijan
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Thirty-one Russian companies, as well as 36 key Azerbaijani companies and agencies, participate in the mission. Russian exporters will present their goods and services for urban planning and development in the form of a digital city," the report reads.More than 150 bilateral meetings between Russian and Azerbaijani companies are planned within the framework of the business mission. The REC group is ready to support the projects of Russian exporters in the Republic of Azerbaijan and to offer the most comfortable solutions for their realization. These include financial support measures provided by Roseximbank, such as direct loans to foreign buyers, loans to foreign buyers' banks as well as export-pledge financing of receivables," Azer Talibov, chairman of Eximbank, said during the opening ceremony.In addition, Russia and Azerbaijan agreed to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the two countries in the area of mutual trade. A memorandum of understanding was signed by REC and the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan.The business mission, which started on 17 November, continues a series of activities conducted by the REC to show the potential and efficiency of Russian exporters in Azerbaijan.For example, in July 2021. the REC held a business meeting in Azerbaijan where 11 of the largest Russian companies presented their products.
https://sputniknews.com/20210702/eximbank-of-russia-boosts-cooperation-with-azerbaijan-on-infrastructure-projects-1083290997.html
baku
azerbaijan
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baku, russia, azerbaijan
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/rzd-rec-agro-express-train-departs-russian-federation-for-uzbekistan-1090807137.html
RZD-REC Agro Express Train Departs Russian Federation for Uzbekistan
RZD-REC Agro Express Train Departs Russian Federation for Uzbekistan
First Agro Express, an accelerated container train service for the swift shipments of agro-industrial goods between Russia and Uzbekistan, departed Russia on... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T15:44+0000
2021-11-17T15:44+0000
2021-11-17T15:44+0000
news
russian railways
russian export center jsc (rec)
uzbekistan
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On Monday, the first batch of products left for Uzbekistan; we expect a return trip with fresh fruit by the end of November, Reshetnikov said. He noted that the main task of the project is to increase rail freight turnover between the countries to 1 million tonnes by 2030. Reshetnikov recalled that the Agro Express project is implemented by the Russian Export Centre JSC jointly with JSC Russian Railways Logistics, and integrates the railways of Uzbekistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan. This project covers not only the development of agricultural enterprises in our countries but also specific territories, Reshetnikov added. According to him, a route is created at the governmental level and all the procedures are worked out. Next, regions of both countries will have opportunities to build logistics, distribution centres, to involve the maximum chain of suppliers and to build up volumes.In turn, Russian Railways said on Wednesday that JSC Russian Railways Logistics jointly with REC sent by Agro Express train from Tambov to Tashkent frozen poultry meat produced by Resource Group of Companies, one of the largest Russian exporters of the agro-industrial complex. The cargo will travel in refrigerated containers on a freight train from Tsna railway station (South Eastern Railway) to Sergeli station (JSC Uzbekistan Temir Yullari), transiting through Kazakhstan.Plans are to work out the technology and cut down on formalities during the test delivery. In the future, the participants expect to reach regular traffic on this route, the press release stated.Agro Express, a special-purpose container train service of RZD Logistics and REC for the swift delivery of agro-industrial goods to China, Turkey and CIS countries. The service is constantly being improved by expanding the list of routes and applying modern transportation solutions, using refrigerated containers and flexitanks. In June, RZD Logistics, the Russian Export Centre and Uzbekistan's agro-logistics operator Uzagrologistics Centers have signed an agreement to implement this service. Transportation of goods according to the green corridor principle ensures a maximum delivery time of no more than five days for products from Uzbekistan to the Russian Federation.
uzbekistan
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news, russian railways, russian export center jsc (rec), uzbekistan
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/scott-morrison-lists-aukus-utility-in-countering-chinas-dominance-in-disruptive-technologies-1090794366.html
Scott Morrison Lists AUKUS Utility in Countering China's Dominance in Disruptive Technologies
Scott Morrison Lists AUKUS Utility in Countering China's Dominance in Disruptive Technologies
Australia has received furious reactions from some of the ASEAN members after Canberra joined a trilateral group named AUKUS with the US and UK in... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T11:42+0000
2021-11-17T11:42+0000
2021-11-17T11:42+0000
aukus
asean
quantum
us
australia
scott morrison
artificial intelligence
nuclear submarines
quadrilateral security dialogue (quad)
indo-pacific
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Releasing the government's Critical Technological Blueprint on Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that AUKUS will accelerate the country's future weapons and cyber defence technologies programme. Morrison said that these technologies are critical to the national interest and promised $111 million in funding to keep strategic rivals from controlling industries ranging from cyber security to medicine.The prime minister highlighted 63 technologies, but the government will initially focus on supporting nine. The first of these will be quantum technology. Australia is working with like-minded countries, liberal democracies in particular, to ensure global technology rules and norms reflect those values liberal democratic values, he said.Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported that 63 rapidly developing technologies could be blocked from being shared with Chinese universities and firms as the "federal government looks to stop Beijing from gaining dominance across a range of emerging sectors."The Prime Minister also underscored that AUKUS will play critical role in achieving the goal mentioned in the strategy document.Referring to AUKUS as a pact of much more than nuclear submarines, Morrison said that three countries will prepare a working plan by 15 December that will guide them in developing common and complementary security and defence-related science and industrial bases.The work plan will involve exchanges of information, personnel, and advanced technologies and capabilities; joint planning, capability development and acquisitions, among others.In mid-September, Australia, the US, and the UK signed a trilateral security arrangement with the agreement promising Canberra nuclear reactor technology to construct nuclear submarines at any Australian shipyard. Following the announcement, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed serious concerns, fearing the programme could fuel an arms race in Southeast Asia. Australian officials have dismissed the criticism, arguing Canberra's nuclear submarines will only be conventionally armed and only help it counter a massive military build-up in the Indo-Pacific region.
https://sputniknews.com/20211114/australia-vows-to-support-us-in-taiwan-in-event-of-confrontation-with-china-1090731296.html
WhatTheFishIsThis Morrison Clearly Delusional .. 6
1
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asean, quantum, us, australia, scott morrison, artificial intelligence, nuclear submarines, quadrilateral security dialogue (quad), indo-pacific, india, uk, aukus
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/sweden-labelled-covid-exporter-in-international-study-1090791286.html
Sweden Labelled COVID Exporter in International Study
Sweden Labelled COVID Exporter in International Study
Over the course of the pandemic, Sweden has become the focal point of international attention due to its unorthodox strategy that included no restrictions and... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T06:19+0000
2021-11-17T06:19+0000
2021-11-17T06:19+0000
news
europe
sweden
scandinavia
covid-19
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Sweden's maverick COVID-19 strategy led to the infection being be transmitted outside of the country, an international study has concluded.The study, conducted by researchers at Uppsala University, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the University of Sydney in Australia and presented in the European Infection Control Agency's journal Eurosurveillance, is based on data from 71,000 patient samples. Among others, the study described how infection chains originating in Sweden subsequently spread to other countries, affecting them despite measures taken. For instance, despite severe travel restrictions in Finland, the country was particularly affected, the study said.Conversely, there was virtually no export of the virus from Finland to Sweden, according to the researchers. They concluded that it was Finns not covered by the Finnish entry ban who imported infection from Sweden when they returned to their home country.The study also indicated that infection chains in Sweden included more people than in neighbouring countries, and concluded that there is a possibility that the number of COVID cases in Sweden itself and other Nordic countries would have been lower, had Stockholm chosen a more restrictive approach.This is not unlikely, Petterson said, suggesting other factors that may have affected the outcome.At the onslaught of the pandemic, Sweden drew international attention for its standalone approach in tackling the novel coronavirus. As the Western world locked down and introduced laborious restrictions, Sweden initially continued in a business-as-usual mode, relying on recommendations with no hard restrictions at all. While stricter measures were ultimately introduced, Sweden subsequently removed them again.Worldwide, Sweden's approach was received with a mixed bag of emotions ranging from praise to harsh criticism. Despite excess morbidity and mortality, many have hailed the Swedish way as business-friendly, resilient and viable. Still, it has come under a lot of scrutiny, even internally. Earlier, a government-appointed COVID Commission, which is still in the process of evaluating the Swedish strategy, lambasted the authorities for their failure to protect the old and the frail, noting that the Swedish response was marred by lateness and a substandard preparedness level.To date, Sweden has seen 1.18 million cases of COVID, with nearly 15,100 deaths, which is more than its Scandinavian neighbours combined.
https://sputniknews.com/20211029/a-breakdown-swedens-belated-covid-response-under-harsh-criticism-from-state-commission-1090312804.html
https://sputniknews.com/20211115/swedish-state-epidemiologist-pins-countrys-elevated-covid-death-toll-on-immigrants-1090737411.html
sweden
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Igor Kuznetsov
news, europe, sweden, scandinavia, covid-19
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/ted-cruz-presses-dhs-head-mayorkas-over-biden-cages-for-migrant-kids-at-southern-border-1090785429.html
Ted Cruz Presses DHS Head Mayorkas Over 'Biden Cages' for Migrant Kids at Southern Border
Ted Cruz Presses DHS Head Mayorkas Over 'Biden Cages' for Migrant Kids at Southern Border
Earlier in the spring, Cruz shared a photograph of youngsters jammed into pens taken at the Donna migrant processing facility in Texas. Ever since, the senator... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T00:52+0000
2021-11-17T00:52+0000
2021-11-17T01:10+0000
us-mexico border
us
border
ted cruz
alejandro mayorkas
cage
migrant crisis
migrant
viral
biden administration
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Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas grilled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday about children being held in "Biden cages" at the US-Mexico border.How many children have been in the Biden cages in calendar year 2021? Cruz asked the DHS chief during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.Cruz replied by acknowledging that Mayorkas may disagree with the term, however, he pressed the Biden administration official by asking him "How many children have been in the Biden cages?"Mayorkas insisted that he was not aware of the use of the term "cages" in regard to the migrant detention facilities at the border, and what Cruz specifically was talking about."Enclosures in which they are locked in, in which I took photographs and put them out because you blocked the press and didnt want people to see the Biden cages," Cruz explained.Cruz then displayed a photograph of kids jammed into pens taken at Donna earlier this year in the spring. He said that in the photo, children were seen "sleeping on floors, crashed in upon each other. When I took this photograph, the rate of COVID-19 positivity was over 10 percent."He asked Mayorkas what is the exact number of children in such conditions of detention, to which the head of the DHS said that he had repeatedly emphasized that the Border Patrol station was not a place for children.Mayorkas eventually admitted that the president has not yet visited the border himself, while Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been at the border, also did not visit the Donna facility, prompting renewed opposition from Mayorkas to the Texas senator's insistence on using the term "cage."Cruz then continued by stating that Democratic legislators had not visited the border at all and did not see the center for migrants at the border, to which Mayorkas objected that, according to his information, senators had visited the border and CBP facilities there. The Texas senator decided to continue grilling Mayorkas with questions about how many women and children were sexually abused en route to the US, and how many COVID-19 positive migrants or those with a criminal history were released into the country. To all these questions, an apparently confused Mayorkas replied that he did not have any such data.Prior to the exchange, Mayorkas admitted before the Senate committee that the US immigration system is "broken," and also added that not all of the 1.2 million illegal immigrants with final removal orders should be deported."We cannot remove 1.2 million individuals," the DHS head said, adding, "I would not necessarily accept the fact that all of them have received due process."
https://sputniknews.com/20211019/ted-cruz-says-bidens-cages-for-migrants-bigger-more-full-than-ever-while-no-democrat-cares-1090048420.html
Hess Ted Cruz should be arrested and charged. He should be put in jail for retards, homosexuals and corrupt politicians. 4
1
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Kirill Kurevlev
us-mexico border, us, border, ted cruz, alejandro mayorkas, cage, migrant crisis, migrant, viral, biden administration
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/three-photojournalists-attacked-by-polish-soldiers-near-belarus-border-polish-media-group-says-1090804724.html
Three Photojournalists Attacked by Polish Soldiers Near Belarus Border, Polish Media Group Says
Three Photojournalists Attacked by Polish Soldiers Near Belarus Border, Polish Media Group Says
WARSAW (Sputnik) - The Polish media organization Press Club Polska said on Wednesday that people in the uniform of Polish soldiers attacked three photo... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T13:54+0000
2021-11-17T13:54+0000
2021-11-17T13:54+0000
poland-belarus migrant crisis
belarus
europe
poland
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"An attack on photojournalists in the village of Wiejki. On Tuesday, 16 November, at about 16:00 [13:00 GMT], a group of people in the uniform of the Polish Army attacked three photojournalists: Maciek Nabrdalik, Macieja Moskwe, and Martin Divisek while they were performing their journalistic duties," Press Club Polska said in a statement.The reporters were shooting not far from Wiejki village, which is outside the area of the state of emergency introduced in September, and then tried to return to the village of Michalow by car, but were stopped by people in Polish army uniforms. The latter pulled them out of the car while "pushing them and using profanity," according to the statement.The journalists, who were handcuffed and held for more than an hour until the police arrived, described their behavior as "exceptional aggression." As they waited for the police, the soldiers searched the car and checked the contents of the reporters' cameras, the group said.Upon the arrival of the police, the journalists were released from handcuffs, but when requested to address the situation, the law enforcement officers refused to take any other action besides informing them of the possibilty of filing a criminal complaint.The photojournalists announced their intention to do just that.The Polish Defenxe Ministry denied that any abuse of power took place. Since earlier this month, thousands of migrants have camped along the border with Poland from the Belarusian side near the Bruzgi checkpoint in the Grodno region, in hopes of getting onto the territory of the EU. Poland has boosted border security. On Tuesday, some migrants attempted to storm the border fence, which resulted in clashes with Polish security forces.
https://sputniknews.com/20211116/belarus-claims-poland-used-special-means-with-toxic-chemicals-against-migrants-on-border-1090780621.html
Dee Bo Clearly belarus false flag attack...lol 1
Dee Bo Looks like belarus's plan back fired. Have fun with this humanitarian nightmare. Couldn't of happened to a nicer dictator...HAHAHA 1
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belarus, europe, poland
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/us-judge-sentences-q-anon-shaman-to-41-months-in-prison-for-role-in-capitol-riot-reports-say-1090808534.html
US Judge Sentences 'Q-Anon Shaman' to 41 Months in Prison for Role in Capitol Riot
US Judge Sentences 'Q-Anon Shaman' to 41 Months in Prison for Role in Capitol Riot
In September, the "shaman" pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding when together with hundreds of other protesters stormed the building in order... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T17:02+0000
2021-11-17T17:02+0000
2021-11-17T17:40+0000
us
us capitol
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The US Capitol rioter nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman" was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the deadly 6 January attack by a mob of pro-Trump supporters. US District Judge Royce Lamberth also sentenced Chansley to three years probation once he's released.Jacob Chansley, a 34-year-old Arizona man, was nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman" for the horned headdress he wore during the riots. According to Reuters, while in detention, Chansley was diagnosed by prison officials with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Back in 2006, the US Navy found Chansley suffering from a personality disorder but still declared him "fit for duty," defence lawyer Albert Watkins reportedly said.Four people died during a violent storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2020 as Congress was about to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory over Republican Donald Trump. About 140 police officers were injured during the clashes with protesters, and four police officers who defended the Capitol later committed suicide. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate on a charge of inciting insurrection by delivering a speech before the storming began, in which he claimed his victory was stolen from him and called on his supporters to "fight like hell."
https://sputniknews.com/20211110/presidents-are-not-kings-judge-oks-houses-access-to-6-january-capitol-riot-related-docs--1090615106.html
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Sofia Chegodaeva
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https://sputniknews.com/20211117/us-senators-lobby-india-on-defending-taiwan-in-case-of-possible-invasion-from-china-1090793961.html
US Senators Lobby India on Defending Taiwan in Case of Possible Invasion from China
US Senators Lobby India on Defending Taiwan in Case of Possible Invasion from China
The fate of the self-governed Chinese province of Taiwan figured prominently in the virtual summit between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T14:57+0000
2021-11-17T14:57+0000
2021-11-17T14:57+0000
joe biden
xi jinping
china
india
taiwan
national defense authorization act (ndaa)
quadrilateral security dialogue (quad)
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A US Congressional delegation led by Senator John Cornyn, the co-chair of the Senates India Caucus, disclosed on Tuesday that Congress members engaged in extensive discussions on the "Taiwan question" when they travelled to the Philippines, Taiwan, and India last week.In other words, whats at stake here is much larger than the future of one nation, Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas, also remarked.An official press release from the Indian government about the meeting between the US Congress delegation and Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, makes no mention of Taiwan-related topics.India doesnt officially recognise Taiwan and adheres to the One-China Policy. Cornyn reckoned that if China was able to capture Taiwan there wasnt a reason to believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop there.China also has territorial claims against the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, and India, he noted.Passage of the NDAA, which is an annual affair, in the US Congress is instrumental in sanctioning Americas defence spending. The Joe Biden administrations initial estimate of $753 billion in federal defence spending has already shot up to $778 billion. While the US House of Representatives has cleared the NDAA, the Bill is yet to be cleared in the Senate.Cornyn said that NDAA was critical in the US-led goal in defending Taiwan from a possible Chinese "invasion," as he echoed fears that such a scenario could take place by 2027, or even earlier.Former US Indo-Pacific Commander Philip Davidson said in September that Beijing could "invade" Taiwan by 2027.The Taiwan Partnership Act would establish a partnership between the US National Guard and Taiwanese defence forces just to strengthen Taiwans preparedness, he said.Should troops need to be deployed quickly in case of a crisis, they would be armed with the same knowledge and skills as the dedicated US guardsmen. The NDAA also proposes other provisions to increase cooperation with Taiwan and equip the US Indo-Pacific command with more resources, added Cornyn.Cornyn further urged the countries of the "Quad" grouping, which comprises Australia, India, and Japan (besides the US) to stand up to defend Taiwan in the future.Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said last week that it wasnt inconceivable that his government would join the US in defending Taiwan if the self-governed province is invaded by China.Xi Warns Biden Against Crossing 'Red Line' on TaiwanChina has consistently maintained that it's not open to granting any concessions on the Taiwan question and seeks "reunification" with the renegade province."Achieving China's complete reunification is an aspiration shared by all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. We will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press conference on 16 November. He was spelling out Beijing's position on the Taiwan question, as specified by President Xi Jinping during his virtual summit with Biden earlier in the day."That said, should the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures," Zhao further said.While it has regularly called for "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan, Beijing hasn't ruled out the use of force should American or any other country support Taiwan's "independence."According to a White House readout of the meeting, Biden re-affirmed America's commitment to the "One China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances."The Joint Communiques, signed between 1971 and 1982, are considered by Beijing as the "political foundation" of relations between itself and the US. Among other things, the agreements stipulate that the US doesn't recognise any other Chinese nation but the People's Republic of China, which translates into US' respect for the "One China" policy.
https://sputniknews.com/20211116/biden-reportedly-told-xi-jinping-us-doesnt-support-taiwans-independence-1090764601.html
https://sputniknews.com/20210925/china-warns-us-will-dump-india-australia-and-japan-as-four-nations-convene-for-quad-summit-1089391336.html
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/xi-warns-biden-supporting-taiwan-is-playing-with-fire-1090779857.html
WhatTheFishIsThis All those Delusional Western Supporters of Taiwan, and Rhetoric for Cannon Fodder .. Truly Insane !! 1
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Dhairya Maheshwari
joe biden, xi jinping, china, india, taiwan, national defense authorization act (ndaa), quadrilateral security dialogue (quad)
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/white-house-clarifies-chinese-president-xi-absolutely-not-an-old-friend-of-bidens-1090786467.html
White House Clarifies Chinese President Xi Absolutely Not An Old Friend of Bidens
White House Clarifies Chinese President Xi Absolutely Not An Old Friend of Bidens
When US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video chat on Monday night, Xi opened by calling Biden his old friend. However, the White... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T00:16+0000
2021-11-17T00:16+0000
2021-11-17T00:17+0000
joe biden
xi jinping
us
china
friends
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"Although it's not as good as a face-to-face meeting," Xi said as part of the opening pleasantries on Monday, "I'm very happy to see my old friend."While the 3.5-hour conversation was only the third time theyd spoken since Biden took office in January, the two met several times previously when Biden was vice president under Barack Obama, including once in 2011 in Sichuan before Xi had become Chinas head of state. The following year, just before Xi was chosen as President Hu Jintaos replacement, he also toured the United States with Biden, during which time they had more than 20 hours of private conversations, the New York Times reported at the time.However, a decade later and with both men now heading nuclear superpowers on opposite sides of an increasingly polarized strategic competition, that relationship has changed. Earlier this year, Biden explicitly rejected the notion he had some friendly connection with his communist counterpart, telling a reporter that we know each other well. Were not old friends. Its just pure business.He also referred to Xi during an April address to Congress as an autocrat who is deadly earnest on [China] becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world.Thats why on Tuesday, a Bloomberg correspondent asked White House spokesperson Andrew Bates what Xi meant by the comment.However, it seems thats something the two sides actually agree on."When we Chinese call someone an old friend, we mean we've known him for a long time, Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told Reuters. But an 'old friend' doesn't necessarily mean he is still a real friend.
Barros Sure. No country can be a US "friend". 9
Nonyank XI takes the high road and the US stays in the cesspool. 4
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Morgan Artyukhina https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg
joe biden, xi jinping, us, china, friends
https://sputniknews.com/20211117/whoever-gives-birth-to-a-child-swedish-tax-agency-switches-to-gender-neutral-language-1090789485.html
'Whoever Gives Birth to a Child': Swedish Tax Agency Switches to Gender-Neutral Language
'Whoever Gives Birth to a Child': Swedish Tax Agency Switches to Gender-Neutral Language
Sweden's push toward gender neutrality, which includes ways to facilitate gender change notwithstanding the biological body, has spurred criticism from the... 17.11.2021, Sputnik International
2021-11-17T05:51+0000
2021-11-17T05:51+0000
2021-11-17T05:51+0000
news
society
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sweden
women
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The Swedish Tax Agency has switched to a more gender-inclusive language in a bid to become more accommodating, in effect abandoning the notions of motherhood and fatherhood.We are not talking about mothers and fathers, but we are talking about the one who gives birth to the child, Swedish Tax Agency business developer Ingegerd Widell told national broadcaster SVT.As an example, she cited the authority's legal guidance on births.Whoever gives birth to a child automatically becomes the child's guardian. This applies regardless of whether the person giving birth to the child is a woman or a man, the guidance said.Asked whether this change is easy to implement, Ingegerd Widell admitted obstacles along the way.On social media, this approach raised eyebrows.The Swedish Tax Agency will now become more 'inclusive', among other things by talking about 'the one who gives birth to the child', 'regardless of whether it is a man or a woman'. Why would the Swedish Tax Agency avoid facts? Only women can give birth, Sweden Democrat MEP Jessica Stengrud tweeted.Weird. Even the virgin birth featured a woman, another one mused.Earlier this month, the Swedish government presented a bill to make it easier for citizens to change their legal gender. If the bill gets hammered out, changing one's registered gender will be done largely based one's preference instead of medical assessment, and will become about as easy as changing one's name.However, the Swedish Women's Lobby suggested that the bill would undermine decades of gender equality work.Former Social Minister Annika Strandhall, the chair of Social Democrat Women, by contrast, called the bill extremely important and well-balanced, pledging to vote yes. Still, even she agreed that there are clouds of unrest and ventured that the perspective of completely removing men and women would subvert gender equality work.The bill, presented by the Swedish Ministry for Social Affairs, will also allow children starting from the age of twelve to apply for a new legal gender in the national population register. To change the legal gender for a pre-teen, just the consent of the guardian will suffice, with no medical examination or approval from healthcare authorities required. Today, a doctor's statement is needed to change one's legal gender, which can be done starting from the age of 18.So far, the national-conservative Sweden Democrats are the only party that voiced clear opposition toward the proposal.
https://sputniknews.com/20211110/sweden-to-lower-threshold-for-legal-gender-change-to-twelve-1090612961.html
anne00marie I remember the feminist movement, who made the males redundant. No complaints, from the masses. Now a minority has decided to make the females redundant and still no complaints from the masses. Personally, I enjoy being a female and have no desire to have my gender erased, and no doubt many males felt the same, when the feminists were making males gender neutral. 1
anne00marie For some reason have had my comment erased. Must not mention anything that upsets the minorities, now must we? It wasn't even offensive, by any stretch of the imagination. 1
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Igor Kuznetsov
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Igor Kuznetsov
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Caribbean
A ntigua and Barbudas Prime Minister Gaston Browne has described the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow as a public relations exercise, even as he acknowledged that there had been some benefits to the event.
Browne said that the establishment of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law is likely to be one of the most significant outcomes of the November 1-12 conference.
The commission creates an avenue through which larger countries can be held accountable for their role in global warming and its impact on the most vulnerable states.
We will be writing to the international tribunal on the Law of the Sea to get a final determination on the liability and I am pretty sure by the next Cop for sure we would have made a lot of progress and this matter will become far more significant, said Browne, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States, (AOSIS).
Browne said that AOSIS had detailed a number of issues it wanted debated ahead of the meeting, including compensation for loss and damage due to climate change from the worlds major polluters.
The Prime Minister, who is also chairman of the 15-member regional integration grouping, CARICOM, shared the recent views echoed by the executive director of the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCC), Dr Colin Young, who said that the larger countries were basically kicking the can down the road when it comes to meeting their commitments on climate change.
Browne said that among the matters not considered at the meeting were increased subsidies to green energy, reducing fossil fuels and an increased scale for funding for small islands.
We want to see subsidies going to renewables to reduce the price. Electric vehicles (EV) for example . . . we need to see subsidies going . . . to reduce the price of electric vehicles so that we can transit from these fossil vehicles into EVs.
We also wanted to see increased scale of funding so that more monies would be made available to small island states and other developing countries to adapt and mitigate against the effects of climate change and even to have some form of mechanism for compensation for loss and damage.
Those are among the objectives we had established going into the COP 26, but unfortunately if you look beyond the incremental gains COP 26 was merely a PR exercise, a great PR platform, Browne said.
But he did acknowledge that some benefits had been attained.
He said it is now left to the SIDS and other developing countries that have to deal with the actions of the developed countries.
If we dont increase our climate ambitions to reduce emissions, to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius then obviously there will be catastrophic consequences and the irony about it is that it is the small island states in the Caribbean, in the Pacific and in the Indian ocean, they are the ones that are in the front line and they are the ones that will suffer disproportionately.
We have to continue to fight strenuously to advocate in a most vociferous way to get these large emitters to reduce their emission, Browne added.
Google recently rolled out Android 12 mobile operating system. Soon after, Oppo announced the rollout of Android 12-based ColorOS 12 OS. At the time, Oppo had said that it will start rolling out ColorOS 12 public beta to its global users with the Oppo Find X3 Pro in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia to be the first one to get the update. In addition to that, Oppo had also shared a timeline for the rollout of ColorOS 12 public beta to its smartphone users across the globe. As a part of this, the company had said that the ColorOS 12 public beta update will first arrive on the Oppo Find X3 Pro 5G smartphone in October 2021. The company had also announced that the ColorOS 12 public beta update will arrive on the Oppo Find X2 series and Oppo Reno 6 series smartphones in November 2021 and on select Reno 6 series models, Reno 5 series, A 73 5G, A74 5G and F19 Pro+ in December 2021 with the rest of the phones getting the update throughout the course of 2022. Today, Oppo announced the rollout of ColorOS 12 public beta update to select smartphones in India.
The Chinese smartphone maker today announced the schedule for the rollout of ColorOS 12 public beta update on its Find X2 series smartphones. As a part of this update, the company said that the Oppo Find X2 smartphone will get the ColorOS 12 public beta update starting November 17, while the Reno 6 Pro 5G and the Reno 6 Pro 5G Diwali Edition smartphones will get the update starting November 22. On the other hand, the Oppo Reno 6 5G smartphone will get the update starting November 25.
In addition to this, Oppo clarified that the ColorOS 12 public beta update to the eligible users on a batch-by-batch basis. This means that not all Oppo smartphone users will get the update starting the mentioned rollout date. So, dont worry if you see the update on your Oppo Find X2 or the Reno 6 series smartphone just yet. It is likely to arrive on your smartphone in a couple of days.
President Joe Biden gets into a Hummer to drive it at the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Detroit. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Joe Biden punched the accelerator on a battery-powered Hummer on Wednesday, causing the wheels to squeal and the truck to jet forward as he tried in his own way to drive the country toward an electric vehicle future.
The engine was quiet as the president pulled up to a waiting delegation of reporters and officials.
"Anyone wanna jump in the back?" Biden asked.
The president had just toured a General Motors plant in Detroit to showcase how his newly signed $1 trillion infrastructure law could transform the auto industry.
He is highlighting billions of dollars in his giant bipartisan infrastructure deal to pay for the installation of electric vehicle chargers across the country, an investment he says will go a long way to curbing planet-warming carbon emissions while creating good-paying jobs. It's also an attempt to leapfrog China in the plug-in EV market. Currently, the U.S. market share of plug-in electric vehicle sales is one-third the size of the Chinese EV market.
The president noted that the U.S. was not yet leading with electric vehicles, something he believes his infrastructure package can change with plans to build 500,000 charging stations. The Hummer he drove has a starting price of $108,700, as the electric market seems designed so far to serve luxury buyers instead of a mass audience.
President Joe Biden participates in a tour of the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Detroit. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
"Up until now, China has been leading in this racethat's about to change," he said. "We're going to make sure that the jobs of the future end up here in Michigan, not halfway around the world."
Two top White House advisers, writing in the Detroit Free Press, said the legislation will help America regain its global competitiveness, which has waned, they contend, "after decades of delay and decay."
"Nobody knows this better than Detroit, which has been at the heart of American industrial strategy in the past and now can again, which is why President Biden is coming today," wrote Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an opinion column published Wednesday.
Republicans, even some of those who voted in favor of the infrastructure package, are criticizing Biden for being preoccupied with electric vehicle technology at a time when Americans are contending with a spike in gasoline and natural gas prices.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took the Senate floor Tuesday to make the case that "the Biden administration doesn't have any strategic plan to snap its fingers and turn our massive country into some green utopia overnight."
"They just want to throw boatloads of government money at things like solar panels and electric vehicles and hope it all works out," said McConnell, one of 19 GOP senators who voted in favor of the infrastructure bill. He added, "American families are staring down the barrel of skyrocketing heating bills, and the Democrats' response is to go to war against affordable American energy."
President Joe Biden participates in a tour of the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Detroit. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stressed that the administration is looking at "every tool in our arsenal" to combat high gasoline prices, saying that Biden and his economic team are "quite focused" on the issue.
Biden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to monitor gasoline prices and address any illegal conduct being observed and is engaging with countries and entities abroad like OPEC on increasing supply.
Biden went a step further Wednesday, sending a letter asking the FTC chair to consider investigating "whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump." The letter noted an "unexplained" gap in the price of unfinished gasoline and prices for consumers at the pump.
The GM plant Biden visited was slated to be closed in 2018 as the automaker tried to shed excess factory capacity to build sedans as buyers shifted toward SUVs and trucks. But the plant, which built cars with internal combustion engines since it opened in 1985, was rescued a year later and designated Factory Zero to build zero-emissions electric vehicles.
Currently, the 4.1 million-square-foot plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck, is making pre-production versions of the electric GMC Hummer pickup truck.
Next year it will start making a Hummer electric SUV. The plant will start cranking out the Origin, an electric vehicle for GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary, in 2023, and an electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup at an unspecified date.
President Joe Biden participates in a tour of the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, left, and United Auto Workers President Ray Curry on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Detroit. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The plant won't see much direct impact from the infrastructure spending, but it will benefit from $7.5 billion designated to help build an electric vehicle charging network.
Biden wanted $15 billion to build 500,000 chargers and hasn't given a number for how many could be constructed for half that amount.
It's likely $7.5 billion won't be enough. The International Council on Clean Transportation says the U.S. will need 2.4 million charging stations by 2030 if 36% of new vehicle sales are electric. Currently there are about 45,500 charging stations nationwide with about 112,000 plugs.
Biden is hoping to do even more to promote electric vehicles, including a provision for a $7,500 tax credit for consumers who buy electric vehicles through 2026 that's been floated as part of his proposed $1.85 trillion social services and climate bill.
The following year, only purchases of electric vehicles made in the U.S. would qualify for the credit. The base credit would go up by $4,500 if the vehicle is made at a U.S. plant that operates under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. Only auto plants owned by GM, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV qualify.
Explore further Biden to spotlight electric vehicle future he sees for US
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According to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) Malaysia 2020 Crime and Safety Report, common crimes in Malaysia include snatch thefts and residential or commercial robberies.
More than 2000 snatch thefts or robberies were reported in Malaysia in 2019. The global pandemic and subsequent movement control orders across the country may have reduced street crimes, but they're anticipated to increase again as the nation progresses towards a post-pandemic era.
In an attempt to curb these crimes, city councilors, retailers, commercial and residential management have ramped up the deployment of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras across urban areas. Kuala Lumpur has about 1900 CCTVs for traffic management, 100 at flash-flood hotspots, 270 at public parks,130 at rivers, and 309 for security surveillance.
Netizens have regularly witnessed the horrors of snatch thefts or robberies captured by CCTVs, which frequently go viral on social media. The perpetrators are often able to evade apprehension due to the delayed response in alerting authorities.
Researchers at Monash University Malaysia's School of Information Technology embarked on a research and development initiative to transform conventional CCTVs into an autonomously intelligent system to detect street crimes in real time. The project is led by Dr. Vishnu Monn Baskaran and Ph.D. student Marcus Lim Jun Yi, and funded by the Ministry of Higher Education's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme.
The research is motivated by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and, in particular, deep neural network algorithms.
"There is a new opportunity to realize a reliable smart video surveillance framework, coupled with significant advancements in high-performance computing technology," says Dr. Baskaran.
A three-stage process
Typically, there are three stages in a smart video surveillance platform.
Stage one involves having AI-based software to process live video surveillance images to detect weapons. In most cases, urban robberies would involve weapons such as guns. Automatically identifying the presence of a weapon from a surveillance camera in real time would increase the software's reliability in assessing a threat within a surveilled area.
Stage two involves formulating a relation between the person wielding the weapon and the weapon itself for aggressive action recognition. Most importantly, the first and second stages are executed autonomously using AI-developed software with minimal manual intervention.
Stage three generates an alert that's relayed to medical crews and law enforcement officers to dispatch them quickly to provide aid to the victim and apprehend the perpetrator.
Credit: Monash University
The significance of a real-time alert and response mechanism could re-envision how AI is used to strengthen law enforcement and to further deter criminal activities.
The Monash University Malaysia team has completed stage one in developing a smart surveillance system that can accurately detect handguns from surveillance cameras in real time.
The team initially focused on automated handgun detection, given that crimes using firearms are more prevalent globally, especially in the Americas and in parts of Southeast Asia.
The outcomes of the research were published in the Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence journal. The team also won a gold medal for the project, named the Monash Automatic Gun Detection System (MAGTS), at the 31st International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition 2020 (ITEX 2020).
The researchers are now formulating an accurate human-to-weapon model for classifying aggressive human actions, which represents the second stage in realizing a smart video surveillance platform. They're also fine-tuning the outcomes from stage one of the research to detect knives and machetes, which are more prevalent in robberies carried out in Malaysia.
This research could also be extended to include person re-identification (that is, spotting or tracking a person from one camera to another). Through person re-identification, the location or movement of a perpetrator can be translated into geographical coordinates. These are then relayed to multiple notification modules and plotted on a map, representing a unified urban/city alarm notification system. This, in turn, could further complement efforts in apprehending the law offender.
The research is driven by the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) 1.0 report, which states: "Despite the improvements in the country's crime rate and its continued downward trajectory, public perception of safety is still a challenge as 52.8% of the rakyat [citizens] say they still do not feel safe."
The government recognizes that safety is paramount in sustaining robust economic growth. As such, the proposed outcomes of this research establish the fundamental components of an autonomous surveillance platform.
The platform potentially expands law enforcement's omnipresence program by substantially reducing response time at the point of theft identification. These improvements align with version 2.0 of the GTP to reduce the crime index, which is expected to improve public perception of urban safety.
In addition, it's envisaged that machine-assisted analysis of human actions in real time will provide additional support for social and scientific domains such as forensic science, criminal deterrence, criminal investigation, medical aid, and psychotherapy.
These solutions can transform the nation's capital into a smart and safe city in line with Transformasi Nasional (TN50), thus paving the way for vibrant economic and societal development.
Explore further Study estimates the prevalence of CCTV cameras in large cities worldwide
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Chinese police said Wednesday they have arrested a suspect in a digital currency scam who allegedly swindled thousands of dollars in one of the first such cases involving the central bank's new e-wallets.
China has been carrying out pilot schemes for its digital yuan since late 2019, rolling out tests in 10 cities including the capital Beijing.
Authorities in the eastern city of Gaoyou in Jiangsu province said they arrested a suspect who allegedly impersonated someone else to create an e-wallet under her name.
The suspect first claimed to be a police officer to obtain the victim's personal information including her name, identification number and bank card number, said Gaoyou authorities in a statement.
Without her knowledge, this information was used to set up a digital yuan e-wallet, into which more than 300,000 yuan ($47,000) was transferred from her bank account.
The money was later channelled into the suspect's own e-wallet, before police caught on.
There are currently 140 million personal digital yuan wallets in use in China, according to state media, with total transactions amounting to 34.5 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) as at the end of June.
With the central bank developing its digital yuan, all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies that might pose competition have been deemed illegal.
The new electronic payment method mainly aims to meet demand from domestic retailers, according to state media reports.
Explore further China's central bank rules all crypto transactions are illegal
2021 AFP
Inventors hope the DogPhone device could ease separation anxiety suffered by 'pandemic puppies' who became used to human contact during lockdowns.
Does your chihuahua crave a chinwag or the Yorkie want to yak, the greyhound needs to gossip and the corgi loves a chat?
Lonely dogs could soon be able to call their absent owners using a new device invented by animal-tech scientists in Britain and Finland, they said Wednesday.
The DogPhone works when the pet shakes a ball fitted with an accelerometer, which triggers a nearby laptop to make a video call to the owner's device.
It was invented by the University of Glasgow's Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, with help from her labrador Zack, and colleagues from Aalto University in Finland.
After Hirskyj-Douglas showed "lab assistant" Zack how to make a call using the ball, he was given the toy to play with for 16 days.
Despite being hounded with some accidental calls, Zack used the prototype device to contact his owner and show off his toys.
Hirskyj-Douglas, a specialist in animal-computer interaction, responded by showing the pet her office, a restaurant and a street busker, causing Zack to approach the screen.
"Of course, we can't know for sure that Zack was aware of the causal link between picking up the ball and making a call, or even that some of the interactions which seemed accidental were actually unintended on his part," she said.
"However, it's clear that on some occasions he was definitely interested in what he was seeing, and that he displayed some of the same behaviours he shows when we are physically together."
The team hopes the DogPhone, which is undergoing further testing, could help ease separation anxiety suffered by "pandemic puppies" who became used to constant human contact during lockdowns.
More information: Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas et al, Forming the Dog Internet, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (2021). Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas et al, Forming the Dog Internet,(2021). DOI: 10.1145/3488539
2021 AFP
Under the agreement with Google, AFP will also offer fact-checking training on several continents.
Google and Agence France-Presse on Wednesday said they had signed a "pioneering" five-year deal under which the world's biggest internet search company will pay an undisclosed sum for content in Europe.
The agreement, following 18 months of negotiations, is the first by a news agency under the 2019 European directive on so-called neighbouring rights, at the heart of multiple disputes between web giants and the media over payment for use of online news and other content.
"This is an agreement that covers the whole of the EU, in all of AFP's languages, including in countries that have not enacted the directive," said AFP CEO Fabrice Fries, describing the deal as "pioneering" and the "culmination of a long struggle".
AFP produces and distributes multimedia content to its clients in six languages around the world.
After initially being reluctant to pay French newspapers for the use of their content, Google finally signed a three-year framework agreement with some of the nation's press in early 2021, but was fined 500 million euros ($566 million) by the competition authority in mid-July for having failed to negotiate "in good faith".
Google has appealed, and is continuing talks to reach a new agreement.
'Common ground'
Google's Sebastien Missoffe (left) and Fabrice Fries reach what the AFP CEO described as a 'pioneering' agreement for the search giant to pay for the news agency's content.
AFP has fought for news agencies to be fully eligible to benefit from neighbouring rights agreements, Fries said. Wednesday's deal "will contribute to the production of quality information and the development of innovation within the agency", he added.
"This agreement with Agence France-Presse demonstrates our willingness to find common ground with publishers and press agencies in France on the topic of neighbouring rights," said Sebastien Missoffe, Google's general manager in France. The pact "paves the way for even closer collaboration", he added.
Under the agreement AFP will also offer fact-checking training on several continents, details of which will be announced soon, the companies said in a statement.
Global tech giantsmostly Americanhave run into a wide range of disputes with Brussels and EU member states, over taxation, abuse of their dominant market power, privacy issues and of making money from journalistic content without sharing the revenue.
To tackle this the EU directive created the form of copyright called neighbouring rights that would allow outlets to demand compensation for use of their content.
Facebook announced several agreements in October, including one that provides for two years' remuneration to French news media for the use of their content, as well as for their participation in Facebook News, which Facebook will deploy in France in January 2022.
In France and Denmark, media groups joined forces to negotiate with tech giants, while in Spain Google announced on November 3 that it would reopen its Google News service in early 2022.
In Australia, a law has been passed to oblige tech giants to pay the media for using their content.
Explore further Facebook says will pay French press for news
2021 AFP
CEO Elon Musk departs from the justice center in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Musk is selling more Tesla shares than he needs to pay current tax obligations, and experts say he's either converting part of his fortune from stock to cash, or he's saving for bigger tax bills that will come due next year. As of early Wednesday, Nov. 17, Musk had sold roughly 8.2 million shares in the electric car and solar panel maker in the past nine days, worth a total of just over $8.8 billion. Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File
Elon Musk is selling more Tesla shares than he needs to pay current tax obligations, and experts say he's either converting part of his fortune from stock to cash, or he's saving for bigger tax bills that will come due next year.
As of early Wednesday, Musk had sold roughly 8.2 million shares in the electric car and solar panel maker in the past nine days, worth a total of just over $8.8 billion.
Of those, Musk sold 2.8 million shares worth about $3 billion specifically to pay taxes on three tranches of stock options that he exercised this week, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That means he has sold roughly $5 billion more in shares than he needs at present.
Under a compensation plan from 2012, Musk has options to buy 26.4 million shares. The options expire next year, and the tax bill will come due. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives estimates the bill to be $10 billion to $15 billion, depending on the stock price. Musk's options so far allowed him to buy shares at $6.24 each, and the stock is selling for around $1,080.
Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business and law professor, questioned why Musk would sell that many shares now to pay obligations that come due next year. He said accruing for future tax liabilities makes sense only if Musk expects the stock price to drop.
"If you think the stock is going to go up, or if you think the stock is going to stay the same, you wouldn't be selling extra shares," he said.
On Nov. 6, Musk asked his 60 million Twitter followers if he should sell some of his Tesla stock. "Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my stock," he wrote. According to Musk, 58% of those who responded said yes.
Musk also conceded his wealth is tied up in stock, tweeting that he doesn't get a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. "I have only stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," he wrote.
Musk started selling on Monday, and as of Wednesday, he had liquidated about 5% of his holdings. His federal tax obligations could be as high as 40% on proceeds from some of the sales, said Brad Badertscher, an accounting professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Musk could have cut his tax bill on the options in half if he had exercised the options and waited a year to sell the shares, Badertscher said. That's because with an immediate sale, the gain is taxed as ordinary income. In a year, Musk would pay the much lower capital gains rate, he said.
Wedbush's Ives said that while the Twitter poll is unorthodox, it telegraphed the sale to investors, preventing a huge selloff in Tesla stock. "If he didn't do the Twitter poll and just started selling stock, the stock is probably 15% lower than it is today," Ives said.
As of Tuesday, Tesla's stock had fallen nearly 14% since Musk agreed to abide by the poll. On Wednesday, the stock rose more than 3%. Ives is confident that investors will see the stock's value as the sales start to wane.
Musk historically has been adept at moving the price of Tesla stock through tweets, said Michigan's Gordon. "He's shown himself to be a master of influencing the price of Tesla stock," Gordon said. "That's the story over and over again."
Messages were left seeking comment from Musk and Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department.
2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
The next time you are outside, look up.
You might see houses, buildings, a few trees. Higher you may see some clouds, a commercial airplane, a military airplane. Maybe there's a helicopter.
In other words, not much. That's changing.
Aerospace engineers and entrepreneurs across the world are in a race to fundamentally change how we see the sky.
They are working on new air vehiclesin an industry called advanced air mobilitythat will be used to drop packages on your doorstep, transport people and cargo over shorter distances and could even give people the ability to call air-taxis.
"It's not an if, it's a when," said Davis Hackenberg, the Advanced Air Mobility project manager for NASA. "Electric aviation is going to happen."
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill sponsored by Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids that would create a working group to study what the federal government needs to do in regards to the fledgling industry. It now heads to the U.S. Senate, where it's being shepherded by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran.
The bill is an attempt to get the government prepared for what will likely change the future of transportation. It will mean everything from new safety regulations, to infrastructure in the form of "vertiports," to getting the public onboard with the concept of drone-like planes flying around their neighborhoods.
It's also an attempt to keep Kansaswith its well-established aeronautics industryat the forefront of the next generation in flight.
"I think we're well positioned to not only be able to be the air capital of the world for all the general aviation and commercial aircraft that we have been historically but we can be the air capital of the world for advanced air mobility too," said Pierre Harter, the Director of Research and Development for National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University
For nearly a century, air travel has largely been limited to airplanes and helicopters. For the average passenger during much of that period, it's meant going to an airport, sitting for an hour and getting herded into a seat that seems to get smaller every year.
But technology may soon change the way we think about flying.
Batteries keep getting smaller. Materials to build the aircraft are lighter than ever. Software is getting more sophisticated. A modern cockpit from 20 years ago can't do half as much as the phone in your pocket, according to Harter.
It has enabled an even greater focus on electric technology in aviation over the past 15 years. That's allowed for new aircraft designs. It's changed the way they fly. It's changed how aircraft can be used. It has made them quieter, so they can get closer to people's homes.
"It's a big, wide-open, wild west," Harter said. "There's a lot of people out there, a lot of dreamers trying to crack this nut. You have a lot of folks who are not traditionally aerospace who think they can crack this nut as well."
An end to 'transportation deserts?'
Already, companies like Joby Aviation, which has investments from Uber, are testing passenger vehicles in the hopes of getting them certified with the FAA. Amazon and Wing, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, already have permission to use drones to deliver packages in some places. Hyundai has an advanced air mobility group and traditional aviation companies like Boeing have invested in start-ups.
So what, exactly, would this future look like?
Maybe you're walking down the street to the vertiport, where you'll catch an air taxi because you're a little late to work. Something flies overhead, just above the houses. It may hover over its destination and send a string down to drop a package. Maybe, higher in the sky, there's a vehicle carrying cargo from a business to the airport, but you don't really notice because it's so quiet, unlike a helicopter.
"I think over the next 10ish years ... it's realistic to say that you're going to see some on the way to work in the morning," Hackenberg said.
It won't all happen at once. First, Harter said, we're likely to see some of these planes, with a pilot, carrying boxes from one place to another. Those trips would enable companies to get comfortable with the technology and meet safety requirements so they can start flying with passengers. Then it will start to become autonomous.
"It won't be autonomous to begin with," Harter said. "There's just a lot of development that has to be done, a lot of infrastructure that has to be built, a lot of public confidence that has to be built, not to mention the regulators have to approve it all first."
As the new aircraft become more common, the result could be something as simple as cutting down travel time within urban and suburban areas, making it slightly easier to get to the airport or from the suburbs to downtown. But they could also be used to help get rid of "transportation deserts," making it easier for a doctor to reach a patient in a rural area who has limited access to a hospital.
"I think part of the challenge is it's going to depend a lot on the community's priorities," said Nancy Mendonca, the community integration lead for NASA's AAM Mission. "And then understanding what the local community wants."
There are a lot of outstanding questions before advanced air mobility becomes commonplace. There are safety precautions and regulations that need to be developed. There is pilot training and workforce development. There's the cost. There's figuring out who would use this type of transportation. There's figuring out whether people want to have these aircraft near there homes, no matter how quiet companies say they are.
There are still more advances in technology that need to happen if you want them to go farther than 150 miles and to be unmanned. There's infrastructure that cities and towns will need to create. There will be arguments over where to put vertiports. There will be questions of access, whether they will just be toys for the bourgeoisie or available to the hoi polloi.
The working group that would be formed if the bill passes Congress would be tasked to answer some of those questions.
"When drones were first being discussed, we kind of got behind the curve on that," Davids said. "And I want to make sure that doesn't happen with this emerging technology."
Davids said she was "excited" about the industry, which is projected to grow significantly over the next 15 years. A report produced by Deloitte this January projected that the market around advanced air mobility could pull in an estimated $115 billion by 2035 and employ more than 280,000 people.
Hackenberg, from NASA, said there is going to be intense competition around the world and said, in his opinion, America "must win."
"Aviation is the future," Hackenberg said. "There's a ton of competition. It's like automotive, it's gonna be distributed ... there's going to be vehicles and such built everywhere. But we need to own. We need to have the General Motors and the Fords. And hopefully, the Toyotas and the Tesla's and everything else."
Explore further NASA begins air taxi flight testing with Joby Aviation
2021 The Kansas City Star.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Transportation Security Administration administrator (TSA) David Pekoske listens during an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Sept. 11, 2021, in Springfield, Va. The number of people traveling for Thanksgiving this year is expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, but the Transportation Security Administration say it is ready to handle the surge. Credit: AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez, File
The number of airline passengers traveling for Thanksgiving this year is expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, but the Transportation Security Administration says it is ready to handle the surge.
Administrator David Pekoske said Wednesday he expects agency staffing to be sufficient for what's traditionally TSA's busiest travel period.
"We are prepared," Pekoske told ABC's "Good Morning America." He said travelers should expect long lines at airports and plan to spend a little more time getting through security.
In 2019, a record 26 million passengers and crew passed through U.S. airport screening in the 11-day period around Thanksgiving. But that plummeted in 2020 as the pandemic kept people at home.
Pekoske said he didn't think a vaccine mandate going into effect for TSA agents Monday would have any effect on staffing for Thanksgiving next week.
"In fact, implementation of the mandate will make travel safer and healthier for everyone," he said. "So, we see quite a significant increase in the number of our officers that are vaccinated, and I'm very confident that there will be no impact for Thanksgiving."
Pekoske told NBC's "Today" on Wednesday he remains "very concerned" about the issue of unruly passengers as incidents on airplanes have continued.
Two airplane pilots pass by a line of passengers while waiting at a security check-in line at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, ahead of Fourth of July weekend, July 1, 2021. The number of people traveling for Thanksgiving this year is expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, but the Transportation Security Administration say it is ready to handle the surge. Credit: AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar, File
"The level of unruly behavior is much higher than I've ever seen it," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it has referred 37 cases involving unruly airline passengers to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution since the number of disruptions on flights began to spike in January.
Explore further TSA extends into January mask rule for airline passengers
2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, announced Tuesday that it took action against four separate malicious cyber groups from Pakistan and Syria who were found targeting people in Afghanistan, as well as journalists, humanitarian organizations, and anti-regime military forces in the West Asian country.
The Pakistani threat actor, dubbed SideCopy, is said to have used the platform to single out people with ties to the Afghan government, military and law enforcement in Kabul.
The campaign, which Meta dubbed as a "well-resourced and persistent operation," involved sending malicious links, often shortened using URL shortener services, to websites hosting malware between April and August of 2021, what with the operators posing as young women and tricking the recipients with romantic lures in a bid to make them click on phishing links or download trojanized chat applications.
Meta's threat intelligence analysts said these apps were a front for two distinct malware strains, a remote access trojan named PJobRAT, which was previously found targeting the Indian military forces, and a hitherto undocumented implant dubbed Mayhem that's capable of retrieving contact lists, text messages, call logs, location information, media files, device metadata, and even scrape content on the device's screen by abusing accessibility services.
Among other SideCopy's tactics, the hacker group engaged in a number of nefarious activities, including operating rogue app stores, compromising legitimate websites to host malicious phishing pages that were designed to manipulate people into giving up their Facebook credentials. The group was purged from Facebook in August.
Furthermore, Meta also said it disrupted three hacking networks linked to the Syrian government and specifically Syria's Air Force Intelligence
Syrian Electronic Army aka APT-C-27, which targeted humanitarian organizations, journalists and activists in Southern Syria, critics of the government, and individuals associated with the anti-regime Free Syrian Army with phishing links to deliver a mix of commercially available and custom malware such as njRAT and HmzaRat that are engineered to harvest sensitive user information.
APT-C-37, which targeted people linked to the Free Syrian Army and military personnel affiliated with opposition forces with a commodity backdoor known as SandroRAT and an in-house developed malware family called SSLove via social engineering schemes that duped victims into visiting websites masquerading as Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp as well as content focussed on Islam.
A government-linked unnamed hacking group that targeted minority groups, activists, opposition in Southern Syria, Kurdish journalists, and members of the People's Protection Units and Syria Civil Defense, with the operation manifesting in the form of social engineering attacks that entailed sharing links to websites hosting malware-laced apps mimicking WhatsApp and YouTube that installed SpyNote and Spymax remote administration tools on the devices.
"To disrupt these malicious groups, we disabled their accounts, blocked their domains from being posted on our platform, shared information with our industry peers, security researchers and law enforcement, and alerted the people who we believe were targeted by these hackers," the social technology firm's Mike Dvilyanski, head of cyber espionage investigations, and David Agranovich, director of threat disruption, said.
Israeli spyware vendor Candiru, which was added to an economic blocklist by the U.S. government this month, is said to have reportedly waged "watering hole" attacks against high-profile entities in the U.K. and the Middle East, new findings reveal.
"The victimized websites belong to media outlets in the U.K., Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, as well as to Hezbollah; to government institutions in Iran (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Syria (including the Ministry of Electricity), and Yemen (including the Ministries of Interior and Finance); to internet service providers in Yemen and Syria; and to aerospace/military technology companies in Italy and South Africa," ESET said in a new report. "The attackers also created a website mimicking a medical trade fair in Germany."
The strategic web compromises are believed to have occurred in two waves, the first commencing as early as March 2020 before ending in August 2020, and the second string of attacks beginning in January 2021 and lasting until early August 2021, when the targeted websites were stripped clean off the malicious scripts.
Watering hole attacks are a form of highly targeted intrusions in that they tend to infect a specific group of end-users by backdooring websites that members of the group are known to frequent with the goal of opening a gateway into their machines for follow-on exploitation activities.
"The compromised websites are only used as a jumping-off point to reach the final targets," the Slovak cybersecurity firm said, linking the second wave to a threat actor tracked by Kaspersky as Karkadann citing overlaps in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). The Russian company described the group as targeting government bodies and news outlets in the Middle East since at least October 2020.
The original attack chains involved injecting JavaScript code into the websites from a remote attacker-controlled domain that's designed to collect and exfiltrated I.P. geolocation and system information about the victim machine, opting to proceed further only if the operating system in question is either Windows or macOS, suggesting the campaign was orchestrated to target computers and not mobile devices. The final step led to a likely browser remote code execution exploit that enabled the attackers to hijack control of the machines.
The second wave observed in January 2021 was characterized by more stealth, as the JavaScript modifications were made to legitimate WordPress scripts ("wp-embed.min.js") used by the websites instead of adding the malicious code straight to the main HTML page, using the method to load a script from a server under the attacker's control. What's more, the fingerprinting script also went beyond harvesting system metadata to capture the default language, the list of fonts supported by the browser, the time zone, and the list of browser plugins.
The exact exploit and the final payload delivered remain unknown as yet. "This shows that the operators choose to narrow the focus of their operations and that they don't want to burn their zero-day exploits," ESET malware researcher Matthieu Faou said.
The campaign's links to Candiru stems from the fact that some of the command-and-control servers utilized by the attackers are similar to domains previously identified as belonging to the Israeli company, not to mention feature browser-based remote code execution exploits in its arsenal, raising the possibility that "the operators of the watering holes are customers of Candiru."
ESET also noted that the attackers ceased operations at the end of July 2021, coinciding with public disclosures about Candiru related to the use of multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome web browser to target victims located in Armenia. "It seems that the operators are taking a pause, probably in order to retool and make their campaign stealthier," Faou said. "We expect to see them back in the ensuing months."
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(TBTCO) - Ngay 11/12/2021, So Giao dich Chung khoan Viet Nam se chinh thuc ra mat anh dau mot cot moc phat trien moi cua thi truong chung khoan Viet Nam. Voi triet ly ve 2 ban sac, 3 phuong cham, 4 tru cot, ky vong So se co nhieu buoc tien moi mang tinh ot pha, gop phan tich cuc hon nua trong viec nang tam chat luong phat trien cua thi truong chung khoan trong giai oan moi.
MOSCOW Russia's space agency Roscosmos will send Lebanon the satellite images it has for Beirut's port before and after a huge explosion rocked it last year, its head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters Wednesday.
In October, Lebanese President Michel Aoun asked Russia for the satellite images from Aug. 4, 2020, when the blast killed more than 218 people, injured thousands and destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital. The probe into the cause of the explosion still continues.
"I signed a paper today enclosing quite detailed imagery in response to a request from the Lebanese leadership," Rogozin said.
The blast was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions and the country's worst peace-time disaster as it slips into political and economic meltdown.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the mutual relationship between the two countries with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib in Moscow on Nov. 22, the Russian ministry said Wednesday.
BEIRUT Lebanon said Wednesday that only foreigners with Belarusian residency permits would be allowed to fly from Beirut to the ex-Soviet country, amid a migrant crisis on its border with Poland.
"Many Arab and foreign travelers have recently arrived in Belarus from Beirut via flights of various airlines," including Belarus's state-run Belavia airline, the Transport Ministry's directorate general of civil aviation said.
"It was later discovered that the purpose of their travel was to move to the border with Poland" and enter European Union territories, "in cooperation with smuggling networks," it said in a statement.
All airlines operating from Beirut must limit passengers departing on direct or indirect flights to Belarus to Belarusian citizens, Lebanese citizens holding visas or residency permits for Belarus, and "Arabs and foreigners having residency permits in Belarus."
It said the measures were effective immediately until further notice.
Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are staying on the Belarus-Poland border in what the West says is a crisis engineered by Minsk to try to divide the EU and hit back against sanctions.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, have rejected the accusations and criticized the EU for not taking in the migrants.
Turkish Airlines has banned Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis from flying to Belarus via Turkey, while private Syrian carrier Cham Wings Airlines said it was halting flights to Minsk.
Belarus's Belavia airline has also said that Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis and Afghans are banned from flights from the United Arab Emirates, while Iraq is planning a repatriation flight from Belarus on Thursday for at least 200 of its nationals stuck on the border.
An official from Beirut airport had previously told AFP that authorities started preventing Iraqis departing en route to Belarus "around a month ago."
The number of flights between Beirut home to Lebanon's only international airport for commercial flights and Minsk has also been cut back recently.
ITS another bleak Christmas for some store owners in Downtown Port of Spain.
This is the second year store owners are saying things are very slow, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Express visited Excellent City Centre at Frederick Street, Port of Spain, yesterday afternoon, and there was not much foot traffic, as has been in previous years, during the Christmas season.
THERE was a year in the history of the British West Indies1943when every fourth person on
TAKING OVER: Members of the Police Service Commission (PolSC) pose in a group photo yesterday after receiving their instruments of appointment from President Paula-Mae Weekes at The Office of the President, St Anns. They are, from left, Rajiv Persad, Maxine Attong, Ian Kevin Ramdhanie, PolSC chairman Justice Judith Jones and Maxine King. Photo: Office of the President
It is your duty as Prime Minister and Minister of Health to provide whats best for your citizens. The jabs have been provided and are still available to all who want it. But what about those who do not want it?
Vietnam Airlines on Tuesday received a foreign air operator certificate issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), thanks to which the national flag carrier will become the first Vietnamese airline to run regular direct flights to the States.
The first direct flight is scheduled to depart from Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of November 28 and arrive in San Francisco 13 hours and 50 minutes later, said Vietnam Airlines CEO Le Hong Ha.
The return flight will leave San Francisco on the evening of November 29 and reach Ho Chi Minh City on December 1, with a flight time of 16 hours and 40 minutes.
Starting December this year, there will be two flights per week and the frequency could be increased to seven on the condition that the COVID-19 pandemic is put under control and the Vietnamese government allows resumption of regular international air routes.
The wide-body aircraft Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will be used for the direct flights.
On November 4, the FAA announced the granting of a certificate, which is a legal prerequisite, for Vietnam Airlines to regularly operate direct passenger and cargo flights between Vietnam and the U.S. in an unlimited period.
The route between Vietnam and the U.S. is one of the 10 longest air routes in the world.
The U.S. is also Vietnams largest air transport market, with more than 2.2 million Vietnamese living there.
U.S. authorities had previously granted licenses to Vietnamese airlines to operate charter flights between the Southeast Asian country and the States with limited frequency in a fixed period.
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Domestic borders around New Zealand's largest city Auckland will reopen from Dec. 15 for fully vaccinated people and those with negative COVID-19 test results, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday.
Auckland is the epicentre of an outbreak of the infectious Delta variant of the COVID-19 and been locked off from the rest of the country for over 90 days now.
But with more than 80% of Auckland and the rest of country fully vaccinated it was time to open up the ability to travel again, Ardern said at a news conference.
"Aucklanders can now book summer travel and accommodation with confidence and businesses inside Auckland and around the rest of the country can plan for summer travellers, Ardern said.
Travellers will have to either be fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of departure. People breaking the rules will face an infringement fine of NZ$1,000 ($698.60).
Details about easing international border restrictions will be released before the end of the year, Ardern said.
New Zealand only allows its citizens or permanent residents to enter the country, but the returnee numbers are controlled by limiting the spaces available in state quarantine facilities each week, making it hard for many to travel home.
New Zealand had largely successfully pursued an elimination strategy until the persistent Delta outbreak forced Ardern to shift to a focus of living with the virus with higher vaccinations.
She said the cabinet would confirm on Nov. 29 its decision to move Auckland and the rest of the country into the new traffic-light system, which will end lockdowns and use social distancing and other measures to limit the spread of the virus.
($1 = 1.4314 New Zealand dollars)
Vietnams first sapper unit for United Nations peacekeeping operations, along with level-2 field hospital No. 4, made its debut during a ceremony in Hanoi on Wednesday morning.
The countrys sapper unit No. 1 was established in 2014 and charged with a suitable peacekeeping mission at the request of the UN.
The unit will be sent to the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei, Major General Hoang Kim Phung, director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said at the ceremony.
It originally had 268 members, but the number has been reduced to 203, including 21 female sappers.
Along with level-2 field hospital No. 4, the unit will play a role in providing humanitarian aid, helping UN peacekeeping missions complete their tasks, contributing to peacekeeping and national reconstruction, and bringing a peaceful and stable life to host countries.
Seventy-one members of the field hospital have been focusing on English and professional training this year.
They will participate in training courses on healthcare, peacekeeping, and other military aspects in the coming time.
At the event, Deputy Minister of National Defense Hoang Xuan Chien, head of the ministrys steering committee for participation in UN peacekeeping operations, urged relevant units to make all-round preparations and organize more training courses before deployment.
Chien urged the expedition of legal preparedness and signing of a memorandum of understanding with the UN on the deployment of the sapper unit in Abyei.
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The Hanoi administration has required all arrivals from Ho Chi Minh City and other localities at high risk of COVID-19 transmission to self-quarantine for seven days amid rising cases in the Vietnamese capital.
Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Ngoc Anh has signed a document on tightened measures to prevent and control the pandemic.
The document stated that more stringent measures would be taken from Wednesday to manage people coming from other provinces and cities.
Arrivals from localities at high and very high risk, which are classified as 'orange' and 'red zones,' as well as places with a high number of infections such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Long An, and Dong Nai must be quarantined at home or accommodation establishments for seven days, even when they have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19.
They will be tested for the novel coronavirus on the first and seventh days of quarantine.
If these arrivals are unvaccinated or have received only one vaccine shot, they are to undergo home quarantine for seven days and have their health monitored for another seven days.
Meanwhile, fully-vaccinated arrivals from localities at medium risk, or 'yellow zones,' need to monitor their health for seven days and get tested for COVID-19 on the first day of their stay.
If they are unvaccinated or have received only one shot, they need to monitor their health for 14 days and undergo testing on the first and seventh days.
Everyone who comes to the capital must file health declarations and promptly report to local authorities if they have a fever, coughing, sore throat, or loss of smell or taste.
According to the document, Hanoi will pilot the treatment of COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms at concentrated facilities managed by district-level authorities.
The capital city will also quarantine direct contacts of coronavirus patients at their homes on a trial basis.
Hanoi has documented more than 6,600 local COVID-19 cases since the fourth outbreak hit Vietnam on April 27.
The capital has seen a surge in community-based infections over the past days.
On Monday, health authorities logged 289 new cases, the citys highest daily jump since the beginning of the fourth flare-up.
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Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have allowed local cinemas, karaoke parlors, discos, and bike-hailing service to resume operations under various conditions depending on the coronavirus risk level of each area.
Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Phan Van Mai signed a decision on temporary measures to safely and flexibly adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday evening.
Generally, residents have to be vaccinated with at least one shot or have recovered from the disease in order to participate in various activities in the city.
Those unable to receive the vaccination due to health problems must present a certificate from health authorities.
Unvaccinated children are allowed to take part in activities if they are accompanied by vaccinated adults.
The decision also highlighted the conditions for the reopening of cinemas, karaoke parlors, bars and discos, massage parlors, and bike-hailing service.
The conditions are different depending on the coronavirus risk level of each area.
There are currently four risk levels, namely low (a.k.a. green zone or level 1), medium (yellow zone or level 2), high (orange zone or level 3), and very high (red or level 4).
As of Wednesday morning, only Can Gio District was classified as level 3, while the remaining districts and Thu Duc City were at levels 1 or 2.
Residents can check the corresponding risk level of each ward and district using the interactive map operated by the municipal Department of Information and Communications via https://bando.tphcm.gov.vn/ogis/thongke?Province=79.
According to the latest decision, massage parlors, spas, beauty salons, bars, discos, and karaoke shops are permitted to operate in green, yellow, and orange zones.
All employees and customers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have recovered from the disease. Customers who do not meet these conditions must have a negative test within 72 hours.
These establishments must operate at 50 percent of capacity in yellow zones and 25 percent in orange zones.
Cinemas are allowed to operate in green, yellow, and orange zones if they meet all safety criteria promulgated by municipal authorities.
These facilities are requireed to operate at 50 and 25 percent of capacity in yellow and orange zones, respectively.
Street vendors and lottery sellers can resume their job in green and yellow zones. Those in yellow zones must be fully inoculated or have recovered from COVID-19.
Bike-hailing service is permitted to re-operate if the overall risk of the city is at level 1, and must reduce to 50 percent of capacity if the city is at risk level 2.
Ho Chi Minh City is currently at level 2.
Traditional motorbike taxi service, or xe om, is only restored when the city is at risk level 1.
Ho Chi Minh City has been the hardest-hit locality in Vietnam since the fourth virus wave began on April 27, with nearly 450,000 infections.
The city has imposed various levels of social distancing since May 31 before loosening restrictions in October thanks to a high vaccination rate.
Authorities had previously closed bars, discos, and karaoke shops from April 30, and cinemas and massage parlors from May 3, while ride-hailing service was suspended from July 9.
As of Monday, health authorities had administered more than 13.8 million vaccine doses, with nearly six million out of nine million people in the city fully inoculated.
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Ho Chi Minh City will reopen all schools in the coming time following a pilot offline schooling plan executed in its coastal Can Gio District, chairman of the municipal administration Phan Van Mai has said.
Schools are now open for in-person classes for grades 1, 2, 6, 9 and 12 in Can Gio, a COVID-19 low risk area with almost all children aged 12 to 17 having received their first vaccine doses, will form a foundation for the resumption of all schools, chairman Mai said at a meeting with voters on Tuesday morning.
As the southern city has basically completed first-dose vaccination for children in that age range and is preparing to give them their second shots, it is at an advantage to bring all students back to schools, Mai said.
Reopening schools is a significant issue for a city of 1.7 million students like Ho Chi Minh City as the epidemic situation has improved, with many locales becoming green zones, or areas at low risk of COVID-19 transmission, the chairman told the meeting.
After Can Gio, green zones in Cu Chi and Hoc Mon Districts should follow suit, he recommended.
The chairman emphasized that virtual classes have caused many difficulties for students since many of them have no computers or laptops for remote learning.
Students cannot fully apprehend knowledge in online classes compared to learning directly at schools.
The city has put in place the rules for school safety and procedures for handling COVID-19 cases in the classroom.
The municipal administration will work with local educational and health authorities this week to finalize the plan for reopening all schools, Mai said.
By Monday, the city of nine million people had administered 7.86 million first COVID-19 vaccine doses and 5.95 million second jabs to adults, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.
Since the pandemic hit Vietnam in early 2020, Ho Chi Minh City has documented over 445,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 17,000 deaths, the Ministry of Health reported.
Nationwide, a total of 1,045,397 infections, including 870,997 recoveries and 23,270 fatalities, have been recorded.
Recently, daily infections of both Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City have gradually increased again after a month of sharp decline, but their mortalities keep dropping remarkably, to 101 on Monday from 250 two months earlier for the country, and to 45 from 189 for the city.
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An estimated 17,000 children die within their first four weeks and more than 100,000 babies are born preterm in Vietnam annually, UNICEF said in a press release on Tuesday.
The statistics were provided to observe World Prematurity Day (November 17), which aims to raise awareness of the challenges of preterm birth and shine a light on the risks and consequences faced by premature births and their families worldwide.
Preterm birth is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five, UNICEF said, adding that each year roughly 15 million babies worldwide are born prematurely, or about one in 10 children.
In Vietnam, it is estimated that 17,000 children die within their first 28 days and 103,500 babies are born prematurely per annum.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced neonatal units around the world to adopt strict safety measures that often separate parents from their preterm babies, leading to detrimental consequences for both sides.
Separation of parents from their babies contributes to severe and long-term health and developmental issues in the newborns while also affecting the parents mental health in lasting ways.
Centered around the Zero Separation. Act now! Keep Parents and Babies Born Too Soon Together theme, this years World Prematurity Day is an opportunity to advocate for every parents right to have unrestricted access to their babies in hospital, no matter where and when.
Even without the additional risks of a global pandemic, preterm babies are among the most vulnerable patients worldwide and, as studies have shown time and again, they need their parents by their side.
Healthcare systems are encouraged to balance the needs of babies born too soon, too small, or too sick and their families with the requirements to keep hospitals running and the staff safe during the pandemic.
In Vietnam, UNICEF continues to work with the Ministry of Health to support and scale up newborn lifesaving interventions throughout the country.
This work focuses in particular on the rural and mountainous provinces in the northern and Central Highlands regions, where a number of ethnic populations live and where worryingly high neonatal mortality rates persist.
Cost-effective interventions to save newborns include immediate skin-to-skin contact and early initiation of breastfeeding for newborns, said Maharajan Muthu, chief of the Child Survival and Development Program of UNICEF Vietnam.
Skin-to-skin contact as early after birth and as continuously as possible has positive and protective effects, such as the regulation of cardiac and respiratory rates, the prevention of sepsis (severe infection), hypothermia (low body temperature) and hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar), and reduced hospital readmission.
Meanwhile, early and exclusive breastfeeding and providing mothers own milk have a positive impact on the babys short- and long-term physiological and neurodevelopmental outcomes.
It is equally important to ensure that babies born too soon, too small or too sick, if needed, have equitable and quick access to higher levels of hospital care, irrespective of where they are born.
As in previous years, World Prematurity Day activities are being carried out in about 100 countries this week to raise awareness and spur action to prevent preterm birth wherever possible, improve healthcare systems, and save babies lives.
In Vietnam, a special event will be organized in Da Nang to mark World Prematurity Day by the Department of Maternal and Child Health under the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the Da Nang Hospital for Women and Children in order to honor and recognize the contributions of health workers in newborn care.
The event is also meant to raise awareness of the challenges surrounding preterm birth and ensure that people are informed of the risks and consequences.
It is a part of UNICEF and its partners project to support the Ministry of Health in newborn care interventions in order to save the lives of many more infants in Vietnam.
Newborn care and neonatal mortality reduction are among the important goals not only for the health sector but also for Vietnam as the country has been committed to achieving the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, according to the Department of Maternal and Child Health.
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Eighteen children under seven months old who were jabbed with COVID-19 vaccine by mistake in Hanoi earlier this month are in stable health conditions, Suc Khoe & Doi Song (Health & Life), which is the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Health, cited health experts as saying at a meeting on Tuesday evening.
Doctors from Saint Paul General Hospital in Ba Dinh District and the Vietnam National Childrens Hospital in Dong Da District have closely monitored the health condition of the 18 babies in question at the neonatology department at Saint Paul General Hospital over the past two weeks.
During the health monitoring process, the 18 were tested three times on the third, seventh, and 10th days since the detection of their COVID-19 injection on November 4.
Results showed that the babies current health status is stable, according to the experts.
They eat, enjoy milk feeding, sleep, and play well.
Their inflammatory reactions and swellings at the injection site have been gone.
Only some of them still have digestive disorders, a mild runny nose, atopic dermatitis, and eczema.
At Tuesdays meeting, after reviewing and discussing the babies clinical status, the experts agreed that it is necessary to continue monitoring their health at Saint Paul General Hospital.
On the 21st-day milestone, doctors will retest and specifically evaluate the health status of each baby.
After that, they will seek consultation from a professional council set up by the Hanoi Department of Health for next steps.
At a previous meeting, medical staff planned to discharge the 18 infants once their health conditions become stable.
The babies would have their health checked once a month afterward until the end of 12 months since the wrong injection.
Health workers at a medical station in Quoc Oai District, Hanoi made a serious mistake by giving the 18 babies Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses, instead of a vaccine designed for a routine inoculation program for children between two and six months old, on November 3.
The case was discovered the following day and reported to the municipal Department of Health and the Ministry of Health, which looked for consultation from leading professors in the country and medical experts from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Childrens Fund.
In Vietnam, the countrys health ministry has only issued guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 12 to 17.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long requested authorities and related units to strictly deal with the medical staff involved in the said vaccination incident but there has been no further news of it ever since.
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The awards ceremony of the Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global contest was organized in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday afternoon, during which several of the prize winners had a brief presentation about their proposals.
Taking place at Liberty Central Saigon Riverside Hotel in District 1, the event saw the attendance of vice-chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Duong Anh Duc, city officials, and representatives of consulate generals in the city.
The contest was co-organized by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations, along with Global Embassy and Vietnam Signature.
The organizing board received entries from June 16 to August 16 and announced ten prize winners in late August.
The competition was intended as an open forum, Le The Chu, Tuoi Tres editor-in-chief, said at the ceremony.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing board had received over 420 entries including articles, PowerPoint files, graphics, and video clips presented in both Vietnamese and English, from which 55 finalists were selected, Chu stated.
Through this contest, we hope to create a program for local residents to propose plans and join hands with local authorities to boost the citys development and international integration, said Tran Phuoc Anh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations.
Vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee Duong Anh Duc (C) receives the compilation of winning entries of the Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global contest from Tuoi Tre editor-in-chief Le The Chu (R) and director of the municipal Department of External Relations Tran Phuoc Anh, November 16, 2021. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Participants ranged from university students to senior citizens, from individuals to organizations and businesses, and from Vietnamese to foreigners, Anh continued, adding that the entries included topics in such fields as culture, education, economic matters, diplomacy, urban development, and environmental issues.
Elevating the citys standing is not only the target set by the local government, but also the aspiration of residents and everyone who loves this city, he said.
Local authorities plan to turn Ho Chi Minh City into an economic and cultural center of Southeast Asia by 2030 and of Asia by 2045, the official remarked.
Le The Chu, editor-in-chief of Tuoi Tre newspaper, speaks at the awards ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, November 16, 2021. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
At the ceremony, several of the prize winners were invited to give a brief presentation on their ideas.
Phan Khuong, who won the first individual prize with his City of Unity in Diversity entry, stated that his dream, which is also the dream of other residents, is that Ho Chi Minh will soon become similar to other developed cities in the world.
My plan focuses on three main factors the Saigonese, an open economy, and modern infrastructures, Khuong elaborated.
A livable city is where no one is left behind or forgotten, he said.
Tran Phuoc Anh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Foreign Affairs. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Vu Nguyen, representative of SPG Industrial Development Co. Ltd., winner of the second collective prize, said that their proposal highlights how Ho Chi Minh City can find its own story in the Industry 4.0 era the sustainable way.
We hope that the city will be able to promote itself to the international community so that many people across the world will find it an interesting destination, Nguyen said.
Nguyen Thien, who won the consolation prize, shared his ideas about the twinning relationship between Ho Chi Minh City and other cities in the world, while French businessman Guillaume Rondan, another consolation prize winner, stressed that the metropolis needs to establish more favorable visa, tax, and investment policies.
Phan Khuong, winner of the first individual prize, presents his ideas at the ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, November 16, 2021. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
At the event, several delegates also joined a panel to discuss ways to elevate Ho Chi Minh Citys international position.
According to Ton Nu Thi Ninh, former Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU and Belgium, the city needs to identify the values that it is targeting, as well as what it currently has and lacks.
This contest is only the first step," Ninh remarked.
"We need to further discuss and select the core values of the proposed plans before realizing them."
French businessman Guillaume Rondan delivers a presentation at the awards ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, November 16, 2021. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
The human factor plays an important role, and Ho Chi Minh City is a melting pot that attracts diverse groups of people, said Dominic Scriven co-founder and executive chairman of Dragon Capital Group.
We must also take into consideration other aspects including infrastructure, environmental issues, and the legal system, he added.
Tim Evans, CEO of HSBC Bank Vietnam Ltd., stated that Vietnamese people are full of energy, passion, drive, and incredible resilience, and Ho Chi Minh City needs to capture that in order to go global.
A representative of SPG Industrial Development Company receives the award for the second collective prize in Ho Chi Minh City, November 16, 2021. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
In his closing speech, Ho Chi Minh City vice-chairman Duc thanked the participants for submitting the entries which clearly showed their love for the southern metropolis.
The city leaders will take note of these ideas and add them to the development plan so that Ho Chi Minh City will always be a livable place and a center of creativity that plays an important role in Vietnams economic, cultural, and technological development, Duc elaborated.
The vice-chairman later received the compilation of winning entries of the Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global contest presented by Tuoi Tre editor-in-chief Chu and director of the Department of External Relations Anh.
Kieu Minh Trang, winner of the second individual prize. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Guillaume Rondan (L, 2nd) and Nguyen Thien (R, 2nd) receive awards for the consolation prizes. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Delegates join a panel discussion at the awards ceremony. Photo: Duy Khang / Tuoi Tre
Ton Nu Thi Ninh, former Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU and Belgium, shares her thoughts during the panel discussion. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Dominic Scriven co-founder and executive chairman of Dragon Capital Group speaks during the panel discussion. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Wee Joon Seok, Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Ho Chi Minh City, is pictured during the panel discussion. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Tim Evans, CEO of HSBC Bank Vietnam Ltd., is pictured during the panel discussion. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports, shares her ideas during the panel discussion. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre
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A student from Ho Chi Minh City was named among the top 10 finalists of ASEAN Photo Competition (APC) 2021 in a ceremony that took place earlier this month.
Vo Minh Thang, a student majoring in urban studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City, scored an honorable mention with 'Greenting from Vietnam,' a photography project that aims to promote solidarity and harmony between ASEAN countries in terms of renewable energy.
Youths responsibility
In his submission to APC 2021, Thang pointed out the urgency of renewable energy development in Southeast Asia.
Many countries in the region have already seen the potential of renewable power sources, including Vietnam with its favorable policies for solar energy projects.
It is estimated that Vietnams renewable energy sector can contribute 23 percent to ASEANs renewable energy makeup by 2025.
However, he believes that the deployment of renewable energy requires a large amount of land and forest resources, affecting peoples lives and disrupting biodiversity.
In addition, countries have not removed regional barriers and not liberalized trade, making technology transfer difficult.
That is not to mention other issues, including disparities of qualifications, costs, and techniques between countries, and a lack of coordination between the government and the private sector.
In order to demonstrate his point, Thang took pictures of several energy projects in Vietnam, namely Binh Thanh Wind Power Plant in Binh Thuan Province, Dray Hlinh Hydroelectric Plant in Dak Lak and Dak Nong Provinces, and street lights powered by solar cells at the Binh Duong Province campus of his university.
From there, he put forward two questions: can these photos attest to the competence of renewable energy sources, compared to the great economic efficiency of fossil fuel sources? How will these projects fare when climate change worsens?
According to Thang, young people in Vietnam in particular and ASEAN in general should take it upon themselves to promote renewable energy, pushing the public and businesses to join hands with the government to achieve the goal.
We dont lack manpower, we just need to spread awareness about renewable energy, Thang said.
For young people, it is an honorable and noble task.
Street lights powered by solar batteries at Dormitory Zone B, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam. Photo: Vo Minh Thang
Out of the comfort zone
According to Thang, he applied for the competition in a rush, as he only knew about it in early May -- two weeks prior to the deadline.
After reading the prompt, he kept pondering over keywords such as 'renewable energy,' 'youth,' 'concept shaping,' and 'Vietnam,' striving to find a good way to reflect them in his work.
After scrapping three presentations and a photo collection, he decided to shoot images of three different types of renewable energy in three different locations.
That was my first time traveling alone, so it was difficult, he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Three months later, Thang was taken back when he found out his work was the only Vietnamese representative in the top 10 finalists of APC 2021.
Though he did not enter the top 3, Thang received positive comments from the panel of judges for his presentation in the final round.
His work stands out in terms of concept and layout, with strong messages about renewable energy, said Frederic Lezmi, a judge at APC 2021.
Despite not being in the top three overall, ASEAN Photo Competition 2021 has brought valuable experiences and given me more motivation to spread the message that I stated in my project, Thang affirmed.
He also calls on young people to step out of their comfort zone and participate in big competitions and organizations to seek valuable learning opportunities, while also contributing to the good of society.
The ASEAN Photo Competition, which is one of a competition series under ASEAN Youth Energy Awards (AYEA 2021), aims to contribute to the awareness of the benefits of sustainable energy, paving the way for ASEANs cleaner and greener future, according to the website of the ASEAN Foundation, which organized it.
In 2021, the contest returned with the theme of ASEAN Youth Shaping the Vision of Sustainable Energy as the New Normal.
After multiple evaluation rounds from March to November, APC 2021 selected its top three finalists, who will participate in the Ministerial Summit on Environmental Issues in 2021.
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The Organization of American States elected University of Dayton School of Law Professor Carlos Bernal to its Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
As part of the seven-member body, Bernal, a native of Colombia, will help members of the Organization of American States promote the protection of human rights, investigate alleged human rights violations by nations in the Americas, and present cases to the Inter-American Court. The commission also publishes reports on issues and meets with government representatives, academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations and others to promote an understanding of the inter-American human rights system.
"I appreciate the Colombian government's nomination and the vote of confidence by the Organization of American States," Bernal said. "As a commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, I will work with determination and total commitment for the satisfaction of human rights in the Americas."
Bernal's appointment comes with high praise from Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez.
"Not only is he one of the most outstanding jurists of his generation, but he also has an academic career in the main universities of the world. We are happy that a Colombian arrives at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and arrives on behalf of our country," Duque said, as reported by Colombian news outlet El Pais.
Bernal, who stepped down as a sitting justice on the Colombian Constitutional Court to join the University of Dayton School of Law in August of 2020, has held visiting professorships in Colombia, Australia, France, Denmark, Israel, Spain and Germany. His area of research is the interpretation of constitutional rights and comparative constitutional change, and he teaches courses in Constitutional law and torts.
"In electing him to the commission, the Organization of American States has recognized Carlos' deep experience as a judge and as a scholar," said UD School of Law Dean Andrew Strauss. "In his new role as a commissioner, it is clear to me that Carlos will make a major contribution to international human rights law."
In addition to being a highly accomplished legal scholar, he's highly decorated in Colombia. Bernal has been awarded Colombia's Order of Boyaca and the Medal Jose Maria Cordova. The Order of Boyaca is Colombia's highest honorary distinction for eminent citizens and for nationals of friendly countries of Colombia; Queen Elizabeth II of England and U.S. President Joe Biden are recipients. The Medal Jose Maria Cordova goes to members of the Colombian army who have excelled in discipline and military virtue, provided eminent services and fellowship, or for acts of courage.
For interviews, contact Shawn Robinson, associate director of news and communications, at srobinson1@udayton.edu.
The Prince of Wales has pledged to send a jar of his honey to a fellow beekeeper after he saw first hand Jordans efforts to support refugees.
Charles was also taken with a little four-year-old girl at ease in front of the medias cameras and he joked he could take lessons from her.
The heir to the throne toured the International Rescue Centre (IRC) at the Al Nuzha Community Centre in Amman which provides a safe space for refugees, from a range of nations, to meet and undertake activities as part of the UNHCRs One-Refugee Approach.
The Prince of Wales comes across four-year-old Salsapela during a visit to the Al Nuzha Community Centre in Jordan (Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA)
When the prince met Hudaifa, 30, a passionate Jordanian beekeeper, the pair struck up a conversation and Charles quizzed him on where he keeps his bees and what kind of trees or plants they feed from.
The prince produces his own honey at his Highgrove home, while Hudaifa hopes to turn his hobby into a career after receiving a business grant through the IRC, which the prince supports as patron, and joining its business training programme.
Charles, who likes to sweeten his tea with honey, said he loved the Syrian version after being given a jar: Im thrilled with the honey. Id like to send back one of mine. Well attempt it! Whether it reaches you
As the prince was shown around a small playground where primary school-aged children were using swings and slides, he swapped English lessons with young learners and admired their skills.
And he saw the work of children in a computer lab, where they were brushing up on their skills.
The Prince of Wales admires his portrait given to him by the Syrian refugee artist Faihaa (Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA)
As he spoke to staff, little four-year-old Salsapela, originally from Sudan, sidled up to the group and began to pose for the watching media.
Catching sight of her, the delighted Prince beamed and leaned over to tell her: I saw you playing with all the cameras. I could pick up a thing or two!
The prince then met refugee families receiving UK assistance through the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees). Unable to work in Jordan, they receive basic financial help and support to help them rebuild their lives.
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They included Louai, a nurse, and Rana, a Christian family with three children who had to flee Mosul, Iraq in 2015, when Islamic State or Daesh took over their city.
In a group meeting volunteers, the prince shook his head sorrowfully as he heard their stories.
I so feel for you, he said. You are marvellous for volunteering. Fantastic. Im so impressed by how you are managing these challenges.
Before leaving the prince was given a pencil sketch of himself by Faihaa, 38, who fled Damascus with her husband and three children after the city was bombed and now runs an art workshop in Amman.
Wow, the prince said as he saw her work, before posing for a photograph with her.
England and South Africa will meet for the first time since the 2019 World Cup final at Twickenham on Saturday.
Here, the PA news agency examines the fly-half duel between Marcus Smith and Handre Pollard that will help shape the contest.
Marcus Smith England
Marcus Smith has made a promising start to his England career but South Africa are the toughest opponents he will have faced (Adam Davy/PA)
Club: Harlequins
Position: Fly-half
Age: 22
Caps: 4
Debut: v USA, 2021
Height: 5ft 7in
Weight: 12st 13lbs
Points: 51 (Tries 2, Conversions 19, Penalty 1)
The rising star of English rugby has barely put a foot wrong in his young Test career but against South Africa he faces his greatest challenge yet. Smith has made his name through the attacking flourishes that swept Harlequins to the Gallagher Premiership title last season, but on Saturday he will need to demonstrate the strides taken in his game management. The Springboks will unleash a barrage of kicks and Smith must orchestrate the response, while also operating in the teeth of their blitz defence. There will be no Owen Farrell to assist with the generalship, but Smith has shown previously that he has the steel to match his genius.
Handre Pollard South Africa
Handre Pollard is a physical presence who can carry into the heart of the opposition midfield (Steve Haag/PA)
Club: Montpellier
Position: Fly-half
Age: 27
Caps: 59
Debut: v Scotland, 2014
Height: 6ft 2in
Weight: 15st 4lbs
Points: 586 (Tries 6, conversions 83, penalties 126, drop-goals 4)
A very different fly-half to Smith and one ideally suited to South Africas forward-orientated, smothering gameplan that was enough to topple the Lions during the summer. Cobus Reinach will provide imagination at scrum-half, while Pollard directs the world champions around the field with a siege-gun boot. Unlike Smith, the France-based playmaker is also a physical presence who can carry into the heart of the opposition midfield, offering a gainline threat. Defensively he is very solid and, while armed with a a range of passing, it is his game management that stands out.
(Bloomberg) -- Germanys likely next ruling coalition is pushing ahead with tougher measures to tackle record increases in coronavirus cases, including requiring companies to let employees work from home where possible.
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The proposed law also in some cases limits access to the workplace to people who are vaccinated, recovered or provide a negative test, according to parliamentary documents published Wednesday. The Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats aim to use their Bundestag majority to get it through the lower house of parliament on Thursday.
The current pandemic situation in Germany is dramatic, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a conference of municipal leaders on Wednesday. The fourth wave is hitting our country with full force.
The new legislation, which replaces existing emergency powers that will expire on Nov. 25, is designed to provide a nationwide framework while giving regions room to tighten restrictions in coronavirus hot spots where needed.
Olaf Scholz, who aims to be sworn in to replace Merkel as chancellor early next month, has described it as an effort to winter proof Germany against the disease and prevent hospitals becoming overloaded.
Many German states, particularly in the worst-affected regions like Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, have already taken steps to keep people who arent vaccinated or recovered out of shops and restaurants and away from public gatherings.
We urgently need to make progress on vaccinations, Merkel said. Its not at all too late to make a decision for the first vaccination. Everybody who is vaccinated protects themselves and others.
The battle to keep a fourth wave of the virus in check and encourage more people to get immunized is being fought across Europe. Austria already introduced curbs for the unvaccinated, and the Netherlands implemented a partial lockdown.
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Ireland has reintroduced some Covid-19 restrictions as it grapples with surging infections and a rising number of hospitalizations. Starting Thursday, people should work from home where possible, while bars and restaurants must close by midnight. Cinemas and theaters will now require proof of vaccination.
In Italy, tighter restrictions are set to kick in automatically as infections near a six-month high. Some regional leaders want to replicate the Austrian model and have asked that any new curbs apply only to the unvaccinated.
Belgium is considering new steps to stem a sharp rise in cases. The government in Brussels is considering new curbs, including mandatory working from home several days a week and requiring kids to wear masks in school from nine years old.
While the measures represent a downside risk for the regions recovery, it looks to me that the economies have learned to live with the pandemic or the lockdowns a little bit better than initially, said Erik Nielsen, chief economist at UniCredit SpA.
Eastern Europe, where many states are grappling with low vaccination rates, is one of the worst-hit regions in the world. Slovenia has the highest infection rate in the world, while Bulgaria, the blocs least-vaccinated and poorest nation, leads the world in the number of fatalities per capita.
Hungary is suffering the highest infection levels since March, but President Viktor Orban is resisting restrictive measures ahead of parliamentary elections next year.
Germanys RKI public-health institute reported another record number of daily cases on Wednesday, and the seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people hit a new high of 319.5. The number of deaths from Covid increased by 294, the most in more than six months and taking the total above 98,000.
Merkel and Scholz will hold a video conference with the leaders of Germanys 16 states on Thursday. Merkel said state leaders must focus on setting a threshold for hospitalization rates that would trigger stricter measures. Regional officials must also make an urgent push for inoculating Germanys population.
We still have too large a group of people who arent vaccinated and theyre making life more uncertain for those who are, Stephan Weil, the premier of the state of Lower Saxony, said Wednesday in an interview with ZDF television.
We unfortunately have to put people who are not vaccinated in a situation in which they have to prove everywhere and all the time that they dont pose a danger, he added.
Germanys vaccination campaign stuttered in recent months, though it has picked up pace again in recent weeks, pushing the share of fully inoculated citizens up to about 68%, according to health ministry data. That compares with almost 78% in France and nearly 75% in Italy.
(Updates with comments from Merkel beginning in the third paragraph)
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Photo - IMCD Indonesia strengthens its life science portfolio with the acquisition of PT Megasetia Agung Kimia
In the picture, Adelia Sia, Managing Director of IMCD Indonesia (left), and Suryani Hartoyo, President Director of Megasetia (right).
In the picture, Adelia Sia, Managing Director of IMCD Indonesia (left), and Suryani Hartoyo, President Director of Megasetia (right).
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (17 November 2021) IMCD N.V. (IMCD or Company), a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients, today announces that IMCD Indonesia has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of PT Megasetia Agung Kimia (Megasetia) in Indonesia. Megasetia is an excellent fit with IMCDs life science strategy and provides a significant platform for further growth in the life science segments in Indonesia.
The transaction will take place in two tranches, with IMCD now acquiring 70% of Megasetias share capital and the remaining 30% in 2025. The management of Megasetia will continue to lead the company post completion of the first tranche.
Founded in 1995, Megasetia is the leading distributor of speciality ingredients for the pharmaceuticals industry in Indonesia. In addition, it covers the personal care, home care, animal health, and industrial markets, offering end-to-end solutions to its customers and partners with 3 laboratories, 6 offices, and 6 warehouses across Indonesia. Megasetia generated a revenue of approximately IDR 974 billion (ca. EUR 60 million) in 2020 with around 160 employees. It currently serves more than 1,000 customers and represents over 50 of the worlds leading ingredients producers.
Indonesia is South East Asias largest economy and this acquisition provides excellent growth opportunities to strengthen IMCDs positioning in the life science segments. In addition, it enables us to enhance our offering to local customers and partners, said Haiko Zuidhoff, Vice President of IMCD APAC.
We are delighted to be part of IMCDs global network. We are confident that our life science portfolio will complement their offering to customers and suppliers, commented Suryani Hartoyo, President Director of Megasetia. Our culture of growth through market knowledge, technical innovation, and high level of services, is very well aligned with IMCDs strategy, concluded Hartoyo.
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The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in December 2021.
Attached, please find a pdf format of the press release, the main picture, and its caption.
Attachments
Koray Aldemir Retains Massive Lead With Three Remaining in 2021 WSOP Main Event
November 17 2021 Yori Epskamp
After nearly seven hours of play, a final table of nine in the 2021 WSOP Main Event has been whittled down to its last three hopefuls in search of becoming poker's next world champion and $8,000,000 richer.
Koray Aldemir, who came in hot as the overwhelming chip leader and odds-on favorite, kept his distance from the pack and ended a fantastic day with 264,600,000 in chips.
Only two people are standing between Aldemir and poker's most coveted title: UK's Jack Oliver will return second in chips with 77,300,000 after a late-night surge vaulted him up the leaderboard, while the last remaining American, Atlanta, Georgia's George Holmes, rounds out the final three with 57,400,000 in chips, still a cushiony 36 big blinds to work with in the current level.
For Joshua Remitio (4th - $2,300,000), Ozgur Secilmis (5th - $1,800,000), Hye Park (6th - $1,400,000), Alejandro Lococo (7th - $1,225,000), Jareth East (8th - $1,100,000), and Chase Bianchi (9th - $1,000,000), their dream of winning the Main Event came to an end on Day 8.
2021 WSOP Main Event Chip Counts
Seat Player Chip Count Country Big Blinds 1 Koray Aldemir 264,600,000 Austria 165 2 Jack Oliver 77,300,000 United Kingdom 48 3 George Holmes 57,400,000 United States 36
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
Place Winner Country Prize (in USD) 1 $8,000,000 2 $4,300,000 3 $3,000,000 4 Joshua Remitio United States $2,300,000 5 Ozgur Secilmis Turkey $1,800,000 6 Hye Park United States $1,400,000 7 Alejandro Lococo Argentina $1,225,000 8 Jareth East United Kingdom $1,100,000 9 Chase Bianchi United States $1,000,000
Final table players
While play was originally scheduled to be hard-stopped with four players remaining, a late-night decision by the staff saw play briefly continue. Shortly after that decision, a big three-way all in at the end of the night nearly resulted in a double knockout and almost left the field with just two for the final day. Holding pocket queens, Aldemir over-called after Oliver originally shoved and Remitio three-bet jammed.
just setting up my twttr Biz Stone (@biz)
Oliver held the jack-nine of diamonds, while Remitio brought ace-jack to the table. Oliver ultimately rivered a backdoor flush for a massive triple up and spun it up even further by delivering the knockout blow to Remitio shortly after. The end result is three-handed play tomorrow with plenty of pepper left in every player's stack.
Jack Oliver returns second in chips for the final day.
Explosive End Proves Fitting Conclusion
The explosive end proved a fitting conclusion of a night full of thrills and frills that kicked off in high gear right off the bat. Just five hands in, Bianchi was forced to tap out after running his king-queen straight into Oliver's Big Slick. In the subsequent hand, East saw his Main Event run come to a screeching halt after his ace-jack failed to improve against Holmes' queens.
Left with just seven after a mere six hands, Aldemir grabbed the reigns and started controlling the pace of play from his lofty spot. For 60 hands, the final table remained more or less the same, but Hand #61 changed everything. It's one of those hands that will no doubt be remembered in poker history for years to come.
Holding pocket tens, Lococo, second in chips at the time, called a three-bet from Aldemir, who held pocket nines. The jack-jack-nine flop gave Aldemir a boat and the German fired all streets, including a pot-sized shove on the river. Lococo made a very daring call with pocket tens in rather rapid fashion, but received the bad news that forced the popular rapper off the stage in seventh place.
Viewers of the PokerGO live broadcast couldn't believe what they were seeing, and the clip was later uploaded to the PokerGO YouTube channel to be enjoyed in its entirety.
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"I decided to three-bet, I can't call with nines," Aldemir said afterwards. "When it came jack-jack-nine, that's just great and I was going for value basically and hope that he has something, a jack or that he doesn't believe me and calls me down."
That's exactly what ended up happening, and with an even bigger lead, it was smooth sailing for Aldemir from there on onwards.
"I hit a lot of hands again and raised a lot, they couldn't do much about it," he said.
With Lococo out of the way, Aldemir turned it up a notch and started opening every other hand. Twenty hands after Lococo's bust, Aldemir took care of Park in a blind-on-blind confrontation with ace-queen versus pocket sevens. On Hand #113 of the night, he also sent Secilmis home after the latter's shove with king-five suited got picked off by Aldemir's nines.
Home Game Hero Holmes "Feels Awesome"
Recreational player George Holmes is on the ride of his life
Four-handed play started with Aldemir sporting a four-to-one lead to his nearest challenger Holmes, and if it wasn't for the aforementioned escape by Oliver with the jack-nine, it would've been just Aldemir vs. Holmes on the final day. Holmes, the home game hero and the proverbial David to high roller Aldemir's Goliath, kept his stack afloat throughout the day and will be back on the final day.
"I feel awesome. I just want to go get some sleep so I can start off fresh tomorrow and be in good spirits," he said directly after bagging. Holmes, who may not have the poker resume of his fellow two adversaries, had a plan coming into the day. "Just kind of survive. See if we can get to three or four handed. Thats all it was about," he explained.
"Tomorrow is going to be a little bit different from today. Theyre good, theyre aggressive. Thats the secret sauce," he added.
Aldemir could become the third German within ten years to win the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and the reality of that hasn't fully sunk in yet. He was supported by a boisterous rail, which he was part of back in 2019 when Hossein Ensan won and he praised the support by the fellow German poker players.
Aldemir, Oliver, and Holmes will be back in the air at 2 p.m. local time in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to contest for poker's most coveted prize. There's 1:45:04 left in level 39 with blinds at 800,000/1,600,000 and a big blind ante of 1,600,000.
2021 WSOP Main Event Bracelet
Russia's Denis Strebkov defeated Jerry Wong in heads-up play to win his second World Series of Poker title in Event #74: $2,500 Big Bet Mix at the 2021 WSOP. Strebkov outlasted a field of 212 entries to win $117,898 and the gold bracelet.
This is Strebkovs second WSOP title, the first coming in 2019 in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Strebkov found a great deal of success in 2019, making three final tables in mixed formats and winning one.
I like the mixed format because I play a lot of games, Strebkov told PokerNews after the win. I play a lot of mixed. I dont like to play holdem but I like some other games where you can play a lot of hands and have more fun.
Strebkov was eager to build on his 2019 success, but travel restrictions related to COVID-19 made the 2021 WSOP a complicated trip that required a stop in Croatia to get the necessary vaccines.
This is fantastic. I am glad I can play. I had a problem because the Russian vaccine is not approved here.
Strebkov is taking a moment to celebrate, but after going through the trouble to get to the United States, he plans to make more noise at the 2021 WSOP.
I am just speechless right now. The second bracelet is very good! I am going to go to the Razz event right now. I am already thinking about the next one. I might play another Omaha tournament, but we will see how its going.
2021 WSOP Event #74 Final Table Results
Place Name Country Prize (USD) 1 Denis Strebkov Russia $117,898 2 Jerry Wong United States $72,868 3 Pearce Arnold United States $48,864 4 Richard Bai United States $33,583 5 Shanmukha Meruga United States $23,670 6 Patrik Ciklamini Slovakia $17,119 7 Hooman Nizad United States $12,715
Day 3 Action
Noah Boeken was the first to hit the rail on Day 3 when Strebkov drew the fourth ten in Five Card Draw High to send him home in 14th place. Amnon Filippi followed right behind in a Pot-Limit Omaha hand where Strebkov made two-pair to beat Filippis pocket aces.
Shortly after the re-draw to two tables, Asher Lower hit the rail in 12th place in a hand of Pot-Limit 2-7 Triple Draw when he caught a pair of fives on the last draw to lose to the ten-nine of Anthony Ribeiro.
Jordan Siegel was next to go after he got it in with pocket nines against the ace-king of Richard Bai. Bai flopped a straight and Siegel was out in 11th place. Jon Turner went home with a 10th-place finish after he got it in with ace-jack but Patrik Ciklamini looked him up with pocket aces.
Ciklamini went on to bust Scott Bohlman in ninth place when he called Bohlmans shove and caught a pair of twos score the elimination. Riberio was close behind in eighth after running into Wongs two-pair in Five Card Draw.
After the final table re-draw, Hooman Nizad fell in seventh place in a Big O hand when Bai made a pair of aces to beat his pocket kings. Cinkamini was out in sixth after shoving with ace-eight against Strebkovs ace-queen. Shanmukha Meruga managed to ladder up in the process, but he ran out of time after being forced all-in on his big blind, and Bai stepped in to finish the job with tens full of nines in a hand of Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better.
Bai was the next out after tangling with Wong in a hand of Pot-Limit 2-7 Triple Draw. The fourth-place finisher got it in and drew to a seven, but a queen on the third draw lost to Wongs eight-seven. Pearce Arnold finished third after running into Strebkovs nut flush in a hand of Big O.
Heads-up play started with both players close to even, but Wong took a big hit early when he made a failed attempt to bet Strebkov off of a flush. The big moment came just a short time later when Strebkov made three eights in Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better and Wong missed his last chance at a low draw.
Denis Strebkov on Day 3 of the 2021 Big Bet Mix Event.
Congratulations to Denis Strebkov for winning his second bracelet in Event #74: $2,500 Big Bet Mix. Be sure to keep it here throughout the rest of the series for updates on all of your favorite events from the PokerNews live reporting team.
Check out our 2021 WSOP Hub here!
After nearly seven hours of play, a final table of nine in the 2021 WSOP Main Event has been whittled down to its last three hopefuls in search of becoming poker's next world champion and $8,000,000 richer.
Koray Aldemir, who came in hot as the overwhelming chip leader and odds-on favorite, kept his distance from the pack and ended a fantastic day with 264,600,000 in chips.
Only two people are standing between Aldemir and poker's most coveted title: UK's Jack Oliver will return second in chips with 77,300,000 after a late-night surge vaulted him up the leaderboard, while the last remaining American, Atlanta, Georgia's George Holmes, rounds out the final three with 57,400,000 in chips, still a cushiony 36 big blinds to work with in the current level.
For Joshua Remitio (4th - $2,300,000), Ozgur Secilmis (5th - $1,800,000), Hye Park (6th - $1,400,000), Alejandro Lococo (7th - $1,225,000), Jareth East (8th - $1,100,000), and Chase Bianchi (9th - $1,000,000), their dream of winning the Main Event came to an end on Day 8.
2021 WSOP Main Event Chip Counts
Seat Player Chip Count Country Big Blinds 1 Koray Aldemir 264,600,000 Austria 165 2 Jack Oliver 77,300,000 United Kingdom 48 3 George Holmes 57,400,000 United States 36
just setting up my twttr Biz Stone (@biz)
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
Place Winner Country Prize (in USD) 1 $8,000,000 2 $4,300,000 3 $3,000,000 4 Joshua Remitio United States $2,300,000 5 Ozgur Secilmis Turkey $1,800,000 6 Hye Park United States $1,400,000 7 Alejandro Lococo Argentina $1,225,000 8 Jareth East United Kingdom $1,100,000 9 Chase Bianchi United States $1,000,000
Final table players
While play was originally scheduled to be hard-stopped with four players remaining, a late-night decision by the staff saw play briefly continue. Shortly after that decision, a big three-way all in at the end of the night nearly resulted in a double knockout and almost left the field with just two for the final day. Holding pocket queens, Aldemir over-called after Oliver originally shoved and Remitio three-bet jammed.
Oliver held the jack-nine of diamonds, while Remitio brought ace-jack to the table. Oliver ultimately rivered a backdoor flush for a massive triple up and spun it up even further by delivering the knockout blow to Remitio shortly after. The end result is three-handed play tomorrow with plenty of pepper left in every player's stack.
Jack Oliver returns second in chips for the final day.
Explosive End Proves Fitting Conclusion
The explosive end proved a fitting conclusion of a night full of thrills and frills that kicked off in high gear right off the bat. Just five hands in, Bianchi was forced to tap out after running his king-queen straight into Oliver's Big Slick. In the subsequent hand, East saw his Main Event run come to a screeching halt after his ace-jack failed to improve against Holmes' queens.
Left with just seven after a mere six hands, Aldemir grabbed the reigns and started controlling the pace of play from his lofty spot. In the first 60 hands, despite plenty of action to enjoy for the live crowd and audience of home, the final table order wasn't changed all that much. However, hand #61 changed everything. It's one of those hands that will no doubt be remembered in poker history for years to come.
Holding pocket tens, Lococo, second in chips at the time, called a three-bet from Aldemir, who held pocket nines. The jack-jack-nine flop gave Aldemir a boat and the German fired all streets, including a pot-sized shove on the river. Lococo made a very daring call with pocket tens in rather rapid fashion, but received the bad news that forced the popular rapper off the stage in seventh place.
Viewers of the PokerGO live broadcast couldn't believe what they were seeing, and the clip was later uploaded to the PokerGO YouTube channel to be enjoyed in its entirety.
If youre not currently subscribed to PokerGo, you can get a monthly subscription for $14.99, a three-month plan for $29.99, and an annual subscription for $99.99. You can also save $10 off an annual subscription by using promo code PokerNews at checkout. Click here to subscribe.
"I decided to three-bet, I can't call with nines," Aldemir said afterwards. "When it came jack-jack-nine, that's just great and I was going for value basically and hope that he has something, a jack or that he doesn't believe me and calls me down."
That's exactly what ended up happening, and with an even bigger lead, it was smooth sailing for Aldemir from there on onwards.
"I hit a lot of hands again and raised a lot, they couldn't do much about it," he said.
With Lococo out of the way, Aldemir turned it up a notch and started opening every other hand. Twenty hands after Lococo's bust, Aldemir took care of Park in a blind-on-blind confrontation with ace-queen versus pocket sevens. On Hand #113 of the night, he also sent Secilmis home after the latter's shove with king-five suited got picked off by Aldemir's nines.
Home Game Hero Holmes "Feels Awesome"
Recreational player George Holmes is on the ride of his life
Four-handed play started with Aldemir sporting a four-to-one lead to his nearest challenger Holmes, and if it wasn't for the aforementioned escape by Oliver with the jack-nine, it would've been just Aldemir vs. Holmes on the final day. Holmes, the home game hero and the proverbial David to high roller Aldemir's Goliath, kept his stack afloat throughout the day and will be back on the final day.
"I feel awesome. I just want to go get some sleep so I can start off fresh tomorrow and be in good spirits," he said directly after bagging. Holmes, who may not have the poker resume of his fellow two adversaries, had a plan coming into the day. "Just kind of survive. See if we can get to three or four handed. Thats all it was about," he explained.
"Tomorrow is going to be a little bit different from today. Theyre good, theyre aggressive. Thats the secret sauce," he added.
Aldemir could become the third German within ten years to win the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and the reality of that hasn't fully sunk in yet. He was supported by a boisterous rail, which he was part of back in 2019 when Hossein Ensan won and he praised the support by the fellow German poker players.
Aldemir, Oliver, and Holmes will be back in the air at 2 p.m. local time in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to contest for poker's most coveted prize. There's 1:45:04 left in level 39 with blinds at 800,000/1,600,000 and a big blind ante of 1,600,000.
Main Event Bracelet
Natural gas prices have been ceding ground with the selling pressure primarily driven by the delayed onset of winter and weak cash pricing. Natural gas prices were quoted at a seven-week low of $4.77/MMBtu on Monday's intraday session, 23% below the 13-year high they attained a month ago. Oil Price reports that Russia, one of Europe's biggest natural gas providers, has been accused of intentionally withholding supplies, comments that Putin quickly rubbished, saying Europe's energy woes are self-inflicted.
Gas traders contend that one of the drivers of the rally is that Russia has been limiting its European gas supplies to the levels in long-term contracts and has allowed Gazprom's storage facilities in the continent to fall to very low levels. But people expecting Russia to become the new 'Gas-OPEC' could be in for a major disappointment. Gas prices in Europe have started surging again as traders see little evidence that Russia is capable of making good on Putin's promise of increased exports.
According to the Financial Times, whereas Gazprom started adding some gas to its largest storage sites in Germany and Austria over the weekend, Russia has failed to book additional pipeline capacity, suggesting that any storage fill would come from existing flows. "Russia has done what it said it was going to do, but in a very narrow way. What would get a bigger reaction from the market would be if Gazprom went back to auctioning short-term gas supplies, as they have done in previous years," Laurent Ruseckas at IHS Markit tells FT. European benchmark futures jumped as much as 10% to above 80/MWh while the U.K. benchmark climbed 6% to ~2/therm.
Swing producer
The natural gas sector finds itself in a tenuous position mainly because it lacks a strong organization like OPEC to try and maintain some semblance of order with the natural gas equivalent--the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF)--usually preferring to take a hands-off approach. Here, gas producers usually dance to their own tunes, adjusting production according to the prevailing market dynamics, but none of the members have the flexibility to act as swing producers.
Sure, Norway's Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) is able to optimize its domestic gas output by deferring production when prices dip too low. Meanwhile, producers who do not use long-term futures contracts, such as Egypt, are forced to halt production when it stops making economic sense while Russia's Gazprom is mainly limited by how much their transport infrastructure can handle.
Russia's ability to regulate the natural gas markets appears quite limited. Last year, Russia completely turned off flows from the 2,607-mile-long Yamal-Europe pipeline that runs across Belarus, Poland, and Germany with a capacity of 33 bln cubic meters of gas per year, yet the markets hardly took notice with prices remaining severely depressed. Prices at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility, a virtual trading point for natural gas in the Netherlands, plunged to ~$40 per 1,000 cubic meters in May. That's considerably lower than the $47 on average per 1,000 cubic meters that Gazprom forks over as transit costs for the pipeline.
The litmus test of Gazprom's capacity to act as a swing supplier was its ability to drop production dramatically in 2020 and then to bring it back up again quickly in 2021. Yet, Gazprom has failed to bring any more spare production capacity online when needed mostbecause it has none left.
According to Vitaly Yermakov, expert with the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Gazprom has really been "firing on all cylinders", pushing its gas output to maximum levels at all of its key fields for most of 2021 so far. In fact, there was no sharp cyclical decline in output over the summer months.
Yermakov points to several reasons why Gazprom has been unable to cover the call for increased gas production or to fully refill gas storage in Russia and in Europe. First off, very low gas prices in 2020 forced extremely high withdrawals of gas from storage by producers in a bid to minimize transportation costs and reduce losses. Second, the combined effects of robust gas demand, extreme weather patterns, and limited LNG availability in Europe have resulted in extreme market tightness and high prices. Gazprom has actually done well by managing to meet all its contractual obligations and increased deliveries to Europe, but could not single-handedly address Europe's energy insecurity.
Yermakov says Russia is not about to run out of natural gas, and its prolific reserves allow the country to meet much higher overall demand. However, bringing additional production online is something that cannot be done at the push of a button. Russia is fully capable of producing much more gas in the long term but needs to secure this output by signing new supply contracts with buyers. In other words, Russia is not ready to spend billions of dollars just to maintain spare productive capacity and meet demand spikes in Europe and elsewhere.
Further, Russian natural gas fields have been evolving, making this task even more challenging. There are few physical links between the Central corridor that connects the country's old and declining gas fields in Nadym-Pur-Taz with consumers in Central Russia, and the Northern corridor that connects growing new production in Yamal with northwest Russia making it hard for Gazprom to swing flows between the Northern and Central corridors, especially during the winter.
In the final analysis, Yermakov concludes by saying that Russia could develop the necessary infrastructure and improve its supply flexibility if the offtake is guaranteed by new contracts.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over the formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan was a byproduct of the collapse of the Soviet Union, although it had roots from before then. Seizing the opportunity created by the political turbulence in and around the South Caucasus in the early 1990s, Armenia occupied up to twenty percent of Azerbaijans internationally recognized territories and succeeded in keeping them under its control until last years forty-four-day Karabakh War, The National Interest reports.
The conflict was a source of frequent armed escalations and constant tension between the two countries; it hampered the economic progress of the entire South Caucasus region and shaped the foreign policies of both countries. While Armenia eagerly joined the Russia-led regional political and military structures in hopes of counterbalancing Azerbaijan and its strategic ally Turkey, Azerbaijan succeeded in pursuing a more independent foreign policy. Notwithstanding the threats from and pressure by parts of its territories that remained under Armenian control, Azerbaijan initiated or participated in various Western economic and geopolitical projects, proving to be a reliable ally.
Given that the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is relegated to history, and Azerbaijan has restored its territorial integrity, Baku has gained more strategic autonomy and could play a crucial role in U.S. policy toward Eurasia. The emergence of new security threats in the region, like the recent tensions between Baku and Tehran, necessitates the quick and substantial engagement of the United States. The lack of such engagement risks undesired consequences not only for AzerbaijanU.S. relations but also for U.S. policy toward the entire region.
The post-Soviet foreign policies of the Republic of Azerbaijan have mostly belonged to a balanced approach, denoting the countrys cordial relations with all major geopolitical forces. For the Azerbaijani government, this policy, which it presents as multilateralism, allows it to effectively pursue national interests and act as a bridge between rival great powers.
The Azerbaijani presidential aide on foreign policy Hikmet Hajiyev has aptly characterized this approach as the 4 Ms, which stands for multi-vectorism, multilateralism, multi-regionalism, and multiculturalism. According to Hajiyev, the geopolitical realities of the region where Azerbaijan is located give Baku no choice but to develop partnerships with various regional and global players, rather than allying with a geopolitical pole at the expense of relations with other actors.
This political course of action has been made possible thanks to the policies of Azerbaijans leaders and the support of its Western partnersprimarily the United States. Relations between Azerbaijan and the United States developed through bilateral and multilateral cooperation in energy security; counter-terrorism; joint economic projects; and trade, political, and humanitarian initiatives.
Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to declare unwavering support to the United States after 9/11 and sent troops to Afghanistan and, later, Iraq. While other countries reduced their troop presence in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, as the only Muslim-majority partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the mission, increased boots on the ground from ninety-four to 120 in early 2018, reaffirming its support of its Western allies.
Azerbaijan has also provided critical transportation passage for NATO; approximately forty percent of cargo destined for NATO troops in Afghanistan passed through the country. Azerbaijans support for the Afghanistan mission continued even after the Taliban announced it would take full control of the country. A 120-man peacekeeping unit from the Azerbaijan Army, together with Turkish troops, ensured the security of Kabul International Airport until the end of August, providing the necessary security for the safe evacuation of civilians and troops.
Azerbaijan has been also a reliable U.S. partner in critical geopolitical issues, including the energy security of the European Union (EU) and the national security of Israel. Azerbaijani oil and gas exports provide the EU with an important alternative for reducing its energy dependency on Russia. The inauguration of the 3,500-kilometer-long Southern Gas Corridor with an investment volume of about $40 billion created the necessary infrastructure to carry Caspian gas reserves to the European market for the first time.
Against the background of Europes recent energy crisis due to skyrocketing gas prices, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev rightly said at the VIII Global Baku Forum from November 4 to 6: In those countries where Azerbaijans gas is delivered, there is no gas crisis, there is no price crisis, and there is no freezing. So, this demonstrates that the Southern Gas Corridor is a project of energy security of Europe.
In fact, this pipeline provides more than just European energy securityit is also of great importance for the Western geopolitical agenda. For example, the Southern Gas Corridor will provide a window of opportunity for Turkmenistan to reduce its dependency on China after it starts to export its natural gas to Europe via the pipeline.
Azerbaijans close relations with Israel have proved to be critically important for the national security of both countries. As a Muslim-majority country that is a secular state, Azerbaijan has prioritized these relations despite all the challenges and threats posed by the countrys southern neighbor Iran. The Azerbaijani city of Qirmizi Qasaba is thought to be the worlds only all-Jewish city outside of Israel. During a recent visit to Qirmizi Qasaba, the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, celebrating the coexistence of synagogues and mosques in the city, called Azerbaijan a special place. Azerbaijan has also been one of the top buyers of Israeli military technology, which has empowered the country against regional security threats. Azerbaijan also provides Israel with forty percent of its oil requirements.
The multilayered relations between Azerbaijan and the United States have persisted despite opposition inside and outside the United States. Pro-Armenian legislators like Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) consistently promote anti-Azerbaijani views within the United States and call upon the countrys leaders to oppose Azerbaijans policies that concern its conflict with Armenia. Media campaigns also do not shy away from calling Azerbaijan a strategic liability for the United States, thereby disregarding all the contributions that Azerbaijan has made to the national security of the United States and its allies.
But American administrations rarely buy into the propaganda. Despite efforts by the pro-Armenian lobby and Armenian diaspora organizations, the Joe Biden administration waived the provisions of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act in April and enabled U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan. This action took place during a critical period for Azerbaijan-U.S. relations as it happened less than six months after the end Second Karabakh War that reclaimed Azerbaijans territorial integrity.
The post-war period necessitates more robust support for Azerbaijan, as the country faces new security threats. The recent tensions in Baku-Tehran relations taken alongside Armenias alignment with Iran challenge Azerbaijans national security. Both Yerevan and Tehran are concerned about Azerbaijans deep relations with Israel and the strategic autonomy that the country regained after its occupied territories were liberated. Both are interested in disrupting the post-war regional status quo as well as Bakus ties with its Western partners.
At a meeting with Azerbaijans new ambassador amid strained tensions on September 30, Irans foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, We do not tolerate the presence and activity against our national security of the Zionist regime next to our borders and will take any necessary action in this regard.
Against this backdrop, U.S. support for Azerbaijan is beneficial for both parties. Azerbaijans thirty years of post-Soviet era contributions toamong other things, counterterrorism efforts, European energy security, and Middle Eastern peace and stabilitydemonstrate that Azerbaijan is a reliable partner of the United States.
Eastern commander Khalifa Haftar says he will run for president in elections to be held in Libya on 24 December that are also set to be contested by a son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Middle East Eye reports that Haftar said: "I declare my candidacy for the presidential election, not because I am chasing power but because I want to lead our people towards glory, progress and prosperity."
His announcement comes two days after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, announced his candidacy. Haftar, who is backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, has been accused of seeking to establish a military dictatorship in the country. In April 2019, his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched a year-long offensive on the capital Tripoli under the pretext of rooting out militant groups. Haftar was eventually pushed back after Turkey intervened, with Ankara deploying Syrian fighters, combat drones and military equipment to support the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.
In his speech on Tuesday, Haftar said that the December election was "the only way to pull Libya out of chaos". On 22 September, he provisionally retired from his role as head of the LNA in line with electoral law to allow him to run for president. Last week, his forces said 300 mercenaries fighting on his side would leave Libya at the request of France in a "unilateral gesture," expecting nothing in return from the government in Tripoli. Following his announcement, he is expected to head to the electoral authority to formalise his candidacy.
Israel visit
Earlier this month, Haftar's son Saddam landed in Israel on a private jet amid reports about the possibility of the commander promising an agreement to recognise Israel after the December election. A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that Saddam was on the plane, which landed in Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv for 90 minutes before lifting off again. Though it is unknown who he met while on the ground in Israel, Haftar has in the past reportedly met with members of Israeli intelligence.
Libya and Israel currently have no diplomatic relations, but, according to Haaretz, Haftar has promised that he would launch a recognition process akin to that carried out by the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco last year, in exchange for "military and diplomatic assistance" from Israel.
Next month's election is seen by the international community as a key step in restoring stability to Libya after a decade of conflict since the overthrow of Gaddafi in a Nato-backed uprising.
The attitude of Armenians towards Russia has seriously deteriorated over the past year, and the main reason was Moscow's reluctance to side with Yerevan in its conflict with Baku, Armenian political observer and journalist Hayk Khalatyan said.
"The Armenian man has two versions of what is happening: either Russia is in collusion with Azerbaijan, or Russia is not as strong as they say on TV: it could simply be afraid of Turkey's might and Azerbaijan's might. So, they conclude that it is necessary to look for either a more reliable ally, or a stronger one," MK cited Khalatyan as saying.
Yesterday, during the Soloviev LIVE show, discussing the Armenian-Azerbaijani border situation, Khalatyan said: to be a friend of Russia means to be a looser.
"Being a friend of Russia has become synonymous with the word 'loser'. As in foreign policy, you are a 'loser' if you are with Russia, because Russia will not help you, so in domestic policy, being friends with Russia means losing forever. This is what Russian foreign policy means," the Armenian political scientist said.
However, it's not just the war - early parliamentary elections were held in Armenia, and despite the fact that the opposition made a lot of efforts to take power from Nikol Pashinyan, "Russia took an equidistant position in this issue as well. Because of this, the pro-Russian electorate in Armenia was dealt another morale blow," Khalatyan said.
Today Azerbaijan is marking the National Revival Day.
Azerbaijani people started indefinite rally on Azadlig Square against the anti-Azerbaijani policy of the USSR on November 17, 1988. It was a real national liberation movement. The Soviet troops dispersed the nationwide rally in early December. These events are regarded in Azerbaijan as the start of the national liberation movement and the main factor in gaining independence.
On the first days of 1988, Armenia started its evident aggression against Azerbaijan. Seeing Moscow and particularly the head of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev's indifferent attitude towards these events, the Armenians started mass deportation of the Azerbaijanis from their native lands in Armenia under the instructions of the Armenian government.
More than 200,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from their homes, killed by the Armenians. Gorbachev and the rest of the USSR leadership had no reaction to the Armenian vandalism.
In early February 1988, Armenians carried out revolts in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and even raised the issue of joining those lands with Armenia.
Azerbaijani people expressed protest to the government. Slogans, portraits and flags carried by the Azerbaijani citizens proved their belief to Moscow and local authorities at that time. But getting no serious answer from Moscow and the then government, people from every corner of the republic moved to Baku and gathered on Azadlig Square (Lenin Square at that time), held meetings and evidently expressed their protest.
November 17 has been marked as the Day of National Revival since 1992.
Azerbaijan produced 704,400 barrels of oil per day, including condensate in October 2021, of which 585,900 barrels accounted for crude oil and 118,500 barrels were condensate, according to the country's Energy Ministry.
In accordance with the decision taken at the 20th meeting of the ministers of the OPEC + countries, Azerbaijan committed itself to cut oil production by 78,000 barrels in October.
The country's oil production quota in October was 640,000 barrels.As such, Azerbaijan fulfilled its obligations under the OPEC + agreement by 109.2%.
According to the agreement reached at the 21st meeting of ministers, Azerbaijan pledged to reduce production by 71,000 barrels per day in November and thereby produce 64,000 barrels of crude oil more than in the previous month.
A telephone conversation took place between the of Turkey's Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar and Azerbaijan's Minister of Defense, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov on November 16, according to Azerbaijans defense ministry.
Colonel General Hasanov informed his counterpart on the provocations committed by the Armenian side and the situation on the state border, as well as noted that these steps of the opposing side were resolutely suppressed.
In turn, Akar noted that today Turkey supports Azerbaijan as it always does.
An adequate response will continue to be given to any military provocations against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, according to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
"The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the military provocations of the Armenian side, which acts from a position of revanchism. Responsibility for aggravating the situation in the region and creating obstacles to the implementation of the trilateral statement lies directly with the military-political leadership of Armenia. An adequate response will continue to be given to any threats and military provocations directed against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders," the statement says.
As a result of the military provocation committed by Armenia on November 16 on the state border with Azerbaijan, seven servicemen of the Azerbaijani army were killed and 10 were wounded.
Baku believes that there is no alternative to normalization of relations with Yerevan, Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN Yasar Aliyev told the Security Council, stating Bakus readiness to sign a peace treaty with Armenia.
"Azerbaijan states its readiness to normalize relations with Armenia, including by signing a peace treaty that would ensure a sustainable peace, development, progress," the diplomat said, assessing the situation at the border as a result of Armenias "dangerous revanchist ideas."
"Azerbaijan is certain that there is no alternative to normalization of relations between the two countries, based on mutual recognition, respect of each others sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders," he said, adding that such normalization aims for reconciliation and peaceful coexistence of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The issues of expanding cooperation were discussed in a telephone conversation by the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 16.
Edogan and Zelensky spoke by phone and discussed ways to improve relations, according to a statement from Turkey's Directorate of Communications.
The presidents agreed to hold the 10th anniversary meeting of the High-level Strategic Council in Kiev in February 2022.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Tuesday he spoke over the phone with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei and urged for restoring order at the border with Poland.
"Spoke to Foreign Minister Makei as a follow up to FAC (Foreign Affairs Council) discussion on Belarus. I called for urgent action to restore security at Belarus border areas with EU and address humanitarian plight of stranded persons there," he wrote on his Twitter account.
The EU foreign ministers on Monday passed a decision on imposing the fifth portion of anti-Belarusian sanctions and agreed to establish a new sanctions mechanism for air companies, travel agencies and individuals responsible for airlifting migrants to Belarus.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier the countrys Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei had held a telephone conversation with German acting Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday and they had agreed that the Belarusian foreign minister would maintain contact with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a bid to settle the crisis. Makei and Borrell discussed the migration situation at Belarus border with the European Union.
The migration crisis at Belarus border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia deteriorated dramatically on November 8, when several thousand migrants approached the Polish border and set up camp there. From time to time they try to break through the fences and cross into Poland, but are stopped by Polish law enforcers.
The Cooperation Council between the European Union and Uzbekistan held its sixteenth meeting on November 16 in Brussels.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Augusto Santos Silva, Portugals Minister of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The delegation of Uzbekistan was led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov.
The Cooperation Council took stock of developments in relations between the EU and the Republic of Uzbekistan over the past two years, noting with satisfaction the intensity of contacts at all levels despite the disruption to regular scheduled face-to-face meetings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two sides agreed on the importance of pursuing a green, sustainable economic recovery from the pandemic. The Cooperation Council discussed Uzbekistan's reform programme, and issues relating to the rule of law, trade, investment and energy relations, and international issues. The Cooperation Council also discussed questions of good governance and the role of civil society, as well as measures to improve the business climate in Uzbekistan.
The Cooperation Council took note of the progress in negotiations for a new Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Uzbekistan. This new agreement will further deepen bilateral relations and support the ongoing ambitious reform programme in Uzbekistan. Nine formal negotiating rounds have taken place to date, with both sides meeting also remotely during the pandemic to achieve steady progress towards finalising a text.
The Cooperation Council welcomed Uzbekistan's role in advancing regional cooperation in Central Asia, including through the promotion of sustainable connectivity.
The Cooperation Council also exchanged views on Afghanistan and other current political and security issues.
European Council President Charles Michel urged the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday to call a full ceasefire after new border clashes erupted between the old foes.
Michel said he had spoken to President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia.
Michel did not apportion blame for the challenging situation in the region but demanded an urgent de-escalation and full ceasefire.
The EU is committed to work with partners to overcome tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus, he tweeted.
Hundreds of migrants amassed on the Belarus-Poland border on Tuesday night, tried to force their way onto European Union territory, clashing with Polish security forces.
The migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border has been brewing since spring, as thousands of people from the Middle East have tried to transit into the EU member country through the territory of Belarus. Poland, as well as Latvia and Lithuania, have accused Belarus of sponsoring the illegal migration, an accusation the Belarusian government has denied.
On Tuesday, the Belarusian-Polish border witnessed attempts by migrants to enter the European Union, trying to tearing down fences on the Polish-Belarus borders, and throwing sticks and rocks at Polish security forces who used tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons in response.
The Belarusian Health Ministry said that 21 migrants from Morocco, Turkey, Cuba, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Syria, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sudan had sought medical help since border tensions escalated. Four people were hospitalized, including three children.
The consent and readiness of all sides are needed for a trilateral contact of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijans leader Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday.
"Undoubtedly, at some stage such contacts will be necessary but in order to make them possible, the consent and readiness for it of the three sides are needed," the Kremlin official said in response to a corresponding question.
The spokesman added that Moscow calls the sides for restraint and stands for compliance with the trilateral agreements.
Peskov stressed that the resumption of military activities on the border caused serious concern yesterday but Russia's mediation efforts made it possible to urge the parties to exercise restraint.
Preclinical trials of two more coronavirus vaccines are currently underway in Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at Wednesday's meeting on the development of genetic technologies chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
"We have simultaneously developed several breakthrough things of this sort. First and foremost, the Sputnik V vaccine that involves genetic technologies is already in use. We have also created two more vaccines that are currently going through preclinical trials. They are made on different platforms but work on a similar principle," he pointed out.
Russia has so far registered five coronavirus vaccines, including Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac, Sputnik Light and EpiVacCorona-N. A Covid-19 vaccine for teenagers, developed by the Gamaleya Center, is in the registration phase.
Seven servicemen of the Azerbaijani army were killed during the military operations conducted on November 16 on the state border due to the provocations of Armenia, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
Their names are Umid Niftaliyev (lieutenant), Orkhan Jabbarov (warrant officer), Natig Aliyev (super-conscript junior sergeant), Elchin Aghayev, Elmin Alizade, Elchin Aliyev and Murad Khalilov (soldiers).
Besides, according to the ministry, 10 Azerbaijani servicemen were wounded in the battles.
The situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border has stabilized since the evening of Nov. 16. The provocation committed by Armenia on the state border failed, the ministry said. The operational situation is controlled by the units of the Azerbaijani army. The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan continue to serve in the sovereign territories of the country.
The responsibility for the tension and confrontation that arose as a result of the Armenian provocation rests entirely with the military-political leadership of Armenia, added the ministry.
The Taliban (movement banned in Russia) called Wednesday on U.S. Congress members to release Afghan assets frozen after their takeover of the country, warning economic turmoil at home could lead to trouble abroad.
In an open letter, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the biggest challenge facing Afghanistan was financial insecurity, "and the roots of this concern lead back to the freezing of assets of our people by the American government".
"I present to you our compliments and would like to share a few thoughts on our bilateral relations," Muttaqi wrote, noting that 2021 was the centenary of Washington recognising Afghanistan's sovereignty.
In measured understatement, he added: "Akin to other world countries, our bilateral relations have also experienced ups and downs."
Muttaqi said Afghanistan was enjoying stable government for the first time in over 40 years. "Practical steps have been taken towards good governance, security and transparency," Muttaqi wrote. "No threat is posed to the region or world from Afghanistan and a pathway has been paved for positive cooperation."
Muttaqi said Afghans "understand the concerns of the international community", but that it was necessary for all sides to take positive steps to build trust.
He warned, however, that the economic situation could spark a mass exodus. "If the current situation prevails, the Afghan government and people will face problems and will become a cause for mass migration in the region and world which will consequently create further humanitarian and economic issues," AFP cited him as saying.
Washington has seized nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank, and the aid-dependent economy has effectively collapsed - with civil servants unpaid for months and the treasury unable to pay for imports.
The United Nations calls on Azerbaijan and Armenia to demonstrate restraint and use peaceful means to settle problems between themselves, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said on Tuesday.
"We are following with concern the reports of this latest violence. And we'll need to verify those reports. And at this point we urge all sides to exercise restraint, to act in accordance with the ninth of November and 11th of January trilateral statements and address any related concerns peacefully through dialogue," he stressed.
"We want to avoid any return to the sort of escalation we had earlier," Haq added.
White House officials insisted that U.S. President Joe Biden does not consider China's President Xi Jinping a "friend" after Xi, speaking through an interpreter in a virtual meeting with Biden Monday night, referred to his American counterpart as "my old friend."
Asked what Xi was getting at - and if Xi was trying to undermine the U.S. - White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates didn't answer directly, but reiterated that Biden doesn't see Xi as an "old friend."
"I'm not going to speak for President Xi," Bates told a reporter on Air Force One as Biden headed to New Hampshire.
"But like you just mentioned," Bates continued, "you've heard explicitly from the president himself, that he has a longstanding relationship with President Xi. They've spent a great deal of time together. They are able to have candid discussions, be direct with each other, which helps them be productive. But he does not consider President Xi an old friend."
Biden has often spoken of his long-term relationship with Xi and the time they spent together in person when they were both served as vice presidents, ABC News reported.
But this June, Biden made clear he didn't think of Xi as an "old friend," saying in response to a question at a news conference in Geneva: "Let's get something straight. We know each other well; we're not old friends. It's just pure business."
The two world leaders spoke for about three and a half hours via videoconference on Monday evening.
Millions of overseas Vietnamese want to fly to Vietnam to celebrate Tet but international commercial flights have not resumed and few rescue flights exist.
Millions of Viet Kieu want to fly to Vietnam to celebrate Tet
T.T.D. has been stuck in Canada for two years and cannot return to Vietnam though he is fully vaccinated. He learned that there are rescue flights provided occasionally, but the airfare is too high, about VND50 million and passengers have to pay for quarantine. He has decided to wait for international commercial flights.
I heard that Vietnam has temporarily recognized the vaccination certificates/vaccine passports of 72 countries/territories. When will Vietnamese people with vaccine passports be able to return? he said.
At a recent webinar about the resumption of international air routes, a man said he and other Viet Kieu in Australia wanted to fly to Vietnam. When will airlines be allowed to sell tickets? Is it true that we have to wait until April 2022? he asked.
In reply, an official said the plans to provide specific flights to help Vietnamese citizens return home are still being made, and depend on pandemic developments and domestic quarantine capacity.
Regarding April 2022, he said airlines are still waiting for the decision by the Government on the Ministry of Transports proposal.
As routine commercial flights have not resumed, Vietnamese citizens overseas have to wait to book rescue flights, which are rare and unscheduled.
Meanwhile, air tickets are priced quite high. Its estimated that the total cost for flying from Japan or South Korea to Vietnam is VND50-60 million, while the figure is VND80 million from Europe.
Explaining this, Nguyen Quang Trung from Vietnam Airlines, the national flag air carrier, said aircraft have to land at airports with quarantine facilities such as Nha Trang, Van Don and Da Nang. Besides, the cost per seat on these flights is twice as much as usual, because airlines fly only one way. Once routine commercial flights resume, airlines will have passengers for both ways, and airfares will be lower.
Millions of overseas Vietnamese wait
The demand from overseas Vietnamese to take flights to Vietnam is very high. Vo Huy Cuong, Deputy Head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), cited a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) as estimating that in the first two quarters of 2022 (Tet holiday), about half million Vietnamese, Viet Kieu and foreigners have demand to fly to Vietnam.
Millions of Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) want to fly to Vietnam to celebrate Tet but international commercial flights have not resumed and few rescue flights exist.
However, since the number of rescue flights is limited, many of them would have to take chartered flights for tourists and have a 7-day quarantine before getting home.
Luong Hoai Nam, a respected aviation and tourism expert, said demand is very high, because many Viet Kieu missed 2021 Tet in the country because of Covid-19 and they want to return this year.
The problem is that people will have to have a 7-day quarantine. Meanwhile, Cambodia removed the quarantine requirement on all fully vaccinated passengers on November 15.
Its unreasonable to require fully vaccinated people to quarantine, he said.
He said that more than 1.5 years have elapsed and its necessary to restore routine international flights for fully vaccinated people.
Bui Doan Ne, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Aviation Business Association, said overseas Vietnamese and Vietnamese people should be treated equally. That is, Vietnamese citizens overseas who have been fully vaccinated and have negative test results should be allowed to fly to Vietnam without concentrated quarantine. Localities dont have the right to restrict the number of Vietnamese citizens returning to their homeland.
Millions of overseas Vietnamese want to fly. Tet holiday is nearing. And in order to avoid congestion, itd be better to allow Viet Kieu to fly to Vietnam now, Ne said.
Overseas Vietnamese could register for tours under a new pilot program on receiving foreign tourists. This means that they need to book packaged tours and fly to five localities Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa), Quang Nam, Da Nang or Quang Ninh.
People will have to follow 7-day tours and fulfill procedures to be able to visit relatives. However, they can only stay in Vietnam for a maximum of 90 days.
The Ministry of Transport has proposed reopening international routine flights, commencing from Q1 2022 under a 3-phase program. Phase 1, from the first quarter of 2022, the major markets are China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, Australia, with 4 flights/week/way (about 12,000 passengers would enter Vietnam a week). Phase 2, from the second quarter of 2022, routine flights carrying passengers with vaccine passports to Vietnam with no requirement on concentrated quarantine. The flight frequency is 7 flights/week/way for each airline. Phase 3, from the third quarter of 2022. Routine flights will be provided depending on travel demand, pandemic developments and vaccination coverage. The markets and flight frequencies will be determined by airlines.
Ngoc Ha
International flights welcome foreign travelers back A number of chartered flights carrying foreign travelers with vaccine passports are coming to Vietnam this week under closed tourism programs. Five localities have prepared to serve international arrivals.
Many shop owners have had to suspend their business and give back their premises to landlords because of the impact of Covid-19. But, surprisingly, despite low demand, many landlords have still raised rental prices.
Retail premises have been left idle
At one company, a receptionist still has to be present at her old address every morning to wait for clients and guide them to the new address. The clinics owner said moving to another location was a last resort. The clinic had been operating for five years and had become well known among locals.
When Hanoi imposed social distancing, the number of clients fell sharply and the clinic decided to suspend operation. While the revenue was zero during lockdown days, the clinic still had to pay rent, electricity and water bills, and pay the security guards.
In late October, when the lease contract expired, the owner asked the landlord to cut the rent by 30 percent, but the proposal was rejected.
As the negotiation failed, he decided move the clinic to a location nearby.
He is satisfied with the new location. The street-front five-storey villa has very reasonable rent. We feel better operating here, he said.
While the rent in an apartment building ground floor is VND50 million a month, not including service fees, the rent is just VND45 million a month at villas.
The owner of the former space has not found a renter and the space has been vacant for many months. Other rentals are available at more attractive prices.
Hong Minh, the owner of a dental clinic in Ha Dong, complained that she failed to negotiate with the landlord on rental cuts, so she is considering moving to another location.
The landlord said clinics still could make big money despite the pandemic, so no reason for him to cut the rent, she told reporters.
Minh leases two stories with total usable area of 100 square meters at rent of VND35 million a month.
I have poured billions of dong into the clinic, so I really dont want to move. I am wavering between moving away or staying on, she said.
Leasing a semi-detached house in My Dinh at VND35 million a month to sell medicine, functional food and cosmetics, Nguyen Thi Hai was shocked when she was informed about the rent increase, commencing in January 2022.
Hai complained that the rent increase will be a burden. Though drugstores still opened during the pandemic, revenue was very low. She was thinking of asking the landlord to reduce the rent when the landlord unexpectedly informed her of the rental increase.
After Hanoi authorities allowed eateries to resume operation, Nguyen Thi Thuy, the owner of a restaurant in Hai Ba Trung district, quickly prepared for reopening. However, she recently got a notice that she would have to pay 100 percent of rent. Prior to that, she had enjoyed a 50 percent rent reduction.
She said that revenue may be unsatisfactory because people are still hesitating to eat out. She will take a loss if she has to pay 100 percent of rent.
I think I will negotiate with the landlord about the rent. If he says no, I will leave, she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused retail revenue to drop sharply, impacting the domestic retail property market. The income of the owners of villas and street-front houses has dropped dramatically recently because of low demand.
Predictions about the future of the retail rental market vary. Some believe that once businesses bounce back, retail premises will become more expensive. Meanwhile, others are not optimistic about pandemic developments. The number of Covid cases has increased day after day so they are worried if they will be asked to close their doors again.
The owner of a four-storey house on Cau Giay street said a usable area of 160 square meters has been left idle since the beginning of the year, though he has offered a rent reduction from VND50 million to VND30 million.
Nguyen The Vinh, a real estate broker, said its difficult to lease street-front houses now. If landlords cannot retain their existing clients, they will find it difficult to find new tenants. Many places in advantageous positions have been vacant for two years despite 50 percent rent reductions.
Local newspapers report that The Gioi Di Dong, a large mobile phone distribution chain with presence all over the country, has terminated a leasing contract at a premise in An Nhon Town in Binh Dinh after failing to negotiate for rent decreases. Soon after The Gioi Di Dong left, another retailer leased the premise at a rent that is 20 percent higher than that once paid by The Gioi Di Dong.
Duy Anh
Foreign retailers make quiet landing as domestic counterparts shut down Many shops hit hard by Covid-19 have had to close, but some foreign retailers have taken advantage of the opportunity to scale up their business in Vietnam.
Most recently, Vietnam's e-government development strategy towards digital government for the period 2021-2025 with a vision to 2030 has clearly identified that data is a new type of resource.
On November 16, the Vietnam Digital Communications Association hosted the Asia Open Data Partnership Conference 2021 in Hanoi, an annual conference that has been organized by the Asia Open Data Partnership (AODP) and its partners since 2015. This is the first time Vietnam has hosted the conference.
Data economy to contribute 5% to GDP
According to a report from the European Data Portal, an initiative of the European Commission, the open data market was valued at 184.45 billion Euros in 2019 and is expected to reach about 199.51 - 334.20 billion euros by 2025.
Most governments around the world use open data to deploy solutions to improve their operations and citizens' rights, create development opportunities, foster innovation, and solve social problems.
There are three trends of using open data in the world today, including: commercializing open data and developing the data service industry; open data for digital development; and cooperation in comprehensive digital economy agreement.
Nguyen Minh Hong, Chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association, said the data economy in general and open data in particular is the heart of the digital economy, bringing economic and social benefits to countries, people and businesses around the world.
For Vietnam, the economic value that data flows create through the use of digital technologies in commerce reached 81 trillion VND in 2017 and it can reach 953 trillion VND by 2030.
According to the draft national data strategy for the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030, Vietnam's goal is that the data economy will contribute 5% of GDP.
Le Quang Huy, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, said that in the open trend, open data has important characteristics - publicly used, reused, and non-exclusive.
That means the community can exploit and use open data based on open licenses. It is also can continue to share that data with the community to promote its value.
Huy said that Asia with the largest population in the world, with a young, dynamic and creative workforce, needs to be a pioneer in the field of digital technology development, effective use, sharing of data to develop more prosperous. For Vietnam, this will also help the country join the global flow, solving the challenges and difficulties that it is facing.
Data is new kind of national resource
At one of the Uptime Tier 3 standard data storage centers in Vietnam. Photo: Trong Dat
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that the Covid-19 pandemic showed valuable lessons about the importance of open data and data sharing in planning the epidemic prevention strategy of each country. Vietnam recognized early on the importance of data and open data.
Most recently, Vietnam's e-government development strategy towards digital government for the period 2021-2025 with a vision to 2030 has clearly identified that data is a new type of resource. State agencies provide open data for the development of digital government, digital economy and digital society.
The Ministry of Information and Communications, with the role of coordinating the national digital transformation program, has been developing a roadmap to establish data standards, to ensure data of ministries, branches and authorities from central to local levels to be classified and shared scientifically, and ensure network security.
Internationally, open data development also requires cross-country cooperation. Because the digital economy is a global issue, if data is considered the lifeblood of the global economy, this data lifeblood must be established based on a widely accepted framework of standards and technical regulations.
Data is a special resource that is created in the process of using technology of the people. Unlike resources in nature, the more data resources are used, the more they are generated, and the more they create great value.
However, according to Mr. Dung, data sharing needs to be done appropriately, ensuring harmonization of cross-border data flows, network safety, and privacy of each individual in accordance with the laws of each country.
Through regional cooperation, Vietnam can move towards a comprehensive open data ecosystem, promoting regional and global digital economic integration.
The Ministry of Information and Communications is committed to accompanying the technology community and open data community at home and abroad, to jointly establish global data standards and regulations, thereby discovering and creating values from open data.
Trong Dat
Data sharing among state agencies yet to meet actual needs 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).
Wind and solar power has been developing at lightening speed in Vietnam recently. Now is the time to think about dealing with the equipment when its life cycle ends.
A workshop on the development of green and new energy was held a few days ago by the Central Economics Committee as a part of Industry 4.0 Summit 2021.
Nguyen Duc Hieu, Deputy Head of the committee, affirmed that countries all are striving for production and use of green clean energy, and the eighth national power development plan calls for Vietnam to prioritize renewable and new energy resources.
Its expected that solar power will account for 5.4-5.9 percent of total electricity generation output by 2030 and 8.4 percent by 2045. Meanwhile, onshore and near-shore wind power would account for 6.5 percent. As for offshore wind power, the capacity would be 2,000MW or higher by 2030.
Vietnam would also generate electricity from solid waste, biomass and other types of renewable energy, which is expected to account for 0.9-1 percent by 2030 and 2.2-2.5 percent by 2045.
If the plan is implemented, the generation capacity and the proportion of electricity from renewable energy sources will increase rapidly in the time to come, especially in 2030-2045, when technological advances will help reduce investment rates and electricity generation production costs.
Commenting about offshore wind power, Mark Hutchinson from GWEC said Vietnam could not only create a new industry but also generate hundreds of thousands of jobs and a new offshore wind power center in Asia if it is ahead of other countries, including South Korea, Japan and the Philippines.
Dao Xuan Lai from UNDP expressed his concern about how to treat the waste from wind and solar power plants after the equipment ends its life cycle.
Lai warned that the waste of wind and solar power plants is part of the industrial waste stream. The volume of waste could be up to hundreds of thousands of tons in the next 10 years.
Photovoltaic panels and end-of-life wind turbines contain valuable materials which, if recycled, could help save natural resources. Discarded photovoltaic panels are considered hazardous waste unless components containing hazardous materials are properly removed and disposed of.
In Vietnam, there is still no legal basis for the classification of waste from wind and solar power plants, and the waste collection and treatment is rudimentary.
The representative from UNDP suggested classifying waste and compiling detailed guidance on how to uninstall photovoltaic panels. Wind and solar power developers need to observe the extended producer responsibility (EPR).
Luong Bang
Vietnam sees big opportunities in wind energy Vietnams commitment to increasing its energy capacity using renewable sources and favourable macroeconomic conditions may create valuable opportunities for wind investors and developers.
Hu tieu (noodle soup), milk tea, broken rice, snails and fried fish balls the common dishes of Vietnamese are being sold at shops on HCM Citys Bui Vien Street.
Hu tieu (noodle soup), milk tea, broken rice, snails and fried fish balls the common dishes of Vietnamese are being sold at shops on HCM Citys Bui Vien Street, which is called western street, backpackers street or street of bars as its a famous attraction for foreign travelers.
The appearance of common dishes, or mon an via he (street food) is quite a surprise for many people, because they were not on the menus at the bars there in the past. However, bar owners now have to sell anything that can to earn them a living.
Luong Truong Vu in district 3 lost his job as a chef at a large hotel in HCM City because of Covid-19. Now he has to sell seafood at a corner of Bui Vien instead of staying at home and using his savings.
Vu, who has 31 years experience and once served high-ranking delegations during the APEC Summit, now has to glean every small change every day to feed himself and his family.
I have been working here for half a month, he said. I got the job after reading an ad by a bar owner which said he was seeking an experienced cook.
This is just a sidewalk processed snail stall and it receives few clients, but brings enough income to cover his basic needs.
The snail shop managed by Vu is a new model applied at Corner Sky Bar Bui Vien. Besides the snail shop, the bar is also selling green bean juice with centella, vegetables and broken rice.
The manager of Corner Sky Bar said he had been doing this business for too long to give it up. Selling street food is just a temporary solution while waiting for the municipal authorities to allow bars to reopen. He said the money from the sale of street food is just enough to pay workers and maintain the bar, and he doesnt expect to make profit from this.
Meanwhile, Bar 86 Pho Tay is now selling bubble tea and fried fish balls from 4pm to 9pm daily for indoor dining. Last month, the bar sold take-away hu tieu. Le Thi Huong, the bar manager, said the bar sells a wide range of food, but the revenue is modest. About 10-20 customers come to the bar each day.
She said bars and discotheque halls have been seriously affected by the pandemic over the last two years. Workers have left HCM City for their hometowns.
Meanwhile, a representative of the municipal authorities affirmed that the current pandemic situation is still not good enough to allow the reopening of bars and karaoke parlours.
Tran Chung
Bars on Bui Vien Street turned into mini-marts Bui Vien Street, dubbed Western Street in downtown HCM City, used to be the place where most foreign tourists came to experience the nightlife.
A number of charter flights carrying international passengers with vaccine passports will arrive this week as part of a closed travel programme.
Northeast Asia is an important tourism market for Vietnam. Photo courtesy of vietnamnet.vn
The first five localities participating in the tourism pilot programme are ready to welcome guests, according to vietnamnet.vn
Le Van Nghia, director of the Nhat Binh Tourism Joint Stock Company, said the company has welcomed a charter flight carrying 222 Korean passengers from Incheon Airport to Khanh Hoa.
They were safely brought to an accommodation facility where the provincial Centre for Disease Control gave COVID-19 tests to all visitors, he said, adding that another flight with 207 passengers from Tokyo has arrived as well.
More international flights will be arriving in Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Nha Trang.
Vo Huy Cuong, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said that Vietnam Airlines will transport South Korean passengers to Hoiana tourist resort in Quang Nam tomorrow, while two flights from Vietjet Air on will carry 250 tourists from Tokyo to Nha Trang and 250 from South Korea to Phu Quoc on November 20.
About 24 other flights have been scheduled for Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese travellers to Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa and Da Nang.
This will be an important basis for authorities possibly re-establishing more international routes in the future, Cuong said.
Nguyen Minh Tam, deputy head of the Marketing and Sales Department of Vietnam Airlines, said the airline has worked with a number of key markets to open 15 to 20 charter flights from now until the end of January.
Nghia added that unlike travellers from Japan and Taiwan, Russian tourists returning from other countries are not required to be quarantined.
The Nhat Minh Tourism Company plans to coordinate with S7 Airlines and schedule four flights in December to bring Russian guests to Cam Ranh.
No restrictions
Cuong explained that restrictions would limit the effectiveness of the pilot programme. Now that China has pursued a policy restricting people from going abroad, for example, the country is no longer a stable source of visitors for Vietnam.
In addition, many travellers have chosen Vietnam as one of their final destinations after visiting Europe, Thailand, Singapore or Malaysia. He said Vietnam should have a one-month visa exemption policy for foreign visitors to ASEAN member countries as it had before to make it easier to attract visitors.
The General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Nguyen Trung Khanh, emphasised the importance of adding new markets with a high safety level in terms of epidemic prevention, such as Northeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
However, as long as tourists meet medical and immigration requirements, there should be no reason to limit any of them, Khanh said.
Ready to welcome guests
The first five localities participating in the pilot programme have prepared plans to welcome international guests.
Bui Quoc Thai, director of Kien Giang Department of Tourism, affirmed that all tasks for foreign travellers arrival have been completed.
On November 20, Phu Quoc will host the first batch of international visitors for the first time in two years. Around 250 guests will be staying in 13 accommodation establishments of Vingroup, Sungroup and Movenpick, among others.
They will spend time in nine designated locations. More will be added to the list of locations later.
Meanwhile, in Quang Nam, three tourism complexes, including Hoiana, Vinpearl Nam Hoi An and TUI BLUE Nam Hoi An, will be open for international tourists during the first phase. Tourists can visit Hoi An and My Son sanctuary during their stay.
We have worked with all participating hotels and they will not have other guests while hosting these international visitors. Hoi An and My Son will have separate lanes for them, Tuong said.
In the second phase, Quang Nam will extend the list of hotels allowed to host foreign tourists.
Source: Vietnam News
The satellite explosion caused at least 1,500 trackable bits of space debris and hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments.
United States officials and politicians are alarmed by Russia's missile test that hit a decommissioned space satellite. It is raising concerns that Moscow is attempting to militarize space even more. They have called for the Kremlin to be held responsible.
After the satellite explosion, at least 1,500 pieces of trackable space debris were formed, along with thousands of smaller fragments, according to authorities, which might pose a hazard to astronauts and other satellites in orbit. This comes on the heels of an aggressive Russian military buildup along its border with Ukraine, exacerbating tensions.
As a result of Russia's confirmation of the test on Tuesday but dismissive of American concerns, legislators have called on the Biden administration and allies to take immediate action.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said in a statement Tuesday that the Russian military's anti-satellite test "makes it clear that Moscow is willing to threaten the peaceful use of outer space, to further militarize this domain, and to disregard any consequences for all nations." "With the cooperation of our friends and partners, we must hold Russia accountable for this incident," Smith said.
Officials and legislators in the United States are concerned that the ground-fired missile, which struck a Soviet satellite launched in 1982, is symptomatic of increased Russian attempts to build and test space-based systems and weapons in recent years.
As part of its effort to outperform the United States in the intensely disputed space realm which has been described as the "new Wild West," Russia has tested a number of anti-satellite missiles, lasers, and other weaponry that might prohibit the effective use of U.S. and partner satellites.
Russia is "strongly motivated to continue development efforts" on its anti-satellite weapons program, according to a study issued earlier this year by the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting international security.
This was on full show in July 2020, when the United States Space Command accused Russia of conducting a "non-destructive test of a space-based anti-satellite weapon."
As noted at the time, Gen. John Raymond, commander of the United States Space Command, stated the test was "more proof of Russia's continuous attempts to develop and test space-based weapons" and an "example that the risks to U.S. and Allied space systems are genuine, serious, and escalating."
Russia's "dangerous and reckless activity jeopardizes the long-term sustainability of our outer space," according to State Department spokesman Ned Price, who told reporters after Monday's test that "our outer space is at risk."
According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the United States is carefully monitoring Russia's capabilities because they might "pose a danger not just to our national security interests but also to the security interests of other space-faring states."
On the other side of the Atlantic, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg described the test as a "reckless conduct" that may endanger the International Space Station, which was constructed mainly by NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
However, although the United States and its allies have criticized the missile launch, it is unclear what further action they may take in response to the event.
The danger of nation-states to the space systems of others is not governed by global norms, rules, or principles of responsible conduct, and no such laws, regulations, or codes exist.
Russia expressed opposition to a United Nations resolution that would have moved the establishment of such standards earlier this month.
The proposal, which would create a working group to offer recommendations, was passed by the United Nations' First Committee by a vote of 163-8. Still, it was opposed by Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela, among other countries.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Russia's defense ministry justified its military actions, claiming that the founding of the United States Space Force last year and the United States' own weapons tests had prompted the country to beef up its defensive capabilities.
The United States conducted its last significant anti-satellite missile test in 2008. However, it was conducted at a far lower altitude than the one conducted by Russia.
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called on the Biden administration to "make it plain to [Russian President Vladimir Putin] in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable." The Biden administration has yet to respond.
The State Department's top spokesperson said the administration would cooperate with friends and partners to react. Still, it was unclear if the administration had spoken out to other nations about the incident as of Tuesday.
Prices said he did not want to "get ahead of where we are" and that he did not want to "telegraph particular steps" when asked what choices the United States had.
Upon being questioned whether the CIA had sought out Russia or other nations, a State Department spokesman told The Hill that "we do not comment on private diplomatic discussions or communications."
In addition, Kirby said on Tuesday that he had "no communications to speak of and no new context to share" regarding the Russian nuclear test.
PRESS RELEASE President and CEO John Lites Leenhouts has been at the helm of SUN n FUN for over a decade and has worked in the industry for 48 years. During his tenure, the organization has transformed not only the operating state and organizational culture but also the perspective from which it operates. Tracy Neal, Chief Financial Officer, attests, He was the perfect addition to our team. I dont think we could have found anyone with more experience or excitement about aviation. He jumped right in and helped us transform from a Not-For-Profit living on a line of credit to a Not-For-Profit able to survive the COVID pandemic. He has guided the team through major improvements across the entire campus, including our latest addition to the Ramus SkyLab Innovation Center. He has forged bonds with volunteers, donors, and students that will be remembered for years to come.
After ten incredible years of resurrection, realignment, rebuilding, and expansion, the leadership of the Aerospace Center for Excellence and the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo, is about to change. At the completion of SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo 2022, John Lites Leenhouts will retire from the President/CEO role but will continue to be an active advocate for both ACE and SNF. ACE Board Chairman Rick Garcia ascertains, Lites has done so much for ACE & SUN n FUN the list is too long, it has been an honor to work with Lites for the past 11 years.
Since arriving in August 2011, Lites led the ACE/SUN n FUN team from an extremely challenging fiscal situation into a position of financial strength for the first time in over 30 years. Lites has continued to pour millions into capital improvements on the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo Campus, created a world-class event venue attracting dozens of multiday events annually, built the worlds largest high school flying club, and consistently increased attendance at the annual SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo. Fittingly SUN n FUN 2021 became the biggest and best in its 47-year history. Additionally, he conceptualized and established the Aerospace Center for Excellence, home of the Ramus SkyLab Innovation Center, as the premier Aerospace-based, hands-on STEM education ecosystem in the nation. Board Member, Gene Strickland, recognizes, Johns leadership during the past ten years has enabled SUN n FUN to achieve remarkable success. More importantly, Johns influence has resulted in SUN n FUN being recognized for its education of our next generation of aviation professionals. A big thank you from Lakelands new young pilots and its aviation technicians.
The new workplace ambiance took time, but the change nourished a shift that has sustained a space where employees can be successful, transparent, and empowered. Executive Events Director Laura Vaughn maintains, Although the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo began many years before Lites tenure at the helm, his focused efforts provided a purpose and relevancy for the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo to continue and to give the gift of flight to future generations. A legacy to be proud of!
From his 27 years as a US Naval Aviator to 11 years at Northrop Grumman Corporation, all the way through his tenure at SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo and the Aerospace Center for Excellence, and the Florida Air Museum; Lites has consistently delivered high-quality performance, solid dynamic leadership, and a value-driven work ethic. From SUN n Fun Board Chair, Dr. Harley Richardss perspective, We are grateful for the dedication that John Lites Leenhouts has given to SUN n FUN, the community, and the Aerospace industry. His knowledge of general aviation as well as his organizational and communication skills have enabled him to take SUN n FUN and ACE to a level we could have never imagined. We are anxious to begin our new relationship with Lites as he becomes an Ambassador to ACE and SUN n FUN helping us grow and expand our Aerospace Education footprint.
Lites has been a driving force and a tremendous advocate for the significant growth of the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo, and the development of ACE along with the youth aviation education programs produced by ACE, said Gene Conrad, Lakeland Airport Director. We will miss Lites passion and energy here at the airport, but we know he will continue to be a staunch advocate and cheerleader for all things Lakeland Linder International Airport and ACE. We wish him all the best and much success in his next chapter.
After serving with Lites from the very beginning, Marketing Director, Melissa Goodson, states, The strength of his leadership is inspiring trust, proving to be challenging at times; this led staff, volunteers, and Board to follow his lead. Also, returning confidence to us empowered us to take responsibility for our decisions from an organizational standpoint. When we followed his lead and stuck with him, he instilled in us the belief that we did this together. Remaining as a unit for many years now, we have developed the strong communication necessary for where we are today. Being a part of the Aerospace Center for Excellence process has allowed me to fully appreciate and remain blown away with what we have accomplished with him at the helm. The imprint he has left is embedded in our history now.
When asked what do you attribute to all these many successes, Lites quickly stated, Can-do spirit and total team effort on the part of Board, Staff, and Volunteersit has truly been an honor to serve alongside them in our adventurous journey for this noble cause. He went on to say, Of all the wonderful accomplishments that I have been privileged to be a part of while here, the most rewarding experience has been observing average kids populating our ACE/SNF campus and over a very short period of time-evolving into competent, capable, and focused young men and women who have become good citizens with bright futures.
ABOUT SUN N FUN FLY-IN. INC SUN n FUN Fly-In, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to preserve and enhance the future of flight through world-class events, inspiring and educating people of all ages. Year-round events, including the SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo, which is one of the worlds largest aviation events, raise funds for the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE). The SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo annually raises funds for ACE enabling the delivery of STEM-related and aerospace education programs engaging over 50,000 local youth each year. Additionally, ACE manages and allocates local aerospace scholarships. For more information: www.flysnf.org.
Before Colleen Smyth graduated with her Masters of Science in Data Science in August, the program helped her discover a novel approach to a persistent question at work.
For her capstone project, the Portland high school math teacher wanted to discover what features were most predictive of an on-time graduation, such as course history or GPA. Smyth BA 15, MS 21 created a classification model that examined three years worth of past graduates, and once she discovered the predictions were pretty accurate, she felt confident the results identified what her school could focus on. She shared her findings with the principal this fall.
It was really cool to do a class project then return to school and present practical ideas that can be applied now, she said.
Among the first to pursue the universitys new data science program, Smyth figured the degree would open the door to future jobs and complement her current one at Portland Public Schools. Shes now incorporating tips on public presentations, how to understand social justice through data and statistics and career suggestions for students into class, she said.
Its not something most of them have learned before, and its relatively new in the workforce, so I feel like Im able to provide them with a unique perspective after taking the masters program, she said.
Smyth wasnt an obvious advocate for data science. A history major at Willamette, she didnt view herself as a math person or even someone who excelled in the subject, but after she graduated in 2015 and applied for Teach for America, her feelings changed.
Offered preferences in subject matter, she said she was open to teaching middle school math. The quantitative courses shed taken at Willamette helped her realize her high school background in math was stronger than she thought, and she also enjoyed tutoring students on the subject through college prep program Willamette Academy, she said.
A few years later, when she was teaching high school algebra in Chicago, the course included some statistics topics that Smyth found as interesting as her students. When she returned to her hometown and found a job at PPS a longtime goal as a fourth-generation district educator she began to push for a stronger focus in statistics instead of calculus to better engage students interested in pursuing non-STEM fields in college.
Data science is definitely the future of math education, she said.
During her second year, Smyth pushed her school to add a financial algebra and statistics elective already offered by the district that aims to keep students in math throughout their academic career. The next year, she proposed and was granted the opportunity to teach an AP statistics course, the first time in school memory such a course was offered.
Oregon education standards are leaning toward including more data science, too. Last month, the State Board of Education adopted a new model for high school that focuses more on statistics in required courses and offers students more options for their third required credit, such as data science, statistics and the traditional advanced algebra course. Smyth is working with the district to pilot its first data science course next year.
Eventually, shed like to integrate more data science applications in her own AP class and provide students with other opportunities shed never had as a student.
Being able to teach data science to students and develop courses for the school has been really rewarding and meaningful to me, she said. With the state as a whole pushing for a more data science-oriented framework, I want my school to be at the forefront of that movement.
When it comes to weeknight drinks, nothing gets us like the dilapidated charm of cheap neighborhood watering holes.
For no-frills drinks, greasy bar bites, quirky decor, graffiti-scribbled bathrooms, analog photo booths, and jukeboxes, these are San Francisco's most beloved dive bars.
Cheers, gang.
Li Po Cocktail Lounge See on Instagram Nestled on the edge of Chinatown, Li Po Cocktail Lounge exists as a dimly lit former opium den, where, instead of illicit drugs, now live bands and potent drinks fill the halls and basement. Their signature Chinese mai tais are the go-to libations here, which you can sip seated alongside the wraparound bar or atop a "well-loved" red leather booth. Ubiquitous, traditional Chinese lanterns hang from the celings for decoration and practicality. On your way out, feel free to send a silent offering to the gold-plated Buddha statue near the door. // 916 Grant Ave. (Chinatown), lipolounge.com
The Knockout See on Instagram Akin to Beauty Bar's SF installment, sans the obvious nightclub chain normalities, the Knockout houses DJ dance parties, live punk band playings, bingo nights, and an all around no-frill dive bar experience. Knockout's weekly Sweater Funk Superfly dance party is reason enough to bob and weave to Motown and Soul anthems after downing a bit of liquid courage. A word to the wise: Don't leave without signing a pose in the photo booth. // 3223 Mission St. (Bernal Heights), theknockoutsf.com
Kozy Kar Bar See on Instagram One of our favorite NSFW-skewed watering holesporn, straight and gay, plays on the wall-mounted televisions when the sun goes downKozy Kar harkens back to the care-free 70s. The drinks are, as you'd expect, remarkably cheap for SF, and the ambiance is, say, That-70s-Show-meets-the-HGTV's-roster-of-home-decorating-shows. (Custom vans, eight track players, CB radios, waterbeds, chain steering wheels, shag carpets, oh my!) Leave any semblance of prudence at home, please. // 1548 Polk St. (Polk Gulch), kozykar.com
Zeitgeist See on Instagram The award for the diviest and most beloved of San Francisco bars probably has to go to Zeitgeistbecause let's be honest, this is where you go for cheap drinks (preferably bloody marys) once you're already drunk enough to eat one of their greasy-ass burgers. And there's just nothing better, especially when you and your gang can crowd in at a picnic table on a sunny day to get sloshed. // 199 Valencia St. (Mission), instagram.com/zeitgeist_sf
The Cinch Saloon See on Instagram A haven for button-up gays in flannel and billiards enthusiasts, The Cinch exudes old-school dive bar vibes from everyone of its weathered corners, albeit with a hella homo twist. The drinks are effusively slung and quite strong; the outside patio is intimate, and also smoke-friendly; pool and pinball machines fill the narrow lounge. Keep an eye out on their Facebook page for updates on drag shows, community potlucks, and more. // 1723 Polk St. (Polk Gulch)
Aces Bar See on Instagram Sports fans know Aces as home base for NY Giants and Wisconsin Badgers game. Everyone else comes to the no-frills Polk Gulch hub for the friendly bartenders and the slurpee machine that stirs a frappuccino-like Irish Coffee available from 6am to noon, making for a potentially left-of-center morning coffee run. Inexpensive, straightforward cocktails fill the menu, as well as a Keg Table, which can be reserved in advance. Jukebox playings revibrate off the red-painted walls, essentially all hours they're open. // 998 Sutter St., (Polk Gulch) acesbarsf.com
Hi Dive Bar See on Instagram Waterfront views and pier-inspired decor serve as the diving platforms for bar bites and cheap(ish) libations. Brunch at Hi Dive (10am to 2pm Saturday and Sunday) centers around their famous spicy Bloody Mary, served saddle-side with such staples lake Mission Huevos, chorizo scramble, and more. Take your shot at the pool table in between drinks. And don't worry, you're not going crazy: There really is a bike hanging from above the bartop. // 28 Pier (Embarcadero), hidivesf.com
Zam Zam See on Instagram One of the oldest, most beloved bars in San Francisco, Zam Zam has been Haight-Ashbury fulcrum for quenching a thirst since 1941. A Persian barwith like-culture interior paraphernalia, including a drop-dead gorgeous back bar muralspecializes in the martinis of yesteryear. Suffice to say that this cash-only (and prior Anthony Bourdain approved watering hole) is a must for locals and tourists, alike. // Open daily; 1633 Haight St. (Haight-Ashbury), facebook.com
Louie's Bar See on Instagram Louie's Bar is a bit more unassuming than its sister Pour Guys-owned watering hole, Tempest...to say the least. But it's this bar's bashful, brick-faced facade that makes is all the more worthwhile to checkout. A former whalers drinking establishment, with roots back to the 1930s, Louie's Bar splays its daily round of cocktails, mocktails, and other drinks across chalkboards. Upscale pub grub include such morsels like pork belly tacos, vegan cauliflower burger, you name it. // Open daily; 55 Stevenson St. (SoMa), pourguys.com
Tempest Bar & Box See on Instagram The long-standing and undoubtedly most popular dive bar in San Francisco, Tempest is the brick-exposed, rustic mecca for frugal drinks and live music (though shows remain on hold due to Covid). The bar, itself, maintains some of its old vintage 50's-era fixtures, mixed in with modern-day technologies and convienes (free WiFi!) The Tempest, too, doubles as a culinary playground for Box Kitchen; the chicken karaage nuggets are, alone, worth the after-work-day wait. // Open for outdoor seating and takeout 11:30am to midnight weekdays, 3:30pm to midnight Saturday and Sunday; 431 Natoma St. (FiDi), pourguys.com/tempest-bar
The Saloon See on Instagram Set in a late-1800s atmosphere, The Saloon presents itself as a window into a simpler, less high-strung way of drinking in the city. Live music is a daily calendar event, where relaxed vibes and a diverse crowds intersect across the bartop; The Saloon, above all else, is an ode to an SF of past, one you can see, hear, and even smell when walking through their single narrow entryway. Cash is the preferred payment method here, so make sure you've got some bills on you, beforehand. Please note that, as of press time, The Saloon remains temporarily closed due to Covid-19 but is expected to reopen in Summer 2021. // 1232 Grant Ave. (Jackson Square), sfblues.net/saloon
Its hard, she said. There are risks both ways.
As they did at Christian Living Communities facilities, vaccine mandates at nursing homes around the country appear to be pushing vaccinations up. The national vaccination rate for nursing home staff jumped from 67 to 74 percent between mid-September and mid-October, according to an AARP analysis of government data, as a wave of nursing home chains, individual facilities and states activated the requirements for workers. Thats the largest monthly increase since AARP began tracking COVID-19 vaccination data in June.
A federal mandate for most staff in health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid dollars, which includes nursing homes, will also take effect in early January.
But even as the mandates appear to be working, many long-term care operators say they are intensifying staffing shortages. Thats especially true in pockets of the country where vaccine hesitancy is high. While shortages and high turnover have long plagued the long-term care workforce, the pandemic has exacerbated them, raising more concerns about inadequate care for residents. The pandemic has killed more than 186,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other settings, representing more than a quarter of all U.S. coronavirus deaths.
Almost a third of the nations 15,000-plus nursing homes recently reported a shortage of nurses or aides, according to AARPs analysis, representing the worst monthly shortfall since the government began collecting COVID-19 data from nursing homes in May 2020. In Maine, Washington and Minnesota, more than 60 percent of facilities reported shortages. In Alaska, 81 percent did.
A recent survey of 1,200 senior care providers by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), which lobbies on behalf of more than 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide, paints an even bleaker picture: 99 percent of nursing homes and 96 percent of assisted living facilities said they didnt have enough workers. And more than a third of nursing homes said they were very concerned that the issue might force them to close.
While we support the overall intent of this [federal] policy, we are concerned that the execution will exacerbate an already dire workforce crisis in long-term care, Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of AHCA/NCAL, said of the federal mandate.
A building wave of vaccine mandates
Requirements that long-term care staffers get inoculated have been scattered. A few private companies acted early, handing them down to employees as soon as residents and staff were prioritized for COVID-19 vaccines at the end of last year. When vaccine availability increased and more data emerged on the safety and efficacy of shots, more companies followed suit.
After California introduced the first statewide vaccine mandate for health care workers, including those in nursing homes, in early August, more states jumped on board. Now around half of all states have active mandates of some kind, though many offer regular testing and masking as an alternative to full vaccination.
President Biden announced in mid-August that all U.S. nursing homes that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding the vast majority of facilities must require their workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The move followed AARP calls for requiring nursing home staff and residents to be vaccinated. More recently, the Biden administration announced a Jan. 4 deadline for worker compliance, with no option to test out. Assisted living, memory care and other long-term care facilities are regulated by the states and are not subject to the federal mandate.
The mandates have clearly prompted more vaccinations. As of mid-October, staff vaccination rates exceeded 90 percent in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, where vaccinate-or-terminate policies have been adopted. Rates also exceeded 90 percent in California and Hawaii, which have a regular test-out alternatives to full vaccination.
Still, more than a quarter of nursing home workers nationwide were not vaccinated as of mid-October, according to AARPs analysis. And recently, even as many mandates took effect, COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes rose to their highest levels nationally since last winters peaks. While the death rate was only around one-tenth of what it was last winter, the 2,000 COVID-19 deaths that occurred between mid-September and mid-October represent a sixfold increase since early summer.
It may seem low compared to the course of the pandemic says AARPs Ari Houser, a senior methods adviser and coauthor of AARPs analysis, but more than 2,000 [residents] dying from COVID in just one month is not a small number.
More ways to avoid heartburn
Sometimes it not just what you eat, but how you eat. Check out these tips for taming those searing symptoms.
Dont slouch when eating. It may be tempting to settle into the cushions and watch TV while inhaling that plate of Buffalo wings. But sitting less than straight while you chow down can encourage gastric juices to head in the wrong direction. Doctors say its also important stay upright for 45 to 60 minutes after eating. If stomach acid does escape, gravity will send that noxious stuff back to where it belongs: your stomach. Liquid and gas want to go to the path of least resistance, Pichetshote says. If youre laying down it can easily go up toward your head. If youre a little more upright, it has to fight gravity to move upward. The same goes for sleeping: Wait at least two to three hours after eating before hitting the sack.
Find your sweet spot. Overeating is never a good idea. When your stomach is distended and bloated, acid can rise back into the esophagus, triggering symptoms. But an empty stomach can cause problems, too. Go more than three to four hours without a meal or snack, and stomach acid which would usually be used in the digestive process to break down food collects. The best approach? Eat smaller meals and eat slowly. And choose water to wash things down.
Loosen the waistband. Clothes that are snug around midsection can constrict the belly area, squeezing your stomach and pushing acid up into the esophagus, says Gulchin Ergun, M.D., a gastroenterology specialist in Houston and professor of medicine and digestive disorders at Houston Methodist Hospital.
Know the 8 worst foods for acid reflux or heartburn
Experts say you can uncover your specific triggers by paying close attention to how your body reacts to what youre eating. (Keeping a food diary can help.) But you may well find one of the following eight foods pops up as a problem.
1. Fried, fatty foods. Talk about a triple whammy. First, foods that are high in fat and drenched in oil (bacon and sausage, French fries, potato chips and doughnuts, to name a few) cause the lower esophageal sphincter the ring of muscle connecting the esophagus and stomach to relax, allowing acid to leak out and up into the esophagus. Also, they are digested slowly and sit in your stomach longer, giving gastric acid more time to work its way up into your esophagus, increasing your risk of heartburn. And high-fat food can cause weight gain. That extra poundage increases pressure on your abdomen, making it easier for fluid to travel upward, into the esophagus. Tip: Opt instead for lean cuts of meat, chicken and fish, cooked on the grill or in the oven.
2. Citrus fruits. Their vitamin C may be the draw, but these fruits high acid content makes them risky for reflux. (Our stomachs naturally produce a lot of acid; why make things worse?) Lemons and limes are the biggest culprits, but oranges, grapefruit, grapes and blueberries make the list, too. Tip: Offset their acidity by buffering them with more alkaline (less acidic) foods, such as low-fat yogurt.
3. Tomatoes. Also highly acidic, this common base for many meals is also a culprit in causing gastric acid to back up into the esophagus and no, cooking tomatoes wont help. Tip: If you cant resist the robust flavor of marinara sauce, neutralize the acid by adding one-quarter teaspoon of baking soda to your recipe.
4. Chocolate. Where to begin? Its high fat content, caffeine and theobromine, a compound found in the cacao bean, can all trigger acid reflux. More bad news: Chocolate causes the intestines to release serotonin, which causes the lower esophageal sphincter to relax and open, allowing that unwanted flow back up the esophagus. Tip: Dark chocolate, which contains less fat than milk chocolate, can be less likely to cause acid reflux.
5. Peppermint. A cup of refreshing, mint-infused tea can calm a turbulent tummy. But peppermint, in any form, can also cause gastric reflux and heartburn. Tip: Savor a cup of soothing chamomile tea or suck on licorice-flavored hard candy to soothe your stomach.
6. Carbonated beverages. The bubbles in carbonated beverages are like air pockets, expanding in your belly. This increases pressure on the esophageal sphincter, increasing the risk for acid to reflux into the esophagus. Tip: Try decaf iced tea or dress up tap water with slices of cucumber.
7. Coffee. While studies on the subject are mixed, some have shown that caffeinated beverages may impair the function of the muscles that separate the esophagus and stomach. Whats more, drinking caffeinated coffee may also increase the amount of acid that your stomach produces. Tip: If a decaf brew isnt for you, try a dark roast coffee (it tends to have less caffeine per bean that lighter roasts). Or cozy up to a cup of herbal tea.
8. Alcohol. More reasons to drink in moderation: Alcohol can irritate the esophagus and make the stomach produce more acid. It also relaxes that gateway of the lower esophageal sphincter muscle. Tip: When it comes to wine, white is more acidic than red and may cause more heartburn. Beer is acidic, and its carbonated both bad news. But it has a lower alcohol content compared to other alcoholic beverages, and may be better for heartburn. Prefer the stronger stuff? Know this: Darker drinks (brandy, whisky and dark rum) contain compounds called congeners, which can increase stomach irritation and heartburn symptoms.
Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office
As puppy buying rises, so do scams, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC), which says red flags can help spot bad actors online. Its guidance, which also applies to purchasing a cat or another kind of pet online, urges consumers to be dogged about due diligence and to know the four red flags.
Scammers post fake litters online or pretend to be someone theyre not, usually an existing breeder, AKC officials say. If you arent careful, you could send a breeder money and never receive a puppy or follow-up communication. Fake listings appear on bogus websites as well as on legitimate sites like Craigslist. Some scammers pose as reputable breeders by stealing their personal information.
Here are four red flags of puppy scams:
1. No phone calls. Fraudulent sellers, often in foreign countries, prefer to communicate by email, not by phone. (In the highlighted case, the defendant and a victim trying to buy a miniature dachshund exchanged more than 100 text messages in a week during March 2020. The dog never arrived, and the victim lost $1,840. That month, another victim traded 900 texts with him over nine days.)
A reputable breeder will communicate by phone, video chat or in person.
2. Copycat or stock photos. Photos of the dog or the text of the ad may be found on multiple websites. Search for the text in an ad listing to see if the seller copied and pasted it from another site. Or do a reverse image search of a photo on a site such as images.google.com.
3. A sketchy payment method. Avoid wiring money or paying with gift cards or a payment app such as Venmo. (An FBI agent in the accompanying case said criminals prefer that customers pay through means that can obscure the recipients identity to avoid law enforcement detection. The agent also cited cryptocurrency and money transfers such as Western Union or MoneyGram.)
4. A price too good to be true. If a purebred dog is being offered at a deeply discounted price, thats typically a fraud. And if a seller says he or she register the dog, call the organization to confirm that.
BPH Investment in Advent Energy
Perth, Nov 17, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - BPH Energy Limited ( ASX:BPH ) is pleased to advise that it has completed an investment of $2,271,450 in investee Advent Energy Pty Ltd's under Advent's Offer Information Statement that takes BPH's direct shareholding in Advent to 36.1%.About BPH Energy Limited
BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) is an Australian Securities Exchange listed company developing biomedical research and technologies within Australian Universities and Hospital Institutes.
The company provides early stage funding, project management and commercialisation strategies for a direct collaboration, a spin out company or to secure a license.
BPH provides funding for commercial strategies for proof of concept, research and product development, whilst the institutional partner provides infrastructure and the core scientific expertise.
BPH currently partners with several academic institutions including The Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT).
Mineral Resource Update
Perth, Nov 17, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Over the past 18 months, Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited ( ASX:WMC ) ( FRA:NZ3 ) ( OTCMKTS:WMXCF ) drilled over 175,000 metres de-risking and advancing the new Wiluna gold mine towards production which will commence in December 2021.The Wiluna Mining Operation is a large, long-life open pit and underground mining operation located in Western Australia with production of 52koz in FY 2021 expanding to circa 120,000oz per year by June 2022, and further expansion to greater than 250,000oz envisaged in FY 2024.The significant 28% increase in Indicated Resources affirms the Company's strategy over the past 18 months of drilling to upgrade Resources and Reserves through systematic infill drilling at high-grade (>5 g/t) initial mining areas to support near-term production.Stockpiles of approximately 100,000 tonnes of development ore are already on surface ready for processing through the new concentrator (Figure 1*) in December 2021 with gold concentrate expected from January 2022 ramping to commercial production of 120,000 ounces per year by June 2022.Wiluna has a growing high-grade gold endowment of 15,000 ounces per vertical metre over three main gold structures with a combined strike length of approximately 10km, and further drilling is expected to increase this in the top 600 metres of the Wiluna Mining Centre. Historical mining extended to 1,000m and drilling to 1,200m below surface, indicating that the highly continuous gold structures remain open and provide considerable opportunities for growth (Figure 2*).SUMMARY OF RESOURCES STATEMENT 2021The Company's Annual Mineral Resource Estimate has been compiled in accordance with the Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code 2012 Edition), Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules and ASX Guidance Note 31. Full details in relation to this estimate are provided in the Appendix to this announcement titled 'JORC (2012) Table 1'.- The Mineral Resource update for 2021 includes the Wiluna deposits (Wiluna Mining Centre), as well as the Matilda, Lake Way and Galaxy deposits, stockpiles, and tailings available for retreatment.- Wiluna Mining Centre total open pit and underground Mineral Resource is 36.0Mt @ 3.90 g/t for 4.51Moz (60% Measured & Indicated), Table 1*.- Large-scale inventory at higher cut-offs, including 3.11Moz @ 5.81 g/t above a 3.5 g/t cut-off, and 2.02Moz @ 7.37 g/t above a 5g/t cut-off (Table 2*).- The Matilda, Lake Way, and Galaxy Mineral Resources, which are located within a 20km radius of the Wiluna Mining Centre, contribute a combined 332koz @ 1.93 g/t to the Company's total MRE (Figure 3*).- Stockpiles and tailings available for retreatment located adjacent to the Wiluna processing plant contribute a combined 685koz @ 0.58 g/t to the Company's total MRE.The Company has achieved its goal to build at least a 2.5Moz total Measured & Indicated Resource by the end of FY 2022. The high-quality, higher-confidence Resource will underpin an Ore Reserve update that is currently underway as part of the Stage 2 Feasibility Study and due for completion in the March quarter of 2022.The Company has invested over $35 million since February 2020 to drill over 175,000m of RC and diamond core utilising up to 8 rigs, in a major program supporting the Company's total MRE.The focus of this drilling has been to:i) Increase the level of geological confidence in the Mineral Resource at the Wiluna Mining Centre.ii) Increase the confidence in high-grade, high-priority mining areas in the 1 to 5 year mine planning window, particularly in the North Mine area at Bulletin- Lennon, Happy Jack and Essex (Table 3*).iii) Grow the Ore Reserve.The updated Mineral Resource at these priority target areas is shown in Table 3, with substantial >3.5 g/t zones that may be brought into the mine plan during the in-progress Feasibility Study and Ore Reserves update. Further targets for Indicated Resource conversion and mine plan extensions include the South Mine area and the West Mine area (Figure 4 & 5*).Significant high-grade and higher confidence Indicated Resources have been defined outside of the current Ore Reserves, in adjacent areas, which shows the potential for additional Ore Reserves to be defined based on the latest resource models (Figure 4 & 5*).*To view the full release including tables and figures, please visit:About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd
Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential.
Commences Blasting at Anthill Mine
Brisbane, Nov 17, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Copper producer Austral Resources Australia Ltd ( ASX:AR1 ) is pleased to announce that the first blast at Anthill Mine has been fired on 16 November 2021.Highlights:- First blast fired on 16 November 2021, a key development milestone- 110,000 cubic meters (BCM) of ironstone cover broken over Anthill east pit- Anthill Mine site facilities and haul roads are under construction- Austral is on track to be producing 10,000tpa of copper cathode for four years from mid 2022The first production blast is designed to establish initial mining benches at Anthill East pit - in preparation for bulk earthmoving in January 2022. First ore mining is expected to commence in March/April 2022. Austral is focussed on developing its new Anthill Mine and ramping production to 10,000t of copper cathode by mid 2022 at Mt Kelly, which is scheduled to process 5,000t/day of oxide ore at full production.Anthill Mine DevelopmentThe inaugural blast at the Anthill Mine is a key milestone for Austral's development plans. It is the result of several years of careful planning and design by the Austral team and is a crucial first step towards progressing to 10,000tpa cathode production by mid 2022.The maiden blast was attended by Austral Executive Director, Dan Jauncey, site management, Thiess Mining Services, Orica and Roc-Drill, with all parties pleased to witness this key event. Additional blasting is planned through to mid-December 2021, with the aim of having significant overburden material prepared for the commencement of bulk mining in January 2022.Approval to commence mining at Anthill was received on 25 October 2021 with the first blast achieved within three weeks. The pit areas are being cleared with vegetation and topsoil stockpiled for future mine rehabilitation. Thiess is currently mobilising its fleet whilst clearing continues and site infrastructure is installed.Steve Tambanis, Austral's Chief Executive Officer commented:"We're delighted to break ground within three weeks of obtaining approval to commence mine development. Employees and contractors have worked tirelessly to achieve this key development milestone - both safely and cost effectively.Site works are proceeding as scheduled with bulk earthmoving planned to commence in January 2022 and first ore deliveries expected in April 2022, weather permitting. Both Anthill Mine development and Mt Kelly plant refurbishment are in full swing.Our goal is to achieve planned copper production of 10,000tpa commencing mid 2022 for a four year period.Exploration and development activities are underway with a further update planned over the next month. Historic geological, geochemical and geophysical data is currently being evaluated with several new prospects identified adjacent to the Anthill mine and exploration recruitment being finalised.We look forward to updating shareholders as we prepare to commence maiden production. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our employees and contractors for their collective efforts to develop Anthill and Mt Kelly in a safe and timely manner. We look forward to delivering shareholder value over the coming period."*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Austral Resources Australia Ltd
Austral Resources Australia Ltd (ASX:AR1) is a copper cathode producer operating in the Mt Isa region, Queensland, Australia. Its Mt Kelly copper oxide heap leach and solvent extraction/electrowinning (SXEW) plant has a nameplate capacity of 30,000tpa of copper cathode. Austral is developing its Anthill oxide copper mine which has an Ore Reserve of 5.06Mt at 0.94% Cu. The Company expects to produce 40,000t of copper cathode over a four-year period from mid-2022.
Austral owns a significant copper inventory with a JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 60Mt at 0.7% Cu and 1,940km2 of highly prospective exploration tenure in the heart of the Mt Isa district, a world class copper and base metals province. The Company is implementing an intensive exploration and development programme designed to extend the life of mine and increase then review options to commercialise its copper resources.
High Priority Gold Targets at Woods Point Gold Project
Ballarat, Nov 17, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - White Rock Minerals Limited ( ASX:WRM ) ( OTCMKTS:WRMCF ) is pleased to provide an update on the regional exploration review and the strategy being developed to advance multiple targets towards a significant gold discovery within the Company's large 660km2 tenement holding at the Woods Point Gold Project.Following completion of the merger of White Rock and Austar Gold in August 2021, a review of the Company's commanding 660km2 Victorian tenement package in the Walhalla Synclinorium, encompassing the Woods Point goldfield, has highlighted several key factors confirming White Rock's view of the gold exploration prospectivity of the Woods Point Gold Project. White Rock is now progressing plans to formalise its regional exploration program going into 2022.Key Highlights- The Woods Point Gold Project contains:o 197 or 60% of the 320 known historic primary gold mineral occurrences within the Walhalla Synclinorium.o 95% of all historic gold production outside of the 3 major deposits (Walhalla, Morning Star & A1).o 73 mineral occurrences with recorded production grades >10g/t gold,Including 34 mineral occurrences >30g/t gold, andIncluding 22 mineral occurrences >60g/t gold.o Only 8 gold prospects have public records of previous drilling.o Multiple historic mines with significant production have never been drilled.o The majority of historic gold mining was restricted to levels above the water table, usually less than 100 metres vertically (except for the 3 major deposits: Walhalla, Morning Star & A1).- White Rock has identified the Wallaby-Eldorado-Shakespeare trend as a high priority target with Wallaby ready for drill testing, subject to an approved Work Plan.- Wallaby is a dyke bulge with similar width and quartz reef development to Morning Star and has never been drilled.- The overall Wallaby-Eldorado-Shakespeare trend extends for over 2,000 metres with the potential for a large dyke host to be defined in multiple dyke bulge positions or as a continuous structure.- Historic production records indicate 24,000 ounces of gold was produced from the three mines with Eldorado recording production at a grade of 75g/t gold.Matt Gill, MD&CEO of White Rock Minerals commented:-"The Walhalla Synclinorium is host to an estimated 6Moz of gold production, and White Rock controls a 660km2 tenement covering the core area. We are committed to systematically assessing our significant tenement package using modern exploration methods to identify targets with the potential to host million-ounce gold quartz reef deposits.Our land package contains 197 of the 320 gold mineral occurrences recorded in the Synclinorium, with 73 gold deposits recording production at >10g/t gold, of which 34 are >30g/t. The majority of these have never been drilled with only 8 gold prospects in White Rock's exploration tenements having records of drilling.As the first modern explorers on historically proven ground, we see great potential upside from this exploration program and look forward to progressing our plans during 2022, starting with the Wallaby-Eldorado-Shakespeare trend."The Company controls a 660km2 tenement land package that covers the core area of the Walhalla Synclinorium, host to an estimated 6Moz of gold production (Figures 1 and 2*). The land package contains 197 of the 320 primary gold mineral occurrences recorded in the Synclinorium, with 73 gold deposits recording production at >10g/t gold of which 34 are >30g/t. (Figure 3*). The majority of these have never been drilled with only 8 gold prospects in White Rock's exploration tenements having records of drilling (Figure 4*). White Rock plans to begin drill testing the highest priority historic prospects during 2022, with the Wallaby-Eldorado-Shakespeare trend the first to be drilled once permitting is completed.Wallaby-Eldorardo-Shakespeare have combined production of 24,000 ounces gold with Eldorado recording production at 75g/t gold. The Wallaby prospect is the most advanced and is drill ready with the mapped dyke having similar width and quart reef distribution characteristics to Morning Star, as well as a dyke margin vertical quartz reef that could be analogous to the Cohens Reef at Walhalla, which yielded 1.5 Million ounces at 32g/t gold. Surface mapping and prospecting along strike to the south over the Eldorado and Shakespeare mines will proceed while drilling at Wallaby to better understand the overall strike extent and size potential of this area.Work has also commenced planning orientation surface geochemistry and geophysics across known dyke bulges hosting gold mineralisation. Orientation data will then be used to design a systematic surface geochemistry and airborne geophysics program aimed at identifying new priority targets.White Rock is committed to assessing the Walhalla Synclinorium using modern exploration methods not used at the Woods Point Gold Project previously, and to apply this disciplined approach systematically to identify targets that have the potential to host million-ounce gold quartz reef deposits. This is likely to include:- Detailed airborne magnetics/electromagnetics (for direct dyke detection and detailed structural interpretation);- Airborne LiDAR (Digital laser topographic mapping capable of identifying unknown historic workings);- Stream geochemistry (sensitive precious metal analysis and dyke pathfinder elements); and- Soil and rock geochemistry (sensitive precious metal analysis and dyke pathfinder elements).Understanding the structural architecture with respect to the controls on mineralisation has been identified as a critical layer of knowledge to assist in identifying the highest priority targets with the potential to host the largest deposits in the Walhalla Synclinorium.White Rock sees enormous potential for the discovery of a significant high-grade gold discovery based on:- The proven existence of million-ounce gold deposits at Walhalla and Morning Star;- The extensive distribution of high-grade gold mineral occurrences throughout White Rock's tenement land holding;- The lack of historic exploitation below the water table; and- The lack of exploration, historic and modern.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About White Rock Minerals Ltd
White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) is a diversified explorer and near-stage producer, headquartered in Ballarat, Victoria. The Company's flagship exploration project is Red Mountain in central Alaska. At Red Mountain, there are already two high grade zinc - silver - gold - lead VMS deposits, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9.1 million tonnes @ 609g/t AgEq / 13% ZnEq. The Company is also exploring its recently discovered large intrusion related gold anomaly at Last Chance, also located in the Tintina gold belt of Alaska, home to multi-million gold ounce deposits like Pogo, Fort Knox and the Donlin Project. The Company also has the Mt Carrington project, located near Drake, in Northern NSW, which is a near-production precious metals asset with a resource of 341,000 ounces of gold and 23.2 million ounces of silver on an approved mining lease, and with a Gold First PFS and JORC Reserve.
NEW YORK An influential U.S. advisory panel will discuss expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to all adults Friday, a move that could make the shots available nationwide as early as this weekend.
Some cities and states already allow all adults to get boosters of Pfizers vaccine, but it is not yet official U.S. policy. In the last week, California, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia and Colorado expanded the shots to all adults. New York City made a similar move.
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators last week to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to sign off on Pfizers application before the advisory panel meets Friday. The final step CDCs official recommendation could come soon after the meeting.
The move would greatly expand who is eligible. Boosters are now recommended for people who initially received their second Pfizer or Moderna shots at least six months ago if theyre 65 or older or are at high risk of COVID-19 because of health problems or their job or living conditions. Boosters are also recommended for people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months ago.
Nearly 31 million Americans have already received a dose beyond their original vaccination, including those with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients who need an extra dose to be fully vaccinated.
While all three vaccines used in the U.S. continue to offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 illness and death, the shots effectiveness against milder infection can wane over time.
Pfizer has submitted early results of a booster study in 10,000 people to make its case that its time to further expand the booster campaign. The study found that a booster could restore protection against symptomatic infection to about 95%, even as the extra-contagious delta variant was surging. Side effects were similar to those seen with the companys first two shots.
Members of the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, have debated in prior meetings whether there is sufficient evidence that boosters are currently needed for all adults.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this story from Washington.
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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.
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Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
The Las Vegas, New Mexico, police detective was familiar with Eric Vigil from prior run-ins.
But when the detective was called to investigate Vigils homicide at the San Miguel County jail, he said the 40-year-old was unrecognizable, according to court records.
The detective said Vigils lips were sunken in from having no teeth left, his face was purple and his nose almost completely flat. The blood was spattered around the cell with so much energy that pieces of flesh stuck to the walls.
Seven fellow inmates were charged Monday in a two-minute beating that left Vigil dead on Nov. 1 at the San Miguel County Detention Center.
Conrad Atencio, 25, Dathian Lucero, 24, Daniel Magallanes, 22, Nathan Pacheco, 25, Devin Morales, 21, Pierre Lovato, 44, and Joaquin Richardson, 19, are each charged with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence.
Some of the inmates told authorities Vigil feared for his reputation as a cage fighter was a bully who would always start fights in the jail. One inmate said they jumped Vigil, killing him, after he challenged them to a fight.
The warden of the jail did not respond to questions from the Journal.
Vigil had been held at the jail since June 7 and was awaiting trial on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was accused of having a pistol and a sawn-off shotgun.
In 2013, Vigil was acquitted in the 2007 fatal shooting of two New Mexico Highlands University students, while his older brother was sentenced to 30 years in the case.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court:
Jail officials were alerted around 5:30 p.m. by an inmate in the Echo pod who said another inmate had slipped and fallen. They found Vigil on the floor in a large cell on the top floor. He was pronounced dead at Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas.
Surveillance video showed that the inmates surrounded Vigil and followed him to the cell after the staff left the pod. Vigil tried to close the cell door behind him, but Lovato caught the door and the men got inside.
The video showed Magallanes hit Vigil and the other inmates drag him to the middle of the cell, and attack him as other inmates watched from the doorway. The inmates leave the cell, and shake hands and hug each other in a celebratory fashion before going to the showers. Ten minutes later, guards were made aware and locked down the pod.
By the time a Las Vegas police detective arrived, the men had washed up and changed clothes, but many of them had swollen knuckles and no defensive injuries. Atencio, Magallanes, Morales and Lucero all refused to speak with police, and began crying when told Vigil had died.
Pacheco told police Vigil was a bully who was feared in the pod and everyone was getting tired of him. He said the only way for any of the inmates to come out alive was to attack Vigil at once comparing the incident to the biblical story of David and Goliath.
Another inmate, who watched the beating, told police Vigil challenged everyone to a fight before going into the cell. He said that, after Vigil fell down, everyone attacked him. The inmate told police he was grossed out and there were teeth everywhere.
An autopsy found Vigil had no defensive wounds indicating he never fought back and his skull was filled with blood. He had multiple facial fractures and, due to the blood spatter, the pathologist found Vigil was jumped on, and stomped on, and beaten.
Through my past experiences and encounters I could no longer recognize (Vigil), the detective wrote in the complaint.
Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE A Taos Pueblo woman found dead outside a residence there Saturday has been identified by her family as 29-year-old DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo, a well-known New Mexico artist.
A family member confirmed her death to the Journal, and noted she was the daughter of Taos Pueblo artist David Gary Suazo, but would not discuss any circumstances of her death.
The death is being investigated by the FBI and the Taos Pueblo Department of Public Safety, an FBI spokesman said in an email Monday. The agency did not release a name.
Pueblo police referred inquiries to the Taos Pueblo Governors Office, which did not return a call for comment Tuesday. The pueblo has been closed to nontribal members due to the pandemic.
Steven McFarland, owner of the Revolt Gallery in Taos, knew Suazo for several years and exhibited her work in several shows. He said he last spoke with her Thursday night at the gallery.
She was totally in good spirits, said McFarland in a Tuesday phone interview. She was one of the purest, sweetest souls I have met in my life. She was the epitome of her corn maidens (depicted in her art).
My friends and me, we are all shocked, we are just devastated. A tragic loss.
Suazo divided her time between Taos, where she was born and raised, and Santa Fe, where she received a bachelors degree in studio arts in May from the Institute of American Indian Arts, according to her website.
Her work has been on display in numerous shows and galleries, and she participated in the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Santa Fe Indian Market for almost 10 years, and in the Artist Market at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in 2016 and 2018.
Her art also included a painted room in the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque and shows at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe and the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos.
Suazo described herself as a Taos Pueblo and Dine contemporary 2D artist, on her website.
The Institute of American Indian Arts noted her passing on its website Tuesday evening: We are deeply saddened to acknowledge the loss of DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo (Dine, Taos Pueblo), who tragically passed away last weekend.
DeAnna loved celebrating her Dine and Taos Pueblo heritage, and creating art that reflected Pueblo cultural significance and aesthetics, the tribute said. She will be remembered as a dedicated student, a devoted friend, a kind person and a passionate artist whose creativity knew no bounds.
Anime influence
Her art grew out of a collaboration of different styles, Suazo said in a radio interview with KCEI, Taos-Red River, last month. Her parents, both painters, focused on pueblo architecture and Southwest landscapes, but she was inspired by anime, a style of Japanese television and film animation.
Growing up, I watched anime with my older brother and older sister, and cousins, Suazo said in the interview. So that really, really plays on to memory and bringing memory into my art for a while, I was painting just like them (her parents), and I wanted to separate my style and my image from theirs.
I really wanted to represent pueblo people today, whereas a lot of representation I see is from the past or its from such outside perspectives as the Taos Society of Artists and bringing anime into it makes it new, makes it fresh, it makes it recognizable as a modern thing of today, Suazo said during the 30-minute interview.
She also described the influence of Sailor Moon, an animated series and books depicting the adventures of a Japanese schoolgirl whose author focused on the strength of femininity and the power of the moon. That reminded Suazo of pueblo stories handed down from her great-grandmother to her mother to her.
I was always drawn to women empowering women; even though they are little girls, they are still able to help each other in a strong way, and help the world with the power of the moon, she said. What reminds me of Sailor Moon in my pieces is her hair. She is recognizable for these two buns on her head and, in a way, they reminded me of Taos Pueblo stylized buns and thats what I incorporated into my pieces..
I really emphasize the hair in my work, and then that emphasizes the strength in their culture. A lot of us have long hair and we keep it that way to participate in our religious doings.
SANTA FE The New Mexico Public Education Department is asking state lawmakers for a $6.7 million budget increase, citing the need to address an ongoing lawsuit that centers on accusations the state is failing to meet constitutional obligations to provide essential educational opportunities to all students.
State Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus is expected to release an action plan next month that would address parts of the legal challenge. Nearly $5 million of the budget increase would fund compliance with state court orders related to the lawsuit.
Most legislative funding for education, around $3 billion each year, goes directly to school districts. Additional funding comes from the states large endowment fund, which has grown in recent decades thanks to oil royalties and market investments.
The Public Education Department also oversees the distribution of federal funds, including $1 billion this year in pandemic relief. Steinhaus told members of the Legislative Finance Committee that the biggest need is staff to help with management of the funds.
His request to boost the agencys budget from $14.5 million to $21 million would include the hiring of at least 33 employees.
I realize thats a large request, he told legislators, adding he believes its the bare minimum.
Legislators asked Steinhaus why the department wants money for more positions when around a quarter of the funded positions in the department are unfilled.
You have 59 positions that youre funding for that are not filled and now youre wanting 33 more and I just guess my question is why? said Rep. Candie Sweetser, D-Deming.
Steinhaus said he had the same question when he became education secretary three months ago. He said he has filled staffing roles in the hiring department of his agency and has dozens of interviews being set up.
He insisted that he needs the staff to monitor a growing set of state and federal programs and funds. And so I am confident that I can build a team of people with that extra funding that can meet those requirements, he said.
One member of the Legislature questioned the need for a $102,000-per year position listed in the budget as an equity specialist.
Whats a priority in my district is less administrative overhead and more certified personnel in the classroom, said Rep. Phelps Anderson of Roswell, a former Republican who became an independent in February.
Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
As Use of Force investigations continue to be a sore spot at the Albuquerque Police Department, there are now about 553 cases 83% of a burgeoning backlog where even if an officer is found to have used force improperly he or she cannot be disciplined.
In his latest report covering February through the end of July, the independent monitor overseeing the APD reform effort roasted investigators, supervisors and leadership for the backlog, saying that for the past two reporting periods there has been a virtual shut down of use of force investigations in the Internal Affairs Force Division.
Out of 216 level 2 use of force cases those resulting in injury or expected to cause injury opened during the reporting period, only seven had been closed as of when the report was written and only one was closed within 90 days as is required by the settlement agreement. For the 91 level 3 cases resulting in serious injury or death only two were closed.
Given the amount of focus on the problems related to IAFD (Internal Affairs Force Division) investigations in previous monitors reports, and the exceptional amounts of technical assistance provided by the monitoring team relating to IAFD processes, we can only conclude that this new backlog was intentional, and yet another canard designed to ensure that officers are not disciplined for known policy violations, James Ginger wrote in the report. We consider this another example of deliberate non-compliance exhibited by APD.
By and large, city and APD officials including Police Chief Harold Medina and superintendent of police reform Sylvester Stanley dont dispute the data, but they do take issue with the way its presented. The police department has been in the midst of reforms since 2014 when a Department of Justice investigation found officers had a practice of using excessive force against residents.
Using that inflammatory hyperbolic language is improper editorializing in a whole lot of areas, said City Attorney Esteban Aguilar. It improperly ascribes intent to the work of our officers, the women and men who are on the ground, trying to not only keep us safe, but trying to implement all of the provisions of constitutional community based policing.
Aguilar also pointed out that many of the fixes APD is trying had not yet taken effect when the reporting period ended.
For instance, the city and the DOJ agreed that APD should bring in an outside team of investigators to oversee force investigations. The idea was launched as a way for the city to stave off being put in receivership for non-compliance with the Court Approved Settlement Agreement laying out the reforms. A stipulated order establishing the team was filed in February and then it took a number of months to request proposals and choose a contractor, Aguilar said. He said he does not anticipate the backlog continuing to grow now that the team is in place.
We have failures, you know, we still have 37% operational compliance to attain, so we do have a long way to go, Aguilar said. But were not at the beginning of this process. And, I think it does a disservice to the work of the department, but also the work of the community members who have been engaged in this process, and who have been actually asking for meaningful change as well, because weve been walking with them step by step throughout this process.
Last fall, APD Forward a coalition of police reform advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico was one of the stakeholders to ask for the city to be held in contempt of court and to be put under a receivership.
Barron Jones, a senior policy strategist with the ACLU, said after reading the report, its clear that APD still has a lot of work to do.
Unfortunately its more of the same, Jones said. While we recognize the departments efforts to improve training and that the performance metric unit is up and helping folks analyze trends we believe that the crux of the reform lies in the departments ability to address bad behavior, or out of policy violations. That doesnt seem to be happening yet during another monitor report.
Jones said right now its unclear what APD Forward will do in response to the report.
Although Ginger was incensed by the use of force investigation backlog which he pointed out at 667 was more than double a previous backlog APD worked through from 2018 to 2020 Medina said it was expected since the solutions, namely the External Force Investigative Team, werent yet in place.
Medina said its easy for someone who is thousands of miles away to point at APDs problems and say its intentional, but in fact everyone is working to comply in the best way they can.
Its a matter that we dont know how to do stuff to their liking, or to their standards, Medina said. I think thats been a problem from the very beginning is that instantly when APD fails, theyre tagged by the monitoring team, DOJ, as Oh, APD is resisting this. No, you guys are all here because APD sometimes doesnt know how to do this stuff. And thats what we should be doing is if were doing it wrong, correct us more quickly, and give us the lag time to put the fixes in place.
Other things of note in the Monitors Fourteenth Report:
After backsliding during the previous monitoring period, APD has regained compliance in a handful of paragraphs, for a slight overall increase.
APD stayed static in primary compliance regarding the development of policies and secondary compliance regarding training of officers on those policies with 100% and 82% respectively. In operational compliance whether officers are following policies and being corrected when they dont the department reached 62%, which is a 3 percentage point increase over the previous period.
These data depict an organization that is willing to chip away at the margins, completing expeditiously tasks that improve efficiency and even effectiveness but steadfastly refusing to make meaningful reform to processes involving use of force, excessive use of force, the processes of police-community interactions on the street, supervision, command, and discipline, Ginger wrote.
Deputy Chief of Compliance Cori Lowe said there were a few paragraphs that APD officials requested the monitor re-evaluate after they read the draft report.
We thought that we were in higher compliance levels than what we were given, she said. And in all fairness, the monitoring team did take those into consideration and did move a few paragraphs into higher compliance and what he originally had.
As in the previous report, the monitor praised the Force Review Board, made up of APD command staff and others, for strong attendance and engagement.
We continue to see referrals generated to address policy, supervision, tactic, equipment, and training deficiencies, the monitor wrote. In some cases, FRB made requests for internal affairs investigations for misconduct they identified during their deliberations.
However, Ginger cautioned, the backlog of use of force cases could negatively impact the effectiveness of the FRB and the long-term influence it has over officers in the field.
The training academy, which had received low marks in the prior report, has made meaningful progress this year, including by completing the 2021 Firearms training cycle, Ginger wrote.
APD Recruitment staff continue to develop strategies and concepts for recruiting new police officers during the Pandemic, he wrote.
In addition, at a time when interest in the profession is down significantly nationwide, the APD Recruiting unit has managed to increase interest in APD by utilizing digital platforms to reach an applicant pool that now includes at least 43 states.
Detectives interrupting interviewees giving statements. Interviews that are conducted somewhat haphazardly in random locations. Detectives often dressed inappropriately and unprofessionally asking leading questions and not allowing witnesses to state what happened. A lack of essential critical listening skills.
These are some of the issues the External Force Investigative Team laid out in its first quarterly report since it started overseeing and training the Albuquerque Police Departments Internal Affairs Force Division in July. The report covers July 16 through Oct. 16.
In one case, a detective told the interviewee, off the record and prior to the interview, that he did not see any issues with the incident, the report states. The EFIT investigator addressed this with the detective, explaining it is inappropriate to provide an opinion to an employee especially prior to concluding an investigation.
EFIT is made up of three teams with one supervisor, three full-time investigators and one part-time investigator. The contract is with Debra Lynn Gallant, an accounting and consulting firm in Florida, and the teams are each spending three weeks in Albuquerque at a time. During that time, investigators are on call 24/7 and must respond to a scene within an hour of being notified of a use of force, according to the report.
The teams have already made a number of suggestions.
After realizing that IAFD had a very disorganized approach once on scene, resulting in tactical officers and the subject individual remaining on scene longer then needed, EFIT made recommendations to streamline the process.
While previously union representatives would interrupt interviews, after EFIT met with them they stopped, according to the report. There are now two interview rooms dedicated to use-of-force investigations and all detectives have to wear dress shirts and ties.
Prior to EFIT, IAFD would respond to the UOF (use of force) scene, complete the on-scene process and immediately schedule interviews with all Officers, the report states. EFIT suggested that the IAFD Detective/Investigator and the EFIT Investigator prepare a detailed investigative plan that would include the appropriate Officers/Witnesses to interview after reviewing preliminary OBRD (on-body recording device) and UOF reports. There now is a policy that within 72 hours only those individuals are interviewed that are essential in making a determination whether the UOF utilized is in or out of APD policy.
They say this change sped up the process without compromising the investigation and means officers can return to the field quicker.
There are now 21 detectives, five civilian investigators and five civilians in training in IAFD, according to an APD spokesman.
Deputy Chief of Compliance Cori Lowe said EFIT has already been a valuable asset.
They have a team here at least one team in town 100% of the time, Lowe said. That is actually doing very, very well because if they see an issue on scene, they can fix it right then and there. Or they can make a recommendation in which APD is going to respond. We have yet to not take a recommendation.
As of October, IAFD and EFIT completed 38 investigations within the mandated 90-day period, a dramatic improvement from earlier this year when IAFD only completed nine within a six-month period. Of those, four out of 38 were found to be not within the use-of-force policies. This is a marked increase from the 3% of closed cases that were found to be out of policy in 2020.
Lowe, who had been the acting commander of IAFD before she was appointed deputy chief, said that doesnt necessarily mean that the force used was excessive, it also could be out of policy for a lack of de-escalation or other issues.
External Force Investigative Teams first report by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd
Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE The state agency that runs New Mexicos prison system is asking state lawmakers for $2.7 million in additional funding in the coming year part of an overall $367 million budget request to ramp up staffing levels at facilities in Grants and Santa Rosa.
The state Corrections Department took over management of the two prisons from private prison companies this month and agency Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said Tuesday the vacancy rate for corrections officers at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa was at 82.5% at the time of the takeover.
Its already been reduced slightly to about 60% due to the hiring of new officers, but the states top prison official acknowledged staffing levels are still far from ideal.
Im not going to pretend were at where we need to be, Tafoya Lucero told the Journal.
She also said the prison is currently only housing about half the inmates it can hold due to the staffing shortage, adding, I wont increase the population of that facility until its safe to do so.
Statewide, New Mexicos vacancy rate for corrections officers is at 31% despite efforts in recent years to increase pay levels and improve retention.
The starting pay rate for certified officers at state-run prisons is currently set at $20 per hour compared to about $15.75 per hour at private-run prisons.
But a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for workers at hospitals, prisons and other congregate settings imposed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration does not appears to have led to a mass employee exodus, as only a small number of guards left their jobs or were dismissed for failing to comply.
Of the 2,388 corrections officers employed at state and private-run prisons around New Mexico, 2,237 have been fully vaccinated and 140 have received medial or religious exemptions, Corrections Department spokesman Eric Harrison said.
In addition, seven corrections officers were dismissed and 19 have resigned since August instead of complying with the mandate, according to the agency.
It didnt have as big on an effect as I thought it might, Tafoya Lucero said Tuesday of the vaccine mandates impact, though she said some prisons were hit harder by resignations than others.
Some New Mexico prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks and there have been more than 2,900 recorded cases among inmates at the states 10 prisons, according to Department of Health data.
The state had 5,654 incarcerated inmates as of Tuesday or about 73% of prison bed capacity statewide, Tafoya Lucero said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the states male inmate population had dropped over 10% and the female population almost 25%, according to the New Mexico Sentencing Commission.
Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, the vice chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, said Tuesday the panel will consider the decreasing inmate population as it crafts a budget recommendation in advance of the 30-day legislative session that starts in January.
He also said the states law that bars retired state employees from returning to work while still collecting pension benefits is complicating efforts to ramp up staffing at the Grants prison in particular.
Overall, the Corrections Department is seeking a 1.2% budget increase for the fiscal year that starts in July 2022 from $363.1 million to $367.3 million.
In addition to more money for staffing the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa, the agency is also seeking additional funding to expand housing options for inmates released from custody on probation and parole.
SUMAS, Wash. Residents of this small U.S. city along the Canadian border were assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes, as Washington state and British Columbia tried to dry out from an intense, days-long rain storm that cut off key roadways and forced hundreds of evacuations.
Skies were sunny Wednesday morning in the area around Sumas, Washington, where about 500 rescues and evacuations were reported.
Were looking at going door-to-door, as waters go down in different parts of town, Sumas Mayor Kyle Christensen told The Seattle Times. Half is on dry ground, half has water.
By Wednesday afternoon, only one river in western Washington had active flood warnings.
The soaking fueled by a so-called atmospheric river that dumped torrents rain on the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia from Saturday through Monday reminded people of western Washingtons record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations.
While the weather was improving, the situation remained dire in British Columbia, where the Canadian government was sending in the military to help with floods and mudslides that destroyed parts of several major highways. One death was reported and officials said Wednesday that more deaths were expected.
Immediately across the border from Sumas, police using helicopters and boats had evacuated about 180 residents of a flooded low-lying area of Abbotsford, British Columbia. Evacuations continued Wednesday.
Mayor Henry Braun said Wednesday that conditions were bad overnight because a key pumping station was in danger of being overwhelmed. He said crews spent Tuesday night sandbagging around the station and things were holding steady.
Im feeling much better today than last night, Braun said, although he cautioned the danger had not passed.
Those evacuated in Abbotsford joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.
On Facebook, the City of Sumas said Wednesday that water levels were continuing to drop and it looked like the community wouldnt be affected by additional potential flooding in Abbotsford. It said crews were working hard to clear roads and return power to some parts of town.
These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days, the city said in another Facebook post.
To the south, a flood warning for Washingtons Skagit River will remain in effect until Thursday because it will take time for the floodwaters to drain, the National Weather Service said. Officials recommended that residents of several nearby islands evacuate.
Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide near the small community of Lillooet, British Columbia. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan declared a state of emergency Wednesday following the unprecedented flooding.
In Washingtons Whatcom County, home to Sumas, the county sheriffs office said on Facebook that authorities and search crews on Wednesday had located a body believed to be a 59-year-old man who had last been seen clinging to a tree after his truck was swept into a flooded field in the town of Everson.
In the city Ferndale, also southwest of Sumas, officials had urged people in homes and businesses Tuesday to evacuate near the rising Nooksack River and bystanders had rescued a man who had driven into floodwaters by mistake.
Evacuation notices were rescinded Wednesday and the flood warning had ended by Wednesday afternoon. Southwest of Ferndale, authorities said Wednesday that all routes off the Lummi Peninsula, home to the Lummi Nation, were closed because of water over the roads.
Officials in the city of Bellingham said only a few roads there remained closed on Wednesday because of flooding and officials were also assessing damage.
More rain fell in Bellingham from Saturday through Monday about 5.57 inches (14.14 centimeters) than normally falls there during all of November, according to National Weather Service data. The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches (13.2 centimeters) for November, the weather agency said.
Transportation officials on Washingtons Olympic Peninsula where the Coast Guard earlier in the week rescued 10 people stranded by floodwaters on Wednesday were also assessing conditions and clearing debris from roads.
Officials said Wednesday that in the far northwest corner of the peninsula, people on the Makah Reservation have been prevented from leaving or entering because of landslides on nearby highways, The Seattle Times reported.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties. On a visit to Whatcom County Wednesday, he said some 500 homes had damage from the storms.
Inslee said he spoke with the mayors of Everson and Sumas and was astonished at the devastation he saw, The Bellingham Herald reported.
Im told they did top all-time flood levels in some places, he said.
Some of the floodwaters came after warmer rains quickly melted 4 feet of snow that previously fell in the Mount Baker wilderness. Inslee said Whatcom County should prepare for repeated floods and address the causes of climate change.
We have to realize that were going to face decades of increased floods in our state of Washington, he said.
Inslee promised to use state and federal money including funds from President Joe Bidens recent infrastructure bill to ease the effects of climate change.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the mayor of Sumas, Washington.
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Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.
BATON ROUGE, La. The Louisiana inmate whose Supreme Court case was instrumental in extending the possibility of freedom to hundreds of people sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole when they were juveniles was freed on parole Wednesday after spending nearly six decades behind bars.
Henry Montgomery, 75, was released from prison just hours after the parole boards decision and went to the offices of the Louisiana Parole Project, a nonprofit which is supporting him after his release. There he was embraced by tearful staff and former juvenile lifers who were freed as a result of the court case that bears Montgomerys name.
It feels so wonderful, said Montgomery during an interview with The Associated Press. When asked what he plans to do now that he is out of prison, Montgomery said he wanted to pay his respects to his mother and grandmother and other family members who died when he was behind bars.
Montgomery had been convicted in the 1963 killing of East Baton Rouge sheriffs deputy Charles Hurt, who caught him skipping school. Montgomery was 17 at the time. He was initially sentenced to death but the states Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 1966, saying he didnt get a fair trial. The case was retried, Montgomery convicted again but this time sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He served decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
A three-member board voted unanimously in favor of parole. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held on Zoom with Montgomery appearing on camera at Angola.
Hes been in prison for 57 years. He has an excellent disciplinary record. He is a low risk by our assessment. Hes got good comments from the warden, said board member Tony Marabella as he voted to approve Montgomerys release with certain conditions including a curfew and that he have no contact with the victims family.
Montgomerys release owes back to two specific Supreme Court cases. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentencing of life without parole for juvenile offenders was cruel and unusual punishment. But it didnt settle the question of whether that decision applied retroactively or only to cases going forward.
In 2016, the Supreme Court settled the matter when it took up Montgomerys case and extended their decision on such sentences to people already in prison.
The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and releases. Since the courts Montgomery decision, about 800 people who had been sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been released, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. But, until Wednesday, Montgomery remained in prison.
After the Supreme Court decision, he was resentenced in 2017 to life with parole and the state judge who resentenced Montgomery called him a model prisoner who appears to be rehabilitated. But then the parole board rejected his application two times, the most recent rejection coming in 2019.
Andrew Hundley is a former juvenile lifer who was released due to the Montgomery decision and went on to found the Parole Project in 2016 to assist people who have served long prison sentences reenter society. He said many former juvenile lifers who were released and were able to go on with their lives felt a collective sense of guilt that Montgomery whose case made their releases possible was still behind bars. For juvenile lifers still incarcerated, his release carries a different message, Hundley said.
For individuals who continue to be in prison, Henry gives them hope that they may be judged by who they are today and not the worst mistake they ever made, Hundley said.
The Parole Project will help Montgomery with housing, signing up for health care or medications, getting an ID card and learning how to navigate society. The reentry started with a cheeseburger, fries and an orange soda his first meal out of prison and his first cellphone which staff members said they would help him set up.
Montgomery also noted the huge changes that had taken place in Baton Rouge since he was incarcerated freeways that didnt exist decades ago, for example and said he didnt even recognize some places.
Shon Williams was on hand Wednesday to welcome Montgomery. He was a former juvenile lifer who served time in Angola with Montgomery. He recalled Montgomery taking a sign language class in prison that Williams taught despite his arthritis and Montgomery giving him advice in prison to never give up. Williams said he was holding back tears watching Montgomery on Wednesday.
If it wasnt for him Id still be in Angola, Williams said.
During the hearing, Hundley and others spoke of what Montgomery had accomplished in prison including his years of work at the prisons silk screen shop and the length of his stay. He was also instrumental in establishing a boxing team.
His release was not without opposition. Hurt, the sheriffs deputy who Montgomery killed, was married and had three children. Two of his daughters have met with Montgomery in prison and forgiven him, but family members have opposed his release. A prosecutor from the area where Montgomerys crime occurred spoke against his parole as did one of the deputys daughters, Linda Hurt Woods.
I do not believe that he should be released at this time, said Woods, saying that the decision shows deep disrespect to law enforcement officers. He made a decision at 17 years old. You know right from wrong at 17. I did.
Montgomery himself said little during the roughly half-hour hearing. He is extremely hard of hearing, and his lawyer often had to repeat questions from the board members. At times Montgomery said he was struggling to find words to express himself.
Im really sorry that I, that this happened, Montgomery said. I am going to have to live with this all my life, the rest of my life. Speaking later to the AP he said: I destroyed my life, they life and the people that I hurt, referring to his own family and that of the slain deputys.
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Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal.
Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
Outlining her priorities as she enters a critical election year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will propose a reduction in New Mexicos gross receipts tax a move intended to address a chronic weak point in the states unusual tax system.
The tax cut, if successful, would shave one-quarter of a percentage point off the statewide rate, or enough to save a family 25 cents on a $100 purchase. It would cost about $145 million a year in state revenue.
New Mexicos gross receipts tax similar to a sales tax but also applied to the sale of services, not just goods has been a focus of debate for years at the Capitol.
The tax is especially problematic for small businesses, experts say, because they must pay it when hiring outside help for accounting, legal or other services a cost that builds on itself with each transaction, eventually passed on to the consumer.
Speaking to business leaders Wednesday, the Democratic governor said now is the right time cut the rate. The state is awash in cash, she said, thanks to federal stimulus funds and strong economic growth.
It has a chilling effect, Lujan Grisham said of the tax. Weve got to do a tax overhaul that can really make a difference. We have the resources.
A Republican legislator, in turn, said the governors proposal was too small to make a real difference.
While it may be a step in the right direction, Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, said in an interview, its not tax reform.
The governor outlined the initiative one of many in a breakfast meeting Wednesday with hundreds of business and civic leaders gathered for the Economic Forum of Albuquerque, a nonpartisan group.
Lujan Grisham also pledged to ask the Legislature to make it easier to hold people in jail if theyve been accused of a violent crime, to create a $100 million fund to add police officers and to pass a law designed to make New Mexico a hydrogen hub for the nations efforts to address climate change.
Her half-hour remarks provided a peek at her priorities as lawmakers prepare for a 30-day session starting Jan. 18. A special session dedicated to redistricting is set for next month.
Increasing for decades
Lujan Grisham said the states financial reserves now stand at 37% of annual spending, making it a good time to tackle changes to the tax code.
The gross receipts tax rate reaches 9% in some parts of the state. In Albuquerque, for example, the rate is 7.875%.
Tax experts say the rate was never intended to be so high. A gross receipts tax is meant to cover a broad base of transactions, with the trade-off being that the rate is low.
Richard Anklam, executive director of the nonpartisan Tax Research Institute, warned legislators in July that the rates had climbed to the absolute top of our capacity.
He said in a written statement released by the Governors Office on Wednesday that reducing the tax would benefit all New Mexicans.
New Mexicos gross receipts tax rates have been increasing for decades, making pyramiding worse, burdening our households and rendering our small businesses less competitive, he said.
Stephanie Schardin Clarke, the states secretary of taxation and revenue, said the reduction would help provide valuable tax relief to New Mexico families and businesses, while adding a competitive advantage for New Mexico businesses.
A recent expansion of gross receipts taxes to internet sales, she said, would help pay for the cut.
The governors proposal would reduce the state portion of the rate the amount before cities and counties add their taxes from 5.125% to 4.875%.
The states share of the rate hasnt fallen since 1981, though a 2004 law repealed the gross receipts tax on food.
Talking point
Sen. Sharer and Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, have repeatedly proposed overhauling the gross receipts tax code and reducing the rate. Lujan Grishams predecessor, Republican Susana Martinez, also pushed for changes to the gross receipts tax system.
The Legislature where Democrats hold hefty majorities in both chambers has approved some changes to the gross receipts tax code, though not the broader overhaul sought by Republicans.
Many of the proposals have been aimed at maintaining revenue neutrality, meaning any reduction in revenue by lowering the rate would be offset by other changes in the tax code, such as eliminating tax breaks.
Sharer said Wednesday that the governors proposal doesnt amount to anything but a talking point.
The state deserves much broader changes to its tax code with the aim of a low but flat tax, he said, without the host of exemptions that now poke holes in the revenue.
House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said lawmakers have over the last three sessions successfully prioritized equitable tax reform that puts working New Mexicans first. I look forward to seeing the governors full proposal and continuing the work of building a more fair tax system.
Legislative agenda
Lujan Grisham is up for reelection to a second term in 2022, and a large field of Republican candidates is competing for the nomination to challenge her. All 70 seats in the state House and other statewide offices, such as attorney general, are also on the ballot.
Besides a tax cut, Lujan Grisham outlined a host of legislative priorities Wednesday, including:
Continuing a state push to offer more robust child care benefits, a move she said would make it easier for parents to work and address the 83,000 job openings in New Mexico. The state, she said, should target universal access to child care.
Establishing a fund to help recruit and retain police officers statewide. The governor said she would ask for $100 million next year as part of a 10-year push for 1,000 more officers.
Revising the states bail reform law, she said, to drive a wedge in the revolving door in our criminal justice system. Lujan Grisham said she wants the changes to target people charged with committing a violent crime with a weapon.
I can tell you its not going to be an easy lift in the Legislature, the governor said. Criminal justice reform is hard.
Passage of a hydrogen law to help attract investment and spur innovation in companies seeking to decarbonize more of the economy.
She described it as a matter of economic justice that would help communities hit hard by the transition away from coal power plants.
NEW ORLEANS Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, as the first government lease auction under President Joe Biden laid bare the hurdles he faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The Interior Department auction came after attorneys general from Republican states led by Louisiana successfully challenged a suspension on sales that Biden imposed when he took office.
Companies bid on 308 tracts totaling nearly 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers). It marked the largest acreage and second-highest bid total since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017.
Driving the heightened interest are a rebound in oil prices and uncertainty about the future of the leasing program, industry analysts said. Biden campaigned on pledges to end drilling on federally owned lands and waters, which includes the Gulf.
Prices are higher now than theyve been since 2018, said Rene Santos with S&P Global Platts. The other thing is this fear that the Biden administration is here for another three years. Theyre certainly not going to accelerate the number of lease sales and they could potentially have fewer sales.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Yet even as Biden has tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening efforts against global warming, including at this months UN climate talks in Scotland, hes had difficulty gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration has proposed another round of oil and gas sales early next year in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and other states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.
Emissions from burning and extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The thing that is really bedeviling people right now is this conflict between the short term and long term when it comes to energy policy, said Jim Krane, an energy studies fellow at Rice University in Houston. We still need this energy system that is basically causing climate change, even as were fighting climate change.
Wednesdays livestreamed auction invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) about twice the area of Florida. Federal officials estimated prior to the sale that it could lead to the production of up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Shell Offshore Inc., the largest leaseholder in the Gulf, said the 20 tracts on which it successfully bid $17.9 million could offer development opportunities near existing platforms or new areas.
The need absolutely continues for continued competitive leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, said Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski.
Chevron USA was the top bidder, offering almost $49 million for 34 tracts. BP Exploration and Production had $30 million in high bids on 46 tracts, and Anadarko US Offshore had almost $40 million in high bids including the days highest bid, $10 million on 30 tracts.
ExxonMobil bid nearly $15 million in two areas off the Texas shoreline in the northwest Gulf.
Those 94 tracts are in shallow water less than 656 feet (200 meters) deep where oil has mostly played out and there are few active leases.
Not far away in the Houston Ship Channel, Exxon is pursuing a government-industry collaboration that would raise $100 billion to capture carbon dioxide from industrial plants, carry it away in pipelines and inject it deep under the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS.
The Exxon bids have to be a play on their proposed CCS project, said Justin Rostant with industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
ExxonMobil spokesperson Todd Spitler declined to say if there was a link between its bids and the carbon capture proposal. The company is evaluating the subsurface geology for future commercial potential and will work with the Interior Department on its plans after leases are awarded, he said.
Shallow waters have typically been more attractive to smaller oil firms with less to spend on costly deep water exploration, said Rice Universitys Krane. As managing carbon becomes more viable, he said, shallow tracts will become attractive for things beyond oil production.
Environmental reviews of the lease auction conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer climate-changing emissions than leaving it.
Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson, whose work was cited by judges in one of the cases, said the Interior Departments analysis had a glaring omission: It excluded greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that result from having more Gulf oil enter the market.
Federal officials recently changed their emissions modeling methods, citing Ericksons work, but said it was too late to use that approach for Wednesdays auction.
An attorney for environmental groups challenging Wednesdays sale in federal court said it was based on incorrect data that doesnt reflect its impact on the environment.
Its basically a giveaway to industry of millions of acres of the Gulf of Mexico so they can lock in production for years, at a time when we need to be shifting away from fossil fuel development, said Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.
Federal officials have 90 days to award or reject the bids.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. An FBI-led law enforcement task force searched four western Colorado locations, including the home of an elections clerk, amid an investigation into allegations that the clerk was involved in a security breach of elections equipment earlier this year, a district attorney said.
The FBI, the Colorado Attorney Generals office and local authorities conducted the searches, which were authorized by a federal court, on Tuesday in Mesa and neighboring Garfield counties, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told Colorado Politics.
Tina Peters, the elections clerk for Mesa County, which includes the city of Grand Junction, said her home was searched, the media outlet reported.
The FBI raided my home at 6 a.m. this morning, accusing me of committing a crime, Peters said. And they raided the homes of my friends, mostly older women. I was terrified.
Late Wednesday, Rubinstein and Attorney General Phil Weiser issued a statement confirming that Peters home was searched and disputing claims by a legal defense fund for Peters that authorities used excessive force during the operation.
At no time was force used on Ms. Peters or her home. Ms. Peters was allowed to move around her home and fix herself breakfast while agents gathered items before departing, Rubinstein and Weiser said.
Peters, a Republican, is being investigated by the FBI and by Colorado state officials in an alleged breach of elections equipment in Mesa County in May. Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, successfully sued to have Peters and a deputy, Belinda Knisley, prohibited by a judge from administering the November midterm election. Peters has denied any wrongdoing.
Knisley was subsequently suspended and charged with felony second-degree burglary and a cybercrime misdemeanor count by Rubinsteins office. Knisley also has denied wrongdoing.
Colorado Politics reported that Peters first commented about the searches during an appearance on an online channel operated by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a supporter of Peters and former President Donald Trump who has repeatedly made discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Peters added that authorities used a battering ram, destroying the front door of one of her friends homes.
Rubinstein didnt disclose the other locations that were searched, telling The Associated Press in an email that all documents related to these operations are sealed by court order. The searches involved potential criminal activity by employees of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorders Office and others associated with those employees, Rubinsteins office said in a statement.
The FBI office in Denver didnt immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The searches came amid an ongoing dispute between Peters, who presided over elections in conservative Mesa County in 2020, and Griswold, a Democrat and vocal presence nationally for ensuring election integrity.
Peters has become an advocate for those who believe, without evidence, that the 2020 election was fraudulent although she has said elections in Mesa County, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump, were secure and accurate. In contrast, Democrat Joe Biden handily defeated Trump in Colorado in 2020, and Democrats control the governors office, the state Legislature and all statewide offices.
Griswold sued to remove Peters as county clerk and recorder after Griswold said images of election equipment management software from Mesa County were obtained by elections conspiracy theorists and posted on far-right blogs.
Griswolds office has said one of the images was taken May 23 from inside a secure room in Mesa County where the voting equipment was stored and had been accessed that day by Peters, who allowed a non-employee into the room.
After Griswold filed the lawsuit, Peters was absent from Colorado for several weeks, only appearing publicly in broadcasts hosted by Lindell. Peters claimed that Griswolds investigation is an attempt to take over one of the few remaining conservative counties in Colorado.
Griswolds office has identified the person it says was allowed into the secure room but has refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isnt naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime.
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This story was first published on November 17, 2021. It was updated on November 19, 2021, to correct the story summary to show Tina Peters is the elections clerk for Mesa County, not El Paso County.
WARSAW, Poland Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union.
The move came a day after a melee broke out in the border crisis, with migrants throwing stones at Polish forces massed on their side of the razor-wire fence, injuring 12, and they responded with water cannons and tear gas. Warsaw accused Belarusian forces of instigating the conflict, while the government in Minsk denounced Polands violent actions.
The migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been stuck at the border since Nov. 8. Most are fleeing conflict or despair at home and want to reach Germany or other western European countries.
The West has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis, which has seen migrants entering the country since summer and then trying to cross into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
On Wednesday, Polands Border Guard tweeted a video showing migrants with bags and backpacks being directed by Belarus forces away from the camp near the Kuznica border crossing, and Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said he had received information they were leaving on buses.
The Belarus state news agency Belta reported they were moved to a heated, warehouse-like building about 500 meters (yards) from the border near Bruzgi, giving them the chance to rest indoors after many days in tents.
One of them, an Iraqi Kurd named Miran Ali, took video in the warehouse and said Belarusian authorities told them they wouldnt be forced to return home. In response, the migrants chanted Belarus! Belarus! Belarus! in gratitude.
This is the joy and happiness of Kurdish people after they were told that they will not be sent back to Kurdistan by force, and that they can wait here until Germany or one of the cities in Germany take them there, Ali said as he recorded the video. These people are expressing happiness and optimism in this cold and ugly camp.
They sat on blankets, most still wrapped in heavy jackets and raincoats.
Belta reported about 1,000 migrants agreed Tuesday to move into the building to wait for the situation to resolve, and it quoted some of them as saying that they are not planning to return to their home countries. Most of the buildings space was allocated for the migrants, who were offered food, water, medical aid, mattresses and pillows, the news agency said.
Some migrants opted to stay camped near the border. Polands Defense Ministry posted video showing people and tents there, with some smoke rising from campfires.
The next steps in the crisis are unclear. Although arrangements have been made for flights from Minsk to Iraq to repatriate those who want to return, it is uncertain how many will go. Iraq has appealed for its citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the EU is closed. The first flight from Minsk for the voluntary repatriation to Iraq is expected Thursday.
Belarus also released video from its State Border Committee, alleging it showed Lithuanian border guards with dogs pushing migrants away from the Belarus-Lithuania frontier Tuesday night.
Lithuania denied the claim, releasing its own video of the incident. It blamed Belarusian officials for pushing the group of 13 migrants toward the Lithuanian side and preventing them from returning to Belarus after being stopped by the Lithuanian guards.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Lukashenko for the second time this week, stressing that migrants should be given the chance to return to their home countries with the help of the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.
Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, denied Berlin was planning to bring the migrants to Germany. The road to Belarus is a dead end for most people who want to go to Germany. There are no plans to approve taking people in, he said.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said U.N. aid was starting to reach the migrants and it was important to ensure humanitarian agencies gain permanent access, even if it meant talking to Lukashenko, whose legitimacy is questioned by the West following a disputed 2020 reelection.
It makes sense to also talk to those who have the opportunity to change this situation in Minsk, even when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy, like all other European member states, Germany does not recognize, he said, adding that Merkel has coordinated with other EU partners and remains committed to the blocs stance of tightening sanctions on Minsk.
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said there is no military threat at the border from the primarily civilian police and border guards that are there to prevent illegal migration. The presence of the Polish military there is chiefly as a backup, he said on a visit to Montenegro.
Duda stressed that Poland wont accept any international decisions on the border standoff that are made without Warsaws participation, referring to the talks involving Merkel and Lukashenko.
Information on both sides of the border is hard to verify due to government restrictions. A state of emergency in Poland is keeping journalists, human rights workers and others away from the border along a zone that is 3 kilometers (2 miles) deep, and Belarus limits the presence of independent journalists.
Estonia, which also is affected by migrant movements but to a lesser degree, said it would build a temporary razor wire barrier of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) on its eastern border with Russia as an interim security solution.
This northernmost of the three Baltic nations with a population of 1.3 million, Estonia shares a 294-kilometer (183-mile) land border with Russia and a 340-kilometer border with Latvia. It does not neighbor Belarus.
Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told broadcaster ERR on Tuesday that the crisis stems from Lukashenkos bid to be recognized by the West as president and have EU sanctions lifted, stressing they must stay in place.
In our view, it is important that the European Union remains united and exerts its influence on Belarus through action, Liimets said, adding new sanctions should be imposed as soon as possible.
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Salar Salim in Baghdad, Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed.
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Follow APs coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. There is a ray of hope for the vanishing orange-and-black Western monarch butterflies.
The number wintering along Californias central coast is bouncing back after the population, whose presence is often a good indicator of ecosystem health, reached an all-time low last year. Experts pin their decline on climate change, habitat destruction and lack of food due to drought.
An annual winter count last year by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern Californias Mendocino County to Baja California, Mexico, in the south in the 1980s. Now, their roosting sites are concentrated mostly on Californias central coast.
This years official count started Saturday and will last three weeks but already an unofficial count by researchers and volunteers shows there are over 50,000 monarchs at overwintering sites, said Sarina Jepsen, director of Endangered Species at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
This is certainly not a recovery but were really optimistic and just really glad that there are monarchs here and that gives us a bit of time to work toward recovery of the Western monarch migration, Jepsen said.
Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread across the country once warmer weather arrives in March.
The Western monarch butterfly population has declined by more than 99% since the 1980s.
On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States across thousands of miles to spend the winter in western Mexico. Scientists estimate the monarch population in the eastern U.S. has fallen about 80% since the mid-1990s.
Whether the population of monarchs that fly to Mexico from the eastern side of the country has rebounded is not yet known. Results of an annual county by experts with the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico wont be released until next year.
Monarchs from across the West migrate annually to about 100 wintering sites dotting central Californias Pacific coast. One of the best-known wintering places is the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, a city-owned site in the coastal city of Pacific Grove, where last year no monarch butterflies showed up.
The city 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of San Francisco has worked for years to help the declining population of monarch. Known as Butterfly Town, USA, the city celebrates the orange-and-black butterfly with windowpane patterns in its wings with a parade every October. Messing with a monarch is a crime that carries a $1,000 fine.
I dont recall having such a bad year before and I thought they were done. They were gone. Theyre not going to ever come back and sure enough, this year, boom, they landed, said Moe Ammar, president of Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce.
This year a preliminary count showed more than 13,000 monarchs have arrived at the site in Monterey County, clustering together on pine, cypress and eucalyptus trees and sparking hope among the groves volunteers and visitors that the struggling insects can bounce back.
Scientists dont know why the population increased this year but Jepsen said it is likely a combination of factors, including better conditions on their breeding grounds.
Climatic factors could have influenced the population. We could have gotten an influx of monarchs from the eastern U.S., which occasionally can happen, but its not known for sure why the population is what it is this year, Jepsen said.
Scientists say the monarch population had sharply dropped because of the destruction of their milkweed habitat along their migratory route as housing expands into their territory and use of pesticides and herbicides increases.
Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarchs threatened extinction, disrupting an annual 3,000-mile (4,828-kilometer) migration synced to springtime and the blossoming of wildflowers.
California has been in a drought for several years now, and they need nectar sources in order to be able to fill their bellies and be active and survive, said Stephanie Turcotte Edenholm, a Pacific Grove Natural History Museum docent who offers guided tours of the sanctuary. If we dont have nectar sources and we dont have the water thats providing that, then that is an issue.
Monarch butterflies lack state and federal legal protection to keep their habitat from being destroyed or degraded. Last year, they were denied federal protection but the insects are now among the candidates for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.
BALTIMORE U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved a long-anticipated document on Communion on Wednesday that stops short of calling for withholding the sacrament from politicians such as President Joe Biden who support abortion rights but offers plenty of tacit justification for individual bishops to do so.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops first major statement on Communion in 15 years, The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, does not explicitly address the debate over elected officials, abortion and the sacrament that has surrounded the document over the past several months and partly inspired its creation in the first place.
Instead, it gives an overview of church teaching, emphasizing the centrality of the Eucharist in the faith and worship and in part reflecting concern among bishops that many Catholics dont know or accept such teachings.
It was approved by a 222-8 vote at the conferences fall assembly in Maryland after receiving only minor revisions in recent days by drafters on the bishops Committee on Doctrine.
Drafters added a reference to defending the unborn along with other vulnerable persons, such as immigrants, older adults and victims of racial injustice. They also bolstered the definition of scandal as weakening the resolve of other Catholics to follow church teachings.
The latter revision came in a passage reaffirming a 2006 statement saying its a scandal if a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly or obstinately to reject the churchs doctrines or moral teachings.
The document does not identify Biden or other politicians by name, though it says at one point, Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.
It calls on Catholics to examine their conscience and make sure theyre in harmony with church teachings, and says bishops have a special responsibility to respond to situations that involve public actions at variance with the visible communion of the church and the moral law.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and whose work includes advocacy against abortion, took the document as affirming the importance of our responsibility for the care of the souls of these politicians.
Naumann, wearing a facemask with the words REMEMBER The Unborn, called for bishops to find common ground where politicians agree with the churchs vision for the dignity of the human person. But he also urged them not to be afraid to fulfill our obligations to let them know how serious it is to dissent from church teaching.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, an outspoken critic of the president, asked colleagues to amend the document by quoting the church catechism and the Bible as saying anyone who creates scandal would be better off having a millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the sea.
The proposal was met with silence when put to a voice vote and was not adopted.
The conference cannot dictate a blanket policy on denying Communion to politicians; each bishop has authority in his own diocese.
While some bishops have said they would deny the sacrament to Biden, the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that the president is welcome to receive the sacrament there.
Biden has said that Pope Francis, too, told him in a recent private meeting in Rome to continue receiving Communion. While the Vatican has not confirmed that, Biden did subsequently go to Mass and receive Communion at a church in Rome evidence that Francis did not forbid priests in the Diocese of Rome, which he oversees, from giving Communion to Biden.
The document highlights the centrality of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which says that when a priest celebrates Mass, the bread and wine is transformed into Jesus actual body and blood. It says Catholics can perceive this as a reality through faith, even though the elements appear to the senses to be bread and wine.
Some bishops have expressed concern over Catholics acceptance of the doctrine, citing a 2019 survey that found most church members dont believe in transubstantiation. Other researchers have questioned that finding, however, saying that when survey questions are phrased differently, higher numbers of Catholics align with church teaching.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, who is spearheading efforts to increase Eucharistic devotion, said the statistic that convinced the bishops there was a crisis was the fact that 75 percent Catholics dont go to Mass on Sunday. If people believed in the Eucharist, how could they possibly miss Mass on Sunday?
The document also says the sacrament is central to church unity and worship and leads to personal and moral transformation, motivating believers to take care of vulnerable people and, in a broader sense, the environment.
Bishops began working on the document after Biden took office, with some citing confusion over the president presenting himself as a devout Catholic despite his political stance on abortion.
The Vatican repeatedly sent caution signals to the U.S. bishops as they prepared the document.
The papal ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, on Tuesday urged bishops to listen before they teach, even in situations where some want to clarify confusion. And earlier this year, the head of the Vaticans doctrine office urged bishops to go slowly on the document, pursuing dialogue among themselves and with Catholic politicians.
Also during the fall meeting, bishops are launching a broader initiative to promote devotions centered on the Eucharist with plans for a major gathering focused on the sacrament in 2024 in Indianapolis.
Later Wednesday, Naumann expressed optimism about a pending request by the state of Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision permitting abortion.
Parishes and dioceses, he said, need to be ready for increased requests for assistance if the court allows states to ban abortion. Naumann touted a new program, Walking with Moms in Need, in which parishes assess and support programs for expectant mothers in their communities.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
NEW YORK Two of the three men convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X are set to be cleared Thursday after insisting on their innocence since the 1965 killing of one of the United States most formidable fighters for civil rights, their lawyers and Manhattans top prosecutor said Wednesday.
A nearly two-year-long re-investigation found that authorities withheld evidence favorable to the defense in the trial of Muhammad Aziz, now 83, and the late Khalil Islam, said their attorneys, the Innocence Project and civil rights lawyer David Shanies.
Aziz called his conviction the result of a process that was corrupt to its core one that is all too familiar even today.
I do not need a court, prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, he said in a statement. But he said he was glad his family, friends and lawyers would get to see the truth we have all known, officially recognized.
He urged the criminal justice system to take responsibility for the immeasurable harm it caused me.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. tweeted that his office would join the mens attorneys in asking a judge Thursday to toss out the convictions.
These men did not get the justice that they deserved, Vance told The New York Times, which first reported on the developments. Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck called the case one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen.
One of the civil rights eras most controversial and compelling figures, Malcolm X rose to fame as the Nation of Islams chief spokesperson, proclaiming the Black Muslim organizations message at the time: racial separatism as a road to self-actualization. He famously urged Black people to claim civil rights by any means necessary and referred to white people as blue-eyed devils, and he later denounced racism.
About a year before his death, he split from the Nation of Islam and later made a pilgrimage to Mecca, returning with a new view of the potential for racial unity. Some in the Nation of Islam saw him as a traitor.
At age 39, he was gunned down as he began a speech in Harlems Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.
Aziz, Islam and a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim also known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
Hagan said he was one of three gunmen who shot Malcolm X, but he testified that neither Aziz nor Islam was involved. The two, then known as Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, maintained throughout that they were innocent and offered alibis at their 1966 trial. No physical evidence linked them to the crime.
Thomas 15 Johnson and Norman 3X Butler had nothing to do with this crime whatsoever, Hagan said in a sworn statement in 1977.
Hagan was paroled in 2010. A message was left Wednesday at a phone number he had when paroled.
He identified two other men as gunmen, but no one else was ever arrested.
According to The New York Times, the re-investigation found the FBI had documents that pointed to other suspects, and a still-living witness supported Azizs alibi that he was at home with a leg injury at the time of the shooting.
The witness, whom authorities had never interviewed before and was identified only by the initials J.M., said he spoke to Aziz on the latters home phone the day of the killing, the newspaper said.
Also, the review found that prosecutors knew about but didnt disclose that undercover officers were in the ballroom when the gunfire erupted, and police knew that someone had called the Daily News of New York earlier that day saying that Malcolm X would be killed.
The New York Police Department and the FBI said Wednesday that they had cooperated fully with the re-investigation, and they declined to comment further.
Aziz was released in 1985. Islam was released two years later and died in 2009. Both continued to press to clear their names.
I did not kill Malcolm X, Aziz said at a news conference in 1998, after the Nation of Islam tapped him to run the mosque where the slain leader had preached.
A decade later, Islam told a gathering at a Harlem bookstore: I need to be exonerated. I had to walk 22 years in prison.
And after their release, he and Aziz lived under the cloud of being Malcolm Xs supposed assassins.
Exonerating these men is a righteous and well-deserved affirmation of their true character, Shanies said in a statement. Deborah Francois, a counsel in his office, called the convictions the product of gross official misconduct and a criminal justice system weighed against people of color.
The Manhattan district attorneys office publicly acknowledged it was considering reopening the case after Netflix aired the documentary series Who Killed Malcom X? last year. The series explored a theory by scholars that the two men were innocent and that some of the real killers had escaped.
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Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Karen Matthews contributed to this report.
Correction: A previous version of this story included the wrong name for the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The story has been updated.
Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE New Mexicos Supreme Court sided Wednesday with a bipartisan group of senators in a dispute over spending authority for $1.7 billion in federal relief funds, barring Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham from spending any more of the federal dollars without legislative approval.
The ruling, which was announced after the states highest court heard arguments from attorneys and deliberated for roughly one hour, clears the way for the Legislature to appropriate nearly $1.1 billion in allocated money received under the American Rescue Plan Act in the coming weeks though the governor would have the ability to fully or partially veto any legislative spending plan.
Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, an attorney and one of the two senators who filed the court petition seeking to prevent Lujan Grisham from unilaterally spending the federal funds, called the ruling an affirmation of the Legislatures power of the purse strings.
For me, the day is a huge victory for the Constitution, Candelaria told reporters shortly after the ruling. The Legislature has the obligation and the duty to allocate these funds.
He also said lawmakers could act on the unspent federal relief funds intended to help states recover from the COVID-19 pandemic during a special session on redistricting expected to be called next month or during a 30-day legislative session that starts in January.
However, it remains unclear whether the ruling will also apply to other federal programs that provide money to New Mexico. A written opinion detailing the full scope of the ruling and its implications on future disputes is expected to be issued in the coming days.
Shortly after the Supreme Court announced its ruling, Lujan Grisham said she was disappointed but pleased to have the legal clarity on how to move forward.
It was a question, and now we have an answer, the Democratic governor said in a response to reporters questions at the Capitol.
She said she would consult with legislators immediately on how quickly the money can be allocated and put to work. And she joked that lawmakers shouldnt plan to go on vacation over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
It means we have some extra work to do together, Lujan Grisham said of lawmakers.
The most important takeaway, the governor said, is that New Mexico has a tremendous influx of money that can be put work improving the state.
Look, Im not going to let it rain on my parade, she said of the decision.
Justices not swayed
During the Wednesday court hearing, the governors general counsel Holly Agajanian argued previous legal precedent supported Lujan Grishams handling of the relief funds.
The governors attorney also said its appropriate for the governor to exert authority over federal funds that are intended for specific purposes and can be clawed back by the federal government if certain deadlines and reporting requirements are not met.
But those arguments did not appear to sway justices, as Chief Justice Michael Vigil at one point asked Agajanian, Didnt you just rewrite the Constitution?
Supreme Court Justice David Thomson was blunt in saying the Constitution makes clear the Legislatures leading role in appropriating public funds.
I learned that in second grade they control the purse strings, Thomson said.
The justices also appeared to grapple with how their ruling might impact spending decisions connected to future federal aid programs.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court hearing featured the unusual sight of legislators appearing directly before the states highest court.
In addition to Candelaria, Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, also argued before the court in support of the Legislatures authority to appropriate public funds.
He was one of four Democratic senators all chairmen of influential committees who moved to intervene in the court case last week on the side of their fellow senators.
While the full scope of the ruling is not yet clear, it represented Lujan Grishams first legal setback in the states highest court.
Before Wednesdays hearing, the Supreme Court had upheld the governors decision to bar indoor restaurant dining during the COVID-19 pandemic and also ruled that businesses negatively impacted by pandemic-related restrictions were not entitled to compensation from the state to cover their losses.
A tug-of-war
The Supreme Court case came after a protracted political spat between the Governors Office and some legislators on budgetary matters, including a surge in emergency state spending on COVID-19 tests, face masks and other supplies.
The tug-of-war intensified after Lujan Grisham used her line-item veto authority in April to strike down legislative earmarks for more than $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars from a state budget bill. The vetoed earmarks included funding for a state unemployment fund, a popular college scholarship program and highway repairs.
However, the governor announced in June her administration would target more than $656 million of the federal money to replenish the unemployment fund, which was all but drained by a deluge of pandemic-related claims for jobless benefits.
Lujan Grisham has also earmarked smaller amounts of the federal dollars for COVID-19 vaccine incentives and a temporary wage supplement for individuals working in New Mexicos chile fields.
Its unclear whether those spending decisions will be affected by the Supreme Courts ruling, as the court challenge filed by Candelaria and Senate Republican floor leader Greg Baca of Belen focused on the roughly $1.1 billion of unallocated funds.
Baca, who attended the Wednesday court hearing but was forced to watch from a different courtroom after he declined to divulge his COVID-19 vaccine status, said he was glad that during a time of political polarization a bipartisan group of senators could come together on the court challenge.
Im excited to see the court side with the people and the Constitution, Baca told reporters.
But he said its likely there will be partisan disagreements about how the money is ultimately spent, saying, I can almost guarantee you we wont agree on how its spent.
What it means
The New Mexico Supreme Courts ruling that prevents Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham from unilaterally spending roughly $1.1 billion in unallocated federal relief funds means it will be up to the 112-member Legislature to craft a spending plan for the money. Some considerations: The Legislature is scheduled to meet for a 30-day session starting in January and a special session focused on redistricting next month.
The governor will have to approve any plan approved by lawmakers and has the ability to fully or partially veto legislation.
The federal American Rescue Plan Act allows for spending in four different areas pandemic-related public health and economic impact, premium pay for essential workers, revenue replacement, and infrastructure improvements.
Under the federal bill, money received does not have to be obligated until the end of 2024 and unspent funds are not subject to recapture until 2026.Journal Capitol Bureau reporter Dan McKay contributed to this report.
MANKATO, Minnesota Charlie Kirk stood 80 miles from where George Floyd was murdered, faced an overwhelmingly white audience, and declared he was going to say things no one dares say out loud.
What followed was an avalanche of aspersions and debunked claims about Floyd, the Black man whose death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer set off a global reckoning over racial injustice and broad calls for change. But the white conservative agitator had a counter view: Floyd was a scumbag, he said, unworthy of the attention.
The insult lodged at Floyd, a 46-year-old father suspected of passing off a counterfeit $20 bill, was intended to be shocking. But anyone familiar with Kirk shouldnt be surprised. For years, the conservative provocateur and his group, Turning Point USA, have built a following inflaming racial divides and stoking outrage. Kirk thrived during President Donald Trumps tenure. He landed speaking spots at the Republican National Convention in 2016 and 2020 and occasionally counseled Trump on campaign messaging and tactics.
Now the 28-year-old is expanding his reach, trying to rally a next generation of aggrieved white conservatives. On a tour of college towns, he blasts schools and local governments for teaching about racism, with a confrontational style some call dangerous. Yet Kirk is drawing large crowds of millennials and Gen Zers, millions of online followers and donor cash, often with little media attention.
Kirk is stoking fear among a group that is coming of age in a time of social restlessness, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis civil rights lawyer and activist.
Hes taking the discontent that some people may be experiencing and combining it with racial animus, which is a dangerous recipe in a country that is still in the midst of racial turmoil, she said.
Like many leading Republicans, including Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin and Trump, Kirk seizes on opposition to critical race theory. The once obscure academic framework has been transformed by conservatives into a catchall term for education about inclusion, diversity and systemic racism in the U.S.
Kirks answer is a free K-12 alternative curriculum described as the key to a reliable, honest and quality America-first education, and is aimed primarily at homeschooling parents.
Its just one offering in Kirks buzzing conservative content portal designed to meet young people where they live online. Theres also an array of podcasts hosted by Kirk and other conservative figures, and a Professor Watchlist to label instructors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda.
Turning Point Live is a three-hour streaming talk show aimed at Gen Z and featuring 20-something host John Root. Recent guests include Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, both Republicans.
And theres plenty of swag: Buy merch. Save America, the site suggests.
Turning Point USAs online audience is large and growing. It averaged 83,000 monthly unique visitors over the past three years, but it grew to a monthly average of 111,000 in the past year, according to the digital intelligence firm Similarweb. Thats more than three times the traffic for conservative radio host Laura Ingrahams website over the past year.
That traffic is driven in part by at least a dozen social media accounts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that, combined, have more than 10 million followers online.
Money into Kirks nonprofit network has followed the traffic.
Turning Point USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, meaning contributions are tax-deductible and its donors are not disclosed. But in 2019, the most recent year for which tax records are public, Turning Point USA raised more than $28 million, according to Internal Revenue Service filings. Thats almost twice what it raised in 2014, its first-year as a tax-exempt charity.
Though Turning Point USA doesnt have to disclose its donors, some are foundations established by wealthy conservatives, which report their donations to the IRS in annual tax filings. A partial list reads like a roster of conservative megadonors, including foundations affiliated with the late megadonor Foster Friess and the Uihlein and Bradley families, who also help finance leading conservative policy groups such as American Legislative Exchange Council, the Cato Institute and the Federalist Society.
Kirk also leads a fundraising group aimed specifically at political advocacy. That group, Turning Point Action, has endorsed several congressional candidates for 2022. The list includes Washingtons Joe Kent, Illinois Catalina Lauf, Floridas Anna Paulina Luna and Ohios Max Miller, all candidates who ran to oppose GOP House members who voted for Trumps second impeachment.
Kirk has shown a knack for anticipating the outrage of the moment.
He was quick to assail shutdown orders at the dawn of the pandemic, and then claimed falsely that Trump won the 2020 election. He has attacked Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, blamed spiking violent crime on efforts to defund police departments and months before Youngkin was seizing on parental outrage in Virginia, Kirk had turned to critical race theory.
He works within the framework of the Trump movement. He is a good barometer of what the Republican right wing feels it can get away with, said Michael Hayden, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that tracks far right figures and organizations.
Turning Point USA was listed among the 11 groups involved in the March to Save America rally that preceded the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Days before the rally, Kirk boasted on Twitter about sending buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president. He later deleted the tweet.
Online contributions to Turning Points website spiked immediately after the riot, according to Similarweb, which can track frequency of online payments but not amounts.
Kirk is not among the more than a dozen rally organizers subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol siege. A committee spokesperson would not comment on whether Kirk has been interviewed or approached by the committee.
Lately Kirk, who did not respond to interview requests, has stayed out of the headlines. However, an event in Idaho drew attention last month when a man shouted from a crowd: How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?
Kirk answered by denouncing the comment, but blamed the left: They are trying to make you do something that will be violent, that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties.
Raised in the upper-income Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Kirk became politically involved young, volunteering in middle school and high school on political campaigns. His quick rise began shortly after high school when he quit attending Harper College, a Chicago-area community college, to pursue political activism and co-founded Turning Point USA with Chicago-area tea party activist and mentor Bill Montgomery.
Kirks Exposing Critical Racism Theory tour has promoted recent stops in Alabama, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Vermont. Last month, he packed a convention center ballroom in Mankato, Minnesota, with roughly 600 people mostly teenagers and college students on a Tuesday evening.
Once a prairie farming hub south of Minneapolis, Mankato has swelled into a diversifying mini-metro. Minnesota State University, food production plants and the Mayo Clinics satellite campus all have drawn African and Latin American immigrants, while the Black population has grown steadily.
For 90 minutes, Kirk spoke directly to the virtually all-white crowd and told them radical leftists want them to feel ashamed.
Just because youre a white person does not mean you have to begin apologizing simply for how God made you, he said.
He repeated widely debunked claims about Floyds criminal record and suggested that the cause of Floyds death was a drug overdose, rather than homicide, as the medical examiner found.
Rep. Jim Hagedorn, the local Republican congressman, was in the audience and later said in a Facebook post that he enjoyed attending and hearing Kirk discuss the need to stand up and defend America and our founding principles.
Riley Carlson, the campus coordinator for Turning Point USA at Minnesota State, said she didnt know much about critical race theory before the event.
Were just excited Charlie is here to explain it, said the senior from St. Michael, a Minneapolis suburb. Theres so many different ways you can look at it. And Im looking for where I stand on it.
Kirks message is a hard sell to most young people. Roughly 60% of voters younger than 30 said they think racism is a very serious problem in the United States, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 110,000 voters in the 2020 election. Its the largest percentage of any age group surveyed.
Meanwhile, Trump lost younger voters by 30 percentage points last year, VoteCast shows.
Its a wedge issue to fire up a shrinking base, said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics and an expert in young voters.
But it demonstrates Kirks finger is on the pulse of conservative anger, said Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow with the liberal People for the American Way.
Fearmongering about critical race theory has really seemed to rise to the top of the messaging of the groups I watch, he said. Theres been a pivot toward that and Kirk has been wise to the fundraising power it promises.
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Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut, Mary Clare Jalonick and Amanda Seitz in Washington and Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to remove a reference in the 16th paragraph to foundations affiliated with the Charles and David Koch network. Turning Point USA does not receive funding from them.
Current Recipient
Dr. Olja Simoska
The American Chemical Society has awarded the 13th Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020-2022) to Dr. Olja Simoska.
Olja completed her doctoral studies in December of 2019, under the supervision of Prof. Keith J. Stevenson at the University of Texas at Austin. Her doctoral dissertation is titled Real-time Monitoring of the Dynamic Metabolism and Responses of Pathogenic Bacteria using Electroanalytical Methods. The electrochemical results from her doctoral research provide a strong quantitative basis for understanding microbial infections and virulence mechanisms in very complex biological systems. She has very impressive academic accomplishments, awards/honors, and publications/presentations lists.
For her Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship, Oljas research will focus on methodically exploring genetic engineering approaches to improve extracellular electron transfer and performance of microbial fuel cells. Her postdoctoral research will be under the supervision of Prof. Shelley D. Minteer at the Chemistry Department at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Past Recipients
Dr. Herdeline Ann M. Ardona (2018-2020 Sigal Fellow)
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Irvine (appointment in late 2020)
Fellowship Topic: Herdeline completed her doctoral studies in 2017 at Johns Hopkins University, under the supervision of Professors John D. Tovar and Hai-Quan Mao. Her postdoctoral research will be on Biohybrid Integration of Photoresponsive Polymeric Interfaces under the supervision of Professor Kevin Kit Parker at the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University. Herdelines doctoral dissertation is titled Molecular Engineering Strategies for the Development of Energy Transporting Conjugated Systems Towards Bioelectronics. Her doctoral research focused on the development of new ways to effectively generate localized electric fields within the internal electronic conduits of peptide-based nanomaterials and exploring the underlying molecular design rules that govern their self-assembly mechanisms. For her Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship, Herdeline will develop photoresponsive polymeric surfaces that can be integrated with biohybrid tissues. This photomodulated platform can potentially enable a label-free spatiotemporal control over the actuation of engineered in vitro tissues.
Dr. Lisa Olshansky (2016-2018 Sigal Fellow)
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL
Fellowship Topic: For her Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lisa will investigate how nature controls the reactivity of metallocofactor intermediates for the oxidation of strong chemical bonds. Lisa completed her doctoral studies in 2015, under the supervision of Professor Daniel G. Nocera at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lisas postdoctoral research will be on Artificial Metalloenzymes for Structure-Function Correlations of CH Bond Oxidation, under the supervision of Professor A. S. Borovik at University of California, Irvine. Oxidation reactions performed by metalloenzymes maintain specificity and catalytic efficiencies not yet matched by synthetic systems and the general understanding of how nature harnesses the energy of OO bond homolysis for CH bond functionalization remains incomplete. The proposed studies by Lisa aim to reveal the underlying structure-function (and dysfunction) relationships operative within oxygenase metalloenzymes that are critical to metabolic and signaling pathways, and in the management of reactive oxygen species. These questions will be probed through the preparation of artificial metalloproteins in which the host-guest interaction of streptavidin and biotin is used to insert biotinylated metal complexes into the protein interior. Combining chemical modulation of the ligand scaffold with genetic modification of the surrounding protein microenvironment, the ability to control and systematically vary all aspects of the metal ion coordination sphere will be achieved. These studies represent a method with which to prepare novel biomimetic systems and a means to correlate the structure-function paradigms underlying bioinorganic oxygenase reactivity.
Dr. Maraia Ener-Goetz (2014-2016 Sigal Fellow)
Fellowship Topic: Development and Implementation of Peptide Cavities to Control Ultrafast Proton Transfer. Maraia completed her doctoral studies in December 2013, under the supervision of Professor Harry B. Gray in the Department of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology. She conducted her postdoctoral studies in the research groups of Professors Tom Spiro and David Baker at University of Washington and in collaboration with Professor James Mayer of Yale University. Maraias doctoral dissertation was on Electron Flow Through Cytochrome P450. For her Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship, Maraia investigated how proteins direct the movement of one of the smallest chemical reactants: the proton. Proteins harness proton transfers (PTs) to drive structural changes and tune important catalytic reactions. Cell survival depends on precise control over these processes, however, the ubiquity of hydrogen bonds and ultrafast timescale of PT hinder the detailed study of PT mechanisms in biological systems. To address these challenges, Maraia developed two-component model systems to probe PT within a peptide pocket, and studied the ultrafast vibrational dynamics of the PT processes using Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy (FSRS). A broad array of molecular interactions between the PT-pair and peptide cavity were engineered by an iterative process of computational peptide design and experimental characterization. Realization of these objectives helped to develop better and more accurate models of enzyme active sites, and aided the study of similar interactions within complex, native biochemical systems.
Dr. Siddhesh S. Kamat (2012-2014 Sigal Fellow)
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, Pune, Maharashtra
Fellowship Topic: Lipidomic and functional proteomic methods to identify the major reactive oxygen species (ROS)-generated lipid products. Dr. Kamat was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the lab of Benjamin F. Cravatt, in the Department of Chemical Physiology & The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, at the The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Here, Dr. Kamat was investigating novel metabolic pathways with emphasis on the serine hydrolase family of enzymes. He applied this research into investigating novel biological mechanisms and pathways prevalent in various diseases. Currently, at IISER Pune, Dr. Kamats chemical biology lab is interested in using chemical probes in conjunction with advanced mass spectrometry based metabolomics and proteomics techniques to study biological processes in particular lipid signaling & metabolism.
Dr. Samuel J. Lord (2010-2012 Sigal Fellow)
Bioinfomatics Specialist I, Department: M. Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Fellowship Topic: Using supported lipid bilayers to investigate the physical underpinning of signaling in cells. Dr. Lord was a postdoctoral fellow in the Dyche Mullins' Laboratory at the University of California in San Francisco, CA. Here, he continued the research that was supported by the Sigal Fellowship, using fluorescence microscopy and supported lipid bilayers as tools to study how the spatial organization of biomolecules and mechanical forces within and between cells influence cell-cell signaling.
Dr. John Hoerter (2008-2010 Sigal Fellow)
Investigator III, Geonomics Division, The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), San Diego, CA
Fellowship Topic: Dynamics, Degredation, and Chemical Modification of Non-Coding RNA. Dr. Hoerter was a Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Professor Nicholas Gascoigne, Department of Immunology and Microbial Science at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Here, Dr. Hoerter continued the research that was supported by the Sigal Fellowship, the study of intermolecular interactions at the immunologic synapse. Currently, he is an Investigator in Drug Discovery Oncology at GNF.
Dr. Shanlin Pan (2006-2008 Sigal Fellow)
Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Fellowship Topic: Photoluminescence Enhancement by Surface Plasmon Resonance of Metallic Nanostructures and Its Applications. Dr. Pan did his postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, as a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alabama, Dr. Pans research areas include electrochemistry, clean energy storage and harvesting, Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy, nanostructured metal and semiconductor electrode materials.
Dr. Matthew G. Woll (2004-2006 Sigal Fellow)
PTC Therapeutics, Dunellen, NJ
Fellowship Topic: A New Strategy to Asymmetrically Open Aziridines with a Heterobimetallic Catalyst. Dr. Woll did his postdoctoral work at Harvard University under the supervision of Professor Eric N. Jacobsen. Currently, Dr. Woll is a Principal Scientist at a small pharmaceutical company, PTC Therapeutics, in Dunellen, NJ. He is working on a treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
Dr. Hendrik Luesch (2002-2004 Sigal Fellow)
Professor and Chair, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Fellowship Topic: Elucidation of the Mechanism of Action of Aoratoxin A, a Cytotoxic Marine Natural Product. Dr. Luesch was a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute working with adviser Professor Peter G. Schultz in the area of functional genomics and chemical biology. In 2005, he joined the faculty of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Florida as an assistant professor and was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2010 and to full professor in 2015. Dr. Luesch combines his interest in marine natural products chemistry with genomics and proteomics approaches for the discovery and characterization of potential drugs and molecular drug targets.
Dr. Sarah E. OConnor (2000-2002 Sigal Fellow)
Director, Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
Fellowship Topic: Characterization of the EpoA Subunit of the Epothilone Synthetase Complex: Biosynthesis of a Potent Anti-Cancer Agent. Dr. OConnor was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biochemistry at Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Professor Christopher Walsh. In 2003 she joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became an assistant professor and then was promoted to associate professor in 2007. Currently, Dr. OConnor is a Project Leader at the John Innes Centre Department of Biological Chemistry in Norwich, UK. Dr. OConnor is working on plant natural product biosynthesis.
Dr. Danith H. Ly (1998-2000 Sigal Fellow)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Mellon College of Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Fellowship Topic: A New Strategy for the Design and Synthesis of Artificial Proteins and Enzymes Based on Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Recognition: Development of Artificial Restriction Enzymes. Dr. Ly did his postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and at Scripps Research Institute under the supervision of Professor Peter G. Schultz, 19982001. He joined the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University in 2001 as an Assistant Professor. Currently, as a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Ly is working on the development of molecular tools and reagents to regulate gene expression and probe protein localization and dynamics in cells and intact organisms.
Dr. Paul S. Cremer (1996-1998 Sigal Fellow)
Professor of Chemistry at the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Eberly College of Science, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Fellowship Topic: Investigation and Manipulation of Supported Lipid Bilayers and Model Membranes by Integrated Microelectronic Components Created with Nanolithography. Dr. Cremer did his postdoctoral work at Stanford University under the supervision of Professor Steven G. Boxer. Currently, Dr. Cremer is the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Cremers laboratory works at the crossroads of biological interfaces, nanomaterials, spectroscopy, and microfluidics.
NEW YORK (AP) Two men convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X are set to be cleared after more than half a century.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that prosecutors now say authorities withheld evidence in the civil rights leader's killing.
The newspaper reports that Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam are being exonerated after a nearly two-year investigation by their lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney's office.
A court date is expected Thursday. District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told the newspaper that the men did not get the justice they deserved.
Malcolm X was gunned down as he began a speech in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.
Borosil Ltd., India's leading consumer ware brand, today, announced that it has renewed and expanded its sponsorship with The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and has become their official associate sponsor for the Indian contingent. Borosil will provide support via this sponsorship for Indian athletes leading up to the upcoming Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the 2024 Olympics.
On the occasion of the announcement, Mr Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General IOA said: "We are extremely pleased to strengthen our partnership with Borosil Ltd which has been beneficial for all our Indian athletes. Borosil is a trusted homegrown brand that has touched all our lives with healthy nutrition and hydration. I would like to thank Borosil for showing their continued support for Team India."
On this proud moment, Mr Shreevar Kheruka, Managing Director of Borosil Limited said, "This is a very proud moment for us to be associated with Indian Olympic Association. As an Indian company, it is our honour to support our great nation's sporting endeavours. We are glad to be part of the enabling process to support Indian athletes in their endeavours and look forward to them bringing laurels to India in the world of sports.
In 2018, Borosil was associated with IOA as their Official Hydration Partner for national athletes who represented India at the 18th Asian Games and Summer Youth Olympics. Borosil provided Indian athletes and officials with their Hydra range of bottles to ensure that the contingent used the best and safest products to stay hydrated during their training and competitions.
This collaboration will grow Borosil's reach and have a positive impact on the Indian sporting ecosystem.
The Government has focused on citizen centric communication in a language they understand and through platforms they access be it TV News, Radio, Social Media or Online Digital Media, said Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur while addressing the media on the occasion of National Press Day yesterday (November 16, 2021).
He further added, The National Press Day is a day to reflect upon the role of media and press in raising the issues that matter to the citizens of India. The Media is a watchdog and as such has a key role to play in a vibrant democracy Iike India.
Giving a call for a collective fight against fake news, Thakur said, On this day, I call upon my media friends to make all efforts to curb the menace of fake news and fake narratives. The Government of India on its part has taken measures like establishment of Fact Check Unit at PIB, which has gained in popularity.
The Minister concluded his remark by inviting the media to build a new aspirational India and said, As we mark the 75th year of Indias independence and look towards the next 25 years let us work together as partners in realising the dreams of every Indian.
Bengaluru Airport recently launched a digital marketing campaign #TimetoReconnect, which focuses on reassuring passengers about safe airport experiences and encourages people to travel and reconnect with their loved ones. Through this campaign, BLR Airport aims to encourage people to reconnect with their friends, family, or even their personal self and at the same time be reassured of a safe airport environment. The campaign is aimed at everyone who opts to travel through the BLR Airport. At the heart of the campaign are three well-narrated short digital films, which focus on various aspects of airport operations, including vaccinated staff, contactless payments, and contactless travel and finally giving those reassurances to the travellers to travel safely. Through the use of social media platforms, BLR Airport will reach out their audiences with the nicely narrated impactful films and reassure them.
In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Shalini Rao, Chief Marketing Officer, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), elaborates on the entire purpose of this campaign and how they plan to educate and communicate with travellers, as well as the power of storytelling in challenging times.
The pandemic had halted travel completely. What were the challenges that you faced once the government granted permissions with a lot of restrictions to allow travellers to travel with strict protocols?
In May 2020, when we resumed scheduled domestic flight operations, there were a set of guidelines by GoI and GoK that we had to adhere to. The changing travel guidelines and new norms of flying were confusing to the passengers at the start, but we ensured that our staff members helped and guided passengers every step of the way. We started a campaign titled #WeAreHereForYou, where we continuously shared videos, FAQs, travel regulations to educate and guide passengers on-ground and on the digital space.
The entire airport ecosystem, involving airlines, security teams, concessionaires, came together to assure passengers about a safe airport experience at the Bangalore Airport. To enable a healthy airport experience, we introduced a contactless journey from parking to boarding at BLR Airport in May 2020. The technology enabled minimum surface contact and minimum exposure between passengers and airport personnel. Advanced digital thermal screening for passengers and staff, RTPCR testing facilities on campus and stringent protocols for contact tracing, quarantine and isolation followed its due course.
We also had stringent sanitisation protocols in place to ensure the highest standards of hygiene within the Airport premises. From sanitisation to fumigation, we ensured our safety measures were executed round-the-clock. Today, we have over 700 hand sanitising points within the Terminal.
Whats the objective of the campaign #TimetoReconnect, which you have created to reassure the travellers?
As we slowly move away from virtual connect to human connect, we have observed that people are now waiting to travel again, but safety is on everyones mind. The #TimetoReconnect campaign focuses on reassuring passengers about safe airport experiences, vaccinated staff and encourages them to travel and reconnect with their loved ones. Since the pandemic began, people are missing the social interactions and connections they used to enjoy in the past. These include, connecting with their loved ones, impromptu getaways, pre-flight food indulgences, gift shopping and mini splurges. Through this campaign, BLR Airport aims to encourage people to reconnect with their friends, family, or even their personal self and at the same time be reassured of a safe airport environment. The campaign is aimed at everyone who opts to travel through BLR Airport (arrival or departure).
Whats the end objective of the campaign and how do you plan to measure the effectiveness of the campaign?
As an airport, we have always believed in bringing people closer together, but the pandemic had restricted this social interaction. During the festive season, we observed our passenger traffic increase, it was time for all of us to reconnect with our loved ones, embark on new journeys, fulfil our travel bucket list while being cautious and safe about our personal wellbeing. At the heart of the campaign are three short digital films (two of which are live on our Social Media channels), which focus on various aspects of airport operations, including vaccinated staff, contactless payments, and contactless travel. As an extension of the campaign, we launched a contest asking people who do they want to Reconnect with and why. Five lucky winners would win return flight tickets to any destination of their choice on the AirAsia India network.
The goals we had aimed at the start of the campaign was to encourage people to travel again, ensure more passengers travel through the airport with an increased confidence in air travel as the safest mode of transportation during the pandemic. We have seen that in the growth trajectory of passenger numbers in the last one month, since the advent of the festive season, vis-a-vis the dull period between March and June owing to the second wave of COVID-19.
Our purpose was also to remind people about the little things they enjoyed about travel; something they had stopped/ restricted doing due to the pandemic, thereby bringing an element of nostalgia for example: grabbing a bite of their favourite idli-vada before boarding, relishing their favourite filter coffee at the airport, indulging in some retail therapy before their holiday, seeing familiar faces at the airport or making new friends on the journey.
Our first two films have gone live and cumulatively crossed 6 million views across YouTube and all our social media channels. The third film is expected to go live in December, before the year-end holidays. The Reconnect contest witnessed participation from over 15,000 passengers and social media users during the one-month long contest period.
What kind of protocols is the airport following to ensure social distancing and contactless travel? How are the airlines supporting and collaborating well with the airport authorities?
Driven by a customer-centric mindset, we have ensured that stringent measures are in place at every passenger touch point to make air travel as safe as possible during the pandemic. BLR Airport introduced contactless travel from parking to boarding, contactless payment options at all the stores and continued sanitisation of facilities, round-the-clock. To safeguard the health and well-being of passengers, majority of frontline staff at the airport are vaccinated and follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. We had organised vaccination camps in partnership with the Government of Karnataka and various hospitals in the city to ensure employees working in the Airport campus were vaccinated. Heightened safety, hygiene measures and vaccinated frontline workers ensure safe and positive experiences for passengers, during the pandemic and beyond. The airlines have supported us throughout the journey in our fight against COVID-19. Airlines ensured that passengers were masked up, wore face shields and PPE kits, as per guidelines of GoI.
Travel business needs continuous engagement with your loyal customers. What kind of strategy have you planned to stay engaged with your audience?
Being in the service industry, customer engagement is of paramount importance to us both on-ground and online. To continue the engagement with our passengers, visitors, and online followers, we run various campaigns through the year. This involves commercial driven campaigns and activations on deals, discounts, and sales at stores. The communication for all the on-ground activations is taken online on our digital mediums as well to create awareness. On online platforms, we run contests, videos, quiz, games, etc. to continue engagement with our followers.
Engaging content is critical for the success of any brand. Knowing your target audience is essential to creating tailored marketing campaigns and successfully engaging customers through social media. Last year, during COVID-19 we launched a FAQ series on our website and social media channels to keep our follower base updated about the latest travel guidelines. Over a period, the FAQ page became the most visited webpage on our website and our FAQ posts on social media gathered an average engagement rate of over 10% owing to all the queries. Depending on the scenario, the brand communication strategy must evolve to continue the engagement with the audience.
How do you plan to leverage digital films on social media? Whats going to be your social media channels?
BLR Airport has presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. We always use our social media platforms to narrate our stories and we believe films are a beautiful and impactful way of storytelling. The contactless journey film launched by us last year managed to gather over 6.5 million views across all SM platforms. All our key milestones such as opening of new runway, international connectivity, sanitisation procedures, or new product/ service launch at the Terminal, are captured primarily through films. You can view the latest films of #TimetoReonnect campaign here Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru - YouTube. The films are aimed at reminding them of little moments of indulgence and interaction that used to take place when they travelled through the airport regularly.
Will you look at mass media in some markets in the South?
We are unlikely to look at mass media at this stage, but we could revisit that going forward. A lot of it will also depend on how passenger volume and business pick up over a period of time in the current COVID-19 scenario.
Search engine giant Google has become the top-ranked brand in YouGovs 2021 Best Brand Rankings for India for the third consecutive year (54.2). YouGovs latest rankings reveal the Top 10 brands in terms of overall brand health according to urban Indians.
The rankings are based on the Index score from YouGov BrandIndex, which is a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation.
Google is followed by its subsidiary brand, YouTube, which remains in second (53.7) this year as well, with a marginal improvement (of +0.4) in its year-on-year brand health score.
Both WhatsApp and its parent brand Facebook recorded a decline to their scores over the past year, moving down one place and three places to fourth (48.3) and ninth (34.6), respectively.
Technology giant Amazon moved up to third (50.6) despite noting a decline in its year-on-year brand health score. On the other hand, Amazons video-on-demand streaming service Amazon Prime strengthened its brand health perception over the year, making an entry into the Top 10 list in fifth (36.0).
Another new entrant in the list is Samsung. The technology behemoth has made large strides over the past year, securing itself a place in the 2021 Top 10 rankings (32.4).
E-commerce giant Flipkart has moved up three places in the rankings to sixth (35.9), with a marginal improvement (of +0.6 points) in its year-on-year brand health score. MakeMyTrip has also moved up one place to seventh (35.2) despite witnessing a decline (of -1.9) in its brand health score compared to last year.
Dettol Soaps completes the Top 10 list, consolidating its position amidst the pandemic, climbing up two places to eighth in the 2021 rankings (34.8).
The rankings also show the brands which have improved the most over the past 12 months. Telegram is the most improved brand of the past year, with a change in score of +6.2.
Tata Motors is second (+3.9) in the list of improvers, followed by Samsung (+3.7).
With travel restrictions easing and vaccination rates improving in India, it is not surprising to see Hotels and Booking companies appear in the list of most improved brands. Taj Hotels & Palaces took the fourth place (+2.9), followed by Tata acquired Air India in eighth (2.6) and Yatra in tenth place (2.3), respectively.
Finally, Punjab National Bank (2.7), Lifebuoy Soaps (2.7), Myntra (2.6) and Kia Motors (2.3) are other names that complete the list of Top 10 Improvers in India.
Methodology:
The brands in YouGov Annual Rankings were ranked based on the Index score, which is a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation.
The Index Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Index scores between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. The Index Improvers chart ranks the brands with the highest increase in Index, comparing scores from the previous 12-month period. To be included in the improver list, the variance must be positive. Both scores are representative of the general population of adults 18+ (some are online representative).
All Index scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; however, we have used additional precision to assign ranks.
All brands have been tracked for at least 6 months to be included in the rankings and have been tracked for at least 18 months to appear in the Improvers tables.
Amidst the relief and rehabilitation efforts after devastating rains last month, poll-bound Uttarakhand is also readying itself to elect its next government. Ahead of the assembly elections, News18 India's renowned Bhaiyaji aka Prateek Trivedi is travelling to the state to bring viewers insights from ground zero of the upcoming battle.
Under the umbrella programming for election Sabse Bada Dangal, the show Bhaiyaji Kahin will travel through key constituencies while giving a unique platform to the voters to highlight their concerns and expectations. Through the show, the immensely popular anchor Prateek will also engage in candid conversations with all the stakeholders the voters, political leaders and the biggest newsmakers. From Almora to Haldwani and Nainital to Rudrapur, the show will endeavor to capture ground-level sentiments impacting the electorate, ranging from the impact of the pandemic and recent natural calamities, infrastructure, and tourism amongst others.
Popular for its unique travelogue-cum-chaupal format, Bhaiyaji has become a household name over the last few years. Traversing the length and breadth of the state, the show is set to provide a national platform to the people and leaders of Uttarakhand as they prepare for the upcoming elections.
Watch Bhaiyaji Kahin Sabse Bada Dangal starting today, Monday to Friday at 5.45 PM on News18 India
Pee Safe, Indias leading hygiene and wellness brand has launched an integrated campaign called To-Let-Go ahead of World Toilet Day on 19th November 2021. The campaign tagline Dont hold the flow, just carry Pee Safe and go with the flow speaks for the name "To-Let-Go", which is focused on making people aware of safe toilet practices, especially while using public restrooms, in order to avoid toilet borne infections such as UTI. The campaign also aims to improve toilet conditions by appreciating and acknowledging their very existence. With a mix of online and offline activities and influencers, the campaign aims to reach out to 10 million people pan India. The campaign will kick off with a GIANT giveaway of 10,000 toilet seat sanitizers across the country.
Toilets are important particularly for those who lack access. Life without a toilet is dirty, undignified, and unsafe. A toilet alone encompasses various other elements in it public health, gender equality, education, economics, and our surroundings. Even the urge to pee is universal whether you are at home or outside. However, lack of access to a clean toilet or good hygiene habits can exacerbate the situation. Through its campaign, Pee Safe aims to spread awareness on these aspects and on inculcating good toilet hygiene and habits.
Pee Safes campaign comprises quirky awareness videos on how people manage their urge to pee when they lack access to clean washrooms especially women. The brand will also be giving away free toilet seat sanitizers to spread awareness regarding best hygiene practices and the risk of UTIs. Approximately 200 influencers will also be a part of this campaign.
Speaking about this, Vikas Bagaria, Founder and CEO, Pee Safe, said, The World Toilet Day is significant for a number of reasons. The urge to pee does not count time or place! It can come just about anywhere we are. However, what is also needed is access to toilets and in India, particularly, clean does not always mean sanitized. Now with the pandemic, the importance of a hygienic toilet has increased manifold since lack of access and unclean habits can lead to a number of infections. Pee Safes campaign is extremely special in this regard.
Adding further, Vikas Bagaria, said, As a brand, our first and foremost priority has been to raise awareness on all aspects of hygiene. Our first product emerged from a personal experience of having used an unhygienic toilet. It was but natural for us to then take awareness and availability of related products hand in hand. Even during this integrated campaign, we aim to cover all these and keep working towards a better and healthy future for India.
Pee Safe will also reach out to the majority of its offline stores, where free toilet seat sanitizers will be given out on all orders above INR 99 for one day, regardless of what they buy. The giveaway will take place in both online and offline formats across India. Pee Safe is also hosting an exclusive giveaway with 20+ colleges across the country with an aim to drive awareness on toilet hygiene. Apart from its toilet seat sanitizers, Pee Safe offers a number of other products around toilet hygiene. Some of these include vaginal wash, intimate wipes, etc. Right from the messaging to product packaging, Pee Safe ensures that information and awareness is spread in a quirky, fun, and engaging manner. The brand regularly engages with influencers and uses its social media handles to post far-reaching content that is very relatable for its target audience.
Pee Safe constantly endeavors to enhance public health through bold, topical and pan-India digital initiatives on menstrual hygiene methods and need as well as the role of intimate and personal hygiene. The brands online business has seen a 40% jump in the current quarter and it has achieved over 70% growth annually (FY20-21). Currently, Pee Safe is in the process to raise $10 million in Series B funding. Further, Pee Safe is looking at expanding its retail presence from the current 10,000 stores to having a few franchise-owned brand exclusive stores (FOFO) to enhance customer experience across India. They have already expanded overseas and are building local production of toilet seat sanitizers in Europe.
Redhill, a Singapore-headquartered full-service global communications agency, has announced new hires and internal promotions to bolster its senior leadership team across India, the Middle East and Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Pavan Sahu has been promoted to Deputy Managing Director and will continue to accelerate Redhills growth in India and Indonesia. Since joining Redhill in 2019 as Senior Director, Pavan has led communications strategies, crisis communications and brand reputation management for Redhills office in India, as well as driving communications strategies across Indonesia and Singapore. Some of the key clients Pavan has worked with include Danone, Truecaller, Crayon, Builder.ai and GudangAda. He has also strengthened Redhills capabilities in the cryptocurrency space with clients such as Zipmex, DeFiance Capital and Luno.
Redhill has an established track record of providing robust communication services to our clients in India. We remain fully committed to expanding our footprint and supporting more clients with their communication needs in India, and Pavans promotion to Deputy Managing Director marks an important milestone in the four-year growth journey of the India team, said Marienelle Castelino, Managing Director, Redhill.
Redhill also announced senior leadership appointments and promotions in other regions to drive growth and add depth to the agencys global operations.
Anit Kurian, based in Dubai, UAE, has been appointed as Managing Director, Middle East, and Africa. In this role, he will be responsible for leading Redhills operations in the region. A seasoned communications expert, Anit brings nearly two decades of experience leading clients in different markets and industries and working in global agencies such as Golin and Burson-Marsteller in the MENA region, and Archetype in India.
Umesh Nair has been appointed Deputy Managing Director, leading Redhills technology practice and overseeing Redhills operations in Malaysia. Umesh has around 15 years of experience in digital marketing and corporate reputation across technology, banking, aerospace, and telecom. Before joining Redhill, he was the Managing Partner at MSL Malaysia, where he strengthened earned media capabilities at Publicis Groupe. He also served as Head of Reputation at Edelman Malaysia.
We are delighted to welcome Anit and Umesh to the Redhill team. Both Anit and Umesh bring decades of management and communications experience to the table across multiple countries and verticals, said Pranav Rastogi, Managing Director, Redhill.
Charu Srivastava will lead the government, public and corporate sector at Redhill. Charu joined Redhill in 2019 as Director and during her time has built the companys government and corporate practice to include a diverse portfolio of clients. Under her stewardship, Redhill recently won key clients in the government, technology and B2B industries, including Singapores Ministry of Law, Australia's Victorian Government Trade and Investment, Singapore Business Federation, 2C2P, BigPay, Cloud4C, SC Ventures and Hitachi.
Our current senior leaders have proven track records and a wealth of experience and expertise to keep up with our rapid growth, which is why we continue to invest in them even as we hire externally. Charu has performed exceptionally well in growing her respective verticals exponentially despite the challenging environment due to the pandemic. Ultimately, I am confident that Pavan, Anit, Umesh and Charu will help take Redhill to new heights in the coming years, Pranav continued.
Redhill celebrated its seventh anniversary in October 2021. In the last year, Redhill grew by almost 50% and hired 59 new employees, while signing on key clients across verticals such as:
Travel & Hospitality (Sindhorn Midtown, Retykle, Treeline Urban Resort, Voco Hotels)
Healthcare & Pharma (Cochlear, CellVec, NSGBiolabs, BD, HealthifyMe)
Education (Busy Bees, Michigan Ross)
Luxury & Lifestyle (Vivo, Dji, CloseComfort, SonyLIV, Yours, Style Theory, Marina)
Food & Beverage (Danone, Fat Belly, Lime House, Beyond Coffee, Spruce)
Banking & Finance (VP Bank, Oyen, Cover Genius, Vistas Media Capital)
Fintech & Crypto (BigPay, BidFX, CardUp, Kristal.AI, MarketWolf, Aegis Custody, 2C2P, Zipmex, DeFiance Capital)
Government (Ministry of Law Singapore, Ministry of Tourism Cambodia, Australia Victorian Government Trade & Investment, Textile & Fashion Federation Singapore, MDEC, Estonia e-residency)
Technology (Hitachi, Cloud Kinetics, Cloud4C, Glance, InMobi, Bigo Technology, Crayon, Truecaller, The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Lionsbot, BukuWarung)
Venture Capital (Vertex Ventures, 500, Hive Ventures, SC Ventures, Lightspeed, Good Startup, SoftBank Ventures Asia)
This is a testament to the breadth of the agencys expertise. Redhill recently enhanced its offering to include digital capabilities with Redhill Studio, which combines creative design with digital expertise.
Its a decade in cinema for Telugu cinemas actor Vijay Deverakonda, this November and Sony MAX is here to celebrate the same in a filmy way. The channel brings to its viewers a scintillating romantic comedy in Dwaraka starring Vijay Devarakonda and Pooja Jhaveri on 20th November. Directed by Srinivasa Ravindra, the film scores on a crackling chemistry between the lead actors coupled with a hefty dose of comedy that will leave you in splits. And not to forget, some power packed action scenes by the man himself that will keep you at the edge of your seats.
Dwaraka features Vijay Deverakonda in a completely different avatar, as he essays the role of a con artist Erra Srinu, who disguises himself as Sri Krishnananda Swamy, a holy man and cons people. However, his life turns upside down when he falls in love with the sweet, innocent and truth loving Vasudha (Pooja Jhaveri). But how can a love story bloom without a twist? Srinu has to fight off his nemesis to win his love and its not an easy ride for him. How will their love story transpire? Will Vasudha accept him after learning his truth? Watch out for the answers in this highly entertaining and gripping romantic drama, this month on your TV screens.
BJP Spokesperson, Anila Singh has ridiculed, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh for promising 40% reservation for women and said that she must hold her promise not only in UP but also in parliamentary elections.
Attacking Priyanka Gandhi and the Congress party, Singh said that Priyankas promises are empty words and Congress has no organization on the ground.As a woman, I appreciate and welcome what she(Priyanka Gandhi ) has said. Why 40%, Priyanka should do 100 percent reservation for women. Just for the heck of promising 40% seats to women when you know it very well that when you have no holding in UP are empty words she said.Singh was in a conversation with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now during the webcast of the Visionary Talk series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform.Singh also said that the Congress partys Uttar Pradesh results in 2014, 2017, and 2019 are self- explanatory and it has no organization on the ground. Congress can even promise a scooter or a car, but Priyanka must hold her promise not only for UP but even for other states as well as parliamentary elections.Singh added that the way former Punjab chief minister, Amarinder Singh was shown the door by Congress, shows there is internal wrestling going on in the party in Punjab and it is in disarray.On being asked why despite huge vaccination numbers in India, people were still talking about dead bodies flowing in the Ganga she said, when people all over the world have praised UP government for the speed of the vaccination program of its 25crore population, the opposition and certain sections of media have projected that dead bodies were flowing in Ganga, crematoriums were full and bodies wrapped in sheets were being buried near the Ganges.She further asked if the coronavirus was only infecting Hindus and not Muslims and why only dead bodies of Hindus were being shown. Were people from the Muslim community not dying. Were dead bodies not being cremated in cemeteries? Cameras should have turned there too. This was a conspiracy because elections were due in UP and because the Hindus who are a majority in UP and have shown their confidence in the Bhartiya Janta Party were being brainwashed that grave injustice was being meted out to them.Why is a community being divided on the name of religion. Why are you talking only about Hindu dead bodies? The cameras should have turned towards cemeteries too. Both sides of the picture should have been shown. This was an international conspiracy she said.Responding to a question on the recent incidents of violence in Tripura and Amravati in Maharashtra and how social media can be regulated so that such incidents do not happen in future, she said it was clarified by the chief minister, Biplab Kumar Dev, deputy CM, Jishnu Dev Verma, other ministers and also by the MHA that no mosque was demolished in Tripura. But in Maharashtra, a false narrative was spun that a mosque was burned and minorities were attacked and videos (clearly audible) with messages to destroy properties of Hindu community were circulated.She attacked chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray for keeping quiet over the issue.In greed of power, Chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray is sitting hand on hand and watching everything quietly, she said.Shiv Sena, which claimed to be a part of Hindus, today is sitting tight with a cloth tied around its eyes and mouth. Those who are supporting the party are playing the victim card placard and supported with a free reign by Shiv Sena.She asked why repercussions of Tripura are not being felt in Uttar Pradesh but instead happening in Maharashtra. This, she said, shows that Uddhav Thackeray is a totally failed CM. He is not able to handle the situation. He is playing in the hands of Congress and NCP. Hindus have been intentionally attacked.
The Federal Council
Bern, 17.11.2021 - The need to protect the population from hate speech and disinformation on the internet requires a broad discussion in all countries, including Switzerland. During its meeting on 17 November 2021, the Federal Council has instructed DETEC to present a discussion paper on whether and how communication platforms could be regulated by the end of 2022 with a view to strengthening user rights and dealing with non-transparent business practices. The discussion paper follows on from a report by OFCOM on the opportunities and risks posed by Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Communication platforms such as search engines (e.g. Google), social network platforms (e.g. Facebook) and multimedia platforms (e.g. YouTube) are used by large sections of the population in Switzerland and are playing an increasingly important role in the formation of opinion. Unlike traditional media, these platforms are not subject to journalistic standards. There is no obligation to ensure that the content is true, for example. Surveys show that people in Switzerland fear that they are being exposed to increasing amounts of fake news on social networks and video portals.
Unlike in the EU and the USA, to date there are no plans in Switzerland for platform operators (intermediaries) to introduce specific legal regulations on hate speech, misinformation, non-transparency and user rights. Various studies commissioned by OFCOM have concluded that the population is entitled to effective protection against illegal hate speech and disinformation, and that the rights of users must also be better protected. Against this background, a broad discussion is needed in Switzerland on the role played by intermediaries in society and on their governance.
Positive and negative influence of platforms
On the one hand, the new platforms offer opportunities for a further democratisation of public communication. They make it easier for individuals, organisations and groups to participate directly in public discourse, to contribute their points of view and to express criticism publicly. This increases the diversity of publicly available information and opinions.
On the other hand, the openness of the platforms also has various negative effects. For example, they provide an easy way to spread illegal and harmful content such as hate speech and misinformation. Just as problematic is the fact that the intermediaries can delete content according to their own non-transparent rules.
Users have no rights or only insufficient ones in the case of the platforms; for example, they cannot defend themselves against the latters' decisions and do not know on what basis they can see which content.
The rise of internet platforms has meant falling advertising revenues and dwindling audience revenues for the traditional media. Sooner or later, this has a detrimental impact on the quality of journalistic media products. It is already apparent that news media coverage is focusing on fewer and fewer topics and geographical areas.
In other European countries, owing to the prominent role of communication platforms in society and their considerable potential for harm, there is a growing conviction that duties of due diligence must be imposed on intermediaries. The EU and the US are thus currently drawing up legal frameworks to regulate the activities of intermediaries.
Against this backdrop, by the end of 2022 DETEC is to report to the Federal Council on whether and how communication platforms could be regulated.
Address for enquiries
Federal Office of Communications OFCOM
Media contact
+41 58 460 55 50, media@bakom.admin.ch
Publisher
The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html
General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications; General Secretariat DETEC
https://www.uvek.admin.ch/uvek/en/home.html
Federal Office of Communications
http://www.ofcom.admin.ch
The Federal Council
Bern, 17.11.2021 - The Swiss financial centre should be a credible location worldwide for investors who want to contribute to the environment and society in a comparable and measurable manner. To this end, the Federal Council adopted various measures during its meeting on 17 November 2021.
The Federal Council recommends that financial market players use comparable and meaningful climate compatibility indicators to help create transparency in all financial products and client portfolios. This can be done with implied temperature indicators, for example. Here, the production plans of companies included in the portfolios are compared with a pathway that is needed to limit maximum warming to 1.5 Celsius. Such indicators provide clients with a straightforward understanding of how financial products can be classified in terms of their impact on the climate. At the same time, the Federal Council is encouraging the financial sector to join net-zero international alliances and is working towards industry agreements with this in mind. Net zero means that global emissions of greenhouse gases may not exceed the amount that can be absorbed by natural and technical sinks.
Greenwashing occurs when clients of financial institutions are knowingly or unknowingly deceived or misled about sustainability characteristics of financial products and advisory processes. Therefore, it makes sense to promote uniform definitions of sustainability impacts. The subsidiary role of the state should be maintained insofar as possible. Since Switzerland has entered into climate-related commitments for the financial market by signing the Paris Agreement, an initial focus on climate impacts is appropriate. This focus is in line with international developments such as those of the G20 and EU.
The Federal Council has also instructed the Federal Department of Finance (FDF), in cooperation with the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), to inform it by the end of 2022 of the extent to which the financial sector has implemented the above-mentioned recommendations and to propose measures if need be. Finally, the Federal Council has instructed the FDF, in cooperation with the DETEC and FINMA, to propose by the end of 2022 how financial market legislation could be amended particularly with regard to transparency in order to avoid greenwashing.
Address for enquiries
Communications
State Secretariat for International Finance SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 46 16, info@sif.admin.ch
Publisher
The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html
Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html
The Federal Council
Bern, 17.11.2021 - At its meeting on 17 November 2021, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on renewing the Monetary Assistance Decree. This is to ensure that Switzerland can continue to take international monetary assistance measures when necessary. In addition, the Federal Council approved contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) interest subsidies and debt relief for Sudan.
The Monetary Assistance Act of 2004 and the Monetary Assistance Decree enshrined therein provide Switzerland with appropriate instruments for engaging in international monetary cooperation. The existing Monetary Assistance Decree, which permits a total of up to CHF 10 billion in international monetary assistance by the Confederation, expires in April 2023. Continuing it until April 2028 with the same amount should ensure that Switzerland will maintain its ability to swiftly participate in measures to stabilise the global financial system when necessary. Now that the dispatch has been submitted to Parliament, the parliamentary process can begin.
In addition, the Federal Council approved a further contribution by Switzerland of CHF 50 million to the IMF's PRGT interest subsidies and a federal contribution of CHF 7.5 million to the IMF's debt relief for Sudan.
Global financial stability is especially important to Switzerland as an internationally highly interconnected and dynamic economy with its own currency and a major financial centre. For this reason, it has engaged in international monetary cooperation for many years, in particular through its membership in the IMF.
Address for enquiries
Communications
State Secretariat for International Finance SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 46 16, info@sif.admin.ch
Publisher
The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html
State Secretariat for International Financial Matters
http://www.sif.admin.ch
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A former Oklahoma County judge says his "sexual conduct" with a prosecutor did not influence his rulings in a murder case that went to jury trial earlier this year.
Former Oklahoma County Judge Timothy Henderson presided over a case on Feb. 2 where jurors convicted Robert Leon Hashagen III of first-degree murder. He is now seeking a new trial because of the sexual allegations, according to The Oklahoman.
"The integrity of the judiciary ... is very much in question here," Hashagen's attorney, James Lockard, argued at an evidentiary hearing Monday. "We can't have faith that the verdict is a fair one."
The married judge resigned in March after three female attorneys came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him. One of the three attorneys was a prosecutor in the Hashagen case. She said the judge began sexually abusing her in April 2016 and continued until July or August of 2018.
Henderson described the sexual involvement as consensual and said he maintained his role "as a neutral and detached judicial officer" at all times during the Hashagen case.
"My rulings were fair and supported by the evidence and facts presented by the attorneys," he said.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in October ordered the evidentiary hearing and will rule on the new trial request after getting a report.
I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. . .so help me God Part of the Oath of Office for military officers, cabinet members, members of Congress, civilian appointees, other civil servants. Article VI, United States Constitution.
I will. . . to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Part of the Presidential Oath of Office, Article II, section 1, United States Constitution. George Washington added, So help me God.
These limited Oaths are important in helping to explain our history. The added words so help me God transfer the promise from a promise to the nation to a promise to God. What is that promise? It is a narrow promise, a specific promise, a promise to defend the US Constitution, a part of what is called Positive Lawone of four bundles of Law that constitute the Rule of Law in America.
For members of the armed forces, the promise means, in part, loyalty to the notion of civilian control of the military. For the President, the promise means, in part, loyalty to the parameters of power relative to the Office of President of the United States and respect for the stated and reserved powers of the states and the reserved powers and rights of the People. Amendments IX and X, United States Constitution. See also this essay about the notion of Federalism.
Why this narrow commitment? The reason is practical and strategic. The document that emerged from the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and was ratified in 13 state conventions, included elements of compromise in conflict with other bundles of American Rule of Law. The dangerous and fragile times dictated the measures, in the opinion of some of the Founders, and they wanted the new Constitution supported.
George Washington felt strongly that there would be no independent America without a more muscular set of rules than was provided by the Articles of Confederation, our first constitution. So, instead of amending the Articles of Confederation, an entirely new document was created.
Image: George Washington taking the oath of office from an 1893 history of the United States. No known copyright.
This explains the narrow promisean Oath to follow the new Constitution and its rules and follow them faithfully so that the new nation might survive intact. The nation did survive. America was not attacked again militarily until 1812 when Britain tried to re-take her former colonies. The interceding twenty-nine years gave the country a chance to gain its strength. It did just that.
Many of the Founders also intended to buy time in hopes that the Constitution would align with other parts of our Rule of Law, especially the values stated directly in the Declaration of Independence and in the moral teachings of Christianity. After the Civil War, we did bring the federal Constitution closer in alignment with Natural and Moral Law and it is certainly closer in alignment today.
But that was then. This is now. What might be an appropriate Oath for today?
A broader Oath for today, from the President and others in federal public trust, might be to swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Sovereignty of our nation, our Unalienable Rights, the religious underpinnings of our Moral Law, in addition to the Constitution and federal statutes that are part of Positive Law. The Oath might also include a promise regarding the spirit of comity and courtesy with which the promise is to be carried outUnwritten Law. All of this, so help them God.
The rights we enjoy, for instance, come from God and are part of Natural Law. All persons in our system have an initial right to Life and to Liberty. The unborn have a right to have their lives considered in a calculation of who lives and who dies. An individuals right to Liberty is unalienableit cannot be separated from his or her being, by the elected or the appointed or by any document. Liberty is checked by duty and by internalized moral valuesvalues that come from the family and the communitynot those hired to be stewards of those values.
The Sovereignty of the Nation is not a Presidents or a Congresss to give away. It may not be transferred directly or indirectly to a transnational governing structure or scheme by Treaty or by any other means. The Sovereignty of the American nation is in the hands of her People. Only they, and only they by direct vote, could give the nation away or dissolve her borders.
Perhaps the simplest way to visualize the system the Oath represents is to see it as a Spring basket with a large purple plastic egg, a dark-chocolate bunny, and some green artificial grass. The egg represents our Rule of Law in its entiretyincluding the US Constitution. The chocolate bunny is our economic system independent but closely aligned to the purple plastic egg, and the green grass is the American culture including the rights and liberties of the People within that culture. The hand-woven basket is in Gods hands and it is In God We Trust.
Many of those drunk with elected and appointed national power in the United States today seem not to remember even their limited Oaths of Office or their larger duties of stewardship. You are but part of the egg in the basketyou are not the bunny, you are not the grass, you are not the basket, and you certainly do not hold the basket in your hand. Paraphrasing the new Lt. Governor of Virginia, Who do you think you are?
As George Washington tells us, The Power. . . will always be with the People. Perhaps a broader Oath of Office will bring this point home to those we elect and appoint to national public trust.
M. E. Boyds Apples of GoldVoices From the Past That Speak to Us Now is available at www.amazon.com using the title and subtitle.
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Alfred Dreyfus, the central figure in a political and legal affair that divided France, died in 1935, but he has re-emerged as an object of polemical discussion as the result of ludicrous fulminations of French history by Eric Zemmour, ultra-nationalist TV pundit and potential presidential candidate.
Zemmour, whose parents were Algerian Jews, has risen spectacularly and become prominent in far-right, anti-immigrant political circles. In October 2021, he voiced two astonishing and troubling assertions: the claim that Marshal Philippe Petain, head of the Vichy government, had protected French Jews during the Nazi occupation, while Jews were rounded up by French police to be deported to their death in Nazi camps, and a statement that the truth about the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus was murky, and we will never know whether the allegations against him were valid or were lies.
This view of Dreyfus's possible guilt had already been stated in an article in 1994 by a lawyer for the right-wing Jean-Marie Le Pen that the pardoning of Dreyfus was contrary to all known jurisprudence. Other far-right commentators have suggested that the Dreyfus affair was orchestrated by a secret and occult power and that it weakened France before World War I, an innuendo of Jewish conspiracy.
At the heart of the Dreyfus affair, past and present, was anti-Semitism.
The Dreyfus affair began with the discovery by French security officials of a letter, found in the wastebasket of a German military attache at the German Embassy in Paris, offering to sell French military secrets to the Germans. Captain Dreyfus, the only Jew on the French general staff, was accused of the crime, arrested, and convicted by secret court-martial in 1894, supposedly for spying on France and passing military secrets to Germany. He was stripped of his rank in a humiliating ceremony and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island in French Guiana.
The country was divided on the issue, with French nationalists, prelates of the Catholic Church, and some prominent intellectuals approving the conviction, among whom were virulent anti-Semites such as the writers Charles Maurras and Maurice Barres. On December 2, 1897, Maurras wrote to Barres that "the entire party of Dreyfus ought to be put in front of a firing squad."
Anti-Semitic hatred lasted until the end. When Maurras after the war was convicted on January 27, 1945, for complicity with the enemy during the war and was sentenced to national degradation and life imprisonment in isolation, he shouted, "This is the revenge of Dreyfus!" Despite his appalling and abhorrent record, Maurras was much admired. T.S. Eliot saw Maurras as a "sort of Virgil who led us to the gates of the temple." President George Pompidou praised him as a prophet of the modern world.
Dreyfus did not want to appear as a hero in his own drama and did not play any active public role in asserting his innocence, but Emile Zola did, after the real villain in the affair, Major Walsin-Esterhazy, had been identified but in a military court found not guilty. As a result, journalist and author Zola, at that time probably the most popular French writer, wrote an open letter, J'Accuse, of 4,000 words published in what is probably the most famous front page in the history of journalism. The letter electrified the country. L'Aurore distributed 300,000 copies of the day's paper, as distinct from the usual 3,000. Zola had galvanized those believing that Dreyfus was innocent.
The letter, printed on January 13, 1898, in L'Aurore, whose publisher was George Clemenceau, was addressed to the president of the French Republic, Felix Faure, stating that there was a spot of mud on his name because of "the abominable" Dreyfus affair and the acquittal of Esterhazy, a great blow to all truth, all justice. Dreyfus, Zola declared, was wrongly convicted. He blamed the army leaders for covering up information and evidence, for miscarriage of justice, for judicial errors. France, he told the president, has "a stain on her cheek." The truth was ignored and darkened. Zola castigated the French military leaders as spirits of social evil and wanted to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. He ended with a dare to bring him to criminal court and for an investigation to take place in broad daylight.
Zola had deliberately taken advantage of the 1881 Press Law, according to which defamation could be published but was punishable as slander against military officials. Zola was arrested and tried for libel, sentenced on February 7, 1898, to a year in prison, and removed from the Legion of Honor. When in July 1899 his appeal seemed certain to fail, he fled the country, living for a year in England.
By his letter, Zola manifested the influence of the press and of intellectuals challenging injustice. He was right. Truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it. Interestingly, the artist Camille Pissarro wrote to L'Aurore on January 18, 1898, that he wanted his name to be added to "the protestation of the awful judgment of the country's court martial." Pissarro, himself the subject of anti-Semitic bile, agreed to be part of a committee to award a medal to Zola. The art world was divided, with Monet, Signac, and Vallotin agreeing with Pissarro, while others, some former friends Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and above all Edgar Degas were opposed. Among other protesters, Edvard Grieg refused a musical invitation in France because of French injustice to Dreyfus.
In 1898, the French intelligence officer admitted he had forged documents to prove that Dreyfus was guilty. Nonetheless, Dreyfus was court-martialed again and again found guilty. He was offered and accepted a pardon, though there was nothing to pardon, by President Emile Loubet in 1899; was released from prison; and lived in a state of house arrest. Finally, the conviction of Dreyfus was overturned by a military commission in 1906. He died on July 12, 1935, aged 74.
Zola died on September 29, 1902, in his Paris apartment of carbon monoxide, probably caused by a badly ventilated chimney. The death may have been accidental, but it is suspected of having been a murder by blocking the chimney. Zola is today buried in the Pantheon, after his initial burial at Montmartre's cemetery. At that event on October 5, 1902, the author Anatole France spoke of Zola's heroic honesty, his virtue. His destiny and his heart gave him the fate of the greatest men. Zola deserves well of his country for not having lost faith in its ability to rule by law. Anatole France ended his eloquent tribute with a dazzling compliment: "he was a moment in the history of human conscience."
Zola was transferred from the Montparnasse cemetery to the Pantheon on June 4, 1908. Dreyfus, who was present at the ceremony, was wounded by two shots fired by a nationalist journalist.
Every year, Zola has been honored. In October 2021, he and Dreyfus were bound together in a symbolic link of their destinies in the struggle for truth and to repair injustice. It is an opportunity to reflect on fundamental issues, the correct functioning of the legal system, the virus and evils of anti-Semitism, the role of the media, and the role of intellectuals in democratic societies.
On October 26, President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated a museum, the first of its kind, dedicated to the Dreyfus affair, a collection and exhibition in the house of Emile Zola, in Medan, west suburb of Paris. Nothing, said Macron, could repair the humiliations and injustices that Dreyfus had suffered, but let us not aggravate them by leaving them forgotten or repeated. The museum is part of the Zola house, devoted to preserving his memory and the crucial role he played in challenging the conviction of Dreyfus.
The Maison Zola-Musee Dreyfus was co-financed by Pierre Berge, the late partner of Yves Saint Laurent, the foundation for the memory of the Shoah, and antiracism campaigners, some of whom called for Dreyfus to be posthumously promoted to the rank of general. One of its sponsors was Elie Wiesel. The new museum will display a collection dedicated to the Dreyfus Affair: 500 documents, objects, anti-Semitic caricatures, photographs, songs, and posters.
The museum will naturally focus on the Dreyfus Affair and Zola's action, which was a turning point, but it will also posit broader questions of tolerance, human rights, separation of religion and politics, secularism, and anti-Semitism. Truth will march on.
Image: Peter Reed via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
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If a party wants to get something big done, it needs a plan. A complete plan should include:
A long-term objective
A guiding strategy to achieve the objective
Tactics to enhance the probability of success
Specific actions to realize the desired outcome
In a competitive arena, like politics, parties usually keep their plans secret. But after observing ones opponent for a bit, its usually possible to reverse engineer what their plan is. Well, weve had a few decades to observe the Democrats, and I think their plan has become pretty obvious. Its also apparent that their plan has some serious flaws.
Objective
I dont think anyone would dispute that the overarching objective of the Dems is to achieve a long-term lock on power. In fact, there is nothing wrong with that objective. The good or evil in the plan isnt the objective. It is how the objective is achieved and used.
Strategy
Its pretty obvious that the Democrat strategy is to win by any means necessary -- including cheating. Nothing is off the table. Theyve demonized their opponents with propaganda and witch-hunt investigations. Theyve used thugs and Deep State bureaucrats to intimidate the opposition. Theyve altered election rules and used fraud to tilt the scales in their favor. That pretty much covers the by any means necessary waterfront.
Notice what their strategy is not to win the debate of ideas. Theyve stopped even attempting to sell their agenda to the American public. The Dems dont debate bills before passing them anymore. They have to pass the bill to see whats in it. They know they cant win by having a winning argument. That explains why they never alter course based on feedback from the electorate. Americans spoke loud and clear during the 2021 off-year election. The Dems doubled down on what they were already doing. Public be damned, just fortify their position before the next election.
Tactics
The Dems have used a number of tactics to enhance their probability of success. They have created a coalition of special interest groups to win elections. Environmentalists, feminists, LGBT, minorities, unions, etc. have come together to defeat anything the evil conservatives pursue.
Theyve used their very own propaganda ministry (the MSM) to deceive the electorate. Four years of fake stories convinced Americans that it would be evil to vote for Trump and virtuous to vote for Biden. What Americans were not given was the necessary information to make an informed decision. The Dems provide the narrative, and the propagandists sell it. The truth does not factor into their tactics.
The Dems have also used the power of the Deep State to attack opponents. For the promise of more power and funding, the Deep State has happily assisted. The DoJ and FBI conspired to execute a coup against a duly elected president. Now the DoJ is attempting to crush political dissent by labeling peaceful protests domestic terrorists.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the Dems have employed thugs to intimidate Americans into inaction. Antifa and Black Lives Matter have vandalized, burned, and even murdered to advance the narratives created by the Democrats. Who can forget restaurant patrons harassed, politicians attacked on the street, judges intimidated, and jurors threatened? The Dems have responded by providing bail and declining to prosecute the thugs.
Actions
The by any means necessary party was able to get into power (just barely) in the 2020 election. They proposed a series of actions that would have cemented their lock on power for years to come. These included:
Packing the courts
Ending the filibuster
Nationalize elections
Redistribute wealth
Fortunately for Americans, their actions havent worked out so well.
A Complete Plan Doesnt Make a Good Plan
Lets take a look at how the Dem plan is working, starting at their actions and working back to their strategy.
Had they pulled off their planned actions, it certainly would have been hard to pry them out of office again. But luckily, they picked the village idiot to lead the charge. President Gremlin has not only failed, but he has also failed spectacularly. The Dems arent talking about court-packing, election reform, or filibuster nuking anymore. Gropey Joes negotiating skills have even managed to turn his spending plan into an all-out civil war within his own party. Luckily for conservatives, the Dems had no alternative to Joe -- he really is the best they have.
Their tactics have inherent vulnerabilities which are now exposed. The Deep State and the MSM could only be effective while they did their dirty work in darkness and retained a facade of credibility. But either through hubris or necessity, they went too far and theyre exposed now.
At the very time that Americans are livid about rising crime, the Dems have sided with criminal thugs. They wont be able to run on a platform of law and order for years to come.
Lastly, the cracks in their coalition are beginning to show. Special-interest groups must compete for resources, priority, attention, decisions, and etc. However, eventually, the coalition members were bound to start competing with each other, and that has exposed a major vulnerability of the coalition.
Both feminism and the LGBT movement began wanting fair treatment for their respective members. But fair treatment morphed into a demand for equitable results. Now we have men competing in womens sports. Winner -- LGBT.
Minority groups wanted the best possible education for their children. Only through a better education could their kids hope to lead a better life. However, the teachers' unions wanted to crush educational alternatives to create a monopoly for the public-school systems. The Democrats sided with the unions against things like school vouchers. In so doing, they have perpetuated failing public schools. Winner -- teachers unions.
The same foundational cracks are forming between labor unions and environmentalists. Even their army of thugs is in conflict. BLM is fundamentally Marxist. Antifa is anarchist. How long can they work together? And on and on. A coalition of disparate special interests is a house of sand. It looks impressive but crumbles with the first waves.
The Bleak Future They Face
This is where the leftists and their useful idiots in the Democrat party stand -- theyve won an election but jeopardized their future prospects. Their colossal ineptitude has undermined their message of competence and roused the American people. Theyve exposed their vulnerabilities for conservatives to exploit.
The tactics theyve employed have inherent vulnerabilities. Their coalition is beginning to crack. Conservatives need to grab the biggest crowbar they can find and pry away.
Luckily, the Democrats are hostages to their leftist sponsors and show no inclination to adjust their tactics. Bill Clinton knew how to triangulate. No Democrat after him has even considered this. Conservatives can attack their vulnerabilities in complete confidence that they will continue doing the same things. By the time they realize their tactics are flawed, it will be too late.
Their strategy to retain power by any means necessary is also flawed. It misses the point that we are a government by the people and for the people. How did they think they could achieve political dominance without the consent of the people?
Leftists and their political wing, the Democrats, have:
Picked a strategy that is anathema to a country of self-governance
Settled on tactics that are deeply flawed
Placed success in the hands of the most incompetent fool to ever occupy the Oval Office
So hows that stolen election working out for them? 2022 cant get here soon enough.
John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network (afnn.us). He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
Image: Peter Breughel
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The Pentagon's annual report on China's military included a section on the PLA's nuclear buildup. The report states that the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) "is developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces." Nuclear warhead production has increased. At least three new ICBM silo fields are being constructed, "which will cumulatively contain hundreds of new ICBM silos." The PLARF's road-mobile DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBMs) force is growing.
China plans to "modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces," including land, sea, and air-based platforms (the triad), according to the report. The Pentagon estimates that by 2027, the PLARF will have at least 700 deliverable nuclear warheads and at least 1,000 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2030. China's ICBM force consists of CSS-10 Mod 2 missiles with a range of 11,200 kilometers, DF-41 missiles that can strike targets 12,000 kilometers away, and CSS-4 Mod 2 and Mod 3 missiles with a maximum range of 13,000 kilometers. With these three missile types, China can deliver nuclear warheads to the entire continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. Some of these missiles have MIRV capability, meaning they can deliver multiple warheads to multiple targets.
China's nuclear weapons expansion has been characterized by the head of U.S. Strategic Command as "breathtaking," a "strategic breakout" designed to give China a "coercive capability" to deter the U.S. from defending its allies against Chinese aggression. Meanwhile, Russia is engaged in its own nuclear buildup, and it may eventually outnumber the U.S. in warheads by ten to one. And China and Russia have gradually become strategic allies as both seek to undermine America's role as the organizer of the liberal world order.
According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, as of July 2020, the United States under the 2010 treaty called New START, negotiated by the Obama administration, fields 1,550 nuclear warheads on 700 strategic launchers (though we have more in our stockpile). This includes 400 Minuteman III ICBMs, 14 ballistic missile submarines that each carry up to 90 warheads, and 20 deployed B-2 bombers that each carry up to 20 nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. President Trump had restored some secrecy to the U.S. strategic force and started a modernization program, but the secrecy decision was reversed by the Biden administration, which has pledged "nuclear transparency," and the administration appears set on pursuing arms control with Russia, even as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is anything but transparent about its strategic nuclear force and is engaged in a significant buildup of that force.
But the numbers and the different approaches to transparency and arms control do not tell the whole story. A recent study by the Heritage Foundation noted that the U.S. nuclear force faces three challenges: aging nuclear warheads, delivery systems, and command and control systems; a crumbling infrastructure; and an aging workforce. The Heritage Foundation study notes that the United States "has not designed or built a nuclear warhead since the end of the Cold War."
What does all of this mean? According to Peter Huessy, president of GeoStrategic Analysis, the nuclear balance is changing, and not for the better. China, he writes, "may be on a path toward developing 2,5003,500 nuclear warheads from its new silo building." Meanwhile, the U.S. disarmament community is pressuring the Biden administration which is staffed by several former members of that disarmament community to reduce U.S. nuclear weapons and adopt a "no first use" policy meaning that the U.S. will pledge never to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict, effectively ending the role of nuclear weapons in deterring a conventional attack on us or our allies.
In the past, U.S. nuclear superiority helped defuse crises that could have led to all-out war Soviet occupation of northern Iran in 1946, the Berlin blockade, Chinese attacks on Quemoy and Matsu in the 1950s, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the threat of Soviet intervention in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The United States, instead of pursuing arms control with Russia and further reducing our once superior nuclear arsenal in the face of a massive Chinese buildup, should once again use our technological know-how and productive capacities to regain and maintain nuclear superiority.
China is rattling sabers over Taiwan, as it did in the 1950s. Russia is threatening Ukraine and NATO members in parts of Europe, as it did in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. Our Asian and European allies are watching how we respond.
U.S. nuclear superiority helped America win the Cold War without fighting World War III. "[W]ithout nuclear deterrence," wrote Edward Luttwak in his masterful essay "How to Think about Nuclear War," "great power conflicts would resume as before 1945." "By what doctrine of theology, by what theory of morality, by what rule of ethics," he asked, "is it decreed that the small risk of nuclear war is a greater evil than the virtual certainty of the large-scale death in great-power wars no longer deterred?" Hopefully, someone in the Biden administration is asking that question.
Image: CristianIS via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
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In the horror movie The Purge, the U.S. government annually gives its citizens a 12-hour period in which to commit any and all crimes with no consequences. The only thing the filmmakers missed in predicting today's Democrat Party stance on rioting, arson, and anarchy in the streets is the time frame.
Twelve hours isn't nearly enough time to properly riot, silly!
You need at least a weekend for sufficient criminality. I mean, those Molotov cocktails don't construct themselves.
Sometimes you need weeks to get all the rage out of your system, like in Minneapolis, or even months, like those slowpokes in Seattle. To paraphrase Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the former mayor of Baltimore, anarchists need sufficient time in which to destroy.
And the Democrat Purge isn't only an annual event. No, it can happen any time a cop shoots a black man, justified or not, or any time leftists get a court verdict they don't like.
And they certainly won't be liking the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wis.
Any remotely fair person who's followed the trial and watched videos of the incident can easily see two things: the despicable mainstream media, as usual, lied their butts off about what actually occurred in a ham-handed attempt to please their Democrat masters. And the prosecutors, likewise looking to curry favor with the left, never had a case for murder this was clearly a case of self-defense.
Best-case scenario for the partisan prosecutors: A craven jury may convict Rittenhouse on a lesser charge to avoid facing the rabid mob themselves.
But whether Rittenhouse is found innocent or guilty of a minor crime, anarchists, race-hustlers, loony leftists, and sundry miscreants of all stripes will dependably lose their Schiff when the verdict's read and scream for blood.
And the Democrats in charge of things will, in so many words, declare a Purge and let their constituents spill just as much blood as they like. The police will be told to stand down and watch, and to their discredit, they will.
Block highways? Detain, abuse, or even assault drivers? No problemo during a Purge.
Torch buildings, cars, and stores, even police stations, at will? Social justice, baby!
Beat up innocents, throw bricks, spit on cops? Go ahead during a Purge, it's Democrat-sanctioned.
Every crime imaginable is allowed during such times: arson, assault, homicide, destruction of property, grand theft, and vandalism on an industrial scale. The only thing Dems won't allow during a Purge is protecting your property and yourself, hence the absurd Rittenhouse trial.
If you, unfortunately, live in a Democrat-run city, you're about to experience a violent, lawless period where absolutely anything goes and nothing, nothing will happen to the perps. The cops will just watch, and the FBI's too busy going after Trump-supporters.
Sadly, something may very well happen to your home, your business, your loved ones, or even your incisors!
Perhaps this is a good time for that trip to Florida you and the family have been talking about. Soak in the sun, watch the palm trees sway, have a pina colada or two, and wait patiently for the Democrat-run Purge to end.
Image: Piqsels.
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Joe Biden's policy toward Russia now can be said to be weaker than that of Germany a shocking development, considering the history of Germany shirking its duties to NATO. The New York Times reports:
The approval process to certify Nord Stream 2, an undersea gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany that has sparked concerns about Russian influence in Europe, ground to a halt on Tuesday when a German regulator said the owners of the pipeline had failed to file the necessary paperwork. The action means that the recently completed pipeline will not begin supplying gas to Germany anytime soon, and it comes against the backdrop of a politically charged jump in energy prices in Europe and rising tensions between Moscow and Europe over a refugee crisis in Belarus and Russian troops gathering near Ukraine. The news caused a jump in European natural gas markets, with the price of U.K. natural gas futures soaring more than 17 percent on Tuesday, amid concerns that Europe will run short of gas this winter. It also comes as Germany finds itself in political limbo, with Chancellor Angela Merkel, a firm supporter of the pipeline project, reduced to a caretaker role while leaders from the Social Democratic, Green and Free Democratic parties debate the makeup of a new government, one that has the potential to be less favorable to its predecessor's pet energy project.
The paperwork involved is not simple, as The Guardian reports:
The German energy regulator said it would not continue its approval process until the Nord Stream 2 company, which is registered in Switzerland, transfers its main assets and staffing budget to its German subsidiary. "A certification for the operation of Nord Stream 2 will only be considered once the operator is organised in a legal shape compliant with German law," the regulator said.
This means that the approval process will have to start over once the subsidiaries are reconfigured. More delays.
Underlying this, Russia is currently massing troops on its border with Ukraine, from which it already has stolen territory, and whose territorial integrity it has no regard for. Nordstream 2 would allow Russian natural gas to reach Western Europe without passing through Ukraine, thereby depriving Ukraine of the ability to retaliate against Russia by cutting off gas supplies and depriving Russia of a massive amount of hard currency revenue, which the regime desperately needs.
The German Federation's willingness under outgoing Chancellor Merkel to rely more on Russia as an energy source via the Nordstream 2 pipeline had been challenged by President Trump, who placed sanctions on it. But last May, the Biden administration announced that it was waiving the sanctions, allowing the project to be completed.
The move to delay Nordstream 2 will impose major costs on not only Germany but much of Western Europe:
Europe faces a looming winter gas crisis, which has fuelled fears of a widespread industrial slowdown due to factory shutdowns and potential power outages. It is also expected to drive a cost of living crisis for homes and small businesses. Gas prices have reached record highs in recent months, ignited by a global surge in demand after the Covid-19 economic slowdown last year, and fuelled by Russia's reluctance to export extra supplies to Europe to help meet demand despite rocketing market prices. Some countries have accused Russia, which is Europe's largest gas supplier, of withholding extra gas supplies to Europe in order to pressure Germany to approve the gas project. The Kremlin has denied this. The boss of commodities trading giant Trafigura, Jeremy Weir, warned that Europe could face "rolling blackouts" this winter due to tight gas supplies and low gas storage levels. "We haven't got enough gas at the moment quite frankly; we're not storing for the winter period. So hence there's a real concern that there's a potential if we have a cold winter that we could have rolling blackouts in Europe," Weir told an industry conference.
The return of the Cold War will actually make Western Europeans cold.
Meanwhile, Biden looks weak and has forfeited U.S. leadership.
Hat tip: Mike Nadler.
Photo credit: Pjotr Mahhonin, CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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I have a couple of dinosaur-sized bones of contention with the Democrat party. Bone number one is its obsession with illegal immigration. Bone number two is the vaccine mandate.
The Democrats' obsession with illegal aliens appears to be the ultimate human capital strategy ahead of canceling student loan debt. What's a real head-scratcher about this immigration policy is that it has near-unanimous Black support. Indeed, Black Democrats accepted with little outcry Biden's rapid-fire deportation of 14,000 Haitians. These Black Democrats are browbeaten by their party to support migratory preference for Latinos over all other immigrants.
A state-sanctioned influx of Central and South Americans inevitably dilutes Black representation in society and at all levels of government an ominous development, given the relatively recent passage of the Voting Rights Act, which occurred shortly before I was born.
One need not oppose leftist dogma to consider such preferential migration nothing less than systematic disenfranchisement of the Black community. Additionally, while it's largely a progressive policy, its ranks include the "cheap labor" wing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
My second dinosaur-sized bone of contention with Democrats is their vaccine mandates. I grew up during the final stages of desegregation and don't relish anything resembling it. This explains my aversion to vaccine passports and workplace directives demanding inoculation or termination. These policies mirror Jim Crow a little too closely in my opinion. In fact, I unlovingly call these unconstitutional mandates "Germ Crow."
I had a Germ Crow run-in last year at my former job. Its politburo unilaterally declared I needed a negative COVID-19 test result to return to work after a bad allergy attack. I was the only person in the building to face this demand despite White coworkers being out sick in droves. Mardi Gras 2020 had just happened, and with it came the first virus variant.
Image: Illegal aliens heading to America (cropped). YouTube screen grab.
True to its communist cousins in China using the excuse of COVID to profile Africans, the workplace politburo used a new pandemic to disguise old prejudice toward me. Progressivism at home and abroad is just the same dictatorship, albeit with different accents.
When it comes to mandates, the accounts from overseas aren't more encouraging. It's too easy to juxtapose unconfirmed stories from last year about infected Chinese people whose homes their government welded shut, with footage showing months of violent arrests starring Australian police officers. In a far cry from demoralized American de-policing, cops Down Under are tackling anti-mandate protesters, unmasked pedestrians, and even beachgoers. England hasn't been as aggressive, but its lockdowns have led to mass demonstrations.
I'm watching international news and seeing worrying stuff about social creditstyle segregation, where the vaccinated get privileges denied the unvaccinated, something occurring in both France and Austria. While we're teetering on the edge of mandate state expansion, many countries in Europe and elsewhere are poised to radically restrict freedom for the foreseeable future. Warnings about globalists planning world domination don't seem so far-fetched anymore. Not after the last couple of years.
For the above reasons and more, migratory preference and Germ Crow are my dinosaur-sized bones of contention with leftists. These "bones" (areas of disagreement) are by no means exhaustive, but I'm not typing an Encyclopedia Britannicalength post.
Suffice it to say, Democrats provide me with endless examples of unacceptable policies. Forcing my demographic out of now-defunct majority-minority status and forcing unemployment on workers practicing medical freedom forces me to draw harsh new conclusions about the left to add to my old harsh conclusions.
The left's mania for micromanaging our lives is cause enough for wrath. It seems my list of dinosaur-sized bones of contention with leftists is destined to be infinite.
Cap Black. Writer/Commentator on Liberation and Liberty. #ActualSuperHeroForLiberty Advocate. #HaltHunger Organizer.
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This guest essay on "The Steele Dossier," by Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin, constitutes, arguably, a new development in ostensible expressions of regret: the attack apology. Although Prof. Grueskin acknowledges that the Steele Dossier was largely "fictitious," the pain this admission causes him seems palpable. And due to his obvious discomfort, the words "false claim," "baseless allegations," "outright fraud" do not emerge from his computer.
Here is one of the professor's acknowledgments: "Many of the dossier's allegations have turned out to be fictitious or, at best, unprovable." Many? Which of the dossier's allegations is fact, and which is provable? And by what theory? The professor is silent. Still, he wonders how so many journalists "were taken in so easily because the dossier seemed to confirm what they already suspected." That Donald J. Trump was a Russian asset? Grueskin, give us a break. What the anti-Trump campaign, beginning with false allegations of DNC hacking and the Steele Dossier, prevented, as the late Professor Stephen F. Cohen noted many times on the John Batchelor radio show (now a podcast), was normal relations with Russia.
In mid-essay, this question from the journalism school professor: "So where did much of the press go wrong?" (Much of the press? Pretty damn well all the media.) His immediate answer: Donald Trump. Here is one of Grueskin's two paragraphs answering where he thinks the press went wrong:
First, Mr, Trump had long curried Mr. Putin's favor. Moreover, Mr. Mueller showed, and filed indictments that explained, how the Russians interfered in the 2016 campaign, hacking into Democrats' emails and taking advantage of Facebook and other social media companies to foment chaos and dissent.
(The jargon in The Mueller Report is "sow chaos.")
What does Grueskin mean by long currying Putin's favor?
Whom did Mueller indict? (Grueskin does not elaborate. What makes his charge of Russian "hacking into Democrats' emails" "provable"?). In addition to Paul Manafort (see immediately below), Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, a bunch of alleged Russian agents who never will stand trial, George Papadopoulos, and Michael T. Flynn what did his unfair indictment have to do with the dossier or collusion, other than serving as scapegoat for the totalitarian-minded Democrats who could not abide the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016? Grueskin is silent on these details, but what are key details to propagandists other than obstacles to their lies?
Grueskin continues:
Mr. Trump's choice of Paul Manafort to serve as his campaign chairman reinforced the idea that he was in the thrall of Russia. [Trump or Manafort?] Those fears were borne out when a bipartisan Senate committee found Mr. Manafort to be a 'grave counterintelligence threat' because of his ties to a Kremlin agent. So given all that [all what?], it was easy to assume that the dossier's allegations must also be true. The distinction between what journalists assume and what we verify is often the difference between fiction and reality[.] [Since when is providing "fiction" the mark of a journalist?]
The Mueller Report does accuse Russia of hacking into Clinton campaign computers, but the report does not provide details on how that "hacking" was carried out. See, for example, the Report, beginning at page 98 (Washington Post edition), and the pages forward. The Nation, not your right-wing periodical, published, August 9, 2017, an article on the report of experts that it is not possible that the DNC computer was hacked, citing technical reasons beyond, to use a Mueller term, "my purview." This report found that the DNC was not hacked; the leaked information was by someone with access to DNC computers. In short, the leaked information was an inside job.
As to Mueller and Manafort, this explanation of the Manafort indictment appears on page 621 of The Washington Post edition of The Mueller Report: "[Manafort] was charged in federal court in Washington, DC, on October 30, 2017, with crimes related to his work as a political consultant in Ukraine" and then, February 2018, charged with "fil[ing] fraudulent loan applications to banks[.]" What does consultancy in Ukraine have to do with Russia, much less the Steele Dossier? Nothing at all.
Throughout the essay, Grueskin tried to explain away the mindset driving "journalists" to accept the dossier's allegations as true. For example, he commented that as "reporters" considered President Trump a liar, the dossier might be true. In a parenthetical comment, he wrote, "Washington Post fact-checkers would catalog more than 30,000 Trump falsehoods during his term." Without bothering to apply mere scrutiny, let alone strict scrutiny, to this bizarre claim, Grueskin would have us accept at face value the false claims of the virulently anti-Trump Washington Post.
Mr. Grueskin, in mid-essay, offered this apologia for "reporters," not for the former president: "The situation also became complicated because some reporters simply didn't like or trust Mr. Trump or didn't want to appear to be on his side." My translation: most "reporters," in covering Donald Trump, didn't want to let the facts interfere with their biases. Their aim was not journalistic. It was political: defeat Trump. Or, after his election, hurl him out of office. Therefore, those whom Grueskin calls "journalists" or "reporters" are nothing of the kind; they are political hacks, partisan propagandists, lying scriveners, pure and simple.
Grueskin also cited the comment by Barry Meier, in his book, Spooked:
"Plenty of reporters were skeptical of the dossier, but they hesitated to dismiss it, because they didn't want to look like they were carrying water for Trump or his cronies." Aha! By dint of projection, Grueskin helps us understand why the media did not dismiss the dossier, the allegation of collusion, and the rest of the lies spewed by the anti-democratic information network throughout the first term of President Donald J. Trump. These propagandists were carrying water for Hillary Clinton and the anti-Trump Resistance, comprising congressional Democrats, the intelligence "community," and, of course, the media intent first on defeating Donald J. Trump in 2016 and, having failed that goal, working assiduously throughout his term to unseat him, even to the point of unseating him after he left office.
And so Donald J. Trump was accurate all along when he directed a sharp comment at the media. The anti-Trump media are the enemy of the truth. How can propagandists who refuse to report actual events be anything other than "the enemy of the people"?
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Anybody objectively watching the Kyle Rittenhouse trial could see that he should never have been charged. Witness testimony and video footage established clearly that Kyle acted in self-defense when he shot at three men, all of whom were vigorously engaged in trying to kill him. My worry from the beginning, though, has been that the jury will be so intimidated by the gathering mobs that it will affect their verdict. The facts seem to support my concern.
Despite the clear evidence presented, which should have led to a verdict in an hour or two at most, the jury did not reach a verdict on Monday. According to Jacek Posobiec, "Two jurors holding decision up, outright citing backlash, per US Marshall in Kenosha."
Two jurors holding decision up, outright citing backlash, per US Marshal in Kenosha Jacek Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 16, 2021
As Posobiec explains, the jurors are well aware of the threats against them:
Including doxxing threats from anarchist groups Jacek Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) November 16, 2021
Given that the state was so nervous that there would be a repeat of last August's mob violence that the governor mobilized the Wisconsin National Guard in advance of the verdict, those jurors, if they indeed did as the marshal allegedly said, have legitimate reason to be afraid. Keep in mind as you think about the incipient violence that this trial, despite the media's best efforts to whip people in a frenzy, had nothing to do with race because Kyle is white, as are (or were) the people he shot.
As jury deliberations continue in #Rittenshouse case, 500 Wisconsin National Guard members are on standby. Theyll assist local law enforcement if requested by county and city officials pic.twitter.com/ZQgIFZl7rn Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) November 16, 2021
Not only have the people gathering managed to ignore the facts of Kyle's conduct, but they have also bought into the media's efforts to turn the dead men and the one living guy into heroic martyrs on behalf of race. In fact, Joseph Rosenbaum was a convicted child rapist who tried to kill police and was running around calling people the n-word. Anthony Huber (dead) and Gaige Grosskreutz (wounded) were also felons with violent records.
However, to the mob, what matters is that Kyle is White and he had a gun. In the America the Democrats have created in the last few years, those facts alone are a hanging offense. Indeed, as the fate of the January 6 defendants shows, just being White and not a Democrat is a hanging offense.
It's all well and good to talk about being brave and doing the right thing, but we are not a brave generation in America. We live in an era devoted to safety and people who have families and have no way to defend them and who fear that any defense will leave them in Kyle Rittenhouse's shoes are not unreasonable in trying to find an "out." Not brave, as I said, but not unreasonable.
That "out" could be a hung jury or a guilty verdict. In the latter case, if the jurors have a conscience, they'll hope the verdict is reversed on appeal, but at least they'll have kicked the can down the road, away from themselves and their families.
What is heartening is that only two of the twelve jurors seem to fear the mob. That means ten out of the twelve people in that jury room believe that Kyle Rittenhouse is innocent and are willing to go back into the courtroom and say so. I hope they can prevail on the other two jurors to do the right thing. If they don't, we have ceased to be a country with the rule of law and, instead, become a country governed by mob rule on the ground and totalitarian diktats from on high. Rather than being a free, first-world nation, we will be just another failed state.
Anybody objectively watching the Kyle Rittenhouse trial could see that he should never have been charged. Witness testimony and video footage established clearly that Kyle acted in self-defense when he shot at three men, all of whom were vigorously engaged in trying to kill him. My worry from the beginning, though, has been that the jury will be so intimidated by the gathering mobs that it will affect their verdict. The facts seem to support my concern.
Given that the state was so nervous that there would be a repeat of last August's mob violence that the governor mobilized the Wisconsin National Guard in advance of the verdict, those jurors, if they indeed did as the marshal allegedly said, have legitimate reason to be afraid. Keep in mind as you think about the incipient violence that this trial, despite the media's best efforts to whip people in a frenzy, had nothing to do with race because Kyle is white, as are (or were) the people he shot.
As jury deliberations continue in #Rittenshouse case, 500 Wisconsin National Guard members are on standby. Theyll assist local law enforcement if requested by county and city officials pic.twitter.com/ZQgIFZl7rn Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) November 16, 2021
Not only have the people gathering managed to ignore the facts of Kyle's conduct, but they have also bought into the media's efforts to turn the dead men and the one living guy into heroic martyrs on behalf of race. In fact, Joseph Rosenbaum was a convicted child rapist who tried to kill police and was running around calling people the n-word. Anthony Huber (dead) and Gaige Grosskreutz (wounded) were also felons with violent records.
However, to the mob, what matters is that Kyle is White and he had a gun. In the America the Democrats have created in the last few years, those facts alone are a hanging offense. Indeed, as the fate of the January 6 defendants shows, just being White and not a Democrat is a hanging offense.
It's all well and good to talk about being brave and doing the right thing, but we are not a brave generation in America. We live in an era devoted to safety and people who have families and have no way to defend them and who fear that any defense will leave them in Kyle Rittenhouse's shoes are not unreasonable in trying to find an "out." Not brave, as I said, but not unreasonable.
That "out" could be a hung jury or a guilty verdict. In the latter case, if the jurors have a conscience, they'll hope the verdict is reversed on appeal, but at least they'll have kicked the can down the road, away from themselves and their families.
What is heartening is that only two of the twelve jurors seem to fear the mob. That means ten out of the twelve people in that jury room believe that Kyle Rittenhouse is innocent and are willing to go back into the courtroom and say so. I hope they can prevail on the other two jurors to do the right thing. If they don't, we have ceased to be a country with the rule of law and, instead, become a country governed by mob rule on the ground and totalitarian diktats from on high. Rather than being a free, first-world nation, we will be just another failed state.
Image: BLM on the move in Kenosha. YouTube screen grab.
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When NYC mayor-elect Eric Adams ran for the job, his platform promised to significantly reduce crime and bring the Big Apple back to its better days that is, the days before a left-wing nut named de Blasio got elected, presumably, if actions demonstrate intent, to destroy the residents, the businesses, and the tourist industry. I don't know if there's any logical thought still remaining in the minds of New Yorkers, but if there is, even the lowest-I.Q. individual would agree that de Blasio couldn't have done more damage if he had run a giant bulldozer from Battery Park to Harlem, crushing everything in his path. How that nihilist was able to win two terms is an indictment of the vacuous voters in that rapidly deteriorating burg.
Adams, a former police captain with the NYPD, wasted no time in declaring that as soon as he took office, he would quickly overturn dopey de Blasio's disbanding of Anti-Crime, the most productive crime deterrence unit in the history of Gotham City. I guess it was expected that hizzoner-elect would be hated by those who live off the misery of their own race by objecting to anything that might put the bad guys in the hoosegow. As soon as Adams's declaration became public, a thuggish "leader" of Black Thugs Matter made a counter-declaration.
Some wannabe Marxist, named Hawk Newsome, hurried to the microphone and threatened riots and bloodshed if Adams followed through with his campaign vow to reinstate the prolific plainclothes unit. To his credit, Adams responded quickly to the petty rabble-rouser, saying such comments further endanger the lives of blacks "because you know where that blood ends up? In the streets of our community. And we have to be honest about that." He's correct! But expecting honesty from a lowlife like Newsome is like expecting virtue from a child molester! In fact, during a saner time in our history, a cretin like Newsome would be arrested for inciting to riot.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was recruited into Anti-Crime soon after its inception in 1971. Also known as the Street Crime Unit, Anti-Crime consisted of a small percentage of very active cops from each precinct who would be mainly tasked with arresting armed felons, taking them off the streets of the city. Wearing regular street clothes and driving unmarked cars gave us an advantage over the uniformed cops, who drove blue and white sedans with the bubblegum machines on top, which could be easily spotted by the jackals lying in wait for their unwary victims.
For nine years I worked in a unit of twelve plainclothes cops, three cars working days, and three working nights. We worked in pairs, and, in addition to investigating past crimes, we responded to active calls of "felony in progress." Most of the time, we were first on the scene, because marked units were often tied up with calls for domestic disturbances (AKA family disputes), vehicular accidents, report preparation of past incidents, etc. Yet we were always grateful for backup by those units when we ran into situations that required more boots on the ground or help in blocking streets when we got involved in vehicle pursuits.
Moreover, there's no sweeter sound than a siren wailing in the distance when you're struggling with a guy carrying a weapon who has made it clear that he's not going easily. Not only did our unit take tons of guns off the street, along with the hard-asses carrying and using them, but we also removed a truckload of knives, chains, machetes, blackjacks, and an assortment of other bludgeons used in homicides, rapes, and robberies. Our unit was about 5% of the manpower in the precinct, yet we made the majority of felony collars each month. The amount of crime prevention is inestimable, but one thing was assured: there was a dramatic decrease in crime in areas with Anti-Crime units.
It's truly sad that so many innocent residents lost their lives, their homes, and their businesses during the insane de Blasio regime. Those who have survived the most incompetent nerd in the city's history can only hope that Adams will come to their rescue with some proven commonsense methods of saving lives, instead of wasting taxpayer's money on ludicrous roadway graffiti that glorifies thugs and other assorted menaces to society!
Image: Krystalb97 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
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(ANSAmed) - ROME, NOV 17 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday said Parliament is a temple of democracy, addressing the Spanish Congress.
"Each Parliament is a temple of democracy", said the president, who was welcomed in Congress by a long applause.
"Discussion of different opinions finds its place there, ahead of a synthesis aimed at the common good.
"Such a debate is the essence of democracy and the affirmation of the rule of law, because it registers within the limits and guarantees of the Constitution.
"Meeting point of all citizens and - at the same time - point of departure to guarantee social peace, wellbeing and development", Mattarella said. (ANSAmed).
MADRID - Spanish police arrested four people considered part of a group of 13 suspects who are still missing after passengers on November 5 fled on the runway of the airport of Palma de Mallorca from a plane that landed on the island over an alleged emergency, Spanish news agency Efe and other local media outlets have reported. The plane was flying from Casablanca to Istanbul. The suspects arrested were still in Mallorca.
In the hours following the incident, which halted the airport for about three hours, Spanish police had already arrested 12 people, who are now in preventive custody. Investigators believe the attempt to flee was previously organized by a group of people planning to enter Spain illegally. On a Moroccan Facebook group a post had been published suggesting to simulate a medical emergency on a flight to Turkey to force it to land in Spain and then flee. Spanish authorities believe the incident followed the suggested plan.
Channel 4 is to fund a dedicated casting team to find a Scottish family to star in Gogglebox.
Pete Wishart MP, chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, welcomed the decision which followed his committees evidence session on public broadcasting in Scotland with Channel 4.
During the evidence session in September, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told bosses at the broadcaster there had not been a Scottish family on the programme since 2016.
Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon told the committee: We do get complaints about the lack of representation on Gogglebox which is one of our biggest shows.
She described this as being a continued pressure.
Ms Mahon has since written to MPs to confirm that the broadcaster has agreed a separate budget for a dedicated casting team to find a suitable Scottish family to appear on the hit show.
It is hoped that at least one Scottish family will be appearing on the programme from the New Year.
During the Scottish Affairs Committee session held on September 20, MPs explored a number of areas ranging from privatisation, Channel 4s presence in Scotland and the impact Covid-19 has had on its production companies.
Mr Wishart said: Channel 4 has impressive credentials for supporting independent producers and offering opportunities for young people wishing to explore the sector.
We are bursting at the seams with talent in Scotland, and I am pleased to hear Channel 4s efforts to harness this potential.
A theme which came up in our evidence session was the lack of a Scottish family on Gogglebox.
It is clear some have approached the channel with similar concern, often offering themselves as an option.
I am therefore pleased to see a dedicated team tasked with this and look forward to seeing the successful family on our screens in the new series.
The Prince of Wales has urged the UK and Jordan to make protecting the environment a priority as the two nations build back after Covid-19.
In a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of Jordan, Charles said Britains former protectorate was a voice of moderation, understanding and tolerance in the region under the leadership of King Abdullah II.
The prince, who has spent two days touring Jordan with the Duchess of Cornwall, learning about its heritage, work supporting refugees and efforts to bring religions together, said it was a special joy to be among friends after the sorrow, separation and grief of Covid.
The future king noted the role Britain played especially soldier and adventurer Lawrence of Arabia in helping to shape the Middle East with regional figures.
Charles told the guests at the Jordan Museum: As both our countries build back after Covid-19, I need hardly say that we must place a priority as we have never done before on protection of our environment.
He highlighted how Jordans serious water shortage issue meant climate change was keenly felt, adding: I have recently attended the Cop26 climate summit in the UK where some important steps were taken to limit the global rise in temperatures.
Success will require the sustained commitment of the global community to ensure that countries like Jordan have the support they need to find ways of adapting to a changing climate.
Charles was presented with his portrait by Syrian refugee artist Faihaa (Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA)
Charles also evoked the spirit of TE Lawrence famous for his role fighting alongside Arabs during the revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
The prince said: There can be little doubt that the great Arab revolt led by Hashemite Sharif Al Hussein Bin Ali changed the face of the Middle East.
TE Lawrences chronicles of their struggle gave the Arab forces a near-mythical place in British memory, and indeed across the world.
But the battered carriage from the Hijaz railway, which rests outside this museum, reminds us that their acts of courage were no myth.
Those historic events, which saw British soldiers fighting side by side with their Arab partners, laid the foundation for the eventual establishment of the Jordanian state.
Mail On Sunday editor Ted Verity will replace Geordie Greig at the helm of the Daily Mail, the papers owner has announced.
Lord Rothermere, chairman of Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), said on Wednesday that Verity will take over as editor of Mail Newspapers, which includes overall responsibility of the Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday.
Verity has been editor of the Mail on Sunday for the past three years while Greig was editor of The Mail On Sunday for the previous seven years and has spent the past three as editor of the Mail.
Lord Rothermere said: Under Geordies leadership, the Daily Mail has continued to inform and entertain millions of readers with the very best journalism, becoming the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK and winning multiple prizes for Daily Newspaper of the Year.
Geordie has been an outstanding editor of the Daily Mail and, before that The Mail on Sunday, and I thank him for his contribution over the last decade.
Greig, who joined the Daily Mail in 1983 as a junior reporter, will become a consultant editor, Lord Rothermere said.
Greig said: I am grateful to Lord Rothermere for 10 extraordinary years as editor of his newspapers.
I thank everyone who has worked with me; my colleagues have been heroic and inspiring.
I wish my successor Ted Verity good luck and also continued good fortune to The Mail.
I look forward to new opportunities ahead and will bring the best of what I learnt from my years at The Mail on which I first joined in 1983 as its most junior reporter on the graveyard shift.
The suspect in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday bomb attack was a kind Christian who loved baking cakes, churchgoers have said.
The congregation at Emmanuel Church in Fazakerley, Liverpool, was said to be in shock after the news that the bombing at Liverpool Womens Hospital involved Emad Al Swealmeen.
Al Swealmeen attended the church between 2017 and 2019, where parishioners knew him as Enzo.
Reverend Mike Hindley said: Enzo was here for a couple of years until 2019 when we gradually lost touch with him.
Its just bewildering that a guy who was a really kind guy has ended up in that situation.
He said the 32-year-old joined the church from Liverpool Cathedral and made no secret of the fact he had mental health problems.
He added: Im still processing it. Its shocking to have somebody who you know who is going through something that has led them to a suicide bombing.
Joy Gambardella, lay reader at the church, said Al Swealmeen had been a lovely, lovely man who was a committed Christian.
She told the PA news agency: He used to love baking and he did a baking course, he also did pizza making.
He used to make cakes for the church and sell them.
She added: I would never, ever expect he could have done something like that, ever.
I think the crucial thing is what happened to him when everything locked down because thats when everyones mental health went all over the place and we dont know what happened to him.
Al Swealmeen, who was born in Iraq, attended a cake-decorating course at the City of Liverpool College from 2018 to 2019.
(PA Graphics)
Christian volunteers Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchcott said he stayed with them in 2017.
Mr Hitchcott told BBC Radio Merseyside: He arrived here on April 1, 2017. He was with us then for eight months, and during that time we saw him really blossoming in regards to his Christian faith.
He really had a passion about Jesus that I wish many Christians had, and he was ready to learn.
He was absolutely genuine, as far as I could tell. I was in no doubt by the time that he left us at the end of that eight months that he was a Christian.
Liverpool Cathedral confirmed Al Swealmeen was baptised in 2015 and confirmed there in 2017, but lost contact with the cathedral the following year.
Mr Hitchcott said Al Swealmeen had been refused asylum in 2014 after he was sectioned following a mental health incident where he was waving a knife at people from an overpass.
A spokesman for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services, said Al Swealmeen was not under their care at the time of the explosion, although he had received treatment in the past.
Counter-Terrorism Police North West said Al Swealmeens episodes of mental illness would form part of their investigation.
Police said he had lived at a property in Sutcliffe Street, in the Kensington area of Liverpool, for some time and began renting a property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, in April.
The force said significant items had been recovered from the Rutland Avenue address, where searches have been taking place since Sunday.
Royal wedding cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has described being honoured with an MBE at the age of 22 as very, very special.
After performing at Windsor Castle for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, the classical musician returned to collect an MBE for services to music.
Kanneh-Mason, who became the first black BBC Young Musician in 2016, was joined by his father, Stuart, as he was presented with the award by the Princess Royal on Wednesday.
He previously revealed to the PA news agency that he did not feel nervous playing at the royal wedding, and appeared equally unruffled after collecting his accolade.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason comes from a musical family (Aaron Chown/PA)
The softly spoken musician, who has been playing the cello since the age of six and comes from a musical family with six siblings, said: It feels like a massive honour to collect this today.
Its very, very exciting to be recognised for doing what I love anyway its very, very special.
The rising star is the third of seven children born to immigrant parents from Antigua and Sierra Leone.
He has performed at the BBC Proms every summer since 2017, including 2020 when he gave a breath-taking pandemic performance with his sister, Isata, to an empty auditorium.
During the spring 2020 lockdown, Kanneh-Mason and his siblings performed via virtual livestreams from their family home in Nottingham. He told PA there has never been any rivalry between them.
He said: I think we just inspire each other and encourage each other, and it was highlighted in the lockdown that we could play together with each other, that was always something I was grateful for growing up.
I enjoy sharing music that I have thought about and spent time working on, I enjoy sharing that with the audience, its a very exciting experience and thrilling to perform, he added.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason played at a royal wedding (Yui Mok/PA)
I just feel very lucky, always, when Im on stage.
It has been difficult to not have that audience during the pandemic, so its great to have that back. Its always such a special thing.
Kanneh-Mason revealed his biggest musical muse is late cellist Jacqueline du Pre.
He said: I always enjoyed watching her play and her approach to music which was always 100% passion and commitment to every note she played.
Kanneh-Mason is the highest-charting cellist of all time in the UK, after his 2020 album Elgar, based on Edward Elgars Cello Concerto, hit number eight, making it the first to ever break into the top 10.
He is also the first British classical instrumentalist in more than 30 years to reach the top 10 after violinist Nigel Kennedy released Vivaldis Four Seasons in 1989, which peaked at number three.
Kanneh-Masons performance of three pieces of music at the royal wedding, including his tear-jerking rendition of Ave Maria, is believed to have been watched by an estimated two billion people across the world.
The cellist studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a bicentenary fellow and plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A crew member working on the "Rust" movie last month said in a lawsuit that the script never called for a gun to be fired during a rehearsal scene with Alec Baldwin, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Baldwin killed a cinematographer when the gun, loaded with a live round, went off on the set.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday by Mamie Mitchell, who was the script supervisor on the low-budget Western being made in New Mexico. It names Baldwin and the movie producers.
Mitchell is claiming assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm, the Hollywood Reporter said on Wednesday, citing a copy of the court papers it obtained.
Mitchell and her attorney, Gloria Allred, were due to hold a news conference in Los Angeles later on Wednesday.
The lawsuit is the second to be filed over the shooting. Authorities in Santa Fe are still investigating and no criminal charges have been filed.
It said the script called for three tight camera shots for the scene - one of Baldwin's eyes, another on a bloodstain, and a third on Baldwin's torso "as he reached his hand down to the holster and removed the gun. There was nothing in the script about the gun being discharged by defendant Baldwin or by any other person, the lawsuit says.
Baldwin and the producers of the movie could not immediately be reached for comment.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on Oct. 21 and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin had been told was safe fired off a live bullet, investigators have said. Other live rounds have also been found on the set.
(Reporting by Jill SerjeantEditing by Mark Heinrich)
FILE PHOTO: Flags of the U.S., Canada and Mexico fly next to each other in Detroit, Michigan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico will meet for the first time in five years on Thursday to promote economic integration, but tensions over the auto industry, 'Buy American' policies and a Mexican energy bill could weigh on talks.
President Joe Biden has revived the so-called Three Amigos summit - to be held at the White House on Thursday afternoon for the first time since 2016, after it was ditched by former President Donald Trump. Bilateral meetings will be held earlier in the day.
The meeting aims to further joint economic cooperation, but both Canada and Mexico are worried about Biden's 'Buy American' provisions and a proposed electric vehicle tax credit that would favor unionized, U.S.-based manufacturers.
The United States is Mexico's and Canada's top trade partner, and cars and trucks are the most-traded manufactured commodity between the three, said Colin Robertson, an ex-Canadian diplomat, now at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute think tank.
"The North American automotive industry is deeply integrated and competing as a bloc in the manufacture of a world-class e-vehicle and battery industry makes good economic sense for all three countries," Robertson said.
Both Canada and Mexico want a level playing field as they compete to lure companies to set up plants for the EV supply chain.
But Biden's social spending and climate bill being considered in Congress includes up to $12,500 in tax credits for U.S.-made EVs, including a $4,500 credit for union-made vehicles.
Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier this week chided the United States for closing itself off https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-diplomacy-mexico-canada-idUSKBN2I21H8, saying protectionist policies could aggravate problems with mass migration.
In the trilateral meeting, the White House has said it is aiming to create a "regional vision for migration."
Other subjects to be discussed include fighting COVID-19 and climate change together.
However, the bilateral meetings are likely to be where more pointed discussions are held.
Besides EV tax credits, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to bring up Enbridge Inc's Line 5 pipeline https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canadian-lawmakers-call-action-us-canadian-leaders-pipeline-dispute-2021-04-15, which the state of Michigan wants to close on environmental grounds.
For Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the meeting could be where Biden addresses Mexico's contentious bill https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/mexican-congress-pushes-back-debate-power-bill-into-2022-2021-11-04 to change electricity market rules to give Mexico's state-owned power company priority over private investment.
Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday he would explain the plan to Biden and Trudeau if it came up.
"It's very simple," he told a news conference. "We want to keep electricity prices from increasing, and to end abuses by private companies, especially foreign companies."
Lopez Obrador argues past governments rigged the market in favor of private interests.
But the legislation has drawn fire from the U.S. government and business groups, which are concerned it may not be compliant with Mexico's North American trade obligations.
Federico Pena, a former U.S. energy secretary, told Reuters that he hoped Mexico would try to iron out its differences lest it create a precedent that sullied its reputation.
"For Mexico to still be respected as a country for investment, it has to be very mindful about changing contracts radically to the detriment of companies that relied on the good faith of negotiations of the previous administration," he said.
The leaders started holding the Three Amigos summit in 2005 and met most years until 2016.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa, Dave Graham in Mexico City and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington, writing by Steve Scherer; editing by Richard Pullin and Rosalba O'Brien)
monkeypox
Getty
A Maryland resident was diagnosed with monkeypox after returning from a trip to Nigeria, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed Wednesday.
The rare virus, named because it was originally found in colonies of monkeys used for research, first causes fever, headache, muscle aches, chills and swollen lymph nodes, and after one to three days patients develop a rash that spreads over the body.
Monkeypox typically spreads through respiratory droplets, or from touching body fluids or the rashes.
The CDC said that the Maryland resident has mild symptoms and is now in isolation after flying back to the U.S. through Washington, D.C. The federal health agency is currently working with local and international health officials and the airline to identify anyone who may have come in contact with the patient.
But because airline passengers were required to wear masks on the flight due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials believe that the risk of monkeypox transmission from the patient is "low."
"Public health authorities have identified and continue to follow up with those who may have been in contact with the diagnosed individual," Dr. Jinlene Chan, from the Maryland Department of Health, said in a statement.
RELATED VIDEO: 11-Year-Old Making Masks for Healthcare Workers Surprised With Money for New Sewing Machine
Monkeypox is most often found in central and west African countries or in travelers coming from those areas. This is the second case of monkeypox in the U.S. this year, after a person in Texas who had also traveled from Nigeria was diagnosed in July. Prior to this year, the last cases in the U.S. were from 2003.
The Maryland Department of Health instructed any travelers returning from central or western Africa to look out for monkeypox symptoms and alert their doctor if they start feeling sick.
FILE PHOTO: Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, arrives to the District court in Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A six-year-old boy, the sole survivor of an Italian cable car disaster who was kidnapped and taken to Israel by his grandfather, will remain in the country for the next seven days, Israel's Supreme Court said on Wednesday, as it reviews a request to appeal his return to Italy.
Eitan Biran's maternal grandfather lost an appeal at a district court on Thursday against a family court's decision in October to send the boy back to his paternal aunt in Italy in a cross-border custody battle.
The child had been living with the aunt since his parents, younger brother and 11 other people died when a gondola plunged to the ground in northern Italy in May.
In September, while visiting Eitan, his maternal grandfather, without the aunt's consent, drove him to Switzerland and chartered a private jet onward to Israel.
The aunt petitioned the family court for his return to Italy. The court found that the grandfather's actions amounted to kidnapping under the Hague Convention on the return of abducted children.
The grandfather's lawyers have asked Israel's top court to hear another appeal.
On Wednesday, the court gave a Nov 23. deadline until the sides hand in their arguments, after which it will issue its ruling on whether yet another appeal may be filed. Until then, the court said, all proceedings in the case were to be halted.
The aunt's lawyers said in a statement that they had hoped that the grandfather "would do the right thing and free Eitan to return home to his regular life." They said they were confidant the Supreme Court would uphold the two previous rulings.
The grandfather and the aunt cannot be named due to Israeli court restrictions.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell,; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Angus MacSwan)
WASHINGTON House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sought to navigate the delicate intraparty divisions over the new infrastructure law, making the case on Tuesday that Republicans should focus on criticizing Democrats instead of each other.
At a closed-door House Republican caucus meeting, McCarthy called on lawmakers to stay unified and not attack their GOP colleagues, two sources familiar with the meeting said. McCarthy suggested they should focus their fire on Democrats Build Back Better bill, one of the sources said.
His plea comes as some far-right members who are closely aligned with former President Donald Trump have begun attacking fellow Republicans who voted for the $550 billion infrastructure package. Publicly, McCarthy has been one of Trump's loudest defenders, but he has struggled to hold together a caucus that has publicly feuded over the former president.
Trump has threatened to work to unseat those Republicans who supported the bipartisan infrastructure law that was a key piece of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.
Trump issued a flurry of statements blasting it as a "Non-Infrastructure" bill and complaining that it "gives Biden and the Democrats a victory just as they were falling off the cliff." Some of the lawmakers who voted for the bill have received death threats, including Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
In the House, 13 Republicans voted for the proposal earlier this month, helping push it across the finish line amid defections from a small group of progressive Democrats. In the Senate, 19 Republicans voted for it in August after a group of 10 senators, evenly split between the parties, crafted the bill.
Trump's opposition to the infrastructure deal has largely been about the politics, not the policy, arguing that it gave Biden a win that he can now tout to voters.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a moderate who Trump is trying to defeat in 2022, responded to his attacks by saying there has been an "unfortunate backlash" by some who put politics above good governance.
"To deny good policy just because you don't want to give the occupant of the White House a win penalizes the whole country," she said in an interview.
Republicans who voted for the bill pushed back on Trumps attacks and pointed to his own efforts to strike an infrastructure deal with Congress making the case that the policy enjoyed his support as recently as last year.
"I don't appreciate that. I think that we're all working to try to do what's good. This is good for the country," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Tuesday after a White House signing ceremony for the bill. "[Trump] wanted an infrastructure package and this reflects a lot of probably what he would have wanted in his. So it's good for us. So I don't appreciate that."
Capito said it was "obviously a big investment in roads and bridges and highways" for West Virginia, as well as broadband, which she said "we're still lagging" in.
When he was president, Trump called for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill, a topline that Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to in 2019, but the negotiations collapsed after Trump demanded that Democrats stop investigating his administration before he was willing to proceed.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a Trump adversary, also bristled at the ex-president's efforts.
"I have given up trying to ascribe motives to the former president or to explain his posture," Romney told NBC News.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for backing the bill and giving members of his caucus the green light to craft it with Democrats. McConnell, without responding directly to Trump, has praised the bill as a "godsend for Kentucky."
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a conservative who supported the infrastructure law, defended his vote.
"I think spending money on roads, bridges, airports, seaports, lake control, broadband is good policy," he said on Tuesday. "Our infrastructure is crumbling."
Asked why he believes there's so much animosity over a bipartisan transportation bill, Wicker said, "I haven't really spent much time considering that question."
"I just think it's a good bill," he said.
Fort Worth Police Department officer Aaron York Dean is seen in a booking photo at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. October 14, 2019. Tarrant County Jail/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) A former Fort Worth police officer faces a murder trial early next year for fatally shooting a Black woman through a back window of her home in 2019 while responding to a call about an open front door.
A Tarrant County judge on Tuesday scheduled Aaron Deans trial in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson for Jan. 10, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Jury selection is set to begin six days earlier, although Judge David Hagerman indicated he's expecting Dean's lawyers to seek a change of venue.
A location change could further hold up a case, which has been delayed repeatedly over the more than two years since Dean shot Jefferson during a late-night wellness check at her mothers house. His case was among many that were postponed when the coronavirus pandemic caused courts across the country to postpone jury trials.
Dean, 37, resigned from the city police force two days after shooting Jefferson. He was charged with murder and released on a $200,000 bond.
Following the shooting, Fort Worth police released body camera footage that showed Dean walked around the side of the house, pushed through a gate into the fenced-off backyard and fired through a window a split-second after shouting at Jefferson to show her hands. Police went to the house after a neighbor called a non-emergency line to report that the front door was ajar.
Dean, who is white, was not heard identifying himself as police on the video. The citys police chief at the time, Ed Kraus, said Dean acted without justification and that there was no sign he or the other officer who responded even knocked on the front door. Kraus said Dean would have been fired if he had not quit without giving a statement to investigators.
A judge has issued a gag order in Deans case. He declined to comment to a Star-Telegram reporter in court.
Former President Donald Trump has been rolling out a steady stream of endorsements targeting fellow Republicans who joined Democrats in voting for his impeachment, the creation of the Jan. 6 committee or the just-signed infrastructure bill.
In West Virginia, Trump on Monday endorsed Rep. Alex Mooney, who he said "recently opposed the horrendous Biden Administrations 'Non-Infrastructure' plan, and he opposed the January 6th Committee, also known as the Unselect Committee of partisan hacks and degenerates."
Thanks to redistricting, Mooney is taking on fellow Republican Rep. David McKinley, who voted for the infrastructure bill and the House Jan. 6 committee. McKinley defended his vote on the infrastructure bill which Trump had urged Republicans to oppose in an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail over the weekend.
"For my West Virginia constituents, this bill will bring significant investment in hard infrastructure: roads, bridges, sewer and water lines, broadband into every county, flood relief, and upgrades to our aging electric grid. The bill also provides funds to continue research into capturing carbon from coal- and gas-fired power plants," McKinley wrote.
Mooney celebrated Trump's endorsement on social media and told West Virginia MetroNews that he had met with Trump for an hour at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over the weekend.
"It is a big deal," Mooney said of the endorsement from Trump, who remains very popular in his district. "I think you'll see it in just about every [campaign] ad."
Trump on Monday also endorsed John Gibbs, an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during his administration, who is running against Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich. Meijer was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump this year on a charge that he incited the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In a statement, Trump said "Meyer" which is how Meijer's name is pronounced has been "a terrible representative of the Republican Party and beyond."
Trump nominated Gibbs last year to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management, but he was not confirmed following CNN's reporting about inflammatory tweets he sent about Democrats in 2016. The tweets included suggestions that Hillary Clinton's campaign manager took part in satanic rituals.
Gibbs was asked about the tweets during a hearing and said: "Like all Americans, I have political opinions that I've expressed in the past. But I'm very proud to say that during my service in the government, I've always led in a nonpartisan manner."
In his endorsement, Trump said Gibbs "will fight hard for the great people of Michigan."
Trump had previously targeted Republicans who voted for his impeachment, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, but he has broadened his scope in recent days.
Over the weekend, Trump said he was looking for primary challengers to endorse in races against several other Republicans, whom he referred to as "sellouts" and "known losers" who voted for impeachment, the Jan. 6 committee or the infrastructure bill.
"Any interest from good and SMART America First Republican Patriots to run primary campaigns," Trump asked in a statement before listing the targeted lawmakers. He promised the potential challengers, "You will have my backing!"
The list omitted three Republicans whom Trump had blasted for backing the infrastructure bill, Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Malliotakis repeatedly defended her vote as good for her constituents on social media.
"I cast my vote FOR the bipartisan infrastructure bill and AGAINST advancing the socialist spending spree," she said on Twitter.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is planning to invest billions of dollars in expanding COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to make available an additional one billion doses per year, a Biden administration official said on Wednesday.
The announcement to be made Wednesday comes as the administration of President Joe Biden faces pressure from activists to increase the vaccine supply to poorer countries.
The investment in vaccine production is part of a private-public partnership to address vaccine needs at home and around the world and also to prepare for future pandemics, Dr. David Kessler, who oversees vaccine distribution, and Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told the New York Times, which first reported the plan.
The plan is estimated to cost several billion dollars and will be paid for with funds from the American Rescue Plan Biden signed into law in March, Kessler told the newspaper.
The administration official told Reuters the government was preparing to offer makers of the mRNA vaccines substantial help to expand infrastructure and capacity, including facilities, equipment, staff, or training.
"In the short term, this would make a significant amount of COVID-19 vaccine doses available at cost for global use, and in the long term, it would help establish sustained domestic manufacturing capacity to rapidly produce vaccines for future threats," the official said.
Kessler told the Times the goal was to ensure expanded capacity in future.
"The goal, in the case of a future pandemic, a future virus, is to have vaccine capability within six to nine months of identification of that pandemic pathogen, and to have enough vaccines for all Americans," he said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)
A bottle of smallpox vaccine is held by a doctor at CDC headquarters in Atlanta in 2003. (Tami Chappell/Reuters)
WASHINGTON The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating questionable vials labeled "smallpox" and found in a freezer last night at a Merck facility outside Philadelphia, according to an alert sent to Department of Homeland Security leadership on Tuesday night.
There were reportedly a total of 15 questionable vials, according to the unclassified "For Official Use Only" alert, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News. Five of the vials were labeled as smallpox and 10 were labeled as vaccinia." The vials were secured immediately.
The discovery of the vials prompted a lockdown of the facility, which has since been lifted. The FBI and CDC launched investigations, which remain ongoing.
There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials. The frozen vials labeled Smallpox were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania, a CDC spokesperson told Yahoo News.
CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter, and the vials contents appear intact. The laboratory worker who discovered the vials was wearing gloves and a face mask. We will provide further details as they are available, the spokesperson said.
Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, is considered so deadly that only two labs in the world are authorized to store samples of the virus, including one in Russia and the other at the CDC in Atlanta.
A hazmat team prepares to enter a building. (Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images)
Scientists have debated for years whether to destroy any remaining samples, citing the danger of a mishap that could unleash a disease that has been eradicated since the 1970s. Those in favor of keeping samples have argued they are needed to develop new vaccines in response to a new outbreak.
The majority of Americans are not vaccinated against smallpox, and those who were vaccinated would likely now have waning immunity.
The CDC will arrive on site tomorrow to take custody of the vials and transport them to another facility for testing, the alert notes. No personnel were reportedly exposed to the material.
There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials. The frozen vials labeled Smallpox were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania," the CDC said in a statement to Yahoo News. "CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter and the vials contents appear intact. The laboratory worker who discovered the vials was wearing gloves and a face mask. We will provide further details as they are available.
Merck, DHS and FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain committed to solving conflict by peaceful means.
I am concerned about reports of on-going incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan that have already cost human lives. News of a ceasefire is welcome and I call on both sides to maintain it.
When joining our organization more than twenty years ago, both Armenia and Azerbaijan committed themselves to solving conflict by peaceful means. This commitment remains unchanged and must be strictly respected, the CoE Secretary General said.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric stated that the Council of Europe reiterates its full support to the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in their continuing efforts to help Armenia and Azerbaijan find a peaceful solution to their differences.
We stand ready to facilitate dialogue between these two member states, with a view to building confidence and promoting reconciliation, Marija Pejcinovic Buric said.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are currently in Vienna to discuss the current situation, ARMENPRESS reports the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said during a briefing with journalists.
Referring to the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Zakharova recalled their November 15 statement, emphasizing that they continue their active mediation efforts, within the framework of which they recently met in Paris with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Once again, we highlight the urgent organization of the visit of the Co-Chairs to the region, Zakharova said.
Rheinmetall, the largest supplier of military vehicles to the Australian Defence Force has successfully completed demonstration trials of the Soucy Composite Rubber Track (CRT) system on the Lynx KF41 Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).
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Rheinmetall KF41 Lynx IFV (Picture source: Army Recognition)
Rheinmetall Managing Director Gary Stewart said the CRT demonstration confirmed the Lynx IFV was capable of utilising both steel and composite rubber tracks.
The vehicle was reconfigured from its base steel track system to the CRT, successfully demonstrating vehicle operation on the CRT system and then returned to the base Steel Track configuration with great success.
The Rheinmetall Lynx IFV has the modularity and flexibility to be operated with both types of track systems, allowing armies to configure the vehicle to meet the operational need.
This ensures the Lynx IFV can support the benefits of either system.
In tomorrows battlefield, flexibility is key to match vehicle capability to the required threat environment. Lynx with its design for modularity is able to be configured to meet that emergent environment, he said.
Mr. Stewart said the flexibility of incorporating CRT as a track option on Lynx increased the vehicles ability to meet a dynamic threat environment.
With the flexibility of the CRT fitted to the Lynx, the platform can be configured for a lighter all up weight (due to weight saving in track) to allow easier air transportation and to potentially reduce overall running costs through the service life of the vehicles.
Both track systems have their advantages and while it is for the end user to determine whether a Steel or Composite Rubber track is most appropriate, the flexibility of the Lynx design to be configured with either provides the greatest flexibility to defence, Mr. Stewart added.
Rheinmetall KF41 Lynx IFV (Picture source: Rheinmetall)
According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, terrorists had lobbed the grenade at a CRPF naka party
Paramilitary soldiers check the scooter of a civilian at a market in Srinagar, Tuesday, Nov 16, 2021. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)
Baramulla: Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans and one civilian were injured as terrorists hurled a grenade at security forces in Palhalan Pattan area of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir, informed police on Wednesday.
According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, terrorists had lobbed the grenade at a CRPF naka party.
More details are awaited.
San Angelo, TX (76909)
Today
Sunny with gusty winds. High around 85F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
Tonight
Mainly clear. Low 42F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Having just survived the Great Depression, Harley-Davidson jumped at the opportunity of supplying fighting forces with motorcycles and, for what its worth, it became the premier supplier of such machines: by the time the war ended, over 90,000 motorcycles had been made.The two-wheelers in the WLA family represented the bulk of that output, but there were other bikes Harley made and tried to shove them under the militarys nose. One such product was the Experimental Army, or XA, a two-wheeler that, ironically, was built using German-made hardware.The XA used an opposed twin, 45ci shaft-drive engine, reverse-engineered from the powerplant BMW used in the R71. It was a flathead and came tied to a 4-speed transmission.Harley started work on the XA in 1942 and ended up making about 1,000 units before becoming convinced the Army had no need for them. Its unclear how many survive to this day, hence every time one pops up, its bound to gain quite the attention.And what do you know, heres one, waiting to be sold from the Harley-Davidson Heritage Collection during the Mecum auction in Las Vegas at the end of January 2022.What sets this particular bike apart is that its offered complete with a Tommy gun and ammo boxes. Theyre not the real deal, but authentic reproductions, yet that doesnt make them any less cool.The seller does not say how much they expect the XA to fetch, but we do know it goes with no reserve, so the sky is the limit.
The 1983 Honda CX650 Custom well be inspecting today comes with an assortment of modern goodies installed under current ownership, such as top-shelf spark plugs, a youthful battery, and new Challenger tires from Kendas inventory. To bring the engines performance back to optimal parameters, its valves were adjusted, and the carburetors have been treated to a thorough scrub.After flushing the fluids, the owner refurbished the original forks using fresh seals. Otherwise, Hondas classic warrior retains its stock specifications, featuring a little over 29k miles (46,700 km) on the odometer. The CX650 is put in motion by a longitudinally-mounted 673cc V-twin powerplant that boasts dual constant-velocity Keihin carbs, four valves per cylinder, and a compression ratio of 9.8:1.When the four-stroke mill purrs at about 8,000 rpm, a maximum power output figure of 65 ponies will be sent to a five-speed gearbox, which spins the rear 15-inch cast alloy wheel through a shaft final drive. Upon touching the ground, this force enables its bearer to reach speeds of up to 111 mph (179 kph).Braking is taken good care of by a single brake rotor and a two-piston caliper up front, along with a traditional drum setup at six oclock. The 83 MY creature sits on air-adjustable 39 mm (1.5 inches) leading-axle forks and twin preload-adjustable shock absorbers. When all the vital juice is added, the Japanese pearl will tip the scales at 481 pounds (218 kg), while its fuel capacity is rated at 3.3 gallons (12.5 liters).This CX650 Custom is currently up for grabs on the BaT (Bring A Trailer) website, where it will be listed at no reserve until Monday afternoon (November 22). If youd like to see the entity parked in your garage, well have you know that youre going to need around 4,500 freedom bucks to surpass the top bid, which is placed at $4,200.
EV
First things first, though. Thanks to a high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack, the Solterra can give you an 80% charge from zero in less than one hour using DC fast charging. You can also charge theat home, thanks to its Level 1 and Level 2 compatibility. The maximum estimated range is said to be more than 220 miles (354 km), which is decent.We dont know the exact EPA rating, and we also dont know anything regarding pricing, but we expect Subaru to make this information available in due course. The Solterra wont go on sale until mid-2022.Now, about that X-Mode it features Grip Control, incorporating both Hill Ascent and Descent Assist. You can easily take the Solterra off the beaten path thanks to its 8.3 inches of ground clearance. You also get 215 hp (218 ps) and 248 lb-ft (336 Nm) of torque, courtesy of the front and rear electric motors.In terms of practicality, the Solterra offers up to 126 cu-ft of passenger and cargo space, including up to 30 c-.ft of usable cargo space behind the rear seats.This being a Subaru, you can expect them not to skimp on any of the active safety features, which is why you get a comprehensive suite of goodies such as EyeSight Driver Assist Tech, Blind Spot Monitoring with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, plus Parking Support Brake (which is standard), a 360-Degree Surround-View Camera (first time in a Subaru), standard LED headlights with High Beam Assist and standard Safe Exit Assist.The latter is a new safety feature that notifies occupants before exiting the vehicle of any approaching vehicles. It does this via an audible and visual warning.As for the interior, theres an all-new multimedia system with an available 12.3-inch touchscreen display, which comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto , as well as a wireless charging phone dock in the center console.Once on sale, the Solterra will join the Outback, Forester , Crosstrek, and Crosstrek Plug-in Hybrid in Subarus rugged fleet of notoriously dependable family cars.
On November 11th, the rocket's upper stage arrived at the launch vehicle integration facility in French Guiana , where it was joined by the core stage and boosters. It was then raised into the vertical position and mated with the top of the core stage.Powered by an HM7B engine, the Ariane 5 upper stage will carry around 15 tons (14 metric tons) of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant to deliver enough force to leave our skies with the giant telescope. Once it separates from the core stage, the upper stage will send the telescope on its million-mile (1.5 million-kilometer) journey away from Earth.Webb will be the world's largest and most powerful space telescope. The European Space Agency (ESA) is providing the telescope's launch vehicle as part of an international cooperative agreement. For this mission, ESA managed the Ariane 5 adaptations in collaboration with industry partners.To fit into the rocket, the telescope must fold its 6,5 meters (21 ft) mirror , which will then be commanded to unfold as it reaches its destination in space (precisely, the second Lagrange point or four times the distance to the Moon).Webb arrived in French Guiana in October after a 16-day voyage at sea. Preparations have already begun for the telescope's big journey, and soon, it will join the rocket for integration.On December 18th, the giant observatory will leave Earth and will travel for about a month. Once deployed, Webb will help scientists peer into all phases of cosmic history and study how galaxies and planets were formed, searching for evidence of possibly habitable alien worlds.
For the latest episode in the series, he and the crew traveled to visit Costa Mesa, California-based SOCO. But dont confuse it with the restaurant chain because we are talking about the South County Auto Salon. And just like any other automotive customization shop, they too have a shop truck. Only this one is a showstopper on its own.The build of this slammed 1963 Chevy C30 dually with a swapped Cummins turbo diesel started with a C10 that was converted to a late 1980s C30 chassis. They picked it up from Tennessee and has become their designated shop truck. Believe it or not, this bagged wonder does whats its supposed to do, going wherever it needs to with a flatbed (and a Hot Rod) attached to its hitch assembly.Naturally, not much stuff does get carried in the bed, on the other hand. Primarily because they dont want to scratch the work of art it has been turned into, but also because its way too lifted to be usable. After all, the builders needed space to fit the airbag suspension, C30 chassis and allow for the trucks laid-out appearance.Under the hood resides a 12V 5.9-liter Cummins turbo diesel engine that was swapped from a 1993 Dodge pickup truck, and its still untouched by aftermarket goodies. Although thats probably going to change soon. Plans also include a transmission swap, a completely new bespoke chassis with a huge Wilwood brake kit, as well as uniquely-designed wheels... probably because those 22s up front and the 24s in the rear werent enough of a crowd draw!Anyway, some other highlights include the single-side 3.5-inch custom exhaust thats well hidden next to one of the dually wheels, the crimson TMI interior with a towering-high gearshift lever, and retro-looking modern creature comforts. The cockpit can be seen from the 4:30 mark, while the mandatory drive kicks off at the 6:25 mark. Only this time around, dont expect to see a traditional burnout as well!
Thats not whats happening with the two F-15C Eagles we have here, airplanes that look anything but deadly and cold when not engaged in battle, but flying instead in the partially clear skies they call home. The Eagle, initially designed by McDonnell Douglas, is in essence a tactical fighter, and weve seen some ugly machines designed for the same purpose, as beauty its not necessarily a battle-required trait.It seems to be for the Eagles though, and their beauty is best seen when a camera captures the sleek silhouette of not one, but two such machines, slightly banked, with clear blue sky and white specks of clouds in the background.The Eagles seen here are deployed with the 67th Fighter Squadron, also known as the Fighting Cocks. The unit, created back in 1941, is part of the 18th Operations Group and calls home the Kadena Air Base in Japan.The Cocks are one of just two squadrons in the Western Pacific to fly Eagles and have been in the area since 1943. The squadron took part in fights since 1944, providing escort for allied transport and bombers, and later was saw action during the Korean and Vietnam wars.Over the years, the 67th used a variety of military aircraft, starting with the Seversky P-35 and Curtiss P-36 Hawk, and ending with the F-4 Phantom and the Eagle. The latter has been used by the pilots of the unit ever since it came into service at the end of the 1970s.
As promised ever since the beginning of the month, Boeing traveled to the 2021 Dubai Airshow with the full complement of flying machines it makes, from the civilian Dreamliners to the military MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor. None of these beasts seems as exciting though as the 777X, especially now that we have official footage of it in action above the events dedicated site.The 777X was born as an idea all the way back in 2013. Its a widebody offshoot of the well-known 777, meant to be about 10 percent more fuel-efficient, and 10 percent cheaper to operate than a similar plane made by the companys competitors.When testing of the plane ends, Boeing will launch two versions of it, the 777-8 and 777-9. The formers edge is the 16,170 km (a little over 10,000 miles) range, while the latter relies on the huge number of passengers it can carry, 426, to make an impression.That makes the 777X quite the large mechanical beast, so seeing it perform a couple of maneuvers usually reserved for fighter planes is quite the rare event. Yet thats exactly what the pilots of the plane did in Dubai.Below this text is a rather short, 1.2 minutes-long clip that shows the 777X taking off almost vertically, then flying above the heads of the curious crowd. It comes and goes, and almost rolls over at one point (on purpose) as it tries to prove its capabilities.Needless to say, once production starts, the airplane will give up showing off, so enjoy it doing tricks while you still can.
Full Self-Driving
Back in 2018, Mr. Musk threatened to take Tesla private. Along with speculation into cryptocurrency, it prompted the SEC to slap him with a $20 Million fine. He said the notoriety was worth it to make light of how the American financial system favors the good ol boys.Meanwhile, the FAA is having fun scrutinizing every aspect of Starship and its Super-Heavy launcher. Their statement of September 17th reiterates that a launch license cant be granted because the big program falls outside of their 2014 Environmental Impact Statement.It seems as if the media is also having a field day with the debacle over the repeal of. My father in-law has been a Beta tester at every opportunity, and his Model X has done every task in a flawless manner. Nevertheless, CNN says Tesla owners now fear their cars. Taking the initiative to jump on the bandwagon, the nations most powerful banking institution filed a suit in NYC late Monday afternoon. Reuters says their gripe stems from the stock price back in 2018. They had negotiated an option to buy Tesla stock if the price dropped to a certain level.They were betting on Teslas price to drop so they could purchase a chunk while it was affordable. But they apparently complain that the price wasnt fixed, and that Tesla owes themin damages related to this supposed lost opportunity. Instead of investing in the company, JPM was betting on the price to drop. Instead, it doubled ten times by the time the purchase warrants had expired. Before this lawsuit is dragged into years of litigation, perhaps it could set a precedent for other entrepreneurs.Americans are tired of being squeezed. Big banks would have us rent a shoebox for $1,400 then offer us a mortgage for $700 a month. Here in North Florida, 93 octane is $4.30 per gallon, and half a cart of groceries is a solid Ben Franklin. If Tesla modeled itself like the big automakers, the cost of this suit would be amortized in raising prices to the consumer. Instead, the boss will likely use this as a great opportunity to point out the cronyism that exists between the power players.Henry Ford lost histo predatory banks, so he vowed to never go public again. Later in life, his friends allowed him a peek behind the curtains. After witnessing how financiers and the Federal Reserve throttle our economy he said: It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.During the crisis of 1907 , J.P. Morgan locked the nations powerful bankers in the parlor of his house in Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was there that our financial future was laid out. Times have changed, and it seems that the bank that bears his name has resorted to unscrupulous antics to make money, and were hardly surprised.Entrepreneurs need not lose hope, because the reign of the dinosaurs is coming to an end. Crypto has taught us all that Wall Street is grasping for relevance, so imagine what their friend in Big Oil will do when Americans fully embrace electric commuting. The future looks bright to us!
While this partnership is still in its infancy and we have little details on the new vehicles design, specs, and features, Northrop Grumman tells us the lunar rover will be agile, flexible, affordable, and will enhance human and robotic exploration both on the Moon and eventually on Mars.All partners involved in the project will bring their vast and proven expertise to the table. As the leader of the team, Northrop Grumman will be in charge of systems integration, avionics, navigation, sensors, controls, cargo storage, to name its main responsibilities.Michelin will be in charge of developing the airless tires of the lunar rover, while AVL will handle the electric propulsion system. Intuitive Machines will provide vehicle launch and landing functionality for the LTV, applying the same technology used for its Nova-D lander, which can deliver a payload of up to 1,100 lb (500 kg) to the lunar service. Lunar Outpost will leverage its know-how in dust mitigation and thermal technologies used for its MAPP rover, built for extraterrestrial and extreme environments.In addition to the aforementioned partners, Apollo astronauts Dr. Harrison (Jack) Schmitt and Charles Duke will also be part of the team and contribute to the design and optimization of the LTV, so that it can meet the needs of NASA researchers and Artemis astronauts.Described by Northrop Grummans Rick Mastracchio as not just a spacecraft but the ultimate off-road vehicle, the new lunar rover will be a science platform and a remotely-controlled robot.NASA recently announced that the first crewed Artemis landing on the moon will most likely take place no earlier than 2025. As reported by TechCrunch , even though there is no contract solicitation at this moment, NASA did provide some details on what it might look for in the next lunar vehicle. It should be able to travel up to 12.4 miles (20 km) on the lunar surface on a single charge, and it should be able to carry a minimum of 1,763 lb (800 kg).We'll keep you updated on how the development of the new LTV goes.
A deeper collaboration between the government and university research is the goal of a new contract awarded by AFRL to Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory, worth a whopping $1 billion. This is a culmination of the long-term partnership between the two institutions, with the Space Dynamics Lab being designated a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC).Although it sounds like huge spending, Col. Eric Felt, director of the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate, says that this new contract will allow AFRL to bring most of its space-related projects in one place, instead of awarding several smaller individual contracts, which wouldnt be cost- and time-effective. The main objectives of the Space Dynamics Laboratory will be related to technology development and mission support.Future research projects developed under this contract will focus on a multitude of areas, including nuclear-related science, advanced satellite navigation, quantum and photonic sensors, plus information-related capabilities. These projects will be overseen by the Space Vehicles Directorate, acting as a center of excellence for space within AFRL.Earlier this year, the same Directorate inaugurated the Space Warfighting Operations Research and Development (SWORD) Laboratory, a 26,000 square feet (2,415 square meters) facility that integrates several laboratory spaces and offices. SWORDs mission is to develop technologies specifically related to the deterrence of various types of threats in space. This is because space is not just a source of knowledge, but also an area with high-security threats, especially as the space industry becomes increasingly important.
You can already tell how much the automotive industry has changed in these past decades, but so did BMW. From the standpoint of exterior design, the period when Chris Bangle was calling the shots is widely believed to be the beginning of the end. I dont necessarily agree with that claim, but I am completely aware the E65 7 Series isnt as beautiful as the E38 7 Series.Under group head of design Adrian van Hooydonk and BMW division head of design Domagoj Dukec, the Munich-based automaker took a turn for the absolute worst. The buck-toothed G22 4 Series opens the list of transgressors, followed by the M3, M4, iX, and the all-new Concept XM. The latter's production version will be the 10th utility vehicle in the lineup next year when it's expected to premiere in production-ready form.Whats a Concept XM, you wonder? Its a preview for the first M-specific utility vehicle produced by the peeps at BMW M, also known as the X8 until today. I originally thought I was looking at an Angry Birds pig or something like that when I first saw the honking front grille of the show car, a front grille that would make even the new LX or Tundra blush.A unique X for the M brand, displaying the new front-end design of the BMW luxury class, the Concept XM is the most expressive statement in almost 50 years of BMW M. The statement proves how disconnected the designers are from BMW customers, but then again, Domagoj Dukec made it clear that its not our goal to please everyone .Expected to premiere on the 29th of November , the XM is believed to feature three powertrain options. Codenamed G09 and internally known as Project Rockstar, the nasty-looking utility vehicle is expected with three powertrain options. The S58 inline-six engine in combination with a plug-in hybrid system is rumored to produce in the ballpark of 650 horsepower. A bit later on, the XM with the S63 eight-cylinder engine and a plug-in hybrid system is believed to crank out anything between 740 and 750 horsepower.Impressive though it may be from the standpoint of performance, I can't wait to see Frank Stephenson rip the newcomer to shreds on his YT channel.
Meet the Pedal-Bedzz, affectionately also known as the Cramper Van, for all the obvious reasons. It was never officially recognized by Guinness as the worlds smallest yet fully functional camper, but based on its compact dimensions, its definitely a strong contender. It is the creation of Andy Saunders , the British mechanic and fabricator often referred to as the Banksy of cars. Saunders has several Guinness titles for his creations, so no wonder he didnt seek one for the Cramper Van.What sets the Cramper Van apart from his other ingenious builds is the fact that it is not motorized. While it is a camper for all intents and purposes, it is legally a bicycle, so you dont have to register it, pay tax or deal with the hassle normally associated with car ownership. You will have to have Arnold Schwarzeneggers legs if you plan on actually using it, though.The Cramper Van, like most of Saunders creations, is a one-off. It was actually created in 2013 as a marketing gimmick for Kampers and Kars, a company that deals in motorhome and camper sales and repairs. Saunders co-owns the company, taking over from his father when he passed away.In the years that have passed since the Cramper Van was unveiled, its attained a sort of mythical status and the kind of worldwide fame only the Internet can provide. It has also come to be regarded as one of the many strange, but ingenious creations that prove a lot can be achieved with very little Most of the appeal of it lies in the fact that its incredibly small its tiny, to be more accurate. Saunders came up with the idea when he heard a fellow mechanic wax poetic about whether you could turn a bike into a camper . Within 15 minutes, he had the idea for it. Two weeks later, the Cramper Van was born, and the final cost, not including Saunders work, was under 1,000 ($1,343 at the current exchange rate).Saunders found a 1960 Butllins bicycle cart lying around and purchased a Bedford Bambi autohome for the project. He then proceeded to cut both off to shorten and narrow them and then welded them together. The result is a bike cart that allows for double pedal power and a camper that provides amenities for a proper, four-person tea party inside.At 4 x 4 feet (1.2 x 1.2 meters), the camper lives up to its Cramper name, but it still packs seating for four people and a table, a two-burner stove and a sink, as well as a small 2.6-foot (0.8-meter) bed that can sleep one adult. Assuming guests are more on the shorter side, they might even have a chance to stand up inside.All this was possible through ingenious use of the very small available space. For instance, one of the benches for seating lifts up to uncover the stove and the sink, so you have to have the tea ready for serving before you sit down, or else. The bed is in the cab-over area, and Saunders himself says its more for short napping than for actual sleep.Perhaps the most striking thing about the Cramper Van is that it remains a bicycle . Propulsion is by pedal power only, and even Saunders admits that taking it up a hill is a challenge even when both set of pedals are being used. It can be pedaled but you do need legs like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the creator said back in the day. You certainly wouldnt want to go camping in it around too many hills.Camping is probably not an option altogether with this thing, but it could still work as a fancier Buttlins bike for picnics and daily excursions out and about. The cab-over part offers protection in case of an unexpected shower, a very essential detail given the predictably rainy British weather, while the camper is more than enough for a cozy lunch or afternoon tea. The camper is insulated, so if youre caught in a proper downpour, at least youll be dry and warm. Cramped, but otherwise very comfortable
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It gets even worse. Toyota presented the bZ4X Concept in April at the 2021 Auto Shanghai. The Nissan Ariya was officially unveiled on July 15, 2020. Yet, next spring, Toyota will start delivering the bZ4X to American customers, while Nissans electric crossover will only arrive at the U.S. shores by fall 2022.At least Nissan already revealed how much it would charge for the Ariya. Toyota has only mentioned at the 2021 LA Auto Show that it will have about 250 miles (402 kilometers) of range. The 71.4-battery pack would retain 90% of capacity after ten years or 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers). Under thetest cycle, the bZ4X should achieve a range of 311 mi (500 km).The bZ4X will be either(front-wheel drive) or(all-wheel drive), but Toyota did not mention how much range the slightly larger battery pack in the latter, with 72.8 kWh, will deliver. It currently presents a TBD (to be defined) in the table Toyota provided.Apart from the seven bZ (beyond zero) vehicles Toyota plans to release until 2025 (including the bZ4X), it said it would have eight other pure electric cars that are not under that moniker. We do not know which EVs it will reveal, but the company said these 15 EVs would be part of its world range which means they can be restricted to some markets. The Japanese carmaker also said that it will have 70 electrified models globally by 2025. That includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles).
Just a few months ago, we reported that TVR's Griffith was still under development and that the company needed funds to get it ready for production.Thankfully for the British marque, the new "funding and technology partnership" signed with Ensorcia Metals Corporation will bring both a source of lithium for its future EVs, along with the funds it needs to develop and build those vehicles. The goal is to have a net-zero and sustainable business, as ElectricCars Repor t notes. TVR is still working on its factory in Ebbw Vale, Wales, where it intends to build the Griffith. The facility should be ready for action in the first quarter of 2022. Once the factory is refurbished, though, the company still needs to get everything ready for production, which will start at a later date.The TVR Griffith's development will be assisted by Ensorcia Automotive, which is an affiliate company of Ensorcia Metals Corporation. The Ford-sourced V8 that was tuned by Cosworth is still the base for the Griffith, a model that was first shown back in 2017.Unfortunately, several media reports announce that the first units of the Griffith will reach customers in late 2023. That may be too much waiting time for some customers, who probably have moved on to other brands since they noticed they could not buy the Griffith yet.It is important to note that the design of the vehicle and its performance may be outdated in 2023, especially if you consider the first time when the model was seen in public. If the reports are correct, we shall see if waiting six years for a model is too long.
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A family of fours dream road trip in South Australia turned into a nightmare when their camping vehicle got stuck in the mud after major storms. Lindsey and Ori Zavros, together with their two children, have been traveling in South Australia and documenting their journey on social media for over a year.Their last posts showed them arriving at the Simpson Desert, considered the countrys largest and most dangerous desert.The fatal combination between the difficult terrain and terrible weather led to their Mitsubishi Cantergetting stuck in the mud on Friday, November 12. Although local authorities became aware of this emergency that same day, when the family set off an emergency beacon, they were unable to rescue the four passengers immediately because of the same weather and road conditions.The Zavros ended up stranded for four days, in their vehicle , in the middle of nowhere (the closest city, Oodnadatta, was 95 miles/150 km away).Authorities were at least able to drop emergency supplies and a satellite phone from a helicopter, after making sure that nobody inside the van was injured, adding to the Zavros own supplies inside the van. Finally, on November 16, the South Australia Police announced that the Zavros family was brought back to safety by a rescue helicopter, and flown to Coober Pedy. The Mitsubishi Canter was left at the scene, for the time being.Fortunately, all the four members of the van life family are now safe, but this can be seen as a cautionary tale for anyone who plans to adventure in challenging areas.
Vega is the European Space Agency s satellite launch vehicle and has been in operation at Europes Spaceport since February 2012. It has launched a total of 111 satellites into orbit, showcasing impressive capabilities in both orbital and suborbital missions.The recent flight was the rockets third launch performed in the last six months. Built by Airbus Defence and Space, the three satellites carried by Vega will circle our planet to detect signals from radars and radio communication systems located in regions where surface sensors cannot reach.The launchers latest successful flight validated its ability to carry strategically important satellites into orbit, clearing the way for Vegas successor: Vega-C . Following the 20th flight, there will be a period of transition during which both vehicles will be deployed for various missions.The new rocket is based on the Vega launch vehicle, which consists of four stages: three solid-propellant stages, an upper fourth stage, and a payload fairing. However, the fairing is larger on Vega-C.The spacecraft will be capable of carrying out more launches each year and will have an increased payload capacity (with 1,764 lbs/ 800 kgs more) compared to its cousin. Although it will be larger, the rocket will not add to the launch costs.Actually, the costs will remain the same as for Vega, thanks to the P120C motor. And thats not all. The new launcher will support a wide variety of payload carriers that will be used for different payloads.Vega-C is expected to conduct the first flight in the first quarter of 2022. Until then, the European Space Agency will oversee this transition, build on the accomplishments of Vega and prepare future adaptations for a Vega-E suitable for a rapidly evolving and competitive market.
The alleged new factory would be built sometime by the half of this decade, as German media reported. As a reference, Volvo Cars currently has two factories in Europe that can build up to 800,000 vehicles per year.According to the report from Automobilwoche, Volvo Cars intended to build up to 1.2 million vehicles per year in Europe, which would mean the new factory would have a capacity of around 400,000 vehicles per year, if not even more.Representatives of Volvo Cars told Reuters that the company has not decided on the topic at this stage. However, they did point out that they have grown rapidly over the past decade and aim to continue to grow at a similar pace going forward. Moreover, Volvo's officials explained that they can already produce 1.2 million vehicles annually at their six existing factories.In other words, if Volvo Cars did want to build 1.2 million vehicles per year, which would be possible today, the goal would be to build even more than that. Furthermore, European production means that the Swedish brand wants to manufacture more units of a certain model or model line.Mind you, modern vehicle factories can be flexible and build a broad range of models, but it is simpler and more cost-effective to keep just a few models in a production unit. Doing so optimizes the supply chain, training programs, and other logistical challenges.Since production costs are higher in Europe, Volvo Cars might choose to build its more expensive models in the new facility. If we consider the fact that Volvo wants to switch to all-electric vehicles in the near future, the new factory could be just for EVs.
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The U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights is investigating allegations of discrimination in a Texas school district, NBC News reports.
Why it matters: Carroll Independent School District, which is located in wealthy, suburban Southlake, Texas, has been at the forefront of the ongoing national battle over how to teach students about racial issues.
The department notified Carroll ISDs officials that it has opened three investigations into complaints about discrimination against students based on their race, gender and national origin, according to NBC News.
The Department of Education has the power to require a school district to make policy changes and submit to federal monitoring.
Context: District officials promised to make sweeping changes three years ago, after a video of Southlake high school students chanting the N-word went viral though those changes never came.
In Southlakes most recent elections, candidates running on an anti-critical race theory platform won the majority of school board seats, effectively killing the proposed diversity plan.
What theyre saying: Our focus will always be what is best for our students as we prepare them for their next steps in their educational journey, Karen Fitzgerald, a Carroll ISD spokesperson, told NBC.
The bottom line: These investigations can take months or years, so the Southlake saga is far from over.
America's young women are on the cusp of a rite of passage that's been reserved for men until now: registering with the Selective Service when they turn 18.
Driving the news: Whether allowing women to serve in combat also means they should have to sign up for the military draft has been a debate for decades. Now, an unlikely coalition of feminists, veterans and conservatives could make it law as part of the Senate's expected passage of the National Defense Authorization Act.
The House included the change when it passed its version of the NDAA in September. The Senate could act as early as this week.
A majority on the Senate Armed Services Committee backed the change in a markup over the summer. One group of Republicans now is renewing an effort to block it as the Senate considers amendments before a final vote, but it's not clear they have the numbers to stop it.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said for years the draft also should apply to women.
The change is in line with the recommendation of a March 2020 study by the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service.
Earlier this year, President Biden, through his female acting solicitor general, asked the Supreme Court to let Congress rather than the courts decide.
How it works: The change would require Americans ages 18-26 to sign up regardless of their gender identification.
That would ensure their information is available in case there were ever another draft.
Why it matters: It would certainly represent a major cultural milestone as women take on greater nontraditional and leadership roles across all facets of American life, from politics to industry to the military.
It also could solve for shifting definitions around gender in society today.
But, but, but: The impact seems more symbolic than substantive for now. Today's military is comprised of volunteers both men and women.
While President Jimmy Carter reinstated Selective Service registration for males in 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the last U.S. draft was in the Vietnam War.
What they're saying: We have evolved quite a bit since those kinds of things were written and conceived of," Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), a former Air Force officer, told Axios.
"God forbid, if we're in that place where we need to call on everybody to help us, we will need all kinds of skills," Houlahan said. "Cyber-related skills, as well as other sorts of skills that we don't necessarily currently think of when we think of the Selective Service."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told Axios that "so much of the trajectory for women in the armed services is based on what experience they're able to accrue, particularly combat experience," and that along with that "it makes sense to that me that everyone should be eligible for Selective Service."
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate, said: "We are now competing in the space of combat arms, and I think it's important that we all serve to the best of our capacity."
The other side: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-M0.) is driving an amendment to strip the new requirement from the NDAA, and about a dozen GOP senators either have joined Hawley's effort or previously said they oppose requiring women to register.
They cite a mix of concerns about women's safety, implications for national security and allusions to broader culture wars in U.S. politics, such as the debate over whether transgender athletes should be able to compete in women's sports.
Opponents include Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton and John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Lee of Utah, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Roger Marshall of Kansas.
Cruz told reporters: "God bless that woman if she wants to go serve in the military and is prepared to fight. That that is a choice that is available to her.
NASA isn't likely to land astronauts back on the surface of the Moon before 2026, according to a new report.
Why it matters: It suggests NASA may not meet its newly updated deadline of 2025 for the space agency's flagship human spaceflight program designed to get astronauts on the lunar surface again.
The Trump administration established the Artemis program, and the Biden administration has continued it as a major part of NASA's portfolio.
What's happening: A new report from NASA's Office of Inspector General found the Trump administration's original deadline for landing on the Moon in 2024 isn't feasible.
Instead, the report says the first human Artemis landing will be in 2026 at the earliest due to delayed technology development and budget shortfalls.
Some of the main outstanding issues include developing next-generation spacesuits for use on the Moon and a privately built, human-rated lunar lander.
"Currently NASAs most ambitious and costly activity, the Artemis program faces schedule, procurement, technical, and funding risks," the report says.
Details: The Artemis program relies on a number of technologies that have been difficult to develop or have been delayed in one way or another.
The Space Launch System rocket which was expected to make its debut flight this year won't fly until next year at the earliest.
SpaceX won a much-contested contract from NASA to build a human lander for the space agency in April, but protests from other bidders like Blue Origin have delayed the company's work on that vital piece of technology.
The program is also expensive, with NASA "projected to spend $93 billion on the Artemis effort up to FY 2025," according to the OIG report.
Get smarter, faster on the modern space era with our free, three-video short course.
"We urge both sides to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation. We also call on the sides to engage directly and constructively to resolve all outstanding issues, including border demarcation," Blinken said.
As noted in the Minsk Group Co-Chairs statement on November 15, the recent increase in tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan underscores the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the top U.S. diplomat added.
Military clashes that erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan along their border on Tuesday afternoon were halted later that day through Russias mediation.
Both sides had accused each other of committing aggression. Turkey reportedly expressed support for its regional ally, Azerbaijan, while Armenia appealed to Russia for assistance in defending its territory.
The ceasefire was announced shortly after the Kremlin said in a statement, without elaborating, that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation during a phone call earlier on November 16.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu also held phone calls with both his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and called on them to stop activity that provokes escalation, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Russian ministry.
Yerevan admitted that two Armenian combat positions had been lost and an unspecified number of soldiers killed and wounded as a result of the Tuesday clashes. Armenia also claimed that Azerbaijani forces lost a significant number of armored vehicles and troops.
According to Armenias Defense Ministry, 12 Armenian soldiers were taken captive by Azerbaijani forces. Their situation remained unknown after the announced ceasefire.
The chairman of Armenias parliamentary foreign-affairs committee, Eduard Aghajanian, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service earlier that according to preliminary estimates, 15 Armenian soldiers may have been killed during the fighting.
Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers were injured when Armenian military units used mortars and artillery against an Azerbaijani position in Kalbacar and Lachin districts bordering Armenia.
The renewed deadly clashes along the border started about a year after a ceasefire stopped an intense Armenian-Azerbaijani war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in which about 7,000 people were killed.
Last years hostilities were halted due to a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that reaffirmed Azerbaijans territorial gains and brought about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to the part of the Nagorno-Karabakh region remaining under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces.
On November 16, the European Union also urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to show restraint.
Calling for urgent de-escalation and full cease-fire, European Council President Charles Michel described the situation in the region as challenging.
The EU is committed to work with partners to overcome tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus, Michel wrote on Twitter.
Michel also said that he had discussions with both Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in light of todays developments.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said that seven of its soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in renewed fighting on the shared border that erupted on November 16.
According to a statement by Armenias Defense Ministry, 13 Armenian soldiers were captured by Azerbaijani forces and another 24 Armenian servicemen have gone missing and their fate remains unknown.
The statement added that one Armenian soldier was killed in the fighting that was stopped through Russias mediation.
Both sides blamed each other for starting the latest conflict amid tensions between the two former Soviet nations that have simmered since a six-week war last year over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan said its forces prevented large-scale provocations by Armenian forces in the Kalbacar and Lachin districts bordering Armenia.
In turn, Armenias Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani soldiers of shooting at its positions along the border, using artillery, armored vehicles, and guns.
Later on November 16, Russias Defense Ministry reported that hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border had ceased after a cease-fire was reached with Moscows mediation. Armenia confirmed that report.
The situation along the border has been tense since the two South Caucasus nations fought a 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh last year that killed nearly 7,000 people and ended with a cease-fire that granted Azerbaijan control of parts of the region as well as adjacent territories previously held by Armenians.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington was deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In a statement released on November 16 the top U.S. diplomat said: We urge both sides to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation. We also call on the sides to engage directly and constructively to resolve all outstanding issues, including border demarcation.
As noted in the Minsk Group Co-Chairs statement on November 15, the recent increase in tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan underscores the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Blinken added.
On November 16, the European Union also urged the two sides to show restraint.
Calling for urgent de-escalation and [a] full cease-fire, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, described the situation in the region as challenging.
The EU is committed to work with partners to overcome tensions for a prosperous and stable South Caucasus, Michel wrote on Twitter.
As quoted by the Russian Kommersant daily, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigorian, who was taking part in the meeting of his counterparts from other post-Soviet nations in the Russian capital, said that Armenia is preparing a written application to its ally Russia to come to its aid under a mutual assistance agreement signed between the two countries in 1997.
Grigorian already orally appealed to Russia to provide assistance to Armenia in defending its territorial integrity in the face of what Yerevan described as Azerbaijans aggression on November 16.
After hours of deadly border clashes Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire arranged by Russia late on Tuesday.
The ceasefire was announced shortly after the Kremlin said in a statement, without elaborating, that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation during a phone call.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu also held phone calls with both his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and reportedly called on them to stop activity that provokes escalation.
After the cessation of fighting Armenia continued to insist that Azerbaijani troops are still inside its sovereign territory.
Azerbaijans armed forces are currently in the sovereign territory of Armenia. This is an act of aggression. In 1997, Armenia and Russia agreed to help each other in such cases. In this regard, we have turned to Russia, Grigorian told Kommersant.
Grigorian said that Armenia is in favor of a diplomatic solution to the problem, but if it turns to be impossible, it deems that the problem must be solved militarily.
It was due to the active participation of the Russian side that yesterdays fighting was stopped, but the issue has not been resolved, as Azerbaijans armed forces remain in the sovereign territory of Armenia, said the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, invoking Soviet-era maps.
In his remarks on Armenias Public Television on Tuesday Grigorian said that Armenia deems that first of all it is possible to solve the crisis with the assistance of Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a defense pact of several post-Soviet states of which Armenia is a member. At the same time, he did not rule out a scenario when the Armenian government would consider turning to other partners as well.
During a news briefing in Moscow on Wednesday, official representative of Russias Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that Russia is serious about both its bilateral and multilateral obligations.
Corresponding consultations are being held bilaterally... As for the CSTO, then, according to our information, they are closely monitoring the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, she said, as quoted by Russias RIA news agency.
At the same time, Zakharova stressed that Russia considers it important for Armenia and Azerbaijan to start the process of delimitation of their border as soon as possible.
Secretary of the Security Council of Azerbaijan Ramil Usubov also attended the Moscow meeting on November 17. Citing its sources, Kommersant reported, however, that no contacts between the Armenian and Azerbaijani officials were planned as part of the gathering.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the 27-nation bloc said it is deeply concerned over the recent violence along the Armenia-Azerbaijani border, which has regrettably led to loss of life.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, discussed the evolving situation with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinian, over the phone and called for urgent de-escalation and full respect of the ceasefire.
The EU urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to exercise utmost restraint, disengage their military forces on the ground and respect the commitments undertaken in the framework of the two trilateral agreements. We call on both sides to resume negotiations to work towards a comprehensive settlement of outstanding issues, including border demarcation, the EU said.
The EU stressed that it supports the statement of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs of November 15.
The EU reiterates its commitment to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to help overcome tensions and contribute to building a South Caucasus that is secure, stable, prosperous and at peace for the benefit of all people living in this region, the statement concluded.
Earlier, on November 16, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that Washington was deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In a statement the top U.S. diplomat said: We urge both sides to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation. We also call on the sides to engage directly and constructively to resolve all outstanding issues, including border demarcation.
As noted in the Minsk Group Co-Chairs statement on November 15, the recent increase in tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan underscores the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Blinken added.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of provoking fresh fighting along their border on Tuesday, with both sides reporting casualties following hours of hostilities that were halted due to a ceasefire arranged by Russia.
Armenia continues to accuse Azerbaijan of occupying dozens of square kilometers of its sovereign territory. Azerbaijan rejects the accusations.
The issue of the un-demarcated border has been raised since May when Armenia first accused Azerbaijan of violating what were Soviet-era administrative borders between the once socialist republics within the USSR.
Armenia said then that Azerbaijan had advanced several kilometers inside its sovereign territory at two sections of the eastern border. Azerbaijan denied the accusations, claiming that its troops were stationed in territories that Baku regained as a result of a six-week war against ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020.
The latest deadly skirmishes occurred along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on November 16 and were halted due to a ceasefire reached through Russias mediation.
Most questions during todays question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament were addressed to the prime minister and regarded the latest clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
When asked to comment on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramovs statement that a joint commission should be set up to settle border issues between Yerevan and Baku, Pashinian said that embarking on the process of delimitation and demarcation of borders is our agenda.
We have stated about it also in our government program. Therefore, if Azerbaijan accepts this agenda, we need to understand what it is that hinders it, he said.
Pashinian reminded that still in May he said at a government session that there was a document on the table that he was going to sign.
But why wasnt that document signed? [The document wasnt signed] because it did not reach the stage of the offer of signing, the Armenian leader said.
According to Pashinian, since then Russia three times made proposals on border demarcation and in all three cases Armenia agreed to move forward based on them. In my impression the process did not move forward because of Azerbaijans not giving a concrete answer, said Pashinian, stressing that Armenias proposals on border delimitation and demarcation made in May still remain valid.
Pashinian also commented on repeated public offers from Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty with Armenia.
We, in our turn, have also offered and are offering to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. We have said that the whole purpose of the OSCE Minsk Groups negotiation process has been to reach a point of signing a peace treaty. This is not a new thing. I want to say that all negotiating packages so far have had as their end goal the signing of a peace treaty. So, it is strange for me to hear all the time that Azerbaijan offers to sign a peace treaty with Armenia and there is no response from Armenia, Pashinian said.
When we speak about a full restoration of the negotiation process, and when we engage in the negotiation process, our goal is to sign a peace treaty. The signing of a peace treaty should be preceded by work to agree on the text of the treaty. This requires quite a large amount of work. We have never refused to do this work. On the contrary, we have expressed our readiness to do it, and we also consider it to be our agenda, he added.
Regarding the work of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group at the level of deputy prime ministers on the unblocking of regional transport links, Pashinian said that the impression that it has stopped is wrong. Work is being done on a daily basis, simply for now it hasnt been able to achieve a concrete result, he said.
Over the last two weeks, Bakersfield City School District has experienced the quarantine of 925 staff members and students, marring the beginn
LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II met with the British militarys chief of staff at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, the first time she was seen carrying out a face-to-face engagement since she missed the national Remembrance Sunday service due to a sprained back.
The 95-year-old monarch looked well as she chatted with Gen. Nick Carter in Windsor Castles Oak Room. The queen, who wore a colorful floral dress, stood to welcome Carter, who is preparing to step down from his role as the armed forces chief at the end of November.
The Oak Room is the queen's sitting room and office, and her elderly pet dorgi Candy - a cross between a corgi and dachshund - was seen greeting Carter as he entered the room.
Concerns about the monarch's health were raised last month, when she spent a night in a London hospital after being admitted for medical tests. In late October, palace officials said the monarch had been told by doctors to rest for two weeks and only take on light duties.
Those concerns intensified after she pulled out at the last minute from Sundays national Remembrance service to pay tribute to Britains war dead. Buckingham Palace officials, who had said it was the monarchs firm intention to make the event, announced Sunday that she decided she had to miss the ceremony because she sprained her back.
Elizabeth is Britains longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch. She is due to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee - marking 70 years on the throne - next year.
During her rest period, the queen has continued to work from home, doing desk-based duties and spending most of her time at Windsor Castle, west of London.
She canceled plans to attend the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, sending a video message instead to world leaders attending this month's conference. She also canceled an earlier trip to Northern Ireland.
The queen held an in-person meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week but was not photographed doing so.
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.
The Port Arthur Police Department is investigating a drive-by shooting that occurred on Monday night.
Officers received a call at approximately 11 p.m. from the 3400 Block of Seventh Street to report gunshots.
When the officers arrived, they learned a house had been hit several times by gunfire during a drive-by shooting.
None of the occupants were injured, PAPD said in a news release. Technicians have processed the scene of the crime and possible suspects that have been identified.
The incident occurred fewer than 2 miles about 5 minutes away from where a toddler was struck in a July drive-by shooting. The 1-year-old child had to be flown to a Houston hospital after being hit by the bullets in the aggravated assault in the 2100 block of Evergreen Drive.
Related: Port Arthur toddler shot in drive-by shooting
That same night in July, the department got another call for deadly conduct in the 3100 block of 18th Street only about 3 miles or 10 minutes from the location of where the toddler was shot. In that incident, a residence also was struck multiple times by gunfire, however no one was injured.
PAPD said no connection has been made to the other incidents at this time. No further information was immediately available.
meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com
twitter.com/megzmagpie
NEW ORLEANS (AP) The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) about twice the area of Florida.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The auction comes after a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by Republican states rejected a suspension of fossil fuel sales that Biden imposed when he first took office.
The Democrat campaigned on promises to curb fossil fuels from public lands and waters, which including coal account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet even as hes tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening international efforts against global warming, Wednesdays sale illustrates Biden's difficulties gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration last week proposed another round of oil and gas lease sales in 2022, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other western states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.
We had Trumps unconstrained approach to oil and gas on federal lands and Bidens early attempt to pause drilling. Now it looks like the Biden administration is trying to find a new policy, said researcher Robert Johnston with Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy.
Theyre being very cautious about undermining their fragile momentum on climate issues, he added.
The energy bureau said in pre-sale documents released Tuesday that it received bids on 307 tracts totaling nearly 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers). Thats the largest total for a single sale since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017. Those seven sales have generated almost $1 billion in total revenue.
Environmental reviews of the Gulf of Mexico sale conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer greenhouse gases than leaving it in the ground.
Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson whose work was cited by judges in one of the cases said the Interior Department's analysis had a glaring omission: They left out greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that would result from having more Gulf oil on the market.
The math is extremely simple on this kind of stuff," said Erickson, a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute, a nonprofit research group. If new leases expand the global oil supply, that has a proportional effect on emissions from burning oil. Therefore, giving out these leases in the Gulf of Mexico would be increasing global emissions.
The Interior Departments Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in recent months changed its emissions modeling methods, citing Ericksons work. But officials said it was too late to use the new approach for Wednesdays lease sale, which they said had been through "a rigorous process with specific timelines."
"The environmental analysis for Lease Sale 257 was already complete and as such does not contain the newer approach to considering the impacts of foreign consumption of oil and gas, the agency said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
Administration officials declined AP's interview requests. For upcoming sales, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said Interior is conducting a more comprehensive emission review than any prior administration, as it appeals the court order that forced their resumption.
Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association said he was uncertain that using the new approach would have changed the governments conclusions, since drilling for oil in other parts of the world is less efficient and hauling imports also adds to carbon costs. He described the Gulf as the backbone of U.S. oil production and said companies consider it a strong investment.
The continued use of the old analysis rankles drilling opponents who say Biden isn't following through on his climate pledges.
We're talking about transitioning away from a fossil fuel economy and they are selling a giant carbon bomb of a lease sale, said attorney Drew Caputo with Earthjustice, which has a lawsuit challenging the Gulf lease sale pending in federal court. That creates a property right to develop those leases. It's a lot harder to keep the carbon in the ground if you sell the lease.
Some Democrats also objected to the sale. The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, said Biden promised to lead on climate issues but continues running a fossil fuel program with a long history of mismanagement.
The administration needs to do better, Grijalva said in a statement Tuesday.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.
Industry analysts had predicted some heightened interest in Wednesday's sale since oil prices rose sharply over the past year. It's also a chance for companies to secure drilling rights before the administration or Congress can increase drilling fees and royalty rates or adopt new restrictions on environmental permits, said analyst Justin Rostant with industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
An outright ban on new leases and drilling seems unlikely after the federal court shot down Biden's temporary suspension, he added.
Different companies have different approaches and different strategies, Rostant said. Some could think this might be the year to go big.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
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On Wednesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a Silver Alert for Joseph Bennett. According to the alert, Bennett was last seen at the 1600 block of Eagle Lane in Beaumont at 11:22 p.m. on Nov. 16.
In the alert, Bennett is described as a 65-year-old white male with green eyes and is listed at 6 feet, 2 inches tall with a total weight of 150 pounds. Additional description information includes an "amputated left pointer finger."
A man was sentenced to prison for transporting 15 migrants inside the after-market compartment of a Penske box truck, according to court documents.
Christian Ayala had pleaded guilty on Sept. 16 to conspiracy to transport migrants. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Ayala to 18 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.
The case dates back to July 11, when Ayala drove a Penske box truck to the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35. Agents referred the vehicle to secondary inspection after a K-9 unit alerted to possible contraband, and Ayala stated that he did not have identification.
In secondary, the K-9 unit alerted again to the back of the truck. Agents opened the back of the truck to find an empty compartment. However, an X-ray scan revealed anomalies that appeared to be individuals hidden in a non-factory compartment behind a false wall.
An agent spent 35 minutes removing the screws covering the false wall. When agents accessed the compartment, they discovered 15 individuals who had crossed the border illegally. One individual was determined to be an unaccompanied minor from Mexico.
The (15) individuals were covered in sweat and appeared to be dehydrated, states the affidavit.
Ayala stated he would get paid $4,000 to drive the Penske truck to San Antonio. Cellphone data extraction revealed Ayala conspired with Kevin Galvez and others to transport migrants in the Penske truck.
A video recorded on July 8, 2021, revealed Ayala and Galvez inside the Penske box truck inspecting the false wall and after-market compartment, states the affidavit.
On Oct. 14, Galvez pleaded guilty to human smuggling conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing.
Jefferson County has reached to house jail inmates for the cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur, which could lead to the development of a new facility to address crowding, mental health and substance abuse.
The Jefferson County Commissioners Court on Tuesday morning unanimously approved agenda items to authorize authorizes Judge Jeff Branick to execute an interlocal agreement between the county and cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur.
In September, Jefferson County ended its contract with the cities following a nearly decade-long disagreement on the cities share of daily prisoner costs atthe county jail.
Sheriff Zena Stephens confirmed to The Enterprise that agreements tentatively have been reached with both cities, which were expected to meet Tuesday as well. Jefferson County Auditor Patrick Swain added that the cities also will have to officially approve each contract, with will be effective Nov. 1.
Jefferson County has approved it on our side, Jefferson County Auditor Patrick Swain said.
Port Arthur Police Chief Tim Duriso said the city has not presented and officially reached an agreement yet, but it is very close. He also expressed support for the diversion center.
Related: How Texas fails the mentally ill
I am all for that. I think that is a great idea, he said. A lot of the smaller crimes that we see, we notice that they are tied to mental health and substance abuse issues. When you look at some of the smaller crimes a long stents in jail is not really (beneficial) for them. I think that is going to help us with the problem.
Beaumont Police Chief Jimmy Singletary said the city planned to comment on the proposal on Wednesday.
The former contract was drafted in 1986. Since then, Stephens said, there have been several changes, such as the medical treatment of prisoners and at what point which agency is responsible for those costs.
The city of Beaumont owes the county about $3.6 million, and Port Arthur owes just under $1 million for unpaid costs to house inmates, according to former Enterprise reporting.
Beaumont and Port Arthurs prisoners make up about 80% of the county jails population, yet the cities were paying only 35% of their total billed amount, county officials told The Enterprise previously.
We tried to work with mediation in 2019. We couldnt reach a settlement with that mediation, which spurred the commissioners to cancel the current contracts and work on it, Swain said.
The new contract has a few key differences, including resolving the dispute over how much money is owed tot he county under the old contract.
The new agreement would break down the cost to $75 per day per Class C inmate. It also includes a cap at $75 per day for Class A, B and Felony prisoners brought to the county jail facility.
Related: Pilot program to divert mentally ill from jail shows promise, officials say
The new contract also spells the responsibilities of all agencies involved and includes language to clarifies when a prisoner is officially considered a county prisoner.
The county has asked the city of Beaumont for a contribution of $2 million to develop a Mental Health and Substance Abuse Diversion Facility for Jefferson County inmates, Swain and Stephens said.
Stephens said the facility would allow officers who run across individual with a mental health or substance abuse problem to drop them off at a diversion center instead of being entered in the criminal justice system.
Similar diversion facilities have been built in other Texas counties, including Harris, Tarrant and Bexar Counties. Stephens said these centers have a partnership with district attorneys offices and have mental health and substance abuse professionals who work in the facilities.
What we are doing now is stacking a bunch of charges on folks who really arent culpable for the crimes they are committing because they are mentally ill, intoxicated or drugged up, Stephens said. These centers would not only divert them from the criminal justice system but also give them the resources and the help they need to try to get them well.
Since starting the program in August 2014, Harris County saw a significant reduction in the amount of time offenders were booked into jail and stayed there, but it also dealt with significant challenges in engaging and retaining individuals who face severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Ultimately, lawmakers recommended an expansion of Harris County's pilot diversion operation because of the promise it showed, according to a The Houston Chronicle.
Related: Jefferson County jail again suspends visitation amid COVID cases
Jefferson County also will add some money to the pot from American Rescue Plan Funding. The city of Port Arthur is being asked to contribute $545,000, which is based on the same formula that was used to determine how the facilitys operating costs will be shared.
We basically have $2.5 million dollars contributed to this facility to alleviate crowding in the jail, Swain said.
According to previous Enterprise reporting, the approximately 1,200-bed Jefferson County facility has seen the population rise to a historic amount, with over 1,050 inmates due to a pandemic-related slowing of the criminal justice system.
While a timeline was not yet available, Swain said the American Rescue Plan requires that a project be selected and started by 2024 and completed by 2026.
During Tuesdays meeting, Jefferson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Everette Bo Alfred thanked the officials for finally coming to a conclusion for this long-running contract.
meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com
twitter.com/megzmagpie
DALLAS (AP) One of the 18 older women a man is charged with killing in the Dallas area over a two-year span ran a restaurant in Vietnam before leaving on a helicopter as Saigon fell and was a generous person who loved giving people $2 bills, her son-in-law testified Tuesday.
My mother-in-law was a hoot. She was very fun to be around, Richard Rinehart said.
Billy Chemirmir is on trial for capital murder in the death of Rinehart's mother-in-law, 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. Chemirmir faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.
Chemirmir was arrested in March 2018 after 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived an attack at her apartment at an independent living community for seniors in Plano. She died in 2020.
Jurors listened Monday as Bartel said in a taped deposition that she knew she was in grave danger as she opened her door to a man wearing green rubber gloves. Bartel described a pillow being smashed into her face and her attacker using all his weight to keep me from breathing.
When police tracked Chemirmir to his nearby apartment the next day, he was holding jewelry and cash. Documents in a large red 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.
Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin has said that earlier that day, Harris and Chemirmir had been checking out at the same time at a Walmart store.
Rinehart testified on Tuesday said that the jewelry box found in the trash belonged to his mother-in-law, as did numerous pieces of jewelry that officers found as they arrested Chemirmir.
Evidence presented Monday showed that Chemirmir was also in possession of numerous $2 bills at the time. Rinehart testified Tuesday that his mother-in-law loved giving them as gifts.
Police have also said that a set of keys found with Chemirmir when he was arrested opened the front doors of Harris' home.
Rinehart said that Harris, who he called Kim, was born on a Chinese island. When she was a young girl, prior to World War II, her family moved to what is now Vietnam. He said she grew up in Saigon, which is now Ho Chi Minh City, and eventually owned a restaurant and bar there.
The restaurant was located across the street from an oil company where the man who became her second husband, William Harris, worked.
When the demise of Saigon was imminent, she had already married Mr. Harris and he was called out to Hong Kong by his company but he had arranged paperwork for her and she actually got out of Saigon on a helicopter on the American Embassy to an aircraft carrier on the South China Sea, Rinehart said.
Rinehart said that after leaving Vietnam, the couple lived in Tanzania before William Harris retired and they moved to Dallas. William Harris died in 2008.
Rinehart said his wife, Loan Rinehart, died of cancer in 2013. He said one of Lu Thi Harris' sons still runs her restaurant in Vietnam.
Following Chemirmir's arrest, 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.
Fitzmartin said jurors would also be hearing about the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, who was found dead in her Richardson home in January 2018. Chemirmir has been charged in her death.
He said that Brooks death had originally been called a natural death, but after an investigation following the arrest of Chemirmir, the medical examiner changed the cause of death to homicide.
Fitzmartin said that the day before Brooks was found dead, she was at a Walmart, the same Walmart that Harris was at before her death later in the year. Fitzmartin said that a vehicle model known to be driven by Chemirmir was parked next to Brooks vehicle.
On Tuesday, the medical examiner who performed Harris autopsy testified that while she had small broken blood vessels and some bruising, he had to rely on investigative information to determine the cause of death.
Travis Danielsen, who worked for the Dallas County medical examiners at the time of Harris death, said he determined her cause of death to be smothering and manner of death to be homicide.
He said that without information from the investigation, the death would have been ruled undetermined or natural.
In asphyxial deaths, as a medical examiner, we rely most heavily, I believe, on the investigative information, he said.
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. Hes 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.
The defense did not make an opening statement. Chemirmirs attorney has called the evidence against Chemirmir circumstantial.
A supporter wears a mask with the image of Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. before the Philippine politician filed his candidacy papers for a 2022 presidential run, at the Commission on Elections in Manila, Oct. 6, 2021.
Human rights advocates and people victimized by martial law under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos asked the Philippines election commission Wednesday to disqualify his son from the 2022 presidential race because of a past conviction for a tax violation.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. lied on his certificate of candidacy in saying he had never been convicted of any crime an omission that would automatically disqualify anyone from seeking public office alleged the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA), a group petitioning the Commission on Elections to remove his name from the presidential slate.
Marcos Jr., 64, who is nicknamed Bongbong, is seeking the presidency with the popular daughter of the current president as his running mate.
The petitioners seek succor from the Honorable Commission to consider the instant petition, or to at least undertake its mandatory administrative obligation to cancel the candidacy of the respondent, convicted candidate Marcos Jr., as he is indubitably suffering from disqualification because he is a convicted criminal, they said in their 55-page petition obtained by reporters.
In 1995, a trial court found Marcos Jr. guilty of four counts of tax evasion for failing to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985. An appeals court upheld the conviction two years later.
Marcos Jr., who comes from one of the most famous political dynasties in Asia, is vying to replace Rodrigo Duterte, whose single, six-year term ends in 2022 as stipulated by the Philippine constitution and whose 2016 presidential campaign was endorsed and bankrolled by the Marcos family.
On Tuesday, the presidents daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is running for vice president, confirmed that she had formed an alliance with Bongbong to campaign for office under his ticket.
Marcos Jr. dismissed the new petition as mere propaganda, expressing confidence that the commission would throw out the case.
Ive personally seen the documents for our defense and discussed them with our legal team, who, along with some reputable and respectable legal experts, concluded without doubt that the petition ... is without merit and has no legal basis, he said in a brief statement.
This was the second petition to block Marcos Jr.s bid for the presidency. The first, filed by another group of Filipinos opposed to the Marcoses, has not gained widespread attention.
The commission did not immediately respond to queries about when it would take up the latest petition. The outcome of both petitions could be elevated to the Supreme Court.
Marcos Jr. has been elected to public office before serving as a governor, congressman and senator. He also ran for the vice presidency in 2016, which he lost. During his past candidacies, there were no petition seeking to block his electoral runs.
Petitioners tortured under Marcos Sr.
Those whose names appeared in the petition filed on Wednesday included victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos era, including Bonifacio Ilagan, congressman and former journalist Satur Ocampo, former congresswoman Liza Maza, and Carol Araullo.
They were jailed, tortured or harassed during the Marcos presidency, which lasted from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s and included 14 years of martial law.
The group also alleged that Marcos Jr. was an active participant in the dictatorship, actively claiming [a] stake to enjoying the fruits of the stolen millions and preventing the government from reclaiming these assets.
It warned the Commission on Elections that his win might lead to a white-washing and further proliferation of historical revisionism of the gravely inhumane abuses and extremely grand corruption committed by his father.
Allegations of human rights abuses were rife as thousands of activists went missing or were killed during the rule of the Marcos family patriarch, who declared martial law in 1972.
Under his rule, the Marcos family also added to the general hardship of Filipinos by plundering billions of dollars from state coffers. The elder Marcos was chased out of the country by the people power revolt in 1986 and died in Hawaii in 1989, where he lived in exile. His wife, Imelda, and children were allowed to fly home three years later and started rehabilitating the family name.
Candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, flashes a victory sign as he shows his certificate of candidacy after filing to join the May 2022 presidential race, in Manila, Oct. 6, 2021. [Rouelle Umali/BenarNews]
Marcos Jr., who is trying to follow his fathers footsteps to the Malacanang presidential palace, has come out atop in recent opinion polls.
His most formidable rival would be Leni Robredo, the outgoing vice president and opposition coalitions bet, who beat him in the 2016 election.
The respected pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) said that 47 percent of those Filipinos surveyed last month said they would choose Marcos Jr. with Robredo a far second, at 18 percent.
Other serious bets are former world champion boxer and Sen. Manny Pacquiao; Francisco Domagoso, the popular mayor of Manila; Sen. Panfilo Lacson; and Sen. Christopher Bong Go, a former aide to President Duterte.
In the SWS poll, Domagoso placed third, followed by Pacquiao in fourth position.
On Wednesday, Duterte-Carpio said that her father had rejected her decision to join hands with Marcos Jr. Two days earlier, Rodrigo Duterte filed papers for election to the Senate, reversing course on his earlier announcement that he planned to retire from politics after leaving the presidential palace.
Our party made an alliance and sought support for myself and Bongbong Marcos after accepting the challenge to run, she said.
According to a Filipino political scientist, they may be from different parties, but the names on the Marcos-Duterte-Carpio ticket represent second-generation members of influential Philippine families.
The Philippines has always been ruled by dynasties, Aries Arugay, a professor at the University of the Philippines and a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore said Wednesday.
He gave a bleak outlook in speaking about what he called dynasty cartels joining forces to control government in the Philippines.
It could spell the end of Philippine democracy or at least the end of liberal democracy, Arugay said during a webinar organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.
John Bechtel contributed to this report from Washington.
Naval ships from Japan and the United States conducted their first ever anti-submarine warfare exercise in the South China Sea, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force said, as Tokyo steps up joint maritime activities in those disputed waters with Western and Southeast Asian partners.
The deployment of ships and planes to the region, while seen as in line with Japans maritime strategy toward Southeast Asia, will no doubt meet with protests from China, which claims most of the South China Sea.
A JMSDF statement said the helicopter destroyer JS Kaga, destroyer JS Murasame, a P-1 maritime patrol aircraft and an unnamed submarine took part in the drill Tuesday with the U.S. Navys USS Milius and a P-8A maritime patrol aircraft. It did not reveal the exact location of the exercise.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), or the Japanese Navy as its commonly known, said in the statement: In this exercise, the JMSDF submarine conducted (an) anti-submarine warfare exercise with the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea for the first time, further improving our tactical skills and interoperability between the JMSDF and the U.S. Navy.
The Japanese ships, together with four helicopters, an Oyashio-class submarine and a maritime patrol aircraft, are part of the JMSDFs Indo-Pacific Deployment 2021 (IPD21) task group formed to highlight Tokyos interest and commitment in a free and open Indo-Pacific, as well as Japans cooperation with other navies in the region, according to Japanese defense officials.
The IPD21 started in late August and the ships are scheduled to return to Japan by Nov. 25.
Before the anti-submarine exercise, on Nov. 14 the JS Kaga and JS Murasame conducted a bilateral exercise with the Philippine Navy frigate BRP Jose Rizal after a port call to Subic in the Philippines.
The two destroyers also made a port call in Cam Ranh Bay in central Vietnam on Nov. 5 to 7 and took part in a goodwill exercise with the Vietnamese Navys Gepard-class frigate Dinh Tien Hoang.
During the second half of November, there will be more bilateral and multilateral exercises, according to the JMSDF. Most notably, from Nov. 21 to 30 in the waters around Japan, two multilateral exercises will be conducted with the JMSDF, the U.S. Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the German Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.
A total of 20 JMSDF ships and 40 JMSDF aircraft, 10 U.S. Navy ships, two Australian Navy ships, a Canadian ship and a German Navy ship will take part in these drills.
Then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (center) reviews the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet with at Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo, Oct. 18, 2015. [Reuters]
Major policy shift
Japan whose military activity is constrained by its post-World War II pacifist constitution introduced a major security policy shift under the government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since then, the Japanese Navy has expanded its presence and joint maritime activities in the South China Sea in order to promote a regional rules-based order.
Japan has greatly increased its ability to project its maritime power and shrugged off longstanding taboos on security policy in doing so. Geopolitically it is a response to a heightened perception of risk due to Chinas military modernization program and regional hegemonic ambitions, Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies and a professor at Temple University in Tokyo said in an earlier interview with Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews.
Japan participates in the Quad [grouping among the U.S., India, Japan and Australia] and has been an advocate of a free and open Indo-Pacific, a concept aimed at containing the expansion of Chinas regional influence that involves, among other things, joint naval exercises, Kingston said.
Analysts said the South China Sea is playing an important part in Japans maritime strategy where Tokyo is taking a multilateral approach to pushing back on Chinese territorial claims.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said more than 40 percent of Japans maritime trade passes through the South China Sea.
Chinas growing assertiveness against other claimant states in the South China Sea, and Japan in the East China Sea presents another grave concern for Japan, said a new report by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Japan has traditionally been a provider of maritime capacity-building assistance for Southeast Asian states, offering activities ranging from joint exercises, training opportunities in Japan for defense personnel to equipment transfer, the report said.
Vietnam and the Philippines, the nations that straddle the north section of the South China Sea and flank the important PRC submarine base on Hainan Island have become important maritime security partners for Japan, wrote John Bradford, executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia Pacific Studies, on the Center for International Maritime Security website.
Bradford added that the JMSDFs relationship with the Philippine Navy is the most developed of its Southeast Asia partnerships.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the JMSDF has provided 12 patrol vessels, 13 high-speed boats, a coast monitoring radar system and training to the Philippine Navy. To Vietnam, it transferred six patrol vessels and seven used vessels together with related equipment.
Japan is carrying out capacity-building projects in countries in the South China Sea as Southeast Asia has clearly become a new nexus in Japans maritime strategy, Bradford said.
Thai demonstrators seeking to amend the 2017 Constitution protest outside of Parliament in Bangkok, March 13, 2020.
Thailands parliament on Wednesday again voted down a bill to amend the military-backed constitution, adopted in 2017 under the junta led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha, to make it more democratic.
This attempt and a similar one in November 2020 to change the constitution included an amendment to abolish the Senate, whose pro-royalist members are chosen by the military. Pro-democracy protesters have been demanding this constitutional change since July 2020.
Parit Wacharasindhu, of an umbrella group Re-solution, whose members filed the motion before parliament in June, said the Senate was nothing but a tool to help Prayuth, the current prime minister and former army chief, retain power.
The 2017 Constitution is of Prayuth, for Prayuth and by Prayuth, Parit told MPs on Tuesday. If we analyze it, its origin and contents have one only purpose to let Prayuth extend his regime.
The Constitution permits more senators than in the past decades. The 250 senators authority to jointly select a prime minister with 500 lower house members contradicts the principle of one vote in a democracy.
Prayuth became prime minister after spearheading a coup that toppled a civilian government in 2014. After the 2019 general election, the ex-general who received nearly all of the Senate votes and nearly 500 total was elected to the post of PM. The Senate speaker abstained in his capacity as the presiding officer.
Aggressive wording
As was expected, lawmakers voted against the amendment bill 473 to 206, with 6 abstentions, House Speaker Chuan Leekpai said after a two-day debate that ended Wednesday.
Speaking out against the proposed amendment, Sen. Seri Suwanpanond told lawmakers that the bill contained aggressive wording and infringed on many organizations.
While House members terms end in March 2023, the handpicked-senators will stay a year longer to vote for a new prime minister. Analysts said this could aid Prayuth, should he decide to stay in office, or a successor likely linked to the junta he led after the 2014 coup.
The draft amendment, signed by more than 130,000 people, called for removing junta-picked officials at the Constitutional Court and other independent organizations, and required prime ministerial candidates to have been elected to the House.
It also sought the creation of mechanisms to prevent coups along with no amnesty for coup leaders, and allowed investigations of the armed forces, courts and independent organizations.
Military leaders have been seen as staunch royalists who protect the countrys three pillars the nation, religions and the monarchy and who have led more than 20 coups since 1932, the year Thailand converted from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy.
Youth-led protests
Since July 2020, youth-led pro-democracy protesters have rallied to demand that Prayuth step down, the constitution be rewritten and the monarchy be reformed.
The vote against the amendment comes after the Constitutional Court ruled last week that demands voiced by three prominent pro-democracy protest leaders to reform the monarchy had violated the constitution. The court ordered the trio to refrain from criticizing the royal family.
The Constitutional Court is one of the independent organizations targeted by the proposed amendment.
The ruling led to new protests.
Since the Constitutions adoption in 2017, lawmakers and public petitioners have sought to amend it on at least four separate occasions.
Only one of those efforts passed an amendment to change the electoral system which, analysts said, could favor bigger parties including one backing Prayuth, as well as the opposition Pheu Thai Party.
The change approved in September would create a two-ballot system where voters elect candidates in single-seat constituencies and a second ballot to vote for a political party.
The number of representatives to be directly elected would increase by 50 to 400 while the number of members to be appointed through proportional representation by party-choice votes would fall by 50 to 100.
Bennington, VT (05201)
Today
Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies and light rain after midnight. Low 32F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..
Tonight
Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies and light rain after midnight. Low 32F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
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PITTSFIELD A defendant in an Adams home invasion took a plea deal Tuesday, making it an early day for the jury that had been convened to weigh his case.
Jordan Hawkins-Darden, 25, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of larceny under $1,200 and was sentenced to one year in the Berkshire County Jail and House of Correction by Judge John Agostini. The sentence was in line with a recommendation from Assistant District Attorney Andrew Giarolo. It also matched the sentence given to co-defendant Jacob Galipeo this year.
Neither one of them had any adult record; they were both equally culpable in this matter, Giarolo said, adding that the principals of equity and equality mandate that Hawkins-Darden receive the same penalty as his co-defendant.
Trial set to begin in 2018 home invasion, and the case hangs on a witness seeking immunity A jury has been seated to hear the case of a Springfield man accused in an armed home invasion in Adams. And the key witness in the case has signaled that he intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
We have several young people who made an extremely poor decision, and in doing so they truly scared the two victims, Giarolo said, calling the facts of the case extremely serious.
A weapon that Giarolo said authorities have every reason to believe was a BB gun was brandished during the home invasion.
Prosecutors dismissed two counts each of armed robbery and home invasion. The latter charge carries a minimum sentence of 20 years of incarceration, defense attorney Joshua Hochberg said.
Hawkins-Darden admitted to facts sufficient for a finding of guilt on daytime felony breaking and entering and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. The charges will be dismissed if he stays out of trouble for two years.
The same deal was on the table before Hawkins-Darden decided to proceed toward trial, Giarolo said.
Hochberg said he pushed hard to have Hawkins-Darden go to a jury trial because prosecutors had a weak case. On Monday, Giarolo indicated that the state planned to seek immunity for Jacob Blanchard, its critical essential witness.
Agostini said the case was a difficult one for prosecutors to try because of a confluence of factors, and noted the involvement of weapons, and the elements of larceny and preplanning involved in the crime.
Given as much, Hawkins-Darden got a deal of a lifetime, Agostini said.
Agostini said Hawkins-Darden has a separate assault with a firearm case pending in Massachusetts, and other charges pending in Texas, where, his defense lawyer said, he has been living for about the past two years.
Four men went to a Jordan Street residence Oct. 18, 2018, to confront the resident about a past dispute, Giarolo said. Had the matter gone to trial, the residents girlfriend, who was home at the time, would have testified that Galipeo knocked on the door and her boyfriend answered, Giarolo said.
According to Giarolo, Blanchard would have testified that Hawkins-Darden, who also is known as Facts, punched the resident in the face, and along with an individual identified only as Rell, he entered the home with a BB gun before making off with a quantity of marijuana, as well as the residents cellphone and cash.
Jury selection was completed Monday, but Hawkins-Darden opted to take the plea before opening arguments.
Adam Hinds stands with local politicians who announce endorsements for Hinds campaign for lieutenant governor in front of Northampton City Hall Tuesday morning.
Bidding is just like on TV, the auctioneer joked. Im going to ask for an enormous amount of money, and youre going to raise your hands. Inside Wednesday's tax auction in the town of Florida.
According to The Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Statehouse appears to be the only state capitol on the continent where the public remains barred from entering.
There is no widely accepted definition for a small business, says Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst and advocacy director for MassBudget. While pass-through entities, such as sole proprietorships, sometimes are assumed to be small businesses, Baxandall said, that description concerns the way that a business files its taxes, rather than the amount of revenue it generates.
An employee works at Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, a biopharmaceutical firm, at the Berkshire Corporate Center in Lee in 2016. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council was expected to release the results of its latest survey of diversity and equity in biopharmaceutical companies in the state, collecting data for the first time on the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the workforce.
BOISE - The enforcement of the Biden administrations Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate for private companies with more than 100 employees is being put on hold.
The OSHA website now reads While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation.
Idaho Governor Brad Little commented on the news Wednesday, saying it was "very welcome news for many Idahoans."
The Biden administration is putting his OSHA vaccine mandate on hold, thanks to the states, including Idaho, which are taking a stand against this unprecedented government overreach into the private sector. Our work is not done, and we will continue to fight the Biden vaccine mandates, but this is very welcome news for many Idahoans, Governor Little said.
On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard.
Under Governor Littles direction, in cooperation with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and his office, Idaho is party to three lawsuits challenging Bidens vaccine mandates one involving this OSHA rule for private employers with 100 or more employees, one involving federal contractors, and another involving CMS and healthcare workers.
BOISE - Idaho Governor Brad Little and First Lady Teresa Little are inviting Idahoans to view the Idaho State Capitols Christmas Tree and Capitol Christmas decorations beginning the week of November 22, 2021.
This years tree is donated by David, Lisa, and Delaney Beale. The tree is located at 1414 N. Harrison Boulevard in Boise.
Cutting of the tree will begin about 9:00a.m. Monday. Its journey to the Statehouse is estimated to begin sometime around 11:30a.m.
There will be NO in-person tree lighting ceremony this year, but the Idaho Department of Administrations Facility Services crew will begin stringing thousands of LED lights on the tree and decorating the interior of the Capitol starting Tuesday morning.
The Idaho State Capitols holiday atmosphere comes alive with splendid decorations and the beautiful Christmas tree, reminding us all of the blessings of the season, Governor Little said. I hope you, your family, and loved ones can visit and reflect on the joy and peace this time of year brings.
The Idaho Department of Lands will cut and rig the tree for lifting, Boise Crane will load, and the Idaho Transportation Department will haul the tree to its destination at the Statehouse. Boise City Police will provide the escort.
After agonizing with what to do with this gorgeous tree that was planted too close to our home, we came to the unfortunate realization that the tree must be removed, David Beale said. Almost simultaneously, we received a surprise knock on our door from the State, asking us if we would be interested in donating our tree to become the Capitol Christmas Tree. That visit was an absolute blessing. Yes, this fine tree needed to be removed, but to go out serving as a beacon of the holiday season for the steps of the Capitol building, we could not be more pleased, or ask for a sweeter outcome!
WARSAW, Poland (AP) Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union.
The move came a day after a melee broke out in the border crisis, with migrants throwing stones at Polish forces massed on their side of the razor-wire fence, injuring 12, and they responded with water cannons and tear gas. Warsaw accused Belarusian forces of instigating the conflict, while the government in Minsk denounced Poland's violent actions.
The migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been stuck at the border since Nov. 8. Most are fleeing conflict or despair at home and want to reach Germany or other western European countries.
The West has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis, which has seen migrants entering the country since summer and then trying to cross into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
On Wednesday, Polands Border Guard tweeted a video showing migrants with bags and backpacks being directed by Belarus forces away from the camp near the Kuznica border crossing, and Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said he had received information they were leaving on buses.
The Belarus state news agency Belta reported they were moved to a heated, warehouse-like building about 500 meters (yards) from the border near Bruzgi, giving them the chance to rest indoors after many days in tents.
One of them, an Iraqi Kurd named Miran Ali, took video in the warehouse and said Belarusian authorities told them they wouldn't be forced to return home. In response, the migrants chanted Belarus! Belarus! Belarus! in gratitude.
This is the joy and happiness of Kurdish people after they were told that they will not be sent back to Kurdistan by force, and that they can wait here until Germany or one of the cities in Germany take them there, Ali said as he recorded the video. These people are expressing happiness and optimism in this cold and ugly camp.
They sat on blankets, most still wrapped in heavy jackets and raincoats.
Belta reported about 1,000 migrants agreed Tuesday to move into the building to wait for the situation to resolve, and it quoted some of them as saying that they are not planning to return to their home countries. Most of the building's space was allocated for the migrants, who were offered food, water, medical aid, mattresses and pillows, the news agency said.
Some migrants opted to stay camped near the border. Polands Defense Ministry posted video showing people and tents there, with some smoke rising from campfires.
The next steps in the crisis are unclear. Although arrangements have been made for flights from Minsk to Iraq to repatriate those who want to return, it is uncertain how many will go. Iraq has appealed for its citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the EU is closed. The first flight from Minsk for the voluntary repatriation to Iraq is expected Thursday.
Belarus also released video from its State Border Committee, alleging it showed Lithuanian border guards with dogs pushing migrants away from the Belarus-Lithuania frontier Tuesday night.
Lithuania denied the claim, releasing its own video of the incident. It blamed Belarusian officials for pushing the group of 13 migrants toward the Lithuanian side and preventing them from returning to Belarus after being stopped by the Lithuanian guards.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Lukashenko for the second time this week, stressing that migrants should be given the chance to return to their home countries with the help of the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.
Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, denied Berlin was planning to bring the migrants to Germany. The road to Belarus is a dead end for most people who want to go to Germany. There are no plans to approve taking people in, he said.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said U.N. aid was starting to reach the migrants and it was important to ensure humanitarian agencies gain permanent access, even if it meant talking to Lukashenko, whose legitimacy is questioned by the West following a disputed 2020 reelection.
It makes sense to also talk to those who have the opportunity to change this situation in Minsk, even when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy, like all other European member states, Germany does not recognize, he said, adding that Merkel has coordinated with other EU partners and remains committed to the blocs stance of tightening sanctions on Minsk.
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said there is no military threat at the border from the primarily civilian police and border guards that are there to prevent illegal migration. The presence of the Polish military there is chiefly as a backup, he said on a visit to Montenegro.
Duda stressed that Poland won't accept any international decisions on the border standoff that are made without Warsaw's participation, referring to the talks involving Merkel and Lukashenko.
Information on both sides of the border is hard to verify due to government restrictions. A state of emergency in Poland is keeping journalists, human rights workers and others away from the border along a zone that is 3 kilometers (2 miles) deep, and Belarus limits the presence of independent journalists.
Estonia, which also is affected by migrant movements but to a lesser degree, said it would build a temporary razor wire barrier of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) on its eastern border with Russia as an interim security solution.
This northernmost of the three Baltic nations with a population of 1.3 million, Estonia shares a 294-kilometer (183-mile) land border with Russia and a 340-kilometer border with Latvia. It does not neighbor Belarus.
Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told broadcaster ERR on Tuesday that the crisis stems from Lukashenko's bid to be recognized by the West as president and have EU sanctions lifted, stressing they must stay in place.
In our view, it is important that the European Union remains united and exerts its influence on Belarus through action, Liimets said, adding new sanctions should be imposed as soon as possible.
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Salar Salim in Baghdad, Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed.
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Follow AP's coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Wanting to expand the Sanford Post Office parking lot, Chet Hunt, who owns the post office building, paid $25,000 to a Gladwin contractor but hasnt yet seen any work completed.
Im sure I got scammed, Hunt said.
Hunt, 85 and a semi-retired realtor living in Hawaii, said it has been difficult for large mail trucks to get in and out of the post office's current parking lot, at 239 West Saginaw Road. So, he wanted to help ease the stress.
In April, Hunt started looking for bids to expand the parking lot, but was coming up empty because contractors were so overwhelmed with jobs.
Then, Hunt was referred to a contractor, Kyle Willman from Straight Edge Concrete in Gladwin, who later put in a bid.
The bid was higher than I wanted to pay, Hunt said, but noted that he wanted to help out a village that's rebounding from the flooding of 2020.
Then, Willman asked for an advance of $25,000, saying he needed to buy equipment. Hunt said he wired that sum to Willman from Hawaii in July.
My golden rule is to never advance money to contractors, Hunt said. I reluctantly gave it to him. But through business, sometimes you have to take some risks."
Hunt said Willman, after receiving the $25,000, told him he would start on the work the next day. But instead, Willman took off on vacation, Hunt said.
Willman then gave Hunt a list of days he could start the work. Yet, Hunt said Willman has still not started the work.
Shortly after that, Hunts calls to Willman went to voicemail and his emails were not returned. The last message Hunt sent Willman was prior to Nov. 9, when he demanded his money back from Willman for not doing the job.
Hunt threatened going to the police, filing a lawsuit and more. Still, Hunt said Willman hasn't returned his calls or emails.
Several calls by the Daily News to Willman over the last three weeks were also not returned.
Hunt said he has no other recourse but to go to authorities and consult the legal system. He is sad that his good intentions have resulted in this hardship.
The people of Sanford are just amazing, Hunt said. I was just trying to make it a real nice post office for them.
Whys BioPharma BREAKING R&D SHACKLES?
The Indian industry bore witness to biotech companies collaborating with vaccine manufacturers, vaccine technologies being transferred, licenses to manufacture several drugs granted to pharma companies, among other notable developments. These collaborations and partnerships have furthered R&D, commercialisation and distribution of several critical drugs throughout 2021. However, key barriers to R&D-based innovation still persist in the Indian pharma market that needs to be sorted out soon. We shall take a closer look at the industry quest to realise even more, swift innovations and fewer hindrances.
24th Edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021 launches as a hybrid event: To focus on global digital and technological innovations
The opening ceremony of the 24th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) was conducted as a hybrid event on 17th November. Organized by the Department of Electronics, IT, Bt and S&T of the Government of Karnataka and Software Technology Parks of India - Bengaluru, the Summit was inaugurated by the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu. With the theme of Driving The Next, the three day summit is scheduled from 17th to 19th November, 2021.
Naidu, while acknowledging the recent technological disruptions in many areas, stressed that the real potential of technology can be unleashed when there are significant improvements in sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare, governance and climate change.
Dr Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Chairperson Vision Group on Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka spoke on the need to push biopharma manufacturing and research in India.
"The industry body ABLE is proposing a standalone PLI scheme for biopharma manufacturing. As we know, today the Indian biological drugs account for 80 per cent of the drugs pipeline and already account for more than 40 per ent of the global pharma market. It is this high capital investment that the government needs to support to expand the biomanufacturing capability and capacity. If we do not implement the PLI scheme for biopharma manufacturing eminently, we might see other competing nations deny us of leadership in the future", she said.
"Another very import policy decision that we are discussing with the government is the research linked incentive based on investment linked tax breaks as well as fiscal incentives based on skill development, intellectual property and academic partnerships. Research and innovation are the cornerstones of non-linear economic growth. Indian companies need to significantly increase R&D investment, and academic research needs to generate intellectual value through licensable intellectual property", she added.
The Biotech Track at BTS2021 is curated under a theme- Next wave is Innovation and will focus on key topics like Re-Igniting Innovation Creating Moderna & MRNA Technologies In conceiving Vaccines, Investing in Nextgen Medtech & Diagnostics, Gene-Editing, Oncology: Innovative Treatments And Biomarkers, Vaccine Equity, Showcasing Indias Vaccine Leadership, Cellular Immunotherapies, Latest Innovations In Cell Therapy, Secondary Agriculture and Regulatory.
Wunderman Thompson SA wins Rentoza pitch
Rentoza has officially appointed the digital division of Wunderman Thompson SA to deliver full-service communication, albeit digitally led. The scope of work includes strategy, content creation, radio, media planning, reporting and community management.
Michael Oelschig, the agencys unit managing director, expressed, What is so exciting about this partnership is the ability for Wunderman Thompson to really live its purpose of inspiring growth for ambitious brands. While Rentoza has been around for a few years, they are still a startup in many ways. Through their incredibly exciting, innovative, and of course, ambitious business model, they are primed for exponential growth over the next few years. Being a part of driving that growth with them is really why we do what we do in this business.
Rentoza is a subscription and completer non-ownership of products, describing its offer as democratising and dematerialising ownership of technology devices and appliances for all African consumers". The idea is that their customers use the products to achieve their outcomes, and if they no longer need the items, Rentoza simply takes the items back. It was started in 2017 with a goal to provide access to premium products enabling people to always stay on the cusp of the best technology without extending themselves outside of what they can afford. The brand targets a highly aspirational consumer in SA who often wants the best but cannot afford it.
Mishaan Ratan, CMO of Rentoza, said, While we saw a lot of brilliant creative executions from the agencies during this pitch process, Wunderman Thompson SA stood out because we felt they had understood and then solved our core business challenge of communicating our business model better than other agencies. We are excited to build out this model with Wunderman Thompson and expose all South Africans to an evolution in access and product consumption with the goal of enabling everyone to "Live life on their own terms".
Cofounder of entrepreneurship development company Nonzero, Tania Habimana, has been appointed as the new host of Closing Bell.
Tania Habimana
Congratulations on the new role! How are you feeling about it?
Tell us a bit more about your career path prior to your appointment.
You have some accolades behind your name, could you tell us a bit more about those?
What kind of impact are you hoping to make as the host of Closing Bell?
How do you plan to apply your extensive knowledge?
What are the most important aspects of a successful business plan, in your experience?
If you could give one piece of advice to youth entering the industry, what would it be?
Habimana, a multi-award winning public speaker, has developed a substantial career in understanding how to build a business. In the early days of her career, based out of Europe, she worked on digital transformation in the fashion and retail sector. From here, her career bloomed to what it is today.Closing Bell takes a close-up look at how the markets are moving on that day, what drove them and how investors, as well as analysts, are reacting. We also take a look at macro-economic breaking news and current affairs that have the potential to affect businesses on the continent and provide our audience with the information they need. "On the show, Ill be interviewing analysts, investment managers, executives and CEOs wholl explain their strategies, share opinions, and provide insights on issues affecting the African business environment," said Habimana.Here, we hear more about that career, plans for Closing Bell and some advice for youth trying to enter the industryIts a dream come true. Ive always been passionate about business in Africa and about sharing African business stories. To be able to contribute in this way, on such a respected pan-African platform is a dream.It very much feels like my entire career has been leading up to this moment.After my digital transformation work, I worked on applying everything I had learned to build a business on the African continent. I started by bringing a European menswear brand to sub-Sahara Africa and eventually ventured on my own, as cofounder for Nonzero where we specialised in SME development and human capital development.Throughout this, my career as a public speaker and moderator began to grow. One of my first engagements was with the European Commission where I was invited to moderate the kick-off for Erasmus+ 35 Year Celebration, in the parliament in Brussels. To eventually work on facilitating high-level discussions on the continent such as with the African Union at the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) launch event in Niamey, where I chaired a discussion on SME development and the role of women and youth.All this culminated in the new position Im stepping into.Its honouring to be rewarded and recognised in public, however, its hard to discuss this without acknowledging what goes on in private.I am a product of the people who are and have walked the journey with me. There are so many contributors to achieving these accolades: from my family, my cofounder, to my team, my mentors, my connect group and many more people.What is important is that the work we do, allows people to take action. To turn complex concepts and conversations into simple, straightforward, actionable information for our viewers.To leave no stone unturned, as the saying goes and most importantly, no stone unexamined.Im also hoping to attract more young people and small business owners to the show and provide a platform where they can learn more about business, policy and the continents economic landscape.Simply put, I plan to merge my experience within corporate and as an entrepreneur doing business on the continent, to my interviews with CEOs and market analysts, to gather insights and answers that will help the public make better business decisions, better investments and find the best opportunities.I also intend to bring perspective on impact investing on the continent and movements within the start-up funding ecosystem.Execution.I find that too often founders and business owners spend lots of time developing a plan they never execute. They simply do not follow through on the plan they have built.Meanwhile, entrepreneurship is all about doing. I think entrepreneurs should not be too overly obsessed with lengthy business plans. Sometimes in business, you just have to keep building the plane while flying it. Prioritising market feedback and adjusting accordingly should take precedence over following scripted rules.Learn digital skills.Whether going into business for yourself or looking to enter the job market, gaining digital skills is so critical in todays climate and on top, its a free skill to acquire. Contrary to going to varsity, getting access to Google Skills certification training, Facebook and Instagram Marketing, as well as Linkedin Marketing, are free, and these are tools that can help you better market and sell your products/services (if youre an entrepreneur), and better sell and position yourself digitally (if youre within the job market).All you need is a device, even a phone will do, and access to the internet.
Never forget: Justice Department Announces Largest Health Care Fraud Settlement in Its History:
American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. (hereinafter together Pfizer) have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced today. Pharmacia & Upjohn Company has agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead. Bextra is an anti-inflammatory drug that Pfizer pulled from the market in 2005. Under the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a company must specify the intended uses of a product in its new drug application to FDA. Once approved, the drug may not be marketed or promoted for so-called off-label uses i.e., any use not specified in an application and approved by FDA. Pfizer promoted the sale of Bextra for several uses and dosages that the FDA specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns. The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn will also forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1.3 billion. In addition, Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs.
Via: Alex Berenson:
From Dose 1 through the March 13, 2021 data cutoff date, there were a total of 38 deaths, 21 in the COMIRNATY [vaccine] group and 17 in the placebo group.
Pfizer said publicly in July it had found 15 deaths among vaccine recipients by mid-March. But it told the FDA there were 21 at the same data cutoff end date, March 13.
21.
Not 15.
The placebo figure in the trial was also wrong. Pfizer had 17 deaths among placebo recipients, not 14. Nine extra deaths overall, six among vaccine recipients.
Could the discrepancy result from some odd data lag? Maybe, but the FDA briefing book also contains the number of Covid cases that Pfizer found in vaccine recipients in the trial. Those figures are EXACTLY the same as those Pfizer posted publicly in July.
Yet the death counts were different.
Pfizer somehow miscounted or publicly misreported, or both the number of deaths in one of the most important clinical trials in the history of medicine.
And the FDAs figures paint a notably more worrisome picture of the vaccine than the public July numbers. Though the absolute numbers are small, overall deaths were 24 percent higher among vaccine recipients.
The update also shows that 19 vaccine recipients died between November and March, compared to 13 placebo recipients a difference of almost 50 percent.
Were the extra deaths cardiac-related? It is impossible to know. The FDA did not report any additional details of the deaths, saying only that none were considered related to vaccination.
Related: Covid-19: Researcher Blows the Whistle on Data Integrity Issues in Pfizers Vaccine Trial
In a bit of sweet irony, a vehicle previously used to commit crimes will now be used by Brandon Crime Stoppers.
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SUBMITTED Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson, Spruce Woods MLA Cliff Cullen, Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer, Justice Minister Cameron Friesen and Brandon Police Service public information officer Sgt. Kirby Sararas stand in front of Brandon Crime Stoppers' new vehicle.
In a bit of "sweet irony," a vehicle previously used to commit crimes will now be used by Brandon Crime Stoppers.
The provincial government is giving the local organization more than $50,000 to help prevent crime and aid in community outreach.
The funding includes $11,000 to help fund community outreach and a new vehicle worth approximately $32,500, Justice Minister Cameron Friesen announced Tuesday afternoon.
"I think its a sweet irony that a vehicle that in this case was actually used to perpetrate crime was seized by a police agency and now is being spun back into the community as a resource to help solve crime," Friesen said by phone from Winnipeg.
Crime Stoppers is a crime prevention organization where people can submit anonymous tips about criminal activity. The group pays cash for tips that lead to crimes being solved.
Theres a "big, bold decal" in the back window of the vehicle that tells people the Chevrolet Silverado was previously used to commit crimes, he said.
It will be used to travel to different community organizations and promote programming.
The vehicle will be a visual reminder of Crime Stoppers in Brandon, Friesen said, and will help the group operate around the community.
The money comes from the provinces Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund, which liquidates criminal assets to help fund public safety initiatives.
"Brandon Crime Stoppers board members were extremely excited to receive the donated vehicle from Manitoba Justice Criminal Property Forfeiture Branch, which will be an asset to the Crime Stoppers program," Brandon Crime Stoppers chair Rick Thomson stated in a press release.
"Brandon Crime Stoppers board would like to thank the Criminal Property Forfeiture Unit of Manitoba Justice for all their assistance in making this vehicle donation happen."
Money will also be used to host presentations at schools and Westman Immigrant Services, which a Brandon Crime Stoppers board member said will help raise awareness of the Crime Stoppers tip line.
A provincial spokesperson asked the Sun not to name the board member out of concern for their personal safety.
"Especially in high school kids, theyre in the know, so to speak, about whats going on," he said.
The money will also go toward the Coppers Shopper program, where students receive money and a police chaperone to cover their Christmas shopping.
"It does help in running the [organization] itself every dollar we put out is a dollar we have to generate, so it just helps us overall to run the program successfully," he said.
Winnipeg and Manitoba Crime Stoppers are also getting cash from the province $28,000 and $12,000, respectively to fund outreach material, equipment and to support the award program for tips.
The money for the three organizations came in celebration of National Community Safety and Crime Prevention Month.
Since 2009, the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund has distributed more than $19.9 million from seized criminal assets, according to the province.
dmay@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @DrewMay_
For more than three decades the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards Gala has celebrated women making a positive impact in the community.
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For more than three decades the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards Gala has celebrated women making a positive impact in the community.
The Women of Distinction Awards first launched in 1985 to recognize women in the community and celebrate their leadership and skills, said YWCA executive director Heather Symbalisty.
"They werent being recognized," Symbalisty said. "It really has to do with feminism and speaking up for womens rights and where we stand in the business community and the community overall."
At the time, women would have been typically associated with taking care of homes and children. However, there were stand-out women in unique situations, she said, including those taking on strong roles in the community and business world. They stood out because there would have been fewer women visible or acknowledged in the 1980s in that context.
The intention to recognize and celebrate these women and their impact has remained the throughline of the awards for the past 32 galas.
While the event has experienced some changes over the years, it remains centred on recognizing women from Westman who come from various walks of life, roles and organizations and who are making a difference in the world.
It remains important to acknowledge women because even in 2021, they still face disparity in terms of wages and how they are treated in the workplace and community, Symbalisty said.
"Its very important for our organization to stand up and do that on behalf of women."
While women have made gains in the workplace, there is still much work to be done. There is a continued need to shine a light on equity and equality in the community, and the gala serves as an opportunity to do so, she said.
Symbalisty added the hope is that one day, women will be equals in everyone's eyes.
"Its still taken a long time for female voices to be heard on all platforms. Were still fighting for equal representation everywhere. A stay-at-home parent works just as hard as someone who is working a full-time role plus parenting. They are doing a job, just one that is not recognized or paid for," Symbalisty said.
"Were still given a huge workload, but were still given less pay and less recognition ... The Women of Distinction Gala is an opportunity for us to recognize all those females out there who are stepping out and stepping forward, even with those challenges that we face."
It is critical to see and encourage these voices in the workplace to work together because they help change the language by showing women are equal. There's a disconnect that is not always recognized, she said. When women can boost each others voices and places in the workplace or community, it can create seismic change.
She takes pride in the role the YWCA plays in spreading this message and the active steps the organization takes to push for equity and equality for all people in the community.
The nominees at the Women of Distinction Awards Gala share a common thread of being surrounded by people who recognize how hard they work and the energy they put into meaningful acts each day, even in the face of COVID-19.
"They dont give up. They will use their voice to make sure that we are all heard," Symbalisty said. "The leadership that we see in these nominees, the commonality is that they mentor and they bring along everyone that they interact with. They dont leave people behind they really empower each other."
By listening to and supporting each other, women and allies can validate any issues or concerns regarding equity and equality brought forward by change-makers, she said.
"We really need to see action more working together so that the men in the workplace recognize us and stand with us to change that language," Symbalisty said. "Thats part of our challenge we need our counterparts to stand with us and recognize us and speak up on our behalf as well so were recognized equally."
People need to unite to foster a better workplace and cultivate equity and equality among women, men, Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ community members.
"We should all be recognized as humans and work together to correct how things were done and move forward to a better work/life space in our community," Symbalisty said.
Change to the current norms is pivotal, Symbalisty said.
Her hope is the next generation will have a workplace that is better, but it will take hard work and collaboration to create an impact.
The nominees featured at the Women of Distinction Awards have the opportunity to transform the organizations, communities, businesses and the world with the innovative ideas and solutions they can bring into the fold. Symbalisty said boosting these voices helps ensure more diverse ideas are available in the community and workplace.
The Women of Distinction Awards Gala takes place Nov. 18 at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium. The evening begins with a dessert reception at 6 p.m. followed by an awards presentation at 7:30 p.m.
"Well keep holding it and well keep recognizing the women in our communities and the entirety of Westman until hopefully one day we can start doing a gala in a different format where we are just recognizing everyone. But, until that time, were going to keep highlighting everyone who steps forward and uses their skills and hope that we keep moving forward," Symbalisty said.
ckemp@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
Its absolutely critical that we deal with backlogs. So were in the process of setting up that task force that Doctors Manitoba has asked for and others have asked for to ensure that there are doctors and nurses at the table.
"Its absolutely critical that we deal with backlogs. So were in the process of setting up that task force that Doctors Manitoba has asked for and others have asked for to ensure that there are doctors and nurses at the table."
Premier Heather Stefanson
"My thoughts and prayers are with you and any family member or friend or relative you have that is experiencing their surgery being postponed or their diagnostic test."
Health Minister Audrey Gordon
I think its time that right-of-centre politicians retire the phrase "thoughts and prayers" for good because it has essentially become meaningless. That is if it ever really had some deeper meaning to begin with.
Because in the absence of action meaningful, verifiable, demonstrable action thoughts and prayers offer little more than high-nosed public moralizing that stands only to benefit those who utter the phrase, and not at whom those words are directed.
"Thoughts and prayers" had become a catch-all phrase offered by Republicans in the United States following repeated mass shootings such as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 and the San Bernardino mass shooting in 2015.
After another 17 died in a high school attack in Parkland, Fla., angry Americans began tweeting with the hashtag "policy and change" as a pithy rejoinder and called for action rather than more "thoughts and prayers" from those who seek to prevent stronger gun laws.
Of course, Gordons use of the phrase had nothing to do with shootings of any kind. According to a CBC report, following an announcement by the province last week that more surgeries would have to be postponed in order to increase intensive care capacity because of rising COVID-19 numbers, Gordon said on Monday that she empathized with those affected by the decision.
But as Allison Marion a 67-year-old woman who suffers from osteoarthritis and who has been facing a 26-month wait for hip surgery told the CBC, those words offer no comfort at all.
She was told by health officials that it would be eight months before she could see a surgical consultant, and another 18 months before she would find herself in surgery. Her pain is very real, and so are the Tylenol 3 she has to take up to six times per day to manage the pain.
It was just last month that a Doctors Manitoba report suggested that Manitobas backlog for various surgeries and procedures had jumped to around 130,000 cases, marking a significant increase from the roughly 110,000 cases the non-profit organization registered in June during the third wave of the coronavirus.
At the time, Doctors Manitoba president Kristjan Thompson told reporters that the provincial government had done very little to stem the tide of surgeries that have been delayed due to the disruption of COVID-19. Thompson also expressed frustration with the provinces slow response to the recommendations Doctors Manitoba laid out in its original report in June.
While the PCs announced in March that their government would allocate at least $50 million to reduce long wait times for surgery, a freedom of information and protection of privacy (FIPPA) request filed by the NDP revealed that only $2,460,669 of those funds had been spent as of Aug. 31.
So when newly minted Premier Heather Stefanson sat in the Brandon Suns boardroom last week and told our editorial board that the task force called for by Doctors Manitoba was in fact moving forward, we took that as a sign the Tories were finally taking the situation seriously. Theres a large number of people who are waiting like Allison Marion in pain.
But it was also on Monday that Gordon announced this task force wont begin working until after Stefansons throne speech on Nov. 23.
So much for urgency.
We dont really doubt that Gordon meant well when she offered thoughts and prayers to those patients who are affected by these ongoing delays. And to be fair to Stefanson, perhaps she considers another week of inaction acceptable, if only because she has been in the lead government role for a matter of weeks. It takes time to get priorities and planning in place, after all.
But just a suggestion to our Progressive Conservative government: dont offer meaningless platitudes to Manitobans, particularly seniors waiting months and years for surgeries.
After all, talk is cheap, but inaction can be quite costly.
Matt Goerzen, editor
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) A Russian weapons test created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk that is now threatening the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, U.S. officials said Monday.
In this image from video provided by NASA, the International Space Station is seen as astronauts in the SpaceX Dragon capsule undock on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, (NASA via AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) A Russian weapons test created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk that is now threatening the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, U.S. officials said Monday.
The State Department confirmed that the debris was from an old Russian satellite destroyed by the missile strike.
It was dangerous. It was reckless. It was irresponsible, said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Earlier Monday, the four Americans, one German and two Russians on board were forced to briefly seek shelter in their docked capsules because of the debris.
At least 1,500 pieces of the destroyed satellite were sizable enough to show up on radar and with telescopes, Price said. But countless other fragments were too small to track, yet still posed a danger to the space station as well as orbiting satellites.
Even a fleck of paint can do major damage when orbiting at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). Something big, upon impact, could be catastrophic.
We are going to continue to make very clear that we wont tolerate this kind of activity, Price said.
FILE - In this April 24, 2021 file photo made available by NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule approaches the International Space Station for docking. Space junk is threatening the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station and forcing them to seek shelter in their docked capsules. The U.S. Space Command says it's tracking a field of orbiting debris, the apparent result of some satellite break-up event. The astronauts retreated into their docked capsules on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021 after being informed of the threat. (NASA via AP, File)
He said the U.S. has "repeatedly raised with Russian counterparts our concerns for a potential satellite test".
NASA Mission Control said the heightened threat from the debris might continue for another couple days and continue to interrupt the astronauts' science research and other work. Four of the seven crew members arrived at the orbiting outpost Thursday night.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who's midway through a yearlong mission, called it a crazy but well-coordinated day" as he bid Mission Control good night.
It was certainly a great way to bond as a crew, starting off with our very first work day in space," he said.
The U.S. Space Command said it was tracking the field of orbiting debris. NASA had made no comment by late afternoon, and there was no word late Monday from Russia about the missile strike.
A similar weapons test by China in 2007 also resulted in countless debris. One of those pieces threatened to come dangerously close to the space station last week. While it later was dismissed as a risk, NASA had the station move anyway.
Anti-satellite missile tests by the U.S. in 2008 and India in 2019 were conducted at much lower altitudes, well below the space station.
Until Monday, the Space Command already was tracking some 20,000 pieces of space junk, including old and broken satellites from around the world.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said it will take days if not weeks and months to catalogue the latest wreckage and confirm their orbits. The fragments will begin to spread out over time, due to atmospheric drag and other forces, he said in an email.
The space station is at especially high risk because the test occurred near its orbit, McDowell said. But all objects in low-Earth orbit including Chinas three-person space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope will be at somewhat enhanced risk over the next few years, he noted.
John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the most immediate concern was the space debris. Beyond that, the United States is monitoring the kinds of capabilities that Russia seems to want to develop which could pose a threat not just to our national security interest but to the security interests of other space-faring nations.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Space Agency said via Twitter that the astronauts were ordered into their docked capsules, in case they had to make a quick getaway. The agency said the crew was back doing routine operations, and the space stations commander, Russian Anton Shkaplerov, tweeted: Friends, everything is regular with us!
But the cloud of debris posed a threat on each passing orbit or every 1 1/2 hours and all robotic activity on the U.S. side was put on hold. German astronaut Matthias Maurer also had to find a safer place to sleep than the European lab.
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AP reporters Matthew Lee and Robert Burns in Washington contributed.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
If YouTube has its way, we may soon watch makeup tutorials and buy face powder and eyeliner directly from its site. Facebook is airing infomercial-style shows that will encourage people to shop from small businesses, including one that sells dog bow ties.
Lots of internet personalities and businesses already pitch their products on social media. But now, internet companies seem to be making a concerted effort to make shopping an inextricable and seamless part of the online spaces where we come to be entertained and informed but not necessarily to buy stuff.
Yes, the internet is turning into home-shopping TV.
If YouTube has its way, we may soon watch makeup tutorials and buy face powder and eyeliner directly from its site. Credit:Adobe
This is happening for three reasons: greed, fear and China. And the growing mania for digital shopping options is another example of how our experiences online are shaped just as much by corporations interests as by our desires.
Austin Cain, 25, an Atlanta-based financial adviser who is helping to organise ConstitutionDAO, said in an interview this week that the groups goal was to purchase the Constitution of the United States in a way that utilises the capabilities of the technology we all believe in. Like many crypto-world phenomena, ConstitutionDAO was born in the grey area between dumb stunt and serious business venture. Last week, when stories about the Sothebys auction began circulating, a group of acquaintances started half-seriously DMing one another on Twitter about bidding on it. They organised a Zoom call and began working through some of the logistics. The copy of the Constitution owned by Dorothy Goldman to be auctioned by Sothebys on Thursday. It is the only known copy to be privately owned. Credit:Ardon Bar-Hama, via Sothebys When I first got on the Zoom call, I was thinking that maybe the odds of this happening were about 20 per cent, said Julian Weisser, a South Dakota-based investor. And then we started talking, and I said, Wow, theres some interest here. For some, the bid was pure caper. But the more earnest participants started seeing parallels between crypto culture a world full of outsiders, iconoclasts and radical governance experiments and the values of the Constitutions original framers.
Decentralisation and cryptocurrency (web3) have created structures that allow people to self-govern with unparalleled levels of autonomy and freedom, the groups website reads. Its fitting that we use this technology to honour and protect the greatest historical tool for human governance: the US Constitution. ConstitutionDAO now has roughly 30 volunteer core contributors, who include entrepreneurs, investors, a purple-haired developer and at least two teenagers. None of them are experienced collectors of historical artefacts and they are figuring out many of the details as they go. Over a series of sleepless nights, they put up a website, formed subgroups to research the various legal and financial wrinkles associated with the auction, and opened a Discord server that swelled to more than 13,000 members. The copy of the Constitution being auctioned by Sothebys belongs to Dorothy Goldman, the widow of a New York real estate developer who bought it for $US165,000 in 1988. It is the only known copy of the Constitution that is privately owned a fact that intrigued the members of ConstitutionDAO, who saw an opportunity to make it accessible to a wider audience. If it wins the auction, the DAO plans to partner with a prominent museum or historical society to exhibit the document in a free, public setting. Organisers have had discussions with the Smithsonian and New York Public Library about hosting it, they said, although the artefacts final destination will be decided by a vote of the DAO.
Were going to stop it from going into more private hands and actually open-source it, make it a public good, said Alice Ma, one of the organisers. In truth, ConstitutionDAO is more of a symbolic gesture to decentralisation technology than a real-world demonstration of it. Some in the group had initially hoped to make participants fractional owners of the Constitution, but that plan fell apart, possibly because it could run afoul of securities laws. The current plan is to issue crypto tokens, called $USPEOPLE, that will entitle participants to vote on certain decisions governing the Constitutions use but will not confer any actual ownership. If it wins the auction, the DAO plans to partner with a prominent museum or historical society to exhibit the document in a free, public setting. Organisers have had discussions with the Smithsonian and New York Public Library about hosting it, they said, although the artefacts final destination will be decided by a vote of the DAO. In addition, since Sothebys accepts only government-issued currency and does not allow DAOs to bid on auctions directly, the group plans to partner with a crypto exchange that will convert its Ethereum to dollars before the bid and a crypto nonprofit that will place the bid on the groups behalf. According to the groups FAQ document, a limited liability corporation will take control of the Constitution temporarily while the DAO figures out a long-term ownership structure. Buying the Constitution, it turns out, is a hard, weird project, made even harder and weirder by the choice to do it in less than a week with a bunch of internet strangers, inside a new, complicated organisational structure that nobody outside the crypto world fully understands yet.
Loading And it could all be for naught if ConstitutionDAO simply gets outbid by someone with deeper pockets. If that happens, participants will get their money back, minus transfer fees. But the groups members are already talking about owning the Constitution as if it is a done deal. Their motto is WAGBI, or were all gonna buy it. This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Few things are as deceptive as the apparent chemistry between leaders. Often, it is merely the cream on a bilateral relationship overflowing with mutual interest. Then, it is full of bonhomie, and meetings are designed to help favourably position the leaders with their domestic constituents. It is a friendship based on considerations far beyond the personal.
Sometimes, when the interests are competitive rather than co-operative, reciprocal smiles disguise a systemic animosity in order to calm their populations who fear the storm that is brewing. It is a veneer of friendship, and it is almost completely without substantive impact.
There is no prize for guessing which category this weeks Joe Biden-Xi Jinping meeting was in.
Cordial meeting: US President Joe Biden and Chias President Xi Jinping during their meeting via video link on Tuesday. Credit:Xinhua via AP
Cheery headlines suggested the leaders hosed down the threat of war over Taiwan and it did provide some cause for relief but we should be under no illusion that tensions remain.
All large commercial buildings designed from next year will be required to operate at net-zero in a major climate policy announcement by the NSW Planning Minister.
Rob Stokes said dark roofing will be discontinued on homes built across Sydney and has taken a swipe at the Commonwealths climate agenda while unveiling a suite of measures to ramp up the states emissions reductions response.
NSW Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes says the government has an obligation to ambitiously reduce emissions. Credit:Louise Kennerley
Speaking to an online forum for urban think-tank Committee for Sydney, Mr Stokes also targeted parts of the property sector for their backlash over an earlier decision this year to mandate paler roofs in the south-west growth area, saying he found it incredible legislation was required to force change.
There are no practical reasons why we shouldnt be ditching dark roofing on new homes permanently to ensure that future communities of Sydneys west dont experience the urban heat that many communities do now, he said, revealing he had asked planners to include the policy switch under a new umbrella approach to emissions.
The NSW government says it has no plans for a northbound toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, despite a Transport for NSW document revealing the agency expected an extra fee would be imposed on drivers.
Treasurer Matt Kean on Wednesday became the first minister to dismiss concerns over a new toll after the Premier last week said no decision had been made on the matter.
Treasurer Matt Kean says the government has no plans to introduce a new toll on the Harbour Bridge. Credit:Louie Douvis
A Transport for NSW document responding to community submissions to plans for the Northern Beaches Link was released last week revealing the prospect of tolls being placed on all harbour crossings.
But Mr Kean said in a statement the government had no plans to toll the Harbour Bridge in both directions, with Transport Minister Rob Stokes later echoing this.
The College of Critical Care Nurses is crunching data to determine why critical care nurses were leaving, but Mr Butcher said the shortage was exacerbated by nurses being redeployed to COVID-19 vaccination hubs to boost immunisation efforts. Other critical care nurses were opting to retire early, choosing to move to another area of nursing due to prolonged stress and burnout, or leaving the industry entirely. The colleges Victorian president, Rose Jaspers said while burnout was a concern before the pandemic, COVID-19 has been the straw that broke the camels back. We have a workforce which had not had a break for two years, the former ICU nurse said. On top of that, their working conditions every day are extreme and challenging. Theyre working phenomenal amounts of overtime, double shifts and extra shifts.
Ms Jaspers said hospitals across Victoria were struggling to fill their rosters. She noted that although the number of new coronavirus admissions into ICU was falling in Victoria, nurses were still caring for dozens of coronavirus patients who were lingering in ICUs for up to 12 weeks, including some of the most gravely ill. Ms Jaspers said she was extremely concerned about the workforce in the coming months. With elective surgery resuming, some theatre nurses who were deployed to ICU units to help care for COVID-19 patients would need to return to their normal duties, she said. Adjunct Professor Ward said while it was estimated 20,000 nurses would graduate from university at the end of the year, you cannot replace the nurses giving up their registration with 20,000 first-year graduates, who need full support in understanding the system. Adjunct Professor Ward said Australia needed to do better to support and retain graduates.
Mr Butcher said COVID-19 had taken a heavy emotional toll on healthcare workers, many developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety at exponential rates compared to before the pandemic. A recent survey by Monash University and Royal Melbourne Hospital of more than 7800 Australian healthcare workers (most of them based in Victoria) found more than 40 per cent had symptoms of PTSD by the final stages of the states second wave. This meant they may have been easily startled or had trouble sleeping, continually recurring thoughts or felt irritable. Of concern, one of the significant predictors of PTSD, along with emotional exhaustion and burnout, was if healthcare workers worried their patients would not receive the appropriate level of care because of a shortage of resources an issue that continues to be the heart of the debate on Australias response to the pandemic. Nurses like to look after people, and when they are forced to lower their standards of care it really, really eats at away at them, Mr Butcher said.
Loading Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said it was not just critical care units battling staffing shortages. There are pockets of pressure spread out across the workforce, she said. We have a very tired workforce, not just in critical care, but in maternity services too. This has been going on for two years. She said some health services were heavily reliant on midwives doing double shifts because demand had increased in maternity wards triggered by a baby boom in Victoria during the pandemic. Ms Jaspers said more needed to be done to entice graduate nurses into critical care, but the postgraduate program was too costly for many.
A Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing at the University of Melbourne costs about $11,000 and will rise by $336 next year. However, those nurses will be paid just an extra $56 a week. Last month, The Age revealed Australia would allow 2000 overseas nurses and doctors to enter the country for work under a plan being finalised by the Commonwealth and states to ease a healthcare staffing crisis. Loading The Victorian Health Department estimates that since the start of the pandemic, the number of healthcare migrants joining the states workforce has plummeted by about 40 per cent. This was due to the difficulty of recruiting doctors, nurses and allied health professionals from overseas while navigating border closures and quarantine arrangements.
The men charged over the shooting of another man in the stomach in an inner-Brisbane car park on Monday morning remain locked up after their cases went before a court for the first time.
Shaun Kenneth Kirby, 33, was arrested on Tuesday and Lucan Jade Grace, 32, was arrested on Wednesday after the shooting behind the 7-Eleven convenience store in Spring Hill.
Neither of the men appeared in person, or made a bail application, when their cases were briefly mentioned in Brisbane Arrests Court Mr Kirbys on Wednesday and Mr Graces on Thursday.
Mr Grace has been charged with one count each of attempted murder, arson, unlawful possession of weapons, possessing a dangerous drug, possessing a drug utensil, possessing explosives (ammunition), discharging a weapon in a public place, driving without a licence, as well as two counts of unlawful use of motor vehicle.
Hundreds of people have marched through the Brisbane CBD to 1 William Street in protest against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines and rules.
The protesters were met with a heavy police presence outside the Queensland governments headquarters, including mounted officers, 4WDs and both uniformed and specially-equipped tactical police.
Hundreds of people protesting vaccination mandates have descended on 1 William Street after marching through the Brisbane CBD. Credit:Matt Dennien
One protester was seen waving an Australian flag upside down and another held aloft a Eureka flag, while the action prompted the next-door Queensland Parliament to lock its gates.
The group stopped outside 1 William Street hoping to speak to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and booed when it became clear she would not meet with the crowd, before chants of you serve us.
Authorities are considering whether to ban politicians, staff and visitors who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 from the Queensland Parliament when new rules come into effect next month.
When Queensland hits 80 per cent fully vaccinated, or on December 17, unvaccinated people will be banned from cafes, pubs, stadiums, galleries and libraries, and all staff must also be fully vaccinated.
Rules that would mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for anyone wanting to enter the Queensland Parliament are being considered. Credit:Felicity Caldwell
That could have ramifications for the Queensland Parliament in the Brisbane CBD, as it features several dining facilities and is also open to the public for tours.
Parliament Clerk Neil Laurie said he and the Speaker, Curtis Pitt, were considering the implementation of vaccination mandates for staff and access mandates to the precinct.
Disgraced Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has returned to Victorian Parliament with a sensational threat to scuttle the Labor governments pandemic legislation, vowing to block reforms that he claims reward autocratic leaders who have ruled by decree.
Mr Somyurek belatedly proved his vaccination status on Wednesday, after earlier refusing to do so, paving the way for his return to vote in the upper house on Thursday.
After being accused last year of a widespread branch-stacking operation, the former factional heavyweight and upper house MP left the Labor Party to sit on the crossbench as an independent.
He was driven out of cabinet, the Labor caucus and then the party, and has since thrown mud at Premier Daniel Andrews in the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
In a piece published late on Wednesday for the Herald Sun, Mr Somyurek argued the Andrews government did not have the numbers in the upper house to pass the bill in its own right, but only claimed those powers with Labor-leaning crossbenchers.
A final decision on whether Aboriginal cultural sites in Western Australia can be destroyed for projects like mines will still rest with a state government minister under proposed legislation, with no rights of appeal for Traditional Owners nor proponents.
Several land councils and Aboriginal rights activists say new heritage laws to be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday will not prevent another Juukan Gorge disaster, where mining company Rio Tinto destroyed caves in the Pilbara with evidence of 46,000 years of occupation.
Bardi Jawi elder Frank Davey at a Kimberley Land Council protest on the steps of parliament house in June. Credit:Peter de Kruijff
But the government is adamant the scales have been rebalanced between industry and culture.
Under WAs existing Aboriginal heritage law, introduced in 1972, proponents such as miners and government departments have been able to apply through Section 18 of the act to damage cultural sites regardless of their significance.
The on Wednesday discharged Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) and dropped the proceedings against it in a case of cheating and corruption registered by the CBI against its former directors Kapil and Dhiraj Wadhawan, and Yes Bank founder
A single bench of Justice S K Shinde allowed the plea filed by challenging the decision of a special CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) court in August this year that had rejected its prayer for discharge.
In its plea filed in the high court through senior counsel Ravi Kadam, the company had argued that since it had been taken over by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, it must be absolved of all previous liabilities.
The plea in the high court had been vehemently opposed by CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar.
Venegaonkar had earlier argued that it would be wrong to discharge of its criminal liability until all statutory appeals in the case were decided.
The HC, however, noted that Kapil and Dhiraj Wadhawan had been ousted from the company's board of directors two years ago.
"The learned (CBI) Judge has committed an error by permitting the prosecution of the corporate debtor (DHFL) to the accused nos. 2 (Kapil Wadhawan) and 3 (Dhiraj Wadhawan), ousted from the Board of Directors by the RBI two years ago," Justice Shinde said in his order.
The CBI's case is that Rana Kapoor, who is currently in jail in connection with a related case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Wadhawans.
As per the CBI, in 2018, Kapoor had conspired with the Wadhawans to receive illegal kickbacks worth several crores from
(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 customs department has reportedly asked Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone to explain a ban at the companys Mundra port on handling export and import of container cargoes from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from November 15.
The department 10 day ago sent a letter to tell Indias largest port operator it needed permission from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the countrys exim policy, the Economic Times reported Wednesday quoting an unnamed civil servant.
Adani announced the ban on October 11, days after officials seized nearly three tonnes of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated Rs 20,000 crore from two containers at Mundra port in western Gujarat.
"Ports are not authorised to take such unilateral decisions," another civil servant told the Economic Times.
At the time of the seizure, Adani Ports had said that port operators are not allowed to examine containers and the company has "no policing authority over the containers or the millions of tonnes of cargo" that passes through the terminals at its ports.
are preparing to offer lower fares for passengers without check-in bags in a move to improve seat occupancy and market share.
chief executive officer Ronojoy Dutta indicated the airlines interest to offer zero bag fares in an interaction with Bloomberg. Regulatory caps on fares and capacity related to Covid-19 have prevented from taking a decision and the airline is discussing the issue with the government, he said. Were waiting for everything to settle down before we lock something, Dutta said.
IndiGos rivals Go First and too are keen on offering zero bag fares, industry sources said. Go First is even looking to amend reservation systems to provide differential fares for those without check-in bags and hand bags weighing less than seven kg, one of the sources said. But a decision cant be taken unless fare caps are removed, according to company executives.
While the Directorate General of Civil Aviations February circular on unbundling of services allowed airlines to offer zero bag fares, it came with a caveat. That is, these fares cannot be offered till fare caps remain in place.
The zero bag fares were first introduced in the country by in 2015 and was soon followed by other low-cost airlines. However, it was not a hit. Initially the discount offered in zero bag fare was only Rs 200. This also allowed other airlines to match prices and offer free baggage at the same price. The product also faced regulatory challenges on the issue of fees that an airline could charge in case a passenger (who purchased zero bag fare) came to the airport with check-in bags.
But with the intensifying competition and increasing cost pressures, airlines are looking at ways to unbundle services. Reviving the zero bag fare is one such option. Allowing airlines to charge for bags, seat selection, meals among others are ancillary revenue sources for airlines. Such fares would help airlines improve their revenues.
Even now passenger load factors are around 70-80 per cent. The zero bag fare would help improve seat occupancy and help lure passengers by offering special fares. This could help in targeting corporates and same day return travellers, an aviation industry executive said. It will work if the difference between zero bag fare and lowest normal fare is substantial, he added.
Domestic airline executives also pointed out that fares in India are among the lowest in the world, drawing comparisons with the US where airlines charge for carry-on bags. In India, airlines are required to provide 15 kg of check-in bags free.
GoKwik, an e-commerce enablement company, has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. The round also saw participation from existing investors India and RTP Global.
Within 250 days of its launch, GoKwik has on-boarded more than 100 brands which cumulatively have an annualised gross merchandise value(GMV) of $250 million. The company has so far been able to increase conversion rates of its customer brands by more than 20 per cent, resulting in an increased GMV of Rs 25 crore per month.
The company plans to use the funds to work with large marketplaces, scale up its product and technology teams and launch new products.
GoKwik focusses predominantly on solving e-commerce issues like boosting conversion rates across the e-commerce funnel for its customers. Its clients include Mamaearth, Good Glamm Group (Myglamm), LimeRoad, EyeMyEye, boAt, ManMatters, OZiva, The Souled Store, Noise, and VMart.
Indias leading airline, IndiGo, on Wednesday announced the resumption of its meals on board. The decision was taken after Ministry allowed airlines to serve meals on all domestic flights. The carriers were not allowed to serve inflight meals, which have duration of less than two hours, since April 15 due to the Covid pandemic.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, President & Chief Operating Officer, IndiGo, said: As the restrictions ease, we are pleased to resume our delicious food and beverage service, served with 100% hygiene, across all domestic flights. Effective 19th Nov 21, all our customers will be able to buy Food and Beverage on board as well as pre-book their choice of food. The resumption of this facility will not only help customers travelling with young children and senior citizens, but also those catching red-eye flights. We welcome this move as it indicates the sectoral progression towards normalcy.
"The menu will include some of the most loved 6E snacks including Paneer Tikka Sandwich, Chicken Junglee Sandwich, Baked Pita with two Dips, and Sesame Chicken Rice Noodle Meal. Customers who wish to avail these delicious snacks, can also pre-book their in-flight meals," the company said.
The Ministry on Tuesday said it has allowed airlines to serve meals on all domestic flights.
The carriers had not been allowed to serve meals in flights, which have duration of less than two hours, since April 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The airlines, operating flights on domestic sectors may provide meal services on board, without restriction on duration of the flight," the ministry's order said on Tuesday.
The ministry has also permitted resumption of magazine and reading materials for passengers on domestic flights, the order noted.
The decision to resume meals and magazines has been taken as "Covid caseload" has reduced due to "proper implementation of appropriate Covid behaviour protocol", it mentioned.
When the scheduled domestic flight services were resumed on May 25 last year after the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, the ministry had allowed the airlines to serve in-flight meals under certain conditions.
The Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) on Thursday said it is setting up a task force which will be led by Harshil Mathur, the founder and CEO of unicorn start-up
The task group will work towards creating a roadmap for the growth of the industry, identifying the opportunities and challenges faced by the ecosystem in the state and leverage the partnering institutions and government to solve them.
B V Naidu, chairman of KDEM, said, India has emerged as one of the worlds fastest-growing tech innovation hubs in the world, with Fintech leading the charge as the industry has raised close to $10 billion in investment.
Harshil Mathur, founder and CEO, Razorpay
Indias financial inclusion and digitisation success story have been made possible by the combined efforts of the government as well as tech innovations, fundamentally disrupting the way masses access financial services, he added.
The task group also includes Timmanna Gouda of Whatsloan, Miten Sampat of CRED, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha,. Raveesh Naresh of Khatabook, Harsh Jain of Groww, and Johnson Tellis, an advisory council member of KDEM.
Harshil Mathur of said, This collaboration between the industry and government is a critical milestone for India's fintech ecosystem. As cements its place as a global fintech hub, our task force will work with the government and industry players across the board to unlock new areas of innovation and growth.
is looking to establish vehicle scrappage centres under a franchise set up with the first one expected to become operational in the first quarter of the next fiscal, a top company official said on Wednesday.
The auto major earlier this year had joined hands with the Gujarat government to support setting up of a vehicle scrappage facility at Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
"Today, it appears that about 25,000 trucks are dismantled every year in the country and we do not have proper systematic scrappage facilities. Now, we have tied up with a European expert and with his help, we have made a model scrapping centre.
"So, we have created this model, and this model we are going to deploy through franchise arrangement," Executive Director and President (Commercial Vehicles) Girish Wagh told reporters in an online press conference.
The company has already started sending out a letter of intent (LOI) to the franchise partners to set up the scrappage facilities, he added.
"We should see the first one coming in the beginning of the next financial year," Wagh said when asked about the timelines for the start of the initiative.
He noted that the government is also quite keen regarding the setting up of the facilities as they see it is an employment generation opportunity.
The Ahmedabad-based scrappage centre, which will be for both passenger and commercial vehicles, will have a capacity to recycle up to 36,000 vehicles a year.
is setting up the centre in partnership with a partner.
When asked about the commercial vehicles sales outlook for the current fiscal, Wagh said, "In the first (quarter), the industry grew by 44 per cent and we grew more than the industry as our market share improved. We expect that GDP growth should be around 9-10 per cent this year as indicated by the RBI, we expect the industry to grow by about 20 per cent over the last year."
He added that the industry size should be around 7 lakh units and "we will continue with our market share growth".
He, however, noted that the growth seen this fiscal has so far been on a low base of COVID-19 hit last year and the industry is still far away from its peak levels witnessed a few years ago.
Wagh said that various headwinds like high commodity and fuel prices and chip shortage continue to impact the business.
"Increase in fuel prices has led to an increase in CNG vehicle sales. Today, in the intermediate and light commercial vehicles, more than 40 per cent of our portfolio has in fact migrated to CNG in a short period of time," he added.
On chip shortage, he noted that the company is dealing with the issue on a day-to-day basis and added that there could be an impact on the company's production of small commercial vehicles and intermediate commercial vehicles going ahead.
Wagh said that probably, the worst is over for the sector and there could be growth in the coming days.
"Going ahead, we (commercial vehicles business) should see strong growth. We have scratched the bottom and should start moving towards the next peak and this is generally being driven by mining, infrastructure growth, construction, overall consumption, e-commerce and also the growth of the rural economy.
"All these are leading to improvement in volumes on a year-on-year basis," Wagh said.
The auto major, which is the leading player in the domestic commercial vehicle segment, is looking to roll out new products, including electric and CNG versions of various models in order to cater to various sectors.
(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.)
Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday said that Tata Motors' pact with private equity firm is 'credit positive', as it will help the automaker to scale up its electric vehicle business.
Last month, announced that it will raise USD 1 billion in its passenger electric vehicle (EV) business from Rise Climate.
"We estimate that Capital's USD 1 billion capital injection into Tata Motors's (TML, B1 stable) electric vehicle subsidiary, EVCo, will fund half its EV spending in India (Baa3 stable) through March 2026," Moody's Investors Service said in a statement.
intends to use the funds, which it will receive in exchange for compulsorily convertible preference shares issued to TPG, to create a portfolio of EVs and dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) platforms.
EVCo will also invest in battery technologies and charging infrastructure in association with Tata Power Ltd.
Moody's Investors Service noted that the automaker has an early mover advantage in EVs in India, but faces challenges in scaling the business.
"The company's planned launch of 10 new EVs through March 2026, will help cement its EV position in India. However, its market share will decline from 71 per cent as EV penetration rises.
"The scaling up of the EV market will depend on the pace of development and installation of charging infrastructure. High EV prices also weigh on demand as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are relatively cheaper," it added.
It however, pointed out that carbon transition is a risk as long as remains primarily concentrated in ICE vehicles.
The automaker is taking steps to electrify its products in the passenger vehicle (PV) and commercial vehicle (CV) segments in India but ICE vehicles will still dominate sales and thus carbon transition remains a risk, it stated.
Moody's Investors Service also noted that the creation of a dedicated passenger vehicle subsidiary would allow the auto major to go ahead with strategic partnerships with global auto manufacturers.
"The company's move to transfer its recently profitable PV operations to a wholly-owned subsidiary will give it greater flexibility in entering strategic partnerships with other automakers. These tie-ups could provide TML with access to new products, technologies and capital," it noted.
Tata Motors would bring its strong distribution network and manufacturing ability to the partnerships, it added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Billionaire Anil Agarwal's Ltd on Wednesday said it is mulling restructuring of the mining behemoth that may include demerger and listing of the aluminium, iron & steel, and oil and gas businesses as standalone entities.
Under the restructuring being evaluated, Ltd and three businesses will operate parallelly, chairman Agarwal told PTI.
"All the three businesses have great potential for growth and we think the model being evaluated will provide natural avenues for growth as well as enhance shareholder value," he said.
Giving an illustration, he said a shareholder of will hold 4x shares once the plan is approved and implemented - share of Vedanta as well as those in the three businesses.
"This is the global model and if you look at even Indian industry you will find that Hindalco is a separate company and so is Tata Steel. And we can do the same," he said.
Agarwal said Vedanta's board has constituted a committee of directors to evaluate and recommend options to restructure the group.
"The idea is to do it as early as possible. I can't give a timeframe but it will be very soon," he said.
The plan under evaluation is the same as what port-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group did in 2015 - creating separate listed entities for power, mining, gas and transmission businesses.
"The Board of Directors of the Company has decided that, considering the scale, nature, and potential opportunities for various business verticals of the company, the company should undertake a comprehensive review of the corporate structure and evaluate a full range of options and alternatives (including demerger(s), spin-off(s), strategic partnerships etc.) for unlocking value and simplification of corporate structure," Vedanta said in a stock exchange filing.
Subject to a detailed evaluation, it is the intention that the aluminium, iron & steel, and oil and gas businesses would be housed in standalone listed entities, it added.
This is the with objectives of simplifying and streamlining corporate structure, unlocking value for all stakeholders, and creating businesses, which are positioned better to capitalise on their distinct market positions and deliver long-term growth and enable strategic partnerships.
"The Board has also appointed various advisors to assist the Board in evaluating the options," it said.
The restructuring would also tailor the capital structure and capital allocation policies based on business-specific dynamics, create distinct investment profiles to attract deeper and broader investor bases; and accelerate emissions reduction and strong ESG practices.
Agarwal said the Board has appointed various advisors to assist in evaluating the options.
It is anticipated that the Board and advisors will complete their evaluation and consider the way forward as soon as practically possible, he said.
"Over the past few years, Group has materially improved the operational performance of the businesses, increased cash flows, reduced debt whilst concomitantly focusing on accelerating investments in energy transition, health and safety, diversity and ESG in general.
"This step, which we announced today, whilst pending a detailed evaluation, is designed to create independent, industry-leading, global public companies, where each can benefit from greater focus, tailored capital allocation, and strategic flexibility to drive long-term growth and value for customers, investors, and employees.
We will continue to leverage our significant strengths in technology, operations and people to better serve our customers and all stakeholders," he added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bid to unlock value and simplify its corporate structure, Anil Agarwal-led Limited on Wednesday said it had appointed a committee of directors to evaluate and recommend a range of options and alternatives, including demergers, spin-offs or strategic partnerships of its aluminium, iron & steel, and oil & gas businesses. The move comes more than a year after the parent company Resources unsuccessful bid to take Limited private.
Subject to a detailed evaluation, it is the intention that these businesses would be housed in standalone listed entities, said in an exchange filing.
This step, whilst pending a detailed evaluation, is designed to create independent, industry-leading, global public companies, where each can benefit from greater focus, tailored capital allocation, and strategic flexibility to drive long-term growth and value for customers, investors, and employees, the group's chairman, Anil Agarwal, was quoted as saying.
The board has also appointed various advisors to assist in evaluating the options, said the filing.
Over the past few years, the group has materially improved the operational performance of the businesses, increased cash flows, reduced debt whilst concomitantly focusing on accelerating investments in energy transition, health and safety, diversity, and ESG in general, Agarwal said.
When contacted, the company refrained from giving any timeline for the completion of the evaluation process.
These are early days and we believe that this is likely to result in value unlocking, but we would keep a close tab on the revised corporate structure and shareholding pattern, said Amit Dixit, analyst-metals at Edelweiss Securities.
Recent aggressive targets in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) are more applicable to business and, hence, would get better appreciation and focus if it were a standalone business, Dixit added.
For the last few quarters, the companys business has been contributing the highest in terms of its top line at the consolidated level. In the September quarter, despite an acute shortage of coal, the companys production remained unaffected.
Since its (Vedantas) delisting attempt failed, it could not get access to cash. So by separately listing some businesses, the company/group could look to monetise and generate cash to lower its debt, said a Mumbai-based analyst on condition of anonymity.
The companys consolidated debt as on September 30, 2021 stood at $6.9 billion (Rs 51,040 crore) with 89 per cent debt in rupee and 11 per cent in foreign currency. Of this, Vedanta Limiteds standalone debt stands highest at Rs 30,462 crore with cash and cash equivalent of just about Rs 1,697 crore.
Last year, the group's attempt to delist from the Indian stock exchanges failed as it was unable to garner the number of shares required to complete its process. It was able to garner offers for around 1.25 billion shares, as against the 1.34 billion shares required for the delisting process to go through.
Shares of on Wednesday ended at Rs 338.40 per share on the BSE, up 1.81 per cent from the previous close, taking the gains in November to over 11 per cent. The announcement regarding the restructuring of businesses came post market hours on Wednesday.
With schools being shut, have explored different ways to keep their creative juices flowing and used the available resources in order to stay engaged, inspired, and motivated. As part of its Children Day initiative, Vedantu, a pioneer in Live online learning, has partnered with Australian visual communications platform Canva, to launch a first-of-its-kind Design Challenge in India, with a design bootcamp to educate school on the essentials of and design thinking. The design bootcamp sessions will be conducted by experts from Canva and Vedantu Master Teachers. With this collaboration, Vedantu and Canva aspire to celebrate the creativity, curiosity and exploration of children and teachers across the country.
Since the pandemic, LIVE has seen massive adoption. Teachers have also gone above and beyond their duty to conduct classes through different mediums available. They have emerged as digital content creators and EdTech professionals who are experts in mentoring in an online teaching space.
We strive to provide the best-in-class education and opportunities to our students that are beyond academics. Through this partnership with Canva, we will further our vision of unleashing the potential in every child, said Pulkit Jain, Co-founder and Head of new initiatives, Vedantu. This will enable us to provide our students access to a platform to fuel their creative minds and we are thrilled to explore this. We will continue to innovate to reach as many students as possible and create better experiences and outcomes for every child across the country.
The theme for the first edition of the Design Challenge is #GoingBackToSchool and is open to all students across the age group of 6-18 years. The challenge will ask students to create artwork on Canva that truly resonates with the theme. Students are required to submit a design that focuses on what is so special about #GoingBackToSchool for them, with the templates available on Canva for Education.
Were excited to partner with Vedantu to inspire creativity, design, and visual thinking in students across a range of ages, said Zach Kitschke, CMO, Canva. Our mission is to democratise design and empower everyone to create and we look forward to seeing the Design Challenge unlock all types of
Canva, which is tapping the graphic design business, recently became one of the world's biggest privately-owned after being valued at $40 billion after a funding round. It had grown during the pandemic as more customers worked from home.
: Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan was admitted to AIG Hospitals in Hyderabad on Wednesday after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, his Press Secretary said.
A medical bulletin said in the evening that the Governor has been evaluated by a multidisciplinary team and his condition was clinically stable with normal oxygen saturation at room air.
Based on CT findings and previous history of comorbidities, he has been diagnosed with moderate COVID-19. He is being closely monitored by a team of experts, the bulletin said.
The Press Secretary, in a release, said Harichandan suffered a minor illness after his return from New Delhi last week.
"An RT-PCR test was conducted as a precaution as the Governor complained of cough and cold, he said.
The Governor was diagnosed with COVID-19 on November 15.
He was taken to Hyderabad by a special flight on Wednesday morning and admitted to AIG Hospitals.
(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.)
Some of the suspects who attacked senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's house in this district of Uttarakhand were identified on Wednesday, following which raids were intensified to apprehend them, a senior police officer said.
Eight shells and a live cartridge of 32 bore gun, which is used primarily to scare away animals, were also recovered from the premises by a forensic team, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Nilesh Anand Bharne said.
CCTV footage recovered from the spot led to the identification of some of the attackers and we have intensified our raids to nab them, he said.
Teams of Bhowali, Bhimtal and Mukteshwar police formed under Circle Officer Bhupendra Singh Dhoni are continuously conducting raids in order to arrest the suspects, Bharne said.
No arrests have been made yet, he added.
Khurshid's house in Satkol, about 15 kilometres from Nainital, was vandalised on Monday amid the ongoing controversy over his book "Sunrise Over Ayodhaya: Nationhood In Our Times" in which he draws a comparison between Hindutva and terror outfits like ISIS.
Shouting pro-Hindutva slogans, the attackers burnt an effigy of the Congress leader outside his house under the Bhowali police station besides damaging some glass doors and setting one wooden door on fire of the structure.
The family of caretaker Sunder Lal was also threatened. Later, an FIR was registered against one named and 20 unidentified people on the basis of a complaint by Lal.
(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.)
Continuing its attack on the ruling BJP in over the alleged scam, the Congress on Wednesday demanded that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai clearly state that no irregularities have taken place.
The party once again demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge.
Days after the Bengaluru police issued a statement that no large-scale irregularities took place, as claimed by the Congress, the opposition party said there were confusing statements coming from the government.
"The Chief Minister says that Congress is trying to keep a non-issue alive, whereas Revenue Minister R Ashoka says that the case should be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)," State Congress working president Ramalinga Reddy said in a press conference.
Referring to media reports quoting some BJP ministers as saying that the Congress will be in trouble if the investigation takes place, Reddy, a Congress MLA and former minister, sought to know why there was confusion in the government.
"Let the Chief Minister clearly say that no such incident has taken place. If we see their contradictory statements, it gives an impression that they (BJP government) are trying to hide something," Reddy told reporters.
He also questioned BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel's "silence" on this issue.
The Congress MLA demanded a judicial probe by a sitting judge.
Addressing reporters, Congress MLA and former minister Priyank Kharge wondered why the Chief Minister said the Enforcement Directorate was probing the scam when it was a 'non-issue' for him.
"If it's a non-issue, why are the BJP leaders talking about it daily?" Kharge said.
He alleged that the police did not file a charge sheet against hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki, who is at the centre of the scam and was arrested in a drug case initially. His interrogation allegedly revealed his involvement in hacking Bitcoin related websites and apps.
"It's almost a year when Srikrishna was arrested in the drug case, but why has no charge sheet been filed in the court? Whom is the government trying to shield?" Kharge asked.
The alleged scam came to light after the hacker Srikrishna, a tech geek who was arrested in a drug case a year ago, made a statement that he hacked some websites and appsvrelated to the Bitcoin trade and made a fortune.
However, police rubbished his claim and asserted that the investigation was conducted by the Central Crime Branch in a fair and professional manner.
Based on the credible information on November 4, 2020 on a drug consignment procured through the darknet, CCB Police secured one accused and seized 500 grams of Hydro Ganja.
During further investigation, 10 other accused, including Srikrishna, alias Sriki were secured and arrested.
During interrogation, Srikrishna confessed before the Investigating Officer about his involvement in alleged hacking of many Cryptocurrency websites.
"It is stated that neither were any Bitcoins transferred from the account of hacker Srikrishna nor was any Bitcoin lost.
It is a fact that for the purpose of investigation of Cryptocurrency, it was felt necessary to open a Bitcoin account," the police said.
It added that on December 8, 2020, government permission was obtained to open a Bitcoin account.
"During the process of identifying and seizure of bitcoins, accused Srikrishna showed a BTC wallet, which contained 31.8 BTC.
The wallet password was changed in the presence of cyber experts, Government panchas and the entire procedure was recorded under mahazer and submitted to the court," the police said.
Further, the Court's permission was obtained to use password to transfer the said Bitcoins to the police wallet account.
Upon reaching the said wallet shown by Srikrishna, it showed 186.811 Bitcoins, police said, adding that the Cyber experts opined that the said account claimed by the accused as his personal account was in fact a live wallet of an exchange and the accused did not have private key for this.
(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 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court the government is trying "shamelessly" to frustrate an ongoing corruption probe against former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and that it does not deserve any relief in the matter.
The central agency urged the HC to not grant any relief to the government, which is seeking quashing of summons issued to chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and current DGP Sanjay Pandey related to its ongoing probe against Deshmukh. Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, who appeared for the CBI, told a bench led by Justice Nitin Jamdar that the state government failed to initiate a probe into allegations of misconduct and corruption made against Deshmukh earlier this year by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. Lekhi said the state government was bound by law to initiate a probe. However, it chose not to do so, and instead, approached the HC seeking, amongst other things, that some portions of the CBI's FIR against Deshmukh be expunged (these related to now dismissed cop Sachin Waze's reinstatement in 2020 and transfers and postings of officers), he said. "An investigation that was the mandate of law did not take place and that's why the HC had to pass April 5 order," Lekhi said, referring to a previous order of the high court directing the to initiate a preliminary inquiry into the allegations made against the NCP leader. The 71-year-old politician is currently in jail under judicial custody after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. "Because of its incompetence and its conduct, the state of is not deserving of any relief from this court. Maharashtra is persistently and rather shamelessly continuing with its endeavor to frustrate (the ongoing probe) and to ensure investigation doesn't take place," he said. Lekhi also opposed the argument made by the state government last month, through senior counsel Darius Khambata, that since, the current director Subodh Jaiswal was the Maharashtra Director General of Police when Deshmukh was home minister, he, too, was a potential subject of the ongoing probe. Khambata had told the HC last month that between 2019 and 2020, when Jaiswal was the DGP, he was a part of the Police Establishment Board and thus, a party to several of the transfers and postings of state police officers that are now being probed by the CBI. The recommendations for the said transfers and postings were approved by Jaiswal, who was the DGP during Deshmukh's tenure as Maharashtra Home minister, Khambata had said. However, on Wednesday, Lekhi pointed out that in August 2020, while Jaiswal was the Maharashtra DGP, he had written to the state government seeking a CID probe into alleged irregularities in the transfers and postings of state police officers. "The CBI director, who was then the DGP, wrote to the state of Maharashtra seeking a probe. He did what was appropriate and what was expected of an ethical police officer," Lekhi said. "If he were guilty, why would he write this letter?" he asked. The CBI counsel questioned the Maharashtra government's locus standi or, its right to approach the court, seeking the present relief. Khambata however, said the CBI's probe was affecting the entire state police force, and therefore, the government had a "parens patriae" (power to protect persons who are unable to act on their own behalf) jurisdiction to approach the HC. "The state of Maharashtra has no intention of delaying, or, scuttling the probe. But the CBI is heavily compromised and the citizens of the country deserve a free and fair probe into the case," Khambata said. Following an order of the high court issued on April 5 this year, the CBI conducted a preliminary inquiry into the allegations made by Singh against Deshmukh. The central agency subsequently registered an FIR against the former minister who resigned from the cabinet after the HC order. In September this year, the CBI summoned chief secretary Kunte and DGP Pandey, asking them to report to its office in Delhi for answering questions related to Deshmukh. The Maharashtra government, however, approached the HC challenging the summons issued to the two senior bureaucrats.
The HC will hear the plea further on November 22.
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People who tested positive for Covid-19 (confirmed by a PCR test) had an increased risk of mental illness, fatigue and sleep problems, finds a new study.
Researchers from the University of Manchester analysed the electronic primary care health care records of 2,26,521 people from across the UK between February 2020 and December 2020.
The results, published in JAMA Network Open, showed that there was an almost six-fold increase in the likelihood of reporting fatigue to a GP following a positive PCR test.
Further, a three-fold increase in the risk of sleep problems compared to those without a positive test, for people who haven't previously visited their GP for any of these reasons in the past was also observed.
There was also an 83 per cent increase in mental illness following a positive PCR test. However, there was also a 71 per cent increase in the risk of mental illness for people who received a negative PCR test compared to the general population.
However, researchers believe this throws some doubt about whether Covid-19 is directly causing mental illness, because it is clear that those who get a test are more likely to have risk factors for mental illness, for example pandemic-related anxieties.
"While fatigue is clearly a consequence of Covid-19 the risk of experiencing sleep problems is also very high. However, we are sceptical regarding the extent that Covid-19 is directly causing people to become mentally ill, or whether those with a predisposition to mental illness are more likely to get tested," said lead researcher Dr Matthias Pierce, from the varsity.
Other studies also showed similar results revealing elevated risks of mental illness, self-harm, fatigue, and disrupted sleep patterns among people testing positive for infection during the pandemic.
The researchers said that it is vital that general practitioners recognise the long-term impact of Covid-19 infection on their patient population. Offering follow-up to people who test positive for Covid-19 infection may help identify persisting symptoms.
"The increased risk of developing mental health problems in people who tested negative may be due to health anxiety in these patients, and primary care has a role in identifying and supporting such patients," said Carolyn Chew-Graham, Professor of General Practice Research at Keele University in the UK.--IANS
rvt/dpb
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India on Wednesday reported a net reduction of 2,238 in active cases to take its count to 128,555. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 0.66 per cent (one in 152). The country is eighteenth among the most affected countries by active cases. On Tuesday, it added 10,197 cases to take its total caseload to 34,466,598 from 34,456,401 an increase of 0.1%. And, with 301 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 464,153, or 1.35 per cent of total confirmed infections.
With 6,782,042 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 1,136,879,685. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 33,873,890 or 98.28 per cent of total caseload with 12,134 new cured cases being reported on Wednesday.
Now the eighteenth-most-affected country by active cases, third by deaths, second by total cases and recoveries, India has added 78,019 cases in the past 7 days.
India now accounts for 0.66% of all active cases globally (one in every 152 active cases), and 9.04% of all deaths (one in every 11 deaths).
India has so far administered 1,136,879,685 vaccine doses. That is 3299.47 per cent of its total caseload, and 81.29 per cent of its population.
Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Uttar Pradesh (147670215), Maharashtra (108782191), West Bengal (89586291), Madhya Pradesh (78896023), and Gujarat (78893487).
Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Gujarat (1235173), Kerala (1229002), Jammu and Kashmir (1220786), Delhi (1202813), and Uttarakhand (1112396).
Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 58 days.
The count of active cases across India on Wednesday saw a net reduction of 2,238, compared with 1,822 on Tuesday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Mizoram (205), Assam (72), Jammu and Kashmir (27), Delhi (20), and Himachal Pradesh (19).
With 12,134 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 98.27%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.35%.
The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.75%), Nagaland (2.17%), and Uttarakhand (2.15%). The rate in as many as 12 is higher than the national average.
Indias new daily closed cases stand at 12,435 301 deaths and 12,134 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 2.44%.
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 2342.5 days, and for deaths at 1068.5 days.
Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (5516), Maharashtra (886), West Bengal (819), Tamil Nadu (789), and Mizoram (459).
India on Tuesday conducted 1,242,177 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 627,016,336. The test positivity rate recorded was 0.8%.
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 (13.05%), Sikkim (11.9%), Goa (11.81%), and Maharashtra (10.32%).
Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added are Mizoram (8.48%), Kerala (7.82%), Manipur (3.51%), West Bengal (2.21%), and Himachal Pradesh (1.33%).
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 (1612334), J&K (1241014), Kerala (1088608), Karnataka (773145), and Telangana (714422).
The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6625872), Kerala (5071135), Karnataka (2992276), Tamil Nadu (2716421), and Andhra Pradesh (2070286).
Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 886 new cases to take its tally to 6625872.
Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 5516 cases to take its tally to 5071135.
Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 255 cases to take its tally to 2992276.
Tamil Nadu has added 789 cases to take its tally to 2716421.
Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 191 to 2070286.
Uttar Pradesh has added 8 cases to take its tally to 1710288.
Delhi has added 44 cases to take its tally to 1440484.
The use of in Indian has reduced by at least 75-80 per cent since November 2016 when the government demonetised the bulk of the country's currency, real estate consulting firm Anarock said on Wednesday.
"One major driving factor behind this is that branded, listed players - who now attract a significant majority of demand to their projects - play by the book and avoid unaccounted monies in their transactions," said Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri.
"Today, the sector's rough ride due to has smoothened. Still, DeMo has changed the very fundamentals of why and how residential real estate is bought and sold in India. Today, housing sales happen because of actual demand, not as a means to launder black mone," said Puri.
In the pre- period, new supply outstripped housing sales - whereas, in the post- period, housing sales overtook new supply in the top 7 cities, according to Anarock.
From 2013 to Q3CY2016, top 7 cities saw a launch of nearly 1.615 million units, while housing sales in this period stood at approx. 1.178 million units. After demonetisation, between Q42016 and Q32021, these cities saw cumulative new launches of approx. 904,000 units and housing sales clocked in at approx. 1.037 million units, a study by Anarock revealed.
Telangana Chief Minister on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to direct the FCI to confirm the target of rice procurement from the state during ensuing Rabi season, among others.
His letter comes in the backdrop of the continuing war of words between the ruling TRS and BJP over paddy procurement in the state.
Rao alleged that the (FCI) was following certain policies which created confusion in the minds of farmers, as well as state governments, like the procurement target not being fixed for the entire year in one go and procurement not keeping pace, though production was increasing year by year.
Due to these policies,it was becoming difficult for states to plan an appropriate cropping pattern and explain the same to farmers, he said.
For instance, though rice production in Telangana during Kharif 2020-21 was 55.75 lakh metric tons (LMT), the procurement was only 32.66 LMT, which is 59 per cent of the production.
This was less than the 78 per cent procured in Kharif 2019-20. Such wide variations in procurement levels does not allow the state to implement a rational cropping pattern, Rao said.
To clear these confusions and fix the appropriate target for procurement, he had met Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in September this year and requested that the annual target for procurement be fixed immediately, he said.
Though it has been 50 days since he met the minister, no policy decision had been taken and communicated to him, he said.
In this context, he requested the Centre to direct FCI to complete procurement of the balance 5.00 LMTs rice produced in Rabi 2020-21 and to enhance the target beyond 40 LMTs for rice procurement during the ongoing Kharif 2021-22 to 90 per cent of production as done in Punjab, he said.
Rao also urged that the target of rice procurement from the state during the ensuing Rabi season be confirmed.
Rao's letter to the PM came against the backdrop of a war of words between ruling TRS and BJP over paddy procurement and a clash between the activists of the two parties during state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar's visit to procurement centres this week.
After a meeting of the TRS Legislature Party on Tuesday, Rao said all state ministers, TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives would stage a dharna here on Thursday, demanding that the NDA government make clear the paddy procurement target in the state.
This was required as state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar has asked farmers to take up paddy cultivation during the coming 'yasangi' (summer) season crop, while the Centre appeared to suggest otherwise, he had said.
Farmers should not suffer loss by taking up paddy cultivation in the summer season due to any confusion on the issue, Rao said
If there is no response from the Centre after the dharna, people would understand as to what is their attitude, he had claimed.
Meanwhile, Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged on Wednesday that the state government did not start procurement of the rainy season crop which made farmers wait at procurement centres since Dasara festival.
"Farmers would not have died of heart attack at procurement centres or committed suicides had the government started procurement properly," he said.
On Rao's comments that BJP faced protests from farmers during his visits to paddy procurement centres, Kumar asked why would farmers carry sticks and eggs which hit the BJP workers.
On Rao's request that the annual target be fixed for procurement, he said a meeting on the summer crop will be held in February.
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An encounter is underway between security forces and militants in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Wednesday evening.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Pombay area of Kulgam in south Kashmir on receiving specific inputs about the presence of militants there, a police official said.
He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants fired upon the security forces party.
The exchange of fire is still going on and further details are awaited, the official said.
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The on Wednesday directed the Centre and states to ensure implementation of the decisions taken in a meeting to curb air pollution, observing that it cannot get into the nitty gritty and the has developed a sort of inertia" of not taking decisions which left to the courts to pass orders.
Delhi's air quality improved marginally, registering the 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) at 375 on Wednesday from 403 the day before. Authorities, however, said no major improvement is likely till Sunday.
The Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas, which held the meeting at the direction of the apex court on Tuesday with the Centre, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, came out with a slew of emergency steps to deal with industrial pollution, thermal plants, vehicular emissions, dust control, diesel generators as well as encouraging work from home.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, which heard the case for over two hours, said, Enough is enough. We cannot get into all the nitty gritty of the issue. You please take the steps to deal with the emergency situation.
The Bench, which did not pass any directions, asked the Centre and the states to implement the measures, decided in the meeting, to curb the pollution. People sitting in five and seven star hotels here keep blaming farmers, that 4-5 per cent is attributed to them. After agrarian laws, what happened to their land holdings? With such small land holdings, can they afford these machines? If you actually have any scientific alternative, propose it to them, they will adopt them," it said.
It has been acknowledged that vehicular pollution is the major source of pollution and still gas guzzlers and hi-fi cars are plying on Delhi roads and nothing is being done, the bench said.
At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, alleged that he has been targeted in TV debates with nasty utterances about his submissions on contribution of stubble burning to the air pollution in Delhi-NCR and they claimed that he had misled the court.
The Delhi government on Wednesday issued 10 directions, including a ban on the entry of trucks carrying non-essential items in the city and closure of schools and colleges till further orders, even as the air quality improved marginally due to a dip in emissions from farm fires.
The Delhi government has banned construction and demolition activities in the city till November 21. It has also ordered its employees to work from home till Sunday.
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Asserting that the Centre is working on reducing farming cost and increasing growers' income, Union Minister on Wednesday said new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) of marginalised cultivators will change the agriculture scenario in the country.
More than 11 crore have so far received a total of Rs 1.60 lakh crore assistance under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, he said.
"As a result of this programme, over 10,000 new FPOs of marginalised have come up, and they will change the scenario of agriculture in India," the minister said after inaugurating a programme organised as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' in College of Fisheries here.
Under the PM-Kisan scheme, income support of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments is provided to all landholding farmer families.
The Centre has been emphasising on soil health management and micro irrigation and are now being encouraged to go for multiple crop farming, the union agriculture minister said.
"In order to increase farmers' income, efforts have been taken by the present government to bring down the production cost. Farmers can be encouraged to cultivate high-yield crops," he said.
Tomar also said the Centre is working for holistic development of the northeastern states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given the highest priority to the development of the NE region, he said.
The central ministers are also coming to the northeastern states so that they can interact with people and help them in their development and growth, Tomar said.
"Road connectivity, railways and airways are developing in the region, which symbolises the growth of the new North East," he said.
He congratulated Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb for his efforts to undertake various development projects and welfare schemes.
The number of Self Help Groups has increased under the present government from 4,000 to 26,000, which is a very good sign," he said.
Speaking at the programme, Deb said the farming sector played an important role in the economic development of the state.
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Underlining that Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against New Delhi, India at United Nations Security Council slammed Islamabad for raking up the Kashmir issue and called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation.
"I would like to categorical about India's position, the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation," Dr Kajal Bhat, Counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to the UN, said on Tuesday (local time).
"I am constrained to take the floor once again to respond to some frivolous remarks made by the representative of Pakistan earlier today," Bhat said before beginning her response at UNSC.
Stressing that this is not the first time that the representative of Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against India, Bhat said that Pakistan's representatives "sought in vain to divert the world's attention from the sad state of his country, where the terrorist enjoy free pass by the lives of ordinary people especially those belonging to the minority communities are turned upside down."
She also emphasised that member states are aware that Pakistan has an established history and policy of harbouring, aiding and actively supporting terrorists.
"This is the country that has been globally recognised as one openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists as a matter of state policy," Bhat said.
India's Counsellor also underlined that Pakistan "holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UNSC".
Stating that New Delhi desires normal neighbourly relations with all countries including Pakistan, she said that India is "committed to addressing outstanding issues if any, bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration".
"However, any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror hostility and violence," Bhat said.
Stressing that the onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere, she said, till then India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross border terrorism.
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External Affairs Minister on Wednesday held a telephonic conversation with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud with a focus on developments in Afghanistan and the resumption of travel between India and the Gulf nation.
Jaishankar is currently on a visit to Singapore.
"Good to talk to Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia @FaisalbinFarha. Discussed resumption of travel and developments on Afghanistan," he tweeted.
Jaishankar began his Singapore visit by meeting S Iswaran, the transport minister of the country.
"Discussed enhancing travel arrangements between the two countries," the external affairs minister said.
Jaishankar's talks with the Saudi foreign minister assumes significance as it took place a day after newly-appointed US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West visited India.
West held separate talks with NSA Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla with a focus on ways to coordinate global efforts on humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
India has been in touch with all the leading countries in the Gulf region including United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran over the developments in Afghanistan after its take over by the Taliban.
New Delhi has been calling for a unified global response to bring about desired changes to the Afghan situation and holdig that the territory of Afghanistan must not become a source of radicalisation and terrorism, regionally or globally.
India has been particularly seeking steps based on the UN Security Council Resolution 2593 to improve the situation in Afghanistan.
The UNSC resolution, adopted on August 30 under India's presidency of the global body, talked about the need for upholding human rights in Afghanistan, demanded that Afghan territory should not be used for terrorism and that a negotiated political settlement should be found out to the crisis.
India hosted a regional dialogue on Afghanistan on November 10 that was attended by NSAs of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
In the dialogue, the participants 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.
A declaration released at the end of the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan said Afghan territory should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist acts and that officials lent strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan.
Referring to the looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the officials also pitched for providing assistance to the Afghan people in an unimpeded, direct and assured manner.
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Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), on Wednesday blockaded the main entrances of of companies here as well as Tata-run mines in West Singhbum district, to protest shifting of the head office of a few companies including Tata Cummins.
MLA from Ghatsila, Ramdas Soren, who is also the East Singhbhum district President of JMM, as well as legislators Sanjeev Sardar (Potka) and Mangal Kalinidi (Jugsalai), led activists from the ruling party in squatting in front of the entrances disrupting traffic for much of the working day. Soren told PTI that they were protesting shifting of Tata firm head offices out of Jharkhand and alleged that Tata Motors and Tata Cummins plan to move to Maharashtra.
However, Tata Motors already has its head office registered for many years at Mumbai while Tata Cummins shifted its head office to Pune nearly three years ago.
Both firms have large production facilities in Jamshedpur and have shown no indications of shiting those out of the industrial city of Jamshedpur.
"We have given them land, our people were displaced to allow the Tatas to establish their plants on our land here," Soren, who was leading the party activists at Tata Motors main gate in Telco locality here, said, adding "Now, they want to move out to Maharashtra. We cannot accept this."
The JMM
threatened to intensify the agitation, unless the proposal was withdrawn.
leaders including Deepak Birua also led similar sit-ins in front of Tatas mines at Noamundi, Badajamda and loading sites in West Singhbhum district.
In statement, Tata Cummins Private Limited (TCPL), however, vehemently denied shifting of Jamshedpur operations outsides the state of Jharkhand.
"The process for the transfer of Registered Office of TCPL from Jamshedpur to Pune was initiated few years ago to facilitate the ease of administrative operations with the Corporate office. Shifting of Registered Office will not impact the revenue, employment and welfare opportunities for the state of Jharkhand or city of Jamshedpur. We continue abide by all the labor laws and other compliances, as applicable for the state of Jharkhand," the company's statement said.
Meanwhile, Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCI) strongly opposed the agitation, stating that such acts by a ruling party would have adverse impact on prospective investment opportunities in the state.
"We too wish that the headquarter of Tata companies should remain here in Jharkhand but certainly do not support such kind of agitation particularly when the issue could have been sorted out across the table," said Vijay Anand Moonka, President of SCCI.
sources said that production and other activities in their plants was normal during the agitation.
The Chief Minister Hemant Soren had earlier taken part in a road show in the capital to woo investors to invest in Jharkhand.
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Several pilgrims travelled through the on Wednesday and others made plans to offer prayers at the historic Sikh shrine in Pakistan as the route reopened after a 20-month gap.
Kanwaljeet Sodhi, a resident of Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, said, "There were no limits to our happiness when we came to know of the reopening of the and this joy cannot be described in words."
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said on Tuesday that the government has decided to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from Wednesday.
The links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district.
Gurpurab, which marks the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, will be celebrated on November 19.
Pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) said the pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara commenced on Wednesday and added that it facilitated travel of pilgrims through the corridor.
"First two pilgrims given warm send-off at ICP gate by the Manager ICP. The pilgrimage to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib through Kartarpur Corridor formally commences today. Gurudwara Prabandhak Samiti welcomed them across the border. #KartarpurCorridor #DeraBabaNanak," said the LPAI in a tweet while posting photographs of the pilgrims.
"Our team at PTB Dera Baba Nanak is warmly facilitating travel of pilgrims through Kartarpur Sahib corridor," it further said in another tweet.
The LPAI develops, sanitises and manages the facilities for cross-border movement of passengers and goods at designated points along the international borders of India.
On Tuesday, LPAI chairman Aditya Misha held a meeting with all stakeholders at Integrated Check Post Dera Baba Nanak to take stock of the preparedness, ahead of the reopening of the Kartarpur Corridor.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, along with his ministers, will be part of the first 'jatha' (group), which will visit the Kartarpur Sahib on Thursday, officials said.
The Gurdaspur district administration was busy in preparations for the visit of the first 'jatha' on Thursday, they said.
Devotees longing to offer prayers at the historic shrine are ecstatic over the Centre's move to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor.
Sodhi, who is a teacher, said they have been waiting for this day for so long in order to pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara.
Neetu Bedi, another resident of Dera Baba Nanak, said that in 2020, she had planned to visit the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara but she could not go as the pilgrimage was suspended because of the Covid outbreak.
"This time, we will go and offer prayers at the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara," she said.
Residents of Dera Baba Nanak also feel that with the reopening of the corridor, the trade, especially the hospitality sector, will get a boost.
RT-PCR report and fully vaccinated certificate are mandatory for pilgrims, the officials said.
Daily many people visit Dera Baba Nanak to catch a glimpse of the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, said residents of the Dera Baba Nanak town.
A few days back, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had demanded from the Centre to keep its promise of setting up a 'darshan sthal' fitted with binoculars to allow devotees, who do not have passports, to get a clear 'darshan' of the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara.
An estimated 70,000 pilgrims had visited the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara so far after it was opened in November 2019.
The Kartarpur Corridor, which provides Indian devotees visa-free access to the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 9, 2019, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of the first Sikh guru.
The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the Ravi river, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.
(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 Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to supervise the Uttar Pradesh SIT's probe on day-to-day basis into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people including four farmers were killed on October 3.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli also took note of the names of the IPS officers provided by the state government, and appointed three officials as part of the state SIT.
The CJI said that a detailed order will be passed shortly.
The top court said it would hear the case again after the SIT concludes its probe and files the status report and the charge sheet in the case.
The Uttar Pradesh government on November 15 had agreed to the apex court's suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SIT's probe.
(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.)
Chief Minister on Wednesday directed the Urban Development department to appoint one observer in every municipality to supervise developmental work.
Speaking at an administrative meeting here in North 24 Parganas district, the chief minister said it has been brought to her notice that members of the civic bodies' board of administrators were not going around areas under its jurisdiction and monitoring development work.
The five-year term of elected representatives who run over 100 municipalities and corporations of the state ended in the last two years, but elections could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These civic bodies are being run by administrators appointed by the state government.
Banerjee said that the observers would also compile a list of the problems faced by common people and submit a report to her office without any delay.
The chief minister said that observers should be appointed in 125 municipalities as well as the corporations in the state.
She said the much-awaited civic polls in the municipalities of the state would be held once the elections to municipal corporations in Kolkata and Howrah are over.
Banerjee also asked Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam to find the scientific cause behind the surge in the number of malaria cases in the state.
"Malaria in our state was eliminated at one point of time. But I think this year the outbreak of malaria is next to the Covid-19 pandemic. What is the scientific cause?" Banerjee asked the health secretary at the meeting.
The chief minister was taking stock of the situation in North 24 Parganas district which has reported a considerable rise in the number of malaria and dengue cases, compared to previous years.
The chief minister, however, expressed hope that the number of malaria and dengue cases would recede once winter sets in.
"Ask the municipalities and panchayat bodies to see that they are controlling the situation. I will ask you to appoint nodal officers to help you, she told the health secretary.
Nigam informed the chief minister that the number of malaria cases has gone up everywhere in the state, especially in Kolkata and its surrounding places.
"There is also a surge in dengue cases in some areas of Barrackpore, South Dum Dum, Barasat, Madhyagram and Asoknagar (in North 24 Parganas district). There are no deaths as such.
We are conducting tests. The situation is under control at the moment," Nigam said, adding that a study is being carried out to find out the cause.
Banerjee asked the authorities to distribute Guppy fishes in water bodies to control malaria.
Early this month, the chief minister said at least seven persons died of malaria and dengue in in recent times.
She also asked the local MLAs to start awareness programmes for people who are yet to get the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Praising healthcare workers for carrying out a stupendous job in the fight to control the pandemic, Banerjee said that is the only state in the country with zero wastage of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
She said that around 88 per cent of the people in North 24 Parganas district have received the first dose of the vaccine while 48 per cent have got the second vaccine.
The Trinamool Congress supremo also said that the district magistrates "can appoint 10 persons on contractual basis to help him".
"It is impossible to handle everything single-handedly. So, one district magistrate can appoint 10 persons on a contract basis. I will ask the chief secretary to amend the mechanism," she said that the government has decided to hire at least 50 people for senior posts at par with a joint secretary official.
Banerjee also asked the Chief Secretary, H K Dwivedi, to write to the Election Commission for extending the tenure of the district magistrates and superintendents of police from three years to five.
Banerjee urged Dwivedi to find out ways on how the revenues earned from the export and import centres like Petropol (in North 24 Parganas district) be utilised in different projects, like the building of roads, by bringing them directly to the state treasury.
The chief minister said that the Duare Sarkar' (the government at your door) programme in North 24 Parganas district will take place twice in January.
The Duare Sarkar programme will be organised from January 2 to 15 and from January 20 to 30, Banerjee said.
Asking officials to prepare a list of schemes which could be merged with others, the chief minister said, "There are several small schemes which have now become useless after we launched some new schemes which have become revolutionary.
So, prepare a list of those schemes which can be merged with the new ones to help the government meet the financial expenses," she said referring to schemes like 'Dhaner Gola".
Banerjee said that the government would be celebrating January 1 as 'Students' Day' to boost the confidence of pupils.
(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.)
Many liquor vends in were not operational on the first day of the new excise regime, while at shops that were open people had to return empty-handed complaining that lack of adequate supply has led to a "dry day" in the city.
Under the new policy, 849 swanky mall-like liquor vends with walk-in facilities where people can pick their choice of liquor were to be opened from Wednesday to offer people a better alcohol-buying experience.
However, shops at many places such as Mayur Vihar, New Ashok Nagar, Govindpuri, Kashmere Gate, INA and Dwarka were found either being readied or their shelves empty due to "shortage of supply". At some places, shops were found to be closed.
Tuesday was the last business day for nearly 600 government-run operating across the capital. According to the new excise policy, the liquor business will now be handled completely by private players.
As many as 260 old private vends had shut their business on September 30.
"Vends here are either closed or don't have liquor. Shopkeepers say that the supply dried up," said Devesh Verma who went to buy alcohol at Galleria Mall in Mayur Vihar Extension. Guards at the mall were seen requesting people to try to get liquor on Thursday or Friday.
At the newly opened private liquor vends in Dwarka Sector 12 and south Delhi's Govindpuri, shelves were empty. A dealer in Govindpuri complained that he could not replenish his liquor stock despite getting a provisional license.
"We are being told that there is some licensing issue with wholesalers so there is a shortage in supply. Liquor shortage is likely to continue for at least two to three days," he told PTI.
Excise department officers did not comment when asked about the complaint of liquor shortage.
Under the new excise policy, classy liquor vends are being set up in 32 zones across the city. One retail licensee will have 27 per zone. These posh and stylish stores with over at least 500 square feet area would replace the existing liquor vends in the nooks and corners of the city.
However, many of them were found to be not ready on the first day of business.
In INA, a liquor vend getting the finishing touches and the staff there said they can apply for the stock only after getting a provisional licence from the government after submitting a video of the shop.
were found closed in New Ashok Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Kashmere Gate as well. "There is no point in opening the outlet on the first day as we did not get the stock," a liquor dealer at Kashmere Gate said.
Tushar Kasana, who visited many shops in Govindpuri to buy liquor said that the vends are either under maintenance or do not have the stock. "The government should have made adequate arrangements before overhauling the entire system."
Another buyer claimed that the shortage of liquor started two to three days ago when only government vends were operating with limited stock. "But today, it feels like a dry day. Most of the shops are under maintenance."
According to government officials, provisional licences have been given to around 350 shops and registration of over 200 brands have been done with 10 wholesale licensees. Wholesale licensees have procured nine lakh litres of liquor of various brands, they said.
The new excise policy allows the opening of five super-premium retail vends having an area of 2,500 square feet. Liquor tasting facility will also be developed at these super-premium retail vends.
According to excise department officials said the new liquor vends will remain open from 10 am to 10 pm but those at the airport can function round the clock.
The policy also allows the sale of liquor in bottles at restaurants. The liquor will be served in glasses or full bottles at L-17 restaurants and it will be the sole responsibility of the licensee to ensure no bottle leaves the premises.
With the new regime in place, the L-17 licensees, which include independent restaurants or gastro-bars, may serve any Indian or foreign liquor at any area like balcony, terrace, lower area of the restaurant with the condition that the alcohol serving area be screened off from public view.
They can also play live music and have professional performances, bands, DJ, karaoke, singing and dancing at the premises.
Under the new excise policy, classy liquor vends are being set up in 32 zones across the city. One retail licensee will have 27 liquor shops per zone. The government had kept a total reserve price for all the 32 zones at around Rs 7,041 crore but it earned about Rs 8,917.59 crore through bidding.
The excise department said the wholesale prices of all types of liquor are likely to increase by eight to nine per cent.
The impact on wholesale price due to incorporation of factors like central sales tax at 2 per cent, profit margin for wholesaler, import pass fee and freight and handling charges, as approved in the Excise Policy 2021-22, will cause 10 per cent to 25 per cent rise for some brands of whisky (Indian manufactured foreign liquor), with fluctuation of each unit from 8 per cent to 25.9 per cent, the government had said in an order last 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.)
Describing Lord Ram as a personalty who is "ideal of all people", a MLA from Indore district on Wednesday announced to take residents from his constituency for pilgrimage to at his own expense to fulfil their desire to visit the temple town in Uttar Pradesh.
The first batch of 600 pilgrims from here will leave for Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram, on December 18 by a train, Sanjay Shukla, the MLA from the Indore-1 constituency, said in a statement. Shukla said, "Lord Ram is ideal of all of us. I want to fulfil the desire of every person of my assembly constituency to visit the Ram Janmabhoomi in The MLA said 17 wards of the Indore Municipal Corporation fall in his assembly constituency. The legislator said he will take common citizens of each ward for visit every month at his own expense. The BJP took potshots at Shukla over the announcement. Indore city BJP president Gaurav Ranadive said, "Lord Ram has given wisdom to Shukla. Lord Ram belongs to everyone. Accusing the Congress of seeing common people only as a vote bank, the BJP leader said Shukla should not select citizens for Ayodhya visit on the basis of their political leanings.
(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 State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has issued notices to 2,296 daily wage workers for participating in the ongoing strike which entered the 21st day on Wednesday though over 100 bus services were operated with the help of a section of employees who resumed duty, officials said.
The workers were asked to join duty within 24 hours or face termination, they said, adding 7,400 other employees reported for work during the day. Employees of the loss-making corporation are on an indefinite strike seeking merger of the MSRTC with the state government. A merger will give them status of government employees besides better salaries. The officials said all the 250 bus depots have been shut since November 9 due to the strike, which started on October 28, disrupting most of the services of the transport corporation, one of the largest such bodies in the country with 90,000-plus workforce. They said 2,296 of the 2,584 daily wage workers were served notices, in which they were asked to join duty within 24 hours or face termination of service. Earlier, the state-owned corporation had suspended over 2,000 MSRTC employees for participating in the strike and asking others to join the stir. Despite the strike, 7,400 employees, out of the total 92,266, reported for work on Wednesday, the officials said. This number was lower than Tuesday when 7,623 staffers had rejoined duty. Over the last few days, some employees have been returning to work amid the agitation though their number keeps changing daily. On Monday, 6,895 corporation employees had reported for duty. An MSRTC spokesperson said they operated over 100 services, mainly air- conditioned 'Shivshahi' and 'Shivneri' buses, from various depots in Mumbai.
(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 Traffic Police on Wednesday issued an advisory, prohibiting entry of heavy and medium category of goods vehicles into Delhi, and suggesting alternative routes for those moving elsewhere via the Peripheral Expressway.
The advisory comes in the wake of high pollution levels in and the NCR, as schools and colleges were shut down till further orders and construction activities stopped except in some cases in the national capital.
The Traffic Police said the general public is informed that in compliance with instructions of the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and adjoining areas, heavy and medium goods vehicles (except those carrying essential items) issued till November 21 shall be strictly prohibited from entering
Diversions of heavy and medium goods vehicles from Chilla, DND, Kalindi Kunj, Ashok Nagar and Jhandupura borders to other places via have been changed.
"Heavy and medium goods vehicles going elsewhere via Delhi from the Yamuna Expressway will be able to go to their destination via the Peripheral Expressway from Zero Point through Pari Chowk," the traffic police said.
"Heavy and medium goods vehicles going from via the DND border through Delhi will be able to reach their destination via the Peripheral Expressway by taking a U-turn from the DND toll plaza," it stated.
According to the advisory, all such vehicles going from Noida to Delhi via the Chilla border will be able to go to their destination via the Peripheral route by taking a U-turn at the Chilla red light.
All such freight vehicles going from Noida to Delhi via Kalindi Kunj will be able to go to their destination via the Peripheral Expressway by taking a U-turn from the Gaushala roundabout at the end of the Mahamaya flyover, it stated.
"Heavy and medium cargo vehicles going from Noida to New Ashok Nagar towards Delhi will be able to go to their destination by the Peripheral Expressway by taking a U-turn from the New Ashok Nagar border," the advisory stated.
"Heavy and medium goods vehicles going from Noida to Jhandupura towards Delhi will be able to take a U-turn from Jhandupura border to reach their destination via the Peripheral route," it added.
The traffic police asked commuters to use alternative routes to avoid inconvenience and sought cooperation of all drivers to ensure implementation of the orders related to controlling pollution in the NCR.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister will visit the districts of and will launch multiple development projects worth over Rs 6250 crore on November 19.
As per Prime Minister's Office (PMO), at around 2:45 pm, Prime Minister will inaugurate multiple projects in Mahoba in a significant initiative to alleviate water distress.
These projects will help alleviate the issue of water shortage in the region and bring much-needed relief to the farmers.
These projects include Arjun Sahayak Project, Ratauli Weir Project, Bhaoni Dam Project and Majhgaon-Chilli Sprinkler Project.
"The cumulative cost of these projects is more than Rs 3250 Crore and their operationalisation will help in the irrigation of around 65000 hectares of land in the districts of Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda and Lalitpur, benefitting lakhs of farmers of the region. These projects will also provide potable drinking water to the region," the PMO said in a statement.
At around 5:15 pm, the Prime Minister will participate in a programme during which he will lay the foundation stone of 600 MW Ultramega Solar Power Park at Garautha in Jhansi.
It is being constructed at a cost of over Rs 3000 crore, and will help provide the dual benefits of cheaper electricity and grid stability.
The Prime Minister will also inaugurate Atal Ekta Park in Jhansi. Named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the park has been built at a cost of over Rs 11 crore, and is spread across an area of about 40,000 square metres.
It will also house a library, as well as a statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The statue has been built by the renowned sculptor Shri Ram Sutar, the man behind the Statue of Unity.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister will deliver the keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue on Thursday on the theme India's evolution and revolution.
The Sydney Dialogue is being held from November 17-19. It is an initiative of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Prime Minister Modi will deliver the keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue on November 18 around 9 am, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
He will speak on the theme of India's evolution and revolution, with the address being preceded by introductory remarks by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
The dialogue will bring together political, business and government leaders to debate, generate new ideas, and work towards common understandings of the opportunities and challenges posed by emerging and critical technologies.
The event will also witness keynote address by Australian Prime Minister Morrison and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
(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.)
Protests were held at several places in on Wednesday over the Hyderpora encounter, demanding an inquiry into the killing of the three persons accused of having terror links and the handing over of their bodies.
While voices calling for an independent probe grew louder, former chief minister said he has been assured by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha that he would look into the issue "seriously".
The kin of the three persons killed along with a Pakistani militant in the gunfight on Monday were among those who joined the protests held in Jammu, Srinagar, Banihal and Ramban district, where authorities imposed prohibitory orders banning any assembly of people.
The families of Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Gul have refuted the police charge that they were terror associates. The father of Mohammad Amir, who the police alleged was a militant, has also claimed that his son was innocent.
Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar constituency, said he had a telephonic conversation with Lt Governor Sinha and had apprised him of the situation, including "wavering" statements made by the police.
"I informed the LG about the contradictory statements made by police. On Monday, they are civilians trapped in crossfire and Tuesday they are harbourers of terror. If they had so much of the so-called inputs about the deceased on Tuesday, they could have shared on Monday. This is a cooked-up story and needs to be probed," Abdullah said.
The former chief minister said that the LG assured him to look into this "seriously".
"I hope that those guilty for this barbaric crime will be punished," he said.
The families of Bhat and Gul held a protest in Srinagar, demanding justice for the victims and the return of their bodies.
The police had said that the bodies of all the four killed in the Hyderpora encounter were buried in the early hours on Tuesday in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.
Bhat's brother Abdul Majeed, who works as a revenue official, told reporters he has been continuously in touch with the police and they would have informed him if his brother was involved in militancy.
"He (Bhat) was doing business in Hyderpora for the last 30 years. He rented the building and we had furnished their (tenants) verification in police station Saddar. The police should have contacted us if there was anything (adverse)," he said.
Majeed said his brother was "a builder, a taxpayer and an innocent man".
"You can verify in the whole locality. The police knew him, they used to visit his place every day, have tea with him. They can verify his credentials," he added.
Majeed said that on Monday, the 'Task Force' (JK police's counter-insurgency unit known as the special operations Group) came and took his brother thrice for searches in the building.
"They took him upstairs and brought him down three times. They used drones. (It was) As if they were shooting a movie there....
"We appeal the LG, request him, that verify and if there is anything (adverse) against my brother, then they can hang me in public in the city centre.
"He (Bhat) was innocent, a civilian and not a militant. We want answers, we want justice," Majeed said.
In Jammu region's Ramban district, authorities imposed prohibitory orders banning the gathering of five or more people in some villages in the wake of the death of Mohammad Amir, who was a resident of the district, in the encounter.
Amir's father Latief Magray refuted the police's claim that his son was a militant and appealed to the Lt Governor to provide "justice to his family" and also return the body of his son for a proper burial.
Magray, who had reportedly killed a militant in his village over 15 years ago and had to migrate because of threats from various terror groups, said he would continue his struggle for "justice" for his slain son.
"If they have any proof of his involvement in militancy, show it to me! I know he was innocent," Magray said.
Meanwhile, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti led a protest in Jammu and demanded that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) be revoked.
Holding a placard that read "Stop killing us, probe Hyderpora killings, end impunity and handover bodies to families", Mehbooba Mufti, along with party activists and leaders, staged the protest outside the party's Gandhi Nagar headquarters.
A large posse of police stopped the protesters from moving towards the main road.
Asked about the police claim of there being digital evidence against those killed, she said: "If they had prior evidence, why did the police not arrest them, as they have been doing on a daily basis."
Mehbooba, on her return to Srinagar later in the day, was prevented by police from joining the protesting families of the civilians, her party claimed.
(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 Punjab on Wednesday said its MLAs will pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan on November 19 under the leadership of state unit chief
The Kartarpur Corridor, which links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district, was reopened for pilgrims on Wednesday.
" MLAs will visit Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev's Parkash Utsav on November 19. On the occasion of Gurpurab, prayers will be offered for the progress, prosperity and happiness of Punjab," Mann said in a statement here.
Gurpurab, which marks the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, will be celebrated on November 19.
Pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging certain provisions of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana issued notice to the Centre and tagged the plea filed by ex IAS officer Amitabha Pande and others with a similar petition.
Senior advocate C U Singh, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the UAPA is being used to quell
"Heard Mr. C U Singh, senior counsel appearing for the petitioners and carefully perused the material available on record. Issue notice. Liberty is also granted to serve the Standing counsel for the Union of India," the bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kanta said.
The plea has sought to declare the proviso to Section 43D(5) (restrictions on grant of bail), as manifestly arbitrary and ultra vires of Article 21 (Right to liberty) of the Constitution.
It has also sought the constitution of a redressal mechanism for people accused of carrying out "unlawful activities" to have the same opportunity of clearing their name as is statutorily available under the UAPA to "Unlawful Associations".
The plea contended, "accusing a person of having committed a 'terrorist act', by saying the person 'struck terror' cannot be sustained, in the absence of a definition of the word 'terror'... This is open-ended, ill-defined, and arbitrary."
"Direct the Union of India to set up a suitable scheme for compensating people who are incarcerated under the UAPA and who are eventually acquitted, with the quantum of compensation increases in proportion to the time spent in jail," the plea 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.)
Punjab chief may not be part of the 'jatha' which is going to pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan on Thursday.
On Wednesday night, Sidhu's media adviser Surinder Dalla claimed that Sidhu has been officially intimated that he could go on November 20 instead of November 18.
"Sidhu saab had made all preparations for going to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara tomorrow," said Dalla, adding that he was supposed to go with the Punjab Cabinet ministers.
Sidhu had submitted his application on Tuesday for travelling to the historic shrine in Pakistan to offer prayers, he added.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, along with his ministers, will be part of the 'jatha' (group) which will visit the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara on Thursday, officials said.
Some MLAs and a few officials will also accompany Channi, they said.
The Kartarpur Corridor, which links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district, reopened on Wednesday.
Gurpurab, which marks the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, will be celebrated on November 19.
Pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.
(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.)
Terrorists enjoy free pass in Pakistan, which has an established history and policy of actively supporting them and holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of militants proscribed by the UN Security Council, India has said, slamming Islamabad at the UN Security Council.
I'm constrained to take the floor once again to respond to some frivolous remarks made by the representative of Pakistan earlier today," Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Kajal Bhat said in the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
"This is not the first time the representative of Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate false and malicious propaganda against my country and seeking in vain to divert the world's attention from the sad state of his country where terrorists enjoy a free pass while the lives of ordinary people, especially those belonging to the minority communities are turned upside down, she said.
India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador R Ravindra had already delivered the statement at the open debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security Through Preventive Diplomacy'.
Bhat took the floor to make a second statement in the Council after Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram raked the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his remarks at the open debate.
India desires normal neighborly relations with all countries including Pakistan, and is committed to addressing outstanding issues, if any, bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration.
However, any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence. The onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere. Till then India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross-border terrorism, she said.
Bhat, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, said in her remarks that UN member states are aware that Pakistan has an "established history and policy of harbouring, aiding and actively supporting terrorists.
This is a country which has been globally recognised as one openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists as a matter of state policy. It holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UN Security Council," she said.
Categorically stating India's position, Bhat said the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. "This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.
India called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation.
(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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started taking a close look at the business models of banks and their strategies. More on that story in our top headlines this morning.
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Generic drug manufacturers in India, among a total of 95 low- and middle- income countries, will be allowed to sell Pfizers experimental anti-viral Covid pill, the pharma major said on Tuesday. Read more.
Banks' strategies, business models under RBI lens: Shaktikanta Das
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started taking a close look at the business models of banks and their strategies after it transpired that some of them are interested in serving their investors rather than their depositors. Read more.
The on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction with the content of debates on television, on court connected matters, and said that TV debates are causing more air pollution than anything else.
At the beginning of the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, that the Centre did not mislead the court on the exact contribution of stubble burning, 4 per cent in winters and 7 per cent in summers, and data in the report was on annual average basis. Mehta said some nasty statements were made in TV studios in connection with figures related to the stubble burning.
The bench, also comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant, however, made it clear that it has not been misled.
The bench said: "We were not misled at all. You said 10 per cent but it was pointed out in the affidavit that it was 30 to 40 per cent (in the annexure)..."
The Chief Justice said, "These kinds of criticisms keep happening. Our conscience is clear and we work for public interest..." He further added that "Debates on TV are creating more pollution than everyone else...We must focus on working out a resolution."
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Delhi government, argued on Centre's figures on crop stubble burning by farmers, in connection with air pollution in the capital.
Singhvi added that the Centre's figures on stubble burning contribution to the air pollution, says that it varies from 0 to 58 per cent. He added, "Possibly Mr Mehta has taken a four- or six-month average (to arrive at the annual figures)."
The Chief Justice said the top court is focussing on steps to bring down the air pollution, and told Singhvi not to raise the stubble burning issue again and again, and rather focus on steps the Delhi government proposes to curb air pollution.
Singhvi said: "We are not blaming anyone... both are Centre's figures."
The bench reiterated that it is not inclined to penalise the farmers and the state governments should persuade them to stop stubble burning.
The bench pointed out that nobody understands the plight of the farmers.
The top court is hearing a case filed by a 17-year-old Delhi student relating to air pollution in Delhi and adjoining areas due to stubble burning.
--IANS
ss/dpb
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CEO Adar Poonawalla on Wednesday termed vaccine hesitancy as the greatest threat in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic while urging all adults to get vaccinated at the earliest.
He said that 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were lying with the states and people should get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible.
"The vaccine industry has worked tirelessly to provide enough stocks for the nation. Today there are over 200 million doses available with states. I urge all adults to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccine hesitancy is now the greatest threat in overcoming this pandemic," Poonawalla said in a tweet.
Earlier in the day Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also appealed to all eligible citizens to get vaccinated.
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccines administered in the country has exceeded 113.68 crore mark. Of all the vaccine doses administered, around 90 per cent are Serum's Covishield and close to 10 per cent are Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.
The number of fully vaccinated individuals against COVID-19 has surpassed the partially vaccinated eligible population for the first time in India.
The country has in total administered over 113.68 crore doses, according to the provisional report at 7 am.
This has been achieved through 1,16,73,459 sessions. Out of which, 75,57,24,081 doses were administered as the first dose and 38,11,55,604 doses were administered as second dose. The number of fully vaccinated individuals (38,11,55,604) exceeds those who have been administered a single dose (37,45,68,477).
(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.)
: Vice President M on Wednesday emphasised the need to ensure affordable and accessible for all and suggested that modern multi-specialty hospitals also start satellite centers in rural areas.
Inaugurating Yoda Life Line Diagnostics Pvt Ltd here, he praised the Central government's decision to set up at least one medical college in each district, an official release said.
He further suggested that governments envision one medical college in each revenue sub-division, which would not only address the shortage of trained manpower in the medical profession, but also increase people's access to quality
Appreciating the Governments' efforts in making accessible to all, he further called for redoubling the efforts in providing infrastructure support for medical centers across the country.
Talking about COVID-19 pandemic, Naidu praised the frontline COVID warriors for their dedication and hard work.
Lauding Indian scientists and researchers for coming out with a vaccine against COVID-19 in record time, he urged everyone to come forward and get vaccinated.
(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 Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday has given its approval for provisioning of mobile services in uncovered villages of 44 aspirational districts across five states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha.
The Cabinet cleared utilisation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for provision of mobile connectivity in 7,287 uncovered villages across five states at an estimated cost of Rs 6,466 crore.
Briefing media on the Cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said these uncovered villages of 44 aspirational districts across five states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha will get 4G-based mobile services.
"So, a total 7,287 uncovered villages will get telecom towers and services, and lakhs of people will get connectivity," Thakur said.
The estimated cost of implementation of Rs 6,466 crore includes operational expenses for five years.
The project would be funded by the USOF, and would be completed within 18 months of signing of the agreement, an official release said.
The work related to provision of 4G mobile services in identified uncovered villages would be awarded through an open competitive bidding process as per extant USOF procedures.
"The present proposal for provisioning of mobile services in the remote and difficult uncovered areas of aspirational districts across five states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha will enhance digital connectivity useful for self-reliance, facilitate learning, dissemination of information and knowledge, skill upgradation and development, disaster management, e-Governance initiatives...," the release said.
The move would also enable establishment of enterprises and e-commerce facilities, provision of adequate support to educational institutes for knowledge sharing and availability of job opportunity, while fulfilling the vision of Digital India.
"As part of Janjatiya Gaurav Divas launched on November 15 to honor the contribution of tribals to the culture of the nation, PM Modi, in today's Cabinet meeting, approved to provide telecom connectivity, mostly solar-powered, to multiple tribal villages. A total of Rs 6,466 crores will be invested in covering 7,287 villages of 44 districts, including 1,218 villages of Andhra Pradesh, 3,933 of Odisha, 610 of Maharashtra, 699 of Chhattisgarh, and 827 of Jharkhand with work to be completed in next 12-18 months," said Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw.
(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's government is aiming to complete the privatisation of five to six state-owned companies, including Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, in the current fiscal year, the secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said on Wednesday.
Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the government is aiming to close the privatisation of BEML and Shipping Corp of India and to list state-owned Life Insurance Corp on local bourses in the year to March 2022.
Pandey said divestment is in due diligence stage.
"Can expect financial bids for NINL, SCI, BEML, Pawan Hans in December-January," said Pandey. He said government is targeting December for handing over Air India to Tata Group.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing ahead with LICs IPO -- which could raise between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 1 trillion -- to help plug a widening budget gap. India may sell a 5%-10% stake in the company as part of a broader divestment target. The government may also allow foreign direct investment in LIC to ensure a diversified and strong demand across various segments of investors.
The sale of the Bharat Petroleum Corp, a state-run refiner-cum-fuel retailer, would fetch about $13 billion for the exchequer and other shareholders.
The government will invite financial bids for of five to six public sector undertakings (PSUs) in December-January, and close these transactions in the current financial year, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.
After 19 years, of five to six PSUs will take place this year itself, Pandey said at the Global Economic Policy Summit.
BEML, Shipping Corporation of India ( SCI), Pawan Hans, Central Electronics, Nilachal Ispat Nigam are the PSUs the government is looking to privatise this year, he said.
Pandey said of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is in the due diligence stage. Three bidders have reportedly shown interest in acquiring the oil marketing company.
These are the transactions which we think that financial bidding can take place in December-January, and we can actually privatise them during this year itself, Pandey said.
While there is a consultative process at the official and ministerial level to accomplish things faster, the Cabinet Secretary also held a meeting to further simplify the process, he said.
The government is also working to launch the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in January-March, Pandey said. This IPO will be a big event for markets, he added.
The country needs 100 million in the formal sector in the next ten years to take advantage of its demographic dividend and it should get into the global supply chain to generate many of those by negotiating effectively, industry players and experts have emphasised.
"We need something like 100 million in the next 10 years which means that the non-agriculture sector has to generate 14 per cent job growth every year," said Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Airlines, at the Global Economic Policy Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Even as he comes from the services sector, Ghosh said the tertiary sector is not going to be the one which is going to generate most of these 100 million "Manufacturing and formal sector has to be a big focus area for job generation," he suggested.
He pointed out that 50 per cent of the formal salaried class had to move to the self-employed or casual labour due to Covid. To bring them back to the formal sector is a massive challenge, he said.
Ghosh said Covid has done a weird thing -- while it has impacted the entire world in a secular manner, countries have started erecting walls, protectionism started in a big way.
"We can't create 100 million jobs ourselves. The challenge is how do we use our talent as an export commodity to geographies, industries, sectors where there is a shortage," the former president of Indigo said.
He said the irony is that India is going to face a shortage of 4-5 million technology and digital jobs in the next 18 months and the challenge is how to address the issue of lack of resources in skill-oriented industries.
Tata Chemicals CEO and managing director R Mukundan said,"Most people see jobs growth as devoid of our trade policy, but I think these are inter-linked."
He said India needs to be linked to the global supply chain which will create a lot more employment.
"We seem to have this perennial fear that the Indian industry would be completely crushed by opening up. We have seen exactly the reverse of this in the last period of liberalisation. May be some of the free trade agreements (FTAs) were not rightly structured, but we must go aggressively in inking them. We need to get access for our service providers in global markets while we negotiate the trade deals," he said.
Rana Hasan, regional economic advisor, south Asia at Asian Development Bank, said the issue of protectionism and automation as a deterrent for job generation are over-stated.
He said if India doubles its share of global trade from the current 1.7 per cent, it would see huge expansion in volumes and quality of jobs even if the world trade declines. Besides, zero worker factories that are being talked about are still 10-15 years away, Hasan said.
He talked about the importance of well-managed cities and formal industries to generate jobs and reduce the gender gaps in wages.
Puneet Chhatwal, managing director CEO, The Indian Hotels, said there are huge opportunities to not only create jobs in the tourism sector but to position the sector globally.
Preetha Reddy, executive vice chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, said with BYJU'S like companies in India, e-learning should be tapped to strategise skill training to generate employment in the health sector.
After convening a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President on Tuesday (local time) said that Washington is "not going to change its policy", reported Sputnik.
"We are not going to change our policy at all," Biden said.
"They have to decide - they, Taiwan, not us - and we are not encouraging independence. We are encouraging that they do exactly what the Act requires," Sputnik quoted Biden as saying.
On Monday (local time), Biden held a virtual meeting with Xi for over three hours.
Both leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations on issues of fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations.
The meeting saw the two leaders locking horns on the issue of
Xi had said that China will be compelled to take resolute measures, should the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" "provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line."
Chinese President had noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and ascribed the tensions to attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use the issue to contain China, Xinhua news agency reported.
"Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire," Xi said. "Whoever plays with fire will get burnt."
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing. China has threatened that "Taiwan's independence" means war.
(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 strengthening its technology partnership with India through the establishment of a new consulate in Bengaluru and a centre of excellence for critical and emerging technology policy in India, Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said on Wednesday.
Her comments came hours after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia's plan to set up the consulate in his virtual address at the Bengaluru Tech Summit.
In a statement, Payne said the new Consulate-General will focus on deepening Australia's ties with India's vibrant innovators, technologists and entrepreneurs.
" is strengthening our technology partnership with India through the establishment of a new Consulate-General in Bengaluru and a Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy, also to be based in India," she said.
Payne said the consulate will support Australian businesses in one of the world's most important commercial centres.
"Half of the next billion internet users are projected to be in India, and India's digital economy, centred on Bengaluru, is set to grow to USD 1 trillion by 2025," she said.
Apart from its high commission in Delhi, at present has consulates in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
"Through our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, India and Australia are at the forefront of determining the design, development and use of emerging technologies," Payne said.
"Our existing Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership and its bilateral grants program were a significant first step in strengthening these ties," she said.
The foreign minister said the Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy will bring together Australian and Indian technologists, policy practitioners, academics, researchers and thought leaders.
"It will promote stronger investment opportunities and cutting-edge innovation in cyber, critical and emerging technologies. It will amplify Australia's and India's policy impact globally while visiting fellows from around the Indo-Pacific will broaden the Centre's influence," she said.
Payne said the centre will provide a practical platform for Australia and India to work together to shape technology governance that aligns with our values and supports an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Wednesday asked its all-weather ally to create enabling conditions for thousands of Chinese nationals working on the USD 60 billion CPEC projects, apparently flagging concerns over security and the slow pace of construction.
The China- Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the flagship project of China's ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and it links China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan province.
Media reports from said Chinese investors were concerned over the slow pace of construction on the projects. On Monday, Pakistani officials hosted a meeting of Pakistan-based Chinese companies and briefed them about further investment opportunities in the country.
Asked for his reaction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here: we hope the Pakistani side will provide more enabling conditions and convenience for Chinese companies doing business in Pakistan.
He did not elaborate further.
Zhao said: the development of CPEC enters the stage of high speed and quality development.
We believe we will better focus on agriculture, industrial development, people's livelihood, while ensuring the good operation of the existing projects in a way we will try to make it a demonstration project, Zhao said.
has been asking Pakistan to ramp up the security of its thousands of workers currently working on various projects of the CPEC after a number of attacks on them in recent months.
In August this year, 13 people including nine Chinese personnel were killed and several injured in a bomb attack on a bus carrying Chinese engineers to the Dasu area of Upper Kohistan district where a Chinese company is building a 4,300-megawatt hydropower project on the Indus River.
had rushed a special team amid confusing signals from Pakistan that it could be a gas blast. Pakistan later admitted it was a bomb blast, stating that traces of the explosive substance were found at the scene.
The CPEC is a collection of infrastructure and other projects under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013. Originally valued at USD 46 billion, the projects were worth USD 62 billion as of 2017.
India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The BRI was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.
The BRI is seen as an attempt by China to further its influence abroad with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.
(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.)
SE is the latest fashion brand to face criticism in China, after an exhibition in Shanghai featured a photo that state media said was smearing Asian women.
The photograph, included in the LADY DIOR show, depicts an Asian woman dressed in a traditional costume and holding a Dior bag. It drew ire in an editorial published by the state-owned Beijing Daily on Monday with the headline: Is This the Asian Woman in Diors Eyes?
Shot by a local Chinese photographer, the image makes Chinese consumers feel uncomfortable, the report said. It features spooky eyes, gloomy face, and Qing Dynasty-styled nail armor, according to the article. Social media posts by Dior, newspapers and the photographer all drew angry responses from the public, though theres been no talk of a boycott.
Dior didnt have an immediate comment.
The photographer is playing up to the brands, or the aesthetic tastes of the western world, the publication said. For years, Asian women have always appeared with small eyes and freckles from the Western perspective, but the Chinese way to appreciate art and beauty cant be distorted by that.
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana experienced similar criticism three years ago after it posted videos featuring a Chinese model awkwardly attempting to eat cannoli and other Italian foods with chopsticks. Widely deemed offensive, the ads incited a consumer backlash and a sharp sales decline even after its founders apologized.
While the luxury Italian fashion house lured back some customers, sales remain lower than they were before the misstep. Consumers still arent able to find Dolce & Gabbana on Chinas major e-commerce platforms such as Tmall. Beijing News, in a commentary published in October, said it wont be easy to regain market share without respecting Chinese consumers.
Global brands are facing a dilemma as they try to satisfy the demands of Western shoppers and human-rights groups for greater sustainability, without triggering conflict in Theres growing nationalism among consumers in the worlds largest retail economy, amid escalating geopolitical tensions with the West.
A social media backlash hit Hennes & Mauritz AB this spring, with revenue in falling at least 40% in its most recent quarter after it expressed concern about forced labor in Xinjiang. Nike Inc. has also come under pressure to walk a fine line in -- its fastest-growing market -- amid a brewing controversy over its business practices there.
Its not the first time Dior angered China over political sensitivities. In 2019, it gave a presentation at a university that included a map of the country. It excluded Taiwan.
Pakistan's Parliament in its joint sitting on Wednesday enacted a law to give Indian death-row prisoner the right to file a review appeal against his conviction by a military court.
Jadhav, a 51-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. India approached the Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.
After hearing both sides, the Hague-based ICJ issued a verdict in July, 2019, asking Pakistan to give India consular access to Jadhav and also ensure review of his conviction.
On Wednesday, the joint sitting comprising members of the Senate and the National Assembly was called to pass a set of laws which were passed by the latter in June this year, including one to enable Jadhav to appeal against his conviction, but those laws failed to get the nod of the upper house.
The Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Bill, 2021 aimed to fulfill the obligation under the verdict of the ICJ and was presented by Law Minister Farogh Nasim and was passed by the joint sitting of the House through voice vote.
The law allowed Jadhav to challenge his conviction in the high court through a review process which was a requirement of the ICJ verdict.
The joint sitting is called when the differences between the National Assembly and Senate are unbridgeable. The current impasse was due to the fact that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and allied parties enjoy majority in the National Assembly but are in minority in the Senate or the upper house.
Earlier, the ICJ (Review and Re-consideration) Bill, 2020 was among the 21 bills passed by the National Assembly in June, but the Senate refused to pass them.
The government had also tried to enforce the ICJ verdict through promulgation of a special ordinance in 2019 in the wake of the ICJ verdict.
When the government promulgated an ordinance to let Jadhav file a review, he refused. Later, the Pakistan government through its defence secretary filed a case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2020 to appoint a defence counsel for Jadhav.
The IHC formed a three-member larger bench in August 2020 which has repeatedly asked India to nominate a lawyer from Pakistan for Jadhav but New Delhi so far refused by insisting that it should be given a chance to appoint an Indian lawyer.
The last hearing was on October 5, 2021 and the IHC once again asked the government to ask India to appoint the counsel before the next hearing scheduled for December 9.
Among other laws passed in the joint sitting include a key bill to grant right of vote to overseas Pakistan through internet and use of Electronic Voting Machines.
Advisor on Law Babar Awan presented the bill to amend the Elections Act, 2017 [The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021] and the lawmakers present in the session voted in favour of the bill to table it in the Assembly.
The Opposition vociferously opposed it but it was enacted through a voice vote, prompting them to stage the boycott of the proceedings.
Earlier, opposition and treasury members almost came to blows when the opposition lawmakers tried to stop the proceedings of the joint house session.
The Senate comprises 100 and the National Assembly 342 lawmakers but both houses are short of one member each, hence the total strength was reduced to 440.
Later, main Opposition leader and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief Shehbaz Sharif accused the government of bulldozing the legislation while Pakistan People's Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced to challenge the new laws in the Supreme Court.
(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.)
will be providing professional training to Afghanistan's aviation staff in areas of security, traffic controlling, firefighting, air forecast, and airport management, said the Afghan embassy in the country.
Citing a statement, Khaama Press reported that the bilateral agreement was reached during the visit of Afghanistan's foreign minister Amir Khan Motaqi to
Both the countries also agreed to be conducting ten flights every week between Kabul and Islamabad. Two flights would be carried out by large planes and the rest flights by small ones.
"The number of seats will be increased from 1,000 to 1,500 and planes will be able to fly from any airport of to Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Kandahar," the statement read which was cited by Khaama Press.
Meantime, Afghanistan's planes will also be allowed to fly to the airports of Islamabad, Quetta, and Peshawar, it added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While many other technology giants embrace the metaverse as the next frontier of growth, sees Googles future in its oldest offering: internet search.
I feel fortunate our mission is timeless, Pichai, who is chief executive officer of and its parent, , said in an interview during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore. Theres more need to organize information than ever before.
Earlier this month, Alphabet briefly crossed $2 trillion in market value thanks to sales and profit growth during the pandemic. When asked where the next trillion would come from, Pichai pointed to his companys core service. Consumers will ask computers more questions with voice and multimodal experiences, he predicted. Being able to adapt to all that and evolve search will continue to be the biggest opportunity, the CEO said.
Since taking over in 2015, Pichai has pushed the company deeper into cloud computing and artificial intelligence, while facing an increase in regulatory scrutiny. In the interview, Pichai ticked off Googles key growth businesses cloud, the YouTube video service and its app store and said AI investments were underlying each of them.
The India-born executive also said he expects that more of Googles products will be developed and tested in Asia first, before spreading across the globe. Not in China, though. After icing plans to bring search to mainland China in 2018, following an employee uproar, has kept most of its services out of the most populous nation. I dont see that changing, Pichai said. But he doesnt share other Silicon Valley executives dim view of Chinas tech advances. Pichai acknowledged that Google is neck to neck with Chinese in AI and quantum computing, but argued that the U.S. and China have room to collaborate in areas like climate change and AI safety.
Some of Googles largest peers, such as Microsoft Corp. and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., have pitched their futures around the virtual worlds of the metaverse. Google has taken several approaches at virtual and augmented reality products, with limited success. Ive always been excited about the future of immersive computing, he said. This doesnt belong to any company. This is the evolution of the internet.
Pichai said he doesnt own any cryptocurrency. I wish I did, he said. Ive dabbled in it, you know, in and out.
Federal regulators have proposed suspending a Trump administration rule that would have allowed railroads to haul liquefied natural gas while they take a closer look at the potential safety risks.
The rule, which was backed by both the natural gas and freight rail industries, had already been on hold because several environmental groups and 14 states filed lawsuits challenging it.
The federal Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said the uncertainty about the rule also kept companies from investing in the specialized rail tank cars that were required, so railroads haven't actually handled any shipments of the flammable and odorless liquid known as LNG since the rule was issued last summer.
The rule would have required enhancements including a thicker outer tank made of steel with a greater puncture resistance to the approved tank car design that, for decades, has been approved for shipments of other flammable cryogenic materials, such as liquid ethylene and liquid ethane.
But in their lawsuit, environmental groups argued that those new railcars, which have yet to be built, were untested and might not withstand high-speed impacts, increasing the threat of an explosive train derailment along rail lines that cross directly through the heart of most cities.
We don't believe that LNG by rail should have ever been authorized in the first place, so we look forward to the authorization being suspended, said Bradley Marshall, who is a senior attorney with Earthjustice which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the environmental groups.
A spokesman for California Attorney General Rob Bonta also praised the Biden administration's decision to suspend the rule. Bonta's office said he would continue the challenge to the rule started by his predecessor because he believes this rule is unlawful and regulators didn't properly evaluate all the environmental risks.
Besides California, the other states that challenged the rule included Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Washington D.C. was also part of the lawsuit.
The lawsuits have all been put on hold while federal regulators review the rule, which could take until the summer of 2024.
Before this rule was issued last summer, federal hazardous materials regulations allowed shipments of LNG by truck, but not by rail, except with a special permit.
The move to abandon the rule allowing LNG shipments by rail comes as natural gas prices and exports are surging in the And ongoing court and regulatory battles have slowed development of pipelines that would help deliver the nation's world-leading gas production to markets.
The long-term growth in LNG exports has continued to set records, according to the latest federal figures. U.S. LNG exports averaged 9.6 billion cubic feet per day during the first six months of this year as the economy continued to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokeswoman for the Association of American Railroads trade group defended the rail industry's safety track record and said railroads would be able to handle LNG shipments if given the opportunity.
Railroads continue to be the safest way to move hazardous materials over land with 99.99% of all hazmat shipment arriving at their destination without incident, said Jessica Kahanek with the railroad group. The rail industry remains confident that DOT's ongoing research will affirm that with the right precautions rail is a responsible transportation solution for moving LNG if their customers request it.
One of the industrial backers of the idea of shipping LNG by rail included a proposed project from a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy that wanted to use rail to haul LNG from northern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale natural gas fields to a yet-to-be-built storage terminal at a former explosives plant in New Jersey, along the Delaware River near Philadelphia.
The Trump administration had issued a special permit to that project in 2019. If it were built, most of that LNG was expected to be exported to foreign markets for electricity production.
(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.)
Treasury Secretary told Congress Tuesday that she believed she would run out of maneuvering room to avoid the nation's first-ever default soon after December 15.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Yellen said that she believed Treasury could be left with insufficient resources to keep financing the government beyond December 15.
Yellen's new date is slightly later than the December 3 date she provided to Congress in a letter to Congress on October 18. That letter was based on the fact that Congress had just passed a $480 billion increase in the debt limit as a stop-gap measure.
As she has done in the past, Yellen urged Congress to deal with the debt limit quickly to remove the possibility of a potential default on the nation's obligations.
To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible, Yellen wrote to congressional leaders.
(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 Enterprises (AHEL) continued at their upward march, with the stock hitting a fresh record high of Rs 5,460 on the BSE on Wednesday. They rallied 7 per cent in today's intra-day trade and have surged 20 per cent in the past four days after the company reported a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended September 2021 (Q2FY22). In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.2 per cent during the same period.
The Q2FY22 performance of AHEL was better-than-expected with a rise in the average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) and a lower average length of stay (ALOS). The company also acquired a 65 per cent stake in the 180-bed Excelcare Hospital in Guwahati at an enterprise value of Rs 210 crore, and is seeking to acquire a 300-bed facility in Mumbai in the next few years and 300 more beds in Bengaluru by acquisition in the next two years. CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS.
Apollo is one of the leading integrated healthcare service providers with avenues like hospitals, pharmacies, primary care & diagnostic clinics. The group has capacity of 10,231 beds across 71 hospitals in India with a total of 8,858 beds owned in 44 hospitals; 278 beds in 11 cradles; 244 beds in 11 day-care/short surgical stay centres; 851 beds in five hospitals under O&M contracts.
ICICI Securities has a 'buy' rating on Apollo with a target price of Rs 5,930 per share. "Apollo is undergoing optical transformational journey towards creating an omni-channel healthcare platform that could set the platform for tapping new-age investors enabling rapid scale up of the digital healthcare platform," the brokerage firm said in result update.
The business normalisation in healthcare is expected to continue with further momentum due to lifting of travel restrictions, international patients. Also with strong healthcare pedigree & asset base, the company is on course to integrate all entities digitally to leverage its brand and physical presence. The new hospitals, ventures are turning profitable on the back of a judicious case mix besides better occupancy & ramp up at new hospitals and AHLL, it added.
Shares of India (MSIL) were up 4 per cent at Rs 8,347 on the BSE in Wednesdays intra-day trade, surging 11 per cent in past two trading days on media reports that the company has received the state government's approval for setting up a third passenger vehicle manufacturing plant in Haryana in Sonipat district. The stock of car & utility vehicles maker were quoting higher for fourth straight trading day and were trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 8,400 touched on January 13, 2021.
Maruti already has two manufacturing plants in Haryana with a combined annual capacity of around 1.5 million units, which combined with Suzuki's plant in Gujarat takes its effective annual capacity to around 2.25 million units. This is amid around 1.82 million units of sales volume that we expect for MSIL for FY23E, ICICI Securities said in a note. We are little surprised by the location of the new plant as it is far off from its existing belt in the state i.e. Gurugam, Manesar. We await official communication from the company on the same, the brokerage firm said.
In October 2021 month, MSIL posted total sales of 138,335 units. Total sales in the month include domestic sales of 112,788 units, sales to other OEM of 4,225 units and its highest ever monthly exports of 21,322 units, the company said. While the shortage of electronic components continued to affect the production of vehicles during the month, the Company took all possible measures to minimise the impact. Accordingly, the Company sold more vehicles than the sales volume expected at the start of the month, the company said.
Analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher believe that the market leader will likely benefit from shift to personal mobility and increasing demand of CNG vehicles. Going ahead, new product launches and its ability to pass on prices in competitive environment remains the key.
MSIL should retain the pole position as it plans to launch new products to fill white-spaces and network expansion. In the next 2-3 years, new models could include new Brezza, Jimny UV, Above 4m UV and new MPV. The network has increased to over 3,000 touch points, and the expansion continues, analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services said in Q2 result update. The brokerage firm remain positive on MSIL due to expectations of a cyclical upturn, which generally lasts for at least three years.
slumped on Wednesday, driving major benchmarks to their lowest closing levels since early October, after OPEC and the International Energy Agency warned of impending oversupply and rising COVID-19 cases in Europe increased the downside risks to demand recovery.
futures fell $1.36, or 1.7%, to $81.05 a barrel by 12:18 p.m. EST (1718 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $78.36, down $2.40, a 3% decline.
The declines took Brent to its lowest close since October 1 and U.S. crude to its lowest settlement since October 7. Traders said the market's recent action suggests funds are weighing a greater likelihood that supply will start to outpace demand in coming months, with sharp declines in near-term futures pointing to funds closing long positions.
"It signals a movement towards balance which weave not seen for many months," said Tony Headrick, energy analyst at CHS Hedging.
The global oil market has been focused on the swift rise in demand against a slow increase in supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, along with reluctance from big U.S. shale players to overspend on drilling.
However, both the IEA and OPEC in recent week said more supply could be coming in the next several months. OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, have maintained an agreement to boost output by 400,000 bpd every month so as not to overwhelm the market with supply.
On Tuesday, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said the group sees signs of an oil supply surplus building from next month adding its members and allies will have to be "very, very cautious."
Other nations, including the United States, have called for OPEC+ to boost output more swiftly. The United States has considered announcing an emergency release of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which contains more than 600 million barrels of oil.
In what is perhaps a signal of that possibility, in the last two weeks the U.S. Energy Department has sold more than 6 million barrels of oil - part of previously approved sales.
The United States currently has discretion to sell several million barrels from the SPR thanks to previous Congressional approval. J.P. Morgan analysts said Wednesday that the White House could speed up those sales rather than declare an emergency - calling it the "easiest of the options the White House has" to combat rising fuel prices.
The IEA has already said that U.S. supply is expected to increase at a swifter pace in the second quarter of 2022, and U.S. rig counts have been rising, with private operators seeking to take advantage of higher crude prices. The IEA expects U.S. output will account for about 60% of its forecast of 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) for non-OPEC supply growth in 2022.
U.S. inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels last week, the latest government data showed, running against analyst expectations for a build of 1.4 million barrels. Headrick noted, however, that the modest build in inventories at the key Cushing, Oklahoma hub of 213,000 barrels was a signal that the drawdowns of late may be coming to an end.
New waves of COVID-19 cases in Europe have driven some governments to reimpose restrictions, including Austria, which has ordered a lockdown on unvaccinated individuals.
The Biden administration on Wednesday asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the growing gap between the cost of unfinished gas and what consumers are paying at the pump.
Bharat Dynamics gained 2.35% to Rs 426.70 after the PSU defense company bagged an order of Rs 171 crore.
In an exchange filing on Wednesday, Bharat Dynamics said it signed a contract for design, development, manufacture, supply and support Of CMDS worth Rs 171 crore.
The order book position of the company as of 17 November 2021 stands at Rs 8991 crore. It received new orders of worth Rs 1,331 crore during the current financial year.
Bharat Dynamics (BDL) is the only company in India involved in manufacturing various types of missiles and underwater weapons for supply to the Indian Armed Forces and friendly foreign countries. The company also handles launchers, test equipment, refurbishment / life extension of missiles and counter measures systems for domestic as well as international market.
As of 30 September 2021, the Government of India held 74.93% stake in the company.
The company reported a 64.8% rise in standalone net profit to Rs 43.25 crore on a 102.7% increase in net sales to Rs 486.54 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21.
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Bharat Heavy Electricals announced that a cooperation agreement was signed between the company and Zorya Mashprokt , Ukraine on 16 November 2021.
The cooperation agreement aims to cooperate for establishing the local manufacture of the Marine GTs and RGs for requirement of the Indian Navy.
In addition to above, the cooperation agreement also aims to cooperate for supporting Indian Navy in Maintenance & Repair of Marine GTs and RGs of ZM make in their fleet.
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The Mainland China share market rebounded on Wednesday, 17 November 2021, as investor sentiments boosted up on optimism surrounding US-China ties and reports that Beijing plans to let property companies resume issuance of asset-backed securities.
At close of trade, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.44%, or 15.58 points, to 3,537.37. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, added 1.1%, or 27.06 points, to 2,477.02. The blue-chip CSI300 index was edge up 0.05%, or 2.43 points, to 4,885.75.
Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held an hours-long virtual meeting on Tuesday. Although it appeared to yield no immediate outcomes, it gave the two leaders opportunity to nudge their relations away from icy confrontation. Trade disputes failed to appear as the top agenda, but investors still hoped further improvements in bilateral relations and chances of partial tariff removals.
China plans to let property companies resume issuance of asset-backed securities, ending a three-month market freeze as authorities move to insulate higher-rated developers from an industrywide funding crunch.
Investor focus turns to Wednesday's deadline for a Yango Group unit's dollar debt exchange offer.
That's after the company warned that without more time it may not be able to repay existing bonds at maturity. China Evergrande Group Chairman Hui Ka Yan injected more than 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in cash to boost the firm's liquidity
CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan climbed up against the U. S. dollar on Wednesday, despite weaker mid-point fixing, as heavy corporate demand for the local currency outweighed broad greenback strength and as an amicable meeting between U. S. and Chinese leaders broadly supported the investor mood. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.3935 per dollar, 11 pips weaker than the previous fix of 6.3924. In the spot market, the onshore yuan CNY=CFXS was changing hands at 6.3895 at midday, 22 pips firmer than the previous late session close.
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The drug major announced the launch of Spirofy, India's first pneumotach based portable, wireless Spirometer.
With this launch, Cipla intends to revolutionize obstructive airway disease (OAD) diagnosis, in line with its ambition to strengthen its position as the lung leader in India.
Spirofy is India's first pneumotach based portable wireless Spirometer for diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma.
The device ensures high result accuracy and individual patient safety using bacterial viral filters. Spirofy is entirely wireless with good battery backup, making it suitable for use in outdoor camps, remote areas with power shortages, or simply providing physicians' flexibility and ease of use. The device generates reports in real-time, which can be printed using a portable wireless thermal printer instantly, or a pdf version can be shared on the phone. Cipla will undertake training of physicians in the interpretation of spirometry results.
Currently, COPD remains the 2nd most common cause of death in India after heart diseases, where India alone bears 32% of the global COPD burden.
Umang Vohra (MD and Global CEO, Cipla) said, "Cipla has been steadfastly focused on addressing the world's growing respiratory disease burden, and with this launch, we see ourselves steadily advancing to combat chronic respiratory ailments like COPD. The Spirofy launch aims to help doctors across the country to improve lives of patients through accurate and affordable diagnosis."
The drug major's consolidated net profit grew 7% year on year to Rs 711 crore on a 10% rise in total revenue from operations to Rs 5,520 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21.
Cipla is a global pharmaceutical company focused in India, South Africa, North America, and key regulated and emerging markets. Its strengths lies in the respiratory, anti-retroviral, urology, cardiology, anti-infective and CNS segments.
Shares of Cipla were down 0.98% at Rs 912.05 on the BSE.
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Infosys and MIT Technology Review, a world-renowned technology media brand and its custom publishing division Insights, announced the launch of 'The Cloud Hub', a forum offering insights and learning from successful cloud transformations to help global enterprises accelerate their cloud journey.
Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon, and Viatris Inc. announced the U.S. launch of interchangeable biosimilars SEMGLEE (insulin glargineyfgn) injection, a branded product, and Insulin Glargine (insulin glargine-yfgn) injection, an unbranded product, to help control high blood sugar in adult and pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes and adults with type 2 diabetes.
Westlife Development said that McDonald's has partnered with ITC to add a differentiated fruit beverage, B Natural to the Happy Meal. The new Happy Meal is available across all McDonald's restaurants in West and South India.
Home First Finance Company India said that a meeting of Committee of Directors of the company is scheduled to be held on 22 November 2021, to consider and approve the issuance of Secured, Rated, Listed, Redeemable, Taxable, Non-Convertible Debentures on private placement basis, in one or more tranches up to Rs 99 crore.
Tourism Finance Corporation of India said that a meeting of the Resource Committee of the Directors of the company will be held on 22 November 2021, to consider the issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures to be issued on private placement basis.
Grindwell Norton said that the company has made an investment of Rs.15 lakhs in Cleanwin Energy Three LLP towards Power Purchase.
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Max India rose 1.13% to Rs 76 after the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Antara, announced the sale of over 200 units at its second senior living community in Noida Sector - 150.
The Residences for Seniors project was launched in early 2020 in Noida as an integral part of Antara's shift towards creating an ecosystem to address the lifecare, lifestyle and well-being needs of the seniors. The project is spread over 16,500 sq. meters, Phase-1 of Antara's Senior Living Community in Noida houses 340 apartments curated across three towers that cater to a wide spectrum of lifestyle needs.
The residents can choose from two or three-bedroom units ranging from 137 sq. metres to 280 sq. metres constructed in three different layouts. These apartments are available on a 90-year direct lease under the NOIDA authority and have all-inclusive pricing between Rs 1.15 crore and Rs 2.35 crore.
On a consolidated basis, Max India's net loss stood at Rs 0.56 crore in Q2 FY22 as compared to a net loss of Rs 17.30 crore in Q2 FY21. Net sales stood at Rs 82.83 crore in Q2 September 2021, registering a 187.7% jump from Rs 28.79 crore in Q2 September 2020.
Max India is engaged in the business of investments and providing consultancy services to group companies. The company's segments are healthcare business, business investments, health insurance, senior living and others.
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At least six people were killed and four others injured in Bihar's Lakhisarai district on Tuesday when an SUV carrying them collided with an LPG cylinder-laden truck, a senior police officer said.
Five of the six deceased were distant relatives of late Bollywood actor and all of them were residents of Jamui.
"The accident occurred on the National Highway 333 when the SUV driver lost control over his vehicle and hit the truck coming from the opposite direction near Pipara village early on Tuesday.
"The victims were returning to Jamui from Patna. Six people, including the driver, were killed in the accident," Superintendent of Police Sushil Kumar stated.
According to villagers, the victims, including two women, were returning to Jamui after the cremation of Geeta Devi, the sister of Haryana Additional Director General of Police O P Singh.
Singh is married to Sushant Singh's sister.
The deceased have been identified as Laljit Singh, his two sons Nemani Singh and Ram Chandra Singh, daughter Baby Devi, niece Anita Devi and Preetam Kumar, the driver of the vehicle.
Talking to PTI, Neeraj Singh Bablu, state environment minister and cousin of Sushant Singh Rajput, said, "Five of the six deceased were distant relatives of the late Bollywood actor. Laljit Singh was brother-in-law of OP Singh".
The four occupants of the vehicle, who suffered serious injuries, are undergoing treatment at a local hospital, the officer said.
A case has been registered and further investigation is underway, the SP added.
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The Centre on Wednesday proposed a slew of measures in the Supreme Court including a ban on entry of all trucks in the national capital except vehicles carrying essential goods, shutting of schools and 50 per cent attendance in offices of GNCTD to reduce in Delhi-NCR.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana that a meeting of chief secretaries of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and along with others was held on Tuesday.
The issue regarding work from home for central government officers was considered but the total vehicles used for central government officers is not huge. So rather than implementing work from home we have issued an advisory for pooling and sharing of vehicles, Mehta told the bench also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant.
The Centre suggested 50 per cent attendance in offices of government of national capital territory of (GNCTD).
The hearing is currently underway.
Delhi-NCR recorded its air quality in the very poor category on Wednesday morning and no major improvement is likely until Sunday, authorities said.
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India will pitch for finding a permanent solution to the issue of public stock holding for purposes in the forthcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Geneva, starting from November 30, an official said.
The official expressed hope that "something may come" up on public stockholding and domestic support, which are part of negotiations on the agriculture sector, in the 12th ministerial conference, which is the highest decision making body of the 164-member WTO.
The four-day ministerial conference will begin from November 30.
"Now that the 12th meeting is approaching, a number of submissions are being made at the WTO for advancing negotiations in agriculture. India along with the G33 (group of nations) has been engaging in achieving a permanent solution to the public stockholding issue," the government official said.
The official added that the public stockholding (PSH) is must for India because it has a mandate, which goes back a long period of time and India will pitch for that.
Finding a permanent solution to the public food stockpile issue is linked to the survival of 800 million hungry people across the globe.
Under the global trade norms, a WTO member's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 per cent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88. Apprehending that full implementation of the programme may result in breach of the WTO cap, India has been seeking amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap.
As an interim measure, the WTO members at the Bali ministerial meeting in December 2013 had agreed to put in place a mechanism popularly called the Peace Clause and committed to negotiating an agreement for permanent solution at the 11th ministerial meeting at Buenos Aires.
Under the Peace Clause, WTO members agreed to refrain from challenging any breach in the prescribed ceiling by a developing nation at the dispute settlement forum of the WTO. This clause will be there till a permanent solution is found to the food stockpiling issue.
India has invoked the clause in 2018-19 (13 per cent) and 2019-20 (11 per cent) as it breached the subsidy cap for rice.
The current discourse in agriculture negotiations at the WTO includes developed members seeking developing countries to take on additional commitments in terms of enhanced market access, reduction in policy space through reduced domestic support.
India is also co-sponsoring a G33 proposal for a permanent solution on PSH for purposes at the WTO on September 15.
The chair of the committee on agriculture-special session of the WTO has come up with a draft ministerial text on PSH for the 12th ministerial conference wherein two options have been proposed including to continue negotiations on PSH beyond the 12th meeting.
India has not agreed to these options, the official said.
The seven negotiating areas under agriculture are domestic support, market access, export competition, export restrictions, cotton, special safeguard mechanism, public stockholding for food security purposes and transparency.
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Nearly 50,000 state electrical customers still had no power Tuesday after days of heavy rain triggered mudslides and floods and forced the closure of the West Coast's main north-south highway near the Canadian border, officials said.
The rains caused by an atmospheric river a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into and Oregon was easing and road crews managed to reopen southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Bellingham, But the highway's northbound lanes were still closed in the area.
At the height of the storm, about 158,000 electrical customers on Monday had no power and schools in the city of Bellingham were closed on Tuesday for the second day in a row.
North of Bellingham, authorities said one person was still missing Tuesday after being seen in floodwaters clinging to a tree
. And a motorist in Bellingham was injured when a tree fell on a vehicle.Evacuations were ordered in multiple areas as floodwaters swamped business districts and partially submerged cars in communities north of Seattle and winds gusted at speeds of 60 mph (96 kph), including one gust of 58 mph (93 kph) at Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
Forecasters predicted drier conditions on Tuesday but the National Weather Service issued flood warnings for several rivers around western Washington.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties and said the state Emergency Management Division, with support from the Washington National Guard, would coordinate the response.
In the town of Hamilton about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Seattle, cars and trailers were packed into the parking lot outside the Red Cross evacuation site at Hamilton Baptist Church, where dozens of residents are waiting out the storm, the Skagit Valley Herald reported.
Skagit County officials compared the flood to severe flooding in 2009, when the Skagit and Samish rivers overflowed and caused damage to homes, farms and infrastructure.
As the water made its way down the swollen Skagit River, people were warned to expect flooding and evacuation orders for other communities.
And just south of the Canadian border in the community of Sumas, Washington, officials said city hall was flooded in a soaking that reminded people of severe floods in 1990.
Deputies evacuated stranded residents and the person who was still missing had been swept away by floodwaters after being seen holding on to the tree, said police from the small city of Everson in Facebook posting. The motorist injured in Bellingham was seriously hurt early Monday while traveling on Interstate 5.
Bellingham's record rainfal on Sunday totaled 2.78 inches (7 centimeters), crushing the prior daily record from 1998 of 0.88 inches (2.2 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service. Another 1.89 inches (4.8 centimeters) poured down on Bellingham on Monday.
West of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, several highways were partially closed and the U.S. Coast Guard helped local authorities evacuate about 10 people near the town of Forks. In nearby Quillayute, a daily record rainfall of 4.01 inches (10 centimeters) was set on Monday.
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American journalist Danny Fenster, who was freed after nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, arrived Tuesday in the for an emotional reunion with his family.
Fenster, who was sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labor, was handed over Monday to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate the release. He is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials or publishers who have been detained since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
It's been a long time coming, a moment I had been imagining so intensely for so long," a bearded and shaggy-haired Fenster said after landing in New York. "Surpasses everything I had imagined.
Fenster's family awaited his arrival in the lobby of an airport hotel and rushed outside to greet him as they saw the SUV carrying him approach. His mother, Rose, embraced him in a long tight hug the moment he stepped out of the vehicle.
It's over. There's nothing to be anxious about anymore, Fenster said later in an interview. Any bitter, ill will, regret, anger spilled out on the tarmac when I got on that plane.
His wife, Julianna, who is still in Myanmar, is set to reunite with him in Detroit.
Late Monday, as Fenster, 37, transited through Qatar, he told reporters that he was physically OK and had not been starved or beaten while in custody. While jailed, he had told his lawyer that he believed he had COVID-19, although prison authorities denied that.
Fenster, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was convicted Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations. Days before his conviction, he learned he had been charged with additional violations that put him at risk of a life sentence.
It feels great to get Danny back home. It's worth the effort, worth everything we did, said Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and past ambassador to the United Nations who helped negotiate the release through his foundation.
Fenster's mother described the ordeal as a nightmare and the family expressed relief that it was over.
It feels great, he's safe, that's all we want, his father, Buddy, said.
Fenster in a knit hat that he said was a gift from another prisoner joked that the first thing he would do is get a shave and a haircut.
He also said he hoped his plight would help focus world attention on the suffering of the people of Myanmar, where the army has responded brutally to peaceful protests that opposed the generals' seizure of power. Security forces have killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The takeover and the ensuing crackdown have drawn condemnation and sanctions from the and
Richardson is known for negotiating the freedom of Americans detained in countries with which Washington has poor relations and when he visited earlier this month, it raised hopes that he might win Fenster's release. But after that trip, he said his focus was on helping the Southeast Asian country manage the COVID-19 pandemic and speeding up the delivery of vaccines there and no mention of Fenster was made in his foundation's summary of the visit.
In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Richardson said U.S. officials had told him not to bring up Fester's case during his meeting with military leaders. But he acknowledged that he did at some point, when he sensed there was an opportunity to negotiate the release.
Richardson said he made no promises in exchange for Fenster's freedom. And they didn't ask me for anything, he said.
I saw we had progress on the humanitarian issue, and I zeroed in on Danny and Aye Moe, Richardson said, referring to a former worker at his foundation who was also detained then released.
Fenster has been in detention since he was arrested at Yangon Airport on May 24.
The exact allegations against him were never clear, but much of the prosecution's case appeared to hinge on proving that he was employed by another online news site that was ordered closed this year during the crackdown on the media that followed the military takeover. Fenster used to work for the site but left that job last year.
A native of the Detroit area, Fenster has a master's degree in creative writing from Wayne State University and worked for a newspaper in Louisiana before moving to Southeast Asia, according to Deadline Detroit, a news website to which he occasionally contributed.
His brother, Bryan, has said he was particularly interested in the plight of people from the Muslim Rohingya minority, hundreds of thousands of whom fled during a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the army in 2017.
The generals in were convinced that it wasn't worth it to hang on to Danny, U.S. Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan, who represents the Fenster family in Congress, told Detroit radio station WWJ. If they kept him and anything really happened to him, we would never forget it. We would never forgive them.
(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.)
Multiple social media apps such as Snapchat, and Alphabet's appeared to be coming back online after a brief global outage on Tuesday.
Google said issues with its Cloud Networking, which counts Etsy, and Snap Inc as clients, were partially resolved shortly after thousands of users flagged it on outage tracking website downdetector.com.
Google Cloud's dashboard earlier showed that services including cloud developer tools, cloud console and cloud engine were facing disruptions.
had said it was aware of "some issues right now and are checking them" after more than 50,000 users reported issues on downdetector, but those disruptions have since been resolved, according to the website.
"Many Snapchatters are having trouble using the app. Hang tight, we're working on a fix. In the meantime, we recommend staying logged in," support said earlier in a tweet.
Fastly, the cloud company behind a major global internet outage in June, said it was seeing increased errors with origins in a "common cloud provider, unrelated to Fastly's edge cloud platform."
Tuesday's brief disruption follows a six-hour widespread outage last month that crippled Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, after faulty configuration changes on the company's routers.
Downdetector only tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outage might have affected a larger number of users.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Akash Sriram; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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Vice President M. on Wednesday called upon innovators and entrepreneurs to focus on solving the issues that the agricultural sector of the country is facing and create ideas to better the lives of farmers.
Inaugurating the 24th edition of Karnataka's flagship three-day technology event ' Tech Summit-2021' themed 'Driving the Next' here, he said is at the forefront of India's knowledge wealth and is rightly called the knowledge capital of India.
The Vice President said it has become necessary to transform IT and BT "by doing our duty to become mighty" in creating knowledge wealth for the country.
He added that ultimately the aim of technology and innovation should be to bring happiness to the people and their lives.
Naidu said there is a need to share and care when it comes to knowledge and ideas which is at the heart of India's philosophy.
He said the summit should also focus on agriculture which is facing turbulence and the challenges that are being posed to mankind by climate change notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic that the world is undergoing.
"We should come up with new ideas through innovation to encourage the growth of the knowledge economy and ensure that we reform and perform better to transform India into the new economy," the Vice President said.
Naidu called upon private entrepreneurs to create jobs in the new economy even as government initiatives were crucial to its growth.
He started his speech in Kannada and later switched over to English after uttering quite a few sentences in the local language. In the beginning, he extended condolences on the death of Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar, who died of a cardiac arrest on October 29.
IT & BT, Science and Technology Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan said that is the hub of future technologies and Karnataka is the leader in IT and BT.
He said Karnataka is the first state to implement the National Education Policy and expressed confidence that the new policy will take the state to greater heights.
Naidu also expressed happiness that technology is now reaching other cities of Karnataka.
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Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India]/ Denver [Colorado], November 17 (ANI/PRNewswire): MiCoB, a disruptor in the construction industry that provides 3D Concrete Printing Solutions to military, residential, commercial, infrastructure, and architectural market segments in India has raised its first institutional capital from 3Lines Venture Capital.
Lalit Jalan, 3Lines India Chairman and the ex-CEO of Reliance Infrastructure, will join the MiCoB Board of Directors.
The construction industry has been stuck in its old ways of building homes, offices, bridges, and architectural artefacts from concrete for too long. There is a great need now to build at a greater speed, with higher quality, relocatable structures and at a competitive cost. "This is where MiCoB's uniquely innovative and software driven robotic arm comes into play. MiCoB's technology can print large scale structures with its capabilities of 3D slicing and 3D simulation in a shorter time frame than previously could be imagined by the builders," said Lalit Jalan.
"MiCoB's proven innovation of its printable material with fiber-reinforced mixtures has the opportunity to disrupt a market size of greater than $20B USD in India alone," he further added.
"MiCoB is very pleased to partner with 3Lines Venture Capital in its journey to build a hugely successful company in a fast growing construction industry in India where the need for speed in infrastructure development is insatiable," said Shashank Shekhar, co-Founder and the CEO of MiCoB. "This investment from 3Lines is a culmination of our mentoring relationship since we started MiCoB at IIT Gandhinagar during our graduate studies. We are very grateful for the trust 3Lines has reposed in MiCoB and its Founders," added Shashank.
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New Delhi [India], November 17 (ANI/SRV):CareerNaksha, a Vadodara based ed-tech startup, has expanded its presence by opening up a career center in Jamnagar to explore the potential in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and build its presence across Gujarat.
The company has been delivering unbiased solutions based on students' strengths, personality, aptitude, interest, skills and knowledge. Employing integrated methods to help students meet their desired career options based on their strengths and weaknesses; CareerNaksha provides the best quality psychometric tests to understand students strengths and interests. Backed by an overwhelming response, CareerNaksha further plans to expand into Saurashtra and Kutch region.
With an aim to help people make the most important decision of their lives, Nimish Gopal (US returned IITian & Serial Entrepreneur) and Maulin Shah (Ex Adani & L & T professional and Nirma, IIM A Alumni) took the leap of faith and created an astonishing platform three years ago- CareerNaksha - where students can get all the answers, moral support and guidance that show them the best path for their journey.
The journey that started from Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad, Gujarat has seen its share of highs and lows but most importantly in the last three years, CareerNaksha has witnessed exponential growth MoM at the rate of 30-40%. Also, over the period of time, in the present digital era, the reach on digital platforms has crossed over 1 lakh with more than 1000 experts from various career options.
(https://www.careernaksha.com)
(https://www.youtube.com/careernaksha)
(https://www.instagram.com/careernaksha)
With all the growth that has been a great boost to the platform, CareerNaksha intends to expand further to become Gujarat's best career counselling platform and the most trusted one too.
Nimish Gopal, Founder, CareerNaksha says, "Tier 3 and 4 cities have immense scope in terms of providing offline and online career counselling - they need more unbiased information and guidance for access to quality rich education. In an approach to cater to that demand, CareerNaksha is expanding in Saurashtra, Kutch, and North Gujarat and looking for best partners to join hands in the journey. About the expansion, one milestone has already been achieved recently by opening up a center in Jamnagar. As per our collective data based on the study and research by the team, Jamnagar did not have many options in terms of certified career counsellors, top quality psychometric tests, as well as students there, had no exposure to many career options present in the existing market. Now, since there is a career center by CareerNaksha in Jamnagar, students who had to migrate to other cities for guidance and exposure will get it all in the same city, even those who couldn't migrate will have the access to high-quality services and practices because everyone deserves to have the career that's best for them in the first place."
With this step, the horizon for CareerNaksha is just getting wider as it plans to further expand its services in many other cities of Gujarat like Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagarh and Bhuj where people are not able to access good counselling and a one-stop platform for all career-related queries. CareerNaksha plans to reach out to the counsellors, psychologists, educationists and educational institutions owners to introduce various new models in the coming days.
Along with the students, CareerNaksha has great plans for the people serving the same purpose in these regions. Career counselling, an attractively growing sector has exciting opportunities awaiting for people associated with it. Hence, CareerNaksha is helping them get certified on counselling platforms. Also utilizing the platform that offers services and products like top quality psychometric, GlobalVidhya, individual growth is not neglected while meeting the noble purpose of serving the society.
CareerNaksha has done more than 15,000 personal counselling sessions in the last three years and continues to cater to thousands of students online as well as offline. The company aims to reach out to as many people in need as possible by providing affordable quality and unbiased career counselling for school/college students and early professionals in Tier 3 and 4 cities of Gujarat.
CareerNaksha is a one-stop platform that addresses students' educational journey by providing services like high-quality psychometric tests, career counselling and development. The platform is available online as well as offline and in Hindi, Gujarati and other regional languages. It is an unbiased destination where various educationists, psychologists, counsellors meet and guide those in need.
To know more, please visit (https://bit.ly/3Cpegsf)
or
Contact - nimish@careernaksha.com; 84691-49288
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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 17 (ANI/PNN): Chai Sutta Bar, a brand known for its Divine Tea & Humble beginnings, spreads the warmth & holiness of Kulhad back-to-back with its newly arrived trio in the city of Mumbai within one month.
The Trio was inaugurated on the 15th of October in Vasai, the 28th of October in Khoper khairane & the 13th of November in Talaopali Thane (W).
Mumbai is one of the busiest and most lively places in the whole world. It is indeed one of the great achievements of Chai Sutta Bar to open its branch consecutively within one month. It was all possible because of the demand and the love people showered throughout the stretch, stated Anubhav Dubey on the launching day, Co-founder of Chai Sutta Bar. The newly arrived stores were welcomed with hoots & hooray in a closed event due to COVID guidelines.
With the purpose of spreading the intoxicating icon "Kulhad Chai" over the world, the company decided to keep quality high while keeping costs low in order to keep wallets tight and hearts light with the aroma of Chai. The brand's soulful Tea has been delivered to over 100 cities and countries, including Dubai and Oman, to name a few. Chai's amazing blessing have left a sweet spot in their hearts who greeted the store with their welcoming warmth and shining grins.
"Mumbai is not only the country's commercial hub but also one of the country's most densely populated cities. The city features a high concentration of office workers and young people who are enthusiastic about their careers. For the most part, a cup of Chai is wishful thinking; we believe in redefining the taste and culture of India by offering a cup of tea in Kulhad and spreading the delight of Chai. The initial Chai Sutta Bar outlet had a fantastic response and acceptance from Mumbai residents, so we decided to extend throughout the city and appeal to the widest possible audience. "On the occasion of the launch, Anubhav Dubey, co-founder of Chai Sutta Bar, said,"
With the passage of time, Kulhad's brilliant legacy faded, and "Chai" went out of favour. Under this concept, a modern variation of the chai bar opened in July 2016, serving Kadak tea on the bar table with no "sutta breaks." CSB is a low-cost tea shop that employs potters throughout the year and also hires orphans to help them feel independent and valued. Even in the midst of the pandemic, they were able to successfully distribute Safe Tea across the country, bringing hope and happiness into people's lives. We hope to grow enormously with our marvelous locations in Mumbai and celebrate chai with cheers & chuski.
Chai Sutta Bar: Cuddle the Kulhad!!!
Chai Sutta Bar is a rapidly growing Tea chain in India that was established back in 2016. Chai Sutta Bar envisions blending Kulhad's health benefits with the most go-to beverage, 'Chai' in India. Hailing from the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, it is well known for its uniqueness and world-class service.
The brand has served several soulful Chai of Kulhad to over 100 cities along with countries like Dubai & Oman, to mention a few. The brand is owned by the dedicated duos, Anubhav & Anand, who, at the young age of 22, dreamt of serving a Wishful cup of chai in every corner of the world.
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Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], November 17 (ANI/NewsVoir): The IIT Madras Alumni Association (IITMAA) is roping in experts from its member base of over 50,000 alumni and faculty to collaborate with the 'research knowledge clusters' across the country supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India.
As part of the collaboration with the Strategic Alliances Division of the Office of the PSA, IITMAA will take up various activities:
Capacity-building initiatives to support researchers, academia, and the students from these knowledge clusters. The key projects include training sessions to hone their skills in scientific communication and research proposal-making.
Promote game-based learning in schools and colleges. The project envisages the creation of a National Games Repository with thousands of quality games for education available to all educational institutions in India.
Support, with alumni Subject Matter Experts, the Special Interest Groups on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and emerging technologies.
During the 18-month long partnership, IITMAA has become a member of the Expert Consultation Group of Innovation and Science @ Bharat, a national innovation portal. The two organizations jointly surveyed the Public Attitude to Science and Technology and published a report 'STI in the Era of New Normal'. The Office of PSA has also supported several IIT Madras projects focused on COVID-19 care including instant medical infrastructure (mediCAB), very low cost and high-quality testing kits for the underprivileged, and others.
Commenting about the collaboration with IITMAA, Prof. Vijay Raghavan, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said, "IITMAA has been an invaluable knowledge partner for us. In the past 18 months, its members actively supported us in capacity-building initiatives. IITMAA is helping us tap the knowledge, skills, and resources of its alumni as Subject Matter Experts. We look forward to working closely to strengthen our industry-academia initiatives that immensely benefit researchers, academia, and students of our knowledge clusters across the country."
In her comments about the future projects planned with IITMAA, Dr. Sapna Poti, Director, Strategic Alliances, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, said, "The IITMAA ecosystem will be helping researchers of the higher education institutions in our network acquire skills for effectively presenting their R & D proposals both to technical experts and to business executives. The project on game-based learning will help students of schools and higher education institutions learn complex subjects in a fun way. We will also be collaborating in the areas of water & WASH and Women-in-STEM."
Talking about the alumni support, Krishnan Narayanan, President, IITMAA, said, "We consider our association with the Office of the PSA a great honour and an opportunity for our alumni to give back to India. It aligns well with our "Mission Million Smiles" - of IITMAA being a powerful change agent in the country by taking up many STI projects that will create a positive impact in the society at large."
Ananth Agasthya, IITM alumnus and formerly Executive Director of the HAL Management Academy, is anchoring the initiative to train researchers in scientific communication. The project on game-based learning will be implemented under the guidance of Prof. Preeti Aghalayam, IITM alumnus and Professor, IITM, and Kartic Vaidyanathan, IITM alumnus and Founder of a startup, LetUsPlayToLearn, in association with Prof L.S. Shashidhara, principal investigator to the O/o PSA Knowledge Clusters in Delhi and Pune.
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Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], November 17 (ANI/PRNewswire): (https://www.infosys.com) Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, and (https://www.technologyreview.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review, a world-renowned technology media brand and its custom publishing division Insights, today announced the launch of 'The Cloud Hub', a forum offering insights and learning from successful cloud transformations to help global enterprises accelerate their cloud journey.
This collaboration will bring together success stories, expertise and experience from a number of leading global brands to demonstrate how value and competitive advantage can be created by adopting cloud technologies.
The Cloud Hub aims to create a community of experts from the industry, including practitioners, providers and influencers, to debate key challenges and opportunities surrounding the biggest technology disruption that the world is witnessing.
As per the Infosys' 2021 (https://www.infosys.com/services/cloud-cobalt/insights/cloud-radar-2021.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Cloud Radar Report, enterprises surveyed can add up to $414 billion in net new profits, annually, through effective cloud adoption. Yet, many companies are still on the journey to maximize cloud adoption to gain a competitive edge.
The Cloud Hub will bring featured voices, including exclusive access to the Infosys Cobalt community of experts, to share success stories, strategies, and insights from leading cloud adopters on a variety of topics including hybrid cloud, data, AI, cloud apps, and security.
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, CEO and publisher, MIT Technology Review, said, "Our custom content division, MIT Technology Review Insights, generates original research that helps executives make informed decisions about their companies' tech strategies and investments. We're excited to co-create The Cloud Hub in partnership with Infosys as we believe companies can benefit immensely from expert guidance as they find their way through the stunningly complex landscape of cloud and digital transformation."
Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys, said, "While cloud-first companies forge ahead, several other enterprises struggle to capitalize on the full potential of the cloud. Infosys is actively seeking to remedy this with solutions powered by Infosys Cobalt. Creating The Cloud Hub in collaboration with MIT Technology Review Insights, is an Infosys Cobalt initiative adding muscle to the efforts we are already making to help our clients rejuvenate operations, drive innovation, and take pioneering strides towards realizing value in the cloud."
For a quick overview of The Cloud Hub: From Cloud Chaos to Clarity, please click (https://videos.infosys.com/watch/1PkvFoUgh5c7dAHFhiTJMc) here.
Click (https://videos.infosys.com/watch/XqgGeeUTiz7aTRhjHtoV3A) here to watch a conversation between Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau and Ravi Kumar.
You can learn more about the Cloud Hub (https://www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/theCloudHub) here.
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Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], November 17 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Consulate General of Republic of Korea in Chennai expresses its delight in announcing the distribution of 4,000 COVID-19 preventive kits to Government School children, as the Tamil Nadu State Government has decided to reopen schools this month.
The kits were distributed to the Tamil Nadu Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi today at his office in Chennai.
The initiative is supported by Venu Srinivasan, Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea in association with InKo Centre, across the four South Indian states as part of the Korean National Foundation Day celebrated last month.
To advocate support towards the Indian community, the Korean Association in Chennai is also donating 70,000 masks and five oxygen generators to the Tamil Nadu Government.
With an aim to protect and prevent the lingering virus from spreading and to reinforce the significance of good hygiene amongst teachers, parents, and school children. The kit consists of Korean Face masks, hand sanitisers, hand wash, colour pencils, Origami sheets and chocopie to brighten up their day.
The Consulate celebrated the special day online last month wherein a video portraying the Indo-Korean culture themed "Over The Years" is currently being showcased.
The National Foundation Day which marks the origin of Korea, constitutes an important annual reminder of the growth of a nation which rose from the ashes of war to become one of the most dynamic countries in the world today. Every year, Consul General of the Republic of Korea and Mr. Venu Srinivasan, as Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea, host an event to mark the occasion and to renew ties of goodwill and friendship with well-wishers who recognise and value the relationship between Korea and India.
Korean Consulate General Kwon says, "I am honoured and pleased that the kids can be supported during this difficult time. I am also relieved to know that the COVID-19 situation has greatly improved in India after the second wave. The Korean community has engaged in several activities such as organising a Marina Beach clean-up campaign 6 six times since 2014, K-Pop World Festival India Grand Finale which was held for the first time in Chennai and MoUs signed between Ulsan Metropolitan City and Greater Chennai City."
TVS Motor Company Chairman, Chairman InKo Centre and Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea, Venu Srinivasan says, "It is an honour and privilege, as Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea, to annually co-host the National Foundation Day of the Republic of Korea with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea. Last year and again this year, due to the exigencies imposed by the pandemic, we have dispensed with the physical ceremony, opting for a unique community connect initiative instead. We aim, in cooperation with Education and Health Ministries of the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, to reach out to Government schools and primary healthcare centres, to distribute masks, sanitisers and colourful stationery kits to young children. With the third wave looming and children identified as a particularly vulnerable group, we felt that reaching out empathetically to this group was of paramount importance. I would like to extend my best wishes for the sustained development of meaningful ties of friendship between Korea and India. I take this opportunity to wish that you all stay safe to overcome these difficult times and welcome a future that ensures good health, happiness and harmony, in ample measure."
A special message from the Consul General, Young-seup Kwon and from Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea, Venu Srinivasan will be accessible at (https://www.inkocentre.org/NFD/index.html) along with a short film that provides a snapshot of the variety of cultural programmes presented at National Foundation Day events in the past.
In addition, there will be links provided to select videos that will showcase the richness and range of Korean culture.
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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 17 (ANI/PNN): The makers of Banaras have unveiled the much-awaited poster of the film.
Zaid Khan and Sonal Monterio are pairing up for Jayathirtha's Banaras. In the poster of the film Banaras, they both appear to be magical.
With its picturesque locations like its ghats, temples, River Ganga and boat rides, the poster beautifully presented Banaras on it. Zaid and Sonal look magnificent in their ivory-gold outfits, which contrast beautifully with the poster's warm colours.
Jayathirtha is the director of the film. The film will be released in five different languages, namely, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam. First of its kind, a debut film will be released in five different languages. The film will be released next year in February.
Banaras is a Mysterious love story film that explains the beauty, Rich heritage, Culture of Banaras.
Produced under the production of NK Productions house, Banaras is produced by Tilakraj Ballal, co-produced by Muzammil Ahmad Khan, story, screenplay and directed by Jayathirtha.
B Ajaneesh Loknath has given the music, cinematography by Advaitha Gurumurty and choreography by Jayathirtha and A Harsh. The film will be shot in Varanasi, Bangalore, Mysore and Goa.Zaid Khan and Sonal Monterio are the protagonist. Sujay Shastry, Devaraj, Achyuth Kumar and Barkath Ali are in the various roles.
On the poster release, Zaid Khan said, Banaras is a special film for me. The love story between Siddharth and Dani and the picturesque location of Banaras will glue the audience to their seats. I got the opportunity to explore the hidden gems of this city, and I am overwhelmed by its beauty and richness. I really want to thank my director and producers for having me on board.
On the poster release of Banaras, the leading lady Sonal Monterio quoted, "in this film how the love story of Siddharth and Dani grows while exploring the city is very special and the director Jayathirtha has shown each and every aspect of the story gracefully. On working with debutant Zaid Khan, she said he is indeed a great actor. Being a debutant actor, he has picked up the character of Siddharth immediately. I am looking forward to the release of the film
Producer Tilakraj Ballal quoted the film Banaras has all the essence of love, drama and picturesque locations. The director Jayathirtha has given his best. The debutant actor Zaid Khan and gorgeous Sonal Monterio are apt for the character, and they have done justice to it.
Banaras (Motion Poster): (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdAx6Hrjtlg)
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Pune (Maharashtra) [India], November 17 (ANI/NewsVoir): With an aim to ensure quality access to STEM education and create India's next generation of talent, SKF India, today announced the launch of WeGyaan - a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) initiative for deserving students.
To be launched in association with NGO partner, United Way Bengaluru, the WeGyan initiative plans to reach to at least 10,000 students annually, in government schools across Ahmedabad, Gurugram, Haridwar, Mysuru, Bengaluru, and Pune with the aim to encourage students to pursue education and careers in STEM subjects.
With the core focus on building STEM learning, including setting-up infrastructure for STEM labs, and providing innovative science-based learning tools to help students strengthen the concepts in Science and Mathematics, the project will focus on other key components including holistic development, career guidance as well as physical and mental well-being.
It will also build capacities of teachers and include exposure visits, mentoring and soft skills training. To motivate students and address absenteeism, the initiative will focus on building need-based WASH facilities in the school.
Manish Bhatnagar, Managing Director, SKF India Ltd., said, "We strongly believe that supporting STEM learning and inspiring students to pursue STEM education and careers will help build India's future pipeline of skilled STEM workers, scientists, innovators and engineers. Our aim is to reach over 100,000 students by 2024, across multiple states, through a 3-year program thereby inspiring them to consider STEM career options. This initiative will further aid diversity in STEM fields by creating a world with equal opportunities for both girls and boys."
Through the initiative, 35 government schools in rural and urban areas are provided with STEM infrastructure support as well as WASH training and intervention to reduce dropout rates of girl students. Through experiential science activities, using innovative tools and DIY models and other need-based interventions, WeGyaan aims to build critical-thinking, decision-making and problem-solving among students. This initiative will also include teachers training sessions for facilitating them to teach the STEM-related topics, as well as on-ground engagement with local communities and families on the importance of STEM education and related careers.
"Stronger and educated women make a stronger nation and we feel gratified to be facilitating this project in collaboration with SKF India. The program helps advancement of underrepresented students who aspire to pursue careers in technical fields," said Rajesh Krishnan, Executive Director, United Way Bengaluru.
SKF's mission is to be the undisputed leader in the bearing business. We do this by offering solutions that reduce friction and CO2 emissions, whilst at the same time increasing machine uptime and performance. Our products and services around the rotating shaft include bearings, seals, lubrication management, artificial intelligence and wireless condition monitoring. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 17,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2020 were SEK 74 852 million and the number of employees was 40,963. www.skf.com/in.
UWBe, part of United Way Worldwide, is an NGO focused on social issues that seek immediate attention. The chapter catalyses unified efforts from corporates, civic bodies and citizen associations to bring about visible change. The organisation works in four key areas - Environment, Education, Healthcare and Livelihood.
Currently, UWBe is implementing four flagship campaigns that serve important purposes: 'Wake the Lake' works to protect Bengaluru's lakes, 'One Billion Drops' aims at conserving rainwater through percolation pits, 'Born Learning' helps provide nutrition and education to very young children and 'Rural Rising' aims to develop and empower the rural communities. Besides, COVID relief work is another key area where the organisation is helping healthcare institutions, healthcare professionals and other organisations working towards COVID relief.
For more information, please visit (https://www.uwbengaluru.org).
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Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], November 17 (ANI/PNN): IHCL's Taj Lakefront Bhopal wins award for 'Best Wedding Destination of Central India' at 16th Hospitality India Annual International Travel Awards.
With a banquet capacity of 3862 sq. Mtrs (41,570sq. feet), the hotel can cater to the needs of all kinds of meetings, conferences, events, and weddings.
The award only reaffirms the legacy of the Taj brand and establishes the presence of Taj Lakefront Bhopal as the leader in luxury weddings in Central India.
The award event took place in New Delhi and saw the participation of a large number of prestigious hotels from around the country.
On receiving the award, Kanika Hasrat, Area Director - Uttar Pradesh, MP & Uttarakhand and General Manager - Taj Lakefront Bhopal, said, "We are grateful to Hospitality India for this prestigious award. The Taj Lakefront Bhopal is indeed a gem in the heart of India. With its 875 sq. Mtrs (9418 sq. ft) pillar-less Raj Mahal Ballroom, the beautiful Vindhya Lawn, the Satpura Terrace and the opulent Sheesh Mahal; the hotel is indeed the ideal destination for a dream wedding. With elegant chandeliers, manicured Lawns, mesmerising views and culinary legacy of the Taj Chefs, we look forward to many more 'happily ever after."
With 152 rooms that overlook the Upper Lake or the Van Vihar forests, the Taj Lakefront Bhopal is the ideal destination to discover the history, heritage, or Natural treasures of the state. The UNESCO world heritage sites of Sanchi and Bhimbetka, the temples of Bhojpur, Udaigiri caves and Satpura Tiger reserve are within close proximity. With the traditional Bhopali zardozi work, paisley prints of Bagh, terracotta art and bell metal craft of Tikamgarh adorning the interiors of the hotel - the hotel takes its design inspiration from local arts & crafts of Madhya Pradesh.
Established in 1903, Taj is The Indian Hotels Company Limited's (IHCL) iconic brand for the world's most discerning travellers seeking authentic experiences in luxury and has been rated as the World's Strongest Hotel Brand and India's Strongest Hospitality Brand as per Brand Finance 2021.
From world-renowned landmarks to modern business hotels, idyllic beach resorts, to authentic Grand Palaces, each Taj hotel offers an unrivalled fusion of warm Indian hospitality, world-class service and modern luxury.
The unique portfolio comprises hotels across the globe, including presence in India, North America, United Kingdom, Africa, Middle East, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, and Nepal.
For more information, please visit (https://www.tajhotels.com/?utm_source=Taj_Press_Release & amp;utm_medium=Referral & amp;utm_campaign=GET_A_BOOST_OF_IMMUNITY_WITH_INNERgise)
For more information, please contact: lakefront.bhopal@tajhotels.com
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Former President Donald Trump had eliminated a loophole that exempted double-sided solar panels from import duties last year. Photo: Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) A U.S. trade court has reinstated a tariff exemption on some imported solar panels, a decision that benefits domestic clean-energy developers.
Former President Donald Trump last year eliminated a loophole that exempted double-sided solar panels from import duties, but that constituted an action outside the presidents delegated authority, U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann said in a ruling Tuesday.
As a result of the courts ruling, all of the companies that paid tariffs under the Trump era proclamation will receive refunds, according to the industry trade group Solar Energy Industries Association.
The judges ruling is the second blow to domestic panel makers in the past week, after the U.S. Commerce Department rejected Wednesday a request from a group of anonymous manufacturers to extend a separate set of tariffs to cover equipment made in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. However, it will help U.S. developers that fought to restore the tariff exemption on so-called bifacial solar panels.
This is a major surprise, Philip Shen, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners, said in a note Tuesday. Just like that, module vendors can import bifi modules into the U.S., and the industry can avoid the tariffs Trump imposed in 2018,
First Solar Inc., the largest U.S. solar manufacturer, fell as much as 9.3% on Tuesday, the most in intraday trading since Sept. 20. China-based JinkoSolar Holding Co., gained as much as 5.8%.
This is an unfortunate ruling that puts domestic solar manufacturers at risk of immediate and substantial harm, said a spokesperson for Hanwha Q Cells, a South Korean manufacturer of bifacial solar modules that owns a facility in Dalton, Georgia.
This ruling doesnt help the U.S. solar industry. We want to support a sector, this sets it back, said Brian Lynch, head of solar business development at LG Electronics USA Inc. LGs facility in Huntville, Alabama makes bifacial solar modules.
The judges decision comes months after the trade court ruled Trumps proclamation hadnt violated an earlier order, effectively allowing his administration to end the exclusion. In December, a Washington-based solar-trade group and some developers challenged the proclamation, contending the administration failed to follow the required procedures before acting.
Trump originally approved four years of tariffs on solar equipment imports, starting at 30%. The administration later surprised many in the sector by granting an exclusion for bifacial panels. While they were considered niche products, the tariffs had encouraged some new solar manufacturing in the U.S., and module imports exempt from those duties posed a threat.
The former presidents proclamation was an unlawful attempt to harshen his tariffs, Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the SEIA, said in a statement.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. And, the International Trade Commission has no comment to offer.
The case is Solar Energy Industries Association v. U.S., 20-3941, U.S. Court of International Trade (New York).
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Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honors Society at 4Cs to Host Toy and Gift Drive for Foster-Care Families
Students in the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honors society at Cape Cod Community College will be helping foster families across the Cape and Islands have a happier holiday thanks to a community drive to support nonprofit organizations in the region. On Saturday, November 20 from 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m., members of the community are welcome to come to the Colleges West Barnstable campus to donate toys and gifts that will support Kind Hearts for Kids in Bourne and Cape Cod Foster Closet in Orleans.
Community members are encouraged to come to the Grossman Commons building to drop off items that have been requested by children and their foster families, including:
Gift cards to businesses such as Target, Old Navy, Dunkin Donuts, Amazon, Michaels, Rue21, and Starbucks
Visa gift cards
Fleece throw blankets
Medium-sized duffel bags
Artificial Christmas trees
Lego toy sets
Check donations made out to Kind Hearts for Kids and the Cape Cod Foster Closet
Drop-offs are welcome at any time between 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m., with a designated area that will be
marked outside of the Zammer Dining Hall on the first floor of the Grossman Commons building. For easiest access, community members are encouraged to park in Lot 9, then walk up to the entrance of Grossman Commons with the Cafeteria sign over the door on the left.
Phi Theta Kappa is the renowned international honor society for two-year colleges, with a network of more than 3.5 million members around the world. Cape Cod Community Colleges chapter, Alpha Upsilon Mu, has been recognized as one of the premiere PTK organizations in the United States, winning multiple awards for academic and student accomplishments every year.
For more information about PTK and the drive for Foster Families, please contact Rebecca Griffin, PTK Coordinator, at rgriffin@capecod.edu or call 774-330-4554.
Photo: CTV News
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the federal government will announce changes to COVID-19 prevention measures at the Canadian border "very soon."
The government has faced mounting pressure for weeks to do away with a requirement for fully vaccinated travellers into Canada to provide a negative molecular COVID-19 test.
For travellers making only a short jaunt over the border, the test can be completed in Canada before the trip takes place drawing even more ire from travellers and the tourism sector.
The rule is part of an order in council that will expire on Sunday.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam has defended the test requirement in the past, but recently said that it needs to be reviewed.
After meeting with fellow cabinet ministers Tuesday, Duclos says the government plans to make an announcement on the border in the coming days.
We live in a democracy where our citizens can make informed decisions and choices for themselves and their families with regards to every aspect of their lives.
I know that the effects of this pandemic have ridden upon (our) shoulders heavily. Messaging from the government has been changing daily, just as the ever present Covid-19 numbers go up and down like the Toronto Stock Exchange monitor.
While there are questions still about how the approved vaccines work within us, and the side effects that do occur to many who have been vaccinated, the science has proven that those unvaccinated have a much greater chance of being infected.
Yet many of our fellow citizens have not responded to the governments call to get vaccinated. Approximately 81% of Canadian's have received double doses of a vaccine. Herd immunity is approaching and can be achieved so long as those unvaccinated change their minds and step up.
Our economy is opening up, making every effort to survive this unexpected assault by the pandemic.
Other nations are suffering the pandemic of the unvaccinated too. Austria is locking down two provinces, Upper Austria and Salzburg due to their miserably low vaccination rates and the prolific infection rates. Their hospitals are full of the unvaccinated. (Its) health minister said health workers are required to be vaccinated too.
This is just an example of what can happen here in Canada if our citizens who are unvaccinated continue denying our national health plans. There will be more sickness and death to come in the future with winter and the holiday season approaching.
My friends, please get vaccinated, if not for yourself (for) your family, neighbours and community.
Steven Kaszab, Bradford, Ont.
Photo: The Canadian Press Protesters are seen guarding an area of a logging cut block called 'Heli Camp' in the Fairy Creek logging area near Port Renfrew, B.C. Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
A lawyer representing protesters opposed to old-growth logging on southern Vancouver Island told a British Columbia Court of Appeal hearing that there are limits to a company's economic and private rights.
Malcolm Funt says B.C. forest company Teal Cedar Products Ltd. has the right to defend its economic interests, but others also have rights to lawful protest and freedom of expression and movement.
Teal Cedar Products Ltd. is appealing a decision from a lower court judge who denied an extension of an injunction against protest blockades in the area for one year.
Teal Cedar's lawyer Dean Dalke told the Appeal Court panel on Monday the company wants the court to uphold the rule of law at protest sites near Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island where more than 1,100 people have been arrested at ongoing protests.
The injunction remains in place after another judge granted a temporary stay last month to allow Teal Cedar to appeal the B.C. Supreme Court decision.
Funt faced several questions Tuesday from the Appeal Court judges about the lower court's reasons not to grant the injunction extension, especially the suggestion the court's reputation was damaged by police conduct during the arrests of protesters.
Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller responds to questions during a news conference in Ottawa on October 29, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says all parties are at a "critical junction" in the discussions toward a resolution on the blockade set up at the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline in British Columbia.
Miller adds that it is an "alarming" and "tense" situation since 500 workers are currently behind the barricades.
The blockade was erected Sunday by members of the Gidimt'en clan, one of five in the broader Wet'suwet'en Nation.
A spokesperson for the Gidimt'en clan says the hereditary chiefs have never ceded nor surrendered the territory, and said that the Coastal GasLink workers were given eight hours notice to peacefully evacuate before the road to the work site was barricaded.
Miller says those involved in the talks include the B.C. government, Coastal GasLink, and the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs.
On whether the situation might escalate to one akin to the scenario in early 2020, when the Wet'suwet'en and others in solidarity staged massive rail blockades across the country, Miller says "it depends" what happens.
Asked whether the Wet'suwet'en people's rights and sovereignty have been violated, Miller says the federal government brought forward a framework that affirmed rights in title to the Wet'suwet'en in 2020, adding that there's still work to do on that front.
Miller says there is a window in the next week or so for a resolution to be reached, but specified it will require "good minds" to come together and provide solutions that address the issues at play.
"There are views that are diametrically opposed, but I don't preclude by that same stroke the ability to resolve that in a peaceful way," he said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Photo: DriveBC Flooding overwhelms the Whatcom Road Interchange in the Fraser Valley, stranding motorists | DriveBC
Business owners in B.C.s tourism sector are thankful that the so-called atmospheric river, which dumped up to 230 mm of rain in parts of the province November 13 through 15, came during its shoulder season.
Summer tourists have long gone, while ski resorts are yet to open and holiday-season visits are more than a month away.
Before the storm, which prompted flooding and evacuations in pockets of the province, including the entire 7,000-person town of Merritt, executives at the 210-room Kelowna Sandman Hotel & Suites were expecting to be 60% occupied, front desk manager-in-training Abhi Rawat told BIV.
Were full, he said, adding that the hotel is providing evacuees with a government rate, and that the hotel would be compensated for those discounts by the B.C. governments emergency services department.
A series of landslides and wash-outs closed all highways connecting the Lower Mainland to the Interior. Some motorists were stranded on Highway 1, between Sumas Way and Whatcom Road, in Abbotsford.
People who were able to get out of that logjam provided business for hotels, such as the Abbotsford Hotel, on Clearbrook Road, just off the highway.
Front desk clerk Raj Sidhu told BIV that guests occupied 40 of his hotels 42 rooms on November 15, with most of the reservations being last-minute online bookings.
He said he thought many of those customers were motorists who had not intended to stay in a hotel overnight, and that on a standard mid-November night the hotel would see about 45% occupancy.
Often, when there is rain on the coast, Interior mountains get snow.
The atmospheric river, however, carried water and warmer air that drenched Big White Ski Resort, which had been planning to open on November 25.
We lost about 30 cm of snow, Big White vice-president of sales and marketing Michael Ballingall told BIV. We had about a 50 cm base, and were down to about 22 cm.
He said he is concerned that a section of the Coquihalla Highway, between Hope and Merritt, washed away.
That's where all our groceries come from, for all our restaurants, he said. Our customers come down that road. People who come from overseas do ski safaris visiting Big White, Revelstoke, Kicking Horse, that's what they do. They rent a car in Vancouver, and do a little circuit. So we're fielding calls from people who are concerned [about the roads].
Damage to the Coquihalla Highway appears to be extensive, and government officials have yet to project a date when the highway could reopen.
Some good news is that the Okanagans wine region should be able to weather the storm, Wine Growers British Columbia CEO Miles Prodan told BIV.
One challenge could be that wineries have trouble delivering wine to customers. November, however, is as slow a time of year for wine tourists as it is for grape growing. Most fruit has been picked, he explained.
Some wineries have left grapes on vines with the intention of making icewine, but this year had been shaping up to be a low-yield year for icewine, with only 80 tonnes of grapes registered to be left on vines, and only four wineries registered to pick those grapes and make the wine.
In order to make icewine, wineries must register their intent with the BC Wine Authority, which is the regulatory authority for BC VQA.
B.C.s hospitality sector is also unlikely to take a hit from the storm, according to BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association CEO Ian Tostenson.
I think well be all right, apart from supply chain disruption in the Interior, he said. It's going to be a problem, but it was already was a problem, and is just going to be exasperated. This is a shoulder period for us.
Photo: Canada Armed Forces Military assisting in the rescue of stranded motorists on Highway 7
The B.C. government has requested federal military support in dealing with the flooding situation.
Canadian Air Force assets have already been involved in rescues over the past two days, including at Highway 7 in Agassiz where hundreds were trapped between two slides.
Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth issued a statement Tuesday night on the heels of Abbotsfords urgent evacuations of the Sumas Prairie.
The city has indicated that conditions within the Sumas Prairie have escalated and pose a significant risk to life due to the imminent failure of the Barrowtown Pump Station, Farnworth said.
This evening, I have been in continual contact with Henry Braun, mayor of Abbotsford. Emergency Management BC has been working with Abbotsford Emergency Management staff and the Abbotsford Police Department.
Farnworth said the province is supporting Abbotsford in any way possible, including offering emergency notification capabilities.
I have also been in contact with Bill Blair, federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness, to request federal assistance on this incident and the flooding situation in general. This includes Canadian Armed Forces ground and air support.
Farnworth echoed Abbotsford officials in asking residents to not stay behind for livestock or property.
Premier John Horgan spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday. A call readout states Trudeau pledged to support British Columbians with any federal resources required, from short-term assistance such as providing air support to long-term rebuilding efforts.
Photo: The Canadian Press Economic Development, International Trade and Small Business and Export Promotion Minister Mary Ng
Canada is launching free-trade talks with a major group of southeast Asian countries as it seeks to diversify from China and find new ways of coping with a snarled global supply chain.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng announced the opening of formal trade talks late Tuesday with the Association of South East Asian Nations known as ASEAN after meeting with representatives of that 10-country bloc.
Ng heralded the opening of the talks as a significant milestone in deepening Canada's economic relations with the Indo-Pacific region and driving economic growth as the world copes with supply-chain bottlenecks that have plagued global trade during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a business forum that pursuing a trade deal with ASEAN countries would be a "win-win" that would be key to driving Canada's growth as it emerges from the pandemic.
"Our government is committed to opening up and diversifying more markets for Canadian exporters and businesses to grow," Ng said in an interview.
Ng met virtually Tuesday with ASEAN ministers and representatives of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council. The ministers agreed to a joint statement highlighting the potential for a free-trade agreement to help diversify supply chains, increase trade and investment, and reinforce Canada and ASEAN's shared commitment to open markets and rules-based trade.
Canada already has preferred access to four of ASEAN's 10 countries Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam through the 11-country Pacific Rim trade group known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
"We already have the CPTPP in the Asia-Pacific region. And this adds another 600 million new consumers," said Ng.
She said the region is the third-largest consumer market in the world with a $5 trillion economy.
A deal with ASEAN would open up access to three other large markets Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. The pursuit of a trade deal with ASEAN has been long sought by the government, and the global pandemic has only heightened the need to forge deeper into Asian markets.
An analysis by ASEAN and the federal government estimates that a free-trade deal between them could increase Canadian exports of goods and services to the region by 13.3 per cent.
The early months of the pandemic exposed the overreliance on trade with China as Canada encountered problems gaining access to personal protective equipment and vaccines.
In 2018, Canada launched public consultations that generated submissions from more than four dozen interested parties and individuals.
"Overall, stakeholders expressed support for FTA exploratory discussions with ASEAN and highlighted the significant opportunities for Canadians and Canadian businesses in the ASEAN market notably with non-CPTPP economies (Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand) across a broad range of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and services, among others," said the report, by Global Affairs Canada.
The agriculture sector provided the majority of input with 20 of the 49 submissions on the consultations, and their advice carried a familiar warning about an obstacle that has plagued past Canadian trade negotiations.
"A small number of stakeholders, especially from the supply-managed agriculture sectors, are skeptical of the benefits of a possible ASEAN-Canada FTA. Contributors indicated that support for an agreement would depend on outcomes that provide a carve-out for supply-managed goods," said the report.
Canada's supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg markets have proven to be major bones of contention during trade talks on the CPTPP, with the European Union and in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, where it sparked the wrath of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Canada's agriculture sector suffered when China imposed restrictions on Canadian canola, pork and beef imports during the dispute involving Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou, and Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The men who became known as the two Michaels spent almost three years in Chinese prisons in apparent retaliation for Canadas arrest of Meng on a U.S. extradition warrant, while the punitive Chinese trade measures cost Canadian canola companies about $2 billion.
"We've been clear as a government that we will protect supply-managed sectors, and we intend to fulfil that," said Ng.
"But we're also looking at opportunities to look at market access in other sectors. We're looking at growth in the digital economy. We're looking at greater access to (financial) services."
Photo: The Canadian Press
The last time Polenli Combary spoke to her son on the phone she prayed for God to bless him. Shortly after, she called back but the line was dead.
Her 34-year-old son was returning a truck used to move the family's belongings from their village in eastern Burkina Faso after jihadis forced everyone to leave. He disappeared in March.
We will keep searching ... Im just praying to God to have him back, said Combary, 53, sitting despondently in the eastern city of Fada NGourma where she now lives.
Islamic extremist violence is ravaging Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing more than 1 million people.
And people are going missing. Reports of missing relatives quadrupled from 104 to 407 between 2019 and 2020, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which defines a missing person as someone whose whereabouts cannot be accounted for and requires state intervention.
With the conflict, you have more sudden movements of people, you have more incidents which can lead to separation and disappearance," said Marina Fakhouri, head of protection with the ICRC in Burkina Faso. "Certainly we are concerned also by the number of families who are coming to us directly to signal that they have a missing relative and need support.
People have previously gone missing in the West African nation due to migration, floods or shocks from climate change, but the magnitude has increased because of the violence, she said.
Tracing people during a conflict and in a context of mass displacement is challenging, can cause tensions within families and communities and psychological and physical distress. One month after her son disappeared, Combarys husband died of a heart attack due to the shock, she said.
While some families blame the jihadis for the disappearances of their loved ones, many others point to the security forces as the main perpetrators. During a trip to Fada NGourma in October and speaking to people in the Sahel province by phone, three families, including Combary's, told The Associated Press they suspect the army is responsible for their missing relatives.
The military has been accused by rights groups of extrajudicial killings and targeting people deemed to be associated with the jihadis. About 70% of families reporting people missing allege it is linked to the security forces, said Daouda Diallo, executive secretary for the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, a civil society group.
Theres been a reduction of reported cases affiliated with the military since the end of last year, which Diallo attributes to a report by Human Rights Watch that accused the army of being involved in mass killings, said Diallo. But now the abuses are being committed by volunteer fighters, civilians armed by the state, he said.
It is sad to see that the violence has been subcontracted to armed civilians or militia in the field, Diallo said.
Photo: The Canadian Press
Dairy farmers in flood-affected British Columbia are being asked to dump milk because mudslides and road washouts have made it impossible to transport.
The B.C. Milk Marketing Board is advising producers in areas like Abbotsford, Chilliwack and the Southern Interior to dispose of their milk by dumping into manure piles.
Mudslides and flooding have cut several key highways in the province.
Many B.C. dairy producers have no road access at all to their farms right now.
In other cases where milk can be picked up from the farm, there is nowhere for it to go.
There are no roads available to enter the B.C. Lower Mainland for milk delivery, and only limited road access to Alberta.
Photo: The Canadian Press Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau in 2016.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, observers say Canada has a lot to complain about. Here are some of the issues that have been chafing north of the border:
Pipelines: In addition to Keystone XL, the Biden administration has shown little enthusiasm for Line 3 and Line 5, two key cross-border upgrade projects spearheaded by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. that have been the targets of widespread protests and legal action in the U.S.
Afghanistan: Canada received little advance warning of the American military's abrupt and chaotic pullout, despite the prominent, costly and bloody role it played over a decade-long deployment as part of the U.S.-led NATO mission in the war-racked country.
Buy American: The president frequently uses strong protectionist language to assure working-class voters that infrastructure projects will rely heavily on U.S. contractors and suppliers, with stringent conditions for any foreign involvement.
Electric vehicles: Canada's auto industry is up in arms over a proposed U.S. tax credit worth up to $12,500 to would-be EV buyers that critics, including foreign automakers, say is unfairly geared toward American-made vehicles built with union labour.
Hydro-Quebec: A planned transmission line between Quebec and New England, billed as a clean-energy conduit that would have had a dramatic impact on carbon emissions, was rejected by voters in Maine in a referendum earlier this month.
The Canada-U.S. border: The White House didn't open its land borders to fully vaccinated Canadian visitors until early November, three months after fully vaccinated U.S. citizens were allowed to drive into Canada.
USMCA: In addition to the EV tax credit, which auto industry officials in Canada consider a violation of the terms of the new trilateral trade deal, Canada and the U.S. are girding for a protracted battle over access to the Canadian dairy market.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the two powerful explosions in the centre of Uganda's capital during rush hour on Tuesday, reported The Wall Street Journal.
At least three people were killed and 33 were injured in the bombings. It took place within about 550 yards and three minutes of each other in Kampala's heavily guarded business district, The Wall Street Journal quoted police spokesman Fred Enanga as saying. Three suspected suicide bombers also died in the blasts.
Earlier on Tuesday, the chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat had condemned the twin bomb blasts in Uganda.
"I condemn in the strongest terms. Our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishes for a full recovery to the injured," Moussa Faki Mahamat tweeted.
(ANI)
Also Read: Six dead, 33 injured in twin bomb blasts in Ugandan capital
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the Taliban would be invited to the third ministerial meeting of Afghanistan's neighbours. The meeting is expected to be held in China next year, local media reported.
"Afghanistan's interim government will also be invited to the next meeting of Afghanistan's neighbours," Qureshi said at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, reported Dawn.
According to Dawn, Pakistan had worked out a new mechanism for consultations among Afghanistan's neighbours after the Taliban takeover.
The format includes China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, besides Russia. The inaugural meeting was held in Islamabad on September 8, while the second meeting was hosted by Iran on October 27, according to the newspaper.
However, the Taliban was not invited to either of the meetings because the new regime lacked international recognition.
The next meeting will take place in China. Although dates have not been finalised, it is likely to be held early next year, Dawn reported.
Last week, Pakistan has hosted senior diplomats from the United States, China and Russia in Islamabad to discuss the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has forced many Afghans to migrate to neighbouring countries since the Taliban takeover in August.
(ANI)
Also Read: Islamic State claims responsibility for Uganda bombings
U.S. monkeypox cases are very rare. Monkeypox does not occur naturally in the United States, but cases have happened that were associated with international travel or importing animals from areas where the disease is more common.
November 2021 Travel-Associated Case
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maryland Department of Health confirmedexternal icon on November 16, 2021 a case of monkeypox in a U.S. resident who recently returned from Nigeria to the United States. CDC is supporting state and local health officials, airline and travel industry partners, and other stakeholders to identify people who had possible contact with the patient. Because it can take up to 21 days for symptoms to develop after infection, contacts are being asked to monitor their health for that amount of time. CDC will continue to collaborate with partners to ensure the success of this investigation to help prevent additional cases of monkeypox in the United States.
July 2021 Travel-Associated Case
CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed on July 15, 2021 a case of human monkeypox in a U.S. citizen who traveled from Nigeria to the United States on two commercial flights. CDC supported state and local health officials to identify more than 200 people who had possible contact with the patient. Contacts were asked to monitor their health for 21 days. In early September, 21 days had passed without additional cases identified, and the monitoring period for the remaining contacts ended. Strong collaboration between CDC, state and local health departments, airline and airport partners, and other stakeholders involved in this investigation helped to prevent additional cases of monkeypox in the U.S. related to this case.
2003 Outbreak from Imported Mammals
In 2003, forty-seven confirmed and probable casesexternal icon of monkeypox were reported from six statesIllinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. All people infected with monkeypox in this outbreak became ill after having contact with pet prairie dogs. The pets were infected after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana. This was the first time that human monkeypox was reported outside of Africa.
What caused the 2003 U.S. outbreak?
Investigators determined that a shipment of animals from Ghana, imported to Texas in April 2003, introduced monkeypox virus into the United States. The shipment contained approximately 800 small mammals representing nine different species, including six types of rodents. These rodents included rope squirrels, tree squirrels, African giant pouched rats, brush-tailed porcupines, dormice, and striped mice. CDC laboratory testing showed that two African giant pouched rats, nine dormice, and three rope squirrels were infected with monkeypox virus. After importation into the United States, some of the infected animals were housed near prairie dogs at the facilities of an Illinois animal vendor. These prairie dogs were sold as pets before they developed signs of infection.
All people infected with monkeypox became ill after having contact with infected pet prairie dogs. A study conducted after the outbreak suggested that certain activities associated with animals were more likely to lead to monkeypox infection. These activities included touching a sick animal or receiving a bite or scratch that broke the skin. Another important factor was cleaning the cage or touching the bedding of a sick animal. No instances of monkeypox infection were attributed exclusively to person-to-person contact.
How was the outbreak contained?
CDC and the public health departments in the affected states, together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies, participated in a variety of activities that prevented further spread of monkeypox. This included extensive laboratory testing; deployment of smallpox vaccine and treatments; development of guidance for patients, healthcare providers, veterinarians, and other animal handlers; tracking potentially infected animals; and investigation into possible human cases. Partners in the response issued an immediate embargo and prohibition on the importation, interstate transportation, sale, and release into the environment of certain species of rodents including prairie dogs. FDA later rescinded the part of the order that restricted the capture, sale, and interstate movement of prairie dogs or domestically-bred African rodents, but CDCs restriction on the importation of African rodents remains in place.
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In April 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany and, during the next nineteen months, more than four million American men would serve in the Great War, with 2.8 million serving in Europe. Emotions ran high among citizens as the civilian front activated in full support of the war to end all wars, responding to President Woodrow Wilsons appeal for unity that would make the world safe for democracy.
At 11:11 am on 11 November, 1918, the guns fell silent as the belligerent nations signed an armistice, agreeing to a ceasing of all conflict.
Representatives of the Allied nations meet with representatives of the German Empire in Paris and eventually hammered out the Versailles Treaty, identifying the terms of peace.In the months following the treaty agreement, France and Great Britain were reeling from tremendous casualties during their extended years of combat and the fact that many of their soldiers had been buried in cemeteries on foreign soil. To ease the pain of their citizens, both countries choose to honor all soldiers by creating memorials to an Unknown Warrior, each entombing an unidentified soldier in a special ceremony on Armistice Day 1920.Inspired by the British and French example, U. S. Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr., NY Great War veteran, introduced a bill creating a similar memorial at Arlington National Cemetery - - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After approval by both houses and the signature of President Warren G. Harding in the spring of 1920, construction of the tomb began.On November 11, 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated. The unknown soldier had been chosen from four U. S. unknowns who had been exhumed from four different cemeteries in France. Sgt. Edward F. Younger of the 50th Infantry, American Forces in Germany, was tasked with choosing the veteran who would be returned home for the ceremonial burial. Sgt. Younger identified his choice by placing a spray of white roses on one casket. He later said that he felt a draw to the second casket, as though he knew the soldier whose body was inside.The unknown came home via the USS Olympia, arriving at the Washington Navy Yard on November 9 and lying in state at the US Capitol on November 10. Almost 100,000 citizens filed past the flag-draped casket on that day.On Armistice Day, the nation observed two minutes of silence as the official state funeral began. The Great War Unknown Soldier was awarded the Medal of Honor and buried with honor at Arlington National Cemetery, with President Harding presiding. Congressional members, representatives of the military and thousands of citizens attended.On this centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the citizens of the United States recognize all those who have served in our armed forces in the commemoration of Veterans Day. A special ceremony will occur at Arlington, remembering all those who lie in graves, names known only to God.The story of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will continue . . .* * *
Linda Moss Mines is the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Historian and Secretary of the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council. She can be reached at localhistorycounts@gmail.com
A taxi driver for Mercury Cab said he had given a ride to a woman, and when she said she did not have the cash, he stopped at two different ATMs for her to get cash to pay him. The cab driver said when he arrived at the woman's destination, she gave him $10 to cover a $34 fare. The cab driver said that when he argued with her about this, she went into the house and returned with $20 in loose change, which he refused. The cab driver said she then left in a silver Chrysler 300. As police spoke with the cab driver, a man arrived to the address and said it was his house. Police explained why they were there, and he said the woman was his sister. He called her and then paid the cab driver $25 to cover the remaining fare. The cab driver said he no longer needed police assistance.
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The security company for Speedway at 1330 East 3rd St. called police reporting that a man was stealing beer from the store but did not give any description. Upon arrival, police spoke with the clerk who said she caught a man stealing beer. She showed police the beer she had taken from him - four three-packs of Bud Light and one six-pack of Michelob Ultra beer. The clerk described the suspect as a tall black male, approximately 6'3", thin, wearing all black clothes and a mask. No one matching the description was found on the premises. The clerk said the suspect left with no stolen items, and was no longer present.
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A man on Riverfront Parkway said someone stole the catalytic converter to his company vehicle, a Ford Excursion. There is no suspect information at this time. The total amount of loss is approximately $1,000. The man said the suspect(s) used a cutting device to remove the catalytic converter. He said the hotel he was staying at, Springhill Suites, asked him to park his vehicle on the roadway (Riverfront Parkway) rather than using the parking lot where it would have been kept in a secure lot.
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A man at 301 East Martin Luther King Blvd. told police a man was drinking beer in front of Kankus and was irate when he was asked to leave. The caller said he wanted the man trespassed. He pointed out the man, who was standing down the street on the sidewalk. Police made contact with the man and identified him. Police told him he was trespassed from Kankus and if he returned he would be arrested.
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A woman on Marylin Lane said her car, a 2014 Kia Soul, had damage on the front right fender that was not evident prior to this morning. She believes an unknown suspect, possibly her neighbor, might be responsible but she cannot prove this. Police witnessed what appeared to be scratch indentation damage. Police suggested to the woman that she might want to invest in some camera technology for future reference. At this time, there is no further case info to process.
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Police responded to Brookmeade Circle where a man said he is in an ongoing court situation with his soon to be ex-wife. He said she has been sending text messages to herself, under the guise that it is himself. He said he has documentation to prove that it is she that is sending these messages. Police told the man he would need to take this documentation with him to court and that this would be addressed at his upcoming court date.
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Officers were dispatched to check on the status of a woman on Esquire Drive, at the request of her brother. Upon arrival police spoke to the woman who said she was okay and that her brother may have had the incorrect phone number. The brother was given a call to relay that the woman was okay. He said he had not been able to make contact with her for the last couple of days and just wanted to make sure that she was okay.
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A man on East 16th Street called police and said there was an unauthorized device accessing his email/phone accounts. He said that he is in the process of going through a divorce, and believes that either his separated wife or her new boyfriend are the ones accessing his email/phone. He said he found an IP address on Shanty Lake Road for the area of the device accessing his accounts and that the new boyfriend lives in the area that the IP address come from, although the address is not exact. The man wanted this incident documented for his records.
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A woman on Ashford Villa Circle said she is having issues with a woman who is following her and taking pictures of her out and about. She wished to have documentation in case the situation worsens. She also had questions about what she could do legally.
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A woman at Sir Goony's Family Fun Center at 5918 Brainerd Road said that at some point while she was within the business, the rear driver's side window of her vehicle had been shattered. It appeared as though a small projectile or other object struck the window, causing it to break. This did not appear to be consistent with a projectile from a firearm, but possible an airsoft or BB gun. At this time the party responsible for the damage is unknown, pending if the business has camera footage of the incident.
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An officer observed a white sport bike with no tag turning south onto Central from Workman Road. The officer attempted to stop the motorist who then "flipped off" the officer and continued at a high rate of speed toward Burnt Mill Road/Tennessee Avenue. There was recently a report of a stolen white/blue sport bike from 20th Street. The officer was not able to get close enough to the vehicle to determine if this motorcycle was also blue. The vehicle seemed to have come from Fagan Street, which is an area that has previously held a "chop shop" of stolen motorcycles. The vehicle was BOLO'd to Adam team and Walker County.
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An officer was patrolling the area of 4000 Hooker Road when she observed a black female (possibly 20's) with long rainbow braids getting out of the passenger side of a green Subaru Outback with a handicap tag. As the officer passed, she observed a young black male (roughly 12- 14-years-old) step out of the driver's seat and look back toward the police vehicle before fleeing through yards on foot. The officer returned to the vehicle to find it was confirmed as stolen in this incident. Officers attempted to locate the parties without success. Fingerprints were lifted from the vehicle and submitted to AFIS. The car owner arrived and took possession of the vehicle, confirming to the officer that a phone had been connected to the vehicle's Bluetooth system that did not belong to him. The phone was listed as "Kay's phone" and the number listed was which currently does not have coplink history. The vehicle was removed from NCIC.
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While on patrol, an officer spotted a man who appeared to be urinating in the corner at 801 East. 11th St. The officer spoke with the man as he walked to the intersection of Peeples Street and East 11th Street. He said that he did urinate in the corner. He said because he is homeless and bad kidneys he has nowhere to use the restroom and he said since no one was around he could just go anywhere. The officer explained to him that this is not the case. Because he did not appear to expose himself to anyone in the area, the officer did not cite him.
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Police were called to Jaycee Towers at 500 W Martin Luther King Blvd. on a report of a found phone. A man said he found the phone lying on the couch in the lobby of JC Towers. Other tenants stated that it was a certain woman's phone and that she leaves her belongings laid about. Police have had interaction with the woman and knew what apartment she lived in. A resident said that he would take it to her but asked police to wait in case she didn't answer the door. That tenant returned and said that she didn't answer the door. Police took the phone to the Chattanooga Police Property room for safe keeping. Police completed a release form also.
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The manager of Party Foul at 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd. called police to report a disorder that occurred within the establishment. The two customers who were the cause of this report left before police arrived.
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An anonymous caller reported a college party on East 4th Street that was growing and he was concerned about it. Upon arrival, police were met in the yard by a man who identified himself as one of the residents at the address. The officer spoke with the man and asked him to keep the party calm and quiet, and we would have no cause to shut the party down. The man agreed, and at the time the officer was speaking with him, the party was not excessively loud or disruptive, and the man said they would be done around 12:30 a.m.
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A woman on Poplar Street said someone stole the tag off her vehicle. She identified the tag and it was entered into NCIC.
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A woman on Broomsedge Trail told police over the phone someone recently illegally accessed her Facebook account from Texas and changed the password. Also, she received emails last week notifying her that someone had also hacked her email and changed the password and she later found out that the same thing was done with her Amazon account. Then she discovered that someone had emptied out her savings account with Volunteer Federal Bank, which is based in Tellico Plains, and she believes it was an online transaction. When she checked her account online, it had been closed. She still hasnt spoken with anyone at the bank because they are still closed at this time. She also checked with her ex-husband and he told her he has not emptied out the account. The total amount taken was $118.
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A man at CJ's Automotive at 1073 Hooker Road said when he came to work he found a black 18-foot trailer abandoned at the entrance to his workplace. Police ran the VIN through NCIC and found that the trailer had been reported stolen out of Alabama. Hamilton County Dispatch reached out to the appropriate agency to have the trailer removed from the stolen status. The trailer was towed to United Wrecker Services.
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A woman on Highland Circle said overnight someone entered her unlocked 2018 Chevrolet Suburban and stole several items.
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A man on Mission Road told police various power tools, hand tools, and recreational sporting equipment were stolen from his yard and the area around his house. He did not know a specific time the offense took place. He did not have any working surveillance cameras on his property and police did not observe any on any neighboring structures. A detailed description of each item taken is listed in the property section of this report.
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A woman on East 34th Street said she left her vehicle parked there and later discovered some damage on the driver's side front door, which consists of some light scuff marks and a small dent. She said it looks like there is some white paint in the scuff marks and she parks the vehicle in a shared driveway with other neighbors at her residence. She has checked her neighbors' vehicles and they don't have any damage, so she said she doesnt know what really happened. She said one of her neighbors told her they saw a vehicle turn around in the driveway one day but they didn't see if her vehicle was hit. Therefore, there is no proof of how the damage was done or if it was intentional. She said the repair shop could not give an estimate yet.
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Police were dispatched to a suspicious vehicle at Sweet Melissa's Billiards at 1966 Northpoint Blvd. where a man was underneath a box truck. Upon arrival, police found a man in a gold Toyota Sienna, next to two Budget box trucks. Police identified the man who said he was sleeping in his car because he could not find a hotel, and that he was involved in a pool tournament at Sweet Melissa's. The man told police that he had a firearm in his glove box, at which point police instructed him to exit the vehicle. After further questioning, police determined that the man was not involved in criminal activity. Police told him he could not sleep in a private parking lot, and that he needed to find other arrangements. The man was instructed to vacate the premise and did so without incident.
When Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill that will allow partisan elections for county school board, it had little to do politics and a lot to do with wackos. School boards across the state have become infested in more than a few counties with stinkin thinkin and the conservative State Legislature quite rightfully wanted more transparency for the voters. Understand, there is nothing wrong with being a Republican or a Democrat because goodness only knows, there are zealots on both sides, and I think the more the voters know is helpful at a time when school boards are under the microscope.
Man, there are varying degrees these days. The folks at the Pew Research Center have just issued a new report that identified four species in each party. And then there are those who dont care for politics who are labeled as Stressed Sideliners. What many really want to know is what kind of Republican is running, and what is the typology of a given Democrat.Man, there are varying degrees these days. The folks at the Pew Research Center have just issued a new report that identified four species in each party. And then there are those who dont care for politics who are labeled as Stressed Sideliners.
pewresearch.org and take an easy quiz to discover your political leanings. Here is the gist of the different types of people today: As I read the Pew report, I can identify every typology in people I know and if you arent sure where you fall, please go toand take an easy quiz to discover your political leanings. Here is the gist of the different types of people today:
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RED VS. BLUE: THE POLITICAL TYPOLOGY
(as identified by the Pew Research Center, Washington D.C.)
The four Democratic-oriented typology groups highlight the partys racial and ethnic diversity, as well as the unwieldy nature of the current Democratic coalition.
They include two very different groups of liberal Democrats: PROGRESSIVE LEFT and ESTABLISHMENT LIBERALS. Progressive Left, the only majority White, non-Hispanic group of Democrats, have very liberal views on virtually every issue and support far-reaching changes to address racial injustice and expand the social safety net.
Establishment Liberals, while just as liberal in many ways as Progressive Left, are far less persuaded of the need for sweeping change.
Two other Democratic-aligned groups could not be more different from each other, both demographically and in their relationship to the party. DEMOCRATIC MAINSTAYS, the largest Democratic-oriented group, as well as the oldest on average, are unshakeable Democratic loyalists and have a moderate tilt on some issues.
OUTSIDER LEFT, the youngest typology group, voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden a year ago and are very liberal in most of their views, but they are deeply frustrated with the political system including the Democratic Party and its leaders.
The four Republican-oriented groups include three groups of conservatives:
FAITH & FLAG CONSERVATIVES are intensely conservative in all realms; they are far more likely than all other typology groups to say government policies should support religious values and that compromise in politics is just selling out on what you believe in.
COMMITTED CONSERVATIVES also express conservative views across the board, but with a somewhat softer edge, particularly on issues of immigration and Americas place in the world.
POPULIST RIGHT, who have less formal education than most other typology groups and are among the most likely to live in rural areas, are highly critical of both immigrants and major U.S. corporations.
AMBIVALENT RIGHT, the youngest and least conservative GOP-aligned group, hold conservative views about the size of government, the economic system and issues of race and gender. But they are the only group on the political right in which majorities favor legal abortion and say marijuana should be legal for recreational and medical use. They are also distinct in their views about Donald Trump while a majority voted for him in 2020, most say they would prefer he not continue to be a major political figure.
The only typology group without a clear partisan orientation STRESSED SIDELINERS also is the group with the lowest level of political engagement. Stressed Sideliners, who make up 15 percent of the public but constituted just 10 percent of voters in 2020, have a mix of conservative and liberal views but are largely defined by their minimal interest in politics.
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Again, I think declaring party affiliation is great and for those who believe politics have no place in school board matters should think again. Anytime there is a contested race politics are at the forefront. I think it is healthy for any candidate to identify with a party and, if that person is hesitant to do so, they should be doubly-present to run for political office. Be proud of who you are!
For Noel Durant, the new leader of The Trust For Public Lands Tennessee office, starting a new chapter is really about returning to his roots.
Mr. Durant, a Chattanooga native and McCallie School alum (04) who has served in a variety of roles for The Trust For Public Land (TPL) since 2013, assumed the role of Tennessee State Director on November 1. An avid outdoorsman with a degree in Natural Resource Management from Clemson University, he was previously the offices Institutional Giving Manager and Program Director. Before returning to the Tennessee office of TPL in 2020, he led the Crested Butte Land Trust in Crested Butte, Colorado.
My wife and I welcomed our first child last year, which made our decision to return to the Tennessee Valley very easy, Mr. Durant said. Im lucky to have had the experience of learning a lot in Colorado, about land and about leadership, but it was important to us that our son grow up in this incredible part of the country. After all, what is this work about if not creating and protecting public lands for future generations to enjoy?
TPL has big plans for Tennessee in 2022, including the completion of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway, the development of a new trail to connect Red Banks White Oak Park with Chattanoogas famed Stringers Ridge, and a significant expansion of Lockeland Springs Park in East Nashville.
As Tennessee State director, Mr. Durant will be responsible for the timely completion of these and other projects, in addition to managing the offices operations staff and collaborating with the states Director of Philanthropy to secure financial support for the regions many efforts to protect land and create parks for people.
Noel is the ideal person for this job, both because of his long history with TPL and his unique understanding of where our organization can go next, said Franklin Farrow, a longtime TPL volunteer and supporter of their work in Tennessee. The creation and protection of high-quality public space is essential to healing damage to our environment and divisions in our community. Noel knows how to do both, and The Trust For Public Land will be stronger because of his leadership moving forward.
Thanksgiving travelers will not be delayed by construction on Tennessee roads during this holiday. TDOT will halt all lane closure activity on interstates and state highways in anticipation of higher traffic volumes across the state. All construction-related lane closures will be stopped beginning at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 24 through midnight on Sunday, Nov. 28.Thanksgiving is typically the most traveled holiday of the year, said TDOT Commissioner Joe Galbato. Halting road work during this time will provide maximum capacity on our highways and help alleviate congestion, especially during the predicted peak travel days of Wednesday and Sunday.TDOTs regional HELP Trucks will also be working throughout the holiday weekend to assist with incidents that may occur along the interstates.While all lane closure activity will be stopped, workers may be on-site in some construction zones. Long-term lane closures will also remain in place on some construction projects for motorists safety. Motorists are reminded to drive safely and obey the posted speeds, especially in work zones. Drivers convicted of speeding in work zones where workers are present face a fine of up to $500, plus court fees and possible increased insurance premiums.AAA projects more than 53.4 million Americans will travel this Thanksgiving, up 13 percent from 2020. In Tennessee, the expectation is 1.2 million travelers.Get the latest construction activity and live streaming SmartWay traffic cameras from your desktop or mobile device at www.TNSmartWay.com/Traffic. Travelers can also dial 511 from any landline or cellular phone for travel information or follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TN511 for statewide travel. As always, drivers are reminded to use all motorist information tools wisely and Know Before You Go! by checking travel conditions before leaving for your destination. Drivers should never tweet, text or talk on a cell phone while behind the wheel.
Project Return, a Tennessee nonprofit dedicated to helping people successfully return to the community after incarceration and avoid recidivism, has opened an office in Chattanooga at 620 Lindsay St., Suite 100. The milestone was celebrated Wednesday with a reception featuring remarks from Project Return Chief Executive Officer Bettie Kirkland, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Tennessee State Senator Bo Watson.Our mission is to provide necessary, impactful reentry services for our program participants who have chosen to improve their own lives and communities, said Ms.Kirkland. Our decision to expand our services to Chattanooga was inspired by the strong support we received from local leaders, including state legislators, the city and county mayors offices and the business community.Founded in Nashville in 1979, Project Return has helped thousands of men and women find employment and establish stable lives, all while maintaining its inclusive, productive relationships with its program participants, employment partners and supporters. In 2021, Project Return program participants have an 82 percent job acquisition rate and a 13 percent recidivism rate, compared to state and national averages exceeding 50 percent.The impact on families is just going to be fantastic. Were so, so glad that you [Project Return] are here and will help you in any way we can, said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. I should say to the employers who may be listening: What a great opportunity. We all know where we are with the labor shortages, and with Project Returns tried and true program, you have a labor pool and youre helping the community.Officials said, "Project Returns decision to expand to Chattanooga was made in part due to the areas growing local economy and the strong entrepreneurial identity of its business community. Project Return operates an employment-creating social enterprise known as PROe, which is a high-quality staffing company, offering participants their best first job after incarceration, while staffing the worksites of area employers with motivated workers."Local corporate supporters of Project Return Chattanooga include Chattanooga Gas and Unum. "Chattanooga Gas is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and we honor that commitment by investing in organizations that share our values," said Tiffany Callaway-Ferrell, vice president of Operations for Chattanooga Gas. "Project Return's efforts to help people successfully transition from prison to the workforce is exactly the kind of work the Chattanooga Gas Foundation is looking to support. This donation will help ensure that those who are returning from incarceration get the second chance they deserve to support their families and live a life of dignity."In addition to their Chattanooga expansion, Project Return also recently relocated their Nashville headquarters to 109 Lafayette St., celebrating the move in October with a reception where Nashville Mayor John Cooper recognized Project Returns contributions to the local community. "Both recent expansions mark important milestones as Project Returns continued successes attract greater numbers of supporters and prospective participants," officials said.
Jennifer Bronson, J.D., has been named Chattanooga 2.0 executive director, Christy Gillenwater, president and CEO, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, announced on Wednesday.
Ms. Bronson most recently served as chief of staff, Hamilton County Schools (HCS), where she worked with interim Superintendent Nakia Towns, Ed.D., and former Superintendent Bryan Johnson, Ed.D. Ms. Bronson led the school systems COVID-19 response. In July 2019, when she joined HCS, she launched a Student Success Planning pilot in partnership with Harvard Universitys Education Redesign Lab and the By All Means consortium.
Jennifers wisdom, experience, and gravitas enable her to boldly lead Chattanooga 2.0, Ms. Gillenwater said. As a collective impact initiative, Chattanooga 2.0 relies on partners and individuals to share the work together. Jennifers ability to build partnerships and achieve goals will be critical to executing Chattanooga 2.0s strategic plan.
Ms. Bronson began her career as a first- and fifth-grade teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she went on to work in talent and leadership development as a project manager for Clark County Schools, the nation's fifth-largest school district.
Throughout her work to close opportunity gaps on behalf of Hamilton County Schools students and families, Jennifer has proven her success and agility in aligning resources and leveraging the work of community partners, said Stacy Lightfoot, vice chancellor for Diversity and Engagement, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and a search committee member.
Jennifer is thoughtful, strategic and passionate about HCS students and families. I am confident she will continue building on the existing momentum of Chattanooga 2.0 and create the conditions that inspire transformation in our community, Ms. Lightfoot said.
"Although we are sad she will no longer be a part of our school district, we are thrilled to have Ms. Bronson leading one of our key partner organizations," said Dr. Nakia Towns, interim Superintendent of Schools. "We welcome her ongoing support in ensuring all children thrive."
Also an attorney, Ms. Bronson served as an assistant public defender in the Missouri State Public Defender office and is admitted to the State Bars of Wisconsin and Missouri. In addition, she worked with the Wisconsin State Public Defender Juvenile Unit and was a judicial intern in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
Jennifer Bronsons experience as an educator, the impressive work she has done with Hamilton County Schools leading the Student Success Initiative Pilot, and her passion for serving all students make her an ideal choice for this important position leading Chattanooga 2.0., said Rebecca Ashford, Ed.D., president, Chattanooga State Community College.
I am confident she will lead this collective impact organizations work to new levels of success benefitting Hamilton County students, families and our entire community, Dr. Ashford said.
Ms. Bronson received her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and a master's degree in education from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. She earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she received the Wisconsin Idea Merit Scholarship, which is awarded to a student who seeks to improve the quality of life for citizens of the state.
Chattanooga 2.0 is the cradle-to-career collaborative of Chattanooga-Hamilton County. Formed in 2015 with a goal to transform education and workforce development outcomes, Chattanooga 2.0 is a cross-sector partnership led by stakeholders representing community, business, nonprofit, public, and educational institutions. As the convening entity that brings partners together to align resources and strategic focus, Chattanooga 2.0 seeks to improve outcomes for students, including early childhood, K-12, and higher education learners.
Business and community leaders founded the Chattanooga Chamber Foundation in 1969 to lead area economic development through a public-private partnership. The Chattanooga Chamber Foundation delivers economic, community and leadership development services.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is seeking public input on proposed revisions to the 2000 Tellico Reservoir Land Management Plan in Blount, Loudon and Monroe counties.
Based on a review of current use of TVA lands on Tellico Reservoir, TVA is proposing allocation changes to approximately 16 percent of lands on the reservoir and has prepared an environmental assessment of the proposed changes. TVA uses reservoir land management plans to guide land use approvals, private water use facility permitting, and resource management decisions on TVA-managed public land.
TVA invites public input on the draft environmental assessment, draft reservoir land management plan, and the proposals potential to affect the environment or historic properties. The public can view the proposed plan and other information through Jan, 15, 2022 at www.tva.gov/landplanreview or by attending a virtual meeting at https://tvavirtual.com/tellico/. TVA is also hosting a webinar on Dec. 7, starting at 5 p.m. to discuss the project. Visit www.tva.gov/landplanreview to register for the webinar. A recording of the event will be available to view after it ends.
The public may submit comments through Jan. 15, 2022, to Lesley Webb, TVA Senior Policy & Project Management Specialist, 2835-A East Wood Street, Paris, Tn. 38242; or by email to landplans@tva.gov. Due to COVID-19, TVA recommends submitting comments electronically for their timely review and consideration.
Note that all comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record and available for public inspection.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has developed the Fight CWD Incentive Program for the 2021-22 deer hunting season which contains new hunting incentives to support TWRAs chronic wasting disease (CWD) management effort.
The TWRA is helping people who harvest CWD-positive deer in two new ways. Hunters who harvest a positive deer will receive a $75 voucher redeemable for processing deer on their next deer harvest at participating processors. Residents who harvest two or more CWD-positive deer during the 2021-22 season will receive an annual sportsmans license for 2022. If the hunter has a lifetime license, the annual license can be gifted to a person of his/her choice.
Based on feedback from hunters, we have made improvements to the harvest incentive program this year, said Joy Sweaney, TWRA biologist. We are excited to be able to offer hunters free processing on their next harvest when a deer comes back positive for CWD, and hope it helps hunters to keep harvesting deer to help the fight against CWD.
Hunters and landowners are the TWRAs greatest partners in the fight against CWD. The goals of hunter incentive programs are to motivate hunters to harvest more deer in CWD affected counties which reduces deer densities and helps prevent the spread of CWD. The TWRA will continue to strive to identify new ways to support deer hunting which is the number one tactic for keeping CWD in check.
Hunter incentive programs may not be applicable to all CWD-affected counties. Those hunting in Unit CWD (Chester, Crockett, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McNairy, Lauderdale, Shelby and Tipton counties) have access to CWD hunter programs. Those hunting in Henry and Weakley counties have access to the Fight CWD Incentive Program and the Replacement Buck Program, but not the Unit CWD Earn-a-Buck Program.
Complete details on Fight CWD Incentive Program, Unit CWD Earn-a-Buck Program, Replacement Buck Program and Landowner Program may be found on the TWRA website, https://www.tn.gov/twra/hunting/cwd.html.
Georgia waterfowl hunters will head to their favorite wetland locations when duck season opens this Saturday, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division.The waterfowl seasons and bag limits are basically the same this season as they were last season, said Kara Nitschke, migratory gamebird biologist. Atlantic Flyway breeding populations fared quite a bit better this summer than mid-continent and western birds. If we can get cold weather in the Great Lakes, New England and mid-Atlantic regions, southern hunters can expect a good number of wood ducks, ring-necks and teal.Duck season dates are Nov.20-28 and Dec. 12-Jan. 31. Full migratory bird hunting regulations can be found at https://georgiawildlife.com/hunting/waterfowl.Youth, active military and veterans can take advantage of two early Waterfowl Hunting Dates on Nov. 13-14. On these two days, youth age 16 or younger (or active military or veterans) may hunt specific migratory birds, such as ducks, Canada geese and mergansers. Youth must be accompanied by an adult of at least 18 years of age (only the youth may hunt).To hunt waterfowl in Georgia you will need a Georgia hunting license, a Georgia migratory bird license and a federal duck stamp (now available when you purchase your other recreational licenses). WRD has made your purchase decision even easier by the creation of the Waterfowl Hunter Package at www.GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com, which includes all you need (and includes a convenient plastic card).For more information on Georgia Hunting Regulations for waterfowl, visit https://georgiawildlife.com/hunting/waterfowl.
Jesse Meester and Darcey Silva are two of the most polarizing personalities within the 90 Day Fiance franchise. Their toxic relationship was one viewers will remember because it seemed like the two were constantly fighting. Jesse appears in 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 and diving back into the dating pool. Lets take a look back at their toxic relationship before The Single Life.
Jesse and Darcey | discovery+
Who is Jesse Meester from The Single Life?
90 Day Fiance audiences first saw Jesse when he was in a relationship with Darcey. The two met on a global dating website, and eventually, Darcey packed up her things and headed to Amsterdam to visit Jesse. It was when Jesse moved into Darceys home in Connecticut that their relationship really went downhill.
Their most memorable blowout involved how to cut a steak. Apparently, criticizing Jesses lack of knowledge on cutting the piece of meat on a bias was the key to crushing his manhood, and the 28-year-old model stormed out of the house in front of Darceys daughters. He came back to eat dinner and continued to antagonize the situation by acting like a toddler and refusing to speak to Darcey. It wasnt long after that the two called it quits.
Who is Darcey Silva from the 90 Day Fiance franchise?
Darcey is a staple in the 90 Day Fiance franchise appearing on the original series and some of the spinoffs. Audiences have watched her attempts at a couple of different relationships with men, including Jesse Meester and Tom Brooks. Neither resulted in marriage, but Darcey made a name for herself in reality TV. Now the Connecticut mom of two even has her own spinoff, Darcey and Stacey, featuring her and her twin sister.
Darcey still isnt married and searching for love but wont appear on 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2. For now, it looks like shes just sticking with Darcey and Stacey.
Is Jesse Meester dating Jeniffer Tarazona on 90 Day: The Single Life?
Jeniffer Tarazona is another 90 Day Fiance franchise alum and also starring in The Single Life. However, fans arent sure that shes single. Fans recently discovered that Jeniffer had slid into Jesses DMs long before their appearance on the show, and fans are wondering how she qualifies as single.
Jesse is one of the more well-known villains from the franchise but honestly seems smitten with the Colombian model. Whether or not things will work out for the two remains to be seen. Jeniffer has also been seen with DJ Diplo and even has another man in her life in The Single Life premiere.
Jeniffers first appearance on 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way didnt win her many fans when she was in a relationship with Tim Malcolm. Her jealousy issues and constant berating of Tim annoyed several viewers, and not everyone is happy shes back on their television screens.
For those interested in watching Jesse, Jeniffer, and more in their search for love, you can catch new episodes of 90 Day: The Single Life exclusively on discovery+.
Fans of Bob Hearts Abishola have noticed how specific some of the CBS sitcoms events come across. Many have wondered if Bob Hearts Abishola is based on a true story. Actor Folake Olowofoyeku and writer Gina Yashere opened up about how they see their own lives mirrored in Abishola and the show as a whole.
Folake Olowofoyeku as Abishola in Bob Hearts Abishola | Michael Yarish/CBS via Getty Images
Bob Hearts Abishola is not based on a true story directly, but it does draw from real-life experiences
Co-creator, writer, and actor Gina Yashere joined Chuck Lorre on the sitcom when the original writers realized that they did not have the experiences to write a show about Nigerians on their own.
The show is mainly based on my life, Yashere told Essence Magazine in December 2020. Abishola is that single mother whose husband went back to Nigeria because there were no opportunities for him. That is my story. That is my mothers story.
While Yashere plays Abisholas best friend Kemi, she pours a lot of her mother into the lead character.
[My mother] was left in England raising us when my dad went back to Nigeria. So theres a lot of stuff in Abishola that is one hundred percent based on my actual life, and its kind of nice, bringing my story to screen but, also, bringing the culture to screen.
However, although Yashere puts a lot of herself and her family into the scripts, the show stars several Nigerian actors. And some of the Bob Hearts Abishola cast feel like it could draw inspiration from a true story.
Folake Olowofoyeku said the script seemed written for her
In a show about immigrant life in America, among other things, Olowofoyeku agreed in an interview that the script jumped out at her, even if Bob Hearts Abishola was not based on a true story directly.
It just seemed like it was written for me, the actor told CBS Mornings with Billy Gardell. [Abishola] was my mom. She was my aunt, a lot of my aunties that I grew up with back home in Nigeria. It just was seamless.
Folake Olowofoyeku emigrated to America in 2001 on her 18th birthday. An interviewer asked if the show reflected her experience.
I guess it is similar in that way, she said. [It feels] genuine, very authentic. Its extremely authentic, actually.
Even if Bob Hearts Abishola does not directly come from a true story, it still carries the same impact.
Yashere said basing Bob Hearts Abishola on real experiences helps it feel real
Yashere wanted people to respond the same way Olowofoyeku responded to the character of Abishola. American TV often had very little diversity.
Often when we see Africans on television, the accents are wrong; they arent specific about what part of Africa they are [from], Gina Yashere said to Essence Magazine.
Its always based on stereotypes and old tropes, she continued. So its great to bring three-dimensional Nigerian characters to television that African people can watch and be proud of and go yes that is us.
Even if Bob Hearts Abishola is not based on a true story, Yashere keeps bringing more Nigerian culture to CBS as season 3 continues.
RELATED: Why Bob Hearts Abishola and The Neighborhood Wont Return With New Episodes Until After Thanksgiving
Kate Middleton attracted a lot of press attention even before she married Prince William. When she was still a royal girlfriend, she often appeared in the tabloids due to her connection to the crown.
In 2007, Kate reportedly lost her temper when dealing with a swarm of paparazzi. Newspapers subsequently decided to ban photos of her from publication.
Kate Middleton | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Kate Middleton dealt with paparazzi before becoming a duchess
Kate reportedly began dating William in 2003 when they were both students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The couple had some privacy from the media when they were still in school.
However, after they graduated in 2005 and Kate moved to London, she started getting followed by paparazzi. Photographers often waited for Kate outside her home, and they also followed her as she went to and from work.
Because Kate was only a girlfriend, she could not receive tax-funded security in the same way a royal wife could. As a result, William and other palace aides tried to help her by setting up a hotline she could call for assistance.
She was obviously the subject of a lot of press interest and intrusion from the paparazzi, one source told writer Katie Nicholl in the book Kate: The Future Queen (via Stylecaster). William said we had a duty of care to her and her family and so we advised her on how to deal with the cameras. We told her to smile at the photographers so that there would be a better picture. She was given advice on how to manage the media, and we were there to support her if there was a crisis.
Newspapers banned Kate Middletons paparazzi pictures after she seemed almost to lose her temper
Kate Middleton photographed on her 25th birthday in 2007 | Lewis Whyld PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
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In January 2007, Kate celebrated her 25th birthday. On this day, however, she was met with a swarm of paparazzi. Author Kate Shoup described this in her book, Kate Middleton: From Commoner to Duchess of Cambridge.
By the morning of her birthday, on January 9 2007, hundreds of photographers had mobbed her doorstop, all hoping for a pre-engagement photo, Shoup wrote, as reported by Express. Due to work, Kate emerged from her flat and made for her car, whereupon she was swarmed by the press.
Shoup added, As noted by journalist Vicky Ward: It was the first and only time in her relationship with Prince William that the young woman seemed almost to lose her temper. Her usual smile was replaced by tightly closed lips, and her bluish-hazel eyes were stormy.
Later that month, News International, which owned tabloid newspapers such as The Sun and News of the World, decided to stop printing paparazzi photos of Kate.
We have imposed a ban on all News International publications printing paparazzi photos of Kate Middleton, a spokesperson for the group said, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for William shared, What Prince William wants more than anything else is for the paparazzi to stop harassing her.
Kate Middletons topless photos in 2012 were also barred from publication
RELATED: Kate Middleton Doesnt Have a Vengeful Bone in Her Body, Royal Expert Says Amid Royal Rift
In 2021, a year after joining the royal family, Kate dealt with another huge invasion of her privacy. While she and William were vacationing at a secluded chateau in France, a paparazzo took photos of Kate sunbathing topless.
The paparazzo sold the photos to French tabloid newspaper Closer. The royal family took swift action to stop the photos from being circulated by suing the outlet.
Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner, a statement released by St. James Palace read.
It also added, Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them.
Money Heist fans couldnt imagine anyone else but actor Itziar Ituno playing Inspector Raquel. The Netflix series starts with the investigator trying to locate the Professor (Alvaro Morte), the money heist mastermind. But, the two form a romantic bond, and Raquel becomes a member of the heist crew. However, Ituno almost turned down the role of the inspector. Heres why the actor joined the cast of Money Heist, also known as La Casa de Papel.
Itziar Ituno didnt want to join Money Heist for one reason
RELATED: Money Heist: Why Ursula Corbero Couldnt Stop Crying While Filming the Series Finale
Before securing the role of Raquel Murillo on Money Heist, Itziar Ituno also played a cop on another Spanish drama. For instance, she booked her first leading role in the Basque soap opera Geonkale. For over a decade, she played a police officer named Nekane Beitia. So, when the script for Money Heist came across her desk, Ituno wasnt keen to take on the part.
According to OSSA, the actor found the story of Money Heist so enticing. Also, its worth noting Ituno found inspiration for her character from the 1991 horror film The Silence of the Lambs. Ituno channeled Clarice Starling, a student from the FBI Academy, sent to interview serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the end, the actor auditioned for the role and ultimately got the part.
Ituno names one characteristic she loves about Raquel Murillo
Itziar Ituno | Tamara Arranz Ramos/Netflix
RELATED: Money Heist: 4 Burning Questions That Need Answers in the Final Season
In an exclusive interview with Identity Magazine, Itziar Ituno talked about playing Raquel in Money Heist. The 47-year-old actor revealed she admired Raquels endurance and willingness to be in touch with herself.
I really like Raquels strength and find it very significant, she explained. Shes a genuine woman, in general and that shes also always in touch with her real self.
Also, Ituno admires Raquels ability to remain true to herself, despite her surroundings. When the series started, Raquel wanted to take down the money heist group. As the show progressed, Raquel ultimately switched sides and joined The Professor in the Bank of Spain heist.
Raquel has always been the same person. However, her perception of the world around her [and everything going on] is the one thing that [drastically] changed, she explained. What I like about her is that even though the world around her changed, she didnt. Shes always been the same person.
Whats next for the gang in Money Heist Part 5 Vol. 2?
In the last season of Money Heist, Raquel and the gang remain trapped in the Bank of Spain. Money Heist fans want to know how the story will end for the group. Will the money heist crew escape with the gold? Or, will they meet an untimely fate? Well, Money Heist creator Alex Pina weighs in on the gangs future. While he remained tight-lipped about the final installment, he did signal that the last part will focus on the emotional aspect of the characters.
According to Digital Spy, Pina said in a statement, We decided to work in an extremely aggressive genre, putting The Gang on the ropes. In volume 2, we focus more on the emotional situation of the characters. It is a journey across their sentimental map that connects us directly to their departure.
Money Heist Part 5 Vol. 2 premieres on Netflix on Dec. 3. 2021.
TLCs Sister Wives has documented the lives of Kody Brown, his four wives (Robyn, Meri, Christine, and Janelle), and their 18 children as they attempt to make a polygamist lifestyle work in the American West. After 16 seasons over the past decade, the lives of this family are now in a period of upheaval. Christine Brown decided to leave Kody and the polygamist lifestyle behind. Meanwhile, Janelle Brown is taking a break from living in an RV. Keep reading for an update on the Brown familys current living situation.
Why did Janelle Brown move into an RV?
Christine Brown, Janelle Brown, Kody Brown, Robyn Brown, and Meri Brown Sister Wives | TLC
As recapped by Us Weekly, Janelle announced her move into the RV, alongside her daughter, Savanah, on Instagram June 2021. She made the move out of necessity, explaining, The rental where I was living was sold and I chose an alternative path to trying to find another rental. Not only is the housing market in Flagstaff as crazy as where you are Im sure, [but] rentals are even harder to come by. Presenting my new summer adventure the RV life but camped on our property.
The original plan for the Browns (all orchestrated by Kody of course) was that all of the wives would live in one house together on their Coyote Pass property, but all of the women turned that down in a desire to live separately in different homes.
The move became a divisive topic for fans of the show. Janelle decided to dry-dock her RV, which means the vehicle had no hookups to provide running water or electricity. That can be a lot to handle for an expert RV resident, let alone someone like Janelle who had never lived in an RV before. Theres also the fact that her choice to live there instead of with one of the other wives may speak volumes about her relationship with them as well as Kody.
Despite being slightly pushed into these living arrangements, Janelle certainly presented on social media as if she enjoyed living there. She regularly shared pictures from inside the mobile home and answered questions about daily life or the logistics of living in an RV, such as how to live off the grid or what to do with a septic tank.
Where is Janelle living now?
Janelle Brown and Kody Brown, Sister Wives | TLC
As the winter months creeped closer and closer, Janelle Brown decided to exit the RV until the snow melts and the temperatures go back up. So long trailer! See you next spring, she wrote on her Instagram post on Nov. 7, 2021. Trailer is headed down to storage for the winter. We decided to find short-term housing in town instead of riding out the winter.
As much as living in a home will make January and February easier, Janelle does plan to return to the RV at some point during the next season. Next year I should be able to plug into infrastructure (i.e. electric, sewer, water), she explained. I loved loved loved living out on the land and look forward to next spring.
Janelles living situation switch-up comes in the wake of Christine leaving Kody and moving to Utah
Sister Wives Season Premiere Sneak Peek: Christine Brown Says Her Marriage to Kody Is 'Sad' https://t.co/9Su6EEf1qd People (@people) November 16, 2021
Big changes are on the horizon for the Brown family. Christine Brown made waves by announcing that she was leaving Kody after 27 years. Her issues with the family patriarch were brewing for years, and the idea of living at Coyote Pass was the final straw. Christines openness about her difficulties both in the relationship and the aftermath of it has led to more questioning of Kodys treatment of her and the other wives.
Christine eventually moved to Utah full time to be closer to her relatives, and fans continue to support her newfound independence. They also wonder if Janelle may soon join her in her $1.1 million duplex home. The two of them have traveled a lot together, and Janelles time in the RV could also be construed as her slowly leaving Kody on her own terms.
For her part, Janelle has defended Kody in the past, but she also questions Kody more than the other wives. Whatever the future brings, well probably find out during season 16 of Sister Wives which premieres on Nov. 21. at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
RELATED: Sister Wives: Kody Brown Fell in Love at First Sight With Wife Robyn, but Her Alter-Ego She-Rah Got in the Way
Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures made a massive deal out of the premiere of their second trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. They invited fans to a screening in LA, and it was all anyone could talk about on social media. The hype led people to believe that former Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would appear in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer. But they didnt. Now, fans believe that the actors may have been edited out of the video.
Andrew Garfield | Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
The new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer features villains from Tobey Maguires and Andrew Garfields films
Even though Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield didnt outright appear in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, many villains from their Spider-Man films did. Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and Lizard all showed up to the party in the teaser.
Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina, was in Spider-Man 2 with Maguire. Green Goblin, played by Willem Dafoe, appeared throughout Maguires Spider-Man trilogy. Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, was the main villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Garfield. Sandman, initially played by Thomas Haden Church, was in Spider-Man 3 with Maguire. And, lastly, Lizard, originally played by Rhys Ifans, appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man with Garfield.
Many fans believe that these five characters will band together with one other unknown villain to create the Sinister Six. And in the trailer, the villains are fighting Tom Hollands Peter Parker. However, some sleuthing fans caught a detail in the Spider-Man: No Way Home teaser that may prove a character was edited out.
Fans believe Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were cut out of Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer
Per Total Film, fans noticed a difference between the trailer released by Sony Pictures and the one released in Brazil. When Peter takes on Lizard, Electro, and Sandman, an invisible force punches Lizard in the Brazilian version. But in the video released by Sony Pictures in the United States, Lizard does not recoil at the air.
This alternate version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer led fans to believe that either Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield were edited out of that scene. The theory is that Hollands Peter fights Lizard, Electro, and Sandman alongside Maguires Peter and Garfields Peter. It would be a three on three fight.
Of course, there is no way to confirm this theory. But, undoubtedly, some editing has been done to this scene. It wouldnt be the first time Marvel has manipulated one of their trailers to throw off fans.
Em 1 mes comecaremos a receber visitas de todos os universos. Assista agora ao novo trailer oficial de #HomemAranhaSemVoltaParaCasa, que estreia em 16 de dezembro exclusivamente nos cinemas. Pre-venda disponivel a partir de 29 de novembro! pic.twitter.com/Z0SqV7bhrQ Sony Pictures Brasil (@SonyPicturesBr) November 17, 2021
Tom Holland insists that the two former Spider-Man actors are not in the film
During an interview with GQ, Tom Holland doubled down on dismissing the rumor that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Holland said, No one believes me, but theyre not in the film.
This isnt the first time Holland has denied the rumors. And he will probably have to continue to talk about them until the film releases. Garfield himself has stated that he is not in the movie. But Marvel fans, as persistent and hopeful as they are, still believe that the two former Spider-Man actors will reprise their roles as Peter Parker in the upcoming film.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, which may or may not star Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, is exclusively in theaters on Dec. 17.
RELATED: Spider-Man: No Way Home: Tom Holland Shares That the Marvel Film Contains One of the Coolest Scenes Hes Ever Acted in
BTS RM loves Drake, Nas, and Halsey. Hes a self-proclaimed feminist, an advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement, and a supporter of the LGBTQ community, speaking out on several occasions.
Heres what we know about BTS rapper, dancer, and songwriter.
BTS performs on stage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for dcp
BTS RM shared his love for the BTS ARMY during his United Nations speech
Hes BTS leader, unofficial translator, and God of Destruction. RM is also one of the songwriters for this award-winning K-pop group, playing a role in creating tracks like Life Goes On and Boy With Luv.
Of course, RM also raps on several BTS songs, including the sub-unit tracks All Night, Outro: Tear, and UGH. With Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, RM performed at the Grammy Awards and even earned a Grammy nomination for the bands all-English single, BTS.
RM is also known for his activism, officially earning the label of a feminist and sharing his support for the LGBTQ community. When BTS first visited the United Nations to promote their Love Myself campaign with UNICEF, the rapper encouraged fans, regardless of gender identity, to speak themselves.
I want to hear your voice. I want to hear your conviction, RM said. No matter where youre from, skin color, gender identity, just speak for yourself. Find your name and find your voice.
RM posted about Troye Sivans Strawberries & Cigarettes from Love Simon
RM also shares his support for members of the LGBTQ+ community. That includes Halsey, who appeared on the Map of the Soul: Persona track, Boy With Luv. The rapper mentioned one song created by Troye Sivan in conjunction with the Love, Simon official soundtrack.
The rapper took to Twitter, posting a picture of the track and captioning it good, according to Twitters translation. The movie itself is a coming-of-age story of a high school student who discovers his budding crush on another classmate. Theres no word regarding if or when RM watched the 2018 release.
In 2013, RM recommended the song Same Love by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. He shared that after learning the lyrics, this track became even more meaningful and twice as good, according to a translation.
BTS RM shared his support for the Black Lives Matter movement
The BTS members often openly share their support for causes and nonprofit organizations. In 2020, the K-pop group donated money to the Black Lives Matter movement, inspiring fans to do the same.
In honor of the BTS members birthdays, ARMYs often pick charitable causes based on the idols interests. For RM, who loves bike riding and Namjooning, fans planted trees, creating a forest in Seoul, South Korea.
RMs solo songs are available for streaming on music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Other productions featuring RM, including the Permission to Dance music video, is available for viewing on YouTube.
RELATED: Rina Sawayama Shares She Wrote a Song With RM From BTS: I Dont Think Anything Happened to That Song
Theoretically, it only takes 450 grams of this material to lift an elephant: "Aerographene" owes this ability to its unique structure at the nano level. Visually similar to a black foam, it actually consists of a finely-structured tubular network based on graphene with numerous cavities. This makes it extremely stable, conductive and almost as lightweight as air. An international research team led by materials scientists from Kiel University (CAU) has now taken a major step toward practical applications. They have succeeded in repeatedly heating and cooling aerographene and the air contained inside to very high temperatures in an extremely short period of time. This enables extremely powerful pumps, compressed air applications or sterilizing air filters in miniature.
"Aerographene" can be heated up and cooled down very fast
"When we first introduced these materials, they were the lightest class of materials in the world to date, with a density of just 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Because that's practically air, we called them aeromaterials", recalls Rainer Adelung. The professor for Functional Nanomaterials at CAU had developed the materials, which were first presented in 2012, together with colleagues from Hamburg University of Technology. The fascinating properties of aeromaterials generated worldwide interest and have been intensively researched since then, for example in the major European research initiative Graphene Flagship".
This new study provides a contribution to how aeromaterials could get from basic research to application. The material scientists from Kiel, together with colleagues from Technische Universitat Dresden, University of Southern Denmark, University of Trento, Queen Mary University of London, has discovered further properties that enable innovations in pneumatics, robotics or air filter technology.
"In our experiments, we have found that aeromaterials made from graphene and other conductive nanomaterials, can be electrically heated extremely quickly with up to several hundred degrees per millisecond due to their low density," explains Dr. Fabian Schutt from CAU, who led and conducted the experiments together with Dr. Florian Rasch. To do so, the materials scientists used the "aerographene" aeromaterial, which consists of just a few layers of carbon atoms and 99.9% air. When heated, this air contained inside the material is also heated extremely quickly and expands. In the case of very rapid heating, there is an expansion in volume and one speaks of an "explosion." "This means we are now able to use aerographene to start small controllable and repeatable explosions that do not require a chemical reaction," says Schutt, summarizing their findings.
That's because almost as quickly as it heats up, aerographene cools down again as soon as the power supply is switched off. "It can hardly store any heat due to its extremely low heat capacity. Via its network structure it releases it very quickly back into the containing air," Schutt continues. The rapid heating and cooling of the material enables the researchers to start several explosions per second, one after the other. "This gives us extremely powerful compressed air at the push of a button, without the compressors and gas supplies that are otherwise required," Adelung explains.
Material has already withstood more than 100,000 cycles - patent pending
The scientists use this effect to develop new pumps that can be specifically adjusted as well as high-performance actuators in miniature format. "If you place the aeromaterial in a pressure cylinder and heat it with electricity, the generated air blast can be used to move objects up and down in a targeted manner and several times per second," explains Rasch, who recently completed his doctoral thesis on this subject. In their experiments, the two first authors, Schutt and Rasch, were able to show that even a small amount of aerographene objects that are many times heavier can be moved. For example, 10 milligrams of aerographene were enough to lift a two-kilogram weight in just a few milliseconds. So the actuators developed with aerographene have high power densities while maintaining large volume changes.
"In contrast to chemical reactions, these small electrical explosions can be controlled very specifically and also are very clean. By changing the duration and strength of the current supply we can precisely control the frequency and strength of the air blasts," says Rasch. Thanks to the extreme conductivity of aeromaterials, they need only a small amount of electricity for this. In the experiments carried out in Kiel, the material has withstood 100,000 cycles so far, and a patent has already been filed.
Can also be used as a self-cleaning air filter against bacteria
As one example for applications, Adelung's research group is currently developing new air filter materials and systems based on aerographene in cooperation with the German aviation supplier Lufthansa Technik and funded by the Graphene Flagship. "Air currents can be guided very well through the open network structure of the material and can be heated strongly for a short time. In this way, bacteria and viruses, for example, can be filtered out of the air and killed," Adelung said. "This could allow these filter systems to function self-cleaning and work without expensive maintenance in the future."
President Joe Biden signs an executive order to help improve public safety and justice for Native Americans during a Tribal Nations Summit during Native American Heritage Month, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Washington. With the President from left are first lady Jill Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Recent news from Myanmar, beset by both civil conflict and the pandemic, is heart-breaking.
According to my contacts in Yangon, COVID-19 is rife. The confirmed death toll has risen sharply to hundreds per day. Few are vaccinated. Almost a third of public hospitals are or have been closed. Relatives, friends, and aid providers risk being shot or detained as they queue to try to get oxygen cylinders to the sick under curfew.
It seemed the Southeast Asian nation was inching toward a more democratic regime. In the November 2020 election, there was yet another landslide vote for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
But the military junta, which rules Myanmar, was unable to contemplate more power-sharing. Citing election fraud, they declared a year-long state of emergency on February 1. The patience of the normally peace-loving people snapped and fury was unleashed.
Ominously the militarys 77th light infantry division, which was at the forefront of brutally repelling the Rohingya Muslims back in 2017, was deployed to deal with the protesters in Yangon, Naypyidaw, and Mandalay. First with tear gas and rubber bullets, and then with live rounds and even air attacks, as shown by mobile phone footage, soldiers gunned down unarmed students, teachers, and even medical workers. More than 900 civilians have been killed by security forces and over 5,000 more detained or sentenced.
In the plaintive words of one Burmese youth on the streets of Yangon: We were just learning to fly, and now they have broken our wings. What chance is there that the fledgling bird of Myanmar will fly again?
Falling in love with Burma
As a British teenager, I met a beautiful Burmese girl on the school bus. She and her family self-exiled in 1964, soon after Ne Wins military coup, to start a new life in England. They arrived at Heathrow as immigrants with 100 each in their pockets. I was blown away by the affections of April and by the warm hospitality of her parents, whose home was filled with the unfamiliar aromas of eastern cooking and stories of Burmas golden days. My fascination was fired for this far-off land.
But this misty-eyed romanticism about Burma was largely untested until April and I made an extended visit in 199596, along with our four teenage daughters. For April, not a lot had changed since her familys hurried departure. For me, it was an arresting reality check.
How did this country, with such a regal past, swathed in natural beauty and populated by a people of unmistakable poise and serenity, slide into repression and obscurity? How could the upbeat memories of Aprils parents be reconciled with Myanmars current malaise? I started to record the oral history and reminiscences of Aprils Burmese family who were eyewitnesses to momentous events in mid-20th century Burma.
Then, between 2010 and 2018, April and I made seven successive visits to help teach at a small Bible college on the outskirts of Yangon, run by a couple from the Chin ethnic group. We took the opportunity to travel widely and talk to a range of young people. I began to unpeel the nations history, the mix of Buddhist faith and spirit worship, the warring interests of ethnic peoples (many with a strong Christin presence), the decimated education system, the unequal distribution of wealth, and the hidden human rights abuses labelled by Amnesty International as among the worst in the world.
What emerged was a far more nuanced picture of Burma (renamed to Myanmar by the military in 1997) than the media stereotype. Unexpectedly, hope dawned in the form of inspiring and energetic young millennials who were dedicated to restoring devastated lives and communities.
Drawing on this experience and research, I ask two questions. What factors have led to the current and long-standing malaise in Myanmar? And what signs of hope exist today for a radical shift in fortunes?
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Five factors behind Myanmars malaise
Many post-colonial nations have struggled with newly won independence and their attempts to pursue democracy. The case of Burma, which gained independence from the British in 1948, is one such example. However, five factors suggest that Myanmar is a unique case.
First is the multiethnic nature of Myanmar. Within the national borders, there are at least 130 ethnic groups each with their own dialect or language, indigenous culture, and vested interests. Many, like the Karen, the Chin, the Kachin, and the Shan, have long maintained their own militias, fighting for basic human rights. The conflict between them and the dominant ethnic group, the Bamars, has continued unabated for 60 years.
A second factor is the intransigence of the junta. It is one thing to impose military dominance on a country in chaos, but the generals that rule Myanmar have shown remarkable resilience in retaining their iron grip over their peoples for six decades. Government legislation and affairs of state have been systematically passed from one small cadre of generals to another. The cards have been shuffled, but always from the same pack.
A third factor is the bullying nature of the military regime with frequent outbursts of extreme brutality. For long periods, the people of Myanmar have acquiesced. On the occasions when popular uprisings have occurred, they have been repulsed by intense ferocitymost notably student protests in 1990, the so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007 when monks led marches of civil unrest, and again since February this year.
A fourth factor is benign Buddhist beliefs have infused the Burmese mindset for centuries. Characteristics like tolerance, conservatism, pacifism, and profound respect for others do not readily lend themselves to armed revolt against the political status quo. It would seem that a combination of Bamar socio-ethnic superiority and Buddhist deference to ones leaders lend multi-layered support to the continuing elitism of the generals in Myanmar.
For example, on our visit in 1995, April and I had the opportunity to have a personal meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi who had just been released from house arrest. It was evident that Buddhism was the beating heart of her hopes for her country. Her view was that non-violence is the way to end dictatorships.
A fifth factor to the juntas durability in Myanmar is the cloak of secrecy with which they surround their political and social activities. Psychological research tells us that a heavily armed regime and extreme paranoia go hand in hand.
Three reasons for hope
The United Nations World Food Program recently stated that the crisis in Myanmar will severely undermine the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable to put enough food on the family table. The UN Development Program has warned that the impact of the pandemic and the political crisis could cause as many as 25 million people to slide into poverty by next year. The situation looks bleak; however, there are glimmers of hope.
1) The genie is out of the bottle: Social media is widely used in Myanmar. Young people in particular are media savvyraised on Viber and Facebookand well informed about external trends and events. Provided the authorities dont interfere with internet access, this builds pressure from the bottom up as people get a taste for more egalitarian and democratic values. Since 2015 and the introduction of a civilian government, Myanmar has seen the growth of a new middle class, who have begun to enjoy a degree of freedom and economic opportunity unknown in the country for over half a century.
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2) Millennials are returning: There is a growing contingent of millennials who are operating outside of government circles. These are alumni who have benefitted from scholarships for tertiary education and training in other countries and have returned to work in health, law, telecommunications, education, human rights, media, and community development in more rural areas of Myanmar. For example, London-based Prospect Burma has funded 1,400 such graduates over the last 30 years, with a particular emphasis on education. Many have taken up influential roles which are gradually having a societal impact, bringing a questioning mindset and critical thinking to their activities. All refer to the importance of early experiences, in many cases harrowing, and the influence of family members in forging their Christian or Buddhist values. Along with the tireless work of international NGOs like World Vision that are relieving deprivation in mainly rural areas, these are cracks of light in a dark situation.
3) Internal leadership: Individuals within Myanmar to pray for include: Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, appointed by Pope Francis and an outspoken and respected critic concerning the violation of human rights in Rakhine and Kachin states; Anna Sui Hluan, the Chin-born and Yangon-raised wife of Myanmar vice president Henry Van Thio, is a linguist, researcher, Christian preacher, and social activist writing extensively about language, human rights, and female emancipation; Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a young activist raised (significantly) in a military family, has gathered a following around a vision for a more peaceful future in Myanmar by speaking out against hate speech and intolerance.
Three priorities for prayer
As Myanmar faces the ignominy of being classified as a failed state, I would suggest three ambitious priorities for any potential leadership, whether that comes from within and/or is brokered externally. These might also direct and fuel our prayers for our Christian brothers and sisters in Myanmar.
1) Peace and a stable economy: There is an urgent, short-term need for peace-building, economic recovery, and legislative accountability. Combined with this are longer-term systemic and attitudinal shifts needed in the realms of education and emancipation. It goes without saying that a cessation of civil war is an essential prerequisite to nation-building. Backed by China and Russian military hardware, the juntas weaponry far outweighs that of the protesters. A credible, trusted, and neutral party is required to mediate between opposing factions. The UN, while issuing economic sanctions, is unwilling or unable to fulfil this role and ASEAN shows no sign of brokering either. According to Thant Myint U, author of The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century, the situation on the ground is likely to turn into a "withering stalemate" as the army seeks to take control of the streets while the civil disobedience campaign keeps much of the country ungovernable.
2) Educational uplift: Over the longer term, education is key, yet the system is in poor shape. Primary school children, especially in rural areas, lack good quality teachers, basic resources like classrooms, and often do not complete the four years of study to the age of 12. The Ministry of Educations own Strategic Plan for 201621 recognizes that most teaching still relies heavily on rote memorisation and didactic strategies that do not engage children, and therefore their learning outcomes are poor. According to Prospect Burma, young Burmese are starting at year zero, with an urgent need for English: language, literacy, and digital skills.
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Only a relatively small proportionjust over 7 percent, or about 2 millionof the population aged 25 and over has graduated from university or a higher level of education. This is skewed heavily to those in Yangon. Investment in teacher training, educational infrastructure, and learning resources is foundational to Myanmars future.
Tuition at tertiary and doctoral levels of study is needed to expose students to a different pedagogic style, encouraging a critical, analytic, questioning approach to learning. It will take 20 years or more for a new generation of returning millennials, trained in natural and social sciences, to bring societal shifts. As an example, according to doctoral student Phyu Pannu Khin, there are currently just four qualified clinical psychologists in Myanmar serving a population of 50 million people traumatized by decades of brutal dictatorship, with many in need of mental health services. From a deprived village background with no funds, she is supported by scholarships and aims to become the fifth.
3) Religious freedom: According to official government statistics, Buddhism is professed by 89 percent of the population, with Christians, Muslims, and animists making up the rest. Independent researchers estimate that the percentage of Christiansthe long-term fruit of missionary activity in the 19th centuryin Myanmar overall to be 58 percent, though this varies considerably across the ethnic groups. The first Karen conversion took place in 1828 and subsequently the faith spread rapidly and converts numbered about 12,000 within 25 years. Today, about 90 percent of Chin and Kachin are Christians, as are about 80 percent of Karenni and 40 percent of Karen. Most of the Naga people in Sagaing Division are also Christians.
The majority of Buddhists in Myanmar adhere to the principles of peace and compassion with the long-standing monastic tradition of education instilling these moral values in young people. However, among the Bamar people-group, who dominate the Irrawaddy basin in lower Myanmar and constitute most of the government, there has been a rise of Buddhist nationalism which has fueled a visceral hatred of Muslims in particular and Christians to a lesser extent. Even Buddhists among the ethnic minoritiesthe Shan, Mon, and Rakhine in particularhave suffered at the hands of Burmanization. Buddhism has been so much entwined with Bamar culture, nationality and heritage that Burmese rulers have tended to use a nationalistic strain of Buddhism for their political purposes, distorting Buddhism from a peaceful religion into a politicized creed.
Because religion and ethnicity are so intertwined, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between religious and racial hatred or, especially in the case of the military, between religiously motivated violence and the wider conflict. It is clear however, that freedom of belief, which is a foundational human right in any democratic society, is under attack in Myanmar in various ways. In a thoroughly researched and far-reaching report published in 2019 called Burmas Identity Crisis, CSW document persistent discrimination against Christians in Chin, Kachin, Karen, and Karenni states. Although there has been some improvement since 2011, the restriction andin some casesdenial of human rights via legislation, hate speech, discrimination, intimidation, and violence all continue. The authors of the report list three principle drivers of religious intolerance towards Christians in Myanmar today.
Firstly, a rise in Bamar Buddhist nationalism, driven principally by certain Buddhist monks and their preaching. Secondly, the military seeking to strengthen its power by exploiting ethnic and religious identity to stoke conflict. Thirdly, civilian politiciansof various partiesdo not share the Buddhist nationalist agenda but lack the political will or courage to confront it. In addition, various pieces of legislation such as the Citizenship Law (1982), the Peaceful Assembly Law (2012), and four Race and Religion Laws (2015), are used to discriminate against minorities. As the CSW report concludes: If Burma is to have any hope of moving forward, religious intolerance must be confronted. Perpetrators of crimes against humanity must be held accountable, preachers of hate must be countered and brought to justice.
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How Christians can help from afar
Faced with atrocities on the streets of Myanmar, its easy to feel paralyzed and helpless from afar. But there are things we, as a Christian community, can do.
We can press for international agencies to bring to account key individuals within the military junta known to have ordered or been complicit with or perpetrated crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. We can lobby our national politicians to urge the Myanmar government to reform all discriminatory and repressive laws which restrict freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly. This is no more than endorsing basic human rights and need not be seen as a partisan attempt to undermine those in power or foreign interference to help one group of Christians.
Furthermore, we can call for consultation with civil and religious leaders in Myanmar to invest in practical initiatives to promote interfaith dialogue, harmony, and reconciliation at a grassroots level. Crucially, this would include reform of the education system and curriculum, to ensure that the nations young people are taught about other religions in an accurate and fair way that promotes mutual understanding.
Of course, any such actions depend on cessation of violence and constructive dialogue. In recent months, the political crisis has deepened. Now many of the indigenous leaders who previously had the potential influence to facilitate such initiatives at the government level have been forced into hiding in the Karen hills and across the Thai border. The National Unity Government, formed of politicians ousted by the military coup in February, has declared a peoples defensive war but the outcome remains unclear.
A more personal response is to donate to worthy causes in Myanmar. I would recommend supporting Burmese students through nonprofits such as Prospect Burma. As students courageously return to their home country, the ripples of influence will spread rapidly. Also Medical Action Myanmar is adept at getting funds to the places where it is most needed.
Finally, petitioning Father God in prayer is perhaps the most precious and influential thing we can do. Matters shift in the heavenly realms when his people pray. Bring to him your heartfelt hopes and use the information in this article to bring your specific requests for people and events in Myanmar.
Meditate on Psalm 46, which speaks of immense opposition and natural calamities yet assures us that God is even greater than these. He is faithful and sovereign over world events. Let us pray that the bird will indeed fly again.
Chris Mabey is a chartered psychologist and emeritus professor at Middlesex University Business School. His latest book, Whispers of Hope: A Family Memoir of Myanmar, was published by Penguin Random House in July.
Speaking Out is Christianity Todays guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication.
When a bomb went off in a Liverpool taxi on Sunday, it reignited controversy over the Christian conversions of UK asylum seekers.
The suspect, Emad al-Swealmeen, died in the explosion, which has been designated a terrorist incident. The 32-year-old had become a Christian and participated in a Bible study program for asylum seekers. Leaders from two Liverpool congregations testified to his faith and his involvement, telling media they were shocked by the reports of the bombing.
For years, the Home Officethe division of the British government overseeing immigrationhas questioned whether Middle Eastern refugees were gaming the system to strengthen their pleas to stay. Converts can use their new faith to serve as a sign of assimilation and to claim they will face persecution if they return to their Muslim-majority home countries.
Swealmeen, according to reports, was born in Iraq and converted to Christianity from Islam the year after his 2014 asylum request was rejected.
The Diocese of Liverpool said he was baptized in 2015 and confirmed in 2017. That year, he also participated in an Alpha course for asylum seekers at the Liverpool Cathedral and filed an appeal to stay in the country.
A couple who volunteered with the course housed him for eight months with no issues and believed his conversion was sincere.
During that time, we saw him really blossoming in regards to his Christian faith, Malcolm Hitchcott said in a BBC interview. He really had a passion about Jesus that I wish many Christians had, and he was ready to learn.
He said Swealmeen read his Bible regularly and prayed with him and his wife each night.
Swealmeen attended another congregation, Emmanuel Church, from 2017 to 2019. A lay leader there told the AP that Swealmeen was a committed Christian and would make cakes for church bake sales. Kate Hindley, wife of Emmanuels pastor, told media that he was very kind and open about his mental health problems.
In the wake of the bombing, the Church of England and the Liverpool Cathedral have both released statements clarifying and defending their standards for sincere conversion.
Anglican leaders and other Christian leaders in the UK have previously challenged the measures the Home Office has used to test whether a converts faith is genuine, including arbitrary Bible quizzes, calling them unfair and inaccurate.
Still, critics say churches can be naive to accept the conversions of refugees from the Middle East. Home Secretary Priti Patel said Swealmeens case was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been.
A Church of England spokesman said while it is not the clergys role to assess asylum claims or security risks, the church is not aware of any evidence to suggest a widespread correlation between conversion to Christianity, or any other faith, and abuse of the asylum system.
The Church of England welcomes all people and celebrates with those who choose to make a commitment to Christ, but of course there is also a need for discernmentto be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, church officials wrote in a 10-page document on supporting asylum seekers.
Clergy must be confident that those seeking baptism fully understand what it signifies, as an unrepeatable sacramental act of initiation which ushers an individual into the Church.
Liverpool Cathedrals spokesman said the church requires regular attendance as well as completion of a Christian basics course prior to conversion, and that it would take two years of close community involvement before leaders would consider supporting a candidates application for asylum.
The cathedral has been actively involved in outreach and ministry to a wave of refugees who have come to the UK in recent years, welcoming over 200 as converts in a four-year span, The London Telegraph reported. By 2016, it had begun a weekly service in Persian for refugees from Iran.
The cathedrals bishop, Cyril Ashton, posed for a picture with Swealmeen the day of his confirmation.
His confirmation was one of hundreds I have conducted as a bishop so I have no specific recollection of the individual. The church takes confirmation seriously and I know that he would have been thoroughly prepared with an understanding of the Christian faith, he said to the BBC. It seems that sadly, despite this grounding, the bomber chose a different path for his life.
The incident took place on the UKs Remembrance Day. Swealmeen took a taxi to Liverpool Womens Hospital and detonated an improvised explosive in the parking lot. The driver survived with injuries. Police have yet to determine a motive.
New Orleans archdiocese to pay over $1M in Hurricane Katrina fraud settlement
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay more than $1 million as part of a settlement over allegations of falsified Hurricane Katrina aid claims.
The settlement came in response to allegations that the archdiocese had violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to repair facilities damaged by Katrina, a 2005 Category 5 storm that caused billions of dollars in damage.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice statement on Monday, the settlement was given final approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Oct. 26.
FEMA offers critical financial support when natural disasters strike, stated Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the DOJs Civil Division.
The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that these taxpayer funds are properly spent to help disaster victims rebuild their communities.
Last year, a lawsuit was filed accusing the archdiocese of signing certifications for FEMA funding from 2007 to 2013 that contained inaccurate damage descriptions and repair estimates prepared by AECOM, an architecture and engineering firm based in Los Angeles, California.
Robert Romero, an AECOM Project Specialist, filed a whistleblower complaint under the False Claims Act against AECOM, the archdiocese, Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana and AECOM employee Randall Krause.
Defendant Archdiocese of New Orleans, a FEMA Program applicant, knowingly, recklessly, and/or with willful blindness submitted and/or caused to be submitted to FEMA false and misleading documentation regarding the existence and extent of damage to its facilities, thereby increasing the amount of disaster relief funding that FEMA provided by at least $46 million, claimed the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, the archdiocese received approximately
$10 million of additional FEMA funding for a school building based on an inflated repair estimate and fraudulently received roughly $36.2 million of additional FEMA funding for two assisted-living facilities. The complaint claims it was misrepresented that Katrina caused catastrophic damage to the four upper floors of both buildings.
Based on this fraudulent damage assessment, FEMA awarded both buildings full replacement funding, the complaint continued. But in fact, the upper floors suffered no flood damage and limited, if any, wind damage, and so the buildings should have qualified only for repair funding.
The archdiocese released a statement in June 2020 denying any wrongdoing in the matter, arguing that it worked diligently and relied upon the knowledge and expertise of FEMA and their designated agencies and field representatives.
Every dollar of FEMA funds received has gone back into the restoration of parish, school and other properties to serve the people of the Greater New Orleans community, the archdiocese stated, as reported by Nola.com.
We deny the allegation that the Archdiocese of New Orleans knowingly conspired to submit false information. We have cooperated with the federal governments investigation and will continue to work with them as we resolve this claim.
Whistleblower Romero received approximately $199,500 as a result of the settlement.
"The claims alleged in the lawsuit, including those resolved by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability," the DOJ statement reiterates.
'Is Atheism Dead?': Inside Eric Metaxas' quest to unveil the remarkable evidence for God (podcast)
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Christian Post reporter Leah Klett joins Billy Hallowell to discuss author Eric Metaxas' new book, Is Atheism Dead?, and his quest to highlight the amazing evidence he has uncovered for belief and the Bible.
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What Eric is arguing is that science, and archeology and history are all pointing to a divine Creator now more than ever, Klett explained. And all those things are becoming incompatible with atheism.
Listen to this episode of The Christian Post Podcast below:
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Anna Duggar gives birth to 7th child as husband, Josh, expected in court for child porn charges
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Anna Duggar, the wife of ex-reality star Josh Duggar, recently announced on social media that she gave birth to their seventh child three weeks ago in late October as her husband is due in court later this month as he faces child pornography charges.
In an Instagram post this week, Anna Duggar released a picture of the infant with a caption that reads: Meet little Madyson Lily Duggar. She was born on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 2:39 a.m.
The newborn weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 20 inches long, according to her Instagram Story. Madyson Duggar joins siblings Mackynzie, 12; Michael, 10; Marcus, 8; Meredith, 6; Mason, 4; and Maryella, 1.
In two weeks, the 33-year-old father and husband, Josh Duggar, will go on trial on Nov. 30. He faces two counts related to the receipt and possession of child pornography, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 fines.
Josh Duggar is the eldest born child into a family of over 19 children from his ultra-conservative Baptist Christian parents: Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The Duggars all starred in the now-canceled reality television show 19 Kids and Counting.
The familys reality show was removed from TLC network in 2015 after it was revealed that Josh Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. His parents later confirmed that he had admitted to fondling and apologized. The show had 10 consecutive seasons since 2008 until its cancellation in May of 2015.
Although his sisters never pressed charges, he is now potentially facing decades in prison for allegedly having over 200 images of child porn on his technological devices.
It's been alleged that the children in the images range from the age of 18 months to 12 years old.
This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office stated.
Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood [arrange] federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims, the U.S. Attorneys Office concluded.
The evidence against Duggar involves two separate computers, one of which contained child pornography and another with collaborative evidence, Fox News reports, citing a government response to a motion over the summer to postpone the trial.
On April 29, Duggar was arrested by federal agents in Arkansas. A day after the arrest, he was indicted on federal child porn charges. A virtual Zoom hearing was held in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
Duggar pleaded not guilty. He is being represented by attorney Travis W. Story.
Duggar will attend a Nov. 18 pre-trial conference while he awaits his Nov. 30 court date, Fox News reports.
We appreciate your continued prayers for our family at this time. The accusations brought against Joshua today are very serious, wrote Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar in a statement released in April.
It is our prayer that the truth, no matter what it is, will come to light, and that this will all be resolved in a timely manner. We love Josh and Anna and continue to pray for their family.
In May 2015, Josh Duggar resigned from his lobbyist role at the socially conservative organization Family Research Council following the revelation that he sexually molested his sisters when he was younger.
In August 2015, Josh Duggar confessed that he had cheated on his wife and is battling pornography addiction. At the time, he willingly entered a long-term rehabilitation facility for what he deemed a porn addiction, his parents confirmed.
The week before, the then-27-year-old Josh Duggar issued an online apology in which he stated that he was the biggest hypocrite ever. His apology came after it was revealed that he had subscribed to extramarital affair website AshleyMadison.com after millions of customer records were hacked and publicized.
Despite not specifying the rehabilitation center their son had checked into or how long he would be receiving help in 2015, the Duggar parents shared at the time they believed their son would have a long journey toward wholeness and recovery.
We pray that in this he comes to complete repentance and sincere change, the Baptist couple said at the time. We are deeply grieved by his actions, which have brought great insult to the values and faith we hold dear.
Liverpool bomber tried to 'game' asylum system with Christian conversion, official says
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Emad Al Swealmeen, a 32-year-old man who detonated an improvised explosive device, killing himself and injuring a driver in a taxicab outside Liverpool Womens Hospital on Sunday morning, tried to use his claim of Christian conversion to game the countrys asylum system, U.K. Home Office sources contend.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told media while on a flight to Washington, D.C., that Swealmeen seemed to have exploited the merry-go-round that is the U.K.'s broken asylum system as he made various claims in an attempt to remain in the country.
The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward," she was quoted as saying.
Its a complete merry-go-round and it has been exploited. A whole sort of professional legal services industry has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day-in day-out at the expense of the taxpayers through legal aid. That is effectively what we need to change.
A Home Office source told The U.K. Times that Swalmeen tried to use his conversion to Christianity in his attempt to gain asylum, which is a common tactic used by Iranians and Iraqi asylum seekers to game the system. Applicants for asylum in the U.K. who can show they are committed Christians can argue that their conversion would put them at risk in their home country.
Swealmeen arrived in the U.K. in 2014 and applied for asylum claiming he was from Syria. His application for asylum was denied the following year based on data showing he was from Jordan. He reportedly became depressed in 2019 when his claim to be from Syria on another asylum application was denied.
Court records indicate that Swealmeen sought to convert to Christianity in 2015 and adopted a new name, Enzo Almeni, following the conversion, BBC reports. He was baptized in Liverpool Cathedral in 2015 and confirmed in 2017, though diocese officials say they lost contact with him in 2018.
One tribunal decision in 2017 argued that the improbably large number of Iranians attending courses and services at Liverpool Cathedral meant it was unlikely they were all genuine converts. It was possible for an individual to feign conversion, the decision said.
However, other asylum cases were approved after tribunals ruled the new faith of the applicant was genuine.
Cyril Ashton, an assistant bishop of Liverpools Anglican Cathedral where Swealmeen was confirmed, told The Guardian that Swealmeens confirmation was one of hundreds I have conducted as a bishop, so I have no specific recollection of the individual.
The church takes confirmation seriously and I know that he would have been thoroughly prepared with an understanding of the Christian faith. It seems that, sadly, despite this grounding, the bomber chose a different path for his life, Ashton said.
A spokesperson for the Church of England also said in a BBC report that the denomination was not aware that converts could be abusing the asylum system.
We are not aware of any evidence to suggest a widespread correlation between conversion to Christianity, or any other faith, and abuse of the asylum system, the spokesperson said.
A Liverpool Cathedral spokesperson further noted that Liverpool Cathedral has developed robust processes for discerning whether someone might be expressing a genuine commitment to faith.
These include requirements for regular attendance alongside taking part in a recognized Christian basics course. We would expect someone to be closely connected with the community for at least two years before we would consider supporting an application.
Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchcott, devout Christians and members of the Liverpool Cathedral who Swealmeen lived with after converting to Christianity, told ITV News that the bomber had previously struggled with his mental health. But they dont doubt his faith.
He was very enquiring. He was, I thought at that time, certainly very genuine, and he took great delight in learning new things, Malcolm Hitchcott said.
He further told The Guardian that Swealmeen talked endlessly and passionately about Jesus. He was impressed by the depth of his prayers and knowledge of the Bible.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson confirmed to BBC Wednesday that Swealmeen indeed suffered from periods of mental illness, which will form part of the investigation.
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services, also told the news network that Swealmeen, who began renting a place in Liverpool seven months ago, received treatment in the past but was not being treated at the time of the explosion.
A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time, Jackson said.
Religious freedom advocacy group unveils top 3 Christian persecutors of 2021
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WASHINGTON The religious freedom advocacy group International Christian Concern has named the Taliban, Kim Jong un and Nigeria as the top persecutors of Christians at its first Persecutor of the Year Awards event.
ICC assigned the scathing Persecutor of the Year label to the top three violators of religious freedom at a press conference Tuesday that coincided with the release of its 150-page report highlighting 24 of the worst oppressors of Christians in a list that was compiled based on conversations with victims of religious persecution and experts on the subject matter. In a statement, ICC described the report as its most ambitious research project in the organizations history.
2021 is the first time ICC has held a Persecutor of the Year Awards ceremony and compiled a Persecutor of the Year Awards report. In the past, ICC issued an annual report called the Hall of Shame that shone a spotlight on the worlds most egregious violators of religious freedom. Speaking to The Christian Post, ICC President Jeff King referred to the Persecutor of the Year Awards as the evolution of the Hall of Shame, created to help the government and press understand very complex topics in a quick manner.
After ICC Communications Director Mike Pritchard emphasized the organizations mission to bandage and build the Church in the most hostile places in the world, King unveiled the names on the Persecutors of the Year list that calls out specific countries, entities and individuals.
ICC ranked Nigeria as the worst country for religious freedom in 2021. King, who has served as ICC's president since 2003, explained that the African nation has been engaged in a 20-year war against Christians, which he labeled genocide.
Theres a one-sided war against Christians; there are two guerilla forces or factions fighting Christians, he added. The report elaborated on the unsafe environment Christians face in Nigeria: Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000. Nigeria is home to the infamous Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which has displaced millions of people and killed tens of thousands of others.
Fulani militants killed more Christians in the past several years than Boko Haram and have displaced Christian farmers. In addition, conservative Islamic communities have allowed the forceful conversion and marriage of young Christian women and discriminated against Christians seeking employment.
There are millions, literally millions, 3-plus million Christians displaced, King asserted, adding: Their homes have been stolen, their lands have been stolen, their farms have been stolen.
King further lamented that there was no meaningful answer from the Nigerian government, specifically noting the lack of arrests of the perpetrators of crimes against Christians: The government never seems to respond. Theres really been no military retaliation.
The religious freedom advocate concluded that the Nigerian government was complicit in the attacks against Christians. He also played a video from the Rev. Joseph John Hayeb, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State, who elaborated on the attacks against Christians in the epicenter of Christian persecution in the African nation: Kaduna State alone between the year 2000 and 2021, Kaduna State has lost over 35,000 people.
You cannot talk about the story of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria without looking at the way colonial Muslims and missionaries deal with us, he added. We are asked not to preach in Muslim-dominated communities because they already have a system of government.
Hayeb also pushed back on claims that the conflict in Nigeria is the result of tension between farmers and herders: That is pure genocide or pure terrorism or pure evil going in our land.
This crime has government sponsorship. This crime has government backing. This crime has government approval.
The group identified by ICC as the Persecutor of the Year was the Taliban. The report cited the Taliban going door-to-door to find out who is and isnt going to the mosque, searching the homes of Christians and making phone calls to Christians warning them that Were coming for you as the reasons for declaring the Taliban as Persecutor of the Year.
King discussed the situation in Afghanistan further, suggesting that the United States pullout of Afghanistan that enabled the Taliban to take control of the country influenced ICCs decision to make the Taliban a Persecutor of the Year: There are probably about 10,000 Christians theyre all converts from Islam. And so when youre operating in a culture of radical, fundamentalist Islam, that means you have a bullseye on your back.
Since the Taliban has retaken control of Afghanistan, he said, they have gone door-to-door asking, Do you know where the Christians are? In the past two weeks, King reported that the Taliban murdered a Christian, who was found with a Bible on his phone. King warned that these and many other Christians will be tortured and given a chance to turn back to Islam. If you dont, youre going to be tortured more to find out what other Christians you know and then youre killed.
King also rejected the characterization of the Taliban as half-decent people who have reformed themselves, accusing them of implementing a stealth operation when it comes to torturing Christians: This is part of the Talibans work. Theyre not going to come out and say it.
Theyre just not going to kill openly. So now, theyre going to become politicians. But theyre doing this kind of work in the background.
ICC selected North Korean dictator Kim Jong un as its individual Persecutor of the Year. According to the report, The Kims have created a religious system modeled on the faith (God/Father/Son) with Kim Jong un playing the part of the Son that is to be worshiped. Any threat to the Son and over-arching religious system is mercilessly crushed.
King referred to Kim Jong un as the top player in the persecution of Christians in North Korea, following in the footsteps of the previous North Korean dictators Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung: The Kim dynasties have tortured and killed millions of Christians over the decades. And I think we are familiar that its very common for the Kims or the regime put away three generations of one family when theyre identified as serious Christians.
King estimated that around 30,000 Christians in North Korea have been sent to prison camps, while more than a million have been killed. Kim Seong Min, a North Korean defector, outlined the propaganda North Koreans are subject to in order to convince them that Christianity is the enemy of the state. Specifically, he reported that the Kim regime tells people that Christianity is used by the upper classes to oppress the lower classes.
Va. school district reverses suspension of Christian teacher who opposed trans pronoun policy
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A Virginia school district that punished a Christian teacher for expressing his disagreement with a policy to require teachers to use the preferred pronouns of trans-identified students has agreed to lift the teachers suspension as part of a settlement.
Byron Tanner Cross sued Loudon County Public Schools after he was suspended in May following a speech at a school board meeting in which he said that he could not in good conscience use the chosen pronouns of his students.
In a settlement reached last week, school officials agreed to remove the suspension from his record in return for Cross dropping the lawsuit against the school board.
Additionally, the school district agreed to send the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Cross, $20,000 in attorneys fees within 14 days of the settlement being reached.
In a statement, ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said that more litigation was still needed to challenge Loudon Countys gender identity anti-discrimination policy.
While we are very pleased that Tanner will be able to keep serving his students in light of this settlement, the concerns expressed in our ongoing lawsuit challenging the districts policy remain, stated Langhofer.
Public employees cannot be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep a job. Freedomof speech and religious exerciseincludes the freedom not to speak messages against our core beliefs.
A teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, Cross was put on administrative leave in May after he expressed opposition to a proposed policy that has since passed requires teachers to use the preferred pronouns of students instead of pronouns that reflect their biological sex.
My name is Tanner Cross, and I am speaking out of love for those who suffer with gender dysphoria, said Cross at the meeting. I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences.
Im a teacher, but I serve God first and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because its against my religion.
Cross sued the Loudon County School Board, with a judge granting him a temporary injunction against the suspension in June.
LCPS respectfully disagrees with the Circuit Courts decision to issue the injunction, and it is appealing this ruling to the Supreme Court of Virginia, stated the school district in response to the June decision.
Many students and parents at Leesburg Elementary have expressed fear, hurt and disappointment about coming to school. Addressing those concerns is paramount to the school divisions goal to provide a safe, welcoming and affirming learning environment for all students.
In late August, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed to hear the lawsuit and issued an order to keep the injunction against the school board.
As the Cross litigation was ongoing, the school board voted to approve Policy 8040, an anti-discrimination measure that Cross opposed.
According to Policy 8040, school faculty and staff must use the chosen name and pronouns of a student who identifies as gender-expansive or transgender.
School staff shall, at the request of a student or parent/legal guardian, when using a name or pronoun to address the student, use the name and pronoun that correspond to their consistently asserted gender identity, read the policy.
The use of gender-neutral pronouns is appropriate. Inadvertent slips in the use of names or pronouns may occur; however, staff or students who intentionally and persistently refuse to respect a students gender identity by using the wrong name and gender pronoun are in violation of this policy.
The policy also allows students to use the restroom or locker room that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity, advising school administrators to consider adding gender-inclusive or single-user restrooms for more privacy.
ADF, a legal nonprofit specializing in religious freedom and free speech, represents multiple teachers suing Loudon County over policy 8040, arguing that the measure forces staff to communicate a message they believe is false.
Whatever happened to Trump being restored to the White House?
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The purpose of this article is not to mock, ridicule, or insult. Nor am I here to gloat or say, I told you so. Instead, I want to make a simple, two-fold appeal: First, can we be realistic and recognize that Trump will not be restored to the White House by some kind of military act or miraculous event (other than simply running again in 2024)? Second, can we be mature enough to acknowledge our errors, learn from our mistakes, and move on? In short, can we make this a teachable moment?
When I announced on radio on January 6th that Trump would not be returning to the White House (meaning, without being reelected in the future), the response from many was outrage. I was a traitor. I had given up the cause. I was like one of the ten Israelite spies who brought back an evil report (in contrast with Joshua and Caleb, who believed God's report). I was a Never Trumper. I was bought out by the Deep State. I was a Communist infiltrator.
You get the drift.
The truth be told, as a Trump voter in 2016 and 2020, I was privately hoping that the prophecies of his restoration to the White House were true and that the courts would find massive voter fraud, overturning the elections.
But at a prayer retreat in Texas in early December, it became totally clear to me that this would not happen. I simply knew that I knew that this was the case, and I knew Joe Biden would be inaugurated on January 20th.
After that, I was simply waiting for the right moment on my radio show to share this publicly, wanting to extend a safety net to the many whose faith would be shattered when Biden, rather than Trump, was installed as president.
Unfortunately, even after January 20th, many remained in denial.
Some set new dates (after guaranteeing that Biden would never serve as our president). "You watch and see what will happen in March. Make that April. Actually, August. I mean September."
Others concocted convoluted, hyper-spiritual theories, allegedly received by divine revelation. "Actually, Trump is our president, enthroned by God in heaven. Biden has no real presidential authority."
Still others said, "The prophets were right and Trump did win the election. That's why we need to continue to fight for him to be reinstated. We can never accept the steal, and Biden will never be our president."
The fact is that, whether there was fraud or not, Joe Biden is our president, as recognized by our Congress and courts.
As for Trump, he is not our president, and he is not going to be miraculously restored to the White House any time soon. (Again, this is apart from him potentially running in 2024.)
Can we finally admit that this is the case and move on? Or will we be setting dates for the military to remove Biden in 2022 (or 2023), in keeping with yet another conspiratorial fantasy? I certainly hope we will not.
All of us can make mistakes. All of us can be wrong about our prognostications. All of us can misjudge a situation. And all of us can have faulty "sources" that, in the end, mislead us rather than inform us. And sometimes, to be brutally honest, we just get conned.
The problem is when we can't admit that and learn from our mistakes. The problem is when, as leaders in particular, we cannot acknowledge that our errors have led others into error. The problem is when we blameshift or even misdirect, being more concerned with rallying our base rather than admitting our guilt.
In this regard, a typical tactic would be to attack the messenger, in this case, accusing me of being weak. Or a RINO (I'm actually a registered Independent who votes Republican, based on conservative principles rather than party affiliation). Or approving of abortion (as if recognizing Biden as president makes me guilty of shedding innocent blood). Or lacking in faith. Or being unspiritual. Or whatever.
But that's the least of my concerns. In fact, it is not my concern at all, since I'm not writing this to gain popularity or support.
To the contrary, at the risk of alienating some readers, my only concern is that those who were deceived or misled or misinformed would come to grips with reality, learn from their mistakes, and come out as better men and women for it. As for those leaders who misled or misinformed others, now would be a good time to say, "It looks like I was wrong, and I apologize for speaking falsely and getting your hopes up for nothing. I intend to learn from this and not repeat such errors."
And how will the Lord respond? As the Word says, He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
So, where the shoe fits, get low and receive grace. God also lifts up the humble.
Solomon on how to deal with oppressive elites
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The Bible has several stories about ending evil, oppressive regimes. Pharaoh in the Exodus is the most well-known tale of God liberating slaves and judging a tyrant. But it is not the only one. After Solomon became unfaithful to the Lord, God allowed a tax revolt to remove most of Israel from the authority of Solomons heir, Rehoboam. Judges is all about God raising up leaders from the Israelite population to overthrow foreign rulers. Saul was chosen to be king because the people wanted a leader to fight against foreign powers ruling over the country.
But there was virtually always a reckoning after these revolutions. The liberated Hebrew slaves were constantly complaining against Moses (keep in mind that complaining sometimes got to the point of threatening his life). Rehoboam, the popularly chosen king who led the majority of Israel to be independent of Solomons dynasty, was not a faithful king. And subsequent rulers of Israel were much worse. After the judges delivered them, the people returned to the behavior that led them to be conquered in the first place. Sometimes, the judges themselves were the source of the trouble (Gideon was a champion for the Israelites but he had a son who ended up causing mayhem; see Judges 8:22-9:57).
While oppressive rulers are bad, overthrowing them doesnt always lead anywhere good. David, though anointed by God to replace Saul as king, refused to kill him or even try to overthrow him by force. He realized that ruling by regicide would set a precedent that would not be forgotten and would not bode well for a stable regime.
Perhaps reflecting on Davids life, Proverbs 24:21 states, My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise (ESV). There are some translation debates about the latter part of the verse. The NASB says, Do not associate with those who are given to change and the NIV reads, and do not join with rebellious officials. Whatever the exact nuance of the second part of the proverb, the basic message is clear. It is even closely paraphrased by the Apostle Peter in his first letter: Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (2:17).
So if God does sometime approve of overturning those in power, yet it so often ends badly, what should we do?
As a matter of historical record, the Apostles and other evangelists founded churches that functioned as a new culture. And as that culture matured and spread, the entire political and social situation in the Mediterranean world was transformed. New people provided new leadership by replacing, converting, or otherwise influencing rulers.
Which is what you would expect a religion to do that regards Proverbs as part of divine revelation.
A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers (Proverbs 17:2 ESV).
Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart (Proverbs 11:29 ESV).
A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out (Proverbs 28:11 ESV)
Christians ended up inheriting Western civilization by learning and living (however imperfectly) Gods wisdom. Within three centuries they ended up in charge.
So when dealing with oppressive elites, it might be better to think of God as searching for reliable replacements, rather than merely wanting to end the evil regime. If God is thinking long term, He is not going to overthrow a government just to see it replaced with a worse one. He wants a better government to take the place of the one he wants to overthrow.
What that means is that God is going to look for an available group of people who can reliably govern.
What kind of people will God look for?
Will he choose people who think that the world needs them to be in control because they alone are right?
Will he choose people who cant tolerate opposition?
Will he choose people who respond to adversaries by lashing out?
Will he choose people who long to destroy all their enemies?
Look at it this way: Either the world is changed by God in his providence or he has left us alone to save ourselves. If the latter is true, then the qualities of a good ruler will be whatever are best suited to take power by any means necessary. Otherwise, he cannot ever gain power. But thats not the Christian view.
If God gives authority to those he wants to have it, then other considerations should be important. If one wants to be put in power by God, one must develop the will and skill to use power in a way that God commends.
Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Matthew 25:23
In that case, gaining more power is not your primary responsibility. Overthrowing oppressive rulers is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is learning to do well with what little power you already have.
Most people, when they have little power or wealth of responsibility of significance, tell themselves that their habits and speech dont matter that much. But the Bible says differently.
One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." Luke 16:10
Wont God prefer people who are cheerful in adversity, humble about themselves, with a zeal for justice and an ability to extend mercy, be tolerant, and show prudence?
Be the government you want to see in the world, by how you govern yourself and your own affairs.
This week in Christian history: Episcopal diocese breaks away, St. Peters Basilica completed
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Throughout the extensive history of the Church, there have been numerous events of lasting significance.
Each week brings anniversaries of impressive milestones, unforgettable tragedies, amazing triumphs, memorable births, notable deaths and everything in between.
Some of the events drawn from over 2,000 years of history might be familiar, while other happenings might be previously unknown by most people.
This week Nov. 14 through Nov. 20 marks the anniversary of a diocese leaving its denomination, the completion of one of the most iconic Catholic basilicas and the wedding of a legendary evangelist.
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YouVersion Bible app amasses over 500M installs on devices worldwide
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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.
Dennis Quaid announces gospel album, opens up about his path back to Christ
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Actor Dennis Quaid is gearing up to release a gospel album and shared why he returned to Christianity after becoming disillusioned by the Southern Baptist church of his upbringing.
Quaid performed a solo, intimate evening concert on Wednesday in Chicagos City Winery. The iconic actor wanted people to just come and have a good time.
It is just me. Its the first time Ive been doing music on stage by myself since I was 19 years old, he shared in an interview with The Chicago Sun-Times.
For the past 20 years, Quaid has performed with his band The Sharks, but hes turned to making inspirational music in recent years. He told the newspaper that he is working on a gospel/inspirational album, due next year.
Quaid said that his new album will feature spiritual songs I grew up with in church.
Quaid is joined by Billy Ray Cyrus on the new song Fallen. Tanya Tucker, Kris Kristofferson and Brandi Carlisle are all featured on the remake of On My Way to Heaven.
The I Can Only Imagine star released a single titled On My Way to Heaven in 2018 for the Christian films soundtrack.
Ive always been spiritual. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, became disillusioned with it as a teenager. I turned to Eastern religions and philosophies, he told The Chicago Sun-Times.
I read the Bible twice, read the Koran, went to India nine times. Along the way, I came back to Christianity, and well, finding that its really the same all throughout the world, he added.
Quaid noted that people are people with the same sort of yearnings.
Were all spiritual beings whether we know it or not, he added. So thats what I speak to: ones relationship with God or non-relationship with God, he explained.
The Hollywood actor grew up attending a Baptist church in Texas and recently said in a promotional video that he was baptized at age 9. As he grew older, he began to ask, Who [is] God? But the actor maintained that Jesus is the One for him.
In a past interview with The Christian Post, this reporter asked Quaid for his thoughts on what Heaven will be like. Quaids song, On My Way to Heaven, written for his mother, revealed that he has thought about the afterlife.
What do I imagine Heaven will be like? I think we all get a little taste of it here on Earth through prayer and meditation. Thats actually the good news thats given you feel it here on Earth. To imagine it? I dont know that takes other eyes, he said at the time.
Alan Jackson's daughter shares God's faithfulness, 'tenderness' following tragic loss of husband
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NASHVILLE For Mattie Jackson Selecman, September 2018 will be a month forever etched in her memory.
It was a beautiful day in Florida, and Selecman and her husband of less than a year, Ben, had gathered with family and friends to celebrate Labor Day. What started as a fun-filled holiday turned tragic when Ben slipped and fell on a dock, suffering traumatic head injuries.
He spent 12 days in the ICU, and it was a really chaotic couple of weeks, wondering what was going to happen while Ben went through brain swelling and multiple surgeries, Selecman recalled in an interview with The Christian Post.
Just three weeks before their first anniversary, Ben died at age 28.
To say that it was a shock feels like a massive understatement, Selecman, now 31, said. My marriage was taken so unexpectedly and suddenly. I was so young, just 28. To be honest, it was very clear to me very soon after his passing that this was not something that I was going to have the strength to handle by myself in a healthy way.
The daughter of legendary country music star Alan Jackson and his wife, New York Times bestselling author Denise Jackson, Selecman grew up in the Church and attended Christian schools as a child, embracing a relationship with Jesus at a young age.
I never didnt believe," she shared. "I always knew Christ my Savior; my faith impacted my whole world and worldview, and Im incredibly grateful for that."
"But," she added, "its easy to have faith until you face something like this. What happens when everything is out of your control and theres nothing you can do? You have to choose will I trust God in this, or will I not?
When something this severe happens, when tragedy happens, you really can't stay lukewarm, Selecman emphasized. People, I think, are either so angry with God that they turn away, whether permanently or temporarily, or they just dive all in.
Trying to make sense of her pain, Selecman dove all in: I don't know how else to describe it, but especially in the beginning, I just craved Gods presence. I craved the Word of God. I craved praise music," she recalled. "I just wanted assurance that He was truly with me, every moment, and that the future that was so uncertain was in His hands. The scariest thing to think about was that my healing and my future were in my own hands because that was totally impossible.
For the next several months, Selecman spent time journaling, in counseling and immersing herself in Gods Word and felt His presence like never before.
He is so tender and so personal. He would send me tiny assurances that Ben was OK; that he was joyful and in Heaven, and in such a place of elation, she said. He was so incredibly tender; I started to feel like I was truly learning His heart. We became the kind of friends I think Jesus always wanted me to be with Him. It took being so desperate to find Him in all those tiny, tender places.
About a year-and-a-half after her husbands death, Selecman felt God calling her back to her journals, written from a place of what she describes as just raw emotion," adding: "There was no motivation besides survival and trying to understand what was a very, very chaotic sort of traumatic feeling.
While reading her journals, she felt God calling her to turn them into a book something that could bring healing and hope to others going through grief and pain.
God kept opening door after door, and it became clear that He wanted me to share this, she said. I started to look at, how can we get this into a format that's really honest about my story and honest about who God is, and hopefully serve as an inspiration to others and give some practical and spiritual takeaways for people who've experienced loss and just let them see a little hope in my story as I found it.
Now, Selecmam is documenting her journey of grief, healing and Gods faithfulness in her new book,Lemons on Friday: Trusting God Through My Greatest Heartbreak. She tackles questions relevant to anyone struggling with loss, including: How did I get here? Will this always hurt? Who am I now? How do I move forward?
How do you grieve something like this? she said. If youre mad at Him, be honest with Him, express that. If you dont, you arent going to heal. I had plenty of angry moments, and I had to be honest about them and it was so freeing. But, what is being angry with Him going to get you in the end? It's just going to turn you bitter toward Him. And man, that's a dangerous place to be.
God hates death; this isn't the way He designed it, Selecman added. I just always say if you're mad at God, look at the Jesus part of the Trinity, because Jesus wept at His friend's death. He could have stopped it in the same way God couldve stopped Bens. Just because He allows something doesn't mean He likes it for us.
Throughout the grieving process, Selecman said two verses gave her tremendous hope: Lamentations 3:22-23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning and Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
But knowing that Ben is in Heaven and that she will one day see him again is what allows her to have unfaltering faith and hope amid her grief.
I sat in the front row of my husband's funeral and burial knowing that Jesus is the only thing that matters, knowing that Ben is with Him, knowing that Ben is elated for eternity in a way that I can't understand, she said. On my darkest days, the most powerful truth remind myself of is that the man I love more than anything got to go early. He won the lottery. That has helped me deal with all of the sorrow and all the aftermath that it leaves for me. I know where Im headed, and I know Ben is already there.
Though dealing with a tough subject, Selecman wants her story to be one of hope; one that will bring comfort to others dealing with grief. She shared how already, shes had the opportunity to bring encouragement to those grieving through her nonprofit NaSHEville, which helps orphans, human trafficking victims and widows.
Ben, she said, was an abundant and joyful person who celebrated every moment and she hopes to carry on his legacy by living a life of service to those around her.
It doesnt take a miraculous or remarkable life on paper to really love your life and love the people in it, she reflected. "Ben did that so well. And its truthfully turned my focus more toward my relationships than what I want to accomplish because that's what life is all about.
I hope that when people sit where I sat three years ago, no matter what theyre facing, no matter what question marks are ahead, there is always light. You are never fully going to stay in the darkness, Selecman added. God doesn't ask much of us. He asked us to take small steps. And He asks us to ask Him what we need. He is faithful; theres nothing that you can't survive with Jesus there.
Lemons on Fridayis available for order now.
John Hagee's Cornerstone Church criticized after Lets go Brandon chant erupts at event
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Cornerstone Church of San Antonio, Texas, a prominent evangelical congregation headed by Pastor John Hagee, has garnered controversy for hosting an event that featured a widely circulated video of a crowd shouting the anti-Biden chant, Lets go, Brandon.
On Saturday evening, the Twitter account PatriotTakes posted a clip of a large gathering at Cornerstone in which a crowd was chanting Lets go, Brandon, a saying that has become a popular euphemism for F*** Joe Biden" in recent weeks.
A later clip from the same event showed that the chant was being led from the stage, as a speaker with a microphone helped to lead the audience in the partisan chant.
The footage was from a multiday event known as the Reawaken America Tour, which featured speakers such as former Trump National Security Advisor retired Gen. Michael Flynn and controversial radio personality Alex Jones.
Cornerstone released a statement to multiple media outlets distancing themselves from the event and the viral video of the chant.
This past week, Cornerstone Church facilities were used by an outside organization. Cornerstone Church is not associated with this organization and does not endorse their views, the church stated.
Oklahoma Pastor Jeremy Coleman was quoted by News 4 San Antonio as denouncing the event, stating that churches should be places of unconditional love for your neighbor.
I don't think that that kind of behavior, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, has any place inside the church, Coleman said.
You endorsed the organization to come in the doors. You knew that the people who were speaking at that event were extreme, so you knew what you were welcoming into the doors when you allowed it.
Mark Tooley, president of the theologically conservative think tank the Institute on Religion & Democracy, also criticized Cornerstones decision to host the event.
Cornerstone and its pastor John Hagee will need to disassociate themselves from The Reawaken America Tour and its vulgarity in their sanctuary, wrote Tooley.
Whatever its association with the Reawaken America Tour, hopefully, Cornerstone Church will focus on truly reawakening America through Gospel proclamation and not through echoing or hosting vulgar political bromides.
The Lets Go Brandon chant traces its origins to an incident at a NASCAR event in October when, while doing an interview with race winner Brandon Brown, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast claimed that the audience chanting F*** Joe Biden! was actually chanting Lets go, Brandon!
From there, many anti-Biden crowds took to shouting Lets go, Brandon! as a euphemistic way of verbally attacking the president. The trend has taken on a life on social media as well.
Robin Schumacher, an author and Christian apologist, penned a column for CP published Monday in which he denounced the Lets go, Brandon chant.
Im still naturally drawn to satirical statements, and so when the Lets go Brandon meme became culturally popular, I instinctively wanted to get on board, wrote Schumacher.
But something happened to me when I saw an advertisement for Lets go Brandon apparel and thought about buying it. Out of nowhere, a thought popped into my head: Honor the king (1 Pet. 2:17). And voila, theres that Holy Spirit convicting and sanctifying work I was talking about.
Schumacher went on to note that while Im certainly no fan of our current presidents actions, Christians need to swap out Lets go, Brandon with Pray for Joe Biden.
Franklin Graham released from Mayo Clinic after heart surgery: 'I felt Gods presence'
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Franklin Graham, a notable conservative evangelical leader, has been released from the Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, days after undergoing heart surgery.
Graham, who serves as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse, posted an update on his recovery to his Facebook page on Tuesday.
I wanted to let you know that I was released from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, yesterday, after a specialized surgery last Monday to correct constrictive pericarditis, the 69-year-old preacher wrote.
I couldnt be more grateful to my doctors and the Mayo Clinic team for their excellent care and expertise. The doctors say that I am doing really well and will be able to return to my normal activity and ministry schedule when Im fully recovered.
Graham went on to explain in his post that while he will be recuperating for the next few weeks, he is feeling better every day.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers I know what a difference prayer makes! I was never afraid. I felt Gods presence throughout the entire experience and give Him the glory, he added.
On Nov. 8, Graham underwent heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic after developing constrictive pericarditis, which is an inflammation and hardening of the sac around the heart.
In a statement shared with The Christian Post earlier this month, Samaritan's Purse explained that Grahams heart condition had developed within the past few 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, stated the organization.
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.
A son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, Franklin Graham has overseen and spoken at his share of evangelism events across the United States and abroad.
From Sept. 19 to Oct. 2, for example, Graham held an eight-city evangelism campaign known as the God Loves You tour, in which approximately 56,000 people attended and around 5,000 indicated a decision to accept Jesus Christ.
Record levels of pastors, more than half of mainline preachers seriously considering quitting: study
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As more pastors report struggling with their overall well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic, record numbers of them including more than half of preachers in mainline Protestant churches, are now seriously considering leaving full-time ministry a new study from Barna Group shows.
The study, released Tuesday, was conducted Oct. 1228 and included 507 Protestant senior pastors.
It found that nearly four out of 10 pastors, or 38% of them, said they are seriously considering leaving full-time ministry. This reflects a significant jump from the 29% of pastors who reported feeling this way in January.
When the data is broken down further into mainline and non-mainline pastors, it reveals that 51% of mainline pastors are seriously considering leaving full-time ministry. Additionally, 34% of non-mainline pastors reported feeling this way about their jobs.
Joe Jensen, Barnas vice president of church engagement, told The Christian Post that the growing number of pastors now looking to leave their full-time positions is cause for alarm.
This particular stat, this is the highest weve ever seen it, Jensen said, pointing to the burnout he believes many pastors are experiencing in the wake of the pandemic.
Weve been tracking this in our State of Pastors report that we did with Pepperdine University in 2016, 2017. We didnt have this exact stat but we were tracking burnout. [And] pastors were feeling burnout and the risk factors involved, Jensen said.
He explained: 2021 is the highest weve seen it, which is why as a company, quite frankly, we are alarmed and we are concerned about the overall well-being of pastors. Were concerned with how this is impacting the overall health of the Church. I really believe that [at] the heart of every healthy church is a healthy pastor. So this is definitely, almost four out of 10 pastors in America seriously considering quitting full-time ministry in the last year ... cause for concern.
Jensen said he believes the pandemic has had a significant impact on the well-being of pastors based on data they have gathered amid the pandemic. He specifically cited the spiritual, emotional, relational, financial and physical well-being of pastors a metric he calls the "five dimensions of flourishing."
Weve been tracking the overall well-being and health of pastors for a long time at Barna, but weve especially been keeping track of just how the pandemic has impacted pastors personally and professionally. We have been paying attention quite closely to these five dimensions of flourishing, where were tracking their spiritual well-being their emotional well-being, their relational well-being, financial well-being and their physical well-being as well, Jensen said.
Weve been doing pastor polls very consistently over the past 18 months since the pandemic started and in January when we asked that question about if theyre seriously considering quitting," he continued. "The 29% actually caused us to really perk up and pay attention because this question really is a culmination of a lot of the other questions."
This one comes down to, how are they viewing their calling and their purpose in regards to all those other dimensions? It really kind of causes a pastor to focus on taking everything into account and looking at the future and saying, Is this something Im still called to do?
Jensen said in 2020 when the pandemic shuttered many churches, many pastors were just in survival mode, trying to figure out how to get online when they werent, and how to connect with their people even when they werent there to connect with them.
In 2021, as people began to emerge from lockdowns and churches have begun to open up, pastors are now struggling with the slow return of many of their congregants.
As we went to 2021, especially as churches started to come back in person, we were starting to pay attention to, how did it impact their overall well-being when their people werent coming back? Like, they probably were expecting them to. And so 2021 has definitely had all these set of challenges for pastors, Jensen said.
Recent research from Lifeway showed that while a majority of Protestant churches are now open for in-person services, foot traffic has been slow to return to the pews, particularly for black churches.
Compared to data from January 2020, the Lifeway data showed that as of August, 13% of churches were attracting less than 50% of their pre-COVID-19 attendance. Some 35% of pastors reported attendance levels between 50% and 70% for the period, while another 30% reported attendance levels between 70% and 90%.
Jensen was unable to provide a direct cause for the disparity between the number of mainline and non-mainline preachers who are considering quitting full-time ministry. However, he said there is anecdotal evidence suggesting differences in church culture could be the driver.
A lot of the mainline pastors I talk to personally come from a liturgical tradition and the liturgical tradition the way that their whole ministry philosophy is centered on this in-person expression of ministry, Jensen said.
I think that was severely disrupted, whereas a lot of non-mainline churches were a little bit more equipped. The midsized to larger churches didnt have as much a transition into digital as maybe the mainline [churches]. So I think the digital transition, but more specifically the fact that they didnt get to lead in a way where they could express, they didnt get to lead in a way where they were able to express how theyre rooted in in-person and body ministry, he explained.
Also I think the fact that it was 51% of mainline versus 34% of non-mainline, thats a significant gap, and I would say whatever attributed to that, I think the bottom line is that the mainline [churches], they have a lot to figure out when it comes to their tradition, he added.
When it comes to the general increase in pastors looking to quit their jobs, Jensen said the healthier pastors reported they were using the five dimensions of flourishing. They were less likely they were to say they were considering quitting full-time ministry.
One thing we do at Barna, we dont make statements about causation from one stat to the other, but we do draw some correlation. So the correlation there would be if you look at all of those, so emotional well-being 27% of pastors who said they did not consider quitting rate their emotional well-being as excellent versus 7% of pastors who said they considered quitting, he said.
Thats a considerable difference, that only 7% of those who considered quitting said, Oh yeah, Im doing great emotionally, or Im doing great relationally. And so those are the ones that stand out.
Nearly half of pastors who did not consider leaving their jobs rate excellent across all five dimensions of flourishing compared to 14% of pastors who are seriously thinking about quitting, the data shows.
I guess in summary I would say that overall health of a pastor, there is a correlation between their overall health and their sense of calling or purpose when it comes to their overall calling as a pastor, Jensen said.
The current discontent among pastors about their jobs comes even as a Prudential study shows that 48% of U.S. adults, in general, are also rethinking the type of job they want post-pandemic.
Jensen, who was a pastor for 20 years, says pastors should be seen as people just like anyone else.
You asked the question, 'Should pastors kind of maybe be a little bit different than the general population?' And I would say, I was a pastor for 20 years, and I would say I had some of the same struggles as the people I was leading, he said.
Pastors, the emotional mental strain of leading in this time, the uncertainty, the chaos, of just whats going on in culture, how there are so many pressures that theyre facing both publicly and privately. I think thats contributed to where a lot of pastors are at now, he said.
When asked if the data reflected any generational disparities among pastors, Jensen said this isnt just an age thing.
Before the pandemic, we were paying attention to the average age of pastors in America. [It] was in the mid to late 50s. Obviously, a couple of years later, that trend is going to continue to go up as far as average age. We are seeing though that in the data, a lot of younger pastors under the age of 45 are struggling as well, he said. And so this isnt just an age thing.
The discontent forcing many pastors to rethink their calling also has serious implications for Church leadership, which Jensen notes injects some uncertainty about what the future of Church leadership will look like.
Pastoral succession, its something that were paying close attention to because we are going to see, in the next two to five years, a big wave of pastors looking to pass the baton to the next generation of pastors, he said.
We dont know how thats going to shake up yet, but we are confident that the pandemic has played a big role in how pastors are seeing their ability to pass on the pastorate to the next generation. You know the big question is, what [does] the next generation of pastors look like?
Jensen also believes there are practical steps that the Church community, in general, can take to help their leaders flourish and steps pastors can take themselves.
Just to get really practical, I think congregants, elders and deacons, whoever it is thats kind of surrounding these pastors within congregations, [should] encourage them to connect and have deep friendships, he said.
A lot of pastors dont have deep friendships because their immediate community are the people that theyre shepherding, so its really hard for them to find meaningful friendships. I would encourage pastors to reach out to other pastors, the Barna expert advised.
Jensen noted that pastors, in general, shy away from counseling and mentoring, but they need to understand that its OK to ask for help.
Pastors traditionally dont feel comfortable for a number of different reasons to seek out counseling, to seek out mentoring. You know it needs to be OK within a Church community and the Church culture for a pastor to say, you know what? I need help. I need some counseling. Im struggling emotionally, he said.
But to be quite frank, for whatever reason, a lot of pastors dont feel comfortable being vulnerable within a leadership context. I really think that churches need to communicate and say, Hey pastor, its OK not to be OK.'"
He added, I think churches should provide counseling stipends for pastors and encourage them. Dont let financials, dont let the stigma of it get in the way of you getting the mental and emotional help that you need so you can lead more effectively from a healthier spot."
He further noted that in addition to getting help, pastors and the Church community should also use the challenges that have emerged in ministry from the pandemic to rethink the way we measure success and flourishing in the Church.
I think the disruption of the pandemic is a great opportunity for pastors to really first of all stop and look inside. These numbers, I think, can actually be a good thing to wake us up to the reality of what were really called to do as pastors. Is this something that Im really deeply called to? Is this just a job? Is this just a position? Or is it a deep calling at the core of my being? he asked. Id encourage pastors to lean into this moment and ask yourself these deeper questions.
He also wants pastors to realize that you are not alone, adding: "There are other pastors who are experiencing the same exact thing. So if you are there and youre thinking, 'Is there something wrong with me? I feel less spiritual because Im questioning if this is something I want to do,' dont give in to that sentiment."
You look all throughout Scripture, and you see leader after leader comes to those moments of doubt and hesitation, and God was there for all of them. For Moses, God was there and said, 'Ill give you everything you need'. For King David, almost all throughout the Psalms, we read where he was questioning if he could do this. If he could survive just all the pressures and all the conflicts and all of the adversaries and enemies, he continued. God reassured him of His presence.
Jensen admits that because this has been the most complex time, at least in modern history, to be a pastor, new metrics of success are now needed.
The pastoral position has always had its challenges through the ages now with just how, with social media, visible pastors are in so many different ways. There is an increased pressure to have it all together, to hold it all together. There is an increased pressure, especially in the last 20 years or so to be like a certain pastor, he said.
The metric of success for pastors has been centered around things like the number of church members, how much money is being collected in tithes and offerings and how big the church campus is.
And thats why were saying at Barna, its time for a new metric of success in the Church, where we start to measure pastors and give a different type of metric because I really think that has contributed to this, Jensen said.
That pastors have been chasing this idea of what it means to be successful, and we dont measure up with that. And then you bring in all the complexities of leading in a pandemic and not being relationally engaged with the community and with close friends and the complexity of digital ministry and digital engagement. You bring all those things together, its definitely a recipe for confusion and uncertainty and self-doubt, he said.
What we really need to start measuring are the things that truly matter, he said noting that in 2022 that will be the companys focus. And we really believe that what matters right now is our people actually growing as disciples of Jesus in all the areas of their life.
John Hagee, Cornerstone Christian Schools file lawsuit to resume in-person classes in August
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Evangelist John Hagee and several parents of children who attend Cornerstone Christian Schools are suing Texas local and county officials to allow the schools to open in August despite a local health order prohibiting in-person classes until Sept. 7.
Hagee, Cornerstone Christian Schools, Cornerstone Church and Global Evangelism Incorporated have been joined by parents in filing a lawsuit last week against Bexar County and San Antonio public officials over a directive issued by the local health department.
According to the lawsuit, the directive issued by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 purports to impose restrictions on all public and private schools that provide pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade instruction.
Although the directive instructs schools not to open for in-person instruction until Sept. 7, Cornerstone Christian Schools is scheduled to reopen for in-person instruction on Aug. 17.
Plaintiffs contend that an order prohibiting in-person instruction infringes on the religious freedom enjoyed by private religious schools because it tries to force the schools to close for in-person instruction against their desires.
Further, the parents a pediatric surgeon, a nurse and a Texas ranger allege that they "may be forced to quit their job if their kids in-person learning is not allowed until September.
The plaintiffs asked the district court for a temporary restraining order against the local orders to allow for the school to have in-person classes with social distancing guidelines in place.
Plaintiffs hold a sincere religious belief and seek to educate, and have their children educated, through the in-person instruction of Plaintiffs religious, educational institution to further those sincere beliefs, the legal filing reads.
The Texas Health & Safety Code and the Directive impermissibly make Plaintiffs beliefs the object of their enforcement and, thus, are not facially neutral. Moreover, Defendants actions in enforcing the Directive are not generally applied.
On July 17, the City of San Antonio Office of Emergency Management announced that all schools in Bexar County, private and public, would have remote learning until at least Sept. 7.
We recognize the importance of re-opening schools, San Antonio Metro Health Medical Director Dr. Junda Woo, who is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
This directive considers the higher risk for spread of COVID-19 in schools due to their confined spaces, and the challenge for children in following social distancing and hygiene guidelines. Re-opening will happen in phases, based on COVID-19 metrics.
The following week, Cornerstone Christian Schools posted a statement on Facebook explaining that they intend to give parents the option of having students attend classes online or in-person.
We believe that parents should have the right to decide what is best for their families in the context of their childrens education, Cornerstone stated.
Cornerstone added that the schools are implementing significant social distancing measures for in-person schooling and were blessed to have the classrooms, buildings, and overall space necessary to keep our kids safe while providing them the important educational, social and mental-health benefits associated with classroom instruction.
Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent an official letter addressed to religious private schools explaining that they are exempt from official shutdown orders.
Even if the government may have a compelling interest in closing certain aspects of society to contain the spread of a virus, blanket government orders closing all religious private schools are not the least restrictive means of achieving that interest, wrote Paxton.
Thus, as protected by the First Amendment and Texas law, religious private schools may continue to determine when it is safe for their communities to resume in-person instruction free from any government mandate or interference. Religious private schools therefore need not comply with local public health orders to the contrary.
According to The San Antonio Express-News, city and county officials say they will continue asking private and religious schools to voluntarily comply with the health directive.
I think what Dr. Woo has done is not an overreach, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said Tuesday, according to the newspaper. All shes simply saying at this stage is wait until Sept. 7."
I hope that we can work with the schools and get that worked out without having to continue the litigation," he added. "I think its in the best interests of the parents, the children and everybody here in the community.
After declaring Jesus Christ the vaccine for COVID-19, John Hagees ministry clarifies statement
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Months after John Hagee, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, declared Jesus Christ as the vaccine for COVID-19 after he was hospitalized with the virus, his ministry has clarified that he believes in prayer and medicine and is taking the vaccine.
"Pastor Hagee himself is taking the vaccine," Hagee Ministries spokesperson Ari Morgenstern told ABC News in a statement, adding that Hagee's comments, in which he said he had been taken out of context. "Pastor Hagee believes in both the power of prayer and modern medicine. These are not mutually exclusive."
Hagees church did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from The Christian Post on Tuesday.
As he recovered from a high publicized bout with COVID-19 last November, Hagee revealed to his flock that he spent 15 days in the hospital and credited the healing power of God for his recovery.
Im sitting in this chair today to the testimonial of the healing power of Jesus Christ. I spent 15 days in the hospital with double pneumonia, and Im still supposed to be home gasping for air, he said.
Im on this platform speaking of the glory of God for the healing power of God. I breathe under the authority of Christ every sickness and every disease and especially the COVID thing thats sweeping this nation.
We have a vaccine; the name is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Let Him sweep through this country and heal the righteous who dare to ask for it. Heal our church members. Restore them rapidly. Let the name of Jesus Christ be exalted because He is Lord over all, Hagee declared.
According to ABC News, "Doctors say remarks like that make it more difficult to ensure that all communities are protected from the virus."
"The challenges that we're seeing from the anti-vaxxer community, from religious communities, are also impacting equitable access to vaccines, which I think is a really important issue particularly in communities of color," Dr. Jay Bhatt, ABC News' medical contributor."The choice we're making is one of health, of one of safety, of one of helping us together do the things we need to get to a COVID-free world."
Other religious leaders, including controversial Pastor Tony Spell of the 3,000-member Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have encouraged their church members not to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
"We're anti-vaccine," Spell told ABC News. "I'm their pastor; I'm willing to stand before God for every decision that I make in people's lives. Every decision. I'm willing to stand before God for them."
He added: "How can you trust a government who in 1945 purposefully [conducted] the Tuskegee study?"
In the Tuskegee trial conducted from 1932 through 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service studied the effects of untreated syphilis in black men in Macon County, Alabama. Men in the study were offered free medical care and burials, but not penicillin, which became the recommended drug for treatment of syphilis in the 1940s.
Pastor John Hagee Dedicates State-of-the-Art Home to Expectant Mothers in Crisis: 'Help Is Mandated'
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Megachurch Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, has officially dedicated a new state-of-the-art facility to expectant mothers in crisis so that they and their children can have a safe space to build a "strong foundation for a fulfilling life."
John Hagee Ministries announced on Monday that building work on the Sanctuary of Hope, set to open in May, has nearly been completed a year after the Christian ministry first broke ground on the facility.
"I'm very proud that we are able to so quickly begin offering these services just a little more than one year after we first started building the main facility. Christians are mandated to help their neighbors in need; the Sanctuary of Hope will do just that by providing women in crisis with an opportunity to build prosperous, loving lives," Hagee said, revealing that the facility is a life-long dream of his.
While the building will first house 24 expectant mothers and 24 additional mothers with their newborn children, in the long-term it is looking to care for a total of 300 residents at a time.
Besides providing a home, the sanctuary will also offer on-site medical care, parental training, counseling, educational opportunities and job placement assistance, all free of charge.
Hagee's son, Matt, executive pastor of Cornerstone Church, explained that SOH is more than just a home for a mother in crisis, but that it's about "helping her in every aspect of her life, and helping her child in every aspect of their life."
John and Matt Hagee broke ground on the facility in Bulverde in February 2017, noting that the aim is also to help save the lives of unborn babies.
"This facility will not save every mother and every child from poverty, but as my Jewish friends have taught me, if you save one life it is as if you saved an entire world. We are going to do what we can for everyone we can," Hagee said in a statement shared with The Christian Post at the time.
SOH also inspired a Zach Smith ballad released last year, titled "I Chose Me," performed by Sandy Hagee Parker of the southern gospel acclaimed group The Hagees.
"This song was a definite departure for me," Smith said.
"To write about the pain without portraying a 'happily ever after' closure makes for a very somber writing session. Trying to encapsulate the first-person perspective of a woman in this situation was a challenge I was honored to accept.
"The Sanctuary of Hope exists to prevent women from walking down this dark path of pain and regret, so that in and of itself is the happy ending of the song. This doesn't have to happen. There is help. There is hope, a Sanctuary of Hope."
Several ministries in Texas have focused part of their outreach efforts on expectant mothers in need, and were instrumental in helping those affected by the hurricanes and tropical storms that slammed into the U.S. last year.
Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, was one megachurch that helped house people in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in August and September.
Meredith Phillips, who operates a Christian housing ministry for pregnant mothers called LifeHouse, said that Lakewood and its pastor, Joel Osteen, provided vital help to Texans, including expectant women, without a home.
"They had created a shelter on one floor and were offering services on another floor," Phillips said at the time.
"There were so many volunteers that came, they were turning away volunteers, but I came in because I wanted to offer LifeHouse as a resource to any displaced pregnant women."
Woman, 69, found murdered inside church where family worshiped for 4 generations
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Evelyn Player, a 69-year-old retiree, was found stabbed to death Tuesday morning inside the Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore, Maryland, where she volunteered and her family worshiped for four generations.
At a press conference Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called Players death inside the independent multi-campus church an unspeakable, cowardly murder. He described her as a dedicated member and staff member of Southern Baptist Church and her killer as cowardice scum.
This is not OK. None of us should be OK. Her family is four generations strong at Southern. ... Solving this unfathomable, unthinkable cowardly act is now priority No. 1 for the Baltimore Police Department, said Scott.
The visibly upset mayor said that while he is confident the police will absolutely close this case, members of the Baltimore community should be doing what they can to bring Players killer to justice.
I dont care if this person is your son, your husband, your boyfriend, your daughter, your uncle, your aunt. You should turn this person in because if were OK with someone this cowardly murdering someone that could be your grandmother, that could be someone elses grandmother, then what are we willing to stand up for? Scott asked.
We cannot continue to allow folks to do that in a church not outside the church, not walking down the street, in a church. Think about how brazen it is. Think about the lack of care in life that someone has to do [that to a] a senior in a church. Thats what we all should be thinking about today.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael S. Harrison said Player entered the church at around 6 a.m. Tuesday and unlocked the doors, as usual, to allow contractors renovating the church to enter.
Somewhere around 6:50, we know she was found inside of the bathroom there in her work area dead, where she had been attacked, Harrison said.
I am with the mayor. If somebody saw something, heard something or knows something, please call us right away.
Church administrator Diane Lashley told The Baltimore Sun that another church employee found Players body and called police around 7:20 a.m. When contacted by The Christian Post on Wednesday, Lashley said she could not immediately speak about the situation.
Players daughter, Alethea Finch, told the publication her mother was a devoted member of Southern Baptist Church and a retired office worker at the medical publishing company Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Who would want to hurt my mother? Finch asked through tears. How could someone hurt someone in such a sacred place? My hearts broken into a million pieces. I dont understand why this happened.
Friends and neighbors described Player as a beautiful person, according to CBS Baltimore, and also expressed shock that she was killed inside the church.
A murder in a church? Why? That is supposed to be a safe space. Why? said neighbor Delise Lynch.
She was a beautiful person, one friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said. This is devastating to know something like this could happen to just a lovely person. Its just devastating.
House Republicans condemn Finland's prosecution of Christian MP over beliefs on sexuality
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Six members of Congress have condemned Finland for prosecuting a Christian politician who is facing six years in prison for sharing her biblical beliefs on sexuality and marriage, voicing their concern with the top federal religious freedom advisory committee.
Led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the Republican House members sent a letter to Nadine Maenza, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on Wednesday.
They condemned the prosecutions of Parliament Member Paivi Rasanen and Evangelical Lutheran Mission Bishop Juhana Pohjola, which they argue to be infringements on religious freedom.
Rasanen has been charged with three counts of ethnic agitation over statements expressing her beliefs about human sexuality and marriage. Pohjola, the bishop-elect of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, has been charged with one count of ethnic agitation for publishing Rasanens booklet.
The lawmakers urged the bipartisan panel that advises Congress and federal government on international religious freedom issues to consider these prosecutions when recommending which countries the U.S. State Department should place on a special watch list of countries that engage in religious freedom violations.
The Finnish government is currently prosecuting well-known Christians for publicly supporting long-standing Christian doctrine, the letter reads.
Rasanen publicly voiced her opinion on marriage in a 2004 booklet on sexual ethics, describing marriage as between one man and one woman. She also expressed her views on a 2019 radio show and tweeted church leadership on the matter.
The House members argue that the prosecutions are specific examples of the Finnish governments violation of freedom of religion.
These criminal prosecutions raise serious questions regarding the extent of Finlands commitment to protecting freedom of religion for its citizens, as agreed to with its participation in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other multi-lateral organizations, the letter reads.
Prosecutors in Finland determined that Rasanens previous statements disparage and discriminate against LGBT individuals and foment intolerance and defamation.
The mother of five maintains that her expressions are legal and should not be censored.
I cannot accept that voicing my religious beliefs could mean imprisonment, said Rasanen in a statement previously issued by ADF International, a legal organization representing her. I do not consider myself guilty of threatening, slandering or insulting anyone. My statements were all based on the Bibles teachings on marriage and sexuality.
Signatories of Wednesdays letter include Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga, a pastor and former first vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention; Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Michael Cloud, R-Texas; R-Fla.
The Republican lawmakers say punishing citizens for remarks made on social media and a booklet that has been in the public eye for more than 17 years is a clear abuse of government power.
These actions by the Finnish government will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on free speech in Finland and the West, the letter says. At the center of religious liberty is the freedom for individuals to live in accordance to their conscience and beliefs.
True religious liberty both protects an individuals right both to hold beliefs that are unpopular with the prevailing cultural winds of the world, but also their right to live out authentically and profess the truths they hold dear without fear of government interference, the lawmakers add. Those rights are fundamental and unalienable to the whole human race, and it is critical to the flourishing of both the human soul and civil society.
In his address this week at an Alliance Defending Freedom freedom office in Washington, D.C., Pohjola warned that his prosecution illustrates that the Gospel of Christ is at stake because of postmodernism and cancel culture.
He believes hate speech laws have been unfairly used against him.
When postmodernism first swept over Western countries, its basic core was denial of absolute truth. The only truth was that you must allow everyone to have his or her own subjective truth, Pohjola said. This hyper-individualism continues, but it has now a different tone. If you are against LGBTQ+ ideology, so-called diversity, equality and inclusiveness, you are not only considered to be old-fashioned but rejected as morally evil. This is what the prosecutor general understands her duty to be, to protect fragile citizens and victims from the intolerant and hateful Christians.
In May, professors from Ivy League institutions like Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University were among legal scholars to urge USCIRF to pressure the State Department to sanction Finlands prosecutor general for prosecuting Pohjola and Rasanen.
No reasonable balance of the goods of public order, civil equality, and religious liberty can ever support this suppression of the right to believe and express ones beliefs. The prosecutions are straightforward acts of oppression, they wrote.
To uphold the internationally recognized rights of freedom of expression and religious liberty, the United States must now respond to the abuses in Finland as it has recently responded to other violations of religious liberty in non-western nations.
This summer, the International Lutheran Council issued a statement calling the prosecutions egregious.
Defense attorney apologizes for black pastor comment in Ahmaud Arbery trial
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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 has issued an apology in court after expressing concern with the presence of prominent black pastors like Al Sharpton in the courtroom.
After national blowback over his comments last week, attorney Kevin Gough on Friday apologized in the Glynn County courthouse in coastal Brunswick to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended.
On Thursday, Gough told the court that he believed the presence of Sharpton and potentially other high-profile African American activist pastors in the courtroom could sway the jury. Sharpton had been invited to the hearing by Arberys family.
Obviously, theres only so many pastors they can have, Gough said. If their pastor is Al Sharpton right now, thats fine, but then thats it. 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.
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 in a statement.
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. I respect the defense attorney doing his job, but this is beyond defending your client. It is insulting the family of the victim.
In court on Friday, Gough said he was asked to address some comments the other day.
I will let the court note 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, he said, according to First Coast News. And my apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended.
Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump vowed that about 100 black pastors would come to pray with the family this week.
Goughs client, William Roddie Bryan Jr, is being tried for Arberys murder. Arbery was shot while jogging in Glynn County in February 2020.
Gregory McMichael, 65, and Travis McMichael, 35, are also being tried for the murder.
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.
Georgia Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley didnt object to Sharpton being in the courtroom as long as his rules were followed.
News of Arberys killing made headlines last May after Lee Merritt, the familys attorney, shared a graphic video of the shooting.
In the video filmed by a witness, Arbery was chased by men in a pickup truck as he ran through a neighborhood. As the witness gets closer, Arbery briefly disappears off camera, and a gunshot is fired. Gregory McMichael appears to stand in the pickup truck bed, holding a shotgun. Two more shots ring out as Arbery appears back in the frame before falling to the ground.
Arbery was unarmed and dead when police arrived at the scene.
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Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department made a minor change to its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Although the media largely ignored the move, the change adds to the ongoing shift in U.S. human rights advocacy taking place during the Biden administration. Its consequences could be far-reaching.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reinstated an Obama-era addition to the State Department human rights report reporting on foreign countries laws and programs regarding abortion and contraception. The new addendum to the 2020 report released in March now features sub-sections on reproductive rights in the individual evaluations of every member country of the United Nations.
The term reproductive rights is code for abortion, and its use in official U.S. human rights reports is inappropriate. A right to abortion is nowhere to be found in international human rights law; meanwhile, the right to life certainly is. Now, American allies like Poland known for being a great protector of human rights and champion of freedom will receive a slap on the wrist at the hands of the State Departments report for having pro-life protections. This is occurring even as authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China continue conducting forced abortions on vulnerable women, constituting a grave human rights abuse.
You might be thinking: how much harm can an annual State Department report that most Americans dont even know about really do? As it turns out, a lot.
State Department reports set the tone for U.S. human rights advocacy and are frequently referenced by NGOs and international bodies. The topics that the United States chooses to cover in these reports conveys to the rest of the world what the United States considers human rights and what type of human rights issues our foreign policy will prioritize. These reports could also help guide discussions that U.S. diplomats have with their counterparts regarding human rights.
When announcing the reporting change, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters, We reaffirm our full commitment to promote and protect the sexual and reproductive health of all individuals, recognizing the essential and transformative role they play in gender equality and women and girls empowerment around the world.
This is a false and damaging narrative for women. Instead of leveling the playing field, legalized abortion pressures women into viewing their children as enemies of their success. Abortion is not necessary to ensure equality having equal protections and rights under the law are.
Rather than monitoring (and by doing so, implicitly promoting) access to abortion around the world, the State Department should re-focus its efforts on addressing the truly pressing human rights abuses that are unique to women and girls. Currently, the forced marriages of young women from religious minority communities are all too common in Pakistan. Uyghur women in Xinjiang are being forcibly sterilized and undergoing devastating forced abortions. And Afghan girls are being sold by starving parents and barred from going to school. These are some of the serious human rights crises that women and girls are facing around the world today, and the State Department should be paying closer attention and taking action.
On his popular daily podcast, Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, criticized the State Departments inclusion of reproductive rights in its reports, saying, It is a morally grotesque corruption of the idea of human rights And its unhinged from any kind of understanding of the origin of rights coming from outside human beings ourselves.
By their very nature, human rights preexist the state. They are not granted by governments; governments merely choose whether or not they will respect them. This preexistence is why diverse governments representing vastly different cultures can agree to the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is also why the United States and other free countries can confidently advocate for human rights around the world. Its not an imposition on cultural differences to stand up for human rights. Rather, its an acknowledgment of the human dignity of each person. We advocate for human rights around the world because we aim to protect rights that every person already has by virtue of their humanity.
The rights recognized by the UDHR include freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; and the right to life, liberty and security of person. The right to end the life of a preborn child through abortion clearly doesnt belong in this list. The profound importance of human rights makes the promotion of new rights invented by activists or politicians inappropriate and damaging.
The United States must preserve the integrity of human rights advocacy in its annual reports and all other aspects of its foreign policy. We can start by making sure the State Departments annual reports monitor what they purport to monitor human rights.
Originally published at the Family Research Council.
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Do you believe that all of us have blind spots of some kind? That all of us are shaped, for better or worse, by our own upbringing and environment? That we sometimes see things through an imperfect lens? And can you point to many blind spots among those whose beliefs and ideologies you reject?
whiteIf so, perhaps we can explore some of our own blind spots here, and in this case, by we I mean we who are white Americans.
The truth be told, all of us, of all colors and backgrounds, are much more inclined to see the blind spots of others, pointing out their biased thinking, their convoluted logic, their limited knowledge, and their faulty arguments. But how often do we examine our own points of view through that same lens of critical thinking?
A few years ago, after months of race-related discussion on my radio show, I put forth a simple thesis: White Americans often do not see racism when it is there. Black Americans often do see racism when it is not there.
Some, of course, found this thesis offensive. Many others, however, heartily agreed.
I suggest we test it out here.
As white Americans, when we watch the video of the tragic death of George Floyd, do we see this as race-related? For many of us, the answer is no, even if we see it as an act of unjustified police brutality, worthy of conviction under the law (as the court ultimately ruled).
As for black Americans watching this video, this was yet another example of white brutality against an unarmed black man.
In response, we say, But look at the facts. Look at the statistics. Only a dozen or so unarmed black men are killed by the police every year. You need to stop listening to the race-baiters.
In response, our black friends say, How many times have you been racially profiled? And do you need to have the talk with your boys when they become teenagers, urging them to respond to police officers with the utmost respect lest they be shot? Or do you think we are just imagining the corporate pain that we feel?
To be clear, and to reiterate what I have written and said elsewhere, I oppose the dangerous, anti-white curriculum that is popping up in schools across our nation. And I will continue to call out the false white supremacist accusations that are being hurled against us white conservatives by the hour.
At the same time, I must ask if we really want our children to know the painful truth of American history, one that is often more sordid than we would like to admit.
I was reminded of this when reading the new book by Charles Love called Race Crazy: BLM, 1619, and the Progressive Racism Movement. Love is a conservative black American who has appeared on Fox News and who is an opponent of CRT in our childrens schools. So, he is the opposite of a radical, race-baiting progressive.
Yet, when discussing one of the essays in The 1619 Project, he affirms some of the horrible realities of our past treatment of black Americans as pointed out by journalist Trymaine Lee, realities that still affect many black Americans today. (I remind you again that one of the purposes of Loves book is to expose the dangerous biases in The 1619 Project, but here, there are facts he needed to affirm.)
For example, Lee points out that, on average, whites have 7 times the wealth of blacks in America. Love then writes (agreeing with Lee), For the first seventy-five years post-slavery, this was nearly entirely the fault of the government, either by racist laws or by negligence taking no action as whites robbed, killed, and terrorized blacks.
To illustrate this reality, Lee shares the story of Elmore Boling, a wealthy black businessman in Alabama who was murdered in 1947 by white men angered by his success. White creditors then took his money, leaving his family and descendants bereft of his wealth. Yet 1947 is not that long ago, and the effects of Bolings murder and financial rape are still felt by his grandchildren today.
Love then writes this: Armed white people stormed prosperous majority-black Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 to murder dozens of black people, force 2,000 others off their property, and overthrow the city government. In the Red Summer of 1919, at least 240 black people were murdered across the country. And in 1921, in one of the bloodiest racial attacks in United States history, Greenwood, a prosperous black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was burned and looted. It is estimated that as many as 300 black people were murdered, and 10,000 were rendered homeless. Thirty-five square blocks were destroyed. No one was ever convicted in any of acts of racist violence.
These were obvious acts of terrorism, but the government also played an active role in suppressing economic opportunities for blacks. . . .
I can assure you that I never learned any of this as a child in school (at least, to the best of my memory).
Does this mean that white children today should be made to feel guilty about the past? Absolutely not! Unless, of course, they are racists themselves, in which case they should be ashamed.
Does this mean that white kids should be identified as the oppressor class? No, no, no.
Does this even mean that white Americans should be paying out reparations to black Americans? Love himself writes, I want to clearly state that I believe reparations were the proper response to slavery; I just believe the clock has run out on the payment. Thus, we need to address the remaining inequities in more practical ways today.
Then what is the point of me sharing all this? It is simply that our black friends want us to listen and learn. They want us to understand their perspective. They want us to address our own blind spots. They want us to know our history better than many of us do, not just praising past American exceptionalism but also grieving over past American racism.
As one black caller said to me on the air one day, I dont want you to do anything about the pain we have experienced. I just want you to listen.
It is the least that we can do.
Gunmen kill 2 of 66 kidnapped Baptist church members in Nigeria; 3 injured
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Armed bandits in Nigerias Kaduna State have killed two of the more than 60 worshipers of Emmanuel Baptist Church whom they had kidnapped during a church service about two weeks ago, a local Christian leader has confirmed.
The bandits opened fire on five of their victims and killed two people while three others were seriously injured and are currently in the hospital, Rev. Joseph Hayab, Kaduna chapters chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said in a statement, as quoted by the PUNCH news outlet.
The gunmen stormed Emmanuel Baptist Church in Kakau Daji area in southern Kaduna on Oct. 31, the international Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors reported at the time, adding that the telecom networks were down at the time of the attack.
The church was unable to call for help, whilst the bandits have reportedly asked for a higher ransom because they had to travel farther for network service to contact the victims relations.
The lives of the abducted Christians are in danger and require urgent intervention of government and security agencies, Rev. Hayab said.
The insecurity in Kaduna State has continued to grow beyond our imagination and is threatening the peace of the nation.
Haya earlier told the anti-communist global news outlet Epoch Times that the Baptist church is the worst-hit church in this state.
More than 140 students were abducted in July as they were scheduled to take their final exams at Bethel Baptist High School in the Chikun local government area in Kaduna.
The abductors promised the parents that their children would not starve if they provided rice, beans, palm oil, salt and stock cubes. They said a ransom demand would follow, Reuters reported at the time.
Terrorist groups with a foothold in Nigeria have carried out mass kidnappings in recent years, including kidnapping over 200 girls from a school in Chibok in 2014.
Dede Laugesen, the executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that terrorists will often kidnap boys and brainwash them to become jihadis.
Many Nigerians have raised concerns about what they perceive as the governments inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings.
In an earlier interview with CP, Emeka Umeagbalai of the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law said kidnappings of Christians happen for various reasons.
Some terrorists, like Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province and radicalized members of the Fulani herding communities are motivated by money, while others are inspired by Islamic radicalism.
Security analysts say kidnapping for ransom is becoming a lucrative industry in Nigeria. And weapons are becoming readily available to militants in Nigeria thanks to war-torn Libya.
CAN has appealed to well-meaning individuals, organizations, those in authority, especially the Federal Government and the international community, to come to our rescue.
The evil we are experiencing is more than what an ordinary person in Kaduna and Nigeria can handle. CAN is appealing to all Christians and people of our state to be united in fighting this evil and be watchful, Rev. Haya added.
In Kaduna and across Nigerias farm-rich Middle Belt, there has been an increasing trend of attacks in recent years on predominantly Christian farming communities. Some pinpoint the beginning of the trend to have started around 2015 as estimates suggest that thousands have been killed as Fulani radicals have been accused of invading countless communities.
Despite calls for government action to thwart the violence, the government has long attributed attacks and reprisals as part of decades-old farmer-herder clashes, a defense some human rights advocates say ignores the religious components of the violence.
That is a distorted representation of whats really happening. In fact, there is a farmer-herder aspect to the violence, Epoch Times Africa Desk Editor Doug Burton told The Christian Post this week. But that discounts the fact that the preponderance of the attacks are sectarian in nature.
Critics have warned that the governments lack of action in the Middle Belt could lead to a religious genocide similar to those seen in Darfur or Rwanda. However, the Nigerian government has pushed back on such claims.
Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA ranks Nigeria at No. 9 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Nigeria is also recognized as a country of particular concern by the U.S. State Department for tolerating or engaging in severe violations of religious freedom.
Journalist arrested, charged after reporting on attacks against Christians in Nigeria
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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.
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Myanmar military shells Catholic cathedral for second time in 5 months
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Myanmars security forces reportedly shelled a Catholic cathedral in the northeastern Shan state for the second time in five months as they continue to fight local militias, targeting Catholic churches and convents and displacing more than 10,000 people.
The military fired heavy artillery targeting Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in the Diocese of Pekhon last Tuesday, days after shelling the convent of the Sisters of Zetaman, which is housed in a Marian shrine, Catholic News Service reported.
The shelling damaged the windows and pews but no casualties have been reported.
Security forces intensified their offensive against the combined forces of the Karenni army and Karenni Peoples Defense Force on Nov. 2 and over 10,000 people have been displaced from Pekhon township.
It was intense fighting, so the majority of people have fled from their homes to safe areas, a Catholic social worker told Union of Catholic Asia News.
The source added that the church is not able to respond to the needs of the displaced due to the fighting, which has also caused aid workers to flee.
The cathedral was also hit by artillery fire in June.
Christians make up just over 7% of the majority-Buddhist nation. Formerly known as Burma, the country is home to the worlds longest civil war, which began in 1948.
Myanmars ethnic minorities, including Christians, live in the various conflict zones across the countrys borders with Thailand, China and India. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them Christians, have been displaced due to the escalation of conflicts in the zones since the military coup on Feb. 1.
Militias in those areas have been morally supporting pro-democracy protesters since the coup, which has led to the use of heavy weapons by the Myanmar army. Thousands of civilians in the conflict zones have sought shelter in churches when their villages are under attack.
The Diocese of Pekhon and the Diocese of Loikaw in the Kayah state have been among the most impacted areas since by increasing fighting since May, UCA News notes.
Last month, Burmese security forces fired heavy artillery into a town in the predominantly Christian Chin state, setting at least 100 homes and two churches on fire. The U.S. State Department released a statement condemning the gross violations of human rights.
The attack was in retaliation after a Chin militia shot and killed a Burmese soldier who was breaking into houses and looting properties, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported the anti-junta Chinland Defense Force as saying.
Nearly 10,000 residents of the town of Thantlang fled the area as the fire raged on, ICC reported at the time.
The presence of the Buddhist nationalist military makes civilians and militias in conflict-ridden states nervous. The military has been accused of damaging places of worship and civilians homes, raping girls and women, abducting civilians to be used for forced labor and shooting civilians to death.
From June to May, at least eight churches were damaged in 30 days in the Kayah and Shan states. According to Radio Free Asia, five civilians sheltering inside the churches were killed.
In May, four civilians were reportedly killed and around eight others were injured when security forces fired artillery shells at a Catholic church in the Kayah state.
In September, a beloved youth pastor, Cung Biak Hum of Thantlang Centennial Baptist Church, was shot dead as he tried to help one of his congregants save their burning home after it was set ablaze by the military during an attack on civilians in Chin state.
Information on his Facebook page showed that he was married with two sons. He was also reportedly pursuing a masters of divinity degree at MIT Yangon.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, highlighted the pastors murder in a tweet at the time, calling on the international community to pay closer attention to the living hell civilians have faced since the February coup brought back full military rule following years of quasi-democracy.
Myanmar is ranked No. 18 on Open Doors USAs 2021 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. The persecution level in Myanmar is very high due to Buddhist nationalism. Burma is recognized by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for egregious violations of religious liberty.
home World Family of 12-y-o Christian girl held captive by Muslim man in Pakistan fear she's being forced into Islamic marriage
The family of a 12-year-old Christian girl from Pakistans Punjab province who was abducted by a Muslim man earlier this month fears she's been forcefully converted to Islam and married to her abductor, just as many other girls have been in the past.
The girl, identified as Meerab Abbas, has been missing since Nov. 2, although police later arrested two suspects, Asia News reported, adding that she lived with her mother, Farzana, a 45-year-old widow who works as a domestic worker in the Sahiwal area.
Meerab was allegedly abducted by 22-year-old man, identified as Muhammad Daud, a native of Balochistan province.
The girls family believes the abductor took her to Balochistan to force her to convert to Islam and marry Daud.
A relative of the mother, Cecil George, was quoted as saying that Farzanas mental health has deteriorated since her daughters abduction and she's has been admitted to a hospital.
Mareeb is only 12 years old, and she cannot marry, Zahid Augustine, a pastor in Sahiwal, was quoted as saying. The perpetrators commit these crimes in the name of religion. We just want justice.
A 2014 report by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that hundreds of women and girls from Pakistan's Hindu and Christian communities are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam every year.
Many victims are minors taken from their families, sexually assaulted, married to an assailant, and held in captivity justified by falsified marriage and conversion documents, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern says. Violence, threats, and grooming tactics are used to compel victims to make statements in court supporting their captors.
Religion is often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage, ICC previously reported, adding that perpetrators play upon religious biases to cover up and justify their crimes by introducing an element of religion.
In September, a court in Punjab province refused to give the custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl, who was allegedly kidnapped, forced to marry and convert to Islam, back to her parents, ruling that mental capacity gives more weight than age in child conversion cases.
The court rejected the petition filed by Gulzar Masih, a Roman Catholic rickshaw driver from Faisalabad city, seeking the regain custody of his daughter, Chashman, from her alleged abductor, Muhammad Usman, Morning Star News reported at the time.
The judge, Tariq Nadeem, said in his ruling that Islamic jurists look at mental capacity and not a child's age for conversion to Islam. "It is a matter of faith. Hazrat Ali was only 10 when he accepted Islam," he said, referring to the fourth caliph of Islam.
International watchdog group Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Pakistan No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.
Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a "country of particular concern" for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.
Originally published in The Christian Post.
home World Iranian authorities order pastor back to prison to serve 5-year sentence after temporary reprieve
Iranian authorities have ordered a pastor from the Church of Iran denomination to return to prison to begin serving a five-year sentence for sectarian activities, indicating that Christian persecution might be intensifying after a brief respite due to the spread of COVID-19 that led authorities to temporarily release many people from prison.
Pastor Amin Khaki is now in prison in Karaj, the capital of Alborz Province near Tehran, after last Wednesdays summon, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.
Pastor Khaki, along with two other Iranian Christians, Milad Goudarzi and Alireza Nourmohammadi, stood trial in Karaj in June. They were charged under a new amendment to the Iranian Penal Code known as Article 500-bis, which deals with sectarian activities.
CSW said the three men were not allowed to be represented by their lawyer during the trial. They were each sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of engaging in propaganda against the Islamic regime.
Khaki has also been arrested, charged and convicted previously. CSW said, adding that the three are appealing the verdict.
CSWs founder and President Mervyn Thomas said Irans actions send yet another negative message to religious minorities in Iran, and essentially amounts to a criminalization of Christianity.
Demanding that the three be released, Thomas said, We refute the charges leveled against Pastor Khaki and his colleagues.
In a separate case last week, Iranian authorities also summoned Christian converts Sasan Khosravi and Habib Heydari to return to Bushehr Central Prison to serve the remainder of their one-year sentences for propagating against the Islamic Republic by promoting Christianity, Article 18 reported.
The two, who started their sentences in February, had been on furlough since March.
Governed by Islamic law, Iran ranks as the ninth worst country in the world for Christian persecution by Open Doors USA as the regime has relentlessly persecuted Muslim converts to Christianity.
Last February, Iranian Christian Dabrina Bet Tamraz spoke at a Family Research Council panel discussion on religious freedom in Iran.
Today, there is not a free church. There is no free evangelical church, nor free Pentecostal, she said. The only churches that are allowed to function are orthodox or Catholic churches with restrictions. They are not allowed to have books in Farsi. They are not even allowed to, nowadays, print books in our own language. Any Christian literature or Bible even in our own language is not permitted. They are not even allowed to speak to a Farsi person near the church.
Tamraz was among several persecuted believers from across the globe who met with President Donald Trump during the 2019 U.S. State Department Ministerial on International Religious Freedom.
Together with the Revolutionary Guard, they are arresting all attendees. They raid Christian gatherings at home, restaurants, everywhere that they meet, Tamraz said. They arrest them and confiscate their belongings, their houses. Most of these Christians are subjected to intensive and often abusive interrogations. They are often tortured physically and mentally.
Despite the persecution, Tamraz and other panelists agreed that the underground church in Iran is one of the fastest-growing church movements in the world.
According to Open Doors USA, there are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iran, almost double the persecution watchdogs estimate of 450,000 in 2016.
Originally published in The Christian Post.
English nobility, Russian aristocrats they all wanted to own these objects: the Harry Woolf Collection of Faberge masterpieces
The breathtaking range of Harry Woolf's collection of Faberge pieces, from animal figures and photograph frames to perfume bottles and brooches, makes it a staple of exhibitions worldwide and perhaps the finest of its kind ever to come to Christies
The special relationship between Harry Woolf and Faberge dates back to the 1970s. Woolf, then Chairman of the successful London-based pharmacy chain, Underwoods, was visiting his newly retired father and found him whiling away his days in front of some pretty average television shows. I determined there and then to find a hobby, said Woolf, so that my mind would be more satisfactorily occupied at a similar age. He duly met a string of London dealers, who worked in spheres as diverse as early clocks and contemporary art. None sparked much interest. Then, one night, a guest at a dinner party at his house in Hampstead posed the fateful question: Why not Faberge?
Harry was immediately attracted. In part because the jewellery house like his paternal grandparents had been Russian; and in part because of the stunning workmanship on an object he was shown. He soon started researching Faberge and consulting experts before embarking on a passionate collecting mission that lasted the best part of 50 years. Woolf passed away at the end of 2019 and, just five days beforehand, was still buying pieces.
On 29 November, a selection of his Faberge works is being offered in A Selection of Faberge Masterpieces from the Harry Woolf Collection at Christies in London. Woolf was a generous lender to Faberge exhibitions around the world the quality of his pieces ensuring that that generosity was frequently called upon. The range in the collection is breathtaking, including as it does examples of all the renowned fields of Faberge craftsmanship: from animal figures and photograph frames to perfume bottles, flower studies and brooches.
It is a collection that surpasses all the prestigious examples previously sold at Christies: the Kazan (1997) and di Portanova (2000) collections, to name but two. With specific regard to the animal figures, only the British Royal Collection can be considered comparable. The House of Faberge was issued a royal warrant by Emperor Alexander III in the mid-1880s, and its objects were soon must-haves among Europes elite, routinely serving as diplomatic gifts. One of the highlights of the Woolf collection is a standing rabbit (below), carved in agate and set with rose-cut diamond eyes. Its first owner was Emily Yznaga del Valle, a society belle in Edwardian England and sister of the Duchess of Manchester.
Other highlights include an intricate, trompe l'oeil study of a wild strawberry plant in a vase of water; and a stunning mosaic brooch conceived by Alma Pihl, one of Faberges two female designers. (Works by the other, Anna Ringe, a silver specialist, feature in the sale too.) Theres also an eye-catchingly enamelled, gem-set gold bonbonniere (sweet box) in the form of a doges hat.
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War or peace? What happened when aristocratic Leo Tolstoy met radical upstart Maxim Gorky
In a previously unknown letter to a friend, the revolutionary young writer describes the day he was entertained by the worlds greatest novelist as well as being photographed with him, above at his estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in October 1900
When Leo Tolstoy met Maxim Gorky at the formers country estate of Yasnaya Polyana in 1900, it was more than just the meeting of two great writers. It represented the coming together of two different Russias and two different centuries. Tolstoy was in his seventies, Gorky just 32, and their relationship at the time might best be described as uneasy. Speaking of Gorky to their mutual friend and fellow writer, Anton Chekhov, Tolstoy said, He has a nose like a ducks bill and only unfortunate and bad-tempered people have those. Chekhov assumed that such cattiness was rooted in professional jealousy. Thanks to the popularity of short stories such as Chelkash and Old Izergil, the radical upstart Gorky was suddenly achieving sales figures rivalled only by the august Tolstoy.
There was, however, more to the duos relationship than Chekhov thought as revealed by a letter coming to Exiles and Idealists, an online sale of Russian manuscripts at Christies. It was written by Gorky after his aforementioned meeting with Tolstoy in 1900 and was unknown to scholars before this auction. Born in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in 1868, Alexei Maximovich Peshkov adopted the literary pseudonym of Gorky (meaning bitter) to reflect his anger at the plight of Russias poor. He knew all about poverty, having lost both parents by the age of 11 and been forced to quit school and take any job he could find.
He is 73 years old, and he jumps over ditches like a baby goat, fights like a devil with his fists, and is thinking and thinking all the time Gorky on Tolstoy
He worked as a rag-picker, a mess boy and a watchman on a building site, to name but three jobs indulging in petty theft, too, whenever the opportunity arose. If there was an upside to his unceasing labour, it was that he was away a lot from the house of his grandparents. They had become his guardians, and Alexeis grandfather used to beat him brutally. Aged 19, Alexei attempted to take his own life, surviving only because the bullet somehow missed his heart. Reading books provided a certain amount of therapy thereafter, and before long his own literary efforts were being published in provincial newspapers. According to his biographer, Henri Troyat, Gorkys main aim as a writer was to denounce the flaws of society. He saw Tsarist Russia as a shameful place, riddled with deprivation and decadence and he was the first Russian author to tackle the lives of the lower classes with anything like first-hand authenticity.
Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868-1936), Early photograph inscribed to Leonid Andreev, 1898. Estimate 2,500-3,500. Offered in Exiles and Idealists: A Private Collection of Russian Literary Manuscripts, 17 November-1 December 2021, Online
By the turn of the century, he had also become a friend of Lenins and was giving funds regularly to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party the revolutionary Marxist collective from which the Bolsheviks would later emerge. The contrast with Tolstoys background couldnt be more marked. Born in 1828, into an aristocratic family that traced its roots back centuries, he was the son of a princess and a count. Before he got married in his mid-thirties, his early adulthood had been one of dissolution, filled with drinking, gambling and womanising. The characters of Tolstoys novels such as his masterpieces, War and Peace and Anna Karenina chiefly came from the same upper echelons of society as he did. All of which puts the meeting between Gorky and Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana into context. It marks a fascinating fault-line in their countrys history: Tolstoy, aristocratic chronicler of the imperialist Russia of the 19th century, coming face to face with the would-be revolutionary, Gorky, a writer of humble roots and lowly subjects, who would align with the Communist Russia of the 20th century.
The year was portentous, too: right on the cusp of the two eras in question. The pair had seen each other twice before in January and May 1900, both times in Moscow. The meeting described in Gorkys letter (penned to his friend, the painter Viktor Vasnetsov) took place in October and was their third. I just recently visited Lev Nikolayevich [Tolstoy], he writes. I spent the entire day with him. A great man! He is 73 years old, and he jumps over ditches like a baby goat, fights like a devil with his fists, and is thinking and thinking all the time.
Generally speaking, its much more pleasant to look at Lev Nikolayevich than to listen to him Maxim Gorky
Its unclear who if anyone specific Tolstoy was fighting, but the general point is that, despite his advanced years, he was still very physically and mentally active. Gorky goes on to say that Tolstoy handles God in a casual and easy manner, and defines him rather loosely. God, he states, is that which I desire. By the end of the 19th century, Tolstoy regarded the Orthodox churchs view of Christianity as false. In the early 1890s, he even wrote his own version of the Gospels, according to which Jesus wasnt the son of God but a wise man who had arrived at a true account of life.
Maxim Gorky (pseudonym of Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868-1936), Gorky meets Tolstoy, 1900. Estimate: 10,000-15,000. Offered in Exiles and Idealists: A Private Collection of Russian Literary Manuscripts, 17 November-1 December 2021, Online
Tolstoy increasingly gave up fiction at this time to write polemical works on religion such as A Confession, What I Believe and The Kingdom of God Is Within You. (In 1901, the church would excommunicate him.) Gorky then writes that generally speaking, its much more pleasant to look at Lev Nikolayevich than to listen to him. But he concedes that his inextinguishable formation of ideas though quite erroneous at times is still very lively and brave: as alluring as a spring of water. Gorky adds that when [Tolstoy] starts to speak about his craft and literature, I could listen endlessly! He imparted to me the summary of the novel he is planning to write Father Sergius is the title. He not only talks about it, but literally sculpts it, paints it for you! It is all so wonderful!
You can love [Tolstoy] to the point of madness and at the same time dislike him very, very much Maxim Gorky
This is a curious passage, as Father Sergius was actually a short story that Tolstoy had completed (albeit not published) in 1898. Did he pass it off as a work in progress to pretend to his young rival that he was capable of composing a story pretty much on the spot? Gorky signs off his letter, saying you know, you can love [Tolstoy] to the point of madness and at the same time dislike him very, very much. Yet its the love rather than the dislike that comes across in this correspondence, above all. It turns out that these two sentries of different Russias had more in common than was suspected. They would meet again on many occasions before Tolstoys death in 1910.
In his letter to Vasnetsov, Gorky doesnt quite say so explicitly, but it seems that he admired Tolstoys originality of thought, even if he didnt agree with much of its content. As mentioned above, the 1880s and 1890s had seen the senior writer develop an idiosyncratic form of Christianity, and this affected his entire outlook on life. His 1897 book, What Is Art?, offers a fine example. Here, Tolstoy dismissed a huge swathe of the Western cultural canon from Shakespeare to Wagner, as well as pretty much all of his own oeuvre. He argued that art should be judged not on aesthetics, but by how directly and authentically it communicates emotion. A two-page fragment from Tolstoys manuscript for this book (above left) will feature in the forthcoming sale. It comprises about half of chapter nine, in which he advances the theory that art became increasingly impoverished as it ceased to be religious and its range of emotions duly narrowed. The sale will also include a fragment of Tolstoys original manuscript draft for the novella Hadji Murad (above right), his final work of fiction, which was published posthumously in 1912. It tells the tale of the eponymous Chechen chief who, for reasons of personal revenge, forms an uneasy alliance with his Russian foes against his own people. (The fragment captures the storys tense finale.)
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL November 16, 2021 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Westport Fuel Systems Inc. WPRT, Adient plc ADNT, Lithia Motors LAD, Sonic Automotive SAH, and Daimler AG DDAIF.
Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog:
Auto Stock Roundup: Q3 Earnings, Collaborations, Etc.
Last week, automotive equipment providers Westport Fuel Systems Inc. and Adient plc reported quarterly numbers. While Adient reported narrower-than-expected loss for fourth-quarter fiscal 2021, Westport disappointed investors by posting third-quarter 2021 loss against the consensus estimate of break-even.
Meanwhile, auto retailers Lithia Motors and Sonic Automotive acquired dealerships in a bid to enhance their brand portfolio and widen reach. Daimler AG also made headlines as it collaborated with Total Energies and Visa to step up its decarbonization goals and digital payment services, respectively.
China Association of Automobile Manufacturers unveiled the October vehicle sales data in the worlds largest car market, which once again made it evident that chip shortage has been wreaking havoc in the auto industry. Vehicle sales in the country declined 9.4% year over year to 2.33 million units, tumbling for the sixth consecutive month. Nonetheless, electric vehicles in China managed to sustain the momentum, with sales of new energy vehicles skyrocketing 135% to 383,000 units in October.
Recap of Last Weeks Important News
1. Westport posted third-quarter 2021 loss per share of 3 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at break-even. The bottom line also deteriorated from earnings of 1 cent per share recorded in the year-ago period. The underperformance for the quarter under review can be attributed to higher operating expenses and unfavorable forex translations. Westport registered consolidated revenues of $74.3 million for the third quarter, rising 14% year over year. Yet, the top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $87 million.
Westport had cash and cash equivalents of $142 million as of Sep 30, 2021, up from $64.3 million at 2020-end. Long-term debt decreased to $33.3 million at the end of third-quarter 2021 from $45.7 million as of Dec 30, 2020.
Over the trailing four quarters, Westport topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings twice, missed once and matched on another occasion. The consensus mark for 2021 and 2022 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 220% and a decline of 85.8%, respectively. Shares of WPRT have tanked 44.4% year to date. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
2. Lithia forayed into the North America powersports market with the acquisition of Pfaff Harley-Davidson in Toronto. This acquisition marks Lithias first motorcycle dealership and is in sync with the auto retailers proven success strategy of acquiring strong, high-performing franchises.
The buyout will bring Lithias total annualized revenues acquired in 2021 to $6.3 billion, keeping the company well ahead of its schedule of network expansion. The firm remains on track to achieve its ambitious five-year plan to yield $50 billion in revenues and $50 in earnings per share by 2025.
The consensus mark for Lithia's 2021 earnings and sales implies year-over-year growth of 106.8% and 73.3%, respectively. Shares of LAD are up 10.3% year to date. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
3. Sonic announced the acquisition of Cook Volkswagen in Maryland, representing the firms fourth acquisition of the year. The latest buyout marks Sonics 89th franchised location and fourth Volkswagen dealership. The move aligns with the companys strategy to enter new markets and attain $25 billion in revenues by 2025. Sonic has been back on the buyback mode this year as the company believes to have shored up the balance sheet to tap on to growth opportunities.
The consensus mark for Sonic's 2021 earnings and sales implies year-over-year growth of 96.8% and 26.7%, respectively. Shares of SAH have edged up 32.2% year to date. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
4. Daimler inked a deal with TotalEnergies for decarbonization of the road freight in the European Union. Per the agreement, the companies will jointly build an ecosystem for hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty trucks. Daimler intends to supply hydrogen trucks to customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and France by 2025.
In a separate release, the Germany-based auto giant also announced that Daimler Mobility has teamed up with Visa to incorporate in-car payment features in vehicles. Effective spring 2022, customers of Daimlers Mercedes-Benz will be able to make payments using a fingerprint sensor in the car. The company will initially roll out this payment solution for customers in the United Kingdom and Germany.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Daimler's 2021 earnings and sales implies year-over-year growth of 273.1% and 12%, respectively. Shares of DDAIF have rallied 43.1% year to date. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
5. Adient reported an adjusted loss per share of 24 cents for fiscal fourth-quarter 2021, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 65 cents. The bottom line, however, compared unfavorably with the year-ago earnings of $1.15 per share. For the reported quarter, Adient generated net sales of $2,771 million, down from $3,597 million recorded in the prior-year period. The top line also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,013.2 million.
Adient had cash and cash equivalents of $1,521 million as of Sep 30, 2021 compared with $1,692 million on Sep 30, 2020. Long-term debt amounted to $3,512 million for the reported quarter, down from $4,097 billion on Sep 30, 2020. The firm expects fiscal 2022 revenues of $14.8 billion, indicating an increase from $13.7 billion recorded in fiscal 2021.
Over the trailing four quarters, Adient topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings thrice, with the average negative surprise of 131.1%. The consensus mark for fiscal 2022 and 2023 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 74% and 32.7%, respectively. Shares of ADNT have increased 35.8% year to date. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5.
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Zacks' Top Picks to Cash in on Artificial Intelligence
In 2021, this world-changing technology is projected to generate $327.5 billion in revenue. Now Shark Tank star and billionaire investor Mark Cuban says AI will create "the world's first trillionaires." Zacks' urgent special report reveals 3 AI picks investors need to know about today.
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NEW YORK (AP) Netflix on Tuesday rolled out a new website that measures its most-viewed films and series by the amount of hours users spend watching them. The results? People are watching Squid Game and the new action-adventure film Red Notice maybe even more than you would have guessed.
According to the streaming service's new metric, Rawson Marshall Thurber's Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, has been watched for 148.7 million hours globally since it debuted Nov. 12 on Netflix. In the past week, the most popular series was season three of Narcos: Mexico, with 50.3 million hours viewed.
The first season of Squid Game ranks as Netflix's most-watched show or film ever, with 1.6 billion hours viewed.
Every Tuesday, Netflix will update the site Top10 on Netflix with the top 10 series and films on the streaming service. Until now, Netflix has been selective in sharing viewership data. It has occasionally shared views for hits, and it logs a top 10 list, without data, on the service, itself.
Though the hours-viewed metric replaces Netflix's previous views, which could count just a few minutes of a movie or series. Other major streaming services, like Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, don't regularly release viewership data.
Netflix's metrics still don't say how many people actually watched something on the service, and it doesn't include films or series that fall outside of its top 10. But it's the most transparent measurement so far embraced by Netflix.
This is an important step forward for Netflix, the creators we work with and our members, Pablo Perez De Rosso, a vice president for content strategy at Netflix, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. People want to understand what success means in a streaming world, and these lists offer the clearest answer to that question in our industry.
Netflix will publish both English and non-English rankings, and top-10 lists for more than 90 countries. The company said that it has hired the accounting firm EY to audit its figures.
At its current rate, Red Notice which received largely poor reviews from critics could become Netflix's most popular film ever. That title currently is held by the 2018 Sandra Bullock thriller Bird Box, with 282 million hours viewed.
Click here to read the full article.
Rapper Young Dolph, best known for his 2020 album Rich Slave and collaborations with his fellow Memphis rapper and cousin Key Glock, has died in a shooting in Memphis, Tenn. He was 36.
All of us at APA are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of our dear friend and client, Young Dolph, an APA representative said in a statement to Variety. The world has lost an icon, a great man and beloved artist who has been taken too soon. His dedication, drive, hard work and loyalty to all those around him always came first and he will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this most difficult time.
The shooting took place at Makedas Homemade Cookies in South Memphis on Wednesday afternoon, local station FOX News 13 reported. The owner of the store told the outlet that Young Dolph walked in to buy cookies when someone drove up, shot and killed him around 1 p.m.
Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr., was born in Chicago but moved to Memphis at a young age. He was the cousin of rapper Juice Wrld, who died at 21 of a drug overdose at Chicagos Midway International Airport on December 8, 2019.
Making his studio album debut, Young Dolph released King of Memphis in 2016, which reached No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He dropped seven albums from 2016 to 2021, the most recent being Dum and Dummer 2 with Key Glock, which peaked at No. 8. He was signed to Paper Route Empire, and his most successful album was 2020s Rich Slave, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and was his highest-charting release. From 2008 to 2017, he dropped more than a dozen mixtapes and EPs.
In September 2017, Young Dolph was shot outside a retail store in Hollywood and hospitalized in critical condition. He spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from three gunshot wounds. Released prior to the shooting, his April 2017 album Bulletproof secretly spelled out a message through the track listings (100 Shots, In Charlotte, But Im Bulletproof, So Fukem, Thats How I Feel).
Young Dolph was well known in the Memphis area and donated turkeys around Thanksgiving time, donated to Hamilton High School, which he attended, and spoke to students. He was in Memphis participating in local charity work for Thanksgiving at the time of the shooting. In 2018, he made headlines for donating $20,000 to two baristas at Duke University who were fired for playing his song Get Paid. He also flew the two out to see his performance at the Rolling Loud music festival.
Following the news of his death, tributes for Young Dolph poured in on social media from fans and fellow artists.
R. I.P. to my friend Dolph this broke my heart Gucci Mane (@gucci1017) November 17, 2021
Tracking shots of a solitary figure striding across a Western plain, seen from within the darkened interiors of a home, bookend Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog." As the man walks, with wrinkled foothills behind him, the camera glides through the house. He goes into and out of view with each window.
The man is Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), a rough-hewn Montana rancher with a menacing arrogance and a cocky, upright posture. The first time we see him this way, through the windows, it's an early signal that The Power of the Dog will pulsate with friction between within and without, that its masterful vision of the West will play out in a juxtaposition of rugged exteriors and murkier, more mysterious interiors.
The Power of the Dog" is Campion's first film since her luminous 2009 John Keats drama Bright Star"; in the interim she made the series Top of the Lake," the vivid New Zealand mystery. Even without stepping on a film set in 12 years, though, appreciation for Campion has grown. Her films, including her 1993 masterwork The Piano," have only gained admirers for the way they capture assertive inner lives piercing social structures and male hegemony. In Campion's formally composed films, lyricism claws its way through.
Adapted by Campion from Thomas Savages 1967 novel, The Power of the Dog is less a return to form for Campion than a big-screen reminder of her virtuosity. The film, which Netflix opened in theaters Wednesday, isn't the Western you might think it is though it does reside on the frontier. (Campion shot New Zealand for 1920s Montana, and its foreign, craggy mountain contours only enhance the feeling that this is not your traditional Old West.) There is Jonny Greenwood's disquieting score, for starters. And the foreboding, oversized ranch house, a hulking wooden pile on dry grasslands, is also a hint that something more gothic is at play here.
There lives Phil and brother George (Jesse Plemons), a study in opposites. George is finely dressed, humble and decorous; Phil, while a studied intellect, seems to never take off his chaps. He revels in the outdoor life of the range. I stink, and I like it, he says. Phil is confident he holds a greater understanding of farm life, masculinity and something more existential. He sees something in the folds of the looming mountain range that his men struggle to identify. One asks if there's something there. Not if you can't see it, there ain't," Phil replies.
But just what Phil can and can't see is at the heart of The Power of the Dog, a film that, like the novel, takes its name from a Psalm. The full line goes: Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Dogs, seen in Biblical times as unclean scavengers, were a kind of stand-in for the devil. But whose soul is in jeopardy in The Power of the Dog?
It would seem very much that Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst, brilliant) is the one in the crosshairs. She's a widow running a boarding house whom George falls for and quickly marries. (Their romance, which Campion allows one sweeping shot of as they embrace with a cathedral of mountain peaks all around, has a special sweetness in that it's a real-life one, too.) When George brings her home, Phil isn't shy about his unhappiness in the intrusion of a woman into his manly realm. Though his brother has long ago learned to avoid or ignore Phil's fearsome glare, Rose begins to wilt under the pressure and starts drinking heavily. A psychodrama sets in, only where the movie goes from here isn't as obvious as you might think.
The three's-a-crowd tension doesn't subside, but Campion's film steadily gravitates to a fourth character: Rose's teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). He comes to the ranch only in the movie's second act, introducing an entirely different, maybe modern presence to the drama. Peter is a slender beanpole who dresses in black and white and gasp sneakers, and crafts fragile flowers out of paper. Phil, who conceals his homosexuality, takes Peter under his wing, an almost unfathomable development poised somewhere between horror (that Phil's hard lessons will only set up the seemingly delicate Peter for slaughter) and tenderness. Cumberbatch, so alive to his character's contradictions, and Smit-McPhee, with a bracingly singular demeanor and a sly strength, artfully play both possibilities.
Against a grand backdrop, The Power of the Dog fluctuates with evolving power dynamics that seem to almost seize the movie, itself. Campion's film can feel unbalanced, with its primary characters often paired or isolated but seldom all together despite the chamber piece set-up. (George especially fades from view.) And as richly drawn as the movie is, the ending comes almost too quick. The Power of the Dog may in the end be more a twisty psychological thriller than a transcendent frontier epic. But the film's shape-shifting transformation is also part of its ruthless finesse.
"The Power of the Dog, a Netflix release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for brief sexual content/full nudity. Running time: 126 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Ghostbusters: Afterlife" the direct cinematic follow-up to the 1984 classic is haunted, of course. But not in a good way.
Director and co-writer Jason Reitman's sequel leans so hard into his dad's original that it sometimes seems like a checklist of the megahit's touchstones, from the Ecto-1 tricked-out Cadillac, to Stay-Puft marshmallows, appearances from the surviving Ghostbusters and even the same Ray Parker Jr. theme song.
It has taken Ivan Reitman's original which had the feel of an anarchic Saturday Night Live skit taken as far as it could go too seriously. It fetishizes the ghost-trapping equipment and limps along until the original actors arrive one cynically resurrected to wring some sort of emotion it hasn't earned.
The film is set several decades after the events in Ghostbusters, trading in the urban for the rural and ignoring any other sequels. It focuses on a struggling single mother Callie (Carrie Coon, treading water) and her two kids, the very, very teenage son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and her precocious science whiz daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace, also on the soundtrack with the appropriately titled Haunted House).
After Callies estranged father dies, the family pack up for his dilapidated farm in Summerville, Oklahoma, where the kids realize their grandfather was famed Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis), who abandoned their mom for reasons unknown and hasn't been forgiven. Take a little advice, mom tells the kids, Don't go chasing ghosts.
Eerie things happen for the first hour and it's appropriate that Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame is here, mixing that show's vibe with an early Steven Spielberg suburban-stressed-out-parents-and-their-quirky-kids movie feel. (The family's motto: Don't be yourself!) Chess pieces move on their own, flashlights get used a lot and proton packs get played with.
The amount of acting talent wasted in this film is astounding, from a Slimer-esque critter named Muncher voiced by Josh Gad (bravo, eating noises!) and Logan Kim playing an intensely weird podcaster, to acting greats J.K. Simmons and Tracey Letts (Coon's real-life playwright-acting husband). A mom love interest is offered by Paul Rudd as a studly teacher, but 2021s Sexiest Man Alive is unable to create comedic sparks due to so much slime.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife meanders along like an after-school special kids, did you know science can be cool? until the inevitable: Original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson arrive in the final 10 minutes to save the day (curiously also appearing, but sidelined, are OGs Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver). And then comes the breaking point: Ramis heroically reappears thanks to supernatural computer work, a moment that can seem either incredibly crass or honorifically crass.
What the hell is going on? asks one character and she's right. Poorly edited, the film's musical queues must often signal to the viewer what they should be feeling. Poorly explained, the plot relies on the audience already knowing about the first film and especially the same villains Gozer, the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster. Come on, at least update the baddies.
Once viewers realize this is merely a greatest hits compilation, they can settle in and anticipate the reappearance of lines like Are you a god? and Who you gonna call? After all, this is not a movie that can stand alone. It is more like half a movie, standing in the shadow of its parent. It is a film made to sell us more lunchboxes.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a Sony Pictures release that hits theaters exclusively Friday is rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some suggestive references. Running time: 124 minutes. One star out of four.
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MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Online: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/ghostbustersafterlife
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM initiated the process to divest its natural gas properties in the Barnett shale field in northeast Texas, per a report by Reuters.
The move is part of ExxonMobil's plans to restructure its portfolio to focus on more productive assets. About three years ago, the company set a target to make $15 billion from asset divestments to reduce debt. XOM offered several U.S. and international assets for sale as fuel prices recovered from the pandemic-induced crisis.
The Barnett shale assets could be valued at $400-$500 million. The properties involve 2,700 wells, covering about 182,000 acres in north Texas. In the first half of 2021, production from the properties reached 227 million cubic feet per day, which has declined by almost 50% since 2016.
ExxonMobil plans to continue operating the assets during the marketing process. So far, there are no agreements on the sale. XOM expects to secure bids in December and aims to close a potential sale transaction in January 2022. ExxonMobil is also planning to divest assets in Africa, Asia and Europe. XOM intends to focus its efforts on production ventures in Guyana, offshore Brazil and the Permian Basin.
ExxonMobil incurred a significant $22.4 billion loss in 2020. A large portion of the loss came from $19.3 billion in write-downs in the last few months of the year as ExxonMobil marked down the value of the natural gas fields acquired when gas prices were significantly higher.
In August 2021, ExxonMobil launched the sale of its shale gas properties in the United States to reduce debt and discard unwanted assets. The sale included 4,104 non-operated and 844 operated wells in the Fayetteville shale in Arkansas. The assets were part of the natural gas projects, which reported lower production capacity and reduced market value.
Company Profile & Price Performance
Headquartered in Irving, TX, ExxonMobil is one of the leading integrated energy companies in the world.
Shares of ExxonMobil have underperformed the industry in the past three months. The XOM stock has gained 21.1% compared with the industry's 19% growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider
ExxonMobil currently has a Zack Rank #2 (Buy).
Some other top-ranked players in the energy space are Diamondback Energy, Inc. FANG, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and SM Energy Company SM and Continental Resources, Inc. CLR, carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Midland, TX-based Diamondback is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. FANG primarily focuses on the Permian basin, with around 414,000 net acres. The upstream operator focuses on growth through a combination of acquisitions and active drilling in America's hottest and lowest-cost shale region. As of 2020-end, Diamondback held 1,316 million barrels of oil equivalent in proved reserves.
In the past year, shares of Diamondback have increased 198% compared with the Zacks Exploration and Production Industry's growth of 148.3%. FANGis expected to see an earnings growth of 268.1% in 2021. The company has also witnessed 10 upward revisions in the past 30 days. Diamondback's board of directors recently declared a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share for the third quarter, indicating an 11.1% hike in its quarterly payout from the previous level of 45 cents.
SM Energy is one of the most attractive players in the exploration and production space, which engages in the exploration, exploitation, development, acquisition and production of natural gas and crude oil in North America. SM's operations focus on the Permian basin, and the South Texas and Gulf Coast region. SM has total 443,188 net acres under its possession, of which 33.5% is developed.
In the past year, shares of SM Energy have increased 1000.1% compared with the industry's growth of 148.3%. SM's earnings for 2021 are expected to surge 695.7% year over year. SM currently has a Zacks Style Score of A for Growth and B for Momentum. The upstream energy player beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate thrice in the last four quarters and missed once, ending with an earnings surprise of 126.3%, on average.
Oklahoma City, OK-based Continental Resources is an explorer and producer of oil and natural gas. CLR operates resources across the east, south and north areas in the United States. Continental Resources' strategic water assets add huge value to its operations in Bakken and Oklahoma. As of Dec 31, 2020, CLR's estimated proved reserves were 1,103.8 MMBoe.
In the past year, shares of Continental Resources' have increased 223.4% compared with the industry's growth of 148.3%. CLR's earnings for 2021 are expected to surge 484.6% year over year. CLR currently has a Zacks Style Score of B for Value and A for Growth. Notably, CLR's board of directors increased its quarterly dividend payment to 20 cents per share from 15 cents in the previous quarter. Continental Resources also resumed its existing stock repurchase program. CLRalready executed $65 million of share repurchases in the September-end quarter, while $618 million of the share-repurchase capacity remains available.
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BIG RAPIDS Each year, on Nov. 11, the United States has honored those living Americans who have served their country, while honoring the memories of the many soldiers that never got a chance to come home.
This day of remembrance signed into action by President Dwight Eisenhower is known as Veterans Day, and has been observed since 1954.
Before then, the annual holiday was referred to as Armistice Day, a day to honor the many fallen soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Europe during World War I.
At the time, WWI was commonly known as The Great War, and perhaps more ironically The war to end all wars.
As the next few years went by, more American lives were lost in battles overseas, which prompted Eisenhower to update the tradition to be more inclusive and respectful to veterans of a younger generation.
Today, Veterans Day is observed in small towns and big cities across the nation, highlighted by jovial parades, coupled with equally somber moments of silence for those killed or missing in action.
Whats often not seen during the annual day of patriotic remembrance is the plethora of hand-to-hand, one-on-one interactions and support shared between veterans who share a common, sometimes painful, bond.
A prime example of this lifetime bond is the one that is shared between local U.S. Army veterans Russ Nehmer and Bruce Reges.
Five years ago with the help of East Side Veterans Group and Lowes, Reges was able to get Nehmer a much-needed snowblower for the upcoming winter.
During his tour of duty in Afghanistan, an explosion threw Nehmer into the ring mount of a nearby armored vehicle, causing severe and lasting damage to his back.
He couldn't shovel as well as he wanted and he didnt have a snowblower, Reges said.
Reges promptly went to Lowes in Big Rapids and managed to get his friend a new snowblower with a $100 discount.
That particular machine sifted through its last drift of snow last winter, resulting in a return trip to Lowes for a replacement blower.
There was just one problem: the warranty for the snowblower had expired the previous winter, once again leaving Nehmar sans a snowblower.
With the winter fast-approaching, Reges, the East Side Veterans Group and Lowes in Big Rapids had another meeting of the minds.
I went over to the store and said: This is something I bought and set up five years ago, bought an extended warranty, and now youre saying youre not going to cover it, Reges said. I said: Look, do you know who were talking about here? This guy got hurt doing what 90% of us dont do, and he needs help.
With all parties at long last on the same page, Lowes got to work and fulfilled their end of the deal, until they realized the snowblowers transmission was damaged beyond repair.
After holding a managerial meeting, Lowes came forward and decided they would supply Nehmer with a brand new snowblower and cover half of the cost.
Half is a pretty darn good discount snowblowers are not cheap, Reges said.
The new snowblower gifted to Nehmer is a self-propelled, self-starting Craftsman model for just under $900.
Reges, with the help of some of his fellow members at the East Side Veterans Group, have stepped up to cover the remaining cost of the snowblower.
I went over and paid for it the other day, but Ive already gotten $190 from the group, and theyre not all done giving, Reges said. (Lowes) doesn't have to do that, but they did. Theyve always supported veterans.
On Tuesday, Nov. 9, Nehmer made his way to the Big Rapids Lowes, where he met his new Craftsman snowblower for the first time, just ahead of another Michigan winter.
Nehmer and Reges are combat veterans who have served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively.
Nehmer is currently a Reed City council member, as well as a member of the veterans group.
The East Side Veterans Group is a collection of local veterans who meet twice monthly at the Wild Rose Cafe in downtown Big Rapids.
Its just where we get together and help each other out doing things sometimes, and just seeing how were doing, Reges said. No politics we dont want to get into any of that nonsense. No trauma, because its not a trauma group.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, as the first government lease auction under President Joe Biden laid bare the hurdles he faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The auction came after attorneys general from Republican states successfully sued in federal court to lift a suspension on federal oil and gas sales that Biden imposed when he took office.
Companies offered bids on 308 tracts totaling nearly 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers) during a virtual auction hosted by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. It marked the largest total acreage and second-highest bid total from a government auction since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017.
Driving the heightened interest are a rebound in oil prices and uncertainty about the future of the government leasing program after Biden campaigned on pledges to end drilling on federally owned lands and waters, which includes the Gulf, industry analysts said.
Prices are higher now than they've been since 2018," said Rene Santos with S&P Global Platts. The other thing is this fear that the Biden administration is here for another three years. They're certainly not going to accelerate the number of lease sales and they could potentially have fewer sales.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Yet even as Biden has tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening international efforts against global warming, including at this months climate talks in Scotland, hes had difficulty gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration last week proposed another round of oil and gas lease sales in 2022, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other western states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.
Emissions from burning and extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The thing that is really bedeviling people right now is this conflict between the short term and long term when it comes to energy policy, said Jim Krane, an energy studies fellow at Rice University in Houston. We still need this energy system that is basically causing climate change, even as were fighting climate change.
Wednesday's livestreamed auction invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) about twice the area of Florida. Federal officials estimated prior to the sale that it could lead to the production of up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Shell, the largest leaseholder in the Gulf, said the leases that the company successfully bid on could offer development opportunities near existing platforms or new areas.
Regardless of today's outcome, the need absolutely continues for continued competitive leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, said Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski.
Environmental reviews of the sale conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer greenhouse gases than leaving it.
Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson's work was cited by judges in one of the cases, and he said the Interior Department's analysis had a glaring omission: It excluded greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that result from having more Gulf oil enter the market.
The math is extremely simple on this kind of stuff," said Erickson, a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute, a nonprofit research group. If new leases expand the global oil supply, that has a proportional effect on emissions from burning oil. Therefore, giving out these leases in the Gulf of Mexico would be increasing global emissions.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently changed its emissions modeling methods, citing Ericksons work. Officials said it was too late to use that approach for Wednesday's auction.
For upcoming sales, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said Interior is conducting a more comprehensive emissions review than any prior administration. It's also appealing the court order that forced the resumption of sales.
Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said he was uncertain that using the new approach would have changed the governments conclusions, since drilling for oil in other parts of the world is less efficient and hauling imports also adds to carbon costs.
The continued use of the old analysis rankles drilling opponents, who say Biden isn't following through on his climate pledges.
We're talking about transitioning away from a fossil fuel economy and they are selling a giant carbon bomb of a lease sale, said attorney Drew Caputo with Earthjustice, which has a pending federal lawsuit against the Gulf sale.
Some Democrats also objected to the sale. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva of Arizona said Biden needs to do better after promising to lead on climate issues but continuing a fossil fuel program with a long history of mismanagement.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
WASHINGTON (AP) The House voted Wednesday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country.
Calling the video a clear threat to a lawmakers life, Democrats argued Gosars conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace and shouldnt be in Congress.
The vote to censure Gosar and also remove him from his House committee assignments was approved by a vote of 223-207, almost entirely along party lines, with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois the only Republicans voting in favor.
Gosar had deleted the tweet days ago amid the criticism, but he retweeted the video late Wednesday shortly after the vote.
He showed no emotion as he stood in the well of the House after the vote, flanked by roughly a dozen Republicans as Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the censure resolution and announced his penalty. He shook hands, hugged and patted other members of the GOP conference on the back before leaving the chamber.
Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the censure an abuse of power by Democrats to distract from national problems. He said of the censure, a new standard will continue to be applied in the future, a signal of potential ramifications for Democratic members should Republicans retake a majority.
But Democrats said there was nothing political about it.
These actions demand a response. We cannot have members joking about murdering each other," said Pelosi. This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution.
Ocasio-Cortez herself said in an impassioned speech, When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down to violence in this country. And that is where we must draw the line.
Unrepentant during tense floor debate, Gosar rejected what he called the mischaracterization that the cartoon was dangerous or threatening. It was not.
I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset," Gosar said.
He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury secretary, celebrated in recent years in a Broadway musical, whose censure vote in Congress was defeated: If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it, it is done.
The decision to censure Gosar, one of the strongest punishments the House can dole out, was just the fourth in nearly 40 years and just the latest example of the raw tensions that have roiled Congress since the 2020 election and the violent Capitol insurrection that followed.
Democrats spoke not only of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but also the violent attacks that have escalated on both parties, including the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game and the 2011 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords as she met with constituents at an event outside a Tucson grocery store.
Republicans largely dismissed Gosar's video as nothing more than a cartoon, a routine form of political expression and hardly the most important issue facing Congress.
Yet threats against lawmakers are higher than ever, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police told the Associated Press in an interview earlier this year.
The censure of Gosar was born out of Democratic frustration. Over the past week, as outrage over the video grew, House GOP leaders declined to publicly rebuke Gosar, who has a lengthy history of incendiary remarks. Instead, they largely ignored his actions and urged their members to vote against the resolution censuring him.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said, I would just suggest we have better things to do on the floor of the House of Representatives than be the hall monitors for Twitter.
The resolution will remove Gosar from two committees: Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panel, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves, limiting his ability to shape legislation and deliver for constituents. It states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, citing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as an example.
Gosar is the 24th House member to be censured. Though it carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmakers career, it is the strongest punishment the House can issue short of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote.
Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the last to receive the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct.
It would also be second time this year the House has initiated the removal of a GOP lawmaker from an assigned committee, the first being Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Gosar, a six-term congressman, posted the video over a week ago with a note saying, Any anime fans out there? The roughly 90-second video was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip, interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border.
During one roughly 10-second section, animated characters whose faces had been replaced with Gosar, Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., were shown fighting other animated characters. Gosars character is seen striking another one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. The video also shows him attacking President Joe Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose receipt of repeated death threats has required her to spend thousands on security, said Gosar has not apologized to her. She singled out McCarthy for not condemning Gosar.
What is so hard about saying this is wrong? Ocasio-Cortez said. This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept.
This is not the first brush with controversy for Gosar, who was first elected in 2010s tea party wave. He has been repeatedly criticized by his own siblings, six of whom appeared in campaign ads supporting his Democratic opponent in 2018.
Earlier this year Gosar looked to form an America First Caucus with other hardline Republican House members that aimed to promote Anglo-Saxon political traditions while warning that mass immigration was putting the unique identity of the U.S. at risk. Hes made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs.
He has also portrayed a woman shot by Capitol police during the attack on the Capitol as a martyr, claiming she was executed. And he falsely suggested that a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was instigated by the left and backed by billionaire George Soros, a major funder of liberal causes who has become the focus of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
A Woodlands physician has agreed to pay half a million dollars in a federal case where he is accused of making false claims to obtain Medicare funds and of lying about felony charges against him on alleged prescription fraud to net a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
Dr. Emad Bishai, 49, of Spring, an anesthesiologist and pain management physician at Woodlands Pain Institute, agreed to a $523,331 sum in the settlement, according to a Monday press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas.
Bishai is facing nine felony charges related to him prescribing opioid medicines, according to Montgomery County district clerk records. Some of the crimes Bishai allegedly committed resulted in the overdose deaths of four patients, according to records previously obtained by The Courier.
From July 12, 2017 to May 10, 2019, Bishai billed federal programs for an invasive procedure requiring an operating room costing Medicare thousands, but which the doctor nor his medical staff actually performed, according to the press release.
Bishai billed Medicare and TRICARE, a military medical program, for the surgical implantation of neurostimulator electrodes. Patients instead received devices used for electroacupuncture, which is a procedure only requiring needles inserted into patients ears with the neurostimulator taped behind them with an adhesive, the press release explained.
In addition to the settlement, Bishai and Woodlands Pain Institute have agreed to being excluded for seven years from participating in any federal health care programs, the news release noted.
Bishai also allegedly made false statements in May 2020 when applying to the pandemic relief program PPP for Woodlands Pain Institute. The application asked whether the applicant, or anyone owning more than 20 percent equity, was subject to any formal criminal charges, the press release detailed.
Bishai, who holds 100 percent ownership of Woodlands Pain Institute, checked the box marked No and initialed his name beneath the question despite felony charges against him in Montgomery County, the press release added.
County records show eight of the nine charges he is facing were filed Nov. 4, 2019, which would have been six months before his PPP application.
As a result of his fraudulent application, Bishai received a loan to which he was not entitled, read a statement from the Southern District of Texas.
The Department of Health and Human Services criminal investigations office probed the case with the assistance of Qlarant, a contractor for Medicare. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Gray managed the case, the press release mentioned.
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability, the Southern District of Texas added in its press release, which also mentioned the federal court has resolved similar cases through settlements with a Katy anesthesiologist, a Houston pain doctor, a Rockport chiropractor, a Houston chiropractor and a Laredo pain doctor.
Bishai was one of four physicians charged in a data-driven investigation into drug diversion by the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office. In partnership with Sam Houston State University, the project was funded by a nearly $360,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The doctors formal charges for his opioid prescriptions are five counts of the third-degree felony offense of practicing medicine in violation of subtitle and four counts of the state jail felony offense of prescribing controlled substance other than medical purpose, court records show.
Bishai was first indicted in summer 2020, according to an article from The Courier at the time. He was indicted on his ninth charge the following month, according to court documents.
Bishai prescribed over 39,758 separate prescriptions for controlled substances between Jan. 23, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2018, including over 12,000 prescriptions for hydrocodone, over 2,000 prescriptions for morphine, 12,000 prescriptions for oxycodone, and over 800 prescriptions for Fentanyl, charging documents state.
The attorney for Bishai told The Courier in the Aug. 7, 2020 article that his clients Texas medical license was suspended after the charges were made but were later reinstated by the Texas Medical Board.
Court records show Bishai has yet to face trial in the opioid presciption case. Mike Holley, first assistant DA at the District Attorneys Office, on Tuesday said Bishais settlement does not affect the countys case against him as it remains independent.
A number listed online for Bishais practice did not respond to a request for comment. His new criminal defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
jose.gonzalez@chron.com
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Economic development projects in 10 eastern Kentucky counties will split more than $9 million in funding from the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program, officials said.
Funding for the projects was announced Monday by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Rep. Harold Hal Rogers.
BOSTON (AP) An airman from Massachusetts who was shot down over Romania during World War II has been accounted for, the military said Wednesday.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Charles G. McMackin, 26, was accounted for in August 2020, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, but the announcement was not made until Wednesday because his family was only recently briefed on the situation.
The agency said McMackin was from Boston, but according to news clippings from the time of his death, he was from Revere, just north of Boston.
McMackin was the bombardier on a B-24 Liberator that participated in Operation Tidal Wave on Aug. 1, 1943, a massive bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, Romania, considered crucial to the Nazi war effort, according to the the agency.
His plane crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire, and his remains were not identified following the war. Remains of American personnel that could not be identified were buried in a cemetery in Romania and later moved to a cemetery in Belgium.
The remains were exhumed in 2017 and sent to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
McMackins remains were identified using dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA analysis.
McMackin will be buried April 14 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the remains were identified in August 2020, not August 2021, and that McMackin was from Revere, not Boston, according to news clippings from the time of this death.
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Turkey is acquiring a new drilling ship to search for natural gas in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the countrys president announced Wednesday, amid unresolved tensions with Greece and Cyprus over Ankara's offshore energy exploration.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told legislators from his ruling party that Turkey is expanding its fleet of drilling vessels to four, describing the new ship as a high-tech vessel.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee authorities say a fisherman has died after a Clinch River boating incident involving a railroad bridge.
The Tennessee Wildlife Agency says it is still investigating the death of 75-year-old Timothy Clark Byrn of White Springs, Florida, in a single vessel incident Monday morning in Claiborne County.
The agency says a Norfolk Southern worker found Byrns body in the water near the railroad bridge and called 911.
Wildlife officer Michael Cavins says it appears the boat hit an old concrete railroad bridge support that was exposed about 1 foot (0.3 meter) out of the water and marked with a buoy. Cavins say the boat hit another support, then capsized and ejected Byrn, who was not wearing a life vest.
BUFFALO, Mo. (AP) Two men were charged with first-degree murder Wednesday after human remains found at a southwest Missouri home were identified as a missing woman who was photographed partially nude inside a cage, authorities said.
James Phelps and Timothy Norton were also charged with abandonment of a corpse after DNA tests positively identified the remains found at Phelps' home near Lebanon as 33-year-old Cassidy Rainwater, Dallas County officials said.
Nortons lawyer, Brenden Twibell, told the Springfield News-Leader the charges were expected and Norton will plead not guilty.
Phelps' lawyer did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Norton and Phelps were also charged with abandoning a corpse in addition to the first-degree murder and kidnapping charges. Norton is set to appear in court next Tuesday, and Phelps this Friday.
Phelps and Norton have been jailed on a kidnapping charge since mid-September, when photos of Rainwater partially nude and in a cage were found on Phelps' phone, authorities said.
Dallas County Sheriff Scott Rice said Wednesday in a Facebook post that the seven photos also showed Rainwater's body on a gantry crane, which is commonly used for deer processing, where she was disemboweled and dismembered before her body was placed in a bathtub. Some remains were found in a freezer, he said.
Rice said Norton told investigators Phelps asked him to help kill Rainwater while she was staying at Phelps' home. He said he held Rainwater down while Phelps put a plastic bag over her head and strangled her, according to Rice.
Sheriff's deputies were contacted in August by a woman who said Rainwater hadn't been seen since July and Phelps was the last person she was seen with.
In September, Phelps twice told investigators that Rainwater was staying with him while she got on her feet, but he said he hadn't seen her since she left about a month ago and that she was going to Colorado, Rice said.
On Sept. 16, the FBI provided the photos of Rainwater to Dallas County detectives, who arrested Phelps. Norton was arrested on Sept. 20 after speaking to authorities.
Investigators searched Phelps' home for seven days and found the gantry device, cage and items in the freezer that appeared to be human remains, Rice said. Those items were dated July 24. Digital evidence found at the scene revealed messages between Phelps and Norton planning Rainwater's death, the sheriff said.
Some skeletal remains believed to be Rainwater were located on the adjacent property, authorities said.
On Oct. 4, a fire that investigators have ruled an arson destroyed Phelps' home. Officials investigating the fire found two explosive devices made with mortar tubes and balloon covers, with tripwires attached, near the home.
Investigators have no evidence to indicate that any other victims are associated with Phelps and Norton, the sheriff said.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) Democratic State Rep. Laurie Bishop bowed out of the race for Montanas new U.S. House seat on Thursday, a week after the congressional district boundaries were finalized, leaving her hometown of Livingston outside of the district in which she was running.
Bishop had launched her candidacy in July, becoming the first Democrat to enter the race for the states newly announced western U.S. House district. At the time, she said she would run in the district that includes liberal college town Missoula even if Livingston was not placed in the same district.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) A South Carolina city is paying $650,000 to a Black man who was stomped in the head by a white police officer upset that the man could not quickly lie flat on his stomach because of rods and pins in his leg.
Orangeburg officials also have apologized to Clarence Gailyard and are reviewing the police department's use of force policies, City Administrator Sidney Evering said in a statement released by Gailyard's lawyer Justin Bamberg. The city's insurance will cover the payment.
Gailyard was walking with a stick wrapped in shiny tape on July 26 when someone mistook the reflective object for a gun and called 911, investigators said.
Orangeburg Public Safety Officer David Lance Dukes ordered Gailyard to the ground and when the 58-year-old didn't immediately drop, the officer stomped on his head and neck, causing his forehead to hit the concrete of the parking lot, according to police body camera video.
Gailyard said he moved slowly and often walks with a cane because of pins and rods in his leg from being hit by a vehicle while riding a bicycle. He also said he was carrying the stick to protect himself from potential dog attacks.
The city's statement said most officers do their difficult jobs well a second officer tried to calm the situation and told a supervisor who came to the scene later that Dukes lied about his actions but swift, fair action must be taken when officers do wrong.
When an officer falls short of these expectations and conducts themselves in ways unbecoming to their department and the City, that officer must and will be held accountable, Evering said.
Dukes, 38, was fired two days after the incident and charged with felony first-degree assault and battery a few days after that. His lawyer has said the former officer is fully cooperating with state police in what he called a difficult and unfortunate situation.
Gailyard's lawyer said he appreciated how quickly Orangeburg worked to both help Gailyard and change the culture of a police department which had seen three years of increasing use-of-force case where 75% of the 13,000 residents are Black.
The police chief retired shortly after the incident and the department's interim chief is reviewing use of force rules. The force is also creating a group of citizens to oversee how officers treat people, the city said.
Ive handled numerous cases involving police violence previously and rarely have I seen a city swiftly accept responsibility and also work to ensure that this never happens to another person, Bamberg said.
Gailyard is happy to put what happened behind him, Bamberg said.
Gailyard spoke to reporters a few weeks after he was hurt.
Every time I look in the mirror, I see the scar on my forehead, and its not OK. The only thing I want the community to do is change, Gailyard said.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) The Canadian Pacific coast province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday following floods and mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall, and officials said they expected to find more dead.
Every major route between the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where Canada's third largest city of Vancouver is, and the interior of the province has been cut by washouts, flooding or landslides following record-breaking rain across southern British Columbia between Saturday and Monday. The body of a woman was recovered from one of the mudslides late Monday.
Torrential rains have led to terrible flooding that has disrupted the lives and taken lives of people across B.C. I want people to know that the federal government has been engaging with the local authorities, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Washington. We're sending resources like the Canadian Armed Forces to support people but also we'll be there for the cleanup and the rebuilding after impacts of these extreme weather events.
The federal government said it was sending the air force to assist with evacuations and to support supply lines.
Military helicopters already helped evacuate about 300 people from one highway where people were trapped in their cars Sunday night following a mudslide,
We expect to confirm even more fatalities in the coming days, British Columbia Premier John Horgan said.
Horgan called it a once in a 500 years event. He said the state of emergency will include travel restrictions so the transport of essential goods medical and emergency services will reach the communities that need them. He asked people not to hoard goods.
These are very challenging times. I've been at this dais for two years now talking about challenging times we have faced unprecedented challenges with public health, wildfires, heat domes and now debilitating floods that we have never seen before, Horgan said.
Horgan said over the past six months there have been drought conditions in Merritt, where the river was at its lowest point in living memory and where people had to be evacuated because of wildfires in temperatures that were unprecedented. And now, he said, much of the community is under water.
We need to start preparing for a future that includes more events like this, Horgan said.
The weather events are all connected and can be attributed to climate change, said John Clague, a professor in the Earth Sciences Department at Simon Fraser University.
Scientists are now saying these particular events, theyre becoming more frequent, exacerbated or ramped up by climate change, he said.
The record temperatures in the summer set the stage for the wildfires, said Clague. The fires burned the ground in a way that prevents water from seeping into the soil. He said that resulted in the water from the torrential rains pouring more quickly into steams and rivers, causing floods.
The total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for had not yet been confirmed near the town of Lillooet. Investigators had received reports of two other people who were missing but added that other motorists might have been buried in a slide on Highway 99.
Chelsey Hughes said she was thankful to have survived the slide that slammed into her car before it landed in a swamp as she was driving along the highway. Hughes was heading home Sunday when she saw a tree starting to fall as a slide shoved her car about a mile off the road and down an embankment.
Then the car stopped moving and I was just shocked. I was afraid to move because I didnt know if I was injured, she said after spending about five hours shivering on top of her car without a jacket next to another vehicle with four university students sharing one jacket atop their vehicle.
When Hughes finally connected with a 911 dispatcher, he helped her monitor one students condition after he had an asthma attack before they finally saw the lights of rescuers.
They spent an hour hiking out, she said of the traumatic events that unfolded Sunday night before nine of them were taken to hospital. She said she has been thinking about the family of a woman who died.
I think that could have been any one of us, and theres nothing that you can do. When we got hit by that landslide, we just had to surrender," she said.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said thousands of animals had died and the province was rushing to get veterinarians to other animals that are in danger.
``I can also tell you that many farmers attempted to move animals and then had to walk away because the roads were disappearing beneath them, she said.
A trade expert said the loss of major transportation routes will hurt the movement of goods both in and out Canadas largest port in Vancouver.
Vancouver really has an outsized role to play in our Pacific trade, said Werner Antweiler, an associate professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Commodities will be impacted in a much more significant way because its coming by rail or coming by big trucks.
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Associated Press writer Jim Morris reported this story in Vancouver and AP writer Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.
NEW YORK (AP) Visitors to the latest chic hotel to open in New York's theater district can easily walk to any Broadway show or they can stay inside and celebrate them.
The Civilian a 203-room hotel with bars, lounges and a bistro is packed with hundreds of pieces of Broadway art, including sketches, set models, costume pieces, photographs and artifacts that show theater past and present.
I think people dont realize that this neighborhood is just like a walking history of so much, said award-winning architect and theater designer David Rockwell during a tour of the hotel he helped craft. So I think it deserves to have a place thats dedicated to that.
The 27-story building at 305 W. 48th Street, between 8th and 9th avenues is from Sixty Collective hotelier Jason Pomeranc, who says the goal is to immerse visitors in a theatrical experience. The Civilian opens Nov. 24.
Nearly every inch of the Civilian has been designed with a theatrical flourish, from the marquee-inspired lighting, dramatic curtains, stage-like elements to the raw industrial materials of backstage life.
On display are set models of shows like Hadestown designed by Rachel Hauck and Slave Play by Clint Ramos and sketches from Chicago designed by William Ivy Long. The hotel plans to cycle new items in every year or so.
Wallcoverings throughout the guestroom floors and elevators are taken from abstracted details from costume designs by Isabel and Ruben Toledo ("After Midnight") and William Ivey Long ("Beetlejuice" and Hairspray). Creators hope this is a chance for the talent offstage to shine.
Im always amazed when I work on a project and theres a moment in the show when you realize 25 people touch that moment to make it work. So, in some ways, this is a chance to be exposed to all of those different people, said Rockwell.
One wall area displays art from 20 artists and students who offered works inspired by a quote Its a city of strangers/Some come to work/Some to play from the musical Company. A piano lent by Rockwell himself will become the focus of impromptu performances, the hotel's creators hope.
There's also a private library finished in royal blue hues and marquee lightbulbs where visitors can find replica guns and a crown from "Hamilton," the original set model for Company as well red boots from Kinky Boots and a pink shrug from Cabaret. "This really feels like a dressing room, says Rockwell.
Upstairs, the guest rooms a two-person Cozy or a 4-person Spacious have one of two color schemes deep blue or wine-maroon hand-painted details, four-poster beds, upholstered benches and framed costume and set sketches. High design meets homey.
On the beds are pillows with abstracted patterns by costume designers Jeff Mahshie and David Zinn. Luggage fits under the bed, and bathrooms with glazed porcelain sinks have heated floors.
Even though the rooms are more petite than what weve done in the past, I dont believe that the guest should have to sacrifice anything on a visual or textual experience, whether its the rich velvets from the fabrics or the tile in the bathroom or the quality of sheets and linens and pillows, says Pomeranc. The quality level should not diminish because of the room size.
Visitors enter through a lobby that feels like a stage door and into a vestibule with an abstract interpretation of marquee lighting imbedded into the ceiling. A bank of theater seats rescued from an upstate theater sit along a brick wall and visitors climb a set of metal spiral stairs past a curtain to the second-floor bar, lounge and library.
Does it feel like youre stepping into kind of the fly loft you always wanted to get in? asks Rockwell and, to be sure, there's a strong The Phantom of the Opera feel.
There are photos throughout, starting in the lobby with black-and-white photos by Little Fang, the husband-and-wife team known for their opening-night portraits. Each floor will have framed art in the hallways clustered around a theme. The fourth floor, for example, is dedicated to rehearsal shots, with photos of Michael Bennett at Dreamgirls and the cast of Miss Saigon.
In the restaurant are 41 round, custom sconces featuring sketches of the Broadway theaters by set designers including Derek McLane, Es Devlin, Scott Pask, Tony Walton, Mimi Lien and Rockwell. A roof deck to open in the spring will have an enclosed lounge and bar.
Pomeranc hopes to create a series of different types of public space experiences, from turning the lounge from a place where people can work and communicate during the day to a music-filled space in the evening to relax. It really speaks to the journey of the guest thats looking for an authentically New York experience, he said.
Partial proceeds from the Civilian will be donated to the American Theatre Wing, which also has supplied the hotel with images from its photo archives. Wing President and CEO Heather Hitchens says a watering hole for the theater community is deeply needed.
A place for theater people to gather that also showcases and celebrates the work of those who don't always get the attention they deserve is a welcome addition, she says.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Health departments in west-central Illinois are adding clinics for children to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination against COVID-19 as the state steps up efforts for mass inoculation of those in the age group.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized on Oct. 29 the emergency use of a lower-dose vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Previously, it was available only to those 12 or older. The vaccination is not required for students at present, and parents must give consent for children to be vaccinated.
In Morgan County, there will be a clinic today at 559 N. Westgate Ave., northwest of Jacksonville Memorial Hospital.
Sign-ups are available at the Morgan County Health Department website at morganhd.com.
Vaccinations are available at Greene County Health Department in Carrollton from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 6:30 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday and Nov. 24. No appointment is necessary but can be arranged if needed.
Macoupin County health officials have been going to schools across the county this week for a series of vaccination clinics. They will be at North Mac from 2 to 4 p.m. today, Brighton North Primary School from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday and Staunton School from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday. Health department representatives plan to return to the schools in December for required second doses, starting at Carlinville on Dec. 3. The pediatric vaccine requires two doses, three weeks apart.
In Jersey County, there will be a children's vaccine clinic from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the health department. No appointment is necessary for the drive-through clinic.
The Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday launched the program Illinois Vaccinates Against COVID-19 to expand vaccinations across the state.
The agency has been given a $5 million contract through the Illinois Department of Public Health to incorporate vaccinations into routine patient care workflows in primary care settings, urgent care centers and when being discharged from a hospital.
The group will be targeting all age groups, chapter President Mary Dobbins said. It will partner with community organizations as part of the program.
Making these vaccines a part of routine care makes sense and we are ready for this step," Dobbins said. "We have all been through so much during this pandemic, especially our children. We are pleased to be able to start looking ahead.
In approving use of the lower-dose vaccine, the FDA said testing in about 3,100 children ages 5 to 11 showed no serious side effects. The vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing coronavirus in the age group, according to the FDA.
Common side effects in clinical trials included injection site pain, redness and swelling, fatigue, headache, muscle or joint pain, chills, fever, swollen lymph nodes, nausea and decreased appetite. More children reported side effects after the second dose, according to the FDA, but side effects generally were mild to moderate and most went away within a day or two.
About 39% of the COVID-19 cases involving those under age 18 and in children ages 5 through 11, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BEIJING (AP) China and the U.S. have agreed to ease restrictions on each other's journalists amid a slight relaxation of tensions between the two sides.
The official China Daily newspaper on Wednesday said the agreement was reached ahead of Tuesdays virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.
The agreement represents a degree of progress on an issue that has long aggravated relations, but details remain to be ironed out. COVID-19 travel restrictions and long-standing obstacles faced by foreign media within China are also factors standing in the way of a major breakthrough in media relations.
Under the agreement, the U.S. will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists and will immediately initiate a process to address duration of status issues, China Daily said. China will reciprocate by granting equal treatment to U.S. journalists once the U.S. policies take effect, and both sides will issue media visas for new applicants based on relevant laws and regulations," the report said.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian gave no information on a timeline for implementation, but called the agreement a hard-won achievement that is in the interest of both sides and should be cherished."
We hope that the U.S. will keep its promise to put the relevant measures and policies in place as soon as possible and work with China to create favorable conditions for both (nations') media to continue to work and live in each others countries," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
In a statement to The Associated Press late Tuesday, the State Department said China had committed to issuing visas for a group of U.S. reporters provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations."
We will also continue issuing visas to (Chinese) journalists who are otherwise eligible for the visa under U.S. law," the statement said.
China also committed to increase the length for which U.S. journalist visas are valid from the current 90 days to one year.
On a reciprocal basis, we are committing to increase validity of U.S. visas issued to PRC journalists to one year as well," the State Department statement said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
Not mentioned in either statement were press conditions in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, where both local and international media have come under increasing pressure. The Economist said last week that Hong Kong refused a visa renewal for its correspondent Sue-Lin Wong. Authorities have not explained the rejection.
Limits on journalists have fueled tensions between the two countries for more than a year after the U.S. cut 20 visas issued to Chinese state media journalists and required those remaining to register as foreign agents, among other changes.
China responded by expelling journalists working for U.S. outlets and severely restricting conditions for those continuing to work in the country.
The new agreement was the result of more than a year of difficult negotiations over the treatment of media outlets in both countries," China Daily said.
It is hoped that more good news is ahead for the two countries media outlets through further China-U.S. cooperation," the newspaper added.
The State Department said it has remained in close consultation with the affected outlets, as well as other outlets facing personnel shortages due to PRC government policy decisions, and we are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work. We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps."
The State Department also said it would continue to work toward expanded access and better conditions for U.S. and foreign media in China, where they face considerable obstacles ranging from questioning by police, harassment preventing them from doing their work, personal threats and lawsuits brought by people they interview.
We will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values," the State Department told the AP.
Asked about Wong's case, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the issuing of visas is at the autonomy and the discretion of any government. Lam added that the authorities do not comment on individual cases but will continue to facilitate the operation of overseas media based in Hong Kong in a legitimate manner according to the citys mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.
The city's Foreign Correspondents Club said it was deeply concerned over the denial of Wongs employment visa.
We again call on the government to provide concrete assurances that applications for employment visas and visa extensions will be handled in a timely manner with clearly-stated requirements and procedures, and that the visa process for journalists will not be politicized or weaponized, the club said in a statement last week.
Wong is the latest in a string of journalists in Hong Kong to be denied visas.
In 2018, Hong Kong authorities refused to renew the work visa of Financial Times senior editor Victor Mallet after he chaired a lunchtime talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club with the leader of a now-banned pro-Hong Kong independence party. Authorities did not say why Mallets application was rejected.
In 2020, Hong Kong did not renew a work visa for Chris Buckley, a New York Times reporter who had been working in Hong Kong after being expelled from China, as well as for Irish journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas, who was then an incoming editor for the independent media outlet Hong Kong Free Press.
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Associated Press reporter Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Courtesy photo /Webb County
Webb County staff members prepared over 50 bags containing all the necessary fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The bags contained the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and vegetables.
EDWARDSVILLE - In mid-September, Ameren Illinois announced a mid-year rate hike due to the rising costs of purchased power used in its residential rates. The City of Edwardsvilles municipal aggregation electricity purchasing program, however, is unaffected by this increase. Customers are protected by the fixed-price contract which charges lower rates through May 2022.
Amerens new rate for the period October 2021 through May 2022 is 5.407 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while your communitys rate is 4.390 cents per kWh, based on contract terms specific to your community
The rate difference will produce savings of approximately $7 per month for residential customers. Participants in the program will have saved $100 on average since January 2020
Your communitys municipal aggregation program provides its participants a hedge against the rising costs of energy in the marketplace
Participation in the aggregation program, offered to both residential and small commercial customers, is voluntary. There is no cost to enroll or to leave the program
An opt-out letter providing pricing and contract terms and conditions is sent to newly eligible accounts (i.e., new residents moving into or within the community, those accounts coming off third-party supply with another supplier)
SAN DIEGO (AP) San Diego has agreed to a nearly $24 million settlement with a cyclist paralyzed seven years ago when a car driven by an intoxicated driver collided with him on a blind turn.
The City Council approved the payout to Juan Carlos Vinolo in September and was scheduled to finalize the deal Tuesday, the Union-Tribune reported.
For Woodlands resident David Olowokere, one of Nigeria's sons, having a master's degree in engineering just wasn't enough for his people back home. So he got a doctorate.
His wife, Shalewa Olowokere, a civil engineer, didn't stop at a bachelor's, either. She went for her master's.
The same obsession with education runs in the Udeh household in Sugar Land. Foluke Udeh and her husband, Nduka, both have master's degrees. Anything less, she reckons, would have amounted to failure.
"If you see an average Nigerian family, everybody has a college degree these days," said Udeh, 32, a physical therapist at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. "But a post-graduate degree, that's like pride for the family."
Nigerian immigrants have the highest levels of education in this city and the nation, surpassing whites and Asians, according to Census data bolstered by an analysis of 13 annual Houston-area surveys conducted by Rice University.
Although they make up a tiny portion of the U.S. population, a whopping 17 percent of all Nigerians in this country held master's degrees while 4 percent had a doctorate, according to the 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 37 percent had bachelor's degrees.
In comparison
To put those numbers in perspective, 8 percent of the white population in the U.S. had master's degrees, according to the Census survey. And 1 percent held doctorates. About 19 percent of white residents had bachelor's degrees. Asians come closer to the Nigerians with 12 percent holding master's degrees and 3 percent having doctorates.
The Nigerian numbers are "strikingly high," said Roderick Harrison, demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that specializes in researching black issues. "There is no doubt that these are highly educated professionals who are probably working in the petrochemical, medical and business sectors in Houston."
Harrison analyzed the census data for the Houston Chronicle.
Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University who conducts the annual Houston Area Survey, suspects the percentage of Nigerian immigrants with post-graduate degrees is higher than Census data shows.
Of all the Nigerian immigrants he reached in his random phone surveys 1994 through 2007 45 households total Klineberg said 40 percent of the Nigerians said they had post-graduate degrees.
"These are higher levels of educational attainment than were found in any other ... community," Klineberg said.
There are more than 12,000 Nigerians in Houston, according to the latest Census data, a figure sociologists and Nigerian community leaders say is a gross undercount. They believe the number to be closer to 100,000.
Staying in school
The reasons Nigerians have more post-graduate degrees than any other racial or ethnic group are largely due to Nigerian society's emphasis on mandatory and free education. Once immigrating to this country, practical matters of immigration laws get in the way.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 made it easier for Africans to enter the U.S., but mostly as students or highly skilled professionals not through family sponsorships, Klineberg said.
So many Africans pursue higher levels of education as an unintended consequence of navigating the tricky minefield of immigration, said Amadu Jacky Kaba, an associate professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., who has done research on African immigrants in the U.S.
"In a way, it's a Catch-22 because of immigration laws you are forced to remain in school, but then the funny thing is you end up getting your doctorate at the age of 29," Kaba said. "If you stay in school, immigration will leave you alone."
Although Kaba, who teaches Africana Studies, is not from Nigeria (he is Liberian), he said he, too, found himself pursuing a master's and then a doctorate to remain in this country legally.
But not all Africans have to go this route. Some say their motivation is driven by their desire to overcome being a double minority: black and African.
Take Oluyinka Olutoye, 41, associate professor of pediatric surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He came to this country already as a medical doctor but decided to pursue his doctorate in anatomy to help set himself apart.
"Being black, you are already at a disadvantage," said Olutoye, whose wife, Toyin Olutoye, is an anesthesiologist at Baylor. "You really need to excel far above if you want to be considered for anything in this country."
Family expectations
All this talk of education creates high expectations for children of Nigerian immigrants. The eldest child of David Olowokere, chairman of the engineering technologies department at Texas Southern University, for example, is already working on her master's degree in public health in Atlanta; the middle child is pursuing a bachelor's in pre-medicine. His youngest, a son, attends The Woodlands High School. He already has aspirations to go into engineering, just like his parents, Olowokere beams.
"The goal is for them to do as good as us if not better," he said.
Oluyinka Olutoye put it another way.
"The typical saying in a Nigerian household is that the best inheritance that a parent can give you is not jewelry or cash or material things, it is a good education," he said. "It is expected."
leslie.casimir@chron.com
WCBS-TV NEWS PHOTO VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP
NEW YORK (AP) Manhattan's district attorney announced Wednesday that he would ask a court to vacate the convictions of two of the three men convicted of murdering civil rights leader Malcom X in 1965. Here is a timeline of key dates related to the assassination and the prosecution of the men originally said to be his killers:
March 9, 1964: Once a leading spokesman for Elijah Muhammads Nation of Islam, Malcolm X announces that he is breaking with Muhammads Black Muslim group and organizing his own.
Feb. 14, 1965: A firebomb tossed through a window explodes in Malcom X's living room in Queens, hours before dawn. He flees the burning house with his wife and four children.
Feb. 21, 1965: Three gunmen kill Malcom X as he begins a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He is 39. Mujahid Abdul Halim, then known as Talmadge Hayer or Thomas Hagan, 23, is arrested at the scene after being shot in the leg by a bodyguard.
Feb. 26, 1965: Muhammad Aziz, 26, then known as Norman 3X Butler, is arrested in the assassination.
March 3, 1965: Kahlil Islam, 30, then known as Thomas 15X Johnson, is arrested in the killing. Both he and Aziz insist they are innocent and offer alibis.
Feb. 28, 1966: Halim admits during the trial that he took part in the killing but insists that his two co-defendants weren't involved.
March 11, 1966: Halim, Islam and Aziz are convicted of murder.
April 14, 1966: All three defendants are sentenced to life in prison.
December 6, 1977: Halim files an affidavit stating that his two co-defendants are innocent, naming four other co-conspirators.
June 1985: Aziz is released on parole.
1987: Islam is released on parole.
Nov. 1992: Halim's request for early release from a New York prison is turned down.
March 1998: Aziz is appointed to help run the Harlem mosque where Malcolm X once preached.
August 2009: Kahlil Islam dies, 22 years after his release from prison.
March 3, 2010: The state of New York grants Halim's parole on his 17th try.
April 27, 2010: Halim is freed.
April, 2011: Historian Manning Marable publishes Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, a biography that concludes Aziz and Islam are innocent and brings new attention to claims that some of the actual killers were still at large. It wins a Pulitzer Prize.
Feb. 7, 2020: Netflix begins streaming episodes of Who Killed Malcolm X? The six-part documentary examines the assassination and evidence that members of Halim's Nation of Islam mosque in Newark, N.J., were behind the killing. The Manhattan district attorney's office says it will consider reopening the investigation.
Nov. 17, 2021: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announces that his office will ask a court to exonerate Islam and Aziz. Lawyers for the men say a nearly two-year-long investigation found that authorities withheld evidence favorable to the defense during the trial.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) A Sioux Falls dentist accused of choking his wife in a domestic abuse case has given up his dental practice.
Cale Slack made his first court appearance Tuesday on a felony aggravated assault charge and four misdemeanor assault charges.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) A philanthropist filed papers with the Oregon Secretary of State on Tuesday to decriminalize sex work in the state in an attempt to put the issue before voters in the 2022 election.
Sex worker rights are human rights, and the denial of those rights enables human trafficking, said chief petitioner Aaron Boonshoft, who filed the prospective petition for the Sex Worker Rights Act.
Beginning in the early-1990s, Henrik Fisker built a reputation as one of the most talented automotive designers of the era. Before setting out on his own, his pencil was the force behind cars like the BMW Z8, the first generation X5 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage. His independent ventures continued to bring fascinating designs if not necessarily enormous business success.
Now more than three decades into his career, Fisker is trying again with the debut of the production version of the Fisker Ocean electric crossover.
The current iteration of Fisker Inc. was born in 2016, several years after the collapse of Fisker Automotive and the plug-in hybrid Karma grand touring sedan, a project that lives on as the Chinese-owned Karma Automotive. Fisker Inc. made a splash with at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show with the Emotion electric sedanan overly ambitious effort that may or may not materialize. In 2020, Fisker returned to CES with the Ocean.
Unlike the high-dollar Emotion, the five-passenger Ocean is targeted at the mass market with an attainable price point. As Henrik Fisker and every entrepreneur in the last 130 years that has ever tried to launch a car company knows, the design concept is the easy part. Turning it into a real product is something else entirely.
Henrik Fiskers Emotion concept debuted at the 2018 Consumer Electronic Show and was targeted the high end of the EV market. DAVID MC AFP via Getty Images
Bringing the Ocean to Market
The original 2020 Ocean concept was built around Volkswagens MEB platform, the same architecture used for the VW ID.4 and other EVs coming from the German automaker. Fisker tried to make a deal with VW to use MEB in production, but that never came to fruition. Instead, Fisker formed a partnership with Magna International, the Canadian automotive supplier that has almost every modern vehicle part in its portfolio.
The companys Magna Steyr subsidiary in Austria has been assembling complete vehicles for automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and others for decades. That facility in Graz, Austria is already building pre-production prototypes of the Ocean and is expected to be producing two Oceans per day by March. Volume production is scheduled to start November 2022.
Magna had already developed an EV reference platform to demonstrate the various components it could provide as well as its ability to help engineer and produce the vehicles. Starting from there, Fisker and Magna developed what has been dubbed the Fisker FM29 platform, which is now about 90% proprietary to Fisker. Magna set aside production capacity for up to 50,000 Oceans per year from its Austrian plant with about half allocated to North America and the rest to Europe.
The interior of the Ocean has a vertical screen that can swivel into a landscape position called Hollywood mode that lets passengers consume media while charging. Sam Abuelsamid
Innovative Modes
Measuring 188 inches, the Ocean is roughly the same size as the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E, but its wheelbase stretches is a bit longer at 115-inches. Unlike those rivals, the Fisker keeps a long-roof, wagon-like profile that aids rear stowage and enables the sliding sunroof. The Ocean offers a California mode, where all four door windows, the rear quarter windows and tailgate window lower while the roof slides back Fisker claims the sunroof has the largest aperture in the industry. With everything open, the feel is not unlike a topless Jeep Wrangler.
The Ocean offers other west coast-themed modes, including a large 17.1-inch vertical central touchscreen that rotates 90 degrees into Hollywood mode for watching videos while charging. Unlike Tesla and Ford, Fisker believes that some controls, especially its climate system, are better with physical buttons that can be felt without looking at them. Temperature control sits at the base of the screen when its in portrait mode and stays even when the screen rotates.
The center console of the Ocean floats leaving room under both it and the seats for rear seat passengers to extend their legs and feet. Six-foot-tall CEO Henrik Fisker demonstrated the ample rear seat leg and headroom. One place owners wont find space is under the front of the Ocean. There is no frunk (front trunk) and what would traditionally be called the hood is fixed as on the BMW iX. Service personnel can open it, but with the front motor and power electronics there, there isnt much room for storage. A fixed hood allowed Fisker to avoid using seals, latches and liners, which keep the base price down.
The Fisker Ocean will be offered in both single- and dual-motor forms with varying range and horsepower. Sam Abuelsamid
The Oceans Electric Powertrain
The base Ocean Sport has a single 275-horsepower unit driving the front wheels. Using a front motor allows the Ocean to maximize regenerative braking for extra range and improves poor weather traction. All Oceans will have batteries supplied by CATL, although the Sport will use lower-cost lithium-iron phosphate batteries like what Tesla uses for its standard range models. Fisker hasnt released capacity specifics but says the Ocean Sport will have a 250-mile range.
The Ultra, Extreme and Ocean One models will have dual motors and a battery with a nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry, a costlier option but with greater energy density that increases range to 340 miles for the Ultra and 350 miles for the Extreme. The Ultra will deliver 540 horsepower and a zero-to-60 mph time of 3.9 seconds; the Extreme and One have 550 horsepower and a 3.6-second sprint to 60 mph.
The Ocean carries a solar panel on its roof for added re-charging capabilities. Sam Abuelsamid
High-Tech Features
The optional SolarSky roof panel on the Extreme and Ocean One models can supposedly add up to 2,000 miles per year of driving range to the battery under optimal conditions. In sunny regions like California, 1,500 miles per year is said to be more typical, but even that is optimistic for most drivers. For those that park the Ocean in a garage, the solar roof is unlikely to be a useful option.
Fisker and Magna have a suite of advanced driver-assistance systems for the Ocean that include the first use of Magnas new Icon imaging radar sensor. This high-resolution radar provides a signal similar to a lidar point cloud for improved object tracking and recognition although its not as high resolution as typical lidars. Details on the specific functionality of the system will be provided closer to launch, but the Ocean does have support for over-the-air updates and should get better over time.
Fisker is making extensive use of recycled materials in the interior including fabrics, old fishing nets and repurposed rubber. The optional 20-inch aero wheels also include inserts made from recycled carbon fiber.
Fiskers high-end Karma plug-in hybrid grand touring sedan, seen here in 2009, lives on as the Karma Revero, now a product of the Chinese-owned Karma Automotive. Alex Kwanten
A New Company with Experience
Fisker has made some interesting business choices to manage costs. Previously, Fisker went after the premium market, but the volume there often isnt enough to generate the cash flow needed to develop mass-market products. It typically costs $1 billion or to bring a vehicle to market. Initially, Tesla also targeted the high end of the market hoping to use that to fund development of more affordable models. Despite success with the Model S and X, Tesla still had to go back to the capital markets numerous times over the years to fund its ongoing operations.
By partnering with Magna, which already has enormous economies of scale, Fisker can keep its capital costs down in the early years while launching affordable models that it hopes will generate volume. Unlike Teslas physical storefronts, Fisker will rely solely on sales through its app. Distribution centers will sit on the outskirts of expensive urban areas and home delivery will also be available. A partnership with Cox Automotive will provide servicing needs. Cox already has several business units that do work with dealerships and a used vehicle servicing and refurbishment unit for its auction business.
Henrik Fisker next to the 2023 Fisker Ocean unveiling in Los Angeles. Sam Abuelsamid
2023 Fisker Ocean Pricing
The goal is to make even the base Ocean Sport profitable at its $37,499 starting price. The dual motor Ocean Ultra starts at $49,999, while the Extreme and Ocean One costs $68,999. The first 5,000 units will all be Ocean One models. Fiskers Flexee lease is aimed at making the Ocean more accessible to younger customers. With a $3,000 down payment and $379 per month for the Ocean Sport, buyers will not be locked into any long terms. An owner can return the Ocean at any time after three months with no impact on their credit, although they lose the down payment.
Fiskers reservation list for the Ocean is open and requires a $250 deposit; deliveries will likely begin around the beginning of 2023.
With the help of partners like Magna and CATL and some innovative sales approaches, Henrik Fisker might extend his reputation as a great designer to a successful automotive startup.
This article, Fisker Launches 2023 Ocean Electric Crossover, 25,000 Headed To U.S. Next Year, originally appeared on Forbes Advisor.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) Some 20,000 people marched peacefully through Athens on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of a bloody anti-dictatorship uprising in 1973, police said.
More than 5,000 police were deployed to keep order, as violence involving anarchist demonstrators has often marred the annual march to the U.S. Embassy. The event went ahead despite restrictions related to the pandemic, and most of the marchers wore masks.
After the march, minor clashes briefly broke out in another part of town when some youths threw stones at police and set fire to dumpsters.
A similar demonstration was held in Greece's second-largest city of Thessaloniki, with about 14,000 participants. The march ended peacefully, but afterwards youths threw petrol bombs at police who responded with tear gas and a water cannon. No injuries were reported, and police said at least 20 suspected rioters were detained.
In 1973, student-led pro-democracy protests at the Athens Polytechnic were crushed by police and troops sent by the military regime. Officers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and bystanders near the Polytechnic, and an army tank smashed in the gates of the university complex behind which many students were gathered.
At least 20 are thought to have been killed, though the precise death toll of the November 1973 events remains unknown.
But the uprising was followed by a putsch within the military regime ruling Greece since 1967, which brought even more hardline officers into power.
Democracy was restored only in July 1974, after the dictatorship collapsed in the face of a Turkish invasion of Cyprus provoked by the junta's own machinations aiming to unite the island, whose majority is Greek-speaking, with Greece.
Mostly left-wing demonstrators have marched to the U.S. Embassy every year since 1974 because Washington was seen as supportive of Greece's far-right military regime.
In a tweet Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the uprising reinforced the countrys daily commitment to a secure democracy.
PARIS (AP) A far-right TV pundit who is expected to run for the French presidency goes on trial Wednesday for allegedly inciting racial hatred with his comments on unaccompanied migrant children.
Eric Zemmour, who has two prior hate speech convictions, is being tried on charges of public insult and incitement to hatred or violence against a group of people due to their ethnic, national, racial or religious origin.
The essayist and commentator on former political talk shows is widely expected to soon announce his candidacy in France's April presidential election. Adopting an attitude much like former former U.S. President Donald Trump, Zemmour is finding fervent audiences for his anti-Islam, anti-immigration invective in the early stages of the race.
Zemmour previously was convicted of incitement to racial hatred after justifying discrimination against Black and Arab people in 2010, and of incitement to religious hatred for anti-Islam comments in 2016. He was respectively sentenced to pays court costs and a 5,000-euro ($5,660) fine.
The trial opening Wednesday focuses on September 2020 comments he made on French news broadcaster CNews about children who migrate to France without parents or guardians. If found guilty, he faces a sentence of up to one year in prison and a 45,000-euro ($51,000) fine.
Theyre thieves, theyre murderers, theyre rapists. Thats all they are. We must send them back, Zemmour said. These people cost us money."
Zemmour was not present Wednesday at the Paris court. In a statement, he denounced an attempt to intimidate (him) from prosecutors and anti-racist groups. He maintained his comments and said he won't attend the trial because the political debate doesn't take place in courts.
The verdict is expected to be delivered at a later date.
The head of the managing board of Canal +, CNews parent company, Jean-Christophe Thiery, is also on trial in the case, as the person legally in charge of the television show. The French media watchdog, the Superior Audiovisual Council, imposed a 200,000-euro fine in March on CNews for broadcasting comments inciting hatred.
Civil plaintiffs in the case include several local councils representing divisions handling child care and anti-racism groups including SOS Racisme, the Human Rights League and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
We refuse for these comments to be trivialized and to target foreign non-accompanied minors who come to seek protection in France, as well as all those who work to help them, said the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Zemmours lawyer, Olivier Pardo, argued in favor of nullifying the charges and suggested the trial is politically motivated, noting that the local councils represented at the Paris court are headed by a leftist majority.
Zemmour is also set to go on trial on charges of racial insult after he told another TV pundit, Hapsatou Sy, that her first name was an insult to France. Sy has filed a formal complaint. No trial date has been set.
Zemmour has repeatedly said he wants to ban parents from giving children foreign names, similar to an 1803 law restricting choice to typical French names, mostly of Christian origin.
Zemmour has also been tried in several other cases, where he was acquitted.
A Paris court in February acquitted Zemmour on a charge of contesting crimes against humanity illegal in France for arguing in a 2019 television debate that Marshal Philippe Petain, head of Vichys collaborationist government during World War II, saved Frances Jews from the Holocaust.
In its verdict, the court said Zemmours comments negated Petains role in the extermination. But in acquitting Zemmour, it said hed spoken in the heat of the moment.
Yet Zemmour in recent weeks has repeated similar comments and lawyers contesting his acquittal plan to cite that point as evidence when their appeal is heard in January.
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Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) The Idaho Legislature on Wednesday wrapped up its longest ever session, one dominated by COVID-19 that entered into numerous speeches, new laws and some lawmakers.
The Legislature took a five-month break before returning Monday for three days that saw a final spasm of three dozen pieces of legislation. The bills mainly centered around COVID-19 vaccines and mask mandates.
But the only one to make it through both chambers was a non-binding declaration stating opposition to President Joe Bidens vaccine requirements for federal workers and contractors and vaccine requirements for large employers and health care employers.
Idaho is involved in three lawsuits against the requirements, and Biden on Wednesday suspended the requirements for large employers, which had been put on hold by a federal court.
The House approved seven bills in all, but a Senate committee held hearings on only three of them on Wednesday before voting to kill them, effectively ending the session at 311 days.
I think everybody is just trying to figure out a very complicated situation, said Republican Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Winder after the committee hearing. Trying to protect the rights of all the individuals, and its not an easy thing to do.
Typically, the part-time Idaho Legislature meets for about three months starting in January. But the 2021 session stretched into May and included a two-week recess due to a COVID-19 outbreak among lawmakers in the House.
After lawmakers returned to Boise, the House chose not to formally adjourn in May so it could return and deal with millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief money if needed. Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke then summoned House members to the Statehouse this week to deal Bidens vaccine requirements. The Senate, though it did adjourn in May, also showed up.
Normally, only the governor can summon the part-time Legislature back to the Statehouse after adjourning. The Idaho attorney generals office said the Legislature reconvening was likely legal, but was unprecedented and a court could decide otherwise, making any laws passed null. However, no laws were passed in the last three days.
Winder and Bedke said versions of the vaccine legislation killed by the Senate committee on Wednesday could return when the Legislature meets for its 2022 regular session in January.
We think some of these concepts are important, but the testimony we heard was they need some amendments, said Winder, who is a member of the committee that killed the bills.
Bedke said the two chambers would need to increase cooperation, "and that's how we'll solve these types of issues, including property tax, education policy and set the budgets. Plus there's that little matter of $1.4 billion surplus.
Lawmakers will return on Jan. 10 for the 2022 regular session, and the state's record budget surplus will be a key focus.
Democratic House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel said she was happy the session had wrapped up.
"I think the best we could hope for out of this session was to get out of it without damaging legislation passed, and so, all in all, I think we largely accomplished it, she said.
Of the bills killed by the Senate committee Wednesday morning, one involved making it easier for Idaho residents to get worker compensation if they become ill after taking an employee-mandated vaccine. Another bill would have prohibited questioning the sincerity of people claiming religious exemptions from vaccinations. The third bill would have prevented employers from asking employees whether they have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
Lawmakers opposed to the legislation said Idaho already has laws the three bills involved, and that even if passed, the remedy would remain in the courts, not the Legislature.
The lawmakers also noted Idaho is involved in three federal lawsuits against Bidens vaccine requirements, and legislation is premature until those cases are decided.
Republican Rep. Brent Crane, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, supported the three bills and testified in the Senate committee. After the meeting, he said he appreciated the Senate panel holding a public hearing on the bills with testimony that went over three hours.
I also thought it was very productive," he said. "For the businesses sitting in here to realize the Legislature is serious about protecting First Amendment rights. Stop doing what you're doing and punishing people because of their religious beliefs. I think that message was sent loud and clear by the Senate State Affairs Committee today even though they didn't advance the legislation."
Lawmakers have said that workers are losing their jobs for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The House on Monday censured Rep. Priscilla Giddings, a Republican from White Bird who publicized the name of a 19-year-old intern who reported she was raped by another legislator. Giddings was also stripped of a committee assignment for the 2022 session.
WASHINGTON (AP) Hackers linked to the Iranian government have been targeting a broad range of victims inside the United States, including by deploying ransomware, according to an advisory issued Wednesday by American, British and Australian officials.
The advisory says that in recent months, Iran has exploited computer vulnerabilities exposed by hackers before they can be fixed and targeted entities in the transportation, health care and public health sectors. The attackers leveraged the initial hack for additional operations, such as data exfiltration, ransomware and extortion, according to the advisory. The group has used the same Microsoft Exchange vulnerability in Australia, officials say.
The warning is notable because even though ransomware attacks remain prevalent in the U.S., most of the significant ones in the past year have been attributed to Russia-based criminal hacker gangs rather than Iranian hackers.
Government officials aren't the only ones noticing the Iranian activity: Tech giant Microsoft announced Tuesday that it had seen six different groups in Iran deploying ransomware since last year.
Microsoft said one of the groups spends significant time and energy trying to build rapport with their intended victims before targeting them with spear-phishing campaigns. The group uses fake conference invitations or interview requests and frequently masquerade as officials at think tanks in Washington, D.C., as a cover, Microsoft said.
Once rapport is built and a malicious link is sent, the Iranians are extra pushy at trying to get their victims to click on it, said James Elliott, a member of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center.
These guys are the biggest pain in the rear. Every two hours theyre sending an email, Elliott said at the Cyberwarcon cybersecurity conference Tuesday.
Earlier this year Facebook announced it had found Iranian hackers using sophisticated fake online personas to build trust with targets and get them to click on malicious links and often posed as recruiters of defense and aerospace companies.
Researchers at the Crowdstrike cybersecurity firm said they and competitors began seeing this type of Iranian activity last year.
The Iranian ransomware attacks, unlike those sponsored by North Koreas government, are not designed to generate revenue so much as for espionage, to sow disinformation, to harass and embarrass foes Israel, chief among them and to essentially wear down their targets, Crowdstrike researchers said at the Cyberwarcon event.
While these operations will use ransom notes and dedicated leak sites demanding hard cryptocurrency, were really not seeing any viable effort at actual currency generation, Crowdstrike global threat analysis director Katie Blankenship said.
Crowdstrike considers Iran to be the trendsetter in this novel low form of cyberattack, which typically involves paralyzing a network with ransomware, stealing information and then leaking it online. The researchers call the method lock and leak. It is less visible, less costly and provides more room for deniability, Blankenship said.
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Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia, and Bajak from Boston.
Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying Jan. 6 rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the assault on the Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
Chansley, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, was among the first rioters to enter the building. He has acknowledged using a bullhorn to rile up the mob, offering thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and scratching out a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence saying, Its Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!"
Though he isnt accused of violence, prosecutors say Chansley, of Arizona, was the public face of the Capitol riot who went into the attack with a weapon, ignored repeated police orders to leave the building and gloated about his actions in the days immediately after the attack.
Before he was sentenced, Chansley told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth it was wrong for him to enter the Capitol and that he accepts responsibility for his actions. He emphasized he wasnt an insurrectionist and is troubled with the way he was portrayed in news stories in the aftermath of the riot.
I have no excuse, Chansley said. No excuses whatsoever. My behavior is indefensible.
The judge said Chansleys remorse appeared to be genuine but noted the seriousness of his actions in the Capitol. What you did was terrible, Lamberth said. You made yourself the center of the riot."
The image of Chansley holding a flagpole topped with a spear tip and looking as if he were howling was one of the most striking to emerge from the riot. He previously called himself the QAnon Shaman but has since repudiated the QAnon movement, which is centered on the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cannibals.
He is among 650 people charged in the riot that forced lawmakers into hiding as they were meeting to certify President Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. More than 120 defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges of demonstrating in the Capitol that carry a maximum of six months in prison.
Chansley and Scott Fairlamb, a New Jersey gym owner sentenced last week for punching a police officer during the attack, have received the longest prison sentences out of the 38 Capitol riot defendants who been punished so far.
Chansley, who has been in jail for 10 months, sought to be sentenced to time served. His lawyer, Albert Watkins, said his client has longstanding mental health problems that were worsened by being held in solitary confinement due to COVID-19 protocols and is in dire need of mental health treatment.
In the year before the Capitol riot, Chansley appeared in costume at pro-Trump events, protests over face mask requirements and at a gathering of Trump supporters in November 2020 outside an election office in downtown Phoenix where votes from the presidential race were being counted.
His attorney has said Chansley was horrendously smitten by Trump and believed like other rioters that Trump had called him to the Capitol, but later felt betrayed after Trump refused to grant him and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon.
Watkins has said Chansley had been under pressure from family members not to plead guilty because they believed Trump would be reinstated as president and pardon him.
After spending his first month in jail, Chansley said he reevaluated his life, felt regret for having stormed the building and apologized for causing fear in others.
He twice quit eating while in jail and lost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) until he was given organic food.
The judge had previously rejected Chansleys claims that the six-foot flagpole he carried during the riot wasnt a weapon and that the metal spear tip was an ornament, saying the sharpened six-inch point could have been used to stab people from a distance. _____
Billeaud reported from Phoenix.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisiana's health department recommended Wednesday that anyone 18 and older get a coronavirus vaccine booster if they've already been immunized, saying that would strengthen protection against COVID-19 as other parts of the country see upticks in the illness.
The new guidance from the Department of Health suggests adults who completed a two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccine series get a booster if their last shot was six or more months ago, along with adults who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine two or more months ago.
We have made significant progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our state, which is why as we head into the holiday season it is critical that Louisianans get a booster shot as soon as they become eligible in order to protect themselves and their loved ones against the possibility of another surge, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing the change.
People eligible can choose which vaccine they want for a booster dose and can get a different shot from the one they previously received, according to the health department.
Previous guidance from the health department had recommended booster doses for everyone 18 and older who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But for those who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, the agency only had been suggesting boosters for everyone 65 and older and for those 18 and older who have certain underlying medical conditions or who live or work in settings that place them at higher risk to COVID-19.
The new, broadened recommendations come as Louisiana emerged from its fourth and worst surge of the coronavirus illness and is now seeing its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since the earliest days of the pandemic.
Fewer than 200 people in the state were hospitalized Wednesday with COVID-19, the lowest number since March 2020 and well below the states peak of more than 3,000 in August, according to state data. The percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive for COVID-19 has fallen below 2% statewide.
Still, Edwards noted on his monthly radio show that Louisiana hasn't had a single day without a COVID-19 death reported since March 2020.
While our COVID-19 trends are much better than they have been, the virus remains active statewide and that means there is still risk involved when people gather together," Dr. Joe Kanter, the state's chief public health officer, said in a statement.
Kanter said with the holidays approaching, boosters or vaccines for those not yet immunized will offer protection for people seeking to celebrate together.
But Louisiana continues to struggle to persuade people to get the coronavirus vaccine and remains among states with the lowest immunization rates. About 48% of Louisianas total residents more than 2.2 million people are fully vaccinated, according to health department data.
Nearly 343,000 people in Louisiana have received booster doses so far.
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Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.
NEW YORK (AP) A man was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday for setting fire to a car last year in what authorities said was an attempt to intimidate a potential witness in R. Kelly's sex trafficking trial.
Michael Williams, 38, of Valdosta, Georgia, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn.
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) A New Jersey man is going to prison for his role in conspiring with a hate group to threaten and intimidate properties owned by Black people and Jews throughout the country.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Richard Tobin, 20, to one year and one day in prison. Tobin had pleaded guilty to conspiring against rights stemming from vandalized synagogues in Racine, Wisconsin, and Hancock, Michigan.
PINSON, Ala. (AP) A man working his first shift at a manufacturing plant near Birmingham was shot to death by a fellow employee early Wednesday, authorities said.
Deputies found the body of a man who had been shot multiple times when they responded to a call shortly after midnight, said a statement by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) A Maryland congressman says a complaint has been filed against him with a board of medical examiners for prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19.
Republican Rep. Andy Harris said in a Monday discussion about vaccine mandates by the conservative House Freedom Caucus that a complaint has been made against him, The Baltimore Sun reported.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexico will deploy a battalion of National Guard troops to its Mayan Riviera in the wake of a spate of shootings that have put the crown jewel of the countrys tourism industry on edge.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval, speaking Wednesday in Cancun, said that 1,445 guard members will be sent to Quintana Roo states Caribbean coast to reinforce the regions security. The deployment will include the establishment of a base in the beach town of Tulum, where two foreign tourists were killed and three wounded Oct. 20 in the crossfire between drug dealers.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) The federal government on Wednesday corrected Michigan's unemployment rate upward by 1.7 percentage points, above the U.S. average, citing an outlier in statistical modeling last winter amid sharp job swings during the coronavirus pandemic.
The September jobless figure, now 6.3%, had been 4.6%. The October number, also newly released Wednesday, dipped to 6.1% higher than the national rate of 4.6%.
The problem stems from inputs into a model for the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metropolitan area for January, which produced some distortions in benchmarking factors used for Michigan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. State officials said they notified the agency of the issue in May.
Michigan's unemployment rate had dropped substantially last January, from 8.2% to 5.7%, to below the U.S. average.
Scott Powell, director of the state's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, said it was a red flag" that the agency continued to notice in subsequent months.
The Michigan estimate was lower than what was basically appropriate, he said.
Revisions to unemployment data are not unusual, but one of this magnitude is. The U.S. government will increase the state's monthly jobless rates for January through August at the end of the year and release them in March.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat up for reelection in 2022, this year had been touting that Michigans unemployment was below the national average and on a steady decline since spring 2020, when she issued stay-at-home orders to control COVID-19.
The unemployment rate comes from a survey of households, which is supplemented with other information in a regression model. Due to the pandemic, the federal agency began reviewing states' surveys monthly for unusual movements rather than yearly and, in January, adjusted the Detroit area for an outlier a way to preserve a shift that the model otherwise would have discounted. But it did not adjust Michigan as a whole because the jobless change did not exceed reliability criteria.
What we noticed in the first couple of months of 2021 is that the estimates we were getting from the BLS model, the published data that everyone sees, was not tracking with the raw data from the household survey, said Bruce Weaver, an economic manager with the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget. "In May, we contacted BLS in writing and pointed that out. They started looking into it and eventually identified the specific problem that they're adjusting for this month.
Michigan's overall workforce total was unchanged over October. There was a 38,000 boost in payroll jobs, however, the second-highest of 2021.
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Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Another lawsuit challenging North Carolina's latest round of redistricting has been filed, this time by a conservation group, university mathematicians and voters who accuse Republican mapmakers of illegal partisan and racial gerrymandering.
The litigation, spearheaded by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, opposes both the state's congressional and General Assembly districts. That's in contrast to two previously filed lawsuits, one of which focuses on the congressional plan and the other on procedures in forming state House and Senate districts.
The plaintiffs in part accuse Republican legislators of violating the state constitution by parceling out portions of the state's large urban counties into districts that appear to favor GOP congressional candidates. General Assembly lines also appear to group Black voters excessively in some districts while fracturing Black voting blocs across others in a method to dilute their electoral power, according to the lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.
The result, the plaintiffs say, likely will help Republicans retain their majorities in both the House and Senate and hold at least nine of the state's U.S. House seats in 2022, even as North Carolina is considered closely divided when it comes to statewide elections. North Carolina gained a 14th congressional seat due to population growth measured by the 2020 census. Republicans currently hold an 8-5 seat advantage.
The maps frustrate the League's efforts to build a pro-environment majority, and undermine NCLCVs ability to hold legislators accountable, the lawsuit says.
Republican legislators have repeatedly defended the new boundaries approved this month as lawful, and in keeping with state courts that signed off on approved lines that were drawn without the examination of race-based data or election results.
The mathematicians and others who sued endorse alternative plans they say are based on computer algorithms that follow state law and traditional, neutral" redistricting principles. They would give Democrats the chance to be more competitive and hold seat majorities, according to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs, who also include former longtime Democratic Rep. Mickey Michaux of Durham, do not seek to favor any political party or incumbent, the lawsuit reads. Rather, they support fair maps drawn with advanced science and technology that preserve every North Carolinians right to vote in free elections on equal terms and that do not discriminate against voters based on race or party.
The lawsuit asks the judges hearing the case to order their remedial plans be used in the 2022 elections if lawmakers cant redraw lawful maps quickly, and suggests the March 8 primaries could be delayed. Candidate filing is set to begin Dec. 6.
GOP legislators agreed this year to prohibit the use of election or racial data when drawing boundaries. Republicans also cited earlier federal court findings they say show there wasn't sufficient evidence to declare North Carolina has racially polarized voting, so special attention to racial data wasn't required.
While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts cannot overturn maps on the basis of extreme partisanship, state courts aren't subject to the decision. Later that year, orders by North Carolina state judges finding excessive partisanship violated the state constitution led to the redrawing of both legislative and congressional maps for use in the 2020 elections.
A lawsuit by the North Carolina NAACP, Common Cause and four individuals filed Oct. 29, before the new boundaries were drawn, challenged the legislators refusal to consider racial data before considering proposals for General Assembly districts. And a Nov. 5 filing by a group of voters who challenged the constitutionality of congressional maps approved in 2016 contests the latest congressional maps.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) With the legislative year nearing an end, North Carolina Republicans on Wednesday advanced a string of measures that voting rights groups fear would prevent lawfully cast ballots from being counted and discourage participation in the 2022 election.
The bills the GOP moved through the House rules committee are unlikely to become law, as they would almost assuredly lack the support of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and enough Democratic state lawmakers to override a possible veto.
Among the measures Republicans are pursuing is a plan to prevent the counting of absentee ballots that arrive at county elections offices after polls close on Election Day.
Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican and bill sponsor, said the extra time the state offered for ballot collecting in 2020 as part of its effort to make mail-in voting more accessible during the pandemic unnecessarily lengthened the vote counting process and undermined voters' confidence in the results because it took several days after the election for then-President Donald Trump to be declared North Carolina's winner but the overall national loser to Democrat Joe Biden.
Everybody knows when Election Day is. Its when the votes are all in, and vote counting begins," said state Daniel said. "Every day that passes after that creates the possibility of distrust in the process. Ideally, wed like to have a winner on Election Night.
In 2020, the state extended the grace period for mail-in ballots to nine days due to the pandemic and U.S. Postal Service delays. Existing state law allows for ballot envelopes postmarked by Election Day to count if received within three days of the election. More than 11,600 ballots were received during the first three days after the 2020 a number Republicans expect to drop in a midterm election year. Daniel said he believes his bill would not determine election results.
Caroline Fry, interim advocacy director of Democracy NC, a prominent voting rights group, told lawmakers she feels the bill comes as the latest effort in a "national strategy to silence voters, particularly Black voters.
Democrats dislike the plan, as well as proposals the committee approved to have state elections officials collect citizenship data through the court systems jury selection process and ban private money from being used to support election operations.
We have got to come together, and this is not the way to do it," said Democratic Rep. Billy Richardson of Cumberland County. "I hope we dont pass this, and I hope we dont pass the rest of these bills. Id just wish wed come together, and this is not helping.
Republicans are again seeking to require courts to share citizenship data with state elections officials if a potential juror says they are unable to participate because they are not U.S. residents. The move renews an effort that failed in 2019 when Cooper vetoed the plan. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina believes the measure poses privacy concerns and could embolden anti-immigrant vigilantes.
Additionally, legislators are looking to pass a bill that would prevent private money from flowing to state and county elections boards. A $400 million donation from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, allowed county elections offices across the country to hire more poll workers, buy equipment to process mail-in ballot and purchase personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
But the grants drew the ire of conservative lawmakers across the United States who questioned the motives of wealthy, liberal-leaning individuals, prompting several GOP-controlled states to enact bans on such contributions.
When partisan groups are sending private dollars to counties that otherwise exclusively run elections, it erodes the confidence in the outcome," said Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus.
Senate Republicans voted in June along party lines to approve the measures limiting mail-in ballot counting and banning private money to fund election operations. The proposals now head to the House floor, as does the House bill requiring courts share citizenship information to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
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Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson.
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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.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) New Mexicos governor named three new advisers Wednesday who will help guide policy on water, broadband and other infrastructure projects.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the announcements a celebration of the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden on Monday.
New Mexico has one of the worst reviews in terms of the potential for failing dams in the country," Lujan Grisham said. The money coming from the federal government thats been made available in a number of ways means that we can fix all of those dams, 200 of them.
Former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez will serve as the state's new infrastructure adviser to prioritize an estimated $3.7 billion in federal funding for roads, bridges and other projects in New Mexico.
The governor also acknowledged a New Mexico Supreme Court ruling issued Wednesday that will require her to work more closely with the Legislature to allocate federal pandemic relief. The decision could have implications for federal infrastructure spending.
Lujan Grisham also named a new top water official to replace State Engineer John D'Antonio, who will be stepping down next month. In submitting his resignation, D'Antonio cited a persistent lack of funding for his agency and unfunded mandates.
Mike Hamman, who is currently the chief engineer and CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, will take over the state role beginning in January. Hamman also has served as an area manager for the U.S Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water projects across the West.
Im up for the task the governor has laid at my feet," said Hamman, who will spearhead the state's response to deepening drought and an ongoing legal battle with Texas over management of the Rio Grande.
The governor also named former Illinois Office of Broadband Director Matt Schmit as an adviser to the newly created state broadband office.
Lujan Grisham said he will move to the state soon to advise the office, which has been charged with centralizing New Mexicos sprawling efforts to increase high-speed internet coverage.
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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.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) With a legal battle over management of the Rio Grande before the U.S. Supreme Court and more hot and dry weather in the forecast, New Mexicos top water official said Wednesday that lawmakers have to provide enough funding to protect one of New Mexicos most precious commodities.
State Engineer John DAntonio told members of a key legislative panel that the Office of the State Engineer is lacking resources and is short dozens of staff.
He said the shortfall equates to 140,000 lost staff hours per year at a time when the agency is processing nearly 90,000 water right transactions and is involved in negotiations that range from settlements with Indigenous nations to water-sharing contracts with other western states.
Complicating matters is the changing climate and the potential for more evaporation and more wildfires, he said.
The impacts really threaten the communities, the irrigators, the businesses that depend on New Mexicos water, D'Antonio told members of the Legislative Finance Committee.
DAntonio recently cited the lack of resources as a reason for his decision to step down from the post next month. He previously served as the state engineer during former Gov. Bill Richardson's administration and was appointed to the office in 2019 by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
New Mexico has been grappling with drought for the past 20 years, with rivers seeing record low flows this year. That includes the Rio Grande. In the pending Supreme Court case, Texas argues that groundwater pumping in southern New Mexico is reducing the river's flow and cutting into how much water makes it across the border. New Mexico argues that it has been shorted on its share of the river.
D'Antonio said Wednesday that the administration directed his office to submit a flat budget for the next fiscal year, hoping that federal recovery funds could fill some of the gaps. He told lawmakers that New Mexico's water problems are not going away and that long-term funding solutions are needed rather that one-time cash infusions if the state hopes to protect its interests.
We've got to level that playing field for us to be effective. Water is a technical issue. It's a legal issue, he said, explaining that permanent funding would help to absolve the agency from some of the political pressures that happen with changes in the governor's office.
Officials with the Office of the State Engineer also pointed to new duties resulting from New Mexico's move to legalize recreational marijuana and encourage the expansion of the cannabis industry. Along with that comes the need for water managers to evaluate applications for water rights and ensure the state's limited sources are protected.
Rolf Schmidt-Petersen, director of the Interstate Stream Commission, also briefed the committee on the severity of the ongoing drought. He said New Mexico likely experiences more drought and variability than any other state in the West.
It's important to recognize that up front. We're not just very dry; we're drier than everybody else and even the state of Nevada, he said. We have less surface water than the state of Nevada.
Schmidt-Petersen said the 50-year plan that the stream commission and D'Antonio's office has been working on aims to develop recommendations that will help with decision making in the future as supplies shrink.
He pointed to a graphic that showed a bullseye over the northwestern part of the state where temperatures are expected to see the largest increases. He said this will have cascading effects.
You have the same amount of precipitation but you have more water being evaporated or transpired into the air. You have impacts across your entire landscape, he said.
When asked whether this dry year would be considered one of New Mexico's wetter years five decades from now, D'Antonio said he hoped that wouldn't be the case but noted that trends are pointing to warmer temperatures and more variable precipitation.
Existing New Mexico laws that allow for active management of water rights on a real-time basis will be key along with boosting infrastructure for water storage, D'Antonio said.
HARWICH, Mass. (AP) A Massachusetts police officer was injured during a firearms training exercise Wednesday morning when they accidentally fired a round into their own right leg, police say.
Officers from several municipal departments were participating in the training at an outdoor firing range in Harwich when the officer was injured at about 10:30 a.m., Harwich police said in a Facebook post.
GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) A photographer known for his images of nude adolescents has pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old student in the mid-1970s while he was a teacher and dorm parent at a private boarding school in Massachusetts, prosecutors said.
Former Northfield Mount Hermon teacher John Jock" Sturges, 74, was sentenced to three years of probation this week after pleading guilty in Franklin Superior Court to a charge of an unnatural and lascivious act on a child under 16, according to a statement Tuesday from the Northwestern district attorney's office.
Sturges, who now lives in Seattle, was ordered by the judge to undergo sex offender treatment and stay away from the victim.
Sturges was 28 and a photography instructor at the school when he met the girl in 1975, prosecutors said.
The victim first went to Sturges when she was lonely, homesick and had not made many friends, prosecutor Frederic Bartmon said in court, according to The Recorder of Greenfield.
They bonded over photography, and he started bringing her on shoots, he said. Sturges persuaded her to pose for topless and nude photographs, and they had sex in his darkroom and in the woods, the prosecutor said.
The judge asked Sturges if he agreed with Bartmons account, and Sturges said he was comfortable with it, but added that my memory, at 74, is not as good as I would like it to be, The Recorder reported.
The victim, who appeared at Monday's hearing via video, spoke of the effect her relationship with Sturges had on her.
For a long time, many decades, I refused to believe that what I thought I wanted when I was 14 turned out to be a protracted form of sexual abuse and exploitation, she said in an impact statement. In the aftermath of my time at Northfield Mount Hermon, I fell apart. I had a complete nervous breakdown, suffered from extreme depersonalization and anxiety, to a point where I was not able to function at school or society."
Sturges was originally charged in 2017 with statutory rape but pleaded to lesser charges.
Sturges' photos have appeared in galleries around the world, and several books of his work have been published though many see his images as little more than child pornography.
Federal authorities in California investigated him for child pornography in 1990, but a grand jury refused to indict him, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Sturges defended his work.
They're simply a celebration of beauty, he said of his photos in an interview with The Associated Press in 1997 when the Christian group Focus on the Family was campaigning to have his books banned in Pennsylvania.
We commend the survivor for her courage in coming forward and exposing the defendants misconduct, said Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan. Fortunately, the passage of time did not prevent the Commonwealth from holding the defendant accountable for his crimes, and achieving some measure of justice in this case.
BEAVER ISLAND, Mich. (AP) A pilot who was among four people who died after a plane crash on a Michigan island has been identified as a history teacher.
William Julian, 55, was flying the plane for Island Airways, which takes travelers between Beaver Island and Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. Julian was airlifted Saturday to a hospital by the U.S. Coast Guard but died, the Charlevoix County sheriff's office said.
HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) Several elementary school students were hurt when a school bus and a train crashed in Rockingham County on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
The crash happened around 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of East Side Highway and Island Ford Road in the Harrisonburg area, police said in a news release.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Night after night, hundreds of people marched the streets of Oregon's largest city, demanding racial justice after the murder of George Floyd by a white officer.
Among the rallying cries were defund the police a call for elected officials to reallocate some law enforcement funding elsewhere. In June 2020, the Portland City Council and the mayor answered by cutting millions from the police budget.
Now, a year and a half later, officials partially restored the cut funds. On Wednesday, the Portland City Council unanimously passed a fall budget bump that included increasing the current $230 million police budget by an additional $5.2 million. The added police spending is occurring amid a year of a record number of homicides, the city's greatest police staffing shortage in decades and reform recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Many Portlanders no longer feel safe, Mayor Ted Wheeler said. And it is our duty, as leaders of this city, to take action and deliver better results within our crisis response system.
Portland isnt the only liberal city doing an about-face on police spending. From New York City to Los Angeles in cities that had some of the largest Black Lives Matter protests, and some with an extensive history of police brutality police departments are seeing their finances partially restored in response to rising homicides, an officer exodus and political pressures.
In recent mayoral elections, some winning candidates have pledged to bolster public safety budgets. In Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, voters rejected a proposal to replace the police department with a new Department of Public Safety.
Although the three-word call to action was the jumping-off point for communities to talk about how they want to be policed, experts say the goals of defund the police are debatable. To some it means abolishing police departments, for others it is about cutting law enforcement budgets and to others it is about reform and accountability.
The defund-the-police movement spearheaded an opportunity for historically disenfranchised and historically under-resourced communities to express their continued discontent with policing, said Howard Henderson, the Center for Justice Research director at Texas Southern University.
For months, beginning in late May 2020, Portland one of the whitest cities in America was roiled by near-nightly Black Lives Matter protests. At the time, officials including Wheeler were criticized for what many described as an overly aggressive police force.
During the height of protests, officers reported more than 6,000 uses of force. The U.S. Department of Justice rebuked the bureau for its abnormally high reliance on violent tactics.
Portland police have a history of being combative. In 2014, the city and Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement following a federal investigation that found Portland officers used excessive force against people with mental illness. Some of the police spending that passed on Wednesday including $2.7 million for body-worn cameras and hiring staff to assess the police department's crowd control tactics were created in order to meet the Justice Department's reform requirements.
During last year's protests, Portlanders called for $50 million to be cut from the department budget, with the money going to community-driven initiatives.
The City Council responded by cutting $15 million. An additional $12 million was cut due to pandemic-caused economic shortfalls. As a result, school resource officers, transit police and a gun violence reduction team which was found to disproportionately target Black Portland residents during traffic stops, according to an audit in March 2018 were disbanded.
Similar action was taken elsewhere.
In the wake of protests, the Los Angeles City Council cut $150 million from the police budget, promising to put that money into other social services. Likewise, in New York City lawmakers approved a shift of $1 billion from policing to education and social services. At the time the NYPD budget was around $6 billion, with several billion dollars more in shared city expenses such as pensions. However, since the cut, concerns about crime led to about $200 million in restored funding.
Henderson says some of the loudest voices of the defund movement weren't people in neighborhoods most riddled by crime.
The folks who live in these high-crime communities . they dont want to get rid of police altogether," Henderson said. "What they want to do is get rid of bad policing,
In Portland, gun violence has disproportionately impacted communities of color. Family members of homicide victims and advocates who work with young gang members have questioned the cuts and asked for greater police presence, along with accountability and increased social services.
In the November elections, questions about when and where police are needed were at the forefront.
In Seattle, mayoral candidates who wanted to defund police stumbled. In New York City former police captain Eric Adams, who has not embraced calls to defund the police, was elected mayor.
In Minneapolis, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has proposed a $192 million budget for 2022, which would restore funding to what it was before Floyds death. The proposed budget, which will be voted on in December, includes funds to replace around 300 who have quit since last year.
Similarly in Portland, the police department is 128 officers short of authorized strength. The added police spending includes signing bonuses for new officers, funding a retire-rehire program and bolstering recruitment with the goal to hire 200 additional sworn officers and 100 unarmed community safety officers by 2024 which some advocates see as a meaningful reform win and a compromise to defunding police.
Nationally, homicides increased by nearly 30% from 2019 to 2020, based on FBI data. However, in Portland, deadly violence has increased at a faster rate than nearly all major cities, with an 83% increase in homicides in 2020.
Aaron Chalfin, a University of Pennsylvania criminologist who has studied four decades of police budgets in major cities, says 54% of the times that cities hired more officers, homicide numbers decreased. Many factors are at play in the fluctuation of crime rates, including the number of officers and police department budgets. Other factors include financial and mental health struggles caused by the pandemic, the economy, programs for young people and even the amount of street lighting.
There are "a million things that drive crime up and down, Chalfin said.
Across the country, officials have used the defund the police movement to discuss policing alternatives.
In Portland, it paved the way for City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty the first Black woman elected to City Council and key architect of police reform plans to create Portland Street Response. The unarmed policing alternative comprised of a paramedic, a mental health crisis responder and peer support specialists respond to non-emergency calls for people experiencing a crisis.
Henderson said that because of defund the police, a valuable national conversation was started.
At the end of the day was it the best phrase? Maybe it was? Maybe it wasnt? Henderson said. But at least were talking about it."
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Sara Cline is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) At one point, the 18-year-old murder defendant stood behind the seated, black-robed judge and peered over him to review evidence. At another, on Veterans Day, the judge led the jury and others in the courtroom in applause for veterans just as a defense witness who had served in the Army was about to testify.
And as the case neared its conclusion, the judge permitted the defendant to draw numbers from a raffle drum to determine which jurors would serve as alternates creating the appearance, however small, that the defendant was helping to administer his own trial.
As Kyle Rittenhouses trial has played out in the Kenosha courtroom of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, moments of apparent deference to the defendant have struck many observers as curiously different from how murder proceedings often unfold. Schroeder addressed some of these observations Wednesday, saying people should have confidence in the outcome of the trial.
He called some coverage of the case frightening.
Schroeder, the longest-serving circuit judge in Wisconsin, said he's been letting defendants draw jury alternates' numbers for an estimated 20 years. He explained Wednesday that he started doing it after the trial of a Black man when there was only one Black person on the jury and that person was dismissed after the court clerk drew the juror as an alternate. Schroeder said that while there was nothing wrong with the way the alternate was picked, the optics looked bad. Since then he said he's had an almost universal policy of having defendants draw alternates.
Legal experts said that might be unconventional, but not necessarily wrong. Schroeder said he hasn't had any complaints in this case, and suggested that those who were dissatisfied were trying to undermine the results of the trial.
But if the judge had led jurors in clapping as a prosecution witness took the stand, making that witness seem more laudable or credible, it would surely be grounds for defense attorneys to appeal a conviction, noted Robert Weisberg, faculty co-director of the Criminal Justice Center at the Stanford Law School. Prosecutors, however, can't appeal a not guilty verdict.
If nothing else, the discussion about the judge's conduct has underlined the importance of how the judicial system is perceived especially in a high-profile case where the outcome can exacerbate societal tensions around issues like race, guns, protests, vigilantism, and law and order.
Our hope is that the court system and our judges, while human, will uphold this role of a neutral arbiter so that everybody gets a fair trial the defendant and the people and that we can arrive at a decision that we can all agree on was legitimate, said Mary D. Fan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Washington Law School.
When people have doubts about that impartiality," Fan said, "it undermines our trust in the justice of the verdict.
Rittenhouse, a former police youth cadet who faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge against him, used an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men and wound a third during a night of protests against racial injustice in the summer of 2020. Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot. The killings followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, during a domestic disturbance in Kenosha.
Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors argue he went to the protest looking for a reason to shoot.
Its primarily the defendant, not prosecutors, whose rights are protected under the law, and judges must guard them carefully. Schroeder has done so appropriately in some instances, legal experts said, such as when he scolded prosecutor Thomas Binger for asking Rittenhouse why he had not discussed the shootings before taking the witness stand. Defendants have a right to remain silent.
But judges should not be so solicitous of a defendant that it raises questions about the fairness of the trial. Balancing that can be tricky, especially where a jurist's decisions are under such national scrutiny. Siding too closely with a defendant could lead to a wrongful acquittal or inflame societal tensions, while an obvious alignment with prosecutors could lead to a tainted and ultimately overturned conviction.
The judge should be as close to invisible as possible, Weisberg said.
Schroeder has been anything but. He laughs often, tosses trivia questions at jurors, has talked about his difficulty with technology and made an attention-getting comment suggesting that he hoped the Asian food coming for lunch wasn't stuck at backlogged West Coast ports. He has often sparred with the prosecution.
The 75-year-old Schroeder, on the bench since 1983, isnt known for leniency toward defendants. In 2018, he ordered a woman convicted of shoplifting to tell the manager of any store she entered that she was on supervision for theft.
Schroeder told the woman that embarrassment does have a valuable place in deterring criminality. A state appeals court overturned the sentence.
Some of his pretrial rulings in the Rittenhouse case have also drawn attention. He ruled that prosecutors couldnt argue that Rittenhouse was affiliated with the Proud Boys or that he attacked a woman months before the shootings. Nor would he allow the people Rittenhouse shot to be referred to as victims."
Facts about a defendant's background are often excluded from trial if they're not relevant to the charges at hand, and victims could be considered a prejudicial term when a defendant is claiming self-defense.
On Wednesday, Schroeder said: How would you like to be put on trial for a crime? ... Is it so difficult to just use the term complaining witness, instead of prejudging ... whether theres a victim and whether there was a crime committed?
Other rulings were more unusual.
Awaiting the trial, Rittenhouse had been out of custody on bail. When he moved and failed to update his address an apparent violation prosecutors sought to have him re-arrested, with his bail increased.
During a testy hearing earlier this year, the judge refused and wouldn't share the defendants new address with prosecutors, noting defense arguments that Rittenhouse was in hiding because of threats.
I hope youre not suggesting sharing this with our office would lead to further violence, Binger said at the time. I have never heard of a situation where the information has been withheld from my office.
Questions about the optics of Rittenhouse's case date to the moments after the shootings. Video quickly emerged of Rittenhouse walking by police with his hands up and his rifle strapped to his chest while witnesses identified him as the shooter. Police did not immediately arrest him, and he later turned himself in.
An officer testified that he did not hear witnesses yelling that Rittenhouse was the shooter, but in the days afterward many people questioned whether a Black gunman would have received such hands-off treatment.
Aspects of the trial have been similarly noteworthy. At one point, Rittenhouse stood behind Schroeder as they reviewed evidence a moment that occurred outside the presence of the jury, but which nevertheless was captured in news images and appeared striking for having a murder defendant so close to a judge.
Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor who now works as an attorney in Chicago, said he didn't believe Schroeder had unduly sided with Rittenhouse. He noted the behavior of judges varies widely in a system where they win their seats through electoral politics, not necessarily legal merit.
Lawyers, he suggested, simply must adjust to each courtroom.
You learn the music the judge is playing, he said, and then you dance to it.
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Johnson reported from Seattle. Forliti reported from Minneapolis.
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Find APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Wendy Whitman Cobb, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies
(THE CONVERSATION) On Nov. 15, 2021, U.S. officials announced that they had detected a dangerous new debris field in orbit near Earth. Later in the day, it was confirmed that Russia had destroyed one of its old satellites in a test of an anti-satellite weapon. Wendy Whitman Cobb is a space security researcher. She explains what these weapons are and why the debris they create is a problem now and in the future.
What do we know?
Russia launched an anti-satellite test that destroyed one of its older satellites. The satellite broke up and created thousands of pieces of debris in orbit, ranging in size from tiny specks up to pieces a few feet across. This space junk will linger in orbit for years, potentially colliding with other satellites as well as the International Space Station. The space station crew has already had to shelter in place as they passed near the debris cloud.
Whats an anti-satellite weapon?
Anti-satellite weapons, commonly referred to as ASATs, are any weapon that can temporarily impair or permanently destroy an orbiting satellite. The one that Russia just tested is known as a direct ascent kinetic anti-satellite weapon. These are usually launched from the ground or from the wings of an airplane and destroy satellites by running into them at high speeds.
A similar weapon type, called co-orbital anti-satellite weapons, are first launched into orbit and then change direction to collide with the targeted satellite from space.
A third type, non-kinetic anti-satellite weapons, use technology like lasers to disrupt satellites without physically colliding with them.
Space agencies have been developing and testing anti-satellite weapons since the 1960s. To date, the U.S., Russia, China and India have demonstrated the ability to attack satellites in orbit that support services like GPS, communications and weather forecasting.
Why is debris a problem?
Regardless of the cause, space debris is a serious problem.
Larger pieces are easier to track and avoid but its difficult to track pieces smaller than 4 inches (10 centimeters). Even small debris can still pose a major threat though. Space debris is often traveling faster than 17,000 mph around the Earth. At that speed, pieces of debris could destroy any spacecraft or satellite it collided with. In the 1980s, a Soviet satellite broke up as a result of a suspected debris strike.
More worrisome is the danger debris poses to crewed space missions. In July 2021, one of the International Space Stations robotic arms was struck by a piece of debris that put a 0.2-inch (0.5 cm) hole clean through a part of the arm. While the damage did not need to be fixed, officials characterized it as a lucky strike if it had struck a different part of the station, the situation could have been a lot worse.
Space debris is also a significant threat to people on Earth. Satellites play a vital role in the global economy through GPS, communications and weather data. If services such as these were disrupted, there would be significant economic cost. One study found that a GPS outage could cost the U.S. up to $1 billion a day.
There are currently thousands of pieces of space junk circling the Earth, with sources as varied as old rocket bodies, dead satellites, debris from previous collisions and tests, and lost items from astronauts. The problem like with the environment is that there is little incentive for individual countries to avoid generating debris or clean it up.
The amount of space debris has only increased over time. For years, scientists have been warning about the possibility of a collision cascade. As the amount of debris increases, the chance of collisions between it and other satellites and debris also goes up. More collisions might then leave certain orbits completely unusable. While this could take decades to play out, events like the Russian test will only make such an outcome more likely.
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What to do now?
In the short term, little can be done to mitigate this new cloud of space debris, but anyone with anything in space is on high alert to avoid it.
The U.S. government and commercial companies are tracking the new debris, and the crew on the International Space Station have been ordered to keep certain modules closed off as they continue to pass through the debris cloud. As the new debris spreads out and the pieces are tracked, station controllers will have a better understanding of the danger posed to the crew.
In the long run, experts recommend working on global solutions to remove debris. This includes taking measures to prevent debris in the first place and removing debris that is already in space. Several governmental and international organizations have proposed ways to prevent new debris, but these are informal and not legally binding.
Remediation is a tougher challenge. Technology to remove debris has not yet been fully developed, but even still, its deployment is a sensitive subject. The same technology that might be used to remove a piece of space junk could also be used for attacking a satellite. This dual-use technology poses challenges, as it can raise suspicions that countries are testing anti-satellite weapons under the cover of debris removal.
Despite the difficulties, there is growing international recognition that space debris is a dangerous problem. A consortium of private companies recently created the Net Zero Space charter to reduce debris, and the U.S. Space Force is looking for ways to combat the problem as well. While the world still does not yet have a full understanding of Russias actions, this event is a wake-up call on the importance of efforts to reduce pollution in Earths orbit.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/russian-anti-satellite-weapon-test-what-happened-and-what-are-the-risks-172016.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider whether the state Department of Natural Resources policy boards leader can continue to hold his seat months after his term expired.
Fred Prehn, a Wausau dentist, was appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2015. Although his term ended May 1, he has refused to step down, denying Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointee Sandra Naas a seat and maintaining a 4-3 majority for Republican appointees.
JERUSALEM (AP) For nearly 10 years, Monim Haroon has only known one home: Israel. Like thousands of Sudanese migrants, he lives and works without legal status, fearing that a return to his native land would be a death sentence.
Israel's normalization of ties with Sudan, announced last year, had raised fears among the migrants that they would lose their migrant status and be forced to return. Now, weeks after a military coup derailed Sudan's transition to democracy, they dread being forcibly returned to a country under the full control of generals blamed for past atrocities.
I am not against normalization," said Haroon. "But the normalization should be through the civilian Sudanese government, not the military powers that now control Sudan.
The asylum-seekers' plight points to one of the less savory aspects of the so-called Abraham Accords, a series of deals reached between Israel and four Arab countries last year. The U.S.-brokered agreements with Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco widely hailed as a breakthrough in Mideast diplomacy were struck with unelected Arab leaders with little tolerance for dissent who were richly rewarded by the Trump administration.
Sudan's military leaders, the driving force behind the agreement, secured the country's removal from the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors, unlocking vital international aid and commerce.
But then last month, Sudan's top military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, disbanded the transitional government and ordered the arrest of civilian leaders, quashing hopes of a democratic transition after the 2019 overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
The coup, which has been condemned by the United States and other Western nations, has left Israel in a potentially awkward situation.
Israel has been silent on the coup and its aftermath, indicating it intends to maintain normalized ties. A report on the Israeli news site Walla that an Israeli delegation had secretly visited Sudan to meet with the coup leaders deepened migrant fears that they could soon be deported. The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Sudanese officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Sudanese and Eritrean migrants began arriving in Israel in 2005, with many of the Sudanese fleeing persecution in the western Darfur region and the country's south. Seeking safety and opportunity in Israel, they made often dangerous journeys across Egypt's rugged Sinai Peninsula.
Israel initially did little to stop the influx, but as more migrants arrived, the authorities began detaining thousands in remote desert prisons. And in 2013, Israel completed construction of a fenced barrier along its border with Egypt that mostly halted the migration.
The migrants' presence has sparked a backlash among many Israelis who associate them with the crime and poverty in south Tel Aviv, where most of them settled. Right-wing governments in recent years have made various attempts to expel them.
Ayelet Shaked, a prominent right-wing politician, has described Sudanese migrants as infiltrators and said they should be sent back since ties have been normalized. She is now the interior minister in Israel's new government, a position that oversees immigration policies.
We are worried because she has always been against asylum-seekers, Haroon said.
The Interior Ministry said the status of Sudanese migrants has not changed following the coup but declined to answer further questions.
Israel has resolved only a small fraction of the thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum claims, deeming the vast majority to be economic migrants. Under international law, Israel cannot deport migrants back to countries where their life or basic freedoms are seriously threatened.
Sudan's incarcerated former president al-Bashir was charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for mass killings that took place in Darfur during the 2000s. The region remains unstable, with deadly tribal clashes still common. Since the October coup, at least 23 Sudanese protesters have been killed in confrontations between pro-democracy demonstrators and military forces.
Although Israel does not send migrants back, consecutive decrees have purposefully made life unbearable for African refugees, said Sigal Rozen, public policy director at the Israeli Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an advocacy group that assists the Africans.
Most of the estimated 28,000 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants work in menial jobs and struggle to make ends meet. Their numbers have dwindled by half since the 2000s, with most traveling onward to third countries, considering it unsafe to return home.
In 2012, Israel ordered the deportation of over 1,000 migrants back to South Sudan after it gained independence, arguing that it was safe for them to go home. Those who voluntarily returned were given a cash incentive of about $1,000. The move was criticized by rights groups following South Sudans descent into civil war in 2013.
Stuck in Israeli legislative limbo, most African migrants are barred from basic social rights such as sick pay and driving licenses and are also subject to financial penalties. Among the most controversial of these was the Deposit Law, which limited asylum seekers to accessing only 80% of their salaries while they remained in Israel. The law, which returned the remainder of their salaries only if they left the country, was later reversed in 2020.
In April, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the Interior Ministry to resolve thousands of the unanswered Sudanese asylum claims by the end of the year or grant them temporary residency.
Sudan was noticeably absent from anniversary commemorations of the Abraham Accords earlier this fall. As Israel and the other three nations trumpeted high-level visits and opened embassies, there has been little on the Sudan front beyond a surprise meeting between Israeli and Sudanese officials in the UAE weeks before the coup. Sudan also said in September that it would seize the assets of companies linked to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza.
Haim Koren, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt and South Sudan, attributed the delays to concerns by Sudanese officials over whether Israel's new government and the Biden administration would follow through on the promises of the normalization agreement. Both have expressed strong support for deepening and expanding the Abraham Accords.
There remain areas that still require negotiation, but I expect full relations to be established, said Koren. Maybe not today, but it will happen.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, frozen turkey inventories are 24% below their three-year average volumes and stocks are lower partly because production of turkeys is down compared to the average year. This news comes before Thanksgiving, when an estimated 46 million turkeys are eaten and nearly nine in 10 Americans eat turkey on the holiday.
The inventory is low thanks to the national supply chain problems and labor shortages plaguing multiple industries, including agriculture. It will be harder to find a turkey this year and likely more expensive once found. That's especially the case for smaller birds, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
US Department of Agriculture
"I dont like the word 'shortage' in this scenario. Its not like we forgot to start raising turkeys," Trey Malone, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University, told Vox. "Whats really happening is that you have these disruptions along the supply chain. Its not because theres no turkeys, its that the turkeys are in the wrong places at the wrong time."
The USDA said seasonal build-up was less pronounced than usual and stock volumes appear to have peaked before starting an earlier-than-normal decline. At the end of August, 428.1 million pounds of turkey meat were in cold storage, the USDA estimated, a 19% decrease from the same month in 2020 and a decline of about 7 million pounds from the end of July.
At 474.2 million pounds, August 2021 was mostly unchanged from the same time in 2020 but below the 3-year average in part because of elevated feed costs. Additionally, August placement of turkey chicks, down about 4% from the 3-year average, have dampened expectations for both turkey production and stocks, the USDA reported. August marks the latest date by which a turkey chick can mature in order to be harvested by Thanksgiving.
With people gathering in smaller groups last year, people wanted smaller turkeys which made smaller turkeys harder to come by. This year, farmers had to guess what consumer demand would look like during the spread of the delta variant in July, and the market remains uncertain, Vox reported.
Turkey processors are now facing labor shortages that is holding processing up, and any and all disruptions could cause risks in getting turkeys from the farm to the table on time.
According to the USDA's Turkey Report, whole frozen turkeys already cost about 26 cents a pound more in 2021 from 2020 and wholesale prices for frozen whole-hen turkeys was the highest monthly average in September since the report began in 2006. Prices have fallen in October, but they're still high.
Even more turkey meat was lost in October when Butterball, one of the main turkey producers in the country, recalled more than 14,000 pounds of ground turkey product that may have been exposed to extraneous materials, specifically blue plastic.
Additionally, the Consumer Price Index shows the cost of food was up 5.3% over the past year in October and the index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs which would include turkey was up 11.9% and fruits and vegetables were up 3%. Everything on the Thanksgiving table is likely to be more expensive this year.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) A Tucson man has been sentenced to three years in prison for financially exploiting vulnerable adults.
The Arizona Attorney Generals Office said Tuesday that Hector Andres Aleman pleaded guilty to attempted fraudulent schemes and artifices.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. special envoy for Somalia urged the countrys political leaders to redouble efforts to ensure that the entire Federal Parliament is elected before the end of the year so that presidential elections can be held as soon as possible.
James Swan told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that progress in the electoral process has been slow and uneven and elections for the vast majority of seats in the Federal Parliament havent started. In addition, he said, electoral security preparations need to be accelerated and a list needs to be published of the 30% of seats reserved for women in the lower House of the People.
He welcomed the completion of elections for the 54 senators in the Upper House of parliament, including 14 women representing 26% of the chamber -- an increase from 2016 but still below the 30% target. He said it is also encouraging that elections for the 275 seats in the House of the People have started, with two members chosen and elections for an additional 11 seats announced to begin this week.
But Swan stressed: Although progress is being made, the efforts of Somalias political leaders will need to be redoubled in the coming weeks to bring the elections for the Federal Parliament to a successful conclusion, so that presidential elections can then be held as soon as possible.
The completion of these elections is more important than ever, so that all efforts can return to the key governance, security, and development priorities in Somalia, he said.
The ongoing delays in the electoral process continue to stall progress in other critical areas and hamper the achievement of national priorities beyond the elections," Swan warned, including reforming the constitution and justice sector, and advancing the development agenda and financial reforms.
Three decades of chaos, from warlords to al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab and the emergence of an Islamic State-linked group, have ripped apart the country that only in the past few years has begun trying to rebuild and find its footing.
The pressure on President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to hold elections has intensified since scheduled elections on Feb. 8 failed to take place because of the lack of agreement on how the vote should be carried out.
Talks between the federal government and regional leaders that began in March broke down in early April. At the presidents request, the lower house of parliament then adopted a special law that extended the terms of current office holders for two years and abandoned a Sept. 17, 2020 agreement on indirect elections, reverting instead to a one-person, one-vote model.
Those decisions sparked widespread opposition, leading to the mobilization of militias, exposing divisions within Somali security forces, and resulting in violent clashes on April 25.
After the clashes, President Mohamed on May 1 asked the lower house of parliament to reverse its actions that included extending his mandate for two years.
He also asked lawmakers to back the agreement the federal government reached with regional states last Sept. 17 on a way forward for the vote, and he asked Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble to lead the election preparations and the related security measures. This led to a May 27 agreement on holding indirect elections this year.
But the process was further delayed after the president suspended the prime ministers power to hire and fire officials in mid-September, the latest action in their increasingly divisive relationship.
Swan told the council that tensions between the president and the prime minister in August and September over two issues, the appointment of senior security officials and the handling of an investigation into the disappearance of an intelligence agent, have now eased.
The U.N. special representative called for all parties to swiftly conclude parliamentary elections and for the full respect of fundamental rights during the campaign and electoral periods, including peaceful assembly, and the freedom of movement, association, and expression.
He warned that the security situation in Somalia continues to be volatile with the al-Shabab extremist group remaining a serious threat. He pointed to its continuing use of improvised explosive devices and increasing use of suicide bombers.
So far in 2021, Swan said, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Somalia has documented 964 civilians killed or injured as a result of armed conflict, with al-Shabab responsible for almost two-thirds of civilian casualties.
He said humanitarian organizations estimate that 7.7 million Somalis will require assistance in 2022, and he expressed grave concern that the 2021 U.N. humanitarian plan is only 51% funded.
Some 1.2 million children under the age of five are likely to be acutely malnourished in 2022 without immediate treatment, Swan warned.
He said some 2.9 million people are estimated to be internally displaced throughout the country, one of the highest numbers in the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) Pressed to address gaping inequality in global COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic.
Under the new initiative, the government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is soliciting pharmaceutical companies with proven ability to make the more-effective mRNA vaccines to bid for U.S. investment in scaling up their manufacturing. Pfizer and Moderna produce the two U.S.-approved mRNA shots.
The White House hopes the move will build capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year.
The initiative comes as the Biden White House has faced growing pressure at home and abroad over inequity in the global vaccine supply as the U.S. moves toward approving booster shots for all adults while vulnerable people in poorer nations wait for their first dose of protection.
According to an analysis by the ONE Campaign, an international aid and advocacy organization, only 4.7% of people living in low-income countries have received a first dose. Wealthy nations administered more than 173 million booster shots, while lower-income countries have administered about 32 million first shots.
The Biden administration believes increasing capacity of COVID-19 shots will help ease a global shortage of doses, particularly in lower- and middle-income nations, stopping preventable death and limiting the development of potentially new, more dangerous variants of the virus.
The goal of this program is to expand existing capacity by an additional billion doses per year, with production starting by the second half of 2022, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said.
On Wednesday, Zients announced that the U.S. has now donated 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally the most of any nation with a goal of sharing more than 1.1 billion shots by the end of 2022.
There are no firm agreements yet with Moderna or Pfizer to take up the U.S. on the investment, but the Biden administration hopes that the enhanced manufacturing capacity, through support for the company's facilities, equipment, staff or training, will by mid-2022 allow more COVID-19 doses to be shared overseas as well as help prepare for the next public health emergency.
The administration is prioritizing the mRNA vaccines, which have proven to be more effective against preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 than the Johnson & Johnson viral vector vaccine, which uses a harmless virus that carries genetic material to stimulate the immune system. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made with a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA that tells the body to make harmless copies of the spike protein so its trained to recognize the virus.
Robbie Silverman, senior advocacy manager at Oxfam America, welcomed Bidens plan to invest into vaccine manufacturing capacity but said it was nowhere near sufficient.
What the world really needs is distributed regional manufacturing capacity of vaccines, and it sounds like this investment is focused on building U.S. capacity, he said. We desperately need the companies who have a monopoly over the COVID vaccines to transfer their technology, and we need the U.S. government to use its leverage."
Silverman estimated that without companies transferring their knowledge of how to make COVID-19 vaccines, it would take manufacturers elsewhere double the time needed to start making doses, noting that billions of vaccines against other diseases are routinely made in developing countries.
Silverman said that while the U.S. should have negotiated more provisions about vaccine equity when it was securing its own supply, it was not too late to act. He said the U.S. should support the proposed waiver that was drafted by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization, calling for patents on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to be suspended. And he said the U.S. could invoke the Defense Production Act to target critical ingredients for COVID-19 shots.
The U.S. government has lots of tools at its disposal to push pharmaceutical companies, he said, noting that it had invested billions of dollars into creating Modernas COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. needs to make sure these companies, which they funded, are prioritizing public health rather than profits.
Ava Alkon, a senior policy and research officer at Doctors Without Borders, said that the billion doses that might be produced with the U.S. investment were still far from the figure needed to immunize the world. The World Health Organization has estimated that 11 billion doses are needed.
Alkon said that since any manufacturers newly drafted into making COVID-19 doses would not be able to produce any supplies for several months, a more immediate solution is needed. We believe that the U.S. can distribute many more doses than it already has on an ongoing basis, she said, calling for the U.S. to be more transparent about how many extra doses it has. She said some estimates suggest the U.S. could have at least 500 million surplus vaccines by the end of the year.
In a statement, Moderna said it hadnt yet reviewed the Biden administrations proposal, but that it looked forward to discussing it with the administration and understanding whether there is a role that we could play in supporting the governments efforts to address pandemic preparedness. Pfizer declined comment.
The New York Times first reported on the new initiative.
___
AP writers Maria Cheng in London and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.
LONDON (AP) The World Health Organization says coronavirus deaths in Europe rose 5% in the last week, making it the only region in the world where COVID-19 deaths increased. The U.N. health agency said confirmed cases jumped 6% globally, driven by increases in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
In its weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said COVID-19 deaths in all regions other than Europe remained stable or declined, and totaled 50,000 worldwide last week. Of the 3.3 million new infections reported, 2.1 million came from Europe.
It was the seventh consecutive week that COVID-19 cases continued to mount across the 61 countries and territories that WHO counts in its European region, which stretches through Russia to Central Asia.
While about 60% of people in Western Europe are fully immunized against COVID-19, only about half as many are vaccinated in the eastern part of the continent, where officials are struggling to overcome widespread vaccine hesitancy.
WHO said infections have been falling in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia since July.
Within Europe, WHO said the highest numbers of new cases were in Russia, Germany and Britain. It noted that deaths jumped by 67% in Norway and by 38% in Slovakia.
The health agency previously described Europe as the epicenter of the ongoing pandemic and warned that there could be 500,000 more deaths by February if urgent actions arent taken on the continent.
In the last week, Austria has put tight restrictions on the movement of unvaccinated people, the Netherlands and some other European countries have reintroduced lockdown measures to try to slow infections, and the U.K. decided to roll out booster doses to everyone over 40.
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Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) A Wyoming pipeline company agreed to a $2 million settlement for damages caused by a 2015 crude oil spill that fouled a section of the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana and contaminated a city's water supply, officials said Wednesday.
The agreement with Bridger Pipeline LLC includes a restoration plan that could include projects to restore aquatic habitat and improve recreational sites along the Yellowstone River corridor, Montana U.S. Attorney Leif Johnson said.
HOUSTON (AP) Calls for an independent investigation into what led to 10 deaths at the Astroworld music festival went unheeded Monday, as Houston-area officials instead chose to direct a county administrator to conduct a review with other governmental entities.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo the top elected official in Harris County, which includes Houston had proposed a third-party probe of the planning and execution of the festival founded and headlined by rap superstar Travis Scott.
The Harris County administrator instead will work with other city and county entities to review security, fire and other safety plans at the county-owned NRG Park, where the festival was held.
I hope that it comes back with actionable lessons, Hidalgo said. I hope it doesnt result in something vague or forgotten.
Other members of Harris County's governing body, known as a commissioner's court, were concerned Hidalgo's investigation could lead to legal liabilities for the county.
Dozens of lawsuits have already been filed over injuries and deaths at the Nov. 5 concert.
Houston police are conducting a separate criminal investigation into what happened at the festival. No one has been charged.
The police department, along with the city fire department, played key roles in crowd control and other safety measures at the show. Experts in crowd safety say an investigation by neutral outsiders into the tragedy could help avoid potential conflicts of interest and promote transparency.
Police have said they are reviewing surveillance video provided by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips of the show shared on social media. Investigators also planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers.
Over 300 people were treated on site for injuries at the show, and at least 25 were hospitalized.
Many unanswered questions center on the actions of event organizers.
A 56-page event operations plan for the Astroworld music festival included protocols for dangerous scenarios including an active shooter, bomb or terrorist threats, and severe weather. But it did not include information on what to do in the event of a crowd surge.
The 10 people who died included a 9-year-old boy. The oldest was 27. Reports on individual causes of death are pending.
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For more AP stories on Astroworld: https://apnews.com/hub/astroworld-festival-deaths
Houston-born rapper Travis Scott was once the posterboy for major brand endorsements. From Nike to McDonalds and Sony, Scott has collaborated with some of the largest multinational companies in the world. But in the wake of the tragedy at the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Nov. 5, 10 concert-goers are dead, hundreds more injured, lawsuits are pending and brands once close to Scott are distancing themselves from the "Sicko Mode" rapper with others keeping quiet on next moves.
Nike, which has partnered with Scott on a number of projects over the years, announced Monday that it is pausing its latest shoe collaboration with the musician. "Out of respect for everyone impacted by the tragic events at the Astroworld Festival, we are postponing the launch of the Air Max 1 x Cactus Jack," the brand said in a statement shared via its SNKRS app and the Nike website. The statement, released Monday, follows the death of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest victim to succumb to injuries related to the concert.
Nike has had numerous successful, sold-out footwear collaborations with Scott since first partnering up with the rapper in 2017. Its latest sneaker offering was expected to drop in late 2021, but a new date was not announced.
Other brands associated with the Texas native have likewise taken measures to insulate themselves from Scott, who was named alongside Drake, Apple Music and Astroworld promoter Live Nation on Tuesday in a $750 million lawsuit filed by Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee. Epic Games-owned Fortnite has quietly removed its Scott-themed emote, a customized dance move, from its platform following the deadly concert, according to IGN. Scott was previously the star of Fortnite's first major concert event in April 2020, earning the rap star $20 million, according to Forbes. Mega64, a film and production company, announced the day after the concert that it had terminated its upcoming project featuring Scott.
In an emailed statement, General Mills, which previously partnered with Scott for a custom Reese's Puffs cereal box in 2019, said they have no new plans for future promotions involving the 30-year-old hip hop star. "The news coming out of Astroworld was indeed tragic," the statement said. "We extend our sympathies to the families of the victims, the injured parties and other fans who were impacted by the unfortunate events. Reese's Puff partnered with Travis Scott on a custom cereal box in 2019. We have no new plans to partner with him."
Women's fashion periodical W Magazine is also scrambling to pull an upcoming edition featuring Scott and girlfriend Kylie Jenner on the cover, according to Page Six. The issue, which includes an interview with the celebrity couple, was shot and printed prior to Astroworld and has not yet shipped. "W editors have cleared any planned coverage of Travis and Kylie from their website, but the magazine was already printed, and now they are trying to stop the delivery trucks," a source told Page Six. "In light of what happened at Astroworld, the interview and cover lines seem inappropriate, to say the least."
Despite the ensuing fallout, Scott announced a new partnership with therapy app BetterHelp, just three days after Astroworld, offering a free, one-month trial of mental health services for concertgoers traumatized by the experience.
It is unclear whether Scott's upcoming spring/summer menswear collection with fashion label Christian Dior, dubbed the Cactus Jack Dior line, will be seen through, but experts say the line, inspired by Scott's home state of Texas, has already been manufactured and will be shipped to stores by January, according to Rolling Stone. "It is an apocalyptic marketing turn for that brand when you double down on this icon to Gen Z that now has effectively detonated in your face," Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told Rolling Stone.
Other major sponsors and partners with Scott, like beer giant Anheuser-Busch, McDonalds, Sony Playstation, Byredo, and Mattel have been quiet in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy and did not respond to requests for comment by the time of this writing.
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How to write a Canadian resume The "dos" and "don'ts" of writing a Canadian-style resume. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif
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This is not another article telling you to spell-check your resumebut do spell-check your resume. Were going to cover the not-so-obvious tips for getting your foot in the door to your Canadian dream job.
The resume is only one step to finding a job in Canadaand it is not even the first. Before you sit down to type up your professional background, do some research on Canadas job market, and identify the companies that you would like to apply for. The Canadian government website offers some tools that can help you in your job search.
For this article, we are going to focus on optimizing your resume for Canadian employers. Keep in mind, employers will have their own preferences, and there are different best practices for every industry. We hope to give you a general idea of what you can include on a Canadian resume and what is best left out.
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5 donts of Canadian resume writing
Dont include a photo
Unlike some countries, in Canada it is not necessary to include a photo with your CV unless youre an actor or a model. In general, the only information you need on your CV is what is relevant to the job posting.
Dont overshare
You do not need to include most personal information on your CV. At this point, the only personal information the employer needs is your name, and how to contact you. They do not need to know your age, what country you are from, your race, your religion, your marital status, or anything about your family. In fact, if asked these questions in an interview it might be illegal under Canadas human rights laws.
Also, your CV is not the place to disclose your Social Insurance Number (SIN). Employers do not need that until you are already hired for the job. Your SIN card is a sensitive document, and you should only share it when it is legally required.
Again, all you need to include in your CV is your relevant skills, experience, and basic contact information like name, phone number, and email. Mailing address is not always necessary, especially if you are searching for a job in a different city. If you want to demonstrate that you are within a commutable distance from the place of employment, then you may want to include it, but most job seekers find it just takes up precious space on the page.
Dont write too much
In terms of length, one page is ideal but having two is fine.
You want the person reviewing your application to see only your best, most relevant, and recent experience. If you are just starting your career and you do not have a lot of experience, you can include items that may be less relevant to the posting.
In general, just keep your resume short and sweet. You want it to be skimmable. Recruiters should be able to get an idea of your experience without feeling like they have to read a novel.
Dont include references
If your employer wants references they will ask for them. A good practice is to ensure your reference knows that you are naming them and giving out their contact information. Talking to your reference beforehand also helps you determine if this person really is going to give you a glowing review or not.
Dont use an inappropriate email address
Recruiters do pay attention to these details, and they might judge you based on whatever email address you thought was funny in high school. Using an email address that contains your name does not signal any red flags.
5 dos of Canadian resume writing
Do tailor your application to the job posting
It takes longer, but you will often get better results if you tailor each resume to the position you are looking for rather than the spray and pray method where you send out a bunch of generic resumes.
Not sure what order you should present your experience? Which skills to include and which to leave out? Are you between word choices?
Look at the job posting. This is your first clue into exactly what the recruiter is looking for, and the language they want to see in your application.
The posting will list the job qualifications and then the nice-to-haves. Include your necessary skills front and centre on the first page of your resume, then put your assets after that.
Do quantify your achievements
Try to quantify your achievements with numbers, if you can. For example, if you were a manager, mention how many people you were responsible for overseeing. If you worked in sales, how many products did you sell? How much profit did you ring in every month?
Listing your specific achievements, in numbers that an employer can understand, will highlight your skills better than a generic statement. Saying you have a good work ethic means nothing. Demonstrating that you grew traffic to your companys website by 20% over one year, for example, shows a recruiter that you know what you are doing.
Do write in third person
Write in third-person format, so no I, me, or my. Keep your sentences short and clear.
For your work experience, include the name and location of your company, and list a few of your responsibilities. Include the years you worked at the company, or if you worked for less than a year you can include the number of months. There is no need to explain gaps in employment on the resume. It will come up in the interview if the recruiter even asks.
For your education, list the school, program, credential, and dates. Depending on the position you are applying for, you can include your GPA as well, but it is usually not necessary. You can include your awards here, or in a separate awards section.
Do include unpaid work experience
You can include things like your volunteer experience, as long as it prepared you for the duties you will be performing at the job you are applying for.
Do include a cover letter
Even if they do not ask for it, even if they are going to skip it and head straight to your resume, it is always good to include a cover letter.
A cover letter is meant to embellish the resume, and show the recruiter why you are the best fit for their job opening.
We could write a separate article about cover letters and we probably will. But here we will give you a general idea of how to write a cover letter.
Your cover letter should contain the companys contact information, as well as your contact information. It should be no more than a couple of paragraphs, and it should not take up a whole page.
You can write in the first person here. Your goal is to connect with the recruiter. Use their name only if you are 100% sure you have the correct name of the person who will be reviewing your application. If you do know their name, use it, but note that there is usually no need to include a prefix. These days, starting a letter with Sir or Madame is usually inappropriate, unless you know for certain that the recruiter reading your letter prefers that.
The first paragraph should introduce who you are and why you want this job. Be sure to name the position you are applying for. In the subsequent paragraphs, you will want to demonstrate why you are the best candidate for the position, referring to your previous relevant experience. You can go above and beyond by showing them how your involvement will solve their problems, and make them a better company.
Conclude by thanking them, and letting them know that you will be following up.
Bonus tips for your Canadian job hunt
You are dealing with more barriers than the average Canadian-born job-searcher, however, there are immigrant support services, and employment services that can help you in your journey. Immigration Canada has a list of free services on their website, but these are by no means an exhaustive list of everything thats out there. You can also check your provincial, or territorial websites, or search for employment services in your city.
As much as possible, try to ask people you know if they have any connections or know of any job openings. Linked-In estimates at least 85% of jobs are found through networking. If you are in Canada and you do not know a lot of people, try industry networking events in your area, which can be found online through events websites, like Eventbrite, or on social media, like Facebook events or groups.
Also, if you think you are underqualified for a position that interests you, apply anyway. In the best-case scenario, you get the job and learn to become the candidate that they are looking for, or else you just do not get the job. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
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In some other media climate, the Washington Posts decision to correct and remove chunks of its coverage of the Steele dossier last week would have been seismic.
Six months into the tenure of Executive Editor Sally Buzbee the Post has admitted publicly that key reporting on one of the biggest stories of the Trump years was wrong.
At issue was the 35-page dossier, first published by BuzzFeed News in January 2017, which aired murky intelligence gathering that showed nefarious links between Donald Trump and Russia.
A federal indictment and two investigations into the dossier have severely undermined it, and the Post was forced to acknowledge that a man it named as a source for the document was, in fact, not. As a result, portions of two Post stories about the dossier and a video were removed, and an editors note was attached noting, in one case, that reporting in the story had been contradicted by a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting by The Washington Post.
The Post also published a news story about its decision. Its rare for a publication to make wholesale changes after publication and to republish the edited story, especially more than four years afterward, Paul Farhi wrote.
But the collapse of the dossiers credibility goes beyond the Post, to Mother Jones and the Wall Street Journal, to ABC and CNN, among others. And to Ben Smith, whose decision to publish the document in its entirety while editor of BuzzFeed News kicked off the whole mess. Smith is now the scoop-machine media columnist for the Times, putting that newspaper at the center of a bit of Trump weirdness its reporters had previously managed to avoid.
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The Post was just the first out of the gate; others will almost certainly follow. Implicated, too, is the rest of the media commentariat, who until recently have kept relatively quiet about these failures.
While the afterlife of the dossier has been chronicled by a few media folksincluding Erik Wemple of the Post and writers Marcy Wheeler, Matt Taibbi, and Aaron Mateit has, until very recently, been largely shrugged off outside of the conservative press.
For decades, Ive followed media screw-up scrums, the pile-ons that tend to follow the embarrassments of big-name reporters and newsrooms. (Even more so since the rise of social media.)
One could imagine the unraveling of the initial credulous hysteria around the dossier among them. A media, desperate for the fall of Trump, buying into a document that was never designed to meet the standards of good journalism.
But it has, until the last few days,escaped that level of hand-wringing, perhaps due to tribalism. When news of the dossier broke, media Twitter broke out with its performative gasps. It felt like the dossier was expressing what an awful lot of reporters felt in their bones to be true. Few of those mainstream reporters want to join the chorus, led by Sean Hannity and his conservative colleagues, that has long been sayingcorrectlythat the dossier was overblown.
(Even CJR has its own mini-role in this drama. Shortly after Smith published the dossier in BuzzFeed, CJR backed his decision. The decision to publish, we wrote, would not have been appropriate for The New Yorker or the Times, but was right for BuzzFeed and its audience.)
Wemple, whose log of stories about the dossier is the definitive compilation of whats been wrong with the reporting, believes its unraveling was hidden by a dizzying news cycle.
One of the documents most damning to the dossiers veracity was released in December 2019, in a report by the Justice Departments inspector general. As that was happening, Congress, and the press, was deeply enmeshed in the impeachment process, and the unraveling of the dossier was lost in the noise. Its part of the medias failure to walk and chew gum at the same time, Wemple told me in a phone call this week.
Now, a moment of reckoning is upon us. Axios published a piece over the weekend calling the dossier the medias epic fail. Bill Grueskin, a Columbia Journalism School colleague who has written frequently for CJR, wrote an op-ed in the Times asking How did so much of the media get the Steele dossier so wrong?
It seems reasonable to ask whether, knowing what we know now, the dossier should have been published at all. I think the answer, in hindsight, has to be no.
So far, Smith hasnt recanted his decision. He even smells some hypocrisy in the fact that mainstream news organizations are now dancing on the dossiers carcass; he told me that these same outlets used the fact that BuzzFeed published to feed their own, endless loop of commentary about the document while enabling them to keep their distance from the thing. Legacy outlets could tut-tut at the digital hordes while benefiting from their looser publishing standards.
To me, the dossier is a useful stand-in for the medias coverage of Trump in general. While there was an enormous amount of impressive investigative work around Trump and his many misdeeds, there was also, especially on cable news, a lot of nonsense and misdirection.
Like Trump himself, we tacked to the extremes. When the right place to be, as always, is in the messy space in between.
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Kyle Pope is the editor in chief and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review.
Programming Note: In place of our regular Media Today newsletter, CJR is pleased to share the Journalism Crisis ProjectLauren Harriss weekly newsletter about the challenges facing the local journalism industry and how they might be overcome. The Media Today will return tomorrow.
Over the past year and a half, congressional officials have drafted a series of bills to address the beleaguered state of local media across the US. Thus far, only one piece of proposed legislation, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, has made any significant progress. This summer, when bipartisan support for the act began to coalesce, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote that congressional support cant happen soon enough. Members of West Virginia Universitys NewStart programincluding Jim Iovino, the programs director, and Crystal Good, founder and publisher of Black by God, both of whom have spoken to CJR about the importance of small-market journalismwrote a letter calling the act a game-changer for small-town USA.
Recently, one provision from this acta tax credit to pay a portion of local reporters salarieshas been included as part of the Build Back Better Bill, which Democrats hope to pass by the end of the year. Local news organizations that would benefit are urging their readers and elected officials to support the measure, as are many industry leaders. Early this month, the tax-credit provision was removed from the bill; in response, some local outlets ran false front pages or altered layouts in protest. The measure was then reinstated. Yesterday, the Long Beach Business Journal, in California, ran a blank print edition and homepage to represent a future we never want to see happen, publisher David Sommers wrote on Twitter. A bipartisan-supported local news tax credit in the Build Back Better legislation would help newsrooms nationwide.
The possibility of tax credits for local reporters salaries is something to celebrate, given the financial challenges facing most traditional local, for-profit newsrooms. Still, the Build Back Better bill includes only one provision from the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, excluding the originals tax credits for advertisers and for local news subscribers. And given the acts narrow focus on certain kinds of newsrooms, its only the very tip of the local-news iceberg.
Its easy to criticize the legislation for not going far enoughit rarely does, in a system built on haggling at best and partisan obstruction at worst. But the passage of a tax credit to support local reporters salaries is a significant but preliminary step forward on the long road to healthy local information systems in the US. In September, I talked to people working in community news organizations, most of them non-profit, about the limitations of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which is, at its core, designed to prop up the traditional profit-based local news system. Such an intervention, they said, can only go so far. The salary tax credit is more applicable to nonprofit newsrooms than the acts other provisions, but it still fails to more fully recognize the complex ways in which local information networks function in the 21st century.
Congresss imagination is limited when it comes to information systemsas its clumsy hearings with social-media platform executives have demonstrated; such systems change quickly, and theyre complicated. When it comes to the topic of information access in local communities, the same may be said for media watchers and critics from time to time. (Ive been immersed in reporting on local news for more than a year, and Im frequently checking myself in terms of the way I think about information deserts.) Its difficult to measure something as complicated as a communitys access to information, not least because every community is made up of communities, plural, and those are made up of individuals who approach information in a host of different ways. Access is complicated too. Not all barriers to information access are economic or even physical; sometimes, those barriers are cultural or psychological or even self-imposed. People have a diverse array of information needsfrom investigations that hold local officials to account to civic knowledge that helps us navigate our daily lives, from beautiful stories that connect us to one another to practical information that tells us when to put out our trash or how to register for a COVID shot.
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A news desert map is an illustration that helps us understand the crisis, but it can limit the ways we think about how communities exist and communicate. In the absence of professional journalismin so-called news deserts across the countrycritical information systems are left to the algorithmic biases of a few social media giants, wrote Darryl Holliday, co-founder of City Bureau, in an essay for CJR. Dig further, though, and youll find block club newsletters, school newspapers, library workshops, public access broadcasts, grassroots community teach-ins, and barbershop conversations that are for and of communities. Part of the solution lies in thinking more fully about the nature of local information and who is a partner in producing it. Its inaccurate to think of traditional journalism as the only source of critical local knowledge. In all communities, many forms of information work in concert. Information networks require knowledge gathering and production, but they also require connection, communication, and collaboration.
A few weeks ago, I talked with Holliday about the journalism industrys reluctance to see news consumers as information producers, too. To Hollidays mind, at the hyper-local level, healthy information systems not only existtheyre available as partners in the work of rebuilding larger local information systems, including local journalism. Such partnerships require thinking expansively about all the ways information works on the local level. How do we reinforce the pipelines, the networks between these communities so that they are better able to do what theyre already doing? he asked.
Our contemporary information infrastructure, and our select access to it, provides many of us with a tangled morass of content; it also erodes some of the better functions of the traditional press. Our local information systemsnewspapers, sure, but also the myriad other ways news travels between peoplehold potential solutions, and partners to help journalists secure them. Congress should be expansive in its approach to local journalism; the same goes for media watchers.
More on local journalism and community information:
Sounding the alarm in Seattle: This week, the Seattle Times launched a new website dedicated to explaining the financial crisis facing local for-profit journalism. The site includes invitations to subscribe to the Times, a newsletter, and a link to donate to the papers investigative journalism fund. With a cornucopia of reports, news stories, commentary, and other information, the site will hopefully be a resource for educators and those looking to learn more about the importance of the local press, the challenges it faces and whats being done to save it, editor Brier Dudley wrote in an announcement.
This week, the launched a new website dedicated to explaining the financial crisis facing local for-profit journalism. The site includes invitations to subscribe to the a newsletter, and a link to donate to the papers investigative journalism fund. With a cornucopia of reports, news stories, commentary, and other information, the site will hopefully be a resource for educators and those looking to learn more about the importance of the local press, the challenges it faces and whats being done to save it, editor Brier Dudley wrote in an announcement. Big plans in Salt Lake City: The Salt Lake Tribune , which last year became the first US metro daily to transition to a nonprofit model, announced that they will add more reporting staff and one more day of print publication, bringing weekly print editions back up to two days a week. We celebrate 150 years this year and we are healthy, executive editor Lauren Gustus writes. We are sustainable in 2021, and we have no plans to return to a previously precarious position.
The , which last year became the first US metro daily to transition to a nonprofit model, announced that they will add more reporting staff and one more day of print publication, bringing weekly print editions back up to two days a week. We celebrate 150 years this year and we are healthy, executive editor Lauren Gustus writes. We are sustainable in 2021, and we have no plans to return to a previously precarious position. Community engagement in Long Beach: In August, the Long Beach Post concluded its first year employing a community editorial board made up of residents from across the citycreated after the paper heard concerns from readers that the newsroom did not reflect the diversity of its surrounding community. The group met virtually each week, discussing potential coverage areas in addition to writing a few editorials per month; participants made $100 per meeting. For The American Press Institute, the Posts community engagement editor Stephanie Rivera considers where the effort succeeded and where it fell short.
Other related links:
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Lauren Harris is a freelance journalist. She writes CJR's weekly newsletter for the Journalism Crisis Project. Follow her on Twitter @LHarrisWrites.
HELSINKI (AP) The Estonian and Swedish accident investigation boards said Tuesday that a research expedition earlier this year to the wreck of a ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea 27 years ago hasnt provided new evidence contradicting the official accident investigation report.
In one of Europes deadliest peacetime maritime disasters, the M/S Estonia sank in heavy seas on Sept. 28, 1994, killing 852 people, most of them Swedes and Estonians. The ferry was en route from Estonias capital, Tallinn, to Stockholm when it sank about 30 minutes after an initial distress call.
Only 137 people on board survived. The fate of the vessel has sparked several conspiracy theories, including that it might have collided with a submarine or that it allegedly carried sensitive military cargo.
The 1997 official joint investigation by Estonia, Finland and Sweden concluded that the ferry sank when its bow door locks failed in a storm. That separated the bow door from the vessel, opening up the ramp to the car deck and causing extensive flooding of the decks.
However others had questioned this amid increasing evidence that there was a large hole in the ferry.
Presenting the preliminary results of a dive by underwater robots in July, Rene Arikas, head of the Estonian Safety Investigation Bureau, said that the dive revealed that the wreck does have a hole, about 22 meters long and 4 meters high. The wreck is resting on a slope on the seabed and its original position has changed over the years due to changes in the seabed, making the hole and other damage more visible, he said.
Despite this, he stressed during a news conference in Tallinn that researchers have no evidence proving the official report on the sinking to be incorrect.
New underwater surveys are scheduled in March-April when visibility is considered the best, Arikas said.
Jonas Backstrand, deputy director general of Swedens Accident Investigation Board, said researchers were surprised to find the seabed to be substantially rocky, and this could well be the reason for the hole.
We dont know how this damage (to the vessel) occurred, Backstrand said, but it was likely when the vessel fell onto the rocky seabed. More investigation is needed, he said.
A separate, privately funded expedition commissioned by relatives of the victims of the M/S Estonia conducted a dive in September. Initial results of that dive are expected to be published early next year.
The wreck lies on the seabed some 80 meters (265 feet) below the surface in international waters off a Finnish island, and is considered a graveyard, which gives the area protection under the law.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)Nearly 300 people trapped overnight in their vehicles by mudslides on a highway in British Columbia were being flown to safety by helicopters Monday while authorities sought to determine if anyone was swept up in the flow of debris set off by torrential rain.
A yellow Cormorant chopper dropped people off near the community center in the town of Agassiz before taking off for another rescue trip.
Trapped between two slides are approximately 275 additional people, including 50 children, who were advised to shelter in place overnight as debris was unstable and unsafe to cross, the City of Vancouver and Canada Task Force 1 said in a joint release.
Multiple highways in British Columbia were closed due to the downpour.
Melanie Forsythe said her drive home from Vancouver to Hope, British Columbia, had her making at least five detours as rain washed out a bridge, closed roads and trapped her overnight between two mudslides before a helicopter landed on the highway and carried her to Agassiz.
Forsythe, who was with her boyfriend, Shawn Ramsay, and a friend, made it to the town about 18 hours after they were forced to stop on Highway 7 with nearly 300 other travelers.
All three of us were kind of hyping each other up, saying its going to be good, were going to get out of here. But then we all had moments like, `Is this it? Is this the last time were going to see our kids? We were talking to our parents and our families, but it was just a scary situation, she said.
Forsythe said everyone in her vehicle joined about two dozen people on the flight to Agassiz, where nearly 80 others from the highway had already arrived.
Forsythe said their vehicles were expected to be towed. Her group was about a nine-hour drive from home and couldnt find a hotel room to spend the night.
Twelve people had been rescued from Highway 7 by the local fire department Sunday evening before the Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team was called in Monday
Jashanpreet Singh and his wife, Harleen Kaur, were also caught between the two slides Sunday and said they came upon a vehicle that had been partially crushed by a slide.
A 9-year-old boy was injured and had blood coming out of his nose and ears, Kaur said. Firefighters who were first to the scene Sunday were able to take the boy to care, she said.
The couple was flown out Monday. Singh said they learned a valuable lesson because they had no food or water with them.
The deluges in parts of the province also caused the interior town of Merritt to issue an evacuation order Monday, warning its 7,000 residents not to use water from faucets or flush toilets.
Flood warnings and watches were issued on rivers and streams for areas from Merritt south to the border with the United States, the lower Fraser region and sections of southern Vancouver Island.
About the photo: Search and rescue personnel help flood evacuees disembark from a helicopter in Agassiz, British Columbia, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Claims and regulatory actions involving per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are continuing to evolve at a rapid pace across the country. From the ongoing multi-district litigation in District Court of South Carolina, involving hundreds of claims, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys release of its Strategic Roadmap for PFAS in October 2021, it is clear that litigation and regulation of PFAS are really just ramping up.
PFAS, which have been around since the 1930s, gained wider use in the 1960s, showing up in all manner of products including firefighting foam, carpeting, metal working fluids, cosmetics, and even food packaging. PFAS include chemicals such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), GenX and more than 7,800 others.
PFAS chemicals are extremely stable and persistent in the environment and in the human body, meaning they do not break down and can accumulate over timethus they are given the moniker of forever chemicals. These chemicals are often found in soil and water near sites where they are manufactured, used or discarded. The chemical chains of PFAS can travel long distances, move through the soil, seep into groundwater, or be carried through the air, making them especially difficult to contain. The EPA intends to approach the issue by viewing the entire lifecycle of PFAS from their production process to all subsequent offspring of production.
Growing awareness over the last decade of the potential health dangers has led to increased public and political scrutiny. Among the potential health effects of PFAS are several different organ cancer categories, kidney disease, stroke, high cholesterol, diabetes, diminished immune response, and negative impacts during fetal development. Claimants and environmental advocacy groups typically cite information indicating that 95% of humans have detectable levels of PFAS in their blood.
Given the breadth with which PFAS are dispersed all across the country and the negative impacts to human health and the environment, significant litigation and regulatory actions continue to advance across the country as well.
A major step in the regulation of PFAS occurred on October 18, 2021, when the EPA released its PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPAs Commitments to Action 2021-2024. The EPAs roadmap intends to approach the issue by viewing the entire lifecycle of PFAS from their production process to all subsequent offspring of production.
Taking a page from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts (RCRA) cradle-to-grave approach, the PFAS Roadmap is based on the three objectives of research, restrict, and remediate.
While various industries can likely expect more targeted rulemakings and data collection efforts in the near future, the PFAS Roadmap already identifies specific industries and activities as particular targets for regulation, including: organic chemicals; biosolids; plastics/synthetic fibers; metal finishing/electroplating; electrical components; textile mills; landfills; leather tanning/finishing; plastics molding; paint formulating; pulp/paper/paperboard; and airports.
Many of the expected rules will rely on EPA authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Specifically, TSCA Section 8(a)(7) provides authority for EPA to collect information on PFAS, and TSCA Section 4 provides EPA the authority to require PFAS manufacturers to pay for PFAS studies. As EPA progresses through the PFAS Roadmap, it anticipates relying on authority granted under other environmental statutes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known also as the Superfund act.
Further, among the critically important potential actions in EPAs Roadmap is a proposal to list certain classes of PFAS as hazardous substances under CERCLAs federal Superfund provisions. This step could lead to such actions as EPA revisiting former cleanup sites that may still contain PFAS, and would require testing for designated PFAS as part of any future five-year reviews. This likely listing under CERCLA would represent a significant risk to almost any company that has been involved as a potentially responsible party at a CERLCA site in the past. The consequences of EPA declaring PFAS as hazardous substances could also trigger new rounds of litigation on coverage, apportionment, and cost recovery across the country. Currently, the bellwether cases are concluding written discovery and moving into the testimonial discovery phase of pre-trial preparation.
These regulations will only serve to expand existing PFAS litigation, as PFAS are already the focus of complex legal battles around the country. Perhaps most significant of these battles is the massive multi-district legal action in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
In December 2018, the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation established a multi-district litigation for claims involving aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), or firefighting foam. The MDL litigation differs from previous PFAS lawsuits in that the consolidated lawsuits all target defendants that manufactured and distributed AFFF and its constituent chemicals, specifically PFAS. The MDL is now handling more than 1,000 member cases that include the following categories of claims: property damage asserted by water providers, property damage asserted by property owners, bodily injury claims, and claims for medical monitoring for potential future injury.
Judge Richard Gergel, the presiding judge in the MDL, recently selected a set of bellwether cases to help gauge the likely outcome of the larger body of challenges.
In selecting cases focused on PFAS contamination claims from water system providers to be the first set for trial, the court has decided to focus on claims with a relatively simpler path to determining causation. In the water provider cases, the municipal districts need only demonstrate on a very basic level that PFAS have contaminated the water they draw from, and then trace the contamination pathway back to the source. The more complex cases involving personal injury causation issues will not be tried for some time still. Currently, the bellwether cases are concluding written discovery and moving into the testimonial discovery phase of pre-trial preparation, though as many as 50 depositions have already taken place in the MDL. And, the first cases are scheduled to be ready for trial later next year. However, over the next year it is expected that many significant battles will take place through motion practice challenging the claims.
With such a focus on PFAS by litigators and regulators alike, insurers and companies alike should continue to monitor both the MDL and the approaching regulations to understand the nature and extent of risks associated with PFAS liability.
CLEVELAND (AP) Three retail pharmacy chains failed to follow government guidelines to make sure pain pills werent flooding Ohio communities, said an attorney for two counties that brought a federal lawsuit to hold the companies accountable for the opioid crisis.
Attorneys for the pharmaciesCVS, Walgreens and Walmartsaid that they had safeguards in place and that their employees would look for signs of suspicious orders. The counties failed to show that the pharmacies had a substantial role in the crisis, the attorneys said Monday during closing arguments in U.S. District Court.
While the lawsuit involves just two counties, it is being closely watched because it could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in a crisis that has killed more than 500,000 people over the past two decades.
Two other chainsRite Aid and Giant Eaglealready have settled lawsuits with the two Ohio counties.
Attorney Mark Lanier, who represents the counties in the lawsuit, said the companies put profit over public safety. You cant just point a finger at everyone else, he said.
The pharmacies were the last line of defense to stop the opioid abuse and missed many warning signs, Lanier said.
Attorneys for the pharmacies told jurors that no law enforcement officials or government regulators testified during the trial that the companies broke any laws or were to blame.
Not one witness on the ground came and testified, `I saw CVS, I saw Walgreens, I saw Walmart do this, said Eric Delinsky, an attorney for CVS.
Walgreens attorney Brian Swanson said that the companies followed proper procedures and that many others were responsible for the crisis, including the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration.
Each of the counties in northeast Ohio say the crisis has cost them about $1 billion as it has overwhelmed courts, social services agencies and law enforcement.
Roughly 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone between 2012 and 2016 _ equivalent to 400 for every resident.
In Lake County, some 61 million pills were distributed during that period.
About the photo: Attorneys and staff associated with a federal trial of pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle and Walmart leave the Carl B. Stokes Federal Courthouse in Cleveland, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. The pharmacies are being sued by Ohio counties Lake and Trumbull for their part in the opioid crisis. Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, one of the four retail pharmacy companies on trial for their alleged roles in fostering an opioid crisis in two Ohio counties announced Friday, Oct. 29, 2021 it had settled lawsuits filed by 10 government entities in the state that have accused the companies of creating a public nuisance. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) Family members of healthcare workers cannot avail yet of the booster shots offered by the government, a health official said on Wednesday.
Although family members of healthcare workers belong to the expanded A1 priority sector, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they are not included in the amended emergency use authorization.
"Ang binigyan pa lang ng EUA ng FDA is for us to deploy or provide boosters to senior citizens, healthcare workers, and to individuals with comorbidities. So 'yun pong expanded A1 for family members, hindi po muna natin sila bibigyan," she said in a media briefing.
[Translation: The Emergency Use Authorization of the Food and Drug Administration only allows us to deploy or provide boosters to senior citizens, healthcare workers, and to individuals with comorbidities, so their family members cannot receive them yet.]
The government started giving booster doses to 1.6 million fully vaccinated health workers on Wednesday to boost their waning immunity.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has denied 126 party-list applications for the 2022 polls, an official said Wednesday.
In a series of tweets, Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon said majority of the applicants turned down by the poll body have filed an appeal.
"More than 100 of denied party-list applicants filed motion for reconsideration," Guanzon wrote on social media.
"[Comelec] must finish by Dec. 6. Final date for ballot prep Dec. 15," she added.
Comelec has yet to release the names of the concerned groups. Based on its tentative list of candidates, there are 270 party-list groups seeking a seat in Congress.
The final list of candidates for the May 2022 elections is expected before the year ends.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) The country's total number of COVID-19 deaths breached 46,000 on Wednesday after 309 more people lost the battle against the disease, the Department of Health reported.
The death toll is now at 46,117 or 1.64% of the case tally.
Of the newly reported deaths, the agency reported 18 happened this month, and "61%" or around 188 in October. The late reporting was due to delayed encoding of information in the COVIDKaya data storage system, it added.
This issue is currently being coordinated with the epidemiology and surveillance units to ensure information is up to date, said the DOH in an addendum on its case bulletin.
Meanwhile, the case tally is now at 2,820,494 with 1,190 new infections.
About 0.8% of the cases are active or currently sick patients with 58.1% experiencing mild symptoms, 19.6% in moderate condition, 12% with severe symptoms, 5.2% without symptoms and 5% in critical condition.
Recoveries also increased to 2,750,531 - about 97.5% of the COVID-19 count - with 2,759 new survivors.
The DOH said it reclassified 264 survivors into deaths after validation, and deleted 37 duplicate cases, including 33 recoveries.
One laboratory did not submit data on time and was excluded from the report. The non-reporting laboratory contributed an average of 0.1% of tested samples and 0.1% of positive individuals in the last 14 days, the Health department added.
The positivity rate - or percentage of tested people with positive results - rose slightly to 3.5% based on 33,567 tests reported on Nov. 15. On Tuesday, the rate was at 3.2% based on 28,081 tests reported on Nov. 14.
The rate has been below 5% for the past five days. The World Health Organization recommends countries and regions to reopen if they maintain a positivity rate of below 5% for at least 14 days.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) The Senate Energy Committee is now looking into undoing the deal involving the sale of shares in the Malampaya natural gas facility to Udenna Corporation, Sen. Sherwin Win Gatchalian, the panel's chairman, said Wednesday.
Thats what were studying. Were studying it very carefully if this can be undone but definitely theres a basis to, if possible, undo the transaction to protect the Filipino people, Gatchalian said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
Gatchalians committee has been looking into the Dennis Uy-led firms acquisition of its stake in the gas project, which now stands at 90% following the sale of Chevrons and Shells respective 45% shares in Malampaya.
The senator noted that the lack of a proper evaluation from the Department of Energy (DOE) of Udennas capability could mean it is not qualified to run the facility. Should something go wrong with Malampaya, up to 4 million households and 20% of the countrys power supply could be affected, he added.
Ang gobyernong dapat protektahan tayo, niluto yung transaction. Tayo ngayon ang kawawa, lamented Gatchalian.
[Translation: The government that was supposed to protected us cooked up the transaction instead. Now its us who are aggrieved.]
The senator said the transaction must be undone in a way that will minimize disruption. The next step is to hold individuals involved in the issue accountable, said Gatchalian.
The ultimate action is to hold them to account administratively and criminally through our court system. Ibig sabihin [This means] cases should be filed whether its in the Ombudsman or in the other courtsitong mga fact-finding na ginawa namin [the fact-finding we have done] will enable us to paint the picture, he said.
DOE Asec. Gerardo Erguiza Jr. separately addressed criticisms that PNOC-EC which holds Malampayas remaining 10% stake supposedly not matching Udennas offer to both petroleum giants on the sale of their shares.
Again, we must remember that PNOC-EC is not just the country's energy investment arm. Their mandate is to help the government achieve energy security, and foster the development of and sustain a conducive industry environment to help attract more investors into doing business in the Philippines, he said.
Erguiza further explained that PNOC-EC went further and dug deeper into its mandate apart from taking into account economic and risk factors at play.
For PNOC-EC to pounce on Chevron's shares actually runs counter to their mandate. If acquiring the Chevron shares was so financially lucrative, then why didn't Shell grab at them at the first opportunity? said the DOE official.
Just last month, three private individuals lodged a graft complaint against DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi along with Uy and dozen of others for the alleged questionable sale of shares to Udenna and for supposedly allowing the firm unwarranted benefits and causing the government undue injury.
Udenna has maintained the legality of its acquisition of Malampaya shares.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) An infectious disease expert on Wednesday advised pregnant healthcare workers to choose the COVID-19 vaccine they originally received for their booster shot as a precaution.
"On a personal note, I would probably advise homologous rather than a heterologous platform just to decrease the variables, and decrease the likelihood of any adverse reactions," Dr. Anna Ong-Lim said in a town hall organized by the Department of Health.
A homologous dose is a vaccine from the same brand while a heterologous dose is from a different brand.
But for Dr. Edsel Salvana, "this has to be a personal discussion between your OB and yourself," noting there are a lot of "unknowns" about the boosters.
Salvana also said it might be best for pregnant healthcare workers to "wait for more data" before getting a booster shot.
Booster shots are now being offered to healthcare workers.
Fully vaccinated medical personnel can choose which COVID-19 vaccine to receive, provided the one they prefer is available at vaccination sites. Approved to be used as booster shots are Sinovac, Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines.
READ: PH allows health workers to pick COVID-19 booster shot
The Health department said vaccine recipients with "higher risk for adverse reaction" such as the elderly, people with underlying illnesses, and those prone to blood clots, myocarditis and anaphylaxis should consult their attending physicians for the recommended boosting strategy.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) The camp of presidential aspirant Isko Moreno said former Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) chief Vince Dizon joined his campaign team, but it was refuted by Malacanang.
Moreno's chief campaign strategist Lito Banayo on Wednesday said Dizon would act as deputy campaign manager and head of statistical research of their team. He also said he tapped Dizon to help run the campaign.
"Nagpaalam siya kay PRRD (President Rodrigo Duterte) nung mid-October, then flew to US with his family for a breather," Banayo added.
[Translation: He gave his notice to President Rodrigo Duterte in mid-October, then flew to the US with his family for a breather.]
Another source told CNN Philippines that Dizon "has been helping our communications efforts, particularly our branding and imaging."
Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles on Thursday said Dizon continues to be part of the Cabinet as adviser for COVID-19 response despite resigning from the BCDA.
"Sec. Dizon is focused on the vaccination efforts of government, and not with any political campaign," Nograles said in a statement.
CNN Philippines sought comment from Dizon and his staff, but has yet to receive a reply.
If it is true that Dizon has shifted his alliance, he is the third former government official to join the Moreno campaign after former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Tim Orbos and Banayo, who served as chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) Three Chinese Coast Guard vessels blocked and fired water cannon on two Philippine boats en route to transport supplies to military personnel in Ayungin Shoal on Nov. 16, government officials said on Thursday.
National Security Adviser and National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea chair Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said two Chinese vessels blocked the Philippines' boats, while another one of its vessels blasted a water cannon for an hour.
No one was hurt, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr, but the Philippine boats had to abort their mission to bring food.
Locsin also said he talked to Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian and Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi to condemn and protest the incident since Ayungin Shoal is part of the Kalayaan Island Group, which the Philippines considers part of Palawan province.
"I reminded China that a public vessel is covered by the Philippines-United States Mutual Defense Treaty. The acts of the Chinese Coast Guard vessels are illegal. China has no law enforcement rights in and around these areas. They must take heed and back off," he said in a statement.
He warned that China's "failure to exercise self-restraint threatens" the warm ties between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it will continue to provide supplies to troops in Ayungin Shoal.
"We do not ask permission to do what we need to do in our territory," Locsin said.
The Kalayaan Island Group is part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. The Philippines said it has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the island group. However, China has been claiming the area through a historic nine-dash line, which a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling has invalidated.
Increasing Chinese presence in PH waters
Esperon expressed alarm after more of Beijing's vessels were spotted in Ayungin Shoal and Pag-asa Island. He said there are usually only two Chinese maritime militia in the area of Ayungin, but the number increased to 19 in the past week. In Pag-Asa Island, the number of Chinese vessels spiked to 45 which the official described as a "record number."
"Very aggressive sila so we are protesting that... Some of them remain there, hindi sila umaalis dyan, maaring mabawasan, maaring mabawasan but last week umabot sila ng 45, masyadong marami," he said in an interview.
[Translation: They are too aggressive so we are protesting that. Some of them remain there. The number may go down. but last week it reached 45. That's too much.]
He said the DFA has been continuously filing diplomatic protests for China's incursions in the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines has filed over 150 this year alone.
Outrage
Lawmakers and local officials expressed outrage over the outright disrespect for Philippine territory.
Kalayaan Vice Mayor Hermoso Ornopia said he will lead the passing of a resolution to "condemn in the highest terms" the militia's harassing actions.
"Hindi tama na tayo ay aapihin sa ating sariling bakuran. Habang ginagalang natin ang karapatan ng atin mga kapitbansa, ay atin din namang marapat ipaglaban ang ating soberanya," he said.
[Translation: It's not right that we are being oppressed in our own territory. Although we respect the rights of our neighboring countries, we must continue to fight for our sovereignty.]
Reelectionist Senator Risa Hontiveros showed supposed for the DFA's move to protest China's "incessant bullying."
CNN Philippines' Lara Tan, Tristan Nodalo, and David Santos contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) President Rodrigo Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio expressed their desire for "deeper security engagement and coordination" by considering a Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting or 2+2.
In a phone call, the two leaders discussed a host of issues touching on coordination in maritime security efforts, support for the country's infrastructure programs, and the situation in Myanmar, according to the Office of the President.
Duterte said he looks forward to the projects aimed at strengthening the two countries' cooperation in maritime security, such as maritime domain awareness, connectivity and preservation of the marine environment.
He also acknowledged Japan's support for the government's Build, Build, Build program, the peace process in Mindanao and the ongoing transition of the Bangsamoro Region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan also released a statement on the 25-minute conversation, saying Kishida committed to continue supporting the Philippines' infrastructure development, COVID-19 pandemic response, and maritime law enforcement.
The ministry added that Kishida voiced opposition against changing the status quo in the East and South China Seas. The two leaders also discussed cooperation to achieve a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" - which aims to open the region as "international public goods" - and the "ASEAN Outlook for the Indo-Pacific," which seeks to promote an environment of peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.
They also tackled working closely in dealing with North Korea, particularly its "abductions issue" and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Duterte congratulated Japan after its draft resolution on the elimination of nuclear weapons submitted to the United Nations General Assembly was adopted, the ministry said.
A national organization that supports pro-choice, Democratic women candidates on Tuesday endorsed state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the Thornton pediatrician running in a primary to represent Colorado's new 8th Congressional District.
In a news release, EMILY'S List president Laphonza Butler said the group is backing Caraveo because she "understands the complexities of the health care system as well as the reforms needed to make high quality care affordable and accessible for everyone."
Citing Caraveo's work on legislation to lower prescription drug costs, regulate polluters, increase funding for preschools and protect renters during the pandemic, Butler added: "We know that Dr. Caraveo will continue to advocate for Colorados families from Washington, and we are thrilled to stand with her historic campaign to become the first Latina to represent Colorado in Congress.
The race in the northern Front Range district, which covers suburbs in Adams County and parts of Weld County, including Greeley, is getting crowded. Yesterday, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer joined the Republican primary for the seat, which is shaping up to be the most competitive congressional contest in Colorado next year.
The 8th CD's voters have favored Democratic candidates in recent statewide elections by 1.3 percentage points, on average, according to an analysis by the independent commission that drew new congressional district boundaries by far the closest of any new district in the state.
Caraveo is facing Adams County Commissioner Charles "Chaz" Tedesco in the Democratic primary. Other Republicans running in the district include Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, former congressional candidate Ryan Gonzalez and first-time candidate Giulianna "Jewels" Gray.
EMILY'S List it originally stood for "Early Money is Like Yeast" because it "helps raise the dough" is a candidate training and fundraising powerhouse with more than five million members nationwide. The group spent just under $50 million on independent expenditures in the last cycle, according to a release, and has raised more than $700 million and helped elect roughly 1,000 women since its launch in 1985.
In its only other Colorado endorsement this year, the group got behind Guyleen Castriotta's successful bid for re-election earlier this month as mayor of Broomfield.
Progressive veterans group endorses Democrat Chaz Tedesco in 8th CD primary The national progressive political action committee VoteVets has endorsed Democrat Charles "Chaz" Tedesco, an Adams County commissioner and ca
Democrat Joe Salazar says he won't run in Colorado's new congressional district Former state Rep. Joe Salazar, a key Colorado supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential bids, told Colorado Politics on Thursday that he isn't going to seek the Democratic nomination in the state's new congressional district.
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11/17/2021
Photo (c) Ahmed Zaggoudi - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)
Total U.S. confirmed cases: 47,331,191 (47,233,212)
Total U.S. deaths: 766,232 (764,608)
Total global cases: 254,723,729 (254,092,019)
Total global deaths: 5,120,194 (5,111,573)
Michigan now the nations worst hot spot
Cases of the coronavirus are surging in the northern tier of states along the Canadian border, and Michigan has now emerged at the nations number one COVID-19 hot spot. Federal health officials put the seven-day case rate at 503.8 per 100,000 residents.
Thats putting increased pressure on hospitals around the state, with caseloads climbing by nearly 50% over the last month. There were more than 3,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients at the start of this week.
"The current growth in COVID-19 hospitalizations is very concerning," John Karasinski, a spokesman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, told the Detroit News.
Definition of fully vaccinated may be changing
These days, many places of businesses dont require patrons to wear masks if they are fully vaccinated. Thats generally taken to mean that they have had two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But with the increasing number of breakthrough cases, the definition of fully vaccinated may be changing to include a booster shot. Countries in Europe, where the virus has undergone a resurgence, are leaning in that direction.
There has been little discussion of that in the U.S. so far. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently considers full protection to include two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. However, the health agency advises all eligible people to get a booster shot.
Five states expand booster shot eligibility
Its up to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC to decide who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 booster shot. But some states where cases are rising are in open rebellion and are not waiting on government health authorities.
Local health officials in at least five states -- Arkansas, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and West Virginia -- have expanded eligibility for booster shots to everyone 18 and older, six months after their second dose. Current federal eligibility is limited to those 65 and older and other high-risk individuals.
"From a public perception, there are some that really do want the boosters. They are worried about breakthrough transmission," Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, told CNN. "So, I think this is where governors -- at least some governors -- are trying to address the tension here of some in the public who really want to take that extra step even though we don't know yet what all the data tells us."
Around the nation
Washington, D.C.: The District of Columbias mandate requiring people to wear masks indoors will expire Monday. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city will shift to risk-based guidance from D.C. Health thats based on current health metrics and a persons vaccination status.
Colorado: State officials have announced that people attending large public indoor events in certain jurisdictions must be vaccinated in an effort to blunt the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. Gatherings of more than 500 people in parts of metro Denver will require attendees to provide proof of vaccination.
Alaska: Nearly 100 doctors have signed a letter addressed to the state medical board that asks it to launch an investigation into health care professionals who may be spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. We are writing out of concern that medical misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment is being spread in Alaska, including by physicians, the letter stated.
North Carolina: Theres a new variant to worry about, and its shown up in North Carolina. State health officials report that North Carolina is one of eight states reporting the presence of the AY42 variant, also known as Delta Plus. So far, they say theres not much data on the new variant.
11/16/2021
Photo (c) Darryl Fonseka - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)
Total U.S. confirmed cases: 47,233,212 (47,084,497)
Total U.S. deaths: 764,608 (763,168)
Total global cases: 254,092,019 (253,543,995)
Total global deaths: 5,111,573 (5,103,757)
U.S. cases are rising again
The U.S. has lower infection rates than a lot of other developed nations, but some areas of the country are seeing sharp increases. Its enough to worry some health experts, including President Bidens chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The only thing thats a little bit disconcerting is that were beginning to plateau, Fauci said during an interview hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. In other words, the deceleration of cases is now plateaued, and in some areas of the country, were starting to see a bit of an uptick.
Infections had been falling for weeks after hitting a Delta variant peak of 172,500 new cases per day in mid-September. Cases have recently spiked in the Mountain West and in states along the Canadian border.
Some states considering new holiday guidelines
The U.S. will celebrate its second pandemic Thanksgiving next week, but unlike last year, most of the people around the table will have been vaccinated. While many parts of the country have seen a decline in cases, states where the virus has spiked are considering new holiday guidelines.
With cases rising in many northern states, the Minnesota Department of Health is urging families to "think carefully" about their Thanksgiving plans. However, the agency is not asking people to cancel their plans.
However, it is asking unvaccinated people to take extra precautions that are in line with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It says unvaccinated people and those in areas of high transmission rates should wear masks while around other people.
Study: Antidepressants may help against COVID-19
Can taking Prozac protect you from the coronavirus? A large analysis of health records from 87 health care centers in the U.S. concluded that people taking a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), particularly fluoxetine, were significantly less likely to die of COVID-19 than a control group. Fluoxetine is sold under the brand name Prozac and is a widely used antidepressant.
Scientists say the results suggest that SSRIs may have beneficial effects against the worst symptoms of COVID-19. They say further studies are needed to prove it.
We can't tell if the drugs are causing these effects, but the statistical analysis is showing significant association, said Marina Sirota, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and a member of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute (BCHSI) at UC San Francisco. There's power in the numbers.
Around the nation
Connecticut: A COVID-19 outbreak has claimed the lives of eight residents of a nursing home since September. In a statement, Geer Village Senior Community in North Canaan reported that 89 residents and staff, many of them fully vaccinated, have tested positive for the virus.
California: Attorney General Rob Bonta has secured a court order requiring Amazon to pay a $500,000 fine for "concealing COVID-19 case numbers" from workers. Its the first judgment under the states new right to know law.
Tennessee: Gov. Bill Lee has signed comprehensive legislation that limits what businesses and governments can do to curb the spread of COVID-19. But the State Comptrollers Office said it would grant an exemption to any business that claimed a loss of federal funding if it obeyed the law against vaccination mandates.
Alabama: Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed a lawsuit to block a federal mandate that would require health care workers to be vaccinated. One can only imagine the damage that will be done by this mandate to already short-staffed rural and community hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes that receive federal funds for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Marshall said.
Theres some talk that EU passport-holders are ruling the roost in the interesting job stakes, and by interesting, I mean a contract or temporary assignment which is overseas if youre a Brit, writes Kevin Austin, of contracting overseas advisory Access Financial.
The Brexit bounce for EU passport-holders
Well, there is quite a lot of truth to this talk specifically, that anyone fortunate enough to hold an EU passport has a master key to unlock more exotic work opportunities abroad. And broadly, its because of a six-letter word: B-r-e-x-i-t.
In fact, since the Brexit agreement effective since December 31st 2020, a UK national (possessing no EU passport) must generally have a work permit to take gainful employment in an EU country in France, for example. Enviously for Brits, EU nationals and individuals hailing from Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, can work in, say, France, without a work permit under the in-place Free Movement of Workers.
All is not lost, especially if youre a UK tech consultant
However, perhaps all is not lost for Brits in certain sectors, including technology. Indeed, in France, and specific to France, certain categories of person and activity CAN work in France without a work visa.
These categories are dictated by a time threshold, however. Firstly:
Without limits of time
1.Citizens of a European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) Member State or Switzerland;
2. Citizens from outside the above countries (in 1), who are working lawfully and customarily for an employer established in an EU or EEA Member State, or Switzerland, in the context of providing a service, subject to proof of a residence permit issued by the European State authorising work in this state.
The second time threshold, which may apply more widely to UK IT contractors, is:
For periods of less than 90 days
So, the following categories of foreign employees can come to work in France and its territories for up to 90 days -- to carry out salaried professional work in the following areas:
a) Sporting, cultural, artistic and scientific events.
b) Conferences, seminars and trade shows.
c) Production and distribution of cinematic and audiovisual works, shows and recordings.
d) Modeling and artistic posing.
e) Personal service workers and domestic workers working in France during their private employers stay in the country.
f) Audit and consulting in IT, management, finance, insurance, architecture and engineering, under the terms of a service agreement or intra-company transfer agreement.
g) Occasional teaching activities by invited lecturers.
Freelance-friendly? Probably, yes
The wording Ive used above (borrowed from the French immigration authorities) suggests the worker should be employed, although the categories imply that some of the services may be freelance or self-employed. And this is especially the case, IT contractors take note, under the headings g, and f which specifies consulting in IT. Be further reassured that a director of their own services company is commonly, but not always, regarded by the immigration authorities as an employee.
So the above may provide a way-in for IT contractors from the UK who are looking to work in France on short-term contract (under 90 days).
Bon voyage, potentially
But almost finally, a word of caution. It would be wise not to extrapolate these rules to any other EU or EEA state, because the framework permitting this entry into France as a UK IT consultant is not courtesy of the EU, but is instead thanks to a unilateral agreement by the state of France. So always ensure you check each country and your circumstances to determine if you can work -- for gain -- without a work visa. Note here, I specify doing fee-paying work because business trips to France by Britons, where working and earning are not undertaken, are permissible under a business and tourist visa. Bon voyage!
The cases were separate, but overlapped, the common denominator being FBI surveillance recordings of Colombo soldier Ralph Scopos conversations, which alerted the Feds to the initial evidence that would help them build the Commission Case. Scopo was the bagman in a large-scale ongoing racket involving shaking down concrete contractors at major construction projects. As the president of the Cement and Concrete Workers District Council of the Laborers' International Union of North America from 1977 to April 1985, Scopo used his position to extort money from cement contractors in New York in return for large construction contracts and labor peace. Contracts between $2 million and $15 million were reserved for contractors who belonged to the Mafia Commission-selected "Concrete Club." In return for membership in the club, the contractors gave the Commission a kickback worth 2% of the contract's value.
How they caught him: Federal law-enforcement officials finally focused their search and combed Connecticut's DMV databases, locating two of Persico's aliases. They also heard from ''tipsters'' that he was in West Hartford. Carrying photographs of Persico, deputy marshals canvassed West Hartford and found several people who ''thought they recognized" the fugitive wiseguy.Persico was arrested alone while cooking sauce in November 1987 at around 5:30 pm by seven deputy United States marshals at an apartment building in West Hartford. Allie Boy had around $7,000 in cash when he was taken into custody. (They reportedly couldn't link him to any type of employment that could explain the source of the money.) Persico had been considered armed and dangerous and was known to travel with armed guards, but he did not resist arrest and was not armed.
He vanished on June 23, 1980, avoiding the presentencing hearing before Chief Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. (The New York Times later reported that "By failing to appear for the presentencing hearing in June 1980, [Allie Boy] forfeited $250,000 in bail. It meant that the homes of Mr. Persico and his brother, Carmine, in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, became Government property.")
Carmines first choice for acting boss to supervise the family in his absence was his older brother, Alphonse, the original Allie Boy. But when Carmine went away following one of his 1970s convictions, his brother's reign lasted only a few months. Allie Boy, who was officially the crime family's underboss, lammed it to avoid a potentially long prison sentence for a 1980 extortion conviction.
As for how Allie Boy survived on the lam, Persico alleged he had only $60,000 on him when he skipped out--plus his aliases, "Al Longo" and "Anthony Perri." He reportedly posed as a retired accountant and/or a rug dealer.According to a UPI report, a probation department memo , which was confirmed by Edward McDonald, the chief of Brooklyn's Organized Crime Strike Force, said that Allie Boy had found refuge via the Patriarca crime family's "underground railroad," which had supplied him with funds and phony identification papers.Among his many other roles, William (Billy the Wild Man) Grasso ran a sanctuary for fugitive wiseguys and associates in the 1980s.
When Allie Boy Persico went on the lam, he "lived for years under Grasso's protection in a West Hartford apartment," the Hartford Courant reported in 2014 in The Mob In Connecticut: Grasso's Reign Of Terror, which was based on newly released FBI files.
According to an FBI affidavit , "since the disappearance of Salvatore Annunziato and the gangland murders of Ralph 'Whitey' Tropiano and Frank Piccolo, Grasso has been able to absorb a number of the interests of the deceased (or missing) individuals."
Salvatore (Midge Renault) Annunziato, 59, was the portly longtime capo for the Genovese crime family who oversaw rackets in Connecticut. A former boxerMidge Renault was his ring nameAnnunziato was last seen getting into a car with Tommy Vastano, his driver, to head to a meeting with Grasso. In the months prior to his disappearance, Annunziato supposedly had robbed some of Grassos gambling dens.
Whitey Tropiano, 67, was the longtime capo in the Colombo family (he was bumped up around the time when the Profaci family was being renamed) who operated in Connecticut. Tropiano was gunned down in April 3, 1980, in Brooklyn by masked assailants as he was seeking to make a comeback that put him head to head with his onetime protege, Grasso. A reputed hitter for the dreaded Murder, Inc., the mob's enforcement wing in the 1930s, in his early years, Whitey had put Grasso in charge of his New Haven gambling operations in the 1960s.
Frank (Frankie Cigars) Piccolo (aka The Attorney) was 58 when on September 19, 1981, the Gambino crime familys longtime Connecticut capo was gunned down outside a telephone booth. Prior, Piccolo had been encroaching on the Genovese crime family's territory in Bridgeport and New Haven. When slain, he was also facing trial for extorting Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton.
Grasso became Patriarca underboss in 1984. Many in the FBI as well as the mob believed Grasso was de facto boss rather than Raymond (Junior) Patriarca, who reached the top after his father died from a fatal heart attack in 1984. Junior was viewed as weak, inexperienced, and ineffective. Salvatore (Midge Renault) Annunziato, 59, was the portly longtime capo for the Genovese crime family who oversaw rackets in Connecticut. A former boxerMidge Renault was his ring nameAnnunziato was last seen getting into a car with Tommy Vastano, his driver, to head to a meeting with Grasso. In the months prior to his disappearance, Annunziato supposedly had robbed some of Grassos gambling dens.Whitey Tropiano, 67, was the longtime capo in the Colombo family (he was bumped up around the time when the Profaci family was being renamed) who operated in Connecticut. Tropiano was gunned down in April 3, 1980, in Brooklyn by masked assailants as he was seeking to make a comeback that put him head to head with his onetime protege, Grasso. A reputed hitter for the dreaded Murder, Inc., the mob's enforcement wing in the 1930s, in his early years, Whitey had put Grasso in charge of his New Haven gambling operations in the 1960s.Frank (Frankie Cigars) Piccolo (aka The Attorney) was 58 when on September 19, 1981, the Gambino crime familys longtime Connecticut capo was gunned down outside a telephone booth. Prior, Piccolo had been encroaching on the Genovese crime family's territory in Bridgeport and New Haven. When slain, he was also facing trial for extorting Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton.Grasso became Patriarca underboss in 1984. Many in the FBI as well as the mob believed Grasso was de facto boss rather than Raymond (Junior) Patriarca, who reached the top after his father died from a fatal heart attack in 1984. Junior was viewed as weak, inexperienced, and ineffective.
The only photo of Grasso, who once ran a sanctuary for fugitive wiseguys.
Patriarca mobsters from Hartford, Springfield, and Boston plotted to murder The Wild Man, which became part of a wider attempt by disgruntled Patriarca factions in Hartford and Boston to seize control of the family.
The guys who finally got rid of Grasso, according to The Gangster Report , were "members of a faction in the Family led by Boston capo Joseph (J.R.) Russo and his young protege Vincent (Vinnie the Animal) Ferrara who were trying to take control of the New England mob for themselves by force. The Patriarca soldiers who clipped Grasso included "triggerman Gaetano Milano, brothers Frank (Frankie Pug) Pugliano, Louis (Louie Pug) Pugliano, and Frank (Frankie C) Colatoni."
All were convicted of the crime and have since been released from their respective prison sentences.
Of course it also could be said that the FBI also played a role in the Grasso murder.
According to a Writers of Wrong report , years afterward, it was learned that "some in the FBI had worked with informants within the New England underworld to create a destructive rivalry" within the Patriarca crime family. "Seeds planted by the FBI convinced groups within the Connecticut and Massachusetts branches of the organization that the Patriarca administration was planning to eliminate them. That prompted them to act against Grasso and Salemme, and it also figured in several other murders.
"Defense attorney Anthony Cardinale revealed in a 1997 affidavit that intentional FBI activities caused the plots against Grasso and Salemme and that the FBI knew of the plots but kept silent about them for a period of sixteen months. FBI improprieties were documented in the following years." "Defense attorney Anthony Cardinale revealed in a 1997 affidavit that intentional FBI activities caused the plots against Grasso and Salemme and that the FBI knew of the plots but kept silent about them for a period of sixteen months. FBI improprieties were documented in the following years."
As for Grasso sidekick Grant, according to The Gangster Report , "Grants hit was called in from New York and related to a belief that" the 56-year old Grant was feeding information to the FBI. "The contract was given to Grasso by the Colombo Family." Grasso's luck finally ran out on June 13, 1989, when the Hartford crew got Grasso into a van on the pretext of traveling to a meeting in Worcester. Grasso was shot in the back of his neck. On that same day, Grasso's right hand in Boston, Frank (Cadillac Frank) Salemme, was shot up while exiting the International House of Pancakes. Salemme survived and is today serving a life sentence for murder.Patriarca mobsters from Hartford, Springfield, and Boston plotted to murder The Wild Man, which became part of a wider attempt by disgruntled Patriarca factions in Hartford and Boston to seize control of the family.
A reddit page devoted to Missing In Connecticut includes original information, much of which is attributed to anonymous underworld sources.
The nonbylined report notes: "Law enforcement described William F. Grant, JR, as a lieutenant of William Grasso... Grant helped William Grasso win control over a scattered network of largely independent bookmaking offices in the Hartford area. The nonbylined report notes: "Law enforcement described William F. Grant, JR, as a lieutenant of William Grasso... Grant helped William Grasso win control over a scattered network of largely independent bookmaking offices in the Hartford area.
"William Grant has also been linked to Alphonse Allie Boy Persico, the former underboss of New Yorks Columbo crime family. Allie Boy was a convicted murderer. When Allie Boy applied to an apartment on Talcott Ridge in Farmington using the alias Al Longo to get away from a federal indictment, he wrote OK per Biz. Friend of Billy Grant. The word Biz referred to the company that owned the apartment, and the former employee of that company. The former employee states he recalls nothing about the rental agreement.
"William Grant admitted he knew Allie Boy while he was a fugitive and went under an alias, but didnt realize he was Persico. He recalled occasionally seeing Al Longo at the bar at the Place for Steak in West Hartford on Friday nights (the restaurant is no longer open). Allie Boy often visited the bar for drinks and to play cards. Allie Boy admitted that he never told William his real name, but felt the other man knew who he was anyway.
"Allie Boy lived as a fugitive in the area for seven years. He had also lived briefly in Massachusetts. ... Allie borrowed money from William to purchase that house. A mutual friend of both men stated that William was a regular visitor at the property. Allie Boys residence in both Massachusetts and Connecticut were part of an underworld agreement struck between crime bosses in Connecticut and New York, anonymous underworld sources claimed.
"The crime figures set up a kind of underground railroad to support and hide colleagues facing certain prison sentences. Part of Allie Boys participation in this agreement required William to act as his protector per the underworld source. In the summer of 1987 the agreement became strained over who was financially responsible for protecting Allie Boy. Allie Boy had no known source of income while he was in hiding. William was paying for the majority of, if not all of, Allie Boys expenses. The underworld source claimed Allie Boy was asking William for more money at the time. Various underworld sources stated that William was so upset about this claimed he complained about it to William Grasso. The same underworld sources said William Grasso did not try to help William Grant with the situation in any way. Shortly after William Grant complained, the U.S. Marshals apprehended Allie Boy at his West Hartford apartment in October of 1987, and he was sentenced to 25 years for extortion.....
"William went missing on May 18, 1988. He was last seen between 7 and 9 pm at his new business, the South End Seaport. He was last seen by his family on Wednesday. His wife reported him missing three days later on Saturday to East Hartford police. ...
"The Grant family had a party planned at the home for the Sunday after he went missing to celebrate their sons college graduation. The party had to be cancelled. Williams absence from the party really concerned his relatives because he was so dedicated to his family. ...
"The FBI, state police, and East Hartford police were involved in the search for the missing man. ... Law enforcement believed he was the victim of foul play. They had little hope of locating him.
"But Lt. Bruce W. Haines stated that the investigation would continue, although they felt they would not be able to locate the man.
"Law enforcement believe that organized crime associates suspected that there was a connection between William Grants complaints about financially supporting Allie Boy, and Allie Boy quickly being arrested afterwards. The organized crime associates felt William had become an informant, and was responsible for the apprehension of Allie Boy. These suspicions worsened after Allie Boy was apprehended. The organized crime associates expected William Grant to be arrested for harboring a fugitive, but he was never officially charged. The crime associates also suspected William Grant of becoming an informant after Skyball was sentenced in 1988. The sources say there were other instances Grant was suspected of being an informant. In 1984, Skyball had defended William to Anthony Salerno, who was a powerful chairman of a commission of mobsters who regulated dealings between rival crime families. This conversation was one of many the FBI secretly tape-recorded between Salerno and Sciabelli during their investigations of organized crime.
"Law enforcement will not confirm that William Grant was an informant - or that an informant provided information leading to Allie Boys or Skyballs capture in the first place.
"When Allie Boy was arrested, one of the first things he said was, Somebody must have dropped a dime.
"Law enforcement believes William was lured to a meeting in the parking lot of Westfarms Mall in Farmington, and was killed. (This one spooks me out a lot. I have gone to that mall several times without realizing someone may have been lured to his death there.)...
"A federal grand jury began investigating Williams disappearance. Persico was asked to testify during the investigation. Persico was serving a 25-year sentence for extortion at a federal prison in Lompoc, California at the time. He was transported to New Haven to testify.
Salvatore (Mickey) Caruana also was given protection by Grasso in the1980s. He was the Patriarca family's principal marijuana smuggler and fled in 1983, following his indictment for distributing $173 million of marijuana. He went missing in 1984 and is believed to have been murdered.The sanctuary operation relied on two Grasso associates. First, Grasso had a guy inside the state Department of Motor Vehicles who was able to make phony identifications. Then, Hartford area restaurateur William (The Hot Dog) Grant, whom Grasso had put in charge of much of the gambling in Hartford, arranged apartments from a principal in one of the state's largest real estate companies. Grant disappeared in May 1988.Before Grasso lured him away (as part of a takeover attempt, Grasso ensured an alliance with Grant by "buying" his debt to the Genovese family), Grant had been a loyalist to Genovese capo Frank (Skyballs) Scibelli, who controlled Springfield for the Genovese crime family. Grasso had recruited both Grant and John (Sonny) Castagna, a Hartford gangster who would later flip and join the Justice Department's witness relocation program.Not long after Grasso's 1973 return to Connecticut from a prison in Atlanta (where he had gotten his "big break" when he shared a cell with Raymond Patriarca Senior), he embarked on a spree, seizing chunks of Connecticut and pushing into Western Massachusetts and toward Springfield for the Patriarca family. At the same time, wiseguys in those places who posed rivalries to the Patriarca family (and/or Grasso) began getting shot, blown up, or vanished off the face of the earth.
Jenny dies without us learning anything more about her disease, but it has to be AIDS, right? She had been a drug addict and a prostitute, and she dies in 1982, the same year the media first reported on it. Surely this is an extremely dark twist on Gump's 20th-century retrospective? The movie's fans widely assume it's AIDS, discussing it as a given, and the University of Pennsylvania has an essay discussing how Jenny's poor life choices ended with her contracting AIDS. Even Family Guy did a bit on how Forrest is too dumb to grasp the implications of sex with an HIV-positive woman.
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But the movie never actually says "AIDS." Jenny drops dead of Plot Convenience Syndrome, and viewers rushed to assumptions based on the fact that she slept around. The sequel to the original novel, Gump And Co., clarifies that it was in fact meant to be hepatitis C. That fits the timeline perfectly. Hep C wasn't identified until 1989, but "non-A, non-B hepatitis" was acknowledged as a mysterious new disease in 1981, the same year Jenny reveals her condition to Forrest. Granted, it did have a name, but it's not unreasonable to assume that Jenny left as many multi-syllabic words as possible out of her explanation to Forrest. At least you don't have to worry about Forrest and his son suffering slow, painful deaths after the movie anymore.
In 1965, six boys in Tonga decided they were sick of boarding school. So the kids, ages 13 through 16, stole a boat and sailed off, hoping to sail to Fiji. They didn't have a map, and didn't have much experience sailing, so you shouldn't be surprised to learn their boat got caught in a storm and broke down. They drifted and finally landed on a rocky uninhabited island named 'Ata.
If this were a story written to teach us that humans are naturally brutish and need civilization to keep us from killing each other, the boys would have split into warring factions. If this were more of a fun children's story, maybe by Enid Blyton, they would have brought enough biscuits to survive but would have a tense encounter with smugglers. The most realistic outcome, you'd assume, would be that without rescue, the boys would quickly starve and die.
Instead, the boys stayed on the island for 15 months, peacefully and in good health. Early on, they ate fish and birds, but after they discovered the remains of a century-old settlement, with crops and chickens, they started farming. They collected and stored fresh water. They set up one area of the island as a gym, complete with weights, and another as a badminton court. They held organized music sessions and organized prayer sessions.
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Nearly a decade after the last installment of The Office aired on NBC back in 2013, it seems we haven't been able to stop thinking about what, exactly, made the series so special. A topic that has inspired podcasts and interviews, with the show's cast and crew sharing new behind-the-scenes stories what feels like every single day since the series finale, the sentiment of why The Office had and continues to have -- such a stronghold on our pop culture zeitgeist is the driving question behind Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office, a new book penned by Brian Baumgartner a.k.a the actor behind Kevin Malone.
Hitting shelves on November 16, the book is based on a series of conversations Baumgartner conducted with nearly everyone involved in the development, writing, and production of The Office, sharing a variety of new stories aimed at understanding why the series was so exceptional.
To me, art on every level from theater, film, television, whatever is infinitely more interesting when its about a question as opposed to an answer, right? If I just tell you why this is great, thats not so interesting, Baumgartner recently told the Washington Post of his approach to chronicling one of the most beloved sitcoms in history. So lets explore what happened and why now its popular.
From John Krasinski narrowly saving Jim from cheating on his wife, Pam, to the star-studded pool of actors auditioning for Michael Scott, here are four mind-boggling revelations from Baumgartner's book.
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Its actually a funny story when I met Willem for the first time. Obviously, at that time, all of the villains in the film, it was a huge secret that they were in the film," Holland recalled after the trailer dropped on Tuesday.
So just how secret is a huge secret" in the scope of the MCBTSU (Marvel Cinematic Behind The Scenes Universe)? Well, according to Holland, the identities of the villainous actors were so secret, that the actors were kept literally under wraps while filming the project.
"They would walk around set with these cloaks on, Holland explained of his co-stars' presumably mandatory fashion statements, a look seemingly designed to not only to give the entire set a 16th-century monastery vibe, but also to protect the cast from peeping paparazzi, secret snaps, or, more realistically, the threat of Holland spilling spoilers to the world for the umpteenth time, presumably much to the chagrin of Marvel overlord, Kevin Feige.
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Yet even with these bold looks that would make Benedictine monks weep tears of jealousy, a clumsy moment led Holland to learn that Willem Dafoe would be reprising his role as the Green Goblin, a character he first portrayed in Marvel's original 2002 Spider-Man.
I just sort of bumped into this guy in a cloak. I was like, Watch out, mate,'" he explained of his literal run-in with Dafoe. He took his cloak off, and I almost got really scared Oh shit, the Goblins here," he continued, adding that naturally, these guys were very excited to be coming back and bringing these roles back to life."
Top Image: Marvel/Sony
For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ on TikTok as @HuntressThompson_, and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
Christmas! My favorite time of the year! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Joy to the world! Right?
We all want to be happy especially at Christmas time. I love the story of a little boy whose dad promised him a new puppy. Tomorrow was the day! When they arrived at the pet store, the father turned to his Son and said, "Now Son, we're going to look at every puppy before making a decision. Right?" The little boy nodded. "We've talked about the responsibility of taking care of your puppy, so we need to be careful choosing that puppy. Okay?" Again, the little boy gave a slight nod to his dad. When they entered the pet store, they were greeted by a remarkable display of puppies. One little dog ran up to them, his tail wagging ferociously and a smile on his face (if puppies can smile and I believe they can). The little boy pointed at the puppy and said, "Dad, I want that one!" His father smiled and said, "Remember our agreement? To look at all of the puppies before making a decision?" The little boy's smile disappeared, but he agreed. After looking at every puppy in the store, the father and Son ended up where they started. The dad said, "Okay, Son. Which one will it be?" The little boy could hardly contain his excitement as he pointed to the puppy they had seen when they walked in. "I want that one! I want that one with the happy ending!"
Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year, a time filled with joy. Unfortunately, it can also be the hardest time of year to find joy. The holidays can magnify a person's sense of loneliness and loss. The reality is that everyone has problems and sources of unhappiness in their lives. Christmas won't change any of that. But what if this Christmas is different?
I believe the Advent season is not just a date on the calendar. It's a way of life. Advent can be an adventure when God takes us from where we are to places we would never be able to go without him. And here's a story to help us adventure from sorrow to joy. It's the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Scripture says that Mary was from a town called Nazareth.
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"In the days of Herod, king of Judeathe angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin, and the virgin's name was Mary." (Luke 1:5,27)
Nazareth was a small town in 1st century Israel during the time of King Herod, the Great. Nobody understood sorrow better than Mary's people. It had been generations since they were a nation in their own right. King Herod the great was not great. He wasn't even their true king. The conquering Roman Empire gave him the title for political reasons. Herod ruled Mary's country with an iron fist. Roman soldiers were everywhere, and they were brutal toward anyone they thought was getting out of line. The people were being taxed up to 90%, losing their land and homes. So, 1st century Israel was a pretty sad place. And Nazareth was at the bottom of the totem pole in a nation that was already at the bottom. Archeologists tell us that Nazareth might have been a town of no more than 150 people. Nazareth's only claim to fame at the time was that it had a red-light district for Roman soldiers. When the boys in the army got a few days off, they headed to Nazareth, looking for cheap wine and cheap women.
Mary was an ordinary teenage girl of probably no more than 13 or 14 years of age. She was engaged to Joseph, and beyond that, we don't know anything about her. But it's safe to say she felt the humiliation of her people.
And then the adventure begins.
"The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.' 'How will this be,' Mary asked the angel, 'since I am a virgin?' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'" (Luke 1:28-34)
Since angels don't just show up every day, I imagine Mary was rattled. I mean, seriously? There's an angel in her living room. The angel says, 'Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! God is with you! You're going to have a baby, and the baby will be God's only Son.'" Since Mary had taken a 7th-grade health class, she asks the obvious question, "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" I'm sure Mary wondered how that could be possible physically. But I also think she wondered why God would choose someone like her from a place like Nazareth to be the mother of Jesus. How could she have a baby who would change the world and set her people free? I wonder if she was thinking, "Look around, Mr. Angel. I live in the armpit of Israel. This place is a dump. Are you kidding me? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? The Son of God whose kingdom will never end is going to be from Nazareth?
God often takes the most broken to do the most unlikely, to accomplish his greatest work. In her confusion and doubt, Mary stepped out in faith. "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled." God always honors faith and turns sorrow into joy.
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"Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on, all generations will call me blessed." (Luke 1:46-48)
Maybe her source of joy is in the fact that she is going to have an amazing baby. But He was also going to turn her life upside down and create more problems not less in her life. She was engaged to Joseph. What was her fiance going to think? What were people in her little town going to say behind her back? What is the source of this joy? Remember, at the beginning of the story, Mary gets a greeting card of sorts. The angel says, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Don't miss this!
We don't find God's favor because we are better than others. The word "favor" here means "grace." It's saying, "You are receiving grace." And "grace" literally means "gift." Gifts are free. You don't do anything to deserve a gift. The angel is saying, "You are the recipient of God's grace. The Lord is with you!" And I believe that greeting is the source of Mary's joy. The words "happiness" and "joy" are not the same thing. Happiness comes from the word "happenstance" and depends on our circumstances. But joy is different. Joy is a deeply rooted confidence that God is in control no matter what is happening. Our inward attitude does not have to reflect our outward circumstances. Mary's joy comes when she is told that she was highly favored, and God was with her.
She's about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime - which was terrifying. But it became a journey of joy because she knew she was favored and that the Lord was with her.
Jesus is saying the same thing to you that He said to Mary so long ago. "Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you." You are highly favored by God Himself. Not because of who you are or what you've done but because you are His child, and He cherishes you.
I know what you may be thinking! If I am highly favored, and God's with me, why is my life so hard? Why aren't I happy or at least happier?" Because God's favor and God's presence are not meant to bring us happiness, they're meant to bring us joy. We all have problems. Jesus said it Himself, "In this world, you will have trouble." (John 16:33) As long as I'm in this world, trouble is not optional, but joy is possible. I believe the adventure God wants to experience this Christmas is an adventure toward more joy, and it starts with "Greetings to you who are highly favored. God is with you."
Jesus is called Emmanuel, which means "God with us." It's a gift. You are loved. That's the first thing. So, claim the greeting for yourself today. And here's the second thing. Don't just claim it for yourself today. Claim it for yourself - every day. Write "Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you" on a post-it note and stick it on your computer or your dashboard. Make it your screensaver. Write it on your bathroom mirror.
Life is hard, but joy is a gift God wants to give you through a personal relationship with the one conceived in Nazareth and born in Bethlehem. Being a follower of Christ is not easy, but it is an adventure because it brings your life purpose. First, we receive God's love and grace and then share it with others. The kind of Christmas you will have this year depends on where you choose to focus. Focus on your sorrows, and you will mourn through Christmas. Focus on your joys, and you will celebrate through Christmas.
How do we do this? First, follow the example of Jesus.
"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame." (Hebrews 12:2, NLT)
Jesus had to endure the cross, but He chose to do it with joy and the end result in mind. Let me share a story from my book, Escaping the Stress Trap, that sums up the message and adventure of Christmas.
It was Christmas Eve, and the family was preparing to attend the church service. Everyone was going except Dad. He could not understand the story of the baby in a manger born to save the world. As his family went into the cold wintry night, the man added a log to the fire and settled into his favorite chair to wait for his family's return. A knock at the window startled him. Glancing outside, he was stunned to see that the knocking sound was a small bird desperately trying to reach the warmth of the fire. The man opened the window, but the bird ignored him. He tried opening the front door, but the bird again refused his offer. The kind-hearted man finally grabbed his coat and stepped into the Christmas night. He trudged through the snow, determined to save the tiny bird by opening the barn doors. Still, the bird rejected his plan. The man thought, "If only I could be a bird, for just a moment, I could lead the bird to safety." But then, the sound of church bells suddenly rang through the cold night and he knew. He finally understood the reason Jesus came - to be one of us to lead us into the safety of His will and the certainty of eternal life.
"Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you." I pray that this Christmas is the greatest adventure of your life! Merry Christmas!
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Mary Southerland is also the Co-founder of Girlfriends in God, a conference and devotion ministry for women. Marys books include, Hope in the Midst of Depression, Sandpaper People, Escaping the Stress Trap, Experiencing Gods Power in Your Ministry, 10-Day Trust Adventure, You Make Me So Angry, How to Study the Bible, Fit for Life, Joy for the Journey, and Life Is So Daily. Mary relishes her ministry as a wife, a mother to their two children, Jered and Danna, and Mimi to her six grandchildren Jaydan, Lelia, Justus, Hudson, Mo, and Nori.
At its recent Ignite conference, Microsoft announced a new product targeted to businesses with less than 300 users or seats called Microsoft Defender for Business. Any small businesses that does not have an automated way to investigate intrusions and other security issues, or any sort of endpoint detection and response (EDR) technology in place should evaluate it. So should managed service providers that support small business or have connections to a small business that supplies to your firm.
Defender for Business ensures that you can monitor and control the native antivirus protection and pull in cloud protections and detections as Microsoft receives the security information from across its cloud properties. For small businesses that have not invested in EDR, the console will point out anomalies and identify when unusual events have occurred. The timeline functionality allows you to review processes on systems to determine what has occurred on systems and keeps a cloud forensic version of the workstation processes so that you can review it later.
Microsoft is also working on overview platforms for managed service providers that will allow them to monitor and proactively manage many customers at the same time. Called Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, it gives you a view of security incidents and alerts across customers onboarded into Lighthouse. An upcoming Microsoft seminar will provide more information for Microsoft Defender for Business.
If your business has access to Microsoft 365 E5 licenses and the Microsoft Defender Security Center, you are already familiar with the technologies bundled with this new offering. Any firm that has a license to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, this new offering will be included. If they do not, it can be added on with a $3 per user fee.
Microsoft Defender for Business includes the Threat and Vulnerability Management console that showcases weaknesses in the network so that firms can prioritize actions to take. This dashboard provides an overall exposure score of the issues in your network. It also provides a score of the risks for your devices that provides the risks to your applications, the operating system, network, accounts and security controls. This provides actionable information to ensure that small businesses are not entry points into larger enterprises.
Lucky for cyber criminals, but not so lucky for enterprise security pros: Theres a quick and easy way to get started in cybercrime known as dropper-as-a-service (DaaS).
Sophos researchers recently uncovered evidence of a malware campaign using a network of websites acting as a dropper as a service to distribute the malware. The malware includes an assortment of click-fraud bots, other information stealers, and even ransomware, and often bundle multiple unrelated malware together in a single dropper.
Sophos Senior Threat Researcher Sean Gallagher says his team found the offerings on a group of blogs, mostly hosted on WordPress, maintained by a criminal group and using them to post links to malware downloads.
It is a network of websites that were connected together; a criminal advertising network that works through search engine optimization, says Gallagher. When people go into Google and search cracked software they see advertisements that the products are available and that they can obtain tools that will allow them to get a valid license key to download the software package. But instead these sites are delivering packages of software that is actually malware.
In this instance, users seeking pirated software are the perfect target for the scam.
Its one more way in which criminals can get access, he says. These sites were advertised through underground bulletin boards to prospective cyber criminals. For low overhead you can get these tools and it requires little technical skill to run them.
In a world where remote work is the new normal, and more people are sharing work and personal devices, these types of malware campaigns pose a serious but little-known risk to businesses.
Its cyber street crime. Its not just a threat to people trying to download pirated software now. It is part of the larger background radiation of cybercrime on Internet, he notes.
The good news? Almost all these malware droppers are easily detectable, and all of them were found by using either signature or behavior products.
But awareness is still essential in protecting systems, he notes. Gallagher offers this advice for thwarting potential threats:
Review security software, settings and policies to ensure that you can detect and block malicious and unwanted downloads this includes having a robust approach to web filtering
Ensure that your endpoint protection is up to date, and that it has behavioral detection capabilities on all of the devices that employees use to remotely access work-related services
Educate end users on the dangers of downloading pirated software
Encourage employees to practice good cyber hygiene, such as using unique passwords, updating software regularly, and implementing MFA
Have users separate company machines from personal use
Use a multilayer security strategy to detect and remediate malware
Sophos also advises consumers to install a security solution, such as Sophos Home, on the devices that they and their families use for online communications and gaming to protect everyone from malware and cyberthreats.
Learn how you can detect these kinds of malware droppers on your systems at Sophos.com.
By Cynthia Hubert
Mia Settles-Tidwell is ready to lead Sacramento States charge toward becoming an antiracist university, but she says she cannot do it alone.
Were never going to get rid of bias, because we all have it, said Settles-Tidwell, Sac States new vice president for Inclusive Excellence and the Universitys diversity officer. But together, we can create a campus where everyone feels a sense of care and belonging.
The process already has begun. Last year, 80 students, faculty, and staff members developed the Antiracism and Inclusive Campus Plan, designed to be a roadmap for sustainable change.
Katherine Betts, director of Belonging Education and Support. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)
Settles-Tidwell and her team will lead the effort to gather further input from the campus community through informal roadshows and circles that begin at the end of November and culminate in an Antiracism Convocation on Friday, Feb. 25. The team plans to audit University procedures and practices, including those pertaining to the retention and experiences of people of color, and set timelines for implementing key changes.
We all need to be self-aware and reflective, and actively dismantle practices that contribute to exclusion and erode a sense of belonging, she said. We need to really look at how we are including or excluding people.
Settles-Tidwell has been thinking about her privileges and the effects of racism, sexism, and classism since she was a young girl growing up in the Bay Area. She attended honors classes, was a high school and college cheerleader, and received the encouragement and support she needed to succeed. However, other students whose families were less privileged than hers often were left behind.
I began asking myself the question, Why am I being given open doors, when others are not? she said. She concluded that privilege played a role, and decided she could use her privilege to be an agent of change.
Settles-Tidwell comes to Sac State with a strong background in equity and advocacy work for underserved communities.
Robert Reyes, director of Inclusive Excellence Learning. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)
She earned a bachelor of arts in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley, and a masters in Educational Leadership and a doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice from CSU East Bay.
Following in the footsteps of her mother, Queen, she worked in the Oakland Unified School District for more than two decades as a teacher, principal and network officer for the district. She ended her K-12 career as its first Black female chief operating officer.
In recent years, she has served as assistant vice chancellor and chief of staff for Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley. During her tenure, she curated and led the Disability Strategy Team, and consulted on various diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives.
Dr. Settles-Tidwell has a record of challenging institutions to examine inequitable practices, and has extensive experience removing barriers that impede success for students, staff, and faculty, said Sac State President Robert S. Nelsen, adding, she is just what the Hornet Family needs right now..
Settles-Tidwell will oversee a division that includes the Office of Equal Opportunity and the Office of Inclusive Excellence, with three new directors who have all joined the University in recent months.
Katherine Betts, director of Belonging Education and Support, leads the effort to increase belonging on campus and address and heal discriminatory experiences against individuals and groups on campus.
Lina Rincon, director of Faculty Diversity and Inclusion. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)
Betts most recently led African and African American Initiatives in the Multicultural Center at The Ohio State University.
Robert Reyes, director of Inclusive Excellence Learning, came to Sac State from the Los Angeles Unified School District, where he worked as a diversity and inclusion specialist, designing and developing workshops for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.
At Sac State, he oversees opportunities and programs in the classroom that support the Universitys commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Lina Rincon, director of Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, received her doctorate from the State University of New York at Albany and served as an associate professor at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. Her research focuses on understanding the experiences of people of color in various fields, including higher education.
In her new role, she leads and coordinates professional development programs for faculty that create inclusive and equitable practices in curricula, recruitment, tenure, and promotion.
The team, said Settles-Tidwell, is eager and ready to engage the campus on issues around racism and other forms of oppression.
We have a core of individuals who are committed to doing amazing things, with the help of people all across the University, she said. These are not just words. We are ready to get to work, and we really want to get things done.
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BALTIMORE (AP) U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved a long-anticipated document on Communion on Wednesday that stops short of calling for withholding the sacrament from politicians such as President Joe Biden who support abortion rights but offers plenty of tacit justification for individual bishops to do so.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' first major statement on Communion in 15 years, The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, does not explicitly address the debate over elected officials, abortion and the sacrament that has surrounded the document over the past several months and partly inspired its creation in the first place.
Instead, it gives an overview of church teaching, emphasizing the centrality of the Eucharist in the faith and worship and in part reflecting concern among bishops that many Catholics dont know or accept such teachings.
It was approved by a 222-8 vote at the conference's fall assembly in Maryland after receiving only minor revisions in recent days by drafters on the bishops Committee on Doctrine.
Drafters added a reference to defending the unborn along with other vulnerable persons, such as immigrants, older adults and victims of racial injustice. They also bolstered the definition of scandal as weakening the resolve of other Catholics to follow church teachings.
The latter revision came in a passage reaffirming a 2006 statement saying its a scandal if a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly or obstinately to reject the churchs doctrines or moral teachings.
The document does not identify Biden or other politicians by name, though it says at one point, Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.
It calls on Catholics to examine their conscience and make sure they're in harmony with church teachings, and says bishops have a "special responsibility" to respond to situations that involve public actions at variance with the visible communion of the church and the moral law.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities and whose work includes advocacy against abortion, took the document as affirming the importance of our responsibility for the care of the souls of these politicians.
Naumann, wearing a facemask with the words REMEMBER The Unborn, called for bishops to find common ground where politicians agree with the churchs vision for the dignity of the human person. But he also urged them not to be afraid to fulfill our obligations to let them know how serious it is to dissent from church teaching.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, an outspoken critic of the president, asked colleagues to amend the document by quoting the church catechism and the Bible as saying anyone who creates scandal would be better off having a millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in ... the sea.
The proposal was met with silence when put to a voice vote and was not adopted.
The conference cannot dictate a blanket policy on denying Communion to politicians; each bishop has authority in his own diocese.
While some bishops have said they would deny the sacrament to Biden, the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that the president is welcome to receive the sacrament there.
Biden has said that Pope Francis, too, told him in a recent private meeting in Rome to continue receiving Communion. While the Vatican has not confirmed that, Biden did subsequently go to Mass and receive Communion at a church in Rome evidence that Francis did not forbid priests in the Diocese of Rome, which he oversees, from giving Communion to Biden.
The document highlights the centrality of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which says that when a priest celebrates Mass, the bread and wine is transformed into Jesus actual body and blood. It says Catholics can perceive this as a reality through faith, even though the elements appear to the senses to be bread and wine.
Some bishops have expressed concern over Catholics acceptance of the doctrine, citing a 2019 survey that found most church members dont believe in transubstantiation. Other researchers have questioned that finding, however, saying that when survey questions are phrased differently, higher numbers of Catholics align with church teaching.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, who is spearheading efforts to increase Eucharistic devotion, said the statistic that convinced the bishops there was a crisis ... was the fact that 75 percent Catholics dont go to Mass on Sunday. If people believed in the Eucharist, how could they possibly miss Mass on Sunday?
The document also says the sacrament is central to church unity and worship and leads to personal and moral transformation, motivating believers to take care of vulnerable people and, in a broader sense, the environment.
Bishops began working on the document after Biden took office, with some citing confusion over the president presenting himself as a devout Catholic despite his political stance on abortion.
The Vatican repeatedly sent caution signals to the U.S. bishops as they prepared the document.
The papal ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, on Tuesday urged bishops to listen before they teach, even in situations where some want to clarify confusion. And earlier this year, the head of the Vaticans doctrine office urged bishops to go slowly on the document, pursuing dialogue among themselves and with Catholic politicians.
Also during the fall meeting, bishops are launching a broader initiative to promote devotions centered on the Eucharist with plans for a major gathering focused on the sacrament in 2024 in Indianapolis.
Later Wednesday, Naumann expressed optimism about a pending request by the state of Mississippi before the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision permitting abortion.
Parishes and dioceses, he said, need to be ready for increased requests for assistance if the court allows states to ban abortion. Naumann touted a new program, Walking with Moms in Need, in which parishes assess and support programs for expectant mothers in their communities.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, as the first government lease auction under President Joe Biden laid bare the hurdles he faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The Interior Department auction came after attorneys general from Republican states led by Louisiana successfully challenged a suspension on sales that Biden imposed when he took office.
Companies bid on 308 tracts totaling nearly 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers). It marked the largest acreage and second-highest bid total since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017.
Driving the heightened interest are a rebound in oil prices and uncertainty about the future of the leasing program, industry analysts said. Biden campaigned on pledges to end drilling on federally owned lands and waters, which includes the Gulf.
Prices are higher now than they've been since 2018," said Rene Santos with S&P Global Platts. The other thing is this fear that the Biden administration is here for another three years. They're certainly not going to accelerate the number of lease sales and they could potentially have fewer sales.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Yet even as Biden has tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening efforts against global warming, including at this months UN climate talks in Scotland, hes had difficulty gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration has proposed another round of oil and gas sales early next year in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and other states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.
Emissions from burning and extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The thing that is really bedeviling people right now is this conflict between the short term and long term when it comes to energy policy, said Jim Krane, an energy studies fellow at Rice University in Houston. We still need this energy system that is basically causing climate change, even as were fighting climate change.
Wednesday's livestreamed auction invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) about twice the area of Florida. Federal officials estimated prior to the sale that it could lead to the production of up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Shell Offshore Inc., the largest leaseholder in the Gulf, said the 20 tracts on which it successfully bid $17.9 million could offer development opportunities near existing platforms or new areas.
The need absolutely continues for continued competitive leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, said Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski.
Chevron USA was the top bidder, offering almost $49 million for 34 tracts. BP Exploration and Production had $30 million in high bids on 46 tracts, and Anadarko US Offshore had almost $40 million in high bids including the day's highest bid, $10 million on 30 tracts.
ExxonMobil bid nearly $15 million in two areas off the Texas shoreline in the northwest Gulf.
Those 94 tracts are in shallow water less than 656 feet (200 meters) deep where oil has mostly played out and there are few active leases.
Not far away in the Houston Ship Channel, Exxon is pursuing a government-industry collaboration that would raise $100 billion to capture carbon dioxide from industrial plants, carry it away in pipelines and inject it deep under the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS.
The Exxon bids have to be a play on their proposed CCS project, said Justin Rostant with industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
ExxonMobil spokesperson Todd Spitler declined to say if there was a link between its bids and the carbon capture proposal. The company is evaluating the subsurface geology for future commercial potential" and will work with the Interior Department on its plans after leases are awarded, he said.
Shallow waters have typically been more attractive to smaller oil firms with less to spend on costly deep water exploration, said Rice University's Krane. As managing carbon becomes more viable, he said, shallow tracts will become attractive for things beyond oil production.
Environmental reviews of the lease auction conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer climate-changing emissions than leaving it.
Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson, whose work was cited by judges in one of the cases, said the Interior Department's analysis had a glaring omission: It excluded greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that result from having more Gulf oil enter the market.
Federal officials recently changed their emissions modeling methods, citing Ericksons work, but said it was too late to use that approach for Wednesday's auction.
An attorney for environmental groups challenging Wednesday's sale in federal court said it was based on incorrect data that doesn't reflect its impact on the environment.
It's basically a giveaway to industry of millions of acres of the Gulf of Mexico so they can lock in production for years, at a time when we need to be shifting away from fossil fuel development," said Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.
Federal officials have 90 days to award or reject the bids.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery spoke publicly about the killing for the first time Wednesday, testifying at his murder trial that the 25-year-old Black man forced him to make a split-second life or death decision by attacking him and grabbing his shotgun.
I was thinking of my son," a teary Travis McMichael told the jury of the moment before he pulled the trigger. "It sounds weird, but thats the first thing that hit me.
He was the first witness called as defense attorneys for the three white men charged in Arbery's death opened their case, building on arguments that their clients were lawfully trying to stop burglaries in their neighborhood and that McMichael opened fire in self-defense.
The Feb. 23, 2020, shooting of Arbery after he was spotted running in the defendants' neighborhood deepened a national outcry over racial injustice after cellphone video of his death leaked online two months later. The slain man's family got support not only from civil rights activists, but also from powerful figures including Georgia's governor and President Joe Biden.
The three men on trial Travis McMichael; his father, Greg McMichael; and neighbor William Roddie Bryan have had virtually no defenders aside from for their attorneys. Travis McMichael's testimony marked the most personal and detailed account yet of why the men suspected Arbery of wrongdoing and why McMichael shot him.
He had my gun, McMichael, 35, testified. He struck me. It was obvious that he was attacking me, that if he would have gotten the shotgun from me, then this was a life or death situation, and Im going to have to stop him from doing this so I shot.
He said warnings between neighbors and social media chatter about car break-ins and suspicious people had been increasing since 2018 when he moved in with his parents in the Satilla Shores subdivision just outside the port city of Brunswick.
A man building a house five doors down from the McMichaels installed security cameras after items were stolen from a boat in his open garage. Those cameras recorded Arbery inside on four nights and on the day he was killed.
Travis McMichael said he was aware of the theft when he spotted Arbery, whom he didn't know, lurking and creeping outside the unfinished home on Feb. 11, 2020. He testified that when he tried to confront the man, Arbery reached for his waistband. McMichael fled and called 911.
Im not going to chase or investigate somebody who might be armed, he testified.
But he did chase the same man 12 days later, after his father came running into the house in almost a frantic state and told him the guy who has been breaking in down the road had run past their house. Father and son armed themselves and headed out in Travis McMichael's pickup truck.
They came upon Arbery running, and McMichael said he drove next to him, yelling at Arbery to stop so they could talk. McMichael said that when he told Arbery police are on the way, Arbery ran faster deepening his suspicion of the man.
A Black pickup driven by Bryan eventually joined the pursuit. It was Bryan who recorded the shooting on his cellphone.
McMichael had stopped and gotten out of his truck. Bryan's cellphone video shows Arbery running toward the truck. McMichael is standing with his shotgun by the driver's side door and his father in the truck bed.
McMichael testified that he pointed his gun at Arbery saying his intent was to get him to back off and Arbery then turned and ran around the passenger side.
McMichael said Arbery attacked him immediately: Hes at the front quarter panel on the right hand side and he turns and is on me. And it is on, in a flash.
In the video, the truck blocks the view until after the first gunshot is fired. The video then shows both men with hands on the gun as a bleeding Arbery punches McMichael. After the third shot, Arbery turns to run, then falls facedown in the street.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy said only two of the shotgun blasts hit Arbery, but each struck at close range. One punched a hole in the center of his chest. The other severed an artery near his left armpit and fractured his arm.
Authorities say the McMichaels and Bryan chased Arbery for five minutes before the shooting, using their trucks to cut off Arbery's escape. Greg McMichael told police they had him trapped like a rat. Bryan said he used his truck to run Arbery off the road several times.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Arberys mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said: Mr. Travis McMichael killed my son all on assumptions. He didnt know where Ahmaud was coming from or what Ahmaud had done. He just took actions into his own hands.
Bryans attorney, Kevin Gough, argued Wednesday that Bryan never intended to harm Arbery and never tried to hide his involvement in the pursuit. He noted that Bryan openly shared his video the key piece of evidence with police officers at the scene.
The defense began its case after Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley denied a request from defense attorneys to ban prominent civil rights leaders and other high-profile visitors from the courtroom, where seating has been limited because of COVID-19 precautions.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson sat with Arbery's parents in court for the second time this week. The defendants' attorneys have said Jackson's presence and that of others who have spoken in support of convictions could unfairly influence the jury.
The trial is taking place before a disproportionately white jury at the Glynn County courthouse in coastal Georgia.
Arbery, 25, had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing to study to become an electrician like his uncles when he was killed.
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Associated Press reporter Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Ron Chapple / Getty Image
A Guilford man pleaded not guilty Tuesday after police found hundreds of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse on his cell phone, according to federal officials.
Police seized the mans phone on Jan. 9, 2019 while they were arresting him at his home for state charges from Rhode Island, authorities said. At the time, 37-year-old Christopher Michaelson of Guilford was charged with molestation, solicitation and enticement, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) Kyle Rittenhouse's attorneys asked the judge to declare a mistrial even as the jury in the murder case was deliberating Wednesday, saying the defense received an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video from prosecutors.
Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request, the second mistrial motion from the defense in a week. The jury deliberated a second full day without reaching a verdict and will return in the morning.
At issue was a piece of drone video that prosecutors showed to the jury in closing arguments in a bid to undermine Rittenhouse's self-defense claim and portray him as the instigator of the bloodshed in Kenosha in the summer of 2020. Prosecutors said the footage showed him pointing his rifle at protesters before the shooting erupted.
Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi said the defense initially received a smaller compressed version of the video and didn't get the higher-quality larger one used by the prosecution until the evidence portion of the case was over.
He said that the defense would have approached things differently if it had received the better footage earlier and that it is now asking for a level, fair playing field.
He said the mistrial request would be made without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could still retry Rittenhouse.
Last week, the defense asked for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning Rittenhouse could not be put on trial again. That request was prompted by what the defense said were improper questions asked by prosecutor Thomas Binger during his cross-examination of Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial on homicide and attempted homicide charges for killing two men and wounding a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle during a tumultuous night of protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Black man, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse, a then-17-year-old former police youth cadet, said he went to Kenosha to protect property from rioters.
He shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28. Rittenhouse is white, as were those shot. The case has become a flashpoint in the debate over guns, racial injustice, vigilantism and self-defense in the U.S.
He could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.
The dispute over the video erupted after the jurors asked to rewatch footage on Day 2 of their deliberations.
Defense attorneys said they would object to the jury viewing the drone video. The same footage prompted heated dispute earlier in the trial over technical questions of whether a still image taken from the video was distorted when it was enlarged.
The prosecution contends the video proves Rittenhouse lied on the stand when he said he didnt point his rifle at protesters. But the key moment in the video is hard to decipher because of how far away the drone was and how small a figure Rittenhouse is in the frame.
A smaller file size or lower-resolution video file is fuzzier and grainier, particularly if played on a larger screen, said Dennis Keeling, adjunct professor in the cinema and television arts department at Columbia College Chicago. Thats why people working with video footage are careful to check file size, length and other details after making a copy to ensure the new version is what they wanted, he added.
Prosecutors told the judge Wednesday that the jury saw the highest-quality version during the trial and that it was not the state's fault that the file size got smaller when received by the defense.
Were focusing too heavily on a technological glitch," prosecutor James Kraus said.
The judge said he had qualms about admitting the video during the trial, but because it had already been shown in court, he would allow the jury to rewatch it during deliberations.
But if it turns out the video should not have been admitted into evidence, its going to be ugly, Schroeder warned.
He said the mistrial request will have to be addressed if there is a guilty verdict.
If Rittenhouse is acquitted, the issue will be moot. But if he is found guilty, a mistrial ruling would essentially void the verdict.
Julius Kim, a Milwaukee-based defense attorney who has been watching the case, said a mistrial could be declared even if the judge finds it was an honest mistake or a technical problem.
But to win a mistrial, the defense will have to meet a high bar and explain to the judge why what happened actually hurt Rittenhouse, said Ion Meyn, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
You cant just say, The state gave me a lower-quality video and therefore I get a mistrial," Meyn said. Thats a losing argument for sure.
Earlier in the day, the judge criticized news coverage of the case and second-guessing from legal experts in the media, saying he would think long and hard about allowing televised trials in the future.
He took exception to news stories about his decisions not to allow the men Rittenhouse shot to be called victims and to let Rittenhouse draw the lots that determined which jurors were alternates. The judge also complained about criticism that he had yet to rule on the earlier mistrial request.
Schroeder said he hadn't had a chance to read the motion because he had just received it and wanted to give the state a chance to weigh in.
Its just a shame that irresponsible statements are being made, the judge said of comments in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story from law school professors.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis; Bauer from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan; Kathleen Foody from Chicago.
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Find the APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
WASHINGTON (AP) Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary who holds the purse strings to much of President Joe Bidens $1 trillion infrastructure package, was holding forth with reporters on its impact the promise of more electric cars, intercity train routes, bigger airports when a pointed question came.
How would he go about building racial equity into infrastructure?
The 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate laid out his argument that highway design can reflect racism, noting that at least $1 billion in the bill will help reconnect cities and neighborhoods that had been racially segregated or divided by road projects.
Im still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a white and a Black neighborhood ... that obviously reflects racism, he said.
Racial equity is an issue where Democratic priorities and Buttigiegs future align. One of his greatest shortcomings as a White House candidate was his inability to win over Black voters. How he navigates that heading into the 2022 midterms will probably shape the fortunes of Bidens agenda and the Democratic Party, if not his own prospects.
Republicans seeking to exploit the issue pounced on Buttigieg's words.
I heard some stuff, some weird stuff from the secretary of transportation trying to make this about social issues, said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. To me, a road's a road. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted sarcastically: The roads are racist. We must get rid of roads.
But Buttigieg didn't engage and was off to his next stop, the climate summit in Scotland. There he stood for almost a dozen interviews as he promoted provisions of Biden's bill that would build a network of electric vehicle charging stations. He also engaged with young climate activists and took photos with former President Barack Obama.
On racism in roadways, he said simply: I dont know who it hurts to acknowledge that harm was done and to propose doing something to fix it.
His department later announced it would grant extra discretionary aid to help as many as 20 U.S. communities remove portions of interstates, redesign rural main streets and repurpose former rail lines. That could help places from Syracuse, New York, where many residents back a plan to tear down portions and build a walkable grid, to racially divided areas in New Orleans and St. Paul, Minnesota.
As Biden prepares to sign the infrastructure bill on Monday, eyes are turning to the man still best known as Mayor Pete, a newcomer whose promise of generational change and real-world sensibility of fixing potholes launched him to the top of the early Democratic primary contests during the 2020 campaign.
Quickly endorsing Biden after abandoning the race, Buttigieg now stands to become one of the more powerful brokers in Washington, handling the largest infusion of cash into the transportation sector since the 1950s creation of the interstate highway system.
Armed with that much money and significant latitude in how to spend it, Buttigieg is poised to be the most influential secretary of transportation ever," said Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation. The department was founded in 1967.
In all, about $120 billion of the $550 billion in new transportation spending in the bill would come in the form of competitive grants that give Buttigieg discretion in how the money is used.
A separate social spending bill pending in the House would pour billions more dollars into the Transportation Department, which already expects to see its annual budget surge by over 50% to $140 billion.
Its a whole lot of money, says Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois and transportation secretary under Obama, who in comparison presided over the release of $48 billion in transportation money in the 2009 Recovery Act. Since then, LaHood said, major federal investments in transportation have been stagnant, creating pent-up demand for road, bridge and Amtrak projects that can quickly launch.
Its both a boon and challenge to Buttigieg, who revealed in August that he was going to become a dad with husband Chasten. He took several weeks of paternity leave to care for the twins, returning in October as Republicans criticized him for leaving his post. More recently, he juggled time keeping watch over his infant son, who was ill for three weeks and hospitalized for a respiratory illness, while he worked to address national supply chain problems.
When somebody welcomes a new child into their family, and goes on leave to take care of that child thats not a vacation, its work," he said last month. Im not going to apologize.
Starting this week, Buttigieg will join other Cabinet members to pitch the plan around the country.
Look, a lot of this sells itself because communities never needed to be persuaded that their bridge needed to be fixed or that their airport needed an upgrade or that their ports needed investment, Buttigieg said. Theyve been trying to get Washington to catch up to them.
Anthony Foxx, who was Obama's transportation secretary from 2013 to 2017, said a big challenge will be the massive operational details in the department, where Buttigieg is supported by veteran hands. Many programs are new, requiring clear guidelines to states and localities on what they are eligible for and how the money is to be awarded. They will be managing multiple plans with very high dollar figures, creating pressure on administrative staff, Foxx said.
On Sunday, Biden named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who oversaw the citys rebuilding effort after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to be a watchdog on the disbursement of the money.
Once many programs are in place, after six to nine months, Foxx said, that's when the magic happens on what to fund and what may not cut the mustard." The winners would come in the form of hundreds of grant announcements for medium-sized road projects that could accelerate into spring 2023 with the first awards for multibillion-dollar bridges, intercity rail and New York's Gateway tunnel.
As a mayor, Buttigieg was attuned to calls to fix roads and potholes. He relished talking about state-of-the-art sewer system. Now that message will be national with the stakes far greater.
The currency of politics is exposure, and hes getting a lot of exposure, said Larry Grisalano, who was Buttigiegs advertising consultant.
At the White House, staff warmly refer to him as Secretary Mayor Pete, and Biden has compared Buttigieg to his late son Beau. The White House celebrated Chastens birthday with cupcakes. Youre the best, man," Biden said after Buttigieg spoke at the White House over the summer.
Yet in a city laden with ambition, Buttigiegs potential to move farther onto the national stage can make him a target.
Nina Smith, Buttigiegs former traveling campaign press secretary, said as Biden's top lieutenant on the bill, Buttigieg has the opportunity to lead an effort to eradicate past injustices." Buttigieg during the 2020 campaign was never able to win over large shares of Black voters.
Thats an added responsibility that I think hes very much aware of and making a central part of the work, said Smith, a Democratic political consultant.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Two people were charged Tuesday in the beating death of a pregnant woman whose body was discovered last week in Minneapolis. One of the suspects is a convicted sex offender.
Shannon Michael Benson, 42, of Minneapolis, and Jade M. Rissell, 27, of Elk River, are accused in connection with killing the woman, whose identity was unknown when police found her body in a burned-out travel trailer on Nov. 8. Police say they have identified the victim but are waiting for conformation from the medical examiner.
RENO, Nev. (AP) A 45-year-old Reno man is being held without bail on more than a dozen criminal counts after he was arrested following a five-hour standoff with a SWAT team that forced a lockdown at a nearby elementary school.
Police say Brian Earle had threatened multiple people and barricaded himself in an apartment on the southwest side of town Monday afternoon before they fired tear gas into the residence and he was arrested Monday night.
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) A former Craig city councilman convicted of internet luring of a child and other charges has been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in Colorado's sex offender supervision program.
A First District Court judge sentenced 50-year-old Brian MacKenzie on Friday, the district's attorney general's office said Monday. A Jefferson County jury convicted MacKenzie in September of internet luring of a child with intent to exploit, internet sexual exploitation of a child and attempted sexual assault of a child, the office said in a statement.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A former Pleasantville police officer has been charged with several counts in a child sex abuse case.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Tuesday in a news release that Alec Veatch was arrested Monday at his Norwalk home.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorkers in upstate communities seeing upticks in COVID-19 cases could again face more pandemic restrictions if infection rates fail to drop, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.
The Democrat later tweeted a note of optimism: saying shell direct the state health commissioner to relax rules like masks in schools if New York gets through the holidays without a spike.
Hochul didn't outline any specific COVID-19 protocols she could put back in place, or how she would define a decline or spike in COVID-19 rates.
But she said she's troubled by vaccine holdouts and signs of rising COVID-19 cases in parts of western and central New York.
At some point if the numbers dont start on a downward trend, were going to have to talk about larger protocols," Hochul said. "I truly hope the community at large will listen to this because it doesnt have to be this way.
Hospitals across New York reported 2,051 patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Monday, up 9% from 1,878 as of the previous Monday.
Hospitalizations have plateaued statewide since late August.
But hospitalizations are rising in Western New York and the Finger Lakes region.
And the rates of new COVID-19 positives per capita is higher in less-vaccinated rural counties along the border with Pennsylvania: just 40% of residents in Allegany County are fully vaccinated, for example.
The governor said anyone who feels theyre at high risk of getting COVID-19 should get a booster shot.
This area is a high-transmission area, Hochul said, speaking in Buffalo on Tuesday. She added: Anyone who personally feels that risk should get the booster.
NEW HAVEN A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request for an early release for former Bridgeport drug kingpin Adrian Peeler convicted of conspiring to kill a woman and her young son following impassioned pleas to keep him behind bars by the victims family.
Twenty years after he was last in court, sentenced to 25 years for the deaths of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy BJ Brown, and another 35 years in federal court for his drug operation, Peeler stood before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton and asked to be released for compassionate reasons.
I take full responsibility for all my actions that led me to be here today, Peeler told the judge. I sold drugs in the communityIt is something I think of every day.
Peeler said that during his 20 years behind bars he has turned his life around and worked hard to become a better person.
But while Arterton lauded Peeler for making progress while in prison, she said, Shockingly missing was any expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J. He didnt turn around to face them and simply say Im sorry.
The judge did reduce Peelers federal drug sentence to 15 years to reflect current sentencing guidelines but added that it will run consecutively to any state sentence he has remaining.
It was one of the most horrifying crimes in the citys history.
Clarke and B.J. were found shot to death in their East Side home on Jan. 7, 1999 just days before they were scheduled to testify in the trial of a major city drug dealer, Russell Peeler Jr.
Russell Peeler was convicted of ordering the murders of Clarke and Brown in state Superior Court. His initial death sentence was later converted to life in prison without the possibility of release after the death sentence was abolished in the state.
Adrian Peeler, who was identified by an eyewitness as the shooter, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury in Waterbury and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He would be scheduled to be released next April, according to court documents, but is also being held in prison on a consecutive 35-year federal sentence for drug dealing.
He requested Tuesday that the federal sentence be ended so that he will go free when the state sentence is completed next year. His father, Russell Peeler Sr. told the judge Adrian Peeler could come live with him in Las Vegas.
Holding up a large photograph of Clarke and B.J. during Tuesdays hearing, Oswald Clarke, Karen Clarkes brother, urged the judge to reject Peelers request.
There is irony in this man seeking a compassionate release, Clarke said, as Peeler, seated a short distance away, turned his head to avoid looking at the photographs. He had zero compassion for my sister and nephew. This man should not be on the streets, he will kill again.
Janet Gordon, Clarkes cousin, had testified during Peelers trial.
He has yet to show any remorse to my family for taking away B.J. and Karen, she told Arterton on Tuesday. In order to change you first must apologize for what you did. If he is released, Im scared for my family, Im scared for everyone who testified against him.
Both Oswald Clarke and Gordon said later as they left the federal courthouse that they were satisfied with the judges ruling.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Gifford vehemently opposed Peelers early release, calling the murders of Clarke and B.J. one of the most horrific executions in the state of Connecticut.
Killing witnesses is the ultimate attack on the judicial system, Gifford said, pointing out that the case resulted in the creation of the states witness protection program.
Bridgeport State's Attorney Joseph Corradino prosecuted the Peeler brothers for the murders.
The defendant is not a nonviolent drug offender for whom this legislation was intended, he wrote in a letter that was presented to the judge. He and his brother terrorized the streets of Bridgeport, destroying the very community that raised him, disgracing the memory of their mother who was a Bridgeport police officer, and leaving drugs and bodies in their wake.
TRUMBULL A local man has been identified after being involved in an armed standoff with authorities stemming from a domestic disturbance Tuesday night that sent a neighborhood into lockdown, police said.
Capt. Keith Golding said officers were sent to the area of Tashua Road on a reported domestic disturbance. He said before the units arrived, the alleged suspect fled from the house to an adjacent building on the property, armed with a gun.
The 911 caller reported the man left the home with a loaded gun and fired one shot in an unknown direction just outside the front door, police said. The individuals in the home were told by authorities to shelter in place as officers responded and surrounded the property.
Officers called in the Southwest Regional Emergency Response Team, which negotiated with the alleged suspect, Golding said. Police said 42-year-old Robert Zambrzycki, of Tashua Road, surrendered to authorities around midnight outside the residence after hiding in a boat on the property.
As police units were on scene, authorities locked down the area of Tashua Road and Madison Avenue that lasted through midnight. Zambrzycki was taken to St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport for evaluation after the incident.
Police said Zambryzcki was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm and first-degree reckless endangerment. He was released on a promise to appear and was given a Nov. 29 court date in Bridgeport.
An alert was sent to area residents and updates were posted on social media as the incident unfolded, informing residents of the police activity. Residents were told to remain in their homes and keep the doors locked until further notice as police investigated. Once the suspect was in custody, police canceled the alert shortly after midnight Wednesday.
There were no injuries reported during the incident, which Golding said remains under investigation.
Hugh Baileys column (CT in desperate need of new transportation thinking, Oct. 10), concerning state officials aspirations to widen Interstate 95 to fix regional traffic woes and how such plans could induce more congestion, is on target. Is it worth spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to widen the current roadway? Refurbished some 15 years ago, Bridgeports Interstate 95 has a limited service life which if extended indefinitely will cost more to maintain with each passing decade. So what new, economically and environmentally sustainable alternatives can be explored?
Commuters in the states southwestern corridor endure repeated traffic delays due in part to overreliance on Bridgeports I-95 viaducts and Route 8/25 connector, particularly at their interchange at Exit 27A. Redesign and replacement is called for. Planned in the mid 1950s, I-95 slashes through shoreline cities and towns, dividing neighborhoods and displacing walkable streets with noisy, pedestrian-unfriendly overpasses. Nowhere is this blight more impactful than in Bridgeports West Side, East Side and downtown neighborhoods. With the presidents infrastructure bill now law, state, regional and local planners should consider its provisions to study how this vital but hobbled economic lifeline should operate into the next century. Two alternatives are worth investigating:
A new Bridgeport Harbor tunnel
Imagine a widened I-95 achieving superior functional and aesthetic outcomes by placing most of the roadway, including the 8/25 connector, below ground; the new system would run beneath the harbor with room for added express and high occupancy vehicle lanes, streamlining traffic flow and eliminating shadows cast by viaducts currently lumbering over the Pequonnock riverfront, State Street and Fairfield Avenue, among many others important public urban thoroughfares.
Southwest Corridor Bus Rapid Transit
Adding new lanes below grade can accommodate flexible Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, service using express connections within and through the city. Avoiding sunk costs of light rail, BRT offers commuters a speedier, greener choice by taking thousands of passenger vehicles off the road. Successful in Europe and South America, BRT encourages walkable transit-oriented development in the urban core where it belongs.
Too often, Americans see images of Chinas progress in transportation innovation and ask what similar examples exist in the United States. Bostons recently completed Central Artery Tunnel replacement took over a decade to complete but more than paid for itself by attracting a cascade of new real estate and business investment after its obsolete eyesore I-93 expressway was buried below grade. Replaced with the pedestrian-friendly Rose Kennedy Greenway above grade, its success has spawned urban highway relocation and/or removal campaigns across the nation. New Orleans and Syracuse are following suit. In the Bronx, the obtrusive Sheridan Expressway will be replaced with a tree-lined boulevard. Nearby, in New Haven, a Connecticut DOT plan to reknit blocks severed by the canceled Route 34 connector is now flourishing with new development.
Bridgeport can achieve similar aims by recovering revenue-yielding urban fabric lost to highways over the latter half of the 20th century. In a 2015 UConn civil engineering masters research study by Kristen Floberg, the planner cites this loss stating: The most startling result (of the highways) is the change of density and diversity of land uses. From the passenger train station in downtown, a pedestrian can reach only 28 percent of the number of establishments that a 1913 pedestrian could in a 5-minute walk. If examined by land use, only a startling 6 percent of the number of residential properties can be accessed today, greatly diminishing the walkable nature of the city.
Although its population and real estate values hold steady, more work can be done to promote reinvestment in Bridgeports urban core. Placing emphasis on internal growth and reducing the regions contribution to greenhouse gases, a phased, tunnel-based roadway replacement in full or in part could greatly improve Bridgeports regional mobility as we know it, inaugurate a physical and cultural transition to using expanded mass transit and relieve the New Haven-Bridgeport-Stamford corridor from traffic headaches for many decades to come.
President Dwight Eisenhower, creator of Americas now aging Interstate Highway System, famously quipped: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. Just as I-95 and Route 8/25 spurred enthusiasm for Bridgeports suburban growth and lifestyle innovations during the decades following World War II, a new era of planning can turn the tide on Connecticuts outdated pattern of inefficient sprawl, making Bridgeport far more attractive to citizens, commuters and investors.
Michael J. Tyrrell, a Fairfield native, is a Boston-based consultant in architecture, planning and urban design. John J. Harrington, of Stratford, is an attorney in Norwalk and president of the Bridgeport Harbor Tunnel Organization, Inc.
There is no denying the crisis currently happening in our state regarding childrens mental health. Emergency departments around the state are seeing increased numbers of children in distress, waiting for admission for behavioral and mental health issues. Every one of these children are in various stages of crisis, and the longer we wait to find solutions for them, the worse the problem will become.
In late October, as chairs of the Childrens Committee, we held a two-day informational hearing to learn more from professionals about this issue, how widespread it is and how we can find solutions for families in need. The first day, we offered practical help for parents including how to find care, utilizing school resources, managing safety plans at school and home, and even addressed immediate diversions for children who self-harm. The entire video is on CT-N, and individual topics will be released on our Facebook pages for the next few weeks. The second day, we heard from state agencies and experts on their current plans to address the crisis, so that we may develop a plan to fill in the gaps in care.
What we know is there is both immediate and long-term need. Connecticut has numerous services for crisis intervention and entry-level care, but few know what they are, and how and when to use it. Mobile Crisis Intervention, a service available through 2-1-1, allows anyone to call for a mental health assessment, in-person. These are individuals trained in de-escalation and assessment of next needs the exact place you should call when your child is self-harming, having suicidal thoughts or in any behavioral health crisis.
This resource is wonderful, but underused, as shown by the overflowing emergency rooms. Even as an underused resource, it is still having trouble meeting the demands of the community. While the phone lines are open 24/7, the access is not 24/7. Evenings, nights and weekend coverage needs expansion. An immediate plan of action must include at least $4.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to hire social workers to tend to crises in the overnight hours, as well as make more clinicians available during the day. This one action will save lives, help keep spaces open for the most acute children in the emergency departments, and act as care coordination to the many places for entry-level and higher care available in the state.
Many other mental and behavioral health nonprofit resources are available across Connecticut, but when one talks to parents and even pediatricians, they just arent aware of them. In the last legislative session, our committee passed a law to require this information be given to every parent in school twice a year, and to every family who enters the emergency department for any reason, mental health related or not; that goes into effect in January. We must expand this and put that information in the hands of every pediatrician in the state. The state must also do a better job of sharing these resources with families. What good is access to care when parents dont know it exists?
The second immediate action is aimed at those children who arent at the entry level of care, but who also arent in need of residential care. These children, adolescents and teens have more complex needs than therapy-only intervention and require medication management. Ask any parent of these kids and theyll tell you that a psychiatrist who has a specialty in childrens mental health is hard to come by. Often theres a waiting list, or they dont take your insurance, if they take insurance at all.
This issue (which we will aim to fix long-term) means more are trying to access meds through their pediatrician, even if the pediatrician feels it is beyond the scope of their training. Therefore, many pediatricians use Access Mental Health, a tele-consult service for pediatricians to work with a psychiatrist to advise them on managing care plans for these kids in crisis. The result is helpful, but we need more. Again, an immediate influx of ARPA funds is required to provide greater staffing for the consultation lines, and to expand the service to include three additional follow-up telehealth services for families whose pediatrician utilized the service. Medication management is a long process, and both parents and pediatricians need help navigating the complexities of med management. We cannot forget that these families are also in crisis, and we must do something to help them immediately. This is a starting point to address immediate needs. We will need to have investments so that all levels of workforce development can be achieved in the entire spectrum of the mental health management of our children.
The longer-term solutions include payment parity for mental health providers, workforce development and retention incentives, requiring insurance companies to incentivize care coordination in pediatricians offices, and more. Childrens mental health care positions require difficult work and highly specialized training, yet they do not pay nearly at comparable rates contrasted with other health care roles requiring less stringent requirements. Refocusing how we approach childrens care is an important need; refocusing how we view the professionals caring for them, and ensuring they receive proper restitution, is just as important.
This is a problem not unlike a leaking boat the biggest hole requires an imminent fix, but without patching the smaller ones, as well, it wont take long for them to grow and become other weak points. Every day that this goes on, more children are in harms way, and some may struggle to recover over time. We are already communicating with our colleagues on how the General Assembly can help improve the situation. The reality is that to have a comprehensive solution to this complex issue, we will need policy adjustment, place more personnel and financial resources, and create efficient systems and make sure the community including all parents are aware of these changes and processes. In our minds, theres no more important investment of state funds and resources, nor one with bigger dividends then the investment in our childrens mental health and their well-being.
For detailed information on how and where to find help for your child, including a listing of providers by town, visit the Childrens Committee website to download their guide at https://bit.ly/3wHPXEB.
State Sen. Saud Anwar, who represents the Third District, and state Rep. Liz Linehan, who represents the 103rd District, are co-chairs of the Childrens Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly.
Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union ($3.3B, Knoxville, TN) is near the top of its peer group in several key performance areas including loan growth, member growth, and return of the member, Callahan & Associates proprietary scoring system of member value. Knoxville TVA Employees L.E.A.D. Academy is a new offering that helps the credit union achieve such results by facilitating team members understanding of each persons impact today, thereby paving the way for continued success tomorrow.
WHAT IS L.E.A.D.? In 2020, Knoxville TVA Employees rolled out LEAD Academy, a program to support the development of emerging leaders. The program consists of four sections geared toward different leadership levels. Each section requires 12 months to complete and builds off the teachings of the previous sections. The sections are:
NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler wrote to House Small Business Committee Monday ahead of todays hearing to discuss Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzmans vision for the agency moving forward. In the letter, Thaler expressed NAFCUs ongoing opposition to the provisions in the committees language from the Build Back Better Act that allow the SBA to directly offer 7(a) loan products to market, dodging current partners and community lenders including credit unions.
Thaler reiterated NAFCUs concerns with the language in the BBBA that would allow the SBA to originate and disburse loans to small businesses.
NAFCU has serious concerns that this provision does not require the SBA to work with lenders as they do with other 7(a) loan products and would allow them to make loans on their own should they so choose, wrote Thaler.
Thaler also highlighted that NAFCU and credit union members do support the concept of expanding access to small dollar business loans, highlighting credit unions utilization of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to fill the need for more access.
First it was known for the Black Friday stock market crash then for being the biggest shopping day of the year. The meaning may have evolved, but today, Black Friday is still a subject for stock market scrutiny. Which retailers look set to benefit? What can we learn from the price action of past years? And what factors help you trade the period? Well find out. But first, a history lesson.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday was originally the term used to describe the stock market collapse of 1869, when American investors Jay Gould and James Fisk caused a financial meltdown after a failed attempt to corner the gold market.
The modern concept of Black Friday, however, came about in the 1940s to entice people to the stores the day after Thanksgiving. Named for its tendency to contribute to traffic accidents, Black Friday later took on a new meaning as companies expected to make enough sales to put them in the black, or profitable, for the year.
It was not until the 1980s, however, that retailers began to slowly use the day as a marketing tool, culminating in its widely-held status as the most popular shopping day of the year in the 2000s. Today, Black Friday is more than just a US-based tradition; it has spread to some 20 other countries, including Mexico, Russia and Pakistan.
In conjunction with Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving that pushes online sales, the shopping period is seen by some analysts and market commentators as providing a measure of economic prosperity. That measure can then be used to predict the performance of other assets such as stocks.
The influence of Black Friday
Marketing gimmick or useful indicator; whats the overall influence of Black Friday? To answer, its worth examining its effect on retail spending and consumers, the economy, and the resulting effect (if any) on traders and stocks.
1) Retail spending and consumers
There is no doubt that Black Friday influences consumers to spend. Across a range of countries, the event is promoted as a rare chance to save money across a gamut of products, from laptops to lawnmowers, and historical media coverage of the event has featured stampedes in retail outlets as bargain-hungry punters battle for deals. In 2018, Adobe Analytics data shows $6.22 bn was spent online in the US, representing a 23.6% increase on the previous year. Furthermore, every Black Friday bar one has seen higher retail sales volume than any other date.
2) Economy
Black Fridays influence on the economy is more debatable. Some argue in favor of the Keynesian effect of spending driving economic activity, which puts more money into circulation and potentially buoys the economy. At a time when the US economy has shown signs of recession, consumer spending might be welcomed. But others say that the influence of the event is negligible, with only short-term effects observed. This is due in part to lessons from previous years, when many retailers have seen poor sales figures once the discounting has ended.
However, if stores decide to go another route and prolong discounts, profit margins can be eroded, potentially meaning staff cuts and increased unemployment. Knock-on economic effects of this could include decreased income tax receipts and a raised welfare burden, factors which raise an argument for Black Friday having a net negative economic effect.
3) Stocks/stock markets
The influence of Black Friday on stock markets and individual stocks is also less than straightforward. Perhaps predictably, a range of retail stocks can be expected to rise if sales expectations are met. Conversely, unexpectedly weak sales can suggest poor consumer confidence and a fragile underlying economy, giving traders reason to go short. But even if a given company has enjoyed strong sales, this performance has no bearing on its profitability or overall financial health, which are factors traders should consider when picking one stock over another.
Examining the impact of previous Black Fridays on financial markets gives an insight into the trends traders might expect to see following this key date in the future.
Black Friday and Stock Market History
While Black Friday history begins with the catastrophic 1869 stock market crash, the modern iteration of Black Friday has seen retail stocks making strong returns around the Black Friday period. This can be observed in the S&P 500where, in a ten-year timeframe, Bloomberg data shows a 5% return for retail stocks compared to an average 3% over a period of one week before Black Friday to one week after.
The Black Friday periods 2014-2018 are circled on the S&P 500 chart below. However, while such data suggests that retail stocks perform well over this period, stock pickers should be aware of the nuances between retail sub-sectors as well as the likelihood of online sales taking business from more brick-and-mortar reliant stocks, as well as additional fundamental factors that can move the market.
Black Friday retail stock performance: A snapshot
When measuring Black Friday retail stock performance, heres an insight into how 15 major global retail stocks did in 2018 over the period one week before to one week after Black Friday:
Closing stock price: Nov 16 2018 ($) Closing stock price: Nov 30 2018 ($) Percentage increase/decrease Amazon 1,502.06 1,690.17 +11 Apple 193.53 178.58 -8 Best Buy 66.43 64.59 -3 Burlington Stores 161.75 165.76 +2 Costco 231.02 231.28 +0 CVS 79.33 80.20 +0 H&M 3.49 3.63 +4 Home Depot 177.02 180.32 +2 Lowes 93.25 94.37 +1 Sainsburys 15.90 15.60 -2 Target 79.68 70.96 -12 Tesco 7.82 7.51 -4 TJX 51.49 48.85 -5 Walgreens 82.52 84.67 +3 Walmart 97.69 97.65 -0
Amazon reaped the rewards in 2018, enjoying its biggest shopping day in history on Cyber Monday. Customers ordered more than 18 million toys and 13 million fashion items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, according to Bloomberg data, and saw its share price rise to the tune of 11% over the two-week period from November 16 to November 30, as the table shows.
On the short side, while Target shares saw a dip of 12% over the same period, the fall can probably be attributed more to a wider fall in the stock market caused by trade wars and concerns about global growth than any other factors. This underlines the importance of traders considering a range of fundamental reasons that can contribute to moves during the holiday season.
Key considerations when trading stocks on Black Friday
Once traders have assessed the market and gained a feel for the retailers taking a lead in Black Friday sales, there are a variety of other considerations to make when trading stocks around this period.
Stock market liquidity : Trading around the holidays can seriously distort liquidity and Black Friday is no exception. With fewer traders on the desk, liquidity dries up and the potential for larger swings can increase especially as stop losses are triggered automatically and positions are ditched. Fundamental factors : These may give clues as to how consumer spending may go, allowing traders to consider certain retail stocks. For example, lower gasoline prices and strong employment figures could signal more spending power and company sales expectations being met. However, as mentioned above, its important to be aware of a whole range of other fact ors that can impact the market and overshadow any moves caused by consumer sentiment. Online vs brick and mortar sales: Brick and mortar retailers have lost ground to their online competitors in recent years and Cyber Monday threatens to take the crown in terms of total sales. To capitalize on this, it may be worth keeping an eye on stocks like Amazon and Best Buy which offer attractive online shopping deals around the holidays. Earnings usually arent released until January: Traders should also be mindful that company performance may not be entirely clear until earnings, which for many companies will be released in January.
What time does the stock market close on black Friday?
The stock market open on Black Friday is 9:30 ET as normal, but the market closes at 1pm. The market is closed for the whole of Thanksgiving.
Further reading on stocks and trading major indices
If youre interested in learning more about stocks, boost your equities knowledge with our helpful articles.
Crude Oil Trading Strategies and Tips
Crude oil is ranked among the most liquid commodities in the world, meaning high volumes and clear charts for oil trading.
Oil traders should understand how supply and demand affects the price of oil.
Both fundamental and technical analysis is useful for oil trading and allows traders to gain an edge over the market.
Traders should follow a risk conscious crude oil trading strategy for greater consistency and efficiency.
WHY TRADE CRUDE OIL AND HOW DOES CRUDE OIL TRADING WORK?
Crude oil is the world economys primary energy source, making it a very popular commodity to trade. A naturally occurring fossil fuel, it can be refined into various products like gasoline (petrol), diesel, lubricants, wax and other petrochemicals. It is highly demanded, traded in volume, and extremely liquid. Oil trading therefore involves tight spreads, frequent chart patterns, and high volatility.
Brent crude is the worlds benchmark for oil with almost two thirds of oil contracts traded being Brent oil. WTI is Americas benchmark oil, it is a slightly sweeter and lighter oil compared to Brent.
CRUDE OIL TRADING HOURS
WTI trades on CME Globex:
Sunday - Friday, 6:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (with an hour break from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day)
Brent trades on ICE:
Sunday - Friday - 7:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
CRUDE OIL TRADING BASICS: UNDERSTANDING WHAT AFFECTS PRICE MOVEMENTS
When trading oil, the two major focal points are, as with many commodities, supply and demand. Whether there was an economic report like a news event or press release or tensions in the Middle East, the two factors that will be taken into consideration is how supply and demand is affected, because this will affect the price.
Supply Factors
Outages or maintenance in key refineries around the globe, whether its the Forties pipeline in the North Sea or the Port Arthur refinery in Texas, must be monitored because of the effect it can have on the supply of oil. War in the Middle East leads to concerns about supply. For example, when the Libyan Civil war began in 2011, prices had seen a 25% rise from in the space of a couple of months.
OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) production cuts or extensions lead to changes in the price of oil. For example, back in 2016 when the cartel had announced their decision to curb global supply by 1.9% (see chart below), the price of oil has risen from $44/bbl to as much as $80/bbl.
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WTI and Brent Crude price reaction to OPEC supply cut:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, TradingView
Oil Suppliers: Similarly, with understanding the importance of OPEC, it is also worth knowing who the top global oil suppliers are, and this information can be fond from the EIA website.
Demand Factors
Seasonality : Hot summers can lead to increased activity and higher oil consumption. Cold winters cause people to consume more oil products to heat their houses.
Oil Consumers: The largest consumers of oil have typically been developed nations such as the U.S. and European countries. However, in recent times there has been a surge in oil consumption in Asian countries, namely China and Japan. As such, it is important for traders to pay attention to the level of demand from these nations, alongside their economic performance. Any slowdown could affect oil prices and demand may fall.
Correlation to Global Growth: The chart below shows the largely positive correlation between the price of crude oil and global growth. The Chinese and US economies being the two largest in the world are a great barometer for global growth. The chart includes their respective major stock indices which move in line with crude oil prices when the equity indices fall, the price of crude oil tends to fall and vice versa.
WTI and Brent Crude positive correlation with FTSE China A50 and S&P 500 chart representation:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, TradingView
Alternative Energy: While fossil fuels such as oil and gas continue to dominate cleaner energy sources, there is an incessant push towards sustainability on a global scale. This will definitely impact crude oil prices going forward which makes this a key factor to monitor in a crude oil trading strategy.
The impact of derivatives on the traditional valuations of crude oil have been thought by many to have destabilized the asset class. Simply put, the oil futures are thought to have reflected higher proportions of noise which do not reflect the fundamental data at the time. This is contentious within the investing community with some in disagreement with the above rationale, but it cannot be ignored that large speculative traders are becoming more influential with the flourishing derivative market.
Want to know more about oil? Here are 8 Surprising Crude Oil Facts Every Trader Should Know!
HOW TO TRADE OIL: TOP TIPS AND STRATEGIES
Expert oil traders generally follow a strategy. They will understand the fundamental factors that affect the price of oil and use a trading strategy that suits their trading style. Each trading strategy is different, risk management is an important component to consistent trading, like the effective use of leverage and avoiding top trading mistakes.
A comprehensive crude oil trading strategy could include:
Fundamental Analysis Technical Analysis Risk Management
Once a trader understands the fundamental supply and demand factors that affect the price of oil, he/she can look for entries into the market using technical analysis. Then, when a buy or sell signal has been identified using technical analysis, the trader can implement the proper risk management techniques. Lets go through an example using the steps outlined above:
Fundamental Analysis
On the 30th of November 2017, OPEC and Russia agreed to extend an oil production cut, which lead to a decrease in supply. The basic theory of supply and demand suggests that a decrease in supply should be succeeded by an increase in demand and consequently price. This is the fundamental analysis a trader would need to incorporate into their strategy in order to identify potential buy signals in the market.
WTI daily chart highlighting supply cut:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, IG
2. Technical Analysis
The next step would be to analyze the chart using technical analysis. There are a variety of technical indicators and price patterns a trader can use to look for signals to enter the market. There is no need to use many technical indicators, one that you understand well will do the job. A common yet very effective way to begin analyzing any chart is to identify the overall trend of the market. In this example, the implementation of simple price action is used to identify higher highs and higher lows which is suggestive of a preceding upward trend. This falls in line with our fundamental expectation of further upward price movement.
WTI daily chart showing preceding upward trend:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, IG
Once the bullish trend has been confirmed, the next step in the trading strategy would be to recognize possible entry points. Again, there are multiple tools and techniques to locate entry points but this example uses the Commodity Channel Index (CCI) indicator which moves into oversold terrirtoy shortly after the fundamental supply cut announcement was made. An oversold signal on the CCI advocates further price appreciation and the possibility of a long (buy) entry.
WTI daily chart with CCI indicator:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, IG
3. Risk Management
The final step in any trading strategy would be to employ sound risk management to every trade. At DailyFX we support the 1:2 risk-reward ratio guideline which basically means that the target level should be roughly two times more than the position stop-loss level. To manage risk, the trader could look to set a take-profit above the recent high and set a stop-loss at the recent low.
In this example, a recent swing low ($49.30) has been identified as stop level which is approximately $8 away from the entry price ($57.20). There is no recent high which in this case which would allow for a target projection using basic maths. With the stop distance being roughly $8 away from entry, a 1:2 projection could seee initial resistance at the $73 level.
WTI daily chart with 1:2 risk-reward ratio:
Chart prepared by Warren Venketas, IG
This sample trade would illustrate a positive risk to reward ratio. We researched millions of live trades in a variety of markets and discovered a positive risk to reward ratio was a key element to consistent trading. Additionally, at DailyFX, we recommend risking less than 5% of capital on all open trades.
ADVANCED TIPS FOR OIL TRADING
Advanced traders can incorporate additional information when setting up trades. Traders sometimes look at the futures curve to forecast future demand, CFTC speculative positioning to understand the current market dynamic and can use options to take advantage of forecasted high volatility moves or to hedge current positions.
Futures Curve: The shape of the futures curve is important for commodity hedges and speculators. As such, when investors analyze the curve, they look for two things, whether the market is in contango or backwardation:
Contango : This is a situation in which the futures price of a commodity is above the expected spot price, as investors are willing to pay more for a commodity at some point in the future than the actual expected price. This typically signals a bearish structure. Backwardation: This is a situation when the spot price is above the forward price for a commodity. This typically signals a bullish structure.
CFTC/Speculative Positioning:
The Commodity Future Trading Commission Report (CFTC) is important when trading crude oil futures. It provides traders with information related to market dynamics and therefore s can be a good way to gain a sense of where oil prices are heading. Movements in the CFTC managed money net positions typically precede the move in oil prices.
Trading via futures and options
Buying futures and options, a trader must use the appropriate exchange for the oil benchmark he/she wants to trade. Most exchanges have criteria for who is allowed trade on them, so the majority of futures speculation is undertaken by professionals.
Oil Investing
Instead of trading the individual market, a trader can get exposure to oil through shares of oil companies or through energy-based exchange traded funds (ETFs). The price of oil companies and ETFs are heavily influenced by the price of oil.
Major Oil/Energy ETFs:
Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE)
Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE)
United States Energy Fund (USO)
KEY REPORTS EVERY OIL TRADER SHOULD FOLLOW
Weekly updates on the amount of crude oil inventories in the U.S. are very important pieces of data for oil traders the release of which frequently leads to a bout of volatility. The inventory data is an important barometer for oil demand. For example, if weekly inventories are increasing, this would suggest that demand for oil is dropping, while a drop in inventories suggests that oil demand is outstripping supply.
American Petroleum Institute (API): The API produces a weekly statistical report, which highlights the most important petroleum products that account for more than 80% of total refinery production, while crude oil inventories are also included. This data is typically released on Tuesday at 16:30ET/21:30 London time. Department of Energy (DoE/EIA): Much like the API report, the DoE report provides information on the supply of oil and the level of inventories of crude oil and refined products. This is announced on Wednesday at 10:30ET/15:30 London time.
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO TRADE CRUDE OIL
Over the years, social media has become an increasingly useful platform to share ideas, pass on information and receive breaking news. This is the case for oil traders using #OOTT, which stands for the Organization of Oil Traders on Twitter. Here traders and industry leaders provide breaking news and key reports related to the oil market.
Looking to trade in a simulated environment to better learn strategies, tactics and approach? Click here to request a free demo with IG group.
The Star Casino in Sydney has launched a groovy new bar with an impressive food and drink menu that'll have you coming back for more.
Bar Nexus is the latest location for afternoon cocktails before a night out, to catch up with loved ones for a bite to eat, or for a beverage before your next theatre show.
With a mouth-watering selection to choose from your tastebuds will be dancing to the tune of a crispy chicken burger, a refreshing apple-flavoured cocktail and classic thickshake in this retro establishment.
Bar Nexus is lit up with neon lights and has been fit out with black marble tables and leather booths to create a retro look
Need a pick me up? The Popcorn Espresso Martini is also available at Bar Nexus
The drink menu features a Popcorn Espresso Martini with popcorn vodka, cold drip coffee and coffee liqueur and a Peanut Butter and Jelly Old Fashioned with peanut butter washed bourbon, strawberry jam and bitters.
For a fruitier variety customers can opt for an Appletini, with calvados, pisco and green apple liqueur, which has a theatrical mist-like bubble on top of the glass.
There is also a selection of craft beers to choose from to tickle everyone's fancy.
For something appropriate for all ages the new bar offers a range of signature thickshakes including an Oreo Biscoff shake, packed with Oreos, Biscoff, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
There is also the Kinder Bueno shake with Kinder Bueno Bars, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce and a Berry Bounty with Bounty Bars, vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce.
Bar Nexus offers a refreshing selection of contemporary cocktails and classic thickshakes for all occasions
For the foodies Bar Nexus serves up spicy chicken wings and fully loaded tater tots, covered in cheese, chicken, jalapenos, pickles and green onion.
There is a selection of burgers including the 'Take 2', with a double patty, cheese, maple bacon, pickles and buttercrunch and the Southern Chicken burger packed full of crispy fried chicken, white slaw, pickles and buttermilk ranch.
If you're looking for a vegetarian option there's the deliciously hearty 'Room For Mushroom' burger, with mushroom steaks, cheese, caramelised onion and a fresh salad.
A tasty selection of fried chicken wings, burgers and loaded tater tots are on offer
'If juicy burgers are calling, Bar Nexus Is answering. Dine in and check out the mouth-watering menu, carefully crafted cocktails and super-sized shakes. Make way for a new favourite in your life,' the website read.
The Bar, which opened on October 28, is located on Level G, Cafe Court, in The Star.
Customers can visit on Wednesday and Thursday from 5pm to 8pm and Friday to Sunday from 12pm to 8pm.
A pair of best friends from high school are celebrating the marriage of their son and daughter who fell in love despite being raised hundreds of miles apart.
Madeline Cohen and Adam Rosenstein, tied the knot in Colorado on October 24, 26 years after they were born within weeks of one another, reports People.
Their mothers, Ruth Cohen, 54, and Shery Rosenstein, 55, had plenty of visits over the years during which Madeline and Adam got to know each other and eventually, as teens, the two began keeping in touch of their own, going to his senior prom and becoming a couple in college.
In 2008, Adam popped the question on a bench in San Francisco the same one where he and Madeline had posed together as five-year-olds.
Madeline Cohen and Adam Rosenstein, both 26, met at four months old thanks to their mothers, who are best friends. They got married last month
Ruth and Shery attended high school together in California, where they became best friends.
Even as they moved to different parts of the country, they stayed close and as fate would have it, they both ended up pregnant at the same time, with the same due date in June of 1995.
Having a shared birthday seems to be the only place where this story didn't align: Maddie arrived a month early, in Atlanta, and Adam wasn't born until July, in New York.
They were raised far apart, he in New York and she in Colorado, but met for the first time at four months old. They would go on to see each other occasionally in the following years.
Adam claims there was a connection early on, recalling a visit when they were eight. They had lunch and played mini gold, and Adam said he and Maddie had a great conversation.
As they grew older, they learned through their mothers that they had a lot in common and experienced similar things at the same time. For example, both would win awards in the same week or get strep throat at the same time.
Ruth Cohen, 54, and Shery Rosenstein, 55, met in high school and California and remained best friends for years
While living in different cities, they both learned they were pregnant and had the same due date in June 1995, though Ruth gave birth first (pictured left: Ruth, right: Shery)
But they didn't begin a friendship of their own until a family visit in New York at age 14, after which they stayed in touch.
'She was the friend I could talk to about everything even the stuff I don't want to talk to her about,' Adam said. 'There was something about her that was so much the ideal and perfect woman in my eyes.'
When he was a senior, Adam asked Maddie to prom.
'Before I knew it, I was in New York dancing the night away with my best friend, and I realized my feelings for him were much more than friendship. As it turns out, he felt the same way,' Maddie told The Knot.
Adam also said he was excited to go to prom with his 'best friend,' and that night, they had their first kiss.
But they knew that having any sort of serious relationship wasn't 'practical' because they lived so far apart and would stay that way when they went off to college, with him attending the University of Rochester in New York and her going to Drake University in Iowa.
Still, miles away, they kept in touch with long phone calls and soon realized it was love.
In high school the offspring became long-distanced friends, and Madeline went with Adam to prom
They began dating while attending different colleges and both moved to California upon graduation
'Finally, during our second years of college, we decided our feelings could withstand the distance and we officially started dating on October 13, 2014,' Maddie said.
'We both had an "it's-now-or-never" moment,' she added. 'We knew there would always be a million excuses not to have what we want, but we basically said, "Screw it, it's time to make this happen."
'The distance wasnt all bad we got to travel the world together (he even visited me when I studied abroad in Italy!).'
The whole time, Madeline's mother Ruth insists that she and Shery weren't 'pushy.'
In 2017, they graduated from college and moved to California, where they lived 45 minutes apart.
Then, on October 13, 2014 the fourth anniversary of their first date Adam popped the question. He had the perfect spot in mind.
In 2018, Adam proposed on a bench in San Francisco - where they'd posed together as five-year-olds
'And so, the two moms who became best friends in high school got to celebrate their kids getting engaged over 30 years later,' Maddie said
'When we were five years old, our parents took us to a park in San Francisco and took a photo of us on a bench together,' he explained.
'Ever since we started dating, wed talked about recreating the photo in the same spot, but no one could remember exactly where it was taken.'
He tracked it down on Google Street View and invited Maddie to recreate the photo.
'Just before we were going to ask someone to take the photo for us, he got down on one knee and asked me to spend forever with him. I said yes!' she said.
Both Adam and Maddie's parents had flown in to celebrate with them.
'And so, the two moms who became best friends in high school got to celebrate their kids getting engaged over 30 years later,' Maddie said.
Finally, last month, they had a 'big family reunion' and married in front of 85 guests
The couple had originally planned to say 'I do' in November of 2020, but their nuptials were pushed back a year because of the pandemic.
Finally, last month, they had a 'big family reunion' and married in front of 85 guests.
'We always considered one another's family our family, and now we really are,' Adam said
After honeymooning in New Mexico, they've come back to live in Colorado to be near Maddie's mom, who is undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma
'I really feel like we were made for each other,' Maddie said. 'There were so many things drawing us to each other, I feel so lucky.'
A beauty guru has revealed her three-step regime for achieving dewy skin and radiant eyes - and it comes neatly packaged together for the ultimate Christmas gift.
Neha Prasad, who specialises in Desi makeup tutorials and beauty looks on Instagram, showed off her glowing skin - with nary an undereye bag in sight - on Tuesday with a side profile image of her face sans makeup.
She immediately divulged her secret concoction was none other than the Shelfie Stars Set by Danish skincare master Ole Henriksen, featuring three of his most-loved products.
'The perfect skin prep before makeup in one little box,' Neha wrote. 'Ole Henriksen have released some incredible curated Christmas sets featuring their iconic products.'
Neha Prasad, who specialises in Desi makeup tutorials and beauty looks on Instagram, showed off her glowing skin on Tuesday, with her followers quick to ask what products she was using
This particular $65 option she bought from Ole Henriksen includes the Banana Bright Eye Cream - which sells every three minutes at Sephora - the Dark Spots Toner and Truth Daily Cleanser
This particular $65 option includes the Banana Bright Eye Cream - which sells every three minutes at Sephora - the Dark Spots Toner and Truth Daily Cleanser.
'Excuse me your glow is unmatched,' said one of her 14,000 followers in the comments below her post.
'You look fresh,' replied another.
Ole Henriksen, 71, whose eponymous skincare line is beloved by some of world's biggest stars, is a firm believer that beauty starts from the inside out.
The renowned expert, who has even advised Australian-born Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, previously told Daily Mail Australia that skincare should never be rushed, allowing at least two minutes for each product to soak in for maximum results.
'It doesn't take much longer to do it in this way than it does to slap it on in a rush. It's a moment to give back to yourself - make love to your skin!' he said.
Just in time for Christmas: The Shelfie Stars Set by Danish skincare master Ole Henriksen
Age-defying: Danish skincare guru Ole Henriksen, 71, has previously revealed his secrets for radiant, youthful-looking skin
The Danish cosmetician, 71, whose eponymous skincare line is beloved by some of world's biggest stars, is a firm believer that beauty starts from the inside out
FOR HYDRATION
For supple, healthy skin, Mr Henriksen recommends his 'Truth Serum' ($182) and 'C-Rush Brightening Gel Creme' ($62) - but admits the real key to hydration is actually free.
He says drinking plenty of water is the secret to natural radiance, adding that you must 'hydrate, hydrate, hydrate' in pursuit of a glowing complexion.
Mr Henriksen also believes exercise is essential, noting: 'The skin must be kept in motion just like the body'.
He is known to perform 300 push-ups a day and run long distances barefoot, as well as being a long-time fan of yoga and dancing.
Mr Henriksen emphasised the importance of drinking plenty of water and eliminating junk food completely
FOR BRIGHT EYES AND CLEAR SKIN
Mr Henriksen laced many of his best-selling treatments with vitamin C, after learning about its healing and restorative benefits from leading cancer specialists.
Also among them are his famous 'Truth' collection and the cult favourite 'Banana Bright Eye Creme' ($54), which promises to stimulate the production of collagen and brighten dark under-eye circles like a natural concealer.
'It's light as a feather - it's makeup and eye care in one jar!' he said.
Mr Henriksen also raved about the 'Banana Bright Vitamin C Serum' ($96 AUD), which is the best-selling vitamin treatment in its category in Sephora Australia.
'It gets rid of dead skin cells to reveal a beautiful brightness,' he said.
Mr Henriksen laced many of his best-selling treatments (pictured) with vitamin C, after learning about its healing and restorative benefits from leading cancer specialists
FOR YOUTHFUL-LOOKING RADIANCE
Radiant skin starts when the sun goes down, according to Mr Henriksen, who says a simple night-time routine and enough sleep is the secret to the natural dewy finish everybody craves.
'The night is when skin repairs itself, so sleep is vital,' he said.
To achieve a youthful-looking glow, he believes it's hard to look past his 'Goodnight Glow Retin-ALT Sleeping Creme' ($88 AUD), which has been proven to improve firmness by up to 60 per cent in just four weeks.
Made with bakuchiol, a plant-based alternative to retinol, the cream reduces the appearance of fine lines and pigmentation by exfoliating dead skin cells, transforming the face overnight.
Mr Henriksen also recommends his best-selling 'Dewtopia 20% Night Acid Treatment' ($85 AUD), which has repeatedly sold out since launching in Australia in July 2021.
his latest product, 'Dewtopia 20% Night Acid Treatment' ($85 AUD), is unparalleled in its ability to transform tired skin while you sleep
The serum, which is packed with powerful natural ingredients such as aloe vera, Nordic birch sap and licorice extract, promises to nourish and brighten skin while you sleep.
'You can see the difference almost immediately,' he said.
Independent product review site Finder Australia declared: 'If you can afford it, this potent night serum will make a great addition to your skincare routine.'
A customer shows the brightening benefits of Ole Henriksen's $64 Banana Bright cream
Mr Henriksen's tips could best be described as the secret to celebrity skin.
The Danish skincare king has treated the the faces of pop icons such as Cher, Katy Perry and Madonna, as well as movie stars including Hugh Jackman, Charlize Theron and Vanessa Hudgens.
He has been photographed at elite events with some of the world's top models like Danish-born Nina Agdal and once gave a facial to the queen of the catwalk, Naomi Campbell.
He even enjoyed a long-standing professional relationship with the late David Bowie.
When it comes to his ultra-famous clientele, Mr Henriksen is characteristically humble.
'I view it as an honour to have worked with so many celebrities - the list is a mile long,' he said.
They are the fabulously bejewelled eggs which entranced the last tsars and tsarinas and could now sell for up to 25 million each.
Only the Russian Revolution cut short their creation, with goldsmith Carl Faberges St Petersburg jewellers seized by the Bolsheviks before he fled to Switzerland and died broken-hearted in 1920.
Now, the largest exhibition in a generation of Faberge imperial eggs, made as unique Easter gifts from the tsar for his tsarina, is being staged in London at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Fifteen of the astonishing creations have been gathered together, alongside other masterpieces.
The Diamond Trellis Egg (pictured) was given by Emperor Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter in 1892. This egg holds a surprise of an ivory elephant automaton, which was lost until 2015
The Colonnade Egg (pictured) was given by Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter in 1910. The egg's decorative elements portray the emperor's family: the four gold cherubs around the base represent his daughters, the doves inside refer to him and his wife, and the cherub on top symbolises his son Tsarevich Alexei
The Alexander Palace Egg (pictured) was given by Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter in 1908. The children and homelives of Emperor Nicholas II are celebrated with this jewelled and gold-mounted nephrite egg. Its shell is inlaid with oval miniature watercolour portraits of the couple's five children
The Basket of Flowers (pictured) features a basket containing a colourful abundance of enamelled wildflowers emerging from a bed of gold moss. The base was originally enamelled white to match the shell, but later damaged and re-enamelled blue. Queen Mary bought the egg for her Faberge collection in 1933
A spokesman for the V&A says: This is the largest collection on public display for more than 25 years.
It includes several never before shown in the UK including the largest, the Moscow Kremlin Egg, inspired by the architecture of the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow and featuring a music box that plays Tsar Nicholas IIs favourite hymn.
Also on display for the first time is the Alexander Palace Egg, featuring watercolour portraits of the children of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra and containing a model of the palace inside.
Another highlight is the Third Imperial Egg of 1887, found by a scrap dealer in 2011 one of the elusive missing eggs that was lost for many years. It still contains its surprise, a gold Swiss pocket-watch.
The Peacock Egg of 1908 contains an enamelled gold peacock automaton. The exhibition by curators Kieran McCarthy and Hanne Faurby illustrates for the first time the importance of Faberges London shop, which opened in 1903.
Three of the eggs on display are from the Royal Collection, owned by the Queen the Mosaic Egg, Basket Of Flowers Egg and Colonnade Egg.
The Cradle with Garlands Egg (pictured) was given by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. From 1890, the Imperial Easter Eggs' designs began to celebrate events in Romanov family life. This egg marks the family's joy at the birth of Tsarevich Alexei, a male heir, in 1904
The Winter Egg (pictured) was inspired by Russia's harsh winters. Its rock crystal body is decorated with delicately engraved and diamond-mounted platinum frost patterns
The Third Imperial Easter Egg (Pictured) was given by Emperor Alexander III to his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter in 1887. Seven of the 50 Imperial Easter Eggs produced by Faberge are now missing. This jewelled yellow gold egg was also lost until 2012, when it was rediscovered in America
The V&A spokesman adds: Royalty, aristocrats, American heiresses, exiled Russian grand dukes and maharajas, as well as socialites and financiers with newly made fortunes, all flocked to the London Faberge jewellery shop, the only overseas branch. They bought gifts of unparalleled luxury for each other.
The first egg, known as the Hen Egg, was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III in 1885. He and Tsarina Maria were delighted with its white enamel shell, ruby-eyed hen, gold yolk and miniature replica of the tsars crown. Faberge became the official imperial crown goldsmith.
Each egg was unique and after a few years it became established that each contained a glittering surprise element.
The Peacock Egg (pictured) contains a surprise of an enamelled gold peacock automaton perched on a coloured gold flowering tree. The peacock can be removed and wound up to walk and fan its tail feathers proudly
The total freedom given to the master jeweller, who delivered his creations by hand, meant they became ever more elaborate.
His Diamond Trellis Egg from 1892 contains a surprise of a miniature clockwork elephant, crafted from ivory, which was only discovered lying unidentified in the Queens collection six years ago.
Nicholas II, who became tsar in 1894 but was executed with his wife and children by communist revolutionaries as Lenin swept to power in 1917, continued the tradition.
Poignantly, the 1915 Red Cross Egg reflects the much-needed battlefield healthcare in Russias disastrous involvement in World War I against Germany.
Faberges lucrative contract only came to a definitive end in 1918 when the Bolsheviks seized the company, the largest jewellers in Russia.
The Hen Egg (pictured) was given by Emperor Alexander III to his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter in 1885. It was the first of its kind, and the emperor was so happy with it, he went on to commission an egg every year for Easter
After the outbreak of the First World War, the designs of the Imperial Easter Eggs reflected the conflict. The Russian Red Cross was the theme of the Red Cross with Triptych Egg (pictured) given in 1915. By this time, Empress Alexandra and her two eldest daughters, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, had enrolled as nurses with the organisation
All its stock was confiscated. The final two commissioned eggs, believed to have been unfinished, were neither delivered nor paid for.
In total, 50 imperial eggs were made. Initially, ten were kept in the Kremlin, ten were believed stolen, and others began to be sold by the Bolsheviks to wealthy European and American collectors.
Seven eggs remain missing but, as the works of art featured here show, they will for ever be something to treasure.
n Faberge In London: Romance To Revolution at the V&A runs from Saturday, November 20, to Sunday, May 8, 2022.
The famous crystal clear waters of Maya Bay have been off limits to eager tourists for three long years but come January a flurry of activity, including swimming and snorkeling, will return once more.
The idyllic cove in Thailand, made famous after it was featured in The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was closed in June 2018 after being inundated by 5,000 travellers a day for two decades.
In a bid to give the intricate coral reef system time to heal officials decided to close it off to the public, before the Covid pandemic settled in last year and decimated tourist numbers across the entire region.
The famous crystal clear waters of Maya Bay (pictured) have been off limits to eager tourists for three long years because of environmental damage
The idyllic cove in Thailand, made famous after it was featured in The Beach starring Leonardo Di Caprio, was closed in June 2018
Come January 1 2022 Maya Bay, which is only an hour's boat ride away from Phuket in Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, will welcome back travellers with strict instructions, to avoid damaging the region again.
'Maya Bay has been continuously receiving interest from tourists around the world. But this has also caused (the natural area) to deteriorate, especially the corals,' said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-Archa in a statement.
'After shutting down Maya Bay to revive and restore it, up until the present, it has returned to a good condition.'
Come January 2022 Maya Bay, which is only an hour's boat ride away from Phuket in Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, will welcome back travellers with strict instructions
Visits will be capped at an hour with a maximum of 300 individuals allowed per 'round' which begins at 10am and finishes at 4pm each day
Did 'The Beach' crew damage Maya Bay? In 1999 the Krabi Provincial Administration Organisation, the Ao Nang Tambon Administration Organisation (TAO) and several environment groups filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for the alleged damage the film's production caused on Maya Beach when they turned it into the late 20th century Utopia. At the time Leonardo DiCaprio released a statement: 'From what I see everything is okay. I have seen nothing that had been damaged in any way. I've seen Fox taking meticulous care, and their respect for the island. I consider myself an environmentalist. I believe that whenever we leave the island, it is going to be better off than it was before.' The Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that orders were to be issued for damages, upholding a 2002 appeal court ruling that found filming had damaged Maya Beach. Source: E Online Advertisement
Boats will no longer be allowed to enter the bay and instead have to drop tourists off at a pier at the back of the island - with only eight speedboats permitted to be in the area at one time.
Visits will be capped at an hour with a maximum of 300 individuals allowed per 'round' which begins at 10am and finishes at 4pm each day.
The pier is almost completely constructed and will be finished before the January 1 reopening date.
During the time it was closed Maya Bay's coral reef was replanted and visitor facilities were expanded on the island, which is only 250 metres long and 15 metres wide
During the time it was closed Maya Bay's coral reef was replanted and visitor facilities were expanded on the island, which is only 250 metres long and 15 metres wide.
At present fully-vaccinated Australians living in NSW are permitted to travel to Thailand and stay one night in a government-approved hotel while they await the results of a Covid test, which will be taken when they arrive.
Then those living in NSW can return to the state without quarantining at home.
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The Duchess of Cornwall cut an elegant figure in a mint green gown last night as she and Prince Charles joined Queen Rania for a private dinner at the Al Husseiniya Palace.
Camilla, 74, jetted out to Jordan on Sunday with the Prince of Wales, 72, the couple's first overseas engagement since Covid clipped the royals' wings in March 2020.
The royal was chic in a pastel green dress for the occasion, which featured sequin detailing across the bodice and skirt.
Meanwhile Queen Rania was stunning in a cream gown with gold embellishments across the neckline and waist.
The Duchess of Cornwall cut an elegant figure in a mint green gown last night as she and Prince Charles joined Queen Rania for a private dinner at the Al Husseiniya Palace
The Duchess and Queen Rania could be seen chatting as they walked into the dinner banquet side-by-side last night
Prince Charles opted for a dark suit for the occasion, donning a baby pink tie and pocket square
The Duchess was glamorous in the stunning green dress for the outing, and was in high spirits as she arrived at the event.
Camilla's blonde bob was styled in an impeccable blow-dry, and she sported a dash of blush for a healthy glow.
Meanwhile she carried a cream pashmina and a silver clutch bag in one hand as she arrived at the palace.
The royal added a touch more glamour to her outfit with a pair of silver drop earrings and a glittering silver necklace.
And today the Prince of Wales admired his portrait given to him by the Syrian refugee artist Faihaa, 38, during a visit to the Al Nuzha Community Centre in Jordan, on the second day of the Royal tour of the Middle East
The royal was on jovial form this afternoon in Jordan as he met four-year-old Salapelo while visiting the community centre
A natural! The Duchess, who is president of the Women of the World Foundation (WOW) tenderly held baby girl Sarah Abu Ameerah as she attended the WOW event at Manara Arts and Culture gallery in Amman on Wednesday afternoon
Day two! Prince Charles, 73, and Camilla, 74, arrived in Umm Qais, the site of the ancient city of Gadara, this morning for a walking tour around the historic ruins, which lie two hours' drive north of the Jordanian capital of Amman, where the couple enjoyed an extravagant dinner at Al Husseiniya Palace on Tuesday evening (Pictured: Charles and Camilla on the main Roman street at Umm Qais)
Let's take some home! The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall dipped their fingers in water from the holy River Jordan yesterday which is used to baptise royal babies - with Charles rumoured to have requested bottles of the water to take home for future royal baptisms
Then they bent down and each dipped their fingers in (pictured) before walking carefully back up the path to sign a visitor's book
Meanwhile Queen Rania looked radiant in a cream dress, worn with a gold belt and matching geometric earrings.
The Duchess is facing a packed schedule during their mini Middle Eastern tour which will see them take in two countries in just four days - after a weekend representing the Queen to mark Remembrance Sunday.
It comes after a royal expert claimed the Duchess is 'dreading' the spotlight that will be thrown onto her when Prince Charles becomes King.
Penny Junor has said Camilla will face a 'very difficult time' when the Prince of Wales ascends to the throne.
King Abdullah II and Queen Rania could be seen waving the royal couple off after enjoying a banquet dinner together
The two women showcased their friendship as Queen Rania placed a hand onto the Duchess of Cornwall's arm after the meal
Speaking to The Telegraph, the royal expert said: 'She is a normal woman who, because of her relationship with Charles, has found herself in an abnormal situation.
'I don't think titles do it for her, and the prospect of being Queen or Princess Consort, the fuss there will be at the time, the comparisons to Diana, it will be a very difficult time for her.'
Meanwhile she predicted Camilla would be Queen rather than Princess Consort, because 'Charles is so proud' and 'grateful' of her.
The guard of honour, red carpet and time spent with Jordan's king and queen is likely to serve as a reminder that public life - and the media glare - will only ramp up further when Charles takes the throne.
Prince Al Hussein opted for a smart black suit for the occasion with a red tie, while Queen Rania wore a cream dress with gold accessories (left and right)
Camilla was in good spirits as she spoke with Prince Al Hussein ahead of the banquet dinner last night in Jordan
The Duchess cut an elegant figure in the mint green dress, adding a touch of glamour with silver accessories and a cream pashmina
The Queen was radiant in the cream and blush pink gown, which was embellished with gold detailing across the neckline and cuffs (left and right)
King Abdullah II and Queen Rania and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein chatted with one another after the banquet
One former courtier explained that because the Duchess was 57-years-old when she became a member of the Royal Family, she has spent the vast majority of her life living outside The Firm.
Explaining her unique position, the insider continued: 'She understands how strange the world of the Royal Family can be, and how the public sees that, and knows that at times her husband, the Prince of Wales, can't see that.'
They said the Duchess has 'none of the apparatus' of Royal life at her house in Wiltshire and engages in a 'fairly normal' existence, adding: 'Her children will tell her how the outside world views things the Royal Family are doing.
'It means she is better able than almost anyone else to persuade certain members of the Royal Family of a certain point of view that they might not see otherwise.'
Earlier in the day, the Duchess was treated to an electrifying tour of Amman - hosted by Queen Rania driving a top of the range Tesla in stiletto heels.
Meanwhile Queen Rania was stunning in a cream gown with gold embellishments across the neckline and waist
The Duchess was glamorous in the stunning green dress for the outing, and was in high spirits as she arrived at the event
Camilla accompanied the Queen for the 30 minute journey in the fully electric 90,000 Model X P90d, cruising across the capital city with a police escort to visit a children's centre set up in her name.
Meanwhile the Prince of Wales is flying 'five or six dozen bottles' of Holy water taken from the River Jordan back to the UK for royal baptisms - which could include that of Lilibet, the grand-daughter he has never met.
The heir to the throne and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall were yesterday afforded the honour of dipping their fingers in the water where Jesus was baptised as they embarked on a whirlwind visit of the Middle East.
Now it can be revealed that Charles will be taking home with him on the return flight later this week a consignment of vials full of water to be used for future royal christenings.
Meanwhile Queen Rania looked radiant in a cream dress, worn with a gold belt and matching geometric earrings
A grandfather who was sceptical of climate change before dying of lung cancer left BBC viewers heartbroken after re-evaluating his views on air pollution.
Richard, 75, from Kent, was one of 108 Britons selected for a forum where ordinary people discussed how the country can reach the goal of net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050.
Ahead of the UK's first ever Citizen's Assembly on Climate Change last year, former aircraft refueller Richard said he 'wasn't particularly worried' about the environment and was against the idea of raising tax to tackle climate change.
However after being diagnosed with stage two lung cancer during the first lockdown, Richard admitted that air pollution is an increasingly worrying issue, and he had become 'more and more convinced we have to do something'.
Appearing on BBC2 documentary The People V Climate Change, which aired yesterday evening, ahead of the first conference meeting, Richard said: 'I'm not particularly worried about climate change.
Richard, 75, from Kent, left BBC viewers heartbroken after re-evaluating his views on air pollution before dying of lung cancer
'At my age, I don't really have to be. I'd like to see it proved. How much is the earth actually warming up against what we're doing to it?'
The Climate Assembly UK took place over three weekends in Birmingham from January to late March 2020, and a further three online weekends from April to May 2020 following the UK's coronavirus outbreak.
The first session saw participants undergo a crash course on the science behind climate change, and Richard was sceptical about the rate of rising sea levels.
'I must admit to a selfish interest in this', he said. 'The thing about sea level rising, it's only going to be one metre in the next century.
Richard, pictured outside his home in Kent, was one of 108 Brits selected for a forum where ordinary people discussed how Britain can reach their goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.
'This is rather a personal interest because I have a house that looks out on the sea. One metre in 100 years I don't see as devastating.'
When it came to the issue of flying less, Richard argued that after Brexit, Britain would suffer from less accessible international travel.
'We're going to lose business,' he said. 'This country is now planning to be a global country with their trade and we're going to cut it down, it's cutting off our noses to spite our face.'
He clashed with another committee member when it came to the idea of a frequent flyer levy, a policy proposal that aims to tackle the environmental impacts of flying by progressively taxing those who fly the most.
Sue, an ex-fishmonger from Bath who had been shocked by the science she discovered on her climate change course, was in favour of the proposed policy.
'When 15 per cent of the people travelling are causing 75 per cent of the overall travel that would make a frequent flyer levy mean those 15 per cent would be paying more than everybody else', she said.
After a year of cancer treatment, Richard passed away peacefully in March 2021 and heartbroken viewers quickly took to Twitter to share their condolences
However Richard argued: 'This would be a nightmare to administer, I'm against just taxing because you can, it's going to limit people.'
As the pair continued to debate, Sue said: 'You're thinking of your social life, not the air we're breathing, the air your kids are breathing. You're not thinking about the planet. To make a better planet for the younger generation, that's what we're doing it for.'
Richard, who had retired from his job as an aircraft refueller ten years prior to filming the documentary, said that despite learning about the rising temperature of the planet, wasn't too concerned about his personal carbon footprint.
'Just looking at the front there and looking at the three litre motorhome, I'm not yet feeling guilty about it, I'm still hoping nature will take care of itself', he said.
Sue, an ex-fishmonger from Bath who had been shocked by the science she discovered on her climate change course, debated with Richard over a proposed frequent flyer tax levy
'I think Brexit has really shown that you can't push the British public around. When it comes to it, they will do what they want to do and if you can't persuade people on climate change you won't get it.
'I think it's important people like me are there because otherwise it will be, "Lets go green tomorrow". Doesn't matter about the cost, that people are going to end up starving, jobs are going to disappear. It's not as simple as that.'
When the documentary caught up with contributors again during lockdown, Richard shared the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with stage two lung cancer.
'My big regret and it's a major regret is, I smoked when I was younger, cigarettes were so cheap it was one after the other and it's affected my health now and I hate cigarettes now.
'Sixty per cent of lung cancers are caused by smoking, which leaves the question, how did the other 40 per cent get it? The obvious answer is obviously traffic, traffic fumes, industrial pollution.
When the documentary caught up with contributors again during lockdown, Richard shared the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with stage two lung cancer
'Even if you disagree with climate change, you can't argue that clean air will be bad for the future. I'm becoming more and more convinced we'll have to do something.'
After a year of cancer treatment, Richard passed away peacefully in March 2021 and heartbroken viewers quickly took to Twitter to share their condolences.
One said: 'Watching 'The People v Climate Change' on BBC 2. Had a guy, Grandfather who has lung & Blood Cancer. And I know exactly what he is going through. He talked about his smoking and air quality. I never smoked, but for a good 25 yrs or more I was breathing in second hand smoke.'
'Enjoyed The People v Climate Change on BBC Two. RIP Richard', wrote another.
'Really enjoyed this. Sobbed a bit throughout and found it gave me a strange sense of hope. BBC iPlayer - #ThePeoplevsClimateChange, said a third.
The People V Climate Change is available on BBCiPlayer
A rare doll of the Queen as a toddler that incurred the wrath of her mother because it made her look 'too chubby' has been unearthed as it goes on sale in a collection estimated to be worth 40,000.
The Queen Mother was so displeased with the German-made model of a three-year-old Princess Elizabeth that she refused to give it the royal seal of approval.
As a result the doll never made it into mass production and very few of the prototypes exist today.
The blonde haired and blue-eyed toy was made in 1929 by toy manufacturers Schoenau and Hoffmeister.
A rare doll of the Queen as a toddler (pictured) that incurred the wrath of her mother because it made her look 'too chubby' has been unearthed as it goes on sale in a collection estimated to be worth 40,000
The Queen Mother was so displeased with the German-made model of a three-year-old Princess Elizabeth that she refused to give it the royal seal of approval. Pictured, some of the 500 dolls in the collection
The smiling rosy-cheeked doll was dressed in a frilly pink dress and white oil-cloth shoes and socks. It is believed the outfit was modelled on one which was worn by baby Elizabeth (pictured in 1929)
The smiling rosy-cheeked doll was dressed in a frilly pink dress and white oil-cloth shoes and socks. It is believed the outfit was modelled on one which was worn by baby Elizabeth.
But it also depicted her with chunky legs and arms and chubby cheeks.
Due to its rarity and the fact that it retains its original red card tag, the 16in high porcelain doll has become a sought-after item.
The one for sale forms part of a huge collection of vintage dolls amassed by the late Betty Fox, a farmer's wife and seamstress who made clothes for her 500 figures and displayed them around her home in Nottinghamshire.
Betty passed away in 2019 aged 95 and now her family are selling the 500 doll collection with Special Auction Services of Newbury.
Specialists said it is the one of the largest ever to come to auction and could be worth more than 40,000.
As a result the doll never made it into mass production and very few of the prototypes exist today. Pictured, some of the 500 dolls in the collection
The one for sale forms part of a huge collection of vintage dolls amassed by the late Betty Fox (pictured), a farmer's wife and seamstress who made clothes for her 500 figures and displayed them around her home in Nottinghamshire
Several highly valuable dolls are included, such as a late 19th Century Phenix Star Baby from France worth 3,000.
Daniel Agnew, expert at Special Auction Services, said: 'This is a significant collection both because of its scale and the rarity of many of the items.
'It is the largest single owner collection that Special Auction Services has ever sold.
'The owner died in 2019 and had been collecting for 60 years. She displayed her cherished dolls all around her house in glass cabinets. As she was a keen seamstress, she also made her dolls some lovely clothes.
'The collection includes some some very rare early dolls dating from late 19th century France to the 1960s, the most expensive of which could sell for 3,000.
Phenix Star Baby, pictured left, a 19th century French doll that is the most expensive in the collection, and an Italian fashion doll from the 1960s, pictured right, with an estimate of 80 to a 120
'By far the most notable item is the doll of our Queen Elizabeth II as a baby. The Queen Mother didn't approve of it because she thought it looked really chubby - as a result it never received the royal warrant and wasn't a big seller.
'It is especially rare because it retains its card tag which was usually torn off and thrown away. We believe the outfit is based on one which was actually worn by Elizabeth.'
Betty's son, who wished not to be named, said: 'Mum had dolls all over the house - in the bedrooms, in the middle room and she had a sewing and doll room which everyone loved to visit to see her latest acquisitions and projects.
'She would spend many a cold winter night in her doll room sewing with her hand-powered machine.
'As a family we were devastated when Betty passed before Christmas 2019. Only now can we face parting with her doll collection. We'd like others who share her passion to give them good homes.'
Betty's collection will be sold between November 22 to 24.
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Meghan Markle is to make a surprise appearance on the Ellen show in the former actress' first major TV interview since her notorious Oprah tell-all alongside Prince Harry amid fears she may be about to drop more bombshells about the Royal Family.
In a clip released ahead of the broadcast in the US tomorrow, the Duchess of Sussex reminisced about being a struggling actress who would arrive for auditions in a bashed up second hand car.
Meghan, wearing a white 1,991 Oscar De La Renta blouse and black trousers, said the Ford Explorer had 'a life of its own' and broken front doors that she couldn't afford to fix so she had to climb 'out of the trunk'.
Her new TV appearance came as a shock today. It was long rumoured that the Duchess would give her first interview to Ellen after she and Harry emigrated in January 2020. But in the end the Sussexes chose their neighbour in Montecito, Oprah Winfrey.
The clip will raise fears in Buckingham Palace that she may be about launch a fresh attack on the royals, who the Sussexes have previously accused of racism towards Archie and allegations they ignored Meghan when she claimed to be suicidal while pregnant and living in London.
Ellen, who is ending her show after 19 seasons amid plunging ratings after being accused of running a toxic workplace last year, is close friends with Meghan having bonded at a LA dog shelter where the talk show host encouraged Meghan to adopt her first dog Bogart. The women have stayed in touch ever since.
In the 120-second clip, the Duchess of Sussex, 40, who is currently living in her $14million mansion in California having quit with Harry as a frontline royal, talked about how she used to audition for acting roles on the lot where they she was being interviewed by her friend.
During her appearance today, the Duchess spoke about her Hollywood auditions, and said: 'So I had this very old Ford Explore Sport and at a certain point the key stopped working on the driver's side, so you couldn't get yourself in through the door so after auditions I would park at the back of the parking lot and I would open the trunk and climb in, pull the door shut behind me and crawl all over my seats to get out. That's how I would come to and fro.'
Meghan told the host: 'I would park on gate three and I would scoot on over and the security guards here would always say "break a leg, I hope you get it". So driving today was very different.'
Teasing the full interview, Ellen tweeted the clip and said: A lot has changed since the last time Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, was on the Warner Brothers lot. Dont miss the rest of our interview tomorrow.
Meghan Markle, 40, reminisces about being an actress during an appearance on the Ellen show which is set to air tomorrow
A Hollywood friendship: How Meghan Markle befriended Ellen Degeneres after meeting at a dog shelter when she was a struggling actress Ellen and Meghan met by chance years ago at a dog shelter in Los Angeles where Ellen encouraged Meghan to adopt her first dog Bogart, and the women have stayed in touch. Ellen and her wife Portia de Rossi even took a trip to London to visit Prince Harry and Meghan after the birth of Archie over the summer, remarking on her talk show: 'I see them get attacked and it's not fair. They are two of the most down-to-earth compassionate people, they're doing so much good for the world.' She also revealed how she held and fed Archie on a summer trip to Britain. DeGeneres said the boy 'looks like Harry' and described Prince Harry and Meghan, who live at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, as 'the cutest couple'. Ellen hinted at how close they were back in November, revealing she had invited a pair of dancers onto her show after Meghan sent her a text about the 'great' duo. She also said that while spending time with Meghan and Harry in London, they talked about their work on wildlife conservation, something both couples share a passion for. The insider added: 'Meghan adores Ellen and loves the fact that she and Portia are huge animal lovers. 'She said they have stayed in touch since meeting in person and have become close. 'She said they actually have a lot in common and that Ellen has been a huge support, especially since moving to Canada.' The two were so close that it was long rumoured that Ellen would get the first interview after Megxit. In January, a friend told DailyMail.com: '[Meghan] said Ellen understands her pain and suffering. That she epitomizes authenticity. [Meghan] feels like they are kindred spirits.' And the friends are now also neighbours after Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi reportedly snapped up a $49million estate in Montecito, California. Advertisement
The discussion marks the second high profile interview the Duchess has given in recent months, and comes after her bombshell interview with Oprah in March.
Meghan's description of her lack of cash while starting out as an actress came weeks after she said she 'grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler' in a letter to US politicians asking them to vote for Joe Biden's plans for better maternity and paternity pay.
Royals experts questioned whether Americans would be impressed 'by her account of how she had to struggle' when her estranged father Thomas put her through private school from kindergarten and she now lives in a $14million LA mansion while sitting on a $100million fortune.
Her claims also faced serious questions after it emerged she previously bragged that as a schoolgirl her estranged father Thomas Markle regularly took her to one of LA's most famous restaurants where celebrities gobble up steaks, which now cost $55.
A 2013 post from Meghan's Instagram account, deleted when she started dating Prince Harry, reveals that the Duchess told her 3million followers of 'happy' times at the Musso and Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard - and hinted she ate there regularly after dance lessons.
Ms Markle shared a picture of its famous sign above a vintage Mercedes with the caption: 'I used to have lunch with my dad here after every tap & ballet class. Happy. Thank you. More please #mussos #hollywood'.
The restaurant, opened in 1919 and famed for its grilled meat and fish, is a world away from the cheap Sizzler salad Meghan claims to have been brought up on and is loved by Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Keith Richards.
One critic told MailOnline: 'She has receipts all over her Instagram contradicting her poverty letter'. Another wrote: 'She went to one of the most expensive schools in Los Angeles - but they couldnt afford to spend more than $5 on a weekend dinner. I mean, during this time, Thomas was working on a hit TV show and had won an Emmy. WTH is she talking about?'
During the Ellen appearance, the mother-of-two wore her hair in soft waves which cascaded down her shoulders.
Meanwhile she opted for her usual sweep of eyeliner and a touch of blush for the TV appearance.
The Duchess is known for her love of designer brands, with Oscar de la Renta being one of her favourites.
The royal rarely wears the same outfits twice, selecting new outfits from favourite designers such as Givenchy and Victoria Beckham on almost every appearance.
During her time as a senior royal, the mother-of-one wore a parade of designer outfits from brands such as Dior, Prada and Chanel and an array of expensive accessories.
It was long rumoured that the Duchess would give her first post-royal interview to Ellen, however Oprah ended up landing the job.
However the two are known to be close friends. They met by chance years ago at a dog shelter in Los Angeles where Ellen encouraged Meghan to adopt her first dog Bogart, and the women have stayed in touch.
Ellen and her wife Portia de Rossi even took a trip to London to visit Prince Harry and Meghan after the birth of Archie over the summer, remarking on her talk show: 'I see them get attacked and it's not fair. They are two of the most down-to-earth compassionate people, they're doing so much good for the world.'
In the clip which was shared today, the mother-of-two can be seen wearing a white blouse and black trousers as she joins the famous chat show host on-stage
Ellen hinted at how close they were back in November last year, revealing she had invited a pair of dancers onto her show after Meghan sent her a text about the 'great' duo.
She also said that while spending time with Meghan and Harry in London, they talked about their work on wildlife conservation, something both couples share a passion for.
An insider previously said: 'Meghan adores Ellen and loves the fact that she and Portia are huge animal lovers.
'She said they have stayed in touch since meeting in person and have become close.
'She said they actually have a lot in common and that Ellen has been a huge support, especially since moving to Canada'.
The appearance comes days after the Duke and Duchess attended a glamorous gala in New York City to celebrate the military on the eve of Veterans Day in the US and Armistice Day in Britain.
Meghan cut a stylish figure at the 'Salute to Freedom' event in a show-stopping red gown by Carolina Herrera, featuring a deep neckline, pleated skirt and thigh-high split. She completed her glamorous ensemble with a pair of matching 696 slingback heels by Giuseppe Zanotti featuring crystal-embellished buckle detail.
Asked on the red carpet whether Meghan was proud of her husband, she replied: 'I'm always proud of him.'
Harry, who served in the British Army for ten years, handed out medals for the Intrepid Valor Awards to five service members, veterans and military families who are living with the 'invisible wounds of war'.
Harry is banned from wearing military uniform after he was stripped of his honorary military titles following him stepping down as a senior royal last year, but was allowed to pin his medals on his black tie suit at last nights 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.
The two met by chance years ago at a dog shelter in Los Angeles where Ellen encouraged Meghan to adopt her first dog Bogart (right), and the women have stayed in touch
DeGeneres held Archie on a summer trip to the UK, previously telling her studio audience how she fed him. Ellen also said that while spending time with Meghan and Harry in London, they talked about their work on wildlife conservation
In April, all the Royal Family wore morning coats with medals or day dress, rather than military uniforms, for Prince Philips funeral at Windsor Castle amid concerns from Buckingham Palace that Harry would be the only senior male royal dressed differently.
It comes after Meghan apologised to the Court of Appeal in London last week 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.
Prince William cut a dapper figure as he arrived at a reception of the Joint Ministerial Council at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on Wednesday evening.
The Duke of Cambridge, 39, who opted for a smart black suit, crisp white shirt and polka dot tie, was accompanied by Chairperson of the Conservative Party Amanda Milling for the occasion.
The Tory chairman, who wore her blonde hair loose, looked elegant in a black patterned dress and heels as she appeared to share a joke with the royal.
The Joint Ministerial Council is an annual meeting between UK Ministers and the leaders of the UK's Overseas Territories that enables cooperation on a wide range of issues.
Prince William, 39, was accompanied by Chairperson of the Conservative Party Amanda Milling as he arrived at a reception of the Joint Ministerial Council at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on Wednesday evening
The royal put on a very animated display as he spoke with various UK Ministers and leaders of the UK's Overseas Territories
It is the principle forum for reviewing and implementing the shared strategy for promoting the security and good governance of the Territories and their sustainable economic and social development.
Taking to Twitter, Amanda told how it had been a 'busy' second day, where she had spoken to British Overseas Territories on a whole host of matters.
These included security & law enforcement collaboration and overseas Territories contribution to Global Britain.
Other topics discussed were how to build back better and stronger from Covid-19 and the importance of increasing inclusivity in our societies.
The Duke of Cambridge gave passionate speeches and also shared laughter as he made his way around the room
The Duke of Cambridge looked deep in thought as he engaged in conversation with guests at the reception
The Joint Ministerial Council is an annual meeting between UK Ministers and the leaders of the UK's Overseas Territories that enables cooperation on a wide range of issues. Pictured, Prince William
During the course of the evening, the Duke of Cambridge put on a very animated display - ranging from impassioned speeches to fits of laughter.
On Tuesday, Amanda noted how she'd had a 'productive' first day of discussions at the Joint Ministerial Council.
She informed her social media followers that she and other guests had focused on several crucial topics.
These include the environment, the International Maritime Organisation III Code audit and economic resilience.
The Duke of Cambridge look deep in thought as he mingled with guests at the reception (pictured, left and right)
The Duke was seen breaking into a big smile as she shared a laugh with some of the guests at the reception
The Duke of Cambridge and Chairperson of the Conservative Party Amanda Milling looked in high spirits as they were seen laughing with guests
Prince William mingled with guests during a reception of the Joint Ministerial Council at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London
Guests listened closely as Prince William discussed topics of concern
The royal took to the stage and gave a passionate speech at an annual meeting between UK Ministers and the leaders of the UK's Overseas Territories
The Duke of Cambridge spoke at a reception of the Joint Ministerial Council at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London
Since Botox first appeared on the market 30 years ago, the treatment has been aimed at women over 50. They, after all, have the wrinkles that botulinum toxin injections temporarily smooth by freezing the face.
But a new trend for Baby Botox promises something very different: a face that never gets wrinkles at all. The catch is, you have to start injections in your 20s.
People think they dont need Botox until theyre 50, says Ana Sakinyte, an aesthetics practitioner who calls herself the Queen of Youth. But by then its often too late to get the results they want.
Botox is injected into the superficial layer of the muscle and relaxes it. That stops the muscle contracting, so it doesnt create a line but it doesnt do anything to erase deep wrinkles [that you already have]. Thats why its so good to start early.
Radhika Sanghani investigated the risks associated with starting Botox in your twenties. Pictured: Kate Thompson, who has been having Botox since age 25
In other words, although Botox can smooth small existing wrinkles, especially the kind caused by muscle movement when you smile or squint, it cant fill out or smooth away deeper lines.
Ms Sakinyte recommends that people start at the age of 25, when what youre freezing is already smooth.
I know society thinks my gosh, theyre too young, but I advise starting with smaller doses to stop the wrinkles ever appearing. Im 37 and have been having Botox for a decade every four to five months, and I havent got lines. What youre doing is freezing time.
In the past year, the Botox industry has been booming the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) says there has been a 70 per cent increase in requests for consultations, with Botox accounting for half of all procedures and the market is getting younger.
Ms Sakinyte says she sees increasing numbers of women in their 20s and 30s, while existing patients in their 50s and 60s have started bringing in their daughters.
But does it work? Is it safe? And who are the women paying thousands of pounds to have back-to-back injections from their mid-20s onwards?
Kate Thompson, now 38, was 25 when she started Botox treatments. A married mother of two from Leeds, she had noticed a few lines at the corners of her eyes. She wanted to prevent them getting worse and stop any others forming.
So despite the protestations of her parents and her husband Edward, Kate, founder of The Kindr Company, began having treatments at a cost of 150 per eye. Thirteen years on, she estimates she has spent 5,000 on Botox.
Karolina Kotlowska, 28, (pictured) who lives in Northampton, had been spending 100 a month on creams to prevent wrinkles before starting her Botox treatment four months ago
You cant put a price on how you feel, she says. I think the fact Ive had it regularly for all these years means the lines havent become as deep as they would have done.
In the past two years, Ive been having it on my forehead as well as around my eyes and I can still move my face fully.
I think I probably look my age now, rather than tired or older than I should. Im so glad I started early.
Indeed, Kate is so pleased with her preventative Botox, she thinks she should have started injections at the very start of her 20s.
Karolina Kotlowska, 28, began her Botox treatment four months ago with Ms Sakinyte.
Initially, I wasnt a fan of Botox, she says. I thought it was for people who already have a lot of wrinkles. But when my friend told me shed been getting it since she was 27, I decided to have a consultation because I wanted to look good for my best friends wedding in Portugal, where Id be maid of honour.
Until then Karolina, a financial services investigator living in Northampton, had been trying to prevent her wrinkles with creams, which cost her 100 a month, and fortnightly anti-ageing facials at 60 each. Her Botox costs 250 for three areas, and she has it two to three times a year.
Stina Sanders, 30, (pictured), who started Botox four months ago, said everyone told her she didn't need it including the doctor but she could see tiny lines appearing on her forehead
I dont mind the cost because it actually works and its just like going to the hairdresser once every couple of months, she says. Its a great way of delaying the ageing process.
The subtle results werent noticeable to her friends and family but for Karolina, they were a big confidence boost. She acknowledges the role played by social media in her decision indeed, it seems likely the desire to project a perfect self-image on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook is a big driver of the twentysomething Botox trend.
Before, I was putting on lots of make-up and using filters on social media to look good, says Karolina. Now Ive had the Botox, Im happy posting natural photos, even without make-up.
Yet practitioners are divided on the wisdom of Botox at such an early age.
The Therapie Clinic, which has practices throughout the UK, advises people at the end of their 20s to try it. If Botox is injected during the initial stages of fine lines, it will help to stop them in their tracks, the clinics website states.
But other doctors say it could be harmful, changing the shape of the face over time and even thinning the skin.
Dr Jonquille Chantrey, a surgeon and lecturer in aesthetics, acknowledges that Botox can reduce the appearance of ageing but stresses there can be risks and side-effects, particularly on the forehead.
A very light dosing can gently soften some existing lines, she says. However, if the same doses are given routinely in the main areas without really looking at the face as a whole, it can create a heaviness of the eyebrow if you use your face muscles a lot.
Karolina (pictured) said she was putting on lots of make-up and using filters on social media to look good, before starting her Botox treatment
It may not happen in the first few years but, down the line, it can lead to people looking heavy or pinched, and create an earlier frown descent.
She advises people in their 20s to try other forms of anti-ageing first, such as using vitamin C and retinol products. Many injectors might say everyone should do it, but are they thinking about the best interest of the patient in the mid- to long-term or are their motives financial? she asks.
There could be financial, mental and physical side-effects, such as making people more self-conscious about other features. And physically, it could create a mid-term effect where you might need to have other treatments.
For example, if people get used to their forehead and eyes looking young, they may then want other treatments to make sure other parts of the face or neck look just as young.
Stina Sanders started Botox four months ago, at the age of 30. Everyone said I didnt need it, even the doctor, she says. But I could see really tiny horizontal lines starting to appear on my forehead. You have a choice to either embrace ageing or not and I decided I didnt want to.
Stina, a psychotherapist and author, visited oculoplastic surgeon Dr Maryam Zamani in Chelsea, West London, to have her first round of Botox injections.
She felt I could still wait a few years, but I wanted to stop more lines forming on my forehead. So she put some Botox in and now those lines have completely gone and wont increase.
Im so glad Ive started at 30, rather than waiting. Now I know this is an option, I can do something about it if I notice other wrinkles starting to form elsewhere on my face.
Stina (pictured) admits she didn't like her appearance in the mirror and thought she looked dehydrated before starting Botox
Botox used to be so medical and taboo but now it just feels like getting your hair dyed or going to the dentist.
Like Karolina, Stina is aware that the pressures of social media influenced her decision to turn to Botox.
Its the selfie culture, she says. Im so used to looking at myself up close, I didnt like it when Id catch myself in the mirror and I looked dehydrated. Now when I look in the mirror, I look a lot shinier. I look glowy, like Ive had a face mask.
Dr Zamani herself points out that there can be a risk of skin thinning if Botox is overused.
My ethos is less is more and that it is best to wait until you have faint lines or wrinkles caused by dynamic movement to treat with neuromodulators [wrinkle-relaxing injections such as Botox], she says.
The reason for this is that constant suppression of movement may cause atrophy of the muscles injected. For instance, contact treatment on the forehead can atrophy the frontalis muscle over time and make the skin look thinner, so its best to wait until you have a faint line or wrinkle to treat.
Yet many of the young women doing it now have no intention of stopping.
Kate Thompson has even inspired her friends to start having Botox. It feels so normal now, she says. We all talk about it the same way we talk about getting our nails done. The thought of getting it done for ever doesnt bother me.
Stina still hopes she doesnt become addicted to Botox treatments. I dont want the overdone look, she says. As much as it has become normalised, we need to be careful and aware of the dangers.
I think Ill do it long-term but I dont want to become a pin-cushion. Making lighter tweaks now prevents you looking overdone at 50 or 60. Maybe Ill stop and go natural then or maybe I wont.
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The Duchess of Cornwall dazzled in a glamourous all-white ensemble on the second day of her and Prince Charles' official visit to Jordan on Wednesday evening.
Camilla, 74, cut an elegant figure in a floaty white top and trousers by Anna Valentine, which she paired with a matching white scarf, as she and husband Prince Charles attended a Centenary Celebration of the founding of the Jordanian state at the Jordan Museum in Amman.
The royal, who wore her white blonde-hair carefully coiffed, looked perfectly poised in the stylish outfit following a busy day of engagements around the Jordanian capital.
Meanwhile, Prince Charles, who also made a quick change for the occasion, cut a dapper display in a crisp white shirt, navy blue suit, patterned tie and smart pocket square.
The Prince of Wales, 73, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, attended a centenary celebration of the founding of the Jordanian state at the Jordan Museum in Amman on the second day of their tour of the Middle East this evening
Camilla made a stylish entrance tonight with an all-white ensemble. The evening will culminate with the couple viewing the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit
The Duchess of Cornwall accessorised with gold bracelets on each wrist, an elegant necklace and a pair of pearl drop earrings.
She completed her outfit with an eye-catching gold clutch bag and matching shoes to complement her ensemble.
Camilla opted for glamourous makeup and added a dash of mascara to bring out her blue gaze, a layering of foundation to complement her healthy glow, as well as a nude lipstick.
The couple arrived alongside the British ambassador to Jordan Bridhet Brind, who looked smart in a white suit jacket and pale pink dress, and the Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, who was dressed in black.
Bridget Brind, dressed in white, left, listened on as Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall spoke with British Council Director in Jordan Summer Xia, right
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were joined by British Ambassador to Jordan Bridget Brind and Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, right
The Duchess of Cornwall sported a glamourous makeup look with a nude lip and mascara, bringing the focus to her blue gaze. Pictured, with Prince Charles
The royal couple were treated to a musical performance from the Mahali Musical Production before mingling with the other attendees.
Later, they proceeded to the Museum's main atrium where they admired the Rejuvenation and Modernisation of Extinct Arts and Crafts (RMEAC) pop-up art exhibition.
The evening will culminate with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall viewing the Dead Sea scrolls exhibit.
The pair were perfectly relaxed tonight and full of smiles after a busy day of engagements.
The stylish couple (pictured, left and right) arrived together after a day busy meeting local organisations and visiting historic landmarks
Stylish Charles put on a very animate display as he and Camilla made their way to the event (pictured, together)
The Duchess of Cornwall wore her white blonde-hair carefully coiffed and opted for a dash of makeup to complement her natural glow
For their glamourous evening in Amman, Charles changed to a blue suit, a crisp white shirt and pale blue tie, while Camilla opted for a ethereal white outfit
The couple, pictured, made a striking pair as they arrived tonight. The Duchess of Cornwall accessorised with a gold clutch bag
Both the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall looked relaxed as they set to enjoy the evening after a day busy with engagements
After arriving in the Jordanian capital yesterday on official duties, the couple were hosted at Al Husseiniya Palace by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, including a lavish private dinner on Tuesday evening.
Today, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Umm Qais, the site of the ancient 3rd century BC city of Gadara, before returning to Amman to visit a secondary school and refugee centre.
Keeping cool in the desert sun, the Prince of Wales opted for a light, camel-hued suit with a striped tie and white checked shirt and a comfy-looking pair of beige shoes, while Camilla wore a sage-coloured Fiona Clare floral dress - with low-heeled court shoes in caramel.
The second day of their visit, delayed by almost two years due to the Covid pandemic, saw the couple turn tourists as they made the 75-mile hop north of the Jordanian capital to the town - where Jesus was said to have performed one of his seven miracles.
Day two! Prince Charles, 73, and Camilla, 74, arrived in Umm Qais, the site of the ancient city of Gadara, this morning for a walking tour around the historic ruins, which lie two hours' drive north of the Jordanian capital of Amman, where the couple enjoyed an extravagant dinner at Al Husseiniya Palace on Tuesday evening (Pictured: Charles and Camilla on the main Roman street at Umm Qais)
The Prince of Wales admires his portrait given to him by the Syrian refugee artist Faihaa, 38, during a visit to the Al Nuzha Community Centre in Jordan, on the second day of the Royal tour of the Middle East
The Prince carries a floral bouquet as he arrives at the community centre in the capital; the project supports refugees starting a fresh life in Jordan after fleeing nearby countries
After a walking tour of the main amphitheater and museum, accompanied by Jordan's Princess Dana Firas, the couple returned to the capital this afternoon, as the Duchess of Cornwall carried out two solo engagements focusing on empowering women. The Prince spent time hearing the stories of refugees at a Amman community centre.
Addressing guests at an event for the Women of the World Foundation, of which Camilla is President, the Duchess said: There are so many inspirational ladies here doing so many things and they have done it by themselves. Weve got the first lady plumber here, someone from the Army, so many things.
I think here[Jordan] would be the perfect place to start a WoW. I feel we could do a great job here.
She joked with the gathered crowd: 'I have written down a speech but I seem to have gone off-piste a bit!
She went on: 'I heard some wise words from Queen Rania. Her Majesty once said: When a woman succeeds, she reaches out to those around her and pulls them up to her. That is why when you empower women, you empower a whole society.
The collective experience of the women in this room proves the truth of those words.
You've got one's likeness! The Prince of Wales admires the portrait given to him by Syrian refugee artist Faihaa
You never forget! The Duchess, who is president of the Women of the World Foundation (WOW) tenderly held baby girl Sarah Abu Ameerah - just four weeks' old - as she attended the WOW event at Manara Arts and Culture gallery in Amman on Wednesday afternoon
Acknowledging the strong relations between the UK and Jordan, the royal added that there was now serious reaching out and pulling up across our two countries.
At the WoW event, which was held at the Manara (the Arabic word for lighthouse) Arts and Culture Cafe in the cultural district of Amman [NB the embassy chap described this to me as the Shoreditch of Amman], Camilla enjoyed a cuddle with four-week-old baby Sarah Abu Ammerah.
Sarahs mother Dr Alaa Azzam, 42, a Physics Professor at the University of Jordan, said: The Duchess said to me Sarah will be one of the women of the future and that is very inspiring.
Camilla was presented with a picture of herself, framed with the words Women Empowerer.
The royal looked to be enjoying the encounter with the adorable baby girl ahead of addressing attendees at the Women of the World Foundation (WOW) event
Camilla made an impassioned speech on Wednesday afternoon as she addressed those attending the Women of the World Foundation (WOW) event. The charity fights for a gender equal world
During the tour, the Prince of Wales was shown a reed bed sewage treatment machine. The plant-based systems see organic matter in effluent digested by bacteria, fungi and algae
McDonald's is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its beloved Egg McMuffin by offering it for just 63 the same price it was sold at when it debuted in 1971.
Customers can order their bargain breakfast exclusively on the McDonald's app on Thursday, November 18 from 6 am to 10:30 am.
And to further give the Egg McMuffin its due in the spotlight, McDonald's has also shared some fan-favorite menu hacks for upgrading the breakfast sandwich with add-ons like has browns, a McChicken patty, and sauces like syrup and jelly.
McDonald's will sell Egg McMuffins for just 63 exclusively on the McDonald's app on Thursday, November 18 from 6 am to 10:30 am
That was the price that it sold out when it debuted in a single store in California in 1971, before it was rolled out nationally over the next few years (pictured: one of the original McDonald's)
The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a single McDonald's location in Santa Barbara, California 1972, the brainchild of franchise owner Herb Peterson.
It would soon be rolled out nationally after the company's owner Ray Kroc, paid the Santa Barbara location a visit and tried the breakfast sandwich despite his skepticism.
According to McDonald's, fans have found ways to customize the Egg McMuffin over the years, and now they're sharing some of the best 'hacks' to try.
'The Egg McMuffin, the first-ever quick service restaurant breakfast sandwich, joined the McDonalds menu in 1971 in Santa Barbara, California, and customers have been getting creative with it ever since,' said Molly McKenna, McDonalds Senior Director of Brand Communications,' said in a press release.
The chain has also shared several 'hacks' for upgrading the sandwich, like adding hash browns, bacon, tomato, and sauces
Customers can do away with the English muffins and add two hash browns (left), while adding a McChicken patty and hot sauce makes a 'Sweet Chicken Sammie' (right)
'Its been fun to see all the ways theyve made it their own whether its adding some heat with salsa or sweetness with jam or combining it with the Sausage McMuffin, theyre always innovating. I personally love to add a little heat to my Egg McMuffin.'
The 'hack' recipes include adding bacon and tomato to create the 'B.E.T,' or bacon, egg, and tomato McMuffin.
Adding hash browns and grape jelly makes an 'HB&J,' while adding a McChicken patty and hot sauce makes a 'Sweet Chicken Sammie.'
Or customers can do away with the English muffins altogether and sandwich the egg, Canadian bacon, and cheese between two hash browns.
Santa Barbara franchise owner Herb Peterson invented the sandwich in 1971 as an excuse to open his store in the morning
When Ray Kroc, then the company's owner, visited in 1972, Peterson made him try the sandwich - and he loved it, rolling it out nationwide
The Egg McMuffin is certainly one of the chain's more popular orderings, with breakfast sales making up about a quarter of their overall sales and its addition to the menu almost didn't happen.
Peterson, the Southern California franchise owner, wanted a reason to open his restaurant before noon.
He liked eggs Benedict and wanted to make something similar, but found Hollandaise sauce to be too messy and realized that pre-packaged sauce didn't 'do the trick.'
Instead, he swapped it out for cheese and butter. He also developed Teflon rings to shape the eggs into circles as they cooked, debuting the sandwich in his store in 1971.
But Peterson was just a franchise owner and he had to get Kroc, then owner of the whole company, to see what a great idea it was.
That name was dreamt up by Patty Turner, the wife of a McDonalds executive
Kroc revealed how he got on board in his autobiography, Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonalds.
At the time, fast food restaurants weren't really offering breakfast, so the McMuffin changed the business
Peterson, the Southern California franchise owner, had been selling breakfast sandwiches at his store since 1971. In 1972, Kroc paid him a visit and Peterson insisted that he look at something without saying what it was.
'He didnt want me to reject it out of hand, which I might have done, because it was a crazy idea a breakfast sandwich,' he wrote, according to Time.
'It consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle, with the yolk broken, and was dressed with a slice of cheese and a slice of grilled Canadian bacon. This was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin. I boggled a bit at the presentation. But then I tasted it, and I was sold. Wow!'
At that point, it wasn't yet called an Egg McMuffin that name was dreamt up by Patty Turner, the wife of a McDonalds executive.
McDonald's expanded its breakfast offerings, adding a whole breakfast menu in 1977
The Egg McMuffin began in test markets that same year, and over the next three years, the company worked to get them into all McDonald's locations at the low, low price of 63.
At the time, fast food restaurants weren't really offering breakfast, so the McMuffin changed the business.
'The Egg McMuffin was introduced at a time when going to a fast food restaurant for breakfast was a new thing,' Professor Jordan LeBel, who teaches food marketing at Montreals Concordia University, told Ad Week.
When it proved successful, McDonald's expanded its breakfast offerings, adding a whole breakfast menu in 1977 that included hotcakes, toasted English muffins, scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, and danishes.
The nation's top infectious disease expert says he believes the definition of being 'fully vaccinated' against COVID-19 in the U.S. could change to include booster shots.
Currently, any American who has received both shots of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, is considered fully vaccinated.
But Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this may need to change to include extra doses.
'In my opinion, boosters are ultimately going to become a part of the standard regimen and not just a bonus,' he told Axios on Tuesday.
It comes as sources told the news organization that the Biden administration is set to announce plans to expand booster shots to all adults in the U.S as early as this week.
Dr Anthony Fauci said he believes that the definition of 'fully vaccinated' against COVID-19 may be updated in the future. Pictured: Fauci testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee in Washington, DC, November 2021
Booster shots are not included in the definition, but Fauci says he believes this will change due to waning immunity of vaccines. Pictured: A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at the Haverford Township Municipal Building in Havertown, Pennsylvania, October 2021
In August, boosters were approved for immunocompromised Americans who had received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine after data showed this group was less likely to develop high antibody levels after two doses.
Shortly after, the White House announced booster shots would become available for all Americans starting on September 20 due to data suggesting waning efficacy of the initial shots.
But many scientists, including senior officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), disagreed and argued that the vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe illness and death.
This led to boosters of Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines only being authorized for those aged 65 and older or at high risk due to their jobs or underlying conditions six months later, and Johnson & Johnson shots approved for all adults more than two months later.
The FDA is now expected to authorize Pfizer's booster for all adults aged 18 and older as early as Thursday, sources told The New York Times.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 30.7 million Americans - or 15.7 percent of the population - have received a booster shot, as of Tuesday.
'As every month goes by, the immunity wanes more and more,' Fauci told Axios.
'So as time goes by, you're going to see more vaccinated people' fall ill with the virus.
A recent study from the Public Health Institute in Oakland, California, found that the overall effectiveness of the three Covid vaccines available in the U.S fell from 87 percent in March to 48 percent by September.
The Moderna jab was the most effective, but still fell with the risk of infection being reduced from 89 percent to 58 percent.
The Pfizer shot's efficacy decline from 87 percent protection to 43 percent and the J&J shot saw a drop from 83 percent to 13 percent.
Most breakthrough cases are not severe with fewer than 0.1 percent of fully vaccinated people hospitalized or dying from the virus, according to the CDC.
'As is always the case, the elderly are more vulnerable, because they're more likely to have waning of protection over time,' Fauci told Axios.
CDC data suggest that 70 percent of breakthrough infections that have led to hospitalization have been in adults aged 65 and older.
Because of this, some states and cities have already begun expansion of boosters to all adults, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, New Mexico and New York City.
Fauci said he's hopeful that U.S. regulators will soon authorize boosters for the entire population.
'I believe it's extremely important for people to get boosters, and I am hoping very soon we will see a situation where there won't be any confusion about who should and should not get boosters,' he told Axios.
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The U.S.'s national drug problem has reached a harrowing mark.
From April 2020 to April 2021, the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 100,306 Americans died of drug overdoses, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is the first time that more than 100,000 overdose deaths were reported over a 12-month period.
This is also a 28.5 percent increase from the 78,056 overdose deaths recorded between April 2019 and April 2020.
Drug abuse, and specifically opioid abuse, has long been an issue in America, and the pandemic proved to be a setback in the nation's battle against overdoses.
In a statement on Tuesday, President Joe Biden called the figured a 'tragic milestone.'
'As we continue to make strides to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot overlook this epidemic of loss, which has touched families and communities across the country,' the statement read.
'As we grieve those we've lost and honor their memories, my Administration is committed to doing everything in our power to address addiction and end the overdose epidemic.'
More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses from April 2020 to April 2021, the most ever recorded over a single 12 month span. More than 78,000 of those deaths were caused by opioids
States in the Appalachian Region of the country have been struck hardest by drug overdoses, with West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania among the leaders in overdose deaths per 100,000 residents
Vermont reported the biggest increase in overdose deaths, at 88% (dark orange). In total, 15 U.S. states recorded an increase of 40% or more. Three states, South Dakota, New Jersey and New Hampshire (in blue), recorded decreases during the first year of lockdowns
The report, published on Wednesday, finds that opioids are the biggest culprit for the surge in opioid deaths.
More than 75 percent, or 75,673, of overdose deaths during the lockdown were caused by opioids.
It is an increase of around 50 percent from the 56,064 opioid deaths recorded over the previous 12 months.
HOW AMERICA GOT HOOKED ON OPIOIDS Prescription opioids and illicit drugs have become incredibly pervasive throughout the US, and things are only getting worse. In the early 2000s, the FDA and CDC started to notice a steady increase in cases of opioid addiction and overdose. In 2013, they issued guidelines to curb addiction. However, that same year - now regarded as the year the epidemic took hold - a CDC report revealed an unprecedented surge in rates of opioid addiction. Overdose deaths are now the leading cause of death among young Americans - killing more in a year than were ever killed annually by HIV, gun violence or car crashes. In 2019, the CDC revealed that nearly 71,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. This is up from about 59,000 just three years prior, in 2016, and more than double the death rate from a decade ago. It means that drug overdoses are currently the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old. The data lays bare the bleak state of America's opioid addiction crisis fueled by deadly manufactured drugs like fentanyl. Advertisement
Vermont suffered the largest increase in overdose deaths, with the 211 deaths during the first year of lockdowns being an 85 percent increase over the previous year.
West Virginia (62 percent), Kentucky (57 percent) and Louisiana (56 percent) were among the largest increase as well.
In total, 15 states recorded increases of more than 40 percent year-over-year.
Not all states recorded rises in overdose deaths, though.
South Dakota reported a 17 percent decrease in overdose deaths, from 77 during lockdowns to 93 the year before.
New Jersey also reported a one percent decrease, and New Hampshire a 2.8 percent drop.
West Virginia also recorded the most overdose deaths per capita, with 87.19 for every 100,000 residents - a figure that dwarfs other states.
The Appalachian Mountain region was struck hardest the the surge in deaths, with many states in the area finding themselves among the leaders in death rate.
South Carolina (69.47 deaths per 100,000), Kentucky (51.46), Tennessee (50.29), Maryland (46.55), Ohio (46.53) and Pennsylvania (42) are also among the leaders.
While not in the Appalachian region, Louisiana (47.61) and New Mexico (41.13) were also among the top ten states in overdose deaths per capita.
South Dakota, with 8.68, is the only state where the rate of deaths for every 100,000 residents was below ten.
The figures break a newly-set record from only three months ago.
In August, the CDC reported that 93,000 people had died overdose deaths in 2020.
At the time, it was a staggering figure, and the most ever recorded in a single year.
'This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999,' said Dr Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a statement in August.
She said that the disruptions to every day life, and stressors caused by the pandemic were among the reasons opioid deaths sharply increased during the pandemic.
'This has been an incredibly uncertain and stressful time for many people and we are seeing an increase in drug consumption, difficulty in accessing life-saving treatments for substance use disorders, and a tragic rise in overdose deaths.
'As we continue to address both the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis, we must prioritize making treatment options more widely available to people with substance use disorders.'
The updated figure being reported removes the start of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, and adds the January and February months where the pandemic was at its worst to the figures.
In 2020, over 60 percent of opioid deaths were attributable to synthetic versions of the drug, after accounting for less than one in five the previous year.
During the first year of COVID-19 lockdowns, an estimated 63 percent of drug overdose deaths were a result of synthetic opioids.
Around a quarter of the deaths, 26 percent, were caused by psychostimulants that have abuse potential and 20 percent were cocaine overdoses.
Methadone accounted for nearly four percent of overdoses.
Synthetic opioids (brown) like fentanyl accounted for more than 60% of overdose deaths in the U.S. during the first year of COVID-19 lockdowns, and a majority of total opioid deaths (black). Other drugs like psychostimulants (gray), cocaine (pink) and methadone (purple) also caused thousands of deaths in the U.S.
In his statement, Biden said his administration is working on expanding health care coverage so Americans experiencing additions can receive treatment for substance use disorder and mental health.
The U.S. set a record 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, with a majority of those deaths being due to opioids as well. Synthetic opioids have become a major problem in America, accounting for 60% of opioid deaths in 2020. Pictured: Percocet tablets, a popular opioid
'We are strengthening prevention, promoting harm reduction, expanding treatment, and supporting people in recovery, as well as reducing the supply of harmful substances in our communities. substance use disorder and mental health. And we won't let up,' the statement read.
'To all those families who have mourned a loved one and to all those people who are facing addiction or are in recovery: you are in our hearts, and you are not alone. Together, we will turn the tide on this epidemic.'
The opioid epidemic has long been an issue in the U.S., and was officially declared a national state of emergency by former President Donald Trump in 2017.
Opioid overdoses have especially grown in recent years as fentanyl and other synthetic opioids began to hit the illicit drug market in the U.S.
According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, 68 percent of fentanyl and precursors used to make the drug originate in China.
These factory-produced drugs, cheap and easy to make, are sold either directly to the US or via trafficking networks set up in Mexico.
Some who sell drugs like cocaine, meth and others will dilute their drug with the cheap synthetic opioids in order to make more money.
This means that a person using an illicit drug could accidentally overdose on a synthetic opioid without even knowing they are taking it.
Jake Ehlinger, a 20-year old who played for the University of Texas' football team, is one of the many Americans that died of a fentanyl overdose.
Ehlinger played linebacker for the Longhorns, and was the younger brother of former Longhorns quarterback and current NFL player Sam Ehlinger.
He was found dead on May 6, and it is believed that he ingested a dose of the drug Xanax that had been laced with fentanyl.
'The spread of counterfeit pills is an ongoing and significant issue throughout our country, particularly in schools, colleges, and universities,' the family said in a statement released at the time.
'As our family continues to process Jake's death, we felt it was important to share these details with the hope that Jake will not have died in vain.
'We pray that sharing Jake's story will help shed light on this problem and prevent other families from also tragically losing a loved one.'
Ehlinger is one of several notable athletes to die from fentanyl overdoses in recent years.
Most famously, Los Angeles Angeles pitcher Tyler Skaggs was found dead at 27 in his suburban Dallas hotel room on July 1, 2019.
A coroner's report said Skaggs had choked to death on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the drugs fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, which Kay was accused of providing.
At just 31, former NHL player Jimmy Hayes, married for three years and a father of two young boys, was found dead this summer inside his family home from an accidental overdose of cocaine and fentanyl.
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson says people calling 999 requesting an update on their delayed ambulance is contributing to a record number of emergency calls
Hundreds of thousands of 999 calls each month are from desperate people asking for updates on where their ambulance is, NHS bosses have admitted.
More than 1.3million emergency calls were made in England in October up 273,025 on the same period last year.
The unprecedented demand, combined with worsening handover delays, has left heart attack and stroke patients waiting nearly an hour for an ambulance.
But three quarters of these extra calls almost 205,000 are people repeatedly pleading for an update on the arrival of an ambulance crew, according to NHS Providers.
The admission from Chris Hopson, who is chief executive of the body which represents NHS trusts, comes in the midst of deadly NHS emergency care crisis that is seeing thousands of patients waiting up to 13 hours for an A&E bed.
There are growing reports of patients dying in the back of ambulances in hospital car parks and in NHS corridors because of handover delays.
NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard has also commented on the crisis, saying patients are spending 'too long in A&E' and unable to be discharged due to an overstretched social care system.
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
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 999
Paramedic cares for just ONE patient in 14.5-hour shift due to hospital queues A paramedic has described only caring for one patient in a whole shift due to handover delays at hospital. Faye Shepherd, a student paramedic for South Western Ambulance Service, said on Tuesday that she saw just one patient in a 14.5-hour work day because her crew was 'stuck at hospital for the entire duration waiting for bed space'. In October, Ms Shepherd had described the 'palpable sense of concern among staff' as her ambulance was '23rd in the queue out of 25 ambulance crews waiting to enter the emergency department'. Advertisement
The comments come as NHS data for October shows the average waiting time for some emergency 999 ambulance calls reached 54 minutes.
This is triple the 18-minute target for ambulance trusts to respond to these 'Category 2' calls, which includes strokes and heart attacks.
Speaking at the NHS Providers annual conference yesterday, Mr Hopson said: 'We think that about three quarters of the extra phone calls that are coming in on 999 are repeat diallers basically trying to find out what's happened to the ambulance they are having to wait far too long for.'
Ms Pritchard also warned about the pressures the health service is under in a separate speech at the NHS providers conference yesterday.
While she said the health service was still dealing with 'thousands' of people seriously ill with Covid, she warned the NHS was under even more pressure from non-Covid patients.
'Even greater pressure is being felt in the non-Covid urgent and emergency care system as people come back to our services having perhaps, for understandable reasons, stayed away during the pandemic,' she said.
Ms Pritchard said there were 'challenges' in discharging patients to a 'very stretched social care system' which resulted in delays in A&E with a knock-on effect on ambulance response times.
'Patients are spending too long in A&E, meaning ambulances are spending too long waiting to hand over patients, meaning response times are not what any of us would want them to be,' she said.
She also added that there was no sign this would abate in the short-term and the NHS and patients have a potentially grim winter ahead.
'Indications suggest, we are not going to get any let up for a while,' she said. 'The next few months are going to be a winter like no other.'
In recent weeks, South Central Ambulance Trust has urged 999 callers to continue to hold and 'stay on the line' if their calls aren't answered swiftly as a high volume of calls is causing significant delays to response times.
Nationally, nearly one in ten patients classed as a 'category two' emergency are having to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance.
Waiting times for life-threatening 'Category 1' calls, such as when someone is not breathing or their heart has stopped, are also the worst on record.
Category 1 incidents, the most serious, life threatening emergencies, have also seen delays with patients waiting nine minutes and 20 seconds for an ambulance, well above the NHS's target of seven minutes
Eight NHS ambulance bosses got 20,000 bonuses this year - despite record emergency call times Eight NHS ambulance bosses were awarded taxpayer-funded bonuses worth up to 20,000 this year, MailOnline has revealed. The revelation comes amongst pleas for ministers to call in the Army to tackle the ambulance sector's current crisis which has seen patients die in hospital car parks. Heart attack and stroke sufferers now have to wait almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive, which medics say is due to unprecedented demand triggering a record number of 999 calls and a lack of space in hospitals forcing vehicles to be parked outside because of handover delays. Despite the shocking figures, senior executives at three trusts were given bonuses and pay rises during the last year. West Midlands Ambulance Service's chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh saw his salary increase by 50,000 to 235,000 in the year ending March. He also received a bonus of between 15,000 and 20,000, despite not getting any add-ons before the pandemic. Five directors took home bonuses totalling up to 60,000 at South Central Ambulance Service in the same year, while North East Ambulance Service's chief executive raked in more than 15,000. Critics today slammed the bonuses, calling it an 'insult' to taxpayers. Daniel Boxall, media campaign manager at the TaxPayer's Alliance said: 'We keep hearing the health service is facing a cash crisis, and it's little wonder when ambulance trusts give out generous pay packages like these. 'Not only is this an insult to taxpayers, but it's even worse for the patients who have suffered because of mismanagement. Taxpayers' hard-earned money should go towards treating the sick, not feathering the nests of the top brass.' Advertisement
Guidelines state ambulances should respond to these within seven minutes, but in October they took nine minutes and 20 seconds on average.
In one case in Waveney, Suffolk a woman died because so many ambulances were stuck outside a hospital nobody could respond to the 999 call.
The patient was classified as Category 1, meaning a crew was meant to be on the scene in seven minutes, but it took the ambulance an hour to arrive - by which time she was dead.
Meanwhile, one stroke patient in Norfolk waited nine hours for a vehicle, while his wife called 999 six times.
Health chiefs warned that when patients finally get to hospital, many are facing further waits outside hospitals.
Investigations are underway into several incidents where patients died while trapped in queues of parked ambulances because A&Es were too busy to admit them.
Paramedics say they are operating under 'horrendous' pressure and 'start every shift knowing patients will be put at risk'
Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, has said: 'Patient safety is very much at risk - long waiting times and long stays, ambulance handover delays, dangerous crowding - these are appalling practices that can lead to avoidable harm or death.'
Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said his colleagues 'have never before experienced anything like this at this time of the year'.
He added: 'Every day services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no-one to send.
'The ambulance service is simply not providing the levels of service they should - patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.'
Speaking to the BBC, he added: 'We have members who have been working for 20, 30 years, and they have never before experienced anything like this at this time of the year.
'Every day, services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no one to send. Patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.'
Mr Webber pointed to lengthy delays in handing patients over to hospital staff, with waits of three or four hours not uncommon.
'It means on a 12-hour shift we can only attend two or three incidents, whereas previously we would do six, seven or eight,' he said.
NHS England wrote to trusts and integrated care systems at the end of October telling them to take urgent action to 'immediately stop all delays' to ambulance handovers, and that 'corridor care' is 'unacceptable as a solution'.
Trusts have reported record levels of A&E attendances in recent months, with ambulance services across the country declaring black alerts due to escalated pressure.
West Midlands Ambulance Service warned last month that it is causing 'catastrophic' harm to patients due to handover delays.
The pressure the emergency care sector is under comes as it was revealed eight NHS ambulance bosses were awarded taxpayer-funded bonuses worth up to 20,000 this year.
The revelation, from MailOnline, comes amid pleas for ministers to call in the Army to tackle the current crisis.
Despite shocking waiting times, senior executives at three ambulance trusts were given bonuses and pay rises during the last year.
West Midlands Ambulance Service's chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh saw his salary increase by 50,000 to 235,000 in the year ending March.
He also received a bonus of between 15,000 and 20,000, despite not getting any add-ons before the pandemic.
Five directors took home bonuses totalling up to 60,000 at South Central Ambulance Service in the same year, while North East Ambulance Service's chief executive raked in more than 15,000.
Ambulance service bosses were given bonuses worth up to 20,000 this year despite the current crisis in waiting times and handover delays that have caused patients to die in the back of vehicles. Map shows: The total upper bracket of performance pay and bonuses received by ambulance trust directors in the year April 2020 to March 2021 in trusts across England.
Critics today slammed the bonuses, calling it an 'insult' to taxpayers.
Daniel Boxall, media campaign manager at the TaxPayer's Alliance said: 'We keep hearing the health service is facing a cash crisis, and it's little wonder when ambulance trusts give out generous pay packages like these.
'Not only is this an insult to taxpayers, but it's even worse for the patients who have suffered because of mismanagement. Taxpayers' hard-earned money should go towards treating the sick, not feathering the nests of the top brass.'
Data yesterday revealed 160,000 patients are harmed each year because of the delays. The NHS target is for handovers outside hospitals to last no longer than 15 minutes but the number waiting more than an hour has quadrupled in a year.
Sajid Javid was yesterday urged to call in the Army to deal with the burgeoning staffing crisis, which has already been done in Scotland and Wales to bolster their struggling services.
Faye Shepherd (pictured), who is on placement at South Western Ambulance Service, warned about the handover delays
A trainee paramedic has revealed how she treated just one patient during a 14-and-a-half hour shift, in an example that lays bare the scale of the NHS crisis.
Faye Shepherd said she spent the entire shift on Monday caring for the patient in the back of an ambulance while waiting for a bed to free up in A&E.
The student, on placement at South Western Ambulance Service, warned that the handover delays are leaving 'people dying waiting for ambulances'.
She also described how her ambulance was 23rd in a queue of 25 vehicles stuck outside waiting to offload patients at an emergency department in a separate incident last month.
More than 1.3million emergency calls were made in England in October up 273,025 on the same period last year, the latest figures show.
In the same month, more than 7,000 patients waited 12-plus hours to be seen in A&E in October more than triple the number in the same month pre-Covid.
The unprecedented demand, combined with worsening handover delays, has left heart attack and stroke patients waiting nearly an hour for an ambulance.
Paramedic bosses have said crews are currently seeing two to three patients in a shift, whereas normally they would get to up to eight.
It came as South East Coast Ambulance Service declared a 'critical incident' because of a 'significant' IT issue, and urged patients to avoid calling 999 where possible.
Ms Shepherd posted this picture after her shift on Monday night, saying they had only helped one patient because of the queues outside the hospital
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
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 999
Ms Shepherd wrote on Twitter yesterday morning: 'During last night's 14.5 hour shift, we saw one patient.
'That's not because there's no demand, but because we were stuck at hospital for the entire duration, waiting for bed space.
'Meanwhile, people are dying waiting for ambulances. What part of this is sustainable [Health Secretary] Sajid Javid?'
She added: 'We were not able to hand over our patient to the hospital before the end of our shift, so a day crew drove to the hospital and took our patient on, which released us to go home.'
It came as an NHS official yesterday admitted hundreds of thousands of 999 calls every month are from desperate people asking where their ambulance is.
Father, 70, dies of suspected heart attack after 70-minute wait for an ambulance A 70-year-old father has died of a suspected heart attack after waiting an hour and 10 minutes for an ambulance. The man from south east London, who has not been named, made the first call to 999 and then alerted his two daughters. One daughter Emma, not her real name, rushed to his house from her home two miles away. She made repeated frantic calls to 999 pleading for an ambulance, but was told one would arrive 'within 41 minutes'. An hour after the first call was made the man stopped breathing, and Emma had to give him CPR. An ambulance eventually arrived 69 minutes after the first call. His daughter Jane, also not her real name, who is in her 30s said: 'The emotional trauma of witnessing this and desperately trying to save his life, knowing he was seriously let down, is overwhelming. 'His last words to (Emma) was that this is the most excruciating pain Ive ever had and she now has to live with that. 'Nothing will bring him back but we will do all we can to make sure no-one else loses their life unnecessarily and no-one else goes through this trauma.' Ambulances in England aim to respond to category 2 calls such as strokes and heart attacks within 18 minutes, and reach 90 per cent of all calls within 40 minutes. But the latest data for October shows ambulances are taking 53 minutes and 54 seconds to reach patients, or almost three times as long. A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'Our thoughts are with the patients family and friends during this difficult time and we send them our deepest condolences. 'We are looking into how we responded to the patient, and would encourage the family to reach out to our patient experiences team so we can support them in reviewing what happened.' Advertisement
There were more than 1.3million calls made in October a record but three quarters were from repeat callers pleading for an update on the arrival of their ambulance.
There are growing reports of patients dying in the back of ambulances in hospital car parks and in NHS corridors because of handover delays.
NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard has said patients are spending 'too long in A&E' but cannot be discharged due to an overstretched social care system.
She warned last month that there was a 'palpable sense of concern' among staff because of the delays.
NHS data for October shows the average waiting time for some emergency 999 ambulance calls has reached 54 minutes.
This is triple the 18-minute target for ambulance trusts to respond to these 'Category 2' calls, which includes strokes and heart attacks.
Speaking at the NHS Providers annual conference yesterday, the organisation's chief executive Chris Hopson said: 'We think that about three quarters of the extra phone calls that are coming in on 999 are repeat diallers basically trying to find out what's happened to the ambulance they are having to wait far too long for.'
Ms Pritchard also warned about the pressures the health service is under in a separate speech at the NHS providers conference yesterday.
While she said the health service was still dealing with 'thousands' of people seriously ill with Covid, she warned the NHS was under even more pressure from non-Covid patients.
'Even greater pressure is being felt in the non-Covid urgent and emergency care system as people come back to our services having perhaps, for understandable reasons, stayed away during the pandemic,' she said.
Ms Pritchard said there were 'challenges' in discharging patients to a 'very stretched social care system' which resulted in delays in A&E with a knock-on effect on ambulance response times.
'Patients are spending too long in A&E, meaning ambulances are spending too long waiting to hand over patients, meaning response times are not what any of us would want them to be,' she said.
She also added that there was no sign this would abate in the short-term and the NHS and patients have a potentially grim winter ahead.
'Indications suggest, we are not going to get any let up for a while,' she said.
'The next few months are going to be a winter like no other.'
In recent weeks, South Central Ambulance Trust has urged 999 callers to continue to hold and 'stay on the line' if their calls aren't answered swiftly as a high volume of them is causing significant delays to response times.
Nationally, nearly one in ten patients classed as a 'category two' emergency are having to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance.
Waiting times for life-threatening 'Category 1' calls, such as when someone is not breathing or their heart has stopped, are also the worst on record.
Category 1 incidents, the most serious, life threatening emergencies, have also seen delays with patients waiting nine minutes and 20 seconds for an ambulance, well above the NHS's target of seven minutes
Ambulance service declares 'critical incident' and tells patients to avoid calling 999 for help An ambulance service today declared a 'critical incident' and urged patients to use alternatives to 999. South East Coast Ambulance Service said it had hit the emergency button after suffering a 'significant' IT issue. A spokesman said: 'Following a significant IT issue overnight, we have declared a critical incident this morning. 'Our staff are working extremely hard as we continue to respond to patients. 'We would ask that you consider alternatives to calling 999, including NHS 111 online, unless it's absolutely essential.' It is the second time in a week that an ambulance service has experienced a technical issue. On November 10 East of England Ambulance Service said its IT had experienced a failure. As a result, 999 calls had to be temporarily rerouted to neighbouring ambulance services. Advertisement
Guidelines state ambulances should respond to these within seven minutes, but in October they took nine minutes and 20 seconds on average.
In one case in Waveney, Suffolk, a woman died because so many ambulances were stuck outside a hospital nobody could respond to the 999 call.
The patient was classified as Category 1, meaning a crew was meant to be on the scene in seven minutes, but it took the ambulance an hour to arrive - by which time she was dead.
One stroke patient in Norfolk waited nine hours for a vehicle, while his wife called 999 six times.
Health chiefs warned that when patients finally get to hospital, many are facing further waits outside.
Investigations are underway into several incidents where patients died while trapped in queues of parked ambulances because A&Es were too busy to admit them.
Paramedics say they are operating under 'horrendous' pressure and 'start every shift knowing patients will be put at risk'
Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, has said: 'Patient safety is very much at risk - long waiting times and long stays, ambulance handover delays, dangerous crowding - these are appalling practices that can lead to avoidable harm or death.'
Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said his colleagues 'have never before experienced anything like this at this time of the year'.
He added: 'Every day services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no-one to send.
'The ambulance service is simply not providing the levels of service they should - patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.'
Speaking to the BBC, he added: 'We have members who have been working for 20, 30 years, and they have never before experienced anything like this at this time of the year.
'Every day, services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no one to send. Patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.'
Mr Webber pointed to lengthy delays in handing patients over to hospital staff, with waits of three or four hours not uncommon.
'It means on a 12-hour shift we can only attend two or three incidents, whereas previously we would do six, seven or eight,' he said.
NHS England wrote to trusts and integrated care systems at the end of October telling them to take urgent action to 'immediately stop all delays' to ambulance handovers, and that 'corridor care' is 'unacceptable as a solution'.
Trusts have reported record levels of A&E attendances in recent months, with ambulance services across the country declaring black alerts due to escalated pressure.
West Midlands Ambulance Service warned last month that it is causing 'catastrophic' harm to patients due to handover delays.
Ambulance service bosses were given bonuses worth up to 20,000 this year despite the current crisis in waiting times and handover delays that have caused patients to die in the back of vehicles. Map shows: The total upper bracket of performance pay and bonuses received by ambulance trust directors in the year April 2020 to March 2021 in trusts across England.
Three-quarters of 999 calls are repeat callers pleading for an ambulance Some three-quarters of 999 calls are repeated callers pleading for an ambulance, a health boss has revealed. There were more than 1.3million calls to the service made in October, which was a record. But chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson said the vast majority were people asking where their ambulance was. He told NHS Providers annual conference yesterday:'We think that about three quarters of the extra phone calls that are coming in on 999 are repeat diallers basically trying to find out what's happened to the ambulance they are having to wait far too long for.' Advertisement
The pressure the emergency care sector is under comes as it was revealed eight NHS ambulance bosses were awarded taxpayer-funded bonuses worth up to 20,000 this year.
The revelation, from MailOnline, comes amid pleas for ministers to call in the Army to tackle the current crisis.
Despite shocking waiting times, senior executives at three ambulance trusts were given bonuses and pay rises during the last year.
West Midlands Ambulance Service's chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh saw his salary increase by 50,000 to 235,000 in the year ending March.
He also received a bonus of between 15,000 and 20,000, despite not getting any add-ons before the pandemic.
Five directors took home bonuses totalling up to 60,000 at South Central Ambulance Service in the same year, while North East Ambulance Service's chief executive raked in more than 15,000.
Critics today slammed the bonuses, calling it an 'insult' to taxpayers.
Daniel Boxall, media campaign manager at the TaxPayer's Alliance said: 'We keep hearing the health service is facing a cash crisis, and it's little wonder when ambulance trusts give out generous pay packages like these.
'Not only is this an insult to taxpayers, but it's even worse for the patients who have suffered because of mismanagement. Taxpayers' hard-earned money should go towards treating the sick, not feathering the nests of the top brass.'
Data yesterday revealed 160,000 patients are harmed each year because of the delays. The NHS target is for handovers outside hospitals to last no longer than 15 minutes but the number waiting more than an hour has quadrupled in a year.
Sajid Javid was yesterday urged to call in the Army to deal with the burgeoning staffing crisis, which has already been done in Scotland and Wales to bolster their struggling services.
CAUSE CHILDREN TO HAVE A LOW IQ: Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found in May 2019 that children born to mothers who live in polluted areas have an IQ that is up to seven points lower than those living in places with cleaner air.
CAUSE CHILDREN TO HAVE POORER MEMORY: Researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health found boys exposed to greater levels of PM2.5 in the womb performed worse on memory tests by the time they are 10.
DELAY THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN: Youngsters who live less than one-third of a mile away from busy roads are twice as likely to score lower on tests of communication skills in infancy, found researchers at Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health in April. They were also more likely to have poorer hand-eye coordination.
MAKE CHILDREN MORE ANXIOUS: University of Cincinnati scientists claimed pollution may alter the structure of children's brains to make them more anxious. Their study of 14 youngsters found rates of anxiety was higher among those exposed to greater levels of pollution.
CUT YOUR CHILD'S LIFE SHORT: Children born today will lose nearly two years of their lives because of air pollution, according to a report by the US-based Health Effects Institute and the University of British Columbia in April 2019. UNICEF called for action on the back of the study.
RAISE A CHILD'S RISK OF AUTISM: Researchers at Monash University in Australia discovered youngsters living in highly polluted parts of Shanghai have a 86 per cent greater chance of developing ASD. Lead author Dr Yuming Guo said: 'The developing brains of young children are more vulnerable to toxic exposures in the environment.'
CAUSE ASTHMA IN CHILDREN: Four million children around the world develop asthma each year because of road traffic pollution, a major study by academics at George Washington University estimated. Experts are divided as to what causes asthma - but exposure to pollution in childhood increases the risk by damaging the lungs.
MAKE CHILDREN FAT: University of Southern California experts found last November that 10 year olds who lived in polluted areas when they were babies are, on average, 2.2lbs (1kg), heavier than those who grew up around cleaner air. Nitrogen dioxide pollution could disrupt how well children burn fat, the scientists said.
LEAVE WOMEN INFERTILE EARLIER: Scientists at the University of Modena, Italy, claimed in May 2019 that they believe pollution speeds up ageing in women, just like smoking, meaning they run out of eggs faster. This was based on them finding almost two-thirds of women who have a low 'reserve' of eggs regularly inhaled toxic air.
RAISE THE RISK OF A MISCARRIAGE: University of Utah scientists found in January that pregnant women are 16 per cent more likely to suffer the heartbreak of a miscarriage if they live in areas of high pollution.
RAISE THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER: Scientists at the University of Stirling found six women working at the same bridge next to a busy road in the US got breast cancer within three years of each other. There was a one in 10,000 chance the cases were a coincidence, the study said. It suggested chemicals in the traffic fumes caused the cancer by shutting down the BRCA genes, which try to stop tumours growing.
DAMAGE A MAN'S SPERM: Brazilian scientists at the University of Sao Paulo found in March that mice exposed to toxic air had lower counts and worse quality sperm compared to those who had inhaled clean air since birth.
MAKE MEN LESS LIKELY TO GET SEXUALLY AROUSED: Scientists at Guangzhou Medical University in China found rats exposed to air pollution struggled to get sexually aroused. Scientists believe it may also affect men, as inhaling poisonous particles may trigger inflammation in blood vessels and starve the genitals of oxygen affecting men's ability to become sexually aroused.
MAKE MEN MORE LIKELY TO HAVE ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION: Men who live on main roads are more likely to have difficulty getting an erection due to exposure to pollution, a Guangzhou University in China study suggested in February. Toxic fumes reduced blood flow to the genitals, tests on rats showed, putting them at risk of developing erectile dysfunction.
RAISE THE RISK OF PSYCHOSIS: In March, King's College London scientists linked toxic air to intense paranoia and hearing voices in young people for the first time. They said uncovering exactly how pollution may lead to psychosis should be an 'urgent health priority'.
MAKE YOU DEPRESSED: Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found in January that that the more polluted the air, the sadder we are. Their study was based on analysing social media users in China alongside the average daily PM2.5 concentration and weather data where they lived.
CAUSE DEMENTIA: Air pollution could be responsible for 60,000 cases of dementia in the UK, researchers from King's College London and St George's, University of London, calculated last September. Tiny pollutants breathed deep into the lungs and enter the blood stream, where they may travel into the brain and cause inflammation a problem which may trigger dementia.
Michigan is currently recording the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as several hospitals report they have reached capacity.
Over the past week, the state has reported an average of 503.8 new infections per 100,000 people according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is the second time this year that Michigan has led the country in cases, with the last time occurring in April, between the third and fourth surges of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients has risen more than 50 percent in the last month and at least nine hospitals are reporting that they've reached capacity.
Michigan is recording 503.8 new infections per 100,000 in one week, the highest 7-day case rate in the U.S. with a rolling average of about 9,000 per day (above)
Health officials say that around 75% of all cases and deaths are among unvaccinated people or those not yet fully vaccinated. Pictured: An ambulance crew weaves a gurney through the halls of the emergency department at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan, undated
According to state data, there were 2,097 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on October 18.
This has since risen to 3,197 as of Wednesday, a 52 percent increase.
'The current growth in COVID-19 hospitalizations is very concerning,' John Karasinski, a spokesman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, told the Detroit Free Press.
'[Hospitals are] seeing a stark increase in hospitalizations in just the past few days... We have both this stark surge of COVID-19 patients, but we also have hospitals that have been dealing with staffing challenges and staffing shortages, as well as high volumes of non-Covid patients.
'And we've been seeing that pent-up demand of non-Covid admissions since this past summer.'
Individual hospitals are also reporting similar increases.
Dr Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer of the Henry Ford Health System, told the Free Press than 330 COVID-19 patients were admitted across its five hospitals.
This marks a 60 percent increase in the total number of patients admitted to the facility by midnight than was seen just three weeks prior.
'We were hoping that we would be in a better situation this Thanksgiving than we were last year, especially with the availability of the vaccines,' Munkarah told the newspaper.
'We've been watching with...trepidation and worry, the number of COVID cases climb and rise throughout our community and around the state.
'The vast majority of the patients continue to be unvaccinated patients. So when we look at general admissions for COVID, 70 to 75 percent of those patients have been unvaccinated.'
CDC data show that 59.8 percent of Michigan's total population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 54.1 percent are fully vaccinated.
Over the last month, hospitalizations have increased 52% from 2,097 patients to 3,197 patients, state data show
This is behind the national averages of 68.6 percent of the U.S. population with at least one dose and 58.9 percent fully vaccinated.
Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the state health department, told the Free Press that 73 percent of Covid cases across the state have been among unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated people.
Additionally, 69 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 74 percent of deaths have been among people not fully vaccinated.
'The majority have some other underlying complex clinical conditions that make them compromised,' Bob Riney, Henry Ford's chief operating officer, told the newspaper.
'So the facts really still support that the unvaccinated population is being hit dramatically different than the vaccinated population as it relates to the activity that we're seeing today.'
A Maryland resident has tested positive for the rare virus monkeypox after a recent trip to Nigeria.
The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) says the patient has not been hospitalized and is currently recovering in isolation with mild symptoms.
No details are available regarding the resident's name, age, sex, where he or she lives, and where he or she traveled to in Nigeria.
Currently, health officials say that the general public does not need to take any special precautions.
A Maryland resident traveling back to the United States from Nigeria has been confirmed to be infected with monkeypox. Pictured: Skin lesions, which are are a common symptom of monkeypox
The unnamed resident is currently recovering in isolation with mild symptoms and has not been hospitalized. The virus can cause skin spots, which then turn to blisters and can take weeks to clear up (above)
'Public health authorities have identified and continue to follow up with those who may have been in contact with the diagnosed individual,' Dr Jinlene Chan, deputy secretary for public health at MDH, said in a statement.
'Our response in close coordination with (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) officials demonstrates the importance of maintaining a strong public health infrastructure.'
The CDC released a media statement revealing its scientists confirmed on Tuesday that the traveler had a case of monkeypox.
What's more, the strain that the patient contracted matches the strain that has been re-emerging in Nigeria since 2017.
Currently, CDC is working with the airline and health officials to contact passengers who were on the same flight as the patient and may have come into contact with him or her.
'Travelers on the flight to the United States were required to wear masks on the plane as well as in the U.S. airports due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,' the CDC said in a statement.
'Therefore, its believed the risk of spread of monkeypox virus via respiratory droplets to others on the planes is low.
'Working with airline and state and local health partners, CDC is assessing potential risks to those who may have had close contact with the traveler on the plane and after their arrival in the United States.'
Monkeypox was discovered in 1958 when outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in crab-eating macaque monkeys kept for research.
The first-ever human case was detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, since spreading to many central and western African nations.
Monkeypox originated in crab-eating macaques (pictured) kept for research in central and western Africa and kills 1% of those infected
It is believed that the virus transmits from animals to humans when the primate bites or scratches a person.
It can also spread person-to-person by respiratory droplets in the air - similar to the way humans spread COVID-19 to each other.
People with more serious cases of the virus will often develop skin lesions, among other symptoms such as rash and fever, and it kills abut one percent of those infected.
The disease had largely vanished, until a 2003 flare-up in the U.S. saw the virus return among humans.
There are no specific treatments or vaccines available for monkeypox, though the smallpox vaccine is believed to have helped make it a non-problem in humans for many years.
Other cases of monkeypox have been detected recently including in a Texas man in July and in Wales in June, when at least two people came down with the virus in the northern part of the country.
In an article published on October 27 about a woman who had been tried for posting revenge porn images online, we reported that Antonia Traynor was a Deputy Headteacher who had been sacked from her job. We have since been contacted by Ms Traynor who advises that she was a former Teacher, not a Deputy Head, and was not sacked from her previous employment. She was unemployed at the time of conviction. We are happy to set the record straight.
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Nearly half of UK drivers say they'll be forced to cut back on spending elsewhere in light of petrol and diesel prices being at record highs and set to continue increasing in the build-up to Christmas.
Of the 2,500 UK licence holders polled by the RAC at the end of October, 46 per cent said they will have to make compromises on other household spending to be able to afford sky-rocketing pump prices as we near the most expensive time of year.
A third of motorists surveyed said the never-before-seen high cost of both petrol and diesel has already resulted in them driving less than before - and another quarter plan to reduce their time at the wheel if pump prices continue in the same direction, the study found.
The report was published as the latest Consumer Price Index figures showed that inflation in October had risen to 4.2 per cent from 3.1 per cent in September - the biggest month-to-month jump recorded for a decade.
Sky-high fuel prices a real concern for Britons: With no end in sight for rising petrol and diesel prices, nearly half of drivers say they will need to make cut-backs elsewhere
The cost of filling up is just one of a number of financial concerns for Britons in the face of rising grocery prices as well as soaring gas and electricity bills.
Petrol and diesel both eclipsed previous record high prices - which were last set in April 2012 - last month and have continued to rise since.
The average price of a litre of diesel rose above the 1.50 mark over the weekend, while petrol has surpassed 1.46-a-litre.
Such has been the dramatic rise in fuel prices in recent months that the cost to fill an average petrol-powered family car's tank is now 80 - some 17.50 more than it was a year ago (when unleaded was around 1.14 a litre).
Since diesel rose above 150p per litre, the average family diesel car's fuel tank is now close to 83 to brim.
Inflated motorway services prices for fuel means both petrol and diesel is now being sold for eye-watering prices above 1.60-a-litre in some regions.
Drivers have been experiencing record fuel prices for the last three weeks, with petrol beyond the previous high on 24 October and diesel surpassing the former high on 31 October
Prices have been forced higher by a combination of rising oil and biofuel used in both petrol and diesel, which are both showing no signs of slowing.
The RAC says three in five (61 per cent) of the drivers it polled are now worried about the implications of rising fuel costs due to their dependency on their vehicles.
Almost half (48 per cent) are worried that rising pump prices are coming hand-in-hand with bulging household gas and electricity bills.
Stick to supermarkets to fill up with cheapest fuel, say campaign group FairFuelUK says the nation's overall average published figures are being 'misleadingly distorted' by lower fill up costs at the big four supermarket suppliers, who continue to be always 4-6p per litre cheaper. Many motorists are already seeing petrol being sold above 1.50-a-litre and diesel exceeding an eye watering 1.54 per litre. In a review of 476 UK forecourts and their prices over the weekend, FairFuelUK's independent garages and big oil brands are charging drivers considerably more than supermarkets. The report said average retail profits for both petrol and diesel are now exceeding 20p per litre. That is 11 from every driver filling up their family car with diesel. And nearly 10 profit from drivers using unleaded. Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK said this is unfairly stinging drivers who do not live close to big supermarkets who are 'being forced to fill up where they have no choice but to swallow the rip off prices of the big oil brands and independent forecourts'. 'Shopping around to save a few pennies is pointless unless you are close to one of the big four supermarket outlets, ' he said. Mr Cox has called on the Government to introduce a 'PumpWatch' watchdog to monitor fuel prices across the UK.
Just under a fifth (17 per cent) of the drivers questioned by the motoring organisation said they are going to walk or cycle more often while fuel prices are at such a premium.
Alarmingly, five percent of motorists said they have genuine fears theyll be unable to keep running a car at all if prices keep heading north.
The RAC said the research 'paints a chilling picture of the impact of the current record petrol and diesel prices on UK households' and force more drivers to consider switching to electric vehicles - granted they can afford to do so.
Fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: 'These figures throw a light on the chilling impact the current record high petrol and diesel prices are having on drivers every time they fill up.
'And theres seemingly no end in sight the price of unleaded is already up by more than 2p in November and this, combined with the fact domestic energy costs are also spiking, means households need to brace themselves for what could turn out to be a particularly expensive winter.'
Mr Williams added that, for many, a car is their lifeline and the only feasible way for them to complete necessary journeys each day.
For example, the RAC's recent motoring report found that 68 per cent of drivers who have to care for family or friends live too far away to attend them by foot or bicycle.
When it comes to grocery shopping, 78 per cent rely on a vehicle.
'This reliance on cars, coupled with the fact the cost of fuel represents such a large proportion of many households spending, should be ringing alarm bells in government, but its not obvious the message is getting through,' says Williams.
'The Chancellor had the perfect opportunity last month to show his support for drivers who are struggling with the increasing fuel prices which is happening at a time when domestic energy bills are also rising by temporarily cutting VAT on motor fuel or reducing fuel duty.
'Were disappointed he chose to do neither, but a commitment to freeze fuel duty for another year was at least some consolation. However, we fear that rocketing prices risk storing up all kinds of problems for drivers as we go into the winter.'
On Wednesday it was confirmed by the Office for National Statistics that the rate of Consumer Price Index inflation increased to 4.2 per cent last month.
It means inflation surged close to a ten-year peak - partly on the back of higher household energy bills - as it hit the highest level since November 2011.
The ONS found there were 12-month inflation rates of 18.8 per cent for electricity and 28.1 per cent for gas - the highest annual rates for both since early 2009.
An investment banking giant is suing Tesla for 120million over claims it flagrantly breached a contract.
JP Morgan bought warrants which are contracts to buy shares at a specific price from the electric car maker in 2014.
But the bank changed the prices twice in the wake of controversial tweets from Teslas boss Elon Musk in 2018, in which he said he had secured funding to take the company private.
Twitter storm: JP Morgan changed its warrant prices twice in the wake of controversial tweets from Tesla's boss Elon Musk (pictured) in 2018
The tweets got Musk got into trouble with US regulators, who fined him 15million.
And the deal quickly fell apart with Tesla arguing the changes the investment giant made to the prices were unnecessary.
The bank argues Tesla did not fully honour the agreement and owes it a shortfall of 120million.
Musk, 50, has sold 5.8billion shares in the group in a matter of days, after another string of controversial tweets where he asked people on Twitter to vote on whether he should sell 7.4billion of stock to pay tax.
The party is over, declared Australian mining magnate turned eco-warrior, Andrew Forrest who is known as Twiggy in his home country.
Speaking in a gravelly Antipodean brogue from a breakfast table laden with tea and toast, the tycoon claimed fossil fuels are in terminal decline. And he warned climate change chaos would wipe out the entire human race if left unchecked.
The video message was not subtle, nor was it meant to be.
Give it some gas: Australian mining magnate turned eco-warrior, Andrew Forrest (pictured) describes cleanly-produced hydrogen as the fuel of the future
For this rallying call to ditch fossil fuels and save the planet also marked Twiggys latest naked sales pitch for green hydrogen power, which he described as the fuel of the future.
The 59-year-old who has already amassed a 15billion fortune from the iron ore riches of Western Australia was perfectly open about his desire to cash in from tackling climate change.
The difference this time is it would be guilt free.
He said: The great thing is when you make a serious dollar out of it, you can still go home and you can look your kids straight in the eye, not a lump of guilt in our throat.
The iron ore billionaire is a household name in his native Australia. But he is largely unknown in the UK.
This could change because Forrest founder of mining giant Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) has his sights set on bringing green hydrogen power to Britain.
He has already found a heavyweight backer in the form of Lord Bamford, chairman of manufacturing giant JCB and one of the biggest names in British business.
Just before Cop26 got underway, Forrest announced a huge hydrogen export deal with JCB and Ryze Hydrogen, a firm set up by Lord Bamfords son Jo.
The agreement will see Fortescue Future Industries FMGs green energy arm become the largest supplier of hydrogen in the UK.
JCB will buy 10 per cent of Fortescues global green hydrogen production or 1.5m tonnes a year and then manage its distribution in Britain.
Forrest has said the deal will be worth between 5.1billion and 6.6billion annually if, of course, he can produce hydrogen at this scale.
Some are highly sceptical, and say green hydrogen is unproven. But it represents one of the first major global hydrogen export deals and will be according to Forrest the first of many.
He estimates the green hydrogen market could generate revenues of 9 trillion by 2050, dwarfing any other industry.
Heavyweights: Boris Johnson with JCB chairman Lord Bamford. JCB will buy 10% of Fortescues global green hydrogen production or 1.5m tonnes a year
Forrest became Australias richest man though not richest person as the top spot is claimed by mining magnate, and his Perth neighbour, Gina Rinehart after founding Fortescue Metals Group almost 20 years ago.
Having generated more than his fair share of carbon emissions over the years, he is trying to save the planet and make another vast wad in the process.
His Damascene conversion has seen him develop a fixation on green hydrogen power, which he says will replace fossil fuels and be critical to tackling climate change.
Glasgows Cop26 summit, crammed with world leaders, captains of industry and financiers, represented the ultimate sales opportunity for Twiggy and his team.
Green hydrogen power uses renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power to create electricity.
Electrolysers are then used to send an electric current through water to separate it into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen.
Energy giants like BP and Shell are investing heavily in producing blue hydrogen, which uses methane from natural gas instead of renewable energy to generate electricity, and is cheaper to produce.
But blue hydrogen has been dismissed by Forrest as a charade because it still generates carbon emissions which are then stored in the ground.
Boris Johnson has talked of transforming Britain into the Qatar of hydrogen, with households eventually using hydrogen gas made across Northern England to cook their breakfast.
If Forrest gets his way, it will be his hydrogen which will be used to fry our bacon and eggs, as well as power machinery across the UK and the world.
JCB, too, is also convinced hydrogen energy will play an essential role for heavy industry.
Last month it announced it is investing 100m to develop super-efficient hydrogen engines for its machines, which it hopes will be on sale by the end of next year.
But the scope of Forrests ambition in hydrogen power is on a different level. He has pledged to produce 15m tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, many times the amount produced globally today.
He is so confident of hitting this target he has vowed to make Fortescue carbon neutral by 2030, 20 years earlier than the 2050 net zero target agreed by dozens of developed nations.
Producing hydrogen in industrial quantities will require vast plains of solar panels, wind turbines and huge hydro-electricity schemes. Which brings us to perhaps the biggest problem with green hydrogen.
It is hugely difficult and expensive to produce one of the reasons why Tesla boss Elon Musk has branded the concept of hydrogen powered cars as mind bogglingly stupid.
Forrest is undeterred. He recently announced plans to build the worlds largest hydrogen manufacturing facility in Central Queensland, which is expected to double the worlds hydrogen production capacity.
He also has hydrogen projects on the go in Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and also Kenya and Ethiopia. His mission to become a global hydrogen power has seen him criss-crossing the globe on a private jet.
As part of a PR blitz in London before heading up to Glasgow for the Cop26 summit, Forrest had a fleet of black cabs painted green and emblazoned with the Fortescue Future Industries logo, and the message: Green hydrogen can save us.
If he is right, then Twiggy may well become the wealthiest environmentalist of them all.
Richard Branson has sold another 224m of Virgin Galactic shares to prop up a business empire hammered in the coronavirus pandemic.
The billionaire got rid of 15.6m shares 6 per cent of the space travel company leaving him with 11.9 per cent.
Branson, 71, has been engaged in a space race against Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin.
Bailing out: Richard Branson (pictured) got rid of 15.6m Virgin Galactic shares - 6% of the space travel company leaving him with 11.9%
On July 11, Branson beat Amazon founder Bezos to space in a battle that made headlines globally. Bezos achieved the feat nine days later.
But delays to the start of commercial flights have resulted in Virgin Galactics stock tumbling 20 per cent this year.
Based in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the company expects to be flying paying passengers to space three times a month in 2023.
But Branson has been selling stock to support his travel and leisure businesses, including Virgin Atlantic.
He has sold nearly 800million of shares in Virgin Galactic since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.
Some speculated that he was looking at listing Virgin Atlantic in London, but that has cooled after transatlantic travel started up again last week.
LV could still be owned by its members under a deal with Royal London, the rival company has claimed.
The historic insurer has been trying to sell itself to private equity shark Bain Capital in a transaction which has angered its customers and politicians of all parties.
They are worried that the 178-year-old business, which is owned by its policyholders as a mutual and run with their interests in mind, could end up being milked for profits by Bain.
Loggerheads: LV chairman Alan Cook (left) and Royal London boss Barry ODwyer (right)
But as an extraordinary war of words erupted between LV and Royal London yesterday, the larger insurer said LV members did not have to give up their ownership.
Bosses at Royal London said they were willing to table a new offer which would allow LV to remain a mutual, and urged the companys board and Bain to open discussions.
But Mark Hartigan, LVs chief executive, accused Royal London of lobbing a hand grenade into its deal, and said he was disappointed with its tactics.
Royal London has held talks about buying LV over the past eight years, and it is understood that a deal was almost signed in 2017.
But when Alan Cook took over as LV chairman that year, he decided to ditch the deal and launch a strategic review.
LV then put itself up for sale last year, claiming it desperately needed more money to invest in modern technology and IT systems.
The mutual courted other suitors, and the process culminated last year with the selection of US private equity firm Bain as its preferred bidder sparking a furious backlash. Now, as LV policyholders prepare to vote on the deal, Royal London has attempted to revive its offer.
Keen: Royal London has held talks about buying LV over the past eight years, and it is understood that a deal was almost signed in 2017
Royal London chief executive Barry ODwyer said: The near-universal dismay which has greeted [Bains] proposal means that I think there is a significant risk now that members wont support that proposal. So I sent a private email to the LV chief executive [Hartigan] offering to help construct an alternative.
He claimed this alternative could involve LV staying a mutual.
Hartigan hit back, as he finally revealed more details of Bains and Royal Londons rival deals.
He admitted that Royal London had actually offered 540million to buy LV, 10million more than Bain.
But he claimed that Royal London planned to leave material liabilities with the fund, which is responsible for making pay-outs to LVs so-called with-profits members.
These liabilities, understood to include loss-making policies called Lifetime Plus, could have eaten up members cash if the business began to struggle.
Hartigan claimed that Royal London also failed to complete its due diligence the under-the-bonnet checks which a firm does on a rival its hoping to buy.
And he said Royal London had been grossly misleading to suggest that LV could remain a mutual under its offer. Hartigan said Royal Londons 11th hour intervention was a hand grenade to disrupt the process.
But Royal London stuck to its guns. Staying mutual is an option if LV makes this a priority and engages in talks with us, it said.
It is understood that Royal Londons original proposal would have seen LV demutualised.
But the firm claims it could structure an offer which would see LVs business merged with its own, and owned by the combined pool of members. ODwyer said: LV members have an important choice to make.
Ministers have ordered a full-blown investigation into Nvidias 31billion swoop on chipmaker Arm in a move that could scupper the takeover.
The controversial deal will face more delays after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries intervened on competition and national security grounds.
The US tech giant agreed to buy Cambridge-based Arm from Softbank last September.
But the planned tie-up has triggered uproar from Arms customers and is already under scrutiny in China, the US and EU.
Probe: Nvidia's controversial swoop on chipmaker Arm will face more delays after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries (pictured) intervened on competition and national security grounds
Dorries believes it is crucial for the UKs national security to maintain reliable access to Arms technology, the Government said in a letter yesterday, and that there are fears the Nvidia takeover could remove this.
The National Cyber Security Centre has also raised concerns about the deal, documents revealed yesterday.
Over the summer, UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) flagged concerns about what it could do to the wider semiconductor industry saying it could stifle innovation, lead to less competition and drive up prices.
It also comes at a critical time as a global shortage of microchips is sending shockwaves throughout the manufacturing sector and slowing down production lines.
The CMA will now carry out the Phase Two investigation.
It has 24 weeks to complete this, though this could be extended by another eight weeks. The watchdog will have the power to block the takeover on competition grounds, while Dorries will be able to block it if it poses a security threat.
Dorries said: The Governments commitment to our thriving tech sector is unwavering and we welcome foreign investment, but it is right that we fully consider the implications of this transaction.
Arm is seen as a jewel in the crown of the UKs tech sector. It was spun out of a firm called Acorn Computers in 1990, and after years on the stock market was snapped up by Japans Softbank for 24billion in 2016.
Arms customers include Google, Samsung and Apple. Softbank licenses Arms designs to more than 500 companies which use them to make their own chips, which are used in 95pc of smartphones and in an array of other devices from cars to fridges that are connected to the internet.
More than 200bn chips have been made worldwide using its designs and some 900 are produced per second.
Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates, said: The UK was caught napping in 2016 when Arm was sold to Softbank a sale which faced virtually no scrutiny and was a major failure of national security.
A Nvidia spokesman said: We plan on addressing the CMAs initial views on the impact of the transaction on competition, and we will continue to work with the Government to resolve its concerns.
The Phase Two process will enable us to demonstrate that the transaction will help to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation, including in the UK.
CMC markets pre-tax profits were 74 per cent below levels seen during the 2020 trading boom, falling to 36million in the six months to 30 September compared to 141.1million at the same time last year.
The decline will not come as a shock to investors after the UK trading platform issued a profit warning in September, with a collapse in trading volumes driving income 45 per cent lower than last year to 126.7million.
However, performance remains well above pre-pandemic levels, with pre-tax profits and income 20 per cent and 24 per cent higher than 2019, respectively.
As expected, CMC Markets' profits dipped after a slowdown in the pandemic home trading boom
Revenues within CMC Market's more profitable leveraged trading business fell 50 per cent on 2019 levels to 101million this year, while non-leveraged revenues fell 8 per cent to 24.1million.
The former remains 19 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, while the latter is 67 per cent above.
In what would be the biggest shake-up since its founding in 1989, CMC Markets announced recently that it is considering dividing its online investment group into a retail-focused trading platform and a leveraged operation.
Its number of leveraged clients fell 9 per cent during the half, while non-leveraged clients grew by 10 per cent.
The firm highlighted aims to diversify and grow its non-leveraged earnings via the acquisition of the ANZ Share Investing, which when completed over the next 12-18 months will boost the business division with approximately 500,000 new clients and AUD$45billion (24.4billion) of assets.
It followed CMC Markets' September profit warning, which saw shares go into freefall after the group cut its annual earnings outlook by 80million in response to 'subdued' trading volumes in July and August.
However, CMC Market's forewarning did not stop its shares falling another 3.5 per cent in early trading to 264.5p.
As basic earnings per share fell 75 per cent on the same time last year to 9.6p, CMC Market's dividend per share fell 62 per cent to 3.5p.
Lord Cruddas, chief executive, said: 'I'm very pleased to see the business is operating well above pre-pandemic levels across all our business lines.
'This is testament to the resilience and quality of our platform and offering.
CMCX shares fell sharply in September after the firm issued a profit warning
'We are on a fast track to diversification, using our existing platform technology to win B2B and B2C non-leveraged business.
'This will be further boosted with the launch of our new UK investment platform planned in the early part of the next financial year, which will offer both B2C and B2B potential.
'In line with this strategy, we believe it is right for us to evaluate the viability of separating the businesses in order to unlock the significant value within the current group structure.
'The board is expected to start this review before year end and complete it by June 2022. We will update on progress in due course.'
CMC shares are down 34.6 per cent since the start of the year and 28.8 per cent over one year.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said the stock 'is materially undervalued', noting investment in strategic initiatives and 'good progress' being made.
Maintaining a target price of 462p, they added: 'CMC continues to invest in products and services to support future growth.'
Historic insurer LV is facing a furious backlash from loyal customers over a controversial takeover by a private equity firm.
Scores of Mail readers have vowed to vote against the deal, with some threatening to ditch LV in protest.
Many have been members of the mutual for decades, and chose the firm because they trusted it to look after their money.
Unimpressed: Retired lecturer Clarissa Johnson (pictured) says she was horrified when she first heard that LV could fall into the hands of Bain Capital
They now say they feel bitterly let down amid concerns about what the sale would mean for their pensions and investments.
Formerly known as Liverpool Victoria, the investment and insurance giant was founded in 1843 to help impoverished Liverpudlians bury their dead.
Since then, it has been owned by its members as a mutual, run with their benefit in mind and not for profit.
But the firm is now considering accepting a 530 million bid from U.S. firm Bain Capital, which would see it stripped of its mutual status.
This has led to fears for members as private equity firms are notorious for slashing jobs, hiking prices and prioritising the pay packets of top bosses and shareholders.
The Mail has launched a campaign to save LV and today we are calling on members to ensure their voice is heard.
Around 1.2 million LV members with life insurance, pension policies and annuities are eligible to vote on whether the sale goes ahead next month.
And many have already pledged to cast their vote against it.
Retired lecturer Clarissa Johnson says she was horrified when she first heard that LV could fall into the hands of Bain Capital.
The 74-year-old grandmother took out an enhanced annuity with the mutual over a decade ago, which pays out just under 500 a month.
However, she now says she has lost trust in LVs board and plans to vote against the deal next month.
Bain Capital has pledged to pay each member up to 100 if the takeover goes ahead.
Retired couple Joseph and Jennifer Schneider, from Bushey, Hertfordshire, are horrified that LV chairman Alan Cook is backing a move that would demutualise the business
And around 297,000 customers who have with-profits policies where payouts depend on how much profit companies make will receive an extra 0.1 pc of the value of their policy for every year that they have held it. This is around 52 for most members.
LV bosses claim Bains bid is the only option that offers an excellent financial outcome for members along with unrivalled support for the brand, staff and UK-based offices.
But, given that Scottish Widows members received an average windfall of 6,000 when it was demutualised and bought by Lloyds in 2000, many feel the cash payment they have been offered is derisory.
Clarissa, who lives in Dorset, says: The sum of money they offered us not only sounds like a bribe, its a paltry amount.
How does it amount to an excellent financial outcome for me, like LV says?
If LV is no longer a mutual, its members will have no say on any decisions made by the company. Bain Capital has pledged to keep mutual bonuses received by with-profit customers at a similar rate.
But experts fear the firm could hike exit fees and premiums for new customers in the future.
Takeover will end in tears, say experts Tony Hazell, Money Mail letters editor Why would a bunch of American investors want to buy a modest-sized insurance company owned by its members? Because they can sniff a fast buck. Private equity is the antithesis of mutuality. It is about maximising profits for a few rather than fair shares for all. Mutuality lay at the heart of family finances for more than two centuries. Then short-term greed undermined the sector. That ended in tears as nearly every former mutual was forcibly taken over to prevent savers losing everything. Now LV investors are being encouraged to give up their mutuality for a handful of private equity cash, by directors who will stuff rather more into their own pockets. Martin Shaw, chief executive, Association of Financial Mutuals Its sad to see a once great mutual in such a weak position that it has to sell its mutual soul to the wolves of Wall Street. One advantage a mutual has is the flexibility to run the business without too strong a focus on profits, and in the interests of customers. The money from Bain will yield a paltry 100 per member next to nothing compared to everything members will lose. Sylvia Morris, Money Mails savings guru Savers pick mutuals because they like the idea of owning the organisation looking after their money. All profits benefit them rather than going to outside owners. Insurance companies owned by outsiders typically earmark 10 per cent of profits for themselves on a so-called with-profits investment fund. With a smaller share of the profits, the final payouts of LV savings policies could fall. Ros Altmann, former Pensions Minister It is very difficult to see how customers can expect to benefit from this deal. The financial reward of a paltry 100 is unlikely to compensate for the increased future risks they face. They are currently invested in a firm which is not seeking to make profit, but this will be replaced by an owner which aims to earn good returns. James Daley, Fairer Finance Almost all financial services scandals of the past few decades have in my humble opinion been caused by firms prioritising shareholder returns over good customer outcomes. Ive always been a fan of mutuals because that tension between customer and shareholder does not exist they are one and the same. I struggle to think of a single large financial services business that improved customer performance after moving into private equity ownership. I hope members will vote against and force the management to think again. Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown Some of the most highly respected brands in the UK are mutuals. Their roots are in helping support the poorer members of society, there are no shareholders to pay and they are owned by their customers so there is a laser focus on doing the right thing by them. The tone has been set with reports that policyholders have been offered just 100 each to approve the takeover, a relatively small amount for signing over membership rights.
Malcolm Murray, 77, has been an LV customer for more than 50 years, just like his parents and grandparents before him.
And in 2000 the father of two set up a mutual investment bond with his wife Sheila, 73, to ensure she would be financially secure if he died unexpectedly.
The with-profits policy has delivered returns of around 5 pc each year and is now worth a fivefigure sum.
But the retired chartered engineer says he will consider moving his bond to another firm if the Bain Capital bid is successful, and plans to vote against the deal.
Malcolm, who lives in Lincolnshire, says: The cash which Bain is offering to members is derisory. LV needs to be kept as a mutual. If it aint broke, dont fix it.
Other customers are concerned about the perceived lack of transparency around the deal.
They are also worried that bosses want to change LVs constitution to push the deal through.
Currently, 75 per cent of voting members or more need to back the deal, with a turnout of at least 50 per cent.
But LV is asking members to vote to ditch the 50 per centc requirement, which means it could go ahead with just a fraction of its members support.
And even if the bosses lose this vote, they could still go ahead with the sale but members will be paid just 60 rather than 100.
Derek Eade, 76, who has a five-figure sum invested in a with-profit growth bond, says all this uncertainty is unacceptable.
John James is concerned other members will be tempted by a short-term reward of 100
The retired accountant, who lives with wife Pam, 74, in Epsom, Surrey, says: Policyholders need to know what they are voting for, especially the amount they will receive.
Meanwhile, Joseph and Jennifer Schneider, from Bushey, Hertfordshire, are horrified that LV chairman Alan Cook is backing a move that would demutualise the business.
The retired couple signed up to an LV pension plan more than a decade ago because they believed the firm cared about its members.
But they have now lost trust in Mr Cook after discovering he was managing director of the Post Office between 2006 and 2010, when subpostmasters were falsely accused of theft.
Joseph, 78, who has already voted against the deal, says: I just do not trust Bain Capital goodness knows what will happen to our pensions. Im ashamed and disgusted with the deal and Mr Cook should be ashamed of himself.
John James, 72, is concerned that other members will be tempted by a short-term reward of 100 in cash. The retired construction project manager took out an annuity (which pays a regular income in retirement) with LV more than a quarter of a century ago.
John, who lives in Norfolk, says: It is a terrifying thought that LV, a mutual, will be taken over by such a company. The 100 offer is a cheap joke, but other members could be easily influenced without looking at the long-term consequences.
He is calling on City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority to intervene to stop the deal going ahead.
An LV spokesman says it needs significant investment to compete in a highly competitive market, adding: Whilst none of the bids would have allowed LV to remain as a stand-alone mutual, this deal provides the highest distribution to with-profits policyholders compared to continuing with business as usual or closing to new business.
Matt Popoli, a managing director of Bain Capital, says its proposed investment maintains an independent LV, adding: To be sustainable and achieve long-term success, LV needs capital to address its heavy debt pile, fund its pension liabilities and invest for growth.
f.parker@dailymail.co.uk
Visit your local Barclays branch this week and prepare to be greeted by a new 6 ft sign.
'Look out for changes to banking in branch,' it reads. 'For everyday banking, you'll now need to use our self-service machines, the Barclays app or online banking.'
This notice has now been placed near the entrance of 500 branches across the country.
Automated service: Friendly cashiers, with whom you might once have been on first-name terms with, are increasingly being replaced by machines
And the message is clear: the days of the traditional bank branch are numbered.
The biggest banks have axed 2,766 branches in five years, according to Money Mail research.
And as the regulator looks at halting more closures, banks are cutting branch services to the bone.
Friendly cashiers, with whom you might once have been on first-name terms with, are increasingly being replaced by machines.
Last month, Money Mail exposed how Barclays staff were refusing to help elderly and vulnerable customers in person, insisting they used a self-service machine instead due to pressures from head office.
At the time, the bank said that these cases were unfortunate one-off incidents.
But today, we can reveal how banks across the country are turning their backs on the traditional branch in a drive to boost profits.
Bad sign: Signs have been appearing in Barclays branches since August suggesting a concerted drive to push customers online once and for all.
Sign of the online times
Both Barclays and HSBC, which have more than 32 million UK customers between them, are closing counters.
Signs have been appearing in Barclays branches since August, suggesting a concerted drive to push customers online once and for all.
Attached to a notice spotted in a London branch are two small plastic holders containing leaflets.
One reads: 'Taking out less than 300 cash? Please use our self-service machines instead of the counter.'
Another says the bank is 'on a mission to reduce how much paper we use' and includes detailed instructions on how to sign up for digital statements.
If you still want a paper copy, 'you can use our online banking points in branch,' it adds.
The branch also has a blackboard at the entrance boasting a list of telephone numbers customers can call to get help with their banking, rather than in branch.
Both Barclays and HSBC, who have more than 32 million UK customers between them, are closing counters to ordinary customers
Meanwhile, by the end of 2021, HSBC will have 208 counterless branches, more than a 40 per cent of its network. And 58 Lloyds locations are machine-only.
Indeed, a Money Mail survey today reveals that almost one-in-five customers has been turned away when trying to use a counter.
Banks say they are responding to customer demands. Yet nearly half of the 1,027 adults polled by Consumer Intelligence said they prefer a face-to-face service.
Many explain this is so they can be sure their transaction is completed correctly.
Others simply prefer speaking to a real person, and complained that the machines were often not working.
Branches with no counters
Bank branches have disappeared from our towns and cities at an alarming rate.
High Street giants have shut 36 per cent of their branch network in the past five years alone.
And at the end of June this year, 93 per cent of the biggest banks were still only open part-time after reducing their hours during the pandemic, according to City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority.
One in three were not open after 3pm. Critics say the latest push to get customers online is an attempt to speed up closures, because by forcing customers to use machines, banks will find it easier to justify shutting more branches.
Dennis Reed, from over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, says: 'The High Street is being dehumanised with more and more transactions becoming digital.
'With branch closures, reduced opening hours and face-to-face services, customers likely feel they are being forced online against their wishes.'
Yet there is still a strong need for branches, particularly among the elderly and vulnerable. Some 38 pc of customers surveyed by Consumer Intelligence said they visit their branch at least once every three months.
And one in five go several times a month. Of those, who said they rarely use a branch, many claimed this was because their bank had closed.
But even when banks allow branches to remain open, many are limiting services, with some even refusing to accept cash.
Of HSBC's counterless branches, just 19 have a coin pay-in machine, while the rest will not accept change. About 12 Barclays branches are cashless.
Some 58 branches of Lloyds do not have counters, but the bank says cash and coins are still accepted. Many banks are also closing their counters hours before the branch shuts.
Most Barclays branches open at 9.30am and close at 3.30pm or 4.30pm, while counters may shut as early as 2pm.
TSB closes counters at 4pm, an hour before the branch. Nationwide says each branch is able to open or close counters depending on demand throughout the day.
Bullied into using machines
Even branches that still offer a counter service are increasingly restricting who can use it.
Some say they are only for business customers, or those with more complex needs, such as the recently bereaved.
It means anyone who just wants to bank a cheque, pay a bill or deposit cash is being turned away and sent to self-service machines instead. Barclays also has online banking points where you can print statements, pay bills and manage regular payments.
And Nationwide has iPads where customers can open new accounts in branch. But many elderly customers complain that they find these machines difficult to use, and that they regularly reject their transactions which means they have to queue to use a counter anyway.
Options: Santander says it asks its customers what they want to do in the branch to decide how to best help them
Soaring numbers of customers are also complaining that they feel bullied and patronised by staff.
Derek French, a former bank executive and founder of the campaign for community banking services, says: 'The big banks don't seem to want to interface with humans any longer. By making mass branch closures, reducing opening times and restricting counter access, they are getting there, but if that is not enough we are relentlessly pressured to take up their apps, do everything online and engage with robot chat lines.
'Enough is enough: please stop.'
Rising backlash from customers
Money Mail has been inundated with complaints from customers who feel aggrieved at the way they have been treated in branch.
HSBC customer Sandra Hornblow, 71, says her local branch in Andover, Hants, has recently removed all its counters.
When she visited earlier this month to deposit cash, she overheard an elderly gentleman trying to explain to staff that he could not use the machines because he had poor eyesight and did not have a computer to use online banking.
She says: 'All he needed was someone to help him do what he wanted. What the large banks fail to realise is that they are making life extremely difficult for their elderly customers who do not have or want computers in their lives. A friendly cashier is all they want and expect from their bank.'
Former bookkeeper Sandra also prefers the counter service. She says: 'If HSBC had asked any of us if we were happy with this decision, I think it would find lots of people would disagree. This is not progress, this is a cost-cutting exercise.'
Pensioner Alan Stewart says his branch of Yorkshire Bank, which has since been rebranded as Virgin Money, in Scarborough refused to let him pay a 200 credit card bill with cash a few weeks ago.
Abandoned: Last month we exposed how Barclays staff were refusing to help vulnerable customers in person - insisting they used a machine instead due to pressures from head office
The former postman says he was told the bank does not take cash over the counter. So he had to pay by debit card and deposit the cash back into his account.
Alan, 78, says: 'What are banks for if they refuse cash? Older people do not need this hassle and it feels as if the banks do not want to know us.'
Tess Webster says she has been ordered to leave a queue for a counter twice in recent months. But both times she has had to rejoin after the machine failed to work.
On one occasion, she had visited her local Barclays branch in Southport, Merseyside, to transfer money between accounts.
There was one customer ahead of her but before she could be served, a cashier called out to ask what Tess, 69, wanted to do and directed her to a machine. However, because the sum involved was more than 2,000 the transaction was rejected, by which point there were eight people in front of her.
Tess, a former administrator, says: 'There were lots of customers waiting around for staff to help them. The counter also closes earlier than the branch at 2pm or 2.30pm. And on one occasion staff were reluctant to help me as it was 15 minutes prior to closing.
'It was only after I kicked up a fuss that they dealt with the transfer by laptop. Barclays is letting us down.'
Our story: Barclays blasted
Cathy Harvey, 72, was shocked to see a new sign at her local Barclays branch in Pinner, Middlesex, ordering her to use self-service machines. And it took her four attempts to send 50 to her granddaughter for her birthday because an error message kept appearing.
She says other customers were also struggling, with staff running around like 'headless chickens' trying to help. Cathy, who has been with Barclays for 30 years, says: 'I left feeling so angry. I just want to be able to go into a branch and do what I need to do. Why should we be forced to use machines?'
What the banks say
Barclays says if customers can carry out their transactions at a self-service point, they are directed to do so.
With HSBC it depends on what type of branch you visit. Customers who visit one of its digital service branches must use machines as there are no counters.
At other branches offering a full service, which are typically in cities, you will have choice. You can also use counters at sites based in communities with a greater need for cash.
Lloyds, NatWest and Nationwide say staff may let customers know a self-service option is available, particularly if there are queues, but that customers can always use the counter service if preferred.
NatWest also has a service called Banking My Way which allows customers to specify how they wish to be served.
NatWest has a service called 'Banking My Way' which allows customers to specify how they wish to be served should they need extra time or a quiet space, for example
Santander asks its customers what they want to do in the branch to decide how to best help them.
TSB says it does not direct customers to use its machines.
A Barclays spokesman says: 'We're sorry that these customers were upset at the service they encountered and being asked to use self-service machines.
These machines allow branch colleagues to help a greater number of customers more effectively, and to become self-sufficient and feel more confident in managing their money themselves.'
An HSBC spokesman says: 'We are very conscious that there will be some customers who are less confident or comfortable using self-service options, and we would like to assure them that we will not be leaving any of our customers high and dry. Branch staff are always on hand to help in the banking hall.'
A Virgin Money spokesman says: 'Customers can pay their bills in store using cash. However, for security purposes, we ask customers to pay the cash into their account and then pay the bill from there. But we do not ask customers to pay the bill online.'
a.murray@dailymail.co.uk
Labour did not respond to a request for comment on why its members did not attend more meetings
Meetings included evidence sessions on clearing NHS backlog and getting cancer services up and running
A senior Tory said it is 'disappointing' any select committees has people that regularly do not turn up
Meanwhile Tory members of the group attended around eight in 10 committee meetings in the last six months
Two of them have attended just nine of the last 16 meetings, while the other two have only shown up for six
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Labour MPs are turning up to fewer health committees designed to help the country recover from the pandemic than their Tory peers, MailOnline can reveal.
Minutes show Labour representatives sitting on the Health and Social Care Committee have attended just half of its meetings in the last six months, on average. The equivalent figure for Conservative representatives was around 80 per cent.
They include evidence sessions on clearing the Covid-fuelled NHS backlog and getting vital cancer services back up and running, as well as interrogating the Government over its response to the pandemic.
The 11-member committee, headed by former Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, has four Labour MPs on it. Two of them have attended just nine of the last 16 meetings, while the other two have only shown up for six.
A senior Tory, who didn't want to be named, said: 'It's disappointing that any select committee should have people that regularly don't turn up, but particularly when what they are covering matters [that matter as] much as Covid.'
Labour disputed the analysis, saying three of its members were excused by the chair for personal, health or other reasons. It also claimed its members played key roles in compiling evidence for the meetings, which grill senior ministers, and said rules barred them from attending virtually.
Data shows that over the last six months, Tory MPs attended 82.5 per cent of oral evidence sessions, which are chaired by a Conservative party member. Meanwhile, the lone Scottish National Party MP on the committee went to 63 per cent and Labour MPs showed up for just 47 per cent. Labour members Rosie Cooper and Barbara Keeley attended 56 per cent of the meetings, while fellow party MPs Taiwo Owatemi and Sarah Owen showed up for less than four in 10. Meanwhile, Mr Hunt went to all the meetings , while Tory MPs Paul Bristow and Dr Luke Evans attended more than eight in 10. And Conservative party members Laura Trott and Dean Russell went to around 70 per cent
Data shows that over the last six months, Tory MPs attended 82.5 per cent of oral session meetings.
Meanwhile, the lone Scottish National Party MP on the committee went to 62.5 per cent. But she was only a member since May 25, meaning she effectively went to 76.9 per cet.
Labour members Rosie Cooper and Barbara Keeley attended nine of the 16 meetings since the Government took the third step of its lockdown-easing plan in May.
MPs launch inquiry into future of GPs as Jeremy Hunt warns the 'beating heart of the NHS is in crisis' due to staffing crisis and pandemic backlog MPs have launched an inquiry into the future of general practice, with former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt warning the service is 'in crisis'. There have been growing reports of patients showing up at A&E because they can't get access to a GP and not being seen face-to-face even when they do get an appointment. Cross-party MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee will examine the barriers stopping patients from accessing doctors and the challenges facing GPs. Mr Hunt, the Tory chair of the committee, said general practice is the 'beating heart of the NHS' but patients are 'increasingly uncertain of what they can expect'. He warned that doctors are 'utterly exhausted and demoralised'. GPs are currently facing crippling staff shortages, pandemic backlogs and unprecedented demand, with a record 28.5million appointments delivered in England last month. At the same time, the Government has scolded surgeries for not doing enough face-to-face consultations. Latest figures show just 60 per cent of GP appointments in September were in-person, compared to 80 per cent before the pandemic. Advertisement
Fellow party MPs Taiwo Owatemi and Sarah Owen showed up for just six.
The committee's chair Mr Hunt went to all the meetings, while Tory MPs Paul Bristow and Dr Luke Evans attended 14 and 13 meetings, respectively.
And Conservative party members Laura Trott and Dean Russell went to 12 and 11 meetings, respectively.
The eleventh member of the committee only joined last week, but has been to every meeting since then.
The committee is responsible for scrutinising the Government and health service by examining policy, spending and administration.
MPs on the committee often bring up local issues raised by their constituents, such as not being able to access crucial care.
The committee, alongside the Science and Technology Committee, famously grilled Dominic Cummings when he detailed the Government's shambolic initial Covid response and called for the then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock to be sacked.
And the two committees also questioned Mr Hancock over his handling of care homes, particularly his decision to send untested hospital patients back into care homes last spring.
It has been singled out as the leading factor behind the crisis in the sector.
All MPs on the Health Committee were present for the two sessions with Mr Cummings, which took place in May and Mr Hancock, which occurred in June.
Around a quarter of the meetings in the last six months have been on clearing the NHS backlog caused by the pandemic.
The MPs will produce a report on the level of pent-up demand in the health service and what changes need to be made within the organisation to manage the waiting list.
And the inquiry which involved quizzing NHS England bosses Amanda Pritchard and Professor Stephen Powis will determine how much cash and staff are needed to clear the backlog, including in elective surgery, A&E, general practice and mental health.
Another quarter of the meetings were on the cancer services inquiry, which is investigating why cancer outcomes in England are worse than other countries.
During the committee's evidence sessions on cancer services, Professor Mike Griffin (pictured left), a cancer surgeon, said cancer survival rates could stall over the next decade due to the impact of coronavirus on the NHS. And Professor Pat Price (pictured right), a consultant clinical oncologist, said cancer doctors have been told to make sure a tenth of their staff are available to be redeployed to the NHS frontline this winter
The committee will also determine how the pandemic has affected cancer services and what needs to happen to catch up.
As part of evidence sessions, top doctors told the committee cancer survival rates could stall over the next decade due to the impact of the pandemic on the NHS.
MPs also heard how oncologists were made to 'clear bedpans' on Covid wards or redeployed as 'mortuary assistants' instead of treating cancer patients.
But no Labour MPs were present at the two most recent meetings on cancer care when these issues were brought up.
Other meetings were on the lessons learnt from the coronavirus, which resulted in the report that laid bare the Government's catalogue of failures during the pandemic, leading to thousands of needless deaths.
It also castigated the 'chaotic' performance of the 37billion test and trace system and found ministers were blinded by 'groupthink' among scientific advisers, who wrongly wanted to manage the spread of the virus, rather than suppress it.
And other meetings on supporting people with dementia resulted in a damning report that sufferers will rack up tens of thousands of pounds up in care costs before the Government's health and social levy comes in in 2023.
The report called for 'significant additional investment' in the sector within weeks, as well as a 'bold funding reform and long-term plan'.
Tourists have been left stunned as millions of red crabs are seen making their yearly migration to the ocean to breed on the picturesque Christmas Island.
Over 50 million of the blazing red crabs will make the journey from the jungle to the coast of the National Park, in Western Australia's far northwest.
Locals and travellers alike have raced to capture what is considered one of the greatest animal migrations on the planet as the creatures turn the island red.
In footage of the natural phenomenon the crustaceans are seen swarming across roads, bridges, rocks and streams to reach their destination in time to breed.
Tourists have been left stunned as millions of Red Crabs are seen making their yearly migration to the ocean to breed on the picturesque Christmas Island (pictured)
The crabs have been known to turn up in some pretty bizarre locations as they move over the cliffs and through the township.
Staff on the island spend several months preparing for the migration by building specially constructed crab bridges and temporary barriers.
Dr Tanya Detto, an invasive species program coordinator at Christmas Island, told Daily Mail Australia the area hadn't seen so many migrating crabs since 2005.
Dr Detto said the team had been spending a lot of time managing the bridges and barriers that helped keep the crabs safe on their journey to Flying Fish Cove.
'It's been really nice to see them being funnelled away from the traffic and getting there safely,' she said.
The specialist said while experts on the island could predict the rough route the crustaceans would take, it alternated slightly each year.
While some crabs got stuck climbing over three-storey buildings or fell from the island's limestone cliffs, she said most of the crustaceans would survive.
The highly-anticipated migration is usually triggered by the first rainfall of the wet season that occurs in October or November.
A few days of solid rain at the start of the month prompted the male crabs to leave their homes and march towards the beach, picking up females on the way.
Christmas Island has the largest population of red crabs in the world with tourists warned the crustaceans are 'protected and respected' in the area
Staff on the island spend several months preparing for the migration by building specially constructed crab bridges (pictured) and temporary barriers
In footage of the natural phenomenon the crustaceans are seen swarming across roads, bridges, rocks and streams to reach their destination and breed
The exact timing and speed of the migration is determined by the phase of the moon with the crabs predicted to spawn on the 29th or 30th of this month.
The clever crustaceans know exactly how to time the departure from their burrows to reach the beach in time for optimal spawning.
Each female crab will release a staggering 100,000 eggs into the Indian Ocean over five or six consecutive nights during the migration.
One month later, the baby red crabs will return to shore to make the journey home into the tropical forest of the island.
However, the vast majority of the larvae will be feasted on by fish, manta rays and the giant whale sharks that wait in the surrounding waters for the annual feast.
The clever crabs know exactly how to time the departure from their burrows to reach the beach in time for optimal spawning on this lunar date
The highly-anticipated migration is usually triggered by the first rainfall of the wet season that occurs in October or November
Bianca Priest, the acting manager of Christmas Island said the incredible natural event took place on the picturesque island every year.
'Christmas Island National Park staff put up kilometres of temporary barriers, erect signs and close roads across the island to protect millions of crabs leaving their forest homes for the coast,' Ms Priest said.
'Over the years visitors have travelled from every corner of the world to witness this wildlife phenomenon.'
Roads on the island can be closed unexpectedly to cater for the crab's movements with public notice boards and local radio providing updates on their passage.
Visitors are encouraged to park their cars and carefully walk among the sea of bright red creatures making their way to the shore
Roads on the island can be closed unexpectedly to cater for the crab's movements with public notice boards and local radio providing updates
The vast majority of Red Crab larvae will be feasted on by fish, manta rays and the giant whale sharks that inhabit the surrounding waters
Visitors are encouraged to park their cars and carefully walk among the sea of bright red crabs as they make their way to shore and amass on the rocks.
The island is also home to another species of crustacean known as the robber crab.
The creatures are harmless despite their menacing appearance and have been known to steal items from campsites, earning them their namesake.
This species can measure up to a metre in length and have a strong sense of smell that often sees the crabs wind-up in some unlikely locations.
Last year, campers on the island captured the moment they were surrounded by dozens of the giant robber crabs as they tried to enjoy a family barbecue.
Last year, campers on the island captured the moment they were surrounded by dozens of giant robber crabs as they tried to enjoy a family barbecue
A series of amazing photos show more than 52 of the clawsome creatures eagerly awaiting a chance to snack on some leftovers
A series of amazing photos showed more than 52 of the creatures eagerly awaiting a chance to snack on some leftovers.
The crabs were seen scaling fold-out chairs, tables and even the barbecue to get closer to the delicious meal being prepared.
Amy Luetich and her family had lived on Christmas Island for a few years and were camping with some other families in the tropical jungle of Grants Well.
'We have camped in that area a few times and we have never seen so many robber grabs,' Mrs Luetich she told Daily Mail Australia last year.
She said when they arrived there were 20 under a tree, which had started to seed.
The crabs were seen swarming across specially constructed bridges to make their way to the ocean in time for optimal spawning
Red Crabs are considered a delicacy with aphrodisiac qualities across the Pacific, but are considered a protected species in Australia and can't be eaten
'But as soon as we started cooking, they swarmed around us. My son counted 52 of them,' she recalled.
'His job was to pick them up and move them away from where we were eating. He was loving it.
'We kept our tents away from where we had eaten, but one of the families said the whole night they could feel one tapping on the outside of their tent.'
Christmas Island has the largest population of red crabs in the world with tourists warned the crustaceans are 'protected and respected' in the area.
Robber crabs are considered a delicacy with aphrodisiac qualities across the Pacific, but are considered a protected species in Australia and can't be eaten.
E-cigarette maker Juul has been sued by the Attorney General of North Carolina, with the company accused of creating products that target children.
Josh Stein announced on Tuesday that he is suing the founders of Juul over his concerns that their product is being marketed to children through kid-friendly flavors and poor age verification.
Stein said he is suing Juul founders James Monsees and Adam Bowen, who launched the company in 2015 and are now worth an estimated $900 million each.
Juul accounted for 63 per cent of all U.S. nicotine vaping sales in 2020, making it the largest nicotine vaping brand in the United States by far. Accounting for about a quarter of that year's dollar sales, Vuse stood in second place.
Stein also said he is launching a statewide investigation into several e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
'All companies and individuals involved in manufacturing, distributing and selling e-cigarettes in North Carolina should hear this message loud and clear,' Stein said.
'If you get North Carolina's teens addicted to nicotine, there will be consequences.'
Josh Stein, the Attorney General of North Carolina, is seen in June announcing a settlement had been reached with Juul, with the company paying $40 million. On Tuesday he announced a new suit against the e-cigarette company
Juul's co-founders, Adam Bowen (left) and James Monsees are seen in December 2018, when the company was valued at $38 billion. Their firm is now worth less than $5 billion
Teenage use of e-cigarettes has surged in recent years, a trend that largely coincided with the rise in popularity of Juul in 2017 and 2018.
E-cigarette use among high school students grew from 11.7 per cent in 2017 to 27.5 per cent in 2019, before declining to 19.6 per cent last year, according to a federal survey.
North Carolina was the first state to sue Juul, in May 2019.
In June this year, Juul Labs Inc. agreed to pay $40 million to North Carolina and take more action to prevent underage use and sales under the terms of an agreement with the state - the settlement preventing a trial scheduled for July from going ahead.
Stein had sued Juul previously, accusing it of employing unfair and deceptive practices that targeted young people to use its vaping products, which deliver addictive nicotine.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have now sued Juul, seeking money to pay for combating the youth vaping crisis. A criminal investigation of the company by the Justice Department is still underway.
There is also multi-district litigation in a federal court in California, which has combined nearly 2,000 cases filed by cities, counties and school districts under the purview of one judge, similar to the treatment of opioid cases.
Juul's advertising, pictured, has been accused of targeting young people
Juul products are seen on sale in New York City in January 2020. Fourteen states, including New York, have now placed restrictions on Juul and are taking legal action
On December 20, 2018, Altria, one of the world's largest cigarette manufacturers, bought 35 per cent of Juul for $12.8 billion - the deal valued Juul Labs at $38 billion.
Yet the company has been in the crosshairs of concerned parents and regulators ever since, and is now worth less than $5 billion.
Facing a backlash from parents, teachers and regulators, including state attorneys general, Juul stopped selling its popular fruit- and mint-flavored nicotine pods in 2019, ahead of an FDA ban on such flavors in early 2020.
Over the last two years, Juul has tried to repair its relationship with regulators and the public by taking a lower profile. It stopped print, TV and online advertising in 2019, and pulled back on its international expansion plans to focus on winning regulatory approval in the United States.
Federal survey data from last year showed that Juul's popularity among teenagers declined significantly from 2019, but was offset by increases in teenage use of other brands. Juul was still the most popular brand among teenagers, according to the survey.
Stein also targeted another e-cigarette company that he said sells kid-friendly flavors such as chocolate milk and strawberry doughnut.
He also said his investigation would look into retailers statewide which are located near middle schools and high schools who are selling e-cigarettes, three distributors and one online seller.
The attorney general said he would urge Robert Califf, nominated to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by President Joe Biden, to create national, industry-wide regulations on flavored e-cigarettes.
James Monsees is seen testifying before the House Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee - which was examining Juul's role in the youth nicotine epidemic - in July 2019
Juul and other e-cigarette makers were ordered to submit, by September 2020, applications to the FDA showing their products provided a net benefit to public health.
Juul has not made its 125,000-page application to the agency public. But it paid $51,000 to have the entire May/June issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior devoted to publishing 11 studies funded by the company offering evidence that Juul products help smokers quit, according to The New York Times.
The companies were given a one-year grace period to remain on the market without FDA enforcement, while the agency reviewed applications. A decision was expected in September 2021, but has been delayed.
The agency said on September 9 that it continues to 'work expeditiously on the remaining applications,' adding many are 'in the final stages of review.'
It said products that have not been authorized by the FDA - a category that now includes Juul after the one-year grace period - 'are subject to enforcement action at the FDA's discretion.'
The agency said it will work 'as quickly as possible to provide regulatory certainty' and is prioritizing enforcement of e-cigarette products that have not applied for FDA authorization.
The FDA's scientific review of e-cigarettes will decide whether they are effective in getting smokers to quit and, if so, whether the benefits to smokers outweigh the health damage to new users - including teenagers - who never smoked.
E-cigarettes have operated in a regulatory gray area for years.
The products, which vaporize a nicotine-laced liquid, have been available in the United States since at least 2007, but the FDA did not formally get jurisdiction over the industry until May 2016.
During that time, Juul and dozens of competitors introduced products that were grandfathered into the market because they were already being sold before the regulation took effect.
Juul was valued at $38 billion in December 2018, but is now worth less than $5 billion
The 2016 rule required e-cigarette makers to file extensive applications to the FDA by August 2018 demonstrating the public health benefits of their products, along with data on potential toxins.
Under the administration of Donald Trump, the FDA pushed back the application date to 2022, but public health groups sued in federal court and succeeded in getting the deadline moved up to last year.
In June, FDA acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock told a congressional panel the agency had received applications for 6.5 million products from more than 550 companies, and said reviewing all submissions by September 9 'will be challenging.'
In August, the agency denied marketing applications for nearly 55,000 flavored e-cigarette products from three small companies for failing to provide evidence they appropriately protect public health.
The FDA has so far denied applications from more than 100 companies, but has not made a decision on Juul or other major tobacco industry players.
An elite school on Auckland's North Shore has come under fire after 30 students turned up to school drunk for their last day.
More than 30 Year 13 Takapuna Grammar students spent last Friday drinking alcohol in the school common room as part of end of year celebrations.
A fellow student said they saw a number of senior students on the school grounds visibly drunk, according to the NZ Herald.
More than 30 Year 13 Takapuna Grammar (pictured) students spent last Friday drinking on school grounds as part of end-of-year celebrations
In a letter to parents, the school said it was 'disappointed' to learn some senior students had made 'poor choices'.
'I am deeply disappointed to inform you that today a significant number of Year 13 students have made poor choices that resulted in them breaking school rules and not living up to the school community's expectations,' the letter read.
'This behaviour had been planned by the students, so they had plenty of opportunity to decide whether or not to go ahead or not with these arrangements.
'These students went ahead regardless of the consequences.'
Principal Mary Nixon went on to say the behaviour had 'tarnished' the relationship staff had with students and cancelled further end-of-year celebrations.
However, an event planned for Monday was rescheduled to later in the week after Ms Nixon decided to honour students who made 'good choices'.
In a second letter to parents on Sunday, she said the school needed to send a 'clear message' to students on last week's behaviour.
Principal Mary Nixon went on to say the behaviour had 'tarnished' the relationship staff had with students at the prestigious grammar school (pictured, stock photo)
'I remind everyone that the priority for the school is the safety of our students and Friday's events put students involved at risk and was a harmful example to the younger students observing the unacceptable behaviour of senior students.
'We cannot condone such conduct and need to send a clear message to all our students to prevent others following this poor example,' she said.
Ms Nixon added the school was 'letdown' students took advantage of their privileges but concluded those who did the right thing didn't deserve to be punished.
An end-of-year BBQ will still be held with students who attended the event last Friday discouraged from going to the event.
Senior students at Takapuna Grammar have had a tough year after the school only reopened for face-to-face learning to Years 11, 12 and 13 on October 26.
Auckland's ongoing Covid-19 Delta outbreak had delayed the return as students faced increased pressure in the lead up to assessments and upcoming exams.
The institution had decided to remain closed after the government gave the green light for schools to reopen.
A manhunt is underway for two men police would like to speak to about the shooting death of a Melbourne rapper which they describe as a targeted attack.
Chris Habiyakare was at his Sunshine North home in Melbourne's west on the night of August 24 when he was confronted by a group of males at the front door.
Police say the intruders forced their way inside the home and were armed with various weapons including a gun.
Two men and three women visiting Mr Habiyakare at the time fled outside with one woman forced to smash a window to escape.
Habiyakare was involved in a physical altercation with the group before he was shot.
Chris Habiyakare (pictured) was shot dead during an altercation with a group of males at his Sunshine North home on August 24
The group then fled the scene in at least one vehicle.
One of the friends who was visiting Habiyakare at the time called triple-0 before commencing CPR.
Habiyakare died at the scene, despite desperate attempts to revive him.
Three months on, Homicide Squad detectives have released photos of two males they would like speak to as part of their inquiries.
They are keen to speak to anyone who might know these men and are also appealing for the men themselves to come forward.
Investigators believe the shooting was a targeted incident but are yet to establish an exact motive.
Habiyakare went by the rap name Lyr1cur7 and had just started gaining traction in the Australian hip-hop scene, with a freestyle released last year notching up a million views on YouTube.
Homicide detectives have released images of two men (pictured) they would like to speak to
Police attended the home three days earlier on August 21 following reports of a physical altercation.
'At this stage one of the lines of enquiry is determining if there are any links between this and the subsequent fatal shooting,' a statement read.
'At this stage this is only one, but a very important, line of enquiry for police.'
Detectives are also keen to speak to anyone else who may have knowledge of the incidents or the circumstances leading up to the shooting.
'I believe there are people out there who can identify those involved in Chris' death,' Detective Inspector Tim Day said.
'It's time for those people to do the right thing and come forward.'
Detectives have spent the last three months investigating the death of Chris Habiyakare
He added Habiyakare was known to police and had a history involving drugs.
'However he was also much loved by his family and friends, all of whom are still grieving his loss and searching for answers as to why this has occurred,' Det Insp Day
'We need to speak to anyone who can shed light on the motive for the shooting and why Chris might have been targeted.'
While a significant CCTV canvas of the vicinity has already been conducted, police urge anyone with additional footage between 5pm and 10pm on the night of August 24 to come forward.
A 'vanlife' family who were stranded in the South Australian outback for five days have assured their followers they are safe and well as they finally head home.
Orios and Lindsey Zavros along with their children Zoe, three, and Zane, two, were travelling through the Simpson Desert when their van became bogged amid heavy rain on Friday morning.
Efforts to rescue the family, who live in Perth, were hindered by bad weather but a helicopter was finally able to winch them to safety just after 4pm on Tuesday.
Posting to their Instagram page Trucking OZ, Mr and Mrs Zavros thanked those who were supporting them during the terrifying five-day stint stuck in the desert.
Orios and Lindsey Zavros along with their children Zoe, three, and Zane, two, were travelling around the Simpson Desert when their van became bogged amid heavy rain on Friday morning. (pictured is the family with rescue workers)
'We are safe! We have so many people to thank, so many messages and emails etc to reply to,' the family wrote.
'We will reply to every one of you soon.
'Right now our priority is making sure Zoe and Zane are comfortable and finding a way home asap.'
Police confirmed the family were airlifted to Coober Pedy where they stayed the night and will now make their own way back to Perth.
A paramedic was on board the helicopter as a precaution but there were no reports of anyone being injured.
Mr Zavros said they feared they could have been stranded in the desert for weeks as the bad weather lingered and temperatures soared above a scorching 40C.
'It's been emotional, a bit of a rollercoaster but we got through it,' he told the ABC.
A helicopter has winched the young Perth family to safety after they were bogged in the outback for several days
'Vanlife' couple Orios and Lindsey Zavros and their children Zoe and Zane (pictured) have finally been rescued after becoming stranded in the Simpson Desert in outback South Australia
The family have been travelling around Australia in their campervan
The family had set off their emergency beacon at about 10am on Friday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority were able to send a plane from Melbourne to drop essential supplies over the weekend which included a phone to call to Mr Zavros' parents, nappies, DVDs and food and water.
'As soon as they dropped that sat phone to us, we were safe,' he said.
The family developed a daily routine while stuck in the outback, including morning and afternoon walks, snacking on icy poles and watching a lot of Bluey on DVD.
'I don't regret it, it was an adventure I wouldn't do it again,' Mrs Stavros said.
The AMSA and SA Police had coordinated a rescue effort, which initially planned to dig the campervan out of the mud so the family could make their own way out.
However, they resigned to flying the family out of the area after digging no longer seemed like a feasible option due to bad weather.
Orios, Zane, Lindsey and Zoe Zavros (pictured) have been travelling around Australia in a campervan
Mr Zavros' mum Theo and dad Lagis Zavros spoke with their son and his family on 'a very crackly satellite phone' on Sunday.
They were hugely relieved to find the family was coping well with their predicament.
'If you could pick the worst place in Australia to break down it would be there,' Lagis Zavros told The West Australian.
Theo Zavros said the four-hour wait to get confirmation her family was safe was 'hectic and horrible'.
She said three-year-old Zoe and two-year-old Zane were both coping well, but that the older child is more sensitive and understands some of what is going on.
Zane told his grandmother on the call: 'Yaya, I love you'. Yaya is Greek for grandmother.
Just hours before the disaster, the Zavros' posted on Instagram announcing how excited they were for the next leg of their journey.
'After three days of driving, we made it!' they wrote, sharing a photo of their van parked at Birdsville, near the Queensland-South Australian border.
'Bring on the Simpson Desert.'
The family shared a photo of themselves in Birdsville, Queensland on Thursday, writing: 'after three days of driving, we made it! Bring on the Simpson Desert.
Posts on the family's Instagram account shows little Zane and Zoe enjoying a swim in Fraser Island, a paddle-board in the Whitsundays and moments of everyday life in the van
The cold front responsible for the heavy showers hit South Australia on Wednesday, bringing gale-force winds and a near-record amount of rain.
The wild weather caused power outages in Adelaide and the Alberga River in the state's far north to flow for the first time in 18 months.
The family has been careening across Australia since November 2020, with the modified vehicle taking them from the west coast of WA, across the south and east of South Australia, Darwin, and Queensland.
They documented their outback adventures in their 'truck and home built camper' on an Instagram account Trucking Oz.
The account boasts more than 6,000 followers with an accompanying YouTube channel also giving followers an inside look at the highs and lows of van life.
A manhunt is underway for a young man caught on camera acting suspiciously at a Queensland shopping centre.
The man, aged in his early to mid-20s, visited Riverlink Shopping Centre in North Ipswich on Thursday, September 9, from 2.30pm to 8pm, and allegedly filmed up several women's skirts with his mobile phone.
Police said that the young man lurked around numerous stores in the shopping complex during the six-hour period.
The man, aged in his early to mid-20s, visited Riverlink Shopping Centre in North Ipswich on Thursday September 9 from 2.30pm to 8pm
CCTV footage obtained by Nine News from a store inside the centre showed a young man wandering around, looking at sunglasses and eyeing up clothing items.
The man could be seen kneeling in front of a display in the footage. He allegedly positioned his mobile phone to allegedly film a woman within a close distance.
Police said the man would also pretend to tie his shoelace at other times while allegedly filming the woman.
He is described as white, about 175cm tall with dark brown, neatly cut hair.
The young man was wearing a cream coloured t-shirt with a large grey print on the chest, black shorts, tan sneakers and a light blue surgical mask, holding a black mobile phone and wallet.
Police said that the young man (pictured) was seen allegedly upskirting several women with his phone, and lurked around many stores in the shopping complex during the six-hour period
Footage from a store inside the centre showed the young man kneel to the ground looking at stock in front of him while he allegedly situated his mobile phone to film a woman close by
He was seen leaving the shopping centre at about 8pm in a silver Ford Falcon, driving in the direction of the Warrego Highway through the suburb of Brassal.
Police urge anyone with information as to the identity or whereabouts of the man pictured to contact them.
Any women who encountered the man or have information to assist are also urged to contact police.
The House on Wednesday will vote on a resolution to censure GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, after the Arizona congressman shared an animated video photoshopped to show him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and President Joe Biden.
He would be just the 24th House member in history to be censured, the Hill reported.
The resolution would force Gosar to stand in the well of the House in front of his peers while the resolution is read aloud.
The last member to be so censured was longtime New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who was stripped of his powerful Ways and Means Committee after a long fight that culminated in the censure, over misuse of congressional letterhead for fundraising and filing inaccurate financial reports and tax returns.
Gosar defended sharing a photoshopped anime video online last week that showed him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when he addressed fellow Republicans behind closed doors on Tuesday, reportedly saying he had not seen the violence before it was posted and that he was trying to reach a younger audience.
The censure resolution notes that defense as one of its clauses, which highlight violence against women.
'Whereas, on November 7, 2021, Representative Paul Gosar posted a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joseph Biden,' it begins.
It states that 'depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials,' and references the Jan. 6th riot.
'Whereas violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted,' the resolution states.
Democrats can pass it on a simple majority. One Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), has said Gosar should be censured 'for his continued indefensible activities.' She sits on the House Select Committee on Jan. 6th.
'That is an insult, not only endangerment of that member of Congress, but an insult to the institution of the House of Representatives,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday. 'We cannot have members joking about murdering each other, as well as threatening the President of the United States,' she said.
Events at Tuesday night's Rules Committee hearing foreshadowed a tense debate.
'What do you stand for? Do you stand for violence against women, or do you stand against it?' asked Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.).
'Its almost as if weve elevated this and made it more of a problem than it ever was, said Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.). Republicans also complained that the matter didn't go before the bipartisan House Ethics Committee.
The House could also consider a resolution to strip him of his membership on the influential House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, where he holds a seat and where Ocasio-Cortez also sits, although it was not included in a resolution being debated at Rules Tuesday.
The resolution is authored by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who survived the Jonestown massacre and came forward in 2017 to describe being sexually assaulted as a young congressional staffer.
The altered anime video shows a jetpack equipped Gosar attacking AOC with a sword
Gosar reportedly told fellow Republicans at a Tuesday meeting that he had not seen the violence before the video was posted and that he simply wanted to reach a younger audience
The video shows Gosar attacking Rep. Ocasio-Cortez with a sword
House resolution to censure Rep. Paul Gosar Whereas, on November 7, 2021, Representative Paul Gosar posted a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joseph Biden; Whereas the video was posted on Representative Gosars official Instagram account and used the resources of the House of Representatives to further violence against elected officials; Whereas Representative Gosar issued a statement on November 9, 2021, defending the video as a symbolic cartoon and spreading hateful and false rhetoric about immigrants; Whereas the leadership of the Republican Party has failed to condemn Representative Gosars threats of violence against the President of the United States and a fellow Member of Congress; Whereas the Speaker of the House made clear that threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States should not be tolerated and called on the Committee on Ethics of the House and law enforcement to investigate the video; Whereas depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, as witnessed in this chamber on January 6, 2021; Whereas violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted; Whereas a 2016 survey by the Inter-Parliamentary Union found that 82 percent of women parliamentarians have experienced psychological violence and 44 percent received threats of death, sexual violence, beatings, or abduction during their term; Whereas the participation of women in politics makes our government more representative and just: Now, therefore, be it 1 Resolved, That Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona be 3 censured; Representative Paul Gosar forthwith 5 present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure; and Representative Paul Gosar be censured with the public reading of this resolution by the Speaker. Advertisement
During a closed-door G.O.P. conference meeting, Gosar said he did not support violence against members of Congress and had removed the video after criticism.
'It was not his intent to ever harm anybody,' House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters afterwards, according to The Hill.
And Politico reported Gosar told his colleagues that he didnt intend to encourage violence, but was trying to appeal to 'a younger audience.'
'McCarthy told members at conference that Rs should be united on this & that Dems dont punish their own for comments,' tweeted reporter Olivia Beavers.
But the controversy comes amid a rise in threats to lawmakers, who feel particularly vulnerable in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.
The video shows a sword-wielding character with Gosar's superimposed face using a jetpack to soar onto a rooftop before attacking Ocasio-Cortez, striking her with the weapon as blood flies out of her.
'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,' said Gosar last week.
'It is a symbolic cartoon. It is not real life. Congressman Gosar cannot fly.'
Gosar is a close ally of former President Trump's and embraced his false claims that the election was stolen from him.
The original video is from the Japanese anime series Attack on Titan. But the doctored version includes Biden and Ocasio-Cortez's faces projected on to villains.
Ten Democrats introduced a resolution to censure Gosar.
'As the events of January 6th have shown, such vicious and vulgar messaging can and does foment actual violence. Violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted,' they said.
Democrats have not yet decided whether to bring it to the House floor this week, but a vote would make Gosar only the 24th House member to be censured in the chamber's history.
McCarthy has also come under pressure from members of his own party to act.
Liz Cheney, dumped out of a party leadership role earlier this year for her opposition to former President Trump, accused him of lacking strength.
'In a moment where you've 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,' she told the Associated Press.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has gone even further, calling on the House Ethics Committee and federal law enforcement to investigate Gosar.
Dramatic images have captured the moment a shoeless man in sweatpants was arrested on a suburban street after allegedly trying to lure a child he was talking to online for sex.
The 37-year-old was arrested in Summer Hill in Sydney's inner-west on Tuesday and charged with a string of child-abuse related charges.
Australian Federal Police allege he sent indecent messages to a child under the age of 16 and tried to lure them into having sex with him.
A shoeless man has been arrested on a suburban street in Summer Hill in Sydney's inner-west after allegedly trying to lure a child he was talking to online for sex
The man has been charged with four offences including using a carriage service to procure a person under the age of 16 for sexual activity
He was seen with his head bowed as federal officers led him into the back of a police paddy wagon.
Investigators have since seized a smartphone after carrying out a search warrant at his home in the same suburb.
The 37-year-old has been charged with four offences including using a carriage service to procure a person under the age of 16 for sexual activity.
That offence alone carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
He was also charged with transmitting indecent communications to a person under 16, one count of contravening a prohibition order and one of failing to comply with reporting obligations.
The man was due to appear at Burwood Local Court on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old has been charged with four offences including using a carriage service to procure a person under the age of 16 for sexual activity
Police allege he came to their attention after child exploitation officers received a tip-off from a member of the public about a man communicating online with a child.
'This outcome shows that the AFP can make a difference to protect children and ensure suspected offenders are put before the courts,' Detective Acting Sergeant Thompson said.
The man's phone will now be forensically examined by detectives.
Attorney and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz branded CNN and the New Yorker 'the real vigilantes' in the Rittenhouse case for 'convicting' him before the trial.
During an interview with Breitbart's Joel Pollak on the SiriusXM show, Dershowitz said he hoped that the 18-year-old should be acquitted on murder charges for fatally shooting two and wounding a third during unrest in Kenosha last year.
He also blasted left wing media for trying and convicting Rittenhouse in the court of public opinion, while supporters of Rittenhouse confronted Black Lives Matter protestors outside of the courthouse on Tuesday during jury deliberations.
'CNN and some of the other TV stations have become vigilantes,' he said. 'They're the vigilantes, not Rittenhouse. They're the ones who want to put not the thumb, but the elbow on the scale of justice. They want to influence the outcome of this case.'
Eighteen jurors began deliberating Tuesday at the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, after listening to dueling portrayals of him as a 'wannabe soldier' who left his home in Illinois armed and looking for trouble, or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property in Kenosha.
As their hushed deliberations began away from public view, protesters descended on the courthouse.
Jurors called time on their deliberations shortly before 6pm, and will resume on Wednesday morning. Five hundred National Guardsmen remain on stand-by near Kenosha, ready to step in if the situation escalates.
Attorney and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz (pictured) branded news outlets as 'the real vigilantes' in the Rittenhouse case for convicting him before the trial
'CNN and some of the other TV stations have become vigilantes,' Dershowitz said. 'They're the vigilantes, not Rittenhouse'
Dershowitz contended that there was no tangible evidence to convict Rittenhouse (left), and compared his situation to that of infamous New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz (right), who shot four young black men in 1984, only to be acquitted of murder charges on self-defense grounds. Rittenhouse fatally shot two and wounded a third during unrest in Kenosha last year
Rittenhouse is facing charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Dershowitz slammed media outlets for meddling in the case without legal grounds and asserted that Rittenhouse truly believed his life was in danger and acted in self-defense.
'And there are others who are threatening violence if there is anything but convictions in this case, as they threatened violence in previous cases and will in subsequent cases unless something is done about it. It's The New Yorker and CNN that are the vigilantes. They're the ones who are trying to influence justice without regard to evidence or the law,' Dershowitz went on to say.
Dershowitz contended that there was no tangible evidence to convict Rittenhouse, and compared his situation to that of infamous New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz, who shot four young black men in 1984, only to be acquitted of murder charges on self-defense grounds.
'He [Rittenhouse] should be acquitted. There shouldn't even be - the jury should not be even able to consider the attempted murder of the guy who admitted on the witness stand he pointed a gun at him before was shot in the shoulder. That is a clear case of self-defense, no doubt about it, and it should never go to the jury,' Dershowitz said.
He added: 'He seems to me to be sincere... Would a 17-year-old involved in the situation he was involved in - surrounded by people, etc - would that person reasonably believe.. reason can be expected in the presence of an unconflicted night? What about in the presence of guns and skateboards.'
Host Joel Pollak also brought up the fact that Rittenhouse had been knocked on the head with a skateboard by one of the fatal victims before the shooting, and Dershowitz agreed that a head injury might have affected Rittenhouse's judgment of the situation.
The moderate Democrat also offered some insight into why the outcome of the trial depended on the jury, and said that judges do not want to be the subject of vilification for convicting or acquitting the defense.
'Judges don't want to be responsible for letting defenses go free. They would much prefer to let the jury do it, which s why the judge didn't declare on this trial,' Dershowitz said.
With the jury quietly tucked away deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate, decorum outside the Wisconsin courthouse dissolved into angry protests on Tuesday with the arrival of BLM activists and Second Amendment enthusiasts.
Protesters argue outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis., during the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, last year
Supporters of Kyle Rittenhouse stand in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse while the jury deliberates the Rittenhouse trial on November 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin
An armed security guard wearing riot gear was among those outside. The guard told DailyMail.com he had been hired by a TV station to provide security for journalists who had been threatened recently
Supporters of Kyle Rittenhouse stand in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse while the jury deliberates the Rittenhouse trial on November 16, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin
The jury has now begun deliberating whether or not to convict the teenage gunman, whose case has divided the nation. Rittenhouse, now 18, was 17 when he shot dead two white BLM protesters at a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August, and injured a third.
His lawyers say he was a scared boy acting in self-defense, eager to protect the town as it fell under siege from an angry mob. Prosecutors tried to paint him as a bloodthirsty vigilante and an embodiment of the systemic racism his victims were protesting against.
The jury began discussions this morning, after a dramatic two-week trial and as their hushed deliberations began away from public view, protesters descended on the courthouse.
An armed security guard wearing riot gear was among those outside. The guard told DailyMail.com he had been hired by a TV station to provide security for journalists who had been threatened recently.
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Thomas Binger argued that Rittenhouse set the deadly chain of events in motion by bringing a semi-automatic rifle to a protest and menacing others, then walked off like a 'hero in a Western.'
Rittenhouse had gone to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, in what he said was an effort to protect property from rioters in the days after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white Kenosha police officer.
Attorneys argue without the jury in the room during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis, on Monday
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger holds Kyle Rittenhouse's gun as he gives the state's closing argument in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha
Mark Richards, center, talks with reporters after the jury leaves the room for deliberations during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse
Kyle Rittenhouse, second from left, waits with his legal team for the day to start at his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha on Monday
Binger said Rittenhouse was 'looking for trouble that night,' and he repeatedly showed the jury drone video that he said depicted Rittenhouse pointing his weapon at demonstrators.
'This is the provocation. This is what starts this incident,' the prosecutor declared. He added: 'You lose the right to self-defense when youre the one who brought the gun, when you are the one creating the danger, when youre the one provoking other people.'
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
In making his case for self-defense, Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum chased him down and made a grab for his rifle - testimony largely corroborated by video and some of the prosecution's own witnesses.
As for Huber, he was gunned down after he was seen on video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. And Grosskreutz admitted he had his own gun pointed at Rittenhouse when he was shot.
In his instructions to the jury, Schroeder said that to accept Rittenhouses claim of self-defense, the jurors must find that he believed there was an unlawful threat to him and that the amount of force he used was reasonable and necessary.
A former University of Miami professor who was the go-to academic on drug trafficking in Latin America will be going to prison for laundering money for an envoy of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist regime.
Bruce Bagley, 75, was sentenced to six months by a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday.
Bagley, who shared his knowledge with Congress, journalists, prominent attorneys and even the Central Intelligence Agency, secretly laundered millions of dollars on behalf of some of the same bad guys he dedicated his life to studying.
'I am ashamed of my irresponsible behavior,' Bagley, struggling to hold back tears, told Judge Jed Rakoff while appearing remotely via Zoom. 'I have spent my life as an academic working to understand and improve conditions in many countries in Latin America, and to be here today is the greatest departure from the life that I have aspired to.'
Rakoff said a sentence of up to five years, as recommended by federal guidelines, would be 'irrational' and 'overly punitive' for Bagley and his health.
But he said some prison time, however modest, was required to deter others in positions of authority from engaging in similar behavior.
Bruce Bagley, a former University of Miami professor, was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday by a Manhattan federal court. The 75-year-old pleaded guilty to laundering nearly $3 million in payments he received from jailed Colombian businessman, Alex Saab, who is also accused of laundering $350 million under the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Colombian businessman, Alex Saab, is also accused of laundering $350 million under the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
'If there is anyone in the world who knew that this kind of activity was criminal it was Dr. Bagley,' said Rakoff, who recommended Bagley be allowed to complete his sentence at a prison with a good medical facility.
Bagley's transition from writing textbooks to carrying out what prosecutors called a 'textbook case of money laundering' came from his dealings with another criminal defendant: Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who is accused of paying kickbacks to members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's family and inner circle to win overvalued state contracts.
Saab appeared before a Miami federal court judge Monday and pleaded not guilty.
Bagley was introduced to Saab by a longtime government informant, Jorge Luis Hernandez, better known by his nickname Boli.
Alex Saab (pictured) is accused by the United States government of laundering money under the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Years earlier, Bagley helped Boli avoid deportation to his native Colombia, where Bagley said he faced a certain death from right-wing paramilitary groups who then dominated drug trafficking along the the Caribbean coast.
At Boli's urging, Saab asked for Bagley's help securing a United States visa for his son and later agreed to hire him as a $1,000-per-hour consultant for an investment in Guatemala. Then starting in late 2017, Bagley began receiving monthly deposits of approximately $200,000 from a purported food company based in the United Arab Emirates. Additional funds were wired from Switzerland, bringing to nearly $3 million the amount he collected from Saab, according to prosecutors.
Bagley then transferred 90 percent of the money into the accounts controlled by the informant, believing they would be forwarded to Saab's U.S. attorneys, who were then secretly meeting with federal investigators to explore a possible resolution of his own case.
Bagley kept a 10 percent commission for himself and continued to accept the cash even after one of his accounts was closed for suspicious activity.
'Yes. It is corruption,' the professor told Boli in one recorded conversation from a December 2018 meeting, adding that he knew Saab was importing food on behalf of the Maduro government. 'They have imported the worst quality products with inflated prices, and they have filled their pockets with money.'
It's not clear what motivated Boli to betray Bagley. He did not respond to a text message seeking comment.
Prior to his downfall, Bagley had studied organized crime in Latin America for decades. He chaired the University of Miami's Department of International Studies, published numerous books and articles, and was quoted regularly by the media.
'If you are too ostentatious and too public, you attract a great deal of attention,' Bagley told The Associated Press in a 2012 interview on drug trafficking in Mexico.
Bruce Bagley served as a consultant to a number of U.S. federal agencies - the FBI, DEA, CIA and the Pentagon - as well as the governments of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama
Bagley also served as a consultant to a number of U.S. federal agencies - the FBI, DEA, CIA and the Pentagon - as well as the governments of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama, according to a 24-page resume in court filings.
In seeking leniency, attorneys for Bagley presented him as a cross between an idealistic poverty fighter and an absent-minded professor who would forget to pay a utility bill or run out of gas while driving because he was too absorbed in his research.
But evidence introduced at the last minute by prosecutors presented a darker side.
At the same time Bagley was fielding calls from policy makers in Washington, he and Boli - the informant - were hobnobbing with shady politicians from across Latin America, including presidential aspirants from Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, as well as a Colombian governor, Kiko Gomez, then under criminal investigation for homicide.
In 2015, Bagley signed an affidavit in which he affirmed that Gomez had no ties with right-wing paramilitary groups. But in a sentencing memo seeking leniency, lawyers for Bagley said he had refused to sign such an affidavit despite being offered $25,000 because his academic research had led him to conclude that the politician was indeed tied to the militias, which are designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
'Either Bagley's representation about his research in his sentencing submission is false, or he signed a false affidavit in 2015,' prosecutors argued in a filing late last week. 'In either event, the Government respectfully submits that Bagley's misrepresentations are relevant to the Court's determination of the appropriate sentence to impose.'
Bagley's attorneys said the document was based on only initial findings and that Bagley refused to provide a more in-depth report of the kind sought by Gomez.
Jamie Moore, 39, was arrested on Friday on charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child
A New Jersey teen who was found safe in New York City on Thursday after she went missing from her home one month earlier told cops her mother had been abusing her for years.
Officials now say Jashyah Moore, 14, ran away from home on October 14 to escape the verbal and physical abuse she endured at home, after her mother beat her for losing their EBT card and refused to enroll her in school.
'The young lady appears to have run away,' Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens said on Friday. 'And she did not want to make herself known to anyone as to where she was.
'She seemed to be... more so at ease where she was.'
Jashyah was found safe on Thursday after a passerby recognized her and notified police.
One day later, her mother, Jamie Moore, 39, was arrested on charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, which includes 'allegations of physical abuse and also neglect,' according to a statement from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and Jashyah and her 3-year-old brother have been removed from their mother's custody by the Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
It was unclear whether Jamie had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Jashyah Moore, 14, went missing on October 14 after visiting a deli near her home in East Orange, New Jersey, and was found safe in New York City on Thursday. She reportedly told police who found her that she was trying to escape her mother's abuse
According to a criminal complaint filed in an Essex County, New Jersey court, Jamie Moore beat Jashyah with objects like a frying pan several times, stabbed her in the shoulder, sprayed bleach in her eyes and pulled her braids out.
The abuse left the 14-year-old with scars and bruises, according to the complaint, obtained by NBC News.
The teenager was also reportedly forced to care for her 3-year-old brother and would have to cook for him and her mother, otherwise they would not eat.
She was also allegedly forced to miss days of virtual schooling because she was caring for her younger brother, and her mother refused to enroll her in the 2021 - 22 school year.
Instead, the complaint alleges, Jamie forced her daughter to stand in the street and beg for money. If she did not come back with a certain amount, it claims, Jamie would beat her.
On the day she disappeared, the complaint further alleges, Jashyah had returned home after visiting a deli in East Orange, New Jersey, where the family lived, and told her mother she lost their EBT Card.
At that point, it claims, Jamie beat her daughter for doing so.
Surveillance footage from the morning of October 14 showed Jashyah buying several bottles from the US Quick Food Mart in East Orange with an older gentleman before she visited Poppies Deli, where she lost her family's EBT Card
Jamie Moore previously cried and begged for the public's help in finding her daughter
The complaint paints a different picture of Jamie Moore than the one she portrayed to the media in a news conference on Tuesday, as she cried and begged for the public's help to find her daughter.
'I cannot imagine what she might be going through just being away from us this long, being away from her family who loves her very much,' Jamie said.
'If anybody knows anything, please, please come forward.'
She had claimed Jashyah was abducted, saying: 'I don't know who did it, but we're looking for you.'
Jashyah had left her home at around 7.30am on October 14.
Surveillance footage from the US Quick Food Mart in East Orange showed Jashyah entering the store with an older gentleman, People reports. She put several bottles on the counter, which the man paid for, before they left together.
According to officials, the teen then went to Poppies Deli, where she was last seen.
On Wednesday, officials increased the reward for any information about Jashyah's whereabouts to $20,000.
At the time, Stephens said: 'This reminds us that the lives of little black and little brown girls is just as important as everybody else's lives.
'And we know that Gabby Petito, which is a very, very notorious case, that was constantly in the news did yield results and information.
'So we are hoping that today's effort will also bring some information so we can find young Jashyah.'
The reward has not yet been claimed, according to ABC 7.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told congressional leaders Tuesday that the federal government has more time than her initial estimate on when it would fault on its debt.
Yellen said in a letter that she has 'a high degree of confidence' in Treasury's ability to pay the country's debt until around December 15 - roughly two weeks longer than her initial projection of Dec. 3.
Her gift of 12 additional days came as Democrats facing a crush of holiday deadlines, including passing President Joe Biden's $1.85 trillion package of social safety net programs and funding the federal government, which runs out on December 3.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Yellen noted how she originally believed the government would be able to pay its bills through December 3, but was able to 'further refine that projection,' believing the new date would be December 15.
After that, the Treasury Department would be left with 'insufficient remaining resources,' Yellen said.
Republicans have vowed not to help Democrats raise the limit. The country has never defaulted on its debt and to do so could trigger a global-wide financial crisis.
'As the federal government's cash flow is subject to unavoidable variability, I will continue to update Congress as more information becomes available,' she wrote.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen gifted Congressional Democrats 12 additional days in December to pass legislation to lift the debt ceiling
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured), Yellen noted how she originally believed the government would be able to pay its bills through December 3, but was able to 'further refine that projection,' believing the new date would be December 15
'To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt ceiling as soon as possible,' Yellen insisted.
Treasury will also be able to make a $118 billion transfer to the Highway Trust Fund on that date, which is required.
The new date gives Democrats more time to pass President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better using the reconciliation process in the Senate - to bypass a Republican filibuster, and also work on a bill to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he hoped to pass the Build Back Better social spending bill before Christmas.
'That's a huge agenda for December and the end of November, but we aim to get it all done,' Schumer said.
In October, the Senate voted to temporarily raise the debt limit by $480 billion.
Congress also passed a stopgap spending bill that is set to still expire on December 3, which if missed could trigger a government shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell used the debt ceiling to try to derail the Build Back Better reconciliation bill.
McConnell wanted Senate Democrats to pass a debt ceiling hike alone - using the process of reconciliation to bypass the filibuster and get a bill through.
'That's a huge agenda for December and the end of November, but we aim to get it all done,' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday, as the Democrats hope to pass President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill and raise the debt ceiling
Biden and other top Democrats wanted Republicans to simply not filibuster a Senate debt bill, allowing them to pass it using regular order.
They complained that reconciliation would take too long, and jeopardize the U.S. economy.
The House had previously passed a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022, after next year's midterm elections.
Republicans, however, wanted a bill that would include a specific dollar amount - likely as a way they can nail Democrats on increasing the debt in advance of the midterm elections.
Eleven Senate Republicans voted alongside every Democrat to break the GOP's filibuster.
The bill was then passed 50 to 48, with every Democrat voting in the affirmative and every Republican against it.
Donald Trump is threatening to sue the Pulitzer Prize board if it doesn't strip the New York Times and Washington Post of the 2018 National Reporting prize the news outlets jointly won for their investigation of Russia's influence on the 2016 election.
'It is hereby demanded that the Pulitzer Prize Board take immediate steps to strip the New York Times and The Washington Post of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Pulitzer Prize Board's failure to do so will result in prompt legal action being taken against it. Please be guided accordingly,' wrote Trump attorney Alina Habba in a letter to Bud Kliment, the interim administrator of the awards.
The former president, who has furiously denied he won in 2016 with any help from Moscow, cited a federal indictment that alleged that Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko, a key source for infamous and unsubstantiated Christopher Steele dossier, fabricated conversations with one source and used a Democratic political operative as another.
Danchenko pleaded not guilty to five felony charges of lying to the FBI last week. His arrest came about from Special Counsel John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane probe into claims that Trump conspired with Russia during the 2016 election.
In the aftermath the Washington Post corrected two articles that contained references to the Steele Dossier - but neither of those articles were part of the citation that won the newspaper its Pulitzer.
Trump cited that correction in his complaint to the Pulitzer Board.
'Even one of the recipients of the award, The Washington Post, has acknowledged the unsubstantiated nature of its reporting as it relates to these events. Specifically, on November 12, 2021, The Post retracted statements from several articles relating to the Steele Dossier and the alleged Russia-Trump connection and its executive editor proclaimed that 'The Post could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements of the story,'' his attorney's letter to noted.
Trump lawyer complained the articles 'were based on incontrovertibly false information provided by dubious sources who were maliciously attempting to mislead the public and tarnish our client's reputation.'
In 2018, ten reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post jointly won the Pulitzer for National Reporting for their 'deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation's understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect's transition team and his eventual administration,' according to the committee.
But in the list of articles the Pultizer committee cites as the reason for the prize, there is little on the Steele dossier. The prize-winning articles included stories on the actions of former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian officials, Russia's actions on social media, and Michael Flynn's communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
One New York Times story on Papadopoulos mentions the dossier but doesn't detail its allegations. And a Washington Post article examined how the FBI paid Christopher Steele to continue his investigation into Russian actions.
Donald Trump is threatening to sue the Pulitzer Prize board if it doesn't strip the New York Times and Washington Post of the 2018 National Reporting prize the news outlets jointly won for their investigation of Russia's influence on the 2016 election
In 2018, ten reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post jointly won the Pulitzer for National Reporting for their 'deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage' on Russia's influence in 2016 - the reporters are seen above
Christopher Steele's controversial dossier was filled with unproven allegations, including a claim that the Russians had blackmail material on Trump, which Trump denied; above Steele and his lawyer arrive at a London courthouse in July 2020
The Steele dossier played a central role in the FBI obtaining FISA warrants on then Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who was the center of an investigation into whether Trump's campaign worked with the Russians. The dossier was read by many news outlets and was the foundation for several Trump conspiracy theories.
Trump had called for the Pulitzers to be rescinded before, including last month.
Enteries for a Pultizer prize are judged by 77 editors, publishers, writers, and educators, according to the board. Members of the Pulitzer Prize Board and journalism jurors receive no compensation.
Awards are made by majority vote by the board based on the jurors' recommendations.
Prizes have been rescinded in the past. Most famously, in 1981, the Pulitzer Prize Committee withdrew its feature-writing prize from Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke after she admitted that her award-winning story about an alleged 8-year-old heroin addict in the District of Columbia was fabricated.
In his March 2019 report, special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence that the Trump campaign 'coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.'
But it did find that Russia interfered in the 2016 contest 'in sweeping and systematic fashion' that ultimately benefited Trump.
Trump praised Durham for his work and claimed last week it'll 'only get deeper' from here.
Durham's two-and-a-half year probe has so far produced two indictments and is still ongoing
Christopher Steele's dossier was controversial from the start with its unproven allegation the Russians had blackmail material on Trump - including an alleged 'golden showers' incident. Trump vehemently denied the allegation.
Danchenko, 43, was the primary researcher for Steele's dossier alleging that Trump's 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russia in a covert operation to beat Hillary Clinton, and that Russia had salacious videos that could be used to blackmail Trump.
He was charged with lying to the FBI, which he has denied.
Michael Sussman, a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, was charged in September and pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI.
Sussman was indicted for allegedly telling the FBI in September 2016 that he was not doing work 'for any client' when he requested a meeting with the FBI's general counsel to warn them of concerns from cybersecurity researchers of potentially suspicious contact between Russia and the Trump team.
At the meeting the attorney allegedly gave the FBI data and analytics from cybersecurity researchers who thought the numbers might be evidence of hush-hush communications between Trump Organization's computer servers and Alfa Bank - a Kremlin-linked Russian financial institution. The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections.
Following the revelation of the arrests, the Washington Post took the unusual step of substantially editing and publicly correcting several of its prior stories about the dossier.
Two online articles published by the newspaper in March 2017 and February 2019 were heavily edited, and an editor's note was attached to them explaining that certain claims in the reports were 'contradicted by allegations in a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting.'
In September, former Clinton campaign-linked lawyer Michael Sussman (left) pled not guilty to charges stemming from Durham's probe. More recently, Durham's findings led to the arrest of Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko (right) late last week
An editor's note appended to a 2017 Washington Post article explains that the newspaper now believes the report was based on faulty information
Both articles had alleged that Belarusian American businessman Sergei Millian was a key source of the Steele dossier.
However, the new indictment alleged that Danchenko had lied when he claimed that he'd spoken to Millian when gathering information that was included in the dossier.
'As a result, portions of the story and an accompanying video have been removed and the headline has been changed,' one of the Washington Post editor's notes stated.
Though policies differ among different media outlets, it is unusual to substantially edit and republish an online article when new information comes to light.
Charles H. Dolan Jr, also known as Chuck, was revealed as a source for Danchenko
Many outlets simply publish a new article containing the further information, possibly adding an editor's note to the outdated article.
The original Post articles had alleged that Millian was the dossier's 'Source D', the source who claimed Russian intelligence had videos of Trump engaged in deviant behavior in a Moscow hotel room.
The new indictment strongly suggests, but does not directly allege, that the source for that salacious claim was actually an American public relations executive, whose identity has been confirmed by his attorney as Charles Dolan.
Dolan was a state chairman for both of Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996, and an advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign.
He also previously worked as executive director of the Democratic Governors' Association, and actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to the indictment.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr had tapped Durham, then a US attorney in Connecticut, to look into the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane probe from when it began in July 2016 until Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take it over in May 2017.
The traditional Christmas BBQ might be mince meat as prices of popular cuts soar in the next 18 months according to agribusiness experts Elders.
Prime beef is already 30 per cent more expensive than the same time last year and is expected to continue rising.
Butchers have warned prices would increase 10 to 15 per cent before the end of the year.
Agribusiness experts Elders predicts beef (stock image) and lamb prices would rise in the next 18 months with butchers warning it could be 15 per cent more expensive by the end of 2021
Lamb is the more stable option after prices surged 18 months ago but still remains expensive while sausages and mince are the best value.
Producers are blaming crippling droughts which have destroyed cattle herds over the last 10 to 15 years.
Feed cost increases and Covid-19 panic buyers have also put undue stress on the battling industry.
Elders CEO Mark Allison predicted beef and lamb prices would continue to increase for 18 months.
'I think there's probably another 18 months at a minimum,' he told the Australian Financial Review.
'There's a lot of rebuild and there is scarcity.'
Craig Cook's Prime Quality Meats managing director Michael Honeysett said butchers were operating in the toughest environment in more than three decades.
'Not in 31 years of butchery have I ever seen such a thing,' he told 9News.
Graziers who culled their herds during crippling droughts over the last 10 to 15 years are now restocking and driving up prices at sales yards which are being passed on to consumers
Mr Honeysett said graziers who culled cattle during the drought were now restocking after recent rain but the demand has driven up prices at sales yard.
'Your restockers are buying all the cattle and your feed prices have gone up, so everything has worked towards putting prices up they're all skyrocketing at the moment,' he said.
QUT Business School Professor Gary Mortimer said companies operating around the clock to cater for panic buyers were now passing the cost on to consumers.
'That led to higher wage costs. Those wage costs and extra productions costs are now filtering into higher prices,' he said.
Australia's top female jockey could be back racing as early as next week after a successful Supreme Court appeal over her ban for breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules.
Jamie Kah was one of five leading riders suspended over a wild party at a AirBnB on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula on August 25 during the state's lockdown.
Her three month suspension was extended another two months for misleading a Racing Victoria inquiry into the illegal gathering.
Kah, 25, broke her silence on Wednesday after winning a Supreme Court appeal over the additional ban which would have seen her not ride again until January next year.
Banned jockey Jamie Kah (pictured) could be back on the race track rising within days
She's eligible to ride again when her original suspension expires at midnight November 25.
'I am obviously very happy with the outcome,' Kah posted on Twitter afterwards.
'It's now time to move forward.
'I can't wait to get back to what I love, riding and being part of our amazing industry.
'Thanks to everyone who has said kind words to me or provided moral support over the last three months, it has been a real comfort through very tough times.
'As I said last time, I won't be making any further public comment. See you at the races!'
Supreme Court Justice Richard Niall QC ruled the tribunal committed a jurisdictional error, namely a denial of procedural fairness.
But he stopped short of of dismissing the charge completely when he upheld Kah's appeal, the Herald Sun reported.
'I propose to make an order setting aside the decision of the Victorian Racing Tribunal made in respect to the plaintiff (Kah),' Justice Niall said.
Jamie Kah (pictured) was one of five jockeys suspended over a wild party during Melbourne's latest lockdown
'The position is counsel, I propose to set aside the determination of penalty, I'll provide parties with an opportunity in relation to any further order.
'Can I indicate for the benefit of counsel that the originating motions seeks by way of relief an order from the court dismissing the charge, although I'm prepared to hear further argument on it, I'm not minded to dismiss the charge.
'It's no role of the court of course, in judicial reviews, to determine the merits of the charge.'
Kah was inundated with public support on social media following her successful appeal.
She could be the first of the five suspended jockeys to return to the track.
Mark Zahra, Ben Melham and Ethan Brown also stayed at the Mornington Peninsula property with Kah and apprentice jockey Celine Gaudray.
All five pleaded guilty to 'failure or refusal to comply with an order, direction, or requirement of the stewards or an official'.
Suspended jockey Jamie Kah (pictured right) was spotted helping out as a strapper on Derby Day at Flemington
Jamie Kah broke her silence following Wednesday's successful Supreme Court appeal
Stewards suspended all of their racing licences for three months which included the 2021 Spring Racing carnival.
Brown, Zahra, Melham and Gaudray are also expected to return to the race track in the coming weeks.
Kah was originally suspended another two months by the Victorian Racing Tribunal for not naming Zahra as an attendee of the party.
While accepting Zahra was only there briefly, and not when police attended, she was reprimanded for not saying he was there.
'You did not give his name until directly confronted by stewards (August 30)' Judge John Bowman said it handing down the decision,' racenet reported.
'Your evidence was that, while you knew he had been at the premises, you thought the stewards were inquiring about who had been present at a later time.
'We made it clear this is an excuse which we simply do not accept.'
Five jockeys were suspended over a wild party at this AirBnB (pictured) on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula during the state's sixth lockdown
While Kah accepted responsibility and apologised for the Covid-19 lockdown breach, she has always insisted she never lied to stewards.
Kah claimed she was denied procedural fairness because the Tribunal found her guilty of giving false and/or misleading evidence despite never being asked directly to name all gathering attendees.
'I am going to court to defend my reputation as to honesty. It is too important to myself as a person not to,' she said at the time.
The suspension has already cost Kah hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost earnings and was seen helping out as a strapper on Derby Day at Flemington.
She became the first jockey to ride 100 city winners in a Melbourne season of racing just weeks before her career was temporarily halted, breaking Brett Prebble's 21-year-old record.
Kah then became the first female jockey to win the Scobie Breasley Medal, Victorian racing's most prestigious individual accolade.
She rode Prince Of Arran to finish third in last year's Melbourne Cup.
The daughter of one of Melbourne's most infamous gangsters has had the words 'Mad Lebo' tattooed on her leg in honour of her late father.
Nabil Maghnie, 44, was shot dead outside a home in Epping, in the city's northern suburbs in January last year.
His 21-year-old daughter Sabrine Maghnie shared a photo to Instagram this week of her new ink, which is a nod to a similar tattoo her dad had across his stomach.
Nabil Maghnie's daughter Sabrine has had the words 'mad Lebo' tattooed on her in honour of her late father
Her 44-year-old father who was fatally shot last year had the same words inked across his stomach
Just weeks before Nabil's death, Ms Maghnie was allegedly assaulted following a minor car crash and a photo taken of her showed a bruise on her eye.
Supporters of the family told the Herald Sun at the time she was assaulted following a minor collision in Melbourne's north.
A fight allegedly broke out after the crash and police were notified of the incident, with Nabil, famously protective of his daughter, believed to be furious.
On the night he was killed, the 44-year-old travelled to a home on Dalton Road at Lalor, where he reportedly demanded money from one of the men at the property.
Nabil is believed to have attacked the householder before someone else pulled out a gun and shot him dead.
He was seen lying dead next to his Mercedes utility vehicle after he was gunned down while two others, including his son, were wounded.
Nabil Maghnie was shot outside a home in Epping, in Melbourne's north in January last year (pictured is Maghnie leaving court in 2019)
An image of Sabrine Maghnie, taken in the weeks before her father's death, shows her with a bruise on her eye
Nobody has been charged in relation to Nabil's murder.
The underworld figure can famously be remembered for driving himself to hospital after being shot in the head in 2016.
In 2011, the married father was the victim of another non-fatal shooting at Broadmeadows.
Following his death, hundreds of mourners gathered together at a funeral service where a flower tribute spelling out the word 'Baba' was seen near his coffin.
Nabil was being investigated by police over a double shooting at the Love Machine nightclub in Prahan in April last year and was prime suspect in an attempted hit on notorious Mongol's bikie Toby Mitchell.
Maghnie was also on bail for serious driving offences at the time of his death.
A man suffered a serious wound to his face when he was allegedly hit with a meat cleaver in a vicious attack.
The man, 31, was allegedly attacked by a 30-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy just before 8pm on Tuesday in Ballarat, a town in regional Victoria.
The victim from neighbouring Golden Point was rushed to hospital from the home on Little Bridge Street with a serious facial injury.
Victoria Police arrested two males - including a 16-year-old boy - after a man was allegedly attacked with a meat cleaver on Tuesday night in Ballarat
Two males, including the teenager, were arrested nearby.
The 30-year-old Ballarat East man was charged with intentionally causing injury, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, affray, and assault with a weapon.
He is expected to appear at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old boy, also from Ballarat East, was charged with affray, assault with weapon, and possessing a controlled weapon.
He was bailed to appear in court at a later date.
The motive for the alleged attack is a mystery, but it is believed the trio all knew each other.
Prisoner are to be banned from drinking when they are freed from jail under a tough new crackdown on violent offenders.
Serious and prolific criminals will be forced to wear an electronic tag which triggers an alarm if it detects alcohol in their system to prevent them from reoffending.
They will be required to wear the devices for up to a year under the scheme, which ministers said was a world first. The technology has already been used in the UK for those on community sentences but this is the first time it has been imposed on prison-leavers. If alcohol is detected in sweat, the tag sounds an alarm in a monitoring centre to alert probation officers.
Serious and prolific criminals will be forced to wear an electronic tag that triggers an alarm if it detects alcohol in their system (File image)
The alert could be deemed a breach of licence conditions and see ex-offenders returned to prison. Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the UK. Around 12,000 offenders will wear the tags over the next three years, beginning in Wales from today and rolling out in England next summer.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: This technology has been successful in policing community sentences with offenders complying over 97 per cent of the time.
Rolling the tags out further will help cut alcohol-fuelled crime, which causes untold misery for victims and lands society with a 21billion bill each year.
Offenders now have a clear choice. If they dont work with probation staff to curb their drinking and change their ways, they face being sent back to jail.
He added: We are the first government in the world to use alcohol monitoring tags on offenders coming out of jail to reduce their risk of reoffending.
Amy Ellie, a North Wales probation officer, said: The tag forces people to be honest. That honesty opens up conversations that we wouldnt ordinarily be able to have.
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the United Kingdom (File image)
Now we can see if their consumption is reasonable, or if theres a worrying pattern, and if so, what is contributing to that pattern.
Andy Roberts, of Greater Manchester Probation Service, who led an alcohol-monitoring pilot scheme, said: We found the tag acted as a constant reminder.
Offenders said they were less likely to do something stupid or reckless and it brought clarity to bigger decision making. Earlier this year, the Government introduced GPS tags to track prolific robbers, thieves and burglars.
Up to 10,000 such offenders are expected to be tagged over the next three years to stop them reoffending and help police catch them if they commit new crimes.
In total, an extra 183million is being invested to almost double the number of people tagged at any one time from around 13,500 this year to approximately 25,000 by 2025.
Judge Alison Nathan is likely to be nominated to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The federal judge overseeing British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking case is set to be recommended for higher court - sparking concerns about possible ethical conflicts.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday he is going to recommend to President Joe Biden that he nominate Alison J. Nathan, 49, to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The nomination almost guarantees that Nathan will be appointed to serve in the state's second highest court, the New York Times reports, as presidents typically defer to their party's senior lawmaker in each state when choosing its judges and attorneys.
If nominated, Nathan would have to be confirmed by the Senate.
But during the process, she will be able to remain on Maxwell's high-profile case - sparking fears she could be swayed into being less critical of Biden's government during the case.
Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law, said Maxwell's lawyers might ask the judge to recuse herself from the trial, claiming that the Biden administration would be in a position to derail her promotion if she did not favor the government in the trial.
But he admitted that a promotion like Nathan's would not provide a basis for such a request.
'This does not even come close to the sort of interest that leads to recusal,' he said.
He also noted that Nathan would be just the second openly gay woman to serve on the Second Circuit.
Ghislaine Maxwell was seen embracing her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, during jury selection on Tuesday
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her
Maxwell, 59, right, who is accused of procuring underage girls for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, left, is set to stand trial on sex trafficking charges on November 29
Nathan is also known for her independence, the Times reports, and in at least two cases, she issued 'blistering criticism' of the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, after it was accused of failing to turn over potentially favorable evidence to the defense before a trial.
Nathan is a graduate of Cornell Law School and served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens in the Supreme Court's 2001 - 2002 term.
She later became an associate White House counsel, a special counsel to the solicitor general's office and a special assistant to former President Barack Obama.
In 2011, Obama appointed her to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In his statement announcing his recommendation, Schumer said her 'experience, legal brilliance, love of the rule of law and perspective would be invaluable in ensuring the federal judiciary fulfills its obligation to ensure equal justice for all.'
Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School, meanwhile said the only theoretical issue she could foresee is if Nathan were confirmed quickly and her new duties pulled her away 'from a very time-consuming trial.
'But I think that's unlikely given the timeline here,' she noted.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer (pictured) announced on Tuesday he is recommending President Biden nominate Nathan for the Court of Appeals, saying her 'experience, legal brilliance, love of the rule of law and perspective would be invaluable in ensuring the federal judiciary fulfills its obligation to ensure equal justice for all'
Nathan has served on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for the past decade, after being appointed by former President Barack Obama
When asked on Tuesday whether Nathan would stay on the case if she got the nomination, Edward Friedland, a spokesman for the district court, said he could 'neither confirm nor deny that she is under consideration.
'But I have every reason to believe that if she is recommended or nominated, she would - as is customary for lower court judges who are nominated to higher courts- continue to do her day job and preside over the trial to its conclusion.'
The announcement came as Nathan oversaw jury selection in Maxwell's trial, which defense and prosecution attorneys argue could last up to six weeks.
She questioned dozens of potential members of the jury who will decide her fate later this month in an effort to narrow down the potential jury pool to 50 to 60 members.
Once that is completed, the prosecution and defense will be able to strike 10 jurors, to narrow down the 12 jurors as well as six alternates that will hear the case.
Maxwell, 59, is charged with sex trafficking, with prosecutors claiming she helped pedophile Jeffrey Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately sexually abuse young girls.
She has pleaded not guilty, and the trial is expected to begin on November 29.
On Tuesday each prospective juror sat alone in a jury box for 10 to 15 minutes while Judge Nathan posed questions from about 10 feet away. Hundreds were previously dismissed after filling out a written questionnaire, according to AP.
At one point they were asked if they had a 'specific familiarity' with Donald Trump's Palm Beach property, Mar-a-Lago, which was known as the 'Winter White House' when he was president.
The inclusion of the question suggests that prosecutors plan to mention it during Maxwell's trial as a venue for allegedly recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein.
Of note in today's proceedings was the presence of Renato Stabile, jury consultant for Harvey Weinstein, who has apparently been hired by Maxwell's team.
Stabile, who advised the disgraced film producer on how to pick a jury, was seen flipping through binders of jury profiles as he sat next to Maxwell's lawyers.
Wearing a black suit, Maxwell hugged her lawyers when she entered the courtroom and briefly sketched a courtroom artist who was drawing her.
Jeffrey Epstein and former President Trump had known each other for years until they reportedly fell out over a property dispute
At one point prospective jurors were asked if they had a 'specific familiarity' with Donald Trump's Palm Beach property, Mar-a-Lago (pictured) suggesting that prosecutors plan to mention it during Maxwell's trial as a venue for allegedly recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein
During the hearing each juror was given a list of witnesses, companies, and locations and asked if they had any 'specific familiarity.'
While they were supposed to only say the letter corresponding to each entry, four jurors blurted out 'Mar-a-Lago' as a place they recognized from the news - none had a personal connection.
Epstein and former President Trump had known each other for years until they reportedly fell out over a property dispute.
The two could also be seen in a 1992 video shot at Mar-a-Lago while a group of cheerleaders dance in front of them as Epstein doubles over in laughter.
At one point in the video Maxwell can be seen walking in the background.
During the Tuesday morning session of voir dire, some 14 jurors were cleared to be considered as members of the final panel.
Potential jurors in British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial were vetted by Judge Alison Nathan in court on Tuesday ahead of the trial later this month
Some prospective jurors told the judge they had heard of Epstein but not Maxwell while others said they had heard of both
They were asked if they had any biases against law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and whether they had prejudice against people who lived 'luxurious lifestyles' - a question insisted upon by the defense.
A 72-year-old white male juror laughed at this question and said that wealthy people had 'provided my livelihood' while working for a high-end catering company that worked at events at the UN, the Met Opera, and the Met Museum.
A 24-year-old white woman said that a friend of hers was 'coerced' into having a relationship with her professor and 'blackmailed into it'.
The friend was supposedly 'paid off by the school to keep her quiet'. Even though the juror was the one to report the incident, she insisted she could still give Maxwell a fair trial.
Both were allowed into the final jury pool from which the panel of 12 will be chosen.
A black woman in her 40s was excused from serving on the case because she said that the reports she had seen about Maxwell had made her feel 'very uncomfortable'.
She appeared in court on Tuesday for jury selection, flanked by attorneys Laura Menninger and Bobbi Sternheim
A 28-year-old woman who works as a special education teacher said she thought Epstein was 'famous, I think he's an actor'.
She was allowed to proceed to the final pool.
Last month Maxwell's lawyers won their first battle after successfully convincing the judge to keep the proposed juror questionnaire under seal to avoid tainting the jury pool.
Federal prosecutors had agreed to the request, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe writing in a two-page memo: 'The defense respectfully requests that the joint proposed juror questionnaire and joint proposed voir dire be filed under seal to avoid media coverage that may prejudice the jury selection.
'The government consents to the defense's request.'
In a remote cluster of islands, off the tip of East Arnhem Land, Gurrumul's Toadlet is presumed to be croaking away with its unique 'squelching' call. The problem is no one's ever recorded it.
But that could change sometime this week when armies of citizen scientists get to work on a census like no other.
Friday marks the start of the fourth annual FrogID Week when nature lovers are encouraged to creep around their yards, local parks, and other green spaces listening for and recording the dulcet tones of Aussie frogs on a special app.
The initiative has been an extraordinary success in its short life, producing a 'game changing' data set used by scientists across the nation, says Jodi Rowley, the curator of amphibian and reptile conservation biology at the Australian Museum.
Australia's fourth annual 'frog census' will be held on Friday (above)
'In four years, we've almost doubled the number of frog records previously in Australia, that were collected over more than 200 years,' Dr Rowley says.
'FrogID has helped document range extensions in threatened species, it's helped discover populations of frogs that haven't been seen or heard of, or we didn't know were still around in certain places.
'And because frogs are such great indicators of environmental health, because they are so sensitive ... we're also getting an indication of the health of environments across Australia.'
The FrogID project makes the most of fact that different frog species have unique calls.
By collating audio recordings captured with the app they can work out what's living where, and how that's changing over time, without having to bother the frogs.
Cairns Frog Hospital president Deborah Pergolotti with an injured White Lipped Tree Frog (above)
That's particularly important right now, as Dr Rowley and others try to work out what's behind a mass mortality event that's so far affected 35 frog species across the country.
It's not clear yet what is going on but there's certainly a big problem. On a single day earlier this year, Dr Rowley received 280 emails from concerned people documenting the death of frogs in their areas.
People have dutifully stored them in zip-lock bags in their freezers and Dr Rowley's team are now gathering them for testing.
Early results indicate the amphibian chytrid fungus, which attacks the skin of frogs, is involved, but other factors, such as a new disease, or toxicity from things like fire retardants and mouse might also be involved.
As researchers try to get to the bottom of the mystery Dr Rowley says the die-off event makes this year's push to capture as many frog songs as possible even more important.
'It's like a joke, drought, bushfires, this, the frogs are coping it.'
Who knows someone might even bag the very first recording of the long, squelchy call of Gurrumul's Toadlet - a newly discovered frog species named after the late musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.
It lives in the remote Wessel Islands archipelago, an hour and 20 minutes east of Darwin, by air. It's only been spotted by a scientist once.
'Scientists, at least, don't know what it sounds like. We suspect it has a call similar to some related species,' Dr Rowley says.
'But there are people there that might be able to make a significant scientific discovery and help us better understand this poorly known frog.'
For more information go to frogid.net.au/frog-id-week.
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Boris Johnson is facing a backbencher-led revolt today after ploughing ahead with the Tory party's anti-sleaze campaign as he backed a ban on MPs taking up lucrative second jobs as political consultants.
The Prime Minister wrote to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to propose a dramatic overhaul of the rules that could hit the interests of dozens of Tory MPs, as he seeks to backtrack from a failed attempt to block the suspension of ex-minister Owen Paterson.
Furious Tory backbenchers accused Mr Johnson of 'capitulation', as talk of a full-blown Tory revolt ramps up ahead of Wednesday's crunch vote.
One MP told the Times: 'Its pouring petrol on to the flames. Hes caved to the left. Now if you have a consultancy it will be assumed youre evil.' Another accused Mr Johnson of being too concerned with being 'embarrassed' ahead of a meeting with the liaison committee of MPs.
'There's a lot of unease. It's the lurching, the u-turning, the lack of consultation', the MP added. Another elected representative whose additional earnings could be hit by any new regulations described the announcement as 'bizarre' and suggested it was a method of putting the 2019 intake of Tory MPs at ease.
Concerns are also said to be mounting among backbenchers on proposals to place 'reasonable limits' on the amount of outside work an elected MP can conduct while in office. MailOnline understands there are at least 50 Conservative MPs who currently work as outside consultants, earning a collective 1.7million a year from second jobs.
Mr Johnson said in his letter that the Code of Conduct for MPs should be updated, and endorsed 2018 recommendations from the Committee on Standards in Public Life. One of the new provisions would ensure 'any outside activity undertaken by an MP, whether remunerated or unremunerated, should be within reasonable limits and should not prevent them from fully carrying out their range of duties'.
He said the changes should ensure 'MPs who are prioritising outside interests over their constituents are investigated and appropriately punished'. Mr Johnson also said he wanted MPs 'banned from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists'.
Sir Keir Starmer is also pushing the issue in the wake of the Westminster sleaze scandal, triggered by the Owen Paterson lobbying row, which has battered the Conservatives in recent weeks.
The Labour leader has said it should be a 'point of consensus that paid directorships and commercial consultancies are not jobs for MPs' and 'the only people MPs should be lobbying for is their constituents'.
Boris Johnson wrote to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to propose a dramatic overhaul of the rules that could hit the interests of dozens of Tory MPs, as he seeks to backtrack from a failed attempt to block the suspension of ex-minister Owen Paterson
Sir Keir Starmer had planned to force a vote in the House of Commons today to try to ban MPs from holding paid directorships and commercial consultancies
The PM has written to Speaker Lindsay Hoyle proposing a dramatic overhaul of the rules to crack down on abuses of the system - that could hit the interests of a number of Tory MPs
Downing Street today insisted that Boris Johnson believes the 'primary job' of MPs 'must be to serve their constituencies'
Third time lucky! MPs FINALLY vote to rebuke Owen Paterson for lobbying after Boris's abortive bid to save ally a fortnight ago MPs finally voted to rebuke Owen Paterson for lobbying today as the government made its humiliating sleaze U-turn official. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that a motion approving the standards report into the former minister had been passed without a formal division. It was the third time the findings had come before the House, with Boris Johnson having caused a meltdown with an abortive attempt to save his ally from punishment a fortnight ago. The second effort was derailed late last night when veteran Tory Christopher Chope shouted 'object', forcing the government to bring a debate and vote today. Despite a furious backlash from colleagues who branded him a 'selfish tw**', Sir Christopher insisted this afternoon that he had 'no regrets' about stopping the measure going through 'on the nod'. Opening the hour-long debate, Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg humbly admitted he had made a 'mistake' in pushing the retrospective overhaul of the standards system. Former PM Theresa May also waded in by condemning the government's behaviour as 'ill-judged and just plain wrong'. But Sir Christopher and fellow Conservative backbencher Bill Cash both risked inflaming the row again by defending Mr Paterson's position. Advertisement
The potential tensions over the approach were laid bare on Tuesday when Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested it would be impossible to make such rules work.
Sir Keir was unaware of the PM's intervention at the start of his press conference as he accused Mr Johnson of 'corroding trust in our parliament and the belief that politics is a force for good.'
He added: 'It's time to ban MPs from being paid directors and commercial consultants. That should not be a controversial situation.'
After he was informed of Mr Johnson's announcement, Sir Keir joked: 'So we have won the vote tomorrow already?'
He added: 'If he is accepting the motion in full, that's a significant victory for us in our work to clear up politics. But I would need to look at how he has put it.'
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner later tweeted that the party wants to 'ban second jobs for MPs, with limited exemptions for public service'.
Owen Paterson was found by a standards watchdog to have committed an 'egregious' breach of rules by directly advocating for two companies while they were paying him more than 100,000 per year.
The Government blocked his recommended 30-day suspension from Parliament before performing a U-turn after a ferocious backlash, with Mr Paterson then opting to quit as the Tory MP for North Shropshire.
In his letter on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said his proposals would ensure MPs 'neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities'.
'They would also ban MPs from exploiting their positions by acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists,' Mr Johnson added.
He said: 'The code of conduct for MPs should be updated to state that: ''Any outside activity undertaken by a MP, whether remunerated or unremunerated, should be within reasonable limits and should not prevent them from fully carrying out their range of duties''.'
That could potentially affect Tory MP Geoffrey Cox, who has been criticised for carrying out a 1million a year legal practice alongside his Commons duties.
Meanwhile, Labour slammed the government and accused them of playing 'dirty tricks' over fears their amendment will not guarantee time for a vote on changing the standards rules next year.
Mr Johnson also backed updating the rules to state: 'MPs should not accept any paid work to provide services as a Parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant, for example, advising on Parliamentary affairs or on how to influence Parliament and its members. MPs should never accept any payment or offers of employment to act as political or Parliamentary consultants or advisers.'
Labour insists 50 Tory backbenchers and former ministers had been paid by management or consultancy firms over the past year.
Mr Johnson said the changes could 'command the confidence' of the public, and he wanted them implemented as a 'matter of urgency'.
'The government believes that these two recommendations form the basis of viable approach which could command the confidence of parliamentarians and the public,' he wrote.
Downing Street said the PM would leave the exact detail of the plans to the House of Commons to decide and finalise. His spokesman said 'it is important in terms of the detailed implementation that should rightly be for the Commons to take forward on a cross-party basis'.
Labour is planning to use an Opposition Day debate in the Commons tomorrow to vote on ending paid directorships and commercial consultancies in Parliament.
Sir Keir responded to the PM's move by claiming the premier had been 'dragged kicking and screaming' to his new position.
He told reporters: 'We've had two weeks of Tory sleaze and corruption. Be under no illusion, the Prime Minister has only done this because his back was against the wall because the Labour Party have put down a binding vote for tomorrow.
'This is a significant victory for the Labour Party, it would not have happened if we hadn't put down that binding vote. This is a prime minister who has shown no leadership on this whatsoever. It is a step forward for standards in public life.'
Earlier, Mr Rees-Mogg had questioned the viability of Labour's proposals, telling the Conservative Home Moggcast podcast: 'Where do you draw the line? Let me give you a specific example. I am a trustee of the Oxford Union Literary and Debating Trust which is the parent charity of the Oxford Union Society, Oxford's debating organisation.
Owen Paterson was found by a standards watchdog to have committed an 'egregious' breach of rules by directly advocating for two companies while they were paying him more than 100,000 per year
Any new regulation on MPs' second jobs could potentially affect Tory MP Geoffrey Cox (pictured), who has been criticised for carrying out a 1million a year legal practice alongside his Commons duties
In his letter on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said his proposals would ensure MPs 'neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities'.
Jacob Rees-Mogg today slammed Labour's plans to crackdown on MPs holding second jobs as he said 'drawing lines' on what is and is not acceptable is 'extraordinarily difficult'
'It promotes free speech, it supports a very good, active charitable educational objective.
'It takes up a small amount of time each year, it is unpaid. Should MPs be able to be trustees of charities? I think most people would say yes, that is a perfectly reasonable role for them to be involved in.
'But what if they are involved with a charity that is a little bit more work and they actually get paid for it? Should they be involved in that?
'If you say yes, they should be involved in that, can they be doctors? And if you say well yes they can be doctors are they then allowed to be involved in the pharmaceutical industry?
'Say they have been helpful in developing drugs, have a great deal of knowledge about how drugs are developed and carry on involvement with potentially a start up company that is developing drugs that they may have founded, should they be allowed to continue with that?'
The Cabinet minister said a key question is whether it is 'useful for a member of Parliament to know about different areas and different activities'.
He continued: 'And if you can't draw the line other than you shouldn't do paid lobbying, how will we decide Labour's motion?
'Is it going to be you can do whatever Keir Starmer does but you can't do any more? Is that what they are proposing?
'So I think drawing lines is extraordinarily difficult and what do voters want? Well they want MPs with experience who contribute.'
Mr Rees-Mogg said the current rules on paid lobbying are 'really clear and really important' but 'in terms of outside interests it is a much more complex question'.
Jacob Rees-Mogg humbly admitted he had made a 'mistake' in pushing the retrospective overhaul of the standards system, as he urged members to vote for a motion that would official scrap the changes and rebuke Owen Paterson
Former PM Theresa May also waded in during the Commons debate by condemning the government's behaviour as 'ill-judged and just plain wrong'
Number 10 had said this morning that it would wait to see the exact wording of what Labour was proposing before commenting in detail.
Asked what the PM's view was on MPs holding consultancies and directorships, his spokesman said: 'I think the Prime Minister has given his view that an MP's primary job is and must be to serve their constituencies and represent their interests in Parliament.
'They should be visible in their constituencies and available to help their constituents with any matters of concern.'
Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush's claim she was shot at 'by white supremacists' during the 2014 Ferguson marches has been met with a slew of skepticism - including from the city police chief who said he had no record of the attack.
Bush, 45, a Democratic representative for Missouri's first congressional district, tweeted on Monday and referred to the ongoing Kyle Rittenhouse trial, who has been accused of shooting two people dead and injuring a third at a racial injustice protest in Kenosha, Washington, last year.
'When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr was murdered and shoot at us.
'They never faced consequences.
'If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it,' the tweet read.
Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush (pictured), 45, took to Twitter she was fired at 'by white supremacists' during the 2014 Ferguson marches and was greeted with a slew of skeptics who accused the Democratic representative for Missouri of lying
She referenced Kyle Rittenhouse, who is currently standing trial for allegedly shooting two people dead and injuring a third at a racial injustice protest in Kenosha, Washington, last year
One day later and the tweet has nearly 15,000 likes and thousands of replies, many accusing Bush of lying and calling on her to reference hard facts and respond to the skeptics.
'I too like to make up stories,' one user said.
Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr (pictured) said Monday he had no idea what incident Bush was referring to
Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr even said on Monday that he had no recollection of such an incident.
'None that I'm aware of,' he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that he did not know what the tweet was referencing to.
McCall was named police chief in July of this year but was a veteran officer and chief at the Berkeley Police Department - a city just two miles away from Ferguson.
A spokesperson for Bush's campaign released a statement later Monday night claiming that 'while on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes'.
'The question we need to ask is why white supremacists feel empowered to open-carry rifles, incite violence, and put Black lives at risk across our country,' it added.
Twitter users weren't so quick to take Bush's statement so seriously and while users called on her to state facts, Bush remained silent
But Twitter users weren't so quick to take Bush's statement so seriously. One reply jokingly referenced Jeopardy and wrote: 'I'll take "things that didn't happen" for $6969' alongside a picture of a contestant unsure of the answer.
'Can you offer a rebuttal? Facts should be your friend,' yet another tweeted while a fourth claimed she was a TV reporter covering the riots.
'I can tell you this NEVER happened,' she responded, adding that 'there wasn't a hill at the site where Brown was shot'.
'The street was surrounded by apartments.'
All the while Bush remained silent.
One user asked if Bush was marching with Jussie Smollett, a 39-year-old 'Empire' star who was accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in January 2019 and then lying to police about it.
'Empire' star Jussie Smollett (pictured attending a hearing on July 14, 2021), 39, was accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself in January 2019 and then lying to police
One user replied to Bush's tweet asking the Congresswoman if she marched with Smollett, an obvious jab at Bush for fabricating a story to, like Smollett, bolster her publicity
He pleaded not guilty to allegations that he lied to police about the incident, which authorities later claimed he had staged with two acquaintances to draw attention to himself.
However, the charges were dropped by March and in April the city of Chicago sued Smollett for $130,000 - the cost of the investigation.
Smollett was arrested in 2019 for allegedly faking the attack
Therefore, the tweet was an obvious jab at Bush for fabricating a story to, like Smollett, bolster her publicity.
In fact, Bush gained popularity in the aftermath of the Ferguson protests after Michael Brown Jr, 18, was killed by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in August 2014.
The shooting happened after Wilson told Brown and a friend to get out of the street as they walked down the middle of Canfield Drive on a Sunday afternoon.
A scuffle between Wilson and Brown ensued, ending with the fatal shot. Wilson said Brown came at him menacingly, forcing him to fire his gun in self-defense.
Brown's body remained in the street for four hours, angering his family and nearby residents.
Some people initially said Brown had his hands up in surrender when Wilson fired, although a grand jury and the US Department of Justice didn't find those accounts credible.
The teen's death sparked months of unrest in the city and made the St Louis suburb synonymous with a national debate over police treatment of minorities. Brown Jr's death was widely regarded as the catalyst of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
St Louis County's top prosecutor announced in 2020 that he will not charge Darren Wilson (left), the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown Jr (right) in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014
Brown's death in August 2014 sparked months of unrest in Ferguson (pictured) and made the St Louis suburb synonymous with a national debate over police treatment of minorities
2014: A fire bomb flies after a police car as it is vandalized by protesters in Ferguson
2020: Fireworks deployed by protesters explode in Ferguson in the wake of Floyd's death
However, there were no reports that Bush was shot at in 2014 although there was an article published in June 2020 from local news station KDSK reporting that a white man was charged with shooting into a crowd of peaceful protestors in Brentwood - 12 miles away from Ferguson.
Local activist Ohun Ashe referenced the story in what seemed like one of the only tweets siding with Bush.
'This is FACTS!' Ashe tweeted, adding: 'I vividly remember hiding under porches in Canfield as shots were fired at us. No one came to help us.
'We would come from under porches using cars as shields in between gun shots to make it out.'
In 2020, six years after a grand jury declined to indict Wilson, St Louis County's top prosecutor Wesley Bell announced that he will not charge the former officer of murder or manslaughter.
The dramatic decision promised to reopen old wounds amid a renewed and intensified national conversation about racial injustice following the officer-involved death of George Floyd in May 2020.
Social media users are criticizing NPR for tweeting that the choice of Michelle Wu as Boston's new mayor is 'more of a disappointment' because Wu, who is Asian, beat out three black candidates.
The nonprofit media outlet tweeted the comments on Tuesday, along with a link to a story featuring quotes from people who believe Wu's election is just another example of, 'What else is new?'
Wu, a former city council member, became the first woman and the first person of color to be elected mayor of Boston on November 2. She assumed office Tuesday.
NPR has since deleted the original tweet, saying that it 'misrepresented the story,' though the overall parameters and gripes in the original article remain the same.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, left, beat out acting mayor Kim Janey, right, and two other black candidates earlier this month, becoming the first woman and Asian elected mayor
As Wu assumed office on Tuesday, NPR tweeted a story suggesting her election was a 'disappointment' because 'three black candidates couldn't even come close'
The publicly funded outlet later deleted the tweet, saying it 'misrepresented' the story
The story, titled, 'Why Boston will need to wait longer for its 1st elected black mayor,' features quotes from Boston residents unhappy with Wu's election because of her race.
Wu, 36, ran against three black candidates who didn't make the cut in the preliminary election on September 14.
They are former city economic development chief John Barros, city council member Andrea Campbell and Boston acting mayor Kim Janey, who assumed office in March after former mayor Marty Walsh joined Joe Biden's administration as secretary of labor.
Janey's officially stepped down Tuesday, when Wu, a Democrat, took office.
NPR painted a picture of an unhappy electorate.
'I got home, and I cried,' Danny Rivera, an artist and civil rights activist, told NPR. 'I cried my eyes out because I don't know the next time we'll see a black mayor in our city.'
A 20-year-old college student said: 'It's just one of those things where it feels like what else is new?'
The radio station's website cited data showing that that the three black candidates got three-quarters of the vote in parts of the city with the highest concentrations of people of color, but only one-fourth in the whitest areas.
'I mean the data speaks for itself, and it's troubling,' said former Massachusetts State Rep. Marie St. Fleur.
Wu, a Harvard Law graduate and former city council member, was sworn in as mayor on Tuesday alongside her husband and her sons Blaise and Cass
'For those of us born or raised in Boston, and who lived through some of the darker days, the fact that we blinked at this moment is sadness,' she says. 'At what point in the city of Boston will we be able to vote and I'm going to be very clear here for a Black person in that corner office?'
Social media users reacted swiftly to NPR's tweet, arguing that Wu's election is momentous in of itself.
'Kim Janey became Boston's first black, first female mayor, but she finished 4th in the preliminary among 5 mayoral candidates of color. (Janey even endorsed Michelle Wu.)' wrote journalist Mia Cathell of the Post Millennial, a conservative Canadian outlet.
'NPR had applauded the diversity of the contenders. What changed? Why downplay an Asian American woman's win?'
Wu, above after winning the general election on November 2, was born in Chicago to Taiwanese parents
Reporter Mary Chao wrote: 'Tsk, tsk @NPR. Driving a wedge between People of Color, keeping underrepresented groups fighting each other for scraps.'
Wu was born in Chicago to Taiwanese parents.
She was elected on Nov. 2 with 64 percent of the vote, beating out Annissa Essaibi George, the other candidate who had moved on from the preliminary election.
On Tuesday, Wu was sworn in alongside her husband Conor Pewarski and her sons Blaise and Cass.
She went to Harvard and worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group after graduation, according to the Harvard Crimson.
She moved back to Chicago to take care of her ailing mother. She opened a tea house there before accepting an offer to attend Harvard Law School, where she studied under Sen. Elizabeth Warren and graduated in 2012.
She was elected to city council in November 2013.
In her mayoral campaign manifesto, Wu called for defunding school policing, a stance that she hasn't changed even after a 61-year-old high school principal was knocked unconscious by a 16-year-old female student following her election.
Wu wrote: 'Metal detectors have been found to negatively impact students' sense of safety at school, while school resource officers (SROs) disproportionately criminalize Black and Latinx students, perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline.
'We must immediately move to dismantle these punitive measures and reinvest in restorative justice practices employed by trusted, adult school community members.'
Patricia Lampron - the principal of Henderson Upper Campus school - was knocked unconscious in an attack at the school earlier this month. A 16-year-old student has been arrested and charged with assault and battery
On Wednesday, November 3, an unnamed teenage girl was arrested after Patricia Lampron - the principal of Dr. William W. Henderson Upper Campus school - was taken to the hospital to treat a head injury and broken ribs.
Wu, 36, was later asked if the attack had made her reconsider her policing policy in schools.
'No,' she replied, calling the attack on Lampron 'an incredibly horrific, tragic situation.'
But she insisted that having police officers in schools was not the answer.
'All throughout the system we need - particularly in this moment coming out of the pandemic when there's been such stress, anxiety, trauma on our families - to be putting more resources into social and emotional supports, into the wraparound services that our schools should be providing,' Wu said.
Kwasi Kwarteng has become the first Government minister to intervene in the controversial takeover of LV as he urged the insurer's bosses to come clean over the deal.
The Business Secretary backed a call from Labour MP Gareth Thomas in Parliament yesterday for LV to disclose how much it was paying advisers on the 530million deal.
His comments came as a row broke out between LV and Royal London, a rival life insurer which had hoped to buy the firm but was snubbed in favour of the buyout barons at Bain. Mr Kwarteng's intervention could put him at loggerheads with Malik Karim, the Tory treasurer and founder of City investment bank Fenchurch Advisory Partners.
Fenchurch is one of LV's key advisers on its sale to US private equity firm Bain Capital, and will rake in a multi-million-pound fee for its work, the Daily Mail revealed last week. So far, LV and Fenchurch have declined to reveal how much the advisers will be paid. Other firms working on the deal include City spinners FTI Consulting and law firm Clifford Chance.
Kwasi Kwarteng (pictured) has become the first Government minister to intervene in the controversial takeover of LV as he urged the insurer's bosses to come clean over the deal
Addressing Mr Thomas's call for LV to reveal how much of its members' money was being spent, Mr Kwarteng said he was 'particularly interested in this deal'. He said: 'I think [Mr Thomas] is absolutely right, I think people who are shareholders, people who are customers, have every right to transparent data. I would very much support that.'
Barry O'Dwyer, chief of Royal London, which has submitted a rival bid, said Bain's offer for LV has provoked 'near-universal dismay' and was unlikely to be voted through by members. LV chief executive Mark Hartigan hit back, accusing Royal London of lobbing a 'hand grenade' into the takeover and branding the firm's claims 'grossly misleading'.
The sale of LV, formally known as Liverpool Victoria, has angered MPs across the political divide.
The firm, set up in 1843, has always been a mutual meaning it is owned by its customers and run for their benefit. But now the firm's bosses want to sell LV to Bain, a profit-hungry US investor which would demutualise the historic business.
The sale of LV, formally known as Liverpool Victoria, has angered MPs across the political divide. Pictured: Malik Karim, the Conservative Party treasurer who could net millions from the LV takeover
Many of LV's 1.2million members, who will vote to decide whether the deal goes ahead, have written to the Mail voicing their dismay about the Bain deal.
Last week Royal London, also a mutual, wrote to LV's board offering to revive its bid for the firm it made last year.
On Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Mr O'Dwyer said: 'The near-universal dismay which has greeted that [Bain] proposal means that I think there is a significant risk now that members won't support that proposal.' But LV released a statement yesterday slamming Royal London.
It said the firm had been 'grossly misleading' in suggesting that LV would remain a mutual under the rival offer.
But Royal London hit back, claiming that it was open to discussions with both LV and Bain which would allow it to buy the insurer and keep its mutual status.
As the tit-for-tat battle continued, Mr Hartigan accused Royal London of launching a 'hand grenade to disrupt the process'. LV members have until December 8 to vote on the Bain deal. They can also vote at an online general meeting on December 10.
A woman who struck up a relationship with a businessman while he browsed luxury cars will get to keep $87,000, a Mercedes, and jewelry.
The woman, now 37, met the 63-year-old American-Australian dual citizen at an Adelaide car dealership in 2014, the South Australian Supreme Court heard.
The pair then embarked on a four-and-a-half year relationship, during which the man transferred $913,051 into the woman's account to pay for her 'living expenses' and her son's school fees.
A woman can keep $87,000 in cash a Mercedes and jewelry after her relationship with a much older jet-setting businessman collapsed (stock image)
Owning houses in Potts Point in Sydney and Pebble Beach, California, the man would also frequently travel to Queensland and to Adelaide up to nine times a year.
At one point, the woman was given a ring leading her to claim they were in a de-facto relationship, though the man argued this was merely to deter other men from approaching the woman.
After their relationship broke down in 2018, he claimed that recent transfers of $87,000 in cash along with a Mercedes, furniture, and jewelry be returned to him, prompting the woman to mount a legal challenge.
But the Supreme Court in South Australia ruled the woman could keep the car, cash, and jewelry.
'The applicant transferred large sums of money into the respondent's bank account, which allowed her to rent a house for herself... cut back on her hours of work, pay for her son's school fees, and lead a more affluent lifestyle,' the court ruled.
The woman argued the car was a Valentine's Day gift and the cash should not be given back as the applicant had agreed to support her financially.
The man gave the woman a luxury Mercedes but demanded the car be returned when the couple broke up, saying the item was a loan and not a gift (stock image)
The woman tendered a letter to court she claimed backed up her claims, detailing how the man would setup a 'house account' with a few hundred thousand dollars and put a house and car under her name.
'All of this is to ensure that you never, ever, have to be concerned if something happens to us just how you would cope,' the letter reads.
However, the court found the pair were never in a de-facto relationship and the woman was not entitled to any more than the disputed cash, car, and jewelry
The judge found they both repeatedly lied to one another and did not introduce each other to their friends and family.
The man would travel between Australia and the United States where he owned a house at Pebble Beach in California (pictured)
She told him she was studying law during their relationship - a claim she repeated under oath but was dismissed by the judge.
The man did not revealed to her his actual age, which she only found out during court proceedings.
She also was not aware of what the man's job was.
'The applicant never explained to the respondent what he did; it appears that she never had a clear idea of how he earned his money, how much he earned, or what his major assets were,' the court ruled.
The judgement concluded the couple's relationship was more 'superficial' rather than based on any long-term commitment.
A gastro outbreak across Australia linked to raw seafood has forced multiple oyster farms to close as authorities scramble to track down the source.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) closed production areas in South Australia's Coffin Bay on Tuesday as a 'precautionary measure'.
Oyster farms are expected to remain shut until next week as an investigation gets underway into the cause of multiple gastroenteritis cases across the country.
Oyster farms in Coffin Bay, South Australia, have been forced to temporarily shut while an investigation is underway into Gastro outbreaks across the country (pictured, a Coffin Bay oyster farm)
No oysters are permitted to leave the area in the meantime.
In SA alone, 45 Vibrio parahaemolyticus cases have been linked to raw oysters since September - a huge spike compared to zero cases last year and eight in 2019.
Last Friday SA Health warned residents to avoid eating raw oysters as a result of 36 infections linked to the seafood in the last two months.
'This increase in cases reported to us in such a short period of time is very concerning, ' Acting Director of Food and Controlled Drugs Branch, Joanne Cammans said.
'Food-borne illnesses can be quite serious for more vulnerable people in our community, such as older South Australians, pregnant people and people with compromised immune systems.'
Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection causes symptoms of gastro, including diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and headache.
SA has recorded 45 Vibrio parahaemolyticus infections linked to the consumption of raw oysters since September (pictured, Oyster farms in Coffin Bay off the Eyre Peninsular)
Ms Cammans added symptoms occur within 24 hours of eating undercooked seafood however raw oysters are often the most common cause of infections.
Similar health warnings were issued in Western Australia which reported 17 linked cases and Victoria where eight infections were recorded.
PIRSA Executive Director Nathan Rhodes said the department was working closely with industry leaders to ensure the best practices are used during the outbreak.
SA Health has warned vulnerable residents to avoid eating oysters (pictured) while an investigation is ongoing
'The number of cases can vary substantially from year to year, and it is difficult to pinpoint the potential cause,' Mr Rhodes said.
'We are looking at potential factors that may have an influence on the recent cases, but the best international science has yet to determine a likely cause.
'Inspections by PIRSA officers have found that food safety practices are being appropriately applied on farms.'
He advised to reduce the risk of infection, raw unshucked oysters should be kept at less than 10C and shucked oysters at less than 5C.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a bacteria found in marine and coastal waters predominantly in warm tidal areas where oysters grow.
The consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish, prawns, lobster, and crab can sometimes cause outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis.
The furious owner of a major restaurant chain has taken to social media to rant after a plain clothes cop was sent into one of his venues to ensure it was Covid-19 compliant.
Rashays founder Rami Ykmour criticised the actions of officers who entered his diner in Rhodes, Sydney, in a scathing TikTok video on Tuesday.
Mr Ykmour claimed the officers had compromised the mental health of his staff while they checked if his restaurant was following the proper procedures.
CCTV footage of the interaction shows one male and one female officer entering the restaurant, checking in and then showing their vaccination passports.
In CCTV footage of the interaction a plain clothes officer flashes his police badge to staff
The man then flashes his police badge to staff who are asked to prove their vaccination status and present the diners Covid-19 safety plan.
'I don't know why it had to be so dramatic, why they had to get in the way of customers and why they had to approach the staff they way they did,' Mr Ykmour said.
Mr Ykmour said his chest tightened the first time he watched the footage, revealing his staff were already under a 'tremendous' amount of pressure ensuring government regulations were maintained.
He said while the interaction played out there were four front-of-house staff working in the restaurant, which was mostly empty.
'You could see the panic in the staff. They can see there's a police officer there, their heart rate is going through the roof,' the restaurant owner claimed.
A NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Police have reviewed the vision and have conducted inquiries'.
'While uniformed NSW Police officers have previously attended the premises, the person depicted on Friday 12 November 2021 is not a NSW Police officer.
'There are various government agencies that carry identification.'
The family-owned restaurant chain has 30 locations across NSW, ACT and Queensland
Rashays founder Rami Ykmour claimed the way police handled the interaction had compromised the mental health of his staff in the restaurant
The founder added the the major chain spent over $150,000 a week on rostering extra staff to ensure the proper Covid-19 procedures were followed.
Mr Ykmour said he had since spoken to one of the workers who was involved and said 'her mental health was not in a good way'.
'This is not the country we are. These are not the policies we need,' he said.
'We are putting our police force in a position we don't need to. We are putting our staff in a position they don't need to be in.'
The restaurant owner said while he didn't want to come across as a 'sook' he was 'truly embarrassed for our future' and wanted to 'speak the truth'.
'It's time for the pretenders to move out of the way, it's time to stand up and fight for the people. Enough is enough,' Mr Ykmour concluded.
Mr Ykmour (pictured) said he had since spoken to one of the workers involved in the interaction with police and said 'her mental health was not in a good way'
It comes just days after the restaurant owner claimed he was left 'disgusted' after an officer - this time in uniform - visited the same diner to check compliance (pictured, a Rashays branch)
It comes just days after the restaurant owner said he was left 'disgusted' after an officer - this time in uniform - visited the same diner to check compliance.
The founder said staff were asked if they were double-vaccinated and if they were letting unvaccinated patrons through the doors.
Mr Ykmour said the surrounding food court was packed with patrons who didn't have to prove they were vaccinated.
'If that isn't discriminating against small family businesses - who are dine-in restaurants, nothing is,' he said.
In July, the Rashays boss was arrested after allegedly refusing to provide his details while two of his staff were fined for not wearing face masks at the company's head office at Chester Hill.
Mr Ykmour claimed government regulations were discriminating against family businesses. He is pictured with wife Shannon and children (L-R) Aliyah, Zain, Amelia and Kameelah
Police allege two staff members were not wearing face masks and that co-founder Rami Ykmour, 46, became aggressive and refused to provide his details
Footage uploaded to Facebook shows Mr Ykmour speaking calmly with an officer at the front of the office after police were tipped off about a Covid-19 health order breach by an anonymous caller.
Police allege two staff members were not wearing face masks and that the Rashays co-founder became aggressive and refused to provide his details.
In footage of the dramatic arrest an officer points to several staff at the head office reception he can see who are not wearing face masks.
Mr Ykmour suggests the workers might have been eating lunch or blowing their nose and claims the staff members have since put on their face masks, insisting there is no longer an issue.
A staff member sitting behind reception desk begins to break down as the commotion escalates and later collapses onto the floor.
The restaurant owner is told that he is under arrest before he is escorted out of the premises to the squadron of police cars parked in the driveway.
In footage of the dramatic arrest an officer points to several staff at the Chester Hill head office (pictured) who he can see are not wearing face masks
Mr Ykmour was arrested and issued a Field Court Attendance Notice for hinder police in July
He was issued a Field Court Attendance Notice for hinder police.
A NSW Police spokesperson said two staff members had been issued $200 fines for not wearing face masks.
Mr Ykmour previously told Daily Mail Australia he had only being trying to support his employees, but he did not blame police for how they handled the situation.
'There's nothing that I've done wrong, except back my staff 100 per cent and I will always back my staff,' he said.
'The police were doing their job. That's the way they saw it and it is what it is. We don't want to criticise. It's not time for criticising, that's for sure.'
In September, Mr Ykmour (pictured with wife Shannon) vowed he wouldn't re-open his NSW branches until all residents had the same freedoms regardless of their vaccination status
In September, the founder vowed he wouldn't re-open his NSW branches until all residents had the same freedoms regardless of their vaccination status.
Mr Ykmour said he didn't want workers at his 27 restaurants across the state 'facing arguments at the front door' from October 11 when fully-vaccinated patrons are allowed to dine at his restaurants.
'I'm happy small businesses can open up from October 11, including Rashays,' Mr Ykmour said in a TikTok video shared on Monday evening.
'But unfortunately we're taking a stance not to open up until December 1 because we are all about being inclusive.
'We are all about being inclusive. My staff have been trained for years to open everyone with open arms - I don't want them facing arguments at the door about who can come in because of double vaccine passports.'
A woman has plunged to her death from her balcony in front of horrified cops who were called her her home.
Officers rushed to her flat on Helena Street in Lilyfield, in Sydney's inner west, about 1.30pm on Tuesday after being called with a concern for her welfare.
Police spoke with the 69-year-old woman when they arrived, but moments later she plunged from the balcony.
Police were called to Helena Street (pictured), Lilyfield, about 1.30pm on Tuesday following concerns for welfare
Despite the efforts of police and paramedics, she died at the scene.
A critical incident was declared and a special team will investigate all circumstances surrounding her death.
NSW's police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, said it was notified of the critical incident by NSW Police.
'The NSW Police Force are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' the LECC said in a statement.
'The LECC is independently monitoring the investigation of the critical incident under Part 8 of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016 to ensure public confidence in the investigation.'
For confidential support in Australia LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au.
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
A deadly crocodile has been snapped perfectly camouflaged in a pit of mud.
The photo of the saltwater croc hidden in heavy mud was shared to the Australian Native Animals Facebook group as a reminder to be careful in crocodile territory.
'A reminder to be croc wise, steer clear of mud with eyes,' wrote Rodney Fischer to accompany the picture of the barely distinguishable form of an Australian saltwater crocodile covered in mud.
The only indication a croc is underneath the mud is one green-gold eye peering out, which many people commenting on the post thought was a leaf or a stone.
Pile of mud or disguise for one of Australia's deadliest creatures? Keep an eye out...
'Think I'll grab that cool looking green pebble lying in all that mud...' one person joked.
'I would have been lunch before I even saw it. Brilliant camouflage,' commented another.
'Shes having a facial and wondering what all the fuss is about,' a third shared.
'Salties' are the largest living species of crocodile in the world, growing to five metres in length, though specimens up to six metres are not unknown.
Australian saltwater crocodiles are the largest living species of crocodile in the world, growing to around 4 or 5 metres in length, though specimens up to 6 metres are not unknown
Despite the 'saltwater' description, in Australia saltwater crocodiles are frequently found in estuaries and are known to travel hundreds of kilometres inland swimming in freshwater.
The species is considered a master of camouflage even without the mud.
Mottled colouring and the knobbles on their backs allow them to effortlessly blend in to the colours of clear, shallow water. In the mud caused by the annual wet season, they are virtually invisible.
They remain mostly submerged just below the surface of the water thanks to nostrils located on top of the end of their snouts, while their ears close while underwater, allowing them to remain still in the one position until prey comes into their orbit.
It's estimated the apex predator numbers between 100,000 and 200,00 adults in Australia, distributed from Broome in Western Australia, through the rivers of the Northern Territory to Rockhampton and far north Queensland.
More than 125 fans sued rapper Travis Scott for $750 million over the deadly Astroworld Festival incident that left 10 dead and hundreds injured earlier this month.
The lawsuit, filed by Houston Attorney Tony Buzbee - who had previously been representing at least 35 victims from the concert - accuses Scott and festival organizers of 'gross negligence' for the chaos at Astroworld on November 5.
The suit also names Live Nation, Epic Records Drake and Apple as defendants for their involvement in organizing the festival, and Buzbee plans to file another lawsuit with 100 more plaintiffs in the coming days.
'No amount of money will ever make these Plaintiffs whole; no amount of money can restore human life,' Buzbee said in the lawsuit.
'But, the damages sought in this case attempts to fix, help, or make up for the harms and losses suffered by these Plaintiffs -- nothing more and nothing less.'
The lawsuit comes as W Magazine is reportedly scrambling to pull their next issue featuring Kylie Jenner and Scott on the cover after the Astroworld Festival tragedy.
Rapper Travis Scott was accused of 'gross negligence' in setting up the Astroworld Festival that left 10 dead and hundreds injured on November 5 (pictured on stage)
An ambulance is seen in the crowd during the Astroworld music festival as Scott's performance reportedly continued
The unruly crowds were allegedly incited by Scott, who is accused with festival organizers of not putting enough safety measures in place to protect attendees
Axel Acosta, 21, was crushed by the crowds and suffered a heart attack before being trampled to death. He had traveled from Washington to attend the festival - his first concert
Buzbee alleges that Scott incited the crowd frenzy as he has often praised violence in mosh pits and yelled at attendees to attack one another.
Buzbee claims Scott and the concert promoters and organizers failed to have protective measures in place to protect the concert goers.
Among those Buzbee is representing is the family of Axel Acosta, 21, of Washington, one of the ten who died at the concert.
Buzbee wrote, 'Axel was crushed by the incited, unruly and out-of-control crowd with such force that he could no longer breath; with such force that the air in his lungs was literally slowly squeezed out of him, sending his heart into cardiac arrest.
'When Axel collapsed, he was trampled by those fighting to prevent themselves from being crushed. As he lay there under a mass of humanity, dying, the music played and streamed onfor almost forty minutes.'
In a statement, Live Nation said '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.'
The other defendants in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to the DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Editors at W Magazine are said to be desperately attempting to recall the magazine 'before it hits store shelves,' a source told Page Six this week.
Panic mode: W Magazine is reportedly scrambling to pull their next issue with Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott on the cover after the Astroworld Festival tragedy; pictured in 2019
Stressful: Editors are said to be desperately attempting to recall the magazine 'before it hits store shelves,' a source told Page Six this week
'W editors have cleared any planned coverage of Travis and Kylie from their website, but the magazine was already printed, and now they are trying to stop the delivery trucks,' an insider told the outlet.
Additionally, they explained: 'In the light of what happened at Astroworld, the interview and cover lines seem inappropriate, to say the least.'
DailyMail.com has yet to hear back from W Magazine for a request for comment.
On Monday, Nike announced they would postpone their sneaker release with Scott after a nine-year-old boy became the latest fatality in a deadly crowd surge during his performance in Houston.
The child was reportedly a big fan of the rapper music, and was sitting on his father's shoulders when the countdown to Scott's performance had began.
The pair stayed near the back of the crowd because his father, Treston Blount, thought it would be calmer, he previously told ABC 13.
But as soon as Scott took the stage, Treston said, people started pushing.
He lost consciousness and Ezra fell to the ground, and was soon trampled on by eager concert-goers.
Ezra Blount, 9, of Dallas, Texas, became the latest fatality in a deadly crowd surge during a Travis Scott performance at the Astroworld music festival in Houston on Sunday - 10 days after he was put in a medically-induced coma
W editors have cleared any planned coverage of Travis and Kylie from their website, but the magazine was already printed, and now they are trying to stop the delivery trucks,' an insider told the outlet; seen in June
When Treston regained consciousness, he said, he could not find Ezra anywhere, and rushed to the on-site medic tents and several hospitals.
Eventually, he said, he filed a police report, and received a message from an officer with a picture of his boy.
When he got to the hospital, he discovered his son incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being 'kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,' according to a lawsuit his family has filed against Scott and the events organizer, Live Nation.
The Blount family is seeking at least $1 million in damages.
In a statement, the family's lawyer, Ben Crump, said that he was 'committed to seeking answers and justice' on behalf of the family.
'The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,' Crump said. 'This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration. Ezra's death is absolutely heartbreaking.'
With Ezra's death, the death toll stemming from the crowd surge rose to 10 people.
Ten dead: On Monday, Nike announced they would postpone their sneaker release with Scott after a nine-year-old boy became the latest fatality in a deadly crowd surge during his performance in Houston; pictured during 2021 Astroworld Festival at NRG Park
The dead ranged from 9 to 27 years old. Hundreds more were injured.
City officials are investigating what caused the pandemonium at the sold-out event attended by about 50,000 fans.
Last week, Houston's police chief blamed Scott for not pulling the plug on the deadly Astroworld concert as new footage showed cops casually filming the Travis Scott show nearly 30 minutes after a mass casualty event was declared.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner refused to provide a timeline for the police response after a sizable group pushed toward the stage at NRG Park.
When asked about the timing of the police response after it became apparent things had become dangerous, Finner said the police department was still in the early stages of its investigation and that he was 'not gonna discuss timelines.'
Tragic: The dead ranged from 9 to 27 years old. Hundreds more were injured
Many unknowns: When asked about how the concert came to an end, and why Scott was able to complete his set, the chief said investigators are still looking into the specifics during a press conference on Wednesday
Video and photos obtained by TMZ shows members of the Houston Police Department calmly walking around and even pulling out their cellphones to record Scott's performance after the Fire Chief declared a 'mass casualty event' at 9:38 pm.
A set of photos with the time stamps 9:57 pm shows police officers recording the rappers performance, 19 minutes after the chief's declaration, TMZ reported.
TMZ also obtained video of officers casually strolling past the stage shot at 10:02 pm, 25 minutes after the mass casualty declaration.
When asked about how the concert came to an end, and why Scott was able to complete his set, the chief said investigators are still looking into the specifics during a press conference Wednesday.
Chaos: Around 2pm hundreds of fans stormed the festival's VIP entrance. About seven hours later the surge in front of the main stage killed nine people, but the two events appear to be unrelated
'I don't know, and that's part of the investigation,' he told reporters, adding 'We've been looking and the timelines have moved and that's why we shouldn't jump ahead of things, lets just wait. that's part of the investigation.'
Finner, who said he did not have a close relationship with Scott and had only met him twice, said whether or not the show went on was not up to the police department.
'Authorities ability to end the show - we don't hold the plug, okay? But it's always in a plan, there's always discussion of how that would happen and we had those discussions with the promoters,' Finner said.
'The ultimate authority to end the show is with production and the entertainer,' he added.
Gas prices jumped as much as 17 per cent in the UK yesterday after German regulators suspended approval for Russia's controversial gas pipeline into Europe.
Wholesale gas was worth around 60p per therm at the start of this year. Yesterday that figure reached highs of 240p per therm though it is still below a record of 350p set in early October.
Analysts at Energy Helpline said if the prices were to continue until February, energy regulator Ofgem could raise the cap on household bills on standard tariffs by 475. This would take it from the current level of 1,277 to 1,752.
The move by Berlin's energy regulators came the day after Boris Johnson linked the 8billion Nord Stream 2 project to growing tensions in the East. German officials said the suspension was 'temporary' and the decision was seen as technical rather than political.
Gas prices jumped as much as 17 per cent in the UK yesterday after German regulators suspended approval for Russia's controversial gas pipeline into Europe (stock image)
Tuesday's jump was also driven by a reduction in flows of Norwegian gas into the UK due to an outage at the Troll gas field. And two more small suppliers Neon Reef and Social Energy Supply, with a combined 35,000 customers collapsed last night after the hike.
Although the UK does not import much gas directly from Russia, it receives a lot from Europe which gets around 40 per cent of its supplies from Russia.
The sky-high prices have been seen most profoundly in the UK through the sudden collapse of a string of small energy suppliers with more than 20 going bust since the start of September.
Sam Peek, analyst at Cornwall Insight, said prices could keep climbing into next week if there is cold weather and periods of low wind.
Concerns over the Nord Stream 2 project, which would bypass Poland and Ukraine by transporting natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, have been renewed amid signs of Russian aggression on the border with Ukraine.
Concerns over the Nord Stream 2 project, which would bypass Poland and Ukraine by transporting natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, have been renewed amid signs of Russian aggression on the border with Ukraine (file photo)
Although Nord Stream 2 is led by Russia's Gazprom, Germany's Federal Network Agency (FNA) said the Swiss-based consortium running the European end of the project would need to form a company under German law to obtain an operating licence.
Until that happens, the approval process will be suspended.
'A certification for the operation of Nord Stream 2 will only be considered once the operator is organised in a legal shape compliant with German law,' the FNA said in a statement.
The decision came after the Prime Minister, on Monday night, warned European leaders that there is a choice 'shortly coming' between 'mainlining' Russian fossil fuels or sticking up for Ukraine.
The decision came after the Prime Minister, on Monday night, warned European leaders that there is a choice 'shortly coming' between 'mainlining' Russian fossil fuels or sticking up for Ukraine
Downing Street stopped short of praising the German regulator yesterday but Mr Johnson 'underlined' the UK's opposition to the project to his Cabinet, No.10 said, asserting it 'would have significant security implications for the region'.
With Mr Wallace visiting Ukraine, Downing Street said the Government will continue to speak to European allies and Kiev over the pipeline.
'Ukraine currently hosts the largest existing pipeline for Russian gas and transit fees have historically made up a large proportion of their GDP so Nord Stream 2 would divert supplies from the Ukraine that would have significant consequences for its economy,' the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.
'And it could also have significant security implications and the transit of Russian gas through the Ukraine is largely seen as a deterrent against further Russian aggression.'
The Post Office has agreed to hand over secret emails from its lawyers which could explain why hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted for fraud, theft and false accounting, when a computer glitch was really to blame for financial irregularities.
A public inquiry is under way to find out what happened, and 59 people have had their convictions overturned.
Insiders estimate that the inquiry will be given tens of millions of documents, spanning over 20 years of e-mails and letters between Post Office staff and internal legal advisers, barristers and solicitors firms.
Postmasters accused of theft by Post Office celebrate outside the High Court In London after they had their convictions overturned
The documents will allow the inquiry to test claims made by the Post Offices former chief executive, Paula Vennells, a part-time priest, that she was led astray by her legal advisers.
The Post Office does not legally have to hand over the papers but volunteered them at the request of the inquirys chairman, Sir Wyn Williams.
Postmasters had argued that it would be impossible to uncover how thousands of them were targeted without considering the advice given to senior managers by their lawyers.
The inquiry would have had no legal power to order the Post Office to hand over the documents if it had not voluntarily given it up, legal sources said.
Former Post Office worker Janet Skinner (centre) hugs family members after having her conviction relating to the Horizon IT scandal overturned in April of this year
Sir Wyn said: There is now a great deal of work to be done in organising and obtaining disclosure of relevant documents statement here.
A Post Office spokeswoman said: Following the request by the inquiry chairman, the Post Office has agreed to waive relevant legal privilege for the purpose of the Inquiry to over 20 years of documentation, reflecting our desire to assist the Inquiry in obtaining the information necessary to complete their investigations.
While the Inquiries Act does not compel this step, and legal privilege is an important feature of our justice system, this is the right thing to do for all those affected by the Horizon IT scandal.
It has declined to waive privilege in respect of the postmasters compensation scheme, the Historical Shortfall Scheme.
An attorney who initially represented Kyle Rittenhouse before they acrimoniously parted ways said on Tuesday that the teenager was always going to be acquitted, describing the case as politically-motivated 'malicious prosecution'.
John Pierce, a high-profile former tank platoon commander who has made a name for himself representing multiple pro-Trump defendants - including 17 of the Capitol rioters - said that the trial was a sham.
Pierce, 49, told Fox News on Tuesday: 'This case should have never been brought.
'In my view, this is blatant prosecutorial misconduct. It's malicious prosecution.'
Pierce, who runs how own Los Angeles-based firm, was hired by Rittenhouse shortly after the August 25, 2020 shooting.
John Pierce is pictured with Kyle Rittenhouse, his mother Wendy and sister Faith. Pierce represented Rittenhouse from August 2020 for just over three months
Kyle Rittenhouse, now 18, is seen in the courtroom during his two-week trial
Thomas Binger, prosecuting, shocked many in the court by brandishing Rittenhouse's gun during closing arguments on Friday
On August 30, 2020, Pierce told Breitbart that the case was without merit.
'We're going to trial,' said Pierce.
'We're going to win this case. If I'm the prosecutor, I drop these charges immediately.
'I think that this is a rush of judgment, and if I was the prosecutor, I would be terrified to take this case to trial.
'I do not believe that there's a jury in this country that's going to look at these facts and is going to find him guilty for murder.'
Pierce said at the time that Rittenhouse's case was 'absolute 100 percent self-defense, and we're going to prove it if we have to.'
He added: 'It was legal for him to possess that weapon in Wisconsin.'
Six of the 18 jurors who have heard the case were selected as alternates Tuesday morning and must remain in the courthouse while the remaining 12 deliberate in case they should be re-called
Defense attorney Mark Richards is pictured on Monday, during closing arguments
On Tuesday, Pierce said that he was confident his prediction over a year ago would stand.
'In a radio interview that I did on Breitbart just a few days after the shootings, I said that that charge should not have been brought, and that it was going to go away at some point,' he said.
On Monday, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the sixth charge, of unlawful possession of a firearm, as Pierce predicted.
'He was legally entitled to have that firearm with him,' he said.
Judge Bruce Schroeder on Monday ruled that it was legal for Rittenhouse to carry the weapon. He threw out the charge, saying the wording of the law is ambiguous and confusing for even the most seasoned professionals like him, let alone for ordinary citizens
'And it's just clear as day from the evidence, most powerfully from the hundreds of angles of video evidence, that it was absolute perfect self-defense.'
Pierce and Rittenhouse parted ways in December 2020, after questions were raised about his financial arrangements.
Wendy Rittenhouse, Kyle's mother, told The New Yorker she had concerns about the #FightBack Foundation, the group founded by Pierce.
'Kyle was John's ticket out of debt,' Wendy said of Pierce.
Wendy said she asked Pierce to return $40,000 in donated living expenses that she believed belonged to the family, a request she told the New Yorker he had refused.
'He said we owed him millions - he 'freed Kyle,'' she told the outlet.
The Rittenhouse family said they grew uncomfortable with Pierce, telling the New Yorker that he drank excessively in front of Wendy's kids, called Kyle's sister a 'raging liberal,' and charged the family for time spent shopping for a shirt to wear on Tucker Carlson's show.
Pierce is seen on Tucker Carlson's show in the fall of 2020, when he was representing Rittenhouse
In March, Wendy told the Law & Crime podcast: 'They used Kyle to gain money, gain Twitter followers.
'I felt now they didn't care about Kyle.'
Pierce now runs a private law firm and has founded the National Constitutional Law Union, or NCLU which he describes as 'the ACLU but for the rest of us.'
Protesters made their feelings known on Tuesday outside the courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin
He has vehemently denied misappropriating any funds donated to Rittenhouse's cause.
Pierce on Tuesday said he was confident Rittenhouse would be acquitted, despite the fact that he 'was defamed by pretty much every media outlet and lots of politicians and celebrities as being mass murderer and a white supremacist, which is ridiculous.'
Pierce added: 'The justice system, in many instances, is being weaponized for political purposes.
'I think that's one of the impacts that folks like George Soros have had in attempting to and being successful in installing many prosecutors throughout the country.'
Pierce praised Judge Schroeder, saying that he had impressed him with his no-nonsense manner.
Schroeder, 75, has frequently berated the prosecution and prevented them from bringing before the court detail they deemed relevant, such as Rittenhouse saying days before the shooting that he wanted to fire his gun at people.
'This judge is just unbelievably good,' Pierce said.
'He's just no bulls***, and he just goes by the law and, he is not going to be swayed one iota by anything happening outside the courtroom.'
On Tuesday the 12-person jury spent their first day deliberating the five charges.
If Rittenhouse is convicted, he faces the rest of his life behind bars. Many believe he will be acquitted, and the prosecution have even tried to lobby for watered-down convictions, in what is seen as a desperate bid to secure any type of conviction.
Wendy Rittenhouse this week also praised the judge, and said she was hopeful her son would be freed.
Former Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar migration fraud.
The Australian Federal Police announced it had arrested a 57-year-old man from the NSW Central Coast at his home in Terrigal, on the NSW central coast.
Thomson is alleged facilitated more than 130 fraudulent visa applications over four years, resulting in a $2 million windfall.
The visas related to workers in the food service and regional farm industries, said the AFP.
Former Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar migration fraud
He was charged with providing false documents and false or misleading information relating to non-citizens, and breaching restriction on charging fees for immigration assistance.
'The alleged offences in this matter involved the exploitation of Federal Government programs designed to assist Australian businesses, and it is incumbent on the AFP to investigate and prosecute instances of large-scale fraud against Australian taxpayers,' an AFP statement read.
The man is expected to appear before Gosford Local Court today.
Mr Thomson during his time in Parliament as the Federal members for Dobell on the NSW Central Coast
Former Labor MP Craig Thomson leaves the Melbourne Magistrates court with his wife Zoe in 2013. Police granted an apprehended violence order on Ms Arnold's behalf against Mr Thomson last week
News of the arrest follows an earlier development where NSW police secured a restraining order to protect the wife of Mr Thomson.
Zoe Arnold had defended him when he was found guilty of using trade union funds to pay for prostitutes.
Ms Arnold was Mr Thomson's third wife and by the time he was sentenced they had two daughters.
Police granted an apprehended violence order on Ms Arnold's behalf at Gosford Local Court on the New South Wales Central Coast on Monday.
The two-year AVO prevents 57-year-old Mr Thomson going anywhere Ms Arnold lives, works or to other places listed in the order.
Ms Arnold had provided a character reference for her husband to the court in 2014 in which she said mr Thomson was 'devoted to his family, his daughters and me'.'
'He has worked very hard every day as a private politician and as a private citizen, genuinely trying to make a positive impact on the local community,' the statement read.
The former member for Dobell, Mr Thomson was convicted on 65 charges of using Health Services Union funds for personal benefit in March 2014.
It was alleged Mr Thomson spent the money on prostitutes and restaurants during his time as the Health Services Union's national secretary between 2002 and 2007.
He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, with nine months of the sentence suspended over two years.
His conviction and sentence were later overturned on appeal, with Mr Thomson fined $25,00 and spared jail time after being found guilty on 13 counts of theft.
The fine related to the withdrawals of $5650 from ATMs using union credit cards, money he was not authorised to use on himself.
Mr Thomson was elected the member for Dobell on the Central Coast in 2007, taking the seat from the Liberal Party's Ken Ticehurst.
He moved to the cross bench in April 2012 after the credit card allegations arose but continued to protest his innocence.
After the scandal, Mr Thomson lost his seat in the 2013 Federal election. He was subsequently expelled from the Labor Party in 2014 and struck off as a practising lawyer in 2018.
Australian Border Force Assistant Commissioner East and Port Operations Erin Dale said the investigation was part of its effort to stop the exploitation of foreign workers.
'"Cash for visa" schemes as they are often known, target vulnerable visa holders who may not be aware of Australian laws and workplace entitlements,' Ms Dale said.
A transgender university professor in Virginia has been placed on leave after defending pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and saying they shouldn't be ostracized because they can't help their natural urges.
Dr. Allyn Walker, who goes by the pronouns they/them, was placed on leave by Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday after a swell of outrage over their remarks and views.
Walker has written a book that tries to destigmatize pedophilia. It encourages people to refer to pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and says they shouldn't be ostracized for their urges, which they can't help.
In a video to promote the book, Walker said: 'A lot of people when they hear the word pedophile, they automatically assume that means sex offender. That isn't true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions.'
They suggested pedophiles should be able to use childlike sex dolls to satisfy their urges and stop them from targeting actual children, and they 'didn't ask' to be sexually attracted to kids.
The remarks sparked outrage immediately, but the university at first refused to remove Walker from their post.
After a Change.org petition gathered nearly 4,000 signatures calling for their removal, the school changed course.
Walker, who uses the pronouns they/them, said in a recent online interview with the Prostasia Foundation, a child advocacy group that promotes child sex doll usage for pedophiles, that pedophiles did not ask to be sexually attracted to children
On Tuesday night, a spokesman said: 'Old Dominion University has placed Dr. Allyn Walker on administrative leave, effective immediately, from their position as assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice.'
Walker, a tenure-track assistant professor at Old Dominion, had penned a controversial book attempting to destigmatize pedophilia titled A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity, published by the University of California Press.
Walker's book which seeks to destigmatize pedophiles who he says shouldn't be ostracized because they can't help their desires
Walker, who uses the pronouns they/them, said in a recent online interview with the Prostasia Foundation, a child advocacy group that promotes child sex doll usage for pedophiles, that pedophiles did not ask to be sexually attracted to children.
Kennedy said that the online backlash had led to concerns for Walker's safety and that of the campus, and placing them on leave was the best course of action.
'Furthermore, the controversy over Dr. Walker's research has disrupted the campus and community environment and is interfering with the institution's mission of teaching and learning, she said.
Old Dominion's president also issued a statement clarifying that the university did not condone any type of sexual abuse against children.
'I want to state in the strongest terms possible that child sexual abuse is morally wrong and has no place in our society,' President Brian Hemphill said.
'This is a challenging time for our University, but I am confident that we will come together and move forward as a Monarch family.'
In their interview, Walker said there is no 'morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone' because 'no one can control who they're attracted to'.
'In other words, it's not who we're attracted to that's either OK or not OK. It's our behaviors in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.'
Old Dominion had initially rejected the clamor to remove Walker, only distancing itself from the comments and saying it 'does not endorse or promote crimes against children'
A Change.org petition calling for Walker's removal from the school's staff amassed more than 3,907 signatures before the university took action
'Pedophiles do not deserve sympathy or a platform of any sort,' wrote petition backer Kimberly Price
An online petition calling for Walker to be fired attracted thousands of signatures as of Tuesday, with current students at the college branding their remarks 'gross' and 'weird.' Since it was launched three days ago, the professor has deleted their Twitter account.
Before Old Dominion announced plans to place Walker on leave, an alumni said they were 'disgusted' at the university's decision to 'protect someone that is an advocate for pedophiles.'
A Change.org petition calling for Walker's removal from the school's staff amassed more than 3,907 signatures before the university took action.
'Pedophiles do not deserve sympathy or a platform of any sort,' wrote petition backer Kimberly Price.
'They thrive off power structures. Giving them the opportunity to be seen and heard will only put more children in danger. This person does not deserve to teach if this is their ideals.'
Walker later clarified that child sex abuse is 'never, ever OK' but said sexual urges toward minors are not necessarily immoral, as long as they are not acted upon.
They said the term 'minor-attracted persons' will help destigmatize people who do not act upon their urges.
They continued: 'We have a tendency to want to categorize people with these attractions as evil or morally corrupt.
Walker earned their PhD at CUNY Graduate Center in 2017, according to the university's website, and specializes in mental health, court systems, queer criminology and 'resilience to offending'
Walker would rather people referred to pedophiles as 'minor attracted' people
'But when we're talking about non-offending MAPs, these are people who have an attraction they didn't ask for.
'So, their behaviors are moral. But they're still being subjected to this same idea that they're bad people and they've often internalized that for themselves.'
Walker's book, published in June, gives voice to 'non-offending MAPs' and consists primarily of interviews with self-identified pedophiles and vignettes from their lives, according to the book's description online.
Walker's PhD thesis, titled 'Understanding Resilience Strategies among Minor-Attracted Individuals' takes another shocking stance on the treatment of pedophilia, arguing that pedophiles should be permitted to view child pornography as a 'harm reduction technique' or 'form of therapy' to help pedophiles 'maintain abstinence from sexual contact with children.'
'Among some groups of predisposed individuals, easy access to a wide variety of engrossing and high-quality child pornography could serve as a substitute for involvement with actual victims,' Walker wrote.
Criminologist Evin Daly, CEO of Florida-based child advocacy agency One Child International Inc., told DailyMail.com that he felt 'the professor would be smart to readdress the terminology that they are using.'
'There is no de-stigmatization of people who are sexually attracted to children,' he said.
'Their overall theory is correct, their wish to redefine pedophiles is correct there's a difference between fantasy and behavior. But their terminology is leaning in a way that is trying to destigmatize pedophilia - how do you destigmatize wanting to have sex with children?'
'Any sexual activity with children is rape. That's like calling an adult rapist who rapes women by some soft and gentle term.'
Walker's PhD thesis, excerpted above, takes another shocking stance on the treatment of pedophilia, arguing that pedophiles should be permitted to view child pornography as a 'harm reduction technique'
Viewing 'engrossing and high-quality child pornography,' Walker argued, is a viable method to help those attracted to children 'maintain abstinence from sexual contact with children'
As for Walker's graduate thesis, Daly didn't mince words.
'They speak about child pornography as if it's some abstract idea. It isn't,' Daly told DailyMail.com
'The generation of child pornography is a crime... Discussing viewing it even in a intellectual way is discussing how a crime will benefit a criminal - viewing it is a crime as I have said. Even conducting research would involve a crime as described.'
Walker's comments were met with immense backlash after being shared on social media.
'We do not need to change the 'terminology' for pedophiles, read Dr. Walker's book, or receive lessons about giving 'pedophiles dignity,' Mikiah Everett, who identified as an ODU alumnus, said before Walker was placed on leave.
A slurry of Twitter users were baffled and appalled by Walker's stance:
'Allyn Walker [thinks] it's okay to be sexually attracted to minors as long as you don't act on it,' wrote @DJDeMario1.
'This psycho must be fired and committed. Sick.'
'You've got an open pedophile pos working in your school, @ODU,' wrote @SaveTeamCasey. 'Allyn Walker promoting sexual attraction to kids... Do something.'
Another user posted a picture of the professor defending their thesis, standing beside a PowerPoint presentation with the work's title: 'Understanding Resilience Strategies among Minor-Attracted Individuals.'
User @ConceptualJames renamed the presentation: 'Understanding groomers and the direct connections between Queer Theory, 'comprehensive sex education,' pedophilia, and grooming in government and private schools.'
Texas Senator Ted Cruz also waded into the debate, saying: 'Holy c***. What the hell is wrong with ODU?'
Texas Senator Ted Cruz waded into the debate, saying: 'Holy c***. What the hell is wrong with ODU?' before the university placed Walker on leave
A slurry of Twitter users were baffled and appalled by Walker's stance, and called for their resignation. Walker was placed on leave on Tuesday
User @ConceptualJames renamed Walker's presentation: 'Understanding groomers and the direct connections between Queer Theory, 'comprehensive sex education,' pedophilia, and grooming in government and private schools'
The professor put out a statement Saturday along with the Old Dominion University in a bid to clarify the controversial remarks.
Walker said: 'I want to be clear: child sexual abuse is an inexcusable crime.
'As an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, the goal of my research is to prevent crime.
'I embarked on this research in hopes of gaining understanding of a group that, previously, has not been studied in order to identify ways to protect children.'
The professor said they had counselled victims of sexual violence, which had helped form their views.
Walker has taught at Old Dominion since 2019 and some students said they were disturbed by the comments.
Jaelan Jackson told WTKR: 'Honestly it just sounds gross. Just because you're not acting on it, to acknowledge it is weird and not okay at all. It feels uncomfortable to know that someone's like that on campus.'
Jonathan Mukmuye added: 'I don't think that it reflects poorly on the school, but I do think it's weird that we have a professor that would think that.'
An Australian surfer who nearly lost his leg during a shark has opened up about the horror attack and shared insight into his long road journey to walk and surf again.
Brett Connellan was just 22 when he was mauled by a shark 100m from the shore on March 30, 2016.
He had been surfing at Bombo Beach in the coastal NSW town of Kiama when the beast lunged at him shortly after 7pm, taking three-quarters of his thigh with it.
Brett Connellan (pictured) was just 22 when he was surfing at Bombo Beach in the coastal NSW town of Kiama shortly after 7pm on March 30, 2016, and was mauled by a shark 100m from the shore
His quick thinking friend Joel Trist, a professional surfer, stopped him from bleeding to death as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
Mr Connellan was flown by helicopter to Sydney's St. George Hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries before being placed in an induced coma.
When the surfer finally woke up, doctors told him he might never walk again.
Now, Mr Connellan is sharing his story of strength and recovery and has released a sneak preview of his enthralling feature documentary titled 'Pyrophytic'.
The trailer showed gruesome flashback scenes of the 2016 shark attack in black and white images.
When the surfer finally awoke after multiple surgeries, doctors told him he might never walk again
'I never wanted to be defined by the incident or remembered as the guy that got attacked by a shark,' he said.
'I wanna be remembered for what I did afterwards.'
The sneak peek into the film then showed a close-up of Mr Connellan's thigh and the scars left behind from the attack, as well as footage of Mr Connellan training hard at the gym, using a rowing machine and lifting weights on his inspiring road to recovery.
The sneak peek into the film then showed a close-up of Mr Connellan's thigh and the scars left behind from the attack
Medical professionals were amazed by Mr Connellan's determination as he exceeded their expectations in his second chance at life
The trailer also featured the surfer catching huge waves at the beach as Mr Connellan showed off his passion.
Medical professionals were amazed by Mr Connellan's determination as he exceeded their expectations in his second chance at life.
'The biggest issue that we had with Brett I think was trying to slow him down,' Mr Conellan's doctor said in the trailer.
The teaser featured more scenes of the surfer at the beach facing massive waves as well as more clips from his training regime at the gym.
Mr Connellan admitted that maybe he would have to live with wearing a brace, but then a massive breakthrough happened for the surfer where he realised he could be able to surf again
Mr Connellan admitted that maybe he would have to live with wearing a brace for the rest of his life.
'I started off thinking, walking with a brace was as good as it was going to get,' he said.
But then a massive breakthrough happened for the surfer where he realised he could be able to take to the ocean again with his surfboard.
Honest Boys Production said the result of the film created 'is an inspiring celebration of Brett's unwavering determination to be better'
'And then it becomes well ok, how far can I push myself now?' Mr Connellan said as he is captured standing tall at dawn on a hill overlooking the beach.
Honest Boys Production, who produced the documentary feature, said the result of the film created 'is an inspiring celebration of Brett's unwavering determination to be better, encouraging viewers to look at their own situation with a fresh perspective.'
The inspirational film Pyrophytic is set to be released in late 2022.
UK gas prices jumped 17 per cent in a day after two more energy firms collapsed, with consumers now being warned to brace for bills soaring by 475-a-year amid new fears about European supplies.
Concerns of a winter energy crisis were renewed on Tuesday after a German energy regulator suspended approval for a pipeline that would carry Russian gas directly across the Baltic to Germany and wider Europe.
Construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was delayed by United States sanctions and is strongly opposed by many European countries who believe it is designed to freeze Ukraine out of transit fees for shipping Russian gas.
The delay came hours after Boris Johnson told the EU it must choose between Ukraine's freedom or buying gas from Moscow when he linked the 9 billion pipeline project to growing tensions in the East.
Wholesale prices subsequently shot up across Europe amid worries Russia will not increase deliveries of gas via alternative routes if the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is blocked.
Wholesale gas in Britain was worth around 60p per therm at the start of 2021, but that figure reached 240p per therm on Tuesday.
It remains below the record of 350p set in early October.
The 750-mile Nordic Stream 2 pipeline would carry Russian gas directly across the Baltic to Germany and wider Europe
Map showing points of origin and destination of the Nord Stream pipe (solid line) and Nord Stream 2 pipeline (dotted line) between Russia and Germany. Putin hoped Nord Stream 2 would be finished two years ago, allowing Russia to bypass Ukraine in the south, which carries 50% of gas from Russia out via Poland
There are further fears, too, that the surge will send more fragile energy suppliers to the brink within weeks and pile pressure on heavy industry already feeling the strain.
Two more small suppliers Neon Reef and Social Energy Supply, with a combined 35,000 customers collapsed after the price hike.
Leading trader Trafigura has claimed Europe could face 'rolling blackouts' over the winter months due to a gas shortage.
German officials have said the suspension was temporary and the decision was seen as a technical, rather than political, one.
Although Nord Stream 2 is led by Russias Gazprom, Germanys Federal Network Agency (FNA) said the Swiss-based consortium running the European end of the project would need to form a company under German law to obtain an operating licence.
It comes after Western politicians including Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Moscow of using the pipeline to deprive Europe of much-needed gas supplies and drive prices to record highs.
Russia has also been accused of reducing supplies through existing routes as part of attempts to pressure Germany into granting approval.
Despite fears, though, Mr Johnson maintained the UK's opposition to the pipeline citing concerns it 'would have significant security implications for the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of using the pipeline issues to deprive Europe of much-needed gas
German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Regulators suspended approval for the pipeline on Tuesday
The price hike is also understood to have been driven by a reduction in flows of Norwegian gas into the UK due to an outage at the Troll gas field.
Analysts at Energyhelpline said if the prices seen on Tuesday were to continue until February, the UK energy regulator Ofgem could raise the cap on household bills on standard tariffs by 475.
This would take it from the current level of 1,277 to 1,752.
The 750-mile Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed in September, but is still awaiting regulatory approval.
If given the green light, it would double Russia's gas export capacity to central Europe, whole also enabling Moscow to bypass Ukraine.
Although the UK does not import much gas directly from Russia, it receives a lot from Europe which gets around 40 per cent of its supplies from Russia.
Prices in Britain ballooned further after a fire at a subsea power cable with France shut off more electricity from the continent in September.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the EU it must choose between Ukraine's freedom or buying gas
The sky-high prices have been seen most profoundly in the UK through the sudden collapse of a string of small energy suppliers with more than 20 going bust since the start of September.
Sam Peek, analyst at Cornwall Insight, said prices could keep climbing into next week if there is cold weather and periods of low wind.
With Mr Wallace visiting Ukraine, Downing Street has said the Government will continue to speak to European allies and Kiev over the pipeline.
Ukraine currently hosts the largest existing pipeline for Russian gas and transit fees have historically made up a large proportion of their GDP so Nord Stream 2 would divert supplies from the Ukraine that would have significant consequences for its economy, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said.
And it could also have significant security implications and the transit of Russian gas through the Ukraine is largely seen as a deterrent against further Russian aggression.
Hong Kong authorities have seized more than 1800kg of live lobsters and sea cucumbers believed to be bound for mainland China, months after Beijing restricted imports of the crustaceans from Australia amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
Hong Kong Customs said in a statement it had seized 890kg of live lobsters and 930kg of sea cucumbers, with a total estimated value of $1.8 million during the operation on Monday.
Two men, aged 40 and 45 suspected to be connected to the case were also arrested, the statement added.
Hong Kong Customs seized 890kg of live lobsters and 930kg of sea cucumbers, with a total estimated value of $1.8 million on Monday (pictured)
The seizures come after a recent surge in the import volume of Australian lobsters to Hong Kong following China's imposition of an unofficial ban on imports late last year.
Lobsters are considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, and China had previously accounted for more than 90 per cent of Australia's lobster exports.
The origin of the smuggled goods are still under investigation as the boxes seized were not labelled, according to Lui Siu-fai, the divisional commander of the customs' Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau.
'I believe that most of the smuggled goods were (to be) shipped to mainland China,' he said during a news conference yesterday.
The customs' seizure of lobster comes weeks after a similar anti-smuggling operation last month saw authorities seize 5300kg of Australian lobster worth about $740,000 and arrest 13 people suspected to be connected to the case.
Officials said monthly imports of Australian lobster to Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese city south of the Chinese mainland, have since more than doubled following the ban.
Two men, aged 40 and 45 suspected to be connected to the case were arrested by Hong Kong authorities (pictured, a suspect smuggler is escorted by officers from Hong Kong Customs)
China's lobster ban came after the Australian Government pushed for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. China has since blocked trade on other Australian imports, such as wine, barley, cotton and coal.
Last month Hong Kong's new Customs chief declared Australian rock lobsters smuggled into mainland China posed a national security threat for the rising superpower.
Louise Ho, the territory's new Customs commissioner, pledged to crack down on the smuggling of the crustaceans.
The grieving family of a Melbourne rapper say he was turning his troubled life around before he was gunned down inside his own home in a 'senseless act of violence'.
Chris Habiyakare, 24, was with friends at his Sunshine North home in Melbourne's west on August 24 when he was confronted by a group of armed male intruders who forced their way into the home.
Mr Habiyakare was shot during an altercation with the group before they fled and drove off in at least one vehicle.
A manhunt is now underway for two men homicide detectives wish to speak to as Mr Habiyakare's heartbroken father and stepmother opened up about the devastating effect his death had on his younger siblings.
Melbourne rapper Chris Habiyakare (pictured) was turning his life around and had reconnected with his family before his life was abruptly cut short
Belthrand Habiyakare broke down while revealing how his eldest son, who was born in a Tanzanian refugee camp struggled with drugs and crime in the years before his death.
Mr Habiyakare recently turned a corner and was on better terms with his family when his life was abruptly cut short.
'Life became so rocky that at some point I realised he was going to die, and I went into a depression,' Belthrand said.
'I lost hope and then slowly he started growing and he realised his problems, realised he needed to do something about them.
'When I had some hope ... he started repenting, calling us and apologising every week, and then all of a sudden his life ended.'
He said his son's death had left him heartbroken and defeated and Mr Habiyakare's siblings were struggling to come to terms with his death.
'This event has broken me down into small pieces and I don't know how I'm going to put them back together,' he said.
'The saddest part is that, when I'm trying to reconstruct myself and make myself whole again, I see my other children crying, isolated and depressed.'
'There is not a single moment in my wildest dreams that I thought my eldest son would be tragically taken away from the very family to which he had vowed to dedicate himself.'
Chris Habiyakare's stepmother Aline (left) and father Belthrand (right) wiped away tears as they opened up about his troubled past
Chris Habiyakare (pictured) was shot dead during an altercation with a group of males at his Sunshine North home on August 24
Mr Habiyakare wants to know what happened to his beloved son, whom he described as 'the joy of my life for a long time.'
'I am a Christian, therefore inclined to forgive but I can only forgive once I know the whole truth,' he said.
'Whoever did it, come forward and say why you did it. I can't even sleep, I'm always on the lookout because I don't know who did it. It means I am constantly wondering if they are coming for my other sons and it is very heavy.'
Mr Habiyakare answered a knock on the door when group of men armed with a range of weapons, including a gun, forced their way into the Essex Street house.
Two men and three women visiting Mr Habiyakare at the time fled outside with one woman forced to smash a window to escape.
Police said a fight occurred between Mr Habiyakare and the group of men and he was shot, before the men drove off.
One of the friends who was visiting Habiyakare called triple-0 before commencing CPR.
Habiyakare died at the scene, despite desperate attempts to revive him.
Three months on, Homicide Squad detectives have released photos of two males they would like speak to as part of their inquiries.
Detective Inspector Tim Day said 'significant' amounts of cash and drugs were found at the property, with a drug debt being looked at as a motive for the targeted killing.
He added Habiyakare was known to police and had a history involving drugs.
Aspiring rapper Chris Habiyakare (pictured) was born in a refugee camp
'Chris' death was a senseless act of violence by some callous miscreant who was intent on doing harm to him over a debt or some other issue,' he said.
'They used a firearm on a defenceless human being.'
He said there was no doubt that the intruders were after Mr Habiyakare and not his friends.
'It's clear that the person who shot Chris, intended to kill Chris,' he said.
Police are calling for two men in particular to come forward, one of which Det Insp Day said 'may have been the one to pull the trigger'.
Investigators believe the shooting was a targeted incident but are yet to establish an exact motive.
Det Insp Day confirmed a fight at the house three days earlier August 21 may be linked to the shooting.
'At this stage one of the lines of enquiry is determining if there are any links between this and the subsequent fatal shooting,' an earlier police statement read.
'At this stage this is only one, but a very important, line of enquiry for police.'
Homicide detectives have released images of two men (pictured) they would like to speak to
Chris Habiyakare's shattered stepmother Aline Habiyakare (left) and father Belthrand (right) joined police in a public appeal to track down his killers
Detectives are keen to speak to anyone who might know these men and are also appealing for the men themselves to come forward.
They're also keen to speak to anyone else who may have knowledge of the incidents or the circumstances leading up to the shooting.
While a significant CCTV canvas of the vicinity has already been conducted, police urge anyone with additional footage between 5pm and 10pm on the night of August 24 to come forward.
Habiyakare went by the rap name Lyr1cur7 and had just started gaining traction in the Australian hip-hop scene, with a freestyle released last year notching up a million views on YouTube.
Dozens of double vaccinated Australians are still unable to get home because of an 'utterly insane' government rule.
Australians are once again free to return home and travel the world as long as they are fully immunised against Covid-19, however an age limit imposed on a Chinese vaccine is causing significant problems.
The Sinopharm jab, a state-owned and manufactured jab, is the second most used in China and is recognised by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration - but only for people aged between 18 and 60.
That decision has left several Aussies, including Marijke and Steven Smit, stranded in overseas faced with a lack of available hotel quarantine for supposedly 'unvaccinated' travellers.
'It's incredibly difficult being stuck in a country and basically having to deal with a very illogical argument that you can't be considered vaccinated because you're over 60,' Ms Smit told Nine News.
'It's just utterly insane.'
Marijke and Steven Smit are stranded in China unable to find a flight to come home because they are not recognised as vaccinated by the Australian government
Dozens of double vaccinted Australians are still unable to get home because of an 'utterly insane' stipulation in the government's new rules
The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved by 68 countries and for emergency use by the World Health Organisation.
The Chinese state jab is recognised by the USA, UK and New Zealand for travel without age limits, however Australia bans vaccinated people under 18 and above 60 from entering.
Retiree Judy Smith, who is also stranded in Sri Lanka, said she was hoping to come home to see her grandchildren but instead has to wait for further legislation.
'What I really want to get across is the disappointment, the rug being pulled out from under us,' she said.
'We're in a worse situation than we were two weeks ago and the government's just not offering us any hope at all.'
According to WHO, the Sinopharm jab offers 'slightly lower' protection against severe illness and hospitalisation than the Australian vaccines of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna.
Retiree Judy Smith (pictured), who is stranded in Sri Lanka, said she was hoping to come home to see her grandchildren but instead has to wait for further legislation
There have been increased outbreaks in countries vaccinated with the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, including Bahrain and Seychelles
That is a result of the Chinese-led trial that was 'not designed and powered to demonstrate efficacy against severe disease in persons with comorbidities, in pregnancy, or in persons aged 60 years and above'.
There have been large outbreaks in countries vaccinated with the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, including Bahrain and Seychelles.
The result means the Smits and Judy Smith are forced to remain overseas until that mandate changes or they are immunised with other vaccines.
Mrs Smit said they are having significant trouble booking flights home, aside from paying for hotel quarantine, because there are an extremely limited number of flights for the unvaccinated - despite the fact they are double jabbed.
'Since Sydney has opened up it only has 200 places. It's close to impossible to get tickets,' she said.
'I simply cannot. I've looked, believe me, I've looked at tickets, and I just cannot get anything in the next two, three, four months.
'It's literally and then, you know, at the moment, flights have two or three seats for unvaccinated people.'
The McCloskeys, who made headlines last year when they aimed guns at BLM protesters on their lawn, posed for photos on Tuesday outside the Wisconsin courthouse where Kyle Rittenhouse stands trial, with two people flashing the 'OK' sign - which has been associated with white supremacists.
Mark McCloskey, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Missouri, and his wife, Patricia, were at the Kenosha courthouse for a second straight day to show support for Rittenhouse.
They were among a group of people outside the courthouse, some in support of Rittenhouse and others opposed, who began to gather Monday during closing arguments.
The couple gained national attention after they waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who were marching in their gated St. Louis neighborhood last summer.
There were dozens of people outside the courthouse by Tuesday as the jury spent all day deliberating the case before ending the day around 6pm without reaching a verdict.
While there, McCloskey was photographed standing next to two men with their thumb and index finger forming an O with the three other fingers splayed out.
The symbol is widely regarded as a white supremacy sign, but it also means OK, which white supremacists hide behind.
Mark McCloskey, center, and Patricia McCloskey, left, posed for pictures with supporters flashing the 'OK' symbol, associated with white supremacy, outside the Kenosha County Courthouse as the jury deliberated in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Tuesday
The McCloskeys gained notoriety after they waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who were marching in their gated St. Louis neighborhood last summer
The McCloskeys were seen among a group of people showing their support for Rittenhouse, who faces murder charges for killing two men at a Black Lives Matter rally in Kenosha on August 25, 2020. He argues he acted in self defense.
McCloskey reportedly had a 'Mark McCloskey for US Senate' sign hanging from his SUV on Tuesday.
When he was asked by CNN Correspondent Sara Sidner why he came to the courthouse from Missouri, he said: 'We are just here to support people's Second Amendment rights and defend themselves, especially when the government abdicates that duty and fails to protect its citizens.
'We have programs to defund the police all over the place, but you defund the police, and the government is not there to protect citizens, then citizens must protect themselves,' he explained.
McCloskey also reportedly compared himself to Rittenhouse, saying they have both been prosecuted and were defending themselves from an 'angry mob.'
In June, the McCloskeys pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges after they waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching through their neighborhood.
They were ordered to pay fines, but Mark McCloskey left the courthouse defiantly pledging to 'do it again' if faced with the same circumstances. Both McCloskeys were pardoned by Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.
Mark, a Republican, announced in May that he was running for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Roy Blunt, a Republican.
He said he hopes the jury finds Rittenhouse not guilty.
Mark McCloskey was one of the dozens of people outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, with some expressing their support for Rittenhouse, as others chanted 'Black Lives Matter'
He and Patricia were seen posing for pictures with supporters, as he runs for US Senate
McCloskey told a reporter he was at the court house to show his support for people's Second Amendment rights and the right to defend themselves
The Mccloskeys just showed up outside the #KyleRittenhousetrial court. They are from Missouri so you may ask why the couple famous for pointing guns at protestors walking near their home are here in Wisconsin? All you have to do is look at the car they are in. POLITICS. pic.twitter.com/5LIsgyCc5h Sara Sidner (@sarasidnerCNN) November 16, 2021
But the McCloskeys were just some of the dozens of protesters who eagerly awaited the results of the trial on Tuesday.
A group of Black Lives Matter protesters chanted 'No justice, no peace' and 'Black Lives Matter' as the jury deliberated inside, and at the center, Kenosha News reports, was Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake, whose death at the hands of police officers last year sparked nationwide protests.
The pro-Black Lives Matter protesters reportedly called Rittenhouse a 'bigot' and set up a 'selfie station' with a cardboard cutout of Rittenhouse holding up the OK sign, which he was pictured doing in January. The judge in his case ruled in September against allowing that to be discussed during Rittenhouse's trial.
Clyde McLemore, founder of Black Lives Matter North Chicago, also argued with Patricia McCloskey as her husband gave an interview
Meanwhile, a woman was also seen holding up two cardboard signs that read 'Self-defense is not a crime' and 'BLM and Antifa are here 2 intimidate,' while others waved flags saying 'Let's Go Brandon,' a euphemism for 'F*** Joe Biden.'
And across the street, at Civic Center Park, a woman who identified herself to Kenosha News as CGW, for Chocolate Goddess Warrior, got into an argument with a white man after she accused the McCloskeys of being white supremacists.
The man reportedly yelled back about the high murder rate in Chicago, to which the woman responded, 'When black people commit crimes, they go to prison,' noting she believes Rittenhouse should go to prison as well.
But no violence broke out outside the courthouse, Kenosha News reports, with one local Black Lives Matter organizer calling for 'being peaceful in the street today.
'We can't have infiltrators coming in and agitating,' Xavier Simmons said.
He noted that he was there 'for justice for Anthony Huber and Jojo (Joseph Rosenbaum) and the other victim, Gaige (Grosskreutz).'
Clyde McLemore, founder of Black Lives Matter North Chicago, argued with Patricia McCloskey as her husband gave an interview
A man showing his support for Rittenhouse held a 'Let's Go Brandon' flag
The crowds formed as the jury, which was randomly drawn by Rittenhouse on Tuesday, deliberated inside the courthouse.
Rittenhouse faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber when he was just 17 years old.
In his closing arguments on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger tried to paint Rittenhouse as an outsider who came to Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020 to shoot down protesters who took to the streets following the fatal police shooting of Jacob Blake.
He tried to portray Rittenhouse as an active shooter and claimed people in the crowd had the right to stop him.
He also claimed Rittenhouse was looking for the 'thrill' of telling people what to do, 'running around with an AR-15' with 'neither the honor nor the legal right to do so.'
'These guys with the AR-15s are just wannabe soldiers acting tough, trying to manufacture some personal connection to this event, furthering their own personal agenda,' Binger argued, 'just a small part of the deluge of chaos tourists we saw here in Kenosha trying to feed off of what we were going through, despite everything we did to try and tell them, go away, stay out.'
He focused largely on Rittenhouse's actions that night, trying to counter Rittenhouse's assertions that Rosenbaum was causing trouble all night, swinging a chain, demanding people shoot him, spewing racial slurs and setting fires.
He described Rosenbaum as a small man, at 5-foot-4, with a 'Napoleon complex,' but was harmless.
'Oh, let me tell you all the awful things Joseph Rosenbaum did,' the prosecutor said.
'He tipped over a Port-a-Potty that had no one in it. He swung a chain. He lit a . . . Dumpster on fire . . . Oh, and he said some bad words. He said the N-word,' Binger claimed.
'If he were alive today . . . I'd probably try and prosecute him for arson. But I can't because the defendant killed him.
'But that's the way we deal with people that do these things. When you commit arson, we prosecute you. We don't execute you in the street.'
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger tried to paint Rittenhouse as a teenager looking for the 'thrill' of telling people what to do, 'running around with an AR-15' with 'neither the honor nor the legal right to do so'
Rittenhouse faces life in prison if convicted of murder in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26
Attorneys for Rittenhouse, meanwhile, claimed he was acting in self-defense when he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gage Grosskreutz, 27.
Mark Richards, the attorney representing Rittenhouse in the trial, claimed Rosenbaum was 'irrational and crazy.'
He said Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse down until he had him cornered. If Rosenbaum had taken Rittenhouse's gun from him he would have shot others, Richards said.
'Mr. Rosenbaum made a fatal mistake that day, chasing Kyle Rittenhouse into the corner,' Richards argued.
'He ran as far as he could, and he shot, four times in three-quarters of a second
'I'm glad [Rittenhouse] shot him because if Joseph Rosenbaum got that gun I don't for a minute believe he wouldn't have used it against somebody else,' he added. 'Mr. Rosenbaum was hell-bent on causing trouble that night.'
The jury has not reached a verdict in the case as of Tuesday night.
Fox News host Jesse Watters implied that Biden may be considering removing Kamala Harris as Vice President after he said his network had heard 'whispers' of confirmation hearings in Congress.
'Our Capitol Hill Correspondent Chad Pergram tells us he's been hearing whispers suggesting there could be some new high-profile confirmation hearings on the horizon in the House of Representatives,' said Watters during the segment.
'Why is this a big deal? Because the house does not confirm normal nominees. But it does confirm vice-presidential nominees. Does this have something to do with Kamala Harris? It's been no secret she's been running out of favor with the Biden team,' he added.
The host touched on reports over the weekend that the Biden-Harris post-election bliss, had worn out as aides became frustrated with her awkward laugh, 'dysfunction and lack of focus,' and low approval rate of just 28 percent.
On Monday, Biden and Harris put up a united front when they stepped out of the White House together to sign the president's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, after a CNN article on Sunday claimed that their relationship had soured.
Pergram claimed he had been tipped by an email from a 'source,' but did not elaborate further.
'Our Capitol Hill Correspondent Chad Pergram tells us he's been hearing whispers suggesting there could be some new high-profile confirmation hearings on the horizon in the House of Representatives,' said Jesse Watters during the segment
'So I got a message recently from someone who knows Capitol Hill very well and they suggested I should familiarize myself with the process to confirm a vacancy for the vice president in the Senate and in the House,' Fox Capitol hill Correspondent Chad Pergram claimed
On Monday, Biden and Harris had to put up a united front when they stepped together out of the White House to sign the president's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, after a CNN article on Sunday claimed that their relationship had soured
The host touched on reports over the weekend that the Biden-Harris post-election bliss had worn out due to Kamala's awkward laugh, 'dysfunction and lack of focus,' and low approval rate of just 28 percent. 'It's been no secret she's been running out of favor with the Biden team,' Watters said
'There is a lot of conjecture right now about the future of Vice President Harris and her lagging poll numbers,' Pergram said after Watters welcomed him on the segment.
'So I got a message recently from someone who knows Capitol Hill very well and they suggested I should familiarize myself with the process to confirm a vacancy for the vice president in the Senate and in the House,' Pergram added.
He also mentioned that Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who served under President Ford, was the last vice president confirmed by Congress.
According to the Constitution, a sitting vice president can only be removed from office if they die, resign, or are impeached and convicted - in which case, Congress would confirm a successor.
The reported growing animosity between the President and Harris could not be sufficient for Harris to be removed from office, but if tensions remain, Biden could ditch Harris if he runs for re-election in 2024.
Pergram also appeared on Fox Radio's 'All-Panel Podcast', to talk about the 'whispers' on Capitol Hill that there could be new high-profile confirmation hearings.
Also on Tuesday, the hosts of Fox's 'The Five' discussed rumors that Kamala would be replaced.
Host Dana Perino mentioned an unusual process to confirm a new vice president in the middle of a term, although it has more commonly been used when a president dies and the VP ascends to the presidency - leaving their office vacant - or when the VP themselves die.
'And here is what I know to be true, Mr. President, you are equal parts believer and builder. 'And because you are, we are all better off. On behalf of our nation, thank you Mr. President,' Harris said
'This is one of those things where the White House is expected you to not believe what you're seeing,' Perino said.
'You can tell there's a problem here. We know it. They called a cabinet meeting for the first time in three months last Friday on the day when Kamala Harris was not even in the country,' she added.
Host Greg Gutfeld also jumped in the discussion and said that Biden and Harris seemed like 'a couple who have split and they're trying to behave in front of the children.'
'They're still going to share the house. ''We won't tell the children yet, and we are going to keep smiling, and we are going to the PTA meetings,' he said.
Watters then touched on the democratic party's uncertain future.
'Joe is going to be 82 when he runs for re-election, his disapproval is probably going to be at 82. He was supposed to be the bridge to the new generation, he is a bridge to nowhere. Kamala is DOA, that leaves mayor Pete. He's 5'6'', blacks don't like him,' the host said.
According to CNN, Harris' aides complain that she has been set up to fail, and handed a portfolio that is not commensurate with her historic status as the first woman, and first woman of color, to hold the vice president's office.
In contrast, they say the president has been more vigorous in defending Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
'They're consistently sending her out there on losing issues in the wrong situations for her skill set,' said a former high-level Harris aide.
Biden and Harris appeared together for the signing of the trillion dollar infrastructure bill
Her aides also complain that on the issues that she has been given control over - such as the border crisis - she doesn't have White House backing to follow through.
At the same time, Biden's staff are privately disappointed with Harris over self-inflicted controversies, like her 'awkward' laughter when asked about visiting the border by NBC's Lester Holt.
On Monday however, Harris lavished praise on Biden, thanking him for the work he did to secure a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. They walked out onto the South Lawn together in a show of unity before hugging in front of about 800 guests.
Harris then walked to the podium to begin her speech when the announcer appeared to skip her and said: 'Please welcome Heather Kurtenbach.'
'In a moment,' Kamala responded with a laugh. Hours earlier, a string of insiders told CNN Biden was distancing himself from Harris because of her sliding poll numbers while the VP felt isolated.
Officials tried to shrug off the claims during the day, and Harris offered her boss the thanks of a grateful nation.
'From the very start you welcomed Democrats, independents and Republicans to meet with us in the Oval Office. You welcomed ideas. You welcomed debate, all in the service of getting this bill done,' said Harris before Biden signed the bill into law.
'And here is what I know to be true, Mr. President, you are equal parts believer and builder.
'And because you are, we are all better off. On behalf of our nation, thank you Mr. President.
A three-week-old baby girl is one of eight new Covid-19 cases found in the Northern Territory as the chief minister warns the virus may 'take lives' by the end of the year.
The total cluster in the territory is now at 19 with all new infections recorded in Aboriginal Australians and in household contacts of known cases.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said five of the new cases were detected in the remote community of Robinson River, including a 12-year-old girl.
Both Robinson River and Katherine have been locked down and will remain under stay-at-home orders until next Monday.
A three-week-old baby girl is one of eight new Covid-19 cases found in the Northern Territory
'The situation of both Robinson River and Katherine is serious,' Mr Gunner said on Wednesday.
'We know how quickly Delta can spread within households, and we cannot be sure yet that it has not spread further into the Robinson River and Katherine communities, or wider in the Territory.'
He urged those in the state to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
'If you waited because you didn't think Covid would get here, it's here,' he said.
'If you waited because you didn't think Covid was serious, you're wrong. It's killed 5.1 million people in the world.
'I fear it will take lives in the territory before the year is out.'
The Northern Territory has not suffered any deaths as a result of the pandemic.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he feared the virus would 'take lives' in the territory by the end of the year
Anyone who has been in Robinson River since November 11 must get tested and isolate until given a negative result.
The same direction applies to anyone who was in Katherine from November 7.
All residents in the Northern Territory will also have to follow mask mandates.
Katherine and Robinson River were both thrown into lockdown on Monday after two residents tested positive to the virus.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy on Tuesday revealed her unvaccinated 30-year-old sister was one of the new cases that sent the towns under stay-at-home orders.
'I'd like to say a personal message and that is that to my sister, who is the source of the Covid infection in Robinson River, our thoughts and prayers are with her and our family,' she told reporters.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy's (pictured) unvaccinated 30-year-old sister and a 43-year-old Aboriginal man tested positive to the virus on Monday, sending Greater Katherine and Robinson River into a snap three-day lockdown
She also addressed some of the criticism she had seen by online trolls and encouraged residents to get vaccinated.
'The messages by people across Australia, negative messages in terms of social media that have discouraged people in particular First Nations people from vaccinating is completely disgraceful,' she said.
'It doesn't help. It never has helped and I would certainly encourage people to not listen to those messages as I have been, since this pandemic began.'
Health teams have been deployed to Robinson River and surrounding communities for a testing and vaccine blitz.
The Katherine Hospital and MacFarlane Primary School have both been listed as exposure sites.
A woman who was raped by two men after they found her unconscious on Melbourne's Lygon Street has told a court she feels 'unable to find any joy in her days'.
The woman, who cannot be named, was picked up by Harley Palise, 30, and his friend Jarrod Thomas, 26, in the early hours of a morning in June 2018.
They both raped her before dropping her home at Mernda, in the city's northeast, with her underwear around her ankles.
A woman who was raped by two men after they found her unconscious on Melbourne's Lygon Street has read her victim impact statement to Victoria Supreme Court on Wednesday
'I have experienced many emotions ranging from confusion and numbness, to disbelief, fear, frustration and sadness,' the woman said in a statement read out to the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
'At times I have become withdrawn from friends and family. I've felt unenthusiastic, unhappy, lacking in motivation and unable to find any joy in my days.
'My life will be impacted for the foreseeable future.'
The woman, in her early 30s, also said she no longer socialises in large groups and moved house as she felt unsafe living at an address known to the pair.
Thomas pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was in 2020 jailed for a total of six years and six months.
Palise fought the same charges and claimed from the witness box that the woman had initiated sex with him once she got inside the car.
Harley Palise, 30, and his friend Jarrod Thomas, 26, had raped the woman in June 2018
The floor sander said he was 'just going with the flow'.
But a jury in August found Palise guilty of two counts of rape.
And in Wednesday's pre-sentence hearing Judge Scott Johns said he was not convinced by the 30-year-old's version of events.
'The reality is I would take some persuading accepting your client's account of how things were initiated,' Judge Johns told Palise's barrister John Kelly.
'In terms of what Mr Palise says happened in the car - I don't accept it.'
Judge Johns described the woman as a 'vulnerable and helpless' person.
He also said Palise did not use protection, which would have added to her humiliation.
Prosecutor John Dickie described the rape as opportunistic but brazen given there was little planning involved but a high risk of being identified.
'The physical and emotional debasement ... was abhorrent,' Mr Dickie told the court.
'The men saw (the woman) as they something they could use for their own pleasure. And it is concerning that there is a degree of victim-blaming.'
Mr Kelly on Wednesday said his client's offending was 'opportunistic and lacking in sophistication'.
Palise has been remanded in custody and is expected to be sentenced on December 16.
Sydneysider Madeleine Dow has been banned from going to her Adelaide family's birthday party without quarantining because of a bizarre quirk of Covid restrictions which locks out her under-jabbed LGA.
Under South Australia's complicated re-opening plans, double-jabbed visitors from LGAs with 80 per cent-plus vaccination rates can fly straight into the state from November 23.
But because Ms Dow, 33, lives in Sydney's Potts Point - where the City of Sydney LGA double-jab rate is just 73.2 per cent - she will need to go into 14 day hotel quarantine.
Now her plans to fly home for the family birthday on November 27 are in tatters - despite officials admitting the low LGA vaccination rate figure is probably wrong.
And if she lived just three streets away in neighbouring Woollahra LGA - where the double jab rate is 88.3 per cent - she could have skipped quarantine entirely.
Sydneysider Madeleine Dow (pictured) has been banned from going to her Adelaide family's birthday party without quarantining because of a bizarre quirk of Covid restrictions
Under South Australia's re-opening plans, double-jabbed visitors from LGAs with 80 per cent-plus vaccination rates can fly straight into the state from November 23 (pictured, a nurse administers a Covid vaccine jab)
'I can fly to London and back for Christmas without quarantine, but not Adelaide,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'I'm in Potts Point but if I was just down the road in Paddington, I would be fine.'
To rub salt into the wound, government statisticians have admitted that Sydney City LGA's double vaccination rate could actually be much higher than the official figure.
The current figure is based on incorrect population statistics, so the actual vaccination rate could already be sitting comfortably above 80 per cent.
The data includes overseas students who have since returned home during the pandemic, reducing the overall population and skewing the double jab rate figure.
Ms Dow'splans to fly home for the family birthday on November 27 are in tatters - despite officials admitting the low LGA vaccination rate figure is probably wrong. (pictured, traffic at a border control in Queensland)
If Ms Dow lived just three streets away in neighbouring Woollahra LGA - where the double jab rate is 88.3 per cent - she could have skipped quarantine entirely (pictured, border control in South Australia)
The government has previously promised to fix the mistake, but it has yet to be addressed, despite causing havoc for some travel plans like Ms Dow's.
'I understand these are hard decisions to make but its frustrating,' Ms Dow told The Adelaide Advertiser.
'Frustrated is probably the key word, mostly because as a state, we are highly vaccinated. It's just the lack of clarity in terms of what does it actually mean.
'I understand rules need to be there, but considering as a state, we are highly vaccinated, far higher than SA, I would like them to look at those inconsistencies.'
South Australia currently has a double-dose vaccination rate of 74.7 per cent of all aged 16-plus, while NSW is running at 91.3 per cent double-jabbed. The nationwide inoculation rate is 83.9 per cent.
Primary school students will be encouraged to walk through the gates barefoot under a bizarre policy from next year.
Inglewood Primary School, in Perth's north-east, said being barefoot helped children improve posture, develop sensory awareness, and strengthen their feet and body.
But experts rubbished these claims as having no evidence to support them.
Inglewood Primary School, in Perth's north-east, believe going to school barefoot helps children improve posture, develop sensory awareness and strengthen their feet and body
The school is determined to push ahead with the project, adamant it would be beneficial on many levels.
'We believe that children need opportunities to explore indoor and outdoor environments without shoes,' the school's newsletter reads.
'Going barefoot is beneficial to children as it nourishes, strengthens and promotes agility in a child's growing feet, ankles, legs, knees and hips.'
University of WA head of podiatric medicine and surgery Burke Hugo said there was no evidence it improved children's gait, co-ordination or balance.
'If they're in a safe environment it certainly won't hurt them, and maybe it will give them a little bit of freedom, but there's no plausible evidence that shows benefits to it over wearing well fitted shoes,' he told The West Australian.
From 2022, the school will allow students from Kindergarten to Year 2 to leave their shoes at home (stock image)
The school's deputy principal Jo Hart said Inglewood was handpicked as part of the WA Education Department's Leading Inspired Learning in the Early Years project.
Under the project, for students in Kindergarten through to Year 2, a pupil's 'agency' - the ability to make decisions to influence events in their own lives - will be focused on.
Nature Play chief executive Griffin Longley advocated allowing younger students to go to school barefoot, and urged more schools to follow suit.
'They are literally stepping out of the normal rules and rigours of school, and they are being invited to be creative,' he said.
'It is about choosing to value the kids' broader well-being.'
Australian homeowners have been urged to check their fridges over food poisoning fears.
Food Standards Australia took to Twitter on Wednesday to share the alert during Food Safety Week, which ends on November 20.
The nation's leading food safety organisation urged households to have their refrigerators set at five degrees or lower to ensure bacteria doesn't spread.
A new food poisoning warning has been issued by Food Standards Australia for homeowners to check their fridge temperatures (stock image)
'When it comes to chilling food safety, the temperature of your fridge matters,' Food Standards Australia wrote.
'It's a good idea to check that your fridge is at 5C or below.'
'Keeping your fridge cool will help stop the growth of most food poisoning bacteria - protecting your health and safety,' the organisation added.
Food Standards Australia took to Twitter on Wednesday to make sure households have their refrigerators set at five degrees or lower
The Food Safety Information Council reported there are about 4.1 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year.
It has resulted in 31,920 hospitalisations, 86 deaths and 1 million visits to the doctors on average every year.
One-third of these cases are believed to happen in the home due to food handling blunders.
The organisation said food poisoning stems from bacteria or viruses contaminating the food we eat.
The Food Safety Information Council reported there are about 4.1 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year (stock image)
Bacteria like to grow in what is known the 'temperature danger zone', which is between five degrees and 60 degrees.
The number of bugs can double and redouble in just a few hours, reaching dangerous levels.
The Food Safety Information Council urged households to cook food properly as bacteria are killed in the cooking process, as well as to refrigerate items at five degrees or below.
China's hypersonic space weapons could be used to launch a surprise attack on the US, said vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten, who also admitted that Beijing has more advanced hypersonic technology.
Hyten, the second-highest ranking military officer in the US, revealed that during last summer's hypersonic weapons test, China sent a missile around the world at more than five times the speed of sound, as reported by CBS News.
Hyten told the news station: 'They launched a long-range missile. It went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China'.
He added that also got 'close enough' to hitting its intended target, a feat he likened to 'a Sputnik moment,' when Russia launched the first manmade satellite into orbit in 1957, catching America by surprise and putting them at the forefront of the space race.
Vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten (pictured) said that China's hypersonic space weapons could be used to launch a surprise attack on the US and admitted that Beijing has more advanced technology
China is thought to have carried out two tests of a hypersonic orbital nuke - the first on July 27 and the second on August 13 this year. Observers believe the 'weapon' is an updated version of a Soviet concept called a 'Fractional Orbital Bombardment System' (FOBS). It is designed to evade powerful US radar systems and anti-missile defenses designed to shoot down traditional ICBMs by flying in low-Earth orbit, making it harder to spot, track and destroy
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) exchanged pleasantries for the cameras at the top of their virtual summit Monday night. Xi greeted Biden as his 'old friend,' much to the annoyance of the US president who has been trying to shake the moniker for months
'From a technology perspective, it's pretty impressive,' Hyten told CBS in reference to China's June 27 around-the-world test. However, he noted that 'Sputnik created a sense of urgency in the United States, which 'the test on June 27 did not,' adding that he thinks it should have and suggesting that DC needed to take the test more seriously.
But the new technology is reportedly already catching US officials off guard, particularly as the system 'defies the laws of physics' and appears superior to anything in the American arsenal.
China has reportedly been working on hypersonic weapons instead of the usual intercontinental ballistic missiles, which travel in a predictable arc and can be tracked by radars, according to CBS.
Meanwhile, hypersonic weapons are much harder for radars to pick up because they travel much closer to the planet's surface. Hyten referred to them as 'first-use weapons' and believes China could one day use the technology to launch a surprise nuclear attack on the US.
'They look like a first-use weapon,' Hyten said. 'That's what those weapons look like to me.'
They later launched a second test on August 13 and it involved a similar 'hypersonic glide vehicle' to one launched into space on board a Long March rocket back in July.
Beijing acknowledged one of the tests but claimed the country launched a 'peaceful' civilian spacecraft. Analysts believe the craft can actually be tipped with a nuclear warhead which would be able to evade missile defenses.
But even government scientists are struggling to work out exactly what the new craft is capable of as one source told the Financial Times that it appears to 'defy the laws of physics' and is unlike any technology the US has.
China pulling ahead in the modern arms race could also shift the balance between the US and Russia, whose equilibrium has depended on neither side having weapons to launch a successful nuclear strike
China unveiled a hypersonic glide vehicle during a military parade in 2019, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Beijing has now used a hypersonic vehicle to test a low-orbiting weapon capable of defeating nuclear defenses
China launched the dummy weapon into space on board a Long March 2C rocket (pictured) during a test in mid-August, which it did not disclose at the time and was only revealed at the end of October by security analysts assigned to work out its purpose
Hyten told CBS that America is developing its own weapons of this kind, too, but at a much slower pace.
The White House has refused to comment while the US Department of Defense has also declined confirming or denying the existence of any hypersonic weapons tests.
Then over a virtual meeting summit on Monday night Chinese leader XI Jinping exchanged pleasantries for the camera with President Joe Biden and greeted him as an 'old friend'.
From the introduction, Xi appeared to troll Biden - who has pushed back on the assertion the two were friends and called their meeting 'pure bitterness' - with the comment.
Biden suggested that they should start the meeting 'more formally, even though you and I have never been that formal'.
'Let's get something straight,' the president said during a press conference back in June in Switzerland.
'We know each other well. We're not old friends. It's just pure business,' he added when speaking on Xi.
China pulling ahead in the modern arms race could also shift the balance between the US and Russia, whose equilibrium has depended on neither side having weapons to launch a successful nuclear strike.
However, this is far from the first test China has completed with their hypersonic missiles.
Hyten revealed lsat month that the Asian country has carried out hundreds of tests while the US has done less than 10.
Speaking at a Defense Writers Group roundtable in October, Hyten said China's hypersonic missile advancements is an area of concern and the public should be worried.
'What you need to be worried about is that in the last five years, or maybe longer, the United States has done nine hypersonic missile tests, and in the same time the Chinese have done hundreds,' Hyten said, according to reports.
Hyten said the pace in which China is moving was 'stunning'.
'Single digits versus hundreds is not a good place,' he added, although the general did not elaborate on his concerns.
It was also revealed last month that a rocket failure caused a delay in the US military's test of its hypersonic weapons system when the military scheduled a test of its Army-Navy common hypersonic glide body in Kodiak, Alaska but it was never able to launch.
What is the new 'weapon' that China has tested? Intelligence sources say Beijing has tested two nuclear-capable hypersonic vehicles that flew around the planet in low-Earth orbit before coming back down. If confirmed - Beijing denies it, saying it actually tested a civilian spacecraft - then it marks a major jump in the country's nuclear programme, though the concept itself is nothing new. The idea behind China's 'new' weapon actually came from the Soviets, who developed it during the Cold War. Called a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, or FOBS, it was designed to evade powerful US radar arrays and missile defence systems. Those systems work by detecting launches of ICBMs - very long-range missiles that can be tipped with nuclear warheads - tracking them into space and then firing at the warheads as they come down in the hope of blowing them up before they hit their targets. This is possible because ICBMs and their warheads follow a predictable trajectory that rises high above the horizon - making them relatively easy to spot and allowing defense crews to calculate where they are aimed so they can be shot out of the sky. FOBS is designed to negate these defenses by firing warheads along a much-flatter trajectory that is assisted by Earth's gravity. This means the warheads pass under the scope of many radar detection arrays and are harder to track. It also makes the warheads much harder to shoot down because their trajectory is harder to calculate. In addition, using orbit to carry the warheads makes their range potentially unlimited, meaning they can be fired at its target from any direction. This helps to avoid radar systems which are generally pointed at a fixed spot in the sky - in America's case, over the North Pole. Soviet Russia had a FOBS system - comprising, at its peak, of 18 R-36O missiles - which were active from 1969 until 1983 when it scuttled the programme in response to changes in America's missile defence systems. China now appears to be pursuing the technology anew, while coupling it with a new 'hypersonic glide vehicle' to carry the warheads. The 'HGV' is thought to make the warhead easier to manouevre while in orbit and increase its accuracy. Despite its 'hypersonic' name, it actually travels much slower than ICMB warheads - some 3,800mph compared to 15,000mph+ for 'traditional' nukes. Russia and the US are both developing HGVs of their own, though neither has put them to use in the same way as Beijing. Moscow has one that can be fitted to its latest Satan 2 ICBM, while the US is working on one that can be launched from a B-52 bomber - though two recent tests of the system have failed. Advertisement
Meanwhile, China conducted a second test of a suspected hypersonic orbital missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, intelligence sources, including Hyten, have claimed.
'The pace they're moving and the trajectory they're on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don't do something to change it,' he said.
'It will happen. I think we have to do something.'
Hyten's concerns echoed those expressed earlier by Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff.
Milley called China's suspected testing of hypersonic weapons 'very concerning' during an interview with The David Rubenstein Show on Bloomberg Television.
'I don't know if it's quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it's very close to that,' he noted, adding that 'it has all of our attention'.
Milley also warned that the new missile systems are just one of many things the US should be concerned about as the Chinese military expands.
'The Chinese military capabilities are much greater than that. They're expanding rapidly in space, in cyber, and in the traditional domains of land, sea and air,' he told Bloomberg. 'We're in one of the most significant changes in what I call the 'character of war.''
The technology was designed to cut off enemy supply lines in the event of a conflict and sneak attacks using underwater charges will leave large vessels like American aircraft carriers vulnerable.
Underwater demolitions are a response to changing US tactics in the Pacific as Washington divides its forces between smaller locations instead of concentrating them in one place to mitigate the damage from attacks.
This tactic increases the strain on logistics operations required to keep large vessels such as aircraft carriers afloat, making attacks on infrastructure such as ports and wharfs more important.
'With ports destroyed, enemy logistics support will fail and a dispersed fighting force... will also fail,' an unnamed military expert told The Times.
It's just the latest move in a global arms race between Russia, China and the US that's taking place against the backdrop of mounting tensions between the superpowers in the eastern Pacific.
All three countries are engaged in wholesale updates of their militaries including the development of new nuclear technology with which they can strike each other at range.
Russia and China have, in recent years, unveiled new and more-powerful ICBMs which are capable of launching multiple nuclear warheads at targets many thousands of miles away.
The United States, Russia and at least five other countries are also working on hypersonic technology - and last month North Korea said it had test fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile.
Russia had previously tested a hypersonic cruise missile known as Zircon but it flies below the atmosphere and uses fuel to power itself to hypersonic speeds rather than the Earth's orbit.
The Pentagon did not comment on China's testing of the hypersonic missile but did acknowledge China as their 'number one pacing challenge'.
'We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue, capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond,' John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Fox News. 'That is one reason why we hold China as our number one pacing challenge.'
The cast and crew of the Harry Potter movies are coming together for a reunion, with one notable exception - the author, JK Rowling.
HBO Max announced on Tuesday it would bring together the cast members from all eight Harry Potter films for a retrospective special entitled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts.
The release said it would feature stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint - who have not made a public appearance together since the premiere of the last premiere of the franchise, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, in July 2011, as well as filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the blockbuster film.
But the release does not mention the person responsible for the creation of the characters, author JK Rowling, who has been criticized for her views on transgender people.
Sources close to the project told TMZ that it will focus on the creation of the first film 20 years ago, and the central cast and crew.
They said Rowling will be shown in archival footage from the creation of the first movie, but will not make a new appearance in the special.
Scroll down for video.
Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Daniel Radcliffe, (seen left to right in 2001's Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone) are among those set to reunite for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts special on HBO Max
Famed author JK Rowling will not be joining the production, however
Rowling has been criticized over the past few years for her views on transgender people.
In June 2020, she took to Twitter to criticize an opinion piece that used the term 'people who menstruate' instead of women.
'I'm sure there used to be a word for these people,' she tweeted at the time. 'Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?'
She then continued with a thread discussing biological sex.
'If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction,' she claimed. 'If sex isn't real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.
'I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives.'
Rowling later clarified that she respects 'every trans person's rights to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them,' and went on to say she would march 'if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.
'At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female,' Rowling said, the Associated Press reported at the time. 'I do not believe it's hateful to say so.'
Then, in September 2020, she faced renewed calls of transphobia after it was revealed the the villain in her latest book, Troubled Blood - written under Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith - is a male serial killer who dresses as a woman to slay his victims.
An early review of the 900-page book by The Daily Telegraph - in which the critic states the book's 'moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress' - sparked immediate backlash online.
Furious readers rushed to Twitter to share their thoughts, making #RIPJKRowling trend in the UK.
The children's book author was accused of being transphobic in June 2020 after she criticized an opinion piece that used the term 'people who menstruate' instead of women, and tweeted about biological sex
She was then embroiled in another controversy after it was revealed that the villain in her latest book Troubled Blood (right) is a male serial killer who dresses as a woman to slay his victims
In the wake of these remarks, Harry Potter actors Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne, who stars in her Fantastic Beasts films criticized the author for her remarks.
And in March, Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the beloved film series admitted that he felt he needed to stand up for transgender people following Rowling's remarks.
He said that while he was 'not an authority' on the debate, he felt he had a responsibility to speak out in support of the trans community as 'silence is louder'.
In an interview with Esquire, he said: 'I am hugely grateful [for] everything that shes done. I think that shes extremely talented, and I mean, clearly, her works are genius.'
'But yeah, I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that...
'Sometimes silence is even louder. I felt like I had to because I think it was important to. I mean, I dont want to talk about all that Generally, Im not an authority on the subject.
'Just out of kindness, and just respecting people. I think its a valuable group that I think needs standing up for.'
The trio of stars will be joining filmmaker Chris Columbus (seen in November 2001), who directed the blockbuster original film of the franchise Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, to celebrate the movie which premiered 20 years ago
In the aftermath, Rupert Grint, who is known for playing Ron Weasley in the film series, admitted that he felt he needed to stand up for trans people, He is pictured in 2019
The 20th anniversary special will be the first time the English actors have made a public appearance together since the premiere of the last premiere of the franchise, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, in New York City back in July 2011
Other actors that will be joining the project include Helena Bonham Carter, left, and Ralph Fiennes, right
Now, the cast is set to return for the 20th anniversary special, which 'tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new, in-depth interviews and cast conversations,' according to HBO Max.
Several talented actors will be joining the main three stars in the special, including Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Bonnie Wright and Jason Isaacs.
Casey Patterson whose production company is producing the special gushed over the cast as she said: 'Theres magic in the air here with this incredible cast, as they all return home to the original sets of Hogwarts, where they began 20 years ago.
'The excitement is palpable as they prepare to take their fans on a very special and personal journey, through the making of these incredible films.'
Daniel, Emma, and Rupert are seen with David Heyman and Chris Columbus at the London premiere in November 2001
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is set to begin streaming on HBO Max on Saturday, January 1
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone has grossed over $1billion over it's lifetime
There will also be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren
Of the upcoming special, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics Tom Ascheim said in the statement: 'It has been an incredible journey since the debut of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone film, and witnessing how it has evolved into this remarkable interconnected universe has been magical to say the least.
'This retrospective is a tribute to everyone whose lives were touched by this cultural phenomenon from the talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into this extraordinary film franchise to the passionate fans who continue to keep the Wizarding World spirit alive 20 years later.'
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone premiered on November 16, 2001. It has grossed over $1billion over its lifetime and is one of the top selling franchises of all time.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is set to begin streaming on HBO Max on Saturday, January 1.
The special will later air on channels TBS and Cartoon Network in spring 2022 before the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
There will also be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren.
White House officials insisted on Tuesday that President Joe Biden does not consider China's President Xi Jinping an 'old friend' after an interpreter said as much during their virtual meeting on Monday.
'You've heard explicitly from the president himself, that he has a longstanding relationship with President Xi,' said White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates on Tuesday.
'They've spent a great deal of time together. They are able to have candid discussions, be direct with each other, which helps them be productive.
'But he does not consider President Xi an old friend,' Bates told reporters.
Biden and Xi spent more than three hours in a virtual summit on Monday night in an effort to ease tensions between the world's two biggest economies
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged pleasantries for the cameras at the top of their virtual summit Monday night
Xi appeared to troll Biden by greeting him as an 'old friend' at the meeting - in direct contradiction to repeated denials from both the president and Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
In response, Biden, who has previously pushed back on the assertion he and Xi were friends and called their meetings 'pure business', suggested that they should start the meeting 'more formally, even though you and I have never been that formal.'
Over the summer, Biden responded sharply to Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked if he would call Xi 'old friend to old friend' - seeking access for World Health Organization investigators searching for the origins of COVID-19.
'Let's get something straight,' Biden replied in June during a press conference in Switzerland. 'We know each other well. We're not old friends. It's just pure business.'
And before Monday's virtual meeting took place, Press Secretary Jenn Psaki clarified that Biden was by no means close friends with Xi, but said the leaders' level of rapport would allow them to have 'candid discussions.'
'Well...I can confirm...he still does not consider him an 'old friend,' so that remains consistent,' Psaki said ahead of the meeting between the two world leaders.
President Joe Biden, left, had met China's Xi Jinping virtually to discuss major issues. An interpreter said Jinping had called Biden an 'old friend' much to the US president's annoyance
Cabinet members including Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second from right) and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (right) joined President Joe Biden's (left) virtual meeting Monday night with Chinese President Xi Jinping (second from left)
The Chinese leader originally used the expression 'lao peng you,' which connotes fondness and shows a level of familiarity and trust, following months of tension between the US and China.
Said by Xi, 68, the expression reflects a shared history that dates to August 2011, when he and Biden held hours of conversations and traveled in Sichuan province - when Xi was First secretary of the Communist Party and Biden was Vice President under Obama.
Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, said Xi's use of the expression is a show of genuine goodwill.
During the virtual meeting on Monday night, Biden shared that he and Xi have 'always communicated with one another very honestly and candidly' and they 'never walk away wondering what the other man is thinking.'
Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for Asia under former President Barack Obama, said it was part of each leader's seeking the 'narrative high ground' at the opening.
'Xi deliberately greeting Biden as 'my old friend' - after Biden went on record this summer expressly denying that they are 'friends.' And Biden, with a toothy smile, reminding Xi that all countries - including China - 'have to play by the same rules of the road',' Russel said.
Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, noted Xi's use of the term despite the difficult state of relations.
'When we Chinese call someone an old friend, we mean we've known him for a long time. But an 'old friend' doesn't necessarily mean he is still a real friend,' Shi said.
Given current diplomatic tensions, Biden may not want to be seen by US allies and his political opponents as too much of a 'friend'.
The United States and China disagree on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade and competition rules, Beijing's expanding nuclear arsenal and its stepped-up pressure on Taiwan, among other issues.
Biden promised to address areas of concern, including human rights and other issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
He told the Chinese leader he was looking forward to a 'candid and forthright discussion,' which will ensure 'simple, straightforward competition' between China and the United States.
'We need to establish some common-sense guardrails,' Biden said, adding, 'especially on vital global issues like climate change.'
The meeting went 'longer than expected' a senior administration official said on a call with reporters after midnight. It lasted for about three and a half hours, broken into two sessions.
'The conversation was respectful and straight-forward and open,' the official said. 'They didn't just stick to the scripts in front of them.'
Chinese officials said in advance that Taiwan would be their top issue for the talks.
Tensions have heightened as the Chinese military has dispatched an increasing number of fighter jets near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.
'The Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as China's core interest,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday. 'It is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.'
On the video call, Biden reiterated the U.S. will abide by the longstanding U.S. 'One China' policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
The statement reiterated longstanding US policy that does not recognize Taiwan's independence but allows informal and defense ties with Taipei.
According to the US official, who asked not to be identified, there was 'extended discussion of Taiwan' during the summit.
President Joe Biden waves to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the top of their virtual meeting Monday night
Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) listens as President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meet virtually Monday night
Tension over Taiwan in particular is threatening to escalate into dangerous new territory.
China has ramped up military activities near Taiwan in recent years, with a record number of warplanes intruding into the island's air defense zone in October.
The United States says it supports Taiwan's self-defense but is ambiguous about whether it would intervene to help directly.
In the brief comments made in front of reporters, Xi referred to each country needing to 'run our domestic affairs' but did not mention US criticism of Beijing's saber-rattling around Taiwan, mass human rights violations or other sore points.
Next year's Beijing Olympics didn't come up.
There have been some calls for the U.S. to boycott the Winter Olympic Games over China's human rights abuses.
Biden did talk to Xi about human rights, the senior official confirmed.
'The two leaders have had many discussions about human rights issues over the years and they've talked about it at some length,' the official said. 'It's no secret that they have a real difference in world views.'
Biden was 'quite clear and quite candid' when talking to Xi about human rights, and spent time speaking about Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as human rights more broadly, a White House readout said.
'We were not expecting a breakthrough, there were none to report,' the official said more generally about the call.
The White House said that the two leaders also talked about Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
They also talked about the U.S.-China trade deal, with Biden pushing for China to fulfill its phase one commitments.
The senior administration official wouldn't say if Biden and Xi talked about China's hypersonic missiles - though hinted that the president asked China to be more transparent as the world seeks answers about the origins of COVID-19.
The president 'also talked about the importance of preventing future pandemics and the important role that transparency plays in addressing global health issues,' the official said.
At the top of the meeting, Biden told Xi, 'We have a responsibility to the world as well as to our people.'
'That's why we believe and you and I have talked about this all countries have to play by the same rules of the road, why the United States is always going to stand up for our interests and values, and those of our allies and partners,' Biden said. ''If past is prologue, I am sure that today we'll be discussing those areas where we have concerns on human rights, on economics, to ensuring a free and open Indo Pacific.'
Biden also shared that he and Xi have 'always communicated with one another very honestly and candidly.'
'We never walk away wondering what the other man is thinking,' Biden said.
Before turning the program over to Xi, Biden thanked the Chinese leader for calling and congratulating him after he won the election last year, saying it was 'very gracious.'
Through a translator, Xi told Biden, 'Good to see you, Mr. President and your colleagues.'
'It's the first time for us to meet virtually, although it's not as good as a face to face meeting, I'm very happy to see my old friend,' Xi said.
'Humanity lives in a global village, and we face multiple challenges together,' Xi said. 'China and the U.S. need to increase communication and cooperation,' the Chinese president also offered.
The two men were meeting Monday night Washington time, while it's already Tuesday morning in Beijing.
The aim of Monday's virtual summit with China is to defuse tensions over Taiwan and other flashpoints.
However, both sides have signaled little appetite for compromise.
'Certainly, the president will express areas where he feels China should be taking additional action, should be behaving in a different manner that is more aligned with the rules of the road and the expectations with the United States and the global community,' Psaki said.
The two leaders have spoken by phone twice since Biden's inauguration in January but with Xi refusing to travel abroad because of the pandemic, an online video meeting is the only option short of an in-person summit.
Most attention in the build-up has focused on the sparring over Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy claimed by China, and Biden's aides have cast the summit as an opportunity to help prevent tensions escalating.
'We know as a responsible global leader that it's important to keep channels of communication open,' a senior administration official told reporters, adding that competition between the two countries should not lead to conflict.
'The president will also make clear that we want to build common guardrails to avoid miscalculation or misunderstanding.'
At the same time, the White House sought to temper expectations, with the official saying that the summit 'is not a meeting where we expect deliverables to be coming out.'
Biden, a veteran of foreign policy issues during his decades in politics, has often said phone conversations are no substitute for face-to-face meetings.
Xi has not left China for nearly two years, and Biden sharply criticised his absence at the recent COP-26 climate summit in Glasgow and G20 summit in Rome.
Relations between the superpowers plummeted during the presidency of Donald Trump, who launched a trade war with China while assailing Beijing over its handling of the pandemic.
Biden has recast the confrontation more broadly as a struggle between democracy and autocracy.
And while the day-to-day tone is more measured than under Trump, relations have worsened over Taiwan.
China has ramped up military activities near Taiwan in recent years, with a record number of warplanes intruding into the island's air defense zone in October.
The United States says it supports Taiwan's self-defense but is ambiguous about whether it would intervene to help directly. China is stepping up its rhetoric, warning Washington to keep out.
'Any connivance of and support for the 'Taiwan independence' forces undermines peace across the Taiwan Strait and would only boomerang in the end,' Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a weekend meeting.
China's foreign ministry on Monday put the onus on Biden to improve relations.
'We hope that the U.S. will work in the same direction as China to get along with each other,' foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters.
Chinese state media on Monday also portrayed Taiwan as the key flashpoint in current US-China tensions.
The United States must 'take a step back from the Taiwan question,' the Global Times, a hawkish tabloid, said in an editorial.
However the US administration official signaled Biden would be 'very direct' on what he called 'China's coercive and provocative behavior with respect to Taiwan.'
The official also stressed that the two nations had room for cooperation in various areas, such as climate change.
This virtual meeting is being held at a time when Xi continues to strengthen his grip on power.
Top Chinese Communist Party leaders last week passed a resolution that is expected to help Xi shore up his power by setting in stone his vision for China and diminishing the role of previous leaders.
The resolution 'further cemented' power in the hands of the Chinese president, the Washington official said.
The official added, 'In our mind that just further underscores the importance of this leader level engagement.'
Mark McGowan's electorate office has been closed due to worrying security risks, with staff reportedly subject to rape threats from anti-vaxxers.
The Western Australian Premier said his Rockingham office had been the target of death and bomb threats since the state government announced mandatory vaccination for much of its workforce.
It comes eight days after a man was prevented from allegedly planning to dump a tank at his office.
It took four officers to restrain James Tioro outside his Camden Way home and take him into custody before the alleged plan could be carried out.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said his staff have been threatened with rape and death over the state's mandatory vaccination policy
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Just before the police intervened, Mr Tioro was standing on top of a former British Army tank known as a Ferret Scout Car, allegedly swinging a pickaxe and shouting threats, some of which were directed at Mr McGowan.
Mr Tioro was reportedly angry at Mr McGowan over WA's mandatory vaccination policies.
Around five hours before his arrest, Mr Tioro allegedly organised for a tow truck to take the tank to the Premier's office.
Channel 7 Perth reported that when Mr McGowan's staff refused to allow the tank to be dropped off outside the office, they were abused.
It also reported that material allegedly threatening the Premier had been found inside Mr Tioro's house.
The tank was then taken back to Mr Tioro's home and several police cars later responded to a disturbance there.
Pictured: A tank which a man allegedly attempted to have dumped at WA Premier Mark McGowan's office in Perth
Mr Tioro was subsequently charged with disorderly behaviour, being armed in a way to cause fear and making an unlawful threat
He said his office was subjected to constant 'threatening' and 'intimidating' messages.
Mr McGowan called for those responsible to 'just stop.'
After his staff got death threats in October, he said intimidation would not change the state's mandatory vaccination policy.
Anti-vaxxers have been blamed for threats made against the staff of WA Premier Mark McGowan. Pictured is an anti-vax protest at the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, Saturday, August 21, 2021. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that anyone pictured has made threats against Mr McGowan or his staff
'What I'm doing and what the government is doing is what is necessary to keep people safe and keep our state safe, and we're not going to be deterred from that,' he said.
'People can make Facebook comments, they can say these sorts of things, but it's not going to change the approach to the government.
'We have to do what we have to do to keep the state safe. Getting people vaccinated is necessary.'
His electorate office was previously evacuated last March after a suspicious package was thrown into the building.
The White House won't be dropping its indoor mask requirement, despite Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser decision to lift the mandate.
'The White House follows CDC guidance which recommends masking in areas of high or substantial transmission,' White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said on Tuesday.
Mayor Bowser announced on Monday that the District of Columbia will lift its indoor mask requirement starting next week, as local COVID-19 infection cases continue to trend downward.
Starting Monday, November 22, masks will no longer be required in many indoor spaces, although the stipulations do not apply to federal Washington, including the White House and Congress.
The White House won't be dropping its indoor mask requirement after Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser decision to lift the mandate
The White House said Bowser's stipulations do not apply to federal Washington, including the White House and Congress, where CDC guidance will still be followed
Mayor Bowser announced on Monday that the District of Columbia will lift its indoor mask requirement starting next week, as local COVID-19 infection cases continue to trend downward. Above, Bowser during a press conference in May
'We are encouraged by the numbers that have opted into vaccination now, some of them encouraged by mandates,' Bowser said. 'There may even be an increase in cases but what we haven't seen is an increase in hospitalizations and deaths. That is the promise of vaccination.'
Mayor Bowser has repeatedly described mask requirements as a sort of thermostat-style dial that can be turned up or down based on shifting conditions.
Washington had one of the nation's most strict mask mandate since July, as the district saw a surge in COVID-19 cases of the Delta variant.
A statement from the city Health Department announced that masks will still be required in certain settings, including schools, libraries, public transportation, ride-share vehicles and group-living facilities like nursing homes, dorms and jails.
The greater Washington area still remains an area of 'substantial' transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mayor Bowser has repeatedly described mask requirements as a sort of thermostat-style dial that can be turned up or down based on shifting conditions
There are currently over 46 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US. More than 750,000 have been reported in Washington. According to Health Department statistics, the current seven-day average of new cases in DC - the department's preferred metric - is higher than it was in May when the first mask requirement was lifted, but still well below the late-summer delta-variant peak in August and September
Private businesses will still be able to require customers to wear masks.
The nation's capital originally lifted its indoor mask requirement for fully vaccinated individuals in May, but reinstated it in late July as cases began to rise again.
There are currently over 46 million cases of COVID-19 in the US, and more than 750,000 have been reported in Washington.
Masks are still required indoors in counties such as Prince Georges County, Md., while Virginias Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, have just recommended mask use, The Washington Post reported.
According to Health Department statistics, the current seven-day average of new cases - the department's preferred metric - is higher than it was in May when the first mask requirement was lifted, but still well below the late-summer delta-variant peak in August and September.
The greater Washington area still remains an area of 'substantial' transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Per CDC advice, everyone in Columbia County should wear a mask in public indoor settings as the district is a 'high transmission community.'
The Tory MP who accused Boris Johnson's father of slapping her bottom nearly 20 years ago has been targeted with rape threats.
Caroline Nokes MP shared some of the vicious abuse sent to her online after she claimed Stanley groped her in 2003.
It comes as Labour urged the Tories to launch a probe following claims from her and journalist Ailbhe Rea over an alleged incident in 2019.
Former minister Ms Nokes first accused Stanley of forcefully smacking her on the backside at the Tory Party conference in 2003, ahead of him running to be an MP.
Her allegation prompted political reporter Ms Rea to say she was 'groped' by the former member of the European Parliament at the party conference in 2019.
Stanley declined to comment other than to say he has 'no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all'.
Meanwhile the Tories are yet to say if a probe will be launched and No 10 declined to comment on the claims against the 'private individual'.
Senior Conservative MP Caroline Nokes (left), 49, and New Statesman journalist Ailbhe Rea (right) have both accused Stanley Johnson of inappropriately touching them
Stanley declined to comment other than to say he has 'no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all'
Ms Nokes revealed some of the vicious hate posted to her on social media last night after her claims emerged.
She wrote on Twitter: 'And to [man's name] - thank you for your email tonight: ''I wish he had raped you you filthy Tory wh***.'''
She added: 'That is the level of discourse women MPs have to deal with, every single day.'
Ms Nokes, chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, suggested the PM's father inappropriately touched her during the 2003 conference in Blackpool.
At the time, she was preparing for the campaign to represent the Hampshire constituency of Romsey during the 2005 election, during which Mr Johnson stood in Teignbridge, in Devon.
She told Sky: 'I can remember a really prominent man smacking me on the backside about as hard as he could and going, 'Oh, Romsey, you've got a lovely seat'.
'Stanley Johnson did that to me ahead of the '05 election, so it was Blackpool ... 2003/4. I didn't do anything and I feel ashamed by that ... now I probably would.'
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer praised Ms Nokes' 'bravery' for speaking out, and called for an investigation either by the Tories or the police.
'The allegations are serious and they need to be fully investigated, I don't think at this stage it's for me to say what should happen as a result,' Sir Keir said at a press conference on tackling sleaze in politics.
'But it takes guts and bravery to come forward to make allegations like this. They now need to be fully investigated either by the Conservative Party or by the criminal authorities.'
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds earlier said the allegation needs to be treated 'extremely seriously and sensitively'.
'The Conservative Party clearly needs to investigate a serious allegation like that, that happened at their party conference,' he told Times Radio.
Home Office minister Damian Hinds did not commit to an investigation during an appearance on the same radio station.
'If there is an investigation to be had, if that is the appropriate course of action, then of course that will happen,' he said.
The comments from Ms Nokes, who has represented Romsey and Southampton North since 2010, prompted a separate allegation from Ms Rea, which the journalist for the New Statesman magazine said happened at the Manchester party conference in 2019, when Boris Johnson was Tory leader.
Ms Rea wrote on Twitter: 'Stanley Johnson also groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019.
'I am grateful to Caroline Nokes for calling out something that none of us should have to put up with, not least from the Prime Minister's father.'
Stanley Johnson lost the campaign to become an MP in 2005 but had served as a Conservative MEP between 1979 and 1984.
Mr Johnson, now 81, declined to comment to the PA news agency about both of the allegations.
But, regarding the initial accusation, he told Sky News: 'I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all. But there you go ... and no reply.'
On Tuesday Ms Nokes tweeted: 'Just wanted to thank the sisterhood for the solidarity and support today. You know who you are and you're amazing.'
Downing Street declined to say whether an investigation would be carried out, with the Prime Minister's official spokesman saying: 'I haven't spoken to the PM about this, it wouldn't be one for me.
'I'm not going to be drawn into specific allegations against a private individual. Of course we would want anyone in any circumstance who feels they have been a victim of any kind of harassment to come forward and report them to the appropriate authorities.'
A gunman is on the loose after a woman was shot at a busy medical centre on the Gold Coast.
The 29-year-old shooting victim told police she was hit with a bullet after a man dropped a gun in the stairwell of the Southport Health Precinct at about 2:15pm on Wednesday.
A desperate hunt is now underway to track down the man who picked up the firearm and fled - but the injured woman is refusing to reveal his identity.
A gunman is on the loose after a woman was shot at a busy medical centre on the Gold Coast. Pictured: Police arrive at Southport Health Precinct
Investigators are now scouring through CCTV footage to find out what happened where he may have went.
Queensland Police said although the woman was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital, she only suffered a minor arm abrasion with the wound described as 'a graze'.
It is understood the gun fired when it hit the ground and ricocheted around the concrete stairwell.
'It is not a random attack. We do not believe he was trying to harm her,' Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia.
A desperate hunt is now underway to track down the man who picked up the firearm and fled - but the injured woman is refusing to reveal his identity. Pictured: Am ambulance arrives at the scene
'He and her are known to each other. She is currently assisting us.
'We are looking for him but we know who he is.'
Detectives descended on the scene at about 4pm searching for the bullet shell and any other forensic evidence.
The Southport Health Precinct was put into lockdown during that time and the building's High St entrance was taped off.
'Enquiries indicate there is no ongoing risk to the public,' police said.
If you want an excuse to stay up late, or get up very early, then a Leonid meteor storm is a pretty good reason to burn the midnight oil.
An even better reason is the spectacular display happens roughly only once every 33 years, so if you miss this one it's a long wait until the next in 2054.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Space Weather Services says the meteor storm will be visible across Australian on Thursday morning, with 3am in the eastern states being the opportune time.
A Leonid meteor storm over the Azrak desert, Jordan. A similar storm will be visible across Australia in the early hours of Thursday morning
'Visually, the early morning hours of November 18 may see an intensely spectacular Leonid meteor storm,' BOM's website says.
Previous Leonid storms, such as one in 1966, have led to thousands of meteors per minute coming through the Earth's atmosphere - so many that they seemed to fall like rain.
A meteor streaks into the earth's atmosphere in this time exposure image over Tataka on Taiwan's Jade Mountain.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LEONIDS The Leonids are usually one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors associated with Comet 55P/TempelTuttle. 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 streaks of light. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich Advertisement
BOM did not go so far as predicting a similar intensity for Thursday morning, though.
'It is more probable however, that a much less intense shower of a few hundred meteors per hour will eventuate.'
In the eastern states, the best time to look to the sky is around 3am local time (2am in Queensland), 2am local time in WA, and 3.30am local time in SA and the NT.
'Rising early on this morning is probably a worthwhile activity, whatever eventuates,' BOM said.
According to NASA, the Leonids are considered to be some of the fastest meteors known, travelling at speeds of 71 kilometres per second.
Meteors also known as 'shooting stars' are typically either bits of asteroids leftover from the formation of the solar system or, as in the case of the Leonids, material ejected from the disintegration of a comet as it passes near the Sun.
These beautiful streaks seen in the night sky can be caused by cosmic particles that are as small as a grain of sand.
'The Leonids meteor shower is named after the constellation of Leo the lion,' Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomer Anna Gammon-Ross 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.'
How to watch the Leonid meteor showers across Australia
They are best viewed as far away as possible from city lights, as light pollution can drown out the spectacular show.
No special equipment is needed, but a clear sky would be a big help.
It can take up to 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark for the best view.
The Leonids - so called because they appear in the sky in the region of the constellation of Leo - are a stream of minute dust particles trailing behind the Tempel-Tuttle comet, which is visible from earth every 33 years
The meteors can come from any direction and will look brightest against the darkest part of the sky.
Some meteors pass very quickly and faintly, while the brighter ones appear to sail across the sky for several seconds, leaving a glowing smoke trail.
Lie on your back and look straight up for the best view, or get out a reclining chair if you don't fancy getting wet.
And take some pictures to show your friends and family who didn't stay up for the celestial space show. After all, it's going to be a very long time before this happens again.
A grandmother from Texas has reported a domestic 'terrorist threat' to the FBI after a father told a school board meeting last week he had 'over 1,000 soldiers ready to go'.
Ladonna Meyers, a grandmother of two, filed the report with federal agents following a meeting on November 9 of the Fort Worth Independent School District board.
During the meeting, local father Malikk Austin, who supports Critical race Theory (CRT), addressed anti-CRT protestors, telling them: 'For those who got an issue with this critical race theory equity, this is something I fight for, for my children.
'How dare you come out here and talk about the things that my daddy and my grandparents went through? The lynching, the oppression, Jim Crow and my kids are still being afflicted by this.'
'We are not our ancestors,' Austin added. 'I got over 1,000 soldiers ready to go.'
Speaking about her report to the FBI, Meyers, who had been present at the school board meeting, told Fox News: 'It's their job to check in on terrorism, and this was a terrorist threat.'
During a November 9 meeting of the Fort Worth Independent School District board, Malikk Austin (pictured during the meeting) got up and spoke for a minute, defending the teaching of CRT
Austin said to people arguing against the teaching of CRT that he had '1,000 soldiers ready to go'
School board meetings nationwide have become a flash point of controversy over the teaching of critical race theory, which critics say makes children feel guilty for being white.
Supporters of CRT claim that it is vital to 'center' the experiences of black people and other minorities in educational curricula which until now has been taught predominantly through the prism of white Americans.
Following his allotted one-minute period to speak, police officers escorted Austin from the room, and while being taken away he yelled: 'I'll bring my soldiers with me next time locked and loaded.'
However, he previously told DailyMail.com that he has not been contacted by law enforcement and that he doesn't anticipate being arrested.
Following his allotted one-minute period to speak, police officers escorted Austin (pictured, on his social media) from the room, and while being taken away he yelled: 'I'll bring my soldiers with me next time locked and loaded'
He added: 'I've been to school board meetings for quite some time. I didn't threaten nobody, sir. That's freedom of speech.'
In early October, Attorney General Merrick Garland set up a task force comprised of the FBI, the national security division, the criminal division, the civil rights division and others to tackle threats against school staff.
Republicans said that Garland's inclusion of the national security division proved that he was targeting parents as 'domestic terrorists.'
Garland testified on Oct. 21 that the Justice Department and its components were not using counterterrorism tactics to target 'concerned parents at school board meetings.'
He testified that he could not 'imagine any circumstance in which the Patriot Act would be used in circumstances of parents complaining about their children, nor ... a circumstance where they would be labeled as domestic terrorists.'
However, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed Joe Biden's Justice Department for an 'egregious abuse of power' on Tuesday and demanded Garland testify before Congress about the counterterrorism tactics the FBI is using to investigate parents.
'In an egregious abuse of power with the potential to unfairly track Americans' activities, President Biden's Department of Justice is using FBI criminal and counterterrorism resources to target parents,' McCarthy said in a statement.
'Attorney General Garland must return to Congress to address, under oath, in detail, the discrepancies regarding the directives he issued involving investigating America's parents,' he demanded.
Garland testified on October 21 that the Justice Department and its components were not using counterterrorism tactics to target 'concerned parents at school board meetings' but Republicans say they have documentation that shows differently.
McCarthy also blasted Biden for going after parents instead of 'actual threats.'
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (pictured on November 16) slammed Joe Biden's Justice Department for an 'egregious abuse of power' on Tuesday and demanded Attorney General Merrick Garland testify before Congress about tactics the FBI is using to investigate parents
'This is further proof that we have a President in the White House who is more interested in going after our own citizens, including concerned parents, than he is in going after actual threats. This raises the question that should alarm every American: if the Biden administration is using our country's top law enforcement agency to go after parents, what are the actual threats they are ignoring?,' he said.
The House GOP leader was responding to the revelation the Federal Bureau of Investigation has created a 'threat tag' to flag all investigations into potentially criminal threats, harassment and intimidation of educators.
Republicans argue this could be used to target parents protesting local education policies. Parents have taken to going to school board meetings to express concern about the teaching of critical race theory, transgender policies and other issues.
The GOP saw education become a successful campaign issue in the 2019 Virginia gubernatorial election, where concerned parents came out in numbers to help their candidate win.
The latest revelations came from an FBI whistleblower, who provided an email dated October 20 to House Republicans sent on behalf of the counter-terrorism division and the criminal division.
An email, released by an FBI whistleblower, referenced Attorney General Merrick Garland's October 4 directive to the FBI to ramp up its involvement in school board threats, and notified agents of a new tag, 'EDUOFFICIALS,' to assign to any threats against school administrators, board members, staff or teachers. Pictured: File image of Merrick garland on September 9
The email referenced Garland's October 4 directive to the FBI to ramp up its involvement in school board threats, and notified agents of a new tag, 'EDUOFFICIALS,' to assign to any threats against school administrators, board members, staff or teachers to determine the scope of the problem on a national level and to provide a 'comprehensive analysis of the threat picture.'
Republicans slammed the move.
'This disclosure provides specific evidence that federal law enforcement operationalized counterterrorism tools at the behest of a left-wing special interest group against concerned parents,' House Republicans claimed in a letter to Garland.
The email directed agents to analyze the motivation behind the criminal activity and to identify whether there were potential federal violations that could be investigated and charged.
Republicans say the FBI has inserted itself into what would usually be a local issue due to its political nature, in an effort to 'silence' parents who disagree with schools' progressive policies.
A Los Angeles fraudster couple who were convicted of trying to steal more than $20million in Covid relief funds have been jailed for 23 years even though they are still on the run.
Richard Ayvazyan, 43, was sentenced Monday in absentia to 17 years and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, 37, was given six years behind bars for conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering.
Ayvazyan's brother, Artur Ayvazyan, 41, was sentenced to five years.
The three Encino residents were convicted of conspiracy, bank and wire fraud in June, but the husband and wife went on the run in August, cutting their ankle bracelets to flee their $3.25million home they bought with their stolen Covid funds.
They left a note for the three teenage children they abandoned saying: 'We will be together again one day. This is not a goodbye but a brief break from each other.'
FBI agents are pictured raiding the $3.25million home of Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian, which they bought with stolen Covid relief funds, in November 2020
Ayvazyan (left), 43, was sentenced Monday in absentia to 17 years and his wife, Terabelian (right), 37, was given six years behind bars
They had used dozens of phony or stolen identities - including those of elderly or dead people and foreign exchange students who briefly visited the United States - to submit applications for some 150 federal Covid business relief funds.
They backed up the applications with false tax documents, and payroll records, officials said.
Instead of going to struggling businesses during the pandemic, the millions received were used for down payments on luxury homes and to buy 'gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, fine imported furnishings, designer handbags, clothing, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle,' the US attorney's office said.
Days after their disappearance, they were seen on CCTV entering Ayvazyan's mother's house but they quickly left before police arrived.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to their arrests.
Four other people have pleaded guilty to various charges in the case. A fifth person awaits sentencing but has asked to withdraw her guilty plea.
During the sentencing hearing, US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said he couldn't recall a fraud case conducted in such a 'callous, intentional way without any regard for the law'.
Ayvazyan, pictured outside court in June before he went on the run, was described as the ringleader of the fraud plot
Sentencing was carried out in front of the couple's children who were visibly distraught upon hearing their parents' crimes, with the judge describing how legitimate businesses were deprived of the relief they needed to sustain themselves in the pandemic.
Wilson singled out Ayvazyan as the ringleader and called him an 'endemic cold-hearted fraudster' with no regard for the law.
He added: 'If given the opportunity, he would concoct another fraud, because the way he spoke of this fraud indicates that that is his way of life.'
The judge said the 'fragrant' fraud could deter lawmakers from granting future bailouts out of fear of being ripped off again.
Prosecutors sought 29 years in prison for Ayvazyan which would have been the longest sentence for anyone in the US for a federal pandemic loan fraud case.
But his lawyer said he deserved no more than six years and described him as a family man, a churchgoer and legitimate businessman.
The attorney also said Ayvazyan's family believes he and his wife are not on the run but were abducted.
Prosecutors said there is no evidence to support this, and pointed to a recent emergency passport application for the couple's children to travel to Armenia.
The FBI previously raided the home in November 2020 and Terabelian was seen throwing a bag of more than $450,000 into the bushes in their backyard.
Wilson has ordered the husband and wife to pay a fine of $50,000 but has not yet decided on whether to approve the government's request for more than $16million in restitution.
Tucker Carlson has claimed that jurors in the Kyle Rittenouse trial should have reached a verdict by now but are fearful of the 'pro-Biden mob' outside the courthouse threatening to 'burn, loot and destroy' if they acquit.
Rittenhouse, 18, shot dead two men and wounded another when he was attacked during BLM riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August last year.
Carlson said its an open-and-shut self-defense case and that 'no honest person could reach a different conclusion.'
Jurors were sent home last night after spending almost eight hours deliberating on various charges including first-degree intentional homicide.
The National Guard are on standby as hundreds of BLM protesters have been demonstrating outside the courthouse and threatening to shut down the city if Rittenhouse walks free.
'The average jury,' Carlson told viewers, 'reaches a verdict in just a few hours, so these jurors are taking much longer than most, but it's probably not because the evidence they have heard is confusing them.'
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Tucker Carlson has claimed that jurors in the Kyle Rittenouse trial should have reached a verdict by now but were fearful of the pro-Biden mobs outside the courthouse threatening to 'burn, loot and destroy' if they acquit the teen killer
Two demonstrators clash outside the courthouse in Kenosha on Tuesday
Wisconsin's National Guard on standby around 60 miles away from the Kenosha courthouse where the jury are deliberating
'The question is why is it taking so long for this jury to produce a very obvious verdict?' The Fox host asked. 'Want the answer? Well, look outside the courtroom. There are hundreds of National Guard troops assembled tonight in Kenosha. Why are they there? Well, they have come in case Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted.'
'If he is acquitted, pretty much everyone expects the usual mobs of Joe Biden voters to burn and loot and destroy,' he continued. 'Why does everyone expect this? Because people on the left are openly calling for it.'
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has ordered 500 members of the National Guard to be put on standby, 60 miles away, in case of unrest.
On Monday and Tuesday the courthouse saw demonstrators calling for Rittenhouse's conviction, and supporters demanding his acquittal.
Protesters carried signs that read, 'Know justice know peace,' 'Self-defense is not a crime,' and 'Racism kills.'
A man is seen outside the courthouse in Kenosha on Tuesday, chanting: 'If Kenosha don't get it, shut it down'
Behind him, supporters of Kyle Rittenhouse held placards aloft backing the teenager
Protesters staged a loud demonstration outside the Kenosha courthouse on Tuesday evening
Activists in Black Lives Matter shirts demanded that Rittenhouse be convicted
Their chants could be heard inside the courthouse.
Carlson said: 'Imagine if you were a juror in this case, how would you feel about this? You're not sequestered, you know how the country feels, you know what the threats are.
'Well, you might think twice before you acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse no matter what the evidence was.
'You remember what happened after Rodney King. Remember that? They burned Los Angeles to the ground. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that, you wouldn't want to spark riots, and of course, that's the whole point of the exercise.
Activists in Kenosha took a knee on Tuesday night, waiting for the jury to return on Wednesday morning and resume deliberations
Supporters of Kyle Rittenhouse clash with those who want to see him convicted on Tuesday
Police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, stand guard outside the courthouse on Tuesday as protesters gathered
Demonstrators calling for both Rittenhouse's acquittal and conviction gathered on Tuesday outside the courthouse in Kenosha
'The mob threatens violence, the rest of us tremble and pretty soon, the mob controls our justice system.'
The Los Angeles riots in 1992 came after jurors acquitted four officers from the LAPD charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of King who was detained following a high speed chase while drink-driving.
Thousands of people rioted over six days across the city, leaving 63 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.
Property damage from the carnage has been estimated at $1billion.
A famous London nightclub has resorted to offering urine and drinks testing amid increasing reports of women being spiked by injection.
XOYO, near Old Street Station in Islington, describes itself as 'one of London's best-loved nightclubs and live music venues' and was voted as one of DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs.
Revellers can access the urine and drink tests through a medic onsite each night.
The test service has only been used once since it was introduced and that result was negative.
London nightclub XOYO, which has been voted one of the 100 best clubs by an industry magazine, has introduced urine and drinks tests to reassure customers
David Vickery, XOYO's general manager, said he wants to ensure all his customers feel safe and secure on a night out.
'I think it's important if you have somebody who thinks they've been spiked, whether they have or not, it should be treated as if they have,' Mr Vickery said.
'We've got that at XOYO. There's a lot of anxiety coming out of the pandemic, people are concerned and cautious about going out.
'I think if we can make people safe and feel happier, I don't see any downside to putting this in place.'
Across the country, reports of suspected spikings by needle injection are on the rise.
In Hull, a 27-year-old single mother claims someone was 'either trying to rape or kill her' after alleging she was spiked with an EpiPen-style injection in the course of a seven-and-a-half hour drinking session.
She described later waking up during a hospital examination with no memory of how she got there.
Reports of spiking by needle injection are becoming increasingly common as bars and nightclubs across the UK take steps to reassure customers
Police received nearly 300 'spiked by needle injection' reports in the last TWO MONTHS Nearly 300 spiked by needle injection reports have been recorded across the UK in the last two months alone, new figures have revealed. The statistics from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) confirm fears that the new form of assault is sweeping the country. Police forces across the UK were asked to tally up how many incidents involving 'some form of injection' have been reported. A total of 274 were recorded between September and November 8, according to NationalWorld. It comes after the Girls Night In movement in October saw women and men avoid going out to bars and clubs in Manchester, Nottingham and Bristol as they demanded better safety measures. Dozens of local Instagram pages were created to spread the news of the Girls Night In campaign, with women from several university cities staying in, 'spreading awareness and challenging clubs' to keep people safe. Boycotts took place in at least 40 cities including Bristol, Brighton, Bournemouth, Belfast, Nottingham and Southampton. The number of spiking cases reported between September and November 8 relates to reported incidents, which means they may not have been confirmed yet by the police and officially recorded as crimes. Concerns over possible needle spiking were first raised in October, although opinion is divided on how likely it is that needles are being widely used in place of drink spiking. Some spiking victims have reported feeling pinches on their arms in clubs and later developing bruises, prompting fears they had been assaulted with needles. National Police Chiefs' Council lead for drugs, Deputy Chief Constable Jason Harwin, said police forces continue to work with pubs and clubs to increase searches and guidance to staff. Advertisement
The woman, who is a social worker, was out in Hull city centre with her colleagues on Saturday, November 13.
But she finished the night 'unable to feel her legs' before 'having 10 fits' and being rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary in an ambulance.
She said she had met some work friends at around 3pm, after which they were joined by her best friend, aunt, cousin, and another friend at around 4.30pm.
The woman said she tried to pace herself and stopped drinking for about an hour but started again at 6pm. The group then headed to their next bar from 9.30pm until 10.30pm, before leaving to take one of their friends home and going to a shop for snacks.
Within around five minutes, the woman said she began feeling strange.
She said: 'I said to my friends that my legs felt weird and I was freezing. I just kept telling them that I was cold. They told me that I then bent down to sit in the corner of the street.'
Her friends called for a taxi home before things began to 'turn bad really fast'.
She added: 'Everything went really quick, it happened over 29 minutes from being really cold to then my friends saying I just would not come around - I think at the time they just thought I had had too much to drink really.
'My friend said I laid back in the taxi and kept repeating that I was cold, I then looked up and said, "I think I have been spiked."'
Her friends then called an ambulance and the woman woke up in hospital.
She added: 'I woke up and I was naked. I didn't know what had happened, I thought I had been raped.
'The nurse then said that she had found a mark on my bum, a big red circle with a small brown centre, and said she believed I had been spiked with something like an EpiPen in my bum.
'My mum looked at it when we were home too and said there was a red ring on my bum.'
She added: 'I honestly will never go out again. I don't trust anyone anymore. It's sad as I'm only 27.
'It hurts when I walk. I cant even walk properly but I am trying to hide it from my daughter. I have to be strong for her.
'I would love to be able to rest but I cant, Im a single mum. Im just trying to get on with things best as I can.
'Ive always been quite a confident person and not really scared of anything, but this has totally knocked my confidence.'
A spokesperson for Humberside Police confirmed that investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Ireland has become the latest European country to reimpose Covid restrictions amid a surge in cases as winter sets in.
Starting tomorrow, all hospitality businesses including nightclubs and pubs will be forced to close at midnight, the use of Covid passports will be expanded, and people will be advised to work from home where possible.
Household contacts of people who test positive on a PCR will also be forced to self-isolate for five days even if double-jabbed, and will only be allowed out if they test negative on three separate antigen tests.
Ireland follows the lead of Austria and the Netherlands in imposing Covid curbs as Europe once again becomes the epicentre of the pandemic.
Ireland will reimpose Covid restrictions from Friday amid a surge in cases, as the Taoiseach refused to rule out going further if infections keep rising
Covid deaths in Ireland are still well below the highs seen during the first and second waves, but have been ticking upwards since the end of summer
While Ireland's current restrictions do not go as far as Austria - whose government has been accused of 'vaccine apartheid' after locking the unvaccinated inside their homes - Taoiseach Micheal Martin has refused to rule out going further.
'It remains to be seen as to whether these measures will be sufficient to hold back the tide of infection and hospitalisation,' he said in an evening address to the nation.
'We're not ruling out any further measures, we'll keep them under review.'
Ireland currently requires vaccine passports to be used at indoor hospitality venues such as restaurants and bars, but will now expand them to theatres and cinemas.
New restrictions on nightclubs come just a month after they were allowed to reopen.
Mr Martin also announced that the vaccine booster programme, which has only been running since November 4, will be widened to include those aged over 50.
Until now, Ireland had only been offering boosters to those aged over 60 or older long-term residents of care facilities.
Take-up has been low, with just 341,000 jabs given to a total population of 5million.
The Health Service Executive has blamed 'substantial non-attendance' of booked appointments for the slow roll-out.
Those with underlying health conditions and residents of any age inside care facilities will also be included in the expanded roll-out.
Europe's Covid winter-wave first struck in the east, where vaccination rates are broadly lower, with Russia and Latvia the first two nations to enter lockdowns.
From Friday, hospitality businesses in Ireland will be forced to close at midnight while the use of Covid passports will be expanded to cinemas and theatres
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins announced a month-long shutdown of his country a month ago, when the double-jabbed rate stood at just 57 per cent.
The Netherlands then became the first country in western Europe to follow-suit, with non-essential retail and face-to-face services such as hairdressers forced to close from 6pm.
Essential stores, clubs, bars and restaurants have to close at 8pm. Home gatherings have been limited to a maximum of four people, while all sporting matches must be held behind closed doors.
Austria then followed suit with hugely controversial measures that affect only those who are unvaccinated and do not have a medical exemption.
It means that roughly two million people have been barred from leaving their homes except for essential reasons, such as buying food or medicine.
They had already been barred from visiting restaurants, hairdressers and cinemas.
Around 65 per cent of Austria's population has been double-vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in western Europe.
Germany, which also has a lower vaccination rate than the European average at 67 per cent, is now considering imposing similar measures.
Micheal Martin, the Irish Taoiseach (file image), has refused to rule out imposing further restrictions including over Christmas if cases continue to rise
The incoming Social Democrat (SDP) government has warned that unvaccinated people will be barred from going to work and travelling on public transport.
The new government will also recommend that everyone should work from home unless they have a 'compelling business reason'.
'This is actually a lockdown for the unvaccinated,' said Dirk Wiese, the deputy head of the SPD parliamentary group. Around 14 million Germans eligible to be vaccinated have not taken up the offer.
In Bavaria, and the east German states of Thuringia and Saxony, the situation is reaching a critical point amid warnings that hospitals across the country will hit capacity in the first two weeks of December.
In Saxony, those who refuse the vaccine could be limited to meeting just one person from outside their household and banned from non-essential travel by Friday.
Saxony and Bavaria are among a number of states that already demand proof of vaccination for entry into restaurants, bars and clubs.
The Bavarian government is urging Berlin to impose the same rules across the country.
At least Two bodies have been found at the site of a New Zealand coal mine explosion that left 29 dead including two Britons more than a decade ago.
Police have located at least two bodies and possibly a third after a camera was sent down a newly dug hole at the Pike River mine on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island.
But authorities said the main part of the site remains too dangerous to enter so they will not be able to recover the remains.
Police have been investigating the disaster for years, with some family members of the miners hoping they will eventually file criminal charges.
Thirty-two people were in the mine on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island when a series of methane gas explosions took place on November 19, 2010. Among the dead were two Britons, Malcolm Campbell, 25, and Pete Rodger, 40.
Only two of the group managed to escape, staggering out of the mine more than an hour after the blast.
Police Detective Superintendent Peter Read said they had not yet been able to identify the bodies, although they were working with forensic experts to see if that was possible.
Two more bodies have been found at the site of a New Zealand coal Pike River mine (pictured, flames burn from a ventilation shaft above the Pike River mine) explosion which killed 29 workers more than a decade ago
A series of blasts ignited by methane gas ripped through the Pike River Mine on the west coast of the South Island in November 2010, trapping 31 men, though two managed to escape
Among the 29 who died in the explosion were two Britons Malcolm Campbell (left) and Pete Rodger (right)
Pictured: 24 of the 29 miners who were killed in the methane-fueled explosion in November 2010. Top row L to R: Conrad John Adams, 43, Glen Peter Cruse, 35, Allan John Dixon, 59, Zen Wodin Drew, 21, Christopher Peter Duggan, 31, Joseph Ray Dunbar, 17, John Leonard Hale, 45, Daniel Thomas Herk, 36. Second row L to R: David Mark Hoggart, 33, Richard Bennett Holling, 41, Andrew David Hurren, 32, Jacobus (Koos) Albertus Jonker, 47, William John Joynson, 49, Riki Steve Keane, 28, Terry David Kitchin, 41 Samuel Peter McKie, 26. Bottom row L to R: Michael Nolan Hanmer Monk, 23, Kane Barry Nieper, 33, Peter O'Neill, 55, Benjamin David Rockhouse, 21, Peter James Rodger, 40, Blair David Sims, 28, Joshua Adam Ufer, 25, Keith Thomas Valli, 62
Read said the bodies were found at the far end of the mine, where methane levels remain high.
He said imaging technology had improved markedly since the disaster, which helped them make the discovery. He said they had previously identified the six or eight miners believed to have been working in that area at the time.
'This is only two days away from the eleventh anniversary of the mine explosion, and we'd like to acknowledge the families of all the men,' Read said. 'It's a really stark reminder of the pain and the loss.'
He said the discovery would help their investigation.
Read said police wouldn't be releasing the images out of respect to the families and declined to describe the conditions of the bodies.
'It's what you might expect after 11 years, but I'm not really going into any details of what the images show,' he said.
Pike River Recovery Agency, workers react after the first of the two airlock doors was opened in the Pike River Mine, near Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand, in May 2019
A three-man team took the first symbolic steps inside, beginning a months-long search of the 2.3-kilometre drift or entrance section in May 2019
Families of the 29 victims watch as a loader enters the Pike River mine in May 2019 as investigators regained access to the site nearly a decade after the disaster in 2010
Workers in June 2011 walk past a bouquet of flowers left for victims of a mine explosion at the Pike River mine in New Zealand's south island
Emotional friends and relatives of the trapped miners gather outside the Pike River Coal Company headquarters days after the November 2010 disaster
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton was killed in the explosion, said she'd been preparing for the 11th anniversary and was initially shocked by the announcement.
She wondered at first if one of the bodies could be her husband but then realized he would have been elsewhere in the mine.
She said she felt some pride because the families had pushed hard for authorities to re-enter a safer part of the mine - sealed off following the disaster in 2010 - which they had finally done in 2019.
She said that helped reinvigorate the police investigation. 'I think that our men deserve justice,' she said.
Osborne said it was unfortunate the bodies could not be retrieved.
'They all died together and they will all stay together,' she said.
The workers were presumed dead after a series of methane explosions around the mine's entrance - 5,000ft away from where they were working - trapped them underground.
Among the victims were two Britons - Pete Rodger and Malcolm Campbell.
Campbell's father said after the disaster his son served an apprenticeship at a Fife paper mill before emigrating to Australia in 2007, where he worked as a miner.
A year later he moved to New Zealand and took the job at Pike River in the Paparoa Ranges mountains on the west coast of the South Island.
The other Briton trapped is Pete Rodger, 40, from Perthshire. The former grammar school pupil moved to New Zealand two years ago to be near to his mother and sister, who emigrated many years ago.
Anna Osborne from the Family Reference Group (left) and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (right) embrace at the entrance to the Pike River Mine in May 2019
Emotional relatives of the 29 workers who were tragically killed when a mine exploded watched on as experts entered the area in the hope of recovering their remains
The families of those killed have since fought a long, complex battle to have the site re-entered to find the cause of the disaster and human remains
Police Detective Superintendent Peter Read said they had located at least two bodies at the Pike River mine and possibly a third after a camera was sent down a newly dug hole
An earlier investigation concluded the Pike River Coal company had exposed miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets.
The report found the company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before the disaster and that there were not enough inspectors to keep up with their workload at the time.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said: 'The company completely and utterly failed to protect its workers.'
The company, which went bankrupt, did not contest labour violation charges against it.
Labour violation charges against former chief executive Peter Whittall were dismissed after he and the company made a financial settlement, a development that angered many of the grieving families.
New Zealand's Supreme Court later ruled the settlement was unlawful.
The blast caused a methane gas fireball which shot 350ft up a ventilation shaft, blackening trees and scorching equipment on the surface.
The two survivors stumbled out of the mine an hour later. One of the survivors, Russel Smith, was an hour late for work and so was not deep in the mine with those who died.
He and and fellow survivor Daniel Rockhouse walked out of the tunnel more than an hour after the explosion.
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Boris Johnson endured another brutal day trying to quell the sleaze crisis today with Tories furious about his 'back of a fag packet' crackdown on their outside earnings.
The PM has desperately tried to draw a line under the chaos by pledging to ban politicians from working as consultants on the side - something that could cost dozens of his own backbenchers significant sums.
In a major shift, Mr Johnson also suggested MPs should have limits placed on the time they spend on second jobs.
The dramatic intervention was intended to outflank Labour amid growing alarm that its attacks on the government over sleaze were hitting home.
But it immediately threatened to descend into a shambles, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan suggesting that 20 hours on a sideline 'is fine'.
'Let's say two shifts, that would be 16 hours a week. Are we saying 10 to 20 hours a week outside your work as an MP and a parliamentarian? If that's what you chose to do as your choice, that's fine.'
Ms Trevelyan also indicated that former attorney general Geoffrey Cox would not have to curb his 1million a year legal practice under the mooted changes - despite No10 claiming he would.
'Key is, is he doing a good job for his constituents? Do they think he's doing a good job for them? And, from what I've heard, no-one has stood up and said otherwise,' she said.
'But that he continues to practise what is his professional skill while he is a backbench MP, for me, is perfectly acceptable because in the same way that Maria Caulfield serves in the NHS as a nurse continues to practise her profession alongside serving her constituents is, I think, important for the NHS.'
The proposals have teed up a major showdown with some Tory MPs over whether and how the rules at Parliament should be overhauled. There is muttering that many will decline to turn up for crunch votes on the changes due this evening.
One backbencher told MailOnline that Downing Street had 'dreamed up' another disastrous idea that looked clever at first glance but would not stand up to any scrutiny.
'I think it's been put together on the back of a fag packet... It's the same mistake we made over Owen Paterson,' they said.
Mr Johnson clashed bitterly with Keir Starmer at PMQs this lunchtime, and was grilled by the Liaison Committee, before crunch votes tonight on how to reform Commons rules.
He later faced the backbench 1922 Committee in a bid to repair relations with his MPs, admitting to them: 'On a clear road I crashed the car into a ditch.'
Boris Johnson (pictured at PMQs today) has desperately tried to draw a line under the chaos by pledging to ban politicians from working as consultants on the side - something that could cost dozens of his own backbenchers significant sums
The dramatic intervention was intended to outflank Keir Starmer (pictured today) amid growing alarm that Labour's attacks on the government over sleaze were hitting home
The government's blueprint immediately threatened to descend into a shambles, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan suggesting that 20 hours on a sideline 'is fine'
How do the sleaze reform plans being pushed by the PM and Labour compare? LABOUR Labour's proposal calls for a ban on 'any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant'. Crucially, it also includes provisions requiring the Commons Standards Committee to come forward with proposals to implement the ban and guaranteeing time on the floor of the House for MPs to debate and vote on them. Although it does not feature in the motion, Keir Starmer has also said he wants to ban almost all second jobs - with only limited exceptions such as doctors and nurses. TORIES The government is trying to amend the Labour motion to push its own overhaul of the standards system. The amendment is more vaguely, describing the consultancy ban as 'the basis of a viable approach' and supporting the work of the Standards Committee to update the MPs' code of conduct. Boris Johnson has called for a ban on political consultancy work, and says he is going further than Labour with restrictions on outside work that distracts from Commons duties. However, it is unclear how broad the ban would be, and what would count as excessive outside work. Advertisement
Boris rows with Speaker and Starmer during bad-tempered PMQs session Boris Johnson was today brutally rebuked by the Speaker as he tried to turn the tables on Keir Starmer during a fiery PMQs sessions. The premier repeatedly tried to grill the Labour leader over his past legal work as the pair clashed over sleaze at the weekly session. But Lindsay Hoyle demanded he stop, insisting it is questions to the Prime Minister rather than to the Opposition leader. 'You might be the PM of this country but in this House I'm in charge,' Sir Lindsay said. Sir Lindsay also warned that the bad-tempered discussion was doing nothing to restore the image of the House after the Owen Paterson debacle earlier this month. There looked to be fewer Conservative MPs cheering Mr Johnson on in the chamber this afternoon than in recent weeks. And the weekly exchanges turned nasty after Mr Johnson attempted to question Sir Keir about links with Mishcon de Reya. Sir Lindsay told Mr Johnson: 'I don't want to fall out about it, I've made it very clear it is Prime Minister's Questions, it's not for the Opposition to answer your questions. 'Whether we like it or not those are the rules of the game that we're all into and we play by the rules, don't we? And we respect this House, so let's respect the House.' After Mr Johnson attempted to ask again about the issue in a later exchange, the Speaker said: 'Prime Minister, sit down. I'm not going to be challenged, you may be the Prime Minister of this country but in this House I'm in charge.' Mr Johnson later accused Sir Keir of 'Mish-conduct', which prompted calls from the Labour benches for the comment to be withdrawn. The Speaker said: 'I don't think this has done this House any good today. I'll be quite honest, I think it's been ill-tempered, I think it shows the public that this House has not learnt from the other week, I need this House to gain respect but it starts by individuals showing respect for each other.' Despite the rollocking for Mr Johnson, at the end of the session Sir Keir was pulled up for calling the PM a 'coward'. When Mr Johnson again dodged saying sorry for his handling of the Paterson case, Sir Keir said: 'That's not an apology. Everybody else has apologised for him, but he won't apologise for himself. A coward not a leader.' Responding to a point of order, Sir Lindsay said the jibe was 'not the kind of language' for the Commons. Rising to his feet again, Sir Keir said: 'I withdraw it. But he is no leader.' Advertisement
Some polls have shown the Opposition taking the lead amid the outcry over Owen Paterson's lobbying and Geoffrey Cox's lucrative legal sideline.
The government wants new rules to introduced in January, assuming an agreement can be reached with Labour.
But the Opposition has accused the government of 'dirty tricks' and trying to water down its rival blueprint.
During the debate this evening, Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said the government was trying to 'water down' reforms.
She told MPs: 'The proposal which is in the amendment today, the only thing that is actually on offer to vote for from the Prime Minister, weakens, waters down, takes away the deadline, takes away the vote and the Leader of the House (Jacob Rees-Mogg) knows this.'
The Labour MP added: 'The benches opposite need to accept that the time has now come, today is that day, they need to stand up and be counted if they want to follow through on what their Prime Minister said yesterday, they need to vote for the Labour motion today. Will they? We will see.'
Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg told MPs that their expertise should 'not be for sale', but defended the Government's belief that parliamentarians benefit from having outside careers.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I have already emphasised the supremacy of an MP's parliamentary and constituency work, but we also recognise there are certain external roles that seem at odds with the jobs of a Member of Parliament, namely those that would capitalise on an insiders knowledge of Parliament and Government.
'I can confirm to the House that we believe this experience and expertise that we accrue as part of our work as MPs should not be for sale. We are elected to Parliament on a promise to work for the greater good, not ourselves.'
He had earlier said: 'The Government believes that it is an historic strength of our system that MPs should have a wider focus than the Westminster bubble, that we should maintain connections to the world beyond so that we may draw on the insight and expertise that this experience offers, and that rather than a chamber replete with professional politicians with no previous career or future career other than to remain on the public payroll, we have a Parliament that benefits from MPs with a broader range of talents and professional backgrounds.'
But there were clear signs of unhappiness from Tories.
Sir Charles Walker complained that it had been 'a very bruising two weeks' and MPs were 'guilty until proven guilty'.
He said: 'We're never happier when burning each other to a crisp, we love to skewer each other and place ourselves on the barbecue and roast ourselves pink and then serve ourselves up with a large side order of hubris. We're all guilty of doing it on both sides of the House and we need to remember that. No-one in this place is perfect.'
He added: 'The one thing I've learnt is that we're not entitled to a fair hearing in this place: we're guilty until proven guilty, it's one of Newton's laws, if you're an MP you don't get a fair hearing.'
Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh questioned how it would be determined if an MP was spending too much time on outside interests, adding: 'It should be common-sense and it should be left to the judgment of the electorate.
'If it's left to the Commissioner for Standards, however distinguished, that will give that official a degree of power never enjoyed by any official ever before over Members of Parliament.
'We are accountable not to officials but to our electorate.'
Chris Bryant, Labour chairman of the Committee on Standards, also sounded negative about the idea of checking how long MPs were spending on Commons tasks.
'I think it'll be very, very difficult for the commissioner to start investigating whether an MP was devoting enough of their time to their constituents,' he said.
'Of course all our constituents want us to throw ourselves heart and soul into our work, and I think we all do many of us work many, many more hours than a normal working week, 60, 70, 80 hours.'
Mr Bryant added he is 'very hesitant about going down this route of timesheets', noting he would urge his committee to 'think very carefully about this'.
Ms Trevelyan got into a muddle during her interviews this morning, initially saying up to 10 hours on a second job was acceptable, before increasing the figure to 15 hours, and then 20 hours.
'You do a 40 to 50-hour week, say, as a backbench MP and you do eight to 10 hours work on something else,' she told Times Radio. 'For me that would be a perfectly reasonable balance.'
On BBC Breakfast the Cabinet minister said: 'I think there is a common sense test which is if you probably do 40-50 hours a week doing your main job, doing 10 or 15 hours a week doing something else, whatever you choose to do in your spare time, whether that's paid or not paid, is something that is part of the richness of what you bring as an individual to your role as an MP.'
But later in her round of interviews, Ms Trevelyan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that longer would be reasonable.
Labour's proposal calls for a ban on 'any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant'.
Crucially, it also includes provisions requiring the Commons Standards Committee to come forward with proposals to implement the ban and guaranteeing time on the floor of the House for MPs to debate and vote on them.
In contrast, the more vaguely worded Government amendment simply describes the consultancy ban as 'the basis of a viable approach' and supports the work of the Standards Committee to update the MPs' code of conduct.
Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said it was 'typical Tory dirty tricks' and an attempt to water down the proposals.
The PM's proposals prompted an immediate backlash from Mr Johnson's own MPs, who now face losing out on thousands and in some cases millions of pounds.
Before Ms Trevelyan's intervention a Whitehall source claimed the plans were likely to restrict the activities of Sir Geoffrey, who has earned more than 5.5million from his other jobs including a stint in the British Virgin Islands during lockdown.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the powerful Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, warned of 'dissatisfaction' among MPs.
'Various discussions will be taking place between backbenchers today and the Prime Minister, and I've no doubt I will have an opportunity to make my views known,' he said.
He added: 'I think I will have more than adequate opportunity to make my views known today.'
He said Mr Johnson 'wants to get ahead of the curve' on the debate and is 'doing the right thing'.
He said: 'We need to get the rules absolutely clear on what MPs can do, what they can't do, so that our constituents have an expectation of what the person representing them is going to do.'
Mr Johnson declared that his proposals would ensure MPs who are 'neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities'.
He said it was now 'imperative that we put beyond doubt the reputation of the House of Commons by ensuring the rules which apply to MPs are up to date, effective and appropriately rigorous.'
He said he would seek a 'cross-party consensus' on the issue prompting fears from some Tory MPs that Labour will ensure new rules are exceedingly tough.
As the PM battled to regain the public's confidence:
MPs on Parliament's liaison committee prepared to grill Mr Johnson over the sleaze row today;
It emerged that MPs could also be banned from taking freebies from lobbyists and could have to declare new jobs they take after leaving Parliament;
Sir Keir claimed the PM had been 'dragged kicking and screaming' to support reform by Labour's own bid to tighten the rules.
The Government will try to amend Labour's anti-sleaze motion with a vote in the Commons this afternoon to reflect the PM's new plan.
Mr Johnson's announcement came less than a fortnight after he tried to save Mr Paterson, who was found to have broken lobbying rules. As recently as a week ago, the PM said MPs' second jobs can 'strengthen' Parliament.
But yesterday saw his predecessor Theresa May deliver a withering assessment on the Paterson debacle, saying the Government's attempt to spare the former minister had been 'misplaced, ill-judged and just plain wrong'.
She added: 'Damage has been done to all MPs and to Parliament as a whole.'
The new proposals could directly affect around 30 MPs who currently hold lucrative jobs advising firms.
The PM has written to Speaker Lindsay Hoyle proposing a dramatic overhaul of the rules to crack down on abuses of the system - that could hit the interests of a number of Tory MPs
Jacob Rees-Mogg humbly admitted he had made a 'mistake' in pushing the retrospective overhaul of the standards system, as he urged members to vote for a motion that would official scrap the changes and rebuke Owen Paterson
They include former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell, who is paid more than 182,000 a year to advise six companies, and former transport secretary Chris Grayling, who is paid 100,000 a year as a 'strategic adviser' to a ports operator. The plan to place 'reasonable limits' on time spent on outside interests follows outcry over Sir Geoffrey, who has devoted 10,700 hours to his legal career since 2009. Yet some Tory MPs warned the PM risked going too far.
'The Prime Minister is pouring fuel on the fire just as it was starting to go out,' one senior figure said. 'What does 'reasonable limits' mean? Can you still be a minister and a constituency MP?
'Labour will have a field day with this they will end up having us clocking in and clocking out to no useful end, while the media will crawl all over everything we do.'
Mr Rees-Mogg attempted to take the blame for the public backlash yesterday, telling the Conservative Home website that he had persuaded the PM to try to help Mr Paterson. The Commons Leader said he had done so out of sympathy for the former environment secretary, whose wife Rose committed suicide last year.
The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Kathryn Stone, found Mr Paterson guilty of 'egregious' breaches of lobbying rules on behalf of two firms which had paid him more than 500,000.
But Mr Rees-Mogg said he felt Mr Paterson had been 'punished enough' by his tragic loss. 'It was not seen by the electorate as being merciful, it was seen as being self-serving,' he said of the attempt to block Mr Paterson's suspension.
'I must take my share of responsibility for this. I thought it was the right thing to do, I encouraged the Prime Minister to go down this route, and I was wrong.'
The PM said at the weekend: 'Of course, I think things could certainly have been handled better... by me.'
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Almost 10,000 extra people have died from non-Covid illnesses in England and Wales than would be expected since summer, according to official figures.
Experts have demanded an urgent investigation into whether the deaths were avoidable and if the current NHS crisis and emergency care delays are to blame.
There have been around 21,000 more deaths from all causes than average since July, according to Office for National Statistics data up to November 5.
But about 11,500 of these involved Covid, leaving a little more than 9,000 due to other causes such as dementia, heart and lung disease and cancer.
Oxford University's Professor Carl Heneghan, an eminent expert in evidence-based medicine, said he suspected many of the excess deaths were 'potentially reversible'.
He told The Telegraph: 'This goes beyond just looking at the raw numbers and death certificates. We need to go back and find if these deaths have any preventable causes. This could be the fallout from the lack of preventable care during the pandemic.'
Since January, there have been 46,000 more deaths than the five-year average, but nearly 77,000 were Covid-related.
The above graph shows the number of fatalities from all causes compared to the five-year average. It reveals that deaths have been above expected levels since July even as vaccines have kept Covid fatalities at a fraction of their previous levels
The above graph shows the number of deaths that are involving Covid (blue) and are not involving the virus (green). It reveals that deaths have been above average since July
The above line graph shows all fatalities recorded in England and Wales (blue line) compared to the five-year average (blue dotted line). It reveals that fatalities have been above expected levels since the summer began
The NHS waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has reached 5.83million, official data reveals 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
NHS boss Amanda Pritchard reveals health service is preparing for having to roll out annual programme alongside flu jabs The NHS is preparing for the concept of an annual Covid booster vaccine roll-out, the head of the health service in England said today. Amanda Pritchard said the NHS is already putting plans in place should it be required to deliver a yearly vaccine campaign similar to the annual winter flu jab programme. On Monday, the JCVI recommended that the booster programme should be extended to include all adults aged 40 and over, as well making new recommendations for second jabs for 16 and 17-year-olds. In a speech to the NHS Providers annual conference, Ms Pritchard said: 'We had the latest advice yesterday from the JCVI on extending (boosters) to the over-40s, as well as giving second doses to 16- and 17-year-olds, and I think we can expect further expansions in the future. 'We are already thinking about how we can do annual booster vaccines, if they are needed.' Ms Pritchard urged people to take up vaccination invitations 'as soon as possible' when called, highlighting that a third of people take between two and five weeks to come forward and book after they are contacted about a booster jab. Advertisement
Professor Heneghan said: 'I'm calling for an urgent investigation.
'If you look at where the excess is happening, it's in conditions like ischemic heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes, all which are potentially reversible.
'We urgently need to understand what's going wrong and an investigation of the root causes to determine those actions that can prevent further unnecessary deaths.'
Figures also show more people are dying at home than ever before.
There were some 964 extra deaths in private homes in the week to November 5, the latest available, which was 40 per cent above the five-year average.
There were also 548 extra deaths in hospitals, 12 per cent above average, and 155 excess deaths in care homes, seven per cent above average.
It has been suggested that deaths at home have risen because more people were choosing to die there.
But some experts fear it may be because terminally ill people don't want to go into hospital in case they catch the virus.
The figures come as the NHS faces a crisis in routine and emergency care after thousands of appointments were shelved during the darkest days of the pandemic.
A record 5.83million patients are currently waiting for routine treatment on the health service in England, including 300,000 patients who have spent a year in the queue.
Some 10,000 patients have now been waiting two years to be seen for surgery such as hip and knee replacements.
A crisis has also erupted in emergency care, with ambulances carrying sick patients left standing outside hospital for hours waiting for beds in A&E.
Paramedic bosses say crews are currently picking up two to three patients a day, whereas normally they would collect up to eight.
Calls to 999 have also hit a record, with 1.2million people making a desperate call to the service in October.
But health chiefs have admitted as much as three-quarters of these are repeat callers pleading for an update on the arrival of their ambulance.
NHS data for October shows the average waiting time for some emergency 999 ambulance calls has reached 54 minutes.
This is triple the 18-minute target for ambulance trusts to respond to these 'Category 2' calls, which includes strokes and heart attacks.
Medics have warned that A&E patients are having to wait more than 12 hours for a bed because emergency departments are so overwhelmed due to crippling staff shortages, pandemic backlogs and unprecedented demand.
Shocking statistics also show more than 7,000 patients waited 12-plus hours to be seen in A&E in October more than triple the number in the same month pre-Covid.
NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard warned yesterday that she expected 'things to get worse before they get better'. She suggested the health service needed more doctors and nurses not more cash to address the deepening crisis, adding that 'nothing works without staff'.
Shroud-waving NHS bosses, egged on by the BBC, are a plague of every winter... Yet if there is one thing we know about our health service, it is that whatever the sums involved, they are never enough, writes Professor ANGUS DALGLEISH
Alarm bells are ringing loud and long, the klaxons reaching full volume. This week we have been subjected to a barrage of grim warnings about the crisis that is beginning to engulf the NHS in the wake of the pandemic.
Overstretched, short-staffed and underfunded, the health service is said to be facing the worst winter in its history, according to NHS Providers, which represents bodies such as hospital trusts and the ambulance service.
Predictably, this chorus of anguish has been taken up most notably by the BBC, whose own dependence on public funding gives it a vested interest in defending another arm of the State.
Presenter Martha Kearney spoke of 'hospitals beyond full stretch', a theme eagerly taken up by Chris Hopson (pictured), the chief executive of NHS Providers
Indeed, the Corporation often seems only too keen to act as a voice of propaganda for the NHS, peddling scare stories about its supposed lack of resources while simultaneously praising the magnificence of its workforce.
Despair
That has been the pattern again in recent days.
On Monday morning, BBC Radio 5 Live was dominated by discussion about the looming winter crisis, complete with the usual paeans of praise for its fortitude, juxtaposed with despair at its failings born of cheeseparing.
More of the same followed on Radio 4, where the Today programme is focusing on the NHS and its future. Yesterday it was the experience of the NHS in Newcastle.
From there, health editor Hugh Pym said that for local hospitals 'every week seems more hectic than the last one', adding that 'the strain will get even more intense'.
Presenter Martha Kearney spoke of 'hospitals beyond full stretch', a theme eagerly taken up by Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers.
In his interview with her, he wailed that staff are 'running at full pelt' but left exhausted 'by insufficient capacity'.
The NHS is now paying the price, he explained, for 'a broken workforce model' and 'the longest and deepest financial squeeze in our history' over the past decade.
This brings us to the nub of the issue. With the BBC acting as collaborators, NHS managers are indulging in a crude form of political blackmail.
The aim of all this shroud-waving is clearly to compel the Government to inject yet more money into the NHS.
This approach has already proved effective, with record sums being handed to our beleaguered health service.
Incredibly, 40 per cent of all day-to-day spending by the State now goes to the health sector. And this trend is set to be accelerated when the Government's 1.25 per cent National Insurance hike takes effect in April, generating an extra 12 billion a year for health and social care.
In his Budget last month, the Chancellor also promised another 6 billion to clear the Covid backlog.
Yet if there is one thing we know about the NHS, it is that whatever the sums involved, they are never enough. The NHS seems permanently on the verge of meltdown.
. The impact of Covid is being cynically exaggerated for political ends, an approach epitomised by a statement from the new NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard (pictured)
But it is this perpetual talk of doom that makes me so sceptical. I have been working in the NHS for 35 years and, as far as I recall, every coming winter has been hailed as likely to be the 'worst ever'.
In fact, the proclamation of inevitable disaster is almost a traditional pre-Christmas ritual, undimmed by reality.
Nigel Lawson, a Tory Chancellor for six years in the 1980s, said the NHS was the closest thing the English people had to a religion and the prospect of a Biblical-scale apocalypse features heavily in the vision shared by the most fervent adherents of this faith.
But there is no justification for panic. The impact of Covid is being cynically exaggerated for political ends, an approach epitomised by a statement from the new NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard.
A week ago, having claimed the NHS is 'running hot' with 'very real pressures on health and social care', she said: 'We have had 14 times the number of people with Covid in hospital than we saw this time last year.'
In fact, the number of people in hospital with coronavirus was far lower than at the same time last year.
When she spoke last week, there were 7,075 patients in English hospitals with Covid-19, compared with 11,680 on November 8, 2020.
NHS England later clarified that Pritchard had been referring to admissions in August 2021, the most recent set of published monthly figures, which were 22,877, compared with 1,629 in August last year.
But Ms Pritchard's highly selective use of outdated figures went completely unchallenged by the BBC.
Equally unconvincing is the theory that a surge in Covid cases is set to overwhelm the NHS a threat Boris Johnson talked up at his press conference on Monday, with reference to 'storm clouds'.
Decline
Such language is badly misplaced. The worst of the Covid pandemic is behind us, as deaths continue to decline and the vaccine programme extends its reach.
Nor do I believe there is any basis for anxiety about the threat from a new wave of flu.
Those who shriek about the 'worst winter ever' should recall 1957, when the Asian flu outbreak killed 33,000 people in the UK; and the Hong Kong flu epidemic of 1968, which accounted for 80,000 lives.
Yet the NHS coped then, and will do so again.
In his Budget last month, the Chancellor (pictured) also promised another 6 billion to clear the Covid backlog
Paradoxically, the advent of Covid has actually made life easier for the health service in one respect: by encouraging a far higher take-up of the flu vaccine, particularly among those aged over 65.
As a result of this and more hand-washing, wearing of face masks and social distancing influenza rates have tumbled in Britain since the coronavirus outbreak.
According to government figures, there were only nine hospital admissions in England last winter for flu, compared with 1,671 in 2019/20.
One analysis by Public Health England found there were no flu cases detected at all between December 28, 2020, and February 14, 2021.
Alarmism
Even if there is a small rise this winter, it is unlikely that influenza will return to anything like pre-Covid levels, when in a bad year it could kill around 30,000 people.
Yes, hospitals face a backlog of operations built up during the period when the NHS became the National Covid Service. But while delaying operations such as cancer surgery is not an option, some elective procedures will just have to be postponed until the spring, because it is impossible to carry on completely as normal at a time of national emergency.
One of the worst aspects of the current alarmism is how it will be used to block reform in the NHS. Buttressed by sentimentality and BBC cheerleading, the health service pretends its problems can only ever be solved by more money.
But the truth is, extra funding can actually worsen its inadequacies by entrenching the interests of its workforce over its patients and perpetuating flawed structures, sprawling bureaucracies and chronic inefficiencies.
We could do so much better if the blind NHS-worship and incessant gloom-mongering were dropped. The cycle of manufactured crisis only lowers staff morale, leaves the public fearful and inhibits the drive for vital change.
This is the shocking moment a brawl erupted inside a McDonald's restaurant as three plain-clothed officers tried to arrest a man after he allegedly refused to leave.
Footage captured at the fast food branch in Wood Green, north London, shows three men, believed to be officers, attempt to wrestle the 21-year-old suspect, dressed in a black jumper, to the floor.
One of the officers tells the man to 'get to the floor' before the suspect fights back and a violent brawl ensues in front of horrified customers.
The Metropolitan Police have said that officers were called to the premises at around 7pm on November 14 and attempted to speak with the man who 'refused to stop and engage with them'.
People queue for their food when the three plain-clothed officers try to detain the suspect at the McDonald's restaurant in Wood Green, north London, on November 14
The three officers chase the man, who is wearing a black jumper and tracksuit bottoms, as horrified customers move out of the way
They said the Directorate of Professional Standards were aware of the footage and no misconduct has been identified.
A 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault on police and is currently in custody at a north London police station.
During the clip, people can be seen queuing for their food when the three plain- clothed officers try to detain the suspect - who is wearing a black hoodie and tracksuit bottoms.
The suspect then tries to push one of the officer's away from him as another cop tries to grab him in a headlock and chairs are pushed out of the way.
The agitated man can be heard making a grunting noise as the officers attempt to stop him.
As the altercation ensues, one of the officer's aims a punch at the man wearing the black jumper but misses.
The tussle then moves outside onto the street and the man in the black hoodie can be seen walking down the high street.
A spokesperson for Metropolitan Police said: 'We are aware of a video that is circulating on social media that shows an incident inside a fast food restaurant on High Road, N22.
One of the men tries to get the man in the black hoodie in a headlock before he pushes them away
One of the men aims a punch at the man in the black hoodie as the altercation ensues
The Metropolitan Police said that officers were called to the premises in Wood Green (pictured) at around 7pm on November 14
'Officers were called to the premises at around 19:00hrs on November 14 after receiving a report that a man inside the restaurant was refusing to leave.
'When officers attempted to speak with the man, he refused to stop and engage with them.
'A 21-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of assault on police and a public order offence. He remains in custody at a north London police station.
'The Directorate of Professional Standards are aware of the footage and no misconduct has been identified at this stage.
'Our officers understand that their actions will be scrutinised as they go about their work and that they will be held to account where appropriate.
'Any use of force must be proportionate and reasonable, and where there is any suggestion that it is not, it will be thoroughly investigated and action taken where necessary.'
A coroner has demanded a university changes its exam results policy and provides more pastoral care after a student killed herself because she was wrongly told she had failed her exams.
Mared Foulkes, 21, from Anglesey, north Wales, died on July 8 after falling from the nearby Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait.
The Cardiff University student was in her second year studying pharmaceuticals, having worked part-time in a pharmacy for several years.
An inquest in Caernarfon last month was told Miss Foulkes had received an automated email from the university hours before her death saying that she had failed her re-sit exam and would not be moving on to third year.
One email stated that she had failed with a score of 39 per cent when in fact she had passed the exam with 62 per cent.
The 39 per cent related to a previous exam she had failed on March 26 and not the re-sit exam she had taken - and passed - on April 24.
Now, Katie Sutherland, the acting senior coroner in North West Wales, has issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report, demanding changes from the university.
A senior coroner has demanded Cardiff University changes its exam results policy and provides more pastoral care after dedicated pharmacy student Mared Foulkes (pictured) killed herself because she was wrongly told she had failed her exams and could not finish her degree
Witnesses described how Mared 'disappeared' from the bridge where she took her own life
In the report, the coroner described the results process as 'complex, confusing and at times capable of appearing misleading'.
Calling for this process to be simplified, Ms Sutherland also urged the university to ensure personal tutors were available to students who had potentially failed exams so they could help them through the 'complex and confusing assessment and results process'.
Cardiff University must legally respond to the report within 56 days detailing action taken or proposed to be taken and setting out the timetable for any changes.
If they fail to make any changes in response to the report, the university is duty-bound to explain why no action is proposed.
The report came after an inquest found Mared had taken her own life under the belief she would not be able to progress to her third year of university.
At the inquest, held last month, her mother, Iona Foulkes, said that she felt it was 'plain and simple' that her daughter's actions that day were a 'direct result' of receiving a misleading email from Cardiff University.
Mared Foulkes was described as a dedicated student who would have believed 'her dreams and aspirations were finished' when she received the email telling her she could not progress
Mrs Foulkes said: 'She received an automatic email - there was nothing personal - no phone call, nothing.
'She believed she had failed and the email said she could not progress with her degree.
'She was devoted to her course and to her work in the pharmacy, she would have been horrified.
'She would have felt like all her dreams and aspirations had finished with that sentence - for a 21-year-old it's unbelievable.'
The mother-of-two said she felt that the course tutor should have been in contact with Miss Foulkes directly regarding the results and believes parents of students should be made aware of exam results dates.
'Parents should not have to drive by their daughter's grave on the way to and from work' In a statement shared after Mared's inquest, her parents Iona and Glyngwn Foulkes described the way the university communicated its exam results as 'wanting' and 'barely understandable'. They added: ' It has added an extra weight to our sadness. 'We are sad that the outcome could and should have been so different. 'Now we are left with memories in photograph albums, memories of her kindness and other fine qualities.' 'Parents should not have to drive by their daughter's grave on the way to and from work. 'We are learning to live without Mared but the task is heartbreaking and we remain very poor students. 'We are not the first parents to express disbelief at the poor communications of universities with students and we are sorrowful that we won't be the last. 'Our hopes for Mared matched her own ambitions. We entrusted her learning and well-being to the university. 'Since Mared's sudden death we have lived through a harrowing time of grief and mourning. The shock and aftershocks of her death remain with us. 'We never imagined that we would outlive our much-loved daughter and first-born or that her brother would become our only child.' They said they hoped the coroner's report would prevent the deaths of other students. Advertisement
When the Covid-19 pandemic started Miss Foulkes had been forced to complete her studies online.
The inquest heard how Miss Foulkes had gone to work at Rowlands Pharmacy in Caernarfon that morning having been for a run and had returned home to have dinner with her parents and brother at around 6pm.
She then told her mother she was going to Tesco in Bangor to get ingredients to make a cheesecake the following day.
Shortly after leaving the house Miss Foulkes drove to Britannia Bridge, which links Anglesey with Bangor.
She was seen leaving her vehicle and walking to the side of the bridge and 'disappearing'.
Mrs Foulkes said that her daughter made no mention of the fact that she was due to receive results that day or that she had received an email saying that she had not been successful.
She also said that Miss Foulkes showed no signs of feeling down in the lead up to her death but had been upset by the recent death of her grandmother.
Anwen Jones, who witnessed the incident while she was driving onto Anglesey with her 10-year-old son, said Miss Foulkes appeared to show 'no hesitation' in her actions.
Ms Jones said: 'She just went up and over in a split second - there was no stopping and thinking.
'She just disappeared.'
The emergency services were called by members of the public but sadly Miss Foulkes was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post-mortem examination later revealed that she sustained a lethal head injury in the fall.
Prior to taking her own life, Miss Foulkes had texted one of her housemates about the results saying: 'I did c**p.'
The inquest also heard how Miss Foulkes had sought help from student support services prior to her death but at that time it was not believed that she posed a risk to herself or others.
Acting senior coroner Katie Sutherland concluded that Miss Foulkes had intended death to be the outcome of her actions.
Recording a conclusion of suicide, Ms Sutherland said: 'Mared had not sought any help from a GP regarding low mood and there were no suicide notes.
'She did not report suicidal thoughts when she sought assistance from student support in 2019 but did appear distressed and admitted that she was engaging in self harm.
'Evidence suggests that she put herself on the ledge and walked with determination from her car to the ledge.
'There is no clear evidence whether she jumped but I do feel she took herself off the bridge by stepping off. I don't consider this to be a cry for help.
'I do consider that she had the intent to end her life and will return a conclusion of suicide.'
Parents Glyngwyn and Iona Foulkes, speaking after an inquest in Caernarfon into the death of their daughter, said they hoped the coroner's report would prevent other student's deaths
In the Prevention of Future Deaths report, the coroner wrote: 'Mared had failed one Professional Skills Assessment during the second year of her degree (2019/2020) and had undertaken a re-sit during the first semester for which she had received a 'provisional pass'.
'This was not ratified in the June exam board. Instead it was to be ratified in the September exam board round in accordance with the university's policy (though that was not obviously clear at the time).
'The indication therefore to Mared in July 2020 was that she had not successfully completed the year.'
Calling for action by Cardiff University to prevent further tragedies, the coroner urged the ratifying of examination results at the first available opportunity, in June, where a student has a provisional pass following a successful re-sit of an initial failed Professional Skill Assessment (or equivalent in other schools or colleges).
She suggested amending wording on exam notification correspondence to students to include 'pending' results, clarifying which exam board round (June or September) would confirm the results and clarity on assessment and ratification processes.
In addition, the acting senior coroner said there should be additional and ongoing training to school staff on the clarity of explanation to students of assessment processes and extra support to students where they are to receive a 'fail'.
A Cardiff University spokesperson confirmed they had received the coroner's report and told MailOnline: 'The untimely loss of a family member in this way is devastating
'Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends in what we know remains an extremely difficult and challenging time for them.
'As we said at the time of the hearing, we accept that lessons can and should be learnt. We have commenced the work required to do so and will report this in the formal response we make to the Coroner in January.'
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or go to samaritans.org
A fraudster posed as a successful businessman with 4million in investments to con a female millionaire he met on Tinder into handing him 141,000, a court heard.
Richard Dexter, 37, promised victim Amrita Sebastian that he was on the verge of a 'big windfall' and 'significant sums' after telling her he had acquired the patents to valuable biopharmaceutical technology.
He said major multi-nationals - including US medical firm 3M - were interested in signing a multi-million pound deal with him.
On the back of his lies, executive Ms Sebastian handed over a series of payments totalling 141,000 believing they were investments, prosecutors said.
But Dexter pocketed the cash for himself and came up with a series of increasingly bizarre excuses for why he couldn't pay her back.
It was then that Ms Sebastian called the police, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.
Dexter (pictured outside court) said major multi-nationals - including US medical firm 3M - were interested in signing a multi-million pound deal with him
When officers raided Dexter's Hampshire home in April 2018 they found a document which claimed he had more than 4million invested with the financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown.
But this was a 'total fabrication', the court was told, with the account actually belonging to a a friend of his whose final balance was actually 37p.
Dexter is then accused of forging patent documents to try to 'wheedle out' of his alleged fraud, according to prosecutors.
Robert Bryan, prosecuting, told the jury that Ms Sebastian met Mr Dexter on Tinder in 2015. He claimed he was a 'successful businessman' selling biopharma software.
He persuaded Ms Sebastian, who lives in Dubai but travels to the UK twice a year, that he needed capital to start production of a piece of scientific equipment.
At first she invested 40,000 then 68,000 two months later, having been assured that he could cover any losses she might make.
Mr Bryan said: 'At the centre of his fraud were patents and a patent catalogue he claimed to be buying.
'Thereafter having said he had acquired these patents he said that well-known companies such as Pall Corp and 3M were interested in the patents and license deals which would bring in significant sums.
Dexter pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and not guilty to one count of possessing an article used in fraud and to one count of perverting the course of justice
'What was required was upfront capital to begin production of a Bioreactor Paddle. She invested.
'Over the ensuing months he said he needed further funds to pay others. He told her that she wouldn't lost anything as he had more than enough to replace her investments.
'Nevertheless worried that her initial investments were at stake and when he said he needed further funds to cover the balance of things such as lawyers' fees, she advanced him more funds.'
Ms Sebastian continued paying him to 'protect' the initial investments with the promise of a 'large windfall' ahead, the jury heard.
Mr Brian continued: 'Towards the end of 2016, he promised her that he would repay her full investment in January 2017 at the latest.
'On that basis, she lent him the final 5,500 as he was in dire financial straits heading towards Christmas.
'He promised that he would pay her 100,000 as interest.'
But Ms Sebastian received nothing with Dexter giving the excuse that the bank had closed his account and taken control of his home, the court heard.
After they agreed Dexter would repay her 141,500 by April 2017, which would 'settle the debt in full', he never replied and the money did not arrive, a jury heard.
Ms Sebastian then went to the police.
'Why doctor an investment report belonging to another to show you have 4million?' Mr Bryan asked the jury. 'His fraud pleas may well inform you.
'Mr Dexter does not have, nor has he had an account with Hargreaves Lansdown let alone one containing over 4million.'
The court heard that, in December 2018, USB sticks were handed to police by his former partner, Maisie Evans, containing 'licensing agreements' purporting to relate to a patent.
Robert Bryan, prosecuting, told Portsmouth Crown Court (file photo above) that Ms Sebastian met Mr Dexter on Tinder in 2015. He claimed he was a 'successful businessman'
The court heard the UK's Intellectual Property Office could not find anything to suggest the patent referred to in the agreement was 'genuine'.
And the court heard they appeared to have been created after he had been first arrested by police.
But Dexter now claims Ms Evans created the documents to 'frame' him.
However, Mr Brian told the jury: 'Even if she created the documents, it is still him, not her, who attempted to pass off as genuine [the documents] that were created post-interview [with the police].
'The evidence is quite clear, it is him who created the documents to try and wheedle himself out and is a clear attempt to pervert the course of justice.'
Dexter, of Southsea, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and not guilty to one count of possessing an article used in fraud and to one count of perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
The ex-wife of a former senator and business mogul jailed in Russia for organising contract killings has been found dead in her 10million London home - sparking a call for MI5 to investigate.
Irina Izmestieva - also known as Irina Ford - was discovered lifeless on the sofa of her Kensington apartment on Friday by her shocked friends.
Mother-of-two Ms Izmestieva, had come to the UK in around 2007, and become part of high society and was pictured at an event with Prince Harry in 2012, along with her daughters.
Her former husband Igor had been sentenced to life in a high security Russian jail over contract killings 13 years ago.
Vladimir Putin had promised a leading human rights campaigner he would pardon and free him but has not as yet.
This latest development in the family today prompted calls from one exile for an investigation to be launched into her death.
A number of Russians have died in suspicious circumstances or faced attacks in Britain.
A leading exile in London Evgeny Chichvarkin said today 'I very much hope that the UK's special services will investigate this case properly, thoroughly, and, perhaps, one day we'll learn what happened.
Irina Izmestieva , 52 - also known as Irina Ford - was discovered dead on the sofa by friends
Mother-of-two Ms Izmestieva was pictured at a sporting event with Prince Harry in 2012
Ms Izmestieva's former husband Igor has been sentenced to life in a high security Russian jail
Irina Izmestieva, 52, smiles at an event where she went on to speak briefly with Prince Harry
'In the past few years Irina Izmestieva was an active participant of a property dispute details of which I have no right to disclose.
'At another turn of this dispute she was found dead.'
Close friend in London, Miranda Mirianishvili, 49, posted on Instagram that former filmmaker Ms Izmestieva had died 'unexpectedly'.
She said: 'She was coughing, they said, taking antibiotics, and had not felt well for a few days. Not Covid,
'They found her sleeping on the couch at their home in London.
'That is, they found her no longer alive.'
Police were not called but London Ambulance Service attended, confirming to MailOnline: 'We were called at 7.11pm on November 12 to reports of an incident at a residential address in Cottesmore Gardens, W8.
'We sent an ambulance crew and two medics in cars. Sadly, a person died at the scene.'
Inner West London Coroner's Court has not yet confirmed if the case has been passed to them.
Izmestieva had been pictured at an event with Prince Harry in 2012, along with her daughters by the jailed ex-senator, who represented oil-rich Bashkortostan.
Ms Izmestieva had been coughing before she died but had not contracted Covid, friends said
She had been active and healthy and her sudden death has both shocked and baffled friends
Ms Izmestieva, had come to the UK in around 2007, and can be seen here at Stonehenge
Friends have been devastated by the news and some have called for an imvestigation
Evgeny Chichvarkin said today 'I very much hope that the UK's special services will investigate this case properly, thoroughly, and, perhaps, one day we'll learn what happened.'
Who is Irina's ex-husband Igor Izmestieva? Irina Izmestiev's ex husband Igor served as a senator from Bashkortostan for five years from 2001. He also had a long history working in the oil business, where he made his fortune. But in 2007 he was detained by Russian Federal Security Service at Bishkek airport. They said they suspected him of murdering the wife of one of his former business partners. Three years later he was sentenced to life in prison. The court heard he had organised a series of killings, including an attempt on then Bashkortostani President Murtaza Rakhimov's son. Inside the courtroom investigators said he had ties to the mafia in Kingisepp, outside St. Petersberg. In 2017 Putin visited Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a human rights movement, to celebrate her birthday and said he would pardon and free Izmestiev. So far he has not been freed and has been kept behind bars under high security. Advertisement
Mirianishvili added: 'Please pray for the newly departed Irina, a wonderful mother to her twin girls, a sister, and daughter, a heroic wife, a faithful, magnificent friend of mine.
'Few in the world are as bright, loyal, strong, and beautiful.
'Ira (Irina) was always there when she felt that she could help, without words or requests she did exactly what was needed.'
Chichvarkin - a mobile phone magnate before setting up a wine business in exile in London said Izmestyev had been close to Putin but became embroiled in murky business and politics.
'At the beginning of 2005 Putin presented him with a gold metronome,' he said.
But gang members testified that he had been linked to ordering 'multiple assassinations'.
Izmestyev fled to London but was lured to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, on the pretext of a business trip, capital of Kyrgyzstan, where he was detained in a clandestine FSB operation, and flown to Russia.
He had taken his fortune out of Russia and a dispute over this may have stopped his release from jail, it is claimed.
He had been convicted of leading a gang that committed killings soon after the collapse of the USSR.
Investigators linked him to two 'terrorist attacks' and 14 murders, and five attempted murders.
A video of him appeared from inside high-security White Swan prison in Perm region.
In 2018, the highly respected head of the Moscow Helsinki Human Rights Group, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, indicated that Putin had signalled he would pardon Izmestyev.
Police in Vietnam have summoned a beef noodle seller who filmed himself imitating Turkish celebrity chef Salt Bae days after a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the Turkish celebrity chef's London restaurant.
Footage posted online shows Bui Tuan Lam mimicking Salt Bae by ceremoniously slicing boiled beef and flamboyantly sprinkling green onions into a bowl of noodle soup.
But the 38-year-old, from the central city of Danang, was swiftly hauled in by cops and denied trying to mock anyone - insisting that it was only intended as a 'fun' advert.
It came after a video of Salt Bae, real name Nusret Gokce, emerged earlier this month showing him hand-feeding a 1,450 tomahawk wrapped in gold to top Vietnamese Communist Party official To Lam.
The footage, captured at the Turkish chef's Nusr-Et Steakhouse in London, sparked outrage online.
Salt Bae (left) became an internet sensation after a video of him theatrically seasoning meat went viral. Bui Tuan Lam's video (right) shows him imitating the move with green onions
Footage of To Lam, minister of public security in the country, seemingly enjoying the 1,450 tomahawk steak at Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Knightsbridge, London, emerged on social media last night
Footage also shows Bui Tuan Lam, 38, imitating Salt Bae by ceremoniously slicing boiled beef
'The video I made was for fun and for advertising my beef noodle shop. More customers have been coming since I posted it,' said Lam, who added it was not clear if the police summons was because of his video.
Police in Vietnam routinely summon activists and people publicly critical of the ruling Communist Party for questioning.
Lam, who has previously criticised authorities on Facebook, said he had been 'raising his voice for a better society', and that police had previously summoned him for a meeting in April, without saying why.
He described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as 'Green Onion Bae'.
Last week, Salt Bae uploaded a video of himself feeding Vietnam's Minister of Public Security, To Lam, gold leaf encrusted steak at his London restaurant, where a steak sells for up to 1,450 ($1,960).
The original video was removed from Gokce's TikTok account shortly after it was uploaded, and further copies were then removed from the app for violating 'community standards', Vietnamese users told Reuters at the time.
Days later, Meta, Facebook's parent company, said it had unblocked the '#saltbae' hashtag, having found the tag had been blocked globally after the footage emerged.
It was not immediately clear why the video led to the tag being blocked and a Meta spokesperson declined to comment on potential reasons.
While it was blocked, a search for the hashtag generated a message saying community standards had been violated.
Footage shows Lam sashaying up and down behind his beef noodle stall in Vietnam as he imitates Turkish celebrity chef Salt Bae
Lam, from the central city of Danang, said his intention in making the video at his beef noodle stall was not to mock any particular individual but was made as a 'fun' advert
The video also appears to show Vietnamese ministry spokesman To An Xo sat next to Lam
Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, better known as 'Salt Bae' cuts the steak for Lam (left), salts it in his signature pose (right), before feeding it to the official off his knife
'We've unblocked this hashtag on Facebook and we're investigating why this happened,' a spokesperson for Facebook operator Meta said, confirming the tag had been blocked for all Facebook users around the world, not just in Vietnam.
In a US Congress hearing earlier this year, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said artificial intelligence plays a major role in 'content moderation', responsible for taking down more than 90 per cent of content deemed to be against Facebook guidelines.
Lam, 64, was in Britain during a visit by senior Vietnamese officials to the UN climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow.
But images of him chewing on the gilded beef caused a stir both on and offline in Vietnam, with many questioning how such a high-ranking Party official allowed himself to be caught on camera indulging in food carrying such a high price tag amid a state crackdown on corruption.
In one Facebook post, user Nguyen Lan Thang, with nearly 150,000 followers, changed his profile picture to a screenshot of the video, and pointed out that local media had been staying quiet over the incident.
'Security officers following this account, have you seen the video of minister To Lam eating salt-sprayed beef? Do you know how many months salary you'd have to spend for just one piece of that steak?' Thang wrote in one post.
It was not clear who paid for the meal. To Lam did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Vietnam's foreign ministry, which handles foreign media enquiries.
TikTok and Gokce declined to comment.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the 'small, ugly mob' of protesters outside the state parliament will not stop the government's proposed pandemic laws.
But the possible return of disgraced former Labor MP Adem Somyurek to parliament could derail the passage of the bill through the upper house when debate resumes on Thursday.
The Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill shifts the power to declare a pandemic and impose public health restrictions from the chief health officer to the premier and health minister.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' wife and children have been threatened by anti-vax protestors
The bill has become a lightning rod for anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination groups, who have vowed to occupy the steps of parliament as it is debated this week.
Poll Do you think Victoria's proposed Pandemic Management Bill is necessary? Yes - tough times call for tough measures No - it goes too far Do you think Victoria's proposed Pandemic Management Bill is necessary? Yes - tough times call for tough measures 11 votes
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Protesters on Monday night gathered around a wooden gallows chanting 'freedom', 'traitor', 'kill Dan Andrews' and 'hang Dan Andrews', while an inflatable Daniel Andrews doll was thrown onto the structure.
Another protester was applauded by the crowd on Tuesday after she called for politicians to 'dance on the end of a rope'.
Mr Andrews said he would not be distracted by the protesters, some of whom have threatened his wife and children.
'I will not be deterred from the work I'm doing to keep every family safe,' he said on Wednesday.
'It is so unfair for a small, ugly mob to be taking attention away from the more than 90 per cent of Victorians who have had a first dose and will soon have had a second dose. That's where our focus should be today.'
Mr Andrews described the protesters' behaviour as 'appalling', 'disgusting' and 'potentially criminal'.
The driver of the black Toyota Landcruiser seen towing the gallows has been spoken to by officers, a Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday evening.
The man, a 48-year-old from Badger Creek, was issued a warning for traffic offences.
Protestors are seen during a demonstration outside the Victorian State Parliament in Melbourne, Monday, November 15, 2021
Meanwhile, in a heated question time, the premier repeatedly accused Opposition Leader Matthew Guy of 'sucking up to extremists', and being 'beholden to anti-vaxxers' and 'Nazis and neo-Nazis'.
Mr Guy has condemned the protesters' behaviour but will not stop his MPs from attending the rally and speaking to the crowd.
'Not every single person out there is saying silly things, the majority have not,' he told reporters outside parliament, accusing the premier of seeking to divide Victorians.
Liberal MP Roma Britnell met protesters on Tuesday, including one she described as a 'close friend'.
Victoria's Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 has already passed the lower house and is set to be voted on in the upper house
'These people have genuine concerns. They have the right to be listened to,' she said.
The government has been confident the bill will pass after making amendments to secure the support of upper house crossbenchers - the Greens' Samantha Ratnam, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten and Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick.
But Mr Somyurek's potential return to parliament could derail the bill's passage.
Mr Somyurek, who quit the party before he was expelled for leading a widespread branch-stacking operation, has not been at parliament since December 2020 and was suspended last month after he failed to provide proof of Covid-19 vaccination.
Protesters stage a demonstration outside the Victorian State Parliament, in Melbourne, Wednesday, November 17, 2021
However, the clerk of the Legislative Council on Wednesday advised upper house MPs Mr Somyurek now 'complies with the order and is no longer suspended'.
If Mr Somyurek voted against the bill, it would result in a tie and would mean the bill would have to be reintroduced in parliament's lower house.
A protester is seen holding a placard during a demonstration outside the Victorian State Parliament
Victoria's current state of emergency expires on December 15 and cannot be extended.
While legal groups have been pushing for a replacement to the emergency powers, some have raised concerns the proposed pandemic laws lack independent oversight.
Mr Andrews said the government did not have the 'luxury' to spend 'six months to get everybody's agreement on every single issue' in the bill.
Mr Somyurek has been contacted for comment.
Polish border guards thwarted two 'mass attempts' to cross the border overnight by rock-throwing migrants who tried to storm across a railway track from Belarus.
Video showed guards having laser pointed shone in their eyes and being pelted with stones by a group of around 50 migrants who tried to cross the border at Czeremcha overnight, 70 miles south of where the main camp is located.
Dozens of smaller attempts were also made, with the Polish border service saying a total of 161 crossings were stopped with 34 migrants forcibly deported.
The situation remained tense early Wednesday with thousands of migrants still camped close to the border at Kuznica - where violent clashes erupted Tuesday - even as others were march off to an unknown location.
It is thought they are being taken to temporary accommodation in warehouses nearby. Thousands more migrants were taken to similar shelters overnight.
Meanwhile Mariusz Blaszczak, the country's defence minister, warned the crisis is likely to continue for months and that Poland must remain vigilant. 'I hope it will not be years,' he added.
Two large groups of made 'forceful' attempts to cross the Polish border last night, guards said, including 50 rock-throwing group of migrants who marched along a railway track (pictured)
Thousands of migrants remain camped close to the Polish border crossing at Kuznica today, following violent clashes with guards on Tuesday
Campfire smoke rises into the morning air as thousands of migrants remain hard-up against the Polish border, waiting to cross over
Belarus guards were spotted marching hundreds of migrants into waiting vans. It is thought they are being taken to nearby temporary shelters
Mr Blaszczak added that plans for a permanent border wall to replace the current barbed wire barricades are also being drawn up.
'We are doing everything we can to keep the border safe,' he added.
The EU accuses Belarus of manufacturing the migrant crisis by luring thousands of vulnerable people to the country and then pushing them to the border and forcing them to make illegal crossings.
European leaders believe the move - being carried out with the backing of Moscow -is intended to destabilise the bloc as revenge for sanctions against dictator Alexander Lukashenko's regime.
Brussels is currently readying another two rounds of sanctions against Lukashenko, including penalties for airlines and travel agents accused of helping to ferry people from across the Middle East and Asia to the country.
Polish Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said today: 'Lukashenko has caused this problem on the border. Poland has no problem with the people of Belarus. It is the regime in Minsk that is the problem.
'Lukashenko has created this situation to try to destabilize Poland and the EU. He has made this problem. He has done this in response to the sanctions that the EU imposed on his regime.'
Lukashenko denies the allegations, saying the migrants are legitimate asylum seekers and must be given access.
The Belarusian strongman and Vladimir Putin have also expressed 'concern' at a build-up of 15,000 Polish troops on the border who were sent to hold people back.
While Poland has been the main focus of migrant crossings, neighbours Latvia and Lithuania have also reported an uptick in illegal crossings in recent months.
Even Estonia, which does not share a border with Belarus, has summoned extra troops amid fears migrants could be forced across from Russia.
Some 1,700 reserve soldiers were summoned for unannounced drills on Wednesday that will include laying razor wire along the 25-mile Russian frontier.
Hundreds of migrants spent the night in warehouses close to the border after being taken there by Belarusian guards
Migrants were provided with blankets and donated clothing inside the warehouse, which is the first time they have been given shelter by Belarus
Aid workers hand out temporary bedding to hundreds of migrants who were taken away from the border fence on Tuesday and brought to a nearby warehouse
Young children are seen bedding down for the night in a warehouse close to the Belarus-Poland border, after being given temporary shelter
'What is happening in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia also requires the strengthening of the border infrastructure in Estonia,' said chief of Border Guard Elmar Vaher.
There are also fears the Lukashenko could push migrants into Ukraine, which is not an EU member but is involved in a longstanding confrontation with Russia.
The migrant crisis is playing out as Kiev warns thousands of Russian troops, tanks and artillery pieces are massing on the border in what the government claims is a coordinated attempt to fracture alliances in Europe.
Following pressure from the EU, several airlines have said they will now stop transporting would-be migrants to Belarus.
Iraq has also said it will start voluntary repatriations of its citizens from Belarus this week and the EU border agency Frontex is working with the Polish and Iraqi authorities on arranging charter flights from Poland as well.
Lukashenko, who has crushed opposition to his rule over nearly three decades in power, discussed the crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.
It was his first phone call with a Western leader since he suppressed mass protests against his rule last year.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to try to defuse the crisis.
Russia on Wednesday welcomed direct talks held between EU and Belarus officials over a migrant crisis on the Polish border.
'It is very important that contact has been made between representatives of the EU and the leadership of Belarus,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the issue with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Mariusz Blaszczak, the Polish defence minister, has warned that the crisis is likely to last for months and could drag on for years
Migrants gather in a camp near Bruzgi - Kuznica checkpoint on the Belarusian-Polish border
Thousands of people have been camped out for days in freezing conditions with little access to food or water while attempting to cross into Poland
Migrants gather around a campfire overnight on the Belarusian side of the Polish border
Russian President Vladimir Putin had called on the West to speak directly to his ally Lukashenko, increasingly isolated since violently suppressing opposition protests last year.
Merkel called Lukashenko on Monday to discuss the situation on the Poland-Belarus border, where thousands of migrants have gathered in a crisis the EU blames on Minsk.
It was Lukashenko's first phone call with a Western leader since last year's protests, that erupted over an election that the EU says he rigged.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had also discussed the crisis with Belarus foreign minister Vladimir Makei.
The Kremlin said Putin and Lukashenko discussed 'possible solutions' for the crisis on Tuesday.
Poland and Brussels allege that Lukashenko engineered the crisis, luring migrants from the Middle East to the EU's doorstep as revenge for sanctions against his regime over the protests.
Aid groups say at least 11 migrants have died on both sides of the border since the crisis began in the summer and have called for a humanitarian response to the crisis.
Visiting areas near the border on the Polish side, the Council of Europe human rights commissioner Dunja Mijatovic on Tuesday said the situation was 'extremely dangerous'.
'We need to find a way to de-escalate, to make sure the focus is really to stop the suffering,' she told reporters.
Russian state television on Wednesday showed hundreds of migrants at an indoor centre set up by Belarusian authorities near the border where families with young children spent the night.
The Belarusian health ministry said it had hospitalised six people, including four children, from the Bruzgi camp.
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Nine Insulate Britain eco zealots will be in prison for Christmas after being jailed today at the High Court for breaching an injunction designed to prevent their M25 road blockades which caused two months of chaos.
Two of the activists were jailed for three months, a further six were imprisoned for four months and the ninth - Ben Taylor, 27 - received six months after boasting he would immediately block the motorway again if not imprisoned.
Ben Buse, 36, Ana Heyatawin, 58, Louis McKechnie, 20, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, James Thomas, 47, and Mr Taylor were all jailed and could have to pay up to 91,000 in costs.
The nine were imprisoned over a protest on October 8 at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire which saw a total of 16 people arrested - but dozens more activists are set to be issued with committal proceedings in the next few days.
The group and its supporters chanted 'We are unstoppable, another world is possible' as they were led to the cells through the dock by security officers at the court in London. Heyatawin and McKechnie were both jailed for three months while Buse, Paluch-Machnik, Rock, Smart, Speers and Thomas all received four-month sentences.
The shorter jail term for Heyatawin was because of her medical issues, while McKechnie's was due to his younger age. The men will be at Category B Pentonville jail in Islington and the women at Category A Bronzefield in Surrey. Insulate Britain is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, which today described those jailed as the 'Highway Nine'.
After the sentencing, Smart insisted that she would go on hunger strike in prison. Insulate Britain began a wave of protests on September 13, demanding that the Government makes plans to insulate the UK's homes. They blocked roads around London as well as in Birmingham, Manchester and Dover - causing miles of tailbacks in rush hour.
The demonstrations have seen the campaigners glue themselves to the road before being removed by police. At least 174 activists have been involved on 19 days of protests so far and there have been 860 arrests.
Group spokesman Tracey Mallaghan said after the case: 'The right thing to do is highlight injustice, breaking the law if needed. This is what the Suffragettes did and Martin Luther King did, and it is what Insulate Britain has done.'
It comes after Taylor told the court yesterday that if he was not in jail he would 'go and block the motorway at the earliest opportunity and will continue to do so until the Government makes a meaningful statement and acts on it'.
Taylor's submissions were described today by Dame Victoria Sharp as 'inflammatory' and a 'call to arms', and he was therefore given a longer sentence of six months 'to deter (him) from committing further breaches'.
The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Chamberlain, said there was no alternative to jail sentences given the group's actions were so serious and they had made it clear they intended to further flout court orders. She said: 'The defendants, or some of them, seem to want to be martyrs for their cause and the media campaign surrounding this hearing appears designed to suggest this. We, however, have to act dispassionately and proportionately.'
Before the group were sentenced, the National Highways barrister said the legal costs of bringing proceedings against the nine activists had reached 91,000. She argued the judges should make an order for the costs against the defendants and that, even if they are unable to pay them, such an order would be an 'important symbol'.
She also said the agency had a duty to attempt to recover the costs, as they are from public funds. But Dame Victoria Sharp said she and Mr Justice Chamberlain will give their decision on costs in writing at a later date.
The nine activists said they did not have the funds to pay their share of the legal costs. Taylor said he has been volunteering for a couple of years and is currently claiming Universal Credit, which has recently been cut. He added: '10,000 is a lot of money so unless there is a deadline, it will take a long time to pay off.'
Smart told the court she has been working as a volunteer in wildlife conservation and climate activism, and does not have any money. Addressing National Highways' legal team, she said: 'You are claiming more for postage than I have earned in the last three years. The fact you are profiting from our stand and trying to save the lives of ... people is obscene. Take what I have, come to my house and sell my clothes because that's all I have.'
Rock said he is a carpenter and was badly affected by the pandemic as he built theatre sets, while Speers said he was a full-time volunteer and claims Universal Credit. Speers added: 'I might be dead before I can pay these costs.'
A further 23 protesters have also defied one or more of several injunctions granted to Transport for London and National Highways over the past two months. And Insulate Britain said it expects these 23 people to be summoned in the coming days, which would bring the total to at least 32 people who are due to face contempt of court.
Lawyers representing the Government said further committal proceedings will be issued against other Insulate Britain protesters and were expected to be brought by the end of the week, relating to protests on October 27. Evidence is also being gathered to bring proceedings in relation to protests on October 29 and November 2.
Raj Chada, solicitor at Hodge Jones and Allen law firm which supported the protesters, said: 'With these prison terms, the long and honourable tradition of civil disobedience is under attack again. Rather than leaving courts to imprison those that raise the alarm, it should be the Government that acts to protect us against the climate crisis.'
Insulate Britain activist Ben Taylor (left, being led away in handcuffs from the High Court in London today), 27, was jailed for six months after boasting he would immediately block the motorway again if not imprisoned. Taylor is pictured shouting - and while what he said was inaudible, photographers said he appeared to be shouting encouragement towards his supporters. Meanwhile Roman Paluch-Machnik (right, also pictured today), 28, was among six of the activists jailed for four months
Six of the nine Insulate Britain activists arrive at the High Court in London for sentencing this morning
Insulate Britain campaigner Ana Heyatawin (left), 58, was jailed for three months; while her fellow activist Emma Smart (right), 44, was imprisoned for four months. They are pictured being led away in handcuffs from the High Court this afternoon
Nine Insulate Britain eco zealots were today jailed at the High Court after admitting breaching an injunction on protesting
Insulate Britain activist Tracey Mallaghan speaks to reporters outside the High Court today following the group's sentencing
Insulate Britain activist Ben Taylor (left) arrives at the High Court in London for sentencing this morning
Insulate Britain activist Emma Smart (left) waves as she arrives at the High Court in London for sentencing this morning
Insulate Britain activist Tim Speers receives a hug as he arrives at the High Court for sentencing this morning
Labour MP John McDonnell (left) talks with Insulate Britain activist Oliver Rock (right) at the High Court in London today
Insulate Britain activist Ana Heyatawin arrives at the High Court in London today for sentencing this morning
Insulate Britain activist Roman Paluch (right) walks into the High Court in London for sentencing today
Insulate Britain activist Cathy Eastburn (right) hugs a fellow protester ahead of the sentencing at the High Court today
Insulate Britain said the protesters were expected to serve at least half of their sentence. They had been facing a maximum penalty of two years in prison or an unlimited fine for contempt of court.
The group has insisted it intends to continue with the protests until the Government agrees to insulate homes.
Who are the Insulate Britain nine and how long were they jailed for? Ben Taylor: 6 months Defiant Taylor, 27, was handed the longest sentence for what judges called an 'inflammatory' call to arms, in which he told the court that the government must 'f****ing act' on the group's demands. He also boasted that he would immediately go out and block another road if he was not jailed.. The court therefore extended his detention 'to deter Mr Taylor from committing further breaches'. Dr Benjamin Buse: 4 months The meek University of Bristol researcher, 36, was the only defendant to have a barrister representing his interests. The court was told that Dr Buse, who has published on topics like 'microanalysis of Uranium', was a devout Christian and popular member of his local church in Cheddar. Barrister Owen Greenhall said he volunteered for charity and donated hundreds of pounds to good causes every month. Oliver Roc: 4 months The 41-year-old carpenter from south London, admitted he was 'c**pping himself' about going to jail and enjoyed drawn-out cinches with his partner before the final hearing began. He said that after feeling 'depressed' that the 2003 Iraq War march had failed, he was inspired to take up more extreme tactics, in collaboration with Extinction Rebellion, which he joined in 2019. He told the court he only earned about 10,000 a year, often making 'small stage sets'. Emma Smart: 4 months The 44-year-old, from Weymouth, announced via an Insulate Britain spokesman that she would be going on hunger strike. She told the court that the proceedings were 'obscene' and glowered at barristers representing National Highways. But Smart, a biologist, has previously been criticised for undertaking a gas-guzzling 81,000-mile drive across the globe with her partner, Andy. Louis McKechnie: 3 months The student from Weymouth, who turned 21 yesterday, was given a month off his sentence in recognition of his youth. He said his only income was his student loan, which all went on living expenses, so he would struggle to pay his share of the bill in paying the government's legal costs. Ana Heyatawin: 3 months The oldest of the defendants, the blue-haired 58-year-old from Wells, had her sentence reduced to three months, after she told the court about her litany of health issues, including a personality disorder, depression, sciatica and bad eyesight. James Thomas: 4 months The 47-year-old architect said he had previously regarded himself as an 'enlightened capitalist sort of guy', but was inspired to abandon his career and join protest movements after seeing a film about the successes won by the Suffragettes and their campaign of direct action. He said that the 'scariest part' of his time inside would be the impact on his relationship. Roman Paluch-Machnik: 4 months The 28-year-old from Ealing said that learning about the experiences of his grandparents, all four of whom escaped Poland during the war, had helped inspire his activism. An active member of Extinction Rebellion since 2018, he has travelled the country giving talks on climate change and training others how to participate in 'Non-Violent Direct Action'. Tim Speers: 4 months The 36-year-old, from east London, pontificated in court, 'in an insane world, the sane will be seen as insane'. He believes that Insulate Britain has led 'one of the most successful campaigns in history'. He was first arrested on Waterloo Bridge in 2019 at an Extinction Rebellion protest, commenting: 'I refuse sit back while greed and ignorance takes life to extinction.' Advertisement
Dame Victoria told the court that police bodycam footage of the protest showed officers struggling to remove the demonstrators from the road.
The court heard the activists moved towards oncoming traffic before some successfully glued themselves on the road after being told to clear.
The judge said: 'The footage shows a somewhat chaotic scene with the defendants very close to traffic, and in some instances moving traffic, and the police attempting to restrain them from continuing with their protest and re-entering the road.'
Dame Victoria Sharp told the activists that it is 'integral' that orders made by the court 'must be obeyed'. She said: 'In our democratic society, all citizens are equal under the law and all are subject to the law.
'It is integral to the rule of law, and to the fair and peaceful resolution of disputes, first, that orders made by the court must be obeyed, unless and until they are set aside or subject to successful challenge on appeal, and secondly that a mechanism exists to enforce orders made by court against those who breach them.
'In this jurisdiction, that mechanism is provided by the law of contempt.'
Insulate Britain activists were also told by the judge that ordinary members of the public 'have rights too'.
Dame Victoria Sharp told them: 'In a democratic society which recognises the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, protests causing some degree of inconvenience are to be expected and, up to a point, tolerated.
'But the words 'up to a point' are important. Ordinary members of the public have rights too, including the right to use the highways.
'The public's toleration of peaceful protest depends on an understanding that, in a society subject to the rule of law, the balance between the protesters' right to protest and the right of members of the public to use the highways is to be determined not by the say-so of the protesters, but according to the law.'
The judge also said the public has an 'interest in deterring disobedience to its orders and in upholding the rule of law'.
Smart, who announced her intention to go on hunger strike after being jailed, said in a statement: 'Our Government is betraying us, betraying our vulnerable people and betraying our children's future.
'I believe that my intentions are morally right, even if my actions are deemed legally wrong. This court may see me as being on the wrong side of the law, but in my heart I know I am on the right side of history. I will not be a bystander.'
And Buse said in a statement: 'Care for the earth and all life requires me to act. My faith requires me to act, believing in the sacredness of creation and the demand for justice, justice for the trampled and exploited.
'Whilst acknowledging the importance of the courts, I have continued to break the injunction multiple times for we have a duty to the earth, to life, to future generations, to care and protect, this is the most important function of government, society and law.
'As we enter into the difficult years shifting to low carbon, and feeling the effects of climate change, we all need to be engaged in peaceful transformation; attempts to punish and crack down on peaceful protest opens the door to violent protest, which I deeply wish to avoid.'
Speers added: 'Never before has a civilisation had the burden and the privilege to see its own collapse coming.
'In this world, those trying to avert catastrophe are vilified and criminalised, and those profiting from death are protected and rewarded. We asked for a chance to live. That's all.
'We did so in the tradition of non-violent protest upon which this country was built. In response, the Government declared it would do 'everything we can to stop them'.'
'In an insane world, the sane will be seen as insane. And in a democracy steeped in lies and corruption, good people have a duty to disobey bad laws.
'We did our duty and I await the day when a judge in a court of law is brave enough to do theirs.'
An Insulate Britain spokesman said today: 'This morning our Insulate Britain supporters have been sentenced.
'We are being failed and betrayed by our government. Our nine chose not to standby and be complicit in genocide.'
During yesterday's hearing, Taylor said if he was 'not put in prison' for breaching an injunction banning disruptive protests on the nation's roads, he will 'go and block the motorway at the earliest opportunity and will continue to do so until the Government makes a meaningful statement and acts on it'.
He added that 'whatever sentence or sanction' he was given 'will be counter-productive and will only serve to fuel the campaign of Insulate Britain'.
Taylor said: 'If you send me away to prison, ten people will step forward in my place. If you send each of us away, 100 people will step forward and take our places. If you send 100 of us away, 1,000 people will step forward to take our place.
'If you somehow manage to stop all non-violent protests, then things will only turn violent.'
And Smart told the court she was there to 'ensure future survival'.
She said: 'That's what it boils down to. I am proud of what I did and I stand by my actions.
'I'm asking when you consider my sentence that my actions are proportionate to the crisis we are facing, where 8,500 people die a year from cold and hunger in their own homes.
'I am doing everything I can to protect the most vulnerable people in society. We are all vulnerable in a climate crisis. No-one is immune and no-one is safe. When I see injustice I cannot stand by and watch harm to life.'
Smart compared watching the climate crisis to watching a child trapped in a burning house. She said: 'I cannot stand by and watch. I would run to them.'
She told the court: 'Our Government is betraying us, our vulnerable people and our children's future.
'I will not be a bystander while our Government fails and betrays its people, I will continue to do what is necessary.'
Ana Heyatawin (left), 58, has been at protests and glued her hand to the road on the M25 at Thurrock on October 13 (right)
Emma Smart (left), 44, is also at the High Court today after blocking the M25 at junction 31 in Thurrock on October 13 (right)
Ben Taylor (left), 27, is among the Insulate Britain nine. He protested at Parliament Square in London on November 4 (right)
Dr Ben Buse, a Bristol University researcher from Somerset, is at the High Court today (left) after being involved in various Insulate Britain protests - including one (right) near South Mimms at the junction of the M25 and A1 on November 2
Oliver Roc (left, at court yesterday) is pictured during the group's recent protest at Parliament Square on November 4 (right)
Roman Paluch (left), 28, and Tim Speers (right), 36, are also among the nine Insulate Britain activists at the High Court today
Louis McKenchnie (left), 20, and James Thomas (right), 47, are both appearing at the High Court for the hearing today
The male Insulate Britain protesters jailed today will be sent to HMP Pentonville in Islington, North London (file picture)
The male activists have been sent to HMP Pentonville in Islington, North London, where they will spend Christmas and beyond
The women jailed over the Insulate Britain protests today will be sent to HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey (file picture)
HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, will be where the women Insulate Britain protesters will be imprisoned (file picture)
Speers described the country's democracy as 'steeped in lies' and said 'good people have a duty to breach bad laws'.
What life will be like for Insulate Britain's middle class mob behind bars HMP PENTONVILLE Louis McKechnie, 20, Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Tim Speers, 36, James Thomas, 47, and Ben Taylor, 37, have all be taken to HMP Pentonville after being jailed at the High Court today. The Category B jail - known as 'The Ville' - in Islington, North London, houses about 1,300 men who live in a mixture of single and shared rooms across seven wings. When a prisoner first arrives they are allowed to contact one relative by phone and see a medical professional about any immediate health and wellbeing needs. They then have a four-day induction period to explain the prison rules, and education opportunities. A service provided by Novus lets them study for qualifications in subjects such as carpentry, food safety and painting. The jail also has four gym areas and a multi-faith chaplaincy service and works with the Catch 22 organisation which helps prisoners involved in gangs. Notable former inmates over the last 40 years include footballers George Best and Nile Ranger; singers George Michael and Pete Doherty; and actor Keith Allen. HMP BRONZEFIELD Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Emma Smart, 44, have both been sent to HMP Bronzefield after being jailed today. The jail in Ashford, Surrey, was Britain's first purpose-built prison for women when it opened in June 2004, as well as being the 10th privately-run prison in England. Up to 572 women inmates can be held at the Category A jail across four houseblocks which can hold about 130 women in each one. Each wing has a servery unit for women to collect their food, which they can either eat together on the wing or take back to their rooms. Telephones are also provided in each room. It has a 17-bed healthcare facility, and a mother and baby unit for 12 women and 13 babies up to the age of 18 months. When a woman arrives at the prison they will be searched and their welfare assessed by a doctor and nurse. They will also receive a meal and drink, before beginning an induction process the following day. Notable former inmates at Bronzefield include murderers Rose West and Joanna Dennehy, child abuser Vanessa George and the Labour MP Fiona Onasanya. Advertisement
He said: 'In this world, those trying to avert catastrophe are vilified. On a tradition of non-violent protest, in response, the Government said they will 'do everything to we can to stop them.'
'That was from Grant Shapps, who had a second job under another name.'
Paluch-Machnik told the court the injunction 'is not just in context with the crisis we're in'.
He said: 'The Government would rather imprison pensioners than insulate their homes.'
Mr Paluch said retrofitting homes is the cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis and added: 'We are asking for a fully funded state-operated retrofitted service, like the NHS.
'Some of those who have spoken have said they're not afraid. I'm afraid you will take away my home and me away from my friends, family and partner.
'But I'm more afraid of inaction and the climate catastrophe that has already began to crash on some of us. I stand by the action that brought me before this court, and if that sends me to prison, then so be it.'
He urged the court to look at 'more than the letter of the law' and 'make the commitment to insulate Britain'.
Heyatawin told the High Court she is 'traumatised' by the Government's attitude to climate change.
She said she 'does not accept the morality of the injunction' and said 'it is meaningless in the context of climate collapse'.
Ms Heyatawin added: 'I know how to behave. I think I'm a good person. I felt compelled to stop the world and get off. We are hurtling towards ecocide, genocide and our own suicide.'
Rock invited the court to observe a minute's silence 'to imagine what the climate crisis means for the future'. He said: 'I'm proud of our actions and I stand by what we have done, we have not done this for personal gain.
'I take responsibility for my actions and I did that in an attempt to mitigate the suffering of people in this country who cannot afford to adequately heat their homes.'
The only defendant to have a lawyer was Dr Ben Buse, a Bristol University researcher. Owen Greenhall told the court Dr Buse was active in his local church and a highly regarded member of the community.
Myriam Stacey QC, representing National Highways, told the court the message that the defendants are 'proud of their conduct' and 'will continue to defy the injunction order made' is 'loud and clear'.
She added: 'No apology has been made in relation to the breach of the order.'
Ms Stacey said the group had emailed National Highways in September saying the protests would continue 'unless the Government make a meaningful statement that they will start the process of decarbonising homes in Britain'.
Ms Stacey said further committal proceedings will be issued against other Insulate Britain protesters by the end of the week, relating to protests on October 27.
Insulate Britain has released photographs of some of the faces among its 32 activists who face up to two years in prison for contempt of court. They are (left to right, first row): Ruth Jarman, Dr Diana Warner, Rowan Tilly, Jess Causby, Steve Gower, Liam Norton, Greg Frey, Reverend Sue Parfitt, (second row) Mark Latimer, Dr Ben Buse, Gabby Ditton, Arne Springorum, Tony Hill, Theresa Norton, Stephanie, Emma Smart (third row) Emily Brockelbank, Biff Whipster, Amy Pritchard, Paul Sheeky, Louis McKechnie (bottom row) Roman Paluch, Ben Taylor, Ana Heyatawin, David, Oliver Rock, Tracey Mallaghan and Tim Speers
Supporters hold an Insulate Britain banner outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the sentencing hearing today
An Insulate Britain protester speaks to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the sentencing today
Two Insulate Britain supporters who were not involved in the sentencing today leave the High Court after the hearing
Insulate Britain activist Tracey Mallaghan speaks to reporters outside the High Court today following the group's sentencing
Insulate Britain activist Tracey Mallaghan gives a statement outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London today
Insulate Britain protesters (back row left to right) Tim Speers, Roman Paluch, Emma Smart, Ben Taylor, James Thomas, (front row left to right) Louis McKechnie, Ana Heyatawin and Oliver Roc pose for a photograph ahead of their High Court hearing
She also said evidence is being gathered to bring proceedings in relation to protests on October 29 and November 2. All nine defendants were sentenced by Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Chamberlain.
What is contempt of court and could the nine have been jailed for longer? 'Contempt of court' is an offence that normally happens when someone risks unfairly influencing a court case, which may stop somebody from getting a fair trial. It can include taking photos or shouting out in court, refusing to answer questions as a witness or publicly commenting on a court case such as on social media. Another form it takes is disobeying or ignoring a court order, which is what the Insulate Britain activists have done by breaking an injunction on their M25 protests. Those who breach the injunctions were found in contempt of court and could have faced a maximum penalty of two years in prison or an unlimited fine. In the end, they were jailed for between three and six months. The High Court has so far issued five injunctions to prevent protesters from blocking roads - four to National Highways and one to Transport for London (TfL). The hearings did not taking place in a criminal court because none of the protesters have been charged with a criminal offence by police. This is despite at least 161 activists having been involved in the demonstrations over the two months, resulting in at least 860 arrests. The protesters were instead facing contempt of court proceedings for breaching a High Court injunction, which is a civil matter but can still result in a jail term. Advertisement
An emotional Mr Rock told LBC radio yesterday: 'I feel terrified - I'm c***ping myself this morning, and I feel like crying. I've got all these emotions coming out of me. It seems ridiculous that we're in this situation.
'What we're asking the Government to do is just an extremely practical no-brainer thing that they should be doing, and they're choosing instead to potentially lock us up, fine us, seize our assets.
'I'm expecting that we might get sentenced maybe today, probably tomorrow. We've been told that quite probably we'll get custodial sentences, so there's a high likelihood that by this evening I'll be in a prison cell somewhere.'
The Government plans to introduce new measures to clamp down on protests, including allowing police to stop and search people where there is a reasonable suspicion they are carrying items intended to cause disturbance, such as glue.
After today's sentencing a statement from the nine activists jailed was read by an Insulate Britain supporter outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
It read: 'Over the last nine weeks, 174 ordinary people have held the Government to account, asking that they deliver on their most basic of duties, to protect the British people, the economy and all we hold dear in our society.
'Your Government has now chosen to act. It has chosen to imprison us for this demand.
'By imprisoning us, the Government shows its cowardice. They would rather lock up pensioners than insulate their homes.
'They would rather lock up teachers than create thousands of proper jobs.
'They would rather lock up young people than take practical steps to reduce emissions.
'They will lock us up and leave thousands to die of cold this winter. We knew we would face prison when we took this action, but we could not stand by while the Government betrays the general public.'
The activists' statement continued: 'Following the widely recognised failure of our Government at Cop26, we are continuing to ask them to get on with the job - of cutting carbon emissions, of insulating cold and leaky houses, of protecting the people of this country from climate collapse - because the lives of our children and those of all future generations hang in the balance.
NOVEMBER 4 -- A truck carrying insulation was blocked by Insulate Britain protesters at Parliament Square in Westminster
NOVEMBER 2 -- Protesters from Insulate Britain are removed by police after they block a road near Manchester Airport
OCTOBER 27 -- Insulate Britain protesters block the A40 junction with Gypsy Lane in North Acton, West London
OCTOBER 25 -- Climate activists from the Insulate Britain group block a road near Canary Wharf in East London
OCTOBER 13 -- Protesters from Insulate Britain block the M25 at junction 31 near to the Dartford Crossing in Thurrock, Essex
OCTOBER 1 -- Insulate Britain protesters block a roundabout at Junction 3 of the M4 near London Heathrow Airport
SEPTEMBER 27 -- Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying an M25 roundabout leading to Heathrow
SEPTEMBER 24 -- Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Dover
SEPTEMBER 20 -- Police officers work to free protesters who had glued themselves to junction 4 of the A1(M) near Hatfield
'To the Government we say, you can't imprison a flood, there are no unlimited fines against a famine, you can't bankrupt a fire.
How Insulate Britain made a mockery of the law over two months of chaotic demonstrations September 13 - 78 Insulate Britain protesters arrested after blocking junctions 3, 6, 14, 20 and 31 of the M25 September 15 - More than 50 protesters arrested after targeting junctions 1, 8, 9 and 23 of the M25 September 17 - 48 protesters arrested after targeting junctions 3, 9 and 28 of the M25, as well as the M3 September 20 - 29 protesters are arrested after blocking the M25 at junctions 4 and 18, as well as the A1 September 21 - Protesters risk death by running into moving traffic to block the carriageway near Junction 10. Some 38 arrests are made. National Highways obtains an injunction against further protests on the M25 September 22 - Protesters burn copies of the injunction outside the Home Office, blocking the road outside the ministry. No arrests are made September 24 - 39 protesters arrested after blocking roads at three locations in Dover. They are all released under investigation. National Highways obtains a second injunction covering Dover. September 27 - 53 protesters are arrested for blocking a slip road at Junction 14 of the M25. They are all released under investigation. September 28 - National Highways says it is taking 'legal advice' over how to enforce its injunction September 29 - 27 protesters are arrested for blocking a roundabout at Junction 3 of the M25 on two occasions September 30 - Protesters return to junction 30 at Thurrock in Essex, and nine are arrested October 1: The group block the M4 at junction 3, the M1 at junction 1 and M25 at junction 25. Some 39 arrests October 2: Third injunction bans them from obstructing traffic and access to motorways and major A roads in and around London October 4: 38 arrests after protesters block three major roads in London - the Blackwall Tunnel, Wandsworth Bridge and A40 and North Circular at Hanger Lane. October 8: 19 arrested over protest at Old Street roundabout and a further 16 on the M25 at junction 24. Transport for London gets a High Court injunction to ban them from obstructing traffic in 14 locations in London. October 13: Protesters return to the M25 at junction 31 and a nearby industrial estate, with 35 people arrested. October 25: Activists target areas around Southwark Bridge, Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street station. Some 53 are arrested. October 27: Protesters blockade the A40 in North Acton, West London, and a major roundabout next to the Dartford Crossing in Kent. Kent Police arrested 32 protesters, while the Metropolitan Police detained 17. October 29: 10 activists are arrested after walking onto the M25 between junctions 28 and 29 in Essex November 2: Police arrest 20 activists before they can even get onto the M25 at junction 23 for South Mimms, but other actions take place on the M56 in Manchester, with 11 arrests, and the A4400 in Birmingham November 4: Some 62 protesters sit down at Parliament Square in Westminster Advertisement
'To the public we say, no-one is coming to save you. In the past, when governments have failed to protect their people the right thing to do is to highlight this injustice, breaking the law if needed, this is what the suffragettes and Martin Luther King did, and it is what Insulate Britain has done.
'We call on you to recognise that you also have a duty to act, as our Government is betraying us. They can't even act to insulate Britain.
'What hope do we have of them protecting our children, our economy or our country?'
The statement concluded: 'We say to those who look on in fear and denial - this will impact you and all that you love, and look at what we did.
'A few hundred people captured the country's attention for months. Think what 1,000 people can achieve?
'You have a choice. To act, to come and join us help change the tide of history, or to be a bystander and be complicit in enabling genocide.
'This tide will not come again, will you join us?'
Following the sentencing, Greenpeace UK programme director Pat Venditti said: 'Jailing climate activists during a climate crisis is like silencing a smoke alarm while half the building is on fire.
'What this country needs are fewer injunctions and more insulation. Instead of cracking down on climate activism, the UK Government should crack down on cold homes.
'One will be an international embarrassment, the other a sign of real climate leadership.
'An ambitious home insulation programme funded by the Government would lower energy bills, cut planet-heating emissions and boost the UK's energy security - it's a triple win.
'Boris Johnson must show that he hasn't left his commitment behind at Glasgow Central station and he's ready to roll up sleeves and lead by example on tackling the climate crisis.'
Liberty director Gracie Bradley said: 'We should all be able to stand up for what we believe, but when the means to do so are continually narrowed - whether that be at the ballot box, in the courts or in the streets - people will take to more urgent routes.
'While Insulate Britain knew that by breaching the injunction they risked jail, these sentences clearly are disproportionate and another threat to protest rights for all of us.
'For years, injunctions have been used by the powerful to stifle dissent and restrict protest rights, while demonstrators have been demonised.
'The impact has been stifling free expression, undermining the ability of all of us to stand up for what we believe in - particularly people from marginalised communities who are most cut off from the corridors of power.
'Today's sentences must be seen in the context of the expansive and oppressive powers in the Policing Bill, itself a grab for more power by a Government that despises scrutiny and accountability.
'The right to protest protects all of us and is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. We must not allow those in power to demonise demonstrators in a cynical attempt to silence us all.'
Duncan Smith, executive director of operations at National Highways, said: 'Safety is our top priority and we welcome this outcome.
'We respect people's right to protest but do not condone the actions of anyone who puts their lives, and the lives of road users, at risk.
'The judge's decision will hopefully make people think again about carrying out reckless and dangerous protests such as these and endangering people's lives.
'The injunctions remain in place and we stand ready to do what is necessary to limit the impact of any protests on the strategic road network, and to keep drivers safe and on the move.'
Fantastic Beasts actor Kevin Guthrie has lost a bid to appeal against his conviction for sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman when she was unwell after a night out.
The Sunshine On Leith star was jailed for three years in May after being found guilty of molesting a 29-year-old actress.
Guthrie's legal team informed the High Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh days later that they intended to challenge both his conviction and sentence.
Guthrie, 33, of Glasgow, has now had his appeal rejected by the court at the 'first sift' stage.
The actor said he had only 'helped' the woman who was unwell but his DNA was found inside her underwear. Pictured: Guthrie outside court ahead of a sentencing hearing held in May
The decision came after a single judge decided there are no 'arguable grounds' for an appeal to proceed based on legal matters and evidence.
Sheriff Tom Hughes, who presided over Guthrie's trial, wrote a report on the case before the judge decided it should not proceed to a full appeal hearing.
Guthrie did not request to be released on bail pending his appeal and remains in custody.
He could still appeal to the 'second sift' stage where the case would be considered by two or three judges.
The assault happened at the home of Still Game actor Scott Reid, who played Methadone Mick in the BBC comedy series, and Guthrie had insisted that he had only 'helped' the woman after she became unwell.
However, his DNA was found on her clothing and he was found guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Guthrie's trial was told the woman had been due to meet him and Mr Reid at a bar on the night of the alleged attack, but Mr Reid received a call from a taxi driver asking him to collect her as she appeared ill.
He and Guthrie helped the woman into the flat in Glasgow's Kelvindale and put her on a bed.
Kevin Guthrie (pictured in Fantastic Beasts), 33, was jailed for three years after it was found he sexually assault the woman, 29, inside the flat of fellow actor Scott Reid in Glasgow in 2017
Mr Reid called NHS 24, leaving Guthrie in the room 'to make sure she was OK'.
But the woman recalled bed covers then 'being moved down my body'.
Guthrie - who also starred in the Netflix series The English Game - then sexually assaulted the woman.
The attack happened between September 30 and October 1, 2017 and he was unable to explain why his DNA was found on the woman's clothing.
As well as his jail sentence, Guthrie was also placed on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period.
Sentencing him, Sheriff Hughes said: 'You had an educational background and worked extremely hard to get a part in acting in acclaimed films.
Guthrie lost his appeal against his conviction. Pictured: Guthrie in Sunshine on Leith in 2013
'The court must show that women can be protected from domestic sexual offences.
'You committed this crime in a position of trust. She was unwell and thought her drink had been spiked elsewhere that night.
'The other man was urgently getting medical assistance and you were left in the room with her when she was not able to look after herself.
'The jury accepted that you committed these heinous crimes and the only appropriate sentence is imprisonment.'
Gordon Jackson, QC, defending, told the sentencing hearing that Guthrie maintained his innocence.
He said: 'If ever there was a case where something appears out of character it is this.
'The price he will pay with his own career is immense.'
The High Court in Edinburgh confirmed Guthrie's appeal against conviction and sentence was refused at 'first sift'.
The 'QAnon Shaman' who wore a horned head-dress during the Capitol riots could be sentenced for more than four years for his role in the attack.
Jacob Chansley pleaded guilty in September to obstructing an official proceeding when he and thousands of pro-Donald Trump supporters stormed the government building in a bid to overturn the election results.
Prosecutors have asked US District Judge Royce Lamberth to impose a 51-month sentence on the rioter.
The 'QAnon Shaman' who wore a horned head-dress during the Capitol riots could be sentenced for more than four years for his role in the attack. Pictured climbing the scaffolding outside the government building
'Defendant Chansley's now-famous criminal acts have made him the public face of the Capitol riot,' prosecutors said.
That would be the stiffest imposed on any Capitol rioter, after a former mixed martial artist filmed punching a police officer during violence was sentenced last week to 41 months in prison.
Chansley's attorneys have asked the judge for a sentence of time served for their client, who has been detained since his January arrest.
While in detention, Chansley was diagnosed by prison officials with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety.
When he entered his guilty plea, Chansley said he was disappointed Trump had not pardoned him.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate on a charge of inciting the January 6 riot for a fiery speech that preceded it in which he told his followers to 'fight like hell.'
Four people died in the violence.
Chansley's attorneys have asked the judge for a sentence of time served for their client, who has been detained since his January arrest. Pictured inside the Capitol armed with a spear
A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the day after the riot and four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives.
About 140 police officers were injured.
Defense lawyer Albert Watkins said the US Navy in 2006 had found Chansley suffered from personality disorder but nonetheless declared him 'fit for duty.'
Last week, ex-MMA fighter Scott Fairlamb wept in court as he begged for mercy before being sentenced to 41 months in prison for punching an officer during the Capitol riots.
Fairlamb, 44, of New Jersey was also the first person sentenced for assaulting a law enforcement officer during the January 6 Capitol riot.
Judge Royce Lamberth's decision was considered a 'canary in the coal mine' by prosecutors who said that Wednesday foreshadowed what more than 120 other defendants face for attacking police that day.
Scott Fairlamb, 44, (pictured with his Andrea) of New Jersey was sentenced to 44 months for two counts related to the Capitol riot - one for obstruction of an official proceeding and one for assaulting the police officer
'Had you gone to trial, I don't think there's any jury that could have acquitted you,' the judge said as he announced the sentence.
According to NBC Washington Fairlamb wept in court at the 11am hearing and apologized for disgracing his family's name after his veteran father proudly served in the US military.
With 'I truly regret my actions that day. I have nothing but remorse,' he said, as he asked the judge for mercy.
A video from January 6 that was used in court showed Fairlamb, dressed in a camouflaged jacket, navy blue scarf and black beanie, yelling at an officer. When another cop approached Fairlamb from behind to seemingly get him to calm down, the former fighter shoved the man.
Videos from January 6 showed Fairlamb punching an officer's helmet and climbing a scaffolding while holding a baton and shouting: 'What patriots do? We f***ing disarm them and then we storm the f***ing Capitol!'
The gym owner and former fighter was also recorded pointing in the cop's face. At Wednesday's trial he reportedly teared up and called his behavior 'irresponsible' and 'reckless'
Then, when the officer swatted Fairlamb's pointing finger out of his face Fairlamb hit him back even harder.
Fairlamb pleaded guilty to two counts - one for obstruction of an official proceeding and one for assaulting the police officer.
The counts carry a maximum of more than 20 years in prison but sentencing guidelines calculated by the court's probation department recommend a term of imprisonment ranging from 41 to 51 months, as reported by NBC.
Lamberth was not bound by any of the recommendations but prosecutors called for a 44-month sentence.
The New Jersey Herald revealed that Fairlamb was caught after four people tipped the FBI to videos of the Capitol riot where Fairlamb was recorded punching an officer's helmet and climbing a scaffolding holding a baton.
'What patriots do? We f***ing disarm them and then we storm the f***ing Capitol!' he was heard shouting in the clips.
The people reportedly identified Fairlamb by a tattoo on the back of his hand and he was arrested shortly after - on January 22 at his home in Stockholm, New Jersey.
He has been awaiting trial at the Hudson County Correctional Facility ever since.
Based off his social media accounts, Fairlamb supported QAnon conspiracy theories and promoted claims that Trump would become the first president of 'the new Republic' on March 4, prosecutors wrote.
Fairlamb, a former MMA fighter, owned a gym called Fairlamb Fit just 14 miles from his east coast home. However, the gym is listed as temporarily closed and has taken down all of its social media pages.
Flybe has announced that its planes will start taking off from British airports again early next year.
Having struggled for years, the airline was pushed into administration in 2020 with 2,400 job losses as the coronavirus pandemic destroyed large parts of the travel market.
Thyme Opco however bought the carrier's remaining assets and has planned a relaunch for 2022, although on a smaller scale than before.
It was also revealed that the renewed Flybe will be based in Birmingham.
It said it will serve 'key regions across the UK and European Union', although specific routes have not been confirmed.
Flybe, once Europe's largest regional carrier, will relaunch in 2022 with a new crew base and headquarters in Birmingham after it was purchased by Thyme Opco after collapsing into administration in 2020
It was based in Exeter but had a major presence at several other UK airports such as Aberdeen, Belfast City, Manchester and Southampton, and flew the most UK domestic routes between airports outside London.
Its business and assets were purchased in April 2021 by Thyme Opco, which is linked to US hedge fund Cyrus Capital. Thyme Opco has been renamed Flybe Limited.
Flybe said the opening of its headquarters in Birmingham is expected to create approximately 200 new jobs in the Birmingham and West Midlands region over the next three years.
A further 400 are set to be created across the rest of the country.
The airline's chief executive Dave Pflieger said: 'We are thrilled to be partnering with Birmingham Airport (BHX), the City of Birmingham, and the Mayor of West Midlands to make BHX the location of our new headquarters and first crew base.
It was also revealed that the renewed Flybe's headquarters and crew base will be based in Birmingham and will serve 'key regions across the UK and European Union'. Pictured: Birmingham Airport
'It was an ideal choice for us due to its great people and highly skilled workforce, its central UK location, and the fact that Birmingham Airport is a global travel hub where local and connecting customers have access to over 150 worldwide destinations.'
Once Europe's largest regional airline, Flybe collapsed on March 5, 2020 after months on the brink, leaving around 15,000 passengers stranded across the UK and Europe.
'Unfortunately, with the situation that has developed with (coronavirus), an already weak company, I'm afraid, just hasn't been able to survive,' Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said at the time.
Emotions ran high at the time when staff learned of the collapse of the airline which flew over nine million passengers a year.
One devastated member of Flybe air crew broke down on live TV as she described learning that her job was gone and 2,000-plus colleagues must also find 'something new to pay the bills'.
Devastated: Former Flybe air crew member Katherine Densham, (above) broke down on-screen as she described learning that her job was gone and 2,000-plus colleagues must also find 'something new to pay the bills'
Staff posted photographs and messages on social media within hours of the announcement
Katherine Densham, who worked for the collapsed airline for 13 years, was visibly upset as she arrived at Exeter airport in March to say goodbye to her 'Flybe family', who were clearing their desks.
She cried about the 'sad' collapse of the airline and said: 'I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I've worked for them since leaving college'.
Staff posted photographs and messages on social media within hours of the announcement the budget carrier had plunged into administration - writing how they would 'cherish all the memories' of their 'Flybe family' and 'hope we are all back in the skies where we belong.'
Another anonymous staff member, who has flown with Flybe for 16 years, admitted: 'The people made Flybe. On the frontline, we were lions - lions led by donkeys.'
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was 'still in denial' about the news. He added: 'I still think this is a dream. I was praying for a miracle. I've not slept all night and am worrying what I'm going to do next. I'm 35 and flown in total 16 years - this is basically all I've known'.
Mr Pflieger added that he would provide more details in the coming weeks and months about ticket prices, new routes and destinations.
Flybe crew flooded social media with images as they shared their memories of working at the airline
Andy Street, Mayor of West Midlands, said: 'It really is such brilliant news that Flybe is coming back as a commercial airline, and even better that it has chosen Birmingham to house its new headquarters.
'Not only does this mean better domestic and international connectivity for our region as well as local jobs and opportunities being created here, but it's yet another show of faith in the West Midlands with businesses choosing to commit to our region as we recover from the pandemic.
'Flybe's choice highlights the strength of the aerospace sector in the West Midlands and the talent pool available, and I wish Dave and his team all the very best ahead of their official launch early next year.'
Since Flybe's collapse, several airlines including Loganair and British Airways have taken over their most viable routes, raising the possibility of a battle to regain customers.
Warning of the potential impacts, UK airline schedule analyst Sean Moulton told the Independent: 'All the profitable routes have been taken. All theyll do is face competition and face a fight against airlines who have operated over the last two years.
'It wont work for them, and could cause more harm than good in terms of regional connectivity if it brings down yield and does not increase passenger numbers.'
At a Transport Select Committee meeting, Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: 'If they can operate the right routes at the right time of day and they can compete, good luck to them.'
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said: 'We will always welcome additional airlines. Its good for competition, its good for routes in those areas. I wish them every success.'
Mr Minhas was told that seeking to be reinstated was 'not a practical solution'
A Sky employee who was dismissed after telling a colleague if two young girls wearing short skirts were raped it would be 'their own fault', has lost his bid to get his job back.
Retail advisor Raja Minhas had sought his job back at a remedy hearing after being dismissed for comments about the teenagers as they walked past his Sky stand in a shopping centre in Blackburn, Lancashire.
A colleague reported the 44-year-old to bosses claiming he told her, 'girls in general who wear skirts like that and then get raped, it's their own fault', the hearing was told.
The alleged comments sparked a heated row with his fellow employee Mia Klemetti, who said she would 'rethink' what she would wear when she worked with him again.
The tribunal heard the employees were working at the shopping centre to drum up business for Sky products in June 2019.
Earlier this year a tribunal judge ruled that the dismissal was unfair and Mr Minhas, of Nelson, Lancashire, said he would be seeking his old job back.
But in papers recently published he was told this was 'not a practical solution' and should instead receive monetary compensation.
Raja Minhas (pictured above), 44, had sought his old job back at a remedy hearing after being dismissed for comments about the teenagers as they walked past his shopping centre stand
Mr Minhas had told investigators: 'I saw two girls walking past, both girls were dressed inappropriately.
'You could see the outline of their bodies. I mentioned that if this were Pakistan, people would be looking and it's like an open invitation to be getting raped.'
He later said he thought the conversation with Ms Klemetti was simply an exchange between two colleagues and 'regretted' upsetting her.
A complaint was then made to his bosses and Mr Minhas said in an interview that his comment was a 'momentary lapse of judgment' which would not be repeated and which he regretted.
However, he repeated that if girls 'dress like that sick people might take advantage.'
Ms Klemetti said during her interview she believed a woman should be able to wear what she wanted, and that 'no one should be talking about rape on the basis that it is someone's fault because of what they wear.'
She accepted their discussion had became 'heated' and confirmed it had upset her.
However, she said the claimant was 'not a bad guy' and was entitled to his opinion.
Mr Minhas was described as 'contrite, apologetic, and full of remorse' but was dismissed by Sky for gross misconduct and 'violating common decency'.
Employment Judge Mr Robinson said: 'It is not practicable to reinstate or have the claimant re-engaged by the respondent, his remedy must be monetary compensation.'
He added that any compensation must be 'uplifted' by 25 per cent because of breaches to the ACAS code but reduced by 33 per cent because of the claimant's 'contributory' fault.
The tribunal heard the employees were working at the shopping centre to drum up business for Sky products in June 2019 (file photo)
Both Sky and Mr Minhas were asked to raise any issues in relation to awarding a week's pay.
Speaking after the original verdict, Mr Minhas said: 'At the moment I don't want to say much. But I am pleased with what the tribunal has done in ruling in my favour.
'The main thing was to show that Sky made it out to be exaggerated which was disappointing. It was something that was not nice and I am pleased it has been put right.'
He said he had been hopeful over getting his old job back, but declined to comment after the latest ruling.
Returning his original verdict, Mr Robinson said: 'The claimant made a foolish remark in the context of a discussion with Ms Klemetti about people's dress generally.
'The claimant had strong views about the issue and he expressed them in forceful terms to his work colleague and she vociferously opposed them. The conversation was ten to fifteen minutes long and became heated.
'He came to regret it when he realised that the matter was being taken seriously. Up to that point he thought that he was having an informal chat, which would be taken no further.'
The judge said the dismissal was unfair because the two colleagues were talking to each other and not to any member of the public or indeed any other Sky employee.
He said Ms Klemetti herself did not complain and, when giving evidence to the tribunal, she did not believe it would go as far as it did.
But he added: 'The claimant was guilty of some misconduct because Ms Klemetti did feel that she would not dress in a certain way in front of the claimant.
'This was a heated argument between two people who had two different views of how people should dress in public.
'The incident did not require the claimant to be dismissed and such a sanction in all the circumstances of this case is outside the band of reasonable responses.
'Mr Minhas never condoned rape. He had a view as to how a certain kind of dress might effect the way some men may behave.
'Much was made by the respondent witnesses about the possibility that Sky's brand would be damaged. That was an improbable outcome.
'The discussion between the claimant and Ms Klemetti was a private one.'
A teaching assistant who faked compassionate leave was spotted on Facebook relaxing in a hot tub and drinking cocktails on holiday in Rome, a misconduct panel heard.
Ella Griffith, 25, told bosses at Ysgol Cybi primary school in Holyhead, Anglesey, that she needed to take two and a half days off in September last year to deal with 'a serious matter at home'.
It came just days after the start of the new term following a long period of disruption due to Covid-19.
But Miss Griffith was apparently caught out when her boyfriend posted pictures of them online at the Colosseum, Vatican City and the Forum during a romantic break in Italy.
Colleagues reported the images to the school's headteacher, who said she spent days attempting to get a clear answer from Miss Griffith about what was going on.
The ex-teaching assistant now faces five counts of unacceptable professional conduct relating to her unauthorised break and faces being struck off as a registered teacher.
Miss Griffiths and her boyfriend were later spotted on Facebook posing outside the Trevi Fountain in Rome, which famously featured in the films 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Roman Holiday'
The couple were pictured together in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo, posing in front of the Flaminian Obelisk
Other pictures included the couple drinking in an ice bar, riding on e-scooters through the city and various sightseeing snaps
When Miss Griffith (pictured on holiday) was confronted about her absence upon returning, she initially lied saying she had flown to Italy over the weekend
The Education Workforce Council heard Miss Griffith was employed as a learning support assistant working 30 hours a week at the school.
Headteacher Rhian Grieve said Miss Griffith had requested some time off just days after schools returned in September last year following lengthy closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Grieve said: 'She spoke with me on September 17, 2020, and asked to leave early the following day and return on September 23.
'The situation appeared critical in that Ella Griffith's family needed her and she requested compassionate leave.'
Miss Griffiths had not participated in the hearing into her alleged misconduct
The headteacher said she was alerted by other staff members that Miss Griffith's boyfriend had posted pictures of them posing together in front of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, famously featured in the 1960 film 'La Dolce Vita'.
Other pictures included the couple drinking in an ice bar, riding on e-scooters through the city and various sightseeing snaps.
She said that when Miss Griffith was confronted about her absence upon returning, she initially lied saying she had flown to Italy over the weekend.
Ms Grieve said Miss Griffith was asked to provide her airline tickets as proof but then later 'confessed she'd lied at the length of time away.'
The panel heard she then failed to turn up to the school for the following two days - texting bosses to say she wouldn't be in but not phoning.
Miss Griffith was not at the hearing and has since left the school.
She is accused of five misconduct allegations relating to her time away and the subsequent days after.
Ella Griffith (pictured on holiday) asked bosses at Ysgol Cybi primary school in Holyhead, Anglesey, to take the two and a half days off to deal with 'a serious matter at home'
The ex-teaching assistant (pictured on holiday) now faces five counts of unacceptable professional conduct relating to her unauthorised break and faces being struck off as a registered teacher
She has not entered any pleas to the allegations and is not present.
If found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct she faces being struck from the teaching register.
The hearing, held via Zoom, continues.
Jeff Bezos, the world's second richest man, donated $500,000 at a charity gala at the weekend - the joint-largest pledge of the evening.
The world's second richest man, 57, and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, 51, were attending an A-lister studded fundraising dinner at the Pacific Design Center in Hollywood on Saturday night.
It was hosted by the Los Angeles-based Baby2Baby charity which provides diapers, clothing and basic necessities to children living in poverty.
The charity features a host of celebrity ambassadors, including Jennifer Garner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Adams and Jessica Alba, among others.
It was initially thought that a larger donation of $1million had been submitted at the event and Page Six claimed that Bezos' donation had been met with groans, but Baby2Baby have denied there were groans and clarified that there was no $1million pledge.
The charity added that Bezos' $500,000 donation, in addition to his pre-event giving, made him the single largest donor of the event.
The Amazon owner first became a billionaire in 1998, the year after Amazon went public as an online bookseller and has since increased his fortune by 12,425 per cent - now raking in more than $140,000 per minute.
According to Bloombergs Billionaire Index, the increase in Mr Bezos' net worth - thought to have gone up by $75bn in 2020 - it can be calculated that he earns around $6.25bn per month, $1.44bn per week, $205m per day, $8.56m per hour, and $142,667 per minute.
The world's second richest man, 57, and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, 51, were attending an A-lister studded fundraising dinner in Hollywood on Saturday night
Jennifer Garner, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sanchez attend the Baby2Baby 10-Year Gala presented by Paul Mitchell on November 13, 2021 in West Hollywood, California
Nearly 90 per cent of his wealth is tied up in his 10 per cent stake in Amazon - with each share currently worth $3,540.70 - with the rest of his money invested into other avenues such as Blue Origin and property.
However, he has previously faced criticism for lagging behind fellow billionaires, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his charitable donations.
Despite the promise of massive donations, Bezos has given around $1.5 billion in actual funds, less than one per cent of his $203.9 billion wealth.
In comparison, the Gates' have donated more than a third of their wealth, while Bloomberg has shelled out more than 10 percent.
Bezos has invested his fortune into a number of different avenues, including his company Blue Origin - which earlier this year took him on a voyage to space (Bezos is picture floating inside Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft on July 20)
Pictured: Jeff Bezos celebrates with his brother on July 20, 2021, after successfully returning home following a Blue Origin trip to space
However, Bezos has asked the public how he should donate his money and said that he wants to be careful to make a donation where it can be 'at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact.'
In January, he topped the rankings made by the Chronicle of Philanthropy with a $10 billion pledge for the Bezos Earth Fund. This was a pledge and has not yet been delivered.
Bezos is the second richest man in the world after Tesla owner Elon Musk who recently knocked him off the top spot with a fortune of $276.2 billion compared to Bezos's $203.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Also at the gala was Kobe Bryant's widow Vanessa, who was honored with the Giving Tree Award for her longtime support of the charity.
She paid tribute to the late LA Laker's player in her speech, who had also been a donor to Baby 2 Baby.
Also at the gala was Kobe Bryant's widow Vanessa, who was honored with the Giving Tree Award for her longtime support of the charity
'I want to thank my husband Kobe and my daughters Natalia, Gianna, Bianka and Capri,' Bryant said. 'Without your love and support, I wouldn't have this strength to be here this evening. I love you.'
Gianna was killed alongside her father in a helicopter crash in Janurary 2020 that killed seven others.
Other guests at the Baby 2 Baby event included Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Garner, Ciara, Nicole Richie and Mindy Kaling.
Bezos and Sanchez were pictured hanging out with Garner at the glittering event.
MPs have been warned that cross-party special interest groups could be the source of a new lobbying scandal without serious reform.
Standards Committee chairman Chris Bryant spoke out as a new investigation found that firms have poured 30million into all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) in the past five years.
APPGs are informal arrangements with no official status within Parliament, yet there are hundreds registered covering everything from various different countries to Smoking and Health and Yoga in Society.
Many do important work on serious issues, but questions have been raised over the function of others.
Research by the charity Transparency International suggests 36 APPGs about countries are run by eternal bodies, with two funded by a foreign state, 23 by campaign groups and six by private businesses.
Following the investigation by the BBC into private sector money, Mr Bryant said many 'now seem to have become the parliamentary arm of lobbying and PR companies'.
Attacking their 'transparency and propriety' he told the broadcaster: 'These groups cannot be a back door for peddling influence or gaining access to MPs. The Parliamentary logo is not for sale.'
Standards Committee chairman Chris Bryant spoke out as a new investigation found that firms have poured 30million into all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) in the past five years.
Now Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is reported to have teamed up with Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and Standards Committee chairman Chris Bryant to make them more transparent.
APPGs produce reports and fund visits - often abroad - for MPs and peers involved with their work.
The BBC investigation found that of that 30million total, an estimated 6.4 million was donated by companies registered as lobbyists.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant said he welcomed the inquiry into the groups as 'some are thought to receive large sums of money from foreign governments and companies'.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was reported by the Telegraph at the weekend to have teamed up with Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and Mr Bryant to make them more transparent.
The Commons Committee on Standards launched an investigation into the groups in late 2020. Mr Bryant, who chairs two APPGs himself, is not calling for a ban, but wants greater transparency into their funding. The administrative functions of many groups are outsourced to special interest groups and some private firms.
Earlier this year Parliament's two speakers had to intervene to ban China's ambassador to the UK from visiting Westminster after an invitation from the APPG on China.
Zheng Zeguang was told by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his counterpart in the upper chamber, Lord McFall, that he could not enter the estate for a talk scheduled for September.
He was due to meet the APPG, which is led by Tory MP Richard Graham.
But Sir Lindsay argued it would not be 'appropriate' for the ambassador to meet at the Commons while seven parliamentarians remain sanctioned by Beijing for criticising the Communist regime.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and other sanctioned politicians welcomed the 'strong principled stand' taken by the speakers.
But Mr Graham expressed his 'regret' that he would have to postpone the talk.
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Boris Johnson was today brutally rebuked by the Speaker as he tried to turn the tables on Keir Starmer during a fiery PMQs sessions.
The premier repeatedly tried to grill the Labour leader over his past legal work as the pair clashed over sleaze at the weekly session.
But Lindsay Hoyle demanded he stop, insisting it is questions to the Prime Minister rather than to the Opposition leader. 'You might be the PM of this country but in this House I'm in charge,' Sir Lindsay said.
Sir Lindsay also warned that the bad-tempered discussion was doing nothing to restore the image of the House after the Owen Paterson debacle earlier this month.
Mr Johnson is desperately trying to get back on the front foot by pledging to ban politicians from working as consultants on the side - something that could cost dozens of his own backbenchers significant sums.
In a major shift, Mr Johnson also suggested MPs should have limits placed on the time they spend on second jobs.
The dramatic intervention was intended to outflank Labour amid growing alarm that its attacks on the government over sleaze were hitting home.
But it immediately threatened to descend into a shambles, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan suggesting that 20 hours on a sideline 'is fine'.
There looked to be fewer Conservative MPs cheering Mr Johnson on in the chamber this afternoon than in recent weeks.
And the weekly exchanges turned nasty after Mr Johnson attempted to question Sir Keir about links with Mishcon de Reya.
Sir Lindsay told Mr Johnson: 'I don't want to fall out about it, I've made it very clear it is Prime Minister's Questions, it's not for the Opposition to answer your questions.
'Whether we like it or not those are the rules of the game that we're all into and we play by the rules, don't we? And we respect this House, so let's respect the House.'
After Mr Johnson attempted to ask again about the issue in a later exchange, the Speaker said: 'Prime Minister, sit down. I'm not going to be challenged, you may be the Prime Minister of this country but in this House I'm in charge.'
Mr Johnson later accused Sir Keir of 'Mish-conduct', which prompted calls from the Labour benches for the comment to be withdrawn.
The Speaker said: 'I don't think this has done this House any good today. I'll be quite honest, I think it's been ill-tempered, I think it shows the public that this House has not learnt from the other week, I need this House to gain respect but it starts by individuals showing respect for each other.'
Despite the rollocking for Mr Johnson, at the end of the session Sir Keir was pulled up for calling the PM a 'coward'.
When Mr Johnson again dodged saying sorry for his handling of the Paterson case, Sir Keir said: 'That's not an apology. Everybody else has apologised for him, but he won't apologise for himself. A coward not a leader.'
Responding to a point of order, Sir Lindsay said the jibe was 'not the kind of language' for the Commons.
Rising to his feet again, Sir Keir said: 'I withdraw it. But he is no leader.'
Boris Johnson (left) repeatedly tried to grill Labour leader Keir Starmer (right) over his past legal work as the pair clashed over sleaze at the weekly session
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle demanded he stop, insisting it is questions to the Prime Minister rather than to the Opposition leader. 'You might be the PM of the country but in this House I'm in charge,' Sir Lindsay said.
The government's blueprint immediately threatened to descend into a shambles, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan suggesting that 20 hours on a sideline 'is fine'
How do the sleaze reform plans being pushed by the PM and Labour compare? LABOUR Labour's proposal calls for a ban on 'any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant'. Crucially, it also includes provisions requiring the Commons Standards Committee to come forward with proposals to implement the ban and guaranteeing time on the floor of the House for MPs to debate and vote on them. Although it does not feature in the motion, Keir Starmer has also said he wants to ban almost all second jobs - with only limited exceptions such as doctors and nurses. TORIES The government is trying to amend the Labour motion to push its own overhaul of the standards system. The amendment is more vaguely, describing the consultancy ban as 'the basis of a viable approach' and supporting the work of the Standards Committee to update the MPs' code of conduct. Boris Johnson has called for a ban on political consultancy work, and says he is going further than Labour with restrictions on outside work that distracts from Commons duties. However, it is unclear how broad the ban would be, and what would count as excessive outside work. Advertisement
Backlash at Boris's 'back of fag packet' plan for MPs' second jobs Boris Johnson is facing another brutal day trying to quell the sleaze crisis today with Tories furious about his 'back of a fag packet' crackdown on their outside earnings. The PM has desperately tried to draw a line under the chaos by pledging to ban politicians from working as consultants on the side - something that could cost dozens of his own backbenchers significant sums. In a major shift, Mr Johnson also suggested MPs should have limits placed on the time they spend on second jobs. The dramatic intervention was intended to outflank Labour amid growing alarm that its attacks on the government over sleaze were hitting home. But it immediately threatened to descend into a shambles, with Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan suggesting that 20 hours on a sideline 'is fine'. 'Let's say two shifts, that would be 16 hours a week. Are we saying 10 to 20 hours a week outside your work as an MP and a parliamentarian? If that's what you chose to do as your choice, that's fine.' Ms Trevelyan also indicated that former attorney general Geoffrey Cox would not have to curb his 1million a year legal practice under the mooted changes - despite No10 claiming he would. 'Key is, is he doing a good job for his constituents? Do they think he's doing a good job for them? And, from what I've heard, no-one has stood up and said otherwise,' she said. 'But that he continues to practise what is his professional skill while he is a backbench MP, for me, is perfectly acceptable because in the same way that Maria Caulfield serves in the NHS as a nurse continues to practise her profession alongside serving her constituents is, I think, important for the NHS.' The proposals have teed up a major showdown with some Tory MPs over whether and how the rules at Parliament should be overhauled. There is muttering that many will decline to turn up for crunch votes on the changes due this evening. One backbencher told MailOnline that Downing Street had 'dreamed up' another disastrous idea that looked clever at first glance but would not stand up to any scrutiny. 'I think it's been put together on the back of a fag packet... It's the same mistake we made over Owen Paterson,' they said. Advertisement
Ms Trevelyan said: 'Let's say two shifts, that would be 16 hours a week. Are we saying 10 to 20 hours a week outside your work as an MP and a parliamentarian? If that's what you chose to do as your choice, that's fine.'
Ms Trevelyan also indicated that former attorney general Geoffrey Cox would not have to curb his 1million a year legal practice under the mooted changes - despite No10 claiming he would.
'Key is, is he doing a good job for his constituents? Do they think he's doing a good job for them? And, from what I've heard, no-one has stood up and said otherwise,' she said.
'But that he continues to practise what is his professional skill while he is a backbench MP, for me, is perfectly acceptable because in the same way that Maria Caulfield serves in the NHS as a nurse continues to practise her profession alongside serving her constituents is, I think, important for the NHS.'
The proposals have teed up a major showdown with some Tory MPs over whether and how the rules at Parliament should be overhauled. There is muttering that many will decline to turn up for crunch votes on the changes due this evening.
One backbencher told MailOnline that Downing Street had 'dreamed up' another disastrous idea that looked clever at first glance but would not stand up to any scrutiny.
'I think it's been put together on the back of a fag packet... It's the same mistake we made over Owen Paterson,' they said.
The Tory WhatsApp groups have also been kicking off about the ideas coming out of the government.
Backbencher Kevin Hollinrake wrote: 'Is anyone else concerned that allowing the commissioner to determine which of us 'are prioritising outside interests over their constituents' and are then 'investigated and appropriately punished' makes us subordinate to an unelected official?'
Colleague Simon Hoare replied: Yes.'
Mr Johnson will be grilled by the Liaison Committee later before crunch votes on how to reform Commons rules.
He will also face the backbench 1922 Committee in a bid to repair relations with his MPs.
Some polls have shown the Opposition taking the lead amid the outcry over Owen Paterson's lobbying and Geoffrey Cox's lucrative legal sideline.
The government wants new rules to introduced in January, assuming an agreement can be reached with Labour.
But the Opposition has accused the government of 'dirty tricks' and trying to water down its rival blueprint.
Ms Trevelyan appeared to get into a muddle during her interviews, initially saying up to 10 hours on a second job was acceptable, before increasing the figure to 15 hours, and then 20 hours.
'You do a 40 to 50-hour week, say, as a backbench MP and you do eight to 10 hours work on something else,' she told Times Radio. 'For me that would be a perfectly reasonable balance.'
On BBC Breakfast the Cabinet minister said: 'I think there is a common sense test which is if you probably do 40-50 hours a week doing your main job, doing 10 or 15 hours a week doing something else, whatever you choose to do in your spare time, whether that's paid or not paid, is something that is part of the richness of what you bring as an individual to your role as an MP.'
But later in her round of interviews, Ms Trevelyan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that longer would be reasonable.
Labour's proposal calls for a ban on 'any paid work to provide services as a parliamentary strategist, adviser or consultant'.
Crucially, it also includes provisions requiring the Commons Standards Committee to come forward with proposals to implement the ban and guaranteeing time on the floor of the House for MPs to debate and vote on them.
In contrast, the more vaguely worded Government amendment simply describes the consultancy ban as 'the basis of a viable approach' and supports the work of the Standards Committee to update the MPs' code of conduct.
Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire said it was 'typical Tory dirty tricks' and an attempt to water down the proposals.
The PM's proposals prompted an immediate backlash from Mr Johnson's own MPs, who now face losing out on thousands and in some cases millions of pounds.
Before Ms Trevelyan's intervention a Whitehall source claimed the plans were likely to restrict the activities of Sir Geoffrey, who has earned more than 5.5million from his other jobs including a stint in the British Virgin Islands during lockdown.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the powerful Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, warned of 'dissatisfaction' among MPs.
'Various discussions will be taking place between backbenchers today and the Prime Minister, and I've no doubt I will have an opportunity to make my views known,' he said.
He added: 'I think I will have more than adequate opportunity to make my views known today.'
He said Mr Johnson 'wants to get ahead of the curve' on the debate and is 'doing the right thing'.
He said: 'We need to get the rules absolutely clear on what MPs can do, what they can't do, so that our constituents have an expectation of what the person representing them is going to do.'
Mr Johnson declared that his proposals would ensure MPs who are 'neglecting their duties to their constituents and prioritising outside interests would be investigated, and appropriately punished by the existing disciplinary authorities'.
He said it was now 'imperative that we put beyond doubt the reputation of the House of Commons by ensuring the rules which apply to MPs are up to date, effective and appropriately rigorous.'
He said he would seek a 'cross-party consensus' on the issue prompting fears from some Tory MPs that Labour will ensure new rules are exceedingly tough.
As the PM battled to regain the public's confidence:
MPs on Parliament's liaison committee prepared to grill Mr Johnson over the sleaze row today;
It emerged that MPs could also be banned from taking freebies from lobbyists and could have to declare new jobs they take after leaving Parliament;
Sir Keir claimed the PM had been 'dragged kicking and screaming' to support reform by Labour's own bid to tighten the rules.
The Government will try to amend Labour's anti-sleaze motion with a vote in the Commons this afternoon to reflect the PM's new plan.
Mr Johnson's announcement came less than a fortnight after he tried to save Mr Paterson, who was found to have broken lobbying rules. As recently as a week ago, the PM said MPs' second jobs can 'strengthen' Parliament.
But yesterday saw his predecessor Theresa May deliver a withering assessment on the Paterson debacle, saying the Government's attempt to spare the former minister had been 'misplaced, ill-judged and just plain wrong'.
She added: 'Damage has been done to all MPs and to Parliament as a whole.'
The new proposals could directly affect around 30 MPs who currently hold lucrative jobs advising firms.
The PM has written to Speaker Lindsay Hoyle proposing a dramatic overhaul of the rules to crack down on abuses of the system - that could hit the interests of a number of Tory MPs
They include former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell, who is paid more than 182,000 a year to advise six companies, and former transport secretary Chris Grayling, who is paid 100,000 a year as a 'strategic adviser' to a ports operator. The plan to place 'reasonable limits' on time spent on outside interests follows outcry over Sir Geoffrey, who has devoted 10,700 hours to his legal career since 2009. Yet some Tory MPs warned the PM risked going too far.
'The Prime Minister is pouring fuel on the fire just as it was starting to go out,' one senior figure said. 'What does 'reasonable limits' mean? Can you still be a minister and a constituency MP?
'Labour will have a field day with this they will end up having us clocking in and clocking out to no useful end, while the media will crawl all over everything we do.'
Mr Rees-Mogg attempted to take the blame for the public backlash yesterday, telling the Conservative Home website that he had persuaded the PM to try to help Mr Paterson. The Commons Leader said he had done so out of sympathy for the former environment secretary, whose wife Rose committed suicide last year.
The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Kathryn Stone, found Mr Paterson guilty of 'egregious' breaches of lobbying rules on behalf of two firms which had paid him more than 500,000.
But Mr Rees-Mogg said he felt Mr Paterson had been 'punished enough' by his tragic loss. 'It was not seen by the electorate as being merciful, it was seen as being self-serving,' he said of the attempt to block Mr Paterson's suspension.
'I must take my share of responsibility for this. I thought it was the right thing to do, I encouraged the Prime Minister to go down this route, and I was wrong.'
The PM said at the weekend: 'Of course, I think things could certainly have been handled better... by me.'
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One of the world's most highly acclaimed photojournalists Tom Stoddart has died at the age of 68 after a long battle with cancer, his family has announced.
Stoddart spent over four decades as one of Fleet Street's finest photographers, capturing haunting scenes of war and famine around the world, as well as taking iconic images of Royal weddings and Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron.
His photographs of human catastrophes in Beirut and Sarajevo helped shape the government's response and cast a lasting public impression over the two controversial and highly politicised conflicts.
In 2019, the celebrated photojournalist told the Evening Standard: 'I have seen many awful things, but I have also seen a lot of fantastic and beautiful things.
'Humans do terrible things to each other, but there is also courage and humanity. That helps me keep it all in perspective
'I've been very lucky in my career, with a ringside seat to history.'
Acclaimed photojournalist Tom Stoddart, 68, (pictured here in 2014) has died at the age of 68 - his family has announced
Among Stoddart's iconic images was this impromptu shot of Lady Diana Spencer, who was startled after stalling her red Mini Metro outside her Earls Court flat in 1980 just days before her engagement to Prince Charles was announced officially
Stoddart moved to Fleet Street in 1978 and soon became one of the most trusted and talented photojournalists in the industry. Pictured: A family holding hands and sliding down a fairground ride in Margate, July 1983
Stoddart took this piercing image as a Palestinian boy fighter poses with his AK-47 in Chatilla refugee camp in Beirut, 1987
Stoddart's black and white images were his signature style. Pictured: Scenes at the VE Day celebrations in Hyde Park, 1995
The 68-year-old was adept at capturing the solemnity of circumstances in single images. Pictured: A soldier at the grave of Victoria Cross recipient Lt-Col H. Jones at the Blue Beach War Cemetery in Port San Carlos, Falkland Islands, October 1982
Stoddart was one of the first on scene of the Lockerbie bombing wreckage in Scotland (pictured) in 1988. The Pan-Am 747 plane was blown up by Libyan terrorists when it was en route to JFK airport in New York, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew
Elephant conservationist Daphne Sheldrick plays with an orphaned elephant at her sanctuary near Nairobi, Kenya, in 1989
Tom was one of the first on the ground in Lockerbie, documenting the devastation caused by the bombing in 1988 (pictured)
His work in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War in the 1990s was some of his most iconic and celebrated work, recognised for capturing the human impact of the war. Pictured: a woman hurries past graffiti in an area known as 'Sniper Alley' in 1992
Tom's family said he was known for giving a voice to those who did not have one and shone light where there was darkness. Pictured: a mother guiding her children through a line of Slovenian police at the Timovec border crossing with Croatia in 2015
In a statement shared today, his family said: 'It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Tom after a brave fight with cancer.
'He felt blessed that he had found true happiness with Ailsa. The family kindly ask that their privacy be respected at this time.
'Tom touched the lives of so many as a brilliant, compassionate, courageous photographer whose legacy of work will continue to open the eyes for generation.
'He gave voice to those who did not have one and shone a light where there had been darkness.'
Stoddart has been on the front line of momentous and historic occasions throughout history, picturing the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the aids crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and the Bosnian War. As fate would have it, he was on a Staten Island Ferry during the World Trade Center terror attacks in 2001.
He was in Beirut in 1982 when Israeli forces bombed Yasser Arafats besieged PLO base and was seriously injured while covering the siege of Sarajevo in 1992 when he was hit by Serbian artillery.
Fire crews and policemen work to free the dead and rescue the injured from derailed carriages after a rail crash near Clapham Junction in London, which saw 35 people killed and over 100 people injured, pictured by Tom Stoddart in December 1988
This iconic image was captured after the IRA detonated a bomb in Canary Wharf, devastating buildings in the vicinity in 1996
Tom Stoddart wasn't just known for his exceptional coverage of global issues but also took iconic images from the biggest news stories in the UK. Pictured: Prisoners on the rooftop of Strangeways Prison, in Manchester, during a riot in April 1990
Pictured: Stoddart was on the scene during the infamous riots in the heart of Moss Side, Manchester, in June 1981
In 1997, Tom Stoddart was granted access to Labour leader Tony Blair's historic general election campaign (pictured)
Born in Morpeth, Northumberland, in 1953, Stoddart began his career with the Berwick Advertiser and moved to Fleet Street in 1978.
He grew to become one of the most accomplished photographers on the national news circuit and was one of the first to picture Lady Diana Spencer in 1980 as rumours abounded of her upcoming engagement to Prince Charles.
He went on to picture Margaret Thatcher during the early years of her premiership, alongside The Queen and her friend and close ally US President Ronald Reagan.
Stoddart was also among the first at the scene of the Lockerbie disaster in 1988 and he later captured the plight of family members desperately seeking information about their loved ones.
His career reached new heights the following year as he photographed the fall of the Berlin Wall, locking many images in time as east Germans celebrated their newfound freedom.
Describing the event 20 years later in 2014, he told MailOnline: 'It was a hunch, a gut feeling, that enabled me to witness history in the making that night on November 9, 1989, and in the hours that followed.
'If I'd listened to others, I wouldn't have been there, among the first photographers to see the opening of Checkpoint Charlie and the stream of humanity discovering freedom. In effect, to record the symbolic end of the Cold War.
'A few days before, I'd been in East Berlin covering the growing demonstrations against the East German regime for Time magazine. I went back to London and sent my films to its office in New York.
'That might have been that - except my instincts told me that something spectacular was about to happen in Berlin. I'm a freelance and couldn't convince any of my usual clients.'
Stoddart funded his own trip back to Germany and was in a taxi when he heard the wall was going to come down. He headed straight to the wall and captured some of the most iconic images of Germans celebrating the historic moment.
A rubber boat packed with jubilant refugees and migrants heads towards the shoreline of Lesbos, Greece, in October 2015 after successfully crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey
Photojournalist Stoddart was often on the frontline of historic moments like when he snapped this image of then-Presidential candidate Nelson Mandela mingling with the crowds in Durban during the South African elections in April 1994 (pictured)
Melita Olmingani, 20, a young Maasai warrior with his herd of goats, in Ngorongoro, Tanzania, snapped by Stoddart in 2004
Pictured: Kurdish refugee children at a camp in the mountains near Isikveren, in south-eastern Turkey, snapped in April 1991
Stoddard was known for his ability to capture the range of human emotion in his photos as with this young boy who was overjoyed with his haul of fish caught to sell in the market from the River Ganges at the holy city of Varanassi in India in 1990
Stoddart was in Sudan in 2012 when fighting was taking place between the Sudanese People's Liberation Army and government troops. Pictured: SPLA soldiers lie wounded in a Bentiu men's hospital ward in Unity State, South Sudan
Stoddart's images of the the famine in Sudan resulted in a spike in charity donations after they were published. He went back in 2012 and documented people who fled fighting between Government troops and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army
Pictured: A man gives thanks to Allah after landing on the Greek Island of Lesbos in a crowded rubber dinghy in 2015
Stoddart was often credited with using his images to shine a light on the suffering of others in countries across the world. This image shows a boy snapped on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing with his family to see a better life in Western Europe
In line with his penchant for shining a light on injustices, Stoddart photographed Adi Roche (pictured), an Irish woman who set up the Chernobyl Children's Project International to help those children affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster
Stoddart's coverage of the Bosnian conflict included some of his most tragic and celebrated works.
His image of 'Sarajevo woman' Meliha Varesanovic in 1994 walking defiantly in front of gun-toting Serbian soldiers while wearing pearls, high heels and clutching her handbag was among his most iconic photographs and a favourite of actress and United Nations envoy Angelina Jolie.
The image was featured as part of an open air exhibition set up to run during the London Olympic Games in 2012, an event which attracted more than a quarter of a million visitors during its run.
In total, more than 70 of his most iconic images were included in the display created with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC, to highlight their Health Care in Danger campaign.
Stoddart said: The worlds nations are joined together in a wonderful sporting festival whose motto is "swifter, higher, stronger".
'I hope that people visiting the exhibition will leave with a greater determination to understand and help those with little access to clean water, food and medicines who, through no fault of their own, cannot run more swiftly, jump higher or be stronger.
The display also featured stunning but disturbing photographs taken by Stoddart of young Chinese gymnasts in training in four major cities.
Stoddart was often invited to the forefront of UK politics and regularly snapped then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1985)
After moving to Fleet Street in 1978, Stoddart quickly garnered a reputation as one of the UK's most dedicated and talented photojournalists. Pictured: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on a plane during the 1985 election campaign
Always on the front line: Often at the heart of contemporary issues, Stoddart captured this image of police officers surrounding the British Steel Coking Plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the UK miners strike back in May 1984
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher alongside her friend and ally US President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy in 1989
Glenys Kinnock (centre), wife of then-Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, demonstrates against the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common near Newbury, Berkshire, which was photographed by Stoddart in December 1983
Stoddart was behind this candid snap of actress Joanna Lumley with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama in India back in 2004
Royal visit: Tom Stoddart was responsible for this snap of Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to Nepal in February 1986
Iconic: Stoddart was behind this image of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sharing a kiss on the balcony at their wedding
Two British soldiers of the 7th Armoured Brigade, patrolling in football shirts after their arrival in Saudi Arabia, during the Gulf War, 1990
The award-winning photographs captured the gruelling training regimes the promising young gymnasts were subjected to, taken away from their homes their parents can see their children as little as once a year and put into strict training camps, sharing accommodation and working on repetition exercises for hours each day.
The haunting photographs taken in the 1990s capture perfectly the lengths the training programmes go to in order to create Olympic champions and the apparent pain the youngsters endure.
Another notable project was his coverage of the famine in Sudan in 1998 where his image of a man stealing maize from a starving child became a symbol for the strife that was unfolding in the country at the time.
The images were run in the UK, offering an unflinching glimpse at the extent of the famine and resulted in a spike in donations to charity.
Excited gamblers cheer on their favourite horses at the finishing post during the 2009 Royal Ascot race meeting
Another of Stoppard's pictures shows children wearing yellow sunglasses playing outside their apartment block homes on a Glasgow estate in March 1990
An elderly man was caught on camera by Stoppard while struggling to walk home from the market in the southern city of Basra in Iraq in March 1994
Stoddart took this early picture of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II at a ball to celebrate the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Lusaka, Zambia, in October 1979
Stoddart captured this female leopard relaxing in the branches of a dead tree in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, in 2007
An aid worker in Abathok village in South Sudan oversees Red Cross supplies of seeds, agricultural tools and food parcels after some 15,000 people were displaced by fighting in May 2011
Stoddart captured this shot of Italian movie legend Sophia Loren from the backseat of her car in London in 1981, as she launched her fragrance 'Sophia'
Metropolitan policewomen photographed during a break in duties near the Libyan Embassy, St James's Square during the 11 day siege after WPC Yvonne Fletcher was fatally shot in 1984
A sunday morning scene taken by Stoddart in 1989 at Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement in Zimbabwe as lepers William Padzuru and Maria Majhu pose for the camera together after their wedding
In 2011, Stoddart took this image of US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel deep in conversation during the G20 Summit in Cannes, France
Tributes have been paid to the legendary photographer after news of his death broke earlier today.
Fellow photographer David Levenson wrote: 'Deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the death of my dear old friend Tom Stoddart.
'One of the greatest photographers of his generation. A compassionate man who achieved so much, and gave so much help to others too RIP Tom. Missing you already.'
Nigel Atherton, editor of Amateur Photographer, wrote: ' Despite the number of truly great images that he created Tom remained modest and down to earth, a man motivated not by the desire for personal glory or self-aggrandisement but by an interest and curiosity about the world and a desire to shine a spotlight on its injustices.
Stoddart's work 'gave voice to those who did not have one and shone a light where there had been darkness,' his family said
Hard at work: Tom Stoddart photographed in Serbia while on assignment for Annenberg Space for Photography
A city gent preacher gets across his message to skeptical Metropolitan police officers on a London street in January 1980
Women at the Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan in March 2012, where 36,500 people fled across the border to escape the ongoing fighting between Khartoum's government troops and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army
That morning-after feeling for a group of student revellers in Fellows' Garden, after the Magdalene College May Ball in Cambridge, 2009
The war memorial in the abandoned village of Besed, situated in the lethal purple zone, in Belarus in 2006
Special Forces after burning a cocaine-processing lab in the heart of the Colombian jungle in November 1996
A lone dog walks through a devastated street during the seige of Sarajevo in November 1994
A girl plays with her dogs in a Sarajevo street during the siege of the city in July, 1992
'He was truly humbled when in 2020, Amateur Photographer gave him our Exceptional Achievement in Photography award (having already won our Power of Photography award back in 1999 for his Sudan images) but it was really no less than he deserved.
'Tom will be remembered as one of the all-time greats of photojournalism, and one of the true gentlemen of his profession. It was a privilege to have known him.'
Richard Baker, also a fellow photographer, said: 'I am heartbroken to hear that my friend, the photojournalist Tom Stoddart has passed away.
'I simply cannot accept that this most gentle, selfless, compassionate and funny man has left us. His legacy is a lifetime of photographs that have shocked us and changed ideas. RIP dear Tom.'
Sales of second hand tractors are continuing to soar as farmers turn their attention to used equipment amid long delays for new machinery, a leading auctioneer has revealed.
Cheffins, one of the leading agricultural auctioneer firms in the country, have revealed its sales have doubled over the last six months with one director saying that the company is 'the busiest it has ever been in sales'.
The firm has seen a huge spike in demand for second hand tractors and other farming equipment, a trend mirrored across the industry.
It has grossed over 40 million in sales this calendar year and is expecting to see the number soar further. Last year, it reported a record 35 million.
Oliver Godfrey, head of the Machinery Auction Division at Cheffins, told MailOnline that the pandemic accelerated sales of second hand goods, particularly as consumers face long delays for new machinery.
However, he added: 'There's only so much kit. The more we sell each month the harder it is to sell next month. I think this environment could continue for a long time.'
1983 County 1474 'Short nose' - sold by Cheffins in a private collection auction in Essex in July for 210,112
2017 Fendt 939 Vario - tractor was sold by Cheffins in a recent farm dispersal sale in Kent for 116,117
He said: 'We have seen a surge in the sale of second-hand machinery which mirrors the second-hand car market.
'Farmers are looking at second-hand as they face rising costs and delivery times for equipment for new machinery. It's not just tractors but also other machinery like combine harvesters.
'The pandemic accelerated online sales and it's the busiest we've ever been in sales. We've had as many sales in the last six months as we'd have in 12.'
Mr Godfrey also pointed to Brexit and staff and component shortages as reasons behind the increase in delays to new farming equipment.
This, he explained, helped aid the surge in popularity of second-hand goods.
Another factor was the coronavirus lockdown, which led to a rise in people with free time.
This time allowed them to indulge in hobbies, which led to a rise in the sales of vintage machinery.
In 2020, Cheffins sold more than 4,500 tractors and plant items throughout the year, amounting to 35 million.
A second hand 1983 County 1474 tractor with an estimated sale price of 60,000-70,000 was sold by Cheffins for 210,112.
A 2017 Fendt 939 Vario tractor was sold for 116,117 and a 2019 Valtra T234 tractor sold for 85,704.
Away from tractors, the firm sold a 2016 Horsch Leeb PT330 sprayer for 120,090 and a 2016 Horsch Sprinter 12SW seed drill for 84,662.
This 2019 Valtra T234 tractor was sold by Cheffins this year for 85,704.50. It is one of several sold by the auctioneers
The 66 plate JCB 4220 Fastrac, 25-year limited edition, which sold for 75,000 by Cheffins
Tractors aren't the only popular second hand machinery. This 2016 Horsch Leeb PT330 sprayer sold for 120,090
Meanwhile, Cheffins also sold this 2016 Horsch Sprinter 12SW seed drill for 84,662
Bill Pepper, director at Cheffins, said earlier this year: 'With sales totals increasing regularly, we can really see that both the UK and export market for second-hand machinery is booming.
'The cocktail of rising prices for new tractors, lack of new tractor registrations, a shortage of stock for dealers and a drop in trade-ins has really brought the UK dealers back to our market.'
Earlier this month, Stags, another auctioneer firm, revealed it had also seen a surge in the sale of secondhand equipment.
Its latest online auction saw a 2011 Deutz Agrotron M625 4wd tractor sell for 29,000 and a 2005 New Holland TS100A 4wd tractor with 3,570 hours sell for 22,500.
It comes as a report revealed that cars up to a year old are selling for more than they cost new.
The average price of second-hand vehicles has risen 24 per cent in 12 months as record numbers change hands.
Data from Auto Trader shows that around 10,000 used vehicles registered in the past year 17 per cent of the total are on sale for more than the showroom price.
Some used models are being sold for up to 7,000 more than where customers buy them new.
The boom is being driven by problems in rolling out new cars because of critical shortages of semiconductor chips.
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The first images of British actor Laurence Fox portraying Hunter Biden passed out on a woman with white powder on his nose from the upcoming film My Son Hunter have been revealed for the first time.
The photos showing Fox as President Biden's son smoking a cigarette and indulging in his new favorite pastime, painting, have been exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com from the set in Serbia before it wraps up production.
The scenes are in line with damning photos, emails and text messages from Hunter's laptop that exposed his history of drug use and addiction and the thousands he blew on suspected prostitutes and hookers.
They also invoke Hunter's past admission that he 'spent more time on my hands and knees picking through rugs, smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine' and 'smoked more Parmesan cheese than anyone you know'.
Anti-woke campaigner Fox, who comes from a dynasty of British TV and stage stars, celebrated the release of the images and said there is 'much work to be done to put an end to #CancelCulture and the monochromatic boredom of political correctness.'
Fox said in 2019 that he has been 'totally radicalized' by watching YouTube videos about 'woke culture' and 'political correctness' and in September 2020 created a new political party called Reclaim. He prides himself on being 'anti-woke.'
In March 2021, Fox announced he would run for mayor in London to 'fight against extreme political correctness', but finished in sixth place with just 1.9 per cent of the vote.
New pictures from the set of My Son Hunter show British actor Laurence Fox (second left) portraying Hunter Biden passed out on the breast of a woman on set with white powder on his nose
Photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com showHunter Biden taking images and videos of himself having sex with prostitutes
He took video of himself having sex with a Russian prostitute
Another image from the set of the movie shows Fox painting an abstract piece in a nod toward the president's son's recent artistic endeavors
Fox smokes a cigarette on the set of My Son Hunter he made the above image his new profile picture on Twitter. Several selfie images from Hunter's hard drive show him with cigarettes in his mouth
A series of compromising images from Biden's laptop were released just weeks before the 2020 presidential election. One showed him passed out with a crack pipe hanging out of his mouth (left) and in several others he was shirtless smoking a cigarette (right)
The actor changed his profile picture on Twitter to the image of him smoking a cigarette while portraying the junior Biden.
'Last few days of @MySonHunter,' Fox tweeted on Wednesday. 'It's been such a joy to act again and work with such wonderfully talented people.'
'I'll be sad to go back to my cancellation,' the actor continued, 'but there is much work to be done to put an end to #CancelCulture and the monochromatic boredom of political correctness.'
Fox, 43, also shared a tweet Monday aimed at his costar John James, 65, who is portraying Joe Biden in the movie from conservative Irish filmmakers and married couple Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.
'I love you dad,' Fox tweeted along with an image of James portraying Biden on set in Serbia. The actor also tagged President Biden's non-government Twitter handle in the post.
DailyMail.com shared an exclusive first look of James playing Biden on Monday.
The veteran daytime soap opera star is most known for his 1980s role of Jeff Colby in Dynasty, which ran from 1981-1989, and its spin-off series The Colbys, which ran from 1985-1987.
The crew flew out to Serbia at the end of October to start four weeks of filming for the biopic aimed at showing the partying lifestyle and dodging business dealings of the president's son, which the filmmakers say is widely ignored by the media.
Fox posted a risque image from set in October donning a white loin cloth, orange scarf and sunglasses and nothing else in an outfit indicative of one of the photos found on the president's son's hard drive.
'Everything is fine. I'm in a really good place,' Fox sarcastically posted in the image from the set where he was holding up a peace sign alongside a woman in lingerie.
There have been ethics concerns and questions from critics over worries of buyers intending to gain influence over the president by buying his son's art pieces for high prices.
The pieces which are featured at exhibits at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York and Los Angeles.
Laurence Fox in the spotlight: The British actor with movie pedigree who has taken on the woke mob, vaccines for kids and 'extreme political correctness' Laurence Fox announces in a video clip his role playing Hunter Biden in the upcoming film My Son Hunter Laurence Fox was born into a family of actors, became a household name in the UK with a string of TV and stage appearances, hit the spotlight during his marriage to pop star Billy Piper and has now turned his attention to taking down the woke mob and political correctness. At the height of the pandemic, he encouraged Brits to disobey the British governments social distancing guidelines and public health restrictions and was dropped by his acting agency for saying Meghan Markle was not the victim of racism during an interview in January 2020. Born in 1978, his father James was the son of Robin Fox, a theatrical agent who married daughter of the playwright Frederick Lonsdale. Two of Fox's four siblings, his brother-in-law, his uncle and two of his first cousins are also actors. Another uncle is a theatrical and film producer. Fox attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) where he graduated in 2001. His first break into film was the 2001 horror-thriller The Hole and appeared in Gosford Park the same year. In March 2020, Fox was dropped by his managers at Authentic Talent and in November of the same year was then dropped by talent agency Artists Rights Group after comments he made on the BBC program Question Time TV. Appearing as a panelist in January 2020, Fox said that Meghan Markle was not a victim of racism and called an audience member racist for saying he was a "white privileged male". Fox, 43, has taken a hiatus from acting the past few years to focus on political ambitions, including creating in September 2020 the Reclaim Party in the United Kingdom and running for mayor of London. The actor and father of two said he is coming out of retirement for the time being just to play President Joe Biden's son in the upcoming film My Son Hunter from conservative Irish filmmakers and married couple Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. In a 2019 interview, Fox said he has been 'totally radicalized' by watching YouTube videos about 'woke culture' and 'political correctness'. He prides himself on being 'anti-woke.' In March 2021, Fox announced he would run for mayor in London in order to 'fight against extreme political correctness', but finished in sixth place with just 1.9 per cent of the vote. Fox has lamented and made frequent jokes about being another actor canceled by the 'woke mob'. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox frequently criticized government's response and encouraged people to go against social distancing and other public health rules. In March 2021, he participated in anti-lockdown protests leading to a visit from police for allegedly breaking rules in the midst of campaigning. 'If the NHS can't cope, then the NHS isn't fit for purpose,' Fox said of the response to the pandemic during an interview on Good Morning Britain. In his career, Fox has appeared in several television series and films. Some movies include Island at War; The Last Drop, Deathwatch, Ultimate Force, Colditz, Whatever Love Means, Becoming Jane and Lord Chancellor of England in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Previous television roles for Fox included on ITV shows Lewis, A Room with a View and Victoria. Advertisement
Laurence Fox tweeted from filming in Serbia that it's been 'such a joy to act again', claiming he will continue to work to end cancel culture
Fox tweeted an image of costar John James portraying President Joe Biden and said: 'I love you dad'
Biden's latest endeavor is art. In October, at least five of his prints from an exhibit at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York sold for $75,000 each
The art selling for such a high price points has critics wondering if the buyers could be trying to gain influence over President Joe Biden through purchasing his recovering drug addict son's paintings
Conservative filmmakers and married couple Phelim McAleer (left) and Ann McElhinney (right) said when announcing the film earlier this year: 'The truth deserves to be told and it needs to be seen by as many people as possible. An entertaining and enjoyable movie is the best way to [do that]... If the media won't do their jobs, we'll do it for them'
The gallery and White House have vowed that all buyers will be kept confidential from Biden and his father as well as everyone at the White House to avoid any perception of influence.
At least five of Biden's prints have sold for $75,000 each from his New York City show in October, but critics have claimed the work is not worth that and just at a premium because he is the president's son.
James sustained a head injury Saturday while in Serbia filming the biopic, DailyMail.com revealed this week.
The actor's injury involved a lot of blood, a trip to the hospital, stitches and a bit of clumsiness as he slammed his head into a door while off-set at a restaurant in Belgrade.
'I was walking into a Belgrade restaurant and I collided with the side of a glass door,' James said of the incident. 'I had a large cut above my eye and there was a lot of blood on the footpath.'
He detailed: 'I was pretty stunned and went back to the Metropol Hotel where I'm staying and the manager Nicholas Kalogeras took over and personally rushed me to a hospital.'
Despite a packed Serbian emergency room, James said he received 'top class treatment.'
'I received top class treatment and a couple of stitches and will be back on the set on Monday,' he said. 'The show must go on.'
Photos of the incident show James with a cloth around his head.
Hunter Biden blew tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes, drugs and luxury cars. He was desperate to avoid jail for $320k in unpaid taxes and threatened to take money from his daughter's college fund
Fox shared a photo on Twitter from set in October showing him donning a look the president's son was seen wearing in a photo leaked from his hard drive
Actor John James, who is playing Joe Biden in an upcoming movie, sustained an off-set head injury on Saturday while in Serbia for filming
James , 65, detailed that he walked into a door while eating at a restaurant on Saturday that resulted in a bloody mess requiring stitches on his forehead but persisted: 'The show must go on'
Fox, a British politician and actor, announced in September that he signed on to play the U.S. president's son.
The actor-turned-leader for the United Kingdom's conservative Reclaim political party said he is being 'un-canceled' by McAleer and McElhinney to play Biden.
'Hello, I have some really good news or really bad news depending on which side of the ever-widening political divide that you sit,' Fox said in a straight-to-camera video first obtained by DailyMail.com. 'I have been temporarily un-canceled and asked to don my acting shoes again. Why? To play Hunter Biden in a new independent film called My Son Hunter.'
'It's a brilliant, surreal and funny script,' he said of the film, adding: 'Basically because it's true.'
'The Hunter story fascinates me so much, especially the vigor with which the mainstream media continue to try and suppress it,' Fox continued in his taped comments. 'I couldn't resist the offer to enter his world and tell his truth. So on one level we are both being un-canceled Hunter's story and Hunter's truth can finally be told.'
Fox then looked off camera and said to himself: 'I wonder if I can still act. About to find out.'
While filming, Martin Daubney, deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, will temporarily take over.
'Don't worry friends and foes well I don't have any foes, I love you all I'm not stepping back from my day job as leader of the Reclaim Party,' the politician said in the short clip announcing his new role as Hunter earlier this fall.
'But for a few weeks I will be juggling two jobs at the same time and therefore, the ever-valiant Martin Daubney will be keeping the ship steady until I return,' he added.
Joining the team as director is Bond villain Robert Davi also known for his roles in The Goonies and Die Hard.
'One of my biggest concerns was in the casting of Hunter,' Davi said. 'For Hunter we needed someone who is not just a great actor, but a brilliant mind.'
'Joe Biden has repeatedly said Hunter is the 'smartest man' he knows,' Davi continued. 'We also needed someone with the pedigree, edge, emotional range and deep sensitivity. One may think there are many who could play him and that is so. But how many could brilliantly play him?'
He added: 'I'm thrilled that Laurence Fox will be Hunter Biden.'
McAleer and McElhinney are Irish filmmakers and authors who have produced several films mostly backed by crowdfunding targeting conservative viewers and My Son Hunter is no exception.
Some films include 'Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer', which is a true crime drama based on abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell; and 'FrackNation', which addressed what they called misinformation about hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking'.
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The Queen was seen standing unaided today as she held a face to face audience at Windsor Castle, in her first official engagement since missing Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph after spraining her back.
The monarch, 95 - dressed in a green, orange and white floral dress and wearing a string of pearls - was pictured sharing a brief conversation with General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the Defence Staff.
Prince Charles was asked about the Queen today on his trip to Jordan. He said: Shes alright, thank you very much. Once you get to 95, its not quite as easy as it used to be. Its bad enough at 73!
The last comment was a reference to his own birthday on Sunday.
The military audience in Windsor's Oak Room - a sitting room that doubles as a private office - was Her Majesty's first in-person audience since she hosted a global investor summit at Windsor on October 19.
Sir Nick walked through the door to be greeted by one of the Queen's dorgis, before approaching the monarch for a chat.
Her Majesty described his upcoming retirement as 'rather sad', to which he replied, 'eight years, it's a long time', before mentioning that his only predecessor to have served long was Lord Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin.
The general added that he thought 'the time had come to move on and do other things.'
Reacting to the scenes, royal expert Dickie Arbiter tweeted that it was 'good to see The Queen at work.'
Her Majesty was also left unable to attend the Church of England's national assembly yesterday, for the first time in her 69-year reign.
Prince Edward, her youngest son, read out a speech on his mother's behalf at the Church of England synod yesterday.
Her statement read: 'It is hard to believe that it is over 50 years since Prince Philip and I attended the very first meeting of the General Synod.
'None of us can slow the passage of time; and while we often focus on all that has changed in the intervening years, much remains unchanged, including the Gospel of Christ and his teachings.'
Her Majesty also spoke remotely to delegates at COP26 in Glasgow, urging world leaders to reach decisive climate change deals as she warned 'none of us will live forever'.
The monarch 95 - dressed in a green, orange and white floral dress and wearing a string of pearls - was pictured standing as she greeted to Gen Sir Nick in Windsor's Oak Room
Today's meeting was the first in-person audience the monarch has held since an investor summit at Windsor on October 19
Sir Nick walked into the room to be greeted by one of the Queen's dorgis, before approaching the monarch for a chat
Yesterday, monarch reminded the church of its 'weighty responsibilities' in making 'difficult decisions' about the future of the church.
'In some areas, there will, of course, be differing views and my hope is that you will be strengthened with the certainty of the love of God, as you work together and draw on the Church's tradition of unity in fellowship for the tasks ahead,' she said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury told the Earl that the church 'draws great comfort' from the Queen's prayers.
Her Majesty's speech also touched on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had on all faiths.
'Of course, in our richly diverse modern society, the well-being of the nation depends on the contribution of people of all faiths, and of none.
'But for people of faith, the last few years have been particularly hard, with unprecedented restrictions in accessing the comfort and reassurance of public worship.
'For many, it has been a time of anxiety, of grief, and of weariness.
'Yet the Gospel has brought hope, as it has done throughout the ages; and the Church has adapted and continued its ministry, often in new ways, such as digital forms of worship.'
The General Synod is the national assembly of the Church of England which passes legislation.
It was the first full in-person meeting of Synod since February 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic.
Prince Edward delivers the Queen's speech on her behalf at the General Synod on Tuesday after the Queen missed the event for the first time in its 51-year history
Her youngest son Edward Earl of Wessex (pictured) who read the head of state's speech to bishops and clergy, praised the institution for offering 'hope' during the pandemic
LAST SEEN -- The Queen is photographed leaving Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Tuesday last week
Since pulling out of the Remembrance Sunday service, the Queen had been due to carry out virtual audiences later this week.
She has no major public engagements planned for the rest of the year.
Concern for her health has increased given her age and due to the number of major engagements she has missed in recent weeks.
She cancelled a two-day trip to Northern Ireland, and pulled out of attending the Cop26 climate change summit, the Festival of Remembrance, Remembrance Sunday and the Synod.
The Queen's husband the Duke of Edinburgh died in April age 99.
Saturday marks their first wedding anniversary to pass since Philip died. The Queen and the Duke would have celebrated 74 years of marriage.
The Earl of Wessex has told the General Synod 'you probably understand why' the Queen was not present to deliver her address.
Edward, addressing the Church of England's national assembly on behalf of his mother in Westminster on Tuesday, said the Queen sends her 'sincere and deep apologies that she cannot be here today'.
He added: 'I think you probably understand why, and she regrets that deeply.'
(From left) Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; and Sophie, Countess of Wessex stand on the balcony of the Foreign Office in Westminster during the Remembrance Sunday service where the Queen would have been present
The Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge stand on the balcony at the Remembrance Sunday service
The National Service of Remembrance service, pictured on Sunday, is one of the Queen's most important events of the year
Prince Charles and Camilla are currently on a tour of Jordan, and were pictured yesterday joining Queen Rania for a private dinner at the Al Husseiniya Palace.
Earlier in the day they dipped their fingers in water from the holy River Jordan, which is used to baptise royal babies.
Meanwhile, the palace is facing fresh turmoil over Prince Andrew, this time over his finances.
Yesterday, it emerged he had a loan from a major Tory donor's private bank extended to 1.5million to cover his 'living expenses' just days before the tycoon transferred a similar amount of money into his account.
Businessman David Rowland, 76, wired the money to a London bank account held by the Duke of York - a long-term friend of his - in December 2017, it was claimed.
The prince's account was with Banque Havilland SA - a Luxembourg based private bank owned by Mr Rowland and his family.
The transfer to Prince Andrew's account was earmarked for a repayment of a 1.5million loan from Banque Havilland, according to documents reportedly seen by Bloomberg News.
The unsecured loan had, according to reports, been increased 11 days earlier by 250,000 to cover the Prince's 'working capital and living expenses' - despite concern that it was 'not in line with the bank's risk appetite'.
But, according to Bloomberg, bank staff approved the extension, having noted that the loan opened up 'further business potential with the Royal Family'.
Representatives for Prince Andrew described any transfer of funds between the pair as a 'private', while Havilland Bank denied any wrongdoing.
Six New South Wales clubs have banned unvaccinated staff and customers until at least February, even after it becomes legal for the un-jabbed to enter hospitality venues.
Currently, only the fully-vaccinated can visit non-essential services such as pubs, clothes stores and restaurants, with the unvaccinated finally allowed to join the party on December 15.
While the measure has been credited by many for supercharging NSW's vaccine rollout, it has also provoked staunch criticism from others.
Five of the clubs opting to keep the rule in place are within the Northern Beaches council area of Sydney and the sixth is in Mosman on the city's leafy north shore.
State Premier Dominic Perrottet said he expects such bans will be 'rare' and that businesses which extend bans on the unvaccinated must ensure they do not break the law.
The strict 'vaccine passport' rule, which is only in place in a handful of countries worldwide, has been credited for supercharging the state's vaccine rollout during the brutal second lockdown (pictured, Sydneysiders on Freedom Friday on October 15 when lockdown ended)
Critics have said the measures exclude those who do not want to get vaccinated, with hardliners calling it a 'two-tiered society' (pictured, protesters in Sydney on November 7)
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'The NSW government expects the majority of businesses will open their doors to all customers from December 15,' he told the Daily Telegraph.
'Some may choose to exercise additional measures of caution for their patrons and staff, which is permissible providing they meet all relevant legal obligations.'
Originally, the freedom date for the unvaccinated was December 1, before being pushed back by a fortnight.
The extended ban of the unvaccinated by some clubs has been backed by health minister Brad Hazzard, whose electorate of Wakehurst is in the Northern Beaches.
The Mosman Club (pictured) in Sydney is one of six clubs extending a ban on unvaccinated customers
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (pictured) says he expects clubs extending the ban on unvaccinated staff and customers will be 'rare'
Mr Hazzard is a member for one of the clubs extending the ban and said the club's decision is 'very sensible'.
'My view as health minister is we are still smack in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and businesses have to make sensible decisions to protect their staff and their patrons,' he said.
Mosman Club chief executive Gerard Boyle said his staff are 'unequivocally passionate' about keeping the ban in place until February.
Grant Easterby, the CEO of Dee Why RSL, said his club extended the policy based on 'an overwhelming number of requests' from staff and members.
Dee Why RSL (pictured) on Sydney's Northern Beaches has extended a ban on the unvaccinated due to requests from staff and members
VACCINATION RATES: NSW Ages 16 and over First dose: 94.2 per cent Second dose: 91.3 per cent Source: NSW Health Advertisement
Currently in NSW, 91.3 per cent of people over the age of 16 are fully-vaccinated, with 94.2 per cent having received one dose.
The strict 'vaccine passport' rule, which is only in place in a handful of countries worldwide, has been credited for accelerating the state's vaccine rollout during the brutal second lockdown, which saw Greater Sydney shut down for 106 days.
Similar measures are also in place in Victoria and will soon be in other states when their hard borders come down, leaving unvaccinated people essentially still living in lockdown and unable to access many services.
But critics have said the measures exclude those who do not want to get vaccinated, with hardliners calling it a 'two-tiered society'.
The mandates have led to angry protests, particularly in Melbourne, with vaccine-sceptics furious at the measures.
New York's mayor-elect Eric Adams has gotten his first taste of the extortion tactics that the city's anti-cop radicals will use against him once he takes office.
Last week, a leader of New York Black Lives Matter threatened 'riots . . . fire . . . and bloodshed' should Adams deliver on a campaign promise to revive a contested undercover unit of the New York Police Department.
Adams brushed off the threat. But the argument that BLM leader Hawk Newsome made against the unitthat it has a disparate impact on blackswill come up repeatedly if Adams carries through on his anti-crime platform.
Ironically, Adams himself lodged that disparate impact argument against the NYPD in previous years. He now better be prepared to meet and rebuff it.
(Left) Co-founder of Black Lives Matter (BLM) of Greater New York, Hawk Newsome at a New York City protest. (Right) NYC mayor-elect Eric Adams speaks at his victory party, promising to drive down gun violence and crime
A police officer watches a crowd as a police vehicle burns near Fort Greene Park in the Brooklyn borough of New York after protesters rallied outside Barclays Center over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Memorial Day while in police custody in Minneapolis
The most powerful statistic in his arsenal will be the disparate impact of crime on blacks.
In 2020, blacks made up nearly 74% of all shooting victims and 65% of all murder victims, though they are less than 22% of the city's population. Not one of those victims of civilian shootings, including young children, was protested by New York Black Lives Matter.
The now-defunct Anti-Crime Unit was one of the last entities within the NYPD to forthrightly practice proactive policing. Its members were tasked with spotting and intervening in suspicious behavior in gang-plagued neighborhoods before that behavior ripened into a full-fledged crime.
Anti-Crime officers used their lawful powers to stop and question suspects (and possibly to frisk them if the officer had reason to think that a suspect was carrying an illegal weapon). The unit had an exemplary record of getting guns off the street and of deterring crime.
On June 15, 2020, however, NYPD Commissioner Dermott Shea announced that he was disbanding the Anti-Crime Unit.
The announcement came in response to the riots that had erupted in New York after the arrest-related death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in late May 2020.
For days, thugs had crashed SUVs into stores and cleared the businesses out of merchandise; they had firebombed police cars and torched public property. Over 400 officers were injured by bottles, rocks, glass, and cement blocks.
Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio were desperate to show their sympathy with the anti-cop forces. The Anti-Crime Unit became the sacrificial lamb.
Though stopping and questioning suspects short of making an arrest is a constitutional power, Shea labelled such stops 'brute force.'
The fall-out from Shea's announcement was immediate.
Shootings jumped 205% in the two subsequent weeks, from 38 incidents over that timespan in 2019 to 116 incidents in 2020. Gunshot injuries rose 238%. June 2020 became the most violent month in terms of gunfire in 24 years.
Gangbangers knew that their chances of getting stopped with a gun had dropped enormously.
Police officers had gotten the message as well: whether you are in anti-crime or not, proactive policing is unwelcome.
In the month following the disbanding of the Anti-Crime Unit, narcotics arrests fell 85% city-wide, gang detectives made 90% fewer arrests, subway and housing arrests dropped by comparable amounts, and gun arrests dropped 67%.
Through early December 2020, arrests were down 36%. Gun arrests had started rebounding, but they couldn't keep up with the increase in guns on the street and with the emboldening of criminals. The year ended with a nearly 100% surge in gun violence and a 44% increase in homicides, a surge that continued well into 2021.
The arguments for disbanding the Anti-Crime Unit were specious. It was true, as was widely reported after Shea's decision, that Anti-Crime officers were involved in a disproportionate number of police shootings.
What was not reported was how low that number of shootings was.
In 2019, there were 25 incidents in which NYPD officersnot just from Anti-Crime but from across the entire force -- intentionally shot criminal suspects.
Those 25 incidents represented the second lowest number of officer-involved shootings since records were first kept nearly fifty years ago.
Fifty-four members of the NYPD were involved in those 25 shooting incidents, of which 19, or 35%, were from the Anti-Crime squad. By comparison, the roughly 600 Anti-Crime officers were 1.6% of the total NYPD sworn force.
Those 25 shootings incidents resulted in 11 civilian fatalitiesalso a historically low number. All the civilians killed by NYPD officers in 2019 appeared to be threatening officers with potentially lethal force; seven had loaded guns.
In 2019, the 36,397 members of the NYPD responded to over 6.4 million calls for service. Over 64,000 of those calls involved weapons. Twenty-five shootings and 11 fatalities are remarkably few, given the size of New York and of the NYPD.
Three percent of Anti-Crime officers discharged their weapons at suspects in 2019; that number, too, suggests restraint rather than brutality. The likelihood of an officer's use of force is a function of how often he interacts with violent suspects. Confronting armed, violent, and resisting suspects was virtually the unit's job description.
There was no evidence, therefore, that the Anti-Crime Unit was trigger-happy or prone to excessive force. The other charge against itthat it (and other members of the NYPD) unfairly singled out minorities for stops--was equally groundless.
That 'racial profiling' charge has bedeviled not just the NYPD but all American policing for decades. It requires a willful ignorance of the reality of crime.
In 2020, black subjects made up 56.6% of all pedestrian stops conducted by the NYPD. (The department does not separate out stops conducted by Anti-Crime or other policing units.) Whites made up 9.1% of all NYPD stops.
By contrast, as mentioned above, blacks were under 22% of the city's population in 2018 and whites nearly 32%. Based on that disparity alone, cop critics allege that NYPD officers discriminate in their policing practices.
But the relevant benchmark for judging police activity is not population data but crime data, since policing today, especially in the NYPD, is data-driven.
Officers are deployed to where crime is most intense, and that is in minority neighborhoods. Blacks, it turns out, are understopped compared to what their crime rates would predict, and whites greatly overstopped.
In 2020, blacks were over 72% of all shooting suspects; we know that from victim and witness descriptions. Whites were 1.4% of all shooting suspects, again, based on victim and witness descriptions.
A black New Yorker is roughly 50 times as likely to commit a shooting as a white New Yorker. Blacks were 63.4% of murder suspects; whites, 6.3%. (That white share of homicide suspects represents domestic violence incidents, not street crime. It is only the latter that generates street stops for likely gang activity or illegal gun carrying.)
Given these disparities in criminal offending, the police cannot enforce the law without having a disparate impact on blacks, as measured by population ratios.
Eric Adams, a former NYPD sergeant, used to lodge the same demagogic racial profiling charges against the NYPD during his years leading the rabble-rousing organization, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.
He gave patently false testimony against NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly in a 2015 lawsuit that aimed to shut down the department's stop practices.
Now Adams has recast himself as a defender of the proactive policing that he denounced for years. Safety-minded New Yorkers are eager to take him at his word.
But if he is to succeed in driving fear from the public square, it will not be enough to reconstitute the Anti-Crime Unit.
New York's next mayor will have to relentlessly beat back the charge that the NYPD is racist for trying to protect black victims. Doing so will mean speaking the uncomfortable truth about black crime.
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of The War on Cops
The number of airline passengers traveling for Thanksgiving this year is expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, but the Transportation Security Administration says it is ready to handle the surge.
Administrator David Pekoske said Wednesday he expects agency staffing to be sufficient for what's traditionally TSA's busiest travel period.
Pekoske said he didnt think a vaccine mandate going into effect for TSA agents Monday would have any effect on staffing for Thanksgiving next week.
'In fact, implementation of the mandate will make travel safer and healthier for everyone,' he said. 'So, we see quite a significant increase in the number of our officers that are vaccinated, and I'm very confident that there will be no impact for Thanksgiving.'
Last month, TSA revealed that only about 60 percent of its employees are at least partially vaccinated with about a month to go before the November 22 deadline for federal employees to be double-jabbed. If the problem persists, then that could mean extra-long queues at airport security checkpoints during Thanksgiving week.
Transportation Security Administration administrator (TSA) David Pekoske
Two airplane pilots pass by a line of passengers while waiting at a security check-in line at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago
'We are prepared,' Pekoske told ABC's 'Good Morning America.' He said travelers should expect long lines at airports and plan to spend a little more time getting through security.
In 2019, a record 26 million passengers and crew passed through U.S. airport screening in the 11-day period around Thanksgiving. But that plummeted in 2020 as the pandemic kept people at home.
The TSA expects that number to be at around 20 million in 2021.
AAA predicts more than 53million Americans are going to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, a rise in 13 percent from last year, bringing travel volume to almost pre-pandemic levels.
About 48million are slated to travel by car, with 4.2million flying, according to projections. About 49.9million drove and 4.6million flew in 2019.
Only 44.5million people went by car during Thanksgiving week in 2020, while just 2.3million chose plane travel, a decrease of 50 percent.
AAA predicts that more than 53 million Americans will travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, pushing travel back to just 5 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. More than 4.2 million travelers will take to the skies this Thanksgiving holiday. This volume represents an 80 percent increase over 2020.
This years forecast marks the highest single-year increase in Thanksgiving travelers since 2005, bringing travel volumes close to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. More than 90 percent of people plan to travel by car as their preferred mode of transportation. Although the car is still the most popular choice for travelers, a greater share will opt to travel by air and other modes such as bus, train or cruise this year
The total travel volume is forecasted to just be 5 percent below the 2019 figure and air travel is expected to increase by 80 percent compared to 2020, bringing it to just 9 percent below 2019. This year, the Thanksgiving holiday period starts Wednesday, November 24 and lasts until Sunday, November 28.
However, a winter storm is set to wallop central and eastern US next week, wreaking havoc on roads and flights as more than 53 million Americans make their way home for Thanksgiving - after many were forced to skip last year's gatherings due to Covid
The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center warned the storm could be 'potentially significant.'
Weather models are forecast the storm will form in the central plains next Sunday then move northeast into Canada while dumping snow across parts of Minnesota, north Wisconsin and northern Michigan.
The storm could result in 'heavy accumulations' from northern Indiana and Michigan to Maryland next Monday through Wednesday, meteorologists said.
'We could be looking at a huge mess and a real wrench in holiday travel,' said AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter.
The storm could also trigger heavy rainfalls along the east coast, possibly hitting New York City, Boston and Chicago on Monday and Tuesday, potentially leading to flooding and disrupted ground travel, AccuWeather said.
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The storm could also trigger heavy rainfalls along the east coast, possibly hitting New York City, Boston and Chicago on Monday and Tuesday
AccuWeather meteorologists say one weather scenario involves 'heavy accumulations' from northern Indiana and Michigan to Maryland next Monday through Wednesday. The storm could also trigger heavy rainfalls along the east coast
Another weather scenario could cause a spinoff storm along the mid-Atlantic coast Monday, moving into the Northeast on Tuesday
Pekoske told NBC's 'Today' on Wednesday he remains 'very concerned' about the issue of unruly passengers as incidents on airplanes have continued.
'The level of unruly behavior is much higher than I've ever seen it,' he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it has referred 37 cases involving unruly airline passengers to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution since the number of disruptions on flights began to spike in January.
Through November 1, there have been 5,033 reports of unruly passenger incidents, including 3,642 related to pandemic face covering regulations.
'Let this serve both as a warning and a deterrent: If you disrupt a flight, you risk not just fines from the FAA but federal criminal prosecution as well,' said FAA Administrator Steve Dickson.
Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can enjoy the upcoming holiday season 'the way we've traditionally done it all along,' Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Sunday morning.
'I believe strongly that particularly in the vaccinated people, if you're vaccinated and your family members are vaccinated, those who are eligible, that is obviously very young children and not yet eligible, that you can enjoy the holidays,' the immunologist said during an interview on This Week ABC.
'You can enjoy Halloween, trick-or-treating, and certainly Thanksgiving with your family and Christmas with your family.'
Fauci argued that celebrating together is one of the main reasons health experts emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated.
His holiday recommendations come just two weeks after he said it was 'too soon' to say whether Americans can gather for Christmas.
Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Sunday that Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can celebrate the holidays together 'the way we've traditionally done it all along'
At that time, President Joe Biden's chief medical expert previously voiced cautious optimism about the country's COVID-19 numbers going down however warned that the country needed to remain vigilant.
'It's just too soon to tell,' Fauci said on October 3. 'We've just got to keep concentrating on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we're going to do at a particular time.'
Now, after the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released guidance Friday with recommendations on how to safely celebrate the holidays, Fauci is singing a different tune.
'It's so important to get vaccinated, not only for your own safety, for that of your family, but also for the good of the community, to keep the level of infection down,' he told Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
'When you do that, there's no reason at all why you can't enjoy the holidays in a family way, the way we've traditionally done it all along.'
The CDC's holiday recommendations include wearing a mask indoors in areas with higher infection rates, avoiding crowded places, and staying home if you are ill are ways to help curb the spread of the virus.
They also offer special considerations for Americans who may suffer from conditions or take medicines that weaken their immune systems.
To avoid road congestion this year, AAA recommends drivers to hit the roads after 9pm on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving, while it warns them to leave before 11am or noon on the Thanksgiving Day until Sunday November 28.
In its Thanksgiving travel forecast, AAA revealed that it expects to respond to over 400,000 calls for help over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The most common calls are for dead batteries, flat tires, and lockouts.
Gas prices are also averaging about $3.42 per gallon this year, which is up about $1.30 from last year and about 80 cents from 2019. For those who plan multi-day road trips, mid-range hotel rates have increased about 39 percent, with average nightly rates ranging between $137 and $172 for AAA Approved Hotels. Daily car rental rates have also increased 4 percent compared to last Thanksgiving at $98.
Other than travel by air or by car, other transportation means (including train, bus and cruise) will also increase to 1.02 million, nearly tripling the 2020 volume but still remain 31 percent lower than 2019 levels.
Despite gasoline costing over a dollar more per gallon than this time last year, 48.3 million Americans are expected to travel by car, an increase of 8.4 percent from 2020. This total is higher than volumes seen as recently as 2019
Travel by other modes (including train, bus and cruise) will increase to 1.02 million, nearly tripling the 2020 volume but still remain 31% lower than 2019 levels
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its recommendations for holiday gatherings and related travel, saying that the best way to minimize COVID-19 risk is to get vaccinated if eligible.
AAA urges those who remain unvaccinated to explore safer options such as road trips with few stops and direct flights.
Traveling with unvaccinated children, who have recently become eligible to get their vaccines, will also no longer be a consideration for many families.
'This risk is not so much the travel itself but what you do at the destination,' said Dr. Leana Wen an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Trips involving visits to crowded indoor attractions and restaurants are higher risk.
'Travel itself can be made very safe, especially if the younger children are able to mask. If they're unable to mask, that is a major barrier,' Wen told CNN, where she also works also a medical analyst.
As of November 8, the U.S. opened its borders to fully vaccinated international travelers. The CDC has since updated its guidance to reflect these changes.
When traveling within the U.S., fully vaccinated travelers do not need a negative viral test or to self-quarantine. For international travel, a negative COVID-19 test is needed before traveling to the US, regardless of vaccination status.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay back $1million after claims it fraudulently used government disaster relief money following Hurricane Katrina, despite filing for bankruptcy over sexual abuse allegations.
Robert Romero, a former project manager for AECOM engineer firm, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2016, saying the church received $46milllion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2005.
Romero accused the firm of inflating estimates for repairs for the archdioceses, among others, such as Xavier University of Louisiana - which is Catholic, but is run by an independent Board of Trustees - and Dillard University, a Methodist school.
He accused the California-based company and former employee Randall Krause of gaming the system to get larger payments after FEMA hired the company following the storm.
The lawsuit claimed the religious institution received $10million extra for St. Raphael's school cafeteria building and $36million extra for two assisted living buildings in Villa St. Maurice in the Holy Cross area of the archdiocese.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans (pictured: admin office) has agreed to pay back $1million in relief fund money from Hurricane Katrina to the government after a whistleblower filed a lawsuit in 2016 alleged the church received $46million in extra money. Former project manager for AECOM - who was hired by FEMA after the hurricane - claimed former employee Randall Krause inflated repair costs for the church, as well as Xavier University
The archdiocese claimed catastrophic flood damage on the upper floors of the assisted living buildings, when it only sustained wind damage, The New York Times reported.
It is unclear if St. Raphael's school was damaged.
With the help of Krause, who created fraudulent paperwork reflecting the inflating cost of repairs and shrinking his estimate of replacement costs, the church got large sums of disaster relief money, according to the suit.
The diocese said in a statement in June 2020 that it 'relied upon the knowledge and expertise of FEMA and their designated agencies and field representatives.'
'We deny the allegation that the Archdiocese of New Orleans knowingly conspired to submit false information,' it said.
Katrina wreaked havoc on the city of New Orleans, leaving behind severe flooding and immense damages. The church allegedly claimed one of its school cafeterias and two of its assisted living homes had more damage than it did. They received $10million more than they should have for the school cafeteria and $36million more for the assisted living
People were walking in waist-high water after the event and many buildings suffered damages. The church claimed their assisted living building had flood damage, when in reality it only had wind damage. It agreed to pay back $1million in the settlement, which did not include an admission of fraud. The agreement was approved by a federal judge as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, which the church filed following sexual abuse allegations
The archdiocese agreed to a settlement with the government, which did not require the institution to admit fraudulent activity, and will pay back $1million.
The archdiocese claimed the funds went toward restoration efforts.
'The questions surrounding this issue arising over a decade later were surprising to us. Every dollar of FEMA funds received has gone back into the restoration of parish, school and other properties to serve the people of the Greater New Orleans community,' the diocese said in 2020.
The agreement was approved by a federal judge as part of bankruptcy proceedings for the archdiocese, after roughly 400 people accused the archdiocese of sexual assault and sought compensation in court.
More than 70 clergy members in the archdiocese were accused of assault over seven decades and survivors had a deadline to file an abuse claim. Anyone who filed past March 1, 2021, would not be able to sue the church ever for abuse.
'There is no question that the archdiocese is using Chapter 11 as ashield to prevent survivors from being able to come forward,' the survivors' lawyer Jeff Anderson told nola.com. 'They [would] face so many more claims in time.'
The bankruptcy lawsuit did not include the number of abuse cases the diocese settled out of court before the bankruptcy claims.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy for significant financial distress from settlement negotiations and litigation, nola.com reported.
In addition to the Katrina relief fund, Xavier University also had to pay back $12million, with $2.3million going to Romero and his lawyers.
University officials allegedly claimed damages to the basement that didn't exist and Krause provided photos of a different building that wasn't in New Orleans.
The government did not seek repayment from Dillard University, which received an estimated $15million extra for building damages, nor did the Department of Justice intervene with Krause, according to nola.com.
The DOJ did not give a reason to why it would not be seeking repayment. However, Dillard said in 2020 that the DOJ performed an 'independent investigation' and decided not to seek payment, nola.com reported.
DailyMail.com contacted the Archdiocese of New Orleans for comment but has not received a response.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says bail reform is to blame for the Big Apples unrelenting crime wave
One suspect, who stabbed an officer six times in 2008, attacked an officer on Sunday and was issued supervised release instead of bail
Isus Thompson randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos
Queens Officer Demitrios Raptis, the cop who Thompson attempted to kill in 2008, has called it insane that his attacker is back on the streets
Felony assaults, rape and robberies in New York City are all on the rise in NYC
New York Citys top cop is warning that a steep drop in the inmate population at Rikers Island is fueling an unrelenting crime wave in the Big Apple.
He also slammed bail reform laws after a criminal who attacked a cop on Sunday was released just hours later.
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An officer who was nearly killed in 2008 by the same man called his release 'insane.'
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea noted that the number of suspects being released is evident in the decline in inmates at Rikers Island as there are about 5,400 inmates currently, while there were almost 6,100 a month ago, he told the New York Post.
Shea also slammed bail reform laws for permitting more suspects to roam the streets after committing crimes.
He specifically referenced Isus Thompson, 38, who on Sunday randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos.
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronxs Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
Thompson, who was also found in possession of a metal box-cutter at the time of his arrest, was given three separate assault charges, weapon possession, harassment and resisting arrest, court records show.
One of his assault charges was listed as a felony, which grants judges discretion to set bail, but Thompson was instead set free on supervised release, meaning that he is just required to periodically check in with the court.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says bail reform is to blame for the Big Apples unrelenting crime wave. He is pictured at a memorial ceremony at One Police Plaza on November 15
Shea noted that fewer criminals are being held at Rikers Island, pictured
Isus Thompson, who stabbed an officer six times in 2008, attacked an officer on Sunday and was issued supervised release instead of bail
Following his release, Shea tweeted, Arrested in 08 for the attempted murder of a police officer, the same man was again arrested Sun. for attacking a #Bronx cop from behind. Late last night, this violent criminal was released without bail. Do we have to wait for him to kill someone before this is taken seriously?
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Meanwhile, Queens Officer Demitrios Raptis, 42, the cop who Thompson attempted to kill in 2008, has called it insane that his attacker assault a fellow officer and nothing is being done to keep him away from the public.
Thompson pleaded guilty in 2008 to second-degree attempted murder for stabbing Raptis six times in the ride side of the stomach. Most of the blows were absorbed by Raptiss bulletproof vest, but he also suffered stab wounds and still has a scar.
Raptis approached Thompson at 10.30pm on June 6 of that year when he saw the suspect smoking marijuana in the Ehrenreich-Austin Playground at Austin Street and told him that he couldnt be there after sunset.
Raptis walked with Thompson to his police cruiser and told him to put his hands on the car, but Thompson pulled out a knife and started stabbing him before running off. He was finally arrested after a three-block chase, according to court records.
Thompson randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronxs Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
I could have died that night, Raptis told the New York Post. I think the guy should be locked up, shouldnt be let out. He could have killed this officer too. He should be behind bars.'
Raptis added, These guys are violent criminals, and theyre being let out with no bail, nothing. Everybodys in and out, thats the problem. Nobody goes to jail anymore. These criminals know, Im not going to jail. Im going to Central Booking. Im going to get a ticket, Im going to do it again. They know theres no consequences.
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After the stabbing, Thompson was sentenced to five years in prison beginning in 2010 and was released two years later on parole, which expired in 2015, corrections records show. It is not clear whether the prosecutor in Thompsons most recent offense was aware of his prior conviction.
After Thompsons attack on Sunday, Officer Lee was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital for evaluation for suffering non-critical injuries, sources told the New York Post.
He told the news outlet that the attack was totally unexpected and said, I saw him approach and we didnt make direct eye contact. He saw me and I saw him. It seemed like he was very determined, his focus was straight ahead.
Lee continued, He seemed like he was going to walk across the street I was looking at him from an angle and turned to see my partners back. As I turned on an angle, thats when he came about here, Lee noted, gesturing to his neck. Thankfully there were enough officers there to get him into custody.
Bodycam footage from the arrest shows Thompson refusing to be handcuffed as he scuffles and kicks at the officers trying to apprehend him.
Asked by the New York Post about how he feels about Thompsons release, Lee said, Im not sure how I should feel about it. I was just performing my duty as any officer would.
Harry Zucker, 77, a white-haired man with a fondness for fondling himself in front of today's youth, has exposed himself a whopping five times since April 27
Zucker's house (at left) is mere feet from PS 199's schoolyard, and he is often seen lounging outside in a lawn chair, leering at unsuspecting students with his penis out
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told the New York Post in a statement that This case is more proof that our broken criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul. Our legislators, prosecutors and judges all need to stop pointing fingers and passing the buck, because theyre putting both cops and our communities at risk.
In September, Shea slammed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasios plan to prematurely release dozens of Rikers Island inmates as part of his administrations efforts to reduce the amount of detainees there.
Shea said at the time, My position would be the people that are in Rikers Island worked awfully hard to get in there. And Im worried about the people in New York City on the street, so my position would be people that are in there deserve to stay in there.
This Tuesday, the mayor was on the same page as Shea and told the New York Post that things that need to be fixed and Thompsons case shows that weve got to do better to keep the city safe.
Referring to bail reform, he said, Weve got to fix the parts of this bill that arent working, we got to preserve the parts that are working. There are some profoundly good reforms, but an episode like this points out this is just not the way to keep people safe. We got to do better.
A suspect who allegedly bludgeoned a New York City subway passenger with a hammer for looking at him the wrong way' was released without bail after police said he stole a chain from a teenage boy in a Manhattan train station
Jamar Newton, 41, was previously arrested in April on five misdemeanor charges, including menacing, petit larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property, but was released without bail, court records show
Also in September, a serial pervert who was caught masturbating in front of children on five separate occasions was released for a fifth time because of the bail reform law that prevented a judge from imposing bail on his charges, which were all classified as misdemeanors.
Harry Zucker, 77, lives mere feet away from PS 199's open schoolyard in Brooklyn and had exposed himself to students a whopping five times since April 27, according to court records.
The school went as far as to hang up netting to block the fence separating Zucker's home from the school's play area, obscuring Zucker's gross gazebut that still wasn't enough to dissuade the deviant.
And in August, a suspect who allegedly bludgeoned a New York City subway passenger with a hammer for looking at him the wrong way' was released without bail after police said he stole a chain from a teenage boy in a Manhattan train station.
Jamar Newton, 41, was previously arrested in April on five misdemeanor charges, including menacing, petit larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property, but was released without bail, court records show.
Meanwhile, felony assaults, rape and robberies in New York City are all on the rise with felony assaults spiking by 8.4%, rapes rising by just under 2% and robberies increasing by just under 3% between last year and this year through November 14, the NYPDs most recent data.
Overall crime climbed by just under 2% in the same duration, while murders dropped by 1.4% and shootings dropped by less than 1%.
Police are searching for two suspects this week in separate crimes throughout the Big Apple. a man bursting into a kosher bagel store in Queens and demanding that it take down its Israeli flags and close, or hed burn the building down, as violence continues to plague the city.
Surveillance footage, which does not include audio, released Tuesday by the NYPDs Hate Crime Task Force shows a man bursting into a kosher bagel store in Queens and demanding that it take down its Israeli flags and close, or hed burn the building down.
The suspect faces aggravated harassment charges and police are offering a $3,500 reward to anyone with more information.
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Police are also seeking a trio of muggers who killed one man and injured another in a sidewalk hold-up, as violent crime continues to wrack the city.
The cold-blooded murder occurred at around 4.50pm on Saturday in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx, where three unidentified men stuck up Jonathan Pena, 32, and a 46-year-old man.
Two of the muggers pointed pistols at the victim, one augmented with a green laser sight and another with what appears to be a high-capacity drum magazine, surveillance video shows.
The third stickup man then rushed over to the victims, who raised their hands in the air, and ripped a gold chain away from Pena. As the robbers were distracted with the chain, the other victim tried to flee inside a nearby restaurant.
The muggers then opened fire with both guns, shooting wildly on the 1400 block of Macombs Road and hitting both victims. The trio of crooks was last seen fleeing northbound on Macombs Road in a black Mercedes-Benz sedan.
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Pena was transported by private means to Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he was pronounced dead police said. Paramedics transported the 46-year-old male victim to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.
New York Citys top cop is warning that a steep drop in the inmate population at Rikers Island is fueling an unrelenting crime wave in the Big Apple.
He also slammed bail reform laws after a criminal who attacked a cop on Sunday was released just hours later.
An officer who was nearly killed in 2008 by the same man called his release 'insane.'
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea noted that the number of suspects being released is evident in the decline in inmates at Rikers Island as there are about 5,400 inmates currently, while there were almost 6,100 a month ago, he told the New York Post.
Shea also slammed bail reform laws for permitting more suspects to roam the streets after committing crimes.
He specifically referenced Isus Thompson, 38, who on Sunday randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos.
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronxs Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
Thompson, who was also found in possession of a metal box-cutter at the time of his arrest, was given three separate assault charges, weapon possession, harassment and resisting arrest, court records show.
One of his assault charges was listed as a felony, which grants judges discretion to set bail, but Thompson was instead set free on supervised release, meaning that he is just required to periodically check in with the court.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea says bail reform is to blame for the Big Apples unrelenting crime wave. He is above at Memorial Ceremony at One Police Plaza in New York on November 15
Shea noted that less and less criminals are being held at Rikers Island
Isus Thompson, who stabbed an officer six times in 2008, attacked an officer on Sunday and was issued supervised release instead of bail
Following his release, Shea tweeted, Arrested in 08 for the attempted murder of a police officer, the same man was again arrested Sun. for attacking a #Bronx cop from behind. Late last night, this violent criminal was released without bail. Do we have to wait for him to kill someone before this is taken seriously?
Meanwhile, Queens Officer Demitrios Raptis, 42, the cop who Thompson attempted to kill in 2008, has called it insane that his attacker assault a fellow officer and nothing is being done to keep him away from the public.
Thompson pleaded guilty in 2008 to second-degree attempted murder for stabbing Raptis six times in the ride side of the stomach. Most of the blows were absorbed by Raptiss bulletproof vest, but he also suffered stab wounds and still has a scar.
Raptis approached Thompson at 10.30pm on June 6 of that year when he saw the suspect smoking marijuana in the Ehrenreich-Austin Playground at Austin Street and told him that he couldnt be there after sunset.
Raptis walked with Thompson to his police cruiser and told him to put his hands on the car, but Thompson pulled out a knife and started stabbing him before running off. He was finally arrested after a three-block chase, according to court records.
Thompson randomly bashed Officer Kyo Sun Lee in the head with a backpack filled with a metal safe, a DVD player and a number of adult videos
Unprompted, Thompson approached Lee, 30, on East 194th Street in The Bronxs Fordham Manor neighborhood around 1.30am before assaulting him from behind.
I could have died that night, Raptis told the New York Post. I think the guy should be locked up, shouldnt be let out. He could have killed this officer too. He should be behind bars.'
Raptis added, These guys are violent criminals, and theyre being let out with no bail, nothing. Everybodys in and out, thats the problem. Nobody goes to jail anymore. These criminals know, Im not going to jail. Im going to Central Booking. Im going to get a ticket, Im going to do it again. They know theres no consequences.
After the stabbing, Thompson was sentenced to five years in prison beginning in 2010 and was released two years later on parole, which expired in 2015, corrections records show. It is not clear whether the prosecutor in Thompsons most recent offense was aware of his prior conviction.
After Thompsons attack on Sunday, Officer Lee was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital for evaluation for suffering non-critical injuries, sources told the New York Post.
He told the news outlet that the attack was totally unexpected and said, I saw him approach and we didnt make direct eye contact. He saw me and I saw him. It seemed like he was very determined, his focus was straight ahead.
Lee continued, He seemed like he was going to walk across the street I was looking at him from an angle and turned to see my partners back. As I turned on an angle, thats when he came about here, Lee noted, gesturing to his neck. Thankfully there were enough officers there to get him into custody.
Bodycam footage from the arrest shows Thompson refusing to be handcuffed as he scuffles and kicks at the officers trying to apprehend him.
Asked by the New York Post about how he feels about Thompsons release, Lee said, Im not sure how I should feel about it. I was just performing my duty as any officer would.
Harry Zucker, 77, a serial pervert who was caught masturbating in front of children on five separate occasions was released for a fifth time because of the bail reform law
Zucker's house (at left) is mere feet from PS 199's schoolyard, and he is often seen lounging outside in a lawn chair, leering at unsuspecting students with his penis out
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told the New York Post in a statement that This case is more proof that our broken criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul. Our legislators, prosecutors and judges all need to stop pointing fingers and passing the buck, because theyre putting both cops and our communities at risk.
In September, Shea slammed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasios plan to prematurely release dozens of Rikers Island inmates as part of his administrations efforts to reduce the amount of detainees there.
Shea said at the time, My position would be the people that are in Rikers Island worked awfully hard to get in there. And Im worried about the people in New York City on the street, so my position would be people that are in there deserve to stay in there.
This Tuesday, the mayor was on the same page as Shea and told the New York Post that things that need to be fixed and Thompsons case shows that weve got to do better to keep the city safe.
Referring to bail reform, he said, Weve got to fix the parts of this bill that arent working, we got to preserve the parts that are working. There are some profoundly good reforms, but an episode like this points out this is just not the way to keep people safe. We got to do better.
A suspect who allegedly bludgeoned a New York City subway passenger with a hammer for looking at him the wrong way' was released without bail after police said he stole a chain from a teenage boy in a Manhattan train station
Jamar Newton, 41, was previously arrested in April on five misdemeanor charges, including menacing, petit larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property, but was released without bail, court records show
Also in September, a serial pervert who was caught masturbating in front of children on five separate occasions was released for a fifth time because of the bail reform law that prevented a judge from imposing bail on his charges, which were all classified as misdemeanors.
Harry Zucker, 77, lives mere feet away from PS 199's open schoolyard in Brooklyn and had exposed himself to students a whopping five times since April 27, according to court records.
The school went as far as to hang up netting to block the fence separating Zucker's home from the school's play area, obscuring Zucker's gross gazebut that still wasn't enough to dissuade the deviant.
And in August, a suspect who allegedly bludgeoned a New York City subway passenger with a hammer for looking at him the wrong way' was released without bail after police said he stole a chain from a teenage boy in a Manhattan train station.
Jamar Newton, 41, was previously arrested in April on five misdemeanor charges, including menacing, petit larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property, but was released without bail, court records show.
Meanwhile, felony assaults, rape and robberies in New York City are all on the rise with felony assaults spiking by 8.4%, rapes rising by just under 2% and robberies increasing by just under 3% between last year and this year through November 14, the NYPDs most recent data.
Overall crime climbed by just under 2% in the same duration, while murders dropped by 1.4% and shootings dropped by less than 1%.
Police are searching for two suspects this week in separate crimes throughout the Big Apple. a man bursting into a kosher bagel store in Queens and demanding that it take down its Israeli flags and close, or hed burn the building down, as violence continues to plague the city.
Surveillance footage, which does not include audio, released Tuesday by the NYPDs Hate Crime Task Force shows a man bursting into a kosher bagel store in Queens and demanding that it take down its Israeli flags and close, or hed burn the building down.
The suspect faces aggravated harassment charges and police are offering a $3,500 reward to anyone with more information.
Police are also seeking a trio of muggers who killed one man and injured another in a sidewalk hold-up, as violent crime continues to wrack the city.
The cold-blooded murder occurred at around 4.50pm on Saturday in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx, where three unidentified men stuck up Jonathan Pena, 32, and a 46-year-old man.
Two of the muggers pointed pistols at the victim, one augmented with a green laser sight and another with what appears to be a high-capacity drum magazine, surveillance video shows.
The third stickup man then rushed over to the victims, who raised their hands in the air, and ripped a gold chain away from Pena. As the robbers were distracted with the chain, the other victim tried to flee inside a nearby restaurant.
The muggers then opened fire with both guns, shooting wildly on the 1400 block of Macombs Road and hitting both victims. The trio of crooks was last seen fleeing northbound on Macombs Road in a black Mercedes-Benz sedan.
Pena was transported by private means to Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he was pronounced dead police said. Paramedics transported the 46-year-old male victim to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.
A 'loyal and respectful' son was left out of his tycoon father's 100m will, despite offering him one of his own lungs to save his life.
Bill Reeves, 47, was left almost nothing when his property tycoon father Kevin rewrote his will to leave the majority of his vast fortune to his sister.
Former hairdresser daughter Louise, 35, was left to inherit her father's Rolls Royce and assets worth up to 80m, while Bill got only a clutch of personal effects worth about 200,000.
She claims their father wanted her to inherit the fortune as he saw her as the heir to his business empire.
But Bill is now challenging the will at the High Court, accusing Louise - who he says 'likes money and flash things' - of bullying their father to get her hands on most of his wealth.
He claims he had always had a good relationship with his father and that they were so close he had actually offered to donate a lung to Kevin, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Earlier, Mr Justice Michael Green heard that Kevin had, from humble beginnings, created a vast personal fortune through a Southampton property empire now worth up to 100m.
Louise is locked i n a High Court row with her brother Bill (pictured), who claims she bullied their ailing father into changing his will and leaving her the vast majority of his riches
Louise Reeves (pictured), who could get 80m under her father's will, has been accused of 'coercing' Kevin Reeves into leaving her most of his fortune as she is allegedly 'materialistic'
He had been left as an orphan to a convent as a child and left school at 12, but through his 'ingenuity and hard work', made himself rich.
He had four children - Bill and Louise, estranged elder son Mark, and Lisa Murray, who did not know her dad until she was in her 20s.
Kevin, who died aged 71 in 2019, had previously intended to split the bulk of his estate equally between Bill, Louise and Lisa, but in 2014 rewrote his will to almost entirely leave Bill out.
Under the new will, Bill got personal possessions worth about 200,000, but the rest of the 100m fortune went to his daughters, with Louise getting 80m and Lisa 20m.
But the will is now under challenge in court, with Bill claiming Louise 'coerced' their dad into making it because she 'likes money and power' - disparaging Bill to get Kevin to cut him out.
However, Bill's barrister Constance McDonnell QC insisted that the move made no sense as Kevin had been proud of his son, who had turned a 20,000 investment into his own property and business empire, worth 20m.
They had been so close that Bill had moved into an annexe next to Bill's 2.5m home in the New Forest, while Bill had offered him a lung when he was declining with COPD.
'Kevin's affinity with Bill manifested itself in a decision in 2011 to move into the annexe immediately adjoining Bill's home, where Kevin lived until his death,' she said.
Property tycoon Mr Reeves (pictured) had four children but left 80 per cent of his 100million fortune to his youngest daughter, Louise, 35, when he died aged 71 in 2019, the court heard
'Kevin's relationship with Bill continued to be very close; they saw each other at least every few days - and usually more frequently - and went on holiday together to California and Las Vegas within a few weeks of the date of signing the 2014 will.
'The closeness between them is further illustrated by the fact that Bill was prepared to donate one of his lungs to Kevin and to fund the necessary surgery.'
Ms McDonnell - who claims Louise exercised 'undue influence' over Kevin - said nothing had happened to make Kevin change his mind and reduce his son's inheritance from as much as 26.6m to only 200,000.
'Kevin and Bill had not fallen out about land and deals, and the suggestion that Bill did not lift a finger for Kevin was obviously untrue,' she argued.
'Bill had at his own cost constructed the annexe at his home for Kevin's use and to Kevin's specification, funded its outgoings, insured his father's cars including a valuable Bentley which Bill had given to Kevin, and was a loyal and respectful son to him.
'Such a change was startling in the context of Kevin's family and relationships, and those who knew him well aver in their evidence that the provisions of the 2014 will are completely out of character and inexplicable.'
She said Kevin had been in poor health at the time he was 'coerced' into making the 2014 will, suffering from COPD and finding it difficult to walk up inclines or stairs.
But for Louise - who earlier denied coercing her dad or being money-oriented - Thomas Dumont QC denied that Kevin had been so ill that he was vulnerable to the influence of his daughter.
'That Kevin was not in good health is not in dispute, and that much can be gleaned from his clinical records,' he said.
'However, there is no clinical material linking any of Kevin's physical health issues to his mental wellbeing or any suggestion of vulnerability to influence.
'And he was healthy enough to take Louise on the back of his quad bike, for instance to see his horses, and even to ride on horseback himself, around the time he made the 2014 will.'
Kevin was a 'tough' man who was not capable of being influenced into doing anything he did not want to do, he told the court.
And he had had five years after making the 2014 will in which he could have changed it if it was the product of Louise's bullying and against his wishes.
He continued: 'There is no undue influence. Instead there is a sense of grievance felt by Bill, and those he has gathered around him, that they have not received the inheritance they feel they are so deserving of.'
Bill's challenge to the 2014 will is being supported by Ryan McKinnon, 24, a son of Kevin's estranged son Mark who would inherit a share of his grandfather's estate worth up to 10m if the 2014 will is ruled invalid.
Lisa Murray - who would inherit as much as 26.6m under the 2012 will, but up to 20m under the disputed will - is nevertheless supporting her sister Louise in court.
The trial continues.
Gunman Travis McMichael broke down in court as he testified about the 'life or death situation' when he and Ahmaud Arbery wrestled over the shotgun before he shot the jogger dead.
McMichael took to the stand on the eighth day of the trial where defense attorneys are expected to present evidence tried to prove that he shot the black jogger in self-defense as he, his father, Gregory McMichael and neighbor, William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr, attempted to conduct a citizen's arrest of Arbery under their suspicion that he committed a burglary at a nearby property.
'I want to give my side of the story,' Travis McMichael, 35, said at the start of his testimony.
The former Coast Guard petty officer said he was in a 'life or death' battle with Arbery in the roadway as the pair tussled for control of his shotgun, before he finally pulled the trigger.
'I was thinking of my son,' he told the jury. 'It sounds weird, but that's the first thing that hit me.'
Travis McMichael took to the stand the day after the jury was shown graphic post portem photos of Ahmaud Arbery
The prosecution presented evidence it said showed the McMichaels and neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan wrongly assumed the worst about Arbery
Gregory McMichael told investigators after the shooting that the three defendants had Arbery 'trapped like a rat' with their pickup trucks
Arbery was shot three times and medical examiner, Dr. Edmond Donoghue, determined his cause of death was the result of multiple shotgun wounds
Donoghue told the jury the shot that struck Arbery's his left chest and armpit alone was enough to kill him
13 shotgun pellets exited his back and 11 more were recovered from his wounds
Meanwhile, defense attorney Kevin Gough openly opposed the presence of black pastors at the trial, arguing that civil rights icons like Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson were influencing the jury
Gough has motioned for a mistrial four times, however the judge denied has request
Travis McMichael took to the stand on the eighth day of the trial where defense attorneys are expected to present evidence to prove that he shot the black jogger in self-defense as he, his father, Gregory McMichael and neighbor, William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr, attempted to conduct a citizen's arrest of Arbery under their suspicion that he committed a burglary at a nearby property
Travis McMichael then started to tear up as he said: 'I was thinking of my son, it sounds weird but it's the first thing' His voice tailed off as he fought back sobs. Asked by his attorney Jason Sheffield what he did next, McMichael said: 'I shot him. He had my gun. He struck me. It was obvious that he was attacking me, that he would have got the shotgun from me, it's a life or death situation
He confirmed he and father Gregory, 65, had followed Arbery in his white pick-up truck after suspecting him of being behind thefts in their neighborhood.
Arbery, 25, had switched back three times and the pair had interacted as Travis said he had repeatedly asked him to stop, at one point yelling.
Eventually Arbery went out of sight around a dogleg bend in the mainly-white community of Satilla Shores in Brunswick, Georgia, the court heard.
Travis McMichael parked his pick-up, which his father in the flatbed, telling jurors at that point he did not want to 'escalate' the situation. But just then Arbery ran back into sight and towards the younger McMichael, jurors heard.
The defense for one of the white men accused in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery (pictured) has asked the judge for a fourth time to declare a mistrial. The judge, again, denied the request
He said: 'He turns and he's on me.. in a flash. He grabs the shotgun and I believe I was struck on that first instance that we made contact.'
Travis McMichael then started to tear up as he said: 'I was thinking of my son, it sounds weird but it's the first thing' His voice tailed off as he fought back sobs.
Asked by his attorney Jason Sheffield what he did next, McMichael said: 'I shot him. He had my gun. He struck me. It was obvious that he was attacking me, that he would have got the shotgun from me, it's a life or death situation.
'I wanted to stop him from doing this so I shot him.' Asked if Arbery stopped when he was shot, McMichael replied: 'He did not.'
Earlier, McMichael said there had been thefts in Satilla Shores, his neighborhood outside the small coastal Georgia city of Brunswick, that put residents on edge.
He continued: 'I know that I got hit I got struck, I got hit on the top of the head. And he had the weapon in his hands so I pushed and pulled. Still getting hit.'
Sheffield: 'Did you get it free from his grip?'
McMichael: 'I don't believe I did. I don't know if and when and where he continued grabbing but we were together, we were locked up. He was on that shotgun.
Asked about the positions of each man at the time, McMichael said: 'I didn't know where I was at but I knew that he was on me. I knew that I was losing this.
'I knew that if I was getting tripped, or he would have got a lucky strike on my head, or if I would have lost that grip on that shotgun that I would have been shot or in serious trouble.
'I knew that he was overpowering me. But I didn't know which direction or what mechanics he was doing to overpower me.'
He continued: 'I thought I shot twice until later on speaking with the investigator that I realized it was three shots. The first shot, I knew I shot.
'But then the second shot, I shot again because I was still fighting, I was still ... he was all over he, he was still all over the shotgun. And he was not relenting. So I shot again to stop him.'
The trial in the February 2020 fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery entered its ninth day of testimony on Wednesday (Pictured: Body camera footage of the scene following the shooting)
The defense is expected to present evidence to prove that Travis McMichael shot the black jogger in self-defense (Pictured: McMichael and Arbery fighting before shots were fired as captured on William 'Roddie' Bryan's cellphone)
McMichael said after the third shot 'he (Arbery) disengaged'. He added: 'At that point he let go, he turned and continued to run down Satilla (Drive). I was in shock. I turned around, I don't know where I was going. My dad came out and he was yelling that he's (Arbery) has got his hand under him.
'I turned around, we got over there and pulled his hand out from under him and realized that he was deceased. The police were right there. I stood up, realized that I got a gun here and that he has passed away. So I walked over to the side and put my shotgun down.
'After that it was a blur.'
Earlier, Travis McMichael said he'd had a prior encounter with Arbery on the night of February, 11, 2020, less than two weeks before the Sunday afternoon shooting that killed Arbery.
That night, he said, he saw Arbery outside an unoccupied, half-built house in the neighborhood. Prosecutors said Arbery was an avid runner out for one of his regular jogs.
McMichael said Arbery, was 'creeping through the shadows' and then seemed to put his hand in the waistband or pocket of his shorts.
'It freaked me out,' he said. 'I'm under the assumption that he's armed.' He ran home to grab his gun and called the police, but Arbery had vanished by then.
McMichael testified that he believed Arbery might have stolen fishing equipment that had been reported missing by the owner of the half-built house and was returning on Feb. 11 to take more things.
No evidence has emerged that Arbery took anything from the house. The property owner has previously said through a lawyer that Arbery may have stopped at the construction site to drink from a water faucet. Arbery had nothing on him besides his running clothes and shoes the day he was shot.
McMichael said he had considerable law enforcement training while in the US Coast Guard, which included extensive drills on de-escalating potentially dangerous situations such as boarding suspect vessels.
This included a specific program that went from level one, which would be entirely verbal, to level six which was deadly force.
The former veteran who told jurors I carry a weapon everywhere described how the tragedy began to unfold.
He said he lived with his parents in Satilla Drive and his father Gregory had come into the house in a frantic state saying: The guy who has been breaking in has run by the house.
The court has already heard Arbery was filmed on home security video on night-time visits to a partly-constructed home two houses away being built by Larry English, 51 who believed he was having items stolen from it.
Defense lawyers have also painted a picture of Satilla Shores being an community on edge, fearful of an increasing crime wave sweeping over it.
Arbery was spotted at the unfinished house again at lunch time on that fateful Sunday, with neighbor Matt Albenze calling the non-emergency police line to report him.
Travis, who had his two-year-old son staying with him for a weekend visit, said his father grabbed a weapon - which the jury has been told was a Magnum .357 handgun. Travis picked up a shotgun.
He said he went outside the family home 'to see what was going on' and Albenze made an arm gesture down the road in the direction Arbery had run. Then Gregory McMichael came out of the house and he and his son set off.
Travis wedged his shotgun in a crease in the truck's bench front seat, with the barrel facing down, with his dad sitting next to him.
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 above map shows Ahmaud Arbery's approximate path and locations of the events that occurred on February 23, 2020
They proceeded fairly slowly down Satilla Drive and eventually came across Arbery in adjoining Burford Road. 'When I first see him, I'm trying to see if I recognize him,' Travis told jurors. Both McMichaels had seen videos in the English property.
'He's running, he's got long strides, he's athletic,' added Travis. 'I continued to drive up to him as I get closer I recognize his haircut. At that point I was probably riding the brake. I got closer to him.
'At this point I'm realizing this is most likely the same guy I saw. I watched his hands, make sure he's not armed. I don't know what I'm going to be into. If this is the same guy I have suspicions he may be armed.'
McMichael said he pulled alongside and definitely recognized Arbery from the videos. He said he told the jogger: 'Hey, what are you doing, what's going on? I'm coasting, I'm staying with him, he's right there at my door. I'm trying to de-escalate. I know this can go any way.'
The accused said he repeated his request for Arbery to stop, telling him 'I want to talk to you at this point he is still running but I notice he looks very angry. It wasn't what I expected for just coming up and talking to him. Clenched teeth, closed brow. He was mad. Which made me think, something's happened.
'I ask him again, hey will you stop for a second. He turns and starts jogging back. I back up and match up with him again. As I come up to him, I started asking what's going on? He turns and runs.'
McMichael said he and Arbery 'made eye contact' the first time he asked the jogger to stop. 'Second time, I'm not sure, I was watching his hands,' he said, emphasizing that he never tried to block Arbery with his truck.
The Coast Guard veteran said he followed and was 'trying to figure out what was happening, watching his demeanor'. He added: 'I decided to come up to him again and try one more time.
The 25-year-old is seen above at the same home on February 23, 2020 - the day he was chased and killed
'I want to talk to you, I want to know what's going on. And he finally stops. He never says anything to me this could be volatile. He's not squaring up, he's just standing. And I said hey, the police are on the way. As soon as I said police, he turned and ran straight back down Burford (Road) towards Holmes (Road) sprinted.'
McMichael said at no point during these interactions with Arbery did he brandish the shotgun, which remained in the truck cab
Bryan who would eventually take the shocking video of Arbery's death then comes into play. McMichael, who said he did not know Bryan before this incident, next spotted his black Chevrolet Silverado shadowing the young black man.
He said at one point it appeared Arbery was trying to get into the vehicle and thought: 'Why is he attacking a truck?' He added he was thinking: 'Once again this is getting out of hand. Looks like this guy is trying to get in this vehicle.
Eventually Arbery and Bryan in his truck headed in McMichael's direction as they dodged back and forth among the neighborhood roads. Arbery split away and ran past McMichael's passenger side. Then he and Bryan vanished around a dogleg in the road.
McMichael parked, saying he was under the impression the police were on their way and 'this guy, he seems dangerous to me I can give them a good description of what's happening'.
He said he got out of his truck and asked his father 'where are the police?' Gregory McMichael's answer indicated he hadn't called them. Travis continued: 'I go to reach for my phone and look back and I see Mr Arbery running back towards me.
'I yell at him to stop, stop where you're at. He's continuing. He's getting closer and I'm thinking he's not looking left, he's not looking right not a sprint not a jog. I need to do something about this.
'I'm at my truck, the door's open, I'm on the inside of my door. I see he's coming and I go to grab my shotgun. As soon as I turn to get my shotgun, her turns.. about 10ft form the back of my truck. My dad yells at him and he runs back. My action going into my truck is what made him turn.. back down Satilla (Drive).
'I pulled the shotgun out and I started going down there to see what's happening.' McMichael then decided against it, adding 'I need to stay where I'm at. My dad's up here in the back of the truck.
'I put the shotgun right back, pick up the phone, call 911. As I dial, the phone up to the ear, I see Mr Arbery come back (down Holmes Road).
'He was like a running back, ready to bolt. He was focused on me. This is that moment. I am pretty sure that he is going to attack his eye contact on me.'
McMichael had his shotgun in his hands again and this time raised it, jurors heard. 'He was closing in. At this point I had yelled at him to stop several times,' he said.
'He is focused in on me. I wouldn't have time to react if he wanted to get on me, or to pull the gun. This is when I needed to show him, to deter him, to state 'do not come at me'.' He said he knew this because of his previous Coast Guard training.
'Mr Arbery is running at a pretty good clip, he's directed at me. He sees that I have a weapon, I'm yelling at him to stop. And he's continuing. I had the weapon down at this point.'
McMichael then raised the weapon, the court heard. 'As soon as I drew a weapon on him, you can see in the video, that he darts to the left, darts to the right.' He added he would have been happy for Arbery to run across a nearby yard to clear out of the area at that point. 'At this point I know the police are coming now.
But Arbery returned in the direction of the truck, with McMichael's father in the open on the flatbed. 'At this point I am a little past my door,' he said. 'I don't know what he's going to do. I moved to the front of my truck this is the point that is critical.' Travis said he feared Arbery could get in his truck or put his father in peril.
'Still under the impression that he might be armed, he's close to my father,' said McMichael, who said he had his shotgun pointed downwards. 'I was going to get to the front, the center of the vehicle. By the time I get to the front of the truck he is at the front quarter panel on the right hand side.
'And he turns and is on me.. in a flash.'
William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr (left), who filmed the pursuit on his cellphone, was sworn in Wednesday. Gregory McMichael (right), was also sworn in Wednesday to possibly testify. Their attorneys have not disclosed if they will take the stand or not
Earlier on Wednesday, before the defense started their opening arguments, they defense filed several motions Wednesday morning, including a request for a mistrial, a verdict of acquittal on the malice murder charge, and a request to limit pastors from the courtroom.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley denied all motions.
All three of the accused were sworn in to possibly testify in their defense. It's not clear whether all three men will testify in their defense.
The prosecution closed its case Tuesday saying the men assumed the worst of Arbery and were not attempting a valid citizen's arrest, which required that someone have 'reasonable and probable' suspicion that a person is fleeing a serious crime they committed.
Bryan's attorney, Kevin Gough, delayed making an opening statement at the start of the trial so that he could address the jury after the prosecution rested.
He attempted to disprove the prosecution's argument that the defendants assumed the worst about Arbery, painting his client as an innocent man who was unaware of what was going on.
Prosecution vs. Defense: The arguments in Ahmaud Arbery's murder trial Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan are all charged with malice and felony murder in the February 2020 shooting death of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery. The McMichaels armed themselves and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after he ran past their home from a nearby house under construction. Their neighbor, Bryan, joined the chase in his own truck, telling police that he tried to run Arbery off the road and then recorded cellphone video as Travis McMichael fired three shotgun blasts before Arbery fell facedown in the street. The defendants also face charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. During the trial, the prosecution aimed to prove that the defendants wrongly assumed the worst about Arbery. The state also sought to rebut arguments that the defendants were attempting a valid citizen's arrest, which required that someone have 'reasonable and probable' suspicion that a person is fleeing a serious crime they committed. The defense argues that Travis McMichael shot Arbery three times in self-defense, as the McMichaels and Bryan attempted to conduct a citizen's arrest of Arbery under their suspicion that he committed a burglary at a nearby property. They also argued that the chasing of Arbery was justified under Georgia's 19th-century citizen's arrest law that was repealed after an outcry over the killing. Advertisement
Gough said Arbery never asked Bryan for help as he ran by his home and, similar to how the state argues Bryan assumed worst about Arbery, he claimed the jogger assumed the worst of Bryan too by not asking for help.
'Mr. Arbery has the opportunity before Mr. Bryan even figures out what's going on, [to yell] help, call 911, there's crazy people chasing after me. He does not do that,' Gough stated.
'The evidence would suggest Mr. Bryan hasn't assumed the worst about anyone. Mr. Arbery has assumed the worst about Mr. Bryan.'
He also argued that Bryan did not know the McMichaels well and was not pertinent to the surveillance footage alleging showing Arbery at the nearby property.
Gough says Bryan recorded the incident to provide evidence to authorities and has been fully cooperative with authorities.
'Mr. Bryan has a rifle in his house. He leaves it. He walks out the house with a cell phone. That speaks volumes about the intentions of Mr. Bryan,' the attorney argued.
In court Wednesday, attorney Franklin Hogue - who is representing accused Gregory McMichael - asked for a directed verdict of acquittal on the malice murder charge for McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael.
He alleged the charge includes specific intent to kill, which doesn't apply to the defendant.
Hogue contends that asking the jury to find an individual guilty of malice murder, which is intentional, and of felony murder, which is unintentional, is 'inconsistent'.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski argued that 'but for' the defendants actions, Arbery would still be alive.
Gough also filed his fourth motion for a mistrial in the case - his second this week - under the grounds that the presence of high-profile civil rights leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the atmosphere inside and outside courtroom haven't allowed for fair trial.
The judge, again, denied the request.
Defense attorney Robert Rubin also asked Judge Walmsley to keep an eye on juror 12 whom he alleges has 'nodded off' repeatedly throughout the trial and is seemingly struggling to keep her eyes open.
The judge said he would he address the jury about being attentive.
Defense attorney Kevin Gough (pictured) made his opening statements on Wednesday after, for a second time, filing a motion for mistrial - which was denied
Before the trial resumed Wednesday, clergy members and faith leaders gathered outside Brunswick Superior Court for a prayer vigil
Rev. Jesse Jackson sat with Arbery's parents in the back row of the courtroom Wednesday for the second time this week. Attorneys for the defendants have said Jackson's presence and that of others who have spoken out in support of convictions in the case could unfairly influence the jury.
'They represent part of a national conversation' on racial injustice that has advocated for 'conviction of the defendants,' said Jason Sheffield, an attorney McMichael. 'And for that reason I do not think they should be present in the courtroom.'
In an interview outside the courthouse, Jackson said that by bringing up the issue of his attendance and that of other Black pastors who have supported the Arberys, the defense attorneys are 'looking for a diversion.'
'They don't want a trial,' he said. 'They want a mistrial.'
Before the trial resumed Wednesday, clergy members and faith leaders gathered outside the courthouse for a prayer vigil.
Participants sang songs and offered up prayers for the Arbery family, asking the Lord for mercy and justice.
'We gather this morning to pray for peace, love, and justice,' said Rev. Dewayne Cope. 'We're creating a space where you can unload your burdens.'
'We know the whole world is watching us. We know they're watching to see if we as a community can pull together beyond this moment,' Rabbi Rachael Bregman echoed. 'We're here to hold on to the pain and to hold each other through it. This is hard and we're doing it together.'
Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday afternoon eight days of testimony from 23 witnesses.
The jury was shown images of Arbery's clothing on Tuesday, torn apart by bullet holes, for a second day in a row
According to the medical examiner's testimony, the shot that struck Arbery's left chest and armpit (pictured) alone was lethal enough to kill the jogger.
An x-ray image presented to the jury Tuesday showed Arbery's injuries
Walmsley told the disproportionately white jury that defense lawyers for the three men would begin presenting their cases Wednesday morning at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick, where prominent civil rights leaders have joined Arbery's parents in the gallery.
Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael armed themselves and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after he ran past their home from a nearby house under construction Feb. 23, 2020.
Their neighbor, William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr, joined the chase in his own truck, telling police that he tried to run Arbery off the road and then recorded cellphone video as Travis McMichael fired three shotgun blasts before Arbery fell facedown in the street.
Prosecutors allege jury in Arbery trial is 'disproportionately white' Prosecutors claim the jury seated for Ahmaud Arbery's murder trial is disproportionately white. Of the 12 members, one juror is black while the other 11 are white. Defense lawyers struck all but one black person from the jury panel, drawn from a county where about a quarter of residents are black, but told the court the strikes were for reasons that had nothing to do with race. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley previously said he found that 'intentional discrimination' by defense attorneys appeared to have shaped jury selection, but argued Georgia law limited his authority to intervene. He also alleged that the defense had race-neutral arguments for dismissing those potential jurors. 'They have been able to explain to the court why besides race those individuals were struck from the panel,' Walmsley said. Summons were sent to 1,000 potential jurors and attorneys questioned these individuals for more than two weeks before selecting the current panel. Advertisement
The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar because security cameras had recorded him several times in the unfinished house on their street.
Defense attorneys said Travis McMichael opened fire in self-defense after Arbery attacked him by throwing punches and trying to grab his gun.
Prosecutors sought to rebut arguments that the defendants were attempting a valid citizen's arrest, which required that someone have 'reasonable and probable' suspicion that a person is fleeing a serious crime they committed.
They showed the jury multiple security-camera videos of Arbery walking around a half-built house on an unoccupied, unfenced property near the McMichaels' house.
They also showed police body-worn camera video of a police officer telling the McMichaels that no one knew who the young Black man walking around the property was, but that nothing was ever taken on the days he was seen there.
Additionally, they had the defendants' own words to investigators read aloud in court, in which they said they did not see Arbery before he ran past their driveways and did not know what he had been doing before.
McMichael also said he shouted out a graphic threat mid-chase that he would shoot Arbery's head off if he did not stop.
Jurors were also shown graphic video and photographs of two gaping shotgun wounds in Arbery's chest.
The trial began on Oct. 18 in Glynn County Superior Court with nearly three weeks of jury selection, resulting in a jury that prosecutors complained was disproportionately white.
Defense lawyers struck all but one black person from the jury panel, drawn from a county where about a quarter of residents are black, but told the court the strikes were for reasons that had nothing to do with race.
Arbery, 25, had enrolled at a technical college and was preparing to study to become an electrician like his uncles when he was killed.
Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, is yet to fire Allyn Walker, a professor who defended pedophiles and said they shouldn't be ostracized, instead placing them on administrative leave temporarily
The refusal of a Virginia university to fire a transgender assistant professor who defended pedophiles and said they should be given child sex dolls has outraged students, alumni, politicians and the school's LGBTQ board, who say it is proof of a double standard that protects woke staff.
Allyn Walker, 34, is an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The non-binary teacher claimed in a recent interview to promote their new book that pedophiles shouldn't be ostracized, that they can't help who they are attracted to and that they should be given child-like sex dolls to satisfy their urges.
Walker, formerly known as Allison, made the comments in an interview to promote their book Long Dark Shadow: Minor Attracted People and their Pursuit of Dignity. They believe pedophiles should be referred to as Minor Attracted People, and that they don't 'choose' who to be attracted to so shouldn't be considered 'immoral'.
'I want to be extremely clear that child sexual abuse is never ever okay,' they said, before saying pedophiles should be offered 'help' and aren't' 'destined' to act on physical urges.
There was immediate and intense outrage among students, who said the professor was using a 'blanket' term for pedophilia and was an apologist for criminals.
The university's own Trans Advisory Board released a statement to call Walker's remarks 'reprehensible', damaging to the victims of pedophilia and not reflective of the views of the trans community at large.
But Old Dominion is standing by Walker.
At first, the school said they didn't agree with them, but that they would keep their role. Then On Tuesday, the university - which charges $31,000 per year for out-of-state students - partly buckled to public outrage and placed Walker on leave, saying it was for their own safety.
Students and others - including nearly 5,000 people who signed a Change.org petition- think Allyn deserves to be fired and they are demanding to know why the university won't end their employment.
When presented with those questions, a university spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'Your questions address private personnel matters that it is our policy not to discuss publicly.'
Walker would rather people referred to pedophiles as 'minor attracted' people. They think that while child sex abuse is 'never okay', there should be more help for pedophiles to stop them from harming kids and that child-size sex dolls should be legalized
Walker earned their PhD at CUNY Graduate Center in 2017, according to the university's website, and specializes in mental health, court systems, queer criminology and 'resilience to offending'
Students tell DailyMail.com that it's not enough and that they're both 'saddened and baffled' by a double standard, when other, more conservative professors at different schools have been fired, ostracized or vilified by the media for far less.
Walker's book which seeks to destigmatize pedophiles who he says shouldn't be ostracized because they can't help their desires
'It saddens me that other professors and students have been kicked off campus for less and hopefully ODU will take the correct course of action.
'I'm still confused on why this double standard exists.
'I am baffled and disappointed that an individual with those beliefs would even be allowed to have a job on our campus where children interact frequently,' Grant Rimmer, a human services major and junior, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
'It is okay to research, it is okay to find out this information. It is not okay to sympathize and create a term to blanket what pedophilia is,' student Geni Piatkowski told WAVY, a local news outlet at a campus protest on Tuesday night.
Nearly 5,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding that Walker be fired permanently for their comments.
They say that putting them on leave is not enough.
I am baffled and disappointed that an individual with those beliefs would even be allowed to have a job on our campus Grant Rimmer, a junior at ODU
'I noticed that it did not state unpaid leave. This person is a danger to society and should never be given the opportunity to to promote this perverted agenda,' said one person who signed it.'
In a statement, ODU's Asterisk Trans Advisory Board said their comments were 'reprehensible'.
'Walkers choice to use [the term people who self-identify as minor attracted] in their work and appropriate exclusively queer experiences to further contextualize their argument is reprehensible.
Brian Hemphill, the university's president, said 'as a father', he was concerned by the 'narrative' but he refused to fire Walker
'The second chapter of their book, Leading a Double Life: Staying Closeted and Coming Out as a MAP, is grossly misappropriating the traumas that LGBTQIA+ people exclusively endure as a natural part of their lived experience because of stigma.
'To liken these traumas to the holistically unrelated experiences of pedophiles, there are no words to describe the violations and damage Walkers irresponsible choice in words have done to their community writ-large and specifically at ODU.'
'The LGBTQIA+ community has long fought against the stigma that so wrongly aligns us with notions of sexual deviance. We have fought against this stigma while also bearing the increased vulnerability to and prevalence of experiencing sexual and emotional trauma that being a sexual and gender minority brings.
'Walkers misappropriation of exclusively queer experiences in their book has reignited the ignorant assumption of LGBTQIA+ individuals as sexual deviants and unfounded association with pedophilia.
Many were outraged that the university has only placed the teacher on leave and not fired them
'In a year with the highest number of lives lost, it is with incredible disappointment and sadness that we as trans* student leaders are forced to respond to a controversy that has innately included and simultaneously maligned us without our consent,' the board's statement read.
The university's president, Brian O. Hemphill, issued a letter to students last night where he called the views worrying, but he didn't say anything about whether or not the professor would be fired.
'Many individuals have shared with me the view that the phrase minor-attracted people is inappropriate and should not be utilized as a euphemism for behavior that is illegal, morally unacceptable, and profoundly damaging.
'It is important to call pedophilia what it is. As a father, I am troubled by this narrative and its potential consequences for my children and that of future generations,' he wrote.
Students protested against the professor's remarks at Old Dominion University campus in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday night
Some of the protesting students told DailyMail.com that the university has taken a step in the right direction by putting Walker on leave, but that they should be fired
It has stunned many, who point out the cases of conservative professors at other schools who have been marginalized for far less offensive remarks.
Peter Boghossian, a professor at Portland State University, quit his position earlier this year after being vilified by faculty and students for sharing anti-woke views.
'There's a particularly powerful mind virus... there's a suite of beliefs within an ideology and those beliefs literally exist to rip down western civilization,' he said of his resignation.
Portland State University professor Peter Boghossian says he was marginalized for his right wing views. He quit his role eventually. Dorian Abbott, a lecturer, was canceled from speaking at MIT after saying kids should be rewarded on academic merit and nothing else
'Our institutions can sustain only so much and they're being attacked from the inside on multiple levels from people who have been -- there's no polite way to say it -- they've been indoctrinated within the academies and indoctrinated to beliefs that are completely untethered to reality.'
Dorian Abbott, a lecturer, was recently canceled by MIT in Michigan for suggesting students should be rewarded for their academic merit and nothing else.
'This is not a partisan issue. Anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth and in promoting a healthy and functioning society has a stake in this debate.
Speaking out now may seem risky. But the cost of remaining silent is far steeper,' he said, writing for Bari Weiss' Common Sense newsletter, last month.
Walker lives in Norfolk with Vanessa Panfil, a fellow teacher at the university who has written her own books, including one called The Gang's All Queer: The Social Worlds and Identities of Gay Gang Members.
Walker has not commented on the controversy surrounding their remarks.
For the first time in the United States' 245-year history, American women could be required to sign up for the Selective Service with legislation expanding the draft expected to get the green light from Congress, a report out Wednesday stated.
A measure changing the requirements for the Selective Service from male-only to 'all Americans' could pass the Senate as early as this week, according to Axios.
The question of who should be compelled to serve has been debated in the US for years. Now it looks likely to pass with a bipartisan coalition of support, despite fury from some Republicans saying it is part of a row over political equality.
Earlier this month, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced an amendment to strip the gender-neutral Selective Service language out of the NDAA. It's not clear if the bill gained much traction.
Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri spoke out against the measure on Wednesday morning.
'Using women as a chess piece in a political equality argument is not only misguided but is insulting to our female population,' she wrote on Twitter. 'Claiming their inclusion in the draft would prove equality is ridiculous.'
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told reporters Tuesday, 'God bless that woman if she wants to go serve in the military and is prepared to fight. That that is a choice that is available to her. But I'm the father of two daughters. The idea that the government would forcibly draft them, and put them in a place where they would be engaged in combat against a man who the statistics demonstrate is likely to have significantly more body mass and significantly more body strength? That's not fair.'
Conservative groups have also stood against the reform.
'There is nothing hindering womens ability to volunteer and serve in the military, so there is no need for this dangerous and unnecessary draft mandate contained in the NDAA,' public policy organization the Family Research Council tweeted Tuesday.
Republican lawmakers are speaking out against the reform, though it's likely to still pass
Republican House members like Reps. Chip Roy (left) and Vicky Hartzler (right) are urging their Senate colleagues to vote no
The provision is included in the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives by a 316 - 113 vote in September.
If passed, all US citizens aged 18 to 26 would be required to sign up regardless of gender identity.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York wrote to colleagues in a letter on Sunday, 'it is likely that the Senate considers the NDAA this upcoming week.'
GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas eviscerated his fellow Republicans who plan to vote in favor of the bill in an op-ed published Wednesday morning.
'To the many Republicans poised to make a devastating decision again, just know that I will not be able to vote for you for any officeincluding speaker, leader, president, or otherwiseif you vote for this,' Roy said.
He attacked the lawmakers willing to pass the bill 'without any serious debate.'
'This is not a question of whether women can serve in the military. Thousands of women serve admirably in the United States Armed Forces, and we are all thankful for their service and their sacrifice,' the Texas Republican wrote.
'The question is whether we, as a country, will force the possibility of the horrors and strains of combat upon our wives, our sisters and our daughtersand worse, do so without so much as a moment of debate or legislative amendment on the House floor.'
Wednesday's report notes the backers include veterans, feminists and even traditional Republicans - lawmakers ranging from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to Democrat Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth have said it's time to expand the draft to women.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has voiced support for the Selective Service to be expended to women, a measure that's part of this year's military spending bill. Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues on Sunday that it'll likely be voted on this week
Opposition has been relatively scant in the upper chamber - about a dozen Republican senators have stood against the measure. Lawmakers who oppose the Selective Service in general could also vote against the bill.
The change would be mostly symbolic - the government hasn't drafted men for combat since the Vietnam War.
But should it ever need to be used again, Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania warned, an expansion would allow the military to tap into a broad range of necessary experiences.
'God forbid, if we're in that place where we need to call on everybody to help us, we will need all kinds of skills,' Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, told Axios.
'Cyber-related skills, as well as other sorts of skills that we don't necessarily currently think of when we think of the Selective Service.'
'It seems to me given that women are playing every single possible role in the military,' Maine Senator Susan Collins told Huffpost on Wednesday. 'The registration should apply to both men and women.'
In July the Senate Armed Services Committee passed the NDAA with just two Republicans - Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Hawley - and Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts voting against it.
Female servicemembers in Congress have been some of the primary forces driving the recent draft reform push.
Conservative groups like the Family Research Council oppose the military reform
GOP Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, the first woman combat veteran elected to the upper chamber, highlighted the importance of all Americans serving their country in Wednesday's report.
'We are now competing in the space of combat arms, and I think it's important that we all serve to the best of our capacity,' she said.
Her fellow combat veteran Duckworth, who lost both her legs when her helicopter was hit by a grenade in Iraq, is also known to support expanding the draft to women.
New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said 'so much of the trajectory for women in the armed services is based on what experience they're able to accrue, particularly combat experience.'
And McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Congress, threw his weight behind women entering the draft as early as 2016.
He said in May of that year that 'given where we are today, with women in the military performing virtually all kinds of functions, I personally think it would be appropriate for them to register just like men do.'
It's not clear how he intends to vote on the annual military funding bill that includes the provision. DailyMail.com has reached out to McConnell's office.
A half-dozen Republican senators mounted a bid to block it in August. They introduced a resolution titled 'Don't Draft Our Daughters.'
The effort was spearheaded by Hawley, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Utah Senator Mike Lee.
Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana and Roger Wicker of Mississippi also signed on.
'Most Americans say if a woman wants to serve that's wonderful - and by the way, women have been absolutely central to our war efforts since we have been a country, in many different ways, including of course fighting,' Hawley said on Fox News earlier this month.
A report commissioned by the federal government in May 2020 proposed expanding the selective service to women
'But the idea that they be forced into compulsory service, I just think it's crazy.'
Congress has tried in the past to amend the Military Selective Services Act to include women in the draft, but opposition mainly led by Republicans have stopped those efforts.
Under a proposal from Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, the existing legislation's text would be changed to 'all Americans' and remove the male reference.
The latest version of the bill would swap 'male person' for the gender-neutral 'person' and replaces the phrase 'race or color' with 'race, color, sex, or gender.'
But the Republicans' resolution cited data that states 'only a small subset of women are able to meet the physical fitness requirements for combat roles' in their evidence against the measure.
It also points to the disparity between men in women in completing the Army fitness test ever since it became gender-neutral in 2018.
'United States Army data has demonstrated a fail rate ranging between 65 percent and 84 percent for women and between 10 percent and 30 percent for men on the Army Combat Fitness test since its inception,' the resolution reads.
Military research also reflects enlisted women having a six-time higher injury rate than men.
But the argument for enlisting women in the Selective Service comes from a recent study by the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service, published in May 2020.
'This is a necessary and fair step, making it possible to draw on the talent of a unified Nation in a time of national emergency,' the commission wrote.
Video footage released by border agents captured the moment they reunited a migrant mother with her five-year-old daughter who was abandoned by smugglers on an island in between Mexico and the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the Venezuelan woman noticed her daughter was missing a short while after she and a group of migrants had reached the shore of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, last Friday.
Agents from with U.S. Border Patrols Eagle Pass Station related the information to a unit that was patrolling the waterway and later located the girl with nine other undocumented migrants on the island.
The migrants were ferried across the Rio Grande and into Texas before an agent recorded the child running up to her distraught mother and sharing a hug.
A distraught mother from Venezuela approaches her five-year-old daughter after U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued the child and nine other migrants who were left behind by smugglers on an island between Mexico and the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the mother approached border patrol agents moments after she was ferried from Mexico to a town near Eagle Pass, Texas, via the Rio Grande and asked them for help in recovering her five-year-old daughter, who had been left behind by smugglers on an island located between Mexico and the United States
All of the migrants were medically screened and none presented signals of distress. They were transported to a local station where they were processed accordingly under U.S. immigration law.
Human smugglers are cold and calculated, often separating families for their own convenience or to gain compliance, Del Rio Sector chief patrol agent Robert Danley said in a statement. Thankfully our agents acted quickly and were able to locate the young girl and reunite her with her mother without incident.
A Venezuelan mother reaches for her daughter after U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Eagle Pass Station rescued the five-year-old child and nine other migrants from an island between Mexico and the United States on the Rio Grande last Friday
According to CBP's monthly report released Monday on southwestern border encounters with migrants, U.S. Border Patrol agents registered fewer interdictions with individuals who were taken into custody for unlawfully crossing the United States-Mexico border for the third consecutive month.
Data noted there were 164,303 encounters reported in October, a 14 percent decrease compared to September.
Border officers registered 192,001 encounters in September and 209,840 in August after a record-high 213,593 interdictions were reported in July, the peak of the southern border crisis facing the Biden administration.
CBP data showed southern border interdictions increased in each of former President Donald Trump's last eight full months in office, and the crisis has unraveled in President Joe Biden's first six full months at the White House
The Del Rio Sector, which has 10 stations including the Eagle Pass Station that are in charge of surveilling 245 border miles, reported 28,111 interdictions in October, second-most among among the U.S. Border Patrol's nine sectors.
Of the 42,726 family units that were encountered by the Border Patrol in October, Del Rio Sector agent sectors registered the third-most interdictions with 6,005.
'We continue to work diligently to identify and dismantle transnational criminal organizations that smuggle contraband and migrants into the U.S.,' CBP acting commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement.
'CBP's workforce continues to work with partners across the federal government and throughout the hemisphere to disrupt the smugglers intent on exploiting vulnerable migrants for profit.'
This undated photo from the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows David Neal Cox, 50. In September 2012, Cox pleaded guilty to shooting his wife, Kim, in May 2010 in the town of Sherman, sexually assaulting her daughter in front of her, and watching Kim Cox die as police negotiators and relatives pleaded for her life
A man who killed his estranged wife and terrorized their family is scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday evening in Mississippi, the first person executed in that state since 2012.
Prosecutors said David Neal Cox, 50, shot Kim Kirk Cox in May 2010 and let her bleed to death over several hours while he sexually assaulted his stepdaughter three times in front of her dying mother.
Following his arrest, Cox relinquished all appeals and filed court papers, saying he was 'worthy of death.' His execution is scheduled for 6pm CST at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.
Among the people scheduled to witness the execution are Cox's stepdaughter, 23-year-old Lindsey Kirk. She was 12 on May 14, 2010, at her aunt's house, where she was staying along with her two brothers and mother. They had been granted a restraining order against Cox. Her mother was in the back of the house filling the bathtub for her little brother.
'A gunshot came through the screen door, and he ran in and told me not to move,' Kirk said of her stepfather, who chased her aunt, Kristie Salmon, out of the house.
Kirk was not in the room when her stepfather shot her mother in the arm and abdomen, but he soon took her back there.
'Mama was laying on the floor. She was bleeding,' Kirk said. Kirk's brother 'was balled up in a closet.'
Her stepfather then sexually assaulted her three times in front of her dying mother - even as police surrounded the home and tried to get Cox to release Kirk, along with her two brothers.
Lindsey Kirk, 23, was 12 years old when her stepfather, David Neal Cox, terrorized her family, sexually assaulted her, and killed her mother, Kim Kirk Cox, in May 2010 at a home in Sherman, Mississippi. The Mississippi Supreme Court set Cox's execution date Wednesday after he said he wanted to surrender all appeals
Kim Kirk Cox in an undated picture provided by daughter Lindsey Kirk. Kim was short in the arm and in the abdomen in 2010 by Cox, days after bumping into him at an intersection
The entrance of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, where Cox has been jailed for the past 11 years
On the same day, Cox's father, Benny, and stepmother, Melody Kirk, were three hours from home at a track meet with one of their children. Salmon called and told them Cox had shown up at her house and started shooting.
The Kirks immediately started driving back, and Cox called while they were on the way. Kirk said he talked to his daughter, Kim, who already had been shot.
'I told her we was coming just as quick as we could get there,' Benny Kirk said. 'And she said, "Daddy, I'm dying.'''
Kirk said Cox blamed him, his wife and Lindsey Kirk: 'He told me over the phone that he meant to kill all of us.'
Melody Kirk said Cox was refusing to talk to officers by the time they had arrived at Salmon's house, so she took the role of negotiator, trying to persuade him to let the family go.
The ordeal lasted more than eight hours before officers got the three children out, recovered Kim's body and arrested Cox. Authorities said their last confirmation of Kim Cox being alive was after midnight May 15.
Lindsey Kirk told the Associated Press she misses her mother every day. To remember her, she has two tattoos: her mom's birthdate in Roman numerals and a dolphin, her mother's favorite animal.
Lindsey Kirk shows a tattoo on her neck that commemorates her late mother's favorite animal, a dolphin
Lindsey Kirk shows a tattoo commemorating her late mother's birthday of Jan. 12, 1970
Lindsey Kirk shows childhood photographs of herself and her late mother Kim Kirk Cox
Lindsey Kirk also said that prior to the murder, Cox was collecting disability checks after injuring his back when he was working as a commercial truck driver.
Back then, he used methamphetamine in front of Kirk, who said that her stepfather sexually assaulted her 'for a few years' when the family was still living under the same roof when her mother would leave.
She said she was afraid to tell anyone because 'he always told me that he'd kill us' if she told on him.
However, while staying with her grandparents in the summer of 2009, Lindsey texted her mother and told her of the assaults.
Soon after that, Cox was arrested and charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, child abuse and possession of methamphetamine. He was released in April 2010, but then-wife Kim Cox already had a restraining order against him and had moved to her sister's home with her children.
But, one day, Kim Cox saw him at an intersection from afar. She told relatives that he held his hand up like a gun and pointed it at her three times. Within a couple of days, he had killed her.
Kim Cox's father and stepmother describe her as a caring mother who was generous toward others. They said they didn't know David had been abusive or her children until Lindsey spoke up.
Adding on to that, Benny Kirk said simply: 'He's evil.'
Kim Cox (left) poses with her father Benny Kirk (right) in an undated picture
Questions also remain about whether Cox was involved in the disappearance of his brother's wife, Felicia Cox, who was last seen in a neighboring county in 2007.
Her daughter, Amber Miskelly, recently told WTVA-TV that David Cox was the last person to see her mother alive. Lindsey Kirk said her mother and Felicia Cox were close friends. Benny and Melody Kirk said they wonder if Cox will confess to his sister-in-law's death before he is executed.
The Kirks raised Lindsey and her two younger brothers. Lindsey calls them Mamaw and Papaw, and they said she's their angel.
The boys are now 18 and 19 years old. The couple said the younger son does not like to talk about his mother's death or his father's impending execution, and the older son is still fearful his father might come back and hurt him.
'I've told him,' Melody Kirk said, 'a dead person can't hurt anybody.'
Meanwhile, Mississippi and other states have had difficulty finding lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products to carry out death sentences.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections revealed in court papers earlier this year that it acquired three drugs for the lethal injection protocol: midazolam, which is a sedative; vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said on Tuesday that the drugs listed in the court records are the ones planned for use in the execution. He would not say where the department obtained them.
'The law said that we don't have to disclose it,' Cain said.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said he won't be granting Cox last-minute clemency or a delay of execution
States have had difficulty finding lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies began blocking their use for carrying out death sentences. A court filing this year showed Mississippi had acquired three drugs for its lethal injection protocol. Pictured: The lethal injection room at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi
Republican Governor Tate Reeves has no intention of granting clemency or delaying the execution, his spokeswoman said Tuesday. Death Penalty Action, which opposes executions, had petitioned Reeves to step in.
'David Cox is waiving his appeals & inviting his execution. This amounts to state-sponsored suicide,' the group said in a petition. 'It's not about him. It's about us. In what other circumstance in Mississippi does a prisoner dictate his punishment?'
A spiritual adviser will be available for Cox before the execution, the commissioner said.
Mississippi carried out six executions in 2012. The state does not have any others scheduled after Cox's, though more than 30 people are on death row in the state.
Ex-Maryland cop Robert Vicosa, 42, was suspected to have taken his daughters in a stolen vehicle on Tuesday morning after holding his estranged wife hostage at the family home in Windsor, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania cops have launched a manhunt for two young sisters who were kidnapped by their father and say they may be in danger.
Aaminah, 6, and Giana Vicosa, 7, were last seen in Windsor, Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning at 11:49am with their father Robert Vicosa, 42 - a former Maryland police officer.
Police uncovered the kidnapping on Sunday after Vicosa's estranged wife told police that he had held her hostage in their family home and allegedly violently assaulted her.
Vicosa, who is believed to be with another Baltimore cop, then left with the children before crashing the car he was driving into a canal.
Shortly after the crash, he then held a stranger at gunpoint and demanded the keys to her 2014 Volkswagen Jetta and her cellphone before fleeing with the children. The car and missing cellphone have since been recovered.
Police said that the children are believed to be in extreme danger.
'I want to plead to Mr. Vicosa, 'Sir, you are, at one time, you were a police officer. In your heart, you know that what you are doing is not right,' York Area Regional Police Lt. Ken Schollenberger said at a news conference Wednesday morning.
'You are a father. You are a father to these two young ladies. We're asking you, we're pleading with you, take them anywhere that you can. Drop them off at a Sheetz, at a Rutter's, at any convenience store. Take them anywhere where there's a responsible person inside that they can go in and call 911.
'Do the right thing Robert. Bring them back.'
A manhunt has been launched for two missing girls Aaminah, six, and Giana Vicosa, seven, after they were kidnapped by their father on Sunday
Police have warned the public not to approach the former cop who was fired from the Baltimore County Police Department in August for sleeping on the job and insubordination.
A warrant for Vicosa's arrest was issued on Tuesday with charges of kidnapping, simple assault and robbery.
Police say they believe he could be driving a black 2013 Lexus G350 with Pennsylvania state license plate number KPK2076.
Vicosa's wife had reported the assault to police on Sunday and claimed that there were multiple guns in the home and that drug use was involved.
After obtaining a warrant to search the Monday, police found the home to be in disarray and vacant with only a malnourished dog on the property.
The children were been taken by Vicosa in a black Acura that belonged to a relative of Sergeant Tia Bynum, a former work friend of his.
Police tracked Vicosa's location to Bynum's home on Monday and were denied the opportunity to search her residence.
Vicoas then allegedly stole another vehicle on Tuesday after he crashed the Acura into a canal. He and the two children then spent a night in a vacant camper.
The female owner of the camper had come to the property the next day where she was held at gunpoint by Vicosa.
Vicosa was reportedly last seen driving a 2013 Black Lexus G35 with Pennsylvania license plate number KPK2076
The girls have been featured on a missing and endangered persons alert by state police with the kidnapping date listed as Sunday
He took the keys to her silver Volkswagen Jetta as well as her cellphone before heading off with the girls.
Police later tracked the location of the vehicle only to discover it was empty. The woman had both her vehicle and cellphone returned to her after it was found.
Cops then tracked Vicosa to Bynum's home, and after obtaining a search warrant they entered the home only to find it empty. Bynum and her black Lexus are both missing.
It is unclear whether Bynum is with Vicosa and his children or not.
At a press conference on Wednesday, an officer read a statement from the girls' mother.
York Area Regional Police Lt. Ken Schollenberger spoke at a press conference on Wednesday and begged Vicosa to bring his daughters home to safety
'I am anxiously awaiting their return,' the letter had read. 'I miss them and love them and need them home.'
An Amber Alert has not yet been issued for the girls because officers need to have a clear idea of what car Vicosa is driving.
'We were seconds away from issuing an Amber Alert,' Schollenberger said. 'Unfortunately, we found the car that he was in, and he was not located in it.
'At this point, the Amber Alert typically attaches to a vehicle or registration plate. We don't have a vehicle or registration plate now because the last one that he was in, he abandoned.'
The girls have been featured on a missing and endangered persons alert by state police with the kidnapping date listed as Sunday.
Aaminah has been described as being three feet and eight inches, 50 pounds, with green eyes and brown hair.
Giana is four feet and three inches, 60 pounds, with both brown eyes and hair.
'We're going to use anything to our availability regardless of what his job is to bring this to a safe resolution,' Schollenberger told CBS 21.
'Of course, if he does have some specialized training we're looking to make sure we can counter that by any means necessary.'
Italy is considering a lockdown of the unvaccinated, the latest European state to follow the medical apartheid imposed by Austria.
Vienna on Monday ordered two million people who have not been fully vaccinated to stay at home for all but essential reasons, threatening fines of up to 1,237 for rule breakers.
And Germany's incoming government has said that it wants unvaccinated people to be barred from going to work and travelling on public transport amid what Angela Merkel calls 'dramatic' infection levels.
Now five Italian governors are backing the same approach amid a ferociously accelerating fourth wave of the virus in the EU's worst affected country - Italy's Covid death toll stands at more than 133,000.
There were 7,815 new coronavirus cases in Italy on Tuesday and 74 new deaths, increases of 28 per cent and 9 per cent respectively on the same day last week.
'Eventual new lockdowns should not have to be suffered by those who are vaccinated. Restrictions should only apply to those who are not immunized,' said Massimiliano Fedriga, governor of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the country's northeast.
The governors of Tuscany, Calabria, Liguria and Piedmont agree with Fedriga.
2: A nurse assists a Covid-19 patient, in the new ward to deal with the Covid-19 emergency set up in the Fiera del Levante, on November 12, in Bari, Italy
There were 7,815 new Covid-19 cases in Italy on Tuesday, an increase of 28 per cent on the same day last week
There were 74 new deaths in Italy on Tuesday, a rise of 9 per cent on the same day last week
Italy has one of the best vaccination rates in Europe, with 84 per cent of the population double-jabbed, however seven million have refused to take it.
They also have a vigorous anti-vaxx movement within the country which has been rocked by protests against the Green Pass, a vaccine passport which is required to dine indoors, visit museums and cinemas and for long-distance public transport.
But a growing number of Italian politicians are adamant that Rome must push ahead with a lockdown for the unvaccinated.
Former prime minister Matteo Renzi tweeted: 'You're not vaccinated? Then stay at home.'
It comes as Merkel today branded Germany's Covid situation 'dramatic' and called for harsher measures to curb the pandemic even as more states lockdown their unvaccinated citizens.
Mrs Merkel warned 'we are in such an emergency', and called for new laws that would automatically trigger tough lockdown measures in any state that hits a certain threshold for Covid hospital admissions.
The incoming Social Democrat (SDP) government on Tuesday warned that unvaccinated people will be barred from going to work and travelling on public transport.
The new government will also recommend that everyone should work from home unless they have a 'compelling business reason'.
'This is actually a lockdown for the unvaccinated,' said Dirk Wiese, the deputy head of the SPD parliamentary group. Around 14 million Germans eligible to be vaccinated have not taken up the offer.
State leaders are already rushing to implement their own lockdown measures which largely targeted the unvaccinated - making it harder for them to access public spaces and services without having a jab.
Thirteen of the country's 16 federal states now have or are planning to implement rules that restrict the activities of people based largely on their vaccination status.
So-called 2G rules restrict access to various buildings and spaces to people who have either been double-jabbed or previously infected with Covid.
It is a stricter form of the 3G rule, which allows un-jabbed people to enter provided they have tested negative for the virus.
Angela Merkel has called for tougher lockdown measures in Germany and an extension of the state of emergency as Covid cases soar to record levels
Cases are rapidly rising across the country and have hit record levels in recent weeks as a relatively low jab rate and slow booster drive combined to speed up infections
Exactly which locations unjabbed people are barred from entering varies state to state. In Baden-Wuerttemberg the passes are required to access most public buildings, including cinemas, restaurants, theaters, and galleries.
In Lower Saxony, the 2G rules only apply to indoor events with more than 1,000 people, though tougher measures are being planned.
Germany has seen Covid infections soar to record levels in recent weeks, as a relatively low double-jabbed rate of 67 per cent combined with a sluggish booster drive led infections to spread rapidly.
Health Chief Jens Spahn has come in for criticism by a lockdown-weary public who have accused him of failing to prepare for winter months, when respiratory illnesses such as Covid are known to spread faster.
Newspapers such as Bild and Suddeutsche Zeitung blasted Spahn for removing free Covid tests for most people, while also closing some vaccination centres after the spring wave had subsided.
Deaths are nowhere near the levels seen during the first and second wave of Covid, but have started to climb rapidly amid fears they could soon top the previous peaks
Germany is now reopening some jab hubs in an effort to boost its vaccine drive, but many will not be operational until January or February.
The German lockdown measures come off the back of Austria, which this week confined some 2million unvaccinated people to their homes amid soaring cases.
Branded 'vaccine apartheid' by critics, it has never-the-less led to record queues to get jabs according to The Telegraph.
While many told the newspaper they were unhappy at the new rules, they never-the-less appeared to be achieving the desired result. Some 462,000 came forward for jabs yesterday, the highest number since the summer.
Meanwhile Slovakia and Greece said they are considering a similar lockdown, though have no plans to activate one yet.
Gabriel Attal, the French government spokesman, also noted Wednesday that his country's outbreak is also being driven largely by those who have not been jabbed - but said no new measures will be put in place for now.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia reported record daily numbers of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a day before the governments of the neighbouring nations plan to approve new restrictions in response to rising infections.
The Czech daily tally soared to 22,479 new cases, eclipsing the previous record set on January 7 by almost 5,000 and nearly 8,000 more than a week ago.
Austria has locked down its unvaccinated citizens, with people now forced to carry vaccination papers so they can leave their homes
Austria is battling a brutal fourth wave of Covid that has seen its infection rate soar to one of the highest in Europe (pictured, a patient is treated in hospital)
The country's infection rate rose to 813 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, up from 558 a week earlier.
Czech prime minister Andrej Babis said the government was considering several options, including following neighbouring Austria in ordering a lockdown for unvaccinated residents.
Slovakia reported 8,342 new virus cases, surpassing the previous record of 7,244 set on Friday.
The Slovakian government is planning new restrictions on unvaccinated people as the country's hospitals become overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.
Slovakian prime minister Eduard Heger said his Cabinet would vote on Thursday on recommendations from an advisory group of medical experts.
And in Hungary, the number of daily Covid-19 deaths and new officially recorded cases on Wednesday climbed to highs not seen since a pandemic surge last spring.
Government figures showed 178 daily deaths and 10,265 new cases in the country of fewer than 10 million people. The latter figure approached record pandemic highs set in March, while daily deaths were the highest since May 1.
The numbers reflect a worsening pandemic situation in the Central European country, which in spring had the highest Covid-19 death rate per capita in the world.
The mother of the teenage girl who was raped by a boy in a skirt in a Virginia school bathroom says she and her husband were pressured to remain silent about the incident, and had no idea their daughter's attacker had been allowed back in school until last month.
'We were silenced for many months,' Jessica Smith told DailyMail.com, in her first interview since her daughter was sexually assaulted by a 15-year-old classmate at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County in May.
'We were told not to say a word that could jeopardize our daughter's case.'
The Virginia school district was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this year over accusations that it had covered up the attack.
The story exploded when her husband Scott Smith was dragged out of a school board meeting with a bloodied mouth after cops intervened when the furious dad confronted an audience member on June 22.
After the teen was arrested in July, school officials quietly transferred him to another high school in the district, even keeping the victim's parents in the dark.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Jessica Smith (pictured right with husband Scott) claimed they were pressured to stay silent on their daughter's rape at a Virginia school bathroom earlier this year. The mom also revealed they had no idea the girl's attacker had been allowed back in school until last month
Scott Smith, the father of the first female victim, was pictured with a bloody mouth, being dragged out of a school board meeting on June 22 - a month after the attack - after listening to school officials say no one had been sexually assaulted in the bathrooms when that's what his daughter had reported the previous month
The boy, whose name is being withheld by DailyMail.com because he's a minor, would be once again arrested in October for allegedly assaulting a second girl at Broad Run High School.
'When I learned there was a second victim, I was dumbfounded,' Jessica told DailyMail.com in Leesburg, Virginia on Monday.
'I didn't believe it because I was under the impression that he was at home with an ankle monitor, not at school.'
'We felt like this was our responsibility, what happened to this second victim,' the mom added, her eyes tearing up as she requested a tissue.
'The pain that we had on May 28 came back. All the hurt, the anger, the frustration, everything came back. I felt so horribly for the second victim and her family. This should have never happened. They shouldn't have put him back in school.'
Jessica revealed she was meeting with lawyers after the interview to finalize a major lawsuit her family is planning to file this week against the school district.
A GoFundMe campaign was also organized to help raise money for the parents' court expenses.
After months of keeping quiet, she said she and her husband, with the support of other parents and activists, will attempt to hold school officials responsible for failing to protect their daughter and other students from a boy who, it turns out, had a history of issues going back to elementary school.
'That's the problem, that we were silenced,' she continued. 'We were not allowed to go to rallies. We were not allowed to go to meetings with other groups. It didn't matter what it was. Because we were under this microscope.'
'This is not about politics,' she added. 'This is about sexual assault and how we need to make changes in our schools in order to protect victims, get them the help they need sooner, and believe them. And don't allow a perpetrator back into another school.'
The 15-year-old was formerly a student Stone Bridge High School where he was accused of raping a female classmate in the girl's bathroom in May
A skirt-wearing teenage boy who was last month found guilty of raping a female classmate was later in May, pleaded no contest on Monday to sexually assaulting a second girl at Broad Run High School (pictured) in Ashburn, Loudoun County, Virginia, in October
Earlier on Monday, Jessica accompanied her daughter to a hearing in Loudoun County juvenile court where prosecutors revealed details of the second attack, during which the boy allegedly dragged another girl into a classroom and touched her breasts.
The teen pleaded no contest to the charges, clearing the way for him to be sentenced next month for both crimes.
Jessica sat in the back row near her daughter, purposefully keeping her out of the teen's line of sight. She wanted to prevent a repeat of last month's hearing on the rape case, when the attacker stared back at his victim before he was found guilty.
'I made sure that he could not see her because the last time he did turn around and view her, which I felt was extreme intimidation,' Jessica explained.
She praised her daughter's strength for even showing up Monday.
'Our daughter did not have to be in court,' the mother said, noting how the teen has struggled to cope with the rape, receiving therapy and medication.
'She was there for the second victim to show support for her. Our daughter will stand tall, stay strong and get through this.'
The mom said that even after the rape took place, she had no idea the boy had prior incidents at the school.
The victim's family blasted commonwealth attorney Buta Biberaj (pictured on Monday) who prosecuted the boy, for publicly defending his transfer to another school by falsely declaring he had no prior history of troubling behavior
The Loudoun County teenage student pleaded no contest Monday to sexually assaulting a classmate at Broad Run High School in October in a case that has generated a political firestorm locally and nationally
She only learned of his troubled past when DailyMail.com earlier this month revealed that in fifth grade the boy had sent nude photos of himself to a female classmate, prompting an investigation but no arrest.
The boy had also been repeatedly suspended for fist fights and other misbehavior.
'There should have been more done to help, not a coverup,' Jessica said of the fifth-grade incident and May assault.
The rape took place on the Friday before Memorial Day.
The victim admitted she'd previously had sex with the boy in the bathroom and that they'd arranged to meet there again that afternoon.
He followed her into a stall, where she told him she was not in the mood for sex, but he threw her on the floor and forced her to perform sex acts.
Last month, the boy's mother, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, defended his actions as that of a hormonal teen who had consensual sex with the girl twice before, and, 'Just wanted to have sex in the bathroom, with someone that was willing.'
Jessica said she was upset by the mom's remarks, but admitted: 'I do not walk in her shoes. I don't need to bash anybody.'
She said her daughter had never mentioned the boy before the rape, and that it did not matter whether or not they had sex prior to the incident.
The case became the searing tip of a raging debate in Loudoun County over transgender students' rights and parents' freedom of speech
'Just because you know somebody doesn't mean that every time it's going to happen,' she said. 'She said no. No means no, plain and simple.'
The case is one that hits close to home to Jessica who revealed to DailyMail.com that she too had been a victim of a sexual assault, stating: 'I'm a survivor myself.'
'It was hard, it is hard,' she said, 'but we are fighters. We're survivors and we will get through this.'
'It's just sad, it's really sad. This should have not happened, at all.'
Jessica also found the issue of the boy's attire a side show. The skirt became a focal point of coverage after her husband labeled the boy 'gender fluid' and challenged transgender bathroom policies that let students select bathrooms based on their gender identity.
From rape to sentencing: Timeline of teen boy in skirt May 28: Teen, 15, wearing a skirt allegedly rapes female classmate in girl's bathroom. She reports it to the principal. Superintendent Scott Ziegler sends an email to colleagues confirming that it had been reported June 22: Scott Smith, the father of the rape victim, was dragged out of a school board meeting with a bloodied mouth and arrested after listening to school officials say no one had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom after his daughter had reported the rape July 6: Detectives call the boy's mother to report his imminent arrest. She drives him down to the station herself and he spends the next couple weeks at the juvenile detention center in nearby Leesburg October 6: The 15-year-old changes schools and allegedly drags another a girl into a classroom and inappropriately touches her. Police are called and he is arrested the same day October 25: Teen is found guilty for the May 28 sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School. The judge 'substantiated' charges of forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio, the juvenile equivalent of a conviction October 26: Students stage a walkout of their classrooms in a show of 'solidarity' for the victim. Some stood in front of their school, chanting: 'Loudoun County Protects Rapists!' November 15: Skirt-wearing teen pleads no content to sexual assault of a fellow student December 13 : Sentencing scheduled for both cases Advertisement
She said she opposes the policy, but believes schools should accommodate transgender students, possibly by creating a third bathroom classification.
'I found it odd that a boy was wearing a skirt,' she said. 'But it wasn't relevant. The relevance is that there was a boy in the girl's bathroom who attacked my daughter. There was no relevance to what he was wearing. That's not what we're here for.'
'All our kids need to be safe at school,' she said. 'And this is not happening right now.'
She said parents in her community have been harshly criticized for speaking out.
She blasted commonwealth attorney Buta Biberaj, who prosecuted the boy, for publicly defending his transfer to another school by falsely declaring he had no prior history of such behavior.
Jessica noted the National School Boards Administration, in September, went so far as to label her husband and other parents who voice opposition at school board meetings 'domestic terrorists.'
'Scott is far from being a domestic terrorist,' she said. 'He is the papa bear. And all he wants is what's best for our community.'
On June 22, Scott was dragged out of a school board meeting where officials justified the district's transgender bathroom policies and denied there had been any incidents in girls' bathrooms.
Jessica was at the meeting with her husband and their daughter. She said Scott got into an argument with a female activist who was harassing him and expressed doubts that his daughter had been raped.
'My husband said our child was sexually assaulted in the bathroom and the woman said that did not happen,' Jessica recalled. 'I believe that's when he called her a something. He responded verbally, then the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office took him down to the ground unlawfully.
'I could not believe that they were taking down my husband, the father of a rape victim,' Jessica continued.
She went on to accuse district officials of continually lying about the rape case. Hours after the attack, the superintendent emailed school board members to acknowledge the incident, just as the girl was being taken to the hospital to undergo a rape kit, the mom said.
'Then fast forward, the superintendent told the public he knew nothing about it,' she said. 'They lied. That's all they do is lie, lie to us about what is going on in our school, blatantly lied that nothing ever happened. They all knew.'
The saga garnered worldwide attention as details were leaked. Irate parents accused the district of a coverup, questioning how a teen with a pending rape case was allowed to stay in the district to commit another sex crime.
Amanda Shallant (pictured) spoke during a school board meeting last month as she held a sign that read: 'LCPS protects rapists'
But Jessica kept out of the fray.
'It's been very hard for our family as we see the news play over and over and over again,' she said. 'It was very devastating to be reminded every day that May 28 occurred.'
But now that there is attention, her family is hoping to harness it for reform. That's what the lawsuit is about, she said.
'People were trying to point to us as being political. But this is not political.
'This is about sexual assault and victims' rights and keeping our kids safe at school. So hopefully now, we'll be able to express ourselves more.'
'All we want is change,' she said. 'We want all our kids to be safe in school. This is what we're standing for. We're standing for everyone's kid at school. No matter what you are, every child at school needs to be safe and that's our plan.'
Meanwhile, she plans to attend the boys' sentencing in court on December 13.
'This boy needs rehabilitation, he needs therapy, he needs whatever the commonwealth can provide him to understand what he did was wrong, and to learn from that,' she said. 'That takes time. So I hope they give him enough time to rehabilitate himself in order to one day be a successful community member.'
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema insisted in a rare interview that came out Wednesday that she would not leave the Democratic Party, though bashed progressive activists for 'unfairly and illegally' following her into the bathroom to protest her stance on Biden's Build Back Better bill.
Politico interviewed the Arizona Democrat, who pledged she wouldn't switch parties, despite complimenting Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wit: 'He has a dry sense of humor, it's underrated,' Sinema said.
Sinema also complained about the coverage her sometimes outlandish outfit choices receive. 'It's very inappropriate,' the 45-year-old freshman senator said. 'I wear what I want because I like it,' she said.
In a new interview with Politico, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema complained about the coverage of her sometimes outlandish outfit choices: 'I wear what I want because I like it,' the 45-year-old Arizona Democrat said
During the pandemic, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wore colorful wigs, standing in solidarity with people who were practicing social distancing and thus not going into the salon to get their roots colored
'It's not a news story, and it's no one's business,' she continued. 'It's not helpful to heave [coverage] be positive or negative. It also implies that somehow women are dressing for someone else.'
During her time in the Senate, Sinema has sported colorful wigs - in a show of solidarity for those practicing social distancing, and thus not getting their roots done at the hair salon.
She also sported a 'F**k Off' ring in April.
Sinema sported the band after voting against raising the federal minimum wage to $15, a move that received criticism from the left flank of her party.
On issues like bumping up the minimum wage - as well as passing the Build Back Better bill with its original $3.5 trillion pricetag, election reform and changing the filibuster - Sinema suggests to Politico that she believes her party overpromised voters.
'You're either honest or you're not honest,' she said. 'So just tell the truth and be honest and deliver that which you can deliver.'
'There's this growing trend of people in both political parties who promise things that cannot be delivered, in order to get the short-term political agenda,' she continued. 'And I believe that it damages the long term health of our democracy.'
Sinema was followed into a bathroom at Arizona State University, where she teaches, by Living United for Change in Arizona activists, who questioned her resistance to Biden's Build Back Better bill - as well as her stance on immigration.
Democrats had originally wanted to tuck an immigration provision into the bill, which will be passed through the Senate using reconciliation, but plans have so far been thwarted by the Senate parliamentarian.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema told Politico she would not be changing parties, though she also complimented Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wit: 'He has a dry sense of humor, it's underrated'
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema also complained about progressive activists who followed her into the bathroom to protest, saying the move was unfair and illegal
During the interview, Sinema stayed coy about a number of things - including whether she would ultimately support the Build Back Better bill.
'If you're in the middle of negotiating things that are delicate or difficult ... doing it in good faith directly with each other is the best way to get to an outcome,' she said. 'I'm still in the process of negotiating the second provision of the president's agenda and I don't negotiate in the press.'
She did offer that she 'will not support tax policies that have a negative impact on our economic climate.'
Sinema didn't want to see taxes raised on corporations and some wealthy Americans to pay for Biden's Build Back Better social spending bill.
She added that the bill's climate change provisions are the 'most important part of what is under discussion.'
Again playing coy, Sinema also refused to say whether she would run for re-election.
She's not up until 2024.
And she wouldn't comment on Rep. Ruben Gallego, another Arizona Democrat, suggesting he could primary challenge her.
Cassava CEO Remi Barbier denied allegations that the company manipulated research
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating claims that Alzheimer's drug developer Cassava Sciences manipulated research results using Photoshop to alter images in a scientific paper.
Cassava, based in Austin, Texas, revealed in a regulatory filing on Monday that it is 'cooperating' with 'certain government agencies' that have asked it to provide corporate information and documents.
The SEC is one of those agencies, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.
The unusual claims against Cassava were first brought forward in August, when two doctors who had bet against the company's stock filed a citizen petition with the Food and Drug Administration claiming an article in the Journal of Neuroscience had been manipulated.
Cassava furiously denounced the allegations, which CEO Remi Barbier called false and financially motivated.
Two doctors who had bet against the company's stock were the first to claim that 'western blot' images such as this one in a research paper had been altered with Photoshop
An SEC spokesperson and Cassava executive did not immediately respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com on Wednesday morning.
Cassava, which began trading under its current name in 2019, has no commercial drugs and hasn't reported any product revenue since 2013.
Nevertheless, it has been one of the hottest stocks of 2021, rising as much as 1,570 percent from the beginning of the year before the allegations first emerged and the shared plunged.
Hoau-Yan Wang co-authored the research papers in question
The company's stock was down 25 percent in morning trading on Wednesday, but still up more than 550 percent year-to-date.
Cassava's experimental drug, called Simufilam, aims to restore a protein called filamin A that is misshapen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, according to the Journal.
The company claims that in its contorted state, the protein triggers a toxic buildup of another protein called amyloid, which is a classic hallmark of Alzheimer's.
The allegations against the company were first made by two physicians who disclosed they had shorted the company's stock: David Bredt, a biotech entrepreneur and former neuroscience research chief at Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly, and Geoffrey Pitt, a cardiologist and professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The two doctors claimed that Cassava, in research articles authored by Hoau-Yan Wang, a Cassava adviser and CUNY associate medical professor, manipulated images depicting western blots.
David Bredt (left) and Geoffrey Pitt (right) took positions against Cassava's stock before going public with their allegations against the company
Cassava's stock soared before the claims were made public in August. It is still up more than 550 percent so far this year
Western blots are a common lab technique for detecting proteins in samples of tissue or blood, and typically appear as a series of parallel bars or bands, separated by their molecular weights.
An internal review by the Journal of Neuroscience found an instance of duplicated images in the paper, and issued a correction on November 10, which said the error didn't affect the article's conclusions.
However, other independent reviews claim to have discovered evidence of image manipulation.
Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist and image-manipulation consultant who says she doesn't have any position in Cassava stock, said in a Medium post that she agrees with concerns raised about the company's research.
Bik pointed out an number of unexplained irregularities in research papers that Wang had authored for Cassava.
Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist and image-manipulation consultant, pointed out images that she says show telltale signs of alteration, marking bands that appear identical above
'At least five other articles from the Wang lab at CUNY appear to show image concerns as well,' wrote Bik. 'These papers might not be directly related to Simufilam research, but they are still indirectly connected to Cassava Sciences or its drug candidates.'
Barbier, the Cassava CEO, has denied the allegations in multiple public statements.
'I've never doubted the integrity of our people or science,' Barbier said on November 4.
'We remain focused on conducting a Phase 3 clinical program of simufilam in people with Alzheimer's disease. It's an important endeavor, notwithstanding pundits who may be louder than they are learned. We'll stay the course until our job is done,' he added.
Bik and other scientists noted that it's possible that Cassava's drug candidate may still be effective, even if the research was manipulated.
'The drug might work great,' Bik told the Journal.
Children should wait at least 12 weeks after catching Covid to get their jab, Britain's vaccine advisory panel recommended today.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said there is evidence the longer gap reduces the risk of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation reported in a small number of children after vaccination.
Today's change to the guidance only applies to healthy children aged 12 to 17, who previously only had to wait a month after infection to get jabbed.
The four-week gap remains the advice for adults over the age of 18 and children extremely vulnerable to Covid.
Twelve to 15-year-olds are still being offered just one dose of Pfizer's vaccine while officials monitor myocarditis rates in other countries.
But as of this week, 16 and 17-year-olds can now come forward for the second jab after the UK's regulator decided the benefit of the jabs 'clearly' outweighed the risk.
So far, more than half of older teenagers have come forward for a first dose and nearly a third of 12 to 15-year-olds have had the initial jab.
Fifteen-year-old Quinn Foakes receiving a Covid-19 vaccination at Belfairs Academy in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in September
Families who have recently had a child vaccinated shortly after infection were told not to worry, and that the new approach is 'highly precautionary'.
The UK Health Security Agency, which announced the move today, admitted that it would slow down the rollout of the national vaccine programme.
But it insisted it should not have a major impact on the epidemic because children still have high levels of natural immunity.
The UKHSA estimates half of secondary-aged pupils have already had the virus.
Two doses of Pfizer's vaccine wane after six months no matter what age you are Covid immunity wanes within six months of Pfizer's second vaccine no matter how old you are, a study has found as the NHS gears up to roll out annual boosters at a cost in the region of 1billion to taxpayers. People who finished their two-dose course in January had a 51 per cent increased risk of catching the virus by July than those who were jabbed later, according to the research on more than a million Israelis. Scientists claimed the increased risk of getting infected was visible among people of all ages, although the elderly remain face much higher odds of becoming severely ill. The study by Israeli researchers using medial data from 1.3million adults in the country is the first to confirm that younger people also see their immunity against the virus wane within months. There was hope that protection would hold-up better in younger groups because they typically have stronger immune systems. Israel, which has led the charge on vaccines throughout the pandemic, is already offering boosters to over-16s so long as five months have passed since their second dose. The researchers said it was too early to tell how quickly immunity wanes after a booster jab but it could last longer. In the UK, top-up doses were approved for all over-50s, health and care home workers and severely ill patients in September and ministers expanded the programme to people in their forties this week. Vaccine advisers in Britain have admitted that they could be given to younger adults but they are waiting on more conclusive evidence on their safety and efficacy. Advertisement
The agency, which replaced Public Health England last month, said natural infection provided good protection against re-infection for three to six months.
A major study in Israel today found that protection from two doses of Pfizer's vaccine lasts a similar length of time. Immunity from a single dose, however, wanes more quickly.
Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisations at UKHSA, said: 'The Covid vaccines are very safe.
'Based on a highly precautionary approach, we are advising a longer interval between Covid infection and vaccination for those aged under 18.
'This increase is based on the latest reports from the UK and other countries, which may suggest that leaving a longer interval between infection and vaccination will further reduce the already very small risk of myocarditis in younger age groups.
'Young people and parents should be reassured that myocarditis is extremely rare, at whatever point they take up the vaccine, and this change has been made based on the utmost precaution.'
'We keep all advice under constant review and will revise it according to the latest data and evidence.'
UK Government data justifying today's update shows nine in every million under-18s in the UK will get myocarditis after a single dose of Pfizer's Covid jab, the same as around one per 110,000.
But for every million doses of the vaccine administered to children, they will prevent around 150 hospitalisations from Covid.
The JCVI held off on recommending second doses for children because data from Israel and the US suggested the myocarditis risk is as high as one in 10,000.
But real-world UK data in slightly older adults - who also saw above normal rates of myocarditis in other countries - was not higher after the second jab.
This is thought to be because the dosing gap between doses here is 12 weeks, whereas it's between three and four weeks in the US and Israel.
The JCVI believes that 12-week gap might also be the sweet spot for getting a jab after natural infection in young people, which prompted today's tweak to the guidance.
There is also evidence that rates of myocarditis in Britain are similar in 16 and 17-year-olds and 18 to 29-year-olds, after the second jab.
This is why the JCVI recommend two jabs for healthy older teens earlier this week. But it is still weighing up the evidence on younger children.
It is unclear why the longer space between vaccination or natural infection reduces the risk of myocarditis yet.
This gap might give the immune system time to calm down from the reaction to the first dose or infection.
During Covid infection or immunisation, the body produces cells to fight the virus. If the disease-fighting cells enter the heart, they can inflame the muscle.
Construction of a luxury building next door triggered the collapse of an already fragile Florida condominium that killed 98 people in June, according to a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed late Tuesday on behalf of Champlain Towers South victims and family members, contends that work on the adjacent Eighty Seven Park tower damaged and destabilized a building in dire need of major structural repair.
Champlain Towers, the lawsuit claims, 'was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door' that the building became unsafe.
'The collapse was entirely preventable,' the lawsuit says.
Champlain Towers was in the midst of its 40-year structural review when it collapsed without warning in the early morning hours of June 24, killing 98 people in one of the deadliest building failures in US history.
A new lawsuit claims construction of a luxury building next to Champlain Towers South triggered the collapse of an already fragile Florida condominium. Pictured: Eighty Seven Park tower beside the land where the partially-collapsed building was located
Champlain Towers was in the midst of its 40-year structural review when it collapsed without warning in the early morning hours of June 24, killing 98 people
The collapse triggered multiple federal and state investigations, and a flurry of lawsuits by victims, families and condo owners.
The cause of the Champlain Towers South collapse has not been determined.
The lead investigating agency is the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), which recently estimated its probe could take as long as two years.
The lawsuit contends that excavation, pile-driving and other work at Eighty Seven Park between 2016 and 2019 caused vibrations that weakened the shaky structure next door.
In addition, groundwater was funneled from the new building to the Champlain Towers property basement after developers bought a small road separating the two, the lawsuit says.
Pictured: Search and rescue teams look for survivors at the Champlain Towers South residential condo, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Florida
The latest 169-page lawsuit was filed November 16 on behalf of Champlain Towers South victims and family members and could become a class action lawsuit
This latest 169-page complaint is a potential class action that could represent all victims and their families.
It was filed as part of an existing case in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court that also involves the planned sale of the Champlain Towers property to benefit victims.
The lawsuit does not cite a specific amount of damages but could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to attorneys involved in the case.
The nine defendants include developers of Eighty Seven Park, an engineering firm, the Champlain Towers South condo association and a Miami law firm.
The defendants denied that construction of Eighty Seven Park was responsible for the building collapse. The 18-story building is located in Miami Beach immediately south of the Champlain Towers site in Surfside.
'As numerous media reports have documented, Champlain Towers South was improperly designed, poorly constructed, significantly underfunded and inadequately maintained and repaired,' said attorney David B. Weinstein, who represents 8701 Collins Development LLC.
'We expect a full review of the facts - and the ongoing investigation by NIST - will affirm our position,' Weinstein said in an email.
Video footage released in August by the US Department of Commerce's NIST showed various problems with the building's structure.
Densely packed steel reinforcement in multiple areas and an alarming amount of corrosion in one specific section where a column was connected to the foundation are visible.
'The corrosion on the bottom of that column is astronomical,' Dawn Lehman, professor of structural engineering at the University of Washington, told The Miami Herald. 'If there's that amount of corrosion, this should have been fixed.'
Video released by the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows evidence of the Champlain Towers South building failures as United States Army Corps of Engineers inspect the debris
A video from the NIST shows 'severe corrosion' at the base of a pillar at Champlain Towers South which Dawn Lehman, professor of structural engineering at the University of Washington describes as 'astronomical'
She explained that the level of corrosion should have been obvious and documented in the building's 40-year inspection, which was taking place at the time of the collapse.
Modern building projects treat steel reinforcements to protect against corrosion but those treatments may not have been used when Champlain Tower South was built in 1982.
Lehman said the video shows multiple elements of the building, including beams, walls and columns, that appear to be overcrowded with steel reinforcement, which points to potential weaknesses in those structural elements.
'There is no reason there should be that kind of bar congestion,' she said.
She explained that overcrowding wide-diameter steel reinforcement which is seen in the video hinders proper concrete placement and weakens the bond of the steel to the concrete. This defeats the purpose of the concrete putting uncalculated stress on the steel.
This weakening would have been intensified in places where the densely packed steel reinforcements overlapped.
Most building projects utilize a technique of overlapping steel reinforcements and wiring them together to secure against displacement when concrete is poured, called 'lap splice.'
Structural drawings of the building show evidence of 'lap splice', Abieyuwa Aghayere, a Drexel University engineering researcher explained to the Herald after watching the video.
'It's already congested as it is,' Aghayere said. At the splice regions, it would have been 'even further congested,' he said.
Judith Mitrani-Reiser will lead the NIST investigation to direct the collection and preservation of the debris in order to piece together and pinpoint the building's failure and make recommendations to improve building codes, standards, and practice
'We are trying to understand how the building failed. We would like to reconstruct this failure and in order to do that we need as much information as possible,' Mitrani-Reiser said as she explained her team's purpose
NIST has conducted four previous investigations with the power granted to it by the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act of 2002.
Under the law, the NIST can take control from the local authorities to lead investigations into major building failures in the US.
The law grants the federal team primary access to investigate the site of a building disaster, access key pieces of evidence, and collect and preserve evidence from the site.
It can determine the technical cause of the collapse and make recommendations to improve building codes, standards, and practices guided by findings to improve the structural safety in general.
It cannot determine whether there was a criminal act or violations of a federal requirements, or state or local codes. It does not determine any associated culpability; that is determined in court.
The NIST video introduces the department's investigative lead, Judith Mitrani-Reiser.
The engineer announced that the team that will conduct a five-pronged investigation of the disaster.
'We are trying to understand how the building failed. We would like to reconstruct this failure and in order to do that we need as much information as possible,' she said.
A report revealed that Champlain Towers' contractor lost his license amid fraud and negligence claims and that the architect had previously been suspended after a structure he built collapsed
One report suggested the Champlain Towers South was doomed from the start.
The contractor lost his license amid fraud and negligence claims, the developer was charged with tax evasion, and the architect had previously been suspended after a structure he built collapsed, the Miami Herald reported.
Weisbrod was fined three times and threatened with suspension for various offenses, which forced him to surrender his license in 1998, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation records show.
The licensing agency filed three administrative claims accusing Weisbrod of completing specialized work without the proper permits, licenses, and inspections, and of failing to complete the contracted work, mismanagement, incompetence and fraud throughout the 1980s and 90s, according to the Herald.
An investigation to determine the cause of the collapse of the residential building is underway
Contractor Alfred Weisbrod surrendered his license three years after the towers were finished after years of complaints and lawsuits against him
Many families want a memorial to be constructed on the grounds of the building's South tower, but their plans were foiled when the property was sold for $120million.
A total of 55 apartments in the 136-unit condo complex collapsed, with around 80 percent of the building reportedly being occupied. Officials said at the time they believed the building had been 'substantially full.'
Grieving relatives said last month that they want officials to continue searching the rubble for remains of their loved ones, saying they received just trace amounts of remains after the complex collapsed.
Friends and family of New Yorker Estelle Hedaya, 54, said they received so little of the victim's remains that they could easily lift her casket.
'I could have lifted it with my pinkie,' her best friend Lisa Shrem told the Washington Post.
After the initial recovery effort at the site was complete, officials moved the rubble to a location 14 miles from the condos, near Miami International Airport.
The rubble has been separated into two piles, based on supposed value of the evidence it might hold. The portions that crews have determined to contain possible remains are moved inside a warehouse, while the rest is left outside.
So little of New Yorker Estelle Hedaya's remains were found in the collapse of the Surfside condo in Miami. Her best friend Lisa Shrem said: 'I could have lifted it [her casket] with my pinkie'
Authorities searched the rubble four times and have now requested a judge to allow them to dispose of any debris they haven't declared to hold any evidence
The county has requested a judge's permission to dispose of debris they consider irrelevant to the investigation.
'It's very sad to hear how Miami-Dade County wants to throw everything away in the trash and make us forget and move past this,' said Martin Langesfeld, 24, who lost his twin sister, Nicole, and her new husband, Luis Sadovnic, 28, in the collapse.
'They were people with families and emotions. And they cannot be thrown away with trash.'
Many families aren't convinced all the remains have been found. Throughout the four searches, crews continued to produce more and more remains.
In addition, the heat wave in Miami all summer has compromised remains and could have made some indistinguishable to an untrained eye.
'We have very small percentages of loved ones,' Langesfeld told the Washington Post.
His family has only received around 50 percent of Nicole's remains.
Langesfeld said sifting through the rubble four times wasn't enough if there is still a chance remains could be found.
'I'm telling them to search one more time at least, because we have very small percentages of loved ones,' he said. 'If it takes a hundred times or a thousand times, then that's what needs to happen.'
A mother accused of murdering her newborn baby was 'shocked and distressed' when she was told she was too far into her pregnancy to have an abortion, a court has heard.
Silipa Keresi is accused of the murder of Maliki Keresi by abandoning him wrapped in a bath towel in woodland near to her home in Hythe, New Forest, Hampshire, on March 5, 2020.
The 38-year-old from Fiji faces an alternative charge of infanticide, which states she was responsible for the death while her 'mind was disturbed' following the birth.
Keresi, who worked at a launderette with her husband, Dharma Keresi, denies both charges.
The trial at Winchester Crown Court heard that Keresi, who is married to a former Commonwealth soldier in the British Army, was, at the time Maliki died, stressed by the process of applying for permission to stay in the UK.
She also said she was facing financial difficulties after her husband left the military.
Jenni Manley, a midwife with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service - a charity which facilitates terminations - told the court the defendant attended an appointment on November 19, 2020.
She said Keresi believed she was 12 to 14 weeks pregnant but an ultrasound scan showed she was at 26 weeks and five days, past the legal limit of 24 weeks for an abortion.
Silipa Keresi, 38, is accused of the murder of Maliki Keresi, who was found dead wrapped in a towel in woodland near to her home in Hythe, Hampshire. Pictured, Keresi arriving at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday morning
Ms Manley said: 'She was very shocked. I was talking to her the whole time explaining the findings.
'When I explained how many weeks she was, she got off the bed and wanted to leave.'
Describing the defendants reaction, she said: 'It was quite shocked and she looked to be quite distressed.
'I did explain to her it was very important that she was to seek antenatal care from her GP.
'She asked what her due date was, I quickly worked out it would be March 2020. She then left.'
Ms Manley said she contacted the community midwife team and Keresis GP out of concern for her welfare.
The court has heard that several attempts were made by the midwife service to contact the defendant during her pregnancy, including a visit to her home, but she failed to attend appointments.
A jury was told baby Maliki was first found by Michael Dorsett, who had been walking his dog in the secluded woodlands near his house in the rural town where Keresi also lives, in March last year.
The trial previously heard a post-mortem examination found Maliki died within 24 hours of being born and would have suffered hypothermia.
Police forensics at the scene back in March 2020 where the baby was found dead in woodlands in Hythe, near Southampton, Hampshire
The court heard Maliki's body was found by Michael Dorsett, who called police, before leading officers through the forest to Maliki, who was wrapped 'carefully' in the towel with his umbilical cord still attached
The tests showed Maliki had no abnormalities or injuries and the cause of death was given as 'omission of care'.
Keresi, who has two children living in the UK and two in Fiji, told a social worker that she was 'in a bad situation and stressed with life' and she had 'snapped'.
Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said the family were living in a hotel at the time and added: 'She explained she tried to keep things good for her family but felt under a lot of pressure since her husband left the army.
'There was also an uncertain immigration status and she didnt know what to do.'
The trial continues.
The Los Angeles Police Department trialed an artificial intelligence program designed to pinpoint users likely to commit crimes using their friends lists, location data and analyses of their social media posts.
A trove of internal LAPD documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice reveal that the department tried out Voyager Labs' software in 2019, and considered a long-term contract before the four-month trial ended in November of that year.
The software was used to surveil 500 social media accounts and sift through thousands of messages during that period, according to The Guardian.
Police said that data was used to get 'real-time tactical intelligence,' 'protective intelligence' for members of local government and the police department and to investigate cases related to gangs and hate groups.
A sales pitch sent to the LAPD by the firm lays bare the capabilities of the software, which can rapidly amass a suspect's social media posts into a searchable interface, use AI to gauge whether those posts show indicators of extremism or criminal activity and surveil thousands of associated accounts.
Voyager Labs claims that their software can go further than scanning text for keywords. Using AI, their programs can gauge a user's conviction to their ideologies using what they call 'sentiment analysis' and determine whether an individual with extremist views has the 'passion needed to act on their beliefs.'
A sales pitch for the program to the Los Angeles Police Department used a search run by an unidentified police department using the software on New York City-based activist Bahgat Saber, who urged social media followers to spread COVID to Egyptian government officials in a March 2020 video. It is unclear whether data obtained using the program led to Saber's arrest
The service also has a function that would allow officers to 'log in with fake accounts that are already friended with the target subject,' on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram.
Facebook's privacy policy prohibits fake accounts, and has previously deactivated accounts used by members of law enforcement.
Regardless, the LAPD has a written policy for 'online undercover activity,' which allows officers to 'use social media in either a covert or clandestine capacity' with the permission of the commanding officer.
Among the 10,000 documents obtained by the Brennan Center is an instructional video showing officers how to preserve information from social media which encourages them to set up 'dummy accounts.'
Officers with the department's homicide division expressed interest in developing Voyager software that would let law enforcement spy on WhatsApp groups using an 'active persona' or 'avatar,' implying the usage of a fake account. An officer whose name was redacted called the in-process function a 'need-to-have' feature.
It is unclear which Voyager Labs services the department used during the trial period.
Although the department said that it was 'currently using' Voyager and hoped to invest $450,000 in additional technology from the firm in a September report, an LAPD spokesperson told The Guardian this week that the software isn't currently in use.
She did not respond when asked when the department ceased using its services and whether the LAPD was still pursuing a contract with Voyager, the outlet said.
The LAPD has long been scrutinized for asking officers to take down the social media handles of criminals - and even witnesses who haven't committed crimes themselves - on incident reports. Officers have been encouraged to ask for this information since 2015.
Although Facebook's privacy policy prohibits fake accounts, and has previously deactivated accounts used by members of law enforcement, the LAPD has a written policy for 'online undercover activity'
An LAPD field interview card, used for interviewing suspects but also innocent witnesses and citizens. On the back, it has a space for the interviewee's social media accounts
However, the surveillance company takes social media investigation a step further - one officer expressed concern that some of the program's features were 'very close to "active monitoring."'
Another had reservations about its capabilities, citing public outcry after the department's usage of similar software Geofeedia.
In September, the Center released documents revealing that GeoFeedia was used to monitor hashtags and 'keywords' related to the Black Lives Matter movement, like #sayhername and 'officer involved shooting.'
Activists compared the practice to 'stop and frisk' policies on the grounds that it is a vehicle for racial profiling.
In internal messages with Voyager sales reps in September, members of the department said that the program was a helpful tool to quickly analyze social media data obtained using warrants, and in investigating 'street gangs' who networked online.
'Voyager has helped with some "smoking guns" - not necessarily generating The Big Lead that cracks a case wide open, but certainly in surfacing details about guns, murders etc.,' wrote an officer, whose name was redacted, to the company.
'Voyager has helped with some "smoking guns" - not necessarily generating The Big Lead that cracks a case wide open, but certainly in surfacing details about guns, murders etc.,' wrote an officer, whose name was redacted, to the company
Records in the just-released cache show that the department had access to some elements of the software after their November 2019 trial ended, and that negotiations for a long-term partnership between the law enforcement agency and the surveillance company went on for over a year.
The company also tested out the monitoring programs Geofeedia, Skopenow and Dataminr between March of 2016 and December of 2020. It is unclear how many different monitoring services the LAPD has considered.
In promotional materials, the company boasted that its AI could have predicted that Adam Alsahli, 20, a Syrian-born Islamic Fundamentalist who carried out a terrorist attack at a Texas naval base in 2020, would pose a serious threat.
The VoyagerCheck function of the firm's software was able to cross-reference Alsahli's Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts and connections in 'mere minutes,' the department wrote in an analysis to the LAPD in Spring of 2020, while they were courting the agency for a contract.
'The majority of his posts deal with Islam... he expressed his support for the mujahidin in many of his posts. The indirect connections of [his] two Twitter accounts to... Islamist accounts [identified by Voyager] shows heavy overlap between his Twitter universe and that of other Islamic fundamentalists,' the company wrote.
Meredith Broussard, a New York University journalism professor and AI expert, told The Guardian that the social media probe of Alsahli's account was 'religious bigotry embedded in code.'
'Just because you have an affinity for Islam does not mean youre a criminal or a terrorist. That is insulting and racist.'
As an example, the company maintains that its AI could have predicted that Adam Alsahli (pictured), a Syrian-born Islamic Fundamentalist who carried out a terrorist attack at a Texas naval base in 2020, would pose a serious threat using his 'prolific presence on social media.'
In another example, Voyager shared with the LAPD an unidentified police department's success with the program to scan the friends lists of New York City-based Muslim Brotherhood activist Bahgat Saber.
The program determined that Saber, who urged Egyptian nationals to infect staff at Egyptian embassies and Consulates with COVID-19 'if [they wanted] the state to care about Coronavirus' in March of last year, had two friends on social media who claimed to work with Egyptian government agencies.
It also weeded out many accounts among the activist's 4,000 friends that were friends with users that the program identified as 'extremist threats,' determined how many of those friends had placed geotags within New York City, located his second 'ghost' Facebook profile and collected his 3,663 public posts into a searchable, filterable database.
'Theres a basic guilt by association that Voyager seems to really endorse,' said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, a deputy director at the Brennan Center, to The Guardian of the study.
'This notion that you can be painted with the ideology of people that youre not even directly connected to is really disturbing.'
Voyager did not specify whether the threat posed by Saber turned out to be legitimate, or whether the monitoring tool had led to his apprehension.
'We don't just connect existing dots,' read a promotional document for the service. 'We create new dots. What seem like random and inconsequential interactions, behaviors or interests, suddenly become clear and comprehensible.'
'The majority of his posts deal with Islam... he expressed his support for the mujahideen in many of his posts. The indirect connections of [his] two Twitter accounts to... Islamist accounts [identified by Voyager] shows heavy overlap between his Twitter universe and that of other Islamic fundamentalists,' the company wrote
The program determined that Saber, who urged Egyptian nationals to infect staff at Egyptian embassies and Consulates with COVID-19, had two friends on social media who claimed to work with Egyptian government agencies
Voyager's program also weeded out many accounts among the activist's 4,000 friends that were friends with users that the program identified as 'extremist threats,' determined how many of those friends had placed geotags within New York City, located his second 'ghost' Facebook profile and collected his 3,663 public posts into a searchable, filterable database
Police departments in Boston, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C. also use third-party software to monitor social media, according to the Brennan Center.
Opponents of the practice argue that the programs lead to the unfair targeting of minorities and activists, violate first-amendment rights and aren't scientifically based.
'This is hyperbolic AI marketing. The more they brag, the less I believe them,' Cathy ONeil, a data scientist and algorithmic auditor, told The Guardian. 'Theyre saying, We can see if somebody has criminal intent. No, you cant. Even people who commit crimes cant always tell they have criminal intent.'
Police precincts in Michigan and Massachusetts came under fire last month for their usage of ShadowDragon's Social Net program, which analyzes more than 100 platforms, from Facebook and Instagram to Pornhub and Amazon, for key names and terms.
'People shouldn't be afraid to voice their political opinions or speak out against the police themselves because they fear the police are watching them,' Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told NBC 10 in Boston.
A soldier has been jailed for over five years after taking a woman back to his barracks and raping her while she slept.
Lance Corporal Aidan Hackett, 27, met the woman in a nightclub in Oxford in June 2019 and they travelled in a taxi back to his room at St David's Barracks in Bicester, Oxfordshire.
The victim, also aged in her twenties, told Hackett she did not want to have sex but just listen to music together.
She fell asleep and awoke to find her clothes had been removed by Hackett.
Lance Corporal Aidan Hackett, 27, has today been jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to raping a woman as she slept at his barracks in July, 2019
After fleeing the scene, she called police and Hackett was arrested the following day. Thames Valley Police charged him with rape on August 4 of this year.
Hackett, originally from Leeds, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to rape at the first opportunity and appeared today at Oxford Crown Court where he was sentenced to five years and three months' imprisonment.
Detective Constable Tania Wasilewski-Norman, of Oxford CID, said: 'This was a shocking example of a man taking advantage of the victim's trust and he raped her while she was asleep.
'The victim awoke to this attack and contacted the police immediately and Hackett was arrested.
'The victim underwent medical examinations as a part of this investigation, which helped us to prove that Hackett had raped his victim.
'Given the weight of evidence against him, Hackett has, at least, spared the victim the ordeal of this case going to trial by a guilty plea, and he has now been sentenced to prison as a result.
'Taking advantage of a woman who was sleeping, and therefore in a vulnerable position, is completely unacceptable.
'The victim was asleep, and it is absolutely clear that there was no consent whatsoever in this case.
'We will always take reports of rape seriously and support victims of such offences and endeavour to bring offenders to justice.'
LCpl Hackett met the woman in an Oxford nightclub and took her to St David Barracks (entrance pictured here) in Bicester, Oxfordshire
Detective Constable Nikki Lawton, based at Aylesbury police station, is specially-trained in victim support and she helped guide the victim throughout two year investigation.
She said: 'The victim in this case has been a true inspiration to me, and I hope she will be for other victims of this type of crime.
'She simply wanted to listen to music and talk with Hackett when she took a taxi back to his barracks, and Hackett completely abused this trust.
'Over the course of the last two years, the victim has missed out on a lot of opportunities while we brought Hackett to justice.
'I would like to offer my personal thanks and praise to the victim for her support of our investigation and understanding of the time it has taken to secure this conviction.
'I can assure any future victims of crimes such as this that they will always be listened to, believed and supported, and it is never acceptable to suffer this kind of offence. Please report it and we will conduct thorough investigations.'
Hackett will also sign the sex offenders register for life.
An Army spokesman said: 'We can confirm that Lance Corporal Hackett was convicted of rape at Oxford Crown Court. He was sentenced to five years and three months imprisonment and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.'
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Cancelling Christmas plans is a 'responsible decision', Ireland's top medic claimed today as fears grow that the exploding crisis in Europe may force Britain into imposing curbs this winter.
Starting tomorrow in Ireland, all hospitality businesses including nightclubs and pubs will be forced to close at midnight, the use of Covid passports will be expanded, and people will be advised to work from home where possible.
The country took the decision to increase restrictions because of a surge in infections, with Europe once again becoming the epicentre of the pandemic. Both Austria and the Netherlands have already reimposed curbs, and Germany is considering tightening restrictions.
Dr Tony Holohan, Ireland's chief medical officer, said it would be up to business and individuals to decide whether to hold Christmas parties or meet up in the festive period.
Asked if people should cut down socialising, he said: 'People are making these kinds of decisions as ways of reducing their own risk and ways of reducing the risk to their loved ones and their friends and family and so on.
'These are responsible decisions. Decisions that nobody wants to be taking it this time of the year, of course. We all understand the value of Christmas, particularly in this country. To me, those are responsible decisions now that people are making.'
No10 has repeatedly rejected pleas to implement its Plan B, which would see similar measures to what are being levied on Ireland. But Boris Johnson has admitted a full-blown lockdown could still be on the cards if cases spike.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the PM warned of 'storm clouds that are gathering over parts of the continent' and warned the country cannot become complacent.
Ireland will reimpose Covid restrictions from Friday amid a surge in cases, as the Taoiseach refused to rule out going further if infections keep rising
Covid deaths in Ireland are still well below the highs seen during the first and second waves, but have been ticking upwards since the end of summer
Cancelling Christmas plans is a 'responsible decision', Ireland's chief medical officer Dr Tony Hoolahan (right) claimed today as the storm of cases in Europe prompted fears Britain may follow suit in imposing curbs this winter. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Boris Johnson (pictured today, left) warned of 'storm clouds that are gathering over parts of the continent'
Ireland took the decision to increase restrictions because of a surge in infections, with Europe once again becoming the epicentre of the pandemic. Both Austria and the Netherlands have already reimposed curbs, and Germany is considering tightening restrictions
WHAT ARE THE NEW RESTRICTIONS BEING REIMPOSED IN IRELAND? Ireland has become the latest European country to reimpose Covid restrictions amid a surge in cases as winter sets in. Starting tomorrow, all hospitality businesses including nightclubs and pubs will be forced to close at midnight, the use of Covid passports will be expanded, and people will be advised to work from home where possible. Household contacts of people who test positive on a PCR will also be forced to self-isolate for five days even if double-jabbed, and will only be allowed out if they test negative on three separate antigen tests. Ireland follows the lead of Austria and the Netherlands in imposing Covid curbs as Europe once again becomes the epicentre of the pandemic. While Ireland's current restrictions do not go as far as Austria whose government has been accused of 'vaccine apartheid' after locking the unvaccinated inside their homes Taoiseach Micheal Martin has refused to rule out going further. 'It remains to be seen as to whether these measures will be sufficient to hold back the tide of infection and hospitalisation,' he said in an evening address to the nation. 'We're not ruling out any further measures, we'll keep them under review.' Advertisement
Mr Johnson said: 'A new wave of coronavirus is steadily sweeping through central Europe and is now affecting our nearest neighbours in western Europe.
'We don't yet know the extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores but history shows we cannot afford to be complacent.'
Speaking about how people should act on top of the new restrictions in Ireland today, Dr Holohan said cancelling office Christmas parties would be the 'responsible' thing to do.
He told RTE News at One: 'An organisation, looking at itself and looking at the kinds of measures that it now needs to take, when we're advising people to stay at home as much as possible and work from home, those would be responsible decisions, if they were to be taken.'
The CMO said he understood this was difficult for people to hear, but warned that the country's Institute of Public Health modelling projects there could be more than 200,000 cases of Covid next month.
'What we're trying to prevent is potentially 200,000 maybe double that people over the course of the month of December picking up this infection,' he said.
'I stress, none of those people are infected yet. If we have 200,000 people infected in December, 4,000 of them will end up in hospital at Christmas.
'We will see 200,000 people being asked to self-isolate over the Christmas period, where they can't meet up with or shouldn't meet up with friends, family or anybody else that are important to them.
'These are huge impacts that will be placed on the population at this time of the year, if we don't find it within ourselves to improve our collective adherence.
'And so, taking those measures around workplaces, to my mind would be very simple measures to cut down discretionary social contact.'
Education Minister Norma Foley urged parents not to organise birthday parties or play dates for their children in the coming weeks.
She said the chief medical officer had said 'very clearly that we need to minimise our social interactions'.
Ms Foley said: 'We have seen the return to play dates and birthday parties and things like that.
'I think there's a call now that we would minimise (that) and we would draw down again and revert to what we have done in the past.'
Ireland currently has around 85 Covid cases per 100,000 people, compared to around 57 per 100,000 in Britain. It overtook the UK at the start of the month, with cases rising consistently in the country since.
In contrast, Britain saw a sustained dip in infections from the end of October until mid-November, with cases seeing a slight uptick in the last six days.
But ministers fear the rise in cases on the continent in general could force the Government to follow other European countries in reintroducing some measures if it causes a further increase in infections on home shores.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to talk up the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law Monday saying it is 'extremely good' for his home state of Kentucky.
McConnell skipped the Monday pep rally and signing ceremony that Biden oversaw at the White House although senior Republican Rob Portman of Ohio, who helped negotiate the deal and who is retiring attended.
'I've watched each of the two previous administrations struggle with the issue of how to meet the infrastructure needs of the country,' McConnell told reporters in the Senate Tuesday acknowledging former President Donald Trump's failure to push through an infrastructure bill.
'I'm proud of my vote,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said of his support for the infrastructure legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law Monday
'Seventy-five percent of the American people support infrastructure, unlike the other issues we are talking about,' he said, in a dig at Biden's 'Build Back Better' plan.
'I joined 18 other Senate Republicans feeling like now is the time to address it. The infrastructure bill did not raise taxes. It did not revisit the 2017 tax bill,' he said, in reference to the Trump tax cuts. 'From the Kentucky point of view it is extremely good for our state,' he continued.
'I'm proud of my vote, and members are obviously free to choose how they wanted to vote. And in the Senate, 19 Senate Republicans felt it was the right thing to do for the country,' he added.
McConnell's defense of the law came on a day Biden flew to New Hampshire to tout its funds for roads and bridges. He flies to Detroit on Wednesday to sell provisions to build electric vehicle charging stations and and lower greenhouse gas emissions. It is also expected to steer billions to Kentucky and Ohio, with funds helping build to ease congestion at the Brent Spence Bridge across the Ohio River by building a companion bridge.
Former President Donald Trump attacked McConnell for backing a bill he called a 'socialist infrastructure plan'
The infrastructure law will steer billions to Kentucky and Ohio, with funds expected to help ease congestion at the Brent Spence Bridge across the Ohio River by building a companion bridge
Trump has repeatedly gone after McConnell for allowing the bill to clear the Senate McConnell essentially green lit GOP negotiators to make the deal.
'Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan,' Trump fumed, using a personal attack he has deployed repeatedly against McConnell, who denounced him after the Jan. 6th riot but voted to acquit him during both impeachments.
His support for the bill wasn't enough to get him to the White House Monday. 'No, I've got other things I've got to do other than go to the signing ceremony,' he told WHAS radio in Kentucky.
A Louisiana board on Wednesday granted parole to Henry Montgomery, whose Supreme Court case was instrumental in making freedom possible for hundreds of people sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole when they were juveniles.
Montgomery, 75, was convicted in the 1963 killing of East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy Charles Hurt, who caught him skipping school and approached him in plain clothes.
Montgomery was 17 at the time.
He was initially sentenced to death, but the state's Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 1966, saying he didn't get a fair trial. The case was retried, Montgomery was convicted again but this time sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He served decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Henry Montgomery (pictured) was seen leaving the Louisiana State Penitentiary on Wednesday after 57 years in prison for the murder of police office Charles Hurt in 1963
He was arrested and sentenced to life without parole at the age of 17 (seen here in 1964)
Charles Hurt (with his wife) approached Montgomery in plainclothes after catching the then teen skipping school
A three-member board voted unanimously in favor of parole. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held on Zoom with Montgomery appearing on camera from the state prison where he has spent his entire adult life.
'He's been in prison for 57 years. He has an excellent...disciplinary record. He is low risk by our assessment. He's got good comments from the warden. He has a very good prison record,' said board member Tony Marabella as he voted to approve Montgomery's release with certain conditions including a curfew and that he have no contact with the victim's family.
Montgomery's release goes back to two specific Supreme Court cases. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Miller v. Alabama that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole was 'cruel and unusual' punishment.
Montgomery (pictured in 2016 in his prison bed) told Dateline at the time that he thought he deserved to receive parole as he was 'not the same guy'
He also said he was 'mature enough to know I ain't going to do that again'
It didn't settle the question of whether that decision applied retroactively or only to cases going forward.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said at the time that the decision did not automatically grant parole, but opened up the option for a parole review.
In 2016, the Supreme Court took up Montgomery's case and extended its decision on such sentences to people already in prison.
The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and the release of inmates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and beyond. But, until Wednesday, Montgomery remained in prison.
Montgomery (pictured in a 1963 newspaper clipping) was denied parole in 2019 after the parole board cited he killed a police office and the victim's family said he shouldn't be released
After the Supreme Court decision, he was again denied parole, 54 years after he was imprisoned.
The parole board denied him parole because he only took two classes and the victim's family had asked for him not to be released, according to UPI.
'In 54 years of incarceration, all you've taken were two classes,' Louisiana Parole Board member Kenneth Loftin told Montgomery at the time. 'You're only doing exactly what you can to get by.'
He was later resentenced in 2017 to life with parole and the state judge who resentenced Montgomery called him a 'model prisoner' who appeared to be rehabilitated.
But then the parole board rejected his application two times, most recently in 2019.
It also was cited at his 2019 parole hearing that he attacked a police officer. Montgomery said he was in the 'segregated South' and was 'scared' when Hurt approached him.
'An attack on a police officer is an attack on the very fabric of society,' Hurt's grandson JP, who is now a police officer, told Dateline in 2019.
'There's no parole for Charles Hurt. His life sentence is permanent.'
JP also told Dateline that Montgomery's life in prison is 'equal justice' to Hurt's life being taken away.
However, Montgomery said he 'should be' granted parole in 2019.
'I should be,' he told Dateline's Lester Holt in 2019, 'At my age, I'm not the same guy. I'm 55 years older, you know, and I'm mature enough to know I ain't going to do that again.'
Montgomery will be released into the care of the Louisiana Parole Project, and will have a curfew and will not be allowed to contact the victim's family.
The Louisiana Parole Project was created in 2016 by Andrew Hundley, a former juvenile lifer, to assist people who have served long prison sentences - generally 20 years or more - reenter society.
The organization helps former inmates with housing, signing up for health care or medications, getting an ID card and learning how to navigate society.
Hundley spoke during the hearing, with a number of the former juveniles lifers who have gone through his program sitting in a room behind him. When the unanimous decision was announced they applauded.
Montgomery (pictured in 2019) expressed remorse for his crimes and said he was 'sorry' and was 'going to have to live with this all of my life'
During the hearing Hundley and others spoke of what Montgomery had accomplished in prison including his years of work at the prison's silk screen shop and the length of his stay.
'There is nothing left for him to accomplish at the Louisiana State Penitentiary,' Hundley said. 'It is time for Henry to come home.'
His release was not without opposition. Hurt, the sheriff's deputy who Montgomery killed, was married and had three children. Two of his daughters have met with Montgomery in prison and forgiven him, but family members have opposed his release.
A prosecutor from the area where Montgomery's crime occurred spoke against his parole as did one of the deputy's daughters, Linda Hurt Woods.
'I do not believe that he should be released at this time,' said Woods, saying that the decision shows deep disrespect to law enforcement officers. 'He made a decision at 17 years old. You know right from wrong at 17. I did.'
Montgomery himself said little during the roughly half-hour hearing. According to his lawyer Keith Nordyke, he is extremely hard of hearing, and Nordyke often had to repeat questions from the board members. At times Montgomery said he was struggling to find words to express himself.
'I'm really sorry that I, that this happened,' Montgomery said. 'I am going to have to live with this all my life, the rest of my life.'
Since the court's Montgomery decision, about 800 people who had been sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been released, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.
'The decision to grant Mr. Montgomery parole today is long overdue,' said Jody Kent Lavy, the organization's co-executive director in a statement. 'It's a grave injustice that he has served over 57 years in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager, despite evidence he was rehabilitated long ago.'
Ten months ago, the bare-chested US Capitol rioter nicknamed the 'QAnon Shaman' became the face of the January 6 attack when he thundered into the Senate chamber in his horned fur hat and brandishing a spear, but at his sentencing on Wednesday there was no sign of the ferocious insurrectionist.
Instead, a humbled Jacob Chansley, 34, expressed remorse and spoke at length about his willingness to take responsibility for his actions - 'like Gandhi'- before a federal judge sentenced him to 41 months in prison.
Prosecutors had asked US District Judge Royce Lamberth to impose a longer 51-month sentence on Chansley, who pleaded guilty in September to obstructing an official proceeding when he and thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election.
The sentence matches one imposed by a judge on a former mixed martial artist Scott Fairlamb, who was filmed punching a police officer during violence, who was sentenced last week to 41 months in prison.
Chansley is expected to receive credit for the roughly 10 months he has spent in jail, which would reduce his prison sentence to about 31 months.
When given a chance to speak, Chansley launched into a wide-ranging, often rambling speech, in which he talked about his feelings of guilt and remorse, reported CNN.
'I admit to the world, I was wrong. I have no excuses. My behavior was indefensible,' he said.
Chansley, however, insisted that he is not a violent man, a domestic terrorist or a 'white supremacist.'
As part of his impassioned 30-minute-long monologue, Chansley quoted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Jesus, and the prison break film The Shawshank Redemption.
'The hardest part about this is to know that I'm to blame. To have to look in the mirror and know, you really messed up, royally,' Chansley said.
He said he was wrong to break the law - a decision that landed him in solitary confinement.
'I should do what Gandhi would do and take responsibility,' Chansley added. 'There's no ifs, ands or buts about it, that's what men of honor do.' He promised to never have to be jailed again.
Lamberth was seemingly taken aback by the defendant's remarks, which he said were 'akin to the kind of thing Martin Luther King would have said.'
Capitol rioter Jacob Chansley, known as the 'QAnon Shaman,' was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in federal prison. Pictured inside the US Capitol armed with a spear
Chanlsley was one of thousands of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol building on January 6 to stop the certification of President Joe Biden
Lamberth said he believed Chansley, who made a lengthy speech before he was sentenced, had done a lot to convince the court he is 'on the right track.'
Chansley's defense lawyers petitioned for a sentence of time served, citing their client's multiple mental health problems
Chansley's attorneys asked the judge for a sentence of time served for their client, who has been detained since his January arrest. He appeared in court in a dark green prison jumpsuit, with a beard and shaved head.
'He made himself the image of the riot, didn't he?' Lamberth said to Chansley's lawyers. 'For good or bad, he made himself the very image of this whole event.'
Prosecutor Kimberly Paschall played in court several video clips showing a bare-chested Chansley in his horned fur hat and face paint barging into the Capitol and yelling on the US Senate floor.
Chansley has acknowledged using a bullhorn to rile up the mob, offering thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and scratching out a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence saying, 'It's Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!'
Before his sentence was announced, Chansley described a difficult childhood and said he had taken responsibility for his behavior.
'I thought I was going to get 20 years solitary confinement,' he said, adding: 'This trauma has done something to me ... I have the white hairs to prove it ... on my chest ... on my arms... I should not have white hairs your honor.'
The judge said what Chansley had done on January 6 was so 'horrific' nd 'terrible' that he could not go below the federal sentencing guidelines.
The judge presiding over Chansley's hearing said that his conduct inside the Capitol was so 'horrific' that he could not impose a lighter sentence on him
Protestors storm inside the US Capitol, Washington DC. January 6, 2021
While in detention, Chansley was diagnosed by prison officials with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. When he entered his guilty plea, Chansley said he was disappointed Trump had not pardoned him.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate on a charge of inciting the January 6 riot for a fiery speech that preceded it in which he told his followers to 'fight like hell.'
Four people died in the violence. A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the day after the riot and four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. About 140 police officers were injured.
Defense lawyer Albert Watkins said the US Navy in 2006 had found Chansley suffered from personality disorder but nonetheless declared him 'fit for duty.'
Chansley became the face of the failed insurrection when he appeared on the US Senate floor semi-nude, sporting body paint and a horned fur hat (pictured)
The image of Chansley holding a flagpole topped with a spear tip and looking as if he were howling was one of the most striking to emerge from the riot.
He previously called himself the 'QAnon Shaman' but has since repudiated the QAnon movement, which is centered on the baseless belief that Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cannibals.
Chansley's attorney, Albert Watkins, asked the judge for a sentence of time served, citing his client's lack of criminal history and mental health issues
He is among 650 people charged in the riot. More than 120 defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges of demonstrating in the Capitol that carry a maximum of six months in prison.
In the year before the Capitol riot, Chansley appeared in costume at pro-Trump events, protests over face mask requirements and at a gathering of Trump supporters in November 2020 outside an election office in downtown Phoenix where votes from the presidential race were being counted.
His attorney, Albert Watkins, has said Chansley was 'horrendously smitten' by Trump and believed like other rioters that Trump had called him to the Capitol, but later felt betrayed after Trump refused to grant him and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon.
Watkins has said Chansley had been under pressure from family members not to plead guilty because they believed Trump would be reinstated as president and pardon him.
After spending his first month in jail, Chansley said he reevaluated his life, felt regret for having stormed the building and apologized for causing fear in others.
He twice quit eating while in jail and lost 20 pounds until he was given organic food.
Prosecutors had recommended a 51-month sentence for Chansley as a deterrence to 'future rioters'
Videos from January 6 showed Fairlamb punching an officer's helmet and climbing a scaffolding while holding a baton and shouting: 'What patriots do? We f***ing disarm them and then we storm the f***ing Capitol!'
Last week, ex-MMA fighter Scott Fairlamb wept in court as he begged for mercy before being sentenced to 41 months in prison for punching an officer during the Capitol riots.
LONGEST CAPITOL RIOT SENTENCES: Jacob Chansley : Chansley, 34, from Arizona, known as the 'QAnon Shaman,' was sentenced on November 17 to 41 months in prison for storming the US Capitol while armed with a spear. Scott Fairlamb : the 44-year-old former MMA fighter from New Jersey was sentenced to 41 months in prison for assaulting a police officer during the January 6 riots. Troy Smocks : the 58-year-old Dallas resident was sentenced to 14 months in prison for posting threats against the US Congress on Parler, even though he did not enter the Capitol. Paul Hodgkins : the 38-year-old Florida crane operator was sentenced to 8 months in prison for walking onto the US Senate floor while carrying a red 'Trump 2020' flag. Advertisement
With 'I truly regret my actions that day. I have nothing but remorse,' he said, as he asked the judge for mercy.
A video from January 6 that was used in court showed Fairlamb, dressed in a camouflaged jacket, navy blue scarf and black beanie, yelling at an officer. When another cop approached Fairlamb from behind to seemingly get him to calm down, the former fighter shoved the man.
Fairlamb, 44, of New Jersey was also the first person sentenced for assaulting a law enforcement officer during the January 6 Capitol riot.
Judge Royce Lamberth's decision was considered a 'canary in the coal mine' by prosecutors who said that Wednesday foreshadowed what more than 120 other defendants face for attacking police that day.
Then, when the officer swatted Fairlamb's pointing finger out of his face Fairlamb hit him back even harder.
Fairlamb pleaded guilty to two counts - one for obstruction of an official proceeding and one for assaulting the police officer.
More than 650 people have been charged in connection with the riots.
Paul Hodgkins, 38, a Florida crane operator (left), was sentenced to 8 months in prison for walking onto the US Senate floor while carrying a red 'Trump 2020' flag. Troy Smocks (right), a black man from Dallas, was sentenced to 14 months in prison on after admitting he posted threatening social media messages online the day after the riot
The pilot of a tourist helicopter that crashed into a fireball in the Grand Canyon killing five Britons had failed an earlier safety check, an inquest heard.
Jonathan Udall, 31, and his 29-year-old wife Ellie died along with Rebecca Dobson, 26, her boyfriend Stuart Hill, 29, and his brother Jason Hill, 31, when their helicopter crashed and burst into flames.
The group lost their lives after a strong tailwind knocked the Airbus EC130 B4 out of control, causing it to crash shortly before sunset in February 2018.
As it hit the ground hard it exploded in a fireball with five of the seven occupants suffering fatal burn injuries.
Rebecca, Stuart and Jason died in the subsequent blaze while Jonathan and his new wife Ellie survived but died of their injuries a fortnight later at the University Medical Centre in Las Vegas.
A sixth friend, 39-year-old Jennifer Dorricott, a solicitor, survived but suffered life-changing injuries in the crash.
Pilot Scott Booth of tour operator Papillon lived but had to undergo a double leg amputation after suffering catastrophic injuries.
The inquest at West Sussex Coroner's Court today heard Mr Booth was fully-qualified but had failed an earlier check on his landing abilities during turbulent conditions.
He failed his first test on his ability to handle a helicopter in gusty wind conditions, manoeuvre and deal with a loss of power.
Rebecca Dobson, 26, her boyfriend Stuart Hill (both pictured above), 29, who lost their lives after a strong tailwind knocked the Airbus EC130 B4 out of control, causing it to crash
Jonathan Udall, 31, and his 29-year-old wife Ellie (both pictured) who died of their injuries a fortnight later at the University Medical Centre Hospital in Las Vegas
A survivor (lower right) walked away from the scene of the deadly tour helicopter crash along the jagged rocks of the Grand Canyon in Arizona
Scott Booth was piloting a Papillon tour helicopter when the aircraft crashed, killing five of the six passengers
Sandra Hill, mother of the two sons (pictured above) who died, said: 'We represent every parent's nightmare, to cease to be a mum and dad and to have no-one to care for. We were so blessed with Jason and Stuart'
'The loss cannot be put into words': Families' statements in full The inquest also heard the families read out their statements. Becky Dobson's mother, Jane, said: 'Our Becky, we miss you so much. You were such an amazing daughter, sister and an incredible auntie. You had so many friends who loved everything about you. 'Your raging smile could light up any room. Your lovely funny ways would always make us laugh. Our lives will never be the same but Becky you will always stay in our hearts forever.' Sandra Hill, mother of the two sons who died, said: 'We represent every parent's nightmare, to cease to be a mum and dad and to have no-one to care for. We were so blessed with Jason and Stuart. They were very active from the start and never stopped a moment they were awake. 'We did lots of things together. Each took a very different path as Jason went on to a career in law. Stuart was more practical and went over to New Zealand. He made friends wherever he went. Some of them we're still in touch with today. 'What's it like now they're gone? Well, after nearly four years, we still expect them to turn up. I still can't go into a card shop, as if I see a card with the word 'son' written on it I break down. I haven't been able to put up a Christmas tree since their deaths.' Reverend David Hill, father of the two brothers, quoted a line from the Fast and Furious movie series in his tribute. He said: 'No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter-mile away or halfway across the world, you'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother.' Speaking on behalf of Ellie's parents, Terry and Maggie Milward, Sarah Stuart read their statement to the coroner, saying 'The loss to our family cannot be put into words.' Philip and Marlene Udall's statement said: 'John was only 31 when tragedy struck on that fateful day in 2018. We had recently celebrated the wedding, a truly momentous occasion when in 2018 our world came crashing down around us and we were left devastated at the loss of our son. 'Jonathan was a kind and caring person. A young man we are so proud of the man he became. We held on to the memories we have of watching him grow into that young man. 'We will never again get to see his face, hug him, or to see him laugh. Thirty-one years of Jonathan was simply not enough.' Advertisement
Mark Jarvis of the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) told the inquest hearing the annual check is designed to test the pilot's ability.
But he said Mr Booth had failed his first test on his ability to handle a helicopter in gusty wind conditions, manoeuvre and deal with a loss of power.
Mr Booth retook the check 'days later' and passed and was fully qualified to fly the flight on February 10, 2018.
An investigation was launched by the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) who concluded the accident happened when the pilot lost control of the aircraft in turbulent, high winds.
Mr Jarvis said the report showed the helicopter was mechanically sound but was not fitted with a crash resistant fuel system.
Three Australian airmen witnessed the accident alongside another passerby who was attending a wedding function in the Grand Canyon area, the inquest heard.
They scrambled over the rocky terrain to help provide first aid to those who managed to free themselves from the wreckage.
The coroner heard a statement from Joel Trembath, an avionics technician, who said: 'I noticed Jon and Ellie were staring into the distance and in shock.
'They were sitting next to each other on a rock and at that time they were both able to talk unhindered.'
He added: 'I observed Sgt Daniel Johnson and LAC Mitchell Wood applying first aid to three survivors, Jennifer, and a male I later identified as Jon and a female I later identified as Ellie.
'At that stage, the helicopter was still on fire and fiercely burning. A young-looking male Papillon pilot was yelling at us to turn around and go back. I identified myself as Australian Air Force and said we had first aid kits. However, the Papillon pilot replied that he didn't care and told us to turn around.
'We ignored him and continued down to deliver first aid kits and then we ran back up to the landing for water. Once we got back to the crash site with water, I started applying first aid to Jennifer. She was yelling her partner's name, Jason, and I attempted to calm her down.
'The first aid I applied included some bandaging, washing of burns and and chemicals with water, and application of antiseptic. Jennifer was very animate whilst I was applying this first aid and she was understandably inconsolable.'
The inquest also heard the families read out their statements.
Becky Dobson's mother, Jane, said: 'Our Becky, we miss you so much. You were such an amazing daughter, sister and an incredible auntie. You had so many friends who loved everything about you.
'Your raging smile could light up any room. Your lovely funny ways would always make us laugh. Our lives will never be the same but Becky you will always stay in our hearts forever.'
Sandra Hill, mother of the two sons who died, said: 'We represent every parent's nightmare, to cease to be a mum and dad and to have no-one to care for. We were so blessed with Jason and Stuart. They were very active from the start and never stopped a moment they were awake.
Ellie Milward and her husband Jonathan Udall (pictured left on their wedding day) died in hospital after a helicopter crash that killed their friends Becky Dobson and Stuart Hill (right) in the Grand Canyon in 2018. The pilot told investigators the crash was caused by a 'gust of wind'
Becky Dobson's mother, Jane, said: 'Our Becky, we miss you so much. You were such an amazing daughter, sister and an incredible auntie' (Becky pictured)
'We did lots of things together. Each took a very different path as Jason went on to a career in law. Stuart was more practical and went over to New Zealand. He made friends wherever he went. Some of them we're still in touch with today.
'What's it like now they're gone? Well, after nearly four years, we still expect them to turn up. I still can't go into a card shop, as if I see a card with the word 'son' written on it I break down.
'I haven't been able to put up a Christmas tree since their deaths.'
Reverend David Hill, father of the two brothers, quoted a line from the Fast and Furious movie series in his tribute, explaining the two brother's relationship.
He said: 'No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter-mile away or halfway across the world, you'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother.'
Reverend David Hill (pictured above), father of the two brothers, quoted a line from the Fast and Furious movie series in his tribute, explaining the two brother's relationship
Speaking on behalf of Ellie's parents, Terry and Maggie Milward, Sarah Stuart read their statement to the coroner, saying: 'The loss to our family cannot be put into words.'
Philip and Marlene Udall's statement said: 'John was only 31 when tragedy struck on that fateful day in 2018.
'We had recently celebrated the wedding, a truly momentous occasion when in 2018 our world came crashing down around us and we were left devastated at the loss of our son.
'Jonathan was a kind and caring person. A young man we are so proud of the man he became. We held on to the memories we have of watching him grow into that young man. We will never again get to see his face, hug him, or to see him laugh. Thirty-one years of Johnathan was simply not enough.'
Emergency crews arrived at the scene 20 minutes after the crash, due to the difficulty of getting around the mile-deep canyon.
A post-mortem examination report concluded that Stuart, Becky and Jason all died from multiple injuries as a result of thermal injury and smoke inhalation.
Jonathan and Ellie both died in Universal Medical Centre Hospital, Los Angeles, due to complications from thermal injuries.
The inquest continues but was expected to conclude this afternoon.
A Georgia grand jury indicted six deputies on murder charges in connection to the 2018 death of an inmate at the Fulton County jail.
The three current and three former deputy sheriffs from the jail's 2018 Direct Action Response Team where indicted on five charges on Tuesday including felony murder, aggravated assault, battery and violation of oath of office.
The officers named in the criminal case are Arron Cook, Guito DeLa Cruz, Omar Jackson, Jason Roache, Kenesia Strowder and William Whitaker.
Antonio May, 32, was booked on a misdemeanor charge at the Fulton County jail on September 11, 2018 after being arrested for throwing rocks at the American Cancer Society building when the officers allegedly declared it was 'Taser Tuesday.'
Guito DeLa Cruz (left), Arron Cook (center), Kenesia Strowder (right), Omar Jackson, William Whitaker, and Jason Roache were indicted on five criminal charges including felony murder on Tuesday in connection to a Fulton County Jail inmates death
Guito DeLa Cruz, Arron Cook, Kenesia Strowder, Omar Jackson (left), William Whitaker (center), and Jason Roache (right) were indicted on five criminal charges including felony murder on Tuesday in connection to a Fulton County Jail inmates death
The phrase came from inmates and employees at the jail, attorneys for May's family said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The father of three was placed in a general holding cell despite having amphetamines in his system and being ruled suicidal by a medical technician, a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family states.
May, whose family claims struggled with mental health issues, began to undress exposing himself to the guards when six deputies, rushed into his cell. During the 'confrontation,' all six deputies 'repeatedly' tasered, beat and pepper-sprayed the inmate, the lawsuit alleges.
According to court papers, some of the deputies placed their stun guns near May's genitals and around his buttocks.
'The detention officers beat Mr. May with closed fist strikes and sprayed pepper spray in his face,' court documents state.
They then allegedly set May in a restraining chair and placed a 'spit mask' over his head as they attempted to wash the pepper spray from his face with a hose, according to the lawsuit.
May was dead 'laying in a pool of his own blood' a few minutes later, the lawsuit claims. His lawyer, Michael Harper, said May died of cardiovascular collapse due to physical restraints.
Antonio May (left) was pronounced dead at the Fulton County jail on September 11, 2018
May was allegedly repeatedly tased, beaten and pepper-sprayed in his cell and pronounced dead several minutes later. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2019 that is still ongoing
His family filed the wrongful death civil case against Fulton County jail and its healthcare provider Naphcare, Inc. in May 2019. The civil case been tied up in court with nine officers and Naphcare Inc. filing motions to dismiss the case citing a lack of evidence.
The Fulton County Sheriff's department did not respond to DailyMail.com for a comment.
'As opposed to putting Mr. May in the Special Medical Observation Unit at the Fulton County Jail and giving him detoxifying chemical sedation, due to his mental health issues and due to him testing positive for amphetamines, the medical professionals at NaphCare, Inc. released Mr. May to the jail deputies to place Mr. May in a general holding cell,' the lawsuit claims.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took up the case when the lawsuit was filed. The GBI found that May had been combative with the staff prior to the altercation when the deputies tased and pepper-sprayed the inmate. A GBI spokeswoman confirmed to AJC at the time that May died at the jail after being washed of the pepper-spray.
The case was investigated by the Fulton District Attorney's office for three-years before DA Fani Willis took office earlier this year promising to dig into the backlog of 11,000 cases stalled by the pandemic and inaction of her predecessor Paul Howard.
Many of these cases include use of force involving law enforcement.
On Tuesday, the DA's office presented the results of its three-year investigation into May's death.
DA Willis released a statement following the indictment: 'It is now the duty of my office to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury at trial. My staff and I will continue to work to ensure that justice is done in this case.'
Harper and Teddy Reese, who represent May's family, stood beside two of May's sons Za'Kobe and Jordan Rickerson, who held up family photos, and other family members during the press conference Tuesday afternoon, AJC reported.
'This is not an anti-police moment,' Reese said. 'This is an accountability moment. This is holding people responsible for taking a man's life in cold blood murder.'
Harper told DailyMail.com hopes that the indictment will push the judge ruling over the wrongful death case to deny the motions to dismiss the case and move it forward.
He insist the indictment: 'goes to show that times have changed and society are beginning to uphold these law enforcement officers accountable for murder.'
May's grandmother, April Myrick, told WSB-TV that the indictment proves that her grandson 'mattered.'
'Thank God this is being done,' Myrick said. 'Thank God. He mattered. Everybody mattered.'
A UK F-35B Lightning II stealth jet has crashed into the Mediterranean sea while on patrol with the UK's flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The pilot ejected from the jet before it crashed into the ocean and has been safely returned to the aircraft carrier, as the MoD launches a full investigation.
This is the first time the UK has lost one of the 100m fifth-generation stealth jets, which are on board the 3 billion warship HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The next-generation RAF F35 jet is understood to still be in the sea and has yet to be recovered after the crash at 10am this morning.
The aircraft was one of eight UK fast-jets onboard the Royal Navy's flagship, along with 10 US aircraft.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is returning to the UK after leaving Britain on her maiden voyage seven months ago. Jets from the vessel previously participated in strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
A British F-35B Lightning II stealth jet has crashed into the Mediterranean sea while on patrol with HMS Queen Elizabeth (file photo of a jet above the carrier)
The jet was on board the 3 billion warship HMS Queen Elizabeth
The F35s can hover as the come into land meaning the need a smaller flight deck. Pictured, an F-35B fighter jet prepares to land on the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Arabian Sea, off Mumbai's coast on October 21
According to the MoD: 'A British F35 pilot from HMS Queen Elizabeth ejected during routine flying operations in the Mediterranean this morning.
'The pilot has been safely returned to the ship and an investigation has begun, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.'
The attack jets are Big Lizzie's air wing flying missions over the past seven months in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
The stealth jet's pilot will be debriefed, but investigators will want to test the aircraft's complicated computer systems and high-tech control surfaces to see if these contributed to the crash.
Several US F35s have been involved in crashes, with one Marine Corps jet clipping a refuelling aircraft.
The 65,000-tonne Royal Navy flagship is returning to the UK from its maiden deployment, which included exercises with the Indian military.
It was part of the carrier strike group's deployment to the Indo-Pacific amid heightened tensions with China in the region.
The jets are operated by the renowned 617 Squadron, also known as the 'Dambusters' squadron.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spent time on board the vessel last month on the final day of her two-day visit to India.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spent time on board the vessel last month on the final day of her two-day visit to India
Boris Johnson today finally apologised for failing to wear a mask during a visit to a hospital last week - but insisted he broke the rules for 'barely 30 seconds'.
The Prime Minister was criticised after he was photographed without a face covering during a trip to Hexham General Hospital.
He insisted on Monday this week that he wears a mask wherever he is required to under coronavirus guidance as he declined to apologise.
But the premier did say sorry this afternoon as he was grilled by Parliament's powerful Liaison Committee.
Boris Johnson today finally apologised for failing to wear a mask during a visit to a hospital last week - but insisted he broke the rules for 'barely 30 seconds'
The Prime Minister was criticised after he was photographed without a face covering during a trip to Hexham General Hospital
It emerged that Mr Johnson had to be reminded by NHS staff last week to put on a mask after he posed with nurses without a face covering.
Mr Johnson was questioned on the issue by senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper and he said: As for not wearing a mask in Hexham hospital, which you wrap up into my general litany of crime, can I just say that actually it was barely 30 seconds when I wasnt wearing a mask.
I walked out of a room, mistakenly not wearing it. I then put it on as soon as I realised I had made that mistake.
I apologise for it. But most pictures of my visit to the hospital will show that I was duly masked throughout the remainder of the visit and I was masked on the way into the visit and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to clear that up.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Monday, a croaky Mr Johnson, who is suffering from a cold, said adhering to mask rules was 'the responsible thing to do'.
'I wear a mask wherever the rules say I should and I urge everyone else to do the same,' he said.
'People have actually seen me wearing face coverings quite a bit more regularly as we have seen the numbers (of infections) ticking up in the UK.
'I think that is the responsible thing to do and I am going to continue to do it.'
After Mr Johnson went to Northumberland last week Chronicle Live reported that staff had to remind him to replace his mask.
Mr Johnson had to be reminded by NHS staff last week to put on a mask after he posed with nurses without a face covering
He is believed to have taken it off to do television interviews before the pictures were taken.
Hospital management insisted that he had 'followed strict measures, including wearing a mask, in each clinical area he visited.'
But rules for visitors posted on the hospital's website tells them to 'wear a face covering when you enter the hospital until you leave'.
Personal belongings found with the soldiers allowed specialist researchers to identify seven of the soldiers
Bodies of the nine British soldiers were discovered in 2018 during engineering works in De Reutel, Belgium
Fallen servicemen were given full military honours at a poignant burial service at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium
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Nine British soldiers who were killed in the First World War have finally been laid to rest, more than a century after their deaths.
The fallen servicemen were given full military honours at a poignant burial service at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium.
The nine soldiers, seven of whom have been identified, now rest alongside the graves of thousands of their comrades who fell during heavy fighting around the town of Ypres.
The seven men served together in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, and died within days of each other during the bloody Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917.
Their bodies were only discovered in 2018 during engineering works in De Reutel in Belgium.
Personal belongings found with the soldiers allowed specialist researchers to identify seven of the soldiers.
More than a century after their deaths, they were laid to rest at a service attended by family members of the identified soldiers and the Duke of Kent.
Nine British soldiers who were killed in the World War I have finally been laid to rest, more than a century after their deaths
More than a century after their deaths, they were laid to rest at a service attended by family members of the identified soldiers and the Duke of Kent (right)
The nine soldiers, seven of whom have been identified, now rest alongside the graves of thousands of their comrades who fell during heavy fighting around the town of Ypres
The Duke of Kent arrives for the funeral service of nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War
The seven men served together in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, and died within days of each other during the bloody Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917
Pictured left to right: 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett, Lance Corporal Stanley Blakeborough and Private Harry Miller, three of nine British soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War
The names of the seven identified servicemen who have been laid to rest 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett Ablett who was killed in action aged 20 while fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. Ablett, who was born in Manchester and later lived on Eardley Road in Streatham, enlisted in the British Expeditionary Force as a rifleman at the outbreak of the First World War in October 1915. He was commissioned less than a year later and joined the 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, the second largest Regiment in London. Ablett, who was born in Manchester and later lived on Eardley Road in Streatham, enlisted in the British Expeditionary Force as a rifleman at the outbreak of the First World War in October 1915. He was commissioned less than a year later and joined the 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, the second largest Regiment in London. During his career in the British army, he was deployed to France and Flanders where he was involved in a number of major operations. Ablett, who was described as 'bright, cheerful and of good tone', was killed on 15 October 1917 as the British Expeditionary Force slowly advanced towards Passchendaele during the second phase of battle. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. 2nd Lieutenant Edward Douglas Bruty 2nd Lieutenant Edward Bruty died aged 21 during the bloody battle in Belgium in October 1917 Bruty, from Dulwich, was a railway clerk before he enlisted in the army in September 1914 as a Rifleman in the Queen Victoria's Rifles. He subsequently moved his through the ranks, transferring to the Army Cyclist Corps and being promoted to Sergeant. He was later commissioned in February 1917 and joined 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, before his death in October 1917. Lance Corporal Stanley Blakeborough Lance Corporal Stanley Blakeborough Lance Corporal Stanley Blakeborough was born in Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire on 17 August 1896, the son of Harry and Mary Blakeborough. Stanley had five brothers and two sisters. His two brothers, Charles and Donald also both fought during the First World War. Sadly, Donald was killed less than three months after Stanley. Unfortunately, Stanleys military records have not survived, but it is known that he served in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers for the majority of the war, being promoted to Lance Corporal. He died aged 21. Sergeant Thomas Feasby Serjeant Thomas Feasby, from Eston, Yorkshire, who died aged 32. Feasby had worked as a Tram Conductor with his brother George and by 1911 he was working as a Foreman at the local Steelworks in Eston. Unfortunately, his military records have not survived, but he served in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers for a majority of the war, being promoted to Sergeant. He died aged 32. Private Joseph Patrickson MM Private Joseph Patrickson was one of the nine children of Robert and Lucy Patrickson. He was born in Gateshead, Durham on 12 October 1893. Before enlisting, Joseph was an errand boy for a fruit retailer. Although his military records have not survived, he was was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for his bravery during the fighting in October 1917. He died aged 24. Private Harry Miller Private Harry Miller Private Harry Miller born in Cockerton, near Durham on 21 November 1888, one of eight children of James and Anne Miller. Harry married Melita Florence Birkett on 22 May 1909 and they had four children: Annie, James, Minnie and George. Harry was a farm labourer, and lived with his family in Burton Leonard, Yorkshire. His military records have not survived, but it is known that he served in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers for a majority of the war. He died aged 26. Private Arnold Sanderson MM Private Arnold Sanderson MM, from Darlington, Co Durham was also among the servicemen laid to rest. He worked at the local Railway plant and lived with his parents Thomas and Emily Sanderson and six sisters. Although Arnolds military records have not survived, he was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for his bravery during the fighting in October 1917, whilst working as runner for the officers. A letter written to his mother by 2/Lt J.S. Youll VC, stated that he was thought of a great deal by the officers and men. He was described as a good soldier who always did his duty. He died aged 26 in World War One. Advertisement
What started as a grey and rainy morning broke into sunshine as the coffins were carried into the cemetery, draped in Union flags.
Leading the service, reverend Gary Watt paid tribute to the nine men who gave their lives more than a century ago.
He said: 'Today we remember with thanksgiving these brave men whom, alongside so many others, answered the call of their country, served with honour and gave their lives in the service of their nation.
'In so doing let us commit ourselves anew to remember their courage.
'For by so doing we honour their memory and we reflect upon that sacrifice.'
One of the unidentified servicemen, who was found to be closely linked with the seven named servicemen, was honoured as an 'Unknown Soldier of the Northumberland Fusiliers'. The eighth serviceman was buried as an 'Unknown Soldier of the Great War'.
Among the seven identified servicemen was 2nd Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett who was killed in action aged 20 while fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917.
Ablett, who was born in Manchester and later lived on Eardley Road in Streatham, enlisted in the British Expeditionary Force as a rifleman at the outbreak of the First World War in October 1915. He was commissioned less than a year later and joined the 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, the second largest Regiment in London.
During his career in the British army, he was deployed to France and Flanders where he was involved in a number of major operations.
Ablett, who was described as 'bright, cheerful and of good tone', was killed on 15 October 1917 as the British Expeditionary Force slowly advanced towards Passchendaele during the second phase of battle. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
The second is 2nd Lieutenant Edward Douglas Bruty, who died aged 21 during the bloody battle.
Bruty, from Dulwich, was a railway clerk before he enlisted in the army in September 1914 as a Rifleman in the Queen Victoria's Rifles. He subsequently moved his through the ranks, transferring to the Army Cyclist Corps and being promoted to Sergeant.
He was later commissioned in February 1917 and joined 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, before his death in October 1917.
A third serviceman identified is Serjeant Thomas Feasby, from Eston, Yorkshire, who died aged 32. Feasby had worked as a Tram Conductor with his brother George and by 1911 he was working as a Foreman at the local Steelworks in Eston.
Unfortunately, his military records have not survived, but he served in 11th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers for a majority of the war, being promoted to Sergeant.
Their bodies were only discovered in 2018 during engineering works in De Reutel in Belgium. Personal belongings found with the soldiers allowed specialist researchers to identify seven of the soldiers
The coffins of nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, lay in wait in the chapel before they are laid to rest
More than a century after their deaths, they were laid to rest at a service attended by family members of the identified soldiers and the Duke of Kent
Nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, are laid to rest
2nd Lieutenant Leslie Wallace Ablett is carried to his final resting place at the Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres in Belgium
Leading the service, reverend Gary Watt paid tribute to the nine men who gave their lives more than a century ago
The Duke of Kent visits the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, which is dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown
As the service drew to a close, the famous line from Laurence Binyon's poem For The Fallen - 'We will remember them' - was read out and echoed by military and civilian guests
Passchendaele: An Allied victory for barely any military gain The Battle of Passchendaele became notorious not only for the sheer number of casualties, but also for the horrendous fighting conditions the men were forced to endure. British general Douglas Haig had long wanted the allies to launch an offensive on German positions in Flanders Fields to break through to the Belgian coast. A church ablaze during the Battle for Messines Ridge in 1917, which immediately preceded Passchendaele On July 31, after two weeks of sustained shelling which had seen more than 4.5 million shells dropped on German positions, the allies launched their infantry attack. But the plan was a disaster from the get-go. The shelling had not destroyed the German defenses, and within a few days some of the heaviest rains for 30 years had turned the battlefield into a quagmire, trapping thousands of men and horses. The attack resumed on August 16 but to little effect, and both sides remained at a stalemate until September 20, when an upturn in the weather allowed allied forces to win three key battles at Menin Road Ridge, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde in the space of two weeks. These victories eventually led to British and Canadian forces taking what was left of the village of Passchendaele on November 6, but the capture came after an estimated 325,000 allied casualties. Advertisement
Private Arnold Sanderson MM, from Darlington, Co Durham was also among the servicemen laid to rest. He worked at the local Railway plant and lived with his parents Thomas and Emily Sanderson and six sisters.
Although Arnolds military records have not survived, he was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for his bravery during the fighting in October 1917, whilst working as runner for the officers.
A letter written to his mother by 2/Lt J.S. Youll VC, stated that he was thought of a great deal by the officers and men. He was described as a good soldier who always did his duty.
Many of their surviving family members attended the touching ceremony, laying wreaths and flowers as they paid their respects.
The Duke of Kent was also in attendance, alongside members of The 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who honoured the fallen soldiers with a gun salute.
As the service drew to a close, the famous line from Laurence Binyon's poem For The Fallen - 'We will remember them' - was read out and echoed by military and civilian guests.
In the surrounding hills, no longer scarred by trenches and covered in barbed wire, farmers ploughed their fields.
The bodies of the nine men, like those of so many of their comrades who died on the battlefields of the First World War, had been missing for a century.
But thanks to extensive research combined with knowledge gleaned from a small number of personal belongings found with them, experts were able to identify seven of the nine servicemen.
The 'War Detectives', as the Ministry of Defence's Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) team are known, were able to track down surviving family members to complete the identification with DNA testing.
The Duke of Kent lays a wreath during the funeral service of nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War
The Duke of Kent arrives for the funeral service of nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War
The coffins of three of nine British soldiers who served and died in battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, arrive to be laid to rest. The Duke of Kent arrives for the funeral service of nine British soldiers (right)
Soldiers carry wreaths, servicemember hats and the British flag during the burial in Belgium on Wednesday
Steven Willis-Feasby, the great nephew of Sgt Feasby, said the whole experience had been 'really emotional'.
He added: 'I always had a feeling that maybe there was some family history on this side because my paternal grandfather from my mother's side, he was in the First World War as well and survived, but obviously Thomas didn't.
'I think that his mother wouldn't have known where Thomas fell or what happened to him and I'm privileged that I've come here to represent our family. He's back with us now.'
Rachel Fixsen attended the ceremony to pay her respects to 2nd Lt Ablett, her first cousin three times removed.
She said: 'For me personally looking into his history... and also reading accounts about how these soldiers fought, what it was like for them on the front line and behind the front line, that's really brought it home to me what happened and what they went through, and ultimately died.
'I thought the service was beautiful, it was meticulously organised and carried out and just the best way to honour these men.'
Claire Horton, director general of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), said: 'The CWGC is honoured to have worked alongside the JCCC in the recovery and identification of these men and to now be caring for them in perpetuity in Tyne Cot, CWGC's largest cemetery.
'The fact that so many of them have been positively identified is testament to the collective dedication that continues to this day, to remember our fallen.'
A charity that allowed a director to keep his trustee role despite admitting to paying for sex with a child says he has now left the organisation after a public outcry.
Former UKIP candidate Ken Lowry, 48, remained a trustee of CERT UK despite receiving a two-year community order for the offence, which can carry a five-year prison sentence.
On Tuesday, November 16, the ex-soldier, who also runs a company called Homeless Birmingham, paid 120 for sex with a 'vulnerable' 16-year-old who he later said was a 'sex worker'.
CERT UK founder Kerryanne Wilde also described the young victim as a 'prostitute' when initially defending the charity's decision.
However, she has now announced that Lowry has been removed from the charity.
She told MailOnline: 'Following our Trustees Meeting we would like to reiterate our position. Mr Kenneth Lowry has been removed from the Charity as a Director, Trustee and Volunteer as of November 15 2021.'
She also revealed that Lowry's company Homeless Birmingham was no longer a part of CERT and is in the process of going independent. It is unclear if Lowry is still part of that organisation.
Ms Wilde added: 'We are in talks with the volunteers to determine if they would like to come back under the CERT (UK) umbrella. We will advise all of their decision once this has been agreed.
'The actions of one individual are not the sum actions of the Charity and those who volunteer with us.'
Ken Lowry, 48, who was a director and trustee of the national CERT UK charity and also runs his own company called Homeless Birmingham, admitted to a charge of 'paying for sex with a child' in December last year
Lowry, was sentenced in February for paying for sex with the 16-year-old girl. His court appearance came just weeks after the former soldier was nominated for a Lord Mayor's special recognition for helping those living on the streets during the pandemic.
As well as the two-year community order, he was also ordered to complete 40 days rehabilitation order and was also hit with a month's curfew.
His victim went public because of what she saw as a lenient sentence and the fact Lowry had been allowed to continue in his role with CERT UK.
The now 17-year-old claimed she was 'vulnerable and unstable mentally' when she agreed to have sex with Lowry for 120 in 2020, with the offence taking place at his home.
She said: 'Kenneth was charged with paying for the sexual services of a child. He paid 120 to have sex with me while a relative of mine sat and watched. My relative had wanted the money to go to a party.'
Lowry claimed the girl had been a sex worker who had replied to his advert for 'legal age sex' placed on the Craigslist website.
He said: 'I believed she was over 18 at the time because it was an over-18 site that she was on, Craigslist. My advert was for sexual services and she actually contacted me, not the other way around.
'My ad asked for legal age sexual services. 100 per cent those words were in. It wasn't specific to any age, it had to be over the legal age because I've seen other ads on that site that didn't specify an age.'
What is the charge of 'paying for sex with a child' in UK law and what is the punishment? 'Paying for the sexual services of a child' is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Introduced in 2014, the law is sometimes confusing because it covers offences involving victims who are aged 16 and 17 - which is above the legal age of consent for sex in the UK. But the law is there specifically to protect under 18s from paid sex work. The charge only applies to paid sex work for those aged 16 and 17. Anyone paying someone younger than 16 would be charged under the usual charge of 'sexual activity with a child'. Those paying someone younger than 13 would be charged with 'rape of a child'. For those paying for sex with victims between the ages of 16 and 17, sentences range from a community order - a non custodial sentence - and a maximum prison sentence of five years. Advertisement
Speaking of his regret at the offence, he added: 'Oh, I'm absolutely disgusted, I'm at loggerheads with myself. I'm disgusted.
'Again, to be clear, she was over the age of consent. It's the fact that she was over the age of consent is what actually happened. And if money had not changed hands there would have been no issue.
'If no money changed hands then there would have been no criminal activity whatsoever.'
He was initially given the backing of CERT UK by its founder and director Ms Wilde.
She said: 'Kenneth's admitted that he had sex with a prostitute, she was 16, so he paid for sex with a prostitute at the end of the day she was 16 and it was consensual at the time.
'As an organisation, we've put measures in place so that Kenneth could come back and continue the amazing good work that he's done in Birmingham, the thousands of families and individuals that he's helped and supported and built Homeless Birmingham over the years.'
She had added: 'We put measures in place that Kenneth wasn't allowed to be with anyone under the age of 18 on his own, he was always to be with any vulnerable individual with another member of the team there and we review that on a regular basis.
'We've done our due diligence as an organisation, we've done our safeguarding and we've put in place measures for that.
'As an organisation we're in a bit of a rock and a hard place. We say in our constitution and we say in everything that we do we support all the vulnerable, ex-offenders and whatever else.
'If we had turned our back on Kenneth it wouldn't have looked good on us because we weren't supporting him as an ex-offender.'
In the UK, it is illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to pay for the sexual services of anyone under the age of 18.
Sentencing guidelines for the offence of paying for the sexual services of a child if a victim is aged 16-17 can range from a community order to a five year prison sentence.
A West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman confirmed that Lowry pleaded guilty to an indictment containing one count of paying for the sexual services of a child, contrary to s.47(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Kerryanne Wilde, founder and director of CERT UK, has now announced that Lowry has been removed from the charity
The particulars of the offence were that Lowry 'intentionally obtained for himself the sexual services' of the victim, 'a child under the age of 18 years, that is 16 years, not reasonably believing that she was of or over the age of 18, and before obtaining those services he promised payment for those services to' the victim.
West Midlands Police confirmed a 21-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child and was later released without charge.
After avoiding a jail sentence, Lowry stood as a UKIP candidate in May's Scottish Parliament elections, having previously stood for the party in local elections in Northfield.
He was also given the green light to continue in his director and trustee role with Cert UK Ltd (Community Emergency Response Team UK), but with 'safeguarding measures' in place.
The charity was initially set up to help people affected by the damage caused by Storm Desmond in December 2015 and as CERT (UK) Ltd expanded to help former military personnel, victims of natural disasters, homelessness and domestic violence.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not be returning to the UK for Christmas despite being invited to join the rest of the royal family at Sandringham, sources have claimed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are currently living in a $14million mansion in California, are also expected to miss the Queen's annual Christmas lunch for her extended family, which is usually held at Buckingham Palace.
The lunch is expected to be held at Windsor Castle this year, as the Queen continues to recuperate from a bad back which forced her to miss the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.
It's thought that Harry and Meghan turned down the invite because they want to avoid the media coverage that would follow a visit to the UK.
A royal source told Page Six: 'There's a lot that goes into the logistics and the planning of the family Christmas, so of course, staff know that Harry and Meghan are not coming. If they were, they would have communicated it to their family by now.
'But this is Her Majesty's first Christmas without her husband, so one would have hoped they would want to be with her.'
Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the 2021 Salute To Freedom Gala at Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York. They are said to have turned down an invite to celebrate Christmas with the royals
Over Christmas, the Queen is usually joined at Sandringham by Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton, who accompany her to a church service
This year is the Queen's first Christmas without Prince Philip after his death in April.
The monarch, 95, has also suffered with several health problems which forced her to miss events recently and even triggered a short hospital stay.
The last time Harry and Markle were at Sandringham for Christmas was in 2018, a year before Megxit.
Over Christmas, the Queen is usually joined at Sandringham by Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton, who accompany her to a church service.
Buckingham Palace refused to comment on the report. MailOnline has contacted representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
It comes as Meghan made a surprise appearance on the Ellen show in her first major TV interview since her notorious Oprah tell-all alongside Prince Harry amid fears she may be about to drop more bombshells about the Royal Family.
In a clip released ahead of the broadcast in the US tomorrow, the Duchess of Sussex reminisced about being a struggling actress who would arrive for auditions in a bashed up second hand car.
Meghan, wearing a white 1,991 Oscar De La Renta blouse and black trousers, said the Ford Explorer had 'a life of its own' and broken front doors that she couldn't afford to fix so she had to climb 'out of the trunk'.
Her new TV appearance came as a shock today. It was long rumoured that the Duchess would give her first interview to Ellen after she and Harry emigrated in January 2020. But in the end the Sussexes chose their neighbour in Montecito, Oprah Winfrey.
The clip will raise fears in Buckingham Palace that she may be about launch a fresh attack on the royals, who the Sussexes have previously accused of racism towards Archie and allegations they ignored Meghan when she claimed to be suicidal while pregnant and living in London.
Meanwhile, the Queen was seen standing unaided today as she held a face to face audience at Windsor Castle, in her first official engagement since missing Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph after spraining her back.
Meghan Markle, 40, reminisces about being an actress during an appearance on the Ellen show which is set to air tomorrow
The monarch, 95 - dressed in a green, orange and white floral dress and wearing a string of pearls - was pictured sharing a brief conversation with General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the Defence Staff.
The military audience in Windsor's Oak Room - a sitting room that doubles as a private office - was Her Majesty's first in-person audience since she hosted a global investor summit at Windsor on October 19.
Sir Nick walked through the door to be greeted by one of the Queen's dorgis, before approaching the monarch for a chat.
Her Majesty described his upcoming retirement as 'rather sad', to which he replied, 'eight years, it's a long time', before mentioning that his only predecessor to have served long was Lord Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin.
The general added that he thought 'the time had come to move on and do other things.'
Her Majesty was also left unable to attend the Church of England's national assembly yesterday, for the first time in her 69-year reign.
Prince Edward, her youngest son, read out a speech on his mother's behalf at the Church of England synod yesterday.
Her statement read: 'It is hard to believe that it is over 50 years since Prince Philip and I attended the very first meeting of the General Synod.
The Queen was seen standing unaided today as she held a face to face audience at Windsor Castle, in her first official engagement since missing Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph after spraining her back. The monarch 95 - dressed in a green, orange and white floral dress and wearing a string of pearls - was pictured standing as she greeted to Gen Sir Nick in Windsor's Oak Room
'None of us can slow the passage of time; and while we often focus on all that has changed in the intervening years, much remains unchanged, including the Gospel of Christ and his teachings.'
Her Majesty also spoke remotely to delegates at COP26 in Glasgow, urging world leaders to reach decisive climate change deals as she warned 'none of us will live forever'.
Prince Charles was asked about the Queen today on his trip to Jordan. He said: Shes alright, thank you very much. Once you get to 95, its not quite as easy as it used to be. Its bad enough at 73!
The last comment was a reference to his own birthday on Sunday.
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The protests outside Kenosha courthouse continued on Wednesday with the arrival of an armed man calling himself 'Maserati Mike', as jury deliberations entered a second day in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse.
'Mike' arrived in the black sportscar where he takes his nickname, carrying a megaphone and wearing thin-rimmed glasses and a bow-tie.
'Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization,' he chanted, before being told by cops to put his gun away.
'That subject was talked to by officers, and the situation was resolved. The man put his rifle away voluntarily. We did not take any further action,' Kenosha County Sheriff's Department told DailyMail.com.
He complied, then left the court in his sportscar.
There were only a handful of others there, including a woman holding an American flag, but more are expected throughout the day.
On Tuesday, BLM protesters clashed with Rittenhouse fans who made white power signs on the courthouse steps.
Rittenhouse faces life behind bars if found guilty of the charges the jurors are now deliberating - attempted murder, murder and recklessly endangering public safety.
At noon on Wednesday, the jury asked to re-watch portions of video evidence. The defense yesterday submitted a motion for a mistrial that the judge is yet to read.
They asked the judge if they had to watch it in private, or in the courtroom again in front of Rittenhouse, lawyers, the media and the public. On Tuesday, the jury asked for more copies of jury instructions.
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'Maserati Mike' gets out of his black Maserati at Kenosha courthouse on Wednesday. He was the first protester there and chanted through his megaphone 'Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization'
'Mike' was wearing a shirt, bow-tie and slacks, as well as a bullet proof vest. He was carrying an assault rifle and megaphone
Sheriffs deputies rushed to tell him to put his gun away because he was within 1000ft of a school, which he complied with
The activist is one of many who has turned up at the courthouse to support Rittenhouse, who is on trial for murder
There is heightened security at the courthouse both from law enforcement and private security guards hired by media organizations
A protester outside Kenosha County Court House on Wednesday morning as jury deliberations entered a second day
Mike is shown back to his Maserati after chanting through a megaphone. There is increased angst surrounding the trial and verdict, which is expected at any moment this week
A woman waving an American flag outside Kenosha Court House on Wednesday morning as jury deliberations entered a 2nd day
Jacob Blake's uncle, Justin, returned to the courthouse for a second day. It was Blake being shot by a cop that sparked the riot Rittenhouse attended. Blake was armed with a knife when he was shot by a cop who'd been called there by the mother of Blake's children who said 'he's got my kid!'
Rittenhouse is pictured drawing the names of the jurors who will either convict or acquit him from a drum inside the court on Tuesday
Protesters outside Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon as the jury entered its second day of deliberations
A Kyle Rittenhouse supporter wearing a '45' hat in reference to 45th President Donald Trump outside the courthouse on Wednesday
The case has divided the nation and brought back to the surface the debate that tore through cities last summer; Rittenhouse, then 17, shot dead two BLM protesters during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that was triggered by the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
He considers himself a vigilante and won a swell of support from around the country by others who labeled him a hero for defending the city against a BLM 'mob'. Prosecutors tried to paint the teen as a blood-thirsty, trigger-happy, privileged white boy who was given a soft touch by the local cops.
The trial itself even replicated the issues that were being argued over.
Judge Bruce Schroeder has been dubbed a 'racist' by public spectators who think he is biased towards Rittenhouse. When he allowed him to pick jurors' names at random from a barrel, that claim caught fire on social media with some labeling it a 'shameful' example of white privilege on display.
Rittenhouse's fans include Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who last year found themselves at the center of the debate when they chased BLM protesters off their property by waving their own guns.
They posed with people on the courthouse steps yesterday who were making the hand gesture that's known to represent 'white power' - a favorite among white supremacists.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on the case on Monday, saying the country should 'never' have 'vigilantes' on the streets.
Judge Schroeder on Monday told the jury not consider anyone's opinion - even that of the President - who called Rittenhouse a 'white supremacist' last year, before he'd been elected president.
Protesters demanding that Judge Bruce Schroeder be recalled. The judge has been inundated with complaints that he is racist
TUESDAY: Protesters clashed on the steps of the courthouse on Tuesday, with around two dozen activists on each side there
Tuesday: Mark McCloskey, center, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, pose for photo with supporters of Rittenhouse, one of whom did an 'OK' sign that is commonly used by white supremacists to signify 'white power'
Tuesday: Police take security measures as BLM protesters and Kyle Rittenhouse supporters are gathered outside of the Kenosha County Courthouse awaiting verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin
A bartender saved a choking server's life by performing the Heimlich to dislodge a chicken sandwich from his throat at a Wisconsin restaurant.
Joseph Reinhart, 33, was making a pitcher of sweet and sour for the bar when a server named Ashton, 22, began choking on a large piece of a chicken sandwich at Daly's Bar and Grill in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in a video released Tuesday. The event happened in August.
Ashton, who does not want his last name revealed, began furiously shaking his head and gesturing to his throat as Reinhart, dressed in yellow, immediately put down the pitcher and spun him around to begin the Heimlich - a maneuver he has never had any training on, he told DailyMail.com.
'I never took any classes,' he told DailyMail.com. 'You don't have a whole lot of time to think. I had a high sense of anxiety of not knowing what happened and having to do something you've never done.'
He admitted to DailyMail.com that he 'went into adrenaline mode,' but within a few thrusts, Reinhart managed to dislodge some of the sandwich from Ashton's throat, but not all of it.
Joseph Reinhart, 33, (pictured in yellow) immediately started to perform the Heimlich maneuver on the teen. Within a few thrusts, he was able to dislodge a part of the sandwich from Ashton's throat
Newly released footage shows the 22-year-old server being saved by a bartender at a Wisconsin restaurant after he choked on a chicken sandwich in August
He slapped the Ashton's back a few times to make sure it was all out, but the server later shook his head, gesturing that some of the sandwich was still blocking his airways. Roughly 20 seconds later, Reinhart managed to get the rest of it dislodged
He gave a few hard slaps to the man's back, but the Ashton continued to shake his head to indicate it wasn't all out.
'You can see I stopped a few times to see if he got it all out,' he told DailyMail.com. Upon noticing that Ashton was still struggling to breath, he began again.
As Ashton continues to choke, Reinhart becomes more forceful, applying more pressure to his abdomen and lifting him off his feet to get better leverage.
Ashton's mother - who also works at the restaurant, becomes more and more distressed as her son chokes. The security system did not pick up sound.
Joseph Reinhart, 33, (left) saved 22-year-old Ashton's life after he choke on a chicken sandwich. Ashton (right) is reportedly fine and eating chicken sandwiches again
Reinhart (pictured left) is a bartender at Daly's Bar and Grill in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and went back into the kitchen to make sweet and sour for the bar when he noticed Ashton was holding his hands to his throat and choking
Afterward, Ashton collapsed on the floor in distress, covering his face with his arm and hugging his knees (pictured) while Reinhart offered him comforting words
Ashton's mother (pictured center) appeared to be screaming throughout the event as she helplessly watched her son choke. Another server (left) was seen calling 911 and nervously shook her hand while talking to the police
Another server can be seen calling 911 near the fridge and shakes her hand nervously as she talks on the phone.
Reinhart eventually manages to dislodge the rest of the chicken sandwich around 20 seconds after the first chunk.
The pair work at Daly's Bar and Grill in Wisconsin
He gives the server's back a few more pats to ensure his airways are clear before rubbing the clearly distressed Ashton's back and appears to give him words of encouragement.
The server eventually collapses on the floor, as he appears to become emotional following the distressing ordeal.
The 22-year-old covers his face with his arm and hugs his knees. The video cuts off with Reinhart cradling his coworker and appears to be saying comforting words to him.
Ashton is reportedly doing fine and is eating chicken sandwiches again, Viral Hog reported.
Boris Johnson today read the riot act to social media firms as he said they must do more to tackle extreme pornography posted on their networks.
The Prime Minister said 'people are coarsened and degraded by this stuff' and 'it is time the online giants realised that they cannot simply think of themselves as neutral pieces of infrastructure'.
Mr Johnson told senior MPs on the Liaison Committee this afternoon that the firms 'are publishers and they have responsibility for what appears on their systems'.
Meanwhile, the premier also backed calls to make cyber flashing a criminal offence.
Cyber flashing refers to when a person is sent an unsolicited sexual image on their mobile device by a stranger nearby through AirDrop, a file-sharing function on iPhones.
Boris Johnson today read the riot act to social media firms as he said they must do more to tackle extreme pornography posted on their networks
The Government is bringing forward an Online Safety Bill, previously known as the Online Harms Bill, which is designed to make tech firms more accountable for user-generated harmful content hosted on their platforms.
Caroline Nokes, the chairman of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, told Mr Johnson that 'one of the cultures underpinning male violence against women is the easy access to extreme, violent, degrading pornography'.
She asked: 'Can we have any confidence that the online harms legislation that you have said we are going to get to vote on before Christmas will do anything to address that?'
Mr Johnson replied: 'It is clear that people are coarsened and degraded by this stuff and we will see what we can do.
'The technological difficulties are quite extreme but it is up to the online giants to make sure that they don't have this stuff on their systems.
'We will take the steps necessary to hold them to account and that is what the Online Harms Bill is designed to do.'
Asked if the new legislation will force companies to take action against such material, the PM said: 'It is time the online giants realised that they cannot simply think of themselves as neutral pieces of infrastructure.
'They are publishers and they have responsibility for what appears on their systems and the Online Harms Bill is designed to give effect to that distinction.'
The new laws could see executives held criminally liable for safety breaches on their platforms.
Currently those sanctions could be introduced two years after the legislation is implemented but there are calls for the Government to move more quickly.
Mr Johnson told senior MPs on the Liaison Committee this afternoon that the firms 'are publishers and they have responsibility for what appears on their systems'
Mr Johnson told Julian Knight, the chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, he shared 'anxiety about the deferred sanctions that we are currently looking at and let me take that away'.
He added: 'I think that we want the strongest possible deterrent and the strongest possible sanctions against people who run online companies who are allowing a torrent of hateful stuff to appear on their networks.'
Mr Knight also asked the PM if he believes cyber flashing should be made illegal.
Mr Johnson replied: 'I don't care whether flashing is cyber or not it should be illegal.'
Asked if the Online Safety Bill will be updated to reflect that, the PM said: 'If you can draft something that will capture it, let's have a look at it.'
Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, the first person to call 911 after Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot by Alec Baldwin on the film's set last month, broke down in tears today as she announced she is filing a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and other producers of the low-budget Western movie.
The suit names names 22 defendants associated with the film including Baldwin, Rust producers, six production companies - El Dorado Pictures, Thomasville Pictures, Short Porch Pictures, Brittany House Pictures, 3rd Shift Media and Streamline Global - armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, First Assistant Director David Halls and others.
Mitchell was standing close to the Director of Photography, Halyna Hutchins, when the bullet fired from Baldwin's gun killed her and then injured the director Joel Souza.
The suit claims assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm. It also states that the scene being shot did not require a gun to be fired.
'I ran out and called 911 and said 'Bring everybody, send everybody,'' Mitchell said during a press conference. 'This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.'
Mitchell said she was standing less than four feet away from Hutchins when she was shot and was hit by residue from that bullet.
'I will never forget what happened on the set of Rust that day,' she said. 'I relive the shooting and the sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again.'
Mitchell said she was left depressed and 'frightened of the future'.
'This violent tragedy has taken away the joy in my life,' she added.
She said she wants to prevent what happened on the set from happening to anyone else.
Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, the first person to call 911 after Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot by Alec Baldwin on the film's set last month, broke down in tears today as she announced she is filing a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and other producers of the low-budget Western movie
Mitchell and Allred laid out their lawsuit - which alleges assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm
Mitchell was standing close to the Director of Photography, Halyna Hutchins, when the bullet fired from Baldwin's gun killed her and then injured the director Joel Souza
Gloria Allred (L) puts an arm around Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell as they walk from a press conference after filing the lawsuit
Allred alleged that live ammunition was brought to the set, that the assistant director improperly handed Baldwin the gun; Baldwin knew that the gun should've never been given to him and that he could not rely on any statement by the AD about whether or not the gun was safe to use.
'I relive the shooting and sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again,' Mitchell - a 40-year industry veteran - said, in tears recalling her memory of the incident.
'Alec Baldwin intentionally, without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired the loaded gun even though the upcoming scene to be filmed did not call for the cocking and firing of the firearm,' Allred said. 'Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it and without having the armorer do so.'
'Mr. Baldwin cannot hide behind the Assistant Director to attempt to excuse the fact that he did not check the gun himself,' continues the complaint from Mitchell, who was in the church location on the Bonanza Creek Ranch when Baldwin's 'quick draw' rehearsal turned tragic.
The attorney added that Baldwin should have assumed the gun was loaded until it was checked that it was not loaded.
Allred said last month that her client has evidence which will be 'helpful in this investigation' and has been interviewed by law enforcement and that even if the assistant director told him the gun was fine, he should not have used it based on that advice.
'I will never forget what happened on the set of Rust that day,' Mitchell said. 'I relive the shooting and the sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again.'
Svetnoy shared the final photo of Halyna Hutchins (pictured holding the camera) on set in the church just moments before she was shot dead
Director Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust
Actor Alec Baldwin is one of several producers named in the lawsuit and specifically called out by Allred
'We are conducting our own investigation of what happened because there are many unanswered questions,' Allred said at the time. 'Mamie has been interviewed by the Sheriff's Department. She has information and evidence which she believes will be helpful in this investigation.
The lawsuit claimed that the actions that led to the shooting 'do not constitute simple negligence' by the producers and Baldwin.
She also accuses Baldwin of being careless and ignoring industry norms by not checking the gun; and that Baldwin ignored safety protocols.
All guns and ammunition are supposed to be secured throughout the production and the armorer is supposed to stay around all guns; instead, Allred said, ammunition and guns were left unattended by the armorer.
In a statement, Allred said Mitchell was standing near Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza when they were shot and immediately ran out of the church.
'Halyna was a friend and close colleague of Mamie,' Allred said in a statement late last month. 'She is devastated by the loss of her friend who was an extraordinary woman. Mamie recently attended the vigil for Halyna and her heart goes out to Halyna's husband and son to whom she has spoken.'
Allred said her client as 'traumatized' and said they are conducting their own investigation into what happened.
The experienced crew member also sued 24-year-old armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (left) and the movie's assistant director David Hall (right), who told Baldwin that the gun was cold
Hutchins' October 19, 2021 Instagram post showed cast members and staffers, including Baldwin alongside Hutchins herself and armorer Gutierrez-Reed (circled left to right) on the set of Rust in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Baldwin, near his Vermont property on November 1 (left), and on the Rust set before the shooting (right)
The head of lighting on the film filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, 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,' Svetnoy's 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 October 21 shooting.
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.
Svetnoy (left), held dying Halyna Hutchins (right) in his arms after she was shot
Attorneys and representatives for the defendants did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment on the suit.
Gutierrez Reed's 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 doesn't 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 October 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.
The front page of the lawsuit filed on Mamie Mitchell's behalf by attorney Gloria Allred
Surveillance footage captured the moment nine thieves smashed the glass display of a California jewelry store during a brazen robbery.
Police say that at around 7:30 pm on Monday a group of nine people entered Iceberg Diamonds jewelry store in Sun Valley Mall and began smashing the glass display cases and stealing jewels.
Security footage shows the large group, all dressed in head-to-toe black outfits and masks except for one robber in all white, simultaneously smashing the glass display repeatedly with hammers.
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Footage shows the group, all dressed in head-to-toe black outfits and masks except for one robber in all white, smashing the glass display with hammers
Police said a group of nine people entered Iceberg Diamonds jewelry store in Sun Valley Mall and began smashing the glass display cases and stealing jewels
Mall employee Edwin Garcia, who works at a Claire's store located directly across from Iceberg Diamonds says he witnessed the incident.
'A bunch of group of people came in maybe there was six or seven people with hammers and smashed the windows,' Garcia told ABC 7 News.
Police say jewelry store employees attempted to intervene but they were 'kept back' by the hammer-wielding thieves who made out with all the jewelry before police arrived.
Garcia said he witnessed an employee try to step in but then stop himself.
The glass display, which was smashed repeatedly with hammers, is seen in the aftermath of the robbery
Police are still searching for the thieves who robbed Iceberg Diamonds jewelry store (pictured) in Sun Valley Mall
'I think one of the workers tried to grab someone but I guess he chose not to because you never know what can happen,' he said. 'Then they just ran away super quick.'
Customers inside the mall reported hearing gunshots but police say that it was actually the sound of the hammers breaking the glass and no shots were fired during the robbery.
Garcia also thought he heard a gunshot during the chaos.
'At first I thought it was a gunshot, it was just the hammers,' he said. 'For me personally, I am staying out of it.'
Police are still searching for the culprits.
The incident comes amid a wave of thefts in the Bay Area.
As of October 31 San Francisco police have received reports of 810 burglaries or attempted burglaries this year in the jurisdiction of the Mission District Police station, marking a 13 percent increase from the same time last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Jacob Blake, the black man whose shooting by Kenosha police last year set off the riots during which Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third, is rehabilitating his injuries in Chicago.
Blake, 30, is learning to walk again, according to his uncle, Justin Blake, who has been a vocal protester outside the courthouse in Kenosha where Rittenhouse is due to learn his fate.
He has bad days, theres no doubt, but hes so grateful to be alive, Justin Blake, a 52-year-old Chicago resident, told The New York Times.
Justin Blake said that his nephew has not been following the Rittenhouse trial, which went to the jury Tuesday. Instead, he has focused on his new T-shirt printing business.
He needs to be focusing on himself, focusing on his children and his new normal, Justin Blake said of his nephew.
A GoFundMe campaign started by Jacob Blakes mother, Julia Jackson, has raised more than $2.3million.
Jacob Blake (seen above after he was hospitalized in Milwaukee) has been rehabbing the spinal cord injuries he suffered as a result of the shooting at the hands of Kenosha, Wisconsin police on August 23, 2020
Blake, 30, was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting in August of last year
Blake's shooting sparked protests and widespread rioting in Kenosha. Two days after the shooting, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third. Jurors on Wednesday were deliberating Rittenhouse's fate as prosecutors charged him with murder
The money is expected to go toward his medical care. It is not known which facility in Chicago is treating Jacob Blake.
DailyMail.com has sought comment from the Blake family and his attorneys.
Blake was shot after officers responded to a 'family trouble' around 5:15 p.m. August 23, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Blake had a warrant for his arrest at the time of his shooting, and was struck by seven bullets after turning toward a cop while holding a knife.
The attorney for officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot Blake, has said Blake was holding a knife during the encounter and that the officer believed he was trying to kidnap the kids in the backseat of the SUV he was near when police saw him.
Sheskey was placed on administrative leave but returned to work March 31; he was not charged, according to the Kenosha Police Department.
In November 2020, Blake had pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct and domestic abuse from a previous incident, and was sentenced to two years' probation. As part of the deal, one count of criminal trespassing and one count of third-degree sexual assault and domestic abuse were dropped, according to NBC News.
A probable cause statement from May 3, 2020, said a complainant met officers crying, in a nightgown saying Blake had woken her up demanding his things then grabbed her between her legs. She told police her car and debit card were missing after he left.
The Rittenhouse shootings took place during riots on August 25, 2020 - two days after Jacob Blake was shot. Jurors in the Rittenhouse trial began the second day of deliberations on Wednesday. They were unable to reach a verdict Tuesday.
About two hours into deliberations on the second day, jurors asked to view video presented at the trial and the judge said he would determine the procedures to allow that.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger said they should be able to view any video they wanted as many times as they wanted, while defense attorney Mark Richards said he would object to the jury viewing video taken by a drone that prosecutors said showed Rittenhouse pointing his gun at protesters before the shootings.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge for using an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men - Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum - and wound a third - Gaige Grosskreutz.
Blake says he was able to stand up in October of last year, saying his pain felt like his legs were sliding 'through a woodchipper'
A GoFundMe campaign started by Jacob Blakes mother, Julia Jackson, has raised more than $2.3million
The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot. Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors argued he provoked the violence.
The case has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over guns, racial-justice protests, vigilantism and law and order.
His shooting touched off protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August, after a summer that saw nationwide protests over other officer-involved shootings of black people across the country
Some of the protests became violent. Above, police stand near a building on fire in Kenosha
Blake said of the unrest: 'I didn't agree with what they were doing, but I understood'
In an interview with CNN this past August, Jacob Blake weighed in on the Rittenhouse case, saying that if he were black, he would have met the same fate as he did.
Blake said Rittenhouse's race may have played a part in how differently he was treated by police.
'That was like a kick right in the you know what,' he said.
'I was angry, I was furious, and I felt like I had every right to be.'
'For the reasons they said they shot me, they had every reason to shoot him, but they didn't. Honestly if his skin color was different, and I'm not prejudiced or a racist, he probably would have been labeled a terrorist.'
The jury in the Rittenhouse trial appeared to be overwhelmingly white. Prospective jurors were not asked to identify their race during the selection process, and the court did not provide a racial breakdown.
As the jury deliberated, dozens of protesters - some for Rittenhouse, some against - stood outside the courthouse.
Some talked quietly with those on the other side, while others shouted insults.
Justin Blake, Jacob Blake's uncle, has been protesting outside the courthouse during the Rittenhouse trial. He is seen above outside the courthouse on Tuesday waving a Pan-African flag
He has bad days, theres no doubt, but hes so grateful to be alive, Justin Blake (seen above in Kenosha on Tuesday) said
At the time of the shooting, Jacob Blake had a warrant for his arrest for charges including sexual assault and domestic violence
One woman could be heard repeatedly calling some Rittenhouse supporters 'white supremacists.'
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who faced criticism over his response to the Kenosha protests in 2020, urged calm as the jury deliberated.
He announced last week that 500 members of the National Guard would stand ready for duty in Kenosha if needed.
'Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state,' Evers tweeted.
He added: 'I ask all those who choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in every community to do so safely and peacefully.'
Justin Blake reacted angrily to Evers decision to deploy the National Guard, calling the governor a coward and a racist.
He said that Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha were positively focused.'
The governor is a coward and a racist to send out National Guards,' Justin Blake told the New York Post.
'The only National Guard he's bringing out is for the people supporting Rittenhouse, while we'll be celebrating that somebody's going to jail, they'll be quite upset.'
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, killed two people during the unrest in Kenosha after Blake's death
He also injured one other person. He faces two felony charges and is out on $2 million bail
BLM protesters and counter-demonstrators supporting Rittenhouse have been arguing outside the courthouse in recent days.
Rittenhouse supporters said Jacob Blake should not have resisted arrest on August 23 of last year.
'He shouldn't have resisted arrest. He should have stopped,' said one woman who was carrying a sign that read: 'BLM and Antifa are here 2 Intimidate.'
'Are you kidding me? His back is turned. He is no threat to the cops,' a BLM supporter responded.
The large protests that some had anticipated did not materialize during the trial's testimony phase.
On most days, only a few demonstrators gathered on the courthouse steps, and the high fence that protected the building during last years unrest is gone.
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Thomas Binger said that Rittenhouse was a 'wannabe soldier' who set the deadly chain of events in motion by bringing a rifle to a protest and pointing it at protesters just before he was chased.
But Rittenhouse lawyer Mark Richards countered that Rittenhouse was ambushed by a 'crazy person' Rosenbaum.
Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum chased him down and made a grab for his rifle, causing him to fear the weapon was going to be used against him.
His account of Rosenbaum's behavior was largely corroborated by video and some of the prosecution's own witnesses.
As for Huber, he was gunned down after he was seen on video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard.
And Grosskreutz admitted he had his own gun pointed at Rittenhouse when he was shot.
In his instructions to the jury, Schroeder said that to accept Rittenhouse's claim of self-defense, the jurors must find that he believed there was an unlawful threat to him and that the amount of force he used was reasonable and necessary.
All fifty Senate Republicans are launching a formal challenge to President Biden's vaccine requirement for private businesses, as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) order is being challenged in court.
Indiana Sen. Mike Braun leads his 49 GOP colleagues in filing a resolution of disapproval against Biden's order that all companies with over 100 employees must require vaccines or weekly Covid-19 testing.
The disapproval resolution is guaranteed a floor vote, which Braun says he will set for early December. The resolution is filibuster-proof, meaning it needs only pass by a simple majority. If one Democrat signs on, the resolution would then need to be approved by the House.
Indiana Sen. Mike Braun leads his 49 GOP colleagues in filing a resolution of disapproval against Biden's order that all companies with over 100 employees must require vaccines or weekly Covid-19 testing
Earlier this month a three-member panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a stay on the OSHA rule, ordering the Department of Labor to take no further steps to implement its mandate, which was meant to be implemented January 4, 2022.
The rule is set to encompass 84 million workers, and employers could face fines of up to $136,532 for 'willful violations.'
The resolution was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee before the full floor vote.
While the resolution is unlikely to pass Congress where Democrats control both houses, it could serve as political fodder for Republicans seeking to unseat vulnerable Democrats in the midterm elections. All senators will have to go on record being in favor or against sweeping vaccine mandates coming down from the federal level.
Vaccine mandates have been highly controversial throughout the US
'Republicans are united against President Bidens vaccine mandate for businesses, but this federal overreach is not a partisan issue, and the mass firings and worsening labor shortages that will result from this mandate are affecting Americans in all 50 states,' Braun said in a statement.
'I encourage Americans to make their voice heard to their representatives on this issue, and we welcome any Democratic member of the Senate to join us in overturning this unconstitutional mandate causing turmoil across the country.'
'Proud to stand up against President Biden's unconstitutional vaccine mandate on private businesses that will jeopardize the strength of our workforce and make hard-working Americans choose between putting food on the table and compromising their principles,' moderate Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of the resolution.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) promised to 'vigorously defend' Biden's vaccine mandate after it was held up by federal court.
Circuit Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the prevailing opinion that the mandate goes too far, and that he has 'grave' concerns about whether the edict is legal or constitutional.
'The mandate is staggeringly overbroad,' the opinion said. 'The mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers).'
Biden administration officials are planning to request the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reimplement the mandate after it was temporarily halted by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Biden administration has argued the mandate is imperative for saving lives, at a time when over 1,000 deaths are still attributed to Covid-19 each day.
At least 27 states have filed legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts after OSHA released its rules on November 4.
Four out of five Americans age 12 and up have had at least one Covid-19 shot. Of all ages, about 69% of Americans have had one jab and 59% are fully vaccinated. Nearly 31 million people have gotten their booster shot since August, when a third vaccine dose was recommended for those with compromised immune systems.
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Two people were arrested on Wednesday evening as violent scuffles broke out outside the courtroom in Kenosha where the 12-person jury are deliberating the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Tensions rose when a 20-year-old man wearing a 'F**k Kyle' T-shirt, Bart Simpson backpack, and Chicago Bulls beanie was arrested after scuffling with prominent Rittenhouse supporter Emily Cahill.
The two traded insults before the man threw a protest sign at Cahill.
He and fellow anti-Rittenhouse protestors tried to wrestle the sign back and as he was being pulled off Cahill he sucker-punched one reporter in the jaw.
Other protestors tried unsuccessfully to lead the man away and calm him down, but he then went on to strike several other people including a DailyMail.com photographer before being pinned to the ground and hauled away in a paddy wagon.
He was heard calling for his mother as the vehicle pulled away.
Justin Blake, uncle of Jacob Blake, marches with supporters, following the second day of jury deliberations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Wednesday
Supporters of the Jacob Blake family hold a moment of silence following the second day of jury deliberations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, on Wednesday evening
A community organizer talks with supporters of the Jacob Blake family, who gathered to eat together following the second day of jury deliberations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial
A 20-year-old man in a Chicago Bulls hat holds up a sign outside the courthouse, demanding Rittenhouse be convicted. The man later got into scuffles with Rittenhouse supporters and was arrested for disorderly conduct and battery
Wearing a Bart Simpson backpack, a protester calling for Kyle Rittenhouse's conviction scuffles with an opponent on the steps of the courthouse on Wednesday
A BLM supporter is seen scuffling with pro-Rittenhouse demonstrator Emily Cahill on Wednesday
The man in the Bart Simpson backpack is pictured on Wednesday being arrested by Kenosha police following the scuffle
Police arrested the man who hit the cameraman, as well as another woman. Both of them were taken to a nearby police van.
The man, a 20-year-old, was arrested for battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest, according to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department.
The 34-year-old woman was arrested for disorderly conduct.
'Yes I got a little hurt so I had to leave,' Cahill told Fox News.
'I'm going to try and be back tomorrow.'
The flurry of violence as dark fell came after a calm day, which saw supporters of both sides had been sharing pizza as they awaited the verdict for the second day.
Inside court, however, Wednesday saw high drama as Rittenhouse's defense team made a new request for a mistrial based on the controversial drone footage that they described as a 'linchpin' of the state's case against him.
Addressing the court, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said: 'We're talking about a potential life sentence here and it has to be addressed.'
Chirafisi made his request for a mistrial without prejudice this time acknowledging that the state could and will retry the case.
The jury has now asked to review the controversial footage, as well as the best views of all of the shootings, from six video clips, that they will be able to watch and re-watch as many times as they like.
Justin Blake (center), whose nephew Jacob was shot by police on August 23, 2020 - sparking the Kenosha riots - is seen on Wednesday night leading a protest outside the courthouse
The 20-year-old man with the Bart Simpson backpack is seen outside the Kenosha courthouse on Wednesday
The 20-year-old can be seen grabbing at a pro-Rittenhouse demonstrator's sign
He then grappled with a man wearing a black backpack, on the steps of the courthouse
Emily Cahill, a Rittenhouse supporter, tries to keep a grip on her sign as the 20-year-old man attempts to wrestle it from her
The young man continues tussling with Cahill, trying to get her sign
Police are seen arresting the 20-year-old with the Bart Simpson backpack - he was arrested for battery and disorderly conduct
Officers from Kenosha police form a barricade as the 20-year-old is handcuffed
A man is pictured being pushed to the ground amid the chaos
A second person is pictured being wrestled to the ground by Kenosha police
A Kenosha officer tries to calm down an agitated woman outside the courthouse
The second person is seen being detained by officers
Speaking to the point that had dominated today's proceedings even before their request to re-watch the footage, Chirafisi said that it needed to be addressed and that they would have tried the case differently had they possessed evidence of the same quality as the state.
According to Chirafisi there is no getting around the fact that the defense has been hamstrung because they did not have the highest quality version of one of the most significant videos played to the jury, while the state did.
'We would have done this case in a little bit different manner [had we had it].'
He continued, 'We didn't have the quality of evidence that the state had until the case had been closed, the parties had rested, and we were going to closings.
'We've talked to Mr Rittenhouse and I'm going to be asking the court for a mistrial based upon if we're really trying to get to the heart of this, I've watched the video and I can tell you what I think, but it doesn't matter what I think because we can't put it to the jury anymore.'
Kyle Rittenhouse's defense team made a new request for a mistrial Wednesday
The jury in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse asked if it must return to the courtroom to watch video footage or if they can do that in private. Judge Bruce Schroeder said Wednesday that he 'hasn't even had a chance to read the motion to dismiss' filed by the defense yesterday
Standing to defend the state's position Assistant District Attorney James Kraus said that he thought they were 'putting too much emphasis on a technical glitch.'
But he admitted, for the first time, that the video that had been sent to the defense was compressed.
In a brief break it appeared that the state had realized that the video file had been compressed when Detective Martin Howard emailed it to Kraus - who then forwarded it to defense attorney, Natalie Wisco.
Chirafisi said, 'If you're a prosecutor, your job is fairness and being a truth seeker.
'It's not debatable that it's not fair what happened.
'We can sit here all day and say it's been played, we didn't know there's another version. How is that reasonable?'
Judge Schroeder decided to allow the jurors to view the footage but told the prosecution: 'I've persistently warned the state that there's a day of reckoning with respect to these things. I had my qualms.
'I forewarned you and you pressed with this I let it in. My view on it now is we might as well follow through with it and if they've got everything correct and it's reliable we're okay.
'But if it isn't it's going to be ugly.'
The defense stated it has found evidence that the program used to enhance the footage is not for use in law enforcement, nor regarded as forensically reliable.
Shortly after 3pm all parties returned to the court as they had come to an agreement over how the drone footage should be viewed over defense objections to it being viewed at all.
The judge cleared the courtroom as jurors viewed it on the large monitors there rather than on a laptop in the jury room. A bailiff was positioned at the door.
As he told everyone to get out, Judge Schroeder warned: 'If you leave anything electronic in here be sure to say goodbye because you will never see it again.'
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and other counts
Lawyers for Rittenhouse filed their motion for mistrial with prejudice based on this and several other grounds. According to a motion filed yesterday by the defense, 'The problem is the prosecution gave the defense a compressed version of the video'
Earlier on Wednesday the jury asked to see three separate videos, all of which relate to Rittenhouse's shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz.
They asked for footage from Grosskreutz's own livestream that night as well as two other videos that capture his shooting.
They have asked to view one presented by the defense's expert witness Dr. James Black - in both regular and slow motion and up until 10 seconds after Grosskreutz was shot.
Grosskreutz admitted on the stand that he had been pointing his gun at Rittenhouse when the teen pulled the trigger on him a crucial point for the defense's claim of self-defense.
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 last week
Judge Bruce Schroeder felt compelled to again warn the state that their dependence on the controversial drone footage that the defense has accused them of withholding, is a 'high risk strategy' that could see their case collapse.
He said the state's case could 'fall like a house of cards' if the footage proves to be forensically unsound.
Schroeder had earlier admitted that he had not even had a chance to read the motion for a mistrial filed by the defense, which argued in part that the state failed to provide high-definition drone footage central to their case in a timely fashion.
He returned to the court having done so.
Turning to address the matter he asked Assistant District Attorney James Kraus to explain the state's position.
As revealed by DailyMail.com, the defense stated in their motion that the prosecution provided them with a file that was 4MB in size while they possessed a file that was 11MB and provided that one to the state's crime lab for enhancement.
Kraus insisted that he had emailed the same file and said that it must have been compressed by the Android phone to which it was sent or by the defense's email.
It was a version that the defense robustly rejected.
Defense attorney Natalie Wisco addressed the court for the first time in proceedings.
She explained that she had never viewed the footage on her phone and that the file name and creation time of the footage supplied by the state on November 5 was different to that of the high-definition footage of which they only learned later.
The difference was only exposed in court Friday, she explained, when the state did not have an exhibit ready for the judge to view and so she played the defense's version - which was markedly different in quality.
'This is your best picture?' asked the judge of the blurry image a request that prompted Kraus's admission that they had better.
On Wednesday Wisco was blunt.
'There is no way that what ADA Kraus is saying is true because the file name [we received] should have been exactly the same as the one provided to the state crime lab,' she said.
Kraus hit back, saying that 'as an officer of the court' he was 'insulted' at the allegation that he would lie.
But in a startling move Judge Schroeder silenced him, saying: 'We are going to have to take testimony under oath.
'This is going to require expert testimony under oath as to what the facts are.
'I re-iterate my [earlier] comment that given the cloudy picture about this particular exhibit this is a high-risk strategy or the state.
'I was queasy about this from the beginning and I'm only queasier about it now.'
Kraus suggested that the relevant exhibits could be downloaded onto a thumb drive and the courtroom turned into the jury room so that jurors could watch it under the supervision of court officers.
He said that the court would have to be cleared and searched for any devices that might record deliberations.
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
James Armstrong, a photographic expert in the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, testified about drone video during the trial last week
Defense attorney Mark Richards said on Wednesday: 'I don't know what exhibits the jurors wish to see.
'We have a real problem with them seeing the drone footage.
'We have a motion pending based upon disclosure. If they want to see that, that's just tainting the jury further.'
As revealed by DailyMail.com the state only provided a full-size file of the footage in question on Saturday November 13, two days ahead of closing.
Richards' objection sparked the judge to respond to comments that he claimed he had seen in the media from experts expressing surprise that he had not ruled on the defense's motion for a mistrial.
He said: 'I haven't even had a chance to read the motion to dismiss. I just got it yesterday and I really think that before reading I should let the state respond.'
He said that motions should be 'taken under advisement' unless they were 'crystal clear.'
Warming to his theme Judge Schroeder continued, 'It's a shame that irresponsible statements are being made. As long as I'm talking about it [let's talk about] the business of people not being identified as 'victims.'
Judge Schroeder's ruling that the men shot by Rittenhouse could not be described as 'victims' caused a great deal of backlash for the judge.
DailyMail.com revealed that there was a huge swell in the hate mail he has received as a result.
On Wednesday he said: 'How would you like to be put on trial for a crime and the judge introduced the case to the jury by introducing you as the defendant and the person who's accusing you as the victim?
'Is it so difficult to use the term 'complaining witness'?'
Prosecutors in the Kenosha shooter trial withheld evidence from the defense that was 'at the center of their case,' only sharing the high-definition drone video footage (pictured) on which they have hung their prosecution after the trial had concluded
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger played the enhanced drone footage to the jury during his closing statements and claimed that it showed Rittenhouse 'pointing his gun' at people an assertion that opened the door to the state claiming Rittenhouse provoked the violence of the night of August 25, 2020
The judge also addressed the criticism he had received over the unusual method with which the alternate jurors had been selecting Rittenhouse drew their numbers from a tumbler in court.
Schroeder said he had come up with that method two decades ago when trying a murder case in Racine.
'There was a black defendant and 13 jurors - one of whom was black,' he said.
'The clerk drew the name out of the tumbler, and it was the only black [juror].
'It was okay, but it was a bad optic I thought. I think people feel better when they have control.'
Before returning to the matter in hand the judge went onto defend all five attorneys trying this case as 'very reputable and competent' and though he did not go into specifics he said it thought it 'shameful some of the things that are being done to these people.'
He described some coverage as 'grossly irresponsible' and said: 'I'm going to think long and hard about live television of a trial again.
'When I see what's being done it's really quite frightening: frightening. That's the word for it.'
Turning his focus back on the jurors' question, the judge ruled with the attorneys' agreement that they should return to the courtroom to watch any exhibits.
As to how many times they are allowed to watch that video there was some discussion.
Judge Schroeder felt that limiting the number of times the jurors can re-watch any footage or look at any still images was an 'insult' to their intelligence.
Richards disagreed saying that watching or re-watching 'three or four times' was okay but that watching without limit could lead to an undue emphasis being placed on one piece of evidence.
The judge allowed the jury to watch on Wednesday afternoon, but will make a final decision on how frequently they can re-watch it once the defense has had an opportunity to research legal precedents.
Veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil said it was a 'huge mistake' for him to become the face of GB News, and branded the channel as a 'Ukip tribute band'.
The former BBC presenter said the channel was still haunted by the 'shambles' of its launch and ran the risk of 'falling into irrelevance and obscurity'.
Speaking at Freeview's Outside the Box event, he discussed his short time at the channel with interviewer and Sky News' Political Editor Beth Rigby.
Referring to his brief stint with GB News, he said: 'The big mistake I made, and it was a huge mistake, and it did cause pain and aggravation, was that I put my name and face on the tin and yet quickly discovered that I really had no say in what was going into that tin.'
Neil said he was in 'no rush' to return to television but that he did not want GB News to be 'the full stop in my broadcast career'.
He said his two main issues with GB News were its production values and ideological stance, citing Nigel Farage being given a nightly show months after launch.
Veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil said on Wednesday it was a 'huge mistake' for him to become the face of GB News, and branded the channel as a 'Ukip tribute band'
'My fundamental mistake was to get into bed with people who I thought shared my vision, but didn't actually,' he said.
'What made it very stressful and very difficult was that in the public domain, understandably and quite rightly, it was Andrew Neil's GB News, it was Andrew Neil's channel, that was the brand of it.
'And yet it was doing things ... that were not me.'
'It became apparent to me as the months of this year went on that a combination of the board and the founding members, that this was basically a Ukip tribute band, and that's what they really wanted.'
Mr Neil added that GB News' disastrous launch in June 2021 would be remembered.
'(The channel) has a danger, if it doesn't get on top of its production value and its ratings, it will just slide into irrelevance and obscurity,' he said.
'Most launches don't go very well, but there are some launches which go well enough to allow recovery.
'There are other launches that go so badly they haunt you for months and months afterwards.
'I think GB News is still haunted by the shambles of the launch, and that will take a long while to overcome.
Pictured: Presenter Andrew Neil prepares to broadcast from a studio during the launch event for new TV channel GB News at The Point in Paddington, London in June 2021
Pictured: GB News presenters (left to right) Kirsty Gallacher, Andrew Doyle, Neil Oliver, Darren McCaffrey, Alex Phillips, Rebecca Hutson, Simon McCoy, Nana Akua, Liam Halligan, Gloria De Piero, Dan Wootton, Andrew Neil, Michelle Dewberry, Mercy Muroki, Tom Harwood, Colin Brazier, Inaya Folarin Iman, Alastair Stewart. GB News launches on Sunday evening with a special programme called Welcome To GB News on Sunday June 13, 2021
Speaking of experiencing technical problems while broadcasting for the channel he added: 'It's not just embarrassing, it's heart-stopping when you're ... about to go live and you're told in your ear every single link has gone down.'
But Mr Neil admitted that even at such a late stage in his career with extensive experience in the industry it was still possible to make mistakes and learn from them.
'You think you know everything because you've done everything and you don't, and you can still make what was, on my part, probably the single biggest mistake of my career, to get into that position.'
On returning to broadcast journalism, he said: 'I'm in no rush to come back to television at all. I'd like to do something on the TV front ... for one major reason, and it's entirely self-serving.
'I don't want GB news to be the full stop in my broadcasting career.'
The presenter, who was also chairman at GB news, said he still believed that there was in Britain still a gap in the market for a 'centre right' news alternative, without the need to drift towards 'Fox News to the right'.
Andrew Neil launched GB News in June with Neil saying it would not 'slavishly follow the existing news agenda' but quit with this fleeting Tweet in September
However, he said that the BBC under Director-General Tim Davie was right to put impartiality at the heart of its news coverage.
Asked whether he would return to the BBC having held discussions with Mr Davie, Neil said that while no roles are immediately available at the broadcaster, the door remains open.
While he likely held political beliefs to the right of most BBC journalists, he said he would 'leave those at the studio door' and give politicians from all sides of the spectrum and 'equal opportunity thumping.'
Neil also criticised 'mainstream' UK news channels for - in his eyes - failing to challenge stories that appeal to more 'liberal' sensibilities of journalists and editors.
'We're no longer journalists, we've become the PR department of Greenpeace,' Neil said, specifically of the coverage of COP26 summit in Glasgow in recent weeks.
The Government was facing new fury today over PPE deals after claiming it had lost the official record of a phone call between a health minister, the former MP Owen Paterson and Randox, the company at the heart of his lobbying shame.
MPs were told today that officials have been 'unable to locate a formal note' of what was said during a call involving Lord Bethell in April last year regarding equipment.
Labour wants to force the Government to release minutes of meetings between ministers, officials and the diagnostics company amid concerns over how nearly 600 million of Covid testing contracts were awarded to the firm.
Randox is the diagnostics company which employed Mr Paterson, the former Tory cabinet minister who resigned as MP for North Shropshire during the Westminster sleaze row, as a consultant.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said he was 'very happy to publish all the details of the Randox contracts, which have been investigated by the National Audit Office already'.
Health minister Gillian Keegan later echoed the Government's desire to review the information it holds and publish what is deemed 'in scope' of Labour's request.
But she prompted a furious reaction by disclosing the lack of a formal note related to the conference call on April 9 last year.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner suggested the lack of minutes was in breach of the ministerial code.
Randox is the diagnostics company which employed Mr Paterson (right) as a consultant. The former Tory cabinet minister who resigned as MP for North Shropshire during the Westminster sleaze row over his work
MPs were told today that officials have been 'unable to locate a formal note' of what was said during a call involving Lord Bethell (pictured with Boris Johnson) in April last year regarding equipment.
Speaking in the Commons, Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael asked Ms Keegan to publish the minutes of the telephone conference call.
Ms Keegan, in her reply, said: 'In terms of the minutes, I think we've said we will publish things here in the library.'
She later said: 'We will review what information is held, that's in scope, and we will come back to Parliament and deposit them in the libraries of the House. We will commit to do that.'
Pressed further by Labour MP Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) on the Randox meeting, Ms Keegan said: 'The meeting he refers to was a courtesy call from the minister to Randox to discuss RNA extraction kits.
'That was declared on the ministerial register of calls and meetings, and we have been unable to locate a formal note of that meeting, but all the other notes that are available with regard to this - and that meeting, by the way, was after any contracts were let with Randox.'
Raising a point of order, Labour former minister Dame Angela Eagle said the minister had made 'astonishing' revelations to MPs about there being 'meetings with no minutes that are official, involve Government minister, and she is unable to locate a copy of what is clearly a meeting that happened'.
Another Labour MP shouted: 'Staggering.'
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he hoped the ministerial officials would look into this, adding: 'I would expect that Government meetings that take place with people around would always be minuted.
'If not, I think it opens up another question and I don't want that question to be opened up - I'd sooner for it to be answered.'
Opening the debate, Ms Rayner said: 'We already know that the former member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson) broke the rules on lobbying, we already know that Randox was awarded nearly 600 million of taxpayers' money without a tender.
'We already know that Randox were awarded a second 347 million contract, having failed to deliver on a previous 133 million contract, and we already know this decision was made after a conference call involving the then-member for North Shropshire and the health minister Lord Bethell.
'What we don't know is what happened in those meetings, who else was present, what was discussed and what was decided?'
Health minister Gillian Keegan prompted a furious reaction by disclosing the lack of a formal note related to the conference call on April 9 last year
Randox said it would 'co-operate fully' after Labour's motion attempting to force the Government to release minutes of meetings between ministers, officials and the firm was approved unopposed.
A Randox spokesman said: 'Randox will be pleased to co-operate fully in laying before the House all the material required.
'Public disclosure will demonstrate the efficiency and value for money provided by Randox through contacts awarded in full compliance with Government regulations at a time of national crisis.
'Contrary to much of what has been written and broadcast, lobbying played no role in the awarding of these contracts.
'The company has 40 years' experience in testing and diagnostics. It is proud of its performance and delivery under the contracts awarded to it on merit by the Government. They resulted in the delivery of more than 21 million Covid tests, 15 million of them to the national testing programme from the start of the emergency in the spring of 2020.
'At this time, hindered by global shortages and less experience than Randox, other laboratories were simply not able to provide whole-system capabilities to deliver the tests which the World Health Organisation and the UK Government agreed were crucial to combating the pandemic.'
The Biden administration is making billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines in the hopes of building capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year to share with the world.
Money for the plan has been set aside from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed in March.
Under the new initiative, the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is soliciting pharmaceutical companies that have demonstrated the ability to make the more-effective mRNA vaccines to bid for government investment in scaling up their manufacturing abilities.
The Biden administration is making billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines in the hopes of building capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year to share globally
President Joe Biden's (pictured) administration will make funds available to drugmakers who've showen they're able to produce mRNA vaccines using money from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed in March
Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna produce the two U.S.-approved mRNA shots.
The Biden administration believes the boosted capacity of COVID-19 shots will help ease a global shortage of doses, particularly in lower- and middle-income nations, stopping preventable death and limiting the development of potentially new, more dangerous variants of the virus.
The initiative comes as the Biden White House has faced growing pressure at home and abroad over inequity in the global vaccine supply.
And as the U.S. moves toward approving booster shots for all adults while vulnerable people in poorer nations wait for their first dose of protection.
Currently, Americans over 65 are eligible for boosters - along with younger Americans who live and work in congregate settings or have certain medical conditions.
There are no firm agreements yet with Moderna or Pfizer to take up the U.S. on the investment.
But the Biden administration hopes that the enhanced manufacturing capacity, through support for the company's facilities, equipment, staff or training, will be available by mid-2022 to allow more COVID-19 doses to be shared overseas as well as to prepare for the next public health emergency.
'Investments being considered may involve costs associated with infrastructure (facilities/equipment), bolstering trained staff and long-term sustainment ('readiness) for COVID-19 vaccine, or variants of concern, and emerging infectious disease/pandemic response at no less than 100 million doses per month over and above current U.S.-based capacity,' the solicitation says.
The New York Times first reported on the new initiative.
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is deploying the National Guard in an attempt to safeguard Cancun and other neighboring resort towns following a rise in violence linked to organized crime.
Lopez Obrador announced the move during a press conference Wednesday almost two weeks after members of a street level drug dealing gang reportedly tied to the Sinaloa Cartel open fired and killed two members of a rival drug dealing ring that is also tied to the same criminal organization.
'This cannot be repeated,' the president said during a visit to Cancun. 'In a few more days, about 1,500 from the National Guard are to be mobilized to Quintana Roo.'
Security lapses in the state of Quintana Roo made international headlines after 25-year-old Anjali Ryot, of San Jose, and 35-year-old Jennifer Henzold, of Germany, were caught in a gang crossfire and killed at the La Malquerida bar on October 19.
Two German males, aged 26 and 25, and a 21-year-old woman from the Netherlands were also wounded in the shootout.
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Wednesday that a National Guard battalion of 1,445 soldiers will be permanently deployed along the municipalities of Benito Juarez, Tulum and Solidaridad in the state of Quintana Roo to combat a rise in crime that has left a sense of insecurity at resorts frequented by at least 20 million international visitors
Anjali Ryot, of San Jose, California, was one of two women killed at a bar in Tulum, Mexico, in an incident sparked by rival drug dealers. The 25-year-old, who was born in India, was visiting the Mexican tourist town for her birthday
That was followed by an incident November 4 when panicked tourists were sent to hide in hotels after a gangland slaying on the beach near the $400-a-night Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun and adjacent Azul Beach Resort in Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun.
At least 15 armed men were picked up by security cameras wandering near the hotel property around 2pm local time and were later shown by another surveillance camera tackling an alleged drug dealer to the sand before he was dragged away and shot dead.
The gunmen reportedly killed a second drug pusher just steps away from the Hyatt Ziva Hotel, were he attempted to seek refuge. The attackers then fled on two speedboats via Petempich Bay.
Authorities said a person suffered an injury in the attack. It's unknown if the victim was a guest or employee of the Hyatt Ziva.
In June, a 30-year-old woman identified as Kanya, from Kentucky, was shot and wounded after assassins arrived on jet skis and launched an attack that killed two workers inside a gift shot.
According to Mexico's Secretary General of National Public Security, the state of Quintana Roo reported 442 murders between January and September 2021 compared with 463 over the same period last year.
However, the Caribbean coast municipalities of Benito Juarez - home to Cancun - Puerto Morelos, Solidaridad and Tulum, whose resorts attract about 20 million visitors a year, were the deadliest with 379 murders compared to 383 homicides last year.
A tourist from Europe is tended to moments after gunmen opened fired on an alleged rival drug dealer and killed two female tourists on November 4 at a bar in Tulum
A 30-year-old American woman, identified as Kanya, was wounded Friday at a beach in Cancun, Mexico, after two gunmen stepped off their jet skis and opened fire, killing two male workers outside a gift shop before escaping
The new troops will be permanently based in the area beginning December 1, particularly in tourist zones, and will focus on intelligence work.
'This battalion will provide security to the entire tourist area, as the year progresses we will provide it with the tools to do its job, the equipment it requires to be able to attend this new mission,' Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said.
Lopez Obrador created the National Guard in 2019 in a bid to overhaul the security forces which had battled criminal gangs for years.
Violence linked to drug cartels is blamed for thousands of murders in Mexico every year. As of September, 21,495 people had died from gang-related violence this year, an average of almost 2,400 per month, according to the government.
President Biden headed to Detroit on Wednesday for the next leg of his victory tour celebrating his new infrastructure package - with a visit to an auto plant run by General Motors, which paid $160,000 this year to a lobbyist whose brother is one of the president's closest advisers.
Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, reported being paid $160,000 by General Motors this year to lobby the White House and Congress.
His lobbying disclosures indicate that the work included efforts on electric vehicle tax incentives.
In Detroit, Biden will highlight investment in electric transportation with a visit to GM's 'factory zero' is its mission to repurpose itself as a builder of electric vehicles.
The bipartisan bill includes $7.5 billion to build out a national electric vehicle charging network, which experts say will encourage more people to buy green cars and more manufacturers to build them.
Biden is expected to test drive one of the first GMC Hummer EV pickups to come off the production line before they go on sale next year.
It is his third visit to one of the big three automakers this year, following trips to see a Fiat-Chrysler plant in March and a Ford factory in May.
President Joe Biden left the White House on Wednesday for Detroit, Michigan, where he will visit General Motor's first factory retooled to produce electric vehicles
Steve Ricchetti (l) is a longtime Biden confidant and is currently counselor to the president. His role has attracted frequent accusations of a conflict of interest when his brother, Jeff (r), is a lobbyist who has seen business grow more than four-fold since Biden took office
Biden is expected to test drive one of GM's new Hummer electric pickup trucks
A senior administration official said there was no hint of family favoritism.
'Jeff had no role in this visit,' said the official.
Even so Ricchetti's lobbying firm, which he set up with his brother, has enjoyed a bumper year since Biden took power.
In the first half of 2021, Ricchetti Inc. took in $1.67 million in fees in the first half of the year, according to financial disclosures - a huge increase on the $370,000 it reported in the same period of 2020.
In response to previous accusations of a possible conflict of interest, the White House said Steve Ricchetti recuses himself from issues raised by his brother or his firm.
'I do not lobby my brother, nor have I lobbied the White House this quarter,' Jeff Ricchetti told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
But the link still raised concerns among ethics experts amid reports that Steve Ricchetti was involved in negotiations over the infrastructure bill.
'Steve Ricchetti ought to completely recuse himself from any part of the legislation that his brothers firm is lobbying on, and then have the White House not take calls from his brother,' Richard Painter, a former Democratic Senate candidate who was President George W. Bushs chief ethics lawyer, told the Free Beacon which first reported on the lobbying connections on Wednesday.
His brother is a long time Biden confidant and one of the most powerful people in the White House.
He worked as deputy chief of staff in Bill Clintons White House before opening Ricchetti Inc. with his brother.
But he stepped aside when he went to work for then Vice President joe Biden in 2012.
During the visit, Biden will deliver remarks on how the law 'builds electric vehicle charging stations across the country to make it easier to drive an electric vehicle, reduces emissions to fight the climate crisis, and creates good-paying, union jobs across the country,' the White House said in a statement.
A broad transition to electric cars and trucks will help the United States meet Biden's pledge to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Democrats are working on a separate social spending and climate bill that contains up to $12,500 in tax credits for U.S.-made EVs, including a $4,500 credit for union-made vehicles.
The bill is a key pillar of Biden's domestic agenda but has faced hurdles to passage from competing views between progressive and moderate lawmakers in his party.
Channel 4 is set to look for a Scottish family to appear on Gogglebox after an SNP MP and viewers complained about the 'lack of representation' on the show.
The pledge to fund a dedicated casting team to find a Scottish family before the end of the year was made after Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, told bosses there had not been a Scottish family on the programme since 2016.
Chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, Pete Wishart MP, welcomed the decision, which followed his committee's evidence session on public broadcasting in Scotland with Channel 4.
Channel 4 is set to look for a Scottish family to appear on Gogglebox (pictured) after an SNP MP and viewers complained about the 'lack of representation' on the show
After almost a decade on screen, Gogglebox, which is currently on its 18th series, has only featured one Glasgow family, the Manuel's, who were living in Croydon at the time.
Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon told the committee: 'We do get complaints about the lack of representation on Gogglebox which is one of our biggest shows.'
She described this as being a 'continued pressure' and has since written to MPs to confirm that the broadcaster has agreed a separate budget for a dedicated casting team to find a suitable Scottish family to appear on the hit show.
It is hoped that at least one Scottish family will be appearing on the programme, which has been honoured with BAFTAs and the National Television Awards, from the New Year.
During the Scottish Affairs Committee session held on September 20, MPs explored a number of areas ranging from privatisation, Channel 4's presence in Scotland and the impact Covid-19 has had on its production companies.
Chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, Pete Wishart MP, (pictured) welcomed the decision
Mr Wishart said: 'Channel 4 has impressive credentials for supporting independent producers and offering opportunities for young people wishing to explore the sector.
'We are bursting at the seams with talent in Scotland, and I am pleased to hear Channel 4's efforts to harness this potential.
'A theme which came up in our evidence session was the lack of a Scottish family on Gogglebox.
'It is clear some have approached the channel with similar concern, often offering themselves as an option.
'I am therefore pleased to see a dedicated team tasked with this and look forward to seeing the successful family on our screens in the new series.'
In a letter to Mr Wishart, Ms Mahon said: 'Since I met with you we have agreed a separate budget with Studio Lambert for a dedicated casting team specifically tasked with finding a suitable Scottish family.
'The casting period is already underway and will run up to Christmas.
'The ambition is to identify at least one Scottish family who will become part of the Gogglebox cast for the next series which will air in the new year.'
A lorry driver who killed a Canadian oil millionaire after causing a fatal crash on the M23 during the London to Brighton veteran car rally was using his mobile phone at the wheel.
Michael Black, 52, ploughed into the back of a 110-year-old vintage car as it travelled at 21mph along the four-lane motorway after making a wrong turn on November 3, 2019.
Ronald Carey, 80, suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
His wife Billi, who was sat alongside him in the front passenger seat, also suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash. She was airlifted to hospital from the scene and survived the incident.
Black, of Crawley, West Sussex, was convicted of causing death by careless driving at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday. He was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving.
The court heard that Mr and Mrs Carey had travelled from Canada to take part in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in their 1903 Knox Runabout 'Old Porcupine' car.
Ron Carey, 80, had been at the wheel of a 1903 Knox Runabout 'Old Porcupine' vehicle with his wife Billi. This photograph is thought to have been taken hours before he died
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run route is pictured in green, while the route believed to have been taken by Mr Carey yesterday is seen in red
The 60-mile run began in London's Hyde Park at dawn, with the route taking drivers down the A23 through Gatwick, Crawley and Burgess Hill before the first car arrived at Madeira Drive, Brighton, shortly after 10am.
However, Mr Carey mistakenly took the slip road for the M23 rather than the designated A23 route.
Black, driving a Scania tipper truck, meanwhile, had collected a load for the smart motorway works on the M23 and was on his way to dispose of it.
His lorry struck the rear of the vintage car, causing both Mr and Mrs Carey to be thrown from the vehicle.
Analysis of his phone showed a phone call was in progress when the crash took place.
Scott Brady, prosecuting, told the court: 'They were in the third lane and ahead of Black. He was directly behind them in lane three. Shortly after 10am, Blacks Scania collided with the Knox.
'If Black had been keeping a good lookout this accident would not have occurred. He was not keeping a good lookout because, in his own words "I wasnt looking, I looked down and they were there".
'He said he wasnt keeping a good lookout because he was distracted by a phone call he was trying to make to a friend. He was certainly making a phone call at the time of the collision and he admitted as much, in a police interview.
'He said it was "ringing, ringing, ringing and it did not connect and I impacted with the vehicle".'
The Careys on the Mall at the start of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in November 2019
The Canadian couple took the wrong lane and ended up on the M23 instead of the designated A23 route used for the rally
Police at the scene following the crash at the junction of the A23 and the M23 in Surrey in 2019
Dashcam footage displayed to the jury showed the orange lorry smashing into the rear of the open-top Knox.
Police Constable Joanna Robins told the court that the Knox was 'potentially in view for 14 seconds' before the collision took place.
The jury was also played the harrowing 999 made by Black in the moments after the crash.
It showed the lorry driver pacing back and forth between his vehicle and the mangled wreckage of the Knox as he made the call.
As he watched the footage, Black closed his eyes and let out an audible sigh while he sat wearing a smart black suit, emblazoned with a poppy, in the dock.
He sobbed uncontrollably as the verdicts were read out, while his wife was also in tears in the public gallery.
Black will be sentenced on December 8.
Mr Carey, who had made his fortune after founding oil supply company J&L Supply, had been a veteran car enthusiast since the 1980s and had contributed to museums and collections around the world, including his personal collection which was worth an estimated 3.8 million.
Mr Carey, pictured with his wife Billi, was described as 'very well-respected and well-liked'
A listing for Mr and Mrs Carey's vehicle on the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run website, which states it was registered in Arizona, has since been taken down
Police officers are pictured at the scene in 2019 as well as a Highway Maintenance vehicle
The couple had specially shipped the car to the UK to take part in the rally and the jury was shown a picture of the pair wrapped up in warm clothes just hours before the fatal crash.
Mrs Carey listened to proceedings via video link from Arizona.
Speaking after his conviction, Detective Constable Kelly Newton said: 'Black's defence was that he simply did not see the car in front of him until it was too late as a result of "looming" and the sun being a distraction.
'Today's verdict has reinforced that this isn't in fact accurate and he was distracted by the use of his mobile phone.
'I hope that the guilty verdict delivered today sends a clear message to other drivers, that losing concentration, even for a few seconds, can have devastating consequences.'
A British Army soldier forbidden from drinking while on 'orderly duty' has been demoted after he started a drunken brawl following a pub row.
Corporal Kirt Daykin, 38, rugby tackled a colleague to the ground before punching him in the head during a street fight outside a pub where he was based in Larkhill, near Salisbury, in July.
The father-of-two was on 'orderly duty', where a soldier is forbidden from drinking so he can look after intoxicated colleagues and receive important messages, when the drunken incident took place.
Bulford Military Court, in Wiltshire, heard Cpl Daykin was with the 47th Royal Artillery at Horne Barracks when he challenged Lance Bombardier Douglas Gough to a fight.
Captain Rebecca Slee, prosecuting, said: 'Cpl Daykin reported for duty at 10am on the 9th [of July] and was to remain on duty until 6pm on the 11th.
Corporal Kirt Daykin pictured outside Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to single counts of battery, disorderly behaviour and contravening standing orders
The court heard that Cpl Daykin rugby tackled a colleague to the ground before punching him in the head during a fight outside a pub near Salisbury
'During the evening of the 10th Cpl Daykin visited a pub called The Packhorse in Larkhill.
'Whilst Cpl Daykin was at the pub he consumed alcohol and became intoxicated, in contravention with the standing orders. Alcohol shouldnt be consumed at any time while on duty.
'On the way home from the pub there was an altercation between Cpl Daykin and LBdr Gough and Cpl Daykin rugby tackled him, brought him to the ground and punched him in the head.'
The court heard the fight on the walk home came after a disagreement in the pub.
Judge Advocate Jane England said: 'From what I understand Gough came out of the toilet, saw some play fighting and got the wrong impression.
'Cpl Daykin took exception to him intervening and breaking it up and thought Gough had hit him on the head.
'Ironically, one of his duties would have been to deal with those who returned to camp in a drunken state.'
Tagbo Ilozue, defending, said in mitigation that, while Cpl Daykin had asked LBdr Gough to fight him, the latter had 'accepted willingly' and took off his hoodie as an invitation to brawl.
Cpl Daykin was on 'orderly duty', where a soldier is forbidden from drinking so he can look after intoxicated colleagues and receive important messages, when the drunken incident took place
Cpl Daykin was demoted to Lance Corporal and fined 800 following the hearing in Wiltshire
He added that Cpl Daykin has struggled with alcohol dependency in the wake of death of both his father and grandfather in quick succession, which he found out about while on tour in Iraq.
Mr Ilozue said this traumatic experience was followed by the breakdown of his marriage and his ex-wife taking his two young children, aged seven and 10, to Germany.
Passing sentence, Judge Advocate England, said: 'Your general behaviour on the way home was unpleasant.
'You have had a difficult couple of years. You suffered two very sad bereavements, the breakdown of your marriage, the movement of your children abroad and you have not seen them.
'As a result, you used alcohol as a coping mechanism.'
Cpl Daykin was demoted to Lance Corporal and fined 800 after pleading guilty to single counts of battery, disorderly behaviour and contravening standing orders.
Donald Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he defied a subpoena issued by a congressional panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Bannon, the first person to face charges in connection with the House probe, handed himself in to the FBI on Monday after last week being indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress.
He claims communications with the former president are covered by 'executive privilege' and that the investigation is politically motivated.
He was due to be arraigned in court on Thursday, but agreed to waive his right to a formal reading of the indictment, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.
That means a scheduled virtual hearing would be little more than a check-in with the judge to discuss calendars.
Bannon, who remains one of Trump's most visible and vocal propagandists, has used each twist of the case as fodder for his media machine.
On Monday he and his supporters livestreamed the moment when he arrived to turn himself in to the FBI and a day later used their podcast to suggest they are victims of a witch hunt.
Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist under Trump, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to two charges of contempt of Congress
In a document submitted to U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., Bannon pleaded not guilty and waived his right to have the charges formally announced at a Thursday hearing
'This is going to be the misdemeanour from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden,' he told a throng of reporters as he left court after his first hearing.
'Joe Biden ordered Merrick Garland to prosecute me from the White House lawn when he got off Marine One, and we're going to go on the offence.
'We're tired of playing defense.'
He arrived in court flanked by marshals and his supporters said he was handcuffed for part of the day's proceedings.
He did not enter a plea during the 30-minute hearing on Monday before Washington D.C. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather.
He was released without bail but is required to check in weekly with officials. He was also ordered to surrender his passport.
On Tuesday Bannon was back on air and used his regular podcast to promise that he would fight the charges.
'They don't know how to handle when MAGA punches back and MAGA is punching back,' he told listeners to the War Room.
Bannon and his supporters have used every step of the case as fodder for their media machine as they try to keep up pressure on the Biden administration
'Okay, we're not going to just sit here and take it any more ... the months and months and months and months and months of just the rhetoric and trying to weaponize the law and weaponize DOJ.
'We're not going to take it okay. We're going on offense.'
Bannon was appointed White House chief strategist when Trump took power but was out later in the year after the two fell out.
However, the two men remain in close touch.
And House investigators want to know about their conversations ahead of the Jan. 6 rally and march on Congress that exploded into violence.
He faces one contempt count for refusing to appear for a deposition before the House Select Committee and a second for refusing to produce documents.
He faces up to one year in prison along with a fine of up to $100,000 if found guilty.
New video footage shows the Liverpool suicide bomber on his journey to attack a woman's hospital in the city.
CCTV images show Emad Al-Swealmeen inside the Delta taxi on his final journey to Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday before the 32-year-old blew himself up using a home-made IED.
The driver, David Perry, leapt from the vehicle seconds after the blast before it was incinerated by flames.
In the clip, the black Ford that Al-Swealmeen was inside was seen driving along the busy residential road of Lodge Lane - less than five minutes before his near-deadly attack.
The taxi was captured by cameras at The Green Mountain Food Store, with its owner Naz Al-Asadi, 27, telling the Liverpool Echo that he was quizzed by officers who wanted to check his CCTV.
'The police came in around 12pm, they said to me can we check the CCTV?', Mr Al-Asadi said.
'I said yes, we should work together as this is something not good at all, this is very, very bad. They knew the time and they took a copy.'
Police also visited other shops in the busy street, and staff and residents spoke of their dismay at hearing about the attack.
It comes as counter-terror experts raided residential addresses linked with failed asylum seeker Al-Swealmeen and recovered 'several suspicious packages' which were examined by bomb squad officers.
CCTV images show Emad Al-Swealmeen inside the Delta taxi (centre) on his final journey to Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday before the 32-year-old blew himself up using a home-made IED
Counter terrorism police this morning announced they believed Al-Swealmeen had been planning the attack since April
Police have also yet to find any evidence that failed asylum seeker and pizza chef Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, conspired with or was inspired by a terror group, suggesting he was a 'lone wolf' who became radicalised online during lockdown.
Another business owner on Lodge Lane told the Liverpool Echo: 'I have no words to say about this guy who done it.
'We feel it paints a bad picture for us as Muslims, although he converted to Christianity. It is nothing to do with the Muslim people.
'I have heard about people that I know, women with the hijab, saying things to them about the situation.'
It comes as police today called in the bomb squad and evacuated a pub as they searched an asylum hostel linked to the Poppy Day suicide bomber - as officers say he planned the attack for seven months.
A Royal Logistics Corp bomb disposal vehicle was seen arriving in Sutcliffe Street, Liverpool along with a fire engine. Several 'suspicious packages' were recovered and examined by explosive ordnance experts and forensic officers.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said: 'Officers continue to search the Sutcliffe Street and Rutland Avenue addresses in relation to the CT incident on Sunday 14 November.
'This afternoon whilst searching a property on Sutcliffe Street several suspicious packages were found.
'Out of caution, these were examined by Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) officers prior to being recovered by forensics teams.
'An extension of the cordon to Boaler Street earlier today has now been retracted to cover only Sutcliffe Street. This decision forms part of our cautious and methodical approach to searching both addresses.
'The public may see EOD officers present tomorrow, if so, their presence will again be solely out of caution in case further items are found.
'Our main focus remains at the Rutland Avenue address.'
Counter terrorism police this morning announced they believed Al-Swealmeen had been planning the attack since April, when he moved into an address on Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park.
So far detectives are not seeking anyone else in connection with the bombing, although they remain open-minded.
Poppy Day suicide bomber planned attack for months after starting to buy ingredients for homemade device in April The suicide bomber who blew himself and a taxi up outside a Liverpool maternity hospital on Remembrance Sunday began building his killer device seven months ago, it was revealed today. Police have also yet to find any evidence that failed asylum seeker Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, conspired with or was inspired by a terror group, suggesting he was a 'lone wolf' who became radicalised online during lockdown. One theory is that the bomber was suffering a mental health crisis having been devastated at his continued failure to gain asylum here because the Home Office refused to believe he was Syrian. Today it emerged his next of kin have told police he was born in Iraq. In an update on the investigation Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said that the pizza chef who converted from Islam to Christianity began renting his flat in Rutland Avenue, Liverpool at around Easter. ACC Jackson said: 'A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time'. He added: 'At this time we are not finding any link to others in the Merseyside area of concern but this remains a fast moving investigation and as more becomes known we cannot rule out action against others'. Advertisement
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing for the North West, said: 'The investigation into the terrorist incident at Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday 14 November continues.
'The taxi in which the device exploded has now been removed and today line searches by specialist officers will take place at the Hospital which could go into tomorrow.
'The post mortem on the deceased has taken place and the cause of death has been described as injuries sustained from the fire and explosion.
'A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time.
'We have now traced a next of kin for Al Swealmeen who has informed us that he was born in Iraq.
'Our enquiries have found that Al Swealmeen has had episodes of mental illness, this will form part of the investigation and will take some time to fully understand.'
Officers are yet to find any evidence that the failed asylum seeker conspired with or was inspired by a terror group, suggesting he was a 'lone wolf' who became radicalised online during lockdown.
One theory is that the bomber was suffering a mental health crisis having been devastated at his continued failure to gain asylum here because the Home Office refused to believe he was Syrian. Today it emerged his next of kin have told police he was born in Iraq.
In an update on the investigation Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said that the pizza chef who converted from Islam to Christianity began renting his flat in Rutland Avenue, Liverpool at around Easter.
ACC Jackson said: 'A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time'.
He added: 'At this time we are not finding any link to others in the Merseyside area of concern but this remains a fast moving investigation and as more becomes known we cannot rule out action against others'.
This is the moment the taxi carrying the suicide bomber exploded outside a Liverpool hospital in what police and MI5 are now probing as a Poppy Day terror attack. Experts fear he was copying an ISIS attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul
His homemade bomb blew up as he approached the hospital. Experts have suggested it could have been a poorly made Mother of Satan device or even one put together with fireworks
Aerial view of the aftermath of the explosion at the Liverpool Women's Hospital and the burnt out taxi
Terrorist Al Swealmeen pictured on the right being converted to Christianity in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral in 2017. Sources claim he may have found Jesus just to improve his immigration case
These are the events that led to the explosion outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital and the arrests and raids that followed
POPPY DAY HOSPITAL EXPLOSION: HOW EVENTS UNFOLDED ON REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY A picture shows the burnt out vehicle outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday afternoon Sunday, November 14 10.57am: The taxi pulls up at the Liverpool Women's Hospital and explodes seconds later. 10.59am: The vehicle is fully engulfed just before the national silence for Remembrance Sunday. The passenger was killed and the driver was left with serious injuries. The latter is said to have spotted the explosives, 'jumped' from the car and locked the other man inside. At the time, a remembrance service involving scores of military personnel, veterans and civic dignitaries, was taking place at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral less than a mile away. There are reports the taxi parked at the hospital because it could not get any closer to the Cathedral. 11.04am: Police and emergency services arrive at the scene, and it is initially thought the car might have caught alight because of a fuel leak. 1pm: Officers, who are believed to have spoken to hero taxi driver David Perry, announce the incident is being treated as an act of terrorism. 4.54pm: Police seal off Rutland Avenue (right). Around a mile from the blast. Locals said armed police ordered residents to leave and head to a nearby leisure centre, saying the area 'wasn't safe' and were 'pointing guns at a house'. Counter-terror negotiators were also called to the scene. 6.59pm: The men - aged 29, 26, and 21 - were detained in the Kensington area of the city and arrested under the Terrorism Act. Monday, November 15 3.30am: The operation at the Rutland Avenue address appears to wind down. 10am: Footage of the explosion emerges on CCTV from the scene. Midday: Police confirm it is being treated as a terror attack. And a man, 20, becomes the fourth suspect arrested 3pm: After raising the UK terror threat level to 'severe', speaking at a press conference at Downing Street, the Prime Minister said the blast was a 'stark reminder' to the public to remain vigilant, adding: 'What yesterday showed above all is that the British people will never be cowed by terrorism, we will never give in to those who seek to divide us with senseless acts of violence. 'And our freedoms and our way of life will always prevail.' 7pm: MailOnline names the suicide bomber as asylum seeker Enzo Almeni, 32, a Muslim who converted to Christianity four years ago. He changed his name from Emad Jamil Al Swealmeen. Tuesday November 16 7am: Four suspects who are said to have known Almeni a and were arrested in armed raids were released without charge Advertisement
On Sunday, Almeni carried a homemade 'Mother of Satan' ball bearing bomb used by ISIS extremists to 'cause maximum carnage' at a maternity hospital and may have been driven to take revenge after his asylum bids kept being turned down, it was claimed today.
A security source told The Sun: 'One of the issues being looked at is whether this unresolved grievance pushed him over the edge and prompted him to carry out the attack.'
The UK's terror threat level was raised to 'severe' following an emergency COBRA meeting at Downing Street. Police and security services advised the Prime Minister that another attack on British soil is now 'highly likely'.
Almeni's attack came exactly a month after Conservative MP Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Alp Mehmet, the chairman of the Migration Watch think-tank questioned why Alemni had not been removed from Britain and said his case was 'seriously worrying'.
He added that it points to the 'dysfunctional depths' which Britain's 'shattered asylum system has sunk'.
The Church of England today denied there is any link between their vicars converting Muslim migrants and systemic abuse of the asylum system after it was revealed the Liverpool suicide bomber had found Jesus and then appealed his own case.
Emad Al Swealmeen lost his first bid to stay in Britain in 2014, but appealed again in 2017 after he was confirmed at Liverpool Cathedral and his case was still outstanding when he blew himself up in a taxi on Sunday.
Vicars have been accused of aiding asylum seekers to 'game' the immigration system by helping hundreds to convert from Islam and 'pray to stay' in the UK as it emerged people smugglers are using Instagram to urge migrants to follow Jesus to help them gain British citizenship.
But in a statement the CofE said: 'We are not aware of any evidence to suggest a widespread correlation between conversion to Christianity, or any other faith, and abuse of the asylum system'.
And in a barbed response to Home Office source claims that changing from Islam to Christianity is now 'standard practice' among asylum seekers 'to game the system', a spokesman said: 'It is not the role of clergy to establish the legitimacy of asylum claims and to assess security implications'.
MPs are to demand a formal Parliamentary probe into whether fake Christian converts are duping the Church of England to avoid being deported back to strict Muslim countries they came from. If the inquiry goes ahead Priti Patel would likely be hauled in to give evidence after the Home Secretary said Al Swealmeen, who changed his name to Enzo Almeni shortly after finding Jesus, had exploited the UK's asylum 'merry-go-round'.
Home Secretary Miss Patel declared last night: 'The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward.
'It's a complete merry-go-round and it's been exploited by a whole professional legal services industry which has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day in day out on legal aid at the expense of the taxpayers.'
Today it emerged that people traffickers have used social media sites such as Instagram to advertise crossings from France to the UK - and urge customers to consider conversion to Christianity to bolster their cases. Because the largest number of UK asylum seekers come from Muslim countries, they can also argue that their new faith would put their lives at risk if they returned to the home country.
One such advert, in Arabic, has a picture of Jesus and says finding God will lead to more successful asylum claims 'in the shortest possible time with the lowest cost'.
The Home Office has previously said converting to Christianity does not automatically result in a successful asylum claim. The Church of England has said baptism is 'open to all' and that it is up to the Government to vet asylum seekers, not them.
The Liverpool hospital bomber spent seven months experimenting with different explosives while plotting his attack, it emerged last night.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, started building a bomb factory at a rented bedsit as early as April, according to police.
Traces detected at the property show he bought a range of chemicals capable of making more than one type of explosive, including one used by the 7/7 London bombers.
Detectives are trying to untangle a complex picture of chemical purchases made both online and in shops.
Armed police raided the bomb factory in the Sefton Park area of Liverpool shortly after Al Swealmeen accidentally blew himself up at Liverpool Womens Hospital on Remembrance Sunday.
The next day, bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion in the park, and Rutland Avenue, where the explosives factory was located, remains closed off.
Yesterday afternoon officers also extended a cordon around Sutcliffe Street in Kensington, central Liverpool, where Al Swealmeen is thought to have lived.
Emad Al Swealmeen, (pictured) 32, started building a bomb factory at a rented bedsit as early as April, according to police
Detectives are trying to untangle a complex picture of chemical purchases made both online and in shops. Pictured: Forensic officers at work at Liverpool Women's Hospital
Security sources said there was little to suggest the Christian convert (pictured, left)was ideologically motivated one theory is that he suffered a mental health crisis possibly triggered by his failure to win asylum
Officers from the bomb squad were on the scene and a counter-terror police spokesman said several suspicious packages had been found.
Residents were ordered to stay indoors and others forbidden from returning to their homes. They were instead directed to a nearby primary school for shelter.
Forensic tests are still being carried out on the taxi which exploded with Al Swealmeen inside. It was confirmed last night that he died of injuries sustained in the blast and from the subsequent fire.
A delivery driver yesterday told how he saw the bomb go off. I just heard this explosion this loud bang, recalled Liam Spencer, 21.
At first I thought it could have been a car crash. Then I saw the car had exploded. I saw the driver who was in quite an awful state.
'I ran back to check and thats when I saw the man. He was on fire. Thats when I ran to go and get a fire extinguisher and security came out with one.
Giving an update last night, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said Iraqi-born Al Swealmeen started buying chemicals in April, or even earlier.
This is the moment the taxi carrying the suicide bomber exploded outside a Liverpool hospital in what police and MI5 are now probing as a Poppy Day terror attack
Aerial view of the aftermath of the explosion at the Liverpool Women's Hospital and the burnt out taxi
A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, Mr Jackson said.
We know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time.
'He also confirmed the bomber had suffered mental illness which will form part of the investigation.
Security sources said there was little to suggest the Christian convert was ideologically motivated one theory is that he suffered a mental health crisis possibly triggered by his failure to win asylum.
He had been sectioned in 2015 after being arrested for waving a large knife and threatening to kill himself by jumping off a bridge in Liverpool city centre.
Al Swealmeen, who wanted to be a pizza chef, also spoke to church leaders about suffering from depression.
A shopkeeper told the Mail he was obviously not right in the head and described how the motor racing fan, who adopted the name Enzo Almeni after the Ferrari legend, had threatened with a knife one of his staff staying at the same hostel.
He seemed to have mental health issues for a number of years, the man added.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted that the effects of climate change could be so 'horrible' that every year could top 'awful' 2020, when COVID-19 first ravaged the United States and the world.
'I tell my constituents, last year with COVID was awful, but in a few years, because of climate change, each year will be worse than COVID and each year will be worse than the next if we don't do anything about it,' the New York Democrat said at a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill, which was organized by the League of Conservation Voters and Climate Power.
Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Congressional Democrats spoke at the event, as the party tries to pass the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social spending bill, which includes a number of key climate change provisions.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted that the effects of climate change could be so 'horrible' that every year could top 'awful' 2020, when COVID-19 first ravaged the United States and the world
'The effect of climate change is just going to be horrible,' Schumer said.
'But don't despair America, don't despair world - our "Build Back Better" [bill] tackles climate in a bold, ambitious way by making targeted investments in American industries, infrastructure, agriculture, to create millions of jobs with good wages, while restoring our manufacturing competitiveness,' the Democratic leader continued.
Schumer said he hoped the bill would spur a 'green industrial revolution.'
'While lowering the cost of energy for everyday Americans,' he added.
Schumer has said he wants to get Build Back Better passed by Christmas.
Senate Democrats are using the process of reconciliation to pass the bill, so they can bypass Republican filibuster attempts.
Sen. Ed Markey, who sponsored the 'Green New Deal' proposal in the Senate to compliment Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's action in the House, proclaimed at the press conference Wednesday: 'I am dreaming of a green Christmas.'
He encouraged passage of Build Back Better, but also called on President Joe Biden to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and ban oil exports to alleviate Americans' current pain at the gas pump.
'Right now oil companies are taking American consumers and shaking them upside down at gas pumps all across our country, while simultaneously sending a signal to the Republican Party to kill Build Back Better,' Markey said.
Times Square sits empty on December 31, 2020, thanks to lockdowns due to COVID-19. Schumer predicted that every year could be worse than 2020 if nations don't take action on climate change
The Massachusetts Democrat said fossil fuel companies wanted to 'kill a transition to all-electric vehicles, to plug-in hybrids, to battery storage technologies that will lead to inextricably, inevitably to the demise of those companies controlling the agenda of our nation.'
'If we're afraid of Russia's agenda right now, Saudi Arabia's control over our foreign policy in the Middle East, there's one sure and certain thing we can do and it's over the next month,' Markey argued.
'And that is to make sure that we have both of those countries and others like them on a pathway to bankruptcy - because the oil era will be over if we pass this bill,' he said.
Pelosi argued that combatting climate change was a 'moral issue.'
'If you believe, as I do that this is God's creation and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards,' the devout Catholic speaker said. 'But even if you don't share that view, religiously, we all share it morally that we have a responsibility to future generations.'
Amanda Knox has revealed she has sent messages to the family of former friend and roomate Meredith Kercher, who she was wrongly accused of murdering in Italy, saying she wants a relationship with them.
Knox also said that she finds herself thinking 'oh my god, it could have been me' every year around the time of the anniversary of the 21-year-old's British student's death.
But now, after having a daughter, she also says that she puts herself in Meredith's mother's shoes.
On November 1 2007, Meredith an exchange student from the University of Leeds - was murdered in Perugia, Italy, where she was studying at the time.
Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were later jailed, before eventually being released from prison in 2011 following an appeal against their conviction.
Knox had her conviction for the murder of her former roommate overturned by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015 after serving four years in jail.
A local man, Rudy Guede, was convicted in a separate trial after his DNA was found on Kercher's body and in the room where she died.
Amanda Knox (pictured speaking in 2019, file photo) has revealed she has sent messages to the family of former friend Meredith Kercher, who she was wrongly accused of murdering, saying she wants a relationship with them
It's now over 14 years since 21-year-old student Meredith Kercher was raped and killed in a brutal attack in the apartment they shared in the Italian city of Perugia, on November 1, 2007
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2008, but was released in December 2020 and will spend the rest of his sentence doing community work.
Asked if she had spoken to Kercher's family yet, Amanda - now back in her native US - said: 'No, not yet. Not yet is my sort of position because like I know that it's a complicated situation. I know that at least in the past like it's unclear to me at this point how they feel about me.
'And I don't want to like force a relationship on them if it's traumatic for them.
'So I have sent messages to them through intermediaries telling them I want to have a relationship with you. I want to talk to you. And I'm waiting to see if that's something that they want too.
'I want the same thing that they want. I want to know the truth. I want to know what happened to Meredith. I want her to be recognised for who she was, and I want their suffering to be recognised for what it is. And I want them to get the closure that they deserve. I want that too.
'That's why I have really complicated feelings about her killer, Rudy Guede, because I've spent time in prison now too. Because he's out.'
Guede was convicted in 2008 over Kercher's death but he was released from prison at the end of last year, and will serve the final years of his 16-year sentence doing community service.
Amanda, who became known as 'Foxy Knoxy' in the press as the court case in Italy drew international attention, said: 'I know that he was a very young man when he made this colossal horrible decision to rape and murder Meredith.
'I don't know how he feels about that today. I would hope that he regrets that. He hasn't actually shown that he acknowledges what he did, and he hasn't like admitted to it and asked forgiveness, so it doesn't give me a super hopeful feeling that he truly feels rehabilitated even.
'Maybe he feels like a f***ing victim too because he was a young guy who was abandoned by his dad, brought like foster care in Italy (correct), didn't like have a great thing going for him and he sort of spiralled out of control going from burglary, to burglary, to burglary, until he majorly, majorly f***ed up.
Knox then lamented the fact that her name became synonymous with Meredith's killing, and continues to be despite her being completely exonerated.
Amanda Knox (pictured in an Italian court in 2009) and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were later jailed, before eventually being released from prison in 2011 following an appeal against their conviction. She was fully exonerated in 2015
Pictured: British student Meredith Kercher's family members, (from L-R) mother Arline, sister Stephanie and brother Lyle attend a news conference in Perugia on October 3, 2011
'His name is not the one that is affiliated with this horrible crime. Mine is. I wish that I could have a better word, but I think if I was going to be totally honest I'm angry, angry, and I'm still angry. That doesn't mean I can't have compassion for him but I am angry.
'I don't think that my name should ever have been associated with his actions, and the fact that no-one seems to really care about him, given that they were his actions, really bugs me out.
'And maybe my anger is a little bit sort of misdirected at him, because of all of the people not seeming to care that it was him.'
Knox said she thinks about Meredith a lot around the anniversary of her murder.
Asked on the Call her Daddy podcast on Wednesday if she thinks about Meredith, she said: 'It changes from the time of year. I think of her every time we come on to December 4, when I was first convicted. There are moments in the case that are very, very vivid to me.
'As much as my identity has been usurped by like this whole horrible tragedy, talk about her identity. She never got a chance to even fight back against a false narrative about her because she's gone.
'I'm especially thinking about that now that I've had a daughter because like on the anniversary of her death for the past many, many years, 14 years, I've always sort of put myself in her shoes, and thinking like 'oh my god, what must it have been like? What were her last moments ever as a person. Horrible, horrible moments. Thinking 'oh my god, it could have been me'.
'And this year I couldn't help but put myself in her mum's shoes, and thinking 'oh my god, if that happened to my baby'. What do you do? I can totally understand how her mum would have willingly taken her daughter's place if she could, but she couldn't.'
In September, Knox had a baby girl Eureka Know Robinson with husband, Christopher Robinson, who she married in 2018.
She said she considered not using the name Knox for Eureka, and had thought about changing her own in the past.
A local man, Rudy Guede (pictured being escorted by police in Italy in 2007), was convicted in a separate trial after his DNA was found on Kercher's body and in the room where she died. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2008, but was released in December 2020 and will spend the rest of his sentence doing community work
Asked if she'd thought about it, she said: 'I did. It's funny like it's the whole question of like do I embrace my identity or do I not embrace my identity.
'And I've always been a bit stubborn about this - where it's like there's nothing wrong with me. Like the world has sort of acted like there's something wrong with me, something wrong with my sexuality above all. And that's not my problem.
'Like I'm pushing back and I'm trying to say 'no, it's not my fault, there's nothing wrong with me', and therefore my daughter can embrace the fact that I am her mum even while I'm like trying to protect her from all these forces that are ultimately beyond my control.'
Asked if she'd considered changing her own name ever, she said: 'No, in the same way that I never remotely considered taking a plea deal because I didn't f***ing do it, and so no.'
Speaking earlier this month, Knox said she faces an 'ongoing struggle' to live with the public's 'made up version of herself.
As details of the case built up, attention quickly turned to Knox in what has been described as an attempt to build a narrative of her being a 'sexually voracious femme fatale' and of she and her then-boyfriend as prime suspects.
Media coverage dubbed the then 20-year-old US student as 'Foxy Knoxy', after a nickname she already had, and she was referred to at the time as a 'sex-mad American party girl' and an 'evil temptress'.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on November 4, Knox said the story that captured global attention 'became a morality tale about female sexuality.'
'Meredith was pitched as this virginous Madonna character and I was portrayed as this sexually obsessed lustful uninhibited whore,' she told radio host Emma Barnett on Tuesday.
'I think that there was an incredible violation of my privacy. But also a capitalisation upon my identity that often had nothing to do with me,' she told Barnett.
'People vehemently stood for one side or the other and were unable again there was the sense of confirmation bias you see what you want to see.'
In September, Knox had a baby girl Eureka Know Robinson with husband, Christopher Robinson, who she married in 2018. Pictured: A pregnant Knox (file photo)
Knox said she was speaking out about her ordeal after the release of Stillwater - a Hollywood movie based on a fictionalised version of the events surrounding the murder of Ms Kercher.
When asked by Barnett what she would say to actor Matt Damon, the lead in the movie, Knox said: We should talk. We can have a conversation. Im not going to judge you. Lets recognise something real is happening here.
Knox said the movie was, like the press, guilty of portraying her 'not really as a human being but as an idea of a person'.
'They (the press at the time of the case) were making Meredith into this perfectly invisible ideal victim to never name again,' Knox said. 'Its fascinating to me the number of times Foxy Knoxy was in the headline, but Meredith was not.
'Just the idea of a sexually deviant violent woman was enough to get people so riled up that they didnt care about the truth anymore.
'And that is an insane problem, and that is something that I dont think has really really been addressed. How justice was thwarted because of our obsession with female deviancy and female sexuality.'
Speaking of how the case would have been viewed today - particularly after the MeToo movement, she said: 'It's interesting. I think that it would be I would hope that people would have been more sceptical about that portrayal of events today.
Speaking BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Amanda Knox (pictured during the interview) said the media scrum following the conviction and later release made her lose control of her identity
'That said, I think that social media was already quite active at the time of my case and had a huge impact in how the case played out.
'And if anything it has become even more about tribalism, which is also a big problem where people vehemently stood for one side or the other and were unable again there was the sense of confirmation bias you see what you want to see.'
'So I very much felt like as I was coming into the world I was in conversation constantly with a made-up version of myself that was in people's minds before they ever encountered me as a real person.
'And that's an ongoing problem for me.
'It's an ongoing struggle for me that has it's not over.'
Patrols by armed police will be increased and security plans for major events reviewed after the terror threat level was raised following the Liverpool attack.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, the head of UK counter-terrorism policing, said the public will see an increased police presence in key locations and officers will boost their work online.
Speaking in Leicester Square in London's West End on Wednesday, Mr Jukes said: 'All across the country you will have seen plans for major events reviewed, you will see an increased armed policing presence in some key locations.
'In places like London where we have dedicated counter-terror patrols they will be very focused.
'You will see some more visible policing, but of course also we will be very active in other places. Online, in our communities talking to people about their concerns.'
The terror threat was raised from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is 'highly likely' rather than 'likely', after the blast outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on Remembrance Sunday.
Patrols by armed police will be increased and security plans for major events reviewed after the terror threat level was raised following the Liverpool attack. Above: Armed officers outside Number 10 Downing Street in London on Tuesday
Emad Al Swealmeen spent months planning his bomb attack, and had been buying components 'at least since April', investigators said.
Mr Jukes said attacks that take months of planning provide opportunities for the public to spot suspicious behaviour.
'In this case it's too early to say what the behaviour was and how that might have been spotted by others, or indeed what others saw,' he said.
'But what we do know from other cases is that often attacks are planned over a series of months and there are opportunities for people to see changes in behaviour, to see unusual things happening.
'Unusual deliveries to an address or unusual purchases. Things which seem out of place.
'Without commenting on the individual case, there are so many opportunities for members of the public - neighbours, friends and family - to play their part in keeping our communities safe.
The terror threat was raised from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is 'highly likely' rather than 'likely', after the blast outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on Remembrance Sunday
'There are signals in the way people bring together improvised explosives that are important for the public to recognise. Making strange purchases.
'If you're a retailer, for example, if someone's buying something that just doesn't feel right for them, then it's really important that you make that call to us on the anti-terrorist hotline.'
The senior officer, who has worked in counter-terrorism for two decades, said that even with lone wolf terrorists there are still chances for someone to unmask them.
'The lone actor is still a real concern for us.
'The individual who spends time online. But the reality is they're never really completely alone - inspired by something they see online, instructed by something they've seen online, and also often in contact with friends and family.
'So it's so important that friends, family, neighbours spot the changes in behaviour. Very often when we look back on these events there may have been a signal that's been an opportunity.'
He said police and the security services also need the help of the public, particularly parents, in spotting when someone has accessed terrorist or extremist material online.
'We're very concerned about the availability of information that's useful for terrorists online and that's why every year we're prosecuting people for sharing that information,' he said.
'We really do again need the help of the public who come across that. Sadly we need the help of parents as well.
Emad Al Swealmeen spent months planning his bomb attack, and had been buying components 'at least since April', investigators said
'We know that many, many more young people are finding or coming across some of that information so it's an important conversation to have.'
UK counter-terrorism police, who along with the security services are working on around 800 live investigations, want the public to remain vigilant about the risk of terrorism in crowded places in the run-up to Christmas.
'This is certainly a very concerning period that has led to the increase in the threat level.
'What we do know is that sometimes a terrorist attack in the UK or around the world can galvanise or encourage somebody else.
'Oftentimes we do see attacks coming together. That's the reason why the threat level has been increased.
'Clearly it's concerning but it's important for people not to feel powerless in the middle of that and to recognise we've all got incredible potential to make a contribution to make that call.
'If you feel something isn't right, make that call to the anti-terrorist hotline, go online to one of the reporting mechanisms, because we can all make a difference and defeat terrorism.'
The Anti-Terrorist Hotline is on 0800 789 321.
Donald Trump's White House trade advisor Peter Navarro attacked his old colleague Steve Mnuchin as the 'Neville Chamberlain' of the Trump administration in a Tuesday evening interview.
Navarro appeared on Newsmax last night where he discussed US relations with China in front of a screen displaying a photo of Trump shaking hands with China Vice Premier Liu He and surrounded by his economic team.
He accused Mnuchin of 'setting up' the meeting - which was barely over a week before the city of Wuhan was locked down over spiraling COVID-19 cases that hadn't yet impacted the globe.
'This is January 15, 2020,' the trade advisor said while gesturing to the photo.
'Now keep in mind that every one of these Chinese guys know that there's a Wuhan virus hot on the loose and they may infected,' Navarro wildly claimed.
He commented on how close they were positioned to White House officials in the photo.
'This guy's the ambassador to China - he was known affectionately inside the White House as the guy who gave a panda bear to congressman that had a listening device on it,' Navarro continued.
Meanwhile, tonight on Newsmax...
Peter Navarro calls Steven Mnuchin the "Neville Chamberlain of our time" while going all Pepe Silvia over a Jan. 2020 meeting between Trump and Chinese officials. pic.twitter.com/OFwFeIeuaR Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 17, 2021
Navarro gave his interview in front of a blown-up photo of a January 15, 2020 White House meeting between US and Chinese officials
He eventually arrived at Trump's Treasury Secretary.
'And of course Steve Mnuchin was the guy who set the whole thing up, he was the Neville Chamberlain of our time,' Navarro said.
Chamberlain served as the United Kingdom's prime minister at the beginning of World War II and is widely known for his ill-conceived appeasement policy in dealing with Adolf Hitler.
Navarro went on to criticize President Joe Biden for failing to hold China accountable and failing to hold up the 'skinny deal' Trump struck in 2020.
Navarro compared Mnuchin to Neville Chamberlain, the UK prime minister at the start of World War II known for his disastrous appeasement policy when dealing with Nazi Germany
'Skinny deal is as dead as Biden's approval rating,' the former advisor quipped.
That January, the US and China reached an interim trade deal to reduce tariff tensions. China agreed to buy massive amounts of US products.
But the deal would up being a failure when Chinese imports fell far short of their expected target.
It's not the first time Trump's trade advisor had harsh words for Mnuchin over China.
In 2018 it was reported that Navarro 'cursed' at the former Treasury Secretary and 'fumed about being shut out of the talks' with the growing economic power.
Earlier on Tuesday Navarro appeared in a separate segment on Newsmax - where he again compared government officials to the UK's infamous former leader.
Speaking about Biden's summit with Chinese President Xi yesterday afternoon, Navarro commented that it was 'truly a Neville Chamberlain appeasement moment.'
A married couple with eight children who moved to Atlanta to expand their businesses died in a murder-suicide weeks after the wife disclosed she was struggling to adjust to life in Georgia and asked for prayers.
The couple was home alone shortly before 9 pm on November 6 when Keianna Burns, 44, fatally shot her 46-year-old husband, Ronnell Burns.
She then shot herself.
Hours earlier, Keianna Burns shared a video online that showed her dancing and singing with her young daughter, who police said was with a relative at the time of the incident.
Weeks earlier, on October 30, she called on her friends to help her through a difficult time.
Atlanta power couple Ronnell Burns, 46, and Keianna Burns, 44, died in a murder-suicide November 6, weeks after Keianna (right) told friends she was going through a difficult time and asked them to pray for her
Im asking you one thing because I really need it right now I need prayer, I need prayer, I need strength, I need love,' she said in a Facebook live video.
Pray for me.
The family moved to Atlanta from St. Louis, Missouri, about six months before the tragedy to expand their Kritique Designs Beauty & Barber Salon and grow their Primerica Insurance clientele.
Keianna Burns painted a rosy picture of her life on social media.
Keinna painted a rosy picture of her life on social media, where she boasted about a new Maserati Levante, a gift from her husband
The family moved to Atlanta from St. Louis, Missouri, about six months before the tragedy to expand their Kritique Designs Beauty & Barber Salon and grow their Primerica Insurance clientele.
She boasted about a new Maserati Levante her husband gave her last year, and shared photos of her trunk stuffed with Louis Vuitton shopping bags.
Despite keeping up appearances online, she confessed recently that she was having a hard time adjusting to the move.
You have to be prepared for life changes, she said during her Facebook live video. Things in your life can change for the good or the bad overnight -literally. If you dont think youre a strong enough individual, some things may take you out.
She told her followers that she needed their support as she worked through a difficult time.
They help me through my gloomy days because yes, I do have them, she said. And if Im being perfectly honest, Im having one right now.
Keianna Burns is pictured filming a Facebook live video weeks before her death
News of the power couples death rippled throughout their vast network of friends and colleagues.
To know this couple Keianna Burns and Ronnell Burns you had no choice but to love them, Rowena Terry posted on Facebook.
They were selfless, loving, and caring. A lot of ppl say money makes you act different but not them. They are so down to earth.
'And very humble. They lit up any room they walked in. Motivational to others and only wanted to change the world.
Police said there was no history of domestic violence at the familys Atlanta home.
The couple shares biological children as well as some from previous relationships.
The couple discussed divorcing earlier this year but decided to work it out, Ronnell Burns said
He was previously married, and appeared on an episode of Divorce Court after breaking up with his first wife
Ronnell Burns was previously married and appeared on an episode of Divorce Court with his first wife, who he accused of cheating on him.
His ex accused him of ruining her credit history.
Ronnell said in a video posted to YouTube that he and his current wife also had discussed divorcing.
We decided we was going to get a divorce, that we didnt want to be with each other no more, he said. We were just done with each other.
He said in the video, filmed earlier this year, that the couple decided to work it out.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
A far-right activist has been charged after allegedly encouraging protesters to bring guns to Melbourne's anti-lockdown rallies and execute Premier Daniel Andrews.
Imre Pelyva allegedly used an encrypted messaging service to call on protesters to 'bring out rifles and shotguns' and shoot 'Mr Dan f**k in the head'.
Counter-terrorism police charged Pelyva with incitement to manufacture explosives as authorities target neo-Nazi extremists infiltrating Victoria's anti-vaccine and pandemic law protest movements.
Pelyva allegedly asked 'are we allowed to take firearms to the protest' and offered Mr Andrews' 'proper address' to other protesters, The Age reported.
Imre Pelvya allegedly used an encrypted messaging service to call on protesters to 'bring out rifles and shotguns', and called for Premier Daniel Andrews to be shot in the head
'Someone needs to shoot Mr Dan f**k in the head with a .50 cal explosive tip!' he allegedly wrote in one encrypted app.
'Are we allowed to take firearms to the protest?'
He allegedly also told other protesters how to make 'Molotov cocktails at home' and encouraged them to 'burn cop cars down and mash the heck out of them'.
The Melbourne man has reportedly previously held a gun licence.
Police have also hit Victorian neo-Nazi Kenneth Panten with racial vilification charges after he allegedly encouraged the state's residents to engage in violence.
Panten allegedly encouraged attacks on mobile phone towers and power stations and shared instructions online about how to make an automatic rifle with a 3D printer.
Victoria Police said it was investigating 'a number of recent incidents involving threats directed at members of parliament'.
Pelyva also allegedly asked 'are we allowed to take firearms to the protest' and offered Mr Andrews' 'proper address' to other protesters
The charges after the Victorian premier on Wednesday slammed the 'disgusting' protests outside Melbourne's Parliament House in recent days that saw people wheel in a wooden gallows and hang an effigy of the Labor leader.
A video posted on social media shows the protesters gathered around a wooden gallows chanting 'Freedom', 'Traitor', 'Kill Dan Andrews' and 'Hang Dan Andrews' while attempting to place the head of an inflatable doll of the premier through the noose.
Police have also hit Victorian neo-Nazi Kenneth Panten (pictured) with racial vilification charges
'I'll not be deterred from the work I'm doing to keep every family safe,' Mr Andrews said on Wednesday.
'I wouldn't want the the appalling, the disgusting and the potentially criminal behaviour of a small number of people to detract away from the amazing job that so many Victorians have done.'
Debate on the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill is set to resume on Thursday but a final vote may come as late as Friday, with MPs advised parliament could sit an extra day.
The bill has become a lightning rod for anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination groups, with hundreds of protesters planning to camp out on the steps of parliament for the duration of the debate.
One protester marched through Melbourne's CBD carrying nooses on Saturday - as a part of city-wide demonstrations that spanned several days
'It is so unfair for a small, ugly mob to be taking attention away from the more than 90 per cent of Victorians who have had a first dose and will soon have had a second dose,' Mr Andrews said.
The premier's wife, Catherine Andrews, took to Twitter to thank those who sent messages of support following several days of ugly demonstrations in Melbourne.
Mrs Andrews took the vile threats in her stride, offering a classy response to the horrifying ordeal.
'We have received so many beautiful messages today from all over. Thank you,' she said.
Anti-vaccine protesters wheeled a wooden gallows to the steps of Melbourne's Parliament House on Monday night to hang an effigy of Dan Andrews during a wild rally
Hundreds of angry Victorians turned-up to show their displeasure at the Andrews Government on Monday in Melbourne
'We are reminded that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it. As ever #IStandWithDan #GoHigh.'
'There are some people who are threatening me and my family. They are essentially attacking the safety of my family,' Mr Andrews said.
'I will not be deterred from the work I'm doing to keep every family safe. There are some out there making threats against me, Cath and the kids, but that's not my focus,' he said before referring to the 'small, ugly mob'.
'It is awful, but it does not speak to the conduct of the majority. On their behalf I am offended this ugly behaviour might be taking the focus away from how much we achieved.'
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) suspended implementation of its order requiring Covid-19 vaccines for private companies after a federal court blocked the measure.
OSHA announced Wednesday that it was ceasing all enforcement of the measure of the emergency order, which ordered companies with 100 or more employees to require vaccines or weekly Covid-19 testing, or face a maximum of $136,532 in fines, $13,653 per violation.
'While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation,' the OSHA website said.
The rule is set to encompass 84 million workers, and employers could face fines for 'willful violations.'
The announcement came after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a stay on a ruling ordering OSHA to 'take no steps to implement or enforce' the emergency order 'until further court order.'
The mandate was set to take effect Jan. 4, 2022.
Biden ordered companies with 100 or more employees to require vaccines or weekly Covid-19 testing, or face a maximum of $136,532 in fines, $13,653 per violation
Vaccine mandates have been highly controversial throughout the US
Circuit Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the prevailing opinion that the mandate goes too far, and that he has 'grave' concerns about whether the edict is legal or constitutional.
'The mandate is staggeringly overbroad,' the opinion said. 'The mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers).'
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) promised to 'vigorously defend' Biden's vaccine mandate after it was held up by federal court.
Biden administration officials are planning to request the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reimplement the mandate after it was temporarily halted by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Biden administration has argued the mandate is imperative for saving lives, at a time when over 1,000 deaths are still attributed to Covid-19 each day.
At least 27 states have filed legal challenges in at least six federal appeals courts after OSHA released its rules on November 4.
People cross Brooklyn Bridge as they take part in an anti-vaccine mandate protest in Manhattan, New York
A man holds signs that read 'don't give-up on freedom' and 'I choose natural immunity' in Union Square at a 'Freedom Rally' against vaccine mandates
Four out of five Americans age 12 and up have had at least one Covid-19 shot. Of all ages, about 69% of Americans have had one jab and 59% are fully vaccinated. Nearly 31 million people have gotten their booster shot since August, when a third vaccine dose was recommended for those with compromised immune systems.
Hours earlier, all 50 Senate Republicans introduced a disapproval resolution against the mandate. Now, they say they'll continue to fight for OSHA to permanently give up on the rule.
'While I am pleased with the actions taken by the court and that OSHA has subsequently suspended President Bidens unconstitutional vaccine mandate for now, I will continue fighting to put a full stop to his efforts to fire Americans for choosing to not get the vaccine,' Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas said in a statement.
While the GOP resolution is unlikely to pass Congress where Democrats control both houses, it could serve as political fodder for Republicans seeking to unseat vulnerable Democrats in the midterm elections. All senators will have to go on record being in favor or against sweeping vaccine mandates coming down from the federal level.
The boss of debt-ridden Chinese property giant Evergrande has sold $1.1billion worth of assets including jets, art and Hong Kong flats under order from Beijing amid fears the firm's collapse could spark a global financial meltdown.
Chinese authorities told the company's chairman Hui Ka Yan, 63, to use some of his personal wealth to help pay bondholders, two separate people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last month.
Evergrande is scrambling to meet its debt obligations, with Hui Ka Yan freeing up funds from luxury assets, according to state-owned China Business News on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources close to the matter.
Evergrande's troubles in meeting bond repayments have rattled markets and left many of its investors, creditors and suppliers in financial chaos.
Xu has been injecting funds into the company since the beginning of July.
Chinese authorities told the chairman of Developer China Evergrande Group Hui Ka Yan (pictured in 2017, file photo), 63, to use some of his personal wealth to help pay bondholders
It has been used to 'maintain the basic operations of his huge business empire,' the paper reported, such as paying staff salaries, interest payments and some bonds and cash that is owed to investors in Evergrande's wealth product.
It has also gone towards finishing property projects in China.
The outlet wrote: 'So far Xu Jiayin has been personally raising money to continue the life of Evergrande.'
Guo Hui, whose cleaning business is owed more than 18 million yuan ($2.8 million) by Evergrande, had to sell his Porsche Cayenne and an apartment to raise cash and pay debts.
'He should be selling his things,' Guo told Reuters. 'He had no choice once the authorities made him.'
Hui pledged one of his Hong Kong mansions of around 5,000 square feet in The Peak, Hong Kong's most prestigious residential enclave with sweeping views over the city's gleaming skyscrapers, for a loan from China Construction Bank in October, according to a filing with Hong Kong's Land Registry.
The property is worth around HK$800 million ($103 million), an estate agent told Reuters and local media said it was pledged to raise about HK$300 million to repay an overdue Evergrande bond.
The tycoon, ranked as Asia's wealthiest man in 2017, pledged two other luxury houses in the same development to Orix Asia Capital Ltd on Nov 8. for undisclosed amounts, according to the Land Registry. Local media outlet HK01 said on Tuesday the total amount raised was HK$821 million.
One of the properties is worth HK$800 million, the estate agent said, while the other one is bigger and according to HK01 is worth HK$1 billion.
Pictured: Villa del Mare, one of the homes owned by the chairman of Developer China Evergrande Group Hui Ka Yan, in Australia. He has been told to sell his assets to help pay for the debt obligations of the property giant
Hui and Evergrande did not respond to requests for comment regarding the properties on The Peak.
China's State Council Information Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Raised by his grandmother in a rural village, Hui founded Evergrande in 1996 in southern Guangzhou city, supplying low-priced homes and building a fortune.
Xu (pictured) has been injecting funds into the company since the beginning of July
He developed a passion for calligraphy, art and Koi carp - fish seen as a symbol of good luck and fortune for which he paid tens of millions of yuan, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Under Hui's orders, Evergrande has been selling some art and calligraphy to raise fresh capital, said the source. The source declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Reuters could not immediately determine how much had been raised by selling the art pieces or what the money has been used for.
Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment regarding the art sale.
The source also said Evergrande sold two Gulfstream jets in recent weeks.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month Evergrande raised more than $50 million by selling two of its private jets to American aircraft investors.
Hui also owns a 60-metre yacht called 'Event' estimated to be worth $60 million, as well as a private Airbus jet, according to Chinese media reports.
Reuters could not independently verify the ownership of Hui's yacht and private jet.
Hui and Evergrande did not respond to requests for comment regarding his aircraft, yacht and other assets.
While Hui's net worth has plunged over the past few years from around $45 billion in 2017, he is still estimated to be worth $11.3 billion, according to the Hurun China Rich List 2021, released last month.
But even as he moves to sell some of his personal assets, the proceeds raised pale in comparison to Evergrande's liabilities of more than $300 billion, equivalent roughly to the gross domestic product of South Africa.
After Evergrande last week again averted a destabilising default with a last minute bond payment, its next deadline is December 28, with coupon payments totalling more than $255 million due.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by Trump, says Democrats bid to get his tax returns is driven by politics
A federal judge appeared to suggest asking for Donald Trump to turn over his tax returns to Congress is a partisan request claiming if the House flips red they could request Hunter Biden's financial disclosures.
During a hearing on a long-running House Ways and Means Committee lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, questioned the panel's pursuit of obtaining Trump's personal records.
'If Congress changes hands in a couple years here and a Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee asks for Hunter Biden's tax returns, are we just going to say, 'Oh, sure. You know, we've got to defer to Congress. They've said they're interested in legislating on presidential families, therefore we've got to turn them over'? Is that going to be the administration's position?' McFadden proposed on Tuesday to a Justice Department lawyer.
Republicans have questioned Hunter Biden's financial information and business dealings over concerns there are conflicts of interest between his various positions when his father was vice president.
Joe Biden's DOJ reversed its position this year to say that the committee does have the right to obtain the former president's tax returns.
Under U.S. law, the IRS must provide these reports to the Ways and Means Committee when requested. Trump's lawyers, however, in August sought to block the Biden administration from complying with the committee's request.
They argue there is no valid legislative purpose for the committee to obtain the tax returns, claiming they intend to use the documents as an attack on Trump.
'The requests are tailored to, and in practical operation will affect, only President Trump,' the filing reads. 'The requests single out President Trump because he is a Republican and a political opponent.'
Trump's lawyers filed a suit in August seeking to block Biden's Justice Department from complying with the Ways and Means Committee's request to obtain the former president's tax returns
It added: 'They were made to retaliate against President Trump because of his policy positions, his political beliefs, and his protected speech, including the positions he took during the 2016 and 2020 campaigns.'
McFadden said he is also concerned about intentions based on comments made by Democrats who want to obtain Trump's tax filings, including the Ways and Means Committee Chairman Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts.
The comments, the judge says, suggest that 'there's something else going on' other than a legitimate legislative inquiry.
The House panel maintains the tax returns are important because Trump's 'actions and statements raised unprecedented and serious concerns about his tax compliance and foreign entanglements and about the IRS's ability to enforce the tax laws against him while President.'
'Compared to past Presidents,' the committee's lawyers said in a court filing in October, 'Mr. Trump's returns appear to be inordinately large and complex, reflecting his sprawling domestic and international business activities, which raises the question of whether the IRS has the requisite resources and authority to examine such returns as effectively as needed for a President.'
They added: 'And he repeatedly attacked the IRS and its audits of him both while a Presidential candidate and while President, which raised the important question of whether IRS employees are properly protected from a President's attempts to improperly influence its audits.'
As Trump's lawyers try to block his returns from being handed over, the former president is also claiming executive privilege to stop the House panel probing the January 6 Capitol riot from obtaining internal records from the White House.
A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on November 30 for Trump's lawsuit seeking to block the committee from obtaining these documents.
The darling stocks of the pandemic have crashed back to earth while travel and live event stocks soar, as life returns to something approaching normal.
With vaccines widely available, shares of Peloton have plunged 65 percent this year, and Zoom is down 26 percent, while airlines, hotels and other sectors battered in the pandemic are thriving.
'The markets clearly sense the pandemic is over,' Ben Emons, managing director of global macro strategy for Medley Global Advisors, told the New York Times. 'We're in a full reopening, and we're moving toward a normalized situation.'
The market's assessment comes despite that fact that daily COVID-19 cases and deaths have leveled off at a fairly high rate nationwide, and are sharply increasing in some states, such as Michigan and Minnesota.
View of the crowd during the 2021 Global Citizen Live festival at the Great Lawn, Central Park on September 25. With reopening, travel and live events stocks are surging
Likely, investors believe that there is little political will for further lockdowns, in particular given the availability of vaccines, and now booster shots, easing the concerns of those most fearful of the virus.
Perhaps no stock was as emblematic of the pandemic as video-calling app Zoom, which overnight became the daily tool of office workers around the world as they worked from home.
Shares of Zoom rose more than 730 percent during their peak last year, but have since plunged precipitously as workers trickled back into offices, and 'Zoom fatigue' became a byword for exhaustion with webcam meetings.
Peloton, the maker of the high-priced connected exercise bike, also saw shares soar last year as gyms and exercise classes closed, sparking a fad for the company's products.
Shares of Peloton rose as much as 440 percent last year, but so far in 2021 have plunged 65 percent, after the company this month slashed its annual revenue projection by as much as $1 billion.
Peloton also was battered by a recall on its treadmills, after one child was killed and 29 were injured when they were pulled under the moving belt.
After rising more than 400 percent during the height of the pandemic in 2020, Peloton's stock is now down more than 60 percent so far in 2021
A year-to-date view of Peloton stock shows how the share price has plunged
But the company has also clearly suffered under reopening measures, and some analysts even called Peloton's share price plunge the official signal of the end of the pandemic.
'People are no longer trapped at home and competition is growing,' BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said earlier this month.
Other pandemic plays include Clorox, which became a household staple at the height of the outbreak. Clorox shares are down 16 percent so far in 2021.
Shares of Chegg, which provides widely used technology for remote schooling, are down more than 67 percent for the year.
But some so-called 'stay at home' stocks are surviving reopening. Netflix shares remain up 33 percent so far this year, thanks to strong subscriber numbers and smash hits such as Squid Game.
Amazon shares also remain up about 11 percent this year, as many consumers appear to be reluctant to give up shopping from home even as restrictions end.
Planet Fitness has seen its shares soar 24 percent, and CEO Chris Rondeau has said that gym membership numbers had nearly returned to their pre-pandemic peaks
A year-to-date view of Planet Fitness shares shows how the stock has soared
Meanwhile, sectors that suffered under lockdown are now thriving for the most part.
Planet Fitness, the popular gym chain, has seen its shares soar 24 percent, and CEO Chris Rondeau has said that gym membership numbers had nearly returned to their pre-pandemic peaks.
'Our height was 15.5 [million members]. We're 97 percent all the way recaptured back to where we were pre-Covid,' Rondeau told CNBC this month.
Travel has also roared back into fashion. According to the TSA, airline traveler throughput was 130 percent higher over the past week than the same period last year, and only 15 percent lower than the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Expedia, the travel booking site, has seen its stock rise 34 percent this year.
American Airlines is up 31 percent, Delta Air Lines rose 5 percent, and United Airlines gained 17 percent.
Yerin Hong gets a hug from her boyfriend Soomin Kim after she arrived on a flight from Germany at the international terminal at O'Hare International Airport on November 8
According to the TSA, airline traveler throughput was 130 percent higher over the past week than the same period last year, and only 15 percent lower than the pre-pandemic level in 2019
Live events, which almost completely halted for a period last year, are also now all the rage.
Shares of the concert and event ticketing company Live Nation are up 63 percent so far this year.
Cruise lines also rebounded, with Royal Caribbean up 18 percent for the year.
'The stay-at-home stocks were the place to be because that was where the growth was,' Eric Mintz, portfolio manager at Eagle Asset Management, an investment firm in St. Petersburg, Florida, told the Times.
'When you've got this surge in reopenings, obviously you've got a number of companies doing very well, and industries,' he said.
But Mitz warned that as the economy improves, growth-focused investors don't need to crowd into 'just a handful of stocks.'
A Perth principal has threatened to shut down his entire school rather than get a Covid jab mandated for teaching staff by the Western Australian government.
Principal Adam Zydek has sought legal advice on closing Divine Mercy College in Yangebup in the city's south, fearful staff members have claimed.
During a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr Zydek reportedly handed out anti-vaccination literature, blindsiding teachers who had expected a school announcement.
'Everyone was in tears,' the staff member told the West Australian.
'Staff walked out of the meeting.'
Principal Adam Zydek (pictured) has threatened to shut down Divine Mercy College in Yangebup in south Perth because he does not wish to get vaccinated
One staff member claimed the principal had previously vocalised his opposition to vaccines because he believed they posed a greater risk that Covid-19.
They claimed the principal told teaching staff the technology used to develop vaccines had aborted baby foetuses.
The staff member said he also claimed police would arrive at people's homes to forcibly administer the jab and put them in concentration camps.
The McGowan government has mandated all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by the start of Term One next year.
The first term of the school year begins on January 31.
Nearly 400 students and 50 staff at the Catholic college will be forced to find education and employment elsewhere if Mr Zydek gets his way.
Nearly 400 students and 50 staff at Divine Mercy College (pictured) will be forced to find education and employment elsewhere if Mr Zydek gets his way
The principal - who has led the school since 1996 - has refused to comment on his personal views surrounding vaccines.
He told the West Australian the school board was still considering its next move.
''We are still in the process of making a decision about how to approach the whole situation in the very best and proper manner, taking into account the best interests of staff and students,' he said.
Education Minister Sue Ellery told the publication she was aware of the allegations and said she hoped they weren't true.
Ms Ellery said if the claims were accurate it was 'terribly disappointing' that a principal would not put his trust in science.
She said the education leader simply had to look at eastern states like NSW and Victoria to see evidence of how the virus can spread in schools as well as the efficacy of the vaccine to protect staff and students.
In October, Mark McGowan announced Covid-19 vaccinations would be compulsory for three-quarters of the country's workforce, including teachers
'I have asked to be kept advised into investigations into the allegation,' she said.
Independent Education Union WA branch secretary Rebecca Collopy said staff members had been ringing the union in tears.
Ms Collopy said she had written to Mr Zydek to deliver a stark reminder he needed to comply with employment awards and consult with staff and their representatives.
In October, Mark McGowan announced Covid-19 vaccinations would be compulsory for three-quarters of the country's workforce, including teachers.
Employers who are caught using workers who have not been vaccinated will be fined $100,000, and employees risk $20,000 fines for flouting the order.
An unlicensed beauty consultant from Texas has been charged with manslaughter, accused of injecting silicone into the butt of a female client, which prosecutors say resulted in her death more than three years ago.
Lisa Fernandez, 47, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the April 2018 death of 38-year-old Marja McClendon.
According to court documents, Fernandez was offering beauty injections without a license out of her home in Houston and obtained the silicone used in the procedures by illegal means.
Prosecutors said McClendon had made two appointments with Fernandez to get butt injections, which caused her intense pain and breathing problems, KHOU11 reported.
Lisa Fernandez, 47 (left), from Houston, has been charged with manslaughter for allegedly causing the April 2018 death of Marja McClendon, 38 (right) by giving her butt injections
According to a witness account cited in the filings, the first round of injections on April 24, 2018, left McClendon feeling ill, but it did not achieve the aesthetic result she was looking for, so she returned for a second appointment after Fernandez refused to give her a refund.
Prosecutors said McClendon was in so much pain during the second round of injections that Fernandez had to halt the procedure several times. When McClendon left Fernandez's home, she was coughing up blood and struggling to breathe.
McClendon (left and right) had received two rounds of silicone injections, which left her coughing up blood and struggling for breath. She died from complications associated with a silicone pulmonary embolism
A short time later, the 38-year-old woman was taken to an emergency room, but went home before she could be evaluated.
McClendon was late readmitted to the hospital, where she died on April 30, 2018 as a result complications associated with a silicone pulmonary embolism. Her death was ruled a homicide.
At the time of her arrest, Fernandez allegedly admitted to knowing that McClendon had been hospitalized, but she did not go with her to the emergency room to explain to the doctors how the injections were performed, and with what substance.
Fernandez, who described herself as a beauty consultant, appeared in court on Wednesday and was ordered held on $40,000 bail
Fernandez also allegedly admitted to the police that she was aware that if performed incorrectly, butt injections could result in serious harm, or even death, reported ABC13.
Fernandez made her initial court appearance on Wednesday and had her bail set at $40,000. A judge barred Fernandez from performing any unlicensed medical or cosmetic procedures.
Daniel Andrews enters Parliament on Thursday
Daniel Andrews' controversial new law to give him sweeping powers to manage pandemics is under threat after a disgraced former Labor MP vowed to vote it down.
Adem Somyurek has not been in Parliament since December 2020 but has returned at the 11th hour to thwart his old factional rival Mr Andrews.
Mr Somyurek, who is an independent after leaving Labor when he was busted branch-stacking, said he will 'not support this bill in its current form'.
'I would encourage the government to go back to the drawing board and consult more broadly,' he wrote in an opinion piece for the Herald Sun.
On Thursday morning the Government voted to delay the bill to avoid it being defeated.
Premier Andrews said: 'We don't have the numbers in the upper house, we'll just do our normal thing which is to work with everybody and try and get an outcome that keeps us safe,' he told reporters.
'I don't know whether this matter will get resolved today, tonight or tomorrow - we'll have to wait and see.'
Mr Somyurek said Victoria's parliamentary system is 'essentially an elective dictatorship' because Labor dominates the lower house and said the pandemic has shown that state governments have 'coercive powers'.
He accused Labor MPs of being 'docile' and unwilling to challenge Premier Andrews, meaning 'it is difficult to protect the population from the tyranny of rule by decree'.
The MP also said the laws may mean Victoria could be 'unjustly governed by a Coalition despot in the future'.
The laws, which have passed Victoria's lower house and are being debated in the upper house this 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.
Adem Somyurek is seen outside his home in Melbourne after explosive allegations he stacked Labor branches with supporters for the gain of his political faction against Labor rules
What happens to the bill now? A no vote by Mr Somyurek would result in a tie, meaning the bill would have to be reintroduced in parliament's lower house. Alternatively, the Government could delay the vote until the first week of December and change the bill to win over another crossbencher. If the bill does not pass by December 15, when the current state of emergency powers expire, the Government will not be able to enforce pandemic orders such as lockdowns and mask-wearing. Advertisement
The Victorian government had been confident the bill would pass after delivering amendments to secure the support of left-wing upper house crossbenchers - the Greens' Samantha Ratnam, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten and Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick.
But the return of Mr Somyurek - who quit the party before he was expelled for leading a widespread branch-stacking operation - opens the door for him to cast the deciding vote.
Mr Somyurek has not been at parliament for almost a year and was suspended last month after he failed to provide proof of Covid-19 vaccination.
But the clerk of the Legislative Council on Wednesday advised upper house MPs Mr Somyurek now 'complies with the order and is no longer suspended'.
A no vote by Mr Somyurek would result in a tie, meaning the bill would have to be reintroduced in parliament's lower house.
Alternatively, the Government could delay the vote until the first week of December and change the bill to win over another crossbencher.
If the bill does not pass by December 15, when the current state of emergency powers expire, the Government will not be able to enforce pandemic orders such as lockdowns and mask-wearing.
The bill has become a lightning rod for anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination groups, who have occupied the steps of state parliament this week.
On Monday, they gathered around a wooden gallows on 'freedom', 'traitor', 'kill Dan Andrews' and 'hang Dan Andrews', as an inflatable doll depicting the premier was thrown onto the structure.
On Wednesday night, Victoria Police confirmed the driver of the black Toyota Landcruiser which had been towing the gallows had been spoken to by officers.
The man, a 48-year-old from Badger Creek, was issued a warning for traffic offences.
Some protesters held three nooses, in possible reference to the three crossbench MPs who decide whether the bill passes
Premier Dan Andrews was depicted as a rat in another placard held by protesters
Last week Victoria's top barristers called for Mr Andrews to delay and wind back the proposed laws.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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President Biden cruised around in an electric Hummer vehicle on Wednesday as he toured the General Motors 'Factory ZERO' electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan.
The president, a car enthusiast, excitedly drove himself in the new vehicle, whipping around an empty parking lot in the factory.
'Anybody want to jump in the back? On the roof? This sucker's something else,' Biden said as he sat in the driver's seat after taking the vehicle for a spin.
Unlike their gas-guzzling predecessors, these military-style pickup trucks operate on battery power. Biden visited a grand opening ceremony for 'Factory Zero' at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, where a broad array of new electric trucks and vehicles will be built.
GM boasts that the 9,000-lb vehicle can go from 0-60 miles per hour in three seconds and has a 350-kilowatt fast-charging capability which allows it to add 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes. However, the Edition One comes at a $112,595 cost.
One GM staffer told the president the vehicle prototype was 'three times the weight of your Corvette and twice as fast.'
Biden was in Motown celebrating his win on the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes provisions for electric vehicles.
The infrastructure bill allocates $7.5 billion to build electric vehicle charging stations. Most of those, however, will likely be 'Level 2' variety, which can give a vehicle 25 miles of battery capacity per hour.
Biden was in Motown celebrating his win on the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes provisions for electric vehicles
The president, a car enthusiast, excitedly drove himself in the new vehicle, whipping around an empty parking lot in the factory.
Biden sings praises of the vehicle after his test run
General Motors this year paid $160,000 to a lobbyist whose brother is one of the president's closest advisers.
Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, reported being paid $160,000 by General Motors this year to lobby the White House and Congress.
His lobbying disclosures indicate that the work included efforts on electric vehicle tax incentives.
It is Biden's third visit to one of the big three automakers this year, following trips to see a Fiat-Chrysler plant in March and a Ford factory in May.
Biden visited a grand opening ceremony for 'Factory Zero'.at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, where a broad array of new electric trucks and vehicles will be built
Steve Ricchetti (l) is a longtime Biden confidant and is currently counselor to the president. His role has attracted frequent accusations of a conflict of interest when his brother, Jeff (r), is a lobbyist who has seen business grow more than four-fold since Biden took office
A senior administration official said there was no hint of family favoritism.
'Jeff had no role in this visit,' said the official.
Even so Ricchetti's lobbying firm, which he set up with his brother, has enjoyed a bumper year since Biden took power.
In the first half of 2021, Ricchetti Inc. took in $1.67 million in fees in the first half of the year, according to financial disclosures - a huge increase on the $370,000 it reported in the same period of 2020.
In response to previous accusations of a possible conflict of interest, the White House said Steve Ricchetti recuses himself from issues raised by his brother or his firm.
'I do not lobby my brother, nor have I lobbied the White House this quarter,' Jeff Ricchetti told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
But the link still raised concerns among ethics experts amid reports that Steve Ricchetti was involved in negotiations over the infrastructure bill.
'Steve Ricchetti ought to completely recuse himself from any part of the legislation that his brother's firm is lobbying on, and then have the White House not take calls from his brother,' Richard Painter, a former Democratic Senate candidate who was President George W. Bush's chief ethics lawyer, told the Free Beacon which first reported on the lobbying connections on Wednesday.
His brother is a long time Biden confidant and one of the most powerful people in the White House.
He worked as deputy chief of staff in Bill Clinton's White House before opening Ricchetti Inc. with his brother.
But he stepped aside when he went to work for then Vice President joe Biden in 2012.
During the visit, Biden will deliver remarks on how the law 'builds electric vehicle charging stations across the country to make it easier to drive an electric vehicle, reduces emissions to fight the climate crisis, and creates good-paying, union jobs across the country,' the White House said in a statement.
A broad transition to electric cars and trucks will help the United States meet Biden's pledge to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Democrats are working on a separate social spending and climate bill that contains up to $12,500 in tax credits for U.S.-made EVs, including a $4,500 credit for union-made vehicles.
The bill is a key pillar of Biden's domestic agenda but has faced hurdles to passage from competing views between progressive and moderate lawmakers in his party.
Seven women who say they screamed at the operating table due to 'excruciating' pain because a nurse tampered with their pain medication sued Yale University on Wednesday, accusing it of failing to properly safeguard its supply of fentanyl.
The women underwent painful and invasive procedures for in vitro fertilization and were supposed to receive the opioid at a Yale fertility clinic in Connecticut last year.
They got saline instead, but their complaints were dismissed even as they 'screamed' during the surgeries and reported feeling 'torturous pain' afterward, according to a lawsuit filed in state court in Waterbury by the women and their spouses.
The nurse responsible, Donna Monticone, was sentenced to just four weekends in prison in May, along with three months of home confinement and three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors say 75 percent of the fentanyl given to patients during a five-month period was diluted with saline.
Nurse Donna Monticone was sentenced to four weekends in prison in May after she tampered with the fentanyl supply at the clinic for her own use
Prosecutors say that a DEA investigation found that 75 percent of the fentanyl given to patients at the clinic from June to October 2020 was adulterated by saline
The seven women were having their eggs retrieved as part of the in vitro process at the Yale Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic in Orange, Connecticut, above
The affected women were all at patients at Yale's Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic in Orange, Connecticut.
Their names are Melissa Cowan, Alyssa Gargiulo, Brianne Mcloughlin, Leah Mirakhor, Dilay Nacar, Awo Osafo-Addo and Nicole Walsh.
According to the lawsuit, they all underwent 'excruciating' oocyte retrievals, which require a surgeon to maneuver 'a thick needle through the vaginal wall, ovarian ligament, ovary, and ovarian follicle to aspirate mature eggs.'
Oocyte retrieval is the second of five steps of in vitro fertilization, according to the Mayo Clinic. After the eggs are retrieved, they are fertilized outside of the body and inserted back inside the female patient.
The entire procedure at Yale ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 and is not covered my most insurance plans, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit says staff was alerted to a problem in the supply of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used as a painkiller, through 'patients intraoperative screams and postoperative reports of torturous pain.'
'It was more pain than I could ever imagine,' one woman told a local news station back in March.
'I remember screaming in the middle of the procedure from pain,' another patient said.
They were allegedly told their pain was due to the lack of anesthesiologists on site on Saturdays and Sundays.
The women argue that Yale 'never investigated these reports' and that their pain was minimized as 'normal.'
They also say that, in early 2020, Yale sought to save money by 'bulk ordering' mass quantities of fentanyl for on-site storage after moving its fertility clinic to Orange, about seven miles from the Yale-New Haven hospital.
The person in charge of the shipments was none other than the 'nurse who subsequently admitted to diverting fentanyl form the REI clinic,' the suit claims.
The lawsuit accuses Yale officials of failing to follow mandated pharmacy protocols and allowing vials of fentanyl to be vulnerable to tampering.
The suit also alleges Yale violated state and federal laws by keeping more than 175 vials of fentanyl in an unsupervised and unlocked area, and failed to implement safeguards including drug testing staff with access to opioids.
'Yale's failure to develop and implement safety measures mandated by state and federal law to secure drugs like fentanyl resulted in these patients being traumatized,' Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the women, said in a statement. 'What should have been a time of hope for these women and their families became one of unimaginable suffering.'
The lawsuit accuses the clinic of using cost-cutting measures that left vials of fentanyl open to tampering
A look inside of the clinic where fertility patients say Monticone diluted their fentanyl with saline solution, causing them to 'scream' during surgery
Yale spokesperson Karen Peart Peart said university officials will not comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is seeking undisclosed damages.
Nurse Monticone no longer works for the clinic and pled guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product. She was sentenced to four weekends in jail and three months of home confinement in May instead of a recommended five year jail sentence.
The New Haven Register reported that the judge weighed the testimony of people who experienced incredible pain because of Monticone's actions with the fact that she cooperated with the investigation.
Monticone, 49, started using the drugs during a painful divorce and amidst a years-long custody battle for her children, the outlet reported, though the judge said the court was not able to determine the full scope of her familial problems.
Attorney Josh Koskoff, who represents dozens of clients from the fertility center in the case, said that his clients were 'sensitive to the idea that this is a single mother,' according to CBS2s Tony Aiello.
Monticone apologized to the affected patients during her sentencing hearing.
The fact that Monticone had no prior criminal record played a part in her light sentencing, as well, the Register reports.
Prosecutors say that an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency found that 75 percent of the fentanyl given to patients at the clinic from June to October 2020 was adulterated by saline.
Wednesday's lawsuit includes civil allegations of medical assault and battery and medical malpractice. It says hundreds of patients potentially were unknowingly treated with saline instead of fentanyl at the clinic last year.
Federal health officials are investigating an unusual flu outbreak on the campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where 528 cases have been reported since October 6.
University officials reported a sharp spike in cases over the past two weeks. During the week of November 8, there were 313 newly diagnosed cases. The previous week saw 198 cases.
More than three out of four patients - 77 percent - have not been vaccinated against the A(H3N2) influenza virus, according to U-M officials.
The large and sudden outbreak has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to initiate an investigation.
A team from the CDC will work in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Health Department, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the university.
CDC officials will be evaluating flu vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness and risk factors for spread through data analysis, questionnaires and sample collection of patients at the school, according to a statement from the university.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched an investigation into a flu outbreak on the campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (above)
'Through prompt detection and collaboration with county and state health officials, as well as School of Public Health and Michigan Medicine researchers, we quickly identified these cases as influenza A(H3N2) virus infections,' said Lindsey Mortenson, UHS medical director and acting executive director.
'Partnering with the CDC will accelerate our understanding of how this flu season may unfold regionally and nationally in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.'
The outbreak is concerning due to the timing - just a week before the Thanksgiving holiday, when students will travel to homes nationwide to spend the weekend with family.
Health officials have repeated calls for students and faculty on the Ann Arbor campus to get vaccinated against influenza as soon as possible.
According to the CDC, the flu vaccination reduces risk of contracting the illness by between 40 and 60 percent.
The CDC says that the current flu vaccines work better against influenza B and influenza A(H1NI1) viruses compared to the A(H3N2) strands.
Though flu vaccines are not considered foolproof, health officials still recommend getting the shot because of studies that show they help reduce the severity of illness and hospitalizations.
The image above shows a colored transmission electron micrograph of H3N2 influenza virus particles
'While we often start to see some flu activity now, the size of this outbreak is unusual,' said Juan Luis Marquez, medical director at the Washtenaw County Health Department.
'Were grateful for the additional support of the CDC and our ongoing partnership with the university as we look more closely at the situation.
'This outbreak doesn't necessarily have an immediate impact on the broader local community, but it does raise concerns about what the flu season may bring.
'Most importantly, we strongly recommend anyone not yet vaccinated against seasonal flu to do so.
'And anyone at higher risk of severe flu complications should talk to their doctor about prescription antiviral medications at the first sign of flu symptoms.'
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RAF F-35 Med crash was SEVENTH time 100m jets have malfunctioned in seven years June 23, 2014: A USAF F-35A had a catastrophic engine fire caused by a fractured rotor which saw it turn into a blaze as it took off in Florida. October 27, 2016: A US Marine Corp F-35B set alight mid-flight due to a fire in its weapons bay before the pilot landed safely in Beaufort, South Carolina. September 28, 2018: All operational F-35s were grounded while a probe was launched into why a fuel tube failed in flight after a horror crash at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. April 9, 2019: Parts of the tail of a Japanese F-35 were found in the sea around 85 miles east of Misawa during a training mission. May 19. 2020: This F-35 crash on landing was caused by a tired, distracted pilot and unresponsive tail glitch. September 20, 2020: A F-35 stealth fighter jet fell out of the sky and exploded on the ground after hitting a KC-130J tanker in a mid-air collision near the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California. September 20, 2020: A F-35 stealth fighter jet fell out of the sky and exploded on the ground after hitting a KC-130J tanker in a mid-air collision near the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California Advertisement
Royal Navy submarines are racing against the Russians to recover a crashed 100million jet with top secret technology from the bottom of the Mediterranean.
An RAF pilot was forced to eject from his F-35B Lightning as it ditched into the sea soon after taking off on 'routine exercise' from the Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. The aircraft was one of eight UK fast-jets onboard, along with 10 US aircraft.
By plunging into international waters, the crash triggered a scramble to find the next-generation jet from the sea bed before it could be reached by Russia. It s thought to be the first time an F35-B has crashed in such an area.
The technology aboard the US-designed aircraft, including top secret radar and sensors, is hugely sensitive as it allows the F-35 to fly 'unseen' in hostile territory at supersonic speeds. However, it is likely that China already knows all there is to know about the jet due to spying.
The aircraft was located on Wednesday afternoon and the site on the sea bed will be manned by an Anglo-US dive security team until the jet is lifted to the surface.
The operation, shrouded in secrecy, is understood to involve divers, miniature submarines and inflatable bags which may be used to lift the plane to the surface of the Mediterranean.
As the UK's most advanced and expensive jet, the single-seater can land vertically and only needs a short runway to take off.
It is the first one Britain has lost and the incident is the first mishap for the RAF's F-35B fleet and for the 3billion aircraft carrier which left the UK seven months ago.
After he ejected, the pilot was reportedly left dangling from the edge of the HMS Queen Elizabeth because the lines of his parachute became caught on the edge of the flight deck.
This week's crash raises fresh questions about the F-35B, of which Britain currently has 24.
The UK is set to buy 138 of the fighter jets from US aviation giant Lockheed Martin for 9.1billion in the coming years, with 48 of those expected to be delivered by 2025.
In June 2014 a USAF F-35A had a catastrophic engine fire caused by a fractured rotor which saw it turn into a blaze as it took off in Florida.
Two years later a US Marine Corp F-35B set alight mid-flight due to a fire in its weapons bay.
In 2018, a US F-35B pilot was forced to eject mid-air after the fighter jet crashed in South Carolina during a training exercise.
And last year, an F-35B aircraft crashed near Naval Air Facility El Centro in California after crashing into a KC-130J, US officials told USNI News.
An RAF pilot was forced to eject over the Mediterranean yesterday, sending his 100million stealth jet crashing into the sea
Soon after taking off on 'routine exercise' from the Royal Navy's flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, the F-35B Lightning (file image) ditched into the sea and a rescue team was sent out to recover the pilot
This map shows the approximate location of where the F-35B stealth jet crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday
Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry said last night: 'Although an inquiry will establish the precise cause of the crash, it appears likely that the accident occurred because of engine malfunction.
F-35 pilot 'was left dangling from flight deck after ejecting' The unnamed pilot who ejected from the stricken F-35 jet was then left dangling left from the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier which he had taken off from. Rockets in his plane's seat blasted him more than 100feet upwards before his parachute opened. But a source told The Sun that when the pilot floated back down towards the warship, he 'came within inches' of hitting the flight deck. Instead, a cross-wind is said to have blown him sideways, where his parachute lines then became snagged on the edge of the 900feet long runway. The quick-thinking pilot was then left dangling from the edge of the warship, around 60feet above the water. He pulled an escape pin which released him from his harness and he then plunged into the water. 'He made the right decision,' a source said. 'We train for landing in water. The last thing you want is to get tangled in your parachute lines getting dragged along the edge of a 65,000 tonne warship.' A search and rescue helicopter was then used to pluck him out of the water. Advertisement
'Despite the F-35B's good safety record, it was inevitable that some of these high-performance aircraft, which operate in the distinctly demanding maritime environment, would have been lost at some stage.'
The Ministry of Defence insisted last night 'no hostile action' was involved in the crash. Last night, the investigation was focusing on technical or human error.
The pilot, who suffered minor injuries, is understood to have been rescued by helicopter. The pilot's family was informed of the crash before military chiefs released a statement yesterday afternoon about the incident.
After he ejected, rockets in his plane's seat blasted him more than 100feet upwards before his parachute opened.
But a source told The Sun that when the pilot floated back down towards the warship, he 'came within inches' of hitting the flight deck.
Instead, a cross-wind is said to have blown him sideways, where his parachute lines then became snagged on the edge of the 900foot long runway.
The quick-thinking pilot was then left dangling from the edge of the warship, around 60feet above the water.
He pulled an escape pin which released him from his harness and he then plunged into the water.
'He made the right decision,' a source said.
'We train for landing in water. The last thing you want is to get tangled in your parachute lines getting dragged along the edge of a 65,000 tonne warship.'
The US are understood to be helping with efforts to recover the plane.
Whilst the UK has its own team capable of carrying out the operation, an American team and their machinery is currently nearer to where the accident occurred.
According to navy sources mentioned in The Times, the operation is expected to involve deep water remote-controlled vehicles which will be used to find the F-35 and then attach huge inflatable bags to it so that it rises to the surface on its own.
However, it will have a long way to travel because it is believed to be more than a mile beneath the surface of the Mediterranean.
How mini underwater vehicles could be used to find F-35 before inflatable bags lift it to the surface The US are understood to be helping with efforts to recover the plane. Whilst the UK has its own team capable of carrying out the operation, an American team and their machinery is currently nearer to where the accident occurred. Inflatable lift bags are manufactured by US firm Subsalve According to navy sources mentioned in The Times, the operation is expected to involve deep water remote-controlled vehicles which will be used to find the F-35 and then attach huge inflatable bags to it so that it rises to the surface on its own. However, it will have a long way to travel because it is believed to be more than a mile beneath the surface of the Mediterranean. US-based firm Subsalve produces what it describes as 'underwater lift bags'. The firm, which has made bags for the US Navy, lists models on its website which can lift items weighing up to 48tonnes. The F-35 weighs up to 30tonnes when carrying weapons and its pilot Whilst the aircraft has not yet been found, the US Navy is using device called a TPL-25 towed pinger locator system to find the F-35's emergency relocation pinger. The TPL-25 system consists of a device which is towed behind a search vessel. It can detect a pinger at depths of up to 20,000feet (3.8miles). A Royal Navy source added to The Times that whilst the recovery is 'not rocket science', the problem is 'finding and getting' to the aircraft. The US Navy is also able to make use of winch system called a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS). A page on the navy's website says the device provides 'reliable deep ocean lifting capacity of up to 60,000 pounds for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy sunken objects such as aircraft or small vessels.' In March, the US Navy used the device to lift a Canadian helicopter from the sea. Advertisement
US-based firm Subsalve produces what it describes as 'underwater lift bags'.
The firm, which has made bags for the US Navy, lists models on its website which can lift items weighing up to 48tonnes. The F-35 weighs up to 30tonnes when carrying weapons and its pilot.
Whilst the aircraft has not yet been found, the US Navy is using device called a TPL-25 towed pinger locator system to find the F-35's emergency relocation pinger.
The TPL-25 system consists of a device which is towed behind a search vessel. It can detect a pinger at depths of up to 20,000feet (3.8miles).
A Royal Navy source added to The Times that whilst the recovery is 'not rocket science', the problem is 'finding and getting' to the aircraft.
The US Navy is also able to make use of winch system called a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS).
A page on the navy's website says the device provides 'reliable deep ocean lifting capacity of up to 60,000 pounds for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy sunken objects such as aircraft or small vessels.'
In March, the US Navy used the device to lift a Canadian helicopter from the sea.
Having sailed to the Far East and attracted the attention of both Russia and China, the 3billion Queen Elizabeth was last known to have been in the eastern Mediterranean, after leaving Oman.
The Prince of Wales is due to visit the carrier tomorrow as part of a royal tour to Egypt.
The Lightning is described by the RAF as a fifth generation combat aircraft capable of conducting air-to-surface strikes and electronic warfare.
The aircraft uses an array of sensors to operate undetected in enemy airspace.
There were understood to be not only eight British F-35s aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth but also ten US aircraft.
They have conducted some 2,000 take-offs and landings without incident. When not deployed on the carrier, the UK's F-35Bs are stationed at RAF Marham in Norfolk as part of 617 Squadron (the 'Dambusters'). In 2020, US military tests found 276 different faults in the jet's combat system.
Last night the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: 'The F-35 ditched soon after take off. We are pleased the pilot is safe and back on board. Our operational and training flights continue.'
The Ministry of Defence said: 'A British F-35 pilot from HMS Queen Elizabeth ejected during routine flying operations in the Mediterranean this morning.
'The pilot has been safely returned to the ship and an investigation has begun, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. No other vessels or aircraft were involved.'
A comprehensive military air investigation has been launched by the RAF and US experts.
America enticed its Nato and other allies into sharing the cost of the aircraft by offering input into manufacture and 15 per cent of each one is comprised of parts from British companies while some of the jets will be made in Italy.
But the planes have been plagued by a catalogue of problems which have sent costs soaring.
By plunging into international waters, the crash triggered a scramble to recover the next-generation jet from the sea bed before it could be reached by foreign powers, particularly Russia. Above: File image of HMS Queen Elizabeth
The F35s can hover as the come into land meaning the need a smaller flight deck. Pictured, an F-35B fighter jet prepares to land on the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Arabian Sea, off Mumbai's coast on October 21
History revisited: The 1966 Palomares B-52 bomber crash In 1966, a USAF B-52G bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed into a KC-135 tanker during mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. Upon impact, the KC-135 was destroyed and all four crew members aboard were killed. The B-52G broke apart, and three of the seven crew died. Meanwhile, the four nuclear bombs fell 31,000 feet to the surface - three of which were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in Almeria. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons blew up upon impact, resulting in the contamination of a 0.77-sq m area with radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean, was recovered intact after a two-month search. Advertisement
There are fears about shortcomings in the technical systems underpinning the new generation of war planes will leave them unable to function properly.
The true cost of the British planes delivered this year is estimated to be over 150million each to cover 'extras' such as software upgrades and spare parts. There are also concerns plane's software system is vulnerable to cyber-attack and cannot be tested independently by the UK.
The weak broadband on the Royal Navy's principal aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is also hampering the jet's abilities.
Though the cost of the F-35 has been the focus of attention, there have also been embarrassing reports of operational shortcomings emerging from the United States.
In a mock air battle in 2015, the cutting edge plane was defeated by an older generation F-16, a plane designed in the 1970s.
In 2020 Pentagon tests found 276 different faults in jet's combat system.
They included the 25mm cannon vibrating excessively and problems with the he aircraft's 'virtual reality' helmet.
Overheating, premature wear of components in the vertical tails and vulnerability to fire were also found to be issues.
The US Air Force temporarily grounded dozens its F-35 stealth fighters while it investigated an oxygen supply issue.
The Marine Corps, who also operate the same F-35B model the UK has purchased, was forced to ground its planes after flaws were found in the computer system.
Prince Andrews finances should be investigated by MPs and tax authorities after it emerged that he received a 1.5million off-shore payment from a banker friend, campaigners and experts have said.
The Duke of York faced mounting scrutiny yesterday over whether he broke the Royal Familys conduct rules by accepting the money from Tory donor David Rowland.
The Queens scandal-hit second son received the payment days before he paid off a loan from the financiers own Luxembourg bank.
Buckingham Palace conduct rules state that royals should never accept gifts of money, or money equivalent, in connection with an official engagement or duty.
They are also told to avoid gifts that would, or might appear to, place [them] under any obligation to the donor.
Prince Andrew, pictured above with the Queen, is facing increasing scrutiny over accusations he accepted money from Tory donor David Rowland
Former business partners Mr Rowland (left) and Prince Andrew (right) pictured together at Royal Ascot in 2006
Andrew, 61, has refused to say whether he paid back any of the money wired to him by a company registered in Guernsey in 2017.
Former Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, an expert on royal finances, said he would be writing to the public accounts committee calling for an investigation into the dukes finances.
He also called for HMRC to check if Andrew had paid tax on any income.
Mr Baker said: The fact is the requirements on the royals are far less than people who are in elected office.
A spokesman for Andrew said: In accounting terms it was all duly logged and taxes paid and everything went across the books in the proper way.
Mr Rowland pictured outside the High Court in 2017. It is alleged he made a payment to Prince Andrew days before the Duke of York paid off a loan from the financiers bank
Graham Smith, chief executive of campaign group Republic, said: When someone is paying a public figure large sums of money the question has to be: What do they want in return?
There needs to be an urgent investigation into royal lobbying and cash for access, starting with Prince Andrew.
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A rail investment package of 96billion is to be announced today to boost travel links across the North.
Boris Johnson hailed it as the biggest transport investment programme in a century and said no town or city would be left behind.
However only 40billion is new funding because the package includes most of the cost of HS2 from London to Crewe money already announced.
It is also much less than would have been spent had the Government gone ahead with its original plans.
Unveiling the plan today, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is expected to confirm that the HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds is being ditched.
One of the two tunnelling machines at the south portal HS2 align compound in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on November 3
And the eastern leg of HS2 linking Birmingham to Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds will also be axed.
Henri Murison of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership said: 'We won't be hoodwinked into believing we're getting 96billion for a transport revolution in the North.
Phase 1 of HS2 accounts for half of that and only goes as far as Birmingham. In addition, half the HS2 budget on the eastern leg has disappeared altogether.'
The revised plans will focus on upgrading existing lines to cut journey times in the North and Midlands, with some new track laid.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is expected to confirm that the HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds is being ditched
The National Infrastructure Commission last year proposed scaling back HS2's eastern leg in favour of improving east-west links.
A second report the Oakervee Review also raised questions about the best way to deliver improved rail connectivity.
The Government last night insisted journey times would be 'the same, similar to or faster' than the original HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail plans.
It said better east-west connections between major cities in the North and Midlands would also be achieved up to ten years sooner.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed the 96billion package as the biggest transport investment programme in a century
Mr Johnson said: 'If we are to see levelling up in action now, we must rapidly transform the services that matter to people most.
'That's why the integrated rail plan will be the biggest transport investment programme in a century, delivering meaningful transport connections for more passengers across the country, more quickly with both high-speed journeys and better local services, it will ensure no town or city is left behind.'
Journey times between Manchester and Leeds could still be cut to about half an hour from 50 minutes.
The original plans would have cut them to about 25 minutes. Ministers also say travel times from Birmingham to Nottingham will be cut from 72 minutes to 27, and Birmingham to Manchester from 90 to 40 minutes.
But figures drawn up by the National Infrastructure Commission suggest much less capacity will be created.
Space for up to around 21,000 extra commuters into Leeds will be created under the plans, compared with up to 42,000 originally. Bradford will see a similar drop in capacity
Labour's transport spokesman Jim McMahon said: 'It's laughable that the Government expects people in the North to be grateful for some half-baked and repackaged plans, as they attempt to quietly back out of promises made on the vital major infrastructure projects those communities need so badly.
'Failure to deliver on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail schemes ministers have committed to dozens of times is not only insulting, it is actively holding back investment and opportunity that could benefit millions.'
Stanley Johnson could be fired from a prestigious role as an environmental ambassador over sexual assault allegations.
The powerful Conservative Environment Network, of which he is international ambassador, said: The alleged behaviour is not acceptable.
But as calls grew for an investigation, a supporter of the Prime Ministers charming father vowed it should not be a police matter if he was a little over-friendly, indeed handsy with women.
Mr Johnson, 81, allegedly assaulted two women, the Conservative MP Caroline Nokes who said he had smacked her on the backside about as hard as he could and political journalist Ailbhe Rea who said he groped me.
Stanley Johnson (left) with political journalist, Isabel Oakeshott (right) who tweeted: 'The charming Stanley Johnson can be a little over-friendly indeed handsy but I dont believe this is one for the police'
Political journalist Ailbhe Rea (pictured) claimed Mr Johnson, 81, groped' her
Yesterday in an excruciating exchange in the Commons, the Prime Minister found himself being grilled by MP Miss Nokes about government policy on sexual harassment.
She did not mention her own claims against his father, but asked Boris Johnson if women would have more confidence if public sexual harassment was a specific crime, and if early intervention might stop those harassing women becoming sex offenders?
Mr Johnson Snr ignored questions on the matter as he left his house in north west London yesterday. He had previously told Sky News: I have no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all but there you go.
Labour has called for criminal authorities to investigate the claims, which emerged on Monday when Miss Nokes named Stanley Johnson during a panel discussion on Sky News among four female MPs about abuse of women.
She said that during the Conservative Party conference in 2003, when she had been the Tories candidate for Romsey, Mr Johnson Snr had slapped her bottom and proclaimed: Oh, Romsey, youve got a lovely seat.
After the allegation was broadcast, political journalist Miss Rea, who writes for the New Statesman magazine, tweeted: Stanley Johnson also groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019.
Yesterday another political journalist, Isabel Oakeshott, tweeted a photo of herself with the PMs father but wrote: The charming Stanley Johnson can be a little over-friendly indeed handsy but I dont believe this is one for the police. Officers should focus their limited resources on investigating real crimes.
She was deluged with replies from Twitter users accusing her of excusing sexual assault. One said: I dont think Handsy Stanley is the defence you think it is.
Sky News political correspondent Kate McCann tweeted: You might be OK with someone being handsy but other women would find that uncomfortable... Your tweet suggests its their problem if theyre offended, not his for being over-friendly.
Britain's Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes (pictured) claimed Mr Johnson had smacked her on the backside about as hard as he could
Lifelong conservationist Mr Johnson Snr was made international ambassador at the think-tank the Conservative Environment Network in February, but the organisation has now distanced itself from him, saying: We take all allegations of inappropriate behaviour very seriously.
We have clear internal processes for managing allegations of this nature. The alleged behaviour is not acceptable to CEN.
The chairman of CEN is Ben Goldsmith, a family friend of the Prime Ministers wife Carrie.
Yesterday the PM was grilled about sexual harassment when he appeared before Parliaments liaison committee of senior MPs. They included Miss Nokes in her capacity as chairman of the women and equalities committee.
Miss Nokes two days after accusing his father of smacking her bottom put it to the Prime Minister: Isnt it fair to say that if public sexual harassment was a specific crime, you might see women with more confidence to come forward?
Mr Johnson replied: All women should have confidence to come forward and there are proper procedures for those claims and complaints to be investigated.
The MP asked: Should we not intervene earlier, before those harassing women become sex offenders?
The PM said: We need to prosecute people more effectively for things that are already criminal.
Earlier Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, said if Mr Johnson Snr had touched her inappropriately, Id have probably slapped him. She told Sky News: This is something women have, for far too long, had to tolerate the casual sexism, the wandering hand.
When it came to carving artworks in ancient Egypt, apprentices did non-complex parts like limbs and torsos while master craftsmen tackled intricate bits like faces.
This is the conclusion of an Egyptologist from the University of Warsaw who studied two 3,500-year-old reliefs in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, Thebes.
Hatshepsut was a pharaoh of Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty and the second historically confirmed female pharaoh who ruled from 14731458 BC.
The 43-feet-long reliefs, mirrors of each other, line the temple's largest room (or the Chapel of Hatshepsut), showing a 100-strong procession taking gifts to the pharaoh.
Moreover, they contain evidence for nearly every step in the relief production something typically not seen, as usually each subsequent stage covers up the last.
Given this, archaeologists have previously relied on half-finished pieces each preserving snapshots of the art in progress to determine how reliefs were made.
Analysis of the Hatshepsut reliefs, however, have revealed new insights into the production process such as how labour was divided up.
It also overturned the notion that artists in ancient Egypt were not trained 'on the job' as some parts were clearly started by masters and finished by apprentices.
When it came to carving artworks in ancient Egypt , apprentices did non-complex parts like limbs and torsos while master craftsmen tackled intricate bits like faces. Pictured: part of one of the mirrored reliefs on the north and south walls of the Chapel of Hatshepsut in Thebes
This is the conclusion of an Egyptologist from the University of Warsaw who studied two 3,500-year-old reliefs in the Temple of Hatshepsut (pictured) at Deir el-Bahari, Thebes
The 43-feet-long reliefs, mirrors of each other, line the temple's largest room (or the Chapel of Hatshepsut), showing a 100-strong procession taking gifts to the pharaoh
Hatshepsut was a pharaoh of Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty and the second historically confirmed female pharaoh who ruled from 14731458 BC
Moreover, they contain evidence for nearly every step in the relief production something typically not seen, as usually each subsequent stage covers up the last. Pictured: two offering offering bearers, one carved by a master (right) and the other by an apprentice (left)
HOW ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIEFS WERE SCULPTED Archaeologists have determined that ancient Egyptian reliefs were made in seven distinct stages. These were: Smoothing the wall and plastering of defects in the stone and joints between blocks Division of the surface into sections and application of a square grid The preliminary sketch is drawn in red paint, copied from a pre-prepared drawing Correction of the sketch by a master artist, who also added details in black paint Any text to accompany the images was inscribed With all the outlines done, the sculptors started their work, following the black lines The finished relief surface was whitewashed and coloured SOURCE: Antiquity Advertisement
'The chapels soft limestone is a very promising material for study, as it preserves traces of various carving activities, from preparing the wall surface to the master sculptors final touches,' said paper author Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczynska.
To study the reliefs, Dr Stupko-Lubczynska and her team first rendered each relief surface at a 1:1 scale on plastic-film sheets that they attached directly to the walls.
'These were then scanned and processed as vector graphics,' she added.
'I couldnt stop thinking our documentation team was replicating the actions of those who created these images 3,500 years ago.
'Like us, ancient sculptors sat on scaffolding, chatting and working together.'
The scans allowed the researchers to study the traces left in the stone by ancient chisels.
In this way, Dr Stupko-Lubczynska explained, 'it was possible to "grasp" several intangible phenomena, which normally leave no evidence in the archaeological record.'
This included the ability to distinguish which parts of the reliefs were made by apprentices or, at least, less-skilled artists and those which were fashioned by masters of their craft.
Just like in the Renaissance workshops of 14th17th century Europe, it appears that less experienced artists would have worked on less complicated parts of large pieces of art while masters tackled complex details like faces, alongside correcting the mistakes of their inferiors.
An exception seems to have come in the form of depicting wigs a time-consuming task on which masters and apprentices are thought to have worked together.
This may have offered the more experienced artists an opportunity to pass on some of their skills. In one area, the team determined that a master would start each wigs, with an apprentice going on to try to finish them to the same standard.
'In one place, a master's workmanship is so remarkably detailed I feel it was done in front of the [apprentice] sculptor(s) learning from him and seems to say "Look at this! Who can beat me?",' said Dr Stupko-Lubczynska.
'It is generally believed that in ancient Egypt, artists were trained outside of ongoing architectural projects,' she continued.
'But my research in the Chapel of Hatshepsut proves that teaching also took place as reliefs were being executed "on the job training".'
It seems like in ancient Egypt just like workplaces today not every trainee ends up working out, as the team found evidence of one wig that was only half-finished, suggesting that the apprentice sculptor didn't finish his part.
To study the reliefs, Dr Stupko-Lubczynska (pictured) and her team first rendered each relief surface at a 1:1 scale on plastic-film sheets that they attached directly to the walls. 'These were then scanned and processed as vector graphics,' she explained
'The chapels soft limestone is a very promising material for study, as it preserves traces of various carving activities, from preparing the wall surface to the master sculptors final touches,' said paper author Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczynska, pictured here in the chapel
The scans allowed the researchers to study the traces left in the stone by ancient chisels. In this way, Dr Stupko-Lubczynska explained, 'it was possible to "grasp" several intangible phenomena, which normally leave no evidence in the archaeological record.' Pictured: two offering bearers in the relief. Analysis has revealed that the faces were done by a master, while the wigs appear to have been done by an apprentice
Just like in the Renaissance workshops of 14th17th century Europe, it appears that less experienced artists would have worked on less complicated parts of large pieces of art while masters tackled complex details like faces, alongside correcting the mistakes of their inferiors. Pictured: examples of where work had been corrected
Just like in the Renaissance workshops of 14th17th century Europe, it appears that less experienced artists would have worked on less complicated parts of large pieces of art while masters tackled complex details like faces, alongside correcting the mistakes of their inferiors. An exception seems to have come in the form of depicting wigs a time-consuming task on which masters and apprentices are thought to have worked together. Pictured: wigs sculpted by different artists. C appears to have bene started by a master and completed by an apprentice, while j was never finished by the apprentice
'In one place, a master's workmanship is so remarkably detailed I feel it was done in front of the [apprentice] sculptor(s) learning from him,' said Dr Stupko-Lubczynska. She continued: 'It is generally believed that in ancient Egypt, artists were trained outside of ongoing architectural projects. But my research in the Chapel of Hatshepsut proves that teaching also took place as reliefs were being executed "on the job training" ' Pictured: some blocks attributed to the Chapel of Hatshepsut come from excavations, and were studied separately
Dr Stupko-Lubczynska said that she had initially hoped that her analysis might be able to identify the hand of different individual artists.
This, however, this was rendered impossible, as all the artists appear to have been trying to create a homogenous work in a shared, standardised style.
Nevertheless, she noted, it was possible to tell that a different crew worked on each of the mirrored reliefs, thanks to the slight differences between them.
On the south wall relief, for example, a jug is portrayed as a clay container on a rope whereas its north wall counterpart is made of metal, instead.
The analysis also revealed parts where the artists were seemingly forced to deviate from standard practice. For example, some of the hieroglyphics near the wigs, for example, appear to have been added later in the process that they normally would.
This, Dr Stupko-Lubczynska said, means that the sculptors must have began their work on the wigs before all the outlines of the inscriptions had been put down in paint perhaps because the scribes had no access to that part of the wall earlier.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Antiquity.
Dr Stupko-Lubczynska and her team studied two 3,500-year-old reliefs in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, Thebes
Archaeologists have determined that ancient Egyptian reliefs were made in seven distinct stages. After the wall was smoothed and any defects in the stone and joints between blocks were plastered over, the surface was divided into sections and a square grid was applied as depicted here (on the north wall relief and on a preparatory flake, bottom right)
A bizarre new prototype device lets dogs call their owner by picking up and shaking a ball when they're home alone.
Devised at the University of Glasgow, the device, called 'DogPhone', is a toy ball containing an accelerometer a device that detects motion of an object.
When the accelerometer senses movement, it initiates a video call on a laptop, allowing dogs to see and interact with their owner while he or she is at work.
Initially, dogs will be mystified by seeing and hearing their owner when they shake DogPhone, but they'll soon start to associate touching it with their owner appearing.
Over time, they'll therefore learn to pick up and shake the ball when they're missing their owner and want to see them via the internet at least.
While it's just a prototype for now, DogPhone could help address the issue of separation anxiety for pets who have grown used having people at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
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DogPhone is a toy ball containing an accelerometer - a device that measures motion of an object. Dogs can learn to pick up and shake the device if they want to see and hear their owner on a computer screen, experts say
HOW DOES DOGPHONE WORK? DogPhone is a soft ball containing an accelerometer - a device that detects motion of an object. When the dog touches DogPhone, the device initiates a video call on a laptop with the owner miles away. With DogPhone, the human owner can also use the system to call the dog. When they do so, DogPhone makes a ringing sound, to draw the dog's attention. But the pooch is 'free to answer or ignore the call', simply by ignoring the device. Advertisement
DogPhone was created by Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas at the University of Glasgow, along with colleagues from Aalto University in Finland.
Dr Hirskyj-Douglas is a specialist in animal-computer interaction at the Universitys School of Computing Science, and owns a 10-year-old labrador, Zack, who helped with developing and testing the device.
'There are hundreds of internet-connected "smart toys" on the market that dog owners can buy for their pets, from fitness monitors to remotely-controlled treat dispensers,' she said.
'However, the vast majority of them are built with the needs of dog owners in mind, allowing them to observe or interact with their pets while away from home.
'Very few of them seem to consider what dogs themselves might want, or how technology might benefit them as living beings with thoughts and feelings of their own.
'What I wanted to do with DogPhone was find a way to turn Zack from a "usee" of technology, where he has no choice or control over how he interacts with devices, into a "user", where he could make active decisions about when, where, and how he placed a call.'
With DogPhone, the human owner can also use the system to call the dog. When they do so, DogPhone makes a ringing sound, to draw the dog's attention.
But the pooch is 'free to answer or ignore the call', simply by ignoring the device.
Zack is pictured here at home holding DogPhone in his mouth, as seen from the live video stream
To build DogPhone, Dr Hirskyj-Douglas first paid close attention to the kinds of objects that Zack likes to play with. After considering the possibility of a stick or a stuffed toy, she chose a soft ball.
With the help of colleagues from Aalto University, Dr Hirskyj-Douglas built the internet-connected accelerometer to be concealed inside the ball.
After several demonstrations of how the ball could be used to start a video call, Zack was given the ball to play with over 16 study days over the course of three months.
In the first iteration of the experiment, lasting two days, Zack made 18 calls, half of which were accidental calls placed while he slept on the ball, suggesting the accelerometer system was too sensitive.
During several of the calls where Zack was awake, he showed Dr Hirskyj-Douglas some toys that they often play with together and approached the screen, suggesting he wanted to interact with his owner.
The second phase of the experiment, lasting seven days, resulted in only two calls, suggesting the accelerometer tuning had become not sensitive enough.
DogPhone was created by Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas at the University of Glasgow, pictured here with Zack
In the third phase, lasting another seven days, the accelerometer tuning was refined again to try to phase out accidental calls while allowing deliberate ones to be placed more easily. This time, Zack made 35 calls in total, averaging five in a day.
While many of them seemed accidental, there was also more significant interactions between Zack and Dr Hirskyj-Douglas.
She used her phone to show Zack her environment, including her office, a restaurant, an underground station, and a street busker.
Zack again showed additional interest in these interactions, pricking up his ears and approaching the screen.
'Of course, we cant know for sure that Zack was aware of the causal link between picking up the ball and making a call, or even that some the interactions which seemed accidental were actually unintended on his part,' said Dr Hirskyj-Douglas.
Screenshot of online interaction between Dr Hirskyj-Douglas and Zack. DogPhone could empower pandemic pups to stay in touch with their owners
'However, its clear that on some occasions he was definitely interested in what he was seeing, and that he displayed some of the same behaviours he shows when we are physically together.
Over the course of the experiments, Dr Hirskyj-Douglas said she became 'unexpectedly anxious' when she placed a call to Zack and he wasnt in front of the camera or he didnt approach the screen.
'I hadn't considered that this might be a consequence of the two-way communication that DogPhone creates, and it's something to consider for the next iteration of the system,' she said.
'Whatever form that takes, we've taken another step towards developing some kind of "dog internet", which gives pets more autonomy and control over their interaction with technology.'
Dr Hirskyj-Douglas is presenting a research paper on her work at the 2021 ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces Conference in odz, Poland, today.
Grandmothers may be more emotionally connected to their grandchildren than to their own sons and daughters, a new study suggests.
In experiments, US scientists scanned grandmothers' brains while they were viewing photos of their young grandchildren.
When looking at the photos, brain regions associated with 'emotional empathy' tended to be activated in the grandmothers' brains, the researchers found.
Emotional empathy is when we feel the same emotion as another person, such as distress in response to their pain.
In contrast, when looking at photos of their sons and daughters, regions of the brain associated with cognitive empathy were activated.
Cognitive empathy is when you can understand someone else's feelings, but it doesn't mean you're feeling the same thing.
It's possible grannies are evolutionarily hardwired to experience the same emotions their grandkids are experiencing, as a tactic to help them through the early stages of life when they're young and vulnerable.
Scientists have scanned grandmothers brains while theyre viewing photos of their young grandchildren - providing a snapshot of this inter-generational bond (stock image)
EMOTIONAL VS. COGNITIVE EMPATHY When looking at the photos, brain regions associated with 'emotional empathy' were activated in the grandmothers' brains. Emotional empathy is feeling the same emotion as the other person, such as feeling distress in response to their pain. It involves sharing an emotional experience with someone, meaning you're able to feel what they're feeling. It differs to cognitive empathy - when you can understand someone else's feelings, but it doesn't mean you're feeling the same thing. Advertisement
The new study, conducted by researchers at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, is the first to examine grandmaternal brain function.
'What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,' said lead author James Rilling, professor of anthropology at Emory University.
'That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them.
'If their grandchild is smiling, they're feeling the child's joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they're feeling the child's pain and distress.'
Humans are cooperative breeders, according to the researchers, meaning human mothers get help caring for their offspring, although the sources of that help can vary.
'We often assume that fathers are the most important caregivers next to mothers, but that's not always true,' Rilling said.
'In some cases, grandmothers are the primary helper.'
In the 1960s, researchers came up with the 'grandmother hypothesis' to explain why grandmothers live decades after they've stopped being able to reproduce.
Viewing grandchild pictures activated areas involved with emotional empathy (insula and secondary somatosensory cortex) and movement (motor cortex and supplementary motor area. Pictured are brain regions of interest (ROIs) used in this study
THE GRANDMOTHER HYPOTHESIS The grandmother hypothesis, put forward by evolutionary biologist William Hamilton in a 1966 paper, has been applied to humans and other animals. Female chimps rarely live past childbearing years, usually into their 30s and sometimes their 40s. Human females often live decades past their child-bearing years - and that may have begun with our early Homo relatives 2 million years ago. The grandmother hypothesis says that before then, few females lived past their fertile years. But changing environments led to the use of food like buried tubers that weaned children couldn't dig themselves. So older females helped feed the kids, allowing their daughters to have the next baby sooner. By allowing their daughters to have more kids, grandmothers' longevity genes became increasingly common in the population and human lifespan increased. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes a study of the traditional Hadza people of Tanzania, where foraging by grandmothers improves the nutritional status of their grandchildren. Another study of traditional communities showed that the presence of grandmothers decreases their daughters' interbirth intervals and increases the number of grandchildren. In more modern societies, evidence is accumulating that positively engaged grandmothers are associated with children having better outcomes on a range of measures, including academic, social, behaviour and physical health. A 2010 modelling study suggested the hypothesis isn't plausible, however. Advertisement
Grandmothers being around to help care for their grandchildren helps increase chances of their grandchildren surviving, the hypothesis argues, which ensures preservation of their genes.
To see how brain activity may be involved, the researchers scanned the brains of 50 grandmothers who were shown pictures of their grandchildren, all between three and 12 years old.
Each grandmother lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, which measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.
As a control, they were also shown pictures of their own son or daughter (the child's parent), an unknown child and an unknown adult.
Grannies also completed questionnaires about their experiences, providing details such as how much time they spend with grandchildren, activities they do together and how much affection they feel for them.
The scans revealed that viewing grandchild pictures activated areas involved with emotional empathy (insula and secondary somatosensory cortex) and movement (motor cortex and supplementary motor area).
However, when viewing images of their adult child, they showed stronger activation in an area of the brain associated with cognitive empathy (temporo-parietal junction and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex).
The results indicate grandmothers may be trying to 'cognitively understand' what their adult child is thinking or feeling and why, but not as much from the emotional side.
'Young children have likely evolved traits to be able to manipulate not just the maternal brain, but the grand maternal brain,' Rilling said.
'An adult child doesn't have the same cute "factor", so they may not illicit the same emotional response.'
Also, grandmothers who more strongly activated areas involved with cognitive empathy when viewing pictures of their grandchild reported in the questionnaire that they desired greater involvement in caring for the grandchild.
Interestingly, compared with results from an earlier study of fathers viewing photos of their children, grandmothers more strongly activated regions involved with emotional empathy and motivation, on average, when viewing grandchildren photos.
A grandmother carries her laughing granddaughter outside the tourist hotspot of Yangshou in southern China
Pictured, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) device, which measure brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow
Future research could look at the neuroscience of grandfathers and how brain functions of grandparents differ across cultures.
It's relatively rare for scientists to study the older human brain outside of the problems of dementia or other aging disorders.
'Here, we're highlighting the brain functions of grandmothers that may play an important role in our social lives and development,' said co-author Minwoo Lee.
'It's an important aspect of the human experience that has been largely left out of the field of neuroscience.'
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The search for 'another Earth' has been a staple of science fiction for decades, and now a group of astronomers hope to discover one on our galactic doorstep.
Alpha Centauri is a triple star system just over four light years from the Earth, split into a pair of sun-like stars known as AB, and a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri.
So far planets have only been found orbiting Proxima Centauri, but experts from the University of Sydney and Breakthrough Initiatives believe they will find a world orbiting the larger binary pair using a new privately funded telescope.
Known as the Toliman mission, it will launch in 2023 and scan Alpha Centauri AB for worlds in the habitable zone, where liquid water can flow on the surface.
The team hope to be able to say whether there are habitable worlds orbiting either or both of the binary stars by the middle of this decade.
Professor Peter Tuthill, project leader from the University of Sydney, told MailOnline there was a 30 per cent chance of finding at least one planet orbiting Alpha Centauri AB, but it is difficult to properly assess due to the fact it is a binary star system.
A simulated view of what the TOLIMAN telescope could see of the Alpha Centauri binary through its diffractive pupil lens
The closest star system to the Earth is the famous Alpha Centauri group. Located in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), at a distance of 4.3 light-years, this system is made up of the binary formed by the stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, plus the faint red dwarf Alpha Centauri C, also known as Proxima Centauri
ALPHA CENTAURI: OUR NEAREST CELESTIAL NEIGHBOUR Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to the Earth. It includes three stars, two that are Sun-like in a binary pairing, and a third smaller red dwarf star. The red dwarf, known as Proxima Centauri, is the closest star to the sun at 4.246 light years. The binary pair includes Rigil Kentaurus, or Centauri A, and Toliman, also known as Centauri B. Rigil Kentaurus has 1.1 times the mass and 1.519 times the luminosity of the Sun, while Toliman is smaller and cooler, at 0.907 times the Sun's mass and 0.445 times its luminosity. From the Earth they appear as a single larger star, called Alpha Centauri AB. With an apparent magnitude of 0.27, it is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus and the third-brightest in the night sky, outshone by Sirius and Canopus. They orbit around a common centre with a period of 79.91 years, however it is elliptical, ranging from the distance between Saturn and the sun to the distance between Pluto and the sun. Alpha Centauri C, or Proxima Centauri, is 0.21 light years from the binary pair. Proxima Centauri has two planets: Proxima b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone discovered in 2016; and Proxima c, a super-Earth about 1.5 AU from the red dwarf star. No planets have been confirmed around either Alpha Centauri A or B, but astronomers speculate there will be planets around one or both. Advertisement
While the cost hasn't been revealed, it will in part be funded by a $788,000 (425,000) grant from the Australian government and includes work by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Saber Astronautics in Australia.
It is expected to be a multimillion dollar project, but will cost less than $20m.
TOLIMAN stands for Telescope for Orbit Locus Interferometric Monitoring of our Astronomical Neighbourhood, but is also the ancient Arabic name for the star.
It is a new approach to exoplanet discovery, creating a telescope to focus on the nearest star systems, looking for potentially habitable worlds, instead of just any world.
The telescope uses a diffractive pupil lense - a mirror that spreads starlight captured from nearby stars into a complex flower-like pattern.
This pattern makes it easier to detect perturbances of star movements that are the tell-tale signs of orbiting planets.
'Our nearest stellar neighbours the Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri systems are turning out to be extraordinarily interesting,' said Dr Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, which is funding the mission.
'The TOLIMAN mission will be a huge step towards finding out if planets capable of supporting life exist there.'
Professor Tuthill said this will present a new window on the universe, including our nearest neighbour.
'Astronomers have access to amazing technologies that allow us to find thousands of planets circling stars across vast reaches of the galaxy,' he said.
'Yet we hardly know anything about our own celestial backyard. It is a modern problem to have; we are like net-savvy urbanites whose social media connections are global, but we don't know anyone living on our own block.'
Having such a blind spot in our understanding of the local universe has 'important consequences' for astronomy, according to Prof Tuthill.
'These next-door planets are the ones where we have the best prospects for finding and analysing atmospheres, surface chemistry and possibly even the fingerprints of a biosphere the tentative signals of life,' he added.
Telescope mirror engraving for TOLIMAN. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system just over four light years from the Earth, split into a pair of sun-like stars known as AB, and a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri
The team believe that either or both of the two stars in Alpha Centauri AB may host temperate planets - those with flowing water that could host life.
The third star, Proxima Centauri, is already believed to have one planet in a 'Goldilocks orbit', discovered in 2016.
Breakthrough Initiatives, founded by Israeli science and technology investor and philanthropist Yuri Milner, which is supporting the mission, has a number of programs engaged in the hunt for alien life throughout the universe.
Its Starshot mission hopes to one day send a fleet of tiny probes to Alpha Centauri, flying using lightsails - a mission that will take 20 years from launch, and four years to send any information back to the Earth.
Proposed TOLIMAN mission telescope design. The team believe that either or both of the two stars in Alpha Centauri AB may host temperate planets - those with flowing water that could host life
Our closest neighbours: Alpha and Proxima Centauri are just four light years away, here photographed in visible and x-ray spectra
Scientists are developing a laser-powered SAIL that they claim could allow us to travel 24 TRILLION miles to our closest star system in 20 years It is our nearest star system and offers perhaps the best chance of finding alien life but reaching Alpha Centauri with current technology would take thousands of years. The good news is scientists may just have found a way to get there in the space of a human lifetime. It involves a laser-powered sail they claim could one day allow us to travel 24 trillion miles and reach our closest stellar neighbour within 20 years. The new type of spacecraft propulsion system has been designed by scientists from the Australian National University (ANU). The Breakthrough Starshot project calls for the design of an ultra-lightweight spacecraft, which acts as a light-sail, to travel with unprecedented speed to the triple star system 4.37 light-years away. While that is a large distance in terrestrial terms, it is three times closer than the next nearest Sun-like star. The concept would see probes launched into space by the laser propulsion system. Light to power the sail would come from the Earth's surface with millions of lasers joining forces to illuminate the sail and push it onto its interstellar journey. Advertisement
Other projects, including TOLIMAN, have been designed to find planets and search for life in our stellar neighbourhood.
Pete Klupar, Chief Engineer of Breakthrough Watch, said: 'These nearby planets are where humanity will take our first steps into interstellar space using high-speed, futuristic, robotic probes.
'If we consider the nearest few dozen stars, we expect a handful of rocky planets like Earth orbiting at the right distance for liquid surface water to be possible.'
Saber Astronautics will provide spaceflight mission operations support, including satellite communications and command, space traffic management and a range of other flight services to download data from the satellite.
Dr Jason Held, CEO of Saber Astronautics, said: 'TOLIMAN is a mission that Australia should be very proud of it is an exciting, bleeding-edge space telescope supplied by an exceptional international collaboration. It will be a joy to fly this bird.'
Dr Eduardo Bendek, a member of the team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said it is a huge technological challenge finding planets orbiting even the nearest and brightest stars in our galactic neighbourhood.
'Our TOLIMAN mission will launch a custom-designed space telescope that makes extremely fine measurements of the position of the star in the sky. If there is a planet orbiting the star, it will tug on the star betraying a tiny, but measurable, wobble.'
Most of the thousands of known planets outside the solar system have been discovered using space telescopes such as NASA's Kepler and TESS missions.
Finding exoplanets close to home will take more finely tuned instruments, which is where the TOLIMAN mission comes in.
Mr Klupar said: 'The signal we are looking for requires a real leap in precision measurement.'
Professor Tuthill added: 'Nobody is underestimating the challenge, but our innovative design incorporates new tricks. Our plan is for an agile, low-cost mission that delivers results by about the middle of the decade.'
Pictured, a not-to-scale representation of how far away Proxima B is from Earth compared to Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object which was launched in 1977
He told MailOnline he has spent time looking at the odds of finding a planet, and it isn't a question with a single clear answer.
'There are a few unknowns that the present state of astronomy knowledge are not yet up to answering,' he explained.
'I think taking a moderately pessimistic case, then there is at least, say a 30% chance of at least 1 planet, and the more optimistic forecasts predict several planets.
'The problem here is the binary star,' Alpha Centauri AB, as 'nobody really knows what the implications of that are, so these numbers are under debate.'
He said TOLIMAN hopes to be able to view any planet the mass of Earth or larger - if it is the size of Mars or smaller then it won't be visible, even if it exists.
'We are searching for Earth Analogs. Surely, eventually however, technology will catch up and we will exhaustively survey the Alpha Cen system.'
The Leonids meteor shower will peak this evening with up to 15 shooting stars potentially visible each hour through to dawn tomorrow experts have said.
The spectacle, which happens every November, occurs when small rocks burn up in Earth's atmosphere after breaking off from a comet called 55P/TempelTuttle.
According to NASA, the Leonids are considered to be some of the fastest meteors known, travelling at speeds of 44 miles (71 kilometres) per second.
The annual shower takes it name from the fact that their radiant the point in the sky from which they appear to originate lies within the constellation of Leo.
Unfortunately for stargazers, conditions are expected to be fairly cloudy and changeable from today until Friday, the Met Office has predicted.
The north is expected to experience spells of showers and bouts of wind, while the south of the UK will be largely dry, but with variable cloud that could spoil the view.
The north and west of the UK will by cloudy with occasionally bouts of rain in the northwest, they forecast today however, clear spells are expected elsewhere.
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The Leonids meteor shower will peak this evening with up to 15 shooting stars potentially visible each hour through to dawn on Thursday. Pictured: the Leonids in 1998
The annual shower takes it name from the fact that their radiant the point in the sky from which they appear to originate lies within the constellation of Leo
ABOUT THE LEONIDS The Leonids are usually one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors associated with Comet 55P/TempelTuttle. 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 streaks of light. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich Advertisement
Weather permitting, the best possible views of this evening's peak will come in places with clear skies and far from sources of light pollution like big cities.
There is no advantage to using binoculars or a telescope observers merely need to look up unaided and take in the widest possible view of the sky.
According to the Met Office weather forecast, 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,' Met Office senior meteorologist Greg Dewhurst told MailOnline last week.
Meteors also known as 'shooting stars' are typically either bits of asteroids leftover from the formation of the solar system or, as in the case of the Leonids, material ejected from the disintegration of a comet as it passes near the Sun.
Every year the Earth passes through these debris trails, resulting in material entering our atmosphere where they burn up, creating fiery and colourful streaks in the sky.
55P/TempelTuttle, the comet from which the Leonids originate, takes 33 years to complete one of its elongated orbits around the Sun.
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
The nucleus of 55P/TempelTuttle is relatively small, measuring only about 2.2 miles (3.6 kilometres) across comparable in size to the island of Manhattan in New York.
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'.
These beautiful streaks seen in the night sky can be caused by cosmic particles that are as small as a grain of sand.
'The Leonids meteor shower is named after the constellation of Leo the lion,' Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomer Anna Gammon-Ross 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.'
Stargazers who miss the shower's peak may still be able to catch the display in the following days albeit at a reduced rate of meteors each hour.
Tonight, Ms Gammon-Ross explained, 'the radiant (the easiest region to see them) will be rising a little after 10pm here in the UK.'
'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.'
According to NASA, the Leonids are some of the fastest meteors known, travelling at speeds of 44 miles (71 kilometres) per second. Pictured: the Leonids over New Mexico, 1998
Every 33 years, when 55P/TempelTuttle is closer to the Earth, stargazers can experience a Leonid 'storm' one that peaks with hundreds-to-thousands of meteors per hour, depending on location.
'Viewers in 1966 experienced a spectacular Leonid storm thousands of meteors per minute fell through Earth's atmosphere during a 15 minute period,' said NASA.
'There were so many meteors seen that they appeared to fall like rain. The last Leonid meteor storm took place in 2002.'
The next such Leonid storm is due in 15 years time.
After the Leonids, there will be another two meteor showers in 2021 the Geminids, which will peak December 1415, and the Ursids, which peak December 2122.
A group of astronomers, including an amateur stargazer, have discovered a new galaxy in deep space.
Astrophysicists at the University of Surrey, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia and amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello, who heads the National Deep Sky Research Section of the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union, have spotted the galaxy Pisces VII/ Tri III.
Further research is needed, but it's possible that Pisces VII/ Tri III is an isolated dwarf galaxy or a satellite of the Triangulum galaxy (M33), a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth.
If it is indeed an isolated dwarf galaxy, it would be the faintest field galaxy ever spotted and if it's a satellite, it gives additional insight that the theory behind galaxy formation is accurate.
A group of astronomers, including an amateur, have discovered a new galaxy, Galaxy Pisces VII/ Tri III
Giuseppe Donatiello (pictured) found the galaxy by looking at public images to find new galaxies in the Andromeda system
Donatiello said that he found the galaxy by looking at public images of the DESI Legacy Survey to find new galaxies in the Andromeda system when he stumbled upon Pisces VII/ Tri III.
'I found Pisces VII through the visual inspection in public images of the DESI Legacy Survey, precisely in order to identify new satellites in the Andromeda system, outside the areas already investigated in the past,' Donatiello said in a statement.
'I knew the likelihood of finding something new was real and I was right. A new galaxy has not been found in the Andromeda subgroup since 2013.'
Donatiello said that he found the galaxy by looking at public images of the DESI Legacy Survey to find new galaxies in the Andromeda system when he stumbled upon Pisces VII/ Tri III
The implications of it being a dwarf galaxy or satellite are fairly significant for astronomers.
Emily Charles, a PhD student at the University of Surrey who worked on the project, said in a separate statement: 'Theoretical knowledge about galaxy formation means we'd expect to see many more little galaxies orbiting the Triangulum galaxy, M33.
'However, so far it only has one known satellite. If this newly identified galaxy does belong to M33, it might imply that there are many more that haven't been uncovered yet as they are too faint to show up in previous surveys of the system.
'M33 currently challenges astrophysicists' assumptions, but this new finding starts reassuring us that our theories are correct.'
Galaxy Pisces VII/ Tri III could be an isolated dwarf galaxy or a satellite of the Triangulum galaxy (M33)
The discovery was made using the Galileo National Telescope.
After analyzing the data from the GNT, it was determined that the 'absolute magnitude and a first estimate of the distance, estimated at about 3.2 million light years,' according to the statement.
If it is indeed estimated at around 3.2 million light-years, it is likely to be a satellite galaxy of M33, but if it's further away, that would likely make it a dwarf galaxy.
Further research from more powerful telescopes are needed to more accurately identify its exact location in space
Further research from more powerful telescopes are needed to more accurately identify its exact location in space.
Noushin Karim, another PhD student at the University of Surrey who helped identify Pisces VII/ Tri III, said:
'Deep imaging from Hubble would allow us to reach fainter stars which act as more robust distance estimators, as they have a standard brightness.
'To confirm the new galaxy's movement, we need imaging from an 8m or 10m telescope, like Keck or Gemini.'
The study was published last month in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Astronomers continue to learn more about dwarf galaxies and their structure.
In February, scientists confirmed that a halo of dark matter surrounding a dwarf galaxy 163,000 light-years from Earth is significantly larger than previously thought.
Last month, researchers discovered that more than 1,600 fast radio bursts emanated from FRB 121102 over the span of 47 days in 2019, believed to come from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light-years from Earth.
Canon has launched a new camera that automatically takes photos in the home using facial recognition.
The PowerShot PX, which is released in the UK and Europe today for 449.99 (500), is like having 'your own personal photographer', but scaled down into a five-inch-tall device.
It automatically captures still imagery and video and can 'prioritise certain faces' such as for someone's birthday party.
The camera can pan, tilt and zoom into a scene in the home, whether it's a 'spontaneous family dance-off' or friends around the dinner table.
While Canon claims that the new camera is ideal for families, it has been widely criticised on social media, with one user branding it 'creepy', while one privacy expert has called it 'similar to CCTV'.
Would you allow the PowerShot PX in your home? The device knows when to automatically capture still imagery and video
The device automatically takes photos of you and your family, it also lets you capture shots by voice command whenever you want, by saying 'Hello Pixie, take a picture!'
CANON POWERSHOT PX SPECS - Automatic capture of 11.7MP stills and 60p Full HD video - 19-57mm focal length range - Pan, tilt and zoom functionality - Facial recognition and tracking to keep subjects in frame - Voice command - Smartphone app for camera control and curation - USB-C recharging Advertisement
The device has built-in Wi-Fi to connect to the home network, as well as Bluetooth, so users can view all photos and video on the app.
Users can also use the app to turn their phone into a remote control for PowerShot PX, letting them 'compose the perfect shot' without having to get up and reposition it.
'With this clever camera, families can enjoy the moment and still capture it, without having to stay behind the lens,' Canon says.
'PowerShot PX uses auto-subject searching to keep loved ones in the frame and capture photos that otherwise might have been missed.'
When on, 'intelligent face tracking' allows the camera to detect exactly when to take a photo automatically, without any manual or vocal command from the owner.
One way it knows to take a shot is when it detects faces in close proximity to each other, all clustered together facing forward an indication to the technology that subjects are posing for a photo.
Alternatively, users can capture shots by voice command by saying 'Hello Pixie, take a picture!', or take photos in a more traditional, manual way by controlling PowerShot PX via an accompanying app, available for both iOS or Android.
Content is saved to an SD card inside PowerShot PX. Users can use the compatible smartphone app to take control over who the camera prioritises when capturing
According to Canon, the camera is only active when it is switched on via the power button, but once users do so, it takes photos autonomously.
To decide whether or not to take a photo or video, PowerShot PX uses an 'automatic shooting algorithm', which uses scene recognition technology that has been developed over several years, the company told MailOnline.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the device has received a wary reception from the public and privacy experts alike.
One Twitter user, Canadian blogger @AaronWrotkowski, said: 'Canon made this so they could sell a murder mystery film about it "the last photos of the victim were taken by the Canon PowerShot PX".'
Another Twitter user, @RegGBlinker, called it a 'horrible idea' and said 'we absolutely do not need to document my appearance in the lounge at all times of day and night forevermore'.
Meanwhile, @happymxlocust said: 'It's an interesting idea though it would feel really creepy.'
Dr Gareth Tyson, an internet data science expert at Queen Mary University of London, told MailOnline captured photos could potentially be accessed remotely by strangers.
Users can 'look back on a digital scrapbook of candid moments' with PowerShot PXs accompanying app for iOS and Android
The camera can pan, tilt and zoom into a scene in the home, whether it's a 'spontaneous family dance-off' or friends around the dinner table
'The camera is Wi-Fi enabled, which would allow owners to manage their photos from their smartphone,' Dr Tyson told MailOnline.
'This is handy, but it would leave the camera potentially open to attack where an adversary tries to access the photos remotely.'
Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at security awareness firm KnowBe4, said the device 'can be considered similar to CCTV'.
'The idea of being able to capture photos and videos without having to be behind a camera is an appealing idea.
'However, there are privacy implications with such a device which can automatically continually take pictures of people.
'From that perspective, while it's marketed as a personal camera, it can be considered similar to CCTV, and so the same principles can be applied.
'That is to inform people that pictures and video may be taken at any time, and that people can choose to opt out if desired.'
The new device also lets users capture shots by voice command whenever they want, by saying 'Hello Pixie, take a picture - ideal for messy family moments
PowerShot PX comes in two colours (black and white) and is compatible with smartphones with operating system iOS 8.4 or later, or Android 5.0 or later
PowerShot PX is not an always-on camera it must be set up and switched on by the user before it can capture shots.
Content is saved to an SD card inside the device, which connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth.
'The camera is not connected to the internet and user's data is not stored within the cloud,' a Canon spokesperson told MailOnline.
'Instead, all content is saved to a secure SD card inside the device.'
PowerShot PX comes in two colours black and white and is compatible with smartphones with operating system iOS 8.4 or later, or Android 5.0 or later.
NASA has updated a 3D real-time tool that lets you track Earth-observing satellites such as the recently launched Landsat 9, as well as the ISS and Aqua.
Eyes on the Earth is created by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and shows Earth-observing satellites in real time, as well as the data they are collecting.
It reveals everything from carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere, through to current global sea levels and moisture in the soil.
This information comes from a fleet of dozens of satellites, each specialising in different aspects of the Earth's climate and environment.
'Eyes on the Earth offers an engaging, interactive resource to learn more about environmental phenomena and their impacts,' NASA says.
NASA has updated a 3D real-time tool that lets you track Earth-observing satellites such as the recently launched Landsat 9, as well as the ISS (visualisation pictured) and Aqua
Eyes on the Earth is created by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and shows Earth-observing satellites in real time, as well as the data they are collecting, including the Landsat 9 (visualisation pictured) which takes images of Earth
LANDSAT 9 Landsat 9 is the latest satellite in the Landsat mission, running for the past five decades. Landsat 9 will extend scientists ability to measure changes on the global land surface at a scale. This is 'where we can separate human and natural causes of change,' said USGS in a statement. 'Landsat 9 will thus contribute a critical component to the international strategy for monitoring the health and state of the Earth. 'Landsat users can now take advantage of more frequent observations (every 8 days using two satellites).' Advertisement
NASA has more than two dozen missions studying Earth science, and each of these is represented on the real time virtual globe.
One of the things it can be used for is to measure different greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, at any particular part of the globe.
This is useful when looking to see if there are higher pollution concentrations than expected over a city.
It could also be used to determine ocean surface levels at different locations, as well as how those levels have been changing over time.
This information is useful for flood predictions.
The newest version of Eyes on the Earth also provides snapshots of significant events in the natural world, according to the space agency
Spinning the virtual globe, you can see details about the planet.
This includes the maximum wind speeds of a tropical storm, the impacts of a northern California fire, and even see the scale of a phytoplankton bloom off of New Zealand and why it matters.
The improvements also include upgrades for a more seamless user experience.
'With the latest advancements in technology, we are able to harness these innovations to combine larger amounts of data and imagery for users to visualise how our planet is constantly changing,' said Jon Nelson, from NASA JPL.
There is also the ability to find out more about each of the individual satellites that are taking measurements - simply by clicking on the name.
For example, clicking on the Aqua satellite will zoom in on its location and provide background information on its mission.
It has been in orbit for nearly 20 years and is providing information on the Earth's water cycle by collecting information on ocean evaporation, atmospheric water vapour, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture and snow cover.
NASA has more than two dozen missions studying Earth science, and each of these is represented on the real time virtual globe
NASA and the USGS have released the first set of pictures from the Landsat 9 satellite since it launched in September. The city of Kathmandu, Nepal, seen at the bottom left of this Landsat 9 image, lies in a valley south of the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal and China. Glaciers, and the lakes formed by glacial meltwater, are visible in the top middle of this image
The information is real time, including data from the Landsat 9 satellite, that launched into Earth orbit in September.
When they launch, details of the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) and SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellites will also appear.
'The graphics are as rich as the data, making for fascinating deep dives as you learn about the science, get to know the planet better, and learn about some of the many NASA missions that track the globe's health,' NASA says in a blog post.
The two largest moons of Uranus, the seventh planet in our solar system, may be hiding buried oceans, a new study suggests.
Uranus has 27 known moons, of which Titania and Oberon are the largest and second-largest, respectively.
Both could support a subsurface ocean today if there was little heat loss through their outer ice shells, reveal researchers who ran computer simulations.
This high-resolution colour composite of Titania was made from Voyager 2 images taken January 24, 1986, as the spacecraft neared its closest approach to Uranus
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT URANUS? Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781 and is named after the Greek god of the sky Ouranos. It is 1.84 billion miles from the Sun and orbits every 84 years. It's biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. It turns on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 minutes. It has the coldest temperatures of any planet in the solar system with a minimum temperature of -371F. It has a set of dark very thin coloured rings surrounding it. Advertisement
'Id bet they do have oceans,' study author Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz told New Scientist. 'It would not be at all surprising.'
Uranus, known as the 'ice giant', is 31,000 miles (50,000 km) across and orbits 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion km) from Earth.
Its biggest moon, Titania, is about 980 miles (1,576 km) in diameter, while Oberon is around 946 miles (1,522km) in diameter.
Both have surface temperatures averaging around -392F (-200C), but radioactive elements deep inside these moons may keep some of their interior water melted.
Many of Uranus' smaller moons orbit closer to the planet than Titania and Oberon get most of their internal warmth from tidal heating the frictional heating of their core caused by the gravitational pull of the parent planet.
However, tidal heating wouldnt be enough to melt the ice beneath the larger, more distant moons frozen surfaces, including Titania and Oberon, they say.
However, Titania's and Oberon's sub-surface liquid oceans could be prevented from freezing by other factors.
This Voyager 2 picture of Oberon is the best the spacecraft acquired of Uranus' second-largest moon
One of these factors is how many pores the moons have and how big these pores are. A moon with a less porous surface would lose more heat into space than a more porous surface.
Another factor is whether or not the liquid oceans contain ammonia, which would lower the liquid's melting temperature.
Thirdly, clathrates cages of atoms with another atom trapped inside could limit the heat flux out of the ocean.
On Pluto, clathrates at the base of the ice shell have been proposed to play an important role in preserving a subsurface ocean.
According to the modelling results, if Titania had an ice shell porosity of more than 12 per cent or more than 10 per cent ammonia in its sea by weight, the moon could support an ocean more than 0.6 miles (1km) today.
These estimations could be the same for its slightly smaller moon sibling, Oberon.
View of Uranus captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986. Uranus was shown to have a magnetic field that was misaligned with its rotational axis, unlike other planets that had been visited to that point
The researchers have stressed the importance of designing future missions with the capability to detect an ocean at all five of Uranus' major moons Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda.
NASA is leading efforts to launch a space probe to Uranus and its planetary neighbour Neptune, as well as their surrounding natural satellites, in the 2030s.
Little was known about the Uranus' moons until NASA's Voyager 2 space probe passed it during its flyby of Uranus in January 1986.
Uranus was shown to have a magnetic field that was misaligned with its rotational axis, unlike other planets that had been visited up until then.
More than two decades after it was first spotted, a brightly colored Peruvian songbird has finally gotten a proper name.
Ornithologists from Louisiana State University first spotted what would be called the Inti Tanager in southeastern Peru's Manu National Park in October 2000.
With its bright yellow feathers and distinctive black stripe, the bird's plumage was reminiscent of Uma Thurman's iconic track suit in Kill Bill: Volume One, and soon it earned the nickname the 'Kill Bill Tanager.'
But it took more than a decade for researchers to find more specimens and start long the process of mapping the bird's family tree.
Eventually they realized it wasn't just a whole new species, but a new genus, as well.
Scroll down for video
First spotted in 2000, the Inti Tanager earned the nickname 'the Kill Bill Tanager' because its distinctive yellow-and-black plumage is reminiscent of Uma Thurman's outfit in the 2003 movie Kill Bill
Daniel Lane, an ornithologist at LSU's Museum of Natural Science, heard the little chirper's song while leading a birdwatching tour on Peru's Manu-Kosnipata Road, a popular birding location.
He was quite familiar with the local avian inhabitants, so he assumed it was one of the more common birds in the area.
However, when he and fellow ornithologist Gary Rosenberg saw it through a telescope, they realized it was something new: a canary-yellow songbird with a pink bill, a bushy crest and a distinctive black stripe on its head.
'My first wild impression was it looked like an Old World oriole, something like a Black-naped Oriole from Asia,' Lane told the Audubon Society. 'Since that was obviously impossible, my next thought was that it must be a tanager.'
Ornithologist Daniel Lane's earliest sketch of an Inti Tanager, which migrates annual between Bolivia and Peru
Unfortunately, after just a glimpse, the bird flew off out of sight.
It wasn't until three years later, when Lane and Rosenberg were leading another birding tour in the region, that they saw the tanager again.
Lane finally collected a specimen in 2004 but with just one bird, he couldn't determine its exact taxonomy.
Finally in December 2011, Frank Rheindt, then a graduate researcher at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology, encountered a healthy breeding population in the foothills of Bolivia's remote Machariapo valley, some 200 miles away from where Lane had seen the tanager in Peru.
Other ornithologists had actually visited the valley, located on the east side of the Andes, but always in the dry season, 'when the deciduous forest had shed its leaves and bird activity was low,' according to a statement from LSU.
Rheindt was visiting during the rainy season, when the birds were easy to spot.
A watercolor painting of a male (top) and female Inti Tanager. Inti means 'sun' in the Quechua language spoken by Incans
'That this unique, bright yellow bird could have gone unnoticed by ornithologists until recently attests to the remoteness of the areas where it lives and to the importance of continued biological surveys off-the-grid in South America,' the researchers wrote in a paper published in the journal Ornithology.
Lane and a group of Bolivian ornithologists returned to the Bolivian site in 2019 to gather more genetic material and start mapping the tanager's family tree.
Tanagers are among the largest families of birds, with more than 370 known species.
They represent about 4 percent of all species of birds and more than 10 percent of avians in the Neotropical realm, which encompasses Central and South America.
Nonetheless, Lane and Rosenberg's discovery, eventually labeled Heliothraupis oneilli, is notable: according to the release, fewer than 10 new genera of birds have been described since the 1960s.
Female and male Inti Tanagers are similar, though females lack the telltale black stripe and their bills can be pink or bright orange.
The bird's species name, oneilli, honors LSU ornithologist John O'Neill, a former director of birds at the museum who mentored both Lane and Rosenberg.
Its genus, Heliothraupis, is derived from the Greek word helios, meaning 'sun,' and thraupis, meaning 'small bird' or 'finch.'
And its common name, Inti Tanager, reflects this phrasing as well: Inti means 'sun,' in the Quechua language spoken by Incans.
'This species reminds me of the sun in multiple ways,' said Occidental College ornithologist Ryan Terrill, who co-authored the study.
'It often sings through the middle of the day, and so it is out in the sun,. It looks like a little sun, and it's in the open sunny habitat," Terill said. 'So I thought, some derivative of 'sun tanager' would be cool.'
Researchers believe the Inti Tanager is migratory, but only within the tropicsa rarity among songbirds
The team came up with the name 'sun tanager' while sitting around a campfire in Bolivia in 2012, Terill added.
Since the Inti Tanager wasn't spotted during the dry season, the researchers believe it's migratory, but only within the tropicsa rarity among songbirds.
They theorize it only breeds during the rainy season in Bolivia, from November to March.
From June to November it heads west to 'winter' in the lower Andes in southeastern Peru, where Lane first spotted it.
That would explain why its numbers were so much concentrated in Bolivia, according to Terrill, who estimated its non-breeding habitat in Peru could be ten times vaster.
Joan Laporta has refused to rule out the prospect of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta following Xavi and Dani Alves back to Barcelona.
As 38-year-old Brazilian right-back Alves was unveiled at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, having agreed to return on a short-term deal from January, Laporta continued the class reunion vibes.
It came after he appointed former midfielder Xavi to succeed the sacked Ronald Koeman as manager earlier this month.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta refused to rule out the prospect of club legends Lionel Messi (left) and Andres Iniesta (right) making a return to the Nou Camp
It came after another club icon, Xavi Hernandez, was appointed as Barcelona manager
Club icon Messi, 34, only left for Paris Saint-Germain last summer with Barcelona unable to afford a new contract for the Argentine.
With Messi struggling with knee and hamstring injuries this season, he hasn't quite made the impression at PSG many expected.
Former Barcelona midfielder Iniesta, now 37, has played for Japanese club Vissel Kobe since leaving Catalonia in 2018. He signed a two-year contract extension with the club back in May.
But Barca president Laporta excited the club's fans by saying: 'I do not rule it out.
'It has happened with Dani, who has already said that age is just a number and has also made a significant financial effort to return.
'You are talking about two spectacular players, with Leo and Andres.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta refused to rule out returns to the club for Messi and Iniesta
38-year-old Dani Alves was unveiled at the Nou Camp as he re-signed for the club this week
'I cannot predict the future, they are still playing. We will always keep them in mind, but at the moment they have current contracts with other clubs.
'You never know in life.'
Alves, who will train with Barcelona but cannot play for the team until January, said it would be 'incredible' if Messi was to return from Paris.
He said: 'What can I say? If you give me a couple of hours, I will look for him!
'He is the greatest player I have been able to see and have as a team-mate.
Iniesta (left), Messi (centre) and Xavi (right) played in Pep Guardiola's great Barcelona team
'The great players are always missed when they leave. It would be incredible to be able to see him here again. Unfortunately, he is not here.
'I would encourage all former players to come back as there is nowhere to be found that is better than here.'
He added: 'I'm very sorry for Messi and for Barca, but sometimes in life there are cycles that have to be closed.
'Messi will continue to be Messi and Barca will continue to be Barca, but a little less special.'
Xavi takes charge of his first game as their manager against Espanyol this Saturday evening.
Britons are being encouraged to embrace the 'daycation' to give hotels a boost this winter.
The idea is to spend a day enjoying hotel rooms, spas and leisure facilities in your local area rather than staying overnight, to help hotels maximise revenues at the times when rooms typically sit empty.
The campaign is being led by travel platform DayBreakHotels using the hashtag #StayForTheDay, and comes as the hospitality industry continues to find its feet in a post-lockdown world.
Britons are being encouraged by DayBreakHotels to embrace the 'daycation' to give hotels a boost this winter. The platform's daycation listing includes the five-star LaLit London, pictured
In March of this year, 55 per cent of hospitality businesses had temporarily paused trading, with one in five expressing 'low confidence' that their business would survive the next three months.
From this low, hotels started to bounce back earlier this year. However, according to Deloitte, 90 per cent of hotel leaders in the UK believe performance will not return to pre-Covid levels until at least 2023.
DayBreakHotels - a platform that enables customers to book rooms and facilities for day use at hundreds of hotels across the UK - believes the 'daycay' will help drive ongoing demand across the winter months.
It adds that hotel rooms and meeting rooms can also be booked as plush remote offices, with over 150 hotels in DayBreakHotels' network offering users bespoke 'smart working' packages.
Booking a room for the day can be up to 75 per cent cheaper than the cost of an overnight stay.
The Mercure Sheffield Kenwood Hall Hotel & Spa, pictured, is available for a daycation via DayBreakHotels, which is using the #StayForTheDay hashtag to encourage Britons to embark upon 'daycays'
DayBreakHotels said it 'brings up to 10,000 incremental revenue to its partner hotels each month through the sale of daytime access to rooms and services'.
Using the DayBreakHotels app or website, customers can book rooms and other hotel perks - such as pool or spa access, restaurants or meeting rooms - for up to 75 per cent less than the usual nightly rate.
DayBreakHotels said its bookings grew almost 130 per cent between June and September 2021, as more hotels started to reopen their doors.
Hotels in the network include the five-star LaLit London near Tower Bridge, Pestana Chelsea Bridge in Battersea, Kenwood Hall Hotel & Spa in Sheffield and Mercure Holland House in Cardiff. The Capital Hotel next to Hyde Park is the most recent addition to the platform's UK offering.
Pictured is the pool at the Mercure Sheffield Kenwood Hall Hotel & Spa. DayBreakHotels said it 'brings up to 10,000 incremental revenue to its partner hotels each month through the sale of daytime access to rooms and services'
Simon Botto, founder and CEO of DayBreakHotels, said: 'It has been an unimaginably tough 20 months for the hotel trade. The sector is showing strong signs of recovery, but we're not completely out of the woods yet, especially seeing as many hotels are facing staff shortages on top of fewer bookings from international guests.
'We want to encourage people to "stay for the day" this winter to help them discover the lovely hotels on their doorstep whilst also supporting the industry. Booking a room for daytime use is a fun and affordable way of relaxing and enjoying a hotel's facilities for less, or it can provide a calm and luxurious space in which to work after a difficult few months.
'And it also extends a lifeline to a hotel industry keen for trade, helping hotels make money from rooms and services that would otherwise remain empty.
'We have over 600 hotels in our network up and down the UK, so there's something for everyone and lots of lovely places for couples, friends and families to hang out in. Whether you're after a daycation - using the room as a base whilst you enjoy the spa, gym, pool and room service - or whether you want to switch up your remote work routine and enjoy a change of scenery, your local hotels can put the facilities you need at your fingertips. After a difficult few months, your local hotels need you.'
Daycations can also be booked through www.hotelsbyday.com, www.dayuse.co.uk and www.dayrooms.com.
Home and Away has been the training ground for countless Aussie actors who have gone on to make it big in Hollywood.
And actress Kirsty Marillier is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher and Melissa George, as she makes her big debut as the soap's new character Rose.
'It is really like that big break you crave and wish for as a student and young actor,' she told The Daily Telegraph.
The big break! Actor Kirsty Marillier is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher and Melissa George, as she makes her big debut on Home and Away
While she has only spent five weeks on the set of the show, Marillier is hoping that the big break is her ticket to Tinsel Town.
'Getting to shoot this amount of content, the amount Ive already done already, is an experience that will make me prepared for Hollywood, prepared for America, and just a really strong working actor, which is what Ive always wanted to be.
'I feel like I will grow so much being in Summer Bay,' she added.
According to Kirsty's IMDB, she previously had a guest role on the series in 2018, but her new character will show up on screens early next year.
Marillier has worked in the theatre sector in the past, with her most recent being the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Melbourne.
Filming: Marillier is pictured on the set of Home and Away with co-stars Sam Frost
Past work: Marillier has worked in the theatre sector in the past, with her most recent being the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Melbourne
Of course, Home and Away has seen many before her go on to make it big in Hollywood.
After leaving the soap, Chris went on to become a megastar thanks to his role as Thor in the Marvel superhero movies.
Meanwhile, Tammin Sursok who played Dani Sutherland had a starring role in U.S. TV series Pretty Little Liars.
Superstar: After leaving Home and Away, Chris Hemsworth went on to become a Hollywood superstar thanks to his role as Thor in the Marvel superhero movies
Remember this? Chris pictured with his former Home and Away co-stars. Tammin Sursok (centre) and Bec Hewitt (front right)
The late actor Heath Ledger also got his big break on the Channel Seven series.
As did romantic-comedy favourite, Isla Fisher, who was best known as Shannon Reed from 1994-1997.
Before them, was 1990s star Melissa George who played Angel Parrish.
The hay days: The late Heath Ledger had a guest starring role as bad boy Scott Irwin on long-running soap in 1997. Pictured, Kate Ritchie and Heath Ledger
Matthew Newton's marriage to his long-time girlfriend Catherine Schneiderman was finally confirmed this month during a speech at his late father Bert's funeral last week.
And while Catherine - like her reclusive husband - has avoided the spotlight for many years, there is plenty of intrigue about the woman who stole Matthew's heart.
The 28-year-old, who prefers to go by the name Cat, was born in America to parents Eric T. Schneiderman, a lawyer and politician, and Jennifer Cunningham, a political strategist.
Who is Catherine Schneiderman? Meet the American politician's daughter, 28, who swept troubled Matt Newton, 44, off his feet - despite her father's strict stance against domestic violence. Catherine (right) and Matthew (left) are pictured in upstate New York on 15 November
Her father is a member of the Democratic Party and served as the 65th Attorney General of New York from 2011 until his resignation in 2018.
While little is known about Catherine's occupation, she graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York with a Master of Science.
She started dating Matthew, now 44, in 2012 and the couple became engaged in October 2016.
Confirmed: Matthew's marriage to his girlfriend Catherine (pictured) was finally confirmed this month during a speech at his late father Bert's funeral
High-profile family: The 28-year-old, who prefers to go by the name Cat (left), was born in America to parents Eric T. Schneiderman (right), a former New York Attorney General, and Jennifer Cunningham, a political strategist. Catherine is pictured with her father Eric at a Democratic Party convention in 2014
Mother: Catherine (right) is pictured with her mother Jennifer Cunningham (left) at a Democratic Party convention in 2014. Jennifer and Catherine's father Eric are divorced
Catherine's blossoming romance with Matthew quickly raised eyebrows due to her father's known stance against domestic violence.
Eric Schneiderman 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 said at the time.
Catherine's (right) romance with Matthew quickly raised eyebrows, due to her father's known stance against domestic violence. Eric Schneiderman (left) passed a bill in 2010 to increase the punishment handed to those involved in such crimes. Catherine is pictured with Eric as he was being sworn in as the New York Attorney General in 2011
In the spotlight: Matthew is pictured at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada in September 2017
Ex-file: Matthew was arrested in 2006 for allegedly physically assaulting ex-girlfriend Brooke Satchwell (left). He later pleaded guilty to 'common assault' in court. Pictured together in 2003
Former flame: In 2010, Matthew's then-girlfriend Rachael Taylor (left) filed a protective order against him, alleging physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and he entered Sydney's Northside West Clinic for treatment. Pictured together in 2009
'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.'
In 2006, Matthew was convicted of assaulting his then-fiancee, actress Brooke Satchwell.
In 2010, he announced his split from another fiancee, Transformers star Rachael Taylor, after two 'violent and unprovoked' attacks in Rome, which prompted her to take out an AVO against him.
Aware: New Idea magazine previously reported Catherine (pictured) was aware of Matthew's past but 'sees him as a misunderstood genius'
Off-beat chic: Catherine's Facebook profile contains several photos of the brunette showcasing her quirky fashion style
Wedding bells: A family friend told New Idea in 2017 the couple had secretly married at the home of Catherine's mother in New York
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.
New Idea magazine previously reported Catherine was aware of Matthew's past but 'sees him as a misunderstood genius'.
A family friend told the publication in 2017 the couple had secretly married 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 said at the time.
Partners: '[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 said at the time. Matthew's parents Patti and Bert are ictured at Woman's Day magazine's 60th anniversary party in Sydney in July 2008
'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.'
Matthew is said to have completely given up on his home country and is happy living with Catherine in upstate New York.
'Because of his scandals over the years, he can't face coming home to Australia,' a source told Woman's Day magazine.
'Matthew lives a private, almost reclusive life with his partner Catherine in New York now, where he is rarely bothered. He has no desire to reawaken old demons by returning to Australia,' they added
Neither Matthew nor Catherine were present at his TV icon father Bert's state Funeral on November 12.
Content: Matthew is said to have completely given up on his home country and is happy living with Catherine in upstate New York
Meanwhile, during Bert's memorial, the 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.
'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.'
It is not known whether the couple have any children.
Paris Hilton teased views from her honeymoon on Tuesday, just a day after word new husband Carter Reum is father to a nine-year-old lovechild.
The socialite, 40, first shared a snap from the plane before posting video from the deck of a yacht about 11 hours later.
Appearing to be above the drama, she celebrated her trip by adding a GIF that said 'Honeymoon goals.'
Getaway or get away? Paris Hilton teased views from her honeymoon on Tuesday, just a day after word new husband Carter Reum is father to a nine-year-old lovechild. They're pictured at wedding last Thursday above
Later on Paris posted a clip of jet-skiers zooming past and waving. Then there was a beautiful video of sharks and sting rays coming up to the boat's edge.
Paris and Carter celebrated their nuptials last Thursday, following the wedding with a carnival night and a second reception on Saturday.
Days after, word Reum shares a lovechild with reality star Laure Bellizzi emerged via Page Six.
Bellizzi - a Chicago native who now lives in California with the child - also briefly dated actor Mel Gibson. Hilton and Reum tied the knot at a lavish ceremony in Bel Air on Friday.
In 2011, when Bellizzi was pregnant, it was reported that the baby was Mel Gibson's love child, though he vehemently denied the claims.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Hilton and Reum's reps who have so far been unavailable for comment.
Keeping positive: Appearing to be above the drama, she added a GIF that said 'Honeymoon goals' on top of shots from a yacht
Travelogue: The socialite, 40, first shared a snap from the plane before posting video from the deck of a yacht about 11 hours later
Sea life: Then there was a beautiful video of sharks and sting rays coming up to the boat's edge
High seas: Later on Paris posted a clip of jet-skiers zooming past and waving
Bellizzi also refuted the rumors to TMZ in November 2011, saying: 'Mel Gibson is not the father of my child.'
As it turns out, she was carrying Reum's child.
It is the first time that any significant details from Reum's relationship history has been revealed, after he and wife Hilton have shared their romance openly in her new reality show Paris In Love.
A source claimed to the outlet that Carter has 'only seen [his daughter] once since she was born 9 years ago.'
In response, a spokesperson for Reum said: 'The people who this story matters to have known about it for 10 years. Carter supports this child. While he does not have a traditional father-daughter relationship with her, he has provided for her since she was born, and will continue to do so.'
Romance overshadowed? Just days after their fairy tale nuptials came news Reum was father to a nine-year-old with reality TV persona Laura Bellizi
Pictured: Bellizi is seen above pregnant in 2011, and at the time it was speculated she was carrying Mel Gibson's baby - both ended up denying the rumors
Bellizi has kept a low profile since hitting the headlines with Gibson in 2011.
She appeared on the VH1 reality show Secrets of Aspen during its one season run in 2010 but has not appeared on TV since.
A source close to the situation added to the outlet that her daughter had been 'triggered' by seeing Reum's lavish wedding to Hilton, and felt 'left out' of her father's life.
The source said: 'Also, she saw the articles of Paris and Carter talking about starting a family. She felt tremendous rejection and felt left out. She wants to have a relationship with him.'
Reum is worth an estimated $40million, after co-founding investment company M13 with his brother Courtney Reum. Meanwhile, Reum's wife Hilton is worth an estimated $300million.
Reality star: Laura Bellizzi pictured in April 2010
The source continued that Reum's daughter wants to 'know her daddy.'
'She just wants to really complete the missing pieces of her puzzle,' the source divulged.
'She's at that age where self-identity is so important, and children want to know who they are and where they come from. It's important for him to help her with that.'
'It's not about [Reum] or the mother. It's about making the child whole. She is absolutely an amazing little girl. She has so much love to give. And she wants to give it to him, his family and whoever he chooses to love.'
A second source told the outlet: 'She is of an age now where she is cognizant and wants her paternal family to hear her and know her. He may not claim or love her, but she claims and loves him and his family.'
PICTURED: Paris Hilton stuns in Oscar de la Renta wedding gown as she marries Carter Reum at her grandfather's Bel-Air estate... and declares 'my forever starts today'
Hilton has made no secret of her plan to start a family with Reum of their own, now they are married.
In January this year, she revealed she is undergoing IVF with Reum to ensure she can have a 'boy and girl twin', after dating him for a year.
The socialite told The Trend Reporter with Mara podcast on Tuesday that best friend Kim Kardashian had introduced her to the idea.
Paris said: '[Kim was the one] who told me about that. I didn't even know anything about it. I'm happy that she told me that advice and introduced me to her doctor.
'We have been doing IVF, so I can pick twins if I like.'
Married At First Sight bride Joanne Todd recently returned to work as a barber after she was sacked from a salon for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
And on Tuesday, fellow MAFS star Patrick Dwyer shared a video to Instagram of himself getting his hair cut by Jo before they filmed a hilarious reel together.
The video begins with the mother of two, 40, telling Patrick, 28, she hopes he likes his haircut while he sits in a salon chair, before he mistakenly replies: 'Yeah, you too!'
No vaccine, no problem! MAFS groom Patrick Dwyer shared a video to Instagram of himself getting his hair cut by co-star Joanne Todd, who recently lost her job for refusing the Covid jab
'Me too?' she replies with a confused look on her face, before they swap positions.
Patrick is then shown standing over Jo holding a pair of scissors and a spray bottle.
'First day on the job,' he captioned the next clip, in which Jo is seen looking rather impressed with her new hair makeover.
Confusion: The video begins with the mother of two, 40, telling Patrick, 28, she hopes he likes his haircut while he sits in a salon chair, before he mistakenly replies: 'Yeah, you too!'
First day on the job: Patrick is then shown standing over Jo holding scissors and a spray bottle
The next scene shows the personal trainer telling Jo to 'enjoy her workout' before she mistakenly replies 'you too'.
The MAFS stars are then seen working up a sweat as they pretend to exercise.
The post comes just weeks after Jo announced she had returned to work as a barber after she lost her previous job for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Not again! The next scene shows the personal trainer telling Jo to 'enjoy her workout' before she mistakenly replies 'you too'
Jo said she was thrilled to be back doing what she loves, but did not reveal whether she had been vaccinated or not.
'I'm very lucky to get to work next to one of my closest friends every day. It makes my job even more enjoyable, also having such a great boss,' she said.
She had announced in September she was no longer working at her usual barbershop in Karingal after being told to get the jab or quit.
Back at work: The post comes just weeks after Jo announced she had returned to work as a barber after she lost her previous job for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine
New job: Jo said she was thrilled to be back doing what she loves, but did not reveal whether she had been vaccinated or not
Jo insists she isn't an anti-vaxxer, despite losing her job for refusing to get the jab.
In an interview with Yahoo! Lifestyle, she maintained she was not against getting the vaccine, but wanted to 'wait a little longer'.
She added that people who choose not to get vaccinated are being treated 'unfairly'.
Support: 'I'm very lucky to get to work next to one of my closest friends every day. It makes my job even more enjoyable, also having such a great boss,' she said. Pictured with a co-worker
'I want people to know that I am not anti-vax at all. I do think it should be a choice,' she explained.
'I also think it's unfair how the unvaccinated are being treated for their own rights to not choose to get the vaccine.
'I just believe that everyone should have a choice with their own bodies and not come with rules.'
Speaking out: Jo had announced in September she was no longer working at her usual barbershop in Karingal after being told to get the jab or quit
Jo said she'll happily 'cut the unvaccinated and the vaccinated' and 'won't discriminate'.
'I'm not saying I'll never get a vaccine. I am just choosing to wait a little longer,' she added.
Jo was relentlessly mocked on social media after revealing she lost her job for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine.
Creating controversy: She was relentlessly mocked on social media after revealing she lost her job for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine
While there was the usual chorus of 'good for you' and 'stand up for your rights' from anti-vaxxers, other Aussies said they had 'no sympathy' for the MAFS star.
She was labelled foolish for choosing to walk away from her job of 12 years because of her stubbornness, with some fans saying they were unfollowing her on Instagram.
The coronavirus vaccine is a safe and vital measure being taken to protect the community from the spread of the virus.
The vaccine makes you significantly less likely to become seriously ill with Covid, and also reduces the likelihood of transmission.
Jesinta Franklin has lashed out at people who say tasks such as 'taking a shower' and 'cleaning the house without kids around' is a 'break' for mothers.
The model 30, who shares daughter Tullulah, one, and son Rocky, eight months, with her husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin, reshared a post by lifestyle brand Mother.ly on Wednesday which made a series of statements about stay-at-home mothers.
The quote read: 'Cleaning your house without kids is not a break. Showering is not a break. Grocery shopping alone is not a break.
Hitting back: Model and footy WAG Jesinta Franklin has lashed out at people who say tasks such as 'taking a shower' and 'cleaning the house without kids around' is a 'break' for mothers. Pictured with her daughter Tullulah
'It's chores and basic hygiene, but mothers are supposed to be grateful to do these things that literally everyone else does. And at some point, we just break.'
The caption for the post on Mother.ly's page read: 'Errands and showers are NOT self-care for moms. Thinking they are is what's burning moms out.'
Jesinta gave the quote her seal of approval by sharing it on her own Stories with her 376,000 followers.
Shared: Jesinta, who shares daughter Tullulah, one, and son Rocky, eight months, with her husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin, reshared a post by lifestyle brand Mother.ly on Wednesday which made a series of statements about stay-at-home mothers
Jesinta is a highly successful model and brand ambassador.
While it's clear she absolutely loves motherhood, Jesinta recently said that some days are more difficult than others.
Last December, she confessed she 'misses her old life' sometimes during a candid interview on the Fisher Price Beyond Play podcast.
'It's okay to say you sometimes don't enjoy it or you don't enjoy the newborn phase or, "today, you know what, I just hated being a mum. I miss my old life and I think about it all the time,"' she said.
'Saying those things should be normal and the more we talk about it, we'll actually see less cases of postnatal [depression]. I think we'll see anxiety reduce in women.'
Opening up: Last December, Jesinta confessed she 'misses her old life' sometimes during a candid interview on the Fisher Price Beyond Play podcast
Exhausted: In May this year, she spoke about the difficulties of having two children under two - especially when her AFL star husband is away
In May this year, she spoke about the difficulties of having two children under two - especially when her AFL-star husband is away.
'When your newborn sleeps but your toddler is up all night. It's so much fun when daddy is interstate!' she joked on Instagram alongside a picture of herself cradling her little girl.
She later revealed the secret trick she used to finally get her little one to drift off: playing songs by The Wiggles.
'Praise be The Wiggles!' she later wrote, alongside a video of herself lying on the floor with her head in her hands, clearly distressed at how little sleep she was getting
'Praise be The Wiggles!' she wrote, alongside a video of herself lying with her head in her hands, clearly distressed at how little sleep she was getting.
'Look at those bags, that's real life for you! Just breaking up your feed of Instagram's usual perfect pictures of motherhood. With everyone in matching, clean outfits running through fields of daisies!'
Jesinta and Buddy married in the Blue Mountains in November 2016. The Sydney Swans star had proposed in December 2014 after 14 months of dating.
He has become known for his idiosyncratic dress sense.
And Jared Leto showed it off when he emerged in New York City this Tuesday ahead of the release of his latest film House Of Gucci.
The 49-year-old Oscar winner warded off the autumnal chill in a faux tiger fur coat, which he had thrown over a peekaboo top.
Idiosyncratic dress sense: Jared Leto showed it off when he emerged in New York City this week ahead of the release of his latest film House Of Gucci
Accessorizing with a sleek pair of black shades, he emphasized his slender legs with a pair of matching fitted trousers.
The Dallas Buyers Club actor wore his luxurious long brown hair down and rounded off his ensemble with a pair of black leather shoes.
Years ago a picture of him in fur circulated online and he assured his fans on Twitter that 'of course its FAKE FUR. I would never wear REAL fur. Ever. Not my thing.'
As Tuesday wore on he was spotted at the star-studded New York premiere of House Of Gucci wearing a gold suit made of either velvet or velour.
Off he goes: The 49-year-old Oscar winner warded off the autumnal chill in a faux tiger fur coat, which he had thrown over a peekaboo top
Legging it: Accessorizing with a sleek pair of black shades, he emphasized his slender legs with a pair of matching fitted trousers
Once again he draped himself in a faux fur coat - this time a long cream number that in combination with the rest of his outfit brought back memories of the 1970s.
House Of Gucci centers on Patrizia Reggiani, who married Maurizio Gucci in the 1970s - and had him killed by a hit man in the 1995 a decade after their divorce.
Ridley Scott directed the film, which will see Adam Driver portraying Maurizio opposite Lady Gaga as his scenery-chewing wife.
Swanking about: As Tuesday wore on he was spotted at the star-studded New York premiere of House Of Gucci wearing a gold suit made of either velvet or velour
They are heading up a star-studded cast with other members of the Gucci family played by Jared, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino.
Jared had to have prosthetics applied to play Maurizio's cousin Paolo Gucci and recently told Screen Rant about the experience of wearing the look in public.
'I actually did every day, but you just reminded me, I haven't talked about this yet. But I actually did the hair and makeup at my apartment in Rome,' he shared.
Retro chic: Once again he draped himself in a faux fur coat - this time a long cream number that in combination with the rest of his outfit brought back memories of the 1970s
'And when I was shooting in Milan, we did it at the hotel. So we would go from the hotel or the apartment down to the street and off to work. And yeah, it was great.'
He explained: 'It certainly helped to catapult me to a brand new place and I fell in love with the character. This is a guy who's larger than life. He's a dreamer. The physicality, the sense of humor. It was just a dream come true for me.'
Earlier this year Patrizia complained to the Italian wire service ANSA: 'I am rather annoyed at the fact that Lady Gaga is playing me in the new Ridley Scott film without having had the consideration and sensibility to come and meet me.'
Starring Lady Gaga: House Of Gucci centers on Patrizia Reggiani, who married Maurizio Gucci in the 1970s - and had him killed by a hit man in the 1995 a decade after their divorce
She insisted: 'It is not an economic question. I won't get a cent from the film. It is a question of good sense and respect.'
Gaga explained her decision in a new interview, telling British Vogue: 'You know, I only felt that I could truly do this story justice if I approached it with the eye of a curious woman who was interested in possessing a journalistic spirit so that I could read between the lines of what was happening in the films scenes.'
The Italian American celeb added: 'Meaning that nobody was going to tell me who Patrizia Gucci was. Not even Patrizia Gucci.'
She has walked countless high fashion runways.
Yet Gigi Hadid leant her talents to the high street on Tuesday, as she posed for a new H&M promotional video in a range of stylish looks from the brand.
The supermodel, 26, showcased her sizzling figure in a series of chic ensembles, including a pink sequin slip dress with a daring slit up the leg.
Glam mama! Gigi Hadid leant her talents to the high street on Tuesday, as she posed for a new H&M promotional video in a range of stylish looks from the brand
Gigi tried on the backless gown while posing up a storm in the clip.
The mother of one's hair blew with the wind as she approached the camera, looking as edgy as ever with a deep slick of red lipstick on her pout.
The ad begins with Gigi admiring her reflection in the mirror whilst clad in a cropped vest and matching trousers before draping a matching blazer over her shoulders.
Rocking some thick yet stylish fringe, Gigi smoldered with lipstick coating her pout and a smoky swipe of eye shadow bringing out her blue-green eyes.
Wow: Gigi tried on the backless gown while posing up a storm in the clip
Work it: The supermodel, 26, showcased her sizzling figure in a series of chic ensembles, including a pink sequin slip dress with a daring slit up the leg
She then tries on a neon green polka dot dress which cinched into her envy-inducing waist.
The star looked ready to rock the runway with her hair slicked back into a clean updo and a dramatic swipe of winged eyeliner applied beside her lids.
She posed artfully for the camera with the dramatic bright frock while playing with her braided ponytail.
'#ad New new by @hm x @ibkamara ! Congratulations ! # Wish it was this easy to try on lewwkkssss... Launching globally on 12/9 and in the US and CA on 12/16 #HM #HMxME,' Gigi captioned the post.
The post comes amid a turbulent time for the Hadid family.
Hello gorgeous: Gigi worked her magic in the ad
Strike a pose:The ad begins with Gigi admiring her reflection in the mirror whilst clad in a cropped vest and matching trousers before draping a matching blazer over her shoulders
She bangs! Hadid rocked some thick and stylish fringe
Getting glammed up! The model touched up her makeup and tried on a chunky silver choker
Zayn pleaded no contest to four harassment charges against him in October and was sentenced to 360 days probation, an anger management course and told he must have no contact with Yolanda or a security guard who witnessed the fight.
He denied the claims made against him which include him pushing the reality star into a dresser and calling her a 's**t.'
The incident happened after a fight at the home in Pennsylvania he shares with Gigi Hadid and their daughter Khai. Gigi was modelling in Paris and Yolanda let herself into the couple's home, seemingly without Malik's consent
A fight ensued, in which he allegedly called her a 'f****** Dutch s**t' and said: 'Stay the f*** away from my daughter'
He is then said to have phoned Gigi in Paris and berated her down the phone, screaming: 'Strap on some f*****g balls.'
A security guard witnessed the event and he yelled at him: 'Get the f*** out of my f***ing house copper,'
Zayn posted a statement on social media at the time that confirmed there was an incident, that he pleaded no contest (although it was unclear at the time that he'd been criminally charged) and that he was trying to protect his daughter.
Outfit change! She then tries on a neon green polka dot dress which cinched into her envy-inducing waist
Spot on! The star looked ready to rock the runway with her hair slicked back into a clean updo and a dramatic swipe of winged eyeliner applied beside her lids.
Model behavior: She posed artfully for the camera with the dramatic bright frock while playing with her braided ponytail
He denied striking Yolanda, as had been reported by TMZ, citing an unnamed source. He said: 'As you all know I am a private person and I very much want to create a safe and private space for my daughter to grow up in.
'A place where private family matters aren't thrown on the world stage for all to poke and pick apart.
'In an effort to protect that space for her, I agreed to not contest claims arising from an argument I had with a family member of my partner's who entered our home while my partner was away several weeks ago.'
Rocky road: The post comes amid a turbulent time for the Hadid family
Gigi and Zayn have now split - it's unclear if that was before the September 29 incident or as a result of it.
'This was and still should be a private matter but it seems for now there is a divisiveness and despite my efforts to restore us to a peaceful family environment that will allow for me to co-parent my daughter in a manner in which she deserves, this has been 'leaked' to the press.
'I am hopeful though for healing for all involved with the harsh words shared and more importantly I remain vigilant to protect Khai and give her the privacy she deserves.'
The tension between Zayn and Yolanda allegedly began when he suspected her of leaking news of Gigi's pregnancy to the media, according to an unnamed source cited by The Sun.
MailOnline have contacted representatives for Zayn, Yolanda and Gigi for further comment.
Rebel Wilson has been announced as the new face of Tourism Fiji.
As international borders open to Aussies from December 1, the actress has landed a seven-figure deal in a bid to encourage travel to the tropical destination.
Her partnership is believed to be similar to Chris Hemsworth's 2016 deal with Tourism Australia which saw him pocket $1.25million over a two-year period.
Bula spirit: Rebel Wilson has been announced as the new face of Tourism Fiji . As international borders open to Aussies from December 1, the actress has landed a seven-figure deal in a bid to encourage travel to the tropical destination
'The campaign is called "Open for Happiness", and reflects exactly what Fiji does like nowhere else in the world - welcome our guests with a genuine warmth and Bula spirit that will leave you in love with Fiji and its people,' Brent Hill, the CEO of Tourism Fiji, said in a statement.
'We look forward to shortly sharing the full campaign of what Rebel got up to in her time here in Fiji!'
Rebel recently jetted to Fiji to kickstart her commercial partnership.
On Monday, she injected some red-carpet glamour into the tropical paradise as she posed on a boat in a stunning evening gown.
New gig: Her partnership is believed to be similar to Chris Hemsworth's 2016 deal with Tourism Australia which saw him pocket $1.25million over a two-year period
On location: Rebel recently jetted to Fiji to kickstart her commercial partnership
'Shipwrecked glam': On Monday, she injected some red-carpet glamour into the tropical paradise as she posed on a boat in a stunning evening gown
Describing her look as 'shipwrecked glam', Rebel posed up a storm in the floor-length dress which emphasised her incredible 35kg (77lbs) weight loss.
The gown cinched in at her waist, and melted down her svelte frame like butter.
The dress was cut up at the sleeves as though she'd been on a long voyage, but she still managed to ooze sophistication as she posed on the rickety wooden vessel.
Rebel opted for a sun-kissed base of makeup, peach lipstick and long lashes, and wore her hair in tousled beach waves.
'Thanks to my talented team who turned on the shipwrecked-glam look all week in Fiji. Were all Cali Dreamers!' she wrote.
Beauty: Hours later, Rebel slipped her figure into a cleavage-baring sequinned dress as she spoke about her time in Fiji
Grateful: 'I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone in Fiji, Tourism Fiji, the Fiji government, Fiji Airways - everything has just been so amazing,' she said
Hours later, Rebel slipped her figure into a cleavage-baring sequinned dress as she spoke about her time in Fiji.
'I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone in Fiji, Tourism Fiji, the Fiji government, Fiji Airways - everything has just been so amazing,' she said.
'It's been such an amazing trip, and I'm so proud to be doing these commercials for Fiji and promoting your beautiful country.'
Fitness journey: The Jojo Rabbit star recently lost an incredible 35kg (77lb) after embarking on her 'year of health' in 2020
The Jojo Rabbit star recently lost an incredible 35kg (77lbs) after embarking on her 'year of health' in 2020.
She told Today Health last Saturday she'd developed a newfound love of walking.
'I feel like sometimes people think you need to work your body really hard to get results, and yeah, if you were training to be the next Thor or something you would be doing hardcore things, but as a regular person, walking is just so healthy for you,' she said.
Rebel said she loves to 'put in a podcast or listen to music' during her walks, and praised the physical activity for being 'so easy to do anywhere in the world'.
Self-care: Rebel also emphasised the importance of self-care, and said she indulges in regular massages and facials in addition to eating well and exercising
'I can just go out and do it. It's become my favourite form of exercise right now,' she added.
Rebel also emphasised the importance of self-care, and said she indulges in regular massages and facials in addition to eating well and exercising.
She said she also aims for eight hours of sleep a night, and uses the idea of starting a family as motivation to stay healthy.
'I think what the pandemic taught us all is that health is so important. Your health is your world,' she said.
'It doesn't matter how much money you've got, if you've got terrible health, you can't enjoy anything and if you're healthy, you can live life to the full
W Magazine is reportedly scrambling to pull their next issue featuring Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott on the cover after the Astroworld Festival tragedy.
Editors are said to be desperately attempting to recall the magazine 'before it hits store shelves,' a source told Page Six this week.
'W editors have cleared any planned coverage of Travis and Kylie from their website, but the magazine was already printed, and now they are trying to stop the delivery trucks,' an insider told the outlet.
Panic mode: W Magazine is reportedly scrambling to pull their next issue with Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott on the cover after the Astroworld Festival tragedy; pictured in 2019
Additionally, they explained: 'In the light of what happened at Astroworld, the interview and cover lines seem inappropriate, to say the least.'
DailyMail.com has yet to hear back from W Magazine for a request for comment.
On Monday, Nike announced they would postpone their sneaker release with Scott after a nine-year-old boy became the latest fatality in a deadly crowd surge during his performance in Houston.
Stressful: Editors are said to be desperately attempting to recall the magazine 'before it hits store shelves,' a source told Page Six this week
The child was reportedly a big fan of the rapper music, and was sitting on his father's shoulders when the countdown to Scott's performance had began.
The pair stayed near the back of the crowd because his father, Treston Blount, thought it would be calmer, he previously told ABC 13.
But as soon as Scott took the stage, Treston said, people started pushing.
He lost consciousness and Ezra fell to the ground, and was soon trampled on by eager concert-goers.
W editors have cleared any planned coverage of Travis and Kylie from their website, but the magazine was already printed, and now they are trying to stop the delivery trucks,' an insider told the outlet; seen in June
When Treston regained consciousness, he said, he could not find Ezra anywhere, and rushed to the on-site medic tents and several hospitals.
Eventually, he said, he filed a police report, and received a message from an officer with a picture of his boy.
When he got to the hospital, he discovered his son incurred severe damage to his brain, kidney, and liver after being 'kicked, stepped on, and trampled, and nearly crushed to death,' according to a lawsuit his family has filed against Scott and the events organizer, Live Nation.
The Blount family is seeking at least $1 million in damages.
In a statement, the family's lawyer, Ben Crump, said that he was 'committed to seeking answers and justice' on behalf of the family.
'The Blount family tonight is grieving the incomprehensible loss of their precious young son,' Crump said. 'This should not have been the outcome of taking their son to a concert, what should have been a joyful celebration. Ezra's death is absolutely heartbreaking.'
With Ezra's death, the death toll stemming from the crowd surge rose to 10 people.
Ten dead: On Monday, Nike announced they would postpone their sneaker release with Scott after a nine-year-old boy became the latest fatality in a deadly crowd surge during his performance in Houston; pictured during 2021 Astroworld Festival at NRG Park
The dead ranged from 9 to 27 years old. Hundreds more were injured.
City officials are investigating what caused the pandemonium at the sold-out event attended by about 50,000 fans.
On Wednesday, Houston's police chief blamed Scott for not pulling the plug on the deadly Astroworld concert as new footage showed cops casually filming the Travis Scott show nearly 30 minutes after a mass casualty event was declared.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner refused to provide a timeline for the police response after a sizable group pushed toward the stage at NRG Park.
When asked about the timing of the police response after it became apparent things had become dangerous, Finner said the police department was still in the early stages of its investigation and that he was 'not gonna discuss timelines.'
Tragic: The dead ranged from 9 to 27 years old. Hundreds more were injured
Many unknowns: When asked about how the concert came to an end, and why Scott was able to complete his set, the chief said investigators are still looking into the specifics during a press conference on Wednesday
Video and photos obtained by TMZ shows members of the Houston Police Department calmly walking around and even pulling out their cellphones to record Scott's performance after the Fire Chief declared a 'mass casualty event' at 9:38 pm.
A set of photos with the time stamps 9:57 pm shows police officers recording the rappers performance, 19 minutes after the chief's declaration, TMZ reported.
TMZ also obtained video of officers casually strolling past the stage shot at 10:02 pm, 25 minutes after the mass casualty declaration.
When asked about how the concert came to an end, and why Scott was able to complete his set, the chief said investigators are still looking into the specifics during a press conference Wednesday.
Chaos: Around 2pm hundreds of fans stormed the festival's VIP entrance. About seven hours later the surge in front of the main stage killed nine people, but the two events appear to be unrelated
'I don't know, and that's part of the investigation,' he told reporters, adding 'We've been looking and the timelines have moved and that's why we shouldn't jump ahead of things, lets just wait. that's part of the investigation.'
Finner, who said he did not have a close relationship with Scott and had only met him twice, said whether or not the show went on was not up to the police department.
'Authorities ability to end the show - we don't hold the plug, okay? But it's always in a plan, there's always discussion of how that would happen and we had those discussions with the promoters,' Finner said.
'The ultimate authority to end the show is with production and the entertainer,' he added.
Married At First Sight's Jessika Power is giving away $5000 of her own money to families in need this Christmas.
The 30-year-old reality star will hand out $1,000 to five families in the coming weeks.
Jessika, who tearfully recalled her own childhood struggles and estrangement from her mother on Big Brother VIP, said she wanted to spread some cheer to those in need.
Married At First Sight star Jessika Power is giving away $5000 of her own money to families in need this Christmas
'You know what. I never had a big Christmas. It wasn't until I was away from my mother that I had the big Christmas lunch,' Jess said.
'This year, I will choose five families from Australia from my own money. To have an amazing Christmas for you and your family to have. '
Jessika said the money would be used for presents and food on the table.
'This is my time to give back. I will give five families at the start of December to just feel happy as opposed to stressed or embarrassed,' she added.
'You know what. I never had a big Christmas. It wasn't until I was away from my mother that I had the big Christmas lunch' : Jessika, who tearfully recalled her own childhood struggles and estrangement from her mother on Big Brother VIP, said she wanted to spread some cheer to those in need
Giving: 'This is my time to give back. I will give five families at the start of December to just feel happy as opposed to stressed or embarrassed,' she said
'I just want to do my little bit. I'm going to stick to my own backyard and bring some Christmas cheer to anyone that I can.'
During an episode of Big Brother VIP this month, Jess broke down when she spoke about her own struggles growing up with a drug addict mother, Melinda Mackenzie.
'This photo is very hard to talk about and I knew I would cry the second I got up here, I'm sorry,' she told her housemates.
Moved: On an episode of Big Brother VIP this month, Jess (pictured) broke down as she recalled her troubled childhood
Her voice breaking, Jessica went on: 'This is my mother years before her addiction. This photo hurts me because it shows my mother in such a beautiful light and what we lost through addiction.'
'I knew I would struggle with this, sorry,' said Jess, who had to pause as the tears became overwhelming.
Composing herself, the reality star added: 'This is me and my brother and my mum, and this is when my mum was so good... we would always go camping, just all the fun things.
Emotional: During an episode of Big Brother VIP this month, Jess broke down when she spoke about her own struggles growing up with a drug addict mother, Melinda Mackenzie
'And I think it was about eight years later, when we really lost her to addiction. She's come good in [recent] years and stuff but it's so hard to see what addiction does do to people'.
Jessika said that the experience 'made her a better person' and more empathetic to the struggles of others, even when they are unkind to her.
'It's shaped me because I had to grow up a lot faster than other kids. I had to be a mum and look after a mum,' she said.
'This photo is very hard to talk about and I knew I would cry the second I got up here, I'm sorry,' she told her housemates
The TV star added that she has plenty of family support despite not being close to her mother.
'Since 2000 my mother and I haven't had a connection. But I have an amazing family. My mother is one of eight [children] so I have all my uncles and my aunties and my nan, I have everybody that I need,' she said.
Jessica recently told The Daily Telegraph that she 'saw a lot of things that a child should never see'.
Difficult: 'I think it was about eight years later, when we really lost her to addiction. She's come good in [recent] years, but its so hard to see what addiction does do to people,' she said
'It was really rough growing up... I was in situations a child should never be put in,' she told the paper.
'I saw my mother being abused by the various men that came and went. There were times where there were dirty needles left around the house. I stayed down a year because my mum never really got me to school.'
Jessika said that while she does not think her mother is a 'bad person' the pair no longer talk.
The reality star was raised by her aunt, and in 2018 lashed out at her mum when she spoke to Woman's Day.
In her interview with the magazine, Melinda said she felt ashamed watching her daughter cheat on 'husband' Mick Gould on season six of MAFS.
They are one of the most controversial couples to ever appear on Married At First Sight.
And on Wednesday, Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson revealed in an Instagram Q&A that only one expert from the hit reality TV series had congratulated them on the birth of their sons, Tate and Levi, after they welcomed their babies last month.
The Q&A, which was featured on Bryce's account, saw one follower ask the couple, both 32, whether any of the experts - John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla - had sent their well-wishes.
Shock: Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson have revealed that only one of the Married At First Sight experts congratulated them on the birth of their twin boys
'When the news was made public... no they didn't, which we thought they may have even through social media,' said Bryce.
However, the radio personality did reveal that one eventually contacted the pair.
'Recently though, one of them reached out to me via Instagram and asked to give me a call and we had a good chat,' Bryce continued.
'When the news was made public...they didn't': Bryce and Melissa revealed the surprising news in a recent Instagram Q&A after a follower asked which experts had sent their well-wishes
'That expert congratulated us on the engagement, had a bit of a chat about the show and wanted to check in on how @lissrawson was after giving birth 10 weeks early, which was nice of them.'
One fan also asked which former stars from the show had sent their well-wishes.
Bryce answered with a list of the TV grooms and brides in the next post, which included Jason Engler, Belinda Vickers, Cameron Dunne, Booka Nile, Jake Edwards and James Susler.
Well wishes: One follower asked which former stars from the show had sent their well-wishes. Bryce answered with a list of the TV grooms and brides in the next post, which included Belinda Vickers, Cameron Dunne, Booka Nile, Jake Edwards and James Susler
Bryce and Melissa appeared on the 2020 season of Married at First Sight.
The couple copped plenty of backlash from the public during their time on the show after viewers complained to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Some viewers said their relationship was 'toxic', that Melissa was 'subjected to gaslighting', and accused Channel Nine of a 'failure of duty of care' towards her.
But last month, an investigation found the network did not breach the Commercial Television Code of Practice.
In the clear: The couple copped plenty of backlash from the Australian public after viewers complained to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
Despite the backlash, Rawson and Ruthven have remained together since the series went off air.
They welcomed twins Levi and Tate, who are currently in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), after they were born 10 weeks premature on October 16.
The couple announced their baby news back in July, and also revealed they are engaged to be married.
Salma Hayek looked like the ultimate bombshell on Tuesday evening as she attended the star-studded House of Gucci premiere in New York City.
The 55-year-old Academy Award-winner modeled a striking blue velvet color-block Gucci gown with a cutout across the chest to showcase her ample bust.
The neck and wrists of the dress were decked out in in large rhinestones that glistened in the light as she struck poses for shutterbugs on the red carpet.
Bombshell: Salma Hayek looked like the ultimate bombshell on Tuesday evening as she attended the star-studded House of Gucci premiere in New York City
The skirt of her dress was made of a black, silky fabric and featured a dramatic slit up one leg.
Hayek added height to her 5foot2inch frame with a pair of black platform heels.
As for accessories, the Frida star rocked a dainty pair of diamond studs as not to clash with her bedazzled dress.
She wore her brunette hair down and neatly tucked behind her ears.
Oh my! Salma made no secret of her eye-popping assets in the sizzling gown
Ahem! She was showing off her best assets in the sizzling gown
She wore blue velvet: The 55-year-old Academy Award-winner modeled a striking blue velvet color-block gown with a cutout across the chest to showcase her ample bust
Dazzling: The neck and wrists were decked out in in large rhinestones that glistened in the light as she struck poses for shutterbugs on the red carpet
The Eternals actress highlighted her pout with ruby red lipstick while giving herself a sultry gaze with a soft array of brown eyeshadows.
Salma carried her essentials in a classy black clutch with gold hardware.
Before hitting the red carpet, she took to Instagram to share a trio of glamour shouts, as well as to shoutout her stylist Annabelle Harron for her show-stopping ensemble.
'Start spreading the news! In New York for the [House Of Gucci] premiere,' captioned Salma.
A vision: Her look was perfectly paired with elegant accessories
Understated: As for accessories, the Frida star rocked a dainty pair of diamond studs as not to clash with her bedazzled dress
Drama: The skirt of her dress was made of a black, silky fabric and featured a dramatic slit up one leg
A vision: She looked sensational in the flesh-flashing dress
Social butterfly: Before hitting the red carpet, she took to Instagram to share a trio of glamour shouts, as well as to shoutout her stylist Annabelle Harron for her show-stopping ensemble
Hayek portrays clairvoyant Giuseppina 'Pina' Auriemma - who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly organizing the murder of Maurizio Gucci for a fee - in the forthcoming Ridley Scott-helmed film.
The cold-blooded murder of the fashion scion in 1995 shocked the world especially when his glamorous ex-wife Patrizia was found guilty of plotting it.
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.
During the murder trial, which transfixed Italy, Reggiani arrived each day wearing head-to-toe Gucci clothes and accessories.
Cheeky! She paired the look with staggering Mary Jane shoes
House Of Gucci: Hayek portrays clairvoyant Giuseppina 'Pina' Auriemma - who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly organizing the murder of Maurizio Gucci for a fee - in the forthcoming Ridley Scott-helmed film
House Of Gucci: The cold-blooded murder of the fashion scion in 1995 shocked the world especially when his glamorous ex-wife Patrizia was found guilty of plotting it
The court heard how she had ordered the murder of her husband after he offered her $650,000 in a divorce settlement.
Lady Gaga will play Patrizia, while Marriage Story's Adam Driver will step into the late Maurizio Gucci's shoes.
House of Gucci also stars the likes of Al Pacino, Jared Leto, and fashion designer/auteur Tom Ford.
The film hits theaters on November 24.
In 2022 the Jonas Brothers - along with parents Kevin Jonas, Sr., mom Denise, and youngest brother Frankie - are expanding their family business with a second opening of their restaurant Nellie's Southern Kitchen.
The eatery will be taken to Las Vegas next year, replicating the flagship establishment in Belmont, North Carolina.
It was inspired by their late paternal great-grandmother, Grandma Nellie.
Entrepreneurs: The Jonas Brothers, along with their parents and youngest brother Frankie, are expanding their family business with a second opening of their restaurant Nellie's Southern Kitchen
The announcement was made via the Nellie's Southern Kitchen Instagram account on Monday.
A post was shared with the brand's 26,000 followers that read: 'We are extremely excited to announce that Nellies Southern Kitchen will make its Las Vegas debut at MGM Grand in early 2022!! Head over to the link in our bio to read more about the new location.'
Then a second post was uploaded in the form of a Reels video. Soundtracked to the band's 2019 hit song Sucker, the content showed clips of the Vegas strip, signature dishes, and behind-the-scenes food prep.
'Tag who youre bringing to NSK Las Vegas!! #jonasbrothers #lasvegas #mgmgrand #nelliessouthernkitchen,' said the caption.
The restaurant will be located at The District at MGM Grand.
Family biz: The eatery will be taken to Las Vegas next year, replicating the flagship establishment in Belmont, North Carolina
News! The announcement was made via the Nellie's Southern Kitchen Instagram account on Monday
In a statement Kevin Sr. said, 'To open a restaurant in the heart of the iconic Vegas strip is thrilling, and I know my grandma Nellie would be truly amazed seeing her name in lights.'
The patriarch added, 'Our family loves Las Vegas. We have spent significant time in the city and are proud to invite everyone to pull up a seat and enjoy our family's hospitality and treasured family recipes.'
The original restaurant opened its doors in 2016.
Mom-of-four Mrs. Jonas remarked, 'One of our greatest joys in life is sharing a meal with those we love. There is always room for guests in our home and around our table. Grandma Nellie was the perfect example of showing this kind of comfort to people!'
Yum! A second post was uploaded in the form of a Reels video. Soundtracked to the band's 2019 hit song Sucker, the content showed clips of the Vegas strip, signature dishes, and behind-the-scenes food prep
Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas are the subjects of a Netflix special called Roasted, hosted by Kenan Thompson.
It's arriving on the streaming giant November 23. In a recent clip shared to the musicians' Instagram account, Pete Davidson poked fun at the brothers and bandmates.
'I listen to the Jonas Brothers every time I'm in a supermarket,' he joked, which got Kevin to throw his head back with laughter.
The show will feature a bevy of special guests, including John Legend, who will be performing a song on piano for the brothers, as well as comedian Gabriel Iglesias, One Direction member Niall Horan, Lilly Singh, and Jack Whitehall.
Christine McGuinness has revealed her father is a heroin addict who would inject himself in front of her when she was a teenager.
The model, 33, has previously kept her father Johnny's battle with drugs out of the public eye but writes about his struggles in her book Christine McGuinness: A Beautiful Nightmare.
Johnny's troubles started when she was young, with the model writing that her mother Joanne left him when Christine crawled across one of his used needles when she was a one-year-old baby.
In an extract seen by The Sun, the media personality told how her dad is one of the longest living heroin addicts in the UK and said he has never met her children.
Heartbreaking: Christine McGuinness has revealed her father is a heroin addict who would inject himself in front of her when she was a teenager
She wrote: 'I saw my dad inject heroin. As a teenager, I struggled with his addiction. I blamed myself. When I became a mum, I kept thinking about how he chose drugs over his own kids.
'But as I've gotten older, I've realised it wasn't as simple a choice for him. Addiction is an illness.'
Joanne moved away from Blackpool to Merseyside with Christine and sister Billie-Jo, and despite Johnny's addiction, Christine said she had a good relationship with her father and loves him dearly.
Family: Christine told how her dad is one of the longest living heroin addicts in the UK and said he has never met her children
However, the star admitted he has never met her husband Paddy or their children Penelope, Leo, both eight, and Felicity, five, as she doesn't feel comfortable with the thought of them being introduced to an addict.
Christine did offer her father the chance to meet Paddy when she asked him to walk her down the aisle at their wedding in 2011.
He said yes but then backed out on the day as she was getting into her bridal gown and said he couldn't make it, so Christine walked down the aisle by herself.
Christine said her grandparents have tried to help him and put him into rehab but she doesn't think there's any turning back at this point.
Partner: Christine did offer her father the chance to meet Paddy when she asked him to walk her down the aisle at their wedding in 2011 but he backed out (pictured in October 2021)
The star also revealed doctors previously thought they'd have to amputate his leg due to the damage done by using dirty needles over the years.
She has also been contacted by hospitals on several occasions to warn her that Johnny may die.
Although Christine said she still loves her father, she doesn't think she will ever be able to respect him.
His absence during important moments in her life made Christine even closer with her mother Joanne.
She wrote: 'My mum longed for that relationship to work. It broke her heart. I'm so grateful she did leave him and that she got [us] away.'
While Christine has a fractured relationship with her father, she has remained close to her mother.
Last year, Joanne was diagnosed with breast cancer, but this summer, Christine assured fans her mother is 'doing incredibly well' having completed her breast cancer treatment.
Taking to Instagram and posting a snap of her cuddling her beloved parent, she penned the following note for her followers: 'Ma. Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you know.
'So many of you ask about my mum, she is doing amazingly well, Im so proud of her. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy is all done now its time for her to enjoy life!'
FRANK is a support service that offers information about drugs, plus advice for people who use drugs. Call the FRANK helpline on 0300 123 66 00.
Animation fans will be able to own a piece of history with items from the estate of iconic voice artist Mel Blanc going up for auction next month.
Personal items such as his own studio microphone, several signed items and much more will be up for bidding as an exclusive presentation as part of Julien's Auctions Icons & Idols: Hollywood Classics and Legends, taking place December 3 at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills and online.
Other items as part of the collection range from a folder full of Jewish and Yiddish jokes he wrote and registered with the Writers Guild of America West (expected to fetch $300-$500) to his own personal microphone he recorded voices such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and The Flintstones with ($4,000-$6,000).
Auction: Animation fans will be able to own a piece of history with items from the estate of iconic voice artist Mel Blanc going up for auction next month
Jokes: Other items as part of the collection range from a folder full of Jewish and Yiddish jokes he wrote and registered with the Writers Guild of America West (expected to fetch $300-$500) to his own personal microphone he recorded voices such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and The Flintstones with ($4,000-$6,000)
The most expensive item, according to estimated value, is an 18K Yellow Gold ID Bracelet with a box clasp closure.
The bracelet features his name in cursive on the front and 'Pacific Palisades, Cal' and presumably his phone number, 213 454-6575, on the back.
The item weights 114.9 grams and comes with the 1983 The Franklin Mint Almanac,' showing Blanc on the cover wearing the bracelet, with the lot expected to fetch between $5,000 and $7,000.
Bracelet: The most expensive item, according to estimated value, is an 18K Yellow Gold ID Bracelet with a box clasp closure
Number: The bracelet features his name in cursive on the front and 'Pacific Palisades, Cal' and presumably his phone number, 213 454-6575, on the back
Almanac: The item weights 114.9 grams and comes with the 1983 The Franklin Mint Almanac,' showing Blanc on the cover wearing the bracelet, with the lot expected to fetch between $5,000 and $7,000
The studio-used microphone is a late 1950s Sony C-37A, 'free-standing tube condenser microphone' that he used for 'decades' because of its high quality.
The mic stand is heavily rusted with the microphone itself labeled 'Mike 2,' and the microphone itself is not in working condition.
The microphone also comes with a black-and-white photo of Blanc using the mic with his friend Vincent Prince, with the lot expected to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000.
Decades: The studio-used microphone is a late 1950s Sony C-37A, 'free-standing tube condenser microphone' that he used for 'decades' because of its high quality
Not working: The mic stand is heavily rusted with the microphone itself labeled 'Mike 2,' and the microphone itself is not in working condition
Also included in the collection is a signed animation cel from 1958 featuring five of Blanc's famous characters, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, and Daffy Duck.
The cel is inscribed in black fountain pen ink on the background page, which reads, 'For Pat/ with love from/ 'Uncle' Mel Blanc/ 4/8/58.'
The lot is expected to fetch between $800 and $1,200 at auction.
Cel: Also included in the collection is a signed animation cel from 1958 featuring five of Blanc's famous characters, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, and Daffy Duck
A collection of Blanc's paperwork for Hanna-Barbera Productions is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000.
Among the items is a 1962 contract for voicing Barney Rubble and Dino in The Flintstones and a 1964 letter to Blanc from William Hanna with a print of Fred and Barney.
Also up for sale is Blanc's signed 1942 Warner Bros. employee ID card, which was on display at the Warner Bros. lot for many years, and is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000 at auction.
Paperwork: A collection of Blanc's paperwork for Hanna-Barbera Productions is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000
Contract: Among the items is a 1962 contract for voicing Barney Rubble and Dino in The Flintstones and a 1964 letter to Blanc from William Hanna with a print of Fred and Barney
Auction: Also up for sale is Blanc's signed 1942 Warner Bros. employee ID card, which was on display at the Warner Bros. lot for many years, and is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000 at auction
Also up for bidding are items from his 1988 autobiography That's Not All Folks! including photocopied pages of the final draft.
Also included is, 'a bound "uncorrected page proof" of the book; the final printed book with Blanc's black felt-tip ink signature on the title page; Blanc's name tag when he plugged his book at the 1988 American Booksellers Association in New York City'
The lot also includes, 'a foamcore poster of the book's cover; and a cardboard poster of the book's cover with added text reading "Thsufferin'/ Thsuccotash," with the lot expected to go for $1,000 to $2,000.
Book: Also up for bidding are items from his 1988 autobiography That's Not All Folks! including photocopied pages of the final draft
Included: Also included is, 'a bound "uncorrected page proof" of the book; the final printed book with Blanc's black felt-tip ink signature on the title page; Blanc's name tag when he plugged his book at the 1988 American Booksellers Association in New York City'
Poster: The lot also includes, 'a foamcore poster of the book's cover; and a cardboard poster of the book's cover with added text reading "Thsufferin'/ Thsuccotash," with the lot expected to go for $1,000 to $2,000
Also expected to sell between the $1,000 and $2,000 range is the voice legend's 14K gold pocket watch, gifted from his wife.
The front has, 'floral and bird engravings accented with seven round diamonds totaling approximately 0.08 ct., and two small rubies totaling approximately 0.03 ct.'
The lid features a white dial with Arabic chapters, subsidiary dial, and scrolled gold hands, against a star and floral motif background.'
Watch: Also expected to sell between the $1,000 and $2,000 range is the voice legend's 14K gold pocket watch
Watch: The lid features a white dial with Arabic chapters, subsidiary dial, and scrolled gold hands, against a star and floral motif background.
Another lot features a group of 1950s and 1960s vintage desktop items that Blanc personally owned, including a Zenith transistor radio.
Other items include, 'a small roulette wheel standee with a sticker on its base reading "MBA" (for Mel Blanc Associates), a sterling silver cigarette box, a ballpoint pen reading in part "Mel Blanc.'
There is also, 'a vermeil key adorned with a St. Genesius medallion (patron saint of actors, clowns, comedians, and musicians), and a small blue jewelry box,' with the lot expected to fetch $300-$500.
Radio: Another lot features a group of 1950s and 1960s vintage desktop items that Blanc personally owned, including a Zenith transistor radio
A large collection of approximately 300 pages of handwritten notes will fetch between $1,000 and $2,000.
'Ranging in date from the 1960s to the 1980s, Blanc writes bits of dialogue for cartoon characters, jokes, gags, story ideas, statistics, addresses, trivia, lists, raunchy thoughts, and the like -- an amazing look into the brain of this genius!' according to the description.
Also up for auction is an original caricature of Blanc by artist Basil Wolverton, which is rather brittle but still expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000.
Collection: A large collection of approximately 300 pages of handwritten notes will fetch between $1,000 and $2,000
Caricature: Also up for auction is an original caricature of Blanc by artist Basil Wolverton, which is rather brittle but still expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,00
A collection of Blanc's ledgers and other eras that span from the 1950s to the 1970s is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000.
Another piece of artwork is, 'a large colored felt-tip ink on paper drawing depicting Mel Blanc surrounded by the dozens of cartoon characters he voiced over the decades with the title "That's Not All Folks!" by Paul Madden in 1988."
The artwork is, inscribed "To: Mel Blanc/ On the occasion of his 80th Birthday,' and is expected to sell for between $500 and $800.
Ledgers: A collection of Blanc's ledgers and other eras that span from the 1950s to the 1970s is expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000
Art: Another piece of artwork is, 'a large colored felt-tip ink on paper drawing depicting Mel Blanc surrounded by the dozens of cartoon characters he voiced over the decades with the title "That's Not All Folks!" by Paul Madden in 1988
Birthday: The artwork is, inscribed "To: Mel Blanc/ On the occasion of his 80th Birthday,' and is expected to sell for between $500 and $800
Another more expensive item is a 14K gold money clip that Blanc received from Jack Benny, which is said to sell between $2,000 and $3,000.
Another gold item up for sale is Blanc's personalized 14K yellow gold Dunhill cigarette lighter with his name engraved, said to sell for between $1,000 and $2,000.
An animation cel from The Flintstones, featuring the character he voiced, Barney Rubble, is expected to fetch $300 to $500.
Lighter: Another gold item up for sale is Blanc's personalized 14K yellow gold Dunhill cigarette lighter with his name engraved, said to sell for between $1,000 and $2,000.
Animation: An animation cel from The Flintstones, featuring the character he voiced, Barney Rubble, is expected to fetch $300 to $500
A collection of jokes entitled 'Jooish,' featuring, 'dozens of mimeographed pages of gags, stories, and jokes about being Jewish,' is said to sell for $300 to $500.
The voice artist's 1972 California driver's licence, featuring his Pacific Palisades address, will fetch $400 to $600.
His custom bomber jacket featuring Bugs Bunny's catch phrase, 'What's up Doc?' is likely to go for between $600 and $800.
Jokes: A collection of jokes entitled 'Jooish,' featuring, 'dozens of mimeographed pages of gags, stories, and jokes about being Jewish,' is said to sell for $300 to $500.
License: The voice artist's 1972 California driver's licence, featuring his Pacific Palisades address, will fetch $400 to $600
Bomber: His custom bomber jacket featuring Bugs Bunny's catch phrase, 'What's up Doc?' is likely to go for between $600 and $800
A set of two original print black and white photographs of Mel Blanc in 1961 dressed up as the most famous cartoon character he voiced, Bugs Bunny, will fetch $100 and $200.
Other items include a 1970 contract for a Jack Benny special ($400-$600), a signed color photograph with Blanc and President Ronald Reagan ($400-$600) and custom Cartier eyeglasses ($500-$700).
The auction will take place December 3.
Set: A set of two original print black and white photographs of Mel Blanc in 1961 dressed up as the most famous cartoon character he voiced, Bugs Bunny, will fetch $100 and $200.
Contract: Other items include a 1970 contract for a Jack Benny special ($400-$600)
Photo: a signed color photograph with Blanc and President Ronald Reagan ($400-$600)
Custom: custom Cartier eyeglasses ($500-$700)
Academy: A group of nine membership cards from the AMPAS ranging in date from 1955 to 1981, all noting that Mel Blanc was a "Member in Good Standing." Blanc signed five either in blue ballpoint ink or black felt-tip ink on the lower margins ($1,000-$2,000)
SAG: A group of 22 Screen Actors Guild cards spanning 40 years, from 1947 to 1987, with five signed in either blue or black ballpoint ink "Mel J. Blanc" ($1,000-$2,000)
Australian actress Melissa George is a bona fide glamazon.
But the 45-year-old debuted an entirely new look on Wednesday while on set of her TV series The Mosquito Coast.
She appeared to be completely bald while having a wig fitted.
Before and after: Melissa George showcased a new 'bald' look as she returned to work on The Mosquito Coast on Wednesday
Her locks were secured under a wig cap as a hair and makeup team worked behind her.
'Wig fitting,' Melissa captioned the photo.
Melissa will reprise her role as Margot Fox on The Mosquito Coast. Her character is the wife of protagonist Allie Fox, played by Justin Theroux.
The Apple Original series follows an idealistic inventor who, disgusted with the corruption of the industrial world, uproots his family to Latin America.
Star: Melissa will reprise her role as Margot Fox on The Mosquito Coast. Her character is the wife of Allie Fox, played by Justin Theroux
The U.S. government then attempts to catch Allie, leaving him and his family on a dangerous quest to outrun the feds in Mexico.
The role comes after Melissa revealed the devastating financial consequences of her acrimonious divorce from French businessman Jean David Blanc.
The actress ended her five-year marriage to Jean David, 53, in September 2016, and has since been embroiled in a bitter dispute over the custody of their sons.
'I was left with nothing': Melissa revealed in June she was broke and unemployed after her bitter divorce and custody battle with ex-husband Jean David Blanc, 53. Pictured in 2013
Speaking to Stellar magazine in June, the star claimed she was left penniless after her marriage ended, forcing to sell her prized collection of jewels and clothing.
'I was left with nothing [after the separation and court battles]... So I said, "Okay, what do you have? I've got beautiful jewellery and designer clothes. And I just sold absolutely everything,"' the former Home and Away star said.
'I wouldn't take work because I didn't want to leave my babies. I mean, once you've lost it all, you really know what you need. Trust me,' the mother of two added.
'I just sold absolutely everything': Speaking to Stellar magazine in June, Melissa said she was forced to sell her prized collection of jewels and clothing to make ends meet
Melissa confirmed she had no plans to move back to Australia, due to her ongoing custody dispute with Jean David.
Melissa and Jean David met in 2011 at a BAFTA Awards after-party and began a relationship the following year.
In early 2017, the pair were convicted of assaulting each other following an alleged domestic dispute in 2016.
Her boys: Melissa has been embroiled in a bitter dispute over the custody of the sons she shares with Jean David, Raphael, six, and Solal, four (pictured)
Jean David later said in a statement at the time: 'Regarding the supposed violence against Melissa George, I strongly contest it and have thus filed an appeal against the judgment, which is not final.'
Melissa starred as Angel Parrish on Home and Away from 1993 to 1996, and made her Hollywood debut in 1998 film Dark City.
She also featured in 2001's Mulholland Drive and 2005's Derailed.
Machine Gun Kelly stepped out in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon.
The 31-year-old rapper made a quick pitstop at an Erewhon Market, where he picked up a juice drink and a carton of water.
The outing comes just days after he and Megan Fox returned from a romantic getaway to Greece, during which they were seen making their way around various locations.
On his own: Machine Gun Kelly was seen picking up lunch at an Erewhon Market in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon
Kelly donned a slim-fitting blue polo short featuring a white circular pattern throughout it.
The hitmaker, born Colson Baker, also rocked a wide-legged pair of black-and-white pants and a dual-tone set of boots.
The performer accessorized with numerous articles of jewelry and wore a stylish set of wide-framed sunglasses for the length of his outing.
He also kept a set of wired earbuds with him as he enjoyed a bit of time to himself.
Fashionable: Kelly donned a slim-fitting blue polo short that featured numerous circles across its construction during his outing
Kelly and Fox were first spotted in Greece earlier this month, and they were spotted enjoying the Mediterranean climate as they stepped out together on numerous occasions.
They were also seen making the most of each other's company while spending time at various restaurants and places of interest.
The happy couple initially met while working on Randall Emmett's directorial debut, Midnight in the Switchgrass.
Before she became involved with the rapper, the Transformers actress was married to Brian Austin Green, with whom she tied the knot in 2010.
Vacation: Kelly and Fox were first spotted in Greece earlier this month, and they were spotted enjoying the Mediterranean climate as they stepped out together on numerous occasions; they are seen at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards
The couple welcomed three sons named Noah Shannon, Bodhi Ransom and Journey River over the length of their marriage.
The two separated several times over the course of their relationship, and their divorce was made official last month.
Kelly previously fathered a daughter named Casie with his former girlfriend, Emma Cannon.
The hitmaker was also linked to model Sommer Ray and media personality Amber Rose, although he split from both.
Collaborators: The happy couple initially met while working on Randall Emmett's directorial debut, Midnight in the Switchgrass; they are seen at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards
Fox and the rapper kept their relationship private at first, although the actress notably starred in the music video for his 2020 track Bloody Valentine.
The two appeared to confirm their relationship last June when they were spotted sharing a kiss in public.
The actress recently spoke about how she and Kelly share similar senses of dress during an interview with the New York Post, where she discussed how they had coordinated colors and themes at several red carpet events.
Keeping it secret: Fox and the rapper kept their relationship private at first, although the actress notably starred in the music video for his 2020 track Bloody Valentine; they are seen in May
'We were just wanting to go together, kind ofthen people decided we were matching. It wasn't necessarily a planned thingThat's just how it flowed,' she said.
Fox pointed out that she and her boyfriend were happy to dress in similar styles, as she would have liked to do so during her younger years.
'I haven't seen two grown adult people match their outfits this way. Maybe it's like something you think about [in] high school or middle school even,' she said.
She added: 'There's a fun element that maybe people have been missing...we're not too serious.'
Kanye West and Drake put their differences aside on Tuesday when Kanye posted a friendly photo of the two together to his Instagram account.
Kanye, 44, and Drake, 35, were seen standing next to each other and looking relaxed while accompanied by the music executive James Prince outside of Drake's Toronto mansion on Monday.
The apparent reconciliation came just over a week after the Jesus Walks rapper shared rare praise for the Canadian actor-turned-musician during his Drink Champs interview, even as he blasted him over threatening lyrics.
Reunited and it feels so good! Kanye West revealed Tuesday that he and Drake had put aside their feud. He posted a photo of the rappers posing together outside of what appeared to be Drake's Toronto mansion on Monday; pictured with James Prince (L)
Kanye and Drake were seen standing next to each other on stone steps leading up to a stone building's front entrance.
The Donda rapper was dressed casually in a black hoodie with matching jeans and tall black rain boots, and he sported a badge on a lanyard around his neck.
Drake had his hands in the pockets of his plaid jacket and wore dark jeans with white trainers, while Prince cocked a finger gun at the camera.
Kanye, who has changed his legal name to Ye, cleared up any confusion about the meeting by simply captioning the photo with an emoji of a dove holding an olive branch in its beak.
Making amends: Kanye cleared up any confusion about the meeting by simply captioning the photo with an emoji of a dove holding an olive branch in its beak
Having a blast: Drake revealed that the former collaborators were spending time together in his hometown of Toronto in a subsequent video on his own Instagram account
Drake revealed that the former collaborators were spending time together in his hometown of Toronto in a subsequent post to his own Instagram account.
The newly reunited friends mugged for the camera and were bathed in purple light.
Drake waved at the camera as Kanye began to bizarrely let out a buzzing, whining sound.
Another video featured controversial comedian Dave Chappelle as he warmed up a crowd inside Drake's Toronto mansion.
'You have to admit to yourself, this s*** is impressive. I cannot believe I'm in a n***a's house,' he said, before praising Drake for how far he had come in the world.
Letting loose: Drake waved at the camera as Kanye began to bizarrely let out a buzzing, whining sound
'N***a's ran from slavery to this place,' he said of the Canadian city. 'But tonight, we feel free.'
Kanye also shared more of Chappelle's toast to the two rappers in his Instagram Stories.
'Make some noise for Kanye and Drake,' he said to cheers from the audience. 'And make some noise for our reconciliation,' he continued, adding, 'We got work to do.'
Drake captioned his post, 'You have reached your destination,' and he tagged the photos to make clear that they were in Toronto.
Star power: Another video featured controversial comedian Dave Chappelle as he warmed up a crowd inside Drake's Toronto mansion
Still work to do: 'Make some noise for Kanye and Drake,' he said to cheers from the audience. 'And make some noise for our reconciliation,' he continued, adding, 'We got work to do'
In Prince's post with the same photo Kanye originally shared, he suggested the once-estranged rappers might join each other on stage soon.
'What a beautiful night I had last night in Canada. Lets make history December 9 Free Larry Hoover Concert,' he wrote.
Last week, Kanye invited Drake to perform at the benefit concert in an Instagram video featuring Prince.
The Monster rapper has been advocating for the release of Hoover, a former gang leader who was convicted of murder in the 1970s and is currently serving a life sentence, and he previously made his case on a track on his recent Donda album.
Open invitation: Last week, Kanye invited Drake to perform at the benefit concert in an Instagram video featuring James Prince
Earlier this month, Kanye both continued his feud with Drake and suggested there was a possibility of a reconciliation during his appearance on Drink Champs.
The pair have been in a war of words since 2009, when Kanye critiqued one of Drake's lyrics on the Young Money song Every Girl.
In response, days later Drake said in an interview, 'Before I met him, I had the utmost respect for Kanye West. Id even go as far as to say hes the most influential person as far as a musician that Id ever had in my life.'
Since then, the two have continued to exchange barbs via their music and interviews.
Early on in his chat, Kanye shared some rare praise for the hitmaker, calling him a very important artist who added something to the algorithm.'
He added: 'The style of rap that he was doing was more sophisticated than the style of rap that I grew up on,' noting that Drake's song had 'good melodies' and 'good music.'
But after he was asked if he could 'smoke' Drake in a Verzuz battle, Kanye replied, 'Yeah, absolutely.'
He went on: 'It already happened. He played one of my leaked songs and it was better than every other song this year,' he said of a track that featured Outkast's Andre 3000.
Going strong: Earlier this month, Kanye both continued his feud with Drake and suggested there was a possibility of a reconciliation during his appearance on Drink Champs
Kanye also denied leaking Drake's address. In August, he estranged husband of Kim Kardashian shared, then deleted, a map detailing the purported location of Drake's Toronto home, which appeared to be in response to Drake's jab at him on a collaboration with Trippie Redd, in which he referred to Kanye as 'burned out.'
Explaining his post, Kanye said: 'No, he advertised it when he was building the house. Everyone knows it. It's like a place in Canada you go by. It's like a monument.
'You can find it. That's how I was able to find it. It's Googleable. It's on Google Maps.'
He also complained that those close to him worried he was having an 'episode' whenever he referenced his feuds in his music.
Mixed bag: He praised Drake's 'sophisticated' version of rap, even as he accused Drake of threatening him in his lyrics and wondered whether he had had an affair with Kim Kardashian; seen with Kenny Burns in 2015
He defended his reactions after believing that Drake threatened him on a track.
'A man threatening my life on a song and they wonder why you end up in the hospital,' he said, adding that Drake was 'driving me crazy' with his jabs in songs.
He claimed that Drake said to him, 'I never f***ed Kim.'
'But you acted like you did,' Kanye continued. 'You've got bars, it's like, "Hidden Hills, give your wife the chills."'
He said it was disrespectful and said he asked Drake if he ever 'DMed' Kim.
Getting personal: Kanye and Drake's feud hit its nadir in 2018, when Kanye produced Pusha T's diss track The Story Of Adidon, in which Pusha revealed that Drake had a child with former adult actress Sophie Brussaux; Drake seen in 2019 in LA
Although Kanye and Drake have had minor clashes throughout the years, their relationship took a significant blow after Kanye produced Pusha T's album Daytona in 2018.
Pusha went after Drake with his song Infrared, which accused the Certified Love Boy rapper of using a ghostwriter.
He followed it up with The Story Of Adidon, in which Pusha revealed to the world that Drake had fathered a child with former adult actress Sophie Brussaux.
Kanye reportedly knew of Drake's child, so the former Degrassi star reportedly became convinced that he had shared the information with Pusha T, though Kanye has since denied revealing that Drake had a son.
In a 2019 interview with Rap Radar, Drake claimed he had 'no desire to mend anything with' Kanye or Pusha, though he seems to have changed his tune with the Runaway rapper.
Their feud continued until just months ago, as some fans speculated that one of the reasons Kanye repeatedly pushed back the release date of Donda was to steal some of Drake's thunder with the release of his album Certified Lover Boy.
But fans may soon have a chance to hear the rap titans working together again if they're able to bury their feud for good.
Chris Evans on Tuesday took to Instagram with a selfie alongside his Boxer mix rescue dog Dodger.
The 40-year-old actor, sporting a beard and a white T-shirt, captioned the shot 'Twins?'
The Captain America star, who has more than 13.3 million followers, garnered more than 2.7 million likes on the post.
The latest: Chris Evans, 40, on Tuesday took to Instagram with a selfie alongside his Boxer mix rescue dog Dodger
The Boston native has owned the canine for four-and-a-half years, as he adopted the dog amid production on his movie Gifted in April of 2017. Speaking to People that month, the A-list actor explained the circumstances unto which he came upon adopting Dodger.
'One of the last scenes we were filming was in a pound, a kennel,' Evans told the outlet. 'I foolishly walked in and I thought, "Are these actor dogs or are these real up for adoption dogs?" And sure enough they were, so I was walking up and down the aisles and saw this one dude and he didn't belong there.'
The Knives Out star continued: 'I snagged him and he's such a good dog. They aged him at about one, he acts like a puppy, he's got the energy of a puppy, he's just such a sweetheart, he's such a good boy. He loves dogs, he loves kids, he's full of love.'
Evans said that his time with the dog proved to be 'exhausting,' as 'playing with him is exercise' and 'hes up for anything.'
The Boston native has owned the canine for four-and-a-half years, as he adopted the dog amid production on his movie Gifted in April of 2017. He was snapped in 2019 in San Francisco
The actor relaxed with his pet earlier this month in a post on the social media site
Evans said earlier this year that Dodger was a driving force behind his decision to join Instagram in May of 2020. He shared this pic of the dog last year
The actor explained his love of dogs, calling them 'such great animals' and describing himself as 'a dog lunatic.
'I really cant say enough about dogs,' he said. 'He sleeps on my pillow, you wake up face-to-face.'
Evans said that he 'keep a very clean dog' as he bathes Dodger 'twice a week.'
He added, 'We get dirty! We run around, hes in the mud a lot, so yeah, I think its nice having a fresh clean dog.'
Evans said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this year that Dodger was a driving force behind his decision to join Instagram in May of 2020.
'I had too many good pictures of my dog,' he said. 'I was like, they're being wasted in my phone. I need to put these somewhere.'
Nine presenter Charlotte Goodlet and her former AFL star husband Kieran Jack have celebrated their three-year wedding anniversary.
The glamorous couple announced the milestone on Tuesday, each sharing their own heartfelt tribute on Instagram.
Charlotte shared a photo of the twosome posing arm-in-arm in front of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, adding the caption: 'Three years married to you [Kieran].
'Here's to many more': Nine presenter Charlotte Goodlet (right) and her AFL star husband Kieren Jack (left) celebrated their three-year wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Charlotte marked the occasion by sharing this photo of the couple posing in front of Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge
'Here's to many more,' she wrote, adding a love-heart emoji.
Meanwhile, former Sydney Swans player Kieran uploaded a photo of the couple posing behind protective face masks, while adding a tongue-in-cheek caption.
'[Charlotte] hinks this is random. I think its cool. Marriage is about compromise. Happy 3 years,' he joked.
'Happy three years:' Former Sydney Swans player Kieran uploaded a photo of the couple posing behind protective face masks, while adding a tongue-in-cheek caption
Big day: Kieren and Charlotte married in November 2018 at the picturesque Allview Escape in the New South Wales' Blue Mountains, having become engaged in October 2016
Charlotte and Kieran wed during a lavish Blue Mountains ceremony in November 2018.
The pair exchanged vows at the picturesque Allview Escape in the New South Wales' Blue Mountains, having become engaged in October 2016.
Unfortunately, Kieren's parents Garry and Donna Jack did not attend the nuptials.
Feud: The athlete's parents, who have been estranged from the couple since 2016, nonetheless wished 'them both well' in a statement to the Daily Telegraph
The athlete's parents, who have been estranged from the couple since 2016, nonetheless wished 'them both well' in a statement to the Daily Telegraph.
'It is unfortunate and disappointing that we were not in attendance of our son's wedding, but sadly none of the family made the invite list. Nonetheless, we wish them both well,' Kieren's parents Garry and Donna Jack told the paper.
Garry, an NRL Balmain Tigers legend, and wife Donna, have been estranged from son Jack and his now-wife Charlotte, since 2016.
Happier times: Kieren and his family made headlines after his mother Donna took to Twitter claiming she was banned from attending his milestone 200th AFL game in July 2016
Kieren and his family made headlines after his mother Donna took to Twitter claiming she was banned from attending his milestone 200th AFL game in July 2016.
'So sad ... you 200 AFL & you don't want us there, your parents. No appreciation for all the yrs helping you get there,' Donna wrote in a post that was later deleted.
Reports also indicated that Jack's family disapproved of Charlotte.
Julie Goodwin famously won reality TV cooking series MasterChef in 2009.
And now 51-year old is set to return to screens in a different kind of show that will see her living below the poverty line.
In the SBS documentary Could You Survive on the Breadline? Julie will join two other prominent Australians on a journey to see what it's like to live with financial disadvantage.
A different kind of journey: MasterChef's Julie Goodwin (pictured) has revealed her 'profound' experience with poverty and scraping by in the new SBS documentary, Could You Survive on the Breadline?
'It was a pretty profound experience actually,' she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
'I sort of had preconceived ideas of what it might be like to live in emergency accommodation and I guess I had an idea of some of the stories I might hear, but I was really unprepared for what it was actually like.'
Julie - along with NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong and journalist Caleb Bond - will meet, stay with and learn from a variety of Aussies living in poverty in the three-part series.
Doing it tough: Julie - along with NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong and journalist Caleb Bond - will meet, stay with and learn from a variety of Aussies living in poverty in the three-part series
At one point in the series, the MasterChef winner accompanied a woman living with her husband on food stamps.
The famous cook had a pre-conceived idea of what poverty might be like as she had already grown up in a world where her family struggled to make ends meet.
'I experienced it firsthand, not in the same way as some of the people that I met, but certainly living paycheck to paycheck,' she said.
Family past: 'I experienced it firsthand, not in the same way as some of the people that I met, but certainly living paycheck to paycheck,' she said
Julie adds that she wasn't 'born with a silver spoon' and didn't come to the documentary with an 'ignorant point of view'.
However, she also admits she still had 'much to learn' after her unique experience.
Could You Survive on the Breadline? premieres Wednesday November 17 at 8.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand
Emma Watson set her time-turner back on Tuesday as she took a journey through the past with her costars from the Harry Potter film series.
The 31-year-old actress posted a behind-the-scenes photo to Instagram that was taken with her costars Danielle Radcliffe, 32, and Rupert Grint, 33, from what appeared one of the early films in the series.
The Little Women actress looked back on the films, which she called her 'home' and 'family' as she celebrated the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone after the three leads were reported to be participating in an upcoming reunion special on HBO Max.
Old friends: Emma Watson, 31, shared a cute throwback from one of the early Harry Potter films with her costars (LR) Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint on Tuesday, after a 20th anniversary reunion was announced
Emma was pictured smiling in her photo while wearing a blue and violet crushed velvet shirt and standing next to her costars.
Daniel skipped Harry's iconic glasses and and Rupert's casual sweatshirt was a far cry from the robes their characters wore throughout the films.
In her lengthy caption, Emma wrote 'lucky' she was to have been involved with the series and how 'proud' she was of all her collaborators.
'Harry Potter was my home, my family, my world and Hermione (still is) my favorite fictional character of all time,' she wrote. 'I think a journalist once said it was irritating how many times during an interview I mentioned how lucky I was and started counting BUT I DAMN WELL KNEW!!! And still know.'
She added that she was inspired by what her collaborators and costars had gone on to do since their Harry Potter days.
Massive cast and crew: In her lengthy caption, Emma wrote 'lucky' she was to have been involved with the series and how 'proud' she was of all her collaborators, who were pictured in a second snap
Proud: 'I am proud not just of what we as group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path,' she said; seen October 17 in London
'I am proud not just of what we as group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path,' she said. 'I look at my fellow cast members now and I am just so proud of who everyone has become as people. I am proud we were kind to each other that we supported one another and that we held up something meaningful.
'Thank you to the fans that have continued to show their support well after the last chapter closed,' Emma continued. The magic of the world wouldnt exist without you. Thank you for fighting to make it such an inclusive and loving place.'
The Bling Ring star added a special shoutout for the 'crew who made these films all the time.'
'Thank you for all of your hard work too I know your contributions sometimes get overlooked.'
The actress concluded her post by encouraging her 61.5 million followers to tune in to her upcoming reunion special.
'Happy 20th Anniversary Potterheads! We hope you enjoy the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts which will stream New Years day, Jan. 1 on HBO Max. Lots to look forward to,' she wrote.
Back at it: 'Happy 20th Anniversary Potterheads! We hope you enjoy the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts which will stream New Years day, Jan. 1 on HBO Max. Lots to look forward to,' she wrote; still from Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Emma also shared a second photo snapped during the production of a later film in the series showing most of the cast and crew outside the Hogwarts school.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that she would be joining Daniel and Rupert for the reunion special on HBO Max.
The trio will also be joined by Chris Columbus, who directed the series' first two films, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets.
The reunion will likely mark the first time Emma, Daniel and Rupert have made a joint public appearance since the release of their film Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in July of 2011.
The first Harry Potter film premiered 20 years ago on November 16, 2001, nearly a decade before the final film was released.
According to HBO Max, which has all the Harry Potter films available to stream, the reunion will 'tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new, in-depth interviews and cast conversations.'
Decades on: Casey Patterson, whose production company is producing the special gushed over the cast as she said: 'Theres magic in the air here with this incredible cast, as they all return home to the original sets of Hogwarts, where they began 20 years ago'
The principal cast members will be joined by a bevy of talent, including Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Bonnie Wright, Jason Isaacs, and many others.
Casey Patterson, whose production company is producing the special gushed over the cast as she said: 'Theres magic in the air here with this incredible cast, as they all return home to the original sets of Hogwarts, where they began 20 years ago.
'The excitement is palpable as they prepare to take their fans on a very special and personal journey, through the making of these incredible films.'
Of the upcoming special, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics Tom Ascheim said in the statement: 'It has been an incredible journey since the debut of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone film, and witnessing how it has evolved into this remarkable interconnected universe has been magical to say the least.
'This retrospective is a tribute to everyone whose lives were touched by this cultural phenomenon from the talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into this extraordinary film franchise to the passionate fans who continue to keep the Wizarding World spirit alive 20 years later.'
Together again: Emma, Daniel and Rupert will be joined by much of the cast and director Chris Columbus. It's the first time the three actors have made a public appearance since 2011; seen in 2011
Flying high: There will be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren
The special will later air on channels TBS and Cartoon Network in spring 2022 before the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
There will also be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren.
The Harry Potter films amount to one of the top selling franchises of all-time, with the eight films having grossed $7.7 billion, while the first film has grossed over $1 billion alone over its lifetime.
In May of this year, Emma shut down rumors that she had retired after she hadn't starred in any projects since 2019's acclaimed film Little Women.
But last month, she suggested on Instagram that she had taken up behind-the-camera hobbies during her time in lockdown.
'Getting behind the camera and learning how it works is about the most empowering thing Ive learned in lockdown,' she captioned photos of herself with a camera.
'As a young woman, I always thought the most glamorous and exciting thing would be to be someones muse; and of course as women we are inspiring... but wow its something else to be able to tell your own story and other people's.'
Christie Brinkley channeled her iconic role as Roxie Hart at the 25th anniversary of the Broadway musical Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The Michigan-born, Malibu-raised stunner easily defied her 67 years while wearing a bell-sleeved LBD with thigh-high kinky boots selected by stylist Jamie Frankel.
Hairstylist Mitch Barry coiffed Christie's signature fringed blonde locks and make-up artist Sandy Linter brought out her natural beauty for the festivities.
Triple threat: Eighties supermodel Christie Brinkley channeled her former character Roxie Hart at the 25th anniversary of the Broadway musical Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre in Manhattan on Tuesday
'Happy 25 years, Chicago! You don't look a day over 24,' Brinkley (born Hudson) exclaimed on the red carpet.
It's been a decade since the Hamptons native was first cast as the aspiring vaudevillian and murderess at the same exact theater, and she 'absolutely loved every second of it.'
'I did my first run on Broadway and that was for four months,' Christie said in her Westlake Malibu Lifestyle cover story this month.
'After New York, they asked me to do London and I headlined the national tour. Right before Covid hit, I was able to go back and do it again. We played Las Vegas and returned to Broadway again.'
Wow! The actress took on the role of the murderous vixen in the iconic musical in both the Broadway and West End shows in 2011 (pictured)
Sexy after 60! The Michigan-born, Malibu-raised stunner easily defied her 67 years while wearing a bell-sleeved LBD with thigh-high kinky boots selected by stylist Jamie Frankel
Evergreen: Hairstylist Mitch Barry coiffed Christie's signature fringed blonde locks and make-up artist Sandy Linter brought out her natural beauty for the festivities
Brinkley (born Hudson) exclaimed on the red carpet: 'Happy 25 years, Chicago! You don't look a day over 24'
Brinkley - who relies on cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Simon Ourian - was relieved she didn't let fear stop her from saying yes to 'this dream come true.'
'Believe me there were little voices trying to tell me I couldn't do it... to stay safe and take the easy path,' the Bellissima Prosecco owner reflected in a March 22 post.
'But thank goodness I didn't listen. Now I have stories to tell and cherished memories to last a lifetime! Oh and don't let age stop you either! You've got this!'
'I absolutely loved every second of it!' It's been a decade since the Hamptons native was first cast as the aspiring vaudevillian and murderess at the same exact theater
Christie said in her Westlake Malibu Lifestyle cover story this month: 'I did my first run on Broadway and that was for four months. After New York, they asked me to do London and I headlined the national tour. Right before Covid hit, I was able to go back and do it again. We played Las Vegas and returned to Broadway again'
'Don't let age stop you': Brinkley - who relies on cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Simon Ourian - was relieved she didn't let fear stop her from saying yes to 'this dream come true' (pictured in 2019)
Christie is looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with her three children from three different husbands - daughter Sailor, 23; daughter Alexa, 35; and son Jack, 23.
'Thanksgiving is very special. I decorate the table the day before and I cook a big meal for the whole family,' Brinkley told the mag.
'I love it when everybody is in the kitchen together. I make sure they stay there by serving caviar, smoked salmon, and lots of my family's favorite delicacies on an enticing platter.'
Sailor Lee is from the SBLA Beauty brand ambassador's fourth marriage to architect Peter Cook, which ended in 2008 after 12 years.
'I love it when everybody is in the kitchen together!' The Bellissima Prosecco owner is looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with her three children from three different husbands - daughter Sailor, 23; daughter Alexa, 35; and son Jack, 23 (pictured July 3)
Jack Paris is from Christie's third marriage to ex-husband real estate developer Richard Taubman, which ended in 1995 after less than a year.
Alexa Ray is from Brinkley's nine-year marriage to five-time Grammy winner Billy Joel, which ended in 1994.
The 25th anniversary ceremony reunited original castmembers - Bebe Neuwirth, James Naughton, and Joel Grey - from the 1996 Broadway revival, which was staged at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Back onstage together! The 25th anniversary ceremony reunited original castmembers - (from L-R) Bebe Neuwirth, James Naughton, and Joel Grey - from the 1996 Broadway revival, which was staged at the Richard Rodgers Theatre
Showtime! The 62-year-old actress won a Tony Award for her performance as Velma Kelly in Chicago and she wore a black silk top with velvet pants and motorcycle boots for the event
'Our original Mr. Cellophane!' The 89-year-old father of Jennifer Grey looked dapper in a black suit with a polka dot pocket square and sneakers
Iconic: Joel portrayed Amos Hart in Chicago, but he won the Tony and Oscar for his performance onstage and on film as the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret
The 62-year-old actress won a Tony Award for her performance as Velma Kelly in Chicago and she wore a black silk top with velvet pants and motorcycle boots for the event.
The 89-year-old father of Jennifer Grey looked dapper in a black suit with a polka dot pocket square and sneakers.
Joel portrayed Amos Hart in Chicago, but he won the Tony and Oscar for his performance onstage and on film as the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret.
Who knew they were friends? Also celebrating all things Chicago were Girls5eva actor Andrew Rannells (L) and The Masked Singer panelist Nicole Scherzinger (R)
PDA: The Grammy winner (L) and the Grammy nominee (R) - both 43 - affectionately embraced each other as Nicole puckered up her red pout for the photographers
'Hacha whoopie jazz!' Also excited to be there on Tuesday was Rupaul's Drag Race #12 alum Brita Filter, who gushed about sitting third row during the show
Also celebrating all things Chicago were Girls5eva actor Andrew Rannells and The Masked Singer panelist Nicole Scherzinger.
The Grammy winner and the Grammy nominee - both 43 - affectionately embraced each other as Nicole puckered up her red pout for the photographers.
Also excited to be there on Tuesday was Rupaul's Drag Race #12 alum Brita Filter, who gushed about sitting third row during the show.
Tom Holland made a surprise appearance at the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer launch event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old actor, who has been portraying the web slinging hero since 2016, could hardly contain his joy as he addressed a crowd of diehard Spider-Man fans.
Holland looked sharp in a stylish brown and red plaid blazer and matching trousers.
Surprise! Tom Holland made a surprise appearance at the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer launch event in Los Angeles on Tuesday
Layered under his jacket was a cream toned shirt with a large stripe across the front and along with collar.
Tom had his brunette hair gelled in place and rocked a pair of brown spectacles.
The English star was joined onstage by moderator Coy Jandreau, who picked on lucky fans to ask Tom a question about the forthcoming film.
Fans have long wondered if Tobey Maguire and/or Andrew Garfield would have cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which Holland refused to confirm or deny, according to Variety.
Fanfare: The 25-year-old actor, who has been portraying the web slinging hero since 2016, could hardly contain his joy as he addressed a crowd of diehard Spider-Man fans
Lookin' good! Holland looked sharp in a stylish brown and red plaid blazer and matching trousers
He did, however, say that shooting the film was a 'true moment in cinematic history.'
'We were there on the day making it happen, and it was crazy and I would love to tell you,' Holland gushed, which sparked chatter among eager audience members.
Though he is proud of the ambitiousness of the film, Tom admitted that he wasn't completely convinced Marvel could make it happen when it was first pitched to him.
'I was like, "That's never going to work. There's no way you're going to be able to get that done." And they did,' he recalled.
Ready to talk: The English star was joined onstage by moderator Coy Jandreau, who picked on lucky fans to ask Tom a question about the forthcoming film
Hush hush: Fans have long wondered if Tobey Maguire and/or Andrew Garfield would have cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which Holland refused to confirm or deny, according to Variety
Bold: Holland said shooting the film was a 'true moment in cinematic history'
Keeping mostly mum on the film's plot, Holland did reveal during the Q&A thata '35-beat' fight scene between Spider-Man and one of the villains proved to be the hardest to shoot.
'You're going to see a style of fighting in this film that you've never seen in a Spider-Man movie before. They designed these fights to shock you guys, to really put you on your back foot.'
Tom assumed the role of Spider-Man in 2016 following Andrew Garfield's two film stint as the superhero. Before Garfield, Tobey Maguire famously played the role.
Difficult shoot: Keeping mostly mum on the film's plot, Holland did reveal during the Q&A thata '35-beat' fight scene between Spider-Man and one of the villains proved to be the hardest to shoot
Skeptical: Though he is proud of the ambitiousness of the film, Tom admitted that he wasn't completely convinced Marvel could make it happen when it was first pitched to him
Taking it all in: Tom seen watching the trailer with fans
Holland would appear on screen for the first time as Spider-Man in Marvel's Captain America: Civil War.
In 2017, Tom's very first Spider-Man centered film, titled Spider Man: Homecoming, premiered in theaters. The second feature, titled Spider-Man: Far from Home, premiered in 2019.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is slated for a December 17 release.
James Kennedy said he didn't want his fiance Raquel Leviss to get another nose job on Tuesday night's episode of Vanderpump Rules on Bravo.
' I don't want a fiancee with a botched nose,' James told Lala Kent at her house. ' 'There I f***ing said it. I'm not a f***ing a**hole these are the facts.'
James, 29, went over to Lala's house to meet her newborn daughter Ocean and brought a small bunny and pair of tiny Uggs as presents. Lala asked him about what she missed at Charli Burnett's culinary party. James told her that Raquel was really wasted and fell asleep on the floor but she looked like a sleeping beauty.
Being honset: James Kennedy said he didn't want his fiance Raquel Leviss to get another nose job on Tuesday night's episode of Vanderpump Rules on Bravo
Lala asked him if it affected him because he didn't drink. James admitted that playing drinking games sober was really annoying. He said he ended up calling Raquel dumb and telling her that he didn't want her to get nose surgery again.
James said in a confessional of the first night he met Raquel in 2016 that he didn't want to take her home because he knew how deep she was because or how kind she was. He said he did it because she looked like a six foot supermodel.
Lala told him that James was wrong to weigh in on Raquel's decision. Lala said it was her face and that she needed to feel beautiful.
New look: Raquel wanted to fix her nose after it got tweaked when James went in for a hard kiss
'I got this face without doing a single thing,' said James.
'Not all of us are that blessed,' said Lala.
Across town Tom Schwarz, 38, and Tom Sandoval, 38, went over to Lisa Vanderpump's house to get her advice on their new bar. They told her that they hadn't been able to sell their business partner Greg on their business plan for their new bar and wanted to run it by her.
Natural look: 'I got this face without doing a single thing,' said James to Lala Kent
They read her their mission statement for their idea for their new bar Schwartz & Sandy and that it was going to be 'a funkadelic dive lounge where you check your worries at the door.' Sandoval did most of the talking about elaborate design ideas.
Lisa, 61, said they needed to streamline their presentation.
Ariana Madix, 36, went to Scheana Shay house to visit. Scheana's boyfriend Brock Davies, 30, was at the sewing machine making outfits for his new daughter Summer out of old clothes.
Bar advice: Across town Tom Schwarz, 38, and Tom Sandoval, 38, went over to Lisa Vanderpump's house to get her advice on their new bar
Dive lounge: They read her their mission statement for their idea for their new bar Schwartz & Sandy and that it was going to be 'a funkadelic dive lounge where you check your worries at the door'
Scheana, 36, asked Ariana if she was considering surrogates for her frozen eggs. She suggested that they could both get surrogates at the same time. Ariana said she wasn't signing on to the baby boom just yet. Katie Maloney-Schwartz, 34, then texted them both and invited them both to a femme fatale cocktail party.
James met his fiance Raquel, 26, at Stretch lab to discuss what happened at the party. She told him that she was upset by his comment about her nose job.
'I'm the one who is going to have to look at your face,' said James. 'I'm the one waking up next to you. '
Nose talk: 'I'm the one who is going to have to look at your face,' said James. 'I'm the one waking up next to you'
James said in a confessional that he had seen these Beverly Hills moms that have gone overboard with plastic surgery. He said he didn't want his wife to look like that.
James asked her what if he went and botched his nose and he said that she would end up leaving him eventually.
'Is that what you would do with me?' Raquel asked.
Good question: 'Is that what you would do with me?' Raquel asked
James said no but that he wouldn't be okay with it. He asked her to stop messing around with that. She told him that it was her body and that his number one job as a finance was to support her. He apologized and admitted that he shouldn't have said anything.
Across town, Schwartz brought Katie to see their new bar. Sandoval was there to meet up with their investor Greg. Sandoval was not happy that Katie was there. Sandoval started to show Greg his design plan and what he had ordered for the bar. When he told him that he ordered lights that were $1,700 each, Greg was not happy.
'Are you serious,' said Greg. 'It's a waste of money.'
Sandoval and Schwartz then shared with Greg their mission statement but he called it a 'word salad.' Katie stepped in and tried to offer suggestions and Greg liked her ideas. He told them that Katie was going to work with them on their mission statement.
Great ideas: Katie stepped in and tried to offer suggestions and Greg liked her ideas
'I told you I was useful,' said Katie. Greg told him she could switch places with one of them. Sandoval did not look happy.
Later the group gathered at Ariana and Sandoval's house for the Femme Fatale cocktail party. They danced and drank. Lala went over and grabbed Scheana and said she wanted to talk to her.
Scheana said she thought they had moved on from any past issues but then she Lala became a 'mean girl f***ing b****.'
Not happy: Sandoval was not happy that Schwartz's wife Katie had such a good meeting
'Very nice,' said Lala. She told Scheana that she had known her for a long time and had brought really shocking dudes around. She said she was only concerned for Scheana and her baby. Scheana said she needed to know from her that genuinely cared and that it was not an act. They agreed to move past it and hugged.
Lala then went to talk to Brock but he didn't feel like she was giving a genuine apology. He said he didn't want to be involved with someone 'popping off.' He said she was condescending to people. She said she was like fine wine and then Brock told her that he was drinking scotch.
The next day at Lisa Vanderpump's house Villa Rosa, Schwarz showed up looking for a serving platter tower. He told her that he had a weird few days. He said he was putting his work in front of his family. He told her his loan was still pending. He said that he was stressed that each day he was accruing more debt.
British restaurateur: Lisa later dealt with a stressed out Schwartz
Brock did a Barre class with Charlie and Scheana. He told Charlie about how Lala and Scheana made up. Brock said he didn't react well, but thought he needed to apologize to Lala for his reaction.
At night everyone went to hang out together at the Belmont. Charlie told the women that they all had wikifeet profiles where their feet were rated. She suggested they sell foot pics to raise money for Raquel's nose.
Brock decided to mend fences with Lala and apologized to her. The two hugged. She told him 'onward and upwards.' Brock said even invited her to his birthday party.
Exercise session: Brock did a Barre class with Charlie and Scheana
Sandoval interjected himself in their discussion and told Lala that all the confrontations were caused by her picking fights. Lala said 'are we really back on the hamster wheel.' Sandoval told her that he wanted her to stop picking fights with everyone.
'I want you to grow,' he said.
'She is the one lighting the fuse of this bomb and then playing the victim,' Sandoval said in a confessional. 'It's just getting really f***ing old.'
Vanderpump Rules will return next Tuesday on Bravo.
She's long been known as one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars.
And Joan Collins once again cut a very stylish figure as she stepped out for dinner at their go-to restaurant, Craig's in West Hollywood alongside husband Percy Gibson, 56, on Tuesday.
The actress, 88, wowed in a red and black floral dress which she teamed with an edgy black leather jacket.
Fabulous: Joan Collins once again cut a very stylish figure as she stepped out for dinner at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood alongside husband Percy Gibson, 56, on Tuesday
The Dynasty star's chic dress featured a split at the front, which further showed off the knee-high suede boots she donned beneath.
Joan carried her essentials for the night in a small black clutch bag, and rounded off her fabulous loom with Van Cleef jewellery and a sweep of bold red lipstick.
Meanwhile, Percy dressed up for the occasion in a black suit paired with a crisp white shirt.
The couple appeared in great spirits as they flashed broad smiles while leaving the celebrity hotspot.
Looking good: The actress, 88, wowed in a red and black floral dress which she teamed with an edgy black leather jacket
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.
Elsewhere, 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.
Stepping out in style: The Dynasty star's chic dress featured a split at the front, which further showed off the knee-high suede boots she donned beneath
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.'
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.'
Alice Evans has claimed that her estranged husband Ioan Gruffudd's girlfriend Bianca Wallace 'ruined her life' in another scathing post.
Hitting back at trolls claiming they're defending the actress, the star took to Instagram to share a playful snap, along with a caption claiming Bianca was 'a b***h who manifested Ioan away from their daughters.'
Ioan recently went public with his new girlfriend Bianca, after Alice claimed the pair had been embroiled in a three-year affair - which has been denied by a friend of the couple.
Raging: Alice Evans has claimed that her estranged husband Ioan Gruffudd's girlfriend Bianca Wallace 'ruined her life' in another scathing post
Posting a selfie of her filtered complexion, Alice furiously branded Bianca the 'stealer of her husband,' before claiming she 'made her child cry.'
The actress furiously hit back at trolls who attempted to defend Bianca's behaviour, claiming she 'manifested' Ioan against their two daughters.
Her caption read: 'Hey Bianca Mae Wallace, stealer of my husband, ruined of the life I'd worked so hard to achieve and also person who makes my kid cry -aperson I will never forget ever.
'Anyway somebody alerted me tonight that whenever I posted a relatively cute pic of myself on ivstagram, within about 19 minutes emergered a sock account pretending to be on ''Bianca's side.''
Furious: Hitting back at trolls claiming they're defending the actress, the star claimed Bianca was 'a b***h manifested Ioan away from their daughters
New love: Ioan recently went public with his new girlfriend Bianca, after Alice claiming the pair had been embroiled in a three-year affair - which has been denied by a friend of the couple
'Although how one could be on the side side if a total b***h who manifested a father away from two lyrics girls who ducking ADORED him then I do not know, except to say that this person is completely devoid of human empathy.
'Good luck, Ioan. And oh, let's see what this pic brings out. I was tempted to out a picture of Bianca next to one of mine ( after all the 'youre 50! Give up! You're so fat!).
'But I didn't. Because that's not my way. How do you like THIS one, BB?'
Grateful: Earlier that evening, Alice had taken to social media to thank her followers for their support
Open: She penned a caption praising her 'angel' followers for 'giving her strength' in the wake of her split from Ioan
Earlier that evening, Alice had taken to social media to thank her followers for their support, writing: 'Night folks. Another tough day. But slowly getting there.
'You are my Angels. Thank you for giving me the strength to do what I am doing.. which gets me through! Love you all.'
Since publicly sharing that she and Ioan had split in January, Alice has shared many blistering tweets taking aim at his new girlfriend Bianca.
Fury: Earlier this month Alice branded estranged husband Ioan's new girlfriend Bianca a 'creepy mistress' in a blistering series of tweets
Sharing a snap of Bianca posted on September 12, Alice wrote: 'How to be a good Mistress, Part One: 1) Don't send out silly face-tuned Instagrams like this when you're semi-naked and horse-teethed telling people 'I'm just going to miss the dog' BULL. S**T. You're going to sleep with my husband.
Another fan highlighted Ioan and Bianca's relationship confirmation on Instagram, writing: 'All they had to do was not post a photo bragging about it. So simple. Common effing sense.'
Alice responded: 'It's the fatal flaw. It shows that she just couldn't wait. (patience is the only real virtue my husband had and he has it in spades) But By God she must be good. To convince him to post a life-wrecking simple post like that. Just for her.'
Alice also reposted a now-deleted tweet which showed Bianca had liked a family photo of Ioan and Alice with their children back in 2019.
New romance: Evans, 53, confirmed her separation from the Welsh star, 48, in a series of furious tweets posted on Twitter in January, and last month Ioan confirmed his new romance with Bianca, 29 (pictured)
She wrote: 'Creepy. Bianca Wallace spent many months liking pics of our little family before stepping in and seducing the father.'
On Monday, Alice spoke of her heartbreak at the end of her 20 year relationship with Ioan, writing: 'The only question remaining in my mind is 'why?' Why spend 2, maybe 3 years pretending?
'Was there not a moment where you felt it was on you to take a stance and stick to it? Were you together when we went to Moscow? (PLEASE SAY NO
'What about our trip to France? (oh god).'
'The trouble is; if you trust somebody THAT much (When everyone else has passed or lives far away) If that person convinces you, by their every day behavior, by the ticket, the notes of his love, the grandiose exclamations of love that you WILL be together for eternity - If that
Post: Sharing a snap of Bianca posted on September 12, Alice wrote: 'How to be a good Mistress, Part One'
Oh no: Alice also reposted a now-deleted tweet which showed Bianca had liked a family photo of Ioan and Alice with their children back in 2019
'Can't sleep. I used to think I would die for him. What was wrong with me? I just had total confidence that in this world, He was the one person I could absolutely count on My rock. My honey. My best friend.'
MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ioan Gruffudd and Bianca Wallace for comment.
This comes after Alice said she considered harming herself after husband Ioan abruptly ended their 14-year marriage, and admits she has a 'very long and messy divorce' ahead of her.
The actress is now adjusting to life without Gruffudd after he publicly confirmed a new relationship with co-star Bianca Wallace on Instagram, a move she described as 'every woman's nightmare.'
On her side: One fan commented on Ioan's decision to publicly announce his new romance
Heartbreak: Alice called Ioan her 'rock, honey and best friend' in a tweet onMonday
Questions: Alice has claimed that Ioan and Alice had a three year affair
Thinly veiled dig: Alice changed her Twitter bio in the wake of her latest string of tweets
Appearing remotely on Thursday's edition of Lorraine, Evans admitted she feared the worst when he returned to the family home in Los Angeles after filming his new show Harrow in Australia.
She said: 'He came back, hugged the kids, he very dryly gave me a kiss on the cheek and that was when I knew something was wrong.
'We'd been together 20 years. I was one of those very complacent - what's the Bridget Jones phrase? Smug married. And I think these are things like, just with other things, one can go through like loss of a parent or infertility, you don't know what it's like until it happens to you.
'I thought it was never going to happen to me. He told me within the first few days - I just don't love you anymore.
'And look, I'm not questioning his right to feel that - I'm not bashing him - but it was so out of the blue and then for about four months we just continued here and he just kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I don't feel the same way for you anymore. I might leave, I might not leave.'
Family: The former couple share two daughters - Ella, 12 and Elsie, eight
Devastated: This comes after Alice said she considered harming herself after husband Ioan abruptly ended their 14-year marriage, and admits she has a 'very long and messy divorce' ahead of her
She added: 'And I eventually got to the point where I'd been on my own for the whole pandemic with my two kids. I've looked after them for ten years when he's mostly filmed for those ten years, outside of Los Angeles. So I was here and he was here but he wouldn't talk to me, wouldn't look at me, and went to sleep in the spare room.
'Eventually, I thought I might do myself harm.
'I spoke to my friends and they kept saying, 'This is not like him, this just doesn't sound right'. I think I bored [them] and my friends just didn't know what to say to me, and at one point I just thought, 'I am going to lose my mind'.
'And I just tweeted, 'He's leaving us' And then all hell broke loose'
Emotional: Evans broke down as she shared her mental anguish during a remote appearance on Thursday's edition of Lorraine
Evans has divided followers since going public with the split, but she insists she has no regrets in her willingness to share personal details regarding the nature of her relationship with Gruffudd, including their sex life, as she comes to terms with the collapse of their marriage.
She said: 'His reaction wasn't good. Initially, I think no one had ever really done this before and I would say the reaction was about 50:50.
'You know, there were a lot of people who were angry with me and almost didn't believe me, which is kind of weird when you think about it because it's a pretty strange thing to make up if I'm suddenly going to be 20 years with someone and then make up some idea that he's left me, he's leaving us, when he hadn't.
'A lot of people were shocked and there was so much talk of a dignified silence. And I'm going to do this [makes quotation marks with her fingers], because I don't know how you can describe a dignified silence when I'm talking about my entire life falling to pieces around me.'
She added: 'I think people use that phrase a lot but as time went on, because I did stop tweeting - because I was told legally not to - and then I went back to it.
'It's sort of, kind of a messy story, but I think as people understood what had happened, I would say support is now about 80 or 90 [per cent] in favour of me. Not in favour of me against him, but in favour of me speaking out and understanding why I'm doing it.'
Happier times: Evans and Gruffudd embrace on their wedding day in Mexico on September 14 2007
Opening up: Evans admitted she feared the worst when he returned to the family home in Los Angeles after filming his new show Harrow in Australia
Gruffudd announced his new relationship with Wallace in October, and Evans says she has had no contact from her estranged husband since then.
She said: 'He'll only talk to me through lawyers. If he's talking to the children on face time, he'll move away and call the lawyers. I don't know why.'
She is also adamant that her husband's relationship with Wallace, his Harrow co-star, began long before the very public collapse of their marriage.
Moving on: Gruffudd announced his new relationship with Bianca in October, and Evans says she has had no contact from her estranged husband since then
New romance: Wallace, pictured here in an undated Instagram post, worked with Gruffudd on location in Australia
Starring role: Gruffudd in a still from Harrow. Evans claims it was during a break from the show that he ended their marriage
'It's very bizarre because as a lot of people know, he insisted, I think I'm OK to say this, he insisted until two weeks ago that there was nobody else,' she added.
'My phone pinged and said he has unblocked you on Instagram. I thought maybe he wants to talk. It was announced by him and his mistress that they were a couple on Instagram two weeks ago. I looked at the picture and it said something like finally someone who can make me happy.
'People from his set in Australia were saying so glad you guys are finally out and you're happy. I was slayed. This is my husband.
'I think I was owed more than an Instagram after 20 years of marriage and two children. I feel like a bit of an idiot as well. I'm pretty sure this has been going on for quite a while. It's not somebody he's just met now.'
Horrified: 'People from his set in Australia were saying so glad you guys are finally out and you're happy. I was slayed. This is my husband,' said Evans
Speaking out: Alice has been vocal about the divorce on social media and hit back at those criticising her for speaking out so publicly about the split
Evans currently remains at the family home in Los Angeles with their two daughters, Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight, but admits she might be forced to move as a consequence of her ongoing divorce from their father.
She said: 'I don't know because we have a very messy and long divorce ahead of us. Divorce lawyers in America are terrifying people.
'I don't know if I'm going to be able to stay here in the house. Initially o teas going to be an amicable divorce but it's gotten quite nasty now and I don't know why.'
Thanking Lorraine for allowing her the opportunity to talk about the split, she said: '[It's been] very tough, but I just wanted to say thank you for having me on and letting me speak a little bit about what's being going on which is pretty much every woman's nightmare.'
Proud mother: Evans currently remains at the family home in Los Angeles with their two daughters, Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight, but admits she might be forced to move as a consequence of her ongoing divorce
Evans previously claimed she was was 'heartbroken' and felt 'dead' after Ioan went Instagram official with Bianca, prompting her to accuse him of having a three-year romance.
Last month a friend and co-worker of Ioan denied his estranged wife's claims that he had a three-year affair with his now-girlfriend Bianca.
In a series of tweets, wardrobe assistant Amy Douglas, who worked with Ioan and Bianca on the Australian series Harrow, accused Alice, 50, herself of being 'abusive,' and insisted they didn't begin speaking until filming for series three began in 2020.
Amy, who said Ioan and Bianca gave her permission to speak out, defended her pals after Alice accused her estranged husband of cheating on her for three years with the Australian actress, who is 21 years her junior, telling fans she was 'lost, sad and confused.'
In her first tweet, Amy responded to a fans' claim that Ioan and Bianca's romance began while they were filming Harrow, clarifying that the actress was simply an extra and the pair didn't begin speaking until season three, which was recorded in 2020.
She wrote: '[Bianca was] an extra and didn't have contact with him in season two, I know because I was there as crew. Season three yes, but they only started talking towards the end.'
She added: 'I am also her friend and I KNOW they didn't, as I said they didn't even speak to each other until the end of season three. Don't buy into the lies you are being fed.'
All over: Gruffudd filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason behind their split
Amy continued: 'Being her friend I KNOW it didn't happen. I know her as a person and her principals. You do not. So don't believe everything you're fed by manipulating people who try to make themselves the victim and ruin other people's reputations.'
The fashion designer then claimed that Alice threatened to divorce Ioan during the final week of filming for Harrow in 2020, and said she was aware how 'upset' he became.
Responding to another user she said: 'Your point? I saw what Alice was doing to Ioan in the last week of filming, threatening a divorce if he didn't go home. I saw how upset he was on set. And Bianca was barely even on set for season three. I know, you do not.
'She is not a home-wrecker! Who do you actually personally know here in this situation. Obviously no one. And I'm very perceptive, it didn't show on set, he is a very professional person. I saw how upset he was on the phone being abused by her.'
Bombshell: Bianca grew up in Queensland before moving to Brisbane to pursue an acting career
Amy added that both Ioan and Bianca had given their permission for her to speak out, and clarified that their early relationship on the Harrow set was strictly professional.
Gruffudd filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason behind their split.
The document, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 1, revealed the former couple separated on New Year's Day - a month before they went public with their relationship status.
At the time, they had shared a joint statement that read: 'As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for our family and we remain committed to our children. Thank you for respecting our privacy.'
It was also reported the divorce papers state the exes are in a 'collaborative process and intend to resolve all issues including spousal support by written agreement'.
Family: The family are pictured in happier times
Evans, meanwhile, had addressed the pair's split in a shock statement shared to Twitter in January in which she claimed Gruffudd had 'mentally tortured' her.
The mother-of-two also accused her estranged husband of 'winding the s**t up me' as she posted a vitriolic video about their 'collaborative divorce' talks.
Evans and Gruffudd met on the set of 102 Dalmatians in 2000, when Alice was in a relationship with Pablo Picasso's grandson Olivier.
The former couple became engaged six years later after she gave him an ultimatum about their relationship, and they tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Mexico in September 2007.
Gruffudd hasn't publicly addressed the couple's divorce.
Daniel Radcliffe has hailed the Harry Potter franchise for being 'fantastic' when people are hungover.
The 32-year-old actor, who was partial to the butterscotch, sugar and water concoction Butterbeer in the fantasy films, praised the series' ability to transport people to a 'place of warmth and comfort.'
Speaking to a BBC documentary marking 20 years since the debut film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the lead star said: 'The time in most people's lives when they discovered it meant that it has an incredibly important place in a lot people's childhoods, and they still feel very protective over it.
Cure: Daniel Radcliffe has hailed the Harry Potter franchise for being 'fantastic' when people are hungover (pictured in 2020)
'One of my favourite fates that we could never have ever imagined for the Harry Potter films, but that I have been told by several friends, is that they are fantastic when people are hungover and feeling really c****y about themselves.
'They will just watch back-to-back a few movies and it takes them to a place of warmth and comfort.
'That is so lovely to me. That is the real-world effect that a film can have on someone's life. I think that is great.'
Star: The 32-year-old actor praised the series' ability to transport people to a 'place of warmth and comfort' (pictured above in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, 2004)
Daniel also credited the series' world-famous author J.K. Rowling, 56, branding her 'immensely intelligent.'
He said: 'It would be very difficult for anything to happen in the Harry Potter world without her involvement really, and it feel like the same world. She cares about the people she writes and the people she writes for.
'And it is lovely that she has chosen to expand the world in so many different ways because there is such a hunger for that.
'She is an immensely intelligent, funny, kind human being and I think that obviously comes across in her writing.'
Talent: Daniel also credited the series' world-famous author J.K. Rowling (pictured, 2019) branding her 'immensely intelligent'
On Tuesday, Emma Watson set her time-turner back as she took a journey through the past with with her co-stars from the Harry Potter film series.
The 31-year-old actress posted a behind-the-scenes photo to Instagram that was taken with Daniel, as well as Rupert Grint, 33, from what appeared one of the early films in the series.
The Little Women actress looked back on the films, which she called her 'home' and 'family' as she celebrated the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone after the three leads were reported to be participating in an upcoming reunion special on HBO Max.
Old friends: On Tuesday, Emma Watson set her time-turner back as she took a journey through the past with with her co-stars from the Harry Potter film series (Rupert Grint pictured R)
Emma was pictured smiling in her photo while wearing a blue and violet crushed velvet shirt and standing next to her costars.
Daniel skipped Harry's iconic glasses and and Rupert's casual sweatshirt was a far cry from the robes their characters wore throughout the films.
In her lengthy caption, Emma wrote 'lucky' she was to have been involved with the series and how 'proud' she was of all her collaborators.
'Harry Potter was my home, my family, my world and Hermione (still is) my favorite fictional character of all time,' she wrote. 'I think a journalist once said it was irritating how many times during an interview I mentioned how lucky I was and started counting BUT I DAMN WELL KNEW!!! And still know.'
She added that she was inspired by what her collaborators and costars had gone on to do since their Harry Potter days.
Massive cast and crew: In her lengthy caption, Emma wrote 'lucky' she was to have been involved with the series and how 'proud' she was of all her collaborators, who were pictured in a second snap
Proud: 'I am proud not just of what we as group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path,' she said; seen October 17 in London
'I am proud not just of what we as group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path,' she said. 'I look at my fellow cast members now and I am just so proud of who everyone has become as people. I am proud we were kind to each other that we supported one another and that we held up something meaningful.
'Thank you to the fans that have continued to show their support well after the last chapter closed,' Emma continued. The magic of the world wouldn't exist without you. Thank you for fighting to make it such an inclusive and loving place.'
The Bling Ring star added a special shoutout for the 'crew who made these films all the time.'
'Thank you for all of your hard work too I know your contributions sometimes get overlooked.'
The actress concluded her post by encouraging her 61.5 million followers to tune in to her upcoming reunion special.
'Happy 20th Anniversary Potterheads! We hope you enjoy the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts which will stream New Year's day, Jan. 1 on HBO Max. Lots to look forward to,' she wrote.
Back at it: 'Happy 20th Anniversary Potterheads! We hope you enjoy the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts which will stream New Year's day, Jan. 1 on HBO Max. Lots to look forward to,' she wrote; still from Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Emma also shared a second photo snapped during the production of a later film in the series showing most of the cast and crew outside the Hogwarts school.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that she would be joining Daniel and Rupert for the reunion special on HBO Max.
The trio will also be joined by Chris Columbus, who directed the series' first two films, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets.
The reunion will likely mark the first time Emma, Daniel and Rupert have made a joint public appearance since the release of their film Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in July of 2011.
The first Harry Potter film premiered 20 years ago on November 16, 2001, nearly a decade before the final film was released.
According to HBO Max, which has all the Harry Potter films available to stream, the reunion will 'tell an enchanting making-of story through all-new, in-depth interviews and cast conversations.'
Decades on: Casey Patterson, whose production company is producing the special gushed over the cast as she said: 'There's magic in the air here with this incredible cast, as they all return home to the original sets of Hogwarts, where they began 20 years ago'
The principal cast members will be joined by a bevy of talent, including Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Bonnie Wright, Jason Isaacs, and many others.
Casey Patterson, whose production company is producing the special gushed over the cast as she said: 'There's magic in the air here with this incredible cast, as they all return home to the original sets of Hogwarts, where they began 20 years ago.
'The excitement is palpable as they prepare to take their fans on a very special and personal journey, through the making of these incredible films.'
Of the upcoming special, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics Tom Ascheim said in the statement: 'It has been an incredible journey since the debut of the 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' film, and witnessing how it has evolved into this remarkable interconnected universe has been magical to say the least.
'This retrospective is a tribute to everyone whose lives were touched by this cultural phenomenon from the talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into this extraordinary film franchise to the passionate fans who continue to keep the Wizarding World spirit alive 20 years later.'
Together again: Emma, Daniel and Rupert will be joined by much of the cast and director Chris Columbus. It's the first time the three actors have made a public appearance since 2011; seen in 2011
Flying high: There will be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren
The special will later air on channels TBS and Cartoon Network in spring 2022 before the theatrical release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
There will also be a first look of the special during the premiere of quiz competition show Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses which airs Sunday, November 28 on TBS and Cartoon Network and is hosted by Helen Mirren.
The Harry Potter films amount to one of the top selling franchises of all-time, with the eight films having grossed $7.7 billion, while the first film has grossed over $1 billion alone over its lifetime.
In May of this year, Emma shut down rumors that she had retired after she hadn't starred in any projects since 2019's acclaimed film Little Women.
But last month, she suggested on Instagram that she had taken up behind-the-camera hobbies during her time in lockdown.
'Getting behind the camera and learning how it works is about the most empowering thing I've learned in lockdown,' she captioned photos of herself with a camera.
'As a young woman, I always thought the most glamorous and exciting thing would be to be someone's 'muse'; and of course as women we are inspiring... but wow it's something else to be able to tell your own story and other people's.'
Tiger King 2 debuted on Netflix on Wednesday - with the hotly anticipated sequel chronicling Joe Exotic's fight for freedom after being convicted in the murder-for-hire plot of rival Carole Baskin.
2020 Netflix smash hit Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, told the story of zoo owner Joe as he spiralled out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in the true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
In 2019, Joe, 58, was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in his plot to kill nemesis and Big Cat Rescue owner, Carole Baskin, 60 - and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The explosive five-part second season sees the former G.W. Zoo owner fighting for release via a presidential pardon and would-be hitman Allen Glover claiming that his target was not in-fact Carole, but Joe himself.
Return: Tiger King 2 debuted on Netflix on Wednesday - with the hotly anticipated sequel chronicling Joe Exotic's fight for freedom after being convicted in the murder-for-hire plot of rival Carole Baskin
Co-director Rebecca Chaiklin, who returns alongside Eric Goode for the new series, even voices her belief that there has 'potentially been a miscarriage of justice' in Joe's murder-for-hire conviction.
The series also explores the much-debated fate of Big Cat Rescue owner Carole's previous husband Don Lewis, who mysteriously vanished without a trace in 1997 and was declared dead in 2002 - with claims arising he could still be alive in Costa Rica.
In Tiger King, Carole was blamed for Don's disappearance and accused of 'feeding him to the tigers' by her rival Joe -claims she has fiercely denied.
Arch nemesis: In 2019, Joe, 58, was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in his plot to kill nemesis and Big Cat Rescue owner, Carole Baskin, 60- and sentenced to 22 years in prison
Without a trace: The series also explores the much-debated fate of Big Cat Rescue owner Carole's previous husband Don Lewis, who mysteriously vanished without a trace in 1997 and was declared dead in 2002
Joe was sent to prison after paying hitman Allen Glover 2,000 to decapitate Carole - but Glover double crossed him and went to the police.
Now, Glover says the plot was to decapitate Joe using barbed wire, admitting 'I was going to kill Joe' - and that he was working with Joe's rival and the man who bought G.W. Zoo, Jeff Lowe.
Joe said: 'They were going to kill me because Jeff was on my life insurance. They actually even set a trap to decapitate me.
'They strung a piece of barbed wire across from tree to tree. They were hoping I'd be riding a four-wheeler fast enough that I'd hit that wire.'
Glover reveals the plot in a sworn affidavit on camera, saying: 'We came up with a plan to decapitate Joe's head to kill him to clear him away from the property so Jeff could take it over, animals and everything. This don't make me look good at all.'
Netflix hit: 2020 Netflix smash hit Tiger King: Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, told the story of zoo owner Joe as he spiralled out of control amid a cast of eccentric character
There he is: Joe was sent to prison after paying hitman Allen Glover 2,000 to decapitate Carole - but Glover double crossed him and went to the police
Tiger King 2 also claims that Glover and Lowe were co-conspirators in getting Exotic convicted on the murder-for-hire plot.
The documentary states that Jeff declined to comment on the allegations.
Lowe took over the park after Exotic was sent to prison, but it closed permanently to the public last August after its federal animal exhibition license was suspended.
Baskin then won control of the zoo in 2020 when a judge ruled she would be allowed to take over the property. This summer she sold it.
Joe said: 'Everybody from the zoo is out there making money from Joe Exotic.
'I'm paying the price for every one of them people.
Catfight: Now, Glover says the plot was to decapitate Joe using barbed wire, admitting 'I was going to kill Joe' - and that he was working with Joe's rival and the man who bought G.W. Zoo, Jeff Lowe' (pictured)
'I'm done with it. I will die making sure they end up in prison.'
Co-director Rebecca said: 'I'm not sure that Joe's case was investigated properly. I believe there has potentially been a miscarriage of justice on the murder-for-hire charges.
'So that is something I have been keen on exploring.'
Former zoo employee Ashley Webster also claims: 'On my very first day, Jeff said something about killing Carole Baskin, about how she needs to die.
'Jeff Lowe was very much behind Carole Baskin's murder plot as Joe was.'
Ashley also claims Exotic promised to pay her a couple of grand to travel to Florida and kill Carole, adding I didnt really know Joe and I was so uncomfortable.'
Exotic denies the claim, saying: I dont even remember talking to Ashley Webster. She was there for such a short time and she came to be a playmate for Jeff and (his wife) Lauren.
Ashley alleges she left a voicemail for Carole warning her of the plot - and said three days later the FBI visited her at her home.
She said: They were very aware that Jeff Lowe was conspiring to kill Carole Baskin, because I told them that.'
Elsewhere in Tiger King 2, Baskin's former husband Don Lewis' attorney Joseph Fritz reveals a detective called into confirm Don was living in Costa Rica.
He said: 'When we were talking about Don, the detective got mad at me and slipped up and told me there were federal reports of him alive and well in Costa Rica that he had to overcome.
Rey Rodriguez, Dons associate added: He talked about moving to Costa Rica and starting over afresh. Don told me he was there to get away from Carole and so he put investments into my name.
Closed: Lowe took over the park after Exotic was sent to prison, but it closed permanently to the public last August after its federal animal exhibition license was suspended
Further claims include that Lewis would often be seen in Costa Rica with young women, with Rey saying: 'Dons favourite woman was Corina. I believe she was about 15. I told Don, be careful what youre doing. These little girls have family, people will find out.
Lewis was also said to be linked with a gang who could forge passports, with fresh allegations that he changed his identity in the wake of his disappearance.
There are also claims that Lewis was close with a gang who forged passports, with some believing that he has changed his identity.
Baskin is currently suing Netflix and a production company. She wants to prevent the use of interviews and footage involving her in the upcoming sequel.
Cool cats and kittens: Baskin is currently suing Netflix and a production company. She wants to prevent the use of interviews and footage involving her in the upcoming sequel
Netflix counters that Carole and her husband agreed in writing that the material could be used in the future. The streaming service added that she is trying to block the company's First Amendment right to free speech.
The lawsuit, pending in Tampa federal court, is the latest twist in the saga involving Baskin and Exotic - real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage.
The first series was immensely popular. It aired in March 2020 just as coronavirus pandemic restrictions forced people to stay home. It drew some 64million household viewers in its first month and was nominated for six prime-time Emmy awards, according to the company.
Much of the series has focused on a dispute between Baskin and Maldonado-Passage over treatment of tigers, lions and other big cats at an Oklahoma zoo he formerly operated.
In her lawsuit, Baskin contends that Royal Goode Productions Inc., which produced Tiger King for Netflix, led her and husband Howard Baskin to believe their footage would only be used in a single documentary.
Jailed: Exotic said his conviction was a 'conspiracy' and an 'obstruction of justice' - as he continues to push for a presidential pardon, this time from Joe Biden
Baskin also objects to her portrayal in the first series, especially the insinuation she had something to do with the mysterious 1997 disappearance of her previous husband, Don Lewis, who was declared dead in 2002 but whose remains have never been found.
'The Baskins believed that any sequel, though odious, would not include any of their footage,' the lawsuit says. 'Tiger King I was particularly harsh and unfair in its depictions of the Baskins and Big Cat Rescue.'
Baskin declined further comment earlier this month on the lawsuit but did speak to The Associated Press recently about at upcoming Discovery+ two-part series called 'Carole Baskins Cage Fight,' intended to call attention to the problem of zoos that allow tiger petting and private ownership of the animals. Baskin has crusaded for better treatment of big cats.
'We have never, ever had anybody mislead us and be so dishonest with us as the producers were of Tiger King,' Baskin told AP. 'And so they were just a fluke. I mean, that was not like it was our first experience and we were never going to do it again. It was like, OK, well, that was horrible, but thats just them. Thats not the industry.'
Swirling rumours: Elsewhere in Tiger King 2, Baskin's former husband Don Lewis' attorney Joseph Fritz reveals a detective called into confirm Don was living in Costa Rica (Don and Carole pictured)
Netflix, however, says the Baskins explicitly agreed in written releases that all their interviews and footage shot at their Tampa cat refuge could be used in future projects. Aside from that, Netlix's lawyers say tampering with the sequel amounts to unconstitutional prior restraint of the right to free speech and that the Baskins can only sue for damages after it airs.
'Defendants did not need to obtain a release from plaintiffs to use the footage in Tiger King 2 or its promotion trailers,' Netflix attorney Rachel Fugate said in court documents. The Baskins 'have no claim at all, much less one that can evade defendants' First Amendment protections.'
Netflix also notes in its filing that Baskin has used the popularity of 'Tiger King' for her own publicity purposes, even appearing on ABC's 'Dancing With The Stars' and essentially becoming a 'pop culture phenomenon' because of the program, the company attorneys said.
A Tampa federal judge overseeing the lawsuit had not yet issued a ruling as of earlier this month.
As for Maldonado-Passage, an appeals court recently ruled that his 22-year prison sentence on the Baskin murder-for-hire plot should be reduced. He is being held at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
Maldonado-Passage also announced earlier this year that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer and, in a Twitter post, asked people to pray for him.
Exotic said his conviction was a 'conspiracy' and an 'obstruction of justice' - as he continues to push for a presidential pardon, this time from Joe Biden.
The Tiger King 2 synopsis reads: 'With Joe Exotic behind bars and Carole Baskin closing in on ownership of his disreputable zoo, the Emmy-nominated saga continues its twisted course with Tiger King 2,' it says.
'Newfound revelations emerge on the motivations, backstories, and secrets of America's most notorious big cat owners,' it was noted.
'Old enemies and frenemies, including Jeff Lowe, Tim Stark, Allen Glover, and James Garretson return for another season of murder, mayhem, and madness.'
The synopsis ended with: 'Thought you knew the whole story? Just you wait.'
Tiger King is available to stream on Netflix now.
It might be mid-November and just weeks away from Christmas.
But, Jenna Coleman, 35, nailed autumnal chic in a floral midi skirt and burnt orange coat as she stepped out to grab takeout coffee in London, on Tuesday.
The Doctor Who star looked effortlessly stylish in her pretty purple skirt, which she toughened up with a black pair of chunky biker boots.
Gorgeous: Jenna Coleman, 35, nailed autumnal chic in a floral midi skirt and burnt orange coat as she stepped out to grab takeout coffee in London, on Tuesday
Ensuring she kept warm as temperatures in the capital continued to plummet, Jenna wore thick black leggings beneath her ensemble.
She wrapped up with a high-necked black jumper and layered over the top with her sumptuous longline coat boasting frill edging.
Adding an extra twist, Jenna carried her belongings in a dogtooth print crossbody bag and shielded her eyes with vintage shades.
Stylish: The Doctor Who star looked effortlessly stylish in her pretty purple skirt, which she toughened up with a black pair of chunky biker boots
Jenna recently arrived back in England after visiting Paris for Fashion Week at the start of October.
She jetted to a number of different countries over the summer after relaxing at a wellness retreat in Spain.
In August it was revealed that Jenna would be joining the cast of new series The Sandman.
She will play Johanna Constantine, the great-great-great grandmother of comic book character John Constantine, who was played by Keanu Reeves in 2005 film Constantine.
Divine: She wrapped up with a high-necked black jumper and layered over the top with her sumptuous longline coat boasting frill edging
In a blog post on Netflix's website, show creator Neil Gaiman explained why he chose Jenna, writing: 'I created her (Johanna) to fill the role that John Constantine does in the past.
'When we broke down the first season, given that we knew that we would be encountering Johanna in the past, we wondered what would happen if we met a version of her in the present as well.
'We tried it and the script was sparkier, feistier, and in some ways even more fun.
'So having written her, we just had to cast her. Jenna Coleman gave us the Johanna of our dreams - tough, brilliant, tricky, haunted and probably doomed.'
Ridley Scott cut a dapper figure as he stepped out with his glamorous wife Giannina Facio for the premiere of his new movie House Of Gucci on Tuesday night.
The 83-year-old actor hit the red carpet in style in a sharp black suit and baby blue shirt at the premiere, held at Jazz in New York City's Lincoln Center.
Giannina, 66, showcased her toned legs as she wowed in a sequined black minidress, matching stilettos and elegant aqua gloves for the special night.
Happy: Ridley Scott cut a dapper figure in a black suit as he attended the premiere of his new film House Of Gucci with his glamorous wife Giannina Facio in New York on Tuesday night
Ridley accessorised his clean cut suit with a purple spotted pocket square and completed the ensemble with a pair of classic loafers.
Meanwhile, Giannina looked gorgeous in her glittering cocktail dress, which she styled with a pair of simple heels and the blue satin gloves.
The Costa Rican actress finished off her look with a pair of elaborate tassel earrings and swept her tresses up into a relaxed pony tail with her longer layers framing her face.
Giannina looked flawless in a full face of glamorous makeup as she posed next to the film's director - who she married in 2015.
Stunning: Giannina put on a leggy display as she wowed in a sequined black minidress, matching stilettos and elegant aqua gloves
Ridley's forthcoming House of Gucci film follows the organised murder of Maurizio Gucci, which saw Giuseppina 'Pina' Auriemma [Salma Hayek] jailed for 25 years.
The cold-blooded murder of the fashion scion in 1995 shocked the world especially when his glamorous ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani was found guilty of plotting it.
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.
During the murder trial, which transfixed Italy, Reggiani arrived each day wearing head-to-toe Gucci clothes and accessories.
Group hug: The couple cosied up to Al Pacino and Lady Gaga,who wowed in a busty sheer gown, on the carpet
The court heard how she had ordered the murder of her husband after he offered her $650,000 in a divorce settlement.
Lady Gaga will play Patrizia, while Marriage Story's Adam Driver will step into the late Maurizio Gucci's shoes.
House of Gucci also stars the likes of Al Pacino, Jared Leto, and fashion designer/auteur Tom Ford and will hit theaters on November 24.
All together: Pacino, Gaga, Ridley, Giannina,and Jeremy Irons got together for a group photo
Gaga has spoken at length about her transformation into Patrizia and using the accent for an entire nine months to remain in character.
She previously said: 'I started in the voice six months before we started shooting and I stayed in it for the whole of filming, which I am sure was super annoying for Adam [Driver] For me I thought it was harder to go in and out, so I stayed in character'.
The star then told British Vogue: 'I lived as her [Reggiani] for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that. I never broke. I stayed with her.'
Gaga then revealed she dyed her hair off-screen to stay in character: 'It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde. I instantly had to dye my hair.'
Rawson Marshall Thurber's Red Notice has secured Netflix's biggest opening weekend in the streaming service's history.
The action comedy film, starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, began streaming last Friday and has amassed an astonishing 148.7million hours of watching since its release.
The leading stars celebrated the achievement of biggest opening day over the weekend and with Netflix's fresh metrics, it appears the film's success is only going to rocket.
Success: Red Notice has secured Netflix's biggest opening weekend ever - with new metrics showing 148.7million hours have been watched since its release (from R-L Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds)
The Rock, 49, stars as FBI agent John Hartley, who unwillingly joins forces with renowned art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in a bad to catch an even more notorious criminal (Gal Gadot).
As well as directing the feature, Rawson - renowned for his work on Skyscraper and We're The Millers - was the master behind the script.
The trio of leading stars have been taking to Twitter to mark the momentous milestones the film is reaching.
Leading stars: The Rock, 49, stars as FBI agent John Hartley, who unwillingly joins forces with renowned art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in a bad to catch an even more notorious criminal (Gal Gadot)
Israeli actress Gal penned: 'Amazing news - RED NOTICE is officially the biggest opening weekend in @netflix history and the #1 movie in the world!
'Thank u to all of you who watched it, liked it, shared it, I'm so grateful to see all of your wonderful responses from around the world #RedNotice.'
Dwayne paid tribute to production company Seven Bucks.
Stats: The leading stars celebrated the achievement of biggest opening day over the weekend and with Netflix's fresh metrics, it appears the film's success is only going to rocket
'A proud Seven Bucks achievement. THANK YOU to our global audience. Much more work to be done. Back to work we go Heavy check mark #audiencefirst @DanyGarciaCo @SevenBucksProd,' he gushed.
45-year-old Ryan jokingly alluded to Taylor Swift's second re-recorded album, Red (Taylor's Version), which was released the same day as his latest venture.
'WOW #RedNotice is @Netflix biggest ever opening day for a film. Congrats to this whole team! Cant wait for Red Notice (Taylors Version),' he wrote.
History making: The trio of leading stars have been taking to Twitter to mark the momentous milestones the film is reaching
Placing second on Netflix's top ten films of the week was romantic comedy Love Hard, starring Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev.
The Christmas movie centres on Nina's character Natalie, who flies 3000 miles to surprise someone she's met on a dating site, only to find out she has been catfished.
Catfishing is defined as 'a deceptive activity where a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service.'
Also starring in the feel-good film includes Jimmy O. Yang, Darren Barnet and Matty Finochio.
Runner-up: Placing second on Netflix's top ten films of the week was romantic comedy Love Hard, starring Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev (pictured)
On Monday, Ryan got back into his Red Notice con-man character as he attempted to sell an Egyptian Egg from the Netflix film in a hilarious skit.
The actor appeared on the US version of The Antiques Roadshow in a spoof scene posted to his Instagram account to sell the fictional golden Cleopatra egg - captioned: 'The #RedNotice scene I wish I'd shot.'
Host Lark E. Mason asked Ryan to tell him about the artifact, with Ryan responding: 'Yes. It's an egg.'
Fun: On Monday, Ryan got back into his Red Notice con-man character as he attempted to sell an Egyptian Egg from the Netflix film in a hilarious skit
Lark then asks: 'And what's its family history?' with Ryan retorting: 'Well, no. This is not a family heirloom.
'My family disowned me years ago. They don't like me. But this is more of an heirloom that my good friend at the museum lent me.'
The star then humorously remarks that that his friend is unaware that he has the egg.
Lark gives Ryan a run-down of the egg's history, recounting how it was one of three commissioned by Cleopatra, with two held in public collections and one vanishing during the Second World War.
He says: 'German soldiers had taken it to a secure hideaway. And there it remained up until recently.
A unimpressed Ryan interrupts and asks how much the egg is worth - with Lark confirming the item is worth more than $100m.
Bryce Ruthven revealed he and fiancee Melissa Rawson no longer speak to former best friends Johnny Balbuziente and Kerry Knight after an epic falling out.
In a candid Q&A with fans on Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Bryce, 32, said he was no longer in touch with his former Married At First Sight co-stars.
'They've completely wiped us (and Jason [Engler]) for whatever reason,' Bryce began in a scathing post.
No love lost: Bryce Ruthven (left) revealed he and fiancee Melissa Rawson (right) no longer speak to former best friends Johnny Balbuziente and Kerry Knight after an epic falling out
'We've heard "our friendship is not good for their image" and that "we're competition for public attention" as the only remaining couples from MAFS, which we have zero interest in and just want to focus on our little family.'
In addition to getting engaged after the show ended, Bryce and Melissa, 32, welcomed twin sons Tate and Levi last month.
'We're just disappointed that we're poor judges of character in that friendship. Some are a genuine couple and our friends and some are all for the positive public image and limelight... Will leave it at that,' he continued.
Former friends: In a candid Q&A with fans on Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Bryce, 32, said he was no longer in touch with his former Married At First Sight co-stars. Pictured, Johnny Balbuziente and Kerry Knight
'They've completely wiped us (and Jason [Engler, second left]) for whatever reason,' Bryce began in a scathing post
Another fan asked Bryce if he's 'still best mates with Jason and Johnny', and he used it as another opportunity to hit out at his former friend.
'Jason - absolutely, one of the best blokes I've ever met. Very loyal and still a close friend of Melissa and I,' he began.
'Johnny - nope, fake and more concerned about a public nice guy image. Also threw Jason under the bus with a particular homophobic video that he, his TV partner and friend were also involved in.'
'Johnny - nope, fake and more concerned about a public nice guy image,' Bryce responded when asked if he's still friends with Johnny
'Jason - absolutely, one of the best blokes I've ever met. Very loyal and still a close friend of Melissa and I,' he began
A video emerged on Instagram back in April showing Jason, 36, using homophobic language while talking about bisexual MAFS groom Liam Cooper.
Meanwhile Johnny, 31, and Liam's MAFS 'wife' Georgia Fairweather were also present, with the video taken during a raucous night out shortly after filming had wrapped.
Added Bryce: 'We prefer to be friends with honest people that take accountability for when they were in the wrong, not leave it up to one person to wear all the blame.'
'We've heard "our friendship is not good for their image" and that "we're competition for public attention" as the only remaining couples from MAFS, which we have zero interest in and just want to focus on our little family,' Bryce said
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to representatives for Bryce, Johnny and Kerry for comment.
Bryce encouraged his Instagram followers to send in their questions, telling them 'nothing is off limits'.
He also listed the MAFS co-stars who had reached out to congratulate himself and Melissa on the birth of their twins, with both Johnny and Kerry, 31, noticeably absent.
Giovanni Pernice sent Strictly Come Dancing fans into a frenzy on Tuesday night when he seemingly dropped the F-bomb live on It Takes Two without the programme's host Rylan Clark-Neal noticing.
The professional dancer, 31, appeared on the show alongside his partner Rose Ayling-Ellis, 27, to talk about their stunning Couple's Choice performance, when he snuck in the expletive.
The pair played a fun game to see how well they knew each other and, after scoring full marks, were then told they couldn't take home the trophy - prompting Giovanni to say: 'f**k that'.
'F**k that'Giovanni Pernice sent Strictly Come Dancing fans into a frenzy on Tuesday night when he seemingly dropped the F-bomb live on It Takes Two
Rylan didn't acknowledge the outburst but instead continued to celebrate how well the couple had done as Rose looked on in disappointment at the lack of prize.
Viewers quickly took to Twitter to express their confusion at what they thought they heard Giovanni say on the 6.30pm family show.
One fan wrote: 'I am LOVING that @pernicegiovann1 just dropped the F Bomb with @Rylan and no one noticed!! What a Don! Gio and Rose rock! #Strictly #ITT.'
Another questioned: 'Did Giovanni just say f**k sake? #ItTakesTwo #Strictly,' while another added: 'Did Gio just say f**k that on TV at 6:40pm? #Strictly #ittakestwo".'
Competitive: The pair played a fun game to see how well they knew each other and were then told they couldn't take home the trophy - prompting Giovanni to say: 'f**k that'
Not bothered: The pro dancer managed to get away with it without the show's host Rylan Clark-Neal noticing
Woo! The pair had scored full marks on a quiz about how well they knew each other but were dissapointed when they couldn't take a trophy home
The professional dancer is yet to clarify exactly what he said.
Giovanni and Rose's appearance on It Takes Two comes after they incorporated a breathtaking 'silent moment' during their routine on Saturday.
The EastEnders star and the Italian dancer performed a Couple's Choice to Symphony by Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson, a stunning segment of which wasn't performed to any music.
Couple: Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara departed It Takes Two filming with balloons as they celebrated her birthday on Tuesday
Partners: John Whaite (left) cut a casual figure in a black top and blue jeans as he left alongside partner Johannes Radebe (right)
Competitors: Nancy Xu opted for a laid back look as she left filming with Rhys Stephenson
Celebrations: Aljaz gave a thumbs up as he and wife Janette left filming
Outfit: Nancy wrapped up in a black coat with dark blue jeans
Filming: Letting her locks fall loose down her shoulders, she also sported a face mask
Smart: Ranj Singh looked dapper in a navy waistcoat and trousers with a black floral print
An emotional Anton Du Beke, 55, branded the moment 'the greatest thing he's ever seen on the show.'
Head judge Shirley Ballas, 61, stood up to praise the moving routine and told the pair: 'This is a number that will be etched in my heart for a long, long time.'
Motsi Mabuse, 40, showed her gratitude to Rose for implementing the thought-provoking element to the dance on behalf of the deaf community.
'Did Gio just say f**k that: Viewers quickly took to Twitter to express their confusion at what they thought they heard Giovanni say on the 6.30pm family show
Moving: Giovanni and Rose's appearance on It Takes Two comes after they incorporated a breathtaking 'silent moment' during their routine on Saturday
'Thank you. This was such a beautiful moment to include us in your world,' she said.
They received an almost-perfect score of 39, leaving the couple on a sentimental cloud nine.
'The positivity that she gives me in a single day is out of this world,' Giovanni said, before Rose chimed in to add: 'Thank you to Strictly for giving me the opportunity to tell my story.'
Their friendship is one full of banter, with the two often ribbing each other during their appearances on Britain's Got Talent.
And David Walliams has revealed that Simon Cowell snubbed his 50th birthday party earlier this year and didn't even send a card, with the comedian suggesting the music mogul purposefully treats him 'cruelly'.
During an appearance on Wednesday's Lorraine alongside his Border Terrier Ernie, David, 50, also explained how Elton John kindly offered to perform at the bash, branding him a 'lovely man'.
Oh dear! David Walliams has revealed that Simon Cowell snubbed his 50th birthday party earlier this year and didn't even send a card
In August, David hosted a spectacular star-studded party with a plethora of showbiz stars in attendance including Elizabeth Hurley, Amanda Holden, Laura Whitmore, Ant and Dec, Ayda Field and Gary Barlow.
But once face notably missing was Simon, 61, who failed to make an appearance at the bash held at posh Mayfair venue Claridge's.
Speaking of the no-show, David explained: 'He didn't come to my birthday. He didn't send me a card or anything.'
Treat them mean: The comedian suggested that the music mogul purposefully treats him 'cruelly' as he knows he will 'love' him more
However, highlighting the light-hearted friendship he has with the X Factor boss, David suggested that Simon is intentionally 'cruel' to him as he knows he will 'love' him more.
He quipped: 'He likes to keep me hanging, he knows I love him more when he treats me cruelly.'
Meanwhile, the children's author detailed the touching gesture made my Elton John, 74.
Nice gesture: During an appearance on Wednesday's Lorraine, David, 50, also explained how Elton John kindly offered to perform at the bash, branding him a 'lovely man'
Pals really: Speaking of the no-show, David explained: 'He didn't come to my birthday. He didn't send me a card or anything. He likes to keep me hanging'
Chit chat: David opened up to Lorraine Kelly about his 50th birthday party during his interview
He told Lorraine about Elton performing: 'He offered. He just said is anyone performing at your birthday? And I said "No" and he said "Well I'll do it. I'll do three songs"
'He did Your Song and dedicated it to my mum and put in her name in it - Kathleen.
'I didn't tell anyone he was going to perform. It was amazing. It was a total surprise. He's a very lovely man.'
Meanwhile, as David called him out for the birthday snub, Simon gushed he's 'closer than ever' to his girlfriend Lauren Silverman as he offered a rare insight into their eight-year relationship.
Entertainer: He told Lorraine about Elton performing: 'He offered. He just said is anyone performing at your birthday? And I said "No" and he said "Well I'll do it. I'll do three songs"
The music mogul said that his romance with Lauren is 'still alive' having realised they still 'enjoy each other's company' after months of being holed up together during the Covid lockdown.
Simon, who shares son Eric, seven, with Lauren, also confirmed that despite its axe earlier this year, he is hoping The X Factor will return in the near future.
Speaking to OK! after hosting his annual Together For Short Lives charity ball, Simon gushed that his romance with Lauren was still going strong, after their cosy appearance on the red carpet.
Asked whether their relationship was still alive, he said: 'I guess so! Covid-19 was the real test. Like everyone, we were in lockdown for a long time and that's when you realise whether or not you actually enjoy each other's company or not.
'And we really really did. So to answer your question... yes, the romance is still alive. We're closer than ever.'
She has mighty big shoes to fill as she is portraying one of the most legendary actresses of all-time in Lucille Ball.
And Nicole Kidman at least has the look perfectly right.
The 54-year-old American-born Australian actress looked the spitting image of the iconic I Love Lucy star as she was featured in one of the character posters for Being The Ricardos released by Amazon Studios on Thursday.
Incredible: Nicole Kidman (left) looked the spitting image of the iconic Lucille Ball (right) as she was featured in one of the character posters for Being The Ricardos released by Amazon Studios on Thursday
Nicole had the perfect signature red hair with old Hollywood curls as she contrasted her porcelain skin with a swipe of bright ruby red lipstick.
She was not the only one featured in the newly-released images as seven of her castmates also had their own posters including Javier Bardem, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, J.K. Simmons, Clark Gregg, and Nina Arianda.
Bardem stars as Desi Arnaz who was both Lucille's husband on legendary 1950s-era sitcom I Love Lucy and in real life.
In the details: The 54-year-old actress had the perfect signature red hair with old Hollywood curls as she contrasted her porcelain skin with a swipe of bright ruby red lipstick
Big shoes to fill: Javier Bardem stars as Desi Arnaz who was both Lucille's husband on legendary 1950s-era sitcom I Love Lucy and in real life
The film follows Lucy and Desi as they face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.
Bardem, 52, channels the Cuban-American actor perfectly as he looks off into the distance while holding onto his signature basket-weave fedora.
Hale, 51, donned thick framed plastic eyeglasses while holding onto a leather notebook as he portrays Jessurun James 'Jess' Oppenheimer who was the head writer of I Love Lucy.
Man with the plan: Tony Hale, 51, donned thick framed plastic eyeglasses while holding onto a leather notebook as he portrays Jessurun James 'Jess' Oppenheimer who was the head writer of I Love Lucy
Stunning: Alia Shawkat, 32, also posed with a notebook along with a swipe of bright red lipstick as she portrayed writer on the sitcom Madelyn Pugh
Oh so now you're fine with someone being a writer? Jake Lacy, 36, pensively put a pencil under his bottom lip as he looked off into the distance as he portrayed Bob Carroll Jr. who wrote on the show alongside Pugh and Oppenheimer
His Arrested Development co-star Shawkat, 32, also posed with a notebook along with a swipe of bright red lipstick as she portrayed writer on the sitcom Madelyn Pugh.
Lacy, 36, pensively put a pencil under his bottom lip as he looked off into the distance as he portrayed Bob Carroll Jr. who wrote on the show alongside Pugh and Oppenheimer.
Simmons, 66, gripped onto a brown fedora as he portrayed actor William Frawley who famously played landlord Fred Mertz.
Landlord: J.K. Simmons, 66, gripped onto a brown fedora as he portrayed actor William Frawley who famously played landlord Fred Mertz
Mysterious: Clark Gregg, 59, donned glasses and a grey bowtie while looking off to the side as he stars as Howard Wenke
Sidekick: Nina Arianda, 37, also donned the fashions of the era including curly hair, ruby red lipstick, and large plastic spherical earrings as she portrayed Vivian Vance who famously starred as Fred's wife and Lucy's sidekick Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy
Gregg, 59, donned glasses and a grey bowtie while looking off to the side as he stars as Howard Wenke.
And finally Arianda, 37, also donned the fashions of the era including curly hair, ruby red lipstick, and large plastic spherical earrings as she portrayed Vivian Vance who famously starred as Fred's wife and Lucy's sidekick Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy.
The release of the eight character posters comes at a good time as Being The Ricardos has received rave reviews after its first screening for critics on Saturday night.
Kidman was in attendance for the screening and panel discussion on Sunday night along with the film's writer and director Aaron Sorkin and her co-star Bardem.
At the screening, the Oscar-winning actress revealed she had 'massive trepidation' about playing the comedy legend.
Hit: Kidman was in attendance for the screening and panel discussion on Sunday night along with the film's writer and director Aaron Sorkin and her co-star Bardem (Nicole pictured at the Deadline Contenders event on Sunday)
However, critics who viewed the movie appeared to be extremely impressed with Kidman's performance, which is already generating Oscar buzz.
New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan tweeted, 'Lucy, you've got some campaigning to do: BEING THE RICARDOS played well in its first screening, suggesting a solid awards contender.
'I bought Nicole more as offscreen, dramatic Lucy than as a sitcom dynamo, but the audience still ate her and Javier Bardem up.'
First look: The 56-year-old actress, who stars as Lucille Ball, was in attendance for the screening and panel discussion along with the film's writer and director Aaron Sorkin and her co-star Javier Bardem, who portrays Desi Arnaz
Turner Classic Movies host Dave Karger wrote, 'Last night's first big screening of #BeingTheRicardos definitely silenced the skeptics.
'A 5th Oscar nomination for Nicole Kidman seems especially likely. So cool to chat with her and the fantastic Javier Bardem (also a strong contender) in front of the very impressed audience.'
Collider's Perri Nemiroff revealed that she had an emotional reaction to the film.
Nervous: At the screening, the Oscar-winning actress revealed she had 'massive trepidation' about playing the comedy legend
Blown away: However, critics who viewed the movie appeared to be extremely impressed with Kidman's performance, which is already generating Oscar buzz
'#BeingTheRicardos just left me in a puddle of tears,' she tweeted. 'What a beautiful and deeply moving behind the scenes look at the pressures and complexities involved in making that show - highs, lows and everything in between. Nicole Kidman is INCREDIBLE.'
Nemiroff went on the say, 'Alia Shawkat, JK Simmons and Nina Arianda are especially impressive scene stealers. Might even be a little overwhelmed by the range of emotions I just cycled through. FAR exceeded my expectations.'
In his review of the movie, Variety film critic Clayton Davis heaped praise on the performances as well as Sorkin's writing and directing.
High praise: New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan said that the audience ate Kidman and Bardem up
Silencing the skeptics: TCM host Dave Karger said that a 5th Oscar nomination for Kidman seemed likely
Emotional: Collider's Perri Nemiroff revealed that she had an emotional reaction to the film
Wowed: Nemiroff added that the film 'FAR exceeded my expectations
'Under Sorkin's direction, 'Being the Ricardos' presents plenty of chuckles and sympathy for our favorite redhead in history,' Davis wrote.
'Kidman embodies the essence of Ball, especially in her mannerisms during the rehearsals and filming of episodes. She very well may break your heart, demanding the viewer's sympathy and a best actress nomination may seem almost certainly in the cards for her.'
At the screening, Kidman confessed that she was extremely nervous about playing the I Love Lucy star in the new biopic and credited the support of Sorkin for helping her take on the part.
Star power: At the Deadline Contenders event, Kidman was joined by the film's writer and director Aaron Sorkin (far left) and her co-stars (L-R) Javier Bardem, Nina Arianda and J.K. Simmons
Nicole recalled: 'I had massive trepidation about a month prior, and Aaron had to get on the phone and send me emails saying, 'You've got this.'
'It was frightening but incredibly exciting.'
The new Amazon Studios movie centers on a single production week of the 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy and focuses on the relationship between Lucille and her co-star Desi who played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in the comedy respectively - and Nicole revealed that the project helped her get to know 'the woman behind the lipstick'.
'I had massive trepidation about a month prior, and Aaron had to get on the phone and send me emails saying, 'You've got this,'' she said about taking on the role, as reported by Variety
In reel life: The film depicts the often complicated relationship between real-life Hollywood power couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as they filmed their hit 1950's sitcom, I Love Lucy
Taking on an icon: Sitting onstage at the panel event, Nicole spoke about her role as Lucille Ball in the upcoming biopic
The Bombshell actress explained: 'I fell in love with her as I was reading the script. I realized what she was doing (was) trailblazing for women.'
Javier also revealed that he knew little about his character despite the popularity of I Love Lucy in the actor's native Spain.
The 52-year-old star shared: 'I was obsessed with him and his skills as a comedian, as a person, as a producer and a musician at that time while being a foreigner in this country.'
Sorkin recreated an iconic I Love Lucy moment in the film with Ball stomping on grapes during a winemaking scene and Nicole was determined to perform it to perfection.
She said: 'It was my obsession to get it absolutely accurate. It was his obsession to have this human being portrayed what's behind the creation of Lucy Ricardo and who is the woman behind this character?'
It's set to premiere in cinemas next month, before streaming on Amazon Prime from December 21.
Paris Hilton has been wed to Carter Reum for less than one week, but the entrepreneur is already looking into the future with her new husband.
On Wednesday the 40-year-old blonde beauty told People that they are very much looking forward to having children.
'I can't wait to grow our family,' the Paris In Love star shared. 'I feel like Carter and I are puzzle pieces getting connected.' She also said that she thinks he will be the 'best dad.'
This comes just after PageSix claimed he has a 'secret daughter,' aged nine.
Let's do it: Paris Hilton has been wed to Carter Reum for less than one week, but the entrepreneur is already looking into the future with her new husband
I want kids! On Wednesday the blonde beauty told People that they are very much looking forward to having children; seen with the flower girls at her wedding
The DJ and perfume mogul also said she is happy to be with someone who loves her and not the fame that is a big part of her life.
'I never thought I'd meet a man like him, who loves me for Paris and not Paris Hilton. He's going to be the best husband and the best dad,' she added.
In January this year, she revealed she is undergoing IVF with Reum to ensure she can have a 'boy and girl twin', after dating him for a year.
The socialite told The Trend Reporter with Mara podcast that best friend Kim Kardashian had introduced her to the idea. Paris said: '[Kim was the one] who told me about that. I didn't even know anything about it. I'm happy that she told me that advice and introduced me to her doctor. We have been doing IVF, so I can pick twins if I like.'
Also in her People interview, the star said she has been on Cloud Nine since she said I do at their grandfather's estate in Bel-Air with pals Kim Kardashian and Nicole Richie looking on.
'This is the most magical feeling in the world,' said The Simple Life vet.
She wants to be Mama Paris Reum: 'I can't wait to grow our family,' the Paris In Love star shared. 'I feel like Carter and I are puzzle pieces getting connected.' She also said that she thinks he will be the 'best dad'
New look at the wedding: On Wednesday Paris shared this image from her photo booth
Bling it on baby: She shared a look at her wedding diamonds. 'I never thought I'd meet a man like him, who loves me for Paris and not Paris Hilton. He's going to be the best husband,' she added
'Knowing that I officially get to spend the rest of my life with the love of my life is a dream come true.'
Carter also spoke to the publication.
'Paris is the love of my life. That is one thing I know without a doubt,' he shared.
Hilton also said the wedding at her grandfather Barron's estate was 'meaningful' because 'the home holds so much significance.'
She dreamed of saying I do there to her Romeo.
Sissy already has two kids: Paris' sister Nicky has two kids: Lily-Grace and Teddy
Te cake that is fit for a queen: The billionaire had a six tier wedding cake with a crown on top and a Cinderella carriage on the front. There was also the CP - Carter Paris - logo
'I always imagined having my fairy tale wedding there since I was a little girl. There are so many memories at the estate that I hold dearly, so to be able to celebrate my love story there was amazing,' said the model.
Sister Kathy was at the wedding as was her RHOBH star mom Kathy.
Pals included Kim, Nicole and Emma Roberts, Ashley Benson, Paula Abdul.
'We wanted to make sure that no matter what, we were able to celebrate with our friends and family,' said Hilton.
Moon time: Their honeymoon has been in a tropical paradise. She has already shared images taken from a yacht adding 'honeymoon goals.' The destination is eight hours away from Los Angeles, she shared. 'We are going to take as much time as possible for ourselves,' she said
'The people around us are the most important and we cherish the bonds we have with them.'
Their honeymoon has been in a tropical paradise.
She has already shared images taken from a yacht adding 'honeymoon goals.' The destination is eight hours away from Los Angeles, she shared.
'We are going to take as much time as possible for ourselves,' she said. 'We're going to travel as much and enjoy our time.'
Meanwhile, this week it was claimed Reum has a secret nine-year-old child from a previous relationship who he has allegedly seen 'only once.'
Millionaire entrepreneur Reum, 40, fathered a child with reality star Laura Bellizzi, known for appearing on the short-lived VH-1 show Secrets of Aspen, PageSix reported Monday.
Revealed: Reum has 9-year-old child with reality star Laura Bellizzi who briefly dated Mel Gibson
Bellizii - a Chicago native who now lives in California with the child - also briefly dated actor Mel Gibson.
In 2011, when Bellizzi was pregnant, it was reported that the baby was Mel Gibson's love child, though he vehemently denied the claims.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Hilton and Reum's reps who have so far been unavailable for comment.
A spokesperson for Reum said this week: 'The people who this story matters to have known about it for 10 years. Carter supports this child. While he does not have a traditional father-daughter relationship with her, he has provided for her since she was born, and will continue to do so.'
Bellizzi also refuted the rumors to TMZ in November 2011, saying: 'Mel Gibson is not the father of my child.'
As it turns out, she was carrying Reum's child.
It is the first time that any significant details from Reum's relationship history has been revealed, after he and wife Hilton have shared their romance openly in her new reality show Paris In Love.
A source claimed to the outlet that Carter has 'only seen [his daughter] once since she was born 9 years ago.'
Pictured: Laura Bellizi is seen above pregnant in 2011, and at the time it was speculated she was carrying Mel Gibson's baby - both ended up denying the rumors
Bellizi has kept a low profile since hitting the headlines with Gibson in 2011.
The reality show, VH-1's Secrets of Aspen, that she appeared on in 2010, only ran for one season and she has not appeared on any other shows since.
A source close to the situation added to the outlet that her daughter had been 'triggered' by seeing Reum's lavish wedding to Hilton, and felt 'left out' of her father's life.
The source said: 'Also, she saw the articles of Paris and Carter talking about starting a family. She felt tremendous rejection and felt left out. She wants to have a relationship with him.'
Reum is worth an estimated $40million, after co-founding investment company M13 with his brother Courtney Reum. Meanwhile, Reum's wife Hilton is worth an estimated $300million.
The source continued that Reum's daughter wants to 'know her daddy.'
'She just wants to really complete the missing pieces of her puzzle,' the source divulged.
'She's at that age where self-identity is so important, and children want to know who they are and where they come from. It's important for him to help her with that.'
'It's not about [Reum] or the mother. It's about making the child whole. She is absolutely an amazing little girl. She has so much love to give. And she wants to give it to him, his family and whoever he chooses to love.'
A second source told the outlet: 'She is of an age now where she is cognizant and wants her paternal family to hear her and know her. He may not claim or love her, but she claims and loves him and his family.'
Tamar Braxton revealed her Calabasas home was broken into on Tuesday evening by someone she knows in a lengthy post shared to Instagram.
The 44-year-old television host detailed the shocking series of events at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday where a 'broken, bum a** man (one that I know) broke into my home and stole my safe only.'
Braxton was reportedly not at the residence at the time of the burglary, but concluded her social share with prayers for the thief instead of payback.
Tough: Tamar Braxton revealed her Calabasas home was broken into on Tuesday evening by someone she knows in a lengthy post shared to Instagram
Tamar wrote that the culprit picked up a safe from her home and 'not a Birkin, not a computer, not one of Logan's game systems, but he only went through my drawers, broke mirrors turned my bed upside down and took my safe.'
She noted that she's 'not angry' about the stolen goods.
'You did not break me. You did not violate me. What your broken broke a** don't realize that God gave me that home and EVERY single thing in it during a pandemic, & also during the time when I was all of those things.
'God personally put the pieces of my life back together again. So pumpkin, you did not steal from me. Those things you took, he will give back to me a million times fold!!!
Braxton added: 'You took from God!!! I know that is not a payback you are not prepared for.. but get ready. This time you really did it!! I'm not sure you realize that I am truly a kings kid and I'm VERY special to him.'
Sweet dreams: Tamar wrote that the culprit picked up a safe from her home and 'not a Birkin, not a computer, not one of Logan's game systems, but he only went through my drawers, broke mirrors turned my bed upside down and took my safe'
In one final twist, she wrote: 'So I'm sure this one he's going to take very personally. and Father, have your way - Amen.'
Tamar exuded strength during a difficult time nearly one year after admitting she attempted to take her own life in the summer of 2020.
She confessed to Taraji P. Henson on her Facebook Watch show that she felt her eight-year-old son Logan 'deserved better.'
Former Empire star, 50, asked if she 'thought [Logan] would be better without' her, prompting a tearful Tamar to respond: 'I thought in that moment.'
Son: The Grammy nominee admitted that she felt she was 'embarrassing' her son Logan after appearing on her reality show, Braxton Family Values (pictured)
Fighting back the flow of tears, Tamar who shares her son with ex-husband Vincent Herbert, 47 added: 'Because I knew thats not what my whole life really was.
'Thats not who I was. I didnt want him to be embarrassed in front of his friends. Here is this loudmouth ghetto mama.'
Tamar was rushed to a hospital in July 2020 after she was found unresponsive at the Ritz-Carlton Residences at LA Live in Los Angeles, after attempting to take her own life.
She discussed her mental health battle on the The Tamron Hall Show and said she was at her 'lowest point' during her suicide attempt.
Struggle: She previously said she had contemplated suicide long before her attempt this year, but her sisters have admitted they had no idea what Tamar was going through (seen in 2019)
When asked if she 'took pills' during her suicide attempt, she responded: 'It's so hard to say, Tamron, because I feel like there's a responsibility for - you know, I call them family, my fans who watch.'
The singer and TV personality continued: 'I don't want to give any examples. But what I will say is, that was my lowest point of life.'
Tamron also asked if Tamar tried to take her own life before her July attempt, to which she said: 'I'm just going to be a hundred percent. There has been a time where I wanted to.'
He is known for his incredibly buff body.
So Jason Momoa was naturally keen to flaunt his best assets as he hit the town at the Nomad Hotel after last week's House Of Gucci premiere in London.
The actor, 42, who is currently in the UK to shoot the Aquaman sequel, was seen dancing to the tunes of DJ Amazonica during which he tore off his shirt to rock out to the tunes of AC/DC's 1980 hit Back In Black.
Woah! Jason Momoa was naturally keen to flaunt his best assets as he hit the town at the Nomad Hotel after last week's House Of Gucci premiere in London
Jason was dressed to impress in a suit earlier in the evening however things seemed to get raucous when he departed with his shoes hanging off.
Within the event, he was seen at the very front of the dancefloor rocking out while Amazonica hit the booth below a neon sign.
The neon sign bore a quote from the movie - the words: 'The father, son, House of Gucci', in the words of Lady Gaga's character Patrizia Reggiani.
Jason was not holding back with his moves as he threw himself around the floor in wild fashion with his shirt off and his buff body on full display.
Rock on! The actor, 42, who is currently in the UK to shoot the Aquaman sequel, was seen dancing to the tunes of DJ Amazonica during which he tore off his shirt to rock out to the tunes of AC/DC's 1980 hit Back In Black
Hunky! He was making the most of his buff body
Nice! Within the event, he was seen at the very front of the dancefloor rocking out while Amazonica hit the booth below a neon sign
Amazonica, who is a regular guest DJ at Cannes, the BAFTAs, the OSCARs, and the Golden Globes, was the head DJ at the after-party, following her recent stints at the James Bond and Last Night In Soho premiere after-parties.
Jason looks to have made a full recovery since his recent bout of coronavirus.
Last month, insiders revealed to The Sun on Wednesday that he was isolating after testing positive while filming the Aquaman sequel in the UK, with movie bosses hoping to stop any further outbreaks on set.
Peace out: The neon sign bore a quote from the movie - the words: 'The father, son, House of Gucci', in the words of Lady Gaga's character Patrizia Reggiani
Wild thing! Jason is pictured leaving the event in wild style last week
Lairy: Jason was acting excessively lairy as he left the House Of Gucci after-party
Rock on: Amazonica, who is a regular guest DJ at Cannes, the BAFTAs, the OSCARs, and the Golden Globes, was the head DJ at the after-party (pictured at the event)
'Jason is fine luckily and is now isolating after getting a positive test. But it's a real headache for the film's bosses, who are now worrying about having to delay their tight filming schedule,' they claimed.
The source went on to say that they're 'hoping this is a one-off and that they can work around Jason and continue filming on the production'.
It's also been claimed that everyone on set is getting tested for Covid-19 regularly.
She's known for her fashion forward outfits.
And Chloe Sims didn't disappoint with her latest ensemble, as she took to Instagram on Wednesday to show off her green leather power suit, just days after it was revealed she had declared her love for her ex Pete Wicks.
The TOWIE star, 40, ensured that her ample assets were on display in a brown crop top underneath the suit jacket, which gave a glimpse at her toned abs.
Stunning: Chloe Sims didn't disappoint with her latest ensemble, as she took to Instagram on Wednesday to show off her green leather power suit
In the string of shots she posed with her hand on her hip, staring sultrily down the camera lens.
The blonde beauty accessorised with a mini brown leather bag and coordinating bright green high heels with straps that snaked around her ankles.
Chloe wore her golden locks pulled back from her face in a low ponytail, and finished her look off with a full face of glam makeup.
Captioning the stunning pics, she wrote: 'Feelin festive. Todays little filming look for TOWIE Christmas.'
Stylish: The TOWIE star, 40, ensured that her ample assets were on display in a brown crop top underneath the suit jacket, which gave a glimpse at her toned midriff
Captioning the stunning pics, she wrote: 'Feelin festive. Todays little filming look for TOWIE Christmas'
The post comes after her on-off flame Pete Wicks had her name tattooed on his hand.
Pete, 33, will unveil the inking to his former lover in an episode of TOWIE after telling her she is 'irreplaceable' in his life.
His romantic tribute comes months after fans were left aghast when the duo revealed they had been sleeping together in a two-year entanglement, despite vehement insistence that they were 'just friends'.
Gorgeous: Chloe wore her golden locks pulled back from her face in a low ponytail, and finished her look off with a full face of glam makeup
In a clip obtained by The Sun, the inked-up hunk said: 'I didn't really know what get to you for your birthday either...
'You are irreplaceable to me, so I might have got like a tattoo on my hand', before revealing the ink to the stunned star.
Clearly touched by the gesture, Chloe said: 'How have I not noticed that? Oh my god! That is so nice!' while covering her face in shock.
His love: The post comes after her on-off flame Pete Wicks had her name tattooed on his hand after telling her she is 'irreplaceable' in his life
Pete then incredibly declared his love for the mother-of-one, saying: 'The point of that is, you do mean everything to me and for anyone else who feels like I don't or for anyone you feel like I've not justified this to, I do love you to bits.'
Chloe then burst into tears clearly overwhelmed by his words and declared: 'I do love you to bits, you know that - I would be lost without you'.
In September, the pair sparked reconciliation rumours when they departed the National Television Awards together in London.
However in an interview with The Sun following the red carpet event, Pete revealed they are just 'friends': 'Things are all good. We have known each other so long and we have been through so much so it is nice that we are back to having fun'.
Reflecting on their split, he said: 'What happened was in the past. We are both over the situation. The foundation of me and Chloe is that we were such good friends.'
In an episode of TOWIE that aired in May, Chloe and Pete become embroiled in a heated argument as they addressed the end of their two-year relationship.
Chloe declared Pete made her feel 'like s**t' as she exposed him for playing down the intensity of their former romance.
Chrissy Teigen is being slammed as out-of-touch for throwing a Squid Game-inspired party for her VIP friends last week.
At the cookbook author's soiree guest dressed up like the characters and played high-stakes children's games, like in the dystopian series from South Korea, where indebted players take on a life-or-death competition for cash.
The internet was quick to call out Chrissy, 35, for her 'tone-deaf' celebration, pointing out the irony of the ultra-wealthy masquerading as the poor, desperate characters from the show.
'I'm sorry rich people are literally so tone deaf,' one critic tweeted. 'Squid Game was literally about people whose lives were so awful because of being poor that theyd rather play a game of literal life or death to escape going back to poverty and chrissy teigen is really reenacting it in her mansion.'
Think it through: Chrissy Teigen is being slammed as out-of-touch for throwing a Squid Game-inspired party for her VIP friends last week
'Tone deaf': The internet was quick to call out Chrissy, 35, for her 'tone-deaf' celebration, pointing out the irony of the ultra-wealthy masquerading as the poor, desperate characters from the show
Another Twitter user said: 'Taking personal offense at the complete lack of self awareness Chrissy Teigen must have in order to throw a Squid Game-themed party where she watches her rich friends "fight to the death." The commentary just writes itself...'
Guests included Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Pretty Little Liars' Shay Mitchell, according to People.
Servers were costumed as the show's anonymous henchmen and the party was decorated with a huge piggy bank full of cash hovering above, just like in the show.
Social media from the event revealed that the guests had been competing for a trip to Napa and dinner at the Michelin-starred French Laundry restaurant.
One person added: 'Usually Im a fan of Chrissy Teigen but theres something super f**ked up and weird about spending the weekend cosplaying Squid Game with your incredibly rich friends.'
Opinions: There were plenty of people talking about the party
There: Guests included Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Pretty Little Liars' Shay Mitchell
Another remarked: 'Yknow what, Im tired of being self aware and trying to live a judgment free life.
'I wish to be as ignorant as Chrissy Teigen hosting a Squid Game party with her rich LA friends.'
Someone else reminded the internet of Kylie Jenner's poorly thought out Handmaid's Tale fete from 2019, asking: 'Who do you think missed the point more: Kylie Jenner and her Handmaid's Tale party or Chrissy Teigen with her Squid Game party?'
'The simply unmatched irony of john legend and chrissy teigen hosting a squid game party for all their rich celeb friends,' another posted along with gleeful photos of the soiree.
Chrissy didn't appear to recognize any irony, gushing about her party online Saturday.
Up for debate: Someone else reminded the internet of Kylie Jenner's poorly thought out Handmaid's Tale fete from 2019, asking: 'Who do you think missed the point more: Kylie Jenner and her Handmaid's Tale party or Chrissy Teigen with her Squid Game party?'
The help: All of the event's servers were costumed as the anonymous orange jumpsuit-wearing henchmen
Taking to Instagram to share a look at the festivities, she wrote: 'Where do I even begin!!
'What an absolutely epic night. my dream came true of watching my friends fight to the death! dunk tank, musical chairs, hide and seek followed by a very riveting final game of pin the tail on the donkey.'
Chrissy and John did not dress as the desperate characters, but instead played the murderous Robot Girl from episode one and a wealthy benefactor enjoying the battle royale in the later episodes.
Teigen recently began her first media tour of the year to promote her latest cookbook, Cravings: All Together, a stark contrast for the usually public-facing persona who took some time to reflect on the past these last few months.
Eager: The party was decorated with a huge piggy bank full of cash hovering above, just like in the show
Grand prize: Social media revealed that the guests had been competing for a trip to Napa and dinner at the Michelin-starred French Laundry restaurant
Teigen has been the target of backlash since her abusive tweets originally made in 2011 resurfaced online, including one that urged a then 16-year-old Courtney Stodden to kill themselves.
Stodden recently claimed that Teigen has yet to personally apologize for her actions, but Chrissy told TMZ in September that she 'reached out to' Stodden via text.
During the same interview, Chrissy was asked about Addison Rae's backlash for introducing herself to Donald Trump at a UFC fight, which she replied: 'I have decided I'm not getting involved in anyone's s**t ever again.'
Chrissy attempted to right a few of her wrongs with an apology shared to Medium in June which was her first time speaking out since taking a social media hiatus after a host of bullying allegations came to light.
'Hi all. It has been a VERY humbling few weeks,' she wrote. 'I know Ive been quiet, and lord knows you dont want to hear about me, but I want you to know Ive been sitting in a hole of deserved global punishment, the ultimate "sit here and think about what youve done."
She added: 'Not a day, not a single moment has passed where I havent felt the crushing weight of regret for the things Ive said in the past.'
Longtime General Hospital castmember Bergen Williams has died at age 62 after battling a rare health condition in which copper accumulates in the organs.
The talented actress - full name Laura Lynn 'Bergen' Williams - had an inherited condition called Wilson's Disease which causes copper to accumulate in vital organs including the brain.
It could be treated if diagnosed early enough but can cause liver failure, kidney problems, and even death.
Tragic: Longtime General Hospital castmember Bergen Williams has died at age 62 after battling a rare health condition in which copper accumulates in the organs
Signature role: She (seen in March 2010) starred as Big Alice Gunderson on General Hospital from 2001 to 2014
On Tuesday, someone claiming to be her sister announced on Twitter that she had succumbed to the illness on July 20 but the family chose to keep it private until this month.
The post read: 'Bergen Williams succumbed to the ravages of Wilsons Disease surrounded by loving family.
'Bergen was a writer, inventor and actress who played Big Alice on the TV soap "General Hospital."'
'Rest in power': On Tuesday, someone claiming to be her sister announced on Twitter that she had succumbed to the illness on July 20 but the family chose to keep it private until this month
She had quite the run on the longest-running soap opera in production as she starred as Big Alice Gunderson on the ABC daytime program from July 2001 to December 2014.
Williams was featured in a total of 155 episodes over her run on the series.
On the show, Williams portrayed a live-in housekeeper who works for the Quartermaine family at their mansion.
Quite the gig: She (seen second from left in July 2007) had quite the run on the longest-running soap opera in production as she starred as Big Alice Gunderson on the ABC daytime program from July 2001 to December 2014
Staple: On the show, Williams (seen center) portrayed a live-in housekeeper who works for the Quartermaine family at their mansion
What is Wilson's Disease? Wilson's disease is a rare inherited disorder that causes copper to accumulate in your liver, brain and other vital organs. Most people with Wilson's disease are diagnosed between the ages of 5 and 35, but it can affect younger and older people, as well. Copper plays a key role in the development of healthy nerves, bones, collagen and the skin pigment melanin. Normally, copper is absorbed from your food, and excess is excreted through a substance produced in your liver (bile). But in people with Wilson's disease, copper isn't eliminated properly and instead accumulates, possibly to a life-threatening level. When diagnosed early, Wilson's disease is treatable, and many people with the disorder live normal lives. Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement
The family has been a staple of the soap since their introduction in the 1970s.
General Hospital - which is still currently in production - premiered in 1963 and is not only the longest-running American soap opera but is also the longest-running Hollywood-produced serial in production.
Williams had a long acting career which spanned two-and-a-half decades from 1990 to 2015.
She had roles in other series including Nip/Tuck, 7th Heaven, V.I.P., NYPD Blue, Sons Of Tucson, Happy Endings, Babylon 5, Scrubs, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Williams also had roles on the big screen including Clifford, Lord Of Illusions, Killer Pad, and Without Charlie.
They paved the way for a future of Bravo-lebrities.
Vicki Gunvalson looked completely in her element as she whooped it up with Tamra Judge on a girls' night out at Craig's in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
The 59-year-old former Real Housewives of Orange County matriarch caught up with Patti Stanger and ex Vanderpump Rules star Jax Taylor outside the trendy eatery on Melrose Avenue.
Dos amigas: Vicki Gunvalson looked completely in her element as she whooped it up with Tamra Judge on a girls' night out at Craig's in Los Angeles on Tuesday
Vicki rocked a short and sweet yellow dress with a black chain print that featured billowing sleeves and a plunging neckline.
The newly-single CEO of Coto Insurance showed off her toned and tanned legs, and added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of black leather boots to match her purse.
Gunvalson, who has two children and three grandchildren with another on the way, swiped on a vibrant shade of red lipstick and let her platinum blonde hair rest across her shoulders.
She confirmed her split from fiance Steve Lodge in September and weeks later revealed that the retired homicide detective allegedly cheated on her.
Bravo friends: The 59-year-old former Real Housewives of Orange County matriarch caught up with Patti Stanger and ex Vanderpump Rules star Jax Taylor outside the trendy eatery on Melrose Avenue
Girls just want to have fun: Vicki rocked a short and sweet yellow dress with a black chain print that featured billowing sleeves and a plunging neckline
'He used me, he lied to me, he's been dating a 36 year old and is not what he portrays himself to be,' she wrote online when a fan questioned what really went wrong. 'No Christian man would do what he's done.'
Lodge, 63, was a gubernatorial hopeful who ran against Gavin Newsom in the California recall election, and though she had publicly supported him Vicki has now accused him of using her platform to gain supporters.
Providing more details about his affair Vicki wrote: 'While I was out of town working on a biz trip he took her to my condo in Mexico! He's been flaunting around my town in OC making out in public places it's disgusting.'
Tamara looked equally as stunning wearing a pair of black leather leggings with a black long-sleeved blouse.
Judge, 54, who stepped away from the show after season 14, added a bold pop of color with metallic platform heels and wore her golden blonde hair in loose curls.
Patti, who served as The Millionaire Matchmaker for years before ending its run on Bravo in 2020, rocked a chocolate brown silk dress with leopard print boots.
Real OG of the OC: The newly-single CEO of Coto Insurance showed off her toned and tanned legs, and added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of black leather boots to match her gorgeous purse
Bold and beautiful: Tamara looked equally as stunning wearing a pair of black leather leggings with a black long-sleeved blouse
Classic: Patti, who served as The Millionaire Matchmaker for years before ending its run on Bravo in 2020, rocked a chocolate brown silk dress with leopard print boots
Jax who's real name is Jason Michael Cauchi sported his favorite plaid shirt and dark jeans combo with a pair of Nike's.
He announced he was leaving VPR last year with wife Brittany Cartwright in matching posts highlighting a few of their favorite moments from the show which detailed many of their highs and lows throughout their relationship.
During an Instagram live in October, the former self-proclaimed 'No. 1 guy of the group' appeared to be waiting to resume his role on the show amid the COVID-19 pandemic when he answered: 'Vanderpump Rules is supposed to go back to filming. In fact, we are supposed to go back to filming this month. I think that's the last I heard.'
While Brittany and Jax released his-and-hers statements about leaving the popular Bravo program in December, Variety reported they were fired following the fall out from racial accusations waged by Jax's former love interest, Faith Stowers, against co-stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, who were also fired from the show.
Josh Hutcherson was spotted using crutches to help him hobble along a beach in Tulum, Mexico earlier this month.
The 29-year-old performer did not let an injury on his left leg, which was set in a cast, stop him from enjoying the tropical weather during his coastal getaway.
The Hunger Games franchise star has not made any comments regarding his health as of yet, and the source of his injury has not been made known to the public.
Extra support: Josh Hutcherson was spotted using crutches to help him stroll along a beach in Tulum, Mexico earlier this month
Hutcherson kept it casual during his walk, as he sported a slightly loose-fitting tie-dye t-shirt and a pair of black shorts.
The performer has previously suffered several leg injuries, and he was recently seen making his way around Hollywood with the assistance of a knee walker.
The Zathura: A Space Adventure actor also had his leg in a cast and used the same walker after suffering an injury in 2019.
He also had to keep one of his legs in a brace after hurting himself while lifting weights in 2017.
Dressed down: Hutcherson kept it casual during his walk, as he sported a slightly loose-fitting tie-dye t-shirt and a pair of black shorts
Not the first time: The performer has previously suffered several leg injuries, and he was recently seen making his way around Hollywood with the assistance of a knee walker
Hutcherson is also currently prepping for the release of the upcoming drama feature Across the River and Into the Trees.
The Paula Ortiz-directed project is notably based on Ernest Hemingway's 1950 novel of the same name.
The film is centered on an aging Army colonel who takes a trip to Italy and attempts to come to terms with his impending death.
Development on the forthcoming movie initially began in 2016 when it was announced that Martin Campbell would serve as its director.
Staying busy: Hutcherson is also currently prepping for the release of the upcoming drama feature Across the River and Into the Trees
Numerous performers, such as Pierce Brosnan and Isabella Rossellini, were also attached to the project at the time.
However, Campbell departed the project in 2020, when it was announced that Ortiz would take the director's chair.
Many of the roles were recast following the shakeup, and Liev Schreiber was added as the picture's star.
Hutcherson's casting in the project was previously announced by Variety in November of last year.
Signing on: Hutcherson's casting in the project was previously announced by Variety in November of last year; he is seen in January 2019
Physical production initially began last October, with Venice serving as one of the primary filming locations.
It was later reported that work on the project had completed shooting this past March.
Across the River and Into the Trees currently does not have a set release date.
Meadow Walker celebrated her first ever Vogue cover on Wednesday.
The model daughter of Paul Walker, 23, looked simply stunning while gracing the Korean issue of the fashion bible in a gauzy off-white gown which made her look like a Grecian goddess.
Gushing about her accomplishment on Instagram, the beautiful brunette wrote: 'MY FIRST VOGUE COVER!! @voguekorea Thank you so much to the amazing team <3 A dream come true.'
Cover girl: Meadow Walker wowed while sharing her very first Vogue cover online Wednesday
Later on the star was seen out with her dog and new husband Louis Thornton-Allan in the SoHo neighborhood of New York.
She was dressed down in cargo pants and a black hoodie.
Meadow certainly has a lot to celebrate lately.
Last week she marked two-years since privately having a tumor removed, sharing a photo from before her procedure.
Pinch me! Gushing about her accomplishment on Instagram, the beautiful brunette wrote: 'MY FIRST VOGUE COVER!! @voguekorea Thank you so much to the amazing team <3 A dream come true'
Healthy: Last week she marked two-years since privately having a tumor removed, sharing a photo from before her procedure
She gave a thumbs up while her hair was tucked under a surgical bonnet, and captioned the shot saying: '2 years ago today. Ive come a very long way.
'Bye bye tumor. Blessed & grateful.'
Before her health milestone Meadow hit a personal high, tying the knot with actor Louis Thorton Allan in the Dominican Republic in October.
Walker announced her marriage just three months after their engagement.
Puppy love: Later on the star was seen out with her dog and new husband Louis Thornton-Allan in the SoHo neighborhood of New York
Fur baby: The smiled and doted on their doggy during the outing
Casual: She was dressed down in cargo pants and a black hoodie
Louis is studying acting at the prestigious Stella Adler school in New York City and recently starred in a music video for Blu DeTiger's song Vintage.
Meadow, who was 15 at the time of her father's tragic car crash on November 30, 2013, has established a nonprofit in her father's memory called The Paul Walker Foundation, which is aimed at marine science.
She was walked down the aisle by her godfather, Vin.
Hitched! The model tied the knot with actor Louis Thorton Allan in the Dominican Republic in October
Family first: The model was walked down the aisle by her godfather Vin, and announced the big news by posting video of the nuptials to her Instagram account
In June, the franchise's Vin opened up to Extra about being Meadow's godfather and admitted that he feels 'very protective' of the young model.
'She's the first person on Father's Day to wish me Happy Father's Day,' he told the outlet.
The actor continued: 'To see her with my children is one of the most beautiful things.
'There are moments when I see her playing with [his daughter] Pauline and it hits me so deep cause I can only imagine what my brother sees when he sees that.'
She has broadened her horizons from modeling to acting.
And now Cindy Crawford's daughter Kaia Gerber is taking on a role that has been played by top talents over the decades.
The 20-year-old model will be playing Daisy Buchanan in a table read of The Great Gatsby for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, Variety reports.
New venture: Kaia Gerber will be playing Daisy Buchanan in a table read of The Great Gatsby for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, Variety reports
In a new trailer for the table read, which is being put on by Acting For A Cause, Kaia can be seen decked out in full 1920s flapper gear.
Daisy is the leading lady in the Jazz Age fable, attempting to juggle her affair with Gatsby alongside her marriage to the wealthy Tom Buchanan.
The trailer shows Kaia acting as if she is near tears while reading the scene where Daisy is confronted by both of the men in her life.
'Oh, you want too much!' says Kaia emotionally, flapping one hand: 'I love you now, isnt that enough? I cant help whats past. I did love him once but I love you too.'
Looking fab: Bringing her modeling skills to bear on the project, she posed up a storm in her flapper gear for a string of publicity stills
There they are: Kaia is pictured at the table read desk next to Nat Wolff, who will be seen playing the title role of Jay Gatsby
Swanking about: Her jewelry included earrings by Samer Halimeh, bracelets by Effy Jewelry and Graziela Gems and rings by Leo Mathid and Kallati
Moment of levity: Kaia was able to enjoy laugh during the table read while sitting beside Jake Picking who is playing her character's husband Tom Buchanan
Nat Wolff can be seen on one side of her playing Jay Gatsby while Jake Picking is seated on the other playing Tom Buchanan.
Near the end of the novel the narrator Nick Carraway remarks: 'They were careless people, Tom and Daisy they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.'
Directed by Brando Crawford, Kaia is joined in the cast by such names as Kahyun Kim and Booksmart actor Mason Gooding.
Josephine Langford, who has acted in the After films, will be featuring in the cast as Daisy's pal Jordan who strikes up a romance with Gatsby's pal Nick.
Torn: The trailer shows Kaia acting as if she is near tears while reading the scene where Daisy is confronted by both of the men in her life
'I did love him once but I love you too': 'Oh, you want too much!' says Kaia emotionally, flapping one hand: 'I love you now, isnt that enough? I cant help whats past'
Stylist Jared Eng has dressed the cast in Dolce And Gabbana to evoke the period feeling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, which was published in 1925.
Dolce And Gabbana, the top sponsor of the table read, has also agreed to match each donation up to $15,000 to amfAR.
'Having the opportunity to play Daisy was such an honor. The Great Gatsby has always been one of my favorite books, and I always felt there were so many layers to Daisy in particular,' Kaia told Variety this week.
What a lineup: Directed by Brando Crawford (second from right), Kaia is joined in the cast by such names as Kahyun Kim (right) and Mason Gooding (third from right)
Cast list: Josephine Langford, who has acted in the After films, will be featuring in the cast as Daisy's pal Jordan who strikes up a romance with Gatsby's pal Nick
Sweet: 'Being able to do this alongside incredible actors and for an important cause made the experience so much more meaningful to me,' said Kaia
'I loved exploring those layers on a deeper level. Being able to do this alongside incredible actors and for an important cause made the experience so much more meaningful to me,' added the showbiz legacy.
Bringing her modeling skills to bear on the project, she posed up a storm in her flapper gear for a string of publicity stills.
Her jewelry included earrings by Samer Halimeh, bracelets by Effy Jewelry and Graziela Gems and rings by Leo Mathid and Kallati.
Incidentally: Dolce And Gabbana, the top sponsor of the table read, has also agreed to match each donation up to $15,000 to amfAR
Fan: 'The Great Gatsby has always been one of my favorite books, and I always felt there were so many layers to Daisy in particular,' Kaia told Variety
Predecessors: Nat's role has previously been occupied by such Hollywood heartthrobs as Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio
In a striking period touch Kaia's outfit included an elaborate white feathered headpiece designed by Rinaldy Yunardi.
Daisy has been played in previous film adaptations of The Great Gatsby by such names as Betty Field, Mia Farrow and Carey Mulligan.
Stage adaptations include plays by Owen Davis and Simon Levy, as well as an opera that has seen Daisy sung by famous sopranos Dawn Upshaw and Maria Bengtsson.
Character: Daisy is the leading lady in the Jazz Age fable, attempting to juggle her affair with Gatsby alongside her marriage to the wealthy Tom Buchanan
Many wondered if she was the 'actress' mentioned in Taylor Swift's newly-released extended version of All Too Well.
But Jennifer Aniston didn't seem bothered by the speculation from Swifties on her latest outing.
The 52-year-old actress looked fresh-faced while out and about in West Hollywood on Monday.
Simply stunning: Jennifer Aniston looked fresh-faced while out and about in West Hollywood on Monday
Jennifer looked absolutely radiant as she kept her look simple with a body clinging black turtleneck sweater and relaxed fit light blue jeans.
She teamed the top and bottom combination with a pair of black suede heels.
Jennifer did add a bit of luxury extravagance to her look as she lugged along a black leather Gucci Diana tote bag featuring iconic bamboo handles.
Wow factor: The 52-year-old actress looked absolutely radiant
Casual cool: She kept her look simple with a body clinging black turtleneck sweater and relaxed fit light blue jeans
Pretty: The A-list actress showcased her radiant face with minimal make-up as her highlighted blonde locks were worn down in a middle part
In the details: She teamed the top and bottom combination with a pair of black suede heels
Good spirits: She looked relaxed as the wind blew around her hair
The A-list actress showcased her radiant face with minimal make-up as her highlighted blonde locks were worn down in a middle part.
She added a bit of specs appeal with a pair of black plastic rimmed eyeglasses.
Jennifer had her hands full as she not only held on to her designer bag but also a forest green teddy coat and bottle of Fiji water.
This comes after rampant speculation who the 'actress' was in Taylor Swift's latest song as some named Aniston as a possibility.
Rocking it: Jennifer did add a bit of luxury extravagance to her look as she lugged along a black leather Gucci Diana tote bag featuring iconic bamboo handles
Stunning: She added a bit of specs appeal with a pair of black plastic rimmed eyeglasses
Juggling act: Jennifer had her hands full as she not only held on to her designer bag but also a forest green teddy coat
Keeping safe: She was joined by a security detail
Moving on: She also gripped onto a Fiji water bottle and her cell phone
Making moves: No doubt she had a busy day ahead of her
Sturdy: She gripped onto the handrail while making her way down the stairs
All eyes on her: No doubt fans were excited to see the Friends star
The pop star, 31, remembers her heartbreak in the 10-minute track - which has long been believed to be about actor Jake Gyllenhaal - singing: 'Now I'm weeping in a party bathroom / Some actress asking me what happened / You, that's what happened.'
As Swifties believed the Friends star was the actress in question, Aniston's close friend Jennifer Meyer took to Instagram to debunk that theory.
'NOT TRUE PEOPLE!!! YOU HAAVE THE WRONG ACTRESS' the A-list jeweler commented under an E! News post about Taylor's track.
Fan originally pegged Aniston as the gal in question based on a 2011 New York Daily News article, with the headline: 'Jennifer Aniston gives Taylor Swift love advice: 'Hang in there, everything will be okay.'
Try again: Taylor Swift fans might be disappointed to learn Aniston is not the mystery actress mentioned in the new, extended version of All Too Well
Other fans wondered if Anne Hathaway, who starred with Jake in 2010s Love & Other Drugs, was the mystery thespian.
During a recently resurfaced Glamour UK interview from 2015, the Princess Diaries star said: 'She just seems to be following her heart.
'I met her I hope its OK to say this when she and Jake were together. She was 20 at the time and we hung out one night. I was like, "You are a magnificent creature."'
'She was on fire and Ive watched her become this force of nature,' Anne added.
Romance: The pop star, 31, remembers her heartbreak in the reimagined track, which has long been believed to be about actor Jake Gyllenhaal, singing: 'Now I'm weeping in a party bathroom / Some actress asking me what happened / You, that's what happened.' They're seen together in November 2010
Sorry folks: While Swifties initially believed Jennifer Aniston was the actress in question, Aniston's close friend Jennifer Meyer took to Instagram to debunk that theory
Although fans have long speculated that All Too Well was written about Jake, he and Taylor had a surprisingly short-lived romance.
The two only dated from October through December of 2010, and the People's Choice Awards occurred on January 5 of 2011.
Although Taylor has never confirmed that the song is about the Donnie Darko star, she delved into her tortured mental state when she wrote it during a Tonight Show appearance last Thursday.
'I showed up for rehearsals and I just was really upset, and sad, and everybody could tell, it was really, like, not fun to be around me that day,' Taylor explained to host Jimmy Fallon.
'So I started playing guitar and just kind of playing the same four chords over and over again.
Source: Fan originally pegged Aniston as the gal in question based on a 2011 New York Daily News article, with the headline: 'Jennifer Aniston gives Taylor Swift love advice: 'Hang in there, everything will be okay'
Could be Anne: Other fans wondered if Anne Hathaway, who starred with Jake in 2010s Love & Other Drugs, was the mystery thespian. She's seen in 2019 above
'And I just started, kind of, the band sort of joined in, and I started ad-libbing what I was going through, and what I was feeling, and it went on, and the song kept building and building and building in intensity, and the song just went on for about, you know, 10 to 15 minutes of us doing this,' she said.
The longer version includes lines suggesting that the couple split due to their age difference.
'You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine / And that made me want to die,' she sings.
Rehearsals for her tour began in early 2011, and the song was released in its shortened version in 2012 on the original version of Red, which would fit the timeline if it was written about the actor.
Taylor told Fallon that she was most excited for her fans to hear the longer version out of all the material on Red (Taylor's Version), which she signaled by making her directorial debut with a short film to accompany the song which she stars in with Sadie Sink, 19, and Dylan O'Brien, 30.
She's the Hollywood star who has embraced a more low-key and laidback life in Perth, Australia.
And on Monday, American actress Kate Walsh proved she's just like the rest of us as she was spotted cleaning up after her dog at a local park in her new hometown.
The 54-year-old Grey's Anatomy star appeared in high spirits as she went for a walk in the park with her pup, saying she's 'happy' to be back in Perth.
Just like the rest of us! On Monday, American actress Kate Walsh proved she's just like the rest of us as she was spotted cleaning up after her dog at a local park in her new hometown of Perth, Australia
Kate dressed casually for the outing, showing off her trim pins in a pair of shorts and wearing a black jacket.
She finished her look with a trucker cap and a pair of black sandals and dark sunglasses.
Kate told photographers she's 'happy to be in Perth again and will be start rehearsal for her project at the state theatre soon'.
Low-key: Kate dressed casually, showing off her trim pins in a pair of shorts and wearing a black jacket.
Kate first relocated to Western Australia in March last year, right at the start of the Covid pandemic, and quickly fell in love with Perth.
She previously told The Daily Telegraph she enjoyed living in the city so much she didn't want to return to New York City, even when she was able to.
'I didn't really want to go back to New York in the middle of a pandemic when it was pretty gnarly to say the least," she said.
New hometown: Kate first relocated to Western Australia in March last year, right at the start of the Covid pandemic, and quickly fell in love with Perth
'I couldn't go home initially, and now that I can, I don't really fancy going back. When I have my own mother saying don't come home, my 86-year-old mum we are in a very challenging time!'
Kate jetted off to Paris in June, presumably to shoot the Netflix show Emily in Paris.
She returned to Australia once production wrapped.
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She may be an attention magnet, but Bella Thorne shunned the spotlight as she celebrated her mother Tamara Thorne's wedding to her longtime partner Ross in Mexico.
The actress, 24, was spotted preparing for her mother's special day at their suite in Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday.
Bella dropped jaws twice that day - first in a skimpy black bikini which put her fabulous body on display, followed by a plunging black bridesmaid dress.
Wedding bells! Bella Thorne served as a bridesmaid at her mother Tamara Thorne's wedding to Ross in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on Tuesday
Cheeky! Thorne put her backside on display in a thong bikini as she held hands with her fiance Benjamin Mascolo
The Disney star looked stunning in a plunging black number which fit her like a glove.
Bella looked breathtaking with her scarlet tresses styled into loose waves with a chic side part.
The superstar, who is engaged to boyfriend Benjamin Mascolo, carried an ornate bouquet as she posed up a storm with her fellow bridesmaids.
In addition to striking poses in their gowns, the ladies were seen taking the requisite pre-wedding photographs in their white robes.
Taking the plunge: Thorne appeared to be smoking something in her plunging black bridesmaid dress
Bikini babe! The actress was first spotted kicking back in a skimpy swimsuit
Strike a pose! Bella posed up a storm with her fellow bridesmaids
Bella's fiance Benjamin was also spotted hanging out with the rest of the party.
The hunk, who performs as a solo artist under the name B3N, put his many tattoos and toned body on display as he hung out with the swimsuit-clad gang shirtless.
At one point, he was seen tenderly holding hands with his bikini-clad other half.
After some fun in the sun, it was time Tamara and Ross to officially become man and wife.
Hubba hubba! Bella's fiance Benjamin put his toned and tattooed body on display
It takes two! It won't be much longer until it's Bella's turn to walk down the aisle
Making memories: Mascolo appeared to be taking photos of his stunning fiance
Before and after! Thorne got her hair and makeup done in a white robe before changing into the glamorous gown
All eyes were on Bella's mother Tamara once she emerged from the suite in her beautiful white wedding gown.
Tamara turned every head wearing a plunging gown with sweeping train and veil cascading over her loose waves.
The bride was later seen exchanging vows with her husband beneath an arch decorated with a flowing white sheet and hanging florals.
The couple gazed tenderly at one another as they said 'I do' just feet away from the sand.
Strike a pose! The ladies took the requisite pre-wedding photos in their robes
All glammed up! The bridesmaids were looking and feeling their best in their ultra-stylish looks
Picture perfect: Photographers captured the pre-wedding fun
Flower power! Thorne and a fellow bridesmaid posed about with their elegant bouquets
Bella watched on from the sidelines with the rest of the bridesmaids, standing behind the others with her exquisite bouquet in hand.
It won't be much longer until it's Bella's turn to walk down the aisle.
The musical couple were first linked in April of 2019 and in March of this year they announced their engagement.
In September, Mascolo opened up about his plans for their wedding, telling ET that they think the nuptials could take place next summer.
Here comes the bride! Tamara made her grand entrance in a stunning white wedding dress with plunging neckline
Model behavior! The bridesmaids were having a blast posing it up for the camera
I do! Tamara and Ross exchanged vows beneath an arch decorated with florals and a sweeping white sheet
'It's going to be, we think that'd be next year, next summer. We hope between June, July, August. The truth is, we have so much work, we want to find the time to enjoy the wedding. We don't want to rush it,' he said.
'We don't want it to be between jobs and projects because it's such an important moment of our life because it has to be the best days of our life. And it's already stressful to organize a big wedding like we want to do, so that's already enough on our plate,' he said.
Benjamin also said they planned on doing two weddings - one in the U.S. and another in Italy.
Soulmates: The couple gazed at one another as they solidified their union before loved ones
Touching: Thorne watched on intently as her mother became a Mrs.
The site of their Italian wedding would likely be Lake Como, where the couple went in the early days of their relationship.
'We're already working on it, because big weddings take a lot of time to organize. What we can say, is that we want to do two. We want to do one in the U.S., in Los Angeles, and one in Italy. And it's most probably going to be Lake Como because we love Lake Como,' he explained.
'Ben took me there when we first started dating and I said, "You know, if we ever get married, we'll get married here,"' Bella said.
Stepping up: Bella was seen at the altar with the bride and groom
Love story: Meanwhile, Bella and Benjamin were first linked in April of 2019 and in March of this year they announced their engagement.
Phoebe Burgess has revealed she was 'f**king furious' after learning her ex-husband Sam had traces of cocaine in his system while on his way to pick up their children Poppy, four, and Billy, two, earlier this year.
The retired NRL star, 32, avoided a conviction after pleading guilty to three charges in May following a February 22 police traffic stop where he tested positive for the drug.
Phoebe, 32, discussed the incident for the first time on Thursday, telling the No Filter podcast it 'broke a lot of trust in someone who is the father of my children'.
Angry: Phoebe Burgess has revealed she was 'f**king furious' after learning her ex-husband Sam had traces of cocaine in his system while on his way to pick up their two children Poppy, four, and Billy, two, earlier this year. The former couple are pictured here in happier times
'That's the first time I have ever been f**king furious,' she told host Mia Freedman. 'I was really angry. This was something I had absolutely no ability to control...'
'I was furious. I was furious at the people around him. I didn't understand how someone could get into that position.
'The first thing I said is, "Who the f**k is looking after him? What is going on?"'
Freedman, surprised by her revelation, responded: 'Just listen to what you just said: who is looking after this grown man.'
Court matter: The retired NRL star, 32, avoided a conviction after pleading guilty to three charges in May following a February 22 police traffic stop where he tested positive for cocaine. Pictured outside Moss Vale Local Court on May 4
The mother of two calmly responded: 'It takes a lot of work to break things that tie you to someone or something.
'There were a lot of turning points, and that was another turning point that for me broke a lot of trust and a lot of faith in someone who is the father of my children.
'It broke a lot inside of me. And the biggest thing I think that I've spoken about, is mutual respect and having trust.
'That goes beyond marriage when you share children.'
In February, Burgess was pulled over at Braemar while on his way to collect daughter Poppy and son Billy from Bowral, about 8km away, and failed a roadside drug test.
Incident: Sam had been on his way to collect four-year-old daughter Poppy and two-year-old son Billy from Bowral when police stopped his BMW X5 on the Hume Highway at Braemar
A preliminary test detected signs of cocaine in his saliva and Burgess was taken to Southern Highlands police station where a secondary oral fluid test was undertaken.
That test returned positive to cocaine.
The retired South Sydney Rabbitohs player was also charged with driving an unregistered BMW X5 without a valid NSW drivers licence.
Sam avoided a conviction in May; however, he was was ordered to pay $1,162 in fines, was placed on a good behaviour bond for nine months and was asked to complete a traffic offenders program.
Magistrate Mark Douglass said at Moss Vale Local Court that Burgess had shown remorse, contrition and insight into his behaviour.
Reality TV appearance: Sam had confessed to several indiscretions during his grilling on SAS Australia this year, including that he'd slept with a woman from Melbourne in 2017 behind Phoebe's back
Magistrate Douglass also noted Burgess had undergone a 'very arduous and rigorous' four-week residential rehabilitation program after his offending.
That program did relate specifically to drugs.
Burgess had confessed to several indiscretions during his grilling on reality show SAS Australia this year, including that he'd slept with a woman from Melbourne in 2017 behind Phoebe's back.
'I embarrassed my wife. I'd had an affair with a girl, a woman in Melbourne. That's true,' he said.
'I turned to drinking, taking drugs - I thought I could manage that. Then got pulled [up on a] DUI with drugs in my system, which was all over the press again, which stopped me seeing my kids again. I just checked myself into rehab.'
The Burgesses were married for four years before splitting for good in 2019.
Aussie model Gabrielle Epstein has gained a massive following on Instagram thanks to her racy bikini snaps.
And the 27-year-old showcased one of her most risque looks to date on Thursday as she posed up a storm in a tiny white G-string bikini.
The OnlyFans star displayed a serious amount of underboob in her flesh-flashing two-piece as she went for a bike ride.
Her wildest look yet! Aussie Playboy model Gabrielle Epstein, 27, showed off some serious underboob in a white G-string bikini while going for a bike ride on Thursday
The pictures appear to have been taken in Mexico, where U.S.-based Gabby has been on vacation recently.
She left little to the imagination in her bikini, which featured an inverted-style halterneck top with ties that wrapped around the waist.
Her bottoms were high-waisted with a G-string design.
If you've got it! Gabrielle's bikini featured an inverted-style halterneck top with ties that wrapped around the waist, and the bottoms were high-waisted with a G-string design
'Biking in Neena Swim,' Gabby captioned the photos.
It comes after Gabrielle fired back at critics who claimed her social media posts were too explicit.
Speaking to Maxim, she called out the 'toxic double standard' between how men and women are treated differently on Instagram.
Having her say: It comes after Gabrielle fired back at critics who claimed her social media posts were too explicit. Speaking to Maxim, she called out the 'toxic double standard' between how men and women are treated differently on Instagram
'There are plenty of photos of men without their shirts on showing their nipples but the fact that mine can be covered and a photo still gets removed creates a very toxic double standard,' she said.
'We are all human, we are all born with bodies and we should not be taught to be ashamed of how they look in a natural state.'
She said she'd turned to OnlyFans to get around Instagram's censorship.
'I also feel like I can be more of myself on OnlyFans,' she said.
'To me showing my body isn't about me being objectified, it's about me feeling confident, powerful and beautiful in my own skin.'
She recently found love with boyfriend Aaron Rizzatti following her split from farmer Matt Trewin in August.
And Farmer Wants A Wife star Tara Hurl showed off her best assets on Tuesday as she posed for a stunning bikini photo shoot.
The 25-year-old donned an itsy-bitsy blue two-piece in a gallery of Instagram snaps.
Bikini babe: Farmer Wants A Wife star Tara Hurl showed off her best assets on Tuesday as she posed for a stunning bikini photo shoot at Sorrento Back Beach in the Mornington Peninsula
'From where Id rather be,' she captioned the photos, which were taken at Sorrento Back Beach in the Mornington Peninsula.
Back in August, Tara debuted her relationship with new beau Aaron.
She shared a series of loved-up photos to Instagram of the pair, just a day after confirming her split with on-screen lover Matt.
Cheeky view! 'From where Id rather be,' she captioned the photos
Romance: Back in August, Tara debuted her relationship with new beau Aaron Rizzatti
She captioned the post: 'The world works in mysterious ways. We came in to each other's lives when the timing wasn't right and then found each other again right at the perfect moment.
'The last seven months with you have been an absolute dream and I'm forever grateful for all your love and the immense amount of maturity and understanding you've shown me, especially in the past month.
'You always dream of meeting someone who you just click with, who you can be your complete self around and finding comfort in knowing they wouldn't change a single thing about you.'
New love: She shared a series of loved-up photos to Instagram of the pair, just a day after confirming her split with on-screen lover Matt
Tara said the pair had been on an 'emotional rollercoaster' over the past few months but 'we are already strong enough to get through even the toughest days'.
She continued: 'From having to relive me "dating" someone on national television, watching me go through every emotion under the sun and still being there with a smile on your face, having to hide our relationship, to looking after me in hospital after I almost broke my back and then taking me surfing four days later, having you being relocated numerous times for work, and me following close behind.'
Tara also thanked Aaron, his friends and family for welcoming her 'wholeheartedly into their lives and being accepting and understanding'.
Down-low: She thanked Aaron, his friends and family for being so understanding and agreeing to keep quiet about their relationship while Farmer Wants A Wife aired on TV
Tara and Matt confirmed they were no longer together during the FWAW reunion.
The much-awaited finale saw a mammoth 1.37 million viewers tune in across Australia to see which of the five farmers ultimately found love.
Seven enjoyed a 28 per cent rise year-on-year in viewership for the night, and was crowned the number one commercial free-to-air network.
Jeremy Renner brushed off abuse accusations made by his ex-wife Sonni Pacheco in a new interview in which he explained why he doesn't engage in a public back-and-forth on the issue.
The Academy Award-nominated actor, 50, was asked about the claims in a chat with Mens Health published Wednesday, and said he doesn't 'respond publicly or privately to nonsense,' as a response 'only empowers it.'
The Modesto, California native added, 'If you respond to it, you give it gas. I dont fuel s*** fires. I just dont do it. I refuse to.'
The latest: Jeremy Renner, 50, brushed off abuse accusations made by his ex-wife Sonni Pacheco in a new interview in which he explained why he doesn't engage in a public back-and-forth on the issue. He was snapped last month in London
The Avengers actor and Pacheco, 30, wed in 2014 and split later that year, with their divorce finalized the following year.
The former partners are parents to daughter, Ava, eight, and Pacheco has leveled a number of claims at the Hawkeye actor amid their custody battle.
Pacheco in 2019 said in court docs filed in Los Angeles that Renner had threatened he would fatally shoot her and himself, TMZ reported. She claimed that the actor had been verbally abusive to her and had issues with drug abuse, which Renner denied.
A rep for the Mayor of Kingstown actor told US Weekly in October of 2019, 'The well-being of his daughter Ava has always been and continues to be the primary focus for Jeremy. This is a matter for the court to decide.
Details: The Avengers actor and Pacheco, 30, wed in 2014 and split later that year, with their divorce finalized the following year. She was snapped in 2016 in LA
The Modesto, California native said of the claims, 'If you respond to it, you give it gas. I dont fuel s*** fires. I just dont do it. I refuse to'
'Its important to note the dramatizations made in Sonnis declaration are a one-sided account made with a specific goal in mind.'
The couple's public clash made headlines last year at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when Renner submit court docs in an effort to have his child support payments lowered, citing a lack of work as the studios had shut down at the time.
She subsequently told Page Six in a statement, 'It is very disheartening that in a time of global crisis there is yet another attempt to reduce funds I rely on to provide for our child.'
In May of 2020, Renner submit court docs claiming that Pacheco had taken funds in excess of $50,000 from their daughter's trust fund over a two-year period, and had 'used those funds for her own personal benefit ... to pay property taxes, attorneys fees, and other expenses completely unrelated to the minor,' US Weekly reported.
Pacheco told the outlet in response that she was 'sick of being continually bullied, having my name slandered, and the truth muted' in the ongoing conflict.
She added, 'Anyone who is a parent knows that the most important thing in the world is their childs health and safety. Over the years, its hard to fathom what Ive seen and what people have told me theyve seen in regards to Jeremys disturbing actions while our child is in his care.'
Drinking coffee or tea may be linked with a lower risk of stroke and dementia, new research suggests.
The study also indicates drinking coffee may be associated with a lower risk of post-stroke dementia.
Researchers studied 365,682 participants from the UK Biobank study, who were recruited between 2006 and 2010 and followed them until 2020.
At the start, participants self-reported how much coffee and tea they drank.
Over the study period, 5,079 participants developed dementia and 10,053 experienced at least one stroke.
Drinking coffee or tea may be linked with a lower risk of stroke and dementia, new research suggests (file photo)
Researchers found that people who drank two to three cups of coffee, or three to five cups of tea per day, or a combination of four to six cups of coffee and tea had the lowest incidence of stroke or dementia.
While those who drank two to three cups of coffee and two to three cups of tea daily had a 32 per cent lower risk of stroke.
According to the study they also had a 28 per cent lower risk of dementia compared with those who did not drink tea or coffee.
The research, by Yuan Zhang and colleagues from Tianjin Medical University, China, further suggests that intake of coffee alone or in combination with tea is associated with lower risk of post-stroke dementia.
However, the scientists highlight that the UK Biobank reflects a relatively healthy sample relative to the general population which could restrict the ability to generalise these associations.
Additionally, relatively few people developed dementia or stroke which can make it difficult to extrapolate rates accurately to larger populations.
The study also indicates drinking coffee may be associated with a lower risk of post-stroke dementia (file photo)
Finally, while it is possible that coffee and tea consumption might be protective against stroke, dementia and post-stroke dementia, researchers say causality cannot be concluded from the associations.
Writing in the Plos Medicine journal, the authors said: 'Our findings suggested that moderate consumption of coffee and tea separately or in combination were associated with lower risk of stroke and dementia.'
Dr Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: 'Participants only reported tea and coffee consumption at the beginning of the study, and there is no data on long-term habits, so it's not clear how relevant the findings are to long-term brain health.
'While previous studies have looked at associations between tea and coffee consumption and better brain health, there has been inconsistency in findings.
'Future research with participants of a range of ages and ethnicities will be needed to fully understand what types of dementia and stroke are associated with tea and coffee drinking.
'Participants in this study reported themselves to be mainly White British (96 per cent), therefore we cannot infer an association that is relevant to everyone in the UK.'
New Delhi: New Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is set to visit India next year and both countries are working on the tentative dates, the country's envoy told ANI.
"We are working on it (Israel PM's visit to India). We don't have a date yet but hopefully, it's not at the beginning of the year. Maybe, in the middle of the (next) year," said $25 million of adjusted working capital.
OIL AND GAS TERMS
The Company uses the following frequently recurring oil and gas industry terms in the MD&A:
Liquids
bbls Barrels Bbl/d Barrels per day NGLs Natural gas liquids (includes condensate, pentane, butane, propane, and ethane) Condensate Pentane and heavier hydrocarbons
Natural Gas Mcf
Thousands of cubic feet Mcf/d
Thousands of cubic feet per day MMbtu
Million of British thermal units MMbtu/d
Million of British thermal units per day
Oil Equivalent Boe
Barrels of oil equivalent Boe/d Barrels of oil equivalent per day
Disclosure provided herein in respect of a boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A boe conversion rate of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil equivalent has been used for the calculation of boe amounts in the MD&A. This boe conversion rate is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead.
NON-GAAP MEASURES
This news release refers to certain financial measures that are not determined in accordance with IFRS (or "GAAP"). This news release contains the terms "adjusted funds flow", "adjusted funds flow per share", "adjusted working capital (deficiency), "operating netback" and "net operating expenses" which do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. The Company uses these measures to help evaluate its performance. For additional information relating to Non-GAAP Measures please refer to the Company's MD&A for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Management uses adjusted funds flow (used) to analyze performance and considers it a key measure as it demonstrates the Company's ability to generate the cash necessary to fund future capital investments and abandonment obligations and to repay debt, if any. Adjusted funds flow (used) is a non-GAAP measure and has been defined by the Company as cash flow from (used in) operating activities excluding the change in non-cash working capital related to operating activities, expenditures on decommissioning obligations, and transaction costs on property dispositions. The Company also presents adjusted funds flow (used) per share whereby amounts per share are calculated using weighted average shares outstanding, consistent with the calculation of net earnings (loss) per share. Adjusted funds flow (used) is reconciled from cash flow from (used in) operating activities under the heading "Cash Flow From Operations and Adjusted Funds Flow" in the MD&A.
Management uses adjusted working capital (deficiency) as a measure to assess the Company's financial position. Adjusted working capital (deficiency) includes current assets less current liabilities excluding the effects of any current portion of risk management contracts. Adjusted working capital (deficiency) is reconciled to working capital (deficiency) under the heading "Liquidity and Capital Resources" in the MD&A.
Management considers operating netback an important measure as it demonstrates its profitability relative to current commodity prices. Operating netback, which is calculated as average unit sales price less royalties, net operating expenses, and transportation and marketing expenses, represents the cash margin for every barrel of oil equivalent sold. Operating netback per boe is reconciled to net earnings (loss) per boe under the heading "Operating Netback" in the MD&A.
Net operating expenses is calculated as operating expenses less processing revenues. Management uses net operating expenses to determine the current periods' cash cost of operating expenses less processing revenue and net operating expenses per boe is used to measure operating efficiency on a comparative basis. The measure approximates the Company's operating expenses relative to its produced volumes by excluding third party operating costs.
PRODUCT TYPES
The Company uses the following references to sales volumes in this news release:
Natural gas refers to shale gas
Oil and condensate refers to condensate, light and medium crude oil, and tight oil combined
Other NGLs refers to butane, propane and ethane combined
Oil and NGLs refers to light and medium crude oil, tight oil, and NGLs combined
Oil equivalent refers to the total oil equivalent of shale gas, light and medium crude oil, tight oil, and NGLs combined, using the conversion rate of six thousand cubic feet of shale gas to one barrel of oil equivalent as described above.
The following is a complete breakdown of sales volumes for applicable periods by specific product types of shale gas, light and medium crude oil, tight oil, and NGLs:
Sales Volumes by Product Type Q1 2021 Q2 2021 Q3 2021 YTD Q3 2021
Condensate (bbls/d) 124 79 68 90 Other NGLs (bbls/d) 41 34 26 34 NGLs (bbls/d) 165 113 94 124
Light and medium crude oil (bbls/d) - - - - Tight oil (bbls/d) 354 318 231 300 Condensate (bbls/d) 124 79 68 90 Oil and condensate (bbls/d) 478 397 299 390 Other NGLs (bbls/d) 41 34 26 34 Oil and NGLs (bbls/d) 519 431 325 424
Shale gas (mcf/d) 13,053 10,559 8,953 10,840 Natural gas (mcf/d) 13,053 10,559 8,953 10,840
Oil equivalent (boe/d) 2,695 2,191 1,817 2,231
Sales Volumes by Product Type Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 YTD Q3 2020
Condensate (bbls/d) 144 166 145 153 Other NGLs (bbls/d) 271 317 248 278 NGLs (bbls/d) 415 483 393 431
Light and medium crude oil (bbls/d) 41 - - 14 Tight oil (bbls/d) 406 645 397 481 Condensate (bbls/d) 144 166 145 153 Oil and condensate (bbls/d) 591 811 542 648 Other NGLs (bbls/d) 271 317 248 278 Oil and NGLs (bbls/d) 862 1,128 790 926
Shale gas (mcf/d) 12,354 16,019 13,739 14,036 Natural gas (mcf/d) 12,354 16,019 13,739 14,036
Oil equivalent (boe/d) 2,921 3,797 3,080 3,266
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "believe", "intends", "forecast", "plans", "guidance" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information.
More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to the Company's risk management program, oil and condensate, other NGLs, and natural gas production, capital programs, adjusted working capital, and debt. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including expectations and assumptions relating to prevailing commodity prices and exchange rates, applicable royalty rates and tax laws, future well production rates, the performance of existing wells, the success of drilling new wells, the availability of capital to undertake planned activities, and the availability and cost of labour and services.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations 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. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general such as operational risks in development, exploration and production, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures, the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production rates, costs, and expenses, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, marketing and transportation, environmental risks, competition, the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources and changes in tax, royalty, and environmental legislation. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this document are made as of the date hereof for the purpose of providing the readers with the Company's expectations for the coming year. The forward-looking statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes. 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 securities laws.
Leucrotta is an oil and natural gas company, actively engaged in the acquisition, development, exploration, and production of oil and natural gas reserves in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.
Further Information
For additional information, please contact:
Leucrotta Exploration Inc.
Suite 700, 639 - 5th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0M9
Phone: (403) 705-4525
www.leucrotta.ca
Mr. Robert J. Zakresky
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Nolan Chicoine
Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer
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/103866
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 17, 2021 / NeonMind Biosciences Inc. (CSE:NEON)(OTCQB:NMDBF)(FRA:6UF) ("NeonMind' or the "Company"), an integrated drug development and wellness company, is pleased to announce that President and CEO, Rob Tessarolo, is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion at Lift & Co. Expo's new Psychedelics Business Summit, on November 19, 2021, in Toronto. The panel entitled, "Business Leaders: Committing to Business Strategies and Approaches that Will Benefit Patients - and Investors,' will include Canada's leading psychedelics entrepreneurs in medical research, clinical therapy, product innovation and business investment.
Lift Psychedelics Business Summit
Place: Metro Toronto Convention Center, North Building
Date: Friday, November 19, 2021
Time: 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm EST
Registration: liftexpo.ca
Building on the success of psychedelics content launched at the Cannabis Business Conference Vancouver in 2020, The Lift Psychedelics Business Summit will take a deep dive into psychedelics research and the psychedelics industry. It is structured to offer attendees the most up-to-date business intelligence, specifically on the four pillars of today's psychedelic renaissance: medical research, legalization and investment for a professional and business-focused audience.
About NeonMind Biosciences Inc.
NeonMind operates two divisions: (i) a pharmaceutical division engaged in drug development of psychedelic compounds with two lead psilocybin-based drug candidates targeting obesity; and (ii) a medical services division focused on launching specialty mental health clinics that integrate psychedelic therapeutics into traditional psychotherapy settings.
In its pharmaceutical division, NeonMind has two distinct psilocybin drug development programs targeting obesity. NeonMind's lead candidate, NEO-001, employs psilocybin as an agonist at the serotonin 5- HT2A receptor, which is involved in the hallucinogenic effect of psychedelics. The Company's second drug candidate, NEO-002, employs low-dose psilocybin as an agonist at the 5-HT2C receptor, which controls appetite.
NeonMind established a medical services division with the goal of launching NeonMind-branded specialty mental health clinics in Canada that incorporate evidence-backed innovative treatments to address a variety of mental health needs. For more information on NeonMind, go to www.NeonMindBiosciences.com.
Rob Tessarolo, President & Chief Executive Officer, NeonMind Biosciences Inc.
rob@neonmind.com
Tel: 416-750-3101
Investor Relations:
KCSA Strategic Communications
Scott Eckstein/Tim Regan
neonmind@kcsa.com
Tel: 212-896-1210
The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or NeonMind'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 NeonMind's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, NeonMind's drug development plans, its ability to retain key personnel, and its expectation as to the development of its intellectual property and other steps in its preclinical and clinical drug development constitute forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The statements made in this press release are made as of the date hereof. NeonMind 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.
SOURCE: NeonMind Biosciences Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/673269/NeonMind-to-Participate-in-Panel-Discussion-at-Lift-Co-Expos-Psychedelics-Business-Summit-on-November-19-2021
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 17, 2021) - Cabral Gold Inc. (TSXV: CBR) (OTC PINK: CBGZF) ("Cabral" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update regarding the ongoing drilling and exploration program within the NW-SE trending Central trend at the Cuiu Cuiu gold district in northern Brazil.
Highlights are as follows:
Central Gold Deposit :
Diamond drilling at the Central gold deposit is in progress and is aimed at defining and delimiting high-grade zones within the deposit which is open both at depth and along strike. A total of 43 holes are planned totaling 5,400m. Previous drilling at Central returned 220m @ 2.0 g/t gold, including 9.8m @ 17.9 g/t gold; 65.8m @ 3.5 g/t gold, including 6.1m @ 23.5 g/t gold; 179.6m @ 1.1 g/t gold, including 5.1m 14.1 g/t gold; and 174.2m @ 1.5 g/t gold including 2m @ 36.2 g/t gold
RC drilling at Central is also in progress and is aimed at identifying a gold-in-oxide blanket, resulting from weathering of the underlying primary Central gold deposit. Gold-in-oxide blankets were recently identified at the PDM target and above the MG gold deposit
PDM Target :
Diamond drilling at PDM is also in progress, testing directly below the recently discovered gold-in-oxide blanket, which has returned up to 40m @ 2.2 g/t gold in oxide material. Limited historic drilling at PDM tested the underlying basement rocks, and returned up to 47m @ 1.8 g/t gold and 30m @ 1.1 g/t gold
Mutum and Central SE Targets :
Drilling is planned during Q1 2022 at the Mutum and Central SE targets. Limited historic drilling at Central SE returned values of 27m @ 6.9 g/t gold and 8m @ 8.4 g/t gold. At Mutum, which is located 750m SE of PDM, surface trenches returned 32m @ 1g/t, 25.5m @ 0.9g/t and 16.5m @ 0.9g/t gold. The target has never been drill-tested
Magnetic and auger geochemical surveys of the 2.5km region between Central and PDM suggests a broad NW-trending structure may connect the two targets. This intervening area has never been drill-tested and will be followed up in 2022
Alan Carter, Cabral's President and CEO commented, "The current drilling campaign has focused in and around the MG gold deposit, and resulted in the discovery of the near surface gold-in-oxide blanket at MG, and the mineralized zone in hard-rock at Machichie. Following these successes, we are turning our attention to the 5km-long Central trend at Cuiu Cuiu, which includes the Central gold deposit and the recently identified PDM gold-in-oxide blanket, located 2.5km to the north. This trend also contains a number of other excellent targets, notably the Central SE target, where historic drilling returned 27m @ 6.9 g/t gold, and the Mutum target where surface trenching previously returned 32m @ 1 g/t gold. These targets, as well as PDM and Central, will be the subject of an aggressive program of follow-up drilling during the coming months."
Central Trend at Cuiu Cuiu
The NW-trending Central trend at Cuiu Cuiu extends at least 5km in a NW direction. It is defined by coincident and pronounced gold-in-soil and gold-in-auger geochemical anomalies and a magnetic-low geophysical anomaly. The trend contains a number of important targets including (from north to south), PDM, Mutum, Central North, the Central gold deposit and Central SE. It is also parallel to the major NW-trending TZ lineament located 4km to the northeast. The crustal-scale TZ structure is spatially related to all of the known gold deposits in the northern Tapajos, including G Mining Venture Corp's 2Moz TZ deposit.
Figure 1: Topographic map showing the location of the MG and Central gold deposits (in red) and the outline of the recently discovered gold-in-oxide blankets at PDM and MG (in beige). The outline of the historic placer gold workings are shown in pale yellow.
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3900/103969_688bc4aa64d8a845_002full.jpg
Figure 2: Map showing the 5km-long Central trend at Cuiu Cuiu including the Central gold deposit (in yellow) and the main gold-in-auger soil anomaly (black lines) with the airborne magnetic data. The outline of the historic placer workings and the main targets along the trend are also highlighted
To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3900/103969_688bc4aa64d8a845_003full.jpg
Central Gold Deposit
The Central deposit is currently the largest gold deposit known at Cuiu Cuiu. It is a NW-trending deposit, which is up to 100m wide and 1.2km in length, and remains open along strike and down-dip. The current resource at Central comprises Indicated Resources of 5.9Mt @ 0.9 g/t gold (200,000oz), and Inferred Resources of 8.7Mt @1.1 g/t gold (300,000oz).
Previous drill results at Central include: 134.5m @ 1.1g/t gold; 65.8m @ 3.5 g/t gold including 6.1m @ 23.5 g/t gold; 179.6m @ 1.1 g/t gold including 5.1m 14.1 g/t gold; 174.2m @ 1.5 g/t gold including 2m @ 36.2 g/t gold; and 220m @ 2.0 g/t gold, including 9.8m @ 17.9 g/t gold.
A total of 76 historic diamond-drill holes, totaling 23,191m, define the current resource at Central. Within the broader zones of lower grade mineralization, 34 high-grade drill intercepts (>10 g/t Au) were encountered at Central. Historic drilling was designed to delimit a potential open-pit, bulk-tonnage deposit and therefore the high-grade intercepts were not the focus of historical drill programs and hence, were not followed up. Moreover, sections were very wide-spaced (in places over 200 m, but more commonly 100 m apart, to 50 m in the core area), and most sections just had one hole, all drilled to various depths.
Of the holes intersecting high grades, only 13 had one or more other holes drilled up-dip or down-dip on the same section, some of these intercepts were nearly 400 m down hole, or close to 350 m deep. As a result, it was not possible to correlate the high-grade intercepts between sections or within sections with any degree of confidence and therefore the orientation of the higher-grade structures and their true widths are not known. Nevertheless, Cabral believes it is important to better define and assess these high-grade intercepts, as several were significantly impacted through implementing top cuts in the 2018 resource estimates. Better defined continuous higher-grade zones could have a material impact on the grade and contained ounces of gold in future resource estimates.
Diamond drilling recently commenced at the Central gold deposit, and is aimed at defining and delimiting high-grade zones within the Central gold deposit. A total of 43 holes are planned totaling 5400m.
In addition, RC drilling is also in progress designed to test the near surface material for a possible third gold-in-oxide blanket at Cuiu Cuiu above the primary Central gold deposit. A total of 25 RC holes are planned.
PDM (Pau de Merenda) Target
The PDM target is an important target at Cuiu Cuiu and is located approximately 2.5km NW of the Central gold deposit (Figures 1 and 2). PDM comprises a gold-in-soil anomaly which is similar in size and magnitude to the Central gold deposit. Limited historic diamond drilling (nine holes totaling 2,593m) at this target previously returned encouraging drill results within the underlying bedrock, including; 30m @ 1.1 g/t gold, 47m @ 1.8 g/t gold, and 9m @ 5.1 g/t gold.
The recent completion of 31 RC holes at PDM has identified a gold-in-oxide blanket 27 hectares in size. This is akin to the recently identified gold-in-oxide blanket above the primary MG gold deposit. Assay results from the gold-in-oxide blanket have included: 40m @ 2.2 g/t gold, including 7m @ 9.4 g/t gold; 13m @ 0.9 g/t gold; 10m @ 0.9 g/t gold; and 11m @ 0.6 g/t gold (see press releases dated August 10, 2021 and October 28, 2021).
Perhaps more importantly, the RC drilling is continuing to define a NW-trending higher grade gold mineralization corridor. This extends at least 500m along strike and may indicate the location of an underlying primary mineralized structure which has eroded to form the gold-in-oxide blanket at PDM.
Diamond drilling aimed at testing for the presence of an underlying deposit is currently in progress. A total of five diamond-drill holes have been completed to date from a planned total of 11 initial holes. Results are pending.
Mutum Target
The Mutum target is located within the Central trend 750m SE of the PDM target and within the Central trend adjacent to extensive alluvial placer gold workings. Trenching of this saprolitized basement target revealed extensive stockwork gold mineralization and alteration akin to that which characterizes the primary gold mineralization at the Central gold deposit and the PDM target. Surface trench results at PDM previously returned 32m @ 1g/t gold, 25.5m @ 0.9g/t gold and 16.5m @ 0.9g/t gold, indicating the possible presence of another gold deposit.
Central North Target
The Central North target is located 1km NW of the Central gold deposit (Figure 2). Ten diamond-drill holes totaling 3,470m were previously drilled at this target. The best intervals included 39.4m @ 1.3 g/t gold, 20m @ 0.6 g/t gold and 19m @ 0.5 g/t gold. The drill spacing was however wide and results are not yet clearly understood.
No drilling has been previously completed between the Central North and PDM targets and this part of the Central Trend will also be tested during H1 2022. In particular the Mutum target has never been drill-tested but is expected to be drilled during Q1 2022.
Central SE Target
The Central SE target area covers at least 1km in strike length and is located directly along strike and SE of the Central Gold Deposit (Figure 2). The area is characterized by unexplained historic placer gold workings, and a large unexplained gold-in-soil anomaly. Limited historic drilling on this target has returned gold values including 27m @ 6.9g/t gold, including 14m @ 13.1 g/t gold, and 8m @ 8.4g/t gold.
Follow-up diamond drilling is planned at Central SE during Q2 2022, and is designed to test for the SE extension to the Central gold deposit.
Other Drilling at Cuiu Cuiu
Diamond drilling at the MG gold deposit is continuing with the objective of further defining and delimiting high-grade zones of mineralization along strike and down-dip. Results are currently pending on nine drill holes, and a further 26 diamond-drill holes are planned.
Results are currently pending on five diamond drill holes at the Alonso target which is located 3km SE of the MG gold deposit. Twenty-three samples of boulder float material from Alonso previously returned gold values of 11.6 to 200.3 g/t gold (see press release dated February 11, 2020).
About Cabral Gold Inc.
The Company is a junior resource company engaged in the identification, exploration and development of mineral properties, with a primary focus on gold properties located in Brazil. The Company has a 100% interest in the Cuiu Cuiu gold district located in the Tapajos Region, within the state of Para in northern Brazil. Two gold deposits have so far been defined at Cuiu Cuiu and contain 43-101 compliant Indicated resources of 5.9Mt @ 0.90g/t (200,000 oz) and Inferred resources of 19.5Mt @ 1.24g/t (800,000 oz).
The Tapajos Gold Province is the site of the largest gold rush in Brazil's history producing an estimated 30 to 50 million ounces of placer gold between 1978 and 1995. Cuiu Cuiu was the largest area of placer workings in the Tapajos and produced an estimated 2Moz of placer gold historically.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
"Alan Carter"
President and Chief Executive Officer
Cabral Gold Inc.
Tel: 604.676.5660
Guillermo Hughes, MAusIMM and FAIG., a consultant to the Company as well as a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). The use of the words "will", "expected" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. This news release contains forward-looking statements and assumptions pertaining to the following: strategic plans and future operations, and results of exploration. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct.
Notes
Gold analysis has been conducted by SGS method FAA505 (fire assay of 50g charge), with higher grade samples checked by FAA525. Analytical quality is monitored by certified references and blanks. Until dispatch, samples are stored under the supervision the Company's exploration office. The samples are couriered to the assay laboratory using a commercial contractor. Pulps are returned to the Company and archived. Drill holes results are quoted as down-hole length weighted intersections.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/103969
- Array of product innovations to serve specific air circulation needs of various civil and industrial environments with process development fuels centrifugal fan wheels market
- Rising installation of centrifugal fans for a number of industrial operations from light dust loading to clean air handling and material handling to high temperature applications to stimulate growth in centrifugal fan wheels market
ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The growing emphasis on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of buildings, workplaces, and factories with the recognition of significance of ventilation to prevent infectious diseases is fueling the centrifugal fan wheels market. To that end, stakeholders in the centrifugal fan wheels market are adhering to the UK Health and Safety Executive guidelines on ventilation and air conditioning laid down during the coronavirus outbreak.
The role of manufacturers in the centrifugal fan wheels market to diversify products and services for ventilation requirements to serve beyond customary end users such as oil & gas, power generation, and steel sectors is promising for the centrifugal fan wheels market.
The centrifugal fan wheels market is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2031.
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Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market - Key Findings of Report
Product Innovations in Backward Curved Wheels to Foster Growth
The increasing applications of backward curved wheels is driving the interest of manufacturers for improved products. The demand for backward curved wheels is expanding for variable flow applications due to their relatively low risk of being overloaded or stalled during operations. Backward curved wheels are comparatively more energy efficient than curved or airfoil style blade wheels. Emission control systems, dust collectors, and fume exhausters are some applications that are triggering the demand for backward curved wheels thereby creating opportunities in the centrifugal fan wheels market.
The role of product manufacturers to educate their customers about the benefits of various types of backward inclined, forward inclined, and radial fan wheels further stimulates the demand for novel products. For example, Eldridge - a provider of ventilation and noise control applications educates its customers and provides guidance for selection of fan wheels to serve individual requirements.
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Growing Demand in Paper & Pulp Industry to Expand Revenue Streams
The expanding deployment of fans and blowers across numerous industries for the safety of workers is promising for the centrifugal fan wheels market. The paper & pulp industry is emerging as a key end user for centrifugal fan wheels. In order to serve this, product manufacturers and suppliers are undertaking product development and working on logistics to support the paper & pulp industry. Product innovations include a number of high and low-pressure fans and blowers to support drying procedures.
Drying and bleaching processes in the paper industry lead to chemical loaded airstreams and high temperatures that requires ventilation for air circulation and for stable air flow through centrifugal fans. This opens prospects in the centrifugal fan wheels market.
Outbreak of COVID-19 created New Worker Safety Protocols in Mining Environments
The growing emphasis on installation of solid ventilation systems in mining environments is creating opportunities in the centrifugal fan wheels market. The outbreak of COVID-19 created adequate awareness of need for proper ventilation in dark closed spaces that is directly related to improve worker efficiency, decrease accident rates, and increase working days of workers.
Companies in the centrifugal fan wheels market are engaging in to identify blower requirements for underground mine ventilation applications. This is facilitated by stakeholders in the mining sector to provide airways at appropriate places in underground mining operations to install fans and blowers.
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Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market - Growth Drivers
Increasing recognition of importance of centrifugal fans for circulation of large volumes of air in industrial environments fuels centrifugal fan wheels market.
An array of applications of centrifugal fans from dust collection to drying and cooling to storage of materials for industrial processes stimulates growth in centrifugal fan wheels market.
Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market - Key Players
Some key companies operating in the centrifugal fan wheels market are TLT - Turbo, TWIN CITY FAN, Yilida, S&P Sistemas de Ventilacion SLU, punker GmbH, FERGAS GROUP AB, Kruger Ventilation, Howden Group, Loren Cook, Systemair AB, ebm-papst, ZIEHL ABEGG, Beckett Air Corporation.
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Currently three diamond drill rigs are active at Iska Iska, two surface rigs and one underground drill. Planned drilling for 2021 is 51,000m with the aim of outlining an initial inferred NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource by Q1 2022. The target zone at the SBBP and the surrounding mineralized envelope is 1400m along strike, 500m wide and extends to a depth of 600m. This zone is open along strike to the northwest and southeast. A downhole induced polarization/resistivity (IP/Res) survey is in progress to further define drill targets and aid resource definition drilling. Preliminary metallurgical tests are also in progress. An updated NI 43-101 Technical Report is being prepared by independent consultant Micon International Ltd.
About Eloro Resources Ltd.
Eloro is an exploration and mine development company with a portfolio of gold and base-metal properties in Bolivia, Peru and Quebec. Eloro has an option to acquire a 99% interest in the highly prospective Iska Iska Property, which can be classified as a polymetallic epithermal-porphyry complex, a significant mineral deposit type in the Potosi Department, in southern Bolivia. Eloro commissioned a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Iska Iska, which was completed by Micon International Limited and is available on Eloros website and under its filings on SEDAR. Iska Iska is a road-accessible, royalty-free property. Eloro also owns an 82% interest in the La Victoria Gold/Silver Project, located in the North-Central Mineral Belt of Peru some 50 km south of Barricks Lagunas Norte Gold Mine and Pan American Silvers La Arena Gold Mine. La Victoria consists of eight mining concessions and eight mining claims encompassing approximately 89 square kilometres. La Victoria has good infrastructure with access to road, water and electricity and is located at an altitude that ranges from 3,150 m to 4,400 m above sea level.
For further information please contact either Thomas G. Larsen, Chairman and CEO or Jorge Estepa, Vice-President at (416) 868-9168.
Information in this news release may contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Companys plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and are believed to be reasonable based on information currently available to the Company. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FourKites , the worlds leading real-time supply chain visibility platform , today published its global Premier Carrier List (PCL) for the third quarter of 2021. FourKites 11th consecutive quarterly list showcases the burgeoning community of brokers, carriers and 3PLs worldwide who are achieving the highest standards of visibility-related operational excellence across all modes of transport. The number of PCL-certified carriers is up more than 50% in the last two quarters alone, as more companies rely on FourKites and real-time visibility to keep goods flowing amid ongoing supply chain disruptions and capacity shortages.
FourKites Premier Carriers have demonstrated an ability to provide high-quality, consistent and accurate data on the vast majority of their loads, outperforming non-PCL carriers by 50%. In addition, Premier Carriers pervasive use of real-time visibility data provides their shipper customers and the broader supply chain ecosystem with the ability to streamline operations, increase the speed of shipping dock turn times, reduce inventory levels and optimize labor costs.
We are very pleased to see continued growth and interest in our Premier Carrier List, said Jason Eversole, Vice President of Carrier Operations at FourKites. Even during this time of high capacity and overwhelming demand, more carriers than ever are achieving our high standards of excellence and providing critical business value through visibility data that empowers their customers to be agile and resilient.
Premier Carriers, in their own words, on program benefits
Being named to FourKites Premier Carrier List underscores ArcBests commitment to bringing industry-leading, innovative solutions to our customers to drive their business forward. The last 20 months have proven how important it is to put ourselves in our customers shoes and constantly look ahead to plan for whats next. Supporting our customers success in the current environment is what we do every single day we find a way to bring the best solutions to our customers, no matter what.
- Danny Loe, Chief Yield Officer & President, Asset-Light Logistics, ArcBest
It's an honor for Global Spedition to be a part of the FourKites Premier Carrier List. This award is a recognition of our commitment to innovation and digitalization that allows us to provide our clients with the required information in real time. Only with these tools can we offer the highest-quality service, which is recognized by both our suppliers and customers.
- Emilio Gomariz, General Manager, Global Spedition
GlobalTranz is honored to be a part of the FourKites Premier Carrier List. This recognition displays GlobalTranzs commitment to service our customers as a strategic partner, becoming an extension of their supply chain. Through collaborative innovation utilizing FourKites, we exceed established performance metrics, while optimizing resources to focus on problem avoidance and resolution, carrier performance, integration, service and reliable visibility on demand. Thank you, FourKites, for the recognition!
- Brian Andalman, VP of Carrier Sales, GlobalTranz
With the marketplace challenges that we face today, supply chain transparency is a critical component of the customer solutions we offer. Our core philosophy has always been to exceed customer expectations, so were very pleased to maintain our position on the FourKites Premier Carrier List.
- Kelly Greenlee, President, RMX Global
A public-facing version of the Premier Carrier List is available here . Customers and the public can now access and search the list through an updated interface that filters carriers according to capabilities, transportation modes, geographies serviced and other relevant criteria. In addition, users can view carriers that are registered partners in the US Environmental Protection Agencys SmartWay program, which helps companies advance supply chain sustainability by measuring, benchmarking and improving freight transportation efficiencies. Inclusion in FourKites PCL complements the companys longstanding prioritization of supply chain sustainability initiatives .
About FourKites
FourKites is the #1 supply chain visibility platform in the world, extending visibility beyond transportation into yards, warehouses, stores and beyond. Tracking more than 2 million shipments daily across road, rail, ocean, air, parcel and courier, and reaching 176 countries, FourKites combines real-time data and powerful machine learning to help companies digitize their end-to-end supply chains. More than 750 of the worlds most recognized brands including 9 of the top-10 CPG and 18 of the top-20 food and beverage companies trust FourKites to transform their business and create more agile, efficient and sustainable supply chains. To learn more, visit https://www.fourkites.com/ .
Media Contact:
Marianna Vyridi
Big Valley Marketing for FourKites
(650) 468-3263
mvyridi@bigvalley.co
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/926b724f-479e-4893-bda8-1f97f771fae2
Toronto, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BenchSci, an emerging global leader in machine learning applications for novel medicine development, announced today it ranks 19th among the countrys fastest-growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50.
The program awards companies for their rapid revenue growth, entrepreneurial spirit, and bold innovation, and consists of public and private companies in the tech sector which have transformed the industry.
This recognition is a confirmation of our groundbreaking work to bring novel medicine to patients faster, says Liran Belenzon, CEO, BenchSci. Our machine learning technology decodes and organizes the worlds most comprehensive biomedical dataset like a Ph.D. scientist. As a result, we eliminate experiments that delay progress and drain research budgets in the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies. This award reflects the value were bringing not only to our customers research productivity but to all of us who benefit from healthcare innovation.
To qualify for the Tech Fast 50, companies must have been in business for at least four years, have revenues of at least $5 million, be headquartered in Canada, own proprietary technology, conduct research and development activities in Canada, and invest a minimum of five percent of gross revenues in Research and Development.
Founded in 2015, BenchSci has rapidly grown its customer base since launching commercially in 2017. In addition to powering research in over 4,300 academic labs, BenchSci is an indispensable tool for preclinical R&D in 15 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. A remote-first company with headquarters in Toronto, BenchSci is a leader in biomedical machine learning and continuously invests in researching and developing AI-powered tools to help scientists run more successful experiments.
I am thankful for the innovation and commitment of our team members that enable scientists to accelerate drug discovery, continues Belenzon. We are honored with the trust our customers place in us as we build the next generation of products that will continue to transform R&D.
About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program is Canadas pre-eminent technology awards program.
Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features distinct categories, including the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Enterprise Fast 15, Clean Technology, and Companies-to-Watch. The program also recognizes companies within the North American Technology Fast 500 ranking, identifying technology companies in the United States and Canada. The 2021 program sponsors include Deloitte, RBC, EDC, Miller Thomson, Clarity Recruitment, and Lafond. For further information, visit www.fast50.ca.
About BenchSci
BenchScis vision is to bring novel medicine to patients 50% faster by 2025. Were achieving it by empowering scientists with the worlds most advanced biomedical artificial intelligence to run more successful experiments. Backed by F-Prime, Gradient Ventures (Googles AI fund), and Inovia Capital, our platform accelerates science at 15 top-20 pharmaceutical companies and over 4,300 leading research centers worldwide. Were a Deloitte Tech Fast 50 and CIX Top 10 Growth company, certified Great Place to Work, and top-ranked company on Glassdoor. Learn more at www.benchsci.com.
For more BenchSci updates, visit our news page.
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Innovative global intellectual property protector and producer to advocate fairness for content owners, fight online piracy in sixth most populated country
NEW BOSTON, N.H., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intellectual property protection and Identity as a Service (IdaaS) firm American Films, Inc. (OTC: AMFL) today announced that it has launched business operations in Brazil.
Working through its sister entity Facterra, the company has established an office in Sao Paolo, the largest city in Latin America. Facterra has also begun working in Brazils capital city of Brasilia to combat online piracy in the sixth most populous country in the world, advocating for greater intellectual property protections.
Our expansion into Latin America is another important step in the growth of our intellectual property protection strategies, said Geoff C. Lee, president and chief executive officer of American Films, Inc. Our Brazil team, headed by the American Brazilian film veteran Michael Davis and respected Brazilian creative rights advocate Wemerson Marinho, has hit the ground running, powered by our proprietary copyright infringement-tracking technology, FACTERRA.
Based in the United States, American Films owns, develops, and acquires intellectual property, which it seeks to monetize at higher rates through proprietary technology, litigation, and asset digitization. Its unique proprietary processes and technology include FACTERRA, a web-based evidence gathering program that identifies instances of copyright infringement and allows American Films to pursue intellectual property protection litigation on behalf of copyright owners.
Coming home to Brazil with American Films brings it all together for me, said Davis, who has dual American Brazilian citizenship and is also chief executive officer of Uptone Pictures, an independent film production company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. With our many strong relationships in Brazil, a country known for its high level of copyright infringement activity, Facterra Brazil is off to a strong start in our fight against global intellectual property theft and to protect the rights of artists and the government of Brazil to be fairly paid.
Marinho, who has a track record of commercial and lobbying success in Brazil, added that he is confident that the American Films mission will resonate with Brazilians.
Through my leadership with the National Academy of Culture and our growing creative rights coalition in Brazil, we are building awareness of the damage that intellectual property piracy does, not only to artists and owners but to everyone through the loss of tax and other legitimate revenue and the negative impact on Brazils global reputation, Marinho said.
American Films Inc. is an innovative company that owns, develops, acquires, and protects intellectual property in the creative and media spaces. Relying on proprietary technology, litigation, and asset digitization, American Films supports the creative process and protects intellectual property in the film and music industries. For more information on American Films, please visit https://americanfilms.us/.
Media Contacts:
John Reynolds, Buchanan PR
610-228-0730
john.reynolds@buchananpr.com
Corinna Wilson, Wilson500
717-979-3407
corinnawilson@wilson500.com
TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Platinex Inc. (CSE: PTX) (Frankfurt 9PX) (the "Company" or "Platinex") is pleased to announce the appointment of Greg Ferron to the position of interim CEO effective immediately. Greg has been a director of Platinex since September 2020. The appointment follows the retirement of the Companys Founder and CEO, Jim Trusler, who will remain Non-Executive Chairman and a key member of the technical team.
Mr. Trusler led the acquisition, through option agreements and staking, to create a district scale gold property in Shining Tree comprising 21,720 ha (53,671 ac.), making it one of the largest gold prospects in southwestern Abitibi/Timmins camp (see map). Mr. Ferron brings significant and diverse experience with in-depth knowledge of Platinex allowing for a seamless transition.
Mr. Ferron has 20 years of mining industry and capital markets experience. He has held various senior level roles in mining, corporate finance, corporate development including Laramide Resources Ltd., Treasury Metals Inc., TMX Group and Scotiabank. He currently serves on the board of directors at Fancamp Exploration Inc. and Platinex Inc.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to Jim Trusler for his leadership, hard work and dedication to Platinex as CEO and Founder. The Board wishes Jim all the best in his retirement, added Mr. Christophe Vereecke, Director.
On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to welcome Greg to the CEO role, said Jim Trusler, Chairman. I am now comfortable that Platinex is close to a major discovery. Currently leadership in the financial markets is essential and building out an exploration team for the future. For that reason, I am happy to welcome Greg to the CEO position. He has the skills and contacts to make the transition successful for Platinex.
Mr. Ferron stated: The SW Timmins camp has experienced a transformation in the last ten years with the discovery and now development of several multi-million-ounce gold deposits, mainly along the Ridout-Tyrrell deformation zone. We will continue de-risking the project with exploration combined with a focus to analyze opportunities to enhance Platinexs position among investors.
The Company would also like to announce the grant of 3,400,000 stock options to certain Officers, Directors, Consultants and Advisors. The stock options shall be granted at a strike price of $0.05 for a period of three (3) years and shall vest immediately.
About Platinex Inc. Advancing a District Scale Project in an Abitibi Gold Camp
Platinex is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol PTX. Platinexs focus is the Shining Tree gold property in the Abitibi gold province of Ontario, which is a world-renowned for gold. The company also has royalties on gold, PGE and base metal properties in Canada and Chile. The goal of the company is to create shareholder value through exploration, opportunistic acquisition, and discovery of commercial gold. The property is located along 21 km of the Ridout-Tyrrell deformation zone and is east of IAMGOLDs Cote Gold deposit and adjacent to Aris Golds Juby deposit.
For further information please contact. Mr. Greg Ferron, CEO at 416-270-5042
Or via email at: gferron@platinex.com
To receive Company press releases, please sign up on the website.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:
This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. 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. Such statements include use proprietary data to seek financial backing to advance its platinum group properties, submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of applicable assets and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities laws.
Investing into early-stage companies, inherently carries a high degree of risk and investment into securities of the Company shall be considered highly speculative.
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 province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities issued, or to be issued, under the Private Placement 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 registration requirements.
The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e05dbc36-0db8-4df0-b9ab-68906d266e6e
SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For the second year in a row, Santander Chile held a virtual event with investors, where the advances of the Bank were explained by Claudio Melandri, President of the Bank, and its CEO, Miguel Mata. In this opportunity, the focus was ESG themes (Environmental, Social, and Governance), highlighting the efforts Santander has done to help its clients transition towards a greener economy and how it has reduced its own impact on the planet.
The road forward
The Bank is currently preparing its first ESG Framework which should be launched soon. Under this mechanism, the bond issues will have an official seal as ESG bonds. This framework will include a Second Party Opinion to ensure that funds will be allocated to projects, complying with the principles of the International Capital Markets Association. Initially, US$1.5 billion in initiatives have been identified that will be financed through this program. The ESG bonds will be linked to energy efficiency, renewable energy, pollution reduction, financial inclusion, and social projects.
Miguel Mata announced the ten responsible banking commitments that we have established to meet in the coming years:
To be the best company to work for in Chile: we are currently the number 1 company in the Great Place To Work ranking in 2020 in companies with more than 1,000 workers and we have the Top Employer certification. We seek to maintain this leadership position.
Increase the percentage of women in managerial positions: currently 25% of managers are women and our goal is to reach 30% by 2025.
Eliminate the gender pay gap: we currently have a 3.1% gender pay gap and our goal is to eliminate it by 2025. The Equal Conciliation Seal, delivered by the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, gives us a path and an official commitment to advance on this issue.
Work to financially empower people: between 2019 and 2020 we contributed to financially empower 921,779 people. Through our financial products such as Life we want to financially empower more than 2 million people by 2025.
Grant green financing to our clients: We have defined a goal for 2025 to finance our own projects and those of our clients for at least US$ 1.5 billion through our ESG framework.
Increase energy from renewable sources: 28% of our energy comes from these types of sources. In addition, we are committed to ensuring that 100% of the electrical energy we use comes from renewable sources.
Mitigate 100% of our carbon footprint and gradually reduce it: since 2019 we mitigate 100% of our carbon footprint. We will also continue to make progress in measuring the carbon footprint of our loan portfolio and we join the Group's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Regarding our own operations, the goal is to be carbon neutral by 2025, without the need to offset the footprint with the purchase of carbon credits.
Eliminate single-use plastics in our operation: This year we will eliminate 100% of single-use plastics.
Deliver scholarships, internships and entrepreneurship programs: in 2020 we awarded 2,951 scholarships for education and entrepreneurship at the local level. Our goal is to award 13,541 scholarships between 2019 and 2024.
Support people through our community contribution programs: during 2020 we supported 103,792 people through our education programs and other support measures for the benefit of people in vulnerable situations. In social matters between 2019 and 2024 we hope to help 493,852 people through our community programs.
We also want to continue generating ROE at 17% -19% with core capital levels above 10% in BIS III.
During the event, there was also a deep dive into each theme of Environmental, Social, and Governance and how the Bank has integrated these into its strategy:
Environmental
The financial solutions linked to ESG criteria has been one of the value added offers the Bank has put forth to companies that seek to advance in these themes. Through different financing alternatives, Santander Chile has driven the local market to move towards a greener economy. We have been part of important projects such as Desaladora Spence, Cerro Dominador, and other projects with ESG criteria that are linked to the achievement of ESG KPIs. All structured projects above US$10 million pass through the evaluation of the Equator Principles, a strict risk policy for restricted activities.
Santander Verde is a comprehensive value proposition for our clients that promotes various eco-friendly products such as:
A Green Mortgage, where homes or real estate projects with sustainable construction certificates are financed at a preferential rate and offset their carbon footprint.
Consumer credit, focused on reconditioning and energy efficiency projects. This credit provides a preferential rate to the client and also the bank compensates 1 ton in Carbon Bonds to mitigate the impact of the product.
Carbon footprint offset program, where clients can choose to offset their footprint through the purchase of carbon bonds or choose to make a direct contribution to environmental projects in Chile.
Electric car loans, with the launch of a credit line for electric cars sold by SKBerge and a discount for electric cars sold by VoltEra.
PYME Verde is an initiative in conjunction with Sistema B that is supporting some 300 small companies to measure their ESG footprint and thus be able to start a certification process.
Santander Asset Management Green Mutual Fund, which allows investment in companies committed to the environment, society and good corporate governance practices.
During the ESG Talk, Claudio Melandri announced that the entity will be one of the first large companies in Chile and the first local bank in producing its own renewable energy. An agreement was signed with Gasco Luz and Fourtrees Capital where six solar plants of 300kW each will be built in the Coquimbo, Valparaiso and Metropolitan Region and will be fully operational by 2022. The contract consists of a 10-year lease of these solar plants that are already under construction for an annual payment of US$240,000.
100% of the energy produced in these plants will be used for energy consumption within the Bank, thus reducing its carbon footprint by 1,380 tons each year. In this manner, the energy generated in these plants will be incorporated to the national grid, permitting Santander to compensate its consumption through this contribution.
These energy plants are in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In effect, in 2019 the Santander Group set as an objective to have 100% of its energy come from renewable resources in 2025 in countries where it was possible to certify the energy resource. In addition, the loan book will also be carbon neutral by 2050, in line with the Net Zero Banking Alliance, which Santander adheres to.
Social
In the Social dimension, we are focused on the contribution towards a more sustainable development for communities. The employees of the Bank are important stakeholders, and the Bank has made many efforts to promote the development of its employees, so they can fully deploy their potential and contribute to the sustainability of the organization. In 2020, we achieved first place in Great Place to Work for companies with over 1,000 employees. In 2021, we became the first bank to receive the seal Iguala Conciliacion by the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, ratifying our commitment to continue to increase diversity throughout the workforce and consolidate its first place as the best place to work.
We also focus on three main areas to contribute to the progress and the inclusive development of communities: Social Inclusion, Financial Education and Entrepreneurship. In total, all of our social aid and financial inclusion programs have helped more than 1.5 million people throughout the country since 2019.
We are one of the companies with the most clients in the country. In total, as of September 2021, the total customer base was 4.0 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Customers with current or debit accounts totaled 1.8 million as of September 2021 with a 44% growth and our digital clients were growing 30% at the same date, totaling 1.9 million. The success with our clients is especially due to progress in digital banking and the constant improvement in service quality. This has allowed us to resume our vocation for financial inclusion in a responsible way and without over-indebting clients. We are the bank with the highest levels of satisfaction and NPS in the industry, reaching a historically high level of 59 points and opening the gap even more with our competitors.
Governance
Santander Chile has three layers of ring-fencing to protect the interests of all investors equally.
The first layer is regulatory. The Bank complies with the regulations of the CMF and the Central Bank of Chile and also the SEC regulations for foreign issuers, the Sarbanes Oxley Law of the United States, the corporate governance standards of the NYSE and, as it is part of Grupo Santander , we are monitored by the European Central Bank. It is one of the most regulated companies in the region.
The relationship with the Group is also key and is the second layer of protection. The Santander Group has adopted a multiple points of entry structure. While Santander Chile enjoys sharing best practices, corporate frameworks, policies, and know-how with the Group, it is completely independent in terms of capital, liquidity, and financing, protecting the interests of all investors equally.
The third layer is the Board of Directors, the highest governing body in Santander-Chile. The Board of Directors is made up of nine regular members and two alternates. A key aspect of the Board of Directors is its independence and diversity. Of the 11 directors, seven are independent from the main shareholder. All eleven directors have vast experience in many fields to ensure a widespread view of global issues.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Robert Moreno
Investor Relations
Banco Santander Chile
Bandera 140, Floor 20
Santiago, Chile
Tel: (562) 2320-8284
Email: irelations@santander.cl
Website: www.santander.cl
Oakville, ON, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Chopped Leaf is a leading Canadian restaurant brand with locations across Canada. Today, the company has announced that the newest location situated within Dartmouth, Nova Scotia is officially open, marking the brand as a coast-to-coast chain.
Known as the City of Lakes, Dartmouth offers kayaking, windsurfing, canoeing and swimming. Residents and visitors enjoy visiting the many parks with walking trails, where people can walk the coast which stretches across the Eastern Shore. With ample opportunities to be outside and get active, the restaurants an ideal spot to refuel after exploring everything the area has to offer.
Dartmouth is an upbeat community located in Nova Scotia, on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth crossing has been named one of Canadas largest and most dominant retail commercial projects, making it an ideal location to continue the growth of the brand. The newest location has joined the lineup of other retailers, which attract over 10,000 visitors daily.
Being a Canadian brand is at the core of our values and it is something we are proud of. Having the opportunity to open a new restaurant in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has given us rights to declare something even bigger. Not only are we a Canadian brand, but you can find us coast-to-coast, says Blair Stevens, Brand President of The Chopped Leaf. Our goal from day one has been to offer better-for-you, quality meals to as many Canadians as possible. This gets us one step closer and we wont stop there.
The Chopped Leafs development plans will continue to be a priority for the brand. Recognizing that the demand for fresh, nutritious food that is accessible on-the-go is on the rise, the team is consistently on the hunt for ideal locations with quality franchisees.
For more information on franchising opportunities, visit https://www.choppedleaf.ca/franchise-opportunities/.
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About The Chopped Leaf
Proudly Canadian, The Chopped Leaf has over 100 locations open and committed to open within Canada and the USA. We are a lifestyle brand that offers delicious, chef designed meals, served fresh and quick for a better-for-you experience. Find The Chopped Leaf on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or visit us at choppedleaf.ca. The Chopped Leaf is owned and managed by Innovative Food Brands.
Franchise Opportunities with The Chopped Leaf start with the roots to ensure franchises grow. Every element counts, from operations to marketing and design. If you are interested in becoming a Franchisee, visit https://www.choppedleaf.ca/franchise-opportunities/.
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PHOENIX, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- Since launching its Crypto IRA Solution through a strategic relationship with Gemini in May 2021, Directed IRA has attracted over $40M in crypto IRA investments as of October 2021. Directed IRA is on track to have over $100M invested into IRA owned crypto trading accounts at Gemini within its first year.
IRAs of the future will own Bitcoin, crypto, and other digital assets. The IRA and crypto expertise of Directed IRA and Gemini has resulted in a best-in-class and simplified low-fee Crypto IRA product. Mat Sorensen, Attorney, Founder, and CEO of Directed IRA by Directed Trust Company.
Through the strategic relationship, Directed IRA and Gemini are simplifying the process of using an IRA to invest in cryptocurrency and putting trading and investment controls in the hands of the IRA owner in a cost-effective manner.
Directed IRA selected Gemini because they are one of the few licensed and audited providers in the crypto industry and have leading product, security, licensing, and compliance capabilities.
Were proud of the tremendous growth that Directed IRA has experienced in offering crypto exposure to IRA owners. As the exclusive custody and exchange provider of Directed IRA were thrilled that investors have so readily diversified their retirement holdings with crypto assets and look forward to continuing to support further growth in this space. said Kristen Mirabella, Director, Business Development, at Gemini.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Why Would You Want to Own Crypto in Your IRA?
Using an IRA to invest in crypto provides significant tax advantages. Roth IRAs are popular among IRA investors buying crypto as there is no tax on the gains when you are trading, and the funds come out of the Roth IRA entirely tax-free at retirement (age 59 ). Many investors also use traditional IRA funds which are tax deferred accounts where the tax is deferred and only due when you withdraw funds at retirement.
Buying crypto with an IRA is an easy three step process. First, a retirement account (IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, HSA, Solo 401k, ESA) is set-up by Directed IRA and is funded by rollovers/transfers from the account owners existing retirement accounts or is funded by new IRA contributions. Second, a Gemini crypto trading account is established in the name of the IRA and is funded by the Directed IRA account. The IRA owns the Gemini crypto trading account. And third, the IRA account owner is added to the Gemini exchange account and now has full access to buy, sell, and store Bitcoin and over 50 other cryptocurrencies.
Why Use Directed IRA and Gemini for Your Crypto IRA?
Directed IRA by Directed Trust Company is a licensed and audited trust company in Arizona assisting IRA customers nationwide. Directed IRA is audited annually by third party CPA firms and is examined by Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (AZDIFI). Directed IRA has processed over $1B in customer transactions and is the highest rated for customer service in the self-directed IRA industry (based on hundreds of verified google reviews).
Directed IRAs leadership team consists of attorneys, CPAs, and industry credentialed professionals. Directed offers the full spectrum of accounts that can be invested into crypto, including Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, HSA, Coverdell ESA, Solo 401(k), Custodial 401k, Inherited Roth and Traditional IRAs, and Backdoor Roth IRAs.
Directed IRA has been at the forefront of crypto IRA investing. Its founder and CEO, Mat Sorensen, used his retirement account in 2017 to buy crypto and Directed IRA has been helping clients since 2018. Mat is an attorney and the author of the #1 book on self-directed IRAs, The Self-Directed IRA Handbook, which has sold over 35,000 copies and which includes a chapter on cryptocurrency investing with an IRA.
Gemini Trust Company, LLC is a New York trust company that is a fiduciary and subject to the capital reserve requirements, cybersecurity requirements, and banking compliance standards set forth by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) and the New York Banking Law. Gemini's simple, reliable, and secure products are built to empower the individual. Gemini was founded in 2014 by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
Media Contact
Joanna Garzilli
Business Development Officer, Crypto Division
Directed IRA & Directed Trust Company
+1-602-654-3281
joanna.garzilli@directedira.com
Wire Service Contact
InvestorWire (IW)
Los Angeles, California
www.InvestorWire.com
212.418.1217 Office
Editor@InvestorWire.com
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PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rittenhouse Realty Advisors, a commercial real estate sales brokerage firm, is pleased to announce the sale of The HUB at 31 Brewerytown, a recently constructed luxury apartment building containing 201 apartments with on-site parking located at 1406-1446 N 31st Street in Philadelphia. Ken Wellar, Corey Lonberger, and Mark Duszak arranged the sale on behalf of the seller, a longtime Philadelphia area real estate developer. The buyer, Israel Terkeltaub of Manor Holdings, is a well-established owner/operator out of northern New Jersey.
The property was built in 2018 using modular construction. The HUB offers tenants over 20,000 SF of indoor and outdoor amenity space that includes a pool, gym, outdoor kitchen, fire pit lounges, indoor lounge spaces and life-style centered amenities as well as 8,000 SF of workshare space. The pet friendly property also offers a dog park and dog washing station. Units feature luxury kitchen and bath finishes, in-unit laundry, and stainless steel appliances.
Ken Wellar, Managing Partner at RRA, stated: Modular construction is becoming a more popular and favorable method of construction in large-scale multi-family development. This is the eighth modular property our firm has sold in the last few years. We are continuing to see family offices come into the Philadelphia region to acquire larger Class-A buildings for their portfolios.
For more information on current rates or to view our available listings visit www.RittenhouseRealty.com .
Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rittenhouse Realty Advisors is a real estate advisory firm with an extensive focus in the brokerage of multi-family communities throughout the northeast region of the United States. Formed in February 2013 by a group of advisors with more than 30 years of commercial investment sales experience, our focus is on multi-family and mixed-use properties with significant residential components.
www.RittenhouseRealty.com
Press Contact: Corey Lonberger and Ken Wellar
Managing Partners
215-454-2852
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/18eb12d5-8618-4100-b968-e413eadf963e
Dublin, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Battery-free Sensors Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis, by Sensor Type (Temperature Sensors, Humidity/Moisture Sensors, Pressure Sensors), Frequency, Industry (Automotive, Logistics, Healthcare, Food & Beverages), and Region - Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global battery-free sensors market size is projected to grow from USD 32 million in 2021 to USD 109 million by 2026; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27.6% from 2021 to 2026.
With rapid technological advancements, battery-free sensors are increasingly adopted in IoT applications to improve production efficiency and reduce operational and maintenance costs in the wake of COVID-19.
Additionally, the ongoing miniaturization of medical and electronic devices and the growing implementation of automated condition monitoring solutions in smart factories are expected to boost the growth of the battery-free sensors market during the forecast period.
In the prevailing COVID-19 situation, the expected growth of the battery-free sensors market is expected to decline as the pandemic is restricting the supply of batteries and other components due to severe disruptions in businesses and the global economy. The current situation has impacted the supply chain of the battery industry. Key components for batteries are mainly manufactured in Asia Pacific.
The COVID-19 situation has exposed the overdependency on the region for key raw materials, especially China. Battery manufacturers in the US, Germany, and Australia are highly impacted by the shutdown of operations in China and other Asia Pacific countries.
It has also resulted in limited production leading to a serious decline in business inputs. The recovery depends on government assistance, as well as the level of corporate debt and how the companies and markets cope with the trimmed demand.
Ultra High frequency segment expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period
At present, most battery-free sensor manufacturers offer UHF sensors for various applications. These sensors have much longer read ranges (up to 20 feet)than that of low-frequency and high-frequency sensors and can be mounted on metal; hence, UHF sensors are ideal for industrial applications.
UHF sensors also allow multiple sensors to read with the help of one reader. Thus, UHF sensors work well in a wireless sensor network. These factors contribute to the high demand for UFH battery-free sensors. Similarly, high-frequency sensors hold a significant market share owing to the high deployment of these sensors in medical devices, smartphones, and supply chain applications.
Logistics industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period
In recent years, logistics has emerged as a significant market for sensors. Smart sensors increase the automated collection and processing of data and broaden management visibility across the supply chain to help companies reduce operating costs, improve asset efficiency, and generate incremental revenue. Battery-free sensors with RFID technology enable touch-free identification and tracking of items and have helped transform traditional inventory management.
RFID enables a more automated approach that can offer increased accuracy and real-time inventory tracking at a very low cost. These sensors allow for more traceability of inventory, potentially reducing the risk of inventory shrinkage or loss. More reliable and current information can also strengthen demand-planning capabilities, potentially reducing out-of-stock and overstock situations.
Moreover, advancements in battery-free sensors technology have generated savings not only from inventory theft protection but also from reduced spoilage. Hence, the logistics industry is expected to be the fastest-growing market from 2021 to 2026.
APAC is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period
Battery-free sensors market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during 2021?2026. Ongoing industrialization, growing adoption of predictive maintenance tools, and increasing competitive pressure to achieve operational efficiency are fueling the growth of the battery-free sensors market in this region.
The expansion of manufacturing activities resulting from the migration of production bases to Asian countries, such as China, India, and South Korea, with low labor costs, drives the demand for battery-free sensors in the region.
However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the manufacturing facilities of all verticals across the world, forcing them to shut down. However, production has resumed in a few facilities in China, thereby initiating the manufacturing of some essentials.
Key Topics Covered:
1 Introduction
2 Research Methodology
3 Executive Summary
4 Premium Insights
4.1 Attractive Growth Opportunities In Battery-Free Sensors Market
4.2 Market, by Sensor Type
4.3 Market, by Frequency
4.4 Market In North America, by Industry and Country
4.5 Market, by Industry
4.6 Market, by Country
5 Market Overview
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Market Dynamics
5.2.1 Drivers
5.2.1.1 Rising use of battery-less sensors in IoT applications to reduce maintenance costs, coupled with rapid advancements in sensing technology
5.2.1.2 Increasing installation of battery-free sensors in manufacturing plants during COVID-19 scenario to improve productivity
5.2.1.3 Ongoing miniaturization of medical and electronic devices
5.2.1.4 Surging adoption of automated condition monitoring solutions in smart factories
5.2.2 Restraints
5.2.2.1 High set up costs associated with the installation of sensor networks and intense price competition
5.2.2.2 Data security concerns
5.2.3 Opportunities
5.2.3.1 Supportive government initiatives and funds sanctioned for IoT projects
5.2.3.2 High implementation of predictive maintenance programs in industrial environments
5.2.4 Challenges
5.2.4.1 Restricted market growth in first half of 2020 owing to supply chain disruptions resulting from COVID-19
5.2.4.2 Lack of knowledge to handle large data sets
5.3 Value Chain Analysis
5.4 Ecosystem Analysis
5.5 Revenue Shift and New Revenue Pockets for Battery-Free Sensors Market
5.6 Porter's Five forces Analysis
5.7 Case Study Analysis
5.8 Technology Analysis
5.9 Pricing Analysis
5.10 Trade Analysis
5.11 Patent Analysis
5.12 Tariff Landscape
5.13 Regulatory Landscape
6 Battery-Free Sensors Market, by Frequency
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Low Frequency
6.2.1 Access Control and Inventory Management Applications Are Major Contributors To the Growth of Low-Frequency Segment
6.3 High Frequency
6.3.1 Medical Devices and Supply Chain Applications Contribute Most To Rising Demand for High-Frequency Sensors
6.4 Ultra High Frequency
6.4.1 Ultra-High-Frequency Battery-Free Sensors Are the Most In-Demand Sensors
7 Battery-Free Sensors Market, by Sensor Type
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Temperature Sensors
7.2.1 High Adoption of Temperature Sensors In Manufacturing Sector To Drive Market Growth
7.3 Humidity/Moisture Sensors
7.3.1 Easy Connectivity To Devices Enabled With Wi-Fi To Boost Demand for Battery-Free Humidity Sensors
7.4 Pressure Sensors
7.4.1 High Demand From Industries Such As Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas, and Food & Beverages Propels Market Growth
7.5 Motion and Position Sensors
7.5.1 Technological Advancements Lead To Increasing Demand for Battery-Free Motion and Position Sensors In Different Applications
7.6 Light Sensors
7.6.1 Strong Demand for Light Sensors Is Primarily Driven by Building Automation Applications
7.7 Other Sensors
7.7.1 Image Sensors
7.7.2 Ultrasonic Sensors
7.7.3 Vibration Sensors
8 Applications of Battery-Free Sensors
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Food Quality Monitoring
8.3 Supply Chain Management
8.4 Condition Monitoring
8.5 Building Automation
8.6 Data Centers
9 Battery-Free Sensors Market, by Industry
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Automotive
9.2.1 IIoT Enables Automotive Industry To Adopt Easy-To-Integrate Battery-Free Sensors
9.3 Logistics
9.3.1 Battery-Free Sensors Have Huge Potential In Logistics and Supply Chain Applications
9.4 Healthcare
9.4.1 Pharmaceutical Companies Use Battery-Free Sensors To Supervise and Manage Various Processes On Production Floor
9.5 Oil & Gas
9.5.1 Advent of Industry 4.0 and Battery-Free Sensors Ensures Smooth Monitoring and Management of Oil & Gas Plants
9.6 Food & Beverages
9.6.1 Rapid Technological Developments In Food & Beverages Industry To Accelerate Demand for Battery-Free Sensors
9.7 It and Telecommunications
9.7.1 Automated Data Centers To Create Huge Opportunities for Battery-Free Sensor Providers
9.8 Others
10 Geographic Analysis
10.1 Introduction
10.2 North America
10.2.1 US
10.2.1.1 Product launch and collaboration strategies of key players to stimulate the growth of battery-free sensors market in the US
10.2.2 Canada
10.2.2.1 Adoption of smart factory solutions in Canada to propel the growth of market in-country
10.2.3 Mexico
10.2.3.1 Growth of industrial automation market in Mexico to create lucrative opportunities for battery-free sensors market in-country
10.3 Europe
10.3.1 Germany
10.3.1.1 Implementation of Industry 4.0 to support growth of battery-free sensors market in Germany
10.3.2 UK
10.3.2.1 Deployment of IoT in manufacturing sector to drive growth of battery-free sensors market in UK
10.3.3 France
10.3.3.1 Focus on technological research and development and government support to promote battery-free sensors market growth in France
10.3.4 Rest of Europe
10.4 APAC
10.4.1 China
10.4.1.1 High labor costs in China encouraging manufacturers to use battery-free sensors
10.4.2 Japan
10.4.2.1 Notable growth of automotive industry of Japan to elevate demand for battery-free sensors in country
10.4.3 India
10.4.3.1 Make in India initiative to drive utilization of battery-free sensors in manufacturing sector in India
10.4.4 Rest of APAC
10.5 Rest of the World (RoW)
10.5.1 Middle East and Africa
10.5.1.1 High adoption of battery-free sensors by oil and gas companies in Middle East to propel market growth
10.5.2 South America
10.5.2.1 Heavy investments of South American economies in shipbuilding, mining, and automobile manufacturing activities to spur demand for battery-free sensors
11 Competitive Landscape
11.1 Overview
11.2 Top 5 Company Revenue Analysis
11.3 Market Share Analysis, 2020
11.4 Competitive Leadership Mapping
11.4.1 Star
11.4.2 Emerging Leader
11.4.3 Pervasive
11.4.4 Participant
11.5 Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Evaluation Matrix, 2020
11.5.1 Progressive Company
11.5.2 Responsive Company
11.5.3 Dynamic Company
11.5.4 Starting Block
11.6 Battery-Free Sensors Market: Product Footprint
11.7 Competitive Situations and Trends
11.7.1 Battery-Free Sensors Market: Product Launches, September 2020-May 2021
11.7.2 Market: Deals, October 2018-November 2020
12 Company Profiles
12.1 Introduction
12.1.1 Impact of COVID-19 On Companies Operating In Battery-Free Sensors Market
12.2 Key Players (Business Overview, Products offered, Recent Developments, and MnM View (Key strengths/Right to Win, Strategic Choices Made, and Weaknesses and Competitive Threats))*
12.2.1 ON Semiconductor
12.2.2 Farsens
12.2.3 Axzon (Rfmicron, Inc.)
12.2.4 Inductosense Ltd.
12.2.5 Phase IV Engineering
12.2.6 Powercast Corp.
12.2.7 Distech Controls
12.2.8 Enocean GmbH
12.2.9 DCO Systems Ltd.
12.2.10 Everactive
12.3 Other Key Players
12.3.1 Fuji Electric Co., Ltd
12.3.2 Bridg Inc.
12.3.3 General Electric
12.3.4 Infineon Technologies Ag
12.3.5 Metalcraft
12.3.6 GA0 Group
12.3.7 Texas Instruments Inc.
12.3.8 Omni-ID
12.3.9 NXP Semiconductors
12.3.10 Zebra Technologies
12.3.11 Alien Technology
12.3.12 Impinj
12.3.13 CAEN RFID S.R.L.
12.3.14 Identiv
12.3.15 Securitag Assembly Group (SAG)
13 Appendix
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dx3o8y
Ottawa, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite the growth of digital trade in Canada and globally, there are challenges in accurately measuring the size, impact or even a clear definition of what digital trade is, shows a report released today by The Conference Board of Canada.
While an increasingly prevalent and important part of our daily lives, accurately measuring digital trade is difficult in part due to being relatively new and rapidly expanding, said Swapna Nair, Senior Economist, Global Commerce Centre Lead at The Conference Board of Canada. The pandemic was a significant factor in increasing the volume of digital trade, with many of these types of purchases expected to be lasting as consumers favor the convenience of online transactions.
Key findings of the research include:
Although there is no universally accepted definition of digital trade, there is growing consensus internationally on a proposed framework from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), WTO, and IMF which is: all trade that is digitally ordered and/or digitally delivered.
Digital technologies are changing the way trade moves across borders, and is increasingly becoming part of trade agreements, including the agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico (CUSMA), and in the Canada-UK Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA).
Official statistics struggle to reflect the true size and scale of digital trade, meaning governments and businesses dont have accurate metrics to make their respective policy or business decisions.
Canada has made significant progress in the measurement of digital trade, but its clear that more work needs to be done. Exploring conventional data sources such as surveys and existing data on services, along with the experimental statistics on services trade, are steps in the right direction. Evidence points to a lot of effort and international collaboration in this area, with an eye on improving these statistical measures.
As an earlier adopter of the OECD framework, Canada is in a good position to influence its continued development to benefit its economy and competitiveness, as well as the economies of our trading partners.
Its imperative that Canada continues to examine digital trade, its impact in the country, and overall development, to remain a global leader.
The full report is available at the link here.
About the Conference Board of Canada:
The Conference Board of Canada is the countrys leading independent research organization. Our mission is to empower and inspire leaders to build a stronger future for all Canadians through our trusted research and unparalleled connections. Follow The Conference Board of Canada on Twitter @ConfBoardofCda.
HOUSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading invoice funding company Charter Capital says small business owners often make funding decisions without fully understanding their options and alternatives. The company's recent publication "10 Common Myths & Misconceptions About Invoice Factoring" digs into a handful of the myriad misunderstandings its representatives resolve on a daily basis. The full article is available to read at CharterCapitalUSA.com now.
Joel Rosenthal, co-founder and Executive Manager at Charter Capital, says factoring is only utilized by a small percentage of the population, despite the fact that most businesses can benefit from it at one time or another. As bank approvals continue to dwindle and the funding gap grows, the number of businesses turning to less ideal solutions is expected to increase as well.
Rosenthal says it's often little misunderstandings that do the most damage, such as when a business owner thinks he must factor all his invoices or will have hidden fees.
"When business owners find out these things aren't true, they're relieved they can get easy and affordable funding," Rosenthal explains. "The problem is, they don't always realize they've heard one of the common myths, and so they lock themselves into expensive long-term contracts that eat away at their growth potential."
Rosenthal notes that concerns like cost and qualifications are common misconceptions about factoring as well. For example, people often think that because they have bad credit or have been turned down for a bank loan, their company can't qualify for factoring, or they'll pay high fees.
"Most B2B businesses qualify for invoice factoring," Rosenthal contends. "And, when they partner with a company like Charter Capital that offers very competitive factoring rates, it's an affordable funding solution, too."
According to Rosenthal, businesses on the fence about invoice factoring should start with a no-obligation rate quote and learn about the process firsthand. Those interested in requesting a free rate quote or learning more can do so by calling 1-877-960-1818 or CharterCapitalUSA.com.
About Charter Capital
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Charter Capital has been a leading provider of flexible funding solutions for the B2B sector for more than 20 years. Competitive rates, a fast approval process, and same-day funding help businesses across various industries secure the working capital necessary to manage daily needs and grow. To learn more, visit CharterCapitalUSA.com or call 1-877-960-1818.
Related Images
Image 1: Facts About Invoice Factoring
Factoring is often misunderstood. Learn the truth about invoice factoring by understanding the common misconceptions.
This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.
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Cancun, Mexico, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giadha A. DeCarcer, Founder and Executive Chair of New Frontier Data (https://newfrontierdata.com), the premier data, analytics and technology firm specializing in the cannabis industry worldwide, will present the opening keynote for the CannabiSalud Business & Investment Conference taking place November 18-20 in Cancun, Mexico. The three-day event focuses on business and investment opportunities emerging from Latin Americas industrial, medical and recreational cannabis industries, all with an emphasis on Mexicos potential market and its expected importance for the entire regions cannabis markets.
In her presentation, Cannabis Industry Global Trends: Spotlight on Latin America and Mexico, DeCarcer will present the latest data on current and emerging cannabis opportunities both globally and in Latin America, providing critical context as Mexicos legal cannabis market begins to take shape and serve as a bridge between North Americas mature cannabis markets and the budding markets across Latin America.
New Frontier Datas participation in the event is designed to provide an assessment of the prominence and importance of Mexicos cannabis markets from a regional and global perspective, going beyond local consumption to better understand its potential role in the emerging global cannabis trade arena.
It is critical Mexico establishes its framework for legal medical and adult-use cannabis with an eye on opportunities for tomorrows global cannabis trade," said DeCarcer. Mexico is uniquely positioned to serve as a bridge between the mature North American cannabis markets and the nascent markets coming online throughout Latin America. With large domestic markets, strong public interest and support, and low production costs, there is plenty of room for rapid growth in Latin America at the expense of its $12 billion illicit markets.
Attendees will receive a copy of New Frontier Datas El Informe Global de Cannabis: Panorama en America Latina, a report built upon New Frontier Datas first-of-its-kind, custom predictive modeling. The report incorporates unique regulatory and consumer data from each market detailed to explore opportunities and challenges that lay ahead.
About New Frontier Data:
New Frontier Data is the premier data, analytics and technology firm specializing in the global cannabis industry, delivering solutions that enable investors, operators, advertisers, brands, researchers and policy makers to assess, understand, engage and transact with the cannabis industry and its consumers.
Our mission is to inform policy and commercial activity for the global legal cannabis industry. We maintain a neutral position on the merits of cannabis legalization through comprehensive and transparent data analysis and projections that shape industry trends, dynamics, demand and opportunity drivers. Founded in 2014, New Frontier Data is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with a presence in Europe, Latin America and Africa. For more information about New Frontier Data, please visit us at www.NewFrontierData.com.
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TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V:MON) (Montero or the Company) has started a detailed field work program on its Avispa copper-molybdenum exploration concessions in Chile, following its successful completion of reconnaissance exploration on the property. The Avispa project covers 17,000-hectares (170 km2) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is situated within the well-defined north to south trending Paleocene-Eocene copper porphyry belt which hosts giant operating copper-molybdenum mines.
Monteros reconnaissance exploration work has shown extensive surface areas of Tertiary evaporites with intercalated sediments and gravels overlaying older volcanic and intrusive rocks that could potentially host the target copper-molybdenum deposits at Avispa.
The reconnaissance exploration process involved a detailed investigation of historical geological, geophysical, remote sensing, hydro-geological and Landsat data, reconnaissance mapping and sampling of the Avispa project area. The work has provided a basis for Monteros Phase One field exploration program that will include detailed geological mapping, drill chip sampling at previous drill sites, surface lithological sampling and geophysical surveys. The Company will use the information obtained in this phase to develop drilling targets with the aid of innovative exploration technology.
The prospective porphyry target geology of the Avispa project lies below a sequence of cover rocks consisting of gravels and fine-grained clastic sediments intercalated with evaporite deposits of Tertiary age. The target lithologies are the underlying Paleogene volcanic, Cretaceous monzodiorite, and diorite porphyry rocks (Figure 1).
Avispa is located approximately 40 km north of BHPs Spence copper-molybdenum mine and KGHMs Sierra Gorda copper-molybdenum mine. It is 50 km west of Codelcos massive Chuquicamata porphyry copper mine. The property is surrounded by exploration and mining concessions held by major mining companies, including Codelco in the north and Freeport and Glencor to the south, with Antofagasta and SQM exploring to the east and west, respectively (Figure 2). The Avispa district was previously the target of wide-spaced exploration drilling by BHP and other major mining companies but they only explored part of Monteros Avispa property.
Dr Tony Harwood, President and CEO of Montero commented: Monteros 17,000-hectare landholding is clearly in the proximity and in the same geological setting as world-class operating copper-molybdenum mines. Our reconnaissance exploration has revealed positive detail on the geology, structure, geochemistry and the location of previous drilling sites. The Phase One field exploration program, now underway, will set out to discover mineralized copper-molybdenum deposits with smaller exploration footprints than that targeted by major mining groups.
Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/13c67042-4a6a-4f82-a783-cac6a619e2b2
Figure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6fe6d9f1-02af-493c-b215-316ca3f49dd3
Phase One Field Exploration Program
During the Phase One field exploration program, detailed mapping at a scale of 1:10,000 will further outline the location of exposed volcanic and intrusive rocks on the property. Importantly, it will also assist Montero in understanding the depth of the gravels at Avispa. The rock chip and soil sampling program will be undertaken on selected lithologies to help define geochemical signatures of any potential buried mineralization.
Our geologists have located further surface reverse circulation drill stockpiles left by companies that previously drilled the area that will be sampled, says Harwood. The planned geophysical work will include magnetics and electrical methods over selected areas of the property to define an anomaly pattern that might identify any buried mineralized targets and controlling structural features. Based on this information, potential drill targets will be prioritized for further testing.
Monteros consulting geologist, Marcial Vergara, has reviewed publicly available data on Avispa and conducted site field visits. Vergara previously worked for Codelco and Anglo American in Chile, two of the largest mining companies operating in the country and is familiar with the geological setting of the major occurrences of mineralization in the region.
Montero remains focused on exploring for gold, silver and base metals in the highly prospective southern Andes area, says Harwood. The company has adopted a prospect generation strategy at Avispa whereby it will de-risk the project and carry out limited exploration while seeking a partner to advance the project through the drill phase. This will provide Montero shareholders with exposure to the copper space and position ourselves favourably for the expected long-term demand for copper.
Qualified Person's Statement
This press release was reviewed and approved by Mr. Mike Evans, M.Sc. Pr.Sci.Nat. and Sr. Marcial Vergara B.Sc., who are qualified persons for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101. Sr Vergara is based in Santiago and has more than 30 years experience in copper exploration in Chile.
About Montero
Montero is a junior exploration company focused on finding, exploring, and advancing globally significant gold and base metals deposits in Latin America. The company is in the process of relinquishing its portfolio of battery metals projects in Africa to focus on gold opportunities in Latin America. Monteros board of directors and management have an impressive track record of successfully discovering and advancing precious metal and copper projects. Montero trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MON and has 38,647,485 shares outstanding.
For more information, contact:
Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd.
Dr. Tony Harwood, President and Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: ir@monteromining.com
Tel: +1 416 840 9197 | Fax: +1 866 688 4671
www.monteromining.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.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements, projections and estimates with respect to the Share Consolidation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such information is based on information currently available to Montero and Montero provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking information by its very nature involves inherent risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Montero to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Actual results relating to, among other things, completion of the agreement, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of Monteros mineral properties, and financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: an inability to complete the agreement on the terms as announced or at all; changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with Monteros activities; and other matters discussed in this news release and in filings made with securities regulators. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Monteros forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Montero does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
ONTARIO, CALIF, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thirty Prime Healthcare hospitals in communities across the nation were awarded an 'A' in the fall 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a designation acknowledged as one of the most competitive honors American hospitals can receive for patient safety and quality.
An A Safety Grade is a tremendous achievement, of which these communities should be extremely proud, said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. I thank the leadership and workforce of Primes hospitals across the country for their commitment to prioritizing patients and their safety, especially during these trying times.
The independent grading system assigns an A, B, C, D, or F grade to general hospitals across the country based on over thirty national measures of preventable errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. The fall 2021 Hospital Safety Grade represents the largest set of hospitals ever graded with grades assigned to 2,901 facilities across the country. Numerous Prime hospitals have been awarded an A for consecutive periods, including Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center, in Reno, Nevada, which earned its eleventh A in a row.
Prime Healthcare, with 45 hospitals in 14 states, is one of the nation's premier hospital systems recognized for quality and patient safety. This year, Prime Healthcare hospitals received more than 300 quality awards from Healthgrades, and Prime has more Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients for six consecutive years than any other health system in the country. Its hospitals have also been recognized among the nations best by Fortune/IBM Watson Health, and rank among the top health systems in social responsibility and cost efficiency, according to the Lown Hospital Index.
Recognition for delivering on our mission is an honor, said Sunny Bhatia, MD, Region I CEO and Corporate Chief Medical Officer. As one of the largest and only physician-founded and physician-led health systems, Prime is uniquely able to deliver clinical quality where patients are central to all we do. Especially throughout the pandemic, we feel humbled by the opportunity to provide exceptional patient care to communities that otherwise would not have access. Thank you to all our caregivers for this remarkable achievement.
In a 2019 analysis, the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality found 45,000 fewer deaths than a 2016 analysis, based on the prevalence of safety problems in hospitals graded by The Leapfrog Group. The safety scores consider such factors as:
How often a hospital gives patients recommended treatment for a given medical condition or procedure
The environment in which patients receive care (e.g. whether a hospital uses a computerized physician order entry system to prevent medication errors)
What happens to a patient while receiving care (e.g. whether care teams left foreign objects in patients while undergoing surgery)
The Safety Grade uses up to 27 national performance measures to grade hospitals using a methodology developed with guidance from the foremost experts in patient safety. The Safety Grade's methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
The fall 2021 Prime hospital awardees are: Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Inglewood, CA; Chino Valley Medical Center, Chino, CA; Coshocton Regional Medical Center, Coshocton, OH; Dallas Medical Center, Dallas, TX; Dallas Regional Medical Center, Mesquite, TX; Desert Valley Hospital, Victorville, CA; East Liverpool City Hospital, East Liverpool, OH; Encino Hospital Medical Center, Encino, CA; Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center, Garden Grove, CA; Harlingen Medical Center, Harlingen, TX; La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, La Palma, CA; Lake Huron Medical Center, Port Huron, MI; Landmark Medical Center, Woonsocket, RI; Lehigh Regional Medical Center, Lehigh, FL; Mission Regional Medical Center, Mission, TX; Paradise Valley Hospital, National City, CA; Providence Medical Center, Kansas City, KS; Riverview Regional Medical Center, Gadsden, AL; Roxborough Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia, PA; Saint Clare's Denville Hospital, Denville, NJ; Saint Clare's Dover Hospital, Dover, NJ; Saint John Hospital, Leavenworth, KS; Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center, Reno, NV; San Dimas Community Hospital, San Dimas, CA; Shasta Regional Medical Center, Redding, CA; Sherman Oaks Hospital, Sherman Oaks, CA; St. Joseph Medical Center, Kansas City, MO; St. Marys General Hospital, Passaic, NJ; St. Mary's Medical Center, Blue Springs, MO; and Suburban Community Hospital, Norristown, PA.
To see Prime Healthcare hospitals' full grade details, and access patient tips for staying safe in a hospital, visit the Hospital Safety Score at www.hospitalsafetygrade.com.
About Prime Healthcare and Prime Healthcare Foundation
Prime Healthcare is an award-winning health system operating 45 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in 14 states, providing over 2.6 million patient visits annually. It is one of the nations leading health systems with nearly 50,000 employees and physicians dedicated to providing the highest quality healthcare. Fourteen of the Prime Healthcare hospitals are members of the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity. Based in Ontario, California, Prime Healthcare has been named a Top 10 and Top 15 Health System by IBM Watson Health. Its hospitals have been named among the nations 100 Top Hospitals 58 times and have received more Patient Safety Excellence Awards from Healthgrades than any other health system in the past six years. To learn more, please visit www.primehealthcare.com.
Find us on:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/prime-healthcare
Twitter: twitter.com/_PrimeHealth
Facebook: facebook.com/primehealthcare
Instagram: instagram.com/prime_healthcare/
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Next week, Americans will enjoy the tastiest American holiday, Thanksgiving. While the COVID-19 pandemic is still top-of-mind, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reminds us all that it's also important to keep family and friends safe from foodborne illness this Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays to remind people about food safety, said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. I personally know how much effort it takes to prepare a full Thanksgiving meal, and I always ensure Im following food safety steps like handwashing, using a food thermometer and avoiding cross-contamination.
By following the tips below, youll lessen the chances of having a visit from foodborne illness at your table this Thanksgiving.
Clean and Sanitize
Always wash your hands before preparing and handling food. Handwashing helps to prevent the spread of germs. Recent USDA observational research showed that 95 percent of participants failed to properly wash their hands before handing food. Make sure to follow the steps to wash your hands properly.
Clean and sanitize any surfaces that will touch food such as tabletops, kitchen counters, stoves, sinks, etc.
Avoid Cross-Contamination
In a recent study, USDA found 60 percent of kitchen sinks were contaminated with germs after participants washed or rinsed poultry. USDA advises against washing your turkey; however, if you do wash your turkey in the sink, it must be fully cleaned and sanitized afterwards. To clean, rub down surfaces including the sink, cutting boards and counter tops with soap and hot water, and then sanitize them with a cleaning solution to remove any residual germs. You can use a homemade solution of one tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach in one gallon of water. Let air dry. Be sure to use separate cutting boardsone for meat and another for vegetables and fruit.
Thaw the Turkey Safely
Never thaw a turkey on a counter or in hot water. USDA recommends thawing a turkey in a refrigerator since this allows for slow and safe thawing. The turkey will need about 24 hours for every four to five pounds of turkey. After thawing, it is safe in the refrigerator for one to two days. Turkey can also be thawed in a cold-water bath or microwave; however, it must be cooked immediately after it has thawed using these methods. If using the cold-water method, allow 30 minutes per pound and submerge the turkey in its original wrapping to avoid cross-contamination. Its safe to cook a turkey from its frozen state; however, it will take at least 50 percent longer to fully thaw. Lastly, never leave a raw turkey out at room temperature for more than two hours.
Cook Thoroughly
Make sure your turkey reaches an internal temperature of 165 F. Use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature in three parts: the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the wing and the innermost part of the thigh. USDA recommends using a food thermometer even if the turkey has a pop-up temperature indicator to ensure it has reached 165 F in the three previously stated places. When cooking a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey, check the temperature with the food thermometer to ensure it reaches 165 F at the thickest part the breast. All previously cooked side dishes should be reheated to 165 F.
Stuffing your Turkey
USDA does not recommend stuffing your turkey because it can be a breeding ground for bacteria if not done carefully. However, if you plan to stuff your turkey, please keep the following in mind:
The wet and dry ingredients for the stuffing should be prepared separately from each other and refrigerated until ready to use.
Stuff the turkey loosely about 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound.
Immediately place the stuffed, raw turkey in an oven set no lower than 325 F.
A stuffed turkey will take longer to cook. Once it has finished cooking, place a food thermometer in the center of the stuffing to ensure it has reached a safe internal temperature of 165 F.
Let the cooked turkey stand 20 minutes before removing the stuffing.
For more information on turkey stuffing, visit Turkey Basics: Stuffing.
The Two-Hour Rule
All perishable foods must be refrigerated within two hours of being cooked, or one hour if the temperature is 90 F or above. After two hours, perishable food will enter the "Danger Zone" (between 40 F and 140 F), which is where bacteria can multiply quickly and cause the food to become unsafe. Discard all foods that have been left out for more than two hours.
Leftovers
After the meal (but within the two-hour rule), separate larger quantities of leftovers in small shallow containers and place them in the refrigerator. Thanksgiving leftovers are safely stored in a refrigerator for up to four days. In the freezer, leftovers can be safely frozen indefinitely but will keep best quality for two to six months. Reheat leftovers to an internal temperature of 165 F. Check the internal temperature of the food in several places with a food thermometer after allowing a resting time.
For Thanksgiving food safety questions, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854), email MPHotline@usda.gov or chat live at ask.usda.gov from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.
Do you have any last-minute turkey day questions? The Meat and Poultry Hotline will be open on Thanksgiving Day from 8am-2pm EST.
Check out the USDA FoodKeeper App, which helps to reduce food waste by providing food and beverage storage information. For more information about FoodKeeper, click here. Access news releases and other information at USDAs Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) website at www.fsis.usda.gov/newsroom. Follow FSIS on Twitter at twitter.com/usdafoodsafety or in Spanish at: twitter.com/usdafoodsafe_es.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming Americas food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production; fairer markets for all producers; ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities; building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices; making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America; and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
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French English
PRESS RELEASE
Arcueil, 17 November 2021
Aramis Group increases its used car refurbishment capacity with the opening of a fourth centre
Aramis Group [Ticker: ARAMI ISIN: FR0014003U94], a European leader in online B2C sales of used cars operating the Aramisauto, Cardoen, Clicars and CarSupermarket brands, in France, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom respectively, announces the inauguration of its fourth reconditioning centre in Antwerp, Belgium. This industrial site completes an existing fleet of three centres in Europe: Donzere (France), Madrid (Spain) and Goole (UK).
As the first stage, once fully operational, this new 20,000 square metre centre will employ around 100 people and will enable the Group to respond to the strong acceleration of its sales in Belgium by refurbishing c.12,000 additional cars per year. Thanks to the know-how and expertise of Aramis Group, a pioneer in the reconditioning business since 2014, customers will benefit from reliable and guaranteed cars at the best price.
This inauguration is part of the Group's strategy to increase its refurbishment capacity in order to support the strong revenue growth in this segment (+42.1% in 20211).
Nicolas Chartier and Guillaume Paoli, co-founders2 of Aramis Group, say:
"The opening of this fourth centre marks a new stage in the Group's development. It is a fundamental part of Aramis Group's strategy to increase its reconditioning capacity in order to offer its customers reliable and affordable cars, and unparalleled satisfaction. This new centre in Antwerp integrates the Group's best know-how and demonstrates its ambition to offer a more virtuous model of individual mobility through its refurbished vehicles."
Aramis Group intends to continue expanding its refurbishment capacity with the opening of two additional centres in Europe in the coming months, in Nemours (France) and Hull (United Kingdom).
***
About Aramis Group
Aramis Group is a leading European B2C platform to acquire a used car online and brings together four brands: Aramisauto, Cardoen, Clicars and CarSupermarket, in France, Belgium, Spain and the UK respectively. The Group is transforming the used car market and is putting digital technology at the service of customer satisfaction with a fully vertically integrated business model. For the full 2021 fiscal year, Aramis Group generated revenue of 1.36 billion euros on a pro forma basis, sold more than 80,000 B2C vehicles, and recorded more than 73 million visits on their websites. As of the end of September 2021, the Group employs 1,800 people, operates a network of 61 agencies and three industrial refurbishment sites. Aramis Group is listed on compartment A of the Euronext Paris stock exchange (Ticker: ARAMI ISIN: FR0014003U94). For more information, visit www.aramis.group.
Investors Contacts
Aramis Group
investor@aramis.group
Media Contacts
Brunswick
aramisgroup@brunswickgroup.com
Hugues Boeton +33 (0) 6 79 99 27 15
Alexia Gachet +33 (0)6 33 06 55 93
Disclaimer:
Certain information included in this press release are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs, expectations and assumptions, including, without limitation, assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Aramis Group operates, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results or other events, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified under Chapter 3 Facteurs de Risques in the Registration Document dated 25 May 2021, approved by the AMF under number I. 21-024 and available on the Companys website (www.aramis.group) and the AMFs website (www.amffrance.org). These forward-looking information and statements are not guarantees of future performances. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and Aramis Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements included in this press release to reflect any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Such forward-looking statements are for illustrative purposes only.
This press release includes only summary information and does not purport to be comprehensive. No reliance should be placed on the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this press release.
Some of the financial information contained in this press release is not directly extracted from Aramis Groups accounting systems or records and is not IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) accounting measures. It has not been independently reviewed or verified by Aramis Groups auditors.
This press release does not contain or constitute an offer of securities for sale or an invitation or inducement to invest in securities in France, the United States or any other jurisdiction.
1 Pro forma of the acquisition of CarSupermarket in the UK
2 Nicolas Chartier is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and Guillaume Paoli is Deputy Chief Executive Officer, on a 2-year rotation basis
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Palo Alto, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mattermost, Inc. today announced the unveiling of Mattermost Government Solutions to provide public sector and defense organizations with a unified suite of open source collaboration tools, extensive security and compliance controls, and preferential pricing. The Mattermost messaging collaboration platform offers new functionality for workflow management, prescribed playbooks and task management, as well as purpose-built, developer-friendly integrations to ensure that Mattermost is easier to use, secure and deploy in public sector environments than any other solution on the market.
Mattermost is accelerating the shift to digital operations across Department of Defense agencies, such as the U.S. Air Force, that deploy software via Platform One. In addition, several public sector organizations, private defense contractors, federal agencies, and three of the top five system integrators, rely on Mattermost for the following benefits:
A single platform for collaboration: Mattermost is the command and control hub for technical teams. The platform features Channels (real time and asynchronous messaging collaboration), Playbooks (checklist-based workflow management) and Boards (Kanban-style project and task management), as well as integrations with a rich ecosystem of developer-centric applications including GitLab, Jira and Confluence.
Mattermost is the command and control hub for technical teams. The platform features Channels (real time and asynchronous messaging collaboration), Playbooks (checklist-based workflow management) and Boards (Kanban-style project and task management), as well as integrations with a rich ecosystem of developer-centric applications including GitLab, Jira and Confluence. Customizable Playbooks for checklist-based processes: Team members can use the new Playbooks functionality to configure playbooks with built-in task checklists alongside real-time messaging to orchestrate digital processes that span tools, teams and missions.
Team members can use the new Playbooks functionality to configure playbooks with built-in task checklists alongside real-time messaging to orchestrate digital processes that span tools, teams and missions. High availability, unmatched mission-critical security and privacy: Unlike other collaboration platforms, Mattermost can be reliably deployed on-premises, in air-gapped environments or in a secure cloud offering to ensure agencies maintain complete control of their data. The platform also offers strict, customizable access controls to help ensure military-grade security.
Unlike other collaboration platforms, Mattermost can be reliably deployed on-premises, in air-gapped environments or in a secure cloud offering to ensure agencies maintain complete control of their data. The platform also offers strict, customizable access controls to help ensure military-grade security. Flexible licensing covering multiple networks: A single licensing mechanism to cover multiple networks through a collaboration platform. Mattermost provides the same tools and practices to separate teams even those on different air-gapped networks.
A single licensing mechanism to cover multiple networks through a collaboration platform. Mattermost provides the same tools and practices to separate teams even those on different air-gapped networks. Ease of procurement: Mattermost is widely available for purchase on a number of GWACS, including NASA SEWP, and has a variety of channel partners that can help the government meet their small business goals. The platform also meets the requirements for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) for Section 508 compliance.
On the heels of our recent product launch, where we announced comprehensive new workflow and project management solutions to serve a wide range of software development processes from sprint planning and release management to incident resolution and retrospectives, we recognized the need to serve our public agencies and defense organizations with a customized offering and preferential pricing, said Ian Tien, CEO and co-founder, Mattermost. Our government customers are essential open source advocates and critical Mattermost evangelists, and were delighted to offer them Government Solutions to serve as a centralized command and control hub for technical teams, alongside military-grade security.
The U.S Air Force is just one example of a government customer that relies on Mattermost to power secure communication, collaboration and workflow orchestration. Mattermost is currently deployed to over 20,000 users within the DoD, including the USAF Air Mobility Command, which has used Mattermost to digitize the flight planning and approval process as part of the Digital Flight Crew initiative.
Using Mattermost offers a huge benefit in mission velocity and safety, said Major Justin Poole, Chief of Innovation & Digital Air Crew Initiative Lead, 60th Air Mobility Wing, Travis Air Force Base. The platform offers flexible deployment across Impact Levels (ILs), which makes it easier for our teams to onboard and recognize value quickly.
The speed at which the government can digitally transform is directly related to developer velocity, and we are excited to offer our government customers a secure, compliant and flexible solution to meet the needs of their development teams, said Jack Blumenthal, Team Lead, FedResults. FedResults holds the GSA schedule for Mattermost.
Visit Mattermost Government solutions for more information, and visit Mattermost on Fed Results to learn more.
About Mattermost:
Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle. Hundreds of thousands of developers around the globe trust Mattermost to increase their productivity by bringing together team communication, task and project management, and workflow orchestration into a unified platform for agile software development. To learn more, visit www.mattermost.com.
Mattermost and the Mattermost logo are registered trademarks of Mattermost, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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SALISBURY, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neighbors in Garner, NC, can now nourish their families at Food Lions newest location. The new store, located at 16363 NC Hwy, 50 Garner, NC 27529, is open daily from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. This is the 75th store that Food Lion has opened this year across its operating area.
The new store features an extensive product assortment, including fresh in-store made sushi, a self-service hot and cold food bar, in-store fresh-cut fruit and a wide variety of affordable and easy grab-and-go options to help make any meal easier. Customers have an extensive selection of organic, gluten-free and plant-based items to choose from, including Natures Promise-brand items, which are Food Lions affordable brand of wholesome and organic products made with no artificial flavors, preservatives or synthetic colors.
To make shopping easier for customers, the store offers self-checkout lanes and the Food Lion To Go grocery pick up service, which allows customers to place an order with the click of a button while experiencing the same low prices and fresh food items they receive in the store.
Having served the Garner community for the past 15 years at the Glen Road location, Im so excited and proud to welcome my friends, family and neighbors to shop with us and experience our expanded assortment and variety here at our new store, at the everyday low prices they expect, said Joe Bove, store manager of the new Garner Food Lion. I am really excited for the associates at the store as well. We are excited to open and take care of this great community. I look forward to seeing new faces and welcoming old friends to shop with us for years to come.
The store is proud to also offer a wide variety of great local offerings, such as freshly brewed craft beers from Deep River Brewing Company in Clayton, NC; North Carolina's Famous Bright Leaf Hot Dogs produced by Carolina Packers in Smithfield, NC; and fresh local produce grown at Cottle Farms in Faison, NC. A list of additional North Carolina-based suppliers that may be featured in the store can be found here.
Furthering Food Lions commitment to sustainability, the new store features energy-efficient LED lighting overhead and in refrigerated and freezer cases; doors on all beer, dairy and lunch meat cases; and motion sensors on all frozen food cases that dim the lights to 20% output when not being shopped by a customer. Food Lion is the only retailer in the country to receive the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy for 20 consecutive years. Additionally, the retailer recently received additional recognition from the EPA for its efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions which impact the ozone layer and climate change.
In another commitment to the Garner community, Food Lion donated 20,000 meals each to Community of Hope Ministries and Heavens Gate Ministry through Food Lion Feeds, the retailers hunger relief initiative. Both organizations will also collect food from the store to distribute to neighbors in need through Food Lion Feeds industry-leading food rescue program, in which food safe for human consumption is donated to a local feeding agency before the food spoils. Food Lion Feeds has donated more than 800 million meals to neighbors in need since 2014.
About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, has more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 82,000 associates. By leveraging its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, Food Lion is working to own the easiest full shop grocery experience in the Southeast, anchored by a strong commitment to affordability, freshness and the communities it serves. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has donated more than 800 million meals to individuals and families since 2014 and has committed to donate 1.5 billion meals by 2025. Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Ahold Delhaize. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com or job applicants may visit www.foodlion.com/careers .
CONTACTS: Food Lion Media Relations
704-245-3317
publicrelationsteam@foodlion.com
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
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AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProjectManager , a leading project and work management solution for hybrid teams, today announced that Sara McConnell has been named as the companys new Head of People and Culture. McConnell will lead all areas of talent strategy, including employee experience, recruiting, retention and development for ProjectManagers rapidly-growing workforce.
Todays teams are hybrid, spanning multiple locations, work styles and skill sets and we at ProjectManager are embracing that approach, said ProjectManager CEO Ryan Buma. With Sara leading our people and culture efforts, she brings more than 15 years of human resources experience to our team to help guide us in creating the best work environment possible.
McConnell joins ProjectManager from Netflix, where she was a People Operations Leader. Prior to Nexflix, she was Director of People Operations for Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc., supporting its growth from four to 100 plus people in studios in Austin and Los Angeles.
The heart of any company is its talent, and everything around HR must support the employee experience to ensure company success, and ProjectManager has truly embraced that approach with values that drive their culture, said McConnell. With half of its employees in New Zealand and half in the U.S., I look forward to helping lead ProjectManager in its hybrid work model, supporting its future growth and expansion.
McConnell is a certified SHRM-CP. She holds a B.S. degree from Texas A&M.
About ProjectManager
ProjectManager is an award-winning SaaS project and work management software solution that supports the unique needs of hybrid teams. By uniting team members in different locations, with varying work styles and experience levels, in one solution, ProjectManager enables faster delivery, better resource management and more engaged workers. ProjectManager is simple enough for anyone to use, yet powerful enough for managers to make data-driven decisions, and for businesses to manage projects of all levels of complexity. Organizations such as NASA, Avis and the University of Washington rely on its software to manage their teams, their projects, and do amazing things together. To learn more, visit www.projectmanager.com and follow us on Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter .
For more media information, contact:
Lisa Hendrickson, LCH Communications
516-643-1642
lisa@lchcommunications.com
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OJO Labs , an Austin-based proptech company preparing more people to be successful homeowners, today announced it ranked number 29 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 North America list, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in North America. The list places OJO Labs among the top 3 fastest growing companies in the Texas region.
Over the past two years, OJO Labs has doubled down on its commitment to removing industry barriers, creating new pathways for consumers that have typically been locked out of homeownership. This clear vision has helped drive tremendous growth, despite the challenges of a global pandemic and competitive housing market. In fact, the company saw a 6,731% increase in revenue growth over the past three years, and has been involved in more than $3 billion in real estate closings on all of its platforms combined in 2021. Earlier this year, the company also made its first national expansion with the launch of OJO Canada, bringing the platform to millions of consumers in one of the worlds hottest and most competitive real estate markets.
Additionally, the company successfully launched and scaled OJO Select Network, an exclusive referral program which matches agents with proven expertise to homebuyers and sellers based on a deep understanding of the agents skill set and the consumers needs. The OJO Select Network grew to 20,000 agents in its first year.
We know that, for lots of people, buying a home is a symbol of progress, a means of security, and a gateway to wealth. Its a dream for many, but a reality to only a few. Over the past two years, weve been laser-focused on helping more people realize this dream, and ultimately unlock lifes possibilities said John Berkowitz, founder and CEO at OJO Labs. I believe that aligning your business model to your mission is the key to unlocking growth and this incredible honor is a testament to that.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 2021 ranking was compiled based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their percentage fiscal-year growth over a three-year period.
To learn more about how OJO Labs helps prepare more people for successful homeownership, please visit OJO.com .
About OJO Labs
OJO Labs is an Austin-based real estate technology preparing more people to be successful homeowners. The companys platform for buying and selling homes meets people wherever they are on their journey, offering personalized guidance every step of the way. Through a combination of industry expertise and patented AI technology, OJO drills down into individual needs and preferences, matching people with the right tools and trusted providers to help them achieve homeownership, and unlock lifes possibilities.
For more information, please visit OJO.com , movoto.com and digs.co .
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
Media Contact
Patrick Kearns
pkearns@ojolabs.com
ROME, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (LaPresse) IE University and Luiss University had brought together more than 35 experts and distinguished guests with backgrounds in academia, media, and the private and public sectors for the 12th annual Reinventing Higher Education conference, a hybrid event online and at Luiss University held in Rome on November 15-16. This years theme, Global Engagement: Towards Responsive and Innovative Universities, had evaluated the role of higher education in promoting positive change and innovation across society.
Since its launch in 2010, Reinventing Higher Education had provided a platform where educational leaders, student representatives and corporate players can discuss on of higher education and collaboratively shape its future. This year, more than 35 international experts, distinguished guests, and student representatives had been attended from 25 countries to participate in various panels on the future of higher education and the challenges set to impact academia, government, and the private sector. Opening remarks had been delivered by Andrea Prencipe, Rector of Luiss University, Santiago Iniguez, President of IE University and Maria Cristina Messa, Italian Minister of University and Research.
During the pandemic we have attended an accelerated course into the future and for the future. As a higher education institution, Luiss University has learned that students must now acquire such skills as critical thinking, problem framing and problem solving, flexibility, to deal with unprecedented crises and challenges featuring into the post-pandemic scenarios. This conference offers a great opportunity to bring together academics, industry and institutional leaders to jointly reflect on innovative educational initiatives, ranging from enquiry-based approach to problem-based teaching to digitally-enhanced teaching tools, said Luiss University Rector Andrea Prencipe.
Now, in its twelfth year, the Reinventing Higher Education conference has become a beacon for forward thinking academic, business, and government leaders who gather to discuss ways to collaborate and learn from one another and, importantly, plant the seeds of learning and innovation that will make a future impact on society, said IE University President Santiago Iniguez. Without a doubt, the world has changed dramatically in the past two years and higher education will continue to play a vital role in fostering the entrepreneurial mindset and critical thinking necessary to create positive change in the world.
The second day of the conference had included activities including amongst student representatives from America University of Beirut, University of British Columbia, University of Edinburgh, IE University, and Kings College.
For more information:
LaPresse SpA Communication and Press Office Director
Barbara Sanicola - barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it
+39 02 26305578 M +39 333 3905243
A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bde5b937-cf90-4f14-b648-25523f74a775
Zug, Switzerland, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Play to Earn NFT gaming portal and platform Pocket Arena has announced the successful closing of a $2.14 million private round from leading blockchain investors. The backers include Signum Capital, Unanimous Capital, LD Capital, Legion Ventures, Ethereal Capital, Calamari Ventures, Brotherhood Ventures, Halvings Capital, Exnetwork, Master Ventures, Standard Merchant, and Minted Lab.
Additionally, 58 global KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and over 160 crypto community groups and channels participated, including the leading influencers such as Slavik Junge (2.9M followers of Tiktok), Alexander Kondrashov (2.5M followers of Instagram), Evan Luthra (2M followers of Instagram), and many other stong KOLs who own various crypto communities from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Italy, Romania, South Africa, Philippines, India, Turkey, Russia, Latin America and so on.
One of Pocket Arenas flagship games, Castle Defense, has attracted more than 6,000 Daily Active Unique Users representing scholars/players from all over the world. The most played countries are Philippines and Vietnam with the average playing time of 40 minutes, all of which occurred before the POC token was launched.
Hyong S. Kim, the CEO of Emoji Games, the company behind Pocket Arena says, We are excited to have the support of a global network of VCs, influencers, and community members. Community is key to the ecosystem behind Pocket Arena and Castle Defense and everything we do is focused on providing an exceptional gameplay and experience for our users and fans.
The private round sold 3.3% of total supply of $POC, which is subject to the condition of 3 months lockup and 12 months vesting period.
About Pocket Arena
Pocket Arena's vision is to create an easy-to-use and trusted gaming ecosystem for ordinary people to enjoy playing, grow digital assets and become the world's biggest NFT DApp Mobile Gaming Platform.
Media Contact: business@pocketarena.com
Website: https://pocketarena.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pocketarena
Telegram: https://t.me/swisspoc
ATLANTA, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) today announced the results of the 2021 director election. The Bank conducted an election to fill the member directorships for Alabama and the District of Columbia, and one public interest independent directorship representing members across FHLBank Atlantas district. All of the directors-elect will begin a four-year term commencing on January 1, 2022.
Jimmy Stubbs was elected to serve as the member director representing the state of Alabama, William L. Chip Lusk, Jr. was elected to serve as the member director for the District of Columbia, and Brian McLaughlin was elected to serve as a public interest independent director.
Mr. Stubbs is chief executive officer and director of River Bank & Trust in Prattville, Alabama. Under his leadership, the bank was formed in 2006 and is one of the largest community banks headquartered in Alabama, with total assets of $2.3 billion. Mr. Stubbs has been a community banker in Alabama for more than 35 years and recently completed a term as chairman of the Alabama Bankers Association. He presently serves as a board member for several business and civic organizations, including the Business Council of Alabama, the Montgomery Area Committee of 100, the Montgomery Area Committee for the Arts, the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, and the YMCA of Montgomery Endowment Foundation. Mr. Stubbs is a Leadership Alabama Class of 2007 alumnus and a member of the River Region United Way's Tocqueville Society and the Wetumpka Lions Club. He is a lifetime member of the Auburn Alumni Association and the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. Mr. Stubbs earned his bachelor's degree from Auburn University and an executive MBA from Troy University.
Mr. Lusk is chief executive officer of IDB Global Federal Credit Union in Washington, DC. With over $700 million in assets and more than 10,000 members, IDB Global serves the Inter-American Development Bank community in over 75 countries and was named one of the Top 200 Healthiest Credit Unions in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021. Prior to leading IDB Global, Mr. Lusk was chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Georgias Own Credit Union in Atlanta, and he held leadership positions with FSGBank, NA and Pioneer Bank, both of which were in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is currently a member of the District of Columbia Financial Literacy Council, a board member of the DC Credit Union Foundation, and a member of the Finastra Phoenix Client Advisory Board. Previously, Mr. Lusk served on the Habitat for Humanity Board, the YoungLife Committee, the Episcopal Migration Ministries, and the Rotary Club. He earned his bachelors degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Tennessee.
Mr. McLaughlin is president of Enterprise Community Development, Inc. in Baltimore. With a portfolio valuation of over $1 billion spanning 115 communities across the Mid-Atlantic and serving almost 22,000 residents, Enterprise Community Development is the nations sixth-largest affordable housing nonprofit owner and seventh-largest developer, representing one of three divisions of Enterprise Community Partners. Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit that develops community-based programs, advocates for affordable housing policy, and invests capital to build and preserve affordable homes. Mr. McLaughlin has served over his 24-year career in various technical and leadership roles in mission driven organizations seeking to expand housing and economic opportunity, including eight years at Fannie Mae in roles including leading the companys short sale product line during the Great Recession and serving as special assistant to the president and chief executive officer. Mr. McLaughlin has been recognized for his work to extend financing products to small and neighborhood-based businesses in Maryland during his tenure at the states Department of Housing and Community Development, where he led its largest division of government responsible for neighborhood revitalization programs and investment. He has served on the boards of multiple organizations including the Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore, the Fund for Educational Excellence, the Community Preservation and Development Corporation, and the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance. He earned his bachelors degree from Duke University with honors, a masters degree in City Planning from MIT, and a masters degree in Economics from American University.
We are excited to have all three of these well-qualified individuals join our board, said FHLBank Atlanta Chair of the Board of Directors, Rick Whaley. I have no doubt Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Lusk will rely on the full depth and breadth of their individual experiences in representing the members from their states, and Mr. McLaughlins background and experience will help ensure we maintain a well-rounded view of the credit and housing finance needs of consumers and communities across our district, said Whaley.
About FHLBank Atlanta
FHLBank Atlanta offers competitively-priced financing, community development grants, and other banking services to help member financial institutions make affordable home mortgages and provide economic development credit to neighborhoods and communities. The Banks membersits shareholders and customersare commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, community development financial institutions, and insurance companies located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. FHLBank Atlanta is one of 11 district Banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Since 1990, the FHLBanks have awarded approximately $7 billion in Affordable Housing Program funds, assisting more than 990,000 households.
For more information, visit our website at www.fhlbatl.com.
CONTACT: Peter E. Garuccio
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
pgaruccio@fhlbatl.com
404.888.8143
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announces today it will use its considerable experience evaluating healthcare quality and performance to accelerate improvement with one of the healthcare system's most persistent problemsinequitable care. NCQA's new Health Equity Accreditation program sets a robust framework for organizations to identify and close individual care gaps, and as a result, to collectively improve health equity nationwide.
"As the nation's leading healthcare performance measurement and quality organization, we know that high-quality care is equitable care," said Margaret E. O'Kane, NCQA President. "Every individual deserves the best quality treatment regardless of racial, socioeconomic, gender, sexual orientation or cultural characteristics."
There is a clear and historic need. Racial disparities cost the U.S. an estimated $93B in excess medical costs and $42B in lost productivity per year, as well as economic losses due to premature deaths. In a report from Kaiser Family Foundation, though relatively few Medicare beneficiaries overall report problems with access to care, a larger share of Black and Hispanic beneficiaries report trouble getting needed care than White beneficiaries. People of color also disproportionately have a higher burden of chronic disease - the CDC reports 21.5% of Hispanics aged 20 and over have diabetes compared to 13% of white people.
NCQA's newly minted Health Equity Accreditation program offers a framework to assist health plans, health systems and other care organizations to:
Assess where care disparities may exist and work to eliminate gaps.
Improve quality, monitor improvement and standardize processes.
Deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
Align staff, leadership and their supporting organizations.
Strengthen organizations' appeal for employer and government contract partnerships.
The Health Equity Accreditation Program is an expansion and evolution of NCQA's prior Multicultural Health Distinction program already championed by several insurance plans and state governments. Simply stated, the program holds organizations accountable to prove they evaluate and elevate the health of all the populations they serve
Health Equity Accreditation is available for insurance plans, health systems and other care delivery organizations immediately. Evaluations (surveys) begin in July 2022.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Matt Brock 202-955-1739
brock@ncqa.org
###
About NCQA
NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality. NCQA Accredits and Certifies a wide range of healthcare organizations. It also Recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in healthcare. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed healthcare choices. NCQA can also be found on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.
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ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atlas Salt (the Company or Atlas - TSXV: SALT) is pleased to provide an update on its 100%-owned Fischells Brook Salt Dome in western Newfoundland, approximately 15 km south of the Companys flagship Great Atlantic Salt Project.
Highlights:
Given the rapidly growing interest in green hydrogen, energy storage and the renewable energy sector in general, driven in part by supportive policy actions by provincial, state and federal governments, Atlas management is aggressively proceeding with a planned spinout of its 100%-owned Fischells Brook Salt Dome for its underground energy storage potential. In managements view, the location and volume potential of this salt dome combine to make it an advantaged asset in Atlantic Canada as the clean energy transition gathers momentum;
The proposed spinout is being strategized in a way that aims to maximize value for both the Company and shareholders (i.e., Atlas would be a significant shareholder of SPINCO while also providing a dividend for Atlas shareholders in the form of SPINCO shares on a Date of Record yet to be determined);
Atlas is nearing completion of a ground gravity survey at Fischells Brook. This program is a key step toward quantifying the technical characteristics of Fischells which will underpin a development strategy for the new company and solicitation of partnerships with entities operating in this industry. Atlas has added 75 square kilometres to its landholdings in the general vicinity of Fischell's Brook, as disclosed in May 13, 2021 news release, to cover other strategic ground that will complement this asset;
This program is a key step toward quantifying the technical characteristics of Fischells which will underpin a development strategy for the new company and solicitation of partnerships with entities operating in this industry. Atlas has added 75 square kilometres to its landholdings in the general vicinity of Fischell's Brook, as disclosed in May 13, 2021 news release, to cover other strategic ground that will complement this asset; Mr. Paul Larkin, who has an extensive background in the renewable energy sector, has joined a newly-created Atlas Advisory Board established to help unlock the full value of the Fischells Brook asset for Atlas and its shareholders;
Energy storage is a key component to deliver clean energy transition. With climate change and associated green environmental policies driving significant investment toward alternate energy sources and global carbon emission reduction, underground storage will play an important role in Canada's energy future.
Mr. Patrick Laracy, Atlas CEO, commented: Completion of the gravity survey at Fischells Brook is a major step forward with this spinout initiative and will accelerate the process. We eagerly anticipate the results of this survey as it will give us a valuable digital high-resolution dataset of the deposit whose limits have yet to be defined. Large salt domes provide a gravity signature which can be modelled three dimensionally in the subsurface. These data will underpin the geotechnical storage evaluation.
Mr. Laracy continued, We welcome Paul Larkin to our team. He is a great addition as we leverage the opportunity at Fischells Brook. His vast experience in the capital markets and the renewable energy sector will aid us immensely in strategizing this spinout and setting up this new company for success. Currently a director of a Vancouver-based renewable energy royalties company, Paul was a co-founder of U.S. Geothermal, a leading geothermal renewable energy company that was sold to Ormat Technologies in 2018 for $200 million (U.S.).
PRmediaNow Interview With Patrick Laracy
That is one huge potential storage opportunity: Atlas Salt CEO Patrick Laracy discusses this news release with PRmediaNows Cyndi Edwards - click on the link below to view.
Patrick Laracy Interview
Options Granted
Mr. Paul Larkin of the Atlas Advisory Board has been granted 100,000 incentive stock options, exercisable at $1.30, for a period of five years subject to TSXV approval.
Newfoundland & Labrador Hydrogen Potential
A recently completed study commissioned by the Offshore Energy Research Association (OERA) in partnership with Natural Resources Canada concluded that Newfoundland and Labrador bring unique energy resources to the mix that enables greater potential for hydrogen production than the other Atlantic provinces. Newfoundland and Labradors abundant hydroelectric power, wind, and oil and gas resources position it to become a major producer of hydrogen to serve domestic demand as well as other provinces in Canada and international markets with the most probable markets being the Northeast United States or Europe.
A map accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2a74ba54-58c2-4951-b38d-e82af28860bd
Qualified Person
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About Atlas Salt
Bringing the Power of SALT to Investors: Atlas Salt owns 100% of the Great Atlantic salt deposit strategically located in western Newfoundland in the middle of the robust eastern North America road salt market. The project features a large homogeneous high-grade resource. Atlas also owns the Fischells Brook Salt Dome with plans to spin out that asset into a separate company as a potential renewable energy storage opportunity.
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Patrick J. Laracy, CEO MarketSmart Communications Inc. (709) 754-3186 Adrian Sydenham laracy@atlassalt.ca Toll-free: 1-877-261-4466 AtlasSalt.ca Email: info@marketsmart.ca
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CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Benevity, Inc. , the leading provider of global corporate purpose software, released its latest Benevity Impact Labs report, The Best of the Best in Employee Engagement, revealing how the worlds most iconic brands are meeting the expectations of employees who are seeking purpose, meaning and impact at work.
Amid the Great Resignation, its become clear that employees arent just leaving jobs due to low wages or poor working conditions, said Sona Khosla, Chief Impact Officer at Benevity. The echo of the events of 2020 have led workers to search for a greater sense of meaning and impact in their day-to-day lives, and at work. Employers who empower their people to live their passions and purpose through work in a personalized way will gain the competitive edge in the fight for talent.
Despite the mounting pressure on companies to demonstrate commitment to corporate purpose, many businesses dont know where to begin. The decisions made when designing, implementing and communicating a companys purpose program are key to employee engagement.
The latest Benevity Impact Labs report analyzed data from 400 iconic brands, representing 9.7 million employees, to identify the most powerful strategies to engage employees in purpose. Takeaways from the data show five main high-level drivers:
Choice : The data shows the more variety there is in the types of causes a company supports in its programs, the more participation it inspires. With increasingly diverse demographics across companies and the necessity to create an inclusive environment, the simple concept of providing choice has become a critical success factor.
: The data shows the more variety there is in the types of causes a company supports in its programs, the more participation it inspires. With increasingly diverse demographics across companies and the necessity to create an inclusive environment, the simple concept of providing choice has become a critical success factor. Convenience : Providing employees the ability to easily engage in social impact initiatives, and using technology to make it frictionless to participate, drives greater results and is especially impactful when there is a need to respond to an urgent call for social action.
: Providing employees the ability to easily engage in social impact initiatives, and using technology to make it frictionless to participate, drives greater results and is especially impactful when there is a need to respond to an urgent call for social action. Incentives : Providing a rewards program, in which an employees support of a cause is amplified by their company, fosters a sense of connection between companies and their people, and a critical way for employees to amplify their individual impact.
: Providing a rewards program, in which an employees support of a cause is amplified by their company, fosters a sense of connection between companies and their people, and a critical way for employees to amplify their individual impact. Leadership and Communication: Company-promoted opportunities to get involved in social and environmental initiatives demonstrate leadership commitment to important issues, and provide employees with inspiration to participate, and the trust that they are supporting vetted, trustworthy causes.
Company-promoted opportunities to get involved in social and environmental initiatives demonstrate leadership commitment to important issues, and provide employees with inspiration to participate, and the trust that they are supporting vetted, trustworthy causes. Matching: The degree to which companies match employee donations is significantly correlated to program participation. Matching programs can include more than just company matching. Peer Matching enables employees to match their co-workers donations, create social movements among colleagues, amplify their impact and deepen connection among teams.
The study shows that no matter the size, any company can design and implement a program that enables its people to have a positive impact on the world. In return, authentic programs contribute to strong corporate culture and retention. A previous Benevity Labs report shows that employees who engage in giving and volunteering through their companies are up to 57 per cent less likely to leave.
Perhaps this is not a Great Resignation, but instead a Great Transformation, said Khosla. The data clearly suggest that companies that take the time to transform their approaches to engaging employees in doing good and create a culture of inclusion by offering choice, convenience, personalization and incentives will be the ones who better engage and retain todays purpose-driven talent.
About the Study
The study was conducted by Benevity, which analyzed data from more than 400 North Americanbased companies representing a total of 9.7 million users during a five-month period from January to May 2021.
About Benevity
Benevity , a certified B Corporation, is a leader in global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. Recognized as one of Fortunes Impact 20, Benevitys cloud solutions power purpose for many iconic brands in ways that better attract, retain and engage todays diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 22 languages, Benevity has processed nearly $8 billion in donations and 43 million hours of volunteering time to support 326,000 nonprofits worldwide. The companys solutions also facilitated 530,000 positive actions and awarded 1.2 million grants worth $12 billion. For more information, visit www.benevity.com.
Media Contact:
Lauren Stewart
Manager Media and Communications
403.560.6968
press@benevity.com
English French
SAINT-JEROME, Quebec, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maerix, a Quebec-based company specializing in management software development for areas such as health, safety, environment and human resources, is proud to officially launch Cadlock, its innovative new software suite for lockout, tagout and energy control.
A known issue
For many years, employers are legally obligated to ensure their staffs safety when performing work inside a piece of equipments danger zone. The most common and efficient way to implement this is the use of lockout procedures, where each employee ensures his or her own safety with a personal padlock that requires a unique key. To this day, vast sums are invested in creating these complex procedures. They are often stored on paper, which causes them to quickly become outdated and inefficient, or even dangerous when used by the staff. As a reference, in Quebec, the CNESST reports on average over 1000 workplace accidents each year, including 4 deaths, due to an unexpected release of energy.
With the development of state-of-the-art technologies, Maerix sweeps away this approach by offering a safer, better alternative.
A call for help from clients
Among other factors, the onset of the pandemic forced many of our clients to overhaul their business model by accelerating the use of digital technology to remain efficient in this new work environment. Maerix, always attentive to its clients needs, leveraged this opportunity to invest in the development of a new solution that is easy to use and, most of all, affordable, while also ensuring regulatory compliance and a substantial efficiency gain.
The comments Ive received from the first clients are unanimous: the Cadlock solution will save lives, make businesses safer and improve their performance said M. Eric Veilleux, president and founder of Maerix Inc.
A unique technology, entirely designed in Quebec
Maerixs staffs skills have enabled the development of functionalities such as real-time production equipment status, QR code hazardous energy identification, multimedia content integration (e.g. video) to enhance understanding of equipment-related risks, and performance indicators to measure production gains.
About Maerix
We are a management software development company geared towards specialists in fields such as health, safety, environment, production and human resources. Over more than 20 years, Maerix was able to secure a prime position in the market at both the national and the international level with its unique and innovative solutions that meet the multiple evolving needs of its 400 clients.
For more information:
Andreanne Lefebvre
alefebvre@maerix.com
450.227.2272
RESTON, Va., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMI Expeditionary Healthcare (AMI), already known as the go-to Aeromedical Evacuation (AME) team operating in challenging locations around the world, acquired Air CM Global Ltd, a Malta-based global provider of aircraft management, charter services and aeromedical evacuation, solidifying their ability to respond to troubled areas even faster.
AMI's Dr. Andrew Walker, Founder, Chairman and CEO, shares, "This is the final piece of the puzzle. As a result of this acquisition, AMI will be able to better serve our clients, grow our customer base, and diversify into general aviation by also providing AOC management and executive charter throughout Europe and Africa, and eventually throughout the world."
Mr. Robert Foster, CEO of Air CM, added, "I am delighted to hand Air CM over to Andrew and AMI. We are now prepared for the next stage of Air CM Global's growth."
With its headquarters in Malta, Air CM Global (Air Charter and Management Global) was created at the cusp of progressive changes in Government legislation in 2015. From business jets to aircraft management to luxury travel and specialist missions including air ambulance and cargo, Air CM helps clients buy, sell and charter aircraft. In addition, Air CM Global holds approvals with multiple authorities, allowing sole private operations requiring a Part NCC or 2-Reg, to full charter and management requiring an AOC.
AMI Expeditionary Healthcare's Aeromedical Evacuation services will become even more robust and customizable due to this acquisition of Air CM Global and their array of aircraft management and operations offerings.
About AMI Expeditionary Healthcare
Physician-owned and physician-led, AMI Expeditionary Healthcare provides medical services to the private sector, government agencies, international aid organizations and humanitarian concerns in a wide range of remote and challenging environments. AMI has delivered countless healthcare solutions to over 140 clinical and hospital settings on four continents.
Contact
If you would like to learn more about AMI and its services, please visit www.ami.health.
AMI Headquarters +1 571-375-8366
Malta +356 21221066
Email info@ami.health
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Image 1: AMI Expeditionary Healthcare acquires Air CM Global Ltd
Leading Provider of Challenging Aeromedical Evacuation (AME) Services, AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, Further Strengthens Their Portfolio of Global Aviation Options Acquiring Air CM Global Ltd (Air Charter and Management Global)
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Attachment
Waukesha, WI (53187)
Today
Periods of rain. Thunder possible. Low 31F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..
Tonight
Periods of rain. Thunder possible. Low 31F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Following on the reveal of Renault Master Van H2-TECH last month (earlier post), HYVIA has unveiled two new Hydrogen Light Commercial Vehicles prototypes with zero CO 2 tailpipe emissions, increased range, and 5-minute refueling time.
Both vehicles are equipped with a 30kW fuel cell that will be assembled in France. Vehicle, e-motor and hydrogen integration are also made in France. Both vehicles will be available in 2022 with green hydrogen production and distribution solutions.
Renault Master Chassis Cab H2-TECH is revealed at Solutrans from 16 to 20 November (Eurexpo Lyon, France). This vehicle allows a range of about 250 km and offers great potential for tailor-made conversions. The box van with its 19 m3 is the first release convenient for large transport of goods and packages up to 1,000kg of payload.
Master Chassis Cab H2-TECH is equipped with the 30kW fuel cell, a 33kWh battery and tanks containing 3kg of hydrogen (2 x 1.5 kg) at 700 bar.
Renault Master City Bus H2-TECH is presented for the first time at the Salon des Maires from 16 to 18 November (Porte de Versailles, Paris, France). This urban minibus can carry up to 15 passengers, with a range of about 300 km. It is suited for businesses, municipalities, and local public services.
Master City Bus H2-TECH is equipped with the 30kW fuel cell, a 33kWh battery and a tank containing 4.5kg of hydrogen at 350 bars
HYVIA is moving fast. After less than six months of existence, we unveiled three Hydrogen Light Commercial Vehicles: a Van, a Chassis Cab and a City Bus. To meet different usages, for professional fleets or territories. We also revealed our Hydrogen Refueling Station, to offer customer refueling options where hydrogen infrastructure is still in development. HYVIA is about concrete solutions to be on track to meet the challenges of green hydrogen mobility and decarbonization of transport. David Holderbach, HYVIA CEO
In 2022, HYVIA will deploy its full ecosystem:
Renault Master Van H2-TECH: a large van for transporting goods and packages, with 12 m 3 of cargo volume and a range of up to 500 km.
Renault Master Chassis-Cab H2-TECH: for various conversions, including a box van of 19 m 3 , with a range of 250 km.
Renault Master City Bus H2-TECH: an urban minibus that can carry up to 15 passengers, with a range of about 300 km.
HYVIAs Hydrogen Refueling Station: for fast fueling time (5 minutes), as simple as thermic, to maximize vehicle availability.
Renault Master is produced at Batilly plant in France. Electric and hydrogen integration is realized by PVI, a Renault Group subsidiary in Gretz-Armainvilliers. The drive motor is produced at Cleon plant. Fuel cell assembly and Hydrogen Refueling Station will begin at Flins plant.
Rio Tinto is supporting the development of a battery ecosystem in Europe with an investment in Inobat Auto (InoBat), a Europe-based battery technology and manufacturing company. This investment will support the completion of InoBats research and development center and pilot battery line in Voderady, Slovakia.
The investment follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed in May, outlining an intention to work together to progress the establishment of a cradle-to-cradle electric vehicle battery value chain in Serbia.
InoBat is actively pursuing plans to build a number of gigafactories, including one in Serbia. The company specializes in the pioneering research, development, manufacture, and provision of premium innovative electric batteries custom-designed to meet the specific requirements of customers within the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorsport, and aerospace sectors.
Rio Tintos $2.4-billion Jadar lithium-borates project in Serbia is one of the largest greenfield lithium projects in development. The Jadar project remains subject to receiving all relevant approvals, permits and licences and ongoing engagement with local communities, the Government of Serbia and civil society. It has the potential to produce approximately 58 thousand tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate and position Rio Tinto as the largest source of lithium supply in Europe for at least the next 15 years.
GREENWICH Looking to relax la vita dolce? A new shop on East Putnam Avenue offers everything needed to decorate your space in high style.
Lucenti Interiors held a ribbon-cutting ceremony recently for its new showroom at 124 E. Putnam Ave. in central Greenwich. It is the second location for the interior design firm, which also operates on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Discerning shoppers can find furnishings, millwork and other items from high-end design brands that are appropriate for residential, commercial or hospitality projects. The new store provides expert consultation and custom interiors that showcase Italys signature design aesthetic.
My flagship showroom is in NYC, which has served as my home base, until my wife, who is a breast surgeon, received an offer to join an amazing team in Connecticut so we moved. While exploring the area, we just fell in love with Greenwich, owner Biagio Lucenti said in a statement.
We found Greenwich to be very clean, safe and have a wonderfully chic and fashionable vibe, not to mention the excellent schools that were a factor for our son, Lucenti said.
Once we bought a home here, I knew the next step was to open this new showroom and share the luxury of elegant comfort, which is the cornerstone of Italian style and is reflected in life here in Greenwich, he said.
He promises the new local showroom brings Italys legendary craftsmanship and quality to America with an ever-expanding selection of items.
First Selectman Fred Camillo officiated at the grand opening and ribbon-cutting on Oct. 29 as Lucenti Interiors officially expanded into Greenwich.
The team at Lucenti Interiors is committed to upholding the highest European standards in impeccable form, the finest quality, endless flexibility, countless finishes and exceptional service, it said in a statement.
The materials for the many brands offered are sourced in Italy, and the pieces are designed and manufactured in Italy by Italian artisans, the statement said.
With floor plans and elevations provided through an architect, or in-house CAD drawings, Lucenti Interiors workshop can produce any custom design required or desired, the statement said. Lucenti said his team is ready to create the environment of your dreams.
Designers, architects and other clients will find a large exhibition space at the store, with different furniture solutions all made in Italy. The brand selection includes Ernestomeda, Flexform, Edone, Res, Flos, Pacini & Cappellini, Tagliabue Mobili, Besana Carpet Lab, Vescom, Dresswall, Terragni and BM Luxury.
According to the website for the showroom, Lucentis grandfather and namesake was renowned for transforming architects drawings into award-winning, intricate hand inlays made from the finest woods.
His only son, Giuseppe, showed a similar talent for detailed craftsmanship, the website says.
The hours at the Greenwich showroom are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays by appointment. For more information, visit LucentiInteriors.com.
PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) A man who pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and sexually assaulting her young daughter as her mother lay dying was put to death Wednesday evening, becoming the first inmate executed in Mississippi in nine years.
David Neal Cox, 50, abandoned all appeals and filed court papers calling himself worthy of death before the state Supreme Court set his execution date. He appeared calm as he received a lethal injection. A coroner pronounced him dead at 6:12 p.m. CST at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Cox pleaded guilty in 2012 to capital murder for the May 2010 shooting death of his estranged wife, Kim Kirk Cox. He also pleaded guilty to multiple other charges, including sexual assault. A jury handed down the death sentence.
Cox wore a red prison jumpsuit and was covered by a white sheet during the execution. Wide leather straps held him down on a gurney.
I want my children to know that I love them very much and that I was a good man at one time, Cox said just before the injection started. Don't ever read anything but the King James Bible."
Cox thanked the state corrections commissioner, Burl Cain, for "being very kind to me. And that's all I got to say.
Cox appeared to take several deep breaths after the lethal chemicals started flowing through a clear plastic tube into his body, and his mouth moved some. He was pronounced dead within a few minutes.
Among those who witnessed the execution was Coxs now 23-year-old stepdaughter. She was 12 when he sexually assaulted her three times in front of her wounded mother as he held them and one of her younger brothers hostage on the night of May 14 and May 15, 2010, in the small town of Sherman.
Mississippi carried out six executions in 2012. The state does not have any others scheduled among the more than 30 people currently on its death row.
States have had difficulty finding lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products to carry out death sentences.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections revealed in court papers earlier this year that it had acquired three drugs for the lethal injection protocol: midazolam, which is a sedative; vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Cain told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the drugs listed in the court records were the ones being used for the execution. He would not say where the department obtained them.
Cain, the onetime head of the Louisiana state penitentiary in Angola, witnessed several executions in that neighboring state before he took up his new role in Mississippi. He stood by Cox during the execution.
You couldnt make it more picture perfect than we had tonight," Cain told reporters afterward.
A group that opposes executions, Death Penalty Action, said earlier that killing an inmate who surrendered all appeals would amount to state-sponsored suicide. The group had petitioned Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to block the execution of Cox, but Reeves spokeswoman said the governor declined to intervene because Cox admitted to horrific crimes.
Attorneys from the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel represented Cox in recent years. After the state Supreme Court set his execution date, Cox sent a handwritten statement strongly objecting to their continued involvement. The office director, Krissy C. Nobile, said Tuesday that after considerable and difficult deliberation, and out of respect for David Coxs autonomy and stated desire, the office did not plan any more appeals for him.
Kim Coxs father, retired law enforcement officer Benny Kirk, said David Cox called during the night of the attack and said he had shot Kim. Benny Kirk spoke on the phone with his daughter and she told him: Daddy, Im dying.
Police surrounded the house and tried to get David Cox to release his wife and the two children. Kim Cox was dead by the time the ordeal ended after more than eight hours.
The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual assault but Coxs stepdaughter, Lindsey Kirk, agreed to be interviewed and talk about what happened to her. She told The Associated Press last week that David Cox had sexually assaulted her for a few years when her mother was out of the house, and that he threatened to kill them if she told anyone.
While staying with her grandparents in the summer of 2009, Kirk texted her mother and told her of the assaults by her stepfather. Soon after that, David Cox was arrested and charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, child abuse and possession of methamphetamine. He was released in April 2010 without standing trial. Kim Cox obtained a restraining order against him, and she moved to her sisters home.
Kim Coxs family did not issue a statement after the execution.
Questions remained about whether David Cox was responsible for the 2007 disappearance of his brothers wife, Felicia Cox, who was last seen in a neighboring county. Her daughter, Amber Miskelly, recently told WTVA-TV that David Cox was the last person to see her mother alive. After the execution, Cain said David Cox had not spoken about his sister-in-laws disappearance.
____
Emily Wagster Pettus was a witness to the execution of David Neal Cox.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) An attack by jihadis on a gendarme post in northern Burkina Faso killed at least 19 officers and one civilian Sunday, the ministry of security said.
The attack took place in Inata town in Soum province, near Burkina Faso's border with Mali, Minister of Security Maxime Kone said on state television.
The post faced a cowardly and barbaric attack, an attack during which our forces, with a lot of dignity and devotion kept their position during the fighting, he said.
Kone told The Associated Press via text message that the death toll was provisional and likely to rise. A soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media, said a military helicopter flying overhead had seen a lot of bodies.
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents across the conflict-riddled nation, which has been overrun by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State for more than five years. Violence by the groups has killed thousands and displaced more than 1.4 million people.
Soum province, one of the epicenters of the violence, has seen an uptick in fighting in recent weeks after months of relative calm, due to negotiations between the national security service and some jihadi groups surrounding last years presidential election.
But since October, explosives have been found outside the main town of Djibo and there has been a resurgence of irregular jihadi checkpoints who force people to show identification and sometimes kidnap them, according to a local government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.
The latest attack was a significant blow because the gendarme detachment in Inata was the only one that stood its ground for two years while troops at surrounding bases retreated when jihadi violence escalated, said Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Unfortunately this two-year stand may today have come to an end, unless measures are taken. I think these regular large-scale attacks which take place on a weekly basis are indicative of the uphill battle that the Burkinabes are facing to effectively regain ground and stabilize a very fragile security situation, he said.
According to a widely circulated internal military report from Nov. 12, the detachment in Inata had been out of supplies for two weeks and nearly starved, surviving by killing animals around the base.
Ill-equipped and undertrained security forces are struggling to stem the violence. Last week in the Sahels Seno province, Goudoubou refugee camp, which housed some 13,000 Malians, was forced to close after a series of security breaches, according to the U.N. An internal U.N. document discussing the security situation in the Sahel and seen by AP, said that despite the security forces best efforts they have not been able to secure the area and are unlikely to moving forward.
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The group of lawmakers who will draw up Connecticuts new political maps have picked a new tiebreaking member following the resignation of their first choice for the post.
During a brief meeting Tuesday, the state Reapportionment Commission accepted the resignation of Kevin Johnston, of Pomfret, a former state auditor and Democratic state lawmaker who they appointed to the position less than a month ago. State President Pro Temp Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said by phone Tuesday that Johnston resigned for personal health reasons.
At Tuesdays meeting, the commission unanimously appointed John McKinney, a former Senate Republican minority leader who ran for governor in 2014, to replace Johnston. Both Democrats and Republicans described McKinney as even-handed and an experienced former lawmaker who would take the responsibility seriously. McKinney did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
Due to delays to the 2020 Census process, the commission faces a tight deadline to draw new state House, state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives districts to match new Census maps that showed a shift of population to the western half of the state. If not completed by Nov. 30, the process goes to the state Supreme Court.
Commission members have stressed they intend to fulfill their constitutional obligation and meet the deadline hopefully without having to rely on the tiebreaking vote.
Wed like to accomplish our goals without needing to go to the ninth person, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said by phone Tuesday.
With the latest Census showing population growth in Fairfield County and a decline in eastern Connecticut, changes to the political boundaries are likely to be concentrated in those areas, Candelora said. Lawmakers have been meeting behind the scenes discussing various map proposals.
Fairfield County has several districts that are geographically close together and over-populated, complicating the map-making process, Looney said. The goal is for each state senator to represent about 100,000 people and each state representative to represent about 23,000 constituents.
Its like putting a puzzle together, Looney said.
The commission is also weighing input provided by the public at a series of hearings held around the state earlier this fall on what the maps should look like heading into the 2022 elections.
julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Residents of Mississippis capital city are being warned to boil water before using it because of low pressure in the aging water system.
The citywide alert was issued after a problem occurred during the weekend at one of Jackson's water treatment plants, WAPT-TV reported. Charles Williams, the citys chief engineer, said the issue was resolved but it had drained the storage tanks.
Pressure dropped after the city cut off treatment at one of the plants after a worker discovered a bad batch of treatment chemicals were used, WLBT-TV reported. The worker found the problem Sunday, but the pressure did not drop below the threshold until Monday evening.
About 10,000 to 15,000 customers were temporarily without water Tuesday. Several Jackson schools shifted to all-virtual classes for Tuesday because they lacked water.
The problems arose as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael Regan, toured Jackson on Monday to examine the problems with the city's water infrastructure. It was the first of several stops Regan is making to historically marginalized communities in the South.
The day after I visited Jackson, Mississippi, the city is on a boil notice and many students cant go to school due to water issues, Regan wrote Tuesday on Twitter. This is exactly why Im on this #JourneytoJustice tour. And why we need the resources in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to protect communities.
The water pressure problem could affect businesses and schools over the next couple of days, officials said.
When a severe cold snap hit large parts of the South early this year, parts of Jacksons water system froze. That left thousands of customers without running water for weeks, forcing some businesses to close. Once service was restored, some customers still had to boil water for a month.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts.
U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler ruled Monday in Alabama that Congress exceeded its power in putting the so-called tax mandate on states. He entered a final judgement in favor of 13 states that had filed a lawsuit and instructed the Treasury Department not to enforce the provision. The judge left the rest of the law in place.
The American Rescue Plan steered $195 billion in flexible relief funds to states but specified that states could not use it as a means to cut taxes by using the federal relief dollars to offset the revenue reduction.
The judge described the tax-cut restrictions as a federal invasion of State sovereignty" that was unconstitutionally ambiguous" leaving states guessing as to whether their tax cuts would trigger a repayment of federal funds.
The Tax Mandates restriction on direct or indirect state tax cuts pressures States into adopting a particular and federally preferred tax policy," Coogler wrote. That may disincentive states "from considering any tax reductions for fear of forfeiting ARPA funds,
The lawsuit was filed by Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshal called that tax-cut restrictions an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on state sovereignty by the federal government.
Officials from other states on Tuesday also praised the ruling.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the decision ensures our citizens arent stuck with an unforeseen bill from the feds years from now.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said it clears the way for the state to pursue a sales tax cut on groceries without fear of federal reprisal.
Justice Department lawyers representing the Treasury Department argued the money should be used for its intended purpose pandemic recovery.
Congress did not provide Rescue Plan funds for States to replace purposeful decreases in net tax revenue; it provided the money to help States economically recover from the pandemic in ways they otherwise could not, federal lawyers wrote in an August court filing.
Federal government lawyers added, states are free to cut all the taxes they want, as long as they do not use the federal aid to offset any decreased revenue.
___
Associated Press writer David A. Lieb contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) After days of mounting pressure by Cuban authorities, Yunior Garcia, a leading activist against the communist regime who was trying to organize banned pro-democracy marches, unexpectedly left the country and flew to Spain on Wednesday with his wife.
Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez told The Associated Press that the departure of the Garcia and wife Dayana Prieto was their personal decision and not the product of a deal between his government and Spain.
On his Facebook account, the playwright called the trip an odyssey and said he and Prieto were alive, in good health and with intact ideas.
I have been out of communication for several days and need an update on the situation of other Archipielago members, he said in reference to the online discussion group of 35,000 he heads with Prieto.
Archipielago had said on social media Tuesday that both Garcia and Prieto were missing. The activists arrival in Spain was unexpected. Garcia and Prieto arrived in Madrid on tourist visas, a Spanish government spokesman told the AP. The official was not authorized to be identified by name in the media.
Garcia was one of the organizers of an unauthorized protest Monday in Cuba that was suppressed by government supporters. Organizers complained that their homes were surrounded so they couldnt go out while others said Cuban police warned them they would be arrested if they took to the streets.
Garcia then announced he intended to make a solo protest walk on Sunday but government supporters prevented him from leaving his apartment building.
The Cuban government has accused the United States government of instigating the protest to destabilize the Caribbean country. Garcia has denied that his group received foreign funding.
Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders, a Spanish non-governmental organization promoting freedom in Cuba, said his group had no knowledge that the couple was leaving Cuba.
We had no idea what was happening, Larrondo told the AP. We dont know if it is a forced expatriation or not. The government has forced hundreds to leave in the past.
In an interview with the AP, Rodriguez said the couple's departure was not the decision of the Cuban government, nor the result of a judicial decision.
I suppose that (Garcia) is exercising the right that any Cuban has to travel and move freely, Rodriguez said.
Archipielago demands democracy, fair elections and a real rule of law. It was created after a protest movement took the streets in July and caught Cuban authorities by surprise. Hundreds of citizens were arrested after marching through cities protesting about power outages, shortages, high prices and long lines. They denounced the government as repressive and demanded more freedom.
The Cuban government has not confirmed how many people were detained, but some human rights groups said hundreds of people were either arrested or went missing after taking part in the protests.
The group's manifesto says it is time for Cuba to be able to choose with absolute freedom, without interference and through truly democratic means, a project for a country that does not exclude any of its children.
It is common for the Cuban government to prevent activists and journalists from leaving their homes and to interrupt their communications. Cuban authorities also cut Internet access and have approved laws so information about possible protests does not spread out to citizens.
Hours before the marches on Monday, Cuban authorities revoked the credentials of reporters from the Spanish state news agency, EFE. They were returned after the Spanish government got involved and once it was clear that the marches were not happening.
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Andrea Rodriguez reported from Havana.
Rod Taitano found a balance between his ambition as a technology professional and his mahalang blues for Guam.
In 2006 the data center engineer was one of less than a thousand employees working long hours and on call 24/7 at a Silicon Valley startup called Salesforce.
The startup went on to become a giant in the customer relationship management world, with more than 56,000 employees around the globe.
Taitano retired recently as director of the enterprise software companys western region data center operations with sites in San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, and in Yokohama and Kobe, Japan.
But his demanding and fast-paced job didnt deter him from booking trips to Guam for emotional refueling and an annual February pilgrimage back to Guam for his familys fiesta.
The thing about the Yigo fiesta is that it is better than Christmas, because on Christmas you only see your immediate family but at the Yigo fiesta you see cousins, distant cousins and friends, he said. They all come together, thats why I go home every year for the fiesta.
Rod Taitanos parents are Maria Castro San Nicolas, familan Asan, and Juan Guerrero Taitano, familian Inchik. The 65-year-old is No. 8 among 11 siblings and the family lived in Didigue, Sinajana, before moving to Yigo after Supertyphoon Karen.
My mom wanted to show appreciation for moving from Didigue to a new village, he said of the parents commitment to hold a fiesta for Our Lady of Lourdes, the patron saint of Yigo.
We always have a good spread
Both of his parents have since died but Rod Taitano and his siblings have continued the fiesta that has now stretched for over five decades.
In 2020 for the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church 100th Anniversary celebration, the Taitano clan hosted its 55th straight year of opening up their homes and serving up a spread of Guam food for family, friends and newcomers to the island. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Taitano family didnt host a fiesta this year.
You are expected to clean up and spruce for the big day, everybody works, they put in a week of work before, Rod Taitano says of the preparations.
One of the siblings sends out a spreadsheet before the party that we sign up for. There are 11 of us and we always have a good spread and always have a good gathering in our backyard. We have to make sure there is enough food for everybody that shows up and also for balutan.
Working while on vacation
He also has to balance the familial and work demands on his trips home. Just because I am on vacation doesnt mean I am completely away from work, I dont throw away my cell phone, I am writing audit reports in Guam for the data centers I manage. I am still on top of things, he said.
Rod Taitano joined the Navy and left Guam in 1976. He spent six years in the Navy doing tactical electronic warfare before enrolling at Sacramento State University and getting a bachelors degree in industrial engineering.
The reason why I left Guam was because I saw a better opportunity out here for myself for my career, he said.
I became marketable
But he found himself missing the island so much that he moved back in 1995 and worked for a local computer service company repairing and installing computer systems.
It was really sad, they were only paying 11 dollars an hour, he recalled. Thats nothing, I just gave it to my mother and said, Here mom, play bingo.
He didnt last year working on Guam and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. I was in my 30s and was going nowhere fast and I was frantic so I came back out here, he said.
He hustled, learning and studying and piling up certifications for a bunch of different operating and network systems. Pretty soon I became very marketable and thats all she wrote man.
Building out data centers
He moved from systems and network engineering jobs around the Bay Area before landing the data center engineer job at Salesforce.
Just imagine the data centers we are talking of millions of millions of dollars of equipment that you are in charge of and maintaining on a regular basis. Its a huge responsibility, not only does the company rely on you to take care of the data but the customers that are housing their data in there rely on you, Rod Taitano said.
My projects sometimes go up to several months building out a data center, we have to talk about facilities engineering, the cooling and heating, setting up fencing that is secure, and setting up cameras with fingerprint and eye scan biometrics.
A little bit of home is with me
Late last year Rod Taitano retired from Salesforce. With technology changing every six months, if not quicker, I realized it is not for me anymore, he said.
I dont want to keep retraining myself or keep upgrading myself to get to the next level of technology which is artificial intelligence or machine learning.
Nowadays he spends his morning watching his stocks and making trades in his San Francisco East Bay home of El Sobrante, where tropical plants cover his front yard, paintings of lemai and aga adorn the house and a grove of bamboo rustles with the winds.
When I step in my backyard, I am comforted that a little bit of home is with me in the states.
Cant take the island out of the boy
We talked about quenching the mahalang blues.
Its every islanders dream to have enough to live comfortably here but also be able to go home and do an emotional refueling, hit the beach, be with family and friends, eat the good food, talk CHamoru whenever you feel like it and really get that sense of belonging when you go home, he said. My goal is to be able to afford a trip home every year if I can, maybe twice a year if I choose too.
You have heard that line where you can take the boy out of the island but you cant take the island out of the boy, thats how I feel.
A bill that would allow deer to be raised as livestock was praised Wednesday for its attempt to expand the islands economy and provide food security for residents.
Senators speculated that with binadu on the menu, Guam restaurants would have a lean and healthy local delicacy to offer visitors.
I think that this becomes another unique delicacy for Guam, that if its readily available to the hotels and the restaurants as they develop their diversification of their menu, it brings something unique to Guam, again, as an experience, you know, for us locals, us CHamorus, and, you know, just the general population of Guam, Sen. Chris Duenas said at the hearing.
I think the chefs will just have a wonderful time with this really nice protein, he added.
Guam law prohibits taking wild deer from the jungle to be kept domestically.
Hunters at times encounter orphaned calves that are unlikely to survive without additional care, but are unable to take them, Bill 191 states.
However, the offspring of deer in captivity may be kept as pets under the law. This creates an ambiguous gray area regarding how deer or calves may come to be livestock, the bill states.
The measure, introduced by Sen. Clint Ridgell, notes deer are an introduced, invasive species on Guam, but there is a stable, ample population to sustain the local hunting community.
I believe the bill will work well together with the slaughterhouse bill Ive also introduced, Ridgell said during the hearing. I imagine a time when locally raised deer meat can be sold in Guam stores or sold to restaurants (that) will be able to serve local dishes like kadun binadu or even kelaguen binadu.
Guam Department of Agriculture Director Chelsa Muna-Brecht said since the introduction of mobile slaughterhouses in Hawaii, deer has become that states largest livestock industry.
While deer are still considered an invasive species, Muna-Brecht said her agency is now working on approaching deer from the perspective of game management.
Another aspect one this legislation directly addresses is that deer taken from Guams jungles may be raised as livestock, she said. This is where game management (and the) agriculture industry will overlap. Sustainability, restorative agriculture and food security are concepts were using to usher in Guams agricultural renaissance.
Muna-Brecht said the agency supports the bill.
Rueben James Torres Rivera faces a family violence charge after being accused of punching an older man.
Rivera, 25, was the subject of a disturbance complaint at Ipan Beach Park in Talofofo when a man told police Rivera attacked him, according to a magistrates complaint filed in the Superior Court of Guam.
The man said he asked Rivera to help him, but in response Rivera punched the man four times, according to the complaint.
The man called the police, but while he was speaking with dispatch, Rivera ran up and hit the phone up against the mans face, the complaint stated.
Officers saw the man had redness on his face and a scratch on his neck.
Riveras eyes were red, watery and he smelled like alcohol, the complaint said.
Rivera is on probation after pleading guilty in cases involving the same man, according to the complaint.
Part of Riveras plea agreement restricts him from harassing, assaulting, or threatening the man.
Rivera was charged with:
Guam Community College has lent Atkins Kroll Inc. Toyota Guam a working hybrid engine model to display in the Tamuning showroom, according to a news release from the college.
The engine model is used by the colleges Automotive Service Technology Department to teach basic mechanics of a hybrid engine, as compared with a fuel-burning car engine. The hybrid engine program will train students to assess, troubleshoot, and repair hybrid vehicles. Classes are being finalized and will be integral to the GCC Automotive Services Technology Department curriculum soon, according to the announcement.
Partnership
The partnership between the college and the dealership teaches car owners about owning a hybrid vehicle and reducing carbon emissions.
The benefits of owning a hybrid vehicle include improved fuel efficiency, less pollution when compared to conventional vehicles, and a high resale value.
Atkins Kroll Inc. Business Development Director Ernie Galito said the company will continue supporting the college as it attracts future technical students in the automotive field.
He said some of AKs technicians and service managers came from GCCs program.
We want to showcase GCCs hybrid engine model in our showroom and our service lobby, so our customers get a better understanding of how hybrid engines work, Galito said in the announcement. Its fascinating to see how both the internal combustion engine and the electric motors operate the hybrid model drive train.
GCC President Mary Okada said that offering hybrid engine mechanics has been in the works for a few years.
The Guam Board of Medical Examiners made some movement in the investigation of complaints against former government of Guam Psychiatrist Dr. Abner Pasatiempo.
The investigation has been largely dormant for about two years.
Pasatiempo had six complaints filed against him in 2019 that alleged inappropriate sexual conduct. Following the complaints, his medical license was suspended in December 2019.
Pasatiempo then allowed the license to expire. He reapplied for it in 2020 after he said he was unable to work in Alaska without first having his case on Guam resolved.
According to board member Dr. Annie Bordallo on Wednesday, an investigator provided a report to the board. In September, there was no investigator assigned to Pasatiempos case because the board couldnt find a psychiatrist to review it.
I just need to to wrap up some of the other business with the complainants and then I will try to put together a recommendation for the board to review, Bordallo said.
The board would review the investigators report and then likely allow Pasatiempo to address concerns raised in it, said Dr. Nathaniel Berg, Guam Board of Medical Examiners chairman. The report was passed on to Pasatiempos attorney, he said.
Pasatiempos extradition from Alaska to Guam to face criminal charges was delayed earlier this month.
Pasatiempo was originally scheduled to appear at the Alaska Superior Court for an extradition hearing Nov. 10, but his attorney filed for a writ of habeas corpus, according to the Office of the Attorney General.
A writ of habeas corpus is an inquiry into the cause of unlawful imprisonment or restraint, according to Guam law.
A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 22, and Pasatiempo remains out on bail.
The deployment of the U.S. Iron Dome Missile Defense System to Guam will provide the Army with vital data about how effectively the system can be deployed in the region, and how well it integrates with missile defense technology thats already in wide use, Army officials said Wednesday.
Operation Iron Island saw the missile system arrive from Fort Bliss, Texas in October, though the Army wont disclose exactly how many units out of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade are assigned to operate it. The Iron Dome battery is one of two that was purchased by the U.S. from Israel, which has used it to shoot down thousands of incoming munitions.
According to Capt. Andrew Parker, the commander of the Iron Dome battery which is deployed at Andersen Air Force Base, the Army plans to use the system differently.
Israelis use the system primarily for counter rocket artillery and mortar fire. The Army purchased some specifically for cruise missile, interim cruise missile defense solutions, he said during a tour of Site Armadillo at Andersen.
Layered defense
The Iron Dome systems can supplement a layered missile defense, which also involves the longer-range Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and MIM-104 Patriot systems.
When we talk about layer defense, as were out there, youre now seeing THAAD, which is the upper layer of defense, and you see Iron Dome which is the lower layer of defense. Patriot really slides in as that middle piece, said Capt. Nicholas Chopp, public affairs officer for the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command.
Its the first American deployment of the Iron Dome outside of the continental U.S., and it will be on island until December, when it will depart back to Texas. In that time, it wont actually fire a single shot.
A big part of the mission is determining how well the Iron Dome communicates with the computer and radar of the THAAD, which was permanently stationed on Guam in 2017 during the escalation of tensions with North Korea, and the Patriot system. Much of the information is generated through simulations.
Another element, Chopp said, is proving the Armys ability to rapidly deploy the system in the Pacific, and developing the standard procedures for soldiers operating the systems. Guam has a similar environment to any potential deployments throughout the region.
The heavy and regular rains were one challenge noticed by some of the soldiers on the ground practicing changing out the missile firing system of the Iron Dome at Site Armadillo.
The humidity is pretty awesome. Were not used to that at Fort Bliss but no significant challenges as of now, Parker said.
Keeping pace
Increased military emphasis on the region from Army leadership was borne out of a desire to be proactive and keep pace with the rapidly increasing missile capabilities of both North Korea and China over the past five years, according to Chief Warrant Officer Caroline Surprenant.
While threats have changed, THAAD has been able to maintain its use, and ... we look forward to the future, where were modernizing our ground-based air defense systems not only just that but as a whole to be able to account for the changes, she said.
Exercises such as Iron Island were meant to keep enemy nations guessing about the capabilities of the U.S. defense system, she said.
Despite local concerns about growing aggression from China in the region, Chopp maintained that the Iron Dome deployment wasnt a reaction on the part of the Army, but something that was set in motion by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
The withdrawal of the system in December isnt a security concern either, he added.
It is not live, it was not deployed to protect Guam. If World War III pops off guess what? We can change that. Right now its here for us to gather all that data, Chopp said.
Dr. Abner Pasatiempos extradition to Guam has been delayed, according to the Office of the Attorney General.
Pasatiempo has been charged with committing crimes while working as a psychiatrist for Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.
Pasatiempo was originally scheduled to appear at the Alaska Superior Court for an extradition hearing on Nov. 10 but was delayed after his attorney filed for a writ of habeas corpus, according to the Office of the Attorney General spokeswoman Carlina Charfauros.
A writ of habeas corpus is an inquiry into the cause of unlawful imprisonment or restraint, according Guam law.
The hearing of the writ is scheduled for Nov. 22, and Pasatiempo remains out on bail, Charfauros added.
Last week, the AGs office sent documents to Alaska that led to the arrest of Pasatiempo after a governors warrant was issued.
Once Pasatiempo arrives on Guam, the Superior Court of Guam will hold a hearing to decide whether he should stay confined or be released, Charfauros said in a previous release.
The AGs office filed a criminal complaint in February against Pasatiempo, accusing him of engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct with patients.
Pasatiempo was immediately suspended and later allowed his Guam medical license to expire. However, he later tried to get work in Alaska, so he needed to renew his Guam license.
A competency hearing was held to discuss the results of a forensic examination of John Richard Bass III, who pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness to murder charges. Bass was charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed two women at the MaiAna Airport Plaza in June, court documents state.
One of the women, 39-year-old Virginia Rose Peredo Laguana, was pronounced dead after the incident, according to PDN files.
Psychologist Dr. Juan Rapadas appeared in the Superior Court of Guam and said Bass didnt show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Basss attorney, Assistant Alternate Public Defender Peter J. Santos, questioned Rapadas and asked him a series of questions about his findings, including the basis of the findings. Rapadas said available records and a conversation led him to believe Bass didnt suffer from PTSD.
Bass said in a previous hearing he had served in the military.
Santos also asked Rapadas if he took into account outside factors, such as Basss prescribed medication, past relationships and witnesses to the alleged crime.
Rapadas said he didnt.
Assistant Attorney General Jeremiah Luther asked Rapadas if a PTSD diagnosis means someone is not guilty. Rapadas said it didnt.
Rapadas said when Bass was asked if he remembered the incident, he didnt respond.
Presiding Judge Alberto C. Lamorena III didnt make a decision on Basss competency and said he would take the matter under advisement.
According to Santos, he intends to file a motion for a second evaluation that is more in depth and less superficial.
Over the past few months, I have been focusing my columns on a 1946 protest by more than 100 CHamorus over Navy radioman George Tweed.
There are so many things going on that have impacted the survival and recovery of businesses as well as our regular day-to-day lives.
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20th annual Cattlemens Day set for Lewistown
From Montana Cattlemen Association
Montana Cattlemens Association will host its 20th annual Cattlemens Day Saturday, Dec. 4, at the YOGO Inn in Lewistown beginning at 9 a.m.
Starting off the program, Kendra Joyce will talk about her program Cutting Fences which supports individuals in agriculture who have sustained injuries, accidents, or have disabilities.
A Montana Department of Livestock update will be presented by Executive Officer Mike Honeycutt.
Weed Coordinator Kelsey Miller will discuss identification and management of invasive grasses and noxious weeds. At 11 a.m. USDA Senior Advisor Andy Green will appear via Zoom to address fair and competitive markets within the cattle industry.
After the lunch break, Leo McDonnell will speak on the importance of EPDs, advanced genetics, and carbon credits.
Montana Beef Council Executive Director Chaley Harney is slated to describe how your checkoff dollars are being spent.
A panel discussion regarding the Fort Belknap Water Compact and the American Prairie Reserve will be headed by Gale Decker, Lake County Commissioner and Ed Amescoy, Phillips County Attorney.
MCA directors Ken Morris and Newell Roche will address the current status of COOL legislation and cattle markets.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds have been invited to review the USA Beef Act concerning the Product of USA label and the American Beef Labeling Act, which is the new Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling Bill.
MCA will have its annual business meeting later in the afternoon. Members are encouraged to present their concerns and help establish directives for the upcoming year. During the meeting, MCA policy and resolutions will be discussed as well as nominations for district directors and officer elections.
Cattlemens Day is open to the public and there is no registration fee. An optional roast beef lunch ($21) and barbecue dinner ($24) is available. People need to RSVP for lunch and/or dinner reservations by calling 406-467-2251 by Nov. 30.
People unable to attend in person can join via ZOOM. The complete agenda and ZOOM login can be found at http://www.montanacattlemen.org .
According to the official SANA news agency, affiliated with the Damascus government, Bashar al-Assad received today a Russian delegation headed by Alexander Lavrentiev, the special envoy of President Vladimir Putin, who is visiting Syria to participate in the joint periodic meeting of the Syrian and Russian coordination bodies on the return of refugees and displaced persons, held in Damascus.
The agency said: "During the meeting, the two sides praised the positive results that are being achieved on the ground as a result of the active and effective work and joint efforts of the two parties in order to secure appropriate conditions for the continued return of refugees to their cities and villages and to accelerate the pace of national reconciliation."
In November 2020, Russia organized a conference for refugees in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and mobilized it in the media and politically, but it did not achieve any results on the ground, as it was boycotted by Western and most Arab countries.
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The meeting was held in the presence of a large crowd of people, as well as civil and military actors and tribal sheikhs.
He began with a minute of silence for the souls of the martyrs, then the co-chair of the Civil Council in Tabqa, Sefin Hammou, welcomed the attendees.
The co-chair of the Executive Council in Tabqa, Hind Al-Ali, touched on the latest developments in the region, especially the special methods of war pursued by some agendas, especially the Damascus government to shake confidence between the Autonomous Administration and the people, especially with regard to handing over areas to the Damascus government.
Hind Al-Ali confirmed that the reason for prolonging the life of the Syrian crisis is the intransigence of the Damascus government, its rejection of dialogue and its attempt to impose its conditions, and this is what the Autonomous Administration does not accept.
Hind stressed, "We are with the unity of the Syrian territories, but we reject the central mentality, and one of our priorities is also to expel the Turkish occupier from all Syrian lands."
She added, "When the Syrian regime abandoned these areas to ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which were formed from the people of the region, came to rid the people of the oppression and terrorism of ISIS, and we tell them we will not retreat or surrender, because these lands were liberated with the blood of our martyrs who gave their most precious possessions, which is their lives, and we will not deviate from the path they set."
In turn, the co-chair of the Defense Office in the Tabqa area, Hakki Muhammad, said, "Our military forces are present and will not take a step back, and we have liberated these areas from the largest terrorist organization in the world, and we will not surrender."
"The rumors that have emerged in the recent period are aimed at destabilizing security and stability in the region, but they will not work with the presence of our conscious and educated people, and the presence of our military forces that believe in the blood that their comrades provided to liberate these areas," said Hakki Hammou.
In turn, the head of the Tabqa sub-district in the Future Syria Party, Yasser Al-Kurdi, stressed, "We, as a political party, always call on the Damascus government to sit at the dialogue table, the Syrian-Syrian dialogue that will save all Syrian regions from this crisis and solve all problems and crises, but it always rejects this dialogue."
In conclusion, the discussion was opened to the audience for discussion.
It is worth mentioning that the Civil Administration organized similar meetings today in the western countryside of Tabqa in the village of Al-Bu Asi and in the northern countryside of the town of Al-Jarniyah.
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BoA honors IAM as Neighborhood Champion
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch executives honored Interfaith Assistance Ministry as the Neighborhood Champion of Western North Carolina and presented a check for $50,000. They posed in front of IAM's new thrift store, which is under construction.
Interfaith Assistance Ministry, the Hendersonville-based crisis services agency that provides emergency relief for families in need, will now be able to help even more people after receiving a multi-year grant from Bank of America.
Bank of America on Wednesday honored IAM as its Neighborhood Champion of 2021 for Western North Carolina for its work in the greater Henderson County area addressing the basic needs of its more vulnerable residents.
As part of the program, officials with Bank of America and BOA-owned Merrill Lynch presented a check today for $50,000 in grant support and an opportunity for engagement in virtual leadership training delivered by experts in the nonprofit sector on topics like human capital management, increasing financial sustainability and storytelling.
Henderson Countys largest provider of crisis services, IAM helps individuals and families with food assistance, clothing, linens, personal care items, utility payments, rent support, as well as by providing referrals to other area organizations and nonprofits.
Bank of America is committed to supporting organizations that provide economic opportunity and stability for Western North Carolinians, especially individuals and families that are the most vulnerable, said Andy H. Nadeau, president of Bank of America Asheville. We are excited to recognize Interfaith Assistance Ministry as our first Neighborhood Champion in Henderson County. The Neighborhood Champions program will help the organization grow sustainably and strategically to assist more residents and have even greater positive impact throughout our region.
In 2020, IAM provided 26,475 services touches to local residents in great need a 91 percent increase over services provided in 2019. The demand for emergency help with food, rental and utility bill assistance, clothing, personal hygiene items, transportation, blankets, and heating fuel has continued to increase during 2021, according to Elizabeth Willson Moss, IAMs executive director.
This generous and greatly needed grant from Bank of America will help IAM defray the cost of opening our new thrift store, Moss said. We hope to begin store operations in February to provide an ongoing stable revenue stream for IAM for the first time in our 37 year history. We also look forward to taking advantage of the sustaining resources that Bank of America has to offer. We are truly humbled by this honor!
Alongside the greater Asheville area, the bank will bring the program to more than 42 additional communities across the U.S. this fall as part of its commitment to investing in the long-term health of communities. The Neighborhood Champions program is invitation-only for nonprofits who are poised to take their work to the next level. Leading members of the community participated in a collaborative selection process to identify this years awardee.
The Neighborhood Champions program is an extension of the banks signature philanthropic initiative, Neighborhood Builders, the largest corporate philanthropic investment in nonprofit leadership in the country. Since the programs inception in 2019, Bank of America has invested $6.3 million in 126 organizations within 42 communities through the Neighborhood Champions program.
In rare feat, West High graduate aces AP exam
Caroline Maxon is shown at the Old Well at UNC at Chapel Hill.
Henderson County public schools and the Falcon family are celebrating the news that 2021 West Henderson High School graduate Caroline Maxon earned a rare perfect score on an Advanced Placement exam last spring.
Currently a freshman studying chemistry at UNC at Chapel Hill, Maxon was one of only 375 students or 1.5 percent of the 24,021 students worldwide who took the AP Research Exam in 2021 to earn every point possible on the AP Research Exam in Spring 2021.
AP courses and exams are college-level, requiring great focus and persistence among participating students, Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement Program, said in a College Board press release.
Her timely research explored a potential correlation between political alignment and the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918," said Reuben Swindall, Maxons AP Research teacher at West Henderson. "It was both academically original and especially well conceived." The AP Research exam consists of a 4,000-5,000-word, original academic paper and an oral presentation and defense.
I worked really hard on my paper and was very proud of what I submitted, Maxon told Wingspan, West Henderson High's student newspaper. AP Research was a challenging class for me, but it really prepared me for college.
Upon her graduation from West in May 2021, Maxon earned the AP Capstone Diploma for successful completion of the AP Capstone Program an optional, AIG curricular path purpose built to prepare students to excel in the most rigorous academic environments. Successful completion of both the AP Seminar and AP Research courses earn graduating students the AP Capstone Diploma, which is a prestigious and internationally recognized credential.
I feel like Im ahead of the curve when it comes to writing and doing research," she said. "It taught me how to be independent in academics. I greatly benefited from AP Research and the Capstone program. It was definitely worth it.
Caroline is among the most brilliant students I have had the privilege of teaching," Swindall said. This honor is well deserved and reflects the enormous amount of time, effort and ingenuity that she poured into the project. I have no doubt that we will continue to hear of Carolines achievements far into the future.
Atlanta man sentenced to 15-19 years in prison for meth trafficking
A 36-year-old Atlanta man was sentenced to 15 to 19 years in prison on Tuesday after his conviction for trafficking in methamphetamine, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray announced.
Chief Superior Court Judge Peter Knight sentenced Damian Lewis Furtch to the prison time after the defendant tried unsuccessfully to suppress evidence deputies seized after a traffic stop.
According to court records and Tuesdays sentencing hearing, on February 19, 2019 at around midnight, Henderson County sheriff's deputies stopped Furtch the night of Feb. 19, 2019, for following too closely to the vehicle in front of him and failing to maintain lane control. Furtch was stopped on the U.S. 25 connector en route from Atlanta to Asheville.
The deputy that observed the traffic infractions and initiated the stop of defendant requested the assistance of a K-9 officer in the area to back him up on the late-night stop. While the deputy that initiated the stop was explaining a warning citation to the defendant, the K-9 deputy providing backup walked his K-9, who is trained and certified in the detection of illegal drugs, around the defendants vehicle. The K-9 immediately alerted to the presence of drugs in the vehicle, giving g the deputy that initiated the stop probable cause to search the vehicle. The stop and search were recorded on the deputys dash cam. The deputies located a handgun and large bag of methamphetamine, weighing in excess of 15 ounces or approximately 1 pound, in the rear storage area of Furtchs van.
Two smaller bags of methamphetamine and digital scales were located in the center console area. The drug packaging conveniently had the defendants name written on it. The defendant confessed to possessing the trafficking level of drugs and informed the arresting deputy he was transporting the drugs for delivery to a recipient in Western North Carolina. The drugs were later tested by the NC Crime Lab and confirmed to be methamphetamine.
"The defendant will have the next 14-18 years in prison to ponder his ill-fated decision to destroy, and possibly kill, the lives of so many citizens through his distribution of such a harmful illicit drug," Murray said in a news release.
Assistant District Attorney Heather Brittain handled the prosecution of this case, including a lengthy hearing on the defendants motion to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the traffic stop, and finally the sentencing hearing of the defendant. Murray thanked the Henderson County Sheriffs Office and especially the Crime Suppression Unit and Drug Enforcement Team for their commitment to protecting the citizens of Henderson County and for their thorough investigation of this drug trafficking case. Their steadfast commitment to getting harmful illegal drugs off the streets of Henderson County undoubtedly prevented the destruction of numerous lives, Murray added.
High school thespians win honors from state festival
The theatre departments at all four of Henderson County's traditional public high schools are celebrating their recognition in the 2021 NCTC High School Play Festival regionals Nov. 5-6 at Gardner-Webb University, hauling a total of 19 group and individual awards home to Henderson County.
This year, Henderson County public school students were among more than 1,500 students from 71 schools performing 89 plays at seven regional sites for the Play Festival. Participating schools travel to their regional festival sites with theatrical sets, costumes and props. Each show loads into a 10x10 backstage area and when their time comes, each school has 45 minutes to set up, perform the play, and clear the stage. Following their performance, students receive feedback from professional actors and directors with Broadway and Hollywood credits. Awards were given for acting, design, technical craft, ensemble work, and festival spirit. The top 16 productions are invited to perform at the NCTC State High School Play Festival, held Nov. 19 and 21 at Greensboro College.
West Henderson Highs theatre program, led by Kelly Cooper, presented Puffs at the Regional Festival, and won the Festival Spirit Award, Excellence in Ensemble Acting, and Honorable Mention Distinguished Play as an ensemble. Student Rainy Fizer earned the Barbizon Excellence in Design & Production award for Lighting Design, Summer Hyder earned the Barbizon Excellence in Design & Production award for Sound Design, and Karsyn Andress earned the Theatre Arts Award for Excellence in Narration.
For their production of The Blue Hour, Hendersonville Highs theatre program, led by Todd Weakley, snagged the Festival Spirit Award and Theatre Arts Award for Excellence in Stage Pictures. Student Auden Pelz earned the Barbizon Excellence in Design & Production award for Lighting Design, Stage Management, Poster and T-Shirt Design. Alexis Rubianes earned the Barbizon Excellence in Design & Production award for Sound Design and Marie Danos took home Excellence in Acting.
Theatre teacher Clay Gaitskill led East Henderson Highs production, "Becoming Family: an Original Southern Comedy About Putting the Fun in Funeral, which earned a Festival Spirit Award and Theatre Arts Award for Excellence in Props, and students Rutzel Montiel and Garret Metcalf each earned Excellence in Acting awards.
Led by Sydney Bailey, North Henderson High theatre students Emma Osteen, Charleston Reagan and Lola Fisher each earned Excellence in Acting awards for their performances in Zoinks! which also earned a Festival Spirit Award.
The Play Festival allows teachers to fulfill the NC Essential Standards for Theatre Arts: students study and analyze literary texts as they select their Play Festival piece, and during the rehearsal process young artists analyze theatre in terms of the social, historical, and cultural contexts in which it was created. At the NCTC Festival, students use performance to communicate ideas and feelings, and by watching other schools performances, students develop critical thinking skills and learn to understand the traditions, roles, and conventions of theatre as an art form.
Pipeline
17 November 2021
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) today announced the signing of a franchise agreement with Ken Corporation Ltd. to launch Hilton Yokohama in autumn 2023. The hotel will be situated in Minato Mirai 21, a seaside urban area in central Yokohama within the Kanagawa prefecture. This marks Hilton's first property in Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan after Tokyo.
Hilton Yokohama is approximately 20 kilometers from Haneda Airport and conveniently located within a 10-minute walk from Yokohama station offering excellent access to popular sightseeing spots such as Japan's largest Chinatown, Kamakura as well as Tokyo metropolitan area.
Hilton Yokohama is a part of Ken Corporation's mixed-use development project "K-Arena" in Minato Mirai 21. The project site, named "Music Terrace" and set to open in autumn 2023, includes one of the world's largest music venues, "K-Arena Yokohama" which can accommodate approximately 20,000 people, the "K-Tower Yokohama" office building and the Hilton Yokohama. The 339-room hotel will offer facilities including a fitness center, an executive lounge and meeting spaces. Guests will have a selection of dining options from the hotel's all-day dining, a specialty restaurant and a cafe and bar lounge.
The hotel is also part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest-loyalty program for Hilton's 18 distinct brands. Members who book directly on the Hilton website have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount, free standard Wi-Fi and the Hilton Honors mobile app.
Pipeline
17 November 2021
Australasia's largest serviced apartment operator Quest Apartment Hotels has today announced plans for a 75-toom hotel in Truganina, a quickly growing neighbourhood 22km west of the Melbourne CBD in the City of Wyndham.
Located on the corner of Leakes Road and Palmers Road, Quest Truganina will be the first hotel delivered in the suburb.
Wyndham is one of the largest and fastest growing municipalities in Australia, with a population of over 280,000 that's tipped to exceed half a million by 2041[1].
About 40 minutes' drive from both Geelong and Melbourne, Truganina is currently home to over 20,000 people and 1,500 registered businesses [2], with the suburb anticipated to employ around 23,000 people by 2031 [3].
While Quest has several established apartment hotels in Melbourne's outer west, Shields says requirement continues to increase parallel to economic growth and investment.
Part of a mixed-use development by Abraham Cohen, Quest Truganina will provide a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, occupying four of the building's six levels, plus ground floor reception, conference facility, business lounge and gymnasium.
Wyndham City's Destination Wyndham portfolio holder, Cr Heather Marcus, welcomed the announcement by Quest Apartment Hotels.
Construction is set to commence in the second half of 2022 and is slated for completion in late-2023.
Appointment
17 November 2021
The Ajman Hotel by Blazon Hotels has brought in a new director of sales and marketing. Walaa Khalil joins the hotel not only to elevate his departments, but also tourism in the emirate as a whole.
Khalil is certainly up to the task, having held similar positions for hospitality giants such as Emaar Hospitality Group, Marriott International, Jumeirah Group and Accor's Fairmont and Sofitel brands.
In his new role, he will lead business development into new markets regionally and internationally; head up the planning of all sales initiatives; and deliver maximum sales value while maintaining strong customer relationships.
Appointment
17 November 2021
Premier travel club for second homeowners, THIRDHOME, is pleased to appoint Chad Rowe as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Chad will be responsible for managing existing partnerships, while seeking new affiliations with luxury resorts, developments, and vacation rental management companies in the US. With 20+ years of experience in luxury resort real estate sales, property management, and vacation rentals, Chad's industry expertise and network of luxury developments will be a great asset in advancing THIRDHOME'S business model.
Chad began his resort real estate career in 2000 with Intrawest Corporation, aiding in the launch of its real estate sales and marketing division with offerings that spanned across the United States, Canada, UK, Caribbean, and British West Indies. Chad then held the position of Director of Real Estate for Celebration Associates, overseeing the real estate development sales and marketing for best-of-class projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic and South-Eastern regions. Prior to joining THIRDHOME, Chad served as the SVP of Business Development and Principal Real Estate Broker for Natural Retreats US LLC, a top national player in the luxury vacation rental management industry.
Chad earned his BA in English from Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA, where he now holds a seat on the Board of Advisors. He proudly resides in both Charlottesville, VA, and Eagle Ranch, CO, with his wife Katie and daughters Hayden and Abigail.
Appointment
17 November 2021
Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa, located on 405 acres of Texas landscape right outside of Austin and near the city of Bastrop, announces Steven Carl as its new director of food and beverage. Carl joins the resort from City of Dreams Manila Resort in Paranaque, Philippines.
As director of food and beverage, Carl will be responsible for the operations of each of the resort's on-site restaurants including Stories Fine Dining, Firewheel Cafe, Shellers Barrelhouse Bar, McDade's Coffee Emporium & Ice Cream Saloon, and Old Buck's Place.
Carl has worked with Hyatt Corporation for more than 24 years and has held executive chef and director of food & beverage positions at 11 properties throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean including Hyatt Regency Coral Gables, Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman, Hyatt Regency Miami, and Hyatt Regency Maui. Carl worked in Central Texas previously as the food and beverage director at Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort & Spa from 2011 to 2013.
Carl received his degree in culinary arts from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. He's also served as a member of Rotary International since 2017.
Author
Abraham Pizam is the founding dean (2000-2018) of Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida. Currently he serves as Professor and Linda Chapin Eminent Scholar Chair in Tourism Management. Professor Pizam is widely known in the field of Hospitality and Tourism Management and has conducted research projects, lectured, and served as a consultant in more than 30 countries. He has held various academic positions, in Austria, Australia, France, Israel, Japan, New-Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland United Kingdom and the U.S.A, has authored more than 250 publications of which 180 were scientific publications and published ten books. His publications have resulted in more than 20,000 citations and an h-index of 66. He is Editor Emeritus of the International Journal of Hospitality Management and serves on the editorial boards of 26 academic journals. Professor Pizam has conducted consulting and research projects for a variety of international, national and regional tourism organizations. Professor Pizam holds a Masters degree from New York University and a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and is the recipient of several academic awards.
More about Abraham Pizam
Supplier News
17 November 2021
Stayntouch, a global leader in guest-centric cloud hotel property management systems (PMS) and contactless technology, today announced an expansion to its existing partnership with EOS Hospitality, a fully integrated hospitality investment firm focusing on upscale urban markets and resort destinations. Stayntouch will now deliver its full cloud PMS solution to Red Jacket Resorts, a group of six family-friendly luxury resorts based in New England.
Red Jacket features six properties in Cape Cod and North Conway, boasting over 650+ rooms, suites, and vacation homes, as well as a 40,000 square-foot indoor waterpark. With deep connections to both the beaches of Cape Cod and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Red Jacket aims to deliver exceptional service and memorable experiences for the entire family. EOS Hospitality chose Stayntouch for Red Jacket Resorts because of its ease-of-use, speed of deployment, and seamless multi-property functionality.
Gaurav B Sharma, Executive Vice President for Revenue & Distribution at EOS Investors said, We have an efficacious partnership with Stayntouch, and they were our natural choice for Red Jacket Resorts. We needed a cloud-based multi-property PMS thats reliable, easy to operate, has the ability to support mobile check-ins, and can reduce legacy maintenance costs. We also needed a provider that has the bandwidth to implement its platform within 30 days, and with minimal disruption to our business or guest experience. Stayntouch was that provider.
Mr. Sharma elaborated further, We believe this partnership will also help accelerate ancillary revenue for our resorts by engaging guests early for upsells and exclusive add-on options.
Michael Helfin, Chief Revenue Officer at Stayntouch, replied, We are honored that EOS has chosen to expand their partnership with Stayntouch to include Red Jacket Resorts. We believe that technologys primary purpose should be to unburden hospitality for hotel operators, staff and guests. Were proud that our easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy, and easy-to-scale PMS is helping Red Jacket provide exceptional service to their guests."
About EOS Investors
EOS is a fully integrated investment firm dedicated to identifying and creating value within the hospitality sector. EOS utilizes a highly selective investment approach focused on high-quality, differentiated assets with attractive risk-adjusted returns. Headquartered in New York City, EOS seeks investment opportunities across the United States, with an emphasis on major urban markets and resort destinations. To learn more about EOS, please contact [email protected]
About Stayntouch
Stayntouch provides a full cloud and mobile hotel property management system (PMS) and over 1100+ integrations, enabling hotels to raise service levels, drive revenues, reduce costs, and ultimately captivate their guests. Backed by a team of professionals with deep roots in the hospitality industry, stayntouch is a trusted partner to many forward-thinking hotels and resorts, including the TWA Hotel, First Hotels, Conscious Hotels, Margaritaville, Valencia Hotel Group, and Modus Hotels. Stayntouch is also a preferred PMS partner to some of the leading independent hotel collections around the world including; Design Hotels, an Independent Marriott Brand, and Curator Hotel & Resort Collection.
Press Release
17 November 2021
Company brings to market what was previously considered technologically impossible: commercial-scale whole cuts of plant-based meat, achieving a level of quality endorsed by leading chefs for the menus of Michelin-star restaurants
Range of New-Meat commercially available includes beef and lamb flank cuts, as well as culinary-grade ground beef, sausages, premium burgers and lamb kebabs
Products are immediately available within initial high-end restaurants in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, and Israel (see list within footnote)
With European expansion, company solidifies roadmap to become the worlds largest meat company, harnessing technology instead of animals
Rehovot, Israel Marking a major milestone for the food industry, New-Meat pioneer Redefine Meat today announced the launch of the first ever category of plant-based whole cuts that achieve a level of product quality comparable to high-quality animal meat. Initially available within select restaurants in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Israel, this marks the first time that high-end restaurants will offer plant-based whole cuts as part of their menus. The range of New-Meat products include beef and lamb cuts, as well as premium-quality burgers, sausages, lamb kebabs, and ground beef giving chefs unparalleled culinary versatility to incorporate plant-based meat into their menus.
With its eyes firmly set on meat lovers, Redefine Meat has gone beyond todays alternative meat offerings to tackle the two main barriers to mainstream adoption of plant-based meat: product quality and variety.
Putting quality to the test, Redefine Meat has achieved widespread acclaim from high-end and Michelin-star chefs, including legendary British chef Marco Pierre White, world-renowned chef and Dutch TV personality Ron Blaauw, Berlins celebrated head chef of FACIL Restaurant (two-Michelin stars) Joachim Gerner, and Israels famed chef Shahaf Shabtay. In addition, the New-Meat products were recently served at a private blind-tasting event for top UK chefs, receiving further praise (video). Addressing product variety, todays launch expands the plant-based industry beyond minced meat products to whole cuts, representing the first exciting product range for meat lovers. This reflects the companys goal to become the worlds largest meat company by offering every single cut that a cow does.
Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO and Co-Founder of Redefine Meat said: Over the past few weeks at COP26, weve seen world leaders commit to landmark goals such as the elimination of all deforestation by 2030, which requires a significant reduction in global meat consumption. Redefine Meat has its eyes set on the real problem not meat, but the way its produced. We have a genuine solution that today, not in 2030, preserves all the culinary aspects of meat we know and love, but eliminates cattle as a means of production."
Weve achieved a level of superiority in taste and texture that surprised even some of the most recognized chefs in the world, and our unique technological capabilities enable us to replace every part of the cow for the first time. By continuing our close collaboration with the top-tier culinary world, we will accelerate our product rollout in the coming months beginning with Europe and followed by the USA and Asia and launch within multiple distribution channels next year, he added.
What the chefs think
Culinary legend, British chef and restaurateur, Marco Pierre White, the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars, said: When I first tasted Redefine Meat, I was mind-blown. The world needs to eat less meat, but the reality is that until now plant-based meat products have fallen way short in terms of the quality and versatility required for our menus. Redefine Meats New-Meat products are pure genius, giving you all the sustainability and health benefits of plant-based, without the compromise on taste and texture.
Michelin starred Dutch chef and TV personality, Ron Blaauw, added: Honestly, I was so surprised by the texture and structure of the meat. The first time I tried it, I remember closing my eyes and appreciating the chewiness and mouthfeel like I would a great cut of meat. For me this is a gamechanger, as we can now serve another variety of high-quality meat to our customers that just happens to be made from plant-based ingredients. Even now my head is still spinning with the possibilities this meat creates for our menu.
Joachim Gerner, Head Chef at two-Michelin star Restaurant FACIL in Berlin, also added: While weve seen the quality of plant-based meat products increase in recent years, this by far comes the closest to animal meat. I see huge potential for these products with meat lovers.
Renowned Israeli chef, Shahaf Shabtay, concluded: My cuisine is truly global, inspired by my favourite influences from kitchens across Asia, Europe and Latin America. Redefine Meat has created an ingredient that allows me to unleash full creativity and create dream menus whatever the cuisine. As a chef, the ability to cook for every type of diner vegetarian, vegan, kosher and more without barriers or compromise, using a variety of techniques including roasting, grilling, and slow cooking, is quite simply incredible.
About New-Meat
Using a range of proprietary and patented technologies, including Meat Matrix Additive ManufacturingTM, Redefine Meats products are made from plant-based ingredients. Working closely with global meat experts to understand the complexity of animal muscle structure, Redefine Meat has cracked the holy grail of the alternative meat industry whole cuts of meat. The new Redefine Beef and Lamb cuts go beyond the experience of any plant-based product to date offering an extremely juicy, yet firm meaty bite by mimicking the complete muscle tissues of animal meat, ideal for products like steaks and roasts.
The New-Meat range boasts a selection of high-quality products already adopted by close to 150 restaurants in Israel. The range is designed to address a major gap in the market that achieves cooking performance for chefs to use as a culinary base for a wide variety of dishes in the best restaurants in the world. This is exemplified by the list of early adopters in Europe and Israel, with demand from US and Asia already in place.
*New Meat is plant-based and does not contain any ingredients of animal origin.
**List of fine-dining restaurants who will be serving Redefine Meats New-Meat, with many more nationwide to be announced over the coming months:
Press Release
17 November 2021
Inspired by its recent international tourism campaign focusing on adventure tourism, Slovenia is expected to see inbound tourism rise to 5.7 million arrivals by 2024, a 22% increase on pre-pandemic levels, according to GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that adventure and sport is the fifth most popular holiday type, and has particular resonance with Slovenias traditional visitors: Czechs and the Dutch.
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Craig Bradley, Associate Travel & Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, comments: Slovenia is home to some of the most incredible landscapes in Europe but has surprisingly passed many tourists by. However, the Slovenian Tourist Boards recent campaign has brought the destination to life by focusing on adventure tourism, natural beauty and national parks.
In a Q3 survey by GlobalData, 27% of respondents said they typically book adventure holidays. Adventure tourism also proved more prevalent in some of Slovenias key source markets such as the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, with a respective 40% and 32% of respondents noting this is the holiday type they typically book.
Photo: GlobalData Plc
Bradley adds: "The timing of Slovenias advertizing campaign is ideal. Many tourists are yearning for open, green spaces after months at home. Pent-up demand for adventure travel will see international tourism recover more quickly in Slovenia than some other places in Europe.
Supplier News
17 November 2021
New Delhi - Xperium, a complete end-to-end guest experience management platform powered by AI and smart automation has announced the partnership with IDS Next property management system, one of the largest enterprise PMS companies in India. Through this integration, hotels using IDS on-premise or IDS cloud Property Management System (PMS) will be able to seamlessly connect Xperium to provide a completely automated guest experience suite to its existing and future customers.
The integration will play a pivotal role in these times, when hotel experiences must be even more personalised based on guest preferences and health and safety standards. Hotels that use IDS will now be able to offer targeted up-sells/cross-sells to their visitors, engage with them via well-timed pre-arrival and in-stay messaging, collect guest feedback, and manage their overall online reputation. To improve the hotel guest experience, the following Xperium modules will be integrated with IDS:
CRM & Marketing
Upsell
Survey & Reputation
On the partnership, Manoj Mohanty, Senior VP Sales, South Asia and South-East Asia at IDS said, In todays connected world, this integration with Xperium will help hotel partners connect deeply with their guests. They will be able to build a strong bond, enhance their brands credibility, and increase visibility and profitability. More importantly, pre-stay, during the stay, and post-stay connections are very important to understand guests and their collective feedback.
Our objective for this integration is to enhance the experience of IDS customers by providing them the right tools for automating guest-facing processes and improving the guest experience. This integration paves way for a hassle-free, automated guest communication set up for hotel guests; which will increase hotel revenue via upsells and improve hotel reputation via Xperium feedback and ORM features, says Sachin Agarwal, Co-founder and Head of product at Xperium.
Xperium has established an ecosystem for OTAs and other travel industry participants around its CRM and guest engagement technologies, anticipating future concerns and providing a more tailored guest experience throughout the journey.
About IDS
IDS Next is a globally leading Hotel Technology Solutions provider with decades of unmatched domain expertise. Being pioneers in Hotel ERP architecture, IDS provides efficient solutions across categories such as large independent hotels, chain hotels, boutique or resort hotels and even small budget hotels. Their offerings include integrated hotel management software, restaurant management software, mobile apps and mobile analytic solutions etc.IDS has earned the trust of over 5000+ hotels in 40 countries spread across South Asia, South-East Asia, Africa, Middle East, Sri Lanka & Maldives and Oceania.
About Xperium
In 2018, RepUp introduced Xperium to fulfill the experience management demands of mid market and enterprise segment in hospitality industry. Xperium, a complete end-to-end guest experience management platform powered by AI and smart automation enables businesses to automatically offer personalized upsells /cross-sells to their guests, communicate through well-timed pre-arrival and in-stay messages, collect guest feedback, manage their overall online reputation, and deliver contactless experiences at scale.Xperium is building and perfecting 360 Customer Experience Solutions based on strong Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence modules that help automate and optimize operations, predict guest behaviour & persona, and maximise revenue per customer.
An Austin-based venture capital firm said early Wednesday it would pour $210 million into Texas-based startups, marking its largest investments in early-stage companies.
The leaders of LiveOak Venture Partners originally planned to raise a maximum of $200 million in their Fund III to support promising new companies, but Krishna Srinivasan, one of LiveOaks cofounders and partners, said investors were so eager to put money into Texas startups that he and his team had to get approval to raise the funds cap by 5 percent.
Our strategy is focused on the white-hot Texas market, which is seeing tremendous growth, Srinivasan said. What is strong about Texas is the cross pollination of talent between mainstream industries and tech. There are large market opportunities in industries like healthcare, energy, logistics, etc., all of which are being disrupted by tech.
Other investors have also taken note.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston still a tough sell for renewable energy funding
In the first quarter of this year, venture firms pledged more than $1.3 billion into Texas-based startups, according to the Wall Street Journal and analytics firm PitchBook Data Inc., more than had been raised in each of the three previous quarters. A record $1.5 billion was raised in the first quarter of 2020.
Still, the venture funding raised in California, Massachusetts and New York accounts for 74 percent of all VC funding in the country in 2020, according to a report from a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights. Texas was ranked fourth for the number of deals and investment money raised in 2020, with 267 deals worth a total of $3.46 billion, but Massachusetts, ranked No. 3, raised nearly $14.2 billion for 505 deals.
And most of the capital raised in Texas has gone to startups based in the Austin area. About 70 to 75 percent of LiveOaks portfolio is based in Austin, for example, while the rest is distributed among the other large population centers in the state.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Octopus Energy ready to expand reach with $600M boost from Al Gore
Venu Shamapant, co-founder and general partner at LiveOak, said that proportion mirrors how investments have played out across the state. However, he said his team has spent a disproportionate amount of time hunting for companies in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.
In Fund III were going to continue to be very aggressive in terms of boots on the ground to meet new entrepreneurs, and we think this strategy works even more in Houston and Dallas, he said.
Srinivasan said the market is growing across Texas, and not just in Austin, because the talent available for hire here has begun to come closer to the workforces in places like California and Boston.
We are seeing a quality of talent like never before and seeing company formation and the quality of company formation better than it ever has been before, he said. Those are often the early indicators of a vibrant and exciting venture ecosystem.
shelby.webb@chron.com
There it is, that open-ended word right at the end of your Thanksgiving shopping list, past the turkey and the family pack of butter and the three kinds of potatoes: wine.
Its an almost hopeful word, as if by the time you hit the wine aisle with a full cart, inspiration will strike and a quick, seamless decision will be made. The reality is that choosing the right wines for Thanksgiving can be as stressful as navigating difficult conversations with relatives at the table.
There is a way to simplify holiday wine buying. Wine lovers tend to be particular about pairing with food, serving several wines with dinner and carefully matching them with each course. A Thanksgiving meal has too many flavors to do this without tearing your hair out.
You know the refrain: Several wine pairings, in this economy?
Its 2020 No. 2. Nothing matters. Just like many of us went from business casual to athleisure wear, its time to let the standards slip over the holidays, too. Be kind to yourself: Serve only one wine at Thanksgiving.
So, which one? What you want is the elusive Goldilocks wine. The Goldilocks wine is the wine everyone at the table will enjoy or at least not audibly complain about, but its also the wine that will pair well with most of the food.
The secret is to shoot for the middle of the spectrum: a full-bodied white or a light- to medium-bodied red. They will both hold up to the richness of the food without overpowering any of it. Whichever route you take, choose a wine that has enough acidity to serve as a balancing act throughout the meal.
Remember to purchase a bottle ahead of time and open it with dinner one night to make sure you like it, and that you and your guests would drink several glasses of it over the course of an evening. Then buy however many bottles of your Goldilocks wine you need for Thanksgiving dinner. (If some people have strong red or white allegiances, buy one of each.)
Here are five recommendations, all available at H-E-B.
White wines
Joseph Drouhin Pouilly-Fuisse ($34): This bottle from Burgundy is the ultimate Goldilocks wine. It has ripe apple and peach fruit flavors but doesnt have the heavy butteriness of some oaked chardonnays. Its plump mouthfeel is balanced by its refreshing acidity, making it a great blanket pairing from the green beans to the taters to the turkey. Cheaper option: Joseph Drouhin Macon-Villages ($15)
Lost Draw Cellars Texas High Plains Arroyo Blanco ($15): This is perhaps the most adventurous wine of the five recommendations here, but its worth the leap and its an opportunity to spotlight a Texas wine. The Arroyo Blanco is a blend of two grapes: about 70 percent Albarino, which provides fresh orchard fruit flavors and good acidity, and the rest muscat, bringing aromatic, floral elements and a richer mouthfeel to the mix.
Red wines
Colene Clemens Chehalem Mountains Dopp Creek Pinot Noir ($29): When in doubt, pinot noir. The grapes light-to-medium body makes it one of the only red wines that will not be too heavy with poultry, vegetables and lighter fare. This version hails from the Willamette Valley of Oregon, a prime spot in the U.S. for pinot, and shows ripe red fruit with some savory and spicy notes. Cheaper option: A to Z Oregon Pinot Noir ($16)
Altesino Toscana Rosso ($19): Altesino makes beautiful, elegant Brunello di Montalcino, but these reds are pricey. Luckily, the winery makes a couple of second labels, made from grapes from the same vineyards in Tuscany, just bottled under less stringent appellations, such as Toscana and Rosso di Montalcino. This red Toscana is made from mostly sangiovese grapes, offering tart red fruit flavors with some herbal accents.
Bubbles
Mumm Napa Blanc de Blancs ($21): Bubbles for the entire meal? Yes, please. There is nothing stopping you from enjoying this typically celebratory wine whenever you want. Sparkling wine is a great complement to food and is bound to make everyone happy. Mumm Napa is the California venture of Champagne house G.H. Mumm. Blanc de blancs means the wine is made entirely with chardonnay grapes.
emma.balter@chron.com
On a recent morning in Midtown, a driveway bustled with cars making contactless deliveries. But this was no ordinary cargo. It was the drop-off line at Cradles 2 Crayons Early Learning Academy, where a steady stream of parents waved goodbye to their preschoolers and headed to work.
Inside, teachers marshaled their charges into art-filled classrooms, whose walls were lined with the evidence of their studies: alphabet posters, collages and crayon drawings. If you stick around long enough, you might overhear a refrain spoken among the teachers: The day can take care of itself. We do child care. The pithy phrase captures a sad reality: Child care workers are a linchpin of the American economy, yet are rarely treated as such.
Few businesses are more essential. But as many as a tenth of all child care centers nationwide shuttered for good last year. Worker shortages have made it increasingly difficult for preschools to retain staff in an industry plagued by low wages, grueling hours and a heightened risk of catching COVID-19.
On HoustonChronicle.com: First Lady Jill Biden stops by Houston to applaud COVID vaccination efforts for kids
The pandemic has only magnified the industrys inherent problems.
The average child care worker earns $11 to $12 an hour, or about $25,000 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is woefully insufficient, said Melanie J. Johnson, president and CEO of Collaborative for Children, a Houston-based advocacy group. She noted its less than someone could make restocking shelves at Costco.
The solution is to stop pretending these are babysitters, she said.
Finding teachers was never easy, but the pandemic has made it much harder. With little ability to pay more, owners have been hesitant to push for vaccination among staff for fear of alienating workers. While child care workers were among the earliest cohorts to be eligible for the vaccine in March, many hold-outs remain.
Linda Draper, the director of Blossom Heights Child Development Center in west Houston, encouraged all her workers to get vaccinated when shots became available. As of last month, the entire staff was inoculated. But it wasnt easy.
When some staffers expressed hesitation, she discovered the most convincing argument was also the simplest: Do it for the kids. At the other end of the spectrum, Draper said some teachers left because they were afraid of COVID exposure, especially since preschoolers are not likely to be vaccine eligible until 2022. Left scrambling for new teachers, she was forced to reduce the number of classes at a time when there are more than 200 children on the schools wait list.
I dont know if I can do this many more years if I have to keep hiring and training staff, Draper said.
On a clear, sunny morning last month, Draper walked a winding path through Blossom Heights playground, where 1- and 2-year-olds enjoyed snack time. She watched as a team of four staffers corralled their charges to a pair of tiny picnic tables for the meal. A rogue toddler played in the mud kitchen while another zoomed by pushing a toy car. To some, the scene may have looked chaotic. To Draper, it was her lifes calling.
A third of all child care providers considered leaving or shutting down their programs due to staffing shortages and low wages, according to a recent study of more than 7,500 providers. Among minority-owned programs, more than half were considering permanent closure.
Experts say the collapse of the child care industry would be disastrous for the economy as a whole. Build Back Better, the trillion-dollar bill currently before Congress, includes a provision for universal free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds. If approved, it would be the largest such investment in a century, funneling $250 billion dollars to pre-kindergarten education, an intervention that could have benefits that extend far beyond the early childhood years.
For years, early childhood education advocates like Cody Summerville, executive director of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children, have been calling for state and federal investment to improve care without over-burdening families. The case for preschool is clear: Research shows it leads to lower crime, higher graduation rates and increased earning in adulthood. The Center for American Progress estimates that federally funded preschool for all 4-year-olds would, in time, boost the U.S. economy by $83 billion each year.
Should the bill pass, Texas fragmented child care system seven state agencies oversee policy could complicate the distribution of federal funds, Summerville said. That is a good problem to have. The bill is built on a solid understanding of how early childhood works, he said, and recognizes the cost of true quality.
Deon Davis, the owner and director at Cradles 2 Crayons, cant imagine closing her school. She feels an obligation to working parents and, after 17 years, said she still has a burning fire in my soul to prepare her pint-sized patrons for elementary school. Yet there were days when she surveyed her mounting expenses and wondered, How am I going to meet payroll?
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As Davis drained her personal savings to stay afloat last year, her landlord posted a for lease sign near the playground in the front yard.
One year later, enrollment is up and Davis is optimistic. But the pandemic has laid bare the inescapable puzzle at the center of her business: high-quality care is expensive, and profit comes at the expense of childrens wellbeing. This conflict was on full display inside the Cradles 2 Crayons nursery that October morning.
It was nap time in the darkened nursery , where one teacher tended to five babies. Sophia Davis was seated on the floor with a child in her lap as she kept close watch over the four others sleeping in their cribs. As the schools assistant director, Miss Sophia was filling in while they search for a new teacher. The position pays more than the school recoups from the infants tuition.
In other words, babies are a money-losing prospect.
Any other business might raise its prices. But Cradles 2 Crayons, like most child care providers, cannot gouge parents, many of whom are already stretched thin financially.
The average American two-parent household with with two young kids devotes about 25 percent of its income to childcare, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis. In Texas, full-time child care for a 4-year-old is nearly equal to tuition at a public college.
Even as her costs ballooned, Davis said she hasnt raised her prices during the pandemic out of a sense of compassion for parents, many of whom continued to pay the $1,3000 monthly tuition when the school temporarily closed early last year.
Davis started the school when her daughter was a toddler. Seventeen years later, she remains committed to equipping children for elementary school and empowering her staff to think of themselves as teachers, not babysitters. Recent trials have only strengthened her resolve.
We just keep being safe, smiling and showing up everyday, she said.
nora.mishanec@chron.com
When Julie Luecht came to Houston, she knew she could make a difference through her passion for helping children. After serving on the board of Make-A-Wish Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana for six years, she was recently selected to serve as board chair to help further the nonprofits mission.
Luecht will work alongside the nonprofits President and CEO Yara Elsayed Guest, who joined the organization in 2020, to help fulfill the organizations goal of doubling its annual wishes granted by 2025. In the fiscal year 2021, the organization, which grants wishes to children with critical illnesses, granted 415 wishes. By 2025, they aim to grant nearly 1,000.
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In order to grant wishes, we have to make sure that we have the pipeline of wishes, Luecht said. Weve got to connect and continue to connect with the right medical people that can help us grant those wishes, we have to have the right number of volunteers that will go out and help us gather the information and sit down with the children and the families to understand what their wishes may be.
Luecht is an Upper Kirby resident who came to Houston eight years ago looking to volunteer her passion for children alongside her full-time job as managing principal for the Houston office of KPMG. Luecht has experience working with children through other charitable causes, such as serving on the board of directors for local youth programs in Chicago, she was a junior board member for the Los Angeles Childrens Hospital and served as a member of the United Way of Greater Houstons Alexis de Tocqueville Society.
In addition to connecting with more medical professionals and finding more volunteers, Luecht is looking to get the Houston community and businesses more involved with Make-A-Wish.
Its such a big deal to these children and their families just to be able to go out and make such a great experience and getting more companies and community involvement in those wish grantings, Luecht said, I think its a tremendous opportunity for us.
Luecht first got involved with Make-A-Wish after hearing the story of her friends son who was diagnosed with leukemia. Towards the end of his treatment, Luecht said, the son was granted a wish. He was picked up from the hospital in a limousine, took him to the airport and celebrated with his family after he learned he was going to Disney World.
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It made such a difference to him, his medical journey, and to the family that has to also live with a sick child, Luecht said.
Elsayed Guest says that granting a wish may impact the health journey of a child.
What physicians will tell us is that a lot of time the wish is the turning point for the kid where maybe they havnt smiled in a year or havent had any positive experience, other than being trapped in the house or in a hospital, Elsayed Guest said.
Then the wish become the pinnacle point in their life, and then all of a sudden, theyre adhering to their medical regimens where they can kind of put up a good fight, Elsayed Guest said. The wish is really key in the health journey as well.
Elsayed Guest says that Luecht brings not only the passion to Make-A-Wish but her business acumen to help the nonprofit fulfill its mission after COVID-19 slowed some wishes.
Julie is going to help us at a critical point for our organization because we just went through a strategic planning process, which she was a part of, and at the crux of that strategic planning process is us doubling the number of kids that we hope to impact by the year 2025, Elsayed Guest said.
Like any organization, the COVID-19 pandemic also brought challenges to Make-A-Wish. Their biggest challenge, Elsayed Guest says, are the travel restrictions that prevented children from potentially traveling to Disney World or Hawaii.
However, she says, the donors and volunteers for Make-A-Wish never slowed down.
I think that speaks to the power of the mission, Elsayed Guest said.
ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com
Fort Bend Countys COVID-19 threat level has been lowered to yellow and children aged 5-11 have started receiving vaccines, County Judge KP George said on Friday.
COVID-19 positive case numbers and ICU visits and hospitalizations in Fort Bend County have continued to decrease over the last few weeks, said George. We are moving in the right direction.
George made his comments at a news conference during which he apprised residents of the countys vaccine rollout for children. Accompanied by Dr. Jacquelyn Johnson Minter from Fort Bend County Health and Human Services Department, George said that while such positive developments were welcome news, especially with the holidays approaching, he was in no way suggesting that the pandemic was over.
We continue to need masks and social distancing and follow all other CDC guidelines to continue to address this issue, he said. We are also going into flu season.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported last week that Texans who were not vaccinated against COVID-19 were about 20 times more likely to suffer a COVID-19-associated death, and 13 times more likely to test positive than people who were fully vaccinated. This analysis reflects data from Sept. 4 to Oct. 1.
(The data shows) vaccinations have a strong protective effect across all age groups, said Minter. All agency approvals for the Pfizer vaccine for the 5-11 age group were given last week. Our area providers began vaccinating children. Our staff received training from the DSHS and Pfizer representatives from Texas Childrens Hospital throughout last week. Many parents have expressed their interest and excitement about getting their children vaccinated.
George said that 70 percent of FBC children over the age of five were already fully vaccinated. Approximately 75 percent of FBC children aged 12 and up and 91 percent of FBC residents aged 65 and up had received at least one dose.
For Fort Bend County and the Houston region, DSHS data shows that the average daily new cases have been less than 100 over the past two weeks, Minter said. The winter travel season will increase the risk of all respiratory infections as multiple households meet for the holidays. Colorado and New Mexico have been experiencing case growths recently.
We want to remind all residents to stay vigilant regarding health and hygiene practices, concern for family, friends and neighbors whose immune systems may put them at risk, Minter said.
George reminded residents of Our Shot to Get Back to Normal, FBCs COVID-19 vaccine outreach public awareness campaign which was launched last month.
We arent planning to go knock on peoples doors, said George when asked about unvaccinated residents. But we are trying to provide information. Until 100 percent of Fort Bend residents are not vaccinated, we will not stop. Fort Bend County was almost back to normal before the delta variant came along.
All FBC-run COVID-19 vaccine sites now accept walk-up vaccinations for all doses:
Rosenberg Annex, 4520 Reading Road, Rosenberg, 77471
Four Corners Community Center, 15700 Old Richmond Rd., Sugar Land, 77498
Katy Mills Mall, 5000 Katy Mills Circle, Entrance 5, Katy, 77494
HCC Missouri City, 1600 Texas Parkway, Missouri City, 77489
HCC Stafford, 13622 Stafford Road, Stafford 77477
Free COVID-19 testing is available at the following locations (appointments required)
North Katy Annex, 22333 Grand Corner Drive, Katy, 77494
Rosenberg Annex, 4520 Reading Road, Rosenberg, 77471
5th Street Community Center, 3110 5th St., Stafford, 77477
Four Corners Community Center, 15700 Old Richmond Road, Sugar Land, 77498
You are not required to have symptoms to be tested. Click here for more information.
juhi.varma@hcnonline.com
The upcoming verdict in Kyle Rittenhouses murder trial for shooting three men during street unrest in Wisconsin comes against a backdrop of deep political divisions and expanded access to guns in the United States factors that some fear could lead to more dangerous encounters.
The 18-year-old testified he fired in self-defense, killing two men and wounding a third, after coming under attack during a night of protests against racial injustice in Kenosha in the summer of 2020. But prosecutors argue that Rittenhouse set the deadly chain of events in motion by traveling from his home in nearby Illinois and arming himself with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle.
While legal experts have said the details give Rittenhouse a strong argument for self-defense, some worry about the broader signal an acquittal could send. The jury that heard the case deliberated a full day Tuesday without reaching a decision; they return Wednesday.
Its easy to see how an acquittal could send the message that there are no consequences for showing up armed wherever you want, and then when situations escalate, you pull the trigger and get away with it, said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
The case comes at a time when many other states are expanding self-defense laws and loosening permitting requirements for carrying guns in public. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, seems poised to strike down a stricter New York gun-permitting law. Both gun sales and gun violence have separately been on the rise.
Those on the other side of the gun debate argue armed confrontations will remain rare and point to political divisions rather than the weapons themselves. Weve been seeing people expressing things publicly at events that are, quite frankly, off the charts these days, said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
Still, powerful weapons have become more widely available across much of the U.S. in recent years, a situation very different from the world where the American legal concept of self-defense originated hundreds of years ago, said Sam Buell, a professor of law at Duke University. The basic idea is that people can use deadly force when their lives are threatened, but not if they are the aggressor. The question of who started a fight may have been simpler to work out in an earlier era, but no longer.
Thats kind of the very issue that the sides seem to be fighting about in this trial, Buell said. Clearly, the law doesnt have the answer.
The major change to U.S. self-defense law in recent years, he said, has been the advent of stand your ground laws, which remove a requirement to retreat from confrontations before using deadly force.
Though they came under scrutiny after high-profile shooting deaths like that of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, theyre now in force in more than half of U.S. states. Wisconsin doesnt have one, but three more states enacted them this year Ohio, Arkansas and North Dakota, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Also this year, six more states loosened requirements to carry guns in public by removing the requirement to get a permit, the largest number of any single year, said Allison Anderman, the groups senior counsel.
In certain states, it seems as though legislators are using the events of 2020 to expand the ability for people to threaten others in public with a gun and to kill them and escape justice, she said.
Others, like Gottlieb, make the argument that guns can be needed for self-protection at places like protests where emotions run high and violence is possible.
Whatever the verdict in the Rittenhouse case, Buell cautions against reading too much into it from a legal perspective.
I think its a big mistake for people to look for a jury verdict in a single criminal case as somehow the way to resolve these questions in a society, he said. It cant bear that weight. No case can bear that weight.
___
This story was updated to correct the error that prosecutors said Rittenhouse traveled from his home in Illinois to Wisconsin with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle. Rittenhouse testified that he picked up the weapon at the home of his friends stepfather in Wisconsin.
___
Find APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
As the lawsuits continue to pile up following the aftermath of the Astroworld Festival tragedy, attorney Tony Buzbee has filed one of the largest yet.
The prominent Houston lawyer filed a suit Monday on behalf of 125 clients, including Axel Acosta, who was one of the 10 victims who passed away from a catastrophic crowd surge.
Buzbee said at a Nov. 8 press conference that Acosta was suffocated and trampled and left on the muddy ground like a piece of trash.
"His death was needless, and was the result of gross negligence," Buzbee said in a statement.
The suit seeks more than $750 million in damages and names a slew of defendants, including Travis Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, Apple Music, Live Nation the event organizer, Cactus Jack Records, Travis Scott's record label company, as well as other labels like Epic Records and Grand Hustle Records associated with producing the event, and Paradocs, the private medical company hired for the festival among others.
"The Buzbee Law Firm believes, based on its ongoing investigation, that Apple Music, Epic Records and many other corporations that stood to profit from Astroworld will share legal blame in a court of law, in front of a Texas jury," Buzbee said.
The 55-page suit attacks Scott's history of inciting behavior Scott refers to as raging both on social media and at his concerts, including the rapper's previous misdemeanor charges for reckless conduct in 2015, plus disorderly conduct, inciting a riot and endangering the welfare of a minor in 2017 after he encouraged a fan to jump from a balcony. At least one person fell and became paralyzed in that incident.
Soon after the Astroworld Festival tragedy, legal experts foresaw a quick emergence of lawsuits that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars or more for the producers, promoters, performers and subcontractors.
"There are multiple parties responsible for the environment at the festival, and under Texas law, those parties have a duty to keep it safe, said Houston lawyer Derek Potts to the Texas Lawbook. Clearly, they failed, as this was a huge catastrophe. Every party involved also certainly has insurance coverage."
Buzbee's law firm plans to also file another lawsuit in the coming days on behalf of another 100 clients.
Two top leaders of an entrenched white power prison gang were convicted of organized crime charges in federal court in East Texas.
William Chunn, 39, and Jesse Blankenship, 38, were two leaders of the Aryan Circle prison gang, a violent group born in Texas in the 1980s and which has since spread across the country.
The two were swept up in a sprawling federal investigation which led to indictments against more than 40 defendants in six states. The both had been indicted on racketeering charges and and using violent crime in the aid of racketeering. Both men could be sentenced to up to life in prison.
Authorities cheered the convictions, saying it showed the power of teamwork across state lines.
This case represents that power by sending a clear message to all members of the Aryan Circle that acts of violence and other criminal activity will not be tolerated, said Fred Milanowski, special agent-in-charge of the Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency which spearheaded the probe into the hate group.
Hate, violence, brutal retribution: Inside ATF's effort to take down the Aryan Circle prison gang
The Aryan Circle is well organized and lethal, ordering hits in and out of prison and running illegal drug and arms trafficking operations. It demands total allegiance and punishes those who stray. It also is a hate group propagating a racist message at a time when white supremacist views have been morphing from fringe ideology to a force in mainstream thought and politics. Law enforcement officials warn that the groups violence extends beyond prison walls and can harm innocent victims. Like the Ku Klux Klan and other violent hate groups, it has been able to weather law enforcement battles to take it down.
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Experts estimate the gang has about 1,000 members in and outside prison, with a presence in at least 10 states across the country. Gang members have been accused of murders, violent assaults, drug dealing, car thefts and numerous other crimes.
The groups origins date back to 1985, when it was founded by several former Aryan Brotherhood members and others rejected for membership. For years, it remained relatively small, then began expanding rapidly in the 1990s.
Related: Aryan 'sisters' live and die in the trenches
It drew national attention in 2007, when 26-year-old gang member Dennis Clem shot and killed two Black teenagers outside his Houston-area home. He fled with his girlfriend on a circuitous route that ended in Bastrop, La. In Louisiana, he shot and killed two detectives, then fled. Back in Houston, police officers ultimately tracked him down, and arresting Clems girlfriend, Tanya Smith. But the officers killed Clem after he charged at them, brandishing a gun.
Now, the Aryan Circle is one of the largest and most entrenched white supremacist gangs within the Texas prison system, experts say.
According to court records, the gang has a defined, militaristic structure, with six branches overseen by a five-member Upper Board.
It demands total loyalty with mottos such as Silence is Golden, Silence is deadly, Silence is mandatory. The tattoos or patches with Nazi imagery, including the Iron Cross, swastikas, or SS style lightning bolts, signal full and lifelong gang membership. Perhaps most striking, the gang created a small task force to carry out gang-ordered executions and enforce leaders orders.
In court documents, federal investigators accused Chunn -- who went by Big Head -- of numerous violent acts, including ordering a hit on a rival gang member locked up in a federal lockup in Talladega, Alabama in 2010. Four years later, according to the court records, Chunn ordered another hit on a member of his own gang -- for the sin of selling a T.V. remote to members of a Mexican gang for drugs.
Guilty Plea: Aryan Circle prison gang member pleads guilty to planning and participating in brutal 2016 beating
The man was stabbed 40 times, the court records show. Chunn ordered other hits in prisons in Kentucky and Mississippi. In the Mississippi case, Chunn ordered a prospective gang member to kill a new arrival to the prison because he was gay. The victim, Mandel Martin, was stabbed 13 times and had to be life-flighted.
Chunn also engaged in violent acts, himself, prosecutors alleged, by beating an inmate in a prison in Pennsylvania who he believed was cooperating with police.
Police caught up with Chunn in 2018 -- just months after his release from federal prison -- after he assaulted his wife, according to an arrest report obtained by the Chronicle. An officer investigating the case wrote that Chunn found an old photo from his wifes defunct Facebook account that showed her with Black friends. After he found the photos, he grew increasingly violent toward his wife, eventually threatening to cut her head off and beating her so ferociously that she lost consciousness.
In Chunns arrest report, Detective Sgt. Nanci Anderson found evidence appearing to show his hatred dated back decades; Chunns yearbook from middle school, which was covered with hate imagery, including slogans such as the South will rise again, drawings of confederate flags, nooses, and the letters KKK.
Seven Years: Former Texas prison gang leader 'Aryan Prodigy' sentenced after brutal 2016 beating
The other defendant convicted Tuesday, Jesse Blankenship, was also one of the gangs top leaders, prosecutors alleged. The 38-year-old man oversaw a brutal attack in March 2016 near St. Louis where his subordinates kidnapped a fellow gangmember at gunpoint, and then used a heated metal pipe to burn off his gang tattoo.
Months later, Blankenship and another AC member broke into a house and shot at two people within.
Defense attorneys for the two men were not immediately available Tuesday afternoon. Sentencing dates have not yet been set.
The convictions come after a lengthy trial that lasted nearly a month. Prosecutors brought more than 30 witnesses -- including several former gangmembers who turned on their one-time comrades to help put them away. So far, 37 of the 42 gangmembers charged in the case have pleaded guilty or been convicted, officials said.
st.john.smith@chron.com
The River Oaks doctor who on Monday resigned her provisional privileges at Houston Methodist, after the hospital suspended her privileges for spreading COVID misinformation, is also linked to an ongoing lawsuit to allow her to administer the anti-parasitic medication ivermectin to a patient in a Fort Worth hospital, court records show.
RELATED: River Oaks doctor says Houston Methodist 'vilified' her over views on ivermectin, COVID
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, an ear, nose, and throat doctor with a private practice in Houston, prescribed ivermectin on Oct. 22 for Jason Jones, a Tarrant County sheriff's deputy hospitalized for COVID-19. Jones has been on a ventilator at Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth since early October, according to a brief filed by the hospital. Hospital administrators had refused to grant Bowden permission to give ivermectin to Jones at the facility.
Jones' wife, Erin Jones, sued the hospital on Oct. 26 to allow Bowden to travel to the hospital to give Jones ivermectin. After a district court ordered that Bowden be allowed to do so and that the hospital and its staff be released from any liability, the hospital filed an emergency appeal.
While the original lawsuit alleged Jones had not improved after receiving the hospital's COVID-19 protocol treatments and had requested ivermectin before being placed on a ventilator, the hospital claimed in its appeal that Jones had refused treatments including Remdesivir and monoclonal antibody therapy and allegedly had not asked his attending doctor for ivermectin prior to the lawsuit filed by his wife.
According to the hospital's appeal, Jones had found Bowden online and she prescribed ivermectin and 15 other medications after a telehealth visit.
BACKGROUND: Houston Methodist doctors experience increased hostility amid ivermectin, COVID misinformation
Bowden has also gained media attention for a series of social media posts and emails to her private practice patients expressing doubt about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and promoting ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic worms which the FDA and American Medical Association have warned against as a treatment for COVID-19.
Bowden on Nov. 6 had announced that her private practice would no longer take routine patients who are vaccinated "in order to make room for unvaccinated who cannot find care."
Houston Methodist suspended Bowden's provisional privileges on Friday, releasing a statement that Bowden's "opinions, which are harmful to the community, do not reflect reliable medical evidence or the values of Houston Methodist."
Bowden had never admitted a patient to Methodist before Friday. The hospital confirmed receiving Bowden's resignation letter on Monday, which objected to its characterization of her views as "dangerous misinformation."
charlie.zong@chron.com
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden said during a press conference Wednesday that she feels targeted by Houston Methodist Hospital after it suspended her privileges for spreading COVID misinformation, which the hospital declared as dangerous and harmful in a statement.
Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist with a private practice in River Oaks, declined to comment on whether she would take any legal action against the hospital related to her suspension. The hospital temporarily pulled her privileges on Friday to further investigate her inappropriate behavior, including her false and misleading claims about COVID treatment and vulgar language on social media, the hospital said. Bowden resigned her privileges Monday.
I am a flea on the elephant of Methodist, she said during the press conference, which was held outside her office. I am not a threat to them. I dont quite understand why they need to single me out.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston Methodist doctors experience increased hostility amid ivermectin, COVID misinformation
The doctor has cast doubt on the reliability of vaccines in emails to her patients, despite extensive scientific evidence showing that vaccines have helped prevent virus-related hospitalizations and deaths. She has repeatedly tweeted in support of ivermectin an unproven treatment for COVID that public health officials advise against using to treat the virus and against vaccine mandates. She also falsely claimed Methodist was only treating vaccinated patients.
In a statement on Wednesday, Methodist CEO and President Marc Boom said he was personally offended by her behavior and comments.
When Dr. Bowden refused to remove these inaccurate and misleading statements from her social media accounts, the medical staff leadership decided to suspend her while they conducted an investigation, and invited her to speak with them, he said. Instead of doing that, Dr. Bowden voluntarily resigned from the medical staff before a review was completed.
COVID HELP DESK: Will the U.S. authorize a pill to treat COVID-19 anytime soon?
Bowden obtained privileges to use the hospital within the last year but had never admitted a patient there. She said the notice of her suspension caught her off guard having first heard the news when a reporter texted her for comment.
"It was quite a surprise to me," she said, adding that my name is being vilified.
julian.gill@chron.com
One by one, mourners approached the open casket, waiting their turn to scatter pink rose petals over a young woman described as a devoted daughter and selfless caretaker.
Bharti Shahani, the Texas A&M University senior and ninth victim of the Astroworld tragedy, died Nov. 10 after suffering two heart attacks at the age of 22 as a result of the catastrophic crowd surge that injured dozens of others. Shahani can be seen on video falling from a stretcher as authorities carried her from NRG Park.
Dressed in white, the Shahani family said goodbye to her Tuesday, as mourners covered her in rose petals. Heads bowed, they clasped hands with those who shared their grief.
Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
When the final mourner returned to their pew, Karishma and Bhagu Shahani approached the body of their eldest daughter, her face still visible among the flowers that blanketed her body. Karishma caressed her daughters cheeks and ran her fingers along the 22-year-olds dark eyebrows. Bhagu sprinkled rose petals at his daughters feet.
It had been nearly two weeks since the parents drove from hospital to hospital in a frantic late-night search to locate Shahani. When they finally found her, in the emergency room at Houston Methodist, doctors said she had sustained major heart failure and brain swelling.
The following days passed in a blur as Karishma and Bhagu slept at their daughters bedside. They were surprised when a hospital official arrived to say that Shahani had chosen to be an organ donor when she renewed her drivers license last year.
As Hindus, the parents were opposed to organ donation. But Bhagu chose to honor his daughters wish. It would be, he thought, her final selfless act.
At the funeral home, the family poured oil on Shahanis head before they closed the casket. Then they began to sing a song of prayer.
Huddled with her family in the front pews, Karishma cried out in anguish as the male relatives rolled her daughters casket down the aisle and into the parking lot. In socked feet, the men stepped onto the asphalt, warm from the afternoon sun, and headed toward the crematorium.
Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
There, Bhagu closed his eyes and clasped his right arm, in which he carried a stick of burning incense. Sweet-smelling smoke rose from flames as he walked around his daughters casket. Those surrounding him pressed their palms together in prayer.
When he was finished, the men pushed the casket into the cremation chamber. They placed their hands on Bhagus shoulders as he pressed the button to close the chambers door.
Emerging from the crematorium into the sunlight, the father extinguished the flame and returned to the funeral hall, where he was greeted by an enlarged photo of his smiling daughter.
We will always miss her, he said.
nora.mishanec@chron.com
As the sun set in downtown Houston, friends and family of a Spring couple who were brutally killed in 2018 celebrated their life with a candlelight vigil and called for justice in the upcoming trial of the three men accused of killing them.
Bao and Jenny Lam were killed on Jan. 11, 2018, during a home invasion when three men ambushed them in their garage as they returned from a family dinner to their gated community in Spring.
Authorities said they found the couple two days later shot execution-style while they were tied up in their home inside the Northgate Forest Community in northern Harris County.
Almost four years ago, their lives were brutally taken by animals with no sense of honor or decency, Richard Lam, the couples son, said. Ill never know the joys of having a first dance with my mom at my wedding, Ill never get to take care of them in their later years, I will never get to fulfill my duties as a son. They deserve better and they deserve justice.
The accused men Aakiel Kendrick, 24, Khari Kendrick, 27, and Erick Peralta, 24 all face capital murder charges after one of the trio allegedly confessed, according to the sheriff's office. Both Aakiel and Khari Kendrick are scheduled to begin their trials the first week of December, while Peralta made bond and is expected in court in January.
A crowd of more than 100 attended the vigil outside of the Houston City Hall at Hermann Square, wearing white T-shirts to honor the Lams while business partners, church members, state leaders and family spoke about the impact that the couple had.
Tonight we are here because we wanted to show our love and sympathy to the surviving family members, Venerable Hung I, head of the Jade Buddha Temple, said. As friends of the family, we will continue to support the family and let them know that Houston, Texas is filled with good people.
State Rep. Gene Wu spoke on the need for justice in the Asian community in this case.
We are here today as a reminder that our community demands justice. That we are not here just to remember their names and their lives but we are here to demand justice, Wu said.
Many of those who spoke, talked about the Lams journey of leaving Taiwan and Laos to make a new life in the United States, the business endeavors at their Marble Slab Creamery franchise they opened in 1984 and the multiple Subway sandwich shop franchises they operated.
The Lams also gave time and money to the Texas Buddhist Association and were involved with the American Bodhi Center and Jade Buddha Temple in Houston
Some of my best memories are the discussions we had on life, current events, politics and sports. Bao offered a unique perspective of the world we live in, said Said Rastegar, family friend of the Lams for 35 years. Bao could walk into a room full of strangers and walk out the room full of friends. He was that amazing of a person.
joel.umanzor@chron.com
In August, Houston ISD Superintendent Millard House II deemed the COVID-19 pandemic as the biggest challenge of his first month as the leader of the largest school district in Texas as it prepared for a full return to in-person instruction.
Three months into the school year, House sees a different tall task: Addressing the social and emotional needs of students in the states largest public school district.
And after receiving input from students, parents and district employees, House has announced the five priorities that will guide a five-year strategic plan for the district, which he expects to complete by March, one of them which is providing equitable resources and opportunities to all students.
If we back up 20 months, we know that many of our kids were living a completely different life than they thought they were going to live, House said in a wide-ranging interview this week. Many of our kids and families and community members have dealt with loss, they have dealt with anger, they have dealt with stress and emotion, and those are things that really have to be focused on.
The other four priorities encompass attracting and retaining educators at all levels, promoting high-quality teaching and learning, ensuring equal distribution of programs in all corners of the sprawled-out city, and delivering effective services and supports to the students who need them the most, including those with specialized needs and English-language learners.
These five priorities that have come out of months, three months, of listening and learning are going to be a major part of what we do moving forward, House said. This is something that we are going to have to focus on for several years to come.
Other obstacles remain.
Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
As of Monday, House said the districts enrollment stood around 194,500, roughly 2,000 students fewer than the number who finished last school year and about 15,000 fewer than three years ago when the district recorded its largest enrollment drop since 2006. He said about 2,000 students registered for Texas Connections Academy, the districts online public school.
If COVID werent in place, we would have likely met our enrollment projection with those 2,000 students that went into Texas Connections for the first time, he said. That is where a big number of the students went.
Certain grade levels have recorded growth this year, he added.
Still, the decrease could present budget implications as the state has not yet announced whether it will fund districts based on projected enrollment rather than students actually in classrooms, as it did last school year when only a handful of districts in the Houston region had most students learning in-person.
We cant hang our hats on that possibility, House said. Is budget a concern? Always.
Other districts in the Houston region have reported mixed enrollment changes while the state recorded last year its first decrease in statewide enrollment from the previous year since the Texas Education Agency began collecting data.
Unlike other districts in the region, the threat of a state takeover of the HISD Board of Education still lingers as the districts challenge remains in litigation. House said he and Education Commissioner Mike Morath share common ground about what they need to provide for kids, and that Morath has been supportive in their conversations.
Meanwhile, the board that unanimously hired House may change as four trustees face a run-off election in December.
Of course, my job as superintendent is to work with whoever is in that seat. What I can say is that our team of nine trustees has worked very hard, House said. I have watched them continuously try to grow, develop, get better.
The strategic plan being developed will be the districts first in years. How many years, however, is not exactly clear.
Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
In the interview, House revealed he had hired chief academic and chief talent officers, completing the hiring of his cabinet, which he said will be crucial to attracting and keeping high-quality teachers, principals and support staff.
That is where it starts, he said. If you get talent in and you collectively have talent the way we have right now at the top, talent can build the kind of systems and processes to ensure that we do what is necessary to build on the strategic plan.
Additionally, more than a month ago the district started returning to the central administration staffers who had been dispatched to classrooms to make up for teacher shortages, House said. Some of those employees still are in classrooms, but he said the district has made headway in hiring for openings.
The district had 224 openings for certified teachers on Tuesday, compared to more than 400 at the beginning of the school year, according to its career portal.
During the months of information gathering, parents, students and community members often cited developing, recruiting and retaining effective educators as the most important thing the district should focus on, according to a report released Friday by HISD about Houses first 100 days.
The report and priorities drew on Houses visits to campuses throughout the district, as well as a series of forums.
Hundreds of issues been raised, House said, but the five priorities identified will be the main pillars for the plan.
alejandro.serrano@chron.com
Astronauts on the privately funded Axiom Space mission will spend more than 100 hours conducting research during their eight days on the International Space Station.
Houston-based Axiom Space announced Wednesday that its crew will spend their time studying cells linked to age-related diseases, manufacturing optical lenses in microgravity and observing lightning from above the clouds, among many other projects.
The four-person crew is scheduled to launch in February via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Axiom contracted their ride into space. It is also training the astronauts, planning their mission and helping prepare the crew members to conduct their research and manufacturing initiatives.
LINGO: If NASA didn't train you, are you an astronaut or a space tourist?
These missions allow us to expand opportunities for human-tended research in orbit, Christian Maender, Axioms director of in-space manufacturing and research, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
He said Ax-1 is a pathfinder mission as the company develops its own commercial space station, which will create even more research and manufacturing opportunities. The first module of Axioms space station is set to launch in 2024, followed by modules that would provide additional areas for housing, research and manufacturing.
We really want to put people in space to enable the research and in-space manufacturing potentials that you can create, Maender said.
The Ax-1 mission launching to the International Space Station in February consists of American real estate and technology entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian investor Mark Pathy, Israeli impact investor Eytan Stibbe and former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria.
Lopez-Alegria is the missions commander. The other three each paid $55 million to be on the flight.
Connor will spend his time on the space station conducting research for Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, two institutions where the Ohio native has previously funded research.
One of his projects will be taking senescent cells into space. These cells have stopped dividing, and theyre linked to multiple age-related diseases. Since space accelerates the pace of aging, Connor and his partners will be looking to see if these cells behave differently in microgravity.
Pathy is participating in 12 scientific research projects in partnership with six Canadian universities. This includes research to unravel the mysteries around chronic pain and sleep disturbances that can occur during space travel.
He is also working with two startups to demonstrate their technologies in space. This includes demonstrating two-way holoportation between Pathy and a person on Earth. Both individuals will wear augmented reality lenses that show a three-dimensional image of the other person. For Pathy, it will feel like the other person is with him on the International Space Station while they talk.
This technology could help astronauts mental health by better connecting them with family. It could also give flight surgeons face-to-face conversations with patients in orbit, and it could allow Earth-bound technicians to get a better view of the problem that an astronaut is working in space.
Its a really neat technology, Maender said.
Stibbe is working on a wide variety of projects from across Israel. These include studying upper atmospheric lightning from the space station and wearing a vest that could protect astronauts during solar flares and other events that increase radiation.
SPACE WEATHER: Gigantic space hurricane with 4,000 mph winds stalled above Earth, new research shows
He will also make optical lenses that could be used in telescopes or sensors. To do this, Stibbe will place a liquid polymer inside a spherical frame and then use a UV light to harden the material. This could be an easier way to make lenses because it doesnt require grinding and polishing surfaces into the desired shape.
We applaud the Ax-1 crews commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap, Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said in a news release. Were confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making spaces potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time.
andrea.leinfelder@chron.com
twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Regarding Essay: I'm 10 and was in a COVID vaccine trial. I do my duty to help keep others safe, (Nov. 14): Thank you, Kartik Dimino, for your participation in the Pfizer vaccine trial. I am a Polio Pioneer, one of the million children who participated in the Salk Vaccine trial in 1954; I participated when I was seven years old. To this day, Im proud of having enjoyed the rare privilege of contributing to society while I was still a child. I hope that you, too, will forever look back on this with pride and satisfaction, even more because you will not enjoy the universal respect and support that we did. So today, I must also express my gratitude that you have publicly proclaimed your choice, as well as my profound disappointment in the current ignorant and selfish state of our society that prompted this op-ed in the first place. You deserve better.
Alma Moon Novotny, Houston
Regarding First Lady Jill Biden stops by Houston to applaud COVID vaccination efforts for kids, (Nov. 14): Vaccines have become a recurrent topic for most of us. Unfortunately, in 2021, one in five children around the world still lack access to basic vaccines. The pandemic has shown us that diseases transcend borders and that we have a duty to protect not only ourselves but our communities both at home and abroad.
As a student from Houston who grew up in El Salvador, I have seen firsthand the impact of immunization programs across the globe. In February 2021, El Salvador became the first country in Central America to be declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization. This accomplishment follows more than fifty years of commitment of strong immunization efforts by El Salvador and the WHO to end the disease in a country with geography that is very hospitable to malaria.
Success stories such as the one in El Salvador are only possible thanks to programs that strengthen child immunization, such as the ones implemented by UNICEF, USAID and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Now more than ever, the current pandemic underscores the need for robust funding for global child vaccine programs. By expanding access to existing vaccines, we can save a childs life every 20 seconds.
I encourage Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw to support access to vaccines for all children. Funding for global vaccine programs is significantly less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget. Above all, it is the right thing to do.
Maria Urrutia, Humble
Sign of the times
Regarding COVID Help Desk: Will the U.S. authorize a pill to treat COVID-19 anytime soon? (Nov. 11): I guess well finally know that the pandemic is over when we no longer have a separate Coronavirus section of the Chronicle.
C. Paul Gallagher, Spring
Every year the world loses an estimated 25 million acres of forest, an area larger than the state of Indiana. Nearly all of it is in the tropics.
Tropical forests store enormous quantities of carbon and are home to at least two-thirds of the worlds living species, so deforestation has disastrous consequences for climate change and conservation. Tropical forest loss generates nearly 50 percent more greenhouse gases than does the global transportation sector.
At the 2021 U.N. conference on climate change in Glasgow, more than 100 world leaders pledged on Nov. 1 to halt deforestation by 2030. In the Declaration on Forests and Land Use, countries outlined their strategy, which focuses on supporting trade and development policies that promote sustainable production and consumption. Governments and private companies have pledged over $19.2 billion to support these efforts.
From my research on social and environmental issues in Latin America, I know that four consumer goods are responsible for the majority of global deforestation: beef, soy, palm oil and wood pulp and paper products. Together these commodities are responsible for the loss of nearly 12 million acres annually. Theres also a fifth, less publicized key driver: organized crime, including illegal drug trafficking.
Among major products that promote deforestation, beef is in a class by itself. Beef production is now estimated to be the biggest driver of deforestation worldwide, accounting for 41 percent of global forest losses. In the Amazon alone, cattle ranching accounts for 80 percent of deforestation. From 2000 to 2011, beef production emitted nearly 200 times more greenhouse gases than soy, and 60 times more than oil palm in tropical countries with high deforestation rates.
Together, soy and palm oil drive nearly 10 percent of deforestation annually almost 2.5 million acres.
Clearing land for palm oil plantations fuels large-scale rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia, where most of the worlds palm oil is produced, destroying habitat for endangered and threatened species such as orangutans, elephants and tigers. More recently, palm oil production has expanded to other parts of Asia, Central and South America and Central and West Africa.
Soy production has doubled globally in the past 20 years. Nearly 80 percent of global soy is fed to cows, chickens, pigs and farmed fish. This demand reflects the tripling of global meat production over the past 50 years.
The remaining soy is largely used to produce vegetable oil and biodiesel. Humans directly consume just 6 percent in the form of tofu, soy milk, edamame and tempeh.
The United States and Brazil produce nearly 70 percent of the worlds annual 350 million-ton soy crop. Brazil has rapidly caught up to U.S. production in the past 30 years, with disastrous consequences for tropical forests in the Amazon.
Wood products are responsible for about 5 percent of annual global deforestation, or about 1.2 million acres yearly. Wood is widely used for home construction and furniture, and also as a pulp source for paper and fabric. And in low-income nations and rural areas, its an important fuel source for heating and cooking.
The three largest paper-producing countries are the U.S., Canada and China, but tropical countries have also become important pulp and paper sources. Timber plantations account for a growing share of tropical wood products, but theres disagreement about whether this approach is more sustainable than logging natural forests.
Making the supply chains for these four commodities more sustainable is an important strategy for reducing deforestation. But another industry plays an important role, especially in tropical forests: organized crime. Large, lucrative industries offer opportunities to move and launder money; as a result, in many parts of the world, deforestation is driven by the drug trade.
In South America and Central America, drug trafficking organizations are the vanguard of deforestation. Drug traffickers are illegally logging forests in the Amazon and hiding cocaine in timber shipments to Europe. In my research, I have analyzed how traffickers illegally log and raise cattle in protected areas in Central America to launder money and claim drug smuggling territory. Other scholars estimate that 30 percent to 60 percent of deforestation in the region is narco-deforestation.
Legal and illegal activities also interweave along the commodity chains for palm oil and soy. Forest Trends, a U.S. nonprofit that promotes market-based approaches to forest conservation, estimates that nearly half of deforestation for commercial products like cattle, soy, palm oil and wood products is illegal. According to the groups analysis, exports tied to illegal deforestation are worth $61 billion annually and are responsible for 25 percent of total global tropical deforestation.
Not all large-scale illegal deforestation is linked to drug trafficking organizations. But it is almost always tied to organized crime that depends upon corruption to operate.
Promoting sustainable production and consumption are critical to halting deforestation worldwide. But in my view, national and industry leaders also have to root organized crime and illicit markets out of these commodity chains. Until they do, global pledges to halt deforestation will have limited effect.
Jennifer Devine is an associate professor of geography and environmental studies at Texas State University. This piece was first published by the Conversation.
The entire nation is struggling with a labor shortage, and Houston is no exception. The problem isnt just the post-COVID domestic economy but changing energy markets and supply chain disruption. Houston has met many challenges before with a similar answer one that helped lift Houston from the darkest days of the 1980s oil bust. Population growth through well-managed immigration both from other countries and other states will provide yet another spark to ignite faster growth in Houston.
During the 1980s economic bust, waves of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Asia came to our city. They came as refugees searching for a better life, doctors hoping to train with the great minds at the Texas Medical Center, and as ambitious businessmen and businesswomen hoping to capitalize on cheap petroleum and a suddenly underused port. They rekindled our citys entrepreneurial spirit and helped build us into the diverse, energetic metropolis we know today. Now roughly one in four Houstonians was born in a different country.
We shouldnt have to wait for Houston to hit a slump before we take action. We must welcome more aspiring Americans to Houston now. The problem of labor shortages is not going away. Boomers are retiring at a pace that was only accelerated by the pandemic, and birth rates have slowed to 1.7 children per woman, 20 percent below the sustaining rate of 2.1. The impact on our economy is already significant. Staffing shortages are costing U.S. businesses more than $720 billion annually in lost sales, according to a recent analysis by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta. Im CEO of Amegy Bank, where my team has talked with thousands of business owners this past year, and a majority share their growing concerns about staffing shortages. The situation is untenable. Simply put, businesses need reliable labor now.
Pragmatic immigration reform can provide the much-needed labor. Houston business leaders like Stan Marek, CEO of Marek Brothers Systems, have seen how firsthand. Stan dedicates time and money to educate high school and community college students on building trades. Many of the students he works with are Dreamers who haven't been able to enroll in the DACA program due to the cost, backlogs in processing and legal rulings that have left the future program in limbo, among other challenges. These are kids who through no fault of their own were brought here without legal permission. That undocumented status prohibits them from legally entering the workforce. Stan needs them, but he cant hire them.
Only Congress can create a legal pathway for these kids. Yes, there is disagreement on how best to achieve this, but centrist groups like Rational Middle call for fact-based, honest discussions to push through the gridlock. We need Senator John Cornyn and representatives like Henry Cuellar and Tony Gonzales to take up that cause: bring a bipartisan spirit to the table and fight for an immigration bill that includes Dreamers.
McDonalds founder, Ray Kroc, said: As long as you're green you're growing, as soon as you're ripe you start to rot. Too many great American cities have their best days behind them. Places like Cleveland and Detroit are shadows of their former selves, with populations nearly half of their peaks. They stopped growing and started dying. We cant let that happen to Houston. By providing a better pathway to citizenship for thousands of talented immigrants already living in our state and welcoming every brilliant doctor, researcher, or entrepreneur who wants to bring their ambition to our shores, well continue to prosper. This isnt a Democratic or Republican proposal. It is an American one.
Regardless of your political leanings, our workforce and businesses have been impacted far too long by the reality of a broken immigration system. It threatens our economic wellbeing. We must reach out to elected officials and urge them to find reasonable solutions towards immigration reform. We cannot allow people to enter our country illegally, so border security is essential. But commonsense solutions will help Texas businesses effectively operate, grow our economy, and keep our great city thriving.
Steve Stephens is CEO of Amegy Bank and a member of Texans for Economic Growth. He lives in Houston.
Beto ORourke was barely into the second day of his campaign for governor when he headed for Laredo and the Texas border.
It is no accident that not even 48 hours after we announced this campaign we are right here in your community, the El Paso Democrat told a packed crowd at Jett Bowl in Laredo on Tuesday night.
While he followed that by talking about the regions general importance and his connection with the area, an unspoken truth hung over the event. ORourke struggled in Webb County and in the Rio Grande Valley during his breakout 2018 U.S. Senate campaign and Republicans made major inroads in the region in 2020 during Donald Trumps re-election campaign.
ORourke won the five counties between Laredo and Brownsville that have long been Democratic strongholds. But the turnout in 2018 was just 39 percent along that stretch compared to the statewide average of 53 percent. ORourke may have done better in Texas statewide than Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden did in 2016 and 2020, but he did worse than both of them in those border counties. Its a weakness he knows he must address to have any shot of upsetting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022.
To that end, ORourke on Tuesday vowed his campaign will not take Laredo for granted. He told supporters hell be back often and will focus resources on getting out the vote and reaching out to more people than Democrats have in the past.
Beto ORourke In Houston As part of his weeklong campaign kickoff, O'Rourke is planning a rally in Houston. TIME: 6 p.m. Friday. PLACE: Discovery Green Park TO ATTEND: Free. Visit mobilize.us/betofortexas to sign up See More Collapse
If the great sin committed by Republicans in the past was trying to disenfranchise voters based on the color of their skin, then the great sin committed by Democrats has been to take those same voters for granted, he said.
TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox
On Wednesday ORourke pushed further south into Hidalgo County. Thursday he is headed for Cameron County. That is three straight days on the border before setting foot in other Democratic strongholds like Houston or Austin that generally get the most attention from statewide Democratic candidates.
Still, ORourke has yet to catch up to Abbott, who in October was holding events with Republicans in Cameron County and just a week ago was in Corpus Christi talking to Republican groups that included many from the Rio Grande Valley.
In Corpus Christi, Abbott said hes convinced that the GOP will make big gains in South Texas and with Hispanic voters in 2022. Last year, Trump nearly doubled his vote total in the five border counties compared to his 2016 election results.
We are going to ensure that South Texas is going to be completely red after this next election, Abbott said.
IN-DEPTH: Gov. Greg Abbott lurched into full campaign mode as Beto ORourke mulled his future
For both Abbott and ORourke, outreach to border communities starts with immigration policy but from very different perspectives.
Communities of immigrants
In Corpus Christi, Abbott outlined a get-tough message against illegal immigration, using razor wire and blockades to push back caravans of migrants who want to cross.
And yes, Texas is building our own border wall, he said, referring to his effort to shore up the wall with state funds and private donations.
In an interview, Abbott said Democrats have misjudged what people along the border want.
Hispanic voters do care about true border security and they disagree with open border policies, said Abbott who is seeking his third four-year term as governor.
In Laredo, ORourke talked up the nature of immigrant communities and lauded Democrats there for stopping the construction of border walls along their riverfront. In July, the Biden administration canceled 31 miles of border wall projects planned for Laredo by Trumps administration, prompting celebration among activists who opposed it.
We live, breathe and exist in communities of immigrants, ORourke said, comparing Laredo to El Paso. Were proud of the fact that we are communities of immigrants.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, about 738 miles of barriers were planned by the Trump administration that includes refurbishing or rebuilding existing walls and fences along the length of the 2,000-mile border. Of those, about 453 miles were completed with 373 of those miles replacing existing fences and walls as of the start of the year. Only about 17 miles were constructed in Texas by the Trump administration, all within the Rio Grande Valley sector.
ORourke has already been critical of the Biden administrations handling of a record surge of attempted border crossings. In 2021, the federal government said nearly 2 million people were apprehended or expelled along the U.S. southern border with Mexico more than double the almost 647,000 the year before.
It is not enough of a priority for his administration, ORourke told a CBS affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, on Monday, without explaining what he thinks Biden should do differently.
ORourke said there needs to be predictability, order, and the rule of law and that means honoring our asylum laws when someone has a credible asylum claim. That also means, and this is not popular amongst all Democrats, but it means that when someone comes here and doesnt have a credible asylum claim and has entered in between ports of entry, they should be deported back to the country from which they came.
Those comments signaled a shift in tone from ORourkes campaigns for U.S. Senate and president, when he focused on calling for an end to Trump immigration policies, including separating migrant children from parents at the border.
During his unsuccessful bid for president in 2019, ORourke released a broad immigration plan that called for scrapping the Trump policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were adjudicated. Biden ended the policy, but the U.S. Supreme Court ordered him to reinstate it.
ORourkes plan also calls for citizenship for both Dreamers and their parents, as well as for millions more who now live in the U.S. without authorization.
During his speech in Laredo, ORourke said his campaign is also about improving public schools, creating jobs, and getting better roads and bridges in communities along the border.
Similarly, Abbott led his pitch in Corpus Christi with vows to protect high-paying energy sector jobs and provide more oversight of how public schools teach lessons on racism and slavery.
jeremy.wallace@chron.com
The Lewisville Independent School District in the Dallas area says it will cost a Texas House committee chairman nearly $3,000 to conduct a review of library books about racism and sexuality that he requested last month.
Another assessment came in for more than $1,300 from the neighboring district in Frisco.
Conroe ISD in the Houston area, citing its catalog of over 1.2 million books, responded last week saying the request to comb through all of them to check for books that might cause students discomfort was subjective and therefore nearly impossible and not feasible.
The review requested by State Rep. Matt Krause, the Republican chair of the Texas House General Investigating Committee, has largely come up empty so far among the states largest school districts.
Many districts reached by Hearst Newspapers last week said they were still reviewing the request, though Krause had set a deadline of last Friday for their responses. Austin and Dallas ISDs declined to respond. Houston ISD, as of Tuesday, also had not responded to the letter.
Krause had asked districts whether they carried in classrooms or school libraries any books on a list of more than 800 that included Pulitzer Prize winners and other acclaimed literature. He also asked the districts to identify any books that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or covers any of a number of topic areas, including sexually transmitted diseases or graphic presentations of sexual behavior.
Democrats have denounced the effort as politically motivated and encouraged districts not to respond.
While the committee has subpoena power, Krause has not exercised it. And Democratic members of the committee have stressed that no vote was taken that would have initiated a formal investigation.
IN-DEPTH: Texas GOPs book hunt mostly targets LGBTQ issues, not critical race theory
In his letter, Krause, a founding member of the hardline 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. One of the books, Gender Queer: a Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, includes sexually explicit drawings. Another title that was targeted is about an abusive lesbian relationship that includes a sex scene involving two women.
Krause has not responded to requests for comment about the effort.
Lewisville was among the districts that have opted to treat Krauses letter as a public information request. Under state law, a governmental body has to either provide records within 10 days, provide an estimated timeline or request an opinion from the attorney generals office on whether it must disclose the records.
The district estimated it would take 158 hours to complete Krauses request for a total cost of $2,844. It asked Krause for the money upfront before it begins work on the project.
RELATED: Gov. Abbott calls for standards to rid school libraries of pornographic books, images
In nearby Frisco ISD, which has 73 campuses and over 4,500 classrooms, Superintendent Mike Waldrip said Krauses request exceeds the authority granted to general investigating committees. Waldrip noted that the committee had not voted to launch an investigation and that the request was not served by a peace officer or sergeant at arms, as required by state law.
As the letter was sent by email from an employee of the committee, and was sent without any record vote of the committee, the letter does not constitute legally-issued process, Waldrip wrote. However, Frisco ISD values transparency and cooperation with the state legislature and its members. As a result, we are interpreting your letter as a request for documents sufficient to identify the information you listed in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act.
Waldrip estimated it will take district staff about six weeks and cost $1,350.
At Conroe ISD, the states 10th largest district, General Counsel Carrie Galatas said the district lacked the staff to complete the weekslong task. In the 2020 to 2021 school year, the district received over 1,400 books from its three biggest book vendors.
The district also took issue with Krauses additional request to find books that contained any reference to a topic that would cause student discomfort.
First, it requires subjectivity, Galatas said. And second, it would require Conroe ISD employees to read thousands of books to determine whether any of those multiple topics appears. The task is not feasible.
Almost every district included in their letters explanations of the processes already in place in their districts for board review of library acquisitions or curriculum materials.
Galatas said Conroe had received one formal challenge to a library book, which is now under review. The complainant did not have a child in the district.
taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
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A guide to Music Branding 2021 and beyond
These days, branding is one of the most important aspects of a music career. Keep reading to find out how it has changed in the digital and how it can benefit your music career.
A guest post by Janelle Borg of AmplifyYou
Streaming, NFTs, brand partnerships, crypto, communication strategies, social media calendarright-brained individuals do not get into music to deal with all these buzzwords!
However, the changing consumption patterns and budding technologies show no signs of stopping, and the music-tech partnership has cemented itself as one of the main breakout stars of 2020. Therefore, artists need to look at less-traditional avenues when promoting their wares and building meaningful relationships with their core audience.
Creating a 21st-century artist brand requires artists and their teams to take all these digital platforms into account. A successful branding campaign should aim to reach new fans, empower the artist to stand out in the competitive and often over-saturated worlds of streaming and social media platforms, engage current fans, turn casual listeners into devoted fans and monetise the fanbase while remaining authentic to the artistic vision.
But what is music branding, anyway? And how can branding take an artist to the next level?
Music Branding: In a Nutshell
Lets break down the oft-confused buzzword that is branding.
According to Collins Dictionary, The branding of a product is the presentation of it to the public in a way that makes it easy for people to recognise or identify.
Music branding encompasses an artists overall message, image, values, ambitions, music, lyrics, themes, personality etc. In essence, its what makes the artist unique and recognisable, helping fans identify with the artist, their image and music.
A successful marketing and communication strategy should differentiate Artist X from their competitors and creates a consistent experience that builds a loyal following. A brand strategy should include a clear roadmap to building brand identity, brand awareness and brand loyalty.
Brand identity refers to the visible elements of a brand such as your artist name and logo, website, and social media colour palette. Brand identity takes brand image a step further it focuses on the intent behind choosing specific themes, that ultimately leads to the brand image i.e. the actual result.
The brand awareness strategy refers to how youre going to make your target audience aware that you exist and what distinguishes you from the competition.
Finally, brand loyalty is the fandom. Your fans should start feeling like theyre part of a community. Furthermore, this is your core audience that tends to serve as your megaphone in the digital sphere. Theyre devoted to your music and your artistry and are the ones that are ready to buy your concert tickets and merch.
Branding in the streaming era
The rise of ambient TV and lean back music (visuals and music that technically function as day-to-day screensavers) has led to ambient music becoming one of the most popular genres on DSPs. As of May 2021, Spotify playlists such as Peaceful Piano, Deep Focus and Lo-Fi beats boast approximately 4.5 million followers each.
Because of this trend, lo-fi producers are raking in millions of streams. However, theres a disparity between the number of monthly listeners on DSPs and the actual number of loyal fans. A bedroom producer may have more than 500,000 monthly listeners and be included in high-ranking editor curated playlists. However, when you go on their Instagram, they often only have a couple of hundred or thousand followers, with a low-to-mid engagement rate.
What causes this huge disparity? Simple: it all boils down to brand loyalty. These bedroom producers tunes serve as ambient tracks that people listen to while theyre in a cafe or chilling at home (and baking bread). Theyre not loyal to the artist per se theyre only loyal to their carefully curated playlists.
Using branding to raise your profile
Our visual memory is an extremely powerful facet of our mind. When people see an artist, they associate specific visuals with them. Visuals add an exciting layer to the artists story and boost the sonic element, cementing a song or an artist into peoples minds. Therefore, interesting visuals can help you stand out from the crowd of seemingly similar artists since they intensify the memorability aspect of your project.
Social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are primarily visual platforms that enable artists to connect with fans via a simple photo or video. The dominance of these apps on every individuals phone means that artists have to step up their game, as a striking visual identity is necessary to strengthen the connection with pre-existing fans and attract new followers.
The following marketing efforts combine innovative technology and creativity to create an immersive experience that engages fans:
Personalisation: Using platforms such as Twitch and Patreon to provide exclusive content to paying fans, as well as relatively old-school methods like interacting with your fans on social media, going live with your fans on Instagram and sending niche-specific mailshots.
Using platforms such as Twitch and Patreon to provide exclusive content to paying fans, as well as relatively old-school methods like interacting with your fans on social media, going live with your fans on Instagram and sending niche-specific mailshots. Virtual Reality: Interacting with fans via VR headsets and collaborating with video game developers to create a virtual concert (See Travis Scotts collaboration with Fortnite)
Interacting with fans via VR headsets and collaborating with video game developers to create a virtual concert (See Travis Scotts collaboration with Fortnite) Augmented reality: creating artist-specific face filters for Instagram as well as interactive music videos and merch designs.
creating artist-specific face filters for Instagram as well as interactive music videos and merch designs. NFTs: Creating non-fungible tokens and certified digital collectables that your top fans can bid on.
How do I brand myself as an artist?
Artist branding can be broken down into three main stages: defining, building and marketing your brand.
Defining your brand Start by asking questions such as
What inspires you as an artist?
How would you describe your sound?
What subcultures and communities do you belong to?
What message are you trying to convey?
Who would you deem as having a similar sound?
Whos your idol?
How would you describe your fashion sense?
Building your brand Use your answers to build tangible elements such as your artist name, logo, colour palette, website, social media profiles, merch and stage persona.
Marketing your brand Identify the main marketing channels that would fit your brand and constantly seek to perfect and expand your brand to different channels and global regions. Channels can include but are not limited to live shows, social media platforms, brands you can partner with, merchandise etc.
What K-Pop can teach us about branding
K-Pop is one of South Koreas biggest exports and accounts for 0.3% of the countrys GDP.
The biggest element that makes the K-Pop industry so successful is the way they approach branding and marketing. Pre-debut, each K-pop group or artist has their own name, logo, colour, visuals, website, fandom name and so on. Companies also carefully curate each members style and persona within the group allowing the fans to pick and stan their favourite member.
BTS, K-Pops biggest export, have redefined music branding and marketing. Their fandom the BTS ARMY is the epitome of brand loyalty: the band has the Midas touch, and their fans are ready to buy everything that BTS put out. Their million-dollar partnerships with Puma, Line Friends and Mattel, amongst many others, have turned this band into a global powerhouse. Through their constant interaction with fans on social media (they even have a unified fan-band logo) and their labels savvy branding strategy, BTS have built an empire, with products and experiences ranging from a multi-city art installation Connect BTS to BTS-endorsed fried chicken. Western fans, in particular, appreciate BTS dedication to their fans and the fact that they interact with them on social media and fan channels. Furthermore, theyre also drawn to the fact that the K-Pop industry requires artists to release several projects per year (referred to as comebacks). This work ethic from one of the worlds tiger economies prioritises fans over pure artistry, satisfying the needs of the 21st -century digital consumer.
Where do we go from here?
The domination of streaming and social media has led artists and their teams to come up with innovative approaches to age-old branding and identity enigmas.
Social media platforms and innovative digital technologies have led to a plethora of opportunities for artists to interact with their fans and to create a fully immersive experience that completely shatters the concept of the artist mystique. Artists such as BTS and their team have been successful in breaking the fourth wall to create a powerful fandom that has taken the bands success to new heights.
All in all, a branding formula based on the ever-decreasing gap between the artist and the fan is the way to go in a world where the lines between the virtual and the real are blurred.
Janelle Borg knows a thing or two about the music industry. Having been involved in the industry since the age of 13, shes now involved in a variety of music-related projects and is always keen to share industry tips n tricks with fellow musicians.
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RECENT POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
Lukashenka's Belarus moves closer to Putin by signing of Russia-Belarus Union State Agreements
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka have affirmed their brotherly ties and approved 28 'union programs' aimed at integrating the two countries. The two leaders finalized the programs following talks in the Kremlin on September 9. On Thursday, November 4 during a virtual summit meeting of the Union State of Russia and Belarus's Supreme State Council,Lukashenka and Putin signed an agreement, officially approving the programs.
Reportedly,these union programs include mechanisms for the development of a common economic space: the formation of joint industry markets, and harmonized financial, tax, credit, pricing, and trade policies.
In addition, during the summit the two leaders approved the concept of a common migration policy and an updated joint military doctrine. There was no mention of issues surrounding political integration.
Despite the impressive number of programs, the development of the Union State has not advanced. Over 20 years ago, "The Treaty of Creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus" was signed and came into firce. The Treaty foresaw a unified currency, creation of the Parliament, flag, coat of arms, hymn, and Constitution of the Union State, none of which has yet become a reality. From this point of view, the Union State establishment is a total failure.
Viktar Lukashenka holds talks with Prime Minister of Qatar
Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdelaziz Al-Thani met with Viktar Lukashenka on November 7, the local newspaper The Peninsula reported, while official Minsk remained silent.
The son of Alyaksandr Lukashenka visited Qatar as the Special Envoy to the Cooperation Council of the Gulf States and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus.
The article only mentions that the Sheikh and Viktor Lukashenko "reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing and developing them, in addition to discussing a number of issues of common interest." No further details of the negotiations were published.
ENERGY AND ECONOMY
Trade Turnover
The results of trade turnover between Russia and Belarus: during the last eight months of this year, trade turnover increased by 35%, reaching USD 25 billion. This data was presented on Tuesday, November 9, by the head of the Belarusian diplomatic mission to Russia Uladzimir Syamashka during the expert session "Russian-Belarusian Relations in 2021: Union Programs, New Challenges and Areas of Integration". The Belarusian Ambassador stressed that the parties are planning "to reach record figures in economic relations, somewhere around 37-38 billion dollars, this year". According to the Ambassador, the Russian Federation accounts for almost half (49%) of the external trade turnover of the Republic of Belarus. As such, Belarus, along with China, Germany and the Netherlands, is one of the four countries with which the Russian Federation has the largest volumes of trade.
Energy
On November 9, 2021, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus Viktar Karankevich and Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Nikolai Shulginov signed a Protocol amending the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Russian Federation on the procedure for forming prices (tariffs) for supplying natural gas to the Republic of Belarus and for its transportation. The protocol defines the procedure for forming prices for supplying natural gas to Belarus in 2022.
The specific gas price level will be determined in a joint document with PJSC Gazprom and will be based on 2021 conditions. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that the next year's price of gas for Belarus would remain at the level of 2021.
In the current year, Belarus buys fuel at a rate of USD 128 per thousand cubic meters. At the same time, the final gas price for unprivileged buyers in Belarus can reach USD 300-350 per thousand cubic meters.
On November 8, the chairman of the Belneftekhim concern, Andrei Rybakou, made the following statement at a meeting with journalists: "We have already redirected our supplies to the ports of the Russian Federation. We estimate that even though the planned amount was about 1.7 million tonnes, we will actually deliver at least 2.3 million tonnes by the end of the year". By the end of the year, Belarus will exceed the planned amount of oil products supplied via Russian ports by 35%.
Ukraine signs a contract for the purchase of electricity from Belarus
According to the press service of the Belarusian Energy Ministry, since November 6 Belarus has resumed commercial electricity supplies to Ukraine. Under the signed contract, energy deliveries will be carried out during November. The Belarusian side formed the delivery schedule, taking into account the available technical capabilities: operating modes of the power system and the capacity of generating equipment.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine intends to resume importing electricity from Belarus due to a shortage of coal at the state-owned thermal power plant. The Ukrainian state-owned company Energoatom bought out a section with 885 MW to import electricity from Belarus in November. Electro Community acquired another 15 MW.
Transport
If the West places a ban on the leasing of aircraft to the Belarusian "Belavia" airline, the company may switch to Russian aircraft, stated Artem Sikorsky, head of the Belarusian Transport Ministry's aviation department, on November 3 in Minsk. Russian leasing companies have a theoretical capability to supply Belavia with SSJ 100 and foreign-made aircrafts to replace its existing fleet, says Oleg Panteleyev, executive director of the Aviaport agency.
Second Belarusian Proposal to Unify Air Transportation Regulations of Belarus and the Russian Federation
Minsk's proposal to respond to Belarus's potential separation from the global aviation data system by creating a unified Belarus-Russia aviation administration will not lead to the desired results, according to industry participants. Its implementation may take a decade, while this idea is not even discussed in the relevant Russian departments. The statements of the Belarusian aviation authorities about the possible unification of aviation regulators of Russia and Belarus against the backdrop of the threat of Minsk falling under European sanctions look premature for Russian aviation.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State
On November 4, the political leadership of Russia and Belarus took part in the meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State, which was organized in the form of a video conference. The previous meetings of the Supreme State Council took place in 2000 and 2018. President Putin took part in this online event from the city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, where he arrived for a celebration of the Russian Unity Day.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka asked Putin to "invite him to Crimea next time" it was the first public suggestion by Lukashenka that he is officially prepared to recognize Russian control over the annexed peninsula.
The main result of this meeting was the signing of the "integration decree" of the Union State, which approved 28 "integration roadmaps" these agreements are supposed to be realized in the upcoming future.
Aside from the "integration roadmaps", Putin and Lukashenka adopted the updated Military Doctrine of the Union State and the project of a common Migration Policy. President Putin also suggested sending a Belarusian cosmonaut to the International Space Station within the Russian crew.
MILITARY AND LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
New Military Doctrine of the Union State
On November 4, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin approved the updated Military Doctrine of the Union State (replacing the previous Doctrine from 2001, which had become outdated). The project of the new Military Doctrine of the Union State was adopted by the Belarusian and Russian authorities already in 2018, but its formal approval took place only at the recent meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State.
According to the words of the Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev, the new Military Doctrine is a reaction to the Western pressure on Russia and Belarus Vladimir Putin believes that Russia must react to the growing military presence of NATO along its borders.
Possibly, the Military Doctrine of the Union State will be closer to the content of the 2014 Military Doctrine of Russia than to the current Military Doctrine of Belarus it means that this document may contain some "anti-NATO" elements.
Belarusian military takes part in the "Indestructible Brotherhood-2021" exercises
The Belarusian soldiers will take part in the military exercises "Indestructible Brotherhood-2021", taking place on November 8-12 in Tatarstan. This training is organized within the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The soldiers of the CSTO countries will simulate the implementation of a "peacekeeping operation". According to Russian experts, this military exercise is connected to the unstable situation in Afghanistan and increasing terrorist threats in the Middle Asian countries.
Visit of the Russian Prosecutor-General to Belarus
On October 28, Russian Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov arrived in Belarus on an official visit, where he met with Alyaksandr Lukashenka. According to the words of Krasnov, there has been an increasing number of external attempts to destabilize the situation in Belarus and Russia.
At this meeting, Lukashenka made severalanti-Polish statements, accusing this country of "aggressive" actions at the border.
According to Lukashenka, Poland has responded to the migration crisis with increased militarization of the border areas, which poses a threat to Belarus and Russia.
CIVIL SOCIETY
Belarusian Supreme Court liquidated Belarusian Language Society
On November 8, the High Court of Belarus liquidated the "Belarusian Language Society" NGO, one of the oldest and largest cultural organizations in Belarus with the mission to support and develop the Belarusian language. About 300 NGOs in Belarus have been liquidated this year.
Pittsfield Police Advisory Board Decides Against Changing Ordinance
PITTSFIELD, Mass. After two single-topic subcommittee meetings to discuss amending its ordinance, the Police Advisory and Review Board has decided that isn't the best way to improve the panel.
Instead, the board has written a memorandum that addresses issues with its purpose and effectiveness and then makes suggestions for better courses of action.
Vice Chair Michael Feldberg said the genesis of the additional meetings was former member Drew Herzig's submission for an amendment to the ordinance.
"We decided that that was probably not the best way to go because the tweaks wouldn't address our core issue," he explained. "Which is about the identity of this board itself and its effectiveness in serving as a bridge between the community and the department."
For some time now, the advisory board has mulled the possibility of amending its governing ordinance for clarification and empowerment.
In July, members were advised to think about the ordinance's language to make changes that support its mission. The review board feels a degree of frustration with the legal constraints that prohibit it from more direct involvement in the oversight of the Pittsfield Police Department.
The communication begins with a statement of the problem and goes back in time looking at what the original advocates for PARB were looking to accomplish. It then looks at what the City Council has charged the panel to do along with the few things it has accomplished.
"[It] reiterates another sense that we have that we have not lived up to our full potential," Feldberg said.
Steps that the board could take to be a more effective channel of communication for the community are then identified in the memorandum. It was stressed that the panel needs to hear from the public more.
The document will be submitted to both the council and Mayor Linda Tyer.
At Tuesday's meeting, Chair Ellen Maxon decided that PARB meetings will follow a different format for the next six months with the hope of improving outreach.
Lanesborough residents hear a presentation on the plans for a new police station on Tuesday night from architect Brian Humes. Illustrations of what the police station would look like. PreviousNext
Lanesborough Shows Preliminary Plans for New Police Station
The new police station is proposed to be built at Laston Park but community members on Tuesday raised concerns over flooding in that area.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. Lanesborough's Board of Selectmen and nearly 40 residents gathered at Proprietor's Lodge in Pittsfield for a presentation and Q&A about the proposed new police station.
The new police station, as presented at the meeting, has an estimated budget of $4.35 million and would replace the town's current building at 8 Prospect St. The 4,700 square-foot facility, if approved in its current form, would be located in the Bill Laston Memorial Park and could begin construction as early as this coming spring.
The current police station, originally built in 1827, has numerous longstanding issues, including age, heating and lack of space, that a renovation cannot resolve.
"ADA requirements with this building are completely out the window," said Brian Humes of Jacunski Humes Architects, the firm working with Lanesborough to design the new station. "There's not even access, there are changes in floor levels throughout the building. ADA is about 40 years of effort, and this building still doesn't meet basic requirements for working conditions."
Humes presented the work his firm has done on the project over the last two years. Included in the presentation were preliminary floorplan designs, a breakdown of the proposed budget and details on sites the town has considered for the station.
Police Chief Robert Derksen said the new building would be a tremendous help to the police department. He said the new station would work better for both the police and the community as a whole.
"A lot of the things that you see here, although it may seem extravagant, some things are necessary," he said.
Humes said the plans presented at the meeting, including the location, are all subject to change based on feedback from the community, Lanesborough Police Department and the Board of Selectmen. Jacunski Humes Architecture has worked with several municipalities on police station projects throughout both Massachusetts and Connecticut.
North Adams Councilor Asking for Reconsideration of Mohawk Theater Vote
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. City Councilor Keith Bona is requesting access to the city solicitor to question KP Law about its opinion removing the council from consideration of the Mohawk Theater sale and for the council to revote its authorization declaring the theater surplus property.
Councilors were surprised at last week's meeting when they were informed that the disposition of the theater would move forward without their approval.
According to an opinion provided by KP Law, the order approved by the council in 2019 "gives broad authority to the mayor to dispose of the property without further authorization" provided it complies with the state's 30B law.
The precedent had been to seek council approval for sales of property and materials below assessed value. Councilors had believed that a matter of law.
Bona had expressed his concerns at that meeting to Mayor Thomas Bernard and said afterward that his objection was to the change of process and a lack of transparency. The council received only a brief description of what the buyer, Veselko Buntic of New York City, was planning and no rationale on why two previous bids were rejected.
Buntic bid $21,000 for the gutted theater that he plans to incorporate as an events venue for a proposed hotel in the abutting Dowlin Block at 103 Main St. The structure is assessed at $437,000.
The councilor said he had watched several lengthy meeting videos from 2019 during which the sale of the Mohawk had been discussed by council and the mayor.
"I strongly believe all City Council members approved selling the theater knowing it would come back with bids under the assessed value," he wrote in his communication to the council for next week's meeting. "There is nothing on video or in the minutes that would dispute that."
He particularly pointed to the reference in the opinion to a "governmental body" disposing of property for less than its value.
"Who is the governmental body? Does that include the City Council, which never approved to dispose of the property at a price less than value?" he asked. "Does the solicitor know everything that was discussed and understood by this council before approving the theater to be sold? I don't believe they do and by removing the City Council from the process may make the sale illegal."
Bona is invoking Council Rule 27, which details the process for seeking a legal opinion. The council will take this up during its meeting Tuesday.
He is also asking to use Council Rule 22 to reconsider the vote on the Mohawk since it has been more than a year.
"I would love to see the property sold, but I want it done correctly, and vetted appropriately," he writes in his communication.
Bernard said as the administration was looking at how it was disposing of surplus property, the question was being asked if approval was necessary under the state's 30B laws or was it required by ordinance. That question came into sharper focus when the firm hired to auction off nearly a dozen properties last year asked if the portfolio could be sweetened by tossing in Sullivan School.
"It was clear under the process, that the city had the ability to include it in the portfolio," he said, but it also would have lessened public control over the building's future.
"At some point the city implemented as a habit, and so it became received wisdom somewhere along the line ... it was the position, as I understood it coming into the role, that if it is below this value it must be approved," the mayor continued. "And the the reality is no, and in talking to other people who do similar work, it's 'like no, we don't, we've never followed that process.'"
Bona supported declaring the theater, owned by the city since 1996, as surplus and even voted against a restriction on the marquee because it might deter buyers. But, he said, he still assumed that the council would have some input before it passed out of municipal control.
"When he said their finances are questionable, their timeline is concerning, I thought for sure the next line was going to be 'and this is why I will pass on the them,'" Bona said last week. "My jaw dropped when he said he gave it to them. But my main objection was taking this out of the council's hands and [not] allowing the public to have input."
He is also asking that a number of residents who have submitted requests to speak on the issue be allowed to.
The council had put a deed restriction on the moviehouse marquee but stopped short two years ago of placing a condition that it could review proposals. The assumption had been that no one would bid the appraised amount and it would therefore automatically come back for approval.
Some of Bona's colleagues also expressed some concern about transparency in the transaction and, at last week's meeting, Councilor Marie T. Harpin said the deal felt like it was being rushed.
"We've always had proposals that were less than the appraisal come to the council," she said.
Councilors surveyed this week also thought there should have been more public input.
Councilor Peter Oleskiewicz said there had been an agreement before the request for proposals had gone out that the bids would come back for review if under assessed value.
"We do need to get rid of this property," he said. "But I believe the RFP should be shown to us and we should have a say and also the community should have a say."
"Personally, I would have liked to seen that," said Councilor Benjamin Lamb. "But he's in the boundaries of the law, based on what the counselor has said."
Councilor Wayne Wilkinson said he was disappointed that the council's input had not been sought but added, "we declared it excess property but by law, once we do that, it's in his ballpark."
"I think we should have taken a look at it. Yes," said Councilor Bryan Sapienza. "Considering what I've been hearing from the public, yes, I think we should have brought it back at least to give us a chance to discuss it."
Chatter on Facebook has denounced the proposal, largely based on the low bid for the structure and the fact that Buntic has not made any progress on the two properties he owns in the downtown. He also purchased the Porter building on Eagle Street with partners who are apparently no longer involved with the purpose of turning it into the boutique hotel. Some demolition and structural work was done in there but not much more since the pandemic.
The Mohawk wouldn't be the first property to sell well below assessed value. The most recent was the Notre Dame complex on East Main Street that the city bought for a half-million more than a decade ago. Now assessed at more than $1 million, the property was sold last year to Moresi Commercial Development LLC for $10,000. Low bids are not unusual since most of these properties require significant investment and the city's main purpose is getting these properties into the hands of developers who can make them of benefit to the community.
Council President Lisa Blackmer said the discussion shouldn't be about the control of the final disposition but whether there is a municipal use for property. In this case, the answer is no, she said.
"I know there are memories and strong attachments to the theater, but I do not think the city should be in the business of maintaining and running a theater or performing arts center," she said. "The two other theaters [frequently compared to the Mohawk] in the county are private non-profit organizations and not municipally owned. The city has owned it for 30 years, with little result."
Letter: Williamstown Racial Justice & Police Reform Supports Bernard for Interim Town Manager
To the Editor:
Despite the enormous racial justice and police reform challenges facing Williamstown, the town has been operating with less than a full-time town manager for over seven months. We call on the Select Board to choose North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard as interim town manager.
We believe that Mayor Bernard is the unicorn that Select Board member Jane Patton hoped for when she asked for administrative and racial justice experience in a candidate. Mayor Bernard has hired a police chief, one of the key tasks for the next town manager. Furthermore, Mayor Bernard said "North Adams also has been part of an overdue national reckoning with the legacy of racism and white supremacy," in his State of the City address.
Although he has not shown tangible results in the 17 months since the murder of George Floyd, he has listened closely and avoided many of the pitfalls that neighboring cities and towns, including our own, have experienced.
We commit to the work of structural change necessary to ensure that this town's future includes safety, dignity, and collective responsibility for each other. We believe Mayor Bernard will uphold Articles 36 & 37 in ways that center those who are and have been marginalized in our community. We know that Williamstown is not exceptional in its exposure to white supremacy and structural racism.
We firmly believe that the insistence of transparency and accountability from those in leadership positions is a positive development that shows respect for every resident and visitor, regardless of their life experience. The recent accusations by Mayor Bernard against Representative Barrett should not impact this decision. If we allow it to adversely impact the decision we are doing exactly what Mayor Bernard was trying to guard against by making the accusations public. Mayor Bernard is not being accused of any wrongdoing in regard to the Mohawk Theater and he should not be treated as if he did something wrong.
We hope residents and leaders will closely examine the vestiges of our town policies and Charter to imagine creative improvements together and open Williamstown and its many gifts to others for decades to come. Mayor Bernard has a personal and multigenerational connection to Williams College that will let him hit the ground running on some of these bigger issues facing the town.
It is for these reasons that we enthusiastically support the candidacy of Mayor Tom Bernard for the interim town manager of Williamstown.
Huff Templeton, Bilal Ansari, Hugh Guilderson, Arlene Kirsch, and Janice Loux, representing Williamstown Racial Justice & Police Reform
Williamstown, Mass.
Name: Dan Stevens
Company: Stress Point Health
Job title: CTO/Co-Founder
Date started current role: December 2017
Location: Sydney-based
Dan Stevens is the CTO and co-founder of Stress Point Health. He has over 13 years of experience in digital transformation projects, helping companies digitise by providing solutions to maximise growth. His experience includes holding positions at SocialBots, Vicisoft ECM & BPM Solutions, IBM, ING Bank, DSB Bank and KLM, and he also founded DFMict, Propeller and Emperia Ventures. His deep technical knowledge and exemplary business acumen have allowed him to exit two international IT businesses (in the Netherlands and Australia), in high end customer engagement solutions. Stevens is passionate about utilising technology to improve peoples mental health and well-being. He has the ability to take a concept and build the entire technological infrastructure, which he has done with SPHERE - digitising Neurofeedback for the first time, leveraging technical and digital expertise to combine the latest technology with Neurofeedback science.
What was your first job? Dismantling an old printing press at the age of 14. I grew up just north of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where most students would work in the flower fields during the school holidays. However, that was not for me. A neighbour of my parents said that his office was moving locations and they could use some extra help cleaning out the old IT equipment. Well, that was right up my alley. I was employed to move all mainframes, printers and general IT equipment. I enjoyed listening to the team during the breaks, telling me stories about the printing press from back in the day. I would sit there sipping on my hot chocolate, wide-eyed, hearing about the technology around and how they got to where they were today.
Did you always want to work in IT? Yes, I was fascinated by the power of technology. Not in a geeky or nerdy way per se, but in terms of how it could make peoples lives easier. IT was invented by people, for people. We should not overcomplicate it.
When I was 16, I started my own computer sales and repair service. I never understood why IT people in general were bad at offering customer service. I liked the combination of solving computer issues and helping people at the same time. Leaving customers with a smile on their face was what I got a kick out of the most.
What was your education? Do you hold any certifications? What are they? After high school, I studied IT hardware and software programming - focussing on computer parts and how processing power worked combined with machine coding, developing simple apps and websites. Then I did a bachelors in IT and Business, where I learnt how IT could support organisations and how successful implementation of a complex information system could be done in large organisations specifically. After this, I did a pre-masters in Management Science. Whilst working, I acquired many certifications in project management and IT infrastructure, and I am currently completing the The PowerMBA.
Explain your career path. Did you take any detours? If so, discuss. Besides being a spare rib delivery guy in my uni days, Ive always been in IT. As mentioned before when I was 16, I started my own company which specialised in computer service and sales. This grew into software development, where I practiced my development skills. After an internship at KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) for the selection of a new plane engine management system, I moved to the financial world. As a project manager for ING, I managed system integrations and implementations of new IT related procedures.
Then I had a serious bike accident in 2010. Whilst I was in hospital, I decided there was more to life than working 9-5 and I had big dreams to travel and live in another country. Once I had recovered enough to travel, I sold everything in the Netherlands and moved to Sydney, Australia, as a backpacker for 1 year. In the first few months I met the owner of a software development company specialising in point-of-sale solutions. I took over the business and turned it around in 2 years. After that, my then fiancee and I decided to embark on a new adventure, and we decided to more to Dubai, UAE. I founded a digital transformation company there and started focusing on web and app development with remote teams in Eastern Europe. I then met Sheena (founder of Stress Point Health) and we decided to partner; I was now following my passion while utilising my skills and experience to help people in need.
Now Im back in Sydney, Australia for the next chapter in life. Im convinced that the location of IT teams is not overly important these days. Collaboration tools make it possible to recruit the best people that understand your business and IT requirements regardless of location. I must say that time-difference is a challenge sometimes.
What type of CTO are you? People-driven and solution-oriented CTO. As mentioned before, Im not the geeky kind of IT person. I love technology and the power it can enable, but I dont necessarily drive the latest technology because its the latest gadget. IT is developed by people and therefore needs to add value to peoples day-to-day lives. That is exactly what we do with SPHERE - a digital therapy app that offers access to digitised treatment for the first time through smartphone technology. Keep it simple and use the power of technology to give access to effective treatment, which was otherwise not possible, in the simplest and most cost-efficient way.
Which emerging technology are you most excited about the prospect of? Health monitoring tools. Not from a medical point (at this time) but as a measuring object. Take a heartbeat monitor, for instance. In my eyes its not a question of whether the device is 100% accurate; the goal is to monitor over a period of time and to spot trends or irregularities, and act on these by seeing the right medical professional or treatment. We should leverage data smartly to help us all live longer, healthier and happier lives.
Are there any technologies which you think are overhyped? Why? I think wearables - not smart watches and rings per se, but single-purpose devices such as VR headsets and smart glasses - are a bit overhyped for consumer use. This is because it is essentially an extra piece of hardware that is needed in order to experience the technology fully. This doesnt blend in with our day-to-day lives right now, and consumers are not ready for it. Dont get me wrong, the technology is very cool, but simply too complicated and I dont see people carrying VR headset or smart glasses with them all day in the immediate future.
What is one unique initiative that youve employed over the last 12 months that youre really proud of? I am pretty proud of being able to build a team of specialists and be able to have them located all around the world; I am also happy that we have been able to create an excellent culture while doing it. Some would say it is a difficult task to have people working remotely and still maintain a decent, at the very least, company culture. However, with the right tools in place and excellent leadership, I think we really excelled in this.
Are you leading a digital transformation? If so, does it emphasise customer experience and revenue growth or operational efficiency? If both, how do you balance the two? The mission of Stress Point Health is to provide access to effective mental health treatment anytime, anywhere. We can only do this by using a digitised form of an evidence-based treatment, and thats why we chose to digitise neurofeedback. Our smartphones are so powerful, that the hardware is not an issue. Its all about the user journey: how to make a offline treatment, as effectively, without human guidance and in full confidence.
We help companies digitise their approach towards mental health assessment and treatment. Issues of presenteeism, among others, will have a profound impact on how employers get the best out of their staff when we come out of the pandemic. Employers now have the opportunity to leverage digital therapeutics to help their most important asset, their people, address mental health challenges at work.
They need to take a holistic approach towards mental health; take a step back and evaluate why current solutions arent working, why the conversation is not evolving, and how we can finally move into the workplace of the future. In fact, businesses committing to help all employees achieve good mental health can benefit on a cultural level, down to financials with an average ROI of 5 for every 1 spent, according to a Deloitte report.
What is the biggest issue that youre helping customers with at the moment? Their mental wellbeing. Were listed as an IT company, as we develop digital apps and platforms. But I see us more as a mental health treatment provider, that uses technology as a vehicle to provide a solution to the user. We happen to understand the technology that is out there, and sculpture it in a way that it truly and meaningfully helps the user. The biggest achievement for me is when you have people being very depressed or stressed, and after a session with SPHERE, theyre feeling like they have a new lease on life, which allows them to go about their day like anyone else would. Even better if they also manage to stop or reduce reliance on medication.
How do you align your technology use to meet business goals? We believe that good mental health is a right, not a privilege. By making a proven mental health treatment available through a smart phone, we are able to give access to the app to people who need it most - anytime, anywhere. We opened up access to the app for free to anyone during the first lockdown, enabling people to leverage the power of their smartphone, to get effective treatment. By offering digitised Neurofeedback treatment to the market for a fraction of the cost of a psychiatrist visit, we can release in part the burden on a currently stretched for resources health care system.
Do you have any trouble matching product/service strategy with tech strategy? Not really, as we have a very core process which we digitise in the app. In this way, we use the most effective technology integration to achieve our goals.
What makes an effective tech strategy? In my eyes, an effective tech strategy is one that adds to the user experience. I believe that business goals are automatically met when the user experience is constantly being enhanced.
What predictions do you have for the role of the CTO in the future? I would say that it is hard to predict the future, especially following the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. However, it is interesting to note how quickly businesses of all sizes used technology to adapt to the changes. Tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Blackboard were suddenly so imperative to our everyday lives - from collaborating with co-workers to staying in touch with family and friends. Companies needed to all of a sudden move away from locally based servers and quickly go into the cloud, so that we could access everything remotely. I do not see this changing; in fact, it is going to evolve, and CTOs will need to continuously stay on top of new technologies and ensure their digital strategy is matching customer needs.
What has been your greatest career achievement? Ive started companies in the past, grew them and sold them on. That is quite an exciting journey, but honestly the biggest achievement for me was seeing first-hand the impact SPHERE has on people who suffer from stress anxiety and PTSD. SPHERE users opening-up and feeling reborn.
Looking back with 20:20 hindsight, what would you have done differently? 2020 was a strange and interesting year in many aspects. As we focus on mental wellbeing, things got really interesting for us. We saw a big need for effective solutions to help people cope with the pandemic. People living alone especially, and most in lockdown are not being able to leave our homes for a certain amount of time taking a massive toll on our mental health. We really needed to adapt to this and reassure our users that we are here for them. We didnt want to impose ourselves too much - and I think thats what we could have done differently, really shout about our technology so that people get the help they need.
On November 5, Malaysian authorities made a public appeal for information on Sarawak Report editor and founder Clare Rewcastle Brown after reviving a three-year-old criminal defamation case against her earlier this year. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the continued intimidation of Clare Rewcastle Brown and urge the Malaysian government to immediately drop all charges against her.
The appeal for information relates to an arrest warrant issued against London-based Rewcastle Brown on September 23, for failing to attend proceedings in a defamation suit brought by the Sultanah of Terengganu, Sultanah Nur Zahirah regarding her book on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Rewcastle Brown faces a criminal defamation charge under section 500 of the Malaysian Penal Code, which carries a punishment of up to two years imprisonment and a fine.
According to Rewcastle Brown, the plea for information is unnecessary as the police have contacted her directly in the past and are aware of her whereabouts. Rewcastle Brown advised authorities that she has no intentions of travelling to Malaysia, noting criminal defamation is not a crime in the United Kingdom.
According to Rewcastle Brown, her case was categorised as no further action in 2018. She described the revival of the case in March 2021 as a politically motivated move and a blatant abuse of power and influence within Malaysia.
Contesting the contents of a single paragraph in Rewcastle-Browns book, Sultanah Nur Zahirah is seeking RM100 million (USD 24,000) in damages from each defendant, including publishers GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn Bhd, Chong Ton Sin, and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd.
The IFJ said: The criminal defamation case against Clare Rewcastle Brown is yet another arbitrary attempt by the Malaysian authorities to quash critical reportage and crucial investigative journalism. The IFJ calls for the immediate dissolution of all charges against Rewcastle-Brown and calls on the Malaysian government to cease using harassment and intimidation tactics towards journalist and whistle-blowers.
DECODE 2021, the countrys largest cybersecurity conference hosted free of charge by Trend Micro Philippines, welcomed over 1,200 Filipinos on its first day.
At Trend Micro, were engineered to do good and committed to our mission of helping create a safer online environment for all, especially as the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of most organizations and businesses.
DECODE is perhaps one of our biggest undertakings: a gathering of experts from here and all over the world to tackle the most pressing cybersecurity issues, address and anticipate threats, and explore how we can all work together to ensure that organizations and individuals remain safe and secure online, said Alma Saturnino-Alvarez, Director of Threat Hunting, Trend Micro Philippines.
The three-day virtual conference opened with four keynote sessions delivered by Trend Micros Director of Global Operations, Managed XDR Jay Yaneza, FBI Cyber Division Intelligence Analyst Lauren Seawright, Cybercrime Directorate of INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) INTERPOLs Head of Cybercrime Intelligence Unit Shane Cross, and Meralcos VP and Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Mel T. Migrino.
Following this years theme DEC1DE. DEC0DE., the speakers discussed timely topics relevant in their respective roles in the cybersecurity industry.
Now, Else Be Too Late: Relevant Just-in-Time Decisions
In his session, Trend Micros Director of Global Operations, Managed XDR Jay Yaneza introduced the primary theme of the conference; making critical, yet timely decisions in order to prevent or resolve threats. Beyond the technicalities behind resolving a threat is a teams ability to make quick, yet informed decisions during the most extreme situations. Yaneza shared examples of instances when timing and execution were critical, and also discussed the value of prevention and foresight. He closed his session with a reminder to keep calm and carry on and goes on to emphasize how IT staff should make sure they are measuring the right things because these decision points will come to bare after the incident.
Ransomware: 2021 Threat Landscape
To present another facet of the cybersecurity industry, FBI Intelligence Assistant Legal Attache Lauren Seawright went over the current threat landscape and how it has evolved both in the Philippines and globally in the past few years. Drawing as well from her experience as the Intelligence Analyst assigned to the cyber squad in FBIs Anchorage and Boston Divisions, the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Portland, Maine, and the economic crimes squad, Seawright gave valuable insights on current and foreseeable trends in how Philippine companies are combatting these attacks.
Cybercrime Through the Lens of Law Enforcement and Private Partners
From another expert involved in law enforcement, Shane Cross gives viewers a brief background on the work of INTERPOL and how the cybercrime division operates in partnership with international governments. Cross also discusses how cybercrimes during the time of COVID-19 have evolved and other evolving threats in the current landscape. Scams have been tailored around themes of COVID-19 and healthcare, as well as cybercrimes executed around cryptocurrency. Cross emphasizes that it is most important that we cooperate with local enforcement, to effectively and efficiently shut down such threats.
The Evolution of a CISO Role
VP and Group Chief Information Security Officer of Meralco Mel Migrino during her session discussed the role of the CISO, or Chief Information Security Officer. Migrino discussed how the role has evolved from the traditional responsibilities of the CISO, as well as how the CISO is involved and engaged across the various departments of an organization. She also talked about the Next Generation CISO and the qualities they must possess, such as having a moral compass, and being ready to go beyond what is asked.
Get IT Girl, Careers in Cybersecurity, and Cybersecurity Fundamentals
Trend Micro decided to extend this years conference and include programs catering specifically to women in the tech industry as well as students.
Get IT Girl, Trend Micros yearly discussion on empowering Filipino women in tech, covers the state of the cybersecurity skills gap and how it has improved through diversity and inclusion, led by Joahnna Hipolito, Trend Micro Manager for Technology Marketing. This is followed by an inspirational talk and Q&A session with our Olympic Silver Medalist Nesthy Petecio on how she stands out in a male-dominated sport.
Trender trainers have sessions about Careers in Cybersecurity, and Cybersecurity Fundamentals, made available for both student audiences and career shifters.
DECODE is a free conference hosted by Trend Micro Philippines annually. In its 5th year, not even a pandemic could hinder Trend Micro from pulling out all the stops. Complete with a virtual lounge and auditorium for the array of panel discussions and keynote sessions lined up, this years conference is sure to inspire and engage many in the local cybersecurity industry. When it comes to looking out for trends and potential threats, Shane Cross shared that Its not a matter of if, but a matter of when, and DECODE 2021 serves as a necessary reminder of this for all in the industry.
All IT professionals who want to learn more about cybersecurity and the latest trends can still access the DECODE sessions by registering for an account at decodeph.com. The videos will be available on-demand until July 22, 2022.
India shares close trade and investment ties with the German State of Bavaria due to its central location, technology sector, skilled workforce and world class universities, research and development focus, excellent transport and infrastructure, and easy access to Europe.
Introduction to Bavaria Germanys largest and southernmost state
Bavaria is Germanys southernmost and largest state and borders Austria, the Czech Republic, and across Lake Constance, Switzerland. Its neighboring states are Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse, Thuringia, and Saxony.
Bavaria is home to 13 million inhabitants, second most populated after the state of North-RhIne Westphalia (17.93 million). Munich has over 1.5 million inhabitants (2020).
In terms of geography, the Bavarian state can be subdivided into four major regions the Alps (Zugspitze mountain); the Alpine foothills with its numerous lakes; the Bavarian forest; and the Swabian-Franconian Forest. Two major rivers run through the state, namely the Danube (Donau) and the Main.
Bavaria is among Europes strongest economic regions and its GDP per capita is 46,498 (German GDP per capita is 40,088).
India Bavaria business community and emerging opportunities
Over 100 Indian companies have their offices in Bavaria, including leading information technology (IT), automotive, electrical, and pharmaceutical firms like Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Graphite India, Samvardhana Motherson Group, Hero Motocorp Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services, HCL, L&T InfoTech, Dr. Reddys Lab, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Glenmark Arzneimittel, Quest, etc.
As of 2019, over 350 Bavarian companies have ventures in India, including Siemens, BMW, Audi, MAN, Adidas, Allianz AG, Munich Re, EADS, Infineon, and Linde. According to the State of Bavaria India Office, there are about 1,500 business relationships established between Bavarian companies and India and over 300 Indo-Bavarian joint ventures have been set up.
Indian community in Bavaria and connectivity
Indians are among the largest groups of Germanys EU Blue Card (main residence permit for university graduates from abroad) holders many of whom live in the State of Bavaria. Around 30,400 Indian citizens live in Bavaria, and just under half of them live in Munich as per official 2020 figures.
The Indian community in Bavaria includes IT professionals, businesspersons and traders, restaurant operators, students, and researchers. As per recent data, there are 4600 Indian students in Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavarian higher education schools / universities.
Before the pandemic, there were daily direct flights from Munich to Delhi and Mumbai. As of writing this article, India has an air bubble transport arrangement with Germany as regular international flight schedules are still suspended under Indias pandemic mitigation efforts.
Trade contacts between India and Bavaria can be traced back to the 16th century when Bavarian business families from the cities of Augsburg/Nuremberg sponsored German trade missions to India as part of a Portuguese voyage in 1505.
Since 2001, Bavaria has been linked to key Indian sectors and regions through its representative office in Bangalore; in 2013, the Invest-in-Bavaria in Bengaluru upgraded to full representative office.
Institutional cooperation can be illustrated by the setting up of the Bavarian-Indian Centre for Business and University Cooperation (BayInd) by the Hof University of Applied Sciences in Bangalore in July 2009; MoUs in 2013 in the areas of vocational training and educations involving entities from Bavaria like the Hof University of Applied Sciences and Bavarian Employers Association; and MoUs in 2015 between the Fraunhofer Society and Ministry of Heavy Industries, HMT Limited, and the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).
Economy, industry, and trade
Sectoral distribution services sector accounts for 71.3 percent, industry 27.2 percent, and agriculture and forestry 1.5 percent (2020 data).
Natural resources sand and gravel, natural stone, clay, silica sand, etc.
Agricultural products dairy products, meat and meat products, sugar, beer, hops, etc.
Major industries in Bavaria automobile, bioeconomy, biotechnology, chemicals, heavy engineering, power, electronics and electrical engineering, energy technology, financial services, communications technology, logistics, aerospace and satellite navigation, mechanical engineering, mechatronics, medical technology, nanotechnology, new materials, photonics, environmental technology etc.
Cross-industry areas fintech and insurance tech, IoT and Industry 4.0, mobility, and AI.
Major Indian exports to Bavaria articles of leather and leather clothes; bearing, gears, gearing, and driving elements; cotton apparel (knitted or crocheted fabrics) and silk apparel; machinery and apparatus for electricity production and distribution; paint and varnish; furniture footwear.
Major Bavarian exports to India machinery and apparatus for electricity production and distribution; automotive components, bearing, gears, and driving elements; machinery and tool; plastics; measuring and automatic control instruments and appliances, pumps, and compressors; medical and surgical equipment and orthopaedic appliances.
India-Bavaria trade ties Bavaria is a driving force in growing trade and economic ties between India and Germany. Bavarias capital Munich is a gateway to Central and Eastern Europe.
German trade fair authorities have expanded their presence in India in the last decade. Messe Munchen organizes eight fairs in India followed by Messe Nuremberg, which organizes two trade fairs in India.
The below figure shows two-way trade between India and Bavaria over the past two decades. Due to the pandemic, bilateral trade plummeted to 2.48 billion in 2020 as Indian exports to Bavaria dropped to 1.213 billion (-10 percent) and imports from Bavaria were 1.274 billion (-22.8 percent). It represented 12.64 percent of the total Indo-German trade of 19.65 billion that year.
India-Bavaria trade figures: 2000 to 2020
Start-ups and entrepreneurial networks
Indian entrepreneurs, businesses, and graduates can take advantage of Bavarias business-friendly ecosystem that caters to a spectrum of enterprises from growth stage start-ups to large-scale corporations, particularly in the technology and life sciences industries.
In 2019, Bavarias government initiated massive investments into expanding R&D into artificial intelligence (AI), higher education reforms, sustainable development for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), among others. These are areas where Indian IT firms and tech entrepreneurs can participate.
Munich, the Bavarian capital, has over 100 start-up incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneurship programs. There are over 50 technology incubators in Bavaria offering start-ups working spaces, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
Meanwhile, India has registered over 50,000 start-up enterprises (June 2021 by DPIIT) and, as of April 2021, had 38,815 active start-ups. Despite the 70 percent decline in new start-up launches in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 (Q1-Q3), as per data from consultancy firm INC42, Indian start-ups raised US$28 billion in total funding. Further, 26 Indian start-ups entered the Unicorn club, with the financial technology sector (insurance tech, fintech SaaS, investment tech, payments, lending, etc.) attracting maximum deals. Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) remains Indias top start-up hub. Other key segments attracting deals are in enterprise tech, e-commerce, logistics, health tech, ed tech, consumer services, and travel tech.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which acts as the nodal authority for start-ups in India recognizes that the maximum registered start-ups in India were in food processing, product development, application development, IT consulting, and business support services. India offers multiple schemes and incentives for entrepreneurial development.
For more information and business support, please feel free to contact the Dezan Shira & Associates German Liaison Office at Munich. For business support in India, Dezan Shira & Associates have offices in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
Every year Design India Magazine hosts the prestigious Indias Best Design Awards (IBDA) to recognize design studios for their professional work, business practices and transparency.
And this years winners for Indias Best In-House Design Studio are the hardworking and creative guys at Trident Groups in-house Brand Studio.
Trident Group
An eminent jury of 24 members, including senior professors of NID, IIT Bombay and International Design College among other veteran design professionals, went through the work of different teams and design studios of India.
Trident Group
IBDA celebrates the best, most creative, well managed and professional design projects in India. And as this years winner, the Trident Brand Studio embodies these very qualities.
The Trident Brand Studio comprises artists from different corners and the topmost colleges of India, collaborators joining in from all over the world and a beautiful amalgamation of cultures, ideas, thoughts, colours and trends. This is Trident Brand Studio in a nutshell.
The team has worked on numerous campaigns for Trident including Tridents latest foray into the detergent and notebooks sector. Some of the distinct projects accomplished by them are the internationally acclaimed JIVA wellness brand of home textiles, We Save Nature and the recent campaign for Trident yarns.
Trident Brand Studio brings to life the various products and the core brand essence of Trident - to create Designs with Purpose.' An epitome of vivid imagination and fresh concepts to make every piece stand out, over the years Trident Brand Studio has delighted customers in more than 100 countries.
Elated at the recent win, Trident Group Chairman, Rajinder Gupta, shared his happiness. We are honoured to be recognized by Indias Best Design Awards (IBDA). We, at Trident, are committed to creating designs that matter. For this, we have a team of professionals who follow a creative as well as a structured approach to design and innovate. Our endeavour is to bring comfort to millions of people across the globe by telling stories that matter and create an impact.
For those of you who don't know, Trident Limited is the flagship Company of Trident Group, a USD 3 billion Indian business conglomerate and a global player. Headquartered in Ludhiana, Punjab, Trident Limited is a vertically integrated textile (Yarn, Bath & Bed Linen), Paper (Wheat Straw-based) and Chemical manufacturer with captive power generation facility. It is also one of the largest players in home textiles globally.
Tridents towels, yarns, bed sheets and paper businesses have earned global recognition and are delighting millions of happy customers across the world. Supplying national, captive, and retailer-owned brands; the organization is accorded with multiple national and international awards from its customers, vendors and various government entities in recognition of advancing the highest standards in product quality, social responsibility and environmental stewardship.
You can check out their work on their social media platforms.
Heres congratulating the Trident Brand Studio team on their big win!
"India is one of the world's largest agricultural waste producers... There is a lot of burning happening," said Indian entrepreneur Vidyut Mohan, who is changing the route of climate solutions with far-reaching projects spread across India and Kenya. With the award-winning Takachar, Mohan is the undisputed master of putting waste to use.
The visionary Takachar was set up by Vidyut Mohan along with his peer Kevin Kung who have successfully created and deployed a device to convert agricultural waste into fertiliser and fuel. The recipient of the first-ever Earthshot Prize, Mohan's initiative highlights how waste doesn't have to be compartmentalised away, but instead may be employed to create other useful products.
UNEP
"I'm passionate about how renewable energy technologies can be used to create livelihood opportunities while solving the climate crisis," Mohan told us in the backdrop of TEDxGateway Climate Countdown 2021 (supported by Government Of Maharashtra).
Why India needs Takachar
India is at the centre of Mohan's discourse, "where so many millions... need to climb up the income ladder and become rich while at the same time [not] destroying the environment."
"Small-scale decentralised equipment" is how Mohan described Takachar's devices which help farmers turn agricultural waste into marketable products, giving them a chance at maximising their income. "These will enable us to create value closer to where these rural communities live rather than large-scale centralised units which are only affordable to people with deep pockets or large corporations."
iStock
Calling the impact of Takachar's tech multi-dimensional, Mohan explained how it not only helps in "rural livelihood creation but also helps in mitigating air pollution and sequestering carbon emissions."
Takachar's magic machine
According to Vidyut Mohan, the co-founder and CEO of Takachar, the machine'a strength is not only in its small-scale and low-cost offerings, but also in its modular build-up.
Echoing Green Fellows Directory + iStock
"It's made up of simple parts that can be assembled by people living in those areas itself and it doesn't take a lot of time to set up," Mohan told us. In fact, the novel tech could be put on wheels soon, for it sits on the chassis of a trailer itself.
Also read: Shneel Malik's Bio-Tech Materials Are Cleaning Water In Polluted Indian Cities
Takachar is helping farmers generate income while getting effectively dealing with waste. In India's Uttarakhand, Takachar's tech was first deployed in Murari, back in 2013-14 when the machine was in its nascent stage.
iStock
"We worked with the community there and the equipment utilised local pine needle residue that is shed from the forest and causes forest fires. People collected that and were paid for that." This, he told us, helped them double the farmers' income for the month.
What became of the pine needles was fuel, which was then used by local restaurants (dhabas).
Localisation matters!
Based on this pilot model, the brains behind Takachar have localised their products to suit the needs of different terrain. For instance, Takachar is entering commercial pilots in South India with coconut shells and activated carbon as an application. In North India, Takachar is working with rice straws with fertiliser as an application. That's not all! In Kenya, Takachar already has a pilot project where rice husks are converted into fertiliser, later sold to 5,000 farmers.
Also read: Climate Change Is Spiking Suicide Rates And Infectious Diseases: Study
The community is intrinsic to Takachar's vision. "It has to be co-creative in nature... farmers welcome unique ways of utilising their own waste." On their part, Takachar try to minimise the scope of change in hopes of making adoption of new tech easier.
The work doesn't end with the creation waste-to-use machines. Market access is an important aspect of Takachar's work "because only that will drive the adoption of the technology and the product."
Highlighting the localised differences that warrant varied approaches, Mohan explained how turning waste into useful products varies from North to South India, calling it "context-specific." With differences in the base object, there is also a variation in the business model. "One has to scale across these individual leashes."
What does Takachar's machine do?
"It's essentially like roasting coffee beans," Mohan told Indiatimes. Known as torrefaction, the process throws "agricultural waste or forest waste in controlled amounts of air that takes out the low-energy containing molecules and leaves behind a dense carbon-rich material."
Takachar
This is where the magic happens. The dense carbon-rich material is what's used to create fuels, fertilisers, or activated carbon depending on the base material used and the region where the tech is employed. By taking on stubble burning, Takachar is able to eliminate 95-98 per cent smoke emissions.
Also read: Climate Change Could Force Aircrafts To Fly Higher In Sky To Avoid Turbulence
While Takachar and other tech pioneers may be working on novel solutions, Mohan believes "everything needs to be tied up" to address the magnitude of the problem.
"We have solutions on the ground already," Mohan said while referring to rice straws which are either incorporated in the soil or be utilised for "productive purposes." As opposed to large-scale plants, Mohan believes smaller localised plants that treat agricultural waste are the need of the hour.
"Our product is 100th of the cost of many of those large-scale centralised technologies," Mohan said, while claiming that farmers and farmer organisations are the owners and operators of their machines.
iStock
Why nothing changes in India
"People need to make air pollution an election issue and hold the political class accountable," Mohan suggested while adding that even on a normal day in Delhi, the "air quality is quite bad."
"Are we as a society, happy with that status quo," Mohan exclaimed while talking about how air pollution levels remain in the "good" zone only for a few days every year in Delhi. "I don't see people raising their voice against that. And unless we don't do that, the political class is not really going to care," Mohan said.
Until then, Takachar and Mohan are helping farmers in two ways, For starters, they get a chance to create extra income by selling their waste to Takachar. In addition, local farmers are trained by Takachar to run the machine effectively, creating scope of livelihood opportunities.
Also read: These 6 Cities Including Kolkata Will Be Underwater Before 2030 Due To Climate Change
"Our mission is to drastically scale the utilisation of agricultural waste to fight climate change, to reduce air pollution and to provide rural value," Mohan said. So far, Takachar has been part of two incubation programmes of the Indian government, with third one currently underway.
What do you think about Takachar's ambitious and novel tech that provides livelihood to farmers, tackles climate change, and also reduces pollution? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. For the latest in tech and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
New pod rooms were inaugurated at Mumbai Central railway station today. The Ministry of Railways shared pictures of the development. According to a report by NDTV, the pods' concept is to provide world-class comfort to travellers at reasonable prices.
What is a pod hotel?
A pod hotel has a number of small rooms or "pods" that consist of a bed each. It is also known as a capsule hotel. This concept was first introduced in Japan in order to provide cost-friendly and comfortable accommodation to travellers. Ever since its introduction by the Japanese, one of the finest planners in the world, the concept now has a growing interest in India as well.
Twitter
Urbanpod was the first one to launch a pod hotel boutique in India.
The Ministry of Railways showed the Urbanpod hotel in Mumbai Central station - it has a row of pod rooms that can be occupied by travellers for short stays at affordable rates.
The modern pod rooms at the station are painted in shades of beige, brown and white. The pods feature a single bed, mirror and private space.
"Travelling by train on a short business trip or taking a group of students on a tour, POD rooms at Mumbai Central station are here to make your journey comfortable and easy," the Ministry of Railways wrote while sharing photos on Twitter.
Travelling by train on a short business trip or taking a group of students on a tour, POD rooms at Mumbai Central station are here to make your journey comfortable and easy. pic.twitter.com/7yfbSfeZ9g Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) November 17, 2021
The pod hotel was inaugurated by Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Patil Danve.
People are quite impressed with the development and took to social media to express their delight.
One user wrote, "I hope one can book these through the IRCTC website.. If not request you to enable online booking either through IRCTC or any other travel websites."
"This looks super cool in photos. However, I am not sure how hygienic option this would be at this time, considering normal Indian railway commuters are known for misusing privileges (e. g. As seen in the inaugural run of Tejas)," another commented.
Twitter
According to a report by Hindustan Times, passengers can book the pod hotel for 12 and 24 hours for 999 and 1,999 respectively. A private pod will cost 1,249 for 12 hours and 2,499 for 24 hours.
The pod hotel has 48 capsule-like rooms and is located on the first floor of Mumbai Central.
Twitter
These include classic pods, private pods and "ladies-only" pods and pods for the differently-abled. Other amenities are free Wi-Fi, mobile charging points and a reading light.
For more interesting stories from around the world, visit Indiatimes Trending.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services settled a lawsuit Nov. 10, which allows the spouses of L-2 workers to automatically receive work authorization, and also provides an automatic 180-day extension of work authorization for some spouses of H-1B workers. (representational image/IANS)
File photo of homeless people at a free food distribution drive outside LNJP hospital, during a curfew imposed to contain the COVID-19 surge, in New Delhi on May 24, 2021. (ANI photo)
An insurer does not have to provide coverage for a couple accused of misleading the buyers of their former home because of an uninsured premises exclusion in the couples homeowners policy.
The lawsuit came about after Christopher and Dorothy Norton sold their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in February of 2017 to two buyers. More than two years later, the buyers brought a suit against Christopher, claiming he made false statements causing them to purchase the property.
The complaint alleged that prior to the sale, the Nortons represented in a sellers statement of property condition that the home had no water drainage problems and that there were no water, seepage or dampness issues in the basement. The complaint claimed that Christopher knew this was false because he had learned from the homes previous owners that the basement flooded in the 1990s and in 2005.
In January and March 2018, the basement flooded again and caused significant damage to the home and the buyers personal property. As a result, the buyers had to purchase new personal property, raise the home by several feet, repair and replace the utility systems and do extensive engineering, architectural, construction and site work including changing the topography of the land to prevent more damage from future flooding, according to the Appeals Court document.
After the buyers filed their lawsuit, the Nortons submitted defense for the suit to their insurer, Norfolk & Dedham Mutual Fire Insurance Company. This was based on a homeowners policy Norfolk issued in September 2017 for the Nortons new home in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
The policy, which was in effect when the Duxbury property flooded in 2018, provides coverage for personal liability due to bodily injury or property damage. The coverage is subject to a number of exclusions, however, including one that applies to bodily injury and property damage arising out of an uninsured location.
According to the policy, the Duxbury property is not an insured location, so Norfolk brought an action seeking a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend or to indemnify the Nortons. A Superior Court judge concluded that Norfolk was entitled to judgment because the uninsured premises exclusion bars coverage. An appeal by the Nortons followed.
In Associate Justice Sookyoung Shins Appeals Court opinion, she wrote that the uninsured premises exclusion bars coverage for injury arising out of the premises of uninsured property because the insurer has not been given the opportunity to inspect and assess the property and has not been compensated to assume the additional risk. Without an opportunity for inspection, the insurer cannot know the risks associated with the uninsured property and cannot include them in the underwriting determination, she wrote.
Indeed, by the Nortons logic, a subsequently issued homeowners policy on a different property would require the insurer to defend third-party claims arising out of any property that the insured formerly owned, and the insurer never inspected, as long as the event causing the bodily injury or property damage occurred during the policy period, Shin wrote. No reasonable insured or insurer would expect such a result.
With this in mind, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the Superior Courts judgment and concluded that the uninsured premises exclusion does apply and that Norfolk is under no duty to defend or to indemnify the Nortons in this suit.
The case is Norfolk & Dedham Mutual Fire Insurance Company vs. Christopher Norton & another.
Topics Lawsuits Restaurant
LineSlip Streamlines Property Value Reporting, Underwriting Data
LineSlip Solutions recently unveiled a new tool to help risk managers, insurance brokers, and real estate asset managers streamline the collection and reporting of property values and insurance underwriting data.
The new tool also enables managers to map portfolio property locations with corresponding underwriting data including COPE (construction, occupancy, protection, exposure) and natural disaster risk. It facilitates instant reporting of insurance program information, as well as insurance premium allocation across the portfolio of property locations.
According to Leo Bernstein, CEO, this tool helps risk and property managers to understand insurance costs by individual location; track and manage COPE data in one place and automate reporting and data entry.
LineSlip said it is currently updating the dashboard with a real-time natural threat overlay that can be applied to individual locations.
LineSlip, based in New York, automatically extracts and organizes data previously locked in binders, policies, schedules and other insurance documents.
Bold Penguin Adds AI-Powered Underwriting Products
Bold Penguin Data Solutions has launched two new artificial intelligence-powered products to assist insurance underwriters. SubmissionLink automatically extracts data from submission documents, enhances it and delivers it into existing underwriting applications. ClauseLink is an enhanced version of RiskGenius, which Bold Penguin acquired in 2020, that extracts and categorizes clauses, allowing for instant coverage analysis by product underwriters.
SubmissionLink builds on Bold Penguins access to millions of data points generated by its quote and bind software and universal application. Lakshan De Silva, Bold Penguin chief data scientist, said the firm is partnering with insurance carriers to leverage these submission algorithms to improve accuracy from extracted data and the speed and precision of commercial insurance underwriting.
Bold Penguin jumpstarted its artificial intelligence coverage analysis when it acquired RiskGenius. The firms reconstituted the RiskGenius insurance coverage software to focus on forms analysis for product underwriting departments. Bold Penguin released a new version of the application in 2021 and renamed it ClauseLink.
According to Cheri Trites-Versluis, vice president of Bold Penguin Data Solutions, ClauseLink is being leveraged by insurance carriers looking to evaluate the language in their forms against the language employed by competitors, or standards organizations like Insurance Services Office (ISO) and American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS).
Cowbell Cyber Releases Insurance-focused Risk Assessment for AWS Customers
Cowbell Cyber, an AI-powered cyber insurance provider, is offering what it says is the industrys first coverage aligned to policyholders AWS (Amazon Web Services) footprint. This Cowbell Connector product extends Cowbells continuous risk assessment to the AWS cloud and gives policyholders immediate visibility into their cloud-related risk exposures.
Cowbell Cyber offers standalone cyber insurance for small and mid-size enterprises.
Cowbell says the new product will help customers close insurability gaps by providing them with insights and recommendations on how to improve their risk profile, which places them in a better position to obtain cyber insurance coverage.
Cowbell Connectors are available to all Cowbell policyholders for the most commonly used collaboration services such as email, vulnerability management solutions, and endpoint security products, among others.
Policyholders that activate one or more Cowbell Connectors may be eligible to receive up to 5% premium credits towards their Cowbell cyber insurance policy.
Topics InsurTech Tech Underwriting Property Amazon
A judicial panel on Tuesday consolidated 34 lawsuits challenging the Biden administrations workplace COVID-19 vaccine rule in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a venue favored by opponents of the rule.
President Joe Biden announced plans for the vaccine requirement in September, seeking to stem a surge in COVID-19 cases and get more people back to work.
The Cincinnati appeals court was chosen randomly and will take up the challenges to the rule, which compels employers with at least 100 workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing combined with face masks at work.
The court, which has 10 Republican-appointed judges and five appointed by Democratic presidents, was the venue where Kentucky, a conservative media company and religious groups filed their challenges.
The rule was issued as an emergency temporary standard by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which said it will prevent 250,000 hospitalizations. The rule set a Jan. 4 deadline for compliance.
In court, the administration must show that a grave danger required an emergency standard, which allows the agency to bypass a years-long rulemaking process.
OSHA has issued 10 emergency standards in its 50-year history, and of six challenged in court, only one survived intact.
Vaccine mandates are deeply controversial in the United States. Supporters say they are helping to end the nearly two-year coronavirus pandemic, while opponents argue they violate the U.S. Constitution and curb individual liberty.
On Friday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked the rule, calling it a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer.
The court noted nearly 80% of working-age Americans are vaccinated and many workers such as truckers are at little risk of exposure.
The Biden administration is expected to ask the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit that ruling. Legal experts expect the challenges to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Lawsuits Commercial Lines Business Insurance
Tesla has asked a federal court to reject what is calls a staggering $136.9 million jury award or order a new trial in a case involving an employees claim that the car maker did not do enough to protect him from racial conduct at its northern California factory in 2015 and 2016.
On Oct. 4, a jury awarded Oscar Diaz $6.9 million in compensatory damages and $130 million in punitive damages in finding that Tesla failed to take reasonable steps to protect Diaz from a hostile work environment.
Tesla disputes Diazs claims and denies that it failed to act on his harassment complaints. The company claims it investigated and took action against the workers about whom Diaz filed complaints. Tesla also argues that Diaz suffered no physical or economic harm, and did not need medical treatment or counseling as a result of racial slurs and other hostile acts.
Jury Orders Tesla to Pay $130M to Former Worker Over Racially Hostile Workplace
Yet in the Tesla complaints own language, based on the verdict, the jury believed Tesla could and should have done more to root out alleged racism at the factory.
Now, in a Nov. 16 filing in U.S. Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, Tesla is seeking a new trial and reconsideration of the damages award. [T]he jury award here, a staggering $136.9 million, simply cannot stand, the company told the court.
Tesla is asking the court to order a new trial on damages unless Diaz agrees to compensatory damages of $300,000 at most and a correction of the jury award of $130 million in punitive damages, which it calls grossly excessive and blatantly unconstitutional.
Tesla says the award is without precedent and dwarfs awards in similarand even in the most egregiouscases. The company argues that even if liability stands (which it says should not), the court should grant a new trial or steep remittitur.
This is not a case about physical harm, health, or safety, argues Tesla, claiming that while the jury felt strongly that Tesla should have done more, this is at most a case of omission or negligence, not malice or intent.
In its recounting of other awards, Tesla says that courts in comparable cases have reduced punitive awards to a 1:1 ratio or at most a 2:1 ratio to compensatory damages, yielding punitive damages of $150,000 to $4 million. In contrast, the facts in this case support a 1:1 ratio at most, the company says.
Judge William H. Orrick is presiding in the case.
Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Tesla
Calls for an independent investigation into what led to 10 deaths at the Astroworld music festival went unheeded Monday, as Houston-area officials instead chose to direct a county administrator to conduct a review with other governmental entities.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo _ the top elected official in Harris County, which includes Houston _ had proposed a third-party probe of the planning and execution of the festival founded and headlined by rap superstar Travis Scott.
The Harris County administrator instead will work with other city and county entities to review security, fire and other safety plans at the county-owned NRG Park, where the festival was held.
I hope that it comes back with actionable lessons, Hidalgo said. I hope it doesnt result in something vague or forgotten.
Other members of Harris Countys governing body, known as a commissioners court, were concerned Hidalgos investigation could lead to legal liabilities for the county.
Dozens of lawsuits have already been filed over injuries and deaths at the Nov. 5 concert.
Houston police are conducting a separate criminal investigation into what happened at the festival. No one has been charged.
The police department, along with the city fire department, played key roles in crowd control and other safety measures at the show. Experts in crowd safety say an investigation by neutral outsiders into the tragedy could help avoid potential conflicts of interest and promote transparency.
Police have said they are reviewing surveillance video provided by concert promoter Live Nation, as well as dozens of clips of the show shared on social media. Investigators also planned to speak with Live Nation representatives, Scott and concertgoers.
Over 300 people were treated on site for injuries at the show, and at least 25 were hospitalized.
Many unanswered questions center on the actions of event organizers.
A 56-page event operations plan for the Astroworld music festival included protocols for dangerous scenarios including an active shooter, bomb or terrorist threats, and severe weather. But it did not include information on what to do in the event of a crowd surge.
The 10 people who died included a 9-year-old boy. The oldest was 27. Reports on individual causes of death are pending.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A public adjuster who is running for Congress in South Carolina has been accused of absconding with thousands of dollars in insurance payments that were meant for home restorations.
A Columbia, South Carolina, TV station reported that two property owners have come forward with complaints about Michael Addison, who is running for U.S. House District 6. A homeowner had suffered a fire and a church had roof damage from a storm in 2018.
The property owners assigned rights to Addison, who is also an Orangeburg chiropractor, to determine damages and handle the insurance claims. The owners later found out that their insurers had paid $50,000 on one claim and $70,000 on another, but Addison had reportedly never sent the money for the restoration work.
Nearly two years after her house fire, Sandra Boone, of Columbia, is still living in a hotel waiting for her home to be restored, the TV station reported. Boone took Addison to court to get him discharged from the claim.
These private adjusters take on the role almost as attorneys, said Boones lawyer, Hank Wall. They receive other peoples money. It is a high level of trust. They have a fiduciary responsibility and there is very few regulations. It is an antiquated thing, really, but we have it in South Carolina and it is dangerous.
Addison has declined to comment. The South Carolina Department of Insurance and law enforcement authorities are reviewing the case.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has decided that a trial court has the authority to reach across the continent and halt an insurance carriers litigation in California, a move that could affect other opioid-related lawsuits.
Attorneys called it an unusual interstate action by the court, but not surprising, after the justices said that the insurer, St. Paul Fire & Marine, was forum shopping and had been less than candid in its court filings.
An insurer waits three-plus years to try and get a forum advantage by litigating in California, which insurers usually work to avoid and then upsets the court by not playing it straight as to what its doing. That doesnt sell, said Andy Lundberg, a lawyer and managing director for Burford Capital, which finances some types of insurance coverage lawsuits.
The decision also reflects how intricate and extensive the opioid litigation has become, reaching from coast to coast, in state and federal jurisdictions, and impacting some of the largest insurance carriers.
St. Paul, a subsidiary of Travelers Insurance Co., along with Ace American Insurance Co., wrote policies for AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., a drug distributor that is a defendant in lawsuits brought by West Virginias attorney general and others over the opioid crisis. West Virginia has been particularly hard-hit by prescription opioid addiction and was one of the first states to take legal action against drug makers and distributors.
Amerisource, known as ABDC, is facing multimillion-dollar settlements and judgments from the state lawsuits and from dozens of other suits brought by local governments. The firms leaders had hoped that St. Paul and other insurers would cover its losses under 16 primary, umbrella and excess commercial liability policies ABDC had purchased through the years, the court explained.
But St. Paul and Ace American denied the claims, contending that ABDC was sued not by people who had consumed the prescription opiates and were injured, but by government agencies. ABDC filed suit in West Virginia circuit court, seeking an order requiring its insurers to pay for its liability and its defense costs.
St. Paul then asked for its own declaratory judgment that it had no duty to indemnify the drug distributor.
In November 2020, the West Virginia judge ruled against the insurer and held that St. Paul had at least some obligation to cover the opioid lawsuit damages under the general liability policies. Perhaps St. Paul saw the decision coming. Just a few days before, the carrier had filed its action against ABDC and its affiliates in California, asking the West Coast court to declare that the insurer was not required to indemnify or defend ABDC in any opioid case nationwide.
Two weeks later, ABDC asked the West Virginia circuit court to issue its anti-suit injunction to bar ST. Paul from litigating in California and elsewhere. The West Virginia trial court agreed in January of this year.
All parties are hereby enjoined from instituting or prosecuting any collateral litigation or other proceeding against one another relating to insurance coverage for the prescription opioid lawsuits against ABDC, or any other affiliated entity, Boone County Circuit Judge William Thompson wrote.
On Monday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld that injunction. It also dropped the hammer on St. Paul, noting that St. Pauls California action would by design complicate matters and result in unnecessary delays.
The circuit court fairly concluded that St. Pauls parallel suit in California was filed for improper purposes, namely forum shopping and the disruption of the orderly resolution of the West Virginia suit, Justice John Hutchison wrote in the high courts opinion.
St. Pauls attorneys had argued that the California suit exempted the West Virginia litigation, claiming in a footnote in the complaint that the ABDC case is not intended to be the subject of this action. The circuit court and the Supreme Court didnt buy that.
The record reflects a substantially different factual picture than that painted by St. Paul in its brief, Hutchison wrote for the Supreme Court.
St. Paul further argued that the Boone County circuit judge had interfered with litigation in a court in another state more than 2,000 miles away, and his anti-suit injunction reflects a stunning disregard for fundamental principles of comity and sovereignty between the courts of different states.
The Supreme Court acknowledged the need to follow principles of comity and equity between the states, but found that precedent exists for similar interstate court injunctions. The Boone County court, deep in the heart of opioid-ravaged Appalachia, is uniquely situated because it was the first court in the nation to oversee a prescription opioid lawsuit brought by a government entity, the high court explained.
Stated simply, there is no question that West Virginia courts are empowered to issue injunctions to prevent parties from going forward with parallel or duplicative litigation in a sister state, Hutchison wrote for the high court.
The court did not fully endorse the action, however. It remanded the case back to the circuit judge, admonishing that the injunction was overly broad.
The injunction had enjoined all parties to the West Virginia action from prosecuting any legal proceeding concerning ABDCs insurance coverage, including policies that are separate from the 16 identified by ABDC. Such a sweeping order could prevent the parties from settling the California case.
We understand that the circuit courts judgment interpreting the policies at issue will become precedent for future cases in sister states, but we do not yet see that as a compelling reason to prevent the parties from litigating comparable questions of coverage for opioid lawsuits, regarding different policies, in other forums, the Supreme Court wrote.
Attorneys in the case declined to speak on the record, but one noted that reaching across state lines has few precedents and can be problematic. Theres nothing to stop a court in California or other states from taking similar actions in the opioid lawsuits, which now number in the thousands.
Lundberg, of Burford Capital, who has handled a number of cases involving forum questions, said St. Pauls legal team had overreached. Its rare indeed for an insurer to attempt to secure litigation rights in California, which is known for its policyholder-friendly verdicts.
Also, Lundberg said in an email, the insurer got caught putting a little too much spin on the ball, factually speaking. The Supreme Court really didnt like the insurers (mis-) characterization of what it had and hadnt done, another sure-fire way to lose a courts sympathy.
Waiting three years to try the California move is also unusual and didnt help, he said. Asking a judge who has invested years in a case to let a new filing by the defendant threaten to undo his or her handiwork is not going to go over well, and here, it didnt.
For now, the ultimate extent of the anti-suit injunction is unclear: The circuit judge who issued the anti-suit injunction is now the U.S. Attorney for West Virginia, and a new judge will have to review the matter.
Well have to see how the new order is framed, one insurance attorney said.
Topics Lawsuits California Virginia
Florida lawmakers moved ahead with bills that directly conflict with federal regulations requiring COVID-19 vaccine for most workers.
In a special vaccine session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, the Florida House voted Wednesday along party lines to approve House Bill 1 / Senate Bill 2. The bill, if signed into law, would fine businesses if they require workers to get vaccinated without allowing exemptions. DeSantis said he plans to sign the bills.
Democrats slammed the measures, calling the session political theater and noting that courts have repeatedly held that federal law preempts state actions. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a temporary, emergency order requiring companies with 100 or more employees to vaccinate workers or require masks or weekly testing for the virus.
This bill creates a tug of war between the state and federal government with our health workers being the rope that is pulled back and forth, said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. His amendment to exempt health care companies from the requirements was defeated, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper and the Legislatures website.
Other bills that passed the Legislature Wednesday included HB 7B, a measure to take away the power of the Florida Surgeon General to order vaccinations during a public health emergency; and HB 5B, to withdraw from the federal OSHA aegis and set up a Florida workplace safety agency.
Another bill exempts from public records laws any complaint made to the state attorney generals office over alleged violations of the vaccine mandate requirements until the investigation is completed. Public records exemptions require a two-thirds vote in each chamber to pass.
A fourth action would ban school districts from passing mask mandates, and prohibit governments from enacting vaccine requirements for public sector employees.
The measures fall short of the more extreme measures that DeSantis had asked for. Lawmakers did not enact a blanket ban on vaccine mandates in the workplace and the bills do not apply retroactively to businesses that have already laid off employees who refuse to get vaccinated, according to news reports.
Topics Florida
A private port operator in the San Francisco Bay Area that stores coal from Utah before its shipped to Asia has been given until 2027 to continue those operations under terms of a settlement.
Officials in Richmond, where the port is located, agreed to the deal with the Levin-Richmond Terminal Corp. that runs the port, Utah-based coal company Wolverine Fuel Sales, the state of Utah and Phillips 66, which exports petroleum coke through the port. Petcoke is a byproduct of oil refining.
The Richmond City Council passed an ordinance last year banning the handling and storage of coal and petcoke within the city by January 2023. The move, driven by concerns about possible health complications from coal dust, prompted lawsuits in federal and state courts from the three companies and Utah, which all argued it was unconstitutional. The settlement keeps the law in place but gives the companies nearly four more years to comply.
Utah said in legal filings the terminal sustains a significant component of Utahs economy. The state supports the settlement because it keeps the port open to the coal business for longer, said Utah Assistant Attorney General Anthony Rampton.
This just gives us more time to make this transition, he said.
Environmental groups that joined Richmond to fight the lawsuits cheered the settlement as a win for communities that want to better control health dangers for their residents.
Its a blueprint for other cities and counties in California to address the public health threat that may be presented by coal and petcoke handling, said Aaron Isherwood, managing attorney with the Sierra Club, which intervened in the case,
The settlement gives the companies until Dec. 31, 2026, to end the storage and handling of coal at the facility. During that period the companies must follow enhanced dust control measures. The City Council must approve the settlement by next February for its provisions to take effect.
Concerns about climate change have dampened demand for coal in the U.S. Coal-producing states such as Utah are shipping it to Asia through West Coast ports, a move that has faced resistance from environmental advocates and elected officials, mostly Democrats.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Levin-Richmond Terminal and the Port of Stockton are the main places through which coal is shipped. A long-running effort to build a terminal in Oakland for Utah coal has been stymied by opponents.
The ports in the San Francisco Bay Area accounted for about 3% of total U.S. coal exports in the first half of 2021, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Handling and storage of coal makes up about 65% of the Richmond terminals business, while petcoke exported for use to manufacture aluminum and other products makes up another 15%, according to legal filings. It also handles recyclable materials. The company has about 60 employees.
Settlement talks began this February, with the eventual agreement providing more time for the companies to transition to handling other commodities at the terminal.
The agreement is intended to strike a proper proper balance between protecting the public from the health hazards of coal and petroleum coke storage and handling, while also protecting existing jobs and providing sufficient time for businesses to transition, according to the settlement.
James Holland, vice president of facilities, equipment and environment, and Patrick ODriscoll, chief operating officer for the Levin-Richmond, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about whether the company has plans for how to use the terminal instead.
Wolverine Fuels, meanwhile, argued in court that an inability to use the Richmond port would significantly impact its business by requiring longer transport for the coal, possibly to ports in Mexico. Most of the companys coal goes to Japan. The company argued that longer transport routes for its product would result in more greenhouse gas emissions.
Phillips 66 is considering transitioning its San Francisco Refinery to biofuels.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics California Trends
A US market intelligence firm is to set up its European headquarters in Waterford city with plans to recruit 100 people over the next two years.
Chicago firm Tegus is to expand to the South East to support its growing customer base across Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA).
The firm had considered basing its international HQ in Dublin but Waterford was selected following a business case review with South East winning out on a range of issues including the lower cost of living and access to potential staff.
Co-Founded in San Francisco by twin brothers Michael and Thomas Elnick, Tegus conducts and collects research and data to help public and private investors to get more qualitative information about companies and sectors prior to making an investment. Tegus now serves more than 1,000 customers worldwide, including investment firms, corporations, and consultancies.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, David Cashman, Vice President of EMEA said the company listened to the business case for setting up in Waterford.
"Im living in Dungarvan and for the past eight years has been championing the South East. Tegus said to give them the business case for Waterford and they would look at it."
"With the help of IDA we prepared a comprehensive case for the region which the company has agreed with. It wasn't a case of taking chance on Waterford. The business case stood up," he said.
"There are a number of attractions to the area. The South East has the cheapest commercial property per square foot in the country, with access to the fastest fibre broadband. 500 business graduates came out of the Waterford Institute of Technology last year alone."
"For the employees, there are similar benefits. A two-bed apartment in Waterford is 900 a month compared to 2,500 for one in Ranelagh in Dublin. The commuting times are less so the work-life balance is more attractive," Mr Cashman said.
Tegus have begun hiring for roles across the areas of business development, customer success, operations, sales, and people management. They will be initially based in the city's Boxworks co-working space while they look for permanent offices.
Mr Cashman said Tegus already serves 100 customers in Europe without any marketing and plans to grow that number significantly.
Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD said the decision by Tegus is great news for the South-East and Waterford City. "It once again demonstrates we have the skills and talent available in all parts of the country to attract foreign direct investment.
"As we expand internationally, we are relentlessly focused on delivering an incredible user experience and product for our customers. Ireland provides us with the perfect entry point to EMEA to support our growing global customer base and align our team with our customers."
Thomas Elnick, Founder and Co-CEO of Tegus said their international expansion comes as more and more institutional investors and corporations incorporate research into their investment decisions. "As we expand internationally, we are relentlessly focused on delivering an incredible user experience and product for our customers. Ireland provides us with the perfect entry point to EMEA to support our growing global customer base and align our team with our customers," he said.
Mary Buckley, Executive Director of IDA Ireland said Tegus' first expansion outside of North America is very good news for Waterford. "Winning jobs and investment in regional locations is central to IDA Irelands strategy," she said.
Parents should not be organising birthday parties or playdates for children, Education Minister Norma Foley has warned.
Ms Foley said there is now a "window of opportunity" to change our behaviour and bring down Covid cases.
She said that "we have worked very well in ensuring our schools can operate", but that the transmission of the virus remains more so in wider society.
"Therefore, the ask is on wider society to shoulder the responsibility," she said.
Asked specifically whether parents should be hosting birthday parties and playdates, Ms Foley said: "The [chief medical officer] has said very clearly that we need to minimise our social interactions. And I think that's advice that isn't just for wider society. It is for each one of us individually to look at opportunities where we would say is it necessary for us to have x,y, and z engagement?"
She said: "We know we have a window of opportunity to reassert ourselves to do the right thing, to follow the advice that is given to us, to minimize our social contacts.
"We have seen the return to play dates and birthday parties and things like that. I think there's a call now that we would minimise [this] and we would draw down again and revert to what we have done in the past."
Ms Foley acknowledged that there are "challenges" in finding substitute teachers in some schools.
She said it is "an achievement that we can say that, in the round, our schools are operating", adding that her department has brought in a suite of measures in terms of substitution.
Circuit breaker
Earlier, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told RTE radio that he could not say when free antigen tests will be rolled out for schools or when a wider subsidy scheme will be finalised.
Mr Donnelly also warned that a circuit-breaker lockdown cannot be ruled out if the latest measures announced last night do not bring down the number of cases and hospital admissions.
Mr Donnelly said it will take three weeks to see if the latest restrictions, which include a midnight closing time for pubs and the expansion of Covid certs, have worked.
"We can go further, but what we wanted to do was put in a package of measures that we thought would work very quickly," he said.
Asked if a full lockdown is on the cards, Mr Donnelly said: "We know from Covid right around the world that things can never be ruled out."
He said that in the coming weeks it is "really really important" that people "keep themselves safe, reduce their social contacts, and when it's time to get the booster to please get it".
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the latest pandemic restrictions have been taken in the context of the 'very stark' modelling presented by Nphet earlier this week. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Mr Donnelly said a subsidy to make antigen tests more affordable will cost "several hundreds of million", and ruled out making the tests completely free for everyone.
"My advice is they shouldn't be free," he said, citing the UK government, claiming it came in for huge criticism for spending public money on antigen tests without the ability to trace their use.
Mr Donnelly could not say when a scheme to subsidise antigen tests will be rolled out. Instead, he said his department was still working on the measure and it will be ready "shortly".
On free antigen tests for schoolchildren, he said: "They're going to be used for targeted close contact testing. The HSE and the Department of Education are working through some final details.
"But essentially, they will be used in targeted close contact ways and they'll be sent to the houses."
The stance on antigen tests came in for sharp criticism on social media, with Seanad leader and Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty taking aim at the government.
"Given how much the country has spent on PCR tests and lockdowns (PUP and Biz supports), it's a serious mistake not to give antigen tests free to each household," she posted on Twitter.
"Have been asking for their use as an effective tool against Covid for months now."
Mr Donnelly told RTE's Morning Ireland show that the latest measures have been taken in reaction to the "very stark" modelling that Nphet presented the Government with on Monday evening
If the Government had not introduced the restrictions, Mr Donnelly said there would be between 200 and 450 people in ICU by Christmas week.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisations special envoy on Covid-19, Dr David Nabarro, said that he does not think Ireland is heading back into strict lockdown.
Dr David Nabarro cautioned about the use of antigen tests but said they had a role to play in schools. File picture: Imperial College London/PA Wire
Speaking on RTE radios Today with Claire Byrne show, Dr Nabarro said although the Covid figures are high, he was hopeful, especially since the country had acted quickly.
The situation in Ireland had become quite dramatic in recent weeks with surges in numbers and health services stretched, he said. The Government had a clear idea of what was going on, there will have to be some restrictions, but I dont get a feeling that youre moving into stringent lockdown, I very much hope that wont happen".
Dr Nabarro also cautioned about the use of antigen tests, warning that they were not 100% reliable and that it was sometimes difficult to get a positive result. They had a role to play in schools as part of the process to keep children and educators safe, he said.
Triggering the Northern Ireland Protocols Article 16 remains a very real option, the UKs lead Brexit negotiator has said.
David Frost said he would like to see a deal agreed with the European Union, but said if that was not possible Article 16 was a legitimate option.
Mr Frost is in Northern Ireland for a series of meetings with political parties and businesses as the negotiations with the EU remain ongoing.
He met the DUP and UUP on Tuesday night, and is set to meet the other parties on Wednesday.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP before a meeting with Lord Frost (Liam McBurney/PA)
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he wants to see progress within a reasonable time or he expects the Government to take decisive action, such as the triggering of Article 16.
Mr Frost said he would very much hope to bring the talks with the EU to a conclusion.
Thats what we would most like to do. If we cant, if there cant be an agreement, then obviously the famous Article 16 is a very real option for us, he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Asked about Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveneys assessment that there will be a deal before Christmas, Mr Frost said: I would like to progress this as fast as we possibly can, Im glad theres ambition on the EU side I think it can be done.
Whether it will be done is a different question, its got to be a deal that deals with the problems, solves the underlying problems and makes a difference to businesses and peoples lives.
...its certainly our preference to try to resolve it without using Article 16, but if we cant resolve it in the negotiations, Article 16 is a perfectly legitimate option to solve these problems
Mr Frost declined to talk about the detailed negotiating position in the talks with the EU but described the question of how goods move from Great Britain and Northern Ireland as at the heart of it.
We have said that we dont see any reason why goods that everyone acknowledges are going to stay in Northern Ireland need to go through processes, he said.
Obviously if they go on into Ireland we have said that we will police them in accordance with EU law, thats perfectly reasonable, but goods staying in Northern Ireland why do they need to go through a customs check?
Mr Frost said there is a gap between the UK and EU positions.
We are in a situation where the EU have made some proposals, at the moment without going into detail, Im not sure they would solve these problems of checks and processes for goods moving into Northern Ireland, but we keep talking and were seeing if we can move this forward in a way that does produce consensus, he said.
Challenged on triggering Article 16, Mr Frost responded: I think Article 16 is a legitimate option within the treaty. Article 16 is an article in the protocol, its a safeguard mechanism and its use is perfectly legitimate, thats why it is there in the protocol and thats why it is an option in this process.
I think its everyones preference, its certainly our preference to try to resolve it without using Article 16, but if we cant resolve it in the negotiations, Article 16 is a perfectly legitimate option to solve these problems. Thats why it has to be on the table.
Its obviously a matter for the European Union if they were to choose to retaliate against any use of Article 16, which I repeat is perfectly legitimate.
I dont think it helps if they chose to (retaliate). If we use Article 16, its about making trade flow more freely within the United Kingdom, and I dont see why it would help for the response to that from the European Union to be sanctions, retaliation and making trade more difficult. I dont understand why that would help the situation here, and I hope everybody can stand back from that.
Unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland have been strongly opposed to the protocol, regarding it as a border in the Irish Sea, straining the union between the region with the rest of the UK.
Mr Frost said Northern Irelands place in the union is strong.
This Government is not neutral on that question. I think there is no doubt that the trade diversion that has occurred and the way the protocol is working has worried people about the strength of the connections and thats playing into the sense of economic and social concern that we pick up, and its our wish to resolve that as consensually and reasonably as we possibly can, he said.
As many parts of western Washington in the US began drying out on Tuesday after a storm that dumped rain for days, waters in some areas continued rising, more people were urged to evacuate and crews worked to restore power and reopen roads.
Officials in the small city of Sumas, Washington, near the Canada border, called the flooding devastating and said on Facebook on Tuesday that an estimated 75% of the homes there had water damage. Hundreds of people were evacuated.
The soaking reminded people of western Washingtons record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations, officials said.
A volunteer carries a young girl to high ground after using a boat to rescue a woman and children stranded by high water due to flooding in Abbotsford, British Columbia (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of clean-up and rebuilding over the next few days, the Facebook post said.
Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide north-east of Vancouver, British Columbia, near Lillooet that was triggered by record rainfall.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.
Fast-rising water levels from a Sumas River in Washington state overwhelmed rescuers in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on Tuesday, where 1,100 homes were evacuated.
Those residents joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.
Officials in a small city near the Canada border are calling the damage devastating after a storm that dumped rain for days caused flooding and mudslides (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said on Tuesday that impassable roads were creating havoc as authorities tried to get people to evacuation sites.
It breaks my heart to see whats going on in our city, he said.
South-west of Sumas, Washington, a 59-year-old man from Everson identified by police on Tuesday as Jose Garcia remained missing after his truck was swept into a flooded field and he had been clinging to a tree.
Crews partially reopened the West Coasts main north-south road, Interstate 5, near Bellingham, Washington, following its complete closure overnight because of mudslide debris.
The northbound lanes remained closed on Tuesday evening as crews continued working.
Residents were told to evacuate as waterways started to rise quickly (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
Additionally, six railroad cars that had been sitting on tracks in a BNSF rail yard in Sumas derailed in the flooding on Tuesday, said Lena Kent, BNSF general director of public affairs.
Trains in that location and others in western Washington will not be running until water recedes and tracks are inspected and repaired if necessary, she said.
Canadas two largest railways expect it will take several days to clear track outages in southern British Columbia that are hindering the movement of goods to the port in Vancouver.
In the northern Washington city of Ferndale, officials on Tuesday urged people in homes and businesses to evacuate in an area near the rising Nooksack River.
Bystanders near the towns main street rescued a man on Tuesday who mistakenly drove into floodwaters. The half-dozen people waded into waters up to their chests and pushed the floating car to drier ground.
Floodwaters in Abbotsford, British Columbia (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
The rains were caused by an atmospheric river a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon.
It was the second major widespread flood event in the north-west part of Washington state in less than two years, and climate change is fuelling more powerful and frequent severe weather, Whatcom County officials told the Bellingham Herald.
About 5.57 inches of rain fell at Bellingham International Airport from Saturday through Monday, November 15. The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches for November, according to National Weather Service data.
At the height of the storm, more than 158,000 electrical customers in western Washington on Monday had no power as wind speeds reached 60mph, including one gust of 58mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Schools in and around the city of Bellingham were closed on Tuesday for the second day in a row.
West of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, the US Coast Guard helped local authorities evacuate about 10 people on Monday near the town of Forks.
Passersby surround a car whose driver went past a barricade and into the flooded Nooksack River in Ferndale, Washington (Elaine Thompson/AP)
More than 31,000 Washington state electrical customers remained without power on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service had issued flood warnings for several rivers around western Washington. There was good news in that south of Bellingham, the Skagit River at Mount Vernon crested at a level below that of a flood wall constructed in 2016 to hold back rushing waters, The Seattle Times reported.
Up the Skagit River from Mount Vernon in the town of Hamilton, floodwaters that surrounded homes were slowly receding on Tuesday evening, Q13-TV reported.
Dozens of people, including Bert Kerns, escaped to higher grounds at the Hamilton First Baptist Church on Sunday. He was among those who had not been able to get to his house yet.
Rough. Kind of like a nightmare, said Mr Kerns, who has lived in Hamilton since 1980.
Governor Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties.
Opinion Thailand Needs Healthy Myanmar Migrants to Boost Economy
Volunteers provide health care and Covid tests to about 100 people from Myanmar detained in Kanchanaburi. / Piyarach Chongcharoen
Ten months into the crisis in Myanmar, Thailand is still scrambling for a well-balanced policy to lessen the anxiety of Myanmars population, both inside and outside the country.
The news of an influx of migrant workers across the border has sent a chilling message to the Thai authorities, especially those who deal with national security.
According to the Bureau of Immigration, from January to October this year, 32,170 illegal migrants crossed the border. In September and October alone, 11,101 people illegally crossed. The trend does not look good. The 10 provinces bordering Myanmar have been placed on high alert: Ranong, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phetchaburi, Chumphon, Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi, Tak, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
With the dry season, the Thai security apparatus is extremely worried there could be a new, bigger influx of those fleeing fighting.
The numbers vary depending on their mobility and whereabouts as they search safety. Some other countries which border Myanmar have sealed their frontier.
Several western countries have urged Thailand to open its border to people fleeing the conflict in Myanmar. For the time being, the Thai government has expressed readiness to provide temporary shelter along the border, especially in the areas from Mae Hong Son in Thailands north down to Ranong. Additional temporary shelters are planned in Tak province, which has experienced more illegal entries than other provinces. International aid agencies would like more permanent shelters.
Last week, Thailand assumed the chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) for 2022 and the Prayut government has come up with new economic plans to revive the stalled economy.
Opening up the country on Nov. 1 was one of several measures to begin the next normal so Thailand can rejoin the global economy and improve commerce.
Over the weeks, the media has focused on the arrival of tourists at key airports around the country.
Only the state-run media has highlighted that large groups of migrants along the frontier with Myanmar and Cambodian migrant workers along the eastern border have been waiting for the opportunity to cross into Thailand.
But the immediate challenge is the labor shortage. Several industrial sources say Thailand needs at least 400,000 workers to boost growth in various sectors.
The government has pursued policies regarding migrant workers in passive, old-fashioned ways.
Given the severe shortage of migrant workers, the government must work out detailed plans.
These plans must ensure migrant workers will be protected, provided with sufficient welfare and spared from human traffickers. Meanwhile, traffickers must be prosecuted.
The government must think about migrants as more than cheap labor. If they are well-treated, they can contribute to economic development for the Prayut government.
It was good news last week when Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledged to have all migrant workers vaccinated and non-Thai citizens for free, starting in December. It is a tall order but not an impossible task as more vaccines are becoming available.
An estimated 2.3 million registered workers from Myanmar are going to make Thailand their home. Some have already raised families in Thailand and their children speak Thai as their first language.
The government should also initiate a new immigration policy that would allow long-term migrant workers to have permanent residency so they can make plans and raise families.
That way, they could become a constructive force in rebuilding Thailand instead of having to run away or catch up with new cabinet decisions every time they are made.
Other foreigners who have better financial incentives have been granted long-stay visas.
The challenges for Myanmars workers will increase as economic stress and security-risk assessments kick in.
Migrants in border camps must be handled with care and the utmost understanding of the serious implications for ties with Myanmar.
Thailand is caught due to its close ties with Myanmars military junta and an increased dependence on migrant workers, who adore Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and back the revolution.
Both sides can induce crises that can seriously affect Thailands economic and social fabric and development plans.
The government must contemplate a better communication strategy with all Myanmars stakeholders.
More outreach programmes and activities aimed at improving the livelihoods of Myanmars people must be top priority and augmented.
All government agencies must help ensure sufficient information in various languages is available.
Information is currently only available in Myanmars languages. Their understanding and perceptions of Thailand are extremely important while Myanmar is in chaos. Updated information can soothe anxiety.
This helps to explain the countrys benign policy towards Myanmar since the crisis started.
Thailand has fully backed all efforts decided by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including the five-point consensus.
Bangkok has been the key coordinator, through the Thai Red Cross, to channel humanitarian assistance, including COVID-19 help, to its neighbour.
Mass vaccination on the border started two weeks ago.
The Thai government has asked for more vaccine donations for these groups. This effort must continue until everyone in Thailand gets inoculated.
Kavi Chongkittavorn is a veteran journalist on regional affairs.
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On This Day The Day Myanmars Election Commission Certified the NLDs 2nd Straight Poll Landslide
NLD supporters celebrate in front of the partys headquarters in Mandalay on Nov. 9. / The Irrawaddy
This week last year, Myanmars poll body officially announced the results of the Nov. 8, 2020 general election, in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) again emerged with a resounding win.
Of 38 million eligible voters, 27 million cast their votes with the NLD winning 920 seats, or 82 percent of the 1,117 contested constituencies. The militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won the second-largest number of seats with 71, followed by the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) with 42.
Of the 87 parties that contested the election, 19 won seats. The NLD, USDP and SNLD won most of the seats, with 17 ethnic political parties sharing 80 between them while independent candidates secured four.
Local and foreign election monitors acknowledged the NLDs electoral victory and countries including the US, Britain, China and ASEAN members showered congratulations upon Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her ruling NLD for winning a landslide victory in the Nov. 8 election, and committed to boosting their cooperation with the incoming government.
In his message of congratulation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was confident that under the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD would surely make even greater accomplishments in the lofty cause of achieving national prosperity.
The military however announced plans to scrutinize and review the electoral process after its proxy USDP claimed massive voter fraud. Military chief Min Aung Hlaing claimed that the review turned up unfair and dishonest practices.
Some two months after the announcement of the election results, the military seized power in a coup, citing voter fraud. It detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint and other leaders.
Meanwhile, leaders of pro-military parties that won no seats in last years poll were given positions in the regimes governing body, the State Administration Council. And USDP candidates like U Wunna Maung Lwin and U Khin Yi who served as ministers under U Thein Seins government became members of the regime.
U Thein Soe, a former military judge advocate general who oversaw the 2010 electionand ensured the advance vote was manipulated so as to guarantee electoral victory for the militarys proxy USDPwas appointed to lead the juntas new electoral body. He said the NLD had rigged the 2020 election, and revealed plans to disband the party and put its leaders on trial for high treason.
Some six months after the coup, the regime officially annulled the election results, claiming that over 11 million votes were flawed and that the election had not been free and fair. Independent observers, however, said the election result reflected the will of voters.
Myanmars people have continued to call for a return to democracy. Marking the first anniversary of the 2020 election, the US secretary of state on Nov. 8, 2021 reiterated Washingtons call for the military regime to immediately cease violence, release all those unjustly detained, and put Myanmar back on the path toward a genuine and inclusive democracy.
The regime has brought 11 charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who faces up to 102 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The regime recently filed additional charges against her regarding alleged voter fraud in last years poll.
You may also like these stories:
The Day in 2010 When Suu Kyi Was Freed From House Arrest
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Since 2006, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) has organized the International Standards Olympiad. The unique competition, which went international in 2012, is an exciting way to open young minds to the power of standards. This years event, the 16th International Standards Olympiad, was held in a virtual format from 24 to 26 August 2021.
The event is fun, but highly competitive. Teams that pass the preliminary national rounds compete in a final round where they are assigned the task of solving real-world problems through collaboration and standards. To be an International Standards Olympiad winner takes much more than knowledge of standardization from a theoretical perspective: it demands creativity and passion for science, technology and teamwork.
The 120 participants, representing 40 teams from 7 countries (China, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Rwanda and Singapore), were provided with a dynamic and challenging opportunity to explore the world of standardization.
Middle-school students (from 13 to 15 years old) tackled a highly topical subject: Healthcare Pandemic response Technologies for contact-free daily life.
High-school students (from 16 to 18 years old) addressed another rapidly evolving area: Road vehicles Test methods for autonomous driving.
Highlighting the strategic importance of standardization for Korea, the award for the Platinum prize was presented by Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum to the winning team from Indonesia.
Sharing his enthusiasm for the flagship standards competition, Administrator Sanghoon Lee from KATS said:
Standards are essential to making tomorrows world more efficient and sustainable. But it is todays youth that will lead that process. The International Standards Olympiad is helping to prepare a generation of future standardizers.
The next International Standards Olympiad is scheduled to take place in August 2022.
Hort Innovation and Hitachi Vantara, data management and analytics and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi, will present a case study, Technology and Data Are Key to Save the Environment to illustrate how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sensor technology are being used to inform data-driven horticulture practices for sustainable, environmentally-friendly food production at this years UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
Both companies will be represented by Queenslands banana farm, Bartle Frere Bananas.
According to Bartle Frere Bananas, their bananas are the number-one selling supermarket product in Australia, and are all locally grown.
The vast majority are sourced from farms in the northeastern state of Queensland, with plantations also in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
From weather monitoring stations and a supply chain control tower to capture farming operation data such as insights coming from soil moisture and nitrate sensors, to a supply-chain tracking system with tags on banana plants and pallets, Bartle Frere Bananas is achieving a level of data-driven transparency and actionable insight.
This, according to Bartle Frere Bananas owner and managing director Gavin Devaney, is critical to sustainable farming.
Weve now got the real-time, advanced sensing, leachate monitoring, sediment analysis and data capture in place, which runs through Hitachis Lumada Manufacturing Insights to predict and prescribe actionable insights based on data algorithms we have helped design. These insights guide our best management practices around irrigation, fertilisation and plant care, explains Devaney.
It is important to know where your food is coming from and how it is grown, and by measuring our farming operations in these ways, we can provide Australians the information they need to be sure they are buying the best of the bunch, adds Devaney.
Powering good with deeper, real-time insights
Hitachi Vantaras data-driven offerings for agriculture extend AI and automated insights from growing centres to data centres and from farm to market.
Hitachis Lumada Manufacturing Insights and Supply Chain Control Tower:
Hitachi Lumada Manufacturing insights harnesses AI modelling, predictive analysis, and prescriptive insights. It is being deployed across a range of industrial applications. This helps Bartle Frere Bananas to predict when its fruit will reach maturity, reduce the number of pesticides that will drift from the intended targets, and determine the ideal amount of water to use. The Devaney family will not only be able to predict problems more effectively, but theyll be able to proactively respond to anticipated challenges and risks before they occur.
Predictive and prescriptive insights are delivered to the farmer via summaries, visualisations, and decision support from Hitachi Vantaras Supply Chain Control Tower a solution core of Hitachis Lumada Manufacturing Insights, and a mobile, hand-held device.
This industry solution delivers greater visibility across a customers' supply chain subsystems and provides the ability to take direct, demand-driven action.
The integrated Smart Farm solution from Hitachi Vantara also involves the following technologies:
A combination of RFID and GPS tags, solar powered sensors, and a weather station to capture data.
Solar-powered edge computing capabilities to process the data where it is captured, based on algorithms designed for the specific needs of the farm.
Transmission of the data via cellular connectivity and MQTT protocol directly to Hitachis Lumada Manufacturing Insights
The entire solution set is managed by the Hitachi Lumada Manufacturing Insights, which tracks and supports environmental stewardship and smart farming best practices, says Hitachi Vantara.
Every organisation and industry sector has the potential to deliver data-driven outcomes that can effectively address social and environmental issues, points out Hitachi Vantara CEO Gajen Kandiah. The smart, sustainable farming operation at Bartle Frere Bananas was designed to deliver a better banana that conserves and protects the surrounding environment. It is a fine example of using the power of data and technology to deliver social innovation, for which we advocate, and we are proud to be a part of it.
Smart farming for the environment and the future
Bartle Frere Bananas is one of four trial sites that are incorporating the latest technology aimed at improving productivity while reducing costs and minimising each operations environmental footprint. This project will provide detailed examples to the broader horticulture sector about the effectiveness of establishing remote monitoring and data analytics to support horticultures environmental performance, overall, comments Hort Innovation Australia general manager stakeholder experience Anthony Kachenko.
This digital smart farm project is the result of an engagement between Bartle Frere Bananas and Hitachi Vantara Australia and is supported by funding from the Australian Governments National Landcare Program. It is also funded by Hort Innovation, with co-investment from Applied Horticultural Research, the Australian Banana Growers Council (AGBC), AusVeg, Freshcare, Greenlife Industry Australia, Growcom, Hitachi Australia, and Hitachi Vantara.
Bartle Frere Bananas is a recent recipient of the Future Farming Award at the 2021 Australian Banana Industry Congress.
This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 8 November 2021.
The New Zealand Commerce Commission has released its draft decision on the allocation of payments for the governments Telecommunications Development Levy, proposing that Spark, Vodafone, Chorus, and 2degrees collectively pay approximately 88% NZ$10 million levy from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.
The remainder of the levy is divided among other liable providers. The amount each provider pays is proportionate to their telecommunications revenue, according to the Commerce Commission.
According to the Commerce Commission, the government uses the levy to pay for telecommunications infrastructure including relay service for the deaf and hearing-impaired, broadband for rural areas, and improvements to the 111 emergency service.
The TDL is paid by companies earning more than $10 million per year from telecommunications services, including internet, mobile, and data services.
The draft determination comes after the Commission sought clarification from the High Court on whether businesses involved in the transmission of broadcasting signals are liable to contribute to the levy following amendments to the Telecommunications Act in 2018, which cleared an exemption for broadcasting from the definition of telecommunication."
The High Court confirmed that apart from free-to-air broadcasters and satellite providers operating outside New Zealand, businesses involved in broadcasting transmission can be liable to pay the TDL.
Sky TV is now liable to contribute to the TDL for the first time and Kordia will pay a higher share than previous years.
A copy of the draft determination and information about how to provide a submission is available on the Commissions website. Submissions are due by 5pm, 23 November 2021.
The Commission expects to release its final determination in December after considering feedback.
This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 9 November 2021.
Netpoleon says the the partnership gives its customers access to the Axonius platform that delivers an always up-to-date asset inventory, uncovers gaps in coverage, and then uses its tools to eliminate those security holes, and ultimately strengthen the security posture.
According to Netoleon organisations around the world are seeking solutions to manage complexity and risk as they work to untangle the sprawl of devices, cloud services, software, and the tools they use to secure and manage them.
A recent study conducted with ESG revealed that this complexity causes visibility gaps and leads to more incidents. More than 80 percent of companies plan to boost investments to combat the problem.
Hasanka Wicks, channel sales director, APAC, at Axonius, said: Netpoleon is a strong regional cybersecurity specialist and will be an ideal fit to our regional strategy. They have the right set of partners to help drive Axonius expansion into the enterprise and mid-market sectors in Australia and New Zealand.
Coupled with their technical and services offerings, this will be pivotal as we scale up and expand our efforts in the region. We look forward to working together as we bring our innovative cybersecurity asset management platform into this market.
Wicks said that with Gartner recently defining the cyber asset attack surface management (CAASm) space and including Axonius as a representative vendor, there is significant opportunity for Axonius and partners such as Netpoleon to resolve customers persistent asset visibility and vulnerability challenges.
Paul Lim, regional director of ANZ at Netpoleon, said: Axonius is a leading vendor in the Gartner-hyped CAASM domain that seeks to enable security teams in solving persistent asset visibility and vulnerability.
Axonius helps to identify an organisations assets that otherwise would have been missed, and may give rise to new attack vectors. Together with our channel partners and Axonius, we are proud to bring this exciting solution to the ANZ market.
Axonius says it is building an ecosystem to foster success for both technology partners and their customers by providing cybersecurity asset management capabilities that are foundational to any security strategy. The Axonius correlated partner program is based on three guiding principles to drive mutual success:
Expansion: Capitalise on the growing need for cybersecurity asset management.
Expertise: Bolster partners portfolios with a rapidly innovative security solution.
Empowerment: Enable partners with sales and technical training and support with marketing and demand generation.
Japanese IT prodcts distributor Daiwabo Information System and US cloud access integration and security (SASE) provider Versa Networks have begun collaborating on the domestic sales of a comprehensive solution with powerful functions related to networking, cloud access integration, and security (SASE) provided by Versa.
SASE, is a cloud-based IT model that bundles software-defined networking with network security functions and delivers them from a single service provider.
Daiwabo (DIS) says the market is significantly affected by COVID-19, and the trend of digitalisation is accelerating, and as a result, cloud adoption is growing in various fields to improve infrastructure availability.
On the other hand, this is overshadowed by the ongoing reliance on legacy network hardware and complex, static WAN architecture introduced in the past. Networks with centralised security gateways create traffic bottlenecks. It is important to configure a new network that adopts a cloud-type gateway and move to a network that efficiently distributes and offloads.
To address these challenges, Versa integrates cloud and on-premise security, networking, and analytics within a single software operating system (Versa Operating System or VOS), and combines this with a single-path parallel processing architecture to improve performance, at the same time strengthening security, eliminating complexity, and increasing visibility of the entire network.
Under the collaboration, DIS will start handling VOS, which provides all functions, and Versa TITAN, which is simplified for small and medium-sized companies by limiting some functions.
For Versa TITAN, a product for these companies, DIS has contracted the only exclusive distributor in Japan.
DIS delivers the solutions provided by Versa to users nationwide through approximately 19,000 sales partners with a community-based sales system by a sales network of over 90 bases nationwide.
Kelly Ahuja, CEO at Versa Networks says: DIS has continuously proven an ability to deliver reliable products and services through their nationwide network with a focus on contributing to the development of a modern, information-oriented society in harmony with the rest of the world. Versa is proud to work with DIS to deliver a leading-edge SASE (secure access service edge) solution, including SD-WAN, security, and analytics to companies and organizations nationwide.
Tony Fallows, Vice President, Service Provider Worldwide Sales at Versa Networks said that DIS demonstrates a strong focus on customer satisfaction, customer service, and trustworthy and sound management. Versa is excited to work with a company of the caliber of DIS to deliver services nationwide which meet and exceed the expectations of businesses across the country.
Hiroyuki Matsumoto, President at Daiwabo Information System Co. says: Japanese companies are committed to digital transformation and need the optimized enterprise cloud solution, both on-premises and in multi-cloud. We welcome to be able to provide Versa networks products to enable modern networking for the purpose of realizing this digital transformation.
Nearly 10 months after it was taken down by authorities in Europe, the US and Canada, the Emotet botnet appears to have returned, with at least one of the bots associated with it being observed by a security firm.
Intel471 said in a blog post that it had observed the Trickbot banking trojan downloading and executing possible updated Emotet binaries.
In the last week of January, a statement from Europol said a collective disruption of the botnet had put it out of whack.
"To severely disrupt the Emotet infrastructure, law enforcement teamed up together to create an effective operational strategy," the police force said.
But just a day after this announcement, a veteran security researcherthat the botnet could well return since the primary operators had not been apprehended.
Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at global cyber security firm Sophos, said: "The world will certainly be a safer place with Emotet temporarily neutralised, but that is just part of the issue so far.
"It appears that the primary Emotet operators were not apprehended. This allows them to rebuild new infrastructure and go back to business as usual. Considering the massive profits associated with their activity, they might also simply choose to retire while ahead. Only time will tell."
Intel471 said it had observed some differences between the old Emotet and the new version. "...differences we've discovered so far between this new Emotet sample and the older version are mostly around the communication protocol. New Emotet uses elliptic-curve cryptography where the older Emotet favoured RSA," the company said.
"We said back in January that 'time will tell if the takedown will have a long-term impact on Emotet operations. The groups who run these botnets are sophisticated and resilient, and will most likely have some sort of inherent recovery in place'.
"While that recovery took months, the resiliency displayed here shows that the cat-and-mouse game with Emotets developers will continue into 2022. We cant definitively say if Emotet is back for real or if this is some sort of test, but this shows that the actors that control Emotets source code are not done with it yet."
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Five Sudanese protesters were shot dead and dozens more wounded, medics said, when thousands rallied Wednesday against last months coup, chanting no to military power amid clouds of tear gas.
The fatalities in Khartoum raised to 29 the death toll from unrest since the October 25 military takeover, according to the independent Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors.
Several rallies broke out across the capital, even though telephone lines were cut and internet services have been disrupted since the power grab, AFP journalists reported.
Security forces fired tear gas, injuring several more protesters, witnesses said. The medics union also reported dozens of bullet wounds, while security forces deny firing live rounds.
The people choose civilian rule, demonstrators chanted, also shouting slogans against Sudans ruler, top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Demonstrations also erupted in Port Sudan, an AFP journalist said, against the coup which halted a democratic transition that followed the 2019 toppling of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Efforts to stem the protests have seen hundreds arrested, including activists, passers-by and journalists. Qatari network Al Jazeeras bureau chief was arrested Sunday and released Tuesday.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors has said security forces have also arrested injured people inside Khartoum hospitals.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of unions instrumental in the 2019 protests, denounced immense crimes against humanity and accused the security forces of homicide.
One protester in Khartoum said the repression has been fierce.
There has been a lot of violence, continuous tear gas and sound grenades, 42-year-old Soha told AFP, adding that she saw one person with gunshot wounds and that there were many arrests.
Restore legitimacy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a visit to Kenya on Wednesday urged Africans to watch out for rising threats to democracy.
He told Sudans military the country stood to regain badly-needed international aid if it restores the legitimacy of civilian government.
Washington has suspended some $700 million in assistance to Sudan since the coup.
If the military puts this train back on its tracks and does whats necessary, I think the support that has been very strong from the international community can resume, said Blinken.
Prior to 2019, Sudan had been under some form of military dictatorship for much of its modern history.
Burhan has declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership, derailing a transition to full civilian rule and drawing international condemnation.
Burhan insists the militarys move was not a coup but rather a push to rectify the course of the transition.
Trajectory of revolution
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been shuttling between the generals and the ousted civilian government in a bid to broker a way out of the crisis.
Phee has called for the reinstatement of ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who is effectively under house arrest.
The few remaining free members of his cabinet continue to describe themselves as the legitimate government and refuse to negotiate with the military leaders.
While some of the civilian leaders have been freed since the power grab, new ones have been arrested.
Burhan last week announced a new Sovereign Council, the highest transitional authority, with himself as chief and all nine military members keeping their posts.
Its four civilian members were replaced.
Burhan has also removed a clause in the transitional constitutional declaration that mentions the Forces for Freedom and Change, the key group behind the protests that toppled Bashir.
He has continued to promise elections will go ahead as planned in 2023, reiterating to Phee on Tuesday that his actions aimed to correct the trajectory of the revolution.
Sudanese security forces shot dead at least 14 anti-coup protesters and wounded dozens more on Wednesday, medics said, in the bloodiest day since the militarys October 25 takeover.
The fatalities all in Khartoum, especially its northern districts raised to 38 the death toll from unrest since the military seized power, a pro-democracy doctors union said. Hundreds more have been wounded.
Demonstrators had taken to the streets across the capital even though telephone lines and internet services had been disrupted since the military took over, AFP journalists reported.
The people choose civilian rule, demonstrators chanted, also shouting slogans against Sudans ruler, top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The demonstrators, mostly young men and women, clapped hands and ululated before the scene turned violent.
As clashes broke out, the security forces also fired tear gas, injuring several more protesters, witnesses said.
Police have denied using live ammunition and state television announced an investigation into the deaths.
The doctors union said most of the casualties had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck or torso, but added that the demonstrators, undeterred and behind makeshift barricades, kept up their protests.
Demonstrations also erupted in Port Sudan, an AFP journalist said, against the coup which halted a democratic transition that followed the 2019 toppling of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.
It was a very bad day for the protesters, Soha, a 42-year-old protester, told AFP. I saw a person with gunshot wounds behind me and there were a lot of arrests in Khartoum.
Demonstrations after nightfall
Hundreds remained on the streets after nightfall, especially in northern Khartoum where tear gas fire reached inside hospitals, doctors said. Rallies in other cities dispersed.
Efforts to stem the protests have seen hundreds arrested, including activists, passers-by and journalists. Qatari network Al Jazeeras bureau chief was arrested Sunday and released Tuesday.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors has said security forces have also arrested injured people inside Khartoum hospitals.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of unions instrumental in the 2019 protests, denounced immense crimes against humanity and accused the security forces of premeditated killings.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a visit to Kenya on Wednesday urged Africans to watch out for rising threats to democracy.
He told Sudans military the country stood to regain badly-needed international aid if it restores the legitimacy of civilian government.
Washington has suspended some $700 million in assistance to Sudan since the coup.
If the military puts this train back on its tracks and does whats necessary, I think the support that has been very strong from the international community can resume, said Blinken.
Prior to 2019, Sudan had been under some form of military dictatorship for much of its modern history.
US shuttle diplomacy
Burhan has declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership, derailing a transition to full civilian rule and drawing international condemnation.
He insists the militarys move was not a coup.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been shuttling between the generals and the ousted civilian government in a bid to broker a way out of the crisis.
Phee has called for the reinstatement of ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who is effectively under house arrest.
The few remaining free members of his cabinet continue to describe themselves as the legitimate government and refuse to negotiate with the military leaders.
While some of the civilian leaders have been freed since the power grab, new ones have been arrested.
Burhan last week announced a new Sovereign Council, the highest transitional authority, with himself as chief and all nine military members keeping their posts.
Its four civilian members were replaced.
Burhan has also removed a clause in the transitional constitutional declaration that mentions the Forces for Freedom and Change, the key group behind the protests that toppled Bashir.
He has continued to promise elections will go ahead as planned in 2023, reiterating to Phee on Tuesday that his actions aimed to correct the trajectory of the revolution.
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, called for the establishment of a global regulatory framework for the crypto market. The company also launched a cryptocurrency is evil advertising campaign, which includes 10 basic rights of cryptocurrency users.
Binance promotes global crypto regulation and launches crypto is evil ad
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance called for the establishment of a global regulatory framework for the crypto market on Tuesday, and published 10 basic rights of crypto users and several crypto advertisements in major newspapers.
The company explained that the 10 basic rights of crypto users can serve as a guide for regulatory discussions and the development of a global framework for the crypto market. The exchange believes that they will serve as a guiding point for more fruitful dialogue with the larger industry, including other exchanges, blockchain innovators, policy makers, and world leaders.
Binance pointed out that the future of cryptocurrency needs to be user-centric and elaborated:
As described in a series of advertisements published worldwide today, customer rights are designed to ensure secure access to emerging technologies, liquidity and secure platforms, as well as other steps to protect users without restricting growth and innovation.
The same ad titled Encryption is Evil appeared in major publications such as The Washington Post, New York Times, and Financial Times.
Part of the ad reads: When it comes to cryptocurrencies, dont let the headlines fool you. In addition to Bitcoin and Dogecoin, there is a world where everyone has access to financial opportunities, not just a few privileges. People. Encryption belongs to all of us. It also lists all 10 basic rights of encrypted users, which can also be read here.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao commented:
Regulation and innovation are not mutually exclusive. As an industry, we hope to do everything possible to work with regulators and world leaders to determine what will become an effective regulatory policy, and most importantly, protect users and stimulate innovation.
Many regulators around the world have warned that Binance operates without authorization within its jurisdiction, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Lithuania, Italy, Singapore and Canada. US authorities are also investigating possible market manipulation and insider trading in Binance.
What do you think about Binances call for global encryption supervision and launching of crypto is evil advertising campaign? Please let us know in the comments section below.
Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
The author is a senior economist at the OECD
The ten years before the pandemic brought significant advances to diversity in the workplace, but not all groups benefited equally.
Almost all countries in the OECD country group have closed the gender and age gap in employment. At the same time, the acceptance of LGBT+ people has also increased. Corporate policies increasingly focus on immigration and ethnic minorities.
So far, women have been the biggest target of the diversification policy.recently OECD-wide survey Among human resources professionals, one in ten companies stated that they have set a goal to interview a minimum number of applicants from underrepresented groups-their main targets are women (76%), people with disabilities (39) , Ethnic minorities (30) and immigrants (19). Evidence from the United States shows that this kind of affirmative action has the greatest positive impact on white women, while the impact on black men, black women, or Hispanics is much smaller.
However, despite the progress made by many groups, this decade has not brought significant progress for those who are at a socioeconomic disadvantage.
Pay attention to the policies of ethnic minorities, do not pay attention to the social and economic disadvantages, and tend to benefit the wealthy
Preliminary evidence shows Income inequality Affected by the epidemic further intensified. However, even taking into account pre-pandemic levels, the data shows that children from poor families may need five generations to reach an average income. However, the socio-economic background is rarely considered in corporate diversification efforts.
It is useful to acknowledge that although more inclusion of diverse groups will bring social benefits, the diversified business case of individual companies is not so obvious.
Although the impact of diversity on company performance is often studiedespecially in terms of immigration and ethnic diversitythe extent to which it actually improves the companys bottom line, reliable empirical evidence is mixed.
It is said that a more diverse workforce can cultivate different perspectives and ideas, and enhance the ability to innovate and solve problems. On the other hand, there is a potential risk of reduced productivity due to communication difficulties.
For example, in 2017 Learn, The output and productivity of teams of participants from different countries are lower than those of teams with more homogeneous countries of origin.
Diversity is a multidimensional conceptHowever, it contains many different groups and their intersectionality. This makes it extremely difficult to quantify its impact.
For example, two people of different origins or races but with privileged backgrounds may not have different opinions and ideas. On the other hand, different viewpoints may be more distinctive among the same ethnic groups who grew up in different socioeconomic environments.
One might say that addressing other types of disadvantages will reduce socioeconomic disadvantages, making this consideration unnecessary. However, this may not be the case.
More stories in this report
The easiest way for a company to diversify is to skim fat across different groups. 2020 literature review OECD Research Recommendations that focus on policies that focus on ethnic minorities, and do not pay attention to socioeconomic disadvantages, tend to benefit the wealthy individuals in the group.
Similarly, an evaluation of the gender quota on the companys board of directors shows that No effect Regarding improving the status of lower-level women.
Therefore, policies must avoid risks that primarily benefit those who are already relatively privileged.
There is also a clear lack of attention to socio-economic disadvantages in anti-discrimination legislation. Although almost all OECD countries prohibit discrimination based on gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, and religion, less than half of the countries include socio-economic reasons.
Geography is also very important. E.g, OECDs new job It shows that the concentration of immigrant children in schools has been increasing, and it is often related to lower educational outcomes.
Although our country has become more diverse, many schools and communities are not like thatespecially in terms of socioeconomic background. This means that the natural contact between groups with different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds is less than people think.
Companies need to develop different recruitment channels for different communities, educational backgrounds and most existing employees.
Respected
However, this is not always straightforward, so public policies need to support companies, especially smaller companies, in their efforts to achieve true diversification of the workforce. For example, this can be achieved by providing diversity consultants-as previously done in Belgium and currently in Estonia.
It is time for companies to show that diversity is not a superficial issue. The touchstone of diversity policies will be whether they really reduce socioeconomic disadvantages, especially among disadvantaged groups.
Thomas Liebig is a senior economist at the OECD
Pfizer asked US regulators on Tuesday to approve its COVID-19 experimental pill, laying the foundation for a promising treatment that can be taken at home this winter.
When the company submitted its application, the number of new infections in the United States rose again, mainly due to the colder weather in hotspots in states where more Americans stay indoors.
Pfizers pills have been proven to significantly reduce the hospitalization rate and mortality of people infected with the coronavirus. The US Food and Drug Administration is already reviewing competing pills from Merck, and it is expected that several smaller drugmakers will also seek authorization for their antiviral pills in the next few months.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement: We are taking action as soon as possible to work hard to put this potential treatment in the hands of patients, and we look forward to working with the US FDA to review us Application.
Specifically, Pfizer hopes that the drug can be used in adults who have mild to moderate COVID-19 infection and are at risk of serious illness. This is similar to the current way other drugs are used to treat this disease. But all FDA-authorized treatments for COVID-19 require intravenous injections or injections by health professionals in hospitals or clinics.
The FDA will hold a public meeting on Merck Pills later this month to solicit the opinions of outside experts before making a decision. The agency does not need to hold such meetings, and it is not clear whether Pfizers drugs will undergo similar public review.
Some experts predict that COVID-19 treatment will eventually be combined to better prevent the worst effects of the virus.
Pfizer reported earlier this month that its pills have reduced the number of hospitalizations and deaths of high-risk adults with early symptoms of COVID-19 by 89%. The company studied its pills in people who have not been vaccinated and are at greatest risk of the virus due to health issues such as age or obesity. If authorized, the FDA will have to weigh whether to provide such pills to vaccinated people who treat breakthrough infections because they are not part of the initial testing.
For best results, patients need to start taking the medication within three days of the onset of symptoms, which emphasizes the need for rapid testing and diagnosis. If another COVID-19 surge caused the delays and shortages in testing that occurred last winter, this could be a challenge.
Pfizers drug is part of a decades-old family of protease inhibitor antiviral drugs, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. These drugs block a key enzyme required for the virus to multiply in the human body. This is different from Merck pills, which cause tiny mutations in the coronavirus until it is unable to replicate itself.
On Tuesday, Pfizer signed an agreement with a United Nations-backed organization that allows generic drug manufacturers to produce low-cost versions of pills for certain countries. There is a similar deal for Mercks pill, which was licensed in the UK earlier this month.
The United States has approved another antiviral drug for COVID-19, Remdesivir, and approved three antibody therapies that help the immune system fight the virus. But they usually have to be administered by health professionals through time-consuming infusions, and the limited supply is strained by the last surge in delta variants.
The US government has pledged to buy Mercks pills. According to an official familiar with the matter, federal authorities are negotiating with Pfizer to purchase millions of pills.
Congressional Democrats are renewing their struggle with states such as Texas and Florida that have not yet extended Medicaid to low-income adults, with the goal of one of their main sources of funding for hospitals: Free nursing pool.
President Joe Bidens 1.75 trillion USD domestic policy packageThe House of Representatives may vote as soon as this week to restrict federal unpaid medical payments to states that have not expanded the Medicaid program.
Democrats and experts believe that state leaders who want to help hospitals provide high levels of unpaid care should Expansion of Medicaid Like the other 38 states, it covers more low-income adults.
Eliot Fishman, senior director of health policy at Families USA, a consumer rights organization in Washington, said: Its not a good way to spend federal funds to keep people out of insurance and then pay for potentially preventable hospital services.
It is very likely that they were hospitalized because they did not have medical insurance, said Fishman, who worked on the Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers Medicaid exemption issue from 2013 to 2017.
These pools of funds to help certain states pay for unpaid medical care and low Medicaid expenses have existed in some form for several years, but after the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, they fell into the politics of Medicaid expansion.
Twelve states have not expanded the Medicaid program, but only four states Free nursing pool: Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Kansas.
Provisions in the domestic policy package-dubbed the Better Rebuild Act by the government-will limit the payment of unpaid care pool fees to states to cover 138% to 100% of the federal poor who are eligible for Medicaid The uninsured persons provide it if their country expands it.
The proposed legislation does not prevent states from using these pools of funds to pay for other unpaid care for insufficient Medicaid or other uninsured individuals.
The American Hospital Association and the American Hospital Federation hope to remove the provision for unpaid care pools from the bill, believing that this will harm the safety net of hospitals in these four non-expanding states.They also urged Congress to adopt Terms Reduce disproportionate hospital payments by 12.5% ??in non-expanded states.
Cuts will be part offset-At least temporarily-by increasing ACA subsidies for 2.2 million people in the non-expanding state coverage gap. But these subsidies need to be reauthorized by Congress after four years, and it is not certain that this will happen, or that the Democrats will control Congress by then. At the same time, Republicans in Congress have no interest in closing the expansion gap or supporting the ACA.
Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said that despite this, swimming pools have never been a permanent solution for unpaid care, especially in the state that received the funding without expanding Medicaid programs. in the case of.
Each state must obtain approval from the CMS for the funding pool under the 1115 Medicaid exemption, and the federal government must match the funding provided by each state. The exemption aims to test innovative ways of providing healthcare through Medicaid.
This is by no means a guaranteed way to provide funding for any state, she said.
If states are concerned about the unpaid care their providers are experiencing because of the high uninsured rate in these states, then it is wise to expand the Medicaid program.
Florida Texas, the state with the highest uninsured rate in the country, is the biggest beneficiary of this funding, and firmly refuses to expand the Medicaid program, even though Congress provides them with more financial incentives.
It is not clear how much the proposal reduces payments to the four non-expanding states-these calculations will be left to the Medicare and Medicaid Services Center.
Texas has now been approved to pay up to $4 billion in unpaid care funding per year until September 30 next year, while Florida can pay up to $1.5 billion annually until June 30 next year. State Health Access Data Assistance Center.
Tennessee is authorized to spend US$627 million per year, while Kansas can spend US$51 million per year.
Three states with expanded Medicaid programs, including California, also have smaller pools of unpaid care that are not affected by the proposal.
According to data from the Medicaid and the CHIP Payment and Use Committee, overall, in the medical subsidies paid to hospitals in fiscal year 2019, the unpaid medical pool payments accounted for about 4% of the Medicaid.
But the reduction ultimately means that if the state continues to resist the expansion of Medicaid, or if subsidies for people in the coverage gap are allowed to expire, hospitals will receive less help with uncompensated medical expenses.
Some congressional Democrats from Texas and other non-expanding states said they are concerned about the transition period between getting people to sign up for the ACA program and changing the funding pool. Starting in 2022, people in coverage can receive ACA subsidies to purchase plans in the market. Regulations on unpaid care pools will take effect in 2023.
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and 19 other lawmakers wrote in a letter: The problem is that using this temporary coverage solution to cover most uninsured people in non-expanded states will require data. Months or even years. Earlier this month, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate.
This is a matter of registration rate and time. Once hospitals get better reimbursement from private insurance rates, they will undoubtedly be more stable, but the transition can be catastrophic, the letter said.
Roberto Haddad, vice president of government affairs and policy at the Renaissance Medical System Doctors Hospital in Edinburgh, Texas, said he believes the clause will make it unlikely that states will expand Medicaid.
States have all the opportunities and incentives to expand the Medicaid program. Although this is absolutely meaningful at the policy level and economic level, and most importantly at the humanitarian level, they have not done so because politics has become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, he said . Said.
And I think the provisions of this bill will only make this situation worse.
Advocates and hospitals have pushed Congress to pass a permanent solution Coverage gap problem But due to cost issues raised by moderate Democrats in the Senate, it was eventually removed from the domestic policy package.
Since then, the unpaid care pool has been linked to the politics of Medicaid expansion 2015, When the Obama administration suggested Considering how many people will receive insurance if Florida expands its Medicaid program, payments to Florida are reduced by 75%.
In the last few days of the Trump administration, HHS approved the renewal of Floridas unpaid care exemption. Texas And Tennessee for ten years. According to the renewal, Texas and Florida will receive more funding.
The Biden administration objected to the Trump administrations procedures used to approve the Texas exemption no notice and comment period and Renegotiation It has terms with the state, but it did not specifically comment on the policy that allows pool funds to be used to cover the gap population.
But now many doctors, their medical associations and members of Congress are vocalizing that the rules for implementing the law issued by the Biden administration in September are beneficial to insurance companies and are not in line with the spirit of the legislation.
The governments recent regulations to start implementing this law are not in line with Congresss intentions and may incentivize insurance companies to artificially set low payment rates, which will narrow the suppliers network and may force small clinics to close, thereby limiting patients access to care. Congressman. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), he was a doctor and helped take the lead A letter The complaint this month was stated in a statement to KHN.
Nearly half of the 152 lawmakers who signed this letter are Democrats, and many doctors who serve in the House of Representatives signed this letter. But the strong opposition did not win the support of some powerful Democrats, including the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee Frank Palon (New Jersey) and the chairman of the Senate Health, Energy, Labor and Economics Committee Senator Pattimey (Washington State).Pension committee, he wrote to the government urging officials Forward` Plan with them.
According to the aides of the MPs, some MPs who are also doctors held a conference call with the government at the end of last month and lodged complaints. They were unable to speak publicly because they did not have the authorization to do so. Doctors in Congress are angry about this, said a staff member familiar with the phone. They are very clear about making laws in a year or two years, debating which way to go.
The dispute involves the arbitration-focused part of the proposed final statute.
The letter of the legislator-organized by Congressmen Thomas Suozzi (DN.Y.), Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) and Bucshon-stating that the law clearly prohibits arbitrators from favoring specific benchmarks to determine which should be directed Provider payment. Explicitly excluded are the rates paid to Medicare and Medicaid, which are often lower than the rates of insurance companies, and the average rates charged by doctors, which tend to be much higher.
The arbitrator will be instructed to use the median in-network rate of the service as one of several factors in determining fair payment. They must also consider items such as the doctors training and quality of results, the local market share where the participants may have a huge influence, the patients understanding and complexity of the service, and past history.
But the Proposed rules The arbitrator will not be instructed to weigh these factors equally. It requires them to start with the so-called qualified payment amount, which is defined as the intermediate rate that insurance companies pay to in-network providers for similar services in the region.
If doctors think they deserve better rates, then they can point out other factors allowed by the law-doctors in Congress think this is contrary to the bill they wrote.
The lawmaker told government officials in the letter that the terms in the new rules do not reflect the way the law is made, do not reflect the policies that could have passed Congress, and did not establish a balanced procedure to resolve payment disputes.
Opponents of the rule believe that the result will be a process that benefits insurance companies, not doctors, and pushes prices down. They also argued that this would harm the network, especially in rural and underserved areas, because it incentivizes insurance companies to lower the rates they pay to in-network providers. If the in-network fee rate is lower, the default rate in arbitration is also lower.
Thats a special argument litigation Last month, the Texas Medical Association filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration.
The lawsuit alleges that in a few states that already have similar strategies, such as California, Recent studies Shows that the payment rate has been pushed down.Quote that data and A survey The California Medical Associations lawsuit claims that insurance companies now have an incentive to terminate contracts with higher-income in-network medical service providers or force them to accept lower rates, because out-of-network medical service providers will subsequently receive the same lower rates. The constraints of the baseline.
Jack Hodley of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute said that the results may work in either way, depending on whether the insurance company or provider is stronger in a particular market.
In some markets, insurance companies dominate, and they can say to suppliers:Accept or leave. Because we represent most of the insurance business, we represent most of the patients,' Hodley said.
But elsewhere, there may be a stronger group of providers. All anesthesiologists may be engaged in a large business in a market, and they can basically say to insurance companies in that market,Accept or give up,' he said.
When issuing the rules, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated An analysis Data from the Congressional Budget Office shows that the no surprises bill will reduce premiums by about 1% and reduce the federal deficit by $17 billion.
Reducing premiums is a particularly important goal of the government and some of its allies (such as patient rights groups and labor unions).
Hodley said whether the supplier network will be reduced is still an open question. The investigation cited in the Texas lawsuit also shows that in some states, the use of in-network services has increased, and the benchmarks are similar to national laws, but it is not clear whether more doctors are joining the network or more people are turning to the network. provider.
It is unclear whether the government will consider the concerns of lawmakers. Some Hill staff who participated in the boycott believed that this process may be too far to change and must be resolved in court. Others saw an opportunity for last-minute transformation.
A member of the House of Representatives pointed out that more than 70 Democrats who filed a complaint with the White House of Democrats may have an impact.
Together with the madness and legal threats of the amazing bill wars over the past few years, I think there are still many ball games, the staff member said.
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Ten months after being sworn in, Joe Biden finally met with Xi Jinping. The summit is online, not face-to-face. But after the tension between Washington and Beijing lasted for months, the fact that the leaders of the United States and China had a three-hour conversation was very important.
An obvious breakthrough at the summit was that the United States announced an agreement, and China and the United States held talks on their nuclear arsenals. Just a few days ago, at the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, the two countries announced a joint plan to tackle climate change.
The outbreak of dialogue diplomacy this time is a sign that Sino-US relations have tended to stabilize and may even improve. Popular talk about the new cold war between the two countries may now give way to talk about a new detente.
It makes sense to be cautious. The exact form and timing of the nuclear negotiations have not yet been determined. Of course, there is no sign that Beijing intends to reduce its huge investment in nuclear weapons; or that the United States plans to reduce the modernization of its own larger nuclear arsenal.
The US-China joint climate statement is also weak in details and commitmentsespecially when compared with Xi Obamas 2014 statement, which paved the way for the Paris climate agreement the following year.
The summary released by both sides of the Xi Biden talks also emphasized the possibility of the continuing conflict in Taiwan. Xi Jinpings language is confrontational. He warned that politicians who encouraged the island to fight for independence were playing with fire and would self-immolate.
Although this is standard official speech in China, it is still shocking to hear that the Chinese leader publicly hints at war with the United States. Biden also acknowledged this possibility, saying that the two leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the competition does not get into conflict.
The severity of these warnings reflects the real danger of the situation. Both Washington and Beijing accused each other of escalating tensions. China is sending more and more fighters to Taiwans air defense identification zone. Biden recently stated that the United States would protect Taiwan from any attacks by China, which broke the traditional American policy of strategic ambiguity, although this was quickly clarified. The United States has also tried to expand diplomatic space with Taiwan, which has also angered Beijing.
The talks between Biden and Xi did not seem to have played any role in easing tensions on the island. The summary issued by both parties only confirmed their current position and mutual suspicion.
There are also few signs of progress in trade. The tariffs and other punitive measures imposed by the Trump administration on China have not yet been cancelled, and negotiations have not indicated that this situation will change soon.
But if the US-China negotiations on nuclear and climate issues gain momentum, the more positive tone of bilateral relations may also permeate economic issues. The change in tone is of course welcome. Some recent meetings between senior officials of the two countries have fallen into public quarrels.
The competition between China and the United States remains widespread and dangerous. Bidens meeting with Xi did not change this underlying reality. But the two leaders have begun a dialogue, and they can now build on this. This weeks summit should be the first of many summits.
One of the UKs leading food retailers warned the British government that the EUs proposal to resolve the dispute over Northern Irelands post-Brexit trade rules could increase rather than reduce the administrative burden on goods imported into the region.
Marks and Spencer Chairman Archie Norman stated in a letter to the Brexit Secretary Lord David Frost that the Brussels proposal may lead to friction and cost deterioration, as well as a high degree of ambiguity and scope of disputes.
Frost is leading negotiations with EU Brexit Commissioner Maros Sefcovic to try to resolve the deadlock. The United Kingdom is seeking to rewrite the Northern Ireland agreement protocol, which will keep the region in the EUs single commodity market to prevent the restoration of the North-South trade border on the island of Ireland.
If there is no solution, the UK threatens to trigger Article 16. If both parties believe that the Brexit agreement has caused serious economic, social or environmental difficulties or trade diversion, either party can use the guarantee clause.
In the proposal submitted in October, the European Commission provided more lenient inspections on goods from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland, but only if these goods must be clearly marked for consumption in the region.
Norman said that for 90 million M&S products shipped from the mainland to Northern Ireland, labeling requirements would add an additional 9 million in additional costs each year. The letter also warned that according to the EUs proposal, veterinarians must still prove that 95% of the food they transport through the Irish Sea meets the requirements, thereby increasing the transportation time of at least four hours a day.
Norman said that, along with other inspections, this will result in fresh goods arriving at the store 45 hours longer than when the United Kingdom was a member of the European Union. He added that as a result, Marks and Spencer may have to stop sending some product lines to Northern Ireland.
Norman said: A detailed review shows us that the cost of implementing these proposals may ultimately be higher than the cost of comprehensive customs control in the EU. On the contrary, he called for the establishment of a risk-based system that would limit the use of digital technologies for commodities. Inspection of.
Obviously, Article 16 does not provide the stability and certainty that Northern Ireland needs.
Norman made the above comments when he was a member of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2005, at a time when British and EU officials continued to negotiate to prevent the United Kingdom from triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which governs the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Trade.
During his visit to the region on Wednesday, Frost said that Article 16 that would suspend many inspections of goods is still under discussion and urged the EU not to retaliate if triggered.
If we use Article 16, it is to make the flow of trade within the UK more free. I dont think the EUs response to sanctions, retaliation, or making trade more difficult is helpful. I dont understand why this helps the situation. Frost told BBC Ulster Radio.
M&S and two other British food retailers-Tesco and Iceland-have stores in the Republic of Ireland and the North. They are mainly from the UK, but M&S ??handles more bureaucratic work than their two competitors, because the vast majority of it sells private label products.
The UK-based retailer is currently supplying goods to shops in Northern Ireland in accordance with a series of temporary easyments unilaterally extended by the British government to reduce border friction, Brussels reluctantly agreed. Norman hopes to extend these until the middle of next year.
Frost has been seeking commercial support for his hard line. However, although many people in Northern Ireland agree that Sefcovics proposal requires major improvements, there is no agreement on the pros and cons of triggering Article 16.
It is clear that Article 16 does not provide the stability and certainty that Northern Ireland needs, said Aodhan Connolly, head of the Northern Ireland Retail Federation. Where there is conversation, there is hope.
Glyn Roberts, CEO of Retail NI, which consists of 1,800 independent retailers and wholesalers in Northern Ireland, said that there is a danger of poisoning wells in citing this article.
When asked whether he was as optimistic as the Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coviny that the agreement dispute could be resolved by Christmas, Frost said: I think it can be done. Will it be done? A different question.
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to start strategic stability negotiations to reduce the risk of nuclear conflict. This was an unexpected breakthrough in a virtual meeting focused on stabilizing US-China relations. Sino-US relations have deteriorated to their lowest level in more than four years. ten years.
The President of the United States pointed out at the beginning of a three-hour video conference with his Chinese counterparts that a guard fence is needed to ensure that the fierce competition between the two countries does not turn to conflict.
Although it is already difficult to implement safeguards on issues such as Taiwan Beijing claims that the island has become the most dangerous hotspot in Asia since Biden took office these safeguards are extended to two emerging superpowers. Nuclear competition Will be a greater challenge.
Evan Medros, the current Georgetown University Barack Obamas Asian affairs adviser, said he was skeptical about the new nuclear program revealed by the US national security adviser Jack Sullivan.
It is a good idea to put aguardrail around nuclear weapons in theory, but in an era of extreme distrust and rapid growth in capabilities, can it be done in practice? Medros asked.
Will Xi Jinping authorize senior officials, including the Peoples Liberation Army, to engage in meaningful dialogue with the United States on nuclear weapons, space, and the Internet? [issues]?
Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury International Institute, also questioned the possibility of success. Holding talks is a necessary first step, but the real question is whether the two sides have substantive content to say, he said.
The United States has previously tried to involve China in nuclear negotiations, but these efforts have failed, mainly because Beijing did not see the value of negotiation restrictions when the United States had a larger nuclear arsenal.
In recent years, the PLA has significantly increased its Nuclear weapons program In a way it shows that China is abandoning its 50-year minimum deterrence policy. Last week, the Pentagon stated that the PLA intends to quadruple its nuclear warheads to at least 1,000 by 2030.
Rein Haas, an expert on China at the Brookings Institution, said that this weeks meeting may open a window for both sides to test whether progress can be made in reducing strategic risks.
He added that possible agreements might include understanding that all nuclear launch decisions must be made by humans and not by artificial intelligence systems, or [refraining from] Space activities that generate orbital debris.
The video call shows that China-US relations have at least finally bottomed out, added Wang Chong, professor of foreign affairs at Zhejiang International Studies University. now [the relationship] It is not so much confrontation and conflict as competition.
Few experts expect that the United States and China will resolve their differences on the Taiwan issue, and Beijing often deploys its air force near the island to threaten Taiwan. Biden stated that he supports the one China policy of the United States that recognizes Beijing as the seat of government, and also expressed concern about Chinas military activities around Taiwan.
However, when emphasizing the gap, Xi Jinping told Biden that the Taiwanese government and anyone who supports Taiwan independence may cross Beijings red line on this issue. He added that this is playing with fire and will only succeed in self-immolation.
Xi Jinping blames Taiwan [the] Tensions have increased the threat to Chinas red line, said Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. She added that Biden at least assures Xi that the United States remains committed to theOne China policy.
Respected
One difficulty facing the two presidents is their different views on what constitutes a more stable bilateral relationship.Although Washington stated that Beijings behavior on a series of issues is not a responsible international actor, Chinas focus is to prevent it from thinking that the United States is interfering in Taiwan and Hong Kongs core interests, where Xi Jinping used tough national security smashing. Territorial law Democratic movement.
Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the top diplomat of the Chinese Communist Party, laid the foundation for the meeting between Biden and Xi Jinping at a meeting in Switzerland last month.
According to people familiar with the matter, Yang told Sullivan that Xi Jinping hopes to maintain stability before the partys annual meeting. Central Committee At the Beijing Winter Olympics in November and February and the Chinese Party Congress at the end of 2022, he is expected to receive an unprecedented third term.
Xi Jinping will focus on domestic politics next year, said Paul Hanler, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing. He will do everything he can to reduce the uncertainty in the U.S.-China relationship, put the relationship on a more stable basis, and reduce the risk of complicating his own domestic political goals.
Supplementary report by Liu Xinning in Beijing
Acadiana - With President Biden signing off on the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package Monday, Louisiana lawmakers are now developing plans on how the money will be spent.
One of the most pressing issues - the states roads and bridges.
When the White House released its infrastructure report card earlier this year, Louisiana received a D plus. With money now on the way, locals hope its enough to remedy the pelican states poor bridges and roads.
Lafayette resident Aleya Domingue said "I think Louisiana should want to push themselves up in a lot of rankings, but especially infrastructure."
"Ive lived here most of my life and the roads arent great," said Lafayette resident Jacob White.
Louisiana currently has more than 1,600 miles of bridges and an additional 3,400 miles of highway in poor condition.
When describing the difference between Louisiana's roads and other states, White said "when you hit Louisiana, you start hearing a beat," as he slapped his fist into his hand.
The lack of consistent maintenance to Louisiana's roads and bridges over the years has resulted in being some of the worst in the nation.
"We are not able to satisfy all the needs available, so the backlog keeps accumulating," said former secretary of DOTD, Kam Movassaghi. "When I was secretary under Governor Foster, our backlog was about four billion."
Today, that backlog sits at $15 billion. Simply put, thats a $15 billion wish list for new bridges and other interstate projects. But with Louisiana expected to receive around $7 billion from the infrastructure package, itll still need to get money elsewhere.
Movassaghi said "in Texas they spend a lot more money than we do obviously and they have a lot better roads than we do. Many states are a lot better than we do."
"I think when it comes to the things that we as a public enjoy, its all about funding and there are ways that we can fund things regressively," White said.
Regardless of how much money may be needed to solve the crippling infrastructure issues, locals are hopeful that the infrastructure money will be a step in the right direction.
"I think that the seven billion earmarked for Louisiana for the next ten years for infrastructure in this new bill is going to go a long way to helping," said White.
Dominque said "I feel like Louisiana really has a lot of potential."
It could be months or longer before Louisiana officials know exactly how much money it will receive. With the long list of needs for infrastructure financing, the state could use it sooner rather than later.
You can now access various Kdrama destinations that were featured in "Vincenzo," "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha," and "Secret Royal Inspector & Joy" through Studio Dragon's collaborative VR project!
On November 18, Newsen reported that the locations that appeared in these tvN dramas will now be available to international fans.
Experience Korea in the Comfort of Your Homes
Studio Dragon will use premium IP to join forces with the Korea Tourism Organization and Local Government Units to showcase virtual reality (VR) content.
The project started with the goal of promoting beautiful tourist attractions in Korea at home and abroad through the medium of drama content, and under the Korea Tourism Organization's plan. Studio Dragon's premium IP and LGU+'s technology are known to have helped.
In addition to the project that will be launched, the team has explained that the difference between the VR content is that people can access various topics that are related to the drama, actors who actually appeared, and not merely ordinary virtual content that looks around a specific place.
Visit Famous Locations in 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha,' 'Vincenzo,' & 'Secret Royal Inspector & Joy' Through VR
The "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" was designed and produced to allow individuals to experience the sea village through actors. Meanwhile, fans can visit downtown Seoul with "Vincenzo" actor Kwak Dong Yeon and indirectly experience hanbok and authentic Korean food and culture through "Secret Royal Inspector & Joy" with Ok Taecyeon.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 6 Italian Phrases in 'Vincenzo' That You Should Start Learning Today
The food attraction and local tourism tips will also be included in the content. Even those people who have not watched the drama yet can enjoy the virtual reality experience without having difficulties because the information about each drama will be available in VR.
All contents were filmed in VR, and tourist spots with unique emotions such as cities, beaches, and hanok were filmed in 3D 18-degree high-definition video to double their vividness.
To excite more fans, the contents for "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" will be available on Wednesday, November 17, through UDIVE, also known as the LGU+ XR platform. Meanwhile, "Vincenzo" and "Secret Royal Inspector & Joy" will be released in December, and subtitles are also available in a total of different languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese, for international viewers to enjoy.
On the other hand, the head of Studio Dragon's IP Business Team, Chae Ji Tak, expressed his happiness to be able to showcase big tourist attractions in Korea beautifully contained in the drama with the help of technology.
He also wished that the VR project would be a pleasant experience for both domestic and overseas viewers who could not travel freely during the pandemic.
Stay tuned for Studio Dragon and tvN's social media announcement for more details.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Missing 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha'? Listen and Add These Songs to Your Playlist to Feel the Gongjin Vibe
Are you excited to experience Korea virtually with this project? Share your comments with us!
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.
By Joe Sutton, Kelly McCleary and Steve Almasy, CNN
(CNN) -- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency Monday following days of severe wind and rain leading to extensive flooding in parts of the state, shuttering a stretch of Interstate 5, knocking out power and displacing hundreds.
Emergency officials in Whatcom County, which sits along the Canadian border, conducted search and rescue missions Monday night as more than 500 people were forced to leave their homes due to flooding in the north and northeast areas of the county, a news release from the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said.
"WCSO's rescue vehicle was able to reach many residents, and boats were used in places where the water was too deep. These efforts will continue throughout the night," the release said. Hundreds of residents were moved to three "quickly established" shelters in the county, officials said.
Stephanie Koehler in Sumas, in Whatcom County, told CNN affiliate KOMO a boat picked her up from her porch. She was taken to another boat, and then was taken in a tractor bucket to a bus.
"We were scared. I mean, it's our first flood," Koehler told KOMO. She planned to spend the night at a shelter with her 13-year-old daughter.
Koehler said she and others had put down sandbags, but they "were actually being pushed from people's houses and down the river."
On Tuesday, the county said residents of Lummi Island should shelter in place and Lummi Peninsula residents should be prepared to evacuate. A road off the peninsula was likely to flood Tuesday, officials said
The soggy conditions triggered mudslides in the region, prompting the closure in both directions of I-5 in Bellingham, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The highway is a major thoroughfare stretching along the West Coast from Mexico to Canada.
In Skagit County, residents of Mount Vernon were advised Monday to evacuate ahead of flooding on the Skagit River, but a flash flood watch for an area of town was canceled Tuesday, according to a tweet released by Seattle's National Weather Service office.
A bulge in a dike was evaluated by the Army Corps of Engineers, which determined the structure was not damaged.
"The Dike District reports that their remaining concern is for the damage to Riverbend Road, not the diking system," the city said.
The Skagit River near Mount Vernon topped major flood stage (32 feet) Monday and was at 36.52 feet around noon Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Center. The river appears to have crested and could fall below minor flood stage by Wednesday afternoon.
Parts of the city, about 60 miles north of Seattle, are protected by levees and residents in those neighborhoods are advised to keep an eye on emergency notifications.
Mount Vernon is under a flood warning until late Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
"The area will dry out with the end of the rainfall for a few days," the weather service said. "However, with so much water in the system, it will take some time to drain the floodwaters. In addition, the dams on the Skagit were able to absorb a significant part of the flood but with the reservoirs near maximum pool levels, that water must start being released."
Fourteen counties are covered by the governor's emergency proclamation: Clallam, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Lewis, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Mason, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom.
"This severe weather emergency order directs that the plans and procedures to the Washington State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan be implemented," the release said.
In Clallam County, 10 people, including four children were rescued from their homes as flooding encroached on a residential area near Forks.
The evacuations were conducted with the assistance of Coast Guard helicopter crews, the agency said in a news release.
All residents of the area were accounted for, officials said.
The severe weather is also impacting power infrastructure, leaving more than 40,000 customers in the state without power as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Officials in the city of Sumas said first responders and volunteers helped rescue and evacuate hundreds of people.
"We are estimating that over 75% of the homes have incurred water damage. There are at least 12 rail cars that have also been derailed," city officials said in a Facebook post Tuesday. "The damage is devastating to our city. These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days."
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Jackson County Public Health is currently offering another vaccination clinic with all three authorized vaccines available. Pediatric Pfizer doses for kids 5 to 11 are not available at this time, but that could change very soon.
Were bringing community partners together so we did have a meeting today with the state Providence, Southern Oregon Pediatrics, Jackson Care Connect and some other partners we did come together to really look at if we want to offer a special vaccination event, said Tanya Phillips, health promotion manager with Jackson County Public Health.
Phillips mentioned that providing vaccinations for kids is a little different than with adults and teens. When kids come to get vaccinated, they come with their family unit. While this is what public health officials like to see, it means that the process takes a little bit more time. It isn't ideal for a fast, drive-through setting.
Vaccine Watch: Grants Pass vaccine clinic for kids gets a helping paw from Wildlife Images
The whole idea for it is to be pretty quick and done and over with, and for pediatrics you dont always know how young kids are going to react when getting a vaccine, Phillips added.
One of the hold-ups with having a mass vaccination event or clinic is that she says that the training is a little different for staff. She wants to make sure that her staff are up to speed before an event will take place.
Not everybody is as comfortable doing that, so there will be a training component to that, making sure that community partners that come and help that provide the vaccination have the training and they are comfortable with that, Phillips said.
Phillips says she hopes to have a clinic for up and running by the end of next week, though the logistics could cause it to take longer.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. The Grants Pass Police Department says that it arrested several teenagers after tensions between opposing groups outside of Grants Pass High School during a student protest boiled over into violence.
GPPD said that it learned late last week of a planned student-led walkout planned for November 16, with the Grants Pass School District requesting police presence at the high school and both middle schools to monitor what they believed would be a peaceful 25-minute protest by the students.
The walkouts were organized in opposition to the reinstatement last week of Rachel Damiano and Katie Medart, two North Middle School educators who were dismissed in July after an independent investigation determined that they had violated District policy. Damiano and Medart had started an initiative online, the "I Resolve Movement," that called for more a restrictive approach to gender identity in schools.
While the original hearing to determine whether Damiano and Medart should be let go was publicized ahead of time and was widely attended by members of the public, the vote to reinstate them emerged from an executive session of the Grants Pass School Board last Tuesday and was not included on the agenda of the District's governing body.
Grants Pass Police officers showed up at all three schools on Tuesday. While the agency said that the middle school walkouts were relatively small and uneventful, hundreds of students gathered in front of Grants Pass High School's entrance on 9th Street that afternoon spilling into the street.
"Additional police officers arrived to protect the groups right to freedom of speech and to maintain public peace and safety," GPPD said.
According to police, the student protest soon drew an opposing group of people "with counter opinions." Eventually that opposition became heated and the two groups clashed.
One 15-year-old female student spat in the face of a counterprotester, police said. Officers detained her and took her away pending criminal charges.
After a short lull, police said that a 14-year-old female student began swinging a broomstick at the same man. Officers started to detain her on a charge for second-degree disorderly conduct, later taking her to the Josephine County Juvenile Justice Center where she was cited and released to a parent.
During the arrest of the 14-year-old student, police said that 19-year-old Lillyana Audley of Medford "attempted to prevent officers from making the arrest."
"Audley also encouraged others to block officers and the officers vehicle," GPPD said.
Audley was arrested and lodged at the Josephine County Jail, accused of riot, second-degree disorderly conduct, and interfering with police.
Grants Pass Police said that officers encouraged one side of the two groups to leave the area, and a number of students then returned to class. About 100 students remained behind, but they were left under the supervision of school staff.
"The role of the Grants Pass Police Department under these circumstances is to help keep the peace, ensure safety, nurture trust, and promote legitimacy within our community," the agency said.
REEDSPORT, Ore. Five members of a fishing boat crew are safe after being rescued by crews from the US Coast Guard when their vessel went down along the Oregon coast near Reedsport.
The USCG said that watchstanders in North Bend received a radio hail around 9 p.m. on Monday from the captain of the 67-foot fishing vessel Desire, out of Neah Bay, Washington. The captain reported that his ship was taking on water, and his crew was preparing to abandon ship in a life raft.
A radio beacon on the Desire was activated as it came into contact with the water, notifying Coast Guard watchstanders in the Seattle area. It was located about 20 miles offshore from the mouth of the Umpqua River.
Rescue helicopter crews from Coast Guard stations in both Newport and North Bend were scrambled in response, in addition to 47-foot motor lifeboats from the Siuslaw River and Umpqua River stations. The helicopter crews found the survivors in their life raft around 9:30 p.m., sending down rescue swimmers to prepare the Desire's crew for hoisting up.
While the Newport crew pulled up three of the survivors, the remaining two were rescued by the North Bend crew. The two motor lifeboat crews stayed on the scene to help.
"The fishing boat's crew all had survival suits, properly deployed their survival raft, and shot two flares to assist us in locating them, said Lt. Conor Regan, a helicopter pilot from Coast Guard Air Station North Bend. Their overall preparation serves as an example for other mariners, as it was fundamental to the positive outcome of their potentially life-threatening situation.
Regan added that the Desire's beacon also helped watchstanders to piece together information from the radio distress hail and coordinate the rescue.
All five survivors were taken to North Bend and transferred to waiting medical staff, but USCG said that there were no serious injuries reported.
FORKS, Wash. A U.S. Coast Guard crew from Oregon rescued 10 people including one baby from floodwaters just west of Forks in Northwest Washington on Monday.
Clallam County first responders requested help from the Coast Guard to evacuate people in a residential area due to the rising waters. The Coast Guard said crews could not use boats because of "excessive currents."
Around 11 a.m., a helicopter crew from Sector Columbia River in Warrenton, Oregon, arrived to the area near Highway 110 and rescued a total of 10 people including three kids and a baby from multiple homes. The Coast Guard said all known residents of the area are accounted for.
The Coast Guard shared a video clip of the rescue on Twitter. The video shows people being hoisted up to safety.
Western Washington is dealing with the aftermath of back-to-back atmospheric rivers that brought days of heavy rain and strong winds. Gov. Jay Inslee declared a severe state of emergency for more than a dozen counties in the state including the following: Clallam, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Lewis, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Mason, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom counties.
Interstate 5 south of Bellingham reopened Tuesday morning after closing overnight due to flooding and active landslide threats. On Monday, at least three landslides occurred in the northbound lanes of the highway near Lake Samish.
Washington is one of the most landslide-prone states in the U.S., according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In addition to the potential for injuries and deaths, landslides can cost millions in road repairs. The Washington State Department of Transportation annually budgets for about $15 million in landslide cleanup for highways alone.
EUGENE, Ore. Cornelius is a 4-year-old Abyssinian Guinea pig who loves to explore.
He is a bit shy at first, but becomes talkative once he gets comfortable in new surroundings. He has become braver about being handled and enjoys sitting on a lap while being petted. He would do best in a family with children over the age of 10 and must go to an inside home.
Because he is an Abyssinian Guinea pig, his black and white fur is short and grows in all directions. Cornelius has brown eyes and weighs about 2 pounds.
This little guy is a volunteer favorite and one volunteer described him in this way: "He's covered in cowlicks, which just bring out his personality even more! He's a vocal little guy, and seems determined to eventually chew up my whole name tag. He loves to flop down in his cage and just watch everyone in the room. He would be a great addition to any Guinea pig savvy home! He's such a vocal and curious little creature. He loves to sit on my lap and sniff my shirt! He's a little piggie with a BIG personality!"
Anyone interested in Cornelius should visit Greenhill Humane Society to learn more about what is involved in caring for a Guinea pig.
Cornelius adoption fee is $30 which helps pay for shelter expenses such as spaying and neutering, vaccinations, permanent microchip identification, a certificate for a free veterinary exam, post-adoption support and more.
Cornelius was Tuesdays Pet of the Week on KEZI 9 News. Every Tuesday, KEZI showcases a homeless pet on the Midday newscast at 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m.
If you are interested in Cornelius or the other animals at Greenhill Humane Society, more information is available here. A video of Cornelius can be watched here.
Greenhill Humane Society is located at 88530 Green Hill Road and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Its phone number is 541-689-1503. Appointments are available.
LEBANON, Ore. A man is in jail, accused of seriously injuring a 2-year-old child in Lebanon.
Police said they learned the boy was at Doernbecher Childrens Hospital just before 3 p.m. on Nov. 15. Reports indicated that the mothers boyfriend first took the child to Lebanon Community Hospital the day before, and the child was taken to the Portland hospital later on.
However, the initial explanation for how the child was injured raised red flags for police, and detectives interviewed the boyfriend, 26-year-old Patrick Decker, at the hospital, authorities said.
Decker reportedly admitted to causing the injury, and he was taken to the Linn County Jail on charges of first-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment.
If you have any information, contact detectives at 541-451-1751 ext. 4326.
Glanbia Ireland and its family farm suppliers in Kilkenny and across the country are working together, as part of Operation Biodiversity, to plant over 100,000 native trees and hedgerows in 2021, twelve months ahead of schedule.
Kilmoganny farmer Bryan Daniels and his family (pictured above) are leading by example, here in Kilkenny.
In the 2021 phase of Operation Biodiversity, for every 15 native trees purchased, Glanbia Ireland is giving away a further 10 for free. Also for every two bare root hedgerow bundles purchased, Glanbia Ireland is giving a third bundle away at no additional cost, helping its farmers sow up to 10 metres more of hedges.
Operation Biodiversity champion and award-winning dairy farmer Bryan Daniels is leading by example again this year. It has been a busy year. We created a new 80 metre section of hedging and planted it with Whitethorn and Oak. We added in a few Ash trees that we had grown from seedlings. We also planted trees in the gaps in about another 50 metres of hedging.
Weve also added about 100 Scots Pine in groves and the plan now for the winter is to plant an extra 84 metres of hedging. Whitethorn is very much the dominant species on farm. But we like to add in something a little different every now and again to add a splash of colour, life and variety.
Glanbia Ireland Chairman John Murphy said they are proud to donate significant volumes of native trees and hedging plants as part of a long-term programme to encourage biodiversity, reduce risks to water quality and enhance carbon stocks. This year, Glanbia Ireland will also reward a Living Proof Sustainability Champion with a 5,000 prize fund in a competition on https://www.glanbiaconnect. com/news/search-our-living-proof-sustainability-champion
Since its launch in December 2020, Operation Biodiversity has helped enrich our landscape. Every single native tree and metre of hedgerow planted is making a difference and builds on the great work that farm families are already doing as custodians of the land.
We committed to planting 100,000 native trees and hedging plants over two years when we launched Operation Biodiversity last December. To date, our farm family suppliers have already planted 83,000 native trees and hedgerows. This shows the appetite for biodiversity and climate action on farms and in the community. This year, Glanbia Ireland is increasing our contribution to Operation Biodiversity, by funding additional native trees and hedging.
We have also set up the 5,000 competition to showcase and recognise the school, voluntary group or community with the best sustainability credentials. We want to help it to deliver on its biodiversity ambition. Schools and communities do invaluable work to protect our environment and were anxious to play our part as promised under our Living Proof sustainability strategy to support, reward and encourage these efforts.
In Kilkenny, CountryLife has centres in Ballyhale and Castlecomer and locals can also order trees and hedgerows and avail of a huge range of services in the county and general region across Glanbia stores in Bennettsbridge, Kilmanagh, Kells, Freshford and Castlecomer as well as Piltown and Glenmore.
Dr Michelle Larkin, National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme Officer with the National Biodiversity Data Centre said: Irish farms can be pollinator and biodiversity friendly without impacting on agricultural productivity. Low cost small actions can help improve pollinator biodiversity and biodiversity in general. Planting native trees and hedgerows is an excellent way to help. Leaving hedgerows uncut for a minimum of three years is brilliant as it allows them to flower, giving pollinators food. Cutting hedges in rotation instead of all at once will also ensure that some areas of hedgerow will always flower, she added.
Operation Biodiversity builds on the many actions already in progress on farms and in the community and on the strong foundations put in place by earlier Glanbia Ireland sustainability programmes, including Operation PolliNation and Operation WildNation.
For further details on the Operation Biodiversity initiative, to enter the competition and to follow Glanbia Irelands blogs and educational videos check out www.glanbiaconnect.com and www.countrylife.ie
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) is urging young people to make sure they have registered to vote before the deadline on Thursday, November 25.
Registering to vote now means less red tape and bureaucracy than registering down the line, explains the youth council.
James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director said, "One of the privileges of living in a democracy is the right to have a say in who represents us at local level and who governs us at national level.
"We only get the chance to have our say every four or five years in general elections, so it is important that all citizens, especially young people who have recently gained that right, make sure they can exercise their franchise by being registered to vote in time.
"Based on the most recent population data from the Central Statistics Office up to 2,881 young people in County Kilkenny would have turned 18 since February 2020 and may risk missing out on their right to vote unless they register by Thursday, November 25."
For those unsure whether they are registered or not, the NYCI advises that they check online at 'www.checktheregister.ie'.
Community groups and organisations across Kilkenny are being offered the chance to learn more about the results of a recent study carried out into grid availability in the area and the opportunities available to those who are interested in reducing their carbon footprint.
A free online webinar on December 2, organised by independent energy agency 3cea (3 Counties Energy Agency) with the support of Kilkenny LEADER Partnership, will highlight where the greatest opportunity for community renewal energy may be in the locality. The event, which will run from 9.30am to 11.45am, will also discuss the specific steps that community groups and organisations need to take to develop their own renewable energy project.
During the session, Rory Mullan of electrical engineering consultancy Mullan Grid Consulting will help attendees identify if there is an opportunity to connect a future renewable energy project that their community will own to the grid in their area. Tom Bruton, of BioXl, an energy consultancy with expertise in renewable energy, will look at the key steps and considerations a community must take in the development of a renewable energy project, such as securing land rights, constraint mapping, planning assessments and submission, grid application submission, payment milestones, qualifying and tendering for auction, preparing legal structures and community investment proposals.
3cea energy engineer Grainne Kennedy said the event will be of interest to a range of groups and organisations, from those who would like to take basic steps to improve energy efficiency to others who have ambitions to take on a renewable energy project. I would urge anyone interested, from Tidy Towns committee to GAA clubs to schools and parish committees and more, to register for this online event and get tips from the experts about whats possible in your community and the funding opportunities available, Grainne commented. Community renewable energy projects will reduce your carbon emissions in your locality while providing your community with an income for the long term. They also ensure the local community is in control, and that the project is aligned with broader community goals.
* To register for 3ceas upcoming webinar, 9.30am-11.45am on December 2, visit https://3cea.ie/event
For any queries on this event, please contact Mari or Patrick on events@3cea.ie
To learn more about 3ceas range of community programmes, visit: https://3cea.ie/sectors/ community/
A new visitor experience has been launched at Dublin's Custom House on the week that marks the 230th anniversary of the original opening of the Custom House.
Minister Darragh OBrien, Minister Patrick ODonovan, and CEO of Failte Ireland, Paul Kelly officially opened the visitor experience on November 15, 2021.
The Custom House Visitor Centre will be a 'flagship' visitor experience in the city and will feature 'new and interactive exhibits telling the rich history of the building and showcasing its architecture'.
The exhibition 'flows and develops chronologically using each space to tell a chapter in the story, taking visitors from Dublin in the late 1700s through to the 21st century and giving them the unique and authentic experience of being inside the walls of one of the citys most iconic buildings'.
The exhibition is fully re-imagined and was created by award-winning designers whose previous work includes exhibitions at Killarney House and Dublin Castle, with contributions from leading Irish historians and academics, and showcases a historical journey that spans over 200 years.
The history of the Custom House is rich, it was the headquarters of the Commissioners of Custom and Excise and by the twentieth century, it was the headquarters of the local government in Ireland.
The building was targeted and burnt by the IRA on May 25, 1921, which was a significant action of the Irish War of Independence.
Minister Darragh OBrien said the Custom House opened in 1791 and took ten years to build.
"The government of the independent Irish state resolved to restore the building, completing these works by 1928. It is fitting that we pay tribute to the rich history of this fine building, and honour it with a modernised exhibition." he added.
Chief Executive of Failte Ireland, Paul Kelly said investment in engaging, world-class attractions like the Custom House Visitor Centre adds to the diverse heritage tourism offering of Dublin.
"Bringing Dublins story alive in such an authentic way will entice domestic and international visitors to visit Dublin, to explore the city, and stay for longer for many years to come." added Mr. Kelly.
The exhibition shows how the building witnessed momentous events in Irish history, from the 1916 Easter Rising to the birth of the Irish Free State and eventually the Republic of Ireland, and the history is brought to life through audiovisual interpretation and artifacts from the period.
Additional information can be found here.
The search is on for the next Biodiversity Young Farmer of the Year, the National Rural Network (NRN) has announced.
The award, which is part of the FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition in association with Macra na Feirme and IFA, hopes to draw attention to the importance of biodiversity, by celebrating young farmers who are farming in a sustainable manner by protecting and enhancing biodiversity on their farms.
Commenting on the launch of this years awards, Seamus Boland, Project Director of the NRN said: "Irelands landscape and associated biodiversity are shaped by agricultural activities. Native fauna and flora are under pressure and sustainable farming methods are essential to protect, enhance and halt the decline of biodiversity in Ireland.
"It is important to acknowledge that farmers are taking action at farm-level to protect and conserve habitats and wildlife on farms as well as farming more efficiently," Mr Boland said.
Raymond Langan, a sheep farmer from Co. Mayo, won the inaugural National Rural Network Biodiversity Farmer of the Year Award in 2018, while Alan Doyle, a drystock farmer from Co. Kilkenny, won the award in 2019 and Joe Melody, a dairy farmer from Co Clare won the award in 2020.
A shortlist will be drawn up from the entries for FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition, and the winner will be announced at awards ceremony in Decembe
Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, has today announced that Ireland will host the 13th OECD International Rural Development Conference in 2022.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 38 Member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
The OECD Rural Conference is a high-profile international policy and political forum for OECD Member countries to discuss rural development in a holistic manner, with each conference having a specific thematic focus. The OECD has organised 12 conferences thus far, most recently in Korea in 2019 which focused on Rural Well-being.
The Conference will bring more than 250 delegates including Ministers, policy-makers and practitioners from right across the OECD region to Ireland to consider the theme of Building Sustainable, Resilient and Thriving Rural Places.
It is the first time that Ireland has hosted such a conference and follows on from the publication of the Governments rural development policy, Our Rural Future.
Announcing the Conference, Minister Humphreys said:
Ireland is fully committed to sustainable and inclusive rural development and hosting this significant International Conference in next year is a further demonstration of Irelands leadership in this area.
The publication of Our Rural Future earlier this year was a milestone moment for rural development in Ireland. It situates rural development as being central to our national economic, social and environmental wellbeing.
This Conference is an opportunity for Ireland to host discussions between OECD Members on how to advance our shared ambitions for rural areas, sharing Irelands experience and learning from others across the OECD region.
Welcoming Irelands decision to host the Conference, the Deputy Secretary General of the OECD Yoshiki Takeuchi said:
I warmly welcome Ireland's decision to host the 13th Rural Development Conference on Building Sustainable, Resilient and Thriving Rural Places in 2022. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to ensure that all people and places, including rural regions, benefit from the recovery.
"The Conference is a unique forum for policy makers to engage in dialogue and exchange best practices for rural development.
More details about the Conference, including registration related information, will be available early in 2022.
The event is intended to be held in person subject to prevailing public health guidelines.
Pre-school children in Kilkenny will take part in National Pyjama Day this coming Friday, 19th November, with 24 childcare facilities across the county registered to participate in the fundraiser.
The annual event organised by Early Childhood Ireland, the leading organisation in the early years sector will see families in Kilkenny and across the country, sponsoring both preschool children and school age children to wear their pyjamas to their early years setting or afterschool for a day of fun and fundraising.
All funds raised will be donated to three charities that work to support children with additional needs, including: AsIAm, Children in Hospital Ireland and The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation.
Commenting on the event, Teresa Heeney, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland said: Having had to cancel last years event, we are so delighted to be bringing National Pyjama Day back again this year. It is fantastic to have over 1000 services across the country taking part and despite the challenges that Covid-19 has thrown at them, they have shown that they are willing to join in and put their support behind this initiative which will raise vital funds for children with additional needs and help hundreds of families in communities right across the country.
The annual event is always a fun and playful day for the children and staff with special activities and challenges happening throughout the day. There will be pillow fights, storytelling, teddy bear picnics and more! This will be our 18th year to run the fundraiser, and we are so grateful to the children and parents who get involved and the event couldnt happen without the efforts of the childcare settings who work hard to make it all possible on the day.
Where will the donated funds go?
AsIAm, Children in Hospital Ireland and The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation are the chosen beneficiaries of National Pyjama Day this year. Funds raised from the event will go towards supporting the following three projects, within each of the charities:
AsIAms Teach me as I am evidence-based training programme for early years practitioners who work with autistic children.
Children in Hospital Irelands new information hub for parents with children in hospital.
Jack and Jills provision of home nursing care and in-home respite for children with highly complex medical conditions in communities across Ireland.
To date, the event has raised over 3.5 million for charities that support children with additional needs.
Further information on National Pyjama Day is available at: https://www. earlychildhoodireland.ie/ national-pyjama-day-brought- to-you-by-early-childhood- ireland/
Lights, camera, action! Oscar nominated films are coming to Kilkenny this Christmas.
An outdoor cinema showing Cartoon Saloon animated movies will be taking over Canal Square as part of Yulefest Christmas in Kilkenny. Its starting on Wednesday, December 1 and continuing every Wednesday until Christmas.
Cartoon Saloon are delighted to partner with Yulefest and Kilkenny Animated to bring our movies to the people of Kilkenny this Christmas, said Catherine Roycroft of Cartoon Saloon.
We did a special screening event for Kilkenny Day, which was a huge success, so now were bringing more of our movies to the big outdoor screen.
All four of the Saloons Oscar-nominated feature films will feature in the Yulefest Movie Nights series.
A Cartoon Saloon short will be shown each week alongside the main film. These range from three mins to 15 minutes, and really show the range of content Cartoon Saloon is creating. The shorts start at 6.45pm with the feature film starting at 7pm.
Naoise Nunn, from Kilkenny Animated, expressed the hope that people come out and enjoy the movies with their families and friends.
All funds from the event will go to Amber Womens Refuge who do great work in Kilkenny, he said.
Tickets must be booked in advance and are available at yulefestkilkenny.ie, where there is also a full schedule of the movies.
Speaking on behalf of Amber Womens Refuge, manager Lisa Morris said the organisation was delighted to have been chosen as the charity partners for this event.
Were grateful for the support from Cartoon Saloon, Kilkenny Yulefest and the public, she said.
The money raised will go towards providing vital counselling services to the local women and children we support. And on a personal note were excited for a night out to go enjoy these great movies with our families!
The Yulefest Movie Nights start on Wednesday, December 1 with The Breadwinner. Based on the best-selling childrens novel by Deborah Ellis, and set in Taliban-controlled Kabul, The Breadwinner tells the story of 11-year-old Parvana who gives up her identity to provide for her family and try to save her fathers life. The movie is described as a celebration of children for children, whatever their age, wherever they live.
The other movies that will feature are Song of the Sea, The Book of Kells, and Wolfwalkers.
The event, with a backdrop of Kilkenny Castle, on the banks of the river Nore and showcasing Kilkenny based Cartoon Saloon is an innovative way to use our public space and to show off the beauty of our city and the talent of our people," said Tim Butler, director of services in Kilkenny County Council.
I think everyone is excited for Christmas this year, and with all the Yulefest events happening around the city and county I think there is going to be a great atmosphere in Kilkenny!
So wrap yourself up well and make a plan with your family or friends to enjoy this Covid-safe Christmas event! More information can be found on yulefestkilkenny.ie and @YulefestKilkenny on Facebook.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)
Today
Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low 27F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible..
Tonight
Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low 27F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Grand Mosque in Muscat / Courtesy of Embassy of Oman in Korea
The Embassy of Oman in Korea contributed this below article on the occasion of the country's 51st National Day of Renaissance. ED.
Zakariya Al Saadi, ambassador of Oman to Korea / Courtesy of Embassy of Oman in Korea
The Sultanate of Oman marks the 51st National Day of the Renaissance, today. The event comes around at a time when Omanis ponder about the achievements made so far and brace for further accomplishments, with firm resolve, under the astute leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik who pledged to hold high the banner of the Renewed Renaissance, since he assumed power in the country on Jan. 11, 2020.
The Renewed Renaissance kicked off on a high note when Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik called upon the people of Oman to do their best to enrich domestic development and foster progress in all fields. This is considered one of the major principles of the Renewed Renaissance in its quest to attain the supreme national objective of "making Oman the central point in all that we strive to achieve" an objective whose salient features already materialized in terms of updated laws and refurbished programmes of action across all sectors.
In the beginning of this year, Royal Decree No. 6/2021, promulgated the updated Basic Law of the State to serve as a basic pillar of continuous efforts to shape a better future for Oman and its citizens and to build a solid ground for their Renewed Renaissance.
The Basic Law of the State comprises 98 articles "enhancing the institutions of the State, safeguarding its territorial unity and its social texture, protecting its cultural foundations and consolidating public rights, liberties and duties."
The Basic Law of the State lays down a stable mechanism of transfer of rule, which reflects positively on political and economic aspects and affirms the principle of sovereignty and independence of the judiciary. It also serves as a basis of rule in the State. It makes education compulsory till the end of the Basic Education stage. It establishes a scholarly method for thought, development of talents and encouragement of innovation which all conform with Oman Vision 2040.
Haitham Bin Tarik, Sultan of Oman / Courtesy of Embassy of Oman in Korea
Fighting against pandemic
To contain COVID-19 that wreaked havoc in countries around the world, the Sultanate of Oman formed a Supreme Committee tasked with tackling developments resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supreme Committee has been taking "moderate" decisions and precautionary measures that ensure the safety of citizens and residents, while at the same time catering to social and economic implications on this benign land.
Meanwhile, the government accorded special attention to the ensuing economic impacts of COVID-19. The decisions, which took into account the fallout of the pandemic on establishments and companies, included exemption from fines of some services. Special exemptions were sanctioned to small and medium enterprises and holders of Riyada Card for Entrepreneurs. This is in addition to a package of incentives for borrowers, individuals, banking institutions, financing and leasing firms.
Focus on youth
The designation of the Youth Day in Oman, Oct. 26, reflects the attention accorded to the young generation by Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik. It asserts the leadership's deep conviction in the potential of youth in promoting the country's development.
Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers he chaired in October 2021, the Sultan underscored the significance of devising a mechanism and for opening channels of communication with youth to explain all the requirements of the development process in all sectors. He gave directives to listen to youth and study their needs and aspirations. He also instructed governors and the authorities concerned to hold regular meetings with youth for this purpose. He advised the officials to raise issues of interest or concern to youth, listen to their opinions and help them perform the role expected of them in contributing to the comprehensive nation-building march.
Women's rights
Omani women's affairs take center stage in the Renewed Renaissance thought of Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik, who has been keen that women enjoy their rights guaranteed by law and operate alongside men in different fields of national service. Attention to women is one of the "national fundamentals" of the country.
On the occasion of the International Women's Day, celebrated last March, Her Highness the Honourable Lady Assayida Ahd Abdullah Hamed Al Busaidi, spouse of the Sultan of Oman, commended the great efforts exerted by women in Oman and the rest of the world while building their nations, supporting their families and societies and contributing effectively to the management of human and global issues.
Duqm Special Economic Zone / Courtesy of Embassy of Oman in Korea
Fiscal sustainability
The decline and fluctuation in oil prices and precautionary measures to address the impacts of COVID-19 affected the economies of many countries of the world. Since Oman is not isolated from the global community, it had to take measures to address the situation. These included the initiation of a medium-term Fiscal Balance Plan (2020-2023). In April 2021, the Sultan chaired a meeting of the main committee tasked with the National Program for Fiscal Balance to follow up the progress of the program in its second year. The program was designed to bring down the general debt and to secure financial sustainability.
The Sultan endorsed the initiatives submitted by the departments concerned in a bid to develop the schema of social protection. This affirms the Sultan's follow-up of the conditions of citizens to ensure the sustenance of decent livelihood for them and to alleviate the fallouts of this challenging stage.
The 10th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) seeks to achieve a number of goals, among them "activating the economy, upgrading the efficiency of management of public finance, realizing balance among measures for rationalization of public spending, espousing disciplined financial expansion policies, accelerating the rate of implementation of major strategic projects and government-private partnership projects, attracting more direct foreign investments, visualizing growth trends based on expected oil price rate of $48 per barrel during years of the plan and enhancing governorates' participation in achieving goals of "Oman Vision 2040."
Encouraging investment
The government of Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik created an investment-encouraging environment through legislations, ports, free zones and logistics, coupled with a unique strategic location in the meeting point of global commercial markets, political stability and security.
The ports of Duqm, Salalah and Sohar boast a range of advanced facilities that enabled them to achieve quick finalization of tasks and cut the distance between world ports. This is in addition to the free zones in Duqm, Al Mazyouna, Salalah and Sohar and upcoming Khazaen hub in the Governorate of South Al Batinah. Investment incentives like tax exemptions extending to more than 30 years and foreigners' 100 percent ownership of properties, among other incentives, add another fillip to Oman's position.
The View of Muscat, capital of the Sultanate of Oman / Courtesy of Embassy of Oman in Korea
By Shim Jae-yun
The importance of an appropriate foreign policy cannot be overemphasized, especially for mid-sized countries such as Korea. History shows that such a policy is occasionally so significant as to determine the country's sustainability, and this is so for Korea due to geopolitical sensitivity, as it is surrounded by much larger, powerful nations. For leaders, a balancing act combining ideals and reality is essential. When they lack the caliber to meet this requirement, they face a serious dilemma.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun was no exception. Despite his image of being anti-American, he implemented diverse policies favorable to the United States based on the bilateral alliance, such as signing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and dispatching Korean troops to Afghanistan, even at the cost of inviting criticism from his conventional supporters who lambasted him as a neoliberal.
While his efforts to seek inter-Korean cooperation culminated in his summit with North Korea's then-leader Kim Jong-il in 2007, he also stressed the country's firm alliance with the U.S. Here, I would like to introduce an episode that clearly shows Roh's dilemma as head of state in dealing with sensitive security issues. It was in February 2007 when the Special International Conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) took place in both Seoul and North Korea for a week-long run.
I was honored to play a leading role at various events of the conference, including "emceeing" the opening ceremony at a luxury hotel in downtown Seoul, with the attendance of some 500 dignitaries including President Roh, lawmakers, foreign envoys and some 150 foreign journalists from 70 countries. The events included seminars, a special lecture by former President Kim Dae-jung and tours to Mount Geumgang and the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. Throughout the conference, I moderated debates and lectures as well as guided the journalists around the North Korean sites.
In the opening ceremony for the conference, jointly hosted by the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) and IFJ, the JAK's then-Chair Chung Il-yong took to the podium for a speech where he blasted the U.S. George Bush administration for taking a hostile policy direction toward North Korea, thus undermining the efforts toward peace on the Korean Peninsula. In strongly worded remarks, Chung accused the Bush administration of being neocons constituting an ultra-conservative force, and thus preventing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
Roh was next in giving his speech after Chung. Seemingly perplexed by Chung's statement, Roh proclaimed, "I hereby clarify that the Republic of Korea is not at all an anti-American state. We cherish our alliance with the U.S. so dearly." Later, however, Roh was found to have whispered to Chung when leaving the site, "Mr. Chung, you know well that this government is not pro-American." Chung quoted Roh as saying this during a dinner of JAK leaders, including me, after the opening ceremony.
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, triggered a stir by telling visiting U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff Friday that "the U.S. endorsed the forced annexation of Korea by Japan through the Taft-Katsura Agreement." Lee later expressed his thanks for the U.S.'s support of Korea, which helped Korea achieve its rapid economic growth. Yet, he invited criticism for his seemingly narrow view of history confined by the past.
Also on Friday, during a meeting with foreign correspondents active in Seoul, Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, said that Seoul is free to upgrade the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system deployed here, describing it as "sovereign issue." He accented the need to solidify Korea's alliance with the U.S. Though the statement is understandable as he is a conservative candidate, his stance also aroused worries over the possibility of a deterioration of relations with China if he is elected president.
As seen in the highly tense summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Monday, the need for appropriate foreign policies is ever-growing. Both Lee and Yoon should provide concrete visions and policies with regards to external issues that will determine the country's future and its destiny. This need has become all the more significant since China's Xi has emerged stronger with his Chinese Communist Party (CCP) having adopted a recent historical resolution timed with the CCP's 100th anniversary putting him at the same level as his predecessors, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, which will lead China to seek expansion of its clout in the region and across the globe.
A stronger China is a major threat and challenge to Korea, a geographically close neighbor. Despite the urgent need to cope effectively with security issues, it is deplorable that the major presidential candidates lack concrete policies based on a firm and proper historical perception as well as philosophy. It is all the more miserable to see that the current presidential race has become a competition among candidates with a higher proportion of antipathy than of empathy.
By Eugene Lee
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every country one way or another. South Korea has been under various levels of social distancing measures for over a year now, while the government tried to control the spread of infections. The disarray in global health governance didn't help either. After accusing the WHO of siding with China, the U.S.'s former Trump administration pulled the plug on financial support to the organization, while the current Biden administration then revived its support for it.
Taken by surprise, everyone rushed to reassess their own capabilities of dealing with the virus. The situation was bleak in the beginning. Today, many are jumping on the bandwagon to try out their own abilities in vaccine production, including South Korea. But here comes a word of warning: we often hear wonderful success stories, like the creation of the Pfizer vaccine, and not so much about the mistakes and failures. Let me bring just two to your attention.
The first case to mention is a vaccine of Canada. Initially, the country's health system was applauded by many for being one of the most universal, even among the developed world. Many U.S. health organizations, hospitals and even individuals buy medications across the border from Canada as they are cheaper. However, the country, in the wake of the surging number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, had to resort itself to signing up for a help from the WHO's COVAX program to receive its first doses of the vaccine.
The COVAX vaccine distribution program is designed to help less developed countries to fight the pandemic. So, many in Canada are still asking what actually went wrong. Apparently, the need to seek support from the COVAX was all due to the shortsightedness, if not negligence, of the Canadian government. A decade ago, a number of viral research institutions of Canada began close cooperation with institutions and companies in China.
The fruits of this cooperation produced an Ebola vaccine. Remarkably, this vaccine is currently only used by one country, China, namely, by its military and health workers going abroad. In spite of all the red flags that arose with the development of the Ebola vaccine, Canada's public health officials went on with the cooperation on COVID vaccine development. Canada has provided mainly the key basic research and processes on vaccine production to China with the hope that the final product would be shipped to Canada for the further vaccination of its citizens.
That vaccine never landed in Canada, to this day. Once Canada's relations with China hit a snag after the infamous arrest of a Huawei IT executive in Canada, the first vaccine shipments from China were blocked in their tracks immediately. Canada had to ask for help from its neighbors and the WHO. After this incident, Canada decided to develop its vaccine production capacity within its own territory, with one big "but." It will only be able to start production in 2022. I hope that isn't too late!
The second example of a semi-botched government approach to vaccine development is that of Kazakhstan. Seemingly great, the achievement of its scientists definitely stands out they have created their own indigenous COVID-19 vaccine! But once you hear the story of its creation, you realize that the reality is far, far from perfect.
Kazakhstan's vaccine, QazVac (the name given to it by the government), was developed by the Research Institute of Biological Safety Problems, an institute built out of the remnants of a former Soviet agricultural research institute. In an interview with one international media outlet, the head director of the institute said, on the day of the prime minister's visit to discuss the issue of vaccine development, that she and her family were facing eviction from their home.
The problems of Kazakhstan are systemic, if not chronic: the government has long neglected its national scientific research while supposedly "swimming" in oil money. Nevertheless, when asked how she feels about the experience, the director said, "We are not ashamed of our vaccine." This statement is huge; people living on miserable incomes have persisted in developing it out of a pure sense of patriotism. One can applaud them, though certainly not the government.
Today, South Korea is also making its way into a new position in global vaccine production, and similarly, some big questions have arisen: when, where, at what cost and at whose expense. The pursuit of "A Global Vaccine Production Hub" policy sounds appealing, but the government needs constantly to assess and reassess at least two major axes of that: global cooperation vs. national security, and state governance vs. corporate vaccine production. These two relationships, if not managed well, could easily throw the country backwards not only in a technological sense, but also in terms of undermining Korea's national security.
Eugene Lee (Askhat Safiullin) is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Specializing in international relations, his research and teaching focus on national and regional security, international development, government policy and North East and Central Asia.
Biden, Xi fail to narrow differences on thorny issues
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping failed to narrow their differences on major thorny issues including Taiwan during their first virtual summit Monday. They only agreed, in principle, on the need to avoid further conflicts and cooperate for regional stability. They stopped short of defusing the escalating rivalry between the two countries although the summit drew keen attention as it came amid growing fears about the possible advent of a new Cold War.
The two leaders engaged in a hectic debate over a series of contentious issues involving diplomacy, security, human rights and trade during the summit which lasted for 194 minutes. Though they acknowledged the need to ease tensions and move toward cooperation, they didn't budge an inch from their firm stances over most of the pending issues.
Regarding Taiwan, Biden reaffirmed the "One China" policy as sought by Xi. Yet he made it clear that the U.S. strongly opposes any unilateral military action that will undermine stability in the East China Sea area. In response, Xi warned that China would have to take "decisive measures" if "pro-Taiwan independence" forces crossed a "red line." He even used harsh words to warn Biden that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be "playing with fire."
Xi's remarks indicated China may take military action to "unify" the island with the mainland depending on Taiwan's moves. Any military conflict involving Taiwan could turn East Asia into a battlefield. To prevent this from happening, the two nations should make concerted efforts together with the international community. Biden also raised the issue of human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong while underlining the need to protect U.S. workers and industries from China's unfair trade practices. On the other hand, Xi called on the U.S. to stop attacking Chinese companies under the excuse of national security.
As expected, the two sides failed to issue a joint statement and engaged in a tug-of-war on a litany of matters. Yet it is meaningful for Biden and Xi to have dialogue, which could help defuse bilateral tensions. Both leaders agreed to cooperate on energy and climate change. Biden said the U.S. had no intention of wrangling with China, while Xi called for the two nations to make mutual efforts to avoid friction. We urge the two leaders to jointly draw up measures to avert further conflict and maintain stable relations through continued dialogue.
The two leaders purportedly discussed the issue of North Korea, though it was not a key agenda item. The Moon Jae-in administration should try hard to solicit cooperation from the two nations with the goal of promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Their help is all the more necessary since Moon has been seeking to adopt a formal declaration to end the Korean War. He should play a more active role of helping restart stalled denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. as well as inter-Korean dialogue.
A cafe closes its doors in Amsterdam, Nov. 13. The cabinet has tightened the coronavirus measures again due to rising contamination figures. EPA-Yonhap
The Dutch government's plan to scrap the "corona pass" for people not vaccinated against COVID-19 faced strong opposition in parliament on Tuesday, including from within the ruling coalition.
The pass, which grants access to indoor public venues, is now available to people who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or have tested negative for the virus. Under a proposal put forward by caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, the last option would be dropped.
But in an evening debate, even one of Rutte's own four-party coalition government partners expressed concerns that it would cause social division.
Lawmaker Joba van den Berg of the Christian Democrats said her party, which would be needed to usher a new law on the proposal through the lower house, wanted to weigh less divisive alternatives. "Polarization will not get us out of this crisis," she said.
It was unclear whether the coalition government would be able to scrape together a majority of seats given criticism that it would turn some people into "second-class citizens" and infringe upon civil liberties.
The government was reviewing a draft law, which would not be put to a vote on Tuesday.
The Netherlands re-imposed some lockdown measures last weekend for an initial three weeks in an effort to slow a resurgence of coronavirus contagion, but infections have continued to spread.
The National Institute for Health (RIVM) on Tuesday reported a record of more than 110,000 cases in the week ended Nov. 16, an increase of 44 percent from the week before, with the strongest rise among children aged 4-12.
Hospitals have been forced to scale back regular care to make space for a surge in COVID-19 patients. About 70 percent of those in intensive care last month were unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, RIVM figures show.
Guests queue outside a bar to get a last drink before cafes and restaurants have to close their doors at 8 p.m. in Amsterdam, Nov. 13. EPA-Yonhap
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Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], November 17 (ANI): A night curfew has been imposed in Jammu from Wednesday due to the rising COVID-19 cases and the positivity rate has increased beyond 0.2 per cent, informed District Magistrate Jammu Anshul Garg.
In view of the rising COVID-19 cases in Jammu, the district administration has imposed a Corona curfew under section 144 CRPC from 10:00 PM to 06:00 AM instead of 11:00 PM to 05:00 AM in the territorial jurisdiction of the district from Wednesday (November 17, 2021),he said.
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There has been a steady rise in the COVID-19 cases reported in the district over the last few days and the positivity rate has increased beyond 0.2 per cent which requires immediate attention and remedial on the part of district administration, added the order issued by the DM on Tuesday.
The Chief Medical Officer, Jammu shall ensure robust COVID testing in congested areas and potential hotspots, stated the order.
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Th total active cases in Jammu and Kashmir stood at 1,517, while the total death toll reached 4,453. The cumulative recoveries so far stood at 3,28,318. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has once again sparked controversy with her thoughts on India's battle for independence against British rule. The 'Panga' actor said last week at a summit that India's independence was a 'bheekh (handout)'. At the time, she also claimed that the country got its real Independence after 2014 when the PM Modi led BJP government came into power. Kangana Ranaut Freedom Remark Row: DCW Chief Swati Maliwal Urges President Ram Nath Kovind to Withdraw Padma Shri Award Conferred Upon Actress.
She stood by her statement on Tuesday and advised people to choose their heroes wisely. Taking to her Instagram Stories, Kangana shared an old newspaper article and wrote, "Either you are a Gandhi fan or Netaji supporter.You can't be both, choose and decide." The newspaper had an old article from the 1940s with the headline, 'Gandhi, others had agreed to hand over Netaji'. Kangana Ranaut Says She Tried to Spot Karan Johar During Padma Shri Awards.
In her next IG Story, Kangana, who is known for her controversial remarks, said that freedom fighters were "handed over" to the British by those "who had no courage" to fight oppression but were "power-hungry" and "cunning". Taking a dig at Mahatma Gandhi, she added, "Those are the ones who taught us, if someone slaps you offer another cheek for one more slap and that is how you will get aazaadi. That's not how one gets aazadi, one can only get bheekh like that. Choose your heroes wisely."
Check Out Kangana Ranaut's Instagram Story Below:
Kangana Ranaut's Instagram Story (Photo Credits: Instagram)
Kangana Ranaut's Instagram Story (Photo Credits: Instagram)
Kangana further claimed that Gandhi "never supported" Bhagat Singh or Subhas Chandra Bose. "So you need to choose who you support because just placing them all in one box of your memory and every year wishing them all on their birth anniversaries is not enough. In fact, it is not just dumb, it is highly irresponsible and superficial. One must know their history and their heroes," the actor added.
Her recent comments regarding India's independence struggle has drawn flak from several politicians and others. Many have even demanded that the Centre take back Kangana's Padma Shri honour for insulting the country's independence battle. Kangana had received the prestigious award from President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the capital on November 8.
(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 17 (PTI) The initial public offer of life sciences company Tarsons Products Limited was subscribed 77.49 times on the last day of subscription on Wednesday, helped by huge interest from institutional investors.
The Rs 1,023.84-crore IPO received bids for 84,02,81,684 shares against 1,08,44,104 shares on offer, as per NSE data.
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The non-institutional investors category was subscribed 184.58 times, Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) 115.77 times and Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) 10.56 times.
The initial public offer (IPO) had a fresh issue up to Rs 150 crore and an offer for sale of up to 1,32,00,000 equity shares.
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It had a price range of Rs 635-662 per share.
Tarsons Products on Friday raised Rs 306 crore from anchor investors.
The proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised towards paying debt, funding a part of the capital expenditure for the new manufacturing facility at Panchla in West Bengal, and general corporate purposes.
Tarsons Products is engaged in designing, developing, manufacturing, and supplying a diverse range of quality labware products used in laboratories across research organisations, academic institutes, pharmaceutical firms, diagnostics companies and hospitals.
It manufactures a range of quality labware products that help advance scientific discovery and improve healthcare.
The company currently operates through its five manufacturing facilities located in West Bengal.
ICICI Securities, Edelweiss Financial Services and SBI Capital Markets were the managers to the offer.
The equity shares of the company will be listed on BSE and NSE.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lahore, November 17: The first batch of 28 Indian Sikhs, including women, arrived at the revered Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan on Wednesday by using visa-free corridor, some 20 months after the pilgrimage was suspended in March 2020 following the Covid-19 outbreak. Similarly, over 2,500 Indian Sikhs arrived in Pakistan via Wagah border crossing to take part in the annual commemoration of the birth of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev.
"As many as 28 India Sikhs including women visited the Kartarpur Sahib on the first day (Wednesday) after the Indian government reopened the corridor, Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) spokesperson Amir Hashmi told PTI.
The ETPB looks after the holy places of minorities in Pakistan.
Hashmi said that Kartarpur Corridor chief executive officer (CEO) Muhammad Latif, Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) Pardhan (president) Sardar Ameer Singh and Dr Mampaal Singh greeted the Indian pilgrims at the Sikh shrine. Kartarpur Sahib Corridor to Reopen Today Ahead Of Guru Nanak Jayanti 2021.
The pilgrims spent several hours at the gurdwara and offered religious rituals before crossing back to their homeland, he added. The corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev lived and died at the start of the 16th century, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. The 4 km-long corridor provides visa free access to Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. Separately, over 2,500 Indian Sikhs entered Pakistan via Wagah border crossing by foot.
"The yatrees had been queued since 6am Wednesday. Immigration and vaccine and other Covid related tests made the process slow, causing a great deal of inconvenience for the pilgrims, an official told PTI. He added that unlike the past practice, the yatrees would come here by foot instead of train. "This time they came by foot and that made the whole immigration process lengthy, he said.
When asked about the exact number of Indian Sikhs who arrived via Wagah border crossing, Hashmi said, "Pakistan had issued 2,890 visas to Indian Sikhs for this occasion and so far over 2,500 have arrived. Hopefully by late in the evening all those issued the visas will reach here.
At Wagah, ETPB chairman Dr Aamer Ahmed, senior board members and PSGPC officials received the Indian pilgrims. Almost all yatrees entered Wagah bare feet in respect of their spiritual leader Guru Nanak Dev. Talking to reporters at Wagah, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Delhi leader Sardar Balwinder Singh said that Sikhs are very happy after the reopening of the Kartarpur Corridor. He also expressed satisfaction over the upkeep of the Sikh holy places in Pakistan.
Dr Ahmed said the ETPB welcomes the Sikhs all over the world and it will try its best to provide them with best facilities during their stay in Pakistan.
He said the main event in connection with the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak will be held at Gurdwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib on Friday. All visiting yatrees will be taken to the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib during their 10-day stay.
In November 2019, Prime Minister Minister Imran Khan had formally inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor as part of commemoration of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak at a colourful ceremony, paving the way for Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit one of their religion's holiest sites in Pakistan without needing a visa.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tel Aviv [Israel], November 17 (ANI): Indian Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane, who is on a five-day visit to Israel, visited the Indian cemetery at Hafia on Thursday and paid tribute to the Indian army personnel who lost lives during World War l.
"General MM Naravane #COAS visited the Indian Cemetery at #Haifa, #Israel & paid homage to the #Bravehearts of #IndianArmy who made the supreme sacrifice during the World War I," informed the Additional Directorate General of Public Information, Indian Army in a tweet.
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The COAS on Sunday proceeded on his maiden visit to Israel during which he is slated to meet the country's senior military and civilian leadership to discuss avenues for further enhancing Indo-Israel defence relations.
General Naravane, on the first day of his maiden visit to Israel on Monday, received the country's guard of honour. He also paid a visit to the special operations unit of Israel Defence Forces later in the day, where he was briefed on aspects of the conduct of counter-terrorism operations.
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The Army Chief on Tuesday visited the northern border of the country, wherein he was briefed by the Israeli forces on terrain and border management. While on Thursday he visited the Israel Defence Forces headquarters.
The Ministry of Defence, in a statement, said that the Army Chief will take forward the excellent bilateral defence cooperation between Israel and India through multiple meetings with senior officials of the security establishment and exchange views on various defence-related issues. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Warsaw, Nov 18 (AP) Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harbouring hopes of entering the European Union.
The move came a day after a melee broke out in the border crisis, with migrants throwing stones at Polish forces massed on their side of the razor-wire fence, injuring 12, and they responded with water cannons and tear gas. Warsaw accused Belarusian forces of instigating the conflict, while the government in Minsk denounced Poland's violent actions.
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The migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been stuck at the border since November 8. Most are fleeing conflict or despair at home and want to reach Germany or other western European countries.
The West has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilise the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis, which has seen migrants entering the country since summer and then trying to cross into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
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On Wednesday, Poland's Border Guard tweeted a video showing migrants with bags and backpacks being directed by Belarus forces away from the camp near the Kuznica border crossing, and Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said he had received information they were leaving on buses.
The Belarus state news agency Belta reported they were moved to a heated, warehouse-like building about 500 meters (yards) from the border near Bruzgi, giving them the chance to rest indoors after many days in tents.
One of them, an Iraqi Kurd named Miran Ali, took video in the warehouse and said Belarusian authorities told them they wouldn't be forced to return home. In response, the migrants chanted Belarus! Belarus! Belarus! in gratitude.
This is the joy and happiness of Kurdish people after they were told that they will not be sent back to Kurdistan by force, and that they can wait here until Germany or one of the cities in Germany take them there, Ali said as he recorded the video. These people are expressing happiness and optimism in this cold and ugly camp.
They sat on blankets, most still wrapped in heavy jackets and raincoats.
Belta reported about 1,000 migrants agreed Tuesday to move into the building to wait for the situation to resolve, and it quoted some of them as saying that they are not planning to return to their home countries. Most of the building's space was allocated for the migrants, who were offered food, water, medical aid, mattresses and pillows, the news agency said.
Some migrants opted to stay camped near the border. Poland's Defense Ministry posted video showing people and tents there, with some smoke rising from campfires.
The next steps in the crisis are unclear. Although arrangements have been made for flights from Minsk to Iraq to repatriate those who want to return, it is uncertain how many will go. Iraq has appealed for its citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the EU is closed. The first flight from Minsk for the voluntary repatriation to Iraq is expected Thursday.
Belarus also released video from its State Border Committee, alleging it showed Lithuanian border guards with dogs pushing migrants away from the Belarus-Lithuania frontier Tuesday night.
Lithuania denied the claim, releasing its own video of the incident. It blamed Belarusian officials for pushing the group of 13 migrants toward the Lithuanian side and preventing them from returning to Belarus after being stopped by the Lithuanian guards.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Lukashenko for the second time this week, stressing that migrants should be given the chance to return to their home countries with the help of the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration.
Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, denied Berlin was planning to bring the migrants to Germany. The road to Belarus is a dead end for most people who want to go to Germany. There are no plans to approve taking people in, he said.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said U.N. aid was starting to reach the migrants and it was important to ensure humanitarian agencies gain permanent access, even if it meant talking to Lukashenko, whose legitimacy is questioned by the West following a disputed 2020 reelection.
It makes sense to also talk to those who have the opportunity to change this situation in Minsk, even when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy, like all other European member states, Germany does not recognise, he said, adding that Merkel has coordinated with other EU partners and remains committed to the bloc's stance of tightening sanctions on Minsk. (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Baltimore, Nov 17 (AP) Pope Francis' top envoy to the United States cautioned the country's bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians' support for abortion.
It is sometimes said that there is a lot of confusion about doctrine in the church today, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. However, the argument continues that what is needed is clear teaching. That is true, but the Holy Father says a church that teaches must be firstly a church that listens.
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His remarks in the first public session of the gathering in Maryland came as bishops were readying to hold a vote on the document, which has been months in the making and has been surrounded by debate over the taking of communion by President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.
Some bishops argue that it's necessary to send a rebuke to such officials because it's a source of scandal and confusion for them to partake in the sacrament; others have called the document divisive and said it politicises Communion.
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Pierre focused on an initiative of Francis known as the Synod on Synodality, which will involve a series of dialogues in local churches around the world over the next two years.
As we listen to God and to one another, we learn," he told the U.S. bishops. The church needs this attentive listening now more than ever if she is to overcome the polarisation facing this country.
A draft of the Communion document mentions abortion only once and doesn't identify Biden or other politicians by name, though it says at one point, Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.
The bishops discussed the document only briefly in open session Tuesday afternoon, with minor suggestions such as making it more accessible for children. No one brought up publicly the issue of politicians and abortion.
However the bishops have had ample time to talk about it more candidly privately in executive sessions that began Monday. Amendments continued to be offered up ahead of final debate and vote scheduled for Wednesday.
The conference cannot dictate a blanket policy on denying Communion to politicians; each bishop has authority in his own diocese.
While some bishops have said they would deny the sacrament to Biden, the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that the president is welcome to receive the sacrament there. Biden has said that Pope Francis, too, told him in a recent private meeting to continue receiving Communion.
The document would require a two-thirds vote for approval.
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the bishops' conference, also spoke of listening in his opening remarks, saying he observed Americans being more willing to listen to the church.
After the disruptions of the pandemic, he said, many are searching for God and ready to listen once again to the word of truth.
Mark Sadd, chair of the National Advisory Council, also offered several cautions about the Communion document.
Summarising reactions of lay people and religious order members on the committees, he said Communion should not be a tool for division or used for partisan purposes. He added that bishops must determine who their main audience is for the teaching, and to consider simplifying the document.
The gathering is the bishops' first in-person national meeting since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. in March 2020. Bishops were asked to wear masks during the session except when they approached a microphone to speak.
Protesters from rivaling political vantagepoints have targeted the gathering.
On Monday a coalition of liberal Catholic groups supporters of racial justice, women's ordination and LGBTQ inclusion protested outside the hotel accommodating the meeting, saying they oppose politicising Communion.
And on Tuesday another protest, attended by a couple hundred people, was convened at a nearby pavilion by Church Militant, a conservative Catholic news outlet known for its criticism of Francis, its opposition to vaccination mandates and its claims that the church is too tolerant of homosexuality.
Abortion and homosexuality in the priesthood the two big issues killing the church, said one of the protesters, Shawn Marshall of Roanoke, Virginia.
Among the speakers at the demonstration was the Rev. James Altman, who was ordered by his bishop to resign as a parish priest in Wisconsin this year after a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic. Altman refused and raised several hundred thousand dollars from supporters to challenge his removal from public ministry.
The U.S. bishops have betrayed us, denied us, abandoned us, Altman told rallygoers. (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ankara [Turkey], November 17 (ANI/Xinhua): A meeting over Turkey's demand to acquire F-16 fighter jets between Turkish and US defence officials was conducted in a "positive and constructive atmosphere" in Washington, said Turkey's Defense Ministry on Wednesday.
The delegations exchanged views on bilateral and regional defence and security issues, and the two sides agreed to hold their next meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara, it said in a statement.
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The Turkish delegation was visiting Washington for discussions on Turkey's proposal to acquire more F-16 jets and for modernization of its current F-16 fleet with the money paid to the US for the F-35 fighter jet program, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke at the parliament budget meeting on Tuesday.
Turkey's procurement of the Russian S-400 missile defence systems prompted the US administration to suspend Ankara's participation in the F-35 joint program in 2019.
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Tensions between the US and Turkey have escalated ever since over the deal, as Washington claimed that the S-400 systems would be incompatible with the NATO system and risk to expose its confidential military information to Russia.
The United States imposed sanctions on Turkey over the S-400s, targeting the Turkish defence procurement agency and its officials.
Ankara says it paid 1.4 billion US dollars for F-35 jets and asks for reimbursement with F-16 jets. (ANI/Xinhua)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Toronto, November 17: Although clear blue skies and an absence of visible smog seen during the first Covid-19 lockdown in India gave people much relief, a new study claims that air pollutants did not decrease as thought, rather ozone levels increased, which could lead to potential health issues.
According to observational data, the first national lockdown from March 24 to April 24 last year due to Covid-19, drastically cut down emissions as vehicles and constructions were halted.
But the study by researchers at York University in Canada claimed that as the air looked much cleaner, it allowed more sunshine to get through, creating conditions for ozone (03) to increase up to 30 per cent. Air Pollution: Delhi Hospital Sees 10% Growth in Patients with Respiratory Problems Post Diwali.
Air pollution results from a complex mix of interactions between emissions, meteorology, such as wind direction and rain, as well as chemistry, but looking only at observational data as many recent studies have done without taking meteorology into account, skews the numbers, the researchers stated.
"To accurately quantify the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on air pollutant levels, meteorology and atmospheric chemistry needs to be considered in addition to emissions," said Leigh Crilley, postdoctoral researcher at York University. "Our research shows the decline in local emissions had less influence on the decrease in air pollutants than first thought," Crilley added.
When only taking observational data into account, nitrogen oxides (NOx), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) fell by up to 57 per cent and 75 per cent respectively, but when meteorology was factored in, those percentages fell to less than eight per cent for PM2.5 and between five and 30 per cent in both Delhi and Hyderabad, while 03 increased.
Further, the study published in the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, revealed that local sources of emissions, such as vehicles and the burning of fuels, had less influence on air pollution levels than regional emissions sources, while weather events and atmospheric chemical processes contributed independently to air pollutant levels.
"We demonstrate that regional sources, such as rural and agriculturally based emissions, that may have been less affected by the lockdown, have a significant influence on PM2.5 levels in Delhi and Hyderabad after weather-normalisation. This indicates that future PM2.5 mitigation strategies should focus on national-scale, as well as local sources," said Cora Young, Associate Professor at the varsity. Delhi-NCR Air Pollution: Not in Favour of Work from Home, Employees Advised to Carpool, Centre Informs Supreme Court.
"Overall, this study highlights the impact of emissions, meteorology and chemistry on air pollution and that all three should be considered when assessing the effects of any short-term intervention on air pollutants," Young added.
In addition, the research team found that ozone production in Delhi is likely volatile organic compounds (VOC) limited and, as such, attempts to mitigate it should focus on dominant VOC sources. Common examples of VOCs that may be present in our daily lives are: benzene (used in plastics, resins, and nylon), formaldehyde (furniture and cosmetics), among others.
The researchers said this really points to the need regulators to understand the complex factors involved in air pollution if they are going to make policies to reduce pollutants and ozone.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2021 12:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Hyderabad, November 17: Rescue workers on Wednesday pulled out the body of a sixth teenager from the Manair river in Telangana's Sircilla town. Six boys drowned on Monday when they went for a bath in the river. While bodies of five boys were retrieved on Monday and Tuesday, the search was on for Singam Manoj (16).
A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which rushed from Hyderabad, could not trace the body of Manoj till late Tuesday. The team resumed the search on Wednesday morning and was successful in tracing the body.
The boys, aged between 13 and 16, had gone for a bath in a check dam on the river. The check dam had breached due to heavy rains in September and the boys apparently thought the waters to be shallow due to the breach. However, the water level proved to be deeper than they anticipated. None of the boys knew swimming. Local officials said due to the breach, sand from the check dam had washed away, leaving a deep ditch. This was where the boys drowned.
According to police, a group of nine students from Zilla Parishad High School had gone for a bath. While two sat on the river bank, the other seven went into the water. Only one of them managed to get out as he had not waded too deep. Chhath Puja 2021: 33 Drown in Separate Incidents During Chhath Festival in Bihar.
The body of Kolipaka Ganesh (15) was found the same day while bodies of Teegala Ajay (14), Konga Rakesh (15), Jadala Venkata Sai (14) Konga Rakesh (15) and Sriram Kranthi Kumar (14) were recovered on Tuesday. They all belonged to the families of workers. The tragedy plunged the families into gloom.
Industry and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who is a member of Assembly from Sircilla, expressed shock over the incident. He had directed officials to send Disaster Response Force teams from Hyderabad for the rescue operations.
The Minister assured that the government would look after the families of the victims. He urged the public to be cautious while venturing into water bodies in Sircilla as most of them were overflowing.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2021 12:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
London, November 17: Air filtration significantly reduces the presence of airborne SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 wards of hospitals, according to a study.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK placed an air filtration machine in COVID-19 wards, and found that it removed almost all traces of airborne SARS-CoV-2.
The finding opens up the possibility of setting standards for cleaner air to reduce the risk of airborne transmission of infections, they said. The researchers noted that there has been a steady rise in the evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted through the air in small droplets called aerosols.
However, as hospitals have seen their capacity overwhelmed, they have been forced to manage many of their COVID-19 patients in repurposed 'surge' wards, which often lack the ability to change the air with a high frequency, they said. COVID-19 Positive Test Linked to Fatigue, Mental Illness and Sleep Problems: Study.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, investigated whether portable air filtration and ultraviolet (UV) sterilisation devices could reduce airborne SARS-CoV-2 in general wards that had been repurposed as a COVID ward and a COVID Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
"Reducing airborne transmission of the coronavirus is extremely important for the safety of both patients and staff, said Vilas Navapurkar, from Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), who led the study. "Effective PPE has made a huge difference, but anything we can do to reduce the risk further is important," Navapurkar said.
The team performed their study in two repurposed COVID-19 units.
One area was a surge ward managing patients who required simple oxygen treatment or no respiratory support, and the second was a surge ICU managing patients who required ventilation.
The team installed a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) air filter/UV steriliser, which are made up of thousands of fibres knitted together to form a material that filters out particles above a certain size. The machines were placed in fixed positions and operated continuously for seven days, filtering the full volume of air in each room between five and ten times per hour.
In the surge ward, during the first week prior to the air filter being activated, the researchers were able to detect SARS-CoV-2 on all sampling days.
Once the air filter was switched on and run continuously, the team was unable to detect SARS-CoV-2 on any of the five testing days. They then switched off the machine and repeated the sampling. Once again, they were able to detect SARS-CoV-2 on three of the five sampling days.
The team found limited evidence of airborne SARS-CoV-2 in the weeks when the machine was switched off and traces of the virus on one sampling day when the machine was active. The air filters significantly reduced levels of bacterial, fungal and other viral bioaerosols on the both the surge ward and the ICU, highlighting an added benefit of the system, the researchers said.
"We were really surprised by quite how effective air filters were at removing airborne SARS-CoV-2 on the wards," said study first author Andrew Conway Morris, from the University of Cambridge. "Although it was only a small study, it highlights their potential to improve the safety of wards, particularly in areas not designed for managing highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19," Conway said. India Reports 10,197 New COVID-19 Cases, 301 Deaths in Past 24 Hours; Active Cases Decline to 1,28,555.
The research team developed a robust technique for assessing the quality of air, involving placing air samplers at various points in the room and then testing the samples using PCR assays similar to those used in the 'gold standard' COVID-19 tests.
"Cleaner air will reduce the risk of airborne disease transmission, but it's unlikely to be the case that just installing an air filter will be enough to guarantee the air is clean enough," Professor Stephen Baker, from the University of Cambridge, added.
India is likely to bar the use of cryptocurrencies for settling transactions or making payments, but allow them to be held as assets like gold, shares or bonds, according to a report in The Economic Times.
Citing sources within the government, the newspaper reported that this approach would avoid a complete shutdown on crypto, though the government was keen to stop crypto companies, including exchange apps and platforms from actively trying to attract new investors. Cryptocurrency in India: Govt Likely to Table Crypto Bill in Parliament to Regulate Digital Currency
The crypto community earlier urged the Indian authorities asking to be classified as an asset rather than as a currency, in order to gain acceptance and avoid a ban.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a meeting to discuss the future of cryptocurrencies amid concerns that unregulated crypto markets could become avenues for money laundering and terror financing.
The government is finalising legislation that will pave the way for regulation of digital asset trading while barring the use of virtual currency for payments and transactions.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI) could be designated as the regulator, although a final call is yet to be taken. "Discussions on regulation are going on," the person said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has so far been hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies, expressing concerns over potential risks to macroeconomic and financial stability, and capital controls. Cryptocurrency in India: Reserve Bank Of India Governor Shaktikanta Das Reiterates His Opposition to Digital Currency
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das earlier said that the number of cryptocurrency accounts in India appears to be highly exaggerated. At a State Bank of India event in Mumbai he said there was need for a deeper discussion on cryptocurrencies and was yet to see well-informed debate on key concerns, some of which had been raised by the RBI.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2021 03:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
This month ushers in an era of new beginnings for royal families in Japan and Thailand.
For the first time in nearly 70 years, Thailand is crowning a new king. Maha Vajiralongkorn took the throne when his father died 2 years ago. On Saturday he was officially installed as king as part of a three-day ceremony drawing on Buddhist and Hindu traditions.
In Japan, Crown Prince Naruhito became the countrys 126th emperor on Tuesday, after his 85-year-old father, Emperor Akihito, stepped down.
Dozens of countries still have royal families. Some monarchs go by the title of king or queen while others are referred to as emperor, sultan or emir.
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The level of power they exert depends on the country.
In Norway, Spain, Britain and Sweden, the royal positions are purely ceremonial. Several countries in Africa and Asia have similar figurehead monarchs, among them Lesotho, Cambodia and Malaysia.
In Thailand, the king has the power to pardon criminals and is viewed as a force for helping unite a deeply divided nation.
Then there are royals who continue to rule like monarchs of old.
Saudi Arabias King Salman also serves as prime minister, holding supreme executive, legislative and judicial power. (Fethi Belaid / Associated Press)
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, a kingdom ruled by one person. In 2015, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud took on that role. In addition to being the king, he serves as prime minister, holding supreme executive, legislative and judicial power.
Key support positions, such as the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, are given to members of the royal family.
King Salmans son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is next in line to the throne.
Since taking power, Salman and others in the royal family have taken measures to tighten their grip over their subjects. Once seen as a reformer, Crown Prince Mohammed has faced international condemnation after Octobers grisly murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
In April, King Salman ratified a royal decree to behead 37 Saudi citizens, most of them Shiite Muslims a minority in a country ruled by Sunni Muslims. Officials said those condemned had engaged in terrorism-related offenses, allegations questioned by human rights advocates.
The monarchy has also ordered the arrest of womens rights activists, including protesters of the nations since-lifted ban on women driving.
Swazilands King Mswati III rules Africas last absolute monarchy. (Paballo Thekiso / AFP/Getty Images)
Swaziland
Swaziland, home to 1.3 million people, is Africas last absolute monarchy. The small country in southern Africa has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.
A majority of the population in Swaziland live in poverty in rural areas.
In 2006, the ruling family introduced a new constitution that included a bill of rights. But human rights activists say the monarchy has continued to restrict freedom of expression, assembly and association.
In 2018, Mswati announced that he was renaming the country the Kingdom of eSwatini, meaning the land of Swazis, though the name change has not been embraced by most of the rest of the world. The announcement was made on the countrys 50th anniversary of independence from British rule.
Monacos leader, Prince Albert II, shares legislative power with the National Council. (Julien Warnand / EPA/Shutterstock)
Monaco
Monaco is a hereditary constitutional monarchy led by Prince Albert II. It was established in 1911.
Tourism drives the economy in the postage stamp-sized nation of 39,000 people.
In 1962, the countrys constitution was reformed to provide independence to portions of its judicial and legislative bodies.
For instance, legislative power is now shared by the prince and the National Council a group of 24 members elected by popular vote every five years. The prince proposes laws and the National Council votes on them.
The prince also appoints a president to the seven-member Crown Council, which advises the prince on domestic and international issues, such as ratification of treaties and the granting of amnesty and citizenship.
In 2002, Sheik Hamed bin Isa Khalifa changed Bahrain from an emirate to a kingdom and gave himself the title of king. (Ludovic Marin / AFP/Getty Images)
Bahrain
The small Persian Gulf island has been ruled by the Khalifa family since 1783. Members of the royal family control the ministries of Defense, Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs.
The countrys political system has undergone shifts over the last three decades.
Sheik Hamed bin Isa Khalifa, who took power in 1999, turned the emirate into a kingdom three years later and gave himself the title of king.
Human rights groups have criticized the monarchy for its clampdown on dissent. According to a 2018 Amnesty International report, authorities arrested activists and political opponents who criticized the monarchy ahead of parliamentary elections in November 2018.
Bruneis Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, right, shown with Malaysian Sultan Syed Sirajuddin in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, has ruled the tiny oil-rich Asian kingdom for more than five decades. (Jimin Lai / AFP/Getty Images)
Brunei
For more than five decades, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has reigned over the tiny, oil-rich Asian kingdom.
The monarchy, which has been around for hundreds of years, has endured turbulent times. In the late 19th century, Britain intervened in the countrys affairs, and Brunei became a British protectorate in 1906 under a treaty that allowed the ruling dynasty and its line of succession to remain intact.
During World War II, between 1941 and 1945, Japan occupied the country.
As head of state, Bolkiah also serves as prime minister, in charge of the countrys armed forces and Finance Ministry.
The monarchy sparked international outrage when it announced in April that it would begin stoning those charged with adultery or homosexuality under a new penal code based on sharia law.
Celebrities including George Clooney and Elton John quickly condemned the crackdown and called for a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hotel Bel-Air and seven other hotels in Europe owned by the sultan.
melissa.etehad@latimes.com
Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad
Members of the Greater Chaco Coalition are applauding President Joe Biden and Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's announcement to finally address environmental justice and meaningful tribal consultation for the Greater Chaco region by launching a new collaborative landscape level planning process in 2022 with Tribes, elected officials, communities, and stakeholders.
For over a century, the federal government has quite literally treated the Greater Chaco Landscape like a national energy sacrifice zone. The region has been victim to large-scale resource exploitation, and a colonial history of Navajo displacement and land dispossession which has carved the landscape into a complex checkerboard of federal, state, private, and Navajo allotment land. Today, more than 91% of available lands in the Greater Chaco area of northwestern New Mexico are already leased for oil and gas, as a recent boom of industrialized fracking has made New Mexico the second biggest oil producer in the United States, now responsible for nearly half of all federal extractive emissions.
READ ALSO: Pres. Joe Biden Administration To Restart Border Wall Construction After Scrapping Former Pres. Donald Trump's Border Wall Plans
Since 2015, and long before, the National Congress of American Indians, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, Navajo Nation, and Greater Chaco Coalition members have called for an end to unchecked oil and gas extraction in the Greater Chaco region and for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs to make good on their promise of meaningful landscape management. Federal and state agencies continue to fail in considering Tribal-led cultural resource studies and the cumulative effects of extractive industries on communities health and well-being, the cultural landscape, and the climate. New fracking wells continue to be approved outside the buffer zone and across the landscape.
Having previously expressed concerns over limiting the scope of protections to a 10-mile federal mineral withdrawal around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the Greater Chaco Coalition continues to call on federal agencies to fulfil their promises to address environmental justice and the cumulative impacts of oil and gas in the region. The proposed withdrawal today is but one piece of a larger effort to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape, as residents, Tribes, and Pueblos with cultural ties to the region have been experiencing the impacts of resource extraction for decades. Coalition members are calling today's announcement of a new process and collaboration a step forward toward finally ameliorating a legacy of broken promises.
Greater Chaco Coalition members look forward to engaging the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in agency discussions to begin to repair the longstanding damage that mineral resource extraction has wrought across the Greater Chaco Landscape and to create new frameworks that finally address the health, wealth, and wellness for the entirety of the Greater Chaco Region.
Statements
Statement from the Honorable Chairman Daniel Tso
"For too many years, the Navajo Nation has been assaulted by waves of resource exploitation and legacies of sacrifice zones. Our work to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape started in earnest when seven matriarchs of the far-eastern Dine Counselor Chapter community demanded action be taken to stop the tsunami of new oil and gas that threatens the health, safety, and lifeways of the Dine people who live amongst these fracking monsters. Our calls echoed and we continue to build support to safeguard the living and ancient cultural landscape of the Greater Chaco Landscape.
From that call Navajo Nation Chapter Houses, the Eastern Navajo Agency Council, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, Senator Tom Udall, Senator Martin Heinrich, Assistant Speaker and now Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Representative Raul Grijalva, Representative and now Secretary Debra Haaland, Representative Alan Lowenthal, Representative Xochitl Torres Small, President Jonathan Nez, The All-Pueblo Council of Governors, the National Congress of American Indians; and now President Joe Biden all have taken up the firebrand to Protect the Greater Chaco Landscape.
We owe so much to the matriarchs who first demanded action to stop the destructive oil and gas fracking. These matriarchs' prayers and songs are what sustained us when our efforts to protect the communities got hard and complicated. It is with the deepest respect of these prayers that we continue the heartwork to adhere to the great natural LAWS to protect the Land, Air, Water and Sacred.
Today I applaud the great courageous action by the Biden Administration to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape, charting a new path forward for landscape management.
It is the hope of the people that these actions will chart the new way forward for Dine peoples' trust and trustee relationships with the federal government, further action on the part of state governments, and finally address the cumulative and consequential impacts of mineral resource extraction."
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Daniel Tso, Chairman of the Navajo Nation Health, Education, and Human Services Committee
Dine Allottees Against Oil Exploitation (DAoX) Statement
"As Dine allotment holders, we and our heirs greatly welcome the action by President Biden to not just protect the 10-mile buffer surrounding the Chaco Canyon National Historic Park boundaries, but to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape in its entirety. Our rights as landowners, our trustee relationship with the federal government, as well as our communities' public health has been greatly impacted by oil and gas industry fracking, alongside other extractive industries in the area, for decades. Because of the absence of free, prior, and informed consent, nearly all of the rubber-stamping actions from federal management agencies across the Greater Chaco Landscape are textbook examples of the absence of meaningful Tribal engagement, and represent the impacts of environmental and institutional racism. We were not adequately informed and did not consent to more than 40,000 oil and gas wells that already litter the Greater Chaco region. The oil and gas industry is second to none when it comes to disrespecting Tribal communities, furthering institutional and environmental racism against our people and across this Landscape. Most reprehensible was the fact that federal agencies facilitated the destruction and contamination of our communities while a global pandemic raged. This federal racist injustice cannot be forgotten.
President Biden and Secretary Haaland's actions today start to turn this racist status quo on its head. We feel that the racial injustice that has been perpetrated on our communities has caused the coming of an unavoidable reckoning to the people who knowingly permitted the destruction of our communities. We can only have great pity and compassion for those people who worked so hard to destroy our lands and people, and we can only continue the generations-long work to console the hurt the Dine people have experienced.
With an ongoing 20-year long mega drought in New Mexico and current water resources being continuously drained to feed the oil and gas industry, we see the use of potable water for this industry as an extremely negligent misuse of this scarce resource and a very threat to our existence as an entire population here in the high desert landscape. Again, we were not informed, and we did not consent.
We as Dine Allottees Against Oil Exploitation are deeply aware that money is the most temporary thing in the world. What is forever will be a healthy land, sky, water and people."
Members Paul and Mary Ann Atencio, Allotment Land Owners, Lauren Howland and Alexander Howland, Allotment Land Owners, Samuel Sage, Allotment Land Owner
Dine CARE Statement
"President Biden's promise to protect not just the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, but the Greater Chaco Landscape promises to end the practice of Dine communities serving as sacrifice zones for oil and gas 'development'. By starting a new collaborative process to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape, we hope it is to ultimately protect the Environmental Justice communities in the Checkerboarded Eastern Navajo Agency. The communities of Counselor, Ojo Encino, and Torreon/Starlake have been on the frontline of a great struggle to address the public health impacts of oil and gas fracking across the landscape. These humble and resilient communities have made great sacrifices to share their stories and to resist the oil and gas juggernauts. These communities are heroes for their resiliency, and they deserve the highest respect, admiration, and gratitude for this step forward.
Dine CARE is blessed and honored to have partnered with these communities in their sacred struggle to protect Mother Earth and Father Sky. Dine CARE will always stand with the people who take action to protect the earth and the people. We can see that from now the work to have all stakeholders, including all sentient beings from the fungi, ants, aquatic species, elk and eagles, be represented when the time comes to develop landscape level management plans.
The people in the Greater Chaco Landscape live by this maxim: What you do the Earth; you do the people. Today President Biden is not just protecting and healing the earth and sky, he is protecting and healing the people. We are most hopeful that this action is a turning point where the United States natural resource management planning philosophy focuses on the protection of all living beings."
Carol Davis, Executive Director, Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Dine CARE)
Pueblo Action Alliance Statement
"Pueblo Action Alliance applauds the Biden Administration and Secretary Haaland for taking an active step to protect our ancestral homelands and address existing fossil fuel infrastructure. Bold actions like this are incremental to what is needed to address the climate crisis as the Southwest fights to protect water as a result of fossil fuel extraction. Real solutions like banning fracking and decreasing our carbon emissions are the bold actions being heralded by young people who want to see clean air and water in their futures. Not only to preserve cultural and ancestral history to the Pueblo people, but to begin processes that sever the dependency of oil and gas in regions where the federal fossil fuel leasing program has gone off the rails.
This announcement has only created opportunities for Indigenous communities to shape the future for the Greater Chaco region. Participation from frontline and Indigenous organizations will better shape long term plans for how the region is going to be managed. We hope that the participation from organizations like ours can help implement management practices that include community participation, tribal co-management strategies, and climate resiliency.
We'd like to also thank our Pueblo tribes who have advocated for our cultural landscapes to be protected through the federal trust responsibility. 20 Pueblo tribal nations have collectively worked to stop further expansion and have denounced resource extraction that threatened our cultural and traditional lifeways.
As a young Pueblo Indigenous organization, we have dedicated our efforts to educate our people on the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and further its social impacts. We manage stress and anxiety knowing that unless we take action to mitigate and adapt to climate chaos our futures would be grim. We have been watching what has been going on at COP26 and the response from young climate activists across the globe who have been all pleading that our leaders take bold climate action. Chaco represents both cultural and climate protections that speak to the Indigenous perspective that I believe Secretary Haaland understands. We pray this is real and we pray that this is meaningful for our futures."
Julia Bernal, Alliance Director, Pueblo Action Alliance
Additional Statements from Greater Chaco Coalition
"Ahe'hee, Nitsaago La' Hodzaa, Tse Biyah Anii'ahi', hiha biki'ho'jish dliid. (Been Blessed and Survived). Thank you to all who worked on these efforts and for the accomplishments. Thank you to the Tri-Chapter, the Greater Chaco Coalition, Pueblo Action Alliance, and all others. Our efforts have been materialized and heard by the Great Spirit and the Powers at Be. We hope that future landscape planning efforts for the Greater Chaco Landscape consider our Dine-led Health Impact Assessment-K'e Bee Hozhoogo Iina Sila and other Tribal-led ethnographic studies. Ahe'hee."
Dine Centered Research and Evaluation team
"This landscape level planning process will build on the initial mineral withdrawal with the promise to ensure the Greater Chaco region is afforded complete protection from fracking. Now the real work begins!"
Rebecca Sobel, Organizing Director, WildEarth Guardians
"Many of our local organizations have been part of consultation on the Greater Chaco landscape for a decade, often ignored by the agencies tasked with multiple use oversight. Industrialization of the landscape with oil and gas is incompatible with protection of cultural and heritage values, and living communities. The initiative to address existing energy development and long term protection of Chaco Culture World Heritage site will require complete reshaping of the missions of BLM and BIA in New Mexico."
Mike Eisenfeld, Energy and Climate Program Manager, San Juan Citizens Alliance
"In initiating this process, Secretary Haaland and President Biden shone a light on vast concerns that have been raised for years about oil and gas extraction destroying this sacred landscape, living culture and communities. It is time to prioritize the people and cultural integrity of this region. We look forward to working with the Biden administration to ensure that the process, and future steps, center environmental justice and meaningful tribal consultation to protect public health and ensure broader landscape-level protections for the Greater Chaco region."
Miya King-Flaherty, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
"I applaud President Joe Biden's administration and Secretary Deb Haaland in this new concerted effort to address protecting our beloved Chaco Canyon and the Greater Chaco Region. It appears there is still more work to do, but I believe with the heart of the Greater Chaco Coalition and our allies, we can get it done and see true permanent protections for Seven Generations to come."
Terry Sloan, Director, Southwest Native Cultures
"Action must align with the magnitude of the crises we face, and there is perhaps no better example where environmental justice, public health, and the climate emergency meet than in the Greater Chaco landscape. These sacred lands and communities have been sacrificed for generations through colonization and fossil fuel exploitation. Broader protections for Greater Chaco are long overdue, and we applaud the Biden administration for taking this important step toward justice."
Kyle Tisdel, attorney and climate & energy program director for Western Environmental Law Center
"We applaud President Biden and Secretary Haaland's announcement to consider a 20-year withdrawal from oil and gas leasing and development within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Canyon, as well as the New Mexico State Land Office's decision to place a moratorium on new state mineral leases. This is a step in the right direction. As a law center that represents Indigenous clients, we firmly believe that consultation must be respected and become the norm for any development project on Indigenous lands or any project that impacts Indigenous communities. Meaningful consultation and co-management is long overdue. As the climate crisis continues as the most pressing issue of our time, we must collectively act with a greater sense of urgency to protect sacred sites, cultural heritage, and Mother Earth."
Dr. Virginia Necochea, Executive Director, New Mexico Environmental Law Center
"We are excited that President Biden and Secretary Haaland are addressing the issue of gas and oil leasing in the Greater Chaco area. The consideration of a 20-year withdrawal within a 10-mile radius of Chaco National Historical Park is a wonderful start and we are especially excited about the initiation of a landscape-level management process! We still have work to do to address the existing impacts of oil and gas leasing and drilling for frontline communities. Tribal consultation is extremely important moving forward as fracking disproportionately harms indigenous communities. Environmental justice needs to always be at the forefront."
Jenni Siri, Frack Free Four Corners
"President Biden and Secretary Haaland's announcement on the Greater Chaco Landscape is an important first step towards permanent protection. While there is still work to be done, these efforts to safeguard tribes and communities will be essential to protect the region from the disastrous effects of oil and gas development."
Raena Garcia, Fossil Fuels and Lands Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
"By initiating a process to withdraw federal mineral and fossil fuel extraction and development activities around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, President Biden is showing that he is committed to protecting Chaco Canyon's cultural importance to tribal and frontline communities, New Mexicans, and the country. We believe that Secretary Haaland's broader land management assessment of the region will show that further oil and gas development must be curtailed in lands nearby."
Jorge Aguilar, Food & Water Watch
"Polluters have for too long had their way with this sacred region. Today's move is a good step toward more meaningful sovereign tribal government-to-government consultation and essential protections for this region in collaboration with frontline communities. We cannot afford to sacrifice regions like Greater Chaco to the fossil fuel industry if we want to try to avoid the worst effects of climate change."
Alison Kelly, Senior Attorney for Lands, Natural Resources Defense Council
"This victory represents what can happen when people who care about the health of the land, air, wate and the sacred remain committed to achieving justice for the greater good. Thank you to the unstinting efforts of all who cared about the Greater Chaco Landscape and most especially for the Elders' prayers."
Evalyn Bemis, Photographer
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FBI whistleblower documents show that the agency's counterterrorism unit is tracking and compiling investigations into threats directed at school board members and other school officials.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans released a whistleblower email on Tuesday, showing that the Federal Bureau of Investigations is using counterterrorism measures to monitor threats against school officials, according to The Daily Wire report.
The email was sent on behalf of the assistant directors of the FBI's counterterrorism and criminal divisions. It said that they share an obligation to ensure all individuals are able to do their jobs without threats of violence or fear for their safety.
The email went mentioned that their Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a threat tag called "EDUOFFICIALS" to track instances of related threats, with the aim to help scope the threat on a national level. The FBI whistleblower email also said that the threat tag provides an opportunity for comprehensive analysis of the threat picture for effective engagement with law enforcement partners.
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FBI Tracking Threats
The FBI released a statement saying that it is committed to preserving the First Amendment, adding that the creation of a threat tag in no way changes the long-standing requirements for opening an investigation, according to a Fox News report. FBI added that it does not represent a shift in how the agency prioritizes threats.
Meanwhile, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted that Attorney General Merrick Garland had testified that the FBI was not targeting parents. Jordan went on to say that people now know that the FBI is "tagging" parents they consider threatening. The Republican representative said that the Attorney General has "some explaining to do."
However, the FBI said that the agency has never been in the business of investigating parents who speak out or policing speech at school board meetings, adding that the agency is now going to start now.
The National Association of School Boards sent a letter on September 29 to U.S. President Joe Biden. They claimed that America's public schools and its education leaders are under imminent threat due to approving policies for masks, according to a Daily Mail report.
Garland announced on October 4 that it had called on the FBI and local law enforcement to tackle the "disturbing trend" of teachers receiving threats and harassment. Garland noted that the rise in harassment and threats of violence has been in a time which progressive school boards across the country have seen furious parents protest policies, such as gender-neutral bathrooms, as well as critical race theory teachings.
The Attorney General said that his department would take a series of actions in response to the threats. However, the NSBA withdrew its letter that likened parents to domestic terrorists and apologized for the use of language.
The DOJ admitted that the NSBA letter partly prompted its move against threats to educators and other school officials. Garland said that the language in the letter was never included in his memo and never would have been.
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Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: School board members ask for law enforcement help after string of threats, disruptions - from CBS 8 San Diego
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to authorize the Pfizer COVID booster vaccine shots by Thursday. The move by the agency was confirmed by people familiar with the FDA's plans to The New York Times on Tuesday.
It can be recalled that the FDA downsized Pfizer's request to fully approve their booster vaccines for all American adults in September. Instead, the agency authorized the said doses on a limited population including those 65 years and older and those adults with underlying medical conditions. People who are also at high risk to COVID-19 because of their job were also allowed to take the Pfizer COVID booster vaccine shots.
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FDA on Authorizing Pfizer Booster Vaccine
If the authorization from the FDA takes place on Thursday, the coverage of its eligibility will also be affected.
According to the source, the authorization would expand the number of American adults eligible for the additional COVID shots. Furthermore, The New York Times noted that any adults who received their second dose of vaccine at least six months earlier would be "officially" eligible to get booster shots on weekend.
Furthermore, the FDA is expected to rule their authorization without the aid or consultation from their expert panel.
"Moderna is expected to soon submit their own request for the FDA to broaden eligibility for its booster. But for now, every adult could get the Pfizer booster according to people familiar with the planning.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) independent committee of vaccine experts plan to hold a meeting on Friday to talk about the booster doses' efficacy and safety. The three-hour meeting of the CDC committee is expected to be straightforward, as the booster campaign in the U.S. has already come.
Some U.S. States Promotes Pfizer Booster Vaccines Even Without Authorization From FDA
The FDA's plan on authorizing the Pfizer COVID booster shots came as several states in the U.S. promoted the booster shots ahead of the FDA's authorization. One of the states that promoted the said boosters is Arkansas. On Monday, Governor Asa Hutchinson urged the American adults to get the booster vaccines.
"For Pfizer and Moderna, those who are 18 and over, go get the shot. There's not any limitations on that. Obviously, you should be six months after the second shot. But we want you to get the booster," Governor Hutchinson, adding that they informed the Biden administration about their plans.
Meanwhile, Colorado and New Mexico said that their entire states are at "high risk," which is why they need third doses pointing to the federal guidance that allows adults who work in "high-risk settings" to receive the booster shots. Furthermore, the two states, as well as California and Arkansas, have already moved to expand their access to booster shots.
On Monday, New York City health officials also encouraged all the adults who want booster vaccines to seek them out.
It can be recalled that booster shots are recommended for all adults who received Johnson and Johnsons' COVID vaccines. Meanwhile, the CDC only allows boosters for Pfizer and Moderna adult takers aged 65 and older and those with underlying medical conditions.
To date, at least 30 to 40 percent of vaccinated adults are still excluded from booster eligibility. More than 30 million people were recorded to receive the booster vaccine shots with its number "outpacing" the number of first shots given each day across the United States.
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Written By" Joshua Summers
WATCH: Pfizer Believes Covid Booster Shot May Offer Better Protection - From NBC News
Former U.S. President Donald Trump could face other charges and even spend three years in prison for violating the Hatch Act, according to two legal experts.
Professor Claire Finkelstein of the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor Richard Painter of the University of Minnesota Law School noted that the Office Special Counsel's report adds to the case for a criminal investigation, according to an Independent report. Finkelstein and Painter both filed a Hatch Act criminal complaint against Trump with Justice Department's Public Integrity Division in October 2020.
The OSC report states that the office concluded that the Trump administration tacitly or expressly approved a series of Hatch Act violations committed within the period before the 2020 election. The professors said that Justice Department's failure to act on their complaint in October 2020 while Trump was still in office "was a lost opportunity." They added that if the department had acted on their complaint, it could be possible that the January 6 insurrection would not have occurred.
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Hatch Act Violation
Hatch Act is a law that seeks to help government functions nonpartisan. It is supposed to stop the federal government from affecting elections or going about its activities in a partisan manner, according to a KCRA report. The law applies to federal employees as well as state and local employees who work with federally funded programs.
An internal federal government watchdog agency, OSC, noted on its recent report that 13 senior administration officials violated the Hatch Act, according to a Business Insider report. The report states that OSC did find that several officials did violate the act, mainly by speaking about the 2020 presidential election in interviews with the media.
However, the hosting of last year's Republican National Convention on the grounds of the White House was not a violation of the Hatch Act. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, said in a statement that the report confirms that there was nothing less than a systematic co-opting of the powers of the federal government to keep Trump in office. Bookbinder said that Trump had publicly defended an employee OSC found to have repeatedly violated the Hatch Act.
Meanwhile, a former Trump aide, Stephanie Grisham, said that White House insiders wore Hatch Act violations like "a badge of honor," according to another Independent report. Grisham, who was Trump's former press secretary, said that administration staffers viewed it as a "joke."
The former Trump aide added that Trump used to tell them that he was in charge of the Hatch Act and that they can say whatever they want to say. Grisham then commented on the 2022 election, saying it is more important than ever.
Bookbinder said that the report shows that there is a need to reform the law. The ethics president noted that Congress must act so that the same incident will not happen again.
CREW filed a Hatch Act complaint against White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki after she made a seeming endorsement for former Gov. Terry McAuliffe amid the Virginia gubernatorial race.
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Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: At Least 13 Trump Officials Violated The Hatch Act While In Office - from MSNBC
Alec Baldwin's brother, Daniel Baldwin, defended the "Rust" actor on Tuesday saying that Alec has no blame at all despite discharging the prop gun on the set of the western film that claimed the life of Halyna Hutchins.
Daniel Baldwin made his comments during an interview on "The Domenick Nati Show" which was aired on Instagram Live, Deadline reported.
"Alec has no blame in this [fatal shooting] at all," Daniel Baldwin said, pointing out that his older brother was informed by the film's assistant director Dave Hall, about the revolver he will be using in the scene was a "cold gun."
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Daniel added that Halls' announcement absolves his older brother of any wrongdoing, pointing out that announcements such as "cold gun" Halls must have witnessed an empty weapon.
Daniel furthered that Alec Baldwin is present in the set to do acting, contradicting other moviemakers in suggesting should not be expected to run his own safety checks, New York Post reported.
"They're [actors] to do the acting. A number of protocols made known to the public and in this case exonerate Alec of any responsibility at all," Daniel Baldwin said.
Alec Baldwin's Brother Says 'Rust' Actor Attacked for His Political Views
Aside from defending his brother from claiming that he has no blame to take in the "Rust" shooting tragedy, Daniel Baldwin also claimed that Alec was attacked due to his political views after he was asked directly about it in the interview.
However, Daniel did not blatantly disclose what political views he was referring to.
"So let's go ahead and take Alec for his political views and the many, many wonderful things he's done for the different charities and people and his wife, and let's see if we can't sensationalize this and go after Alec," Daniel said.
Despite claiming that people who do not like his brother will target the "Rust" actor, Daniel said that they will let those people do it, claiming that Alec Baldwin will not go to jail six months from now.
George Clooney Rips Alec Baldwin Over Deadly 'Rust' Shooting Accident
Daniel Baldwin's comment came days after actor George Clooney slammed Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting that killed Halyna Hutchins, calling it a "stupid mistake."
Clooney made his comments about Baldwin during the November 15 episode of Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast.
"Maybe they weren't even using that gun to do target practice, but they have live ammo with dummies... And that's insane. It's insane. It's infuriating," Clooney underscored.
Clooney shared his own experience while filming with guns on set, claiming that every actor takes additional steps to make sure the weapon is safe even after a crew member gives them a go signal about the guns.
George Clooney claimed that he open and looks at the gun then show it to the person next to him and the crew before using it on the set.
George Clooney also said that he has not heard the term "cold gun," the phrase Baldwin claims Halls gave him upon receiving the weapon.
"I've never heard the term. Literally, they're just talking about stuff I've never heard of. It's just infuriating," Clooney pointed out.
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Written By: Joshua Summers
WATCH: Alec Baldwin Shares Post Defending 'Rust' Working Conditions - ET Canada
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday that the number of Haitian migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border decreased by 94 percent last month.
In general, Aljazeera reported that the number of migrants who crossed the U.S.' southern border with Mexico dropped during the month of October for a third consecutive month.
CBP noted that 164,303 migrants were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border in October, which is a 14 percent decrease compared to September. The number was comprised of 902 Haitians, lower than the more than 17,600 who crossed in September.
In a statement, CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said October marks the third straight month of declining unauthorized migrant encounters along the border. Miller noted that there were also sharp decreases in families and unaccompanied children crossing the southern border.
CBP said the more than 164,000 migrant arrests in October is a 23 percent decline from July when border arrests reached a 21-year high, CBS News reported.
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Migrants in U.S.-Mexico Border
Around 70,000 of the migrants who entered the U.S. border custody in October were processed under immigration laws. They were also allowed to seek asylum. However, it is unclear how many of them requested protection.
The number of unaccompanied children processed by the U.S. fell below 13,000, which is a 32 percent drop from the monthly record set in July.
The CBP data also showed that federal agents had stopped parents and children traveling as families over 42,000 times in October, marking a 48 percent decrease from July. On the other hand, the arrests of migrant adults traveling without children have declined slightly but remain high due to repeat crossing attempts along the border.
Some of those who attempt to cross the border again have been expelled under Title 42. However, the Biden administration has not used Title 42 to expel unaccompanied children unlike the administration of former President Donald Trump.
Instead, the Biden administration is transferring unaccompanied children to government-controlled shelters.
Miller said the Biden administration is focused on dismantling the work of smugglers, facilitating the journeys of many migrants after charging them sums of money.
The Biden Administration Amid Migrant Crossings
Officials of the Biden administration said the deportations were consistent with its enforcement policy, The New York Times reported.
However, human rights advocates condemned the "harsh treatment" and quick removals of the migrants, saying that migrants were being returned to a country ravaged by natural disasters and political turmoil.
Jessica Bolter, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said it was clear that the recent increase in Haitian expulsions has provided a short-term deterrent. Bolter added that it is less clear that it will have a long-term effect.
Meanwhile, Mexican officials have been trying to stop a caravan of mostly Haitians and Central Americans who had been traveling north to the U.S. after they entered Mexico from Guatemala.
A number of Haitians, specifically around 20,000, are stranded in Tapachula. The majority of Haitian migrants have been reportedly living for years in Chile or Brazil.
Haitians now account for a majority of asylum applicants in Mexico with their goal in most cases is to receive the documents that will allow them to come toward the U.S.
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Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: Migrant Caravan: Thousands In Mexico Moving Towards U.S. Border - From NBC News
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has declined to investigate the "whipping" allegations between the horse-mounted border agents and the Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.
DHS revealed the decision of the department's watchdog on Tuesday. The DHS said the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) originally referred the matter to the department's OIG that decided not to pursue it, New York Post reported.
The DHS did not provide details on when and why the OIG declined to push through with the probe. However, the OIG reportedly referred the issue to CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which quickly started "investigative work" that appears to be ongoing.
A source familiar with the matter told USA Today that an inquiry would have been launched if the issue involved possible criminal activity.
The source noted that there were no such allegations included when the case was brought to the inspector general for consideration.
It can be recalled that the Biden administration has vowed to investigate the horse-mounted border patrol agents chasing and aggressively dispersing Haitian migrants in Del Rio last September.
The incident had been captured on videos and images by various news outlets. Some footage showed agents swinging ropes used by horse riders while trying to block the Haitian migrants trying to pass.
Around 20,000 Haitian migrants have tried to stream across the Rio Grande from Mexico for over a period of days. The administration earlier said the probe would only take "days," but is now taking months.
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CBP Investigates the Accusations About the Horse-Mounted Border Agents
According to The Washington Examiner, the DHS said the CBP's OPR has already been reviewing the videos and photos and interviewing witnesses, employees, and agency leadership in connection with the probe.
"Once complete, the results of the investigation will be provided to CBP management to determine whether disciplinary action is appropriate and, if so, the specific discipline to be imposed," the DHS said.
Third parties on social media had earlier accused an agent of whipping a migrant. Some administration officials also quickly condemned the law enforcement agent even before an investigation had been undertaken.
But witnesses and other officials defended the agent in question, with some saying that the whipping did not occur. Photographer Paul Ratije earlier said he never saw the agents whipping anyone, although he saw some agents swinging the long reins of their horses.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Says He Stands With the Border Agents
During Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he "stand with" the border agents when Senator Mike Lee asked him why he did not defend the agents when they were accused of whipping the migrants, "when in fact they were not."
"I stand with the men and women of our department through and through... and I will not prejudge facts before," Mayorkas noted.
Mayorkas was abruptly cut by the senator, who reiterated his question if he defended his subordinates on the accusations.
Mayorkas then answered that the independent investigation would determine the facts, adding that "those facts will drive the outcome."
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Written by: Joshua Summers
WATCH: White House Calls Images of Border Patrol on Horseback Using Force on Haitian Migrants' Horrific' - From KENS 5
A Georgia ambulance driver is now facing charges after allegedly consuming drugs and alcohol before a rollover crash that killed the 66-year-old patient he was transporting, authorities said.
According to Fox News, Kevin McCorvey admitted to a police officer that he smoked marijuana, took Adderall drug, and drank a beer while driving the ambulance.
Georgia Ambulance Driver's Reckless Driving Led to Patient's Death
Based on the 13WMAZ report, the crash in Fairburn shortly before 7:25 p.m. Friday killed Wilton Thomason, a 66-year-old dialysis patient who was being transported in a non-emergency capacity.
The Georgia State Patrol said the 34-year-old ambulance driver failed to maintain his lane and traveled off the shoulder, causing the ambulance to overturn in a ditch.
NBC News reported that McCorvey is now being held at Fulton County Jail on charges that include DUI, first-degree homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence of multiple substances, and reckless conduct.
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First Responders at Georgia Fatal Crash Shares Experience
Georgia State Patrol troopers told Fox5 Atlanta that Kevin McCorvey entered the shoulder of a road which caused his driven ambulance to overturn.
An incident report from the Fairburn Police Department said the state patrol was called to the scene and conducted a field sobriety test, which the ambulance driver failed to pass.
Thomason was reportedly not restrained at the time of the crash and died from the injuries he suffered from the accident.
A Fairburn police officer, who was one of the first officers who responded to the crash, wrote in his report that he broke one of the ambulance windows to rescue another passenger present in the vehicle. The officer said the other passenger only suffered a laceration.
The Fairburn Police Department said upon the arrival of a police officer, witnesses at the scene provided a ladder to try to climb through the ambulance's rear door to open it.
The officer made contact with McCorvey and another employee who worked in the ambulance, and they said they were fine, but they had a dialysis patient with them.
The police officer reportedly witnessed McCorvey giving CPR to Thomason following the crash, but the medical first responders later pronounced the patient died at the scene. McCorvey allegedly told the officer that Thomason had gone into cardiac arrest.
The Fairburn Police Department said the ambulance driver and the second employee tried to leave the scene in an Uber vehicle. However, police said they were stopped, and the officer that spoke to McCorvey smelled an alcoholic odor emanating from his breath.
McCorvey was taken into custody after he failed the sobriety test. The other ambulance worker was reportedly picked up by the owner of a private ambulance service.
According to the records of Fulton County Superior Court, McCorvey appeared in court Monday. NBC News reported that a lawyer listed representing McCorvey could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The patient's families also have yet to comment.
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Written by: Jess Smith
WATCH: Ambulance Driver Admits Drinking Beer Smoking Pot Taking Adderall - From Great News
"La Jefa," the wife of Jalisco cartel boss Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, was arrested by the military in the western state of Jalisco in Mexico on Monday night.
Rosalinda Gonzalez, known by her alias "La Jefa" or "the Boss," was caught in Zapopan City. In a statement, Mexico's defense ministry described the arrest as a "significant blow to the financial structure of organized crime in the state of Jalisco," Daily Mail reported.
The ministry noted that Gonzalez is facing charges for several crimes, including her involvement in the "illicit financial operation" of the Jalisco cartel.
Security forces previously arrested La Jefa in May 2018. However, she was released four months later after paying an $82,000 bail bond. At the time, the judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to try her on money laundering charges.
A Mexican official said the government expressed concerns regarding the arrest of Gonzalez as it could provoke a reaction from her husband's Jalisco cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).
The Arrest of Jalisco Cartel Boss' Daughter 'La Negra'
El Mencho's daughter, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, alias "La Negra," was also arrested in February 2020, Reuters reported. Jessica Oseguera was walking into the Washington D.C. courthouse to attend her brother's hearing when she was arrested.
She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on June 11 for her role in laundering money for her father and his notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
La Negra's brother is Ruben Oseguera Gonzales, who is known to inherit the Jalisco cartel throne from his father in Mexico. He was known as "El Menchito."
El Menchito was accused of distributing cocaine and methamphetamine in the U.S. from 2007 to February 2017. He remains in jail, awaiting trial.
Their father, El Mencho, continues to evade capture, and the U.S. government offers a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Mike Vigil, former international operations chief for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, called Gonzalez a "narco queen, with her family being linked to drug trafficking for a long time, The Guardian reported.
Vigil believes that La Jefa had "all of the keys, all of the confidence of El Mencho, all of the information and was responsible for laundering" the Jalisco cartel's money. He suspects that Gonzalez could be interested in negotiating "some deal to help her children."
READ NEXT: Jalisco Cartel Boss El Mencho's Daughter, La Negra, 'Released' From U.S. Prison Just 3 Months Into 30-Month Term
El Mencho and the Jalisco Cartel
The Jalisco cartel or Jalisco New Generation Cartel is considered one of the most dangerous and powerful drug cartels in Mexico.
The Jalisco cartel had risen to power after Mexican security forces killed former Sinaloa cartel capo Ignacio Coronel in July 2010.
Two groups fought for control of drug trafficking in Jalisco upon Coronel's death. The Torcidos and La Resistencia were the two factions that fought.
The Torcidos now became the Jalisco cartel and rose as the successors to the Sinaloan cap's network in the region, according to an InsightCrime report.
El Mencho heads the Jalisco cartel, which had approximately 5,000 members and was allegedly involved in mass graves, kidnappings, acid baths, and video recording beheadings.
El Mencho remains to be the most elusive criminal and is currently hiding in Mexico, separated from his family.
READ MORE: La Negra, Daughter of Jalisco Cartel Boss El Mencho, Gets 2 1/2 Years in Prison for Violation of Kingpin Act
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: Detienen a Rosalinda 'N', Esposa de 'El Mencho' en Jalisco - From MILENIO
Gabby Petito's family on Tuesday said helping others and trying to make the world a better place can be seen as a form of justice for the death of Brian Laundrie's fiancee.
Petito's parents made their comments during an interview with WFLA Now after they were asked what justice for their daughter meant to them.
Members of Petito's family said justice for them was helping others, especially the victims of domestic violence, and making the world a better place.
Petito's mom, Nichole Schmidt, noted that even though she can't do it, she will try "saving the world" because "that's Gabby's legacy." Schmidt added that justice for her was "helping others."
"It's about the changes we can make. We can't change the past but we can change the future," she said. Petito's stepmom, Tara Petito, echoed what Schmidt said, noting that saving even a single person "would be justice."
"Just going forward, that's really what we would like to do. To save... or help her story get there so people know that we care," Tara noted.
READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Family Lawyer Says Remains of Gabby Petito's Fiance Have Not Been Turned Over Yet to Family
The Gabby Petito Foundation
Gabby Petito's father, Joe Petito, said the family tried to stay focused and put their energy toward the foundation they put up in honor of their late daughter.
"It's hard. We're still grieving and it's going to be a process for a long time... I think starting the foundation is a way of us grieving and getting through this," Schmidt noted.
The Gabby Petito Foundation was launched in late September, shortly after federal officials confirmed the death of Brian Laundrie's fiancee.
Petito's family formed the foundation to address the needs of organizations that support locating missing persons, NBC News reported.
The foundation also aims to provide aid to organizations that assist victims of domestic violence through education, awareness, and prevention strategies. Schmidt said, "the foundation is a way of us grieving."
"For me, it means preventing this from happening to someone else... That's what we're trying to do here. And that's justice, for me, it's helping others," she added.
Petito's mother noted that they are collaborating with experts across the country to learn more about what changes should be made in the wake of their daughter's death.
Joe Petito said they were also meeting with shelters, police, rescue teams, and therapists to determine what resources are needed most.
Schmidt noted that the foundation also focused on prevention education, and trying to get the issues in schools is their ultimate goal.
"I think prevention education will help prevent us from needing all these shelters some day. We have to start while they're young and - it's not in schools, unfortunately. And it needs to be," she added.
Petito's family is also calling for a nationwide alert system for people ages 18 to 64. Schmidt said there was currently nothing for that age group.
"It would be just like the Amber Alert or the Silver Alert but it's a different age group... We hope to bring that kind of change to missing persons," she noted.
Gabby Petito's Mom Says She Did Not See Any 'Red Flags' With Brian Laundrie
Nichole Schmidt said they did see any "red flags" in their daughter's relationship with Brian Laundrie.
"I don't know why Gabby didn't open up to me about certain things... We just didn't see any red flags," Petito's mom said n an interview with Dr. Oz.
A 911 call earlier narrated a domestic abuse involving Petito and Laundrie at a community cooperative in Moab, Utah before the YouTuber was reported missing.
The man who called the emergency hotline said they saw a man, who appeared to be Laundrie, slapped Petito before the two hopped back in a van and drove off on August 12.
Shortly after the call, the couple was filmed in police bodycam footage when Moab police stopped them. In the video, Petito, who was crying, told police that they had "been fighting all morning."
Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the You Tuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.
Laundrie was named a person of interest by North Port police after returning home on September 1 or 10 days before Petito was reported missing by her family.
On September 19, Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.
After a month-long manhunt, the North Port police and the FBI agents found Laundrie's remains in a swampy area of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20.
The FBI said the skeletal remains were confirmed to be Laundrie after a review of dental records. The initial autopsy did not uncover a cause or manner of his death, so the skeletal remains of Gabby Petito's fiance were sent to a forensic anthropologist for further examination.
READ MORE: Gabby Petito Search Led to Discovery of Missing Texas Man's Body in Wyoming; Brian Laundrie's Neighbor Got Into Scuffle With Protester
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Joshua Summers
WATCH: Gabby Petito's Parents Interviewed Live by WFLA Now's JB Biunno - From WFLA News Channel 8
Macra na Feirme President and Laois native John Keane was on hand this week to launch the search for the best young farmer in Ireland who could win a 5,000 top prize.
The Errill native attended the the event which marks the start of the search is on for the 23rd FBD Young Farmer of the Year.
The FBD Young Farmer of the Year Awards in association with Macra na Feirme, are sponsored annually by FBD and run by Macra na Feirme with partnerships with the IFA and the National Rural Network.
The stakes are higher in this years competition. In an exciting development, this year the overall prize fund is increasing substantially with an increased overall pot of cash prizes and the addition of insurance and hotel vouchers for category winners. The overall winner of the 2021 FBD Young Farmer of the Year will receive 5000 with each category winner and the Emerging Young Farmer taking home 1000. Each winner will also receive vouchers from the FBD Hotel Group and FBD Insurance.
Mr Keane said the competition is a showcase.
Since its inception over 20 years ago the FBD Young Farmer of The Year has always showcased the very best of Irish farming. Young farmers in Macra Na Feirme are crucial in delivering on challenges and opportunities that face the sector over the years ahead.
"The Young Farmer of The Year offers an opportunity to recognize and showcase the very best of Irish young farmers, who are world leaders in sustainable food production said the Macra na Feirme National President .
The competition features category awards for Dairy, Drystock (beef and sheep), Other Enterprises (including horticulture, pigs, poultry, tillage, equine), Land Mobility and Farm Management. Young farmers in these sectors are invited to enter and the winner of each sector will compete to be crowned the 2021 FBD Young Farmer of the Year. This year features awards for the Best Emerging Young Farmer and the National Rural Network Biodiversity Farmer of the Year Award. More below picture.
Left to right: Michael Berkery Chair of FBD Trust, Macra na Feirme President John Keane and Tomas OMideach CEO of FBD Insurance.
Tomas O'Midheach is the CEO of FBD Insurance.
FBD Insurance is delighted to continue our long-standing support for Macra na Feirme and the FBD Young Farmer of the Year Awards. At FBD Insurance, we understand the importance of supporting Irelands young farmers and to help showcase innovation and sustainability in Irish farming. These awards celebrate the achievements of young farmers and their contribution to farming.
"I would encourage all eligible young farmers to enter this competition and to help learn, share ideas and to showcase the next generation of farming talent in Ireland. On behalf of the team at FBD Insurance, we wish all applicants every success in the competition said .
IFA President Tim Cullinan urged young farmers to enter..
At a time of significant change in farming, its important to recognise innovation, talent and resilience. The Young Farmer of the Year is the perfect platform for the emerging talent to put their ambitions to the test. I would encourage anybody who is looking to create a future for themselves to enter the competition he said.
The competition was launched in 1999 and has been successful in raising the profile of young farmers within their community by recognising their achievements and contribution to farming.
You can nominate a young farmer for one of the categories or you can enter yourself by visiting www.macra.ie. The closing date for nominations is Monday 22 November 2021 and closing date for applications Friday 26 November 2021.
Laois businesses are urging shoppers to shop local this year through the handy and popular Laois Gift Card.
Launched last year by Laois Chamber and supported by Local Enterprise Office Laois, the Chamber says it is the ideal gift for friends and family, and a fantastic way to reward staff.
The Chamber adds that under the Small Benefit Exemption, employers can reward their staff up to 500 once per year completely free of tax, PRSI and USC.
A statement says that reesearch shows that for every 10 spent on Irish products, it generates more than 40 of benefit to local communities. Laois Chamber adds that buying from locally owned businesses is crucial to benefit our local communities as you will in turn be supporting local jobs, and locally owned businesses tend to support and buy from other local businesses.
Laois Chamber CEO, Caroline Hofman spoke about the importance of shopping local.
Spending local is so important for the local economy in Laois. Supporting local businesses by shopping all year around in our local retailers brings so many wider benefits to our local economy. We have such a wonderful choice of businesses and retailers throughout the county, and particularly after the challenges presented by Covid-19 its so important to continue supporting them. Shop local to keep your local economy vibrant, she said.
Laois Chamber President, Alison Browne added that shopping locally makes a big difference.
We have all now seen the magnificent support all of the local businesses have had during Covid times from their own communities. It has proved the point that if you shop locally, it really does make a huge difference to businesses, to their staff and the wider community. It builds a confident, thriving town centre, which will benefit us all in the end. The Laois Gift Card can be used in so many businesses across Laois that it is the best gift of all for Christmas.
The Laois Gift Card is available to purchase all year round.
Find a list of stockists or purchase online at www.laoisgiftcard.ie
The number of prisoners with Covid-19 at one of Portlaoise's jails has risen to 41 according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS).
The latest cases were confirmed at the Midlands Prison following an Covid-19 testing programme involving hundreds and prisoners and staff on Sunday, November 14. The service has subsequently issued a statment in which it outlined the situation across the system.
"The Irish Prison Service can confirm a prisoner has tested positive for Covid-19 in the Progression Unit, Mountjoy Prison. A decision was taken by the Outbreak Control Team (OCT) to test all staff and the prisoners located in the Progression Unit.
"This latest outbreak follows recent outbreaks of Covid-19 in Cloverhill Prison, where currently 17 prisoners have contracted Covid-19 and the Midlands Prison where 41 prisoners have been confirmed as positive," it said.
The IPS added that control have been established in each of the location to agree and oversee the appropriate actions taken to mitigate against further possible spread of the disease within those prisons.
The outbreak was confirmed at the Midlands after two prisoners tested positive for for the virus on Thursday, November 4. This led to testing in E and G Divisions. The discovery of 31 more cases by Friday, November led to inmates in the remaining A, B, C & D divisions to be tested last weekend.
At least 10 more cases were detected from this process.
The IPS says that while has been hugely successful in protecting the prison community to date, the latest Covid-19 surge has created an 'unprecedented challenge'.
Restriction regimes are in operation at the Midlands and other jails in a bid to step the spread of the Delta variant.
The outbreaks are having a significant knock-on impact on the courts causing a judge to request a Governor to explain the situation in court this week.
Stephen Donnelly has said the Government is encouraging the widespread use of anitgen tests but they "shouldn't be free".
Speaking on Morning Ireland, the Minister for Health agreed that the current price of 8 per anitgen tests, which can vary from different sellers, are "too much", and that a scheme to subsidise the tests will be announced "shortly", the cost of which would likely run to several hundred million euros, he said.
Following the announcement of restrictions yesterday, new advice recommends people who are living in the same household with someone who was the virus should restrict their movements for five days and use three antigen tests within those five days.
WATCH: Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly live on Morning Ireland following yesterdays Government announcement on measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. | Read more: https://t.co/i7mkkrsIMX https://t.co/MpnwxoyLuU RTE News (@rtenews) November 17, 2021
The minister also told presenter Mary Wilson there needed to be clearer communication with the public on how and when to use the tests. When asked why the tests were not subsidised sooner Mr Donnelly said a "a lot has been done and we're continuing to go further".
Mr Donnelly said:
The advice I have is they shouldnt be free, they had them free in the UK and the Government came under huge criticism from parliament for that, because essentially there were no controls on how they were being used at all.
Theyre very expensive every time you subsidise an antigen test its money youre not spending on a nurse, youre not spending on a doctor, he continued.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) is currently sending packs of five antigen tests, free of charge, to people deemed close contacts, he said, adding the Government want to do everything they can "to keep everything open".
Five endangered baby cheetahs born at an Irish wildlife park have been named.
Over 900 suggestions were submitted as part of a public naming competition at Fota Wildlife Park in County Cork.
Lead Ranger at the park, Julien Fonteneau, said the team were "delighted" to receive such a great response from the public.
He said, "The animal ranger team had our work cut out trying to choose the winners from the huge choice of names."
The names chosen include Roy, Sonia, Arlo, Mia and Cora.
According to Julien, two of the cubs were named after Irish sporting legends. He said, "Two of the suggested names were very easy to select. Roy Keane shares the same birthday as the cubs and we felt it was very fitting to name a cheetah, as the fastest land animal, after our local Olympic track medallist, Sonia OSullivan."
The winners, including people from Dublin, Cork and Limerick, will now each receive a year-long Conservation annual pass.
Ava Connolly from Dublin suggested Mia, Faye McNamara from Cork suggested Arlo, Noel and Emma O Herlihy from Limerick suggested Sonia and Sadhbh Barry Murphy from Cobh suggested Roy.
Less than 800 Northern Cheetahs are left in the wild, with 238 born at the wildlife park since 1984.
Photo courtesy of Sinead Donnachie, Fota Wildlife Park
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) has said that up to 6,793 young people in County Kildare may not be on the electoral register; with just days to deadline.
The group, which represents organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide, is urging young people to make sure they have registered to vote before the deadline on Thursday November 25.
James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director, explained: "(The) Census 2016 figures indicate that there are 702,796 young people aged 18 to 29 in Ireland (as recorded in Central Statistics Office: Population 2011 to 2016 (Number) by County and City, Sex, Single Year) which represents a potentially very large youth vote."
"Based on the most recent population data from the Central Statistics Office this would mean up to 1,800 young people in County Carlow would have turned 18 since February 2020 and may risk missing out on their right to vote unless they register by Thursday November 25 (this was broken down on a county basis)."
Mr Doorley continued: "We know from our work with young people that the vast majority want to vote but not all are aware they have to register.
"This is particularly an issue among the 126,344 young people who turned 18 and became eligible to vote in the last two years since the 2020 General Election."
For those unsure whether they are registered or not, the NYCI advises that they check online at www.checktheregister.ie: "If young people are not on the electoral lists, we are strongly encouraging them to register now; to do this, they need to fill out an RFA1 form on the website and return it to their local city or county council by Thursday November 25."
"In effect the deadline is Wednesday, November 24 as the form needs to be completed and posted back to the local authority to arrive by the deadline."
Mr Doorley added that if applicants miss the postal deadline, the only other option is to deliver the completed RFA1 form by hand.
The NYCI also explained what procedures must be followed for anyone 18 on or before 15th of February 2022.
It said: "This does not just apply to those currently aged 18-29 years.... any person who turned 18 since the election in February 2020 and is not registered, but also any young person who is currently 17, but will turn 18 by the February 15 2022, can apply for inclusion in the 2022/2023 register."
"NYCI also reminded applicants that it is their responsibility to make sure all the documentation arrives on time, so we recommend they post it by Wednesday November 24 at the latest."
Mr Doorley added: "One of the privileges of living in a democracy is the right to have a say in who represents us at local level and who governs us at national level: We only get the chance to have our say every four or five years in general elections, so it is important that all citizens, especially young people who have recently gained that right, make sure they can exercise their franchise by being registered to vote in time."
"We strongly recommend they do so on or before the upcoming deadline on Thursday, November 25 next."
A Kildare councillor has criticised Minister for Education Norma Foley; specifically claiming that COVID-19 is "crushing" the nation's school communities.
Social Democrats (SD) Cllr Chris Pender shares his sentiments with his party colleague Gary Gannon TD, who recently said that Minister Foley "is missing in action once again, as schools struggle to cope with a significant increase in the incidence of covid."
The Newbridge politician said in a statement: "The pressure of covid is crushing our school communities: they are battling the illness in the classrooms and scrambling to find substitute Teachers, exacerbated by the Department's lack of leadership and management."
"Where has the Minister of Education gone? Antigen testing in schools was promised months ago, but there is still no word on when the government will implement it."
"Meanwhile, little has been done to address the current school substitute dilemma."
Cllr Pender continued: "The government has stated repeatedly that keeping schools open is a priority, and it should be.
"However, it refuses to provide schools with the tools they need to do so securely: close contacts of confirmed cases must be identified quickly if schools are to withstand this latest spike of Covid.
"This cannot be done in the absence of an antigen testing program.
"'We are all aware that time is of the essence when dealing with a virus that is spreading rapidly in the community...' so, how come the Minister and her Dept haven't learned this lesson?"
"In March eight months ago an expert group convened by the State's main scientific advisor, Mark Ferguson, advised antigen testing in schools.
Since at least July, the ECDC has advocated antigen testing in schools, (yet) despite this, we still have no idea when this initiative will begin.
He concluded his statement by saying: "This is insufficient... it's past time for the Minister to take command and show some leadership."
Yesterday, Cllr Pender hit out at the presence of litter in his hometown, and called on Kildare County Council to implement a deposit return scheme there.
An Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said that the government can't rule out further COVID-19 restrictions in the coming weeks if case numbers continue to increase.
The Fianna Fail leader made the comments in his address to the nation yesterday evening, where he also detailed a new midnight curfew for the hospitality sector and changes to self isolation rules for households.
4,407 new cases of the virus were confirmed yesterday, while 614 patients are being treated in Irish hospitals.
Mr Martin says the Government will have to keep its options open on further restrictions, explaining: "NPHET have put in a caveat also that further measures can not be ruled out... (I) can be very honest about that."
His warning has been echoed by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, who said that "it is impossible" to say if there could be a lockdown in the future.
Minister Donnelly added that while a lockdown cannot be ruled out, it is "not where we are" currently as a nation.
Other measures that are due to be introduced by the govt include:
People will be told to work from home, under recommendation from NPHET
Vaccine passes will be required to access theatres and cinemas but not at hairdressers, barbers or gyms
Strict rules around mask wearing for indoor and outdoor settings.
In addition to the new rules, two other measures aimed at reducing transmission of the virus were also revealed.
Firstly, antigen tests will be made more affordable for the people, although they will not be free, and secondly, that the States vaccine advisory body, NIAC, has given the go-ahead for booster jabs for people in their 50s.
This campaign also extends to those aged under 50 with underlying health conditions.
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A new steering committee is being set up in Manorhamilton to attempt to deal with the major banking service probelm in the area.
A public meeting was held in the Bee Park Community Centre last night, which discussed the recent closure of the town's Bank of Ireland and the impending ending of counter services in the Allied Irish Bank early next month.
The well attended meeting was organised by the IFA's Kevin Comiskey and Councillor Felim Gurn and was presided over by former RTE Midland's correspondent, Ciaran Mullooly.
Mr. Mullooly remarked it was good to see a crowd coming out tonight, especially with current Covid problems and it shows how strong you feel about the bank closure.
He welcomed all the public representatives who were in attendance. Ciaran detailed how the Lanesboro Rathcline community came together to address a local issue of the National Irish Bank closing down in Lanesboro many years ago, and how through community action they managed to get NIB to provide a 24 hour ATM in Lanesboro after the bank closed.
Chairperson of Leitrim County Council Paddy O'Rourke told the meeting that he was happy to attend and support the community in their fight to deal with the current banking problems. He also believed that the role of credit unions will have to be expanded to cater for all local communities.
Councillor Felim Gurn said Manorhamilton had three banks in the town for over 100 years and that the recent widespread bank branch closure by the Bank of Ireland was an attack on rural Ireland. He also revealed that the Manorhamilton BOI ATM used to provide 500,000 each weekend in Manorhamilton, which was an essential service for all in the town as well as visitors.
The Manorhamilton Councillor believes the banks are making a real push in Ireland to make it a cashless society and it is a big issue for the farming community in particular he noted. Kevin Comiskey added that 90% of the Marts and Meat Factories are paying by cheque.
Leitrim IFA Chairperson Des McHugh endorsed what Kevin Comiskey said and remarked that he was delighted to see the people of Manorhamilton had come out tonight to fight to maintain an essential banking service in the town.
National IFA Farm Business Committee Chairperson, Rose Mary McDonagh who travelled to the meeting from Headford in Galway stated that now farmers are having problems cashing cheques. She also added the bank is the heart of the town and it keeps business in the local town.
independent Marian Harkin TD, who travelled from Dublin for the meeting stated local banking was needed more than ever in Manorhamilton because of the 1,100 people who everyday work in the town and since Covid came more people have moved back home to work.
The business case was never stronger for banking services in Manorhamilton. She also favoured strengthening the credit union to enable it to provide more financial services for the community. The TD also stated the Central Bank is stifling what services credit unions can provide. Her bill currently before the Dail aims to deal with this issue and to allow credit unions to provide additional services.
Manorhamilton & District Credit Union's Claire McGauran stated the Central Bank is making it very difficult for credit unions to operate. Claire is also hopeful that the 24 hour ATM that is to be installed in the Manorhamilton & District Credit Union building will be operational reasonably soon.
Councillors Sean McDermott and Enda McGloin also spoke at the meeting and gave their full backing to the fight to maintain financial services in Manorhamilton. At the end of the meeting it was agreed that the Steering Committee will seek to open discussions with the Allied Irish Bank on continuing the provision of local financial services and the Committee will also have discussions with Manorhamilton & District Credit Union on this matter, as well.
An explosion in the deer population in Leitrim has led to calls for a cull to control their numbers.
Speaking at Mondays Manorhamilton Municipal District meeting, Cathaoirleach, Cllr Justin Warnock, said that the deer posed a serious danger to motorists and that there were concerns over the spread of disease and competition posed to livestock by this increase in population.
A cull of sorts needs to be carried out and deer fencing should be mandatory in every forestry in Leitrim, he told the meeting.
Cllr Warnock said that when trees get to a certain height or when they are felled, this causes the deer to disperse in search of food.
He said that there had been accidents caused by deer on roads across the county adding someone will be seriously injured or killed.
Cllr Warnock said there are also concerns about the risk of Lyme disease for hill walkers and hikers as a result of bigger deer populations. The Cathaoirleach said that this debilitating disease has been shown to be carried by the deer tick.
The Fianna Fail councillor also noted the increased deer numbers mean they are becoming a pest for farmers.
They are being driven out of the forestry in search of food and they are competing with livestock for food, he claimed.
Cllr Warnock said there has also been a study carried out in Wicklow which shows that sika deer can carry and spread TB which is a concern for farmers.
He proposed that the Council contact the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue to introduce measures such as culling and proper deer fencing.
I know that we are heading into Christmas and this may not be popular because of the deer population and Santy, but we really do need to see some sort of charter introduced to control these animals, he said.
His comments were backed by Cllr Sean McDermott who said he had encountered a deer on the road in front of his car only a month ago. He also pointed out there are insurance concerns if your vehicle is in a collision with a deer in an area where deer warning signs are in place.
Cllr Mary Bohan clarified that some insurance companies will not provide insurance cover if your car is damaged by a deer in an area with warning signage adding this isnt the case with all insurance companies, just some.
I dont know what the answer is other than a cull and I dont like the sound of that, she admitted. There have been several accidents involving deer on the Drumkeeran to Carrick Road, she said, its clear that they are travelling far from forestry areas.
MEDICAL device manufacturer Filtertek has announced plans to invest almost 2m in an innovative NPD programme at its facility in Newcastle West.
The company, which is owned by Illinois Tool Works, has been in operation in Newcastle West for 40 years and was acquired by ITW in 2007. Currently 67 people are employed in the town.
The expansion plans will support the production of next-generation IV check valves and filtration products, the development of new filtration and flow control technology, and adds new moulding and assembly capability to the operations at the Newcastle West.
This project, which will cost 1.9, is supported IDA Ireland.
Congratulations to our long standing client Filtertek who have been in Newcastlewest over 40 years and who are investing significantly in their facility. #whymidwest #whylimerick @IDAIRELAND https://t.co/9ZIMBHZ5ev IDA Mid-West Region (@IDA_MidWest) November 17, 2021
Welcoming the announcement Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said: Filtertek has a long and proud history, stretching back forty years in Limerick, where it employs 67 people. This significant new investment will improve the sites capabilities and enable the team to produce the next generation of products. Filterteks four decades in Newcastle West is a testament to the talent and dedication of its staff. I wish the team the very best for the future."
Gina Powers, Vice President/General Manager, ITW Medical says it's delighted to be working with IDA Ireland. Our facility in Ireland has a long-standing history of world-class manufacturing, innovative product design and serving our customers with excellence. This has been a testament to the level of talent and support available in Ireland.
Newcastle West-based TD and Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Patrick ODonovan TD has welcomed the investment by Filtertek.
"The company is a long established and well-known employer in the town and has built up a world class reputation for manufacturing in the healthcare sector. They have been part of the community here for over 40 years and as someone who grew up in the town, I know how important Filtertek is not only to Newcastle West itself, but also to the wider economy in West Limerick, so it really is great news.
IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan added: For almost 40 years, Filtertek has provided employment in Newcastle West and has been part of ITW, a Fortune 250 company since 2007. This investment strongly demonstrates ITWs confidence and commitment in the Co. Limerick facility. I wish them every success with this significant expansion.
Founded in 1912 and headquartered in Glenview, Illinois, Illinois Tool Works is a Fortune 250 company and is one of the worlds leading diversified manufacturers of specialised industrial equipment, automotive components, various consumables, and related service businesses.
ITW has operations in 55 countries and employs approximately 48,000 people globally.
A SERIAL offender who broke into a number of commercial premises in Limerick city has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
Gerard Curtin, aged 41, who has an address at Upper William Street, had pleaded guilty to charges relating to incidents which occurred on dates late last year and earlier this year.
During a sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Mike Brennan said one premises was targeted on four separate occasions and that on each occasion, the defendant was identified on CCTV.
In one incident, last New Year's Eve, he 'kicked in' the front door of a premises to gain entry at around 8pm. He then went behind the counter and stole around 100 in cash.
The same premises was targeted on three other dates and cash was taken on each occasion. While another man - identified in court as Mr X- was present, he "kept watch" and did not enter the property.
Detective Brennan said the other charges before the court related to incidents which occurred on dates in February.
Cash and a computer tablet were taken from a restaurant after a rock was thrown through the window at around 8am on February 8 while a small amount of cash was taken from a shop in the city centre in the early hours of February 10.
In addition to CCTV evidence, Judge Tom O'Donnell was told a blood sample found inside the restaurant matched the defendant's DNA.
John O'Sullivan BL, prosecuting, said Mr Curtin has more than 100 previous convictions and that he was the subject of a suspended prison sentence when he committed the offences.
Barrister Pat Whyms, defending, asked the court to note the value of the property taken was "quite low" and that his client could not be questioned immediately after his arrest due to his level of intoxication.
"He was looking for money to feed his habit," he said adding that no violence was used and that all of the premises were closed at the time.
Imposing sentence, Judge O'Donnell said business people are entitled to to be protected from such behaviour.
"Owners are entitled to believe if they close up at night, the premises will still in intact the following day," he commented.
THE MID West Simon Community hosted a charity ball recently to raise money for a very worthwhile cause.
The ball took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Ennis Road on Saturday November 13 with over 200 guests in attendance.
The attendees remained socially distanced throughout and enjoyed music from the Capriccio String Quartet with a prosecco reception, followed by a five course meal.
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien was the guest speaker for the night and he spoke of his high regard for the work done by Mid West Simon and the work that is ongoing to support the aim to end Homelessness for 2030.
Pictured at the gala ball were Eoghan Carroll and Karolinne Starling
Jackie Bonfield, CEO Mid West Simon Community said: It was wonderful to see and meet so many supporters of Mid West Simon Community who attended our Charity Ball after a very difficult year and a half.
"We really do appreciate everyones support. Our efforts continue to focus on those most in need and suffering from food poverty and homelessness.
"It is only through the continued support of our community that we can meet the increasing needs and we are so grateful for all the support we receive.
David Hickey, Chairman of Mid West Simon Community gave a special thank you to everybody who was there on the night as well as those who supported us but couldnt attend.
He also thanked the minister for speaking as well as all the sponsors and those who donated raffle prizes.
TWO academics from the University of Limerick will present their research in to hate crime in Ireland to an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice.
Professor Amanda Haynes and Dr Jennifer Schweppe are the co-directors of the European Centre for the Study of Hate at University of Limerick.
They will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice today to speak on the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021 based on their expertise in this area.
The pair have extensive experience in researching how hate crimes manifest in Ireland and how they are addressed in the criminal justice process.
Their research has shown that hate crime legislation is required in Ireland and they welcome opportunity to address the committee during its pre-legislative scrutiny.
Dr Jennifer Schweppe, a senior lecturer in law at UL, explained: In our research we have consistently shown that the absence of hate crime legislation in Ireland has led to what we refer to as the disappearing of the hate element of a crime through the criminal process.
We have also found that courts have treated offences as racially aggravated in the absence of any evidence that racism was involved in the commission of the offence.
"In legislating against hate crime, we believe that we must take a cautious and incremental approach.
For hate crime legislation to be effective, it must be accompanied by a scaffolding of supports to ensure that it is implemented properly. In the absence of such implementation measures, it is almost inevitable that it will fail.
Professor Amanda Haynes, an associate professor of sociology at UL, continued: In legislating against hate crime, we must strike a balance between the need to ensure that the message element of a hate crime is leveraged on the one hand, but also ensure that the potential exclusionary effects of a conviction for hate crime are borne in mind on the other.
In our research with Professor Ross Macmillan here at the University of Limerick, we have shown in a survey of the general population that labelling an individual a hate criminal is likely to prove an additional impediment to securing employment, as well as their acceptance and integration into the wider community.
This, we believe, should be a determining consideration in shaping legislation in addressing hate crime.
Dr Schweppe added: The legislation also amends legislation prohibiting incitement to hatred. While it is accepted that the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 requires some work, we believe that in the context of legislation which limits free speech, provisions should be narrowly and carefully drawn.
We should not have large numbers of convictions under that legislation, and consideration should be given to simply amending the existing legislation rather than repealing it and replacing it.
Professor Haynes concluded: We must learn from the experiences of other jurisdictions and draw on international best practice, but equally recognise the need to adapt those lessons to an Irish context, and ensure legislation in this country is appropriate for our legal, policy, and social contexts.
ALDI have unveiled plans to build a new 11.5 million store in Dooradoyle creating 30 jobs.
The new store on Dooradoyle Road will create 30 permanent positions and 50 jobs will be supported during the construction period.
The shop is due to open at the end of 2024 and will be built on a previously unused greenfield site.
The 1,315 sq. metre store will be powered by 100% green electricity, supported by 90 sq. metres of solar panels on its roof.
Aldi undertook a study of shoppers and people living in the Dooradoyle area which revealed that nine out of ten shoppers said having an Aldi store in the town would mean better value grocery shopping.
84% of shoppers surveyed also said that they were happy to hear the news of a new store opening and that it would encourage them to shop in the locality.
The survey also revealed that 84% of shoppers agreed that having a store in the local area would save them time and money.
Seven in ten of those surveyed said they didn't think there were enough options in the area for grocery shopping at present.
Commenting, Colin Breslin, Regional Managing Director, Aldi Ireland said: Our research shows the demand from Dooradoyle shoppers for a new Aldi store is very strong.
"Every new Aldi store that opens brings greater choice, quality and value to shoppers.
We understand customers are always looking for more sustainable ways to shop with us, and our Dooradoyle customers can rest assured our new store will feature several green features including solar panels on the roof, 100% green electricity and electric vehicle charging points.
Aldi are also set to open a new store on Roches Street in early 2023, which will be its fourth shop in Limerick.
The supermarket chain was granted planning permission to develop by the Eir telephone exchange by An Bord Pleanala.
100 jobs will be created during the construction phase with 35 permanent roles starting when the shop opens.
Aldi stores in Limerick have donated over 41,000 meals to local charities saving the organisations nearly 52,000.
Limerick Animal Welfare, Butterfly Club and ADAPT Domestic Abuse Services have also benefited from Aldis Community Grants network.
Aldi currently partners with six innovative food and drink producers across Limerick, spending 9.5 million with them last year.
THE IRISH Nurses and Midwives Organisation have called for an independent review of the overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick following a record daily number of patients on trolleys this week.
The INMO are also asking for direct ministerial intervention after a record 95 patients were recorded on trolleys at UHL on Tuesday.
Today there are 70 patients on trolleys at the hospital, 44 of these are in the Emergency Department and 26 are in other wards.
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Mary Fogarty, said: Since the beginning of November, we have seen 891 patients on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick, with record overcrowding this week.
When our members sounded the alarm on persistently dangerous overcrowding coupled with Covid-19 back in July, we called for direct ministerial intervention, which Minister Donnelly at the time stated was not required. The situation in Limerick has worsened since we first made the call.
Despite 100 extra beds opening in Limerick this year, it has made no dent in the record overcrowding. Our members are at their wits end and their morale is on the floor.
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: The situation in University Hospital Limerick is out of control. The INMO is once again calling for HIQA to investigate what is going on in the hospital and make clear recommendations.
The overall picture in our hospitals is a bleak one. Covid cases and hospitalisations are at a dangerous level and this is coupled with the number of patients on trolleys in many hospitals at pre-pandemic levels.
The HSE and Minister for Health have both stated that overcrowding wont be tolerated, yet here we are with 428 people on trolleys today. It is not acceptable when so many nurses are out on Covid-related leave.
We are urgently calling on the HSE and Minister for Health to now curtail elective procedures in our acute hospitals and come to some agreement to obtain capacity from our private hospitals.
Our members have been fire-fighting on so many fronts since January 2020, the State must do everything we can to ensure that they are carrying out their duties in a safe environment.
A LIMERICK support group for people living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) marked World COPD Day today.
The HSE and National Clinical Programme (NCP) for Respiratory marked the day to raise awareness and share knowledge about the disease.
The HSE are also reminding the 380,000 people living with COPD in Ireland of the supports and services available to them
The disease involves ongoing medical care and some patients also need frequent hospital admission.
Marking World COPD Day along with members of staff at University Hospital Limerick this week were members of Limerick COPD Support Group.
Carmel McCarthy, from Mungret has been living with COPD for many years.
We want people to recognise if they get a diagnosis of COPD, they can do something about it. We dont want people to suffer in silence and isolate themselves. We would like them to get in touch, said Carmel.
The Limerick COPD Support Group stayed in touch throughout the pandemic and used Zoom to take part in online classes.
In recent weeks, the pulmonary rehabilitation programmes at UHL, Nenagh and Ennis hospitals have resumed face-to-face exercise classes for COPD patients.
Paula Ryan, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Respiratory, UL Hospitals Group, said: Awareness events like World COPD Day are important not only in empowering patients but also around disease prevention.
"The respiratory nurse team here in UHL encourage patients to stop smoking and vaping and to be more aware of harmful behaviours, by increasing awareness of COPD and stopping the progression of the disease through earlier diagnosis.
"The respiratory nurses advocate to support patients to reduce the demands on our service going forward. This will be helped through new positions being created in the community as we move towards an integrated care model.
People with a diagnosis of COPD who are interested in joining the Limerick COPD Support Group can contact Marie on 061 304464 (after 6pm).
LIMERICK families are in with a chance to meet Santa at his North Pole home this coming Christmas.
A special seasonal flight to the Arctic Circle will lift off this December from Shannon Airport.
To celebrate the airport is launching a special competition for a fairy-tale trip for a lucky family - on Thursday, December 2 - to Santas home in Lapland over 4,000 km away.
The fun-filled prize for a family of two adults and two children includes a trip to Santas official residence and a private meeting with the man himself.
We are delighted that passengers from Shannon will have the opportunity to enjoy a magical visit to Lapland. It will be a really special trip. I expect the excitement and atmosphere on departure day will be palpable and, no doubt, a thousand stories told on return and a thousand memories made, said Mary Considine, CEO Shannon Group.
A special seasonal flight to the Arctic Circle will lift off this December from @ShannonAirport, and our airport team are celebrating with a competition to send one lucky family to visit Santas home on Thursday 2nd December.
Find out how to win here: https://t.co/gWXZVz2leJ pic.twitter.com/1nBUO3M9sb Shannon Group plc (@SNNGroup) November 17, 2021
She added that Lapland contains the last remaining expanse of wilderness in northern Europe, including a coastline, forests, mountains and rivers.
In winter this becomes a wonderland of snow where visitors get to enjoy the fun of snowmobile adventures, toboggans and sleigh rides.
The lucky family will fly from Shannon to the Santa Claus Village in the North Pole. On arrival at Santas official Rovaniemi airport, , the winning family will be met by elves who will guide them through their stay in Finland.
The family will be whisked along through snow covered trees under the magical lights of the arctic and get to meet Santas Reindeer who are getting ready for their busy flight at Christmas.
Snow mobiles, husky and reindeer rides, tobogganing, Elf School and much more are included in the prize.
Shannon Airport has teamed up with Santa and his elves for the competition which closes at 5pm on Thursday, November 25. The winner will be announced that evening.
Online entry forms are available on the Shannon Airport website from November 17, 2021.
Shannon Airport have installed the first Rudolph Red Nose Radar to ensure all entries are beamed straight up to the North Pole for Santas consideration.
To win all you need to do is fill in the competition form and say why you would like to win and what you would like for Christmas.
Ireland is set to return to some Covid-19 restrictions after a Cabinet meeting reportedly agreed to the details on Tuesday morning.
The talks come following renewed NPHET advice last week to re-introduce some restrictions to curb the growing spread of the virus across the country. Among those suggested by NPHET was a work from home policy and a renewed focus on Covid-19 digital certs in the hospitality industry.
At Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Ministers agreed to impose an earlier closing time of midnight on the hospitality industry, including pubs, nightclubs and restaurants. This will come into effect from Thursday night. The move effectively closes nightclubs again just weeks after they reopened for the first time in 19 months.
Covid certs will be required when entering all hospitality as has been the case. A campaign to improve compliance with this is also likely whole the certs will also be needed at cinemas and theatres.
From Friday morning, the government advice on remote working will change to 'work from home where possible.' This could result in hundreds of thousands of workers returning to the home office for the foreseeable future.
The rules on close contacts are also changing. Entire households will be advised to restrict their movements for five days following a single positive case, regardless of the Covid vaccination status of the other people in the house. A series of antigen testing will then be used to facilitate that households return to normality. To this point, close contacts only had to restrict their movements if they were symptomatic or were unvaccinated.
Publicans have already come out to request more supports for the industry given the return of curfews. It has also been suggested that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment will have to be re-introduced to cater for industries impacted most by these new measures. No decision has yet been made on this.
Senior government figures have also indicated that further restrictions may be required in the coming weeks and months depending on the trajectory of the virus in the community.
As it stands, Ireland's Covid-19 incidence rate is the 12th highest in the world. The biggest fear is the pressure on the health service with over 600 patients now in hospital with the virus, including 117 in ICU.
The HSE yesterday said that there was a possibility that half of ICU beds in the country could be occupied by Covid positive patients in the next fortnight.
Ireland's boost vaccination process is now also being enhanced with people over 50 now eligible for a third shot six months after their second. This comes after NIAC approved the age group for boosters along with those aged over 60s and all healthcare workers.
Irish MEPs are calling on the Greek government to drop criminal charges levied against a search and rescue volunteer from Ireland.
MEPs Ciaran Cuffe and Grace O'Sullivan were joined by Amnesty International at a protest in Brussels yesterday (November 16th) to show support for humanitarian workers including Sean Binder from Castlegregory in County Kerry.
Sean and other volunteers are accused of alleged espionage and human trafficking, among other allegations, and are expected to be tried tomorrow (November 18th) in Lesbos.
According to the Independent, he was arrested on the Greek island in 2018 while volunteering for Emergency Response Centre International and spent 100 days locked up before being released on bail.
Over 70 MEPs have signed an open letter drafted by Ms O'Sullivan in defence of the volunteers, who reportedly face a possible 25 years in prison.
Ms O'Sullivan commented on the situation from Brussels and said, "Sean and his co-accused stand accused of one thing: showing humanity to those fleeing places of inhumanity and terror. This is not just the right thing to do, it is international law. Those in distress at sea must be rescued and rescue workers must be protected."
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that Democracy is not just a system but a natural tendency of India.
Prime Minister attended the inaugural session of the 82nd All India Presiding Officers' Conference via video conferencing today.
Addressing the event, the Prime Minister said, "Democracy is not just a system in India. Democracy is India's nature and natural tendency. We have to take the country to new heights in the coming years. These resolutions will be fulfilled only by 'Sabka Prayas' (everyone's effort). And in democracy and the federal system of India, when we talk about 'Sabka Prayas' then the states play a key role."
He emphasized that with the efforts of everyone the nation achieved new heights.
The Prime Minister gave an idea of the 'One Nation One Legislative Platform'. A portal that not only gives the necessary technological boost to our parliamentary system but also works to connect all the democratic units of the country", the Prime Minister said.
"Our policies, our laws should strengthen the spirit of Indianness. the resolve of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' should be there. Our own conduct in the house should be according to Indian values. It is the responsibility of all of us," he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the next 25 years are very important for India. In this, he urged the parliamentarians to realize only one mantra - duty, duty, duty
Prime Minister said the traditions and arrangements of the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies should be Indian in nature.
The All India Presiding Officers' Conference (AIPOC), the apex body of the Legislatures in India, is celebrating its hundred years in 2021.
To commemorate the centennial year of AIPOC, the 82nd edition of the All India Presiding Officers' Conference is being held in Shimla on November 17 and November 18. The first Conference was held in Shimla in 1921.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh were also present at today's event.
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Workers who are looking for job changes to better their prospects is a phenomenon exacerbated by the pandemic that will remain for some time, according to Mastercard Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Miebach.
In industries that are in great demand, such as hospitality and health care, there is a lot of competition for great people," Miebach said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore Wednesday. In our industry, anybody who knows anything about AI, digital identity, cyber, hot skills, those are the people that are in demand and those are the people saying I am feeling huge pressure every day in what I do, can I do better, let me look elsewhere."
There is a lot of competition going on and that has always been the case in these industries and is now pronounced because the pandemic put a lot of pressure on the system," said Miebach. That is the fundamental trend."
The labour market reckoning thats become known as the Great Resignation has shown millions are quitting their jobs. Policymakers are weighing the tight jobs market against upward pressure on prices, including wages, to position the economy for 2022.
Fundamentally its competition for hot skills that are in demand," Miebach said. Its going to be something we see for a period of time."
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition goes a step further, defining culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, culture can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.
"Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things," Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live Science.
The word "culture" derives from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin "colere," which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. "It shares its etymology with a number of other words related to actively fostering growth," De Rossi said.
Western culture
The fall of the Roman Empire helped shape Western culture. (Image credit: Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images/Getty Images)
The term "Western culture" has come to define the culture of European countries as well as those that have been heavily influenced by European immigration, such as the United States, according to Khan University. Western culture has its roots in the Classical Period of the Greco-Roman era (the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.) and the rise of Christianity in the 14th century. Other drivers of Western culture include Latin, Celtic, Germanic and Hellenic ethnic and linguistic groups.
Any number of historical events have helped shape Western culture during the past 2,500 years. The fall of Rome , often pegged to A.D. 476, cleared the way for the establishment of a series of often-warring states in Europe, according to Stanford University historian Walter Scheidel , each with their own cultures. The Black Death of the 1300s cut the population of Europe by one-third to one-half, rapidly remaking society. As a result of the plague, writes Ohio State University historian John L. Brooke , Christianity became stronger in Europe, with more focus on apocalyptic themes. Survivors in the working class gained more power, as elites were forced to pay more for scarce labor. And the disruption of trade routes between East and West set off new exploration, and ultimately, the incursion of Europeans into North and South America.
Today, the influences of Western culture can be seen in almost every country in the world.
Eastern culture
Buddhism is a big part of some Eastern cultures. Here, three buddhist monks walking to Angkor Wat temple. (Image credit: Matteo Colombo/Getty Images)
Eastern culture generally refers to the societal norms of countries in Far East Asia (including China, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea and South Korea) and the Indian subcontinent. Like the West, Eastern culture was heavily influenced by religion during its early development, but it was also heavily influenced by the growth and harvesting of rice, according to a research article published in the journal Rice in 2012. In general, in Eastern culture there is less of a distinction between secular society and religious philosophy than there is in the West. However, this umbrella covers an enormous range of traditions and histories. For example, Buddhism originated in India, but it was largely overtaken by Hinduism after the 12th century, according to Britannica . Thus, Hinduism became a major driver of culture in India, while Buddhism continued to exert influence in China and Japan. The preexisting cultural ideas in these areas also influenced religion. For example, Chinese Buddhism borrowed from the philosophy of Taoism, which emphasizes compassion, frugality and humility.
Centuries of interactions - both peaceful and aggressive - in this region also led to these cultures influencing each other. Japan, for example, controlled or occupied Korea in some form between 1876 and 1945. During this time, many Koreans were pressured or forced into giving up their names for Japanese surnames.
Many of the Spanish-speaking nations are considered part of the Latin culture, while the geographic region is widespread. Latin America is typically defined as those parts of the Central America, South America and Mexico where Spanish or Portuguese are the dominant languages. Originally, the term "Latin America" was used by French geographers to differentiate between Anglo and Romance (Latin-based) languages, according to the University of Texas. While Spain and Portugal are on the European continent, they are considered the key influencers of what is known as Latin culture, which denotes people using languages derived from Latin, also known as Romance languages.
Latin culture
To celebrate the Day of the Dead, two women are dressed as catrinas on the esplanade of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on Nov. 1, 2020. (Image credit: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The geographic region encompassing "Latin culture" is widespread. Latin America is typically defined as those parts of Central America, South America and Mexico where Spanish or Portuguese are the dominant languages. These are all places that were colonized by or influenced by Spain or Portugal starting in the 1400s. Originally, French geographers used the term "Latin America" to differentiate between Anglo and Romance (Latin-based) languages, according to the University of Texas.
Latin cultures are thus incredibly diverse, and many blend Indigenous traditions with the Spanish language and Catholicism brought by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers. Many of these cultures were also influenced by African cultures due to enslaved Africans being brought to the Americas starting in the 1600s. These influences are particularly strong in Brazil and in Caribbean nations.
Latin culture continues to evolve and spread. A good example is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a holiday dedicated to remembering the departed that is celebrated on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. Day of the Dead dates back to before Christopher Columbus landed in North America, but was moved to its current celebration date by Spanish colonizers, who merged it with the Catholic All Saints Day. Mexican immigrants to the United States brought the holiday with them, and in the 1970s, artists and activities brought focus to Dia de los Muertos as a way of celebrating their Chicano (Mexican-American) heritage, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum . The holiday is now well-known in the United States.
Middle Eastern culture
(Image credit: xavierarnau/Getty Images)
Roughly speaking, the Middle East encompasses the Arabian peninsula as well as the eastern Mediterranean. The North African countries of Libya, Egypt and Sudan are also sometimes included, according to Britannica . The term "Middle Eastern culture" is another umbrella that encompasses a huge diversity of cultural practices, religious beliefs and daily habits. The region is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is home to dozens of languages, from Arabic to Hebrew to Turkish to Pashto.
While there is significant religious diversity in the Middle East, the predominant religion by numbers is Islam, and Islam has played a large role in the cultural development of the region. Islam originated in what is today Saudi Arabia in the early seventh century. An influential moment for the culture and development of the Middle East came after the death of the religion's founder, Muhammad, in 632. Some followers believed the next leader should be one of Muhammad's friends and confidants; others believed leadership must be passed through Muhammad's bloodline. This led to a schism between Shia Muslims, those who believed in the importance of the bloodline, and Sunni Muslims, who believed leadership should not pass through the family. Today, about 85% of Muslims are Sunni, according to the Council on Foreign Relations . Their rituals and traditions vary somewhat, and divisions between the two groups often fuel conflict.
Middle Eastern culture has also been shaped by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled a U-shaped ring around the Eastern Mediterranean between the 14th and early 20th centuries. Areas that were part of the Ottoman Empire are known for distinctive architecture drawn from Persian and Islamic influences.
African culture
An African mother from a Maasai tribe sitting with her baby next to her hut in Kenya, Africa. (Image credit: hadynyah/Getty Images)
Africa has the longest history of human habitation of any continent: Humans originated there and began to migrate to other areas of the world around 60,000 years ago, according to the Natural History Museum in London. Other researchers, like those from Estonian Biocentre in Tartu, believe that the first migration may have been much earlier, as early as 120,000 years ago. Researchers come to these conclusions by studying human genomes from various cultures to trace their DNA to common ancestors. Fossil records also factor into some of these theories.
African culture varies not only between national boundaries, but within them.One of the key features of this culture is the large number of ethnic groups throughout the 54 countries on the continent. Nigeria alone has more than 300 tribes, for example. Africa has been importing and exporting its culture for centuries; East African trading ports were a crucial link between East and West as early as the seventh century, according to The Field Museum . This led to complex urban centers along the Eastern coast, often connected by the movement of raw materials and goods from landlocked parts of the continent.
It would be impossible to characterize all of African culture with one description. Northwest Africa has strong ties to the Middle East, while Sub-Saharan Africa shares historical, physical and social characteristics that are very different from North Africa, according to the University of Colorado. Some traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures include the Maasai of Tanzania and Kenya, the Zulu of South Africa, and the Batwa of Central Africa. The traditions of these cultures evolved in very different environments. The Batwa, for example, are one of a group of ethnicities that traditionally live a forager lifestyle in the rainforest. The Maasai, on the other hand, herd sheep and goats on the open range.
What is cultural appropriation?
Cultural appropriation is defined as using elements of a culture that is not one's own without acknowledging, respecting or understanding the original culture.
An example might be a person who is not Native American wearing a Native American headdress as a fashion accessory. For example, Victoria's Secret was heavily criticized in 2012 after putting a model in a headdress reminiscent of a Lakota war bonnet. These headdresses are laden with meaningful symbolism, and wearing one was a privilege earned by chieftains or warriors through acts of bravery. The model also wore turquoise jewelry inspired by designs used by Zuni, Navajo and Hopi tribes in the desert Southwest, illustrating how cultural appropriation lump together tribes with very different cultures and histories into one stereotyped image.
Constant change
No matter what a culture looks like, one thing is for certain: Cultures change."Culture appears to have become key in our interconnected world, which is made up of so many ethnically diverse societies, but also riddled by conflicts associated with religion, ethnicity, ethical beliefs, and, essentially, the elements which make up culture," De Rossi said. "But culture is no longer fixed, if it ever was. It is essentially fluid and constantly in motion." This makes it difficult to define any culture in only one way.
While change is inevitable, most people see value in respecting and preserving the past. The United Nations has created a group called The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to identify cultural and natural heritage and to conserve and protect it. Monuments, buildings and sites are covered by the group's protection, according to the international treaty, the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This treaty was adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
Additional reporting by Live Science Contributors Alina Bradford and Stephanie Pappas.
Additional resources
Coming soon to your Netflix (or the one you're stealing from your mom) is a new show filmed in Austin that follows eight 20-something strangers forced to live together and navigate the "new normal" life. The popular streaming service started its casting call for a show called Roaring Twenties back in August. On Monday, November 15, Netflix announced on Twitter it filmed the show this fall and will premiere the series on December 10.
Watch the trailer below:
The new project seems to remind a lot of people of one of the OG reality television series from MTV that put strangers in a house together. What was it called? Oh right, The Real World.
"So what you're telling me is you're trying to be The Real World," Caleb commented on Twitter.
"Real World: Roaring Twenties," Dimitrius Jones tweeted.
"It's like I've heard of this before," Cory Wharton wrote.
While it does seem similar, it doesn't come with a surprise as Netflix has been rolling out several reality television shows on its platform, such as Love Is Blind, Bling Empire, and Too Hot To Handle.
Click here to read the full article.
Mamas been having a lot of big feelings recently, Adele announces early on in 30. Hands upwhos surprised? This is Adele, after all. She was born with big feelings, and ever since the day she first stepped into a recording studio, shes been off-the-charts brilliant at sharing them with the world. Thats why total strangers hear ourselves in the swoops and raptures of her voice, even as it gets more flexible, stealthy, dangerous. If you were expecting this womans divorce album to be a smooth ride, youre definitely in the wrong place.
Adele has never sounded more ferocious than she does on 30more alive to her own feelings, more virtuosic at shaping them into songs in the key of her own damn life. Its her toughest, most powerful album yet. All love is devout, Adele declares in the magnificent Cry Your Heart Out, and she walks it like she talks it. She travels her own Via Dolorosa, walking a treacherous path of heartache, motherhood, boozy despair, and loneliness.
This is her first batch of songs since the collapse of her marriageas she summed it up, Divorce, baby. But its also her turning-thirty album, so shes navigating a host of turbulent emotional transitions. Which makes itan Adele album. Lets face it, shes never been shy about facing her messiest feelings, but time just makes her bolder. As she confides in the albums centerpiece, Hold On, Every day feels like the road Im on / Might just open up and swallow me whole / How do I feel so mighty small/ When Im struggling to feel at all? Theres a lot of that going around lately.
Strangers by Nature begins the album with a Fender Rhodes keyboard hook and jazzy torch-ballad melodrama, like a mix of Portishead and Lauryn Hill, setting a tone for the whole album. The music is steeped in time-traveling R&B flourishes, going back to Old Hollywood for Love Is a Game and 1970s soul for Hold On. All Night Parking is a duet with the late jazz piano legend Erroll Garner, who died a decade before Adele was born.
You wouldnt think it was possible, but her vocals have gotten even more expressive. Adeles voice is a tank division that can tap-dancethe more mature she gets as an artist, the more finesse and tact she brings to the microphone, without sacrificing any of the primal firepower that made her famous in the first place. Its all there in the single Easy On Me, where she pauses mid-song to linger on the first note of easy so long you feel like you might pass out, even though you can tell she isnt breaking a sweat.
On her blockbuster Sunday-night CBS concert special, she introduced the world to I Drink Wine, a career highlight that indeed takes inspiration from Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a piano rave where Adele has to play both Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowgirl. She grapples with feelings so fierce, she cant share them with anyone except the mirror, the couch, the second or third empty bottle of the night, a gospel choir, and a planet full of sentient humans wired to every tremble of her voice.
She goes for wild-ass humor in this song as she sings, When I was a child every single thing could blow my mind / Soaking it all up for fun, but now I only soak up wine. But she also asks herself tough questions with no answers. Why am I obsessing about the things I cant control? Why am I seeking approval from people I dont even know? By the end, shes wishing peace and happiness for her ex, but with no regrets about saying goodbye, because sometimes the road less traveled is a road best left behind. What a a songone of the most ambitious feats shes ever attempted.
Cry Your Heart Out is another career highlight, with sped-up cartoon-chipmunk voices giving way to a seething reggae skank, girl-group handclaps, and Hammond B-3 organ. When I wake up Im afraid at the idea of facing the day, Adele confesses. I would rather stay home on my own / Drink it all away. Buttypically on a break-up album with no good guys and bad guysshe doesnt blame anyone else. As she sings, I created this storm / Its only fair I have to sit in its rain.
That even-handed tone is one of the most striking things about 30, considering its a divorce albumAdele has zero interest in cheap score-settling. She doesnt default to the petty payoffs of finding villains to demonize for her emotional chaos; the way she tells the story, its all on her. She keeps making you wonder: how can so much drama come from such a well-adjusted, civilized adult?
Her collaborators rise to the occasion, with deft productions from her regular wingman Greg Kurstin as well as Ludwig Goransson, Tobias Jesso, Max Martin and Shellback. And its a star-making moment for London producer Inflo, who steps up to the spotlight in gems like the sultry acoustic-guitar workout Woman Like Me and the solo show-stopper Hold On, which comes on a bit like Ghostface Killahs Nineties hip-hop tearjerker with Mary J. Blige, All That I Got Is You. It builds from spare piano until it explodes into strings and a live band; according to the credits, the choir is Adeles crazy friends, which sounds about right.
Adele fiends for love in all its various forms, from the carnal crabings of Oh My God and Can I Get It to the maternal pangs of My Little Love. But she hits new highs in To Be Loved, just a vocal fireworks display with a piano to guide her. Adele breaks down and admits, as if under duress, Let it be known that I cried for you. But not before she punches the word known over and over until it gushes blood. Its an exhilarating momentlike the rest of the album, its the sound of a woman who suffered through a horrific crisis without losing her soul, her passion, or her sense of humor. And all over 30, you can hear her sense of triumph that she made it all the way through. Hello, from the other side.
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Colleagues of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins , the DP fatally shot on the set of Rust in New Mexico last month in an apparent accidental discharge of a prop gun, paid tribute to her vision and skill at the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival , an event dedicated to the art of cinematography, on Sunday.
Hutchins, who was 42 and has been remembered throughout the film industry as a talented artist, died from her injuries after being hit along with director Joel Souza, who is recovering from his injuries.
Actor Alec Baldwin, an actor in Rust as well as a producer, fired the prop gun during a scene rehearsal and has told investigators he had no idea the weapon was loaded with a dangerous round. He has since been sued by a crew member over safety issues on set, an issue that has also prompted the ire of George Clooney, who has called the shooting insane and infuriating.
Cinematographer Alice Brooks, speaking at the EnergaCamerimage event, commended Hutchins work and accomplishments, praising her success in overcoming barriers while competing in a demanding profession and balancing motherhood duties. She became a cinematographer against all odds, she said.
Brooks, also a mother, confessed the news of Hutchins death hit her hard. She said she identified with her achievements working in a field traditionally dominated by men.
Amy Vincent, vice president of the American Society of Cinematographers, also spoke, her voice strained with emotion. Halyna was a cinematographer filled with joy and passion, she said, speaking to a group of veteran cinematographers at EnergaCamerimages main gala hall, adding that she urged colleagues worldwide to join the ASC in our commitment to protecting and watching over all artists pursuing their dreams.
Cinematographers have privately discussed concerns over safety on film sets at the festival especially in the low-budget indie sector but industry leaders here have remained cautious about assigning specific blame for Hutchins death while police continue to investigate the shooting.
Hutchins credits include the superhero action film Archenemy, Blindfire and The Mad Hatter, and she worked on more than 30 films, short films and TV miniseries.
After the tributes, Hutchins 2016 short Hidden was screened.
The film, a thoughtful portrait of a Persian boy in America struggling with resentment and guilt over his responsibility for his younger siblings safety, competed in the student section at the fest five years ago. Its camerawork, telling compositions and dance-like moves with actors, showed enormous promise, said many DPs, making it clear Hutchins was headed for a long and busy career.
EnergaCamerimage fest director Kazik Suwaa, speaking to an audience including Oscar-winner Lawrence Sher, Xavier Perez Grobet and other cinematographers, said he felt honored to be among them and proud that EnergaCamerimage could host the memorial.
ASC president Stephen Lighthill joined the tribute online with praise for Hutchins, and announced her induction into the ASC as an honorary member. Her name will now appear in the roster of the organizations publication, American Cinematographer. She joins other motion-picture luminaries that include Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and the Apollo 11 astronauts in receiving the honor.
Lighthill also presented a commemorative membership plaque to Hutchins husband Matt at a memorial at the American Film Institute, where she was an alumna. The ASC motto, Loyalty, Progress, Artistry, speaks to the commitment all cinematographers feel to each other, Lighthill said, adding that there will be movement for change in the wake of the tragedy.
Hutchins graduated from the AFI Conservatory in 2015 and was selected as one of American Cinematographers Rising Stars of 2019 as well as a cinematographer for the 21st Century Fox DP Lab in 2018.
AFI last month announced a memorial scholarship in Hutchins name for female cinematographers.
A journalist turned filmmaker, Hutchins was born Halyna Androsovych to a military family in Ukraine, and, according to her website, as she grew up with her father serving in the Soviet navy, she lived on a military base in the Arctic Circle surrounded by reindeer and nuclear submarines.
Hutchins attended National Agricultural University and then Kyiv National University, first studying economics before changing to journalism. She graduated with a degree in international journalism and worked on documentary films in Eastern Europe before meeting her husband Matthew, an American, while in Kyiv, and having a son.
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Abacus Media Rights has clinched rapid sales in more than half the worlds major territories on Killing Escobar, proving the enduring market appeal of one of Latin Americas most powerful IPs, Pablo Escobar if producers find a new and unique way into his story.
In the case of Killing Escobar, this comes via the extraordinary true account of Scottish mercenary and ex-SAS operative Peter McAleese who was hired by the notorious Cali Cartel to recruit and lead a 12-man team of ex-special forces commandos to assassinate the worlds biggest drug baron, Pablo Escobar.
The hit is planned at the one place Escobar thinks he is safe: his Hacienda Napoles luxury retreat near Medellin whose attractions included an African wildlife zoo and one of Al Capones automobiles.
Narrated by McAleese himself, and driven by cinema-standard reconstruction of the actual nerve-biting mission, Killing Escobar mixes a combat survival thriller with McAleeses highly personal redemption story and a singular vision of Escobar as both a callous murderer, deep-pocketed eccentric and viable military target, McAleese maintains three decades later in an interview for the film.
Killing Escobar is directed by award-winning filmmaker David Whitney (Kandahar Break) and executive produced by Alan Clements and Mick McAvoy for Two Rivers Media and Nick Taussig for Salon Pictures.
Early sales takes in a wide gamut of public and commercial free-to-air networks, classic pay TV channels and new SVOD services. Among major territories, AMR has closed the U.K. (BritBox and Sundance Now), Canada (Radio Canada), Italy (Discovery), Germany, Austria and Switzerland (RTL Deutschland), Australia (Foxtel) and Latin America, via a deal with DirecTV for its exclusive OnDirecTV channel and DirecTV Go for Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
In Scandinavia, AMR sold Killing Escobar rights to national pubcasters NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden) and DR (Denmark).
Further markets licensed range from Poland (Canal Plus), Israel (Channel 8), Turkey (TV Plus), Portugal (NOS) and the Middle East (OSN) to New Zealand (Rialto Channel), Hong Kong (Now TV) and Flemish Belgium (VRT). A sale in Africa is now under negotiation, AMR managing director Jonathan Ford told Variety.
We were sure a new production from Two Rivers and Salon Pictures would be special and this one is truly exceptional, Ford said. Telling the Escobar story from this unique point of view delivers a dynamic and intriguing feature which, as is already proven by these early sales, has strong international appeal across multiple platforms and broadcasters.
World premiering at this years late winter Glasgow Film Festival, Killing Escobar was commissioned by BBC Scotland, and received major production investment from AMR and Screen Scotland. Whitney recently scored a best director nomination from BAFTA Scotland.
You dont get asked to assassinate Pablo Escobar unless youve got the right experience, McAleese claims in the film.
Killing Escobar is particularly moving in its portrait of the world of toxic masculinity in which McAleese grew up: His violent upbringing in Glasgow, where he was beaten by his ex-con father, his training in the SAS the day he left the British army, he cried, he says his days as a mercenary in Angola and in jail.
In later life, he has struggled to come to terms with a professional life dedicated in part to killing people, as he himself argues in Killing Escobar. I was a bit nervous the first time I killed anybody, he remembers. But the actual act of killing someone when youre on mission is partly why youve chosen to do [this] with your life, he adds, with bracing candor.
The film also features interviews with fellow mercenary and arms supplier Dave Tomkins and DEA officers Javier Pena and Steve Murphy, whose experiences were dramatized in Narcos, as well as McAleeses Cali Cartel liaison Jorge Salcedo, another inspiration for the Netflix series.
The extraordinary international success of Killing Escobar is proof that factual documentaries that combine dramatic storytelling with unique and compelling characters will always have global appeal, Mick McAvoy, at Two Rivers Media, stated. He added: Two Rivers Media are extremely proud of the film and are building on its success by producing more landmark documentaries that put story and character at their heart.
Abacus Media Rights got firmly behind the film from the very beginning, immediately seeing its clear international potential, and David Whitney, with his strong background in war drama, delivered a gripping docu-thriller with compelling first-person testimony and really well-executed reenactment, said Nick Taussig, at Salon Pictures.
Variety talked to AMRs Ford as the company unveiled first sales on Killing Escobar:
How exceptional are these first sales in volume and rapidity?
The film has sold widely around the world as we expected, and at a really good pace, proving that new access and perspectives on well-known real-life characters continue to interest the viewer.
The films documentation talks about never-before-seen footage. What footage was that?
There are a number of conversations with Peter talking for the first time about the plans to assassinate Pablo Escobar, although he and Dave Tomkins were the only people aware of who the target was for the vast majority of the time they were in Colombia. Theres also a lot of archive footage from Tomkins showing the build-up and hard training the team of ex-special forces commandos had to endure for the expedition.
The film works on multiple levels. Do you think that helps to explain the volume and breadth of sales?
Yes what we have created is a documentary that plays out like a thriller.
Your line-up has a large focus on doc features and series, often from prestigious production companies Two Rivers Media and Salon are examples or directors like Nick Broomfield (Last Man Standing: Suge Knight And The Murders Of Biggie & Tupac). How would you like Abacus Media Rights lineup to develop in the next few years?
We are also investing in drama and comedy alongside high-end documentary and documentary series, as well as specialist factual and factual entertainment shows, and will continue to operate all these strands.
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It only rains about one day in October in Los Angeles. Thats what Ben Winston discovered in his research earlier this year as the producer began to scope out the best possible dates to stage an Adele concert special at the Griffith Observatory.
Winston, executive producer of the CBS special Adele: One Night Only, which scored more than 10 million viewers in its debut on Sunday, revealed that the carefully laid plans for the special were redrawn quickly when it became clear via weather radar about 72 hours before that it was definitely going to pour on Oct. 25, the day that was originally scheduled for the performance.
Adele was cool with the decision to move the concert up by a day to Oct. 24. For Winston and the crew, that meant two long nights of working around the clock to prepare the space. It also required a mass outreach to the hand-picked guest list of about 300 people.
We called everyone on a Friday to say Hi, thanks for coming to our show. Do you fancy coming in 48 hours instead of Monday?' Winston told Variety.
Given the chance to see Adele perform for the first time in years in an intimate setting, there werent many no-shows.
Eventually what everybody watched was our dress rehearsal, Winston said. Adele was so great. Shes never fazed by anything and it all just happened.
Guests took a shuttle bus from Griffith Park to the observatory. When they arrived to the seats set out in front of the the iconic building, cocktails were passed around but otherwise the setting was just like any concert.
Adele: One Night Only drew rave reviews for the gorgeous aerial drone footage that showed the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood sign and the bright lights of the Los Angeles basin below. Winston said the credit for delivering a love letter to Los Angeles belongs to Gabe de la Parra, the drone operator hired for the shoot, and One Night Only director Paul Dugdale.
When Winston got his glimpse of the footage de la Parra was collecting, he knew it was worth the effort. It was just one of those pinch-me moments, he said. Youre looking over the whole of Los Angeles looking beautiful. Its impossible not to feel grateful just for getting to do this.
Planning for the special also accounted for a decision to include a surprise marriage proposal from two Adele super fans. That idea was sparked by the fact that proposals are not uncommon sights at Adele concerts.
Producers put ads in local media seeking men who were looking to propose to their girlfriends in a spectacular way but had no reference to Adele. Respondents were asked to name their favorite artists as part of a series of questions about pop culture. Those who listed Adele as their fave-rave were saved for the short list.
Quentin Brunson was the final choice simply because he charmed the production team. Hes such a sweet and lovely man, Winston said. His now-fiancee Ashleigh Mann was truly shocked by the move. The sequence was edited down considerably for the special.
Brunson didnt find out that he would be making the proposal during the middle of an Adele concert until the day before.
When Brunson walked a blindfolded Mann into the venue after Adele asked the crowd to be quiet, Brunson was actually frightened by her reaction.
She could hardly speak, Winston said. We had to cut that carefully to get it to be sharper. The only thing I wish wed captured a little bit more of was how the crowd was all in tears.
Winstons Fulwell 73 banner was behind the concert production, along with Adeles Onward banner, as well as the interview segments of the two-hour special that were recorded at Oprah Winfreys home in Montecito, Calif., produced with Winfreys Harpo banner. The weight of working with two of the worlds most recognizable superstars was not lost on Winston and his team.
It was just one of those moments when you feel very lucky to be able to make stuff like this, Winston said. Were so glad so many people watched it. Its great that you can still have these moments where network television brings people together for a special TV moment. Were all in it for those moments.
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The script supervisor on Rust filed a lawsuit against star Alec Baldwin and the films producers on Wednesday, saying she suffered both physical and emotional injuries when Baldwin shot the films cinematographer while preparing for a scene.
Mamie Mitchell filed the suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court and is represented by attorney Gloria Allred. In the complaint, she says she was standing just four feet from Baldwin when the gun went off.
Plaintiff was terrified and feared for her life, the suit states. The gunshot caused Plaintiff to experience pain in her ears and head and, shortly thereafter, Plaintiff began to hear loud ringing in her ears. Soon after, Plaintiff witnessed the horror of what had occurred.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed by the gunshot, and the director, Joel Souza, was wounded in the shoulder.
The suit alleges that Baldwin should have checked the gun to make sure it was unloaded and also accuses the producers of cost-cutting measures that led to the incident. the suit also cites a text message from the films camera operator, in which he complained of two accidental discharges on set prior to the Oct. 21 shooting. Mitchell was the first to call 911 after the incident.
Ill never forget what happened on the set of Rust that day, Mitchell said at a press conference at Allreds office. This violent tragedy has taken away the joy of my life I never want what happened on our set to ever happen to anyone else.
The suit is the second to be filed in the Rust tragedy. Serge Svetnoy, the films gaffer, filed a separate claim last week, stating that he, too, was in close proximity to Baldwin when the shot was fired and also suffered physical and emotional harm.
Mitchells suit states claims of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and deliberate infliction of harm. In addition to Baldwin and the films producers, the suit also names several crew members as defendants, including armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and first assistant director Dave Halls. The producers and executive producers named in the suit are Ryan Donnell Smith, Allen Cheney, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Matt DelPiano, Anjul Nigam, Emily Salveson, Jennifer Lamb and Chris M.B. Sharp.
The production had a liability insurance policy through Chubb with a $6 million limit, according to a certificate filed with the local film office.
Hutchins widower, Matt Hutchins, has retained attorney Brian Panish of Panish Shea Doyle Ravipudi LLP.
Mitchells full statement can be read here, and Allreds statement is here.
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The city received a Purple Heart City plaque in a ceremony held at City Hall on Monday. Purple Heart recipients joined Mayor Pete Saenz and councilmembers to grant the designation.
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. military. It is also the oldest military medal in the nation.
To be declared a Purple Heart City, a mayor and/or city council must deliver an official proclamation, which is then presented to the local chapter of the military order of the Purple Heart.
Purple Heart recipients joined city officials for this important ceremony in which they also shared their memories while being in combat and earning this recognition.
The Purple Heart Designation is one of the most prestigious honors a city can receive, and were extremely grateful for that, Saenz said. By proclaiming Laredo as a Purple Heart City, were committing to remembering acts of resiliency of brave men and women. It is with much admiration, honor and respect that we should salute all of the Veterans and Purple Heart Recipients.
Without you, obviously, we wouldnt be doing what we do here, and thats exercising our rights, liberties and our opinions. The Purple Heart city designation will serve as a reminder of your service for our community.
Texas Department Commander for 2021-22 Lazaro Airborne Camarillo, a combat-wounded Vietnam Army veteran, presented the proclamation for the citys designation.
What does it mean to become a Purple Heart City? It means that you are going to represent, you are going to honor every single Purple Heart recipient, he said. Especially all those veterans who earn in combat this badge.
Camarillo is a recipient of the Purple Heart himself earning a Bronze Star with Valor for his actions in Vietnam.
According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, as an Army Sergeant (E-5), Camarillo was wounded during his service in Vietnam.
For his Valor, Lazaro received the Bronze Star with V Device, and received a Purple Heart for his actions on April 5, 1969 at the A Shau Valley, Vietnam. Lazaro Camarillo spent 122 days in the A Shau Valley, fought at Hill 654, Airborne Hill, Hamburger Hill, DMZ and through the entire A Shau Valley. Lazaro was forced to go hand-to-hand twice in combat on Airborne Hill and again on Hamburger Hill.
District VI Councilmember Dr. Marte Martinez reminded present guests the importance of having this designation. As Laredo even being a small city, has always had a big presence in the military, remarking the citys devotion for serving its country.
I am proud to be a part of this, he said. Im proud of this proclamation, I want to thank you (Camarillo) for allowing us the honor of joining the other 200 cities in Texas that are now Purple Heart cities, and that we take a moment, not today, but every day to look at this plaque as were driving by and remember that is not just a plaque. When we see Purple Heart designations its not just a plaque, this is a commitment from Laredo to stand up and protect our country.
According to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the state of Texas is home to more than 47,000 recipients of the honor.
Victor Salazar is the Veterans Program Coordinator at Alamo Area Council of Governments. He served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army from 2002-05.
A lot of people dont know the gravity, the pain behind this Purple Heart award, he said. We lost a lot of brothers.
This is an award no service member wants to get, but its an award were all ready and willing to receive for the love of our country. Were in this together. Our men fight together, we live together, we do this for the love of our country. This award, it signifies more than just bravery and wining, and combat, its so much more than that.
Laredo is one of 200 cities nationwide that have received this prestigious title. The Purple Heart is the oldest military decoration, created as the Badge of Military Merit by General George Washington in 1782, to honor all military service members who have been wounded or killed during combat.
cecilia.trevino@lmtonline.com
PRAGUE (AP) The Czech Republic and Slovakia both reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a day before the two European Union countries plan to approve new restrictions for unvaccinated people in response to rising infections.
Thousands in the capitals of both countries, Prague and Bratislava, used Wednesdays anniversary of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution to rally against their governments upcoming coronavirus restrictions.
The protesters ignored social distancing and didnt wear masks. Police didnt intervene in Prague. In Bratislava, police said two officers sustained injuries after the crowd near the seat of the government detonated fire crackers.
The Czech daily tally soared to 22,479 new cases, eclipsing the previous record set Jan. 7 by almost 5,000 and nearly 8,000 more than just a week ago. The countrys infection rate rose to 813 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, up from 558 a week earlier.
Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech announced Wednesday he would propose new coronavirus restrictions to be approved by the government on Thursday.
We find ourselves in a very serious situation, Vojtech said. There's a real risk that our hospitals will be overwhelmed,"
The key measure being proposed is that most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to attend public events, go to bars and restaurants or use hotels based on coronavirus test results. Only people who are vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID-19 will remain eligible. Similar restrictions are in place in the German state of Bavaria.
They are expected to become effective on Monday.
It's motivation for the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, Vojtech said.
Exceptions include teenagers aged 12 to 18, medical personnel and visitors at hospitals and nursing homes.
Vojtech also urged companies to cancel their traditional Christmas parties and return to working at home wherever possible.
Slovakia reported 8,342 new virus cases, surpassing the previous record of 7,244 set Friday. The Slovak government is planning new restrictions on unvaccinated people as the country's hospitals are getting overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said his Cabinet would vote Thursday on recommendations from medical experts. Among the proposals, which would be instituted for three weeks, are banning unvaccinated people from nonessential stores, shopping malls, gyms, pools, hotels and mass public gatherings.
Slovakia's Health Ministry said 81% of the country's 2,879 hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
The Czech Republic at 57.9% and Slovakia at 45.3% have vaccination rates well below the average of the EU's 27 nations.
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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The Louisiana inmate whose Supreme Court case was instrumental in extending the possibility of freedom to hundreds of people sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole when they were juveniles was freed on parole Wednesday after spending nearly six decades behind bars.
Henry Montgomery, 75, was released from prison just hours after the parole board's decision and went to the offices of the Louisiana Parole Project, a nonprofit which is supporting him after his release. There he was embraced by tearful staff and former juvenile lifers who were freed as a result of the court case that bears Montgomery's name.
It feels so wonderful," said Montgomery during an interview with The Associated Press. When asked what he plans to do now that he is out of prison, Montgomery said he wanted to pay his respects to his mother and grandmother and other family members who died when he was behind bars.
Montgomery had been convicted in the 1963 killing of East Baton Rouge sheriffs deputy Charles Hurt, who caught him skipping school. Montgomery was 17 at the time. He was initially sentenced to death but the states Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 1966, saying he didnt get a fair trial. The case was retried, Montgomery convicted again but this time sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He served decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
A three-member board voted unanimously in favor of parole. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held on Zoom with Montgomery appearing on camera at Angola.
Hes been in prison for 57 years. He has an excellent ... disciplinary record. He is a low risk by our assessment. Hes got good comments from the warden," said board member Tony Marabella as he voted to approve Montgomery's release with certain conditions including a curfew and that he have no contact with the victim's family.
Montgomery's release owes back to two specific Supreme Court cases. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentencing of life without parole for juvenile offenders was cruel and unusual punishment. But it didnt settle the question of whether that decision applied retroactively or only to cases going forward.
In 2016, the Supreme Court settled the matter when it took up Montgomerys case and extended their decision on such sentences to people already in prison.
The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and releases. Since the courts Montgomery decision, about 800 people who had been sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been released, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. But, until Wednesday, Montgomery remained in prison.
After the Supreme Court decision, he was resentenced in 2017 to life with parole and the state judge who resentenced Montgomery called him a model prisoner who appears to be rehabilitated. But then the parole board rejected his application two times, the most recent rejection coming in 2019.
Andrew Hundley is a former juvenile lifer who was released due to the Montgomery decision and went on to found the Parole Project in 2016 to assist people who have served long prison sentences reenter society. He said many former juvenile lifers who were released and were able to go on with their lives felt a collective sense of guilt that Montgomery whose case made their releases possible was still behind bars. For juvenile lifers still incarcerated, his release carries a different message, Hundley said.
For individuals who continue to be in prison, Henry gives them hope that they may be judged by who they are today and not the worst mistake they ever made," Hundley said.
The Parole Project will help Montgomery with housing, signing up for health care or medications, getting an ID card and learning how to navigate society. The reentry started with a cheeseburger, fries and an orange soda his first meal out of prison and his first cellphone which staff members said they would help him set up.
Montgomery also noted the huge changes that had taken place in Baton Rouge since he was incarcerated freeways that didn't exist decades ago, for example and said he didn't even recognize some places.
Shon Williams was on hand Wednesday to welcome Montgomery. He was a former juvenile lifer who served time in Angola with Montgomery. He recalled Montgomery taking a sign language class in prison that Williams taught despite his arthritis and Montgomery giving him advice in prison to never give up." Williams said he was holding back tears watching Montgomery on Wednesday.
If it wasnt for him Id still be in Angola," Williams said.
During the hearing, Hundley and others spoke of what Montgomery had accomplished in prison including his years of work at the prison's silk screen shop and the length of his stay. He was also instrumental in establishing a boxing team.
His release was not without opposition. Hurt, the sheriffs deputy who Montgomery killed, was married and had three children. Two of his daughters have met with Montgomery in prison and forgiven him, but family members have opposed his release. A prosecutor from the area where Montgomery's crime occurred spoke against his parole as did one of the deputy's daughters, Linda Hurt Woods.
I do not believe that he should be released at this time," said Woods, saying that the decision shows deep disrespect to law enforcement officers. He made a decision at 17 years old. You know right from wrong at 17. I did.
Montgomery himself said little during the roughly half-hour hearing. He is extremely hard of hearing, and his lawyer often had to repeat questions from the board members. At times Montgomery said he was struggling to find words to express himself.
Im really sorry that I, that this happened," Montgomery said. I am going to have to live with this all my life, the rest of my life. Speaking later to the AP he said: I destroyed my life, they life and the people that I hurt," referring to his own family and that of the slain deputy's.
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VIENNA (AP) The United Nations' atomic watchdog says it believes that Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in breach of a 2015 accord with world powers.
The International Atomic Energy Agency told member nations in its confidential quarterly report Wednesday that Iran has an estimated stock of 17.7 kilograms (39 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, an increase of almost 8 kilograms since August.
Such highly enriched uranium can be easily refined to make atomic weapons, which is why world powers have sought to contain Tehrans nuclear program.
The Vienna-based agency told members that it is still not able to verify Irans exact stockpile of enriched uranium due to the limitations that Tehran imposed on U.N. inspectors earlier this year.
The IAEA has been unable to access surveillance footage of Iranian nuclear sites or of online enrichment monitors and electronic seals since February. The agency's chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told The Associated Press this month that the situation was like flying in a heavily clouded sky.
In a separate report to member states Wednesday about its work in Iran, the agency said Grossi was concerned about inspectors being subjected to excessively invasive physical searches by security officials at nuclear facilities in Iran."
He reiterates the call upon Iran to take immediate steps to remedy the situation, and to implement security procedures at nuclear facilities that are consistent with internationally accepted security practices and Irans legal obligations in relation to privileges and immunities of the agency and its inspectors, the IAEA said, according to the confidential quarterly report seen by The Associated Press.
The agency said it categorically rejects the idea its cameras at Iranian nuclear sites played a role in a sabotage attack on the Karaj facility near Tehran in June. Iran accuses Israel of being behind the incident.
A senior diplomat who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the searches of the inspectors carried out in Iran were very time-consuming and made some feel intimidated. The diplomat was not authorized to be named while speaking to the media.
Mohammadreza Ghayebi, caretaker envoy of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in Vienna, called on other IAEA member states to refrain from making hasty or politically motivated comments.
State-run IRNA news agency quoted him as saying that Grossi was expected in Tehran for talks Monday "to discuss the status of cooperation between the two sides.
Senior diplomats from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia plan to meet with Iranian officials in Vienna on Nov. 29 to discuss bringing Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The pact eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
The United States pulled out of the accord under former President Donald Trump and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to resume its uranium enrichment.
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Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.
Beto O'Rourke officially announced he is running for governor of Texas on Monday, November 15. He broke the news after months of speculation he would challenge Governor Greg Abbott. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said "it won't be easy, but it is possible."
"I do believe, very strongly, from listening to people in this state that they're very unhappy with the direction that Greg Abbott has taken Texas," O'Rouke said.
Shortly after the news broke, Abbott tweeted all the things he believes O'Rourke wants to do, like "defund the police," "take your guns," and "impose socialism."
"Bring it," he wrote to his challenger.
In 2018, O'Rourke narrowly lost the U.S. Senate seat to Ted Cruz. The closer-than-expected race pushed him into the national spotlight and he decided to run for president in 2020, but he dropped out before the primaries began.
Regardless of his past political performance, Texas Democratic leaders are showing support for O'Rourke amid his announcement (Republicans, however, are a bit quiet this morning). San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro tweeted his support for O'Rourke, adding "Abbott has failed us, and has a vision too small and divisive for" Texas.
"Let's get to work and vote him out," Castro added.
On the other side, Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz wrote he isn't surprised with O'Rourke's announcement. He tweeted a clip of one of the campaign ads he used when running against O'Rourke in 2018. It was a song that sang some of the following lyrics: "If you're going to run in Texas, you can't be a liberal man."
"With Beto's unsurprising announcement of yet another failed political run, it seems like a good time to reprise a classic," Cruz tweeted.
Scroll to see more reactions from Texas leaders:
Brandon Bell, Staff / Getty Images
In Texas latest legal challenge targeting federal vaccination mandates, Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration over its recent order requiring health workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Biden administration issued an emergency order, which went into effect Nov. 4, requiring eligible workers at health care facilities participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to get the first shot of a two-dose vaccine or a one-dose vaccine by Dec. 6.
Criminals could be putting their culinary skills to the test by forming part of a new look catering team at the Irish Prison Service (IPS) Headquarters in Longford town.
The organisation is seeking an independent social enterprise to run the catering services and that will also train and/or employ people with criminal convictions.
The IPS is conducting a market sounding exercise to ascertain the level of interest and engagement from suitable operators.
Prison Service officials say the scheme is in keeping with the bodys overall mission statement which aims to offer rehabilitation for prisoners and the Department of Justices Working to Change social enterprise and employment strategy.
Its envisaged an independent operator will head up the Prison Services canteen at its main offices on the outskirts of Longford town and hire individuals with previous convictions who have found it difficult to secure employment because of their criminal past.
In a bid to entice prospective operators, prison service have decided to provide the canteen and fully fitted commercial kitchen to the successful operator rent free.
The operator, subject to consultation with Irish Prison Services bosses, will also be permitted to use the kitchen to cater for external events in order to compensate for the facilitys limited footfall.
In a statement, the Irish Prison Service said the aim of the initiative was multi-faceted.
The objective of this market sounding exercise is to get a clear understanding of the level of interest in the canteen/commercial kitchen facility to meet the catering requirements of Irish Prison Service staff while also creating a mechanism for providing employment for people who are distant from the labour market and to obtain feedback on the proposition.
If you are interested in putting your name forward for selection/expressing your interest, please e-mail the following details to info@irishprisons.ie or siobhan@workingtochange.ie before close of business on Friday, November 26, 2021.
Today, Wednesday, 17 November 2021, the HSE and National Clinical Programme (NCP) for respiratory is marking World COPD Day, a global public health day to raise awareness, share knowledge, and discuss ways to reduce the burden of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) worldwide.
This year the HSE is empowering people living with COPD to self-manage their symptoms and reminding them of the range of supports and resources available.
COPD is the most prevalent respiratory disease in Irish adults and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. It is estimated that 380,000 people are living with COPD yet only 110,000 are diagnosed. At least 1,500 patients die each year of this disease and over 15,000 patients are admitted to hospital with COPD in Ireland.
COPD has considerable impact on the quality of life of the patient, families, and carers. The course of the disease involves ongoing medical care and in certain patients results in frequent hospital admissions. Spirometry is a test used to help diagnose COPD, and, to monitor the severity of the condition as the disease progresses.
The HSE has launched an educational video to help patients better understand Spirometry, how it works, what to expect and what the results of Spirometry mean.
Dr Desmond Murphy, HSE National Clinical Lead for Respiratory explains:
COPD is a disease resulting from damage to the lungs most commonly by cigarette smoke. This damage to the airways can result in shortness of breath and tiredness because the affected person has to work harder to breathe. In addition, patients with COPD are more susceptible to getting chest infections.
The most common symptoms of COPD symptoms are shortness of breath, sputum/phlegm production and cough. These symptoms are often under-reported by patients, which may contribute to the under-diagnosis of the condition.
People can experience COPD in different ways depending on which symptoms trouble them most, how severe they are and how damaged their lungs are. COPD is a progressive illness, meaning it has several stages of severity. It tends to creep up on people slowly.
"This means that it can often be several years before symptoms and the underlying damage to their lungs reach a level that cause a person to see their doctor or healthcare provider.
"While there is no cure for COPD, there are tools and tips for patients to manage their symptoms, slow the progression of the disease and allow them to live well. We hope the resources developed will assist the COPD community with this.
The HSE National Clinical Programme for Respiratory launched the first National Clinical Guideline with the Department of Health on November 3, 2021. The development of this national clinical guideline for COPD is a major step forward in that it will ensure that COPD patients across the country receive consistent and standardised care, based on the best available evidence.
The HSE & NCP Respiratory End to End Model of Care for COPD is being rolled out to support people in community and hospital settings, with the establishment of specialist teams in the community, including Respiratory Integrated Care teams.
This will support the care of more patients in the community, and, lessen the need for hospital-based care (hospital admissions for acute exacerbation of COPD can be significant events for patients). Some of the services that will be made available in the community include diagnostic tests such as Spirometry and evidence based interventions such as pulmonary rehabilitation.
For further information and support, please discuss with your physician if there is a local Respiratory Care community team available for you to access. The national COPD Advice line can be contacted on 1800 83 21 46.
The Chancellor of Austria has announced a lockdown for citizens of the country who remain unvaccinated against Covid-19.
Alexander Schallenberg's move reportedly came into effect at midnight on Sunday after a rapid rise in case numbers nationwide.
The ban prohibits unvaccinated people over the age of 12 from leaving their homes except for essential purposes such as working or grocery shopping.
Almost 6 million people in the country are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, out of a total of almost 9 million people. Over 30% of Austrians remain unvaccinated.
According to the Independent.ie, Taoiseach Micheal Martin does not see a lockdown being brought in for unvaccinated people.
Speaking in Navan yesterday afternoon (November 15th), he said, "I dont anticipate well be going down that route, weve got 93%/94% vaccinated. Theyre in a different situation, I think theyre 64%/65% vaccinated, which means that theyve a big issue with a significant number of people which remain unvaccinated."
Do you think unvaccinated Irish people should be put under lockdown? Vote in our poll now!
17th November 2021
Runtime 2:02:04
Here is the full length video recording of London South East's Natural Resources Webinar, broadcast live on the evening of 16 November 2021. We had four great company CEO's speaking on the night, each presenting their investment case and taking live questions afterwards.
Vincent Mascolo, CEO at IronRidge Resources. IRR are retaining the Lithium assets and demerging gold, with the AGM on 18 November. New Co to be called Atlantic Lithium #ALL.
00:56 and Q&A at 21:18
Leslie Peterkin, CEO at Advance Energy. Leslie is waiting to spud a major well in the Buffalo Field, Timor East, and is confident something commercial will come of it.
31:43 and Q&A at 51:27
Graham Clarke CEO and Charles Vaughan, Commercial Director at Emmerson plc. EML have significantly derisked their potash project in Northern Morocco by gaining a strategic investment of almost $47M.
1:01:36 and Q&A at 1:20:11
Alex Stanbury, CEO at Technology Minerals the battery metals specialist. TM1 both explore for battery metals and recycle lead and Lithium Ion batteries. They IPO'd on the Main Market today, 17 November 2021.
1:31:39 and Q&A at 1:53:16
17th November 2021
Runtime 30:48
Vincent Mascolo, IronRidge CEO (IRR) outlined his demerger plans and took live questions at last night's London South East Natural Resources evening. Vincent quickly ran through how the Lithium assets at Ewoyaa in Ghana would remain with a new company to be called Atlantic Lithium, and the gold assets in Cote d'Ivoire and Chad will be demerged into a company called Ricca Resources. There will be be no cross share holdings between these two entities. Ricca is a private company and will be listed on an Exchange in 2022 explained Vincent.
IronRidge has made three major discoveries in three years, with the Lithium Project in Ghana the most advanced. Piedmont Lithium is to fully fund the Ghana Lithium project to production for $102M.
The reason for the demerger and rebranding is because the board felt that its portfolio was not realising its true value in the current structure.
The AGM to approve the restructuring is on 18 November.
Superdielectrics Group PLC - developing technology to build supercapacitors to help create clean and sustainable global energy - Expects to list on AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in early December. Company intends to raise GBP20 million by way of a placing of its ordinary shares on admission. WH Ireland is acting as sole broker and nominated adviser.
"Superdielectrics has discovered and patented a breakthrough technology in the keystone energy storage field, which is based on advanced supercapacitors. We believe this is a vital development in cleantech because energy storage enables companies and countries to meet their net zero targets via the removal of intermittency risk in key forms of renewable energy," says Chief Executive Officer Jim Heathcote.
"We believe our admission to AIM will raise our international profile and open up multiple commercial scenarios for the company, whilst enabling us to grow rapidly; building upon and taking full advantage of our first mover position at a critical juncture in the energy transition debate," he adds.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
3i Infrastructure PLC - FTSE 250-listed infrastructure investment company - Agrees to invest about USD512 million to acquire a 100% stake in Global Cloud Xchange. "GCX provides high-bandwidth connectivity to a range of blue-chip customers including hyperscalers, telecommunications operators, new media providers and enterprises. Its 66,000km of cables span 46 countries from North America to Asia, with a particularly strong position on the Europe-Asia and Intra-Asia routes," 3i explains.
B&M European Value Retail SA - FTSE 100-listed Luxembourg-headquartered retailer - Prices GBP250 million seven-year backed senior secured notes due 2028 at 4.00%. Intends to use money raised from the notes for general corporate purposes and to pay fees and expenses incurred in connection with the offering. Moody's assigned a Ba2 rating to the notes.
Tatton Asset Management PLC - Wilmslow-based fund manager - Ends first half with record assets under management, sitting at GBP10.8 billion. As of November 12, AuM now about GBP11.2 billion. Revenue in six months to September 30 increases 26% to GBP13.8 million from GBP11.0 million. Pretax profit grows to GBP4.8 million from GBP3.1 million. Declares interim dividend of 4.0 pence, up from 3.5p year before. Chief Executive Paul Hogarth says: "During the Period, Tatton exceeded the milestone of GBP10 billion AuM from pure organic growth while also expanding our distribution footprint by entering into new long term strategic partnerships and we were thrilled to have reached A10.8 billion at the end of September 2021. Paradigm also delivered a record level of mortgage completions of A6.6 billion in the six month Period. Trading momentum has continued since the last market update and post Period end and, as a result, we now anticipate that trading for the current financial year will be ahead of the Board's previous expectations."
Kingswood Holdings Ltd - London-based wealth manager - Agrees to acquire the business assets of Smythe & Walter, a financial planning business based in Faversham, Kent. Says GBP420,000 will be paid immediately and up to GBP420,000 paid on deferred basis over 2 years. Notes Kingswood assets under administration now over GBP6.4 billion, with GBP4.7 billion from UK clients. Kingswood UK Chief Executive David Lawrence says: "Smythe & Walter are a growing firm and this acquisition enhances our existing footprint in the South East. I am delighted to welcome Lee Smythe and his team to Kingswood. This is our third acquisition of 2021 and we continue to have a strong pipeline of high-quality UK opportunities under negotiation, five of which are in the exclusive due diligence stage."
First Property Group PLC - London-based property fund manager and investor - Extends fund manager role for UK Pension Property Portfolio LP by five years to January 13, 2027. To extend fund, company agrees to buy out two partners in UK PPP for GBP36.8 million. First Chief Executive Ben Habib says: "I am delighted by the outcome of our discussions with the limited partners in these two funds and their restructuring. Investors in both these funds should benefit from a high rate of income return on their investments and, hopefully, capital gains in due course as markets recover from lockdowns."
Mobeus Income & Growth 4 VCT PLC - venture capital trusts managed by Gresham House PLC - Net asset value per share ends September 30 at 103.57 pence each, down from 104.76p six months earlier. Notes NAV drop comes from 5.0p interim dividend.
Mirriad Advertising PLC - London-based in-content advertising technology - Signs new initiative with Crown Media Family Networks, a US-based media production company owned and operated by Hallmark Cards Inc. Company says: "The ongoing agreement - which now includes access to Hallmark Channel's highly successful Countdown to Christmas programme, a pop culture phenomenon and beloved holiday tradition for millions of viewers in America - will present brands and advertisers with the exciting opportunity to leverage Mirriad's in-content solution to better engage with audiences in the run-up to this year's festive season."
Supply@Me Capital PLC - London-based inventory monetisation services provider - Gets notice for conversion of GBP158,333 of loan notes from Mercator Capital Management Fund LP. Will convert notes into 77.6 million shares.
Mirada PLC - London-based broadcasting technology firm - Signs strategic collaboration with US-based Shift 2 Stream Inc. "Shift 2 Stream empowers rural, regional, small and mid-size internet service providers and cable operators to deliver cost-effective application-based TV services to their residential and business subscribers," company explains. Part of agreement will see Shift 2 Stream become an official reseller of Mirada's products and services through the integration of Mirada's Iris technology into its new Opt2Me solution.
Cornerstone FS PLC - Newry, Northern Ireland-based cloud-based provider of payments - Offers "short" extension to timing of drawdown for GBP100,000 loan from Robert Lee. Drawdown will now be November 26, extended from November 15. "The company's strategy as stated in its admission document is on track and the anticipated drawdown of the loan from Lee was part of that process. The breach of this particular loan facility will not have a material impact on the execution of that strategy," company says.
Golden Rock Global PLC - special purpose acquisition company eyeing buy in fintech sector - Signs non-legally binding heads of terms with the shareholders of Bolt Global Ltd to buy firm. "Although the consideration payable by the company to the shareholders of Bolt Global has not yet been determined, it is anticipated that it will be satisfied entirely by the issue of new GRG shares. The company also announces that it intends to carry out a contemporaneous fundraising to raise further working capital for the enlarged group," company says. Bolt Global is a blockchain-based media and decentralised finance ecosystem.
Blue Prism Group PLC - Warrington-based robotic process automation firm - SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc confirms making 1,200.00 pence preliminary approach for company. SS&C offer is 6.7% higher than Vista Funds offer of 1,125.00p that was agreed in September. Blue Prism is providing SS&C Technologies with due diligence but says there can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made by SS&C. SS&C Chair & Chief Executive Bill Stone says Blue Prism "complements" own business. Vista Funds acceptances for own offer at 21.0%, which is down from 22.3% on October 27 after Lead Edge Capital Management LLC disposed of 1.3 million shares.
OptiBiotix Health PLC - York, England-based life sciences company - Creates new Indian subsidiary, OptiBiotix Health India Ltd. "The formation of OHI allows significant opportunities for additional revenue growth through sales of the group's products in India," company says. Adds: "In March 2021, OptiBiotix announced the appointment of Taru Jain to focus on business development and growing sales in the strategically important Indian and Asian markets. The formation of OHI builds on that presence."
Camellia PLC - Linton, England-based agricultural production firm - Buys remaining 20% stake in Bardsley England for GBP1.7 million from Bardsley Ltd. As part of the deal, Bardsley England has sold an existing loan with a face value of about GBP1.1 million to Bardsley Ltd resulting in net cash outflow from Camellia of about GBP600,000.
Fulcrum Utility Services Ltd - Sheffield-based utility infrastructure and services - Notes the recent share price movement and turbulence in the energy market. Says good progress in the first half of the year, with trading in line with management expectations. Revenue in six months to September 30 up 47% to GBP28.6 million from GBP19.5 million. Order book up 44% to GBP80.9 million from GBP56.1 million at March 31. "The board is pleased to report that its multi-utility contracting operations across the housing, Industrial & Commercial, including EV connections, and utility ownership and maintenance sectors have, to date, been unaffected by the current energy crisis. The board is confident that, currently, the Group's smart metering business model, order book and delivery pipeline is robust and resilient to the turbulence being felt in the energy market," company says.
President Energy PLC - oil & gas company focussed on Latin America - Confirms reduction of capital in the company by way of cancellation of the company's share premium account. "This is a necessary precursor to the contemplated distribution by way of dividend in specie of the majority of shares held by the Company in Atome Energy PLC in conjunction with the spin out of Atome and the application to AIM of the London Stock Exchange for admittance of the shares of Atome to trading," company explains.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Manchester Center, VT (05254)
Today
Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low 29F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..
Tonight
Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low 29F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial deliberated a full day on Tuesday without reaching a verdict over whether he was the instigator in a night of bloodshed in Kenosha or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property.
The case went to the anonymous jury after the judge, in an unusual move, allowed Rittenhouse himself to play a minor role in the selection of the final panel of 12 people whose job was to decide his fate.
Rittenhouse reached into a raffle drum and drew numbered slips that determined which of the 18 jurors who sat through the case would deliberate and which ones would be dismissed as alternates.
That task is usually performed by a court clerk, not the defendant. Judge Bruce Schroeder said later in the day that he has been having defendants do it for Im going to say 20 years, at least.
The jury will return Wednesday morning to continue its work.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted as charged for using an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men and wound a third during a night of protests against racial injustice in Kenosha in the summer of 2020. The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot.
Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors argued he provoked the violence. The case has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over guns, racial-justice protests, vigilantism and law and order.
The jury appeared to be overwhelmingly white. Prospective jurors were not asked to identify their race during the selection process, and the court did not provide a racial breakdown.
As the jury deliberated, dozens of protesters some for Rittenhouse, some against stood outside the courthouse. Some talked quietly with those on the other side, while others shouted insults. One woman could be heard repeatedly calling some Rittenhouse supporters white supremacists.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who faced criticism over his response to the Kenosha protests in 2020, urged calm as the jury deliberated. He announced last week that 500 members of the National Guard would stand ready for duty in Kenosha if needed.
Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state, Evers tweeted. He added: "I ask all those who choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in every community to do so safely and peacefully.
The large protests that some had anticipated did not materialize during the trial's testimony phase. On most days, only a few demonstrators gathered on the courthouse steps, and the high fence that protected the building during last year's unrest is gone.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he went Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, in what he said was an effort to protect property from rioters in the days after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white Kenosha police officer.
In a fast-moving series of clashes in the streets, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Thomas Binger said that Rittenhouse was a wannabe soldier who set the deadly chain of events in motion by bringing a rifle to a protest and pointing it at protesters just before he was chased.
But Rittenhouse lawyer Mark Richards countered that Rittenhouse was ambushed by a crazy person Rosenbaum.
Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum chased him down and made a grab for his rifle, causing him to fear the weapon was going to be used against him. His account of Rosenbaum's behavior was largely corroborated by video and some of the prosecution's own witnesses.
Huber was shot after he hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard. And Grosskreutz admitted he had his own gun pointed at Rittenhouse when he was shot.
In his instructions to the jury, Schroeder said that to accept Rittenhouses claim of self-defense, the jurors must find that he believed there was an unlawful threat to him and that the amount of force he used was reasonable and necessary.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis; Webber from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
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Find APs full coverage of the Rittenhouse trial: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
This story has been updated with information on how the amount of grand funding available to counties is calculated based on the number of medical marijuana cards issued and renewed in each county.
Manistee and Benzie Counties both stand to receive some money from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency to educate the public about medical marijuana.
The agency recently released the amounts for potential Medical Marihuana Operation and Oversight Grants for fiscal year 2022, and opened the applications process. Counties can apply for the funds or act as the fiduciary for another organization looking to utilize them.
The grants are used for education, communication and outreach regarding the 2008 Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, but cannot be used for law enforcement purposes.
Manistee County organizations can potentially net at total of $4,348. Benzie County could receive a total of $14,587.
The amounts are based on the number of marijuana registry identification cards issued or renewed in the county as of Sept. 30. According to the agency, cards are needed by those seeking medical marijuana products.
"The formula for the MMOOG grants is based on a countys percentage of the total cards (renewal/new) issued by the State of Michigan," wrote David Harns, public relations manager for the Marijuana Regulatory Agency in an email to the Record Patriot.
In some years, counties have more cards issued and renewed than previous years, but they are allotted less potential funding.
"Even though a specific county may have more cards (than a previous year) in a given year, their percentage to the total number of cards issued to all Michigan counties may be less," Harns continued in the email.
Benzie County saw 567 cards issued or renewed, and Manistee saw 169 cards issued or renewed.
The largest grant total available for a county was Wayne County at $566,541 and Gladwin County was the lowest with a possible $257 in grants, according to the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs grant listing of the $3 million available statewide.
The oversight grants have been available annually since 2016, according to the agency.
Medical marijuana cards issued or renewed since 2016 2022 Benzie: 567 Manistee: 169 2021 Benzie: 573 Manistee: 218 2020 Benzie: 353 Manistee: 171 2019 Benzie: 350 Manistee: 420 2018 Benzie: 324 Manistee: 348 2017 Benzie: 382 Manistee: 394 2016 Benzie: 288 Manistee: 250 Information comes from the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency See More Collapse
Lisa Sagala, administrator for Manistee County, said the county has taken advantage of the funds in the past by acting as a fiduciary for District Health Department # 10.
The county applies and act as a fiduciary through which the health department can get the grants, Sagala said. The county acts as a pass-through. There are stipulations, and we must apply.
Sagala said the funding allows the health department to create an outreach program.
It helps them receive funds and do some projects they might otherwise not be able to do, she said.
Jen Hansen, community health supervisor fro District Health Department #10, said the department has not yet talked with county governments in its jurisdiction about applying for the grant funding.
"Each year when the RFP (request for proposal) comes out we get in touch with our county administrators in all 10 of our counties and see if they are interested in partnering on this," Hansen wrote in an email. "Being that we have not yet had those conversations I am unsure if Manistee intends to apply or not. If they do, we create a plan for the year, get their approval and it gets submitted to the state."
In the past, the department has used the funds for educational billboards and social media campaigns, lockboxes for residents and healthcare provider education.
"Our efforts are primarily targeted at preventing youth access to marijuana, accidental ingestion by kids, and information regarding the risks of marijuana use during pregnancy," Hansen said.
In total, the Michigan Legislature has appropriated three million dollars for the 2022 Medical Marihuana Operation and Oversight Grants
Once grant applications are accepted and approved by the agency, the grant recipients are required to submit quarterly financial status reports and a final report.
Application information and instructions can be found at michigan.gov/mra.
Medical Marijuana Operation and Oversight Grant applications must be received electronically no later than Jan. 1, 2022 at MRA-MMOOG@michigan.gov.
On Tuesday, the American Trucking Associations named 36 professional truck drivers as finalists for the 2022-2023 term of America's Road Team, a group of professional truck drivers with superior safety records created in 1986 to represent the trucking industry.
"These men and women were selected as finalists for America's Road Team because they have outstanding safe driving records, share a passion for the trucking industry and are role models among their peers," ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. "We owe these professional drivers our gratitude, without them the American economy would come to a halt."
Jon Matthew-George Mason of Old Dominion Freight Line in Newport, Mich. was named a finalist for the team. Additionally, David Schroeder of FedEx Freight in Bellaire, Ohio was also named a finalist. There was a finalist from Indiana and three finalists from Illinois as well.
Captains of America's Road Team, with support from their companies, dedicate a few days each month to attend industry events, speak at schools or meet policymakers on behalf of the trucking industry.
The 36 finalists from 21 states advance to the final round of the selection process, being held January in Arlington, Va. A panel of evaluators, including industry officials and trucking news media representatives, will judge the contenders on their knowledge of the trucking industry, dedication to safety, ability to communicate the industry's messages and overall safe driving record.
The finalists, with a combined total of 75 million safe-driving miles and 923 years as professional truck drivers, are highway safety experts eager to share their experiences with the motoring public, the ATA said in a press release.
The newly chosen 2022-2023 America's Road Team will be announced on Jan. 19 following a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. New Captains, after receiving their signature navy blue America's Road Team blazer, will begin working to share the industry's message of safety, essentiality and sustainability with the motoring public, media, business and community groups, public officials and their fellow truck drivers around the country.
Captains from previous teams continue to serve as ambassadors to the industry and are called upon frequently to participate in safety events, speaking appearances and industry conferences.
"Being named a finalist for America's Road Team is a major achievement for professional truck drivers and ATA congratulates each of them for this accomplishment," Elisabeth Barna, executive vice president of industry affairs, said in a statement. "America's Road Team will continue to serve as a voice for the industry, which benefits from their professionalism, dedication and safety as they educate the public on highway safety, the role trucking plays in our economy and why the trucking industry is a great career option."
To be nominated to serve as an America's Road Team Captain, professional truck drivers must be employed or leased to an ATA member company. Each nominee should have an excellent safety record and should demonstrate an ability to communicate his or her commitment to safety and passion for the industry. Nominees should also portray a positive image of the professional truck driver in all that they do.
This year's finalists haul a diverse assortment of products and materials and range from short-haul drivers to over-the-road drivers operating in all of the lower 48 states. The finalists represent a cross-section of the industry with experience ranging from four years to 43 years as professional truck drivers with anywhere from nearly 400,000 to 3.9 million safe driving miles.
Many DC residents lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February 2020, before the pandemic began, the District's unemployment rate had dropped to its lowest level in five years, 4.9%. Two months later, unemployment doubled to 11.1%.
The District government has failed to resolve that people who lose their jobs receive the unemployment benefits to which they are entitled.
The failures were evident when the federal government extended unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
It was a test for the District's unemployment system. But the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES) failed.
A tough situation for families
The resulting loss of unemployment benefits has been devastating for many eligible individuals.
Without income to pay for food, rent, and other essentials, applicants have been forced to move elsewhere or be left without secure access to food.
The effects have been most severe for racial minorities. Today, extended unemployment benefits have expired, and the District's unemployment system remains unhelpful.
In March 2020 and 2021, Congress extended unemployment benefits for people who had lost their jobs. That bill increased pandemic-related unemployment benefits through September 4, 2021.
However, to obtain benefits, several requirements had to be met, such as providing some documents; and submitting weekly applications online or by telephone.
Thus, the claims process imposed even more hurdles. More than 13,000 District residents did not receive all their benefits in May 2021.
Nine years and $9 million later, District residents are still wrestling the old, outdated system for filing claims.
Unemployed people who don't have a personal computer must instead call DOES and spend hours talking to workers who often do not understand the details of the different unemployment programs, and who provide information that is incorrect.
DOES also fails people who do not speak English.
People with limited English proficiency often experience long waits on the phone for interpreters and struggle to complete forms that are not printed in their native languages.
Although The DC Council's oversight may produce modest improvements, the need for dramatic change remains urgent.
After the success of his last release Kabir Singh, Shahid Kapoor is in the best phase of his career. While his next film, the Hindi remake of Nani-starrer Jersey is slated to release on 31 December, he has already started shooting for Ali Abbas Zafar's upcoming thriller. The actor has also signed an action film titled Bull in which he will be seen as a paratrooper.
The project marks Shahid's reunion with producer Bhushan Kumar after Kabir Singh. A month after making an official announcement regarding the film, the makers have now locked its release date as well.
Release date:
As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh's tweet, Bull will be released in theatres on 7 April, 2023, during the Good Friday weekend. The tweet reads, "SHAHID KAPOOR: 'BULL' RELEASE DATE LOCKED... Bull starring ShahidKapoor - to release in *cinemas* on 7 April 2023".
Speaking about the release date in an official statement, T-Series head-honcho Bhusan Kumar said, "Bull is an ambitious project and one the biggest action movies coming out of T-Series stable, we continue to reassure audience's long standing romance with the silver screen with this release. It is a Shahid Kapoor film tailor-made to be viewed at your nearest theatre".
Plot:
Inspired by the real events from Brigadier Bulsaras life, Bull is a full-blown action film that is set in the 1980s. Shahid will be seen essaying the role of a paratrooper who leads his team through a selfless and historic mission that is now considered iconic for the bravado and precision. As per the makers, the theme will resonate with viewers all over India.
Production:
Directed by debutant Aditya Nimbalkar, who has worked extensively with filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, Bull is slated to go on floors in early 2022. The makers will start principal photography next year. Along with Bhushan Kumar, Garima Mehta and Amar Butala are also bankrolling the project. Both the production houses, T-series and Guilty By Association (GBA), have teamed up for the very first time to produce the actioner. Its screenplay has been penned by Parveez Shaikh and Aseem Arrora.
Cast:
Apart from Shahid, the makers are yet to announce the names of other actors wholl be a part of the action extravaganza.
The new full trailer for Tom Holland's Spider-Man: No Way Home has finally been released by Marvel Studios and fans pretty much got everything they could have asked for. Taking the lead from the teaser trailer that came out in August, the new trailer sees Tom's Spider-Man fight so many villains, we almost lost count of exactly how many were there.
Marvel Studios
Since we heard the iconic laugh of Willam Defoe's Green Goblin in the teaser, we finally get to see him in full costume as he gets back to haunting Spider-Man after being long-dead.
Marvel Studios
Yeah, he died in the 2002 Spider-Man movie in an epic final battle with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man.
Apart from him, we see Alfred Molina as Doc Ock up close, as he takes on Tom Holland's Spidey, and later gets captured. (Well, it sure looks like it, as he can be seen locked in some sort of a tank-like structure). We also see Jamie Fox's Electro and Lizard from Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man universe, alongwith Sandman from Tobey's Spidey universe, meaning that almost five (Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Lizard, Electro, Sandman) out of the Sinister Six definitely in line to fight against Spider-Man. Or Spider-Men, should I say?
Yeah, that's right.
That brings me to the crux of the matter. To what we've all been waiting for. The news of the return of the Spider-Men from the previous movie franchises. Well, there is certainly an exciting scoop for you. They are definitely back, all right! Remember the leaked images of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire that went viral on social media just a while back?
Twitter
Well, guess what? The images seem to be absolutely authentic, meaning that they are actually returning back. At the end of the trailer, you'll see Tom Holland taking on multiple villains by himself. However, it's not what it seems like. All the villains could be seen pointing in different directions just like this Twitter user found out.
Three villains all looking at different points with only 1 Spidermanhmmm... conveniently on the same railing where all the leaked phots have been. this is a 3v3 scene. #SpiderManNoWayHome pic.twitter.com/BnixKqEOEb Andrew (@AndrewsVisual) November 17, 2021
The other thing is that, in the scene where Peter can be seen talking to Zendaya's MJ, he has blood and cuts on his face, similar to his appearance in the leaked images where he was standing with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
Marvel Studios
Not only that, the trailer shows Tom standing near the exact railings as the leaked images.
Marvel Studios
If you don't believe this, well, then this Andrew Garfield leaked picture from earlier justifies it.
Marvel Studios
So, you got it right. Despite the trailer mischievously not showing Tobey and Andrew, it's destined that they are indeed returning for the movie and you'll be able to see them next month on December 17. If you still need more proof, in the trailer Alfred Molina's Doc Ock himself says to Tom Holland's Spider-Man.
'You're not Peter Parker'.
Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios
Well, correction, Doc Ock! He's not the only Peter Parker. Don't worry though. We'll all meet the three Peter Parkers soon in cinemas next month.
Excited much? Tell us in the comments below.
The Harry Potter franchise, be it the books or the amazing movies, is one which was one of the most successful franchises the world ever saw. Whether it was people lining up outside bookstores to get their copy on the release of the new Harry Potter book or people watching the movies in cinema halls, the series had magic that certainly could not ever be replicated.
Warner Bros.
As we bid farewell to the original Harry Potter series back in 2011 with the release of the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, we knew that we also said goodbye to a part of our childhood that made us believe in magic.
However, 10 years on, HBO has made sure that we get a taste of what things were like when the Harry Potter movies were around.
That's right!
After witnessing the release of the Friends: The Reunion, which was aired not so long ago, HBO Max has now decided to bring together the cast members of the original Harry Potter movies for a TV reunion special.
Yes! Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint & Emma Watson, who played the roles of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger will lead the rest of the cast members in coming back for the reunion. HBO even released the teaser for it, making us go like, 'Where did that come from?'
This event will be the first time that all the lead actors will be seen together on TV since the culmination of the original Harry Potter movie series. Titled Return To Hogwarts, the TV special will see the trio joined by cast members Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, and Tom Felton. The reunion special was announced by HBO exactly 20 years after the US release of the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.
Warner Bros.
The 52-second teaser trailer of Return To Hogwarts showed different clips from the movies while promising that the legendary cast would return to where the magic started. Insane, right? Well, you can watch the TV special on January 1, 2022.
Community partners providing bottled water delivery to homebound and those without transportation in the City of Benton Harbor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 17, 2021
CONTACT: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112
LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is working with several local partners to support water weekly to City of Benton Harbor residents who are homebound or without transportation.
Organizations making these deliveries include MOSAIC CCDA, SBC Benevolent Ministries, Greater Community Christian Fellowship and Harbor Hope Seventh Day Adventist.
"We are incredibly grateful to the residents and community organizations in the City of Benton Harbor for their willingness to pitch in and help ensure all families have access to clean, safe drinking water," said Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director. "They are making deliveries across the city so all residents have bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and mixing powdered infant formula."
To arrange water delivery to homebound or residents without transportation in the city of Benton Harbor, contact 211, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Phones that cannot contact 211 should contact 844-875-9211.
Free bottled water continues to be provided by MDHHS and local, paid residents as City of Benton Harbor residents are being encouraged to use bottled water for cooking, drinking, brushing teeth, rinsing foods and mixing powdered infant formula.
This action is part of an accelerated, across-the-board effort to reduce the risk of exposure to lead in drinking water while the city replaces all lead service lines.
The upcoming schedule for bottled water pickup is:
Thursday, Nov. 18
Ebenezer Baptist Church, 214 E. Britain Avenue, 10 a.m. - noon.
Southwest Community Action Agency, 331 Miller Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (Self-service)
Brotherhood of All Nations, 1286 Monroe Street, 4 - 6 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 19
Southwest Community Action Agency, 331 Miller Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (Self-service)
Saturday, Nov. 20
Boys & Girls Club of Benton Harbor, 600 Nate Wells Sr. Drive, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.,
Harbor of Hope Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 769 Pipestone Street, 4 - 6 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 21
Abundant Life Church of God, 693 Columbus Avenue, 3 - 5 p.m.
Brotherhood of All Nations, 1286 Monroe Street, 4 - 6 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 22
Southwest Community Action Agency, 331 Miller Street, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (Self-service)
Abundant Life Church of God, 693 Columbus Avenue, noon - 2 p.m.
The ongoing response in Benton Harbor includes the city, Berrien County Health Department, local community organizations, MDHHS and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Additional dates and locations for bottled water pick up will be added to make sure community needs are met. Information will be posted on Michigan.gov/MiLeadSafe.
To ensure the continued success of bottled water distribution locations in Benton Harbor and to recognize the city residents who have been stepping up to donate their time and talent, the State of Michigan has partnered with local agencies to pay city residents who work at state-supported bottled water distribution sites. Individuals who want to serve as community ambassadors to help distribute water should connect with an established distribution site. Individuals or groups who want to serve as unpaid volunteers can sign up on the United Way's online platform.
MDHHS is engaging in a long-term effort to eliminate lead action level exceedances, educate communities on the effects of lead in drinking water, and remove lead service lines. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for the replacement of lead service lines in Benton Harbor in 18 months and the Whitmer-Gilchrist Administration has provided just under $20 million to Benton Harbor to speed up their service line replacement timeline.
There is no cost to City of Benton Harbor residents for lead service line replacement. To assist with assuring the work can be completed as soon as possible, residents are encouraged to complete the Water Service Line Replacement Agreement available online. Contractors cannot begin work on any property without property owner authorization. Completed forms can be returned to Abonmarche, 95 West Main Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 or emailed to bvasher@abonmarche.com.
These efforts also include recently approved funds to remove lead from homes in the city. Families living in Benton Harbor can apply for this service by filling out and mailing in an application that is available online. Residents also can call 866-691-5323 to obtain information.
For questions about lead, MDHHS can be reached at 866-691-5323 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
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Secretary Benson, legislators visit Livonia, Canton where service is faster than ever
Secretary Benson, legislators visit Livonia, Canton where service is faster than ever
NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and state legislators visited the Livonia and Canton offices today, two of the most historically busy offices where the average wait time for service was more than 90 minutes in November of 2018. Now visitors are in and out in an average of just 20 minutes.
"We are in a new, service-driven era and Michiganders who visit our offices are consistently and pleasantly surprised at how quickly and easily they are in and out," said Benson. "Office visits are easy to schedule online and by phone, or residents can walk up to any office and they'll typically be served immediately or helped to schedule a visit at a time convenient for them."
Benson has made numerous improvements to Secretary of State operations, including adding online services and self-service stations. Now the majority - 60 percent - of all transactions are conducted without an office visit. This is more than double the share of remote transactions in 2018, and part of the reason the offices run so efficiently.
"I was grateful for the opportunity to see firsthand how the visits and services at our Livonia SOS branch office have improved," said state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia). "I want to thank all the employees and Secretary Benson for this monumental effort."
"Improving the overall experience Michiganders receive when entering a branch office has been a cornerstone of Secretary Benson's goals. I appreciate the invitation to visit the branch office in Canton to see these improvements for myself," said state Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth). "Branch offices are now working more efficiently, and morale among the employees is very high. That's a win-win."
"I'm proud that Secretary Benson was able to meet with employees in our Livonia Secretary of State office to see how their creative and forward-thinking efforts have made our local branches more accessible to all residents," Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) said. "Secretary of State staff have been working so hard to relieve the stress of residents since the onset of the pandemic and should be commended for their people-centered approach. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Legislature to continue honoring the hard work of employees across our state by providing more resources to ensure smooth branch operations."
"I want to thank Secretary Benson for visiting Canton today to check on how well our branch is currently serving the public," said state Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton). "On the ground conversations with employees and customers are what led to this successful operations model to begin with, and I'm glad this work is continuing to fine tune the process and ensure this work can continue. Visiting a branch location is now easier than ever before, and I look forward to the Legislature's continued partnership with Secretary Benson to provide better and more reliable customer service than ever before."
Residents can conduct most of their Secretary of State business online at Michigan.gov/SOS, where they can also locate their nearest self-service station, many of which can be found in Kroger, Meijer and other grocery stores. Office visits can be scheduled at Michigan.gov/SOS, or by calling 888-SOS-MICH.
# # #
For media questions, contact
Tracy Wimmer at 517-281-1876.
We welcome questions and comments at the Contact the Secretary of State page.
Customers may call the Department of State Information Center to
speak to a customer-service representative at 888-SOS-MICH (767-6424).
Lt. Governor Gilchrist joins MI New Economy tour in Detroit
Lt. Governor Gilchrist joins MI New Economy tour in Detroit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2021
Contact: press@michigan.gov
Lt. Governor Gilchrist joins MI New Economy tour in Detroit
State officials join local economic and talent leaders to discuss plans to implement governor's economic vision for Michigan
DETROIT - Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II and state officials met today with local business, workforce development and community leaders in Detroit to discuss the ways Michigan can achieve the goals laid out in Gov. Whitmer's MI New Economy Plan. The event is part of a statewide tour designed to bring stakeholders together to discuss a comprehensive strategy to utilize American Rescue Plan funds to lift Michigan families out of working poverty, grow the middle class, support small businesses and invest in Michigan's communities.
"From day one, Gov. Whitmer and I have been laser-focused on putting Michiganders and addressing the economic issues most important to them first," said Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II. "We remain committed to working with every serious federal, state, and local partner to deliver solutions that position our people, small businesses, and overall state economy for a strong and prosperous future."
The goal of these events is to share the governor's vision with key stakeholders and thought leaders and highlight local projects that demonstrate how the MI New Economy plan can move the state's economy forward.
"We are committed to carrying out Gov. Whitmer's economic vision that tackles structural challenges in an effort to grow Michigan's economy, create good-paying jobs and build industries of the future," said Susan Corbin, director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO). "It is critical that we work together and hear from a diverse set of voices throughout the state, so that we can continue our economic recovery and build Michigan back better."
The Detroit stop of the tour included presentations from LEO and an open discussion with other local leaders to highlight their initiatives - current and on the horizon - that align with the MI New Economy plan.
"We're glad to have had this opportunity to talk with the governor's office about what's important for Detroit's residents, our business community and community partners," said Nicole Sherard-Freeman, group executive of jobs, economy and Detroit at Work. "Helping lift Detroit families out of poverty and into middle class jobs is a focus of the Duggan administration, and it's clear this is a priority we share with the rest of the state."
Last month, Gov. Whitmer detailed her economic agenda, including the unveiling of the three pillars of her $2.1 billion MI New Economy plan with specific and ambitious goals that will help state officials track progress on efforts to build a stronger and more resilient Michigan. The governor's vision features three central pillars focused on economic development, workforce and community investment.
Pillar 1: Grow the Middle Class - No economic vision for the state can be complete if it doesn't focus on eliminating poverty and lifting families into the middle class.
Goal: 60% of adults with a postsecondary credential by 2030
Goal: Lift 100,000 families out of working poverty during the next five years (FY22-FY26)
Goal: Provide access to low or no cost childcare for 150,000 more families by 2024
Pillar 2: Support Small Business - To supplement the great economic development work our state already does, Michigan needs a focus on creating and growing more Main Street businesses.
Goal: Top 10 state for small business job growth and revenue growth from 2022 to 2026
Goal: Top 10 state for household income growth during the next five years (FY22-FY26)
Goal: Top 10 state for growth in venture capital funding over the next five years (2022-2026)
Pillar 3: Build Strong Communities - Michigan's residents deserve to live in vibrant communities with the kinds of services and amenities associated with a high standard of living.
Goal: 100% access to high-speed internet and 95% adoption by households during the next five years, while continually investing in higher quality access (FY22-FY26)
Goal: 75,000 new or rehabilitated housing units in five years (FY22-FY26)
Additional stops of the MI New Economy Tour are being planned for many communities across Michigan.
To learn more about the MI New Economy plan, the state's economic and workforce challenges and successes the state has seen to date, visit www.michigan.gov/MINewEconomy.
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The Laker School District will be holding an open house Thursday so people can learn more about its new SAIL academy.
The open house will be held Nov. 18 from 6-8 p.m.
SAIL stands for student apprenticeships and individualized learning, said Caitlin Stone-Webber, director of the SAIL Academy. What that means is our students are able to choose their own road maps for their education. We sit down and talk about their post-school goals, their strengths and weaknesses, what theyd like to do long term. Hopefully, well be able to set them up with an apprenticeship or a work-based learning placement, where they can get work experience in the field theyd like to go into.
This is a new concept, the first of its type in the state.
They can apply for the SAIL program and get a true apprenticeship, Stone-Webber said. Theyll be receiving payment, wages for the work they do. Theyre also receiving industry credit for hours in that field toward certification or licensing in that field, as well as school credit with Laker.
In order to do that, the students need to have the time to devote to their chosen field, while still taking high school courses. This is accomplished by taking their core classes online.
Thats why we have this building, so theyre not on campus taking traditional classes," Stone-Webber said. "They connect to our Wi-Fi and do their online classes here. That online format allows them the flexibility to go out and get a job.
The Tech Center at the Huron Intermediate School District offers trade-related education. However it is in a different environment.
With the ISD or the Tech Center, theyre in classroom settings, learning those trades, Stone-Webber said. With an apprenticeship program, theyre going right into those businesses and learning from a mentor one-on-one. Both are wonderful program structures. It just depends on the student and how they learn. We hope to work with the Tech Center in some cases for students who excel in that environment. The students in the Thumb are incredibly lucky to have the options they do.
Stone-Webber works directly with the apprenticeship manager at Michigan Works. The manager contacts businesses that have shown an interest in the apprenticeship program. After working out a possible agenda, it is turned into the U.S. Department of Labor to be considered for a registered apprenticeship. Once approved, students of the SAIL Academy are eligible to begin work as an apprentice.
Mr. Keim, our superintendent, had an idea for students who want something different out of their education, Stone-Webber said, students who may not fit into the four-years-of-high school-then-head-off-to-college. The program has a graduation requirement of 24 credits, as opposed to the traditional 28 at Laker. This allows for the time to work within the apprenticeship, or may offer an option for students struggling with credit recover. It can be a typical student thats looking for something a little different, more hands on, more experience oriented. It can also be for advanced students who are bored in a traditional classroom.
The SAIL Academy is located off the Laker Schools campus, at 75 Main St., in Pigeon. There were valid reasons for placing the program away from the school proper.
Mr. Keim had the idea that since its a business-based program, to have something thats not necessarily a classroom setting, so they can get their work done at their own pace, Stone-Webber said. There are a few other schools that are moving into this. Its called place-based learning, I believe, where they have off campus locations.
The apprenticeship portion of the program is in its infancy. Plans are being finalized to begin the process in January. So far they have 16 businesses that have expressed an interest in being part of the program. It will be Stone-Webbers job to connect students with businesses in the apprenticeship program. Krista Comai is the student coordinator.
Krista is the one working with the kids with their online classes, and working with the parents to keep communications open, Stone-Webber said.
The amount of time each day a student spends with the apprenticeship program varies.
It really depends on the student and how theyre able to pace themselves with their learning," Comai said. "Typically, its not as long as a school day. But they need to spend several hours with their courses online. They all need to complete their courses by the end of the semester.
Keim, the originator of the program, had envisioned an outside-the-box program
Timing had to be right, Keim said. And the need had to be right, and expressed in the right way. We needed to be at a place where we had a little bit of budgetary space to take a risk. It is a program for all students, including students that are credit deficient or in recovery. The program includes students that are really bright, ahead of their class and may desire a unique, self-paced independent schedule, a situation that calls for more flexibility. Maybe a student likes the idea of an apprenticeship. They could come into this program and wrap their schedule around an apprenticeship.
Another aspect of the apprenticeship program is to make staying in the Thumb Area more attractive by offering the opportunity to make a decent living without moving out of the area.
The goal is that at the end of the apprenticeship, theyd be offered a full-time position with a business, Stone-Webber said. Not only are they given this opportunity for a career locally, but were also encouraging community involvement ... where theyre going out and sitting in on village meetings or nonprofit meetings. Or, maybe helping out with an election or local government, to see how it works ... to get involved in your community.
Stone-Webber and Comai meet with the students each week to work on life skills, such as how to dress for an interview or how to speak at an interview. They are also looking for community members to work with kids directly in community affairs.
A business that wants to become part of the apprenticeship program will have to meet certain criteria. Theyll need to show how the business will be able to bring the student to the level of an apprentice.
Part of being an apprentice host is you have to be able to supply an education along the way, Keim said. It has to be that the student enters at a skill-based level and not entry level.
Whats nice about the apprenticeship model is that our students know what every bit of the process looks like, Stone-Webber said. It is mapped out ahead of time with the Michigan Works apprenticeship manager and the business. It really puts the control of their education in the students hands. They get to pick what their future is going to look like, beginning with their high school career.
Comai said the open house is open to the entire community.
Well have people come in and walk through to check us out, and well answer any questions they may have," she said. "A lot of people dont know who we are, or what we do. Wed love people to see our space. Were very proud of it.
The open house is for community members and for potential business partners, Stone-Webber said. There are a lot of misconceived ides of what the program involves. My hope is that for any parents who come, to explain how beneficial this program will be for any student to participate in.
Once the SAIL Academy gets a foothold in the community, many students, businesses and communities will feel their presence, and benefit. It is a unique way for Laker Schools to broaden their approach to education.
For further information on the SAIL Academy, call 989-453-4765 or email cstonewebber@lakerschools.org.
CADILLAC With the holidays fast approaching, the Huron-Manistee National Forests are offering a free Christmas tree tag to any fourth grade student with the Every Kid Outdoors pass.
To obtain a free fourth grade voucher, visit fs.usda.gov/learn/kids/everykid and click on Get Your Pass to download a voucher.
To purchase a Christmas tree permit, visit recreation.gov. Visitors will need to set up or login to a Recreation.gov account to complete the transaction. Additionally, Every Kid Outdoors pass/voucher holders are eligible for a free Christmas tree permit by checking the box indicating you have a pass and entering the pass or voucher number. A $2.50 service fee will be applied. Trees are $5 each, with a three tree limit per family.
Christmas Tree permits are also available for purchase at the following locations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays:
Cadillac Supervisors Office, 1755 S. Mitchell St., Cadillac, MI 49601
Cadillac/Manistee District Office, 1170 Nursery Road, Wellston, MI 49689
Baldwin/White Cloud District Office, 650 North Michigan Ave., Baldwin, MI 49304
Huron Shores District Office, 5761 N. Skeel Road, Oscoda, MI 48750
Mio District Office, 107 McKinley Road, Mio, MI 48647
For many families, going out into the forest to find a tree for the holidays is a treasured tradition that has been carried on for generations, said Joshua Veal, public affairs officer for the Huron-Manistee National Forests, in a news release. For others, this is an opportunity to create a new tradition and discover the joy of bringing a tree home from a national forest and creating special memories.
Families should plan carefully to ensure a safe and successful Christmas tree cutting adventure. Good planning begins with wearing warm, waterproof clothing and packing the following items:
A handsaw or similar instrument to cut your tree;
Pruning shears to trim low-hanging branches near the trees stump;
Rope or cables to secure the tree to your vehicle; and
Food and water.
The Huron-Manistee National Forests staff recommends budgeting several hours to locate and cut a Christmas tree. It is also important to tell a friend or neighbor where you are going and when you will be back, and to be prepared for unplowed forest roads.
Harvesting a Christmas tree from the Huron-Manistee National Forests can be great fun if done responsibly. Individuals who purchase a Christmas tree tag should adhere to the following guidelines:
Harvest trees only on National Forest System lands that are open for cutting;
Cut only conifers that are less than 20 feet tall;
Ensure that stumps are less than six inches tall;
Cut trees for personal use only;
Attach a valid Christmas tree tag to each tree before removing it from the site at which it was cut; and
Keep the tag attached to trees in transit.
To prolong the life of a Christmas tree harvested from National Forest System lands, cut the bottom inch from the trunk before placing it in a stand. Christmas trees should be watered daily and kept away from heat sources such as vents and fireplaces.
MOSCOW (AP) Seven Azerbaijani service members were killed and 10 more were wounded in clashes with Armenia on the border between the two ex-Soviet nations, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Armenian officials reported one casualty and said 13 of their troops were captured during Tuesday's hostilities, while 24 more have gone missing.
The clashes appear to be the worst outbreak of hostilities between the two countries since a six-week war last year over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that killed some 6,600 people.
The Armenian Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijans military of opening fire on Armenian positions. The Azerbaijani government, meanwhile, accused Armenia of a large-scale provocation on the border.
The fighting ceased on Tuesday evening after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke on the phone with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and urged them to stop. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation at the border.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
Moscow brokered a peace deal last November to end six weeks of fighting over the territory. The Russia-brokered truce allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.
Tensions on Armenia-Azerbaijan border have been building since May, when Armenia protested what it described as an incursion by Azerbaijani troops into its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted that its soldiers were deployed to what it considers its territory in areas where the border has yet to be demarcated. Clashes have been reported ever since.
Pashinyan accused Azerbaijani forces Monday of another incursion, and reports of fighting, with the use of artillery, followed Tuesday from both countries.
Armenias Security Council has called on Russia to help protect the countrys territorial integrity.
HAWKINSVILLE, Ga. (AP) All five prisoners who escaped central Georgia jail late Friday are back in custody, authorities said Wednesday.
Tyree Williams Jr., who is charged with felony murder, was captured around midnight Wednesday, according to a news release from the Warner Robins Police Department.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday appealed for the preservation of democracy in politically and ethnically fractured societies as he began his first official visit to Africa amid worsening crises in Ethiopia and Sudan.
In a lengthy private meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other top officials, Blinken hailed Kenyas role in seeking to ease the conflict in Ethiopia and cited Kenya as an example of a vibrant, inclusive democracy despite challenges it has faced in its own recent elections.
Kenyatta visited the Ethiopian capital over the weekend in a bid to bolster an African Union-led mediation initiative to end the violence that has engulfed the northern Tigray region and spread, prompting widespread fears of a spillover in the conflict.
The State Department said Blinken spent 90 minutes with Kenyatta in a session scheduled for only 10 minutes and that the talks were wide-ranging. The precise topics and any potential developments were not immediately clear.
We continue to see atrocities being committed, people suffering, and regardless of what we call it, it needs to stop and there needs to be accountability, Blinken later told reporters. He said he will make a determination on whether the situation in Ethiopia is genocide once we get all the analysis that goes into looking at the facts.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo told reporters that we believe that a cease-fire is possible but in the end, these solutions" will come from the Ethiopian people.
In comments to Kenyan civic leaders, Blinken spoke about the importance of combating democratic recession around the world, including challenges in the United States that show just how fragile our democracy can be. Kenya faces its own test of stability in a presidential election next year.
Blinken is looking to boost thus-far unsuccessful U.S. diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening conflicts in Ethiopia and in Sudan and to counter growing insurgencies elsewhere, including Somalia.
Months of engagement by the Biden administration have produced little progress and, instead, the conflict in Ethiopia has escalated between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds government and leaders in the northern Tigray region who once dominated the government.
The tensions, which some fear could escalate into mass inter-ethnic killings in Africas second-most populated country, exploded into war last year, with thousands killed, many thousands more detained and millions displaced.
We need to see people detained released," Blinken said.
Shortly after he spoke, the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission estimated that thousands had been detained in Addis Ababa, the capital, since the government declared a state of emergency over the intensifying war.
The estimate is the largest yet of the detentions occurring as teams of volunteers roam the capital's streets looking for Tigrayans suspected of supporting the Tigray forces.
Rival Tigray forces are advancing on Addis Ababa amid increasingly dire warnings from the U.S. and others for foreigners to leave.
While holding out hope that a window of opportunity for a resolution still exists, the United States has moved toward sanctions, announcing the expulsion of Ethiopia from a U.S.-Africa trade pact and imposing penalties on leaders and the military of neighboring Eritrea for intervening in the conflict on Ethiopias behalf. Sanctions against Ethiopian officials, including Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, are possible.
Ethiopia has condemned the sanctions and in Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the African Union, and elsewhere, there is skepticism and hostility to U.S. pressure despite America being the countrys largest aid donor.
As the U.S. has exerted pressure in Ethiopia, it has also been confounded by developments in Sudan, where a military coup last month toppled a civilian-led government that was making significant strides in restoring long-strained ties with the United States.
Coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan tightened his grip on power last week, reappointing himself as the chairman of a new Sovereign Council. The U.S. and other Western governments criticized the move because it did away with a joint military-civilian council already in place. The Sudanese generals responded by saying they would appoint a civilian government in the coming days.
The U.S. has retaliated for the coup by suspending $700 million in direct financial assistance. Further moves, including a slowdown or reversal of a multiyear rapprochement with the government, could also be in the works.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee, met Tuesday with deposed Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and Burhan. Burhan said the leaders of Sudan were willing to engage in dialogue with all political forces without conditions, according to a statement from the newly appointed Sovereign Council.
Blinken said the most important move Sudan could make to begin to restore international confidence would be for Burhan to restore the civilian-led government and Hamdok to his post. He is a source of legitimacy and its vital that the transition regain the legitimacy that it had before the civilian-led effort was derailed," he said.
In addition to trying to cool tensions in the region, Blinkens trip is also aimed at raising Washingtons profile as a player in regional and international initiatives to restore peace and promote democracy and human rights as it competes with China for influence.
That push didnt get off to a great start in Africa. The coronavirus pandemic canceled a planned early summer visit by Blinken to the continent. The trip was rescheduled for August, only to be postponed again due to the turmoil in Afghanistan that preoccupied Washington.
Despite its importance in the U.S.-China rivalry, Africa has often been overshadowed by more pressing issues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America despite massive U.S. contributions of money and vaccines to fight the pandemic and other infectious diseases.
All the while, China has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure and other projects that Washington sees as designed to take advantage of developing nations. Blinken and Omamo met in a Nairobi hotel in a conference room with an expansive view of an as-yet incomplete, Chinese-financed elevated expressway.
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Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Nairobi and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) Filipino activists who were jailed, abused and tortured during late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' martial law asked the Commission on Elections Wednesday to disqualify his son and namesake from running for president next year, saying he may whitewash history and make it nearly impossible to recover plundered wealth.
At least 18 petitioners also expressed fears that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would make it hard for victims of his fathers dictatorship, who have not been compensated like thousands of others under reparation arrangements, to seek claims.
The new petition cites the same grounds as an initial complaint filed by rights groups this month, which argued that Marcos Jr. has once been convicted of tax evasion and that he wrongfully stated in his candidacy papers that he had never been found liable for a criminal offense that can bar him from public office.
Marcos Jr.s camp has called the effort propaganda and vowed to address this predictable nuisance although it has not publicly issued a detailed reply. The issue, which should be resolved by elections commissioners before the May 9 vote, could spark a legal battle that could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The martial law victims said that Marcos Jr. would render difficult, if not impossible, any unclaimed human rights reparations" and the recovery of the bulk of the ill-gotten wealth plundered by the Marcoses and their cronies.
They said a new Marcos president might lead to a white-washing and further proliferation of historical revisionism of the gravely inhumane abuses and extremely grand corruption committed by the Marcos dictatorship.
Bonifacio Ilagan, a left-wing activist who was detained and tortured during Marcoss rule, told an online news conference that Marcos Jr.s presidential bid may be the familys final attempt to retake power and to completely turn history upside down. One of the longest-held martial law detainees, 83-year-old ex-journalist Satur Ocampo, asked Filipinos to take to heart a never again attitude and actively oppose a Marcos return to the presidency.
Elections officials have invited Marcos Jr. and the petitioners to a preliminary meeting on Nov. 26.
Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under martial rule in 1972, a year before his term was to expire. He padlocked Congress and newspaper offices, ordered the arrest of political opponents and ruled by decree.
He was toppled in an army-backed people power revolt in 1986. The ousted president died in exile in Hawaii three years later without admitting any wrongdoing, including accusations that he and his family amassed an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion while he was in power.
A Hawaii court found him liable for human rights violations and awarded $2 billion from his estate to compensate more than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit against him for torture, incarceration, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
His widow, Imelda Marcos, and her children were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991. They have since made a political comeback, winning seats in Congress and powerful provincial posts and laying the ground for a return to the presidential palace and the top job they say was stolen from them.
Marcos Jr. has called the allegations against his father lies.
He has joined hands with Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter, as his running mate. The president backs his daughter's run for vice president but has opposed the tandem and vowed to never support Marcos Jr.
LONDON (AP) The suspect who was killed in a Liverpool taxi explosion spent at least six months buying components for a bomb and appears to have acted alone, British police said Wednesday.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died when a blast ripped through the cab in which he was a passenger as it pulled up outside Liverpool Womens Hospital on Sunday morning. The taxi driver was injured.
Russ Jackson, the head of counterterrorism policing for northwest England, said Al Swealmeen had rented a property in the city in April and been making relevant purchases for a device at least since then.
Jackson said investigators so far had not found any other people of concern.
Detectives are also piecing together details of Al Swealmeen's life and say a relative told them he was born in Iraq. He applied for asylum in Britain in 2014, but was rejected, authorities said. Its unclear what his legal status was at the time of the bombing.
Police have also confirmed that Al Swealmeen was treated in the past for mental illness.
Clergy at two Liverpool churches said Al Swealmeen had converted from Islam to Christianity and appeared to be sincere in his faith.
Joy Gambardella, a lay reader at the citys Emmanuel Church, said Al Swealmeen had been a committed Christian.
He used to love baking and he did a baking course. He also did pizza-making, Gambardella said. He used to make cakes for the church and sell them.
I would never, ever expect he could have done something like that, ever.
Investigators are still trying to determine the motive for the attack, and whether the Liverpool Womens Hospital was the intended target.
The taxi driver, David Perry, escaped from the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames. He was treated in a hospital and released.
Britains official threat level was raised from substantial to severe meaning an attack is highly likely following the blast.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) The panel of state lawmakers charged with redrawing Connecticuts legislative and congressional district lines has chosen another former state senator to be its ninth tie-breaking member after the group's original choice resigned.
John McKinney, a Republican former leader of state Senate, was chosen unanimously Tuesday by the bipartsian Reapportionment Commission. He replaces former Democratic state Sen. Kevin Johnston, a former state auditor, who recently informed the panel he would not be able to serve as the ninth member.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) The remains of a 19-year-old soldier from upstate New York killed during the Korean War have been identified more than seven decades after he was reported missing in action, defense officials announced Wednesday.
Army Sgt. Howard R. Belden of Hague, near the Vermont border, was accounted for on Oct. 14 and will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a date that has yet to be determined, according to the The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) South Carolina has recorded its first flu-related death of the season, state health officials confirmed Wednesday.
One person from the Upstate region has died from complications due to the flu, State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said in a news release.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has reported 79 lab-confirmed influenza cases this season so far.
Health officials are recommending everyone six months of age and older get vaccinated against the flu. This year's shot protects against the four most common flu viruses expected to circulate this season, and will help prevent hospitalizations and deaths due to the flu.
Officials also reminded people that it is possible to contract the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, which can cause more complications than getting the flu alone.
Another reason why its important to get your flu shot this year is we dont want to overwhelm our hospitals, ICUs, and ventilators with both flu and COVID-19 patients, Bell said.
Flu shots are available at many locations, including state health departments, pharmacies, schools and workplaces. Health experts said people can safely get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 at the same time.
The Connecticut Funeral Directors Association kicked off its 15th annual holiday drive this week, collecting gift cards and toys for military families and children and teens in the hospital.
The program runs through Dec. 1.
In all, 45 funeral homes across Connecticut are welcoming donations from the public for Connecticut National Guards Operation Embracing Lonely Families program and Connecticut Childrens in Hartford, according to a press release.
Also, on Dec. 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., people can drop off items to CFDA convention at the Sheraton Hotel Hartford South at 100 Capital Boulevard in Rocky Hill, the news release said.
Operation ELF will give items to families of the Connecticut National Guard and all branches of the military with a loved one in the deployment cycle who suffers financial hardship as a result of the call to active duty, the statement said.
Connecticut Childrens toys and gift cards will be presented to patients during the holidays and at different times of the year. Unwrapped toys should be appropriate for hospitalized infants, children or adolescents that do not pose a safety hazard, such as those with sharp edges or small, removable or easily breakable parts.
Hospitalized teens will receive gift cards they can enjoy.
Participating funeral homes include Cromwell Funeral Home, 506 Main St.; the Spencer Funeral Home at 112 Main St. in East Hampton; and Doolittle Funeral Home at 14 Old Church St., Middletown.
For other drop-off sites, visit Operation E.L.F. (Embracing Lonely Families) on Facebook.
OLD SAYBROOK The sixth Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award will be presented to award-winning actor Sam Waterston on Sunday at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center benefit gala.
The Kate presents the award each year to an individual who embodies the spirit, independence, and character of the legendary actress, an announcement said.
Waterston, who was born in 1940 in Cambridge, Mass., made his New York debut at the Phoenix Theater in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamas Hung You in the Closet and Im Feelin So Sad.
Waterstons career has included a plethora of film and television credits as well as repeated returns to the stage, according to a press release. His accolades include an Academy Award nomination for his role in 1984s The Killing Fields and six Emmy Award nominations for his roles in Ill Fly Away and Law & Order.
Recently, Waterston was a series regular on Aaron Sorkins The Newsroom for HBO, and currently he can be seen in the final season of Grace and Frankie, Netflixs longest running series, according to the announcement.
A longtime advocate for refugee and climate justice, Waterston is board president of Oceana, the worlds leading ocean focused NGO, the announcement said.
In 1973, one of Waterstons early television roles included starring alongside Katharine Hepburn in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie for which they both received Emmy nominations.
There is no way to overstate the impact she had on us as young actors when we did The Glass Menagerie, with her, Waterston said in a prepared statement. And it continues to this day, both her general advice about showing up, being ready to go, and bringing it about each movie. Her advice to me is now a permanent part of my actors toolkit.
The gala is the nonprofit arts organizations largest fundraiser, and also serves to celebrate the Kates reopening in 2021 after nearly 14 months of no in-person programs due to COVID-19, according to the press release. The Kate, which first opened in September 2009, has attracted more than 45,000 patrons annually, according to the center.
The gala, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Kate, 300 Main St., includes cocktails and hors doeuvres and desserts prepared by Cloud Nine Catering. A performance by pop vocalist Kat Edmonson will be followed by the presentation of the award a statuette in the likeness of Hepburn sculpted by artist Kimberly Monson.
Waterston said hes flattered to win the award, especially because I knew her, worked with her, and admire her. And, also because I was here before when the USPS produced a stamp honoring her and because Connecticut is my home.
For information or tickets, $150 to $250, visit thekate.org or call 860-510-0453.
The Pentagon responded appropriately and did not delay urgent requests for National Guard troops after pro-Trump rioters broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a Defense Department inspector general probe has found.
Former Defense Secretary Chris Miller and former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy acted reasonably in "light of the circumstances that existed on that day" to deploy additional soldiers more than three hours after numerous calls for help poured in from D.C. and federal officials, according to the IG report released Tuesday.
The lack of National Guard reinforcements to the Capitol until the evening of Jan. 6 sparked widespread criticism and questions from Congress, which had been targeted in the historic breach of the U.S. seat of government.
In March, the commanding general of the D.C. Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, testified to the Senate that the Pentagon delayed unnecessarily in responding to a request for assistance from the overwhelmed U.S. Capitol Police, and kept help from arriving for hours when it could have arrived in minutes, according to The Associated Press.
Walker was among those interviewed for the review. But the IG found no evidence to support the claim.
"We also determined that DoD officials did not delay or obstruct the DoD's response" to the Capitol Police request for assistance on Jan. 6, according to the report.
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A week of prior preparation by the Pentagon and local authorities for potential civilian disruptions after former President Donald Trump announced a major protest on that day was also appropriate and complied with the law.
"We looked for a role or responsibility for the DoD to act preemptively to prevent or deter what later happened at the Capitol. We found none," the independent watchdog concluded.
A large crowd left a rally by Trump, who falsely claimed the presidential election had been fraudulent, around 1 p.m. on Jan. 6 and marched to the Capitol, where hundreds of people broke through sparsely guarded security barriers, smashed Capitol windows, assaulted police, and eventually forced their way into the Senate chamber and lawmaker offices.
The riot triggered the evacuation of lawmakers -- House members barricaded inside their chamber -- and it briefly disrupted the official certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Rioters assaulted 140 police officers and did a total of $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol building. About 675 people have been arrested, coming from nearly every state, according to the Justice Department.
As the mayhem unfolded, the Pentagon and D.C. National Guard began receiving calls for support and immediate assistance beginning at 1:49 p.m., according to the IG, who interviewed top military, U.S. Capitol Police and district officials, and reviewed reams of documents, call logs and emails to piece together the events.
Steven Sund, the former chief of the Capitol Police, made an official request for National Guard support at the Capitol at 2:20 p.m. during a conference call with Army staff and the D.C. government.
McCarthy relayed the request to Miller, who had been appointed by Trump after the president fired his predecessor during the post-election political tumult. Miller approved mobilization of the D.C. Guard at 3:04 p.m.
But McCarthy then traveled to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department headquarters and, with officials there, created a Guard deployment plan, which was immediately approved by Miller at 4:32 p.m.
Guard troops coming on duty after the deployment plan was approved left the D.C. Armory east of the Capitol at 5:15 p.m. and moved to the Capitol Police headquarters, where they were sworn in as special policemen.
"The response force then moved to the Capitol, arriving at 5:55 p.m., and joined civilian law enforcement personnel in reinforcing the perimeter and clearing the Capitol grounds," the IG reported.
Public criticism of the response in the days after the riot sparked finger-pointing among officials.
McCarthy, who resigned two weeks after the riot, criticized the overall planning leading up to Jan. 6 and blamed a system that was "overly bureaucratic" in an interview with CNN in January.
Miller said he stood by all of his decisions that day in testimony to the House in May.
-- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten.
Related: What Happened to Members of the Military Accused of Storming the Capitol on January 6?
NAIROBI U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened his first official visit to Africa in Kenya with an appeal Wednesday for the preservation of democracy and inclusion in politically and ethnically fractured societies. His message was delivered amid worsening crises in neighboring Ethiopia and Sudan.
With insecurity wracking both of those countries, Blinken began his Africa tour in a nation with its own turbulent history of democracy. Kenya will face another test of stability in presidential elections next year, yet has emerged as a player in attempting to ease the Ethiopia conflict.
Before meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta and other senior Kenyan officials, Blinken spoke with civic leaders about the importance of combatting what he termed democratic recession around the world, including challenges in the United States that show just how fragile our democracy can be.
This is an important time, he told a small group of human rights, labor and anti-corruption advocates at a Nairobi hotel. Around the world weve seen weve seen over the last decade or so what some have called 'democratic recession'.
Even vibrant democracies like Kenya are experiencing these pressures, especially around election time," Blinken said, alluding to the presidential election set for August 2022. Combatting misinformation, political violence, voter intimidation and corruption is critical to halting the backsliding, he said.
Blinken is looking to boost thus-far unsuccessful U.S. diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening conflicts in Ethiopia and in Sudan and to counter growing insurgencies elsewhere, like Somalia. His visit to Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal follows months of Biden administration attempts to ease both situations that have yet to bear fruit despite frequent lower-level interventions.
Months of engagement by the administration, including an August visit to Ethiopia by U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power and several trips to Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Khartoum by Bidens special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeff Feltman, have produced little progress.
Instead, conflict in Ethiopia has escalated between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds government and leaders in the northern Tigray region who once dominated the government.
The tensions, which some fear could escalate into mass inter-ethnic killings in Africas second-most populated country, exploded into war last year, with thousands killed, many thousands more detained and millions displaced.
The situation could easily slip over into genocide, said Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a confidante of President Joe Biden who traveled to Ethiopia earlier this year to meet with Abiy. In an online event Tuesday, Coons urged progress in talks before this becomes another Yugoslavia.
North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told the same event that Abiy has obviously weaponized food and water, referring to Tigray, where more than a month has now passed since any humanitarian aid has entered.
Rebel Tigray forces are advancing on Addis Ababa, Ethiopias capital, amid increasingly dire warnings from the U.S. and others for foreigners to leave.
Leave now, a senior State Department official warned Americans still in Ethiopia on Tuesday, adding there should be no expectation that the U.S. will be able to organize an evacuation.
While holding out hope that a window of opportunity for a resolution still exists, the Biden administration has moved toward sanctions, announcing the expulsion of Ethiopia from a U.S.-Africa trade pact and hitting leaders and the military of neighboring Eritrea with penalties for intervening in the conflict on Ethiopias behalf. Sanctions against Ethiopian officials, including Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, are possible.
Ethiopia has condemned the sanctions and in Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the African Union, and elsewhere, there is skepticism and hostility to U.S. pressure despite America being the countrys largest aid donor.
As Feltman has shuttled between capitals, he and the administration have also been confounded by developments in Sudan, where a military coup last month toppled a civilian-led government that was making significant strides in restoring long-strained ties with the U.S.
Coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan tightened his grip on power last week, reappointing himself as the chairman of a new Sovereign Council. The U.S. and other Western governments criticized the move because it did away with a joint military-civilian council already in place. The Sudanese generals responded by saying they would appoint a civilian government in the coming days.
Burhan moved against civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok just hours after Feltman had left Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on a mission intended to resolve escalating tensions between them. The U.S. has retaliated for the coup by suspending $700 million in direct financial assistance. Further moves, including a slowdown or reversal of a multiyear rapprochement with the government, could also be in the works.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee, met Tuesday with Hamdok and Burhan. Burhan said the leaders of Sudan were willing to engage in dialogue with all political forces without conditions, according to a statement from the newly appointed Sovereign Council.
In addition to trying to cool tensions in the region, Blinkens trip is also aimed at raising Washingtons profile as a player in regional and international initiatives to restore peace and promote democracy and human rights as it competes with China for influence in developing countries.
That push didnt get off to a great start in Africa. The coronavirus pandemic canceled a planned early summer visit by Blinken to the continent. The trip was rescheduled for August, only to be postponed again due to the turmoil in Afghanistan that preoccupied Washington.
Now, three months later, Blinken hopes to deliver the administrations America is back message to Africa. Despite its importance in the U.S.-China rivalry, Africa has often been overshadowed by more pressing issues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and even Latin America despite massive U.S. contributions of money and vaccines to fight the pandemic and other infectious diseases.
All the while, China has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure and other projects that Washington sees as rip-offs designed to take advantage of developing nations.
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Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Nairobi and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
WARSAW, Poland Polands president said Wednesday there is no military threat at the European Unions border with Belarus, where thousands of migrants watched over by Belarusian forces are pressing to reach the blocs soil and where Poland has deployed troops in rear areas.
President Andrzej Duda said Poland was primarily using civilian police and border guards to meet its obligation to protect the EUs eastern border from the pressure of illegal migration.
The presence of the Polish military there is chiefly a backup, he said on a visit to Montenegro.
Earlier Wednesday, a Polish government official said migrants who camped on the Belarusian side were being taken away by bus, suggesting the tense standoff could be easing.
Polands Border Guard posted on Twitter a video showing migrants with bags and backpacks being directed by Belarus forces away from the border.
Maciej Wasik, a Polish deputy interior minister, said he had received information that migrants were boarding buses provided by Belarus and leaving the area.
However, Border Guard spokeswoman, Anna Michalska said some of the migrants were seen taking wooden logs with them, raising questions about whether they might be moved to another spot along the frontier.
A large group of people from the Middle East has been stuck by a border crossing with Poland since Nov. 8, waiting and hoping to enter Europe. Most are fleeing conflict or despair at home and aim to reach Germany or other western European countries.
The West has accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis.
Duda, the Polish president, stressed that Poland will not accept any international decisions regarding solutions for the border standoff that are taken without Poland's participation. Duda was referring to recent talks, including Tuesday night, between Germany's outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, whose authority is questioned by the West.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert pointed to the plight of the migrants brought to the border by Belarus and stranded there.
In order to improve the humanitarian situation, he said, "it makes sense to also talk to those who have the opportunity to change this situation in Minsk, even when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy, like all other European Member States, Germany does not recognize.
Seibert said United Nations aid was beginning to reach migrants on the border and it was important to ensure humanitarian agencies gain permanent access.
Tensions spiked on Tuesday when Polish forces at the border used water cannon and tear gas against stone-throwing migrants. Warsaw accused the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier.
But on Wednesday Polish authorities said the situation had calmed down, and while they registered 161 attempts to cross Poland's border illegally, the large migrant camp by the Kuznica crossing which is now closed had fewer people.
The camp site near Kuznica is slowly emptying," Wasik, the Polish deputy interior minister, said.
The information provided by officials is hard to verify due to restrictions journalists face in working on both sides of the border. A state of emergency in Poland is keeping journalists, human rights workers and others away from the border along a zone that is 3 kilometers (2 miles) deep.
A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry denied rumors that Berlin was planning to pick up the migrants and take them to Germany.
Steve Alter said the current developments show that the "road to Belarus is a dead end for most people who want to go to Germany. There are no plans to approve taking people in.
Estonia, also affected by migrant movement but to a much lesser degree, said it would build a temporary razor wire barrier of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) on its eastern border with Russia as a temporary solution to ensure border security.
This northernmost of the three Baltic states, with a population of 1.3 million, shares a 294-kilometer (183-mile) land border with Russia and a 340-kilometer border with Latvia but shares no border with Belarus.
Iraq has been appealing for its citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the EU is closed. The first flights are scheduled for Thursday.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that migrants were being given shelter inside a logistics center at the border, giving them the chance after many days to sleep indoors rather than in tents outdoors.
Meanwhile, a Polish press organization said that people in Polish army uniforms handcuffed and beat three photojournalists who were working on Polish territory, but outside the no-entry emergency zone, on Tuesday.
Press Club Polska posted photos of bruises that the handcuffs left on the wrists of two of the photojournalists.
Poland's Defense Ministry denied that violence was used but said the troops have a right to intervene when they deem it necessary at a time of high tension in the area. It said the photojournalists were masked and had no signs indicating they were media representatives.
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Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jari Tanner in Tallin, Estonia, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed.
How to use the mindat.org media viewer
Click/touch this help panel to close it.
Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. Different controls are available depending on the type of media being shown (photo, video, animation, 3d image)
Controls - all media types
Zoom in and out of media using your mousewheel or with a two-finger 'resize' action on a touch device.
Use the mouse or your finger to drag the image or the view area of the image around the screen.
< and > at the left and right hand side of the screen move forwards and backwards for the other images associated with the media you selected. Usually this is used for previous/next photo in a gallery, in an article or in search results. Keyboard shortcuts: use shift + the left and right arrow keys.
< and > in the bottom center are used for switching between the photos of the same specimen. Keyboard shortcuts: use the left and right arrow keys.
> in the bottom center, raises the information box giving details and further options for the media, < at the top of this box then hides it. Keyboard shortcuts: use the up and down arrow keys.
? opens this help window. Keyboard shortcuts: use the H key or the ? key.
Other keyboard shortcuts:
1 Fit image to screen 2 Fill screen with image 5 Display at full resolution < Make background darker > Make background lighter space Hide/dim titles and buttons
Scalebar
If the field of view (FOV) is specified for the photo, the scalebar appears in the left bottom corner of the viewer. The scalebar is draggable and resizeable. Drag the right edge to resize it. Double click will reset the scalebar to it's default size and position. If the scalebar is in default position, double click will make it circular.
Controls - Video
Video files have a standard set of video controls: - Reset to start, - Skip back, - Play, - Pause, - Skip forwards. Keyboard shortcuts: You can stop/start video play with the P key.
Controls - Animation (Spin Rotation)
Animation (usually 360 degree spin rotations) have their own controls: - enable spin mode. Note that while images are loading this option will not be available but will be automatically activated when the animation has loaded. Once active you can spin the image/change the animation by moving your mouse or finger on the image left/right or by pressing the [ or ] keys.
The button switches to move mode so that you can use your mouse/fingers to move the image around the screen as with other media types.
The button, or the P key will start playing the animation directly, you can interrupt this by using the mouse or finger on the image to regain manual movement control.
Controls - 3D Stereoscopic images
If a stereoscopic 3D image is opened in the viewer, the 3D button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "3D settings" menu. The 3D images can be viewed in several ways:
- without any special equipment using cross-eyed or parallel-eyed method
- with stereoscope
- with anaglyph glasses.
- on a suitable 3D TV or monitor (passive 3D system)
For details about 3D refer to: Mindat manuals: Mindat Media Viewer: 3D
To enable/disable 3D stereo display of a compatible stereo pair image press the 3 key. If the left/right images are reversed on your display (this often happens in full-screen mode) press the 4 key to reverse them.
Controls - photo comparison mode
If a photo with activated comparison mode is opened in the viewer, the button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "Comparison mode settings" menu.
Several layouts are supported: slider and side by-side comparison with up to 6 photos shown synchronously on the screen. On each of the compared photos a view selector is placed, e.g.: Longwave UV . It shows the name of currently selected view and allows to select a view for each placeholder.
Summary of all keyboard shortcuts
Investors are often frustrated at the market regulators failure to initiate quick deterrent action, even where the most brazen price manipulation, insider trading and disclosure lapses are actively discussed on the social media. And, yet, for those of us who follow regulatory action closely, there is something equally frustrating. In many cases where the market regulator acts, wrongdoers lawyer up and have their penalties waived or drastically reduced by a benevolent appellate tribunal.
It needed a dispassionate analysis to verify this widely-held perception that wrongdoers, who can afford to challenge regulator, get major relief. Moneylife Foundation commissioned a study to analyse orders of the securities appellate tribunal (SAT) to assess their impact on investor confidence. It was limited to the study of 30 important cases between 2019 and 2021 where orders of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) were appealed.
The study by Sidharth Pattnaik and Shivani Pattnaik, students of the National Law University, Odisha, owes its clarity to being mentored by advocate PR Ramesh. With over 25 years of experience in the capital markets, including a long stint at SEBI and his practice of securities law, Mr Ramesh ensured that the study showed a fair appreciation of how SEBI as well as the appellate body work.
No Credible Jurisprudence
The findings bring out, in worrying detail, that investor confidence is bound to be impacted by the failure to build credible jurisprudence and set clear legal precedents in handling investigation, adjudication and appeals at SEBI as well as SAT. Over the past three decades, SEBI has acquired immense statutory powers and the technology to track market intermediaries and trading on a real-time basis. Yet, there are few disincentives for violation of rules. Worse, it seems advantageous to appeal adverse SEBI rulings. SEBIs Annual Report 2019-20 shows a sharp increase in the number of appeals against its orders (see Table 1). The overall impression is that the appellate tribunal acts like an indulgent grandparent who arbitrates with a naughty childs parents to have the punishment reduced or waived!
This shows a lack of understanding of steep penalties as a deterrent in financial markets. The idea is that penalties should be so heavy (not proportionate) that they deter a person from cutting corners for illegal gains. It is even more applicable to market intermediaries with fiduciary responsibility or those whose actions have a widespread impact on investment decisions (more about this later).
Unfortunately, many SAT orders show a complete lack of understanding of this. Perhaps, it is because SAT members do not necessarily have significant experience of capital markets, commodities, pensions or insurance matters which they are expected to decide on.
On the other hand, SEBIs lackadaisical approach to handling cases as well as appointing competent adjudicating officers (AOs) or completing information in a time-bound manner has also been exposed by the SAT orders.
Our study considered 30 specific cases for detailed comment across three distinct segments: cases involving unfair trade practices, disclosure lapses and those impacting a large number of investors. It highlights issues that need to be fixed urgently, if the government wants to foster investor confidence in market regulation and supervision. The study recommends a review of pending cases after a pre-defined time so that there is pressure on the officials to complete investigations. I know, from my experience of tracking SEBI since inception, that it is a chairman-dominated organisation and cases are fast-tracked or put on the back-burner on instructions from the top. Unless regulatory accountability starts at the top, there will be no pressure or incentive for the regulator to change or to appoint competent AOs.
far more strongly than those expressed in the study. The complete study, which we have shared with the finance ministry, SEBI and SAT officials, can be accessed While broad data is available in the table above, this column will focus on a few key findings and cases, along with my personal views which may be expressedThe complete study, which we have shared with the finance ministry, SEBI and SAT officials, can be accessed here
Benevolent SAT
Innumerable cases where SAT slashed penalties for market manipulation and disclosure lapses have played a big role in increasing the incidence of appeals, especially since the appellate tribunal has failed to understand the deterrence principle in financial crime and has seldom offered a reasoned explanation for the circumstances under which it would consider penalties excessive.
One case that stands out is Kalpana Dharmesh Chheda vs SEBI (28 March 2019). Although SEBI had established illegal gains of Rs35.5 lakh in manipulation of Zodiac Ventures shares by Kalpana Dharmesh Chheda, SAT slashed the penalty to Rs22 lakh signalling that it may be profitable to game the system. Although it was clear that the accused was buying one and two shares above the market, it decided that the transactions were tiny and decided to be benevolent.
Bharti Goyal vs SEBI and Tanuj Khandelwal vs SEBI are similar. Indus Weir Industries Limited, in a repeat of the Sahara realty case, collected Rs33 crore from 32,454 investors through redeemable preference shares without regulatory clearance. SAT benevolently decided that a Rs1-crore penalty was excessive, since the company had suo moto stopped mobilising funds after the landmark Sahara order of August 2012.
In Ganesh Singhania vs SEBI, the regulator found that failure to disclose a significant acquisition and make a public announcement under takeover rules caused investors a loss of Rs65 lakh. A penalty of over Rs2 crore was imposed. SAT slashed the penalty, although a serious offence leading to actual loss to investors was established and upheld.
In case of disclosure lapse by PG Electroplast Limited, SAT dubbed it as technical and slashed SEBIs penalty and action, calling it grossly disproportionate to alleged misconduct and a case of the AO exceeding his powers. The order provided no guidance on what would constitute technical violation warranting such sympathetic consideration.
The study lists several similar cases such as: SPL Industries vs BSE Ltd; Gargi Dash vs SEBI; Nitin Agrawal vs SEBI; Electrosteel Steels vs SEBI; Sky Industries Limited vs SEBI; Susheel Somani vs SEBI; Jubilant Stock Holding Pvt Ltd vs SEBI; and UTI AMCs stake dilution case where SEBIs action was upheld but penalties slashed without proper explanation or reasoning for the tribunals sympathy.
Double Jeopardy? A third case involving the notorious Nirmal Kotecha (read A third case involving the notorious Nirmal Kotecha (read Ring of Thieves ) has a double jeopardy like situation and raises serious questions about SEBIs investigations. Under investigation from multiple agencies, Mr Kotecha leads a charmed life. SEBI debarred him from the markets for two years for fraudulent trades and creating artificial volumes in certain scrips in March 2018. Interestingly, an earlier AO had investigated the very same matter and concluded that volume of transactions was miniscule and there was no fraudulent intent and let him off.
In this case, SAT correctly questioned the parallel investigations in the same matter when an earlier inquiry had already quashed proceedings against him. It ruled that this gives rise to estoppel, since the earlier action was on identical facts. This is a case where an investigation into actions and decisions of SEBI are called for because it allowed Nirmal Kotecha to get away. Readers need to read this article about Mr Kotechas manipulation of SEBI officials and journalists to understand the significance of this case falling apart ( Pyramid Saimira Case Rolls On ). Is it mere inconsistency at SEBI or is there more to it than meets the eye?
Social Media: In Shruti Vora vs SEBI case of June 2020, the SEBI order initially suggested that it has managed to nail a case of using social media to circulate inside information on corporate results. Unfortunately, SEBI did only half an investigation. While it targeted Ms Vora for forwarding messages received by her, it turned out that only some of them had accurately anticipated corporate results and SEBI was also unable to trace the origin of the messages that actually contained inside information. The case fell apart. Inside information continues to be circulated on social media in a big way and, unless SEBI proves it can do a proper investigation, it will continue to thrive.
Hasty and Vindictive: In the middle of the pandemic-related lock-down, SEBI issued an ex-parte order against Udayant Malhoutra, the managing director of Dynamatic Technologies seeking disgorgement of alleged gains (over Rs3 crore) for a transaction that had happened in 2016 ( In the middle of the pandemic-related lock-down, SEBI issued an ex-parte order against Udayant Malhoutra, the managing director of Dynamatic Technologies seeking disgorgement of alleged gains (over Rs3 crore) for a transaction that had happened in 2016 ( Read SEBIs Insider Trading Orders: Is There Any Method in the Madness? ). Since the order was passed by one of SEBIs senior-most officials, the regulator went to the Supreme Court, only to be snubbed again (read https://www.sebi.gov.in/enforcement/orders/dec-2020/order-of-the-hon-ble-supreme-court-in-ca-no-2981-82-of-2020-sebi-vs-udayant-malhoutra_48329.html ).
Long Delays: Kaushik Rajnikant Mehta vs SEBI ( 20 March 2020) was accused of synchronised trading and price manipulation in Well Pack Papers and Containers Ltd in November 2013. An order passed in 2015 imposed a penalty of Rs6 lakh. SAT set aside the order and remanded it back to SEBI for a fresh look. SEBI leisurely appointed another AO in 2018, who again imposed a penalty of Rs5 lakh. SAT was dissatisfied with SEBIs actions and halved the penalty, although it upheld SEBIs findings.
Vasudev Ramchandra Kamat vs SEBI (November 2019) is another case that benefited from a SAT appeal, leading to SEBI being asked for a fresh decision and the case was eventually quashed because SEBIs AO did a shoddy job and had contradictory findings in his order.
ICICI Bank Limited vs SEBI is one where SEBI took eight years to issue a show-cause notice for a one-day delay in disclosure in 2010, while the action against Oasis Securities Ltd also stretched to a decade. In both cases, SAT pulled up the regulator, but the question of regulators accountability remains unaddressed.
Fiduciary Institutions: Two cases that stand out are: SATs failure to understand the significance in rating agencies failing to keep track of companies they rate and, worse, the delay in rating downgrade which can lead to significant losses to retail and institutional investors. The cases discussed pertain to Brickwork Ratings India Pvt Ltd and CARE Ratings Ltd. In both cases, SAT slashed penalties failing to grasp the fact that major investment decision are entirely dependent on credit ratings. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has done no better, as I had discussed in this Two cases that stand out are: SATs failure to understand the significance in rating agencies failing to keep track of companies they rate and, worse, the delay in rating downgrade which can lead to significant losses to retail and institutional investors. The cases discussed pertain to Brickwork Ratings India Pvt Ltd and CARE Ratings Ltd. In both cases, SAT slashed penalties failing to grasp the fact that major investment decision are entirely dependent on credit ratings. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has done no better, as I had discussed in this article leaving investors to the mercy of bad ratings and, possibly, compromised rating agencies.
Weak Orders: In certain major cases, while SEBI endeavoured to take early actions through interim orders, the follow-on investigations faltered, resulting in delays and dilution of enforcement actions, finds the study. It cites the algo scam in 2015 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as an example. Despite multiple forensic audits and a deep investigation, the show-cause notices as well as SEBIs initial orders are weak and do not seem to have taken into account many key findings of its own investigations (Read: In certain major cases, while SEBI endeavoured to take early actions through interim orders, the follow-on investigations faltered, resulting in delays and dilution of enforcement actions, finds the study. It cites the algo scam in 2015 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as an example. Despite multiple forensic audits and a deep investigation, the show-cause notices as well as SEBIs initial orders are weak and do not seem to have taken into account many key findings of its own investigations (Read: https://www.moneylife.in/absolute_power/ ).
The findings of the study are significant for all those involved in financial markets who have to depend on the regulators and appellate bodies doing their job correctly. Since actions of SEBI as well as SAT are questionable, we need better checks & balances, with both organisations being subjected to some public scrutiny and questioning ideally, public hearings before a parliamentary committee. Until then, things look rather bleak.
We had mentioned in Tuesdays closing report that Nifty and Sensex continue to be directionless. On Wednesday, the indices opened lower and ended with a loss. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 777 stocks advanced, 1,213 declined, and 64 remained unchanged with advance decline ratio down to 0.64 from 0.81 yesterday.
The trend of the major indices on Wednesdays trading are given in the table below:
In major business news, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) secretary said that Union Government will 5-6 companies in FY21-22 including BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India and Pawan Hans.
PhonePe has crossed two billion transactions a month. Tyre manufacturers have planned Capex of upto Rs 5,000 crore to meet demand.
Spice Jet and Boeing have entered into a settlement agreement related to grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala backed Akasa Air has ordered 72 Boeing 737 Max aircrafts worth $ 9 billion.
Bharat Dynamics has received orders worth Rs 171 crore or design, development, manufacture, supply and support of CMDS.
Go Fashion (India) Limiteds IPO is open for subscription from 17 Nov 22 Nov at a price band of Rs 655 -RS 690. It is a womens bottom-wear brand in India.
Bajaj Auto has started the delivery of its newly launched Pulsar 250 series in Pune.
McDonalds has partnered with ITC to sell B Natural range of mixed fruit juice of ITC in its Happy Meals.
The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below:
The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below:
BERLIN (AP) A pig farm in northern Germany began culling all of its 4,000 animals Wednesday after a case of African swine fever was confirmed there.
The outbreak near Guestrow, about 185 kilometers (115 miles) northwest of Berlin, is the first at a large pig farm in Germany. Cases in wild boars were first reported in Germany last year, followed by outbreaks in smallholdings.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir late Wednesday detained over a dozen relatives of two civilians killed in a controversial gunfight, eyewitnesses said, hours after they staged a protest in the disputed regions main city while pleading with authorities to return the bodies so they could bury them.
Police officials wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles swooped on a protest site in Srinagar minutes after lights were turned off in the locality. They dragged the relatives into a police van amid slogans by the family members in the freezing cold, eyewitnesses said.
In dramatic video clips that circulated on social media, one family member grabbed the barrel of a rifle from a police official and pulled it to his chest while shouting: Shoot me, terrorists.
Four people, including two civilians and two suspected rebels, died Monday night in a raid by government forces on alleged militants in Srinagar, police said. They said the rebels included a Pakistani citizen, but offered no evidence.
Police said the civilians died in the crossfire between government troops and the rebels. However, witnesses and families of the civilians said Indian troops used them as human shields during the standoff.
Indian authorities later secretly buried the bodies in a remote northwestern village as part of a policy that started in 2020. Since then, authorities have buried the bodies of hundreds of suspected rebels and their alleged associates, including civilians, in unmarked graves in remote areas, denying their families proper funerals.
The family members of the two civilians, identified as trader Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudassir Ahmed, a dental surgeon and real estate dealer, assembled in an area of Srinagar where several media offices are located and demanded the return of the bodies. They shouted slogans and some carried signs reading Stop innocent killings & atrocities and We want justice.
Saima Bhat, a relative of Bhat, said they had little hope of justice.
Justice is a long journey. We just plead right now that the bodies of our loved ones be returned, she said. At least respect the dead and allow us to give them a dignified burial.
The protest continued into Wednesday night and the victims' relatives held a candlelight vigil despite the severe cold.
Also Wednesday, government forces were deployed in half a dozen villages in the southern Gool area to enforce a ban on the assembly of more than four people, after family members of one of the men slain in Mondays raid threatened to block a highway.
The man, 24-year-old Amir Magray, whom police described as a militant, was a salesman at a shop in Srinagar, his father, Abdul Latief, said. Latiefs home has been protected by police guards since he killed a militant with a stone in 2005.
Denial of the body of my son is the reward of the fight against terrorists. My home is still guarded by police, Latief was quoted by New Delhi Television as saying. Tomorrow the security guards can kill me and claim that I was a militant.
Authorities say the policy of not returning rebels' bodies to their families is aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus and to avoid potential law and order problems during funerals. The policy has added to widespread anti-India anger in the region and some rights groups have fiercely criticized the move, calling it a violation of religious rights.
Kashmiris for years have accused Indian troops of targeting civilians and committing abuses with impunity. Such allegations include staging gunfights and then saying the innocent victims were militants to claim rewards and promotions. Indian officials acknowledge the problem but deny abuses are part of a strategy. They say the allegations are mostly separatist propaganda meant to demonize troops.
Meanwhile, police late Wednesday said government forces killed five suspected rebels in two separate gunfights in villages in southern Kulgam district. A tweet attributed to the region's head of police, Vijay Kumar, said one of the slain men was a local commander of the Resistance Front rebel group. Officials did not immediately provide any other details and there was no independent confirmation of the incidents.
Both India and Pakistan claim the divided territory in its entirety. Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhis rule since 1989.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
TAOS, N.M. (AP) New Mexico authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a bear with arrows along a road near Taos.
Game and Fish Department spokesman James Pitman told the Albuquerque Journal that the killing occurred Oct. 29.
Jacksonville Police
ARRESTS, CITATIONS
Demetric G. Saddler, 37, of 1116 E. Morton Ave. was arrested at 1:57 a.m. Tuesday on a domestic battery charge. He was accused of slamming a person to the ground.
THEFTS, BURGLARIES
A Jacksonville woman told police her purse was stolen between noon and 1 p.m. Oct. 17 and she found out one of the credit cards inside it was used on Oct. 28 in Springfield.
OTHER REPORTS
A Jacksonville resident reported finding a firearm about 4:37 p.m. Monday in the backyard of a house in the 800 block of West State Street.
VANDALISM
A vehicle was damaged in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue, according to a report filed at 8:52 p.m. Monday.
Pike County
State police
FIRE
Fire destroyed a semi-trailer about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. According to Illinois State Police, Cody Geary, 27, of Mason City was going east on Interstate 72. While taking the I-172 northbound ramp, Geary noticed the brakes on his truck, which was carrying two semi-trailers, were on fire. He was able to disconnect the second semi-trailer and put out the fire. A portion of I-172 was closed about an hour.
Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
Ive been watching "Saturday Night Live" since my freshman year of high school. That was 1975, its inaugural season. My mother and father didnt restrict my viewing, although there wasnt anything too offensive other than some fallow years of mediocre "Not Ready For Primetime (Or Any Other Time) Players," and bad writing.
I loved the Tina Fey years (mean girl jokes about Sarah Palin notwithstanding), the Dana Carvey years, the Gilda Radner years, the Bill Murray, the Chris Rock, the Martin Short years, and, of course, the Eddie Murphy years. Comedy gold.
And even though the quality has dipped in recent times, there is still that nugget of hilarity you find nestled in among the Pete Davidson dreck. Its usually enough to make me overlook the hyper-progressive political pandering of the show which, during the Donald Trump years, perfected the art of ridiculing conservatives. Tina was snarky toward Sarah in a previous iteration, but the whole cast was a heat-seeking missile aimed at insulting Trump voters. Its OK. I can stomach most of it. We all can.
But a few Saturdays ago was the first time I actually threw something at the television.
In an opening sketch about the recent gubernatorial race in Virginia, one of the punchlines was about how ironic it was that education became a central issue in the race since Glenn Youngkins voters didnt go to college.
It was stated as a fact, and just like that, an entire group of people was defined as uneducated (and likely toothless) simply because they voted against the wizened, desiccated ghost of Terry McAuliffe.
Normally, Id roll my eyes and move on. But this one hit a nerve. Lately, Democrats and other progressives have made a point to highlight the importance of education in their campaigns. Thats understandable as the blood-letting at school board meetings across the country has attracted national attention and thrown a negative light on troubling progressive agendas.
But in campaign ad after campaign ad, in op-ed after op-ed, and pouring from the mouths of cable news commentators like the fetid water from stone gargoyle fountains is the idea that conservatives are too stupid to understand the issues. They gaslight us with claims that Critical Race Theory is a myth, wonder why we want our children to die of the COVID-19 plague and think books about sex are cultural enrichment.
When the writers at SNL suggested that only stupid people could have voted for Youngkin, my Italian-Irish blood reached a slow boil. To avoid third-degree burns, I turned off the TV and tweeted this:
SNL just called people who voted for Glenn Youngkin people who didnt go to college.
Like my mother. My grandmother. My grandfather.
Best people I ever met, outside of my father, who worked his way through college at night while sweating through blue-collar jobs.
The idea that those who voted for Youngkin are uneducated rubes fails on two fronts. First, as noted by my good friend and Virginia resident Carolyn, the majority of residents of voting age in Virginia have college degrees. Thats understandable, given that the state has some of the finest universities in the country, including the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia.
More importantly, thats ultimately irrelevant. A college degree, while desirable, does not increase our value as human beings, or our right to be represented in the political process. Obama forgot that when he talked about those who cling to their guns and religion. So did Hillary with her basket of deplorables.
My grandparents had to leave school before fifth grade, to work. Mike and Mamie had callouses on their hands before they were teenagers. My mother had a high school diploma. My father managed a college and then a law degree working three jobs during the day and going to school at night.
They collectively had more character and decency than the people ridiculing them.
I am so tired of the arrogance of at least some liberals. They assume a posture and attitude that exudes condescension, all the while pretending that they speak for the dispossessed. They might have degrees, but they have no humility.
And they are guaranteeing the election of many more candidates who understand that the value of a human being is not measured by the number of letters after her name.
Relative of elderly victim testifies at Texas murder trial View Photo
DALLAS (AP) One of the 18 older women a man is charged with killing in the Dallas area over a two-year span ran a restaurant in Vietnam before leaving on a helicopter as Saigon fell and was a generous person who loved giving people $2 bills, her son-in-law testified Tuesday.
My mother-in-law was a hoot. She was very fun to be around, Richard Rinehart said.
Billy Chemirmir is on trial for capital murder in the death of Rineharts mother-in-law, 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. Chemirmir faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.
Chemirmir was arrested in March 2018 after 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived an attack at her apartment at an independent living community for seniors in Plano. She died in 2020.
Jurors listened Monday as Bartel said in a taped deposition that she knew she was in grave danger as she opened her door to a man wearing green rubber gloves. Bartel described a pillow being smashed into her face and her attacker using all his weight to keep me from breathing.
When police tracked Chemirmir to his nearby apartment the next day, he was holding jewelry and cash. Documents in a large red 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.
Prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin has said that earlier that day, Harris and Chemirmir had been checking out at the same time at a Walmart store.
Rinehart testified on Tuesday said that the jewelry box found in the trash belonged to his mother-in-law, as did numerous pieces of jewelry that officers found as they arrested Chemirmir.
Evidence presented Monday showed that Chemirmir was also in possession of numerous $2 bills at the time. Rinehart testified Tuesday that his mother-in-law loved giving them as gifts.
Police have also said that a set of keys found with Chemirmir when he was arrested opened the front doors of Harris home.
Rinehart said that Harris, who he called Kim, was born on a Chinese island. When she was a young girl, prior to World War II, her family moved to what is now Vietnam. He said she grew up in Saigon, which is now Ho Chi Minh City, and eventually owned a restaurant and bar there.
The restaurant was located across the street from an oil company where the man who became her second husband, William Harris, worked.
When the demise of Saigon was imminent, she had already married Mr. Harris and he was called out to Hong Kong by his company but he had arranged paperwork for her and she actually got out of Saigon on a helicopter on the American Embassy to an aircraft carrier on the South China Sea, Rinehart said.
Rinehart said that after leaving Vietnam, the couple lived in Tanzania before William Harris retired and they moved to Dallas. William Harris died in 2008.
Rinehart said his wife, Loan Rinehart, died of cancer in 2013. He said one of Lu Thi Harris sons still runs her restaurant in Vietnam.
Following Chemirmirs arrest, 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.
Fitzmartin said jurors would also be hearing about the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, who was found dead in her Richardson home in January 2018. Chemirmir has been charged in her death.
He said that Brooks death had originally been called a natural death, but after an investigation following the arrest of Chemirmir, the medical examiner changed the cause of death to homicide.
Fitzmartin said that the day before Brooks was found dead, she was at a Walmart, the same Walmart that Harris was at before her death later in the year. Fitzmartin said that a vehicle model known to be driven by Chemirmir was parked next to Brooks vehicle.
On Tuesday, the medical examiner who performed Harris autopsy testified that while she had small broken blood vessels and some bruising, he had to rely on investigative information to determine the cause of death.
Travis Danielsen, who worked for the Dallas County medical examiners at the time of Harris death, said he determined her cause of death to be smothering and manner of death to be homicide.
He said that without information from the investigation, the death would have been ruled undetermined or natural.
In asphyxial deaths, as a medical examiner, we rely most heavily, I believe, on the investigative information, he said.
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. Hes 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.
The defense did not make an opening statement. Chemirmirs attorney has called the evidence against Chemirmir circumstantial.
By JAMIE STENGLE
Associated Press
Biden underscores he wants no change in Taiwan policy
Biden underscores he wants no change in Taiwan policy View Photo
WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he made clear to Chinas Xi Jinping that his administration stands firmly behind the United States longstanding One China policy but he also noted that the self-ruled island of Taiwan ultimately makes its own decisions.
White House officials said the two leaders spoke extensively about Taiwan during their more than three-hour virtual meeting one day earlier.
Tensions have heightened as China has dispatched a growing number of fighter jets toward the island, while the U.S. and its allies sail warships though the Taiwan Strait.
But Biden on Tuesday sought to underscore his support for the Taiwan Relations Act, which went into effect in 1979 and shapes the parameters of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
We made very clear we support the Taiwan Act and thats it, Biden told reporters while traveling in New Hampshire. Its independent. It makes its own decisions.
The United States One China policy recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. Biden also made clear the U.S. strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, a White House statement said.
Earlier Tuesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden reminded Xi during their virtual meeting that he voted as a senator for the Taiwan Relations Act.
So he understands deeply, firsthand, that the act makes clear that any effort to shape Taiwans future by other than peaceful means is of grave concern to the United States, said Sullivan, speaking at a webinar hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The Biden-Xi video conference took place Tuesday morning in Beijing and Monday evening in Washington.
Sullivan said the two leaders also agreed to explore talks on arms control.
By AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press
Police detain kin seeking bodies of slain Kashmir civilians View Photo
SRINAGAR, India (AP) Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir late Wednesday detained over a dozen relatives of two civilians killed in a controversial gunfight, eyewitnesses said, hours after they staged a protest in the disputed regions main city while pleading with authorities to return the bodies so they could bury them.
Police officials wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles swooped on a protest site in Srinagar minutes after lights were turned off in the locality. They dragged the relatives into a police van amid slogans by the family members in the freezing cold, eyewitnesses said.
In dramatic video clips that circulated on social media, one family member grabbed the barrel of a rifle from a police official and pulled it to his chest while shouting: Shoot me, terrorists.
Four people, including two civilians and two suspected rebels, died Monday night in a raid by government forces on alleged militants in Srinagar, police said. They said the rebels included a Pakistani citizen, but offered no evidence.
Police said the civilians died in the crossfire between government troops and the rebels. However, witnesses and families of the civilians said Indian troops used them as human shields during the standoff.
Indian authorities later secretly buried the bodies in a remote northwestern village as part of a policy that started in 2020. Since then, authorities have buried the bodies of hundreds of suspected rebels and their alleged associates, including civilians, in unmarked graves in remote areas, denying their families proper funerals.
The family members of the two civilians, identified as trader Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudassir Ahmed, a dental surgeon and real estate dealer, assembled in an area of Srinagar where several media offices are located and demanded the return of the bodies. They shouted slogans and some carried signs reading Stop innocent killings & atrocities and We want justice.
Saima Bhat, a relative of Bhat, said they had little hope of justice.
Justice is a long journey. We just plead right now that the bodies of our loved ones be returned, she said. At least respect the dead and allow us to give them a dignified burial.
The protest continued into Wednesday night and the victims relatives held a candlelight vigil despite the severe cold.
Also Wednesday, government forces were deployed in half a dozen villages in the southern Gool area to enforce a ban on the assembly of more than four people, after family members of one of the men slain in Mondays raid threatened to block a highway.
The man, 24-year-old Amir Magray, whom police described as a militant, was a salesman at a shop in Srinagar, his father, Abdul Latief, said. Latiefs home has been protected by police guards since he killed a militant with a stone in 2005.
Denial of the body of my son is the reward of the fight against terrorists. My home is still guarded by police, Latief was quoted by New Delhi Television as saying. Tomorrow the security guards can kill me and claim that I was a militant.
Authorities say the policy of not returning rebels bodies to their families is aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus and to avoid potential law and order problems during funerals. The policy has added to widespread anti-India anger in the region and some rights groups have fiercely criticized the move, calling it a violation of religious rights.
Kashmiris for years have accused Indian troops of targeting civilians and committing abuses with impunity. Such allegations include staging gunfights and then saying the innocent victims were militants to claim rewards and promotions. Indian officials acknowledge the problem but deny abuses are part of a strategy. They say the allegations are mostly separatist propaganda meant to demonize troops.
Meanwhile, police late Wednesday said government forces killed five suspected rebels in two separate gunfights in villages in southern Kulgam district. A tweet attributed to the regions head of police, Vijay Kumar, said one of the slain men was a local commander of the Resistance Front rebel group. Officials did not immediately provide any other details and there was no independent confirmation of the incidents.
Both India and Pakistan claim the divided territory in its entirety. Rebels in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhis rule since 1989.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
By AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Associated Press
State of emergency in British Columbia; more deaths expected View Photo
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) The Canadian Pacific coast province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday following floods and mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall, and officials said they expected to find more dead.
Every major route between the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where Canadas third largest city of Vancouver is, and the interior of the province has been cut by washouts, flooding or landslides following record-breaking rain across southern British Columbia between Saturday and Monday. The body of a woman was recovered from one of the mudslides late Monday.
Torrential rains have led to terrible flooding that has disrupted the lives and taken lives of people across B.C. I want people to know that the federal government has been engaging with the local authorities, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Washington. Were sending resources like the Canadian Armed Forces to support people but also well be there for the cleanup and the rebuilding after impacts of these extreme weather events.
The federal government said it was sending the air force to assist with evacuations and to support supply lines.
Military helicopters already helped evacuate about 300 people from one highway where people were trapped in their cars Sunday night following a mudslide,
We expect to confirm even more fatalities in the coming days, British Columbia Premier John Horgan said.
Horgan called it a once in a 500 years event. He said the state of emergency will include travel restrictions so the transport of essential goods medical and emergency services will reach the communities that need them. He asked people not to hoard goods.
These are very challenging times. Ive been at this dais for two years now talking about challenging times we have faced unprecedented challenges with public health, wildfires, heat domes and now debilitating floods that we have never seen before, Horgan said.
Horgan said over the past six months there have been drought conditions in Merritt, where the river was at its lowest point in living memory and where people had to be evacuated because of wildfires in temperatures that were unprecedented. And now, he said, much of the community is under water.
We need to start preparing for a future that includes more events like this, Horgan said.
The weather events are all connected and can be attributed to climate change, said John Clague, a professor in the Earth Sciences Department at Simon Fraser University.
Scientists are now saying these particular events, theyre becoming more frequent, exacerbated or ramped up by climate change, he said.
The record temperatures in the summer set the stage for the wildfires, said Clague. The fires burned the ground in a way that prevents water from seeping into the soil. He said that resulted in the water from the torrential rains pouring more quickly into steams and rivers, causing floods.
The total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for had not yet been confirmed near the town of Lillooet. Investigators had received reports of two other people who were missing but added that other motorists might have been buried in a slide on Highway 99.
Chelsey Hughes said she was thankful to have survived the slide that slammed into her car before it landed in a swamp as she was driving along the highway. Hughes was heading home Sunday when she saw a tree starting to fall as a slide shoved her car about a mile off the road and down an embankment.
Then the car stopped moving and I was just shocked. I was afraid to move because I didnt know if I was injured, she said after spending about five hours shivering on top of her car without a jacket next to another vehicle with four university students sharing one jacket atop their vehicle.
When Hughes finally connected with a 911 dispatcher, he helped her monitor one students condition after he had an asthma attack before they finally saw the lights of rescuers.
They spent an hour hiking out, she said of the traumatic events that unfolded Sunday night before nine of them were taken to hospital. She said she has been thinking about the family of a woman who died.
I think that could have been any one of us, and theres nothing that you can do. When we got hit by that landslide, we just had to surrender, she said.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said thousands of animals had died and the province was rushing to get veterinarians to other animals that are in danger.
I can also tell you that many farmers attempted to move animals and then had to walk away because the roads were disappearing beneath them, she said.
A trade expert said the loss of major transportation routes will hurt the movement of goods both in and out Canadas largest port in Vancouver.
Vancouver really has an outsized role to play in our Pacific trade, said Werner Antweiler, an associate professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Commodities will be impacted in a much more significant way because its coming by rail or coming by big trucks.
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Associated Press writer Jim Morris reported this story in Vancouver and AP writer Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.
By JIM MORRIS and ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
Scion of Polish nobility jailed in property restitution case View Photo
WARSAW, Poland (AP) A Warsaw court on Tuesday confirmed the arrest order for a Polish businessman who is a descendant of one of Polands aristocratic families, in a case highlighting the problems still resulting from the communist regimes seizure of private property after World War II.
Michal Sobanski, a 46-year-old businessman, has been held in isolation in a prison in the western Polish city of Wroclaw since June. The Appeals Court in Warsaw rejected his lawyers appeal against the temporary arrest, which means Sobanski must remain jailed until Dec. 20, while the investigation continues. The prosecutors argued that only isolation can guarantee there will be no influencing of witnesses.
Prosecutors in Wroclaw say they have charged Sobanski with committing crimes relating to property valued at 44 million zlotys ($11 million) while he acted as an intermediary for his clients in exchange for a commission. The charges do not relate to any of the Sobanski familys property, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors told The Associated Press.
Poland is the only country in Central Europe that has no legislation to regulate the return of seized property to its pre-World War II owners or their inheritors. Instead, the original owners and their inheritors have been told to make their claims through Polands courts.
Sobanski was helping various related and unrelated persons, also living abroad, get through Polands property restitution process, gather documents, sometimes 19th century ones, and reclaim their family properties seized by the communists, who nationalized the estates of aristocratic families and real estate in Warsaw, the capital.
Sobanski denies the charges, and his family and lawyers say it is an injustice to keep him in pre-trial detention for months. He remains under arrest despite having given extensive explanations and despite hefty bail and guarantees being offered by hundreds of people.
He is under constant surveillance, with lights turned on every 30 minutes at night, and has only 5 minutes daily for calls to the family. His asthma also has gotten worse, his relatives say.
Sobanski has an enormous feeling of wrong, of injustice, said his sister, Izabela Poninska, who admitted that perhaps someone was indeed omitted, perhaps there could have been things stemming from pure lack of knowledge in all the cases he handled.
But she described her brother as an exceptionally honest person who was fearless in his activity and suggested he was bearing the consequences of that.
In a related case, the descendant of another one of Polands aristocratic families, Adam Zamoyski, a 72-year-old Polish-British historian, had his passport taken and a freeze put on his properties while prosecutors pursue allegations of appropriating someone elses inheritance rights, valued at 20 million zlotys ($5 million), through an allegedly forged will.
I cant wait to get into court and refute everything, said Zamoyski who has been decorated with medals for his decades-long service to Polands culture. He spoke to AP from his home in Poland, saying he had been forced to cancel work obligations and medical appointments in London.
Both Zamoyski and Sobanskis lawyer, Jan Mydlowski, believe it is no coincidence that they were targeted soon before Polands right-wing government introduced new legislation that restricts the rights of former property owners and their descendants to reclaim property seized by the former communist regime.
This new law took effect and hundreds of clients, whom he was helping, were deprived of having a voice, Poninska told the AP.
The law also affects some Holocaust survivors and their descendants, triggering a diplomatic row with Israel, though the majority of the prewar property seized by the communists was owned by Christian Poles.
The prosecutors insist there is no connection between Sobanskis arrest and the new law.
All this comes at a time when Polands justice system is at the heart of conflict between the right-wing government and the European Union, which sees actions by the government as undermining Polands justice system and the rule of law.
The 11 counts of alleged crimes in Sobanskis case carry a prison term of up to 10 years. The prosecutors allege Sobanski, and some others, have used false documents or testimony to obtain from the state the restitution of real estate across Poland, while leaving out some inheritors.
A foundation started by Sobanski promotes Polish culture and has bought back Polish art from South America to give it to state museums.
He is a great patriot and its disgraceful, Zamoyski said.
Poninska said the challenges of the restitution process and the reports of irregularities have made the word restitution sound like a curse.
The path is long and complicated, especially for those living abroad. In rare cases, irregularities allowed speculators to gain ownership of properties they had no previous links to. Polands recent legislation closed off the possibility of reversing administrative ownership decisions older than 30 years.
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Associated Press
Mary Rose Rutikanga View Photo
Sonora, CA Sonoras City manager has taken a new job in Africa.
At last nights city council meeting, after coming out of a closed session, in which the agenda noted the City Manager position would be discussed, the Mayor Pro-tem Mark Plummer announced that Mary Rose Rutikanga would be leaving the city manager post. Plummer asked her to detail her plans, to which she replied, I have accepted an offer with the U.S. Peace Corps. I will be the director of management and operations for the Peace Corps, Africa region, stationed in the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon, Africa. Plummer responded, Wow, (pause) its hard to compete with that. Thank you for the time that you have given us at the city.
Rutikanga is no stranger to the Peace Corps. while in college she served as a Peace Corps Masters International Student in the country of Rwanda from 2009-2011. She is a Copperopolis native and graduate of Bret Harte and was hired in January of last year by a city councils unanimous vote, as reported here. Before that, she served as Deputy County Executive Officer for the County of Merced.
Rutikanga will remain at the post for another two months, rounding out her tenure in that position to two years. Now the council will take up the task of finding her replacement, but no immediate details regarding a recruitment strategy were announced at the meeting.
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) delivered a speech on the floor of the United States Senate that included highlighting the importance of vaccines for schoolchildren and booster shots for eligible adults.
Padilla was Wednesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day.
Here are his words:
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I am proud to share with all of you the experience of California this last year in combating the COVID 19 pandemic.
Proud to say that California has led the way on COVID-19 prevention and vaccination, because we have seen the devastation that surging cases can cause. Last winter, remember where we were. Last winter, a catastrophic surge in my home county of Los Angeles overwhelmed local hospitals. As was the case, frankly, in many parts of the country. Families were desperate to find care for their loved ones. Ambulances struggled to find hospitals with capacity.
So as we approach this winter season, I recognize that weve made incredible progress, turning the tide since those tragic times. Now, just a month ago, California achieved the lowest level of COVID-19 transmission of any state in the nation. But today, cases are beginning to rise again.
Were seeing the effects of the changing weather. And so we need to stay vigilant to prevent another devastating surge, like the wave that peaked in California and across the country last winter. But fortunately, today, we are armed with a powerful defense. An FDA approved vaccine that is safe, that is effective, and that is free for all.
Californias historic vaccination efforts made possible by the resources that we helped deliver, when we passed the American Rescue Plan, has covered more than three quarters of our residents. More than 55 million shots in arms of Californians. But now is not the time to let up.
Every person who gets the vaccine helps to stop the spread of the virus in our community. And weve just received two new critical weapons. One, booster shots to increase protections for adults. And two, approval of a vaccine for children older than five.
Colleagues, during last weeks state work period, I had the privilege of joining leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District for the opening of their first vaccine clinic, a mobile clinic, on school sites for students ages five and up. I saw firsthand the anxious excitement of families looking forward to a freer, safer life for children. Imagine that. Playdates with friends, holiday celebrations with grandparents, and relief for those with family members at higher risk. Now as parents of younger children, Angela and I know that this pandemic has especially been hard on children.
For more than a year, as we would gather together to pray as a family, our youngest, Diego who many of you met, would ask God for COVID to be over. And who would then ask when a vaccine would be ready for him and his brothers. Thats why it was such a big deal when the vaccine was approved for children ages five and older. Angela and I were vaccinated earlier this year. Our older son Roman was vaccinated months ago. And finally, last week, Diego and Alex received their vaccines. So we know that were sharing this moment of joy with millions of families across the country who are relieved that our children will be better protected against COVID-19.
So colleagues as we approach this now, second Thanksgiving since the start of the pandemic, we recognize that we have much to be thankful for. Were thankful for the scientists who drew on years of research to design and test one of the most effective vaccines that weve ever seen.
Were thankful for the doctors and nurses who are helping to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible while caring for the sick.
And we continue to be thankful for all the essential workers who take on high risk jobs, to keep food on our tables and keep the economy going.
So its in the spirit of all this, that I asked each and every one of you to do your part. To everyone at home, please each and every one of you, do your parts. Protect yourself. Protect your family, protect your community, get vaccinated. Get your children vaccinated. Go check to see if youre eligible for a booster. And if you are, find one near you at vaccines.gov. Weve come to appreciate how vaccination is the key to a safe holiday season. And its key to ending the pandemic for all. Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.
The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Judge: Iraqi refugee held on murder claims can be deported View Photo
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) An Iraqi refugee initially accused of committing a killing for the Islamic State terror group before coming to the U.S. is eligible to be deported because he lied on his immigration papers, a federal judge decided Tuesday.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Tara Naselow-Nahas ruled that Omar Abdulsattar Ameen lied when he was filling out his refugee application to gain entry into the United States. Among other things, she found he wasnt being truthful when he said he had never interacted with, knew or had involvement with various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq.
But she rejected other allegations, including that he provided support, engaged in terrorist activity, participated in harming another person, or misrepresented that he was a member of such a group.
Naselow-Nahas found that Ameen interacted with a cousin who is clearly a member of an armed terrorist group. She also found the government proved that he lied when he said his father had been fatally shot and that his brother had been kidnapped.
He should be deported to Iraq, or if not there to his last home of Turkey, the judge said, based on the governments recommendation.
Attorneys for Ameen say he faces likely execution if he is returned to Iraq. Another federal judge in Sacramento in April refused to allow his extradition. U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund Brennan said that cellphone evidence shows Ameen was in Turkey at the time of the slaying in 2014.
Federal authorities have tried since 2018 to return Ameen to Iraq under a treaty with that nation, and he was quickly seized by immigration authorities after Brennans ruling. Ameen will continue to fight deportation, and he will seek to be released on bond, said his lawyer, Siobhan Waldron.
He can now object that he faces too much danger to be deported, even though he was found to be eligible. He will go before Naselow-Nahas for a week of hearings set for late January and early February, and if she rules against him can seek review by the Board of Immigration Appeals and then the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The fight is far from over, Waldron said. She contended that this is all based on unfounded rumors.
FBI investigators testified over days of intermittent hearings scattered over several months that Ameen told inconsistent stories under questioning, and that close family members also have ties to terrorist groups. Ameen has argued he felt under duress during the interviews out of fear for his family.
Federal prosecutors said he returned to Iraq that same month and killed a police officer in the town of Rawah after it fell to the Islamic State group. Ameen arrived in the United States five months later to be resettled as a refugee in the Sacramento, California, area.
The Iraqi government said Ameen was part of a four-vehicle Islamic State caravan that opened fire on the home of the Rawah police officer. Iraqi documents said Ameen then fired a fatal shot into Ihsan Abdulhafiz Jasims chest as he lay on the ground. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the slaying on social media.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Ameen kept his membership in two terrorist groups secret when he applied for refugee status, and again when he later applied for a green card.
Ameen fled to Turkey in 2012. He was granted status as a refugee in the United States in June 2014 on the grounds that he was a victim of terrorism.
Brennan said in April that cellphone records showed Ameen was in Turkey, not Iraq, on the day of the murder. The judge noted Ameen passed a lie detector test and said he had serious doubt on the reliability of witnesses who placed Ameen in Iraq at the time of the killing.
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
UN atomic watchdog: Iran further raising nuclear stockpile View Photo
VIENNA (AP) The United Nations atomic watchdog says it believes that Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in breach of a 2015 accord with world powers.
The International Atomic Energy Agency told member nations in its confidential quarterly report Wednesday that Iran has an estimated stock of 17.7 kilograms (39 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, an increase of almost 8 kilograms since August.
Such highly enriched uranium can be easily refined to make atomic weapons, which is why world powers have sought to contain Tehrans nuclear program.
The Vienna-based agency told members that it is still not able to verify Irans exact stockpile of enriched uranium due to the limitations that Tehran imposed on U.N. inspectors earlier this year.
The IAEA has been unable to access surveillance footage of Iranian nuclear sites or of online enrichment monitors and electronic seals since February. The agencys chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told The Associated Press this month that the situation was like flying in a heavily clouded sky.
In a separate report to member states Wednesday about its work in Iran, the agency said Grossi was concerned about inspectors being subjected to excessively invasive physical searches by security officials at nuclear facilities in Iran.
He reiterates the call upon Iran to take immediate steps to remedy the situation, and to implement security procedures at nuclear facilities that are consistent with internationally accepted security practices and Irans legal obligations in relation to privileges and immunities of the agency and its inspectors, the IAEA said, according to the confidential quarterly report seen by The Associated Press.
The agency said it categorically rejects the idea its cameras at Iranian nuclear sites played a role in a sabotage attack on the Karaj facility near Tehran in June. Iran accuses Israel of being behind the incident.
A senior diplomat who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the searches of the inspectors carried out in Iran were very time-consuming and made some feel intimidated. The diplomat was not authorized to be named while speaking to the media.
Mohammadreza Ghayebi, caretaker envoy of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in Vienna, called on other IAEA member states to refrain from making hasty or politically motivated comments.
State-run IRNA news agency quoted him as saying that Grossi was expected in Tehran for talks Monday to discuss the status of cooperation between the two sides.
Senior diplomats from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia plan to meet with Iranian officials in Vienna on Nov. 29 to discuss bringing Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The pact eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
The United States pulled out of the accord under former President Donald Trump and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to resume its uranium enrichment.
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Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.
By KIYOKO METZLER
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD (AP) The Taliban on Wednesday urged the U.S. Congress to ease sanctions and release Afghanistans assets as the country faces economic turmoil.
Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a statement posted online that the frozen assets are harming the public, from the health sector to education and other services. His comments came a day after the World Food Program warned that millions of people in Afghanistan are facing poverty.
American sanctions have not only played havoc with trade and business, but also with humanitarian assistance, he said in an open letter to U.S. lawmakers.
The World Food Program warned on Tuesday that of Afghanistans nearly 40 million people, some 8.7 million people are at risk of facing famine-like conditions. An additional 14.1 million are suffering acute food insecurity, the WFP said.
According to the groups report, 600,000 displaced people, as well as drought in the country are adding to the poverty.
The country also is struggling with the attacks mostly targeting civilians in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover in August.
An explosion hit a minivan in a Shiite neighborhood of western Kabul Wednesday, killing at least one person and wounding three others, a Taliban official said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy minister for culture and information in the Taliban-led government, told The Associated Press that an investigation is continuing. He did not elaborate.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a blast on Saturday that killed one person and wounded five others. A roadside bomb struck a taxi in Kabul Monday, wounding two people.
Trump adviser appointed to panel on US elections View Photo
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has appointed to a federal election advisory board a prominent Republican attorney who assisted former President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Cleta Mitchell was named to the Board of Advisors for the federal Election Assistance Commission. The advisory board does not have the ability to directly make policy but can recommend voluntary guidelines to the EAC. The EAC certifies voting systems and advises local election offices on compliance with federal election regulations.
Mitchell was nominated by the Republican-appointed members on the commission and approved by a majority vote.
Mitchell is a prominent Republican lawyer who joined Trump on a Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. On the call, Trump implored Raffensperger to find him enough votes for him to be declared the winner in the battleground state, which was won by President Joe Biden. Mitchell claimed she had found possible examples of fraud in the state, but the secretary of states office told her that her data was incorrect.
Mitchells involvement in the call caused an outcry in the legal community that led to her departure from her longtime job at the law firm Foley & Lardner. She has since taken major roles with conservative groups pushing to tighten voting laws, directing an election initiative at the small government group FreedomWorks and serving as a fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, where she helps coordinate advocacy on voting issues.
Im honored to have been selected with bipartisan support to serve in this role, Mitchell said in a text message on Tuesday.
The U.S. Commission for Civil Rights said in a statement that it appoints two of the advisory boards 35 members one from Republican commissioners, the other from Democratic ones.
The commission is divided among four Democrats, three Republicans and one independent. Its members are appointed to six-year terms by congressional leaders and presidents. Last year, Trump appointed to the commission attorney J. Christian Adams, who is president of a conservative legal group for which Mitchell chairs its board of directors.
The Democratic nominee to the advisory board was unable to serve and a new one will be voted on in Fridays meeting, the commission statement said.
The Civil Rights Commission said the vote to appoint Mitchell happened Aug. 21. But the move did not become public until this week, when journalist Jessica Huseman posted EAC documents on Twitter showing Mitchell had officially joined the board Nov. 3.
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Associated Press reporter Christina Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Associated Press
Judge: Vegas mans vote fraud claim cheap political stunt View Photo
LAS VEGAS (AP) A Las Vegas mans admission that he voted twice in November 2020 in a case that state Republicans seized on to claim voter irregularities amounted to a cheap political stunt that backfired, a state court judge said Tuesday.
Donald Kirk Hartle appeared by videoconference from his defense attorneys office to plead guilty to a misdemeanor voting more than once in the same election and told Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny he accepted full responsibility for his actions and regrets them.
Hartles attorney, David Chesnoff, prevented his client from having to describe publicly how he voted early using a ballot that had been mailed to his dead wife. Rosemarie Hartle died in 2017 but her name remained on the voter rolls.
Chesnoff told the judge that state Attorney General Aaron Fords office agreed to reduce two felony charges against Hartle to the misdemeanor.
Kierny made it clear she was unhappy with the deal but accepted it. Hartle was fined $2,000 and has to stay out of trouble for one year. The judge set a Nov. 17, 2022, date to review the result.
This seems to me to be a cheap political stunt that kind of backfired, Kierny said, and shows that our voting system actually works because you were ultimately caught.
Not to follow the negotiations would be a political stunt of my own and I am not willing to do that, she added.
Hartle, 55, chief financial officer for companies owned by state Republican party finance chairman Donald Ahern, could have faced up to eight years in prison if convicted of the two felonies.
Aherns company hosted a reelection campaign event in September 2020 for then-President Donald Trump, and Ahern owns a Las Vegas hotel at which a national group espousing fringe QAnon conspiracy theories met in October.
Ford, a Democrat, and Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, issued a joint statement after Hartles plea.
I am pleased that the truth was uncovered, said Cegavske, who was censured last April by her own party after being accused of failing to fully investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.
Cegavske repeatedly defended Nevadas election results as reliable and accurate, and denied claims of widespread fraud despite attacks from Trump and other Republicans. Cegavske said after she was reprimanded by the Nevada GOP that she had been attacked for refusing to put my thumb on the scale of democracy.
Though rare, voter fraud can undercut trust in our election system, Ford said in Tuesdays statement, adding that his office will pursue any credible allegations of voter fraud.
The Secretary of States office investigators began a probe of Hartles case a year ago, said Jennifer Russell, spokeswoman for Cegavskes office, after former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt and American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp held a news conference to allege widespread voter fraud in Nevada.
Laxalt co-chaired the Trump campaign in Nevada. He is now seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
Schlapp named Rosemarie Hartle and one other person among what he said were hundreds of cases of dead people voting in Nevada.
Investigators determined the other case, involving a woman who used a deceased relatives ballot instead of her own, was accidental.
Cegavskes office said in April that reviews of election fraud allegations delivered to her office by the state GOP in March found some were already under investigation and most were baseless or inaccurately interpreted.
Nevada GOP officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to messages about Hartles plea.
Ford on Tuesday called Hartles case particularly egregious because the offender continually spread inaccurate information about our elections despite being the source of fraud himself.
The Nevada GOP tweeted a year ago about Hartles claim that someone voted with his wifes ballot and urging media to understand we are finding concrete cases of voter irregularities that they must expose.
Hartle, in an interview with KLAS-TV at the time, said his case lent some credence to what youve been hearing in the media about these possibilities and now it makes me wonder how pervasive is this?
State and federal courts in Nevada and other states rejected dozens of election challenges by Republicans and Trumps presidential campaign, including claims of widespread voter fraud.
Certified results in Nevada showed that President Joe Biden, the Democrat, defeated Trump by 33,596 of 1.4 million votes cast, or about 2.4%.
Hartles was the only active voter fraud case in Nevada, Fords office said.
In an earlier Nevada case, a 53-year-old man was sentenced last July to up to two years of probation for his guilty plea to one felony charge of voting twice in Benton, Arkansas, and in Las Vegas during the 2016 presidential election.
At least five other people have been convicted in Nevada since 2011 of registration fraud during voter recruitment, and one woman pleaded guilty to trying to vote twice in 2012.
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) A Northern California health clinic gave 14 children the wrong dose when administering pediatric COVID-19 vaccines over the weekend.
Sutter Health said in a statement that 14 of the vaccinations given at its pediatric clinic in Antioch had an incorrect amount of diluent, which is used to dilute the concentrated form of the vaccine, KGO-TV reported. The statement did not specify if the doses were too much or too little.
As soon as we learned this we contacted parents, Dr. Jimmy Chu, the chair of Sutter Healths COVID-19 task force, said in the statement. And we immediately reviewed our processes to help make sure this doesnt happen again.
Denise Iserloth told the station that the clinic notified her about 10 hours after her children, ages 8 and 11, had received 20 micrograms of vaccine instead of the recommended 10. Both children were home sick Monday with bad stomach aches, she said.
We would have assumed that there was more in place to prevent this from happening, but obviously at this place there wasnt, said her husband, Shawn Iserloth.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients who receive a vaccine with an incorrect dose may experience more arm soreness, fatigue, headache, or a fever.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told KGO-TV that children were given higher vaccine doses in clinical trials and showed no ill effects.
It was a celebratory weekend for Terra James, owner of Hello Baby.
The business owner officially cut ribbon and welcomed the community into her new store front at 509 Broadway.
She spent Friday afternoon surrounded by family, friends, supporters and other local leaders and busines professionals with plenty of hugs as they chatted outside and some browsed the inventory inside. Those in attendance included the buildings previous owners.
Before James purchased the building in 2020 and began the long process of making renovations to get it ready for her inventory, the building was vacant for at least 33 years. Its owners had used it as more of a storage space and it had no running water since 2012.
She boldly looked up their address when she was looking to move her business to a bigger space and showed up knocking one day to ask if theyd sell it. To her surprise and delight they said yes.
The past year and a half has been spent bringing the building up to code and making plans that culminated into this moment on Friday just in time for the weekends downtown holiday showcase as local businesses prep for the holiday shopping season.
Her new store includes lots of kids clothing and toys and books and baby items, along with a few other surprises.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) The body of a woman was recovered from one of the mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall in the Pacific coast Canadian province of British Columbia, authorities said Tuesday.
Police said search and rescue personnel were continuing to look for other possible victims from Monday's slides.
David MacKenzie, the Pemberton District Search and Rescue manager, said his team came across seven vehicles at the slide site on Highway 99 near the town of Lillooet and police were trying to determine if there were any other bodies.
It is a significant amount of debris. It makes it very difficult for our search crews. The mud is up to their waist. I can't recall our team being involved in anything like this in the past," he said.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said the total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for had not yet been confirmed. She said investigators had received reports of two other people who were missing but added that other motorists might have been buried in the slide.
Jonathan Gormick, spokesman for the Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team, said that while the roadway had been cleared of potentially trapped vehicles or people, they would now be searching the slides debris field.
About 300 people spent Sunday night in their vehicles and were helicoptered to safety Monday.
Elsewhere in the province, Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said impassable highways were creating havoc in his city as police and firefighters tried to get people to evacuation centers.
It breaks my heart to see whats going on in our city," Braun said.
Sunny skies followed two days of torrential storms that dumped the typical amount of rain that the city gets in all of November, but the mayor said the water was still rising and Highway 1 would be cut shut down for some time.
Braun said he was worried about getting enough information from officials in Washington state about water levels that have risen dramatically from the overflowing Nooksack River and over the Sumas dike.
When are we going to crest? When is it going to level off here? Its like a full cup of coffee. Once its full, it keeps flowing over the sides,' he said.
Abbotsford Police Chief Mike Serr said officers removed some people from the roofs of cars awash in flood waters Monday night but left some motorists in semi-trucks because they were higher above the water.
I was out there last night. You could not see where the side of the road was. We had one member put on a life-jacket and swim out towards a car that was overturned to bring someone back. And that was on a regular basis for about two hours, Serr said.
About 1,100 homes had been evacuated in Abbotsford, adding to others in various parts of British Columbia, including in Merritt, where the entire town of 7,000 people was forced to leave after the sanitation system failed.
Multiple roadways have been closed because of flooding or landslides, including sections of Highway 1A, Highway 3, Highway 5, Highway 11, Highway 12 and Highway 91.
British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said provincial Cabinet ministers would meet Wednesday to consider declaring a provincewide state of emergency. He said supplies like food, cots and blankets were being delivered to the town of Hope, which is supporting nearly 1,100 people forced from their homes.
Im extremely concerned about the situation in British Columbia right now and what hundreds of families are going through, thousands are people are affected across the province by these extreme weather events, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
___
Associated Press writer Jim Morris reported this story in Vancouver and AP writer Rob Gillies contributed from Toronto.
WARWICK, R.I. (AP) A COVID-19 cluster that prompted a Rhode Island high school to move to remote classes for a week may be tied to a recent homecoming dance, health officials said.
Pilgrim High School in Warwick started remote classes on Monday, about a week after the dance.
Roughly 25 cases among students and staff have been identified, state Department of Health spokesperson Joseph Wendelken told WPRI-TV. Those individuals could have had many exposures, but more than half reported attending the homecoming dance.
The health department will offer coronavirus testing to all students and staff at the school on Wednesday.
Thanksgiving is next week, the Warwick School Department said in an email to the school community on Monday. We know you want to spend time with family and friends. Please take advantage of this opportunity to get tested to ensure safe holidays for everyone.
Health officials also recommended limiting contact with others and monitoring for symptoms.
Cases across the state have been rising for the past few weeks, Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said at a news conference Tuesday.
The state's latest positivity rate is higher than 5% and the 516 new coronavirus infections reported Tuesday is the highest single-day case count since early April.
With Thanksgiving and associated gatherings just about a week away, she urged residents to take precautions to stop further spread, including testing, vaccinations and mask wearing.
Increases like this are not surprising, Alexander-Scott said. They remind us that the delta strain of COVID-19 continues to require active approaches to prevent transmission."
Gov. Daniel McKee urged people eligible for booster shots to get them.
VATICAN CITY (AP) Defense lawyers in the Vaticans fraud and extortion trial accused prosecutors on Wednesday of defying a court order by withholding pieces of evidence including an alleged interrogation of Pope Francis as the pontiffs own role in a flawed London property investment again came before the court.
The president of the Vatican City State tribunal, Giuseppe Pignatone, said he would rule Dec. 1 on a new defense request to throw out the indictment. Pignatone has already nullified several charges against some defendants because of prosecutorial errors.
Its clear we need more time before starting. If we manage to start, Pignatone told the court.
The trial concerns the Secretariat of States 350 million euro investment in a luxury London property development, much of it funded with donations from the faithful. Vatican prosecutors have accused Italian brokers and Vatican officials of defrauding the Holy See in the deal, and of extorting the Vatican of 15 million euros to acquire control of the property.
Prosecutors have indicted 10 people, including a cardinal, on a range of charges, although the trial is proceeding against only six of them for now while prosecutors redo their investigation for the others.
Defense attorneys have argued that their ability to defend their clients had been harmed by the prosecutors refusal to turn over key pieces of evidence, including videotaped recordings of their interrogations with a key suspect-turned-star witness, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca.
Perlasca was the Vatican official most intimately involved in the London deal and signed all the contracts with the brokers. He was initially under investigation, but in August 2020 he began cooperating with prosecutors who then removed him as a suspect.
Prosecutors deposited the Perlasca tapes with the tribunal on Nov. 3, after initially refusing a court order. But the tapes contained several cuts, which the prosecutors said were necessary for investigative reasons.
Defense attorneys cried foul on Wednesday, demanding that the prosecutors abide fully with Pignatones order on July 29, and repeated on Oct. 6, to provide the full tapes. Attorney Fabio Viglione, representing Cardinal Angelo Becciu, accused prosecutors of mutilating" the evidence.
Attorney Luigi Panella, representing the Vaticans longtime money manager in the case, accused prosecutors of making unjustifiable cuts and noted that there's no provision in the Vaticans procedural law to edit evidence.
Panella submitted to the court a report from a technical expert who reviewed the taped material and found that the metadata for some of the interrogation files was missing. For those that contained the metadata showing modifications made to the tape, as much as an hour of testimony had been cut, the report stated.
The lawyer also cited an April 29, 2020 interrogation of Perlasca in which there is no mention in the written summary that Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi challenged Perlasca on his version of events by saying he heard a different version from the pope. Diddi's claim suggested contacts with the pope that were never transcribed or provided to the defense.
Before doing what were doing, we went to the Holy Father and we asked him what happened, Diddi told Perlasca, according to the videotape transcript. Diddi later said his office never interrogated the pontiff and that the reference was to the pope's public statements.
Diddi also strongly defended the decision to edit the tapes to preserve the secrecy of what he said were newly started investigations and accused the defense lawyers of making much ado about nothing."
The issue, however, points to Francis own role in the Vatican's negotiations with broker Gianluigi Torzi, who is accused of extorting the Holy See of 15 million euros to get control of the London building.
Perlasca, according to the transcript, told Diddi that the pope had authorized Vatican officials to negotiate an exit deal with Torzi. Other witnesses have said the same, and even the Secretariat of State's chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, has suggested the pope indicated the Vatican should negotiate with Torzi and not try to sue him.
In a memo to prosecutors obtained earlier by The Associated Press, Pena Parra said Francis had made clear by November 2018 that he wanted to lose as little money as possible to finally secure ownership of the building and turn the page and start over.
After realizing that Torzi actually controlled the building and based on Francis desire to move forward, Pena Parra said the Vatican had two choices: sue Torzi or pay him off for the 1,000 voting shares that he owned.
Between these two options, with the advice of lawyers and experts, option No. 2 was chosen because it was considered more economical, with more contained risks and in a more manageable time frame, wrote Pena Parra, who is not a suspect. It also simply aligned with the desire of the Superior, a reference to Francis.
During Perlasca's interrogation, Diddi insisted the pope never authorized anyone to negotiate an exit payment for Torzi, cutting the monsignor off repeatedly amid a heated argument, according to the transcript.
This story that the Holy Father told someone to negotiate is neither in the heavens nor on Earth, and fortunately the documents converge toward this conclusion," Diddi insisted. And to claim that there was a negotiation with Torzi because the Holy Father told you to really screams of vendetta."
The latest COVID-19 data released by the Plainview-Hale County Health Department show two more deaths reported over the weekend.
The deaths include a woman who was 61 or older and a male in the 0-20 age bracket. The death of the younger individual marks the first one reported in that particular age group in Hale County since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the data, both individuals are reflected in numbers for Plainview bringing the citys death total up to 149 since the Health Department began reporting the data in March 2020. Collectively, Hale County has had 171 reported deaths.
The latest data, reported through 5 p.m. Monday, also shows 21 new reported recoveries and 27 new reported cases across the county.
Of the newest cases, 25 were reported in Plainview and two in Petersburg.
The report also highlights an expanded population count of those eligible to receive a COVID vaccine. It reflects the addition of the 5-11 age group approved last week to receive doses.
There are 31,152 individuals 5 years old and older who are eligible to receive a vaccine. According to the data, 14,063 (45.15%) have received at least one dose and 12,617 (40.50%) have received a full vaccination series.
The county has had 8,082 reported cases since the Health Department began gathering data in 2020.
In the proud lineage of American fast food, fast casual Mexican dining does not predate Taco Cabana (Taco Bell was formed in the 1960s after all). However in San Antonio, where Taco Cabana originated, residents have formative memories of mining the salsa station at the hot pink local chain. Since the first location opened doors on the corner of San Pedro and Hildebrand in 1978, around 165 more locations have cropped up across Texas and New Mexico.
While no longer embracing a Barbie-esque color scheme, the original restaurant is still in operation. When it comes to successful fast food chains, I've always been curious about the blueprint restaurant. What were the conditions that lead the popular establishment to first catch fire? How much has that formula been altered with each copy of the restaurant prototype?
Camille Sauers/MySA
These are questions that can only attempt to find answers for after a visit.
Lucky for me, the original location is just a short drive away from my office (kitchen table) so when lunch time came around, I decided to dine in to soak up the authentic Taco Cabana experience.
While it is a far cry from the best Mexican food joint in town, on a personal level, Taco Cabana is a comforting local watering hole. I ordered one of the old classics, a chicken quesadilla with a side of chips and queso. Chips at Taco Cabana are comparable to the McDonalds fry. Their Sprite, alive and flavorful, also gives the Burger behemoth a run for its money.
I feasted in the inviting atmosphere of the covered patio, one of the features that makes subsequent Taco Cabanas genuinely nice places to dine and can be attributed to its success. At the original, the floor is lined with red brick. Seating is a collection of picnic tables and tin square tables commemorating the beer, Corona. Other factors that distinguish the chain is their cheap beer and margarita service. Now, they even sell the tequila cocktails to-go.
Camille Sauers/MySA
Before Felix Stehling and his wife Billie Jo, the chain founders, began operations in the late '70s. The original lot contained an old burger stand, and was used for overflow parking for the Stehling's nearby bar, the Crystal Pistol. After some success, the restaurant began operating 24 hours (something that most locations no longer do) and gradually expanded. By 1990, now under the watch of new president Richard Cervera, the company began to extend their reach into New Mexico. In the early '90s, Taco Cabana absorbed Houston-based imitator, Two-Pesos, after winning a trade dress lawsuit against them.
They were an unstoppable force.
Camille Sauers/MySA
Ten years later, in the year 2000, the company was acquired by the Carrols Restaurant Corporation (the same group that owns Burger King). Under new leadership, they continued to develop and experiment with different offerings and designs. By 2012, Carrols decided to split their business, with all Mexican-inspired restaurants moving under the company Fiesta Restaurant Group.
Just this year, Yadav Enterprises acquired the chain in a reported $85 million dollar deal, which Fiesta opted to sell to focus on the development of its Caribbean fare-inspired Pollo Tropical chain. The news came after Fiesta Restaurant Group opted to close 19 underperforming locations across Texas. During 2020, revenue generated by Taco Cabana went down nearly 20 percent, a sharp drop after a years-long steady decline.
Is the recent mass closure indicative of Taco Cabana's departure from its heyday and winning formula? Or can it simply be attributed to the pandemic. With a rising national trend of increased awareness of health and nutrition and increasingly competitive markets, is it also a testament to a departure from America's glory days of fast food?
During my lunch, I was one of three Taco Cabana diners, along with two men also on their lunch breaks. My meal did not disappoint, and I made a mental note to return to the scene on another occasion for an evening beer.
As someone who grew up near where the chain got its start, I will never fully lose a sense of loyalty. Is it my first choice for drive-thru Mexican food? Absolutely not. As a San Antonian, will I continue to drop in from time to time, whenever that special nostalgic feeling strikes? Absolutely.
After nearly two years of pandemic-related hiatuses and outright shutdowns, San Antonio is enjoying in a new era of food happenings.If you've felt like there's been an influx in restaurant opening news in recent months, you're not alone we've felt it too.
From revolving sushi bars to Sinaloa-style rolls, Mediterranean food to Caribbean cuisine, there's a lot to keep track of. So, we rounded up a list of upcoming spots that have generated buzz lately.
Some openings are familiar to San Antonio's food scene, like the growing El Remedio, Jerk Shack, Cullum's Attaboy, Sari Sari, and Box Street. Others, like Kura, Kerbey Lane Cafe, and Chick'nCone are adding the Alamo City to their locations map.
Fill your plate on what's to come with help from the list below.
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images
Kura operates hundreds of restaurants with revolving sushi bars in Japan, and approximately 30 in the U.S. By spring 2022, San Antonio will be included on the Kura map. News of the San Antonio location first broke in June, but a timeframe for opening had not been revealed until earlier this month. Kura will be located at the Alamo Quarry Market in the space where Papouli's Greek Grill.
Courtesy, GiantNoise
The Pearl will welcome a Mediterranean grill house called Ladino, a new concept by Austin-based Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, next year. It will be led by executive chef Berty Richter and offer a mix of Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine. The menu will include "freshly made pita and other regional specialties," including mezze and vegetables. Ladino will be located in the spot which formerly housed Il Sogno Osteria, which closed in 2018.
Courtesy, Joshua and Martha Palacios
When El Remedio owner Joshua Palacios originally announced in August that he was rolling out a sushi extension of his food truck empire, he expected it to be another restaurant on wheels. Now months down the road, Palacios along with wife and Remedio co-owner Martha Palacios, are officially opening their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Stone Oak. The new restaurant will serve about 10 types of rolls as well as traditional Mexican plates. The full-scale restaurant will also have a full bar and banda bands will also be regularly invited to perform to round out the party.
Chick'nCone
The Pennsylvania-based franchise is known for handheld chicken and waffles. Owners of the chain were not immediately available to return requests for comment, but the Chick'nCone website notes the brand, is "rapidly expanding." A new filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation shows a Chick'nCone project registered at 223 E Hildebrand Avenue with a April 2022 completion date
Mike Sutter /Staff file photo
The original Jerk Shack location at 117 Matyear closed in September, but the nationally acclaimed restaurant is still growing. Jerk Shack is moving further north to 10234 State Highway 151. The new build is expected to open in December. The Jerk Shack is also opening a downtown restaurant at Hemisfair though an opening date for that location is unclear.
Courtesy, Chris Cullum
Cullum's Attaboy is reemerging with a brick and mortar location at 111 Kings Court. The cozy spot previously housed NOLA Brunch and Beignets, which moved into new digs at 720 E Mistletoe in February. Owner Chris Cullum tells MySA the city may recognize the name for his popular burger concept. Prior to acquiring the Kings Court space, Cullum would serve juicy smash-style burgers from an Airstream trailer sometimes parked outside Cullum's Attagirl, Attaboy's sister restaurant. Cullum says having a dedicated space and kitchen gives Attaboy room to add more menu items.
Courtesy, The Box Street Social
Chef-owner Edward Garcia says the pandemic stalled Box Street's original opening in spring 2020, but he and co-owner Daniel Trevino, are still bringing the restaurant to Hemisfair '68, the mixed-use development near the Tower of the Americas. Garcia and Trevino took the time to rethink the design in response to the pandemic with the help of Caroline Garcia-Bowman. The restaurant, which Garcia describes as having a "coastal" feel, will be able to seat 100 people outdoors and another 100 inside.
The chef jokes that it'll be the perfect atmosphere for a "third or fourth date," one that's laid back, but still impressive. Menu items will have an average price of $12.
Courtesy, Chris Leal/@shufflebang
Sari-Sari Supper Club is slated to open near Highway 151 and Military in the fall and will be an extension of the original Sari Sari, a Filipino restaurant at 5700 Wurzbach Road. In the meantime, owners Adrian and Camille De Los Reyes are hosting precursor events at the Wurzbach location to give fans a taste of the experience.
Katie Friel for MySA
The landmark restaurant that's a favorite of the Austin area, with outposts in Round Rock and an upcoming location teased as "coming soon" to San Marcos, is planning a San Antonio debut. Public filings show the San Antonio restaurant is planned for 5515 N Loop 1604 W, near Velvet Taco and Andretti Indoor Karting and Games.
Courtesy, Maverick Restaurant Group
San Antonio diners will meet Allora and Arrosta, two sister concepts by celebrated restaurateur Peter Selig, soon. Selig's San Antonio culinary career includes Biga on the Banks, Acenar, and Maverick Texas Brasserie.
Allora, described as a sophisticated, "stylish, full-service coastal Italian restaurant," will have one of the city's largest spaces for al fresco dining on the ground-level of the Credit Human building at 1703 Broadway. Arrosta, the "fast-casual cafe or tavola calda," will be in the adjacent Oxbow building at 1803 Broadway.
Courtesy, Naco Mexican Eatery
An exact grand opening date has not been revealed, but the restaurant is expected to open at Los Patios, an oasis of event space and offices tucked in the woods near Salado Creek, in the fall, according to a news release. Husband-wife duo Francisco Estrada and Lizzeth Martinez started the concept more than three years ago as a food truck. Naco's focus on authentic Mexican street eats, such as traditional tortas and chilaquiles, earned the business multiple food awards in the city.
Much of the menu that made Naco popular will carry into the restaurant when it opens. There will also be a few new offerings, like all-day chilaquiles with new sauce options, including almond mole; eggs Benedict topped with brisket and huitlacoche; and Mexican-inspired croissants with guava and cheese.
Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com
After three decades in the downtown area, Tomatillo's, a San Antonio staple for Tex-Mex eats, has officially moved to the far Northside. MySA previously reported the location change in September. On Tuesday, the new era of Tomatillo's started with a grand opening celebration.
Tomatillo's served its last enchilada plate at its original location at 3210 Broadway location on Sunday, September 26. Its new digs can be found at 1827 N Loop 1604 E, Suite 103, which previously housed Sam's Boat.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) A prominent Philadelphia labor leader convicted in a federal public corruption case is resigning from his posts atop the city's electricians' union and an umbrella council of building trades unions.
John Dougherty resigned as business manager of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union said Tuesday, ending his nearly three-decade tenure at its helm. He plans to resign as business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Maybe it wanted a Klondike Bar.
A large bear opened the door of a 7-Eleven store in Tahoe's Olympic Valley near Palisades resort with his paw this week and casually walked into the store, putting his two front legs up on a freezer at the door.
The furry beast never made it to the ice cream aisle, but the animal showed its manners by triggering the hand sanitizer dispenser with its snout and keeping 6 feet distance.
TikTok user @fmunna83pk took video of the incident, with a woman in the background screaming "get out," and the footage posted on Nov. 14 has received more than 1.2 million hearts and more than 55,000 comments.
Even 7-Eleven, the American chain of convenience stores, hopped into the comments and joked, "he wants a blue raspBEARy Slurpee."
The store at 3041 River Road confirmed the animal has been spotted multiple times in the parking lot but had never been inside. No one was harmed and animal control was called, but the store said the bear ran away before officials arrived.
Kevin Thomas, a regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the bear has an ear tag on it, which means it has been captured and marked during one of the efforts over the past few years to trap and tag bears in the Tahoe Basin.
"The behavior is not typical of wild bears," Thomas wrote in an email. "It is a learned behavior from pursuing human food sources rather than foraging in the wild. Lake Tahoe has a robust bear population and they often interact with homes and businesses in search of food. Once they get a taste of human food it can be difficult to reverse the behavior. Part of the trap/tag/haze effort we operate is to try and recondition those bears to pursue natural food sources."
Bears in the Tahoe Basin are known for their antics, and over the years, the animals have learned they can come down from higher elevations and find food in the towns and neighborhoods. Unsecured dumpsters are a favorite, but sometimes they also break into cars and enter residences and stores.
Another Tahoe bear made headlines in 2020 by entering a Safeway store and feasting in the produce aisle. The same bear was also spotted in a convenience store at a nearby gas station stuffing candy into its mouth.
Peter Tira, an information officer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said fall is a time of year when bears are actively seeking food and people should be extra vigilant about not leaving food in cars or out in cabins.
"This is a time of year when Tahoe bears are undergoing a physiological change," Tira explained. "They are in eating overdrive, fattening up for winter and hibernation. It's nature's way of preparing them for winter. Were seeing lots of bears breaking into cars. Folks have to be vigilant on their properties, campsites and cars. Its a time when bears are out actively out foraging aggressively."
If you're visiting Tahoe and concerned about bears, read SFGATE Tahoe editor Julie Brown's story on "things you should know about bears."
Amanda Edwards/WireImage
Heath Freeman, most known for his role as Howard Epps on Bones, has died at age 41 at his Austin home.
Freeman's manager Joe S. Montifiore confirmed his November 16 death in a statement to PEOPLE.
Nicholas Alan Cope/Getty Images
The Texas district where an administrator was caught on tape suggesting teachers offer books with "opposing views" on the Holocaust wants to now ban secret recordings. One board member also proposed applying the rule to students, according to NBC News.
NBC News reporter Mike Hixenbaugh tweeted about the new policy from Carroll Independent School District on Monday, November 15. He notes the update comes one month after NBC News broke the story about the secret audio, which the outlet obtained from a staff member. The district is in Southlake, near Dallas-Fort Worth.
Texas is well-known as a income-tax-free haven. It's likely one of the reasons why Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk, the world's richest person, decided to move to Tesla's headquarters from California, which has the the highest income tax in the country, to Austin, Texas. However, it's not the only way the mega-rich like Musk can maximize their wealth by minimizing their taxes in the Lone Star State.
Billionaires like Mark Cuban and Michael Dell already call Texas home. It's one of nine states, along with Florida, Tennessee and Washington (where Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos currently reside) without a state income tax. "Compared to California, which has one of the highest state and local tax burdens, Texas presents significant advantages for high income people," wrote Ray Perryman, president and CEO of Waco-based economic research and analysis firm The Perryman Group.
Texas has one of the lowest state and local tax burdens in America. It also has no state estate or inheritance tax, while 16 states including Iowa, Kentucky and Maryland have at least one or both policies. Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for Every Texan, says high-end homes in Texas also tend to be under-appraised for tax purposes.
"Texas does not require disclosure of the sales price at which real estate changes hands," Lavine wrote in an email. "All but 12 states have some form of disclosure." Large commercial and industrial properties in Texas also tend to be under-appraised, he adds. "In addition to lack of disclosure, large firms often abuse 'equal and uniform' appeals to lower their appraisal to the 'median value of comparable properties,' regardless of actual market value."
Last week, Musk sold nearly $7 billion worth of his electric car company's shares upon receiving approval from the majority of his 62.5 million Twitter followers in a Nov. 6 poll on the social media platform. "I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere," Musk tweeted on Nov. 6. "I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock."
Some of the shares were sold to satisfy a looming tax bill of more than $15 billion next year, associated with the exercising of stock options, according to Tech Crunch. The contracts, which came from a stock option award Musk received in 2012, were set to expire in August of next year, meaning he would need to exercise them before then, according to Time. Exercises of such contracts trigger income taxes, which usually are covered by immediately disposing of some of the newly acquired shares.
Lisa De Simone, an accounting professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, says its very likely that California will at least partially tax Musk for the exercise of his options. Musk's options are likely non-qualified, De Simone explains, meaning Musk would be taxed on the difference between the value of the stock at the date of the exercise and how much the option allows him to pay for the stock. California asserts the right to tax as wage income the difference between the price of stock at the date you exercise and the price you are able to pay the option, De Simone says.
Musk admitted in June that he will still need to pay California income taxes despite moving to Texas last year. "The fact that Musk has moved to Texas just means that California would pro-rate the income between California and Texas based on days worked in each state in the period from the date of the grant of the options to the date of the exercise," De Simone wrote. "Further, they might challenge when Musk officially became a Texas versus California resident, which would allow them to tax more of that income."
Lavine also notes that Texas' general franchise tax a privilege tax imposed on taxable entity formed or organized in Texas or doing business in Texas, is a unique form of modified gross receipts tax that can favor certain business sectors, compared to the corporate income tax imposed by most states.
"Texas can attract businesses based on its reputation as a low-regulation state, especially as compared to California," De Simone wrote in an email. And because the state's lack of individual income tax, "a Texan doesn't have to close any 'loopholes.' In contrast, California's Franchise Tax Board has a reputation for strictly policing its tax laws to prevent taxpayers from taking advantage of any 'loopholes.'"
Texans, wealthy or not, still pay a variety of taxes at the state and local level in the form of property and sales taxes, Perryman says. Owners of expensive homes and other real estate bear a particularly large part of the tax burden. "Having said that," Perryman wrote, "the property taxes on even a very luxurious home are minuscule compared to the taxes on an income that reaches into the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars."
Perryman adds sales taxes, in comparison, are "regressive" and fall more heavily on lower income individuals who spend a high percentage of their earnings each year. The state's tax structure has placed a heavy reliance on property taxes as well as certain aspects of corporate franchise taxation. However, Perryman says the state presents substantial financial advantages compared to California and other states.
"While the businesses taxes in Texas are not always competitive, particularly for capital-intensive firms, the state has highly effective incentive programs to overcome some of this disadvantage," Perryman wrote. "As far as individuals are concerned, Texas is a very good place to be rich."
Courtesy of Ron Bauml / Conservation Society of San Antonio
For the first time in nearly 50 years, an iconic King William property is hitting the market for $3.975 million. Since 1974, the 6,000-square-foot, Italianate-style house at 107 King William Street has served as the headquarters for the Conservation Society of San Antonio. Now, the organization is selling the property, citing the city's "crazy market" in an interview with the Express-News.
The emphasis really is just more like, hey, this is a crazy market, better now than if we wait, executive director Vincent Michael tells the Express-News of the decision to sell and relocate.
This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1330 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, more original reporting.
Mask Up When Dressing Deer, State Health Officials Urge Hunters Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch
No verdict after daylong deliberations by Rittenhouse jury AP
JPMorgan Fights Tesla Over Warrants Bloomberg. Commentary:
Fun fact: had $TSLA honored its contractual obligations to $JPM and reported the proper quarterly losses, it would not have been eligible to join the S&P 500. https://t.co/UwTXQYdPWP PlainSite (@PlainSite) November 16, 2021
Oh Great, Theyre Filming Porn Inside Teslas on Autopilot Futurism. Subscription-based funding model for Elons Mars trip. No, dont thank me.
Vancouver is now completely cut off from the rest of Canada by road Kelowna Now. Flooding and mudslides.
COP26/Climate
#COVID19
China?
Australian War Propaganda Keeps Getting Crazier Caitlin Johnstone
Myanmar
Vietnam bidding to power a regional battery storage revolution Globe_
Fourth Wave | The Pandemic in Vietnam Vietnam Coracle
India
Syraqistan
UK/EU
New Cold War
Biden Administration
Supply Chain
LAffaire Joffrey Epstein
Imperial Collapse Watch
Shadow Wars Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News
Class Warfare
New mineral davemaoite discovered inside a diamond from Earths mantle New Scientist. Named after [wait for it] Dave Mao.
Boaty McBoatface:
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the new #Boulder snowplow names as chosen by local K-5 students: Snowie
Snow Gobbler
Mighty One
Happy Tracks
Super Scooper
Frosting
Plowzer
Plower Power
Darth Blader
Ice Blade Mitchell Byars (@mitchellbyars) November 16, 2021
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote. The light at the end of the tunnel:
Why you shouldnt hang out at the end of railway tunnels pic.twitter.com/Lhlc9lDOPd Daniel Moser (@_dmoser) November 13, 2021
See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Yves here. I know some Americans who were keen about sending their children to uni, as Commonwealth types are wont to call it, out of the belief that they are still engaged in education, as opposed to providing credentialing and networking opportunities. Sadly in German schools, like their American counterparts, more and more actual teaching work is done by overworked casual staff, as cookie-cutter approaches also result in scholarship has falling by the wayside. The authors explain why the McDonaldizataion charge sticks.
By Thomas Klikauer , who teaches MBAs and supervises PhDs at the Sydney Graduate School of Management, Western Sydney University, and writes for a variety of publications His next book is on Media Capitalism (Palgrave). Meg Young is a Sydney Financial Accountant.
Germanys universities employ about 760,000 people. Among them are 49,000 professors and other academics. For Germanys peak trade union body, the DGB, the university, TU Berlin undertook a study on working conditions of German academics and general staff. They asked staff working at Germanys 201 universities of Applied Science (Fachhochschule), 108 universities, 52 art colleges, 30 colleges for government, administration, and bureaucracy, 16 religious colleges, and six colleges dedicated to education. In short, Germanys higher education sector encompasses 413 institutions.
For their study, TU Berlin used a whopping 11,000 online questionnaires in which, 5,700 were returned from academics and 4,800 from general staff. 31 universities and 24 Fachhochschulen were included. Survey returns were split 50/50 among men and women.
Virtually, the same can be said for full-time and part time employment roughly 50% of each group returned their survey. Yet, the most disturbing figure out of the entire survey is the fact that, a staggering 78% of all employees at Germanys higher education sector are casual staff which means, only 22% are in full-time employment.
In other words, the McDonaldization of German higher education is in a very advanced stage. Next to McDonaldizations four core elements efficiency, calculability, predictability/standardization, and control the casualization of a workforce, is yet another clear indicator of the advancement of McDonaldization. Academics are no longer excluded from this, even when 62% of German academics employed in higher education hold a Masters Degree and 34% hold a PhD. High levels of educational achievement is no longer a protection for McDonaldization, casualization, and the infamous precariat.
Yet, compared to academics, the casualization of work is at a much lower level when it comes to general staff. Compared to the overall number of employees at Germanys higher education sector, the situation is actually reversed. Just 16% of all admin workers are casuals. In other words, 84% of workers in IT, administration, the library, etc. are employed on a permanent contract-basis. In short, many academics are casuals while most admin staff is permanent. Unlike them, academics have experienced a significant level of casualization a global phenomenon. This impacts on the quality of work that the academics do.
To measure the quality of work, TU Berlins survey relies on a scale that roughly follows the marking guide of many universities: below 50 = fail; 51-to-65 = pass; 66-to-80 = good; and 81-to-100 = outstanding. Measured on this scale, academics see their working conditions as 65 (pass/good). Meanwhile, work stress receives only 59 (pass) indicating that work at universities is stressful.
Worse, German academics have noticed an increase in work intensification only giving it 39 (fail) which is way below the pass mark of 50. What ranks consistently high is the intrinsic value of work at a university (83 points). German academics think that their work still adds value to society. Overall, they also note an unsatisfactory level of rewards, for which it only receives a pass (61).
Things are worse for general staff. When asked, is your work emotionally demanding?University workers only gave the mark 47 a straight fail. Worse, work intensification receiving only 34. In other words, working conditions for general staff are getting poorer. Further, not much better marks are given to wages, which also received a straight fail mark (41).
Again, workers rankedintrinsic values to receive the high mark of 84. The idea of work having an intrinsic value describes that work is valuable on its own. Work has value for its own sake. Work has value in-itself, as German philosopherKantwould call it. Ranking theintrinsic valueof work so high, most academics and general staff find working in higher education positive and contribute to society. Unlike Graebers Bullshit Jobs, most German academics believed that their work contributes to the common good.
Workers in general administration see work intensification at even worse levels, giving the amount of work they have to cover, a mark of 32 which, again, is way below the pass mark of 50. Similarly, workers in IT, etc. and in libraries, see the amount of work that they are forced to cover as not much better (36 and 27 respectively). In other words, most university workers experience an intensification of work. Work, in general, is intensified at German universities.
Things are worse particularly for young academics, 78% of those are employed on short-term contracts. By comparison, the overall number of German workers on short-term contracts was 8% in 2018. Working on a short-term contract can add stress to the daily job. The stress and negative outcomes of this have been expressed by a worker saying,
I find it a burden that so many contracts at my university, and in particular in my department, are for a limited period of time. It is not conducive to collegial cooperation and the mood in the team and at the university. Knowledge and resources are lost again and again when employees leave the university sometimes after a very short time. The quality of work suffers and the motivation in the team decreases.
Hard numbers support this view. Among the project-based academics, a massive 97% are employed on a short-term contract. Even young professors (Juniorprofessoren) suffer this fate (89%). Yet, general staff is largely excluded from the project-based McDonaldization of Germanys higher education sector. Only 16% of administration staff works on short-term contracts, 11% of IT, etc., and just 9% of librarians are employed on short-term contracts.
Yet, employment on short-term contracts declines with age. While 98% of project-based workers below the age of thirty are on short-term contracts, between 31 and 40 years of age, it declines slightly to 85%. Aged between 41 and 50, still half of all employees work on short-term contracts. Between 51 and 60, it declines to 21% and it declines further (18%) for those older than 60. In other words, although employment on short-term contracts declines with age, it still remains a significant form of employment for academic workers at German universities.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there is a substantial amount of employment that is based on a specific research project. These run for a specific time. Secondly, short-term employment is prevalent in positions created for the purpose of achieving the next level of a qualification, such as, for example, jobs for a PhD, Post-doctoral positions, and those employed as young professors (Juniorprofessoren).
Interestingly, more than half (55.5%) of all short-term contracts are actually very short. These contracts give employment of less than one year. 21.2% of workers said, they are employed only for one to two years. Whilst 12.6% said, two to three years, and 10.7% said, more than three years. As one worker explains,
even if you are doing a job that they need and you work in a lot of projects, you only get a chain of project-based contracts. Since project-based work is on the rise and these are only financed for the duration of the project, employment contracts are getting ever shorter.
Almost self-evidently, this impacts on the job future of those employed on short-term contracts. 40% of those employed on such contracts are constantly worried about their job prospects, while 29% say, they are quite often worried. Whereas 21% are not that much worried, and 9% are never worried about their professional or academic future. In other words, almost 70% of young German academics employed on short-term contracts are anxious about their future.
This means that the McDonaldization of academic work leads to an increase of stress with regard to future job prospects. As Mark Fisher convincingly argues, there is also a close connection between rising rates of mental stress and the neo-liberal mode of capitalism. This mode has truly arrived at Germanys higher education sector.
As one might have suspected, McDonaldization and casualization also impact on working time. As a university worker stated, it is simply expected to work beyond normal working hours and there is no control mechanism that can stop it. While most employees in the area of general administration work between 35 and 40 hours per week, many academics on short-term contracts work more than 40 hours per week (46.2%) even though, their contract states less than the actual working time.
For example, workers employed on a 20-hour contract tend to work 31.3 hours per week. One worker testified to this, working time is recorded via a timesheet. But what a lying log. This hides the considerable additional work we do. This work is not recorded. Worse, it largely depends on the goodwill of your line supervisor to be compensated for the additional work you do.
The aforementioned junior-professors tend to work significantly longer hours than their contracts specify. The same applies to young academics on short-term contracts, to those employed in a PhD programme, and to those working in a job linked to a post-doctoral programme.
Yet, when it comes to general staff, there is no recognisable difference in the amount of weekly overtime that is worked between those employed in IT, in general administration, and in the library. There is also no difference between those on long-term and those on short-term contracts.
Most academics say they work long hours because of demands by senior management, 67% work long hours to engage with their research. And, 51% say they work long hours because it is fun to work. Interestingly, nobody (0%) said they work long hours because of the money. Wages are usually fixed in a contract, meaning salaries do not increase with working longer hours. Virtually, the same applies to general staff. Yet, 74% say they are expected to work longer hours to cover the work load. Similar to academics, only 1% said they do it for the money. In short, people who work at a university are not motivated by money.
Yet, another area that does not contribute to motivating people to work at German universities is the lack of what is called a work-life balance. One fifth of workers in Germanys higher education sector experience problems to balance work and life almost all the time (19%). Meanwhile, roughly 1/3 or 36% say they experience problems balancing work and life on a regular basis. Most already know that women suffer from this more than men. The German survey supports this. The lack of a work-life balance is made worse by an ever increasing intensification of work. A worker noted,
I am a long-time employee of the university. Over the past few years, the volume of work has become more and more. This is neither honoured in our remuneration, nor by my superiors. Being overloaded with work has already made me sick. Im glad if I somehow manage to get my retirement. I will be even more glad on the day when I no longer have to enter this joint.
This statement is supported by the fact that, the report found five issuesthat increased work stress and the amount of work that employees in Germanys higher education sector are forced to do:
Time pressure: How often does one feel so stressed at work and is put under time pressure; Quality of Work: How often does it happen that you are forced to compromise the quality of your work in order to get the work done; Interruptions: How often does it happen that you are disturbed or interrupted at your work (e.g. technical issues, telephone calls, colleagues, etc.); Missing information: How often does it happen that you are not given the information you need to do your job; and finally, Irreconcilable requirements: How often do you have competing requirements that are difficult or impossible to reconcile with each other.
On the aforementioned scale that starts with 50 (a pass mark), the average mark given by workers at German university was 33. This is substantially below the pass mark. This negative assessment is distributed rather evenly between academics and general staff. Work intensification is recognisably independent whether one is an academic, or one works in administration, IT, the library or elsewhere. Surprisingly, the issue of work intensification fared slightly better among young academics on short-term contracts (mark: 39) compared to junior professors which only gave the mark 28.
Worse, a stratospheric 76% said that they experience time pressure almost all the time. Meanwhile, 17% said they do so quite often. This leads to a lowering of quality aiding the infamous dumbing down of universities.This further aids the McDonaldization of academic work at universities. All too often, this is also signified by the casualization of academics. Many young academics are forced to move from one project to the next, and from the one short-term contract to the next short-term contract.
Of course, this impacts rather negatively on the future prospect of young academics. As one academic said, I am a young academic. The uncertainty due to temporary contracts that alternate with periods of unemployment creates a serious psychological burden on me. I know that insecurity will ultimately lead to a very low retirement income. Indeed, 22% of university workers are to a high degree convinced that their retirement fund will be insufficient. Only 35% believe that their retirement fund will enable them to retire comfortably.
Overall, there are two serious issues that German workers in the higher education sector face. The first is the rampant job insecurity which comes as a result of the high prevalence of short-term contracts aligned to project-based employment. And, the second issue is an ever increasing level of work intensification. On the latter, a worker noted,
Like many of my colleagues, I have two part-time jobs. The stress, pressure, and workload corresponds to two full-time positions. Since my employment is short-term, the fear of losing one of the two jobs or even both, is immensely high. If I were to lose even one job, I would no longer be able to cover my living expenses. Sometimes, I get an extension for half a year, sometimes for a whole year. It never lets me rest. I can never plan a vacation or be sure that I will still be able to pay my rent.
And another worker said often, I see that in academia, we suffer greatly from a high staff turnover. There is no continuity in teaching and research. Many of my colleagues would like to carry on working in the academic field, but they do not even get a chance. In my opinion, this gross maladministration leads to the fact that many talented workers (have to) move to jobs in industry since the prospects for permanent employment are extremely low.
Finally, Germany is widely known for its high quality research leading to two Nobel Prizes just in the year of 2021. Yet, behind the shiny facade of Germanys research and science institutions lurks a rather different picture.
Germanys higher education sector is plagued by almost pathological levels of deteriorating working conditions. There is an increase in work intensification. Worse, many young academics are beset by short-term contracts leading to work stress, job insecurity and what is known as the McDonaldization of work.
This has become so bad that working at a German university today might best be described by the term Academentia. The term Academentia combines academia (post-secondary education) with dementia (progressive impairments to memory, thinking and behaviour which negatively impacts on a persons ability to function). In short, Academentia describes a state of organisational insanity in which, academics can no longer function as scholars. This has progressed to serious levels.
My position with Nashville Post has evolved since 2000 when I began work with the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister pub in 2008 (when I began some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have worked mainly with the Post since late 2011.
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(Natural News) You have probably heard of the arms race, but have you heard of the vaccines race? There is one taking place right this moment, and the United States is desperately trying to win.
The goal is to inject as many people, including young children, as possible for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) as quickly as possible science be damned. Meanwhile, other countries are taking a more precautionary approach.
In Mexico, for instance, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will not be held hostage by vaccine corporations. He added that his country has no plans to inject anyone under the age of 18, except for those considered to be at risk.
Many African countries are following suit by moving as slowly as possible, waiting for Americas outcome to become apparent before moving any further almost as if they know something is not quite right with all of this.
Conversely, Colombia, Argentina and China appear to be competing with the U.S. to see which country can vaccinate the most children as quickly as possible. These three countries are said to be jabbing children as young as three years old for Chinese Germs.
Fox News shills for Fauci and the vaccine industry, pushing unproven jabs on children
Fox News, a known propaganda outlet that routinely shills for the pharmaceutical industry, is of course siding with Fauci.
The fake news outlet claims that trials and real-life experience show that Fauci Flu shots provide significant protection against the Wuhan Flu. There is zero science to back this, though.
Fox also says that children should get injected for Chinese Germs not to protect themselves but to protect older people with whom they come into contact while infected and the broader population.
Fox further alleges that getting children jabbed at warp speed will help restore some normalcy to schools and reduce quarantines.
Many governments have now decided that the upside further reducing the minor risk of so-called long Covid and other consequences of the disease in children, and curbing the spread of the virus in the population outweighs the risks of rare side effects, the fake news giant further says.
Reading all this is like reading CNN, which just goes to show that Fox is no different than any other mainstream media network when it comes to pushing Big Pharma lies on the masses.
Children have an almost zero risk of getting sick and dying from a positive test result, and yet Fox goes on in its shill piece to try to scare parents into believing that they should be scared about their children catching the alleged virus.
Since many European countries have halted their covid jab programs, Fox describes them as falling behind while the U.S. moves ahead, again using arms race-type language to describe all of this like some kind of competition.
Its way past time for mask mandates and vaccine mandates to be over, wrote one Fox commenter in apparent disagreement with the articles claims. Everyone who wanted a shot got one and is protected from the virus. Those that didnt get a shot but had the virus are naturally protected.
Those that didnt get the shot and didnt have the virus have made their decision, this same commenter added. There is no logical reason why those that have been vaccinated still need to be protected by mandates that force those who do not want or need the vaccine to take the jab.
Another wrote that it is high time for all the pro-mask and pro-jab mayors and governors to be fully investigated to see what kind of financial ties they have with these vaccines.
The latest news about Chinese Virus injection deception can be found at Fascism.news.
Sources for this article include:
FoxNews.com
Naturalnews.com
(Natural News) A black militant threatened parents opposed to anti-white brainwashing in public schools at a school board meeting in Fort Worth, Texas by telling them hes got 1,000 soldiers ready to go and theyre going to come back locked and loaded.
(Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com)
Pro-critical race theory activist Malikk Austin tells Fort Worth parents that he has "over 1,000 soldiers ready to go" and that they will come "locked and loaded" to the next meeting. Austin is a former member of the The Brotherhood black militia group.pic.twitter.com/X1pspzsXvM Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) November 15, 2021
If the @FBI and @TheJusticeDept do not launch an immediate investigation, it proves that Garland's actions were purely politicalan attempt to protect the teachers unions and silence, intimidate, and smear anti-critical race theory parents. He should resign. Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) November 15, 2021
From Fox News:
In the Fort Worth Independent School District board meeting on Nov. 9, Malikk Austin turned to address the parents who had spoken up about critical race theory. For those who got an issue with this critical race theory equity, this is something I fight for, for my children, Austin, who is African American, began. How dare you come out here and talk about the things that my daddy and my grandparents went through, the lynching, the oppression, Jim Crow, and my kids are still being afflicted by this. We are not our ancestors, Austin added. I got over 1,000 soldiers ready to go.
Full comments (embed starts at 34:22):
The Daily Mail reported Austins Facebook page indicates that Austin is a member of The Brotherhood Movement, but a spokesperson for the group told DailyMail.com that he has moved on from the organization.
The Brotherhood Movement is a black militant group known for holding armed marches through the streets.
Conservative activist Carlos Turcios, who shared video of Austins threats on Twitter, also posted a video of FWISD Superintendent Kent P. Scribner praising himself for pushing anti-white CRT brainwashing on students.
FWISD Superintendent Scribner is embedding CRT and wokeism in every department in Fort Worth. He is also the same Superintendent who allowed a Far Leftist to threaten parents at the Nov 10 Board meeting. His endorsement of CRT breeds chaos. Resign! pic.twitter.com/5PVrWp0H9o Carlos Turcios (@Carlos__Turcios) November 12, 2021
If Austin was a white militant who went to a school board meeting in Dallas and threatened black parents that he has over 1,000 soldiers ready to go and they were going to come back locked and loaded, he would have been raided by the FBI and thrown in prison in under 24 hours.
It has been nearly a week and were only finding out about this story now thanks to Turcios tagging Rufo and others on Twitter to get the story some attention!
I guess Merrick Garland is too busy organizing terroristic raids on Project Veritas for the crime of doing journalism to lift a finger!
Read more at: InformationLiberation.com
(Natural News) The term died suddenly saw a spike in searches in recent months, a disconcerting trend that appears to show a rise in sudden deaths related to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination efforts.
It can be seen using Googles news search and trends tool, which allows users to see the trending or popular web terms and searches.
By typing died suddenly, the search engine brings up a lot of worrisome lists of people who have suddenly died of unexpected or unexplained causes, often attributed to pulmonary or coronary issues both of which are side effects of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
These sudden deaths are believed to be correlated to the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines and mandates. A YouTube video producer also compiled data across several countries showing a sharp rise in deaths just as governments started rolling out the experimental vaccines. (Related: Death by vaccine The greatest scandal of 21st century.)
More vaccinated people are dying of COVID
There are also data from several states and the federal government showing that death among fully vaccinated Americans rose sharply amidst a recent surge of infections, but experts say this is not unexpected as more of the population become immunized.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that the cumulative count for breakthrough deaths jumped 51 percent between October 11 and October 18, which conservatives and vaccine skeptics pointed out to be a drastic increase to bolster arguments against mandatory vaccination policies.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that 40 percent of deaths in the said week were of vaccinated individuals. Stop vaccine mandates and forced masking, she added.
However, the CDC said that breakthrough data is not collected in real-time and it can take several weeks for a case to be reported, so the change does not represent a sudden week-to-week increase in deaths. The page-tracking breakthrough deaths also only include data from 16 state and local health departments and are not representative of the exact count of U.S. cases at any given time.
In other parts of the world, Dr. Hamza Duygu from Near East University Hospital in Northern Cyprus said that there is no connection between sudden deaths and vaccines. He noted that there are mostly heart-related diseases behind the sudden deaths encountered in recent days.
On the contrary, the rate of development of heart muscle or pericardium inflammation in people with COVID-19 infection is around three to five percent. It is also a fact that sudden deaths are seen after COVID infection and most of them are due to cardiac involvement, and scientific studies on the subject are continuing he said.
Therefore, the risk of sudden death does not exist in those who have been vaccinated, on the contrary, in those who have had a COVID infection. In line with these scientific data, the public should not have any hesitation about vaccination.
In England, if death is certified by a coroner, the Coroners Court will follow legal rules of evidence in deciding the causes of death.
For the vaccine to be mentioned on the death certificate, the medical professional certifying the death must have believed, to the best of their knowledge, that the vaccine caused the death. But this information will take longer to come through as deaths can take several months to be registered if investigated by a coroner.
Meanwhile, doctors are required by law to certify the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief, which means they have to use their medical expertise to decide the cause of death based on symptoms, physical examination, hospital records, laboratory tests and other information available.
Read more at Pandemic.news.
Sources include:
InfoWars.com
NBCMontana.com
NearEastHospital.com
Blog.ONS.gov.uk
(Natural News) A team of six experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency is meeting with Japanese officials to discuss the technical details of the planned release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Many farmers in the area have been expressing concerns that the release will have a negative impact on prices just as they have started to recover from the original disaster.
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), and the Japanese government announced this spring that they would start releasing radioactive water in 2023 so that hundreds of storage tanks filled with the contaminated water can be removed to make space for the facilities needed to decommission the plant. There are currently around a thousand tanks standing 12 meters tall on the site that each contain enough radioactive water to fill up 500 Olympic-sized pools. TEPCO, which has already paid out $105 billion in damages related to the crisis, has said that it will compensate for damages stemming from the release of the water.
The plan has been vehemently opposed by farmers, fishermen, area residents and nearby countries such as South Korea and China.
Japan asked the IAEA for assistance to ensure that the plant discharge is meeting international safety standards, and they are also hoping to improve the international communitys response to the plans. The team of experts will be visiting the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and a larger mission from the IAEA is expected to arrive in Japan next month.
Last week, Koichi Hagiuda, Japans Economy And Industry Minister, announced that the country will be transparent in reporting the results of the IAEAs reviews to the international community. Meanwhile, fish samples taken from the Fukushima coast are being tested as part of a routine review by a different IAEA task force on water testing; an expert from South Korea was part of the team.
The problems began when a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the nuclear plants cooling systems in 2011, spurring the meltdown of a trio of reactors. Significant amounts of water that was used to cool the radioactive reactor cores have been leaking extensively, and the tanks being used to contain it are about to reach their capacity.
Farmers worry about how release will affect produce prices
More than a million tons of contaminated water will be released into the Pacific Ocean roughly a kilometer off the coast of where the plant is located after being treated using a process that will remove most of the radioactive contamination. One radioactive isotope, tritium, cannot be removed but will be diluted to one seventh of the guidelines established by the World Health Organization for drinking water.
This has prompted concerns by farmers that consumers fears of contaminated produce will affect prices, unraveling ten years of slow recovery from the disaster.
It comes at a time when prices are finally returning to normal following a significant decline in the wake of the disaster. Produce that comes from Fukushima is subjected to multiple checks for radioactivity. Farmers are screening their produce before shipping it out, and the prefecture also carries out its own regular tests.
The area is a significant producer of pears, producing 13,000 tons of them last year, and is the countrys fourth biggest source of one of its most popular fruits. Although farmers are hoping that consumers will be comforted by the safety and testing measures that they have in place to ensure their pears are safe, consumers are expected to be wary of the fruit.
Sources for this article include:
Producer.com
USNews.com
(Natural News) Fake television doctor and treasonous criminal Tony Fauci is finally admitting that the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines he pushed so hard for Americans to take are both worthless and deadly. His solution, however, is to get even more of them in the form of booster shots.
On November 12, Fauci appeared on an episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily to discuss his upset over the fact that half of America refuses to get any of the jabs from Operation Warp Speed.
As it becomes increasingly apparent that the injections are not stopping the spread and are, in fact, fueling it Fauci says that people can expect so-called breakthrough infections to accelerate.
They are seeing a waning of immunity not only against infection but against hospitalization and to some extent death, which is starting to now involve all age groups, Fauci rambled, referencing data out of Israel showing that the jabs simply are not working.
It isnt just the elderly. Its waning to the point that 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.
One would think that based on this new information, Fauci would be urging an immediate halt to his jab push in the interest of public safety. Instead, Fauci wants people to line up to get more injections, which he claims will flatten the curve.
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, Fauci stated.
I think that the boosting is gonna be an absolutely essential component of our response, not a bonus, not a luxury, but an absolute essential part of the program.
Branch Covidians call for Americans to self-determine whether or not they need booster shots
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are apparently not moving fast enough for Fauci and others like him in approving booster jabs, some states like California and Colorado are sidestepping the agencies and doing whatever they want.
Tomas J. Aragon, the director and state public health officer for Californias Department of Public Health, wrote a letter on November 9 to local health providers urging them to ignore the science and expand booster eligibility to all adults.
Allow patients to self-determine their risk of exposure, Aragon emphasized, the suggestion being that doctors, pharmacists and even the federal government need to step away and let every Branch Covidian who wants them to get as many mix-and-match boosters as they want.
Do not turn a patient away who is requesting a booster, Aragon added.
Fauci agrees, having declared two days later that booster shots are safe and effective and dramatically increas[e] 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.
As a caveat, Fauci threw in his opinion that the original vaccines still work, even though they clearly do not. He then played verbal gymnastics to try to sound science-y and smart.
Weve given the full rein to prove what it is that you need to make them work, Fauci rattled on nonsensically about the boosters.
The latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine genocide and Faucis role in perpetrating mass death on humanity can be found at Genocide.news.
Sources for this article include:
Yahoo.com
NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Biden administrations verbal commitment to freedom of the press is now being called into doubt by critics after an incident in which the private home of Project Veritas founder James OKeefe was raided by the FBI.
(Article by James Anthony republished from ThePostMillenial.com)
On Saturday at 6am, FBI agents showed up armed with a battering ram at the personal home of OKeefe. They handcuffed him while he was still in his underwear. Then, they executed the search warrant which resulted in agents seizing two cell phones belonging to him.
The whole incident was sparked by the alleged theft of a diary which belonged to Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden, according to Politico. Project Veritas maintains that the document was given to them, but they never used it as the basis for any reporting, and turned the diary over to the appropriate authorities.
OKeefes legal team is fighting back now. They have obtained a stay of the investigation on Thursday from a US District Court judge, and are further requesting an expert third party be appointed to oversee the FBIs handling of the information contained on the phones, manifesting that there are confidential communications with sources.
An OKeefe attorney commented, The Department of Justices use of a search warrant to seize a reporters notes and work product violates decades of established Supreme Court precedent.
University of Minnesota professor Jane Kirtley, who used to head the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, stated:
Im not a big fan of Project Veritas, but this is just over the top. I hope they get a serious reprimand from the court because I think this is just wrong.
President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have previously expressed a strong verbal commitment to respect the freedom of the press, but so far, according to critics and in the light of the above, it appears that they are falling very short of backing up their promises in the real world.
Read more at: ThePostMillenial.com
(Natural News) Israel held a drill on Thursday, Nov. 11, to test its readiness for future outbreaks of more lethal Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) post-vaccine variants.
With over 64 percent of the population fully vaccinated and 44 percent having received booster doses, Israel is one of the most fully vaccinated countries on the planet. (Related: Covid doesnt even exist in fully normal Sweden, while deaths are skyrocketing in fully vaccinated Israel.)
The nationwide drill, held in the format of a war game, was called the Omega Exercise by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett has regularly used the term omega strain to refer to a yet-to-be-discovered variant of COVID-19.
We are starting an unprecedented event here not only on an Israeli scale but on a global level. We are conducting a war exercise to prepare for a new variant that does not even exist yet, said Bennett in a statement.
The most threatening thing is not the current situation, but what we do not know yet. Just as the delta strain suddenly and violently erupted, other more deadly and more contagious vaccine-resistant variants could arrive.
Bennett held the Omega Exercise at the headquarters of the National Management Center, in a nuclear bunker in Jerusalem that was reportedly built to shield the government against attacks from Palestinian or Iranian militants.
With Bennett in the bunker were multiple government ministry director generals, representatives from professional agencies, the national coronavirus project manager, the director of Israels Public Health Services, at least one member of parliament and multiple representatives from the Israeli military.
Omega Exercise tests Israels disaster preparedness
Bennett warned that the world is still in danger of future outbreaks. He failed to point out that these outbreaks will most likely be due to the COVID-19 vaccines.
While the situation of coronavirus in the world is deteriorating, Israel is safe and protected, he claimed in a statement. In order to maintain this, and to safeguard the continuity of normal life, we must continue to closely monitor the situation and prepare for any scenario.
The Omega Exercise, war-gamed over three sessions to simulate the passage of time in Israel after the beginning of a new outbreak, tested the resilience of the countrys public health systems. These are the systems that determine the level of lockdown, monitor the spread of post-vaccine COVID-19 variants, offer economic support for citizens, enforce quarantines and keep an eye on the countrys border crossings.
The goal of the war games was also to figure out a way for Israel to deal with a new COVID-19 outbreak without economically sanctioning its citizens. Bennett said that the country dealt with the post-vaccine delta outbreak without lockdowns and it could do so again with proper management.
The government is going to evaluate the preparedness of the country in terms of public health, economic health, internal security, travel and communications.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said assessment of the results of the war game will proceed immediately as soon as they conclude. The results of the war games will help the government craft specific policies for how to handle potential spreaders of the coronavirus such as tourism, public gatherings and other events.
The war games were conducted around the same time the government approved giving COVID-19 vaccines to children aged five to 11. The countrys Ministry of Health is set to begin its mass vaccination campaign on that age group as soon as the country receives the doses from Pfizer.
There is no reason to leave our children defenseless, said Bennett from the nuclear bunker after the government announced the mass vaccination campaign. There is no reason why a child should infect, and be infected, by others and, under certain conditions, also deal with the side effects of long COVID, a series of difficult phenomena, when their entire lives are yet before them.
I call on parents, vaccinate your children, he continued. Safeguard them. Give them the same layer of protection that you have.
About half of all new cases of COVID-19 in Israel are occurring in children aged 12 and under. These children were most likely infected by their vaccinated parents and other older relatives.
Learn more about how highly vaccinated countries like Israel are preparing for the consequences of their mass vaccination programs at Pandemic.news.
Sources include:
Bloomberg.com
NYTimes.com
JPost.com
SCMP.com
WIONews.com
JewishJournal.com
(Natural News) The town of Oroville, California, has declared itself a constitutional republic following over a year of restrictive coronavirus lockdowns and mandates in the state.
(Article by Abby Liebing republished from WesternJournal.com)
The bold move comes after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that will extend parts of his March 4, 2020, emergency proclamation powers until March 31, 2022.
According to the East Bay Times, Oroville responded to the extension by declaring that it will not enforce any executive orders issued by the state of California or by the United States federal government that are overreaching or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights.
The resolution was passed with a six to one vote at the citys Nov. 2 council meeting.
With all of these emergencies and leaders declaring emergencies it puts one person in charge and they can do pretty much what they want even when the emergency is no longer an immediate threat, they are reluctant to give up that power, Oroville Mayor Chuck Reynolds said.
The town has had concerns about the mandates and changes that keep being enacted in California, especially with regard to COVID-19.
Councilman Dave Pittman pointed out that the measures the state government is trying to impose often infringe on personal rights and local governance.
Pittman particularly had concerns over things like the state and federal mask and vaccine mandates, Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules that are always changing, the California Housing and Community Development department rules and more.
We stand by and believe in our constitution; our republic and we believe that many times others in state and federal government are exceeding their authority across the board in everything we do, Pittman said.
Mandates eliminate personal right of choice to get vaccinated or not, to vaccinate your kids or not and violate basic constitutional choice we all have.
The town has made it very clear, however, that it is not promoting anarchy.
This mandate is not saying we are against laws or for anarchy, Scott Thomson, Orovilles vice mayor told KOVR-TV. Were not talking about one mandate thats been pushed on us recently Its a barrage of mandates.
But not everyone in the town is supportive of this declaration.
Liza West is a resident who opposes the new measure that Oroville is taking.
I think that we all believe in applying the law and agree in following the law, and this is just ridiculous, West told KOVR.
There are also questions regarding the legality of the resolution that the town council has adopted.
Lisa Pruitt, a rural law expert at the University of California, Davis, said the resolution was a bit unclear and that it does not necessarily shield the town from following federal and state laws.
A municipality cannot unilaterally declare itself not subject to the laws of the state of California. Whatever they mean by constitutional republic you cant say hocus pocus and make it happen, Pruitt said, according to The Guardian.
Pruitt is right, but lest anyone forget, the mandates that Newsom keeps issuing are not law. They are mandates. That is all.
What Oroville is opting out of are not laws. The town is choosing to not follow executive orders, which do not have the same legal force behind them.
The council members who supported the resolution are not incorrect in their assessment that Californias mandates are an absolute overreach of power.
Particularly now that battles are being fought over vaccine mandates, this is becoming clearer than ever. And Oroville town councilmen are not the only ones who are growing resistant in California.
In Los Angeles County, Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced in October that he would refuse to enforce the vaccine mandate with his department and workers, according to NPR. Why? If he did, he could lose 5, 10% of my workforce overnight.
There are many other stories of individuals throughout California who are resistant to the vaccine mandate.
Portions of the police and fire departments in Los Angeles are pushing back against the mandate, according to the Los Angeles Times.
One worker in the Department of Health Care Services told The New York Times, Nobody should mandate somebody else to inject poison into their body Theres not enough research on this vaccine.
That is the issue. The state is trying to mandate personal decisions. That is overreach.
The citys officials noted Oroville was not quick to pull the trigger on this resolution.
I proposed it after 18 months of increasingly intrusive executive mandates and what I felt to be excessive overreach by our government, Thomson said, according to The Guardian.
After the failed recall in California, our state governor seems to [be] on a rampage and the mandates are getting more intrusive. Now hes going after our kids and schools.
No matter what the varying opinions on Ororvilles resolution may be, at the very least, the city is trying to make a public statement about the overreach in state and federal government that is happening. And its officials are trying to protect their own community.
The American culture and way of life is being challenged at its very core and perverted by radicalized politicians who have forgotten that, as a republic, the power belongs to the people, Thomson said in comments on the resolution, Fox News reported.
Whether its California, the U.S. government or any other governmental body, no one should have the power to force people to do things that are, in essence, their personal choice.
Oroville is just trying to protect that right at a local level.
Read more at: WesternJournal.com
(Natural News) Actors Kevin Sorbo and John Schneider shared how they woke up from Hollywood brainwashing during the Nov. 11 episode of America Unhinged with host John Diamond on Brighteon.TV.
Sorbo first gained popularity through the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, where he played the title character. Meanwhile, Schneider was well-known to American audiences as Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard.
Unfortunately, Sorbo fell victim to Hollywood cancel culture because of his conservative and pro-life views. He said during an April 2021 interview: Youve got to be ready to bite your lip more than ever in the climate thats going on in America [and] in the world, because youve got this woke thing.
[We also got] this cancel culture where people are coming after you, and it can tear you down for something you said 30 years ago, which is insane to me. What does it say in the Bible? He without sin [should] cast the first stone,' Sorbo added.
The Hercules stars cancellation served as a blessing in disguise. Sorbo told Diamond: Hollywood pretty much booted me out, [so] I sort of [dived] into this world [of] doing movies with more of a positive attitude. I started doing more movies that had a positive message, because you see a lot of [bad] stuff come out of Hollywood, he told Diamond. Look, Im not a prude in any way but Im looking at some of these movies [and] I dont want my kids watching this stuff.
According to Sorbo, the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has awakened people about what is happening in the world.
I think the one blessing in COVID [is that] weve woken up millions of people across the country [and] the world to realize whats going on with government overstretching [its] boundaries, whats going on with our public schools [and] everything. So were working on the good fight right now, Sorbo said.
I dont want to wake up the sheep. I want to wake up the lions; we need to wake up the lions out there. Thatll [cause a] domino effect. Because people [have] got to stop being cowed into living in a world of fear. We need to start waking up, fighting the good fight, and not be afraid.
The Hercules star said he will keep on doing what he needs to do. Hollywood canceled me because I came out of that box. They scream for tolerance and free speech, but its a one-way street for them. (Related: An actor with a soul: Kevin Sorbo says Abortion is the definition of EVIL.)
John Schneider: Hollywood is a propaganda machine
Diamond said: We need to take back Hollywood. We need to understand that Hollywood is not just making movies. They are intentionally trying to change peoples minds and control a narrative because a lot of people wont watch the news [and] theyre not in school anymore, so they still got to have ways to influence people.
Schneider agreed with the Brighteon.TV host. He said: You know folks, Hollywood is a propaganda machine. As long as you agree with the propaganda, then its OK. However, it has been unpoliced for a very long time under the guise of freedom of speech. So now, theyve been allowed for the last couple of decades to run with whatever sort of message they want to run with and no one dares challenge them.
He and Diamond also touched on cancel culture, which Sorbo also experienced. Back in July 2020, Schneider defended The Dukes of Hazzard from woke leftist attacks. Calls to cancel the program occurred amid Black Lives Matter protests calling for Confederate icons to be removed across the country. (Related: Warner Bros. pursues revisionist history to remove Confederate flag from Dukes of Hazzard car.)
Leftists wanted to cancel the show for having a Confederate flag painted on the General Lee the Dukes trademark vehicle. I have never had an African American come up to me and have any problem with it whatsoever. The whole politically correct generation has gotten way out of hand, Schneider said at the time.
Diamond pointed out that celebrities who choose to make movies that carry pro-faith, pro-family and pro-America themes often find themselves on the receiving end of cancel culture. I know this [Hollywood] blackballing now has happened with people like Kevin Sorbo, Mel Gibson and anybody that does anything even remotely positive about the founding of this nation and where we go, he said.
But just like Sorbo, the Dukes of Hazzard star said being canceled is a blessing in disguise. He said: Whats happening is people are no longer allowing you to play in a sandbox that you have no business to be in any way. But when you are canceled from this lunacy, I would get on my knees and thank God that I no longer have to try to comply with things I disagree with.
Im not someone who has ever been malleable. Im not someone who has ever believed in compliance, or even compromise. I believe [people] were put here by God for a very specific reason that only they know. I dont know what your purpose is. I have a lifetime to figure out and work toward mine. I dont have time to get involved in your design.
Being canceled shouldnt be a surprise, because they know that any light can eliminate darkness, right? You cannot overpower light. You cant put darkness into light to eliminate it. However, you can put a little bit of light in darkness and eliminate it all together.
Watch the full Nov. 11 episode of America Unhinged with Kevin Sorbo and John Schneider at the video below. Tune in to America Unhinged with John Diamond from Monday to Friday at 9-10 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.
Awakening.news has more articles about celebrities breaking free of the Hollywood brainwashing.
Sources include:
Brighteon.com
BoundingIntoComics.com
NYPost.com
(Natural News) Texas physician and pastor Dr. Stella Immanuel on Thursday, Nov. 11, joined the Health Ranger Report on Brighteon.TV to denounce the attacks against her by the Houston Chronicle.
She told the Health Ranger Mike Adams that the newspapers smear campaign will not dissuade her from prescribing more effective cures for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Health Ranger described Immanuel as one of the most important voices spearheading this fight for humanity to take down the demonic, destructive forces trying to deny us treatments that work. Adams continued that the powers that be are trying to destroy doctors opting to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), two widely suppressed COVID-19 cures.
They will only let you practice medicine in America if you agree to murder people in the hospitals. Thats what it has come to in this country its an extraordinary situation. Its a crime against humanity, its medical genocide, he said.
Immanuel, who also hosts The Dr. Stella Immanuel Show on Brighteon.TV, said: We cant relent, we cant stop because there are forces out there that want to stop anything that can overcome the fear [of COVID-19]. Because you see their whole goal is to get all of humanity terrified [and] scared to die. And then they can convince everybody to get this gene-editing jab.
We have a lot of people that were taking care of. We have doctors [and] pharmacists in all 50 states, [yet] we are fighting these [medical] boards. But you see, that is not even a big deal because there is no medical board that can tell us we cannot prescribe a medication off-label, she added.
Immanuel said that when she and other doctors would prescribe HCQ and IVM, leftist pharmacists who work at drugstore chains would often report physicians prescribing the two drugs. The Texas Medical Board (TMB) slapped her with corrective action including a $500 fine and an admonishment telling her to give patients a more extensive disclaimer and consent form when prescribing.
Immanuel remains unfazed despite attacks by Big Pharma operatives
The Texas physician added that Houston Chronicle reporter Julian Gill wrote an article about her upon finding out TMBs move. The way he makes [his article] sound, what this does is that doctors that have been thinking about taking care of patients, theyre [going to] be like Oh my God, Dr. Immanuel is being attacked [and theres] trouble with her license,' she said.
Gill wrote about the doctors sanction in a Nov. 1 article for the paper. His article alleged that Immanuel prescribed HCQ to a patient who had COVID-19 without adequately explaining the health consequences. Gill also noted that COVID-19 patients who took HCQ experienced no meaningful benefit from it. (Related: Media in Big Pharmas pocket, attacks physicians who promote cheap, effective, early treatment options for COVID-19.)
Immanuel clarified that her license was never compromised by the TMBs corrective action. She told Adams: This is not a big deal at all. [TMB] did their job. They have to investigate every complaint that comes through, and they did their job; they were gracious. I gave them the paperwork they needed, [and] they concluded that I didnt do anything wrong. All I needed to do was upgrade my consent form to what they think we should use, [and] thats fine well do that.
I dont know [who] Gill is. [Maybe hes] one of those people that want to increase fear-mongering among Texans. When they run this, their whole idea is to intimidate doctors that want to see patients. Things like this dont stop me. Im in this fight to win it, Im in this fight for the American people.
What is wrong with [the] Houston Chronicle and Gill? Do they hate people? Do they want people to die? Because [Gill] cannot be in the hospital killing people, he can be outside trying to intimidate me and [other] doctors? Heck no.
The Health Ranger said the newspaper is part of media outlets controlled by Big Pharma. Adams said: The Houston Chronicle is just like USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and so on. They are part of the pharma-controlled media. Their narratives are written for them by Big Pharma they are given a script and told what to write. (Related: Big Pharma vaccine billionaire just bought the LA Times yet another example of the media being run by pharma.)
Now, these reporters who write these hit pieces try to attack doctors like yourself and people like myself. These so-called journalists trade their souls for a paycheck, while theyre claiming that you are the problem. But you know, Gods going to dish out the consequences for all of this, he added.
Watch the full Nov. 11 episode of the Health Ranger Report with Dr. Stella Immanuel below. Health Ranger Report with Mike Adams airs every weekday afternoon at 3-3:30 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.
NewsCartels.com has more articles about Big Pharma-controlled reporters smearing Dr. Stella Immanuel and other physicians.
Sources include:
Brighteon.com
HoustonChronicle.com
(Natural News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled some 2.2 million Ellume at-home COVID-19 test kits due to a manufacturing defect that causes false positive results. The firm first informed the regulatory agency about the defect in October.
Ellume is the first company to get FDA approval for over-the-counter COVID tests. The defective test kits were manufactured between February 24 and August 11. The recall of the 2.2 million test kits is an expansion of last months recall of 200,000 kits for the same reason.
False positive results indicate that a person has contracted the virus that causes COVID-19 when they actually have not. The FDA noted that these false positives could lead to delayed diagnosis or treatment for the actual cause of the persons illness, which could be a different life-threatening disease other than COVID-19. They may also receive unnecessary COVID-19 treatment from a health care provider, which may result in adverse effects.
Another problem that the FDA pointed out is the isolation, including monitoring household members or close contacts for symptoms, limiting contact with family and friends and missing work or school.
Due to the severity of the issue, the FDA said it is being identified as a Class I recall, or the most serious type, as these tests may cause serious adverse health consequences or death. The antigen test detects proteins from the virus from a nasal sample and is available without prescription for use by individuals aged two and older. The kit comes with an analyzer that connects to a smartphone app to show users how to perform the test and understand the results.
The Biden administration signed a $231 million deal with the company, which received approval to produce its test under the Trump administration last year. In October, Ellume Chief Executive, Dr. Sean Parsons said that the company created more safeguards to ensure that the problem does not happen again.
Im very sorry that this has happened. Were all about chasing accuracy, and to have these false positives is disappointing, he said. (Related: Australian COVID-19 test kit manufacturer recalls 195,000 at-home kits due to high rate of false positives.)
A spokesperson added that the root cause of the issue has been identified and that the company is already on the way to shipping new products to the United States.
Consumers encouraged to contact health care providers
Consumers who received positive results within the last two weeks using the Ellume test kits are encouraged to contact their health care providers despite the fact that the incidence of false positives is limited to specific lots, according to Parsons.
The FDA is continuing to work with Ellume to assess the companys corrective actions, such as additional manufacturing checks and other corrective steps, to address the reason for the manufacturing issue, and to help ensure that it is resolved and will not recur, the agency said.
The recall comes at a time when it is not easy to find at-home tests in the country. Many pharmacies are out of stock or have expensive brands available some costing about $24 per pair, which is an expensive outlay for those who need frequent testing.
While many would like to test for COVID-19 at home, the shortages and costs mean that many check their health status only when traveling or attending special events. However, this could change in the next few months as the Biden administration announced its $1 billion investment to expand the supply of such test kits.
Get more news related to COVID-19 at Pandemic.news.
Sources include:
TheEpochTimes.com
CBSNews.com
Edition.CNN.com
(Natural News) Dr. Scott Atlas, a former member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, criticized the supposed experts who shaped the Trump administrations response at the onset of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) last year.
Atlas accused National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield of forcing their tunnel vision upon the Trump administration.
In Atlas new book, A Plague Upon Our House, he said that Fauci, Birx and Redfield refused to consider all options in dealing with the pandemic.
Atlas wrote that when he presented compelling data suggesting that schools should be reopened and that children were not major factors in the spread of the virus, neither Fauci nor Birx brought up the adverse effects of school closures.
Atlas wrote that he seemed to be the only person on the team who considered all the facts before forming theories.
Data no good for Fauci, Birx and Redfield
When the others on the task force reacted to Atlas concerns, their comments were hostile.
Birx claimed Atlas was out of the mainstream and part of a fringe group that wanted schools to reopen, wrote Atlas. Despite her claims, the latter insisted that all experts agreed with her.
According to an excerpt from the book, Atlas couldnt believe what Birx was saying because world-renowned epidemiologists like Martin Kulldorff from Harvard, Sunetra Gupta and Carl Heneghan from Oxford and Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannidis from Stanford all agreed with his points. He also wondered if either Birx or Fauci had ever read a single publication by these experts.
In the book, Atlas also talked about how he presented detailed information about the spread of the virus through children.
He wrote that children were unlikely to spread the disease to adults and that children themselves were in little danger of catching it.
Others on the White House Coronavirus Task Force pushed for school closures despite the data showing that almost all coronavirus transmissions to children come from adults, not the other way around. (Related: Dr. Scott Atlas: Science killed itself over COVID-19.)
Redfield, Atlas wrote, suggested that the mountain of data still wasnt enough. Atlas was frustrated at Redfields apparent lack of knowledge, and was shocked at how Redfield ignored the scientific studies by other health experts that had been published across the globe.
Trump received bad advice from top advisers
Atlas also talked about why he was against the policies that pushed lockdowns as the magic answer to stopping the virus.
Despite the many people dying from COVID-19, it was obvious that the lockdown policies werent preventing deaths in the United States. Atlas wrote that shutting down society after millions had been infected by a very contagious virus didnt make sense.
He also pointed out how absurd it was to close all businesses and schools while forcing healthy, young people who are at little risk of getting the disease to protect the elderly by getting vaccinated.
Atlas noted that Trump was receiving bad advice from his top advisers. The task force allowed Fauci and Birx to tell governors to prolong the lockdowns and school closures and continue the severe restrictions on businesses, all of which didnt stop the elderly from dying and prevent the increase in recorded infections.
Worse, lockdowns and school closures only destroyed families and sacrificed children, wrote Atlas. At the time, Trumps closest advisers were more focused on politics, which led to the task force giving the wrong advice, contrary to the presidents desire to reopen schools and businesses.
Because of the bad advice, the White House was giving out dangerous and confusing mixed messaging, said Atlas. He resigned in November, shortly before his term was due to end.
Go to Pandemic.news to learn more about the governments failed attempts to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources include:
WesternJournal.com
FoxNews.com
DailyMail.co.uk
(Natural News) The Calaveras Unified School District (CUSD) in California announced on November 10 that it wont follow the states Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate.
In a five to zero vote, the CUSDs Board of Trustees decided to not support, enforce or comply with the pending COVID-19 mandate. According to a post on the school districts Facebook page, the outcome was the same for both agenda items addressing students as well as staff.
The CUSD also posted a letter saying that the board is aware of the possible impacts concerning possible liability exposure, funding loss and additional formal actions that the district may face due to the decision. (Related: Anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Rally in NYC draws in thousands of supporters.)
California schoolchildren wont be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Back in October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced at a press conference that schoolchildren would be required to receive the coronavirus vaccine if their parents wanted them to attend in-person classes.
The requirement will be applied in the next term either January or July 2022, added Newsom. He also said the state government wants to see all school staff get vaccinated during the first phase of vaccination requirements involving grades seven through 12.
Newsom tweeted that parents shouldnt worry about the COVID-19 vaccine because schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more and that vaccines can help keep children safe and healthy.
Many parents commented on the CUSDs post to thank them for holding the line and standing up to Newsom. Some parents also commended the trustees for standing up for medical freedom.
At a meeting on Nov. 4, the Mark Twain Union Elementary School District (MTUESD) also announced that it wont enforce Newsoms coronavirus vaccine mandate for students in its schools. During the meeting, worried parents asked if the school district will lose government funding if they vote against the vaccine mandate.
Pfizer and Moderna now testing COVID-19 vaccines in kids younger than 5
Elementary-aged children in America are now eligible to receive a kid-sized dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine for children is about one-third of the dose for adolescents and adults.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still being tested for children ages five to 11. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already affirmed results from Pfizer showing that its two-dose shot is effective at preventing symptomatic infection in young children.
But parents who think its safe to get their children inoculated should know that the Pfizer trial had shown some post-vaccination reactions, such as soreness in the arm and fatigue.
Pfizer expects to make 19,000 shipments, or about 11 million doses, in the next several days. Millions more will be available to order on a weekly basis.
While children are less likely to suffer severe COVID-19 infections, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the delta variant infects kids and spreads just as readily as in adults.
Children who have already been infected with COVID-19 should still receive vaccinations once theyve recovered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Despite the adverse effects of the vaccine, both Pfizer and Moderna are now testing low doses of their vaccines in children younger than five years old.
Visit Resist.news for more articles about people who are willing to hold the line against vaccine mandates.
Sources include:
Breitbart.com
Facebook.com 1
Facebook.com 2
KIVITV.com
CalaverasEnterprise.com
FoxNews.com
(Natural News) During Hitlers reign of terror over Nazi Germany, officers with the Gestapo, his version of secret state police, enforced his political diktats through intimidation and murder.
He actually had a minister of propaganda, Paul Joseph Goebbels.
America doesnt have a formal propaganda minister or agency, and it doesnt have a formal secret police agency controlled by the state but that doesnt mean there isnt a ministry of propaganda or a Gestapo-like agency within the federal government.
The FBI, in recent years, has fully morphed into the American Gestapo and has become the tool of the deep state to intimidate and prosecute perceived enemies, which are mostly conservatives, libertarians and right-leaning independent thinkers. The Ministry of Propaganda has been replaced by willing participants in our mainstream media, who gleefully serve as mouthpieces for the deep state.
Witness what has happened in recent days to James OKeefe and his organization Project Veritas.
Last week, the American Gestapo was sent to roust two of his journalists before they raided his apartment near New York City investigating the alleged theft of a diary belonging to one presidential daughter, Ashley Biden. In a video following the first two raids but before his own apartment was rousted, OKeefe explained in a video that his organization was approached by tipsters last year who claimed to have obtained the diary after Ashley Biden left it in a hotel room.
He noted:
Late last year, we were approached by tipsters claiming they had a copy of Ashley Bidens diary. We had never met or heard of the tipsters. The tipsters indicated that the diary had been abandoned in a room in which Ms. Biden stayed at the time, and in which the tipsters stayed in temporarily after Ms. Biden departed the room. The tipsters indicated that the diary included explosive allegations against then-candidate, Joe Biden. The tipsters indicated that they were negotiating with a different media outlet for the payment of monies for the diary. The tipsters were represented by attorneys who handled the negotiations with Project Veritas.
We investigated the claims provided to us, as journalists do. We took steps to corroborate the authenticity of the diary. At the end of the day, we made the ethical decision that because, in part, we could not determine if the diary was real, if the diary in fact belonged to Ashley Biden, or if the contents of the diary occurred, we could not publish the diary and any part thereof. We attempted to return the diary to an attorney representing Ms. Biden, but that attorney refused to authenticate it. Project Veritas gave the diary to law enforcement to ensure it could be returned to its rightful owner. We never published it.
Interestingly, no sooner than the American Gestapo left the homes of the two Project Veritas journalists, The New York Times came a-callin and looking for a statement.
Within an hour of one of our reporters homes being secretly raided by the FBI, The New York Times, who we are currently suing for defamation, contacted the Project Veritas reporter for comment, OKeefe noted in his video. We do not know how The New York Times was aware of the execution of a search warrant at our reporters home, or the subject matter of the search warrant, as a Grand Jury investigation is secret.
The sequence of events was laid out perfectly by former One America News host Liz Wheeler.
Project Veritas sues the NYT.
The FBI raids OKeefes home.
NYT knows about raid immediately.
FBI steals OKeefes reporter notes.
NYT publishes what his notes were. This is nuts. The FBI is LEAKING OKeefes privileged info to the NYT. Helloooo deep state. Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) November 12, 2021
After the American Gestapo raided OKeefes apartment, in which agents confiscated a trove of highly confidential documents and information, the Times published another story revealing some details contained in those documents that the paper obtained fromsomeone, Legal Insurrection noted.
The documents show, for example, Project Veritas operatives concern that an operation launched in 2018 to secretly record employees at the F.B.I., Justice Department and other agencies in the hope of exposing bias against President Donald J. Trump might violate the Espionage Act the law passed at the height of World War I that has typically been used to prosecute spies, the paper reported.
How else would the Times obtain these confidential internal communications that were just confiscated by the FBI?
We dont have a functional republic anymore. That America is gone; it has been replaced by an increasingly authoritarian autocracy of ruling class versus everyone else.
Sources include:
LegalInsurrection.com
ProjectVeritas.com
NewsTarget.com
(Natural News) Georgias solution to the massive accumulation of shipping containers in the states ports is to set up temporary overflow yards inland. These impromptu container storage areas keep the flow of imports and exports at the ports moving smoothly.
On Friday, Nov. 12, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), the primary owner and operator of the states ports, announced that it was setting up temporary storage areas for shipping containers. Dubbed as the South Atlantic Supply Chain Relief Program, it will provide the state with 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of supplemental capacity. (Related: Gulf Coast ports see growth in September despite ongoing supply chain crisis.)
The first off-dock spillover yard opened on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the Norfolk Southern railroads Dillard Yard. This yard, which is less than five miles away from the port, has room for 43,200 TEUs.
The next overflow yard will be at the Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport, which is less than 50 miles to the northwest of the port. The GPA was able to reach an understanding with the Federal Aviation Administration to allow the port authority to use an unused runway strip, which can hold around 900 shipping containers.
We think this will make a huge difference for both importers and exporters as we clear out our yard, said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch in a statement.
In addition to the temporary overflow yards already established, the state has also reached agreements to open up several more spillover yards, including some in North Carolina.
Georgia authorities plan to move containers by rail
The shipping containers will be shuttled to the temporary overflow yards either by truck or by rail. The state will start shuttling containers by rail to the Husley Yard in Atlanta in December. The yard can store up to 104,000 TEUs.
To help the state transport shipping containers to Atlanta, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recently announced the completion of a new rail system. The South Atlantic Supply Chain Relief Program and the new rail system are important to resolve the supply chain issues for Georgia and the nation, said Kemp.
The rail system will help connect Port of Savannahs nine new rail tracks to the rest of the states rail network. Kemp said it is coming online at the perfect time to help address the influx of cargo crossing the docks at the Port of Savannah.
The new rail tracks allow the port to operate as many as six, 10,000-foot trains at any given time. Each train, which measures nearly two miles in length at full capacity, can carry around 350 shipping containers.
State and port authority officials invested in the new rail tracks years ago for $230 million after foreseeing that the countrys severe truck driver shortage would only get worse.
The GPAs reputation for investing in productivity enhancements well before demand increases has allowed the states ports to remain relatively free of the crushing congestion seen in other ports, notably in California.
In his speech announcing the completion of the new rail system, Kemp pointed out that the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach have more than 100 ships waiting to dock.
The state has been rewarded well for this foresight. Last month, the GPA recorded 80,000 shipping containers sitting at the terminal of the Port of Savannah. This is around 50 percent more than the average number of containers at the port, according to Lynch.
While that number has not changed much, the GPA has seen a massive 60 percent reduction in the amount of time shipping containers remain on the terminal. Last month, for the first time in the GPAs history, the authority handled more than 500,000 TEUs in a single month. The Port of Savannah processed 504,350 TEUs, an 8.7 percent increase over the same month last year.
Furthermore, the Port of Savannah has seen a 40 percent reduction in the number of ships at anchor in the past month. Last month, 30 ships were waiting in the Atlantic Ocean to dock at the port. Last week that number went down to 23. On Monday, Nov. 15, the number dropped to 18.
I think once we see that come down to 10 and into single digits, youll see us really pick up the speed as well, said Lynch.
In terms of the movement of truckers, the Port of Savannahs speed compares favorably to pre-pandemic levels. Turn times are 41 minutes for a single move and around an hour when dropping an empty container and picking up an import load.
Lynch pointed out that this productivity would not have been possible without the combined effort of state authorities, the GPA and the port workers, who have been working around the clock.
The last six months have been very challenging. Weve all been working, shoulder-to-shoulder, day and night, said Joel Wooten, GPA chairman of the board. This is the relief we needed in order to regain terminal efficiency and speed up vessel service.
The state also has a long way to go before fully resolving the heavy congestion at the port. The Port of Savannah still has 23,000 more containers on the docks than its maximum capacity.
The average import dwell time for containers is still over eight days, double the goal of four days. Exports also still have to wait nearly eight days before being loaded onto a cargo vessel, while empty containers are still sitting 16.5 days against a target of 10 days.
Bubble.news has the latest news about the congestion at Americas ports, and the difference between how blue states like California and red states like Georgia handle the crisis.
Sources include:
FreightWaves.com
SupplyChainBrain.com
Yahoo.com
(Natural News) Some groceries and supermarkets are getting creative at concealing empty shelves as the supply chain crisis continues with no end in sight.
One branch of British grocery store Co-op put bottles of brown sauce and salad dressing on refrigerated displays so customers do not find the racks empty.
A Co-op spokesperson said: Weve been impacted by some patchy disruption to our deliveries. Our teams are always trying to make sure our stores look as attractive as possible, and sometimes managers come up with creative ways of making sure shelves are full.
Other supermarkets in the U.K. opted for cardboard photos and product dummies to hide product shortages Tesco being one of them. A Guardian report said the British supermarket chain displayed cardboard photos of asparagus, carrots, oranges and grapes in the fresh produce section of some locations.
But a Tesco spokesperson clarified that the cardboard cutouts had nothing to do with the recent supply chain issues. The spokesperson explained that larger Tesco stores use pictures of grocery items for a variety of reasons, such as changing store layouts.
On the other hand, grocers like as Waitrose and Sainsburys used signs to fill empty shelves. A spokesperson for the latter said the grocer had been using signs to fill shelves devoid of products even before the supply chain issues struck.
Catherine Shuttleworth, the founder and CEO of retail consulting company Get Savvy Marketing Ltd., told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that groceries using cardboard cutouts is not a new strategy. But she noted that more shoppers have noticed it being used more frequently. (Related: Grocery stores now using PHOTOS of food to fill empty shelves like something ripped straight out of North Korea.)
US grocers not exempt from product shortages
Grocery stores across the pond, both big and small, have also borne the brunt of supply shortages. However, larger supermarkets with a bigger network of suppliers have seen more success in dealing with the supply chain issues without disrupting the shopper experience.
Retail giant Walmart told WSJ that it has diverted ships to less congested ports. It also hired 20,000 supply chain workers and automated some of its warehouse operations. Meanwhile, Kroger said it increased its safety stock of items in more than 70 categories.
In addition, the largest U.S. grocery retail chain spread out the ports it uses for importing items and sourced additional warehouse space to house extra products.
On the other hand, smaller retailers have struggled to keep their shelves full. ITalia McCarthy, general manager of Chicagos Dill Pickle Food Co-op, said she deals with incomplete or non-arriving deliveries on a daily basis. Ive had over a decade of retail experience and this is like nothing Ive experienced or seen before. We have made a huge effort in making sure were not having these huge gaps, she said.
To address the gaps, Dill Pickle filled out its cold storage section with different products, such as tofu, oat milk and soy milk. It has also altered shelving layouts to conceal any lack of product. If we see holes, well all of a sudden make our bestsellers have three or four slots rather than just one or two, McCarthy said.
Matt Santarpio, who owns Walnut Food Market, has also resorted to spreading out products throughout different shelves. The owner of the Newton, Massachusetts grocery said some items that he earlier allocated one shelf spot are now occupying two or three.
He has also left some shelves intentionally empty as a tactic designed to give customers a reason to come back. He pointed to imported candies and chocolates in his grocery as an example. While the two products have been the hardest to come by, Santarpio kept their display boxes.
For certain things, Im afraid people will come in, see if its not here and wind up not coming back for it. Keeping the box out shows Im making an effort to get them in and not giving up on them, Santarpio said. (Related: Americans are going to be absolutely shocked by the empty shelves they see.)
Grocery.news has more articles about how supermarkets are concealing the supply shortages.
Sources include:
WSJ.com
TheGuardian.com
(Natural News) Its been a long time coming and frankly, those of us in the independent media have known this for a long time years, in fact but some in the mainstream media are finally admitting that their claims about the Trump-Russia collusion story as well as the bogus Steele dossier were not just a little off, but completely wrong.
As in, major fake news wrong.
A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the documents primary source was charged with lying to the FBI, noted Axios Sara Fischer last week after special counsel John Durham indicted Igor Danchenko, a Russian national and sub-source for dossier author Christopher Steele.
Its one of the most egregious journalistic errors in modern history, and the medias response to its own mistakes has so far been tepid, she continued, adding that a reckoning has occurred at several media outlets who lets be honest were willing to publish the garbage claims against the candidate and then President Donald Trump because he was a Republican and they didnt like him.
Fox News (which frequently got the reporting on this scam correct) added:
The Washington Post corrected and removed large chunks of its own reporting on the anti-Trump Steele dossier on Friday, admitting it could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements. But other liberal news organizations including ABC News, MSNBC and CNN havent followed the Posts lead and erroneous reporting remains uncorrected.
The mainstream media used the always-unverified, now-discredited Steele dossier to paint former President Donald Trump as compromised by Russia.
Outsized coverage of the unvetted document drove a media frenzy at the start of Donald Trumps presidency that helped drive a narrative of collusion between former President Trump and Russia, Fischer wrote.
Last week, the Washington Post became the first major print and digital outlet to change its false reporting on the issue.
The paper altered two major stories, adding editors notes, and deleting sections of its reporting that identified Belarusian-American businessman Sergei Millian as a key source of the dossier, Fox News noted.
The paper had inaccurately reported that Millian was Source D, an unnamed figure who passed scandalous tidbits to Steele. The Posts bombshell correction came as other news outlets, including CNN and MSNBC, have been criticized for failing to adjust dossier-related reporting as its credibility crumbled, the report added.
Post reporter Paul Farhi noted in a piece that the indictment suggests Danchenko may have gotten his information about the hotel encounter not from Millian but from a Democratic Party operative with long-standing ties to Hillary Clinton, adding that its possible Clinton ally Charles Dolan, Jr. could be the unnamed operative.
The newspapers executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said The Post could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements of the story, Farhi wrote.
But so many others in the mainstream media have not bothered to issue corrections to their own lying stories or, in the case of CNNs left-wing lunatic media analyst Brian Stelter, have not even acknowledged that the reporting is wrong in the first place, which is just as bad and frankly, makes them doubly culpable after the fact.
Republicans were on to this hoax early as well. Then-House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes of California took the lead in congressional investigations that not only cleared Trump but also implicated Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, his deputy Andrew McCabe and several officials at the Justice Department.
And regardless of the number of Trump campaign officials who were eventually indicted, the fact is Trump was never charged because the entire collusion narrative was false in the first place a deep state lie meant to bring down his presidency that Hillary took part in.
This entire ordeal is a disgrace, a huge stain on our country and a massive black mark against our free and fair media, which is now an organ of propaganda.
Sources include:
USAFeatures.news
FoxNews.com
Axios.com
(Natural News) Back on July 28, Pfizer and BioNTech published six-month data on a key Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine clinical trial that claimed 15 participants who received the injections died compared to 14 who did not receive it. It turns out that the pharmaceutical duo lied about the numbers, as there were actually 21 deaths associated with the jabs.
Pfizer-BioNTech basically trimmed off 30 percent of the deaths to make it appear as though those who took its injections fared better than those who did not. The reality is that more people died after getting vaccinated than died receiving a placebo (which was really just another type of injection).
These were not just Covid deaths, reported Alex Berenson about this discovery. In fact, they were mostly not from Covid.
Only three of the people in the trial died of Covid-related illnesses one who received the vaccine, and two who received the saline shot. The other deaths were from other illnesses and diseases, mostly cardiovascular.
Under normal circumstances, researchers would have dubbed the deaths as having been the result of all-cause mortality. But Pfizer-BioNTech hid this information in an appendix to the report because it did not support the narrative that the jabs are safe and effective.
But all-cause mortality is arguably the MOST important measure for any drug or vaccine especially one meant to be given prophylactically to large numbers of healthy people, as vaccines are, Berenson notes.
Pfizer lied, and potentially millions will die
Interestingly, the fresh data that Pfizer-BioNTech released in late July was actually already four months old at the time it was published. The two companies had apparently stopped collecting data on vaccine-related deaths as of March 13.
Even at that time, though, the figures were troubling. In the initial safety report that Pfizer-BioNTech provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which contained data through November 2020, the researchers said that four placebo recipients and two vaccine recipients died.
One of the jab recipients died after the first dose while the other died after the second. The July update reversed that trend by claiming that between November 2020 and March 2021, 13 jab recipients died compared to just 10 placebo recipients.
Further, nine vaccine recipients had died from cardiovascular events such as heart attacks or strokes, compared to six placebo recipients who died of those causes, Berenson further explained.
The imbalance was small but notable, considering that regulators worldwide had found that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines were linked to heart inflammation in young men.
At best, Berenson says, the results given by Pfizer-BioNTech prove that the jabs, now pushed on nearly a billion people worldwide at a cost of tens of billions of dollars and ruinous and worsening civil liberties restrictions did absolutely nothing to reduce overall deaths.
Worse, Pfizer and BioNTech had vaccinated almost all the placebo recipients in the trial shortly after the Food and Drug Administration okayed the vaccine for emergency use on Dec. 11, 2020, he added.
As it turns out, many of the committee members at the FDA who green-lighted the Pfizer-BioNTech injections, including the boosters, have direct financial ties to these two companies.
Hidden in the FDAs Summary Basis for Regulatory Action is a tiny footnote explaining that many more vaccinated people died during the Pfizer-BioNTech trials than the two companies let on in their July update. Somehow this did not affect the FDAs decision to approve the injections.
Pfizer somehow miscounted or publicly misreported, or both the number of deaths in one of the most important clinical trials in the history of medicine, Berenson warned.
The latest news about Chinese Virus injection deception can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.
Sources for this article include:
AlexBerenson.substack.com
NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), eschewed recommendations for vaccine passports and admitted that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines do not prevent the disease during the 2021 G20 Summit held October 30-31 in Rome.
His remarks came as a response to questions by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during the summit. The two talked about COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccines and vaccine passports.
The Brazilian leader asked if the global health body has an official stance on vaccine passports. In response, Tedros said the WHO does not recommend their use due to low vaccine access. The WHO head pointed out that unvaccinated people could become victims of discrimination once vaccine passports are adopted.
Bolsonaro told Tedros that many Brazilians who got their second vaccine dose caught the disease. But Tedros insisted that while the vaccine does not prevent COVID-19, it does prevent serious illness and death.
However, the Brazilian president remarked that many who got the second [vaccine] dose are dying in his country. Bolsonaro also lamented his inability to stop mandatory COVID-19 injections for children. He added that his hands are tied on the matter and the lives of children are at stake. Tedros said the WHO does not support COVID-19 vaccinations for children.
The Brazilian leader likewise questioned the economic effects of lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions. All over the world, there are people who need to work to feed themselves, Bolsonaro noted, adding that the economy will collapse if lockdowns continue.
Tedros said there is no need for Brazil to impose a lockdown due to high vaccination rates. Lockdowns would not be needed a long as Brazil continues recommending the use of face masks and hand washing, he added.
Bolsonaro skeptical of public health measures to curb COVID-19
Back in July 2020, the Brazilian leader contracted COVID-19 following months of downplaying its severity. He told reporters that despite suffering from symptoms of the disease, he feels well and normal. (Related: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for the Wuhan coronavirus tells supporters he is well and fine.)
You cant just talk about the consequences of the virus that you have to worry about. Life goes on. Brazil needs to produce. You need to get the economy in gear, Bolsonaro said.
He subsequently recovered and built up natural immunity to the disease, which is why he continues to refuse getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Bolsonaro said during an October 2021 radio interview: Ive decided not to get vaccinated. Im looking at new studies, I already have the highest immunization. Why would I get vaccinated?
The Brazilian president has also voiced strong opposition to vaccine passports, which are issued to those who complete their COVID-19 vaccination schedule. Some large cities in Brazil require vaccine passports before Brazilians can visit certain public spaces.
For me, freedom comes before everything else. If a citizen doesnt want to get vaccinated, thats [their] right and thats the end of it, he said during the same radio interview. (Related: Brazils Bolsonaro unchained: If you accept this vaccination passport it will lead to population control.)
Aside from public health measures, Bolsonaro has been critical of peoples mindset toward the virus. Back in November 2020, he called on Brazil to stop being a country of sissies over the pathogen.
Not everything is about the pandemic. You have to end this. Im sorry for the dead, but we will all die one day, everyone here will die. It is no use running away from reality. Brazil must stop being a country of sissies, he said. The headlines will say I have no empathy for those who died. I feel for everyone who died. But the pandemic is being blown out of proportion.
Pandemic.news has more articles about world leaders such as Jair Bolsonaro questioning the COVID narrative espoused by the WHO.
Sources include:
LifeSiteNews.com
NBCNews.com
France24.com
Brazilian.Report
(Natural News) The most vaccinated country in the world is urging its residents to cancel all holiday events due to an exponential rise in new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).
That country is Gibraltar, which we previously reported is 100 percent fully vaccinated and 40 percent boosted, as they are calling it.
Dr. Helen Carter, Gibraltars Director of Public Health, appeared on television to explain that the country is in a period where we are seeing an increasing number of cases, and that this is not unexpected.
People may have seen across Europe, were seeing cases tick up Germany, Denmark, France for example, she added.
Carter went on to try to explain away the fact that cases are rising despite total compliance with the jab program.
So we know that with all vaccines, our immune response fades over time, she said. And covid vaccines are no different to other vaccines, so thats why we need to boost our population.
Residents of Gibraltar do have the option to exercise their own judgment, the government says. But people are strongly advised to stay at home forever and take whatever injections are presented to them as boosters.
Gibraltar has seen a steady increase in active cases of COVID-19 throughout October and November, which has gained pace over the past few days, reported Express.
Spike in covid cases has been drastic in Gibraltar, says health minister
In addition to staying home, the government of Gibraltar is urging residents to avoid other people when out and about and to always wear a mask, making sure to conduct themselves in a cautious and sensible manner.
We are still in a global pandemic and people are losing their lives every day all over the world, the government further fearmongered.
Health Minister Hon Samantha Sacramento described the current uptick in cases in Gibraltar as drastic. She says that people should line up immediately to get their boosters in order to flatten the curve.
Over the past week, Gibraltar has seen an average increase of 47 new cases per day. This is apparently enough positive test results to completely plunge the country into holiday darkness with no more Thanksgiving or Christmas celebrations.
The drastic increase in the numbers of people testing positive for COVID-19 in recent days is a stark reminder that the virus is still very prevalent in our community and that it is the responsibility of us all to take every reasonable precaution to protect ourselves and our loved ones, Sacramento added.
The vaccination programme for 12 to 15-year-olds and the booster vaccination programme are now underway, and Gibraltar received 4,680 more doses this week. Everyone who is eligible for a vaccine or a booster is strongly encouraged to take up the offer when they are called.
The government of Gibraltar has already canceled all of its own upcoming functions, including Christmas parties, official receptions, and similar gatherings, reports indicate.
A spokesperson announced that people should continue to live in fear, always worrying about whether they are indoors or outdoors, and whether there is enough ventilation present to keep Chinese Germs at bay.
In the same way, as has happened in the past, this advice may change going forward, this person added, suggesting that the rules will change on the fly as the government sees fit.
The public is urged to avoid large gatherings, to wear a mask where prescribed by law or when they feel uncomfortable and to maintain a prudent social distance from other people, this person added.
More of the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) can be found at Pandemic.news.
Sources for this article include:
CitizenFreePress.com
NaturalNews.com
Express.co.uk
According to information published by Info Defensa on November 17, 2021, Spain aims to sell a second Navantia LHD amphibious assault ship to Turkey.
Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link
A model of Anadolu-class amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu (Picture source: Navy Recognition)
TCG Anadolu is an amphibious assault ship that can be configured as a light aircraft carrier.
The dimensions of the final design are 231 meters (757 ft 10 in) in length, a 32-meter (105 ft 0 in) beam, a 6.8-meter (22 ft 4 in) draft, and 58 meters (190 ft 3 in) in height. Its displacement will be 24,660 tons (in "light aircraft carrier" mission configuration) or 27,079 tons (in "LHD" mission configuration).
Its maximum speed will be 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph) (in "light aircraft carrier" configuration) or 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph) (in "LHD" configuration); while its maximum range will be 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at economical speed.
The ship will have a 1,880 m2 (20,200 sq ft) light cargo garage for TEU containers and 27 Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV); a 1,165 m2 (12,540 sq ft) dock which can host four Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) or two Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), or two Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP); and a 1,410 m2 (15,200 sq ft) garage for heavy loads, which can host 29 Main Battle Tanks (MBT), Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and TEU containers.
The crew consists of 261 people: 30 officers, 49 NCOs, 59 leading seamen, and 123 ratings.
Robert Ashton is concerned about the environmental impact of trying to heat the large number of historic, but often draughty, churches in Britain.
COP26 has pushed the climate emergency higher up everyones agenda, but improving the energy efficiency of places of worship is no simple matter. We can improve the insulation in our homes, explore swapping our gas boiler for an air source heat pump, and make sure that our next car is electric. But how do you reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from that creaking oil fired boiler that struggles to warm your Grade 1 listed mediaeval church?
Most of our churches were built at a time when the population was far smaller, Sunday attendance was far higher, and people were accustomed to wrapping up well in winter. It is only over the last 50 years that we have grown used to central heating. I can well remember ice forming on the inside of the window of my childhood home and the annual discomfort of chilblains on my toes. Today we expect something better, and of course that is why we are now facing a global crisis.
If sea levels rise as predicted, much of Norfolk could disappear, just as the Suffolk city of Dunwich did hundreds of years ago. In 1750 All Saints, the last of Dunwichs eight churches fell into the sea. Will future historians write wistfully about the Norfolk churches that have been lost to the sea? What can we do now to make sure our places of worship are playing their part in restoring our damaged atmosphere?
One thing is certain: grant making trusts and conventional fundraising is unlikely to generate the millions needed to transform our national stock of ancient draughty churches, chapels and meeting houses. Nor, with dwindling congregations, can we expect those who appear on Sunday mornings to foot the bill although many are writing policies, and improvements can certainly be made.
Is the time approaching when we will need to find new ways to gather for worship?
The image above is courtesy of Tama66 on pixabay.com
Robert Ashton is an author, social entrepreneur and Quaker.
Visit www.robertashton.co.uk
The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive and good-natured debate between website users.
We welcome your thoughts and comments, posted below, upon the ideas expressed here.
Although the slaughter and enslavement of Native Americans in the 1637 Mystic Massacre predates international standards of behavior during armed conflicts, Maj. John Mason is a war criminal and his statue above the State Capitols north entrance is a lingering symbol that should be removed, Connecticut tribal leaders say.
But state historians warn against generalities and the possible reaction of hiding Connecticuts past, when the current moment in time could be ripe to commission statues of historic Native American leaders to join the larger-than-life marble likenesses of English settlers on the Capitols exterior.
In written and video testimony sent to the State Capitol Preservation & Restoration Commission in advance of Thursdays forum on the future of the statue, Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Chief Many Hearts Lynn Malerba from the Mohegan Tribe, say the intimidating symbol of white supremacy should be relocated to a museum.
There is no doubt Mason engaged in what we now call genocide, Butler says in a video sent to the commission. The question for us here in the year 2021, is whether a man who burned alive over 500 men, women and children; systematically hunted and slaughtered any remaining members of the tribe; and intended to eradicate an entire cultural identity, language and heritage deserves a place of distinction on the face of Connecticuts State Capitol. I submit to you that he does not.
Mason was the leader of the state militia during the Pequot War and joined the Mohegan Tribe in defeating the Eastern Pequots at the battle of Mystic. Uncas, the Mohegans leader, or sachem, was appalled at the carnage, particularly the slaughter of women and children, according to the tribes oral history.
If the State Capitol is the house of our Connecticut people, then all people should feel comfortable visiting the Capitol, Malerba wrote, stressing that while the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes allied with the English settlers on the attack at Mystic village, the brutality was shocking.
It was not our form of conflict, Malerba wrote. Our form of conflict was with other tribal warriors: to embarrass other tribal leaders, address territorial disputes, extend authority and increase power. Casualties were to be kept to a minimum given our small populations. Elders, women and children were not to be attacked. Our oral traditions tell us that Uncas was distraught during the attack and said, It is too much, it is too much. However, in the eyes of the colonists, this battle was so successful as the United States settled westward lands were taken by force and similar brutality, including Mohegan lands.
The commission, whose members include former and current state lawmakers, nonpartisan legislative staff and historians, will hold the forum of invited guests to air the issues of possible removal. The project of taking down and relocating the statue is included in the current state budget, although bids for the project have exceeded the amount projected.
But Walter Woodward, the retiring state historian, and Jason Warren, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who is a military historian, argue the Mason statue should remain, stressing that the details around the Mystic battle are complicated.
Far from hating all Indians or planning their extirpation, Mason enlisted the support of sachem or chief Uncas and his Mohegan native group that were rivals of the Pequots, Warren wrote to the commission. After launching his assault on Mystic Fort, Masons heavily outnumbered army came under threat of annihilation. In an act of military necessity, based at least on the limited sources still available for interpretation, Mason ordered the burning of the fort that led to the deaths of many Pequot non-combatants that permanently altered the demographics of the native group.
Warren believes Mason did not intend to kill noncombatants, but the decision to burn the fort was made under duress, in battle.
The destruction of the fort resulted in the downfall of Pequot power, a situation that preserved Connecticut Colony, and a consequence that Connecticut citizens continue to benefit from indirectly, Warren wrote to the commission.
The statue of Mason was hoisted into a third-floor niche overlooking the Capitol grounds and adjacent Bushnell Park in 1910 32 years after the building was completed. There are 26 Gothic niches, several of which are empty. The statues are of early white male leaders, except for one on the south facade depicting Gov. Ella T. Grasso, the nations first female governor, who died in 1981.
The north and east facades include statues of men who participated in the founding of the state and the American Revolution. The south facade includes Civil War leaders.
Born in England, Mason came to the state in 1632, and by 1635, led Connecticuts combat against pirates, according to a Capitol guide book that calls him a valiant commander.
Recently, Masons state-owned statue in Windsor, which he founded and where he lived, was the target of criticism. It was moved from Groton in 1996 amid a similar controversy.
Other sculptures on the Capitols exterior depict David Humphreys, of Derby, who recruited the first Black regiment in the country, in 1781. He later created the first planned factory village in the country, Humphreysville, located along the Naugatuck River where Seymour is today.
Another sculpture, honoring David Wooster, was raised into its niche in 1917. During the American Revolution, he was wounded by British troops during the April 1777 battle of Danbury and died about a week later.
The statue of Alfred Howe Terry highlights a story on his rise to major general during the Civil War. During the nations westward expansion after the war, he helped confine western tribal nations onto reservations ordered a brash cavalry commander named George Custer to avoid engaging with Native Americans. After Custers death at the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn, Terry accepted Chief Sitting Bulls surrender.
kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Champaign, IL (61820)
Today
Windy with showers and thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low near 35F. Winds SSW at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 80%..
Tonight
Windy with showers and thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low near 35F. Winds SSW at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a deadly and rapidly progressing disease with no cure.
The disease involves abnormal interactions between lung cells, including fibroblasts, and their surrounding environment. Because of this, standard 2D cell culture models used for drug screening tend to perform poorly when predicting response to potential therapies.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and rising air pollution levels, incidence of IPF is anticipated to rise, urgently increasing the need for strong model systems.
In APL Bioengineering, from AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, describe a 3D cell culturing platform that allows study of lung fibroblasts and their microenvironment. The platform enables measurement of cell behaviors and microenvironment changes involved in the disease progression of IPF, and the platform's size and simplicity make it suitable for use in high-throughput drug screening protocols.
IPF is a horrible disease that drastically impacts a patient's life and eventually causes them to die from lack of oxygen. It's really important to have lab tools and models that create and control the microenvironment in which the cells sit, because this may be key to preclinical identification of possible treatments." Katherine Cummins, co-author
Unlike rodent IPF models that do not mimic progressive disease and other cell culture systems that lack the surrounding microenvironment, their microtissue platform allows study of fibroblasts within an extracellular matrix (ECM). Changes in the ECM are a hallmark of IPF, so the system allows more relevant functional outputs. Moreover, its simplicity and tunability make it easy to use.
"Many organoid and lab-on-a-chip platforms can be hard to use," said co-author David Wood. "What's exciting is that this system is very easy to use. We've already disseminated it to two other labs who are using it completely independent of us."
Validation of the system's functioning focused primarily on ECM remodeling (i.e., cell-driven changes to the microenvironment) and cell contractility, which increases in activated, diseased fibroblasts.
Multiple tests for each of these two functions demonstrated the system robustly quantifies key aspects of fibrosis. These results were reproduced using patient-donated cells as well, indicating the system could be used for personalized medicine.
Moreover, the system's versatility allows it to be used with different cell types and other matrix components, so it could be adapted for use in the study of other diseases where cell-microenvironment interactions contribute to disease. The research team has already used the system to study liver toxicity and anticipates it could be used across multiple solid organ systems, including in the study of cancer progression and metastasis.
Older age is a strong risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared to children and younger adults with COVID-19. In addition, older adults infected by SARS-CoV-2 are rarely asymptomatic and experience severe symptoms such as respiratory failure and multi-organ dysfunction that can lead to hospitalization and/or death. Therefore, older adults have been granted priority for receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
Study: Characterization of the humoral immune response to BNT162b2 in elderly residents of long-term care facilities five to seven months after vaccination. Image Credit: Pordee_Aomboon / Shutterstock.com
Older adults living in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) experience increased exposure to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), increasing their risk of COVID-19-related mortality. During the early pandemic, 30-60% of all COVID-19-related deaths in Europe were attributed to LTCF residents. However, elderly individuals with comorbidities and frailty were underrepresented or excluded from early COVID-19 vaccine trials.
The emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), such as the recent Delta variant, and the concerns about waning immunity prompted a discussion on the need for a third booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the effect of old age and frailty on immunity against severe disease after vaccination is not fully clear.
The impact of old age and multimorbidity on the immune response to vaccination
A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv* investigates whether markers of cellular and humoral immunity differ significantly between adults over the age of 75 years and a control group six months after vaccination.
The current study also assessed the effect of medication and multimorbidity on the immune response. The researchers examined the immune response to the BNT162b2 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 five to seven months after receiving two doses of the vaccine.
Most elderly LTCF residents had no detectable antibodies against the Delta variant
All study participants were required to have previously completed their two-dose schedule of the BNT162b2 vaccine at the recommended interval of 21 days. Vaccination was to be completed five to seven months before blood collection.
The first group consisted of LTCF residents who were older than 75 years and did not have any history of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was confirmed by anti-nucleocapsid (N) antibody tests. Whereas the residents were within the age range of 75 to 101 years, the control group of health care workers (HCWs) was aged 18 to 70 years. Notably, the third group of 14 LTCFs was included in the study who had experienced a breakthrough infection.
Out of the 298 SARS-CoV-2-naive residents, 29 (9.5%) had detectable antibodies against the Delta variant, of which 14 (48.3%) only had a borderline antibody titer of 1:10. Of the 114 HCW controls, 31.6% had detectable neutralizing antibodies.
In the third group of 14 elderly residents, the mean antibody titer was significantly higher compared to the other two groups. Furthermore, 12 (85.7%) of these residents had detectable antibodies against the Delta variant.
This data demonstrates that 90.5% of LTCF residents had no detectable neutralizing antibodies against the dominant Delta variant five to seven months post-vaccination. Additionally, neutralizing antibody titers were higher in those who had a breakthrough infection. These observations suggest that both LTCF residents and HCWs would benefit from a third vaccine shot six months after completing the two-dose regimen.
Anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG antibody titers (logarithmic) by group. Logarithmic depiction in boxplots, 95% CI and IQR (25%-75%) of group 1 (residents of LTCFs 75 years of age; orange), group 2 (HCWs at LTCFs, 18 to 70 years of age; blue), and group 3 (residents of LTCFs after breakthrough infection, green). Stars represent outliers.
A linear decline with age was observed in both the group of residents and HCWs but was more marked in the elderly.
The results agree with other studies conducted in older adults, although studies using pseudoviruses reported higher neutralization rates. A possible explanation for this might be that this study used an authentic Delta variant isolate, rather than a pseudovirus, for the neutralization assays. Clinical isolates have additional mutations outside the spike region, which impact viral fitness or their sensitivity to antibodies.
A breakthrough infection significantly increased both antibody titers and the number of individuals with detectable neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant among the elderly participants. This demonstrates that the humoral immune response is recoverable.
According to the authors, markers of the cellular response of the participants are currently being examined and that data may influence the interpretation of the findings.
In addition to age, immunogenicity and efficacy of vaccines 219 may be influenced and suppressed by several factors, including other medical conditions, and body composition with a very low or high BMI.
*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.
We know very little about the incidence of pain among the elderly in nursing homes. In Norway, no requirement is in place for pain to be assessed before or during nursing home admission, nor once a person has been admitted.
In some countries, the absence of pain is seen as an indicator of the quality of care and treatment that the nursing home is providing to its residents. Can Norway achieve this as well?
Assessing whether - or where and to what extent - a resident is in pain can be especially challenging among the elderly with dementia. Individuals with severe dementia often find it difficult to express themselves verbally about their condition.
Instead, nurses and health professionals need to observe the resident and look for signs of pain. Such signs might include painful sounds, exclamations, facial expressions like grimacing or the resident reacting by trying to avoid touch and movement.
Our research team has developed a pain assessment tool based on observation that can be used for all stages of dementia. Using this tool, we wanted to study the incidence and severity of pain among the elderly with dementia who are admitted to Norwegian nursing homes.
We found that 36 per cent of the almost one thousand (953) elderly people with dementia who were examined after hospitalization had pain that fundamentally affected their everyday life. The incidence of pain is high.
Both residents who were already on painkillers and those who were not experienced pain of this nature. About half of all the residents were on one or more types of painkillers.
Other non-pharmacological pain relief therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, exercise, massage, pressure relief and environmental music therapy, were not investigated in this study.
Pain has a negative effect on residents' quality of life, and intense pain can reduce their quality of life even more. Lack of pain treatment can additionally lead to aggression and restlessness, but also apathy, mood disorders and more.
Detecting pain in residents with dementia serves as a necessary first step to determine appropriate medication or non-drug therapies for the pain. Such measures will increase the quality of care and treatment and in turn improve the quality of life of nursing home residents.
Regularly assessing pain in residents should be considered a requirement for operating nursing homes and an integral part of the quality assessment. In Norway today, a large proportion of nursing home residents have dementia, with percentages as high as 85 per cent. The incidence and severity of dementia have increased among nursing home residents over the last 20 years.
The use of an assessment tool based on observing signs of pain in people with moderate and severe dementia is timely. This tool offers healthcare professionals a better basis for providing both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies for pain.
Treatment of pain in the elderly with dementia is challenging, and the first choice should be non-pharmacological treatment, possibly combined with painkillers.
Introducing regular pain assessment and protocols for treatment, as well as drug reviews that shed light on pain and pain-reducing measures for this group of the elderly, is important in order to reduce the incidence and severity of pain in the residents. Assessing and treating this population group requires competence, resources and continuity in their care and treatment.
When the pro-inflammatory pair, a receptor called CCR2 and its ligand CCL-2, get together, it increases the risk of developing type 1 diabetes, scientists report.
In this autoimmune disease that typically surfaces in childhood, the interaction of this natural lock and key recruits immune cells to the pancreas, which attack the insulin-producing islet cells, resulting in a lifelong course of insulin therapy and a lifelong increased risk of other health problems like heart and kidney disease, says Dr. Sharad Purohit, biochemist in the Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia.
The study, published in the Journal of Translational Autoimmunity, provides evidence the CCR2 gene promotes progression to type 1 as it provides new insight on how to delay disease progression, says Paul Tran, MD/PhD student at MCG at Augusta University. Tran and Purohit are the study's first authors.
The scientists were able to put the pieces together by looking at the longitudinal data on 310 people enrolled in DAISY, a National Institutes of Health-funded study based at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, that has been following individuals considered at risk for type 1 because of having a relative with it or having one of the genes associated with it since 1993.
The new study focused on 42 individuals who persistently had antibodies against the insulin-producing islet cells but never actually developed type 1, 48 who did develop type 1 and the remainder who did neither and served as the control group.
They found that blood levels of CCL-2, the ligand for CCR2, were lower in both individuals who had antibodies but not actual disease as well as those who progressed to type 1 diabetes, Tran says.
They also found that both these groups have more of the receptors on their immune cells, which get recruited by the ligand to the six-inch organ in the abdomen that helps us break down the food we eat.
Conversely, less receptors mean less recruitment of immune cells, more normal levels of CCL-2 in the blood and less cell destruction, they say.
Numerous human studies have indicated that blood levels of the ligand CCL-2, or chemokine ligand 2, are associated with type 1 diabetes but how was unclear, Tran says. The new study clarifies that direction.
It was also known that the locus, the physical location on a chromosome, in this case the 3p21.31 locus, where CCR2 is located, was associated with type 1 diabetes, although the specific genes within it had not been directly associated with the condition in humans, Purohit says.
They also found that two small genetic variants, or SNPs, in that locus are what cause higher expression of CCR2 which causes the lower blood levels of its ligand, Purohit says.
More receptors means increased signaling between CCR2 and CCL-2, which results in increased recruitment of immune cells, which are laden with CCL-2 receptors, to the pancreas, although their work to date has not clearly explained why, Tran says.
The increased signaling also depletes the CCL-2 supply, as immune cells gobble it up along with the islet cells.
A bottom line is a seemingly contradictory scenario emerges of decreased blood levels of a pro-inflammatory molecule in the face of an increased inflammatory state, they write. Purohit notes a similar scenario has been described in cardiovascular disease where lower levels of interleukin-6, which is mostly associated with inflammation, are associated with a worse prognosis.
CCR2 has not previously been directly associated with humans with type 1 diabetes, but it was known that when the gene is knocked out in mice prone to developing type 1, they become less prone to disease development, Tran says. Generally speaking it's also known that individuals with higher expression of the CCR2 gene are more likely to experience the likely unwanted recruitment of immune cells into numerous areas of their body, like what happens in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. There was also evidence that a protein associated with the gene CCR2 was lower in patients with type 1 diabetes.
But correlation does not equal causation, Tran notes.
There is some mouse evidence. There is some serum protein level evidence. Now we are putting the genetic evidence in." Paul Tran, MD/PhD student, MCG at Augusta University
Their findings support the potential of inhibiting the receptor, CCR2, as a way to at least delay disease progression, they say. The failure of CCR2 inhibition to delay disease progression in clinical trials in both rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis could be because therapy was started too late, they say.
Better timing might been when blood levels of CCL-2 start going down rather than when disease symptoms begin to surface, they write, and trials to prevent type 1 diabetes should target patients with low blood levels of CCL-2 who also are making antibodies to their islet cells.
The DAISY study is led by Dr. Marian Rewers, pediatric endocrinologist and a study coauthor. Statistician Fran Dong, also a study coauthor from the Colorado group, worked with the other scientists to analyze data and they were able to show that children who will develop type 1 diabetes have a lower level of the ligand CCL-2 in their blood at birth and it stays lower as they get older.
Everyone recruits CCL-2 at some level, as part of the body's natural defense mechanism against something like a virus, but the problem is when there is too much, Tran says. Levels of CCL-2, for example, do go up when you have an infection of the pancreas.
Unlike type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes tends to surface in childhood or adolescence but with similar symptoms like increased thirst and urination, similar consequences like heart, blood vessel and kidney damage, and all these patients will need insulin therapy. Type 1 is considered a collision of the child having high-risk genes and environmental triggers, and ongoing studies like those at MCG are working to uncover more of those genes and triggers.
Scientists, including Purohit, reported in 2015 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism that patients with type 1 diabetes have significantly lower blood levels of four proteins that help protect tissue from attack by the immune system, including CCL-2, also called MCP-1, while their healthy relatives, some of whom also had some of the high-risk genes for type 1, had normal levels.
Genome Wide Association Studies, or GWAS, which associate genetic variations with particular diseases, have associated the 3p21.31 locus with type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune disease in children, but exactly what variants are responsible has been unknown, they write. The locus is known to have a lot of chemokine receptors, which are largely associated with promoting inflammation, like CCR2.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Dr. Jin-Xiong She, former director of the MCG Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine and founder and CEO of Jinfiniti Precision Medicine, is the study's corresponding author.
Today, as AstraZeneca reports 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine released for supply University of Oxford scientists explain how it has been possible to produce so much of the vaccine in less than a year, and the unprecedented strategy used to improve international equity of access.
Despite its extensive experience of vaccine development, the University had never manufactured more than a few thousand doses of any single vaccine until 2020. A new paper, published in collaboration with AstraZeneca in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, tells the story of how a key discovery just before the start of the pandemic unlocked the possibility of large-scale manufacturing.
Dr Sandy Douglas, the leader of the team which made the discovery, said:
'When the pandemic began we were deeply concerned we'd have no way of getting this vaccine out of the University labs and into the real world. The answer came in three steps.
'First, in January and February 2020, we found a simpler way of manufacturing large amounts of this type of vaccine. The simplicity has been key, because it made it possible to make the vaccine in existing factories with existing equipment.
'We immediately took the second step, which was to persuade manufacturers with suitable factories in the UK, Europe, India and China to start preparing to make the vaccine, even before it had been given to the first volunteer in the clinical trial. We were worried that poorer countries would be at the back of the queue for COVID vaccines, so we developed a plan to 'franchise' the manufacturing to many sites around the world. With a franchised product, huge amounts are made to the same recipe in many countries. That is standard in many industries, but it had never been tried before for a brand-new vaccine.
'The third vital step was the University's partnership with AstraZeneca in May 2020. It was critical for us to have a partner which had the resources to ramp up manufacturing at an industrial scale and share our priority of global equitable access. AstraZeneca's willingness to do that has been fantastic.'
The technical advances in the new method include 'feeding' a specific mix of nutrients to the cells which make the vaccine, allowing more vaccine to be made in each batch. Importantly this avoids the use of complex equipment that was required to keep cells healthy in the previous leading method of making adenovirus-based vaccines, but which very few factories around the world are able to use.
Putting this technical advance together with AstraZeneca's adoption of the team's 'franchise' technology transfer model has enabled vaccine manufacturing at a globally-relevant scale, by a global supply network of more than 25 proven manufacturing organisations.
AstraZeneca and its partners have released for supply two billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria to more than 170 countries across seven continents. Approximately two-thirds of these have gone to low- and lower-middle-income countries, including more than 170 million doses delivered to 130 countries through the COVAX Facility.
'If the pandemic had started even two months earlier, we wouldn't have had a manufacturing process. Without a manufacturing process I think we would have struggled to persuade a major company like AstraZeneca that our vaccine was more than an academic curiosity,' said Douglas. 'Without a partner, the vaccine would never have begun to reach the people who need it.'
This paper shows a side of the University's vaccine work which has not yet been widely reported. Manufacturing may not be seen as glamorous but the number of doses made, and where they are made, determines how much impact a vaccine can have in the real world. I think millions of people around the world owe their lives to the two billion doses produced as a result of this collaboration between our researchers and AstraZeneca." Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford
The combination of this new approach with AstraZeneca's global footprint and commitment have enabled the unique characteristics of global manufacturing and supply of this vaccine:
The vaccine is being made in 15 countries
The vaccine is in use in over 170 countries
The majority of the product has been used in low- and middle-income countries
Pam Cheng, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and IT at AstraZeneca, said: 'Producing two billion doses of the vaccine in less than 12 months after the first approval would not have been possible without the collective effort of so many: our AstraZeneca colleagues globally, our partners at the University of Oxford, our network of contract manufacturers, international organisations and governments around the world. We are extremely proud of this important milestone and the hard work goes on as we continue to accelerate our output to continue to play a key role in helping to end the pandemic.'
The same manufacturing process could be used to make other adenovirus-based vaccines, accelerating the response to a future pandemic. More broadly, the researchers believe the success of the internationally distributed manufacturing strategy provides a template which can be followed to enable equitable access to other vaccines.
With access to abortion at stake across America, California is preparing to become the nation's abortion provider.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have asked a group of reproductive health experts to propose policies to bolster the state's abortion infrastructure and ready it for more patients. Lawmakers plan to begin debating the ideas when they reconvene in January.
Abortion clinics are already girding themselves for a surge in demand.
Janet Jacobson, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, said three or four out-of-state patients visit her clinics each day about double the number that sought treatment before a near-total ban on abortion took effect in Texas in September.
While the nine clinics can absorb that slow trickle, they expect up to 50 out-of-state patients a week if the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority guts abortion rights nationally, Jacobson said. She bases her estimate on new data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion and reproductive health rights.
She is adding staff members and appointment capacity, hoping to accommodate everyone.
"We have to make sure we can still continue to care for all of our California patients," Jacobson said. "We don't want them getting squeezed out" of appointments.
The Texas law banned nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and empowered private citizens to sue anyone who performs or "aids and abets" an abortion after that time. The Supreme Court heard arguments in that case on Nov. 1 and is expected to announce a ruling on its constitutionality in June. Nonetheless, Florida and Ohio have announced plans for copycat laws.
Next month the high court will hear another abortion case with even broader implications, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law that prohibited abortion after 15 weeks. If the court sides with Mississippi, its decision could overturn existing abortion rights set by the landmark Roe v. Wade case.
Should that happen, reproductive rights experts predict, 26 states will ban the procedure altogether and states with stronger protections for abortion, like California, will draw even more patients. There could be up to a 3,000% increase in people who "may drive to California for abortion care" each year, according to the Guttmacher data.
In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available from Guttmacher, California by far the nation's most populous state had more abortion providers than any other state, with 419 hospitals, clinics or doctors' offices performing the procedure. The next highest were New York, with 252, and Florida, with 85. Neighboring Arizona and Nevada each had 11. Of the 862,320 abortions performed in the U.S. that year, 132,680, about 15%, were in California.
Planned Parenthood clinics in California say they already serve about 7,000 out-of-state patients a year and are expecting a surge of new ones, especially in travel hubs like the Los Angeles area.
In September, Planned Parenthood and groups such as Black Women for Wellness convened the California Future of Abortion Council with backing from influential Democratic leaders including Newsom, state Senate leader Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
Atkins, who was the director of a San Diego women's health clinic in the 1980s, said she spent time with women from states where it was hard to get an abortion. She said California is committed to ensuring abortion access in the state and beyond.
The council is focused on increasing funding for abortion services, providing logistical and financial help for women who need to travel, increasing the number of health care providers who perform abortions and strengthening legal protections for them.
Increasing capacity could mean licensing more practitioners to provide abortions or pumping more resources into telehealth so people can see a doctor online to prescribe pills for a medical abortion a service California doctors currently can provide to patients only in California.
The most important thing the state should do is fix its shortage of providers, especially those who perform second-trimester abortions, which are more expensive and complicated than first-trimester abortions, said council member Dr. Daniel Grossman, director of the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program at the University of California-San Francisco.
It's not feasible to place an abortion provider in every corner of the state, Grossman said. Instead, the council should focus on creating "hubs that can provide abortion care for large numbers of people" in easy-to-get-to locations.
California already struggles to provide abortions to all who seek them, especially low-income women covered by Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program. For example, 28 counties home to 10% of Medi-Cal recipients of childbearing age don't have facilities that provide abortions to Medi-Cal patients.
A medical abortion, in which pills are used to terminate a pregnancy, costs California patients an average of $306 out-of-pocket, according to an analysis by the California Health Benefits Review Program, but isn't available after 10 weeks. After that, the only option is a surgical abortion, which costs an average of $887 out-of-pocket in California.
One of the council's recommendations will likely be to increase the rate Medi-Cal pays for abortions so more providers will perform them, said council member Fabiola Carrion, interim director for reproductive and sexual health at the National Health Law Program.
Medi-Cal pays $354.43 for a second-trimester abortion. A 2020 study in the journal Contraception found that states paid between $79 and $626 for a second-trimester abortion in 2017.
Increasing Medi-Cal rates won't help patients traveling from outside California. Generally, private insurance doesn't cover out-of-state abortions, so most women will be on the hook for the full cost, and those enrolled in other states' Medicaid programs must pay out-of-pocket, too.
The council hopes to reduce costs for state residents and visitors, said Brandon Richards, director of communications for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. "It's about making it easy for people to access abortion in California, whether they reside here or are coming in from out of state," he said.
One way to target costs is by funding the practical support, like helping to pay for transportation, child care, hotels or time off work, said council member Jessica Pinckney, executive director of Access Reproductive Justice, a fund that helps people pay for abortions.
Pinckney said she's working with Los Angeles County to set up a public abortion fund to cover some of those costs for anyone seeking an abortion in the county. It would be modeled after similar pots maintained by the cities of New York; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Oregon, and could eventually be a template for the first statewide fund, Pinckney said.
Most Texans seeking abortions since that state's law took effect are going to nearby states like Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma, said Sierra Harris, deputy director of network strategies for the National Network of Abortion Funds. Women in those states, in turn, are having trouble getting care and are looking to California for appointments.
Practical support is important for out-of-state patients, said Alissa Perrucci, operations manager at the Women's Options Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, one of five abortion clinics inside California hospitals.
Perrucci's clinic is focusing on telemedicine, phone counseling and other ways to save time so it can add appointments for out-of-state patients if necessary.
But more slots are useless if women can't make it to California. The clinic has booked about 10 appointments for Texans since the state's ban went into effect, but only half have shown up, mostly women with family connections in California.
"Most people just don't have the money to get here," she said. "If the burden of abortion was borne predominantly by the wealthy, yeah, they'd just fly here."
This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Vaccines are effective against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and protect from the risk of infection and severe illness and death. However, breakthrough severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections have raised concerns about waning vaccine effectiveness.
Several studies indicate that vaccines protect against severe illness up to 6 months after vaccination. There are, however, few reports of vaccine effectiveness beyond six months.
A nationwide study from Sweden investigates the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination against the risk of symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death up to 9 months post-vaccination. This study is published on the Preprints with The Lancet website while awaiting peer review.
Vaccine effectiveness data
Clinical studies have demonstrated high efficacy of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), mRNA1273 (Moderna), and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford/AstraZeneca) COVID-19 vaccines. Further observational studies have evaluated high real-world effectiveness. However, there are reports of waning vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection.
Currently, there is some indication of waning vaccine effectiveness against infection up to 6 months post-vaccination. However, protection against severe illness appears to be maintained.
The evidence is limited and inconsistent because of evaluations of different vaccines that may have variable long-lasting effects, a low proportion of old participants in the studies, and varying and relatively short follow-up times.
A retrospective study
This new retrospective cohort study was conducted using Swedish nationwide registries. The 3,640,421 individuals included in the study were vaccinated with at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, BNT162b2, or mRNA-1273) in Sweden until 26 May 2021 and 1,331,989 had a confirmed infection until 24 May 2021.
Statistics Sweden, the national agency for statistics, randomly sampled one individual from the total population of Sweden and matched them according to the birth year, sex and municipality. These matched individuals had neither been vaccinated nor infected with COVID-19 on the date of first vaccination dose or infection of the matched vaccinated individual. This total population of 5,833,003 individuals was updated concerning vaccination status and SARS-CoV-2 infections until 4 October 2021.
From this total cohort, each fully vaccinated individual was matched to one randomly sampled unvaccinated individual with respect to birth year and sex. This cohort comprised 1,684,958 individuals forming 842,974 matched pairs.
Description of selection of the cohort.
Another cohort formed using less strict matching criteria resulted in 3,966,630 individuals forming 1,983,315 pairs.
Data on individuals were collected from the Swedish Vaccination Register and SmiNet register managed by the Public Health Agency of Sweden. These registries have a 100% coverage of the total population.
Data on cases of symptomatic infection and severe COVID-19, i.e., hospitalization or 30-day mortality after confirmed infection, were collected from 12 January to 4 October 2021.
Vaccine effectiveness data from Sweden
Within the study group, it was observed that the vaccinated individuals more often had homemaker service, were more often born in Sweden, had more medical diagnoses, and had a higher level of education when compared to unvaccinated individuals. The term homemaker refers to domestic services provided to individuals (primarily elderly individuals) who live at home but need help with shopping, cleaning, meal preparation, and similar tasks.
Vaccine effectiveness of BNT162b2 against infection waned progressively from 92% at day 15-30 to 47% at day 121-180 to no effectiveness from day 211 onwards. This waning was slightly slower for mRNA-1273.
The effectiveness of mRNA-1273 was 59% from day 181 onwards. The effectiveness of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 was lower and waned faster, with no effectiveness detected from day 121 onwards, showing a negative value of effectiveness, -19%. This means that the unvaccinated individuals were more protected than the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccinated individuals. However, effectiveness from heterologous ChAdOx1 nCoV19 / mRNA-1273 was 66% and was maintained from 121 days onwards.
In this study, vaccine effectiveness was lower and waned faster among men and older individuals. Vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19 waned from 89% at day 15-30 to 42% from day 181 onwards.
This waning effectiveness was notable among men, older frail individuals, individuals with comorbidities, and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine.
Limitations of the study
It is possible that the study included individuals with previous asymptomatic infections. This would confound the results of the investigation. If these individuals happened to be in the unvaccinated cohort, their natural immunity due to a previous infection might have attenuated the estimated vaccine effectiveness. In addition, the infection pressure during the study period was low. This would also attenuate the estimated vaccine effectiveness.
Implications of the study
The findings of this study strengthen the evidence-based rationale for the administration of a booster dose, prioritizing the individuals at high risk of severe illness and death. Thus, these findings may have implications for vaccination strategies and public health policies.
*Important notice
Preprints are early-stage research papers that have not been peer-reviewed. Therefore, the findings should not be used for clinical or public health decision-making and should not be presented to a lay audience without highlighting that they are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed.
In September, when Shelly Azzopardi went to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital with abdominal pain, she didn't worry about her insurance.
Doctors said she had a case of appendicitis. But she also tested positive at the hospital in Marietta, Georgia, for covid-19. Physicians decided not to do surgery and treated her with antibiotics and painkillers. Azzopardi, 47, went home after a couple of days in the hospital, feeling better.
But in October, the appendix pain again flared. Her husband took her to the same hospital, where surgery was performed successfully. This time, though, she ran into a snag with her insurance.
Azzopardi has UnitedHealthcare coverage, and as of Oct. 3, Wellstar Health System was no longer in the giant insurer's network, after the two sides did not agree on a new contract.
Wellstar dominates the Cobb County area where Azzopardi and her husband live. She has applied to UnitedHealthcare for a "continuity of care" waiver, which would extend her previous in-network coverage for the treatment of an ongoing condition for the October hospital visit and surgery. If it doesn't work out, she could owe thousands of dollars. "I don't know where it stands," Azzopardi said.
On a larger level, the severed contract between a hospital system and health insurer reflects tensions that have been growing nationally this year. In the past, even when contract negotiations became publicly antagonistic, they typically would be resolved before the deadline for termination.
Now health care consultants and industry officials say an increasing number of contracts end without a deal. Even if they are eventually resolved, those terminations throw tens of thousands of patients into the difficult position of choosing between much higher out-of-pocket costs or leaving a trusted physician and hospital.
The Wellstar vs. UnitedHealthcare situation and an even bigger dispute looming in metro Atlanta involving Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield come at a tricky time, during open enrollment season when many employers have already picked their insurance offerings and many consumers must choose their health plan.
"We are seeing more insurers terminate contracts without a deal, and this is both a national and local trend," said Beth Spoto, a Georgia-based health care consultant with Spoto & Associates. From the insurers' point of view, she said, it's a hardball tactic to lower payment rates to medical providers for services.
"Health systems are getting quite large, so you are dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars," she said. "The fighting is getting pretty tough."
Recent contract terminations involving big insurers include UnitedHealthcare vs. Montefiore Health System in New York, and Anthem vs. Dignity Health in California. Each conflict was eventually resolved, though Montefiore took several months to settle.
Hospitals are reporting higher tensions in negotiations with health insurers, said Molly Smith, an American Hospital Association vice president. She said contract talks often are not conducted by local executives of the insurer, which might allow for more collaboration, but are directed instead by company headquarters.
Just in the Atlanta area, other out-of-network situations involving insurance heavyweights UnitedHealthcare and Anthem have occurred in the past couple of years. Northside Hospital's Gwinnett County facilities were out of network for UnitedHealthcare members for five months, while Northeast Georgia Health System in Gainesville left Anthem's lineup for three months.
In the most recent dispute, Wellstar said it wants UHC to pay reimbursements similar to those it gets from other insurers. UnitedHealthcare, based in Minnesota, counters that Wellstar wants "egregious" rate hikes that the insurer said would amount to 37% over three years.
"Both sides said the other is just out for money," Azzopardi said. The impasse, she said, "is cruel to the patients who have done nothing wrong."
The open enrollment quandary has Emilie Cousineau of Smyrna, Georgia, wondering whether to stay with UnitedHealthcare or switch to Anthem, which she said would cost her more for the upcoming benefits year in her employer plan.
Cousineau canceled a Wellstar well-check appointment recently because suddenly it was out of network. "Right now, it's an inconvenience." But her doctor as well as her kids' pediatrician are Wellstar physicians. "I'm picky about my health care," she said.
Uncertainty over covid and rising hospital labor costs are fueling the disruptions, consultants said.
Health insurers recorded sky-high profits last year as people avoided medical care because of fears about covid. This year, profits have been lower but still healthy. For hospitals, the pandemic brought mixed results. Some richer, bigger health systems racked up huge surpluses, helped by covid relief funds, while many safety-net and rural hospitals fought hard to break even.
Cole Manbeck, a spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare, said affordability of health care is of prime importance to consumers and employers. They expect the insurer to help contain costs, which requires maintaining fair and competitive agreements with hospitals and doctors in its network, he said.
Insurers also point out that health care systems have enhanced their bargaining clout by acquiring additional hospitals and doctor practices. The tough negotiations extend to physician group contracts, said Dave Smith with the health care consulting firm Kearny Street Management. Insurers, he said, "are trying to drive health care costs down, and are doing it on the backs of physicians and hospitals."
Factoring into the fray are payment delays involving insurers Anthem and UnitedHealthcare. Hospitals are dealing with a spike in retroactive claim denials by UnitedHealthcare for emergency department care, the AHA's Smith said.
KHN also recently reported that Anthem Blue Cross is behind on billions of dollars in payments owed to hospitals and doctors because of onerous new reimbursement rules, computer problems and mishandled claims, according to hospital officials in multiple states.
Tom Mee, CEO of North Country Healthcare in New Hampshire, said the outstanding claims owed to his system by Anthem rose $250,000 in one quarter to reach $1 million.
Indianapolis-based Anthem said the contract rifts and the claims issue are not related. Both it and UnitedHealthcare noted that the large majority of contracts are renewed without public attention.
Employers, meanwhile, don't like these network disruptions, said Ash Shehata, a health care consultant with KPMG. But, he added, employers also don't want to subsidize the rate increases.
"When times are good, and everybody is doing well, generally you don't see these negotiation issues," he said. "As long as the environment remains unpredictable, we'll see some unpredictable negotiations."
Contract terminations harm hospitals more than insurers, said Nathan Kaufman of Kaufman Strategic Advisors. For example, UnitedHealthcare and Anthem, which operate in several states, "can take a hit in one state," he said, because they're diversified and insurers still receive premium payments for members after a contract with a hospital lapses.
"On day one, the hospitals start feeling increased financial stress," Kaufman said. "They experience this financial jolt."
The Atlanta market is facing another such contract disruption. Anthem has alerted consumers that Northside Hospital and its facilities may not be part of its network come Jan. 1. While the Wellstar vs. UnitedHealthcare tug-of-war involves an estimated 80,000 consumers, the Northside contract could affect four or five times that many, according to Northside officials.
"Anthems timing is very unfavorable to our patients," said Lee Echols, a Northside spokesperson. "Its hard to understand. Were still in a pandemic, and this is the open enrollment period for health care policyholders. Many people are returning to their physicians and hospitals for deferred care, and Anthems threats make that process really challenging."
But Anthem spokesperson Christina Gaines said that the company is fighting to curb health care costs, and that Northside is one of the most expensive systems in Georgia.
The showdown has consumers such as Carol Lander of Sandy Springs, Georgia, concerned and confused.
She has been an Anthem member for years and has used nearby Northside facilities and doctors. She's now shopping for other plans to see if they include Northside in their networks. One insurance plan has her doctor but not her sons' physician.
"It's so frustrating," said Lander. "This is a huge deal in this area."
IMI plc (IMI or the Group) announces the proposed acquisition of Adaptas Solutions (Adaptas) for an enterprise value of $271m (202m1). Adaptas Solutions will become part of IMIs Precision Fluid OEM Business Unit within IMI Precision Engineering. For the year ending 31 December 2021, Adaptas solutions is expected to generate revenues of c.$83m, with adjusted EBITDA of c.$17m (21% margin) and adjusted EBIT of c.$14m (17% margin), all on an IFRS basis. The acquisition reflects a purchase multiple of 16x adjusted 2021 EBITDA.
The proposed acquisition of Adaptas Solutions is fully aligned with IMIs strategy and purpose [Breakthrough Engineering for a better world] and represents a highly attractive opportunity to deepen IMI Precision Engineerings Life Science offering with a complementary product portfolio and strong relationships with leading global analytical instrument manufacturers. Closing is expected to take place before 31 December 2021, subject to customary merger filings.
Adaptas overview
Adaptas is a manufacturer of mission critical mass spectrometry subsystems and components, such as electron multipliers, filaments, power supplies and ion optic grids, as well as liquid handling and lab automation components. The company is based in Palmer, Massachusetts, USA and also has facilities in Pennsylvania USA, West Sussex in the UK, New South Wales in Australia, and Qidong in China. Jay Ray (CEO) and Laura Ray (SVP, Global Integration), family owners of the business prior to the investment by Ampersand Capital Partners in 2018, will remain with the business post-acquisition, to drive profitable growth of the combined Adaptas and IMI product portfolios.
Transaction highlights
The acquisition extends IMI Precision Engineerings product portfolio further into Life Sciences fully in-line with IMIs stated strategy to develop into sustainable, profitable adjacencies.
Adaptas business model of developing customised technical solutions for its customers fits well with IMIs operating model to solve customer problems in attractive, growth markets.
Adaptas enjoys strong and long-standing relationships with key global analytical instrument manufacturers. There are clear opportunities to broaden the market access of both Adaptas and IMI through the complementary customer bases and product ranges.
The sharing of best practice between the businesses will unlock operational efficiencies across both organisations.
Adaptas robust orderbook and project pipeline offer attractive and early growth opportunities.
The acquisition is forecast to be immediately earnings accretive, deliver a financial return in excess of IMIs cost of capital by year three, and fully support IMI Precisions delivery of its existing margin targets. The transaction fully aligns with the Groups M&A guidelines and strict financial discipline. Proforma leverage (Net Debt / EBITDA) at the end of 2021 is expected to equal 1.5x, providing balance sheet capacity for further bolt-on opportunities.
Our strategy at IMI is all about delivering tremendous value by solving industry problems and putting customers at the heart of our decisions and processes. We are delighted to partner with Adaptas whose business model and values are very similar to our own and I am excited to welcome all at Adaptas into the IMI team. Roy Twite, Chief Executive of IMI
Beth Ferreira, Divisional Managing Director of IMI Precision Engineering, commented:
I am thrilled to welcome Adaptas. The business has fantastic products, and a market-leading position underpinned by deep relationships with global analytical instrument manufacturers. We are very much looking forward to working with Jay Ray, Laura Ray, and the whole Adaptas team to solve customer problems together and drive growth of our newly combined businesses.
We have built an excellent business at Adaptas with a great team. I am very excited about continuing our strategy of growth through the development of innovative products and services for our customers, and to work together with our new colleagues at IMI to accelerate the success of our combined businesses. Jay Ray, CEO of Adaptas
Herpes type 1 is sealed with a kiss for a lifetime. More than half of U.S. adults are carriers of HSV1 (herpes simplex virus type 1) which hibernates in the peripheral nervous system and can never be eradicated.
A new Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature has uncovered the virus's sneaky strategy for infecting the nervous system, opening a path to long-needed vaccine development for both HSV1 and its close sibling HSV2.
Some carriers will never even experience so much as a cold sore from HSV1. But for others, it can cause blindness or life-threatening encephalitis. There is increasing evidence it contributes to dementia.
And HSV2, which is more commonly transmitted via sexual contact, can be passed from a mother to newborn during the birthing process as neonatal herpes, appearing as lesions all over the body of the infant. Most babies recover, but in the worst cases, it can cause brain damage or disseminate through all the organs and be lethal.
"We desperately need a vaccine to prevent herpes from invading the nervous system," said Gregory Smith, PhD, professor of Microbiology-Immunology.
The new study from Smith's lab has uncovered a route to that. The study discovered how herpes kidnaps a protein from epithelial cells and turns it into a defector to help it travel into the peripheral nervous system. They have termed the process "assimilation." It's a discovery that may have wide-ranging implications for many viruses, including HIV and SARS-CoV-2, Smith said.
Riding the rails
The virus needs to inject its genetic code into the nucleus, so it can start making more herpes viruses. It reprograms the cell to become a virus factory. The big question is how does it get to the nucleus of a neuron?" Gregory Smith, PhD, Professor of Microbiology-Immunology
Like many viruses, herpes hops on train tracks in the cell called microtubules and uses protein engines called dynein and kinesin to move along the tracks. Smith's team discovered herpes uses a kinesin engine that it brings with it from other cells to ferry it to the nucleus in the neuron. That kinesin protein becomes a defector to serve the virus's purpose.
"By learning how the virus is achieving this incredible feat to get into our nervous system, we can now think about how to take away that ability," Smith said. "If you can stop it from assimilating kinesin, you would have a virus that couldn't infect the nervous system. And then you have a candidate for a preventive vaccine."
Herpes takes a 'cross-country' trip
Picture the cell as a rail yard. All tracks lead to the hub called the centrosome. There are two types of train engines: proteins dynein and kinesin. One travels toward the hub say downtown and the other leads away from it to the suburbs.
When a more typical virus, such as influenza, infects mucosal epithelial cells (cells that line your nose and mouth), it grabs onto both engines and moves back and forth on the microtubule tracts until it eventually arrives at the nucleus more or less by chance. Overall, going from the suburbs to the nucleus, via the centrosome, is a short commute.
But traveling down nerves is the equivalent of a cross-country journey. Herpes jumps on the dynein engine for this trip, but it also makes sure kinesin engines do not take it back the way it came.
"It's a long way to go," Smith said. "It probably takes eight hours for it to travel from the end of the neuron to the hub."
But the dynein engine can't take it any further than the hub. And herpes needs to reach the nucleus. That's when it reaches into its 'pocket' and pulls out a kinesin engine that it kidnapped from the mucosal epithelial cells and convinced to become part of its team. And in an act of betrayal, that assimilated kinesin ferries it right to the nucleus.
"This is the first discovery of any virus repurposing a cellular protein and using it to drive subsequent rounds of infection," said Caitlin Pegg, student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences (DGP) and lead author of the study.
"We are excited to further uncover the molecular mechanisms that these viruses have evolved that make them arguably the most successful pathogens known to science," Smith said.
Other Northwestern contributors to the study are Sofia Zaichick, PhD; and the laboratories of Jeffrey Savas, PhD, assistant professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology Division of Behavioral Neurology; and Derek Walsh, PhD, professor of Microbiology-Immunology. The laboratories of Duncan Wilson, PhD (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) and Patricia Sollars, PhD and Gary Pickard, PhD (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) also contributed to the study.
Smith is a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
The research was primarily funded by National Institutes of Health AI056346, with added support from AI125244, AI148780, AI141470 and NS106812, the National Science Foundation and the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease Training Grant T32GM08061.
The Safe Alliance in Austin, Texas, helps survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Before Texas new abortion law took effect, the organization counseled a 12-year-old who had been repeatedly raped by her father.
Piper Stege Nelson, chief public strategies officer for the Safe Alliance, said the girl's father didnt let her leave the house.
She got pregnant, Nelson said. She had no idea about anything about her body. She certainly didnt know that she was pregnant.
The girl eventually got help, but if this had happened after Sept. 1, when the state law took effect, her options would have been severely curtailed, Nelson said.
In Texas, abortions are now banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Known as SB 8, the new law represents the nation's most restrictive ban on the procedure currently in effect. According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll, Texas law is unpopular across the political spectrum.
Notably, the law makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, which runs counter to public opinion. For decades, Americans consistently have favored exceptions to strict abortion bans even in Texas. Social workers in the state said that is causing serious harm to sexual assault survivors.
While many people dont realize they are pregnant until after six weeks, Nelson said, the time frame is a particular problem for those who are repeatedly raped or abused. To cope with the trauma of the abuse, she said, they often grow numb to whats happening to their bodies.
That dissociation can lead to a detachment from reality and the fact that shes pregnant, Nelson said. And so, there again, she is not going to know that she is pregnant by six weeks and shes not going to be able to resolve that pregnancy.
Monica Faulkner, a social worker in Austin who has worked with sexual assault survivors, said not having the option of terminating a pregnancy will make recovering from an assault harder.
The impact of finally coming forward and then being told there are no options for you is devastating, said Faulkner, who directs the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas-Austin.
Being forced to carry a pregnancy to term can be harmful financially, psychologically and, sometimes, physically. For survivors, Nelson said, that burden further strips away agency after their sense of safety and control has already been violated.
And so, when you have something like SB 8, Nelson said, what it is doing is, its further taking control and power away from the survivor right at the moment when they need that power and control over their lives to begin healing.
Faulkner said its important to give sexual assault survivors options on how to move forward in their lives. She said SB 8 clearly is taking away any choice that they have.
Carole Joffe, a professor and sociologist who studies abortion policy at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California-San Francisco, said that, despite prevailing public opinion, most of the anti-abortion bills introduced across the country in recent years have not included exceptions for rape or incest.
What we have seen over the years is a dramatic escalation, she said. I think what Texas shines a bright spotlight on is what disdain we have for the needs of women and girls, or people who can get pregnant even if they dont identify as female.
The history of abortion exceptions is complicated. Joffe noted that toward the end of the 20th century it was more common for states to include exceptions for rape and incest. She said the trend to eliminate exceptions for rape and incest started about 10 years ago, after the tea party gained power in Congress and in many statehouses. As some legislatures became more politically conservative, anti-abortion groups gained influence in the lawmaking process. Meanwhile, as some state legislatures have increased restrictions on abortion, public views have remained quite stable in the sentiment that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest, Joffe said.
The kind of restrictions we are seeing are the product of growing power in state legislatures of the anti-abortion movement, she said.
In 2019, a coalition of anti-abortion groups sent letters to national Republican Party officials following the passage of a controversial abortion law in Alabama. In it, groups asked GOP leaders to reconsider decades-old talking points regarding exceptions for rape and incest.
In Texas, the growing power of hard-line conservatives in the state has helped anti-abortion advocates successfully push for more restrictive laws.
John Seago, legislative director with Texas Right to Life an influential anti-abortion group that pushed for SB 8 said the political shifts in the Texas legislature have made it easier to enact stricter abortion laws.
In the last 10 years, in Texas, our Republican majority has been growing, he said. And kind of right around 2011 and/or 2013 we were really having enough votes to pass strong legislation.
By strong Seago means not having to compromise on things like allowing abortions when severe fetal abnormalities are detected. Texas dropped those exceptions a few years ago. And now that the new law in Texas makes no exception in cases of rape or incest, Seago said, its more consistent with the underlying philosophy that groups like his hold.
We are talking about innocent human life that it is not their crime, it was not their heinous behavior that victimized this woman, he said. And so, why should they receive the punishment?
The problem of pregnancies arising from sexual assault is not a small one. One study estimates that almost 3 million women in the U.S. have become pregnant following a rape.
This story is part of a partnership that includes KUT, NPR and KHN.
Today WHO joins advocates around the world to commemorate a landmark Day of Action for Cervical Cancer Elimination and welcome groundbreaking new initiatives to end this devastating disease, which claims the lives of over 300 000 women each year.
As with COVID-19, access to lifesaving tools is constrained, with women and adolescent girls in the poorest countries deprived of clinical screening facilities, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines and treatments which those in affluent places take for granted.
The disparity between deaths from cervical cancer in high-income compared with low-income countries tells a stark story, similar to that we have seen during the pandemic, with 9 in 10 deaths from cervical cancer happening in low and middle-income countries.
Over the last decade, manufacturers have tilted supply toward wealthier locations. In 2020, just 13% of girls aged 914 years globally were vaccinated against HPV the virus that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. Around 80 countries home to nearly two thirds of the global cervical cancer burden are yet to introduce this lifesaving vaccine.
During this special day, WHO's Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, together with celebrities, first ladies, cancer survivors and health and community organizations, will help raise awareness and mobilize action one year after WHO launched its landmark global initiative to eliminate cervical cancer.
WHO is also highlighting important new breakthroughs to prevent and treat the disease, including the prequalification of a fourth vaccine (Cecolin from a third manufacturer, Innovax) for HPV, which is expected to increase and diversify vital vaccination supply.
Cervical cancer causes immense suffering, but it's almost completely preventable and, if diagnosed early enough, one of the most successfully treatable cancers. We have the tools to make cervical cancer history, but only if we make those tools available to everyone who needs them. Together with our partners in the WHO cervical cancer elimination initiative, that's what we aim to do." Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
The risk of cervical cancer increases six-fold for women living with HIV, but many have not had access to vaccination or screenings.
Tackling cervical cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic
Dr Tedros applauded countries that have adopted innovative ways to increase access to technologies and services that can stop cervical cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past year, the HPV vaccine was introduced in seven countries - Cameroon, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Mauritania, Qatar, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tuvalu bringing the total to 115.
Some countries trained healthcare workers with newer, portable devices to thermally ablate precancers. Others expanded the use of self-sampling endorsed in recently published WHO guidelines to allow women to collect their own cervical swab. This option can reduce stigma for women, provides access to those living far from health facilities, and helps congested health centres maintain safe services while respecting COVID-19 safety measures. The self-collected sample can be run on the same laboratory platforms that countries have been investing in to support PCR testing for COVID-19.
But setbacks have occurred. Access to screening services has fallen for many women and in a recent survey, 43% of countries reported disruption to cancer treatment. Meanwhile HPV vaccination rates globally fell from 15% in 2019 to 13% in 2020, amidst health service disruptions and school closures.
"There has been important progress towards cervical cancer elimination even over this unprecedented year," said Dr Princess Nono Simelela, Special Advisor to the Director-General on Strategic Priorities, including Cervical Cancer Elimination. "While we have seen major advances in new technologies and research, the critical next step is to ensure these are designed for and accessible in low- and middle-income countries, and that the health and rights of women and girls everywhere are prioritized in the recovery from COVID-19."
New technologies, investments and research to aid the fight against cervical cancer
Adding to important milestones achieved over the course of the past year, today WHO is releasing new recommendations to guide research into artificial intelligence (AI)-based screening technologies. This first-of-its-kind guidance supports developers to bring cervical cancer screening into the future, and ensure pre-cancers are detected as early as possible.
The first designated "WHO Collaborating Centre for Cervical Cancer Elimination" was also announced at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Centre at the University of Miami, which will be an important site for research and technical assistance to help countries achieve elimination targets.
The Day of Action will encompass a major global event and press availability, organized from WHO headquarters in Geneva. It will feature performances and remarks from cancer survivors and renowned artists such as Angelique Kidjo, as well as community efforts to promote vaccinations and screenings. 100 world monuments are being illuminated in teal the colour of cervical cancer elimination - to mark the day, from the Temple of Heaven in Beijing to city skylines across Australia and Canada's Niagara Falls.
"We have the tools and knowledge to eliminate cervical cancer. What we do with that is up to us," said H.E. Neo Jane Masisi, First Lady of the Republic of Botswana, who is participating in the day's events. "We can make choices that condemn women to a painful, avoidable death. Or, we can prioritize their health, so that a future generation of women and their families look back with pride at the choices we made today."
Several partners also announced important global commitments and investments during the day's events:
(Newser) Update: A money-laundering expert arrested after expertly laundering the proceeds of corruption in Venezuela has been sentenced to six months in prison. Prosecutors said retired University of Miami professor Bruce Bagleywho testified before Congress on money launderingkept a roughly $200,000 commission from the scheme. The 75-year-old could have faced more than 20 years in prison but prosecutors asked for a sentence below federal guidelines, the New York Times reports. Bagley pleaded guilty to money laundering last year. Lawyer Peter Quijano said Bagley is in poor health and has already suffered severe consequences including the loss of his career and reputation, adding he is "overwhelmed by dark thoughts" that his arrest may have caused stress that hastened his wife's death last year. Our original story from November 2019 follows:
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A money-laundering expert in Florida is facing charges of, you guessed it, money laundering. Bruce Bagley, 73, was arrested Monday for allegedly laundering at least $3 million in illegal Venezuelan money, the Miami Herald reports. But the University of Miami professorwho has served as an expert witness and testified before Congress on money launderingsays prosecutors are way off. "I'm feeling just fine," he tells CBS Miami. "Not guilty. That's how I'm feeling. They've got it all wrong." That said, the Manhattan US attorney leading the case sees it a little differently: "Today's charges of money laundering and conspiracy should serve as an object lesson for Bruce Bagley, who now faces a potential tenure in federal prison," says Geoffrey Berman.
Bagley is accused of accepting big monthly deposits in a bank account he set up for his own consulting firm, the Washington Post reports. Authorities say $200,000 deposits began showing up in the account in 2017 from Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, but really "represented the proceeds of foreign bribery and embezzlement stolen from the Venezuelan people." According to the indictment, Bagley wired 10% of the funds to his personal account and wrote a cashier's check for the rest to an unnamed Colombian individual. Bagley allegedly tried to hide the laundering by agreeing to "sham contracts" with the Colombian. Now Bagley is facing three money-laundering charges that each come with a possible 20-year sentence. He was freed Monday on $300,000 bond. (Read more money laundering stories.)
(Newser) Sure, its cool. A cave in the Italian Alps that sheltered soldiers during World War I is full of interesting archaeological treasures. Its like a time capsule. The objects recoveredstraw mattresses, helmets, newspaperswere found thanks to climate change. The cavern barracks was literally frozen in time, historian Giovanni Cadioli told the Washington Post. But the glacier it was buried in has retreated, exposing the artificial caves blasted into existence in 1915. A similar barracks discovered in 2017 has already been explored and in late 2022 it will be a museum, CNN reports. Seeds found there were planted and have already blossomed.
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Cadioli, a researcher at the University of Padua in Italy, discovered the site last year with a colleague. The retreat of the glacier exposes the site for archaeologistsand nature. Cadiolis excitement is tempered with concern. "We have an opportunity but it is an opportunity that must be grasped very quickly," he told the Telegraph. Things like clothing, books, wood, and leather will decompose in light and water. The most pressing task for researchers is to preserve anything organic preserved by the ice. Cadioli, talking to the Post while, on the other side of Europe, world leaders met for a climate summit in Glasgow, said, "Wed really rather not have retreating glaciers." (Read more strange stuff stories.)
(Newser) Accused of concealing COVID case numbers from its warehouse workers, Amazon has settled with California for half a million dollars. The agreement, just in time for the holiday shopping season, requires the retail giant to notify workers of cases in their workplace within a day and local health agencies within 48 hours. Amazon had been accused of violating Californias "right-to-know" law, making it hard to trace outbreaks of the virus. The settlement agreement doesnt include any admission of wrongdoing from the company, Reuters reports. It only applies to its sites in California.
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Amazon workers have complained that the notification system is flawed and inadequate, CNBC reports. The states attorney general, Rob Bonta, released a statement Monday that says Amazon has agreed to have its notification system monitored. The agreement hasnt been approved by a court yet, but Bonta called it a "done deal," the LA Times reports. Amazon issued its own statement through spokesperson Barbara Agrait saying there were no allegations that the company had failed to notify employees who had been in direct contact with an infected person. The statement said the company is glad Bonta "found no substantive issues with the safety measures in our buildings," Agrait said. The company is facing a worker safety lawsuit in New York, too. (Read more Amazon stories.)
(Newser) First responders would have been powerless to save Ahmaud Arbery, a forensic pathologist at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified Tuesday at the trial of the three men accused of his murder. USA Today reports Dr. Edmund Donoghue described the bullet wounds Arbery suffered in detail, specifying injuries to his wrist, chest, and armpit. He said the autopsy didn't reveal the order in which they were sustained, but that video allowed him to piece together a narrative, which he shared with the court. Donoghue says he believes Arbery had his hand in front of his chest when the initial shot grazed his wrist, severing an artery, and tore a hole in his chest, breaking a number of ribs.
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A second bullet then missed him, but he was hit by a third near his armpit, where a major artery and vein were severed That bullet paralyzed his left arm and broke additional bones. Either blast could have proved fatal on its own, he added. CNN notes that based on the video, he estimates the gun was 3 to 20 inches from Arbery's body, or "close-range to near-contact." The AP's recounting of Donoghue's testimony is much more graphic: "The shotgun blasts ... punched a gaping hole in his chest and unleashed massive bleeding," with autopsy photos shown to the jury depicting Arbery's white T-shirt "stained entirely red." His mother exited the courtroom as the photos were shown.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, who armed themselves and followed Arbery in a pickup truck after observing him running in their neighborhood, are on trial, as is neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan, who joined them and videoed Travis McMichael shooting Arbery. During cross-examination, Donoghue was asked by the defense how Arbery would have been able to hit Travis McMichael after suffering the first shot; he said he suspected Arbery was experiencing a "fight or flight reaction" and a burst of adrenaline. When asked what Arbery might have been afraid of, Donoghue said, "Well, there was a man with a shotgun and men chasing him in a pickup." (Read more Ahmaud Arbery stories.)
(Newser) Two years after an unsuspecting crowd in New York City welcomed 2020, the Times Square ball drop will return to something approaching normalat least for the vaccinated. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that crowds will be welcomed back for a " big, strong, full strength" New Year's Eve celebration, but attendees over 5 years old will have provide proof that they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Deadline reports. The mayor, whose final day in office will be Dec. 31, said the "historic moment" when the square is packed with people again will be "further evidence to the world that we are 100% back."
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"Hundreds of thousands of people there to celebrate. We can finally get back together again. Its going to be amazing," de Blasio said, per the AP. The New York Times notes that the celebration will present a "logistical, and perhaps philosophical, puzzle" for the city's police officers. Many of them resisted the city's vaccine mandate for employees, but they will be tasked with checking revelers' proof of vaccination on New Year's Eve. Tom Harris, head of the Times Square Alliance, said people who can't be vaccinated because of a disability will have to show a negative COVID test. (Last year, events were mostly virtual, with only "an extremely limited group of in-person honorees" allowed in the square. )
(Newser) The Biden administration is likely planning a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in February in response to human rights abuses in China, according to a report. Several sources tell Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin that a formal recommendation has been made to President Biden that the US refrain from sending an official delegation to China, meaning no US government official will attend. Though the decision hasn't been finalized, according to Rogin, Biden is expected to approve the plans before December. This is meant to send a message to the Chinese government about its human rights abuses without putting the onus on athletes.
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Some had expected Chinese President Xi Jinping to personally invite Biden to the Beijing Games during a 3.5-hour virtual meeting on Monday, but the Olympics didn't come up, deputy White House spokesman Andrew Bates confirmed to the Guardian. Biden did, however, raise concerns about China's "practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as human rights more broadly," according to the White House. The administration has upheld the Trump administration's determination that abuses against ethnic minorities, including Uyghur Muslims in China's northwest Xinjiang province, represent an ongoing "genocide." It has also been critical of the Chinese government's interference in Hong Kong and repressive moves in Tibet.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called for an economic and diplomatic boycott of the Olympics back in March, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a diplomatic boycott at a hearing in May. "What moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world if you're willing to pay your respects to the Chinese government as they commit genocide?" she said. But others say a diplomatic boycott will have no effect on China's human rights abuses. Michael Mazza, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, tells the Guardian that a delegation should instead be sent to highlight the problem. And if China tries to block the delegation, "make them do that quite publicly." (Read more 2022 Beijing Olympics stories.)
(Newser) The jury in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial had its first day of deliberations in Kenosha, Wisconsin Tuesday, and it got off to an unusual start. Judge Bruce Schroeder had the defendant pull slips of paper from a raffle drum to determine which six of the 18 people who had been in the jury box would be dismissed as alternates. Kenosha News reports that Schroeder often has the defendant pull the numbers for the alternates, though most judges in the county assign the task to the court clerk. Former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney Julius Kim tells Time that he's never seen a judge allow the defendant to draw the names before.
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The move "might be a little unconventional but theres nothing wrong with it that I could really see," Kim says. Schroeder later said that he has been having defendants draw the numbers for "20 years, at least." The dismissed jurors will not be deciding Rittenhouse's fate, but the defense has asked them to remain in the courthouse until a verdict is reached.
The 12 who were sent to deliberate included seven women and five men, all of them white except for one man, NBC reports. Three white women and three white men were dismissed. The jury failed to reach a verdict Tuesday and will return for more deliberations Wednesday morning, the AP reports. Rittenhouse, 18, killed two men and wounded a third during protests in the city last year. He faces five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, but the jury will have the option of considering lesser charges, reports Kenosha News. (Schroeder has told jurors to disregard the opinions of everybody else, including presidents.)
(Newser) Update: Enrique Tarrio has lost his bid to be released from jail early. A judge has ruled that the Proud Boys leader will not be put on house arrest or have his sentence reduced just because he complained about conditions in the District of Columbia Jail, the Guardian reports. Superior Court Judge Jonathan Pittman said corrections officials conceded that many of Tarrio's allegations about the jail and his treatment were true, per the Washington Post. But Pittman said the answer is to improve conditions for all inmates. Our original story from Nov. 16 follows:
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The leader of the Proud Boys says he's being held in shameful conditions. Enrique Tarrio, who began serving a 155-day sentence at the District of Columbia Jail on Sept. 6, asked a judge Monday to release him and place him on home confinement because of "inhumane" conditions, the Guardian reports. He said the 45-year-old DC jail should be shut down immediately. "I've been to jail before and what Ive seen here, I've never seen anywhere else," Tarrio, appearing in DC Superior Court via video, told the judge. "Its insane. It's a gulag."
Tarrio, who was arrested two days before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot for burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historic Black church, said guards were abusive and prisoners with medical issues were neglected. In a motion for emergency released filed last week, Tarrio's lawyer, Lucas Dansie, said Tarrio was frequently denied running water, served cold or inedible food, and "intimidated and antagonized by correctional staff to dissuade him from making complaints about the horrendous conditions."
Authorities agreed to make changes at the DC jail after a surprise inspection from the US Marshals Service last month found conditions similar to those described by Tarrio's lawyer, reports the Washington Post. Judge Jonathan H. Pittman said he would rule on Tarrio's request later this week, though he questioned why Tarrio would be more eligible than other prisoners to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. "What makes Mr. Tarrio different from all the other prisoners?" the judge asked. (Read more Proud Boys stories.)
(Newser) Pfizer asked US regulators Tuesday to authorize its experimental pill for COVID-19, setting the stage for a likely launch this winter of a promising treatment that can be taken at home. The company's filing comes as new infections are rising once again in the United States, driven mainly by hot spots in states where colder weather is driving more Americans indoors, the AP reports. Pfizers pill has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections. The Food and Drug Administration is already reviewing a competing pill from Merck and several smaller drugmakers are also expected to seek authorization for their own antiviral pills in the coming months.
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"We are moving as quickly as possible in our effort to get this potential treatment into the hands of patients," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. Specifically, Pfizer wants the drug available for adults who have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections and are at risk of becoming seriously ill. That's similar to how other drugs are currently used to treat the disease. But all FDA-authorized COVID-19 treatments require an IV or injection given by a health professional at a hospital or clinic. The FDA is holding a public meeting on the Merck pill later this month to get the opinion of outside experts before making its decision. Its not yet known whether Pfizers drug will undergo a similar public review.
Pfizer reported earlier this month that its pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89% among high-risk adults who had early symptoms of COVID-19. The company studied its pill in people who were unvaccinated and faced the worst risks from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity. If authorized, the FDA will have to weigh making the pill available for vaccinated people dealing with breakthrough infections, since they weren't part of the initial tests. For best results, patients need to start taking the pills within three days of symptoms, underscoring the need for speedy testing and diagnosis. (Pfizer signed a deal Tuesday to allow generic drugmakers to produce low-cost versions of the pill for certain countries.)
(Newser) The Texas doctor who was punished for spreading misinformation regarding COVID-19 has resigned from the hospital she was affiliated with, ABC 13 reports. Dr. Mary Bowden, a former ear, nose, and throat specialist at Houston Methodist, tweeted Monday, "I have broken free from Methodist and very much appreciate the flood of support I have received! Sincere thanks to all of you who have reached out with kind words." The hospital then announced her resignation Tuesday, CNN reports. Bowden had used her social media accounts to criticize vaccine mandates and to advocate for ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug that both the CDC and the FDA have warned against using to treat COVID.
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Her lawyer says Bowden's "early treatment methods work and are saving lives," claiming she has treated more than 2,000 COVID patients at her private practice and none had to go to the hospital. As for vaccines, the attorney says Bowden is not anti-vaccine (she herself is vaccinated), she just thinks people should have a choice in the matter. Bowden has said that she "only needed [her affiliation with Houston Methodist] just in case I had to put a patient in the hospital. But I haven't had anybody in the hospital." In her letter to the hospital resigning her hospital privileges, she said the hospital's claims that she is spreading misinformation are "defamatory." (Read more COVID-19 stories.)
(Newser) Activision Blizzard employees staged a walk-out Tuesday after a damning report about the videogame company's CEO came out. Robert "Bobby" Kotick knew about allegations of sexual misconduct at the company for years and tried to keep things hush-hush, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Since the lawsuit filed in July and multiple regulatory investigations launched into the company in recent months, Kotick has told the board of directors and executives at the company that he didn't know about the allegations, sources say. But the Journal reports that as far back as 2018, Kotick received an email alleging a female employee at the company had been raped multiple times by her male supervisor. The woman reported one of the rapes to police, and had also reported the incidents to HR, with no action being taken, sources say.
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Ultimately, the company reached a settlement with the woman out of court, and Kotick allegedly kept the incident from the board of directors. It was 2018 when regulators began investigating allegations of sexual misconduct at the company, and the memos, emails, and other documents the Journal reviewed show a pattern of Kotick being aware of the allegations but keeping what he knew quiet. Some employees say they were asked to keep quiet about what they knew, as well. The Journal's full investigation, which includes allegations that have not been previously reported publicly, is here. It also alleges it was Kotick, not the female employee purported to have written it, who authored a very controversial letter to workers that served only to infuriate them after allegations started making headlines earlier this year.
Employees cited the Journal article when staging their second walkout of the year, NBC News reports. "We have instituted our own Zero Tolerance Policy," they write at a newly-created Twitter account. "We will not be silenced until Bobby Kotick has been replaced as CEO, and continue to hold our original demand for Third-Party review by an employee-chosen source." Activision Blizzard replied with a statement saying the employees have the "right to express their opinions and concerns in a safe and respectful manner, without fear of retaliation." As for the Journal article, Kotaku has a lengthy statement from the company, which says the piece presents a "misleading view" of Kotick and the company. Kotick himself is accused of threatening to kill or "destroy" female employees. Shares dropped following the Journal report, CNBC reports. (Read more Activision stories.)
(Newser) A single-engine, one-seat air tanker that was thought to be the first fixed-wing plane to fight a fire at night using night vision crashed near Estes Park, Colo., on Tuesday night, killing the pilot, reports 9News. According to a release from the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, the accident was first reported shortly after 6:30pm, with the crash site located about three hours later on the south end of Hermit Park. "We are sad to report that the pilot and only occupant of the aircraft did not survive," the release notes.
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The Air Tractor that the pilot was flying can dump up to 14,000 gallons of water per hour, and for this flight, it was to be equipped with special infrared lighting that would have been used while the pilot donned night goggles, per the Coloradoan. The plane looks to have gone down about 30 minutes after takeoff from Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland. 9NEWS reporter Marc Sallinger says he talked to the "very excited" pilot shortly before takeoff about this flight that would "make history."
"It's a pretty cool thing to be a part of," Sallinger quoted the pilot, whom he didn't ID, as saying. "This is the culmination of about five years of pretty hard work." The wildfire, which started Tuesday morning and had burned through about 130 acres as of that evening, was apparently started by a tree blown over by high winds that then fell into a power line. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are heading up the investigation into the plane crash. (Read more plane crash stories.)
(Newser) A self-portrait of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, also featuring her husband, has become the most valuable work by a Latin American artist ever to sell at auction. Kahlo's "Diego and I"a close-up of the artist's face with a miniature portrait of her husband, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, situated on her foreheadsold for $34.9 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Tuesday. Rivera actually held the previous auction record for a Latin American artist. His painting "The Rivals" sold for $9.76 million in 2018, which is equivalent to $10.75 million today, reports the New York Times. The previous auction record for a Kahlo work was $8 million, set in 2016, according to Sotheby's.
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The auction house said the 1949 oil painting "Diego and I"Kahlo's last major self-portrait before her death in 1954, per the Washington Postwas purchased by Eduardo F. Costantini, an Argentine real estate developer and founder of a museum in Buenos Aires, for his private collection. The seller wasn't revealed. The painting sheds light on the turbulence in the couple's relationship, which was "punctuated by a string of infidelities on both sides," per the Post. (They married in 1929, divorced in 1939, then remarried in 1940, per Rise Art.) Kahlo is shown with three teardrops under her eyes and hair wrapping around her neck, for a less poised appearance than in other paintings.
Rivera had begun an affair with Kahlo's friend, actor Maria Felix, in the year the painting was created, per the Post. Rivera is shown with a third eye "to symbolize the degree to which he occupied her consciousness," per Sotheby's. The painting was previously sold by Sotheby's for $1.4 million in 1990. Tuesday's price "is the result of massive pent-up interest in the artist and very little inventory," Gregorio Luke, former director of California's Museum of Latin American Art, tells the Times. He notes Mexican laws prevent most sales of works by major 19th- and 20th-century artists within the country, so "there are probably less than 20 to 30 paintings of hers on the market." (Read more Frida Kahlo stories.)
(Newser) If you happen to have handed over a massive spider with fangs almost an inch long to an anti-venom program in Australia, the Australian Reptile Park wants to hear from you. The park says the funnel-web spider, nicknamed "megaspider," is the largest arachnid of this kind that the facility has ever seen. It measures about 3 inches from foot to foot, with a body that's 1.9 inches wide, which is unusually large. The Australian Museum notes that body size is at the top end of the spectrum for a funnel-web spider, whose body can be as small as a third of an inch.
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This giant spider (see it in action here) turned up at the park in a clear plastic container bearing no information on the donor or where it was found, the Guardian reports. The park on the New South Wales Central Coast encourages citizens to catch funnel-web spiders that can be milked for venom. The venom is then used to make antivenom, which saves some 300 lives each year, according to the park. "We are really keen to find out where she came from in hopes to find more MASSIVE spiders like her," the park's education officer, Michael Tate, says in a statement, per KSL. "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."
Not all of the 40-or-so varieties of funnel-web spiders are known to be dangerous, "but several are renowned for their highly toxic and fast acting venom," according to the Australian Museum, which notes the black or brown arachnids found in eastern Australia are "the most notorious members of our spider fauna." Male Sydney funnel-web spiders are believed to be responsible for all 13 recorded deaths in humans. Luckily, "no deaths have been recorded since the introduction of an antivenom in 1981," the museum notes. (Read more spiders stories.)
(Newser) Josh Duggar's wife, Anna, announced the birth of their seventh child Tuesday, two weeks before the start of Duggar's trial on child pornography charges. Anna announced the birth of Madyson Lily Duggarwho joins siblings Mackynzie, 12; Michael, 10; Marcus, 8; Meredith, 6; Mason, 4; and Maryella, 1in a post on Instagram, per USA Today. She revealed she was pregnant only days before her husband was arrested in April. The troubled former 19 Kids and Counting star pleaded not guilty to two counts of downloading and possessing child pornography before he was released into the custody of third-party custodians. He can have no contact with children other than his own and can only see his own children if his wife of 13 years is present, as a condition of his bail.
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His trial, delayed from July, kicks off at Arkansas' Fayetteville District Court on Nov. 30. If convicted, Duggar could face up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for each of the two counts. In the lead-up, the defense has sought to exclude evidence related to his pornography addiction and his alleged molestation of five girls in 2002 and 2003. His parents previously confirmed the molestation, for which Duggar has never faced charges, while two sisters, Jill Duggar, 30, and Jessa Duggar, 29, came forward as victims. The two are joined by sisters Jinger Duggar, 27, and Joy-Anna Duggar, 24, in suing the City of Springdale and members of its police department for breach of privacy over the release of records related to the abuse, with a trial set to begin Dec. 9, per Radar Online. (Read more Josh Duggar stories.)
(Newser) Dr. Howard Weiner has spent 20 years on research leading up to this moment: the "landmark first human trial" of an Alzheimer's disease nasal vaccine. Sixteen people ranging in age from 60 to 85 will get two doses over the course of two weeks at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston as part of the small, phase I clinical trial, which WBUR reports will begin next month. The goal with this go-round: to determine the proper dosage and safety of the vaccine. If all goes well, larger subsequent trials would evaluate its effectiveness.
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The vaccine is intended to both prevent Alzheimer's and slow its progress, reports CBS News. It relies on Protollin, a substance "designed to activate white blood cells found in the lymph nodes on the sides and back of the neck to migrate to the brain and trigger clearance of beta amyloid plaquesone of the hallmarks" of the disease, per the hospital, which adds that Protollin has been safely used in other vaccines. WCVB describes Protollin as "composed of proteins derived from bacteria" and able to "[stimulate] the immune system."
Weiner calls the trial a "remarkable milestone" in a press release. "Over the last two decades, we've amassed preclinical evidence suggesting the potential of this nasal vaccine for AD. If clinical trials in humans show that the vaccine is safe and effective, this could represent a nontoxic treatment for people with Alzheimer's, and it could also be given early to help prevent Alzheimer's in people at risk." (Read more discoveries stories.)
(Newser) Update: Missing 3-year-old Tennessee boy Noah Clare and his 16-year-old cousin Amber Clare have been found "safe and sound" in San Clemente, California, authorities say. Jacob ClareNoah's father and Amber's unclehas been taken into custody. Clare and the children, who had been missing since Nov. 6, were spotted by San Clemente resident Julia Bonin when she was dropping her kids off at school Thursday morning, Fox reports. Jacob Clare has been charged with aggravated kidnapping. "THEY GOT THEM!!!!!" Noah's mother said in a Facebook post. Our original story from Nov. 17 follows:
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Police in southern California are urging residents to be on the lookout for a Kentucky man and the two children he is accused of kidnapping. A Subaru Legacy belonging to 35-year-old Jacob Clare was found in San Clemente, Orange County, Tuesday, but authorities are still searching for Clare, along with 3-year-old son Noah Clare and 16-year-old niece Amber Clare. The children were last seen Nov. 6, KTLA reports. An endangered missing advisory has been issued for Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties.
Relatives say Clare, who has weekend visitation rights with his son, left Beaver Dam, Kentucky, with the boy and his niece but never showed up at Noah's mother's home in Gallatin, Tennessee, WKBO reports. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert for Noah on Tuesday, reports the Tennessean. An Amber Alert has also been issued in Arizona, where Clare's vehicle was spotted last week. Authorities say Jacob Clare faces charges of especially aggravated kidnapping. A California Highway Patrol advisory states that Clare, who is 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds, is "believed to be armed and dangerous."
Amanda Ennis, Noah's mother, told WKBO she has a message for Clare: "Keep him safe." "I dont know what is going through his mind," she told the station. "He clearly has a lot of deep issues going on mentally that I pray that once they are found that he gets help. I just I pray that he keeps Noah safe until he is back home with me." The CHP's advisory states that Noah is 3 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 40 pounds, and has brown hair and blue eyes. Amber is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. (Read more missing child stories.)
(Newser) Update: A Manhattan judge on Thursday threw out the convictions of two men convicted of killing Malcolm X decades ago. Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam both wrongfully served years in prison before being released in the 1980s. A new investigation cleared the men, and even the admitted gunman says the pair were not involved. Our original story from Wednesday follows:
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The Manhattan district attorney's office says it is righting a wrong that's more than half-a-century old by seeking the exoneration of two men who spent decades in prison for the assassination of Malcolm X. Manhattan DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and lawyers for the two men, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, say they expect the convictions to be thrown out at a hearing Thursday in New York State Supreme Court, reports the Washington Post. A 22-month investigation of the 1965 murder of the civil rights leader was sparked by a Netflix documentary that unearthed new evidence, reports the AP.
It found that prosecutors, the NYPD, and the FBI withheld evidence that could have cleared the two men, who were known at the time as Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. "These men did not get the justice that they deserved," Vance tells the New York Times. Aziz, now 83, was released from prison in 1985. Islam was released in 1987 and died in 2009. They were arrested days after Malcolm X was gunned down by three men in a New York City ballroom shortly after he began a speech. Mujahid Abdul Halim was arrested at the scene.
He testified that Aziz and Islam were not the other two gunmen and had nothing to do with the crime, but all three received life sentences. Halim was paroled in 2010. Vance's office says the review found that the FBI withheld evidence that pointed to other suspects and supported the men's alibis; indeed, a still-living witness verified that Aziz was home with an injured leg when the shooting occurred. "This wasnt a mere oversight," says Deborah Francois, a lawyer for the two men. "This was a product of extreme and gross official misconduct." (Read more Malcolm X stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99707)
Today
Variably cloudy with snow showers. High 11F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 60%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..
Tonight
Occasional snow showers. Low 2F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. About one inch of snow expected.
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
Community Perspective
Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer.
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Trend Micro blocks 5.4 million cyber threats in Bahrain during first half of 2021
Trend Micro blocks 5.4 million cyber threats in Bahrain during first half of 2021
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com
Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, has detected and blocked 5,435,089 email threats in the Kingdom of Bahrain, according to its mid-year security round-up report for the first half of 2021.
It also reveals that it prevented 670,547 malicious URL victim attacks and 1,122 URL hosts.
In addition, 219,796 malware attacks were identified and stopped, while 115 online-related banking malware threats were blocked.
The report also shows that home networks in Bahrain were a major attraction for cybercriminals looking to pivot to corporate systems, devices and networks.
Trend Micros Smart Home Network (SHN) solutions blocked nearly 9,814 SHN inbound and outbound attacks combined, preventing 474,328 such SHN events for hackers to target or control home devices from executing malware, obtaining sensitive information, intercepting communications, or launching external attacks.
Today, most enterprises are adopting a Hybrid work model, hence there is a need for a robust cyber security infrastructure to secure it from the modern-day threats, said Assad Arabi, Managing Director, Trend Micro Gulf Cluster.
Companies need to evaluate their security stance against the evolving threat landscape and protect their IT environments from the malicious actors that are incessantly seeking vulnerabilities.
Our mid-year-round up report sheds light on the threat landscape for enterprises in Bahrain and highlights the need for companies to adopt a strong IT security posture and strategise their way forward in the new digital economy.
Trend Micro has been collaborating with the public and private sectors to raise awareness and resolve gaps to enable secure digital transformation journeys for organisations in Bahrain.
The company is at the forefront in introducing new security solutions for businesses, leaving no stone unturned in providing enhanced visibility, threat intelligence, and extended detection and response at every stage of their IT systems.
To continue its pursuit against the evolving threat landscape, Trend Micro will be hosting CLOUDSEC 2021 from November 16th to 18th, 2021, to further empower organisations in the MENA region to reimagine their cloud security.
During the event industry leaders, experts, and specialists will discuss recent cyber security trends, followed by engaging panels discussions & seminars, and new-age initiatives securing every stage of the digital transformation, from the edge to the cloud.
Global threat
The report states that globally Trend Micro solutions blocked 40.9 billion email threats, malicious files, and malicious URLs for customers in H1 2021, with a 47% year-on-year increase.
Ransomware remained the standout threat in the first half of the year as cybercriminals targetted big-name victims.
Hindustan Times | New Delhi
The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com
Travellers from 99 countries, who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), have been exempted from mandatory quarantine on arrival in India, according to a recently updated notification by the Union government.
These countries, which include Bahrain, US, UK, France, Germany and Israel, among others, have been listed under Category A in the government notification.
Although travellers from these 99 nations have been exempted from mandatory quarantine, they will be required to follow certain norms that remain the same for all travellers.
Countries that feature in the Category A list
As many as 99 nations are included in the Category A list as mentioned in the notification by the central government.
Bahrain, United States, Great Britain, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Bangladesh, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and Nepal are some of the countries that feature in the list.
Fully vaccinated travellers from Category A countries are exempted from compulsory quarantine.
However, they must self-monitor their health for the 14 days starting from the date of arrival in India.
If they develop signs and symptoms of Covid-19 or test positive for the infection on re-testing, they will immediately self-isolate and report to their nearest health facility or call National helpline number (1075)/State Helpline Number, the notification noted.
Travellers, who are partially vaccinated or not vaccinated against Covid-19, must submit their sample for testing on arrival in India.
They also need to undergo home quarantine for seven days, take a Covid-19 test again on the eighth day, and if found negative, further self-monitor their health for the next seven days.
Countries categorised as Countries at-risk by India
As many as 10 countries feature in this list, including South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Singapore, New Zealand, Mauritius, Bangladesh and the UK.
Guidelines for travellers from nations Considered at-risk but feature in Category A list
Singapore, Zimbabwe and the UK are three nations that are considered at risk by India and yet feature in the Category A list. However, travellers from these countries will still be exempted from mandatory quarantine and will be permitted to leave the airport on arrival in India, with the requirement to self-monitor their health for the next 14 days.
Duration Covid-19 relaxations effective for the 99 countries
According to the government notification, the relaxations have been effective since November 12 and will remain in place till further orders. However, based on risk assessment the guidelines will be reviewed from time to time.
Contributed photo
HAMDEN A new Asian restaurant will be moving into a vacant space on Whitney Avenue next spring.
Roishi Ramen will be moving into the 3,400-square-foot space formerly occupied by Roost at 2308 Whitney Ave., according to Stephen Press, the Hamden-based real estate agent who represented the property owner in the transaction. The new lease for the property was signed Nov. 1 and Roishi Ramen is scheduled to open March 1.
Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk has been nominated by USA Today as one of the Best Holiday Historic Home Tours in the U.S.
The Museum is competing against 20 museums and institutions from all over the country. While the nominated list was selected by USA TODAY's experts, it will be the public who will decide which 10 win the award, according to the website. The public can cast votes daily starting Nov. 16 until Dec. 6. Last year, LMM made it to the final 10 at number five.
DANBURY The Zoning Commission refused to consider last-minute revisions to a proposal that would pave the way for a homeless shelter to permanently operate in a former motel.
The commission again continued the public hearing on the proposed zoning regulations after a nearly five-hour meeting Tuesday night. The next public hearing is scheduled for Thursday evening over Zoom for the applicants to speak a final time, ahead of an expected vote on Nov. 23. Commission members terms are up Dec. 1.
Theyll vote without the revisions the applicants submitted on Monday. The plan has been before the commission since September.
It has been the history of this commission to disregard much less substantive revisions to petitions than this one, member Robert Melillo said. I would tend to believe this would be a relatively major change to the petition, which could have swayed public comment one way or the other.
He added the citys corporation counsel could have advised the commission differently based on these amendments.
The applicants propose amending the zoning regulations to allow a shelter in the CA-80 zone, an arterial commercial district that includes the Super 8 property at 3 Lake Ave. Extension.
The new amendments addressed safety concerns and would have contained a transitional shelter for the homeless at the Exit 4 ramp of Interstate 84, rather than abutting any I-84 ramp.
Attorney Tim Hollister accepted the commissions decision. He represents Pacific House, a Stamford-based nonprofit that operates the shelter at the former Super 8 property.
Please understand my motive was to give you an alternative, he said. You chose not to take it. Thats fine.
Daniel Casagrande, attorney for the city, told commission members they could decide whether to consider the revisions, but he warned doing so could be legally risky if the commissions decision were appealed.
It raises the bigger issue, however, why would you want to create an appellate issue on this point at this stage of the proceeding in this case? he said. This is not a usual application.
The commission has received 741 exhibits and held about 18 hours of meetings on the proposal, which has the backing of city and state officials. Neighbors near the facility vehemently oppose making the homeless shelter there permanent, citing concerns for safety, businesses, children and quality of life. Homeless individuals have been staying there for most of the coronavirus pandemic.
In my experience, this is the most controversial land use application Ive seen in my tenure representing you, said Casagrande, who has 30 years with Danburys land use commissions.
He feared the courts would nullify the entire zoning process if the commission considered the revisions, approved the application and then opponents appealed.
I cant think of a more substantial waste of time and resources that this would impose for the commission, the applicants, the opponents and the public, Casagrande said.
Pacific House would need to return to the Zoning Commission for further approvals even if the overall proposal is granted. The applicant may return to the commission to seek the amendments they requested this week, Casagrande said.
Under the rejected revisions, shelter applicants would be required to include a detailed plan for safety and security, as well as form a neighborhood crime watch program with law enforcement and nearby property owners.
Ben Doto, one of the residents opposed to the shelter, said the amendment was a blatant admission of the serious crime problem theyre having at this shelter.
It was personally just a hail Mary to secure a few of your votes, to feel comfortable about voting yes on this and overlooking some of the serious issues we see with crime, he said.
The rejected revisions would prevent shelters from being proposed at the Crown Plaza property or a lot on the Reserve. Officials have said it would be unlikely for shelters to be proposed there, but the existing application allows it.
That change concerned Chairman Theodore Haddad Jr. because the commission doesnt have the citys legal opinion on it.
If we entertain this, we don't even have a report from corporation counsel because it discussed the three parcels, he said.
Casagrande said that change could affect whether the application is viewed as spot zoning, a concern discussed throughout the hearings.
Haddad argued the changes could have affected the entire public hearing.
I dont know what somebody else would have said, he said. I dont know what any speaker would have said. I dont know what kind of exhibits would have come in. I dont know anything about what would happen if this was done in the beginning.
WASHINGTON (AP) The House will vote Wednesday on a resolution to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a sword.
Democratic lawmakers said Gosar's actions amounted to threating another member's life, calling the video so beyond the pale." Republicans warned Democrats to be careful about dictating the punishment of those who serve in the minority because of the precedent it will set. Earlier this year, the House stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments for spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.
This is a dark and dangerous road the majority is going down, said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the House Rules Committee. I urge you for the future of the chamber to rethink this course.
Gosar posted the video over week ago with a note saying, Any anime fans out there? The roughly 90-second video was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip, interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border.
During one roughly 10-second section, animated characters whose faces had been replaced with Gosar. Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado were shown fighting other animated characters. In one scene, Gosars character is seen striking the one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. The video also shows him attacking President Joe Biden.
I don't know if it was to create harm, if it was to incite violence, if it was to fuel hate, but it probably accomplished all of those things," said Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. We have an obligation to live up to the highest standards possible, but also to hold each other up to those standards. If we don't do it, then what we are doing is allowing for a new norm to be created."
Last week, Gosar issued a statement saying the video wasnt meant to depict harm or violence, calling it instead a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy.
He told his House Republican colleagues during a private meeting Tuesday that he would never espouse violence or harm to anyone. Gosar noted that he took the video down from his account, according to a person in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday he has not apologized to her.
Its been well over a week. He not only has not apologized," she said. He not only has not made any sort of contact or outreach, neither he nor the Republican leader (Kevin) McCarthy, but he has also doubled down by saying that I am somehow, you know, representative of undocumented people.
In a perfect world, hed be expelled," she told reporters. We are not in a perfect world, so censure and removal from committee I believe is appropriate.
The resolution coming up for a vote states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials. It also cites the insurrection of the Capitol on Jan. 6 as an example. The resolution goes on to say that violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted.
A censure resolution, if approved by a majority of the House, requires the censured lawmaker to stand in the well of the House as the resolution of censure is read aloud by the House speaker.
The House has censured its members on 23 occasions. The last censure resolution was approved in 2010 involving Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, for financial misconduct. The censure carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker's career.
The censure resolution also calls for Gosar's removal from the two committees he serves on: the Committee on Natural Resources and Committee on Oversight and Reform, which includes Ocasio-Cortez.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., was one of the few Republicans saying he would vote to censure Gosar.
We have to hold Members accountable who incite or glorify violence, who spread and perpetuate dangerous conspiracies. The failure to do so will take us one step closer to this fantasized violence becoming real," Kinzinger tweeted.
Associated Press staff writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) An influential U.S. advisory panel will discuss expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to all adults Friday, a move that could make the shots available nationwide as early as this weekend.
Some cities and states already allow all adults to get boosters of Pfizer's vaccine, but it is not yet official U.S. policy. In the last week, California, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia and Colorado expanded the shots to all adults. New York City made a similar move.
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators last week to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to sign off on Pfizer's application before the advisory panel meets Friday. The final step CDC's official recommendation could come soon after the meeting.
The move would greatly expand who is eligible. Boosters are now recommended for people who initially received their second Pfizer or Moderna shots at least six months ago if theyre 65 or older or are at high risk of COVID-19 because of health problems or their job or living conditions. Boosters are also recommended for people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months ago.
Nearly 31 million Americans have already received a dose beyond their original vaccination, including those with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients who need an extra dose to be fully vaccinated.
While all three vaccines used in the U.S. continue to offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 illness and death, the shots effectiveness against milder infection can wane over time.
Pfizer has submitted early results of a booster study in 10,000 people to make its case that its time to further expand the booster campaign. The study found that a booster could restore protection against symptomatic infection to about 95%, even as the extra-contagious delta variant was surging. Side effects were similar to those seen with the companys first two shots.
Members of the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, have debated in prior meetings whether there is sufficient evidence that boosters are currently needed for all adults.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this story from Washington.
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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.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)
Officials are so alarmed about the surge in COVID-19 cases in Minnesota that they're ready to allow all adults to get vaccine booster shots by the end of the week if the federal government doesnt approve them first, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Tuesday.
Malcolm announced the plan to join other states in expanding booster shot availability on a day when Minnesota's COVID-19 death toll eclipsed 9,000 people as the state struggles with one of the nation's highest infection rates.
Minnesota had the country's worst rate over the past week until Tuesday, when its rate was eclipsed by Michigan's, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Minnesota had 490 new cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days, compared with 504 for Michigan.
Given the alarming surge in COVID cases that Minnesota is facing, with the current case levels that we have, and as we now head indoors for the winter and gather for the holidays, this booster protection is particularly important and timely, Malcolm said at a briefing for reporters.
The Minnesota Department of Health on Tuesday reported 51 new deaths, which raised the states pandemic total to 9,047. But the state actually passed the grim milestone earlier because of a delay in data reporting due to the Veterans Day holiday last week. It also reported 10,913 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, pushing the states pandemic total to 857,791.
Minnesota's hospital capacity continues to tighten, Malcolm said, with 1,348 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, including 307 in intensive care units. Those were the worst numbers since late December. It's even tighter for pediatric beds, she said.
Malcolm said she would love to have more insight into why Minnesota has turned into one of the county's worst hot spots. One theory is that Minnesotas rate growth has been slow and steady since mid-July and is high now because people have headed indoors as temperatures have cooled. She also cited the phenomenon of waning immunity, noting that the new surge has happened more than six months after many people were vaccinated.
On the positive side, Minnesota was second among all states in booster doses administered, Malcolm said.
We're optimistic that the message from Minnesota and many other states has been heard and that the federal government is close to announcing that expansion, she said. However, I would say that given the very serious circumstances we're (having) here in Minnesota, we've been communicating with our federal partners that we are preparing to move ahead independently this week."
The commissioner released a letter sent Monday by her and Dr. Sheldon Berkowitz, president of the Minnesota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, to all Minnesota superintendents and school board members urging them to follow the latest federal guidance on prevention in schools. Besides promoting vaccinations for everyone ages 5 and up, they also joined in urging all K-12 schools to require universal masking.
Education Commissioner Heather Mueller sent a letter in the same vein this week to families with school-aged children. She urged families to keep schools safe by promoting masking, getting vaccinated and other safety measures, so they can ensure that students can stay in their classrooms for in-person learning.
The vaccine was recently approved for 5- to 11-year-olds. Although schools are trying to get as many children immunized as possible, there are still many communities where only half of the 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated.
Berkowitz told reporters Minnesota has seen over 175,000 cases, including four deaths, in people 20 or younger. He called vaccinations for children and the adults them come into contact with clearly our best chance to truly get this virus under control.
LAS VEGAS (AP) A Las Vegas mans admission that he voted twice in November 2020 in a case that state Republicans seized on to claim voter irregularities amounted to a cheap political stunt that backfired, a state court judge said Tuesday.
Donald Kirk Hartle appeared by videoconference from his defense attorneys office to plead guilty to a misdemeanor voting more than once in the same election and told Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny he accepted full responsibility for his actions and regrets them.
Hartles attorney, David Chesnoff, prevented his client from having to describe publicly how he voted early using a ballot that had been mailed to his dead wife. Rosemarie Hartle died in 2017 but her name remained on the voter rolls.
Chesnoff told the judge that state Attorney General Aaron Fords office agreed to reduce two felony charges against Hartle to the misdemeanor.
Kierny made it clear she was unhappy with the deal but accepted it. Hartle was fined $2,000 and has to stay out of trouble for one year. The judge set a Nov. 17, 2022, date to review the result.
This seems to me to be a cheap political stunt that kind of backfired, Kierny said, and shows that our voting system actually works because you were ultimately caught.
Not to follow the negotiations would be a political stunt of my own and I am not willing to do that, she added.
Hartle, 55, chief financial officer for companies owned by state Republican party finance chairman Donald Ahern, could have faced up to eight years in prison if convicted of the two felonies.
Ahern's company hosted a reelection campaign event in September 2020 for then-President Donald Trump, and Ahern owns a Las Vegas hotel at which a national group espousing fringe QAnon conspiracy theories met in October.
Ford, a Democrat, and Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, issued a joint statement after Hartles plea.
I am pleased that the truth was uncovered, said Cegavske, who was censured last April by her own party after being accused of failing to fully investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.
Cegavske repeatedly defended Nevadas election results as reliable and accurate, and denied claims of widespread fraud despite attacks from Trump and other Republicans. Cegavske said after she was reprimanded by the Nevada GOP that she had been attacked for refusing to put my thumb on the scale of democracy.
Though rare, voter fraud can undercut trust in our election system, Ford said in Tuesdays statement, adding that his office will pursue any credible allegations of voter fraud.
The Secretary of States office investigators began a probe of Hartles case a year ago, said Jennifer Russell, spokeswoman for Cegavskes office, after former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt and American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp held a news conference to allege widespread voter fraud in Nevada.
Laxalt co-chaired the Trump campaign in Nevada. He is now seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
Schlapp named Rosemarie Hartle and one other person among what he said were hundreds of cases of dead people voting in Nevada.
Investigators determined the other case, involving a woman who used a deceased relatives ballot instead of her own, was accidental.
Cegavskes office said in April that reviews of election fraud allegations delivered to her office by the state GOP in March found some were already under investigation and most were baseless or inaccurately interpreted.
Nevada GOP officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to messages about Hartle's plea.
Ford on Tuesday called Hartles case particularly egregious because the offender continually spread inaccurate information about our elections despite being the source of fraud himself.
The Nevada GOP tweeted a year ago about Hartles claim that someone voted with his wife's ballot and urging media "to understand we are finding concrete cases of voter irregularities that they must expose.
Hartle, in an interview with KLAS-TV at the time, said his case lent some credence to what youve been hearing in the media about these possibilities and now it makes me wonder how pervasive is this?
State and federal courts in Nevada and other states rejected dozens of election challenges by Republicans and Trumps presidential campaign, including claims of widespread voter fraud.
Certified results in Nevada showed that President Joe Biden, the Democrat, defeated Trump by 33,596 of 1.4 million votes cast, or about 2.4%.
Hartle's was the only active voter fraud case in Nevada, Ford's office said.
In an earlier Nevada case, a 53-year-old man was sentenced last July to up to two years of probation for his guilty plea to one felony charge of voting twice in Benton, Arkansas, and in Las Vegas during the 2016 presidential election.
At least five other people have been convicted in Nevada since 2011 of registration fraud during voter recruitment, and one woman pleaded guilty to trying to vote twice in 2012.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Wednesday that a statewide cut in gross receipts taxes will be on her agenda when the Legislature meets in January.
She made the announcement during an economic development event Wednesday in Albuquerque. The first-term Democratic governor is running for reelection and has been battling criticism over her handling of the pandemic and economic fallout among businesses across the state.
CODY, Wyo. (AP) Wildfires pushed by strong winds forced the evacuation of homes in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and led to a death in Wyoming, officials said Tuesday.
Downed power lines caused a fire near the northern Wyoming community of Clark on Monday night that burned at least two homes and seven outbuildings, said Jerry Parker, the Park County Fire District administrator. Wind gusts topped 100 mph (161 kph) in the area Monday night.
Kristie Hoffert, medical chief for the Clark Fire District, said the person who died was a family member of a firefighter.
It hits incredibly close to home for our department, she told The Cody Enterprise on Tuesday. We are struggling.
Officials did not release any information on how the death occurred.
Clark resident James Hayes told the newspaper that he was forced to flee his home at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, shortly before the fire encircled it. He returned later Tuesday to find his property mostly unscathed, he said.
The fire burned about half a square mile (1.4 square kilometers) of land, Parker said.
In south-central Montana, a fire reported at about 11:30 p.m. Monday led the Stillwater County Sheriff's Office to order evacuations southwest of the town of Absarokee, including an area between the communities of Ingersoll and Roscoe.
Thirty-five evacuation notices were issued and deputies also went door-to-door, but it's not clear how many people left their residences, the sheriff's office said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Right now, weve got firefighters, engines and dozers working to get ahead of the fire, Absarokee Volunteer Fire Rescue Department Chief Amanda Ferster told The Billings Gazette. There have been no reports of injuries or major structures destroyed, she said.
The fire had burned an estimated 6 square miles (16 square kilometers) in timber and rough terrain by Tuesday afternoon. Rain fell on the area Tuesday morning, but the wind increased the fire activity in the afternoon, said Tammie Mullikin, a spokesperson for the Stillwater County Sheriff's Office.
In north-central Colorado, a fire southeast of Estes Park forced evacuations in a forested region of Larimer County while sending plumes of smoke toward the eastern plains.
The fire was first reported about 7 a.m. in rugged terrain and triggered evacuations in the Hermit Park and Little Valley areas near Estes Park and, later, southward to the Boulder County line and east of U.S. Highway 36 between Estes Park and Lyons. The blaze grew to 115 acres (47 hectares), the Larimer County Sheriffs Office said.
The cause of the fire was unknown.
Winds gusting to 45 mph (73 kph) fanned the fire slowly eastward. Steep terrain of pine and scrub brush made it difficult for local fire crews to gain access. Officials reported 11% containment Tuesday afternoon.
County officials had no immediate reports of structures being damaged. It wasnt immediately known how many people received evacuation notices, said sheriffs Deputy Chris Smith.
The National Weather Service in Boulder said an approaching cold front could bring higher wind gusts to the area late Tuesday but lower temperatures just above freezing on Wednesday.
A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
The Ben's Original packaging includes the new brand name featured on a familiar orange background and same navy-blue font to help shoppers easily find their favourite rice. Inside the packaging, shoppers will continue to find a wide range of simple and tasty rice dishes with flavours and textures that serve as the cornerstone of so many favourite meals that invite people to gather around the table.
The brand is not just changing its name and image on the package. It is also taking action to enhance inclusion and equity, and setting out its new brand purpose to create opportunities that offer everyone a seat at the table.
"Everyone deserves to feel welcomed, heard and have access to nutritious food. Ben's Original is not just a packaging change, it comes with a new ambition to actively create a more inclusive future," said Eric Huston, Market Director, Mars Food Canada. "We knew when we pledged to evolve the Uncle Ben's brand that it meant more than simply changing our name. Enhancing equity and inclusion means committing to actions that help deliver true equity to underserved communities across Canada."
The brand is also launching the Seat at the Table Fund in Canada to create equal opportunities for people from under-represented and equity-deserving communities to pursue careers in the food industry
The Seat at the Table Fund helps students pursue careers in the food industry through financial awards and educational opportunities. The scholarship program will be rolled out nationally across Canada in 2022 with the goal of helping advance diversity and representation across Canada's culinary landscape.
In the Canadian expansion of the program, which has also been announced in the US and UK, Ben's Original will be partnering with four of the top culinary programs across Canada to provide $200,000 of funding over two years to students who identify as Black, Indigenous or Persons of Colour to help them successfully complete their education. The renewable, needs-based award is designed to help students overcome inequitable financial barriers and positively affect the pathway to employment and advancement within the food industry.
"Building a more inclusive future for Canada's culinary industry requires investing in voices from underserved and underrepresented communities today, so they can be heard tomorrow," said Damian Goulbourne, Dean, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, Centennial College. "The Ben's Original Seat at the Table Fund will help mitigate financial disadvantages and help a more diverse group of students take steps towards being Canada's next food leaders."
Ben's Original Seat at the Table Fund awards will be available to culinary students at Vancouver Community College (BC), Humber College (ON), Centennial College (ON) and Institut de tourisme et d'hotellerie du Quebec (QC). The application process and criteria for the program will be released in 2022 and be administered directly through the schools. Interested applicants who would like to stay informed on future updates are encouraged to reach out to [email protected].
Ensuring underserved communities have access to the nutritious meals we all deserve
In addition to the Seat at the Table Fund launch, the brand is also continuing to deliver on its commitment of ensuring underserved communities have access to nutritious meals. In Canada this year, the brand has donated more than $250,000 worth of food, including the first pallet of the new Ben's Original product produced in Canada, to long-term local partner, Caledon Community Services, located in Bolton, Ontario where Ben's Original rice is made.
These steps are in addition to Ben's Original initiatives in other countries as well as commitments from Mars, Incorporated to continue to improve racial equity throughout its business, from increased representation in its workforce, leadership and talent pipeline, to better utilizing its spend, specifically among suppliers, to drive positive change.
The Canadian launch is supported by the first Ben's Original global marketing campaign "Everyone's Original." The first commercials from the new campaign, which are now airing nationally across Canada, feature a collection of six real families who gather around the table for their favourite meals featuring Ben's Original jasmine rice. The families include a Black nuclear family, a pair of friends, three roommates, a single-parent family, a family that uses sign language and a multi-generational Pakistani family. The content shows the unique recipes, traditions and interactions that make each of the real families original.
For more information about Ben's Original including images of the new packaging, visit: https://ca.bensoriginal.com/en-ca.
About Mars Food
Mars Food is a fast-growing dinnertime food business, making tastier, healthier, easier meals that bring the world to the dinner table. With North American headquarters in Chicago, Ill. and global headquarters in London, Mars Food US's portfolio of leading brands includes BEN'S ORIGINAL, SEEDS OF CHANGE, and TASTY BITE. Our purpose Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow. drives our business to be a leader in health & wellbeing and sustainability. Mars Food is a segment of Mars, Incorporated. For more information about the BEN'S ORIGINAL Brand and its purpose initiatives, visit https://www.mars.com/ or https://ca.bensoriginal.com/en-ca.
SOURCE Mars Food Canada
For further information: Samantha Dickson, Corporate Affairs Manager, [email protected], M: 647-355-7731
Agenda Will Showcase Our Culture and Differentiated Value Creation
TORONTO, ON, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - Equitable Group Inc. (TSX: EQB) (TSX: EQB.PR.C) (Equitable or Canada's Challenger Bank) will host institutional investors and research analysts at an in-person Investor Day on March 7, 2022.
Equitable's senior leadership team will join Andrew Moor, President and Chief Executive Officer and Chadwick Westlake, Chief Financial Officer to present the next phase of the Bank's strategy. The session will focus on growth and diversification plans, demonstrate upcoming capabilities, and dive into evolving areas including open banking and digital bank innovation.
"We have consistently outperformed peers on a total shareholder return basis for the past decade. Our industry-best performance is a direct result of the consistent application of our approach to value creation for customers and investors. We are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to share strategic insights and showcase the depth and breadth of our world class leadership team," said Mr. Moor. "By March, we think the time will be right to host this event safely and in compliance with all public health requirements. We look forward to being the first Canadian bank to restore this very meaningful platform for investor relations and have free flowing dialogue in a dynamic setting."
In addition to presentations and Q&A sessions, institutional investors and analysts will tour the Bank and meet other members of Equitable's award-winning Challenger Bank team. While in-person capacity will be limited to institutional investors and analysts, a live webcast will be available to all investors and interested parties, including the opportunity to ask questions of management. Institutional investors and analysts will receive a personal invitation and are encouraged to reserve early as space is limited.
"March is an ideal time for this forum as we usher in our financial objectives for 2022, and we look to commence reporting segmented results by business lines in Q1 2022, as well as additional metrics that our stakeholders can use to measure progress," said Mr. Westlake. "We encourage everyone to participate in this event hosted by the Bank that challenges the status quo to enrich the lives of Canadians."
About Equitable
Equitable Group Inc. ("Equitable") trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: EQB and EQB.PR.C) and serves over three hundred thousand Canadians through its wholly owned subsidiary Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank. Equitable Bank (the "Bank") has grown to become the country's eighth largest independent Schedule I bank with a clear mandate to drive real change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Founded over 50 years ago, Equitable Bank provides diversified personal and commercial banking and through its EQ Bank platform (eqbank.ca) has been named #1 Bank in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks 2021 list. Please visit equitablebank.ca for details.
For More Information:
Richard Gill Sarah Farano Senior Director, Corporate Development & Investor Relations Investor Relations & Finance Manager [email protected] [email protected] 416-513-3638 416-513-4144
SOURCE Equitable Bank
The CMOs will be paid $4,000 s(mac)karoos (CAD) for treating their friends and family to a bolder and definitely cheesier mac. With flavours like Bold & Cheesy and Cheesy Jalapeno, all the way to Flamin' Hot, it's time to make a bold move with Cheetos Mac 'n Cheeseno ketchup required. You're welcome.
"We know letting go of an old friend isn't always easy, but we're confident that nothing heals better than a bowl of bold and cheesy Cheetos Mac 'n Cheese," said Logan Chambers, Senior Director of Marketing, PepsiCo Foods Canada. "With the help of our new Cheetos (Mis)Chief Officers, the Cheetos brand is encouraging Canadians to live Dangerously Cheesy and move on to a hot new mac."
CMOs might go big and replace everything in their kitchen with Cheetos new, sexy macs, or they could offer the last person to text them a hot bowl of Cheetos Mac 'n Cheese delivered to their door.
So if you're up for upgrading your roommates' mac stash to our hot, new mac; or hosting a candlelit dinner with the most romantic meal of all (three types of Cheetos Mac 'n Cheese), apply now for the brand's tastiest and ch(easiest) job in Canada. For more information about the position and to apply, visit cheetosmacncheese.castingcrane.com
Cheetos Mac 'n Cheese pasta with sauce is available at retailers nationwide in three flavours: Bold & Cheesy, Flamin' Hot and Cheesy Jalapeno. Get your paws on the newest mac in the market today!
About Cheetos
Cheetos is one of Canada's favourite chip brands under the Frito-Lay Canada portfolio. As one of PepsiCo Canada's flagship brands, wherever you find the Cheetos brand and Chester Cheetah, cheesy smiles are sure to follow. Learn more about the brand at the corporate website, http://www.cheetos.ca and on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/cheetoscanada.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, Tropicana and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. "Winning with Purpose" reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of our business strategy and brands. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com .
SOURCE Cheetos
For further information: Alexandrea Smith, Citizen Relations LP, [email protected]
This 5-year commitment will initially allow 4 new school breakfast programs to open in Indigenous communities in Nunavut , Northern Manitoba and Alberta , with additional schools to follow in 2022 and subsequent years.
In addition to financial contribution, Danone commits to donate 2.5 million products to Breakfast Club of Canada every year.
In 2021, Breakfast Club of Canada and Danone Canada are celebrating 25 years of partnership and 25 million individual Danone product units donated.
MISSISSAUGA, ON and BOUCHERVILLE, QC, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Breakfast Club of Canada and Danone Canada are thrilled to announce a significant commitment to give children across Canada an equal chance of success. Danone Canada, one of the Club's founding partners, has announced a new commitment to donate $1,200,000 over the next 5 years to support the opening new school breakfast programs in communities where the need is greatest.
According to the most recent data on food insecurity, as well as projections related to access to school food programs, Breakfast Club of Canada estimates that one in three children is at risk of starting their school day on an empty stomach. For Indigenous children, this figure rises to one in two children.
"Over the past year, there has been a significant increase in attendance and in the need for additional breakfast programs," explained Tommy Kulczyk, General Manager of Breakfast Club of Canada. "We believe that helping children get the energy they need to learn is a shared responsibility and are truly grateful for the relationship we have built with Danone Canada, which shares our commitment to put children first. Twenty-five years of partnership is a significant milestone, and we look forward to many more years of collaboration with such an exceptional partner."
Danone Canada's commitment will initially help Breakfast Club of Canada reach an additional 1,000 children every day. The following four schools will immediately benefit from new breakfast programs and additional schools will follow in 2022 and subsequent years:
Sam Pudlat School Elementary School , Cape Dorset , Nunavut;
, , Nunavut; Kisemattawa School , Shamawattawa, Manitoba;
, Shamawattawa, Manitoba; Gift Lake School , Gift Lake Metis Settlement, Alberta ; and
, Gift Lake Metis Settlement, ; and Mistassiniy School, Desmarais, Alberta
Danone Canada has been dedicated to helping children since 1996, when it first partnered with Breakfast Club of Canada, an organization that shares its commitment to nourishing lives and fighting food insecurity. In addition to financial contributions, Danone Canada employees collectively volunteer to serve 38,000 nutritious breakfasts every year.
In 2021, the company will surpass a cumulative 25 million individual product unit donations in support of Breakfast Club of Canada's quest to ensure that children from coast-to-coast-to-coast begin their day with a healthy, balanced breakfast.
"Danone's mission to bring health through food has never been more important," stated Dan Magliocco, Danone Canada's president. "As a Certified B Corp, we are committed to using our business as a force for good, and there is no better way to do so than to help bring healthy breakfasts to children. We look forward to building upon our longstanding relationship with Breakfast Club of Canada as we strive for a healthier world in which all children can reach their full potential."
About Breakfast Club of Canada
Accredited by Imagine Canada for its effective governance, the Club provides much more than breakfast: its approach is based on commitment, self-esteem and capacity development using an optimal formula adapted to local needs. Breakfast Club of Canada helps feed more than 500,000 children and youth in over 3,000 programs in academic and community settings across the country.
For more information about Breakfast Club of Canada, visit www.breakfastclubcanada.org, Facebook (@BreakfastClubDejeuner), Twitter (@ClubDejeuner) or Linkedin.
About Danone Canada
Danone Canada is a business unit of Danone and operates from head offices in Boucherville, Quebec, and Mississauga, Ontario. Danone Canada is the country's largest consumer-facing Certified B Corporation, demonstrating that the company meets the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Danone Canada's ambition is to produce healthful dairy, plant-based products and coffee creamers and beverages, create economic and social value, and nurture natural ecosystems through sustainable agriculture. Its portfolio of brands includes Activia, Oikos, DanActive, Danone, Silk plant-based foods and beverages, So Delicious Dairy Free, StokTM, International DelightTM and more.
For more information about Danone Canada, visit www.danone.ca, Facebook (@danonecanada), Twitter (@DanoneCanada) or LinkedIn.
SOURCE Danone Canada
For further information: Breakfast Club of Canada, Nathalie Rochette, 514-404-5660, [email protected]; Danone Canada, Eric Aach, 514-569-3594, [email protected]
Related Links
http://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/
LONGUEUIL, QC, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - In light of recent media revelations about its Malaysian supplier and partner, Supermax Healthcare Canada wishes to unequivocally condemn the alleged practices and reaffirm its commitment to ensuring the respect of workers' rights throughout its supply chain. The allegations reported in the media are unacceptable and, as soon as we obtain all of the information on these, the company will consider all options available to rectify the situation, including sourcing from an alternative supplier, regardless of Supermax Corp.'s financial stake in the Canadian company.
Supermax Healthcare Canada is a Quebec-based company whose management is assumed by the Quebec shareholder. In keeping with its values, the company invested during the pandemic to maximize local production of personal protective equipment, such as surgical masks. However, the company, like 65% of the world, sources its disposable gloves from Malaysian suppliers.
Supermax Healthcare Canada regularly request informations from its Malaysian supplier and partner, Supermax Corp. which is fully responsible for the management of the disposable glove factories. In recent years, none of the audit reports shared with the Canadian company have indicated such treatment of workers. The most recent report dates from December 2019 and was forwarded, along with all of the requested documentation, to the Canadian government in the wake of disturbing allegations against other glove manufacturers in Malaysia. The Government of Canada was satisfied with the documents shared.
Last October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruling against Supermax Corp. and some of its subsidiaries led Supermax Healthcare Canada to seek further clarification from its Malaysian supplier and partner. The Malaysian partner confirmed that two labor audits are currently being conducted by independent firms and that two additional U.S. auditors will also conduct analysis and monitoring through April 2022. In addition, Supermax Corp. said it is in discussions with various diplomatic bodies in Malaysia, including the Nepalese and Bangladeshi embassies, to help migrant workers assert their rights.
If the recent reported allegations are substantiated by the findings of these audits, Supermax Healthcare Canada will explore all possible options to address the situation and take swift action to ensure that workers' rights are respected in its supply chain. The company is eagerly awaiting the results of these independent audits, which are intended to clarify the situation for everyone.
About Supermax Healthcare Canada
Founded in 2004, Supermax Healthcare Canada is based in Longueuil and employs nearly 40 workers. With its new surgical mask production plant, it aims to promote the local supply of personal protective equipment in Quebec and Canada. Supermax Healthcare Canada is a member company of the Supermax Berhad Group, located in Malaysia. The Supermax Berhad Group is the second largest manufacturer of disposable gloves in the world and exports its products to over 160 countries.
SOURCE Supermax Healthcare Canada Inc.
For further information: Frederique Lorrain, TACT, [email protected]
According to a South China Morning Post report, the People's Liberation Army has deployed at least one long-range strategic H-6K bomber to its borders with India.
In another act of aggression towards India, China has reportedly deployed bomber aircraft close to the LAC. According to a South China Morning Post(SCMP) report, the Peoples Liberation Army has deployed at least one long-range strategic H-6K bomber to its borders with India. The report says that state broadcaster China Central Television(CCTV) aired footage on the occasion of PLAFs 72nd anniversary that showed an H-6K bomber flying with what appears to be the Himalayan peaks in the background, indicating its close physical proximity with the Line of Actual Control(LAC).
The report cited military a source who informed that the bomber is temporarily deployed in the Xinjiang region that comes under the Western Theatre Command of the PLA that is responsible for the front with India. The source also stated that the H-6K are usually based out of the Shaanxi province.
According to the report, Zhou Chenming, a military scholar pointed that the CCTV footage did not include images of the long-range CJ-20s which the H-6K is capable of carrying. Zhou called it a careful warning from the PLA to India.
There has been a considerable military buildup on both sides of the LAC since the border conflict between India and China flared up in Ladakh in 2020. India deployed L70 anti-aircraft guns, Swedish Bofors guns along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh in October, shortly after the 13th round of military commander-level talks failed between the two countries.
Underlining that Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against New Delhi, India at United Nations Security Council slammed Islamabad for raking up the Kashmir issue and called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation. I would like to categorical about Indias position, the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation, Dr Kajal Bhat, Counsellor at Indias Permanent Mission to the UN, said on Tuesday (local time). I am constrained to take the floor once again to respond to some frivolous remarks made by the representative of Pakistan earlier today, Bhat said before beginning her response at UNSC.
Stressing that this is not the first time that the representative of Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against India, Bhat said that Pakistans representatives sought in vain to divert the worlds attention from the sad state of his country, where the terrorist enjoy free pass by the lives of ordinary people especially those belonging to the minority communities are turned upside down. She also emphasised that member states are aware that Pakistan has an established history and policy of harbouring, aiding and actively supporting terrorists. This is the country that has been globally recognised as one openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists as a matter of state policy, Bhat said.
Indias Counsellor also underlined that Pakistan holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UNSC. Stating that New Delhi desires normal neighbourly relations with all countries including Pakistan, she said that India is committed to addressing outstanding issues if any, bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration.
However, any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror hostility and violence, Bhat said. Stressing that the onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere, she said, till then India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross border terrorism.
The diaries and letters of Lord Mountbatten, India's last viceroy, are the subject of an appeal hearing this week in London, which will determine whether they may be made completely public.
The First-Tier Tribunal appeal, headed by Judge Sophie Buckley, is all set to hold a hearing until Friday to determine the fate of certain censored parts of the diaries and letters dating back to the 1930s. It comprises journals and correspondence from Lord Louis and his wife, Lady Edwina Mountbatten, that spans a significant time in British history, particularly when Mountbatten was in charge of the partition of India and Pakistan. The diaries and letters of Lord Mountbatten, Indias last viceroy, are the subject of an appeal hearing this week in London, which will determine whether they may be made completely public.
According to PTI, the UK Cabinet Office claims that much of the information in the files is already public and that keeping any of it would jeopardize the UKs ties with other countries. The Mountbatten family sold the historical material, known as the Broadlands Archive, to the University of Southampton in 2011 for more than GBP (British Pound Sterling) 2.8 million, with the goal of making the documents freely available. On the other hand, the institution sent some of the letters to the Cabinet Office.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) ruled in favour of Lownie in 2019 and ordered the release of the whole Broadlands Archive, which includes Lady Mountbattens letters to Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as copies of his letters to her. The University of Southampton reacted at the time by declaring that the letter between Lady Mountbatten and Nehru remained private property and remained a secret, but that the University had an interest in it in the future. The ICOs decision has since been appealed, and the First-Tier Tribunal will hear it this week.
Mountbattens diaries contain personal communication within the royal family, which has been mentioned as another cause for certain edits. Mountbatten was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, an uncle to the late Duke of Edinburgh, and a great-uncle to Prince Charles. The witness statement from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) highlights the possible harm and provides facts for the Tribunal to consider in its balancing of the public interest evaluation. Meanwhile, oral witness testimony and cross-examinations continue during the hearing, with a judgement likely at a later date.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Rachel Kyte, Tufts University
(THE CONVERSATION) How much the world achieved at the Glasgow climate talks and what happens now depends in large part on where you live.
In island nations that are losing their homes to sea level rise, and in other highly vulnerable countries, there were bitter pills to swallow after global commitments to cut emissions fell far short of the goal to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F).
For large middle-income countries, like India and South Africa, there were signs of progress on investments needed for developing clean energy.
In the developed world, countries still have to internalize, politically, that bills are coming due both at home and abroad after decades of delaying action on climate change. The longer the delay, the more difficult the transition will be.
There were also signs of hope as coalitions of companies, governments and civil society and indigenous peoples groups forced progress on issues such as stopping deforestation, cutting methane, ending coal use and boosting zero-emissions vehicles. Now, those promises must be acted upon.
As a former senior U.N. official, Ive been involved in the climate negotiations for several years. Here are five key elements to watch over the coming year as countries move forward on their promises.
Bending the curve to 1.5C
Going into the Glasgow summit, countries commitments had put the world on a trajectory of warming about 2.9C this century, well beyond the 1.5C goal and into levels of warming that will bring dangerous climate impacts. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis announcement in the first days (much to the surprise of Indian observers) that India would reach net zero emissions by 2070 and generate 50% of its energy from renewables by 2030 helped lower that trajectory to 2.4C.
Countries agreed to return for the next round of climate talks in November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with stronger commitments to put the world on track for 1.5C.
That turns the spotlight back on national action. China reminded everyone, while throwing shade at the U.S., that goals must be backed with plans for implementation. U.S. Cabinet members and Congressional leaders had much to say in Glasgow about being back, after the previous administration withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. Yet they had little to offer in terms of the U.S. share of the finance, and the world cast a worried eye over its continued partisan politics.
More South Africa deals, please
While all countries are important for reaching the worlds climate goals, some are more important than others.
Countries that are high emitters and heavily dependent on coal will be a focus of international attention in the coming months, not just to phase down coal but importantly to fund a just transition to green sources of energy and the necessary electricity infrastructure.
The poster child for this approach is South Africa, where a presidential commission has worked for three years to develop a just transition plan and has been able to attract US$8.5 billion from the U.K., the EU, the U.S. and others to help them execute on it. That, coupled with guarantees and other financial aid that could help draw further private investment, could become a replicable model.
The key was national ownership. In the year ahead, look for plans to come together in Indonesia and Vietnam and other countries needing to fast forward away from coal.
Getting climate finance flowing
Many developing countries already have national platforms to deliver on their commitments, but throughout Glasgows conference halls, officials complained that finance wasnt flowing to help them succeed.
This isnt just a climate finance problem. Many countries are also facing economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and have chafed at the way international financial institutions fail to address issues of access to finance and trade. Advanced economies didnt come to Glasgow ready to provide even the $100 billion a year in finance promised a decade ago, which shrank the landing zone for agreement on all issues.
The Chinese calculate the value of growth lost through a few measures, such as floods and heat. Unsurprisingly it amounts to trillions of dollars. It may be a useful exercise whenever a government balks at the cost of climate action.
In the end, governments agreed to reach the $100 billion annual climate finance target within the next two years and agreed that adaptation funding should double. But with the U.N. Environment Programme estimating that adaptation funds will need to quadruple by 2030 from todays $70 billion, theres a long way to go.
The Glasgow Climate Pact also criticized the traditional channels of public funds that set the conditions for finance to flow, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Look for G7 and G20 countries, the largest shareholders of these institutions, to examine how they can be managed differently to respond to the climate emergency. All eyes are on Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, current president of the G20 and an experienced central banker. Actions could range from bolstering the Climate Investment Funds, managed by the World Bank, and loosening the terms and conditions of the IMFs proposed management of the reallocation of special drawing rights, to incentives to leverage more private funds and take more risk.
Finance pledges and cries of greenwashing
In the first week of Glasgow, the titans of the financial industry heralded the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero the commitment by financial institutions representing $130 trillion in assets to accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. The shifts within financial markets away from exposure to carbon emissions was palpable. But without more detail, the announcement attracted cries of greenwashing.
Organizers of the alliance will need to work hard to hold members to account, and throw out those still underwriting the coal industry, for example. The principle of getting everyone pledged and in the tent and then making them improve has been used before, for example, the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. But this only works with transparency, and buried among the press releases was their report that, of the advertised $57 trillion of the initiatives assets under management, only an estimated 35% is actually in line with net zero.
The U.N. secretary-general announced an expert group to propose clear standards for companies and others making net zero commitments, partly in response to furor around greenwashing. That group is expected to report back in 2022. At the heart of Glasgow was a new seriousness around transparency, credibility, integrity and accountability. Watch this unfold this coming year.
The third leg of a wobbly stool: Loss and damage
Climate action is a three-legged stool mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.
Loss and damage was mentioned an unprecedented 12 times in the final Glasgow texts, but without commitments to funding or mechanisms to secure funding. Loss and damage, or reparations, can be understood this way: you broke it (or endangered it), you pay for it. But, afraid of lawsuits in international courts which the U.S. does not belong to or afraid of the costs, developed countries have opposed progress on the issue in recent years.
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Developing countries left Glasgow disappointed, but there was no escaping the debate. Watch for a design of a mechanism to help pay for loss and damage and plans to start funding it. With the next years U.N. climate conference in Africa, this will move center stage.
Theres a Scottish proverb, fools look to tomorrow, wise men [sic] use tonight. There were wise people in Glasgow, and fools too. But theres not a night to lose in the year ahead.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/cop26-left-the-world-with-a-climate-to-do-list-here-are-5-things-to-watch-for-in-2022-172024.
BRUNSWICK. Ga. (AP) Race was always going to be at the forefront of the trial of three white men charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in a coastal Georgia neighborhood.
But a defense attorney's quickly rejected call to kick out Black pastors, including Jesse Jackson, from the Glynn County courtroom intensified frustrations and added fresh agony to a lingering wound that many in the community had hoped the trial could start healing.
About a mile from the courthouse in the majority Black city of Brunswick, Tony Bryant has been following the proceedings.
Sitting outside the front door of his apartment with peeling teal paint and a view of cranes at the state of Georgias port along the East River, he said the way race has seeped into the trial has been discouraging but not surprising from seating an almost all-white jury when 27% of Glynn Countys 85,000 people are Black to trying to kick out Jackson and other pastors.
Three white men killed a Black guy. Come on, man. Who did they think was going to be there to support his family? Bryant said.
The request was especially offensive because pastors play an important role in comforting people who are hurting and demanding justice, said John Perry, a pastor and the former leader of Brunswicks chapter of the NAACP.
I believe were seeing overwhelming evidence that points us toward guilt, and so theres been an attempt to take the focus off of the evidence, Perry said.
After Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others sat with Arberys family in court, defense attorney Kevin Gough asked the judge to kick out the pastors, saying civil rights icons could influence the jury.
We dont want any more Black pastors coming in here ... sitting with the victims family, trying to influence the jurors in this case, Gough said last week. The attorneys for the other two men on trial did not join Gough.
Sharpton said he started gathering dozens of Black pastors to pray outside the courthouse Thursday with lawyers representing Arberys family.
They tried to ban one. Were coming back with a hundred, Sharpton said.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley called the request against the Black pastors reprehensible because in America trials and courtrooms are open for all outside of pandemic concerns, and the pastors had followed those rules.
That opinion was echoed throughout Brunswick, from groups of white and Black pastors gathering outside the courthouse each day to shop owners a few blocks away, where a glance to the left sees dozens of expensive boats docked.
Melissa Bagby winced when a reporter asked her about the attorney's request Tuesday.
That was disgusting, she said behind the counter of The Market, a store full of knickknacks, whimsical signs and a cat named Sasha who leads customers to her food bowl.
Arbery wasn't armed and wasn't doing anything wrong, Bagby said. I think they're trying to do whatever they can.
The city of 15,000, which is the gateway to idyllic spots along the coast and surrounded by a county where a significant majority of people are white, has talked and prayed its way through the anger after the men werent charged for more than two months after a video of them chasing Arbery in pickup trucks was released and state investigators took over.
In Brunswick, white and Black people make a point to sit at the dinner table and drink tea and lemonade and eat chicken and biscuits while sharing their thoughts and experiences, said the Rev. Abra Lattany-Reed, a Black pastor who has lived in Brunswick all her 60 years.
But each new point of racial division from the trial hurts her goal of bringing Black and white people together to solve other, more persistent problems.
It sets us back because it takes us away from conversations that were already going on, said Lattany-Reed, who pastors Harpers Chapel United Methodist Church. Its taken our attention away from education and economic justice and stimulating the economy for the common good.
With the trial winding down, Brunswick is preparing for a possible verdict.
If it comes back not guilty, I would leave town for at least three days. Not guilty would open the flood gates, said Perry, the local civil rights leader.
None of the businesses near the courthouse, accustomed to taping up or boarding windows when hurricanes threaten, have taken precautions.
Danielle Brazell and other business owners worried last year when a protest outside the office of a local prosecutor who initially chose not to charge the men attracted national attention.
I felt better after that, said Brazell, who owns the Rose & Vine gift shop. I think they will be found guilty. They deserve it for what they did. But if they aren't, I think people will understand it isn't the community's fault.
Before testimony in the trial started, outgoing Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey, who is Black, and Glynn County Commission Chairman Wayne Neal, who is white, spoke in a video with a number of other people in the community urging unity and togetherness.
Im praying that this doesnt become a racial divide, Harvey said Tuesday. We have a chance to show the world that we know how to keep the peace in a peaceful town.
___
Reeves reported from Birmingham, Alabama. AP writer Russ Bynum in Brunswick contributed to this report.
NEW HAVEN Millions of New Haven-area residents and visitors have passed through Union Station over the years on their way to or from Metro-North, Amtrak trains or Shore Line East trains.
But has anyone been there just for lunch, dinner or some drinks?
That could happen under a new 35-year agreement, extendable to 55 years, between the city, the state Department of Transportation and the New Haven Parking Authority, which aims to develop the station itself and use it as an anchor to spur development in the area around it.
An amended version of the agreement that the Board of Alders approved includes the addition of a 10-year-review of how the partnership is going and some language encouraging apprenticeship programs to help funnel local residents into any new jobs the redeveloped station might create.
The 10-year review is in addition to a 33-year review that already was in the agreement.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, D-22, who had pushed for apprenticeship opportunities, after Westville Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, the Finance Committee co-chairman, proposed the changes and the alders approved them unanimously, said I stand in support of this item today.
Support for apprenticeships was one of the things that came out of last months Finance Committee meeting and Im so happy that the administration agreed to add the apprenticeship language into the agreement, Morrison said.
Alders Anna Festa, D-10, and Abby Roth, D-7, also support the plan.
The station has 4 million people that come through it each year, said Festa. Im confident that once high-speed trains become a reality ... this will open the door to more train ridership and improve the citys economy.
Roth said she was excited by the plans to expand retail and shopping at Union Station, which she said was underutilized.
The three-part project includes 600 new parking spaces, an intermodal center to connect bus riders to the trains and improved retail options that had some alders drawing comparisons to the kinds of things that have been done in much larger cities, such as Grand Central Station in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.
Both are full of shops, quick-serve restaurants and even higher-end sit-down restaurants such as the Grand Central Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. New Havens Union Station is limited these days to a convenience store, Subway and Dunkin Donuts but that will change.
New Haven Union Station is really a treasure for a city, City Plan Director Aisha Woods told an alder committee last month. This work will really transform Union Station ... as a catalyst for the whole area.
The three key documents that the Board of Alders approved included:
A lease, operating and funding agreement between the city and the DOT to manage and operate Union Station and the nearby State Street Station, along with their parking lots and garages. While it has a 35-year initial term, it offers two 10-year options to renew it.
A Capital Partnership Agreement which specifies broad terms to redevelop Union Station and its campus, including 600 new parking garage spaces, an intermodal center for bus riders and an improved and upgraded retail environment at the station.
A subcontracting agreement between the city and the New Haven Parking Authority that transfers full authority to manage the station to the authority. It would offer an initial term of five years, with automatic five-year-term renewals to follow.
The long talked-about agreement was first laid out in September 2020 after years of squabbling between the city and the state over who would control the stations future.
It will result in the construction of a new 600-space garage with a front-facing component and renovate the stations first floor, second floor and basement to create a new retail environment, according to Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli.
It will enlist the New Haven Parking Authority, which has run the station since it reopened to the public after being renovated in the 1980s, to continue to run the station and garage and ensure that the money thats made at Union Station, stays at Union Station, Piscitelli has said.
Piscitelli has called the agreement a deal that will stand the test of time for the next 35 years.
He and other officials say the changes brought by the new agreement will elevate Union Station already a key factor in the citys develop and a linchpin of several different plans to reconnect the city to an even greater level of importance.
Union Station, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in April 2020, was completed and opened in 1920.
It was designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert, whose other works included the Woolworth Building in New York City the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930 and the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C. The station was closed and in disrepair for many years before being renovated and reopening in the 1980s.
Douglas Hausladen, executive director of the New Haven Parking Authority, has told the alders that the new agreement will redefine that partnership that already exists and bring a new generation of investment and opportunity for our New Haven region to bear.
mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
The launch of Gov. Ned Lamonts week-old reelection campaign coincides with the mishandling of a political personnel move that has left the Connecticut Democratic Party without an executive director.
Lamont signed off on Matthew Brokman taking over as executive director of the party while retaining his job as chief of staff to the House Democratic majority, prompting concerns about potential conflicts.
In the face of questions raised within the party, Brokman has declined the executive director post and will remain as the chief of staff to House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford.
It was something that we thought we could balance, that ultimately we decided wouldnt work, Brokman said.
Aside from concerns about an executive director working less than full time in a statewide election year, the dual posts also would have put Brokman in the awkward position of overseeing fundraising and working on legislation.
Legislators are barred from raising money during legislative sessions, a recognition that soliciting or accepting contributions from persons who may have interests in pending legislation can pose a conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict.
In a brief interview, Lamont acknowledged Tuesday the dual post had raised questions about conflicts that made it untenable for Brokman to hold both jobs.
In politics in general, and especially party politics, I think youve got to be Caesars wife, Lamont said, meaning above reproach. I want to make sure that nobody has any questions.
Rojas, who like Lamont initially saw no conflict, said he and others concluded there was no way to detach the party job from the legislative one.
I think the ultimate challenge was a desire to have him serve in that role on a full-time basis, completely detached from the legislature, and my position that I couldnt afford to do that, because he is really important to our team and the operations of the house, Rojas said. We just arrived at the conclusion that we werent going to be able to balance those two interests.
Twice in the past decade, Democrats in Connecticut have faced scandal or at least significant questions over fundraising, first involving a 2012 congressional campaign and then contributions by state contractors to the state party in 2014.
Both offered cautionary lessons.
In 2012, the connection between legislative business and campaign fundraising derailed the congressional campaign of Chris Donovan, who then was speaker of the state House.
Donovan was not implicated, but his campaign manager and chief fundraiser were convicted of federal charges relating to tying campaign contributions to killing a bill opposed by the roll-your-own tobacco business. The campaign manager had been Donovans chief of staff.
Aggressive fundraising by the Democratic Party prior to the 2014 reelection of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy resulted in a formal complaint by the Republican Party, a protracted legal battle with the State Elections Enforcement Commission and a record-setting $325,000 settlement.
The GOPs complaint focused on how the Democrats exploited conflicts between state and federal campaign finance laws, as well as the inconsistency in state laws as applied to candidates and state parties.
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Connecticut bars state contractors from donating to state campaigns, while federal law dictates the rules for raising and spending money that is used for get-out-the-vote efforts in federal election years, when state elections are also held.
As a result, contractors who could not contribute a dime to the Democratic Partys state account were free to give as much as $10,000 to the partys federal account that funded activities benefitting state and federal candidates.
State law also establishes two sets of contradictory campaign financing rules: one provides public financing to candidates who agree to accept donations of no more than $250 and abide by spending limits that vary by office; the other allows state parties to accept maximum donations of $10,000 a year and spend unlimited amounts supporting their candidates.
The Democratic Party insisted it complied with all relevant laws at the time, but it fought subpoenas seeking emails, bank records and other documents that might reveal how the party came to target state contractors for campaign contributions.
Ultimately, it settled the case in 2016 by agreeing to pay a penalty of $325,000 to the elections enforcement commission and drop its claim that federal election law pre-empts the commission from issuing subpoenas to investigate alleged potential violations of state elections law.
The episode involving Brokman underscores the governors distant relationship with the party and its roles in campaigns. Lamont has run three times for statewide office, each time self-funding his campaigns.
He did benefit, however, in 2018 by an effort led by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat elected to a second term that year, to identify and turn out Democratic supporters.
Next year, the governor, lieutenant governor, the other four state constitutional officers, 187 state legislative seats, all five congressional representatives and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal will be on the ballot.
Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz filed papers last week creating campaign committees.
Its really important to the legislators. Last cycle it was very important to mayors. Its very important to constitutionals. Its very important to congressionals, Lamont said of the party. Susan and I have our campaign, and were part of that process.
Nancy DiNardo is the state chair of the Democratic Party, but the governor traditionally is its leader and dictates the hiring of its executive director.
On Tuesday, Lamont mingled with DiNardo and Ben Proto, the Republican state chair, at the kickoff of Connecticut Foodshares holiday giving drive.
DiNardo declined comment on Brokmans appointment and un-appointment, saying only that the search was on for a successor to Jacqueline Kozin, who resigned.
Were actively looking for somebody, DiNardo said. Obviously, the governors involved with it. But we all just want to make sure we get the right person. Jacqueline Kozin did a phenomenal job. She set a high bar.
Ive asked some folks for recommendations, but I think the political guys are a lot more involved in that than I am, Lamont said. What I want to do is have somebody in there with strong organizational abilities and no questions asked.
Lamont said he meant no questions about conflict.
MIAMI (AP) A South Florida tax preparer was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for collecting nearly $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds after submitting more than 100 fraudulent applications for himself and others.
Leonel Rivero, 35, was sentenced in Miami federal court, according to court records. He previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He was also ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution.
HONG KONG (AP) Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday they seized a total of over 4,000 pounds of live lobsters and sea cucumbers believed to be bound for mainland China, months after Beijing restricted imports of the crustaceans from Australia as tensions escalated between the two countries.
Hong Kong Customs said in a statement that it had seized 890 kilograms (1,962 pounds) of live lobsters and 930 kilograms (2,050 pounds) of sea cucumbers, with a total estimated value of 10 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.3 million) during the operation on Monday. Two men aged 40 and 45 suspected to be connected to the case were also arrested, the statement added.
HAMDEN An animatronic dragon connected to a smoke machine. Zombies crawling out of the ground. Jumping spiders and talking skeletons. Homemade gravestones and a cemetery gate.
Those spooky sights haunted visitors at Hamdens pet cemetery this month, but guests didnt just come for a scare.
They came for a good cause: the cemeterys sextons, who in their day jobs run the Spring Glen Veterinary Clinic, collected more than $2,000 in donations for the towns Animal Shelter Gift Fund.
For years, advocates have pushed the town, which currently rents space in North Havens facility, to get an animal shelter of its own, with groups such as Gimme Shelter raising money toward the goal.
Supporters of the cause include the couple behind the Whitney Avenue-based veterinary practice.
I feel like its a little unacceptable that a town such as Hamden has to outsource their cages to other shelters, said Dr. Rich Magliula, the veterinarian who owns the business.
He and is wife Kayla Magliula run the clinic as a team, with Kayla managing the office and handling customer service matters.
She feels similarly about the need for an animal shelter.
This is a huge city and we dont have our own (facility), Kayla Magliula said.
Hamden can do better than that. We can do better than that. We can take care of our own, you know, homeless pets, she said.
She also happens to love arts and crafts, Halloween and animatronics.
But the idea for the fundraiser came about by accident, according to Kayla Magliula, who said a passerby who asked to take a picture with the clinics animatronic dragon suggested Magliula take donations for photo ops.
As an animal shelter fundraiser then took shape, the community pitched in. Counter Weight Brewing Co. provided free beer for the event, Magliula said, and Paul & Eddys Pizza, which is next door to the clinic, stepped in to feed hungry graveyard visitors.
The Strong Kitchen and Little Rabbit Baking Co. , two other neighborhood businesses, supplied dessert, according to Magliula, who said Hamden Memorial Funeral Home also donated the use of a hearse.
Meanwhile, Magliula joined forces with Rae Roylance, a colleague and veterinary technician with a background in carpentry, to build the graveyard.
They got creative. Magliula constructed a witchs cauldron, globbing a mix of oatmeal and Mod Podge onto the sides so it appeared to be overflowing. Inside, mist makers made it look like it was cooking, she said.
To construct the cemetery gate, the team pieced together rigid insulation foam with glue and toothpicks, according to Roylance.
We did a little bit of carving on the foam itself with sculpture tools(to) fake cracks, she said.
They then covered the foam with Drylock, a product typically used to waterproof basements, according to Roylance.
Then we used (watered down) acrylic paint ... (to) wash over the entire thing in a few different colors to make it look like a little bit of moss was on it and rain had changed the stone over time, she said.
According to Rich Magliula, some of the businesss clients even gave time to help build the display.
The name pet cemetery was a nod to Stephen King, he said. (The author has a 1983 novel titled Pet Sematary.)
We called it pet cemetery just because were a pet hospital, and I had a couple ... skeleton cats and dogs out front, Kayla Magliula said.
The event brought in more than $2,000, Rich Magliula said.
The pair were scheduled to present a check Thursday to Chief of Police John Sullivan, who has previously spoken of the importance of getting a shelter, which would be used by Hamdens animal control officers.
Its a great thing that theyre doing, and I look forward to doing the presentation with them this week and appreciate the community members that are supporting (the shelter), Sullivan said.
In the end, the organizers were surprised by how much money the event generated.
I would have been happy with $500 what we got was tremendous, Kayla Magliula said. It was better than I could have imagined it being.
I love that my wife and Rae actually did all the work, and I love that the town came out to support the hell out of itespecially for a first year, Rich Magliula said. I was pleasantly surprised. The townsfolk held it down and showed up ... Im honestly kind of proud of them, and Im proud to take care of their pets.
meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
WASHINGTON (AP) The chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection says there is still time for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to comply with a subpoena before the panel moves forward with a vote to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that the committee wont rush the effort to make it clear it has given the former North Carolina congressman multiple opportunities to cooperate. At the same time, the panel is prepared to hold Meadows in contempt in the coming weeks if he doesnt give lawmakers any information about his role, and former President Donald Trumps, as the Capitol was attacked that day.
The panel is also discussing a vote to hold former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in contempt after Clark appeared for a deposition earlier this month and declined to answer questions. Clark is a former assistant attorney general who aligned himself with Trump after Trump lost the 2020 election and pressured the Justice Department to help overturn his defeat.
We think we are on sound footing at this point, but on the advice of counsel, we want to be able to indicate that weve made the best good-faith effort we can to get this information, Thompson told reporters on Tuesday. He said the panel is unlikely to hold a contempt vote before lawmakers leave town for the Thanksgiving break.
Meadows lawyer has repeatedly made clear that he wont comply with the September subpoena, arguing that Trump has said he will assert executive privilege over the testimony. Meadows was Trumps top aide at the time of the insurrection, unlike longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who was held in contempt by the House in October and indicted last week. Bannon had left the White House years earlier.
The committee has rejected those arguments, especially as the White House has said that President Joe Biden would waive any privilege over Meadows interview and as courts have so far shot down Trumps efforts to stop the committee from gathering information. The House panel has argued that they have questions for Meadows and Clark, as they did with Bannon, that do not directly involve conversations with Trump and couldnt possibly be blocked by privilege claims.
We will make a similar expansive argument with Meadows and Clark we did with Bannon, Thompson said.
Meadows' lawyer, George Terwilliger, said last week that the courts should decide whether privilege applies.
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, Terwilliger said.
One area of focus for the panel is Meadows personal phone and email, and whether he used it to communicate with others as hundreds of Trumps supporters attacked the Capitol and beforehand.
If in fact, he used a personal phone rather than a government phone while he was serving as chief of staff, that limits his argument that hes protected or email, Thompson said.
Meadows, a prolific texter, was known to use a personal cell number during his time as White House chief of staff. That number, which has since been disconnected, was the same as the one he had used as a Republican member of Congress, with an area code from his home state of North Carolina.
Trump administration officials were repeatedly cited for using their personal emails to conduct government business.
In the committees September subpoena, Thompson cited Meadows efforts to overturn Trumps defeat in the weeks prior to the insurrection and his pressure on state officials to push the former presidents false claims of widespread voter fraud.
You were the presidents chief of staff and have critical information regarding many elements of our inquiry, Thompson wrote. It appears you were with or in the vicinity of President Trump on January 6, had communication with the president and others on January 6 regarding events at the Capitol and are a witness regarding the activities of the day.
Bannon surrendered on Monday to FBI agents after he was indicted on Friday on two federal counts of criminal contempt one for refusing to appear for a congressional deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committees subpoena.
He appeared before a judge on Monday to face the federal criminal charges and is due back in court Thursday.
Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, said his client didnt appear before Congress after Trump claimed executive privilege would apply.
Bannon spoke with Trump before the insurrection and predicted on Jan. 5 that all hell is going to break loose the next day.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
A federal judge retained jurisdiction Tuesday in a dispute over a Canadian oil pipeline that runs through a section of the Great Lakes, rejecting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's contention that the case belongs in state court.
The clash over whether Enbridge Energy's Line 5 should continue operating raises issues under consideration at the highest levels of this country's government involving a U.S.-Canada treaty and federal pipeline safety regulation, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ruled.
The matter "is properly in federal court, she wrote in a 15-page opinion that drew praise from Enbridge. Whitmer's office expressed disappointment and environmentalists ramped up pressure on President Joe Biden to intervene.
Line 5 moves 23 million gallons (87 million liters) daily of crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, passing through northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's part of a network transporting Canadian crude to refineries in both nations.
A 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section is divided into two pipes that cross the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.
Whitmer ordered Enbridge last year to close the 68-year-old line, agreeing with Indigenous tribes, environmentalists and tourist businesses that it risks a devastating spill. Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta, contends the line is safe and ignored the Democratic governor's May 12 shutdown deadline.
Michigan, which owns the straits bottomlands, notified Enbridge in November 2020 it was revoking a 1953 easement allowing the pipeline to go there. Granting permission was a mistake that violated the public trust and Enbridge has failed to operate the line safely, Whitmer's administration contended in a lawsuit.
State Attorney General Dana Nessel filed the case in Ingham County Circuit Court, arguing it was a state matter. Enbridge responded with a federal suit in Michigan's Western District and urged Neff, who's based in Grand Rapids, to take control. Mediation between the two sides produced no agreement.
This is both a federal and international law issue, Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said Tuesday. Line 5 is vital, critical infrastructure which is operating safely and is in compliance with all applicable laws.
Whitmer remains convinced that Michigans sovereign rights and duties regarding the use of our own lands and the protection of our Great Lakes are matters that belong before the state courts of Michigan, spokesman Bobby Leddy said. Regardless of todays ruling, we remain committed to getting the Line 5 dual pipelines out of the water as quickly as possible.
Canada has described continued operation of Line 5 as non-negotiable. Its government last month invoked a 1977 treaty barring official actions in either country that would impede cross-border transmission of hydrocarbons.
The White House last week pledged to engage constructively in talks with Canada about Line 5.
In addition to Canada's treaty action, Neff's ruling noted that U.S. law empowers the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to order pipeline closures due to unsafe conditions or operations.
The federal issues raise vitally important questions that implicate the federal regulatory scheme for pipeline safety and international affairs, Neff said.
Tribes in the region contend the pipeline violates their treaty rights dating back to the 1800s.
Line 5 opponents are pushing Biden to revoke a separate permit issued by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 that allowed another section of the pipeline to cross the U.S.-Canadian border beneath a river separating Port Huron, Michigan, from Sarnia. Biden hasn't taken a public position.
Now its time for President Biden to stand with Governor Whitmer to uphold state and tribal sovereignty in this case, said Beth Wallace of the National Wildlife Federation.
State and federal agencies are considering Enbridge's proposal to drill a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac for a new section of pipe that would replace the existing twin lines. The project, if approved, would take years to complete.
SUKTH, Albania (AP) There's hardly any home in Albania's Sukth distict where Ndricim Rahi and Anila Shameti have not injected someone with vaccines or given them other medical treatments during their 30 years as nurses.
Yet despite their deep local contacts, they and other medical workers in the economically struggling Balkan nation are finding it a tough challenge to counter the superstitions, conspiracy theories on television and social media, and general vaccine skepticism in the region and convince locals that now, before winter, is the time to get a vaccine shot. Albania has launched a nationwide campaign going into homes to get vaccine shots to people.
Doors are open when we go now, but if we ask them to take the COVID-19 vaccine, not all accept it, a smiling Rahi says, climbing down from his motorbike, which he uses for house calls.
We insist, make telephone calls and convince many of them, adds Shameti.
For Dr. Mirian Beu and his team, continuous contacts and personal medical advice have been their daily tools during these hard pandemic times to inoculate 50-70 people a day.
It is superstitions or conspiracy theories they believe in and listen to, especially with the media spread nowadays, said Beu, 36.
Those with chronic diseases are contacted and convinced by phone to get their shots. Others are persuaded when they visit the health center for other medical issues and about one-third of those getting vaccine shots each day get them at their homes from a team of three nurses.
With my health, suffering from diabetes and who knows what else at this age, the vaccine is a strong weapon in my body, a bearded 69-year old Mezit Jahjolli said after taking his booster shot. Still he said five of his brothers have declined to get vaccinated.
About 45% of the 32,000 people in Sukth, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital of Tirana, have been fully immunized and some even have had booster shots, in contrast to the situation elsewhere in the country.
Albania was among the first in the Western Balkans to start vaccinations in early March but so far only one-third of its 2.8 million people have had two shots of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac or Sputnik V vaccines. Prime Minister Edi Rama has posted calls from well-known personalities on his Facebook page to try to convince the more than 60% of Albanians who are still unvaccinated to get their shots.
The virus has killed 3,004 Albanians and there are 8,317 COVID-19 patients now, according to the Health Ministry.
The challenges these medical workers face are varied. It was mandatory for students to get vaccinated at start of the school year in October, but very few complied, causing tensions. Albania still has an overnight curfew and mandatory mask wearing indoors, but the only place this is really enforced is at banks.
After a good start earlier this year, giving up to 150 vaccine shots a day, the numbers in Sukth fell significantly, especially during the August-September surge in which the area saw up to 900 new infections a day, according to Aurora Hyka, health department chief of the Durres district that includes Sukth.
People may be reluctant to get shots even though medical workers say many do accept the fact that unvaccinated people often suffer worse infections than vaccinated ones.
It is a complex work needed with each individual to convince them, said psychologist Marvina Troka. We should coordinate our work not only among us but also with other actors, like the local officials or religious leaders.
Sali Hasa, 50, the imam in the nearby village of Vadardhe, said vaccines are a main topic of discussion after Friday prayers.
In quiet discussions, we aim to help people to understand that the vaccine is the best they can do to fight the virus, he says. Before the vaccine was produced, there was a big problem. After it was produced, hope came in. I do hope that those (unvaccinated) people understand such a good thing.
Hyka praised the daily, constant efforts by medical workers.
Coordinating doctors, nurses, community leaders and other players has produced positive results, with a stable or slight increase in the daily jabs, said Hyka. Though its not easy for them to cope with ... the superstitions and conspiracies.
Still, a middle-aged man who said on the phone that he would get a vaccine shot declined to do it once he saw journalists at his apartment along with the medics. Shameti, the nurse, was not worried.
He is not a problem. He is convinced but doesnt like you, the journalists, Shameti said, adding that Rahi, the other nurse, "will go there alone tomorrow, and he will do it.
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Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
WARSAW, Poland (AP) Polish forces at the border with Belarus used water cannons and tear gas Tuesday against stone-throwing migrants, as Warsaw accused Belarusian authorities of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier.
The events marked an escalation in the tense crisis on the European Unions eastern border, where the West has accused President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis.
The Poland Border Guard agency posted video on Twitter showing water being sprayed across the border at a group of migrants who threw debris, and the Defense Ministry also said tear gas was used against the attackers. Polish authorities said nine of its forces were injured seven policemen, one soldier and a female border guard.
Some 2,000 migrants were at the frontier in makeshift camps in the freezing weather, but only about 100 were believed involved in attacking the Polish forces at the crossing near Kuznica, said Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska. The crossing has been closed since last week.
Police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka later said the migrants there had been pacified. He added that the attackers had been given smoke grenades by the Belarusians and threw stones at the Polish police, with the events monitored by the Belarusian services using a drone. The Polish Defense Ministry also said Belarus gave some migrants flash-bang grenades.
Belarus' State Border Guard Committee and the Foreign Ministry said they would investigate Polands actions.
These are considered violent actions against individuals who are on the territory of another country, committee spokesman Anton Bychkovsky was quoted as saying by Belarus state news agency Belta.
Lukashenko on Tuesday again rejected accusations of engineering the crisis and said his government has deported about 5,000 illegal migrants from Belarus this fall.
Were not collecting refugees all over the world and bringing them to Belarus, as Poland has informed the European Union. Those who come to Belarus legally, we accept here, the same way any other country would. Those who violate the law, even in the slightest, (we put) on a plane and send back (home), he told a government meeting dedicated to the situation at the border.
In May, however, he had railed against the EU sanctions imposed on his country for its harsh crackdown on internal dissent, saying: "We were stopping migrants and drugs now you will catch them and eat them yourself.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Monday by phone that neither Belarus, nor the EU would benefit from an escalation of the crisis. He said he proposed a resolution but did not elaborate, adding that Merkel is discussing it with other EU leaders.
Some of the migrants have children with them at the border in their desperate bid to reach the EU. Most are fleeing conflict, poverty and instability in the Middle East and elsewhere. At least 11 deaths have been reported in recent weeks as the weather has turned colder and they are trapped in the dank forest between the forces of the two countries.
While some have managed to get into the EU before Poland, Lithuania and Latvia bolstered their borders, passage appears to be much harder now.
Poland's Defense Ministry said Belarusian forces tried to destroy border fences, and its Interior Ministry posted video apparently showing migrants trying to tear one down. It said the migrants are using the smoke grenades and similar weapons given to them by Belarusian troops who no longer seem to be trying to conceal their involvement.
Poland has taken a tough stand against the migrants' illegal entry, reinforcing the border with riot police and troops, rolling out razor wire, and making plans to build a tall steel barrier. The Polish approach has largely met with approval from other EU nations, who want to stop another wave of migration.
But Poland also has been criticized by human rights groups and others for pushing migrants back into Belarus and not allowing them to apply for asylum.
Its very clear that if you see whats been happening to this group of people =- that their own specific concerns, their particular dignity and their rights have not been treated with the respect that they should have," said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. "And that is why we want them to be able to speak for themselves and to be heard. We dont want these people to be instrumentalized and used as pawns in the disputes involving the countries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Poland's actions violate all conceivable norms of international humanitarian law and other agreements of the international community.
Warsaw says Moscow bears some responsibility for the border crisis, given its strong support for Belarus. The Russian government has denied responsibility.
Events at the border have been difficult to verify independently. Poland has imposed a state of emergency, which bars reporters and human rights workers from the area. In Belarus, journalists face severe restrictions on their ability to report.
Poland's parliament is expected to consider a bill to regulate citizens' ability to move in the border area after the state of emergency expires in December.
The EU has been pressuring airlines to stop carrying Syrians, Iraqis and others to Belarus, and the efforts were bringing changes. A Beirut travel agency said flights from the Lebanese capital to Minsk had been stopped for now. A Tuesday evening flight by Belarusian carrier Belavia was shown as canceled on the airport's website.
Iraq urged its citizens at the border to return home. About 200 Iraqis in Belarus to travel to the EU have contacted the Iraqi Embassy in Russia about returning home, an embassy spokesman told the Interfax agency. The spokesman said an evacuation flight will leave Thursday from Minsk, and Belarusian authorities have helped bring migrants back from the border.
Social media platforms used by Syrians and Iraqis to navigate the Belarus-Europe track posted photos showing crowds along the border overnight. Some appeared undeterred, posting that they got warm clothes and boots. Messages celebrated those who made it across, and a few urged migrants to head for the Belarus-Lithuania border.
Some described harsh treatment, including beatings, by Belarusian border guards, but most postings appeared to recognize that the Belarus route might no longer work.
There is no more path to escape. By God, Minsks route has ended. What are the new roads? one person posted on a social media platform.
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Litvinova reported from Moscow. Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Yuras Karmanau Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
ATLANTA (AP) Scores of housing activists, tenants and lawmakers rallied Tuesday to pressure Georgia officials to speed up the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid aimed at preventing evictions in the state.
Congress set aside nearly $1 billion in funding for Georgia to help tenants pay past due rent and utility bills during the pandemic, but the state has struggled to get the money out.
Georgia had distributed less than 10% of the first set of funds by the end of September, according to a report last week by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report singled out Georgia, Ohio, Arizona and Tennessee for their slow disbursement of aid and large populations of renters.
At Tuesday's rally in downtown Atlanta, Lajoycelyn Bowles, 43, said she has repeatedly contacted the Georgia Department of Community Affairs the state agency administering Georgia's funds but has never heard back.
She was diagnosed with COVID-19 in August and has been too sick to work. She received an eviction notice this week from her landlord in Lithonia, Georgia.
I'm frustrated and pissed off, she said.
Warren Crudup, 58, said a judge last week gave him seven days to leave his duplex in Atlanta after an organization that was helping him with rent stopped paying. He called the process of applying for help from the state crazy."
They keep asking for all this information and then come back and say, 'You live in the city line, or we didn't get your paper work.' Just all kinds of excuses, he said.
The Department of Community Affairs said in a statement that it has distributed $44.2 million to more than 6,900 tenants and landlords so far. It has also added staff and extended working hours to handle an increase in applications since expanding eligibility to the entire state.
A complete, accurate, and verifiable application package is required to receive assistance, and there is an anticipated 30-day application turnaround for completed submissions, the agency said.
The rally was organized by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, which plans additional protests in other places that are lagging in providing rental help. Protesters carried signs and chanted outside the offices of the community affairs department.
The money is there, and it's outrageous that tenants are being evicted," said Bruce Marks, NACA's CEO.
Marks blasted the community affairs department as one of the "most incompetent, unable, overwhelmed institutions in providing the assistance.
The department's deputy commissioner of housing, Tonya Cureton Curry, previously told the AP the agency has experience with rental assistance programs, but not at this scale.
Congress approved $46.5 billion in rental assistance for U.S. communities. More than $10 billion had gone out through Sept. 30, with the pace of spending picking up through the summer, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Officials credit that money with helping avert a wave of evictions after the U.S. Supreme Court in late August allowed evictions to resume.
The Treasury Department announced last month it would start reallocating money from those programs that either dont need it or dont have the desire to set up a program.
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Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has appointed to a federal election advisory board a prominent Republican attorney who assisted former President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Cleta Mitchell was named to the Board of Advisors for the federal Election Assistance Commission. The advisory board does not have the ability to directly make policy but can recommend voluntary guidelines to the EAC. The EAC certifies voting systems and advises local election offices on compliance with federal election regulations.
Mitchell was nominated by the Republican-appointed members on the commission and approved by a majority vote.
Mitchell is a prominent Republican lawyer who joined Trump on a Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. On the call, Trump implored Raffensperger to find him enough votes for him to be declared the winner in the battleground state, which was won by President Joe Biden. Mitchell claimed she had found possible examples of fraud in the state, but the secretary of state's office told her that her data was incorrect.
Mitchells involvement in the call caused an outcry in the legal community that led to her departure from her longtime job at the law firm Foley & Lardner. She has since taken major roles with conservative groups pushing to tighten voting laws, directing an election initiative at the small government group FreedomWorks and serving as a fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, where she helps coordinate advocacy on voting issues.
Im honored to have been selected with bipartisan support to serve in this role, Mitchell said in a text message on Tuesday.
The U.S. Commission for Civil Rights said in a statement that it appoints two of the advisory board's 35 members one from Republican commissioners, the other from Democratic ones.
The commission is divided among four Democrats, three Republicans and one independent. Its members are appointed to six-year terms by congressional leaders and presidents. Last year, Trump appointed to the commission attorney J. Christian Adams, who is president of a conservative legal group for which Mitchell chairs its board of directors.
The Democratic nominee to the advisory board was unable to serve and a new one will be voted on in Fridays meeting, the commission statement said.
The Civil Rights Commission said the vote to appoint Mitchell happened Aug. 21. But the move did not become public until this week, when journalist Jessica Huseman posted EAC documents on Twitter showing Mitchell had officially joined the board Nov. 3.
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Associated Press reporter Christina Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Anne Trumbore, University of Virginia
(THE CONVERSATION) The Great Resignation has left a lot of people with time on their hands. And while this time may be a welcome respite from the daily grind, most folks will need to get back to work eventually. For many, this period is a time of reflection and a chance to pursue a new career.
But how do you make the switch? And even if you plan to return to the same field, how do you show that you have kept current with the changes and trends that affected most industries during the pandemic?
Traditionally, the answer to these questions has been to go back to school. But rising tuition costs over the past few decades, and the time commitment of traditional degree programs, makes this route prohibitively expensive for a lot of people.
Thats where short online courses in business, technology and other fields come in. Over the past 10 years, these courses from providers such as Udemy, Coursera and edX have become more popular, and approximately 75% of learners who take them report gaining career benefits from completing them.
As a researcher and practicioner who develops these education technologies, I also study the behaviors that make online learners successful. Here are four key actions that studies have shown will help online learners make the most of a short online course to reap the career benefits they desire.
1. Identify the goal
Learners who begin a course with a clear idea of what they want to get out of it are more likely to complete their course and earn a certificate. A goal may be, for example, to learn a new skill, gain more knowledge about a topic, improve job performance, get a new job or advance in a current one.
In my study of over 4,000 learners who completed an online course in business topics, I found that learners who enrolled in their course with the intention of improving their job performance, starting their own business or getting a new role were more likely to experience career benefits than those who enrolled only because they wanted to learn something new about the topic.
2. Rewatch videos and retake tests
Among the same sample of over 4,000 people taking online courses, I also found that learning behaviors associated with persistence such as watching more videos or retaking tests were shown to be more strongly associated with perceived career benefits than social behaviors like forum posts, comments and views or even grades.
In fact, the same study showed that grades dont have any correlation to whether or not a person gains career benefits as long as they eventually pass the course. The lesson here is to try and try again. Taking a course that is challenging may prove to be more useful than one a learner can breeze through.
3. Finish the course
Many short courses are now only four or five weeks long, with fewer than three hours of time required per week. Learners who complete their online courses are more likely to learn something new, improve performance, get a raise or new job or start a new business. They can also receive a digital certificate or badge they can post on social media channels to inform potential employers that they have successfully passed the course.
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4. Choose the brand wisely
Currently, I am working on a broader study to confirm that hiring managers feel that nondegree credentials like certificates from online courses improve a candidates resume, particularly if the potential employee does not have work experience in the field.
These same hiring managers value the reputation of the institution that offers the course over the specific credential that is earned from it a badge vs. a certificate, for example. In my survey to hiring managers, the results of which have not yet been published, a majority responded that they prefer nondegree credentials from academically distinguished universities over credit-bearing certificates from for-profit institutions.
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Fortunately, many highly recognizable, academically selective universities and companies now offer these short courses for low or no cost. Its easy to learn data analytics from IBM, business strategy from Darden, machine learning from Stanford and many more topics from top schools, such as Python, computer science, robotics, economics of health care and even the science of happiness from University of Michigan, Harvard, Penn and Yale. If a learner recognizes the name of the institution offering the course, chances are hiring managers will too.
While short online courses have not lived up to the hype 10 years ago that they would disrupt higher education, they are helping millions of learners around the globe try new fields and learn skills to advance their careers.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/want-to-take-an-online-course-here-are-4-tips-to-make-sure-you-get-the-most-out-of-it-for-your-career-170685.
NEW HAVEN Two Yale Law School students have filed a federal lawsuit against the law schools dean, two administrators and the university, claiming the administrators tried to deny them prestigious teaching assistant positions as retaliation for refusing to lie in support of the universitys probe of a noted professor.
The lawsuit stems from a document, known as the dossier, which another student gave to the administration earlier this year and which allegedly shows professor Amy Chua broke a 2019 agreement not to socialize with students. At that time, Chua expressed my deep regret for anything I said and did in my interactions with students that might have impacted any students negatively.
Chua was taken off the 2021-22 roster of small group leaders because Yale claimed she met with students at her home. However, in the dossier, students discuss meeting with her in February. The plaintiffs, referred to as John Doe and Jane Doe in the complaint, say they were the subjects of the dossier, which allegedly depicts them discussing visiting Chuas Forest Road house.
Chuas husband, professor Jed Rubenfeld, is on a two-year suspension from the law school on allegations of sexual misconduct and is not allowed to have any contact with students.
The plaintiffs claim in the suit that when they sought help from the administration after the harassing and damaging material came to light, Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove and Yaseen Eldik, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, pressured Jane and John to make a formal statement confirming the allegations against Chua in the dossier, and to lodge their own formal complaint, against Chua.
The complaint continues, Despite Jane and John repeatedly denying the Dossiers assertions, Cosgrove and Eldik pressured Jane and John to make such a statement, even calling them on a daily basis over the course of a week in April 2021, insisting that Jane and John had a moral obligation to future generations of students to make the false statements against Chua.
The plaintiffs say that, rather than helping the students, Cosgrove and Eldik ratcheted up the pressure, the suit states. On a joint call including Cosgrove, Eldik, and Jane, Eldik told Jane that the Dossier would likely end up in every judges chambers, following [her] even after [she] graduates, effectively sabotaging any hopes of her securing a clerkship whether she applied now or in the future.
In a joint call with John Doe, Eldik and Cosgrove strongly suggested that John should not apply for a clerkship in the summer of 2021 because of the Dossiers wide publicity, the suit states.
After Chua was removed from the roster of small group leaders, a Yale Law School spokeswoman said the action was taken because she broke COVID-19 protocols and her 2019 agreement and was not the result of the dossier.
When the students refused to make a false statement, according to the lawsuit, law school Dean Heather Gerken and Cosgrove approached an esteemed law professor and expert in constitutional law, and discouraged the professor who already employed Jane and John as long-term research assistants from hiring Jane and John as so-called Coker Fellows, prestigious teaching assistant positions that often lead to federal clerkships and other lucrative career opportunities. The professor is not named in the lawsuit.
The complaint states Gerken, Cosgrove and Eldik worked together in an attempt to blackball two students of color from job opportunities as retaliation for refusing to lie to support the Universitys investigation into a professor of color.
The plaintiffs claim the law school administration shared the dossier with third parties, which they say resulted in them not being named as Coker fellows. They state they did not apply for clerkships, fearing that the administration would make good on its threats to ensure that every judge sees the Dossier.
According to the complaint, Jane Doe has completed her second year at the Yale Law School and is currently on a voluntary leave of absence from the school. She is African American and a resident of Georgia. The lawsuit states she took a leave due to the ongoing harassment that arose because of the dossier.
John Doe is in his third year at the law school, is Asian American and a resident of California, according to the suit. It states John Doe has resigned as Gerkens speechwriter.
The complaint claims that because of Defendants misconduct, both Jane and John have suffered insomnia, anxiety, nausea, and loss of appetite. They are seeking at least $150,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, according to the complaint.
University spokeswoman Karen Peart said in an email, The lawsuit is legally and factually baseless, and the University will offer a vigorous defense.
Chua has said she had the students to her home to discuss their concerns about racial bias and other issues, and that no food was served. Chua declined a request for comment. According to the Yale Daily News Chua said she has maintained a friendly but distant relationship with the two unnamed students and has continued to offer herself as a mentor to them only if there was no one else for them to talk to.
Chua told the Yale Daily News the issues in the lawsuit are absolutely not about me. I am just trying to put this whole horrific nightmare behind me and I wish it would just go away. I dont ever want to speak of it again.
John G. Balestriere, a New York attorney representing the plaintiffs, said in a release, This is wrong. For a tremendously well-resourced university like Yale, which promises to create an extraordinary community in which to study law, the inappropriate and retaliatory behavior our clients allege is simply unacceptable.
edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
DEAR ABBY: I have been married 45 years. It may not be the most loving or agreeable marriage, but it has always been steady, nonviolent and monogamous. Last year I had COVID, and I now have long-term symptoms with compromised immunity.
I recently had a bad outbreak of genital herpes. My doctor told me it can lay dormant for many years -- but 45? My husband swears he has been faithful, and part of me believes him. I WANT to believe him -- but I know I have never cheated. Neither of us ever had problems with breakouts, other than one many years ago we thought was probably heat rash when he worked outside in the summer. This has caused me to lose trust in him and wonder if he's lying. Our sex life, which had always been healthy, has stopped.
Have you ever heard of herpes being dormant for this long? I'm so embarrassed and angry. I haven't told anyone. I have never heard of this. -- PERPLEXED IN MISSOURI
DEAR PERPLEXED: Genital herpes is a common ailment for which there are treatments. My research tells me herpes CAN lie dormant for years without a flare-up. If your doctor isn't aware of what's going on, this is the person you should consult for the answer to that question. If your husband has given you no other reason to distrust his faithfulness, please give him the benefit of the doubt.
P.S. You stated that your sex life has now ceased. Was this your idea or your husband's? This is ANOTHER conversation you should have with your doctor, and I hope you will do it soon.
DEAR ABBY: I am a straight male who has a long-term friendship with a lesbian co-worker I'll call "Mickey." I have always had an interest in her but never suggested anything due to her sexual orientation. Recently, Mickey told me she has feelings for me, too. We go out a couple times a week now and the relationship has changed from the flirtatious one it was for years to something more.
We have gone back and forth and now we're discussing buying a home together, which has me confused. (I can only imagine how confused she must feel.) I love and care for her and have told her so. Maybe that was a bad idea. I am debating putting my feelings aside to make it easier for her to deal with her sexuality, but I love her and don't want to lose her. Please advise me on how to proceed. -- CONFOUNDED IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR CONFOUNDED: You and Mickey need to have a SERIES of conversations. Among the topics should be where your relationship may be leading in light of the fact that she identifies as lesbian rather than bisexual. Is marriage in the picture? Will buying a house together be an investment or a commitment on the part of both of you? Will each of you put in an equal amount of money? (It goes without saying that the arrangement should be formalized in the office of an attorney, so you both are protected in case things don't work out.) Once you and Mickey have done this, the answer to your dilemma will be apparent.
Five people have been killed in a petrol tanker explosion on Lagos-Ibadan expressway in the early hours of Wednesday. The Federal Road...
Five people have been killed in a petrol tanker explosion on Lagos-Ibadan expressway in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Ogun command confirmed the incident, in a statement to NAN.
Ahmed Umar, the state sector command, said the accident happened at 4:46 am near Tunji Alegi filling station, Kwakyama area, Ogere.
Umar said the cause of the accident could be wrong overtaking and dangerous driving on the part of the petrol tanker driver.
He said the petrol tanker collided with a moving truck resulting in the fire which affected at least five vehicles.
He said the bodies of the dead persons were recovered from one of the crashed trucks and were burnt beyond recognition.
He added that the corpses have been deposited at a mortuary in Ipara.
The FRSC wishes to inform the motoring public of the fire incident on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which occurred in the early hours of today, involving a petrol tanker laden with premium motors spirit (PMS) around Tunji Alegi Filling Station, Kwakyama Area of Ogere, he said.
This development calls for caution as the spill has affected some other vehicles parked at the shoulder of the road.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says there is synergy between fiscal and monetary authorities in Nigeria o...
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says there is synergy between fiscal and monetary authorities in Nigeria over the countrys foreign exchange regime.
Emefiele said this while speaking with Arise TV on the sidelines of the recently concluded Nigeria International Partnership Forum in Paris.
The CBN governor was reacting to questions on concerns raised by Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President over naira devaluation.
Osinbajo had said that the monetary policies are competing with the fiscal side in Nigeria and advised the CBN to review its policy.
The way people come up and say there is no synergy, again, I wonder where that is coming from, he said.
However, let me say this, when COVID hit, Mr. President asked the finance minister and I to work together to bring out some immediate response and I went back to the bankers committee and we came up with an immediate response.
And the finance minister and I had several opportunities, several times to go back to brief the president.
The governor said that President Muhammadu Buhari directed the CBN to help create an economic recovery programme.
After that, the president said that we should establish the national economic sustainability programme group chaired by the Vice-president, he said.
The governor said that the CBN had discharged its duties, contributing a larger quota to the successful implementation of the programme.
The Central Bank played an active role in the development of that programme to the extent that the fiscal authorities were only meant to contribute N500 billion and the monetary authorities were left to provide about N1.5 trillion, he added.
Please let me correct this, not as grants but as loans to support people who were impacted by COVID-19 so that they can get their business back.
Popular activist, Aisha Yesufu has chided those who denied that there was massacre at the popular Lekki toll gate. The Lagos State P...
Popular activist, Aisha Yesufu has chided those who denied that there was massacre at the popular Lekki toll gate.
The Lagos State Panel of Investigation in its recently published report about the Lekki Toll Gate incident revealed that police and officers of the Nigerian Army intentionally killed and maimed armless youths protesting the extrajudicial killings by the Nigerian police.
In the report, Major General Taiwo, who appeared before the Panel during the investigation told the panel that the soldiers acted on the order of Buratai, who in turns got instruction from the Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari.
The report has since generated reactions online from Nigerians and politicians.
Aisha, who was at the forefront of the EndSARS protest in October 2020 commended the Lagos panel for their objective report, describing the act as the highest level of activism.
The BBOG co-convener on her Twitter page wrote: They said no one was killed and asked us to produce the bodies they took. You see all these people who denied there was massacre at Lekki Toll Gate, come 2025 when their principals are out of office, they will become advocates of good governance and democracy and hold government accountable. The ones who denied #ChibokGirls are todays advocates.
Activism is not just about being at protest grounds and making demands. Courage and bravery is not only facing guns and bullets on the streets.
You see what the Lagos panel did with this report? It is Activism of the highest order. It is bravely and courage personified.
The people who denied that massacre happened on the 20th of October 2021 will not accept because of this report. Dont hold your breath!
Its been 7 years and those who denied #ChibokGirls were abducted, still do, in spite of all the reports.You know the truth thats all that matters!
Former owner of Crystal Palace, Simon Jordan, has said that Steven Gerrard, nor Frank Lampard have the credentials to be Premier League mana...
Former owner of Crystal Palace, Simon Jordan, has said that Steven Gerrard, nor Frank Lampard have the credentials to be Premier League managers.
Gerrard was newly appointed Aston Villa manager while Lampard pulled out of the race to become the new Norwich City boss.
Norwich has now appointed former Aston Villa boss Dean Smith as their new manager following the sack of Daniel Farke.
Lampard was recently sacked by Chelsea at the start of the year and is yet to get another job.
But following the confirmation of Smiths appointment, talkSPORTs Simon Jordan was quick to dismiss opinions that Lampard should have been offered the role.
The tragedy for Frank is hes got no backdrop for suggesting hes a Premier League manager.
The Chelsea side he inherited with a group of young players did ok, and then when he was on top in the Premier League which is when you spend money, out the door he went, Jordan told talkSPORT.
I dont think he (Gerrard) has the credentials either.
Either one of these guys would walk through the door, if they were Joe Schmo from nowhere, not Frank Lampard, and not Steven Gerrard, they would never ever get these opportunities because they dont merit them.
Steven Gerrard you know who he is, Frank Lampard you know who he is. They both talk very well, theyve both got good backgrounds, they both seem to be very sensible, but neither of them has been at the top table for winning anything significant.
I know the SPFL is significant in Scotland, but in real terms, its [Gerrards former role] not going to compare to the job in hand at Aston Villa.
The Niger State Police Command has effected the arrest of five persons over vandalism and theft of electricity transformers in the state. Pa...
The Niger State Police Command has effected the arrest of five persons over vandalism and theft of electricity transformers in the state.
Parading the suspects in Minna, the state capital, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Wasiu Abiodun said the suspects were arrested last week Tuesday.
He explained that the suspects were arrested at Lapai-Gwari area along Building materials market road, Minna by the Chanchaga Division patrol team during a routine patrol of the area.
According to him, they conspired among themselves, vandalised two electric transformers in the area, and carted away some of the electric cables.
The suspects include Hussaini Adamu 23yrs, Mustapha Umar 17yrs, Mande Magaji 17yrs, Suleiman Zubairu 16yrs, Salisu Usman (receiver) 25yrs, all male of Kasuwan-Gwari, Minna.
He revealed that four of the suspects arrested at the scene confessed to the crime and led the police to Salisu Usman at Kasuwan-Gwari, Minna who bought the cables from them.
Abiodun also stated that the case is still under investigation, while exhibits recovered from the suspects are: three insulators and a vandalised electric transformer.
The police then urged members of the public to continue to support them and other security agencies with relevant information to secure the environment.
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, has revealed that Nigerian professo...
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, has revealed that Nigerian professors do not earn more than N416,000 as monthly salary.
Ashiru disclosed this during an interview on the Sunrise Daily programmed on Channels Television, stating that university lecturers deserved better welfare packages.
He said, No Nigerian professor earns more than N416,000 in a month as the total package. We are saying let us renegotiate this agreement so that peoples conditions of service will improve.
As I speak to you, our members have been earning the same salary since 2009 till date. I dont think there is any section of the Nigerian economy and society that has been so treated.
The highest-paid professor which means that if he remains in the university system for the next 10-15 years will not earn more than the same amount hes been earning since 2009.
On Monday, ASUU issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to implement the agreement they had reached in 2020 following their strike action that lasted for nine months.
The Federal Government and ASUU had reached an agreement to improve the welfare and remuneration of university lecturers, settle unpaid allowances, and provide a fund to revitalise Nigerias universities.
Ashiru, however, noted that the Federal Government had not signed the Memorandum of Agreement since May, despite a renegotiation.
The Osun State Police Command has arrested Dr Ramon Adedoyin, founder of Oduduwa University and the Polytechnic, Ile-Ife, over the death o...
The Osun State Police Command has arrested Dr Ramon Adedoyin, founder of Oduduwa University and the Polytechnic, Ile-Ife, over the death of a masters degree student of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU.
Adedoyin is also the Chairman of Hilton Hotel and Resort, Ile-Ife.
It will be recalled that the deceased, Timothy Adegoke came from Abuja to sit for his examination at the OAU distance learning centre, Moro, Osun State on November 5.
Adegoke, declared missing on November 7, was found dead.
The police had earlier arrested six suspects linked to the death of the student.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner of Police, CP Olawale Olokode, through the commands spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, on Wednesday, said Adedoyin was arrested on November 15, 2021.
The police boss said the suspect is currently in police detention, undergoing interrogation in connection with the case while awaiting the autopsy report from the hospital.
While thanking members of the public, especially the bereaved family, students, and management of OAU for their patience to allow the police to continue on a thorough investigation on the matter, Olokode reiterated the commitment of the state police command to ensure justice is done.
He noted that no matter the personality of the person involved in the case or how highly or lowly placed in the society if found culpable would be brought to justice.
He assured that updates on the case will be made public as the event unfolds.
China has warned the United States of America against playing with fire in its relation with Taiwan. Chinese leader, President Xi Ji...
China has warned the United States of America against playing with fire in its relation with Taiwan.
Chinese leader, President Xi Jinping gave the warning on Tuesday during a virtual summit with US President Joe Biden.
He warned that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be playing with fire, during a talk that has been described as most substantial since Biden took office in January.
The self-ruled island of Taiwan was of one the major topics during the summit.
America has pledged to help Taiwan defend itself in the event of an attack and Chinas state-run Global Times said Mr Xi blamed recent tensions on repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China.
Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt, it said.
The White House said Mr Biden strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Watertown, NY (13601)
Today
Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 36F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..
Tonight
Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 36F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
When Lt. Joe Catalanotto met with a top executive of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office in 2015, he sensed something strange was afoot.
Michael Laughlin was only two rungs below Sheriff Marlin Gusman in the chain of command. Yet here he was interviewing Catalanotto about whether another deputy was leaking sensitive information to the news media.
'I was dumbfounded to find that a chief was conducting an investigation," Catalanotto testified Tuesday.
Yet according to Catalanotto and another former top officer in the agency's investigative bureau, Major Edwin Hosli, Laughlin questioned them both about whether John Ladd was releasing information about an inmate who was slipping out of the jail for trysts with his girlfriend.
Ladd is suing his former agency under Louisiana's whistleblower statute. He says he was effectively forced out of the Sheriff's Office because he raised alarms - through proper agency channels - that the inmate was still escaping even after being detected.
+6 Former Orleans Parish deputy says he was forced out for blowing whistle on escapee as trial begins On Oct. 15, 2015, an Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office investigator named John Ladd was summoned for a meeting about his probe into a jailed ars
The Sheriff's Office says Ladd was suspended because he meddled with a subordinate's reports on the investigation, not because of the leak investigation. His subsequent resignation was his own decision, argues the attorney representing the agency, Stephen Marx of the Chehardy Sherman Williams law firm.
Laughlin, who's now the chief of investigations, appeared in court wearing his Sheriff's Office uniform Tuesday. He denied zeroing in on Ladd during conversations with Catalanotto and Hosli. Another deputy backed him up in testimony Monday.
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However, Laughlin acknowledged that an audio recording, which could settle the debate, has gone missing. No one's been punished for its disappearance, he said.
Ladd has denied being the leaker, and his attorney, Michael Allweiss, said another deputy was the likely candidate. Ladd argues that he was forced out of the agency on the false pretext of changing his subordinate's report, when he was really iced because the agency wrongly suspected him of leaking. He says he deserves four years of salary that he would have accrued had he been allowed to remain with the Sheriff's Office.
Testimony in the case wrapped up Tuesday without an immediate ruling from Civil District Court Judge Ellen Hazeur. She said both sides may submit briefs on the trial testimony by Dec. 15.
Meanwhile, Tuesday's testimony didn't shed light on other murky departures at the Sheriff's Office. Catalanotto and Hosli abruptly resigned in March 2020 despite praise from federal monitors overseeing the jail's consent decree for their handling of investigations into crimes there. The Sheriff's Office said they resigned of their own accord.
But Hosli hinted during his testimony at dissatisfaction with the Sheriff's Office. He said that during Ladd's investigation of the escaping inmate, Ladd was reassigned away from his supervision with no notice.
Court-appointed monitors criticized the sudden move as creating potential conflicts of interest.
"I've never worked for an organization that moves a group without notifying their commander," Hosli said. "But strange things happen."
After pulling over Jorge Valeriano's pickup truck, for tailgating and crossing the center line of Interstate 12, St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputies searched his vehicle and found 51 pounds of marijuana and $1,457 cash, the agency said Tuesday.
Deputies stopped the 30-year-old Ceres, Calif., resident just west of the Louisiana 1088 interchange near Mandeville on Sunday at about 9 p.m. He told officers he was en route from Gatesville, Texas, to to Birmingham, Alabama, to find a job as an ironworker.
He consented to a search of the vehicle, the Sheriff's Office said, and deputies found two suitcases and a plastic container in the truck bed with 46 vacuum-sealed bags of what they suspect is marijuana. They booked him into the parish jail.
Valeriano was booked into the parish jail St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on following too close, driving left of center, possession with intent to distribute a schedule I drug, and transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses.
The New Orleans City Council is preparing to ask voters to increase property taxes for early childhood education, a plan aimed at closing persistent learning gaps between children who are enrolled in quality day care programs and those who are not.
Council member Helena Moreno said Tuesday that the council plans to file a notice of intent this week to begin the process of placing a 5-mill tax on the April 30 ballot. The revenue would subsidize low-income families who need help paying for day care.
City Hall spends about $3 million a year to send children to subsidized day care, a number that has increased substantially over the past four years. The money helps at least 150 students but falls well short of helping the thousands of children who advocates say need better access to early childhood education.
Based on current property assessments, the tax, if approved, would add about $21 million to the New Orleans Early Education Network City Seats Program. Earlier cost estimates of the program suggest that the tax could mean day care subsidies for more than 1,000 children.
Jefferson Parish Council funds seats for low-income children in preK programs, but the need remains great The Jefferson Parish Council has kicked in funding to put 16 low-income children into top-tier early childhood education programs next school
"We want to eliminate the financial barriers to early childhood education, and this millage is a strong step in that direction," said Moreno, the council's president.
Candice Henderson, deputy director of Mayor LaToya Cantrell's Office of Youth and Families, expressed support for the move in a statement. "Nothing is more important to the future of New Orleans than our children, and this millage will build upon the progress made in Mayor Cantrell's first term," she said.
Advocates say more than 6,500 New Orleans children, largely from low-income families, are priced out of quality day care programs. The average cost for a 2-year-old's care in New Orleans is about $660 a month, according to a recent Louisiana state survey. That's $84 higher than the state average and almost $200 higher than what one long-running state subsidy program, the Child Care Assistance Program for Families, is willing to pay.
In making the case for the tax, the council is relying on research that shows that children who are enrolled in quality day care programs fare better in elementary and secondary education than those who are not. Such children are more likely to graduate high school and less likely to be held back a grade, experts contend.
New Orleans started local funding for early childhood education in 2018, when Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration included $750,000 in the budget at the urging of council members. That allowed for 50 students to attend day care programs. The next year the funding doubled, and in 2020 it rose to $3 million.
Now, instead of pulling from existing revenue streams, the council wants to levy a new tax to ensure the program's viability.
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Currently, families may apply for the City Seats program through the New Orleans public school system's common application. Children ages 6 weeks to 3 years are eligible if their families fall below certain income levels. If funding for a seat is available, the child is then placed in one of a number of partner early-childhood education centers.
The April 30 referendum would be the second in as many years that voters consider new early childhood education funding. Last year, voters rejected Cantrell's plan to fund child care, economic development and other spending priorities by taking money from the public libraries; that plan would have sent $1.5 million to child care programs.
Child care advocates praised the council's announcement Tuesday. Early childhood education is "the single most expensive household budget item" in a city where many live in poverty, said Michael Williamson, chief of the United Way of Southeast Louisiana.
Childrens programs get boost in LaToya Cantrells first budget New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and City Council members, fresh off of signing the citys $700 million-plus budget for 2019, sought to highl
The new funding would also support better pay for day care teachers, who make $10.50 an hour on average, state data show. And more parents can work if their small children are in school, which boosts the economy, added Rochelle Wilcox, who runs the Wilcox Academy of Early Learning in the 7th Ward.
All seven council members are backing the push for a vote on the new tax, Moreno's office said. The council is filing its intent to place the measure on the ballot this week; members plan to vote in January to call the referendum.
The April referendum will come 4 months after voters consider proposals Dec. 11 to renew existing taxes for public libraries, affordable housing and blight remediation.
Jeff Adelson contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to add comments from Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration.
While Xiaomi is expected to unveil the Xiaomi 12 next month, @stufflistings believes that the company has another flagship smartphone up its sleeve. Incidentally, it has only been two months since Xiaomi unveiled the 11T Pro, a cheaper flagship with a Snapdragon 888 SoC and a 108 MP primary camera.
According to @stufflistings, the mysterious device has a Snapdragon 870 SoC, effectively re-named Snapdragon 865 Plus. Additionally, he claims that the device will support 67 W fast charging, a higher wattage than the Mi 11 is capable of.
Sharma adds that Xiaomi will integrate 'aggressive' camera hardware too, details of which remain unknown at this stage. Reputedly, Xiaomi will release this device outside China and possibly even India. Presumably, this means that the device will make it to Europe, the UK and other markets like Russia.
Incidentally, Xiaomi has submitted a device matching that description with the TENAA in China. The device carries the model number 2112123AC, frequently referred to by leakers as 'L3A'. Theoretically, this device could be the so-called Xiaomi 12 mini, although we would be surprised if Xiaomi managed to equip a smaller handset with 'aggressive' cameras. Xiaomi is tipped to launch the start of the Xiaomi 12 series globally in January 2022.
Purchase the Xiaomi Redmi 9 on Amazon
- Collaboration delivers insight about the future of technology and the demand for digital skills to Bloomberg's platforms
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, and Bloomberg Media, a leader in global business news, today announced a strategic collaboration to create the Bloomberg Digital Economy Index. Through the partnership, Infosys harnesses analytics and AI to integrate the Index experience on Bloomberg Media's digital platforms and Bloomberg TV. The Index will launch in 2022.
The Index measures investment by global CTOs and CIOs into major technology categories. Up-to-the-minute global data will help track growth around technology's impact on demand for future skills across industries and markets. The Index will equip enterprise decision-makers and emerging leaders with insights to navigate an increasingly digital future.
Data surfaced by Infosys' insights engine will power the Index across Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg Businessweek and other Bloomberg Media digital channels to provide context to its audience. The Digital Economy Index will also be integrated into Bloomberg Surveillance programming on Bloomberg TV.
"This partnership leverages Infosys' powerful AI technology to activate the Bloomberg Digital Economy Index, a first-of-its-kind measurement of technology investment", said Justin Smith, CEO of Bloomberg Media. "These insights will empower business leaders with real-time, actionable data for critical decisions."
Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys, said, "As our clients accelerate their tech-powered transformation, feedback loops that bring insights and ideas from data into their digital programs are becoming increasingly important. We are excited to partner with Bloomberg Media to help them transform their editorial experience with contextualized digital insights and deliver immersive business journalism to their readers - many of whom are also our clients."
The insights engine aligns with Bloomberg Media's goal to deliver new, data-driven content experiences to a wider audience of global business leaders through brands including Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg Equality, and new programming on the streaming news network Bloomberg Quicktake.
About Bloomberg Media
Bloomberg Media is a leading, global, multi-platform brand that provides decision-makers with timely news, analysis and intelligence on business, finance, technology, climate change, politics and more. Powered by a newsroom of over 2,700 journalists and analysts, it reaches influential audiences worldwide across every platform including digital, social, TV, radio, print and live events. Bloomberg Media is a division of Bloomberg L.P. Visit BloombergMedia.com for more information.
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.
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Not sure where to start? Experts recommend teaching children the proper names for body parts from a young age, a practice that may make later conversations easier. You dont tell a child a fake name for an elbow, or any other body part, Dr. Widman said. If from the time theyre little, as theyre curious and theyre exploring their own bodies and theyre pointing out body parts of other people, just use appropriate terms.
Samantha Miller, Ph.D., a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist at the University of Texas at Austins Dell Medical School, says teaching young children the proper names of body parts is also crucial so they can clearly describe if something is wrong.
Say enough but not too much
When it comes to discussing sex with young children, unfortunately there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Experts said parents should listen to what their child is really asking before launching into a technical description of reproduction, and then, as Dr. Widman put it, say enough but not too much.
Children who are curious about where they came from or how they were made are not asking the same thing as children wanting to learn about intercourse. If a young child asks how babies are made, Cath Hakanson, a sex educator and the founder of the website Sex Ed Rescue, recommended replying, How do you think a babys made? Then you can find out what they are curious about and what they know.
Some children may be satisfied with an explanation that a sperm, which comes from a man, and an egg, which comes from a woman, make a baby that grows in a uterus, Hakanson said. Other children will want to know how the egg and the sperm are joined. Dr. Widman suggests explaining that when adults put their bodies very close together, the sperm can go inside and fertilize the egg.
Parents who had children through in vitro fertilization, surrogacy or other means can tell children that there are many ways to make a family and tailor an answer to their situation. For example, Hakanson said, two women who used sperm donation may tell a child, We needed help to make you because we only had two eggs so we had to get sperm from someone. So someone gave us some sperm and we made a baby from that.
Parents of an adopted child may choose to explain that the sperm and the egg came from someone else, Hakanson said. For surrogacy, she suggested, parents may tell a child, We had to find a nice lady to have a baby for us. No matter how much detail parents give, Hakanson said, You talk about love as well, about the fact that, You are so special that we had to go to all that effort.
WEDNESDAY PUZZLE Its a welcome return for Anne Grae Martin, who is making her second New York Times Crossword appearance, having debuted this year with a puzzle of little red things.
As with her last puzzle, this one is personal to Ms. Martin, as she explains in the Constructor Notes below. I love it when puzzle makers put something of themselves in their crosswords you can almost feel the passion that went into finessing and reworking the theme entries to ensure they captured the essence of the themes without sacrificing a clean fill and an enjoyable solve. Especially with this crossword, where the exact shape of the grid art is crucial to the success of the puzzle, Ms. Martins care and attention to detail really shine through.
Grid art, for those of you who may not have encountered the term before, refers to the visual elements in a crossword that a constructor layers on top of the standard clue-and-entry structure of a puzzle. Often, as with this puzzle, the grid art is made with circles around certain letters, but you might also see grid art that uses shaded boxes or even the crosswords black squares. At first glance, the grid art in this crossword may appear haphazard, but solving the puzzle reveals that the circles are precisely placed to evoke certain concepts. Ill explore the nature of those concepts in more detail below.
Tricky Clues
16A. I initially entered WOWZA for 16A (Gadzooks!) but quickly realized that the Z was going to cause me some trouble with the Down entry it crossed. Then I hit on WOWIE.
This year, I turned 30, a development that came with a breathless sense of dread at times passing. It wakes me up in the early mornings: Nocturnal terror breaks through the surface of sleep like a whale breaching for air. My ambition and fear kick in together until I get up, pour myself some water and look out the window at the squid-ink sky and the string of lights along my neighbors houses. I lie down again after finding firmer mental ground, dry land.
So when a guy that my friend was seeing evangelized about time slips a genre of urban legend in which people claim that, while walking in particular places, they accidentally traveled back, and sometimes forward, in time I was a ripe target. Curious and increasingly existential, I Googled these supposed time slips. I found a global community of believers building an archive of temporal dislocations from the present. These congregants gathered in corners of the internet to testify about how, in the right conditions, the dusting of alienation that settles over the world as we age can crystallize into collective fiction.
I was initially skeptical of the vague language that time-slip writers employed to convey experiences I already found dubious: too many uses of foggy words like blunder and sporting; detail lavished on varieties of hats encountered. But I was drawn in by their secretive tone I sensed that sharing these anecdotes was compromising, even shameful (People would laugh at you, one poster wrote). Disapproval became attraction, and I returned to the message boards throughout the summer.
Heres a classic that, like the best of these stories, was related secondhand on a paranormal blog: In a Liverpudlian street in 1996, an off-duty policeman named Frank was going to meet his wife, Carol, in a bookshop called Dillons when suddenly, a small box van that looked like something out of the 1950s sped across his path, honking its horn as it narrowly missed him. More disorienting still, Frank saw that Dillons book store now had Cripps over its entrance and that there were stands of shoes and handbags in the window instead of new fiction. The only other person not wearing midcentury dress was a girl in a lime green sleeveless top. As Frank followed her into the old womens wear boutique, the interior of the building completely changed in a flash; it was once again a bookshop.
The Manhattan judge presiding in the high-profile trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been nominated for a prestigious federal appeals court post, the White House announced on Wednesday.
The judge, Alison J. Nathan, 49, has spent a decade on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This week, she was overseeing jury selection in the trial of Ms. Maxwell, who has been charged with sex trafficking and with helping Mr. Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately sexually abuse girls. Ms. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty.
The trial, in which opening arguments are scheduled for Nov. 29, could last six weeks, defense lawyers and prosecutors have said in court filings.
If Judge Nathan is confirmed by the Senate during the trial, she could still continue to preside in the case, two legal ethics experts said. Judges are frequently elevated to appeals courts from lower courts where they are actively involved in trials and other cases.
Planets satellites plus AI, Marshall explained, can track a countrys trees, farmlands, coral reefs, coastal mangroves and smokestack emissions with incredible precision down to three meters and provide transparency to show which trees are being illegally logged by whom and whose factories are violating their carbon dioxide emissions promises.
That data can then be used in theory to trigger consumer boycotts, spread through social networks, against the government or the food or mining company doing the damage, or it can stimulate foreign aid or investment in the country or community protecting its natural resources.
For instance, Planet, with a group of scientific and philanthropic partners, has helped create a detailed map the Allen Coral Atlas of all the worlds remaining coral reefs. The Philippines is using the atlass data about sea grass to plan nine new marine-protected areas throughout the country. At the same time, in a partnership paid by Norway, Planet is tracking deforestation in 64 tropical rainforest countries, including Brazil. Using Planets pinpoint accuracy, the Brazilian government has vastly increased the number of cease-and-desist citations against illegal loggers, according to Planets Brazilian partner, MapBiomas.
Even more important, Marshall said, is how Planets commercial business also helps by, for example, enabling farmers to do precision agriculture by giving them fine-grain images of their crops so they know exactly where to add water and fertilizer or when to harvest. This may have the biggest ecosystem impact of all, he said. More efficient crop yields that use less water and fewer fertilizers end up reducing the need to plow up more tropical forest and strengthens the environment generally.
The other company I am watching is Helion Energy, based in Redmond, Wash., which is working on the worlds first fusion power plant. Fusion energy has long been the holy grail for clean power generation and it always seems 20 years away. As the International Atomic Energy Agency notes on its website: The sun, along with all other stars, is powered by a reaction called nuclear fusion. If nuclear fusion can be replicated on earth, it could provide virtually limitless clean, safe and affordable energy.
Last June, as the website New Atlas reported, Helion published results confirming that its latest system had managed to heat a fusion plasma to a temperature over 100 million degrees Celsius, which is significant, since its around the point at which theres enough thermal energy to create large amounts of fusion.
On Nov. 5, in the midst of Glasgow, Helion, across the Atlantic in Redmond, announced that it had raised $500 million in new financing in a round led by Sam Altman, C.E.O. of OpenAI and former president of Y Combinator, along with a Whos Who of tech entrepreneurs.
This months bombshell indictment of Igor Danchenko, the Russian national who is charged with lying to the F.B.I. and whose work turns out to have been the main source for Christopher Steeles notorious dossier, is being treated as a major embarrassment for much of the news media and, if the charges stick, thats exactly what it is.
Put media criticism aside for a bit. What this indictment further exposes is that James Comeys F.B.I. became a Bureau of Dirty Tricks, mitigated only by its own incompetence like a mash-up of Inspector Javert and Inspector Clouseau. Donald Trumps best move as president (about which I was dead wrong at the time) may have been to fire him.
If you havent followed the drip-drip-drip of revelations, late in 2019 Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Departments inspector general, published a damning report detailing many basic and fundamental errors by the F.B.I. in seeking Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrants to surveil Carter Page, the American businessman fingered in the dossier as a potential link between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Shortly afterward, Rosemary Collyer, the courts presiding judge, issued her own stinging rebuke of the bureau: The frequency with which representations made by F.B.I. personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other F.B.I. applications is reliable, she wrote.
WASHINGTON The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jonathan Kanter, a corporate lawyer and Big Tech critic, to the top antitrust role in the nation, the latest action in efforts to curb the power of Silicon Valley giants.
In a 68-to-29 vote, the approval of Mr. Kanter to lead the Justice Departments antitrust division filled a key position in the Biden administration. The White House has made clear that it wants to rein in consolidation in American business, especially among powerful tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
His confirmation will go to President Biden for final approval.
Mr. Kanter has fought Google and other tech giants for years mostly as a lawyer representing rivals such as Microsoft, Uber, Yelp and News Corp. He joins other prominent critics of Silicon Valley in government roles, including Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, who gained notoriety after writing a paper in law school arguing an antitrust theory against Amazon.
Together, the two antitrust enforcers will lead landmark cases against Google and Facebook.
It is unclear if Mr. Kanter will be asked to recuse himself from the Google lawsuit and other investigations that may present a conflict of interest given his history representing rival corporations. Amazon and Facebook have asked Ms. Khan, who has never worked for a company, to recuse herself from matters involving them given her public criticisms about the tech giants. The agency has said she would not recuse herself from actions related to the companies.
In Brazil, I avoided him as much as I could, but was under increasing pressure from him. I began to worry that in addition to wanting sex, Chishti wanted to hurt me and punish me for rejecting him. After my presentation, I attended dinner with Chishti and colleagues. Later that night, I went to the hotel bathroom and texted him that I was sick and going back to my hotel. Chishti replied that he would meet me there. I said I was vomiting. He said he was on his way. I admitted that I was still at his hotel. I felt completely trapped and hopeless. I was 23 and very far from home. I didnt want to lose my job, I didnt want him to get any angrier. I did not feel that anyone would protect me, and I was too tired to argue with him anymore. I went to his room, where he beat me while having sex with me. I told him he was hurting me. He said, Good. He told me he should have had sex with me when we first met, when I was 13 years old. When I left, he said, We should do this more often. I hid in my hotel room until my flight the next day. My body was covered with scratches, cuts and contusions. I had bruises around my neck that looked like I had been strangled. A large bump on my head and a black eye. As soon as my lawyers contacted Afiniti, Chishti initiated an arbitration against me. He knew that the secrecy of arbitration would protect him. Nine months later, just before my deposition, to punish and scare me, he sued my father, who had quit the day I returned from Brazil, in secret arbitration. And its still not over. My fathers arbitration has been going on for three years, and it has already cost him tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees. The harassment and assault I endured were hard enough on my family, but we still manage the financial and emotional burdens of being sued by my abuser in secret arbitration.
Even as his administration begins spending the money in the law to upgrade bridges, broadband internet, water pipes and more, broad swaths of Mr. Bidens agenda to compete economically with the Chinese remain stuck in Congress. A bill to significantly increase federal research and development spending on advanced batteries, semiconductors and other high-tech industries which the president was forced to drop from his initial infrastructure proposal has cleared the Senate but not the House, though administration officials expect it to eventually pass.
Mr. Bidens additional plans to stimulate more low-emissions energy production, including hundreds of billions of dollars in tax incentives, hinge on passage of a $1.85 trillion spending bill that Democrats have yet to find consensus on. That bill also contains spending on early childhood education, child care and other support for the work force that economists say will help the United States bolster the skills and productivity of its workers.
If the president can shepherd those two bills through Congress, analysts say, he could have a foundation for a U.S. industrial policy that rivals Chinese investments in manufacturing and advanced technology. If he cannot, he will still have better transportation, energy and information sectors domestically, but his efforts to counter China will be incomplete.
Chinese commentators have taken notice. An editorial this month in Global Times, a popular tabloid controlled by the countrys Communist Party, called the infrastructure bill a feeble imitation of China and said it was tantamount to a fairy tale that the measure alone would revitalize U.S. competitiveness.
Mr. Biden has leaned into the issue as he sells Americans on the benefits of the law. Hours before he met virtually with President Xi Jinping of China on Monday, during a signing ceremony with hundreds of attendees at the White House, Mr. Biden put the countries economic rivalry front and center.
WASHINGTON The F.B.I. has begun to track threats against school administrators, teachers and board members to assess the extent of the problem, part of the Justice Departments effort to grapple with the heated and occasionally violent clashes over culture war issues like the teaching of racism and mask requirements.
Last month the F.B.I. created a threat tag to apply to reports of threats, harassment and violence against school officials, to comply with a memo sent by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, according to a directive issued on Oct. 20 to the bureaus criminal and counterterrorism divisions that House Republicans made public on Tuesday.
Such tags are used by the bureau to track trends and share information across offices, and are commonly used for crimes like drug offenses and human trafficking, the bureau said.
Republicans in Congress have seized on the Justice Departments focus on threats of violence toward school administrators, teachers and school board members to buttress their contention that the Biden administration and Democrats are seeking to intimidate or silence parents who object to local school policies.
The C.D.C.s gathering on Friday is scheduled to be briefer than recent meetings about Covid vaccines just three hours. It is expected to be straightforward, one federal official familiar with the planning said, in part because of how far the nations booster campaign has already come. That would suggest a significant softening of opposition among public health experts since President Biden announced in August that he hoped to offer booster doses to all adults.
Mr. Biden wanted to start the campaign in late September, but his announcement was heavily criticized by public health experts, who said he was rushing the federal scientists and regulators responsible for deciding whether the data supported such a move.
Some key regulators and outside advisers had argued that the effectiveness of the two-dose regimen, especially in preventing hospitalization and death, has held up strongly. One large study in New York of nearly nine million people has shown remarkable durability in the protection gained from all three federally authorized vaccines.
But more recently, some federal regulators and scientists have said the evidence is increasingly clear that a reduction in vaccine efficacy against milder Covid cases, and in protective antibodies, has put Americans especially seniors and those with medical conditions at risk of harmful breakthrough infections as the Delta variant of the virus only gradually loosens its grip.
Pfizer and BioNTech said last week that their request is based on data from a clinical trial in the United States and elsewhere that included more than 10,000 volunteers. After a third dose, the vaccines efficacy rate against symptomatic disease had been restored to about 95 percent, they said. It remains unclear, however, how long the protection from a booster shot will last.
Moderna is expected to soon submit its own request for the F.D.A. to broaden eligibility for its booster. But for now, every adult can get the Pfizer booster if it is broadly authorized, according to people familiar with the planning.
Top federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, have argued for months often pointing to Israel, which started its booster campaign in late July and now offers extra shots to everyone 12 and older that the case for boosting widely in the United States is clear. Dr. Fauci said at an event sponsored by Reuters on Tuesday that the virus could potentially be brought under control in the U.S. by the spring if boosters were available for everyone.
WASHINGTON The United States and China announced an agreement on Tuesday to ease restrictions on foreign journalists operating in the two countries, tempering a diplomatic confrontation that led to the expulsion of some American reporters from China during the last year of the Trump administration.
The deal was first reported by China Daily, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese government, and later confirmed by a statement issued from the State Department.
Under the agreement, made public just a day after President Biden met with President Xi Jinping of China, three news organizations The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times will be allowed to send journalists back to China, though it remained unclear whether the specific correspondents expelled last year will be permitted to return to work there.
We are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work, the State Department said in a statement, referring to the Peoples Republic of China. We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps.
WASHINGTON The Biden administration plans to pay more than $5 billion for a stockpile of Pfizers new Covid-19 pill, enough for about 10 million courses of treatment to be delivered in the next 10 months, according to people familiar with the agreement.
Senior federal health officials are counting on the drug to be a powerful weapon against Covid. When given promptly to trial groups of high-risk unvaccinated people who developed symptoms of the disease, the drug sharply reduced the risk of hospitalization and death.
Pfizer on Tuesday applied for federal authorization of the drug on an emergency basis. A similar pill developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics could be authorized as soon as early December, meaning pharmacies could have limited supplies on hand in weeks. Pfizers treatment is taken as a regimen of 30 pills over five days; Mercks requires 40 pills over five days.
The antiviral drugs have helped inspire hope among senior administration officials that the United States will be able to curb the devastating toll from the Delta variant and its predecessors. Some experts believe the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has passed in the country, in part because more than four out of every five Americans ages 12 and older are at least partly vaccinated.
Last year, doctors and politicians across the country urged Americans to skip a big group meal for Thanksgiving. But this year, months after vaccines have become widely available, the guidance from officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is more relaxed and families are getting together to celebrate.
As holiday traditions change yet again wed love to hear how you and your loved ones are adjusting. Were asking readers to tell us their Thanksgiving plans, and how they differ from last years.
If youd like to participate, you can tell us your story using the form below. We may feature your response in an upcoming edition of the Coronavirus Briefing newsletter.
The evidence lockers at the Manhattan district attorneys office often hold an array of items that figured in the crimes it prosecutes.
Blunt instruments. Sacks of heroin. Wads of cash. The kinds of things that shouldnt be dropped, but no one would have a heart attack if you did.
And then there are the 2,281 fragile, invaluable and often museum-worthy art objects statues, sculptures, relics of ancient civilizations that the office has seized and now must care for.
Here, a bronze idol from India priced at $2 million. There, a vase from Italy made 300 years before the birth of Christ.
Weve all gotten pretty good at packing, said Matthew Bogdanos, the assistant district attorney who directs the 14-person unit that seized it all. Its one thing to pack a bronze or sandstone statue its another to pack a 2,500-year-old Apulian vase that already has a crack down the side. That is absolutely nerve-racking, and we look at each other and say, We need more Bubble Wrap and more blankets.
Bogdanoss crew, known officially as the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, is very much a victim of its own success. Set up in 2017, with the approval of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., to curb the smuggling of cultural heritage, it has seized 3,604 illicit items valued at $204 million. Of that, 1,323 objects have been returned to countries of origin like Mexico, Afghanistan and Tibet.
Still, that leaves a lot of very nice stuff to watch over.
It does catch my attention, Vance said, that we have some extraordinarily important pieces of art and patrimony we need to secure carefully, and thats not something most offices have to worry about.
More than a year after the racial reckoning, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has created one of its most thoughtful reparations projects yet.
I do not mean its returning of some priceless artifacts back to West Africa, or its addressing of past racial wrongs with a restitution fund to support diversity in the arts, or the acknowledgment by Dan Weiss, its president and chief executive, on the one-year anniversary of George Floyds police killing, that the Met is a brilliant institution that has fallen short on these issues of race, equity and justice.
I mean something far more speculative, and symbolic. Its newest installation, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, boldly grapples with one of New York Citys biggest racial traumas: the 1857 destruction of Seneca Village, a vibrant, predominantly free Black community whose members had owned land along West 82nd to West 89th Streets starting in 1825, but were forced out in order to make Central Park. A racist smear campaign targeting the community in 1856 described its housing structures as shanties and its living conditions there as unhygienic and poor. The city used these stereotypes to further justify its need to purchase the land through eminent domain.
The plane from Kabul touched down in Qatar around 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Two 13-year-old musicians Zohra and Farida, a trumpet player and a violinist disembarked and ran toward their teacher. Then, witnesses said, they began to cry.
The girls were among the last students affiliated with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music a renowned school that has been a target of the Taliban in the past in part for its efforts to promote the education of girls to be evacuated from Kabul since the Taliban regained power in August.
They joined 270 students, teachers and their relatives who, fearing that the Taliban might seek to punish them for their ties to music, have made the journey from Kabul to Doha, the capital of Qatar, with the first group leaving in early October. Most arrived in the past week, boarding four special flights arranged by the government of Qatar, after months of delays. They eventually plan to resettle in Portugal, where they expect to be granted asylum.
Its such a huge relief, Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the head of the school, said in a telephone interview on his way back from greeting the girls at the airport on Tuesday. They can dream again. They can hope.
Officers responded at 12:24 p.m. local time, locating one male victim who was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said. The Memphis police chief, Cerelyn Davis, said in a statement posted on Twitter that the preliminary information indicates that the victim was Young Dolph, and that they were working to confirm that once the identification process has been completed.
The local Fox affiliate reported that the victim was Young Dolph, citing law enforcement sources and the owner of the shop, who said the rapper was buying cookies. A Corvette said to belong to Young Dolph was parked out front, according to photos on social media.
No information on a suspect was immediately available.
Born Adolph Thornton Jr. on July 27, 1985 in Chicago, Young Dolph moved as a small child to Memphis, where he was raised mostly by his grandmother. When he was young, he witnessed drug abuse by his parents, the rapper said in interviews.
By the time he was a teenager, Young Dolph had turned toward that illicit world of drug dealing and violence in hopes of helping his family, he said.
Can you imagine a 77-year-old woman trying to raise three elementary kids in the middle of the hood, with all this gang activity and drug infestation, Young Dolph said in a 2014 interview with Vice. Thats hard to do for an old lady. So my situation, Im realizing all the responsibility. I couldnt let her take all the responsibility. I always liked money, so when I was 15, 16 I went headfirst in the streets.
THE ART OF REVISION: The Last Word, by Peter Ho Davies. (Graywolf, paper, $14.) A writer draws on his experience teaching at the University of Michigan and uses the works of writers like Flannery OConnor, Carmen Maria Machado, Raymond Carver and himself to reflect on the beauty and importance of revising fiction.
MURAKAMI T: The T-Shirts I Love, by Haruki Murakami. (Knopf, $25.) In pieces written for a Japanese fashion magazine, the celebrated author goes through his collection of T-shirts, examining the memories, hobbies and consumerist aspects that they symbolize.
RECLAMATION: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendants Search for Her Familys Lasting Legacy, by Gayle Jessup White. (Amistad, $27.99.) A descendant of the Jefferson and Hemings families writes her life story, bringing the exploration of her ancestry and the white Jefferson descendants refusal to acknowledge their Black relatives into a national racial reckoning and cleareyed look at slaverys legacy.
A dangerous melee at the Belarus-Poland border
Hundreds of desperate and increasingly angry migrants, marooned at the border between Belarus and Poland, stampeded toward a frontier checkpoint yesterday, hurling stones and debris at Polish security personnel a few yards away.
Polish officers responded with volleys from water cannons and blasts of tear gas. I am angry, one migrant said. Everyone is angry. This is the last thing we could do. There is no other solution if we ever want to get to Europe. At least 11 people have died at the border in recent weeks.
Hours later, Belarusian border guards began moving hundreds of migrants from their frozen encampment to the shelter of a nearby warehouse. It was not immediately clear what plans the authorities had for those they were moving, but many feared that the relocation was a prelude to deportation.
Context: Yesterdays clash, the worst in a monthslong impasse on the European Unions eastern flank, underscored the perils of a standoff between Belarus, a close ally of Russia, and Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, each determined not to bend.
Some migrants have reported being taken to the E.U. borders by the Belarusian authorities, who have urged or even forced them to cross. They say these authorities gave them wire cutters to breach fences, helped tear down barriers and prevented them from returning to the cities.
Playing into European politics
An estimated 4,000 migrants are camped at the Polish border, and perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 overall in Belarus. The numbers may not be enormous compared with the millions who fled Syria or the million forced out of Myanmar, but the politics of migration are so volatile in Europe that even a small group can set off tensions.
The right-wing governing party in Poland has long called non-European migrants a threat to Polish culture and sovereignty, and its response to the current group has been predictably heated. It describes the conditions as an attack by Belarus, and has deployed thousands of troops to keep migrants out.
In 2015-16, more than a million people, primarily Syrians, poured into Europe. The resulting backlash buoyed right-wing nationalists across the continent, and ever since, mainstream politicians have been loath to embrace immigration.
Six years ago, some countries, notably Germany, welcomed migrants, while others, including Poland, refused to accept more than a few, clashing with E.U. leaders. But there was no danger that the issue would devolve into armed conflict.
Now, no one is offering to take the migrants, even as they suffer through life-threatening conditions. The E.U. is united behind Poland, which is portraying itself as the first line of defense for the bloc, and Warsaw and Minsk are trading ominous threats.
Migrants, but not necessarily refugees
Many of the Middle Easterners in Belarus are economic migrants who do not appear to qualify as refugees, though that does not make the danger they face at least 11 have died in the cold any less real.
Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in Britain from mid-January, the company said on Wednesday.
In an email to customers, Amazon said the change was due to the high fees Visa charges to process credit card transactions. Visa debit cards and other credit cards, including Mastercard and American Express, will still be accepted. The change will go into effect on Jan. 19.
Amazon said it believed that credit card payment costs small percentages of the transaction price that issuers charge to retailers should be going down over time with technological advancements. Instead, the company said, the costs remained high.
We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future, Visa said in a statement. It said it was still working on a resolution.
In September 1787, a group of delegates gathered in Philadelphia to sign the U.S. Constitution.
This week, a hastily organized crypto-collective is trying to buy it.
The group, called ConstitutionDAO, is a seat-of-the-pants experiment by thousands of cryptocurrency fans who have pooled their money to make a bid on a rare original printing of the Constitution. The document, one of only 13 surviving copies, is being auctioned on Thursday by Sothebys, which estimates it will sell for $15 million to $20 million.
News of the groups bid set off a frenzy of memes, jokes and pledges. The money came in so fast that one observer compared it to a financial flash mob. Within 24 hours, the group had raised $4.5 million worth of Ether, the cryptocurrency it is using to solicit contributions. (As of Wednesday morning, it had raised $12.8 million.)
Group bids for big-ticket collectibles arent new. But ConstitutionDAO is a particularly quixotic example of whats known as a decentralized autonomous organization, a kind of internet-native co-op that is governed with cryptocurrency tokens and blockchain-based smart contracts instead of traditional corporate boards and bylaws.
The Hollywood studio Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the director Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement for his plans to sell nonfungible tokens based on the screenplay for his 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also accused Mr. Tarantino of breach of contract, trademark infringement and unfair competition, according to court documents.
The director announced the sale of the NFTs blockchain-based collectibles whose popularity is currently booming at an annual crypto-art event in New York this month.
Im excited to be presenting these exclusive scenes from Pulp Fiction to fans, Mr. Tarantino said in a news release, adding that the goal was to auction a collection of seven uncut Pulp Fiction scenes as secret NFTs, meaning their content would be hidden except to the owner.
The hottest summer days in the Sierra Nevada in California greatly increase the risk that wildfires will ignite or spread, and as the planet keeps warming the risks will increase even more, scientists said Wednesday.
The research, which examined daily temperatures and data from nearly 450 Sierra Nevada fires from 2001 to 2020 and projected the analysis into the future, found that the number of fires could increase by about 20 percent or more by the 2040s, and that the total burned area could increase by about 25 percent or more.
The findings show how short events like heat waves impact fires, said Aurora A. Gutierrez, a researcher at the University of California Irvine and the lead author of a paper describing the work in the journal Science Advances. We were able to quantify that.
JBS disagreed with the criteria used by the prosecutors and agreed to improve its monitoring system, block suppliers flagged by the research and donate $900,000 to the state in response to the audit.
To get a sense of scale of the ranches operating in vulnerable areas across the Brazilian Amazon, The Times overlaid government maps of protected Amazon land, deforested areas and farm boundaries with the locations of ranches that JBS publicly listed as supplying its slaughterhouses in 2020. An analysis showed that, among the JBS suppliers, ranches covering an estimated 2,500 square miles significantly overlapped Indigenous land, a conservation zone or an area that was deforested after 2008, when laws regulating deforestation were put in place in Brazil.
The methodology and results were examined and verified by a team of independent researchers and academics who study land use in the Brazilian Amazon.
International trade data showed companies that own tanneries supplied with the hides had then shipped leather to factories in Mexico run by Lear, a major seat maker that supplies auto assembly plants across the United States. Lear said in 2018 that it was then sourcing about 70 percent of its raw hides from Brazil. Brazils hides also go to other countries including Italy, Vietnam and China for use in the automotive, fashion and furniture industries, the trade data showed.
JBS acknowledged that almost three-quarters of the ranches identified in The Timess analysis did overlap with land that the government categorizes as illegally deforested, or as Indigenous land or a conservation zone. But it said all the ranches had been in compliance with rules to prevent deforestation when JBS bought from them.
JBS said that, in those instances where there were overlaps, the farms were allowed to operate in protected or deforested areas, or their boundaries had changed, or they had followed rules to fix their environmental violations. Ranching is allowed in some protected areas in Brazil if it follows sustainable practices.
In a statement, JBS said it has maintained a monitoring system for more than a decade that verifies supplier compliance with its environmental policy. More than 14,000 suppliers have been blocked for failure to comply with this policy, it said. However, the company said, the great challenge for JBS, and for the beef cattle supply chain in general, is to monitor the suppliers of its suppliers, since the company has no information about them.
Americans died of drug overdoses in record numbers as the pandemic spread across the country, federal researchers reported on Wednesday, the result of lost access to treatment, rising mental health problems and wider availability of dangerously potent street drugs.
In the 12-month period that ended in April, more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, up almost 30 percent from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. The figure marks the first time the number of overdose deaths in the United States has exceeded 100,000 a year, more than the toll of car crashes and gun fatalities combined. Overdose deaths have more than doubled since 2015.
Administration officials said on Wednesday that they will expand access to medications like naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose, by encouraging states to pass laws that will make it more widely available and promoting its use by Americans.
I believe that no one should die of an overdose simply because they didnt have access to naloxone, said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Sadly, today that is happening across the country, and access to naloxone often depends a great deal on where you live.
The threat posed by the cartel, which runs a poppy harvesting operation using the townspeoples cheap labor, undermines any sense of normality. Black SUVs can come charging from across the valley without warning, forcing the girls into hiding, and helicopters spraying toxic pesticides to preserve the opium-producing crop often invade during playtime.
A leap forward in time turns the girls into young women. A new set of older actresses steps in to play the girls at 13, and their masculine hairdos arent fooling anyone.
The film swings back and forth from scenes of pastoral bliss to brutality, generating a narrative that, while unfocused, is nevertheless anchored by the tender and wounded performances by its adolescent cast.
In the end, tragedy arrives abruptly, an unsurprising turn given the unchanging circumstances, yet one that imparts a girl with a sudden awakening to the monumental bleakness of her fate.
Prayers for the Stolen
Rated R. In Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters and on Netflix.
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Two of the men found guilty of the assassination of Malcolm X are expected to have their convictions thrown out on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney and lawyers for the two men said, rewriting the official history of one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights era.
For decades, historians have cast doubt on the case against the two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who each spent more than 20 years in prison. Their exoneration represents a remarkable acknowledgment of grave errors made in a case of towering importance: the 1965 murder of one of Americas most influential Black leaders.
Its long overdue, said Bryan Stevenson a civil rights lawyer and the founder of the Equal Justice initiative. This is one of the most prominent figures of the 20th century who commanded enormous attention and respect. And yet, our system failed.
The men whose convictions in Malcolm Xs assassination were vacated on Thursday must have seemed like irresistible suspects to investigators who were searching for the assassins in 1965.
Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, then known as Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson, were lieutenants in the Nation of Islams militia and worked at the Harlem mosque that Malcolm X had led before falling out with the sects leader, Elijah Muhammad.
At the time of the assassination, Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were out on bail on charges that they had beaten and shot a defector, Benjamin Brown, who had set up a mosque in the Bronx.
Those charges were later dismissed, but their status as Nation of Islam enforcers led the police to them in the days after Malcolm Xs assassination. Mr. Aziz, then 30, and Mr. Islam, then 26, were tried and convicted of the murder along with a third man, Talmadge Hayer, who later changed his name to Mujahid Halim.
Since the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, uncertainties have plagued historians and scholars, and questions about key details of the case have lingered. Here is a timeline:
Feb. 21, 1965
Malcolm X is assassinated in Upper Manhattan.
Malcolm X was killed as he addressed a crowd of roughly 400 people at the Audubon Ballroom at Broadway and 165th Street in Washington Heights. He was pronounced dead later that day.
March. 10, 1965
3 Nation of Islam members are indicted in the killing.
Mujahid Abdul Halim, a member of the Nation of Islam, was arrested as he fled the ballroom. (He was known as Talmadge Hayer at the time and later as Thomas Hagan.)
Within two weeks, two other men were arrested and later indicted in the killing: Muhammad Abdul Aziz (formerly Norman 3X Butler) and Khalil Islam (also known as Thomas 15X Johnson).
For decades, the killing of Malcolm X has captivated the attention of scholars with a critical question: Were the wrong men convicted of the crime?
One of three men, Mujahid Abdul Halim, confessed at the 1966 murder trial. But he also testified that his co-defendants Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam were innocent and that he knew, but would not name, the actual assassins.
A decade later, Mr. Halim gave two sworn affidavits as part of an unsuccessful appeal by Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam. In the documents, he named four other men who he said took part in the assassination, all members of a Nation of Islam mosque in Newark. He gave only partial names.
The review by the Manhattan district attorneys office did not pin the crime on any other suspects. But scholars have formed their own conclusions about the identities and roles of the four men identified by Mr. Halim, who previously went by the name Talmadge Hayer.
In the 1990s, the West was slow to react to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. After much bloodshed, it eventually launched airstrikes against the Serb forces in Bosnia in 1995 and in Serbia and Kosovo in 1999, and deployed tens of thousands of NATO troops to oversee the truce and stabilize the region. In subsequent years, the United States and the European Union spent billions of dollars to help reconstruct the region. Though often justifiably criticized for focusing on short-term, slapdash solutions, their efforts were key to ensuring the safety and stability of the Balkans.
But their attention slipped away. The United States, more focused on its operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, had withdrawn from hands-on engagement by 2010. It handed over the responsibility to the European Union, which was supposed to underwrite the regions long-term stability by accepting its countries into the bloc. Yet by 2019, as the European Union struggled with its own problems and divisions, it became clear that the offer had been effectively taken off the table.
Robbed of their European dream and denied full access to the blocs common market, Balkan leaders reverted to the nationalism and populism of the past. The rule of law, human rights and other key democratic principles fell by the wayside. In multiethnic countries with unfinished national projects, such as Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo, ethno-political divisions have festered.
Even so, the main responsibility lies with the countries themselves, especially political representatives and their affiliated media, who based their popularity on spreading animosity toward other ethnic groups. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnonationalism has taken center stage. Mr. Dodik is not alone in his radical ways: Muslim Bosniaks, the largest ethnic group, have agitated for a unitary state, and Bosnian Croats have demanded an autonomous Croat region.
Crucially, the abdication of the West not only allowed democratic backsliding but also opened the region to other outside forces. Russia has taken a pronounced interest, establishing a strong political influence in all Serb-populated parts of the region, while Turkey, the Gulf countries and Iran have done the same in Muslim-populated areas. China, using its political pragmatism and ample economic resources, has become a major presence throughout the region. Whats more, Croatia and especially Serbia have started to interfere in the internal politics of neighboring countries, adding to regional tensions.
Thats not to say Im living without fear. Though Im confident that my triple shots of the vaccine will protect me, Im not the same person I was before the pandemic. You feel vulnerable when youre repeatedly reminded that people age 65 and older are at a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 and that the risk increases with age. I have some fear of crowds and large gatherings, and Im reluctant to touch other people. The pain and suffering of the world are with me in a way they never were before, and I am now all too aware that what we take for granted as normal can change in an instant. But I am ready to move forward.
While Covid-19s toll has been felt by everyone, pandemic living for people in our 80s was different. Yes, our risk of getting sick or dying from Covid was far greater. But nonetheless, I was able to keep my equanimity. People my age are resilient; after all, we were children during World War II.
Because the pandemic forced me and my peers to be so sheltered, daily life became, ironically, stress-free and, for some of us, boring. In March 2020 my boyfriend and I were told that we could not keep going back and forth between our two retirement-community apartments. We decided in a few minutes that he would move in with me. That hasty decision meant we lived pleasantly together through the long months of quarantine, reading books and playing word games. I wrote on my blog about aging, and I spoke to my psychotherapy clients over Zoom. Dinner was delivered to our door.
It was not the same for my adult children or many of my therapy clients, most of whom are in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Their stress levels were extraordinary. Some took precautions to the extreme and disinfected their groceries. One of my clients, who was working a full-time job while managing her childrens schooling from home, told me she could sleep for three years.
Marr: It sounds like you will probably be spending several hours indoors with numerous unvaccinated people. This is a risky situation in terms of transmission, especially if guests are coming from areas with high transmission. If youre willing to accept the risk of minor illness and a smaller risk of a more severe case, then you do not need to wear a mask. If you wear a mask, it will provide some protection, even if no one else is wearing a mask. A high-performance mask such as an N95, genuine KN95, or KF94 provides excellent protection. Other ways to reduce your risk are to spend as much time as possible outside, or turn on the kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans and sit by an open window. Even just a few inches will make a big difference.
Nuzzo: In navigating risks, so much of what is involved is personal risk tolerance and judgments about benefits. Though Im generally more comfortable in social gatherings where the adults are vaccinated, if the event were important to me, I may be willing to assume some additional risk from being around unvaccinated people. In this scenario, Im much more worried about the unvaccinated people contracting the virus from other unvaccinated individuals at the gathering because they will be less protected from the consequences of an infection than vaccinated people. You could use rapid tests, particularly for the unvaccinated individuals, to increase safety at this gathering and you could also wear masks.
I really need to get out. Or do I?
Is it safe for me 74, vaccinated, boosted and in generally good health to travel to a state with a lower rate of vaccination than my own? Id love to go somewhere warm this winter, but not at the risk of my health. Barbara Sloan, Conway, S.C.
Covid deaths in October in our nine-county area were the second highest (monthly total) since the pandemic began. Vaccination rates are around 60 percent. Should I stop going to restaurants and go back to self-quarantining again? Robert Palmer, Le Sueur, Minn.
Nuzzo: People in public health tend to avoid using the word safe because its really relative some things are safer than others, but nothing is zero risk. Since you are vaccinated and generally healthy, I think its perfectly reasonable for you to travel. If you want to be safer while doing it, pick somewhere to go where the community prevalence isnt accelerating. You can also mask in indoor spaces and avoid crowded places to further reduce your risk. But the beach is a great place to relax in the winter because you get to spend more time outdoors where the risk of transmission is quite low. Have fun!
Morrison: Whether you choose to self-isolate depends on your level of risk. If you are fully vaccinated, in good health and do not work or socialize in areas with high case numbers and low vaccination rates, you are at low risk for infection and disease. You can feel comfortable traveling if you take some additional precautions. The safest thing to do if you are in situations where you dont know the vaccination status of those around you, is to wear a mask and distance. Its even safer if you socialize outside. If you are planning to travel on a plane, bus or train, keep your mask on while in those enclosed areas.
From Los Angeles to Felixstowe, England; to Dubai, United Arab Emirates; to Shenzhen, China, the world is witnessing delays and shortages of everything from toys to turkeys. At the root of this crisis is a transport sector that is buckling under the strain of Covid-era conditions. Workers who drive the trucks, fly the planes and crew the ships responsible for moving all these goods around $19 trillion of world trade annually have been stretched to the breaking point. Governments have been too slow to act.
With prices of gasoline, groceries and more spiking, the United States should take the lead in restoring order to supply chains before it is too late. By using its influence, the United States should persuade other countries to address an underlying cause of the crisis working conditions for transport workers.
Long before the Ever Given, a 220,000-ton container ship, blocked the Suez Canal in March, transport industries had issued a blunt public warning that a trade logjam was unavoidable if conditions for sailors, drivers and pilots were not improved. To keep trade moving, workers urgently need fast-tracked visas, the return of flights to and from ports and vaccinations. Instead, the opposite happened. Draconian travel bans and limited access to vaccinations have had a devastating impact on transport workers well-being and safety. Crews have not been allowed to disembark ships without the right vaccination paperwork, so leaving or joining a ship has become impossible: Hundreds of thousands of them have been trapped on their vessels, with some working months beyond their initial contracts. Thousands of truck drivers at international borders have also been forced to sit for days in freezing temperatures without access to food or medical facilities. Pilots of cargo planes have faced extensive quarantines after completing international flights, meaning long periods away from their families.
This ill treatment may push many workers out of the sector, exacerbating the shortfall in labor that underpins the chaos. In the shipping industry alone, which moves around 80 percent of goods traded globally, there is an expected shortfall of thousands of officers in the next few years, according to a work force report from the International Chamber of Shipping and the Baltic and International Maritime Council. Left to depend on national vaccination programs, many transport workers, especially those from developing economies with less access to vaccines, will continue to suffer untenable work conditions.
For decades, geneticists have collected the blood of thousands of Roma people, a marginalized group living primarily in Europe, and deposited their DNA in public databases. The ostensible purpose of some of these studies was to learn more about the history and genetics of the Roma people.
Now, a group of scientists has argued this research, which has made the Roma the most intensely studied population in Europe over the past 30 years in forensic genetic journals, is rife with ethical issues and may harm the Romani people.
For five years, a team of researchers in Germany and the United Kingdom pored over more than 450 papers that used the DNA of Roma people to understand how geneticists and other scholars obtained, interpreted and shared that genetic information. Their analysis, published Wednesday in an op-ed in the journal Nature, revealed many instances of clear misuse or questionable ethics.
In 1981, when scientists in Hungary sampled the blood of Roma people incarcerated in Hungarian prisons, they classified prisoners as Romani based solely on their appearance, which the authors of the new paper argue is unscientific. In 1993, another group sampling Romani DNA concluded that there were three distinct ethnic groups in the country, drawing a line between the genuine Hungarian ethnical groups and Jews and Gypsies a research premise the authors of the new paper argue was racist. In the 2000s, papers on the genetics of Roma people still referred to the group with the outdated term Gypsy, which is considered a slur, or with pejorative terms such as inbred or consanguineous.
But this lifestyle was largely abandoned in the early Bronze Age. The El Argar favored large hilltop settlements like La Almoloya, and their burials were more intimate, with just a person or two interred. Their pottery, specialized weapons and bronze, silver and gold artifacts were distinctly different.
The researchers found that Argaric genetics reflected this turnover. Based on DNA extracted from teeth and cranial bones, they discovered that after the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age, the El Argar had genetic links to a population in Central Europe known as the steppe people.
The researchers also found a surprising gender divide across the Argaric sites.
Based on their mitochondrial DNA, passed from mother to child, the women and girls were mostly descended from local people. Yet the men and boys were overwhelmingly related to the steppe people, and had virtually no genetic inheritance from the local people. The men and boys, tracked through their Y chromosomes, belonged to a genetic population now among the most common in Western Europe, but which was relatively new to the Iberian Peninsula 4,200 years ago. About a century after their arrival, these steppe-descended men replaced the local Iberian men entirely and had many children with the local women.
As researchers studied these genomes, another gender difference emerged as well.
Males have many relatives at the site, whereas the females have less, said Vanessa Villalba-Mouco, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and an author of the study.
Of the 30 adult female genomes that researchers sequenced at La Almoloya, not one woman was related to any other woman. They had children such as the infant daughter of the silver-crowned woman but they were seemingly otherwise on their own.
The site contains no evidence of colonization or violence, but it also contains no easy explanation for these genetic relationships.
I was 26 and married when I learned of the arrangement between my parents.
Mom had come to stay with me and my new wife, and we got trapped indoors during an ice storm. Sometime during the interminable weekend, my mother, probably in an alcohol-fueled moment of candor, spilled the beans.
I had never heard of a Josephite marriage, a union inspired by the relationship between Joseph and the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. And to this day, I am astonished that my parents undertook a similar path with the blessing of the Roman Catholic Church. While their arrangement did not comply with the strict definition of a Josephite relationship for they entered marriage without the intention of a celibate union such pacts remain an option for Catholics seeking a higher spiritual plane.
My father was a worldly 32 and my mother a winsome 19 when they met. He was a doctor completing his training at Queens General Hospital, now known as Queens Hospital Center. She was a student nurse in clinical training there. He was agnostic, though his parents were Presbyterian. She was Catholic. They eloped, were married by a Lutheran minister, and produced four children. Dad had a severe heart attack at 46. This brush with death prompted him to convert to Catholicism.
After he recovered from his heart attack, my father undertook religious training from our assistant pastor, the Dublin-born Rev. Patrick OBrien, a rosy-cheeked, rotund fellow who could have come from central casting. I remember that every Wednesday night my mother would serve roast leg of lamb with mint jelly for the benefit of our ordained visitor. This was far from the typical weeknight fare in our Texas household.
The first time fashion got anywhere near an official United Nations climate conference like the one just held in Glasgow was in 2009. That was COP15 (COP stands for conference of the parties), and it was held in Copenhagen. I write near a COP because back then fashion was not considered central to the climate conversation. It wasnt, somehow, serious enough.
Fashion was so marginalized, in fact, that in order to talk about its role in creating, and fighting, climate change, it had to hold its own conference. And so the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which focuses on sustainability, was born.
It took more than a decade, but things have changed. There has been a lot of talk this year about financial bigwigs finally coming to the COP table, but this is the first year that fashion had a meaningful, extended presence. As Stella McCartney, who created a special Future of Fashion materials exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery said, after almost two decades of pushing fashion to acknowledge its effect on the environment, she was a COP virgin no longer.
Heres what else stuck with me from COP26.
1. There was plenty of official action.
Smack in the middle of the Blue Zone (the official delegate area that is, the one where world leaders spoke), there was an installation by a fashion collective called Generation of Waste made to mimic a bar chart of the various stages of textile waste, from design through raw materials, garment production and so on.
The early 2000s have been back in style for what feels like forever now, reviving demand for the velour tracksuits, low-rise jeans, rhinestone-studded baby tees and trucker hats that defined an era of consumerism. Now, a new docuseries aims to examine the legacy of one of the aughts most sought-after brands.
The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For, out Nov. 18 on Hulu, explores a complicated corporate origin story filled with sabotage and greed as various parties vied for control of the brand.
Andrew Renzi, the director, was drawn to the notion that Von Dutch, best known for its logo-emblazoned trucker hats, was cursed from the get-go.
Everybody who had touched it, it touched them in a pretty negative way, he said in a phone interview.
The travel industry has reached a turning point.
As thousands of scientists, government officials and business leaders met in Glasgow over the past two weeks for the pivotal United Nations climate conference, hundreds of members of the trillion-dollar tourism industry came together and made the first commitment toward a shared road map to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
More than 300 global travel stakeholders, including tour operators, tourism boards and hotel chains, have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, requiring them to submit a concrete and transparent plan within 12 months. While the details have yet to be put forward, the companies and countries that signed on, from Germany railway company Deutsche Bahn AG to the country of Panama, will be expected to disclose their carbon emissions and offer clear strategies for how to reduce them. The process is being spearheaded by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, two industry bodies that have previously sparred on climate matters.
This is undoubtedly the biggest climate commitment our industry has come together for, said Jeremy Smith, the co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, an initiative that supports climate action and provided the framework for the Glasgow Declaration.
Our initiative launched two years ago because the industry had no collective plan, and we did well getting over 400 tourism organizations on board without funding, he said. But the Glasgow Declaration builds on our work. Its the coming together of major players in our sector and its owned by everyone who has signed it, establishing collective responsibility.
Dr. Bagley, a former international studies professor, used bank accounts in his name and that of a company he created in Florida to launder about $2.5 million, keeping a commission for himself, prosecutors said. They said that he had personally reaped $192,000 from November 2017 to September 2018 as part of the scheme, adding that the money was stolen from the citizens of Venezuela. Dr. Bagley pleaded guilty in June 2020 to two counts of money laundering, prosecutors said.
Peter Quijano, a lawyer for Dr. Bagley, declined to comment Tuesday. In court papers this month, he argued for no prison time and a sentence of time served, noting that the nonviolent crime was his clients first criminal conviction, that Dr. Bagley was in poor health, and that he had an otherwise distinguished career as a professor and mentor.
Mr. Quijano also said that Dr. Bagley had already suffered severe collateral consequences as a result of his conviction: irreparable harm to his career and reputation and the stress that affected his wife before her death this year. Mr. Quijano described Dr. Bagley as unfailingly devoted to his wife.
He is overwhelmed by dark thoughts that his arrest, in fact, hastened her death, Mr. Quijano wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Prosecutors had argued for a sentence below guidelines of 46 to 57 months, but did not specify exactly how much lower. In court papers this month, prosecutors said that although Dr. Bagleys age and health should be taken into consideration, some incarceration was necessary to serve as a deterrent.
BALTIMORE The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States backed away from a direct conflict with President Biden on Wednesday, approving a new document on the sacrament of the eucharist that does not mention the president or any politicians by name.
At issue was the question of which Catholics, under which circumstances, are properly able to receive communion, one of the most sacred rites within Christianity. For some conservative Catholics, the real question was more pointed: Should Catholic politicians who publicly support and advance abortion rights be denied the sacrament?
For some of the most outspoken critics of Mr. Biden and other liberal Catholic leaders, the document represented a strategic retreat. Still, its very existence highlighted a divide between conservative American bishops and the Vatican, and pitted some of the nations most powerful prelates against the countrys second Catholic president.
It also illuminated sprawling rifts among ordinary American Catholics, falling along lines that have become familiar since the presidency of Donald J. Trump scrambled both political and religious loyalties. An emboldened Catholic right wing, including media outlets and activist groups, now feels increasingly free to antagonize Pope Francis and his agenda.
In the northern Italian province of Bolzano which borders Austria and Switzerland, and where 70 percent of the population is German-speaking the vaccination rate is the lowest in the country. Experts have linked a sharp increase in infections there to frequent exchanges with Austria, but also to a cultural inclination among the population toward homeopathy and natural cures.
Sociologists say that the vaccine resistance in some of these areas is also being fueled by a strong tradition of decentralized government that tends to feed distrust of rules imposed from the capital and by a far-right ecosystem that knows how to exploit both. In some ways, vaccine resistance is the long tail of the populist nationalist movements that shook up European politics for a decade.
As a result, in parts of Europe, whether youre vaccinated or not has become almost a political identifier like in the United States, said Pia Lamberty of CeMAS, a Berlin-based research organization focused on disinformation and conspiracy theories.
In Annaberg-Buchholz, a onetime medieval metal-mining town near the Czech border, the split is visceral. Every Monday, hard-line opponents of vaccines hold a small but noisy rally in the town center. This week, there were some 50 protesters raging against the government in Berlin, which they say is a dictatorship like Communism, only worse.
Rolf Schmidt, the mayor, said that the restrictions the government imposed on unvaccinated people like requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter social venues and shops were sowing division. He is lobbying to allow the towns celebrated Christmas market to go ahead, with a testing mandate for all but no restrictions on the unvaccinated.
Kansas, Kentucky, Maine and Vermont on Wednesday joined several states across the United States in expanding access to coronavirus vaccine boosters for all adults. That comes as federal regulators consider granting requests for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters to be authorized for all adults as early as this week, according to people familiar with the planning.
State leaders have used various justifications for choosing not to wait for federal decisions on boosters, ranging from concerns about holiday season gatherings and winter temperatures pushing people indoors to rising cases and confusion among residents about eligibility. Federal regulators say boosters are available for adults who meet their eligibility categories and are at least six months past their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or are two months past receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccination.
Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky issued an executive order that allows any adult to get a booster, provided they meet timing rules. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly said that vaccine providers should allow people to determine their level of risk exposure and that the entire state was at high risk, urging all adults to get a booster. And Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont expanded booster access to all adults and said the state would simplify the online registration for state-run vaccination clinics and permit walk-in appointments.
Federal public health officials are investigating a large and sudden outbreak of the flu among students at the University of Michigan, the university announced this week.
Since October, there have been 528 cases of the flu on the campus in Ann Arbor, a vast majority 77 percent occurring in students who have not been vaccinated against the flu. The spread of the disease has accelerated over the past several weeks, according to the university.
Experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were on campus this week to assist university officials and the local health authorities in analyzing the outbreak and assessing the effectiveness of this years flu vaccines.
Emily Martin, an associate professor of epidemiology at the universitys School of Public Health who is assisting with the investigation, said the current case count was significant, especially compared with those of recent years. She added that the university might be identifying more flu cases this year because students were seeking tests for symptoms that overlap with Covid-19.
On the edge of town in Genoa, Neb., a stone monument serves as a gravestone on the grounds of a government-run boarding school for Native Americans that has been shuttered for almost a century.
No one knows how many students died there, at the Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School, though thousands are believed to have passed through its doors. Government documents have proved elusive or obfuscated an accurate death toll. Graves have not been found on the grounds.
But, using digitized government records and newspaper clippings, researchers recently pieced together part of the history of the Genoa School, which operated from 1884 to 1934 and once sprawled over 30 buildings and 640 acres.
The researchers confirmed that at least 87 children died at the school, and identified 50 of the students, whose names have not been made public. The true death toll is probably much higher, they said.
After his remarks, the House Armed Services Committee announced it would investigate the matter.
Both the incident and the efforts to cover it up are deeply disturbing, Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington and the chairman of the panel, said in an email to The Times.
Mr. Austin, who became defense secretary this year, received a classified briefing on Tuesday about the strike and the militarys handling of it from Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the militarys Central Command, which oversaw the air war in Syria.
Aides said on Wednesday that Mr. Austin was still digesting General McKenzies briefing, as well as newly submitted plans from top commanders on how to mitigate civilian casualties. Those steps were recommended in a separate investigation into a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29 that killed 10 civilians, including seven children.
On Monday, John F. Kirby, the Pentagons top spokesman, declined to comment on details of the Syria strike, which took place near the town of Baghuz on March 18, 2019, as part of the final battle against Islamic State fighters in a remnant of a once-sprawling religious state across Iraq and Syria. It was one of the largest civilian-casualty episodes in the yearslong war against ISIS, but the U.S. military had never publicly acknowledged it.
A task force investigated the strike and acknowledged that four civilians were killed, but it also concluded that there had been no wrongdoing in the unit. In October 2019, the task force sent its findings to the military headquarters in Baghdad, as well as to the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.
In Virginia, members of a bipartisan panel were entrusted with drawing a new map of the states congressional districts. But politics got in the way. Reduced to shouting matches, accusations and tears, they gave up.
In Ohio, Republicans who control the legislature simply ignored the states redistricting commission, choosing to draw a highly gerrymandered map themselves. Democrats in New York are likely to take a similar path next year.
And in Arizona and Michigan, independent mapmakers have been besieged by shadowy pressure campaigns disguised as spontaneous, grass-roots political organizing.
Partisan gerrymandering is as old as the republic, but good-government experts thought they had hit on a solution with independent commissions, advisory groups and outside panels. Taking the map-drawing process out of the hands of lawmakers under pressure to win elections, the thinking went, would make American democracy more fair.
By some estimates, the existing eligibility categories, which are broad but complicated, cover up to 70 percent of adults. More than 30 million Americans, or about 16 percent of those fully vaccinated, have already gotten additional shots. But under the federal rules, tens of millions more are still ineligible.
Even if federal regulators do not act on Modernas request this week, the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. are expected to allow all fully vaccinated adults access to Pfizers booster. At a White House briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, defended the administrations approach of broad access to boosters, saying vaccines should protect against symptomatic illness, not just hospitalization and death.
I dont know of any other vaccine that we only worry about keeping people out of the hospitals, he said. I think an important thing is to prevent people from getting symptomatic disease, noting that it can have long-term consequences, a condition dubbed long Covid.
Theres a really good reason to optimally protect younger individuals as well as older and more vulnerable people, he said.
The proceedings this time were starkly partisan, with Republicans rushing to Mr. Gosars defense. His offense was at once more trivial the posting online of a crudely edited video drawn from a popular anime series and more sinister. In his video, Mr. Gosar is depicted slashing the neck of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, amid imagery of violence meted out against hordes of refugees and migrants.
Mr. Gosar showed no remorse. On the contrary, he sat impassively in the chamber listening to most of the debate, and stood to tell the House in a defiant speech: I reject the false narrative categorically.
After the vote, Mr. Gosar appeared in the well of the House to receive his censure with a coterie of strident conservatives standing behind him. He did not speak, as Mr. Rangel had 11 years ago, but accepted handshakes and well wishes from the Republicans who rallied behind him.
During the debate, Republican lawmakers rose in turn to back Mr. Gosar. They complained of a debasement of the power to censure by Ms. Pelosi that they argued was of a piece with two impeachments of a Republican president, the rejection of Republicans chosen by G.O.P. leadership for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the Houses action earlier this year to strip another member of their party, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, of her committee assignments for offensive social media posts that predated her political career.
Shes created precedents that are going to reverberate for decades to come, said Representative Rodney Davis, Republican of Illinois, who added that Ms. Pelosi had torn the fabric of this House apart.
And many warned that a Republican majority which could come as soon as 2023 would not hesitate to take advantage of the precedents set by Democrats.
Mr. McCarthy singled out Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, whom he accused of fomenting violence when she spoke to racial justice protesters in Minneapolis last year, telling them to get more confrontational.
In September, the former intern and her lawyers filed a tort claim against the Idaho Legislature, which said the intern, referred to as Jane Doe, feared for her and her familys safety.
Ms. Doe suffered and continues to suffer extreme emotional distress including suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety and panic attacks, the tort claim said.
The intern, who had been working for another House Republican, told the ethics committee in March that Mr. von Ehlinger had sexually assaulted her after they had dinner at a Boise, Idaho, restaurant that month. Instead of taking her back to her car, Mr. von Ehlinger drove her to his apartment and raped her, she testified.
After the intern filed a police report, Ms. Giddings shared a blog post on her Facebook page and in her newsletter that included a photo of the intern, her full name and other identifying information. She also disparaged the woman in the posts.
In April, Ms. Giddings denied sharing the information in an ethics committee meeting. During the meeting, a member of the committee showed lawmakers that the post was still on the representatives Facebook page.
The bipartisan House Ethics and Policy Committee in August found in a unanimous vote that Ms. Giddings engaged in conduct unbecoming of a representative.
On Monday, the House voted to formally censure Giddings in a 49-to-19 vote that also stripped her of her assignment on the Commerce and Human Resources Committee. She will keep other committee assignments. House members who voted for censure said they did so partly because Ms. Giddings had at one point lied about sharing the interns personal information while under oath.
NAIROBI, Kenya Secretary of State Antony J. Blinkens first visit to sub-Saharan Africa was intended to be a grand gesture of American support for the continent. But his first day also illustrated the frustrating limits of American influence in a region undergoing deep turmoil.
As Mr. Blinken met with officials in Nairobi, Kenya, security forces in the capital of neighboring Sudan shot and killed at least 15 pro-democracy protesters and wounded many others in the deadliest violence since a military coup on Oct. 25 set back hopes for the country.
At the same time, a civil war continued to rage in Ethiopia, where the beleaguered prime minister Abiy Ahmed, once a darling of the West, lashed out at international critics, even as Mr. Blinken renewed his appeal for an end to the fighting another jarring juxtaposition that raised new doubts about Washingtons powers of persuasion in a turbulent region.
It is an unhappy context for Mr. Blinkens visit to Africa, where he plans to give a speech on Friday in Nigeria outlining the Biden administrations vision for a continent that President Donald J. Trump often treated with a mixture of indifference and contempt.
[Follow our live coverage of Secretary of State Antony Blinkens trip to Africa.]
NAIROBI, Kenya The family was startled awake by a loud bang in the middle of the night on the gate of their home on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Police officers barged in without a warrant, ransacking the living room and looking under the beds. They seized three members of the family, among them a 76-year-old, one-legged amputee yanked from bed while his sons begged to go in his place.
They showed him no mercy even after he cried, I am disabled and diabetic, said the mans nephew, Kirubel, who would give only his first name for fear of reprisals.
The family is among hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Ethiopians belonging to the Tigrayan ethnic group who have been rounded up and detained in the capital and beyond in recent weeks.
As if the war in Ethiopia were not enough, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinkens Africa visit is also shadowed by a military coup in Sudan, which has prompted weeks of protests drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
On Wednesday, Sudanese security forces fired into crowds of demonstrators in Khartoum, the capital, killing 15 people and wounding many others, according to a statement by the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, an independent group of medics. That is the highest toll since the army took power on Oct. 25.
Many had been shot in the head, neck or torso, the main doctors association said in a statement. The 15 deaths brought the number of those reported killed in protests so far to at least 39.
The coup in Sudan is an unexpected crisis that blew up only a few weeks ago in the face of one of Mr. Blinkens most seasoned envoys.
He and Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso founded the Association of Cuban Journalists in 2001. The next year they managed to publish two issues of De Cuba magazine before a crackdown by the Castro regime as part of the so-called Black Spring, which crushed the petition drive by the movement of dissident intellectuals.
Scores of political renegades were arrested, including Mr. Rivero, who was charged in March 2003 with spreading of false news about the current situation in our government, in compliance with the indications received by the U.S. government.
Cuban officials said he was detained not for his views but for being a paid collaborator with a hostile country the United States. Mr. Rivero said that whatever fees he had received were from publishers for his writing.
This is so arbitrary for a man whose only crime is to write what he thinks, his wife told The New York Times in 2003. What they found on him was a tape recorder, not a grenade.
Mr. Rivero was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was confined for nearly a year in a cramped, windowless one-person cell and was denied contact with anyone outside. In November 2004, he was one of a half-dozen political prisoners released in what was interpreted as a gesture to court favor with the European Union.
There, at 57 years old, condemned to spend two decades behind those bars (they are like eight thousand nights), I wrote down every day in a lined notebook the memories of past episodes of my life, and I designed others that I would have liked to happen to me, Mr. Rivero recalled, referring to his anthology of poems, Life and Offices (2006), written while he was imprisoned.
Every morning I tried to erase the reality of the environment in which I lived, he told his fellow journalist Wilfredo Cancio Isla on cibercuba.com, a website founded in Spain by Cuban exiles. Many times, almost always, I succeeded. That allowed me to experience this extravagant situation: to be imprisoned as a journalist and as a citizen and to be, as a poet, a free man.
Egypt is on the verge of passing a law that would allow people to be prosecuted if they publish something deemed to be fake news during an epidemic, an ostensible attempt to control disinformation in the coronavirus era. But critics fear the law could instead be used to repress those who challenge government policies during public health crises.
The legislation awaits ratification by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a mere formality given that he has overwhelming support in the Parliament, which approved the bill on Tuesday. It grants the prime minister extraordinary powers to manage epidemics and pandemics, and it allows the prosecution of people who violate any regulation or mandate imposed by the government to manage such a crisis.
It would set prison sentences of up to one year and a fine of around $635 as punishment for anyone who deliberately publishes or spreads false news or tendentious rumors related to the situation of an epidemic, with the purpose of disturbing public safety or spreading panic among people. Only journalists would be exempt from prosecution under the bill.
LONDON Prime Minister Boris Johnson has long stymied opponents by bluffing and blustering his way out of corners that would trap a more conventional politician. But in Parliament on Wednesday, faced with a corruption scandal and bad news on other fronts, his Houdini-like skills deserted him.
Mr. Johnson spluttered as the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, demanded he apologize for his role in the furor over Conservative Party lawmakers taking lucrative outside work. It was part of a pattern of reversals and broken promises, the Labour leader said, that included the governments likely retreat on a high-speed rail link between northern cities.
Everybody else has apologized for him, but he wont apologize for himself, Mr. Starmer thundered. A coward, not a leader.
It has been a brutal stretch for a prime minister who only two weeks ago was hosting world leaders at a climate conference in Glasgow.
ATHENS A Greek trial for two dozen aid workers, some of them foreigners, is set to open on Thursday, charging them with espionage over their role in helping migrants who arrived in the country between 2016 and 2018.
The case will be heard in a court on Lesbos, the Greek island that was at the forefront of the European migration crisis that began in 2015.
The trial is opening at a time when Greeces conservative government is toughening its stance on migration and on groups working with migrants, aligning itself with a hardening climate in Europe, which is grappling with a new migrant crisis at the Poland-Belarus border.
The Greek government has said it will not allow a repeat of the 2015-2016 crisis which saw thousands of migrants streaming across the Aegean Sea daily, overwhelming Greeces rescue services. Rattled by fears of a new wave of refugees from Afghanistan, Greece has tightened the policing of its borders.
LONDON The man who set off an explosive device in a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital on Sunday had been buying components for the device for months and had a history of mental illness, the police said on Wednesday.
The police have said they believe the man, who was the only person killed in the blast, was a 32-year-old named Emad Al Swealmeen. According to the police, he was originally from Iraq, but the authorities have said they are still trying to understand the motivation for the attack in the northern English city, which is being treated as an act of terrorism.
A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, Russ Jackson, the head of counterterrorist policing for northwestern England, said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said that as early as April, when Mr. Al Swealmeen had rented a property in Liverpool, he had made relevant purchases.
Volunteers patrol the forests near the exclusion zone looking for stranded migrants, and leave rescue packages containing food, water and warm clothes in trees. Some people who live in the exclusion zone have also been able to aid migrants within areas barred to outsiders. Medics take care of those in need of treatment, while others help migrants prepare the paperwork for asylum requests, or distribute supplies sent from across the country like food sometimes homemade soup and warm clothes, activists say.
Tamara, a 4-year-old from Torun, a town around 300 miles from the border, made a drawing wishing asylum seekers good luck that her parents put in a care package. A local police officer has been bringing food, hiding it from her colleagues.
Roman, a local resident who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of repercussions from the authorities and local far-right groups, said he was moved to act after hearing that migrants had been dying in the freezing conditions in the forest. Eleven people have died so far trying to cross the border, according to the Polish authorities, but the real death toll might be much higher.
I told myself: I cannot solve the bigger problem, he said. I leave it to the United Nations, NATO and the government. But no one will die in my forest.
European Union foreign ministers have adopted new sanctions on the government of Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the Belarus leader, who has already been sanctioned for fraud in claiming a sweeping re-election victory in August and for a subsequent harsh suppression of dissent.
The new sanctions, approved by European governments on Monday, would target individuals and entities organizing or contributing to activities by the Lukashenko regime that facilitate illegal crossing of the E.U.s external borders, according to the European Commission, the blocs executive bureaucracy.
A list of those to be hit by asset freezes and travel bans under the new sanctions is expected to be finalized in coming days. Likely to be targeted are more than two dozen Belarusian officials; a Syrian airline, Cham Wings, for having transported migrants to Belarus; the Hotel Minsk in the Belarus capital, for housing migrants; and possibly Minsk airport, according to E.U. officials.
Todays decision reflects the determination by the European Union to stand up to the instrumentalization of migrants for political purposes, said the E.U. foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles. We are pushing back on this inhuman and illegal practice.
Common conditions that can be mistaken for colic are acid reflux, when stomach acid comes up into the esophagus or mouth, and protein allergies. Acid reflux typically causes crying several times a day after feedings and frequent spitting up. Protein allergies cause babies to be fussy all the time, and result in blood or mucus in the stool, which can be detected with lab tests.
Remember: Its not you fault, and it will eventually go away.
If your baby receives a diagnosis of colic, then your pediatrician is likely to reassure you that youre doing a great job and things will improve with time. It doesnt mean youre a bad parent, and it doesnt mean that your kid doesnt like you, counseled Dr. DeBlasio. He tells parents that its natural to feel frustrated and reminds them that colicky kids wont be this difficult forever.
There are no generally accepted treatments for colic, so Dr. DeBlasio recommends simple changes to help with the gas, such as frequent burping and switching to bottles that reduce air swallowing, such as ones with angled tips or bottles with collapsible plastic bags. He tells parents, however, not to spend a lot of time and money trying different formulas or other supposed treatments.
There are many alternative and herbal remedies marketed for colic, like gripe water, but parents should be wary. Gripe water no longer contains alcohol, like it did in the 1800s, but there is also no evidence it works. There have been some small studies that have looked at anything from acupuncture and chiropracty to a huge variety of herbal supplements, said Dr. Kristen Slack, M.D., a pediatrician at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Really, theres no consistent evidence to suggest that any of that is helpful. Unregulated supplements and spinal manipulation may also carry risks to the baby.
If you breastfeed, consider probiotics.
Researchers are still trying to nail down a definitive cause for colic.
One theory is that a contributing factor is inflammation in the gut from a less-than-ideal collection of microbes that first colonize the infants intestines. Dr. Marc Rhoads, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Texas at Houston, has looked for signs of inflammation in babies stools, measuring a biomarker called calprotectin that signals irritable bowel syndrome in adults. His research group found much higher levels of calprotectin in infants with colic than in infants without it, suggesting inflammation, and also found differences in the microbial communities in their guts.
To help correct this microbial imbalance, research groups in several countries have tested a strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri, isolated from the breast milk of a Peruvian woman. A meta-analysis that combined multiple smaller studies reports that colicky babies who were breastfed and received the strain as a probiotic cried about 46 fewer minutes per day than babies who received a placebo. Dr. Rhoads conducted a small trial that established the safety of the probiotic, which can be purchased as Gerber Soothe Probiotic Colic Drops or BioGaia ProTectis Baby.
While Dr. Rhoads is confident that gut inflammation plays a role in colic, he said many questions remain. We know that those drops can help, he said. We dont know that there wouldnt be better results if they were combined with another probiotic, or if there are strains that might even be better than the ones were using now.
A crowd of migrants trying to cross a border has come to seem appallingly familiar in recent years. We have seen masses of desperate people seek refuge in strange lands: Syrians escaping civil war, the Rohingya brutally driven from Myanmar, Afghans fleeing Taliban rule.
But the standoff at the border between Belarus and Poland, where thousands of migrants are camped in a freezing forest and several have died differs sharply from those crises in its origins, relative scale and implications.
A Manufactured Emergency
First, this appears to be an orchestrated crisis, created by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Belaruss autocratic ruler, to cause trouble for the European Union.
Belarus allows little in the way of independent news media or political opposition. Lukashenkos claim last year to have won re-election with 80 percent of the vote was widely seen as a farce, and hundreds of thousands of people protested.
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher represents Southwest Gas Holdings as the Las Vegas-based company seeks to fend off a takeover bid by corporate raider Carl Icahn.
The billionaire investor opposes Southwests proposed $2B acquisition of Questar Pipeline Co. from Dominion Energy.
His Icahn Enterprises LP. has offered to buy Southwest for $75 per share and threatened a proxy fight at the 2022 annual meeting.
Southwest on Nov. 15 rejected Icahns unsolicited, inadequate, structurally coercive, highly conditional and illusory tender offer.
It promised to review Icahns slate of board nominees and announce the date of the annual meeting in due course.
Southwest, which serves Arizona, California and Nevada, generated $3.5B in revenues and $234M in net income for the year ended Sept. 30.
JFWBKs Dan Katcher and Tim Lynch handle Southwest Gas.
17/11/2021 The international fight for transparency and exchange of information in tax matters continues at great speed in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the three-day 2021 Global Forum plenary meeting - opened by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, followed by Indonesias Finance Minister, Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati - ministers, high-level authorities and delegates from about 130 member jurisdictions will take stock of the progress made on multilateral co-operation in transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes and discuss the future direction of the Global Forum.
Celebrating 10 years of Global Forum capacity-building activities, members will also reflect on ensuring transparency and exchange of information benefit developing jurisdictions and help them in their fight against tax evasion and other illicit financial flows, allowing them to enhance domestic resource mobilisation. Over 70 jurisdictions benefited from assistance in 2021 and 21 000 tax officials have been trained since 2011 (see more key figures).
Building on the success of its regional initiatives for Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands, the Global Forum announced a new initiative for Asia, to be launched in 2022, with the support of Indonesias Finance Minister and Asian Development Banks President, Mr Masatsugu Asakawa.
In addition to seeking the gender balance in its activities, the Global Forum will launch the Women leaders in tax transparency programme, which aims at reinforcing gender equality in tax administrations.
This 10-year anniversary provides us with an opportunity to reflect on how inclusive the Global Forum is, how our work has evolved as a result and launch new initiatives, said Maria Jose Garde, Chair of the Global Forum. The fact that over half of our members are developing jurisdictions means that our support and assistance work is critical to ensure they mobilise much-needed revenues.
The Global Forum keeps ensuring there is nowhere left to hide and promotes a level playing field through its peer review and monitoring activities. The second edition of the Peer Review of the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information shows the continuous progress made through the Global Forum peer review and monitoring activities. Results from the second stage of the monitoring process, assessing the effectiveness of automatic exchange, are due to be published in 2022.
Further information on the Global Forums activities can be found in its latest annual report.
Media queries should be directed to Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (+33 1 45 24 91 08), or Zayda Manatta, Head of the Global Forum Secretariat (+33 1 45 24 82 29).
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The Minister for Education has said people should reconsider hosting and attending children's birthday parties and play dates.
Speaking on RTE's Today with Claire Byrne, Norma Foley asked people to "hunker down" in light of the spike in Covid-19 cases following the Governments announcement of new measures to try and curb the rise in infections.
She asked people to be vigilant and restrictive with their social engagements adding "there is a window of opportunity to re-assert ourselves and do the right thing".
Meanwhile, plans for the use of antigen testing in schools are expected to be made operational by the end of the week.
Minister Foley said, "We await finalisation of those plans and it is my understanding they will be finalised in the next day or two".
These plans are expected to include advice for how school principals should approach the confirmation of positive cases and teachers would not be "fast-tracked" for booster vaccines, adding that it is the considered view of public health authorities that the rollout is based on age.
"Priority must be given to those most in need and that is a public health judgement," she said.
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) - which represents organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide - is urging young people to make sure they have registered to vote before the deadline on Thursday, November 25. Registering to vote now means less red tape and bureaucracy than registering down the line, explains the youth council.
Included in the number of young people now eligible by not yet registered to vote are 2,363 in Offaly.
James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director said: Census 2016 figures indicate that there are 702,796 young people aged 18 to 29 in Ireland, which represents a potentially very large youth vote. Based on the most recent population data from the Central Statistics Office this would mean up to 2,363 young people in Offaly would have turned 18 since February 2020 and may risk missing out on their right to vote unless they register by Thursday, November 25.
Mr Doorley added: We know from our work with young people that the vast majority want to vote but not all are aware they have to register. This is particularly an issue among the 126,344 young people who turned 18 and became eligible to vote in the last 2 years since the 2020 General Election.
Local Authorities are currently preparing the 2022/2023 electoral register. For those unsure whether they are registered or not, the NYCI advises that they check online at www.checktheregister.ie.
If young people are not on the electoral lists, we are strongly encouraging them to register now. To do this they need to fill out an RFA1 form and return it to their local city or county council by Thursday, November 25. In effect, the deadline is Wednesday, November 24, as the form needs to be completed and posted back to the local authority to arrive by the deadline. If applicants miss the postal deadline, the only other option is to deliver the completed RFA1 form by hand, continued Mr Doorley.
This does not just apply to those currently aged 18-29 years. Any person who turned 18 since the election in February 2020 and is not registered, but also any young person who is currently 17, but will turn 18 by February 15, 2022, can apply for inclusion in the 2022/2023 register. NYCI also reminded applicants that it is their responsibility to make sure all the documentation arrives on time, so we recommend they post it by Wednesday, November 24 at the latest.
One of the privileges of living in a democracy is the right to have a say in who represents us at local level and who governs us at national level. We only get the chance to have our say every four or five years in general elections, so it is important that all citizens, especially young people who have recently gained that right, make sure they can exercise their franchise by being registered to vote in time, and we strongly recommend they do so on or before the upcoming deadline on Thursday, November 25th next, concluded Mr Doorley.
TWO free buses which were to ferry farmers from across Offaly to a national 'Save Irish Farming' rally in dublin on Sunday have been cancelled.
The IFA has been forced to modify the rally due to Covid concerns.
In a statement issued last night IFA President Tim Cullinan said the IFA had revised its plans to the increasing concerns around Covid
Based on discussions with our members, and following a meeting of National Council, we believe a modified event involving tractors and machinery that will allow us to send our message is the safest course of action given the current Covid situation, he said.
IFA President Tim Cullinan said it was a big decision for IFA, but its the right thing to do in light of the increase in Covid numbers and the attendant pressure on our health system.
The reality is that IFA has been forced to have this protest because the Government has refused to engage with the IFA on a proper plan for the sector at farm level, he said.
I would call again on the Government to negotiate with elected farm leaders and have meaningful engagement to agree a plan for the sector at farm level, including around the CAP, he said.
The Government has to come up with more funding for Pillar II schemes to support vulnerable sectors.
Farmers can play our part on climate change, but we need a plan with proper funding that guarantees economic, social and environmental sustainability, he said.
Madagascar is one of the countries that contributes the least to climate crisis yet is the fourth most affected by it according to the 2020 Global Climate Risk Index. The country is also a biodiversity hotspot.
Since its inception in 2012, the Antananarivo-based Research and Support Centre for Development Alternatives - Indian Ocean (CRAAD-OI), has been working to promote sustainable development alternatives centred on promoting and protecting the human rights of the populations most vulnerable to climate change, rare earth mining and agro-industrial projects in Madagascar.
Madagascar has a very valuable and sensitive ecosystem, but it is seriously compromised by climate change. With carbon dioxide emissions of almost 0.1 tonnes per capita, it is one of the countries that contributes the least to the climate crisis said Volahery Andriamanantenasoa, Programme Manager for CRAAD-OI, Now, more than 1,800 endemic species are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 2020 Red List of Threatened Species, including 80 per cent of the country's endemic plant and animal species.
Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26), in September 2021, UN Human Rights partnered with CRAAD-OI to organize the first Public Forum on Climate Justice and Human Rights in Madagascar. The forum was attended by over 100 representatives of local communities from across the country affected by climate change, as well as women and youth organizations and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Andriamanantenasoa pointed out that most environmental civil society organizations in her country focused on individual responsibility however, a budding national youth movement has started shifting the discourse to climate justice. Madagascar has been hit by a series of natural disasters, drought and famine in the south that has forced populations to migrate to the north to find farmland for their survival.
Unfortunately, the generalized degradation of the country's natural environment is coupled with Madagascar's development policies that tend to perpetuate the extractivist system inherited from colonial times and post-independence regimes, Andriamanantenasoa said.
These policies are particularly focused on the promotion of the extractive and agro-industrial sectors, as well as on the development of the blue economy and the establishment of special economic zones dedicated to foreign investors. As a result, these development strategies are characterised by their large ecological footprint and land encroachment, which lead to a recurrent land grabbing issue.
The forum organized by UN Human Rights and CRAAD-IO ended with the adoption of the Antananarivo Declaration for Climate Justice, which was developed by the youth of Madagascars social movement for climate justice to alert national authorities on economic, social and cultural rights issues linked to climate change. They also hope the Declaration will support their advocacy towards the Government to promote and integrate environment education in schools; set up a Green Climate Fund and ensure youth access to the fund; amend the Malagasy penal code to introduce environmental offenses; operationalize a Green Court; and ratify the optional protocol to International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
At COP21 in Paris in 2015, developed countries were urged to scale up their support to mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries.
At the COP, we are asking that the big countries of the Global North pay their historical, ecological and climate debt to Madagascar. They have made so many commitments and now is the time to compensate for the irreversible loss and damage that their actions have caused, she said.
They need to try to restore, if at all still possible, the damages they have caused and try to implement adaptation and mitigation measures in consultation with local communities, Andriamanantenasoa added. So far decisions for carbon compensation have been made at the top but the money has not reached the local communities. We need concrete climate plans with concrete measures that can have a concrete impact on the people.
17 November 2021
Opalesque Industry Update - 100 Women in Finance (100WF) announced the election of four new Global Association Board members: Sarah Dana Dyer, Wayne Lee, Lisa Petrelli, and Ulrika Robertsson. The new Board members' first three-year term of service will begin on January 1, 2022. 100WF is a global finance industry organization dedicated to empowering women in finance. The organization is headquartered in New York and operates in 28 official global locations on five continents. Sarah Dana Dyer is a co-founder of 100 Women in Finance and the organization's former APAC Director and Chief Marketing Officer. Her early career spent in investment management marketing and institutional relationship management roles has been complemented by industry adjacent consulting and non-profit governance work both in the US and in Asia. A dominant theme in her professional life has been advocacy for gender equity within the financial sector. She currently serves as the chair of the New York Advisory Board of the Bangladesh-based Asian University of Women. She lives in New York and is a graduate of Colgate University. Wayne Lee is Managing Director and Head, Europe & Asia Pacific Region. He is responsible for CIBC's business and operations in the Europe and Asia Pacific Regions, with offices in London, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. Mr. Lee is a member of CIBC Capital Markets Executive Committee. In addition, Mr. Lee serves as a Director of the CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, and as a Director of the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Lee is also an elected Council Member of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a member of the McGill University Regional Advisory Board. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He is a member of the Male Allies of The Women Foundation in Hong Kong and the 100 Women in Finance, promoting and building a more diverse and gender equitable finance industry. Mr. Lee received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the McGill University (Montreal) and is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He has lived and worked in Toronto, New York, Hong Kong and is now based in London. Lisa Petrelli is a Managing Director, Country Head, Canada and Head of Global Markets, Canada at UBS. Lisa leads regulatory, operational and risk supervision and management for UBS's investment bank (IB) in Canada and has oversight into UBS Canada Wealth Management and Asset Management divisions. Lisa is the Canada Country representative for the UBS Americas Country Risk and Operational Management Committee, the IB Americas Operational Committee and UBS' Extended Americas Management Committee. In addition to these roles, Lisa is a Board Member of UBS Securities Canada Inc. As an active participant through her career in diversity and gender initiatives. Lisa currently serves on the Global Advisory Board Member for 100 Women in Finance and is on the Advisory Board for the Raymond Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary. Lisa is a founding member of UBS' Women Of Investment Bank and is a member of IB's Diversity and Inclusion Council. Lisa is a past participant on the Governing Council at the University of Toronto (UTM) and a past Women in Capital Markets Board Member. Lisa is an undergraduate from the University of Toronto, has a Master of Arts degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, and is a CFA charter holder and Institute of Corporate Directors designate. Ulrika Robertsson is the co-founder of Impactus Partners, a Private Investment office and Placement Agency for Alternative Investments based in London and Switzerland. Impactus' vision is to generate positive environmental and social impact via capital allocation where investments are used to drive change. Ulrika has over 20 years of international experience in Capital Markets, Quantitative Trading and FinTech through working for firms such as UBS and Goldman Sachs. She is passionate about gender equality and has been chairing 100WF's Global FundWomen Week committee for the past two years. Ulrika lives in London, speaks multiple languages, and considers herself European. She holds a MSc in International Economics from Lund University, Sweden. Lauren Malafronte, Chair of 100WF's Global Association Board said, "On behalf of the Board and 100WF's global membership, we warmly welcome Sarah, Wayne, Lisa and Ulrika to the Board and look forward to their contributions." She continued, "Each of these very accomplished leaders will play a key role in supporting our mission to empower women in finance. Their global perspectives will be vital for 100WF as we continue to forge forward with the work our organization focuses on to further overall diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in our industry."
WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens choice to lead enforcement of competition laws at the Justice Department has won Senate approval as his administration pursues action against outsized market power it has condemned in several industries, including Big Tech, health care, airlines and agriculture.
The bipartisan vote Tuesday was 68-29 to confirm Jonathan Kanter, an antitrust lawyer who has opposed tech giants in private practice, as assistant attorney general heading the Justice Departments antitrust division. The position has been without a permanent head for nearly a year as Biden and his advisers sifted through a number of qualified candidates and then nominated Kanter in July to face Senate vetting.
Kanter, who also has experience in government at the Federal Trade Commission, will join the team of competition regulators and advisers that Biden has assembled to carry out an anti-monopoly agenda. They include Big Tech critic Lina Khan, elevated by Biden in June to head the FTC, and Tim Wu, another previously outspoken critic of Big Tech, who is a top White House adviser on technology and competition policy. The FTC, an independent regulatory agency, also oversees consumer protection and privacy in addition to competition issues.
As part of the efforts to increase competition, protect consumers and curb corporate dominance, Biden has ordered regulators to give greater scrutiny to mergers.
At his confirmation hearing last month, Kanter promised vigorous enforcement to ensure a level playing field for businesses and consumers. He said hes been a strong advocate of vigorous antitrust enforcement in the technology area, among others.
As head of the antitrust division, Kanter likely will direct prosecution of a landmark case against Google filed by the Trump Justice Department in October 2020, accusing the company of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising. Kanter has represented smaller companies that have competed with Google and have lodged complaints about the search giants conduct.
The FTC, meanwhile, is pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, now called Meta, asserting that the tech giant is a monopoly in the social networking market. The agency is seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the companys popular Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services, or an overall restructuring.
Kanter, like Khan, will deal with competition issues in industries and companies beyond Big Tech. But its the tech giants Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple and their market dominance that have drawn the greatest public interest, most epic legal actions and sharpest rhetoric from lawmakers.
In a significant antitrust action, the Justice Department this month sued to block the proposed $2.2 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster by German media giant Bertelsmanns Penguin Random House, already the biggest U.S. book publisher. The regulators said the industry consolidation would hurt authors and, ultimately, readers, giving Penguin Random House outsized influence over which books are published in the U.S. and how much authors are paid.
The company wants to buy Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from television and film company ViacomCBS.
The so-called Big Five book publishers, with Penguin Random House the largest and Simon & Schuster at No. 4, control an estimated 80% of the U.S. book market.
In another action this fall, the Justice Department challenged American Airlines' partnership with JetBlue, asserting that it could bring higher air fares.
A bill that would protect hiring, housing placements and public safety is making its way through the Michigan Legislature.
The bill, HB 5368 introduced by Rep. Graham Filler, was passed on Nov. 3 in the Michigan House of Representatives and its purpose is to prohibit the redaction of dates of birth from public records.
Under a new rule, Michigan courts are to remove dates of birth from public records beginning Jan. 1 and the bill aims to keep them on the record.
To urge passage of the bill, the Professional Background Screening Association issued a statement Nov. 12.
We cannot state strongly enough how harmful this rule will be to hiring and housing placements in Michigan," PBSA wrote in the statement. "By redacting dates of birth (DOBs) from court records, the rule is effectively eliminating the ability of professional background screeners to conduct background checks in the state. If this issue is not addressed, many employers will be forced to halt hiring altogether or look outside of Michigan to fill open positions, and Michigan communities will be less safe."
PBSA continued that the rule would require background screeners to use ICHAT, which is simply not a feasible alternative to searching records at county courts. For instance, it stated:
ICHAT does not include local misdemeanors and traffic records. The offenses included are those that are punishable by at least 93 days of incarceration.
ICHAT also omits the vast majority of pending cases. Two consumer reporting agencies conducted a study that found that 93% of county charges with a pending case or warrant, including for serious offenses like stalking, embezzlement and assault with a dangerous weapon, did not appear in ICHAT.
ICHAT includes some expunged records, which are not legally allowed to be included in a background check and can result in individuals being wrongly denied a job opportunity.
Twelve groups representing employers, landlords and the economic interests of the state have expressed their strong support for this bill, per PBSA.
The bill now advances to the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate for consideration.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Rhode Island civil rights organizations have sued the state's Department of Corrections on behalf of a man who alleges his rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement for eight months as punishment for his complaints about prison conditions.
The Rhode Island Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island sued the state's corrections director and other prison administrators at the behest of Joseph Shepard, 28, on Monday, The Providence Journal reported.
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.
The final stretch of negotiations over what nearly 200 governments will do next about fossil fuels heating the Earth to disastrous levels was like that Friday: National delegations engaged in frenetic, often mysterious activity as they haggled to get as much of their position as possible into the final agreement from the talks in Glasgow.
U.S. diplomats mostly worked behind closed doors, with terse signs on the glass. The open doors of most other country's offices South Korea, Ivory Coast, Austria, and others showed rooms full of diplomats bent intently over their laptops, eyes fixed on screens and fingers flying over keyboards.
Chinese diplomats crowded into one of their offices stopped working, laughed and took photos when a wayward robin hopped in among them, lost in the warren of temporary tents and the event center.
In the office of India's delegation, there was muted excitement. Delegates sat cross legged on the floor, typing furiously on their laptops. A vase in the office held fresh pink lilies. Endless cups of chai flowed in preparation for what would be a long night.
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.
In fact, the distinction held significance for one of the biggest issues imaginable: how firmly nations commit to solid new steps to stave off a level of temperature rise that promises to wipe out some of the nations represented in the talks.
You know in common English, urge is stronger, said Kelley Kizzier, a former climate negotiator for the European Union who attended the Glasgow talks as a climate advocate. In diplomatic language, however, request implies a legal requirement, and therefore carries more weight, she said.
How the linguistic cage match ends will determine whether countries have to ramp up their climate efforts again next year or can ride on this year's pledges for a while longer.
More inside knowledge from the climate talks: The bigger the room, the less important the thing is that's going to happen, Kizzier said. The nitty-gritty negotiations happen in tiny groups.
Alistair Grant contributed to this report.
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Follow AP's climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin.
Monday, Nov. 15:
11:58 p.m. Deputies responded to a vehicle crash in Jasper Township.
9:15 p.m. A deputy and a Midland Police Officer responded to state land in Edenville Township, where a reported stolen vehicle from the Midland Police Department was located. MPD recovered the vehicle.
7:15 p.m. Deputies spoke to a 59-year-old Jerome Township female regarding a neighbor's security camera being pointed at her house. She was advised it is not criminal for her neighbor's camera to be pointed at her property.
6:34 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Homer Township residence for a suicidal 38-year-old Homer Township female. The female took various prescription pills, so she was transported to the Midland hospital for treatment.
3:19 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to the Law Enforcement Center for a report of a personal protection order violation that occurred over the Internet. This incident has been documented and submitted to the Prosecutor's Office for review.
2:10 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to the Law Enforcement Center for a report of a trespass complaint on a Porter Township property. This incident is under investigation.
1:48 p.m. An 81-year-old Larkin Township man had allowed his grandson's 29-year-old friend to stay at his residence for about a week. The man did not want the friend to stay there any longer, and a deputy explained this to the friend. The 29-year-old agreed to leave, and arrangements were made with a shelter.
9:08 a.m. A deputy was dispatched to the area of East River Road near East Gordonville Road for the report of a two-vehicle crash. The at-fault driver was issued a citation.
7:00 a.m. A deputy was dispatched to the area of South Poseyville Road near East Stewart Road for the report of a single-vehicle traffic crash.
Sunday, Nov. 14:
11:38 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to a section of US-10 for a possible crash. The deputy did not locate a crash but observed that the roadway was extremely icy. The road commission responded and salted the roadway.
11:13 p.m. A 25-year-old Mount Haley Township male was arrested for three counts of resisting and obstructing following an incident at a Mount Haley Township residence. The male was also lodged on multiple warrants.
9:29 p.m. A deputy responded to a Geneva Township residence to speak with a 19-year-old male regarding a road rage incident with an unknown suspect.
7:29 p.m. A deputy contacted a complainant who had questions after their landlord turned the power off. The complainant was directed to the courts for further assistance.
8:19 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to a Lee Township trailer regarding a report of a juvenile runaway who showed up at the trailer. The deputy returned the juvenile to his residence. The deputy provided advice to the juvenile and his parents to prevent future issues and information about mental health treatment.
7:21 p.m. A deputy responded to a Jerome Township apartment complex to speak with a 56-year-old man regarding ongoing neighbor issues.
1:22 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to Lee Township to contact a 64-year-old male about his neighbor, a 66-year-old male, trespassing on his property. Deputies contacted the trespassing male and advised him he was no longer allowed on the property.
11:48 a.m. Deputies contacted a 40-year-old Greendale Township male about an unknown vehicle being left in his driveway. The vehicle was removed from the driveway by its owner.
10:07 a.m. A 54-year-old Jasper Township woman reported that her 73-year-old boyfriend with whom she lives had taken her cat to the area where he stays at the residence. The male returned the cat, and the situation was resolved.
9:31 a.m. A 20-year-old Jerome Township male reported that his biological mother from Bay City sent him a mean message after he accidentally called her at 5:30 a.m. The male wished for it to be documented.
8:15 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to Porter Township about a 14-year-old male juvenile runaway. The juvenile returned home safely prior to deputies' arrival. Deputies contacted the juvenile and family to ensure that everything was okay.
2:31 a.m. A deputy was sent to Lee Township for a report of a vehicle parked in the roadway. The vehicle was towed. A short time later, the deputy was sent to Greendale Township for a report of a male walking in the roadway. Contact was made with a 38-year-old Cass City male, who was the owner/driver of the towed vehicle. The male was subsequently cited for no insurance and expired registration.
1:59 a.m. A 45-year-old Florida male was arrested for a driver operating while intoxicated following a traffic stop on a city of Midland roadway.
12:47 a.m. A deputy conducted a traffic stop for a moving violation in Warren Township. A 57-year-old Gladwin County male was cited for a license violation and was also arrested on a Gladwin County warrant. The male was turned over to Gladwin County authorities without incident.
Teaching private piano lessons wasn't the music education career that Mary Ann Anschutz first envisioned. For Melanie Zimmer, playing the piano at all seemed a burden at one point.
Decades later, Anschutz and Zimmer were recently honored as Mid-Michigan Music Teachers Association Teachers of the Year by the Michigan Music Teachers Association.
Anschutz, who is originally from Kansas and earned a music degree from Central Michigan University in 1971, intended to teach in school but could not find any positions right away. While substitute teaching, she started to take on students for piano lessons at her home.
"I eventually had enough students that I couldn't do both. So I decided that was my path," explained Anschutz, who has also taught voice lessons to many youngsters in addition to piano.
Zimmer persevered in learning piano as a girl despite the fact her first teacher was anything but encouraging.
"She taught me (from age 6) until I was in fourth grade and she told my mother she wasn't going to waste time on me anymore," Zimmer said.
Fortunately, Zimmer found a new teacher who nurtured her love of the piano. She said she calls on her own negative experience in ensuring that her own students feel supported by her.
"This is what happened to me as a kid. I would never do that to you," Zimmer said of what she conveys to her piano students. "I'm not ever going to be mad at you for sharing your feelings."
As for Anschutz, she has taught piano for 50 years in addition to teaching voice lessons for part of that time. Her students have included her own daughter, Alicia Grazioli, as well as neighbor Michaele Bartlett and all four of her children.
"I feel so honored and humbled by (this award) because I feel like there's so many people that deserve this," Anschutz said. "To have them choose me to be one of the honorees of this is very, very special."
Bartlett conveyed how deep of a connection her family has with Anschutz. She, her daughters -- Deirdre, Patricia and Moira -- and her son -- Seamus -- all learned piano from Anschutz, and the three girls took voice lessons from her as well.
"We consider Mary Ann much more than a music teacher. She has become a treasured member of our family," Bartlett said.
"Mary Ann is so encouraging; she's so positive," Bartlett continued. "Most importantly, she has given our children a lifelong love of music."
Anschutz, who currently has 10 students, said she cherishes being able to teach each student individually.
"The fact that you get to have a special one-on-one relationship with a student (is rewarding)," she said, recalling that one of her former students, aged 7 when she started the lessons, was surprised and thrilled when she found out it would be a private class.
Outside of teaching, Anschutz in the past has been hired to sing or play piano at weddings and other special events. She and another teacher worked for two years on a special project called "Give Me Shelter" through which mental health patients performed at the Midland Center for the Arts.
"We helped these people in many cases come out of their shell and be recognized for talent that they didn't necessarily know they had, which was very rewarding," Anschutz said.
Zimmer, who grew up in central Illinois, credits piano teachers Sue England and Carole Ingram for giving her a lifelong love of the instrument. By the sixth grade, she was accompanying the junior high choirs, and she won a talent competition with a piano solo in 1971.
After moving to Michigan and devoting time to raising her five children, Zimmer enrolled at Delta College in 1986 and renewed her study of piano with Barbara DuRussel. She also accompanied the Delta Choir.
In 1998, Zimmer became a music and drama teacher at Midland Christian School, where she and her drama class wrote a Christmas musical that was performed by almost everyone in the school, a lifelong dream that England had instilled in her.
Zimmer's journey led to teaching piano in 2001, when she was hired by Ray Gingrich as a salesperson at Gingrich Pianos in Midland.
"I wasn't very good at selling pianos," she said with a smile. But she was good at finding piano students.
"It wasn't long before I had 58 students. So that's how my career started," Zimmer said.
A piano teacher encounters many different kinds of students. Zimmer has two students who have just started learning piano in their 30s. "They have different goals, of course, than the younger kids do," she said.
She also teaches a girl whose family recently moved to the United States from Lebanon, where the student learned notes by the names "do, re, mi ... " instead of by the letters "A, B, C ... "
"I also have twin boys from India who are being forced by their father to take lessons until they graduate from high school," Zimmer said. "You come up with little things to help them progress even when they're kicking and screaming."
And the pandemic of nearly two years has brought new challenges and new ways of teaching.
"I had to learn how to do online lessons," Zimmer said, a skill which has come in handy for other reasons as well.
"I had a student who moved to Texas, and he's continued to take lessons from me," she explained. "He wants to start doing Mozart and Chopin and Beethoven."
But that's not so simple when you're teaching through a computer screen.
"The sound (online) a lot of times is really just crappy," Zimmer said. "But I know a lot of teachers have gone to digital lessons and now that's all they want to do."
Zimmer has 15 grandchildren and teaches piano online to two granddaughters who live in Chicago.
Through it all, Zimmer is thankful to be a piano teacher.
"I'm really grateful that I started teaching. It's been a real blessing," she said.
In addition to teaching their own students, Zimmer and Anschutz have served as co-chairs of Student Achievement Testing (SAT) for the Mid-Michigan Music Teachers Association for the past nine years.
"SAT is a music-oriented testing of students at different levels for different elements of music training," Anschutz explained. "It's a multi-faceted education, so they're not just playing the piano, they're learning other things (as well)."
A Michigan woman has pleaded guilty in connection with a murder-for-hire plot that came unravelled thanks to a bogus, satirical website called "Rent-A-Hitman," and could face up to nine years in prison.
The 52 year old woman, Wendy Lynn Wein of South Rockford, used the fake website "Rent-A-Hitman" to try to solicit the murder of her former husband on July 17, 2020, according to a news release from Michigan State Police.
Wein contacted the website, which claims to offer hitmen to "solve problems," under a fake name, but provided other real information at the end of her "service request," prompting the owner of the website to contact MSP, according to the release.
The website owner was concerned that Wein may be attempting to kill her ex-husband because she specified him as the target of her problems.
An investigation was then initiated by the MSP Monroe Post where an undercover state trooper posing as a hitman met with Wein in her hometown, according to the release.
Upon meeting, Wein offered to pay the undercover state trooper $5,000 to murder her ex-husband, who lives in another state, and provided him with an up-front payment of $200 for travel expenses. Wein also gave the detective her former husband's home address, work address and work schedule, according to reporting by FOX 2 Detroit.
On July 21, 2020, Wein was arraigned in the First District Court where she was charged with solicitation to commit murder and illegal use of a computer to facilitate a crime, according to the MSP release.
On Friday, she pleaded guilty to both charges and will appear in court again for her sentencing Jan. 13, 2022, according to reporting by Fox 2 Detroit.
Since launching the fake site in 2005, the owner of www.rentahitman.com told investigators that he has been contacted numerous times by people requesting murders, school shootings and even a baby abduction. He claims the website has been responsible for preventing more than 130 murders because he refers all requests to MSP, according to the release.
Midland County had 114 new COVID-19 cases reported from Nov. 16-17.
COVID-19 numbers reported from Nov. 16-17
Midland County: 114 cases were added; pandemic total is 10,451 cases, 961 probable cases, 139 deaths and 11 probable deaths.
Bay County: 132 cases and two deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 15,043 cases, 1,255 probable cases, 393 deaths and 20 probable deaths.
Gladwin County: 12 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 2,985 cases, 594 probable cases, 75 deaths and four probable deaths.
Isabella County: 69 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 8,353 cases, 1,568 probable cases, 131 deaths and seven probable deaths.
Saginaw County: 307 cases and seven deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 27,675 cases, 2,248 probable cases, 668 deaths and 24 probable deaths.
The state added 14,561 cases and 242 deaths from Tuesday through Wednesday. Overall, Michigan is at 1,224,273 cases and 23,104 deaths.
Recovered
According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Nov. 15, 9,773 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. 15 was listed at 16.7% and Gladwin Countys was listed at 14.5%. Our 12-county region was listed at 20.6% and Michigan was at 16.9%.
MidMichigan Health statistics
As of Nov. 15, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having an 76% bed occupancy, with 41 COVID patients and 11 in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 43% 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 Wednesday, Midland Public Schools reported 416 staff/students were close contacts to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive, and 94 staff/students tested positive for the virus.
Schools with one or more staff/students confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday included Dow High (1), Midland High (11), Jefferson Middle (9), Northeast Middle (17), Adams Elementary (6), Central Park Elementary (6), Chestnut Hill Elementary (12), Plymouth Elementary (17), Siebert Elementary (1), Woodcrest Elementary (12) and Carpenter Pre-Primary (2).
Bullock Creek School District reported on Wednesday that four staff members and 15 students were current positive cases. There are also 91 students (but no staff members) in quarantine.
Bullock Creek schools with one or more confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday include Bullock Creek Elementary (3), Floyd Elementary (3), Bullock Creek Middle (2) and Bullock Creek High School (10).
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.
In addition, the health department is 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.
Midland County Probate Court Judge Dorene Allen said she's worked for about three years to provide a different program name for youth in a court system who receive services at the Day Treatment program.
A program of the Midland County Probate & Juvenile Court 42nd Circuit Court Family Division will now be called "Monarch Academy," to highlight the "metamorphosis" that Midland County juveniles go through in the program.
Allen's goal came to fruition after a proposal to name the program Monarch Academy was approved 5-0 along with all other agenda items during Tuesday's regularly scheduled board meeting.
"The change that occurs (in) young people when they're going through that program is really quite stunning," Allen said at the meeting. "It's a metamorphosis, it's a change, its's a journey. I have wanted to give a name to that program that doesn't associate with court services per se -- taking away the criminal attribute, if you will, of the youth who are in that program."
The votes regarding approved agenda items reflect the absences of two of the seven commissioners. Chair Mark Bone and Commissioner Scott Noesen, as well as County Clerk Ann Manary, were absent from Tuesday's meeting. Commissioner James Geisler acted as chair during the meeting while Chief Deputy County Clerk John Keefer assumed the duties of Manary.
One agenda item prompted a conversation about broadband in Midland County. The townships that make up the county could see connectivity improvements with the help of a Midland Business Alliance (MBA) initiative.
The MBA requested funding for a countywide Broadband Initiative earlier this year. An appropriation of $250,000, with funding to come from American Rescue Plan funds, was approved on Tuesday.
Administrator/Controller Bridgette Gransden said an amendment will be made to the current agreement with MBA. The request also asked that the budget be adjusted to reflect the approval.
MBA President Tony Stamas and community volunteer Jack Robinson presented an update on the effort to the commission on Tuesday. The importance for broadband continues to grow, and during a pivot from in-person environments to virtual environments it became essential, Stamas said.
"Whether it's telemedicine or education, we can work around the globe, but we have to have connectivity," he said.
In other business, two county job descriptions and scorings will be updated. The request to update job descriptions for both the Emergency Management Coordinator position and Community Corrections Manager position was approved to be completed by Municipal Consulting Services, LLC.
And after the Human Services Committee reviewed the credentials for an incoming Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator, it recommended the commission approve to hire the candidate at a salary rate above the starting rate.
The salary was approved to be increased to a "grade 7, step 3" rate.
An operating grant of just over $10,000 to be "passed through" County Connection was approved. The term of this agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation ends at the end of December.
Two agreements, one for scanning services with Graphic Sciences and another for a provision of retirement plan investment management services with One Digital, were approved Tuesday.
In terms of expanding broadband connectivity, Stamas said the MBA is working with other agency partners in an effort to ensure there are various opportunities available across Midland County. He also added the alliance is continuing to work and identify related support and impacts relating to the state and federal government.
One example Stamas mentioned relates to recently passed infrastructure legislation.
On Monday, President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" into law.
The legislation includes $65 billion for broadband access, which aims to improve Internet services for rural areas, low-income families and tribal communities. According to the Associated Press, most of the money will be made available through grants to states (as of early November).
"As a county and frankly, as a region, the connectivity is not going to end at the county lines. I think it will serve us all well and we want to make sure that we take advantage of that opportunity," Stamas said.
During a technical discussion led by Robinson, Commissioner Gaye Terwillegar added some townships are impacted differently than others, and some are already working towards solutions.
"The township that I reside in, Ingersoll - they're charging forward," Terwillegar said, adding that she hopes funds are spent appropriately in the overall effort.
In addition to Ingersoll Township, Terwillegar represents Mount Haley and Midland townships and the city of Midland.
She said there are connectivity gaps in various townships, naming Porter and Mount Haley townships in addition to Ingersoll Township. Robinson said MBA's goal is to incorporate current projects into the initiative.
Robinson is also retired from Dow Chemical and is a resident of Midland County.
The next board meeting will take place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7 in the County Services building, which is located at 220 W Ellsworth Street in Midland.
To the editor:
Regarding redistricting, local Republican leadership wants to keep Midland County with Gladwin in the new Congressional district maps because of the federal dollars recently awarded to aid in our flood recovery, but mainly because they want to keep Mr. Moolenaar as our congressman.
Mr. Moolenaar just voted "No" on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Over $1 trillion will be coming to Michigan and the rest of the country to invest in our infrastructure including dams, roads, bridges, the grid and more; to fund housing, education, and childcare; and to help deal with climate change creating of millions of new green energy jobs. Even though he voted against the bill, no doubt we will see Mr. Moolenaar at every ribbon cutting, falsely claiming the resulting new works as proof of his success as a legislator.
Instead working for our common good, Mr. Moolenaar introduced a bill last week to prevent the president from being able to enforce the vaccine mandate for large companies with over 100 workers from going into effect.
John Moolenaar is on the wrong side of history, on COVID and on climate change. On democracy, he was a signatory to the Texas Amicus Brief seeking to overturn the results of our free and fair election of President Biden and he just voted to allow the planners of the Jan. 6 insurrection to avoid subpoenas.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) has drawn maps that will give more Michiganders the chance to vote for a representative who will have to work for our votes. These maps are significantly fairer and more competitive than the maps drawn by legislators. Competitive districts allow for better representation for all Michiganders. This is what we voted for when we passed Proposal 2. I look forward to voting for a representative who must work for my vote.
JILL HAVER-CRISSMAN
Midland
Paducah, KY (42003)
Today
Strong thunderstorms likely. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low near 50F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Tonight
Strong thunderstorms likely. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low near 50F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Kenyan Prisons Commissioner-General, Wycliffe Ogalo, was fired on Wednesday and immediately arrested following the escape of three prisoners at the country's maximum security prison, government officials said
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - With more than 300,000 women dying from cervical cancer each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) is joining advocates from across the globe on Wednesday to commemorate a Day of Action against the disease
Photo: (Photo : Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
Doctors around the world are growing more concerned about pregnant people who continue to hesitate the vaccine despite their high risk for infection for COVID-19 during pregnancy. They could also be putting the babies inside their wombs at risk for the long-haul impact of the virus.
Dr. Deborah Money of the University of British Columbia said that the global population of pregnant people remains "under-vaccinated" compared to the other age groups. Money has been tracking the trend as part of her work as an obstetrics and gynecology expert who specializes in infectious diseases among reproductive adults.
She said that the vaccine is supposed to deliver antibodies in babies that will protect them from the virus before they could be eligible for the shots. However, if the mom doesn't get the vaccine, her baby could get sick with the virus and could likely be delivered prematurely.
Read Also: Doctors Sound the Alarm on Rise of Stillbirths in Unvaccinated Pregnant Women
Study on Babies and Long Haul COVID
To understand the impact of pregnant moms who get COVID-19 during pregnancy, the National Health Institutes (NIH), will conduct research involving 1,500 pregnant women for four years. The team of experts will study and evaluate their kids for abnormalities in their neurological and cardiovascular functions. They will also assess the mother's long-term COVID symptoms.
Mom Brooke Smith, who had COVID-19 during pregnancy in 2020, has signed up for the study. Before she went into labor, she got infected with the virus a second time. Though she delivered a healthy baby boy, she has many lingering questions about the virus' impact on her son and it's questions that many doctors have heard from their pregnant patients who experienced COVID-19.
"We have concerns about what could happen to a developing fetus and we don't have all the answers," Dr. Ryan Loftin said regarding the significance of the NIH study, knowing that whatever happens to the mom directly affects the fetus inside her.
The study is also important because preliminary studies have indicated that long-haul COVID is more harmful to female patients who are pregnant because of their immune systems. Inside the womb, the placenta may become infected with the virus although the rate of infection in the fetus itself is low.
Why Vaccine Hesitancy is High Among Pregnant People
Per the Boston Globe, vaccine hesitancy in pregnant people ramped up because of unsupported fears surrounding its impact on the unborn child. However, many plan on having their COVID-19 vaccine after they deliver the baby.
Thus, various health agencies have been running various information campaigns to get the message across that the vaccine is safe and helpful, especially for those heavy with a child. Doctors also want to emphasize that vaccination may lower the chances of preterm births, stillbirths, or even deaths in the moms.
Information on the vaccine's safety for pregnant women did not emerge faster than other studies because most of these excluded the pregnant population out of safety and precaution. Since then, however, more than 170,000 vaccinated people who had COVID-19 during pregnancy did not have poor outcomes or increased risks.
In the spring of 2021, only one in 10 pregnant moms were vaccinated in the U.S. As of October 30, that number has increased to one in four pregnant women, but it's still a lower rate than what has been expected.
Related Article: CDC Appeals to Pregnant Women: Get Your COVID-19 Vaccination
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Qualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans for a next-generation Arm-based SoC "designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs" that would be able to go head to head with Apples M-series processors, reports The Verge.
The report added that "Dr. James Thompson, Qualcomms chief technology officer, announced the plans for the new chips at the companys 2021 investor day event, with the goal of getting samples to hardware customers in about nine months ahead of product launches with the new chip in 2023."
Below is a brief video clip from Qualcomm's event held earlier today that touched on their coming Arm based PC GPU developed by the Nuvia team that Qualcomm acquired back in January.
Qualcomm is behind schedule, as Qualcomm's CEO stated in July that they would have a laptop chip ready to compete with Apple's M1 by 2022. Now only sampling will be done in 2022 and the finished chip launching in 2023.
On the flipside, Apple's M1 will further advance in 2022 as they will reportedly introduce an M1-X chip for their higher end Pro Desktop.
(Click on image to Enlarge)
The Verge added that "The company is making big promises, too: in addition to offering competition to Apples stellar M-series chips (which power its latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops and iMac and Mac Mini desktops), Qualcomm is aiming to lead the field for "sustained performance and battery life," too something noted in our video clip.
Its a fantastic day to get the whole family productive. Walmart is selling a 15-month subscription to Microsoft 365 Family for $70. Thats $30 off the usual price and the deal comes out to about $0.93 per family member per month compared to the usual $1.65. Bottom line: this is a standout deal for the best productivity suite in the business.
Microsoft 365 is absolutely packed with value. It includes the usual fare like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office, and Outlook. However, it also features Access, Publisher, OneNote, Microsoft To Do, and Teams. All of these apps can be installed up to 5 devices at a time. In other words, a five person family could have 25 installations of Office going at once. Youll also get new updates to Office and its individual apps as they roll out.
Each family member will receive 1TB of OneDrive storage. If you store all your documents created with Office in OneDrive, they will be seamlessly available across all your devices where Office is installed.
Finally, each family member will have up to 60 Skype calling minutes per month. Microsoft 365 Family is truly a fantastic value, especially at this price.
[Todays deal: 15 months of Microsoft 365 Family for $70.]
Hon. Andrew Egyapa Mercer, a Deputy Minister for Energy has called on African leaders to leverage the abundance of the gas resource on the continent. This, according to him is a key step in bridging the poverty gap in various countries.
The Secondi Member of Parliament made this call when he represented Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh at an African ministerial panel at the on-ongoing Africa Oil Week in Dubai, UAE. Hon. Mercer further called for responsible exploitation of this fossil fuel resource as it is being held in trust for generations yet unborn. This he says would ensure that the economic value of the resource is sustained for a long period of time.
He said Ghanas Gas Master Plan recognizes the power sector as the most important sector to channel the natural gas resources as currently, over 70 % of the countrys fuel requirement for power generation is met by natural gas. Hon. Mercer also called for attention to be given to the legal and regulatory framework of various countries as it provides the basis for the overall benefit of the resource for their people. He also called for the deployment of appropriate technologies in the development and utilization of the gas resource.
At the session on prospects in the upstream sector that took place during the conference, CEO of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr., walked prospective investors through Ghanas legal and regulatory regime as well as its fiscal system which makes the country an attractive destination for upstream investment. He also touched on available blocks for investment in the sector.
On his part, a Deputy CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Benjamin Acolatse touched on the role of the National Oil Company in Petroleum Agreements and their readiness to partner potential investors in the exploitation of Ghanas hydrocarbon resource.
The Ghanaian delegation continues to engage prospective investors and key players in the African oil and gas space at the conference all in the bid to position Ghana favourably for investments.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Hollard Insurance, a subsidiary of the Insurance Group, Hollard Ghana was adjudged for the second time, Insurance Company (General) of the Yearat the prestigious Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) awards over the weekend at the plush Labadi Beach Hotel.
The annual National Marketing Performance awards was heldunder the theme: Repositioning Ghana to leverage AfCFTA for economic developmentsought to honour individuals and organisations (both private and public) who have performed outstandingly within the year of review.
Once again, Hollard Insurance was recognized for its excellence in strategic marketing, from market insights through the effective formulation of marketing mix programmes to create value for the market and thereby delivering excellent results that set Hollard apart as a corporate achiever for the year 2020.
Managing Director for Hollard Insurance, Daniel Boi Addoexpressed the companys gratitude to the council of CIMG for the recognition.
Were elated bythe honour done us on the august occasion of the institutes 40th anniversary. We are proud that our efforts to enable more people to create and secure a better future are being recognized. Marketing remains a major component in achieving a financially inclusive society. As a vibrant brand, we shall continue drive innovative insurance solutions that truly serve the needs of Ghanaians. We dedicate the award to Hollardites, our customers, partners, and stakeholders for journeying with us to become the countrys favourite insurer", he added.
On her part, Group Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Hollard Ghana, Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfuo, added: To be acknowledged by this prestigious institute two conservative times means we are doing something right. We have been intentional about our purpose and how we market our innovative products, taking into consideration the marketing mix during product development. We pledge our efforts to deepen insurance penetration in the country through unconventional partnerships whiles leveraging on technology to provide a hassle- free way to access insurance.
About Hollard Insurance
Hollard Insurance is a subsidiary of the insurance group, Hollard Ghana, which combines its deep local knowledge of the market with the world-class expertise of an international insurance brand. With feet firmly planted on Ghanaian soil but Headquartered in South Africa, Hollard delivers innovative insurance solutions customised to the unique risks Ghanaians face. Hollard was previously Metropolitan Insurance which operated in Ghana for over 25 years.
Hollard Insurance offers various non-life products including travel, motor, personal accident, and home insurance, and more. Beyond various nationwide office branches and Hollard 2U franchise shops, Ghanaians can find Hollard at Shell Fuel Station Welcome Shops, Melcom stores and online at www.hollard.com.gh and www.jumia.com.gh for all their insurance needs.
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.
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According to the finance minister, the Government has put together a framework to provide direct support for young entrepreneurs to enable them to create new businesses and expand existing ones.
Under the programme known as YouthStart, the government will direct financial and technical support towards young entrepreneurs in the country to develop commercially viable businesses and create jobs for the youth.
The Minister for Finance who announced this in his presentation of the 2022 budget statement and economic policy to Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, said the intervention will help address the challenges young entrepreneurs currently face in the country.
Mr Speaker, this understanding of the youth employment challenge, as well as extensive consultations with stakeholders including youth associations and educational institutions across the country, have led to the development of the YouStart initiative which proposes to use GH1 billion to create 1 million jobs and in partnership with the Finance Institutions and Development Partners. In addition, our local Banks have agreed to a package that will result in increasing their SME portfolio up to about GHC 5 billion over the next 3 years.
YouStart is a vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills and mentoring to enable them to launch and operate their own businesses. The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), and partner financial institutions, will serve as the implementing arms of YouStart. Entrepreneurs will be able to apply for support through a dedicated YouStart online portal. NEIP will also engage our Faith-Based Organizations as partners for the delivery of essential artisanal skills, Ken Ofori-Atta added.
According to him, the YouStart initiative is designed to instil proper commercial orientation in the beneficiaries. This he said will include financial institutions determining the credit metrics and GEA and NEIP providing training support especially for the standardized SME loans noting that the initiative will be operational by March 2022.
The government in the past has created numerous initiatives to address the spate of youth unemployment in the country. Programmes such as the Ghana CARES 'Obaatanpa' and programmes pursued by the NBSSI now GEA and NEIP are designed to make access to finance and skills in entrepreneurship, agriculture, small-scale industry, tourism, and trade, easier for the youth.
Additionally, the government has been working to establish the Ghana Development Bank to provide funds for industries and manufacturing sectors of the economy.
These initiatives coupled with government interventions through the 2022 budget according to the Minister will provide the youth with abundant opportunities to nurture and grow their businesses.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 49 years in prison for robbing a University of Ghana level 100 student of his iPhone and a cash of GH 470.
The convict, Yakubu Issah, a farmer, who went on a robbery spree with his accomplice, currently on the run, fired shots at the victim who was on his knees begging for his life to be spared, but the shots misfired.
Issah pleaded guilty to the count of possession of firearms and ammunition, and one count of robbery.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the count of conspiracy to rob.
The court, presided over by Ms Patricia Amponsah, sentenced Issah to five and 49 years in prison on the count of possession of firearms and robbery, respectively.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
Facts
The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Evans Kesse, told the court that about 12:00 a.m. on November 11, this year, the complainant, in his Range Rover, drove from his house to buy food at Agbogba, Madina.
The prosecutor said upon the complainants return at 12:30 am, he came out of his car to open the gate and the accused persons suddenly accosted him and ordered him to surrender all his belongings.
ASP Kesse said the complainant refused to do so but Issahs accomplice, Yaw, shot the complainant on his forehead but it misfired, prompting the accused to also shoot the complainant on his head which also misfired.
The complainant, on seeing that the accused persons' pistols could not hurt him, raised an alarm for help.
The accused persons in the process succeeded to rob the complainant of his one iPhone, 12 Pro Max mobile phone valued at GH7,000 and a cash of GH470, which his accomplice took away along with the other belongings, the complainant said.
The complainant, he said, thereafter managed to struggle and hold the accused until people came around, adding all witnesses in this case came to the scene and rescued the complainant.
Arrest
According to the prosecutor, a police patrol team within the area quickly moved to the scene, after a distress call, to arrest and convey the accused to Ayi Mensah Police Station.
The case was then forwarded to the Regional CID, Accra, for further investigation.
ASP Kesse said upon interrogation, the accused admitted he brought the two Retay Falcon pistols and ammunitions from Pussiga, Northern Region, to Accra for their operations by concealing them in a local rice to be given to his accomplice,Yaw, who is on the run.
He added that the accused said on November 11, he and his accomplice left Circle, their place of abode, to commence their robbery operation at the scene.
The prosecutor said on seeing the complainant, the accused persons quickly attacked and robbed the complainant with their pistols.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Ministry of Education has directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to put in place the right measures to ensure that the practice of teachers engaging pupils in any form of child labour becomes a thing of the past.
A Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, who gave the directive, said he was not happy that teachers who had been tasked to teach pupils rather engaged the pupils in activities contrary to their mandate.
The Deputy Education Minister gave the directive last Monday when he led a government delegation to commiserate with the families of the nine students who got drowned last Friday while crossing the Oti River after they had been sent to work on their headmasters farm.
Delegation
Other members of the delegation were the Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa; the Northern Regional Police Commander, COP Timothy Yoosa Bonga; the Northern Regional Director of Education, Dr Peter Attafuah, a team of clinical psychologists and counsellors, among others.
The team paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of Saboba, Uchabobor Bawon Mateer Sakojim, at his palace and other traditional leaders of the area and later joined worshippers at the local Catholic Church where a special mass was held for the nine departed children.
Rev. Fordjour and the rest of the delegation later met the bereaved families, during which undisclosed amounts were presented to each of them to support the performance of funeral rites.
Counselling
The deputy minister charged people in leadership positions to desist from pleading for teachers caught indulging in nefarious acts and rather allow the law to deal with them.
He indicated that the government had deployed clinical psychologists and counsellors to Saboba to counsel pupils, teachers and families of the deceased.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa advised teachers to be mindful of the code of conduct of the GES and not engage in any act that would land them in trouble.
Background
Nine students of the St Charles JHS drowned last Friday evening when they were crossing the River Oti in a canoe which capsised.
The victims were among 31 students of the school who had allegedly gone to work on their headmaster's farm earlier in the day and who got drowned while returning home in batches.
The nine were in one of the two boats the children were on, while 21 of them swam to safety.
The Tamale District Court on Monday remanded Emmanuel Chinja in prison custody, charged with manslaughter.
The court, presided over by Mr Amadu Issifu, declined an appeal by counsel for the accused for bail and remanded him to reappear on Monday, November 29, this year.
Rules of Conduct for teachers in Ghana
The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers in Ghana defines labour as the exploitative use of a pupil/student if it deprives him/her of education, leisure or development.
Therefore:
i. No teacher shall subject a pupil/student to any form of exploitative labour.
ii. A teacher shall not use the labour of a pupil/student in any form whatsoever, with or without the consent of the parent, during contact hours.
iii. A teacher shall not send a child on errands for him/her during contact hours.
iv. No teacher shall use the labour of school children/students for private or personal service, with or without the consent of their parents or guardians and of the school head during school hours.
v. The exploitative activities that teachers shall not engage pupils/students in shall include but not be limited to: selling or trading in items, weeding, farming, carrying of water, sand, stone and blocks or doing household chores.
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has directed that the treatment of four childhood cancers be included in the benefit package of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with immediate effect.
Those four childhood cancers Burkitt Lymphoma, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Wilms tumour (which starts in the kidney) and Retinoblastoma (which occurs in the eye) constitute 60 per cent of all childhood cancer cases in the country.
Additionally, the scheme has been expanded to include family planning services, which takes effect from January 2022.
The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, revealed this at the launch of this years National Health Insurance Week in Accra yesterday.
The week-long programme to create awareness of the scheme is on the theme: "NHIS: Using the Ghana Card for Expanded Health Service".
Mrs Akufo-Addo lauded the inclusion of childhood cancers and family planning to the NHIS benefit package and described the move as a cost-effective and feasible way to increase childhood cancer survival from three out of every 10 affected children to at least six.
In Ghana, about 1,200 children under the age of 15 are estimated to develop cancer annually, and although 85 per cent of childhood cancers are curable when detected early, only about 20 to 30 per cent of patients receive treatment, often due to the high cost of diagnoses and treatment.
Indeed, our children deserve to live long productive lives to enable them to compete successfully with other children in the world.
Let me commend President Akufo-Addo for directing the NHIS, through the Ministry of Health, to add childhood cancers to the NHIS benefit package, the First Lady said.
Let me also express my profound gratitude to the Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for leading her team to expand the current NHIS benefit package to include these four childhood cancers, Mrs Akufo-Addo said.
Financing
A crusader in child health, Mrs Akufo-Addo said the initiative was life-saving because one major area of concern for many stakeholders in the treatment of childhood cancers was financing, which placed a huge burden on families.
She recounted how she had to make a commitment in 2017 to build a hostel at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where children undergoing cancer treatment could stay with their families.
Without this hostel, many patients may abandon treatment due to the cost of travel and other expenses. I am happy to say that last week I inaugurated the Sunshine House, a 54-bed hostel, the first of its kind in Ghana and the biggest in Africa, she said.
She said during the inauguration of the Sunshine House, speaker after speaker called for the inclusion of childhood cancers to the NHIS benefit package, adding: Today brings hope to our children and their families. Today is another milestone in the fight against childhood cancers.
Unfortunately, some children would succumb to cancer, but in such situations, the state still needed to ensure quality and dignity of life for such children, Mrs Akufo-Addo said.
We need to have centres dedicated to making life bearable for terminal patients, where we can also provide psychosocial support for affected families, she said.
Digitalisation
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the national digitalisation agenda, particularly the linkage of the Ghana Card to the NHIA, would contribute immensely to the governments commitment to make quality healthcare services accessible and affordable to all residents of Ghana.
The ongoing merger of the NHIS and the Ghana cards is commendable. I urge all holders of the two cards to do the merger now and use one card to access health care. What is key for us today is leveraging the use of the Ghana Card for healthcare access, he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu said the government, since assuming office in 2017, had consistently supported the operations of the NHIS.
The government commends the NHIA management over the recent prompt payment of claims to credentialed service providers to keep them in business. As a government, we will continue to ensure that NHIS finances are released on time to solve the problem of unpaid bills to healthcare providers, he said.
Progress
The Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, said this years NHIS Week was the second of many more to come.
It is a week in which we aim to celebrate the development of the scheme, project our progress and try to move forward with the goal that all persons in Ghana will have access to health care under the NHIS, she said.
The celebration last year provided us with the opportunity to register and renew 750,000 people.. It was, indeed, a successful event, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.
She said the NHIS began to campaign to increase NHIS membership last year with the linkage of the NHIS and the Ghana cards through mobile technology.
We sought and continue to seek renewed interest in the NHIS. This year, we continue with the momentum from this digital inclusion to include every resident with the Ghana Card on the NHIS, she said.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Corruption prevention measures implemented by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) in 2020 saved the country GH387 million.
The measures included tackling weak control systems and injecting discipline in the management of public funds.
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who made this known when he swore in members of the IAA Board at the Jubilee House last Friday, commended the agency for protecting the public purse.
He said in addition to saving the country millions of cedis through the work of the agency, audit committees and internal audit units across the country, audit infractions reported in the 2020 Auditor-Generals Report reduced by 32 per cent for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), 34 per cent for metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), 92 per cent for technical universities and 38 per cent for the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and other statutory funds.
The IAA Board, which is chaired by Mr Joseph B. Winful, has Dr Eric O. Osae, Mr Samuel Danquah Arkhurst, Mr Frank A. Raji, Dr Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, Mr Fiifi Kwakye, Madam Edith Pinamang, Professor Kwame A. Frimpong and Mr Christian Sottie as members.
Protecting national purse
Dr Bawumia said in fulfilment of the pledge by the Akufo-Addo administration to protect the national purse, it had made significant successes, with anti-corruption institutions, of which the IAA was part, receiving significant increases in their budgetary support.
He said the government had initiated a process to repeal the Internal Audit Agency Act 2003 (Act 658) to restructure public sector internal auditing, with the goal to convert the agency into a service, rationalise the conditions of service, and move public sector internal auditing from conventional auditing to a risk-based auditing system.
Digitisation
The Vice-President explained that as part of the digitalisation agenda, the IAA now had a vibrant website which had facilitated the submission of quarterly internal audit reports, without walking to the agencys office.
He added that with support from the European Union (EU), the IAA was being supported to develop an Audit Management Information System (AMIS) which would help automate the conduct of public sector internal auditing.
He commended the agency for the guidance in building risk management structures in public institutions to develop their capacity to minimise risks exposed by those institutions.
Dr Bawumia indicated that the further training of 892 management members and internal auditors in risk management, in line with the Public Financial Management Act, was evidence of the critical role the agency played in sustaining sound control systems in public institutions.
He saluted the IAA for establishing 553 audit committees across the country to help strengthen the fight against corruption, noting: If we can win the fight against corruption, a lot depends on internal auditors and audit committees.
Name and shame
Dr Bawumia urged the board to continue to work to reduce audit infractions reported by the Auditor-General, just as happened between 2019 and 2020 for MDAs, MMDAs, the DACF and other statutory funds.
The naming and shaming of institutions which failed to submit their audit work plans and reports for 2020/2021 also caught my attention and I encourage the new board to ensure that defaulting institutions comply with the internal requirements under Ghanas PFM Act, he added.
He was of the conviction that if internal auditors did their work well, external auditors might have nothing to report on during the annual audits.
I will, therefore, task the board to ensure high performance of internal auditors to justify the need for additional resourcing of internal audit activities across the country, the Vice-President said.
Board pledge
Speaking on behalf of the board, Dr Ampadu Fofie said the agency was repositioning itself as an important corruption prevention institution through proactive advisory and assurance services.
She said the vision to protect the public purse required Ghanaians to optimise the use of national resources and protect the country from loss through leakages, fraud, irregularities, misapplication and negligence.
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye has expressed grave worry about the heavy politicization of the issue of tidal waves and its devastating effects on the lives of the countrys coastal dwellers.
The issue, the Minister indicated is a national problem which should be devoid of every temptation by political watchers especially politicians to score cheap political points with such occurrences, adding that such narratives are not only acts of dishonest but also a great disservice to the affected people.
The Works and Housing Minister made these statements when he visited communities of Ada and Sege in the Ada East and West Districts respectively that have been adversely affected following incidence of heavy tidal waves in coastal parts of the country in the past few days.
In recent times, the countrys coastal residents especially volta and Greater Accra regions have had to bear the brunt of incessant effect of climate change, leaving in its wake destruction of communities.
The Minister for Works and Housing Francis Asenso-Boakye gave the assurances that government will soon secure the needed funds to complete coastal protection works on sections of the countrys 550km coastal stretch that remain at risk and possesses a threat to life and properties of coastal dwellers.
Following extensive discussions with the Finance Ministry, the Minister said he was very optimistic that government will soon raise the necessary funding to implement the needed mitigation measures against the increasing threats of tidal waves.
The Minister said government takes the threat of coastal erosion and flooding seriously, adding that, it is the reason why huge financial investments in various sea defense projects across the country are being made to alleviate the plight of coastal dwellers.
"I can assure you that the government will do everything possible to assist you to recover from this unfortunate and traumatic experience." The Minister assured.
While government is making these efforts, the Minister reiterated the need for human activities that expose our coastline to increased rate of erosion as well as increased risk of flooding to halted.
The Minister visited the communities in the company of the District Chief Executives of the two districts, technical team from the Hydrological Services Department, and other officials from the Ministry.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Deputy Energy Minister William Owuraku Aidoo has indicated that based on environmental and commercial considerations, Ghana aims to attain full transition of all thermal generation plants from liquid fuels to natural gas.
He made this revelation when he addressed the African Energy Forum currently taking place in London, United Kingdom.
The Deputy Minister, who is also the MP for Afigya Kwabre South, revealed further that liquid fuels would only serve as a backup in the event of deficit or curtailment in the supply of gas, and that currently, all the existing thermal plants use natural gas as the primary source of fuel except for the 370 MW AKSA power plant which is also making efforts to convert its units from HFO to gas.
Due to the high dependency of the power sector on natural gas, it is crucial to ensure that there is always the security of supply.
The government continues to explore more indigenous oil and gas resources Hon. Owuraku stated. He added that natural gas supply is further expected to be significantly bolstered by an additional 125MMscfd from the Tema LNG Project which is expected to be operational from 2022.
The Deputy Minister also touched on other issues in Ghanas energy sector, including cost-reflective energy pricing, universal access to electricity, increased reliability of electricity and the future of power purchase agreements, among others.
The African Energy Forum is being held from 15th to 17th November 2021 in London under the theme Critical Ongoing Issues in the Energy Sector and draws on the relationship between energy, technology, purpose and inclusivity.
Participants include representatives of governments, utilities and regulators with development finance institutions, commercial banks, power developers, technology providers, EPCs and professional services.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Managing Director of State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea, has expressed utter disgust over the drowning tragedy in the Northern Region involving nine JHS students.
The nine students reportedly met their untimely death after their Headmaster, Emmanuel Chinja, took some 31 students of his school to work on his rice farm.
The students drowned while returning from the farm after a canoe they were crossing the River Oti with capsized last Friday evening.
Emmanuel Chinja, Headmaster of the St Charles Lwanga Junior High School (JHS) in Saboba in the Northern Region, has been arrested by the Police and charged with manslaughter.
He was arraigned in Tamale court on Monday and remains in Police custody to assist in investigations.
Reacting to the issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Nana Akomea was alarmed by the Headmaster's action wondering why he would send the school children to his farm.
He commiserated with the bereaved families, having difficulties feeling the way they are feeling after losing their children.
"It's painful that, no fault of you, no fault of your child and you take care of these children and they put them in danger. It's painful!'', he said.
Nana Akomea called on the general public to contribute to help the bereaved families although stressing nothing can replace their loss.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South Constituency, Dzifa Gomashie, has paid a glowing tribute to the former Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor.
Attivor, 65, passed in the early hours of Tuesday at the University of Ghana Hospital after a short illness.
Tributes have been pouring out as the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) throng her house to commiserate with her family.
Speaking to Kwame Minkah, host of Tonton Sansan on TV XYZ, who was a friend to the former minister, Madam Gomashie recounted how close they were outside party activities.
Volta Region has lost an icon, she stated. Aunty Dzifa was active on women empowerment projects and an incredible politician.
She was a good person. She did politics with elegance, humility. She was visionaryShe saw that the [the Ho] airport would boost economic activities in the Volta Region. She had so much passion for the sector President John Mahama put her. She understood what she was supposed to do, said the former Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture.
About Dzifa Attivor
Madam Attivor was one of the leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region.
The politician who was also a businesswoman was appointed Minister for Transport in 2013 by President John Mahama Ghana after he won the 2012 elections.
Attivor was a minister until her resignation in December 2015 due to a controversial bus re-branding contract.
She left behind 3 children.
Before her first ministerial appointment as Deputy Minister for Transport in 2009 by the late President John Evans Atta Mills, Attivor contested in the Ho West constituency primaries of the NDC in 2008 but lost to Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah who subsequently won the elections in December 2008.
In 2018, she contested for the Volta Regional Chairperson of the National Democratic Congress in August 2018.
Her campaign focused on changing the norm by selecting a female to head the region, however, she lost the elections.
Dzifa Gomashie who saw Attivor as an icon believes she had so much to offer the NDC, especially to the people of Volta Region.
She commended Attivors commitment to investing in human capital, saying no one is perfect, but I think she [Dzifa Attivor] stands tall among women in politics in the Volta Region.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The US State Department has warned American citizens in Ethiopia that it will not be able to evacuate them if the security situation worsens suddenly.
A senior US official urged American citizens to leave Ethiopia immediately, saying that Washington had no plans to organise a mass evacuation, as it did in Afghanistan.
The US and the African Union have been pressuring the Ethiopian government and rebels in the Tigray region to end their conflict, which has killed several thousand people and displaced two million since it started a year ago.
American officials say the US has held off approving sanctions against the warring parties, because peace negotiations are still active.
Source: BBC
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Supreme Court has urged the Italian energy group, Eni, and an indigenous oil company, Springfield Ghana Limited, to seek an out-of-court settlement in their legal dispute over the unitisation of their respective oil fields (Sankofa and Afina) in the interest of the country.
Springfield is embroiled in a legal tussle with Eni and its partner, Vitol Upstream Limited, following a directive by the then Minister of Energy, Mr John Peter Amewu, in 2020 to the companies to unitise their fields, located at the Cape Three Points, in accordance with Section 34(1) of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 2016 (Act 919).
At stake in the dispute are more than 500 million barrels of crude oil.
A five-member panel of the apex court, presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, gave the advice yesterday after it had dismissed an application by Eni and Vitol seeking permission (special leave) to appeal a decision by the Court of Appeal not to put on hold the preservation of their accounts as ordered by the High Court.
In dismissing the application, the Supreme Court held that Eni and Vitol failed to make a case for the special leave.
The court finds no circumstance to grant leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, as no serious error or novelty has been raised by the applicant. We, however, encourage the parties to settle the matter out of court, the court held.
Interest of the country
The Chief Justice was particularly concerned about the legal dispute in Ghanas petroleum industry and asked the parties if they could come together for the dispute to be resolved within the shortest possible time.
He said the parties could apply for expeditious trial and he (Chief Justice) was willing to appoint a Justice of the Court of Appeal who would hear the case every day so that it could be determined quickly.
In response, counsel for Vitol Upstream, Mr Ace Ankomah, said the technical nature of the dispute, as well as the numerous appeals and interlocutory applications, could prolong the case.
A member of the panel, Justice Gabriel Pwamang, said if technical issues were the problem, the court could appoint outside experts (assessors) who were versed in the technicalities of the petroleum industry to help resolve the dispute.
The Chief Justice followed up and added that the parties should agree to settle the dispute out of court, taking into consideration its impact on the petroleum industry and the country as a whole.
Special leave to appeal
Eni and Vitol wanted the Supreme Court to grant them permission, as required by law, to appeal the Court of Appeals decision not to stay the execution of the preservation order by the High Court, pending appeal.
In June this year, the High Court ordered a 30 per cent preservation of the accounts of Eni and Vitol from the operation of the Sankofa Field until the final determination of a legal dispute mounted by Springfield seeking to enforce the directive by the Minister of Energy for the companies to unitise their respective oil fields.
Dissatisfied with the preservation order, Eni and Vitol filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, and followed it up with an application for stay of execution of the preservation order until the final determination of the appeal.
The Court of Appeal, on July 22, this year, dismissed the application for stay of execution, meaning the preservation order will be in force, even as Eni and Vitol go on with the appeal process.
In order to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court, Eni and Vitol needed permission from the Court of Appeal to do so. The application was made, but the Court of Appeal refused to grant the leave.
In line with the rules of court, Eni and Vitol then went to the Supreme Court to seek a special leave to file the appeal.
Arguments
Making his case, counsel for Eni, Mr Kimathi Kuenyehia, argued that his client had met all the circumstances for the special leave, as prescribed by law.
According to him, the Court of Appeal did not take all the evidence and facts associated with the case before dismissing the application for stay of execution.
Arguing for Vitol, Mr Ankomah agreed with the submissions by Mr Kuenyehia, and added that the preservation order had placed untoward hardship on his client, which the Court of Appeal failed to take into consideration.
In response, counsel for Springfield, Mr Thaddeus Sory, submitted that counsel for the applicants (Eni and Vitol) had failed to demonstrate any error by the Court of Appeal to warrant a special leave from the Supreme Court.
According to him, the applicants failed to prove any hardship as a result of the preservation order.
It was his case that the High Court, in granting the preservation order, took into consideration the expenditure of the two companies, as well as taxes to be paid, and, therefore, there was no issue relating to hardship.
The Supreme Court agreed with Mr Sory and, accordingly, dismissed the application for special leave by Eni and Vitol.
Background
The disputed Sankofa Oil Filed is part of the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP), an area located off the coast of Western Ghana, with about 500 million barrels of oil reserves and 40 billion cubic metres of gas.
Eni is the lead operator.
Springfield, on the other hand, is the lead operator in the West Cape Three Points (WCTP), with the Afina Field.
It is the case of Springfield that various analyses and tests had shown that the accumulation of petroleum in the Sankofa field extended to its contract area (Afina Field).
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The Ghana Police Service (GPS) has deployed a new contingent of Police officers to serve under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
AMISOM in a statement said a team of 113 newly deployed personnel, from the Formed Police Unit (FPU), arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Monday, to begin their one-year tour of duty and help build the capacity of their counterparts in the Somali Police Force (SPF).
The new personnel join an advance party of 47 other officers, who had earlier jetted into the country, to constitute a contingent of 160 personnel that will be based in Baidoa, the administrative capital of South-West State of Somalia. They will complete a two-week COVID-19 quarantine period before heading into Baidoa.
On arrival in Mogadishu, the officers were welcomed by the AMISOM Police Commissioner, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Augustine Magnus Kailie, and senior members of the AMISOM Police Leadership Team.
In his remarks, the Police Commissioner noted that the officers had arrived at a critical time when Somalia is holding elections and urged them to play a key role in securing the ongoing elections, and serve the mission diligently.
We have an assignment at hand to provide security for the ongoing elections. These elections are not a days business, but will span perhaps up to January. So, my word of caution to you is that you have to be very careful and dedicated to your duty, said AIGP Kailie.
This is the second FPU contingent to be deployed by Ghana, to serve under AMISOM. They replaced the first contingent, whose tour of duty has ended.
AIGP Kailie urged the newly deployed officers to respect the culture of the local community and of other people serving in the mission. He also appealed to them to be disciplined and professional in discharging their duties.
This is a multi-dimensional mission with people from diverse background. There are things that are acceptable back home, which are not acceptable here. You have to be careful and mindful of what you are doing and in your interactions with other nationals, he said.
AMISOM Police Operations Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Daniel Ali Gwambal, briefed the officers on some of their duties, which includes provision of operational support to the Somali Police Force (SPF).
Some of the duties you are going to perform are incumbent on you as a Formed Police Unit- that the Individual Police Officers cannot actively carry out. They include patrols, vehicle checks, stop and search, search and rescue, and other humanitarian services where your assistance will be needed, said DCP Gwambal.
He also informed the police officers that they could also be involved in some static police duties, like guard duties at key and vulnerable points in their areas of jurisdiction.
AMISOM Police Reforms, Restructuring, and Development Coordinator, ACP Maxwell Chikunguru and the Training and Development Coordinator ACP Kofi Amevenku, both gave guidance to the officers on how to succeed on the mission area, reiterating the need for them to maintain a good working relationship with local communities.
The AMISOM Police component is made up of the Formed Police Units (FPUs) and Individual Police Officers (IPOs). FPUs provide operational support, while the IPOs train, mentor and advise the SPF officers.
AMISOM Police plays a critical role in ensuring that the Somali Police Force is adequately capacitated and is capable of taking full charge of policing activities in the country.
The Deputy Contingent Commander of the newly deployed unit, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Felicia Amo Boadu, said her team were eager and ready to advance the mandate of the mission and work collaboratively with the SPF.
We are happy to be in Somalia to help in the peacebuilding process thats going on. We will work in coordination with the Somali Police Force officers in line with the AMISOM mandate, said DSP Boadu.
Ghana is one of the Police Contributing Countries (PCCs) to AMISOM. Others include Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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A social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has refuted claims of food insecurity under President Nana Akufo-Addo's administration.
Speculations are rife that Ghana will experience famine next year if nothing is done to secure the agriculture sector, particularly concerning food products.
Consequently, prices of food products in the market are reportedly currently rising up making it scary for Ghanaians to anticipate what to happen in the future.
But Allotey Jacobs, known to be a farmer and once a Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has rather commended the Akufo-Addo government believing it has stabilized the country's food security.
To him, contrary to reports of food shortage, there is an abundant food supplies in the country.
He stressed there will be no famine in Ghana but, however, advised the government to encourage more Ghanaians to go into farming emphasizing it's the backbone of the economy.
"All that Ghanaians are looking for is three-square meal a day. So, if they don't get three but two, you have to explain it to them that this or that is why they are not having three-square meals. The claim by some critic that, by next year, there will be famine in Ghana. I want to say it's falsehood. There will be an abundance of food next year''
"If this country will grow, what will contribute to our GDP is farming...Investing in the people, investing in the Ghanaian farmers is also as equal as investing in your own economy to make sure our economy is vibrant," he said on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta says the government as part of efforts to improve its revenue mobilization has introduced innovative measures to collect property taxes in the country.
Presenting the 2022 budget statement and economic policy on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, the Minister said the government is looking to assist the Metropolitan Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs) to implement a common platform for property rate administration to enable them effectively collect property rates in the country.
He said: Mr Speaker, property rates have the potential to increase revenue mobilization for MDAs and release resources for the provision of basic infrastructure as well as the needs of our localities. Property rate assessment and collection pose a challenge to most MMDAs and are fraught with inefficiencies.
Government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will from January 2022, assist the MMDAs to implement a common platform for property rate administration to enhance property rate collections and its accountability. To ensure cost recovery by government in providing the infrastructure for the collection of the Rate, a sharing ratio will be agreed with the Assemblies, he added.
With dwindling revenue streams attributable to the slowdown in business activities occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic, Ghana is lagging behind most of its peers within the West African sub-region as far as the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is concerned.
While Ghana is doing below 15 per cent, countries in the sub-region like Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria are hovering around an average of 18 per cent, prompting government to employ innovative ways of broadening its tax net.
This the Minister explained that while the hardship Ghanaians have been experiencing due to coronavirus pandemic is not lost on the government, it is also necessary that government improves its revenue mobilization in an economy put under extreme distress by the pandemic.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana
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Police in Nigeria are failing rape victims by not supporting and investigating the crime when reported, rights groups Amnesty International says.
"Women and girls continue to be failed by a system that makes it increasingly difficult for survivors to get justice, while allowing perpetrators to get away with gross human rights violations, said Osai Ojigho, head of Amnesty International Nigeria.
Victims are instead exposed to shaming and stigma, a situation that perpetuates a culture of silence around sexual violence in the country, she added.
Gender activist Serben Shehi told the BBC that the lack of political will in tackling gender-based violence, especially rape, is worrying.
In 2020, Nigerias National Human Rights Commission recorded 11,200 reported cases of rape. Amnesty describes it as the most prevalent human rights violation in the West African country.
Last year Nigerian state governors declared a state of emergency on rape and gender-based violence, but Amnesty said nothing had changed.
Nigerias police have not responded to calls from the BBC at the time of this report.
Source: BBC
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The Kaneshie District Court has for the second time, adjourned the case involving the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Madina, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu.
This was after the MP, who has been charged for unlawfully blocking a public road and the destruction of public property, failed to appear before the court for the second time forcing the court presided over by Oheneba Kufuor to adjourn the case to November 29.
When the case was called today (Nov 16), counsel for the legislator, Mr Victor Kwadjoga Adawudu, told the court that his client was still out of the country and was expected to return next week.
He, therefore, prayed the court to adjourn the case to November 29.
For his part, the prosecution, represented by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sylvester Asare told the presiding judge that the Police had not received any communication to indicate the inability of the accused person to attend court.
Letter
The judge, in his response, indicated that he had received a letter on his file signed by the Deputy Clerk to Parliament, Eric Owusu Mensah which read: Please refer to your letter No. KDC/202/22 and dated 9th November, 2021 which attached a Hearing Notice on the above matter for service on the Honourable Member for Madina Constituency, Hon. Francis-Xavier Sosu.
The letter further read; I have been directed by the Rt. Hon. Speaker to bring to the attention of the Hon Court that the Hon. Member is attending at the proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the 1st Session of the 8th Parliament which commenced on Tuesday 26th October 2021 and is also currently representing Parliament and the Country in a conference in the United States of America.
Pursuant to article 117 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic, I am unable to bring the service to the attention of the Member of Parliament as requested the letter dated the 10th of November 2021 indicated.
After the court had read the letter, ASP Asare requested a certified true copy of the said letter for police records.
The court subsequently adjourned sitting to 29 November 2021.
Background
The MP joined his constituents of Ayi-Mensah, Danfa and the Otinibi in a demonstration over poor roads on Monday, October 25, 2021.
During the protest, some of the protestors allegedly blocked roads, burnt tyres and destroyed some public property.
Following the demonstration, the police have been unsuccessful in their attempts to arrest Mr Sosu with Parliament upholding its privileges and requesting proper procedures for MPs who must face criminal prosecution.
It is the case of the police that Mr Sosu had questions to answer in respect of the criminal act the protestors engaged in they tried to invite the MP to assist with investigations.
However, the MP had been on the defence that he followed due process in organising the protest and, therefore, stated that there was no basis for his arrest.
After the first attempt to arrest him, Mr Sosu filed a formal complaint in Parliament accusing the Greater Accra Regional Operations Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Isaac Kojo Asante, and the Adentan Divisional Commander, ACP Mr Eric Winful, of contempt of Parliament.
The Speaker of Parliament has since referred the complaint against the two police officers to the Privileges Committee of Parliament.
He was first expected to appear in court on Monday, November 8, this year but was absent.
The prosecution notified the court that the Police had received a letter from the Speaker of Parliament indicating that Lawyer Sosu was out of the country on Parliamentary duties, a situation which compelled the court to adjourn the case to today (Nov 16).
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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A man has been arrested by the Talibans for reportedly selling 130 women in northern Afghanistan, after duping them into believing they would be marrying into money.
Officials said on Tuesday November 16 that the man was arrested in northern Jawzjan province late on Monday November 15.
Damullah Seraj, the Taliban provincial police chief, told reporters; We are still in our initial stages of the investigation. We hope to find out more about this case later."
Mohammad Sardar Mubariz, a district police chief in Jawzjan, told AFP the man would target poor women desperate to improve their circumstances.
After saying he would find them a wealthy husband, he would move them to a different province where they were instead sold into servitude. He allegedly trafficked around 130 women this way.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Technology and Innovations are driving the growth and expansion of leading economies in the world today.
In Ghana, digital innovations are changing the ways our nation operates for the better, with tremendous potential to transform the lives of our people in the years ahead.
These innovations cut across sectors, from Agriculture, Education, Energy, through ICT to Transport, and most are yet to come to the limelight and unleash their potential impacts.
This kind of progress is attainable when the government, the civil society and the private sector collaborate to craft a shared national vision centered on the use of digital technology and innovation to drive major economic transformation.
It is in this spirit of progress that the Vice Presidents office is spearheading the Ghana Digital Innovation Week implementation with support from multi-stakeholders including the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization; the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI). The Accra Digital Centre (ADC); the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP); the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT plus the Ghana Chamber of Technology are onboard as private sector stakeholders in addition to Ashesi University College and the University of Ghana.
The Ghana Digital Innovation Week seeks to celebrate the accomplishments of Ghanas digital innovation ecosystem and build momentum towards a shared vision for its future development. This grand venture is part of a trilateral cooperation between Ghana, Germany and Israel on innovation and development to promote government level awareness for digital innovation while also adding impetus to the growth of the digital innovation ecosystem in Ghana.
The premier free edition of the GDIW will feature over 20 exclusive conversations, plenaries, and presentations under the principle theme; Mobilising Collective Action and Investment to Catalyse Growth in Ghana's Digital Innovation Ecosystem.
Join in-person (limited seats only) or online from 22nd 26th November at the Grand Arena, inside the Accra International Conference or virtually on Hopin. Register online today at www.gdiw.org to attend this future altering event!
GDIW is an initiative of Make- I.T. in Africa, a program implemented by GIZ Ghana on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. Ghana Digital Innovation Week, lets Ignite, Co-create, Develop & Transform together!
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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Minister for Communications and digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has disclosed that about 8,000 girls have so far been trained in basic computer skills among other programmings to offer them the opportunity to explore the world of technology.
According to her, this forms part of a deliberate step to change the status quo that makes women and girls lag behind and unable to participate in the digital space despite forming more than half of the Ghanaian population.
In a speech she delivered at the climax of the 2021 Girls-In-ICT celebration on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at the Gambaga Girls SHS in the North East Region, the Minister indicated that the initiative provides an opportunity to empower Ghanas young girls with innovative skills and capacities to enable them fully participate in Ghanas development process.
She disclosed that this years Girls-In-ICT initiative was scaled up to include cybersecurity training for girls in SHS and young ladies in tertiary institutions.
60,000 girls were trained in Child Online Protection, cyberstalking, sextortion, and cyberbullying in the Ashanti, Central and Eastern Regions this October.
The tertiary version, Ladies in ICT, also took place just last month at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT (KACE), with the selection and training of 50 female students from the University Students Association of Ghana in specialized areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Storage, Cyber Security, Internet of Things and Data Storage, she disclosed.
The Ministry for Communications, she said, intends to do more in the coming years to ensure that the youth have the right skills, attitudes and relevant ICT infrastructure to participate in the digital space.
She disclosed that the Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and with the support of the World Bank will be equipping 300 SHS across the country with 40-seater labs to institutionalize the teaching and learning of ICT.
Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful explained that one of the key lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world is the significant role of ICT in the survival of every country.
She averred that the government has learned the need to increase efforts in ensuring that every Ghanaian in every corner of the country are introduced into the ever-evolving ICT world especially with the growing disparity in work and wages women experience in the digital space.
According to her, these issues are of concern to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is determined to change the paradigm by directing all Ministers to work to reduce the gender disparities in all sectors.
It is for this reason that my Ministry has made Girls-In-ICT our flagship project and I believe women can perform above and beyond expectations in any sphere of human endeavour if given the right opportunities, she added.
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.
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The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, has said he is worried about the recent death of members of the party.
This comes after reports of the death of the former Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor, in the early hours of Tuesday, November 16, 2021.
Too many of our people are dying and thats a big worry for us (NDC), Ofosu-Ampofo said on the 'Anopa Bofuo' morning show on Angel FM.
Reacting to the news of her death, Samuel Ofuso-Ampofo described her death as a big blow describing her a key member of the party.
I called her The Special One because she was a very key member of the party, Ofosu-Ampofo noted.
Dzifa Aku Attivor, former Minister for Transport under the NDC government died in the early hours of Tuesday, November 16, 2021, after being sick for a while.
She was 65-years-old.
Dzifa Attivor was one of the leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region.
The Ghanaian politician and businesswoman was appointed February 2013 as the Minister for Transport until she resigned in December 2015 due to a controversial bus re-branding contract.
The former Minister's family is expected to receive sympathisers at her Adentan residence in Accra later in the day.
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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This week is expected to be exceptionally busy in Parliament as the House enters the fourth week of sittings prior to the Christmas holidays.
Aside from the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy on Wednesday, November 17, 2020, there would be a total of 50 questions 17 urgent and 33 oral to be responded to by the Leader of the House and 14 ministers.
On the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who announced the Business Statement and its accompanying memorandum, urged members to endeavour to be present in the House.
He further announced that there would be a Post-Budget Workshop for all Members of Parliament to enable them to appreciate the content of the budget.
He entreated all members to make themselves available at the post-budget workshop and to participate actively.
Mr Afenyo-Markin informed the House that the debate on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy shall commence on Monday, November 22, 2021.
He advised legislators to scrutinise the allocations and proactively deal with them as early as possible and not just rubber-stamp before it comes to the passage of the Appropriations on December 17.
Rt Hon. Speaker, as may be noted on the proposed Business Statement, a considerable number of questions have been scheduled for response by some ministers, particularly, those who have more questions asked of them, Mr Afenyo-Markin said.
This is to enable the reduction in the backlog of questions before business of the House begins to increase in volume, he explained.
Sector ministers scheduled to answer questions are the Minister of Transport, who has four questions to respond to; 10 questions for the Minister of Education; one for the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice; four for the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture and one question for the Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs.
The rest are one question for Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development; two questions for the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations; 10 for the Minister of Food and Agriculture; one question each for the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; Minister for Defence; Minister of Works and Housing and Majority Leader and Leader of the House as well as two for the Minister for National Security and 10 questions for Minister of Health.
In accordance with Order 72, members may make statements duly admitted by the Speaker in the House.
Source: graphiconline.com
Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
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The District Chief Executive (DCE) of the newly inaugurated Guan District in the Oti Region, Marlon Anipa,has passed on.
He is reported to have died in the early hours of Tuesday, November 16, 2021, while being sent to the Hohoe Government Hospital for treatment.
His death comes barely 24 hours after he officially commenced work; following his confirmation as DCE on November 5, 2021 (11 days ago).
Although close relations are yet to confirm the incident, members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Oti Region have done so through the media and other social media platforms.
Mr. Anipa was seen in the company of the Oti Regional Minister, Joshua Makubu yesterday, November 15, 2021, when they toured some examination centers in the Guan District.
The two gave well wishes to candidates of the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and urged them to give off their best so, they can also benefit from the FREE Senior High School Program.
The Regional Minister, Joseph Makubo said He (Marlon) was well when we went round the three examination centers in the Guan District. He was his usual humorous self and we had a hearty conversation. We even spoke about repairing a school block at Santrokofi which had been devastated by heavy rains.
It was therefore shocking to hear this morning that he has passed.
It is reported that during the tour; Mr. Anipa gave indication of some challenge with his breathing. Fortunately, this was dealt with and the day ended successfully.
Only for him to be rushed to the Hospital on Tuesday dawn at about 2:00am. Unfortunately he died on arrival at about 2:15 am; thus Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Narrating the turn of events, the Guan District Coordinating Director (DCD), Sibeko Osman indicated that after the confirmation on November 5, 2021, Mr. Anipa went to Accra on a working visit.
He officially took office on Monday, November 15, 2021. Following which he (DCD) accompanied Mr. Anipa and the Regional Minister on the BECE rounds.
He said he noticed the DCEs breathing was unusual, but did not consider it to be a serious matter. Considering that the DCE was hearty and his humorous self.
After the close of business, the DCE returned to his temporal accomodation; a hotel in Hohoe to rest. The Hotel Manager said the DCE requested for some drugs to be procured for him as he was feeling unwell.
Some hours later the hotel staff received a distress call from the DCE and rushed him to the Hohoe Government Hospital.
Unfortunately, Mr. Anipa gave up the ghost before they could reach the hospital at about 2:15am on Tuesday.
The news of his passing has triggered mourning in the Guan District with many clothed in black.
Until his confirmation as the Guan DCE, Marlon was a consultant for the Railway Ministry on some of its projects. He is a leading member of the governing New Patriotic Partys (NPPs) Diaspora Patrons of Ghana.
He was a key member of the NPP, UK branch for several years; where he served as Organizer and Assistant Secretary at different times. While in the UK, he worked with the Health sector as a consultant.
In 2016, when Oti and Volta was one Region (Volta), he contested the Hohoe parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP but failed to win the seat.
Source: Daily Guide
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Nana Akomea, Managing Director of the State Transport Corporation (STC), says Ex-President John Mahama must put paid to his allegations against the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Particularly touching on the Ex-President's allegations of EC ballot stuffing in favour of the President, Nana Akomea admonished John Mahama to stop disgracing himself as all evidences prove nothing like 1 million votes for the President happened during the 2020 elections.
John Dramani Mahama is quoted as saying the "2020 was Ghanas worst election. If I was marking her, I would have given her an F. She is marking her own paper after the examination so she can give herself any mark she likes.
He added; Tell me which election in Ghana was ballot papers printed yet one million ballot papers were found elsewhere . . . We didnt witness this under Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. She [Jean Mensa] knew there was ballot stuffing.
Responding to these claims among others made by the former President, Nana Akomea pulled out records on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' to expose Mr. Mahama's lies.
He noted that, during the 2020 Presidential elections, "President Akufo-Addo got 6,730,587. When you add all the NPP Parliamentary votes, it was 6,651,028. The difference between President Akufo-Addo's votes and the NPP Parliamentary votes is 79,559''.
"President Mahama got 6,213,182 million. When you add his Parliamentary candidates, they got 6,094,478. So, he got 118,000 more than his Parliamentary candidates. When you look at the total NPP Parliamentary candidates - the 6,651028 and the NDC's total Parliamentary candidates, NPP Parliamentary votes constituency by constituency is more than the NDC by 556,000 and look at Akufo-Addo's difference over the Parliamentary candidates . . . It corresponds. Therefore, if you say 1 million votes were thumbprinted for Akufo-Addo, then he should be getting closer to a million votes more than his Parliamentary candidates.''
"So, where from the 1 million?'' he questioned.
Juxtaposing these facts, Nana Akomea further asked; ''If we're talking about ballot stuffing, between President Mahama and President Akufo-Addo, who should accuse the other?''
He cautioned Mr. Mahama to stop spewing what he believes are falsehoods about the President stressing, "he (Mahama) must stop it. He's disgracing himself. It cannot be supported. It's a big disgrace, so he should stop. The figures don't support it''.
Watch video below
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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FILE - Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., objects to certifying Arizona's Electoral College votes during a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to count the electoral votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol, on Jan 6, 2021. Gosar is facing censure in the House over a violent video he posted online. The House will vote Wednesday, Nov. 17, on a resolution that would censure Gosar for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York with a sword. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Five WPT Asia Online Champions Crowned; Mini Main Attracts Big Crowd
November 17, 2021 Matthew Pitt
WPT Asia Online, presented by Poker King, is in full swing and has already crowned five of its champions. Those champions now have their names forever written into the World Poker Tour's history books, but the best is yet to come thanks to the Mini Main Event attracting a bumper crowd, and the Main Event set to draw in a massive field, too.
Event #1: NLHE Warm-Up (6-max)
"AAAAQ" got WPT Asia Online off to a flying start by outlasting 704 opponents in Event #1: NLHE Warm-Up (6-max). The 220 ($34.50) buy-in tournament awarded its winner 27,438 ($4,300), giving them plenty of ammunition for the rest of the exciting series.
Event #2: NLHE 1 Million Gtd
Event #2: NLHE 1 Million Gtd saw 907 players exchange 1,100 ($172.50) for the chance to become a WPT Asia Online champion. The 1 Million ($156,700) prize pool was shared among the top 109 finishers, but it was "Woshuaiwoleyi89" who got their hands on their lion's share of the prize money, namely a cool 191,400 ($29,990).
Find out more about the WPT Asia Online series
Event #3: Short Deck Progressive Bounties
The third event on the WPT Asia Online schedule was the 220 ($34.50) buy-in Short Deck Progressive Bounties tournament, which saw 547 players create a 120,340 ($18,850) prize pool. When the dust had settled, only "Qzidangtou" had chips in front of them, and those chips equated to a 19,106 ($2,995) pay day.
Event #4: NLHE Progressive Bounties $500K GTD
"xixixiHao" won the second-largest prize of the festival so far courtesy of triumphing in the 1,100 buy-in Event #4: NLHE Progressive Bounties $500K GTD. Some 716 players turned out in force for the tournament and xixixiHao outlasted them all to turn their 1,100 ($172.50) investment into a much more substantial 116,135 ($18,200).
Event #5: Hyper Turbo NLHE
The fifth champion of the WPT Asia Online series so far is none other than "Xugaoxing" who took down the 220 ($34.50) buy-in Event #5: Hyper Turbo NLHE. Xugaoxing navigated their way past 643 opponents in the fast-structured tournament and walked away with 24,935 ($3,910) for their efforts.
Approximate currency conversion using xe.com on November 17, 2021
The Mini Main Event is only mini in name because some 1,496 players bought into it across the two starting flights. Day 2 concludes on November 17.
It is the 2,200 ($345.75) buy-in Main Event that everyone has their eyes on. It comes with an impressive 10 million ($1,567,000) guaranteed prize pool. Stay tuned to PokerNews to find out which Poker King players gets their hands on the Main Event title and its potentially six-figure top prize.
WPT Asia Online Main Event Schedule
The first Day 1 flight of the Main Event begins on November 16, and playing the Main Event will set you back 2,200 ($344*). In total, there are seven starting flights with Day 1e and Day 1g operating under a turbo format. Like the Mini Main Event, these starting flights will also end when the field reaches it's last 25% of players.
Day 2 takes place on November 21 and will go on until the final table. The finalists will then battle it out for the title and lion's share of the prize pool on November 22, which will be livestreamed in both English and Mandarin.
Interestingly, a player will receive a special bounty if they knock out Poker King ambassadors Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Dvoress, Steve Aoki or Lynn Gilmartin in the Main Event.
Date Time (CST) Event Nov 16 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1a Nov 17 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1b Nov 18 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1c Nov 19 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1d Nov 20 1:30 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1e - Turbo Flight Nov 20 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1f Nov 21 1:30 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 1g - Turbo Flight Nov 21 8 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 2 Nov 22 7 p.m. Event 9: Main Event Day 3
Koray Aldemir Retains Massive Lead With Three Remaining in 2021 WSOP Main Event
November 17, 2021 Yori Epskamp
After nearly seven hours of play, a final table of nine in the 2021 WSOP Main Event has been whittled down to its last three hopefuls in search of becoming poker's next world champion and $8,000,000 richer.
Koray Aldemir, who came in hot as the overwhelming chip leader and odds-on favorite, kept his distance from the pack and ended a fantastic day with 264,600,000 in chips.
Only two people are standing between Aldemir and poker's most coveted title: UK's Jack Oliver will return second in chips with 77,300,000 after a late-night surge vaulted him up the leaderboard, while the last remaining American, Atlanta, Georgia's George Holmes, rounds out the final three with 57,400,000 in chips, still a cushiony 36 big blinds to work with in the current level.
For Joshua Remitio (4th - $2,300,000), Ozgur Secilmis (5th - $1,800,000), Hye Park (6th - $1,400,000), Alejandro Lococo (7th - $1,225,000), Jareth East (8th - $1,100,000), and Chase Bianchi (9th - $1,000,000), their dream of winning the Main Event came to an end on Day 8.
2021 WSOP Main Event Chip Counts
Seat Player Chip Count Country Big Blinds 1 Koray Aldemir 264,600,000 Austria 165 2 Jack Oliver 77,300,000 United Kingdom 48 3 George Holmes 57,400,000 United States 36
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Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
Place Winner Country Prize (in USD) 1 $8,000,000 2 $4,300,000 3 $3,000,000 4 Joshua Remitio United States $2,300,000 5 Ozgur Secilmis Turkey $1,800,000 6 Hye Park United States $1,400,000 7 Alejandro Lococo Argentina $1,225,000 8 Jareth East United Kingdom $1,100,000 9 Chase Bianchi United States $1,000,000
Final table players
While play was originally scheduled to be hard-stopped with four players remaining, a late-night decision by the staff saw play briefly continue. Shortly after that decision, a big three-way all in at the end of the night nearly resulted in a double knockout and almost left the field with just two for the final day. Holding pocket queens, Aldemir over-called after Oliver originally shoved and Remitio three-bet jammed.
just setting up my twttr Biz Stone (@biz)
Oliver held the jack-nine of diamonds, while Remitio brought ace-jack to the table. Oliver ultimately rivered a backdoor flush for a massive triple up and spun it up even further by delivering the knockout blow to Remitio shortly after. The end result is three-handed play tomorrow with plenty of pepper left in every player's stack.
Jack Oliver returns second in chips for the final day.
Explosive End Proves Fitting Conclusion
The explosive end proved a fitting conclusion of a night full of thrills and frills that kicked off in high gear right off the bat. Just five hands in, Bianchi was forced to tap out after running his king-queen straight into Oliver's Big Slick. In the subsequent hand, East saw his Main Event run come to a screeching halt after his ace-jack failed to improve against Holmes' queens.
Left with just seven after a mere six hands, Aldemir grabbed the reigns and started controlling the pace of play from his lofty spot. In the first 60 hands, despite plenty of action to enjoy for the live crowd and audience of home, the final table order wasn't changed all that much. However, hand #61 changed everything. It's one of those hands that will no doubt be remembered in poker history for years to come.
Holding pocket tens, Lococo, second in chips at the time, called a three-bet from Aldemir, who held pocket nines. The jack-jack-nine flop gave Aldemir a boat and the German fired all streets, including a pot-sized shove on the river. Lococo made a very daring call with pocket tens in rather rapid fashion, but received the bad news that forced the popular rapper off the stage in seventh place.
Viewers of the PokerGO live broadcast couldn't believe what they were seeing, and the clip was later uploaded to the PokerGO YouTube channel to be enjoyed in its entirety.
If youre not currently subscribed to PokerGo, you can get a monthly subscription for $14.99, a three-month plan for $29.99, and an annual subscription for $99.99. You can also save $10 off an annual subscription by using promo code PokerNews at checkout. Click here to subscribe.
"I decided to three-bet, I can't call with nines," Aldemir said afterwards. "When it came jack-jack-nine, that's just great and I was going for value basically and hope that he has something, a jack or that he doesn't believe me and calls me down."
That's exactly what ended up happening, and with an even bigger lead, it was smooth sailing for Aldemir from there on onwards.
"I hit a lot of hands again and raised a lot, they couldn't do much about it," he said.
With Lococo out of the way, Aldemir turned it up a notch and started opening every other hand. Twenty hands after Lococo's bust, Aldemir took care of Park in a blind-on-blind confrontation with ace-queen versus pocket sevens. On Hand #113 of the night, he also sent Secilmis home after the latter's shove with king-five suited got picked off by Aldemir's nines.
Home Game Hero Holmes "Feels Awesome"
Recreational player George Holmes is on the ride of his life
Four-handed play started with Aldemir sporting a four-to-one lead to his nearest challenger Holmes, and if it wasn't for the aforementioned escape by Oliver with the jack-nine, it would've been just Aldemir vs. Holmes on the final day. Holmes, the home game hero and the proverbial David to high roller Aldemir's Goliath, kept his stack afloat throughout the day and will be back on the final day.
"I feel awesome. I just want to go get some sleep so I can start off fresh tomorrow and be in good spirits," he said directly after bagging. Holmes, who may not have the poker resume of his fellow two adversaries, had a plan coming into the day. "Just kind of survive. See if we can get to three or four handed. Thats all it was about," he explained.
"Tomorrow is going to be a little bit different from today. Theyre good, theyre aggressive. Thats the secret sauce," he added.
Aldemir could become the third German within ten years to win the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and the reality of that hasn't fully sunk in yet. He was supported by a boisterous rail, which he was part of back in 2019 when Hossein Ensan won and he praised the support by the fellow German poker players.
Aldemir, Oliver, and Holmes will be back in the air at 2 p.m. local time in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to contest for poker's most coveted prize. There's 1:45:04 left in level 39 with blinds at 800,000/1,600,000 and a big blind ante of 1,600,000.
2021 WSOP Main Event Bracelet
Make sure to check back to PokerNews on Wednesday at 2 p.m. local time as the Main Event winner gets decided!
On November 14, Yanis Varoufakis, founder and general secretary of Greeces left-wing European Realistic Disobedience Front, opined that Chinas past actions towards Vietnam were not imperialist.
Yes, China bullied Vietnam and had several bloody skirmishes wth [sic] India. But to call this imperialism is as laughable as calling Pakistan imperialist (viz repeated skirmishes with India), Varoufakis tweeted.
In response, Chen Weihua, the European bureau chief and columnist for the state-run China Daily, argued that Vietnam had bullied China.
Most people assumed only big nations bully small ones. But in the case of Vietnam in 1979, it was Vietnam which provoked multiple times (bullied China), he tweeted. That was why China decided to teach it a lesson. Chinese self restraint/tolerance is well-known until the Red Line is crossed.
It is false to claim that Vietnam bullied China, notwithstanding tensions and conflicting allegiances between the countries at the time.
Vietnam, allied with the Soviet Union, had fought with Cambodia, taking on the Chinese-friendly Khmer Rouge. China also claimed that ethnic Chinese in Vietnam were mistreated. But analysts said these factors were just a pretext for Chinas 1979 invasion, which involved an estimated 200,000 Chinese soldiers.
China and Vietnam reportedly each lost thousands of troops in the fighting, and Vietnam says tens of thousands of its civilians were killed. Estimates of the exact number of dead vary.
The Vietnamese claim China lost 62,500 in the fighting, while some Chinese sources claim the number of war dead was as low as 6,594. Some Western scholars estimate 18,000 Chinese soldiers were killed. China estimates more than 50,000 Vietnamese soldiers were killed, while Western sources put that figure at anywhere from 20,000 to 35,000.
Chinas invasion of Vietnam came in response to Vietnams invasion of Cambodia in December 1978 to depose Pol Pot, whose communist Khmer Rouge government presided over the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians over a four-year-period. The Khmer Rouge had repeatedly attacked Vietnamese territory, killing thousands.
China had provided the Khmer Rouge regime with military advisers to curb Vietnamese and Soviet influence in the region.
Vietnam saw China as a growing threat to Vietnamese interests in the region, historian James Willbanks wrote. It believed that China would reinforce the military potential of its adversary in Cambodia and might even attack Vietnam directly.
Beijing opposed Soviet support for Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Vietnam was concerned by the U.S. rapprochement with China. U.S. President Richard Nixons visit to China in 1972 laid the groundwork for the full restoration of diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979.
According to historian Walter LaFeber, Nixons outreach to China hoped to both deepen the Sino-Soviet split and bolster the U.S. position in the Vietnam War, which aimed to keep communism from spreading across South Asia.
Instead of using Vietnam to contain China, Nixon concluded that he had better use China to contain Vietnam, History.com quoted LaFeber as saying.
Vietnam only invaded Cambodia after Khmer Rouge forces repeatedly crossed into Vietnam to reinforce claims to historically disputed territories. The invading Khmer Rouge committed atrocities, including the April 1978 Ba Chuc massacre, in which thousands of Vietnamese villagers were killed.
A United Nations-backed Cambodia tribunal found Khmer Rouge leaders guilty of acts of genocide against ethnic Vietnamese and other minorities.
Rich Arant, a translator at that tribunal, noted that a Pol Pot speech that precipitated the Ba Chuc massacre and showed his genocidal intent was viewed as the final straw in the eyes of Vietnamese military veterans seeking to depose the Khmer Rogue regime.
During a visit to the United States in January 1979, Chinas Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping called Vietnam a naughty child that needed to be spanked.
Deng also accused Vietnam of occupying the Spratly Islands, a South China Sea archipelago, to justify invading Vietnam in 1979. Another Chinese pretext was Vietnams expulsion of the Hoa, people of partial or full Han Chinese ancestry.
The Hoa were disproportionately persecuted by Vietnams communists, particularly after North Vietnamese forces defeated those of South Vietnam in 1975 and the entire country came under communist rule.
Researchers noted that people of Chinese ancestry represented an outsized number of those who fled Vietnam in what became known as the boat people migration.
Citing Beijing, the Washington Post reported in 1978 that more than 133,000 ethnically Chinese people had fled into southern China from Vietnam in response to apparent widespread economic and social harassment of Chinese who refused to accept Vietnamese citizenship.
Chinas invasion of Vietnam exacerbated that exodus. An estimated 450,000 ethnic Chinese left or were expelled from Vietnam in 1978-1979.
While it can certainly be argued that ethnic Chinese people were bullied in Vietnam, that is a separate from Vietnams alleged bullying of the Peoples Republic of China.
Military historian Peter Tsouras wrote that Deng Xiaopings invasion agenda included not only making Vietnam more reasonable and showing Soviet patronage to be worthless, but also exposing inadequacies in the leadership of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army as Deng pushed for military modernization.
Other observers share that view.
While both sides claimed victory in the conflict, Chinese forces performed far worse than their battle hardened Vietnamese counterparts. China failed to secure its objectives, with outside observers saying China was roundly defeated.
The two sides would engage in a series of border and naval clashes over the next decade.
Relations would be normalized in November 1991, with hostilities brought to an end. Still, that has been an uneasy truce, especially in recent times, as China has become increasingly aggressive in staking its claims over the South China Sea.
The Center Fire Department is closely monitoring a large fire that started Monday afternoon, as it safely smolders out.
The fire, which is currently smoldering, is contained, according to the Center Fire Department. However, multiple locals have called in reports of a fire because the amount of smoke is misleading; firefighters estimate the fire is smoking over eight acres of land.
The Center Fire Department and the Monetta Fire Department responded to the hard-to-reach brush fire on Kedron Church Road around 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.
A CFD firefighter on the scene said its a pretty substantial fire, we just cant get to it.
The Aiken Standard was told the fire was about a half-mile off the main road, but it was inaccessible to firefighters.
The S.C. Forestry Commission responded and sent Wildland Fire units.
Lt. Ken Finucan with the Center Fire Department said Wildland Fire created a number of "breaks," which are circles the width of a car, cleared in the brush by a bulldozer, he explained.
"The fire will burn up until the breaks and will then lose fuel," Finucan said. There are about 1,000 smoldering piles remaining.
"A nice rain oftentimes puts everything out completely, but high winds whip things up - and what was smoldering and smoking, will now turn to small burns," Finucan said.
"They eventually will burn themselves out, but not for quite a long time," he said. The fire is estimated to smolder for the next five to seven days depending on the weather.
Finucan said the fire was likely caused by smoking.
"There was trash and debris," he said. "Somebody was probably back in there, perhaps having a party and lit a cigarette, and it wasn't put completely out."
Concerned passersby
The Center Fire Department responded back to the scene Tuesday afternoon after a good samaritan reported another fire today in the same location, thinking it was a new one.
"We expect to get more phone calls from motorists passing on the interstate, because there's a lot of smoke as you go by," Finucan said. "Over time, it will become less and less visible to a motorist, but right now it's quite a large area to be smoking."
Finucan said locals may be on high alert following a large brush fire that swept through Aiken in May 2019.
"Two years ago, we had the largest brush fire in a decade," he said. "It was a monster. We had about 15 fire departments out there at one time when it initially came in. They put smoky area signs up on the interstate, for three miles before you actually got to the location where it's started, in each direction."
However, Finucan said he doesn't think they'll have to do that for this one.
The 2019 fire, nicknamed "The Gateway Fire," was located near Interstate 20 and burned roughly 200 acres of land; around 45 homes were evacuated, according to officials with the S.C. Forestry Commission and the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.
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An Atlanta developer of industrial real estate has purchased the former Macalloy Corp. site in North Charleston with plans to take advantage of the property's proximity to the Port of Charleston's newest terminal.
Capital Development Partners bought the 135-acre parcel at 1800 Pittsburgh Ave. from Shipyard Creek Associates for $63.18 million, according to a statement.
Robert Clement III, a principal with the seller, credited the port's growth and record cargo volumes for the deal, adding "the sale never would've happened without" that.
A spokesperson for Capital Development Partners could not be reached for comment about its specific plans for the site. The firm led by John Knox Porter said on its website has built more than 100 million square feet of industrial space for online retailers, manufacturers, cold storage warehouse operators and distribution companies.
Among its most recent projects is a 2.3 million-square-foot logistics center near the Port of Savannah.
The former Macalloy smelter produced ferrochromium, a super-hard stainless steel, at its plant along the Cooper River tributary. The site closed in 1998, leaving the property contaminated with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium left behind by the company and previous tenants. That same year, state health officials closed nearby Shipyard Creek to shrimping and crabbing after finding pollution in seafood they tested.
The property was added to the Environmental Protection Agency's national priority list as a so-called Superfund site in 2000 and cleanup, which included digging about 1,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from Shipyard Creek, took place through 2006. The EPA has said the property is now suitable for commercial and industrial uses, although groundwater monitoring continues.
Shipyard Creek Associates comprised of Branch Properties and Clement, with funding from the Philadelphia-based Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds acquired the Macalloy site in 2007 for $33 million.
At the time, Clement said the group planned to develop the property to complement the local maritime industry. Since then, the port built its new Leatherman Terminal across Shipyard Creek from the site.
A rail yard serving the port expansion is planned on nearby property, where cargo containers would be loaded to and from trains operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX.
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At 9 years old, Elizabeth "Schnookie" Royall would do her homework after school in the back room of a Mount Pleasant toy store while her mother, Posie, was working.
Twenty-five years later, Royall now Darby after getting married is the owner of Wonder Works.
Company co-founder and longtime proprietor Christine Osborne recently sold the 31-year-old East Cooper store to Darby so Osborne can spend time with her aging mother and five grandchildren and travel with her husband, Wayne. She'll also be a guest lecturer for aspiring entrepreneurs at the College of Charleston.
Terms were not disclosed.
Osborne still owns the location in the Charleston City Market, but Darby will oversee its operations.
Osborne deemed the turnover "a passing of the wand" for a business she often referred to as "magical."
"It's been 'wonderfuntastical,'" she said. "That pretty much sums up the past 31 years. We did so much magic, and we developed it into such a unique toy store. ... The kids have grown up working at Wonder Works, and now they have kids. It's kind of like a legacy."
Osborne said she's leaving the business in good hands.
"Schnookie has been through everything with me," she said. "She has seen my successes and my failures, and she knows everything about the business. She has always been boots on the ground."
Darby feels "honored" and "excited" to follow in Osborne's footsteps.
"I didn't know it was my childhood dream, but I'm excited that is has become my childhood dream," said Darby, now 34 years old and a mother. "It's been in business for more than 30 years, and I want to see it around for another 30 years and see another generation of children grow up in the store."
Darby has held just about every position at the shop.
She became an official employee at age 15 and worked there through college, traveling from the University of South Carolina in Columbia on weekends and putting in hours during her summer breaks.
In 2007, she transferred to the College of Charleston and continued to work at the store. The next year Darby became assistant manager before becoming full-time manager when she graduated.
When Wonder Works expanded into the City Market in 2011, Darby opened and managed the downtown store while also managing the Mount Pleasant location. She also added head buyer to her duties along with handling staffing, hiring and training not long after.
The next year she was named chief operating officer, overseeing a variety of functions.
By 2017, she decided to try her hand at something new and joined Toy Travelers Rep Group as a sales representative in South Carolina and Georgia.
"I knew about a year into the job it was not for me," Darby said.
The next year, Osborne asked Darby to come back. Darby agreed on one condition: that Osborne sell her the business.
Osborne shook her hand and agreed. The store owner began tying up loose ends and then COVID-19 came along to delay the transaction until this year.
The business got its start in 1990 when Osborne and Dan Morrisey opened the toy shop in a 1,275-square-foot space in Northcutt Plaza off Coleman Boulevard.
"I wanted it to be about science and Dan liked telescopes," Osborne said. "But our spouses said it would be too nerdy, so we added nature with ant farms and butterflies and such. We started with no-battery toys like kites and science kits."
The shop quickly grew and added new offerings over time.
After Morrisey died in 2007, Osborne continued with the business.
By then, the shop had expanded to a second location in 1995 in St. Andrews Center in West Ashley and the East Cooper site had relocated to Belle Hall Shopping Center on Long Point Road.
After Osborne expanded to the City Market with a third shop, in 2012 she added a store at Freshfields Village at Kiawah.
Just before COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Osborne closed the West Ashley store, saying a relocation a few years earlier to a larger space doomed the shop because it was no longer fronting the passing traffic on Highway 17.
A few months later, she shuttered the Kiawah shop, citing its seasonal business in the summer and pointing to concentrating on the remaining locations in Charleston and Mount Pleasant.
COLUMBIA University of South Carolina mega-donor Lou Kennedy has resigned from the school's presidential search committee over concerns the selection will be a repeat of the controversies in 2019 that led to Bob Caslen's hiring.
Kennedy also said she plans to stop making financial contributions to the university outside of women's sports, making her the second major donor upset with the state's largest school in seven months.
Kennedy, CEO of West Columbia-based Nephron Pharmaceuticals, said the process had been going well but that seemed to change following comments made by Board Chairman Dorn Smith.
"I got a gut feeling," Kennedy said.
While I was appreciative of the opportunity to serve as an adviser to the search committee and have great respect for colleagues on it, I have developed concerns with certain trustees and their approach to the process."
When the committee was holding interviews of some 20 candidates for the university's top position last week in Atlanta, Kennedy said Smith made a comment that he considered her appointment to the search committee a "courtesy," which she felt meant input from her and others across the university community would not be taken seriously. Kennedy was on the panel as an adviser.
In a letter submitting her resignation on Nov. 15, Kennedy, who has donated more than $30 million to USC, noted Smith had apologized but wrote, "When you said that my invitation to be part of the search process was a 'courtesy,' I felt as though it diminished the priorities I brought to the table. As far as I'm concerned, that is unacceptable."
In an interview with The Post and Courier, Kennedy said, "People don't feel trustworthy about the way things are running. We must have that trust in the process but the chairman must think we should all just trust him."
Smith, who serves on the search panel, did not respond to messages left by The Post and Courier. Board Vice Chairman Thad Westbrook, who is leading the search committee, also did not respond to messages.
A statement issued by USC on behalf of the search committee did not address Kennedy's allegations: "Lou Kennedy is a devoted and loyal alumna of our university, and we regret that she has resigned from the Presidential Search Committee. The university appreciates her steadfast support of our mission."
USC is looking to overcome missteps from its last presidential search in 2019, which resulted in the hiring of Caslen, a retired Army general and West Point superintendent that was criticized as highly politicized. His hiring led to campus protests over his lack of high education experience and a sanction from accreditors based on the lobbying done by Gov. Henry McMaster.
Caslen resigned amid a plagiarism scandal in May. USC brought back former President Harris Pastides to lead the school of 52,000 students on eight campuses temporarily while the search continues.
Kennedy is the second large donor recently unhappy with their alma mater.
Lake City financier Darla Moore, USC's top donor after giving more than $75 million, was critical of Caslen and the 2019 hiring process before writing off the school after it failed to acknowledge the passing her mother in April.
Asked about Kennedy's decision, Moore said state leaders need to find a way to bring aboard independent trustees who are not tied to the legislators that elect them.
I am sorry to hear this. Theres clearly a systemic problem within the leadership of the university, Moore told The Post and Courier. There just needs to be a reevaluation of how higher education is managed in the state. What we have is not working. Our structure is antiquated and a relic of the 19th and early 20th century.
Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat who is another critic of the school's system of governance, said he will push forward with previously introduced legislation to reform the composition of the board.
"This is evidence that we're going to have the same dysfunctional process that brought us Caslen," he said. "We have a board that's more concerned with politics than with picking a qualified new president for USC. USC won't realize it's full potential until the political hacks are removed from its board."
The search panel interviewed 20 of the more than 50 applicants for president last week.
Kennedy said she cannot speculate on whether board members already have a candidate in mind for the position. She told The Post and Courier she had hoped the board would have an open search process to attract "the best and brightest," and to find a diverse candidate who reflected the makeup of the university.
"I had doubts and did not want my name attached to it if this turns out to be the same old, same old," she said.
Andy Shain contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story has been changed to correctly identify the head of the search committee, Thad Westbrook.
COLUMBIA An ongoing effort by Richland Two School District to embrace and teach concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion remains a key piece of its lesson plans, but administrators say it steers clear of critical race theory concepts that Gov. Henry McMaster has condemned and legislators have outlawed.
We teach the standards provided by the state Department of Education. We don't decide the subject matter that's taught, and we do not teach critical race theory, Helen Grant, the districts chief diversity and multicultural inclusion officer, told board trustees Nov. 16.
The 27,000-student district where 61 percent of students are Black covers suburban areas outside Columbia. Grant was hired in 2015 by Richland Two as the first to hold her post and helps develop plans that recognize students' different life experiences, known as culturally relevant teaching.
There was no confusion four years ago when we started culturally relevant teaching, Superintendent Baron Davis said Nov. 16. The confusion came in when it (critical race theory) became part of a political process. Now, its become a buzzword.
During summer preparation in July, school principals were briefed by Grant and other district leaders about how Richland Twos commitment to culturally relevant teaching differed from critical race theory: The concept that racism is built into justice systems, finances and government. Richland Two officials insist critical race theory is not part of its programming.
I have to admit some level of frustration that there's a misconception that the two are the same, Grant said.
Like 20 other states, South Carolina public schools are barred from teaching critical race theory.
A one-year budget law that took effect July 1 includes bans on teaching that one race or gender is inherently superior to another; that people are inherently racist or sexist because of their race; and that traits such as a hard work ethic were created as tools of oppression.
No parent wants their children being sent to school to be taught he's a rotten oppressor who needs to apologize for his existence, is how Renee Lucito put it during an Oct. 12 board meeting.
State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said in a June 3 letter that critical race theory has no place in South Carolina schools and classrooms. The department has no current or proposed standards that include critical race theory principles.
Grant said school leaders and teachers have been asked not to use the CRT acronym to avoid confusion between the districts culturally relevant teaching and critical race theory.
With culturally relevant teaching, Grant said Richland Two uses specific entry points as a way to connect with students in terms they understand.
As an example, if one pupil is an avid swimmer and another enjoys knitting, teachers may use descriptions from those hobbies to reinforce their lessons, Grant said.
"Cultural competency is not watering down the instruction. I've heard that over and over again," board chairwoman Teresa Holmes said Nov. 16. "It is finding different ways to show the instruction using situations and stories that relate to the students being taught."
In 2019, Richland Two became South Carolinas first public school district to implement a formal equity policy, and trustees also approved a framework that must be followed when controversial or sensitive issues are taught.
Materials must be free of bias and offer a fair representation from multiple perspectives, Grant said.
Officials recapped the summer session Nov. 16 at the request of trustee Lindsay Agostini and followed a months worth of opposition by parents to any efforts by district leaders to adopt CRT ideologies including calls to disband Grants department.
The concept that this department is needed implies that students of color are excluded from district services and that White students receive more than their share of services, Joe Trapp told board members Oct. 26.
I believe these students in our school district have an incredible amount of potential, and I do not think it's appropriate to fill their head with concepts such as victimhood and failure based on their race, he said.
COLUMBIA Daniel Rickenmann will be the next mayor of South Carolina's capital city, barring any serious challenges to what appeared to be a comfortable victory in Columbias runoff election Tuesday.
Rickenmann earned 52 percent of the vote to defeat fellow longtime Columbia city council member Tameika Isaac Devine, a Democrat attorney, in the runoff, according to unofficial results. The Republican businessman clinched his victory with a surge of late-reporting precincts that backed hm.
Rickenmann called for residents in the state's second-largest city to come together in his victory speech: This is about one Columbia. Lets get out there, work together and create a great future.
In the runoff race for Devines citywide at-large council seat, public health researcher Aditi Bussells defeated attorney Tyler Bailey by picking up 54 percent of the vote.
"I feel excited and grateful and overwhelmed by the fact that so many people decided to choose the independent advocate for all corners of Columbia," Bussells said.
In the mayor's race, the final result followed a frenzied runoff election day between council rivals in a mayors race that grew increasingly heated in the two weeks after the general election cut the field by half.
In the nonpartisan race, the state's political parties sent fliers and emails bashing the foes as the candidates themselves remained civil in debates and forums.
Racial tensions, buried for much of the race, rose to surface in comments made by both candidates in the final days of the runoff and as supporters sought to set them apart in efforts to lure voters to the polls.
Pressure started early when voters in some precincts backing Rickenmann found machines not working properly when polls opened at 7 a.m. Rickenmann held a news conference at 9:30 decrying voting problems.
After criticizing Richland County's handling of the runoff during the day, the state elections director called for a hand-counted audit of the results less than three hours before polls closed, a move roundly slammed by Democrats.
While Rickenmann vowed to protect the integrity of elections during his news conference, Richland County elections director Alexandria Stephens said none of the issues reported at the polls should have kept people from voting and were typical during local elections.
Devine encouraged people to stay in line to vote but said all of the complaints her campaign received were addressed by the county office and that at the final stage of the race, candidates shouldnt be complaining.
After all the rancor on Election Day, Devine said she called to congratulate Rickenmann after the final results were posted.
I am so proud of the race that we ran," she told supporters.
She called on her supporters to support Rickenmann as mayor, and make sure he works for and listens to everyone in the city. Now out of office, Devine said she plans to continue to be a champion for inclusivity and equity.
I think tonight it was confirmed how divided the city is by race and economic class, she said.
Rickenmann, 52, won with a consistent message about a city with clean sidewalks, safe streets and a business-friendly climate. A large part of his campaign was spent propping up a tax study commissioned by the city that he said pointed to need for reform of Columbia's property tax structure.
Hes completing his first four-year term representing District 4 east of downtown after having previously served two terms as an at-large council member through 2012.
Rickenmann says getting local people not outsiders involved made the difference for his campaign. He says his call to set priorities and have a strategic plan resonated with voters.
He joked in his victory speech about beautifying Columbia by picking up all the damn yard signs.
Rickenmann joining ally Joe Taylor, a former state commerce chief under Republican Gov. Mark Sanford who ran unopposed for Rickenmanns current seat, signals a power shift on council after more than a decade with Mayor Steve Benjamin, a Democrat, at the helm.
We need to show everyone what Columbia is and can be," Rickenmann said.
Devine, a 19-year council representative, enjoyed support from the state and federal Democratic establishment, with an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn and recorded phone messages of support from former President Barack Obama the day before the runoff.
Columbias seven-member City Council includes a mayor, two citywide at-large members and four single-member districts. The body sets policy direction for the city, carried out by professional city manager currently Teresa Wilson who oversees day-to-day operations.
With the results of this years election, four seats will have new faces when the new council is sworn in.
Attorney Tina Herbert was elected over Christa Williams to succeed longtime District 1 representative Davis. Taylor was unopposed in filling Rickenmanns seat in District 4, and Bussells will fill Devines seat for her first elected office.
Mike Fitts and Jessica Holdman contributed.
Gov. Henry McMaster launched an attack Wednesday on a book that had already been removed from the school library where a parent objected. File photos
South Carolina bus drivers are leaving their jobs because they are caught in the middle of a political fight over mask-enforcement policies.
A Post and Courier survey of 36 school districts found that in some districts more than a third of bus driver positions sit vacant.
The dispute over mask enforcement is happening because the S.C. Department of Education and school districts issued different rules for how school bus drivers should deal with unmasked students.
At the end of August, as the highly contagious delta variant was tearing through the state, Superintendent Molly Spearman mandated masks on state-owned school buses. But many districts told their drivers that they were not allowed to deny unmasked students rides.
Districts told their drivers that it was now their responsibility to monitor up to 77 students while driving a bus that stretched about 40 feet long.
This added to the concerns bus drivers already had of catching the virus from one of the unmasked students on their buses.
The average age of a bus driver is 52.3 years old, according to data compiled by Data USA, a partnership between Deloitte, Datawheel, and a professor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. This means many bus drivers are at high risk of getting severe COVID-19 symptoms if they catch the virus.
Some South Carolina drivers are putting their health on the line for $10.48 an hour.
Brenda Sumpter came out of retirement to work as a bus driver's aide for Berkeley County School District this year. Before she retired, she spent more than 33 years working as a bus driver. She started her job at Berkeley County in mid-August before Spearmans mask mandate was issued, but her story illustrated what bus drivers are facing.
On her first day helping transport students to school, she looked around at the bus seats filled with a mix of masked and unmasked students and felt devastated. She was not vaccinated, but got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine three days after she saw how many students were not wearing masks because she was worried about bringing the virus home to her husband.
Within hours of getting her first dose of the vaccine, the Berkeley district informed her that one of the students on her bus tested positive for COVID-19.
Over the next week, Sumpter started experiencing waves of dizziness and coughing fits. She tested positive for the virus and spent almost seven days at Moncks Corner Medical Center. When she was discharged, she was sent home with an oxygen tank.
She believes she caught the virus working on school buses where children were unmasked.
In an emailed statement, Berkeley County schools spokeswoman Katie Tanner said that there was not a record of Sumpter being identified as in close contact by the school district or being required to quarantine. She also reiterated that, at the time, the Education Department did not require masking on its school buses.
Uneven mandate rollout
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has mandated masks on all forms of public transportation, including school buses, since late January. Over the summer, as the number of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina dropped, the Education Department broke away from the federal agency and said that masks are no longer required on school buses.
This changed as the delta virus spread through the state over the first weeks of school. During the first seven weeks of classes, at least 15 districts and 233 schools went virtual, and a minimum 156,169 students had to learn remotely, according to a Post and Courier analysis of Education Department data.
On Aug. 26, Spearman said the state would start reinforcing the CDCs order, meaning that masks would again be required on state-owned school buses. The state owns most of the school buses in South Carolina with the exception of ones in districts that chose to do business with a private contractor or bought using local funds.
When Spearman issued her mandate, she said that students could not be denied transportation if they did not wear masks. Education Department spokesman Ryan Brown said that districts had questions about what disciplinary measures they were allowed to use if a student showed up without a mask, so the state agency updated the mandate the next day.
The updated mandate no longer required districts to offer transportation to unmasked students. Instead, it said that districts should discipline these students, and were allowed to suspend the students from riding the bus as long as no student was put in an unsafe situation for not wearing a face mask.
District officials still felt like they were put in a tight spot.
No, we dont leave a child unattended because they dont have a mask on, said Bill Kurts, the head of transportation for Lexington School District One.
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Three districts Anderson School District Two, Kershaw School District, and Lexington/Richland School District Five do not allow their drivers to discipline students in any manner for not wearing masks.
Billy Smith, the chief operating officer for Kershaw School District, said that he is aware of the federal and states mask policies but that his district has chosen not to enforce them.
Our drivers cant be the mask police, he said.
When asked about these districts, Brown said that they were not following the guidance the S.C. Department of Education issued in accordance with the CDC federal order.
But bus drivers in districts that do allow them to report students feel like disciplinary measures have no weight behind them. They are frustrated because they feel like their complaints about unmasked students are ignored by schools, and think that their authority is being diminished during a time when they are being burdened with more responsibilities.
A dress code violation
Bus drivers are being asked to go above and beyond their typical duties because of the driver shortages.
Many bus drivers are having to drive multiple routes, some of which they have never driven before with students they have never met. The shortages also mean that a lot of buses are packed with as many as three students to a seat, meaning bus drivers control vehicles filled with up to 77 children.
But the extra routes and crowded buses aren't drivers' main problem. They are expected to ensure that students wear masks on their buses without being able to carry out any real punishment for students who show up without face coverings.
Almost all S.C. school districts decided that disciplining unmasked children is a schools responsibility, and schools typically see students refusing to wear masks on a bus as a dress-code violation rather than a violation of a mandate issued by one of the state's top agencies.
Most of the time, what happens if a bus driver reports an unmasked student is this: The schools administration sits down with the student and encourages them to wear a mask. If the reports continue, then the school reaches out to the students parents and asks them to encourage their child to wear a mask or to transport their child to school themselves.
If the student still refuses to wear a mask, then their bus privileges are suspended for a couple of days. Sometimes, it takes several reports for the first step of this process to occur.
The Post and Courier found that students lost bus privileges in less than a third of schools surveyed.
Bus drivers said this lack of authority is one of their main frustrations working during the pandemic. Some are getting so disheartened that they have given up reporting students who don't wear masks. Others are simply quitting or retiring early. The state is short approximately 750 or 14 percent of its drivers, according to the Education Department.
Even though COVID-19 cases in the state are dropping, drivers don't see their responsibilities easing up anytime soon.
In Berkeley County School District, where Sumpter used to work, more than two dozen bus drivers and driver's aides stopped working the morning of Nov. 12 after they drove children to school. Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, who is advocating for the bus drivers, said that the drivers tried to speak to their supervisors about how they felt they were not supported by the district when it came to disciplining students. They felt like their referrals didn't go anywhere.
"Discipline is not happening in a timely enough manner," East said.
These drivers' complaints go beyond students simply not wearing masks. East said that some drivers reported that students were threatening them with physical violence.
After the bus drivers told the district they did not plan on driving the afternoon route on Nov. 12, the district suspended them for three days without pay, according to East.
Brown, the Education Department spokesman, said there is not a timeline on when the agencys mask requirement will end and mentioned that they are following CDC's guidance.
He added that driving a bus is a difficult job thats been made more difficult by COVID.
More coverage To read more in-depth stories from The Post and Courier's Education Lab, go to postandcourier.com/education-lab.
Unfortunately, everyone in the education system, all staff and support staff, have to take on a larger role that they never dreamed of having to do before, he said.
But there are ways to help drivers out. Some districts are taking aggressive measures to fix the staffing issue. They are offering bus drivers monetary incentives to sign up or to continue working for the district.
Aiken County School District just announced a $1,000 recruitment bonus for drivers and a retention bonus of up to $2,000. Williamsburg County School District increased its annual bonus from $200 to $2,000.
Beaufort County launched a digital campaign to recruit more drivers, and Sumter is offering drivers an extra three hours of work a day. Horry County School District held two job fairs over the summer and is offering bus drivers up to $3,000 a year in bonuses.
Brandon Alter covers the town of Kingstree and Williamsburg County for The Kingstree News. He is from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He graduated from the University of South Carolina's school of Journalism and Mass Communications in May 2021.
Kingstree, SC (29556)
Today
Cloudy with light rain early...then becoming partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..
Tonight
Cloudy with light rain early...then becoming partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
JOHNS ISLAND The Charleston County Sheriff's Office is investigating a "suspicious" fire that occurred at a gas station early Nov. 17.
A sheriff's deputy discovered that the Circle K at 503 Main Road was on fire around 3:30 a.m., according to sheriff's spokesman Andrew Knapp.
Crews from St. Johns Fire District and additional deputies were dispatched, Knapp said. The store was closed at the time and no one was injured.
"An initial investigation by detectives indicates that the fire is suspicious," Knapp said. "There was evidence inside the store of thefts and attempted thefts."
St. John's Fire District said in a Facebook post that fire was "venting" from the gas station when crews arrived. Firefighters remained at the scene into the early afternoon.
NORTH CHARLESTON State authorities are investigating another death at the Charleston County jail after a 36-year-old Goose Creek man died shortly after being booked on Nov. 15.
Durell Butler was pronounced dead about 2 a.m. at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center, according to Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo ONeal.
The cause and manner of death are pending further testing, the coroner said.
Charleston County Sheriff's Office spokesman Andrew Knapp said Butler suffered an apparent medical episode in the processing area of the detention center an hour after he was booked into the facility.
Butler was booked shortly before midnight after he was arrested by North Charleston police officers on two counts of possession of less than a gram of cocaine or methamphetamine, according to jail records.
Knapp said a detention deputy alerted medical personnel, but the inmate became unresponsive. Jail staff and first responders could not resuscitate Butler, who was declared dead at the scene, Knapp said.
The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the death.
Knapp said it was customary for SLED to investigate deaths at the facility. The sheriff's office also will conduct an investigation to determine whether deputies followed the jail's policies and procedures, he said.
Butler was previously booked into the jail in July 2020 on two charges of manufacturing or distributing methamphetamine, a first offense. He was also arrested in 2018 and 2019 on drug charges, jail records state.
The outcome of those cases was unclear.
Butler's sister, Bernita, declined to comment on his death Nov. 16, stating that the family did not know what happened at the jail.
There have been other deaths at the jail this year. In October, Amanda Sue Alvarez, 40, died at the jail. Her death remains under investigation.
And in January, Jamal Sutherland, 31, died after refusing to attend a bond hearing and being shocked, doused with pepper spray and battered by deputies, at points shouting that he could not breathe. The deputies were fired, but no charges were filed in the death of Sutherland, who, like Butler, was Black.
The sheriff's office, Charleston County and North Charleston, whose police arrested the schizophrenic man at a mental health facility, settled with Sutherland's family for $10 million. The family is suing Palmetto Behavioral Health, which summoned police due to a fight.
MONCKS CORNER Town Council has approved the use of federal COVID-19 relief funds to support its employees.
Through the American Rescue Plan Act, Moncks Corner is slated to receive nearly $6 million. Congress passed the near $1.9 trillion bill in March as a way to help with the health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the bill, states are receiving funding to support nonentitlement units of local government. These are local governments with populations under 50,000.
While over the years Moncks Corner has grown, the town's population is below 15,000.
At a Nov. 16 Town Council meeting, members voted and approved a resolution to use around $300,000 in its COVID-19 relief funds to support its essential workers with a one-time payment of $2,000 each.
"This is really, really good news," Jeff Lord, town administrator, said during the meeting.
Moncks Corner is following the U.S. Treasury Department's definition of an essential worker as workers who have been and continue to be relied on to maintain a continuity of operations of critical infrastructure sectors."
The payments will specifically go to Moncks Corner government employees who could not perform their jobs remotely from home.
In order to qualify for the payment, individuals have to be full-time employees with Moncks Corner town government who work an average of 40 hours per week.
If part-time, they have to work 20 to 30 hours a week. Elected officials and part-time employees who work less than 20 hours are excluded from receiving the payment.
Officials are still discussing uses for the remainder of the funds.
The town is mapping out how to use the funding to support ongoing infrastructure projects around Jolly Lane, Whitesville Road and a local stream called the California Branch.
Following routine flooding and concerns from residents, the town completed an engineering study on the California Branch. The study highlighted flood-mitigation improvement needs around Jolly Lane and Whitesville Road.
Some of the work includes increasing the size of pipes along the roads. The ultimate goal is to get the California Branch on the right track and avoid routine overflow.
"And it's working," said Moncks Corner Mayor Michael Lockliear.
Though funds from the American Rescue Plan are also an opportunity to help pay for broadband access, officials said in a Nov. 16 workshop that broadband access isn't an issue in town.
According to Molly Willard, a town spokeswoman, Moncks Corner is expected to receive half of the COVID relief funds this year and the other half next year.
The Berkeley County School District is slated to receive $72 million in COVID relief funds. Berkeley County will be allocated more than $44 million.
An inmate was convicted Nov. 16 on charges stemming from a violent 2018 prison attack. It was the first federal criminal jury trial in Charleston since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
George Hall, a federal inmate at Estill Federal Correctional Institution in Hampton, was found guilty of two counts: assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to cause injury and assault resulting in serious injuries.
Hall, 50, attacked another inmate on Feb. 6, 2018, using a weapon constructed from a belt and a metal combination lock, acting U.S. Attorney M. Rhett DeHarts office said. Hall repeatedly struck the other inmate in the head and face with the weapon.
The victim was able to flee and was found bleeding in his cell by prison workers who were following a trail of blood from the scene. The inmate had temporary hearing loss and permanent scarring.
Video footage of the attack presented in court showed the victim never struck Hall nor fought back. During the trial, the inmate said he had never spoken to Hall before he was assaulted.
At the time of the attack, Hall was serving a 25-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of a U.S. Postal Service carrier in Florida in 1993.
His trial took less than an hour, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. The federal jury trial involved physical distancing among all in-person members.
Hall will be sentenced at a later date. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal prison system.
A surgical team at NYU Langone Health hospital in New York examines a pig kidney attached to the body of a deceased recipient for any signs of rejection. From left are Drs. Zoe A. Stewart-Lewis, Robert A. Montgomery, Bonnie E. Lonze and Jeffrey Stern. The test was a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. NYU Langone Health via AP
SPARTANBURG Agape Care Group plans to move its corporate headquarters to the Montgomery Building in downtown Spartanburg by May 1.
The company provides hospice and palliative care in South Carolina and Georgia with more than 2,100 patients. Over the past three years, Agape Group has outgrown its headquarters in Landrum. The Montgomery Building was identified as its best choice for a new location.
"We have grown tremendously over the past three years, tripling the size of our organization in both employees and in terms of patient count," Agape Care Group CEO Troy Yarborough told The Post and Courier. "That has necessitated the need for growth with our corporate headquarters.'
The company will lease 13,027 square feet on the second floor of the Montgomery Building at 187 N. Church St. The building reopened in December 2018 after being restored. Agape Care will bring 76 jobs to the new headquarters, including 33 knowledge-based jobs and 43 skilled clerical positions. Yarborough said the space provides opportunity to add more jobs in the future.
"It gives us the ability to build out a professional, modern workspace that will be a huge recruiting tool as we bring individuals from across the United States in the Spartanburg area seeking employment," Yarborough said.
The company employs just over 1,000 employees in South Carolina and Georgia. Yarborough said locations in Greenville, Columbia and Georgia were considered for the company's new headquarters but it was decided that Spartanburg best served the company's needs.
City Manager Chris Story said Agape Group's decision will help boost downtown's growing economy.
"The decision by Agape Care to bring its headquarters to the Montgomery Building represents a tremendous vote of confidence in the trajectory of downtown," Story said. "Their investment in our city and the jobs that investment will bring will have a ripple effect that reaches throughout our community, adding to Spartanburg's increasing vibrancy and momentum."
OneSpartanburg and the City of Spartanburg worked to provide local incentives to Agape Care Group to move its headquarters to the city. Naomi Sargent, OneSpartanburg Vice President of Strategic Communications, said work continues to diversify Spartanburg's economy.
"For us, what is really exciting about this is the ability to not only retain that company and those knowledge-based jobs, and such a growing company here in Spartanburg County, but bring those jobs into our downtown fold as we look to diversify Spartanburg's economic development base," Sargent said. "Companies like Agape are critical to that."
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Why is it that we Americans seem to need a war to be happy? Its not that we start the wars exactly, but we embrace them with a strange fervor Read more
Operation Iron Island is in full gear, testing part of a system intended to help defend the island and the Indo-Pacific region, according to U.S. military officials.
"Indo-Pacific covers about 51% of the globe, quite a few of the competitors we are interested in are out here, obviously China, North Korea (and) some nonstate actors," said Capt. Nicholas Chopp of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command.
The Guam Daily Post was not given a yes or no response on whether this makes Guam more of a target for foreign adversaries. Chopp did say the Department of Defense and the Army are investing in capabilities to increase readiness and strengthen partnerships and alliances.
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The command is overseeing the temporary, experimental deployment of one of the Army's Iron Dome defense systems to Andersen Air Force Base.
Military officials provided Guam and national media a tour of the defense systems.
Guam was selected for deployment of the Iron Dome as part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which required the Army to deploy it to an operational theater by the end of 2022. Guam was selected based on its location in the Indo-Pacific.
"We also already have a great working relationship here on Guam with the people of Guam, with the Navy, the Air Force, which makes it a great environment," Chopp said. "Plus, Guam is very indicative of the climate that we look at in the Indo-Pacific, whether or not that's nearby like Palau or Saipan, or anywhere else in the region."
All-weather system
The Iron Dome is a system that counters attacks from rockets, artillery and mortars. It is also capable of engaging short-range cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.
This deployment allows personnel to verify its capabilities as an all-weather system, which it has proven to be after initial testing, Chopp said.
This is the first time the Department of Defense has deployed the Iron Dome outside of the continental U.S. It arrived on island in mid-October. At this time there is no plan to deploy the system permanently, unlike the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which has been on island since 2015 because of its anti-ballistic missile capabilities.
"As threats have changed, THAAD has been able to maintain it capabilities, and as we look forward into the future we are modernizing the ground-based air defense systems. Not just THAAD, but as a whole, to be able to account for changes," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Caroline Surprenant.
The intent of the Iron Dome's deployment is to fulfill the requirements of the 2019 NDAA and gather deployment and sustainability information for future exercises and operations.
Surprenant, a senior air defense artillery fire control officer and THAAD planner, spoke about some of the integration between the Iron Dome and THAAD systems.
"One of our key requirements is to make sure our systems are interoperable so, make sure they communicate with each other. It's one of the things that makes the ground-based air-defense systems a strong force," Surprenant said.
Chopp said there has been quite a bit of recent testing between the Patriot air-defense system and THAAD. Although Patriot is not deployed to Guam at this time, it was on island for an exercise five years ago. The closest Patriot unit is based in Okinawa.
The Patriot system is capable of intercepting unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft, and both cruise and ballistic missiles. THAAD is capable of intercepting short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
According to military officials, while Patriot and THAAD can intercept cruise missiles, the Iron Dome is a more cost-effective counter to low-end threats.
According to an annual report from the DOD, Guam is within striking distance of China's current military capabilities.
Post files state this release coincided with a recent unclassified security briefing on threats in the Indo-Pacific region given by the U.S. military to local senators and mayors. Sen. Telo Taitague voiced concerns that the island's defensive capabilities could be "insufficient" to counteract an air assault.
Military officials disagree.
"THAAD by itself, you could make that argument. However you also have to look at the joint force we are not the only air-defense team in town. The Navy Aegis destroyers that we work with routinely, so live fire that we did out in Hawaii, was actually targeted using Navy destroyer radar data," Chopp said.
"It's also important to note that there's more systems than the ground-based air-defense arsenal," Surprenant said. "You talk about THAAD and concern that there may not be an ability to keep with that pacing threat. I would argue that our ground-based air-defense systems talking about layered defense that's one of the reasons we have layered defense, because they work well together."
Military officials spoke of being proactive in pacing and maintaining the right capabilities and operational concepts to meet security commitments in the Indo-Pacific.
"When senior leaders say we need to put more emphasis on Guam, it's not just Guam, this is why we need to modernize our efforts and not be left in the dust," Surprenant said.
"When you look at THAAD and the Aegis destroyers assigned to Guam, it is a good defense. The question moving forward, is it good enough? I wouldn't say this is horrible or awful, it's just so we have enough moving forward in this era of competition that we are in."
The Iron Dome's deployment to Guam will end in mid-December.
President Biden went up to New Hampshire yesterday to celebrate the enactment of his trillion-dollar infrastructure monstrosity. Yes, some dare call it infrastructure, Biden among them. In the video clip below, Biden explains the merits of the bill with a hypothetical example. Would a Biden in full possession of his faculties have made quite such a fool of himself.
Probably. Self-awareness has never been one of his strong points. What are his strong points? In the words of the old Jack Benny joke, Im thinking it over. Maybe lack of self-awareness is his strong point.
UPDATE: James Freeman analyzes the bills funding for bridge repair in his Best of the Web column Biden at the bridge.
The new (Fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books is now online and in the mail. I just received the galley on Monday and am in the process of picking out essays and reviews to feature on Power Line, as usual. To kick things off, I have the exchange published in the issue under the rubric of The Disputed Question. The question is the soundness of John Eastmans memo(s) on the role of the vice president in certifying the Electoral College vote.
Advising President Trump, Eastman and his memos played a role in the events leading to the events of January 6. Constitutional scholar Joseph Bessette reconstructs the role of the memo(s) and thoroughly examines the merits of Eastmans analysis in A critique of the Eastman memos. Eastman himself responds in Constitutional statesmanship. I submit The Disputed Question to interested readers.
Johns memo(s) are not the end of the story concerning his role in the events of January 6. It should be noted that John was also a part of the show warming up the crowd for President Trump at the rally that day. John spoke following Rudy Giuliani. His remarks appear at about 2:25:00 of the C-SPAN video of the rally.
In his brief speech, John demand[ed Vice President] Pence to do something other than announce the result of the Electoral College vote. Pence was to defer announcement of the Electoral College vote and let the legislatures of the states look into this [vote fraud] so we get to the bottom of it John told the crowd, We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we cant get the answer to this question In his conclusion John stated, apparently referring to Pence, Anybody not willing to stand up and do it does not deserve to be in the office. Its that simple.
John also appears in the October 29 Washington Post story on the riot later that afternoon. The Post story reports:
As Vice President Mike Pence hid from a marauding mob during the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, an attorney for President Donald Trump emailed a top Pence aide to say that Pence had caused the violence by refusing to block certification of Trumps election loss. The attorney, John C. Eastman, also continued to press for Pence to act even after Trumps supporters had trampled through the Capitol an attack the Pence aide, Greg Jacob, had described as a siege in their email exchange. The siege is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened, Eastman wrote to Jacob, referring to Trumps claims of voter fraud. Eastman sent the email as Pence, who had been presiding in the Senate, was under guard with Jacob and other advisers in a secure area. Rioters were tearing through the Capitol complex, some of them calling for Pence to be executed.
When I sought to confirm the accuracy of the Post account, John Eastman wanted it to be understood that Pence general counsel Greg Jacob had accused John of inciting the riot because of his bullshit legal theories. John responded that if they had sent things back to the legislatures as I had recommended, maybe we wouldnt be in this situation. Both of us were angry and intemperate. He subsequently apologized for his language. I do not understand John to dispute the Post account.
Readers are invited to make up their own minds on the merits of Johns analysis. Institute chairman Tom Klingenstein and president Ryan Williams have posted a statement Against censorship and misrepresentation dated October 11. Given Johns role in the events of January 6 and his affiliation with the Claremont Institute, however, I think it is incumbent on the institute to say more (as I have told Tom Klingenstein directly). My own view is that Vice President Pence conducted himself with courage and honor on January 6, fulfilling his duty as he saw it and set it forth in his Dear Colleague letter of that date.
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple has a good column on the FBI raid on James OKeefe and the seizure of his cell phones in the matter of Ashley Bidens diary. Wemples column is Did the Justice Department overreach in raiding James OKeefes home? Wemples column provides a careful account of the facts as we have been given to understand them so far (links omitted):
Before the 2020 election, a conservative website called the National File published pages of an item purporting to be Ashley Bidens diary. The Trump administrations Justice Department launched an investigation, according to the Times, after a Biden family representative claimed that some of Ashley Bidens items had been stolen. On Nov. 5, the Times reported that federal agents had searched two locations in an operation that targeted people who had worked with Project Veritas in connection with the diary; OKeefe disclosed that his group had received a grand jury subpoena. Next came the raid at OKeefes home, where agents seized two of his phones.
Project Veritas has told its version of events first in a Nov. 5 video, then in a Sean Hannity interview with OKeefe and his lawyer Paul Calli, and finally in a 16-page motion to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres. In 2020, according to the filing, two tipsters contacted Project Veritas and claimed to have obtained items that Ashley Biden had allegedly left behind in a Florida location. The source claimed that it had lawful possession of the material, Calli said on Hannity, with OKeefe noting that his group didnt know whether it was stolen or not.
Project Veritas purchased the rights to the diary, according to Calli. Then the organization made efforts to authenticate the diary, OKeefe said in the video. But it ended up killing the story, because, in part, we could not determine if the diary was real, OKeefe said.
The group tried to return the diary to a lawyer for Ashley Biden, said OKeefe, but the lawyer declined to verify her ownership. So Project Veritas arranged to have the item delivered to law enforcement. Despite an internal belief that the diary was genuine, Mr. OKeefe and Project Veritas could not sufficiently satisfy themselves with the diarys authenticity such that publishing a news story about it would meet ethical standards of journalism, Project Veritas wrote in its filing.
As to how National File ended up with the diary: It claimed to have received the diary from a whistleblower at another news organization that had chosen not to report on the diary, alleges the Project Veritas motion. Tom Pappert, National Files editor in chief, said that his organization heard from an individual he identified as a whistleblower at Project Veritas who was upset by the decision to spike a story that had been thoroughly vetted, in the words of our whistleblower. That vetting, claims Pappert, included a phone call that Project Veritas had taped with Ashley Biden in which she confirmed that the diary was hers. (Attempts to secure comment from a Biden family representative were unsuccessful.)
Shortly before National File published the purported diary pages, it called OKeefe to ask for the recording of that call, according to Pappert. Asked how OKeefe responded, Pappert said, not happily. Nothing that National File learned from the whistleblower, said Pappert, could be construed as criminality on part of Project Veritas.
Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer for Project Veritas, emailed, Project Veritas does not know how National File obtained the materials it published. Project Veritas does not employ the person National File has publicly suggested is the whistleblower. (Pappert maintains his organization hasnt suggested the identity of the whistleblower.)
The movement to defeat race-obsessed left-wing school board members is a worthy one. It can be expected to improve public school education. However, there are limits to what even a conservative school board can do to limit woke instruction in the classroom.
At the end of the day, education will always be in the hands of teachers. And public school teachers will always be leftists compared to the population in the area. Even in conservative parts of the country, many public school teachers are leftists, and just comparatively.
Thats why private schools and home schooling have an important role to play in preventing leftist indoctrination at the K-12 levels. Ideology apart, they also have an important role to play in ensuring quality education at these levels.
The pandemic drove down public school enrollment. This may be the only good thing about it along with the fact that, with students at home, many parents got an eye-opening look at what their kids are being taught.
The Washington, D.C. area experienced student-body declines of between 2 and 5 percent in the 2020-21 school year. With millions of dollars in funding at stake, school officials vowed to re-enroll students and attract new families, according to the Washington Post.
But, says the Post, these efforts have been unavailing. In D.C. itself, preliminary numbers show that public school enrollment in the growing city increased only slightly. It lags below projections and below the levels seen before the pandemic.
In Northern Virginia, enrollment fell again this year in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginias largest district, and in Alexandria City Public Schools. Enrollment in Loudoun County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools rose ever so slightly, as the Post puts it.
In the Maryland suburbs, official enrollment numbers are not yet in. However, preliminary figures show that the states two largest school systems those in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties have not rebounded from the significant reductions suffered last year. In fact, if Im reading the Posts report correctly, its estimated that enrollment in Prince Georges County schools is down more than 2 percent from last year.
The Posts article treats low enrollment as a funding issue. For the reasons stated at the beginning of this post, I view it primarily as an education issue. The less enrollment in public schools, the better educated Americans are likely to be.
And enrollment may not have bottomed out. The decline in enrollment during the past two years is mostly due to the way public schools responded to the pandemic coupled, I imagine, with contempt for teachers unions.
These sentiments will linger. But on top of them, we now have growing ideological disenchantment with the instruction at many public schools and growing disgust with the way local school boards respond to parent complaints about that instruction.
Long may this continue.
The Washington Post is doing a little house cleaning in the form of correcting two stories, one from 2017 and the other from 2019, that peddled false allegations against then-President Trump regarding the fabricated Steele dossier. The New York Times may follow suit.
But Roger Simon poses this excellent question: When will the Post and the Times return their 2018 Pulitzer prizes for their reporting of the false Russia collusion story?
The Pulitzer committee described the basis for these awards this way:
For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nations understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elects transition team and his eventual administration.
This description of what the Post and Times were up to was clearly rubbish at the time of the announcement. In light of what we now know, I agree with Roger that it reads like something from the Babylon Bee.
I also like Rogers assessment of what (aside from the prospect of winning a Pulitzer for defaming a president the media despised) motivated the Post and Times reporters to push their false narrative about the Russia-Trump relationship:
[T]o what degree [did] these people knew they were lying at the time? Were they merely victims of extreme Trump Derangement Syndrome? Did they believe the ends, in this instance, justify the means? They allowed themselves to be conduits for lies. Did they ask serious questions? Informants, almost always anonymous, were telling them things. (Collecting those anonymous informants has been the stock and trade of establishment journalists since Watergate.) The most obvious conclusion is they wanted to believe the lies they were hearing, so they did not question them. To be blunt, they were lousy reporters and remain so because. most of them, all to my knowledge on the linked [Pulitzer] list, have not publicly acknowledged their faults.
As soon as I read the headline of Rogers piece, I knew that, in answering his question about returning the Pulitzer prize, he would remind us of Walter Duranty. Roger did not disappoint.
Duranty, the papers Moscow correspondent in the twenties and thirties, received the prize in 1932 for articles submitted by the Times. In his reporting, Duranty denied the existence of, therefore excusing and encouraging, the widespread Ukrainian famine largely instigated by Stalin, the Holodomor that left a million or more people starving to death (estimates vary). He also white-washed Stalins behavior in general. As Duranty put it, You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
(Emphasis added)
Has the Times returned the Pulitzer for Durantys sickening work? It has not.
Despite multiple efforts, including one by Bill Keller when he was executive editor of the paper (2003-2011)he was overruled by the ownersthe Times has not returned the Pulitzer won by their reporter you could call the Father of Fake News, Walter Duranty. . . . Durantys photograph still appears on a wall at the Times along with their many other Pulitzer winners.
So no, the Times wont return its Pulitzer. Neither will the Post. Both propaganda organs are proud of their role in unjustly causing hardship for a president they hate. Both will limit themselves to a little bit of housecleaning removing the shells of eggs they used to concoct their fake-news, anti-Trump omelet.
Naira maintained stability against the U.S. dollar at the official market on Tuesday, extending the currencys stable run to three days on a stretch at the spot market.
FMDQ securities exchange windows where forex is officially traded showed that the local unit closed at N415.10 to a dollar again at the close of business Tuesday, the same rate the currency had traded in the past three sessions simultaneously.
Naira reached an intraday high of N404.00 and a low of N444.00 before closing at N415.10 to a dollar again on Tuesday.
Foreign exchange turnover depreciated by 54.81 per cent with $62.53 million recorded at the spot market segment against the $138.37 million posted at the close of business on Monday.
At the black market in Uyo, dealers said they exchanged the currency at N539.00 to a dollar in the morning, but later crashed to N530.00 per $1 at the close of business Tuesday.
We are not smiling at all, I am losing money seriously, a dealer who asked not to be mentioned told PREMIUM TIMES.
In Abuja, dealers said they exchanged the domestic unit again at N540.00 to a dollar, and sold at N545.00.The same rate it traded in the previous session on Monday.
The rate did not go up or down, it remained the same throughout the days business, a dealer who identified himself as Mubi at Zone 4 Bureau De Change wing in Abuja told PREMIUM TIMES.
The Nigerian Navy spokesperson, Suleiman Dahun, has clarified that popular comedian, Ahmed Gafar, popularly known as Cute Abiola, who was declared missing, is in naval custody.
The Instagram comedian, who is also naval personnel, was declared missing by his colleague, Mr Macaroni, on Monday.
Mr Macaroni shared the news on his official Twitter account and attached a series of WhatsApp messages he received as evidence.
The news sparked several reactions from Cute Abiolas wife, colleagues, fans, and concerned Nigerians.
Reason for arrest
Mr Dahun, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, on Wednesday, said Cute Abiola violated the Armed Forces Social Media Policy.
He said the policy specifies the dos and donts of personnel as well as salient regulations with regards to their usage of social media on issues of official concerns.
Mr Dahun also said that Cute Abiola was summoned by his superiors from his leave to explain himself but he called their bluff and exhausted the period of his leave.
Cute Abiola resumed and reported to his office on Monday where he was arrested and is currently awaiting trial, he said.
Shortly after the conversation with this newspaper, the navy spokesman issued a statement debunking trending speculations and acknowledging that Cute Abiola is in their custody.
It read: The attention of the Nigerian Navy, has been drawn to an online news story which claims that naval personnel, OSCOMP Abdugafar A, who incidentally is a popular comedian known as Cute Abiola, has gone missing.
The Nigeria Army wishes to debunk the false news report currently trending online. OSCOMP Abdugafar is currently under custody in his unit for breaching the Armed forces social media policy and refusal to obey a particular order.
The Nigerian Navy wishes to avail itself of this incident to remind its personnel to comply with provisions of the Armed forces social media policy in their usage of social media platforms. The policy, amongst others, is emplaced to protect the integrity of activities of the armed forces.
This is not the first time the Instagram comedian would be arrested for violating the Nigerian Armed Forces Social Media Policy.
He was arrested in 2020 after his birthday pictures in a naval uniform went viral. He was later released on May 4, 2020.
Some people believe that his latest arrest and detention may not be unconnected to a recent Instagram post he made on Sunday.
He posted a video of himself clad in military uniform and wielding a gun. It was one of his scenes in Funke Akindeles comedy-drama, Jenifas Diary. The funny man appears in the new season of the popular drama series.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CWQedFHD9gM/?utm_medium=copy_link
Armed Forces Social Media Policy
The Nigerian Armed Forces Social Media Policy, is embedded in the Armed Forces Act of 2017.
The law gives guidelines for use of Social Media by military personnel including the extent to which members of their families are allowed to use social media.
Personnel should not post their pictures or those of their colleagues in military uniforms, or pictures containing military structures, platforms and other military-related items, one of the slew of cautions in the guidelines reads.
It also states that military personnel were also required to warn their family members against controversial conduct on social media.
Personnel will be held liable for any security issues arising from postings in respect of them by civilian friends or relations. They are, therefore, to educate their friends and relations as necessary regarding military security and what should not be posted on social media, the guideline reads.
Finally, the policy stipulated actions on Social Media that are regarded as offences and punishment to be meted out.
Worrisome WhatsApp message
The Whatsapp message which was published by Mr Macaroni that set the social media agog, indicated that the comedian, who is an Ulcer patient, has been arrested since Monday.
It read: Ahmed Gafar is popularly known as The Cute Abiola left his house for office at Navy Town at 06:00 Am on the 15th November 2021 and got to the office at about 07:00 am or thereafter. While he got to the office, he called his wife and associates that he had gotten to the office.
Subsequently, his wife and other associates have made several attempts to contact him but to no avail. Since he last communicated with his wife and associates that he already got to the office, he has not returned to his family and no one has heard from him till this moment.
It was subsequently gathered from a reliable source that he has been locked up in the Nigerian Navy cell since he got to the office yesterday morning till the time of posting this information without being fed and no date has been stated for his release from custody.
The most frustrating part is that nobody is saying anything as to the offence he has committed, but that hes been detained on an order from the Nigerian Navy Headquarters.
This unfortunate situation has rendered his wife emotionally tortured and traumatized as The Cute Abiola is an Ulcer patient. Hence, not feeding an Ulcer patient as punishment for an undisclosed offence is something to be worried about to avoid unnecessary circumstances with regards to the health of The Cute Abiola.
Cute Abiola became a household name in 2015 and has featured in several comedy skits and movies.
By the resounding victory it gave Charles Soludo in the November 6 governorship election, Anambra has shown yet again that it is a bastion of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Aside from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), APGA is the only other party running a state government in Nigeria. Founded by the late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu who was its candidate in the 2003 presidential elections, winning only 3.3 per cent of the votes the party has maintained its Igbo outlook since.
The party often appeals to ethnic sentiments during campaigns to curry votes, using the mantra Nke a bu nke anyi (This belongs to us).
And as anti-APC sentiments rise in the South-east under the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, APGA draws quick blood by posturing as a viable alternative. The federal ruling party is seen in the region as a northerners party.
Mr Soludos rode on the back of this to victory. However, his feat was bolstered by his rich academic and public policy credentials as against the tainted Andy Uba of the APC and Valentine Ozigbo of the PDP who was described as lacking public service experience.
Even incumbent Governor Willie Obianos seeming unpopularity, which was highlighted by a gale of defection that hit APGA in the buildup to the election, eventually did not affect the chances of Mr Soludo.
In this Anambra, we dont want APC to be in that seat, we really dont, Precious Ibeh, who hails from the state, told PREMIUM TIMES. PDP is an option but APGA is the party that we know and we want the continuity, that is why we are supporting Soludo.
With the support we, the masses, are giving him, I pray that we are able to touch his heart to give us the dividends of democracy that we deserve more than the past administration, Ms Ibeh said.
Rise to relevance
After the return to civil rule in 1999, the PDP won control of Anambra State with Chinwoke Mbadinuju as governor till 2003.
Then, Chris Ngige, who has since crossed over to the APC and is now a minister under President Buhari, succeeded Mr Mbadinuju in 2003 after seizing the PDP ticket from him.
At the legislative elections held that year, APGA won 1.4 per cent of the popular votes and only two of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives but won no seats in the Senate.
In 2006, the Supreme Court overturned the governorship election results that brought Mr Ngige to power and handed victory to Peter Obi, the APGA candidate.
After more rounds of judicial battle, Mr Obi served two terms of eight years. A few months after his tenure, however, Mr Obi decamped to the PDP and was nominated the running mate to the candidate of his new party for the 2019 presidential election.
Another APGA candidate, Rochas Okorocha, was elected governor of Imo State in 2011, polling 15 per cent more votes than incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim of the PDP.
APGA has since 2006 retained power in Anambra, including through incumbent Willie Obiano who was elected governor twice.
In 2019, APGA won seven seats in the House of Representatives, up from the two seats it won in the 2015 elections.
The elected representatives in 2019 include Umeoji Michael (Aguata); Chinedu Obidigwe (Anambra East/Anambra West); Ifeanyi Momah (Ihiala); Ezenwankwo Okwudili (Orumba North/Orumba South).
The others are Herman Hembe (Konshisha/Vandeikyia) and Onuh Blessing (Otukpo/Ohimini), both from Benue State; and Usman Shiddi (Ibi/Wukari) of Taraba State.
Also was Ossy Prestige (Aba North/South) of Abia State, who after his death in February was replaced by Chimaobi Ebisike of the PDP.
Implication
Other than Anambra, at the state level, APGA does not control any state, unlike in the past when it had two governors. The party has only six out of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives. In 2019, it lost its only seat in the Senate to billionaire politician, Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Peoples Party.
This goes to show how APGAs popularity has waned over the years. Its inability to further penetrate other states has limited its options to form power-sharing alliances.
In 2014, Governor Okorocha of Imo State took his own wing of APGA to join other legacy parties in forming the APC, which in the 2015 general election defeated President Goodluck Jonathan, the only time an incumbent president has been beaten in the nations history. But the mainstream APGA has remained in its South-east cocoon, which has hardly returned any benefit to the party itself.
Clearly, the regional outlook of the party comes at a cost especially when national powers are up for grabs.
Those who have criticised APGAs influence in the South-east said it limits the regions access to federal funding which would have boosted development there.
A founding member of APGA from Anambra State who crossed to the PDP then later to the APC, Chris Chikwelu, wants Anambra and the whole South-east to become part of a party that is truly national.
There is no way we as an Igbo nation can benefit from the project called Nigeria if we are not on the table where issues concerning revenue allocation, resource allocation and some appointments would be discussed, he told PREMIUM TIMES.
That is why our people this time around, having been in an opposition party for almost 16 years, decided to get into a national political party, he said ahead of the governorship election.
Quest for power
Under the law, to be elected president, candidates must receive a majority of the votes and over 25 per cent of the votes in at least 24 of the 36 states in the country a clause established to ensure national acceptability.
So no region can single-handedly win a general election.
This explains why some South-east leaders have called for a shift from the regional party APGA to a pan-Nigerian platform.
One of them is a chieftain of the APC, Elvis Agukwe, who believes APGAs Igbo posturing is a political disadvantage to the zone as it could lead to the zone being isolated from the national political grid.
Largely so, politicians who decamped to the APC for one are seen as political lepers.
Although he was handed power in very controversial circumstances by the Supreme Court, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, now of the APC, tops that list of outcasts.
Mr Agukwe said Mr Uzodinmas switch of party allegiance was to bring the zone to the front seat of national politics for greater political prospects, but the efforts have been stifled.
Some people erroneously thought that it was between them and Governor Uzodinma. No, he wanted to change strategy for his misguided brothers. We lost an opportunity to stop others from being suspicious of Igbos, he said.
Governor Uzodimma was bold and strategic. APGA has been made to look like an Igbo party. Is there a Hausa or Yoruba party?
An ex-member of the House of Representatives who represented Anambra East and West federal constituency and is now in APC, Tony Nwoye, also expressed the same sentiment when he accused APGA in his state of using Ojukwus name to hold our people down.
If APGA is truly an Igbo party, why is it that up till now, it is only in Anambra State that it has formed a government? Why is it that in the National Assembly, only two are APGA and out of 109 senators, none is APGA? Mr Nwoye said at the time.
A lawyer from Anambra, Chike Okoye, told PREMIUM TIMES Mr Soludo would need to do more to give APGA a wider regional reach and more importantly a national spread.
Nobody wants a regional party. What has Anambra gained federally from playing regional politics? APGA is a regional party, it has not gone beyond Anambra State, Mr Okoye said.
At a time agitations for a South-east presidency are reaching a crescendo, the region has been tipped to be a potential bellwether for the presidential poll in 2023.
If there is one legacy Mr Soludo would need to pursue, it is to consolidate power by shedding his partys popularity across the South-east and win some stakes in the 2023 presidency.
The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the twin blast that killed scores in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Tuesday.
The group claimed responsibility for the incident through a statement on its Telegram channels. It said three suicide bombers took part, with one attack targeting the central police station and another aimed at parliament.
At least six people have been confirmed dead from the explosion.
The spokesperson of the Uganda Police Force, Fred Enanga, said the police foiled a third attack by recovering an improvised explosive device from the home of a suspected suicide bomber who was shot and injured. He also said the police were in pursuit of other members of the group.
Mr Enanga accused a Ugandan group, Allied Democratic Front, of being responsible for the blast that occurred Tuesday morning in Kampala, Ugandas capital.
NTV Uganda reported that scores had been injured and there had been two blasts one very close to parliament and one near the central police station.
The parliaments plenary session for Tuesday was immediately suspended following the incident and has now been suspended till further notice.
The blast comes 22 days after a previous bus blast.
While assuring Ugandans and visitors that the police was on top of things and will continue to ensure their safety, Mr Enanga urged them to be vigilant noting that, these attacks are real and we need to be vigilant.
He said that CCTV footages captured two of the suicide bombers on a motorbike disguising as border control officers before the bombs detonated, killing them as well.
IS and Allied Democratic Front (ADF)
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), is a Sunni jihadist group that calls itself a caliphate and claims religious authority over all Muslims. It was inspired by al Qaeda but later publicly expelled from it.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is a long-standing insurgent group with Ugandan roots that is currently operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the ADFs ideology has historically contained some Salafi-jihadist elements, it has also recruited along secular ethnic lines and is deeply entrenched in the broader political and economic dynamics of the Rwenzori border region between Uganda and DRC.
According to NTV Uganda, in April 2019, IS began to claim some ADF attacks on social media, presenting the group as its regional branch the Islamic State Central Africa Province, or ISCAP.
Uganda is one of the nations participating in the war against IS in Central Africa, the IS message read.
In March this year, the United States officially linked the ADF to IS.
Tuesdays attacks follow two blasts that occurred last month a bus explosion near Kampala that wounded many people and a bombing at a roadside eatery in the capital that killed one woman.
Police said both of those explosions were carried out by the ADF. It also blamed the group for a foiled bomb attack in August during the funeral of an army commander who led a major offensive against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
The ADF has been accused of killing thousands of civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is considered by experts to be the bloodiest of more than 120 armed groups that roam eastern DRC, many of them a legacy of two regional wars a quarter of a century ago.
Museveni talks tough
In his reaction to the latest explosions, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the government will go after the terrorists.
They have exposed themselves when we are more ready for urban terrorism. They will perish. Rural terrorism was defeated in 2007 in the Semliki National Park. I am referring to the dead terrorists as manipulated victims of confusion.
He called them pigs, saying, the real pigs are people like Nsubuga, the so-called sheikh that confused young people at Lweza, adding that if blowing oneself up will send one to heaven, the sheikh should blow himself up as an example instead of manipulating young children.
The Kaduna State Government has reiterated its determination to no longer rely on federal allocations for funding of its annual budgets.
The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mohammed Abdullahi, said this in his remarks at a public hearing on the 2022 appropriation bill at the Kaduna State House of Assembly on Tuesday.
In the next few years, Kaduna should provide for infrastructure and other obligations with its own money so that whatever comes from the federal allocation will be an addition, the commissioner said.
Mr Abdullahi said the state government has raised its tax collections to about N57 billion through hard work and partnership with the state House of Assembly.
In 2015 when this government came in, the highest that had been achieved was N13 billion annually and we are very happy today that we are at N57 billion because of the continued support of the State House of Assembly. The first law that was passed was the consolidated law, which was what opened the doors for rising internal revenue generation by the state, he said.
The state government relies only on about 31 per cent (budget) of federal allocation while some other states rely on 70-80 per cent from federal allocation.
Mr Abdullahi said the administration of Governor Nasir El-Rufai has moved the state from complete reliance on federal allocation to one that is sustainable.
What the government decided when it came in 2015 was that we must be able to fund our salaries from the money we realise within Kaduna, which means that whatever happens from the federal government we will be able to take care of the salaries and other states obligations, he said.
There are states who are owing five to eight months salaries because of reliance on federal allocations.
It is important that we note this and understand that we will bring more and more bills to the House and more initiatives to the state, and understand that bringing revenue to the state is the most important thing to do, he said.
Kaduna budget and IGR
Governor Nasir El-Rufai presented a N233 billion budget proposal for 2022 to the Kaduna State House of Assembly on October 13.
Mr El-Rufai said the state expects an internally generated revenue of N67.26 billion and N24.9 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) to partly finance the budget.
The budget has a capital expenditure of N146 billion and recurrent spending of N87.6 billion.
Governor El-Rufai had also said in March that the state will stop relying on federal allocation to service the state budget.
Speaking with journalists after declaring open the 147th meeting of the Joint Tax Board in Kaduna in March, the governor said the state has been boosting its tax collections and channelling the funds to infrastructure, education, and health care.
He disclosed that the state IGR rose to N50.9 billion in 2020.
We are focused on running the government and doing development projects entirely from tax collection. We dont want to depend on the federation account. Thats our goal.
Our motto is Tax for Service; we want you to pay tax and ask us what we do with the tax money and we can show you what we have done.
Mr El-Rufai noted that people in the state were beginning to voluntarily pay tax for the first time in more than 20 years.
Prominent Nigerians and Africans have confirmed their attendance to speak at the Realnews 9th Anniversary lecture holding on Thursday, November 18, at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, starting 10 a.m.
Those playing prominent role in the Realnews lecture, who have confirmed their attendance in writing include Oti Ikomi, founder and chief executive officer of the Proton Energy Ltd; Eyono-Fatayi Willaims, general manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development; Samata Gifty Bukari, Consul General, Ghanaian Consluate General, and Adama Gaye, chief executive officer of the NewForce Africa, among others.
Messrs Ikomi, chairman, and Fatayi-Williams confirmed their attendance in their emails dated November 5, 2021, and September 15, respectively, while Ms Bukari did hers in a letter dated September 3, 2021, with reference number LA/AD/64.
Also, Urum Eke, group managing director, FirstBank Holdings, confirmed attendance in a letter he personally signed and dated October 22, 2021, while Mr Gaye and others phoned in their confirmation November 13. Mr Gaye has already arrived in Nigeria for the lecture.
The lecture themed: Nigeria in the Unfolding Integration of the African Market: The Oil and Gas Perspective will be delivered by Simbi Kesiye Wabote, executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB. He confirmed his attendance in a letter dated August 12, 2021, where he congratulated and wished Realnews success as it plans towards the 9th anniversary lecture.
Maureen Chigbo, publisher of Realnews, said there will be an investiture of all the speakers into The Realnews Hall of Fame immediately after the Lecture. Chigbo explained that the The Realnews Hall of Fame was established to honour only those who played key roles during the anniversary lectures.
Realnews past anniversary lecturers include Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman, Presidential TaskForce of COVID-19 (2020); President John Dramani Mahama, former President of Ghana (2019); Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigeria INEC, (2018); Dr. (Mrs) Oby Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education and Vice President, World Bank (2017), Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head, United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (2016); Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, (2015), and Professor Maurice Iwu, former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, (2014).
Lucky Irabor, the Chief of Defence Staff, on Tuesday visited Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, in his palace to seek for royal prayers for himself and troops in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mr Irabor is in Benin on an operational visit to the 2 and C Divisions.
Mr Irabor, a general, in his remarks during the visit, told the Oba that he was in the palace to pay reverence to the throne as well as to seek royal prayers and blessings for himself and troops.
He told the Oba that he had earlier visited troops within the Niger Delta region engaged in various operations to secure lives and property in the region.
He added that this was with a view to commending and encouraging the troops, as well as ensure that all threats within their areas of responsibilities were addressed.
He stressed that the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies were involved in ensuring the safety and protection of lives and property of Nigerians as well as the nations assets.
He therefore called on residents of the state to continue to support the troops so that the society would be secured for all.
Ewuare II, in his response, commended Mr Irabor on the successes recorded in the fight against insurgency since his assumption of office.
He noted that the nation had been fighting social vices and crimes long before now, but added that what was regrettable was the upsurge in recent times.
He said all Nigerians must join hands to pray for the Armed Forces because they were in the forefront of the battle.
The traditional ruler also commended the conduct of the military during the November 6 Anambra governorship election, as well as their efforts in keeping Nigeria united.
He urged them to remain loyal to the nation and keep protecting and uniting the country.
Earlier, Mr Irabor paid a courtesy visit to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.
He told the governor that his visit was to commend and encourage the troops in the zone to root out criminals.
He noted that the Niger Delta region held the nations oil well, and it was therefore necessary to ensure that the operational orders were carried out according to the rules of engagement of the Armed Forces.
While appreciating the people of Edo for their support to the Armed Forces, he appealed to the public to always avail the troops with information that would help them to root out criminals from the zone.
Mr Obaseki, in his remarks, commended the sacrifices by security personnel in the state.
He noted that though the government had enjoyed cordial relationships with the military, the state still had security challenges.
He appealed for support from the military to checkmate criminals in the state, especially in forests across the state.
(NAN)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that it would help Nigeria with technical assistance and policy advice in the management of its e-naira digital currency.
The IMF made this pledge in a note released by its African Department on Tuesday.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially launched the eNairaa central bank digital currency (CBDC)on October 25, 2021. It is the second CBDC fully open to the public after the Bahamas.
Other countries and regions, such as China and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, have been conducting CBDC pilots with a subset of their citizens.
The IMF noted that given the size and complexity of Nigerias economy, the launch is drawing substantial interest from the outside worldincluding from central banks.
The IMF said its Monetary and Capital Markets Department has been involved in the eNaira rollout process, including by providing reviews of the product design. The 2021 IMF Article IV mission emphasized the need for monitoring risks and macro-financial impacts associated with a central bank digital currency.
Like all digital currencies, the eNaira carries risks for monetary policy implementation, cyber security, operational resilience, and financial integrity and stability. The IMF said the eNaira wallets may be perceived, or even effectively function, as a deposit at the central bank, which may reduce demand for deposits in commercial banks.
Since it is tied to digital technology, the IMF argued that there is a need to manage cybersecurity and operational risks associated with the eNaira.
Financial integrity risks, such as those arising from the potential use of the eNaira for monetary laundering, are mitigated by using a tiered identity verification system and applying more stringent controls to relatively less verified users.
The IMF is ready to collaborate with the authorities on data analysis, cross-country studies, sharing the eNaira experience with other countries, and discussing further evolution of the eNaira including its design, regulatory framework, and other aspects, the organization said.
The remains of Sani Dangote, the vice president of the Dangote Group and brother of Aliko Dangote, were on Wednesday laid to rest in the familys private cemetery in Kano.
Mr Dangote died in the United States on Sunday after a protracted illness. He was 61.
The remains were lowered to earth at Alhassan Dantata family cemetery in Koki quarters (Sarari) of Kano metropolis.
The sombre ceremony was completed at the palace of the Emir of Kano after the funeral prayers led by Sani Zarahdeen, the Chief Imam of Kano State.
The Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, the deceaseds elder brother, Mr Dangote, Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, were some of the political and business dignitaries at the ceremony.
Also in attendance were a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika and senators Ali Ndume and Abdullahi Adamu.
Others dignitaries were Borno Governor, Babagana Zulum; Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State; former governors of Nasarawa, Adamawa and Borno states Tanko Almakura, Jibrilla Bindow and Kashim Shettima, respectively.
The deceased
Relatively less known than his billionaire brother, Mr Dangote had investments in manufacturing, agriculture, banking and oil services.
ALSO READ: Italian contractor accuses Sani Dangote of N30 million fraud in alleged breach of contract
He sat on the boards of several companies including Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Dangote Agro Sacks and Dangote Refinery, Petrochemical and Fertiliser company.
He was better known for his role as the chairman of Dansa Holdings, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group that produces beverages.
He also owned Dansa Foods Limited, Dansa Energy, Sagas Energy Limited, Bulk Pack Services Limited, Dansa Agro Allied Limited, and Dangote Farms Limited.
Sani Dangote was a member of several Chambers of Commerce and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria.
Protesters gathered in front of a police division in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Wednesday after an officer allegedly shot a commercial motorcyclist.
A bus suspected to be a security vehicle had knocked down a motorcyclist conveying a cocoa merchant, in the morning, along Arakale, in Akure.
Both the rider and the merchant were said to have died on the spot. The incident enraged the commercial motorcyclists and youth in the area.
A police officer reportedly attached to a filling station nearby was said to have fired shots in the air to scare the protesters away. A stray bullet hit and killed another motorcyclist.
The police officer who fired the deadly shot was said to have escaped into the Police A Division to take refuge, but the irate protesters and the riders pursued him and laid siege at the station.
The mob, mostly youth also set bonfires at the division and demanded the police officer be released to them.
They also hurled stones into the police premises and barricaded major roads.
Police officers, on sighting the angry protesters, escaped from the divisions barracks along with their families, ostensibly to avert a repeat of the #EndSARS experience.
Last year, protesters burnt down the police divisional headquarters along with vehicles belonging to police officers.
While confirming the incident, the Ondo Police Public Relations Officer, Funmilayo Odunlami, said the situation has been put under control.
There was an accident along Arakale where two persons were killed, she said.
One of our men while trying to rescue the driver of the car that killed an okada rider and a passenger was attacked and in the process, another okada rider was killed.
The protesting riders mobilised to A Division to attack the place.
The caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives has hailed the timing of the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to Nigeria.
The caucus, in a statement by its leader, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) on Wednesday, said Mr Blinken must use the visit to address the growing human rights abuses, increasing threats to democracy, insecurity, and corruption in Nigeria.
Mr Blinken is currently in Kenya and scheduled to visit Nigeria and Senegal as part of his Africa tour.
The US Secretary of State should as a matter of urgency hold the Nigerian Government to account for the wanton assaults on rights, abuse of state power, systematic use of state violence to suppress peaceful protesters, particularly activists of the #EndSARS Movement and campaigners for self-determination, extra-judicial killings, intimidation of the judiciary; and declare to this government that abuses of human rights have consequences, the statement reads in part.
The lawmakers of the main opposition party also flayed the Buhari administration for not maximising the strategic military and counter-insurgency assistance from the United States.
The group stated that the country cannot afford to be losing men to terrorists when it could ask for the assistance of the US government.
Just this week a Brigadier General was killed by ISWAP and this is in addition to the countless numbers of soldiers who have been killed or grievously injured with the weightless and worthless remark of getting to the root of the matter, the caucus said.
The visits of the U.S. Secretaries of State to Nigeria have become somewhat controversial in recent times.
In 2015, the visit of former Secretary, John Kerry, was controversial as it was alleged to have swayed the electorate in favour of the opposition.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had in his book blamed former U.S. President Barrack Obama and Mr Kerry for his defeat at the poll in 2015.
Mr Blinken is coming in the wake of the release of the report of the Lagos State #EndSARS panel. The report indicted the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force in the Lekki Tollgate shooting.
The United States, through its diplomatic mission in Nigeria, had called for the implementation of the report of the panel.
Despite the Nigerian authorities declaration of a state of emergency on sexual and gender-based violence, rape persists at crisis levels with most survivors denied justice, rapists avoiding prosecution, and hundreds of cases of rape going unreported due to pervasive corruption, stigma and victim-blaming, Amnesty International said in a report published today.
The report, Nigeria: A Harrowing Journey; Access To Justice for Women and Girls Survivors of Rape covers harrowing cases of sexual violence against women and girls, including a six-year-old and an 11-year-old who were attacked so viciously they died. The report reveals how harmful cultural stereotypes, failures of law enforcement to investigate rape cases, toxic misogyny and insufficient support for survivors, have created a culture of silence and impunity which continues to fail hundreds of women and girls every year.
Concrete actions have not been taken to tackle the rape crisis in Nigeria with the seriousness it deserves. Women and girls continue to be failed by a system that makes it increasingly difficult for survivors to get justice, while allowing perpetrators to get away with gross human rights violations, said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.
The fear of not being believed, or even being blamed for being raped, is creating a dangerous culture of silence that prevents survivors from seeking justice. It is unacceptable that survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence face such a torturous ordeal to get justice, which only adds to their pain. The state of emergency has proven to be an empty declaration, which has so far done nothing to protect women and girls in Nigeria.
The report is based on research carried out between March 2020 and August 2021, including interviews with 14 women and girl survivors of rape aged between 12 and 42. Amnesty International researchers also interviewed seven parents of child survivors. Interviews were conducted in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Sokoto and Bauchi states.
Pandemic of rape
Rape continues to be one of the most prevalent human rights violations in Nigeria.
Following the lockdown imposed to tackle the spread of Covid-19 in 2020, there was an upsurge in cases of rape. In June 2020, Nigerian police said they had recorded 717 incidents of rape between January and May last year. In April 2020, Nigerias Minister of Women Affairs Pauline Tallen said at least 3,600 cases of rape were recorded during the lockdown, while the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) received 11,200 reported cases of rape over the whole of 2020.
As reports of rape escalated across Nigeria, state governors declared a state of emergency on rape and gender-based violence in June 2020. They also promised to set up a sex offenders register. But over a year since their declaration, nothing has changed, as more cases of rape have been reported.
One victim, Vera Uwaila Omosuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, was raped and brutally assaulted in 2020 in a church near her home in Benin, Edo state, and died a couple of days later from her injuries. Hamira, a five-year-old, was drugged and raped by her neighbour in April 2020. Her injuries were so bad she could no longer control her bladder.
Barakat Bello, an 18-year-old student, was raped during a robbery in her home in Ibadan, Oyo State. She was butchered with machetes by her rapists and died on June 1, 2020. Favour Okechukwu, an 11-year-old girl, was gang-raped to death in Ejigbo, Lagos state. A 70-year-old woman was raped in Ogun state. In May 2021, a six-year-old girl was raped to death in Kaduna state.
The Covid-19 pandemic only exposed what has been going on for so long. Not only are women and girls being raped in Nigeria, but when they are brave enough to come forward they are being dismissed by police officers as liars and attention-seekers slurs which inflict further injury, said Osai Ojigho.
Outdated laws and law enforcement failures
Despite Nigerias international human rights obligation to enact, implement and monitor legislations addressing all forms of violence against women, women and girls continue to face discrimination in law and practice.
The definition of rape under the Criminal Code, which is applicable in the southern part of Nigeria, and the Penal Code, which is applicable in northern Nigeria, are both outdated. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act expanded the scope and definition of rape but was silent on consent.
Notwithstanding expanding the legal scope of the definition of rape the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act and other laws have limited jurisdiction. Even in states where the Act and other laws have been domesticated, there has been no enforcement or implementation, said Osai Ojigho.
Survivors and NGOs interviewed for this research said stigma and victim-blaming are key factors hindering the reporting of rape. Survivors shared distressing experiences of both and told Amnesty International that they did not report due to fear of being disbelieved and blamed. Children, who are increasingly becoming targets of sexual violence, face particular challenges in reporting these crimes because of a lack of reporting process that is child-friendly.
Some survivors said they were discouraged from seeking justice because of the toxic attitude of police officers towards gender-based violence, which manifested in humiliating lines of questioning and victim-blaming. In addition, decrepit police stations often lack the space for privacy that survivors need to make their statements.
Onyinye, a 14-year-old, was raped by her neighbour when she was sent by her mother to help fix his phone. When Onyinye and her mother went to the police station to report the crime, not only did a female police officer slap the girl and pull her ear, Onyinyes mother was also scolded for not giving her daughter a good upbringing.
Activists and lawyers have decried the poor quality of police investigations into rape cases. In some cases, perpetrators bribe the police not to investigate their crimes. The police have also advised survivors and perpetrators to settle cases outside the scope of the criminal justice system, which only perpetuates violations of womens human rights and impunity for rape.
Time to act is now
Amnesty International is calling on Nigerian authorities to act now to protect women and girls from rampant sexual violence. All reported cases of rape must be thoroughly, promptly, and impartially investigated and perpetrators must be prosecuted, and if convicted, sentenced with appropriate penalties. Existing discriminatory laws must be repealed and followed up with a concrete implementation and enforcement framework.
Nigerian police must provide all necessary support to survivors and act in line with their code of conduct, by providing safe process of seeking justice for survivors to report rape and other gender-based violence and get justice.
Courts must ensure that cases of sexual violence are fairly and promptly prosecuted. Any backlog in rape cases that may create unacceptable barriers for rape survivors access to justice must be addressed.
Nigeria must protect women and girls by ensuring that perpetrators of rape face justice and survivors get protection and psychosocial and medical support. The tide of sexual impunity against women and girls must be turned now, said Osai Ojigho.
BACKGROUND
Amnesty Internationals researchers interviewed 14 women and girls survivors of rape between the ages of 12 to 42 years. Researchers also interviewed 7 parents of survivors who are children. Interviews were conducted in person, as well as through phone and video calls.
The federal government has abandoned the data protection bill which it put together in a capital-intensive process that was concluded in 2020.
Despite scarce public funds invested in it and wide applause it garnered as meeting global standards, the bill was abandoned in a controversial manner that cybersecurity experts have raised concerns over.
The government spent funds in 2020 to gather stakeholders across the country to draft a document it planned to pass to the National Assembly that would serve as a precursor to legislation protecting the sensitive data of Nigerians.
The goverment is now planning to spend millions of naira to engage a consultant to draft a new document.
The Nigerian government, through the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), is seeking credit from the World Bank and others to engage the said consultants even as experts have questioned the rationale behind involving the global outfits in matters of internal security.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that a draft data protection bill compiled by stakeholders in the Nigerian cybersecurity ecosystem who were consulted by the NIMC and the Ministry of Justice is currently available at the justice ministry awaiting passage to the Federal Executive Council before being sent to the parliament.
But experts are worried that the process appears to have been truncated with this new development.
Data protection is a constitutional right guaranteed under section 37 of the Nigerian constitution.
The Nigerian Data Protection Regulation, 2019 (NDPR) is the main data protection regulation in Nigeria. The NDPR was issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The NDPR provides for the rights of data subjects, the obligations of data controllers and data processors, transfer of data to a foreign territory amongst others.
Controversial credit application
On Friday, industry experts were stunned when they read a procurement advert (expression of interest) placed by the NIMC in selected dailies seeking to engage experts to draft a new document despite the existing one
The experts are expected to be paid from a credit the federal government is applying for from the World Bank, French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The Federal Government of Nigeria has applied for a credit from the World Bank, French Development Agency (AFD) & European Investment Bank (EIB) and intends to apply part of the proceeds to increase the number of persons with a National ID number, which would be issued by a robust and inclusive foundational ID system to facilitate improved access to public services. The governance arrangements for project implementation consist of three structures: (a) Project Ecosystem Steering Committee (PESC); (b) Ecosystem Coordination Strategic Unit (ECSU) situated within the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy; and (c) the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) situated within the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The Federal Government of Nigeria seeks to hire the services of a consulting firm to provide legal advice to the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMCDE) in order to help develop and implement the legal framework, institutional and regulatory capacity for data protection, cybersecurity and ID systems which gives effect to the reforms contemplated by the Nigeria ID4D Project.
Experts are concerned that the federal government said in the tender, the consulting firm, when engaged, will draft a comprehensive data protection legislation.
It will be expected to draft subsidiary legislations (regulations, rules and/or guidelines) to support the operationalisation of primary legislation.
The consultant will also draft amendments to existing laws and regulations, including the National Identity Management Commission, National Population Commission legislations, and Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) legislation to harmonise the overall approach to data protection, cybersecurity and cybercrimes in Nigeria and ensure the ID system operates in an inclusive, nondiscriminatory, and transparent manner.
Interested firms are expected to submit their bids by November 26 to the Deputy Director/Head of Procurement, NIMC.
Previous process
Between July and August, 2020, an interagency committee was set up by the federal government to craft a draft data protection bill that would be considered by FEC and then forwarded to the National Assembly for passage.
It was funded as it worked round the clock to submit the document experts say is comprehensive enough by global standards.
The committee tagged, Digital Identity Ecosystem Legal and Regulatory Reform Working Group, comprising MDAs, CSOs and the private sector did a clause-by-clause review of the draft bill and produced a harmonised version for consideration.
Earlier, the Nigeria Data Protection Bill 2018, which went through a similar process, was not signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Then, communications and digital economy minister, Isa Pantami, then quickly introduced the NDPR 2019 which was adopted by the federal government to guide the industry through it had some flaws, experts said.
The Nigeria Data Protection Bill 2020 was drafted by the interagency committee based on the understanding it would improve the 2018 and be harmonised with the NDPR 2019.
Angry experts
Experts have expressed anger that the federal government is planning to engage consultants for a process that had already been concluded by relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem in 2020.
They are also worried that the country is seeking funds from global outfits for an issue that hinges on data security for its citizens.
This bill is at the justice ministry is waiting to be transmitted to Federal Executive Council (FEC), that was what we were told, said one of the experts, who did not want his name mentioned due to the sensitivity of the position he holds in the digital ecosystem. The FEC was expected to send it as Executive Bill to the National Assembly. That is the stage we are until we saw this advertorial.
Suddenly we saw the tender advert on the same bill and this calls for answers. For one, what will a World Bank consultant do differently that competent government agencies and industry professionals have not done in the 2020 Bill they worked on tirelessly last year? Also, what is the rationale behind seeking a World bank grant? Is it to feather the nest of some government officials? Are we saying it is right for World Bank to set the stage and determine the bill that will affect our data sovereignty as a nation? We need answers
Reactions
Meanwhile, the justice ministers spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, did not pick his calls when sought for comments on the matter. He did not respond to a subsequent message.
Hadiza Dagabana, GM, Legal and Regulations, NIMC, whose office, handles such matters, did not respond to calls and a message sent to her phone line.
Kayode Adegoke, spokesperson, NIMC, when called on Monday, asked that a message be sent to him to respond to as he was in a meeting.
He is yet to respond hours after.
The Chief of Air Staff, Isiaka Amao, on Tuesday, disclosed that the Air Force has carried out 3,700 counter-terror missions in the North-east and operations against bandits in the North-west.
Between January and now, the Air Force has flown 7,000 hours in over 4,600 sorties in the two regions.
Mr Amao, an Air Marshal, disclosed this during budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee on Air Force.
From January 2021 till date, the NAF aircraft have flown about 7, 000 hours in over 4, 600 sorties and about 3700 missions in the ongoing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in the northeast and operations against the bandits in the northwest, he said.
Despite the claim of missions by Mr Amao, last week, 44 persons were killed in the North-west, including a retired air marshal, Muhammad Maisaka.
In the North-east, 19 persons were killed, including a brigadier general,
In the wake of the renewed attacks by terrorists, PREMIUM TIMES had reported that a member of the House, Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno) had questioned the strategy of the military, which he said was too defensive.
The lawmaker from Borno State made the submission during a debate on a motion moved by Haruna Msheila (APC, Borno).
Mr Amao also told the lawmakers that the Air Force has inducted one MI 171 helicopters from Russia, three GF 17 Thunder aircraft from Pakistan and 12 A 29 super Tucano aircraft from the US.
He said that NAF also deployed 400 troops to provide security before, during and after the recently concluded Anambra elections.
Mr Amao did not present the details of the budget of the force before the lawmakers called for a closed-door session.
The Chairman of the Committee, Shehu Koko (APC, Kebbi), said the House was committed to supporting the leadership of the Air Force in the task to repositioning it.
Energy firm Ardova PLC completed a full buyout of rival Enyo Retail and Supply Limited, the board of directors said in a letter posted by the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Wednesday, almost eight months behind initial target.
The purchase marks the second major deal in the mergers and acquisitions market of the Nigerian oil and gas industry in barely two weeks, following Rainoils announcement earlier this month of purchase of 61 per cent equity stake in Eterna Oil.
Ardova, previously owned by billionaire mogul Femi Otedola under the name Forte Oil, brokered a deal with Tunde Folawiyo-backed Enyo to acquire a 100 per cent equity stake in the latter, a January regulatory filing showed. The original plan was to consummate the deal by March.
No mention is made of the value of the transaction in the note seen by PREMIUM TIMES but the takeover has automatically transferred the 90 filling stations and about 100,000 customers maintained by Enyos former owner to the Ardova Group.
That will help Ardova, majority-owned by Abdulwasiu Sowami, extend spread beyond its currently owned over 450 retail outlets.
Enyo will be run as a separate entity with Ardova as the parent company, with consolidation not yet in sight, CEO Olumide Adeosun told CNBC Africa last week.
The acquisition was completed through a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, Bags and Kegs Limited, and with effect from today (Tuesday), Enyo is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, the notice said.
Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited and Banwo & Ighodalo advised Ardova while Rand Merchant Bank and Herbert Smith Freehills Paris LLP acted as financial and legal advisers respectively to Enyo.
The company reported a post-tax profit of N1.2 billion for the first nine months of this year, 34.3 per cent weaker than what it posted in the same period of last year, despite a jump in revenue.
Shares in Ardova were priced at N13.95 per unit as at 12.14 WAT in Lagos on Wednesday, yet to record any movement.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, has faulted the manner in which the report of the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the EndSARS protests was leaked to the public, without following due process.
Mr Irabor, a general, stated this on Tuesday while speaking to journalists at the Government House, Benin-city, after a meeting with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.
The panel, headed by a retired judge, Doris Okuwobi, had on Monday submitted its reports on the Lekki shooting and police brutality during the October 2020 EndSARS protests, to the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
After receiving the report, Mr Sanwo-Olu set up a four-member committee to look into the report within two weeks, and bring forward the white paper that would be considered at the Lagos state executive council and presented as the white paper coming from the panel of inquiry.
The report was, however, leaked to the public by a member of the panel, due to trust issues.
The report indicted the Nigerian Army, the Police and other complicit individuals in the killings at the Lekki toll gate.
The #EndSARS panel was set up in the wake of the October 2020 #EndSARS anti-police brutality protests to probe cases of human rights violation perpetrated by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other police units.
The panel was also mandated to probe the shooting of peaceful protesters by soldiers and police officers on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki tollgate.
Not the way to go
Reacting to the leakage of the report, Mr Irabor explained that he could not, at the moment, comment on the content of the document, because he had not seen the official report.
He said the Nigerian Armed Forces are committed to their constitutional mandate and do not engage in ignoble acts.
I am sure those of you in the media must have seen a report that was released through, in my view, a wrong channel, that is making the rounds in the social media, he said.
Whether it is a true report, I cant tell. But Id like to indicate that the normal procedure is to have such a report submitted to the convening authority. And then, there will be a White Paper that will be presented, based on which one can make informed comments.
But whatever it is currently, Id like to indicate that the Armed Forces of Nigeria is a professional armed force. We are peopled by Nigerians and we remain committed to the constitutional mandate. So we will not at this point think that Nigerians should make disparaging remarks regarding the Armed Forces of Nigeria, in the sense that we are professional armed forces. If there are issues, of course, we address them within the ambit of the provisions.
It would not be right to disparage men and women who have worked so hard to ensure that the territorial integrity of this nation is kept intact. So in the meantime, until I see the full extent of the report
The CDS said the countrys armed forces were well-disciplined and would never engage in ignoble acts.
I can assure that the Armed Forces of Nigeria are well-disciplined and we do not engage in any ignoble acts. If Nigerians do not trust us, then we wont be doing what we are doing, and in any case, it is the Armed Forces of Nigeria; we are not talking of the police. So when the armed forces are called out, it is because there is a need; there is no one who doesnt desire to live in peace.
We need to understand that the armed forces are there to keep the peace, to provide the ambience that will enable each Nigerian to live his or her desires in peace and harmony. So let us not make inciting comments that will put the entire space on fire. Thats not right, Mr Irabor said.
Independent fact-checking organization, DUBAWA, on Wednesday, kick-started its Information Disorder West Africa Conference (IDWAC) in Abuja.
The two-day conference is aimed at engaging media professionals, academics, researchers, and the public on the subject of information disorder and the efforts at combating it.
In the welcome address, Tobi Oluwatola, the Acting Executive Director of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) expressed appreciation to funders and all attendees who, he said, share a common interest in the fight against misinformation in the West African Region.
While reiterating that the work the media does is crucial in todays society, he noted that misinformation is a danger to every society that requires special attention.
Jochen Luckscheiter, the Country Director (Nigeria), Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBS), expressed delight at the event, adding that the goal of IDWAC is in line with the aims of the foundation, and it will continue to support such initiatives.
He emphasised the need to understand the nature and structure of misinformation in every society. It is important to know the factors and behaviours that give fake news potency and are the issues that should be adopted globally, Mr Jochen said.
ALSO READ: Aregbesola to deliver keynote address at Information Disorder West Africa Conference
Ropo Sekoni, the Research Director, Dubawa, in his address reiterated the need for stakeholders to continue the fight against misinformation, as the menace has always been a problem in society.
Disinformation has always existed. As a young man, 70 years ago, I experienced the effect of disinformation, Mr Sekoni, a professor, said.
The two-day event will feature panel discussions on challenges of information disorder, technological approach deployed to combat information disorder, regulation, collaboration prospects among others.
The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to ensure free healthcare for children from age 0 to 18 years in all hospitals, amidst debate.
The general principle of the bill was debated by members of the House on Wednesday and passed despite opposition from some members.
The bill was sponsored by Bello Kaoje (APC, Kebbi) and read for the first time on the 8 July.
If passed, government hospitals will be mandated to provide free medical services for children including diagnoses, treatment, prevention of illness and other physical and mental illnesses in children.
Clause four of the bill provides that when/if the bill is passed, the Ministry of Health will make definite procedures, guidelines, as well as monitor and implement the provisions in the bill.
In his lead debate, Mr Kaoje said the free services shall cover referral cases of children from states, local government hospitals and any other private hospital in Nigeria.
Contributing to the debate, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) said the National Primary Health Care Development Agency is already saddled with the responsibility, thus, the bill is seeking duplication of functions.
He added that the parliament allocates funds to the agency annually to do that same function.
Countering the position of Mr Elumelu, the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila said those speaking against the bill should provide evidence that there is a provision in the 2022 money bill for free healthcare for children.
What I will like to see is a line item in the budget that provides free delivery of children, he said, adding that the bill is in line with section 17 of the 1999 Constitution.
Also speaking on the bill, the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) said the matter is an issue of separation of responsibility between the three tiers of government.
I will like to get enlightened on the federal government being responsible for primary healthcare that is also being done by the local government or the state so that when we are talking about restructuring, we should put that into consideration, he said.
Solomon Muren (PDP, Plateau) argued that making laws that the executive cannot implement is akin to ridiculing the parliament. He noted that the issues surrounding funding must be sorted out.
The bill is very important, but as members of parliament, we have a duty to make laws that are implementable by the executive arm. Mr Speaker, yes it may be in the National Primary Healthcare Act as a clause, to provide free healthcare. The mover of this bill should be able to bring forth what is the statistics of children in this country?
We make the budget and we also make the law. If we do not have sufficient provision in our budget that will support what we are trying to do, we will be helping to put up laws that are not implementable in this country. I think this bill should be stepped down.
Speaking in support of the bill, Gudaje Kazaure (APC, Jigawa) said the bill is vital to the nation by guaranteeing free healthcare for children in Nigeria.
Following a voice vote on the bill, it was passed and referred to the House Committee on Healthcare for further legislative action.
Traditionally and historically, the presentation of budgets evolved from the premise of having to allow scrutiny of the resources raised by the government and the uses to which these will be put. The publication or public presentation of a budget thus performs the role of generating accountability for the actions of government at various levels.
A budget presentation, therefore, should not be seen as a mere governmental annual ritual but rather as an avenue by the governed to have insightful participation in the art of governance. A budgetary allocation has been developed as a framework within which complex decisions on the allocation of resources can be made more effectively.
The budget presentation is thus in compliance with section 121 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which provides that the Governor shall cause to be prepared and laid before the House of Assembly at any time before the commencement of each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the state for the next following financial year.
In the light of the above, the recent presentation of the Gombe State 2022 budget by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya is an attestation of the government of Gombe States character to run an open and easy to follow administration.
Before the presentation to the State House of Assembly, a town hall meeting on budget preparation was held with traditional rulers, community leaders, trade unions and non-governmental organisations to harness their inputs in order to ensure an all-inclusive budgeting process. Also, the draft was subjected to further scrutiny by members of the state executive council at their sitting. These go to show that the Gombe 2022 budget is indeed the peoples budget that aims to consolidate the gains of the previous ones.
The overall budget performance of the last fiscal year as of September 30, 2021, was 68.5 per cent. This is to the credit of the fiscal exchequer of the state.
For the 2022 fiscal year, the sum of One Hundred and Fifty-Four Billion, Six Hundred and Ten Million, Six Hundred and Fourteen Thousand Naira (N154, 610,614,000.00) is proposed to be expended. The budget is made up of Sixty-Nine Billion, One Hundred and Seventeen Million, Two Hundred and Fourteen Thousand Naira (N69,117,214,000.00) for recurrent expenditure representing 44.7 per cent of the total budget, and Eighty-Five Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety-Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira (N85,493,400,000.00) for capital expenditure which represents 55.3 per cent of the budget sum.
The 2022 budget draws heavily on the aspirations of the 10-year Development Agenda evolved by the Inuwa Yahayas administration, the first of such in the 25-year history of the state. The Development Agenda, DEVAGOM for short, is anchored on five strategic pillars, namely; Governance and Administration, Social development, Economic Development, Infrastructural Development and Sustainable Environment.
This budget is envisaged to be financed by an estimated recurrent revenue of Seventy-Three Billion, Six Hundred and Twenty-Six Million, Seven Hundred and Eighty-Nine Thousand Naira (N73,626,789,000.00) and capital receipts of Seventy-Nine Billion, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Five Million Naira (N79,865,000,000.00) and an estimated closing balance of Four Billion, Eight Hundred and Eighty-One Million, One Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand Naira (N4,881,175,000.00)
The budget places emphasis on sectoral developments of catalytic areas that will rev up the 10-year Development Agenda of the State. Hence the 2022 fiscal year, places priority on strengthening the Agricultural value-chain by boosting Small, Medium and Large-Scale agricultural processing in the State. To fund activities in this sector with the sum of Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Twenty-Three Million Naira (N2, 723,000,000.00).
Since agriculture and Rural, Community Development and Cooperatives go hand in hand; a budgetary provision of interventions to improve the quality of life in rural communities in the sum of One Billion, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Five Million Naira (N1, 995,000,000.00) is earmarked for investment in this sub-sector.
One of the main drivers of the industrialization of a state is the Trade, Industry and Tourism Sector. Gombe State is currently ranked number One in the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council and there is a need to consolidate the gains in that area. In this regard, the sum of Ten Billion, Nine Hundred and Thirty Million Naira (N10,930,000,000.00) is earmarked for investment in this sector in order to deepen the efforts made so far.
Infrastructure no doubt, is a leading catalyst for growth as exemplified by the huge investments of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Works and Infrastructure is a priority for Gombe State as well. For this, the sum of Twenty Billion, Nine Hundred and Ten Million Naira (N20, 910,000,000.00) is earmarked for this sub-sector. Governor Inuwa yahya has given a fresh icing on the cake of his 10-year development Agenda by giving given approval for the preparation of a 30-year Gombe State Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (GSIIP). The document will guide the infrastructure plans and implementation.
There is still an urgent need to tackle the dilapidation of the states infrastructure stock and completion of abandoned projects. It is indeed noticeable by the administrations scorecard that most of these projects have either been completed or are at various stages of completion since Inuwa Yahaya took over the administration of the state.
Housing and Urban Development also got a good chunk. In line with the administrations vision to facilitate good urban planning and development in the state, the sum of Seven Billion, Four Million Naira (N7,004,000,000.00) is proposed for investment for the Housing and Urban Development sub-sector in the 2022 fiscal year.
Women Affairs and Social Development did not take a back seat. Inuwa Yahaya seeks to promote the relevance of women, children and other vulnerable groups in decision making and the implementation of relevant policies and programmes and has budgeted the sum of One Billion, Three Hundred and Thirty-Nine Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N1,339,500,000.00) for investment in 2022 fiscal year.
The budget is a continuation of the states transformational strategic thrust as contained in the Development Plan. The focus for the 2022 budget will include efforts towards (i) Increasing the State Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita; (ii) High-quality healthcare system including food and nutrition security; (iii) Promoting the role of women in development; (iv) Protecting culture, heritage and shared values;(v) Strengthening our security infrastructure;(vi) Continued provision and modernization of infrastructure;(vii) Strengthening and creating new poverty reduction initiatives predicated on skills acquisition, job creation and reduced unemployment;(viii) Improved access to clean and safe water and sanitation;(ix) Provision of affordable housing; (x) Universal access to quality education;(xi) Promoting digital connectivity and rural electrification;(xii) Strengthening our internal revenue generation drive, ease of doing business and fiscal responsibility;(xiii) Strengthening development partnership; and (xiv) Protecting the Environment and mitigating climate change.
The effect of the COVID-19 on the world economy is still consequential and impacting negatively the states revenues. In this regard, Gombe State has put in place several initiatives towards boosting internal revenue generation. Some of these actions include repositioning the Internal Revenue Service for improved performance, identification of new revenue sources, advocacy and sensitization of the populace on the need to pay their taxes.
After the budget had been laid bare to the honourable members of the Gombe State House of assembly for a legislative scrutiny, it is to the credit of the good synergy existing between the executive and the legislative arm of the Gombe State government that the assembly members spoke with one voice in commendation of the timely presentation of the budget.
Education Sector: A concerted effort to reposition the education sector has witnessed a heavy investment in infrastructural improvement, quality assurance, deliberate attention to science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies amongst other interventions in SUBEB and BESDA. Work is currently on-going to upgrade five secondary schools to Mega Schools with a capacity to accommodate not less than 3,000 students each. The sum of Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight Million, Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N2,778,200,000.00) is earmarked for investment in education in the 2022 fiscal year.
And for Higher Education, Inuwa Yahaya administrations promise of ensuring the growth and development of the Gombe State University, the College of Education Billiri, State Polytechnic, Bajoga and College of Legal and Islamic Studies Nafada, and the construction of a permanent site for the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Gombe is still in smart focus. The sum of Three Billion, One Hundred and Sixty-Two Million Naira (N3,162,000,000.00) is allocated in the 2022 fiscal year.
Looking at the Health Sector, although this administration has successfully revitalized 1 Primary Care Centre in each of the 114 wards of the state, upgraded the State Specialist Hospital in Gombe and established the Gombe State Hospital Services Management Board. Equally, it has embarked on the renovation of the Bajoga and Kaltungo General Hospitals, and the reconstruction of Kumo General Hospital, it plans to ensure that there is 1 functional General Hospital in each of the senatorial districts of the State. The sum of Six Billion, Twenty-Seven Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N6,027,500,000.00) is earmarked for investment in the 2022 fiscal year for improving access to quality healthcare services to the people of Gombe State.
Science, Technology and Innovation; Environment and Forestry; Water Resources; Internal Security and Ethical Orientation all get a good share of the budgetary allocations.
The legislative arm of Gombe state government appears pleased with the budget as signified by their response to the budget presentation.
We wish to assure Your Excellency that, by Gods grace, the budget will receive diligent and expeditious legislative scrutiny and passage to enable you continue to implement all the laudable developmental policies and programmes of your purposeful administration, Abubakar Mohammed, Speaker Gombe State House of Assembly said.
The State House of Assembly members said that they are proud to be associated with Governor Yahayas laudable achievements.
ALSO READ: The smart moves of Governor Inuwa Yahaya in Abuja
We have every cause to be associated with you, because your prompt execution of Laws and Resolutions passed in our hallowed Chambers has extended the dividends of democracy to our Constituencies. The construction of rural roads, rural water supply and electrification, construction and renovation of Hospitals, schools and Health Centres have put on smiles on the faces of our rural dwellers.
The lawmakers added that the administration of Governor Yahayas commitment in the ongoing N16.4 billion Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park Project; the agreement with a Chinese Conglomerate Sinon International Engineering Company Ltd in partnership with Madugu Cement to establish a Five million metric tons Cement factory; provision of 144,000 hectares for Wawa-Zange Grazing Reserve that will be used as Pilot project for the National Livestock Transformation Programme and the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Rift Oil and Petroleum Company on exploring maximum benefits from commercial discovery of Hydrocarbon in Kolmani Oilfield are commendable initiatives in boosting the status of Gombe state as hub of trade, commerce, industry and agriculture as well as creator of jobs and wealth not only in the Northeast but in the country in general is remarkably unprecedented in the history of Gombe State.
The lawmakers praised the giant strides of the Inuwa Yahaya led administration in all facets of development, saying that it, therefore, did not come to us as surprise when the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osibanjo ranked Gombe State first in terms of ease of doing business in Nigeria and the recent acknowledgement of Gombe state as a role model in developing Basic Education by the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education. Your Excellency these are clear manifestation of your good governance.
Scoring the budget performance of the passing year 2021 very high, the Assembly Members enthused that, with this budget performance, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya is worthy of commendation not only from financial experts but also from the common man who has really felt the positive impact of the Budget implementation.
They also noted that worthy of commendation is Inuwa Yahayas ability to achieve a lot within the lean resources of the state and in a short period after creating an atmosphere of peace. This act is said to be a clear testimony of Yahayas prudence in management of resources and the zeal to realize his dream the dream of the founding fathers of Gombe State.
Inuwa Yahayas friendliness with the legislature did not go unnoticed by the Honourable Members. Let me also acknowledge and appreciate your legislature-friendly posture manifested in the conducive legislative environment you have created for us in the House and most importantly your recent assent to the Finacial Autonomy Laws of the State Legislature and the Judiciary which has demonstrated your respect to the Constitution and commitment towards upholding the principle of separation of power. In fact, we thank you very much sir for this gesture, the speaker said.
The Honourable Members pledged to reciprocate the governors friendly posture by giving him all the required support through passage of people-oriented legislations that are in compliance with his vision and mission of placing Gombe State in an enviable position in Nigeria.
After the ceremonial presentation of the budget, political and economic analysts have taken a cursory look at the financials and are quick to notice what the budgetary provisions portend for Gombe State as an entity and the citizens as end beneficiaries.
Loan financing is on the downward trend. From a total of N35,100,000,000.00 in 2019 has been reduced to N22,200,000,000.00 in the outgoing year. Capital expenditure N49,971,164,583.00 moved up to N71,046,953,900.00.This is a clear signal that infrastructure is getting due attention at the expense of recurring spending. Recurrent expenses moved from N66,204,152,208.00 to N59,781,783,900.00 in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
However, the 2022 recurrent expenditure stands at N69,117,214,000.00) representing 44.7 per cent of the total budget, and Eighty-Five Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety-Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira (N85,493,400,000.00) for capital expenditure which represents 55. 3 per cent of the budget sum. This sum signposts a development upward curve for the state.
Financial experts also surmised that the budget if pursued with focused fiscal determination and discipline is capable of moving Gombe State several miles forward in the pursuit of the 10-Year Development Agenda and consolidates the huge efforts made at making Gombe a modern state by the Inuwa Yahayas swift developmental pace.
Misilli is Director-General ( Press Affairs)
Government House, Gombe
Odua Investment Company Limited is undergoing restructuring to enhance its performance, achieve sustainable growth, and transform into a world-class conglomerate in no distant time. The Group Chairman of the company, Segun Aina, OFR, disclosed this at the 45th Anniversary commemorative lecture held on Friday, November12, 2021 in Lagos. The theme of lecture is: From Regional Player to Global PowerHouse.
Mr Aina said that the company, owned by the six South-West states of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos, aimed at emerging a world-class conglomerate in no distant future.
Odua Investment Company Limited is being transformed into a lean, non-operating investment holding company to enhance transparency, focus on investment management and sustainability, traverse a path of maximum impact, and leverage on the models we have seen success in similar institutions across the globe.
We have redefined our vision to one that captures our ambition appropriately, which is, to be a world-class conglomerate, and a mission to deliver sustainable returns for all stakeholders enhancing the legacy for future generations, he said.
Mr Aina said the next four years would be the foundation years for the conglomerate to transform into an impact-driven organization.
Our targets for Odua investment over the next four years are audacious in terms of social impact, growth in revenue, and returns on assets with various assets optimization programmes planned.
The Group Chairman disclosed that the company planned to diversity its portfolio of assets beyond real estate and other subsidiaries and associates noting that the new investment initiatives of the company would target selected sectors of the economy, including healthcare, transportation and logistics, ICT, energy and financial services.
We have the strategic intent to dilute ownership in some of the investments where we currently have 100 percent ownership while limiting our shareholding in new ventures to minority holdings as may be necessary. We are also seeking partners that will provide capital and technical expertise to run these businesses, he said.
According to him, the company plans to transform Wemabod Estate, its real estate business, into a leading real estate development company. Odua had outlined plans to also transform its hotels into world-class destinations, driven by partnerships and global brands.
He said that Odua has established new outfits known as South West Agriculture Company Limited (SWAgco), Bita Exploration and Production Limited, South West Innovation and Technology Limited (SWIT), among others, to create jobs and grow the economy of the South-West region.
SwagCo, our agriculture investment vehicle, is primed to create a pool of hundreds of thousands of farmers and agro-prenuers across the states.
SWIT will drive our strategic partnerships, investment, and activities in the technology and digital space through investment in Techhubs, FinTechs and other ICT business, thus creating huge jobs, a new crop of techpreneurs and wealth as we also set out to support the development of a digital economy in the South West, he said.
He commended the owner states for their consistent support for the company, urging them to continue to support the company to achieve its new vision.
In his speech, Adewale Raji, the Group Managing Director of the company, said the conglomerate was repositioning to fulfill its role as both an investment vehicle and a growth engine of the South-West.
He said the company was exploring many possibilities, including starting new businesses to strengthen its operations and add value to the economy.
Mr Raji said that the rich heritage that Odua Investment had preserved over the years was worth celebrating. One of the examples is our venue for todays event, the Lagos Airport Hotel, which will be 80 years old next year, and is one of the oldest surviving hotels in Nigeria.
This for us, like many of the other assets in our custody, is not just an investment, but represents a part of our collective history, he said.
A management expert and a former Country Manager of Accenture, Dotun Sulaiman, MFR, who gave the anniversary lecture, said Odua investment was a treasure inherited from past leaders of the South-West region and that there was the need to reposition it and take it to greater heights.
He urged the company to focus on its areas of strength and foray into emerging but lucrative sectors of the economy.
The expert said the company had missed many investment opportunities in viable sectors like telecommunication, energy, and Fintech in the past but that it was not too late to consider those areas.
The Western Region recorded many firsts many years ago, but where are we today? Though we have yielded grounds, hope is not lost. If we begin to do the right thing with our inherited treasure with Odua Investment Company, we will definitely achieve a lot, he said.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said there was the need for the company to explore new areas of opportunities in the economy.
Represented by his deputy, Obafemi Hazmat, Mr Sanwo-Olu urged the company to consider investments in agricultural storage and processing to tap the opportunities in those areas.
The Kwara State Government, on Tuesday, flagged off mass vaccination of residents of the state against the COVID-19 virus.
Flagging off the exercise at a ceremony in Ilorin, the Deputy Governor, Kayode Alabi, urged residents of the state to get themselves vaccinated for protection against COVID-19.
The vaccines have been adjudged to be safe and devoid of negative adverse effects. Our administration has taken bold steps right from the early days of the pandemic by taking proactive steps such as building a standard treatment centre and provision of conducive and safe work environment to the crop of well-trained health workers in different required specialities, who provide services to COVID-19 patients admitted into the treatment centre, Mr Alabi said.
The arrival of COVID 19 vaccine brought a sigh of relief; as we know, like other Vaccine Preventable Diseases, COVID-19 vaccine will reduce the number of illnesses and deaths from the disease, he added.
I want to specially thank the management of Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KSPHCDA) under the leadership of the Executive Secretary, Dr. Nusirat Elelu, in their resilience in ensuring Kwarans get vaccinated on a continuous basis since March 2021.
He said the state government would continue to do its best to ensure that COVID-19 care and other health services are made available and accessible for everyone.
The Executive Secretary of KSPHCDA, Nusirat Elelu, said the agency has vaccinated over 15,000 individuals since the COVID-19 vaccination exercise began in March.
Todays flag off by His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Kwara State, Kayode Alabi, who doubles as the Chairman of the State Task Force on Immunisation, will activate the commencement of several other mass vaccination sites across the state to ensure that more Kwarans are reached with safe and effective vaccine, she said.
Mrs Elelu said one of the strategies to scale up the number of vaccinated individuals is mass vaccination.
This strategy will utilise approaches that include engaging additional public health facilities (primary, secondary and tertiary), use mobile vaccination vehicles, expansion to selected private health facilities as well as (the) establishment of mass vaccination sites in places with a large population, she explained.
In her goodwill address, the state Coordinator of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Deborah Oladipo, said since the start of the COVID-19 vaccination, 5,891,305 persons had received their first dose, which represents only 5.3 per cent of the overall eligible population.
She said 3,252,067 have received their second dose and become fully vaccinated, representing only 2.9 per cent of the overall population of eligible persons.
Indeed, there has been an upsurge in the number of people infected with the virus in recent times according to the statistics released by the NCDC. This is why this mass vaccination campaign has become necessary to prepare against the flurry of (festive) activities later this year.
At this juncture, I thank the Executive Governor of Kwara state, His Excellency, AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, for his continued support for the agency. The Kwara State government has been a wonderful partner and we will continue to count on that support.
UNICEF representative, Idris Nagia, applauded the state government for the mass vaccination campaign which he said would go a long way in reaching eligible ages in the state.
Mr Nagia assured the state that UNICEF would give significant support to improve the quality of health care delivery in Kwara.
The Coordinator of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Kwara State, Mustapha Katibi, explained that the benefit of COVID-19 vaccination (partial or full) is to ensure that in case of further infection, the severity is reduced and the case of death is reduced.
We are very happy for the giant strides the state government is making in the health sector, including COVID-19 vaccination. Of all the states in the country, Kwara State is recognised as one of the high-performing states in COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria. You are doing so well and I hope with the leadership of His Excellency Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq the pace will be maintained and even surpassed, the WHO official, said.
Mr Katibi also praised the state government for sustaining commitment in virtually all the health sector, and KWSPHCDA for its sustained mobilisation and sensitisation of the public.
Suspected bandits have again abducted four persons in Tegina in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.
Tegina is the town where 136 pupils of an Islamiyya school were abducted on May 30.
Weeks before that incident, bandits had also kidnapped scores of students from a public secondary school in Kagara in the same area.
An official of a road transport union in the town, Bello Muhammad, told PREMIUM TIMES that the gunmen called relatives of the victims of the latest incident on Wednesday and demanded a ransom of N150 million for their release.
Mr Muhammad said the victims were kidnapped on Sunday night at a water factory opposite Government Secondary School, Tegina.
Ninety of the 136 students of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School abducted on May 30 were released on August 26 after their parents reportedly paid N60 million in cash and five new motorcycles.
Residents said the four persons kidnapped on Sunday include a health worker identified as Sani Garba and the owner of the water factory, Bako BK.
The other victims are the manager of the factory, Kasimu Lawan, and one of its workers, Masudu Ibrahim.
Residents said the large group of armed bandits stormed the town and went straight to the factory.
Locals said the attack was the first since the restoration of telecommunications services in the council area.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Bala Kuryas, confirmed the incident. He, however, disclosed that one of those kidnapped managed to escape.
He also said the police were working to arrest those involved, according to a report by Channel Television.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the massacre of 15 people in Goronyo and Illela Local Government Areas of Sokoto State, saying that bandits are living in a fools paradise.
The president, who made the condemnation in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on Tuesday in Abuja, warned that this needless and mindless violence against innocent people cannot go unpunished.
Armed bandits on Monday killed at least 15 people in Goronyo and Illela local government areas of Sokoto State.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal confirmed the attack, saying 12 people were killed in Illela while three lost their lives in Goronyo.
The governor disclosed this shortly before he presented the 2022 Sokoto appropriation bill to the state House of Assembly on Monday.
He said the attacks occurred between Sunday night and Monday morning in the said council areas.
Bandits have been reported to be establishing administration in many rural communities in the state, imposing taxes on villagers.
Mr Buhari reassured Nigerians that his administration would not abandon them to their fate in the face of the existential challenge caused by banditry.
We are taking delivery of military equipment to improve the capacity of our security forces to effectively deal with this issue.
Our military is also deploying advanced technology to enhance surveillance and related operations to locate and crush these criminals and enemies of our common humanity.
This administration will not tolerate this state of affairs where criminals deprive the people of their means of livelihoods and turn them into beggars and refugees.
The bandits are living in a fools paradise if they believe that they cant be crushed. The criminals cannot be lucky always; they will ultimately meet their waterloo, he said.
According to Mr Buhari, evil cannot triumph over good, no matter how long it takes.
(NAN)
The House of Representatives has directed its Committee on Appropriations to allocate funds to commence the construction of the 132 KVA Gwaram sub-station in Jigawa State.
That resolution was a sequel to a motion moved by Yusuf Galambi (APC, Jigawa) on Wednesday during plenary session.
Moving the motion, Mr Galambi said N300 million was appropriated for the project in the 2016 Appropriation Act, but President Muhammadu Buhari in a letter in 2017 requested that the funds for the project should be diverted another project.
He noted that the president in the virement promised that adequate funding will be made available for the project in the 2017 budget. That promise, he said, has not been fulfiled.
Mr Galambi said the Jigawa State Government had already made land available, with a Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) but the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is yet to commence any visible action on the project.
In 2020, the Federal Executive Council approved N717 million as counterpart funding for the 132 KVA Gwaram sub-station, which is under the Siemens AG power deal.
The federal government approved N8.46 billion in total as counterparts funding for all the power projects under the Siemens AG deal.
Dayo Aiyetan, an investigative reporter, media trainer, and the Executive Director, International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), is going to be a Guest Lecturer for the 2021 Press Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council.
The Chairman of the Press Week Planning Committee, Etorobong Inyang, who disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Uyo, said the activities for the week would take place from 5 to 10 December, 2021 in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
The theme for this years Press Week according to the statement is: Politics, National Unity, and the Quest for Credible Election in 2023: The Role of Journalism.
Mr Aiyetans lecture is scheduled for 10 a.m, December 6, at the NUJ Press Centre, Uyo.
He is expected to talk to more than 450 journalists and other invited guests on election and political reporting, and how journalists, through their reporting, could safeguard free, transparent and credible elections in Nigeria, as well as the nations unity.
I am sure Mr Dayo Aiyetan will be bringing a whole lot to reporters in Uyo, he has mentored so many journalists within and outside Nigeria and has helped several newsrooms with great investigations, Cletus Ukpong, Premium Times regional editor, South, said on Wednesday.
I am looking forward to his lecture, Mr Ukpong added.
Apart from the lecture, a dinner and award ceremony is scheduled for Friday, 10 December, at Emerald Event Centre, Uyo where the winners in more than 12 different categories of journalism award would be announced and prizes presented.
On December 10, 2021, the winner of the N500,000 Ray Ekpu Prize for Investigative Reporting award will be unveiled.
The award, which is sponsored by the former Vice Chairman of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mr Udom Inoyo, is in honour of Nigerias finest journalists, Ray Ekpu, a former editor-in-chief and co-founder of Newswatch magazine, Mr Inyang said.
The event would be a celebration of professionalism and achievements of journalists, he added.
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has directed that all health-care facilities in the 27 local council areas of the state be fixed before December 15.
This was contained in a release, signed by the governors spokesperson, Oguwike Nwachuku, and made available to reporters in Owerri on Tuesday.
The governor gave the mandate when he met with the interim caretaker committee chairmen of local government areas at the Sam Mbakwe Executive Council Chambers, Government House, Owerri.
Mr Uzodinma, represented by the states Commissioner for Health, Barth Okorochukwu, charged the chairmen to take the directive seriously and act immediately.
He expressed concern over the health of Imo residents, especially those in the rural areas, noting that primary healthcare centres must be made to function for accessible healthcare services.
The IMC chairmen and the health officers will be involved in the supervision and monitoring of the projects, ensuring that they facilitate the work to beat the timeline.
This is targeted at actualising our vision of Imo having access to healthcare delivery services which is in compliance with the World Health Organisation mandate, he said.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Finance, Doris Anite-Uzoka, said the essence of the meeting was to usher in the first phase of the implementation of the rehabilitation of primary health centres.
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She said after this phase, another phase involving the general hospitals would start as both arms of healthcare facilities would be expected to function simultaneously.
Also, the Executive Secretary, Imo State Primary Healthcare Agency, Maryjonnes Uzoma, thanked the governor for embarking on the rehabilitation of primary healthcare centres in the state.
According to her, it will be a landmark achievement for the government and people of Imo.
Speaking on behalf of the chairmen, Chidi Okechukwu, from Ehime Mbano, commended the efforts of the governor.
He said the decision would enable rural dwellers to have access to quality healthcare delivery in the state.
(NAN)
The Society of Young Nigerian Writers has appealed to the State Government to immortalise Chinua Achebe for his legendary work in literary art.
Izunna Okafor, chairman, Anambra chapter of the society, made the appeal during the 6th edition of the Chinua Achebe Literary Festival and Memorial Lecture held in Awka on Tuesday.
Mr Okafor said it would be great if the government renamed the newly-commissioned Anambra International Airport after Achebe because his great personality deserves such a recognition.
He urged the government to establish Chinua Achebe Writers Residency, since Mr Achebe himself was a beneficiary and fellow of other writers residences in other countries of the world before his demise.
There is only one Writers Residency in Nigeria, Ebedi Writers Residency in Iseyi, Oyo state, privately owned by Dr Wale Okediran, therefore it will not be overdoing to also immortalise him (Achebe) with one.
He also requested the government appoints officials to charge of literary matters, who would stand as a bridge between writers and the state government.
Anambra has many exportable brands of star writers and deserves to create such a vital office to encourage and empower them both intellectually and financially.
This will also help to raise other Achebes who will replace the man on whose honour we are here today for.
The society, in collaboration with the Anambra State library Board, organised a maiden memorial lecture, poetry performance, and the unveiling of Chinua Achebe poetry Essay Anthology to celebrate the man Achebe
Nkechi Udeze, who heads the state library board, said it is important to celebrate Mr Achebe, so as to encourage young people to develop a culture of hard work.
She appealed to the young people to develop interest in writing and reading so as to bring out the inner talents to enrich themselves and to bless humanity.
In his keynote address, Chuka Nnebuife, an author, artist, journalist and the Managing Director of Anambra Newspapers and Printing Corporation, described Achebe as a social crusader, scholar, linguistic stylist, and forerunner.
Mr Nnabuife said Mr Achebe was an iconic name in Africa as well as world literature.
He believes that serious writers should have a sense of responsibility to enhance the quality of humanity by way of exposing all man-made suppression and oppression in society.
Achebe is a crusader against colonialism that enslaved the African countries and their people, he is opposed to the injustice and atrocities perpetrated by colonial rulers.
He wants to awaken the African people to rise up against the onslaught of colonialism in future. Nigerians are what they are only because their leaders are not what they should be, he said.
(NAN)
The police in Lagos said they have arrested 12 suspects over the killing of a Chief Superintendent of Police, Kazeem Abonde, at the Ajao estate area of the state.
This was contained in a statement released on Tuesday, by Adekunle Ajisebutu, the police spokesperson.
Mr Abonde, the former Divisionional Police Officer (DPO) of Ajangbandi division, was killed on September 22, during a raid of identified flashpoints and enforcement of the ban on use of motorcycles in restricted areas at Ajao Estate.
According to the police, hoodlums in their numbers laid siege to the exit of the Estate and attacked the policemen with guns, cutlasses, and other dangerous weapons, causing the death of the senior officer.
The police spokesperson, Mr Ajisebutu, said investigation by the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, has led to the arrest of 12 suspects in connection with the gruesome murder.
The deceased was also the Operations Officer of the Lagos State Command.
Arrest of one Ismaila Abdullahi Haruna m aged 23 years and 11 other suspects was made possible as a result of a four-week intensive but diligent investigation carried out by crack detectives of the Command.
The suspects, who confessed to the crimes of conspiracy to wit murder, murder, attempted murder and wilful damage were arrested in their criminal hideouts in Lagos and Nasarawa States where they were hibernating to evade arrest after the dastardly act, the statement reads in part.
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Mr Ajisebutu, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said the suspects gave an account of the brutal attack on the deceased police officer and other injured police officers.
The police said all the suspects will be arraigned at the Yaba Magistrate Court on November 17.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Hakeem Odumosu, said there would be diligent prosecution of the case.
He urged members of the public to give additional information that could lead to the arrest of other suspects still at large.
A member of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry has shed light on why there are errors in the leaked #EndSARS report.
Temitope Majekodunmi, a youth representative on the panel, said the report in circulation had typographical errors but they were corrected before it was approved and submitted to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Hours after the panel presented its reports on the Lekki shooting incident and police brutality cases to Mr Sanwo-Olu, a copy of the document was leaked and it went viral on social media.
Upon receiving the report, Mr Sanwo-Olu set up a four-man committee to look into the report within two weeks and bring forward the white paper that would be considered at the Lagos State executive council and presented as the white paper coming from the panel of inquiry.
Errors
The final report by the panel established that, at least, 46 people were shot dead, injured with bullets, or assaulted by security forces on the night of October 20, 2020, at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos.
Pro-government supporters have, however, attempted to discredit the report, saying it was riddled with errors and is a testament to the shoddy job done by the panel.
But Mr Majekodunmi said the report in circulation had typographical errors but was approved as the final copy after the errors were corrected.
He said that the leaked report is not far from the original but I can confirm that the original is without all the identified errors.
He said the final copy, which was submitted to the governor, was devoid of those identified errors.
Furthermore, we did approve the report for print after several reviews of typographical errors, omission of some documents but duplicated as final edit; final, final edits and final of the finals of edit, Mr Majekodunmi.
Regardless of errors identified, it is important that we stick to the facts of the findings and its recommendations contained therein and also interpret appropriately. This report is all-encompassing for the reasoning of peace and justice. I am sure every one of you must have gone through the details.
He said that the summary of the report can be found on pages 11-15, Background on page 16; General proceedings on pages 17-280, Panel findings on Pages 281 304, a compendium of recommendations on pages 305-308 and the conclusion to page 309.
The report of the panel further validates our position that peaceful protesters were injured and/or killed by security operatives, who were meant to protect us. The findings of the panel and most importantly, the recommendations, are now in the public domain.
Mr Majekodunmi commended the survivors and advocates who braved the lengthy Judicial Panel hearings to arrive at what we considered Appropriate Justice for all that may have been wronged or aggrieved. Also, I would not fail to mention the sincerity of the State Government throughout the execution of the inquiry.
One of the groups at the forefront of last years #EndSARS protest has demanded a sincere apology from the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria over the massacre at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, by the Nigerian army and the police.
In a statement signed by the #EndSARS Frontliners on Wednesday, the group said the government should apologise to the victims of police brutality and military oppression in Nigeria at large, and specifically the Lekki toll gate massacre.
On Monday, hours after the state government received the reports of the judicial panel of inquiry and promised to make it public, one of the reports on the Lekki shootings was leaked.
According to the report, the Nigerian Army shot, injured and killed unarmed, helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian flag and singing the National Anthem.
At least, 46 unarmed protesters were either shot dead, injured with bullets, or assaulted by security forces.
The Nigerian government, represented by Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has repeatedly stated that reports of a massacre at the Lekki toll gate is fake news.
The group described the presentation of the reports as a landmark development; however, the value of the report will only be realized when the government takes steps in good faith to ensure transparency and accountability in implementing its recommendations.
Demands
The group raised concerns over the increase in cases of police brutality, extortion, and harassment in Lagos State, as some police officers continue to act with impunity, searching phones with slaps and beatings, torturing and extorting young people, amongst other heinous crimes.
The group said it is the responsibility of the Nigerian government to protect and defend its citizens.
The group demanded that the government at the state level must ensure that the reports of the panels across the country are finalised and made public.
They demanded that all persons found culpable of any illegal activity be prosecuted and compensation should be given to victims of police brutality as recommended in the report.
As directed by NEC, all state governments proceed to set up human rights committees to conclude with other cases and ongoing issues with the first order of business being investigated into the unlawful incarceration of #EndSARS peaceful protesters in Lagos, Abuja, Oyo and other states, the statement read.
Describing Lagos State as an extremely problematic hotspot, the group demanded a digital central registry where cases of police brutality and extortion are reported and the Attorney General of the state in collaboration with appropriate officers of the Police Service Commission take steps to ensure a monthly review and accelerated action against offending officers.
#EndSARS Frontliners also demanded the government fulfil all promises made regarding police reform.
A memorial of this horrific occurrence must also be installed at the Lekki Toll Gate, to forever mark the memory of the deceased, and honour their martyrdom, the statement read.
Chidinma Ojukwu, the first defendant in the case of murder of Super TV Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga, left the apartment, where the alleged murder occurred, a night before body was found.
A security guard at the apartment said this on Wednesday while testifying before a Lagos high court as the second prosecution witness in the murder trial.
The security guard, Abubakar Mohammed, was being cross-examined before the court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Mohammed began his testimony on Tuesday.
He was cross-examined on Wednesday by the defence counsel.
Ms Ojukwu, an undergraduate, is facing trial along with her sister, Chioma Egbuchu, and Adedapo Quadri.
While Messrs Ojukwu and Quadri are charged with conspiracy and murder of Mr Ataga, Ms Egbuchu is charged with theft of the deceaseds iPhone.
Cross-examination
During his cross-examination by Ms Ojukwus counsel, Onwuka Egwu, the security guard said that Ms Ojukwu left the apartment on the night of June 15 and did not return to the premises even after Atagas body was found.
He testified that when Ms Ojukwu was leaving, he was at his duty post and she waved at him and entered a vehicle.
The witness denied that he told the police that he suspected Babalola Disu, who also lodged at the apartment at the time the alleged murder happened.
Mr Mohammed also told the court that he did not get Mr Atagas full view when he came into the premises because he (Ataga) was inside a vehicle.
He also said the deceased did not come out of his apartment after he entered.
The witness said it was Ms Ojukwu who used to come out or call him on the phone when she needed any help.
Mr Quadris counsel, Babatunde Busari, also cross-examined the witness.
Mr Busari asked him to confirm if a dispatch rider actually came to the apartment and how many times the dispatch rider came.
The witness testified that a dispatch rider came once to the apartment, adding that the dispatch rider gave Ms Ojukwu a small parcel which he did not know the content.
The witness was re-examined by the prosecution counsel, Yusuf Sule, during which he told the court that Ms Ojukwu was the person who came and logged at the apartment.
Mr Mohammed said he was able to identify her at a police station during an investigation because she wears her face mask without covering her nose.
I was also able to identify her when she removed her face mask.
The police also asked her (defendant) if she knows me and my name, the defendant answered, `Yes, and mentioned my name, Abu.
NAN reports that the witness had on Tuesday narrated to the court how Ms Ojukwu and Mr Ataga allegedly lodged at the apartment where he worked as security man.
He said that they lodged on June 13 and Ms Ojukwu left the premises on the night of June 15 and did not return.
He told the court that he found Mr Atagas corpse on the morning of June 16.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya adjourned the case until November 25 for the continuation of trial.
NAN reports that the three defendants were arraigned on October 12 on a nine-count charge preferred against them by Lagos State Government.
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Ms Ojukwu and Mr Quadri are facing the first to eight counts bordering on conspiracy, murder, stabbing, forgery, making of bank statements and stealing.
The third defendant, Ms Egbuchu, is facing the ninth count of stealing Mr Atagas iPhone 7.
The two suspects are alleged to have conspired and murdered Mr Ataga on June 15, 2021, by stabbing him several times with a knife on the neck and chest.
The alleged murder took place at No. 19, Adewale Oshin St., Lekki Phase 1, Lagos State.
The duo was also accused of committing forgery by procuring and making bank account statements purported to have been made by the deceased. (NAN)
Justice Yetunde Adesanya of a Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square, on Wednesday sentenced two men, Ahmed Musa and Oluwole Sunday, to 14 years imprisonment each, for robbery.
The convicts were convicted and sentenced after they pleaded guilty under a plea bargain agreement.
Messrs Musa and Sunday were initially arraigned on February, 2018, before the court on a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit robbery and armed robbery.
They had pleaded not guilty, and were remanded.
Their trial began on May 30, 2018. They later entered into a plea bargain agreement with prosecution.
In her judgment, Mra Adesanya held that the sentence was in line with Section 76 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The court has ascertained from the defendants that they entered into the plea bargain agreement on their own free volition, free from any coercion.
I have observed that the prosecution and the defence agreed on the 14-year term, she said.
The judge, however, held that the court was not bound by the terms of the agreement, but had the power to increase or reduce the sentence term.
The defendants pleaded guilty to a further amended charge of robbery punishable under Section 297 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The defendants are fully competent to answer to their plea, they understand the charge and that the court was not bound to the plea bargain.
Ahmed Musa, Oluwole Sunday, in view of your plea, I hereby convict you as charged.
You are both sentenced to 14 years imprisonment each, starting from October, 2016, the judge held.
Earlier, the Lagos State counsel, A.O. Oluwafemi, informed the court that the defendants applied for a plea bargain agreement.
They were, therefore, re-arraigned and they pleaded guilty.
Their counsel, B. C. Mebanu, was in court.
NAN reports that the prosecution counsel had told the court that the duo committed the offences on July 23, 2016.
She said that they robbed A. Samuel of an 18-caract gold Rolex wristwatch and an iPhone.
She said the robbery took place at Conoil Filling Station, Dopemu Bridge in Lagos State.
According to her, the offences contravene Section 297 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2015. (NAN)
A Sabo Yaba Magistrates Court in Lagos State, on Wednesday remanded 12 men for alleged murder of a police officer during a raid on motorcycle riders operating in restricted areas.
The defendants are Imurana Mohammed; Yahaya Sefiyanu, 26; Umar Musa, 20; Danladi Aziga, 25; Ogbole Mohammed, 23; Haruna Ismail, 23; and Abubakar Talla, 25.
Others are Sahab Adam, 28; Oseni Hassan, 23; Sulaimon Usman, 21; Ibrahim Mohammed, 23; and Kigbu Oga, 30.
They are facing a three-count charge of conspiracy to murder, murder and attempt to murder.
They were charged before O.Y. Adefope.
The prosecutor attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Augustine Nwabuisi, told the court that the defendants committed the offences on September 23, on Ajao Estate, Lagos.
He said the defendants killed Kazeem Abonde, a Chief Superintendent of Police, who was on official duty to enforce a ban on use of motorcycles in restricted areas.
According to him, the defendants used dangerous weapons to attack the police officer until he became unconscious and later died.
Mr Nwabuisi applied for 30 days remand of the defendants, saying that the police had concluded investigation in the case and the case file sent to the state Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice.
He added that some of the defendants made confessional statements during interrogation at a police station.
Spurgeon Ataene, I.B. Ahmad and Yilja Jibril appeared for the defendants.
They urged the court to disregard the remand application and release the defendants on bail.
However, Mrs Adefope ordered that the defendants should be kept for 30 days at the Ikoyi Custodial Centre pending advice from the DPP.
She adjourned the case until December 21 for mention. (NAN)
Another two storey building under construction at Flour Mill Estate, Magbon in Badagry, Lagos, collapsed on Wednesday, killing four people.
The incident happened barely two weeks after the Ikoyi building collapse, which killed about 46 persons.
According to Ibrahim Farinloye, the acting coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), south-west, the incident happened at about 1 p.m.
He confirmed that four workers died in the incident, while five persons were rescued with various degree of injuries.
The building construction started about two years ago but not completed. However, further development just started three months ago, he said.
Mr Farinloye said while the four persons that died were taken to the Badagry General Hospital for treatment, the injured workers were treated at Catholics hospital, Magbon.
The families and relations of the affected victims have been identified by the relations of the victims, he added.
The NEMA official said rescue operations have been concluded at the scene of the incident.
Giving update on the incident, Adekunle Ajisebutu, the Lagos police spokesperson, said the police and other rescue workers carried out operation at the site of the collapse.
Mr Ajisebutu said six persons were rescued by the team and five bodies recovered, while recovery operation has been concluded.
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HOLON, Israel, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bahraini Ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yousif al-Jalahma, visited the Palestinian Clinic of Save a Child's Heart (SACH) in Israel last week, where children from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are treated by the volunteer doctors of SACH.
After his visit, Jalahma stated, "We will examine humanitarian cooperation between Israel and Bahrain for the first time."
Save a Child's Heart, based at the new Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital in Holon, works to bring hundreds of children from around the world to undergo life-saving heart treatments in Israel annually. During his visit, the ambassador was accompanied by the Israeli ambassador to Bahrain, Eitan Na'eh, and met many Palestinian parents and their children, who are being treated at the clinic and come once a week for evaluation and treatment.
Jalahma also met with the chairman of Save a Child's Heart, Yoram Cohen, and its Executive Director, Simon Fisher, to discuss future humanitarian cooperation between the two countries since the signing of the Abraham Accords. At the end of the meeting, Jalahma toured the Children's Hospital, where he met the SACH medical team, including three Palestinian doctors from Gaza and two other doctors from Zambia and Ethiopia who are taking part in the Save a Child's Heart training program.
The visit ended with a touching meeting of the ambassador with dozens of children from Iraq, Myanmar, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Nigeria, after undergoing life-saving medical care in Israel.
Jalahma commented, "I hear a lot about the humanitarian activity of Save a Child's Heart, and I am very happy to be here today to see the work firsthand. I hope that this is the beginning of a very fruitful relationship between Bahrain and Israel in the medical field. I have heard of the work you do across the world. Working with you has become possible because of the Abraham Accords and we look to build on this. These kinds of programs are what will make our world a better place."
Fisher concluded: "We are excited to meet the Ambassador and introduce him to Israeli humanitarian activities for children with heart disease from around the world out of a genuine desire and faith to work for a better world. The Abraham Accords have opened up many opportunities for expanding the organization's activities in Arab countries and Africa, and we hope that fruitful collaborations will be created as a result in order to save the lives of more children."
Media Contact:
David Litwack
240-223-3940
[email protected]
https://saveachildsheart.org/
SOURCE Save a Child's Heart
Vietnam News
To pursue medical education in Vietnam , high school students can directly enter into medical college after completing the admission process.
, high school students can directly enter into medical college after completing the admission process. Hanoi Medical College is one the top university with campus in central Vietnam . It is the oldest medical college of Vietnam .
GURUGRAM, India, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Popularity of Vietnam Medical Education Market: With ultin f 96.4 million during 2020, it makes Vietnm third mst ulus untry in Suth Est Asia. Along with the rapid enmi develment, the helth sttus f ele in Vietnm hs signifintly imrved in reent yers, with the life exetny t birth inresing frm 71 yers in 1990 t 76 yers in 2015. In the past two decades (2001 2020), medical education system has gradually moved towards an integrated educational program, applying the principle of "student-centeredness", and introducing educational methods "based on problems". And "based on simulation". The need for additional doctors to the local health system has been addressed, helping to improve access to medical education for ethnic minorities and people in rural areas.
Enablers of Medical Education in Vietnam: In recent years, medical education in Vietnam has undergone changes with the support of international donors. For example, the ''Strengthening Medical Skills Training at Eight Universities'' project supported by the Netherlands' NUFFIC program from 2004 to 2008, in establishing and developing medical skills training units and new medical skills training curricula. The Dutch government also supported another project aimed at strengthening community-oriented education. As a step forward, medical schools in Vietnam have led changes in their education models through Health Professionals Education and Training for Health System Reforms project (HPET), approved by the Vietnamese government in late 2013. With coming ages there will be a lot of growth in the Vietnamese educational sector with the support of these efforts.
Specialized Courses in Vietnam: Vietnam, being a colonial country in the past follows traditional French system of education. The traditional methods involve learning by practice. This involves learning by practice through residency programs.
Students can go for the residency programs straight after their medical graduation, all they need is accreditation from the Department of Health. Approximately, 10% of medical students go for their residency program. Other methods of acquiring the medical specialization have to go through the Specialization level 1 and level 2 degree programs.
The report titled "Landscape of Vietnam Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate" by Ken Research suggested that the Colleges have faced a slight downfall in terms of No. of Intake, Enrollment and Graduates amid COVID-19. Major merits of pursuing medicine in Vietnam Universities are factors such is high salaries, cheap cost of living, free style education and high opportunities.
Key Segments Covered:-
Market Segmentation basis Type of Institution (Number of Colleges)
Private College
Public College
Market Segmentation basis Region (Number of Colleges)
Central Region
Southern Region
Northern Region
Physician
Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Internal Medicine
Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Ophthalmology
Admission Process
Intake Status
Selection Process
Total No. of Graduates
Total Number of Intake
Key Target Audience:-
Public Medical Colleges
Private Medical Colleges
Aspiring students of Bachelor in Medical Education
Aspiring students of Master in Medical Education especially Internal Medicine and Ophthalmology
Time Period Captured in the Report:-
Base Year: 2020
Study Period: 20162020
Colleges Covered:-
Landscape on Vietnam Medical Education institutions include faculties of medicine of following colleges
Hanoi Medial University
University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City
Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty of Medicine
Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine
Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Vietnam Military Medical University
Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Tay Nguyen University, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy
Vo Truong Toan University, Faculty of Medicine
Tan Tao University School of Medicine
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Key Topics Covered in the Report:-
Vietnam Medical Education Introduction
Detailed Landscape of Private and Public Colleges
Market Ecosystem
Market Segmentation basis Institution and Regions
Admission Process for both Bachelor and Master Course
Detailed Analysis on Physician Courses (Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates with Statistics for Each College)
Detailed Analysis on Internal Medicine Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates with Statistics for Each College)
Detailed Analysis on Ophthalmology Market Size on the basis of Intake Enrollment and Graduates with Statistics for Each College)
Major Universities and Colleges in Vietnam Medical Education Market
Vietnam Ophthalmology Education Market
Vietnam Internal Medicine Education Market
Vietnam Physician Education Market
Vietnam Education Market
Ophthalmologists in Vietnam
Medical Higher Education in Vietnam
Medical Graduates in Vietnam
Growth of Ophthalmology Education Market in Vietnam
Growth of Internal Medicine Education Market in Vietnam
Growth of Physician Education Market in Vietnam
Vietnam Ophthalmology Education College Course Fee
Vietnam MBBS Education College Course Fee
Vietnam Physician Education College Course Fee
Vietnam Internal Medicine Education College Course Fee
Major Colleges for Internal Medicine in Vietnam
Private Medical Colleges in Vietnam
Public Medical Colleges in Vietnam
Hanoi Medial University Medical Education Market Revenue
University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City Medical Education Market Revenue
Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Medical Education Market Size
Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty of Medicine Medical Education Market Shares
Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine Medical Education Market Sales
Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy Medical Education Market Revenue
For More Information On the research report, refer to below link:-
Vietnam Medical Education Market
Related Reports:-
Landscape of Indonesia Medical Education Market- Consistent Changes In The Course Curriculum Helping Indonesian Medical Education System to Improve Skills of Medical Graduates
Indonesia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro-challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical professionals prevailing in the Industry. Some of the common challenges faced by the Industry are high fees of medical programs, absence of standardized admission process, and difficulty to crack exams. The Industry also faces a major challenge in the form of learning outcomes, there is a disparity between the skills of graduates and the needs of employers. Hence Medical Education needs a curriculum that improves the skills of the graduates. Major Enabler in the Indonesia Medical Education Market is mostly the great environment to accommodate students especially International Aspirants provided by the country owing to factors such as a large number of medical schools, good infrastructure, high employment opportunities, and excellent scholarship schemes.
Landscape of Philippines Medical Education Market- Outcome Based Curriculum with Clear Explicit Articulations that Medical Graduates should Demonstrate
Philippines Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro-challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some of the major challenges faced by the Industry are Malpractices by Education Agents, Regional Education Disparities and more. Major Enabler in the Philippines Medical Education Market is mostly the great environment to accommodate students especially International Aspirants provided by the country.
Landscape of Malaysia Medical Education Market-Growth in Medical Graduates, Pushing Candidates to Seek Specialization Contributing to Medical Workforce
Malaysia Medical Education Sector has been facing many macro and micro challenges. Each challenge has a direct or indirect effect on the Quality of Education and Quantity of Medical Professional prevailing in the Industry. Some challenges are opening up over the time however some challenges have become stagnant. Enablers in the Malaysia Medical Education Market are mostly apprehending for the international students.
Landscape of Thailand Medical Education Market-Increasing Number of Top Rated Universities coupled with Undertaking Cutting Edge Research Driving the Industry
Medical Education in Thailand has seen a long journey with various turns with intense progress. The journey has given the system its fair share of challenges to deal with issues including keeping pace with rapidly changing knowledge and installing same coping abilities in the students, maintaining quality of training of students with their increasing demand, mental health issues arising for medical students under heavy pressure, funds and scholarships to arrange the education, to retain good quality staff and lack of private investment in medical education.
Various factors that drive the growth of Medical Education Sytem in Thailand are expensive public infrastructure and universal coverage, postgraduate program is in alignment with international standards, the brain drain is at lower level in comparison to its neighbouring countries because majority of education is in Thai, changes in the need of society, changes in the nature of students, evolution in learning and teaching processes, rapid changes in technologies supporting medical practices and education, enormous explosion in medical knowledge and changes in the health system.
Contact Us:-
Ken Research
Ankur Gupta
Head Marketing & Communications
[email protected]
+91-9015378249
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jpg
SOURCE Ken Research
RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Many N.C. 2020 high school graduates are now eligible to have tuition and fees covered at any of the 58 community colleges in the state. The Longleaf Commitment Grants provide between $700 $2,800 to recent high school graduates to cover the cost of tuition and fees for up to two years at any N.C. Community College. The grants were previously only open to 2021 high school graduates.
With the expanded eligibility to 2020 high school graduates, the System hopes to further boost enrollment and provide students with a more affordable option and greater access to higher education to students who previously would not have been able to easily attend.
"Education translates into opportunity, and with this grant expansion, we are excited to provide more opportunity to our diverse student populations across the state," said Thomas A. Stith III, president of the N.C. Community College System. "North Carolina's 'Great 58' community colleges are essential to the state's economic recovery efforts and are well poised to prepare the workforce needed today and tomorrow."
In alignment with North Carolina's educational attainment goal, the grant will also accelerate learning recovery to ensure 2020-2021 graduates attain the education they need to get a career they want.
In order for full-time students to receive the Longleaf Commitment Grant and take full advantage of the opportunity, they must follow the below steps and meet the eligibility requirements:
Apply for admission to any North Carolina community college
community college Complete the 2021-2022 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submission process
Note The FAFSA and enrollment information are used to determine eligibility. There is not an application specifically for the Longleaf Commitment Grant.
Eligibility Requirements:
Graduate from a N.C. high school in 2020 or 2021
Be a N.C. resident
Be a first-time college student [Career & College Promise (CCP) and Early/Middle College High School students are eligible]
Enroll in a curriculum program during the Spring 2022 academic year
Enroll in at least six credit hours per semester
Complete the FAFSA for 2021-2022
Have an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from $0 - $15,000 ("EFC" is based upon a student's FAFSA determination)
- ("EFC" is based upon a student's FAFSA determination) Renew the FAFSA for the 2022-2023 academic years and meet the Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirements of the college
Earlier this year the N.C. Community College System received $25 million through the Governor's Pandemic Relief Office to award to eligible high school graduates of the class of 2021. With statewide outreach activities from the System Office and local efforts, the community colleges have awarded funds to approximately 11,000 students to date.
For additional information, visit www.yourhireeducation.com/tuitionfree
About the North Carolina Community College System
The North Carolina Community College System is a network created to improve the quality of life across North Carolina by opening the door to opportunities that minimize barriers to post-secondary education, maximize student success and develop a globally and multi-culturally competent workforce. The 58 institutions located throughout the state work to provide easy access to low-cost, high-quality educational opportunities and academic support that focuses on increasing employability. For more information, please visit: www.nccommunitycolleges.edu.
SOURCE North Carolina Community College System
DENVER, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AdCellerant today announced it ranked 472 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 , a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in North America, growing 231% during this period.
AdCellerant's goal is to help small businesses work smarter, not harder, using technology to drive their digital marketing strategy, execution, and reporting. The pandemic shined a light on the need for small businesses to leverage digital marketing consistently and in new ways to reach their customers, who are consumers spending nearly 8-hours a day online, almost an additional hour a day online since the pandemic started. With consumers spending most of their time online, and, more often at home, tech driven digital marketing is more important now than ever. AdCellerant's technology and service team offers small businesses a simple way to take advantage of consumers' changing consumption habits as well as their new traffic patterns.
AdCellerant's growth is due to the work the team has done with local media companies and businesses over the last eight years, combining the power of technology with human touch. The digital marketing ecosystem is fragmented and often difficult for many small businesses to navigate; AdCellerant's platform, UI.Marketing, connects customers with businesses anywhere, in a nimble, easy-to-use user interface, ultimately saving time and money.
The technology platform not only created explosive growth for AdCellerant's business but that of their customers as well. During the first 6 months of their partnership, one partner realized $672,000 in incremental retail revenue for their organization from using the AdCellerant technology platform. In the second six months, they achieved $1.16 million in incremental retail revenue, including during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Usage of the UI.Marketing platform by clients also statistically improves related revenues for new clients by an average of 30% YoY.
"We are exceptionally proud of our team, their accomplishments, and most importantly, the technology they're building that helps small businesses keep up with national companies when marketing online," said Brock Berry, CEO of AdCellerant.
When local businesses succeed, local economies succeed. It is the mission of AdCellerant and its partners to apply their digital marketing expertise to further the success of local businesses and the communities they serve.
About AdCellerant www.adcellerant.com
AdCellerant is a technology and digital advertising company focused on making quality digital marketing accessible to every business.
AdCellerant achieves this goal by partnering with local marketers, media companies, agencies, and channel sales organizations, helping them leverage AdCellerant's proprietary advertising software platform, UI.Marketing.
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US $50,000 and current-year operating revenues of at least US $5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
PR Contact: Meghan Brito, SVP of Marketing - AdCellerant, 720.837.6804, [email protected]
SOURCE AdCellerant
Related Links
http://www.adcellerant.com
PARIS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Amagi, a global leader in SaaS for broadcast and connected TV on the cloud, today announced that Alchimie, a video content aggregator and distributor, has partnered with it for channel creation and distribution to Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) platforms. Amagi is distributing 23 of Alchimie's channels to Rakuten TV and to Samsung TV Plus in 5 European countries France, Spain, UK, Italy, and Germany.
With a catalogue of 60,000 hours of programming content from over 300 prestigious partners (Java Films, France Televisions, Lukarn, RTVE, Zed, Limonero, and more), Alchimie creates new SVOD, AVOD & FAST channels and distributes them across 60+ digital platforms (TVplayer, Amazon, Orange, Netgem, Samsung, Huawei, and more) generating new revenue streams. Alchimie has its offices in France, UK, Germany, Spain, Australia and the United States.
Alchimie will use the award-winning broadcast-grade channel playout platform, Amagi CLOUDPORT and the lightweight content scheduling platform, Amagi PLANNER for media asset management and distribution. The ad technology solutions, Amagi THUNDERSTORM and Amagi ANALYTICS, will be deployed for dynamic ad insertion and in-depth viewership insights.
"The alliance with Amagi supports Alchimie's ability to quickly and effectively create new channels for our customers. We have got off to a great start having launched 23 channels in just a month," said Chittouma Sananikone, Global Markets Director, Alchimie. "The richness of Amagi's technical solutions and its partnerships with a multitude of AVOD platforms were valuable additions to our services as a leading digital broadcasting organization."
"Amagi has the most exhaustive AVOD partnership network in the world with 50+ platforms. We're keen to employ these partnerships to connect premium content providers such as Alchimie to discerning audiences worldwide," said Srinivasan KA, co-founder, Amagi.
Amagi provides a complete suite of solutions for content creation, distribution, and monetization. The company also has a state-of-the-art cloud broadcast operations center that can support 1000+ live linear channels. Amagi clients include ABS-CBN, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, CuriosityStream, Discovery Networks, Fox Networks, Fremantle, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Tegna, USA Today, Vice Media, and Warner Media, among others.
For more information about Amagi and its streaming TV solutions, visit www.amagi.com.
About Alchimie
Alchimie is a channel factory: a unique video platform in partnership with talents and media to co-publish their own thematic channel. Alchimie has a catalog of more than 70,000 hours of content from more than 300 renowned partners (Arte, France TV distribution, ZDF Entreprises or Zed). Alchimie partners with 70+ talents (celebrities, influencers), brands and media groups to create new channels (Cultivons-Nous, The Big Issue, Army Stories, Jacques Attali, Poisson Fecond, Vaughan, Michael Rowe, Spektrum der Wissenschaft) which are then distributed on more than 60 distribution platforms (TVPlayer, Amazon, Orange, Movistar, Samsung, Huawei, etc.) constantly expanding its audience and consequently its revenues. In 2019, Alchimie acquired TVPlayer, the largest independent OTT platform in the UK. With offices in France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Australia, Alchimie employs 125 people and is ranked 48th in FW500 (ranking of French technology companies).
Alchimie Press Contact:
Sophie Naylor
Watchlist TV
E: [email protected]
About Amagi
Amagi is a next-generation media technology company that provides cloud broadcast and targeted advertising solutions to broadcast TV and streaming TV platforms. Amagi enables content owners to launch, distribute and monetize live linear channels on Free-Ad-Supported TV and video services platforms. Amagi also offers 24x7 cloud managed services bringing simplicity, advanced automation, and transparency to the entire broadcast operations. Overall, Amagi supports 500+ content brands, 800+ playout chains and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. Amagi has presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation center in Bangalore.
Amagi Contact
Sanjay Kirimanjeshwar
Head of Global Marketing
Email: [email protected]
BOCA Communications
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Amagi Media Labs Pvt. Ltd.
LUXEMBOURG, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ardagh Metal Packaging ("AMP") is pleased to announce the acquisition of Hart Print, a North-America based innovator in digital printing services to the beverage market the first company to offer digital printed cans in the North-American market. Quebec-based Hart Print, founded in 2018, provides flexible digital printing solutions to support superior quality product innovation, from design optimization to fully realized designs. Hart Print's technology effectively combines high speed digital printing with flexible batch sizes, catering for a variety of can dimensions.
More than 75% of new product launches today in the North American beverage market are in cans, as consumer appeal is enhanced by the convenience and sustainability of metal packaging. For brand owners, beverage cans offer compelling performance and versatility, together with unlimited design and brand building opportunities.
This initiative enhances AMP's ability to serve fast-growing, emerging customers as they seek to access the market, an area where AMP has led over the years. In addition, it enables AMP to flexibly respond to larger customers' shorter-run requirements, including for new product introductions and targeted promotions.
Oliver Graham, CEO of Ardagh Metal Packaging said
"AMP has a strong reputation for innovation and customer service, including working with smaller and emerging customers to accelerate the growth of their brands. This initiative complements our $2bn+ growth investment program across 2021-2024 and further enhances our ability to serve these customers, as well as to work with our larger customers on special launches, promotions and tactical marketing. We look forward to integrating Hart Print into our offering and supporting its growth across our business in the years ahead".
Jean-Pierre Paradis, Managing Director/Co-founder of Hart Print said
"We are thrilled to team up with AMP, a company which shares our focus on the customer experience and the environment. This investment recognizes our ability to serve both smaller customers with large ambitions as well as larger customers that want to be creative with their brand. Under AMP's ownership, we look forward to taking digital printing on aluminum cans to the next level by leveraging AMP's global scale and expertise".
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
About Ardagh Metal Packaging
Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) is a leading global supplier of infinitely recyclable, sustainable, metal beverage cans and ends to brand owners. A subsidiary of sustainable packaging business Ardagh Group, AMP is a leading industry player across Europe and the Americas with a well-invested footprint and leading innovative production capabilities. Our customers include a wide variety of leading beverage producers serving categories including beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, hard seltzers, juices, pre-mixed cocktails, teas, sparkling waters and wine. We operate 23 production facilities in nine countries, employing more than 5,000 employees and had sales of approximately $3.5bn in 2020.
For more information about AMP and its innovations in beverage packaging, please visit www.ardaghmetalpackaging.com/
About Hart Print
Based in Quebec, Hart Print was founded in 2018 by three MBA graduates with a mission to provide flexible high-quality digital printing service to customers on aluminum cans. Creativity, brand visibility, speed and sustainability are at the core of what we do. Customers can avail of unlimited colors, just-in-time delivery all with 100% recyclable material and with no minimum order quantities. Hart Print's range of services include short production runs, design support, logistics and consulting. At Hart Print we're all about supporting different styles and tastes, with our motto "if you can we can".
For more information about Hart Print and its flexible digital printing offering, please visit www.hartprint.ca
SOURCE Ardagh Metal Packaging
MIAMI, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Azamara the cruise line dedicated to Destination Immersion experiences is excited to announce the launch of its new World Voyage aboard the company's newest ship, Azamara Onward. Starting on January 5, 2024, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the comprehensive sailing offers immersive and intimate experiences to the World's Wonders. The 155-night journey will reach over 40 countries in six continents with 22 overnight stays and 27 late nights in port, giving travelers ample time to fully explore the rich culture and history of each destination.
"We are thrilled to finally unveil our World Voyage. With opportunities to visit the Seven Wonders of the World and other iconic sites such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos, and the Black Sea, we are allowing our guests to check off all their bucket list destinations in one sailing and to connect with more countries and cultures than ever before," says Carol Cabezas, President of Azamara. "Not only are we taking our guests further, but we are also encouraging them to travel deeper with our unique overnight land experiences, designed to bring travelers to the heart of the destination and giving them enough time to appreciate its culture."
Highlights of immersive experiences of the World's Wonders:
Great Wall of China (three-night land excursion): Travelers will become fully immersed in Beijing with a visit to the Great Wall of China , a guided tour through the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, and a rickshaw ride through the hutongs , or narrow alleys dating back to the 16 th century.
Travelers will become fully immersed in with a visit to the Great Wall of , a guided tour through the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, and a rickshaw ride through the , or narrow alleys dating back to the 16 century. Great Pyramids of Giza (shore excursion): Guests are driven to Egypt's largest city, Cairo . It's here at the Giza Plateau where the Great Pyramids are found, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. An Egyptologist will guide guests through this mortuary complex to the mysterious Sphinx. In addition, travelers will explore other sites such as the Museum of Antiquities and cruise down the Nile river.
Guests are driven to largest city, . It's here at the Giza Plateau where the Great Pyramids are found, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. An Egyptologist will guide guests through this mortuary complex to the mysterious Sphinx. In addition, travelers will explore other sites such as the Museum of Antiquities and cruise down the Nile river. Chichen Itza (shore excursion): Guests will fly over Caribbean waters and the Mayan Riviera's tropical jungle to Chichen Itza, where a tour guide will lead guests through the ruins and immerse travelers in the ancient Mayan way of life.
Guests will fly over waters and the Mayan Riviera's tropical jungle to Chichen Itza, where a tour guide will lead guests through the ruins and immerse travelers in the ancient Mayan way of life. Petra (shore excursion): Guests will walk through the Siq, the narrow, winding gorge that leads to the mysterious desert city of Petra, Jordan . Known as the "Rose Red City" for the color of stone from which it was carved, Petra is home to ancient royal tombs, Colonnaded Street, and the Temple of Qasr al-Bint.
Guests will walk through the Siq, the narrow, winding gorge that leads to the mysterious desert city of Petra, . Known as the "Rose Red City" for the color of stone from which it was carved, Petra is home to ancient royal tombs, Colonnaded Street, and the Temple of Qasr al-Bint. Taj Mahal (three-night land excursion): Travelers will fly to New Delhi for sunrise and sunset visits to the Taj Mahal. Guests will also explore Agra Fort, the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, and I'timad-ud-Daulah tomb, the Taj Mahal's precursor.
Travelers will fly to for sunrise and sunset visits to the Taj Mahal. Guests will also explore Agra Fort, the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, and I'timad-ud-Daulah tomb, the Taj Mahal's precursor. Christ the Redeemer (six-night land excursion): Travelers will enjoy a full exploration of Rio de Janeiro , including a visit to Corcovado to view the towering Christ the Redeemer statue, a cable car ride to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain, and a trip to Iguazu Falls to see both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the one of the world's largest waterfalls.
Travelers will enjoy a full exploration of , including a visit to Corcovado to view the towering Christ the Redeemer statue, a cable car ride to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain, and a trip to Iguazu Falls to see both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the one of the world's largest waterfalls. Colosseum (shore excursion): Guests will travel back in time to the world of gladiatorial glory inside the Colosseum. A local guide will lead the small group through the 2000-year-old amphitheater that once seated up to 55,000 spectators.
Other immersive overnight experiences available on the World Voyage include a stay on a Great Barrier Reef island, complete with glass bottom boat excursions and snorkeling to see the unique wildlife up close; a journey through the cobblestoned streets of Transylvania, Romania to learn about the life of Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula; and an exploration of the centuries-old rock-cut churches and whimsical "fairy chimneys" of Cappadocia, Turkey with accommodation in a cave hotel.
Azamara's World Voyage comes with over $22,000 in exclusive amenities, including the company's signature AzAmazing Evenings designed to connect guests to the local culture of the destination $7,000 in onboard credit, business class air travel, a pre-voyage hotel stay and gala, access to exclusive World Voyage events, a premium beverage package for two, and more. Shore excursions and overnight land excursions will be available at an additional price.
To book, please visit azamara.com/worldvoyage or call 888-858-5388. Bookings are currently open to Azamara Circle Loyalty members only and will be open to all on December 7, 2021.
About Azamara
Azamara is an upmarket cruise line and leader in Destination Immersion experiences. Presently with three mid-sized ships sailing to all seven continents of the world, and an additional fourth ship scheduled to join the fleet in 2022. The boutique-style ships allow them to reach marquee ports around the world and dock in smaller, less-visited hidden gems. Azamara's commitment to creating immersive experiences allows guests to travel deeper with longer stays, more overnights, and night touring. Guests can experience a boutique hotel at sea with inclusive amenities such as gratuities, select beverages, exclusive cultural events and more. For more information visit www.azamara.com .
SOURCE Azamara
Related Links
azamara.com
We completed our fleet's exit from China . As of the date of this press release, 100% of our fleet had arrived in North America . As of September 30, 2021 , we had no miners remaining in China : 79.1% of our miner fleet was already deployed or awaiting installation in North America , and 20.9% was in transit.
. As of the date of this press release, 100% of our fleet had arrived in . As of , we had no miners remaining in : 79.1% of our miner fleet was already deployed or awaiting installation in , and 20.9% was in transit. The Company owned 27,744 miners as of September 30, 2021 , with an estimated maximum total hash rate of 1.603 Exahash ("EH/s"). The 0.318 EH/s reduction in the third quarter was due to fleet repositioning, in which the Company sold or disposed of certain models (partially offset by purchases) in anticipation of purchase opportunities. The Company recognized a $0.375 million gain on miner sales, and the net sale proceeds had been reinvested into miner purchases as of the date of this press release.
, with an estimated maximum total hash rate of 1.603 Exahash ("EH/s"). The 0.318 EH/s reduction in the third quarter was due to fleet repositioning, in which the Company sold or disposed of certain models (partially offset by purchases) in anticipation of purchase opportunities. The Company recognized a gain on miner sales, and the net sale proceeds had been reinvested into miner purchases as of the date of this press release. The Company purchased 851 miners on the spot market during the quarter.
Subsequent to September 30, 2021 , the Company signed an agreement with Bitmain Technologies Limited ("Bitmain") to purchase 10,000 Bitcoin miners. The previously announced purchases are expected to increase Bit Digital's maximum hash rate by approximately 1.0 EH/s. Pro forma for the announced purchases, our maximum total hash rate is expected to be approximately 2.603 EH/s.
, the Company signed an agreement with Bitmain Technologies Limited ("Bitmain") to purchase 10,000 Bitcoin miners. The previously announced purchases are expected to increase Bit Digital's maximum hash rate by approximately 1.0 EH/s. Pro forma for the announced purchases, our maximum total hash rate is expected to be approximately 2.603 EH/s. The Company earned 248.36 bitcoins. The reduction from the second quarter was due to the migration program, in which a higher percentage of fleet capacity was offline while in transit to, or awaiting installation in, North America , as well as miner sales and disposals.
, as well as miner sales and disposals. Treasury holdings of BTC and WBTC were 526.1 and 101.0, respectively, for a total of 627.1 BTC equivalent, with a fair market value of approximately $27.5 million as of September 30, 2021 .
as of . The Company raised $80 million of gross proceeds in a private placement with institutional investors.
of gross proceeds in a private placement with institutional investors. The Company announced that Brock Pierce , Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, joined its Board of Directors effective October 31, 2021 .
Miner Migration Completed
As a result of the State Council targeting virtual currency mining in China, we terminated all mining operations in China on June 21, 2021. Accordingly, we further accelerated our migration strategy to North America, that had been ongoing since October 2020, and completed our fleet's exit from China during the third quarter. As of September 30, 2021, we had no miners in China: 79.1% of our fleet was already deployed or awaiting installation in North America, and 20.9% was in transit. As of the date of this press release, 100% of our fleet had arrived in North America.
Power and Hosting Update
During the third quarter, the Company signed two new hosting agreements in the United States, representing 135 megawatts ("MW") of additional power capacity. Both are expected to be powered by a substantial component of renewable and/or carbon-free energy, contributing to our ongoing efforts to decarbonize our mining operations.
On July 22, we signed a 100 MW agreement with Digihost Technologies ("Digihost") that is expected to be powered by approximately half renewable and/or carbon free energy sources, subject to finalizing our energy procurement strategy with Digihost. This second agreement brings our total contracted hosting capacity with Digihost to 120 MW. Digihost is expected to deliver the first 20 MW of contracted power capacity during Q4 2021. The remaining 100 MW is scheduled for delivery during the first and second quarters of 2022.
On August 25, we signed a 35 MW hosting agreement with Blockfusion USA ("Blockfusion") that is expected to be powered primarily from zero carbon emission energy sources. As of the date of this press release, Blockfusion had completed the first (of four) phases of miner deployments, representing approximately 5 MW of power consumption. The remaining three phases are scheduled for delivery in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022. During the term of our agreement and for twelve (12) months thereafter, Bit Digital has a right of first refusal to match any bona fide offer from a third party to finance or acquire securities and/or assets of Blockfusion, and to receive a credit or refund of certain expenses incurred in the development of infrastructure.
As a result of these two new agreements, as of September 30, 2021, the Company had secured hosting capacity sufficient to complete the redeployment of its fleet in North America, with additional signed capacity to facilitate future fleet growth. The Company continues to evaluate additional hosting arrangements with existing and prospective new hosting partners.
Our hosting partner Compute North LLC ("Compute North") has advised us that its delivery of 40 MW of hosting capacity that was contracted for during Q2 and anticipated for delivery in Q3 2021 has been delayed. Compute North has not yet determined updated delivery timing for this additional capacity. Pending revised delivery timing, Bit Digital expects to redirect miner deployments to other hosting partners.
Our hosting partner Link Global Technologies ("Link") has advised us that Link's facility in Alberta, Canada that had supplied approximately 3.3 MW for hosting our miners was required to discontinue operations as a result of a permitting dispute. Link is currently evaluating alternative sites to accommodate our miners. In the interim, pending further updates, Bit Digital expects to redirect miners formerly hosted with Link to other hosting partners.
The following table summarizes our signed hosting agreements as of September 30, 2021, and expected delivery timing based on communications with our hosting partners:
Hosting Partner Date
Signed Location
(State) Expected
Power
Capacity
(MW) % of
Total Expected
Delivery
Timing Compute North 9/9/2020 Texas 0.3 0.1% Delivered Link Global
Technologies 1/31/2021 TBD
(formerly Alberta) 3.3 1.5% TBD Compute North 12/30/2020 Nebraska 6.5 3.0% Delivered Compute North 1/21/2021 Nebraska 9.2 4.3% Delivered Other 2/22/2021 Georgia 0.3 0.2% Delivered Compute North 3/12/2021 TBD 40.0 18.6% TBD Digihost
Technologies 6/10/2021 New York 20.0 9.3% Q4 2021 Digihost
Technologies 7/22/2021 New York 100.0 46.6% Q1 to Q2 2022 Blockfusion USA 8/25/2021 New York 35.0 16.3% Q4 2021 to Q1
2022 (1) Total
214.6 100.0%
(1) Approximately 5 MW has already been delivered as of the date of this press release.
The following table summarizes our expected hosting deliveries, by quarter:
Expected Delivery Timing Expected Power Capacity (MW) Delivered as of September 30, 2021 21.3 Q4 2021 30.0 Q1 2022 80.0 Q2 2022 40.0 To be determined 43.3 Total 214.6
Pro forma for hosting agreements signed to date, we expect to enjoy a competitive estimated base power and hosting rate of approximately 3.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, on an annualized weighted average basis.The foregoing base power rate therefore is an estimate and relies on certain assumptions, including but not limited to estimated future energy procurement pricing, and excludes the effect of profit sharing arrangements. We achieve what we believe are attractive hosting rates, in part, by offering profit shares to many of our hosting partners. We believe that profit sharing helps align interests with our hosts, and contributes to strong performance and uptime for our hosted miners.
Bitcoin Production Update
In the third quarter of 2021, Bit Digital earned 248.4 newly minted bitcoins, a reduction from 588.4 earned in the second quarter. The reduction was due to the aforementioned miner migration, as well as fleet repositioning in which the Company sold or disposed of certain miners. Bitcoin production is expected to increase following completion of the redeployment of miners migrated from China, which is expected during the first quarter of 2022, and upon completion of announced miner purchases.
The Company's quarterly bitcoin production since commencement of our mining operations was as follows:
Miner Fleet Update
As of September 30, 2021, the Company owned 27,744 miners, with an estimated total maximum hash rate of 1.603 EH/s, a decrease from 32,500 miners and 1.915 EH/s as of June 30, 2021. The reduction was due to sales and disposals of certain miners, partially offset by miner purchases, as further discussed below. The Company's fleet of owned miners comprised the following models:
Model Owned as of September 30, 2021 MicroBT Whatsminer M21S 16,296 MicroBT Whatsminer M20S 3,690 Bitmain Antminer S17 3,641 MicroBT Whatsminer M10 1,938 Bitmain Antminer T3 769 Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro 605 Bitmain Antminer S17+ 500 MicroBT Whatsminer M30S 261 Bitmain Antminer T17+ 44 Total 27,744
Miner Purchases, Sales and Disposals
During the third quarter, we purchased 851 miners on the spot market, including 400 Bitmain S19Pro and 451 Bitmain S17 models. As of September 30, 2021, all of the newly purchased miners had already been deployed in North America.
Subsequent to September 30, 2021, we signed an agreement with Bitmain to purchase 10,000 Bitcoin miners. The total maximum purchase price is estimated at US $65,000,000 (subject to certain potential discounts), of which the initial installments have been made, with the final installment due ten (10) days prior to each shipment through June 2022. The announced purchases are expected to increase Bit Digital's miner fleet hash rate by approximately 1.0 EH/s. Pro forma for announced purchases, our maximum total hash rate is expected to be approximately 2.603 EH/s.
The Company anticipates an ongoing opportunity to purchase additional miners, both on the spot market and from manufacturers in the coming months, subject to market conditions and capital availability, and continues to monitor market conditions for such purchase opportunities.
During the quarter, we continued repositioning our fleet by selling 4,200 miners that were deemed to have a lower expected return on invested capital than miners we believe we can purchase, and/or were deemed unsuitable for long-distance migration to North America. The sold miners included 4,000 Bitmain S17 and 200 Bitmain T17 models. The Company recorded a gain of $0.375 million on these sales, in aggregate. The net sale proceeds had been reinvested into miner purchases and/or purchase orders as of the date of this press release.
During the quarter, we abandoned 1,407 miners that were deemed to have reached the end of their useful lives, were no longer operational and/or would have been uneconomical or impossible to repair or migrate. The disposed miners included 611 Bitmain S17+, 301 MicroBT M21S, 252 MicroBT M10, 212 Bitmain T17+ and 31 Bitmain T3 models.
Private Placement Transaction with Institutional Investors
On October 5, 2021, the Company closed its previously announced private placement with institutional investors for the sale of 13,490,728 ordinary shares. The Company also issued to the investors unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 10,118,046 ordinary shares. The gross proceeds from the private placement were approximately $80 million before deducting placement agent fees and other estimated offering expenses.
Appointment of Director
On September 28, 2021, the Company announced the appointment of Brock Pierce, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, to its board of directors. Such appointment became effective on October 31, 2021.
Management Commentary
"Bit Digital marks a major milestone for our Company. Our mining assets are now entirely out of China and 100% in North America," said Bryan Bullett, Bit Digital's CEO. "It's unusual that a business is faced with migrating the majority of its operating assets across the globe on an expedited timeline. Thanks to our talented team, partners, and head start, having begun migrating in October 2020, we accomplished a major logistical feat. I'd like to thank the entire Bit Digital team for exceptional performance in executing against these unprecedented circumstances."
"It's also unusual that a major economy exits an entire vertical, as China did earlier this year, by banning bitcoin mining. Despite the initial operational complexity a challenge our team squarely met we believe the shift in global hash distribution will result in a stronger bitcoin network, with the majority of hash now located here in North America."
"By closing our recent $80 million equity placement, we illustrated our access to growth capital, and welcomed new institutional shareholders. We thank these institutions for trusting us with their investment."
"We committed the majority of the placement's net proceeds within approximately one week, securing 10,000 new Bitmain units on what we believe are attractive terms. And while the accelerated migration prompted us to modestly cull our legacy fleet, we expect this to result in improved profitability, as our purchase activity significantly exceeded the temporary reduction in fleet size since the start of Q3. Pro forma for announced purchases, we expect to have approximately 2.6 EH/s of mining power."
"Finally, we welcomed to our Board of Directors Brock Pierce, a legendary crypto pioneer who needs no introduction. We believe that with his newly elevated position in the Company, Brock's vast industry knowledge, relationships, and guidance will be invaluable going forward."
About Bit Digital
Bit Digital, Inc. is a bitcoin mining company headquartered in New York City. Our mining operations are located in North America. For additional information, please contact Sam Tabar at [email protected] or visit our www.bit-digital.com.
Investor Notice
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under "Risk Factors" in Item 3.D of our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. If any material risk was to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. Future changes in the network-wide mining difficulty rate or Bitcoin hash rate may also materially affect the future performance of Bit Digital's production of bitcoin. Additionally, all discussions of financial metrics assume mining difficulty rates as of September 2021. See "Safe Harbor Statement" below.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Bit Digital, Inc., and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," or similar expressions, involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.
Note: Actual operating hash rate will vary depending on network difficulty rate, total hash rate of the network, the operations of our facilities and the status of our miners.
SOURCE Bit Digital, Inc.
The Index measures investment by global CTOs and CIOs into major technology categories. Up-to-the-minute global data will help track growth around technology's impact on demand for future skills across industries and markets. The Index will equip enterprise decision-makers and emerging leaders with insights to navigate an increasingly digital future.
Data surfaced by Infosys' insights engine will power the Index across Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg Businessweek and other Bloomberg Media digital channels to provide context to its audience. The Digital Economy Index will also be integrated into Bloomberg Surveillance programming on Bloomberg TV.
"This partnership leverages Infosys' powerful AI technology to activate the Bloomberg Digital Economy Index, a first-of-its-kind measurement of technology investment", said Justin Smith, CEO of Bloomberg Media. "These insights will empower business leaders with real-time, actionable data for critical decisions."
Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys, said, "As our clients accelerate their tech-powered transformation, feedback loops that bring insights and ideas from data into their digital programs are becoming increasingly important. We are excited to partner with Bloomberg Media to help them transform their editorial experience with contextualized digital insights and deliver immersive business journalism to their readers - many of whom are also our clients."
The insights engine aligns with Bloomberg Media's goal to deliver new, data-driven content experiences to a wider audience of global business leaders through brands including Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg Equality, and new programming on the streaming news network Bloomberg Quicktake.
About Bloomberg Media
Bloomberg Media is a leading, global, multi-platform brand that provides decision-makers with timely news, analysis and intelligence on business, finance, technology, climate change, politics and more. Powered by a newsroom of over 2,700 journalists and analysts, it reaches influential audiences worldwide across every platform including digital, social, TV, radio, print and live events. Bloomberg Media is a division of Bloomberg L.P. Visit BloombergMedia.com for more information.
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.
For more information contact [email protected]
SOURCE Infosys
BOSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) today released a new report on the economic impact of its supplier diversity program. The 2020 Supplier Diversity Impact Report finds Blue Cross' spending is supporting jobs and revenue for small and diverse businesses locally and nationwide.
"Creating more opportunities for small and diverse businesses has been a cornerstone of our diversity and inclusion efforts and has made us a better company," said Andrew Dreyfus, president and CEO at Blue Cross. "We remain committed to supporting a more equitable local economy, which will allow businesses and our community to thrive."
Blue Cross' supplier diversity program has been supporting the advancement of minority, women, LGBTQ, veteran and disability-owned businesses for 20 years. The company deploys a three-pronged strategy focused on procurement; engagement; and supplier development initiatives such as mentorships, scholarships, education and training.
Key highlights from 2020 include:
Blue Cross' direct diversity spending totaled $43 million , growing 22.9% since 2016. $11.5 million was spent with small and diverse suppliers in Massachusetts .
, growing 22.9% since 2016. was spent with small and diverse suppliers in . The company's purchases with small and diverse businesses contributed $82 million to the national economy, up from $67 million in 2016.
to the national economy, up from in 2016. Blue Cross' direct spending with diverse businesses supported 640 jobs nationwide and nearly 200 jobs in Massachusetts .
. $37 million in salaries and benefits were paid to employees from the jobs supported by Blue Cross' supplier diversity program.
Recognizing the economic impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on small and diverse suppliers, Blue Cross has bolstered its commitment to supporting these businesses. The company expanded the scope of products and services purchased from diverse businesses to include personal protective equipment and partnered with the Center for Women and Enterprise and the Greater New England Minority Supplier Diversity Council to review and evaluate applications for women and minority-owned business certification.
"The past 20 months have highlighted how important supplier diversity is for companies like ours, helping to build capacity and sustainability in business communities" said Daylana Ervin-Parker, director of budget and supplier diversity at Blue Cross. "Finding new ways to partner with small and diverse suppliers during the pandemic has not only allowed us to support those businesses but also provided us with an opportunity to deepen relationships and be responsive to the changing needs of our customers, members and community."
Blue Cross' supplier diversity program is part of its broader commitment to addressing equity and racial justice. To read the full 2020 Supplier Diversity Impact Report, click here.
About the analysis
The 2020 Supplier Diversity Impact Report utilizes economic impact modeling, a standard tool used to quantify the economic contributions of an investment or company. This modeling uses an "Input-Output" economic model to estimate the number of times each dollar of "input," or direct spending, cycles through the economy in terms of "indirect and induced output," or additional spending, personal income, and employment.1 There are several Input-Output models used by economists to estimate multiplier effects. Blue Cross used information from supplier.io, which employed the IMPLAN input-output model in developing estimates of spending, income and employment impacts. This model, initially developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, examines inter-industry relationships in local, regional, and national economies.
This report is based on an analysis of data provided by Nationwide using IMPLAN's Input-output multipliers, and the supplier diversity information in supplier.io's database of nearly 1.6 million active certifications.
About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to the relentless pursuit of quality, equitable and affordable health care with an unparalleled consumer experience. Consistent with our promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
1 http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/total_2014USrt_17rs1n
SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Related Links
http://www.bluecrossma.com
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BRG Communications (BRG) is marking its 20th anniversary with the introduction of the BRG Better Living Scholarship Fund to support and inspire the next generation of communications professionals, while contributing to the future of the public relations industry. The agency's inaugural contribution includes a $20,000.00 scholarship designated for George Mason University undergraduates pursuing a degree in communications with a concentration in public relations, as well as a time commitment from executives to support George Mason University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences Linkup Mentoring and Leaders in the Classroom programs. The fund will give preference to students from underrepresented groups who also qualify on based on financial need.
The BRG Better Living Scholarship Fund exemplifies BRG's commitment to building a legacy that underscores the power of communications to help individuals and communities achieve a better life. As BRG embarks on its 3rd decade, the agency vows to continue its mission to support clients addressing critical health, safety and social issues impacting the world, educating and creating opportunities for a future public relations workforce, providing an optimum environment for staff to do meaningful work and guiding communities to attain better living through communications expertise.
"The Better Living Scholarship Fund represents the value we place on investing in the betterment of others, while giving back to an industry and individuals instrumental in our own success. For two decades, the concept of 'Better Living' has been infused in BRG's culture, serving as the catalyst and compass that drives our business innovation, inspires us, informs our decisions, guides our actions and gives us purpose to succeed," said Jane Barwis, BRG Founder and President. "I have nothing but pride in the legacy we continue to build each and every day and appreciation for my team, BRG alumni and clients who have allowed us to deliver on our vision."
To further commemorate the 20th anniversary, BRG will reveal a brand refresh, including a new logo that centers on a BRG icon featuring an aspirational arrow element symbolizing the agency's guiding principles toward the achievement of "Better Living". BRG is also unveiling a new website with easier navigation for visitors to quickly find information about BRG's expertise, success stories, client case studies, client testimonials, senior leadership bios and more.
ABOUT BRG COMMUNICATIONS
BRG Communications is a nationally recognized, award-winning public relations agency. Founded in 2001, the firm is built on flexibility, functionality and uncommon performance. We produce success for clients by forming creative strategies and solid execution plans that ignite the passion of target audiences and drive results. We support corporations, non-profits and associations that address safety, health, wellness and social impact. As BRG celebrates its 20th anniversary, the agency continues to stay focused on building a legacy of Communications For Better Living.
Media Contact: Kate Worthy
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE BRG COMMUNICATIONS
Related Links
http://brgcommunications.com
Built In has led the tech recruitment space in major U.S. tech markets for a decade. Tweet this
"Built In has led the tech recruitment space in major U.S. tech markets for a decade," says Built In's co-founder and CEO, Maria Christopoulous Katris. "Dramatic changes in the tech recruitment landscape, coupled with our exceptional product/market fit, only served to heighten our leadership position. In response to companies' increasingly aggressive hiring goals across the U.S., Built In quickly scaled and innovated solutions to meet the needs of tech professionals and companies. In 2021, we expanded from serving just eight cities to becoming the national platform we are today. I'm proud to be on this list with other organizations that find innovative ways to solve new problems."
Companies with strong technology infrastructures were those that best weathered the pandemic. Therefore, the demand for tech talent has accelerated. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technology unemployment is at a record low of 1.5% while overall unemployment is at 5%.
"Built In spent a decade building a large, thriving tech community so we had early insights into the changing talent market dynamics," says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer. "It was clear that workers were prioritizing quality of life and leaving large traditional tech cities. We were able to create solutions to address this change and help our users continue to develop their skills and find companies that suited these lifestyle changes. We were able to provide these insights to companies seeking to hire in-demand tech workers so they could better appeal to them locally, nationally and remotely."
About Built In
Built In is building the largest platform for tech professionals globally. Each month, three million people visit Built In to learn new tech skills, advance their careers and discover companies with missions they want to join. Built In has been on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 for three consecutive years and earned a place on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list. http://www.builtin.com.
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000 and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a U.K. private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the U.S., Deloitte refers to one or more of the U.S. member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
Built In Contact
Tiffany Meyers
[email protected]
917-741-6750
SOURCE Built In
Related Links
http://www.builtin.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Captain Morgan is announcing its partnership with actor and model Charles Melton to help prevent "shotface," a visceral reaction to a not so tasty shot of liquor that can manifest itself through an awkward wrinkle of the brow, a twist of the lips and scrunching of the nose. Shotface can happen to anyone (21+) who has yet to experience a delicious tasting spirit, but Captain Morgan and Charles Melton have the solution to eradicate that once and for all.
Dont get Shotface. Get Sliced Apple Face. Charles Melton Joins Captain Morgan to Put an End to Shotface Dont get Shotface, Get Sliced Apple Face
Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8984951-captain-morgan-charles-melton-end-shotface-sliced-apple-spiced-rum/
Reintroducing Captain Morgan Sliced Apple, a fall-inspired spirit that fuses the flavor of crisp, fresh cut apples with a hint of ginger and Captain Morgan's classic spiced rum, a combination so delicious it will alleviate shotface, allowing consumers 21+ to get Sliced Apple Face instead.
To spread the word, Captain Morgan has teamed up with Charles Melton; well-versed in the art of facial expressions, the actor and model will serve as the voice (and face) of the Captain Morgan Shotface Hotline, a temporary hotline and resource for consumers looking to ditch their awkward and unwanted shotface and get Sliced Apple Face instead.
"I may have an amazing face, but I too have experienced shotface when tasting less delicious flavored spirits in the past," Melton said. "I'm proud to be joining Captain Morgan to lend my face and voice in hopes of introducing Sliced Apple Face, one delicious shot of Captain Morgan Sliced Apple at a time."
From Nov. 17 through Nov. 21, persons 21+ can call the Captain Morgan Shotface Hotline toll-free at 1-888-SHOT-FCE (1-888-746-8323) to hear from Charles Melton, who will explain how to enter to win a $5 mobile payment that may be used toward a purchase of Captain Morgan Sliced Apple or otherwise.**
The mission to end shotface doesn't stop there, though from Nov. 22 through the end of 2021 (provided supplies last), consumers 21+ can dial into the hotline to learn how to take advantage of a rebate offer that will reimburse qualifying purchases of Captain Morgan Sliced Apple, up to $10.***
"The overwhelmingly positive response Captain Morgan Sliced Apple has received thus far has made all of us even more excited to re-introduce it on a much larger scale," said Sam Salameh, Vice President, Captain Morgan. "Though we're in the middle of the fall season, the crisp flavors of apple and ginger along with our signature spiced rum make a shot of Captain Morgan Sliced Apple delicious enough to be enjoyed all year round."
Be sure to follow @CaptainMorganUSA on Instagram and @CaptainMorganUS on Twitter for more information on Captain Morgan Sliced Apple. Remember, the best way to avoid shotface is to enjoy Captain Morgan Sliced Apple, responsibly!
**11/17/21 - 11/21/21 Captain Morgan will give away as Sweepstakes prizes up to $5K via mobile payments, in increments of $5.00, each day, for a total of $25K to qualifying winners. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. U.S., 21+. Each day ends the earlier of the receipt of 1K verified entries or 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Subject to Rules on CaptainMorgan.com.
***Beginning 11/22/21 through the end of the year (or until funds are depleted), Captain Morgan will offer a rebate for up to $10.00 via mobile payment for a total of $2K, PURCHASE REQUIRED. U.S., 21+. Available where legal, while supplies last. Void where prohibited. Subject to Offer Terms on CaptainMorgan.com.
About Captain Morgan
Captain Morgan is the number one selling spiced rum and the third largest spirits brand in the U.S. Captain Morgan encourages everyone 21+ to always spice things up by bringing the flavor to every occasion. The Captain Morgan portfolio includes CAPTAIN MORGAN Original Spiced Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Sliced Apple Spiced Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN White Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Black Spiced Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN 100 Proof Spiced Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Private Stock, CAPTAIN MORGAN Silver Spiced Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Coconut Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Pineapple Rum, CAPTAIN MORGAN Gingerbread Spiced and CAPTAIN MORGAN Orange Vanilla Twist. For more information, visit www.CaptainMorgan.com.
About Diageo North America
Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos, DeLeon and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness.
Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DGE) and their products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world.
For more information about Diageo, their people, brands, and performance, visit www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow at Twitter and Instagram for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Salina Benitez
TAYLOR
[email protected]
Jazmine Settles
DIAGEO
[email protected]
SOURCE Captain Morgan
Related Links
https://www.slicedappleface.captainmorgan.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Caravan Health, the nation's leader in accountable care, has partnered with Quint Studer, visionary, entrepreneur, and author to bring critical resources to support and replenish physicians and hospital staff from the trauma of COVID-19. A series of live and virtual events will be held across the country in the first quarter of 2022. Safety net hospital and physician leaders can attend the programs at no cost as an expression of gratitude for their selfless commitment to their patients and their communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain the entire health care industry, with a disproportionate share of the burden being carried by front-line workers. At the same time, the push to value-based care, increasing non-clinical, administrative burdens, and frequently changing incentives are leading to heightened stress among physicians, with four out of five physicians saying they are burned out.
Quint Studer and Caravan Health are collaborating to provide access to valuable educational and problem-solving resources specifically developed for community health systems and safety net providers. Topics to be addressed include physician engagement, burnout prevention, and replenishment of the mission that lies behind their commitment to patients. The series will also focus on ways health care professionals and physicians can simultaneously manage health care transformation, ensure their personal well-being, and maintain their morale and a healthy sense of purpose.
"The role of the physician at the center of health care is vital to a healthy care system," says Studer. "The challenge? While providing essential care to patients, physicians must take on increased administrative responsibilities. We need to focus on the physician's sense of well-being to ensure they are equipped to handle the complexities of today's health systems, while delivering what they are called to do: heal. With Caravan Health, we will lead attendees through tailored programming designed to deliver pragmatic solutions and resources to meet real challenges in an ever-evolving health care ecosystem."
Studer is an expert on business and health care leadership and is known for being one of the first to connect patient care to customer service, putting patient experience at the forefront. As former president of Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Studer led the organization to the top one percent of hospitals in the country in patient and employee satisfaction. He wrote the book "Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America," and was recognized by Inc. Magazine as a Master of Business, making him the only health care leader to win this award. He also recently published The Calling: Why Healthcare Is So Special, to help health care professionals maintain and manage healthy emotional bank accounts.
"Physicians play an essential role in health practice transformation, and their ability to directly impact patient care requires a strong system of support with the right tools. In providing them with greater resources across the burden of care, we all win patients, physicians, caretakers, the community," says Ashok Roy, MD, MPH, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at Caravan Health. "Having collaborated with Quint at our annual symposium and on podcasts and webinars throughout the years, we know his trainings and insight will be invaluable in helping to address physician and health care leadership challenges as we collectively aim for value-based systems that work for both patients and providers."
To learn more about the program, or to apply to attend one of the sessions, click here.
About Caravan Health
Caravan Health was founded to develop better solutions for safety net health systems, their patients, and care teams. We've guided over 300 independent health systems and 26,000 clinicians to achieve meaningful results through value-based care. Our tailored population health methodologies, award-winning technology, and deep understanding of the safety net help teams deliver high-quality, patient-focused care while replenishing their own well-being. We work to create a health ecosystem where hospitals and physicians collaborate to build scale, mitigate risk, and create sustainable health outcomes. Since 2014, Caravan-supported ACOs have saved Medicare $476 million and earned more than $235 million in shared savings. In 2020, 100% of collaborative ACO participants achieved shared savings and earned an average 99% MIPS score and 97% quality score. Strengthening community health systems with Caravan Health. For more information visit caravanhealth.com.
Editors: Photos and Quint Studer books available upon request.
SOURCE Caravan Health
Related Links
https://caravanhealth.com
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www.cgi.com/newsroom
FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) has been selected by the General Services Administration (GSA) for the multi-award ASTRO Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract. This 10-year award provides CGI the opportunity to compete for task orders with an unlimited ceiling value to research, develop, support, maintain and operate manned, unmanned and optionally manne platforms and robotics, such as satellites, launch vehicles and related services.
Known for its ability to build complex, mission-critical space software systems and integration of complex hardware systems with the right software solutions, CGI is a recognized thought leader in space security and applications, and is considered a European leader in the ground segment of military satellite communications.
"We leveraged our long history of helping clients implement complex, mission-critical space software systems, as well as other software development and systems integration work for this win," stated CGI Federal President Stephanie Mango. "With our space work long established in Europe, we're just beginning to build our presence here in North America, and we're thrilled to bring our proven track record and solutions to the U.S. federal government market."
GSA developed the ASTRO master contract primarily to help the U.S. Department of Defense streamline the acquisition process for the military's combatant commands. The master contract opens acquisition to all federal agencies through FEDSIM, a provider of assisted acquisition services for federal agencies, to obtain manned and unmanned platforms and services for the next 10 years, with no maximum dollar ceiling.
"With a 40-plus year track record of supporting the space industry and serving the federal government, CGI is pleased to bring its thought leadership and technical expertise to deliver services through GSA's ASTRO contract," stated Mike Pullen, Vice-President, Consulting Services for CGI Federal. "We look forward to working with our partners to help make ASTRO a success."
About CGI Federal
CGI Federal Inc., a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Inc., is dedicated to partnering with federal agencies to provide solutions for defense, civilian, healthcare and intelligence missions. Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 80,000 consultants and other professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. With Fiscal 2021 reported revenue of C$12.13 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com.
Forward-looking information and statements
This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbors. All such forward-looking information and statements are made and disclosed in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding CGI's intentions, plans, expectations, beliefs, objectives, future performance, and strategy, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", "predict", "project", "aim", "seek", "strive", "potential", "continue", "target", "may", "might", "could", "should", and similar expressions and variations thereof. These information and statements are based on our perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other assumptions, both general and specific, that we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. Such information and statements are, however, by their very nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, of which many are beyond the control of CGI, and which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from our expectations expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not restricted to: risks related to the market such as the level of business activity of our clients, which is affected by economic conditions, and our ability to negotiate new contracts; risks related to our industry such as competition and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, to develop and expand our services, to penetrate new markets, and to protect our intellectual property rights; risks related to our business such as risks associated with our growth strategy, including the integration of new operations, financial and operational risks inherent in worldwide operations, foreign exchange risks, income tax laws, our ability to negotiate favorable contractual terms, to deliver our services and to collect receivables, and the reputational and financial risks attendant to cybersecurity breaches and other incidents; as well as other risks identified or incorporated by reference in this press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and in other documents that we make public, including our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators (on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (on EDGAR at www.sec.gov). Unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. While we believe that our assumptions on which these forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are based were reasonable as at the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking information or statements. Furthermore, readers are reminded that forward-looking information and statements are presented for the sole purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Further information on the risks that could cause our actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations may be found in the section titled "Risk Environment" of CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A, which is incorporated by reference in this cautionary statement. We also caution readers that the above-mentioned risks and the risks disclosed in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and other documents and filings are not the only ones that could affect us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also have a material adverse effect on our financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation.
SOURCE CGI Inc.
Related Links
www.cgi.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Christie's announced today that it is selling its Christie's International Real Estate business to real estate brokerage and technology firm @properties, and entering into a long-term global brand license agreement with the company, one of the fastest growing luxury brokerage firms in the world. This new strategy for Christie's International Real Estate is designed to build upon the success of the business and position it for accelerated growth under the leadership of an industry expert.
As Good as it Gets Aspen Christie's Logo
The acquisition of Christie's International Real Estate by @properties is expected to close on December 1. Under the terms of the agreement, Christie's existing global network of approximately 900 affiliate real estate offices will transfer to @properties along with Christie's International Real Estate corporate team members and company-owned brokerage operations. The new business, which will retain the name Christie's International Real Estate, will create one of the largest residential brokerage firms in the United States and will allow for further expansion across other global markets. With this new direction and structure in place, Christie's International Real Estate will benefit from @properties' state-of-the-art technology, marketing and broker-support platforms and be able to provide an unparalleled level of service expected by Christie's clients worldwide.
The move also paves the way for @properties to scale its technology on a global level while supporting continued innovation to better serve Christie's International Real Estate's clients, agents and affiliates. The company's proprietary suite of brokerage-tech applications, called [email protected], allows its agents to digitally manage all aspects of the client relationship and real estate transaction through one fully integrated system.
Ben Gore, Christie's Chief Operating Officer, said: "@properties is one of the largest US luxury real estate companies by sales volume and a clear leader in the field. We chose to pursue this new direction for Christie's International Real Estate for two strategic reasonsfirst, because @properties possesses the unique resources and capabilities to invest in expanding the Christie's International Real Estate brand and its affiliate network both within the US and on a global scale; and second, because this will enable Christie's to focus our resources on the core priorities of our business in the art and luxury goods market."
Thad Wong, co-CEO and co-founder of @properties, commented: "@properties is excited to combine the world's preeminent luxury real estate brand with the brokerage industry's best technology, marketing, and operational platform. Christie's International Real Estate will be the only brokerage firm in the world that can offer affiliates, agents and clients a fully integrated tech solution behind 250-plus years of luxury service and experience."
@properties is partnered with Charlottesville, Virginia-based Quad-C Management, a leading middle-market private equity firm.
Centerview Partners LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Christie's and Allen & Overy LLP is serving as legal counsel. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Lathrop GPM LLP are serving as legal counsel to @properties.
About @properties
Established in 2000, @properties ranks 8th on the REAL Trends 500 list of the largest residential brokerage firms in the U.S. by sales volume. During the past decade, @properties has developed a proprietary suite of integrated technology applications called [email protected], which includes marketing, transaction-management, and client-relationship management systems, and recently launched a nationwide franchise. @properties and its affiliated companies, Ansley Real Estate and Nest Realty, have more than 4,000 agents in 75 offices in 13 states. @properties is also an owner of Proper Title, a title insurance firm, and Proper Rate, an independent mortgage lender.
atproperties.com.
About Quad-C
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, Quad-C is a middle market private equity firm focused on investing in well-established business and consumer services, food & beverage and consumer products, healthcare, industrials, specialty distribution and transportation / logistics companies. In its three-decade history, Quad-C has invested over $3.8 billion of capital in more than 75 platform companies. The Quad-C team is committed to partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams to accelerate growth and create long-term value. Learn more about Quad-C at quadcmanagement.com
About Christie's International Real Estate
Christie's International Real Estate, a subsidiary of Christie's, the world-leading art and luxury business, is one of the leading luxury real estate companies, successfully marketing high-value real estate around the world for more than 30 years. Through its New York City brokerage and invitation-only Affiliate network spanning 48 countries and territories, Christie's International Real Estate offers incomparable services to a global clientele at the luxury end of the residential property market. The company has offices in London, New York City, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, and its affiliated brokerages have recorded approximately US$500 billion of real estate transactions over the last five years. (Data as of December 31, 2020.)
www.christiesinternationalrealestate.com
About Christie's
Founded in 1766, Christie's is a world-leading art and luxury business. Renowned and trusted for its expert live and online auctions, as well as its bespoke private sales, Christie's offers a full portfolio of global services to its clients, including art appraisal, art financing, international real estate and education. Christie's has a physical presence in 46 countries, throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, with flagship international sales hubs in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva. It also is the only international auction house authorized to hold sales in mainland China (Shanghai).
Christie's auctions span more than 80 art and luxury categories, at price points ranging from $200 to over $100 million. In recent years, Christie's has achieved the world record price for an artwork at auction (Leonardo da Vinci's Salvador Mundi, 2017), for a single collection sale (the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, 2018), and for a work by a living artist (Jeff Koons' Rabbit, 2019).
Christie's Private Sales offers a seamless service for buying and selling art, jewellery and watches outside of the auction calendar, working exclusively with Christie's specialists at a client's individual pace.
Recent innovations at Christie's include the groundbreaking sale of the first NFT for a digital work of art ever offered at a major auction house (Beeple's Everydays, March 2021), with the unprecedented acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of payment. As an industry leader in digital innovation, Christie's also continues to pioneer new technologies that are redefining the business of art, including the creation of viewing and bidding experiences that integrate augmented reality, global livestreaming, buy-now channels, and hybrid sales formats.
Christie's is dedicated to advancing responsible culture throughout its business and communities worldwide, including achieving sustainability through net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and actively using its platform in the art world to amplify under-represented voices and support positive change.
Browse, bid, discover, and join us for the best of art and luxury at: www.christies.com or by downloading Christie's apps. The COVID-related re-opening status of our global locations is available here
PRESS CONTACTS:
@properties Peter Olesker
+1-773-519-5500 (c)
[email protected]
Christie's Americas
Deidrea Miller
+1 212 636 2680
[email protected] Europe, Middle East, Africa
Nicky Eaton
+44 207 389 2664
[email protected] Asia
Gigi Ho
+852 2978 6719 [email protected]
SOURCE @properties; Christie's
Related Links
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Business Texting is now a mission-critical application for businesses of all sizes, including SMBs: 93% of consumers who prefer to support SMBs also want the option of calling or texting a business, according to a U.S. consumer survey conducted earlier this year . Also, 84% of respondents would respond to texts from businesses, compared to only 34% who said they answer calls from unknown numbers.
Cloudli TalkNText is the first single-subscription app to combine business phone with Business Texting eliminating the need for SMBs to maintain two separate, costly plans.
Sign up for Cloudli TalkNText today.
In addition to supporting standard SMS messaging, TalkNText allows businesses to text-enable their existing landline, so they can send and receive texts from their existing main business number. The new app also lets SMBs share numbers across teams, so anyone can answer client calls and texts immediately. Additional enhanced features included with every TalkNText plan include text message auto-replies, business hour settings, automated attendant, voicemail transcription and more.
Developed for small businesses to stay ahead of today's customer experience demands, Cloudli TalkNText plans are designed for the mobile-first consumer. Business calls and texts are sent and received through a mobile or desktop app keeping personal communications separate from business and allowing users to manage calls, text messages and voicemails from anywhere on a smartphone or laptop.
"TalkNText is a powerful new app tailored for small businesses, that combines two service plans in one, bringing together the best of unified communications with must-have Business Texting capabilities," said Gavin Macomber, CEO of Cloudli. "Our work-from-anywhere unified voice and Business Texting app enables a more convenient, seamless communications experience across customers, partners and team members."
With Cloudli TalkNText, companies can streamline communications and offer a better overall consumer experience by leveraging the platform's key features:
Business Texting: Use a Cloudli number or text-enable your own to begin messaging with customers via the TalkNText smartphone or desktop app. Use case: a retailer may want to keep its established number, so Cloudli can enable Business Texting on the existing number without disrupting the voice phone service.
Use a Cloudli number or text-enable your own to begin messaging with customers via the TalkNText smartphone or desktop app. Use case: a retailer may want to keep its established number, so Cloudli can enable on the existing number without disrupting the voice phone service. Shared Phone Numbers: Activate shared phone numbers so team members can respond to customer inquiries on the phone or through text without losing visibility into that customer's journey. Use case: administrative support for a real estate firm can reply to client requests for showings, appraisals, offers and more.
Activate shared phone numbers so team members can respond to customer inquiries on the phone or through text without losing visibility into that customer's journey. Use case: administrative support for a real estate firm can reply to client requests for showings, appraisals, offers and more. Simplified Communications: Texts and calls are brought together in a unified conversation view, making it easier for anyone to pick up the thread and respond. Use case: a personal training business wants to know the last time a customer called before initiating a text message follow-up. Having the call details in the same view makes it easier to add context to your follow-up message.
Texts and calls are brought together in a unified conversation view, making it easier for anyone to pick up the thread and respond. Use case: a personal training business wants to know the last time a customer called before initiating a text message follow-up. Having the call details in the same view makes it easier to add context to your follow-up message. Business Hours: Set business hours to limit work calls to specific times of day, ensuring that your business runs the way you want. Use case: a small business owner can set work-life boundaries by establishing on-hours and off-hours, with specific call handling rules for each, to maintain an elevated customer experience.
Set business hours to limit work calls to specific times of day, ensuring that your business runs the way you want. Use case: a small business owner can set work-life boundaries by establishing on-hours and off-hours, with specific call handling rules for each, to maintain an elevated customer experience. Auto-Replies: Schedule automatic text replies when you're too busy or unavailable, so customers are never left waiting. Use case: a hairstylist can configure a text auto-reply to missed calls, so when a client is in the chair missed callers know when to expect a callback.
"We've been impressed with Cloudli's phone and business texting app, which allows our staff to more easily communicate with customers and team members alike - even when we're out of the office," said Stephen Kennedy, Owner, School of Rock, Greenwich, CT. "In addition, Cloudli's support team went above and beyond to procure a local phone number for our upcoming location in Dublin, Ireland. Now customers in Dublin will be able to call our team and we can answer using the Cloudli app, no matter whether we're in the U.S. or in Ireland."
Pricing and Availability
Cloudli's TalkNText unified voice and messaging service is available immediately, with three pricing plans starting as low as $9 per user/month. To find the plan that best fits your needs, or to compare pricing plans with other industry-leading voice and messaging providers, visit the Cloudli website .
For a limited time, new customers can sign up to Cloudli TalkNText for a free trial .
About Cloudli
Cloudli Communications, Inc. delivers feature-rich communications solutions to businesses of all types and sizes, with a track record that spans decades. Today, our solutions include Cloudli TalkNText, a work-from-anywhere unified communications app for SMBs, start-ups and entrepreneurs; VoIP connectivity solutions optimized for businesses of any size; and digital fax solutions that leverage new technologies without disrupting trusted and established workflows. Serving over 7,000 customers in the United States and Canada, Cloudli helps businesses across North America better communicate with their customers how, where and when they want without compromising security, reliability and efficiency. Cloudli is a proud member of the International Franchise Association . Find us on the web , LinkedIn and Twitter .
Cloudli Communications Corp. is owned by CPS Capital , a Toronto-based private equity firm.
*Savings and feature claims based on comparison of monthly pricing plans published on competitor websites or other publicly available sources as of November 3, 2021
All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.
Cloudli Media Contact
David Haefele
FortyThree, Inc.
[email protected]
831.621.5661
SOURCE Cloudli
DALLAS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Compass Datacenters has been named to the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 , a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 27th year.
"Compass Datacenters is recognized as a data center industry innovator. We are a trusted provider for the largest, most respected tech companies in the world," said Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters. "Our growth is driven by our aggressive strategy of building highly-sustainable data center campuses in key locations around the world, providing our customers custom, fully controlled datacenter facilities. This critical digital infrastructure powers the global economy, and our clients' reliance on Compass is a strong validation of our pioneering approach to designing and building which brings advanced manufacturing principles to construction."
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500|
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
About Compass Datacenters
Compass makes lives better by providing the world's technology leaders a secure place to plug in wherever they grow. We provide custom, move-in ready data centers from edge deployments to core facilities serving hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers. Since our inception, we have embraced sustainability with the efficient use of land, green energy, water free cooling and building materials. Our campus approach empowers customers with easily-scalable capacity, high levels of control and ultimate flexibility with the long-term perspective and financial strength of private investors, RedBird Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Azrieli Group. For more information, visit www.compassdatacenters.com.
SOURCE Compass Datacenters
Related Links
http://www.compassdatacenters.com
BRONX, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Most cancer patients who had no measurable immune response after being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 were helped by a third vaccine dose, according to a new study by investigators at the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center (MECC), Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System. The findings, published online Monday, November 15th, in Cancer Cell, also show that a "booster" shot is extremely beneficial for all cancer patients, who face a heightened risk of severe disease and dying from COVID-19, and particularly in people who have a blood cancer.
"The speed of recommendations and treatments for COVID-19 has been incredible, but many questions have remained regarding the safety and necessity of booster shots," said Lauren Shapiro, M.D., co-first author of the paper with Astha Thakkar, M.B.B.S, both third-year hematology/oncology fellows at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "Our research now gives data-driven answers about when vaccine protection from COVID-19 wanes for immunocompromised individuals and offers clear guidance about the necessity of vaccination for people with cancer."
The study involved two groups of patients with cancer. The first was composed of 99 people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. They were tested after their initial vaccination for the presence of antiviral antibodies in their bloodthe sign of an active immune response that would reduce their risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19. For most patients with detectable antibodies, their antibody levels declined when testing was repeated 4 to 6 months later.
The people in the second group, made up of 88 fully vaccinated patients with cancer, were also tested for the presence of antiviral antibodies in their blood. Sixty-four percent of them had detectable antibodies, while the remaining patients (all but one of whom had blood cancer) tested negative for antibodies. All participantspeople with and without antibodiesthen received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Four weeks later, when their blood was again tested, 79.5% (70 out of 88 people) had antibody levels that were higher than before they received their booster shot. Most notably, 56% of cancer patients who previously had no detectable antibodies after standard vaccination now had them after receiving their booster shot.
"Our study demonstrates in clear terms how the booster shot can make all the difference for some people with compromised immune systems, such as people with cancer," said Balazs Halmos, M.D., M.S., director of the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program at Montefiore Health System, professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and MECC associate director of clinical science. "As our care for cancer patients and vaccine guidelines evolve, we believe these findings underscore the continued benefit vaccines give to all our patients." Dr. Halmos, along with Amit Verma, M.B.B.S., associate director for translational research at MECC and chief of the division of hemato-oncology in the department of oncology at Montefiore, are co-corresponding authors on the paper.
This study is the fourth from MECC investigators focusing on cancer patients and COVID-19. In a paper published in May 2020 in Cancer Discovery, they found that COVID-19 patients with blood cancers had significantly higher mortality rates compared with patients who had solid tumors. In a follow-up study published in March 2021 in Nature Cancer, they reported their findings on patients' response to their initial COVID-19 infection. In June 2021, this team reported on cancer patients' initial responses to COVID-19 vaccination in Cancer Cell.
In this new study, participants who received the booster had an average age of 69 and were almost evenly split between men and women. Sixty-five percent had blood cancer and 35% had a solid tumor. Most participants, 70%, were vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 25% with Moderna, and 5% with Johnson & Johnson. Approximately 36% of patients were Caucasian, 33% African American, 22% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and 1% belong to other ethnic groups.
Additional Montefiore-Einstein authors are: Sean Campbell, Ph.D., Stefanie Forest, M.D., Ph.D., Kith Pradhan, Ph.D., Jesus Gonzalez-Lugo, M.D., Ryann Quinn M.D., Tushar D. Bhagat, Ph.D., Gaurav S. Choudhary, Ph.D., Margaret McCort, M.D., M.S., R. Alejandro Sica, M.D., Mendel Goldfinger M.D., Swati Goel, M.D., Jesus Anampa, M.D., M.S., David Levitz M.D., Ariel Fromowitz M.D., Akash Pradip Shah, M.S., Charlotte Sklow, Gregory Alfieri, Andrew Racine, M.D., and Lucia Wolgast M.D. Lee Greenberger, Ph.D. from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society was also an author.
The paper is titled "Efficacy of booster doses in augmenting waning immune responses to COVID-19 vaccine in patients with cancer." This study was supported in part by the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center (P30 CA013330), NCORP grant 2UG1CA189859-06), Jane and Myles Dempsey Family Fund, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2020-21 academic year, Einstein is home to 721 M.D. students, 178 Ph.D. students, 109 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,900 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2020, Einstein received more than $197 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit einsteinmed.org, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook , and view us on YouTube.
About Montefiore Health System
Montefiore Health System is one of New York's premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 10 hospitals, including the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information, please visit www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn, or view us on Facebook and YouTube.
SOURCE Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Related Links
http://www.einsteinmed.org
CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the report "Dairy Processing Equipment Market by type (Pasteurizers, Homogenizers, Mixers & Blenders, Separators, Evaporators & Dryers, Membrane Filtration Equipment), Mode of Operation (Automatic and Semi-Automatic), Application, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Dairy Processing Equipment Market size is estimated at USD 9.6 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% to reach USD 12.8 billion by 2026. The market has a promising growth potential due to several factors which include the rising production and consumption of milk and other dairy products along with increased automation in dairy product manufacturing.
Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=20762351
Processed milk is estimated to account for the largest market share in the by application for dairy processing equipment market.
The demand for processed milk has a major contribution to the growth of the dairy processing equipment market owing to its huge consumption in tropical countries. Additionally, technological advancements and investments in the dairy industry have been the major factors that have driven the growth of the global dairy processing equipment market for processed milk.
Pasteurizers, by type is estimated to account for the largest market share of the dairy processing equipment market over the forecast period.
The concern for consuming safe dairy products has increased, especially due to the current pandemic situation of COVID-19. This has increased the demand for pasteurizers in the market. Pasteurizers are used to kill the pathogens by providing heat and cold treatment simultaneously. Pasteurizers are available in various types, like batch pasteurizers, high-temperature short time pasteurizers, and ultra-high temperature pasteurizers.
Browse in-depth TOC on "Dairy Processing Equipment Market"
242 Tables
62 Figures
291 Pages
Europe is projected to be the second largest market for the forecast period.
The European region accounted for the significant share of the dairy processing equipment market and was estimated to be USD 2,527.2 million in 2021. The dairy products from the European region are exported to most of the regions of the world. Europe has granted reduced tariff preferences to a reasonable number of countries and currently, only a few match EU standards with regard to dairy product quality. By the support of logistics industries, Germany has accounted as the largest producer of milk.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Germany was accounted as the largest producer of milk in the EU in 2017. The logistics industry plays an important role in the German dairy sector in procuring the raw milk from the farm, supplying the processed milk and products to processors of consumer products, and reaching the retailers or distributors. According to the Global Dairy Trade Portal, cheese was the main export product of the German dairy industry in 2016 and 2017.
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Key Players:
Many domestic and global players provide dairy processing equipment to improve animal health and performance. Major manufacturers have their presence in European and Asian countries. The key companies in the dairy processing equipment market are GEA Group (Germany), SPX FLOW, Inc (US), Tetra Laval International S.A. (Switzerland), Alfa Laval Corporate AB (Sweden), John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT) Corporation (US). Various strategies, such as expansions, mergers & acquisitions, and new product launches, were adopted by the key companies to remain competitive in the dairy processing equipment market.
Related Reports:
Dairy Alternatives Market by Source (Soy, Almond, Coconut, Oats, Rice, Hemp), Application (Milk, Yogurt, Ice creams, Cheese, Creamers), Distribution Channel (Supermarkets, Health Food Stores, Pharmacies), Formulation, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/dairy-alternative-plant-milk-beverages-market-677.html
Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market by Type (Processing, Pre-Processing), Application (Bakery & Confectionery, Meat & Poultry, Dairy, Alcoholic & Non-Alcoholic Beverages), Mode of Operation, End-Product Form, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-processing-equipment-market-121668697.html
Browse Adjacent Reports: Food and Beverage Market Research Reports & Consulting
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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.
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MarketsandMarkets INC.
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Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/dairy-processing-equipment-market.asp
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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
"We are delighted to recognize that Extra Space is setting an example for how REITs can institutionalize ESG within their business management and operations," said Fulya Kocak, senior vice president, ESG issues, Nareit. "We are proud to recognize Extra Space for its achievements in sustainability and ESG practices for a second year in a row."
The Leader in the Light award takes into account the company's performance on The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), which measures ESG performance of over 1,500 participating real estate companies and is used by over 140 institutional investors. Extra Space achieved an A rating for GRESB Public Disclosure, well above the global and comparison group averages. The company also received a three green star rating and improved the company's standing investments assessment score from GRESB by 23 percent year-over-year. Extra Space is the highest rated U.S. based self-storage company by GRESB. In addition to an upgraded rating on GRESB, Extra Space also scored highly on S&P Global's SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment, improving its score by 17 percent year-over-year, and retaining its top rating in the sector.
Extra Space Storage's portfolio is comprised of over 2,000 properties across the United States. The company has over 158 million square feet of rentable space. Extra Space, when compared to the Real Estate Sector Average data from the Urban Land Institute report, consumes 84% less energy and produces 86% less carbon emissions than the real estate sector average.
"We are proud to be recognized as a Leader in the Light by Nareit and GRESB, since this award is designed for the real estate sector, by those who truly understand sustainable best practices for REITs. We are building Extra Space to be a strong, successful enterprise for decades to come, and our sustainability initiatives are an integral piece of that long-term strategy," said Extra Space CEO Joe Margolis.
Extra Space Storage's most recent Sustainability Report provides details on the Company's ESG initiatives, goals, and performance.
About Extra Space Storage Inc.:
Extra Space Storage Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a self-administered and self-managed REIT and a member of the S&P 500. As of September 30, 2021, the Company owned and/or operated 2,054 self-storage stores in 41 states and Washington, D.C. The Company's stores comprise approximately 1.5 million units and approximately 159.0 million square feet of rentable space. The Company offers customers a wide selection of conveniently located and secure storage units across the country, including boat storage, RV storage and business storage. The Company is the second largest owner and/or operator of self-storage stores in the United States and is the largest self-storage management company in the United States.
CONTACT:
McKall Morris
[email protected]
SOURCE Extra Space Storage Inc.
Related Links
https://ir.extraspace.com
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) priced Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS) Series 2021-R02, a $984 million note offering that represents Fannie Mae's second CAS REMIC transaction of the year. CAS is Fannie Mae's benchmark issuance program designed to share credit risk on its single-family conventional guaranty book of business.
"Our latest deal was met with high demand from a deep base of investors," said Devang Doshi, Senior Vice President, Single-Family Capital Markets, Fannie Mae. "Subject to market conditions, we look forward to returning to market next month with our final deal of the year, CAS 2021-R03, a low-LTV transaction."
The reference pool for CAS Series 2021-R02 consists of approximately 125,000 single-family mortgage loans with an outstanding unpaid principal balance of approximately $35 billion. The reference pool includes collateral with loan-to-value ratios of 80.01 percent to 97.00 percent, which were acquired from October through December 2020. The loans included in this transaction are fixed-rate, generally 30-year term, fully amortizing mortgages and were underwritten using rigorous credit standards and enhanced risk controls.
Fannie Mae will retain a portion of the 2M-1, 2M-2, 2B-1, and 2B-2 tranches in order to align its interests with investors throughout the life of the deal. Fannie Mae will retain the full 2B-3H first-loss tranche.
Class Offered Amount ($MM) Pricing Level Expected Rating (Fitch/KBRA) 2M-1 $283.567 1-month average SOFR plus 90 bps BBB- (sf) / BBB (sf) 2M-2 $283.566 1-month average SOFR plus 200 bps BB (sf) / BBB- (sf) 2B-1 $233.524 1-month average SOFR plus 330 bps B+ (sf) / BB (sf) 2B-2 $183.484 1-month average SOFR plus 620 bps NR / B- (sf)
Nomura Securities International Inc. ("Nomura") is the lead structuring manager and joint bookrunner. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ("Citigroup") is the co-lead manager and joint bookrunner. Co-managers are BofA Securities, Inc. ("BofA Securities"), Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC ("Morgan Stanley"), StoneX Group Inc. ("StoneX"), and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC ("Wells Fargo"). Selling group members are service-disabled veteran-owned Academy Securities Inc. and African-American owned Blaylock Van, LLC.
With the completion of this transaction, Fannie Mae will have brought 43 CAS deals to market, issued over $49 billion in notes, and transferred a portion of the credit risk to private investors on over $1.6 trillion in single-family mortgage loans, measured at the time of the transaction.
To promote transparency and to help credit investors evaluate our securities and the CAS program, Fannie Mae provides ongoing, robust disclosure data, as well as access to news, resources, and analytics through its credit risk transfer webpages . This includes Fannie Mae's innovative Data Dynamics tool that enables market participants to interact with and analyze CAS deals that are currently outstanding in the market and Fannie Mae's historical loan dataset. In addition, our EU Resources and UK Resources webpages help European Union and UK institutional investors, as well as those managing funds subject to EU/UK regulations comply with EU/UK securitization regulation.
In addition to our flagship CAS program, Fannie Mae continues to reduce risk to taxpayers through its Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) reinsurance program.
About Connecticut Avenue Securities:
CAS REMIC notes are issued by a bankruptcy-remote trust. The amount of periodic principal and ultimate principal paid by Fannie Mae is determined by the performance of a large and diverse reference pool. For more information on individual CAS transactions, visit our credit risk transfer website.
About Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of people in America. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for people across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit:
fanniemae.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Blog
Fannie Mae Newsroom
https://www.fanniemae.com/newsroom
Photo of Fannie Mae
https://www.fanniemae.com/resources/img/about-fm/fm-building.tif
Fannie Mae Resource Center
1-800-2FANNIE
Statements in this release regarding the company's future CAS transactions are forward-looking. Actual results may be materially different as a result of market conditions or other factors listed in "Risk Factors" or "Forward-Looking Statements" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. This release does not constitute an offer or sale of any security. Before investing in any Fannie Mae issued security, potential investors should review the disclosure for such security and consult their own investment advisors.
SOURCE Fannie Mae
Related Links
www.fanniemae.com
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As the federal confirmation process begins for the Acting Chair of the FCC, two non-profit groups representing Florida consumers, taxpayers and businesses are calling on the United States Senate Commerce Committee to hold Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel accountable for the unacceptable delay in the rollout of the Emergency Broadband Benefits program funded by Congress. That multi-month delay essentially denied rural broadband timely access to millions of qualified poor Americans during the pandemic.
The committee is holding hearings to consider confirming Rosenworcel to the permanent position as head of the FCC. That doesn't sit well with the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or the Florida Alliance for Consumers and Taxpayers (FACT).
"When rural Floridians and Americans needed broadband access as soon as possible, Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel listened to the powerful special interests in the telecom industry and delayed implementation of a crucial federal program," said Julio Fuentes, president of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber. "Many of these people denied more timely access are people of color. It is unconscionable that this program was delayed at the behest of Big Telecom."
The program in question is the Emergency Broadband Benefits (EBB) program which offers eligible households a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service. A recent study shows that 42 million Americans lack broadband internet access.
The EBB program would have come in handy for rural and underserved markets, said FACT director Jim Messer: "How many telehealth appointments were missed? How many school lessons weren't downloaded? How many workers or unemployed people were put under even more stress?"
"This decision to delay the implementation of the EBB program by several months calls into question Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel's ability to properly lead the FCC in the public interest," Messer said. "Why the delay? Why did powerful special interests prevail over the public interest? Americans deserve answers to these and other questions."
Both FACT and the Florida State Hispanic Chamber are calling on the Senate Commerce Committee to, at the least, question Rosenworcel about these delays. "Perhaps a delay of her nomination would be an effective way to communicate how painful this delay in EBB implementation was to those who needed broadband help so desperately," Messer said.
Fuentes added: "Hispanic voters want to know that their interests are being represented across all areas of government. Right now, it's hard to see how that's happening at the FCC."
SOURCE Florida Alliance for Consumers and Taxpayers; Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortis, a high-growth commercial bank serving small- to medium-sized privately held businesses in Colorado and Utah, announced the hiring of four new banking teams in Salt Lake City, UT.
Mr. Kristopher Adams will be responsible for the continued expansion and growth of the Fortis SBA Lending strategy. Mr. Michael Borys, Mr. Jon Moir and Ms. Lindsey Williams will lead teams in the Utah Commercial Banking market.
"We are pleased to continue to expand our presence in Utah, furthering our commitment to serving the market and supporting the local community," stated Chris Luce, Fortis Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. "Fortis continues to build teams of bankers who bring breadth and depth of industry experience and do not require layers of middle management to be successful. We are fortunate to have welcomed nine veteran bankers over the past year in both Colorado and Utah."
"Our new teams fit perfectly into the Fortis business model that our clients have come to appreciate and expect," stated Josh Peters, Fortis' Chief Lending Officer. "We expect consistent growth within our commercial, specialty and treasury management departments and look forward to the continued expansion of our SBA products and offerings. Our focus on the development of our people and products will enhance our market position as our clients continue to grow, so they can focus on what matters most to them: running their businesses."
"Bankers chose Fortis because of our lack of bureaucracy," continued Mr. Luce. "This gives them the ability to better serve their clients compared to the regional or money center banks. We reward our bankers with a simple, performance-based compensation model that continues to deliver superior results to our clients."
About Fortis
Fortis is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a state-chartered bank with offices in the Denver and Salt Lake City metropolitan areas. The bank provides business and personal clients with a full suite of loan, treasury management and deposit products, with an emphasis on Commercial and Specialty clients. To learn more about Fortis, visit www.fortisprivatebank.com.
Contact
Laura Hildreth, Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources
[email protected]
SOURCE Fortis
Related Links
https://www.fortisprivatebank.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 Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures 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/plumbing-fittings-and-fixtures-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 3%-5%.
Identify favorable opportunities in Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures 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 Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures market procurement report covers the following areas:
Some of the top Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures suppliers listed in this report:
This Plumbing Fittings and Fixtures procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.
Toto Ltd
Geberit AG
Roca Sanitario SA
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Table of Content
Executive Summary
Market Insights
Category Pricing Insights
Cost-saving Opportunities
Best Practices
Category Ecosystem
Category Management Strategy
Category Management Enablers
Suppliers Selection
Suppliers under Coverage
US Market Insights
Category scope
Appendix
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Contacts
SpendEdge
Anirban Choudhury
Marketing Manager
Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340
https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us
SOURCE SpendEdge
AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodyear and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve are partnering for the 11th consecutive year in support of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation at the company's airship bases in California, Florida and Ohio. The Goodyear Blimp events will provide the public with an opportunity to donate to Toys for Tots while enjoying an up-close and personal view of the blimp.
Goodyear and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, along with Santa, support the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation at the companys blimp bases in California, Florida and Ohio.
Beginning Nov. 20 and continuing through Dec. 10, toy donations will also be accepted at select Cooper Service, Goodyear Auto Service, and Just Tires locations nationwide. Additional details on participating store locations are available below and on www.goodyearblimp.com.
On Dec. 3, 4, and 5, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Ohio visitors can drive through the Wingfoot Lake blimp hangar to drop off their donation to a U.S. Marine representing Toys for Tots. The California drive-thru event will take place on Dec. 4 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. while the Florida drive-thru event will take place on Dec. 4 and 5 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
These events are free and open to the public, with all attendees required to follow Goodyear's COVID-19 protocols, including wearing a mask while on property, adhering to social distancing guidelines and keeping toys in the trunk of their vehicle.
Toys can also be shipped to Goodyear's hangars through Dec. 3 for contactless donation. Toys being donated must be new and in the original packaging to be accepted.
"It's so critical that we find ways to support our communities and it's an honor to work with the Toys for Tots organization to provide this unique collection experience and deliver toys to those who need them the most," said Laura Duda, Goodyear's senior vice president and chief communications officer. "Our relationship with the U.S. Marine Corps and their Toys for Tots Program has continued to grow over the past 11 years, and we are thankful we can support children receiving much-needed toy donations during the holiday season."
2021 marks the 11th year of the collaboration between Goodyear and the Marines for events at Goodyear Blimp bases, which have collectively delivered more than 165,000 toys and nearly $500,000 to benefit Toys for Tots to date.
"We are excited to welcome Goodyear back for their 11th year as a National Corporate Sponsor of the Marine Toys for Tots Campaign," said retired Marine Colonel Ted Silvester, vice president of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. "Their community service goals certainly align with those the Marine Corps has promoted for the past 73 years through our Toys for Tots Program. With their generous support we will be able to fulfill the Christmas dreams of thousands of less fortunate children who otherwise might be forgotten."
Goodyear first nicknamed one of its blimps the "Santa Claus Express" in 1927 to spread holiday cheer across the skies of America. The company has a long history of community involvement and volunteerism within its corporate social responsibility strategy, Goodyear Better Future.
Founded in 1947, it is the mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the communities in which the campaigns are conducted.
The California Goodyear airship base is located at 19200 S Main St, Carson, California 90248.
The Florida Goodyear airship base is located at 1500 NE 5th Ave, Pompano Beach, Florida 33060.
The Ohio Goodyear airship base is located at 841 Wingfoot Lake Rd., Mogadore, Ohio 44260.
Donation details are available online at www.goodyearblimp.com, by visiting the Goodyear Blimp Facebook page or by calling (800) 344-9859.
Cooper Service, Goodyear Auto Service, and Just Tires locations participating in the toy collection are:
Store Name Address City State Zip Phone Cooper Service 5320 N. State Line Ave. Texarkana AR 71854 870-772-6971 Cooper Service 4006 W. Main St. Tupelo MS 38801 800-844-1852 Cooper Service 401 E. Main Cross Street Findlay OH 45840 419-422-0414 Goodyear Auto Service Center 11 N Andrews Ave Ft. Lauderdale FL 33301 954-463-0411 Goodyear Auto Service Center 2825 Hollywood Blvd Hollywood FL 33020 954-923-6521 Goodyear Auto Service Center 675 Skymarks Dr Jacksonville FL 32218 904-714-9065 Goodyear Auto Service Center 3813 S Dale Mabry Hwy Tampa FL 33611 813-831-1891 Goodyear Auto Service Center 46-057 Kamehameha Hwy Kaneohe HI 96860 808-247-6668 Goodyear Auto Service Center 1800 Buchholzer Blvd Akron OH 44310 330-633-7000 Goodyear Auto Service Center 3453 S Arlington Rd Akron OH 44312 330-896-8633 Goodyear Auto Service Center 90 Graham Rd Cuyahoga Falls OH 44223 330-923-0656 Goodyear Auto Service Center 3265 W Market St #600 Fairlawn OH 44333 330-867-2300 Goodyear Auto Service Center 6850 Frank Ave NW North Canton OH 44720 330-966-1274 Goodyear Auto Service Center 4455 Kent Rd Stow OH 44224 330-678-0600 Goodyear Auto Service Center 16180 Pearl Rd Strongsville OH 44136 440-238-5001 Goodyear Auto Service Center 145 Great Oaks Trl Wadsworth OH 44281 330-335-2533 Goodyear Auto Service Center 199 Parris Island Gtwy Beaufort SC 29906 843-379-6770 Goodyear Auto Service Center 101 Barrel Landing Rd Bluffton SC 29909 843-705-4683 Just Tires 744 East Dominguez St Carson CA 90746 310-538-5407 Just Tires 410 N Tustin St Orange CA 92867 714-639-4321
About The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Goodyear is one of the world's largest tire companies. It employs about 72,000 people and manufactures its products in 55 facilities in 23 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio, and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry. For more information about Goodyear and its products, go to www.goodyear.com/corporate.
SOURCE The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Related Links
http://www.goodyear.com
ST. PAUL, Minn. and BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GROWMARK and CHS today announced the formation of Cooperative Ventures, a new capital fund that will focus on creating advancements in breakthrough technologies for the agriculture industry. The fund will provide differentiated value to startups in the agricultural ecosystem by leveraging the expansive, connected networks, unparalleled access to the farmgate and proven success of the two agricultural cooperatives. Both companies will be equal partners in the $50 million fund, which will be established as its own separate legal entity.
The combined markets of the two companies cover millions of acres and thousands of farmers that will create an industry-leading test field for products and services within North America. The fund has identified three core investment areas, or "Fields of Play," to maximize the impact of each investment: crop production, supply chain, and sustainability.
"This is a terrific opportunity to act cooperatively by working together on a venture meaningful to agriculture and our corresponding supply chains," said GROWMARK CEO Jim Spradlin. "Both GROWMARK and CHS have trusted relationships and expertise within our networks, which will provide tremendous value for technology startups and ultimately benefit our respective customers. This is a natural evolution of GROWMARK's AgValidity trial and testing program."
"This partnership will help accelerate technology solutions to existing and emerging challenges in agriculture and is yet another way CHS creates connections to empower agriculture," said Jay Debertin, president and CEO of CHS Inc. "Our ongoing commitment to investment in growth and innovation for the benefit of CHS owners and the cooperative system further places CHS and GROWMARK at the forefront of cutting-edge technology solutions by leveraging our deep expertise and strong connections with farmer-owners."
GROWMARK and CHS will provide tech startups unprecedented access to robust distribution capabilities within multiple value chains, allowing for opportunities to test and refine at different scales. Having cooperative member-owners and customers within the same ecosystem will take these innovative ideas to a new level to create shareholder value and customer-focused solutions.
Special attention will be paid to the startup's strategic fit with both GROWMARK and CHS. Other factors will be based on their drive to lead in the startup space, the ability to deliver value and quality, the experience of management, and ultimately the ability to take a product or service to market. Cooperative Ventures will be comprised of teams based out of Bloomington, Illinois, and St. Paul, Minnesota.
About GROWMARK:
GROWMARK is an agricultural cooperative serving almost 400,000 customers across North America, providing agronomy, energy, facility engineering and construction, and logistics products and services, as well as grain marketing and risk management services. Headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois, GROWMARK owns the FS trademark, which is used by its member cooperatives. GROWMARK also owns and operates SEEDWAY, the largest full-line seed company in the United States. More information is available at growmark.com.
About CHS:
CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, agronomy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to creating connections to empower agriculture, helping its farmer-owners, customers and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, seed, crop protection products, grain marketing services, production and agricultural services, animal nutrition products, foods and food ingredients, and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries and pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.
SOURCE CHS Inc.
Related Links
http://www.chsinc.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Over a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans (85%) agree that it's more important than ever to stay in their home for long-term care. However, nearly half of those not retired (47%) say they are concerned their current home will not be safe for them to "age in place."
According to the tenth annual Nationwide Retirement Institute Long-term Care survey of 1,812 U.S. adults aged 24 or over and 706 caregivers, conducted by The Harris Poll in October 2021, the vast majority of Americans (88%) believe it's more important than ever for people to have a plan for long-term care and have long-term care insurance (86%) as COVID-19 has raised concerns about nursing homes.
"The pandemic has further fueled people's fear of being alone in a nursing home when they need long-term care," said Holly Snyder, president of Nationwide's life insurance business. "Our survey revealed that six in 10 adults would rather die than live in a nursing home. It's also made people consider whether they have a plan that will allow them to age in place in their current home if they need long-term care."
What's more, 80% of Americans agree that it is important for them to live in a single-floor home when they age. In contrast, 68% of non-retirees say their current home has stairs.
"Many adults are concerned about navigating their home's stairs and step-up entries as they age," Snyder added. "In fact, nearly half of those we surveyed (47%) say they are more afraid of falling than getting cancer. There are long-term care solutions with cash indemnity style benefits that allow policy holders to use the money to pay for more than just typical assisted living expenses. You can use this coverage to pay a relative to help with your long-term care and to install lifts, elevators and safety railings so you can stay in your home."
A family affair
Most adults (70%) would like to have the option of relying on their family for long-term care if they need it. In fact, half (50%) feel it is the responsibility of their family to care for them if they need long-term care. This sentiment is particularly high for Millennials (69%) and declines with age (52% for Gen Xers and 33% for Boomers+). Millennials and Gen Xers expect their parents to live with them when they get older (61% and 49%), and they expect to live with their adult children when they get older (46% and 36% vs. just one in four Boomers).
That said, two-thirds of adults (66%) are worried they will become a burden to their family as they get older. Seven in 10 adults (70%) would not expect a family member to provide long-term care if they were unable to compensate them.
Many adults misunderstand long-term care coverage
The survey reveals that 25% of adults self-report that they currently own long-term care insurance for themselves. This is concerning, as industry data shows only 15% of Americans have purchased long-term care insurance and most of those are older consumers.*
According to the survey, Millennials (39%) are more likely than Gen Xers (26%) and Boomers+ (19%) to claim they currently own long-term care insurance for themselves. Most say they bought the insurance at work, which gives away the misconception - too many adults confuse long-term disability insurance with long-term care insurance.
"Rarely is long-term care included in a company benefit package," Snyder said. "This misconception could mean that many Americans mostly Millennials mistakenly believe they have some sort long-term care coverage, when in fact they do not."
Most Americans (61%) cannot even estimate what current annual nursing home costs could be. Those who did, estimate current annual nursing home costs to be $43,096. That is not even half of what a semi-private room averages in 2020 ($93,075 semi-private, $105,850 for a private room**). They also underestimate home health care costs at $33,617 ($54,912**).
Caregivers face unique challenges
According to the survey, two in 10 adults are currently caregivers (21%) and close to four in 10 have been a caregiver at some point in their lives (39%). Caregiving is a time and money-intensive role. On average, most caregivers spend an average of 31.4 hours and $692 a month on caregiving duties.
Eight in 10 (80%) believe they should be able to be a caregiver without dipping into their savings to cover day to day expenses. The reality is, many say they are afraid caregiving expenses will keep them from ever retiring (68% of Millennials and 53% of Gen Xers), as well as worry caregiving could cause them to lose their job (62% of Millennials and 42% of Gen Xers). Despite all this, if given the choice, 80% of caregivers would choose to be a caregiver all over again.
Financial professionals have solutions
Nearly half of adults across all age groups have not discussed long-term care costs with anyone. With fewer than one in 10 adults (8%) saying they've discussed long-term planning with their financial professional, it's important they start the planning process today to set themselves, their loved ones and future caregivers, up for success.
The good news is that more than one-third (36%) plan to discuss long-term care costs with a financial professional in the future, in particular younger adults (41% Millennials and 46% Gen Xers, vs. 24% Boomers+).
"It is very clear that Americans across all generations need more education about long-term care costs and solutions," Snyder said. "Financial professionals can help adults create a plan that addresses these issues."
To encourage discussions around health care and long-term costs in retirement, Nationwide's Health Care/LTC Cost Assessment tool uses proprietary health risk analysis and updated actuarial cost data to provide a meaningful, personalized cost estimate that will help financial professionals and clients plan for future medical and long-term care expenses.
To learn more about the 2021 Nationwide Long-term Care Consumer Survey, visit www.nationwide.com/ltcinsights. Financial professionals can learn more at www.nationwidefinancial.com/ltcinsights.
Methodology
The 2021 Nationwide Retirement Institute Long-term Care survey was conducted online within the United States between adults aged 25 and over by The Harris Poll on behalf of The Nationwide Retirement Institute. Within the survey, respondents who are current caregivers or have been caregivers in the past were identified. Caregivers are defined as those who have ever or are now providing paid or unpaid long-term care to a friend or family member, not through an agency, business, or non-governmental organization. Those who care(d) only for a child under 18 or a child over 18 born with a disability did not qualify as a caregiver for this survey.
Respondents for these surveys were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the online panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, household income, marital status, household size, and propensity to be online to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. A propensity score was incorporated into weighting to adjust for attitudinal and behavioral differences between those who are online versus those who are not, those who join online panels versus those who do not, and those who responded to this survey versus those who did not.
About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is one of the longest running surveys in the U.S. tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963 and is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a global consulting and market research firm that delivers social intelligence for transformational times. We work with clients in three primary areas: building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. Our mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make the best decisions possible. To learn more, please visit www.theharrispoll.com.
About Nationwide
Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the United States. Nationwide is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's. An industry leader in driving customer-focused innovation, Nationwide provides a full range of insurance and financial services products including auto, business, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; excess & surplus, specialty and surety; pet, motorcycle and boat insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
*LIMRA Insurance Barometer, 2019
**Genworth's 2020 Cost of Care Survey
This material is not a recommendation to buy or sell a financial product or to adopt an investment strategy. Investors should discuss their specific situation with their financial professional.
This information is general in nature and is not intended to be tax, legal, accounting or other professional advice. The information provided is based on current laws, which are subject to change at any time, and has not been endorsed by any government agency.
Nationwide and the Harris Poll are separate and non-affiliated companies.
Nationwide Investment Services Corporation (NISC), member FINRA, Columbus, OH. Nationwide Retirement Institute is a division of NISC.
Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle and Nationwide Retirement Institute are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Nationwide 2021
NFM-21484AO
Contact:
Charley Gillespie
[email protected]
SOURCE Nationwide
Related Links
http://www.nationwide.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Heyday, a platform for brand building, pioneering a marketplace-first approach to creating the next-generation consumer products company, announced today the close of its $555 million Series C funding round. The round was co-led by high-growth technology investors The Raine Group and Premji Invest with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, Victory Park Capital, and Khosla Ventures.
The new funding comes on the heels of a $70 million Series B funding round in May, bringing the total capital raised to $800 million since the company's founding in 2020. Heyday will use the capital to accelerate investment in its brands, technology platform, and logistics footprint, and continue its rapid pace of acquiring and incubating leading digital brands.
"Marketplaces like Amazon have democratized e-commerce creation, making it easier than ever before for consumers to discover innovative new products and brands," said Sebastian Rymarz, co-founder and CEO. "We're excited to partner with these amazing entrepreneurs and leverage our platform capabilities to help them make the Great Leap from marketplace-native brand to household brand."
Heyday also filled key leadership roles together with the Series C, adding a team of seasoned retail and technology executives who have been instrumental in leading hyper-growth organizations, including CFO Navid Veiseh (Amazon, Coupang), CMO Reema Batta (Opendoor, Expedia), and CAO Todd Heeter (Doma, Anixter). The new hires will help steer the company through its rapid pace of scaling and global expansion, as evidenced by its seventh office opening in China, a 20x increase in its workforce of experts in brand management, product development and innovation, integrated marketing, supply chain, operations, technology, data science and M&A, and its expectation to generate well over $200 million of run-rate revenue by the end of 2021.
"We have been exceptionally impressed with Sebastian and his team, their vision, and commitment to operational excellence for the next generation of consumer brands," said Jake Vachal, Managing Director at The Raine Group. "Heyday's innovative approach to growing and incubating brands provides entrepreneurs access to leading technology, as well as deep-rooted expertise spanning operations and marketing. We are excited to be partnering with this team as they continue building a differentiated platform for quality, digital-first brands."
The Heyday platform weaves together technology, data, operations, and growth capabilities to help its brands with omni-channel expansion, product development, and brand equity building. Its brands have outpaced the broader e-commerce market, delivering 64% year-over-year organic growth. Last month, Heyday launched a partnership with MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics to further develop its platform's inventory optimization capabilities, helping improve its brands in-stock rates and navigate an incredibly tumultuous global supply chain environment.
"Heyday's differentiated strategy and world-class team stand-out in what is playing out to be one of the most explosive new industries," said Sandesh Patnam, Managing Partner Premji Invest. "We are excited to partner with the leadership team to help Heyday leave a mark on the e-commerce space."
About Heyday
Heyday is a platform for brand building. The company is pioneering a marketplace-first approach to creating the next-generation consumer products company. We acquire and incubate marketplace-native brands through innovative partnerships with e-commerce entrepreneurs. Once a part of the Heyday platform, brands tap into technology, data, supply chain, and growth capabilities designed to help them go omni-channel, expand their product offering, and build brand equity. Our marketplace-first approach to digital brand building is unlocking the overlooked potential in the $2.7 trillion global marketplace economy. Heyday has raised $800 million from visionary investors like The Raine Group, Premji Invest, General Catalyst, Victory Park Capital and Khosla Ventures. For more information, visit www.heyday.co
About The Raine Group
The Raine Group is a global merchant bank focused exclusively on technology, media, and telecommunications. The firm has offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Mumbai. With a global reach, Raine focuses on investment and advisory opportunities where its deep industry experience and unique network of strategic relationships can create value for portfolio companies and clients. For more information, visit www.raine.com .
About Premji Invest
Premji Invest is a direct crossover investment fund formed to support the Premji Foundationan organization funded by Azim Premji to enable his philanthropic initiatives. PI is an evergreen structure, investing out of the US and India. By nature of its evergreen, established capital base, Premji Invest makes incredibly selective, long-term investment decisions - focusing its partnerships on companies that offer enduring value and can thrive in the public markets and beyond.
Contact: [email protected]
SOURCE Heyday
Related Links
https://www.heyday.co
HOUSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Houston Law Review will host its 26th Annual Frankel Lecture on Friday, Nov. 19 to examine the topics of academic expression and the challenges of discrimination when teaching and writing in a university setting. Harvard Law School Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen will discuss the connection between academic freedom and university rules; norms and practices of discrimination; and harassment and bullying. She also plans to look at the relation between the promotion of free speech and the promotion of diversity and inclusion.
Commentators for the lecture hosted by the Houston Law Review are Professor of Law Khiara M. Bridges from UC Berkeley School of Law and Professor of Politics Keith E. Whittington from Princeton University.
Gersen is the John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, family law, and the law of art, fashion, and the performing arts. Before joining Harvard faculty in 2006, she served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Harry Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A Yale and an Oxford graduate, Gersen was a Marshall Scholar and at Harvard, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Gersen has also been a Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of Harvard Law School's Sacks-Fruend Award for Teaching Excellence. She has written three books, including "At Home in the Law" which was awarded the Law and Society Association's Herbert Jacob Prize for the best law and society book of the year.
The Frankel Lecture will be held online from 12 2 p.m. (Central), Friday, Nov. 19. Participating attorneys will receive one hour of CLE credit. Click here to register.
Media contacts: Carrie Anna Criado, UH Law Center Assistant Dean of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-2184, [email protected]; Elena Hawthorne, Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-1125, [email protected]; and John Brannen, Senior Writer, 713-743-3055, [email protected].
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and Asian-American-Serving institution with enrollment of more than 47,000 students.
About the University of Houston Law Center
The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) is a dynamic, top tier law school located in the nation's 4th largest city. UHLC's Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Part-time programs rank in the U.S. News Top 10. It awards Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees, through its academic branch, the College of Law. The Law Center is more than just a law school. It is a powerful hub of intellectual activity with more than 11 centers and institutes which fuel its educational mission and national reputation. UHLC is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
About the Houston Law Review
The Houston Law Review is a scholarly journal published by students at the University of Houston Law Center. Houston Law Review was founded in 1963 under guidance of Dean Newell Blakely, and with contribution from twenty lifetime sponsors including Houston firms such as Baker Botts, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Vinson & Elkins. In 1970, Professor G. Sidney Buchanan became the first faculty advisor to the law review. Now in its 58th year of publication, the law review has over 1000 alumni members making valuable contributions to legal community all across the nation. These include judges on United States District Courts and the Texas Supreme Court, renowned practitioners, and general counsel to Fortune 500 companies. Recent alumni members of Houston Law Review have served as judicial clerks to federal district and circuit judges.
SOURCE University of Houston Law Center
Related Links
http://www.law.uh.edu
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley, Inc. is applauding the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law Nov. 15, 2021 by President Biden.
"This is a historic leap forward into the 21st century for the United States," said John Cooney, Jr., Executive Director of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley, Inc. "The bipartisan infrastructure legislation recognizes the unparalleled legacy of the massive investments we have made in our nation's transportation infrastructure over the past century. This bill also allows us to tackle the enormous backlog of needs and repairs to critical facilities that protect and expand drinking water facilities and resources, that fortify our dams and make our communities safer from the ravages of catastrophic rain and wind storms and the flooding and damages they cause.
"We applaud President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all of our supporting members of New York State's delegation to U.S. Congress for standing strong and pressing forward for the plan, which will benefit all Americans."
Cooney said the Construction Industry Council is committed to working with federal, state and regional leaders to apply for additional funds available from the federal infrastructure bill that New York State can use to make needed improvements to public facilities and services in the region.
"Infrastructure is always a political winner," Cooney said. "We thank you for supporting the bipartisan plan to invest in America's future."
About CIC
Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Construction Industry Council (CIC) of Westchester and Hudson Valley, Inc. represents the leading heavy construction general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and service professionals in the seven-county region of the lower Hudson Valley. CIC is aligned with the Building Contractors Association of Westchester & the Mid-Hudson Region, Inc., and more than 30 labor unions of the Building & Construction Trades Councils in the area. For information, visit cicbca.org.
CONTACT: Caryn McBride
[email protected]
SOURCE Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley
Related Links
http://www.cicbca.org
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IDB Invest has provided a $45 million senior loan facility to QMC Telecom International Holdings LLC subsidiaries in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, which will be available in the three local currencies. The project will fund QMC Telecom's business in the three countries to support its capital expenditures, working capital, and debt service reserve account needs.
This ten-year transaction will improve the quality and efficiency of wireless broadband services in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Social distancing and lockdown measures have made broadband connectivity essential for most social and economic activities including work, education, and health care. Mobile data traffic was already expected to increase considerably by 2025, but the pandemic has significantly accelerated data traffic with higher adoption of digital services.
"QMC is growing very fast due to a strong business strategy and the quality of our solutions. A partnership with the IDB will make us even stronger and help us solidify our position to better serve our clients in Latin America" said Rafael Somoza and Jose Stella, QMC's co-CEOs and Founders.
QMC Telecom expects to significantly grow its portfolio of towers, distributed antenna systems, and street level solutions in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru as all these countries get ready for 5G spectrum deployments and the required network densification that will follow. In Colombia, the new financing will allow QMC Telecom to support carriers nationwide deployments of the recently auctioned 700MHz spectrum, including in communities that currently have no cellular coverage.
"Our partnership with IDB Invest underscores QMC Telecom's commitment to corporate citizenship, sustainability, and diversity in the communities it serves. QMC's vision is to foster growth, enable connectivity and solve clients' needs. IDB Invest's loan will help us realize that vision and, in doing so, reduce the digital divide in Latin America", said Ricardo Zubieta, QMC's Chief Financial Officer.
"The pandemic highlighted the importance of wireless communications and connectivity has become an essential mission in today's world. The investment in QMC Telecom reinforces our commitment to the development of sustainable connectivity in Latin American countries", concludes Gema Sacristan, IDB Invests Chief Investment Officer.
IDB Invest will support QMC Telecom with the implementation of an environmental and social management system (ESMS) to better identify and control potential environmental and social impacts and risks related to its operations. The ESMS will include an environmental and social guided screening procedure for site selection, a mechanism to address community grievances, a requirement for the client to prepare a health and safety management plan and implementation protocols, improved solid waste management, and a series of measures to manage impacts on neighboring communities.
This deal is expected to contribute to two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG 9).
About IDB Invest
IDB Invest, a member of the IDB Group, is a multilateral development bank committed to promoting the economic development of its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean through the private sector. IDB Invest finances sustainable companies and projects to achieve financial results and maximize economic, social and environmental development in the region. With a portfolio of $13.1 billion in asset management and 385 clients in 25 countries, IDB Invest provides innovative financial solutions and advisory services that meet the needs of its clients in a variety of industries.
About QMC Telecom International
Founded in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2008, QMC Telecom is a multinational independent owner and operator of wireless infrastructure. The company develops, owns, acquires, and manages macro sites, rooftops, indoor DAS, and street level solutions in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and the United States. QMC is backed by a group of renowned investors including Accel, Housatonic Partners, and Grupo Santo Domingo, among others.
Contact: Eduardo Miki, [email protected]
SOURCE QMC Telecom
Related Links
www.qmctelecom.com
- TMCF and Infosys will establish mechanism to increase candidates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for high-quality STEM jobs
- The Infosys Foundation USA will support the TMCF Teacher Quality & Retention Program to help prepare aspiring K12 STEM teachers to bring computer science and maker education to their classrooms
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced a 3-year investment benefitting the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), America's largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. As part of its commitment to developing and recruiting diverse talent, Infosys will serve as a HBCU Graduate Pipeline Partner creating an opportunity for at least 1600 graduating students to interview and accept jobs within Infosys. Additionally, given its mission to advance access to computer science education for K12 educators, Infosys Foundation USA will serve as the STEM sponsor of TMCF's Teacher Quality & Retention Program (TQRP) 10-day Summer Institute to invest in the future pipeline of Black STEM educators.
"Building a culture of equality doesn't start and end with any one individual, one government, or one business it takes a coalition of the willing to ensure our progress is lasting. Partnering with the TMCF is a fantastic opportunity to highlight the work their organization is doing to develop a culture of engagement that turns young Americans into future STEM leaders. Infosys recognizes that in order to get the right people into the right roles, while also ensuring upward mobility, we can't rely on past approaches. Through this partnership, Infosys renews its commitment to provide equal opportunity for all and strive for a workforce that resembles the cultural makeup of America," said Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys.
Infosys and TMCF will provide graduating students with a path to career training and job placement at Infosys. The program will leverage TMCF's HBCU campus relationships and its talent acquisition team to identify students interested in technology careers and having strong analytic skills. Ultimately, students will have an opportunity to interview for roles at Infosys. Infosys will also support on-campus informational sessions to maximize the program's reach with the eventual goal of moving more than 1,600 students through the career program.
Recent data shows that this kind of investment in HBCUs would profoundly affect the US economy. HBCUs are uniquely positioned to foster such engagement given their assets, experience, and cultural and historical significance.
Dr. Harry L. Williams, President & CEO, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said, "It's time today's technology leaders champion the talent of HBCU graduates. We believe HBCUs possess the power and the people to create a more equitable society, that's why we work so diligently to ensure their sustainability and strengthen their capacity to continue to produce top talent who are prepared to change the face of leadership in business and beyond. We are thrilled Infosys recognizes the potential of diverse students to transform the future workforce. This impressive group of students will certainly be tomorrow's corporate leaders and experts."
The Infosys Foundation USA will invest in the TMCF TQRP Summer Institute, a 10-day hands-on training program that helps pre-service and aspiring K12 educators to develop their pedagogical skills while equipping them to succeed in challenging teaching environments. As the official STEM sponsor, the Foundation will provide fellows with access to innovative computer science and maker education resources that exist on the Pathfinders Online Institute digital learning platform while helping to build connections to a wider community of peer STEM teachers. Roughly 100 fellows are selected to participate in the program, which is estimated to positively impact nearly 4,000 K-12 students.
"We are thrilled to launch this new initiative with TQRP at a time that our country needs dynamic and diverse educators. The statistics are clear that K12 students have higher rates of educational performance when they have teachers in the classroom who reflect their backgrounds. The TQRP Summer Institute is an exceptional program that reflects the values of the Foundation to promote K12 computer science education in under-represented communities. We look forward to the scaled impact that will result from this new partnership," says Kate Maloney, Executive Director, Infosys Foundation USA.
Graduates of the TQRP program become the next generation of future leaders who possess a passion for teaching in high-need communities. To date, TQRP fellows have impacted over 31,000 K-12 students in high need, urban, and rural areas. Over time the partnership between TQRP and the Infosys Foundation USA will aim to leverage synergies of their respective professional development resources to create expanded enrichment opportunities for the fellows as they enter K12 classrooms and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.
Infosys and TMCF will host a panel discussion at the Infosys Americas Leadership Forum today to detail expected outcomes of the partnership and its industry impact. For more information about Infosys' investment in TMCF and its commitment to attracting and retaining diverse talent, please tune in to a live stream of the event beginning at 5:20 p.m. ET at https://youtu.be/iHcSXkYW_IA
About Infosys Foundation USA
Infosys Foundation USA was established in 2015 with the mission of expanding computer science and maker education to K-12 students and teachers across the United States, with a specific focus on increasing access to underrepresented communities. The Foundation achieves impact through delivering professional development programs for teachers, partnering with leading nonprofits, and delivering innovative media campaigns that inspire everyone to be creators, not just consumers, of technology. For more information, visit infosys.org/USA.
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE,NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.
SOURCE Infosys
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year, the New York office of JNTO will be attending Anime NYC to showcase its new augmented reality application on its Instagram account, @VisitJapan.US. Attendees who partake in the AR app function can take selfies in Tokyo, Nagano, Okinawa and dozens of other locations. Those who stop by the booth can also prepare for their next trip to Japan and learn about off-the-beaten-path destinations in the country through a variety of brochures and informational videos.
Venue:
Javits Center
Show hours for public:
November 19, 1pm - 7pm
November 20, 10am - 7pm
November 21, 10am 5pm
About Anime NYC.
Anime NYC is New York City's anime convention that brings anime fans and publishers together for three days of unique exhibits, exclusive screenings, extensive panels, and appearances by some of the biggest creators in Japan. It is not part of New York Comic Con. In 2019, the event hosted over 46,000 attendees.
ABOUT JAPAN NATIONAL TOURISM ORGANIZATION (JNTO)
As the official tourism board of Japan, JNTO is involved in a wide range of promotional activities to encourage international travelers to visit Japan. Through a variety of campaigns and initiatives, JNTO is inspiring more American travelers to visit Tokyo, Kyoto and beyond.
For more information about travel to Japan, visit JNTO on its Website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitte r . To contact the New York office of the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) directly, please e-mail [email protected].
SOURCE Japan National Tourism Organization
Related Links
us.jnto.go.jp
In a recent Harris Poll study, commissioned by KEEN Footwear, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (86%) feel helping others is a good way to reduce stress; nearly half of Americans (47%) say it is difficult to find volunteer opportunities near them; nearly three in five Americans (59%) plan to volunteer with charities/non-profits in the next 2 months; and among them, top reasons for doing so include wanting to give back during the holiday season (47%), to feel connected to a cause in their community (41%), and to feel a sense of purpose and certainty (41%).
To provide easier access to volunteer opportunities, KEEN is enabling anyone to search for local or national volunteer opportunities via KEEN Corps, the brand's loyalty program that rewards fans for doing good deeds. There are tens of thousands of volunteering opportunities every day. Since its U.S. launch in September, KEEN Corps has grown to over 11,000 members and is experiencing 5% weekly growth. To date, over 6,600 volunteer hours have been logged by Corps members.
"Our recent data confirms consumers are exhausted and are looking for ways to relieve stress and feel in control in these unpredictable times," said Erik Burbank, vice president, The KEEN Effect. "Volunteering in our communities has the dual benefit of giving back and leaving us feeling more fulfilled, empowered, and happy. On Giving Tuesday (Nov. 30th) the greatest gift we can give is our time."
"Now more than ever, people are looking for ways to use their voice, time, talents and passion to make sustainable changes within their communities," said Natalye Paquin, Points of Light president and CEO. " KEEN Corps is a unique and inspiring program that promotes engagement through volunteerism, donating to local organizations and rewards individuals for their community building efforts. We are proud to be part of KEEN's movement to get people involved in high-impact and personally-fulfilling actions for social good in their communities, and we look forward to seeing the success of their efforts across the U.S. and the globe."
As part of KEEN Corps, KEEN's Giving Tuesday 10K Invitational encourages employees, fans, and partners to generate 10,000 hours of volunteering this December. In addition, KEEN will donate up to $100,000 and footwear to food banks across the country as part of its overall commitment to this program. KEEN's U.S. employees receive 40 hours of paid community service and volunteer time.
"Civic engagement and community support has been in KEEN's DNA throughout its 18 years as a business," continued Burbank. "There is a growing movement of people making a difference and reaching out to do good. We're super excited to help more people get involved and are looking forward to launching KEEN Corps around the world in 2022."
About the KEEN/Harris Poll Survey: The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of KEEN from November 11-15, 2021 among 2,013 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About Points of Light:
Points of Light is a nonpartisan, global nonprofit organization that inspires, equips and mobilizes millions of people to take action that changes the world. We envision a world in which every individual discovers the power to make a difference, creating healthy communities in vibrant, participatory societies. Through 177 affiliates across 38 countries, and in partnership with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages 5 million volunteers in 16 million hours of service each year. We bring the power of people to bear where it's needed most. For more information, visit www.pointsoflight.org.
About KEEN:
Driven by a passion to make the outside and trades accessible for all, KEEN is a values-led, family-owned footwear brand from Portland, Oregon committed to creating original and versatile products, enhancing lives, and inspiring adventures outside. Founded in 2003, it launched a revolution in the footwear industry with the debut of the Newport adventure sandal. It continues to launch game-changing products and establish new standards for performance, comfort, and design while actively working to Detox The Planet. The brand formalized its values commitment under the banner of The KEEN Effect. Learn more at www.keenfootwear.com.
SOURCE KEEN, Inc.
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) and Ellevation today announced a new, innovative collaboration between DRC's LAS Links Online language proficiency assessments and Ellevation's English learner (EL) program management platform. For districts that opt in to the data sharing agreement, the new data integration will support automatic transfers of student testing scores between LAS Links Online and Ellevation. These scores are not only required for state and federal accountability reporting but are also used to inform educators' classroom instruction.
"Our new, integrated solution will automatically transfer all online student assessment results from LAS Links Online directly into the Ellevation platform on a daily basis," said David Seitter, Executive Vice President, Data Recognition Corporation. "This is significant for English learner educators who use both LAS Links and Ellevation, as it eliminates the burden of having to manually enter scores into Ellevation, and it allows educators to see the students' LAS Links results alongside the results of other assessment measures."
The previous process required educators to manually export the LAS Links Online results from the DRC system and then manually upload the data into Ellevation. The new, automated process not only saves time for districts but provides an added layer of security and reliability by reducing the likelihood of errors with manual data entry.
"Sending the scores through an automated, FERPA-compliant transfer is secure, reliable, and accurate," said Teddy Rice, President & Co-Founder of Ellevation. "Having easy access to these scores within Ellevation saves EL educators a tremendous amount of time on compliance activities so they can focus their time on planning and delivering the instructional resources their EL students need."
LAS Links Online
LAS Links Online provides a comprehensive, high-quality, authentic language proficiency assessment system for K12 students. Available in English and Spanish, LAS Links Online assessments can be used to monitor student progress in acquiring English language skills throughout the school year in Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. This powerful, research-based assessment provides teachers with reliable data to target areas of need and build upon areas of strength. LAS Links Online enables educators to understand the progress of students as they move through the stages of language acquisition from grades K12, moving them closer to reclassification and preventing them from becoming long-term English learners.
About Data Recognition Corporation
For decades, DRC has maintained a tradition of excellence in educational assessment publication, administration, and reporting. DRC offers assessments for the pre-K, K12, and adult education markets, across the U.S. and internationally. DRC customers include state and national government agencies; public, private, and charter schools and districts; and other educational organizations. DRC serves millions of students and education professionals across the nation, and delivers assessments to more than 50,000 schools, districts, and testing centers in all 50 states, 3 U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and international locations.
For more information on DRC, visit www.datarecognitioncorp.com .
About Ellevation
Ellevation is the nation's leading software and services company, which has been focused on English learners (ELs) for over 10 years. Founded in 2011, Ellevation is a mission-driven, web-based software company focused exclusively on ELs and the educators who serve them. They offer comprehensive solutions focused on ELs that help districts with data and instructional planning, professional learning, and academic language development. Currently, Ellevation serves over 1,000 district partners and more than 3 million current and former EL students.
Learn more at www.ellevationeducation.com .
Copyright 2021 Data Recognition Corporation. LAS Links is a registered trademark of Data Recognition Corporation.
Pam Enstad
Data Recognition Corporation
763.268.2487
[email protected]
SOURCE Data Recognition Corporation
Related Links
http://www.datarecognitioncorp.com
The SPRINT internship program brings together emerging and established companies across the life-science industry in Connecticut. These internships will offer a wide variety of opportunities across scientific, commercial, finance, and administrative functions and all applicants will be eligible to participate in skill workshops. The initiative includes focused outreach to diverse candidates and selected interns will have the chance to get a broader understanding of the life-science industry through rotational talks at various companies. John Houston, Arvinas CEO, said "By combining our collective expertise and resources, we are excited to offer this internship program in Connecticut. We hope to support continued growth of diverse students through real world job experience, which will help build the talent pool in Connecticut to support our growing industry."
Governor Ned Lamont has engaged business leaders to address economic development and talent recruitment and retention. Through his leadership and the work of his Governor's Workforce Council, the goal of this collaborative is to cultivate and promote the benefits of Greater New Haven as a prominent region for bioscience growth and development. The initiative has three components to build a sustainable pipeline of talent, increase awareness and visibility through branding, and expand lab space and infrastructure to support bioscience industry growth. "Connecticut is at the forefront of the growing bioscience sector with industry leaders that are developing cutting-edge advancements that are changing the world," Governor Lamont said. "The people who work in these fields are not only entering careers that provide them with good paying jobs with good benefits, but they're making incredible advancements in research, development, and the discovery of new medicine and they're doing it all right here in Connecticut. Any person who is considering entering this field should jump at the opportunity to participate in this program."
Individuals interested in learning more about the internship program should visit www.LifeSciSprints.com for information and to register for alerts. Applications for summer internships will open in early 2022 and resources for applying will be available in November 2021.
About Bioscience Collaborative
Bioscience Collaborative is an industry led group formed from the Governor's Workforce Council that follows the NextGen Regional Sector Partnerships model. This industry led initiative, in partnership with the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, helps to bring awareness to the resources and workforce available in Connecticut for life-science companies. The Collaborative is focused on three components to build a sustainable pipeline of talent, increase awareness and visibility through branding, and expand lab space and infrastructure to support bioscience industry growth. Companies participating as part of the Bioscience Collaborative include Adela Bio, Alexion/Astrazeneca, Ancera, Artizan Biosciences, Arvinas, Biohaven, Biorez, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cybrexa, EvolveImmune, Halda Therapeutics, Isoplexis, Pangolin Therapeutics, Pfizer, Rallybio, ReNetX, Sema4, Tangen Bioscience, Thetis Pharmaceuticals, Trevi Therapeutics, and 4Catalyzer. The Collaborative is partnering across the state to make this initiative successful including partnerships with Southern Connecticut State University's BioPath program, CTNext, BioCT, and regional universities and colleges.
The Bioscience Collaborative developed from the work of the Governor's Workforce Council. Council Chair, Mark Argosh said, "The SPRINT Bioscience internship program will significantly expand the talent pipeline for our growing Bioscience Sector while providing valuable work experiences for students from diverse backgrounds. This is an exciting opportunity developed by the leadership of the Bioscience Regional Sector Partnership that was former earlier this year through the Governor's Workforce Council." Additionally, Kelli-Marie Vallieres, Executive Director of the Office of Workforce Strategy said, "I am so pleased to see this level of collaboration within the New Haven Bioscience industry. By bringing educators, state agencies and leading bioscience employers all to the same table, the New Haven Bioscience Collaborative is creating a diverse array of career pathways that are truly aligned to the needs of employers and provide high-quality jobs for students across all socioeconomic backgrounds. These types of collaborative efforts are exactly what the Lamont Administration is prioritizing when it comes to workforce development."
About Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce
The Greater New Haven Chamber's mission is to provide value through resources and services to its partner companies and to lead regional economic growth through bold and effective advocacy. The Chamber serves 15 municipalities, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, East Haven Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Wallingford, West Haven, and Woodbridge. Established in 1794, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce is one of the three oldest business associations in the United States.
Media Contact:
Keyri Ambrocio, Public Policy & Strategic Communications Specialist
(203) 390-5575
[email protected]
SOURCE Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Construction Equipment Magazine (CE Magazine) has named Load King's PL180 Personnel Lift as one of the Top 100 New Products of 2021.
Since 1991, CE Magazine's Top 100 New Products list has been the longest-running, and most respected award program of its industry. Each year, CE Magazine editors evaluate products that demonstrate innovation, productivity, efficiency, and safety. The PL180 is Load King's fourth product to be featured in a CE Magazine Top 100 list.
The PL180 is specifically designed to meet the needs of utility customers. The PL180 (Personnel Lift) is Load King's first machine designed specifically to the A92.2 standard. The PL180 represents an advancement in this class of aerial device with several features new to the industry. The main boom is 155 feet full power and mechanically synchronized, providing 165 feet of tip height. The included NON-INSULATED luffing jib and steel yoke-style basket provide 180 feet of working height. The luffing jib provides motion from zero to negative 80 degrees (relative to the boom). The remote controls operate all crane functions, including the luffing jib. For even higher reach, the basket may be installed on the two-piece (lattice and stinger) jib for a working height of 220 feet. Another industry first is our inclusion of a diesel-powered Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) as standard equipment on every PL180. In the event the engine of the truck is not working or a PTO shaft breaks in the field, all crane functions can be operated at a reduced rate using the APU to bring the crane to a stowed position. When a user is ready to decommission the aerial device, Load King offers a one-way conversion kit allowing customers to use the machine as a B30.5 lifting device. A92.2 standards would no longer apply.
Load King premiered the PL180 at the Utility Expo, held September 28-30 in Louisville, Kentucky. "The PL180 was received with a lot of excitement from our core customers attending the show", said John Lukow, Senior Vice President of Load King Cranes. "We are very pleased with the feedback we received, reinforcing that we are moving in a direction that aligns with our customer needs."
"I am very pleased to receive this award from Construction Equipment Magazine", said Fred Ross, CEO of Custom Truck One Source. "We're proud of the work we've done, reviving the Stinger Crane line and seeing our efforts recognized by the industry is great validation of that work."
For more information about the Load King PL180 and the full line of Load King cranes visit www.loadkingmfg.com.
ABOUT LOAD KING
For decades Load King has been producing first-class heavy equipment. Cutting-edge innovation and engineering excellence make us the market leader. Load King is a vital part of the Custom Truck One Source family of brands, offering standard and custom trailers, vocational equipment, and a full line of boom trucks and truck cranes. For more information, please visit Load King's website: www.loadkingmfg.com .
ABOUT CUSTOM TRUCK
Custom Truck One Source (Custom Truck) is the first true single-source provider of specialized truck and heavy equipment solutions, offering a vast rental fleet, new and used equipment sales, aftermarket parts and tooling supply, world-class service, customization and remanufacturing, in-house financing solutions and reliable liquidity of aged assets through our auction. Our equipment breadth, seasoned experts, and integrated network of locations across North America together deliver superior service and unmatched efficiency to our customers. Dig in at customtruck.com and keep up with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
CONTACT: John Lukow, [email protected]
SOURCE Custom Truck One Source, Inc.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Luckie and Company has announced that Carolyn Dateo has joined the company as the agency's first Chief Strategy Officer and Stephanie Naman is the agency's new Executive Creative Director.
Carolyn Dateo is Chief Strategy Officer at Luckie. Stephanie Naman is Executive Creative Director at Luckie.
Dateo will lead branding efforts for the agency, building a transformational planning function that infuses creative with breakthrough insights. Naman will be responsible for advancing Luckie's creative vision to take full advantage of the agency's BI, technology, and strategy capabilities to deliver solutions for clients across industries. Both will serve on the agency's executive committee.
Dateo has spent her career working at top global agencies. As group strategy director in the Publicis Groupe and at Saatchi & Saatchi, she looked after USAA, as well as brand portfolios at Procter & Gamble, Merck, and Abbvie. She worked with pharma brands at Ogilvy's Healthworld. From 2006-2012, she was head of strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi Switzerland, based in Geneva.
Naman joined Luckie in 2009 and has worked across the agency's business units to help brands connect with consumers. Over the course of her career, she has worked on a range of brands including Toyota, Marriott, Saks Fifth Avenue, Born Shoes, Viking, and Asheville, North Carolina.
"Carolyn and Stephanie are strategic thinkers and problem solvers who embody our data-first approach to solving business challenges," said John Gardner, president of Luckie. "Carolyn's global experience with Fortune 100 brands and her reputation as a thoughtful, collaborative strategist will supercharge our ability to deliver smart, high-impact solutions. Stephanie has delivered award-winning creative work for our largest clients, and we are fortunate to have her leadership across our company. The two of them working together is a huge advantage for us."
These leaders are joining Luckie at a time when the agency has seen unprecedented success in account growth, service line expansion, and international accolades for its work. Just in the last year, Luckie was recognized with numerous prestigious awards including a Gold Cannes Lions, an Effie, a Clio, One Show recognition, and the Best in Show Addy.
About Luckie: Luckie is a digital-first marketing solutions agency. The company drives results for top brands in healthcare, tourism, CPG, and financial services including GlaxoSmithKline, Regions Bank, Little Debbie, FedEx, and Panama City Beach. Privately owned for six decades, Luckie has offices in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Raleigh.
SOURCE Luckie and Company
"There has been a fundamental shift in the global business environment that our clients confront every day. CEOs and their leadership teams face unceasing challenges from increasing global complexity. Ankura's vision has been to develop the world's leading team of experts that collaborate seamlessly to deliver results-focused solutions for clients through transformational times. McLarty Associates and its unrivaled commercial diplomacy capabilities make Ankura the first consulting firm that can truly address these challenges comprehensively," said Kevin Lavin , Chief Executive Officer of Ankura. "My colleagues and I are incredibly proud and excited to welcome the McLarty Associates team into the Ankura family. Our collaborative culture and complementary client services will enable us to deliver powerful results for clients around the world."
Based in Washington, D.C., McLarty Associates is an elite commercial diplomacy firm. Since its founding in 1998, McLarty Associates has helped the world's leading businesses, non-profits, and universities, navigate their most complex business and policy challenges in over 150 countries. McLarty Associates' global team includes nearly 100 seasoned specialists who are former ambassadors, trade negotiators, cabinet officials, journalists, and intelligence officers.
"We are thrilled to be joining Ankura at a moment where our clients are facing unprecedented disruption and change," said Thomas "Mack" McLarty, Chairman of McLarty Associates. "Since our founding in 1998, we have built a world-class team with unique skills, knowledge, and expertise, earning us a reputation for delivering concrete results for clients at critical moments of inflection. In joining Ankura, leveraging their platform, solutions, services, and their culture of collaboration, we can help our clients understand, build, execute, and win globally with a precision that is unmatched in the marketplace."
"Adding McLarty Associates to the Ankura family gives us a unique edge over our competitors by allowing us to provide actionable insights on what governments and society are demanding from businesses and organizations everywhere. Together, we will deliver deeply informed strategies, programs, and execution that are properly aligned with all stakeholders," said Tom Crawford, Chief Development Officer at Ankura. "We're excited to welcome McLarty Associates to the team and to change the model for engagement anywhere in the world, on any issue confronting businesses that seek to protect, create or recover value."
"Over the past decade, we've seen borders thicken, countries become increasingly protective of supply chains and workers and governments intervene strongly in their economies. The pandemic has only accelerated these trends. Moving forward, clients must successfully navigate a world with increasingly divided politics, a global focus on environmental sustainability, and the need for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion," said Nelson W. Cunningham, President and Co-Founder of McLarty Associates. "Joining Ankura gives us an even greater capability to help our clients address these challenges, build competitive advantage, and succeed in this increasingly complex environment."
The transaction is expected to close in early January 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Upon closing the transaction, McLarty Associates' experts, advisors, and leadership will be integrated into Ankura's global team of professionals and will operate under the name McLarty Associates, an Ankura Company. Ankura will remain headquartered in New York.
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal advisor to Ankura. Holland & Knight, LLP served as legal advisor to McLarty Associates.
About Ankura
Ankura Consulting Group, LLC is an independent global expert services and advisory firm that delivers services and end-to-end solutions to help clients at critical inflection points related to change, risk, disputes, finance, performance, distress, and transformation. The Ankura team consists of more than 1,500 professionals serving 3000+ clients across 55 countries who are leaders in their respective fields and areas of expertise. Collaborative lateral thinking, hard-earned experience, expertise, and multidisciplinary capabilities drive results and Ankura is unrivaled in its ability to assist clients to Protect, Create and Recover Value. For more information, please visit, www.ankura.com
About McLarty Associates
McLarty Associates is the global strategy firm led by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, III, former Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, and President and Co-Founder Nelson W. Cunningham. Since 1998, MA has built a team of nearly 100 seasoned international specialists to help corporate and non-profit clients manage policy and government issues around the world. With offices in Washington, Beijing, Brussels, Singapore, and Delhi, our people can be found in over twenty countries. For more information, please visit, www.maglobal.com.
SOURCE Ankura
Related Links
https://ankura.com/
LAUSANNE, Switzerland and LONDON and BALTIMORE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MindMaze , the global leader in digital neuro-therapeutics solutions, building a universal platform for neurological recovery and care, today announced the appointment of Kevin J. Gallagher as Chief Financial Officer.
"MindMaze is at a pivotal growth point and we could not be more thrilled to welcome Kevin to our executive team. His deep financial expertise and experience in the healthcare sector will be instrumental in this growth phase and will benefit our portfolio and stakeholders from day one," said Tej Tadi, CEO of MindMaze. "Kevin is a key addition to the MindMaze team and reflects the rapid growth and development that we are experiencing as we expand our workforce and actively recruit across geographies and functions."
"I am excited to be joining MindMaze and look forward to driving growth and building value for all of our partners," said Mr. Gallagher. "Neurological disease is the leading cause of global disability and is on the rise. MindMaze's comprehensive digital health platform for neurological disease makes it uniquely positioned to address this growing need, and provide effective and cost-efficient solutions for families, medical providers and healthcare systems. I am thrilled to be joining the tremendously talented and passionate MindMaze team at this pivotal time for the Company."
Mr. Gallagher joins MindMaze's executive team with over 25 years of experience in financial leadership, most recently as Managing Director of Banking, Capital Markets & Advisory for the Global Healthcare team at Citigroup, Inc., where he was responsible for all sector coverage and transaction execution activities for Medical Technology and Healthcare Services companies in the EMEA region. He brings significant experience in capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, partnering and investor relations. He previously served in a number of roles at Citigroup, Inc. as part of their Global Healthcare team with a focus on the US healthcare market. Prior to this, Mr. Gallagher held senior positions on healthcare-specific teams at Thomas Weisel Partners, Medical Capital Advisors, Healthpoint Capital, and UBS Investment Bank.
MindMaze delivers seamless digital assessments and therapeutics over the full continuum of care in over twenty countries, serving thousands of patients suffering from neurological conditions. The company's innovative digital neurotherapeutics platform combines highly engaging, personalized, protocolized, quantified, gamified digital therapeutic content supported by tailored smart peripherals that target two distinct areas of care: neuro-rehabilitation and neuro-restoration. MindMaze's current and pipeline digital neuro-therapeutics solutions holding two FDA clearances, six CE marks, and backed by over 70 patent families address eight major neurological diseases as the company builds a universal platform for brain health and recovery.
MindMaze currently collaborates with approximately ninety healthcare providers and is partnering with leading academic and medical institutions, including Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Mount Sinai Health System and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the United States, the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the Swiss Federal Institution of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland, and the Institute for the Brain and Spinal Cord (ICM) in France, to further develop and demonstrate the efficacy of its market leading solution set.
About MindMaze
MindMaze is a global leader in digital neuro-therapeutics (DTx) solutions with a mission to accelerate the brain's ability to recover, learn and adapt. With over a decade of work at the intersection of neuroscience, bio-sensing, engineering, mixed reality and artificial intelligence, its healthcare division is addressing some of the most challenging problems in neurology, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, by creating the a universal platform for brain health and recovery and unique digital therapeutic interventions. MindMaze's pioneering FDA cleared and CE marked neuro-digital therapeutics accelerate patients' recovery from many critical neurological conditions. Founded in 2012 by CEO Dr Tej Tadi, MindMaze is the first Swiss Unicorn with offices in Lausanne, Baltimore, London, Paris and Mumbai.
For more information, please visit www.mindmaze.com .
SOURCE MindMaze
Related Links
http://www.mindmaze.com
HOUSTON, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nabors Energy Transition Corp. (the "Company") announced today the pricing of its initial public offering (the "IPO") of 24,000,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit. The units will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") and trade under the ticker symbol "NETC.U" beginning on November 17, 2021. Each unit consists of one share of the Company's Class A common stock and one-half of one redeemable warrant, with each whole warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of the Company's Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share. Only whole warrants are exercisable. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the shares of Class A common stock and warrants are expected to be listed on the NYSE under the symbols "NETC" and "NETC.WS," respectively. The IPO is expected to close on November 19, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.
Citigroup and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters for the IPO. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,600,000 units at the IPO price to cover over-allotments, if any.
The IPO will only be made by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the IPO and final prospectus, when available, may be obtained from Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, or by telephone at 1-800-831-9146, or Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 500 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001, by telephone at 833-690-2713 or by email at [email protected].
A registration statement relating to these securities has been declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 16, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About Nabors Energy Transition Corp.
Nabors Energy Transition Corp. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The Company intends to identify solutions, opportunities, companies or technologies that focus on advancing the energy transition; specifically, ones that facilitate, improve or complement the reduction of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions while satisfying growing energy consumption across markets globally.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements," including with respect to the IPO. No assurance can be given that the IPO discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and preliminary prospectus for the Company's offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.
Contact: William C. Conroy Email: [email protected] +1 281-775-2423
SOURCE Nabors Energy Transition Corp.
The current Board and m anagement bring hands-on experience and expertise to drive growth, contribute to long-term success and create value for ALL shareholders.
Able to navigate current uncertainties in Chinese operating environment for real estate developers.
Shareholders are urged to vote AGAINST the removal of the current directors and AGAINST the appointment of IsZo's nominees on or before November 30, 2021 , at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time , 10:00 p.m. PRC time.
SHENZHEN, China and TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nam Tai Property Inc. ("Nam Tai" or the "Company") (NYSE Symbol: NTP) today issued the following statement reiterating to shareholders its recommendation to vote AGAINST the removal of Nam Tai's experienced directors and AGAINST the appointment of IsZo's nominees at the special meeting of shareholders to be held at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on November 30, 2021 (the "Special Meeting"). The holders of the Company's common shares of record at close of business on March 15, 2021 (Eastern Time) (the "Record Date") would be entitled to vote at the Special Meeting.
Nam Tai's current Board of Directors (the "Board") and management are savvy, results-oriented and shareholder-aligned, and their current strategy continues to build positive momentum. By enabling continual operational progress during ongoing industry disruption in the PRC, management has distinguished itself from its peers which are facing challenges both financially and in terms of operations.
The Company's strategy is creating value for all shareholders. Despite a challenging operating environment, the current management keeps Nam Tai progressing to meet its goals. Therefore, Nam Tai urges its shareholders to vote AGAINST the removal of its current experienced directors and AGAINST the appointment of IsZo's nominees at the Special Meeting.
Nam Tai is delivering significant financial progress, growing revenue and optimizing capital structure. In the first nine months of 2021, the Company grew revenue by 3,134% year-on-year to approximately $84 million, while gross profit was improved dramatically to $52.6 million as of September 30, 2021 from just $483,000 twelve months ago. This reflects the massive cost reduction made by the current Board and management including more than $100 million in cost saving at Inno Park alone. Nam Tai is making strides and developing significant financial momentum.
Furthermore, management is optimizing capital structure for the sustainable development of the Company. While many real estate developers in the PRC are struggling to service debt obligations and are suffering liquidity crunch, Nam Tai obtained a $164 million loan facility from the Bank of Guangzhou, reflecting trust from the financial institution for the management. This not only strengthens our operational position going forward, but underscores the importance of management's deep experience and ability to avoid the pitfalls of peers.
In addition, management is delivering operational results as there was a significant increase in real estate properties held for lease, net by $59.5 million in the first nine months of 2021. In August, the Company obtained the pre-sale permit for Nam Tai Longxi only 16 months after purchasing the land. From the perspective of project leasing, Inno Park already achieved an occupancy rate of 69% as of the third quarter of 2021 across its gross floor area of 264,000 square meters, aims to achieve 90% occupancy rate by 2022. Nam Tai has even grown its development footprint, expanding to Dongguan, PRC's advanced manufacturing hub near to Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The current Board has shown its ability to build, market and manage a large scale industrial real estate project, as well as large scale mix-use residential developments, in spite of the general economic slowdown and development-saturated areas.
This current Board has the right composition for the job. Beyond the overseeing of the accomplishments above, this Board consists of 83% independent directors, containing directors in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and North America. This diversity of perspective has allowed Nam Tai to continue growing and progressing in the face of significant market challenges. Furthermore, the Board's three standing committees the Audit Committee, the Compensation Committee, the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee are composed exclusively of independent directors.
Lastly, the current Board and management are committed to ongoing transparency to investor community and creation of value for all shareholders. The Company has resumed the quarterly earnings call so as to enhance the transparency to its business and strategy and the current Board will be in a position to explore the declaration of dividends after resolving the liquidity crunch.
Now is Not the time to change the current Board and management team given the progress it has made in the midst of the challenging operating environment. Please support the current Board and management team by voting AGAINST the proposals on the WHITE proxy card.
In respect of the Special Meeting, if any shareholders wish to vote or to change their vote, please cast a new vote following the instructions on the WHITE proxy card to vote by telephone (+1 800 690 6903) or via the internet (www.proxyvote.com) up until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on November 29, 2021. They should have received voting instructions on how to vote on the WHITE proxy card in advance of the originally scheduled April 26 special meeting. The Company is also anticipating the distribution of another WHITE proxy card shortly.
If shareholders have any questions or need assistance in voting their shares, they may contact Innisfree M&A Incorporated, the firm assisting with this proxy solicitation.
Shareholders may call toll free: (877) 825-8777
Banks and Brokers may call collect: (212) 750-5833
The Special Meeting of Shareholders will be held virtually at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/NTP2021SM on November 30, 2021, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT AND FACTORS THAT COULD CAUSE OUR SHARE PRICE TO DECLINE
Certain statements included in this announcement, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "might", "can", "could", "will", "would", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "intend", "plan", "seek", or "timetable". These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business and the industry in which we operate. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future events. There are several factors, many beyond our control, which could cause results to differ materially from our expectation. These risk factors are described in our Annual Report on Form 20-F and in our Current Reports filed on Form 6-K from time to time and are incorporated herein by reference. Any of these factors could, by itself, or together with one or more other factors, adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. There may also be other factors currently unknown to us, or have not been described by us, that could cause our results to differ from our expectations. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements apply only as of the date of this announcement; as such, they should not be unduly relied upon as circumstances change. Except as required by law, we are not obligated, and we undertake no obligation, to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements that might reflect events or circumstance occurring after the date of this announcement or those that might reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
ABOUT NAM TAI PROPERTY INC.
We are a real estate developer and operator, mainly conducting business in Mainland China. Our main land resources are located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ("Greater Bay Area") and Wuxi, China, of which the three plots in Shenzhen will be developed into Nam Tai Inno Park, Nam Tai Technology Center and Nam Tai Inno Valley. We plan to build these technology parks into landmark parks in the region and provide high-quality industrial offices, industrial service spaces and supporting dormitories to the tenants. Based on the experience of developing and operating technology parks and an industrial relationship network accumulated over the past 40 years, we have also exported the operation model of technology parks to other industrial properties. Through an asset-light model, we have leased industrial properties for repositioning and business invitation. We will also expand the commercial and residential property business in China as an auxiliary development strategy of the Company. As the growth prospects of China maintain, we expect to seize development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area and other first- and second-tier cities in China, and continue to strengthen and expand the business of industrial real estate, and commercial and residential properties. Nam Tai Property Inc. is a corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: "NTP"). Please refer to our corporate website (https://www.namtai.com/) or the SEC website (www.sec.gov) for our press releases and financial statements.
CONTACTS
Ira Gorsky, Edelman
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 732-740-5872
Media and Investor Relations, Nam Tai Property Inc.
E-mail: [email protected]
SOURCE Nam Tai Property Inc.
Related Links
https://www.namtai.com/
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston a contract to deliver research, including science investigations and a technology demonstration, to the Moon in 2024. The commercial delivery is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and the Artemis program.
The investigations aboard Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander are destined for Reiner Gamma, one of the most distinctive and enigmatic natural features on the Moon. Known as a lunar swirl, Reiner Gamma is on the western edge of the Moon, as seen from Earth, and is one of the most visible lunar swirls. Scientists continue to learn what lunar swirls are, how they form, and their relationship to the Moon's magnetic field.
"This delivery to the Moon will help the U.S. expand our capabilities and learn more about this interesting region," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Observing lunar swirls can give us information about the Moon's radiation environment and perhaps how to mitigate its effects. With more and more science and technology demonstrations on the lunar surface, we can help prepare for sustainable astronaut missions through Artemis."
Intuitive Machines will receive $77.5 million for the contract and is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and payload operations. This is Intuitive Machines' third task order award, the first of which is a delivery to Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon during the first quarter of 2022. This award is the seventh surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS partner.
"These investigations show how CLPS is capable of delivering payloads to the lunar surface that will address our primary scientific goals for lunar exploration and discovery," said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We aim to learn more about lunar swirls and this payload manifest is designed to obtain data unique to the geographical feature of Reiner Gamma."
The four investigations Intuitive Machines will deliver to Reiner Gamma are collectively expected to be about 203 pounds (92 kg) in mass and include:
Lunar Vertex is among NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) selections. It is a combination of stationary lander payloads and a rover that will make detailed measurements of the magnetic field, plasma environment and regolith properties. The lander and rover data will augment observations collected in orbit. Combined, the observations will help show how these mysterious lunar swirls form and evolve and how they connect to local magnetic fields in the same regions. Lunar Vertex is funded through the agency's Science Mission Directorate and is led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland .
. Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) consists of mobile robots programmed to work as an autonomous team to explore the lunar surface, collect data, and map different areas of the Moon in 3D. CADRE uses its inertial measurement unit, stereo cameras, and a Sun sensor to track the position of each robot as they explore the lunar surface. CADRE is funded by NASA's Game Changing Development program under the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate and is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California .
. MoonLIGHT retroreflector is a laser retroreflector, which reflects laser beams sent from Earth directly back from the Moon to receivers on Earth. This allows very precise measurement of the distances between the reflector and the ground station. This technique can be used to investigate relativity, the gravitational dynamics of the Earth-Moon system and the deep lunar interior. MoonLIGHT is managed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Lunar Space Environment Monitor (LUSEM) uses a pair of apertures to detect high-energy particles on the lunar surface. LUSEM will monitor variations in the near-surface space environment when the Moon is inside and outside Earth's magnetotail the trailing end of the magnetic fields surrounding our planet, which can serve as a buffer for incoming radiation. LUSEM is managed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in South Korea .
As NASA continues plans for multiple commercial deliveries to the Moon, future payloads that may be delivered with CLPS could also include other rovers, power sources, and science experiments, including technology demonstrations to later be infused into the Artemis program.
Learn more about CLPS at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
SOURCE NASA
Related Links
http://www.nasa.gov
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Northrop Grumman's uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Saturday, Nov. 20, more than three months after delivering nearly 8,000 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
Live coverage of the spacecraft's departure will begin at 10:45 a.m. EST on NASA Television, the agency's website, and the NASA app.
Flight controllers on the ground will send commands for the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Unity module's Earth-facing port. The arm will then maneuver the spacecraft into position and release it at 11 a.m. Astronaut Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) will monitor Cygnus' systems upon its departure from the space station.
After departure, the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) stowed inside Cygnus will take measurements to demonstrate a thermal protection system for spacecraft and their contents during re-entry in Earth's atmosphere, which can be difficult to replicate in ground simulations.
Cygnus will deorbit on Wednesday, Dec. 15, following a deorbit engine firing to set up a destructive re-entry in which the spacecraft, filled with waste the space station crew packed in the spacecraft, will burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
Cygnus arrived at the space station Aug. 12, following a launch two days prior on Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. It was the company's 16th commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA. Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft after NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American astronaut.
Learn more about Cygnus' mission and the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
SOURCE NASA
Related Links
http://www.nasa.gov
CARSON CITY, Nev., Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new poll commissioned by Coltura, 52% of Nevada voters support a policy that would require all new cars sold to be electric by 2030 to reduce air pollution, combat climate change, create jobs, and keep energy dollars in the state. Under such a policy, individuals could still drive, buy, and sell gas-powered cars manufactured before 2030. Just 39% of Nevada voters oppose the policy.
First statewide poll by Coltura on phasing out the sale of new gas vehicles by 2030 shows strong voter support as concerns mount about the impacts of localized air pollution and the climate crisis.
"To achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions, we must address a major source of carbon pollution driving the climate crisis: gas-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs," said Janelle London, co-executive director of Coltura. "The findings of this poll make clear that the public supports a 2030 target date for phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles. It's time for elected officials to pass laws that reflect the will of their constituents."
The survey went deeper to inquire about attitudes towards electric cars, gasoline usage, and the environment. Nevadans are excited to switch from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles (EVs), even though more education is needed. It found 69% of respondents have a somewhat or very positive opinion of EVs. Of respondents planning to purchase a vehicle in the next five years, 47% said they were likely to buy an EV.
The top two factors influencing Nevadans' likelihood of getting an EV were the availability of a federal tax credit of $7,500 and more public charging stations. Most EVs are currently eligible for the federal tax credit, but the Biden administration has proposed increasing the credit to $12,500 for EVs made in America by union labor.
"Congress should pass the Build Back Better Act to help accelerate clean, electric transportation," said Travis Madsen, Transportation Program Director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. "Expanded EV tax credits can help more Nevadans access the benefits of electric vehicles, including savings on fuel and maintenance, healthier air and less climate change."
Nationally, 68% of respondents have a positive attitude towards EVs. Black and Hispanic respondents support phasing out gasoline cars by a 2:1 margin. Additionally, 71% of voters aged 18-34 favor phasing out gas cars by 2030.
About the Poll
Climate Nexus Polling, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, conducted a representative survey of 2,678 registered voters across the U.S. in a scientific online poll conducted in October 2021. An oversample of 389 voters was conducted in Nevada (margin of error +/- 5.6%). Polling methodology and additional findings are available at https://www.coltura.org/polling .
About SWEEP
The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) is a public interest organization advancing more efficient energy use and clean transportation options in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. For more information, visit www.swenergy.org .
About Coltura
Coltura is working to improve climate, health, and equity by accelerating the transition from gasoline and diesel to cleaner alternatives. It focuses on changing gasoline supply, demand, and culture through innovative legal and policy pathways, media, and art. It is currently leading a multi-state effort to introduce legislation setting a target for all model year 2030 or later passenger and light-duty vehicles sold to be electric vehicles. Learn more at www.coltura.org .
Media Contact
Samara Villasenor
[email protected]
425-255-0890
SOURCE Coltura
Related Links
https://www.coltura.org/polling
http://www.swenergy.org
http://www.coltura.org
Cafe Caps, all-in-one single-serve solutions that conveniently bring a premium cafe experience to your home unlike any other.
The cup + cap process is unique, but simple for Cafe Caps Coffee Creations, pour the cap, brew your single serve cup, and enjoy a cafe quality latte. For Cafe Caps Hot Cocoa Creations, brew your single serve cup, pour the toppings from the cap, and enjoy a quality cafe experience at home.
The cap is what sets Cafe Caps apart from traditional single-serve cups and allows it to deliver the cafe quality experience. Cafe Caps Coffee Creations and Cafe Caps Hot Cocoa Creations both feature ingredients you can see, including: cinnamon, cream, sprinkles, marshmallows, and mini chocolate chips.
Cafe Caps are now available for purchase at retailers across the nation and online in December at cafecapscreations.com sign up to be the first to know when online ordering is open.
Cafe Caps Coffee Creations includes three separate flavors, each in its own six pack, all made with 100% Arabica coffee and a cap of toppings:
Vanilla cinnamon cap is filled with a blend of cream, cinnamon, and bits of vanilla
Chocolate hazelnut cap is filled with a blend of cream, cocoa, and bits of chocolate
Mexican mocha spice cap is filled with a blend of cream, cocoa, a hint of ground cayenne, and bits of chocolate
Also available are Cafe Caps Hot Cocoa Creations in two separate flavors, and a hot drink mix, each in its own six pack, all with a cap of toppings:
Classic milk chocolate hot cocoa cap is filled with a generous portion of mini marshmallows
S'mores hot cocoa cap is filled with mini chocolate chips and a generous portion of marshmallows
Birthday cake hot drink mix cap is filled with mini marshmallows and sprinkles
For more information about Cafe Caps Coffee Creations or Cafe Caps Hot Cocoa Creations, visit Facebook, Instagram and cafecapscreations.com.
About Trilliant Food & Nutrition, LLC
Founded in 1979, Trilliant Food and Nutrition is a vertically integrated, high-quality manufacturer in the coffee, powdered, ready-to-drink, and wellness beverage categories.
For more information on Trilliant Food & Nutrition, LLC, visit trilliantfood.com.
SOURCE Cafe Caps
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 1st, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson, a case that legal scholars on both sides of the aisle agree could overturn Roe v. Wade and send abortion policy back to the states.
On that day, pro-lifers across the country will hold rallies and prayer vigils at federal buildings, court houses, and other public places as part of the OverturnRoe campaign.
Orthodox Christians Pro-Life will hold a rally in Manhattan to support overturning Roe vs Wade Orthodox Christians Pro-Life will hold a rally as part of the OverturnRoe campaign
In particular, in New York there will be a rally organized by Orthodox Christians Pro-Life in the very center of Manhattan.
Time: 4pm
Address: the steps of the New York Public Library, 476 5th Ave New York NY 10018
Since January of this year, such rallies for an end to abortion are held at least once a month with the blessing and support of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey of the Orthodox Church in America and His Eminence Archbishop Michael personally.
We stand for immediate, complete and unconditional legal ban on abortion. The majority of Americans are pro-life and such law will reflect people's will.
According to scientific data, human life begins at conception. Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School: "It is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception Our laws, one function of which is to help preserve the lives of our people, should be based on accurate scientific data."
Besides the street protests, Orthodox Christians Pro-Life help pregnant women in need. For example, donation was made to a family in Albania which expects a baby, a baby carriage was bought for a pregnant woman who lost almost everything in a fire, and support was provided for EMC Pregnancy Centers in New York which have difficult time now the organization provides counseling, pregnancy tests, free ultrasounds and essential goods in different New York boroughs.
Our tel. 917-428-3560. Alternatively, we can be reached through our various social media accounts.
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Media Contact:
Dimitri Baranov
[email protected]
917-428-3560
SOURCE Orthodox Christians Pro-Life
"Outshine Properties has experienced extraordinary growth in the past year, and we are very proud of our growing platform," said Jonathan Scheinberg, the firm's managing partner who founded Outshine with Bill Hunter. "We realize the demand for research and development space has intensified and that there is a scarcity of quality-built lab space in the Boston Metro area. 9/90 Corporate Center already boasts a notable roster of tenants, and we are excited to bring to the market additional and much-needed lab space in the coming months to accommodate this demand."
Scheinberg and Hunter have a combined 35 years of experience in real estate and life science. They have extensive expertise and a profitable track record of identifying, acquiring, and managing over 10 million square feet of life science, mixed-use and industrial properties in the United States and Europe and have successfully completed transactions on more than 25 properties valued at $4 billion.
With more than 400,000 square feet of space, 9/90 Corporate Center's campus is more than 80 percent leased. Its 12 tenants include life science and technology users, many of which operate their headquarters or other flagship facilities on site. Situated 25 miles west of Boston, 9/90 Corporate Center benefits from an accessible location at the intersection of Route 9 and Interstate 90 with shuttle service to a nearby MBTA commuter rail station.
Newmark Co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets Robert Griffin, Vice Chairman Edward Maher, Executive Managing Director Matthew Pullen, and Managing Director Samantha Hallowell of the firm's Boston Capital Markets Group represented the seller and procured the buyers. Newmark Senior Financial Analyst William Sleeper provided financial analysis support.
About Outshine Properties
Outshine Properties is a real estate investment and development firm focused on knowledge economy assets. Founded in 2020, the company invests strategically across life science, medical office, and technology-focused assets nationally, with an emphasis on major life science markets. Founders Jonathan Scheinberg and Bill Hunter have a combined 35 years of collective experience in real estate and life science. With their extensive expertise and profitable track record of identifying, acquiring, and managing over 10 million SF of life science, mixed-use and industrial properties in the United States and Europe, Outshine is uniquely positioned for future growth and outsized returns. Outshine's principals have successfully completed transactions on more than 25 properties valued at $4 billion, employing a direct investment strategy with its partners to consistently achieve above-market returns. Strategic partners and institutional investors include pension funds, insurance companies, banks, and family offices.
About Jadian Capital
Founded in 2017, Jadian is a New York and Greenwich, Connecticut based investment firm targeting opportunities throughout the capital structures of real estate, related assets, and asset-intensive businesses. The firm's strategy focuses primarily on alternative sectors with characteristics likely to lead to long-term fundamental outperformance. Jadian actively manages a portfolio of investments across the capital structure and its principals have a history of successfully executing investments across cycles, with diverse expertise in platform creation, distress, equity, and credit.
SOURCE Outshine Properties
Related Links
https://outshineprop.com/
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 8, 2021, Mr. Jermaine Irby filed suit against the U.S. Army alleging retaliation for filing a sex discrimination complaint in 2015.
"I hope my lawsuit proves that the Army is subject to the same laws that everyone else is and that no employer can retaliate against an employee who complains of discrimination," Mr. Irby said.
According to the complaint, in 2013, Mr. Irby started working for the Army's Sexual Harassment Assault Response Program, which is also known as SHARP. He was promoted shortly after that to an instructor/trainer position.
In 2015, Mr. Irby filed a sex discrimination complaint against his supervisor Jeffrey Gorres. That complaint resulted in a settlement where Mr. Gorres was required to attend training on communication issues.
Since then, according to the complaint, Mr. Gorres has retaliated against Mr. Irby in several ways. For example, in 2018, despite not having been Mr. Irby's supervisor for approximately two years, Mr. Gorres inserted himself into a complaint against Mr. Irby and expressly brought up Mr. Irby's prior EEO complaint in explaining how Mr. Irby created a hostile environment.
In 2019, according to the complaint, Mr. Gorres ensured that Mr. Irby was denied necessary credentials he needed to do his job as a SHARP trainer. These denied credentials forced Mr. Irby to have to find other employment outside of SHARP.
In September 2019, Mr. Irby requested an EEO hearing with the Army. To date, no Administrative Law Judge has been assigned to the case. Therefore, Mr. Irby has exercised his right to file a lawsuit in federal court.
Mr. Irby is represented by Colin Walsh and Jairo Castellanos of Wiley Walsh, P.C. Colin Walsh is a board certified specialist in labor and employment law.
Related Links
https://www.scribd.com/document/540416188/Complaint-Irby-v-Wormuth
https://www.wileywalsh.com
SOURCE Wiley Walsh, P.C.
Related Links
https://www.wileywalsh.com
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (RCMW:OTCBB) RCMW Group Inc. ("RCMW" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Edward DeStefano as Vice President of RCMW's wholly owned subsidiary 4033002, a Wyoming Company.
Mr. DeStefano is a Nevada-based professional. He will be responsible in helping the Company execute on business opportunities. "We are pleased to appoint Mr. DeStefano, as Vice President of our 4033002 subsidiary. He is a seasoned professional that can provide us insight on business development," states Mike Shenher, CEO. "I look forward to working with the management team in an effort to help the Company build its business" states Edward DeStefano.
About RCMW Group, Inc.
RCMW Group, Inc. is vertically integrated, publicly traded company with an initial focus on consumer product goods. The Company operates a portfolio of subsidiary companies. Focusing on a variety of assets, products, and ancillary offerings in consumer product related industries. RCMW's fluid business model is positioned to capitalize on, and quickly adapt to, changing market conditions. The Company is continually seeking opportunities and strategic acquisitions that support its business model and maintain alignment with the dynamic industry environment. The Company currently has operations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.
Forward Looking Information
The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections.
For more information, please contact:
Inquiries and Investor Relations
1-844-897-3387
[email protected]
SOURCE RCMW Group Inc.
Dr. Alan Copperman, Managing Director of RMA of New York and Division Director and Vice Chairman of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai agreed. "By addressing the reproductive needs of a large population with compassionate, precise, accessible, and data-driven medicine, we will be delivering superior outcomes for this community."
Both CareMount Medical and RMA of New York are eager to support an expanded base of local residents in their family-building journeys. "The opening of a full-service, state-of-the-art IVF center in Mount Kisco represents a landmark in our ability to better serve both the individual and the community," stated Dr. Jeffrey Klein, Medical Director of RMA of New York at CareMount. Patients will no longer need to travel outside of the Hudson Valley for assisted reproductive procedures. "This partnership will allow us to build upon our decades-long commitment to Westchester County and the surrounding areas, and to provide each and every patient with access to excellent family-building care," stated Dr. Matthew Lederman, Practice Director of RMA of New York at CareMount.
Dr. Rachel Gerber, an expert Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist, joins Drs. Klein and Lederman in supporting patients seeking fertility treatment. RMA of New York at CareMount will offer services including fertility testing, in vitro fertilization (IVF), fertility preservation treatments in the form of egg freezing, embryo freezing, and sperm banking, as well as egg donation, intrauterine insemination (IUI), semen analysis, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), LGBTQ+ family-building services, and more.
CareMount Medical is now part of Optum Care
Just like CareMount Medical, Optum Care strives to make health care simpler and help people feel their best. As part of Optum, CareMount Medical joins a nationwide family of dedicated physicians and care teams working together to help people live their healthiest lives. As part of a regional team of over 2,100 providers who serve more than 1.6 million patients, our doctors have access to the latest medical information and technology, which lets them spend more time with patients, provide better care and realize better outcomes. CareMount Medical serves patients throughout New York City, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia and Ulster counties. Together with Optum, we offer superior care where and when you need it, at a cost you can afford.
CareMount Medical (the "Practice") is physician owned and led and has complete authority for all medical decision-making and patient care through its physicians and other licensed professionals. Optum, through its management organizations ("Optum") provides non-clinical administrative services to support the Practice and its physicians. Neither Optum nor its management companies employs, engages, or supervises physicians or other licensed professionals, or determines or sets the methods, standards, or conduct of the practice of medicine or health care provided by the Practice or by any of its licensed professionals. "Part of Optum" reflects that the Practice is part of Optum's effort to support forward-thinking physician practices in helping their patients live healthier lives.
About Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York)
RMA of New York is widely recognized as a global leader in state-of-the-art reproductive medicine, and serves as the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Led by an integrated team of physicians and scientists with extensive reproductive endocrinology, infertility, and embryology training, RMA of New York is renowned for its pioneering research in the field and for delivering high IVF success rates. For the past 20 years, the physicians of RMA of New York have consistently been distinguished as "Top Doctors" by Castle Connolly and New York Magazine, as well as Super Doctors. Headquartered in midtown Manhattan, RMA of New York has fertility clinic locations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, Long Island, and abroad in Mexico City. For more information, please visit www.rmany.com.
Contact: Agnes Stachnik, Marketing and Communications, 212-756-5777, [email protected]
SOURCE Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York
Related Links
http://www.rmany.com
ARTARMON, Australia, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Saluda Medical Pty Limited ("Saluda Medical"), the pioneer in neuromodulation platform of closed-loop technologies designed to achieve unparalleled outcomes for patients suffering from neurological conditions, today announced the expansion of the Company's leadership team. Both executives bring years of professional accomplishments from the health technology industry and will play vital roles as the Company prepares for global commercialization.
Tim Benner will serve as Chief Commercial Officer and be responsible for the global commercial strategy and execution of Saluda's portfolio of advanced therapies. He will initially target spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain and later expand into other neuromodulation platforms developed to address unmet patient needs.
Kristin Caplice will serve as Chief Legal Officer and be responsible for overseeing Saluda's global legal operations, including all aspects of corporate governance and compliance, intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, and employment matters.
"Saluda is committed to advancing life-changing innovations across the neuromodulation spectrum, and both Kristin and Tim bring unique perspectives to commercializing disruptive therapies with little-to-no market precedent that have elevated the standard of care for patients around the world," said Jim Schuermann, CEO of Saluda Medical. "I couldn't be more pleased to welcome Kristin and Tim to a company of passionate individuals who have worked tirelessly for more than a decade to change the lives of people suffering from chronic pain."
Mr. Benner brings an extensive background in corporate strategy, marketing, sales, and general management acumen honed at medical device companies that have commercialized innovative therapies focused on elevating patient care. Prior to Saluda, he was with Edwards Lifesciences for nearly a decade as the company delivered patient-centered, disruptive innovation and global market leadership. Mr. Benner was on Edwards' Senior Leadership Team and held several senior roles in strategy, business development, marketing, and commercial operations throughout his career with Edwards. He later joined Abbott where he oversaw global marketing, strategy, and clinical training for the Structural Heart Division. As GM of Abbott's US commercial business, he oversaw sales, marketing, therapy development, and the P&L for an advanced portfolio of hyper-growth platforms such as the MitraClip therapy. Most recently, Mr. Benner operated as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies where he oversaw multiple businesses with global market leadership positions that drove nearly $1B in revenue. Mr. Benner holds an MBA from the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and completed post-MBA coursework at the University of Southern California and executive development programs at Kellogg and Harvard.
Ms. Caplice has extensive General Counsel leadership experience with high-tech companies, advising executive teams and boards of directors on a broad range of strategic, operational, legal and regulatory matters, including intellectual property, corporate compliance, enterprise risk management and corporate social responsibility. Prior to joining Saluda, Ms. Caplice was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Global Head of Compliance for Bruker Corporation, a life science instruments and diagnostic solutions company. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, she oversaw all aspects of public company governance, securities law and corporate compliance, global merger and acquisition transactions, corporate finance initiatives, and data privacy. Before joining Bruker, she was Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary for Cimpress, a mass-customization company, Assistant General Counsel at Analog Devices, a leader in the semiconductor industry, and Senior Corporate Counsel and Director of Corporate Governance at Boston Scientific. Ms. Caplice holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
About Saluda Medical
Saluda Medical is a global medical device company focused on patient outcomes, science, and engineering to transform the neuromodulation industry with a platform of closed-loop technologies that optimize therapy by reading, recording, and responding to the nerves' response to stimulation. The company's first product, Evoke, is the only ECAP-controlled closed-loop spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system designed to treat chronic pain, a condition that affects more than 540 million people globally. SCS treats the condition by stimulating the spinal cord and altering the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Saluda's proprietary Evoke System is the only closed-loop SCS system designed to maintain individualized, consistent therapy by precisely controlling spinal cord activation through real-time customization of waveforms on every evoked compound action potential (ECAP) at the same rate as the stimulation frequency (At stimulation frequency of 40 Hz, 40 adjustments are made each second, 3.5 million adjustments per day, and 1.2 billion adjustments per year). To learn more, visit www.saludamedical.com and connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/saluda-medical/ .
SOURCE Saluda Medical
Related Links
http://www.saludamedical.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Savvy Ladies , a nationally recognized non-profit organization supporting free financial education for women, including a national free financial helpline , is pleased to announce the 2021 Savvy Ladies Honorees who are each exceptional leaders supporting & leading financial empowerment for women. Each honoree is recognized for their unwavering commitment to financial education & advancement of financial literacy for women.
Creating positive change for women, the 2021 Savvy Ladies Change Maker Honorees are Jeanne Sun, GM for Inclusive Investing, J. P. Morgan Wealth Management, Jennifer Zuccarelli, Head of Communications and Content, U.S. Wealth Management, J. P. Morgan Wealth Management, and Heather Ettinger, Founder & CEO, Luma Wealth Advisors.
Receiving the Savvy Ladies Inspiration Award is Grace Vandecruze, Founder and Managing Director, Grace Global Capital LLC.
Celebrating male allyship, Savvy Ladies honors John L. Carter, President & COO, Nationwide Financial with the inaugural Savvy Ladies Male Ally Award.
Paying tribute to Stacy Francis, founder of Savvy Ladies, is The Stacy Francis Awards for Excellence in Mentorship honors Frances J. DiSarro, KPMG LLP Deputy General Counsel and Principal (Retired), and Rahshiela T. White, OGC Executive Assistant KPMG.
The Sayra Fischer Lebenthal Award for Professional Excellence in Finance is awarded to Manisha Thakor, Founder MoneyZen; and the Savvy Lady of the Year Award recognizes a woman who has demonstrated significant fiscal responsibility in her own life and is taking the steps to build her financial roadmap to independence, is awarded to Maxi Delrosario, who connected with Savvy Ladies through our new collaboration with Dress for Success New York.
Savvy Ladies Virtual Awards Celebration with panel discussions: Building Wealth, Shattering the Glass Ceiling and the Importance of Male Allyship and Are the Golden Years Truly Golden? How to Solve Women's Financial Challenges, is on November 18, 2021, 6:00 PM ET.
Tickets are available and are 100% tax-deductible with proceeds supporting the Savvy Ladies Free Financial Helpline. Learn More About Savvy Ladies, visit: https://www.savvyladies.org/
SOURCE Savvy Ladies
Related Links
www.savvyladies.org
RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Chief Investment Officer Ronald S. Schmitz advised the Virginia Retirement System Board of Trustees' Administration and Personal Committee that he plans to retire at the conclusion of calendar year 2022, which coincides with his employment contract.
"I am honored to have served as CIO and appreciate the confidence and support the board has provided me over the years, especially during some difficult market conditions," Schmitz said. "I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the outstanding investment team that has worked diligently for the members and retirees of the system during my tenure. While I am reluctant to leave this outstanding organization, I look forward to the next chapter of life and enjoyment of retirement."
Board Chairman O'Kelly E. McWilliams III, Esq. commented, "During Ron's tenure, the VRS Trust Fund has almost doubled in size, moving from $51 billion in 2011 to $101.8 billion, as of June 30, 2021. We appreciate his enduring dedication to the fund and commend Ron's ability to leverage his experience and leadership skills to develop strategies that have enabled the growth of the fund and the maximizing of investment returns, while minimizing risk."
Schmitz joined VRS as CIO in October 2011. Previously, Schmitz served as the chief investment officer for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (Oregon PERS) and managed the investment activities for Oregon PERS, the State Accident Insurance Fund, the Common School Fund, the Oregon Growth Account and the Short Term Fund.
During today's meeting, the committee announced that the board will engage Korn Ferry to conduct a national search for the CIO position, beginning early next year. The board anticipates hiring a new CIO later next year, with Schmitz serving alongside the new CIO through 2022, to ensure a smooth transition.
SOURCE Virginia Retirement System
Related Links
varetire.org
MONTREAL, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Solmax is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire Propex, an industry-leading U.S. geosynthetics manufacturer with a long track record in the construction, transportation, mining, and automotive industries. With this transaction, Solmax reinforces its position as a leading geosynthetics solutions provider.
Jean-Louis Vangeluwe, President of Solmax, commented: "This strategic acquisition enables Solmax to expand its sophisticated geosynthetics product portfolio for the benefit of engineers, distributors, contractors, operators, and others working in the environmental containment and civil infrastructure sectors. As a global leader in the industry, Solmax is accelerating the promotion and awareness of highly technical and specialized geosynthetic solutions, reducing the carbon footprint of conventional building solutions, and mitigating the environmental impact of human activities."
With origins that can be traced back to 1910, Propex is today one of North America's leading geosynthetics providers. An award-winning manufacturer and low-carbon solutions provider, it boasts a storied history and an enviable reputation for innovation, expertise, service excellence and value.
Solmax's geosynthetic solutions are used by major industrial companies in mining, energy, waste management, construction, civil engineering, environmental containment, infrastructure, and transport, while Propex's infrastructure solutions and systems are used in erosion control applications, construction, transportation infrastructure, and industrial applications.
As industry leaders with a longstanding market presence, Solmax and Propex are both renowned for their geosynthetics expertise, application knowledge, product excellence, and customer service, as well as being recognized as groundbreakers in their respective spaces. Both companies' share a well-aligned vision of protecting the environment in a responsible manner to make the future a better world.
K&L Gates LLP and Jones Day acted as legal advisors to Solmax. Barclays and TD Securities are acting as joint financial advisors, underwriters, joint bookrunners and joint lead arrangers for the Solmax senior credit facilities. Solomon Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor and Stroock acted as legal advisor to Propex.
ABOUT SOLMAX
Solmax is a geosynthetics pioneer, innovator, and leader. With almost five decades' experience, our GSE and TenCate Geosynthetics acquisitions make us one of the world's largest geosynthetics manufacturer. With plants in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, our geosynthetics are used in critical applications by significant customers in mining, energy, waste management, construction, agriculture and irrigation, civil engineering, environmental containment, infrastructure, and transport. Our products safeguard the earth from waste and contaminants, and protect investments, helping preserve the integrity and longevity of vital infrastructure in the toughest environments. Our vision is to advance the geosynthetics industry and create products that are accessible everywhere.
Solmax - geosynthetics that support human progress. Visit us at www.solmax.com.
SOURCE Solmax
BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Stayntouch, a global leader in guest-centric cloud hotel property management systems (PMS) and contactless technology, today announced an expansion to its existing partnership with EOS Hospitality, a fully integrated hospitality investment firm focusing on upscale urban markets and resort destinations. Stayntouch will now deliver its full cloud PMS solution to Red Jacket Resorts, a group of six family-friendly luxury resorts based in New England.
Stayntouch and EOS Hospitality Expand Partnership to Deliver Flexible & Intuitive Cloud PMS to 6 Red Jacket Resorts Properties
Red Jacket features six properties in Cape Cod and North Conway, boasting over 650+ rooms, suites, and vacation homes, as well as a 40,000 square-foot indoor waterpark. With deep connections to both the beaches of Cape Cod and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Red Jacket aims to deliver exceptional service and memorable experiences for the entire family. EOS Hospitality chose Stayntouch for Red Jacket Resorts because of its ease-of-use, speed of deployment, and seamless multi-property functionality.
Gaurav B Sharma, Executive Vice President for Revenue & Distribution at EOS Investors said, "We have an efficacious partnership with Stayntouch, and they were our natural choice for Red Jacket Resorts. We needed a cloud-based multi-property PMS that's reliable, easy to operate, has the ability to support mobile check-ins, and can reduce legacy maintenance costs. We also needed a provider that has the bandwidth to implement its platform within 30 days, and with minimal disruption to our business or guest experience. Stayntouch was that provider."
Mr. Sharma elaborated further, "We believe this partnership will also help accelerate ancillary revenue for our resorts by engaging guests early for upsells and exclusive add-on options."
Michael Helfin, Chief Revenue Officer at Stayntouch, replied, "We are honored that EOS has chosen to expand their partnership with Stayntouch to include Red Jacket Resorts. We believe that technology's primary purpose should be to unburden hospitality for hotel operators, staff and guests. We're proud that our easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy, and easy-to-scale PMS is helping Red Jacket provide exceptional service to their guests."
About EOS Investors
EOS is a fully integrated investment firm dedicated to identifying and creating value within the hospitality sector. EOS utilizes a highly selective investment approach focused on high-quality, differentiated assets with attractive risk-adjusted returns. Headquartered in New York City, EOS seeks investment opportunities across the United States, with an emphasis on major urban markets and resort destinations. To learn more about EOS, please contact [email protected].
About Stayntouch
Stayntouch provides a full cloud and mobile hotel property management system (PMS) and over 1100+ integrations, enabling hotels to raise service levels, drive revenues, reduce costs, and ultimately captivate their guests. Backed by a team of professionals with deep roots in the hospitality industry, stayntouch is a trusted partner to many forward-thinking hotels and resorts, including the TWA Hotel, First Hotels, Conscious Hotels, Margaritaville, Valencia Hotel Group, and Modus Hotels. Stayntouch is also a preferred PMS partner to some of the leading independent hotel collections around the world including; Design Hotels, an Independent Marriott Brand, and Curator Hotel & Resort Collection.
SOURCE Stayntouch
CHICAGO, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gabi Gliksberg, a long time stockholder of Texas Pacific Land Corporation and, before the conversion, Texas Pacific Land Trust, through ATG Capital Management, LLC, has issued an open letter to Texas Pacific's Board of Directors asking that the Board take the necessary steps to amend the company's charter to de-stagger the Board and include the proposed amendment in the proxy materials for shareholder approval at the company's 2021 annual meeting.
The letter explains the reasons for this action, including the widespread consensus among investors and public companies that declassified boards which require all incumbent directors (rather than merely a portion of the board's membership) to stand for election each year provide superior shareholder accountability and value creation.
The text of the letter reads as follows:
Dear Members of the Board:
As a longstanding stockholder of Texas Pacific Land Corporation ("TPL" or the "Company"), I write to you today to discuss a matter of concern to all stockholders: the staggered nature of TPL's Board of Directors (the "Board"). As you are aware, I previously submitted to the Company a straightforward shareholder proposal expressing the view that "TPL's Board should be declassified, allowing for each Board member to stand for election on an annual basis." The Company has refused to put this proposal before its shareholders, going so far as to formally ask the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to refrain from enforcement action if the Company excludes my proposal from the proxy materials for the upcoming December 29, 2021 Annual Meeting. I have opposed that request through counsel.
Regardless of how the SEC rules, it is my firm view that if the Board of TPL truly cares about what is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders, then it should immediately pass a resolution recommending an amendment to the Company's Charter that would declassify the Board, allowing for all directors to be elected on an annual basis, and then put that proposed amendment before the stockholders for a vote.
As stated on TPL's website, the Board's raison d'etre following the Company's conversion to a corporation is to "ensure TPL's business is conducted with the highest levels of integrity, ethics, and responsibility to build strong corporate governance." (Emphasis added). That purported commitment to "strong corporate governance" cannot be squared with the Board's stubborn resistance to declassifying itself. There is a strong consensus in the investment and academic communities that annually elected boards without classes of directors are demonstrably superior to classified ones from a corporate governance and shareholder value perspective. Staggered boards have less accountability to shareholders, less reason to be responsive to shareholder interests, and greater ability to entrench themselves. Declassified boards, by contrast, are widely, if not universally, regarded as more responsive and accountable to corporate shareholders. For that reason, it is not surprising that public companies have been moving away from classified boards for years, and that over 90% of large cap companies now have declassified boards.
The investment stewardship and proxy voting guidelines for many of TPL's largest shareholders, ISS, and Glass Lewis, all available on their websites, echo this overwhelming consensus preference for electing all directors on an annual basis. I have included a few highlights below:
ISS : "Vote against proposals to classify (stagger) the board. Vote for proposals to repeal classified boards and to elect all directors annually." https://www.issgovernance.com/file/policy/active/americas/US-Voting-Guidelines.pdf
https://www.issgovernance.com/file/policy/active/americas/US-Voting-Guidelines.pdf Glass Lewis: "Glass Lewis favors the repeal of staggered boards and the annual election of directors. We believe staggered boards are less accountable to shareholders than boards that are elected annually. Furthermore, we feel the annual election of directors encourages board members to focus on shareholder interests." https://www.glasslewis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Guidelines_US.pdf
https://www.glasslewis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Guidelines_US.pdf Blackrock: "We believe that directors should be re-elected annually; classification of the board generally limits shareholders' rights to regularly evaluate a board's performance and select directors." https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/fact-sheet/blk-responsible-investment-guidelines-us.pdf
https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/fact-sheet/blk-responsible-investment-guidelines-us.pdf Vanguard : " A fund will generally vote for proposals to declassify a current board and vote against management or shareholder proposals to create a classified board." https://about.vanguard.com/investment-stewardship/portfolio-company-resources/2021_proxy_voting_summary.pdf
" https://about.vanguard.com/investment-stewardship/portfolio-company-resources/2021_proxy_voting_summary.pdf Geode Capital Management: "Geode will vote FOR proposals to de-classify boards." https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/Proxy-Voting-Policies-and-Procedures-Geode-Capital-Management-LLC.pdf
In fact, in performing my research, I did not find a single large shareholder of TPL with a publicly available voting policy that prefers staggered boards.
Also revealing is the fact that none of the other public company boards on which TPL directors sit MRC Global Inc. (MRC), Saia Inc. (SAIA), Texas Roadhouse Inc. (TXRH), Crane Co. (CR), and FRMO Corporation (FRMO) are classified. Indeed, as TPL's current Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee, General Cook, stated during TPL's 2019 proxy contest:
"At Crane, a few years ago, we had a classified board. One-third of the board members was elected every year for a three-year term, and it's now pretty much out of favor if you talk to ISS and Glass Lewis, if you talk to other proxy companies. And so what we did was, we got together and I was head of, I was the chair of Nominating and Governance when we did this, and so we convinced the chairman and also the other board of directors that we should probably go to annual elections, which we implemented."
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/97517/000121390019007125/defa14a0419b_texaspacific.htm
If the Board really believes in achieving improved corporate governance, rather than touting ESG as just a cynical marketing slogan, then it would be well-pressed to heed General Cook's advice and follow the example of the other companies at which its members serve as directors. The most recent such company to vote to declassify was Saia, which, consistent with the consensus described above, explained in its proxy statement:
"The Board recognizes the common sentiment among stockholders and institutional investor groups that the annual election of directors would enhance the Company's corporate governance policies. The Board also believes that removing the classified board structure further enhances practices previously adopted to promote director accountability and independent oversightIn light of this sentiment and corporate governance trends, the Board has determined that it is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders to declassify the Board and provide for the annual election of all directors."
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001177702/000119312521079622/d95544dpre14a.htm
It was not hyperbole when I stated in my shareholder proposal that there seems to be virtually unanimous consensus in the institutional investment world that declassified boards are now the preferred governance structure: the vote at Saia approved declassification with a final tally of 25,059,845 "for" versus just 10,262 "against", or 99.96% to 0.04%. https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001177702/000156459021022835/saia-8k_20210427.htm
In light of the above, TPL's current Board structure is clearly out-of-step with corporate governance best practices and the consensus policies of the public company community. What is more, the Board's resistance to modernizing its structure by declassifying is both unexplained and, frankly, inexplicable. If the Board honestly believes as faithful corporate fiduciaries that there are good reasons for retaining its antiquated classification scheme, then one would have expected it to invite a vigorous debate with its shareholders on the question at the upcoming Annual Meeting. Instead, judging by its reaction to my shareholder proposal and determination to bury it before the Company's proxy materials are even disseminated, the Board considers such a debate and any attempt to change the status quo as a nuisance to be stifled quickly and decisively. Such indifference if not outright hostility to shareholder democracy is further reflected in the Board's choice of December 29th for the new Annual Meeting date right smack in the middle of the holidays and during a time of year that many Americans travel, take time off, and spend time with their children and grandchildren that are on vacation from school. That is simply not a date that you select if you are hoping to maximize the number of shareholders in attendance.
The impression that the Board may be primarily interested in entrenching themselves in their current positions is hard to miss. This impression is only strengthened by the fact that the Board, having been effectively appointed by the Trustees of the predecessor Trust, was never even elected by the shareholder body to begin with.
Fortunately, there is a clear pathway to remedy this situation and right the ship. The Board should immediately take steps to:
rescind the Company's no action letter to the SEC regarding my shareholder proposal and include that proposal in the proxy materials;
hold a vote of the current directors on amending the Company's Charter to de-stagger the board; and
present the proposed Charter amendment to the shareholders for a vote.
I appreciate the opportunity to present this issue to the Board, and would be happy to meet with the Board to further discuss it and other needed corporate governance improvements at the Board's convenience.
Sincerely,
Gabi Gliksberg
Contact:
Gabi Gliksberg
ATG Capital Management, LLC
[email protected]
SOURCE ATG Capital Management
ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Waterways Operators applauds the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, H.R. 3684, signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this week. The bill contains $17 billion for ports and waterways, including $2.5 billion of 100% federal funding for inland waterways construction and major rehabilitation projects, $4 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operations and maintenance, and an increase in funding for the Port Infrastructure Development Program from $230 million in FY21 to $455 million a year for the next five years. The law also formally establishes the Made in America Office, which works to ensure that federal procurement processes support American workers and businesses and maintain the integrity of the Jones Act.
"This legislation demonstrates the bipartisan support for modernizing our nation's infrastructure and will provide critical funding to keep America's vital waterborne commerce moving," said AWO President & CEO Jennifer Carpenter. "The tugboat, towboat and barge industry is essential to our nation's economy and security, and has played a key role in helping the United States navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and recent global supply chain disruptions. This funding for ports and waterways infrastructure will ensure that our industry can continue to move cargo safely and efficiently, and we look forward to working alongside the Administration and Congress to ensure its smooth implementation."
The American Waterways Operators applauds the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, H.R. 3684. Tweet this
About the American Waterways Operators
The American Waterways Operators is the tugboat, towboat and barge industry's advocate, resource and united voice for safe, sustainable and efficient transportation on America's waterways, oceans and coasts. Industry vessels move more than 665 million tons of America's commerce each year on the U.S. inland and intracoastal waterways, the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and the Great Lakes.
For more information about the importance of waterway transportation, please contact AWO at (703) 841-9300 or visit AWO's website at www.americanwaterways.com.
SOURCE American Waterways Operators
Related Links
http://www.americanwaterways.com
ATLANTA, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation released today its 2022 list of 10 Places in Peril in the state.
Sites on the list include: Ansley Park in Atlanta (Fulton County); Chattahoochee Brick Company in Atlanta (Fulton County); Gay, Georgia Fairgrounds in Gay (Meriwether County); Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home in Camilla (Mitchell County); Good Shepherd Episcopal School in Brunswick (Glynn County); Imperial Hotel in Thomasville (Thomas County); Red Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville (Baldwin County); Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge in Woodbury (Meriwether County); Thicket Ruins in Darien (McIntosh County); and West Broad Street School in Athens (Clarke County).
"This is the Trust's seventeenth annual Places in Peril list," said Mark C. McDonald, president and CEO of the Trust. "To date, 95% of past Places in Peril sites are still in existence. We hope the list will continue to bring preservation solutions to Georgia's imperiled historic resources by highlighting ten representative sites."
Places in Peril is designed to raise awareness about Georgia's significant historic, archaeological and cultural resources, including buildings, structures, districts, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy.
Through Places in Peril, the Trust will encourage owners and individuals, organizations and communities to employ proven preservation tools, financial resources and partnerships in order to reuse, reinvest and revitalize historic properties that are in peril.
Sites on previous years' lists include: Capricorn Studios in Macon was rehabilitated and transformed into Mercer Music at Capricorn, receiving a Georgia Trust Preservation Award in 2021; Zion Episcopal Church in Talbotton received a $100,000 grant from Historic Columbus Foundation, enabling a full restoration and receiving a Preservation Award from the Georgia Trust; Cohutta African American Civic District received a grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation to help fund a feasibility study for the rehabilitation and sustainability of the district's buildings; the National Bindery Library Company, one of the oldest remaining structures on Atlanta's Peachtree Road, will be largely preserved as part of a new condo development; and the Cherry Grove Schoolhouse in Washington was a recent recipient of the Trust's Callahan Incentive Grant, which will go towards the building's rehabilitation.
Founded in 1973, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation works for the preservation and revitalization of Georgia's diverse historic resources and advocates their appreciation, protection and use. As one of the country's leading statewide, nonprofit preservation organizations, the Trust generates community revitalization by finding buyers for endangered properties acquired by its Revolving Fund and raises awareness of other endangered historic resources through an annual listing of Georgia's "Places in Peril." The Trust offers a variety of educational programs for adults and children, provides technical assistance to property owners and historic communities, advocates for funding, tax incentives and other laws aiding preservation efforts, and manages two house museums in Atlanta (Rhodes Hall) and Macon (Hay House).
Summary Information on each Places in Peril Site
Ansley Park (Atlanta, Fulton County)
First developed in 1904, Ansley Park was Atlanta's first suburb designed specifically with the automobile in mind, featuring wide, curvilinear streets and several parks. The historic district was named for its developer, Edwin P. Ansley, and includes some of Atlanta's most architecturally significant residences.
Although the neighborhood is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it has not been designated by the city as a Local Historic District, which would offer protections from demolition through city ordinance. Without that protection and review, the past decade has seen many historic, architecturally significant homes demolished and replaced with insensitive infill. Nearing a point of no return, the district risks losing its National Register designation if too many contributing buildings in the neighborhood are lost, and the city risks losing some of its finest architectural heritage.
Chattahoochee Brick Company (Atlanta, Fulton County)
Located on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, the Chattahoochee Brick Company was founded in 1878. The company was notorious for its use of convict leasing, where hundreds of African American inmates were forced to work in deplorable conditions without regard to their safety, leading some scholars to refer to the convict leasing system as "slavery by another name." Many of these men were worked to death or left permanently disabled from extreme punishments. Today all that's left on the site is a vacant, overgrown lot.
The land is currently zoned for industrial use, and the brick company structures have already been lost to prior development attempts. Many people, including descendants of Chattahoochee Brick Company convicts, consider the site hallowed ground. Preservation of the site will generate healing, foster dialogue and lead to an understanding of a difficult chapter in Atlanta's history.
Gay, Georgia Fairgrounds (Gay, Meriwether County)
Originally a small farming community, the town of Gay was incorporated after its first store and post office were opened by William Gay in 1882. Throughout the 20th century, the town flourished with the broader agricultural trends of the state. In 1972, after a period of decline in activity, descendants of William Gay established what became known as the "Cotton Pickin' Fairgrounds" on the site of the town's cotton gin and peach packing complex. Since then, the fair has been held on the first weekend of May and October every year.
Because the grounds are active only two weekends annually, the structures remain largely abandoned and neglected throughout the year.
Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home (Camilla, Mitchell County)
The Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home was a nursing center and private residence of Beatrice Borders, a third-generation African American midwife. Her home became a refuge for over 6,000 African American mothers who had nowhere else to go, allowing their newborns to enter the world in a safe and healthy environment during the Jim Crow era.
The building has been vacant since 2004 and is currently boarded up. Due to deterioration over the years, the home is now uninhabitable, making it more susceptible to threats of demolition.
Good Shepherd Episcopal School (Brunswick, Glynn County)
The Good Shepherd Episcopal School and the adjacent church are all that remain of the historic Pennick community, a settlement of the descendants of freed men and women in Brunswick, Ga.
Good Shepard has seen a decline in parishioners. Financial resources for the maintenance of the schoolhouse have dwindled. Storm damage has taken a toll. The Good Shepard School is worthy of preservation as a resource to the community to continue the legacy of its founding deaconess.
Imperial Hotel (Thomasville, Thomas County)
Built in 1949 and operated until 1969 by Harvey and Dorothy Lewis Thompson, the Imperial Hotel was Thomasville's only hotel that exclusively accommodated Black travelers prior to integration. The hotel was featured in the Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans during the Jim Crow era.
The Imperial Hotel officially closed its doors to tourists in 1969 and was later used by the NAACP. The building has remained vacant since 2001, leaving it in a state of neglect. Recent efforts to stabilize the building have been successful, yet the long-term future of this important African American cultural resource remains in question.
Red Hill Cemetery (Milledgeville, Baldwin County)
Situated on a hill overlooking the 4,000-acre Old State Prison Farm in Milledgeville, the Red Hill Prison Cemetery is home to over 600 graves of incarcerated men and women who died at the prison between 1911 and 1936. License plates manufactured on site by the prisoners were used as grave markers for the deceased prisoners, indicating each grave by number, not name. Once the prison closed and moved locations in 1937, these graves were left unattended and neglected.
The history of this site has remained an afterthought through much of the last century. Trees and undergrowth took over and obscured the graves, while the license plate markers have been left to rust and deteriorate. Without continued advocacy and acknowledgement, the history and context of the site will be threatened once again.
Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge (Woodbury, Meriwether County)
The Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge was built in the 1840s by Horace King or his son. Born into enslavement on a South Carolina plantation, Horace King was able to travel freely and was widely respected as a builder and engineer, constructing dozens of bridges in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. The Red Oak Creek Bridge is the only bridge connected to Horace King that is still in use, attracting hundreds of visitors each year.
Because the Red Oak Creek bridge has remained open to traffic, there is a consistent threat of damage to the structure. With its popularity, the bridge provides an opportunity for improved heritage tourism, greater access for recreation and continued appreciation of history, but first, further protection of the bridge is necessary to ensure its continued longevity.
Thicket Ruins (Darien, McIntosh County)
The tabby ruins are all that remain of a sugar mill and rum distillery built in the early 19th century. Operated by enslaved Africans, the site also featured tabby living quarters for the enslaved, four of which remain. After being hit by a hurricane in 1824, operations ceased at the mill and the land was converted to a cotton plantation. Following the Civil War, materials and pieces of tabby were sold to the freed men and women, who established a community nearby named Carnighan.
Being built along the Carnochan Creek, the ruins have worn away over time due to the eroding shoreline. The current residential community has maintained care for the ruins as best they can; however, working buildings are being lost into the creek. The effects of climate change are a direct threat to this early coastal resource.
West Broad Street School (Athens, Clarke County)
The West Broad Street School, a collection of three education buildings, sits on a piece of land dedicated to the education to African American students from the late 19th century through integration. Although it has not been used as a school for many years, the buildings have remained in use since they were constructed.
Recently the Clarke County School District proposed demolition of the buildings to allow for new construction of an early learning center. With no preservation guidance, the site's historic architecture is at risk of being severely altered or lost. The school district has agreed to reconsider its proposal, though final plans have not been approved and a preservation outcome is not guaranteed.
Contact:
Traci Clark
Office: 404-885-7802
[email protected]
SOURCE The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
Related Links
http://www.georgiatrust.org
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Year after year, Americans flock to one surprising country during the holiday season.
Travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth.com , looked at traveler data from thousands of policies purchased for travel between Thanksgiving and New Years. Every year, one country rises to the top of the list during the holidays - Germany.
Over the past three years, Germany has ranked number one among European destinations during the holiday travel season. Throughout the remainder of the year, it is preceded by popular tourist destinations including Italy, Spain, France and the UK.
This year, Germany's popularity rose from the 14th ranked destination overall, to the seventh most popular destination during the holiday season, and first among European countries.
Squaremouth's List of Top Destinations:
Top Holiday Destinations (Travel between 11/20/21 and 01/01/22) Overall Top Destinations of 2021 (Travel between 01/01/21 and 11/19/21) 1 USA USA 2 Mexico Mexico 3 Bahamas Turks and Caicos 4 Turks and Caicos Costa Rica 5 Dominican Republic Italy 6 Costa Rica Israel 7 Germany Greece 8 France France 9 US Virgin Islands Spain 10 United Kingdom United Kingdom 11 Thailand Canada 12 Israel Dominican Republic 13 Italy Iceland 14 Aruba Germany
Squaremouth reports that in addition to more travelers visiting Germany during the holidays, these travelers are also spending more money. On average, travelers spend 84% more on trips to Germany during the holiday season than the rest of the year. They also spend less time there, with an average trip length of 11 days during the holiday season, compared to 21 days outside of those months.
Squaremouth maintains a Germany Destination Guide , including real time travel data updates, entry regulations and travel insurance recommendations.
Related Travel Data:
4 New Holiday Travel Trends Revealed
Summer Travel Recap
Europe Returns to Top Tourist Destination
Notes to editors
Available Topic Expert: Megan Moncrief, Chief Marketing Officer, is available for comment and
interview. [email protected] (727) 378-0938
ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH
Squaremouth.com, and their multi-award winning customer service team, has helped over 2 million travelers save time and money to find the best travel insurance policy for their trip.
Leveraging decades of travel expertise, and industry-leading technology, Squaremouth.com hosts the most intuitive travel insurance quoting and comparison engine on the market today.
Coupled with verified customer reviews and the largest portfolio of products, Squaremouth allows travelers to instantly purchase a travel insurance policy from every major provider in the US.
SOURCE Squaremouth
Related Links
http://www.squaremouth.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- While Covid-19 has focused the world on the risks and ravages of disease, the pandemic has also less visibly had a major effect in reshaping people's views and definitions of what it means to be well. In fact, 80% of the world's population now say that their definition of wellness has changed, with mental health surprisingly emerging as the #1 future health concern, ahead even of new cancer treatments and new approaches to immunity.
These unexpected findings are among the many actionable insights contained in new global research from McCann Worldgroup's Truth Central global intelligence unit released and discussed at an online global conference today themed "The Truth About a Well World." The conference included a keynote speaker from the United Nations and explored the findings of two new major global Truth Central studies "The Truth About Wellness" and "The Truth About Sustainability" with a particular focus in each on the implications for brand marketers and businesses.
"Brands and businesses are at a crossroads in determining the most meaningful actions they can take as the world recovers its health and seeks a sustainable future," said Suzanne Powers, Global President and Chief Strategy Officer of McCann Worldgroup. "Over the last year, we've uncovered a wealth of valuable and actionable intelligence through Truth Central's studies on Wellness and Sustainability that contain somewhat surprising revelations about how people around the world are thinking about two of the key global issues being faced as we all start moving ahead."
Regarding the sustainability research, Powers noted that just as the government leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow are unsure about what concrete climate change commitments to make, so are individuals. While an overwhelming 90% of people globally say they are willing to change their actions to be sustainable, the percentages are much lower when specific actions are queried.
"People have views about what they can accomplish individually that are sometimes at odds with what is possible because of government and institutional factors," said Laura Simpson, McCann Worldgroup's Chief Intelligence Officer and President of the Truth Central unit. She noted also that the studies show significantly that the last two years have shifted people's views about the role of medical professionals. The research found that 43% of people globally believe that at some point technology will eliminate the need for doctors, a sharp increase from 20% in 2013 and 24% in 2015 who held that view.
Hosted on Momentum's platform, MoMo VXi Whitebox, providing an immersive, inclusive online experience, the content can be accessed by registering here. In addition to Suzanne Powers, Laura Simpson and other key strategy executives involved in conducting and analyzing the research, the speakers include keynoter Robert Skinner, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications of the United Nations.
Methodology of the Studies
McCann Worldgroup's Truth about Wellness 2021 study builds on 10 years of trended global data and research about the shape, role, and meaning of wellness in people's lives. Conducted by McCann Worldgroup Truth Central, the organization's global intelligence unit, this large-scale quantitative study surveyed more than 48,600 people in 26 countries* and builds on two prior editions of the study published in 2013 and 2015. For the qualitative component of the research, Truth Central built an online ethnographic community of over 1,000 respondents across 24 markets and also ran a Global Wellness Truth Hunt across 9 markets.
The Truth About Sustainability study includes 32,000 Global Interviews across 26 markets (Wave 1, 2019), 11,700 Global Interviews across 18 markets (Wave 2, 2021), 1,000 Online qualitative community interviews across 24 markets, 55 Interviews across the global McCann Worldgroup network and 13 Expert interviews across a range of geographies and disciplines.
About McCann Truth Central
MW Truth Central is McCann Worldgroup's global intelligence unit dedicated to unearthing the macro-level truths that drive people's attitudes and behaviors about life, brands, and marketing. Our team of trend and insight experts regularly author global studies packed with actionable perspectives that are as creative as they are analytically sharp. The unit has conducted over 25 global studies to date. These studies have covered 60+ markets, interviewed over 300,000 consumers, and contain more than 30 million individual data points. The research findings have been presented at conferences across the globe and covered by the BBC, Time magazine, USA Today, Refinery 29, Forbes, PC Magazine, Campaign, Adweek, and many others.
About McCann Worldgroup
McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is a creatively driven global marketing company whose professionals are united across 100+ countries by a single mission: To help brands earn a meaningful role in people's lives. McCann Worldgroup was named "Global Agency of The Year" by Adweek magazine, "Network of the Year" by the Cannes Lions, the world's most creatively-effective marketing services company by the Effie Awards (for three consecutive years), "Global Network of the Year" by Campaign Magazine and "Network of The Year" by The Webby Awards two years in a row. The network comprises McCann (advertising), MRM (science/technology/relationship marketing), Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), McCann Health (professional/dtc communications), CRAFT (production), Weber Shandwick (public relations) and FutureBrand (consulting/design).
SOURCE McCann Worldgroup
Related Links
http://www.mccannworldgroup.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Premier travel club for second homeowners, THIRDHOME, is pleased to appoint Chad Rowe as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Chad will be responsible for managing existing partnerships, while seeking new affiliations with luxury resorts, developments, and vacation rental management companies in the US. With 20+ years of experience in luxury resort real estate sales, property management, and vacation rentals, Chad's industry expertise and network of luxury developments will be a great asset in advancing THIRDHOME'S business model.
Chad began his resort real estate career in 2000 with Intrawest Corporation, aiding in the launch of its real estate sales and marketing division with offerings that spanned across the United States, Canada, UK, Caribbean, and British West Indies. Chad then held the position of Director of Real Estate for Celebration Associates, overseeing the real estate development sales and marketing for best-of-class projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic and South-Eastern regions. Prior to joining THIRDHOME, Chad served as the SVP of Business Development and Principal Real Estate Broker for Natural Retreats US LLC, a top national player in the luxury vacation rental management industry.
Chad earned his BA in English from Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA, where he now holds a seat on the Board of Advisors. He proudly resides in both Charlottesville, VA, and Eagle Ranch, CO, with his wife Katie and daughters Hayden and Abigail.
About THIRDHOME
THIRDHOME is the premier travel club for second homeowners who share a mindset for luxury and exploration. From jetsetters to retirees and everything in between, members are inspired by travel. By taking advantage of unused time in their second home, they earn travel credits that allow them to open the doors to a multitude of other members' private homes, experiencing a whole new way to travel. Through a personal online account, they have access to immediately reserve stays worldwide for a fraction of what it would cost elsewhere.
SOURCE THIRDHOME
Vitro Secures Critical Base infrastructure for the United States Air Force with Zero Trust IoT Tweet this
Vitro is leveraging innovative technology for operational effectiveness and installation resilience. The mission impact of this project is a reduction in unplanned downtime for operational technology and a more resilient power infrastructure.
Remote monitoring of infrastructure is referred to as the "Internet of Things" or IoT. Vitro's patented IoT hardware and software delivers "Zero Trust" IoT, an innovation that has won the company a national position in thought leadership.
In 2020, connected infrastructure saw a 300% increase in attacks and a total of 45% increase in cyber damages. Cybersecurity is a common theme in the news. "As a citizen, I'm deeply concerned with the legacy state of critical infrastructure and what our adversaries could do to exploit those weaknesses. Especially. In relation to the resources we all rely on; water and power." Said David Goodman, founder, and CEO of Vitro.
Vitro gives customers access to operational data while securing remote devices and enforcing Zero Trust policies for data access. Their solution enables, fast and informed decision making, greater operational efficiency, user-oriented dashboards, preventative maintenance, & secure infrastructures.
To learn more, please visit: http://vitro.io
About Vitro
Vitro Technology Corporation is an Internet of Things startup company based in Austin, TX. Since 2016, Vitro has been building the next generation IoT platform: a "spoof proof" hardware and services model that delivers Zero Trust IoT data. The company has worked with the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, Telefonica Brasil, and The United States Air Force to deliver authenticated IoT data from remote sites all over the world.
Press Contact Information
Creighton Beery
[email protected]
(512) 660-0302
SOURCE Vitro Technology Corporation
Related Links
www.vitro.io
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- White Castle is spicing up Thanksgiving this year with two brand-new stuffing recipes, with one unveiled exclusively on OnlyFans . The Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing and the Southwest Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing, the latest variations to White Castle's original stuffing recipe, will surely add some heat to any dinner table. This Thanksgiving marks the 30th anniversary of the very first stuffing recipe release in 1991.
White Castle is spicing up Thanksgiving this year with two brand-new hot-and-spicy stuffing recipes. Tweet this Orlando firefighter Manny Washington Jr. is helping White Castle introduce its two new hot-and-spicy stuffing recipes that will bring a little more heat to Thanksgiving dinner. Orlando firefighter Manny Washington Jr. is helping White Castle introduce its two new hot-and-spicy stuffing recipes that will bring a little more heat to Thanksgiving dinner. Orlando firefighter Manny Washington Jr. is helping White Castle introduce its two new hot-and-spicy stuffing recipes that will bring a little more heat to Thanksgiving dinner.
As their names imply, both versions of the stuffing use White Castle's spicy Jalapeno Cheese Slider as the main ingredient.
"The holiday season is about to get a whole lot hotter because these recipes really pack the heat," said Jamie Richardson, vice president at White Castle. "Our Jalapeno Cheese Slider is such a popular item in both our restaurants and in grocery freezer aisles, so we know our Cravers are going to love these new hot-and-spicy stuffing recipes."
White Castle has teamed with a Florida-based firefighter and chef to help get the word out about the new stuffing recipes. Manny Washington Jr., district chief for the Orlando Fire Department and a popular social media personality, will show fans how to make the Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing, which includes pieces of crispy bacon, diced jalapeno peppers, celery, cilantro, cumin and shredded pepper jack cheese, all coming together to create a one-of-a-kind hot-and-spicy flavor. His content will appear on White Castle's YouTube channel and its Facebook , Twitter and Instagram accounts.
And showing its spicy side, White Castle is introducing the hotter and spicier Southwest Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing only on OnlyFans, the subscription-based social media platform with over 180 million registered users and over 2 million creators worldwide. This version takes the heat to the next level by adding extra jalapeno and poblano peppers while still highlighting the traditional stuffing flavors you know and love. White Castle's fans can view the exclusive recipe on the brand's new OnlyFans profile .
"The great thing about the Bacon and Southwest versions of the Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing is that you can make either one as hot and spicy as you like," Richardson said. "These are must-have side dishes for Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving celebrations."
As a complement to these hot, new stuffing recipes, White Castle is holding a fire sale on its limited 100th birthday edition " Cravey Boat ." Available on White Castle's House of Crave online gift store, the Cravey Boat is perfect for gravy, fondue, hollandaise and other craveable sauces. It's available for only $15.
In addition, White Castle is giving a free Castle Combo #1-#6 or a free Breakfast Combo to all firefighters who work on Thanksgiving. No coupon or purchase is necessary, although firefighters are requested to show identification and arrive before the afternoon as many restaurants are closing early for the holiday.
The easy but delicious new stuffing recipes arrive for the 30th anniversary of The Original Slider Stuffing recipe. The recipe originated in 1991, when a White Castle team member enhanced her grandmother's family stuffing recipe with a sack of Sliders. Since then, the popular Slider-based stuffing has become not just a Thanksgiving tradition, but also a welcome addition to dinner all year long for Craver families across the U.S.
In 2019, the family owned fast-food and consumer packaged goods company introduced a slightly revised version of its Original Slider Stuffing recipe to appeal to vegans and vegetarians. Using the Impossible Slider as the main ingredient, the White Castle ImpossibleSlider Stuffing gave non-meat eaters the opportunity to enjoy the taste everyone had been raving about.
White Castle Cravers can purchase the Original Sliders and Jalapeno Cheese Sliders in the freezer section at grocery stores nationwide. Original Sliders, Jalapeno Cheese Sliders and Impossible Sliders can be purchased in White Castle restaurants. The stuffing recipes are provided below. For more unique recipe ideas using White Castle menu items, visit www.whitecastle.com/food/recipes .
White Castle's growing variety of stuffing recipes will appeal to a variety of Craver tastes. Three stuffing recipes are listed below. The fourth and hottest recipe is available now on White Castle's OnlyFansprofile .
White CastleBacon Jalapeno Cheese Slider Stuffing
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 45 to 50 minutes
Servings: 4 to 6
Ingredients:
12 White Castle Jalapeno Cheese Sliders 10 tablespoons butter 1 cup celery, diced 1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced 10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped (about 1 cups) 1 teaspoon salt teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoons cumin cup cilantro, chopped cup turkey or chicken broth 2 eggs 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Instructions:
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add diced celery and jalapeno peppers and cook until soft. Heat Sliders according to package instructions. Cut into quarters. In a large mixing bowl or pan, mix quartered Sliders with the chopped bacon, salt, pepper and cumin. Mix in the cilantro and the vegetables from the skillet. If cooking the stuffing in the turkey, add the pepper jack cheese here, as well. In a small bowl, mix the broth and eggs. Pour over stuffing mixture and stir until distributed evenly. Place stuffing mixture in a 9x13 baking dish and top with pepper jack cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered. Then uncover and continue cooking until browned on top, about 15 to 20 minutes more.
White CastleOriginal Slider Stuffing Recipe
Prep time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Servings: about 9 cups of stuffing (enough for a 10- to 12-pound turkey)
Ingredients:
10 to 12 White Castle Original Sliders, no pickles (from a Castle restaurant or a local retailer) 1 cups diced celery 1 teaspoons ground thyme 1 teaspoons ground sage teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper cup chicken broth (or 1 cup for casserole version)
Instructions:
Tear the Sliders into bite-sized pieces and put into a large mixing bowl. Add diced celery and seasonings. Add cup of chicken broth and toss well. Put stuffing into cavity of the turkey and cook as you normally would. If cooking stuffing as a casserole, add an additional cup of chicken broth and toss well. Spray or oil a 2-quart casserole dish. Transfer stuffing to casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
White Castle ImpossibleSlider Stuffing
Prep time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Servings: about 9 cups of stuffing
Ingredients:
10 White Castle Impossible Sliders, no pickles 1 cups diced celery 1 teaspoons ground thyme 1 teaspoons ground sage teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper 1 cup vegetable broth
Instructions:
Tear the Impossible Sliders into bite-sized pieces and put into a large mixing bowl. Add diced celery and seasonings. Add 1 cup of vegetable broth and toss well; let ingredients sit for 10 minutes to absorb. Spray or oil a 2-quart casserole dish. Transfer stuffing to casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
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. Through its retail division, which launched in 1987, White Castle also offers its famous fare in freezer aisles of grocery, convenience and club 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 .
SOURCE White Castle
DALLAS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WaterPure International, Inc. (USOTC: WPUR) today announced the company is forecasting a recurring revenue model to begin generating and rapidly expanding revenue next year in 2022 by providing services in the electric utilities sector with an emphasis on the electric vehicle (EV) charging subsector, and the water technology sector with combined market values over $100 billion.
WPUR recently updated its decade old clean water operations and begun to trial new water delivery efficiencies and technologies in developing economic markets to be subsequently scaled for all global markets.
WPUR also recently revealed plans to add the electric utilities market with a focus on electric vehicle charging to its current water utilities operations.
WPUR has revealed a pilot clean water project already implemented and operating at a dairy operation in Sub Sarah Africa.
WPUR has also recently announced entering into an agreement to provide an electric vehicle (EV) charging solution for a special purpose electric vehicle operation in Sub-Sahara Africa.
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 vehicle charging market was valued at $10 billion in 2020 expected to grow to $27 billion by 2027.
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.
EV charging and water technology have combined market values over $100 billion. WPUR is implementing a strategy to establish a recurring revenue model serving both.
Look for key updates with additional details on WPUR's pending acquisitions and contracts coming soon.
To learn more, visit https://www.wpurinc.com/.
Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur.
Contact:
Sean Mathis
[email protected]
972-918-5256
SOURCE WaterPure International, Inc.
Related Links
https://www.wpurinc.com/
The meeting, which lasted a longer-than-expected three and a half hours, was the first of its kind between the two leaders since Biden took office in January. They had spoken twice over the phone, in February and September.
Here are some highlights of the virtual meeting:
On Taiwan
Xi told Biden that China will be compelled to take resolute measures, should the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" make coercive provocations or even cross the red line.
Xi said that the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Straits was due to the repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China.
Such moves are extremely dangerous and are just like playing with fire, he said, noting that whoever plays with fire will get burnt.
On human rights
Xi said that whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide, and dismissing forms of democracy that are different from one's own is in itself undemocratic.
The president also said that China is ready to have dialogues on human rights on the basis of mutual respect, but opposes using human rights as a pretext to meddle in other countries' internal affairs.
On climate change
Xi said that climate change can well become a new highlight of China-US cooperation as both countries are transitioning to green and low-carbon economy.
Noting that China is still the largest developing country in the world, Xi said all countries need to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strike a balance between addressing climate change and protecting livelihoods.
"What the world needs is less finger-pointing or blame game, but more solidarity and cooperation," said Xi.
On China-US ties
Xi highlighted the importance of a sound and steady China-US relationship in advancing the two countries' development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment.
"China and the US should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation," he said.
Xi also said that it is hoped that the US president will demonstrate political leadership and steer America's China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism.
On China-US trade
Xi said that business is business, and economic and trade issues between China and the US should not be politicized.
He said that China takes seriously the wishes of the US business community to travel to China more easily, and has agreed to upgrade fast-track arrangements.
The president also said that the US should stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese businesses.
He urged the US to be mindful of the spillover effects of its domestic macro policies and adopt responsible macroeconomic policies.
On global public health
Xi said that China and the US need to call for the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for global public health and communicable disease prevention and control, and promote further international exchanges and cooperation.
Response to any major disease must be based on science, he said, adding that politicizing diseases does no good but only harm.
Xi also said the pressing priority in the global COVID response is to address the vaccine deficits and close the vaccination gap.
SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn
- Conference call to be conducted on November 23, 2021 at 11 a.m. ET.
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoomd Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: ZOMD) (OTC: ZMDTF) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Zoomd Ltd. (collectively, "Zoomd" or the "Company"), the marketing tech (MarTech) user-acquisition and engagement platform, announced today that it expects to report its financial results for the third quarter 2021 on November 22, 2021. The Company has scheduled a conference call on Tuesday November 23, at 11:00 a.m. ET, to discuss the results.
Interested parties can access the conference call via Internet webcast, which is available in the Investors section of the Company's website at https://zoomd.com/investors/ or at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2473/43788
Interested parties who would like to submit a question to be addressed on the call should email the question to [email protected] .
A webcast replay will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website at https://zoomd.com/investors/ or via https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2473/43788.
About ZOOMD
Zoomd (TSXV: ZOMD, OTC: ZMDTF), founded in 2012 and began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in September 2019, offers a site search engine to publishers, and a mobile app user-acquisition platform, integrated with a majority of global digital media, to advertisers. The platform unifies more than 600 media sources into one unified dashboard. Offering advertisers, a user acquisition control center for managing all new customer acquisition campaigns using a single platform. By unifying all these media sources onto a single platform, Zoomd saves advertisers significant resources that would otherwise be spent consolidating data sources, thereby maximizing data collection and data insights while minimizing the resources spent on the exercise. Further, Zoomd is a performance-based platform that allows advertisers to advertise to the relevant target audiences using a key performance indicator-algorithm that is focused on achieving the advertisers' goals and targets.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Disclaimer IN REGARD TO 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 Zoomd's release of its financial statements on November 22, 2021. Forward-looking statements are based on our current assumptions, estimates, expectations and projections 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, technological, legal, privacy matters, political and social uncertainties (including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic), the extent and duration of which are uncertain at this time on Zoomd's business and general economic and business conditions and markets. There can be no assurance that any of the forward-looking 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.
For further information please contact:
Company Media Contacts:
Amit Bohensky
Chairman
Zoomd
[email protected]
Website: www.zoomd.com
Investor relations:
Lytham Partners, LLC
Ben Shamsian
New York | Phoenix
[email protected]
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1039696/Zoomd_Logo.jpg
SOURCE Zoomd Technologies Ltd.
Income from Operations Increased 16.4% to RMB1.4 Billion
Volume Grew 23.3% to reach 5.7 Billion Parcels
Market Share Secured at 20.8%
SHANGHAI, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO and SEHK: 2057), a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China ("ZTO" or the "Company"), today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021[1]. The Company delivered a parcel volume growth of 23.3% while maintaining high customer satisfaction and industry-top level of quality of earnings. Adjusted net income reached RMB1,147.9 million which grew 13.7% over that of last year's normalized for one-time tax refund. Cash generated from operating activities totaled RMB1,787.1 million.
Third Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights
Revenues were RMB7,390.7 million ( US$1,147.0 million ), an increase of 11.3% from RMB6,638.8 million in the same period of 2020.
( ), an increase of 11.3% from in the same period of 2020. Gross profit was RMB1,568.3 million ( US$243.4 million ), an increase of 12.7% from RMB1,391.0 million in the same period of 2020.
( ), an increase of 12.7% from in the same period of 2020. Net income was RMB1,147.9 million ( US$178.1 million ), a decrease of 5.2% from RMB1,210.3 million in the same period of 2020. Normalized for the one-time 2019 income tax refund received in 2020, net income increased 13.7% year over year.
Adjusted EBITDA [2] was RMB1,967.7 million ( US$305.4 million ), an increase of 17.4% from RMB1,675.4 million in the same period of 2020.
was ( ), an increase of 17.4% from in the same period of 2020. Adjusted net income [3] was RMB1,147.9 million ( US$178.1 million ), a decrease of 5.2% from RMB1,210.3 million in the same period of 2020. Normalized for the one-time 2019 income tax refund received in 2020, adjusted net income increased 13.7% year over year.
Basic and diluted net earnings per American depositary share ("ADS" [4] ) were RMB1.43 (US$0.22) , a decrease of 6.5% from RMB1.53 in the same period of 2020.
) were , a decrease of 6.5% from in the same period of 2020. Adjusted basic and diluted net earnings per American depositary share [5] attributable to ordinary shareholders were RMB1.43 (US$ 0.22) , a decrease of 6.5% from RMB1.53 in the same period of 2020.
attributable to ordinary shareholders were , a decrease of 6.5% from in the same period of 2020. Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB1,787.1 million ( US$277.4 million ), compared with RMB1,480.4 million in the same period of 2020.
Operational Highlights for Third Quarter 2021
Parcel volume was 5,700 million, an increase of 23.3% from 4,623 million in the same period of 2020.
Number of pickup/delivery outlets was over 30,300 as of September 30, 2021 .
. Number of direct network partners was over 5,600 as of September 30, 2021 .
. Number of line-haul vehicles was approximately 10,500 as of September 30, 2021 , which included approximately 10,400 self-owned vehicles and approximately 100 vehicles owned and operated by Tonglu Tongze Logistics Ltd., a transportation operator that works exclusively for ZTO.
, which included approximately 10,400 self-owned vehicles and approximately 100 vehicles owned and operated by Tonglu Tongze Logistics Ltd., a transportation operator that works exclusively for ZTO. Out of the approximately 10,400 self-owned trucks, approximately 8,450 were high capacity 15 to 17-meter-long models as of September 30, 2021 , compared to over 8,150 as of June 30, 2021 .
, compared to over 8,150 as of . Number of line-haul routes between sorting hubs was over 3,600 as of September 30, 2021 , compared to approximately 3,600 as of June 30, 2021 .
, compared to approximately 3,600 as of . Number of sorting hubs was 96 as of September 30, 2021 , among which 85 are operated by the Company and 11 by the Company's network partners.
(1) An investor relations presentation accompanies this earnings release and can be found at http://zto.investorroom.com. (2) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as net income before depreciation, amortization, interest expenses and income tax expenses, and further adjusted to exclude the shared-based compensation expense and non-recurring items such as the gain on disposal of equity investment and subsidiary which management aims to better represent the underlying business operations. (3) Adjusted net income is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as net income before share-based compensation expense and non-recurring items such as gain on disposal of equity investment and subsidiary in which management aims to better represent the underlying business operations. (4) One ADS represents one Class A ordinary share. (5) Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share attributable to ordinary shareholders is a non-GAAP financial measure. It is defined as adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by weighted average number of basic and diluted shares, respectively.
Mr. Meisong Lai, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ZTO, commented, "Market dynamics continued to shift towards higher volume concentration yet clearly divided in relative scale as well as profitability. Official's attention on front-line operators' rights and economic interests has been constructive towards sustainable healthy development of the industry. ZTO has advanced our efforts for higher quality of growth since last quarter. Supported by top ranking customer satisfaction level and 20.8% leading market share this quarter, ZTO expanded its operating income by 16.4% and achieved 13.7% growth on net income on a comparable basis."
Mr. Lai added, "Volume and market share have been and will continue to be crucial to the growth and future of an express delivery business whose winning elements are scale and efficiency. The industry has potentially reached a turning point where competition becomes more orderly, and price begins to stabilize. Expanding market share remains one of ZTO's top priorities, and we are in the best position to capture opportunities presented by continued growth of this industry. Our initiatives that rely on improved partners' trust and confidence, strengthening capability and efficiency throughout the entire network, increasing data analytics for internal resource deployment and allocation will enable us to achieve meaningful earnings expansion alongside of healthy market share gain in the near term."
Ms. Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer of ZTO, commented, "Leveraging efficient capacity and operational excellence, ZTO expanded its net income to RMB 1.15 billion in the quarter. The 7.2% ASP decrease in our core express delivery business, mainly attributable to parcel weight drop and normal volume incentives, was partially offset by the 7.3% unit cost productivity gain."
Ms. Yan added, "Cash flow from operating activities grew 20.7% to 1.8 billion. Capital expenditure totaled 2.6 billion for the quarter. As we entered the final stages of this investment cycle, level of capital spending is expected to stabilize and start to decrease. Increasing profit and strong cash generation will allow us to resume free cashflow position within the next two years."
Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB %
RMB US$
%
RMB %
RMB US$
%
(in thousands, except percentages)
Express delivery
services 5,780,410
87.1
6,696,235
1,039,239
90.6
14,727,484
86.9
19,021,980
2,952,165
89.8 Freight forwarding
services 481,188
7.2
344,813
53,514
4.7
1,243,759
7.3
1,151,353
178,687
5.4 Sale of accessories 298,871
4.5
304,558
47,267
4.1
797,084
4.7
878,869
136,398
4.1 Others 78,367
1.2
45,117
7,002
0.6
188,819
1.1
136,118
21,126
0.7 Total revenues 6,638,836
100.0
7,390,723
1,147,022
100.0
16,957,146
100.0
21,188,320
3,288,376
100.0
Total Revenues were RMB7,390.7 million (US$1,147.0 million), an increase of 11.3% from RMB6,638.8 million in the same period of 2020. Revenue from the core express delivery business increased by 14.4%compared to the same period of 2020, as a combined result of a 23.3% increase in parcel volume and a 7.2% decrease in parcel unit price mainly driven by per parcel weight decline and normal volume incentives. Revenue from freight forwarding services decreased by 28.3% compared to the same period of 2020 as cross border e-commerce demand and pricing gradually returned to normal post COVID-19 recovery. Revenue from sales of accessories, largely consisted of sales of thermal paper used for digital waybills' printing, increased by 1.9%. Other revenues were mainly consisted of financing services and advertising services receipts.
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB % of
revenues
RMB US$
% of
revenues
RMB % of
revenues
RMB US$
% of
revenues
(in thousands, except percentages) Line-haul
transportation cost 2,446,793
36.9
2,839,786
440,728
38.4
5,740,772
33.9
8,136,963
1,262,837
38.4 Sorting hub operating
cost 1,353,754
20.4
1,635,758
253,866
22.1
3,573,787
21.1
4,759,832
738,714
22.5 Freight forwarding
cost 447,047
6.7
301,151
46,738
4.1
1,151,319
6.8
1,003,772
155,783
4.7 Cost of accessories
sold 95,007
1.4
91,827
14,251
1.2
281,965
1.7
264,543
41,056
1.2 Other costs 905,283
13.6
953,923
148,046
13.0
2,230,528
13.0
2,684,757
416,668
12.7 Total cost of
revenues 5,247,884
79.0
5,822,445
903,629
78.8
12,978,371
76.5
16,849,867
2,615,058
79.5
Total cost of revenues was RMB5,822.4 million (US$903.6 million) compared to RMB5,247.9 million in the same period last year, an increase of 10.9% against 23.3% volume increase year over year.
Line haul transportation cost was RMB2,839.8 million (US$440.7 million), an increase of 16.1% from RMB2,446.8 million in the same period last year. Line-haul transportation cost per parcel decreased by 5.9% to RMB0.50 benefited mainly from improved operating efficiency through increased usage of high-capacity vehicles and better route planning. There were approximately 1,050 more high-capacity vehicles in our owned-and-operated fleet compared to the same period last year.
Sorting hub operating cost was RMB1,635.8 million (US$253.9 million), an increase of 20.8% from RMB1,353.8 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily consisted of (i) RMB187.3 million (US$29.1 million) increase in labor-associated costs, a net result of wage increases offset by automation-driven headcount reduction, and (ii) RMB55.9 million (US$8.7 million) increase in depreciation and amortization costs from increased number of installed automated sorting equipment and facilities. Sorting hub operating cost per unit decreased 2.0% to RMB0.29. As of September 30, 2021, 370 sets of automated sorting equipment were in service, compared to 300 sets as of September 30, 2020.
Cost of accessories sold was RMB91.8 million (US$14.3 million), decreased 3.3% compared with RMB95.0 million in the same period last year.
Other costs were RMB953.9 million (US$148.0 million), an increase of RMB48.6 million (US$7.5 million) compared to the same period last year. The increase was mainly consisted of (i) an increase of RMB60.1 million (US$9.3 million) in tax surcharge, (ii) a decrease of RMB33.7 million (US$5.2 million) in the costs of the advertising services, and (iii) an increase of RMB20.4 million (US$3.2 million) in expenses related to the development of technology platform.
Gross Profit was RMB1,568.3 million (US$243.4 million), increased 12.7% from RMB1,391.0 million in the same period last year as a combined result of increased volume and decreased ASP partially offset by unit cost efficiency. Gross margin rate was 21.2% compared to 21.0% in the same period last year.
Total Operating Expenses were RMB207.8 million (US$32.3 million), compared to RMB221.8 million in the same period last year.
Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB389.4 million (US$60.4 million), increased by 4.2% from RMB373.7 million in the same period last year, mainly from increases of compensation and benefits and office expenditures.
Other operating income, net was RMB181.6 million (US$28.2 million), compared to RMB151.8 million in the same period last year. Other operating income/expense mainly consisted of (i) RMB139.3 million (US$21.6 million) of VAT super deduction, (ii) government subsidies and tax rebates of RMB66.0 million (US$10.3 million), and (iii) RMB20.0 million (US$3.1 million), and offset by (iii) RMB20.0 million (US$3.1 million) of charitable donation to Zhengzhou Red Cross to aid recovery from heavy flooding in Henan province.
Income from operations was RMB1,360.5 million (US$211.1 million), an increase of 16.4% from RMB1,169.1 million for the same period last year. Operating margin rate increased to 18.4% from 17.6% in the same period last year.
Interest income was RMB91.8 million (US$14.2 million), compared with RMB96.7 million in the same period last year.
Interest expenses was RMB52.3 million (US$8.1 million), compared with RMB13.7 million in the same period last year.
Gain from fair value changes of financial instruments was RMB5.1 million (US$0.8 million), which reflected fair value changes, assessed using market-based redemption prices estimated by selling banks, on financial instruments. There were no similar financial instruments in the same period last year.
Income tax expenses were RMB229.5 million (US$35.6 million) compared to negative RMB27.8 million in the same period last year. In the third quarter of 2020, an income tax refund of RMB200.7 million was received by Shanghai Zhongtongji Network, a wholly owned subsidiary, for being recognized as a "Key Software Enterprise" that qualified for a preferential tax rate of 10% for tax year 2019.
Net income was RMB1,147.9 million (US$178.1 million), which decreased by 5.2% from RMB1,210.3 million in the same period last year. Normalized for the one-time income tax refund received in 2020, net income increased 13.7% year over year.
Basic and diluted earnings per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders were RMB1.43 (US$0.22), compared to basic and diluted earnings per ADS of RMB1.53 in the same period last year.
Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders were RMB1.43 (US$0.22), compared with RMB1.53 in the same period last year.
Adjusted net income was RMB1,147.9 million (US$178.1 million), compared with RMB1,210.3 million during the same period last year. Adjusted net income for the third quarter of 2020 included RMB 200.7 million one-time 2019 tax refund by a wholly owned subsidiary.
EBITDA was RMB1,967.7 million (US$305.4 million), compared with RMB1,675.4 million in the same period last year.
Adjusted EBITDA was RMB1,967.7 million (US$305.4 million), compared to RMB1,675.4 million in the same period last year.
Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB1,787.1 million (US$277.4 million), compared with RMB1,480.4 million in the same period last year.
Business Outlook
Based on current market and operating conditions, the Company revises its previously stated annual guidance. Parcel volume for 2021 is expected to be in the range of 22.2 billion to 22.7 billion, representing a 30.6% to 33.5% increase year over year. Such estimates represent management's current and preliminary view, which are subject to change.
Company Share Purchase
On November 15, 2018, the Company announced a share repurchase program whereby ZTO was authorized to repurchase its own Class A ordinary shares in the form of ADSs with an aggregate value of up to US$500 million during an 18-month period thereafter. On March 13, 2020, the board of directors of the Company approved the extension of the active share repurchase program to June 30, 2021. On March 31, 2021, the board of directors has approved changes to the share repurchase program, increasing the aggregate value of shares that may be repurchased from US$500 million to US$1 billion and extending the effective time by two years through June 30, 2023. The Company expects to fund the repurchases out of its existing cash balance. As of September 30, 2021, the Company has purchased an aggregate of 36,074,242 ADSs at an average purchase price of US$25.21, including repurchase commissions.
Exchange Rate
This announcement contains translation of certain Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of readers. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars were made at the exchange rate of RMB6.4434 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate on September 30, 2021 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company uses adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share, each a non-GAAP financial measure, in evaluating ZTO's operating results and for financial and operational decision-making purposes.
Reconciliations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures to its U.S. GAAP financial measures are shown in tables at the end of this earnings release, which provide more details about the non-GAAP financial measures.
The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share help identify underlying trends in ZTO's business that could otherwise be distorted by the effect of the expenses and gains that the Company includes in income from operations and net income. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by ZTO's management in its financial and operational decision-making.
Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share should not be considered in isolation or construed as an alternative to net income or any other measure of performance or as an indicator of the Company's operating performance. Investors are encouraged to compare the historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per American depositary share presented here may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Other companies may calculate similarly titled measures differently, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures to ZTO's data. ZTO encourages investors and others to review the Company's financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.
Conference Call Information
ZTO's management team will host an earnings conference call at 7:30 PM U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 (8:30 AM Beijing Time on November 18, 2021).
Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:
United States: 1-888-317-6003 Hong Kong: 852-5808-1995 Mainland China: 4001-206-115 Singapore: 800-120-5863 International: 1-412-317-6061 Passcode: 3551081
Please dial in 15 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the passcode to join the call.
A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following numbers until November 24, 2021:
United States: 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Passcode: 10161579
Additionally, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available at http://zto.investorroom.com.
About ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.
ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO and SEHK:2057) ("ZTO" or the "Company") is a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China. ZTO provides express delivery service as well as other value-added logistics services through its extensive and reliable nationwide network coverage in China.
ZTO operates a highly scalable network partner model, which the Company believes is best suited to support the significant growth of e-commerce in China. The Company leverages its network partners to provide pickup and last-mile delivery services, while controlling the mission-critical line-haul transportation and sorting network within the express delivery service value chain.
For more information, please visit http://zto.investorroom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news 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, and as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the Company's unaudited results for the third quarter of 2021, ZTO management quotes and the Company's financial outlook.
These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding expected results and events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of its control. The Company's actual results and other circumstances may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and events indicated in these forward-looking statements. Announced results for the third quarter 2021 are preliminary, unaudited and subject to audit adjustment. In addition, the Company may not meet its financial outlook included in this news release and may be unable to grow its business in the manner planned. The Company may also modify its strategy for growth. In addition, there are other risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to differ from what it currently anticipates, including those relating to the development of the e-commerce industry in China, its significant reliance on the Alibaba ecosystem, risks associated with its network partners and their employees and personnel, intense competition which could adversely affect the Company's results of operations and market share, any service disruption of the Company's sorting hubs or the outlets operated by its network partners or its technology system. For additional information on these and other important factors that could adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects, please see its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of the press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this release, except as required by law. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release.
UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
Summary of Unaudited Consolidated Comprehensive Income Data:
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands, except for share and per share data)
Revenues
6,638,836
7,390,723
1,147,022
16,957,146
21,188,320
3,288,376 Cost of revenues
(5,247,884)
(5,822,445)
(903,629)
(12,978,371)
(16,849,867)
(2,615,058) Gross profit
1,390,952
1,568,278
243,393
3,978,775
4,338,453
673,318 Operating income (expenses):
Selling, general and administrative (373,668)
(389,355)
(60,427)
(1,246,140)
(1,403,585)
(217,833) Other operating income, net 151,836
181,550
28,176
455,106
514,140
79,793 Total operating expenses (221,832)
(207,805)
(32,251)
(791,034)
(889,445)
(138,040) Income from operations 1,169,120
1,360,473
211,142
3,187,741
3,449,008
535,278 Other income (expenses):
Interest income
96,654
91,800
14,247
337,138
269,682
41,854 Interest expense
(13,707)
(52,271)
(8,112)
(23,132)
(101,651)
(15,776) Gain from fair value changes of financial instruments -
5,116
794
-
53,246
8,264 Foreign currency exchange gain/(loss),
before tax (64,354)
(8,073)
(1,253)
(45,307)
(34,157)
(5,301) Income before income tax, and share of loss in equity method 1,187,713
1,397,045
216,818
3,456,440
3,636,128
564,319 Income tax expense 27,845
(229,525)
(35,622)
(400,228)
(634,022)
(98,399) Share of loss in equity method investments (5,268)
(19,630)
(3,047)
(21,378)
(48,465)
(7,522) Net income
1,210,290
1,147,890
178,149
3,034,834
2,953,641
458,398 Net (income)/loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (9,271)
18,810
2,919
(10,762)
38,856
6,030 Net income attributable to ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. 1,201,019
1,166,700
181,068
3,024,072
2,992,497
464,428 Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders
1,201,019
1,166,700
181,068
3,024,072
2,992,497
464,428 Net earnings per share attributed to ordinary shareholders
Basic
1.53
1.43
0.22
3.86
3.63
0.56 Diluted
1.53
1.43
0.22
3.86
3.63
0.56 Weighted average shares used in calculating net earnings per ordinary share/ADS
Basic
784,872,994
816,342,418
816,342,418
783,711,509
823,841,096
823,841,096 Diluted
784,872,994
816,342,418
816,342,418
783,778,138
823,841,096
823,841,096 Other comprehensive (expenses)/ income, net of tax of nil:
Foreign currency translation adjustment (326,880)
(44,670)
(6,933)
(173,511)
(128,931)
(20,010) Comprehensive income 883,410
1,103,220
171,216
2,861,323
2,824,710
438,388 Comprehensive (income)/loss attributable
to noncontrolling interests (9,271)
18,810
2,919
(10,762)
38,856
6,030 Comprehensive income attributable to ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. 874,139
1,122,030
174,135
2,850,561
2,863,566
444,418
Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets Data:
As of
December 31,
2020 September 30,
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands)
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents
14,212,778
10,357,744
1,607,497 Restricted cash
133,196
30,369
4,713 Accounts receivable, net
746,013
790,021
122,609 Financing receivables
492,159
981,210
152,281 Short-term investment
3,690,402
2,364,614
366,982 Inventories
53,070
49,992
7,759 Advances to suppliers
589,042
747,276
115,975 Prepayments and other current assets
2,334,688
3,107,846
482,330 Amounts due from related parties
73,278
61,651
9,568 Total current assets
22,324,626
18,490,723
2,869,714 Investments in equity investee
3,224,463
3,398,456
527,432 Property and equipment, net
18,565,161
23,203,585
3,601,140 Land use rights, net
4,360,673
5,098,542
791,281 Intangible assets, net
41,832
37,184
5,771 Operating lease right-of-use assets
876,259
961,338
149,197 Goodwill
4,241,541
4,241,541
658,277 Deferred tax assets
720,561
812,451
126,090 Long-term investment
1,842,000
1,514,500
235,047 Long-term financing receivables
1,970,340
1,496,217
232,209 Other non-current assets
537,294
807,231
125,280 Amounts due from related parties-non current
500,000
600,840
93,249 TOTAL ASSETS
59,204,750
60,662,608
9,414,687 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY
Current liabilities
Short-term bank borrowing
1,432,929
4,431,838
687,810 Accounts payable
1,635,888
1,626,967
252,501 Notes payable
326,200
343,520
53,313 Advances from customers
1,119,666
1,265,558
196,412 Income tax payable
48,628
-
- Amounts due to related parties
16,655
21,943
3,406 Operating lease liabilities
246,394
249,137
38,665 Acquisition consideration payable
22,942
22,942
3,561 Dividends payable
11,198
716
111 Other current liabilities
4,487,084
4,788,083
743,098 Total current liabilities
9,347,584
12,750,704
1,978,877 Non-current operating lease liabilities
502,481
597,756
92,770 Deferred tax liabilities
254,987
248,338
38,541 TOTAL LIABILITIES
10,105,052
13,596,798
2,110,188
Shareholders' equity
Ordinary shares (US$0.0001 par value; 10,000,000,000
shares authorized, 855,301,115 shares issued and
828,869,972 shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020;
826,943,309 shares issued and 808,448,289 shares
outstanding as of September 30, 2021)
553
534
83 Additional paid-in capital
30,613,948
28,256,720
4,385,374 Treasury shares, at cost
(2,578,870)
(2,067,008)
(320,795) Retained earnings
21,038,753
20,954,469
3,252,083 Accumulated other comprehensive loss
(95,571)
(224,502)
(34,842) ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. shareholders' equity
48,978,813
46,920,213
7,281,903 Noncontrolling interests
120,885
145,597
22,596 Total Equity
49,099,698
47,065,810
7,304,499 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY
59,204,750
60,662,608
9,414,687
Summary of Unaudited Consolidated Cash Flow Data:
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands)
Net cash provided by operating activities 1,480,429
1,787,077
277,350
2,910,490
4,196,434
651,276
Net cash provided by/ (used in) investing
activities 1,179,946
(1,385,810)
(215,074)
(632,608)
(5,942,268)
(922,226)
Net cash provided by / (used in) financing activities 8,602,624
(2,166,990)
(336,312)
8,965,576
(2,116,528)
(328,480)
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (109,243)
(1,941)
(301)
(89,783)
(102,554)
(15,915)
Net increase/ (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 11,153,756
(1,767,664)
(274,337)
11,153,675
(3,964,916)
(615,345)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 5,277,333
12,162,840
1,887,643
5,277,414
14,360,092
2,228,651
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period 16,431,089
10,395,176
1,613,306
16,431,089
10,395,176
1,613,305
The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash reported within the condensed consolidated balance sheets that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows:
As of
September 30,
2020
September 30,
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands)
Cash and cash equivalents
16,408,906
10,357,744
1,607,497 Restricted cash,current
8,070
30,369
4,713 Restricted cash,non-current
14,113
7,063
1,096 Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
16,431,089
10,395,176
1,613,306
Reconciliations of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands, except for share and per share data) Net income
1,210,290
1,147,890
178,149
3,034,834
2,953,641
458,398 Add:
Share-based compensation expense (1)
264,154
248,027
38,493 Adjusted net income
1,210,290
1,147,890
178,149
3,298,988
3,201,668
496,891
Net income
1,210,290
1,147,890
178,149
3,034,834
2,953,641
458,398 Add:
Depreciation
453,818
508,464
78,912
1,254,824
1,535,046
238,235 Amortization
25,390
29,525
4,582
58,640
89,104
13,829 Interest expenses
13,707
52,271
8,112
23,132
101,651
15,776 Income tax expenses
(27,845)
229,525
35,622
400,228
634,022
98,399 EBITDA
1,675,360
1,967,675
305,377
4,771,658
5,313,464
824,637
Add:
Share-based compensation expense
264,154
248,027
38,493 Adjusted EBITDA
1,675,360
1,967,675
305,377
5,035,812
5,561,491
863,130
(1) Net of income taxes of nil
Reconciliations of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2020
2021
2020
2021
RMB
RMB
US$
RMB
RMB
US$
(in thousands, except for share and per share data) Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders
1,201,019
1,166,700
181,068
3,024,072
2,992,497
464,428 Add:
Share-based compensation expense (1)
-
-
-
264,154
248,027
38,493 Adjusted Net income attributable to ordinary
shareholders
1,201,019
1,166,700
181,068
3,288,226
3,240,524
502,921
Weighted average shares used in calculating net
earnings per ordinary share/ADS
Basic
784,872,994
816,342,418
816,342,418
783,711,509
823,841,096
823,841,096 Diluted
784,872,994
816,342,418
816,342,418
783,778,138
823,841,096
823,841,096
Net earnings per share/ADS attributable to ordinary
shareholders
Basic
1.53
1.43
0.22
3.86
3.63
0.56 Diluted
1.53
1.43
0.22
3.86
3.63
0.56
Adjusted net earnings per share/ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders
Basic
1.53
1.43
0.22
4.20
3.93
0.61 Diluted
1.53
1.43
0.22
4.20
3.93
0.61
(1) Net of income taxes of nil
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.
Investor Relations
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +86 21 5980 4508
SOURCE ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's holiday travel season marks the 35th anniversary of the Air Carrier Access Act, which legally began the move toward accessible air travel, and Paralyzed Veterans of America is sounding the alarm about serious issues people with disabilities still face when traveling by plane. Broken wheelchairs, injuries from improper transfers to and from airline seats, and no access to in-flight restrooms are common problems paralyzed veterans, and others with mobility impairments, routinely experience when flying.
"It is unacceptable that 35 years after legislation passed, someone in a wheelchair still can't access a bathroom on an airplane and risks serious injury or death because airline personnel are not properly trained," said Charles Brown, PVA national president. "These are basic safety and civil rights issues, and every American should be outraged at the inhumane circumstances paralyzed veterans and other people with disabilities are forced to deal with to travel on an airplane."
PVA is leading the fight to demand safer, more accessible airline travel for people with disabilities, and is asking the public to join them by signing their petition at PVA.org/AirTravel. This fight follows the death of disability rights activist Engracia Figueroa, whose power wheelchair was destroyed during a flight, forcing her to spend weeks in a loaner chair, which reportedly caused a fatal pressure sore. PVA urges the passage of new legislation demanding stricter standards for accessibility on new and existing planes, and better enforcement of the law.
Two years ago, Brown was critically injured when airline personnel improperly transferred him from his power wheelchair into an aisle chair to board a plane. Airline contractors, who were inadequately trained, dropped Brown onto the jet bridge fracturing his tailbone, and causing a serious infection. He spent months in the hospital fighting for his life and is now pushing for change.
Air travel is subject to different regulations than public spaces on land, and many say it remains decades behind other public areas in terms of accommodations for people with disabilities. PVA, a vocal advocate for veterans and all people with disabilities for 75 years, says air travel is the top complaint heard from its members. These issues affect 65 million Americans with disabilities, which could include someone in your family now or in the future, and this number will grow as the population ages.
In addition to the petition, PVA just published a How to Avoid Wheelchair Damage advocacy chat, along with a pocket-size PVA Disability Complaint Reminder Card and PVA Air Travel Checklist to help travelers this holiday season. PVA also published An Inside Look at: Air Travel for People Who Use Wheelchairs animation video to raise awareness of the challenges wheelchair users face when they fly. All these items can be found at PVA.org/AirTravel. PVA also encourages all wheelchair users to submit their air travel story at Air-Access.org.
About Paralyzed Veterans of America
For 75 years, Paralyzed Veterans of America has been the only Veterans service organization dedicated solely to helping Veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D), and diseases like MS and ALS. Our team of legislative advocates, architects, medical professionals, lawyers and other highly trained professionals strive to ensure that every Veteran regains the freedom, independence and quality of life they fought for. PVA is a major support system for our nation's paralyzed heroes, their families and caregivers, ensuring quality healthcare, securing earned benefits, fighting for disability civil rights, making America more accessible, helping Veterans find meaningful careers, empowering them through sports, recreation and wellness programs, and funding both research and education in the search for a cure and improved care and autonomy for individuals with paralysis. Operating more than 70 offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, PVA helps paralyzed Veterans and all people with disabilities live fuller, more productive lives.
CONTACT: Oname Thompson
[email protected]a.org
(202) 416-7606 office
(703) 864-5980 cell
SOURCE Paralyzed Veterans of America
CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ALASTIN Skincare, a specialty aesthetics company dedicated to developing and marketing innovative, clinically-tested physician-dispensed skincare products, today announced it ranked No. 279 with 465% growth on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
"Each year the Technology Fast 500 shines a light on leading innovators in technology and this year is no exception," said Paul Silverglate, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader. "In the face of innumerable challenges resulting from the pandemic, the best and brightest were able to pivot, reinvent and transform and grow. We celebrate the winning organizations and especially the talented employees driving their success."
"We are honored to be recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America," said Diane S. Goostree, President and CEO of ALASTIN Skincare. "Our commitment to science-backed skincare innovations, our laser-sharp focus on the needs of our customers, as well as our talented team of employees have firmly established ALASTIN Skincare as a recognized leader in the professional skincare space. We look forward to continuing to provide innovative skincare products for both peri-procedure use and daily skincare."
Visit www.alastin.com to find a physician retailer near you.
About ALASTIN Skincare
ALASTIN Skincare is the fastest-growing physician-dispensed skincare brand, with innovative, scientifically proven and clinically tested products. Founded in 2015, ALASTIN Skincare provides a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge products for optimal procedure results and daily skincare regimens. We strategically focus research and development on innovative products with the greatest potential impact for patients and providers.
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
SOURCE ALASTIN Skincare
Related Links
http://www.alastin.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals industry, announced today that Eric Norris, Albemarle President, Lithium, will participate in a virtual fireside chat hosted by Deutsche Bank on Dec. 9, 2021, at 8:05 a.m. ET.
The presentation materials will be accessible at the time of the event through the Events and Presentations page on Albemarle's website at http://investors.albemarle.com. The live event will only be accessible to clients of Deutsche Bank. A webcast replay will be posted to the company's website approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the event.
About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine and catalysts. We think beyond business as usual to power the potential of companies in many of the world's largest and most critical industries, such as energy, electronics, and transportation. We actively pursue a sustainable approach to managing our diverse global footprint of world-class resources. In conjunction with our highly experienced and talented global teams, our deep-seated values, and our collaborative customer relationships, we create value-added and performance-based solutions that enable a safer and more sustainable future.
We regularly post information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, non-GAAP reconciliations, SEC filings and other information regarding our company, its businesses and the markets it serves.
SOURCE Albemarle Corporation
Related Links
https://www.albemarle.com
BOSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- aptihealth, the first tech-driven behavioral health provider built to transform higher acuity care, today announced a $50 million Series B funding round from Takeda Digital Ventures, Pivotal Life Sciences, Vista Credit Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, Claritas Capital, and What If Ventures. With this funding, aptihealth will expand investment in clinical science, technology, and services that make it easy, effective, and efficient for patients, providers, community organizations, and health plans to work together securely at scale.
Providing health plan and health system customers with integrated workflow and care management capabilities, aptihealth streamlines patient referral and engagement. Proprietary diagnostics and evidenced-based care protocols meet patients' psychiatric and psychosocial needs with precise, personalized care from collaborative teams of behavioral, medical, and community resources. This results in substantial impact on the most important behavioral health drivers of outcomes and cost.
Headquartered in Boston, MA, aptihealth is in the process of relocating to new offices in the Seaport District. It also maintains a presence in Troy, NY where the company was founded. Since its launch in 2018, this most recent funding round is the company's largest to-date, and brings the total amount raised to $65 million. In four years, aptihealth has grown significantly, employing more than 120 and signing 27 health plans, health systems, and physician practice customers.
"There's an urgent need to better address higher acuity behavioral health conditions that affect tens of millions of people each year," said Dan Pickett, CEO of aptihealth. "With the patient at the center, we are redesigning care by empowering comprehensive care teams with unprecedented data, insights, and digital tools to improve efficacy and efficiency. This drives aptihealth's ability to attract the most talented providers, who in turn are achieving the highest levels of patient satisfaction, clinical quality, and outcomes. The result is increased access, better care, and lower costs. We are thrilled to partner with our customers and this exceptional group of investors to transform behavioral healthcare."
The aptihealth platform enables seamless access for patients at any point-of-care, including referrals from physician visits, discharge from the emergency department or inpatient units, mobile web self sign-up, and proactive engagement in rising risk situations. Once engaged, aptihealth's platform intelligently integrates multidisciplinary care teams through workflow best practices and data insights to enable the right care at the right time. Patients benefit from aptihealth's modern design, fast and flexible access to care, and intuitive experience. Providers benefit from aptihealth's robust capabilities in accessing patients and using outcomes-based data management tools to support personalized care delivery.
"Takeda Digital Ventures' investment in aptihealth advances our mission to partner with companies that offer life-changing care through cutting edge innovation," said Bruce Meadows, Managing Partner at Takeda Digital Ventures. "aptihealth's virtual first care model does just thatproviding precise, personalized care that substantially improves clinical quality and outcomes while increasing value for payers. We are energized by Dan and the team and believe aptihealth is positioned to become the leader in higher acuity behavioral healthcare."
Locust Walk served as transaction adviser to aptihealth.
About aptihealth
aptihealth is the first tech-driven behavioral health provider built to transform higher acuity care. Its platform provides population-precise programs that connect medical providers, behavioral health specialists, behavioral health prescribers, and patients with its proprietary screening, assessment, and treatment management protocols. aptihealth's digital platform provides a seamless and effective approach to virtual, intelligent, and comprehensive care that helps patients get better faster. Learn more at: www.aptihealth.com.
About Takeda Digital Ventures
Takeda Digital Ventures (TDV) is the digital health venture arm of Takeda, a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, committed to discovering and delivering life-transforming treatments, guided by a commitment to patients, people and the planet. Takeda Digital Ventures invests in companies that are using digital technologies to improve patient outcomes and improve delivery of care in areas that contribute to Takeda's data and digital transformation. Learn more at: www.takeda.com/tdv.
SOURCE aptihealth
Related Links
http://aptihealth.com/
Ari's Bears grants $30,000 to the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute n support of rhabdomyosarcoma research Tweet this
Prior to her passing, Ariella was able to personally deliver bears to 7 local Maryland hospitals and respite houses. That was just the beginning. Thanks to countless volunteers and supporters, Ari's Bears has given out more than 2,000 stuffed animals since 2018. "When children receive the stuffed bears there is an information card attached that shares Ariella's story and the mission of Ari's Bears. Her legacy is being able to bring joy to people who never would have known her. She left the world a better place than it was, and we're honored to continue the work in her honor." The success of Ari's Bears has allowed the organization to expand on its mission to not only support children actively undergoing treatment, but to also award college scholarships and research grants.
Erica Stein became aware of the need for rhabdomyosarcoma research funding thanks to the advocacy of Megan Bugg, resident Citizen Scientist at the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute. Megan is a 6+ year stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cancer fighter on a mission to make sure no more kids have to experience what she has gone through. With Ari's Bears support, Megan and her thousands of Team Megan Bug supporters, have crowdfunded nearly $400,000 for rhabdomyosarcoma research at cc-TDI. Megan's current project, Citizen Scientist Project for Rhabdomyosarcoma Cures aims to bring consumer level participation and new accountability to a new, strategic approach to developing, testing and prioritizing new rhabdomyosarcoma drugs for incorporation into cooperative group clinical trials.
Erica and Ariella first met Megan back in 2018 at Cure Fest, a multi-day festival in Washington DC each September that provides education and raises community awareness for childhood cancer. "I started following Megan's fundraising and started learning more. I love knowing that cc-TDI puts an emphasis on finding less-toxic treatment options. Sarcomas are the rarest of childhood cancers and ultimately need the most research. Any progress in one area may offer help with another, and I believe providing a substantial grant to this project is what Ariella would have wanted."
About cc-TDI: The Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI), ( www.cc-tdi.org ) is a non profit biotech organization whose mission is to translate scientific discovery into clinical trials by understanding and providing new disease-specific treatment options for children with cancer. cc-TDI's research team of biologists and biomedical engineers, work closely to identify targets on cancer cells and provide evidence-based testing for the selection of new drugs to be used in childhood cancer phase I and phase II clinical trials. cc-TDI's longstanding work with cell lines, mouse models, and sarcomas is the cornerstone for basic science and target discovery. Their research team is led by Scientific Director Dr. Charles Keller.
cc-TDI Media Contact: Erika Ellis, Communications Lead ([email protected])
www.cc-tdi.org
Twitter/Facebook: @cctdilab, Instagram: @cctdi
LinkedIn: Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute
About Ari's Bears: Ari's Bears was started as a Founding Hope Fund under the American Childhood Cancer Organization but has since moved on forming an independent 501(c)(3). We deliver brand-new stuffed bears and other animals to children fighting illness in hospitals and respite houses. Our mission has expanded to include fundraising for childhood cancer research. We also provide scholarships to childhood cancer survivors and fighters who have given back to the community, just like Ariella did.
Erica and David Stein, co-founders of Ari's Bears ([email protected])
www.arisbears.org
Facebook: @ariellapaigestein, Instagram: @aris_bears
SOURCE Ari's Bears
Related Links
http://www.arisbears.org
For the 12th year in a row, the contractor is donating $60,000
to food banks across the country
DENVER, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - As the cost for food, gas and housing continues to rise, millions of Americans who struggle with food insecurity face difficult choices with how to spend their limited dollars. PCL Construction wants to make sure cutting back on meals isn't one of those choices. This year the contractor is donating a total of $60,000 to food banks across the country as part of its annual Thanksgiving campaign to fight hunger.
The donations will provide approximately 280,000 meals in a time when financial support is needed more than ever according to the latest Consumer Price Index, food prices are up 4.6% year-over-year. Feeding America projects that 42 million people (1 in 8 Americans) may experience food insecurity in 2021.
"Hunger wears a thousand faces. Seniors, children, veterans and many other important members of our community are served by food banks," says Deron Brown, president and chief operating officer of PCL's U.S. operations, based in Denver. "This year PCL is grateful to be able to continue our Thanksgiving tradition of donating to our local food banks and supporting their critical services."
This is the 12th year PCL Construction has organized a nationwide campaign to support food banks, with donations totaling more than $1.36 million in that time.
The organizations receiving donations from PCL Construction include:
St. Mary's Food Bank, Phoenix, Arizona
Golden Empire Gleaners, Bakersfield, California
Los Angeles Food Bank, Glendale, California
Second Harvest Food Bank, Irvine California
San Diego Hunger Coalition, San Diego, California
Food Bank of the Rockies, Denver, Colorado
The Pantry of Broward , Fort Lauderdale, Florida
, Second Harvest Food Bank, Orlando, Florida
Feeding Tampa Bay , Tampa Bay, Florida
, Hawaii Food Bank, Honolulu, Hawaii
Maui Food Bank, Wailuku, Hawaii
Food Lifeline, Seattle, Washington
Northwest Harvest, Seattle, Washington
Second Harvest Heartland, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Northlands Rescue Mission, Grand Forks, North Dakota
St. Joseph's Social Care Food Pantry, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Social Care Food Pantry, Houston Food Bank, Houston Texas
For more information on your local food bank and how to support, please visit https://www.feedingamerica.org/.
About PCL Construction
PCL is a group of independent construction companies that carries out work across the United States, Canada, Australia and the Caribbean. These diverse operations in the civil infrastructure, heavy industrial, and buildings markets are supported by a strategic presence in more than 30 major centers. Together, these companies have an annual construction volume of more than $6 billion USD, making PCL one of the largest contracting organizations in North America. Watch us build at www.pcl.com.
SOURCE PCL Construction
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of the West, part of BNP Paribas Group, announced that it led the financing for the acquisition of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners Management (SPM). SPM purchased Ste. Michelle Wine Estates for $1.2 billion, making it the largest private equity purchase of a wine business in the U.S.
Ste. Michelle is the largest winery in the Pacific Northwest, and third-largest premium winery in the U.S. With over 30,000 acres of vineyards spread across three states, it produces 60 percent of Washington's annual wine sales. Some of its popular brands include Chateau Ste. Michelle, 14 Hands, Erath, and in California, Stags Leap.
"Private equity financing is becoming increasingly complex and nuanced, especially in today's dynamic, global marketplace. This deal is no exception," said Adam Beak, Managing Director, Head of Beverage Vertical, Bank of the West. "Our comprehensive understanding of the wine marketplacefrom go-to-market approach, to inventory management, to the unique financial structureswere instrumental in this milestone transaction."
"Bank of the West executed this complex transaction flawlessly," said Paul Fossati, Managing Director Capital Markets, Sycamore Partners. "Bank of the West brings a unique combination of wine sector expertise, local market knowledge, flexible financial solutions, and broad investor reach. Their holistic view of the ecosystem was critical in this effort."
Bank of the West is one of the nation's largest commercial lenders to the wine industry and brings in-depth experience and global connections. To learn more about Bank of the West's wine and agribusiness expertise, please visit: https://www.bankofthewest.com/commercial-banking
About Chateau Ste. Michelle
Founded in 1934, Chateau Ste. Michelle pioneered vinifera grape growing in Washington State and has been producing classic European varietal wines under the Ste. Michelle label since 1967. The winery combines an ongoing dedication to research with a commitment to classic winemaking traditions. The winery owns 3,900 acres of vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Eastern Washington, including Canoe Ridge Estate and Cold Creek. Chateau Ste. Michelle enjoys winemaking partnerships with some of the world's most distinguished vintners. For more information about Chateau Ste Michelle, please visit www.ste-michelle.com.
About Sycamore Partners
Sycamore Partners is a private equity firm based in New York. The firm specializes in consumer, distribution and retail-related investments and partners with management teams to improve the operating profitability and strategic value of their business. With approximately $10 billion in aggregate committed capital raised since its inception in 2011, Sycamore Partners' investors include leading endowments, financial institutions, family offices, pension plans and sovereign wealth funds. For more information on Sycamore Partners, visit www.sycamorepartners.com .
About Bank of the West
At Bank of the West, we know money deposited in a bank has the power to finance positive change. So we are taking action to ensure our activities help protect the planet, improve people's lives, and strengthen communities. We are redefining banking for a better future by focusing on areas where we believe we can have a real impact: supporting energy transition, helping enable women entrepreneurs, and financing innovative start-ups. As the bank for a changing world, Bank of the West is committed to sustainable finance along with our parent company BNP Paribas. Through Digital Channels and offices across the U.S., Bank of the West provides financial tools and resources to more than 2 million individuals, families and businesses.
2021 Bank of the West. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Doing business in South Dakota as Bank of the West California.
Connect with us
SOURCE Bank of the West
Related Links
http://www.bankofthewest.com
CAMPBELL, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
Highlights:
Barracuda's MSP division saw strong sales performance through Q2 FY2022, driven by key product advancements including Zero Trust Network Access with Barracuda CloudGen Access, integrations with Barracuda RMM, and the acquisition of SKOUT Cybersecurity.
Annual recurring revenue (ARR) for Barracuda MSP's security solutions grew 37% year-over-year, as of September 30, 2021 .
. Through a new integration, Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR now gives MSPs the ability to monitor data from Google Workspace instances to detect potentially suspicious events.
Barracuda expands international presence, bringing Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR to MSP partners in Australia and New Zealand .
Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, today announced several key product milestones and sales growth achievements for its MSP business, which was accelerated by the increasing number of MSPs adding security to their services portfolio.
Driven by the acquisition of SKOUT Cybersecurity for extended detection and response (XDR), new integrations for Barracuda RMM, and the introduction of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) capabilities for managed service providers (MSPs) through Barracuda CloudGen Access, annual recurring revenue for Barracuda MSP grew 70% year-over-year at the end of Q2 FY2022.
"With today's increasingly sophisticated threats, MSPs must ensure they deliver security-centric services while managing their customers' end users, networks, applications, and the data they are accessing," said Hatem Naguib, President & CEO, Barracuda. "We are committed to delivering best-in-class security solutions and services that empower our MSP partners to protect their customers from the ever-evolving cybersecurity threat landscape."
Recent MSP Business Highlights:
Annual recurring revenue (ARR) for Barracuda MSP's security solutions grew 37% year-over-year as of September 30, 2021 .
. ARR for Barracuda MSP's email security solutions grew 73% year-over-year as of September 30, 2021 .
Recent MSP Innovation Highlights:
Managed XDR and SOC: In July, Barracuda acquired SKOUT Cybersecurity, a leader in cyber-as-a-service software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and provider of an extended detection and response (XDR) platform and service. With the acquisition Barracuda entered the fast-growing XDR market with a solution optimized for MSPs. The service is now available as Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR.
In July, Barracuda acquired SKOUT Cybersecurity, a leader in cyber-as-a-service software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and provider of an extended detection and response (XDR) platform and service. With the acquisition Barracuda entered the fast-growing XDR market with a solution optimized for MSPs. The service is now available as Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR. New XDR integration: Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR now empowers MSPs to monitor data from Google Workspace instances. This new integration allows partners to detect attempts to:
Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR now empowers MSPs to monitor data from Google Workspace instances. This new integration allows partners to detect attempts to: Bypass multi-factor authentication
Escalate privileges
Change administrator roles
International expansion: In addition to partners in the Americas and EMEA, partners in Australia and New Zealand now have access to the full software portfolio of offerings available from Barracuda's Managed XDR business, including authentication, endpoint protection, email, and network security solutions. Now, partners in the Australia - New Zealand region can prevent, detect, and respond to threats using our 24x7 SOC, making it easy to add security to their portfolios.
In addition to partners in the Americas and EMEA, partners in and now have access to the full software portfolio of offerings available from Barracuda's Managed XDR business, including authentication, endpoint protection, email, and network security solutions. Now, partners in the - region can prevent, detect, and respond to threats using our 24x7 SOC, making it easy to add security to their portfolios. Barracuda RMM enhancements : In August, Barracuda announced key updates to Barracuda RMM, the company's security-centric, cloud-based remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. Key highlights of the release include new integrations with Windows Defender Antivirus, updates to Microsoft and third-party software patch management functionality, enhanced integration with Barracuda Intronis Backup, and ServiceNow Service Desk integration.
: In August, Barracuda announced key updates to Barracuda RMM, the company's security-centric, cloud-based remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. Key highlights of the release include new integrations with Windows Defender Antivirus, updates to Microsoft and third-party software patch management functionality, enhanced integration with Barracuda Intronis Backup, and ServiceNow Service Desk integration. CloudGen Access for MSPs: In March, Barracuda expanded its portfolio of solutions and services for IT managed service providers to include Barracuda CloudGen Access for MSPs. With Barracuda CloudGen Access, MSPs can expand their security services to protect customers' resources and implement control for any unmanaged BYOD devices, without making changes to customers' existing workflows.
Recent Industry Recognition
Partner Quotes:
"We've worked with Barracuda MSP for years and selected SKOUT Cybersecurity in 2020. Any acquisition of a partner can cause concern, but we were excited to see these two great companies come together, and were confident that we would receive even greater service going forward," said John Limbach, COO at River Run. "At River Run, our mission is to deliver the best technology experiences for our clients, and working with Barracuda MSP and Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR gives us the expertise and tools we need to make that easier."
Get more information about Barracuda's MSP security portfolio: https://barracudamsp.com/
About Barracuda
At Barracuda we strive to make the world a safer place. We believe every business deserves access to cloud-enabled, enterprise-grade security solutions that are easy to buy, deploy, and use. We protect email, networks, data, and applications with innovative solutions that grow and adapt with our customers' journey. More than 200,000 organizations worldwide trust Barracuda to protect them in ways they may not even know they are at risk so they can focus on taking their business to the next level. For more information, visit barracuda.com.
Barracuda Networks, Barracuda, and the Barracuda Networks logo are registered trademarks of Barracuda Networks, Inc. in the US and other countries. SKOUT Cybersecurity and the SKOUT logo are registered trademarks of SKOUT Cybersecurity Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates in the US and other countries.
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https://blog.barracuda.com/
Read the blog post: http://cuda.co/50160
Contact
Anne Campbell
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
978-328-1642
[email protected]
SOURCE Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Related Links
https://www.barracuda.com
Presented annually since 1996, the BBB International Torch Awards recognize companies in North America that maintain outstanding dedication to upholding ethical business standards and promoting trust in the marketplace. Winners and finalists are selected by an independent panel of judges. Businesses are evaluated against criteria such as leadership commitment to ethical practices; communication of ethical practices; leadership practices to unify the organization; organizational commitment to performance management practices; organizational commitment to ethical human resource practices; and organizational commitment to the community. To be eligible for entry in the BBB International Torch Awards for Ethics, a business must first be a winner of their local BBB awards program. Texas Vets Roofing is the recipient of the BBB Serving North Central Texas 2020 Torch Award for Ethics.
Texas Vets Roofing, a woman owned business has been in business and operating in DFW and East Texas since February 2012. They proudly offer topnotch roofing services with a dedication to providing its valued customers with the highest quality workmanship and excellent customer service. The company provides whole roof systems and trains its technicians to put quality service over profits. Every customer is offered a free, no-obligation professional roof assessment by a specially trained technician. At least once a month the Texas Vets Roofing team comes together for a "Family Meeting" to encourage and redefine the standard that is expected out in the field and in the office. Along with serving their customers, the company focuses on the community as well. Last year, Texas Vets Roofing donated over 20% of its profits back into the community. They use their time and funds to support veterans through the Roof 4 Vets program. The company's goal for 2021 is to provide one free roof each month to a veteran or a veteran's family in need.
Media Contacts:
For more information, journalists should contact
Texas Vets Roofing at 972.288.7663 or [email protected].
You can also contact the owner Ray Rannigan directly at 214.861.6617 or [email protected].
SOURCE Texas Vets Roofing
Related Links
texasvetsroofing.com
DURHAM, N.C. and BRUSSELS, Belgium and LONDON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioAgilytix, a leading global contract research organization (CRO), today announced an agreement to be further capitalized by Cinven, a leading international private investment firm focused on building world-class global companies. Cinven will acquire a majority stake in BioAgilytix while current majority investor Cobepa, S.A., a Brussels-based private investment firm, will remain a significant minority investor in the Company.
Cobepa and GHO Capital, a leading specialist investor in global healthcare, acquired BioAgilytix in November of 2018 and have built the company into a recognized global leader in the contract research organization market with a focus on large molecule bioanalytical testing. The investment by Cinven will provide BioAgilytix with increased funding and resources to meet the growing demand for its high-quality bioanalytical services, driven by its strong scientific reputation and leading expertise in supporting the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
"Our focus on providing customers with industry leading scientific expertise coupled with superior service across the pharmaceutical development pathway has been our formula for success," said Jim Datin, President and CEO of BioAgilytix. "As we move into our next chapter of our evolution, Cinven will provide the additional resources that will empower us to expand not only our geographical reach but will also enable us to invest further in our talent and facilities around the globe to meet the ever-growing needs of our customers."
Peter Connolly, Managing Director and Head of North America of Cobepa said, "We are excited to continue working with Jim and the entire BioAgilytix management team and are thrilled to welcome Cinven as a new investor in the Company. The success of BioAgilytix is driven by its unwavering focus on both high-quality science and a customer-first orientation. These are exactly the hallmarks we seek in our investments. We look forward to partnering with Cinven and management for the next chapter of the Company's growth."
Mike Mortimer, Managing Partner at GHO Capital said, "BioAgilytix is now a leading innovator among the global CROs. Throughout our partnership, Jim and his team have had a phenomenal impact to drive international growth, invest significantly in operational capacity and expand the platform's capabilities to provide more and better solutions to customers. With a science and quality led, customer-centric approach, we have every confidence they will continue to deliver breakthrough solutions to global biopharma, supporting the safe & effective discovery and development of new biologic drugs to improve patient outcomes for years to come."
Alex Leslie, Partner, Healthcare and Head of US said, "Cinven is delighted to be making this investment into BioAgilytix. The organization has genuine expertise and differentiated capabilities in the attractive bioanalytical testing market, providing excellent service to numerous pharma and biotech customers. Cinven plans to support the highly skilled management and scientific leadership teams to invest in capacity and capabilities to capture the compelling growth opportunity in the market, ultimately supporting the delivery of new therapies for patients globally. We look forward to working with the entire BioAgilytix team to help them to realise the full potential in the business."
BofA Securities served as lead financial advisor to BioAgilytix, and William Blair and Lazard served as co-advisors. White & Case served as legal advisor and Deloitte LLP as accounting and tax advisor to BioAgilytix. Ropes & Gray acted as legal advisor to GHO with Deloitte LLP serving as tax advisor.
The transaction is expected to close after customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
About BioAgilytix
BioAgilytix is a leading global contract research organization focused on supporting pharmaceutical and biotech partners in all phases of drug development. With laboratory locations in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park; Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Diego, California; Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia and Hamburg, Germany, BioAgilytix provides PK, immunogenicity, biomarkers, and cell-based assay services supporting the development and release testing of therapeutics across a number of industries and disease states.
BioAgilytix offers assay development, validation, and sample analysis under non-GLP, GLP, and GCP, as well as GMP quality control testing (i.e., product release testing, stability testing, etc.) BioAgilytix also offers diagnostic testing services at its CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited Boston laboratory.
BioAgilytix's team of highly experienced scientific and QA professionals ensures high-quality science, data integrity and regulatory compliance through all phases of clinical development. BioAgilytix is a trusted partner to many top global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. For more information, visit www.bioagilytix.com.
About Cinven
Cinven is a leading international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies. Its funds invest in six key sectors: Business Services, Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials and Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT). Cinven has offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, New York, Guernsey and Luxembourg.
Cinven takes a responsible approach towards its portfolio companies, their employees, suppliers, local communities, the environment and society.
Cinven Capital Management (V) General Partner Limited, Cinven Capital Management (VI) General Partner Limited, Cinven Capital Management (VII) General Partner Limited and Cinven Capital Management (SFF) General Partner Limited are each authorised and regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, and Cinven Limited, the adviser to the Cinven Funds, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
In this press release 'Cinven' means, depending on the context, any of or collectively, Cinven Holdings Guernsey Limited, Cinven Partnership LLP, Cinven (LuxCo1) S. .r.l., and their respective Associates (as defined in the Companies Act 2006) and/or funds managed or advised by any of the foregoing.
For additional information on Cinven please visit www.cinven.com and www.linkedin.com/company/cinven/.
About Cobepa
Based in Brussels, New York, and Munich, Cobepa is a privately-held investment company backed by European families. Cobepa manages a diversified portfolio of private equity investments valued at approximately $4 billion. Cobepa invests in leading companies with superior business models, sustainable market positions and leading management teams. Cobepa North America is primarily focused on investments in the healthcare, business services, and tech-enabled services sectors as well as situations which might benefit from a nimble investment partner. For more information, visit www.cobepa.com.
About GHO Capital
Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, is a leading specialist healthcare investment advisor based in London. We apply global capabilities and perspectives to unlock high growth healthcare opportunities, targeting Pan-European and transatlantic internationalization to build market leading businesses of strategic global value. Our proven investment track record reflects the unrivalled depth of our industry expertise and network. We partner with strong management teams to generate long-term sustainable value, improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery to enable better, faster, more accessible healthcare. For further information, please visit www.ghocapital.com
Media Contact:
Mark Bethers
BioAgilytix
919-381-6097
[email protected]
SOURCE BioAgilytix
Related Links
https://www.bioagilytix.com/
VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioVaxys Technology Corp. (CSE: BIOV), (FRA: 5LB), (OTCQB: BVAXF) ("BioVaxys" or "Company"), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, announced today that Company Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer David Berd, MD, will present at the World Vaccine & Immunotherapy Congress West Coast 2021 taking place November 30-December 2, 2021 in San Diego.
Dr. Berd will discuss the role of immunotherapeutic vaccines in cancer, the potential of haptenized autologous tumor cell vaccines for treating a range of cancer types, and BioVaxys' advancement of haptenized viral antigens as a platform for addressing SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and other sarbecoviruses.
Details of the presentation are as follows:
Title: Haptenized Vaccines for Viral Diseases & Cancer
When: December 1, 2021 @ 17:10
Where: Lowes Coronado Hotel, San Diego, CA
"BioVaxys is honored to be invited to speak at the World Vaccine & Immunotherapy Congress alongside a prestigious group of vaccine and immunology experts. We look forward to sharing how we are leveraging our haptenized protein platform to create autologous cancer immunotherapies synergistic with checkpoint inhibitors, as well as protein-based vaccines for infectious disease," said Dr. Berd.
A medical oncologist, Dr. Berd has a life-long record of clinical research in medical oncology and cancer immunotherapy. For more than 20 years, he was a professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, where he conducted clinical research on melanoma vaccines. Over the course of his career, Dr. Berd has published more than 85 original papers in numerous medical journals in addition to myriad editorials, reviews, and abstracts. He has 10 issued cancer vaccines patents.
About BioVaxys Technology Corp.
Based in Vancouver, BioVaxys Technology Corp. (www.biovaxys.com) is a British Columbia-registered, clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing viral and oncology vaccine platforms, as well as immuno-diagnostics. The Company is advancing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine based on its haptenized viral protein technology and is preparing for a clinical trial of its haptenized autologous cell vaccine used in combination with anti-PD1 and anti-PDL-1 checkpoint inhibitors that will initially be developed for Stage III/Stage IV ovarian cancer. Also in development is CoviDTH, a diagnostic for evaluating the presence or absence of a T cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. BioVaxys has multiple issued U.S. patents and pending patent applications related to its cancer vaccine, and pending patent applications for its SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) vaccine and diagnostic technologies. BioVaxys common shares are listed on the CSE under the stock symbol "BIOV" and trade on the Frankfurt Bourse (FRA: 5LB) and in the US (OTCQB: BVAXF).
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Signed "James Passin"
James Passin, CEO
+1 646 452 7054
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information
This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things, completion of the murine model study, regulatory approval for a Phase I study of its BVX-0320 Vaccine Candidate in humans and the overall development of BioVaxys' vaccines, including any haptenized SARS-Cov-2 protein vaccine. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates, primarily the assumption that BioVaxys will be successful in developing and testing vaccines, that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies including, primarily but without limitation, the risk that BioVaxys' vaccines will not prove to be effective and/ or will not receive the required regulatory approvals. With regards to BioVaxys' business, there are a number of risks that could affect the development of its biotechnology products, including, without limitation, the need for additional capital to fund clinical trials, its lack of operating history, uncertainty about whether its products will complete the long, complex and expensive clinical trial and regulatory approval process for approval of new drugs necessary for marketing approval, uncertainty about whether its autologous cell vaccine immunotherapy can be developed to produce safe and effective products and, if so, whether its vaccine products will be commercially accepted and profitable, the expenses, delays and uncertainties and complications typically encountered by development stage biopharmaceutical businesses, financial and development obligations under license arrangements in order to protect its rights to its products and technologies, obtaining and protecting new intellectual property rights and avoiding infringement to third parties and their dependence on manufacturing by third parties.
The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
Media Contact:
Gina Cestari
6 Degrees Public Relation
[email protected]
+1 917 797 7904
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1436186/BIOVAXYS_Corporate_Logo.jpg
SOURCE BioVaxys Technology Corp.
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackmer, part of PSG, a Dover (NYSE: DOV) company, and a global leader in specialty pumps and reciprocating compressor technologies, today announced the initiation of an ambitious construction and renovation project at its headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI, that will increase its manufacturing footprint and production capabilities. When fully completed in June 2023, the project will result in the creation of 56,000 square feet of new manufacturing, office, R&D, and training space that will create more than 50 new jobs for the West Michigan community and help grow the Blackmer operation.
"The new 56,000 square foot structure will deliver many benefits for Blackmer, our customers, and the community. As a result, we will be even better positioned to continue providing innovative, high-quality pump products with unparalleled product performance to our customers," explained Bob Lauson, General Manager of Blackmer.
The project officially started in March 2021 with a pre-construction and preparation phase. The plant expansion phase of the project starts in January 2022. The anticipated completion date for the facility expansion is December 2022. Once new construction has been concluded, renovation of the existing building will begin with an anticipated completion date of June 2023.
"As we implement this project, we have been working with our construction partners to minimize any potential disruptions of our internal operations, ensuring that Blackmer can continue to meet the needs of customers while construction is ongoing," added Lauson.
The new building and renovated facility will feature several environmental benefits that will help Blackmer reduce its carbon footprint. Among the changes will be up-to-date and energy-efficient lighting, heating, air-conditioning and manufacturing systems. Additionally, the project will allow Blackmer to maintain the appropriate amount of green space within the facility property.
For more information on Blackmer, please go to blackmer.com. For more information on PSG, please go to psgdover.com.
About Blackmer:
Blackmer is the leading global provider of innovative and high-quality positive displacement, regenerative turbine and centrifugal pump, and reciprocating compressor technologies for the transfer of liquids and gasses. For more than a century, the Blackmer name has stood for unparalleled product performance, superior services and support, well-timed innovation and a commitment to total customer satisfaction. Supported by a worldwide network of distributors and original equipment manufacturers, Blackmer pumps and compressors are used in a multitude of applications in the Process, Energy and Military & Marine markets. Blackmer, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, is part of PSG, a Dover company. For more information on Blackmer, please go to blackmer.com.
About PSG:
PSG is a global pump and dispensing solution expert and leading manufacturer of pumps, systems and related flow-control technology for the safe and efficient transfer of critical and valuable fluids and materials. Headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, USA, PSG is comprised of several world-class brands, including Abaque, All-Flo, Almatec, Blackmer, Ebsray, EnviroGear, Griswold, Hydro Systems, Mouvex, Neptune, Quattroflow and Wilden. PSG products are manufactured on three continents, North America, Europe and Asia, in state-of-the-art facilities that practice lean manufacturing and are ISO-certified. PSG is part of the Pumps and Process Solutions segment of Dover Corporation. For additional information on PSG, please visit psgdover.com. PSG: Where Innovation Flows.
About Dover:
Dover is a diversified global manufacturer and solutions provider with annual revenue of over $7 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services through five operating segments: Engineered Products, Fueling Solutions, Imaging & Identification, Pumps & Process Solutions and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover combines global scale with operational agility to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 65 years, our team of over 24,000 employees takes an ownership mindset, collaborating with customers to redefine what's possible. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV." Additional information is available at dovercorporation.com.
PSG Contact:
Mark Pyk
(616) 475-9330
[email protected]
Dover Media Contact:
Adrian Sakowicz, VP, Communications
(630) 743-5039
[email protected]
Dover Investor Contact:
Andrey Galiuk, VP, Corporate Development and Investor Relations
(630) 743-5131
[email protected]
SOURCE Dover
Related Links
http://www.dovercorporation.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchange Inc., the pioneering leader in digital asset investing solutions for financial advisors and asset managers, today announced that it is rebranding to BITRIA, A Division of Blockchange Inc., or BITRIA for short. The adoption of the brand name of its flagship crypto SMA and TAMP platform reflects how the BITRIA platform has rapidly grown to become the go-to solution among asset managers and wealth managers for digital asset investments.
In addition to the name change, BITRIA, pronounced "Bit-ree-uh," is adding features to the platform that aimed at augmenting its support for large-scale asset managers, including selective rebalancing tools, the option to white-label the platform and the addition of an enhanced client portal.
Dan Eyre, Co-founder and CEO of BITRIA said, "This renaming marks a new chapter in our growth story, as we align our brand behind the exceptional growth of our Digital TAMP platform. Equally important, our adoption of the BITRIA brand also marks the commencement of a new wave of enhancements that we have launched with our industry-leading platform. The new product features we are rolling out on the BITRIA platform empower users of our technology to step up their capabilities and provide greater value to investors clamoring for access to crypto investing."
The company works with more than 40 advisors today, several of which are asset managers serving multiple RIAs. Meanwhile, the platform currently supports 67 unique crypto model strategies, as well as multiple account types, including individual, trusts, corporate, joint tenant, and Roth and Traditional IRAs.
Powerful Strategic Relationships and New Features
BITRIA recently added a crucial integration with Morningstar's ByAllAccounts client account-aggregation solution and forged a strategic alliance with Equity Trust Company that enables BITRIA users to meet end clients' demand for digital-asset tax-advantaged accounts. In the coming weeks and months, BITRIA expects to finalize partnerships with leading digital asset firms on the industry's first SMA and model portfolio solution catering to U.S. institutional and ultra-high-net-worth investors.
The BITRIA platform provides RIAs, their affiliated financial advisors and asset managers a set of tools to manage their clients' digital-asset accounts at scale, including solutions for onboarding, portfolio rebalancing, data aggregation and financial reporting.
Advisors also have the option to engage with BITRIA's Separately Managed Account network, a select community of SMA partners that offer advisors and clients a broad range of crypto strategies. Unlike Bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, BITRIA's SMAs provide a ready-made solution that also offers flexibility to sophisticated, high-end clients, allowing them to hold the underlying digital assets in their portfolios.
Mr. Eyre concluded, "Financial advisors and asset managers are increasingly facing demands from their clients for access to professionally managed crypto investment vehicles. This growing demand is coming from the next generation of wealth managers and their clientele, who are positioned to become the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net worth investors of the future. BITRIA is here to provide advisors and asset managers with the technology they need to meet the demand in the marketplace and unlock the potential of crypto investing."
About BITRIA
BITRIA simplifies the path to digital asset investing for financial advisors. Its Digital Asset SMA and Digital Turnkey Asset Management Platform solutions offer a range of options for advisors to offer their clients the advantages and flexibility of direct asset ownership, together with a broad selection of asset choices that can be tailored to the growth and risk appetites of different classes of investors. BITRIA, a Division of Blockchange Inc., was founded in 2017 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. For more information or to request a demo, visit https://bitria.io or contact [email protected].
Blockchange Inc. is not and never has been affiliated with Blockchange Ventures (www.blockchange.vc).
Media Contacts for BITRIA
Joseph Kuo / Andrew Wang
Haven Tower Group
424 317 4851 or 424 317 4859
[email protected] or [email protected]
SOURCE Blockchange Inc.
"Everything with a price tag comes with a cost to the planet," said Rachel Newman, Vice President of Marketing for Bonterra. "The climate crisis demands that we act now and that we act boldly. Publicly sharing our emissions footprint and taking responsibility in a really clear, open way was important for us to do nownot in five, ten or thirty years."
The time for action is now
The announcement comes on the heels of this year's United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the climate crisis, which shows that a warmer future is unavoidable, and signals a pivotal step for a wine brand to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders, including consumers, communities and the environment.
In certifying as Climate Neutral, Bonterra disclosed that on average, a bottle of Bonterra wine (750ml) creates 3.4 pounds of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions (CO2E);1 in comparison, an apple creates 0.09 lbs. CO2E, while a smartphone creates 131 lbs. CO2E.2 Sharing this information builds on Bonterra's legacy of responsible practices, now elevating and contextualizing the likes of regenerative farming, 100% green power use at the winery, and advanced water stewardship within the framework of a reputable, product-level certification that consumers understand.
The new essential business metric
Bonterra worked with nonprofit organization Climate Neutral to account for all scopes of greenhouse gas emissions created in Bonterra wines' journey, from cradle to consumer. In 2020, 37.2% of Bonterra's emissions derived from packaging and materials, 25.2% from shipping, 16.5% from production, 16.1% from farming and grapes, and 5% from employee commuting and travel.3 Bonterra offset 110% of its footprint through responsible, third-party sourced, nature-based carbon credits. 4
Climate-regenerative projects supported include reforestation initiatives offering numerous co-benefits to climate-vulnerable communities. Supporting such projects allows Bonterra to take responsibility for the carbon it emits, and essentially amounts to a voluntary tax on Bonterra's carbon pollution. In clearly communicating Bonterra's climate footprint at the bottle level and sharing context to everyday goods in other product categories, the Bonterra team aims to help demystify the emissions intensity of its collectionand encourage others to do the same.
"Every company should be able to quantify how it's adding to the climate crisisjust as every company understands its revenues and expenses. But most companies don't, and even fewer are taking immediate action to eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions," said Austin Whitman, CEO of Climate Neutral, which counts a growing roster of businesses, including Alter Eco, REI and Numi Tea, among the more than 300 brands that undergo the annual certification process.
"There's an opportunity for consumers and brands to work together to redefine climate action as something ambitious, immediate, and ongoing," Whitman explained. "As part of achieving its Climate Neutral certification, Bonterra has measured and compensated for its past emissions, and begun the essential work of reducing its emissions further, showing that the wine industry can play a key role in moving toward a net-zero world."
Going further: Designing for a better future
Achieving Climate Neutral certification and committing to future reductions is a positive step toward a net-zero future, though the Bonterra team appreciates that key work lies ahead.
"Climate Neutral is a first step, allowing for brand-level and product-level transparency for consumers, and we acknowledge that carbon credits are not a long-term regenerative strategy," said Jess Baum, Director of Regenerative Development & Sustainability for Bonterra. "In light of the climate crisis, we cannot let perfect become the enemy of good. Measuring and offsetting all carbon created from the vineyard to the shelf is a way for us to credibly take immediate action to address the crisis, while working simultaneously on improving our business."
Baum encourages others to get started measuring and reducing their emissions. "I encourage everyone in our industry and beyond to take a closer look at their whole emissions footprint and identify the hot spotsthe soonest-opportunity areas," she said. "The only wrong way to do this is to do nothing at all. We all have a role to play, and working together, can make a difference."
For more information about Bonterra and its commitment to Climate Neutral winegrowing, please visit www.bonterra.com/climate-neutral.
About Bonterra
Organically farmed and masterfully made, the Bonterra Organic Vineyards collection epitomizes wines that are perfectly in tune with nature. A celebration of the vitality derived from organic cultivation, the portfolio features wines coaxed from the earth by careful farming practices carried out on a dynamic network of estate and partner farms throughout California. In addition to a widely available selection of organically farmed wines that includes Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Equinox Red, Young Red and Rose, Bonterra crafts a trio of sought-after single-vineyard offerings from estate Biodynamic vineyards in Mendocino County.
Long before organic produce filled the shelves of neighborhood groceries, the dedicated team at Bonterra was committed to organic and regenerative farming because they passionately believe that farms teeming with biodiversity encompassing vines, insects and wildlife, and healthy soilsyield organic grapes leading to better wines. Bonterra was awarded the 2020 California Green Medal in the Environment category in recognition of its legacy of environmental stewardship and ongoing leadership in climate-smart winegrowing. More at www.Bonterra.com.
2021 Bonterra Organic Vineyards, Mendocino County, California USA.
1 Per-bottle average, 750ml equivalent, Bonterra 2020 Carbon Footprint, climateneutral.org/brand/bonterra
2 Collected from publicly available sources, carbon footprints for everyday items are not meant to be representative of an entire product category.
3 Source: Climate Neutral Brand Emissions Estimator (BEE), Bonterra Organic Vineyards 2020 carbon emissions, scopes 1-3; https://www.climateneutral.org/brand/bonterra.
4 Climate Neutral uses third-party verification to ensure carbon credits meet the 'big six' requirements: real, permanent, quantifiable, verifiable, enforceable, and additional. Learn more about third-party verification for projects Bonterra supports for mangrove restoration in Myanmar, forestry in Brazil, and logging modification in China.
SOURCE Bonterra Organic Vineyards
Related Links
http://www.bonterra.com
BOSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Children's Hospital has been awarded two five-year grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to co-lead the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study, an ambitious, comprehensive national study of brain development from birth through early childhood.
The study will enroll about 7,500 pregnant mothers and their infants at 25 sites across the United States, including Boston Children's, and follow the children from birth to the age of 10 years. The findings will provide a "template" for healthy brain development and give insight into how environmental factors poverty, nutrition, pollution, maternal stress, maternal drug use, COVID-19 infection, and more may alter infants' developmental trajectories.
"To understand how different exposures affect brain development, we need a template of what typical brain development looks like," says Charles Nelson, PhD, chair of Developmental Medicine Research at Boston Children's Hospital, who is co-principal investigator of the study's administrative core.
Boston Children's and the other research sites will collect a wide range of data on pregnancy and fetal development; medical and family history; brain structure and function in infancy and early childhood; and each child's social, emotional, and cognitive development. Mothers and children will also provide biological samples (teeth, blood, hair) for studies of environmental exposures.
At Boston Children's, participants will be seen at the hospital's new Brain, Mind & Behavior Center. The team will make a special effort to include people from diverse backgrounds, including populations that are typically underrepresented in research.
"We want to understand the big picture and include the most diverse population possible," says Ellen Grant, MD, director of the Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center at Boston Children's and co-principal investigator for the Boston Children's HBCD site with Michelle Bosquet Enlow, PhD, a psychologist in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "We want to understand what factors are the most important to pay attention to, including factors that make some kids more resilient than others."
"We have known for some time that the early years of life are critical for shaping long-term developmental and health outcomes," says Bosquet Enlow, who studies how intergenerational effects such as maternal trauma history influence child mental and physical health and neurodevelopment. "This study will help us better understand which experiences are most important in influencing health and well-being."
Ultimately, the HBCD study aims to identify areas where policies and practices can best help protect children's neurodevelopment and health. Anonymized data from HBCD will be made freely available to the greater research community.
Formally launched in October, with recruitment to begin in 2022, the HBCD study is funded by 10 institutes and offices at the National Institutes of Health, and the Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative SM , and is led by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
About Boston Children's Hospital
Boston Children's Hospital is ranked the #1 children's hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. Today, 3,000 researchers and scientific staff, including 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine and 12 Howard Hughes Medical Investigators comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's is now a 415-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care. For more, visit our Answers blog and follow us on social media @BostonChildrens, @BCH_Innovation, Facebook and YouTube.
CONTACT: Bethany Tripp | [email protected] | 617.919.3110
SOURCE Boston Children's Hospital
Related Links
www.childrenshospital.org
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightspeed today announced the launch of its brand, mission, and leadership team to create a next-generation telecom and connectivity business. Brightspeed will initially be comprised of the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) assets and associated operations of Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) across 20 states, which are the subject of a pending acquisition by Apollo-managed funds (NYSE: APO).
Brightspeed plans to invest more than $2 billion to build a network that will bring faster, more reliable Internet and Wi-Fi to communities throughout the Midwest, Southeast, and certain parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Brightspeed's planned fiber optics transformation is expected to reach up to three million homes and businesses over the next five years, including in many places where fiber and advanced technology has not historically been deployed to help bridge the digital divide.
Led by a team of broadband and telecommunications industry leaders, including Chief Executive Officer Bob Mudge, Chief Operating Officer Tom Maguire, and Chief Administration Officer Chris Creager, the company is assembling an exceptional team of experts across disciplines to build a next generation internet and telecom business. The leadership team, which has worked together for more than two decades, was responsible for the buildout and growth of Verizon's game-changing fiber-based Fios service. Additional senior leaders who have joined the executive management team are Chief Legal Officer Steve Tugentman, Chief Human Resources Officer Colon McLean, and Chief Technology Officer Ashok Kumar.
"This is an exciting and tangible milestone for our company. As we take the first steps in our journey and develop our infrastructure investment plans to provide consumers, local businesses and enterprise customers with the fastest, most reliable connections they need to accomplish what's most important to them, we now have a brand identity that uniquely reflects our product attributes and customer experience," said Mr. Mudge. "We have an incredibly talented team of network builders and lifelong customer advocates who are eager to accelerate the upgrade to fiber optic technologies in parts of the country that have been historically under-invested."
"Technology is the key to our digital future, and we believe all customers should have access to the best service possible, whether they connect to our legacy copper network or our new fiber platform," said Mr. Maguire.
"We are thrilled to introduce Brightspeed and to continue building our team with innovators who share a commitment to outstanding customer service," said Mr. Creager. "We know what it takes to drive industry change, and while the investment and transformation we are planning are bold, we are confident we will have the right team members, partners, and resources to bring fast, reliable, and user-friendly internet to the communities that need it most."
The company also announced its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, with future assets and associated operations in 20 states across the Midwest, Southeast, and portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As Brightspeed executes on its mission of reimagining and delivering the fastest and most reliable connections for its customers, the company is currently expanding its exceptional team to help meet anticipated customer demand.
For more information about Brightspeed's vision and career opportunities, please visit the company's website, www.brightspeed.com.
The acquisition of Brightspeed's future assets and operations by the Apollo funds from Lumen is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. It is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
About Brightspeed
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. and expected to have assets and associated operations in 20 states, Brightspeed will provide broadband and telecommunications services through a network platform that serves more than six million homes and businesses. The company aims to bridge the digital divide by deploying a state-of-the-art fiber network and a customer experience that makes staying connected simple and seamless.
Media
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Erik Carlson / Jon Keehner
(212) 355-4449
[email protected]
SOURCE Brightspeed
BEIJING and DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brii Biosciences Limited ("Brii Bio" or the "Company", stock code: 2137.HK) a multi-national company developing innovative therapies for diseases with significant unmet medical needs and large public health burdens, today announced it has received the "R&D Achievement of the Year" Award, sponsored by BayHelix, at the 2021 BioCentury China Healthcare Summit in Shanghai, China. The recognition is for the R&D achievements of Brii Bio's investigational monoclonal neutralizing antibody combination therapy, BRII-196/BRII-198 ("combination BRII-196/BRII-198"), for the treatment of COVID-19.
"We are truly honored to receive this award from BioCentury and BayHelix, as it recognizes our scientific achievements and our ability to deliver innovative therapeutics to tackle global public health challenges for outpatients with COVID-19," said Qing Zhu, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Head of Biopharmaceutical Research of Brii Bio. "We have achieved this milestone working in coordination with our partners, Tsinghua University and the 3rd People's Hospital of Shenzhen, who discovered these neutralizing antibody leads; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), who sponsored the global ACTIV-2 trial; and the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG), who led the ACTIV-2 trial."
In less than 18 months, Brii Bio progressed combination BRII-196/BRII-198 from discovery to completion of Phase 3 in the global ACTIV-2 trial, in which the combination therapy demonstrated a statistically significant 78% reduction of hospitalization and death and improved safety over placebo in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk of clinical progression to severe diseases and death. In October 2021, the Company also initiated and subsequently completed the filing of an emergency use authorization (EUA) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for combination BRII-196/BRII-198. In parallel, the company has submitted the Phase 3 interim data to China Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
"As we continue to grapple with the global impact of this pandemic, we will work closely with regulatory authorities to bring this potential new treatment as quickly as possible to a broad range of COVID-19 outpatients at high risk of clinical progression," Qing added.
The BioCentury-Bayhelix China Healthcare Awards celebrate outstanding individuals and companies for their achievement and contribution to the local healthcare ecosystem. This year, the awards were presented in six categories: R&D Achievement of the Year; Deal of the Year; Commercial Achievement of the Year; Company of the Year; Person of the Year; and Woman Leader of the Year. R&D Achievement of the Year recognizes one company for a scientific discovery in China with direct impact to drug R&D or a significant achievement in pharmaceutical development milestones.
About BRII-196 and BRII-198
BRII-196 and BRII-198 are non-competing SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal neutralizing antibodies derived from convalesced COVID-19 patients developed in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the 3rd People's Hospital of Shenzhen. They have been specifically engineered to reduce the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement and prolong the plasma half-lives for potentially more durable treatment effect. Interim results from Phase 3 of the NIH-sponsored ACTIV-2 trial recently demonstrated that combination BRII-196/BRII-198 achieved a statistically significant reduction, 78%, of relative risk in the combined endpoint of hospitalization and death in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk of clinical progression. Current in vitro pseudovirus testing data suggests that combination BRII-196/BRII-198 retains activity against major SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the following commonly identified variants, B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), B.1.617.2 (Delta), B.1.429 (Epsilon), P.1 (Gamma), C.37 (Lambda), and B.1.621 (Mu).
The Phase 2 clinical trial in China was initiated in July 2021 and is being conducted at clinical centers in Beijing Ditan Hospital, Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital, and the 3rd People's Hospital of Shenzhen. In response to the recent emergence of COVID-19 cases in China, including cases caused by the Delta variant, Brii Bio has cooperated with governmental agencies and hospitals to donate nearly 3,000 doses of BRII-196/BRII-198 for emergency use in Guangdong, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Hunan, Henan, Fujian, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Qinghai, Guizhou and Liaoning provinces. More than 800 patients have received the treatment.
About Brii Bio
Brii Biosciences Limited ("Brii Bio", or the "Company", stock code: 2137.HK) is a biotechnology company based in China and the United States committed to advancing therapies for significant infectious diseases, such as hepatitis B, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, multi-drug resistant (MDR) or extensive drug resistant (XDR) gram-negative infections, and other illnesses, such as the central nervous system (CNS) diseases, which have significant public health burdens in China and worldwide. For more information, visit www.briibio.com.
Media Inquiry:
[email protected]
Summer Li (China)
+86-135-2191-1607
Ben Shannon (U.S.)
+1-919-360-3039
Investor Inquiry:
[email protected]
Chris Fang
+86-139-1692-8049
SOURCE Brii Biosciences Limited
In-person and virtual galas celebrate the Canada-U.S. relationship on November 17, 2021
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - This evening, the Canadian American Business Council (CABC) will host its 27th Annual State of the Relationship, a gala toasting the Canada-U.S. relationship. The event, which will be livestreamed on YouTube, will also include 11 socially distanced in-person events in major cities, hosted by Consuls Generals from both countries.
With nearly three decades of operation, the CABC has become the leading non-profit, non-partisan, issues-oriented organization dedicated to fostering dialogue between the public and private sectors. The State of the Relationship has become the council's marquee celebration, bringing together more than 70 business leaders, policymakers, diplomats, and luminaries to provide remarks.
"We are delighted to bring together diverse leaders from both countries at this year's State of the Relationship," said Maryscott Greenwood, CEO, CABC. "The events of recent years have demonstrated the resiliency of our sacred relationship. Our partnership extends from boardrooms to borders; it's an honour to bring together Canadians and Americans to recognize this significant feat."
The 27th State of the Relationship will be hosted by Atlanta-based broadcast reporter Christine Sperow and feature a special performance of "Lean on Me" by Canadian performers, Fefe Dobson and Tyler Shaw. The evening will include the presentation of the CABC's Corporate Leadership Award, which recognizes contributions to sustainability, job creation and remarkable innovation. In 2020, UPS was awarded for its extraordinary service through the pandemic.
Throughout the livestream, viewers will have the opportunity to participate in interactive contests and trivia featuring Canada and U.S. pop culture. With the recent reopening of the Canada-U.S. border, reuniting families and friends, the CABC will also be giving away roundtrip business tickets for any Air Canada flight.
Canadians and Americans are invited to join the CABC on Thursday, November 17 at 8 p.m. E.T. for the State of The Relationship, livestreamed on YouTube.
About the CABC: Established in 1987, the Canadian American Business Council is the leading non-profit, non-partisan, issues-oriented organization dedicated to fostering dialogue between the public and private sectors in Canada and the US. Members are key business leaders and stakeholders from both sides of the border ranging from entrepreneurs to best name brands in the world. Collectively, CABC members employ about two million people and have annual revenues of close to $1.5 trillion.
SOURCE Canadian American Business Council
SHANGHAI, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG) ("Cango" or the "Company"), a leading automotive transaction service platform in China, today announced that it plans to release its third quarter 2021 financial results after the market closes on Monday, November 22, 2021. The earnings release will be available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.cangoonline.com/.
Cango's management will hold a conference call on Monday, November 22, 2021 at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time or Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 9:00 A.M. Beijing Time to discuss the financial results. Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers:
International: +1-412-902-4272 United States Toll Free: +1-888-346-8982 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-201-203 Hong Kong, China Toll Free: 800-905-945 Conference ID: Cango Inc.
The replay will be accessible through November 29, 2021, by dialing the following numbers:
International: +1-412-317-0088 United States Toll Free: +1-877-344-7529 Access Code: 10162135
A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.cangoonline.com/.
About Cango Inc.
Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG) is a leading automotive transaction service platform in China connecting dealers, financial institutions, car buyers, and other industry participants. Founded in 2010 by a group of pioneers in China's automotive finance industry, the Company is headquartered in Shanghai and engages car buyers through a nationwide dealer network. The Company's services primarily consist of automotive financing facilitation, car trading transactions, and after-market services facilitation. By utilizing its competitive advantages in technology, data insights, and cloud-based infrastructure, Cango is able to connect its platform participants while bringing them a premium user experience. Cango's platform model puts it in a unique position to add value for its platform participants and business partners as the automotive and mobility markets in China continue to grow and evolve. For more information, please visit: www.cangoonline.com.
Investor Relations Contact
Yihe Liu
Cango Inc.
Tel: +86 21 3183 5088 ext.5581
Email: [email protected]
Emilie Wu
The Piacente Group, Inc.
Tel: +86 21 6039 8363
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Cango Inc.
Related Links
www.cangoonline.com
ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The growing emphasis on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of buildings, workplaces, and factories with the recognition of significance of ventilation to prevent infectious diseases is fueling the centrifugal fan wheels market. To that end, stakeholders in the centrifugal fan wheels market are adhering to the UK Health and Safety Executive guidelines on ventilation and air conditioning laid down during the coronavirus outbreak.
The role of manufacturers in the centrifugal fan wheels market to diversify products and services for ventilation requirements to serve beyond customary end users such as oil & gas, power generation, and steel sectors is promising for the centrifugal fan wheels market.
The centrifugal fan wheels market is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2031.
Get PDF Brochure for More Insights https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=82227
Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market Key Findings of Report
Product Innovations in Backward Curved Wheels to Foster Growth
The increasing applications of backward curved wheels is driving the interest of manufacturers for improved products. The demand for backward curved wheels is expanding for variable flow applications due to their relatively low risk of being overloaded or stalled during operations. Backward curved wheels are comparatively more energy efficient than curved or airfoil style blade wheels. Emission control systems, dust collectors, and fume exhausters are some applications that are triggering the demand for backward curved wheels thereby creating opportunities in the centrifugal fan wheels market.
The role of product manufacturers to educate their customers about the benefits of various types of backward inclined, forward inclined, and radial fan wheels further stimulates the demand for novel products. For example, Eldridge a provider of ventilation and noise control applications educates its customers and provides guidance for selection of fan wheels to serve individual requirements.
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Growing Demand in Paper & Pulp Industry to Expand Revenue Streams
The expanding deployment of fans and blowers across numerous industries for the safety of workers is promising for the centrifugal fan wheels market. The paper & pulp industry is emerging as a key end user for centrifugal fan wheels. In order to serve this, product manufacturers and suppliers are undertaking product development and working on logistics to support the paper & pulp industry. Product innovations include a number of high and low-pressure fans and blowers to support drying procedures.
Drying and bleaching processes in the paper industry lead to chemical loaded airstreams and high temperatures that requires ventilation for air circulation and for stable air flow through centrifugal fans. This opens prospects in the centrifugal fan wheels market.
Outbreak of COVID-19 created New Worker Safety Protocols in Mining Environments
The growing emphasis on installation of solid ventilation systems in mining environments is creating opportunities in the centrifugal fan wheels market. The outbreak of COVID-19 created adequate awareness of need for proper ventilation in dark closed spaces that is directly related to improve worker efficiency, decrease accident rates, and increase working days of workers.
Companies in the centrifugal fan wheels market are engaging in to identify blower requirements for underground mine ventilation applications. This is facilitated by stakeholders in the mining sector to provide airways at appropriate places in underground mining operations to install fans and blowers.
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Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market Growth Drivers
Increasing recognition of importance of centrifugal fans for circulation of large volumes of air in industrial environments fuels centrifugal fan wheels market.
An array of applications of centrifugal fans from dust collection to drying and cooling to storage of materials for industrial processes stimulates growth in centrifugal fan wheels market.
Centrifugal Fan Wheels Market Key Players
Some key companies operating in the centrifugal fan wheels market are TLT Turbo, TWIN CITY FAN, Yilida, S&P Sistemas de Ventilacion SLU, punker GmbH, FERGAS GROUP AB, Kruger Ventilation, Howden Group, Loren Cook, Systemair AB, ebm-papst, ZIEHL ABEGG, Beckett Air Corporation.
Buy an Exclusive Research Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=8222714 days (10 cases / 12 %); fully vaccinated <14 days (3 cases / 4%) fully vaccinated >14 days (12 cases / 14%); unknown (2 cases / 2%) Average age of current hospitalisations 51 Cases in ICU or HDU Seven Cases Seven day rolling average of community cases 194 Number of new community cases* 194 Number of new cases identified at the border** Two and one additional case yet to be classified Location of new community cases* Auckland (180), Waikato (5), Northland (3), Lakes (6) Location of community cases (total) * Auckland 5,807 (2,006 of whom have recovered); Northland 49 (15 of whom have recovered); Waikato 265 (94 of whom have recovered); Lakes 14; Taranaki 6; MidCentral 2; Wairarapa 2; Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered);
Nelson/Marlborough 1 (who has recovered); Canterbury 4 (3 of whom have recovered) Number of community cases (total) 6,167 (in current community outbreak) Confirmed cases (total) 8,923 Historical cases 194 out of 7,111 cases since 1 January Cases infectious in the community 55 of 191 cases reported yesterday have exposure events Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious 136 of 191 cases reported yesterday have no exposure events Cases epidemiologically linked 146 of todays 194 cases Cases to be epidemiologically linked 48 of todays 194 cases Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 4,783 (in the current cluster) (836 unlinked from the past 14 days) Contacts Number of active contacts being managed (total): 5,756 Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 69% Percentage who have returned at least one result 54% Locations of interest Locations of interest (total) 84 (as at 10am 17 November) Tests Number of tests (total) 4,538,026 Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 32,900 Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 17,846 Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 27,778 Testing centres in Auckland 18 Wastewater Wastewater detections Details of detections are below NZ COVID Tracer Registered users (total) 3,372,827 Poster scans (total) 510,029,296 Manual diary entries (total) 20,255,588 Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,466,573
Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location 6 October*** England United Arab Emirates Day 6 / routine Auckland 16 November Netherlands Singapore Day 2 / routine Auckland
EARLIER: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield are expected to update the media today at 1pm.
Ardern is expected to give a Covid-19 case update, vaccine update, and an announcement on the Auckland border.
The announcement comes after yesterdays record number of 222 Covid-19 community cases throughout the country.
Today Police have notified the families of the 29 Pike River Mine victims that imagery work from the additional boreholes has captured two sets of human remains, plus a possible third.
The images have been reviewed by Pathologists and were taken in the furthest reaches of the mine from the entrance.
Due to the location of the remains, Police will not be able to recover them.
It has been nearly 11 years since the Pike River Mine disaster where 29 men tragically lost their lives, says Detective Superintendent Peter Read.
These images will add to the picture of the investigation as we work to provide answers for the families.
At this point we have been unable to identify the remains however we will consult with forensic experts.
Based on our investigation we believe there were six to eight men working in the area where the remains have been located.
I would like to acknowledge the support from Pike River Recovery Agency staff and our drilling and mining experts who have supported the borehole drilling operation and assisted us with this discovery, says Read.
Out of respect to the families, and as this is an ongoing police investigation, Police will not be releasing the images at this time.
The additional borehole drilling programme started in June and this work has enabled digital scanning and photography of the conditions in the mine near the boreholes.
The drilling programme remains ongoing and is due to be completed before the end of the year.
Mould forces the temporary closure of Nerja's El Salvador church The services have had to be moved for interior cleaning and painting work to take place, at least until 26 November, to the Casa Hermandad del Nazareno y la Esperanza
Mould and fungal growth on the walls of Nerja's main church, El Salvador, located next to the Balcon de Europa, has forced its closure for at least three weeks, during which time work will be carried out to clean and paint the interior of the building.
The Casa Hermandad de la Cofradia de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno y Maria Santisima de la Esperanza, located in Calle Puente Viejo in the town centre, will temporarily host the services.
The Casa Hermandad posted on its social media sites how happy they were to be hosting the services in their building.
The brotherhood, which will celebrate its 230th anniversary next year, has stressed that the Casa Hermandad, inaugurated a decade ago, "is open, as always to the needs of the people of Nerja and the brothers of the brotherhood as well as the residents of Nerja and visitors are welcome to attend."
For the brotherhood, last Tuesday's first mass "was a historic moment," they said.
Fear of a hypothetical blackout clears stocks of gas stoves and torches on the Costa del Sol Sales of products that run on gas or batteries have skyrocketed even though the authorities say "there are no clear indications" that the electricity supply will falter
Sales of flashlights and gas burners have skyrocketed at the M. Maldonado hardware store. / SALVADOR SALAS
After the compulsive stockpiling of toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic comes the hysteria to stock up on torches, gas stoves and, in general, any product that would make life easier in the case of a blackout.
The information campaign launched by the Austrian Ministry of Defence alerting its citizens to a possible power outage, "which will affect not only the country, but the whole of Europe," has spread like wildfire throughout the continent.
Rumours of a hypothetical blackout have also reached Spain, fuelled by television programmes that have disseminated the statements from the Austrian authorities ("The question is not whether there will be a great blackout, but when," said the minister) or the recommendations contained in the guide What To Do When Everything Stops, with practical advice on what materials should be kept at home to be prepared in case of a blackout.
Although it seems unlikely that Spains electricity supply will go out, fear has infected the people of Malaga, who have run to hardware stores in search of products that will guarantee them light and a hot meal at home.
However, Red Electrica Espana, which operates the national electricity grid, dismissed these fears in a statement: "There are no objective indications that suggest that a blackout will occur throughout the country," it pointed out.
Despite the reassuring message, this hasnt convinced people too much in Malaga, where sales of flashlights, gas stoves and batteries have skyrocketed in the last ten days.
"It's all people have been thinking about since they said there was going to be a blackout on TV, said Eduardo Palma, owner of a Malaga hardware store.
His shop has completely run out of gas stoves and torches, among other items that don't require electricity.
Another shopkeeper says he has gone from selling five gas stoves a month to 40.
"Our stocks for one year have been sold in the last month," confirmed Jose Maria Machuca, who is in charge of the shop.
In large DIY stores such as Leroy Merlin, they have seen an increase in demand of 211% in generator sets and 230% in flashlights since 25 October.
"The demand for solar energy kits, paraffin or pellet stoves without electrical connection and batteries has also increased a lot,"said company sources.
RBL Spain South gets together to remember the fallen Along with the service held at the St George's Church in Malaga, Remembrance Day events were held in Fuengirola, Coin, Benalmadena and Salinas
The Royal British Legion Spain South hosted Remembrance Day services along the Costa del Sol and inland last week to honour those who lost their lives in conflict. Several branches were out on parade for the first time since the pandemic, which severely disrupted last years events.
Fuengirola
Along with the service held at the St George's Church in Malaga, other events included a service at the Salon Varietes Theatre in Fuengirola, which reopened its doors on Sunday to the Mijas Costa and Marbella branches of the Legion. The service was led by the RBL Spain South President, Neal Toplis. The 1st Fuengirola Scout Group and the Ark Explorers participated in the parade once again this year, along with the Standard Bearers from both branches.
Benalmadena
Mayor of Benalmadena, Victor Navas, laid a wreath at an Armistice Day service next to the Tree of Peace in the Parque La Paloma on Thursday 11 November. Along with members of the Royal Air Force Association, the event was attended by RBL president Neal Toplis; the US consul, Roberta Aaron; the vice-consul of the United Kingdom, Dominic Jackson; members of the Irish Society; and Gary Benham, a representative of the Welsh Society Costa del Sol, who acted as master of ceremonies.
The mayor acknowledged the day by saying, Today, we celebrate the end of a fratricidal war. This recognition serves as a tribute to honour all the people and families who suffered, and to appeal to the responsibility of the whole of society to build a better world in which a war of this scale can never happen again.
Inland
Meanwhile, members of the Loja and Mollina branches of the RBL attended an Armistice service led by the Reverend Doreen Cage in the Salinas church in Archidona; while a service was also held at the Cemetery Church in Coin, where wreaths were laid by Standard Bearers from the Coin branch.
Other Remembrance events took place in the San Guadencio Cemetery (Alhaurin el Grande) and at the Puerta Niza restaurant (Benajarafe).
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vishy76 Distinguished - BHPian
Join Date: May 2016 Location: BDQ Posts: 1,016 Thanked: 6,279 Times
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92,000 Km Update
It hasn't been very long since I updated this thread. As they say in German car ownership, no news means good news. Unfortunately, I have a lot of news to share. However, I will share the minor updates first before moving onto the major ones.
LED DRLs
I have always found the idea of halogen DRLs to be lame. Of course, something is better than nothing, but when you are equipping a car with DRLs; lights that only serve to be fancy (majorly), then why not go the whole hog and put LEDs. In fact, I recently discovered that a close friend's US spec Jetta comes with LED DRLs integrated into the double barrel halogen setup! Us Indians only got the LED DRLs on the Highline with the bixenons.
With the intent to spruce the car up a bit, I decided to explore the idea of putting LED DRLs. I only had two criteria:
- Shouldn't be the cheaper variety which has a whitish tinge to a blue shade rather than being icy white with a hint of blue
- Should be having an inbuilt resistor so that the bulb monitoring system of the car doesn't cry foul
The second point needs some explanation for those lucky few who don't have to contend with this feature. Most cars have the ability to monitor all electronics including bulbs and whether they are fused using the CANBUS (essentially a communication line for all electronic modules and components on the car). This makes it easier to find electronic faults instead of testing them manually. A simple DTC scan will tell you what bulb has fused.
Many cars like the Jetta and above take it one step further. If a bulb has fused, an orange error light comes up on the instrument cluster with a corresponding message on the MID stating"check XYZ bulb" or "XYZ bulb fused". How does the car know the bulb is fused? Using internal resistance! If the resistance of the bulb is zero or less than what the system knows it should be, it's assumed the bulb has an issue.
For an LED bulb, the internal resistance is far lesser than a halogen bulb (also the reason why it produces far less heat for the same amount of current and running time). This means the CAN will always throw up an error on start-up as it will think the DRL has fused due to the almost negligible internal resistance of the LED bulb. Hence, it is paramount that the replacement LED has an inbuilt resistor (some resellers call it a chipset too). As the name suggests, the resistor is added in series to the LED so that the final resistance is the same as the halogen it is replacing. The CAN this way will not throw errors. Do note that this applies to all types of factory fitted halogen bulbs on the car.
I casually posted this want of getting LED DRLs on the Jetta owners group, and a member gladly offered his spare set that was lying around unused (he had originally ordered it from the USA, but had ended up putting locally sourced DRLs from Amazon). It turned out later that he was a bhpian too and we ended up chatting about a tonne of Jetta related things. You never know when you get to make some great friends while bonding over cars. Thanks a tonne for the DRLs Akshay. They look smashing!
Fitting the DRLs
Procuring the DRLs was a piece of cake. Fitting them not so much. I knew how tough it would be so I went down to the car, popped the hood open and got to work.
These were sourced by Akshay from desertcart. Here's the link to the bulbs:
https://www.desertcart.in/products/232319710
The first order of business is to get the dust cover off. The dust cover on the outer side of the headlamp is made of plastic. It simply needs to be rotated like a jar lid and it comes off. I started with the driver side first. The dust cap came off easily:
The next step is tricky. Insert two fingers into the hole where the low beam and DRLs sit. You will have to feel for the DRL connector and shake it a bit while looking at the headlamp from the front. Once you have ascertained it is the DRL connector you have gripped, you will have to twist the connector anti clockwise. Once it rotates by about 120 degrees, it will come free and you can pull the holder out.
With this done, simply twist and remove the old halogen bulb and install the new LED in the same fashion. Before putting it back in, flick the key to on and check if it lights up. If it doesn't, you might need to reverse polarity and try again. Fortunately, it worked well for me at the first try:
The CANBUS gods were also quite pleased with no errors on the cluster:
Installing everything back is easier than taking it apart. Just seat the connector in its slot and rotate it about 120 degrees clockwise till it clicks into place. DO NOT force the connector in or misalign and twist it. In my case, the VW ASC had done the exact same mistake while changing the passenger side DRL. The holder just wouldn't come off. In the end, I had to take it to an FNG who resorted to brute force and finally retrieved the bulb holder the next day. This is how the car looked with one LED and a halogen DRL
Driver's side LED DRL in place. Was a 5 minute job at best. The passenger side was 2x more difficult. Firstly the lack of space, and secondly the wrongly installed bulb holder made life hell for me.
With the LED DRLs finally in place. One step closer to being an Audi A4:
I did have apprehensions on how blue DRLs would look on the silver. Though they don't stand out as much as yellow DRLs on a very sunny day (basic physics at play here unfortunately), they do outsmart the halogens in every other scenario! All in all, these are available on Amazon for around 2.5K and are a worthy investment in my opinion.
IND Style Number Plates
The stock number plates on my car were dealer supplied ones. VW Downtown, Mumbai had a rather chic looking font selection for its number plates which polarized opinions. I was expectedly the only person who got used to seeing them. Nobody else liked them.
That was until a very kind friend and fellow Jetta owner Parth Ahuja decided to have a set made for me in Nashik and send them down. Fitting the plates was a very simple procedure, but it had transformed the overall aesthetics and how! The front and rear end now look the business. The font gels in perfectly with the clean lines of the car. I thought this would be the end of updates to the car, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
RCD 330G HU Upgrade
Those who have religiously followed this thread will know I have shared somewhat of a love-hate (more of hate no doubt) relationship with my car's head unit. Sure, it goes about doing its job without a single complaint, has "acceptable" sound quality and ofcourse as my dad says, is a good no nonsense stock HU that doesn't need to be fidgeted with.
However, I just couldn't contend with the way it looked. The dated monochrome LCD screen, the button layout etc. gave it a very mid 2000s vibe. Mind you, I do like my songs to be from the mid 2000s, but my HU? Nope.
Old Desay SV Automotive RCD 300+ HU. No USB or bluetooth. AUX, SD Card, CD and FM/AM. Was a letdown in terms of aesthetics:
Some more digging reveals this HU does support USB (via an adapter). VW being the cheapskates they are never offered it:
The input to the left (yellow plug) is for the USB adapter. One on the right is the radio antenna input. Coming to the radio antenna, an interesting piece of information is that the Jetta's sharkfin antenna is fake. There's no cables that run to it. The antenna is built into the rear windscreen (the vertical lines you see on the rear windscreen are not for the defogger. They are the radio antenna bands):
HU Quadlock connector at the back:
Managed to fire this unit up at home. Takes in around 15-16A of current on a 12V line so had to use a salvaged PSU from an old PC to do so:
Akshay once again offered his RCD 510. His HU had been swapped out for a Blaupunkt Key Largo and was lying unused. He is one of the fortunate souls who doesn't have an OCD with retaining stock looks, but unfortunately I am not. I was dead sure that I would only replace this HU with another RCD. I had always shyed away from swapping to a 510 or 340G because I was under the impression that my car came with the ancient ISO harness rather than the Quadlock connector that the 510, 310, 340G and even the 330G use. The RCD 030 (The very first HU seen in the Vento/Polo), the RCD 320 (Seen around 2013 and upto 2016 on almost all variants of the Polo/Vento) use the ISO harness. Getting an adapter to convert from ISO to Quadlock isn't a huge deal, but there's always the proverbial if that comes up, especially when you have been asked NOT to fidget with the stock wiring.
I still decided to have a look at the harness aboard my Comfortline. Went down, removed the centre fascia trim, removed the 3 T20 torx screws(yes one was misplaced by the FNG or ASC who worked on the car) and pulled the HU out slightly. A peak at the rear of the HU revealed something quite surprising. As basic as this RCD 300+ looked, it used a Quadlock harness! I wanted to take the deal forward with Akshay but was forced to weigh my options once again.
RCD 510
Pic Source: Gannu_1's RCD 510 thread
Pros:
- Stock HU for the Highline and looks far better than the 300+ anyday
- Colour screen with a touchscreen
- Should have slightly better sound quality (300+ was a Chinese Desay. 510 was by Bosch Portugal)
- Adds USB functionality (albeit with an adapter)
- Supports OPS functionality (atleast that's what I assumed)
Cons:
- Bluetooth isn't built in. An entire bluetooth kit including a mic would have to be sourced, wired and attached
- No Apple Carplay or android auto. Does show its age in that regard quite badly
- No reverse camera support
- Would need a double to single antenna connector adapter
In the end, it might seem the 510 has pros outweighing the cons (by a very small margin), but I concluded it wouldn't be worth the hassle. All I would gain after installing the 510 is a touchscreen and USB.
RCD 330G
The 340G is an HU I have always loved. I have had my eyes set on it for quite some time (I do even now in all honesty). It's got everything I need, has Apple Carplay and Android auto and even a sleek user interface. If there's one thing I don't like about it, it has to be the price. Used units retail for as high as 17-20K, while brand new ones are quoted by local resellers for around 27-30K. I wasn't allowed to spend this much money on an HU upgrade.
I was almost about to drop the entire idea when bhpian fluidicjoy mentioned he had a 330G lying with him. It once did duty in his friend's Polo which now had a 340G. The price of the HU was pegged at around 6K. I made an offer of 5K+shipping and he agreed!
Before moving to the installation, here's the pros and cons of the 330G.
Pros:
- Stock and contemporary looking HU
- Has a touchscreen with physical buttons as a bonus
- Has very good sound quality since it's built by Harman India
- Supports a reverse camera and OPS*
- Supports USB, AUX, Bluetooth telephony and streaming music, SD card and even CD
- Priced quite attractively in the used market thanks to the hype around the 340G
Cons:
- Lacks Android auto and Apple Carplay
- Touchscreen is one size too small for my liking
- Not a very well known unit on RCD forums. No software updates available
- Is known to be a bit buggy at times
Fluidicjoy sent me plenty of images before packing the HU and sending it over to Vadodara. He also made it a point to give me the security code without which the HU is virtually useless.
Unfortunately, when the unit arrived, the antenna connector had damage to it. The courier guys had thrown it around undoubtedly, and HU had hit something. Anyways, I was assured it wouldn't affect functionality and I decided to go down and see if it worked.
Installation
Installation is fairly straightforward but one thing is to be kept in mind. The centre console trim houses the airbag deactivation light at the bottom. The light itself is held onto the console by two clips. Just pry the clips gently and separate the light console from the centre console trim WITHOUT disconnecting the coupler to it. Reason for not disconnecting the light entirely, is to prevent the airbag warning light from popping up which can only be cleared using a scanner.
Rest of the steps are fairly simple and I had no hiccups. Have linked a video below for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93xqwdh_fqk
HU fired up for the first time and asking for the security code:
Playing songs. Did face an issue with speakers not working on some corners. Found out I hadn't seated the Quadlock perfectly:
Gets this classy looking clock as well. Comes on when the HU is shut off. Can be disabled as well if you so wish:
The time displayed here is synchronised with the MID. The music volume also decreases when you engage reverse or switch on the parking sensors manually.
Sound quality was a pleasant surprise! This is a Harman built unit and it shows. The inbuilt amp is far more capable than the one onboard the older Desay 300+. There are two very minor issues I faced with the HU.
- The volume knob is imprecise. Overall button quality isn't as good as the 300+. The knobs and buttons on the 300+ are very well weighted and damped. Won't call the 330G cheap, but it isn't as good as the Desay. The volume knob has a very light feel to it and rotating it by X clicks doesn't always increase volume by X levels. It is a bit imprecise and you will have to rotate the knob a fair bit to reach the desired volume. Not a huge bother since I generally use the steering mounted controls
- There was this one instance where I went down to the car and found the music system on inspite of the car being locked. The HU always goes off once the key comes out of the ignition slot. In this case, it had frozen. Only the screen was on. It wasn't playing music. No matter what button I tried to press, it wouldn't respond. Had to do a hard reset and power it down post which it started working. This only occured once in almost 5 months of usage and hasn't repeated. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Barring these two minor setbacks, I found the HU to be very snappy and the touchscreen to be very responsive. Overall UI is also excellent with everything laid out neatly and easy to find. It also has mirror link, but I am sure it's useless considering how many phone makers support it and the advent of AA and AC. I don't use it. The inbuilt microphone has very good reception, and I have had no complaints wrt call quality. Having said that, phone book integration with the MID, or track name display is something that is missing with this HU (More on that later).
Conclusion
For 5200 bucks, I don't think I could have bought a better HU (OE or aftermarket). Yes, the lack of AA and AC does pinch me sometimes, but I go back to the first sentence again and convince myself that I atleast now have a contemporary looking HU with Bluetooth streaming and calling with USB if the need arises.
An added bonus is the superior inbuilt amp aboard this HU, which even the 340G (Made by Visteon India) cannot boast of. I still toy with the idea of getting a 340G, but I would say it's more of a want than a need in all honesty at this stage.
Suspension, mounts and clutch+flywheel overhaul
I am in the mood to create a separate thread for this so I will just leave the bill here for the job and buzz off. If I start typing out the specifics, I will need another 8-10 posts.
To sum things up, a lot of cash went in, a lot of work was done but the output wasn't what I would call very satisfying. A few niggles still remain. The new flywheel has developed what I believe is an abnormal shudder, the clutch and the GB input shaft seem misaligned to me and there's two to three other loose ends that I will have to sit and correct. Last but not the least, I do believe I have been overcharged heavily.
VCDS Cable and tweaks
I have always wanted a VCDS cable but kept delaying it for some reason or the other. Once again, Akshay offered to buy it and lend it to me so that I could do all sorts of experimentation on it. I did agree but then came the question of where to procure the cable from. After a lot of back and forth, we zeroed down on N2 autotech Pune after recommendation from a friend. Another Jetta owner also decided to get one for himself and even offered to lend it to me first before he even had a chance to use it! Mr Vakku Joseph, if you are reading this, thanks a lot for the offer. It's things like these that really make the Jetta owner's group an awesome place to be. In the end, I decided to borrow Akshay's cable since he was located closer to me (Pune) and his laptop had issues with the USB port meaning he couldn't use it for the time being atleast.
With this, I pinged Nikhil Patil from N2 autotech and placed an order for 2 VCDS cables. Each cable came to about 6500 bucks incl. shipping which although higher than Chinese resellers, is still reasonable considering it was being sold by (who I believed) was a reputed reseller with good ratings. The cable reached me within the next 3 days. Nikhil also installed the VCDS software on my laptop using TeamViewer. All in all, the purchase experience so far was very smooth.
Here's what I activated using the VCDS cable on the Jetta:
- Needle sweep: Success. It's under the "indicator_celebration" option in adaptations in the instrument cluster. Have attached a video of it
- Auto folding/unfolding on lock/unlock: Success. This is one feature I missed terribly on the Jetta and so did many others. Most said the door control modules would need to be changed to enable this setting until bhpian sarfraz1997 posted a proper solution on the official Jetta review thread. I will link his post below for reference. There is zilch hardware changes needed for this to work.
https://youtu.be/P1FBzF9Qkt4
Sarfraz1997's
A video showing the feature at work. After closing all doors, press and hold the lock button. This will fold the mirrors automatically. After unlocking, opening the driver door will unfold the ORVMs. Perfect!
- Indirect TPMS: Success. Bhpian fluidicjoy helped me with enabling the indirect TPMS on my car using TeamViewer. First he enabled a module named TPMS-II in the CAN gateway installation list. He then enabled the TPMS installed option in the ABS control module long coding helper and that's it.
Do note that this isn't the more conventional direct TPMS found on most modern day cars, which has a separate sensor monitoring the pressure on each wheel and displaying the exact pressure rating. The indirect TPMS we activated uses the rolling circumference of the wheel to judge whether a given tyre is flat or not. Its not the most accurate system out there, but again, something is better than nothing, especially when it's not even coming at the cost of any hardware changes.
The system has thrown an error in my car though probably because I didn't calibrate it. I will update the thread once I flush out all the errors and calibrate it after pumping the tyres up to the appropriate pressures.
OPS functionality on the Comfortline
There are numerous reasons for having a VCDS cable but one of the major reasons why I wanted it was to enable OPS on my HU. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward job since even the connector on the Comfortline and Highline was the exact same. What could possibly go wrong?
I went to the Park assist module and also discovered it's the superior module which supports visual feedback along with audible beeps (some modules only support the latter). I went to adaptations again and enabled the module to display the OPS screen visually too. I then fired the HU up and slotted reverse. Nothing! I tried several permutations and combinations but nothing would work.
Fluidicjoy once again came to the rescue. First off he noticed that 56-radio didn't exist in the gateway installation list at all. Manually enabling it would throw up an error saying the radio wasn't communicating. For some reason, the 330G wasn't able to communicate perfectly over CANBUS. I checked with bhpian sangam_mm93 who is running the same HU on his Comfortline. His efforts to have the HU display the OPS or even the camera failed due to the same reason. After consulting Nikhil again, it was concluded that the Comfortline variant has a different wiring to the Highline. He also said he would have to look at the car in person to guage what was wrong, which was fair enough. I decided to give up on this idea altogether. It's very unfortunate, but it is what it is. No matter what HU I install, it's going to behave the same until I figure out what the wiring anomaly is and fix it.
My experience with N2 autotech was fair till this day. I did ask him how I could disable the speed chimes on a friend's Superb (he was after my life for this one thing) and also asked him if his cable would do the job. He wasn't confident of his cable being able to do the task, which was fair enough considering what I had paid for it and the fact that my research said it most probably wouldn't. He also didn't reveal how I could disable the chime. Again, this is a business among most coders and it's not revealed which is perfectly understandable. I decided I would figure it out myself.
A month later, I casually pinged him because a Jetta owner wanted to fit an RCD 340G in place of his existing 510 and needed a dual to single radio antenna adapter socket. Nikhil's response was abrupt and abusive. He not only spoke to me in a condescending tone, but also abused the owner who wanted the adapter. So much for customer ettiquites. He treated me as if I am a cheapskate who keeps asking about products but never buys, even though 3-4 people had bought things from him based on my advice. I had massive respect for him before for the extent to which he used to retrofit mods on VAGs, and the fact that he was decent in his dealings, but I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.
The attached screenshots also show that I contacted him after a gap of more than a month (I clear chats every month). No conversation took place between us in any way before.
Finally, all I will say is caveat emptor. I have dealt with such people before as well and what has surprised me the most is the fact that they assume customers are gullible fools who don't know anything and don't deserve any respect. For the record, I had also bought another BMW ENET cable from him, only a few days after ordering the VCDS cables. I am not dealing with N2 autotech again for sure.
My Driving Impressions
I don't like ending ownership updates on a negative note, so some good news. I managed to finally (properly) get my hands on the Jetta! The large bill and the amount of trouble (and incompetency) I had to deal with while overhauling the Jetta had really taken its toll on me mentally. I didn't like going down to even see the car. I had left it alone.
That was however until I was handed the keys and finally given the permission to drive her. I will list down my driving impressions below. Do note that she's running (what I think) is a Quantum Stage 1 Blue remap.
Engine
Slot the key in, depress the clutch pedal (which BTW, has gotten very light after the clutch overhaul) and fire the TDI up. You will notice it settles into a fairly silent idle. Even on a cold start, there's little to no vibration on the steering wheel. Having said that, there is always a very feeble thrum audible inside the cabin at all times. It's not instrusive, but it's there.
Slot the shifter to first and slowly let your foot off the clutch. Don't be surprised if you stall the car. The presence of a heavier dual mass flywheel means the engine does need some extra revvs to keep up the momentum. The same applies while lifting off speed breakers in second gear too. You either baby the clutch pedal out slowly, or you give it a few extra revvs and lift off. Failure to do either will again lead to the car stalling. Once you get used to it though, it's not a huge deal.
Within the city, the TDI is a fairly tractable motor, typical of large displacement diesels. She won't mind if you try lifting off speedbreakers from speeds as low as 5 kmhr in second. Throttle response is crisp with the motor responding well to par throttle inputs without acting overtly jerky or sluggish. 3rd gear is also extremely versatile, with speeds as low as 25-30 kmhr possible without a downshift. It's a vital tool while commuting in moving traffic. Coupled with the light EPS (not one finger light like some of the Koreans and Japs), fairly tight turning radius and acceptable visibility (barring the ORVMs which are two sizes smaller than expected), the Jetta TDI is a fairly easy car to drive in traffic. As said before, the sensitive clutch and small ORVMs are two things that one needs to mind while piloting it in traffic.
Out on the open road is where she comes into her own. Floor the A-pedal in 2nd and the tyres beg for mercy with the traction control wanting to intervene ever so slightly. The motor starts coming into its stride post 1700rpm with a strong surge. Performance is healthy, with the 2.0 TDI revving almost all the way till 4700rpm post which power tapers off gradually. The explosive mid range means overtakes are a piece of cake if you are in the right gear. Before you know it, the Jetta is doing silly speeds. The outstanding chassis behaviour (more on this later) and the punchy TDI motor are a tantalising temptation or a menacing paradox. The Jetta is a car that can play the Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde card to perfection. 6th gear is a proper overdrive ratio with 100 kmhr coming in at a relaxed 1650rpm. The upside is excellent fuel economy. The downside is that you can't let speeds drop below 80, else a downshift is the only way to get a quick move on.
The gear shifter housing bushes in my car are running a bit dry (will need replacement a year or two down the line), but the GB has a very sure slotting feel to it with fairly short throws. It's not Japanese gearbox smooth (I would rate the Suzuki and Honda petrols to still have the best gearbox feel), but it isn't a letdown for an enthusiast in any way either.
Coming to the proverbial Indian question, the TDI on an average manages to deliver somewhere around 13-14 km/L in the city and easily delivers upto 20 Km/L or beyond on highways depending on the duration of the journey and even driving style. Do note these are indicated figures. Subtracting around 1-1.5 km/L from these figures in my experience is what the real world fuel economy looks like. Plenty good for a 180hp and 400nm car!
Overall NVH levels are what I would call above average. The motor is well insulated from the cabin with only a thrum being audible inside at all times. Even as the revvs climb, the thrum assumes the form of a muted growl, but never does the engine sound harsh or clattery. On the other hand, wind noise could have been controlled better even at legal speeds of 100-120 kmhr. You can hear the wind cutting through the pillars at these speeds distinctly, not something one would expect from a D-Segment sedan. Road noise control is above average with only the roughest of tarmac leading to some intrusion of tyre noise into the cabin.
Suspension, ride and handling
The Jetta uses a McPherson strut suspension for the front coupled with a multilink suspension for the back with twin charged dampers on all corners. The multilink suspension at the back allows for independent movement of one wheel from the other on the same axle as opposed to a torsion beam where they are both connected. An anti roll bar is also used at the back (just like the front) with link rods to keep wheel articulation in check during hard cornering and prevent body roll.
Low speed ride quality is typically European. Set on the stiffer side. It's not jarring or too discomfoting, but larger potholes (especially ones with a sharp edge) will filter in at speeds below 30-40 kmhr. Pick up the speed though, and the ride improves drastically. The suspension dismisses off all road imperfections with the only bother being the fact that it doesn't go about its work in the most silent manner. It can give out discomforting thuds above speeds of 30-40 kmhr.
The handling is yet another Jetta trademark. The EPS might not be the most feelsome (doesn't have any feel at all frankly) but it weighs up quite consistently and inspires a lot of confidence. Most importantly, it's pinpoint accurate. Point the nose into a corner and the Jetta dives in with aplomb. The stiffly sprung suspension now pays dividends. Outright grip is superb with the car feeling composed all throughout. Bodyroll is minimal and what adds to the sense of security is the multilink suspension at the back, which ensures the rear end always remains composed, even when the Jetta encounters potholes in the middle of a corner. High speed stability is solid and leaves no room for complaint at all. Long sweeping corners or even tight bends are both a speciality for the Jetta. The presence of EDL and ASR means you can simply pick a line through a corner and power through it. It's also reassuring to know that ESP is watching over you as you go about all this.
All in all, it's not only the amount of power the Jetta puts down that impressed. It's also the way the chassis puts it down and holds its own that really makes the car a treat to drive on all sorts of roads. The only thing I would change in a suspension setup like this is to probably put stiffer dampers, though I personally think the stock Sachs dampers offer the best balance of comfort and handling on the sort of roads I do daily.
And on that note, it's time to end this update. The next thread by me in all probability will be documenting the midlife overhaul and unsuccessfully trying to justify the 2L bill attached in the post above. Until then, stay safe folks.
A few parting shots of the car (all chrome deleted) for your viewing pleasure. Do excuse the dusty interiors. This was immediately after work was done and before detailing.
It hasn't been very long since I updated this thread. As they say in German car ownership, no news means good news. Unfortunately, I have a lot of news to share. However, I will share the minor updates first before moving onto the major ones.I have always found the idea of halogen DRLs to be lame. Of course, something is better than nothing, but when you are equipping a car with DRLs; lights that only serve to be fancy (majorly), then why not go the whole hog and put LEDs. In fact, I recently discovered that a close friend's US spec Jetta comes with LED DRLs integrated into the double barrel halogen setup! Us Indians only got the LED DRLs on the Highline with the bixenons.With the intent to spruce the car up a bit, I decided to explore the idea of putting LED DRLs. I only had two criteria:- Shouldn't be the cheaper variety which has a whitish tinge to a blue shade rather than being icy white with a hint of blue- Should be having an inbuilt resistor so that the bulb monitoring system of the car doesn't cry foulThe second point needs some explanation for those lucky few who don't have to contend with this feature. Most cars have the ability to monitor all electronics including bulbs and whether they are fused using the CANBUS (essentially a communication line for all electronic modules and components on the car). This makes it easier to find electronic faults instead of testing them manually. A simple DTC scan will tell you what bulb has fused.Many cars like the Jetta and above take it one step further. If a bulb has fused, an orange error light comes up on the instrument cluster with a corresponding message on the MID stating"check XYZ bulb" or "XYZ bulb fused". How does the car know the bulb is fused? Using internal resistance! If the resistance of the bulb is zero or less than what the system knows it should be, it's assumed the bulb has an issue.For an LED bulb, the internal resistance is far lesser than a halogen bulb (also the reason why it produces far less heat for the same amount of current and running time). This means the CAN will always throw up an error on start-up as it will think the DRL has fused due to the almost negligible internal resistance of the LED bulb. Hence, it is paramount that the replacement LED has an inbuilt resistor (some resellers call it a chipset too). As the name suggests, the resistor is added in series to the LED so that the final resistance is the same as the halogen it is replacing. The CAN this way will not throw errors. Do note that this applies to all types of factory fitted halogen bulbs on the car.I casually posted this want of getting LED DRLs on the Jetta owners group, and a member gladly offered his spare set that was lying around unused (he had originally ordered it from the USA, but had ended up putting locally sourced DRLs from Amazon). It turned out later that he was a bhpian too and we ended up chatting about a tonne of Jetta related things. You never know when you get to make some great friends while bonding over cars. Thanks a tonne for the DRLs Akshay. They look smashing!Procuring the DRLs was a piece of cake. Fitting them not so much. I knew how tough it would be so I went down to the car, popped the hood open and got to work.These were sourced by Akshay from desertcart. Here's the link to the bulbs:The first order of business is to get the dust cover off. The dust cover on the outer side of the headlamp is made of plastic. It simply needs to be rotated like a jar lid and it comes off. I started with the driver side first. The dust cap came off easily:The next step is tricky. Insert two fingers into the hole where the low beam and DRLs sit. You will have to feel for the DRL connector and shake it a bit while looking at the headlamp from the front. Once you have ascertained it is the DRL connector you have gripped, you will have to twist the connector anti clockwise. Once it rotates by about 120 degrees, it will come free and you can pull the holder out.With this done, simply twist and remove the old halogen bulb and install the new LED in the same fashion. Before putting it back in, flick the key to on and check if it lights up. If it doesn't, you might need to reverse polarity and try again. Fortunately, it worked well for me at the first try:The CANBUS gods were also quite pleased with no errors on the cluster:Installing everything back is easier than taking it apart. Just seat the connector in its slot and rotate it about 120 degrees clockwise till it clicks into place. DO NOT force the connector in or misalign and twist it. In my case, the VW ASC had done the exact same mistake while changing the passenger side DRL. The holder just wouldn't come off. In the end, I had to take it to an FNG who resorted to brute force and finally retrieved the bulb holder the next day. This is how the car looked with one LED and a halogen DRLDriver's side LED DRL in place. Was a 5 minute job at best. The passenger side was 2x more difficult. Firstly the lack of space, and secondly the wrongly installed bulb holder made life hell for me.With the LED DRLs finally in place. One step closer to being an Audi A4:I did have apprehensions on how blue DRLs would look on the silver. Though they don't stand out as much as yellow DRLs on a very sunny day (basic physics at play here unfortunately), they do outsmart the halogens in every other scenario! All in all, these are available on Amazon for around 2.5K and are a worthy investment in my opinion.The stock number plates on my car were dealer supplied ones. VW Downtown, Mumbai had a rather chic looking font selection for its number plates which polarized opinions. I was expectedly the only person who got used to seeing them. Nobody else liked them.That was until a very kind friend and fellow Jetta ownerdecided to have a set made for me in Nashik and send them down. Fitting the plates was a very simple procedure, but it had transformed the overall aesthetics and how! The front and rear end now look the business. The font gels in perfectly with the clean lines of the car. I thought this would be the end of updates to the car, but I couldn't have been more wrong.Those who have religiously followed this thread will know I have shared somewhat of a love-hate (more of hate no doubt) relationship with my car's head unit. Sure, it goes about doing its job without a single complaint, has "acceptable" sound quality and ofcourse as my dad says, is a good no nonsense stock HU that doesn't need to be fidgeted with.However, I just couldn't contend with the way it looked. The dated monochrome LCD screen, the button layout etc. gave it a very mid 2000s vibe. Mind you, I do like my songs to be from the mid 2000s, but my HU? Nope.Old Desay SV Automotive RCD 300+ HU. No USB or bluetooth. AUX, SD Card, CD and FM/AM. Was a letdown in terms of aesthetics:Some more digging reveals this HU does support USB (via an adapter). VW being the cheapskates they are never offered it:The input to the left (yellow plug) is for the USB adapter. One on the right is the radio antenna input. Coming to the radio antenna, an interesting piece of information is that the Jetta's sharkfin antenna is fake. There's no cables that run to it. The antenna is built into the rear windscreen (the vertical lines you see on the rear windscreen are not for the defogger. They are the radio antenna bands):HU Quadlock connector at the back:Managed to fire this unit up at home. Takes in around 15-16A of current on a 12V line so had to use a salvaged PSU from an old PC to do so:Akshay once again offered his RCD 510. His HU had been swapped out for a Blaupunkt Key Largo and was lying unused. He is one of the fortunate souls who doesn't have an OCD with retaining stock looks, but unfortunately I am not. I was dead sure that I would only replace this HU with another RCD. I had always shyed away from swapping to a 510 or 340G because I was under the impression that my car came with the ancient ISO harness rather than the Quadlock connector that the 510, 310, 340G and even the 330G use. The RCD 030 (The very first HU seen in the Vento/Polo), the RCD 320 (Seen around 2013 and upto 2016 on almost all variants of the Polo/Vento) use the ISO harness. Getting an adapter to convert from ISO to Quadlock isn't a huge deal, but there's always the proverbial if that comes up, especially when you have been asked NOT to fidget with the stock wiring.I still decided to have a look at the harness aboard my Comfortline. Went down, removed the centre fascia trim, removed the 3 T20 torx screws(yes one was misplaced by the FNG or ASC who worked on the car) and pulled the HU out slightly. A peak at the rear of the HU revealed something quite surprising. As basic as this RCD 300+ looked, it used a Quadlock harness! I wanted to take the deal forward with Akshay but was forced to weigh my options once again.Pros:- Stock HU for the Highline and looks far better than the 300+ anyday- Colour screen with a touchscreen- Should have slightly better sound quality (300+ was a Chinese Desay. 510 was by Bosch Portugal)- Adds USB functionality (albeit with an adapter)- Supports OPS functionality (atleast that's what I assumed)Cons:- Bluetooth isn't built in. An entire bluetooth kit including a mic would have to be sourced, wired and attached- No Apple Carplay or android auto. Does show its age in that regard quite badly- No reverse camera support- Would need a double to single antenna connector adapterIn the end, it might seem the 510 has pros outweighing the cons (by a very small margin), but I concluded it wouldn't be worth the hassle. All I would gain after installing the 510 is a touchscreen and USB.The 340G is an HU I have always loved. I have had my eyes set on it for quite some time (I do even now in all honesty). It's got everything I need, has Apple Carplay and Android auto and even a sleek user interface. If there's one thing I don't like about it, it has to be the price. Used units retail for as high as 17-20K, while brand new ones are quoted by local resellers for around 27-30K. I wasn't allowed to spend this much money on an HU upgrade.I was almost about to drop the entire idea when bhpianmentioned he had a 330G lying with him. It once did duty in his friend's Polo which now had a 340G. The price of the HU was pegged at around 6K. I made an offer of 5K+shipping and he agreed!Before moving to the installation, here's the pros and cons of the 330G.- Stock and contemporary looking HU- Has a touchscreen with physical buttons as a bonus- Has very good sound quality since it's built by Harman India- Supports a reverse camera and OPS*- Supports USB, AUX, Bluetooth telephony and streaming music, SD card and even CD- Priced quite attractively in the used market thanks to the hype around the 340G- Lacks Android auto and Apple Carplay- Touchscreen is one size too small for my liking- Not a very well known unit on RCD forums. No software updates available- Is known to be a bit buggy at timessent me plenty of images before packing the HU and sending it over to Vadodara. He also made it a point to give me the security code without which the HU is virtually useless.Unfortunately, when the unit arrived, the antenna connector had damage to it. The courier guys had thrown it around undoubtedly, and HU had hit something. Anyways, I was assured it wouldn't affect functionality and I decided to go down and see if it worked.Installation is fairly straightforward but one thing is to be kept in mind. The centre console trim houses the airbag deactivation light at the bottom. The light itself is held onto the console by two clips. Just pry the clips gently and separate the light console from the centre console trim WITHOUT disconnecting the coupler to it. Reason for not disconnecting the light entirely, is to prevent the airbag warning light from popping up which can only be cleared using a scanner.Rest of the steps are fairly simple and I had no hiccups. Have linked a video below for reference.HU fired up for the first time and asking for the security code:Playing songs. Did face an issue with speakers not working on some corners. Found out I hadn't seated the Quadlock perfectly:Gets this classy looking clock as well. Comes on when the HU is shut off. Can be disabled as well if you so wish:The time displayed here is synchronised with the MID. The music volume also decreases when you engage reverse or switch on the parking sensors manually.Sound quality was a pleasant surprise! This is a Harman built unit and it shows. The inbuilt amp is far more capable than the one onboard the older Desay 300+. There are two very minor issues I faced with the HU.- The volume knob is imprecise. Overall button quality isn't as good as the 300+. The knobs and buttons on the 300+ are very well weighted and damped. Won't call the 330G cheap, but it isn't as good as the Desay. The volume knob has a very light feel to it and rotating it by X clicks doesn't always increase volume by X levels. It is a bit imprecise and you will have to rotate the knob a fair bit to reach the desired volume. Not a huge bother since I generally use the steering mounted controls- There was this one instance where I went down to the car and found the music system on inspite of the car being locked. The HU always goes off once the key comes out of the ignition slot. In this case, it had frozen. Only the screen was on. It wasn't playing music. No matter what button I tried to press, it wouldn't respond. Had to do a hard reset and power it down post which it started working. This only occured once in almost 5 months of usage and hasn't repeated. Hopefully it won't happen again.Barring these two minor setbacks, I found the HU to be very snappy and the touchscreen to be very responsive. Overall UI is also excellent with everything laid out neatly and easy to find. It also has mirror link, but I am sure it's useless considering how many phone makers support it and the advent of AA and AC. I don't use it. The inbuilt microphone has very good reception, and I have had no complaints wrt call quality. Having said that, phone book integration with the MID, or track name display is something that is missing with this HU (More on that later).For 5200 bucks, I don't think I could have bought a better HU (OE or aftermarket). Yes, the lack of AA and AC does pinch me sometimes, but I go back to the first sentence again and convince myself that I atleast now have a contemporary looking HU with Bluetooth streaming and calling with USB if the need arises.An added bonus is the superior inbuilt amp aboard this HU, which even the 340G (Made by Visteon India) cannot boast of. I still toy with the idea of getting a 340G, but I would say it's more of a want than a need in all honesty at this stage.I am in the mood to create a separate thread for this so I will just leave the bill here for the job and buzz off. If I start typing out the specifics, I will need another 8-10 posts.To sum things up, a lot of cash went in, a lot of work was done but the output wasn't what I would call very satisfying. A few niggles still remain. The new flywheel has developed what I believe is an abnormal shudder, the clutch and the GB input shaft seem misaligned to me and there's two to three other loose ends that I will have to sit and correct. Last but not the least, I do believe I have been overcharged heavily.I have always wanted a VCDS cable but kept delaying it for some reason or the other. Once again, Akshay offered to buy it and lend it to me so that I could do all sorts of experimentation on it. I did agree but then came the question of where to procure the cable from. After a lot of back and forth, we zeroed down on N2 autotech Pune after recommendation from a friend. Another Jetta owner also decided to get one for himself and even offered to lend it to me first before he even had a chance to use it! Mr Vakku Joseph, if you are reading this, thanks a lot for the offer. It's things like these that really make the Jetta owner's group an awesome place to be. In the end, I decided to borrow Akshay's cable since he was located closer to me (Pune) and his laptop had issues with the USB port meaning he couldn't use it for the time being atleast.With this, I pinged Nikhil Patil from N2 autotech and placed an order for 2 VCDS cables. Each cable came to about 6500 bucks incl. shipping which although higher than Chinese resellers, is still reasonable considering it was being sold by (who I believed) was a reputed reseller with good ratings. The cable reached me within the next 3 days. Nikhil also installed the VCDS software on my laptop using TeamViewer. All in all, the purchase experience so far was very smooth.Here's what I activated using the VCDS cable on the Jetta:: Success. It's under the "indicator_celebration" option in adaptations in the instrument cluster. Have attached a video of it: Success. This is one feature I missed terribly on the Jetta and so did many others. Most said the door control modules would need to be changed to enable this setting until bhpianposted a proper solution on the official Jetta review thread. I will link his post below for reference. There is zilch hardware changes needed for this to work. post (Volkswagen Jetta : Test Drive & Review) on the sameA video showing the feature at work. After closing all doors, press and hold the lock button. This will fold the mirrors automatically. After unlocking, opening the driver door will unfold the ORVMs. Perfect!: Success. Bhpian fluidicjoy helped me with enabling the indirect TPMS on my car using TeamViewer. First he enabled a module named TPMS-II in the CAN gateway installation list. He then enabled the TPMS installed option in the ABS control module long coding helper and that's it.Do note that this isn't the more conventional direct TPMS found on most modern day cars, which has a separate sensor monitoring the pressure on each wheel and displaying the exact pressure rating. The indirect TPMS we activated uses the rolling circumference of the wheel to judge whether a given tyre is flat or not. Its not the most accurate system out there, but again, something is better than nothing, especially when it's not even coming at the cost of any hardware changes.The system has thrown an error in my car though probably because I didn't calibrate it. I will update the thread once I flush out all the errors and calibrate it after pumping the tyres up to the appropriate pressures.There are numerous reasons for having a VCDS cable but one of the major reasons why I wanted it was to enable OPS on my HU. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward job since even the connector on the Comfortline and Highline was the exact same. What could possibly go wrong?I went to the Park assist module and also discovered it's the superior module which supports visual feedback along with audible beeps (some modules only support the latter). I went to adaptations again and enabled the module to display the OPS screen visually too. I then fired the HU up and slotted reverse. Nothing! I tried several permutations and combinations but nothing would work.Fluidicjoy once again came to the rescue. First off he noticed that 56-radio didn't exist in the gateway installation list at all. Manually enabling it would throw up an error saying the radio wasn't communicating. For some reason, the 330G wasn't able to communicate perfectly over CANBUS. I checked with bhpian sangam_mm93 who is running the same HU on his Comfortline. His efforts to have the HU display the OPS or even the camera failed due to the same reason. After consulting Nikhil again, it was concluded that the Comfortline variant has a different wiring to the Highline. He also said he would have to look at the car in person to guage what was wrong, which was fair enough. I decided to give up on this idea altogether. It's very unfortunate, but it is what it is. No matter what HU I install, it's going to behave the same until I figure out what the wiring anomaly is and fix it.My experience with N2 autotech was fair till this day. I did ask him how I could disable the speed chimes on a friend's Superb (he was after my life for this one thing) and also asked him if his cable would do the job. He wasn't confident of his cable being able to do the task, which was fair enough considering what I had paid for it and the fact that my research said it most probably wouldn't. He also didn't reveal how I could disable the chime. Again, this is a business among most coders and it's not revealed which is perfectly understandable. I decided I would figure it out myself.A month later, I casually pinged him because a Jetta owner wanted to fit an RCD 340G in place of his existing 510 and needed a dual to single radio antenna adapter socket. Nikhil's response was abrupt and abusive. He not only spoke to me in a condescending tone, but also abused the owner who wanted the adapter. So much for customer ettiquites. He treated me as if I am a cheapskate who keeps asking about products but never buys, even though 3-4 people had bought things from him based on my advice. I had massive respect for him before for the extent to which he used to retrofit mods on VAGs, and the fact that he was decent in his dealings, but I am now inclined to believe he's just a jumped up mods salesman who thinks his customers don't know what they are getting into.The attached screenshots also show that I contacted him after a gap of more than a month (I clear chats every month). No conversation took place between us in any way before.Finally, all I will say is caveat emptor. I have dealt with such people before as well and what has surprised me the most is the fact that they assume customers are gullible fools who don't know anything and don't deserve any respect. For the record, I had also bought another BMW ENET cable from him, only a few days after ordering the VCDS cables. I am not dealing with N2 autotech again for sure.I don't like ending ownership updates on a negative note, so some good news. I managed to finally (properly) get my hands on the Jetta! The large bill and the amount of trouble (and incompetency) I had to deal with while overhauling the Jetta had really taken its toll on me mentally. I didn't like going down to even see the car. I had left it alone.That was however until I was handed the keys and finally given the permission to drive her. I will list down my driving impressions below. Do note that she's running (what I think) is a Quantum Stage 1 Blue remap.Slot the key in, depress the clutch pedal (which BTW, has gotten very light after the clutch overhaul) and fire the TDI up. You will notice it settles into a fairly silent idle. Even on a cold start, there's little to no vibration on the steering wheel. Having said that, there is always a very feeble thrum audible inside the cabin at all times. It's not instrusive, but it's there.Slot the shifter to first and slowly let your foot off the clutch. Don't be surprised if you stall the car. The presence of a heavier dual mass flywheel means the engine does need some extra revvs to keep up the momentum. The same applies while lifting off speed breakers in second gear too. You either baby the clutch pedal out slowly, or you give it a few extra revvs and lift off. Failure to do either will again lead to the car stalling. Once you get used to it though, it's not a huge deal.Within the city, the TDI is a fairly tractable motor, typical of large displacement diesels. She won't mind if you try lifting off speedbreakers from speeds as low as 5 kmhr in second. Throttle response is crisp with the motor responding well to par throttle inputs without acting overtly jerky or sluggish. 3rd gear is also extremely versatile, with speeds as low as 25-30 kmhr possible without a downshift. It's a vital tool while commuting in moving traffic. Coupled with the light EPS (not one finger light like some of the Koreans and Japs), fairly tight turning radius and acceptable visibility (barring the ORVMs which are two sizes smaller than expected), the Jetta TDI is a fairly easy car to drive in traffic. As said before, the sensitive clutch and small ORVMs are two things that one needs to mind while piloting it in traffic.Out on the open road is where she comes into her own. Floor the A-pedal in 2nd and the tyres beg for mercy with the traction control wanting to intervene ever so slightly. The motor starts coming into its stride post 1700rpm with a strong surge. Performance is healthy, with the 2.0 TDI revving almost all the way till 4700rpm post which power tapers off gradually. The explosive mid range means overtakes are a piece of cake if you are in the right gear. Before you know it, the Jetta is doing silly speeds. The outstanding chassis behaviour (more on this later) and the punchy TDI motor are a tantalising temptation or a menacing paradox. The Jetta is a car that can play the Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde card to perfection. 6th gear is a proper overdrive ratio with 100 kmhr coming in at a relaxed 1650rpm. The upside is excellent fuel economy. The downside is that you can't let speeds drop below 80, else a downshift is the only way to get a quick move on.The gear shifter housing bushes in my car are running a bit dry (will need replacement a year or two down the line), but the GB has a very sure slotting feel to it with fairly short throws. It's not Japanese gearbox smooth (I would rate the Suzuki and Honda petrols to still have the best gearbox feel), but it isn't a letdown for an enthusiast in any way either.Coming to the proverbial Indian question, the TDI on an average manages to deliver somewhere around 13-14 km/L in the city and easily delivers upto 20 Km/L or beyond on highways depending on the duration of the journey and even driving style. Do note these are indicated figures. Subtracting around 1-1.5 km/L from these figures in my experience is what the real world fuel economy looks like. Plenty good for a 180hp and 400nm car!Overall NVH levels are what I would call above average. The motor is well insulated from the cabin with only a thrum being audible inside at all times. Even as the revvs climb, the thrum assumes the form of a muted growl, but never does the engine sound harsh or clattery. On the other hand, wind noise could have been controlled better even at legal speeds of 100-120 kmhr. You can hear the wind cutting through the pillars at these speeds distinctly, not something one would expect from a D-Segment sedan. Road noise control is above average with only the roughest of tarmac leading to some intrusion of tyre noise into the cabin.The Jetta uses a McPherson strut suspension for the front coupled with a multilink suspension for the back with twin charged dampers on all corners. The multilink suspension at the back allows for independent movement of one wheel from the other on the same axle as opposed to a torsion beam where they are both connected. An anti roll bar is also used at the back (just like the front) with link rods to keep wheel articulation in check during hard cornering and prevent body roll.Low speed ride quality is typically European. Set on the stiffer side. It's not jarring or too discomfoting, but larger potholes (especially ones with a sharp edge) will filter in at speeds below 30-40 kmhr. Pick up the speed though, and the ride improves drastically. The suspension dismisses off all road imperfections with the only bother being the fact that it doesn't go about its work in the most silent manner. It can give out discomforting thuds above speeds of 30-40 kmhr.The handling is yet another Jetta trademark. The EPS might not be the most feelsome (doesn't have any feel at all frankly) but it weighs up quite consistently and inspires a lot of confidence. Most importantly, it's pinpoint accurate. Point the nose into a corner and the Jetta dives in with aplomb. The stiffly sprung suspension now pays dividends. Outright grip is superb with the car feeling composed all throughout. Bodyroll is minimal and what adds to the sense of security is the multilink suspension at the back, which ensures the rear end always remains composed, even when the Jetta encounters potholes in the middle of a corner. High speed stability is solid and leaves no room for complaint at all. Long sweeping corners or even tight bends are both a speciality for the Jetta. The presence of EDL and ASR means you can simply pick a line through a corner and power through it. It's also reassuring to know that ESP is watching over you as you go about all this.All in all, it's not only the amount of power the Jetta puts down that impressed. It's also the way the chassis puts it down and holds its own that really makes the car a treat to drive on all sorts of roads. The only thing I would change in a suspension setup like this is to probably put stiffer dampers, though I personally think the stock Sachs dampers offer the best balance of comfort and handling on the sort of roads I do daily.And on that note, it's time to end this update. The next thread by me in all probability will be documenting the midlife overhaul and unsuccessfully trying to justify the 2L bill attached in the post above. Until then, stay safe folks.A few parting shots of the car (all chrome deleted) for your viewing pleasure. Do excuse the dusty interiors. This was immediately after work was done and before detailing. Last edited by Aditya : 17th November 2021 at 17:18 . Reason: Cuss word masked in image
Dr.AD Distinguished - BHPian
Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Bangalore/Pune Posts: 1,160 Thanked: 8,024 Times
Re: 10 years with my beloved "wrong car" - My Maruti SX4 ZXi 125,000km, and a couple of long drives:
It has been a long time since I posted any updates here. Main reason was that the car was running fine, but with a very limited usage, and there was nothing much to post an update about.
However, finally, after a long time, I have some updates to share.
First of all, the car is running absolutely fine, and is mechanically as fit as always. I got a full annual service done at a Maruti authorized service center sometime in June. The car had only run about 2,000km in one year since the last service in June 2020. However, decided to do a full service anyways (as per annual schedule) and got the car back to shipshape. The fuel lid problem I mentioned earlier was fixed too. Turned out that the problem was the cable connecting the lever in the cabin with the actual lid opening mechanism that was broken. This cable was replaced by the service center and the fuel lid opening is working fine again. Although the servicing was done and the car was totally fine, the usage remained very limited.
Reached 125,000km: Sometime in September, I reached this milestone of 125,000km. It took me three years to reach 125,000 from 120,000 (which was in September 2018). This is because my other car was doing all the running and the SX4 was only used occasionally.
125,000km on the odo, after 3 years since 120,000km:
Feeling really guilty about such low utilization on this car, which is mechanically in excellent condition and quite a capable car, I decided to fix this. Essentially decided to take this car out for a long drive, after a long time. What better way to reconnect with an old car than a solo drive to far away locations, driving across the most scenic mountains and the Western ghats, and then reaching the sea just in time for a sunset? Well, that is exactly what I did!
Solo Drive to Maravanthe Beach: I did a solo drive to Maravanthe beach, explored different routes on the onward and return journey (both the routes were through the lovely Western Ghats), and had some fun with the car. This drive helped me reconnect with the car. It was almost like spending a weekend with an old friend whom you met after a long time.
Driving on the ever beautiful Chikmagalur-Sringeri road on my way to Maravanthe:
Reached the beach well in time for the sunset:
"Dusty" on the beach:
Sunset through the window:
A very memorable evening there with my old car, watching this scene:
A parting shot of that evening:
Another photoshoot next morning, in the fresh morning light:
The old car was totally at home in this rugged setting:
And then the return journey through the lovely Western ghats again:
A different route on the way back, but equally scenic again:
This was an amazing solo drive of about 1100 km. Really enjoyed being alone with the car, in the car, driving the car and photographing the car. This helped me rejuvenate my bond with the car, and also get the batteries charged (quite literally!)
Temple drive with my parents: Luckily for me, soon after the solo drive to Maravanthe, another opportunity came up to drive this car. I have written that story here:
Just to keep this thread updated, please allow me to share some of the car photos from that drive here.
Approaching a lovely homestay near Mudigere:
At the homestay:
Even did some mild off-roading near Devaramane:
Back on the usual Chikmagalur-Sringeri road:
A parting shot at the homestay:
With these two drives, the car suddenly accrued 2,000km in less than two months! A welcome change after driving just 5,000km in previous three years . Thankfully, the car is in shipshape. And my intention is to keep her like that as long as I can. While I am back to driving my other car for next few drives, I will certainly do more drives in the SX4 in future. It has been a long time since I posted any updates here. Main reason was that the car was running fine, but with a very limited usage, and there was nothing much to post an update about.However, finally, after a long time, I have some updates to share.First of all, the car is running absolutely fine, and is mechanically as fit as always. I got a full annual service done at a Maruti authorized service center sometime in June. The car had only run about 2,000km in one year since the last service in June 2020. However, decided to do a full service anyways (as per annual schedule) and got the car back to shipshape. The fuel lid problem I mentioned earlier was fixed too. Turned out that the problem was the cable connecting the lever in the cabin with the actual lid opening mechanism that was broken. This cable was replaced by the service center and the fuel lid opening is working fine again. Although the servicing was done and the car was totally fine, the usage remained very limited.Sometime in September, I reached this milestone of 125,000km. It took me three years to reach 125,000 from 120,000 (which was in September 2018). This is because my other car was doing all the running and the SX4 was only used occasionally.125,000km on the odo, after 3 years since 120,000km:Feeling really guilty about such low utilization on this car, which is mechanically in excellent condition and quite a capable car, I decided to fix this. Essentially decided to take this car out for a long drive, after a long time. What better way to reconnect with an old car than a solo drive to far away locations, driving across the most scenic mountains and the Western ghats, and then reaching the sea just in time for a sunset? Well, that is exactly what I did!I did a solo drive to Maravanthe beach, explored different routes on the onward and return journey (both the routes were through the lovely Western Ghats), and had some fun with the car. This drive helped me reconnect with the car. It was almost like spending a weekend with an old friend whom you met after a long time.Driving on the ever beautiful Chikmagalur-Sringeri road on my way to Maravanthe:Reached the beach well in time for the sunset:"Dusty" on the beach:Sunset through the window:A very memorable evening there with my old car, watching this scene:A parting shot of that evening:Another photoshoot next morning, in the fresh morning light:The old car was totally at home in this rugged setting:And then the return journey through the lovely Western ghats again:A different route on the way back, but equally scenic again:This was an amazing solo drive of about 1100 km. Really enjoyed being alone with the car, in the car, driving the car and photographing the car. This helped me rejuvenate my bond with the car, and also get the batteries charged (quite literally!)Luckily for me, soon after the solo drive to Maravanthe, another opportunity came up to drive this car. I have written that story here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...s-old-car.html (Western Ghats, Temples and an old car) Just to keep this thread updated, please allow me to share some of the car photos from that drive here.Approaching a lovely homestay near Mudigere:At the homestay:Even did some mild off-roading near Devaramane:Back on the usual Chikmagalur-Sringeri road:A parting shot at the homestay:With these two drives, the car suddenly accrued 2,000km in less than two months! A welcome change after driving just 5,000km in previous three years. Thankfully, the car is in shipshape. And my intention is to keep her like that as long as I can. While I am back to driving my other car for next few drives, I will certainly do more drives in the SX4 in future. Last edited by Dr.AD : 16th November 2021 at 19:20 .
In brief: Apples M1-series chipsets have impressed with their performance and energy efficiency, so much so that Qualcomm is looking to offer a similar solution for Windows laptops. The chipmaker says it expects the first commercial devices powered by this new chip to land in 2023.
MediaTek is slowly eating away Qualcomms share of the mobile chipset market, but the latter isnt particularly worried about it. Qualcomm is more concerned about making laptop processors that could compete with those made by Intel, AMD, and Apple.
During the Investor Day 2021 event, the chipmaker announced that its next-generation Arm-based SoC is on track to launch in 2023. Dr. James Thompson, Qualcomms chief technology officer, said the new chip is designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs and offer comparable value to that of Apples M-series chipsets.
Qualcomms new silicon is being developed by Nuvia, which it acquired earlier this year for $1.4 billion. The Nuvia team is led by three former Apple employees that previously worked on A-series chipsets for iPhone and iPad. Before joining Qualcomm, Nuvia was testing a prototype Phoenix CPU core that was supposedly capable of delivering up to two times the performance of the most efficient x86 CPU core for laptops within a power envelope of 4.5 watts.
Competing with Apples M-series chipsets will also require a beefier GPU. Qualcomm says it will be scaling up its Adreno GPU design to offer desktop-class gaming performance on laptops. The chipmaker also promises sustained performance on battery power, comparable to the Apple M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips.
Qualcomm plans to have samples of the new chip for PC manufacturers sometime next year and expects the first devices powered by it to launch in 2023.
Why it matters: Microsoft is accelerating its Windows11 rollout starting today. To facilitate this, Windows 10 will move to an annual feature update cadence and will also likely see fewer significant additions since the OS has entered its end-of-life cycle. Microsoft promises support for Windows 10 until October 14th, 2025.
On Patch Tuesday, Microsoft announced it is adjusting its Windows 10 update cadence to fall in line with Windows 11. Beginning with the 21H2 patch, Windows 10 users can expect regular feature updates annually.
"We will transition to a new Windows 10 release cadence to align with the Windows 11 cadence, targeting annual feature update releases," said John Cable, Microsoft's vice president of Windows servicing and delivery. "The next Windows 10 feature update is slated for the second half of 2022. We will continue to support at least one version of Windows 10 through Oct. 14, 2025."
He also said the servicing channel, formally known as the "Semi-Annual Channel," has been renamed the "General Availability Channel," starting with today's update.
The Windows 10 21H2 patch is not that significant. It brings WPA3 H2E support for better WiFi security. It also streamlines Windows Hello for Business to allow for quicker, smoother, passwordless deployments. Lastly, the update adds GPU compute support to WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and EFLOW (Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows). Utilizing GPU cycles should aid machine-learning deployments and other heavy workloads.
While there may be more substantial Windows 10 updates in the future, users should keep expectations in check. Microsoft is heavily focused on Windows 11, and Cable said Microsoft is stepping up its Windows 11 rollout starting today.
"Based on the positive rollout update experience and user feedback we have seen to date, we are advancing the pace of the rollout faster than we previously anticipated, and now making the Windows 11 upgrade more broadly available to eligible Windows 10 devices [sic]," says the VP.
Microsoft's accelerated Windows 11 rollout might explain its decision to end support for x64 emulation in Windows 10. This move will essentially force Surface Insiders who run x64 apps to upgrade to Windows 11, even if that means they need a newer device. Microsoft sneakily announced this today by updating a nearly one-year-old blog post about the x64 emulation preview released last December.
"x64 emulation for Windows is now generally available in Windows 11," the update reads. "For those interested in experiencing this, a PC running Windows 11 on Arm is required."
In context: Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in a series of investigations and controversies over the past few months following reports of widespread sexual misconduct and harassment within the company. Several alleged harassers have already resigned, but that hasn't put an end to this debacle. Now, reports claim Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick not only knew about the misconduct, but may have attempted to protect some accused employees from punishment.
This news comes courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which has spoken to several sources close to Activision, its subsidiaries, and those with knowledge of the company's board of directors.
The article leads with quite a claim: back in 2016, a former Sledgehammer Games employee (an Activision studio) alleged that she had been raped in "2016 and 2017" by a "male supervisor" after being pressured to consume "too much alcohol" in the office and at work-related functions. The encounters were reported to Activision's HR department, supervisors, and even the police, but according to the WSJ, nothing came of it.
Sometime later, Activision settled with the woman, effectively putting an end to that particular case. However, importantly, Kotick failed to report the matter to Activision's board of directors. Other similar incidents also went unreported by the executive, the WSJ alleges.
The allegations don't stop there. Earlier this year, California officially filed suit against Activision Blizzard for harassment, discrimination, sexism, and other problems related to its "frat boy" culture.
In response to the lawsuit, Activision Blizzard exec Frances Townsend penned an email calling the action both "meritless" and irresponsible," claiming that it contained "distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past."
We have instituted our own Zero Tolerance Policy. We will not be silenced until Bobby Kotick has been replaced as CEO, and continue to hold our original demand for Third-Party review by an employee-chosen source. We are staging a Walkout today. We welcome you to join us. ABetterABK ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) November 16, 2021
At least, we thought the email came from Townsend. The WSJ says it was Kotick himself that penned the response but chose to send it under Townsend's name (presumably to avoid negative PR).
In 2017, the WSJ says Kotick intervened on behalf of Activision Treyarch's co-lead Dan Bunting, who was accused of sexually harassing a female employee in 2017 "after a night of drinking." The outlet claims an internal investigation soon followed and ultimately led investigators to recommend Bunting be fired. However, Kotick allegedly "intervened to keep him," though it's unclear what that means.
There are plenty more stories like the ones we've just mentioned in the WSJ's full report, so if you want all of the context, we recommend reading it. With that said, we should emphasize that these are just allegations for now and should not be taken as concrete facts or outright falsehoods.
Either way, this is a terrible look for a company and a CEO that are both already under immense pressure from the public, lawyers, and regulators. Even Activision Blizzard employees are enraged: dozens of workers have staged a walkout, demanding that the executive be fired from his position.
Activision Blizzard has responded to the WSJ report with the following statement:
We are disappointed in the Wall Street Journals report, which presents a misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO. Instances of sexual misconduct that were brought to his attention were acted upon. The WSJ ignores important changes underway to make this the industrys most welcoming and inclusive workplace and it fails to account for the efforts of thousands of employees who work hard every day to live up to their and our - values. The constant desire to be better has always set this company apart. Which is why, at Mr. Koticks direction, we have made significant improvements, including a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate conduct. And it is why we are moving forward with unwavering focus, speed, and resources to continue increasing diversity across our company and industry and to ensure that every employee comes to work feeling valued, safe, respected, and inspired. We will not stop until we have the best workplace for our team.
While the work Activision Blizzard is currently doing to address workplace inequality is certainly admirable, only the first sentence of this response attempts to dispute the WSJ's claims. Even then, the company fails to offer any reasoning behind its words -- in what way is the WSJ's report "misleading"?
At any rate, we'll let you decide for yourself how to feel about this situation. It's a complex matter, to be sure, and it's perhaps best left to the courts and legal experts to unpack.
In a nutshell: With the holiday season approaching, Google has updated Maps with a couple of new features that build upon the apps vast wealth of existing information to show which areas are busier than usual and help travelers and shoppers navigate malls, airports and transit stations with a new directories section. For those in the US, the apps pickup feature will now work across more stores, while dining spots are getting a price range section based on user feedback.
Google Maps already lets people know about the busy hours of a point of interest with its live busyness feature. Its now building upon that tool to inform users about busy places and neighborhoods as traveling and shopping for the holiday season ramps up around the world.
The Area Busyness feature, as Google calls it, should help users avoid getting stuck in jam-packed areas and situations while being equally useful for those looking for a lively crowd. Googles update to the app, released on iOS and Android, also adds a new directory tab for places like airports and shopping malls. The directory section displays store types by category, with businesses and their detailed info (timings, floor, rating) listed under each category.
Google's Pickup (left) and restaurant price range feature (right) is for US users only
While the aforementioned updates will reach the apps global audience, those in the US are getting two additional features. One of these is an improved Pickup feature that lets grocery shoppers track their orders and share their arrival time with the store in advance. Google says the feature, introduced in Oregon earlier this year, now works in over 2,000 Kroger Family store locations in 30+ states.
Lastly, dining spots in the US will now display a price range to help users decide according to budget. This data is gathered from user contributions, and Google says it's also rolling out a simpler process for getting detailed reviews to inform visitors if a restaurant offers amenities like outdoor seating, delivery and curbside pickup.
What just happened? With the state of the graphics card market worsening, weve long heard rumors of refreshed RTX 2060 with 12GB of VRAM that Nvidia hopes will meet some of the demand. Based on a new regulatory filing by Gigabyte, it appears that the card could be announced this month and released early in December.
Although relaunch rumors stretch back to January, we last heard about the spec-bumped RTX 2060 in September, when Nvidia was reportedly planning to launch it as a way of filling a gap in the market until Intel releases its first Arc Alchemist GPU.
Previous rumors claimed that the updated RTX 2060 would launch on December 7, but Nvidia could announce the card earlier. Prolific leaker @momomo_us spotted a Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) filing published on November 15 that references four new Gigabyte graphics card SKUs:
GV-N2060OC-12GD
GV-N2060D6-12GD
GV-N2060WF2OC-12GD
GV-N2060WF2-12GD
All the cards appear to be RTX 2060 cards with 12GB of VRAM, double the 6GB of GDDR6 that the original launched with in January 2019. They all carry either the GB Gaming or GB WindForce brand and come in standard and overclocked versions.
While the 12GB of VRAM appears a certainty, the rest of the new RTX 2060s specs are just speculation right now. However, it does seem likely that it will use a different GPU to its predecessor, thereby boosting the number of CUDA cores.
Although TSMC's 12nm offerings aren't facing the same demand as its 7nm/5nm output, Nvidia might have reasons beyond supply issues for releasing an updated RTX 2060. The card could be the companys new 'cheaper' option thats set to compete with AMDs upcoming Navi 24-based budget line, which is expected to outperform the likes of the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti.
The big question is how much the new RTX 2060 will cost. Its predicted to carry an MSRP of around $300, which means youll probably end up paying over $400 for one. Assuming the rumors are accurate, well know the full story when Nvidia announces the card later this month, with a launch date set for December 7though some believe January is a more realistic release window.
Editor's take: Subscription-based music streaming service Tidal has revamped its membership offerings, adding a free tier and splitting its HiFi catalog into two. For most, the standard HiFi tier should suffice in terms of quality. Unless you have an audio system capable of conveying the subtleties that the Plus tier can deliver, there's really no sense in paying extra for it.
Tidals new free tier, available from today to listeners in the US, grants access to the companys entire catalog of over 80 million songs and playlists with limited interruptions. Streaming quality is limited to 160 kbps, however, which Tidal says is a good compromise between data usage and sound fidelity.
For those interested in higher quality content, Square-owned Tidal now offers two paid tiers. The HiFi tier, priced at $9.99 per month, delivers tunes using the lossless format FLAC and tops out at 1411 kbps. This tier does away with ads entirely, and allows for offline listening with unlimited skips.
The HiFi Plus tier, meanwhile, commands $19.99 per month in exchange for access to Master Quality audio, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio and HiFi at up to 9216 kbps.
All three tiers have access to the same library of songs, and Tidal said it plans to extend the free tier to other markets in the future. A free 30-day trial accompanies the paid plans, so you can try them out for a month before committing financially. Theres also an import feature to help transfer your playlists from other services to Tidal.
Image credit Pixabay
(Photo : by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images) An US giant Amazon employee passes by its logo on the opening day of the new distribution center in Augny, eastern France, on September 23, 2021. (Photo : by PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP via Getty Images) An employee of the Amazon electronic commerce company works on April 11, 2015 in Lauwin-Planque, northern France.
Amazon is now being ordered to pay a fine to the tune of $500,000 for hiding its COVID-19 case numbers in its workplaces from its employees in California.
Amazon to Pay Fine After Hiding COVID-19 Cases
As per the report by Los Angeles Times, the e-commerce tech giant has already agreed to pay the hefty fine, the attorney general of California said in a statement. It comes after a complaint alleges that Amazon hid the number of COVID-19 cases from its working force.
The news outlet further noted that the fine imposed on Amazon is the first-ever incident under the newly passed law in the state of California that goes by the name "right to know."
The new law is actually meant to keep the workplaces in the said region safe from dangers like the COVID-19.
It further requires all employers in California to inform their workers about any coronavirus cases within a day. On top of that, businesses also need to relay the said information to the local health agencies in the span of 48 hours in times of outbreak.
Aside from the fine that Amazon is willing to pay, the tech giant is now also required to inform folks working in its warehouses in the said states regarding the exact COVID-19 cases, if there are any.
Amazon and COVID-19 Cases Numbers
According to the news story by The Verge, the attorney general of the state of California, Rob Bonta, disclosed that the penalty being asked from Amazon comes after a complaint was filed regarding its workplace conditions.
The complaint against Amazon exposed that the tech giant failed to notify not just its workforce about COVID-19 cases, but also the respective local health agencies.
It went on to claim that the retail tech behemoth is "often leaving them in the dark," which in turn ends up making it to be "unable to effectively track the spread of the virus."
The press release from the attorney general of California also noted that businesses should continue to protect their employees from the raging threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever as we are nearing the holiday season.
Meanwhile, Amazon has been generous with its employee COVID-19 vaccination rewards, which include brand new cars, as well as $100,000 worth of payouts.
Read Also: Amazon Echo and Echo Dot Now Equipped With an Ultrasound Feature to Detect People in Your Home
Amazon Fine
In a separate issue, Amazon previously paid its biggest fine payment last July 30 after allegedly breaking the data protection laws from the European Union.
As per BBC's report, the National Commission for Data Protection of Luxembourg said that the tech giant was processing the personal data of its users, which is against the laws under the jurisdiction of the EU.
Related Article: Amazon Wants Users to Have 'Less' Talk With Alexa | Company Expects More Improvements For AI Assistant
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Written by Teejay Boris
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @RiotForge) Riot Forge's New 'League of Legends'-Based Games: 'Ruined King,' 'Song of Nunu,' and More! Availability and Other Details (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @LioOneMorePixel) Riot Forge's New 'League of Legends'-Based Games: 'Ruined King,' 'Song of Nunu,' and More! Availability and Other Details
Riot Forge, a game publisher under Riot Games, announced some new "League of Legends"-based titles. These are specifically the new "Ruined King," "Song of Nunu," "Hextech Mayhem," and "CONV/RGENCE."
Join the battle to save Bilgewater with the Ruined King Collectors Edition, available exclusively at Riot Games Merch.
https://t.co/K74j8ehF2b pic.twitter.com/C4BipF5KaG Riot Forge (@RiotForge) November 16, 2021
Each of them is unique from one another. For example, the new "Ruined King" title is an RPG (role-playing video game) based on the popular strategic game of Riot Games.
Meanwhile, "Hextech Mayhem" is a rhythm title. This means that it is quite similar to some popular mobile games requiring players to tap on the screen so that their characters can avoid obstacles in each level.
To give you more idea, here are other details of the newly confirmed games of Riot Forge.
Riot Forge's 'League of Legends'-Based Games
According to UpComer's latest report, the new RPG title of Riot Forge is based on the character Viego, also known as Ruined King. But, this new game is not only limited to him.
Also Read: Netflix's 'Arcane' Creators Looking into More Shows in the Future; Story, Lore for 'League of Legends'
The new "Ruined King" RPG title would also feature other heroes like Ahri, Yasuo, Pyke, Braum, Illaoi, and Miss Fortune. Riot Forge also confirmed that it would release new champs moving forward.
Meanwhile, the new "Hextech Mayhem" would use Ziggs as its standout hero. When it comes to gameplay, this new title is similar to "Geometry Dash," "BIT.TRIP RUNNER," as well as "Muse Dash."
On the other hand, "Hextech Mayhem" will have limited gaming platform compatibility since it would only be available on Nintendo Switch and PC. "Ruined King" is quite better since players can access the new RPG game via PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, as well as PC and Nintendo Switch, as confirmed by Riot Games' official website.
Other 'League of Legends'-Based Titles
Aside from the new "Ruined King" and "Hextech Mayhem," which are now available on Riot Forge's official website, the new title publisher would also release the new "Song of Nunu" this coming 2022.
On the other hand, this upcoming title would also be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, as well as PC. "Song of Nunu" is also an RPG game, just like "Ruined King."
Meanwhile, Riot Games focuses on its popular "League of Legends" title. Recently, we reported that "League of Legends" Make My Profile Private would be removed.
"League of Legends" has officially arrived on Epic Games Store in other news.
For more news updates about "League of Legends" and other similar titles, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: 'League of Legends' 7th Item Slot From Riot Games? Developer Accidentally Posted the Image
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(Photo : Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images) MUNICH, GERMANY - DECEMBER 06: The Apple logo is seen in the Munich downtown pedestrian zone during dawn of the opening day of Germany's first Apple shop on December 6, 2008 in Munich, Germany. The 226th Apple store is the first in Germany and situated close to famous Munich city center Marienplatz. (Photo : Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) An attendee looks at a new iPhone X during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California. Apple held their first special event at the new Apple Park campus where they announced the new iPhone 8, iPhone X and the Apple Watch Series 3.
The new Apple Self Service Repair program is now confirmed to arrive by 2022. The giant iPhone maker said that the consumers in the United States would be the first lucky ones to take advantage of the upcoming initiative.
Although this is the case, other Apple gadget owners across the globe would also have it as the giant tech manufacturer rolls out the new program.
"Apple today announced Self Service Repair, which will allow customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs access to Apple genuine parts and tools," said the popular iPhone maker via its official Newsroom blog post.
The company added that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 would be the first Apple smartphones to be included in the new Self Service Repair initiative.
What Apple Self Service Repair Program Offers
According to Tech Crunch's latest report, the upcoming Apple Self Service Repair program would provide the essential gadget components, as well as the needed tools so that iPhone and Mac owners could repair their devices themselves.
Also Read: Apple Mac Mini M1 Hits Record Low Price of $600 on Amazon
Aside from the important equipment, Apple also made sure that the interested consumers would have the right knowledge on how to repair their smartphones and laptops.
The giant tech firm would educate them by sending online repair manuals, which would be accessible through the new Apple Self Service Repair Online Store. However, the iPhone maker explained that only written manuals would be available.
Apple hasn't confirmed if it would also release video tutorials about iPhone and Mac repairs.
Other Details of Apple's New Initiative
Aside from the mentioned details above, Apple also confirmed that the consumers could join around 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs).
On the other hand, they could also participate in more than 2,800 Independent Repair Providers. This innovation would be useful, especially since the pandemic still prevents many people from visiting Apple Stores to have their gadgets fixed.
In other news, Apple Maps received a new feature that could receive road accident reports. On the other hand, the Apple Wallet app confirmed allowing digital IDs, but with strict requirements.
For more news updates about Apple and its upcoming initiatives, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: Latest Apple Pay Promo to Deliver Special Holiday Discounts at Checkout in Snapfish App
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Written by: Griffin Davis
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The 15th Judicial District Attorneys Office has refused charges against Lafayette attorney and former Boy Scouts of America scoutmaster Barry Rozas, who was arrested in February after an accusation of sexual abuse years ago while he was a scout leader.
Rozas said he received a letter from the district attorneys office in early November announcing theyve declined to pursue charges.
Rozas was arrested on a count of first-degree rape by the Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office on Feb. 2 after the agency was forwarded complaints of 28 possible instances of sexual misconduct involving juvenile victims between 1955 and 2012 by the Boy Scouts of America in November 2020, a statement from the sheriffs office said.
+3 Lafayette attorney and former Boy Scout volunteer arrested on rape charge involving juveniles A local attorney and Boys Scouts of America volunteer was arrested on a rape charge after an accusation of sexual abuse while working as a sco
The former troop leader said it was terrifying trying to defend his innocence, which he maintained since arrest, with little information about the accusation. He said he was not told who his accuser was or many specifics about the accusation.
To be arrested and to not even know what the details are was as scary as anything Ive ever had to experience...How do you defend yourself with 20 years of scouting and service to the church, to the community how do you defend yourself if you dont even know what theyre talking about? he said.
District Attorney Don Landry confirmed his office has declined charges in the case.
After reviewing the evidence and meeting with the alleged victim on at least two occasions we determined the charges should be refused, he said.
Three people indicted on murder charges in St. Landry Parish Three people were indicted on murder charges in St. Landry Parish after a grand jury convened last week.
Rozas first joined troop leadership in 1999 in Mamou, then continued with the scouts when he moved to Lafayette in 2003 and eventually led St. Pius Elementary Schools Troop 10 from 2009 to 2016, according to the troops website. He then moved into adult leadership training until the accusation was made this spring.
The former Boy Scouts volunteer said he and his attorney, Kevin Stockstill, knew the claim stemmed from 2004 and believe they narrowed the source of the abuse claim down to a scouting campout event at the Cajundome or its neighboring convention center, based on details in a redacted copy of the sheriffs office probable cause affidavit they were provided.
Rozas said he didnt attend the event where the alleged abuse took place.
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His troop opted for a different trip for that months troop event. They found no reference to the event in past troop newsletters, no badges in their family collection from the event, no photos of Rozas or his sons attending, either in their own photo collection or in photos and scrapbooks other scouting families whose children attended kept from the time and offered for review.
+8 Brothers convicted of conspiring to murder boxer Brandon Broussard seek new trial, acquittal Sentencing has been postponed for two brothers convicted in July of conspiring to murder Lafayette boxer Brandon Broussard.
They also pulled information from his social calendar, including his attendance at an early morning retreat at St. Pius Catholic Church the morning following the overnight campout.
Stockstill said his client was adamant about voluntarily bringing his collected evidence to the sheriffs office after his arrest and giving a statement.
I dont think in 25 years Ive had a client give a statement after they were arrested...Barry insisted on meeting with law enforcement because he wanted to tell his side of the story, Stockstill said.
Rozas said hes thankful for the support of former scouts, friends, family and members of their church that helped buoy him since the arrest, and said he appreciates the due diligence of the district attorneys office.
+2 Quawan Charles' mother sues police, sheriff over response to missing teen who later died The mother of a teen found dead in a sugar cane field days after being reported missing is suing two law enforcement agencies for failing to t
The former scoutmaster said he was especially appreciative of a petition he was sent that was signed by more 30 former scouts, attesting to their positive experiences with him and that theyd never witnessed any potential signs of abuse committed by Rozas.
I dont even have words. I cried...To know these guys got what our scoutmaster corps was trying to do, to try to mold them into great young men, to see they understood that and appreciated it made my heart absolutely sing, Rozas said.
The local attorney said hes still absorbing the news that his case is resolved. Rozas said hes spent time personally thanking those whove reached out over the months and wants to travel with his family, now that he can breathe. He said even after the pain, he still sees scouting in his future. He and his wife plan to reapply to volunteer and would like to be involved in some way.
I want to thank the Lafayette community. They opened their doors to us in 2003 and then they were there again in our moment of need, and Ill never forget that, he said.
Sentencing has been postponed for two brothers convicted in July of conspiring to murder Lafayette boxer Brandon Broussard.
Shavis Toby and Carlos Toby filed separate motions through their attorneys this month in Lafayette's 15th Judicial District Court concerning the outcome of their joint trial during which state prosecutors convinced a jury that the brothers conspired to murder Broussard in retaliation for a nightclub fight. The defense attorneys argued in their motions for a new trial and for an acquittal that the state presented insufficient evidence against their clients.
State prosecutors Roya Boustany and Alisa Gothreaux spent two weeks over the summer presenting evidence in an effort to prove that Carlos Toby was the thinker and Shavis Toby was the actor who ambushed Broussard in front of a 4-year-old child as Broussard exited his truck Oct. 13, 2018. Prosecutors said the brothers conspired to commit murder in retaliation for a nightclub fight two weeks earlier during which Broussard humiliated Carlos Toby.
Defense attorneys Kevin Boshea and Todd Clemons agreed during the trial that Broussards killing was gruesome, but argued their clients were not responsible for it. They said the states evidence was circumstantial, continuously pointing to errors in law enforcement reports, questioning the accuracy of cellphone data and probing witnesses about inconsistencies in their testimonies.
On July 3, the trial jury found Shavis Toby to be guilty of second-degree murder and guilty of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Carlos Toby was found to be not guilty of second-degree murder and guilty of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
+2 After guilty verdicts, brother attempts to spit at judge in murder trial of Lafayette boxer During pretrial hearings, Shavis Toby had outbursts in the courtroom that his brother's defense attorney worried might prejudice a jury agains
The murder charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison at hard labor without the possibility of parole. The conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison at hard labor. Sentencing was set to happen this week but has been rescheduled to February because of the recent motions.
Clemons, who is representing Carlos Toby, argued in his Nov. 2 motion for a new trial that the mixed verdicts returned by the jury demonstrate the need for each of the Toby brothers to have a separate trial. Clemons said he asked the court four times to sever the cases so each brother would have his own trial "to avoid Mr. (Carlos) Toby being found guilty based solely on his association as the brother of his co-defendant."
In his Nov. 9 motion for a judgment of acquittal, Clemons argued that there is "no legally sound way to reconcile the two verdicts" and the judge "must intervene to ensure that justice prevails."
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Boshea, who is representing Shavis Toby, argued in his Nov. 10 motion for a new trial that the state's evidence against his client is "circumstantial and speculative in nature." Boshea also argued that a new trial is warranted based on the introduction of new DNA evidence days before the trial's June 21 start that "directly led to the defendant's conviction."
In his Nov. 8 motion for post-verdict judgment and acquittal, Boshea argued that "evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the state does not reasonably permit a finding of guilty as charged" to either charge.
State prosecutors said during the trial that Broussard's killing likely would have gone unsolved if it had happened 20 years ago, but modern technology in the form of cellphone tracking, DNA testing and video surveillance helped detectives build their case against the Toby brothers.
+8 Jury returns guilty, not guilty verdicts Saturday for brothers in murder trial of boxer Update: The jury in a two-defendant murder trial over the October 2018 murder of Lafayette boxer Brandon Broussard returned verdicts about 8:3
The strongest evidence presented by the state was the DNA of Shavis Toby found on the fingertip of a blue latex glove that was recovered from the crime scene. Other evidence prosecutors presented include cellphone records that placed both brothers' devices near the Grossie Lane home at the time of the homicide and surveillance footage that appeared to show vehicles associated with each brother casing the neighborhood in the hours before the crime.
The defense pointed to other suspects law enforcement may have overlooked and questioned whether someone could have placed the glove tip at the scene of the crime during the trial.
In addition to filing motions for a new trial and an acquittal, Boshea also appealed Shavis Toby's conviction, and Clemons asked the court to consider a short sentence for Carlos Toby.
Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeal will review Shavis Toby's case, and 15th JDC Judge Royale Colbert will consider Clemons' request for a sentence of six years in prison for Carlos Toby.
When Henry Montgomery was incarcerated as a teenager in 1963 for killing an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriffs deputy, John F. Kennedy was still alive and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had given his I Have a Dream speech just three months earlier.
On Wednesday, after nearly six decades behind bars, Montgomery walked out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola a free man after the states Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole voted unanimously to release the 75-year-old.
For criminal justice advocates across Louisiana and the country the decision was a victory five years in the making.
Montgomerys case first entered the national consciousness in 2016, when it played a central role in a landmark ruling on juvenile sentences, Montgomery v. Louisiana, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that youth offenders cannot be sentenced to mandatory life without parole, even in prior cases, deeming such punishments unconstitutional.
Following the Supreme Courts decision, Montgomery was re-sentenced to life with the opportunity for parole, but was denied freedom twice, first in 2018 and again in 2019.
Henry coming home sends a signal that you can overcome the worst thing you ever did, said Andrew Hundley, Executive Director of the Parole Project, an organization founded shortly after the 2016 ruling. He has long advocated for the release of Montgomery and others like him.
It tells young people 'we do value your life as a young person, and we do want you to redeem yourself, he said.
Fifty-eight years ago this week, the then-17-year-old was accused of killing East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Deputy Charles Hurt after Hurt caught him playing hooky from school. Montgomery was was later sentenced to death.
According to Advocate and court records, Montgomery had skipped class and was walking near Scotlandville High School when he came across Hurt, 40, and other deputies as they investigated a separate theft complaint that had been called in by the school.
When Hurt tried to detain Montgomery, the teen shot him once with a .22-caliber pistol, leaving Hurts three children, Michael Francis, 11, Becky Jo, 8, and Linda Ann, 6, fatherless and spurring a city-wide manhunt.
An Advocate article from the time reported that in response to Hurts killing the first of a law enforcement officer for the city in 30 years more than 60 Black men were arrested at roadblocks set up as some 300 law enforcement officers converged on Scotlandville.
Montgomery ultimately confessed to the killing, leading investigators to a block building at the rear of his home on Hooper Road where the murder weapon lay hidden among a mass of cobwebs. He told authorities he was panicking when he shot Hurt outside his school.
In 1966, Louisianas Supreme Court threw out Montgomerys conviction after it determined he hadnt received a fair trial. The case was then retried and Montgomery was convicted again, this time receiving a sentence of life in prison.
His 2019 attempt at parole was denied after one previous board member, Brennan Kelsey, voted against it, stating at the time that he believed Montgomery still needed to take more classes and complete more programming a sentiment also expressed by a different board during Montgomerys first hearing in 2018.
Montgomerys lawyer, Keith Nordyke, protested the decision, calling his client a force for change and a force for good, adding that prison officials had worked hard following the first courts decision to find additional classes for Montgomery to take.
Nordyke noted that during his incarceration, Montgomery started a boxing club, was involved in a Methodist church ministry and organized a literacy program for fellow inmates that included helping them write letters home. He said Montgomery completed several programs, including anger management and victim awareness classes.
The results of Wednesdays hearing are the most recent signal of a cultural shift in law enforcement and public attitudes towards offenders, which for decades leaned heavily in favor of tough on crime approaches that left little room or opportunity for redemption when it came to societys youngest offenders.
In a 2012 Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama, the court ruled, similarly to its 2016s decision, that sentencing underage offenders to life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, 18 states and the District of Columbia have banned life without parole for juveniles, bringing the total number to 24.
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In the five years since its founding, the Parole Project has helped free more than 220 men and women sentenced to die in prison, including 90 who were sentenced before the age of 18.
Twelve of those men and women gathered inside a room at the Parole Projects headquarters in downtown Baton Rouge Wednesday to listen over a video call as Montgomery, now partially deaf, sat through his final hearing.
For Hundley, the first inmate to be freed following the Supreme Courts 2016 ruling, the moment was bittersweet. While he and others enjoyed their newfound freedom, they have also long carried the weight of guilt knowing that Montgomery, the man for whom the organization was formed, remained behind bars.
At Montgomerys advanced age, Hundley continued, he wont have access to the same opportunities as other men and women who have been released.
Having Henry home means so much to those of us who have benefitted from Montgomery v. Louisiana, Hundley said. I have been able to reap the benefits of his petition before the court. Ive graduated twice. Ive started a nonprofit organization. Ive started a family. Im an active member of my community.
Every day I would wake up and realize here I am, someone who did such a small percentage of my life in prison compared to Henry, and Ive been given so many opportunities. Henry will never have the opportunities that Ive had.
While advocates fought hard for Montgomerys release, Hurts family remained opposed to the notion. During his parole hearing, Hurts youngest daughter stated she believed her fathers killer felt no remorse for his actions, adding that she was appalled to learn that the Parole Project intended to move Montgomery to East Baton Rouge Parish, near where Hurts surviving relatives still live.
"I think it shows great disrespect to all officers for him to be released," Linda Hurt said. "I don't believe he's sorry. I was raised to believe that if you make a mistake, you suffer the consequences. He made a decision at 17 years old. You know right from wrong at 17 years old.
Wednesday, Montgomery expressed the guilt he said he still feels over the events of that day.
Im real sorry that it happened, he told Hurts family. Im going to deal with this all my life, for the rest of my life.
In a statement to The Advocate, District Attorney Hillar Moore III also expressed concern over plans to relocate Montgomery to Baton Rouge, noting that at previous hearings, it was explicitly stated that he would not reside in the area. The plan years ago was to move Montgomery to Opelousas, lawyers in the case said Wednesday.
Moore argued Montgomerys release to East Baton Rouge would only serve to reopen longstanding wounds.
We recognize the difficulty in the decision the parole board made today and respect it, Moore said. We also acknowledge Mr. Montgomerys youthful age at the time he committed the murder of Deputy Charles Hurt, as well as the decades-long sentence he has served.
All three board members expressed their condolences to Hurt's family, but pointed to Montgomerys exemplary record during the 58 years spent behind bars, saying they felt Montgomery had done his time and demonstrated considerable progress during his nearly six decades of incarceration.
There was nothing more to be gained by keeping him behind bars.
As part of his parole guidelines, Montgomery will have a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and is prohibited from contacting Hurts family in any way.
After the boards decision Wednesday, Nordyke noted that the world his client is preparing to enter looks very different from the one he left behind all those years ago.
Montgomery began his sentence long before the dawn of the internet, cell phones and social media, he continued, which has made it difficult for him to comprehend just how far-reaching his story has become.
"Henry has been here throughout tremendous advances in history," Nordyke said. "He's got a lot of catching up to do."
A Napoleonville man wanted in an Ascension Parish slaying last week was tracked to an apartment in Baton Rouge and arrested, sheriff's deputies said.
Carlos J. Nicholas, 28, remained Wednesday in the Ascension Parish Detention Center after being booked Tuesday night on counts of second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, deputies said.
+2 Deputies searching for man accused of fatal shooting in Donaldsonville Ascension Parish sheriff's deputies are looking for a 28-year-old man wanted in a fatal shooting Friday night in Donaldsonville.
Deputies said Nicholas shot James Bell, 39, sometime before 10:24 p.m. Friday, deputies have said.
Bell's body was found in a home on Third Street in Donaldsonville, deputies have said.
Detectives don't know why Bell was shot.
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Nicholas, who had been at large since the shooting Friday, previously lived in Donaldsonville and had been released from state prison on Feb. 16, corrections officials said.
Nicholas had finished serving out the combined sentences for five of convictions in Ascension and Livingston parishes, including simple burglary, theft and drug possession, Ascension records show.
Ascension sheriff's deputies said Nicholas' vehicle and general location were found with the help of the Assumption Parish Sheriffs office and the Baton Rouge Police Department.
The U.S. Marshalls Middle District Louisiana Fugitive Task Force assisted with capturing and arresting Nicholas in Baton Rouge.
He was waiting in parish jail Wednesday for his bail to be set, deputies said.
A deer got loose in Baton Rouge's Our Lady of the Lake Hospital on Tuesday. Which is weird.
But it's probably not South Louisiana's weirdest animal encounter over the past few years. Or is it?
Louisiana has experienced a plethora of wild animal encounters over the past several years, but which one takes the cake? Here's a list of some of the craziest run-ins since 2018 vote in our poll below for the one you think is wildest.
Deer in the hospital
+2 Injured deer that ran through Our Lady of the Lake euthanized; it had likely been hit by car After a deer was hit by a car on Essen Lane and bee-lined through the front door of Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge Monday aftern
After a deer was hit by a car on Essen Lane, it ran into the front entrance of Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge on Nov. 15. It leapt up an escalator to the second floor before staff and a law enforcement officer managed to subdue it. Wildlife and Fisheries officials took the deer to their headquarters, where she was euthanized.
Dead alligator in a pink dumpster
Following Hurricane Ida in August, a large alligator was found wrapped in a blue roofing tarp hanging out of a bright pink dumpster at the corner of Perrier and Upperline streets in New Orleans. The strange sight attracted waves of visitors and quickly became a social media sensation one person even tattooed the image on her thigh.
Theres a big dead alligator sticking out of a pink dumpster on Perrier Street -- No lie The tail of a rather large, dead alligator protruded from a pink dumpster at the corner of Perrier and Upperline streets at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Th
Remember the dead alligator in the pink dumpster? Now its a tattoo It was early September. The streets of New Orleans were lined with fallen limbs after Hurricane Ida, utility workers from across the South lab
Broad Street Stingray
During a COVID lockdown in January of 2021, New Orleans residents spotted and smelled a large dead stingray decomposing on Broad Street. Its origin is still a mystery, although some surmise it flew off the back of a fisherman's passing truck.
The Broad Street stingray: A mysterious rotting fish spurs a smelly search in New Orleans My Uber driver Gary thought I was talking about a sexy automobile. But no, when I said I needed to get to North Broad Street to see a stingray
Cara the Python
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A 100-pound albino Burmese python escaped from the Mall of Louisiana's Blue Zoo on July 5 and was rescued after a 74-hour search that involved firefighters, animal control, and trackers with night vision goggles. Cara was eventually found hiding in the zoo's walls.
+6 Mall python's escape ends after 74 hours: 'It's the happy ending that we were all hunting for' Cara did what any snake would upon seeing an opening: she slithered on out. But the 12-foot python achieved a level of notoriety few snakes co
Caspar the Camel
A Florida woman bit a camel on the testicles after it sat on her when she crawled in its cage to retrieve her dog in 2019. Officials said the woman and her husband had provoked the camel by pushing him and swatting at him and that the camel, who is housed at Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, did nothing wrong. Deputies cited the couple for a leash law violation and criminal trespassing, and the camel was treated with a precautionary antibiotic.
+13 In wild encounter, woman bites testicles of Tiger Truck Stop camel to escape, officials say GROSSE TETE A Florida woman freed herself from a camel by biting its testicles at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete last week after she cr
Valerio the Jaguar
Audubon Zoo's male jaguar, Valerio, killed nine animals in 2018 after facilitating his own escape from his habitat. His victims included five alpacas, three foxes and an emu. The zoo decided not to euthanize Valerio because he acted on natural predatory instincts and was "part of the family."
+8 Jaguar at Audubon Zoo busted steel barrier before killing 9 animals, officials believe; no plans to euthanize The young male jaguar who went on a deadly rampage against some of his fellow animals inside the Audubon Zoo early Saturday appears to have fa
Out of these encounters, which do you think is the wildest? Cast your vote here:
COVID-19 cases and deaths have dwindled in Baton Rouge in the past few weeks as the summers delta variant-driven wave subsides, hospitals and state data show.
Staff at Baton Rouge General Hospital were caring for five virus patients on Tuesday evening and had gone two days without admitting a new one, a spokesperson said. Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center had 14. And Ochsner Baton Rouge went two days without a single COVID-19 patient in its facility a figure staff had been longing for for many weeks, the hospital said.
We had two very sick people who we thought may have COVID, said Ochsner chief nursing officer Dianne Teal. The first test came back negative, and it was down to one. When the second patients test result came back negative on Monday afternoon, we thought, is this it?.
The numbers are a stark departure from a wave of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths that overwhelmed Louisianas healthcare system just a few months ago. For weeks, the state hosted the countrys worst virus outbreak as the highly-transmissible delta variant tore through a population with low vaccination rates, despite myriad public outreach campaigns.
Now, with more people vaccinated and some fraction of the population immune due to prior infection, cases and deaths are subsiding in the Deep South even as hot spots emerge elsewhere in the country.
Deaths are slowing in the region, too. East Baton Rouge Parish reported one death from COVID on Tuesday, the first in weeks.
The parish has seen 998 COVID deaths the pandemic started in March 2020.
Louisiana COVID hospitalizations go from highest to lowest among U.S. states After spending the late summer months as the U.S. epicenter of the delta wave of COVID-19, Louisiana has made a turnaround to become the state
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Shrinking virus hospitalizations in the capital city are a microcosm of whats happening across Louisiana. The number of people hospitalized in the state has tumbled more than 54% over the past month, with just 209 COVID patients now in hospital beds statewide.
During the August peak, 3,022 beds were occupied with COVID patients.
Still, health experts warn that the states declining case growth is not necessarily here to stay.
The South is set up to be slammed again, said Bob Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, in a podcast interview Monday.
Even though COVID infections are low right now, protection will likely fade in the region because people with natural immunity aren't likely to get vaccinated in the future, he said. But new antiviral medicines may lessen the blow when cases return, Wachter said.
+2 New vaccine requirements draw Louisiana challenges from AG, Ascension Parish businessman Louisiana has joined the legal fight with other Republican-leaning states trying to block new Biden administration vaccination requirements fo
Local health workers want residents to remain cautious, too.
Im so happy, but want to provide a word of caution, Teal said. We are still seeing positive COVID cases in our emergency department and at our community testing sites. This isnt over, but we need to take every victory.
Staff writer Emily Woodruff contributed to this report.
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Louisiana ranks 35th in the U.S. in overall cost effectiveness and highway conditions but finished in the bottom tier of most key indicators, according to a national report issued Wednesday.
"The state's pavement quality and percentage of structurally deficient bridges are disproportionately bad and the biggest driver of its poor overall rankings," the study says.
The report is part of the 26th annual review by the Reason Foundation, which does public policy research.
The state ranks 49th for urban interstate conditions and 45th for the number of structurally deficient bridges.
Its best spot is 7th in the nation for administrative spending per mile.
Louisiana also ranks 14th nationally for the size of its highway system, the report says.
Earlier this year the Legislature approved a bill that will gradually boost state aid for roads and bridges by $300 million per year, which is the equivalent of a 10-cent hike in the state gas tax.
+3 Louisiana roads, bridges to get $300M-a-year boost; backers say its biggest investment in decades In something of a surprise, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday signed the biggest transportation bill in 37 years when he endorsed a measure that
The new revenue will be generated by slowly moving 60% of sales tax revenue from the sale of cars and trucks from the state's general revenue fund to transportation.
Lack of financial support is a key reason for road and bridge conditions, according to the study.
"To improve in the rankings Louisiana needs to direct more resources toward its highway system," the report says. "The state is one of the few that spends relatively little and has very poor system conditions."
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The review says the state spends about the same as Arkansas and Mississippi but those states earned overall rankings of 29th and 30th respectively.
It says Louisiana has 1.5 as many structurally deficient bridges as Mississippi and four times as many as Arkansas.
Reviewers also said the state has twice as much urban interstate pavement in poor condition as Arkansas and four times as much as Mississippi.
Rural interstate conditions were rated 43rd; the fatality rate 43rd and urban congestion 39th.
In a statement, state Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson said the report highlights years of inadequate funding. "Louisiana has gone over 30 years without an increase in investment whereas other states we are being compared to have historically invested more over a longer period of time," Wilson said.
The study focused on 13 metrics, and Louisiana's 35th place ranking is down four places from last year.
Scott Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Capitol Region Industry for Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions, also said the study is a reflection of years of under investment.
"But what i think is encouraging is we have significant state and federal dollars coming to the state," Kirkpatrick said, a reference to the new state law and Louisiana's share of federal dollars from the $1 trillion infrastructure measure signed by President Joe Biden on Monday.
Wilson said the hikes in state and federal funding will help and said Louisiana has invested $4.5 billion in 1,774 projects since Gov. John Bel Edwards took office in 2016.
Former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain walks into the parish courthouse before the start of closing arguments on eight counts of sex crimes in Covington, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. The jury is likely to begin deliberating later today. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Embattled milk and infant formula maker A2 Milk is sticking to its China strategy but will reduce its reliance on the daigou market as it looks to exercise greater control over supply and demand issues in 2022.
Chairman of the dual-listed company David Hearn acknowledged it had been a horror year for shareholders disappointed by poor performance but said there was absolutely light at the end of the tunnel for the once-market darling.
A2 Milk chairman David Hearn says the business will be relying less on the daigou market. Credit:Peter Meecham
A2 Milks revenue and net profit fell by 30 per cent and 79 per cent respectively over the 2021 financial year and was forced to downgrade its profit forecasts four times in as many months.
However, Mr Hearn said the 21-year-old company would remain committed to the Chinese market by adjusting its strategy, including reducing reliance on daigous (professional shoppers that resell luxury goods to Chinese buyers).
MacKenzie Scott stepped out of the long shadow of her former husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, by handing out billions of dollars in grants over the past two years to charities, community colleges, food banks and progressive non-profits led by people of colour.
Advising her was a team of consultants at a firm that is hardly known outside philanthropic circles but highly influential within them: The Bridgespan Group.
Th Bridgespan Group advises the likes of Mackenzie Scott Credit:AP
Spun out of the consulting firm Bain & Company as a nonprofit, Bridgespan is one of a host of groups that arose in the early 2000s as a new wave of giving led by tech billionaires was beginning to crest. Two decades later, the consultants working behind the scenes are more important than ever.
Scott pulled back the curtain a bit in June when among the 286 groups receiving more than $US2.7 billion ($3.7 billion) in donations were a host of organisations that are basically the plumbing and wiring of the nonprofit world. Among them were the Centre for Effective Philanthropy, Charity Navigator and Bridgespan itself, which said it would use its gift mainly to pursue research meant to benefit the sector as a whole.
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 film is based on this article but social media and mobile phones still dictate the shape of its script. Its jagged, jumpy and full of street slang. By the time its over you may feel like retiring to a quiet corner to read a book the old-fashioned kind with paper, paragraphs and punctuation.
It was then picked up by journalist David Kushner, who wrote a follow-up for Rolling Stone, giving an account of the background to it all.
It begins in Detroit, where Zola (Taylour Paige), the storys narrator, is working as a waitress. One day, she gets into conversation with Stefani (Riley Keough), a customer of her own age whos come in with a friend, introduced only as X (Colman Domingo). Hes both burly and belligerent but after the two girls learn that they both work as exotic dancers, Zola accepts Stefanis invitation to spend a few days in Tampa, Florida, and dance in one of the citys clubs. Its a decision shell soon regret.
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She finds shes travelling with Stefani, X and Stefanis gormless boyfriend, Derrek, played by Nicholas Braun, who will be familiar to fans of the TV series, Succession, as the equally gormless executive gofer, Greg. And its not long before she discovers that exotic dancing is, in this case, a euphemism for prostitution.
The films director and co-writer, Janicza Bravo has proved her gift for absurdist comedy in her earlier films and this one was a success at the Sundance Festival but the black humour buried in the bullying, the bumbling and the random violence Zola endures during her enforced stay with X and friends is pretty elusive.
One of the main jokes lies in the discrepancy between the muscle and brain on show. Stefani and Derrek are airheads. They dont pretend otherwise but X, whos supposed to be the intelligence behind the outfit, is charging ludicrously low prices for the girls services. And Zola, whos determined not to be one of them, avoids having to sell herself by taking over the online advertising, raising the rates and re-casting herself as Stefanis chaperone.
About 50 minutes from Forbes, parts of NSW Farmers Association member Colin Thompsons property are underwater. He was in for a great season, with his cereal grains and corn looking good. But the heavy rain and floods have destroyed it. Its sort of been building up over several months, with the above-average rainfall, Wyangala Dam being at full capacity and limited ability to let the water go, he said. Ive been in the Lachlan Valley for about 20 years and this is the largest flood Ive seen. Over the past few days, Mr Thompsons property has been cut off from the road, with limited ability for staff to get in. The longer-term impact is that there has been significant damage to crops and cropping land, were only assessing that now, he said. Theres still some areas we cant get to.
That includes Mr Thompsons cereal grain crops which are underwater, but his corn harvest may have escaped the worst. We have been through a good season if wed avoided a flood, but that was unlikely, he said. Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack said on Wednesday that 122 people had been evacuated from 47 properties and, despite the evacuation order, a number of people had decided were going to stand here and stand our ground. Theres already been apparently $150 million of crop and stock damage, let alone when the floodwaters do go through those low-lying houses, he said during his appearance on ABC News Afternoon Briefing. One resident he spoke to was not concerned, despite water creeping up into his backyard.
The weather is fine and thats what we need over these next few days, Mr McCormack said, adding that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had been briefed on the situation. He reiterated his support to raise the Wyangala Dam wall in the Murray-Darling Basin by 10 metres - a pledge from the then-Berejiklian state government in its 2019 election campaign. Since then, as this masthead has reported, internal NSW documents show that bill has jumped to as much as $2.1 billion. I know the state has requested us to put in $325 million towards that $650 million project. Theyve come and said there needs to be more environmental offsets, theyve come and said that the cost is going to be higher, Mr McCormack said. But what price do you put on the safety of a town of 8000 people? We need to raise that Wyangala Dam by that 10 metres ... its going to help with flood mitigation into the future.
The project aims to create an additional capacity of 650 gigalitres or 53 per cent more storage. The dam on Wednesday was at 100.8 per cent capacity and Water NSW said controlled releases had reduced throughout the week, down to 22,000 megalitres a day. Forbes Shire Council mayor Phyllis Miller said the town had been waiting for the river to peak for almost a week, with Wednesday likely to bring flooding levels just below those experienced in 2016. Its a wait-and-see day, Cr Miller told the Today show. People start to get complacent because our lake system in town is still beautiful. You can walk around the lake. Theres no signs of flooding and, of course, that makes people think that were crying wolf. But our river is coming up, and it will peak some time today. Every flood is different. Were not sure what that will do inside the town or what will happen with the lake system when that water starts to join up with the river water. Residents in Forbes have been waiting almost a week for the river to peak. Credit:Nick Moir
Cr Miller said her heart went out to the farming community, who had been very excited about the season, but heavy rains and floods were likely to destroy hundreds of acres. Thats millions and millions of dollars to the Australian economy, she said. NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said there were no flood rescues overnight, but the waters would remain in the region for several days. It can be many days before some of these floodwaters actually make their way to their final resting place, so its important that people are continuously situationally aware of how the roads are affected by the floodwaters, he said.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Hugh McDowell said that, while weather conditions were easing around Forbes for the next few days, modelling showed significant rain could return for much of the state on Sunday. Theres a low-pressure system moving across south-eastern Australia late on Saturday and into Sunday, with the potential for significant rainfall, he said. Forbes could see between 15 and 30mm on the forecast range. Loading But he said the weather systems were still predicting a few different possibilities, so final predictions would have to wait until closer to the time. Its not just Forbes we are concerned about, he said. Its the whole of the western slopes and plains and parts of the South Coast. Everywhere is pretty wet and the dams are pretty full. Sundays got a bit of potential to be an issue, but were monitoring carefully.
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of dog-whistling to anti-vaccination terrorists after the Prime Minister spoke out against broad vaccine mandates today and said he sympathised with the frustration of Australians throughout the pandemic.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also criticised Mr Morrisons comments, describing them as reckless.
Asked at a press conference on Thursday what he thought of protests in Melbourne advocating violence against Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Mr Morrison said such behaviour had no place in Australia. However, he also said Australians were frustrated with governments telling them what to do, and it was time for states to step back.
Mark McGowan (left) and Annastacia Palaszczuk (right) are at loggerheads with Scott Morrison.
Australians have done an amazing job when it comes to leading us through this pandemic, but now its time for governments to step back and for Australians to take their lives back, and for Australians to be able to move forward with the freedoms that should be theirs, Mr Morrison said.
Mr Morrison criticised vaccine mandates beyond the health sector, after the McGowan government last month mandated vaccines for more than one million people in WAs working population.
Businesses can make their own choices under the law, but were not about telling them what to do or telling Australians what to do, Mr Morrison said.
[Australians] should be able to go and get a cup of coffee in Brisbane when youre over 80 per cent [of double-dose coverage], regardless of whether youve had the vaccines or not.
Mr McGowan and his family have been bombarded with threats since the vaccine mandate announcement.
He has also been forced to close his electorate office as staff were sent rape threats. Last week, a man allegedly tried to have an old British armoured war vehicle with a fake gun turret dropped off at Mr McGowans electorate office.
The WA Premier said Mr Morrisons comments were unhelpful.
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There just should not be any weasel words, Mr McGowan said.
There should be no walking on both sides of the fence, you condemn it and you support each of us that is trying to get people vaccinated across Australia.
We cant have anyone trying to score points with the anti-vaxxers or dog-whistling to them.
We just need to all be on the same page that we get everyone vaccinated, we come out of this as unscathed as possible, and we avoid the mass deaths that have occurred in other countries.
Ms Palaszczuk labelled the Prime Ministers comments incredibly disappointing and reckless.
Under the frequently asked questions section of the Queensland governments website for its reopening plan, which has yet to be formally outlined in health directions, unvaccinated people are said to still be able to order takeaway from fast food (quick service) restaurants.
More than 70 per cent of the Queensland population aged 16 and up is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 83.2 per cent have had a first dose.
Current restrictions in NSW and Victoria allow only takeaway service for unvaccinated people at restaurants and hospitality venues.
Russia has denied that Australia faced a serious threat from the stricken Mars 96 probe, which was the focus of a national emergency alert yesterday before the satellite crashed thousands of kilometres away in the South Pacific Ocean.
First published in The Age on November 19, 1996
Russias ambassador in Canberra, Mr Alexander Losyukov, said he told the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, in a meeting yesterday morning that the potential for a major problem was very, very remote.
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Mr Losyukov also disputed American advice to Australia that the probe carried canisters containing 200 grams of highly dangerous plutonium.
There were four batteries, each containing six grams of plutonium, designed to withstand temperatures of 3000 degrees, Mr Losyukov said.
The space probe eventually crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Easter Island about 12.30pm, more than 1000 kilometres west of Chile. It is considered highly unlikely that the spacecraft, including the deadly plutonium, will be recovered.
Hundreds of eastern suburbs students are in self-isolation after multiple COVID-19 cases across three public schools, with almost half the children at Bondi Public in quarantine and students at Randwick sent home twice in two weeks.
In an email to parents on Tuesday night, Bondi Public School said about 250 students have been required to isolate, after confirming the first positive case in a member of the school community on November 13. Cases have also been identified at Rose Bay Public in the past fortnight, at least one of those on Saturday when a member of the school community tested positive.
About 250 students are isolating at Bondi Public School after exposure to a COVID-19 case. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
It comes as parents of some year 3 students at Randwick Public were notified on Wednesday of another case, two weeks after the first notification. This time, the school remained open. We still dont know how many cases there were from the first time, said a parent.
About 575 schools and childcare centres in NSW have closed due to coronavirus cases in the past month, promoting parents and paediatricians to call for the use of rapid antigen tests to keep contacts at school rather than send them into quarantine.
Queensland has recorded zero new community cases of COVID-19 yet again, as the state rolls out sporting stars to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
The latest vaccine push comes as authorities contact people in hotel quarantine to see if they can transfer into home quarantine, while the first 141 people have arrived into Queensland under the states relaxed border rules.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said people could meet their favourite sporting heroes at this weekends Super Schools vaccination weekend, with up to 100 clinics to be opened at schools across the state.
The Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans, Queensland Firebirds, Brisbane Roar A-League Women, Queensland Swimming and Queensland Reds will be among the clubs to offer up some of their stars.
Relatives of cafe owner Sisto Malaspina, who was killed in the 2018 Bourke Street terror attack, have joined injured bystander Rod Patterson and two others in taking legal action against Victoria Police, saying it was negligent and failed to prevent the act of terrorism.
Five separate lawsuits allege police were aware Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was capable of carrying out his deadly 2018 attack, which killed Pellegrinis Espresso Bar owner Mr Malaspina, and left Mr Patterson and security guard Shadi Helal with stabbing injuries on Bourke Street on November 9, 2018.
Cafe owner Sisto Malaspina. Credit:Joe Armao
Documents filed in the Victorian County Court allege police were close by during the attack and authorities knew of the dangers which existed to members of the public should Shire Ali carry out his terrorist intentions and ideologies.
The separate claims have been filed by lawyers representing Mr Malaspinas son David and his wife Vwaja, Mr Patterson and his wife Maree, and close relative of Mr Helal, Saoussan Randrage.
Yesterday, for just a fleeting moment, I missed lockdown. I would never wish for the suffering of those times to continue and it was probably just a case of transitional unease or re-entry exhaustion, but it hit me how difficult it is navigating this post-lockdown world.
It feels like everyone is trying to convince themselves that life is normal again the past couple of years just some sort of bad dream. Click your fingers and everything will be as it was: workers back in offices, restaurants booked out, classes full. But its not normal and its now become an endless game of Russian roulette every decision as to where to go and who to interact with a gamble. Lose, and its the very thing that matters the most that is lost our health and the health of those we love.
Melburnians check in to the NGV via the QR code system. Credit:Scott McNaughton
People tell me this is the New Normal, living with COVID, but I hate the need for constant risk assessments the weighing up of every activity and whether its worth the risk, or even just worth the worry about the possibility of the risk. I hate the anxiety that lurks after the activity as to whether we have exposed ourselves, our unvaccinated children, our loved ones to this wretched virus. Whether we should visit our immune-compromised friend, that elderly relative, our newborn niece. And if so, whether we should take with us our child, the one who blew her nose once and sneezed twice but says she feels fine.
Say no to the restaurant invitation with friends and it feel like I am over-reacting, letting fear win and missing out. Say yes and end up in isolation, like I am now, after an encounter with at least three infected wait-staff at a local restaurant. At my childrens school, at least eight classes over six year levels are now in isolation after being identified as potential primary close contacts during a period of five days last week. Even if not directed to, many parents half in many classes chose to keep their unvaccinated children home yesterday and this will probably continue. More disruption and challenges for those who take that path and more worry and a feeling almost akin to guilt for those who send them off. These are hard decisions. There is no easy answer, no crystal ball.
Analysts of the growing anti-lockdown movements and the COVID-sceptic movement in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, are increasingly missing the wood for the trees, as media and commentators doggedly search for far-right influence. There is a preoccupation with the notion that COVID-scepticism is a gateway to far-right extremism that misses the crucial point: these movements are already extreme.
Theyre just not predominately far right. In fact, the movements as a whole dont have any coherent ideology at all. That doesnt make them less radical or less concerning. Over the past several months I have watched the rapid escalation and radicalisation of the anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine and COVID-sceptic movements in Australia. During the long, painful lockdowns in NSWs and Victoria, anti-lockdown and conspiracy communities on social media have experienced enormous growth.
Protesters on the steps of Victorias Parliament. Credit:Getty Images
Existing anti-lockdown Facebook groups and Telegram channels have doubled or even tripled in size, and a multitude of new groups and channels have sprung up. Tens of thousands of social media users have been sucked into conspiracy theories, in some cases for the first time.
As weve seen in many countries around the world, the stresses and traumas of lockdown are often accompanied by a boom in conspiracy theories. As such, it seems almost inevitable that it is Melbourne, where the pain of the pandemic and successive, prolonged lockdowns has been felt more deeply than anywhere else in the country, which is now the locus of these movements in Australia.
It wont be COVID rules that determine how many people are at the pub. Itll be the liquor license; back to normal. So whether its 100,000 people at the MCG on Boxing Day, or a smaller group of people standing up at the local pub having a beer, this is the COVID-normal that every Victorian has built. Health Minister Martin Foley said under the eased restrictions from 11.59pm, the vast majority of people who come into contact with a COVID-19 case in the community would not be required to quarantine. The announcement came as Victoria recorded 1007 new coronavirus cases and 12 deaths. We are one of the most vaccinated places in the world. - Premier Daniel Andrews
Mr Foley said the Health Department would continue to monitor emerging COVID-19 outbreaks, and authorities still expected some locations would have outbreaks disproportionate to others. Exposure sites will no longer be published on the state governments website. Instead, the department will use a new alert function in the Service Victoria app to notify patrons at higher-risk venues where positive cases have been detected such as restaurants, nightclubs, and gyms and advise them to get tested. Premier Daniel Andrews tweeted that it was time to hit the dancefloor. Credit:Chris Hopkins The remaining COVID-19 rules Loading
At the 90 per cent target, people who were not fully vaccinated will still be prevented from sitting down to eat in restaurants and cafes, and they will be locked out of non-essential retail. Quarantine COVID-19 rules will remain for the fully vaccinated, albeit with reduced periods of mandated isolation. People who test positive for coronavirus will be required to isolate for 10 days (the previous requirement was 14 days). People who live with someone who tests positive for COVID-19 will only need to quarantine for seven days if they are fully vaccinated and produce a negative test of their own on day zero. The 14-day quarantine rule will still apply in this case for people who are not fully vaccinated. Children under 12 who have a household contact test positive will be considered fully vaccinated if everyone else in their household is fully vaccinated.
Mr Andrews said masks would still be required in sensitive settings, such as hospitals and aged care. Contrary to a previous vaccination road map, however, they would still be required in retail settings for a few more weeks. Masks will also continue to be required in primary schools for staff and visitors, and for students in grades three to six. Serving staff at hospitality venues also still have to wear them, as will people in high-risk work settings, and anyone who travels in ride-share vehicle or taxi. Additionally, workers exposed to COVID-19 at work, and children who are exposed at school or early childhood centres, will need to show a negative PCR test to return to work or school, with rapid antigen testing recommended thereafter. The deep cleaning mandate is also being done away with for businesses.
Protesters continue to gather on State Parliament steps Protesters gather at on the steps of Parliament on Wednesday. Credit:Eddie Jim The COVID-19 rule changes also come as protesters spent a fourth night on the steps of Victorian Parliament with former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek threatening to derail the state governments controversial pandemic legislation. During the COVID-19 rule announcement on Thursday, Mr Andrews said he was confident of an outcome. We dont have a majority in the Legislative Council, he said. Im confident that we will get an outcome. The exact nature of that outcome; we have to wait and see.
Thats the nature of a very diverse chamber. The crowd on Spring Street was strong again on Wednesday night, with many demonstrators staying late. They sang, danced, held signs, and cheered as passing cars beeped their horns. A man shouted, kill the bill through a megaphone as protesters joined in the chant, and some in the crowd turned hostile at the sight of reporters. Many have vowed to keep demonstrating on the Parliament House steps until the state government dumps its proposed pandemic legislation, declaring amendments made to the bill late on Monday insufficient. Loading
The legislation is intended to replace the state of emergency legislation that gave the government power to enforce health orders. The emergency laws expire in December, and the new bill is meant to allow the government to keep enforcing policies, such as isolation requirements, while also being available for any future pandemic. Mr Somyurek belatedly proved his COVID-19 vaccination status on Wednesday, after earlier refusing to do so, paving the way for his return to vote in the upper house on Thursday against the legislation. In a piece published late on Wednesday for the Herald Sun, he vowed to block the reforms that he claimed rewarded autocratic leaders who have ruled by decree. Mr Somyurek argued the Andrews government did not have the numbers in the upper house to pass the bill in its own right, but only claimed those powers with Labor-leaning crossbenchers.
The three crossbenchers are likely to be consulted before caucus members and cabinet ministers. This leaves Andrews as the sole decision-maker, which is not acceptable in complex modern government. Reason Party leader Fiona Patten told Radio Nationals Fran Kelly on Thursday morning that if Mr Somyurek were to appear in parliament and vote against the bill, it would be defeated. The numbers arent there. The numbers are very close at the moment so if Mr Somyurek was to appear, the vote would be 19/19, so it would fail, she said. Ms Patten said that, as an alternative to the pandemic legislation, the government could take an extension of the state of emergency laws back to parliament something the opposition indicated it would oppose. So Victoria could actually end up being the only state that has no regulations around its pandemic, she said. I understand people saying lets take time doing this, [but] we have been working on this legislation since March.
MP shocked by threats to politicians The Reason Party leader said she was absolutely shocked by the extremity of some sentiments on display at recent protests. Ive been having threats of snipers outside my office, she said. I was walking down the street the other day and someone had tagged a sign saying, hang [Daniel] Andrews, Ms Patten said. I dont remember a time in Australias history where weve talked about killing our political leaders. I dont remember a time in Australias history where weve talked about killing our political leaders. Fiona Patten
More than 13,800 active COVID-19 cases in Victoria The addition of 1007 new coronavirus cases on Thursday took Victorias total active cases to 13,814. There were 337 people in hospital with the virus, and 63 in intensive care. Sixty-five people in ICU were cleared of COVID-19. Another 6315 Victorians rolled up their sleeves to receive a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a state-run clinic on Wednesday. Of the states population over the age of 12, 88 per cent are now double-dosed.
The family of a murdered Victorian mother says the state government has failed to introduce strangulation laws that could reduce the risk of homicide to women, despite promising two years ago to bring the legislation in.
Joy Rowley was choked unconscious eight months before she was smothered to death in her home in Rye in 2011.
Police recommended strangulation laws be introduced in Victoria following Joy Rowleys murder.
Non-fatal strangulation has been recognised in multiple research studies as an important risk factor for homicide of women, and is a stand-alone offence in NSW, the ACT and Queensland.
Three years after police called for Victoria make strangulation a stand-alone offence, and two years after the state government committed publicly to its introduction, the law Ms Rowleys children say is potentially life-saving is yet to be enacted.
Melbourne has a well-earned reputation as the protest capital of Australia. From the days of early settlement, people have taken to the streets to voice their concerns. While some protests have taken a violent turn, most including the vast crowds of the Vietnam moratorium campaigns of 1970 or the more recent Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful.
Under Victorias Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 15 years ago the first such charter in the country every Victorian has the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
Protesters on the steps of Parliament House. Credit:Chris Hopkins
The protests currently taking place on the steps of State Parliament enjoy the full protection of those rights. And after more than 260 days in lockdown, and now the introduction of a controversial pandemic bill, a level of frustration with the Andrews government is understandable.
The proposed pandemic laws, a major target of the protesters, have been widely criticised, most notably for their lack of proper oversight, by a range of legal experts and public advocates. The protests have also become a rallying point for those concerned about vaccine mandates and, more broadly, the efficacy and safety of receiving a vaccine at all. While The Age has raised its own concerns about the pandemic laws, and voiced some doubts about the extent and need for mandates, it strongly objects to conspiracy theories about the safety or efficacy of the vaccination program. It is a global health measure that will save many millions of lives.
Now, Dr Green said, eucalyptus trees were threatening to invade the slow-growing rainforests by dropping seeds that could quickly germinate across the landscape. Mallacoota ablaze during the Black Summer bushfires. Credit:Darrian Traynor/Getty Images Eucalyptus forests cope with fire much better than rainforests do, he said. Other tree varieties, including acacias, may also crowd into rainforest territory. The 230-kilometre drive from Bairnsdale to Mallacoota takes in massive stretches of fire-ravaged bushland, but some sections were untouched.
The Black Summer fires burned more than 1.5 million hectares of land in Victoria, claiming five lives and destroying 420 houses. Dead trees on the Angora Range Road in Brookville. Credit:Joe Armao WWF Australia reported the bushfires, which started in November 2019 and burned through to the following February in Victoria, killed or displaced 3 billion animals in this state and NSW. But now there are some encouraging signs of survival. Dr Green is researching how native snails have recovered. His team has located 17 of 18 species in burnt areas despite initially fearing they may have disappeared.
I was pleasantly surprised, he said. Were confident those species havent become extinct because of the fire. Two years on, the damage of the Black Summer fires remains visible at Cann River. Credit:Joe Armao The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning estimates the fires affected more than 4400 animal and plant species, 244 of them losing 50 per cent of their habitat. More than 200 of those species were rare or threatened. The departments executive director of biodiversity, James Todd, said field crews and scientists were reporting extensive regrowth and the return of native wildlife. It is still early in the recovery, and we are continuing to survey and monitor the response of native plants and wildlife, he said.
Mr Todd said emergency extractions of threatened species and pest animal control measures were aiding the environmental recovery and preventing degradation that might have occurred without human intervention. Ensay cattle farmer Chris Commins. Credit:Joe Armao The department conducted a captive breeding program for the Spotted Tree Frog after surveys showed severe fire and sediment associated with post-fire flooding exacerbated the risk of extinction. It also transported Macquarie Perch from Dartmouth in north-east Victoria to fire-affected Upper Buffalo in May this year, among other animal rescue projects. Surveys of cave-breeding bats, spotted-tailed quolls and eastern ground parrots are under way to determine the presence, or absence, of these species.
But opinions differ wildly about how to avoid another inferno. Cattle farmer Chris Commins lives in Ensay in East Gippsland but farms extensively in the region. He wants to see a major increase in planned burning to reduce forest fuel loads. Mr Commins remembers the forest being more open and less overgrown with scrub when his father was burning the bush extensively until the 1970s. He argues too few controlled mild burns have been conducted, leaving the bush neglected and fuel loads high, making it vulnerable to bigger fires.
What was open country is now becoming scrub-dominant, he said. Mr Commins fears the knowledge of burning the bush is being lost but rejected suggestions his belief was based on advancing agricultural interests, such as grazing cattle in state forest, at the expense of the environment. Mr Commins is working with other Gippsland residents including former CSIRO bushfire researcher David Packham to lobby for more planned burns. Former CSIRO bushfire researcher David Packham, who is one of a group of residents lobbying for more planned burns. Credit:Joe Armao Were all very passionate about the country we love, and it distresses us to see it smashed in a wildfire, he said.
Queensland-based Indigenous fire practitioner Victor Steffensen, who has conducted burns across Australia, said governments needed to pay greater heed to traditional Aboriginal land-management practises. Loading At the end of the day, they [governments] are not doing whats right for the land, he said. He called for more burning based on Indigenous knowledge systems. Forest Fire Management Victoria acting chief fire officer Allyson Lardner said planned burning had continued in East Gippsland, with 200 targeted burns since 2019-20.
She said the agency looked for opportunities to burn year-round when it was safe to do so. While planned burning is not the only solution, it is a key part of bushfire preparedness and part of an integrated strategy to protect life, property and the environment, she said. Loading Melbourne University bushfire prevention specialist Janet Stanley said small-scale planned burns may be effective in protecting properties. But she insisted mounting evidence suggested larger prescribed burning was not the most effective way to reduce the risk of major blazes. She estimated humans started 85 per cent of bushfires, whether accidental, reckless or deliberate, and this needed to be tackled through education and support programs particularly for youths prone to risky behaviour.
So far around the country, more than 17 million people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
That number doesnt include young children, and while the medical regulator is considering vaccines for five to 11-year-olds, our youngest are unlikely to get vaccinated anytime soon.
While there are plans on managing COVID-19 in settings including aged care facilities, hospitals and schools, theres no such national plan for dealing with the virus in childcare centres.
This week, a parliamentary committee heard from childrens advocates about what should be done to protect the very young from this disease.
Afghan interpreters and other locally engaged workers who are stranded in Afghanistan will have their visas extended every three months, as the federal government moves to address concerns that it has not offered any permanent pathways to protection.
The government has been facing increasing criticism for not granting a single humanitarian visa out of the initial 3000 places promised to people fleeing Afghanistan following the Talibans takeover of Kabul, despite thousands of Afghans already moving to Australia.
Terrorist attacks are still rife in Afghanistan. Here, people inspect the inside of a mosque following a suicide bombers attack in the city of Kandahar last month. Credit:AP
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke will on Thursday announce that the visas of Afghans who were employed by the Australian government during the decades-long conflict, but are still stuck overseas, will be extended on an ongoing basis.
Mr Hawke will also call on the Taliban to not impede the efforts of Afghans wishing to leave the country.
An environmental campaigner and philanthropist who donated half a million dollars to the Greens, Labor, and activist group Get Up has joined an independent push to remove a Liberal frontbencher from Federal Parliament.
David Rothfield, a resident of the Melbourne electorate of Goldstein, says he is no longer associated with any political party and has instead joined a group that wants to oust incumbent Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who was recently promoted to assistant minister for energy and emissions reductions.
Environmental campaigner and philanthropist David Rothfield - who has given the Greens, Labor and Get Up! more than $500,000 - has joined the Voices of Goldstein movement.
Voices of Goldstein announced its formation earlier this year off the back of the growing socially progressive grassroots movement, which supported former crossbench MPs such as Cathy McGowan and Kerryn Phelps and current independent Zali Stegall.
Mr Rothfield and his brother Jonathan were co-directors of their late fathers trust, the Norman Rothfield Peace and Justice Fund, which was wound up last year. The Australian Electoral Commissions transparency disclosures show the fund donated $30,000 to NSW Labor Party in 2019, $215,800 to the Greens since 2014 and $260,000 to GetUp since 2019.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has defended the governments rhetoric over Taiwan, saying Defence Minister Peter Duttons comments are focused on preventing war from breaking out in the region.
An intense domestic debate about Taiwan has erupted after former prime minister Paul Keating last week claimed it was not a vital interest for Australia, while Mr Dutton declared if the United States committed forces to defend the island it would be inconceivable that Australia would not join in.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne have both weighed in on the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Credit:Sarah Baker
It followed Mr Duttons comments earlier this year that the prospect of a war over Taiwan could not be discounted, and secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo, warning the drums of war were beating.
Several national security experts are concerned Australias heightened rhetoric over Taiwan could be playing into Chinas strategy of psychological warfare, which aims to coerce the island into accepting unification with the mainland.
Loading The victims families blame ARSA for their deaths, and men associated with the group have been arrested in connection with the killings. ARSA has said on social media that it did not carry out the killings. Each time his family members venture out to the latrines, Mohammed worries. The worst, he said, is when darkness falls and Bangladeshi law enforcement exits the camps. Approaching footsteps, the soft slap of sandals on dirt lanes, fill him with terror. Please pray for me, he said. I dont have other protection. A month before his death, Mohib Ullah, who ran a human-rights network to which Mohammed belonged, wrote to authorities asking for sanctuary. He described in the letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times, how gunmen had warned that he and 70 other human-rights defenders would be killed.
I afraid too much because the ARSA group holding different kind of attacking tools which is very dangerous, Mohib Ullah wrote in English. Loading Authorities took no action. His killers yelled that they were the leaders of the camp, not Mohib Ullah, said his brother, who witnessed his death. Johannes van der Klaauw, the UNHCR representative in Bangladesh, acknowledged the dangers proliferating in the camps but noted that security was the responsibility of the Bangladeshis. Unfortunately, the killing of Mohib Ullah, but also the massacre at the madrassa, have now been a wake-up call for the authorities to really do something, he said.
The UN refugee agency said that it did not comment on individual cases. In a statement, it said some vulnerable Rohingya had been offered safety. Loading We reiterate our call for the Bangladeshi authorities to take immediate measures to improve the security in the refugee camps, the statement said. After Mohib Ullahs assassination, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said his government was committed to investigating into the heinous crime and bringing the killers to justice. Oversight of the Rohingya camps has weakened during the coronavirus pandemic, as COVID protocols have kept humanitarian workers out. In the void, ARSA and other militants are waging a campaign of terror, demanding payments and recruits, according to camp residents who spoke with The Times.
Why is my fate to be born a refugee? said Saiful Arkane, an activist who is now in hiding with his two brothers and asking for refuge from the United Nations. No one will give us protection. Arkane and his brothers have worked for years documenting camp conditions. Despite pressure from other Rohingya to stay quiet about ARSAs growing strength, Arkane said that its fighters now openly run training centres in the camps, its funding padded by illicit activities, such as the drug trade. Some of the men who were killed at the madrassa had gone to police to complain that ARSA wanted to use their seminary as one such training ground, according to two family members of the victims who spoke with The Times on the condition of anonymity. Founded by Rohingya living outside of Myanmar, ARSA attacked Myanmar security posts in 2017, killing about a dozen people. The Myanmar military responded with disproportionate ferocity, in a frenzy of executions, rapes and village burnings. About three-quarters of 1 million Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in a matter of weeks, the worlds largest outpouring of refugees in a generation. Bangladesh, which already was sheltering previous waves of Rohingya refugees, was inundated. One camp, Kutupalong, has 600,000 Rohingya living in an area less than 13 square kilometres, nine times more dense than the Gaza Strip. In Kutupalong and 33 other refugee settlements, the Rohingya have had to maintain their dignity amid landslides, fires, floods, marauding elephants, human trafficking and domestic abuse. Legally, they can neither work nor attend schools outside the camps. Human rights groups acknowledge the UN must tread carefully. It needs to encourage the Bangladeshi government to impose law and order in the camps without alienating politicians who would rather see the Rohingya refugees and attendant foreign agencies depart.
The growing terror has resigned some Rohingya to a Bangladeshi plan to relocate part of the refugee population to Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal that human rights groups have called a floating prison. ARSA has less sway there. In October, UNHCR and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding paving the way for 80,000 or so Rohingya to be transferred to Bhasan Char, on top of the 20,000 who have already been moved there. Among the first to be resettled on Bhasan Char were Rohingya Christians, a persecuted minority within a persecuted minority. Rohingya Christians in the camps have been kidnapped, police reports have documented. In October 2020, one of the Christian families, since relocated to the island, sought protection from the UN after ARSA militants threatened them with abduction. The family was given refuge for one night in a UNHCR safe house near the camps but was ordered to leave the next day by Bangladeshi staff, two family members said. With nowhere to go, a relative, Abdu Taleb, helped them on a bus to escape the ARSA militants who were menacing outside.
Memphis: Rapper Young Dolph was shot and killed Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) at a cookie shop in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, and a search is underway for the shooter, officials said.
Police tweeted that no suspect information was available in the shooting, which took place at Makedas Cookies near Memphis International Airport.
Young Dolph performing in 2020. Credit:AP
The tragic shooting death of rap artist Young Dolph serves as another reminder of the pain that violent crime brings with it, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a statement.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.
I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset, Gosar said. He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, the nations first Treasury secretary, celebrated in recent years in a Broadway musical, whose censure vote in the House was defeated: If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it, it is done. The House censure comes as the issue of political violence has flared in the UK after the second death of an MP in five years as well as in Australia where crowds have called for the death of Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. In Washington, the decision to censure Gosar is one of the strongest punishments the House can dole out, It was just the fourth in nearly 40 years and just the latest example of the raw tensions that have roiled Congress since the 2020 election and the violent Capitol insurrection that followed.
The decision to move forward with the effort was born out of Democratic frustration with the House GOP, which declined to publicly rebuke Gosar, who has a lengthy history of incendiary remarks. Instead, GOP leaders have largely ignored his actions and urged their members to vote against the resolution censuring him. They also warned that the effort sets a precedent that could come back to haunt Democrats if they find themselves in the minority. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Credit:AP Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida said, I would just suggest we have better things to do on the floor of the House of Representatives than be the hall monitors for Twitter. The resolution will remove Gosar from two committees: Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panel, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves, limiting his ability to shape legislation and deliver for constituents. It states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardise the safety of elected officials, citing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as an example.
Gosar becomes the 24th House member to be censured. Though it carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmakers career, it is the strongest punishment the House can issue short of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote. Democratic Representative Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the last to receive the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct. It would also be second time this year the House has initiated the removal of a GOP lawmaker from an assigned committee, the first being Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues that trickles down to violence in this country. And that is where we must draw the line. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Gosar, a six-term congressman, posted the video over a week ago with a note saying, Any anime fans out there? The roughly 90-second video was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip, interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern US border.
During one roughly 10-second section, animated characters whose faces had been replaced with Gosar, Greene and Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican, were shown fighting other animated characters. Gosars character is seen striking another one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. The video also shows him attacking President Joe Biden. Ocasio-Cortez, whose receipt of repeated death threats has required her to spend thousands on security, said Gosar has not apologised to her. She singled out McCarthy for not condemning Gosar. What is so hard about saying this is wrong? Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor Wednesday. This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept. Representative Adam Kinzinger was one of the few Republicans saying he would vote to censure Gosar.
New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams made a surprise appearance at the 25th Anniversary performance of Chicago at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre. In his brief remarks, he recalled walking the beat as a police officer in Times Square and he hailed Broadway's ability to bounce back at the tail end of the Covid pandemic. Before the show, Adams had been around the corner at the Ed Sullivan Theater, recording an interview with Stephen Colbert. Although he won't officially take office until January 1, many in the crowd were already recognizing him as "Mr. Mayor."
Bianca Marroquin and Ana Villafane currently play Velma Kelly and Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway''.
( Tricia Baron)
The event featured a full performance of Chicago, the musical by composer John Kander, lyricist/book writer Fred Ebb, and original director/book writer Bob Fosse, about two women leveraging murder into stardom. Originally produced for City Center Encores!, this minimalist revival transferred to Broadway in 1996, where it has been running ever since (not counting the long Covid pause). That makes it the longest-running American musical on Broadway, and the second-longest ever after The Phantom of the Opera.
Charlotte d'Amboise, who has played Roxie Hart at various times throughout the 25-year run, showed her stuff.
( Tricia Baron)
Original cast members Joel Grey, James Naughton, and Bebe Neuwirth were on hand to celebrate the milestone, as were regular replacements like Charlotte d'Amboise, who has portrayed Roxy Hart at various times throughout the 25-year run.
The event paid tribute to the revival's original star and choreographer, Ann Reinking.
( Tricia Baron)
The evening paid tribute to Ann Reinking, the revival's original Roxy Hart, who also choreographed the show in Bob Fosse's iconic style. Reinking died last year at the age of 71.
Click here to see Ann Reinking and Bebe Neuwirth in Chicago circa 1996.
A play that looks at the cost of survival in the face of insurmountable odds is very timely right now, and Erika Dickerson-Despenza's Blackburn Prize-winning play Cullud Wattah at the Public Theater is no different. In the work, three generations of Black women are living through the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, while trying to figure out how to live when everything is at its bleakest.
At the heart is Crystal A. Dickinson as Marion, a third-generation General Motors employee consumed by layoffs at her plant, while her sister seeks justice for lead poisoning. Pre-shutdown, Dickinson was appearing in Will Eno's play Gnit at Theatre for a New Audience. But once everything started to get back up and running, Dickinson felt like she wanted to return to theater with a different experience. Cullud Wattah is what she asked for.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Crystal A. Dickinson and Lizan Mitchell in Cullud Wattah at the Public Theater.
( Joan Marcus)
This is your first show back since the shutdown. How does it feel?
I feel really proud of the work that I'm doing, but I also feel proud of what we're saying and what we're trying to let people know about. In every way, it feels good it's not easy to do, but it's rewarding in that respect. The unexpected surprise about it isWith all the talk about the Infrastructure Bill now, part of that is going to cover lead pipes all around our country. The truth is, this is Flint's issue, and Newark's, but there's millions of lead pipes all around the country that are going to need replacing. It's exciting to know that this bill will help take care of that.
How did this come into your orbit?
I had been asked to come back to Gnit [which Dickinson was in pre-shutdown at Theatre for a New Audience], but the place that I was in, I felt like I wanted to do more. I loved the experience of doing Gnit, but after being quarantined at home with my family, I got a greater sense of myself and what I thought was important to do. The next chance I had to do that, I wanted to. I auditioned for Cullud Wattah the day before my birthday in July and it was just serendipitous.
What is it like for you to come back with this group of actors, to do this play, which, as discussed, is so relevant?
These women. Candis C. Jones managed to put together an amazing group of human beings. She and Erika Dickerson-Despenza did a phenomenal job of making an environment in our rehearsal room that was conducive to the work that we were doing. They really emphasize taking care of our minds and our bodies and each other, and allowing room for our experiences and to talk about them. It all helped, I think, to make us open and available to one another and to the text, which is really, really challenging to do.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
The way Erika writes is so beautifully poetic, but it's her own syntax. It's written in the way she wants you to speak. In one line, you might have the word "G-O-N-E." And that would say "You gone be late." Another line you would say, "G-O-N-N-A." "You gonna try me one time and then that's gonna be it." You have these pauses and shifts and overlaps. It's like a very complicated musical score. You have that challenge.
And then there's the emotional weight. This family is a fictional family, but there are people in Flint, Michigan, whose homes are not worth anything because of this crisis, who are barely staying afloat, who are still using bottled water to do everything. All these things are very real, and you have a great responsibility to making sure that people feel that and understand that in a real way.
And then, just living through the circumstances of the pandemic. I have a lot in common with my character, Marion. I take care of a lot of family members, in all kinds of ways, so I understand the responsibility of trying to do your best and care for people and the weight of that every day.
I would imagine that aspect is especially more poignant coming out of all of this.
It is. And I think it is for everybody. Maybe that's the common thing. We all, at some point, because we were all quarantined, had that unknowing feeling of "How long is this going to last?" I'm sure there's some people out there that didn't care, so good for them, but the rest of us who were actually terrified for a good while, it was devastating. Everybody had a sense of that feeling, whereas they might not have before.
Is this experience, so far, everything you hoped it would be?
Yes, it is. I got what I asked for, which is beautiful. I felt ready to come out here and do my job and be available to telling a good story so people could come see it. I truly feel fortified by my experience. This timing it's unfortunate that the show didn't happen when it was supposed to [pre-shutdown], but it seems like maybe now it is happening when it's supposed to.
There's a lot of that going around now. A lot of plays that were supposed to open before the shutdown that are even more relevant now.
That's right. The play has more resonance now. It lands harder.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 16, 2021 -- According to a new poll commissioned by Coltura, 62% of California voters support a policy that would require all new cars sold to be electric by 2030 to reduce air pollution, combat climate change, create jobs, and keep energy dollars in the state. Under such a policy, individuals could still drive, buy, and sell gas-powered cars manufactured before 2030. Just 31% of California voters oppose the policy.
In 2020, Gov. Newsom signed an executive order to ban sales of new internal combustion engine light-duty vehicles in the state by 2035. This polling demonstrates voter support for an even faster transition to electric vehicles (EVs).
"To achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions, we must address a major source of carbon pollution driving the climate crisis: gas-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs," said Janelle London, co-executive director of Coltura based in Menlo Park. "The findings of this poll make clear that the public supports a 2030 target date for phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles. It's time for elected officials to pass laws that reflect the will of their constituents."
The survey went deeper to inquire about attitudes towards electric cars, gasoline usage, and the environment. Californians are excited to switch from gas-powered cars to EVs, even though more education is needed. It found 75% of respondents have a somewhat or very positive opinion of EVs. Of respondents planning to purchase a vehicle in the next five years, 66% said they were likely to buy an EV. Only 41% of respondents realized that EVs are also significantly less expensive to maintain than gasoline powered cars. A 2020 Consumer Reports study found that EVs have half the maintenance costs of comparable gas-powered cars.
Nationally, 68% of respondents have a positive attitude towards EVs. Black and Hispanic respondents support phasing out gasoline cars by a 2:1 margin. Additionally, 71% of voters aged 18-34 favor phasing out gas cars by 2030.
The top two factors influencing Californians' likelihood of getting an EV were the availability of a federal tax credit of $7,500 and more public charging stations. Most EVs are currently eligible for the federal tax credit, but the Biden administration has proposed increasing the credit to $12,500 for EVs made in America by union labor.
Whats the Real Cost To The Retailer For EV Charging?
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EV owners may reduce their fuel costs by charging at home but increase costs with fast chargers and the businesses that offer those fast chargers lose all around.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. November 16, 2021; NACS online asked how much does it actually cost to fill up an electric vehicle compared to a gasoline-powered vehicle? It depends on where you live, and whether you fill up at home or with a fast charger, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal took two popular carsthe electric 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E and the gasoline-powered Toyota RAV4, both compact crossover SUVs that seat fiveand determined the cost of an electric fill up compared with local gas prices in 15 U.S. cities.
In Spokane, Wash., which has relatively expensive gasoline but low electricity rates thanks to hydroelectric power, a Mach-E owner saves $899 a year over the RAV4; however, in New York City, which has pricey power and gasoline, a Mach-E driver would save less than half as much in a year: $428.
Across the board, its cheaper to charge your EV at home, and most EV owners are also homeowners. At-home chargers cost $0.19 per kilowatt hour, but homeowners also need to factor in the cost of a 240-volt charging station, which costs around $500, as well as hiring an electriciananother $500 to $1,500. Local incentives could cut this cost. For example, in Los Angeles, utility customers can get a $500 rebate for the EV charger.
The Wall Street Journal looked at a 300-mile road trip using a fast charger to fill up. Using a fast charger at $0.31 per kilowatt hour, a Mach-E owner would end up paying $12.25 more than a RAV4 owner for the trip. In most cities, drivers spent about $4 to $12 more to travel 300 miles in the EV.
While the Wall Street Journals look at the price of charging an EV is useful and accurate, whats not seen is the demand charge costs for fast chargers that electric utilities impose on businesses to operate fast chargers.
While electric vehicle drivers today are indeed charged about 31 cents per kilowatt-hour for charging, those prices do not reflect the demand charges that electric utilities impose on businesses that operate fast chargers, said Doug Kantor, general counsel, NACS. Those demand charges are added to businesses monthly electric bills based on the highest electricity output the businesses require over the course of a month. It turns out that fast chargers need a lot of electricity very quickly to do their job, and when they do, local businesses get hit with penalty-level demand charges.
Demand charges can add anywhere from $5 to $40 per kilowatt-hour to the cost paid by the operator of the charger, translating to 16 to 129 times the amount that consumers pay for electricity. EV operators are consistently losing money today, Kantor notes.
Kantor says that these demand charges are an unfair trade practice engaged in by the major electric utilities across the nation. According to Kantor, now that a monopolized market for electricity is bumping up against one of the most price-transparent, competitive markets in the nation (vehicle fueling), the incompatibility between the monopolies and competition is creating real pain, stunting private investment in vehicle charging and raising the possibility that utilities will try to monopolize vehicle charging just like they monopolize electricity sales to homes and offices.
We all know that monopolized markets are bad for consumers. That drives much of the current attention to, and rethinking of, antitrust law and policy. The danger for the future of electric vehicles is that we are so eager to move quickly to expand charging offerings that we dont see this anti-competitive problem growing in the market for charging while we build it. We would all be better off taking the time to ensure that we will have a competitive, level playing field for charging before we get too far down the proverbial road, said Kantor.
Read more about electricity demand charges and what they mean for retailers ability to turn a profit from EV charging in the September issue of NACS Magazine.
Batavia, NY (14020)
Today
A few showers early becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 38F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..
Tonight
A few showers early becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 38F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
6 Tips to Secure Mobile Devices in Your Organization
Mobile technology can be an excellent tool for productivity and convenience, but it also poses security threats. So be aware and watchful.
Smartphones are all around us, and people use them for work every day. Mobile technology can be an excellent tool for productivity and convenience, but it also poses security threats. CheckPoints Mobile Security Report 2021 found that nearly all organizations (97 percent) were affected by mobile threats in the last year.
Forty-six percent of these organizations had to deal with employees downloading malicious appsnot on purposebut merely due to their mobile phones or watches.
Cybercriminals and other threat actors are attracted to major mobile platforms. However, it isnt easy to ensure security in a sea of third-party apps that are made for easy connectivity. As a result, InfoSec professionals and IT departments are trying to find the right balance in mobile security. The right balance for you will allow employees to enjoy mobile devices while minimizing risk.
Secure Mobile Devices
Every company should have a strategy to increase mobile device security. There are many prominent places to begin. These suggestions are not as complicated as you think; just start as soon as possible.
Learn All You Can About Phishing (Email), Smishing (SMS Text), and Other Criminal Methods
Smartphones do not have anti-phishing filters, antivirus, or spam filters like most email clients. In addition, mobile phone carriers dont inspect embedded URL links. As a result, these bogus links can be clicked by users, opening the door to trouble if they are connected. It may seem like this is finebut you wont think so if your system happens to be hacked in your company system.
By design, text/SMS messages can be weakly authenticated. To verify their identity, users cannot quickly check the domain. SMS messages could arrive via spoofed, borrowed,/shared phone numbers. URL links are usually a sign of phishing scams. However, malicious senders can disguise them using URL shortening services (like TinyURL and Bit.ly) to conceal the source.
Your people should suggest that they first expand the URL by using a URL expansion service (like Urlex and ExpandURL). If you are familiar with what to look out forsmishing attempts can be easily detected. They should be ignored, deleted, or reported by users.
Update and Patch Your Software Regularly
There are always new vulnerabilities and exploits that can be discovered in your business. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that all software used in your companys mobile device management (MDM) system is up-to-date quickly. Mobile device management (MDM) tools you use for managing mobile devices must be updated, often with the most recent security updates.
When choosing apps or platforms to use, it is essential to consider the speed and effectiveness of security updates.
Provide Guidelines to Employees
Social engineering attacks are often responsible for malware infections. According to the FBI, Phishing was the most preventable cybercrime in 2020. Phishing had nearly ten times as many complaints in 2020 than in 2017. Where will it go in 2021? Phishing is a common technique to trick users into giving up their passwords or confidential informationor even money.
This includes fake website fronts, hidden links, files, and SMS messages that look like legitimate requests from Amazon, UPS, and your credit card.
These attacks are less effective if employees have been trained and taught how to spot the danger signs. Regular education will give people the knowledge and skills they need to recognize phishing/smishing attempts. Make sure that training is supported by basic guidelines that set off an alarm and report on findings. You can explain what you want and then reward and encourage vigilant employees.
Employ Proper Authentication
Although everyone is aware of the importance of password security, it isnt enough. Multi-factor authentication (MFA), which includes one-time passcode generation via email or text, is an additional step.
Modern mobile devices have biometrics as an additional authentication method. Employees cant lose or forget their fingerprints. They are unique and always with them. Facial recognition and fingerprint scanning can be used to add an extra layer of security to log in to company systems.
Advanced authentication methods include adaptive or contextual approaches that use the IP address, device location, and user configuration to authenticate logins to company systems.
The Clear Distinction Between Personal and Work
Management is complex because of the blurring between personal and company mobile devices. Managing third-party apps, lockdown devices, or force updates may prove challenging if the company does not have the device. It would be best to consider separating work and personal apps, creating clear policies about mobile device usage for work, and using virtualization and mobile gateways to limit what lives on other mobile devices.
Check Your Mobile Security Strategy
It is dangerous to wait for an attack to determine if your strategy is working. Regular security audits should be conducted and outsiders hired to test your defenses for vulnerabilities. To ensure that employees know your security procedures, they should be tested using mock smishing and phishing campaigns.
A snapshot is all you have. Plan a continuous program, and ensure that the results feed into a mitigation plan. You should assess your response to incidents. This includes testing as well as real-life issues. Make sure you take all the lessons learned from these incidents. Every test and every real-life incident is a learning opportunity that will help you improve your overall strategy.
By Howie Jones
Police tape is seen in this stock photo. (Carl Ballou/Shutterstock)
8-Month-Old Child Falls out of Moving Vehicle, Struck by Car: Police
An 8-month-old Texas child died Sunday after falling out of a moving vehicle and was struck by another car, officials confirmed.
The Irving Police Department said it is investigating how the child fell out of the moving vehicle into the intersection of N. MacArthur Blvd. and Ranchview Dr. The vehicle was being driven by the infants mother, officials said.
Authorities are looking for a possible black sedan that struck the child and continued without stopping, according to the department. Investigators told WFAA there is a high probability that the driver of the sedan didnt know that it struck the infant.
Its not clear how the child fell out of the moving vehicle, authorities said. The infant was taken to a nearby hospital, where the child was later pronounced dead, they said.
Officials said that neither the child nor other children inside the vehicle were strapped into car seats when the child fell, Fox4 reported. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is looking into the matter.
A witness who saw the incident unfold thought it was a baby doll falling out of the car, Irving Police spokesman Robert Reeves told the Fox affiliate station. They saw the other vehicle drive over the child. And thats when they realized it was a child and the driver stopped.
The mother of the child could be charged with child endangerment, Reeves said.
Theres a range of potential charges she could be facing, he noted.
Anyone who saw the incident should call the Irving Police Department at 972-721-2761.
Protesters from Insulate Britain block the M25 motorway in London, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Handout photo issued by Insulate Britain/PA)
9 UK Climate Activists Jailed Over Flouting Court Order
Nine activists from climate campaign group Insulate Britain were jailed on Wednesday for blocking the M25 motorway in violation of a court injunction.
The nine activists, aged between 20 to 58, admitted on Tuesday to breaching the injunction, which was granted to the National Highways on Sept. 21 after Insulate Britain activists ran in front of moving cars and lorries on the motorway.
The oldest and the youngest of the group58-year-old Ana Heyatawin and 20-year-old Louie McKechniewere jailed for three months.
Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, each received a four-month sentence. Smart has announced her intention to go on hunger strike, according to an Insulate Britain activist who spoke to media outlets outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
Ben Taylor, 37, was given a longer sentence of six months after Judge Dame Victoria Sharp said his submission to the court on Tuesday was inflammatory and a call to arms.
Taylor told the High Court that if he was not put in prison, he would go and block the motorway at the earliest opportunity and will continue to do so until the government makes a meaningful statement and acts on it.
He added that whatever sentence or sanction he was given will be counter-productive and will only serve to fuel the campaign of Insulate Britain.
If you send me away to prison, 10 people will step forward in my place. If you send each of us away, 100 people will step forward and take our places. If you send 100 of us away, 1,000 people will step forward to take our place, he said.
If you somehow manage to stop all non-violent protests, then things will only turn violent.
Undated handout photo issued by Insulate Britain of their activists (2nd row LR) Tim Speers, Roman Paluch, Emma Smart, Ben Taylor, James Thomas, (1st row LR) Louis McKechnie, Ana Heyatawin, and Oliver Roc, who along with Dr. Ben Buse have been jailed at the High Court for breaching an injunction designed to prevent the groups road blockades. (Insulate Britain/PA)
Sentencing the activists with Justice Chamberlain on Wednesday, Sharp said there was no alternative to custodial sentences given that the groups actions were so serious and they had made it clear they intended to further flout court orders.
The defendants, or some of them, seem to want to be martyrs for their cause and the media campaign surrounding this hearing appears designed to suggest this, she said. We, however, have to act dispassionately and proportionately.
Sharp also said that the activists caused harm beyond the inconvenience and economic damage and risked the safety of the defendants and the public.
Before the group was sentenced, Myriam Stacey QC, representing National Highways, told the court the legal costs of bringing proceedings against the nine activists had reached 91,000 ($122,600).
She argued the judges should make an order for the costs against the defendants and that, even if they are unable to pay them, such an order would be an important symbol.
She also said the agency had a duty to attempt to recover the costs, as they are from public funds.
Sharp said she and Chamberlain will give their decision on costs in writing at a later date.
The defendantsa number of whom said they were full-time volunteers and claim universal credithave said they have no money to pay for the legal costs.
Buse was the only defendant represented by lawyers, while the other activists represented themselves.
Duncan Smith, executive director of operations at National Highways, welcomed the sentence.
We respect peoples right to protest but do not condone the actions of anyone who puts their lives, and the lives of road users, at risk.
Insulate Britain read a statement from the nine convicted activists, accusing the government of showing cowardice.
The group called on members of the public to join its campaign, saying, We call on you to recognise that you also have a duty to act, as our government is betraying us.
The nine were the first of the climate activists to have been brought to court since their campaign started in September.
Insulate Britain, which demands the government insulate all British homes, said on Nov. 3 that a further 23 activists were expected to be summoned to court soon.
After the first injunction was issued on Sept. 21, four further injunctions were granted to the National Highways and Transport for London, threatening traffic-disrupting activists with imprisonment, fines, or asset seizure.
PA contributed to this report.
A picture shows the Amazon logo at the entrance of the Amazon logistics center in Amiens, northern France, on July 23, 2019. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)
Amazon to Stop Accepting Payments Using UK-Issued Visa Credit Cards From January
Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK from January 19, 2022, the online retail giant has said, citing high visa fee charges.
The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers. These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise, an Amazon spokesperson said an in emailed statement to The Epoch Times. As a result of Visas continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January, 2022.
With the rapidly changing payments landscape around the world, we will continue innovating on behalf of customers to add and promote faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment options to our stores across the globe, the spokesperson added.
Visa credit cards issued outside of the UK will be exempt.
You can still use debit cards (including Visa debit cards) and non-Visa credit cards like Mastercard, Amex, and Eurocard to make purchases, Amazon said in an email to some customers, per the BBC.
Amazon also asked its customers to update payment methods, including for Prime membership and any subscriptions. We know this may be inconvenient, and were here to help you through this transition, it added.
Visa said it was disappointed by the decision and accused Amazon of restricting customers choice.
UK shoppers can use their Visa debit and credit cards at Amazon UK today and throughout the holiday season, a Visa spokesperson told the BBC. We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins.
We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work toward a resolution, so our cardholders can use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022, the spokesperson added.
Visa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Merchants disputing with payment processors over transaction fees is not a new phenomenon. In March, U.S. supermarket chain Kroger Co announced its Smiths Food and Drug Stores division will stop accepting Visa credit cards due to excessive transaction fees, Reuters reported. Although it later U-turned on its decision.
Kroger had stopped accepting Visas credit cards at its Foods Co stores in California in August last year due to a price dispute over interchange rates and network fees.
Payments on cards attract a range of fees including interchange fees, also known as swipe fees, which are a percentage of the cost of the transaction that the merchants bank account must pay whenever a customer uses a credit/debit card to make a purchase from their store. Credit card interchange fees are typically higher to account for the additional risk of such a transaction.
Visa earlier this year hiked the interchange fees it charges merchants (pdf) for processing digital transactions between the UK and the European Union. As of October 19, Visa increased the fee on digital payments made between European customers and British businesses from 0.3 percent to 1.5 percent, as well as vice versa, while the interchange fee for cross-border debit card payments made online increased from 0.2 percent to 1.15 percent.
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis attributed the dispute over fees to Brexit.
Its because Visa is increasing transaction rates now [that] the EU cap no longer applies (post Brexit), Lewis wrote on Twitter.
But CNBC technology expert Ryan Browne said on Twitter that, it could be a way to get some bargaining power over Visa to lower fees. Smaller retailers arent in a position to negotiate, but Amazongiven its sizemight be. Visa is clearly bruised by this decision, though, and it could damage their relationship in the long run.
Editors note: This article has been updated with a statement from Amazon.
The federal government is making changes to the renewable energy target scheme, but questions remain about how it will operate into the future. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
Anaheim Electricity Bills to Increase as City Moves Toward Renewable Energy
As Anaheim continues moving toward renewable energy to meet state standards, electricity rates can go up significantly, according to Elden Krause, the citys integrated resources planner.
Consumers can expect to pay a 15 to 20 percent increase, according to data from the 2018 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), yet the next IRP to be released might show higher rates due to stricter state mandates, Krause said during a Sept. 22 meeting with the Anaheim Public Utilities Board of Directors.
While the city is on track to meet the goal of 60 percent renewable energy by 2030, Krause said the utility board is also dedicated to minimizing financial impacts on consumers.
Weve been focused on sustainability not only meeting reliability, requirements, resiliency but also having the financial flexibility behind the scenes, he said.
The boards plan, based on the state guidelines, is to be coal-free by 2027, reach 60 percent renewable energy by 2030, and become carbon-free by 2045, Krause said.
As for how increasing renewable energy capacity might affect consumer costs, board members emphasized that their plan is to adjust the rates incrementally, instead of jumping all at once, though its unclear when the increases will happen.
Also, with approximately $9 million in funding from the states pandemic relief program for past due utility bills, the board is planning to refinance utility debts for eligible consumers to offer them more financial flexibility.
We know that were going to have these cost increases, a member of the board said during the meeting. So were setting costs in the form of lower debt service payments in our distribution system. So we are taking proactive steps in order for us to ensure that our customers still have affordable rates, while we proactively change our farm machinery.
Though the city already met its 33 percent renewable energy target for 2020, Krause expressed some frustration with the state mandates. He noted that every time the city thinks theyve met a renewable energy goal, the state takes that goalpost and shifts it one more time.
On the other hand, the cost of renewable energysuch as wind and solar energyhas been decreasing, which is advantageous for the city to generate more energy from renewable sources, according to Krause.
The board is also considering adding batteries to its solar panels, which can store energy during the day and release it during peak consumption time at nightwhen most homes have lights on.
Batteries help offset [peak hours] rather than having natural gas plants peaking, [to serve] that entire need. The trend is moving to the batteries. They definitely over time have become a lot cheapercompared to where they were if you look back five yearsand easier to integrate into the grid, Krause said.
A Qualcomm logo is seen during a press event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, on Jan. 6, 2014. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Analysts Remain Bullish on Qualcomms Growth in Apples Absence
Investors once believed that Qualcomm Inc.s fortunes rose and fell with Apple Inc.s iPhone, which uses a key modem chip from Qualcomm to connect to mobile data networks, Reuters reports.
However, as Qualcomm prepares for an investor presentation on Nov. 16, analysts said a looming loss of Apple, which is working on its chips to replace Qualcomms, might not matter much to Qualcomms profits.
Qualcomm will outline plans to land its chips in everything from virtual reality headsets to self-driving cars to telecommunications gear.
The change comes from a diversification strategy by Cristiano Amon, who ran the companys chip division before becoming CEO in 2021, Bernstein analyst noted.
Earlier this month, Qualcomm saw a growth of over 20 percent in adjusted earnings for FY22 above the consensus of 12.5 percent.
Anything beyond our contract with (Apple) is an upside to our model, Amon said. They have a large number of devices. And if there are opportunities, well be very happy to engage with them on supply.
Angelo Zino of CFRA Research said Apple likely would leave in phases, initially introducing internal chips for only one or two devices.
While Qualcomm has gained market share among Android phones as Qualcomm customers are filling the vacuum left from Huaweis exit from the smartphone market. Brands like Chinas Honor are turning to Qualcomm for supply.
Qualcomms China handset (revenue) is growing faster than Apple is growing, which is helping to offset any Apple reductions, Moor Insights & Strategy founder Patrick Moorhead said.
Price Action
Qualcomms shares closed higher by 7.89 percent at $181.81 on Tuesday.
By Anusuya Lahiri
2021 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gives a farewell speech via online video in New York on Aug. 23, 2021. (New York Governors Office via AP)
Andrew Cuomos Book Deal Revoked by New York Ethics Board
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had his book deal revoked by the states ethics board on Tuesday.
New Yorks Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) approved a resolution (pdf) 121 to rescind its decision that approved Cuomo to write American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic while he was governor during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo will now be forced to file for approval again following the decision.
If the new approval is not granted, JCOPE could force the former governor to repay a portion or all of the $5.1 million contract he received for the book from Crown New York publishing.
Contrary to the representations made on behalf of Gov. Cuomo and not disclosed to the commission, state property, resources and personnelincluding staff volunteerswere used in connection with the preparation, writing, editing and publication of the book, the resolution said in part.
JCOPE said Cuomos proposal was rescinded as the COVID-19 focused book was largely connected to his service as the states governor.
It is a work that was developed as part of Governor Cuomos job responsibilities and is substantially related to his job responsibilities, the resolution added.
Cuomos response to the decision included an announcement planning legal action against the board.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi released a statement in response to the decision to New Yorks WABC-TV.
These JCOPE members are acting outside the scope of their authority and are carrying the water of the politicians who appointed them. It is the height of hypocrisy for (Governor Kathy) Hochul and the legislatures appointees to take this position, given that these elected officials routinely use their own staff for political and personal assistance on their own time, the statement read.
This is the 3rd time JCOPE has attempted to rescind their own approval, and this amounts to nothing more than Albany political corruption at its worst. JCOPE wants to rescind an approval that was relied upon to play a political game and that means a JCOPE opinion cannot be relied upon by anyone and is subject to political winds.
Our counsels request to JCOPE was clear, saying no government resources would be usedconsistent with that representation, people who volunteered on this project did so on their own time. Furthermore, the governor cannot be held responsible for internal decisions over recusals and approvals made by JCOPE. They truly are a J-JOKE, it added.
The New York Post also reported that Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochuls four new appointees to the committee, including chairman Jose Nieves, all voted in favor of rescinding the approval of Cuomos book contract.
Another Distributor Recalls Onions Over Salmonella Concerns
Alsum issued its recall announcement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which posted the statement on its website.
Alsum Farms & Produce, Inc., a Wisconsin-based distributor, is voluntarily recalling onions as a multi-state salmonella outbreak continues. Alsum issued its recall announcement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which posted the statement on its website.
The yellow, white, and red onions in question were sourced from Keeler Family Farms, one of the suppliers tied to the salmonella oranienburg outbreak. The onions are imported from Mexico and so, per the notice, the recall only impacts onions labeled Produce of Mexico.
The FDA release noted that no illnesses have been reported in connection to onions marketed through Keeler Family Farms and there is no conclusive evidence that the products were contaminated. The recall is being issued out of an abundance of caution.
The Alsum onions were delivered to retailers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania between July 13 and Aug. 18, according to the release.
The health and safety of our customers is our top priority, said Alsum Farms & Produce COO Heidi Randall. We advise consumers check their home pantries for any recalled product remaining to minimize even the slightest risk to public health.
Over 800 illnesses and 157 hospitalizations have been linked to the ongoing salmonella outbreak, which is tied to onions. Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and cramps in a healthy person, per the FDA, and can cause serious or even fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people.
Arizona State Rep. Joseph Chaplik speaks to a crowd of parents in Scottsdale on Nov. 15, 2021, prior to the Scottsdale Unified School District Board's vote to replace Jann-Michael Greenburg as board president. Chaplik called for an independent investigation of Greenburg and his father, who are accused of keeping a secret dossier on outspoken parents against Critical Race Theory and mask mandates. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
Arizona School Board Elects New President Over Alleged Dossier on Parents
Scottsdale, Arizonas governing school board has voted to replace Jann-Michael Greenburg as president over an online dossier that he and his father allegedly had kept on parents critical of school board policies.
During a Nov. 15 emergency session, the Scottsdale Unified District No. 48 Governing Board voted 41 to appoint Patty Beckman to serve as president for the remainder of 2021.
Greenburg cast the dissenting vote.
Its been an incredibly difficult week, said board member Zack Lindsay after the vote. I find some of the allegations [against the Greenburgs] very troubling.
The so-called Greenburg dossier was allegedly kept by Mark Greenburg and later shared by Jann-Michael, reportedly by accident.
The dossier now is the focus of an investigation by the Scottsdale Police Department.
Jann-Michael Greenburg, former president of the Scottsdale, Arizona, School District Governing Board, goes through papers at an emergency meeting on Nov. 15, 2021. The board voted to replace Greenburg as president amid allegations that he and his father kept an online dossier of outspoken parents against critical race theory and mask mandates. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
Jann-Michael Greenburg said he will remain on the board until we have all the facts at the conclusion of the investigation.
He opened the Nov. 15 emergency meeting by saying: I am reassured the Scottsdale Police Department is investigating this matter. There appears to be bad actors involved and I am confident our law enforcement will quickly resolve these issues.
More than 100 concerned parents gathered outside of school district offices on Nov. 15 and demanded Greenburgs resignation.
Resign, Resign, Resign, one parents sign read.
Arizona state Rep. Joseph Chaplik held a press conference before the meeting. He called for an independent investigation of anyone involved in the alleged dossier, which targeted parents simply for opposing critical race theory and mask mandates.
Ive seen the Greenburg file and it doesnt look good for Mr. Greenburg, Chaplik said.
The dossier allegedly contained parents identifying information, including Social Security numbers, mortgage documents, divorce papers, personal background checks, family contact information, as well as photographs of their children.
Scottsdale parent Amanda Wray said she came forward after the dossier with her familys private information went public. Like many other parents at the Nov. 15 gathering, Wray said she didnt expect Greenburg, a Scottsdale attorney, to resign willingly.
Amanda and Daniel Wray of Scottsdale, Arizona, say their private identifying information was included in an online dossier that Jann-Michael Greenburg, former president of the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board, and his father allegedly kept on parents who opposed certain board policies. The Wrays, and more than 100 other concerned parents, attended an emergency meeting of the board on Nov. 15, 2021, to replace Greenburg as president. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
Hes a career politician. He was not here for children. This was a stepping stone, Wray said. I think hes going to dig his heels in tonight.
Her husband, Daniel Wray, said he found the contents of the alleged dossier disturbing.
I know theres an investigation. It feels criminal, but Im not the one to say, Wray said.
In a Nov. 15 open letter, SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel said the board acted in light of the information recently revealed that a dossier containing sensitive information on SUSD parents was allegedly created and maintained in publicly accessible Google drive folders by Mark Greenburg, the father of Jann-Michael Greenburg, and shared by the latter.
The focus of the Governing Board should remain solely on improving educational opportunities for each and every one of our Districts 22,000 students. The decision this evening ensures that with new leadership this will be the top priority, Menzel wrote.
Menzel said the district has launched an independent forensic investigation into whether any district resources were used to create, maintain or modify the dossier.
He said the district is fully cooperating with the police investigation.
The existence of these files is disturbing and unacceptable. The Board, in fulfilling its duty, has the obligation to be honest, fair, caring, and respectful. Further, it must avoid conduct that creates the appearance of impropriety or conduct unbefitting a public official, Menzel said.
Menzel said the dossiers contents, including disparaging descriptions of parents who share differences of opinion on board policies, is inconsistent with district core values of inviting civil discourse regarding educational matters. He stressed that board members dont have unrestricted access to student information protected by federal law.
In a Nov. 12 letter to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, state Rep. Shawnna Bolick requested an immediate investigation into the alleged Greenburg dossier.
Bolick, in the letter, said Mark Greenburg is the owner of the online dossier with personal information on 47 people, including videos posted of him on Google Drive allegedly stalking parents at a school board meeting on Aug. 24.
In the same video, Mark Greenburg acknowledges they hired a private investigator whos writing down all of their [license] plates, referring to parents attending the meeting.
A reasonable question to ask Mr. Greenburg is who is they? Bolick wrote.
I cannot imagine any legitimate action that would justify collecting and sharing personal identifying information as purported to have happened.
In a related Nov. 12 letter sent to Menzel and the five SUSD School Board members, Bolick asked for their full cooperation in the police investigation.
If any of you were part of this cyberstalking/doxing escapade allegedly undertaken by the Greenburg household, I would advise you to cooperate with law enforcement and resign immediately to allow a truly dedicated Scottsdale taxpayer to serve honorably in your school district, Bolick wrote.
As the investigation gets underway, a community letter requesting Jann-Michaels resignation has garnered more than 1,500 signatures.
If Jann-Michael refuses to resign, we may have to go in front of (the Greenburgs) house and show them how we really feel. Were kind of mad, said Miki Klann, who asked parents to sign the petition at the Nov. 15 meeting. The petition requires 21,000 signatures, she said.
The backlash against Jann-Michael is part of a national trend of parents becoming increasingly involved in school boards, largely in response to the infusion of the quasi-Marxist critical race and gender theories into class curricula.
The heated debates prompted the National School Board Association to pen a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that the Justice Department investigate parents who allegedly make threats against school board members and staff. The letter compared parents who opposed critical race theory to domestic terrorists.
Shortly after the receipt of the letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a national effort targeting parents over the alleged threats. Garlands announcement led to outrage among parents and Republicans. School board associations in several states quit the national board in response.
Australia Joins the Quantum Race
As China and the U.S. spearhead the research and development of their own quantum systems, Australia has announced a $111 million plan to secure the development, commercialisation and adoption of the tech across defence, national security, and many other industries.
Australias quantum leap includes a $70 million Quantum Commercialisation Hub that will facilitate research with the United States, the United Kingdom and other allies to bring the nations tech to a global stage.
This investment will help secure future economic opportunities for Australian businesses, create local jobs, and importantly, it will help keep Australians safe, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in his announcement.
It is estimated that the development, commercialisation, and adoption of quantum technologies can deliver Australia AU$4 billion in economic value and create 16,000 new jobs by 2040.
Quantum tech is just one of the nine priority fields in the Critical Technology Blueprint and Action Plan.
The Blueprint sets out a vision for protecting and promoting critical technologies in our national interest, Morrison said at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Dialogue.
It aims to balance the economic opportunities of critical technologies with their national security risks. And it gives us the right framework to work domestically and with like-minded countries to support the further development of these technologies.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 9, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)
The prime minister noted that the technological uptake had been spurred on by AUKUS, the strategic pact between Australia, the UK, and the U.S.
To state the obvious, AUKUS is about much more than nuclear submarines, Morrison said.
AUKUS will see Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States promote deeper information sharing; foster greater integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains; and strengthen our cooperation in advanced and critical technologies and capabilities.
What is Quantum Technology?
So what exactly is quantum technology? The Australian Army Research Centre, in a blog post, describes it as technology that makes use of a quantum system- this is an arrangement of microscopic particles like electrons, protons and nuclei.
The simplest of these systems are called qubits. The technology monitors the system by detecting emitted photons and then utilises the measurement to discern the state of the qubits. This measurement is then used to interface with communication equipment, computers, and sensing and imaging equipment with end result creating technology that works faster, is more accurate, has better endurance and precision.
Quantum technology is currently a rapidly developing area, with nations such as the U.S. and China making breakthroughs rapidly.
In 2017, for example, Chinese scientists published groundbreaking research that tested quantum entanglement over vast distances, positioning China to potentially lead in developing a quantum-based communications network.
A laser tests the optical waveguide of a chip for quantum computing in a laboratory in Stuttgart, Germany, on Sept.14, 2021. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)
Morrison also pointed to the rapid technological change as a critical component in addressing global threats, which included increasing geostrategic competitionsomething that has been seen following Beijings growing influence in the South China Sea and its neighbouring states.
The simple fact is that nations at the leading edge of technology have greater economic, political and military power, Morrison said.
But Morrison lauded Australia as being in a prime position to benefit from an existing foundation of world-class scientists and research capabilities.
Quantum science and technology has the potential to revolutionise a whole range of industries, including finance, communications, energy, health, agriculture, manufacturing, transport, and mining, he said.
Quantum sensors, for example, could improve the discovery of valuable ore deposits and make groundwater monitoring more efficient; and quantum communications could provide for secure exchange of information to better secure financial transactions.
The worlds largest dump trucks shifting earth at Citic Pacific Minings Sino Iron magnetite iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on Mar. 5, 2010. (AMY COOPES/AFP via Getty Images)
Australia has already outlined its military ambitions with the tech, such as an agreement that could see the development of quantum-computer based guided weapons systems. The Australian Defence Force has formally outlined its goals in the Army Quantum Technology Roadmap (pdf), with early-stage use already in the works.
This includes one of the most precise clocks ever created, known as the Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillatordubbed the Sapphire Clockwhich wont lose time for 40 million years.
The Sapphire Clock offers a thousand-fold improvement in timing precision, helping Australian Defence agencies identify threats to the nation, a Department of Defence spokesperson told ZDNet.
The roadmap also outlines the potential for navigational systems in situations where typical satellite-based GPS sees difficulty, such as undersea use in submarines.
Australia Strengthens Its University Foreign Interference Guidelines
Australia has strengthened its university foreign interference guidelines to protect students, staff, and research by assisting the process of better identifying and responding to risks.
Australias education institutions will be required to assess staff at risk of foreign interference. These identified individuals will be required to reveal any links to foreign governments, military, or intelligence organisations.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said espionage and foreign interference posed a challenge to Australias democracy.
These updated guidelines are more important than everwith international students set to return to many Australian jurisdictions soon, we need to ensure our university campuses embody the free, open, transparent debate that is so vital to an Australian education, and to our way of life, Andrews said.
Education Minister Alan Tudge said the guidelines will ensure Australias researchers, some of the worlds leading academics, are protected.
We have seen that Australian universities are a target for foreign interference with foreign actors using sophisticated and deceptive means to steal Australian research and intellectual property, Tudge said. The Morrison Government takes research integrity very seriously and will continue to prevent efforts to steal information and interfere in our universities.
Tudge cited the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) who said that the leading research in universities that lead to critical technological and military breakthroughs are subject to foreign interference and stealing.
There have been examples of universities having their finances put at risk by foreign actors in relation to that. Theres been examples of aggressive threats to steal the research at our universities. So those have been documented by ASIO itself. So, the issue is serious, Tudge told Sky News Australia.
Australian Education Minister Alan Tudge speaks during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Oct. 22, 2021. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
The strengthened guidelines come after Human Rights Watch published a report that outlined Australian universities failure to protect the academic freedom of students and academics who criticise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Australian universities rely on the fees international students bring while turning a blind eye to concerns about harassment and surveillance by the Chinese government and its proxies, report author Sophie McNeill said.
The report highlighted the sectors over-reliance on income from Chinese international students, who accounted for around 1 in 10 of all students attending an Australian university in 2018.
Subsequently, this created an environment of self-censorship when it came to topics sensitive to the CCP.
Universities Australia, the peak body for Australian universities, said the sector worked closely with the government to revise the guidelines.
Now the guidelines are finalised, the sector will work on implementing the refreshed advice, Universities Australia Chair John Dewar said. We will continue to adapt and update our approach as well as share good practice across all university campuses.
Our universities will continue to lead the way in ensuring that Australia is collaborating with world leading researchers and institutions, as we strive for the big breakthroughs whilst managing and mitigating risks.
All Australian universities have also adopted a code to strengthen free speech on campus for students and academics.
Premier Dominic Perrottet at a media conference at NSW State Parliament in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 21, 2021. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
Australian Premier Delays Call to Extend COVID-19 Health Powers Until 2022
New South Wales (NSW) Premier Dominic Perrottet has delayed the call to extend emergency health powers until next year.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard pushed for the extension of the temporary COVID-19 emergency powers until 2023. The proposal was on the back of a recommendation by Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant.
According to The Australian, several MPs during the Coalition party room meeting contested the proposal.
Perrottet stepped in and said that he would consider extending or modifying the provisions over the summer break.
Any health provisions going forward will be only those that are necessary, Perrottet said today. There will no doubt be provisions that need to be extended, but its working through whats necessary.
The premier said he wanted to make sure they didnt have a heavy-handed government but would be committed to extending health provisions that are deemed absolutely necessary.
I, like anyone, wants to make sure that we have government out of the way, Perrottet said. But at the same time, weve got to keep the protection, the health care of people right across our state, and Ill work through that with the health minister.
New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard speaks at a press conference before receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine at at St George Hospital in Kogarah on March 10, 2021, in Sydney, Australia. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
He later added that neither the government nor the police wanted to live in a police state.
Current emergency health power provisions are in place until early-2022, with Parliament scheduled to return in February.
Hazzard denied suggestions that he was looking to expand powers for the health minister.
Far from granting additional powers, the powers are exactly the same as exist now and are simply tweaks on timing for two provisions in the massive Public Health Act, Hazzard told the AAP in a statement.
Perrottets decision comes after the strong opposition in Victoria to Premier Daniel Andrews proposed Pandemic Management Bill that saw thousands of Victorians protest on Saturday, and smaller protests continue on the steps of the states Parliament holding Kill the Bill signs overnight.
Thousands protest against the Victorian governments proposed pandemic bill and vaccine mandates in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 13, 2021. (Armstrong Lazenby)
Federal Treasurer and federal MP for Victoria Josh Frydenberg joined the increasing number of voices against the Andrews Pandemic Bill.
I dont agree with Daniel Andrews Pandemic Bill. Its overreach & has rightly been condemned, Frydenberg said in a Twitter post.
The bill grants unprecedented power to the premier, who will be able to declare and extend a state of emergency for three months indefinitely.
Authorised officers can also enter a premise without a warrant and arrest a person deemed to be a serious risk to public health.
It would also give the state government the powers to restrict movement, ban public gatherings, close businesses or order quarantine requirements.
Henry Jom contributed to this article.
Baby Born With Her Intestines on the Outside Now Has an Outie Bellybutton and Is Thriving
A mother of four was left terrified when she was told during her pregnancy that her baby girl would be born with her intestines on the outside of her body. However, the now-11-month-old girl, who received reversal surgery to reinsert her small and large intestine into her body, just has an outie belly button to show for it.
Mom Laura Woodward, 24, and dad Adam, 30, a dry liner, from Clitheroe, Lancashire, Englandwho were already parents to Ava, 7, Zachary, 5, and Tommy, 2knew they were having a little girl thanks to an eight-week gender test in May 2020. The couple was excited to add the final piece to their family.
I wasnt worried because Id done it all three times before with my other children, Laura, a care assistant said. I knew the process, and my other pregnancies had been so smooth, so I didnt have any reason to think this time would be any different.
Laura Woodward, 24. (SWNS)
However, their excitement turned into a reason for worry when the sonographer at Blackburn Hospital revealed their unborn baby had a rare birth defect during the 12th-week scan in June 2020.
They just looked at me and told me they were sorry, it felt like everything went into slow motion, Laura said. I didnt understand what it would mean for our baby, I was just terrified.
Laura at the first trimester of her pregnancy. (SWNS)
The couple was referred for a specialist scan to gain further insight into their little girls birth defect, and doctors confirmed she would be born with gastroschisis, a condition where the intestines happen to grow outside of the body.
They tried to reassure us but it sounded terrifying, Laura said. We were told I didnt have to continue with the pregnancy if I didnt want to, but there was no way I wasnt giving our baby a chance.
The expectant parents were assured that it was a high survival rate and something that could be fixed. However, all they had to do was just hope for the best.
Laura said she found it incredibly hard to remain positive and was unable to enjoy her pregnancy as she had with her previous children due to sheer panic for her unborn child.
However, Laura was finally relieved when she was admitted to the hospital for a planned C-section. Little Millie arrived at 11:11 on Dec. 11, 2020, weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces (2.5 kg) at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool.
Little Millie was born with her intestines on the outside. (SWNS)
Describing seeing Millie for the first time, Laura said the medical team wrapped her exposed organs up in clingfilm and allowed Laura to hold her for a bit. This, she says, was all she needed after worrying for months.
Millie received reversal surgery, to reinsert her small and large intestine into her body, an operation that went incredibly smoothly at Alder Hey Hospital.
To look at her now, youd never think shes been through so much, Laura said. She just has a little outie bellybutton to show for it, and is a little smaller than her friends, but I couldnt love her more if I tried.
Laura and Adam with their children. (SWNS)
The proud mother says she doesnt try to molly-coddle her but does her best to protect her, adding shes just perfect in every way.
Epoch Times Staff contributed to this report.
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White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Aug. 23, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden Admin to Focus on 4 Priorities in US-China Engagement: National Security Adviser
The Biden administration will focus on four key areas in future bilateral engagement with China, National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday.
Speaking hours after a 3.5-hour virtual summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Sullivan said the future of the U.S.-China relationship can best be categorized by prioritizing four buckets in these engagements.
U.S. engagement with China will intensify at multiple levels to ensure that competition between the two powers does not veer into conflict, Sullivan said in a Brookings Institution webinar.
President Biden did raise with President Xi the need for a strategic stability set of conversations that that needs to be guided by the leaders and led by senior empowered teams on both sides that cut across security, technology, and diplomacy, Sullivan said.
You will see at multiple levels an intensification of the engagement to ensure that there are guardrails around this competition so that it doesnt veer off into conflict.
The two leaders will work together on urgent issues including ramping up global COVID-19 vaccination rates and implementing the COP26 climate deal, Sullivan said of the first bucket.
Biden and Xi will also focus on addressing immediate challenges such as escalating missile tests in North Korea, and Iran nuclear talks.
Direct communication between Washington and Beijing will also be improved to effectively manage differences, on key issues such as Taiwan, Sullivan said of the Biden administrations third priority.
Having clear communication, avoiding miscommunication is going to be an important and intensive aspect of work between our militaries, between our national security councils, and between our diplomats, he said.
Lastly, China and the United States will work to resolve outstanding issues in the Phase One trade deal, while working to tackle Beijings nonmarket economic practices, Sullivan added.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden and Xi on Monday night talked for about three and a half hours but appeared to do little to narrow differences between the superpowers, and failed to reach any breakthrough on issues concerning both nations.
Biden said the United States will work to advance an international system that is free, open, and fair, raising concerns about the Chinese Communist Partys human rights record and abuses he was aware of in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
According to the White House, Biden used the talks as an opportunity to speak candidly and straightforwardly to Xi about the intentions and priorities of his administration across a range of issues.
We were not expecting this meeting to somehow be a sort of fundamental departure point in where were at in the relationship between the United States and China. We were not expecting a breakthrough and there were none, a senior administration official told reporters in a background call after the conclusion of the summit.
Frank Fang and Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican Lawmakers Criticize Biden for Not Taking Tough Stance During Summit With Xi
President Joe Biden has received mixed responses from Congress over his virtual meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with several Republican lawmakers calling the president out for not pressing Xi on Beijings various aggressions.
Biden and Xi on Nov. 15 talked for about three and a half hours in their first-ever virtual summit, focusing on issues that included Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Taiwan. According to the White House, Biden raised concerns about Chinas human rights violations and unfair trade and economic practices.
After the summit, a senior administration official said the leaders did not reach any breakthrough on issues concerning both countries.
On Tuesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington and Beijing will focus on four key areas in their future bilateral engagement. This includes major issues such as implementing the COP26 climate deal, improving direct communication, and resolving outstanding issues in the Phase One trade deal.
Some Republican lawmakers issued statements criticizing Biden for failing to do more at the summit.
President Biden had the chance to actually stand up to Beijings genocide and human rights abuses, but again, he has chosen appeasement and weakness over strength and resolve, said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), according to a statement from his office.
Scott added: Time and time again, Biden does the bare minimum when it comes to dealing with China and its absolutely unacceptable. He refused to confront General Secretary Xi about his militarys endless harassment of Taiwan, one of our most important partners in the Asia-Pacific.
According to the White House, Biden told Xi that the United States remains committed to the One China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. Biden also voiced opposition against unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees Taiwan as part of its territory that needs to be united with the mainland, by force if necessary.
According to Chinas state-run media, Xi warned Biden that China will have to take decisive measures if so-called Taiwan independence forces cross the red line.
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) issued a statement saying that Biden missed the opportunity to stand up against Beijings aggression.
This meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping was a missed opportunity to reassert the United States strength and will on the global stage, Wittman stated.
He added: To be clear: President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are not friends of the United States. The CCP poses a clear and real threat to our nation, one that must be taken seriously.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned the Biden administration about working with the CCP.
While the Biden Administration would like to cooperate with Beijing on certain global issues, the CCP has shown time and again that it cant be trustedit always puts the Partys interests first, Risch wrote in a statement.
Risch added that if Xi wants a cooperative relationship with the United States, he must stop threatening Taiwan, economically coercing and punishing other countries, and perpetrating egregious human rights abuses, including genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
The United States designated the suppression campaign in Chinas far-western Xinjiang region as a form of genocide in January. Since then, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have followed suit.
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) took to Twitter to express their support for Biden and the summit.
I commend @POTUS for engaging directly with President Xi on important issues including human rights, support for allies and partners, and international rules and norms, Bera wrote. Bera is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia.
Markey applauded Biden for engaging Xi on issues such as nuclear non-proliferation, the climate crisis, and human rights.
Its extremely important that we have open communication with China so we can seek cooperation and avoid miscalculations, Markey stated.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomes the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to 10 Downing Street, on Nov. 16, 2021. (Victoria Jones/PA)
Boris Johnson Stands Firm to Greek PM Over the Parthenon Marbles
Boris Johnson has told his Greek counterpart that he understands the strength of feeling on the issue of the Parthenon Marbles, but reiterated that the matter lies with the British Museum.
Downing Street said that the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, raised the issue of the ancient sculptures at his meeting with Mr Johnson in London on Tuesday.
The 17 figures were taken by the staff of British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, in the early 19th century and have been the subjects of a long dispute.
Mr Johnson has insisted they were legally acquired and are rightfully owned by the British Museum, whereas the Greek PM argues they were stolen from Athens.
A file image of a section of the Parthenon Marbles in Londons British Museum, taken on Jan. 14, 2004. (Matthew Fearn/PA)
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson said the matter was one for the trustees of the British Museum.
A No 10 spokeswoman said the pair agreed that the issue in no way affects the strength of the UK-Greece partnership.
She said the two leaders also discussed issues including the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.
Finally, Prime Minister Mitsotakis raised the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures, she said.
The Prime Minister said that he understood the strength of feeling of the Greek people on this issue, but reiterated the UKs longstanding position that this matter is one for the trustees of the British Museum.
The leaders agreed that this issue in no way affects the strength of the UK-Greece partnership.
The British Museum has insisted there is a positive advantage and public benefit in having some of the sculptures in London.
A seaman walks past an F-35B Lightning multirole combat aircraft along the deck of the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier while moored in the new port of Cyprus's southern city of Limassol on July 1, 2021. (Roy Issa/AFP via Getty Images)
British F-35 Jet Crashes Into Mediterranean
A British F-35 jet crashed into the Mediterranean on Wednesday, the UKs Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed, with the pilot ejecting safely.
An MoD spokesman said: A British F-35 pilot from HMS Queen Elizabeth ejected during routine flying operations in the Mediterranean this morning.
The pilot has been safely returned to the ship and an investigation has begun, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.
A new F-35B Lightning fighter jet takes off from the deck of the United Kingdoms aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The incident happened at around 10 a.m. UK time on Wednesday.
Former soldier Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Defence Select Committee in the House of Commons, said he had many questions about the crash.
The jet, estimated to be worth around 100 million ($135 million), was on patrol from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which is returning to Britain from its maiden deployment to the IndoPacific region.
The carrier deployment, which the MoD said was the largest concentration of maritime and air power to be deployed from the UK in a generation, was aimed at countering the security challenges posed by the Chinese regime.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier leaves Portsmouth Naval Base on the south coast of England, on May 1, 2021. (Adrian Dennis /AFP via Getty Images)
The MoD previously reported that the carrier was carrying eight F-35B Lightning II fast jets of the Royal Air Force.
Jets from the carrier previously participated in strikes against the remnants of the ISIS terrorist group in the Middle East.
This is the first time a British F-35 has crashed, but the jet has been involved in several crashes.
In September 2020, a U.S. Marine F-35B aircraft crashed near the Naval Air Facility El Centro in California following a mid-air collision with a KC-130J refuelling tanker. The pilot of the F-35B ejected successfully, and the KC-130J landed safely.
In April 2019, a Japanese F-35 jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean during an exercise with three other F-35s off the coast of northwest Japan. The 41-year-old pilot was killed.
PA contributed to this report.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announces that trucks may carry slightly heavier loads to ease the supply chain congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2021. (Courtesy of the City of Long Beach)
California Lifts Truck Weight Restrictions in Bid to Ease LA Port Supply Chain
California will allow trucks to temporarily carry slightly heavier loads in its ongoing effort to ease the supply chain congestion at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the governor announced Nov. 17.
Gov. Gavin Newsoms directive will allow trucks to weigh 88,000 pounds, which is an increase of 8,000 pounds, until June 30, 2022.
While that might not pose an immediate relief on the retail front, it will have a substantial benefit on industrial and manufacturing containers that will make their way into the ports of Long Beach and LA, Newsom said at a Nov. 17 press conference.
The governor called the situation a success, and praised the work being done by cargo handlers in the face of mounting merchandise volume. Shipping containers were reduced by an estimated 32 percent in the ports in the past few weeks, he said.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia speaks during a conference in which Gavin Newsom (R) announces that trucks may carry slightly heavier loads to ease the supply chain congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2021. (Courtesy of the City of Long Beach)
The Biden administrations Port Envoy John D. Porcari, who was assigned to work with the ports, said the crisis was a good problem.
What you see behind you, with containers everywhere and lots of activity, is an economy roaring back to life, Porcari said at the press conference. This is a good problem to have.
The infrastructure program would include help for communities adjacent to the ports, Porcari said.
What we can do together to fix the goods movement chain to the benefit of future Americans is really why were here today, Porcari said. One important element of how that work is done is to make sure both equity and climate change are the lenses that were looking through as we do that.
The Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia thanked the governor on Twitter following the conference.
Thanks Governor @GavinNewsom for touring the Ports of Long Beach and LA today. We are working with the state and the Biden-Harris Administration to relieve congestion and rebuild our infrastructure. We have already seen a 32% decrease of containers sitting on docks, he wrote.
The twin ports typically handle about 40 percent of the nations seabound shipping but have been overloaded with record numbers of ships arriving with consumer goods this year.
Newsom issued an executive order last month, listing a number of steps the state planned to implement in response to the cargo logjam at the ports.
The governor was asked by the Truck Safety Coalition, a group dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by truck-related crashes, to make the extension extremely short in duration.
The U.S. Department of Transportation reported higher crash rates for trucks over 80,000 pounds, the coalition wrote in a letter in October.
An average passenger car weighs about 4,000 pounds, the coalition said.
Besides lifting a truck weight restriction, the state has opened 15 Department of Motor Vehicle sites on Saturdays to allow more drivers to get commercial licenses.
The extended hours allow the state to double its ability to provide driving tests, from 5,000 commercial tests per month to 9,700, Newsom said.
The state has also found 42 locations in the region to store containers, including private and public sites, he said.
This is jaw-dropping, without precedent, Newsom said during a press conference about the twin ports and the container backlog. Youve never seen six containers stacked high. Youve never seen sights like youve seen here.
Standing beside Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Garcia, Newsom touted the newly passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15.
California will get some of the infrastructure funding, but Newsom wasnt yet sure exactly how much.
The state is expected to receive $25.3 billion for highways, $4.5 billion for bridges, $3.5 billion for infrastructure related to water and sewage. The state had flexibility and could move these funds to areas to pay for issues at the port, Newsom said.
Newsom also said more sweeper ships were expected to arrive at the ports to remove empty containers from the docks.
He also announced that three shipping carriers had agreed to divert to Oakland to offload goods.
Steven Guilbeault, Canadas minister of environment and climate change, speaks at a press conference at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Canadas Climate Finance Record a Hint at Global Initiatives Challenges
Loans instead of grants, greenwashing, reluctance toward adaptation financing prove problematic
News Analysis
Huge spending is needed to rework the developing worlds energy systems to achieve the aims of COP26, which seeks to address climate change through mitigation and adaptation. However, climate finance, one of the pillars of the UN climate conference, has a number of shortcomings for which Canadas experience in the arena can provide some lessons.
In June, Ottawa announced it would double its international climate finance commitment of $2.65 billion, pledged in 2015, to $5.3 billion over the next five years to help developing countries transition to low-carbon economies.
At COP26 (Conference of the Parties) that wrapped up Nov. 13 in Glasgow, Scotland, Ottawa said that, as part of its $5.3 billion commitment, up to $1 billion would be to expand access to clean energy and to support a fair and inclusive transition for coal workers and affected communities, according to a Nov. 4 statement from Natural Resources Canada.
Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University of Guelph specializing in environment, energy, and climate policy, says that one of the negative effects of international climate finance is that it has blunted the development of fossil fuels in developing countries, which has led to those countries turning to authoritarian regimes like China and Russia.
Adding money to these climate finance funds, if anything, is just increasing the pressure for developing countries to look to China and to some extent to Russia, McKitrick told The Epoch Times.
It allows the Chinese government to turn a lot of developing countries into client states because of the fact that theyre now the only game in town.
McKitrick added that Canadas $5.3 billion is so small, its not even worth making, especially in the context of strained finances.
In a way, it can be counterproductive from a foreign aid point of view, given the serious financial difficulties that the government of Canada is facing, if that money is diverted from the aid budget, so that more pressing needs go unmet, McKitrick said.
Spending Plan Unclear
The second issue, McKitrick said, is that the climate finance budget is undefined.
Theres no real sense of what this money is actually going to do, whats going to be the indicators of success.
Non-profit AidWatch Canada published a report in September analyzing the reality of Canadas international climate finance.
The report said: The government has not set out a specific framework for allocating these resources [the $5.3 billion pledge] based on the lessons from the previous $2.65 billion allocations and an in-depth consultation in 2020 on future climate finance.
The COP21 in Paris in 2015 agreement called for developed nations to support developing nations with at least US$100 billion in climate finance a year by 2020. That target has been missed.
COP26 urged full delivery on the US$100 billion annually through 2025, emphasizing the need for transparency on progress. Also, developed countries are being urged to at least double their climate financingto $40 billion annuallyfor adaptation initiatives in developing nations.
Adaptation deals with reducing the impacts of a changing climate, while mitigation is about reducing emissions.
Debt Distress
AidWatch Canadas report suggests a few areas of improvement for Canadas participation in international climate finance.
It said that Canada ranks third among seven donors that provided some of their climate finance through loans. In Canadas case, 75 percent of its climate finance between 2016 and 2019 was provided as loans.
The wide-spread use of loans to governments and the private sector in developing countries for climate projects will seriously exacerbate debt distress for many of these countries, now compounded by the pandemic, AidWatch Canada stated, adding that at least 62 developing nations spent more on interest costs than health care in 2020.
The level of loans in the overall profile of climate finance is a major issue, stated the report, noting that the 2015 Paris Agreement stressed the importance of grant-based resources for adaptation.
The non-profit also found that Canadas aid is overwhelmingly (84 percent) channeled through multilateral organizationsmultilateral development banks (MDBs), United Nations entities, multilateral funds such as the Green Climate Fund. This proportion is much higher than that (48 percent) of a group of 30 comparable Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) donor countries as a whole.
The report notes that the MDBs, like the World Bank, rely particularly heavily on nonconcessional loansloans at or near-market rates and without easier termsfor adaptation and especially when providing mitigation financing.
The report also estimates that just 28 percent of Canadas climate finance disbursements have been for adaptation, while 72 percent have been for mitigation.
Greenwashing and the Private Sector
McKitrick says that due to the vague nature of the commitments for climate financing, theres bound to be a lot of greenwashingmoney that goes into building roads or homes can be categorized as adaptation, for example.
Companies face a great deal of pressure from public opinion and regulators to be onside with the green movement, but they also have to provide a good rate of return to shareholders, McKitrick points out.
In a lot of cases, I think the easiest way for them to bridge the gap between those opposite expectations will be through greenwashing.
A blog on the International Development Economics Associates website published Nov. 3 said most climate finance gravitates toward mitigation instead of adaptation, as donors prefer publicizable easy wins from climate mitigation.
As climate adaptation is rarely lucrative, it is of less interest to private investors. Rather, private finance favours mitigation investments generating higher returns, said the blogs authors Anis Chowdhury, an economics professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a former UN assistant secretary-general for economic development.
Matthew Gouett, a fellow of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, points to OECD analysis showing the lack of interest from the private sector to work alongside governments in climate finance. Namely, in 2016, for every US$1 of bilateral and multilateral climate finance, just 21 cents was mobilized from private investorsand the figure was roughly the same in 2019.
Private finance is currently more interested in investing in certain sectors of the climate change issue, namely climate mitigation through green energy, and has shown less interest in others, such as adaptation and nature-based solutions, Gouett wrote in an Oct. 26 blog.
Often a problem with foreign aid has been its ineffectiveness due to being less driven by user need than by benefits to the donor country, where the aid provision is well advertised, boosting the donors public image.
For any kind of investment to be effective. First of all, it needs to be driven by what the user perceives as their need, McKitrick said.
People walk by a souvenir store in Old Montreal, May 24, 2021. In North America, Quebec bests only the Atlantic provinces and Mexican states in economic freedom, according to a report by the Fraser Institute. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)
Canadian Provinces Rank Poorly in Economic Freedom, Study Shows
Canadian provinces trail behind U.S. states in economic freedom, a new report says, with some only besting Mexican states in all of North America.
Higher levels of economic freedom lead to more opportunity, more prosperity, greater economic growth, more investment and more jobs for Canadians, Fred McMahon, co-author and resident fellow at Fraser Institute, said in a news release.
The report, titled Economic Freedom of North America 2021 (pdf), looks at the policies of individual jurisdictions in North Americaincluding 10 Canadian provinces, 50 U.S. states, and 32 Mexican statesto see how supportive they were of economic freedom.
The report defines economic freedom as the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions about what to buy, where to work, and whether to start a business. To understand the situation in each individual jurisdiction, the authors measured 10 variables around the three areas of government spending, taxation, and labour market restrictions.
The report produced two indices: a subnational index that examines the provincial, state, and municipal governments within the same country, and an all-government index that compares the economic freedom across the three countries.
Alberta, which ranked top of the list for seven straight years, started to fall behind three years ago, and now ties for the 33rd place with Oregon. The oil-rich province still remains Canadas highest-ranked province in the report.
While Alberta saw a change in government in 2019 and has made some progress in changing the course of policy, much remains to be done to once again make the province the most economically-free jurisdiction in North America, McMahon said.
Seven of the ten Canadian provinces ranked behind all 50 U.S. states. British Columbia is Canadas second-highest ranked province in the 47th place, followed by Ontario (52nd), Saskatchewan (54th), Manitoba (55th), and Quebec (56th).
The four Atlantic provinces have the lowest levels of economic freedom among all provinces and U.S. statesNew Brunswick (57th), Nova Scotia (58th), Newfoundland and Labrador (59th) and Prince Edward Island (60th)outranking only the Mexican states.
Governments across the region continue to stifle economic freedom, which hurts economic growth and makes it more difficult for businesses to thrive and create jobs, McMahon said in a separate news release.
As economic freedom wanes across Canada, the economic prospects also diminish for Canadians and their families, he said.
The U.S. state of New Hampshire remains at the top of the list this year, followed by Florida and Idaho. The highest-ranking Mexican state is Baja California, followed by Nayarit and Tlaxcala.
The report notes that the average score in economic freedom in all three countries peaked in 2004, but then began declining until around 2011. Since then, average economic freedom in North America slowly climbed back up, but still remains below the 2004 peak.
The authors note that economic freedom at the subnational level has been associated with a number of indicators that measure per-capita size economy, economic growth, and various business activities.
For example, in 2019, the jurisdictions in the least economically free quartile in the all-government index had an average per-capita income of just US$2,362, compared to US$51,666 for the most economically free quartile. [page 17 of full report]
This holds true for the subnational index, with the least-free quartile having an average per-capita income that is 1 percent below the national average, while the most-free quartile exceeds the national average by 7.5 percent.
Beside McMahon, the Fraser Institute report is also co-authored by Dean Stansel, research associate professor at Southern Methodist University, and Jose Torra, head of research at Caminos de la Libertada member institution of the Economic Freedom Network.
As the report is built on the most recent comparable data from 2019, it doesnt capture the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic freedom and governments pandemic response policies.
Delays in the transfer of cargo continue in Southern California as vessels line the horizon waiting offload containers into the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Ships Near LA Ports Asked to Slow Down to Avoid Endangered Whales
A federal wildlife sanctuary program is asking the record number of cargo ships and other vessels along the Southern California coast to slow down to try to protect a local population of endangered whales.
A supply chain crisis has turned the Channel Island region into a watery parking lot for waiting container ships, posing real threats to endangered blue, humpback, and fin whales in the area, according to Sean Hastings, a resource protection coordinator at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
Slowing ships down as they enter and exit the ports is a great way to reduce fatal ship strikes on endangered blue, fin, and humpback whales, Hastings told The Epoch Times. Were trying to both maintain commerce and protect whales.
A rare and endangered blue whale off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., on July 16, 2008. (David McNew/Getty Images)
The growing flotilla of container ships waiting to offload goods at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports has the sanctuary concerned, he said.
The extent of this problem has us very concerned, Hastings said.
The Channel Islands are made up of eight islands off the Southern California coast, between Santa Barbara and San Diego, that include Santa Catalina, San Clemente to the south, and Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa to the north.
The sanctuary has not been able to reach every whale that has been struck or has died recently to determine if any were struck by ships, he said.
We have a lot of whales right now, so we wanted to extend the program another couple of weeks and notify the industry we needed to do so, Hastings said.
The waters surrounding the islands make up the sanctuary, where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs the National Marine Sanctuary program.
The sanctuary extended its Voluntary Vessel Speed Reduction Zone in the area this week.
The extension runs through Nov. 30, asking ships 300 gross registered tons or more to reduce speeds to 10 knots from Dana Point to Point Arguello.
Ships typically cruise through at 15 knots, Hastings said.
The voluntary program, in place since 2007, only sees about 60 percent cooperation of the shipping industry, Hastings said. They are urging and expecting the industry to increase cooperation with the program.
Slower ships are also cleaner ships. And it really helps with pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, Hastings said.
The program only extends through the month and would not cover the migrating gray whales that populate the area starting in December. Gray whales are more abundant and are not endangered, but their young migrate close to the ports.
We are concerned about ship strikes on gray whales. They do occur, and we know gray whales do get hit, Hastings said.
Whale-watching captain and longtime expert Corey Hall, of the Point Whale Watching at the Dana Wharf, said the ships could become more of a threat to the gray whales when returning from Alaska to the waters off Dana Point.
The gray whales are moving through and using echolocation, as opposed to the whales in the region now, which are following the food, Hall said.
When they get down here when we start seeing them, that definitely could be an issue, Hall said.
Gray whales leave the Arctic each year and travel thousands of miles to breed in the Baja lagoons, then return. The 12,000-mile-round-trip is one of the longest migrations of any mammal, according to marine conservation group Oceanic Society.
Thanks to a moratorium on whaling and other multinational protections, the eastern Pacific population of gray whales is thriving with around 26,000 individuals, and a Red List status of Least Concern, according to the society.
The gray whales have already left Alaska on their journey south, Hall said.
We typically start seeing them beginning of December, Hall said.
Right now, whale watchers are mostly reporting sightings of humpback, blue, and fin whales, along with bottlenose and common dolphins.
The large cargo ships were also instructed to make every effort to comply with instructions received from the Navy when traveling south of the Channel Islands.
A vial of dried smallpox vaccination is shown at a facility in Altamonte Springs, Florida on Dec. 5, 2002. (Scott A. Miller/Getty Images)
CDC Investigating Smallpox Vials at Vaccine Research Facility: Spokesperson
Several vials with the label smallpox were discovered at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania, confirmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.
A CDC spokesperson told news outlets there is currently no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials.
The frozen vials labeled Smallpox were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania. CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter and the vials contents appear intact, the federal health agency said.
Meanwhile, the laboratory worker who discovered the vials was wearing a face mask and gloves, the CDC spokesperson continued.
An alert that was sent out by the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday night said the vials were found in a freezer at the Merck facility outside Philadelphia, reported Yahoo News. The discovery of the items prompted a lockdown of the facility.
There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials, the CDC said in a statement to media outlets.
Smallpox, which has a mortality rate of about 30 percent, is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The last naturally-occurring case of the virus was recorded in the 1970s, while U.S. and international health officials have declared the disease eradicated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. The last known outbreak in the United States was in 1947.
Some governments are authorized to store samples of the virus for research, including at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
Employees of the National Institutes of Health in 2014 found six vials of smallpox in a storage room at the agencys Bethesda, Maryland, campus. At the time, the CDC said there was no evidence that anyone was exposed to the virus.
Smallpox was a terrible disease. On average, 3 out of every 10 people who got it died. People who survived usually had scars, which were sometimes severe, the CDCs website says.
Historians have estimated that a significant number of Native Americans were killed during smallpox epidemics. By 1832, the U.S. government established a smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans.
The CDC notes that in late 1975, three-year-old Rahima Banu from Bangladesh was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major and was also the last person in Asia to have active smallpox.
Both the CDC and Homeland Security have not immediately responded to a request for comment.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit via video, from Beijing on Nov. 11, 2021. (Li Xueren/Xinhua via AP)
China, Not Just Russia, Is Blocking APEC Meeting in US: Diplomatic Source
Beijing wants to be in the 'drivers seat' and is taking issue with Taiwan
Both Beijing and Moscow are blocking a U.S. proposal to host an upcoming meeting of Asian leaders, a diplomatic source told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview on Nov. 17. Prior reporting claims it is only suspected that Russia alone blocked the proposal.
On Nov. 12, Politico revealed that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum could not agree to President Joe Bidens proposal to host an upcoming forum due to concerns raised by one member nation.
But according to The Epoch Times diplomatic source, both Russia and China blocked the proposal. China wishes to be in the drivers seat, according to the source, and is making an issue of Taiwan and other things.
The United States and China are competitors, according to the source. China is also getting stronger economically. It wants to flex its muscle. China wants to be in the drivers seat.
Russia and China could still relent and agree to the United States hosting the meeting. Decisions on where to host APEC meetings requires a consensus of all 21 countries.
According to the source, both Russia and China are still considering the APEC being held in the U.S.
The source does not believe that China will take military action on Taiwan. Im not sure China will be too forceful on Taiwan, he said. They have a lot to lose.
Chinas embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Because of potential retaliation, the diplomatic source did not wish to be identified.
Biden still has a chance of hosting APEC, according to the source. Since itll be in 2023, there is still time to make a decision.
On Nov. 12, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters that she has every confidence that well see [the impasse] resolved very shortly.
According to Politico, Neither Ardern nor the White House identified which APEC member was blocking the U.S. bid to host the meeting, but two former U.S. officials said indications point to Russia as the likely suspect.
One of Politicos sources, a former official, said, The word on the street is that Russia is blocking consensus unless the U.S. lifts restrictions on travel to the U.S. on sanctioned Russians.
Politico wrote that U.S. and Russian officials are expected to meet next week to try to find a way forward.
The White House appeared to support reporting about Russia as the source of the blockage. According to a White House spokesperson quoted by Politico, one economy has not yet joined consensus.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russian and possibly Chinese resistance to the U.S. proposal to host APEC only increases tensions between the three countries. The diplomatic impasse comes as Beijing threatens military action against Taiwan and Australia. The latter threat came when Australia, along with Japan, indicated that they would support the United States in military action to defend Taiwan.
Biden has twice indicated that the United States is committed to Taiwans defense. Over the past five years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has acted in a particularly threatening manner toward the United States and its treaty allies, Japan and the Philippines.
Chinas ally North Korea is frequently belligerent toward Japan as well as Americas other treaty ally, South Korea.
In Europe, Russia makes frequent flights of nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated his support for his ally Belarus, which is attempting to use Middle Eastern refugees as a weapon by encouraging their illegal immigration into the European Union via Polands increasingly fortified border.
Anders Corr is a contributing author for The Epoch Times.
Anger flares after brutal action by Chinese pandemic prevention workers. Their killing of a pet dog was caught on tape.
The United States and China engaged in top-level dialog, but without a major breakthrough. President Joe Biden and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping formally met for the first time since Biden took office. But after the meeting, Beijing again sent military aircraft flying over Taiwan, in an apparent threat to the self-ruled island.
An elderly mother seeks to visit her only son, imprisoned in China. But shes faced multiple rejections by authorities, all because of her sons human rights activism.
And, reports say Beijing is again lobbying U.S. business communitiesthis time, to influence legislation that would boost U.S. competitiveness.
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Chinese police officers walk outside the newly built Museum of the Communist Party of China on June 25, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Chinese Regime Advances Global Marxism to Confront Western-Led International Order: Report
Chinas ruling regime seeks to undermine the current international system and replace it with a Beijing-led Marxist order, according to a new report by a U.S. congressional advisory body.
The Chinese Communist Partys [CCP] ambitions for global leadership became ever clearer in this, the CCPs centennial year, Commission Chair Carolyn Bartholomew of the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said at a Nov. 17 launch event for the report.
Bartholomew said the CCP continued to expand its confrontation with other nations throughout 2021, and that its aggression was a growing concern among the international community.
Announcing its goal to provide the world with a new model of human advancement, the Chinese government deepened its embrace of aggression, wolf warrior behavior, and coercion, heightening concerns throughout the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere in the world about Chinas rise, she said.
The 551-page bipartisan report was released just days after the first virtual summit between President Joe Biden and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, which failed to make substantial headway in easing ongoing tensions between the two nations.
In the report, the commission outlined the threat posed by the CCP to democratic nations around the world, adding that the CCPs Marxist ideology and inability to accept critique was putting it on the path toward global conflict.
Lacking a representative governance system, the CCP also uses claims about the superiority of its political model to justify its authoritarian rule and views any criticism or admission of failure as a threat to its legitimacy, the report states.
CCP leaders thus feel obligated to highlight what they consider to be advantages of Chinas authoritarian system, even in the face of clear systemic failures.
The report also noted a growth in rhetoric among CCP leadership asserting that the Party has been preparing for a confrontation between the order of China and the chaos of the West. It highlighted a growing commitment to combat strong enemies, a term frequently used by the CCP to describe the United States.
In addition, the report described that, as the CCP marked the centenary of its founding earlier in the year, its leadership urged the Chinese people to prepare for a decades-long confrontation with the United States and other democracies over the future of the global order.
CCP leaders reaffirmed their dedication to the development and proliferation of Marxism-Leninism in the Sixth Plenum Communique last week, in which they championed socialism with Chinese characteristics, and said they were creating a new model for human advancement.
Relatedly, the report found that the CCP was taking a whole-of-government approach to undermine the United States and its allies. The Party, it said, was dedicated to subverting international institutions and building new regional and international institutions with which to replace them in a bid to expand Chinese communist influence abroad.
High Ambitions
Commission member Jim Talent, a former senator, described the CCPs aspirations as global, and said its authoritarian ideology was oriented to replace the United States, not coexist with it.
Their intent is to advance towards their community of common human destiny, which its pretty clear they define as replacing the existing rules-based international order with one that resembles a hierarchy, with China at the top, Talent said.
I think were all coming to grips here with the extent of that ambition.
The report noted multiple accounts in which the CCP attempted to realize those ambitions abroad, including military textbooks and high-profile disinformation and political warfare campaigns.
The latest edition of the Chinese militarys officer textbook, for example, includes a new chapter on political warfare that says future conflicts will require a hidden front trained to incite defection among the enemy.
Another example included in the report documented a request by the Canadian government that the CCP release two Canadians, widely viewed as being held as political prisoners under Beijings campaign of hostage diplomacy. Chinese diplomats responded to the request by leveraging hot button issues to delegitimize the Canadian government, accusing the request of promoting Western egotism and white supremacy.
In another instance, the Chinese regimes highest-ranking diplomat, Yang Jiechi, delivered a list of demands to the Biden administration that outlined what the United States would need to do to have a constructive relationship with China.
It said that the United States must abandon all competition against China, cease all efforts to curb CCP influence operations within the United States, and remain silent on the CCPs destabilizing behavior toward Taiwan and human rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
The list, according to the report, is indicative of the CCPs broader hopes for its relationship with the United States.
Yangs framing suggests China no longer seeks to cooperate or find common ground but rather is now dictating that the United States must submit to all of Chinas preferences, the report states.
About 250 people attended the inauguration of the International Christian Ambassadors Association in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 13. (Courtesy of Sunny Meagher)
Christian Organization Debuts in Orange County With Stand for Religious Freedom
FULLERTON, Calif.About 250 people attended the inauguration of the International Christian Ambassadors Association (ICAA) in Fullerton, California, on Nov. 13.
The ceremony highlighted the persecution of Christians in India and the necessity of religious freedom around the world.
In the last 75 years of Indian independence, Christians in India have never faced such shocking levels of religious persecution, said Sunny Meagher, CEO and president of ICAA.
ICAA is committed to serve and help churches, missions, persecuted pastors by providing them with comprehensive support and legal aid to the persecuted churches and families across the world. It will also educate and advocate for religious freedom in the United States and India currently.
The event was accompanied by authentic Indian food, Indian Christian music and dance, and a hula dance.
Many speakers at the event were local representatives, including State Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, Newport Beach Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Muldoon, and Aliso Viejo Councilman Mike Munzing, among others.
Local officials were recognized at the inauguration of the International Christian Ambassadors Association in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 13. (Jack Bradley/The Epoch Times)
The keynote speaker, Brad Dacus, founder of the Pacific Justice Institute, said religious freedom is at risk in the United States and around the world.
What we see is an explosion of attacks on religious freedom and an explosion on people trying to take on our rights and challenge our rights like never before, Dacus said.
A tsunami of persecution against those of faith, Dacus said, arose when the federal and state COVID-19 vaccine mandates were implemented.
Its about religious freedom. People sometimes dont see that because they say, Well, its not my beliefs. But religious freedom isnt about your beliefs. Its about everyones beliefs. And unless we protect religious freedom for everyone, we protect religious freedom for no one, Dacus said.
Of all the countries where religious persecution is prevalent, China is the worst, according to Tenzin Dorjee, a former chairman for the United States Commission of International Religious Freedom.
China is a communist regime and it does not believe in any religions, because they believe communism itself is a religion, and so they persecute all faiths, Dorjee said.
Faith groups persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) include Tibetans, Christians, Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Dafa.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Its followers have been the main target of a systematic campaign of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting by the CCP for years.
I dont know of any other country where religious persecutions are at such a high level, most egregious, systematic, and continuing violations of religious freedom, Dorjee said. All the faiths should be united to promote freedom across the world, especially in China.
The CCP has utilized its media to persecute followers of faith by running propaganda and fake news to slander the reputations of religious believers.
Media has the largest reach, and regardless of age, demographic, location, television show host Sharon Angel, one of the guest speakers, told The Epoch Times.
Everybody is on their phone or theyre watching TV. Sometimes theyre using their phone and watching TV. It is the best way to get anybodys attention.
Angel said even outside of China, media is a voice of division, a voice of confusion, and its leaving people polarized.
She said that if media is used correctly, it can eradicate all of the hate, the evils that are going on.
When people know something bad is happening other people can actually find help for them. Other people can go and help, she said.
Sunny Meagher presents an award to Sharon Angel at the inauguration of the International Christian Ambassadors Association in Fullerton, Calif., on Nov. 13. (Courtesy of Sunny Meagher)
ICAA highlighted a persecuted American Christian, Pastor John Cao, who was arrested and imprisoned by Chinese authorities as part of their increased repression of Christian pastors.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) issued a petition to rescue Cao, which has already garnered over 300,000 signatures as of Nov. 16. The petition link is at aclj.org/help-free-christian-pastor-cao.
ICAA also highlighted Christian teen Leah Sharibu, who is being held captive for her faith by Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.
The terrorists stormed a village and abducted 110 schoolgirls. Five of those were killed, and 104 were freed, according to ACLJ. Sharibu remains a prisoner because she wont renounce her Christian faith.
ICAA is urging the public to sign the petition to bring Sharibu to safety. The petition, which has garnered over 360,000 signatures, can be found at aclj.org/persecuted-church/save-christian-teen-leah-sharibu-from-death.
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)
COVID-19 Quickly Worsens in Chinas Northeastern Port City Dalian, Under Total Lockdown
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to worsen in Chinas northeastern port city Dalian, especially in its Zhuanghe city, which is the most severely affected area. The authorities ordered all the residents in the county city of Dalian to stay at home for 14 days, and the doors of the households were sealed to ensure that no one leaves their homes. The university district in the city has been shut down for almost two weeks.
According to the Chinese communist regimes National Health Commission, from Nov. 4 to Nov. 12, 229 COVID-19 cases were found in Dalian within 9 days.
On Nov. 13, 60 new local confirmed cases were added, mainly in Zhuanghe University City. On Nov. 14, Zhao Lian, deputy director of the Dalian Municipal Health Commission, admitted in the official epidemic notice that the virus that caused this round of outbreak in Dalian has a high viral load and spreads rapidly, with more asymptomatic infections in the early stages, and causing infection in clusters.
Xiaosi township in Zhuanghe city, Dalian, was upgraded to a high-risk area, and 24 areas in three counties (districts) in Dalian have been classified as medium-risk areas.
Among the newly confirmed cases in the past two days, a total of 45 cases are in Zhuanghe University City, most of which were college students. It has two universities: the School of Art and Information Engineering of Dalian Polytechnic University and Haihua College of Liaoning Normal University, with nearly 20,000 people.
Peng Kang, a vendor in the cafeteria of the East Campus of Haihua College told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that since the first case in Zhuanghe was diagnosed on Nov. 4, the entire university city was shut down. At 7 p.m. on the same day, the school notified us that the entire campus was on lockdown. All the vendors (more than 100 people) on campus were not allowed to leave (they have to be in quarantine in the student dorms), as well as students. Volunteers are on duty downstairs to make sure no one leaves, he said
As COVID-19 continues to spread in Dalian, Zhuanghe city, implemented at-home quarantines for all residents on Nov.12.
The Dalian City Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters Community Management and Control Group announced on Nov. 12 that if people go out without authorization during the home quarantine period, they will be punished. All the people in the same household and in the same building will be put under home quarantine control, and their quarantine time will be reset.
The notice ordered people to stay at home and cooperate with relevant departments to install monitoring equipment, electronic door sensors, and sticking seals on doors to ensure that they stay home.
Now all roads, entrances, and exits are shut down, and all the checkpoints to enter Zhuanghe are closed. No one can come, and we cannot leave, Chi Xiaoling (alias), a resident of Zhuanghe city, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times. Now we are all quarantined at home, and some people who have been exposed to the infected have been dragged to the quarantine site for isolation, she said.
Our community has to be quarantined even though there is no outbreak here. We have to do nucleic acid tests every day. We have passed nine nucleic acid tests and there are no symptoms, but the government still strictly controls, she added.
Netizens complain about the arbitrary measures. One post reads, The city of Zhuanghe in Dalian, Liaoning, has been locked down since Nov. 12. There are 400,000 households in the city, about 800,000 people, and each household has been sealed off to be in quarantine for 14 days. If anyone tears off the seal from their door within the 14 days, they will be fined a quarantine fee. Why do all residents have to be in-home quarantined? [The government] said that these people had undergone seven nucleic acids tests and they are fine, and its to prevent the risk of them being in contact with the outside world that this measure is taken.
Another post reads, In Zhuanghe, Dalian, all 400,000 households have been sealed off and are not allowed to go out for 14 days. Every family really needs to stock up food for one or two months. This could happen to anyone at any time.
Other residents in Dalian worry that the lockdown could be expanded to the entire city of Dalian and they have started to rush to supermarkets to buy food and supplies to stock up, emptying store shelves.
Gu Xiaohua and Gu Qinger contributed to the report.
People walk by a CVS Pharmacy store in the Manhattan borough of New York on Nov. 30, 2017. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
CVS Drops Potentially Precedent-Setting Supreme Court Case
The CVS Pharmacy chain has dropped a potentially precedent-setting Supreme Court case in which HIV/AIDS patients are claiming that the company was discriminating against them by enacting a policy requiring people in need of specialty medications to receive them by mail rather than at a local pharmacy.
The case is CVS Pharmacy Inc. v. Doe. Doe refers collectively to five unnamed respondents who are individuals living with HIV/AIDS and who have employer-sponsored health care plans that allow them to obtain prescription drugs.
The case was scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court on Dec. 7, but the parties filed a joint stipulation to dismiss on Nov. 11, which the high court granted the next day.
CVS is one of the largest health care companies in the world. It owns pharmacies throughout the United States, but also functions as a pharmacy benefit manager that coordinates pharmacy benefits for people such as HIV/AIDS patients who are enrolled in employer-provided health care plans.
According to the attorney for the patients, CVSs program limits people living with HIV to obtaining the medications they need by mail-order, depriving them of access to knowledgeable pharmacists and other benefits while continuing to make the same benefits available to others. The federal government and various disability groups had filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the patients.
Although the Supreme Court case has been dismissed, the litigation itself continues in U.S. district court, where it began.
In a December 2020 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously found that the patients had appropriately made a claim for disability discrimination based on the discriminatory effect of the policy, which they said had a different effect on non-HIV/AIDS patients.
CVS appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking to limit the reach of civil rights laws that provide people living with disabilities meaningful access to benefits. The high court might have reinterpreted civil rights laws, but because the case is withdrawn, it now returns to the federal district court for further proceedings.
CVS ought to make sure HIV/AIDS patients have an equal opportunity to access the same pharmacy benefits that other consumers receive, said Jerry Flanagan, litigation director for California-based group Consumer Watchdog and counsel of record for the patients in the Supreme Court action.
In the Supreme Court case, CVS just fell on their sword and decided not to pursue the appeal, which means our 9th Circuit win stands, Flanagan told The Epoch Times.
They contacted us last week and said, We dont want to pursue the appeal anymore, he said. I think the takeaway is that they, for whatever reasons, and theyve been tight-lipped about it, it was pretty clearly a decision by the board at CVS not to pursue the case any longer at the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a December 2020 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit stated that, until recently, the individuals had been able to fill their prescriptions at community pharmacies, where they were able to consult knowledgeable pharmacists who were familiar with their personal medical histories and could make adjustments to their drug regimens to avoid dangerous drug interactions or remedy potential side effects.
These services, among others, are critical to HIV/AIDS patients, who must maintain a consistent medication regimen to manage their chronic disease, the individuals stated.
But CVS changed its policy to require all health care plan enrollees to obtain specialty medications, including HIV/AIDS drugs, through its designated specialty pharmacy for those benefits to be considered in-network. The in-network specialty pharmacy provides specialty drugs only by mail or drop shipments to CVS pharmacy stores for pickup, which the individuals claimed violates the anti-discrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act. This practice also denied them benefits to which theyre entitled under the Employee Retirement Security Act and violates Californias Unfair Competition Law, they said.
CVS counsel of record Lisa Schiavo Blatt didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.
Dan Andrews Calls Protesters of Contentious Pandemic Bill a Small, Ugly Mob
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday criticised demonstrators who have protested against the governments controversial pandemic law as a small, ugly mob, saying they would not distract him from his work.
Hundreds of people had spent the fifth night occupying Victorian Parliaments steps to protest the bill which will give the premier the power to declare a pandemic and extend it for three months at a time, for as long as considered necessary.
A video posted on social media on Monday shows protesters gathering around a copy of a wooden gallows, attempting to place the head of an inflatable doll of the premier named Punching bag Dan through a noose.
They held signs such as Kill the bill, Dan Andrews human rights abuser and Stop Dans dangerous new legislation while shouting Freedom, Traitor and Hang Dan Andrews.
The crowd applauded as a woman called for politicians to dance on the end of a rope.
Protesters held the sign that read My body my choice medical freedom no mandate no passport mandates stop the plandemic #killthebill on Nov. 17, 2021. (Rita Li/ Epoch Times)
Andrews, who has been under fire for imposing the longest lockdown in the world, called the protesters behaviour appalling and potentially criminal.
Ill not be deterred from the work Im doing to keep every family safe, he told reporters on Wednesday.
It is so unfair for a small, ugly mob to be taking attention away from the more than 90 percent of Victorians who have had a first dose and will soon have had a second dose.
Andrews said the government did not have the luxury to spend six months to get everybodys agreement on every single issue in the bill.
The bill is filled with safeguards, oversight mechanisms that far exceed any other state I think, perhaps any other country, he said.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, who previously condemned the premier as drunk on power, said he did not agree with any inappropriate behaviour by demonstrators but supported the protest.
Not every single person out there is saying silly things, the majority have not, he said, accusing Andrews of seeking to divide Victorians.
Protestors are seen during a demonstration outside the Victorian State Parliament in Melbourne, on Nov. 15, 2021. (AAP Image/Con Chronis)
Meanwhile, a number of state MPs attended the ongoing protest, including Liberal MP Roma Britnell who met the protesters on Tuesday.
These people have genuine concerns. They have the right to be listened to, she said.
I didnt see any violence. If there had been violence, if there had been inappropriate behaviour, I wouldnt have stayed, I wouldnt be part of that.
The Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021, tabled in parliament on Oct. 26, was debated in the upper house Tuesday afternoon and well into the night has been the subject of ongoing protest for the past few weeks in Melbourne.
The Bill is touted as establishing a permanent structure for the government to manage pandemics in future.
However, while it streamlines certain operational aspects of the government and establishes new safeguards around privacy rights, it also contains wide-ranging provisions legal associations like the Victorian Bar argue will give the premier and health minister unprecedented power over the state.
These include allowing the health minister to make pandemic orders which can be specific to classes of people, based on characteristics such as age, location, vaccination status and occupation.
The Bill also gives broad and unchecked powers to authorised officers, including the power to take any action, give direction, or detain a person for the sake of protecting public health. The Bar said there were 382 such officers in the state.
It is one thing to allow temporary rule by decree to deal with an unforeseen and extraordinary emergency in circumstances of extreme urgency. It is something else altogether to entrench rule by decree as a longterm norm, the Victorian Bar Association said in an internal letter.
In our view, this is antithetical to basic democratic principles and should not be allowed to happen, it continued.
We are now more than 18 months into the pandemic. It has become clear what sort of powers might be required to deal with it. There is no need to give the government of the day a blank cheque to rule by decree.
Daniel Y. Teng contributed to this article.
Daniel Baldwin Defends Brother, Says Alec Baldwin Was Crushed by Shooting Incident
Actor Daniel Baldwin defended his actor brother, Alec Baldwin, following last months deadly shooting on the set of the Western movie Rust.
Daniel Baldwin, 61, claimed that his 63-year-old brother bears no responsibility for the incident, adding that Alec was crushed by the on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
As someone who has fired more rounds on-set than all my brothers combined, Daniel Baldwin said he was shocked by the violations of firearms safety protocols that allegedly occurred during the filming of Rust in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.
Its really, really apparent that Alec has no blame in this at all, he said in an interview on the Domenick Nati Show. A number of protocols that have been known to the public and known in this case exonerate Alec of any responsibility at all.
Alec Baldwin has not been charged in the incident, although Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza told a news conference several weeks ago that charges cannot be ruled out. Mendoza and other authorities say that Baldwin fired the weapon, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
There are things that went on that broke every rule Ive ever known, Daniel Baldwin said Tuesday. These protocols are set up by these professionals that handle weapons and handle the safety of a set so that it could never come to that. So, rules were not followed.
He also alleged that Alec Baldwin received the most attention due to his status as a high-profile celebrityas well as his political viewpoints. In recent years, the actor portrayed former President Donald Trump on SNL.
You know Alecs got the name, though, doesnt he, so lets go ahead and take Alec for his political views and lets see if we cant sensationalize this and go after Alec, Daniel Baldwin claimed.
About a week ago, the head of lighting on for Rust filed a lawsuit Wednesday over the fatal shooting, 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police and protesters outside the U.S. Capitol's Rotunda in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Defense Watchdog Says Pentagon Wasnt Slow to Respond to Jan. 6
Pentagon officials didnt delay in responding to the multiple requests for assistance they received before and during the Jan. 6 breach at the U.S. Capitol complex, according to the Department of Defense (DOD) inspector general (IG).
We concluded that the actions the DOD took before Jan. 6, 2021, to prepare for the planned protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, were appropriate, supported by requirements, consistent with the DODs roles and responsibilities for DSCA [Defense Security Cooperation Agency], and compliant with laws, regulations, and other applicable guidance, the IG stated in a lengthy report released on Nov. 16.
We also examined the actions the DOD took before Jan. 6, 2021, that were independent of the District of Columbia (DC) Request for Assistance (RFA). We looked for a role or responsibility for the DOD to act preemptively to prevent or deter what later happened at the Capitol. We found none.
On the contrary, we found restrictions that limited the DODs roles and responsibilities in planning and providing support for domestic civil disturbance operations (CDO). These restrictions, set forth in statutes and implementing DOD directives, do not limit what civil authorities can request, but rather mandate what support DOD can provide to civilian authorities by setting strict limits, the IG continued. We also determined that DOD officials did not delay or obstruct the DODs response to the U.S. Capitol Police RFA on Jan. 6, 2021.
The IG report follows a bitter debate since Jan. 6 about who was responsible for the breaching of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of protestors, dozens of whom were arrested and remain in custody in a D.C. jail.
Democrats and Republicans have gone back and forth about who was ultimately responsible for the failure to secure the Capitol against what was expected to be thousands of protestors.
Democrats have claimed then-President Donald Trump delayed the DOD response, while Republicans have pointed at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for failing to act quickly.
Pelosi in April suggested there were delays by then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller in responding to the Capitol Polices request for help. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley strongly denied Pelosis claim.
Reacting to the IG report on Nov. 16, Miller told Just the News that it broke my heart to see the military, which responded really with alacrity and professionalism, just get thrown under the bus by the politicians. I was so naive. I couldnt believe it. When it comes to national security, I thought were on the same team. I was really horrified that it had become so partisan.
The IG report described a great deal of confusion in the hours immediately prior to the protests and as the Capitol was breached, and said military leaders werent formally requested to send help until protestors were roaming the floors of the Senate and House.
Before and on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, DOD leadership had no indication that later that day the USCP would make an emergency Defense Support of Civilian Authorities (DSCA) RFA to the DOD for an immediate response to the Capitol, the IG stated.
We also note that on Jan. 5 and in the morning on Jan. 6, no incidents occurred that foreshadowed the events of the afternoon of Jan. 6 at the Capitol, and no federal agency, including the USCP, requested DOD assistance for anticipated civil disturbances.
In addition, the Pentagon received contradictory information from Capitol authorities about what was happening.
Initial reports the DOD received about ongoing events during the early afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, were contradictory. For example, after the first breach of the Capitol perimeter, the Army Operations Center received information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggesting that no major incidents were occurring, the report stated.
That confusion was especially important during a critical conference call in the early afternoon.
While events unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, a chaotic and confusing situation developed that affected the conference call at approximately 2:20 p.m. between senior leaders from the DOD, Army Staff, District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG), D.C. government, and USCP. This was critical because the USCP made its request for immediate emergency assistance during the conference call, according to the report.
A spokesman for Pelosi didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the top Republican on the House Administration Committee and the leading GOP critic of Pelosis decisions on and in the aftermath of Jan. 6, also didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration panel has oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police.
People wait in a queue to receive a swab test for Covid-19 at a walk-in portable testing centre operated by the ambulance service in Dublin, Ireland on March 25, 2021, as the country struggles to reduce the spread of coronavirus. (Photo by Paul Faith / AFP) (Photo by PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite High Vaccination Rate, Ireland Reimposes New COVID-19 Restrictions
The government of Ireland, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, reimposed COVID-19-related restrictions, including a midnight curfew as officials explained that its meant to stop the spread of the virus.
About 93 percent of the countrys adult population have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to government data. And about 89.1 percent of people over the age of 12 are vaccinated.
Despite that, Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin announced in a national address a midnight curfew on bars, restaurants, and nightclubs starting on Thursday.
The situation is getting worse and will get worse before it gets better, Martin told reporters on the restrictions. Health officials, as they have in the past, warned that hospitals will face increased pressure in the coming weeks.
In his speech, Martin said he hasnt ruled out imposing more COVID-19 restrictions if the spread of the virus doesnt slow down due to the mandates scheduled to go into effect Thursday.
Were taking this step by step, said Martin, adding: I know that no one wants to go back to a world of widespread restrictions.
The move, however, is sure to draw criticism of both the efficacy of vaccines and lockdown orders more than 20 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics of mandates have often pointed to countries and regions with high vaccination rates, including Israel, experiencing surges in COVID-19 despite more and more requirements being imposed.
In October, the chief clinical officer of the Health Service Executive of Ireland, Dr. Colm Henry, told media outlets that the number of people who arent fully vaccinated is not high enough. At the time of his statement, Ireland had the highest vaccine rate in the European Union, with 92 percent of adults having received it.
Currently, only people who can show proof of COVID-19 vaccination can eat at indoor restaurants and bars, reported the Irish Times.
With the new controls, Ireland joins a growing number of European Union nations to implement vaccine or COVID-19 mandates in recent days. This week, Austria placed a 10-day lockdown on unvaccinated people and directed police officers to carry out spot-checks to determine bystanders vaccination status.
During the first day of the mandate, more than 15,000 people were checked by officers across Austria, government officials confirmed on Tuesday. About 120 finesranging from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000were handed down, they said.
Under Austrias rule, children under the age of 12 and those who recently recovered from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, will be exempt from the mandate. However, unvaccinated people have to stay in their homes unless they were engaged in essential business or travel, the government said.
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Dec. 11, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
DOJ Inspector General Says Department Must Address Concerns About Politicization
The Department of Justice (DOJ) must address deepening concerns that its not insulated from political influence, the agencys watchdog stated in a new report.
The DOJ failed to follow policies and procedures designed to protect it from accusations that its politicized or partially applying the law in a number of cases, including while investigating Donald Trumps campaign during the 2016 election and in leaks to the media, Inspector General Michael Horowitz noted.
Numerous national events in the past year have crystalized the urgency for the department to address this challenge in a meaningful way, he wrote, including the discovery that the DOJ under the Trump administration obtained communications to and from members of Congress and accusations that protesters were cleared from Lafayette Square in Washington on June 1, 2020, for political purposes.
Such events have all raised questions about the departments objectivity and impartiality and negatively impacted the perception of the department as a fair administrator of justice, Horowitz said.
As proof, the watchdog cited a 2020 poll from the Pew Research Center, which found favorable views of DOJ among Democrats dropped sharply during the Trump administration. Republican views grew more favorable during the same time.
DOJ officials didnt respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
Critics on both the left and right have said the DOJ in recent years has acted wrongfully. Democrats repeatedly criticized the department during the Trump era, including over its bid to lower the jail sentence of Trump ally Roger Stone. Republicans also found problems with the agency, in particular over its handling of the probe into whether Trumps campaign colluded with Russia that relied heavily on the now-discredited Steele dossier.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on Oct. 27, 2021. (Tom Brenner/AFP via Getty Images)
Just this week, fresh strong reactions were triggered after a whistleblower said internal documents showed the DOJ used counterterrorism tools against parents.
The documents prove that the FBI was, in fact, using counterterrorism tools to investigate concerned parents who have attended school board meetingswhich directly contradicts Attorney General Merrick Garlands sworn congressional testimony, Parents Defending Education said in a statement.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Epoch Times that the DOJ has had a cloud hanging over its credibility for years.
From the [Hillary] Clinton email investigation to the Russia probe and targeting parents exercising their First Amendment rights at school board meetings, theres not been much to boost the publics confidence that DOJ is apolitical. The inspector generals assessment seems right on the money to me, he wrote in an email.
I hope the department, and its components like the FBI, begin turning a corner to regain some of their previous non-partisan, beyond-reproach reputations. The inspector general also said that he needs testimonial subpoena authority and the ability to independently investigate attorney misconduct. Those two things will go a long way toward ensuring bad apples at FBI and the department are truly held accountable.
Care giver visits with nursing home resident at a Quality Life Services facility in western Pennsylvania. (Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association)
Eight Dead and Dozens Test Positive With COVID-19 in Connecticut Nursing Home Outbreak
Eight people have died and nearly 100 residents and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 after an outbreak in a Connecticut nursing home facility.
Geer Village Senior Community in Canaan, Connecticut, has experienced a wave of cases since reporting three positive cases in October.
An NBC Connecticut report stated a total of 89 residents and staff have been infected since Sept. 30. So far, 48 residents and 21 employees have recovered. the facility houses approximately 70 residents.
A reported 87 of the 89 cases were among those fully vaccinated.
We are encouraged to see 69 staff and residents already recovered and coming off isolation. While we must continue with Covid-19 prevention protocols, we want to assure everyone we are doing our best to keep residents and staff safe. We continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates for residents, staff, families, and community stakeholders as the situation changes, Geer Village said in a statement.
Due to the current outbreak, all visits are ended until further notice. We understand that connecting with family members is incredibly important to our residents, and you are encouraged to continue to connect virtually, the statement added.
Residents and staff will become eligible for a booster shot when Geer Village has gone two weeks without any new COVID-19 cases. So far, no new cases have been reported since Nov. 8.
Many nursing homes experienced high numbers of positive coronavirus cases and deaths during the pandemic. The Geer Village case is unique in the sense that the facility did not have high case numbers during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, with positive cases surging only in recent weeks.
In contrast with Geer Village, nursing homes were told by the U.S. government Friday to ease restrictions imposed around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, including allowing visitors at all times.
The updated guidance (pdf) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cites an increase in vaccination rates among nursing home residents and a drop in COVID-19 cases nationwide since the last update, made in March.
CMS will continue to monitor vaccination and infection rates, including the effects of COVID-19 variants on nursing home residents, which have recently caused the number of cases to slightly increase. However, at this time, continued restrictions on this vital residents right are no longer necessary, the memorandum states.
The move gets us the closest to pre-pandemic visitation that weve ever been since the beginning of the pandemic, Jodi Eyigor, director of nursing home quality and policy for LeadingAge, an industry group, told the Associated Press.
But it doesnt mean that the pandemic is over and that COVID is not circulating. The nursing homes, the residents, and their loved ones are all going to have to work together to make sure that visits are occurring and they are occurring safely, she added.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Elijah and Critical Race Theory: The Rhyming of History
It was King Solomon, the reputed writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, who observed that there was nothing new under the sun; and so there seems not to be. Perhaps more accurately, Mark Twain expressed it this way: History doesnt repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Some sort of echo chamber exists whereby the events of the past repeat themselves in new guises. The guises conceal what the real issue (or issues) is about, usually by creating a new term or language that sounds exciting and fresh but really is as stale as old, moldy toast.
The only people likely to spot these strange reoccurrences are those who have studied one of a number of disciplines: namely history, mythology, theology, literature, and a few others. In general, these disciplines are what used to be called the humanities.
It is in the humanities that, one way or another, we come to master language and the patterns of human experience. What that means is that we learn to think. And we get to understand the distinctive patterns of human thought and activities.
This is the general point. But what is the specific example to which I am referring when I say that history rhymes?
Marxism by Another Name
Perhaps, as one looks back on 2020, the biggest event that has impacted lives after the pandemic is Critical Race Theory. Its influence seems to grow apace with every passing year.
While its very important that theories are generated, and if these theories animadvert on how others are treatedand in particular how everyone is entitled to respect, opportunity, and achievementthen that is good. However, not all theories are good, much less equal. What did Karl Marxs theories, for all their talk of social justice and equality, actually lead to? They led to mass extermination, in fact, in the USSR, China, and wherever communism held sway.
Karl Marx (18181883), circa 1875. (Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images)
But secondly, as with King Solomon (and nothing new under the sun), we see old heresiesthat is, theoriesresurfacing in new guises. Its rather like COVID-19: There is the original virus, but then variants pop up, and some are more deadly than the original.
A theory is usually thought to be a system of ideas intended to explain something, to account for reality or some portion of reality. With Marx, as English cultural critic Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal observes, it is different: Marxs eschatology, lacking all common sense, all knowledge of human nature, rested on abstractions that were to him more real than the actual people around him. In other words, the whole theory rests not even on ideas but on abstractions entirely devoid of common sense and empirical testing.
So what am I driving at? This: Critical Race Theory is very much like (rhymes with) Marxism, and is not remotely helpful in achieving any meaningful goalsgoals like peoples in a given society living together in harmony, for example. Instead, I see a strange rhyming with the Marxist projects of the 20th century as well as its more recent ventures.
Communism has always led to mass killings. A visitor at the Memorial Stupa to Choeung Ek Killing Fields, with thousands of skulls of those killed during the Pol Pot regime, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
In essence, all perverse philosophies lead to perverse actions. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, The ancestor of every action is a thought. Marx spent a lot of his life in the British Museum Reading Room; hardly, one might think, a prelude for creating the Stalinist gulags, yet one followed the other. Similarly, at the other extreme, with Nietzsche we end up with admirers who are Nazis, the supermen. And value judgments are a precondition for action, said Jordan B. Petersonhow right he is.
I have not enough space here to do a detailed critique of Critical Race Theory, and besides its already been done by experts such as Daniel A. Farber and Suzanna Sherry. But we can look at one small perverse action that derives from the theory.
Taking a Knee to Baal
You may remember in Kings I, chapter 19, the incredible adventures of Elijah, the prophet of Israel. He had slain the false prophets of Baal, and then ran in fear for his life; indeed, despaired of his life and requested God to take it. Then hed hidden in a cave on Mount Horeb and told God, with a hint of self-pity: I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thy altars and killed the prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
Only he is left, he opines to God. All the good people have been killed. All dead, except him.
What is Gods response to this? Several things, but concluding with this remarkable statement: Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. Clearly, Elijah hadnt anticipated that! The trouble with being overly conscious of ones virtue is that it may lead to virtue signaling, a state wherein one thinks that one is the only virtuous person!
But there we have it. The bowing the knee to Baal is significant. And it can be compared, without too much of a stretch, with todays taking the knee. Taking or bowing the knee has never been an act of mere solidarity. It has always been primarily a sign of worship, or secondly an act of deference before an emperor or king.
Dominic Raab, the UKs former foreign secretary (the British equivalent of the United States Anthony J. Blinken at the time of writing this), commented in a radio interview in June 2020 that the taking the knee gesture feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination, rather than one of liberation and emancipation. He went on to suggest that the idea may have originated in the TV series Game of Thrones.
Taking the knee is essentially a negation of ones freedom because one is putting a principle on a godlike pedestal beyond ones reason. And this is where we come back to the need for real teachings in history, mythology, theology, literature, and so on, to begin the process of inoculating the youngespecially, the youngagainst simplistic ideas or ideals dressed up in fancy titles like Critical Race Theory. The theory is actually a golden calf to be worshiped.
When we talk here about inoculating, we are referring to developing the ability to think effectively, which is what a real humanities education provides.
If we were to turn our critical thinking on Western culture, then we could say that over the last 70 years or so, the West has been worshiping its own golden calf: namely, Mammon or money. This worship, too, restricts rather than enables freedomall false gods do this.
However, in the West there is still plenty of choice. We dont have to bow the knee to Mammon in the way that, say, North Koreans have to bow the knee to their political god. But once a bow-the-knee culture starts, who knows how far it will spread?
We are free people, and like Elijah and 7,000 other Israelites, we must resist this false worship. By their fruits you will know them, said one great leader, and we can easily see the fruits of Critical Race Theory.
The biblical quotes are all from the New American Standard Bible.
People walk on the bridge over the river Narva at the border crossing point with Russia in Narva, Estonia, on Feb. 16, 2017. (Ints Kalnins/Reuters)
Estonia Deploys Nearly 1,700 Reservists to Install Barrier Along Russian Border
Estonian authorities have deployed more than 1,600 reserve military troops in an unannounced exercise that was scheduled to start on Nov. 17 as the illegal immigration crisis in nearby Belarus intensifies.
In a statement issued by the government on Nov. 17, the summoned forces include 1,636 reservists from different units who are mainly engineers who will be strengthening border infrastructure until Nov. 25.
The main purpose of exercise OKAS/QUILL is to test the national defense chain of command, from the Estonian Government decision down to the particular units combat readiness in the rapid response structure, the statement reads.
The reserve engineers will also work on installing a temporary barrier in border areas that have previously been used by organized crime to facilitate illegal migration, according to officials. The Estonian police and border guard said in a statement obtained by Reuters that 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) of razor-wire fence will be installed along the Russian border, where the risk of illegal crossings is the highest.
What is happening in Poland, Lithuania. and Latvia also requires the strengthening of the border infrastructure in Estonia, Chief of Police and border guard Elmar Vaher said.
Kalle Laanet, the countrys minister of defense, said during a news conference last week that the border crisis could lead to a military clash, saying that the potential for escalation is extremely high.
Other European Union neighbors of Belarus, including Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, have already installed additional border infrastructure and have deployed thousands of military forces. Poland also declared a state of emergency over the border situation in October.
Armed Polish border guards stand at the PolishBelarusian border in Usnarz Gorny, near Bialystok, Poland, on Aug. 20, 2021. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
On Nov. 16, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expressed concern about the escalating crisis on the borders shared between EU countries and Belarus, offering support to Poland.
EU ambassadors also agreed last week that the growing numbers of illegal immigrants flying to Belarus to reach the EU border amount to hybrid warfare by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenkawhich serves as a basis for a new round of sanctions on the country.
The new round of sanctions is set to target Belarusian officials that the EU says have organized arrivals of the migrants in revenge for sanctions on the country over human rights abuses.
Belarus has repeatedly denied any such operations and has rejected all Western accusations of wrongdoing, saying that it, not the EU, is a victim of a hybrid attack using unconventional warfare tactics.
From NTD News
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a Senate hearing in Washington, on May 11, 2021. (Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images)
Fauci Pushes COVID-19 Boosters for All Americans, Says Crucial to Bring Disease to Endemic Level
Booster doses may become the standard for a 'full' vaccination, he said.
U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the CCP virus can become endemichaving a constant, manageable presence in a certain region or populationif more people take booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
To me, if you want to get to endemic, you have got to get the level of infection so low that it does not have an impact on society, on your life, on your economy, Fauci said in an interview at the Reuters Total Health conference, which runs virtually Nov. 1518. People will still get infected. People might still get hospitalized, but the level would be so low that we dont think about it all the time and it doesnt influence what we do.
Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said making booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available to everyone is vital for the nation to reach endemic levels of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, reported Reuters.
Look what other countries are doing now about adopting a booster campaign virtually for everybody, he added. I think if we do that, and we do it in earnest, I think by the spring [of 2022] we can have pretty good control of this.
He acknowledged that there are different views on what is considered as having the CCP virus under control, commenting: You could control it at 50,000 cases a day. To me, thats not good control, and thats not endemicity that I would accept. I dont want to sit back when we have 70,000 to 85,000 new infections a day and say: Oh, well, we cant do any better than that. Lets live with that. Sorry, thats not where we want to be.
The average national daily reported number of new cases is over 83,000 as of Nov. 15, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For me, endemicity means a lot more people get vaccinated, a lot more people get boosted, and although you dont eliminate or eradicate it, that infection is not dominating your life, Fauci said.
He said booster shots can potentially increase antibodies to a protective level, although he pointed out that the CCP virus is brand new, and therefore, we cant predict.
Separately, Fauci warned that the vaccines waning immunity alongside the more transmissible Delta variantrepresenting nearly all cases in the United Stateswould be a double whammy that could affect even the vaccinated people, reported ABC News.
Youre going to see breakthrough infections, even more so than we see now among the vaccinated, Fauci said in a prerecorded interview aired at the 2021 STAT Summit Tuesday afternoon, the outlet reported.
He also said that booster doses may become the standard for a full vaccination.
I happen to believe as an immunologist and infectious disease person, that a third shot boost for an mRNA is likelyshould be part of the actual standard regimen, where a booster isnt a luxury; a booster isnt an add on; and a booster is part of what the original regimen should beso that when we look back on this, were going to see that boosters are essential for an optimal vaccine regimen, Fauci said.
Other countries, including Israel and Bahrain, have been offering boosters to a broad population. Citizens of both countries now risk losing their vaccination status granting them access to certain venues if they do not receive their booster doses.
Officials from at least seven U.S. states have expanded booster shot eligibility to all adultsgoing beyond current CDC recommendations that say that booster shots apply to those aged 65 or older, or people aged 18 or older with underlying medical conditions or are often in high-risk settings.
As of Tuesday, about 30.7 million people in the United States have received a COVID-19 booster shot.
Last week, Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization for booster shots of its COVID-19 vaccine for all adults. The FDA has yet to make a determination.
Pfizer previously said that its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy drops over time and insisted that booster doses would be effective at dealing with new CCP virus variants.
In late October, the chairman of Moderna said that yearly COVID-19 vaccine boosters may be required in the future if the disease becomes endemic.
Film Review: The Islands
An Entertaining & Informative Real-Life Story About One of Hawaiis First Christians.
PG-13 | 1h 29min | 2019
Ive always thought Hawaii was a fascinating place, but by and large, it was glossed over in the history books presented by our American educational system. More recently, a friend of mine who is part Hawaiian and familiar with the culture, history, and traditions, enlightened me as to some of its tumultuous past, including the infamous forays into its environs by the British explorer, Captain James Cook, back in the 18th century. While Ive tried to watch documentaries on old Hawaii, Ive found them to be about as dry and stale as one of those infamous college textbooks that used to bore me to death.
Thanks to faith-based director, Timothy Chey, theres a 2019 biographical film called The Islands that couples entertaining drama with some valuable nuggets of Hawaiian historyall tied up in a great-looking cinematic package with exceptional production values.
Henry Thornton (John Savage, L) and his wife Mary (Mira Sorvino) in The Islands (RiverRain Productions)
The film begins with the arrival of a small group of missionaries who set foot on Hawaiian turf in an effort to introduce Christianity to the indigenous population. The missionaries include Henry and Mary Thornton (John Savage and Mira Sorvino, respectively), as well as Hiram Bingham (Michael Camp).
While the leader of the local Hawaiian tribe, Chieftess Kapiolani (Teuira Shanti Napa) regards the missionaries as peaceful folks who arent out to harm the tribe, others, including the powerful warrior Alika Kalawaia (Ricky Suaava) and influential tribeswoman Kanoa Palakiko (Malia Marquez), believe that the foreigners have come to their island for nefarious purposes. Indeed, as they later explainthe more resistant islanders have had bad experiences with foreign powers.
Hiram Bingham (Michael Camp, R) enjoying his time with the Hawaiians in The Islands (RiverRain Productions)
Mary Thornton isnt exactly thrilled to be on the island, but her husband Henry is determined to guide the Hawaiians to the path of Christian divinity. While Henry and Mary quibble incessantly, Hiram has an easier time of ingratiating himself with the Hawaiians. By the films second act, Hirams gentle and humble ways begin to break through the cultural barrierssoon the missionary is surfing with the local men and sharing refreshing coconut milk with them.
But if theres one major cultural divide that impedes the two groups diplomatic progress, it would have to be the Hawaiians tradition of human sacrifice. At certain intervals, Alika picks out one of the tribesmen to be sacrificed to Pelea deity represented by a very active volcano in the area.
As the volcano becomes more active with every passing day, Alika tells Chieftess Kapiolani that Pele is angry at them because theyve let the missionaries stay for as long as they have. Indeed, both Alika and Kanoa are constantly seething in the backgroundconspiring to kill the missionaries, or at least forcefully send them on their wayaway from the island.
As Chieftess Kapiolani begins to befriend the missionaries and they, in turn, reveal their sincere desire for her to see the light and embrace Christianity, she begins to question the human sacrifices. This creates an ever-widening rift between herself and her peopleprincipally Alika, who either strongly disagrees with her every decision, or outright ignores her orders and edicts since he believes shes going against the authority of the tribes deities.
Eventually, Chieftess Kapiolani converts over to Christianity and accepts Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Likewise, Mary fully embraces God and begins to see the tribe in a much more favorable lightinstead of regarding them as backward savages.
Alika Kalawaia (Ricky Suaava, L) and Chieftess Kapiolani (Teuira Shanti Napa) in The Islands (RiverRain Productions)
As the rift between Chieftess Kapiolani and Alika widens, it becomes clear that things are eventually going to reach a breaking point. And thats when the chieftess announces to her tribe that she will demonstrate her faith in God by not only going up to the top of the active volcano, Pele, but also descend into its molten interior.
Although Alika and the chieftess have had their disagreements, he warns her not to go since it has been prophesied to the tribe that she will die if she does. Armed with her newfound faith, Chieftess Kapiolani bravely disregards the warnings and begins her lengthy journey. As the tribe looks on, the chieftess disappears into the lava-spewing volcano.
One of the things that struck me about this film is that Chey presents all of the characters in a believable fashion and we can understand where many of them are coming from. For example, although Alika is a menacing warrior who almost seems as though hell strike the chieftess down at any moment, he is only doing what he thinks is right for the preservation of his tribes culture and heritage, and faithful to their deities.
Chieftess Kapiolani (Teuira Shanti Napa) demonstrates her faith in God in The Islands (RiverRain Productions)
The Islands is a fantastic expose on the life of the brave Chieftess Kapiolani and should make viewers who are even remotely curious about history, or interested in researching Hawaiis rich and turbulent past. Just be aware that there are a couple of violent scenes, so young children should probably not watch this until they are older.
Watch the full movie here.
The Islands
Director: Timothy A. Chey
Stars: Teuira Shanti Napa, Mira Sorvino, Ricky Suaava
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 2019
Rated: 5 stars out of 5
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Ian Kane is a filmmaker and author based out of Los Angeles. To learn more, visit DreamFlightEnt.com or contact him at Twitter.com/ImIanKane.
Florida School Board Member Files Criminal Complaint Over Sexually Graphic Book
A Florida school board member has filed a criminal complaint regarding a disgusting, sexually graphic bookfound to exist in the media centers at three schools in Flagler Countywhich she believes violates state obscenity laws.
Flagler County School Board Member Jill Woolbright said she became aware of the book after seeing a video by a parent who read from the book at a school board meeting in Pennsylvania, and it was disgusting. The video bears a GRAPHIC WARNING.
According to a recent report, the book by George JohnsonAll Boys Arent Bluehas already been removed from libraries in eight states. The North Kansas City school district pulled four of Johnsons books from four high schools earlier this month following complaints from parents. On Nov. 8, Spotsylvania County Public School Board Members unanimously voted to have multiple sexually explicit books, including Johnsons, removed from their libraries after concerned parents discovered the books were in the schools through a library app. Johnson himself begins his memoir with a content warning.
Woolbright discovered there were copies of the book in the media centers of three Flagler County schools, two copies at Flagler Palm Coast High School, one copy at Matanzas High School, and one copy at Buddy Taylor Middle School.
In our county, we only have two high schools and two middle schools, and thankfully there were none in the elementary schools, Woolbright said.
Now concerned, Woolbright conducted an internet search for the book and looked to see if the public library had a copy.
Lo and behold, Woolbright said. They did. After checking the book out of the library, Woolbright said she looked at the table of contents and saw two specific chapters that caught her eye. The first is Chapter 11, titled, Boys Will be Boys. She was appalled to find that the entire 15-page chapternot a paragraph, not a blurb, but a whole chapter described graphically this incestual encounter with a teenage cousin that came to his bed at night.
A photo of the first page of Chapter 15Losing My Virginity Twicefrom the book by George Johnson on Nov. 14, 2021. (Jessico Bowman)
In Chapter 15Losing My Virginity TwiceJonson provides an extremely graphic recount of a sexual encounter he had with another man as an adult, giving readers detailed, step-by-step descriptions on how to perform numerous sexual acts.
So I had enough information for me to know that this is not appropriate for any minor, Woolbright said.
She then began researching policy regarding the selection of textbooks in Flagler County. While there are some guidelines regarding textbooks, she found nothing regarding media center books that would be available to students through the school library.
So I sent an email off to county office with a lot of questions asking about a handbook asking about our policy and procedures on how we decide what media center books go into effect, Woolbright said. The response she received said it was a question that probably all the school board members would be interested in and she should bring it up at a workshop.
Woolbright also searched state statutes, finding that Florida State Statute 01006 says it is the responsibility of the school board not only to provide oversight on all instructional materials used in a classroom but for books that wound up in the school libraries as well.
Woolbright also read Floridas criminal statute regarding any person who knowingly sells, lends, gives away, distributes, transmits, shows, or transmutes or knowingly has in their possession for viewing any lewd or obscene materials to minorsincluding booksis guilty of a felony of the third degree.
Now extremely upset, Woolbright raised questions at a school board workshop regarding how they vet books and how they decide which books will be banned and if there are any banned books so far with county schools and policies and procedures. According to Woolbright, that was when Curriculum Director LaShakia Moore admitted they dont even have any policies regarding books in the media centers and that they planned on getting together with the media center specialists in the county and start preparing. Woolbright asked to schedule a workshop to get started on that. While three out of the five board members voted for the workshop two said they dont believe in any form of censorship and that they believe anything should be available to the children.
So Im like, OK. So at least I got a workshop, Woolbright said.
Next, Woolbright called others to join her at her weekly three oclock appointment with the superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt to share what she had learned. She called Curriculum Director LaShakia Moore, Assistant Superintendent Bobby Bossardet, Kristy Gavin the school board attorney, and the superintendent secretary. Only Gavin bothered to show up.
So I played the video that I saw, Woolbright said, admitting that she left the room because she didnt want to hear it again. When the video was over they opened the door.
They were visibly disturbed, Woolbright said, so we sat and talked for a long time. I said that under no uncertain terms I wanted whoever was responsible for placing those books in our schools to be held accountable and that I wanted them removed.
The school board never approved this book getting into the schools that Im aware of, Woolbright insisted. I believe that it was a crime and that it was a felony and I was assured they would take care of it.
However, while the title of the book has disappeared from the districts catalog and two of the four books have been removed from circulation, she was told that the other two bookswhich had been checked out by studentswere still at large.
I had given them a week to act on it, Woolbright said.
Unwilling to wait any longer, Woolbright contacted the Flagler County Sheriffs Department and filed a criminal report, including a five-page witness statement.
During the course of investigating this story, The Epoch Times became aware of posts on the authors Twitter page that appeared to be threatening Woolbright.
Screen capture of Twitter post from Keka Araujo dated Nov. 15, 2021 (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)
So now [a] Group of rednecks in Palm and Flagler Counties are insinuating that @IamGMJohnson is inciting violence, Keka Araujo posted on Nov. 15. Heres the problem with that This Black man was minding HIS BUSINESS and here comes racist Jill and her minions disrupting his peace.
Johnson asked Araujo to finish her! in a reply.
While Araujo claims the threatening post was on A PRIVATE GROUP ON FACEBOOK, the comments actually appear on both of their very public Twitter pages. It is against the law (pdf) in Florida to threaten anyone through social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
It should go without saying that harassment, assault, and credible threats of violence are all crimes in the state of Florida, regardless of political motivation, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw told The Epoch Times. Several Florida school board members, including Democrats and Republicans, have reported receiving threats and harassment from activists on both ends of the political spectrum. This is wrong, and anyone who is a victim of a crime should report it to their local police department.
Screenshots of the potentially threatening posts and information on the social media accounts were sent to the sheriffs department.
The deputy was also informed that several people, including a Flagler County student named Jack Petocz, are organizing a student-led protest to take place at the Jan. 16 school board meeting. According to Petoczs Twitter post, he is accepting donations of Johnsons book which he plans to distribute at the meeting.
Screen capture of Twitter post about protest being organized by Flagler County student Jack Petocz to distribute copies of Johnsons book from Nov. 13, 2021 (Jessico Bowman)
Heres the thing, as soon as one of them passes one to a kid, thats federal law, Woolbright said. Giving that book to children under 16, thats federal law.
Florida law enforcement is perfectly capable of responding to crimes in Florida, Pushaw said, and we are confident that the Flagler County Sheriffs Office will be able to investigate and respond appropriately.
Monica, a parent in Flagler County, has also filed a report with the sheriffs department.
I found out there were books in the library that were completely inappropriate, particularly this one called All Boys Arent Blue, Monica told The Epoch Times under the condition of anonymity. So I actually bought the book. I had seen excerpts from it and how inapproriate they were but I wanted to see for myself, not just the excerpts themselves but what came before and after them. Its really inappropriate. Its shocking that this book would be in a school library and its actually against Florida law that this is available to children without parental consent.
Monica filed her report with the Flagler County Sheriffs Department on Nov. 15. Monica said the name of the deputy who took the report, which appears on the report itself, is A. Pierre.
He wasnt happy about it, Monica said. He told me I couldnt file the report. That I had to go to the schools resource officer because its an internal matter.
Monica told the deputy that because she feels its a violation of Floridas obscenity laws, its a legal matter and her responsibility to file the report.
Monica also told the deputy that people planned of distributing copies of the offensive book at the Nov. 16 school board meeting. Thats also against the law, distributing sexual content to minor children, she told him.
Parents have the right to object to their children being exposed to explicit content like this, because parents have the right to make education decisions for their own kids, Pushaw told The Epoch Times. The special session this week will strengthen protections for parents rights and empower parents of public school students in Florida.
Its noteworthy that the Department of Justice (DOJ) memo was issued in response to the National School Boards Associations (NSBA) letter to President Biden on September 29, in which the organization explicitly blamed opponents of critical race theory and forced masking mandates, Pushaw said further. The framing of the NSBA letter suggests that parents who criticize radical left-wing indoctrination or oppose the unscientific policy of muzzling schoolchildren are uniquely dangerous. The letter ignores the fact that liberal activists who support CRT and forced masking have been disrupting school board meetings, harassing elected officials they disagree with, and threatening conservative school board members.
However, Pushaw said the DOJ memo conveniently ignores the conservative school board members and parents who have experienced harassment and threats from the left.
This shameful double standard has been established for some time, Pushaw noted. Violent left-wing protests are acceptable to liberals, but parents who protest the progressive agenda are smeared as potential domestic terrorists who must be intimidated into silence.
Johnson responded to The Epoch Times, saying: What exactly do people think the journalist Keke Araujo is going to do? She is a writer. We finish people with our words. Anyone with reading comprehension can see the tweet I responded to wasnt threatening. Keke said she was going to write about her and I told her to do it. So its just another attempt to throw rocks (like filing a criminal complaint against my book against her own board policy) and then trying to hide your hands when the folks you attack respond. Ive explained several times why this book is appropriate for teens. Teens will experience many of the same things I did. My book is not what harms them. Pretending they arent already experiencing these things in the real world and then removing resources that can help them is what harms them.
Despite Floridas obscenity laws, Johnson said Woolbrights effort is wrong because she solely has no right to deny teens and other parents who want the book the right to access it. Period.
When asked if he had reviewed Floridas obscenity laws, Johnson said I have as well as my attorneys, and that his lawyers disagree that the book would be in violation.
The Epoch Times reached also out to Flagler County Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt for comment. She did not respond.
The Epoch Times will be covering developments at the Jan. 16 Flagler County School Board meeting.
Men work at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, northeastern Germany, on March 26, 2019. (Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images)
Germanys Regulator Suspends Certification Process of Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline
Germanys energy market regulator announced on Nov. 16 that it has suspended the certification process for a major new pipeline connecting the country and Russia, after ruling that its operator within Germany doesnt comply with conditions set by German law.
The Bundesnetzagentur said it temporarily halted the certification process because the Swiss company behind Nord Stream 2 had decided not to turn itself into a German company, but had instead created a subsidiary under German law to deal with the section of the pipeline on German territory.
The Swiss-based consortium first needs to form a German subsidiary company under German law to secure an operating license, the regulator said.
Nord Stream 2 AG, which is based in Zug (Switzerland), has decided not to transform its existing legal form but instead to found a subsidiary under German law solely to govern the German part of the pipeline. This subsidiary is to become the owner and operator of the German part of the pipeline. The subsidiary must then fulfil the requirements of an independent transmission operator as set out in the German Energy Industry Act, the regulator said in a statement.
Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law.
The construction of Nord Stream 2, which stretches about 760 miles through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, began in 2018, and by 2019, it was complete in Russian, Finnish, and Swedish waters, with the majority of the work also complete in German and Danish waters.
However, pipe-laying was suspended in December 2019 due to the threat of U.S. sanctions against individuals and firms backing the construction of the natural gas pipeline. The sanctions were later described by the European Commission as a breach of international law, and the laying of the pipeline was eventually continued. In early September, construction was completed.
In August, U.S. authorities announced sanctions on one Russian vessel and two Russians involved in the pipeline, which the Biden administration opposes, fearing it could be exploited by Moscow to weaponize energy deliveries against European allies.
The Bundesnetzagentur said on Nov. 16 that the certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary and the Bundesnetzagentur is able to check whether the documentation resubmitted by the subsidiary, as the new applicant, is complete.
Workers are seen at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia, on June 5, 2019. (Anton Vaganov/Reuters)
A crane moves Nord Stream 2 pipes at Mukran Port near Sassnitz, Germany, on June 5, 2019. (Axel Schmidt/Getty Images)
Only once those requirements have been fulfilled will the Bundesnetzagentur be able to resume its examination in the remainder of the four-month period set out in law, produce a draft decision and deliver it to the European Commission for an opinion, as provided for in the EU legislation on the internal market.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the European Commission were informed of the energy regulators decision in advance, the Bundesnetzagentur said.
The announcement has subsequently driven up the price of regional natural gas.
European prices jumped following the announcement on Nov. 16.
The controversial $11 billion pipeline is a joint project involving five major companies: Gazprom international projects LLC (PJSC Gazprom subsidiary), Wintershall Dea AG, PEG Infrastruktur AG (E.ON), N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, and ENGIE.
The pipeline would double Nord Streams capacity to ship Russian Arctic natural gas to Germany; its opposed by Ukraine over fears it could be used by Russia as a weapon against it.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after Moscows annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for separatist forces battling Ukrainian troops in the eastern part of the country. Kyiv is also concerned about losing fees that it benefits from as a transit point for Russian gas flowing to Europe, which Moscow has denied.
Meanwhile, the United States and some countries in Europe fear that the pipeline will make Europe too reliant on Russian gas.
The head of the Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz said that he welcomed the German energy regulators decision.
Good, Yuriy Vitrenko said. This is an important point, which suggests that the German regulator shares our position that certification cannot only apply to the pipeline in Germany, but should apply to the entire pipeline from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory of Germany.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Grassley, Johnson Question DOJ Over Contradictory Claims About Hunter Biden Associate
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) publicly released a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland questioning contradictory claims by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about Hunter Bidens connection to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interests.
The son of President Joe Biden has been in the spotlight since the 2020 election, when a laptop recovered at a computer repair shop revealed distasteful information about the private life and business dealings of Hunter Biden.
However, Hunter Biden was in the crosshairs of the DOJ long before the 2020 presidential election: In a 2018 court filing, the DOJ expressed its intention to gather information under the standards set out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on one of Hunter Bidens many foreign business associates, Chi-Ping Patrick Ho (pdf), who is associated with CCP intelligence services.
The DOJs request to gather this information was approved by a federal court.
In Dec. 2017, Ho was charged with international bribery and money laundering for the China Energy Fund Committee, a subsidiary of one of Chinas largest corporations, which itself has extensive links to the CCP. Ho was a top executive at the firm.
In March of this year, Grassley and Johnson submitted a request to the DOJ, now led by Biden-appointed Garland, asking for information related to investigations concerning Hunter Bidens foreign relationships.
Following that request, the DOJ sent a belated reply to the senators in July, telling them that the DOJ is not in a position to confirm the existence of the information that is sought (pdf).
Now, Grassley and Johnson are asking the DOJ to reconcile these conflicting claims.
Based on the extensive relationships between and among Hunter Biden and individuals connected to the communist Chinese regime, our letter requested all intelligence records, including but not limited to, all Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-derived information,' wrote the senators.
Our request was based, in part, on reporting and a federal court filing by the Department that said it had obtained at least one Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant relating to Patrick Ho, indicating his potential counterintelligence threat to the United States, the letter added.
The senators then cited the DOJs own words from its 2018 filing, which reads in part, The United States intends to offer into evidence, or otherwise use or disclose in any proceedings in the above-captioned matter, information obtained or derived from electronic surveillance and physical search conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
Despite this sworn acknowledgement by the Department you oversee, your July 12, 2021, response to our letter denied knowing whether the Department even possessed the information, Grassley and Johnson continued.
The duo then blasted the DOJ for the apparent contradiction.
Both statements cannot be true. Either the statement in your July 12, 2021, letter is truethat the Department is unaware of whether it possesses the relevant materialor the Departments February 8, 2018, statement to federal court that the Department is aware of the fact that it possesses the relevant material is true, Grassley and Johnson wrote. Therefore, one statement is false.
To reconcile this inconsistency, Grassley and Johnson have demanded an official DOJ response to their letter by no later than Nov. 22 and for the DOJ to either amend [its] July 12, 2021, letter to correct the inaccurate statement or confirm in writing that the Departments February 8, 2018, court filing stating that the Department possesses FISA-related information on Patrick Ho was an inaccurate statement to federal court.
Thus far, the DOJ has not publicly responded to Grassleys and Johnsons allegations in the letter.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the letter.
How Mainstream Media Shaped the Worlds View on Apartheid and Mandela
Commentary
The death of South Africas last president before the end of the apartheid era gives reason to pause and reflect on the historic transfer of power from Frederick Willem de Klerk to Nelson Mandela 27 years ago.
At the time, mainstream media outlets worldwide described the end of apartheid as a miracle and hailed the birth of the Rainbow Nation. American journalists saw Mandelas inauguration as the triumph of liberal democracy, while the media viewed 1990 as the year liberals defeated the twin evils of Soviet Communism and apartheid.
But the truth iswhether by incompetence or designthe mainstream media have consistently gotten the story of South Africa wrong.
Over the past six years, American conservatives have seen how the majority of the media prioritised progressive or left-leaning causes while demonising the Right.
Many may not realise that the same misreporting has been carried out on South African politics for decades. As a result, what the West understands about the apartheid era, segregation, and post-apartheid politics, is nothing more than a skewed, unbalanced, and manufactured narrative.
From the outset, media outlets were opposed to conservative politicians and governments in South Africa, such as the National Party (NP).
At the same time, there was a preference for positive reporting on liberation movements in developing countries and decolonisation.
Consequently, the communist-aligned African National Congress (ANC) and Mandela became media darlings for left-liberal journalists. A standard narrative created by these journalists was of the white, racist villains exploiting and repressing black victims.
South African anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela (C), his then-wife Winnie (L) and Joe Slovo (R), South African Communist Party (SACP) leader are seated on July 29, 1990 in Soweto on the platform at a SACPs meeting, during its official launch as a political party in South Africa. (Walter Dhladhla/AFP via Getty Images)
Indeed, during the decades-long struggle between the NP and ANC, audiences in the West only heard positive reports on one side of the strugglesimilar to how mainstream media today have portrayed the red-blue political landscape in the United States.
So unpacking how these media companies misreported the transition from De Klerk to Mandela is illuminating.
First, De Klerks decision to release Mandela from jail was no miracle. It only appeared to be a miracle to mainstream media journalists because they had consistently chosen to misunderstand (and misreport) apartheid for decades.
One of the main issues is the genuine difficultyand reluctanceleft-leaning journalists had with coming to grips with the governing NPs motivations.
As a result, they ended up constructing a narrative that de Klerk seemed to miraculously see the light and recognise the evil of apartheid.
But in reality, de Klerk was a pragmatic and strategic politician.
He did not have a road to Damascus moment. Instead, the Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 triggered de Klerks famous February 1990 announcement that saw Mandela freed from prison, the ANC unbanned from the country, and negotiations around a new constitution begin.
De Klerk persuaded the NP that a collapsed Soviet bloc represented a unique opportunity to negotiate the constitution because the communist regimes demise severely weakened the ANC.
However, the miracle discourse gained traction because media outlets had failed to inform the West that the ANC was one of a cluster of Soviet-aligned liberation movements worldwide in close collaboration during the Cold War.
For de Klerk, the Fall of the Berlin Wall represented an opportunity to end 30 years of (Soviet-funded) guerrilla and terrorist wars that had raged across Southern Africa. These conflicts had even escalated into a conventional war in Angola where South African forces engaged in some of the biggest tank battles in history against Cuban, Angolan, Soviet, and East German forces.
Ruling National Party President Frederick de Klerk and his wife Marike de Klerk greets supporters during a campaign rally in Nasrec exhibition centre, between Johannesburg and Soweto, in South Africa, on April 16, 1994. (Harold Gess/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Soviet collapse saw the flow of funds and weapons to the ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) dry up. Hence, de Klerk concluded that this was the moment to defeat its long-standing opponents.
Events would turn against de Klerk, however, and so prove him wrong.
The mainstream media completely missed his motivations and reasoning. Decades of misreporting and a misunderstanding of the complex issues in South Africa saw journalists fail to comprehend the NPs debates about transitioning apartheid into a consociationalism model of governance, which would see each ethnic group in the country elect its own representatives, who would then govern together as a central authority (loosely modelled on the Swiss system).
The ANC, however, was keen on a system where all citizens would vote for a single government to control the entire country (like most democracies). However, the NP rejected this model because elections on the continent had seen much voting occur along racial-ethnic lines.
The NP argued a winner-takes-all majoritarian model would render all minority groups politically powerlessa situation common in most African democracies today.
In fact, during the four-year-long negotiations, ethnic minority groups like the Indians, Africans (like Mangosuthu Buthelezi), and leaders of mixed-race communities supported the NP power-sharing model.
In the beginning, negotiations were going in the NPs favour. However, the ANC would soon unleash the Leipzig option, which would see rolling mass protests and violence to destabilise talks.
Further, journalists seeing these issues through narrative-tinted glassesrevolving around pro-decolonisationwould conveniently lend a hand to the ANCs efforts to undermine de Klerks vision.
The ANCs Soviet links were neglected in media reports, and the entire Cold War and communist dimension to the South African struggle was ignored.
Elected South African President Nelson Mandela (C) and former President and Deputy President Frederick De Klerk (R) shake hands as Second Deputy President Thabo Mbeki (L) looks on, after the inaugural sitting of South Africas first all-race parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 9, 1994. (Alexander Joe/AFP via Getty Images)
Mandela would be portrayed as an individual striving for liberation and democracy, while his role in establishing Umkonto, the ANCs guerrilla-terrorist military wing, was downplayed or omitted.
Subsequently, the worldand Hollywoodbelieved that Mandelas time in prison was due to his political views, whereas he was imprisoned for terrorism.
The result was the eventual victory for the ANC in seeing its vision entrenched in the new constitution and the steady decline of South Africa to begin.
This has meant that todays world still has little understanding of what apartheid was about and the reasons behind the countrys conflicts.
Americans and English-speaking audiences were told that apartheid was all about white racism and segregation.
But the reality, according to former Republican Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker, was that the American mainstream media simplified South Africas trauma into a series of emotive civil rights soundbites.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
People stand in a courtyard outside the Florida Capitol on Nov. 16 to urge lawmakers to pass bills against mask and vaccine mandates. (Nanette Holt for The Epoch Times)
Hundreds Rally for Medical Freedom at Florida Capitol
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.Hundreds of people gathered in a courtyard outside the Florida Capitol Tuesday to urge lawmakers to pass bills preventing mask mandates in the state, banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children, and protecting Floridians from losing their jobs for not getting the shots.
About 400 people waved signs and cheered for speakers who represented 25 allied organizations at the Rally for Medical Freedom. Buses and car caravans brought people angry about vaccine and mask mandates from across the Sunshine State.
Gov. Ron Desantis (R) had called for lawmakers to be in Tallahassee this week for a special session, urging them to pass bills that would take on a variety of issues, all related to COVID-19 mandates.
One proposed bill being considered by lawmakers would outline ways for employees to opt-out of required vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. It would require employers to grant exemptions from vaccine mandates for medical reasons, such as pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy, or for natural immunity if confirmed with a state Department of Health-approved antibody test.
The bill also would require employers to allow workers to opt out of taking the vaccine if they choose to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Or they could opt out if they were willing to submit to periodic testing for the virus. Tests would be at no cost to the employee. The state Department of Health (DOH) would define how often the tests need to be performed.
The bill also would require employers to exempt employees who submit a DOH form explaining they have religious reasons for wanting to skip the vaccine.
Should an employer not allow the vaccine exemptions, the proposed bill says the state Department of Legal Affairs would investigate. And if not willing to back down, employers could face fines of up to $10,000 per violation for small businesses and up to $50,000 per violation for larger businesses.
I believe the bill was drafted this way to work around the Biden mandates, in case they arent set aside by the courts, attorney Jeff Childers wrote in his daily Substack blog, Coffee & Covid. Its very clever.
Childers, who operates a small law firm in Gainesville, has been taking on mask-mandate cases since mid-2020. He has organized an allied group of attorneys from around the country who share files and strategies in a growing number of cases to fight vaccine and mask mandates across the country.
Another part of the proposed legislation would ban COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students. DeSantis has repeatedly vowed that vaccines will not be imposed on children in Florida. The bill would allow parents or adult students to sue schools to enforce the law and have the opportunity to recover their attorneys fees.
Thats huge, Childers says, because that will mean more attorneys will be willing to take on those cases, knowing that theres a way they can be paid if theyre successful.
Another new section of law would ban vaccine mandates for all public employees.
An educational institution or a governmental entity may not impose a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for any full-time, part-time, or contract employee, the proposed legislation says.
All laws, rules, or policies already in place that are contrary to the new law would be nullified. And employees already terminated for refusing the vaccine could get state re-employment assistance.
Another state law would be amended to ban mask mandates in schools. Students and employees would no longer be forced to quarantine or stay home after exposure if they have no COVID-19 symptoms. And people who have to sue to enforce these rights would be able to recover attorneys fees and costs.
The new laws would automatically expire June 1, 2023, unless extended by the Legislature.
Childers says he hopes to encourage lawmakers to tweak the (vaccine-related) bill by adding protection against discrimination toward uninjected employees in hiring or in the workplace.
Theres also a bill being considered that will order the State of Florida to begin putting a new framework into place to oversee occupational safety and health, so the state can opt out of the federal oversight of OSHA. That process will take time.
But something that would take place immediately if the proposed legislation is passed and signed into law makes Childers and others rallying for medical freedom very happy. The change to existing law would remove the ability of the state health officer to mandate vaccinations.
Even though Ive never been super worried about this law, since its absolutely unconstitutional and has never been used, it has still irritated a whole lot of folks just by existing, Childers wrote in his blog. Good riddance.
But some who have been strongly opposed to vaccine mandates and mask mandates arent happy about the proposed bundle of legislation.
Theyve asked their supporters to urge representatives to kill the bills that dont go far enough. Instead of providing for ways for employees to opt out of vaccine mandates, they say vaccine mandates should be banned completely.
But that might not move quickly enough in the courts to help the thousands of workers who could lose their jobs if a resolution isnt found fast, Childers says.
Stephen Davis was a battalion chief for Orange County Fire Rescue until he was fired in October for refusing to discipline employees for not getting COVID-19 vaccines.
Wearing his firefighter helmet, he told his story to the crowd on Tuesday.
We all need to stand up and be leaders, he said. We need to stand up. We need to wake up. And we need to get other people involved.
Michelle Childers, with the groups Moms for Liberty Alachua and the Alliance for Responsible Government, acknowledged the dissent among some conservatives about legislation related to opting out of vaccines, instead of banning mandates. Shes the wife of Jeff Childers.
She told the crowd outside the Capitol Tuesday, This is a good bill. Its not a perfect bill, but it will get us some relief.
Test tubes labelled "COVID-19 Test positive" are seen in this illustration picture taken on March 10, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)
Interstate Christmas Holiday May Cost Families Thousands of Dollars in COVID Tests
International travellers entering Australia are facing up to $450 per person for COVID-19 testing, with a maximum fee of $1,800 for a family of four.
The tourism industry is calling on the government to allow international travellers to use cheaper rapid antigen tests so that the expensive testing fees do not cripple tourism recovery.
Medicare reimbursements are not available for COVID-19 tests conducted for domestic or international travel, which are required by states and territories to cross borders.
International travellers flying in Australia who are fully vaccinated will have at least one PCR test before boarding and at least two more tests upon arrival in New South Wales (NSW) or Victoria.
The cost of one PCR test at private pathology laboratories is about $150. The total cost of three tests would be $450 for a single person, and up to $1800 for a family of four.
More testing is needed if people are travelling to states such as Queensland that have zero cases.
Its not just the in and out of Australia. Queensland is going to be requiring those tests to enter, Margy Osmond, the chief executive of Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) told Australian Financial Review.
A view of a used rapid antigen test for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) with negative result at a testing centre in a metro station in Moscow on November 11, 2021. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)
If youre flying Jetstar to Queensland, it could be the case your PCR tests will cost more than the airline tickets for a family of four.
Similar situation applies for interstate travel in Australia.
While the cost of COVID-19 tests can vary between $50 (some GP clinics) to $150, depending on clinics, some jurisdictions require that an asymptomatic COVID-19 test for travel reasons can only be done by private providers, which incurs extra fee, according to an ABC report.
It is not clear yet what type of test will be accepted and if the recently approved rapid antigen tests will be taken as valid by states and territories down the line.
Margy Osmond noted that PCR test should only be used as an interim measure to aid in international travel recovery.
Its going to be a global competition for tourists, she said. Rapid testing is increasingly efficient and highly reliable, so governments need to be agile enough to respond to the technology for a price-sensitive market.
Defense Asks for Mistrial in Kyle Rittenhouse Case
Kyle Rittenhouses defense lawyers filed a motion on Monday asking for a mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct, although it appears Judge Bruce Schroeder will not address the issue until the jury is finished deliberating.
Members of the jury started their deliberation process on Tuesday morning and are expected to again deliberate Wednesday. The defenses motion to declare the case a mistrial with prejudice was filed before closing arguments were made on Monday.
If Rittenhouse, 18, is acquitted of the five felony charges stemming from the August 2020 shooting, the request will be rendered moot. The judge hasnt held any arguments or rendered a decision yet over the motion.
Rittenhouses attorneys accused prosecutors of providing them with drone a recording that had a lower resolution than the one the state possesses. The prosecution argued that the footage allegedly shows Rittenhouse pointing his weapon at a bystander, which provoked the shooting.
Rittenhouses lawyers alleged that they only obtained the higher-quality clip from prosecutors on Saturday after their testimony concluded.
The video footage has been at the center of this case, the defense motion said. The failure to provide the same quality footage in this particular case is intentional and clearly prejudices the defendant.
Their mistrial motion also made reference to prosecutor Thomas Bingers comments last week when he made reference to Rittenhouse not speaking to police after he was arrested. Schroeder last week admonished Binger over the move, claiming that he imperiled Rittenhouses Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Kyle Rittenhouse pulls numbers of jurors out of a tumbler during his trail at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 16, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)
The problem is this is a grave constitutional violation for you to talk about the defendants silence. Youre right on the borderlineand you may be overbut it better stop, the judge told Binger last week.
Further, the motion accuses Binger of violating the courts order by telling Rittenhouse that you have previously indicated that you wished you had your AR 15 to protect someones property.
Im not sure why the judge has waited to rule on the mistrial motion, Michael OHear, professor of criminal law at Marquette Law School, told the Journal-Sentinel on Schroeders decision not to make a decision. It seems unlikely to me that he would have turned the case over to the jury if he expected to grant the mistrial.
Schroeder on Wednesday responded to the comments in the Journal-Sentinel report, saying that he is waiting for the state to respond to the defenses motion, while adding that hes somewhat astounded by the report.
On Tuesday night after a day of deliberations, the jury hadnt produced a verdict before Schroeder retired the 12 jurors around 5:50 p.m. CT.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty for shooting two men and wounding another during a night of riots, protests, and arson attacks in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020, arguing that he acted in self-defense.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 during the time of the shooting, faces five felony charges. The most serious charge carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
During closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger on Monday argued that Rittenhouse set the deadly chain of events in motion by bringing a semi-automatic rifle to a protest and menacing others, then walked off like a hero in a Western.
However, Rittenhouse lawyer Mark Richards countered that Rittenhouse was ambushed by a crazy person he feared would wrest away his gun and use it to kill him, referring to Joseph Rosenbaum. Other than Rosenbaum, he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder addresses the jury pool at the start of jury selection on the first day of trial for Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 1, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP)
Rittenhouse Judge Criticizes Media Coverage of Trial
The judge at Kyle Rittenhouses trial said Wednesday that he will think long and hard about allowing live-streamed trials in the future and criticized the media for grossly irresponsible handling of the trial.
Judge Bruce Schroeder responded to a report published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that included questions about why he didnt take action after Rittenhouses lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the trial with prejudice earlier this week.
Im somewhat astounded, Schroeder said. Its just a shame irresponsible statements are being made.
Noting that the motion was filed Tuesday, the judge said he hasnt had a chance to read it.
I really think before I rule on a motion, I should let the state respond, Schroeder said, referring to the prosecutors. So why anyone would think, it is odd for the judge to sit on a motion to dismiss, I have no idea. And the recommended course, I think for judges, at least that is what I was educated to believe, was that motions to dismiss should be kept under advisement unless theyre crystal clear and they have had a chance for both parties to respond.
But neither the prosecutors, defense attorneys, or Schroeder had the chance to address it due to the heat of the discussion on the day the original oral motion was made, the judge said.
Rittenhouses attorneys argued that the trial should be dismissed with prejudice because prosecutors did not turn over the full drone video until after the evidence was closed. They also argued that prosecutor Thomas Bingers line of questioning during his cross-examination of Rittenhouse last week violated the defendants Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
They could have asked for a thumb drive, they could have asked for whatever, prosecutor James Kraus said Wednesday. Were not responsible for that.
Schroeder also was questioned by media outlets on his decision Tuesday to allow Rittenhouse himself to reach into a raffle drum and draw numbered slips for the jurors who would be selected in the case to deliberate and who would be dismissed as alternates.
While noting that most courts use a clerk to perform that function, Schroeder explained that hes been having defendants pull slips for 20 years.
I would admit that there are not a large number of courts that do that, maybe not any, Schroeder said Wednesday.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge for using a rifle to kill two men and injuring a third during a night of protests, riots, arson, and vandalism in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the night of Aug. 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse, who has pleaded not guilty, testified last week that acted in self-defense, while prosecutors claimed he provoked the violence.
Jacob Chansley is seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley Sentenced to More Than 3 Years in Prison for Jan. 6 Role
A federal judge has sentenced a man who was involved in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach to 41 months in prison.
Jacob Chansley, 34, became one of the faces of the breach after going shirtless and wearing an animal fur hat with horns into the building. He also carried a spear with an American flag affixed to it.
Chansley pleaded guilty in September to one count of obstructing an official proceeding.
The Arizona man was facing up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors had recommended 51 months, in part because Chansley had become so well-known during and after the breach.
In court on Nov. 17, prosecutors argued that Chansleys urging of people to go to Washington before Jan. 6 should prompt a harsher sentence and challenged Chansleys attorney on the portrayal of his client as peaceful.
In the months leading up to Jan. 6, the defendant posted vitriolic messages on social media encouraging his thousands of followers to expose the corrupt politicians, to ID the traitors in our government, to halt their agenda, to stop the steal. This is not peaceful, prosecutor Kimberly Paschall said.
Albert Watkins, attorney for the defendant, repeatedly praised prosecutors before arguing for a lighter sentence because of the mental health issues his client has experienced. Chansley said he has undergone a spiritual evolution while in jail, where hes been held since being arrested in January.
He expressed regret for his actions and said he wouldnt commit crimes once hes let out of prison.
Jacob Chansley, center, and other protesters are seen inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Manuel Blace Ceneta/AP Photo)
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, complimented Chansley.
What you did here was horrific, as you now concede. And obstructing the government as you did is the type of conduct that is so serious that I cannot justify a downward departure, Lamberth said as he sentenced Chansley to the lowest end of the sentencing guidelines. I do think the minimum end of the guidelines is what youve earned, because youve done everything right from the time that you started, and youve certainly done everything good today, convinced the court that youre a new person.
You were smart. It may not feel it today, but you were smart, did the right thing.
Lamberth also noted that some defendants are facing decades in prison.
While Chansley could have been sentenced to up to 20 years behind bars, it would have been unusual for the judge to go beyond the recommendation from prosecutors.
The sentence was one of the longest yet imposed on a Jan. 6 defendant. Scott Fairlamb, a former mixed martial arts fighter, also was sentenced to 41 months in prison earlier this month for assaulting law enforcement officers that day.
A joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election was taking place on Jan. 6 when it was interrupted by a breach of the Capitol building at approximately 1:30 p.m.
Chansley was spotted among the crowd outside shortly before 2 p.m. Certain individuals in the crowd forced their way through barricades and Capitol Police officers at roughly 2 p.m. that day and soon entered the building.
Some have suggested that he may have been let inside the building.
Chansley later ignored commands to leave the Capitol, according to prosecutors. He eventually made his way to the Senate chamber, according to court documents, video footage, and photographs. While inside, he screamed obscenities and called then-Vice President Mike Pence a traitor.
Chansley and others were cleared from the chamber at about 3:09 p.m.
Kyle Rittenhouse listens as Judge Bruce Schroeder talks about how the jury will view video during deliberations in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 17, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/Pool via Getty Images)
Kyle Rittenhouse Jurors Return for 2nd Day of Deliberations
Jurors who are set to decide the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse returned for the second day of deliberations in the teens murder trial after they didnt reach a verdict on Nov. 16, according to a pool reporter in the court.
The court didnt state what time the jury began deliberating on Nov. 17.
Members of the jury deliberated for a full day on Nov. 16 without rendering a decision. According to an Associated Press reporter inside the courtroom, several jurors appeared tired walking into the court on Nov. 16 while some indicated that they wanted to go home.
If convicted of the most serious homicide charge, Rittenhouse faces life in prison for the shooting deaths of two men and the wounding of a third during a night of riots, protests, and arson incidents in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, has pleaded not guilty and testified last week that he acted in self-defense.
Wisconsins self-defense law allows an individual to use deadly force if its necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. Jurors will have to determine whether the evidence in the case fits those criteria.
Overall, Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. Jurors can consider lesser offenses of two of the five counts.
Earlier in the week, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a misdemeanor weapons charge, arguing that the statute was written poorly. Prior to deliberations, Schroeder dismissed a noncriminal curfew charge.
On Nov. 15, Rittenhouses lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the trial with prejudice, arguing that Assistant District Attorney Thomas Bingers line of questioning during Rittenhouses cross-examination last week crossed the line. During that incident, the judge sent the jury out of the room and admonished Binger, saying that his questions may have violated Rittenhouses Fifth Amendment rights.
The defense attorneys also claimed in their filing that they were handed a lower-resolution version of a drone video, whereas the prosecutors had a higher-resolution video.
Schroeder hasnt rendered a decision on the motion to declare a mistrial, and prosecutors havent filed a response.
Protesters gathered outside the courtroom on Nov. 16 and 17, including supporters for Rittenhouse and for Black Lives Matter.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, called for calm as the jury deliberated. Last week, he announced that 500 National Guard would be on standby if needed.
Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state, Evers wrote on Twitter. I ask all those who choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in every community to do so safely and peacefully.
Liverpool Bomber Exploited UKs Dysfunctional Asylum System: Home Secretary
The terror suspect who died in the Remembrance Sunday bomb blast in Liverpool had been able to stay in the UK by exploiting the countrys dysfunctional immigration system, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died in the blast in a taxi outside Liverpool Womens Hospital shortly before 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday. The incident has been declared a terrorist attack and the UK terror threat level has since been raised from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely rather than likely.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said on Wednesday that Al Swealmeen, who was born in Iraq, had rented a property in Liverpool seven months ago and had started making relevant purchases for his homemade bomb at least since that time.
Al Swealmeen reportedly arrived in the UK in 2014 and had an application for asylum rejected the following year, but had remained in the country.
Patel, who is currently on a three-day visit to Washington, D.C., said the UKs asylum system was a complete merry-go-round with a whole industry devoted to defending the rights of individuals intent on causing harm.
The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward, she told reporters on her flight to the U.S. capital.
Its a complete merry-go-round and it has been exploited. A whole sort of professional legal services industry has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day-in day-out at the expense of the taxpayers through legal aid. That is effectively what we need to change.
She added: These people have come to our country and abused British values, abused the values of the fabric of our country and our society. And as a result of that, theres a whole industry that thinks its right to defend these individuals that cause the most appalling crimes against British citizens, devastating their lives, blighting communitiesand that is completely wrong.
Al Swealmeen has been referred to as a Christian convert in some UK media reports, as he was baptised at Liverpool Cathedral in 2015 and confirmed in 2017.
Now concerns have been raised that some asylum seekers may have pretended to convert to Christianity in order to bolster their cases for refugee status.
A spokesman for Liverpool Cathedral said the church had has developed robust processes for discerning whether someone might be expressing a genuine commitment to faith.
These include requirements for regular attendance alongside taking part in a recognised Christian basics course. We would expect someone to be closely connected with the community for at least two years before we would consider supporting an application, said the spokesman.
PA contributed to this report.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters following a weekly Senate lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 20, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
McConnell Doubles Down on Infrastructure Support
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doubled down on his vote in support of a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, despite criticism from those within his own party.
In a meeting with reporters on Tuesday, McConnell argued the newly signed bill will add $550 billion in new investments in areas like broadband, transportation, and utilities.
The infrastructure bill did not raise taxes. It did not revisit the 2017 tax bill. From a Kentucky point of view, it was extremely good for our state. Im proud of my vote, McConnell said.
Members were obviously free to choose how they wanted to vote. And in the Senate, 19 Senate Republicans felt it was the right thing to do for the country, he added.
The 19 GOP senators included nearly half of the 50 party leaders in the Senate.
In the House, the bipartisan consensus was weaker due to many Democrats who have sought to connect the bill with Bidens Build Back Better legislation that currently stands at an additional $1.75 trillion.
A total of 13 House Republicans supported the measure, allowing the legislation to pass despite some opposition among progressive Democrats. The bill passed in a 228-206 vote on Nov. 5.
Republican Reps. Don Young of Alaska; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Fred Upton of Michigan; Don Bacon of Nebraska; Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith of New Jersey; Andrew Garbarino, John Katko, Nicole Malliotakis and Tom Reed of New York; Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; and David McKinley of West Virginia voted in support of the bill.
Six progressive Democrats voted against the bill. They included Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan; Ilhan Omar of Minnesota; Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Former President Donald Trump was quick to attack McConnell in a statement last week.
Why is it that Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan, and induced others in his Party to do likewise, when he was incapable of getting a great Infrastructure Plan wanting to be put forward by me and the Republican Party? Trump said.
The former president also mocked McConnell for failing to pass his infrastructure bill when he was in office and Republicans led the Senate and House.
He continuously said he couldnt get it passed, just like I had to go around him to get the very popular Southern Border Wall built, Trump said.
All of the infrastructure money, $2 Trillion, would have gone into real infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.), he added.
Mexicos Military Arrests Wife of Powerful Drug Lord El Mencho
MEXICO CITYMexicos military on Tuesday arrested the wife of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, in the western state of Jalisco, sparking concerns about possible violent reprisals by his gang, Mexican officials said.
Rosalinda Gonzalez Valencia was caught in Zapopan, part of the conurbation of the city of Guadalajara, in a a significant blow to the financial structure of organized crime in the state of Jalisco, the defense ministry said in a statement.
Separately, a Mexican official said two Marines had been abducted in Zapopan and that the government was concerned the arrest of Gonzalez could provoke a reaction from her husbands gang, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Gonzalez was detained for various crimes, with the evidence pointing to her involvement in the illicit financial operation of an organized crime group, the ministry added.
Oseguera, a former policeman, is arguably the most wanted kingpin in Mexico. The violent CJNG is widely viewed as the most powerful gang in Mexico alongside the Sinaloa Cartel.
Oseguera, who had a $10 million bounty placed on his head by U.S. authorities in 2018, has masterminded the CJNGs emergence as a criminal empire spanning five continents and is one of few long-term cartel leaders to have evaded capture.
The CJNG has been blamed for smuggling vast quantities of drugs, including synthetic opioid fentanyl, into the United States, where overdose deaths mostly linked to fentanyl spiked to more than 93,000 in 2020, U.S. data shows.
Gonzalez was previously arrested in May 2018 but was released on bail a few months later.
Osegueras daughter, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, was arrested in February 2020, and last May pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to carrying out financial dealings with Mexican firms identified as narcotics traffickers.
By Diego Ore
Fresh nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the pipeline near St. Ignace as Enbridge prepares to test the east and west sides of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac in Mackinaw City, Mich., on June 8, 2017. (The Canadian Press/AP, Detroit News - Dale G Young)
Michigan Judge Rejects Attorney Generals Effort to Move Line 5 Case to State Court
WASHINGTONCalgary-based Enbridge Inc. scored a key victory in the Line 5 dispute Tuesday as a judge in Michigan rejected the state attorney generals bid to get the dispute over the cross-border pipeline kicked out of federal court.
U.S. Circuit Court Judge Janet Neff issued the long-awaited written ruling late Tuesday, agreeing with Enbridge that its dispute with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmers administration involves substantial federal issues.
The decision resolves one of the central questions in the casewhether a federal court is the proper forum for itand gives additional weight to Enbridges argument that the standoff is an important bilateral issue with consequences for both countries, and is for Canada and the U.S. to resolve.
In her ruling, Neff said shes satisfied that the Line 5 case comprises a substantial federal question and that hearing it wont undermine Michigans right to resolve state issues.
The court holds that the Enbridge parties have borne their burden of demonstrating that this action was properly removed (from state court), she writes.
The scope of the property rights the state parties assert necessarily turns on the interpretation of federal law that burdens those rights, and this court is an appropriate forum for deciding these disputed and substantial federal issues.
The ruling marks a significant victory for Enbridge, which sought the move from state to federal court in the first place, a move the state of Michigan has been contesting for the last 12 months.
Enbridge is pleased with the decision and agrees that this case belongs in federal court, as weve asserted all along, the company said in a statement. This is both a federal and international law issue and the federal court will now handle the case.
A spokesperson for the Michigan attorney generals office did not immediately respond to media inquiries Tuesday.
Neff also agreed to accept two recent supplemental briefs filed by the federal government in Ottawa detailing Canadas decision to invoke a 1977 treaty designed to ensure the uninterrupted flow of crossborder energy between the two countries.
Those briefs make it clear that planning for bilateral treaty talks on Line 5 is well underway, with formal negotiations expected to begin shortly. Should those negotiations fail, the next stage of the dispute resolution process would be binding international arbitration.
The decision comes at an opportune time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will have Line 5 on his agenda when he meets Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the White House.
Canada opted to formally invoke the 44-year-old treaty last month after talks involving a courtappointed mediator ended in what Neff described Tuesday as a standstill.
Last November, Whitmer revoked a 1953 easement that allowed Line 5 to operate and ordered it shut down for fear of an environmental disaster in the ecologically sensitive Straits of Mackinac, the waterway where the pipeline crosses the Great Lakes.
The White House has acknowledged that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an environmental assessment on Enbridges plans to encase the underwater portion of the twin pipeline in a deep, fortified underground tunnel.
But they have assiduously avoided casting judgment on the efforts by Whitmer, by all accounts a close ally of Bidens who was once on the shortlist to be his vicepresident, to get the line shut down entirely.
Line 5 ferries upwards of 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids across the Canada-U.S. border and the Great Lakes by way of a twin line that runs along the lake bed beneath the straits linking Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Proponents call it a vital and indispensable source of energyparticularly propanefor several Midwestern states, including Michigan and Ohio. It is also a key source of feedstock for refineries on the northern side of the border, including those that supply jet fuel to some of Canadas busiest airports.
Critics want the line shut down, arguing its only a matter of time before an anchor strike or technical failure triggers a catastrophic environmental disaster in one of the areas most important watersheds.
They also point to a recent pipeline rupture off the coast of California, believed to be the result of an anchor strike, as an example of the fate that could befall the straits if Line 5s operations continue.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2021.
By James McCarten
A medical volunteer prepares the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for a patient at Lestonnac Free Clinic in Orange, Calif., on March 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Moderna Asks FDA to Authorize COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for All Adults
Moderna on Wednesday asked U.S. drug regulators to widen authorization for additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.
The Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm wants every American 18 or older to be able to get a booster.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently allowed boosters of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, which both have two-shot primary regimens, but only for select groups.
In a brief statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Moderna said it submitted an application for emergency use authorization at the 50 microgram dose level for all adults 18 or older.
The FDA has told The Epoch Times it cannot comment on timelines for responding to such filings. We are committed to quickly and thoroughly reviewing all submitted applications, including requests for emergency use authorization, to speed patient access to medicines to prevent or treat COVID-19 provided they meet the agencys rigorous standards, a spokesperson said in an email this week.
Pfizer already filed for authorization for boosters of its shot for every American 16 and older.
The FDA confirmed earlier Wednesday it will decide on that filing without input from its expert advisory panel.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccine recommendations, is set to meet Friday. The meeting agenda has not yet been released.
The FDA decides whether to authorize vaccines and drugs. If authorization is granted, the CDC decides which populations can get the authorized products.
Biden administration officials announced over the summer that all adults should get a booster due to waning vaccine effectiveness, but they made their announcement while regulators were weighing authorizing boosters and were challenged by top FDA scientists and the expert advisory panel.
Utimately, the Moderna and Pfizer boosters were limited to everybody 65 or older and those younger who have serious underlying health conditions or can be deemed at high risk of COVID-19 exposure due to their jobs or living situations.
Johnson & Johnsons booster was authorized and allowed for everybody who got the jab because its effectiveness dropped so much.
Modernas vaccine is considered to be the most powerful of the three but also the one that leads to the most side effects.
Multiple European countries have paused use of the jab in recent weeks because of concerns about post-vaccination effects, principally heart inflammation.
Moderna last week acknowledged the higher heart inflammation risk but said that its vaccine also offers better protection. The company continues to insist the benefits of its jab outweigh the risks.
The FDA has publicly affirmed its confidence in the vaccine but also last month pushed back a decision on letting 12- to 17-year-olds get it.
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist pours 2,500 packs of confirmed fentanyl onto a counter for testing at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York on Oct. 8, 2019. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)
More Than 100,000 Americans Died Due to Drug Overdose in 1-Year Period for the First Time, CDC Reports
More than 100,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, marking the highest number ever, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Nov. 18.
Thats a 28.5 percent increase over the previous year, with the total number of drug overdose deaths doubling over the past five-year recorded period.
Fentanyl was listed as the leading drug to cause overdose fatalities, according to the report. The category of synthetic opioids, which includes fentanyl, involved 64 percent of all overdose deaths.
California led all states with a predicted 10,585 cases in April 2021. Florida ranked second with 7,892 cases.
President Joe Biden released a statement on Nov. 18 to address the rise in drug overdose cases among Americans.
Today, new data reveal that our nation has reached a tragic milestone: More than 100,000 lives were lost to the overdose epidemic from April of last year to April of this year. As we continue to make strides to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot overlook this epidemic of loss, which has touched families and communities across the country, he said.
As we grieve those weve lost and honor their memories, my administration is committed to doing everything in our power to address addiction and end the overdose epidemic.
On Nov. 16, the director of the National Drug Control Policy also released a statement regarding recent participation to combat synthetic opioid trafficking from Mexico.
Last week, Director of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta participated in a Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking delegation to Mexico City and El Paso, the statement said.
He was joined by fellow Commission members Congressman David Trone (MD-06) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chief of Operations Chris Evans.
On Sept. 30, the Department of Justice announced seizures of historic amounts of deadly fentanyl-laced fake pills during a two-month period, including enough to kill more than 700,000 Americans.
During the past eight weeks, DEA has targeted the criminal drug networks flooding the U.S. with deadly, fentanyl-laced fake pills, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the announcement.
DEA remains steadfast in its commitment to reduce drug-related violence and overdose deaths by dismantling the violent, criminal drug distribution networks across the United States. The fentanyl-laced fake pills seized by DEA could potentially kill more than 700,000 Americans.
I urge the American public today to talk to their loved ones about the threats and dangers of fake pills and the simple fact that one pill can kill.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Nov. 16, 2021. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Nearly 95,000 Illegal Immigrants Released Into US Without Court Dates
President Joe Bidens administration released nearly 95,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. interior between January and October without court dates, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Nov. 16.
Instead, the illegal aliens were given notices to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days. Typically, aliens are given a notice to appear in court at a future date to try to convince a judge to let them stay in the country.
Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, 94,581 illegal immigrants were given notices to report, Mayorkas told a Senate panel in Washington.
We have discontinued issuing notices to report, he said.
ICE had previously declined to say how many illegal immigrants received the lower-level notices, which directed aliens attempting to secure asylum to show up at an ICE office within 60 days of being released.
ICE told The Epoch Times earlier this month it was mailing packets, including notices to appear in court, to approximately 78,000 aliens who were released with notices to report.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to answer why the remaining 16,581 aliens werent getting the packets, referring The Epoch Times to ICE. An ICE spokesman referred comment to DHS.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who asked Mayorkas for the figure, noted that an untold number of additional aliens had evaded detection and are inside the country with no notice.
We still have a lot of people that we do not know where they are in this country, she said.
A Border Patrol agent picks up four illegal immigrants from Haiti who have just crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, on July 21, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Under the Biden administration, illegal immigration has exploded. Apprehensions at the southern border have already set new records for a fiscal year and a calendar year. About 1.7 million arrests have already taken place in 2021. A number of aliens have been arrested and ejected multiple times.
Of those arrested, about 1 million were expelled or removed and about 375,000 remain in the country, Mayorkas estimated.
Matthew Tragesser, spokesman at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an email that the figures Mayorkas laid out during the hearing were alarming and unprecedented.
Mayorkas has eviscerated our interior immigration enforcement apparatusmeaning that once an illegal alien enters our country, they become virtually impossible to remove, he wrote.
Mayorkas has issued a series of directives to ICE in recent months, including ordering them to not arrest illegal immigrants at protected areas such as food banks and shelters.
Approximately 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the nation have received final orders of removal, or deportation orders, from a judge.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Mayorkas if they should be removed, given they have received due process.
We cannot remove 1.2 million individuals, nor can we remove more than 11 million undocumented individuals unlawfully present in the United States who might not have final orders of removal, Mayorkas said.
I would not necessarily accept the fact that all of them have received due process, he added. I do believe individuals who pose a public safety, pose a national security threat, who pose a border security threat should be removed and we should be smart and effective in our use of resources.
Grassley took to Twitter after the hearing, writing that the rule of law requires enforcement of law, and Mayorkass refusal to do his job is one of the many reasons for Biden border crisis.
Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
New Jersey Introduces Law to Ban Teaching Critical Race Theory in Public Schools
Two state Republican senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would prohibit teaching critical race theory in New Jersey public schools.
Sens. Michael Testa and Joe Pennacchio introduced a bill that would prevent critical race theory (CRT) from being taught in New Jersey public schools, according to a statement. The bill would also prohibit public school teachers from engaging in political, ideological, or religious advocacy in their classrooms.
The bill specifies that critical race theory cannot be taught in schools as part of a curriculum, course of instruction, or through supplemental instructional materials that promote concepts related to CRT, the statement said.
The bill (pdf) specifically lists a number of concepts related to critical race theory that are prohibited from being taught in New Jersey public schools. For example, it bans teaching that one race or sex is inherently superior to another one; a person of a certain race or sex is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive; or a person should be discriminated against based on their race or sex.
Schools are also forbidden from teaching that a persons moral character, values, or beliefs are determined by race or sex, the bill said.
The measure also singles out as prohibited teaching the concept that an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of their race or sex.
Taxpayer money should be spent on teaching students basic concepts such as mathematics, science, English, history, and civics and not on political or ideological indoctrination, the bill stipulates.
Providing an education in a democracy is best done by teaching students how to think, rather than telling them what they should think, the bill said.
The measure encourages schools to present diverse views on controversial issues in the classroom and to foster open discussion.
According to the bills provisions, schools would have the right to teach the history of an ethnic group, provide the impartial instruction on the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, or geographic region, or historical documents, as well as engage students in the impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history.
Teachers would be required by the bill to provide students with materials supporting both sides of a controversial issue being addressed and to present both sides in a fair-minded and nonpartisan manner, the bill said.
The measure gives the state government the authority to withhold state funding from a school district that knowingly violates the rules specified in the bill.
Critical race theory is a thinly-veiled effort to legitimize discrimination under the guise of an intellectual social theory, Testa said in the statement.
Every student should be empowered through lessons emphasizing the opportunity they have to succeed through their own hard work, individual merit, and the personal character they demonstrate to others, Pennacchio said in the statement.
In many classrooms, however, weve heard of teachers engaging in political advocacy and pushing partisan ideologies when they should have been teaching math, science, history, and literacy, Pennacchio noted.
How CRT Is Being Taught
Some states passed laws banning critical race theory from being taught in their schools, but there are educators who teach other educators how to back-door it into the classrooms.
The Zinn Education Project has collected the names of nearly 7,500 educators who vow to keep pushing CRT into classrooms despite the passage of laws banning CRT in a growing number of states.
In September, Florida Atlantic University sponsored a webinar where Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammadan associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State Universitytaught educators in Miami Dade, Broward, Martin, and Palm Beach counties how to creatively slip critical race theory through the back door of any classroom, regardless of subject matter.
Earlier this year, a parent from Chatam, New Jersey, who discovered that her children were being taught critical race theory in disguise in a number of classes, requested that the board of education set up an open discussion on this topic, according to Tap Into.
What teaching critical race theory is calling for is ostensibly using racism to fight racism and that makes no sense in no world, the parent said at the board of education meeting in a video posted by Tap Into.
Critical race theory is an offshoot of a Marxist branch of thought known as critical theory developed in the 1930s by a group of Marxist scholars first associated with the University of Frankfurt in Germany and later with Columbia University in New York.
Originally, Marxism divided people into two opposing classes: the bourgeoisie with capital and the proletariat, with a goal of instigating struggle between them. However, with industrialization, class mobility increased and that process started as early as the mid-19th century. For example, a supposed member of the proletariat is no longer among the proletariat if the person buys public equity in a company or starts their own business.
Patricia Tolson contributed to this report.
Students wear masks as they attend their first day in school after summer vacation at the St. Lawrence Catholic School north of Miami, on Aug. 18, 2021. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
New York City to Spend $80 Million in Relief Money on Social-Emotional Learning
New York state has received nearly $9 billion from American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP) to help reopen schools after the lockdown from the pandemic. The NYC Department of Education plans to use $80 million of the relief fund in FY 2022 to support the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) needs of all students, a controversial psychiatric program that several Asian American parent organizations in New York are boycotting.
ARP stipulates that 90 percent of the $9 billion must be allocated to local school districts. It also emphasizes the need to ensure evidence-based interventions that respond to the academic, social, and emotional (CASEL) needs of students and address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on certain student subgroups.
Therefore, the NYC Department of Education recently introduced a system called the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment to assess students social-emotional skills, which allocates money to schools based on the size of the district, the number of poor students, English learners, minorities, and so on. According to the parents group, some parents received letters from principals asking them to fill out more than 40 intrusive, non-academic questions about their childrens mental health, which all K12 students must complete by Dec. 4.
Why is Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Used for SEL?
While many see making up for the learning progress missed during the pandemic as paramount, the National Education Association argues that childrens mental health and emotional needs must be considered before academic issues can be effectively addressed, and that learning is almost impossible if children feel unsafe, let alone jumping into catch-up mode.
The National Education Association, the nations largest teachers union, said that promoting Social-Emotional Learning is a top priority for schools to address the trauma of the pandemic among students.
Chinese Americans Decry SEL
As early as June 20, 2019, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, his wife Chirlane Irene McCray, and then-Education Department Chancellor Richard Carranza announced a massive expansion of SEL and Restorative Justice (RJ) across schools in NYC.
According to a city press release, the city is working with Sanford Harmony to expand SEL to all elementary schools by hiring 85 additional clinical social workers; as well as offer training in restorative justice for all high schools and secondary schools.
Two years on, SEL and RJ are now even stronger. In fiscal year 2022, with substantial funding for COVID-19 relief, all schools will hire more than 6,000 social workers, psychologists, and family support workers to address SEL needs citywide, starting with a Summer Rising program, according to the New York City Department of Education website.
Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY) criticized school SEL programs as having become the primary vehicle for critical race theory (CRT). The group believes that the assessment questionnaire is meant to seek certain answers to justify CRT as mandatory courses.
As parents from a totalitarian state, they also questioned whether SEL could be powerful indoctrination that changes the way people think.
Restorative Justice
RJ is the concept that crimes should be dealt with not only from a legal perspective, but also from the perspective of social or interpersonal conflicts, emphasizing the repair of social relations.
It argues that not only the perpetrator, but also the victim and the community should be repaired. In plain English, it encourages forgiveness, reconciliation between the victim and the perpetrator. This echoes the idea of the prison abolish movement, which seeks to end the culture of punishment in criminal justice.
When it comes to schools, restorative justice is a sharp departure from the zero-tolerance punishments for drugs and violence in schools in the 1990s.
RJ, which in practice means dont punish black students in schools, was started by Obama in his 2014 letter to school districts in which he warned schools that if they show disproportionate disciplinary actions like suspensions and expulsions, against black students, then his Office of Civil Rights may go after them, for racism, said George Lee from CACAGNY.
SEL in New York Is More Transformative
In its 88-page application (pdf) to the U.S. Department of Education in June New York state proposed SEL as the latest elixir in education reforms.
In light of the SEL theories which advocate diversity and inclusion, some groups oppose the stationing of police on campus. They argue that a school-to-prison pipeline mainly affects black students and is proof of a discriminatory policy.
In a call to action draft (pdf) named Framework on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in New Yorks Schools, the NYS Board of Regents wrote, We are at an inflection point in the nations history. With great urgency, we must move beyond the rhetoric of a commitment to educational equity and use this moment of societal unrest to reset and reimagine our system of education. We are morally obligated to seize this moment and redefine what is possible for all of New Yorks students.
Then the state Board of Regents made specific recommendations (pdf) in May: School districts should use the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining framework to elevate historically marginalized voices and empower students as agents of social change. Districts should also take creative steps to improve diversity in school districts, even when districts are more evenly represented, and implement non-discriminatory discipline policies and practices.
At the Heart of SEL Is Constant Self-Examination
Constant self-examination and self-disclosure exercises are at the heart of SEL. According to the SEL guidelines (pdf), school officials will assess all students, pay close attention to student responses, and use the information gathered in the psychological assessment to assess childrens social-emotional status to determine whether they are at risk and whether they need to be referred for intensive behavioral interventions and targeted support in an appropriate setting. All of this is done in the name of mental health.
With billions of dollars in federal epidemic relief money, New York City has expanded psychological evaluations to every school, according to an April report by Chalkbeat.
McCray said she led many of the Bill de Blasio administrations mental health efforts, including this one, and she has focused on mental health programs throughout her husbands tenure as mayor.
However, Thrive NYC, a mental health first aid program headed by McCray, has been criticized for being expensive and lacking effective, clear metrics.
Many details remain unclear. Education advocacy groups in the Chinese community are particularly concerned about privacy, safety, and transparency. Four parent groups, including PLACE NYC, recently issued a joint statement demanding that the Education Department stop the SEL test until all parents questions are answered.
Nick Sandmann from Covington Catholic High School stands in front of Native American activist Nathan Phillips while the latter bangs a drum in his face in Washington on Jan. 18, 2019. (Kaya Taitano via Reuters)
Nick Sandmann Suggests Kyle Rittenhouse Should Sue for Defamation
Nicholas Sandmann lent his support to Kyle Rittenhouse in an opinion article for the Daily Mail this week. Sandmann had previously filed defamation lawsuits against several legacy media outlets after he was accused of being a racist or white supremacist after viral video footage showed him in a confrontation with a Native American activist.
As jurors deliberate in Rittenhouses murder trial, Sandmann wrote that he views his situation as similar to Rittenhouses. Rittenhouse, without evidence, has also been accused of being a white supremacist or racist by members of the media.
This is the problem with liberal media outlets in the United States, Sandmann wrote. They want to get the story first, get the most views, make the most money, and advance the agenda from liberal patrons. These outlets cover themselves when they are wrong with small footnotes at the ends of long articles, clarifying that new information has come out and that they have updated their coverage.
He argued that every single label on Kyle as a terrorist, white supremacist, and school shooter in the streets of Kenosha, will only ever be withdrawn by media outlets after the damage has been done.
Kyle Rittenhouse looks on as the jury is let out of the room during a break during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)
Not only does Kyle have to deal with that, but it is compounded with the overwhelming stress and trauma of the character assassination taking place against him, Sandmann wrote.
From my own experience, the death threats, feeling of no future ahead, and that millions of people hate you, is enough to alter you in many concrete ways and permanently. Make no mistake: even the strongest of people cannot resist the mental impact when the media war machine targets you.
Sandmann was thrust into national headlines in 2019 when he was captured in an edited video during an encounter with Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington, D.C. A longer version of the video showed that the students werent taunting or berating Phillips, as a number of media outlets had suggested.
The unedited footage also revealed that it was Phillips who approached Sandmann and other Covington Catholic students.
Later, Sandmann filed defamation lawsuits against several media outlets, reaching settlements with CNN and The Washington Post in early 2020.
In October 2020, dismissal motions brought by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, ABC, and CBS in the defamation suit were denied in the U.S. District Court in Covington, Kentucky. Sandmanns complaints against the outlets allege that Phillipss statements were false and defamatory, suggesting that the companies acted negligently, recklessly, and with actual malice in publishing them.
Sandmann, in his opinion article, suggested that Rittenhouse should file lawsuits if hes found not guilty.
If Kyle is innocent it would create an easier road to winning, he wrote. If Kyle is prepared to take on another burden in his early life, with the acceptance that it might result in nothing, I answer, give it a shot and hold the media accountable.
A vehicle is submerged in flood waters along a road in Abbotsford, B.C., on Nov. 15, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward
One Body Found in BC Highway Landslide, More Missing
RCMP say the body of a woman has been recovered from a landslide across Highway 99 near Lillooet, B.C., following historic rainfall as a search continues for others who may be buried in the debris.
Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said Tuesday the total number of people and vehicles unaccounted for has not yet been confirmed but investigators have received reports of two people who are missing.
We are asking anyone who was a witness to the event or believes their loved one is missing and has not yet been able to make contact with them to contact the Pemberton or Lillooet RCMP detachments, she said in a written statement.
David MacKenzie, manager of Pemberton District Search and Rescue, confirmed fatalities in the slide, about 42 kilometres south of Lillooet.
Our team was able to recover a couple of people so far but its still an ongoing situation and I cant really comment any further on that, he said, though it was not immediately clear if the woman confirmed dead by the RCMP was among those two victims.
Crews were called to the slide around noon on Monday and the search is ongoing, MacKenzie said.
Several people were able to get out of their cars, he said, adding search conditions were challenging and heavy equipment would be needed to remove large debris blocking the way on the mountain highway.
Its a lot of mud, debris, rock, trees, broken trees. When a mudslide comes down, its obviously very significant and involves slogging through mud, its quite difficult.
A search for anyone who may have been buried by two slides is also underway in the Highway 7 area near Agassiz after about 300 people spent the night in their vehicles and were helicoptered to safety on Monday.
Jonathan Gormick, information officer with the Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team, said while the roadway has been cleared of potentially trapped vehicles or people, efforts will now be focused on the slides debris field.
Premier John Horgan said the tragedy brought on by unprecedented rain has left him with sorrow in my heart.
Speaking from his office during a virtual Cascadia Innovation Corridor event with Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, Horgan said the impact of the rain river over a record-breaking 24-hour period involves the ravages of climate change.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said cabinet ministers will be meeting on Wednesday to consider the declaration of a provincewide state of emergency.
He said supplies like food, cots and blankets are being delivered to the town of Hope, which is supporting nearly 1,100 people forced from their homes.
Theres an access road being worked on right now that will soon reconnect Hope with the rest of the Lower Mainland, Farnworth said. One of our key priorities is making sure theres a flow of supplies so that people can buy food and essential goods in areas with flooded or damaged roads or railways.
Fast-rising water levels from a river in Washington state overwhelmed rescuers in Abbotsford, B.C., on Tuesday as 1,100 homes were evacuated.
Those residents join thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides over a 48-hour period starting on Sunday night.
Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said Tuesday that impassable highways are creating havoc as police and firefighters try to get people to evacuation centres.
It breaks my heart to see whats going on in our city, he said.
Sunny skies followed two days of torrential rain that matched the regions typical amount over the entire month of November, but the mayor said the water keeps rising and Highway 1 will be cut off for some time.
People need to prepare that they may not be able to travel for a few days. Even then, there are washouts further up into the Interior, the Coquihalla (Highway), the (Fraser) Canyon. Theres not going to be any movement of trucks any time soon, or trains for that matter.
Braun cautioned people against driving into what could be extremely deep ditches, adding hes worried about getting enough information from officials in Washington state about water levels that have risen dramatically from the overflowing Nooksack River and over the Sumas dike.
When are we going to crest? When is it going to level off here? Its like a full cup of coffee. Once its full, it keeps flowing over the sides.
The evacuations in Abbotsford add to others in various parts of B.C., including in Merritt, where the entire town of 7,000 was forced to leave when the sanitation system failed due to an atmospheric river that caused flooding in the southwest and central parts of the province.
More than 20 emergency centres have been activated to help house stranded travellers.
Multiple roadways have been closed because of flooding, landslides or washed-out bridges, including sections of Highway 1, Highway 3, Highway 5, Highway 11, Highway 91 and Highway 99.
Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said Highway 3 is likely to be the quickest route to reopen, possibly by the end of the weekend.
However, damage to Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon as well as the Coquihalla Highway is so extreme that geotechnical assessments wont be possible until conditions are drier, he said.
We fully recognize how important it is right now in British Columbia to reopen the road connections from the Lower Mainland to the Interior to get supply chains moving again.
A man works on the assembling of an Opel "Grandland X" SUV car at Opel's plant in Eisenach, eastern Germany, on Aug. 28, 2019. (Martin Schutt /DPA/AFP via Getty Images)
Opel Split Off the Table, Eisenach Plant to Resume Production in January
BERLINOpel will not split off its German factories from its operations, and production at the Eisenach plant will resume in January, Opel owner Stellantis and union IG Metall said on Wednesday, soothing fears over the marques future.
Stellantis also said that the Grandland SUV, which was temporarily produced in France when Eisenach was shut down in September due to a global chip shortage, will be made exclusively in the German factory from the new year.
German unions and politicians in the states have criticised Stellantis communication on its plans for the two factories, in Russelsheim and Eisenach. They said it had not been made clear whether the plants would be legally split off from Opel and if Grandland production would return to Eisenach.
Stellantis had said in September that a split-off structure could be more efficient and flexible after German newspaper Handelsblatt reported this was under consideration.
IG Metall said in a statement on Wednesday that the works council and union representatives had agreed that such a split was off the table. Eisenach will become its own company within Opel Automobile GmbH, while Ruesselsheims legal structure will remain as it is, the union added.
The outsourcing and break-up of Opel was prevented and employment secured. I hope that management will steer the company more constructively and transparently into the future from now on, Joerg Koehlinger of IG Metall said.
Stellantis, formed this year by the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Frances PSA Group, confirmed the news.
By Victoria Waldersee and Gilles Gillaume
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference at the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sept. 16, 2021. (Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo
Opening Day of Floridas Special Session Nets Wins for DeSantis
The first day of Florida legislatures special session ended on a positive note for Gov. Ron DeSantis as all four bills that would restrict state and federal pandemic-related requirements for workers were passed through committees and could be ready for a vote on Nov. 17.
Last month DeSantis called for the session to address vaccine mandates imposed by the Biden administration, and to firm up the Florida Parents Bill of Rights.
Lawmakers passed several bills designed to limit the impact of federal vaccine mandates on Floridians.
Seven Republicans voted for and four Democrats against a bill that would ban local governments from requiring vaccine mandates.
It would, however, allow private companies to require employees to get vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus if they allowed for exemptions for medical, religious and natural immunity.
Passing the measures did not come without Democrats expressing their concern for the future of businesses.
State Rep. Dotie Joseph (D) said, Im concerned because I dont want individuals who are employers, whether they are private of public, to get caught in a political crossfire.
The sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Danny Burgess (R) defended it and said the legislation was necessary to protect workersincluding essential frontline health care and emergency personnel who worked throughout the pandemicfrom being fired for refusing the vaccine.
Were villainizing the very people we said were heroes, Burgess said during the committee meeting.
State Sen. Tina Polsky (D) was concerned about abuse of the religious exemption and had proposed three amendments to the bill that would have allowed employers to ask for supporting documentation, such as from a clergy member or religious institution.
Polsky said, without proper documentation, the exemption would be broad as to allow workers to abuse it.
If theyre using the religious exemption it has to be tied to a religious belief, she said during committee meeting. I dont think just saying it makes it so.
Burgess noted that the religious exemption was not too broad and said the bill expires in June 2023.
He added workers could be subject to intimidation if employers were allowed to investigate their religious beliefs.
Questioning an employees religious beliefs is a slippery slope, he said.
All three amendments were voted down with all committee members voting along party lines.
The bill also addresses penalties for not following the law.
Fines of up to $10,000 could be levied against companies with fewer than 100 employees that require vaccinations without exemptions, or that do not accept a valid exemption.
For larger businesses with more than 100 workers, the fines could go as high as $50,000 per violation.
The bill will allow for $5 million to be set aside for the attorney generals office to conduct investigations for workers who file complaints if they are denied an exemption. Businesses can avoid a fine if they reinstate the employee while under an investigation.
A separate bill would if passed exempt from public records law information gathered during an investigation of a violation. The measure was designed to protect workers medical information and shield any company that is being investigated from public exposure.
Comments were heard from public speakers who were for and against the bill.
Tampa resident and flight attendant, Lisa Williams who represented the 2,000 members of Airline Employees for Health Freedom told the committee, We are not anti-vaccine, we are anti-mandate.
The group maintains that their Title VII rights are being violated by the airline they work for and have filed a lawsuit against their employer.
Williams stated she and some of her other co-workers who had to take leave because of illness from the vaccine are being denied workmans compensation and have suffered financial hardships and implored the committee to stop the madness.
The American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society released a statement that was read during the committee meeting and said the bills would harm those with illnesses that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.
Vaccine requirements help protect immunosuppressed patients, including kids, and blocking business and organizations as well as cities and towns from enacting these policies jeopardizes the health of patients and their families and silences their voices, the statement read.
A pair of bills would require the governors office to plan for the state to set up its own workplace safety agency to supersede the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). President Joe Bidens vaccine mandate for companies with over 100 employees was promulgated via an OSHA rule which was blocked by a federal judge.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called the OSHA rule 500 pages of bureaucracy run amok.
Simpson told the committee, What we dont want to do is set up an opportunity for future presidents to weaponize cabinet agencies that will come in and do unconstitutional things.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors listen to Orange County residents at a meeting in Santa Ana, Calif. on Aug. 10, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Orange County Board Narrows Down New District Maps to 2
SANTA ANA, Calif.Orange County supervisors narrowed down their choices for new district maps from three to two on Nov. 16.
The supervisors dumped one map that was favored by Republicans and another one pushed by Democrats.
One proposed map to survive was proposed by board Vice Chairman Doug Chaffee, which was backed by Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett.
The main difference between Chaffees map and the other map backed by Chairman Andrew Do is the configuration of the Fifth District. In Dos map many current Fifth District South County cities such as Aliso Viejo and Mission Viejo would end up in the Third District. In Dos map, the Fifth District runs mostly down the coast to the county line.
Several South County city leaders appealed to the board to maintain most of the south county cities together in one district. But changing demographics based on the latest census made that difficult for the supervisors to do.
Supervisor Don Wagner noted that one map favored Democrats and another favored Republicans and added, The solution to the problem of map 2 favoring one part is not to create another map 5 favoring the other party.
Wagner pointed out that the board was prohibited by law from adopting a map that favors or discriminates against either political party.
Weve become increasingly purple as a county, Wagner said, referring to Democrats outgaining Republicans in voter registration in recent years.
Wagner said he favored Dos map, but expressed concern about how many cities would be split up between districts.
Do said he could tweak his map so that eight cities were split instead of 14 by moving less than 4,800 people.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the board on Monday warning of partisan gerrymandering.
The ACLU asked the board to reject Dos and a Republican-backed map.
The ACLU said in its letter that Democratic voter registration is trending up and Republican registration slipping and argued that some of the map proposals seek to again entrench Republican control of the board for the next 10 years by splitting up concentrations of Democratic voters and submerging them into redder districts, impermissibly diluting their vote.
The ACLU also criticized the map proposed by Chaffee, a Democrat, and backed by Bartlett, a Republican.
Do said he understood this process will be heavily scrutinized, but, I dont appreciate some of the rhetoric, not just from the public or interested parties, but from some of the government agencies that sounds eerily close to a threat against us that anything that we do they disagree with will be assumed to be illegal and subject us to some kind of repercussion. I really resent that sort of threat being made and at the beginning of this process.
Do said he never supported a map backed by Republicans. He also criticized ACLU representatives for demanding what he said was a partisan heat map before maps were proposed. Do noted that he is termed out as is Bartlett.
Do argued that his map creates a Latino district, an Asian-influence district and keeps Anaheims Little Arabia united in one district as well as Little Saigon. And his map keeps the coastal communities united, and we know based on the recent oil spill that is an important concern.
Foley argued to keep Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in the same district. Foley suggested flipping Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa and put Costa Mesa back into District 5, where it would stay connected to Newport Beach.
Chaffee said the map he proposed keeps Costa Mesa and Newport Beach in the same district.
Bartlett said her proposed map was similar to Chaffees, but she liked his better because it minimizes the city splits and it keeps some of the major areas together, so I think it is a good map.
Bartlett said she wanted to keep Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo together in District 5 and move Irvine east of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway to District 3.
There are three major construction of transportation infrastructure projects and they need to be coordinated among all of those stakeholders in those south county cities, Bartlett said. So keeping them all together in one district really makes a lot of sense.
Both proposed maps leave the most recently elected supervisor, Katrina Foley, out on a political limb. Foley was elected in March to finish the term of Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Huntington Beach) when she was elected to Congress.
Foley is up for re-election next year, but the Democrat will either end up in a heavily Republican Fifth District, according to one map, or if she continued to reside in Costa Mesa she would have to run in the First District, which wont elect a supervisor until 2024.
At one point during the discussion at Tuesdays board meeting when it appeared her proposed changes wouldnt be voted on, she complained she was being politically targeted.
Now youre putting me up in a district not up for re-election until 2024, so I wouldnt be allowed to run, Foley said, referring to the map proposed by Do. You say its not political targeting, but its pretty obvious that it is Just admit it and be
honest with the public.
Do responded that this process is fluid, so he made sure her proposed amendments were included for staff to review.
The county staff will consider the tweaks to the two final maps and the supervisors will settle on one at a special meeting on Monday.
A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up clinic in Orange, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2021. (Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)
OSHA Suspends Implementation, Enforcement of Vaccine Mandate
The Labor Departments Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says it has suspended the implementation and enforcement of the Biden administrations COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses.
The announcement came shortly after a U.S. appeals court rejected a challenge by the Biden administration on Nov. 12 and reaffirmed its decision to put on hold OSHAs mandate, which requires that businesses with 100 employees or more ensure that workers either be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, 2022, or be tested weekly and wear a mask.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans stated in an opinion that OSHAs mandate is staggeringly overbroad, and ordered it to take no steps to implement or enforce the Mandate until further court order.
The court had previously issued a temporary halt to the mandate on Nov. 6, pending litigation.
The Labor Department affirmed in a statement in recognition of the courts ruling: The court ordered that OSHA take no steps to implement or enforce the ETS until further court order. While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation.
At least 27 U.S. states, as well as private employers, religious organizations, and other groups, have sued the Biden administration, claiming that its exceeding its authority in issuing the mandate.
In the 5th Circuit Courts reaffirmation on Nov. 12, it stated that the Biden administrations vaccine mandate raises serious constitutional concerns and likely exceeds the federal governments authority.
Biden administration officials didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Meanwhile, White House officials have continued to call for employers to adhere to the vaccine mandate for private businesses, after the initial Nov. 6 ruling.
We think people should not wait, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Nov. 8, responding to a question on whether employers should hold off on requiring employees to be vaccinated after the court put the mandate on hold.
We say: Do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe, Jean-Pierre said. It is important and critical to do, and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness.
Employers should not wait for legal matters to be resolved before adhering to Bidens vaccine requirement, she said.
They should continue to gomove forward and make sure that theyre getting their workplace vaccinated.
Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 16: Shaun Fenwick receives the Covid-19 vaccine outside a Bunnings hardware store on October 16, 2021 in Brisbane, Australia. The Queensland state government is hosting pop-up vaccination clinics at Bunnings stores around the state this weekend to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo by Dan Peled/Getty Images)
Over 10,000 Australians Planning to File COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Claims
Around 10,000 Australians are planning to file compensation claims for injury or loss of income resulting from COVID-19 vaccines.
Since Sept. 6, residents have begun registering their interest to make a claim under the federal governments no-fault COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme, according to a Department of Health statement issued to The Epoch Times.
The schemeannounced in late Augustwill cover the costs of injuries A$1,000 or above. But claimants will need to have received a vaccine approved by Australian drug regulators and suffered a recognised adverse event.
The recognised side effects to the COVID-19 vaccines are included in the approved Product Information and include thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) associated (blood-clotting) with the AstraZeneca vaccine and myocarditis and pericarditis associated with the Pfizer vaccine, a Department of Health website stated.
Individuals need to have been hospitalised for claims between A$5,000 to A$20,000 for at least one night. The minimum claim has since been reduced to A$1,000 after pressure from Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick.
They must also provide medical documentation of the injury and evidence of medical costs and lost wages.
It comes after Australian state and territory governments continue pushing to increase vaccination rates across their populations, with vaccine mandates sweeping through various sectors and industries.
Victoria, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory have implemented some of the most comprehensive mandates affecting millions of Australian workers.
Meanwhile, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has encouraged Australians to provide regular reports on any side effects from an inoculation.
The Claims Scheme was announced in late August by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. The program is fully funded by taxpayers and will be backdated to February 2021.
Side effects, or adverse events, from COVID-19 vaccinations, can occur, but most are mild and last no longer than a couple of days. Serious and life-threatening side effects are very rare, but it is important that we provide a safety net to support those affected, Hunt said in a press release.
It also ensures that health professionals administering vaccines will be able to continue with their crucial role in the vaccine roll out with the assurance that the claims scheme will offer them protection.
Campbell Newman, former Queensland premier and now-candidate for the Australian Senate, says transparency around vaccine safety was important.
There is a concern in the community that we dont know the full story, and so I would firstly be advocating for complete openness on the part of the government. At the end of the day, that would lead to better confidence in the vaccines, he told The Epoch Times.
He also emphasised that individuals should not be denigrated for their views or concerns around receiving the vaccine saying, Were in a democracy, and we shouldnt be doing that.
In terms of people being able to make a claim around the associated health impact. Whether the payments are sufficientI think time will tellIm sure that in some cases, it wont be sufficient.
Governments began indemnifying drug manufacturers last year in the race to produce vaccines against COVID-19.
The use of no-fault indemnity against lawsuits is commonplace for governments encouraging pharmaceutical companies to manufacture ground-breaking new medicine.
For example, in 2009, the UK government indemnified British multinational GlaxoSmithKline in developing a vaccine against the swine flu pandemic.
Dr. Steven Templeton, an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, attends the inaugural conference of the Brownstone Institute in Hartford, Conn. on Nov. 13, 2021. (York Du/The Epoch Times)
Pandemic Response Politicized, Self-Destructive: Immunologist Steven Templeton
Lockdowns, school closures, universal masking, vaccine mandates; these responses to COVID-19 are self-destructive and more politicized than scientific, according to immunologist Steven Templeton.
Templeton once worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for four years. Now hes an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University. At the inaugural Brownstone Institute conference on Nov. 13, he shared his views with EpochTVs American Thought Leaders on why he has been critical of governments responses to COVID-19. The full interview will be premiere on EpochTV in coming weeks.
When it comes to the point of certain interventions that are sort of weakly supported, and if you go back and look at everything that was published before 2020, and come to this completely different conclusion if you read the things that published later on in 2020, about masks or the ability of lockdowns to stop and end spread indefinitelylong term lockdowns that having devastating collateral damageand that type of thing. And then you realize how politicized this really has become, Templeton said.
Templeton said that before 2020, its wasnt controversial that respiratory diseases like COVID-19 could not be completely managed or stopped.
But after 2020, leaders tend to blame the public for the spread of the virus, saying the pandemic could be contained if we just did the right things and listen to the experts, Templeton said.
The problem is, its not sustainable, Templeton said, referring to lockdowns. Its not something that everyone can do because some people have jobs where they have to interact with others.
Parked school busses sit in a lot during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in Charlotte, N.C., on April 21, 2020. Charlotte. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Templeton likened the pandemic response to an autoimmune disease in a person.
You want to have a balanced response to infectious disease, but you dont want to go too far because if you get too far, you start destroying your tissues, Templeton said. And I feel as if thats very analogous to how we handled the pandemic response in a way that was self-destructive.
Humans cannot avoid COVID-19, like other respiratory viruses, Templeton said.
You dont hear politicians say, when theres a hurricane, we all work together, we can solve this hurricane, Templeton continued. Yes, you have to make sure that the damage isnt as bad as it could be. But its just something that has to be survived and endured. And I believe that was the case here.
Templeton said he supports targeted interventions for vulnerable people, such as increasing ventilation because the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus is an airborne virus. But the universal application is not necessary.
Vaccines are also very important for vulnerable populations since they seem to limit disease severity, but the whole efficacy of the vaccine is unknown because theres a lot of mixed data, Templeton continued.
So it doesnt have this sterilizing effect that people expected, Templeton said. The mandates are obviously something thats controversial, as I believe a lot of scientists dont believe that these things should be mandated, especially for children.
To me, these are political questions, not necessarily scientific. Scientists are human too. So we get involved in politics, and everything we do is affected by that.
Natural Immunity and Vaccine Immunity
As an immunologist, Templeton said its a difficult question to compare natural immunity and vaccine immunity because researchers are still assessing how long-term immunity develops.
I do know, generally, natural immunity is durable for several reasons, Templeton said, adding that one of the reasons is the route of infection.
The route that would provide the most protection against the reinfectionthats a direct introduction of a virus into the lungsyou have a local response, and there are tissue-specific immune responses that you dont necessarily get when you inject a vaccine into somebodys arm, Templeton said.
He said this was not controversial before 2020, and thats why scientists have been trying to develop inhalable vaccines for respiratory viruses, such as a mist vaccine for flu.
The other problem is that viral infections tend to leave kind of what we call an antigen reservoir, Templeton said, referring to people who test positive after a very long time, even though theyre not symptomatic and they couldnt transmit to other people. That signifies that there is some sort of activity that may be stimulating the immune response to develop a strong memory. You just dont get that with the vaccine.
This afternoon: "Lockdowns, Mandates, and the Future of Public Health." Today the @EpochTimes' @AmThoughtLeader team is at the inaugural @BrownStoneInst conference. We'll be livestreaming it too, starting at 2:40pm ET! Join us https://t.co/LDrh7BAk6P Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) November 13, 2021
In one of his articles, Templeton also detailed two other differences between natural immunity and immunity acquired through vaccination.
Most COVID-19 vaccines only stimulate immunity against the spike protein, while natural immunity could recognize all parts of the virus, he pointed out.
Another difference is, vaccines, unlike infection, could not stimulate stronger immune responses inside and outside of cells, thus limiting the strength and durability of downstream immunity. Thats why a second dose and a booster are introduced to overcome this.
Both immunity to vaccination and infection protect against severe disease, but the scope of immunity that develops after infection is broader, generally more durable, and more specific to lung reinfection, Templeton wrote, Despite the obvious downsides, misinformation about the inferiority of natural immunity to vaccination persists, likely out of fear that data showing long-lasting protective immunity from infection will promote vaccine hesitancy.
However, stronger immunity derived from infection comes with an increased risk of severe disease and a higher incidence of long-term effects, especially in older people and those with comorbidities, Templeton pointed out.
Federal health authorities acknowledge natural immunity exists but have continued to claim that the protection from vaccines is better, pointing to a different set of studies, including one from Kentucky published by state and CDC researchers.
Media Contribute to Politicized Pandemic Response
Templeton indicated that media played an important role in contributing to these pandemic responses.
Talking to people in the community, I got that sense that its not that they wanted to dismiss what I was saying, but it was so different from what they were seeing and hearing, Templeton said. They just couldnt really believe it. And it was frustrating.
Templeton gave an example of a New York Times report.
On July 18, 2020, at a time when schools were deciding how to return to school, the New York Times reported a study from South Korea, claiming children spread the CCP virus as easily as adults.
Later on, it came out they admitted they could not define what direction transmission was happening within their study, so they had to issue a correctionalso the New York Times [did one] a month later, Templeton said.
But the damage had already been done after this highly publicized report and other stories; schools have been closed, people had decided to go remote, Templeton said.
What Ive seen in the news media, which was very catastrophic type stuff; I couldnt believe the level of negativity, Templeton told American Thought Leaders, saying thats part of the reason he started writing articles.
Templeton has written a series of articles since the pandemic, trying to provide a different perspective.
I didnt want to look back on this and say that Ive violated my conscience and didnt speak up when someone really needed to. And I think Ill be able to say that, and thats actually more important than making a difference.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Li Hai Follow Li Hai is a New York-based reporter for The Epoch Times.
Parent Complains of Anti-American, Anti-Christian Themes and Dark Imagery in Ethnic Studies Program
A mandatory ninth-grade ethnic studies curriculum at a school district in Californias Monterey County pushes dark and controversial political themes and imagery, says a critic of the program.
Kelly Schenkoske, a parent of homeschooled children and an opponent of ethnic studies and critical race theory (CRT), told The Epoch Times the ethnic studies curriculum being taught at schools in Salinas Union High School District (SUHSD) promotes anti-American, anti-Christian, and Marxist ideas.
The Epoch Times obtained a copy of the curriculum from Schenkoske, who filed a California Public Records Act request through her attorney, Craig Alexander. It was verified as legitimate by Kali Fontanilla, a former SUHSD teacher.
So many parents dont know whats happening, Schenkoske said.
Schenkoske said the teaching materials contain anti-Christianity ideology while promoting other spiritual traditions. She said the curriculum also focuses on counter-hegemony, a concept developed by Marxist philosophers to target dominant social structures, such as capitalism.
CRT concepts are also clearly included on pages 92 through 96 of the curriculum in excerpts from the article Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth and page 97, featuring a diagram from Examining Transformational Resistance Through a Critical Race and LatCrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano Students in an Urban Context.
Its absurd. This is propaganda schooling in every way, shape, and form, Schenkoske said.
SUHSD President Phillip Tabera and district superintendent Dan Burns didnt immediately respond to Epoch Times inquiries.
Schenkoske pointed out several examples of this dark imagery, including the work of Ernesto Yerena Montejano and Frank Shepard Fairey, a contemporary street artist, illustrator, activist, and founder of OBEY. Fairey is also known for creating the famous Barack Obama HOPE poster.
The first page Unit 2 Readings on Colonization and Dehumanization in the SUHSD Ethnic Studies curriculum contains an illustration of a communist raised fist, the socialist rose and an OBEY symbol.
An illustration of a skull with American flags for eyes on Page 136 depicts the crucifixion of Jesus with pistols near both hands of the Christ figure nailed to a cross and hovering above a bottle with a skull-and-crossbones. Under Christs arms are dollar signs with roots that drape down near his sides.
This particular drawing is offensive because it shows the crucifixion of Christ, with guns on either sides of his hands pointed outward, as if Christ Himself were holding and aiming them, Schenkoske said.
The imagery, she said, is biased propaganda that some children in the district are currently being forced to learn.
Its offensive to Christians. Its ridiculous, she said.
The drawing also shows horses holding Britains Union Jack flag, a Spanish ship, sets of shackles surrounding Africa, vultures clasping hearts in their talons, and pigs.
This is like looking at a representation of a nation that they believe should be dead, Schenkoske said.
On the next page, a similar skull has $ signs in its eye cavities. It shows military drones by the Liberty Bell, surveillance cameras, bulls, spilled oil barrels, and burning oil wells with the heading Colonization and Dehumanization.
The image paints America and its flag in a negative light, Schenkoske said.
This curriculum, and this image specifically, attacks capitalism, she said.
On Page 46, the curriculum contains a chart from Rethinking Ethnic Studies that under Religion lists Christians as the privileged/hegemonic group responsible for creedism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism forms of discrimination.
The chart lists Muslims, Jews, non-major world religions, atheists and indigenous spiritual traditions as oppressed/marginalized groups. It lists religious freedom/regenerating indigenous spiritual traditions as a form of resistance to this oppression.
Under Class the chart calls for the redistribution of wealth, and a shift in economic thinking.
Parents Sue the State
Meanwhile, Californians for Equal Rights and three San Diego parents recently joined the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) to sue the State of California over its statewide ethnic studies program for allegedly violating their constitutional right to freedom of religion.
CFER and parents Eric Gonzales, Steve Houbeck, and Jose Velazquez filed a lawsuit on Sept. 3 against the state government and its agencies, including the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond was also named in the suit.
The co-plaintiffs allege that prayers to Aztec and Ashe gods in the state-approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum violate the California Constitutions free exercise of religion and no government aid clauses.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation (Assembly Bill 101) on Oct. 8 making ethnic studies a statewide requirement for high school graduation starting in the 202930 school year. The new law also requires junior high schools to offer at least a one-semester course in ethnic studies, commencing with the 202526 school year.
The previous day, San Diego Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon denied CFERs petition for a temporary restraining order partially because AB 101 had not been signed into law at that time, Wu Wenyuan, CFERS executive director, told The Epoch Times in an email on Nov. 10.
Our lawyers sent the court and defendants additional documents proving our case. The State of California emailed them asking to be dropped from the case, because the State doesnt think it has legal standing in the case, Wu said.
But we dont plan to drop the State of California from the list of defendants.
Schenkoske declared in writing to the court that she would testify as a witness about the content in SUHSD ethnic studies program, which documents the Aztec prayers.
Schenkoske states in the declaration that she learned through a public records act request that SUHSDs ethnic studies curriculum has already incorporated the In Lak Ech affirmation, also known as the Aztec prayers that are being challenged in the lawsuit.
The California State Board of Education met on Nov. 3 and 4. The lawsuit was the first item on the agenda, but discussion on the issue was held in closed session.
Aztec Chants Versus Christian Prayers
At a recent SUSHD board meeting, Schenkoske criticized the district for allowing activism to seep into the classroom.
Since when did public education become a political activist organization? she asked. Our government should be neutral. Our political ideologies should be left out of the classroom. It is time we all start questioning what every news media source says. It is time we start questioning what our teachers are doing in the classroom.
She told the board that the ethnic studies program teaches students about the Aztec god of human sacrifice. She later told The Epoch Times the lesson is on page 12 of local lesson plans and is included in the state curriculum.
The Aztecs believed Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun and war, fed on human blood and hearts, so they held human sacrifice ceremonies at which they cut open the bodies of prisoners or slaves and offered the victims hearts and blood to Huitzilopochtli, according to Brittanica.
And this a god you want to pray to? I mean, really? said Fred McCuistion, another parent at the same meeting.
If someone were to suggest reciting the Lords Prayer after the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning, people would be having a cow, McCuistion said.
Schenkoske pointed out that amid the ongoing CRT debate, Aztec dancers showed up in the parking lot before one school board meeting, and they often perform dances at school events in the district.
(Courtesy Kelly Schenkoske)
Critical Race Theory
Critics of the ethnic studies program claim its based on CRT and pushes neo-Marxist ideology.
CRT has gained traction among left-wing activists and academia, but opposition from conservatives, Christians, parents, and intellectuals reached a fever pitch over the summer and early fall. Opponents argue that teaching CRT in schools will further divide American communities along racial and political lines.
According to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, CRT originally developed from critical legal studies, which formed in the 1970s. As described in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, critical theories are largely rooted in ideas inspired by Marxism, with stated objectives such as explaining what is wrong with current social reality and providing achievable practical goals for social transformation.
While Karl Marx focused on class struggles between the bourgeois and the proletariat, CRT focuses on the struggle between white oppressors and oppressed other races. It uses privilege, intersectionality and other terminology to describe these concepts.
A specialist walks inside a mobile unit set up by the Peruvian Ministry of Health at the Hipolito Unanue Hospital, in Lima, on Feb. 27, 2020.(Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images)
Peru Suffers Alarming Death Rate From CCP Virus, Despite Vaccinations
Since the onset of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus killed 200,635 people in Peru, making it the country with the highest number of deaths per population density in the world.
Despite having more than 50 percent of its population fully vaccinated against the virus, the number of infected patients suffering severe and life-threatening symptoms isnt waning.
By contrast, neighboring Bolivia only has 34 percent of its population fully immunized, but has suffered a far smaller percentage of deaths.
A trifecta of factors has contributed to Perus high mortality rate, including oxygen shortages, a large rural-based population, and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines low efficacy in preventing infection.
In the city of Iquitos, Emilio Alvarez, 49, is recovering from the effects of COVID-19. He coughed into the phone while telling The Epoch Times, This virus has taken everything from me.
Back in February, Peru struggled with a significant peak in cases of the CCP virus. Alvarez lost his wife of 23 years, who died while waiting for a shipment of supplemental oxygen to arrive at the isolated jungle city.
You have to understand, this town [Iquitos] cant be reached by road. Anything that comes here is by air or boat, Alvarez explained.
He said hospitals in the city ran short of critical supplies like oxygen tanks, which cost the lives of hundreds of patients suffering extreme symptoms like Alvarezs wife.
Medical professionals in the beleaguered nation have been vocal about the dire consequences of oxygen shortages during the pandemic.
Dr. Javier Gutierrez, head of the Medical College in the Arequipa region, said, There is a lack of oxygen [in medical facilities], and many people are dying because of that.
He further explained the government has known that oxygen shortages are among the factors behind Perus inflated death rate since last year, but has done nothing to resolve the issue.
Carlos Calampa del Aquila, regional health director for Loreto Department, confirmed this assessment, and said, The oxygen problem is at the country level.
After losing his wife, Alvarez chose vaccination at the urging of his children. However, in September, he developed symptoms and ended up testing positive for the CCP virus.
Within three days of testing positive, Alvarezs oldest daughter had to purchase an oxygen tank to help ease her fathers worsening respiratory symptoms.
Almost two months later, he continues to struggle with coughing and extreme fatigue, which has kept him at home under the care of his adult children.
First, it [the virus] took my wife, then my strength and my lungs. What was the point of the vaccine if not to avoid this? Alvarez asked.
A study conducted by the Peruvian Ministry of Health during the peak of the countrys second wave this year, revealed in a group of almost 400,000 frontline healthcare workers, the Chinese Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine was only 50.4 percent effective in preventing infection.
Sinopharm is among the vaccines approved for use by the Peruvian government and is also the one Alvarez received before contracting the virus in September.
Yarabamba resident Patricia Herrera told The Epoch Times living in small towns can be a death sentence during the pandemic.
Even just 30 patients can overwhelm our resources, she explained.
In her village, Herrera wasnt able to find advanced health care for her brother, who fell ill with the virus back in June and quickly developed dangerous respiratory symptoms.
She said, I had to get him to Arequipa, which still doesnt have the kind of facilities he needed.
Herreras brother passed away from complications and delayed access to critical oxygen therapy, which she said was a common theme seen in rural communities throughout the pandemic.
Almost 22 percent of Perus population of 33 million people lives in rural areas, which creates problems for those who need access to advanced healthcare, and has been a pressing issue even before the arrival of the virus.
Peru reported a total of 2,214,543 cases of the CCP virus and administered 37,300,001 vaccine doses as of Nov. 12.
Syringes and vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered at a drive-up vaccination site from Renown Health in Reno, Nev., on Dec. 17, 2020. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna Making $1,000 Every Second From COVID-19 Vaccines: Peoples Vaccine Alliance
Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna are making thousands of dollars in combined profits every minute from their COVID-19 vaccines, while less than 1 percent of each companys doses have gone to the worlds poorest countries, according to a new analysis by the Peoples Vaccine Alliance (PVA).
PVA, a coalition of organizations campaigning for wider access to COVID-19 vaccines, based its calculations on the firms latest company reports.
The Alliance estimates that the trio will make pre-tax profits of $34 billion this year between them, which works out to over $1,000 a second, $65,000 a minute, or $93.5 million a day. Combined, the billionaire owners of the three companies hold a net wealth of $35.1 billion.
PVA says the companies have sold the majority of vaccine doses to wealthier countries, leaving low-income countries under-vaccinated.
Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered less than 1 percent of their total vaccine supplies to low-income countries, PVA said, while Moderna has delivered just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, 98 percent of people in low-income countries have not been fully vaccinated.
It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just 2 percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, Maaza Seyoum of the African Alliance and Peoples Vaccine Alliance Africa said. Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low income countries out in the cold.
PVA said that despite receiving over $8 billion in public funding, Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna have refused calls to urgently transfer vaccine technology and know-how with capable producers in low- and middle-income countries via the World Health Organisation (WHO), a move that it says could increase global supply, drive down prices, and save millions of lives.
We do not recognise the estimate made by the Peoples Vaccine Alliance, Pfizer told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. From day one of our vaccine development programme, Pfizer and BioNTech have been committed to fair and equitable access of our COVID-19 vaccine.
The companies have been transparent about the tiered pricing structure in place for high, middle, and low/lower-middle-income countries.
Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Back in September, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to hold off on giving COVID-19 booster shots through September so poorer nations can provide citizens with their first dose of the vaccine.
The WHO Director-General told reporters that some low-income countries, including many in Africa, have less than 2 percent of their adult populations fully vaccinated. By contrast, some high-income countries have adult vaccination rates of 50 percent.
PVA specifically called out Moderna, which it said has received pressure from both the White House and the WHO to collaborate on and help accelerate its plan to to share its technology to replicate the Moderna vaccine for wider production at its mRNA hub in South Africa.
In October, Moderna said it would make up to 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries.
Last May, Pfizers CEO Albert Bourla described the idea of sharing intellectual property rights and vaccine recipes as nonsense and even dangerous, but PVA said that the WHO emergency use approval of the Indian vaccine Covaxin earlier this month is clear evidence that developing countries have the capacity and expertise.
While the three companies are reportedly set to make billions in combined profits this year, vaccine makers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have provided their vaccines on a not-for-profit basis, though both have recently announced they plan to end this arrangement in the future.
Jennifer Taubert, head of Johnson & Johnsons pharma division, told reporters in October that the company will move into the commercial market at the end of 2022 or the start of 2023.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca last week unveiled plans to start selling the shots at modest profitability.
On Monday, Pfizer and a United Nations-backed group announced that the drugmaker would let outside companies make its COVID-19 pill.
Pfizer remains committed to bringing forth scientific breakthroughs to help end this pandemic for all people. We believe oral antiviral treatments can play a vital role in reducing the severity of COVID-19 infections, decreasing the strain on our healthcare systems, and saving lives, Bourla said in a statement.
The pill has not yet received clearance in any countries, but Pfizer plans to seek emergency use authorization from U.S. drug regulators soon, after a study indicated it was highly effective in reducing the risk of hospitalization or death when administered within three days of symptomatic COVID-19.
Editors note: This article has been updated with a statement from Pfizer.
Frank D'Amelio, Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Chief Financial Officer of Pfizer Inc., arrives at Portcullis House to attend a parliamentary business and enterprise committee hearing on the future of AstraZeneca, in central London, on May 13, 2014. (Andrew Winning/Reuters)
Pfizer CFO DAmelio to Retire After 15 Years at Company
Pfizer Inc. said on Wednesday Chief Financial Officer Frank DAmelio, 63, would retire after nearly 15 years at the company.
The drugmaker has started an external search for the successor of DAmelio, who also served as executive vice president of global supply.
During his tenure, Pfizer slimmed down its business through sales to focus on its newer, patent-protected portfolio of profitable drugs such as cancer treatment Ibrance.
DAmelio played crucial roles in the companys 2011 sale of its capsule-making unit to private equity firm KKR & Co. for nearly $2.38 billion and the divestiture of the nutrition business to Nestle a year later.
He also led the spin-off of Pfizers off-patent branded drugs business in 2019 to combine it with generic drugmaker Mylan NV.
Mike McDermott, who headed the production and supply of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine, will take the role of executive vice president and chief global supply officer.
By Manojna Maddipatla
Polish soldiers and police watch migrants at the Poland-Belarus border near Kuznica, Poland, in this photograph released by the Territorial Defence Forces on Nov. 12, 2021. (Irek Dorozanski/DWOT/Handout via Reuters)
Poland Turns Water Cannon on Migrants At Belarus Border
BRUSSELS/WARSAWPolish security forces fired water cannon at rock-throwing migrants on the border with Belarus on Nov. 16, and NATO reiterated its support for Warsaw in a crisis that has left thousands stranded on the frontier in icy temperatures.
Video footage released by Polish authorities showed migrants also throwing bottles and logs across a barbed-wire border fence, and using sticks to try to break through.
Seven police were hurt in the violence, the latest in a crisis the European Union says is orchestrated by Belarusan ally of Russiain retaliation for EU sanctions imposed over a crackdown on political protests, a charge that Minsk denies.
Up to 4,000 migrants, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, are now waiting in freezing forests on what is not only Polands frontier but is also the external border of the EU and NATO, the Western military alliance.
We are deeply concerned about the way the (Belarusian leader Alexander) Lukashenko regime is using vulnerable migrants as a hybrid tactic against other countries, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told alliance defence ministers meeting in Brussels. We stand in solidarity with Poland and all the allies affected.
Lithuania and Latvia, which like Poland are members of NATO and the EU, have also reported a sharp increase in attempts to cross from Belarus since summer.
In this handout image provided by the Polish Ministry Of Defense, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki meets border army units at the Belarusian-Polish border as illegal immigrants gather on the border in Kuznica, Poland, on Nov. 9, 2021. ( Polish Ministry Of Defense via Getty Images)
At least eight migrants have died at the border during the crisis. One, a 19-year-old Syrian man, was buried on Tuesday in the northeastern Polish village of Bohoniki.
A nine-year old Kurdish boy who has had both legs amputated was among those stuck between the lakes, swamps and forests at the frontier after Poland refused to let them in and Belarusian forces prevented them heading back.
Enormous Suffering
We can see enormous suffering of people who are left in limbo, said Dunja Mijatovic, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, a European rights watchdog that is larger than the EU and also counts Russia among its members.
After visiting a migrants aid centre in a Polish town nearby the border, she said: We need to find a way to de-escalate, to make sure that the focus is on stopping the suffering.
Relations between Belarus and the EU worsened after a contested presidential election last year in which Lukashenko, who has held power since 1994, claimed victory. That triggered mass street protests and, in turn, a police crackdown.
The EU agreed on Monday to impose more sanctions on Belarus to target airlines, travel agencies and individuals involved in pushing migrants towards the border.
The EU and NATO have asked Russia, Lukashenkos most important ally, to make him end the crisis. The West has also warned the Kremlin over what NATO says is a Russian military buildup on the border with neighbouring Ukraine.
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)
In Brussels, French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said Europe was keeping a close eye on both the Belarus-Polish border and Russias activity near Ukraine.
It is an unsupportable instrumentalisation (of migrants), she said.
Italian Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini said the West was acting together to firmly condemn the Belarusian regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko discussed the matter on Tuesday, Russian state news agency TASS quoted the Kremlin as saying.
Belarusian state news agency BELTA said border guards had started moving migrants who gathered at a closed crossing point to a reception centre further away from the frontier.
Moscow has dismissed a U.S. State Department comment that the crisis was meant to distract attention from Ukraine, from which Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Russia has also backed separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.
Amelia and Troy Stansell of Warrenton, Va., pose on their front stoop with their 9-year-old daughter Amelia Grace (L) and 7-year-old daughter Betsy Ann (Bitsy) (R). Troy and Amelia wrote out a family mission plan for how they wanted to help their daughters grow, mature, and live with the faith and values that they feel are important. (Randy Litzinger)
Purposeful Parenting: It Starts With a Plan
Meet the Stansells, who formulated a mission and guiding principles for their family
Strategic planning sessions. Company retreats. Visions and goal setting.
Most of us who have worked in any kind of administrative environment have sat in brainstorming meetings with someone facilitating the event probably with a flip chart or computer screen.
We know the drill. You have a vision, a mission statement, you arrive at the why and then start listing the hows.
But what about your family unit and how it runs? Is there a plan or just day-to-day survival?
Most of us, especially spouses and parents, have expectations about how we would like things to be within our households. Perhaps without putting it into words we want our relationships to grow and be nurtured.
But, like company mission statements, plans of action and successful solutions dont happen without effort and dedicated work.
Parenting is a privilege and a blessing. Its also a huge challenge, and parents learn quickly that there are no magic bullets and often look to other parents for advice.
To guide their journey on the path of parenthood, some parents even create a roadmaptheir own set of written down family values.
Family Goals
Troy and Amelia Stansell have called Warrenton, Virginia, home for 15 years. They have two young daughters, Amelia Grace, 9, and Betsy Ann (better known by her nickname, Bitsy), who recently turned 7.
In their 40s, Troy and Amelia take their roles as supportive spouses, heartfelt friends, and caring and committed parents very seriously. They set aside time to openly share their feelings and come up with family to-do lists. These are not lists to do with grocery shopping or projects around the house or health goals (although there are those lists) but lists that speak to values.
What kind of young women will Amelia Grace and Bitsy be when they are on their own and walking their own journeys in the world?
Will they be women of faith, respectful, kind, courteous, courageous, confident, creative, disciplined, and responsible with a buck?
If these are the kinds of daughters whom Troy and Amelia would like them to become, what is their role in creating that recipe?
How are they to be educated? What environment will be the best for them to grow? How much travel? How many books? How many sets of colored pencils, crayons, and finger paints? Do they allow video games and, if so, which ones and how often? What about screen time? What about attendance at church? And the lists go on.
Amelia Stansell helps her daughters ice a batch of brownies. (Randy Litzinger)
A Faith Foundation
Troys home state is Idaho and Amelia is originally from Washington, where she grew up on a dairy farm. They met when they were students at the University of Idaho. Troy hails from Lutheran and Quaker backgrounds and Amelia from a Presbyterian one.
Both shared that attendance at church wasnt always regular as adults but the base had been established and it was important that their children be raised knowing God and on a foundation of faith.
This is something that we both agree on, Amelia said.
Active and committed, the Stansells participate in many of their churchs charitable and relief efforts.
Troy Stansell and the girls have some fun with leaves after returning from a walk around their neighborhood. (Randy Litzinger)
Choosing the Classroom
Both girls attended a Montessori preschool and kindergarten. Then it was time to think about elementary school and that education piece in the girls lives.
The Stansells decided to send their daughters to Fresta Valley Christian School, founded in 1977 in Fauquier County, serving students from preschool through grade 12. Its mission was in line with their intent for the girls to have a quality education with a Christian perspective.
The school is small, and the community of administrators, teachers, and parents is a tight-knit group.
We like what we seethe structure, discipline, quality education, confidence, Troy said. The teachers want the students to be challenged and to do better.
Respect is big for us, for yourself and for others, said Amelia. She likes that their girls are not only challenged academically but values are instilled that elevate and raise them up. Theyre not pulled down.
Its a partnership between the teachers and the parents, said Troy. It is a place where they are learning but they are also learning to love God and they are surrounded by love.
Troy is a quality engineer with Micron and Amelia is a senior commercial loan officer with UVA (University of Virginia) Community Credit Union. As business professionals, theyre confronted with work challenges, choices, and consequences on a daily basis.
As parents of two young daughters, they want those lessons about choices and consequences to be learned early.
We want them to think and make good decisions. We let them manage small problems now on their own, Troy said, with the hope that later, they will make good decisions when it comes to larger issues.
He got up and grabbed a book from their home library. This is good, he said, referring to a book by Dr. Foster Cline and Jim Fay, Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility.
Education, trave,l faith, family, funthese are
all part of the Stansell family recipe. (Randy Litzinger)
Bringing In Big Sister
In 2019, they decided to bring in an exchange student: 16-year-old Kaili, from China, became part of the Stansell household.
We went from two young girls to having a teenager in the house, smiled Troy. Gave me a taste of what to expect when my girls are older.
Shes an awesome kid and it was such a great experience, said Amelia. We are her American family and there will always be a space for her here.
Deciding to host an exchange student proved a gift for the Stansell family. (L to R) Troy Stansell holding Amelia Grace, Amelia Stansell, and Kaili holding Bitsy. (Anita Sherman)
Kaili became the big sister to Amelia Grace and Bitsy. They watched her play the violin, experiment with drums, do calculus, and join them in art projects.
Kailis stay was extended because of COVID-19 and travel restrictions. The Stansells drove her to Chicago, where she is attending college.
Troy looked wistful. It was hard saying goodbye. I can only imagine what its going to be like when we send our own daughters off to college.
Travel Time
The Stansells are keen on traveling. They are shown here on a trip to Panama. (Courtesy of the Stansell family)
The familys road trip to Chicago is only one of many trips together the family has taken over the years, in the United States as well as abroad.
Amelia reminisced about securing a passport for one of their daughters in time to make a wedding overseas.
They were small and we had strollers and all that but we did it, she said.
And theres been no looking back when it comes to travel, which is a passion for Troy and Amelia.
If we can do it, why wait until they are 18 for them to see the world? said Amelia, who likes to take the girls to foreign local markets and neighborhoods and cook new foods.
Their education is not always out of a book, added Troy.
Making Time for Mom and Dad
Amelias mother, Kathleen, comes several times a year for extended visits. When she does, Troy and Amelia have an opportunity to travel without their daughters.
Theres mom and dad but theres also husband and wife and friends, said Amelia. We feel it makes us better parents when we take time together to recharge.
It was on one of their trips together, in 2018, that the Stansell Family Values Plan came into being.
We were somewhere near the Czech Republic, and our conversation turned to putting down our family goals on paper, said Troy.
Amelia was quick to cooperate. She usually has a pad of paper and pencil handy for taking notes.
It helps to ground things when you write them down, added Amelia, who is also keen on having family retreats to refine their plan and make any necessary adjustments.
They may have different tactics, but strategically, the Stansells are on the same page when it comes to raising their daughters.
And they are on the same page when it comes to respecting each other. Amelia is more outspoken. Troy tends to be quieter.
Coming up on their 20th wedding anniversary, they both recognize that they wear a lot of hats, but its important to make time for your spouse.
Sometimes we have mini check-in dates, said Amelia. We grab a cup of coffee and talk. If we have each other we can take on anything.
It was a panda-themed party for Betsy Ann (Bitsy, L), as she turned 7 in July. The girls had fun decorating these cakes. (Courtesy of the Stansell family)
Family Fun
While guidelines are definitely in place in the Stansell household, there is lots of flexibility.
As Amelia and Troy sit at the kitchen table, coffee cups in hand, the girls make occasional appearances. Amelia stops to comb Bitsys hair. Troy takes a minute to help Amelia Grace look for the family cat.
Their refrigerator is a mosaic of calendars, post-it notes, photographs, recipes, the girls drawings, and funny magnets.
Their family room is filled with cozy places to sit, books to read, plants to water, and projects to finish.
Another room has a large dollhouse, more books, and art materials.
There are potlucks and birthday parties on their agendas, parks to visit, puzzles to put together, dinners to cook, and sweets to bake.
Faith, education, travel, outreach, fun, and family are just some of the ingredients that make the Stansell recipe good preparation for a pleasant parenting journey. Their family values were created by input from many people whom they admire and love.
If our story can inspire one other family on this parenting journey, thats a good thing, said Amelia, and it will also be a piece of history that we can pass down and share with our daughters to let them know what legacy their parents were trying to leave for them.
Amelia and Troy Stansell of Warrenton, Va., pose on their front stoop with their 9-year-old daughter Amelia Grace (L) and 7-year-old daughter Betsy Ann (Bitsy) (R). Troy and Amelia wrote out a family mission plan for how they wanted to help their daughters grow, mature, and live with the faith and values that they feel are important. (Randy Litzinger)
_____
Stansell Family Values
Guiding Principles:
To leave a legacy to our children and our childrens children while enjoying what lies ahead.
I am willing to do today what you wont, so I can do tomorrow what you cant.
George S. Clayson, Richest Man in Babylon
Stewardship: Making the most of Gods blessings and not being wasteful.
Time:
The present is a gift and must not be wasted for tomorrow is not promised
Be proactive and not procrastinate
LIVE not just breathe
Talents:
Leverage God-given skills, talents, and vocation as an opportunity to serve
Not waste time on idle thought, but put into action
Treasure:
Wisely invest the gifts given to you
Be charitable, it isnt our money, but Gods money that we have been entrusted with
Not taking on debt so you are not a slave to the master
Not be wasteful of our Earth and its resources or things
Teamwork: As a family unit we work together and mutually support each other
Our family unit is a collection of individuals and our family is a team and puts family first
Leverage each others talents and strengths
We know when to ask for help
Independence: Staying true to ones self through personal freedom
Independent Thinkerswe do not give in to peer pressure or mob mentality
Financially Independentwe do not take on debt therefore we are not slaves to the lender
We can be nimble because we are not limited by debt
We dont owe others favors because we do not ask for themwe ask for help, not favors
Learning: We believe in life-long learning through formal and informal education and experiences.
Learn at every opportunityincluding failures
If you are not failing or feeling pain, you are not testing the limits of your strength and therefore not growing to your fullest potential
Legacy: We work to leave it better for our children and their children.
Financially
Strong family values
Globally throughout our community and beyond
Purposeful: We are deliberate in our thoughts and actions and begin with the end in mind.
We make rational choices and thoughts based on data and reality.
We are moving in a direction and making choices based on our goals and values.
Respect: Showing care, compassion, and honor of oneself and others.
We are respectful of ourselves, our family, and others: things, time, talent, and treasures.
Regional Voting Scrapped In Western Australian Upper House
Western Australia (WA) will no longer have equal representation by region following seismic reform to the states Legislative Council, or upper house, despite an election promise ruling out the possibility.
Previously, WAs upper house functioned similarly to that of the federal-level upper house, with population-differing regions represented equally. Specifically, WA saw its 6 electoral regions granted 6 seats each in the Legislative Council.
The six regions of the Western Australian Legislative Council (Maltonaj83)
The new Electoral Equality Bill 2021 overhauls this entirely, amending constitutional and electoral legislation to form one state-wide region of representation for a total of 37 seats.
This comes following concern from the WA Labor government that the previous state election saw vote malapportionment, where votes cast in one rural region were worth 6.22 times more than those in the metropolitan area, and with one seat elected after receiving only 98 votes.
The legislation passed unimpeded in the upper house, which had previously been scrutinised following an overwhelming victory that saw Labor controlling 53 out of 59 seats in the lower house and 22 out of 36 seats in the upper house. This means that any legislation proposed by Labor will pass almost without exception.
The WA government said the March election had exposed a broken, undemocratic system.
One persons vote should not be worth more than anothers just because they live in a different part of the state, WA Premier Mark McGowan said.
The era of unfair voting is overelectoral equality is here.
However, former law reform commissioner and head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, Augusto Zimmermann, expressed concern that the legislation significantly undermined the representation of rural voters.
The upper houses sometimes serve this role of representing regions. Thats why we have a Senate at the federal level of government, which represents the different states and the peoples of the different regions of the country, Zimmermann told The Epoch Times on Nov. 17.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan during a press conference in Perth, Australia on Feb 4, 2021.(Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)
This is evident on a national level, where New South Waleswith a population of over 8 millionand Tasmaniawith a population over 500,000both receive an equal representation of 12 seats in the Senate, equivalent to a vote worth 16 times more in the smaller state.
Zimmermann disagreed with statements made by the WA government claiming the move was in favour of democracy.
Thats not true at all, because in a democracy we represent not only the citizen individually, but the communities as well. And thats why we have a federal system in which the states are represented in the Senate.
Augusto Zimmermann is a professor and head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education in Perth.
While smaller in population, regional Australia and its mining sector have been the primary driving force to the states booming economy and $5.6 billion budget surplus.
Zimmermann pointed out that these voters would face the risk of disenfranchisement, particularly as all 37 upper house seats, now awarded based on a state-wide vote, could theoretically be granted to metropolitan candidates.
They are also Australian citizens, and if they dont have any representation in Parliament, then their grievances and their voices cannot be heard. They will be basically lacking proper representation, which is undermining a basic principle of democracy, Zimmermann said.
This comes despite an election promise made by WA Premier Mark McGowan that reform would not come to the upper house.
Ive answered this question many timesits not our agenda, McGowan previously told reporters.
Enhanced regional representation will continue.
Religion and the Moral Foundations of American Democracy
Commentary
According to social scientists, traditional religiosity is in decline in contemporary America. Fewer Americans identify as members of long-established churches. Fewer Americans attend religious services on a weekly basis than in generations past.
Some Americans view these developments in purely empirical terms, as evidence of a changing culture. Others, critics of traditional religion, take the decline of American religion as a desirable trend, a sign of liberation from outmoded beliefs, and irrational superstitions unsuitable to a modern, rational age.
Neither of these assessments, however, is consistent with the mainstream American political tradition. That tradition views religion not as a private concern, the decline of which would be a mere sociological curiosity, nor as a relic of an unenlightened past with which the contemporary world can happily dispense. Instead, it regards religion as an essential element of Americas political culture. According to this venerable understanding, the American regime cannot attain its endsthat is to say, America cannot truly be Americain the absence of widespread religious belief and practice among its citizens.
To understand this claim, we need to recall the ends or purposes of the American regime, and in particular to appreciate that our form of government, and political way of life aim to reconcile certain ends that tend to be in tension with each other. On the one hand, we are committed to self-governmentin America, the majority rules. On the other, we are equally committed to the protection of individual rights. These rights are understood to be not merely the product of political negotiation but instead to be rooted in nature. They are part of the eternal moral order that all governments, even democracies, are obliged to respect.
We know from hard experience, however, that the majority does not always rule justly, does not invariably respect the rights of individuals or of politically powerless minorities. One of the dangers of democracy is tyranny of the majority. The aim of Americas Founders was to establish a country in which the majority would be empowered to rule, but at the same time would be checked in such a way as to diminish the chances of majority tyranny.
To accomplish this end, the Founders relied to some extent on prudent institutional arrangements embodied in the Constitution. Bicameralismthe division of the legislative body into two distinct chambersreduces the odds of majority tyranny by requiring that any law must command majorities in both houses of Congress. An additional safeguard is provided by the separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. If a tyrannical majority should seize control of both houses of Congress, its aims might be frustrated by a president exercising the veto power, or a Supreme Court subjecting the Congresss acts to constitutional scrutiny. Finally, federalism, or the division of power between the federal government and the states, limits the possibility of majority tyranny by ensuring that a national majority does not have the right to dictate the countrys political life, a substantial portion of which is reserved to the self-government of the states as distinct political communities.
The American Founders did not, however, hold that such constitutional structures could on their own provide sufficient protection against majority tyranny. They also thought that the country needed a morally serious citizenry, one that possessed within itself the ethical discipline to resist the desire to violate rights in the pursuit of its own interests. The institutional arrangements were affirmed, in the words of James Madison, as auxiliary precautions, but with the understanding that the first line of protection against majority tyranny would be the good character and decency of the people themselves.
A view of the countryside from a desk in the main house at Montpelier, the family home of James Madison. (Courtesy of Montpelier Foundation)
This view was defended perhaps most famously by President George Washington in his Farewell Address of 1796. As he prepared to leave the presidency and retire from public life, Washington counseled his fellow citizens on the policies that the nation would have to pursue and the habits it would have to foster if its experiment in self-government were to succeed. He warned against the dangers of faction in domestic policy and of excessive attachment to European interests in foreign policy. He also, however, singled out religion as a necessary ingredient in the political health of the new nation.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Washington contended, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Religion and morality, he continued, are the firmest props of the duties of men and citizens and hence the great pillars of human happiness, equally to be cherished by both the pious man and the mere politician. Washington then proceeded to link the strength of religion and morality with the protection of the rights that governments are established to protect. Where, he asked, is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? Finally, Washington reminded his countrymen that these two great forces for good, religion and morality, cannot be separated in political practice. That is, one cannot hope to maintain a moral citizenry without the popular influence of religion. Washington did not contend that no human being could be morally upright without the support of religious faith. He conceded the moral power of a refined education on minds of a peculiar structure. Nevertheless, he suggested, the citizen who is non-religious but at the same time morally earnest is the exception, and not the rule in civic life. Washington therefore advised Americans to with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion, because reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
As president, Washington acted on these views and used his office to promote religious belief and practice. Early in his first administration, Congress requested that Washington recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many, and signal favors that Almighty God had bestowed on the nation. Washington complied in his celebrated Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, in which the president noted the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. Washington then recommended Thursday, the 26th of November of that year, as a day to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of God, to thanking him for the nations many blessings, to seeking Gods pardon for our national and other transgressions, and asking him to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
One might respond that Washington is not fully representative of the Founding generation on these questions. Perhaps he illustrates only the more conservative, Federalist understanding of religion and politics. What, then, of the other, more liberal and secular, Jeffersonian wing?
In fact, Thomas Jeffersons understanding of the place of religion in American politics is not very different from Washingtons. In his celebrated Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson, like Washington, presented religious belief as necessary to supporting respect for rights. Meditating on the terrible problem of slavery in America, Jefferson asked: Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?
Jefferson, to be sure, held that the First Amendment stood for a principle of separation of church and state that prevented the federal government from using its authority to promote religious belief. Accordingly, he declined to issue any proclamations of Thanksgiving, as Presidents Washington and Adams had done. Nevertheless, Jefferson did use the formal rhetoric of the presidency to emphasize the importance of religion to Americas political well-being. In his First Inaugural address, Jefferson enumerated the blessings that make Americans a happy and prosperous people. Here he noted that Americans are enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man.
The Founders did not understand their belief in the political necessity of a religious citizenry, and their accompanying determination to encourage religious belief and practice, as incompatible with their equally firm commitment to religious liberty. Jefferson regarded his authorship of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom as one of his most important accomplishments. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Washington mentioned civil and religious liberty as one of the blessings for which the nation should be grateful. Later, in his famous Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Washington praised America for its enlarged and liberal policy which gave to all alike liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship. Here, he continued, there was no question of mere religious toleration, as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. Americas form of government, he explained, gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, and requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
For the Founders, then, religious belief and practice should be encouraged because they are essential to the establishment of decent and moderate self-government. At the same time, however, faith and practice must not be coerced because to do so would be a violation of religious liberty.
From the Founding, this understanding of the relation of religion and politics passed into the mainstream of the American political tradition. It has been repeatedly affirmed by the nations leading statesmen. Its greatest example will suffice for all the others. Like the Founders, Abraham Lincoln praised the American regime for its protection of religious freedom. In his Lyceum Address of 1838, Lincoln noted our countrys possession of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. At the same time, Lincoln affirmed the importance of religion to the moral health of the political community. In an 1846 campaign, Lincoln was accused by political opponents of being an open scoffer at Christianity. Lincoln denied the charge. He then added, significantly, that he did not believe that he could himself support a public enemy of religion for public office, because he did not think that any man has the right thus to insult the feelings, and injure the morals, of the community in which he may live. Lincoln, then, followed Washington in holding that an attack on religion is an attack on public morality.
President Abraham Lincoln sits for a portrait on Feb. 5, 1865. (Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress via Getty Images)
Accordingly, Lincoln also followed Washington in using the presidency to encourage religious faith and observance. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, for example, Lincoln attributed the nations blessings to the work of the Most High God and held that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. He therefore set aside the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
We may be tempted to look complacently on the decline of American religion, thinking that rights and freedom are modern and desirable, while religion is a burdensome relic of the past. The American Founders, however, and the political tradition they initiated, would warn us that such thinking is mistaken. Religion supports the morality necessary to a free societyand so, as Washington taught, we have both patriotic and pious motives to encourage religious belief and practice. As Alexis de Tocqueville, a friend and friendly critic of American democracy, wrote in 1835, Despotism can do without faith, but liberty cannot . And what is to be done with a people that is its own master, if it is not obedient to God?
From RealClearWire
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Voters exit after casting their ballots at a polling station setup in the fire department in a file photo. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Republican Defeats Democrat Mayoral Candidate Despite Top Endorsements
Endorsements from top Democrats including President Barack Obama and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) were not enough to secure a victory for the Democrat mayoral candidate in Columbia, South Carolina.
Republican Daniel Rickenmann defeated Democrat Tameika Isaac Devine during Tuesday nights mayoral election in Columbia by 4 percentage points.
Richland County, where Columbia is located, saw President Joe Biden win by 38 percentage points last year. According to a New York Times analysis of the election, precincts in Columbia overwhelming voted in favor of Biden.
Im just overwhelmed by all the support from the business community, the citizens of Columbia, the young people and the old, a cross-section of people, Rickenmann said in his victory speech, according to local media. Im just excited about the opportunity to serve them and get to work.
Obama had released an audio message to support Devine, and the former president himself carried Richland County by 29 points and 33 points in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Clyburn, a top ally of Biden and whose congressional district also includes parts of Columbia, also endorsed Devine.
Following Rickenmanns win over Devine, Republicans say its evidence of a growing red wave that will see Republicans re-capture the House during the 2022 midterms.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the head of the Senate GOPs reelection arm, noted that Columbia has been led by Dem mayors for 30 years, while Biden won by 30 points last year.
But last night, Republican [Rickenmann] had a big win, he wrote. The red wave is coming!
Earlier this month, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in what some analysts said was a major victory for Republicans in a reliably blue state that hasnt had a Republican governor for more than a decade. Biden won by 10 percentage points in the state last year.
The GOP was also able to pick up wins in Long Island, while Republican Jack Ciattarelli nearly defeated Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy in nearby New Jerseyalso considered a reliably blue state that Biden handily won in 2020.
Following the Virginia loss, House Democrats have signaled that Biden needs to improve messaging on his agenda ahead of the 2022 midterms.
The results in Virginia and elsewhere ought to be a wake-up call that were not getting the job done on messaging. It starts with the president, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The New York Times on Nov. 9.
Democrats, Maloney argued, need to place priority on [growing] the economy and end the pandemic. But close behind that is telling people what youve done.
Some analysts noted that Youngkin saw a boost from worried Virginia parents who are concerned about the curriculum being taught in public schoolsnamely around critical race theory. James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton administration, said Democrats need to pull back from the brink of stupid wokeness or else theyll lose more elections.
But Maloney disagreed with that assessment, instead arguing that Carville and others are making a false choice between fighting for racial justice and public safety. Democrats, he said, can do both, without elaborating how.
Researchers Discover Second Ever Person to Overcome HIV Without Drugs or Medical Treatment
An Argentinian woman has become the second ever person in the world to rid herself of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) without drugs or medical treatment, according to researchers.
According to a report published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine titled, A Possible Sterilizing Cure of HIV-1 Infection Without Stem Cell Transplantation, a now 31-year-old woman who was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 only took antiretroviral therapy for six months during pregnancy to stop the infection transmitting to her baby.
Tests on more than a billion of her cells found no viable trace of the infection and doctors believe the patients immune system may have cleared the virus on its own.
Researchers have dubbed the woman the Esperanza patient, after her hometown. The word esperanza translates to hope in English.
Genome-intact and replication-competent HIV-1 were not detected in an elite controller despite analysis of massive numbers of cells from blood and tissues, suggesting that this patient may have naturally achieved a sterilizing cure of HIV-1 infection. These observations raise the possibility that a sterilizing cure may be an extremely rare but possible outcome of HIV-1 infection, researchers wrote.
However, scientists noted that, absence of evidence for intact HIV-1 proviruses in large numbers of cells is not evidence of absence of intact HIV-1 proviruses. A sterilizing cure of HIV-1 can never be empirically proved.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Only one other person in the world was found to have overcome HIV without medical intervention: a 67-year-old woman named Loreen Willenberg from San Francisco.
Willenberg was diagnosed with HIV in 1992 and has been labeled as elite controller, or a person who maintains an undetectable viral load without having to take any drugs or medication.
There is no way to ever say we have proof that there is not a single virus in this patient, Xu Yu, who co-authored the latest study, told TIME. The only thing we can say is that after analyzing a large number of cells from the patient, with the technology in our lab we cannot reject the hypothesis that the patient probably reached a sterilizing cure by natural immunity.
Yu said the Esperanza patient is working with researchers and continues to provide blood samples for ongoing research studies. She is also now pregnant with her second child, and doctors wonder if her elite controller status means she will not require any anti-HIV drugs before and during delivery, as per guidelines for pregnant women who are HIV positive.
Researchers will also examine samples of the Esperanza patients breast milk to determine if it contains any virus, Yu said.
Many immune factors could be playing a role, the researcher said. Now that we have a second case, there are probably many cases out there that may not know they have a sterilizing cure. Some may not even be aware they are infected. We are hoping to attract more patients; if we have a cohort of these extremely rare cases, then that will allow us to really analyze their immune responses in more depth and breadth and hopefully give us a hint about what immune factors contribute most to this status. Then we can apply what we learn to the general population.
An estimated 37.7 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2020 and tens of millions have died from HIV-related causes, according to the World Health Organization.
HIV targets the immune system, destroying immune cells and weakening the bodys defense against multiple infections, including cancer, that those with healthy immune systems would typically be able to fight off. The virus can develop into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) if untreated. There is currently no cure for HIV or AIDS, but medications can help to drastically slow the progression of the disease.
Kyle Rittenhouse, left, looks over to his attorneys Corey Chirafisi, center, and Mark Richards after getting off the witness stand during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 10, 2021. (Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images)
Rittenhouse Jury Adjourns for 2nd Day, Lawyers to Motion for Mistrial Without Prejudice
Jurors in the the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse ended a second day of deliberations with no verdict, and will return to Kenosha County courthouse for a third day on Thursday.
During the day, the jurors asked to review video evidence of the shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi told Judge Bruce Schroeder that the defense will ask for a mistrial without prejudice over a dispute regarding a drone video.
If a mistrial without prejudice is declared by the judge, the state would be able to retry the case. Rittenhouse, if convicted of the most serious charge, faces a mandatory life sentence in the shooting deaths of two individuals on the night of Aug. 25, 2020.
Earlier this week, his lawyers originally motioned for a mistrial with prejudice because the prosecution gave the defense a compressed version of the video, which was not as clear as the video kept by the state. They also raised other issues in their motion, including prosecutor Thomas Bingers line of questioning of Rittenhouse last week that, according to the defense, violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Rittenhouses lawyers further said they were handed a drone-captured video that was only 3.6 megabytes, while the state had a higher resolution version that was 11.2 megabytes.
During Wednesdays court proceeding, district attorney James Kraus said the difference in videos was due to a technological error. The video, he argued, was compressed because it was transferred from an iPhone to an Android smartphone.
Because of the glitch, the state cant be held responsible for something that happened in the transfer that we had no knowledge of, Kraus argued. We didnt compress anything; we didnt change anything, he told the judge.
But lawyer Corey Chirafisi said that the defense didnt have the quality of evidence that the state had until the case had been closed.
And to not get that until the evidence has been closed, that doesnt strike me as fair, he told the judge, pointing out that this is a potential life sentence here.
Another defense attorney, Natalie Wisco, said that the video she was sent had a different file name than the original one. The prosecution wasnt telling the truth, she said, which was disputed by Kraus.
Following the back-and-forth arguments, Schroeder didnt immediately rule on the mistrial motion but indicated may call in an expert to testify under oath from the attorneys to determine what actually occurred.
The video in question shows Joseph Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse in the parking lot of a used-car dealership before the teen turned and opened fire as Rosenbaum approaches him. Prosecutors heavily relied on that video to argue that Rittenhouse provoked the incident that triggered the chain of events.
Members of the jury on Wednesday asked to review the drone video and other videos of both the Rosenbaum shooting and the subsequent shootings of Huber and Grosskreutz. Schroeder cleared the courtroom for the jurors, who were to watch the videos on a large screen TV just outside the jury box.
Reuters contributed to this report.
San Francisco Walgreens Forced to Close Over Severe Rat Infestation
According to a recent report, San Francisco ranks No. 5 on a list of the 'rattiest' U.S. cities
A Walgreens in San Franciscos Noe Valley neighborhood was shut down on November 8 following a severe rat infestation, a report from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, first noted by SFGate, revealed.
Inspectors on site cited imminent health hazards that could not be immediately corrected, which included rat-contaminated food on the sales floor and in an upstairs storage area, where they observed containers of noodles, flour, and other food products gnawed and with vermin droppings on and around them.
A dead rat was also stuck in a glue trap.
The store will remain closed until it passes inspection; the department is mandating that the store hire a licensed pest-control operator, clean and sanitize affected areas, seal all holes and gaps and install traps.
Despite the citys recent No. 5 ranking on Orkins Top 50 Rattiest Cities List, the Noe Valley location is the only Walgreens closure in San Francisco due to rats.
The top spots on Orkins list go to Chicago (first for the seventh year in a row), Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Rats can transmit a whole host of diseases to humans, either directly via rat-infected feces, urine, or bites, or indirectly through fleas, ticks or mites. The rodents are also a potential source of allergens.
The Noe Valley locations site states that the store is temporarily closed and will reopen as soon as possible.
Nicholas Burns testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be ambassador to China, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Oct. 20, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Sen. Rubio Blocks Bidens Ambassador Pick for China
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Tuesday placed a hold on President Joe Bidens nominee for U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, saying he does not fully understand the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Nicholas Burns has a long career in public service, but it is a career defined by the failure to understand the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, Rubio said of the procedural move in a statement.
Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said that Burns has displayed no remorse or concern about his current business relationships with nationless corporations operating in China.
Burns is exactly the type of nominee I expect from President Biden given this administrations weak approach toward China, including lobbying against my bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Longtime diplomat Burns, 65, formerly served as U.S. ambassador to NATO and Greece.
Rubio added, The last thing we need is another caretaker of American decline in the room with the Chinese Communist Party.
It comes weeks after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has placed a hold on more than two dozen of the presidents picks, reportedly signaled that he does not intend to block Burns confirmation, according to Bloomberg.
Burns at his Senate confirmation hearing last month called China the most dangerous competitor to the United States and said the Chinese regimes genocide in Xinjiang, abuses in Tibet, its smothering of Hong Kongs autonomy and freedoms, and bullying of Taiwan must stop.
He also said Chinas military threat to Taiwan was growing, but that maintaining the One China policy was the smartest and most effective way to deter China from exercising force over the self-ruled democratic island.
This is a policy that can succeed if we execute it consistently and with some strength, Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, adding that the most important deterrent was for the United States to maintain its military standing in the Indo-Pacific.
Still, he said Congress and the executive branch had every right to expand our arms provisions to Taiwan.
The Epoch Times has contacted Burns and the Biden administration for comment.
Rubios hold on Burns also comes one day after Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping engaged in talks in their first virtual summit as heads of state. Both leaders did not reach any breakthrough on issues concerning both nations in the three-hour talks.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Antitrust attorney Jonathan Kanter testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Oct. 6, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Senate Confirms Bidens Pick to Head DOJ Antitrust Division
The Senate voted 68-29 on Tuesday evening to confirm President Joe Bidens nominee to lead the antitrust division of the Department of Justice.
Once sworn in, Jonathan Kanter will replace Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers, who has led the Antitrust Division since February.
Biden had previously installed prominent antitrust expert Tim Wu to lead technology and competition policy at the White House and monopoly hawk Lina Khan at the head of the Federal Trade Commission.
Kanter joins the administration at a time when there appears to be bipartisan interest in checking tech giants including Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple. The companies have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Biden in July signed an executive order directing the federal government to protect competition in the labor market, the health care industry, broadband internet, and other key fields. The order created the 16-agency White House Competition Council. Headed by the National Economic Council Chair Brian Deese, the council is tasked with overseeing the implementation of Bidens order.
Kanter has spent years representing rivals of Google, which the DOJ sued last year alleging that it broke antitrust law in seeking to hobble search engine rivals. The department is preparing to file a second lawsuit focused on Googles online advertising business. Google has denied wrongdoing.
In the past year, DOJ sued to stop Penguin Random Houses $2.2 billion deal for Simon & Schuster and to halt a partnership between American Airlines Group Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp.
Kanter, 48, worked as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission from 1998 to 2000. He worked in the private sector ever since and founded his own law firm last year.
He was born in New York City and received his law degree from the Washington University School of Law.
Jonathan Kanter is a distinguished antitrust lawyer with over 20 years of experience, the White House said in announcing Kanters nomination in July. Throughout his career, Kanter has also been a leading advocate and expert in the effort to promote strong and meaningful antitrust enforcement and competition policy.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (C) during Senate business in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Dec. 10, 2020. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)
Australian Indigenous Senators Family Make up Bulk of New COVID-19 Cases in Northern Territory
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has confirmed that nine out of the 11 new positive COVID-19 cases in the Northern Territory (NT) are her direct family members.
In an interview with ABC news on Wednesday morning, she said that it was a distressing time and that her family members currently in the Centre for National Resilience (CNR) in Howard Springs (eight of the nine) are concerned for each other and themselves, especially since two are 5-year-old twins.
The other family member, McCarthys 65-year-old aunt, is currently in Royal Darwin Hospital, and the senator said she had no updates on her condition as it was early in the morning.
This comes after McCarthys 30-year-old sister, who was not vaccinated, flew to the Robinson River Community on Nov. 11 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 15.
It is believed she had been infectious in that community since her arrival, and potentially the source of the outbreak there.
According to NT Health, Robinson River currently has a first-dose vaccination rate of 77 per cent, while 60 per cent are fully-vaccinated.
McCarthy, a Labor senator for the Northern Territory and the Senates Deputy Opposition Whip, praised the four Territory land councils, the Aboriginal health sector, and Territory health clinics for their hard work in trying to get people in remote communities vaccinated.
However, she believes a communication misstep in the federal vaccination rollout allowed for misinformation from social media to overtake the governments vaccination messaging.
The vaccination, as we know, should have occurred earlier this year, and I put it down to a lot of communication or miscommunication across the country, she said.
She explained that in February, she and the Australian Labor Partys First Nations Caucus were briefed by the federal health department about the indigenous vaccine rollout, and she noted that she had to ask about a communication strategy for Indigenous Australian communities, given there are over 100 languages across the territory.
That gap in that communication strategy, I believe, has enabled the social media storm that weve seen with inaccurate information and messaging that has caused quite a fearful reaction to the vaccination, she said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Federal Department of Health (DOH) for comment on McCarthys allegations Indigenous resource material had not been generated as part of the vaccination rollout strategy but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.
According to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Australia currently has 250 living indigenous languages and 800 dialects that are often very specific to localities in the country.
The 2016 Australian census identified two of the main Indigenous languages spoken in the Northern Territory: Kriol and Djambarrpuyngu. Kriol is spoken predominantly in the Katherine region of the NT, where the current outbreak of COVID-19 is situated.
McCarthy also said that overcrowding is a massive problem, using the example of her sister flying to Robinson River and staying in three or four houses. This meant that there were 20 to 30 close contacts, and they all had to get tested.
In response to a question about how people can self-isolate when theres such overcrowding, McCarthy called on the federal government to get housing into the region.
If we could get housing in there right now, I would be pushing that straight away to the federal government and the NT government to work on that, but we obviously need the resources to do so.
She added that the current focus is on the actual pandemic, but stressed to the federal government that We need those houses now.
Shooting Deaths Roil Cameroons Breakaway Region
Children have recently been caught in the crossfire of the five-year-old war between Cameroons military and armed Anglophone separatists, a conflict that has not spared non-combatants.
At least 11 Cameroonian soldiers died Saturday, Nov. 13, when suspected Anglophone separatist militants ambushed them with Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) at Matazem, Santa Sub-Division in the countrys embattled North West Region.
The attack came just a day after a 9-year-old pupil was shot dead in the same region by a Cameroonian police constable in an attempt to stop a driver who allegedly refused to comply, triggering violent protests from the surrounding town.
The death enraged residents who were still incensed by an Oct. 14 tragedy when a member of the Cameroonian military had killed a five-year-old child in Buea, capital of the South West Region, also roiled in revolt. That incident also was an attempt to halt a vehicle whose driver reportedly refused to comply. The officer was subsequently beaten to death by the angry mob.
The spokesman of the Cameroonian army, Atongfack Guemo Cyrille Serge in a press release following the incident, admitted that the reaction of the deceased officer was inappropriateunsuited to the circumstances, and clearly disproportionate to the irrelevant behavior of the driver.
Any citizen misconduct (such as refusal to cooperate and disobedience/disrespect of security officer) could be subject of suspicion and eventual immediate target of the forces of law and order. Regrettably, the victims are misplaced targets, wrote Suh I Fru Norbert, lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Comparative Politics in Cameroons University of Buea in a text to The Epoch Times. Both incidents may not have been premeditated, [but] they coincided in two regions sharing a common public security challengewhich is disruption of public life, Norbert added.
Tensions between Cameroons Francophone-led government and English-speaking secessionist movements reached a turning point in 2016, after the government imposed French-speaking teachers and lawyers on Anglophone schools and courts.
Peaceful protests were met with military repression, which gave birth to armed insurgency, with activists demanding the breakaway of the Anglophone regions from the rest of Cameroon. The rebels dubbed their new nation Ambazonia.
Colonial Past
The conflict stems from Cameroons past, which was a German colony that was later split between France and Britain.
Cameroon since 1961 is a country with two colonial heritagesEnglish and French, according to Simon Munzu, civil society leader and former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations.
Simon Munzu, Former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations says there is no military solution to the Cameroon Anglophone conflict. (Courtesy Simon Munzu)
The architects of reunification in 1961 acknowledged this reality, so they adopted a federal system of government that allowed the English-speaking and French-speaking territories to govern themselves, each according to its colonial heritage, Munzu wrote The Epoch Times.
In 1972 the federation was replaced by a unitary state piloted and dominated by French-speaking political elites. They embarked upon a program of domination, marginalization, assimilation and subjugation of the English-speaking territory and population who have resisted this trend over the decades, mainly through peaceful protests.
The French-speaking section constitutes about 80 percent while the English-speaking section constitutes about 20 percent, both in terms of territory and population.
Stalemate
Cameroons Anglophone conflict is in a stalemate with each of the belligerentsgovernment and separatistsbelieving it can defeat the other in battle. Hardly a week runs out without reports of confrontations between Cameroon government forces and Ambazonian fighters, usually resulting in casualties on both sides.
Analysts have warned that the warring factions are taking innocent civilian lives. At least 11 students of the University of Buea were wounded after an IED exploded on the campus allegedly masterminded by Ambazonian fighters. It happened just days after another explosion killed a taxi driver in the same city.
The repeated detonations could mean a proliferation of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and perhaps its technology too among those using them, Norbert said.
In a context of generalized armed insecurity and conflict, it will not be an overstatement to say that soft targets cannot be spared, so long as they are viewed as credible resources to further political claims, Norbert said.
There is no military solution to the Cameroon Anglophone crisis, according to former UN official Munzu.
The international community is not going to find the solution to this crisis, Munzu says. That is the responsibility of Cameroonians.
But it [international community] can support, facilitate, mediate the finding and implementation of a viable solution, Munzu said.
Some Cameroonian academics blame the present crisis on the United Nations for not giving the former British colony that is the present day North West and South West Regions of Cameroon, the option for self-rule during the decolonization era.
This is a problem beyond our control, said Wilson Tamfu, professor of Public and International Law in Cameroons University of Buea, in a phone call with The Epoch Times.
Britain and France, being former colonial masters of Cameroon should also come on board. As President Paul Biya resorted to the International Court of Justice over the Bakassi issue, he should also resort to the United Nations over the Anglophone Conflict, rather than saying that Cameroon can solve it, he said.
In 2004 the UN mediated a boundary dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula.
Common Ground?
The Cameroon Anglophone conflict has left 4,000 dead, and displaced close to a million while at least 60,000 people have fled to neighboring Nigeria. Separatists want to prove that they are in control of the English-speaking territory that they call the homeland, Munzu said.
Chris Anu, the Communications secretary of the U.S.-based Interim Government of Ambazonia, said Ambazonia at the end of the day will be a free a country. (Courtesy Chris Anu)
Their strategy has largely succeeded to disrupt the livelihoods and cripple the social, economic and cultural activities of most of the population in that territory. But they are far from achieving their primary objective, which is to route the Cameroonian state out of the English-speaking part of the country and restore the independence of this territory.
To find a common ground in the present stalemate, he said: The government of Cameroon has to acknowledge that two Cameroons (English-speaking and French-speaking) came together in 1961 to form a union of equals, and stop the pursuit of its program of assimilation and subjugation of the English-speaking territory and its population.
The separatists have to acknowledged that the Southern Cameroons voted to achieve independence in 1961 by joining the Republic of Cameroon, thereby forging the two into one sovereign and independent country, and drop their ambition to restore the independence of the Southern Cameroons. Thereafter, the Cameroonian people should hold a national conference to establish and implement a constitutional framework for the new governance of their country that meets their aspirations across the ten regions.
The Communications secretary of the U.S.-based Interim Government of Ambazonia, Chris Anu, told The Epoch Times, his people are not fighting for federation.
But the fact that we have forced La Republique du Cameroun [the Cameroon government] to essentially now begin to discuss federation within their circles, which, from the beginning was an abomination in their ears, tell you that they are coming to the end of this, Anu said
Solving Chinas Energy Crisis Requires Enforcement of WTO Rules Along With Longer-Term Measures, Experts Say
Xi Jinpings regime has seriously exacerbated Chinas deepening energy crisis through the illegal, chronic, and widespread flouting of terms of its World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, observers said this week.
While the current energy shortfall facing China has to do partly with massive flooding that has hampered operations in the countrys coal-producing regions, Beijing has not taken sensible steps to open up the domestic market to imports from the countries best positioned to supply coal that is desperately needed as winter approaches, according to analysts. On the contrary, the Chinese regime has enforced an unofficial ban on imports of coal from Australia, which many view as a reaction to Australias call for an inquiry into Beijings handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Partly as a result of the deprivation of Australian coal, millions in China are suffering under spiraling energy costs and strict energy rationing. Beijing could ameliorate the situation by complying with its obligations, or another party could contest its violations and try to make Beijing comply, analysts say. But the latter course may be tricky given the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) tactic of applying the ban through unofficial means and in the absence of a formal measure.
An Illegal Move
Even given certain exemptions that can apply within WTO rules, there can be no doubt that Beijings heavy-handed move against Australia violates the terms of WTO membership, observers said.
WTO rules prohibit any member from imposing quantitative restrictions on imports (and exports), subject to certain exceptions. Therefore, Chinas import ban on Australian coal is likely to be WTO-illegal, unless the ban can be justified based on the WTO exceptions such as environmental protection and preservation of natural resources, said Weihuan Zhou, an associate professor of law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
Zhou said that the ban cannot be justified on those grounds. China continues to import coal from other nations and maintains an agreement with Indonesia for the import of thermal coal, Zhou noted. It is widely reported that China imposed an informal ban on Australian coal over political disagreements, he added. Evidence is lacking for any environmental risks peculiarly associated with Australian coal, as opposed to coal from Indonesia or other nations, Zhou pointed out.
Many analysts have noted that the ban that Beijing has implemented seems to have a political motiveit is a punitive response to the human rights and governance concerns raised by Australiarather than growing out of valid environmental concerns in accordance with WTO rules.
But the blatant illegality of the CCPs move does not mean that challenging and overturning it will be a simple matter.
The difficulty to challenge the Chinese ban under the WTO lies in the identification of a Chinese measure, if, as reported, the restriction was effectuated through informal instructions of the Chinese government to state-owned importers without a formal measure or decision of the customs or other authorities, Zhou commented.
One question is who could bring a challenge against the ban. An obvious answer might be Australia, but the plaintiff will need to meet a high evidentiary bar, presenting evidence to establish that state entities and importers in China are heeding specific CCP dictates when they decline to import coal from Australia, and are not doing so voluntarily. In Zhous view, proving this may be difficult, but not impossible.
Theyre aware that explicit decrees put down on paper would result in running afoul of WTO rules. Hence theyre being more surreptitious about it, doing it through verbal guidance to coal importers in China, agreed Stephen Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
What can be done about it? Certainly if there are any definite statements that can be found, they could form the basis for a case that could be brought before the WTO, Ezell said.
Economic Liberalization
Regardless of the fate of any effort to overturn Chinas illegal and politically motivated ban on Australian coal, ameliorating the current crisis and preventing such disasters in the future will require more than one well-aimed legal action, some experts believe. Far-reaching economic reforms in China are necessary, they say, with a view to making the market more responsive to supply and demand rather than ideological dictates.
Reforms in the energy sector would require less state intervention and more price-setting based on market forces. As it is a critical public sector, some state intervention and regulation is necessary, but over-intervention/regulation disincentivizes production and new entrants, Zhou said.
China needs to promote the sustainable growth of new energy and the development of related technologies, which are essential not only for energy supply but also for Chinas ambitious climate goals.
A realistic campaign for green energy clearly would help meet demand in the desperate regions of the country without falling afoul of the terms of WTO membership, he added.
Putting Pressure on Beijing
While Beijing clearly does resent Australias calling attention to its Covid-19 response, the issue is really far broader, said Ezell of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Australia is reaching out and integrating itself more closely with the U.S. and U.K., and saying it is willing to contest some of Chinas expansion in East Asia, Ezell observed.
When China originally joined the WTO, and, subsequently, when it entered into side negotiations and commitments with nations like the U.S. about letting foreign films in, or foreign enterprises, banking, and financial services, theres a whole range of issues where theyve failed to adhere to rules, Ezell said.
In Ezells view, the ban on Australian coal and other instances of non-compliance with WTO rules are, at bottom, political measures taken out of more general vindictiveness toward Australia, the United States, and other countries.
Hence, one of the most obvious solutions to the energy crisisgetting Beijing to lift the ban on Australian coalis properly seen as part of a range of goals all falling under the umbrella of influencing Xi Jinpings regime to meet the standards and expectations of international trade organizations.
Ezell said he sees potential here for a body that would be for international trade what NATO is for defense and national securitya group of like-minded democratic nations with a clear set of rules and reliable mechanisms for enforcing them. Faced with an illegal move like Beijings ban on Australian coal, the organization could respond in kind, with measures that would ban the importation of goods or products from China, if there is no alternative.
In Ezells view, democratic nations already have significant leverage in dealing with Beijing thanks to the latters application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a regional trade pact.
Given this, Australia, being a member of the CPTPP, is now in a position to hold up Beijings blatantly illegal moves as evidence that the CCP is incapable of satisfying the requirements of membership in a trade agreement with high standards and expectations of its members, Ezell believes. Yet another possibility that Ezell envisions would be to admit Taiwan to the CPTPP. The democratic island applied to join the pact in September, a week after Beijing summited its bid.
The broader point, in my view, is that countries need to collectively raise the cost to Beijing if theyre going to continue to pursue these types of behaviors, Ezell said. This issue is reflective of a broader challenge that the CCP poses to the global economic system.
A teacher reads a story to young students at The Glenleighden School in Brisbane, Australia, May 18, 2017. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
South Australia Introduces Teacher Vaccine Mandate Amid Pushback From Educators Across the Country
COVID-19 vaccinations will be mandatory for all South Australian (SA) teachers and education staff, the state Education Minister John Gardner announced on Tuesday.
The move came despite South Australia having recorded only six new cases since mid-October and zero COVID-19 deaths for the past three months.
Under the direction, all volunteers and staff within the states schools, including Catholic and independent schools, preschools and early childhood facilities, will have to receive one dose by Dec. 10, the final day of the school term.
Education staff must also prove they have plans to get the second vaccination in early 2022 before the school year begins.
Education Department Chief Executive Rick Persse said workers who refuse the jab, which he expected to be a tiny fraction, will have to go on leave from Dec. 11.
He also noted that about 600 out of 30,000 total staff in the Education Department were yet to get vaccinated.
I appreciate that this decision will be difficult for some, but it is the right call for our state as our borders reopen, Persse said.
The mandate will also apply to governing council members, building contractors, school bus drivers, and volunteers and employees at out-of-school hours care and vacation care.
The direction does not yet apply to TAFE or universities but does apply to childcare centres on university grounds.
The only people exempted from the mandates are parents who are dropping off or picking up their kids, those with a medical exemption certificate, and incidental visitors or tradies, such as delivery drivers and urgent maintenance workers.
This will ensure we can keep our children and our education workforce safe, our schools and our preschools and our early childhood settings open, said Gardner.
The health advice is very clear that this is necessary to provide the best health outcomes for the people of South Australia.
South Australias Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who authorised the mandatory vaccination policy, said mandating vaccination across sectors where it currently does not apply, such as hospitality, was not planned at this stage.
We obviously have discussions about that in transition [committee meetings], and we balance other competing demands within the community, Stevens said.
Masks would continue to be optional for adults and secondary students, while a new tracing system will be created to help track outbreaks in schools.
From November 23, quarantine requirements will be scaled back as the state prepares to open its borders. However, if someone gets COVID-19, they will still need to isolate for up to 14 days.
But as Australia ramps up its effort to vaccinate all teachers, voices of opposition could be heard from education workers across the country.
In October, two Melburnian teachers took the Victorian Governments move to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for all teachers to the Supreme Court, arguing it is an extreme measure that would cost them their livelihoods and encroach on human rights.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 12, Western Australias Department of Education estimated that WA schools face losing 300 teachers due to the vaccine mandate, which is 1.4 percent of school-based staff.
In New South Wales, where vaccine mandates have been issued for all school staff, NSW Education Departments Chief People Officer Yvette Cachia said about 4,900 teachers were yet to provide proof of vaccination to the government by Nov. 2, risking being suspended.
SA Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who previously threatened to withhold his vote until people are given protection from discrimination based upon their vaccination status, told The Advertiser on Nov. 12, people are being coerced into taking COVID vaccinations against their will.
In South Australia, thousands of people are being stood down from their employment because they have elected to exercise their right to refuse the vaccine, Antic said.
What is happening is wrong. The federal parliament must act to protect the freedom of Australians to choose their own way of life without interference from government, corporate Australia and bureaucracies with authoritarian tendencies.
State Department Building International Network to Counter Domestic Terrorism
The State Departments counterterrorism bureau has started an intelligence-sharing initiative with the governments of other countries to combat domestic terrorisma system likened to the departments international coordination against groups such as Hezbollah.
Chris Landberg, the State Departments acting principal deputy coordinator for its Bureau of Counterterrorism, told lawmakers about the program at a Nov. 17 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. The new initiative follows recent revelations that the FBI has allegedly used counterterrorism tools to track threats by parents and other individuals against school board memberssparking criticism among conservatives that the Biden administration is using national security tools to chill dissent.
Landberg said his department, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will hold a forum with their international counterparts to share information about trends and then coordinate our activities to combat what the administration has termed racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.
Weve started something we modeled on a successful program in countering Hezbollah where we bring together law enforcement partnersespecially in countries like some of our European partnersto focus on trends and sharing information, he said.
The State Department has coordinated similar programs against international terrorist groups. In September, the United States and Qatar worked together to sanction a Hezbollah financial network based in the Persian Gulf.
But according to the FBI and DHS, most right-wing domestic terrorism is conducted by lone wolves with no transnational ties, making it unclear what information would be shared under the State Departments program or what international actions would be taken.
Landberg made references to sanctions and watchlisting of domestic terrorist groups in his opening statement, but he didnt provide more details about the program. He said he would brief the committee on all of his departments counterterrorism activities at a closed-door hearing in December.
The State Department didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.
Landberg did say that his division has seen growing transnational linkages among racially motivated extremists.
Theres communication, which is hard to track. There are efforts to train and share information between these groups. So, this growing transnational connectivity is what were most focused on, he said.
Thus far, the State Department has designated one group as a racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group: the right-wing Russian Imperial Movement based in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The State Departments program is part of the Biden administrations National Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism strategy announced in June. Other prongs of the governments domestic counterterrorism efforts have received significant criticism from conservatives and civil libertariansmost notably Attorney General Merrick Garlands directive to launch a counterterrorism investigation into threats being made at school board meetings.
Garlands Oct. 4 decision followed a letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to the Biden administration days earlier, characterizing protesting parents as domestic terrorism threats and calling for the FBI to use statutes such as the Patriot Act.
The NSBA has since apologized and rescinded the letter, but the federal probe continues. Garland said at an Oct. 27 congressional hearing that the NSBAs follow-up apology letter does not change the associations concern about violence and threats of violence.
The attorney general has disputed the characterization of his probe as a counterterrorism operation, but allegations made by an apparent FBI whistleblower this week suggest otherwise.
Documents allegedly sourced from the FBI whistleblower include an email sent by Carlton L. Peeples, who serves in the bureaus Inspection Division, stating that the Counterterrorism and Criminal Division created a threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS, to track instances of related threats.
Republican lawmakers say the whistleblower documents prove that the government is acting at the behest of left-wing special interest groups against concerned parents.
According to DHS, theres no evidence of a spike in violence against educators.
Striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket at the Deere & Co. farm equipment plant before a visit by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Ankeny, Iowa, on Oct. 20, 2021. (Scott Morgan/Reuters)
Striking Workers Set for Crucial Vote as Deere Mulls Options
About 10,000 striking workers at Deere & Co. will vote again on Wednesday to approve or reject a modified contract proposed by the company, as the longest strike in more than three decades forces the worlds largest farm equipment maker to consider other options.
Deere has not publicly commented on changes to its second contract offer, which was rejected earlier this month, but the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which represents the striking workers, said on Friday the company had made a last, best, and final offer that included modest modifications, without elaborating.
Workers at facilities in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas have been on strike since the middle of October after having turned down Deeres attempts to tie them down to a new deal, prompting the company to say all options are on the table.
The workers are demanding better pay from Deere, which has forecast a record net income of $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion this year, to claw back concessions they made on some benefits in the past.
The striking workers are getting a good amount of community support, which further reinforces their push, UBS analyst Steven Fisher, citing a professor of labor relations, wrote in a research note.
Deere has so far refused to comment on the impact of the strike on production, but Bernstein analyst Chad Dillard estimates the company will forecast fiscal 2022 net income below Wall Street expectations, in part due to the strike impact, when it reports results next Wednesday.
The strike at the Illinois-based company comes at a time when farmers are struggling to find parts for tractors and combines during the U.S. corn and soybean harvest season.
Deere shares fell 2.5 percent in afternoon trade. They have risen about 10 percent since the strike began in October.
By Abhijith Ganapavaram
The exterior of the Houston Methodist Hospital is seen on June 09, 2021 in Houston, Tx. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Texas Doctor Resigns After Houston Hospital Suspends Her for Spreading Dangerous Misinformation About COVID-19
A Texas doctor who was suspended from Houston Methodist hospital last week after they accused her of spreading dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 has resigned from her role.
Dr. Mary Bowden, an ear, nose, and throat doctor, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that she had parted ways with the hospital while thanking her followers for their support.
I have broken free from Methodist and very much appreciate the flood of support I have received! Sincere thanks to all of you who have reached out with kind words, she wrote.
In her resignation letter to the hospital, which was shared on Twitter, Bowden claimed that she has treated more than 2,000 COVID-19 patients, including many with co-morbidities, and that none of these patients required hospitalisation.
Throughout this pandemic, there has been no FDA- approved treatment for COVID. Therefore, I have done the best I could to care for my patients and save lives in the absence of a clear scientific consensus, Bowden wrote.
I am proud of my record as a physician in these challenging circumstances. I do not fault any physician in exercising his or her best medical judgment. But I believe that if more physicians had focused on early treatment, many COVID-related deaths and hospitalisations could have been prevented.
The doctor noted that she is not anti-vaccine but does oppose vaccine mandates, adding that none of the current vaccines are effective.
Bowden wrote that she has decided to part ways with the hospital after they accused her of spreading dangerous misinformation, a statement which she said was false and defamatory.
I do not spread misinformation, and my opinions are supported by science. There is substantial evidence for the efficiency of Ivermectin in treating COVID-19 and no evidence for serious or fatal side effects associated with the doses used to treat for COVID-19, she wrote.
Bowden, who runs her own private practice BreatheMD, had shared a number of tweets praising the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals and have wanted people against using the drug to treat the virus.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Houston Methodist told CNN they had suspended Bowdens privileges. The hospital also shared a series of posts on Twitter denouncing Bowdens comments regarding COVID-19 and its treatments on social media.
Dr. Mary Bowden, who recently joined the medical staff at Houston Methodist Hospital, is using her social media accounts to express her personal and political opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatments, the hospital wrote on Twitter on Nov.13
These opinions, which are harmful to the community, do not reflect reliable medical evidence or the values of Houston Methodist, where we have treated more than 25,000 COVID-19 inpatients, and where all our employees and physicians are vaccinated to protect our patients.
The hospital continued, Despite what she has posted, Houston Methodist does not and will never deny care to a patient based on vaccination status. Dr. Bowden, who has never admitted a patient at Houston Methodist Hospital, is spreading dangerous misinformation which is not based in science.
Furthermore, Dr. Bowden has told Houston Methodist that she is vaccinated, as required of all physicians who practice at Houston Methodist, the hospital added.
The Epoch Times has contacted Houston Methodist for further comment.
Bowden will hold a news conference to discuss COVID-19 treatment and her resignation on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Coal miners wait at the Harvey Mine in Sycamore, Pa., on April 13, 2017. Multiple U.S. coal producers have reportedly sold out of coal through the next year. (Justin Merriman/Getty Images)
The Coming Coal Crisis
News Analysis
As COP26 drew to a close, the great and the good who converged on Glasgow, Scotland, appeared relatively united in rhetoric, if not in enforceable commitments.
Their views have been clear. For the world to slow human-caused global warming, fossil fuelsparticularly coalmust largely, and quickly, be abandoned. The final language in the COP26 decision text calls upon Parties to accelerat[e] the phase-out of unabated coal and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.
By the time the Glasgow Climate Pact was approved, the leaders of more than 40 countries, along with the governors of Hawaii and Oregon, had already signed the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement, which commits parties to rapidly scale up technologies and policies in this decade to achieve a transition away from unabated coal power generation in the 2030s (or as soon as possible thereafter) for major economies and in the 2040s (or as soon as possible thereafter) globally.
Although the United States hasnt signed that statement, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told Bloomberg on Nov. 9 that the United States wont have coal by 2030.
In his remarks to COP26, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, praised by Kerry for pledging to cease funding coal projects outside China, touted the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) recent directives on peaking carbon emissions, which vowed that coal consumption will be reduced at an accelerated pace as part of the countrys 14th and 15th Five-Year Plans.
It isnt clear if anyone has asked Little Amal, the gigantic puppet of a Syrian refugee who took to the stage in Glasgow to deliver seeds signifying the future climate work to be done, what she thinks about Old King Coal. But with influential friends such as The New York Times and Bill McKibbens 350.org, its hard to imagine Amal being made to show anything like approval.
For self-appointed climate changers, coal is an easy target. It produces more carbon dioxide emissions than natural gas, diesel, gasoline, or propane.
Additionally, although smokestack scrubbers can remove much of the sulfur dioxide and other pollutants in coal plant exhaust, such technologies arent used everywhere.
Coal mining also produces methane, another greenhouse gas, and can harm rivers, mountaintops, and other ecosystems.
The problems with coal and other fossil fuels are even easier to emphasize when the environmental harms of solar, wind, and other renewables are minimized or ignored.
Yet as winter approaches amid worldwide energy woes, one-sided rhetoric on coal is giving way to cold, hard reality. A crisis of not enough coal being available to meet the worlds needs may be in the offing.
A Chinese resident looks out the window of her house next to a coal-fired power plant in Shanxi Province, China, on Nov. 26, 2015. As winter approaches amidst worldwide energy woes, coal shortages are becoming a global crisis. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Coal in Short Supply
Multiple U.S. coal producers have reportedly sold out of coal through the next year, with some reporting they have sold out or nearly sold out through 2023.
Additionally, statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that U.S. coal stockpiles have rapidly dwindled, falling to just under 49 million tons in August from roughly 100 million tons in November 2009.
Coal prices have risen dramatically in recent months, swinging to a high of almost $270 per ton before falling to about $150 per ton in recent weeksstill 88 percent higher than at the beginning of 2021, according to reporting by the website Trading Economics on international benchmark prices.
On Nov. 15, Bloomberg reported that U.S. coal prices have reached highs last seen in 2009.
In India, rolling power cuts have been blamed on coal shortages. Perhaps unsurprisingly, India has moved to increase its coal stocks, raising skepticism about Prime Minister Narendra Modis pledge to COP26 delegates that India would move toward non-fossil fuel energies to hit net zero by 2070.
Out of the almost 200 coal plants currently being built in Asia, 28 are in India.
One unidentified senior official with Indias Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corp. told Reuters, You can have the cake of coal and the icing of solara reflection, perhaps, of widespread yet unspeakable thinking among many energy bureaucrats, particularly in the developing world.
China also has dealt with power shortages that are tied to its coal supply, although in its case, the proximate causes may also include Beijings decision to ban coal from Australia over the countrys push to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and the CCP virus.
Scrutinized carefully, a joint declaration from the United States and China on Nov. 10 is as politically delicate as one might expect. It reads, in part, China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five-Year Plan and make best efforts to accelerate this work.
The language seems markedly softer than the CCPs directive that coal consumption will be reduced at an accelerated pace, perhaps leaving China the wiggle room it needs to keep building coal plants at home, while signaling its green bona fides to the West.
Europe, too, has been affected, as coal prices there have also increased.
Higher energy prices are expected to make basics such as gas and electricity unaffordable for more European households this winter, prompting the European Union (EU) to ask its members to subsidize relief funding for consumers.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blamed rising prices on the EU Commissions Green Deal, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has cautioned its industries that they may be forced to cut energy use in the coming winter due to the risk of blackouts.
Last-minute revisions to the COP26 decision text also seem to reflect the political calculations related to coal. While the first draft called upon parties to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels, its final draft speaks instead of unabated coal and inefficient subsidies.
Though a coal-free future may match the long-range ambitions of many COP26 attendees, present shortages of the commodity seem to be touching off and magnifying an energy crisis felt around the world.
If a coal crisis is coming, what exactly is causing it?
Natural Gas, Renewables, and Ripple Effects
One driver is rising natural gas prices.
Henry Hub natural gas spot prices have reached highs not seen since 2014, with gas futures surging as well.
In an October report on those sky-high prices, Anne-Sophie Corbeau, an energy researcher at Columbia University, argued that unexpectedly strong natural gas demand in Asia and Latin America and declining production in the United States and other countries have all helped deplete natural gas stocks in Europe.
Corbeau and other analysts have noted that there has been a switch from natural gas to coal around the world. Yet coal shortages and the decommissioning of coal-fired plants in Europe have constrained the extent of such switching.
The Biden administrations Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also moved to develop new rules limiting carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.
In recent weeks, the EPA has signaled its intentions to continue that rulemaking, despite the potential for the Supreme Court to overturn its authority in this area after agreeing to hear West Virginia v. EPA, a challenge to a D.C. Circuit Court decision striking down a Trump-era power rule.
Although coal-fired electricity generation is projected to increase in the United States this year, that rise comes on the heels of several years of steady decline in coal-fired electricity generation since 2014, according to EIA statistics.
Further, and as noted previously, U.S. coal reserves have been roughly halved in the past dozen years.
Lackluster results from some renewables have also influenced the demand for coal.
Coal power dominated wind power on the German grid in 2021, with turbines underperforming in a pattern blamed on low wind speeds.
The problems with wind power could go beyond recent temporary weather patterns. A recent study of wind turbines in the United States shows that performance fell after 10 years, which is the point at which turbines lose eligibility for production tax credits.
Researchers have also found that solar power assets are significantly underperforming. A report from the solar risk assessment firm kWh Analytics concluded project underperformance continues to worsen in solar, citing higher-than-expected degradation, terrain mis-modeling, and bankrupt manufacturers as chief causes of the trend.
Some analysts take issue with a focus on renewables. In a statement, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has responded to energy commodity prices by saying it is inaccurate and misleading to lay the responsibility at the door of the clean energy transition. Yet that statement cites lower-than-usual availability of wind energy as one factor behind the sharp increase in European natural gas prices.
Issues with coal, natural gas, and renewables could have a range of other knock-on effects.
Among the most serious is a shortage of nitrogen-based fertilizers, which are produced using natural gas. Production cuts or shortages have already occurred in the United States, India, Europe, and other countries, creating the real potential for reduced global crop yields in the coming months or years.
The coal shortage in China has reduced exports of other goods produced directly with coal, such as urea, which Indian farmers rely on as a fertilizer.
Chinas power crisis has also triggered a magnesium shortage for Europes automotive, electronics, and aircraft manufacturing sectors. The continent reportedly imports 95 percent of its magnesium from China.
The ripple effects of an energy crisis ultimately extend much further. Since virtually every sector of the global economy depends on energy, costlier energy can be expected to affect virtually every industry and, by extension, consumers.
If youre an advertising exec or an environmental advocate or a lawyer, your utility bill going up 30 or 40 percent doesnt impact your lifestyle. If youre a single mom working on a farm or working at Walmart, the price of energy massively impacts your life, Chris Wright, an executive with the fracking firm Liberty Oilfield Services, told The Epoch Times.
An aerial view of the Mar Mikhael neighborhood during a power outage in Beirut on Aug. 2. Higher energy prices are expected to make gas and electricity unaffordable for more European households this winter. (Roudy Doumit/Getty Images)
Politics and (Coal) Power
Some commentators assert that national and global political wrangling is at the root of current coal shortages, most notably in the case of China.
Chen Weidong, formerly the China Institute of Energy Economics chief energy researcher, reportedly told a virtual forum that the countrys coal shortage was a man-made crisis, caused by caps on domestic mining that were set with the aim of reaching carbon emissions targets.
Tao Guangyuan of the Sino-German Renewable Energy Centre told the same forum that China underproduced coal in early 2021 based on a benchmark from the 2020 pandemic year. He claimed that limits on coal production were already having clear negative effects during early 2021, but that no one dared to say it.
Taiwanese economist Wu Jialong told The Epoch Times that Beijings power cuts were part of a quid-pro-quo deal with the United States to decrease carbon emissions in exchange for the release of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the founder of Huawei as well as the companys finance chief.
As recently as April, S&P Global Platts claimed that Chinas capping of coal consumption was deemed easy to meet alongside other goals.
Months later, faced with domestic power shortages, Chinese buyers were reportedly prepared to purchase coal at any price, according to Al Jazeera.
The whole world is in doubt because they reopened quite a number of coal mines due to increasing electricity consumption, Huang Shicong, a financial analyst, told The Epoch Times. It shows that what theyve done so far is a total failure.
In other countries, the political reaction against nuclear power, which picked up steam after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, has magnified vulnerability to fossil fuel shortages.
Germany, which has rapidly decreased the share of nuclear in its grid since 2011, joined four other EU countries in pushing back against the inclusion of nuclear power as a sustainable power source in the EUs green taxonomy.
Like the United States, Germany has reduced its reliance on coal power and has pledged to close all of its remaining coal-fired power plants by 2038. The country has also rapidly scaled down its natural gas production, despite remaining the EUs largest natural gas consumer.
Germanys growing reliance on natural gas from Russia has become a geopolitical flashpoint. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will send Russian natural gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, was completed in September despite opposition from the United States and Ukraine.
On Nov. 16, Germany halted the pipelines certification, spurring an increase in European natural gas prices.
Just days ago, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to the EU after it threatened to sanction Belarus over its allowing migrants to attempt to cross into the EU across Belaruss western border.
A coal train awaits loading at BHP Billitons Mt Arthur coal mine in Muswellbrook, Australia. Some experts say that political disputes are the root cause of current coal shortages, such as Chinas power shortages being tied to its decision to ban coal from Australia. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)
Is a Crisis Inevitable?
Can a coal crisis be averted?
To the extent that a crisis is the result of deliberate policy, pro-coal policies such as Indias may help alleviate it.
Policies incentivizing safe, efficient, and less carbon-intensive alternatives to coal, including natural gas and nuclear power, could also go a long way toward powering the world while limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
COP26s softening language on coal suggests that, in the medium or long term, pragmatic accommodation of that fuel may win out, at least in India, China, Russia, and other countries not beholden to 2050 net-zero commitments.
In the United States, the outcome of West Virginia v. EPA could significantly affect the viability of domestic coal-fired power plants. While Kerry and other Democrats have signaled their opposition to the fuel, the outsized U.S. coal emissions per capita, centrist Sen. Joe Manchins (D-W.Va.) influence on energy policy, and the possibility of a Republican takeover of Congress in 2022, all suggest it may be too early to count out coal.
Yet, in the short term, businesses and consumers may feel the squeeze as temperatures fall.
Corbeau, of Columbia University, noted in her report that there is no magic switch to increase wind and solar generation on demand.
It could also be a good time for governments looking to reduce demand to raise citizens awareness of measures that can cut electricity and gas consumption, she later addedwords that, intentionally or otherwise, recall the energy crisis-wracked presidency of The Sweater Man, Jimmy Carter.
Workers load coal onto a truck at a coal depot near Lad Rymbai, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India, on April 14, 2011. The victims of the coming coal crisis may remain invisible in much of the media: the unemployed American miner, the French retiree, the rural Indian farmer, and many more. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
A Man-Made Crisis
The claim that Chinas recent blackouts were man-made may leave Westerners feeling a little too comfortable.
With 20th-century history as our guide, its easy for us to see how central planning and international tensions can combine to yield inefficiencies, shortages, and, at the extremes, avoidable suffering and death. Surely Europe and the United States are too open, too affluent, and too pluralistic to let that happen.
Yet Western leaders sweeping rhetoric on coal at COP26exemplified by Kerrys declaration that the United States will be coal-free by 2030should leave any such observers uneasy about the Wests resistance to self-inflicted energy austerity.
Of course, the rhetoric at COP26 and similar climate summits doesnt always translate into action, especially given the lack of strong enforcement mechanisms under Article 15 of the Paris Agreement.
But with the United States continuing to close coal mines and decommission coal-fired power plants, Kerrys claim doesnt seem too far off from the countrys current elite consensus.
Top-down green policies, even if well-intentioned, will affect the complex interplay among coal, natural gas, and renewable energy, creating economic and geopolitical ripple effects galore. While some, like a switch to or from natural gas, are predictable, others can barely be foreseen.
In todays media landscape, the term coal crisis must be made to evoke a few expected and enduring images: a missing mountaintop in Appalachia; a melting glacier in the Arctic; a young activist; or a literal puppet, castigating the nations of the world for their failure to move fast enough against slowly rising temperatures and an ever-changing climate.
The victims of our coming coal crisis may remain invisible in much of the media: the unemployed American miner, no longer able to make a living in the place he calls home; across the Atlantic, the French retiree, turning down his thermostat as he bundles up against the encroaching frost; thousands of miles to the southeast, the rural Indian farmer, unable to feed his family because fertilizer suddenly became too expensive.
We ignore them at our peril.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden listen to opening remarks during a plenary session at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, United Kingdom, on June 11, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)
Trilateral Talks Take Place Against Backdrop of Supply Chain, Protectionism Concerns
Strengthening North American supply chains and friction over renewed attempts at U.S. protectionism are key issues as the leaders of Canada, the United States, and Mexico hold their first trilateral meeting since 2016.
The North American Leaders Summit comes amid new U.S. protectionism measures, one of several irritants for Canada. President Joe Bidens infrastructure bill, signed into law Nov. 15, has many Buy American provisions. The Build Back Better Act introduced in Congress would give a tax credit of up to US$12,500 to any buyer of a new electric vehicle made in the United States by members of the United Auto Workers union, a requirement that Ottawa says would negatively impact the auto industry and related jobs.
Prior to the Nov. 18 summit at the White House, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she pressured U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to stand against the tax credit and also to defend the Line 5 pipeline. Canadian ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman echoed Ottawas position that the tax credit would violate the North American free trade pact, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Dave Perry, vice president and senior analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said American protectionism is no surprise given Bidens election campaign.
The American economy, American workers, made in Americait took Canadians a while to register that he very much ran on that message, Perry told The Epoch Times.
Perry said the implications of the proposed U.S. tax credits are significant and notes that it is timely for Trudeau to get substantive time with Biden face to face.
It could potentially be the first step in unravelling what has been an integrated North American auto sector since the Auto Pact in the 1960s, he said. That flies in the face of the premise of our auto sector in North America, which has been an integrated industry most of the decade.
Geoffrey Hale, political science professor at the University of Lethbridge, says there are a lot of separate bilateral issues at play that might present a challenge to forming a united continental vision.
The three leaders have all had their hands full with domestic politics. There may be overlapping agendas here, but Im not sure about overlapping priorities, Hale said in an interview.
The Americans generally have a wish list that goes beyond window-dressing in such meetings, although theyre not talking about it in public.
Free Trade Lacking in Transportation
Barry Prentice, professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitobas Asper School of Business, says he doesnt expect much from the summit because of the nature of the three countries and their vested interests, but one outcome that would have a remarkable impact would be changing the restrictions on cabotage in the United States.
Cabotage is the transport of goods and passengers between two places in the same country by a foreign transport operator. In 1920, the United States passed the Merchant Marine Act (whose Section 27 is known as the Jones Act), to bar foreign-owned ships from loading cargo at one U.S. port and then unloading it at another. To be able to do so, a ship must sail under an American flag and be U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-manned.
A recent analysis by Peter C. Earle at the American Institute for Economic Research said the legislation remains to the benefit of American shipbuilders and unionized workers, two of the major interest groups lobbying against repealing it. Both see low-cost foreign competitors as their biggest challenges. But the protectionist rules lead to higher shipping-related costs, which in turn drive up the prices of final goods.
More employment opportunities, commercial diversity, and a wider range of goods and services from abroad are necessarily hampered by the artificial restraint upon trade that it manifests, writes Earle.
Prentice says Canada does not differ from its neighbour in that both countries exercise similar protectionism on the operations of ships, airplanes, and trucking companies. This prevents a milk run opportunity where a Canadian carrier could hypothetically start in Canada, have pickups and drop-offs in various U.S. locations, and continue to Mexico.
The original NAFTA agreement was to allow trucking to be free between Mexico and U.S. and Canada across the borders, but that doesnt happen either. You never see a Mexican carrier here. Theyre not allowed to come into the U.S. Rank protectionism is all it is, he says.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the 2021 gross domestic product for the United States is forecast to be US$22.675 trillion, dwarfing Canadas $1.88 trillion and Mexicos $1.19 trillion. In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation reported $255.1 billion of U.S. exports to Canada and $270.38 billion of imports from Canada, compared to $212.67 billion of U.S. exports to Mexico and $325.39 billion of imports. Most U.S. exports and imports to these countries are by truck.
Prentice believes that real free trade in transportation would raise these dollar values, especially north-south rail corridors. The Canadian Pacific Railway purchase of Kansas City Southern in September would facilitate one such connection, should regulators approve the purchase. Another example would be the rail corridor connecting Mazatlan, Mexico, with Winnipeg proposed Nov. 12 by Mexicos Caxxor Group.
A single line has advantages over interlining in terms of how you control your equipment and your schedules and reliability for your customers. Thats just another one of those opportunities [in] what we call nearshoring, Prentice said.
The International Space Station in an undated handout. (Nasa/PA)
UK Space Command Criticises Russia After Anti-Satellite Missile Test
UK Space Command has criticised Russia after the nation conducted a weapons test that created significant debris in space.
Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey described an anti-satellite missile test undertaken by Russia as irresponsible.
The commands American counterpart, US Space Command, said the test created more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris in space.
His comments follow criticism from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Nasa and US Space Command.
In a statement, Air Vice-Marshal Godfrey said: Space is already a congested and contested domain, and irresponsible actions like this threaten the peaceful use of space by all.
US officials on Monday accused the nation of destroying an old satellite with a missile in a reckless strike.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told the Associated Press that astronauts now face a four times greater risk than normal.
In a statement online, the agency said the crew on board the International Space Station were notified of the strike and told to seek shelter in their docked capsules, where they spent two hours before re-emerging later.
Russian Defence Minister, general of the army Sergei Shoigu, confirmed the successful test of the anti-satellite system.
He told journalists: We really have successfully tested a promising system. It struck an old satellite.
Mr Shoigu added that the fragments formed presented no threat to space activity.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said in a statement: Ensuring crew safety has always been and remains our top priority.
Commitment to this principle is an underlying condition both in the manufacturing of Russian space equipment and in the programme of its operation.
We are convinced that only joint efforts by all spacefaring nations can ensure the safest possible coexistence and activities in outer space.
A policeman covers a camera to stop journalists from recording footage outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court, where Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is set for trial in Shanghai on Dec. 28, 2020. (Leo Ramirez/AFP via Getty Images)
US, China Reach Agreement on Easing Visa Restrictions for Journalists
The Chinese regime and the United States have agreed to ease visa restrictions for reporters from their respective countries, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department announced on Nov. 16.
The agreement was reached after the State Department pressed Beijing for months on bilateral issues that had been longstanding roadblocks and longstanding concerns for the United States, such as media access and visa issues, the spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a statement.
Both sides have agreed to issue yearlong visas to each others journalists. China has committed to issuing visas for a group of U.S. reporters, and the United States is set to reciprocate by issuing visas to Chinese journalists who are eligible for the visa under U.S. law.
The PRC [Peoples Republic of China] committed to permit U.S. journalists already in the PRC to freely depart and return, which they had previously been unable to do. We plan to facilitate similar treatment, the spokesperson said.
The dispute between China and the United States about media access stems from how differently Beijing views journalism. Inside China, the media environment is restrictive, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pressures reporters and media outlets to self-censor in favor of the one-party state for so-called social stability. Chinese state-run media outlets are still beholden to the Party when operating outside of China.
To that end, the Chinese regime expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters in February 2020, a decision made in retaliation over a column in the publication headlined China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia.
A month later, the communist regime announced that it would expel more U.S. journalists, following a decision by the Trump administration to designate five Chinese state-run media outlets as foreign missions, identifying them as propaganda organs of the CCP. By the end of October 2020, 10 more Chinese state-run outlets were slapped with the designation.
We have remained in close consultation with the affected outlets facing personnel shortages, and we are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work, the spokesperson said.
China escalated its retaliatory actions in September 2020, when it imposed new restrictions against more U.S. journalists by delaying the renewal of their expiring press credentials.
In March, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China issued a report stating that Beijing had used several tactics, including intimidation and visa curbs, to restrict foreign reporting in 2020.
One recent example of visa restriction occurred earlier this month in Hong Kong, when the citys authorities refused to renew the visa of Sue-lin Wong, a reporter working for The Economist.
In response, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong issued a statement, calling on the Hong Kong government to provide concrete assurances that applications for employment visas and visa extensions will be handled in a timely manner and that the visa process for journalists will not be politicized or weaponized.
One foreign journalist currently languishing in Chinese detention is Cheng Lei, who was arrested in August 2020 on suspicion of endangering Chinas national security. Cheng is a Chinese-born, naturalized Australian citizen and a news anchor for Chinas state-run China Global Television Network.
Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranked China 177th out of 180 countries in its world press freedom index. As of Nov. 3, there were at least 122 journalists being detained inside China.
The agreement was first reported by Chinas state-run media China Daily. Citing unnamed sources at Chinas foreign ministry, China Daily said the agreement was reached before the virtual summit on Nov. 15 between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The two leaders didnt make any breakthrough on issues concerning both countries. After the summit, a senior administration official said in a briefing that the two leaders did not discuss visa issues in any sort of form.
The White House didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.
We welcome this progress, but see it simply as initial steps, the spokesperson said. We will continue to work toward expanding access and improving conditions for U.S. and other foreign media, and we will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values.
Eva Fu contributed to the article.
US Could Default Soon After Dec. 15, Yellen Warns
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Tuesday that the Treasury Department could potentially be unable to meet the governments financial obligations around Dec. 15.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Yellen said that the deadline for a potential government default was extended from Dec. 3 to Dec. 15 and the adjustment was based on our most recent information, a reference to Treasury tax collections and cash flow data.
The new deadline means Congress has more time to raise the federal debt ceiling, which currently stands at $28.9 trillion.
Yellen said the Treasury would be able to make a $118 billion transfer to the Highway Trust Fund required on Dec. 15, as required by the sweeping infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday. The transfer would count against the debt ceiling, as the funds would be invested in non-marketable Treasury securities.
While I have a high degree of confidence that Treasury will be able to finance the U.S. government through Dec. 15 and complete the Highway Trust Fund investment, there are scenarios in which Treasury would be left with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date, Yellen said.
To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible, Yellen told congressional leaders.
Besides raising or suspending the debt limit, lawmakers must also approve a budget by Dec. 3 when current stopgap funding measures run out.
Meanwhile, lawmakers continue to debate over the $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill, also known as the Build Back Better bill. The proposed legislation would provide new energy tax breaks and see the largest expansion of social programs since the 1960s. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Senate Democrats aimed to pass the measure before Christmas.
Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai speaks to Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at the start of their meeting at the Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan on November 17 2021. (Franck Robichon/Pool via REUTERS)
US, EU, Japan to Renew Partnership Against Non-Market Economic Practices
The United States, the European Union, and Japan announced on Nov.17 to renew a trilateral partnership to address challenges posed by the non-market policies and practices of third countries.
The U.S. Trade Representative Katherine, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, and Japanese Trade Minister Koichi Hagiuda said they intended to meet in person on the margins of the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a joint statement.
The short statement contained no direct reference to China, but the three entities had pledged to curb unfair trade practices and reform the WTO rules.
China, a member of WTO since 2001, has been repeatedly accused of undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system by using heavy subsidies in state-owned enterprises, forcing technology transfer, and stealing intellectual property.
The meeting of the three economic powers is set for Nov.30. Beijings economic transgressions also came under the spotlight during the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders summit in June. The group was highly critical of the Chinese regime and vowed to counter Beijings unfair practices. Trade ministers from G-7 countries also voiced concerns about market-distorting practices, including those that lead to severe excess capacity, a lack of transparency regarding the states role in the economy and the role of state enterprises in unfair subsidization, and forced technology transfer.
Chinas forced technology transfer and theft of intellectual property have long concerned U.S. administrations, particularly th. As a condition of market access, the Chinese regime has required foreign firms to enter into joint ventures with domestic companies and share their trade secrets in the process. According to a 2017 report (pdf), intellectual property theft costs the United States an estimated $225 billion to $600 billion a year, with the principal source of theft being China.
The announcement comes days after the first virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. According to a statement from the White House, Biden made clear the need to protect the U.S. workers and industries from Chinas unfair trade and economic practices during the three-and-half-hour conference on the evening of Nov.15.
Over the years, China has poured billions in subsidies to critical sectors such as steel, solar energy, and agriculture, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an Oct. 4 speech. These Chinese products have been dumped on the global market at a price that American companies struggle to compete with, shuttering many U.S. factories in the process.
In a meeting on Wednesday in Tokyo, Tai and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa discussed the challenges from, and potential approaches to address, Chinas non-market actions and other policies that threaten the stability and prosperity of the global trading system and for our workers, according to a separate readout.
The United States and Japan are set to begin new talks to address concerns over U.S. Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminum and curbing global excess capacity for the metals largely centered in China. The talks follow a U.S. quota deal with the European Union to allow around 4 million tons of EU-produced steel duty-free into the United States annually.
Eva Fu and Reuters contributed to this report.
A woman and children who were stranded by high water due to flooding are rescued by a volunteer operating a boat in Abbotsford, British Columbia on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
US Northwest, Canada Devastated by Flood, 1 Death Reported
BELLINGHAM, Wash.As many parts of western Washington began drying out after a storm that dumped rain for days, waters in some areas continued rising, more people were urged to evacuate, and crews worked to restore power and reopen roads.
Officials in the small city of Sumas, Washington, near the Canada border, called the flooding devastating and said on Facebook Tuesday that an estimated 75 percent of the homes there had water damage. Hundreds of people were evacuated.
The soaking reminded people of western Washingtons record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations, officials said.
These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days, the Facebook post said.
Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide near the small community of Lillooet, British Columbia, that was triggered by record rainfall. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.
Fast-rising Sumas River water levels in Washington state overwhelmed rescuers in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on Tuesday, where 1,100 homes were evacuated. Those residents joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.
Flooding on Highway 1 looking westbound towards Abbotsford is seen in Chilliwack, British Columbia, on Nov. 16, 2021. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
A car is seen in a flooded ditch along a road in Chilliwack, B.C., on Nov. 16, 2021. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said Tuesday that impassable highways were creating havoc as authorities tried to get people to evacuation sites.
It breaks my heart to see whats going on in our city, he said.
Southwest of Sumas, Washington, a 59-year-old man from Everson identified by police Tuesday as Jose Garcia remained missing after his truck was swept into a flooded field and he had been clinging to a tree.
Crews partially reopened the West Coasts main north-south highway, Interstate 5, near Bellingham, Washington, following its complete closure overnight because of mudslide debris. The northbound lanes remained closed Tuesday evening as crews continued working.
Additionally, six railroad cars that had been sitting on tracks in a BNSF rail yard in Sumas derailed in the flooding Tuesday, said Lena Kent, BNSF general director of public affairs. Trains in that location and others in western Washington wont run again until water recedes and tracks are inspected and repaired if necessary, she said.
Canadas two largest railways expect it will take several days to clear track outages in southern British Columbia that are hindering the movement of goods to the port in Vancouver.
In the northern Washington city of Ferndale, officials on Tuesday urged people in homes and businesses to evacuate in an area near the rising Nooksack River. Bystanders near the towns main street rescued a man Tuesday who mistakenly drove into floodwaters. The half-dozen people waded into waters up to their chests and pushed the floating car to drier ground.
The rains were caused by an atmospheric rivera huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon.
It was the second major widespread flood event in the northwest part of Washington state in less than two years.
About 5.57 inches of rain fell at Bellingham International Airport from Saturday through Monday, Nov. 15. The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches for November, according to National Weather Service data.
At the height of the storm, more than 158,000 electrical customers in western Washington on Monday had no power as wind speeds reached 60 mph, including one gust of 58 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Schools in and around the city of Bellingham were closed Tuesday for the second day in a row and Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties.
More than 31,000 Washington state electrical customers remained without power on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service had issued flood warnings for several rivers around western Washington. South of Bellingham, the Skagit River at Mount Vernon crested at a level below that of a flood wall constructed in 2016 to hold back rushing waters, The Seattle Times reported.
Up the Skagit River from Mount Vernon in the town of Hamilton, floodwaters that surrounded homes were slowly receding Tuesday evening, Q13-TV reported.
Dozens of people, including Bert Kerns, escaped to higher grounds at the Hamilton First Baptist Church on Sunday. He was among those who hadnt been able to return to his house yet.
Rough. Kind of like a nightmare, said Kerns, who has lived in Hamilton since 1980.
By Lisa Baumann
Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on May 8, 2021. (Ben Curtis/AP Photo)
US State Department Urges US Citizens to Leave Ethiopia Immediately
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday again urged U.S. citizens in Ethiopia to leave the country immediately, adding that the United States has no plans to facilitate an evacuation via military or commercial aircraft as Washington steps up pressure to bring an end to the conflict in Ethiopia.
The United States this month advised U.S. citizens in Ethiopia to leave the country as soon as possible and is offering repatriation loans for those who do not have the funds to leave.
There are no plans to fly the U.S. military into Ethiopia to facilitate evacuations or replicate the contingency effort we recently undertook in Afghanistan, which was a unique situation for many reasons, a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters.
At least 1,000 people, mostly ethnic Tigrayans, have been detained in cities across Ethiopia in the past week, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Nov. 2, a year after conflict erupted between the federal government and forces aligned with the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party controlling the northern region of Tigray.
The declaration, which is valid for six months, allows suspects to be detained without trial for as long as the state of emergency lasts and allows house-to-house searches without a warrant.
A second senior U.S. State Department official said the African Union envoy for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, plans to return to Ethiopia in the coming days.
The United States will consult with partners and assess how it can support Obasanjo, including whether it makes sense for U.S. Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman to return, the official said.
Washington last week imposed sanctions on the Eritrean military and other Eritrea-based individuals and entities and warned it was prepared to take action against other parties to the conflict.
By Daphne Psaledakis
Pupils return to the classroom at Cleeves Primary School, in Glasgow, Scotland, on Feb. 22, 2021. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Violent Behaviour Rises Among Scottish Pupils During Lockdown: Teaching Union
Violent behaviour has increased among Scottish schoolchildren during the COVID-19 lockdowns, most notably in young pupils aged 4 to 6, a teaching union has warned.
In written evidence to the Scottish Parliaments Education Committee, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), a trade union representing teachers, reported that there has been an increase in violent incidents arising from pupils distressed behaviour.
The rise in violent behaviour was most notable among P1 and P2 childrentypically aged 4 to 6who traditionally have been less likely to exhibit violent behaviour, the union said.
In one reported incident, an early primary teacher suffered a broken jaw and damage to the eye socket from being kicked in the face by a pupil.
In another incident, a teacher had a tooth knocked out after being punched in the face by a child in year two of primary school.
The EIS said more children now have additional support needs (ASN), while growing numbers of new primary school pupils are showing signs of delayed development, such as still wearing nappies or lacking speech skills.
Laurie Black, convener of the EIS unions ASN committee, told members of the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday: A number of children are displaying quite violent or distressed behaviour, which is impacting their learning and their peers as well.
The union also raised concerns about mental health issues among pupils, noting that waiting lists for support are growing.
CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus lockdowns have also seen obesity rates grow among schoolchildren in England, according to new statistics released on Tuesday.
The National Child Measurement Programme, which measures obesity prevalence among school-aged pupils in reception class and year 6, said that obesity rates increased in both year groups by around 4.5 percentage points between 2019/20 and 2020/21, the highest rise since the programme began.
Among children in reception classesaged 4 and 5the obesity rates rose from 9.9 percent in 2019/20 to 14.4 percent in 2020/21.
Among pupils in their last year of primary schoolaged 10 and 11obesity prevalence increased from 21 percent in 2019/20 to 25.5 percent in 2020/21.
During the pandemic, the proportion of children whose weight is healthy has dropped significantly.
Among year 6 pupils, 57.8 percent are now assessed to be a healthy weight, down from 63.4 percent in the preceding year.
Among reception children, 71.3 percent are classed as having a healthy weight, down from 76.1 percent the year previously.
The proportion of all children who are now either overweight or obese is 27.7 percent in reception and 40.9 percent in year 6.
PA contributed to this report.
A maze of crude oil pipes and valves is pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas on June 9, 2016. (Richard Carson/Reuters)
Wall Streets Energy Discrimination Will Hurt America
Commentary
President Joe Bidens nominee for comptroller of the currency, a critical federal official charged with overseeing large banks, declared war on the fossil fuel industry.
We want them to go bankrupt, said Saule Omarova.
Omarova isnt alone in her desire for financial institutions to discriminate against the energy producers that make their existence possible. Progressive activists and Wall Street financiers are teaming up to promote environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing practices that place political whims on a pedestalat the expense of our lives and livelihoods.
The Biden administrations endorsement of this brazen anti-energy movement threatens Americans money and futureand could have unsettling ripple effects throughout our economy.
Heres how it works: Pension funds invest the money of retirees and future retirees. Fund managers should make the smartest investments they can in order to ensure retirees have enough money to live on. But under ESG, theyre not making the smartest investments, theyre making investments that align with their political ideology. If thats not bad enough, theyll vote with a small but vocal minority of activist shareholders to adopt resolutions or replace board membersoften against the best interests of the majority of shareholders.
Take ExxonMobil, for example. An activist hedge fund called Engine No. 1, which owns just 0.02 percent of Exxons shares, forced a takeover and replaced three board members with climate alarmists who will advocate for expensive and ineffective greenhouse gas reduction programs instead of working for the good of Exxon and all its shareholders.
Energy discrimination through ESG investing threatens to withhold capital and discourage investing in companies deemed politically unpalatable by progressives. This, of course, primarily means energy producersregardless of the fact that America provides fuel for the world using the best pollution control technology available, not to mention fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Discrimination against the businesses powering America has advanced primarily through activists public shaming campaigns and big corporations virtue-signaling PR angles, but the elite class wants to force U.S. businesses to march in lockstep on climate change. Pushing ESG from the federal level is an arbitrary and indefensible restriction on free speech and a threat to the men and women depending on their investments and pensions for retirementthats the vast majority of us.
Activists claim that ESG fundsthose branded as having a better social impact, though there are no universal standards that define ESGperform better financially than traditional investments. However, studies supporting this claim are riddled with methodological errors, and this trend is simply too new to understand long-term effects.
Selecting investments based on political preferences, no matter how seemingly virtuous, goes against decades of investing wisdom. Diversified investments are almost universally agreed to be the strongest investments long-term, which means that limiting investment opportunities for retirement funds and pensions will also limit the return on investment for retirees.
One well-constructed study reveals this by analyzing higher education investments. Professor Daniel R. Fischel finds (pdf) that the cost of complying with energy discrimination campaigns is significant enough to prevent universities from reaching their investment goals. Higher fees, limited diversification, and compliance costs add upand likely dont influence the publics behavior or opinions.
Worse yet, recent legal analysis suggests ESG investing may actually rise to the level of illegal collusion that violates longstanding consumer protection laws. When all the major players are conspiring to follow the same political practices, to the extent that law-abiding businesses cant access financial services, the free market is no longer truly free.
But do these principles help stop climate change? The answer is categorically no. According to climate data models used globally, even enacting each and every tenet of the Green New Deal wouldnt produce any meaningful temperature change. Eliminating all fossil fuels and all man-made carbon dioxide emissions would result in less than two-tenths of a degree temperature difference. So even the biggest and loudest campaigns to force divestment from fossil fuels would have a microscopic impactif any at all.
The only real effect of this energy discrimination movement would be worse poverty, a higher cost of living for everyone, andironicallymore pollution. Thats because denying capital or investments to American energy companies wont eliminate our need for fossil fuels, our only significant source of the affordable, reliable energy we need. It will just transfer energy purchases to overseas producers.
It makes little sense, if the environment is really the progressive wings top priority, to give power, influence, and money to countries that pollute with abandon and maintain poor human rights records. Instead, we should continue to produce energy here in the United States, taking advantage of our environmentally conscious and efficient energy industrywhile also producing energy cheaply and maintaining our national security and international negotiating power.
Biden campaigned on equity and fighting poverty. Unfortunately, his administrations fixation on climate alarmism and micromanaging investors will create more poverty by making energyand everything we buymore expensive.
The Biden administration should reject discrimination of all forms, including energy discrimination.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
When Will The New York Times and The Washington Post Return Their 2018 Pulitzers?
Commentary
To anyone paying the slightest attention to the indictments so far resulting from John Durhams investigation, the still-posted announcement of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize awards in national reporting to the staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post now reads like an entry from the Babylon Bee:
For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nations understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elects transition team and his eventual administration.
At the link, the Pulitzer Committee lists some of the deeply sourced, relentlessly reported (well, it might have been the latter) articles they had in mind. Some of the more amusing and Bee-like in retrospect are Emails Disclose Trump Sons Glee at Russian Offer (New York Times) and Trump reveals secret intelligence to Russians (Washington Post).
More ominous, less funny, and more than slightly disreputable, considering what we know now, is White House received warning about Flynn (Washington Post).
At the link, you can read the list of reporters who received the prize as well as the distinguished journalists who made the award, so I will skip over that, except to say the frequent unabashed appearances of many of these reporters on Twitter are one of the reasons I left that site some time ago. It nauseated me to see them on there, pontificating. Theres only so much self-deception you can tolerate.
Consequently, the question that most interests me is to what degree these people knew they were lying at the time? Were they merely victims of extreme Trump Derangement Syndrome? Did they believe the ends, in this instance, justified the means? They allowed themselves to be conduits for lies. Did they ask serious questions? Informants, almost always anonymous, were telling them things. (Collecting those anonymous informants has been the stock and trade of establishment journalists since Watergate.)
The most obvious conclusion is that they wanted to believe the lies they were hearing, so they didnt question them. To be blunt, they were lousy reporters and remain so because, most of them, all to my knowledge on the linked list, havent publicly acknowledged their faults.
One way, perhaps the best way, would be to return their Pulitzers. They havent done so. Are we supposed to believe anything else they say?
In light of the Igor Danchenko indictment, The Washington Post has at least corrected two stories.
The Washington Post on Friday took the unusual step of correcting and removing large portions of two articles, published in March 2017 and February 2019, that had identified a Belarusian American businessman as a key source of the Steele dossier, a collection of largely unverified reports that claimed the Russian government had compromising information about then-candidate Donald Trump, a Washington Post article reads.
Largely unverified is putting it mildly. The dossier has been revealed as a collection of scurrilous lies instigated by Hillary Clinton campaign associates, a political dirty trick unprecedented in modern American history that borders on, or crosses over into, the treasonous.
Nevertheless, the Post did something to acknowledge they had a problem. They also published an opinion article by Erik Temple that excoriates multiple media outlets, including MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, in light of the Durham investigation.
The NY Times has done little more than mutter in editorials.
This isnt new for the one-time newspaper of record that so many still inexplicably believe without question.
And yet the NY Times record, especially regarding the Pulitzers, is particularly egregious. Despite multiple efforts, including one by Bill Keller when he was executive editor of the paper (20032011)he was overruled by the ownersthe NY Times hasnt returned the Pulitzer won by their reporter you could call the Father of Fake News, Walter Duranty.
Duranty, the papers Moscow correspondent in the 20s and 30s, received the prize in 1932 for articles submitted by the NY Times. In his reporting, Duranty denied the existence of, therefore excusing and encouraging, the widespread Ukrainian famine largely instigated by Stalin, the Holodomor that left a million or more people starving to death (estimates vary). He also white-washed Stalins behavior in general. As Duranty put it, You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
Durantys photograph still appears on a wall at the NY Times along with its many other Pulitzer winners. I bring him up to remind us all that journalistic reporting, like elections, has consequences. (FDR, based on his reading of Duranty, recognized the Soviet Union and later acquiesced to Stalin on Eastern Europe).
And his wasnt the only journalistic malfeasance perpetrated by the NY Times. Books have been written about how they downplayed the actual Holocaust and had a known Nazi sympathizer as their Berlin bureau chief. And then theres Herbert Matthews reporting from the Sierra Maestra that characterized the soon-to-be dictator Fidel Castro as something resembling a secular saint.
If it seems as if Im picking on the NY Times (which I once wrote for), its because I am. They have too much power, too much monopolization of the information flow. No paper should ever be considered the newspaper of record or anything close.
Thats no way to run a democracy, a democratic republic, or a constitutional republic. It more resembles a subtler version of Pravda and Izvestia of the Soviet era. And yet the networks and many other outlets, including the supposedly all-powerful social media, still trot along behind the NY Times like seven dwarfs behind Snow White.
This is how Trumps fake news happens. But in all honesty, I never liked the term fake news, popular as it is. Its too weak. What were surrounded by is more than fake. Its the quite deliberate manipulation of information in order to brainwash the public. And it has been quite successful, alas.
Nevertheless, the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes now look ludicrous. Thats a good start in beginning to do away with this propaganda. Better would be for the reporters at the two papers to return their Pulitzers. (As Joseph Welch would put it, Have you no shame?)
Better still would be putting an end to the Pulitzers themselves.
ADDENDUM: But while youre waiting for that to happen, you can always relax in a fake news hammock. No joke.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A Qatari security personnel stands guard as passengers board a Qatar Airways aircraft bound to Qatar at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 10, 2021. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)
Why Qatari Authorities Forced 13 Australian Women Into Invasive Medical Examinations
Commentary
The harrowing tale of 13 Australian women of child-bearing age who were subjected to an invasive gynaecological examination against their will aired on 60 Minutes on Nov. 14, 2021.
The saga proved that there are different and often incompatible versions of human rights.
The non-consensual procedure occurred at Dohas Hamad International Airport on Oct. 2, 2020. The women were on their way to Sydney, where the health authorities would require them to quarantine for 14 days.
Well-armed police officers ordered the women to deplane, taking their passports with them. Instead, they were directed to ambulances, strip-searched and forcefully examined without their consent.
At the time, the young women did not know why the police had ordered them to deplane. It was undoubtedly a most frightening experience for the victims.
When asked by a reporter why the women had not even received an apology, Morrison, slightly dismissively, claimed recently during a press conference that Qatar had resolved the matter satisfactorily, by promising to initiate changes to their procedures and laying charges against the police officer who ordered the strip search.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press conference at Kirribilli House in Sydney, Australia, on July 13, 2021. (Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
The accused, although convicted, did not serve any jail time.
The tale of the Australian women is an example of an egregious violation of human rights, involving a forced medical examination without their consent and a spectacular disregard for the victims privacy.
Article 6(1) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted in 2005, stipulates that Any preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information.
It further states that the concerned person may withdraw the consent at any time and for any reason without prejudice.
Qatar became a member State of UNESCO on Jan. 27, 1972.
Essentially, Article 6(1) of the Declaration directs that a persons physical integrity be unconditionally respected.
While there is no doubt that the forced physical examination violates the rights of these women, the treatment of the event in the media is inadequate and unhelpful.
This is because an assessment of a human rights violation should consider the context in which it has occurred to enable objective commentators to make an impartial, balanced comment on the situation.
The context of the violation of the womens physical integrity reveals that, although it is an egregious violation of a persons rights to privacy and integrity in Australia, it is viewed differently in Qatar, where the event was seen as a measured but determined, response to the commission of a crime.
Qatar Airways exemplified this different understanding of human rights when it refused to enter consultations with the female victims on the ground that their claim had no merit.
A holistic understanding and assessment of the actions of the Doha police are only feasible if the human rights violation is placed in the context of a criminal investigation.
An infant, alive but abandoned, had been discovered in a toilet block; and it was likely that the unknown person was about to flee the country.
The abandonment of the newborn baby is a criminal offence in the middle eastern nation, which the judicial system of Qatar punished harshly.
This sordid sage also involves an infants right to life and the polices obligation to investigate a serious crime: this is part of the contextual background to this case.
A woman pushes a pram near new office skyscrapers in the budding new financial district in Doha, Qatar, on Oct. 23, 2011. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The investigating police officers decided on a solutionsubjecting women travellers of child-bearing age to a compulsory medical examinationwhich is grossly disproportionate to the objective they wanted to achieve.
A claim, that a human right is violated should be considered in its context. Indeed, in this case, it is not sensible to separate the invasion of the womens integrity with the abandonment of a newborn baby and the commission of a serious crime.
Looking at it from an Australian point of view, the forced medical examination is a humiliating and ill-conceived, even despicable, occurrence.
But, if the only focus is on the right of the victimised women, it will not be possible to arrive at an unbiased, holistic understanding of the context in which the violation happened.
If so, it will be difficult, nigh impossible, to resolve the conflict acceptable to all parties.
A myopic focus on the interests and rights of only one party is thus unlikely to lead to a satisfactory result.
However, if the context of the medical examination were taken into account and not treated as an isolated occurrence. In that case, it might be possible to gain an unbiased and impartial understanding of the event capable of resolving the dispute and alleviating the legitimate concerns of the victimised women.
Indeed, an exclusive focus on the rights of the women would inexorably lead to the perception that a horrible injustice has occurred.
While this may well be true, a balanced view of the matter should consider the interest of the Qatari police to solve a crime involving the abandonment of a new-born baby dumped in a bin in the airports toilet block, and the indication that the person who committed the crime was seeking to fly out of Doha hastily.
These considerations are in addition to the realisation that in Qatar, human rights are seen in a radically different light than in Australia.
Nevertheless, it is deplorable that Qatar Airways, a highly awarded airline with superior service, did not even want to meet the women or consult with them.
In doing so, it closed the door to an acceptable approach to rapprochement, which would see this case satisfactorily resolved.
This saga proves that a single-minded focus on Australias understanding of rights, including privacy, obfuscates any chances for reaching an acceptable solution.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
SUMAS, Wash. (AP) Residents of this small U.S. city along the Canadian border were assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes, as Washington state and British Columbia tried to dry out from an intense, days-long rain storm that cut off key roadways and forced hundreds of evacuations.
Skies were sunny Wednesday morning in the area around Sumas, Washington, where about 500 rescues and evacuations were reported.
Were looking at going door-to-door, as waters go down in different parts of town, Sumas Mayor Kyle Christensen told The Seattle Times. Half is on dry ground, half has water.
By Wednesday afternoon, only one river in western Washington had active flood warnings.
The soaking fueled by a so-called atmospheric river that dumped torrents rain on the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia from Saturday through Monday reminded people of western Washingtons record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations.
While the weather was improving, the situation remained dire in British Columbia, where the Canadian government was sending in the military to help with floods and mudslides that destroyed parts of several major highways. One death was reported and officials said Wednesday that more deaths were expected.
Immediately across the border from Sumas, police using helicopters and boats had evacuated about 180 residents of a flooded low-lying area of Abbotsford, British Columbia. Evacuations continued Wednesday.
Mayor Henry Braun said Wednesday that conditions were bad overnight because a key pumping station was in danger of being overwhelmed. He said crews spent Tuesday night sandbagging around the station and things were holding steady.
Im feeling much better today than last night, Braun said, although he cautioned the danger had not passed.
Those evacuated in Abbotsford joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.
On Facebook, the City of Sumas said Wednesday that water levels were continuing to drop and it looked like the community wouldn't be affected by additional potential flooding in Abbotsford. It said crews were working hard to clear roads and return power to some parts of town.
These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days, the city said in another Facebook post.
To the south, a flood warning for Washington's Skagit River will remain in effect until Thursday because it will take time for the floodwaters to drain, the National Weather Service said. Officials recommended that residents of several nearby islands evacuate.
Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide near the small community of Lillooet, British Columbia. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan declared a state of emergency Wednesday following the unprecedented flooding.
In Washington's Whatcom County, home to Sumas, the county sheriff's office said on Facebook that authorities and search crews on Wednesday had located a body believed to be a 59-year-old man who had last been seen clinging to a tree after his truck was swept into a flooded field in the town of Everson.
In the city Ferndale, also southwest of Sumas, officials had urged people in homes and businesses Tuesday to evacuate near the rising Nooksack River and bystanders had rescued a man who had driven into floodwaters by mistake.
Evacuation notices were rescinded Wednesday and the flood warning had ended by Wednesday afternoon. Southwest of Ferndale, authorities said Wednesday that all routes off the Lummi Peninsula, home to the Lummi Nation, were closed because of water over the roads.
Officials in the city of Bellingham said only a few roads there remained closed on Wednesday because of flooding and officials were also assessing damage.
More rain fell in Bellingham from Saturday through Monday about 5.57 inches (14.14 centimeters) than normally falls there during all of November, according to National Weather Service data. The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches (13.2 centimeters) for November, the weather agency said.
Transportation officials on Washington's Olympic Peninsula where the Coast Guard earlier in the week rescued 10 people stranded by floodwaters on Wednesday were also assessing conditions and clearing debris from roads.
Officials said Wednesday that in the far northwest corner of the peninsula, people on the Makah Reservation have been prevented from leaving or entering because of landslides on nearby highways, The Seattle Times reported.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties. On a visit to Whatcom County Wednesday, he said some 500 homes had damage from the storms.
Inslee said he spoke with the mayors of Everson and Sumas and was astonished at the devastation he saw, The Bellingham Herald reported.
Im told they did top all-time flood levels in some places, he said.
Some of the floodwaters came after warmer rains quickly melted 4 feet of snow that previously fell in the Mount Baker wilderness. Inslee said Whatcom County should prepare for repeated floods and address the causes of climate change.
We have to realize that were going to face decades of increased floods in our state of Washington, he said.
Inslee promised to use state and federal money including funds from President Joe Bidens recent infrastructure bill to ease the effects of climate change.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the mayor of Sumas, Washington.
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Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.
NORWALK Shut down originally in March 2020 due to COVID restrictions, the Stepping Stones Museum for Children kept its doors closed a little bit longer to pursue a massive renovation project in one fell swoop.
The childrens museum will reopen its doors to the public on Saturday at 8 a.m. and reveal four new exhibits, renovations to longtime favorites, and new, STEAM-infused educational programming. The museum has also added a gift shop and expanded its Healthyville Cafe with a focus on locally sourced food.
All of us at Stepping Stones Museum for Children cannot wait for our community to take this amazing journey into the future with us, said Rhonda Kiest, president and chief executive officer of Stepping Stones in a news release. We are thrilled to fully reopen our doors and debut this newest iteration of our wonderful childrens museum.
Stepping Stones will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the museum remains at $16 for non-member adults and children over 1 year of age and $12 for seniors. All museum members and children under the age of 12 months will be admitted for free.
The museum offered virtual experiences throughout the pandemic and opened its outdoor spaces this past summer as part of the governors CT Summer at the Museums program. Carolyn Knott, the museums vice president of integrated brand communication, expects people to be absolutely astounded when they walk through the doors for the first time in almost two years.
Theyre certainly going to be welcomed with open arms and likely teary eyes because we have absolutely missed out public, Knott said. We were able to get a glimpse and hear some giggles outside in the Celebration Courtyard over the summer, but it just doesnt compare to feeling that energy that comes through the door when were open.
As visitors come through the door, theyll see old favorites such as the ColorCoaster, Tot Town and the Energy Lab, but as they round the corner, theyll walk into an immersive light experience, and beyond that see Connecticuts state dinosaur, the Dilophosaurus.
The new Lights On! exhibit features the latest light gadgets and innovations. Children can learn about reflection, refraction, bending light, manipulating, kaleidoscope light, and playing with shadow as well as hologram technology, according to Knott.
The Big Adventures: Dinosaurs exhibit gives children the opportunity to be junior paleontologists, uncovering dinosaur bones and other fossils at a dig site. They can also launch back in time 50 million years ago through the wacky and whimsical time machine to see a living Dilophosaurus and other dinosaurs and plants that existed in the Connecticut area during the early Jurassic period, according to Robert Townes, the museums director of public affairs.
Its an opportunity for a child to learn through play about Connecticut history and learn more about where theyre from, Townes said. Thats one of the really exciting things, were starting to introduce more things about our local area into these exhibits.
Knott added, Its very immersive. Theyre touching. Theyre exploring. Theyre learning.
The Healthyville Cafe will soon allow families to order their food ahead of time using a QR code, so they dont need to wait in line. The museum is also taking advantage of a grant from the Campbell Soup Company to overhaul nearly everything in its cafe and stock it with locally sourced food, starting with produce and dairy products from Silvermans Farm and Shaggy Coos Farm in Easton.
Were really getting the opportunity to introduce children to the farm to table concept, Townes said, explaining it goes beyond how the food is processed and makes it to a persons table, but also how that affects real-world issues such as the national and global supply chains.
So, you get the opportunity to teach children these things when theyre young and these lessons take hold now, and these are going to be habits that they form for later on in their lives, he said.
Upon reopening, the museum will also launch its Worldwide Light Celebration, illuminating nearly every square inch of the building, inside and out. The museum will celebrate the traditions of light and how they play into winter celebrations and holidays around the world, such as Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years Day.
Stepping Stones isnt done yet adding to it collection. The museum launched a five-year capital campaign leading into its 20th anniversary in 2020. A $1 million donation from the Bauer Family Foundation jumpstarted the campaign and the museum is maintaining its progress toward a $6 million goal, according to Townes.
In 2023 and 2024, Stepping Stones plans to build then unveil a new Energy Lab exhibit, a We (Heart) American exhibit, and a new toddler exhibit. The Lights On! and Big Adventures: Dinosaurs exhibits are traveling showcases and will make room for new exhibits in the future.
For information about the museums reopening, visit the website at steppingstonesmuseum.org or call the museum at 203-899-0606 ext. 264.
emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com
HARTFORD Attorneys for a shuttered Norwalk restaurant argued before the Connecticut Supreme Court on Tuesday that Gov. Ned Lamont's early pandemic restrictions on indoor dining made it impossible for the owners to fulfill the obligations of their lease, freeing them from having to pay back rent.
The case is the latest asking the high court to weigh in on Lamonts numerous executive orders related to the pandemic. Last December, the court upheld the validity of the governors orders related to bars and restaurants.
Lamonts administration was not a party to the lawsuit before the justices on Tuesday, however, the case was essentially a contract dispute between the restaurants owners and their former South Norwalk landlord.
The restaurant, which went by the name Blackstones Bistro and The Village, faced struggles prior to the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and the owners were late paying the rent during the first two months of the year, according to court records. Days before Lamont ordered a halt to indoor dining on March 16, 2020, Blackstones closed due to a pair of employees testing positive for the virus, and remained completely closed for the next two months.
Even then, the restaurant was not earning enough money on takeout and limited-capacity dining for the owners to make their monthly $13,777 rent payments, according to court records and their attorney, Philip Russell.
They failed to negotiate deferred or reduced rental payments, and the restaurant closed for good in September 2020. The landlord, AGW SoNo Partners, then sued for back rent and was awarded $200,308 at trial earlier this year.
During oral arguments over the appeal of that decision Tuesday, the justices questioned both sides about the restaurants lease, its business model and how both came to be affected by the pandemic.
The problem with unanticipated things is that they are unanticipated, and we have laws that we try to fit into that, Justice Gregory DAuria said.
At one point, several of the justices appeared focused on wording in the lease requiring the operation of a first class, restaurant and bar, an expensive standard that Russell said became nearly impossible to sustain through takeout service. Other times, several justices pressed the attorneys to define the point at which public health orders become so onerous that it is impossible to do business.
Where is the line? Because there was some profitability, it just wasnt as much as you wanted, Justice Raheem Mullins asked Russell.
Because of the high-end nature of the restaurant where a typical check exceeded $100 Russell argued that the governors original lockdown order rendered its business model impossible, and should have voided the lease. The fact that they tried to do takeout is interesting but not totally relevant, he said.
Andrew Nevas, the attorney for the landlord, said the buildings owners were still required to make their regular mortgage and tax payments during the pandemic, adding that the governors orders did not free the restaurants owners from their obligations under the lease.
There was no impediment to actual performance here, Nevas said. They were open for six months without paying rent.
The justices also questioned that argument and raised the possibility that both parties were due some relief as a result of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders.
The result youre asking us to reach is that only one side suffers, Justice Steven Ecker said.
The case raised several questions over the ability of unanticipated events to impact contracts, which courts around the country are grappling with as new lawsuits arise out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his arguments, Nevas said a decision to essentially void the restaurants lease due to Lamonts orders would have sweeping implications across the industry in Connecticut.
A judge in Massachusetts in February excused the owners of a Boston coffee shop from having to pay several months of back rent due to public health orders that severely curtailed their ability to do business.
After Blackstones Bistro closed last September, the buildings owners subsequently leased the space to Sono Boil, a crab and seafood restaurant. In court filings, Russell alleged that the new restaurant was offered reduced rent and other concessions at the time it signed its lease.
GLEN CARBON After nearly a week, Glen Carbon lifted its boil order late Monday afternoon.
On Nov. 9, the village began notifying its residents and business owners not to drink with, cook with or bathe with water directly from their taps without boiling it for at least five minutes first.
"The boil order was canceled by the IEPA because the village passed 10 out of 10 tests," said Mayor Bob Marcus Tuesday.
Low chlorination levels in the villages water system, which is connected now to Illinois-American Water, triggered alerts last week to not consume the water. The village posted information on its website and Facebook page that it was working with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois-American Water to correct the problem. The village switched to Illinois-American Water in July after 25 years of getting the service through the City of Edwardsville.
By Thursday, it became clear that for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, eight out of 10 passing tests was not good enough to lift the restrictions. The agency expected a 10 out of 10 grade, something that as of Saturday, had not been achieved. No testing or updating occurred Sunday.
The village gave out bottled water to residents Friday and over the weekend, adding delivery service for homebound residents and those who do not drive.
For village residents James and Susan Featherstun, the impact has not been overwhelming.
The impact to our household has been manageable, he said Monday. My wife and I are both retired and have the luxury of being able to periodically dine outside our home.
We have performed limited laundry based on the warning clothes could be discolored by the pollutants in the water. The village has communicated the flushing of fire hydrants is part of the restoration process; however, no data is available regarding the scheduling of pushing water through the water mains and hydrants.
That changed Monday afternoon when the village released a schedule of flushing dates and locations for the hydrants this week.
She said she called the villages utility department this week. The man on the other end of the line told her he was not an engineer, but a utility worker who didn't know any further details about the issue.
Francesca DeRossett, front of house manager at the Weeping Willow Tea Room on Glen Crossing Road, said Monday that business grew since the boil order was put into effect. She thinks its because people would rather go out to get beverages versus trying to make them at home since they have to boil any water first.
The first couple of days last week were definitely busier [than usual], she said Monday. Were having to go get ice every morning for our teas, coffees and other beverages.
She said one temporary casualty was soda pop, as they were briefly off the menu until the tea room could make its own ice again.
Christy Gerrish, director of the Glen Carbon Centennial Library, said the boil order is just an inconvenience. The coffee services they used to offer have been closed since March 2020, so the boil order only took the drinking fountains out of commission.
"It's inconvenient for staff because we have a lot of tea and coffee drinkers here," she said.
District 7 has two schools that use village water Cassens and Glen Carbon elementary schools. Communications Coordinator, Mary Ann Mitchell, said bottled water is being brought in daily for students since they cant use the drinking fountains.
I talked with both Tiana Montgomery (Cassens principal) and Mandy Robbins (Glen Carbon Elementary principal) and both said they are using bottled water for students and staff, Mitchell said, adding that Cassens did have to make a lunch menu change Monday due to the lack of tap water.
The good thing is District 7 schools were off last Thursday for Veterans Day then Friday was a non-attendance day, so, fortunately, I guess, today is really only the second day theyve been in school under the boil order, she said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) A federal jury has cleared four former coal company officials who were accused of skirting dust rules in two underground Kentucky mines.
The jury in U.S. District Court in Louisville deliberated Wednesday for about two hours before returning not guilty verdicts. The trial was a rare attempt to prosecute coal company officials on criminal charges.
Federal prosecutors had alleged that the men ordered subordinates to tamper with dust collection equipment at two Armstrong Coal mines in order to stay in compliance with federal regulations.
But defense attorneys said prosecutors lacked evidence that the men had taken part in a conspiracy to cheat the rules.
Kent Wicker, a Louisville attorney, said there was never a scrap of evidence that his client, Glendal Buddy Hardison, was guilty.
We were gratified the jury understood, Wicker said.
Hardison, the highest ranking company official of the four, was in charge of all of Armstrong's western Kentucky mines. The coal company went bankrupt in 2017.
Jason Grover, a trial litigator with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, declined to comment after the verdict Wednesday afternoon.
Eight people were originally charged in the case in 2018 and Hardison was added to the case in 2019. Five reached plea agreements with prosecutors to avoid felony charges.
Attorneys for the four men argued throughout the trial that the men took no part in rigging dust pumps and didn't explicitly order anyone to break the rules.
In this case I knew my client was not guilty, said Marc S. Murphy, an attorney for Charley Barber, a former superintendent at one of the Armstrong mines. This case shouldnt have been prosecuted.
The federal dust rules exist to protect mine workers from inhaling too much dusty air, which can contribute to an incurable and fatal disease called pneumoconiosis, or black lung. That disease has killed tens of thousands of coal miners.
The nations former mine safety chief, Dave Zatezalo, said in a statement about the Armstrong Coal indictments in 2018 that compliance with dust safety rules is crucial to protecting miners against respiratory illness.
But a judge's order in 2019 barred prosecutors from discussing the connection between coal dust in mines and black lung disease at the trial. U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley ruled that language specifically mentioning black lung and the disease process is not relevant and serves no purpose other than to inflame the jury. McKinley had said evidence of black lung risks could be brought up at sentencing if the men were convicted.
The alleged incidents occurred at Armstrong's Kronos and Parkway mines between 2013 and 2015, prosecutors said. A group of mine workers had complained about dusty conditions at the mines and met with a lawyer, which set the case in motion. At least two of the former workers have been diagnosed with black lung disease.
The trial was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic and later moved from Owensboro to Louisville A new judge also was assigned, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton, a Paducah native.
Along with Hardison and Barber, former safety director Brian Keith Casebier and Dwight Fulkerson, a former section foreman, were also acquitted of the conspiracy charges Wednesday.
The prosecution of the ex-Armstrong Coal officials was similar to a case brought against former West Virginia coal executive Don Blankenship in the wake of a 2010 coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners. Blankenship was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2015 and sentenced to a year in prison. He was not accused of direct responsibility for the deadly blast at Upper Big Branch mine, but prosecutors were able to prove that he had conspired to skirt mine safety rules.
Hearst file photo
GLEN CARBON Responding to a request for proposals, (RFPs), five different companies will interview with village officials this week to be selected as the firm that will design and build the villages first water treatment plant, which is slated to be operational by June 1, 2026, regardless of which firm builds it.
While some may point to last weeks boil order and water treatment issues as the reason for this, the villages desire for its own water source is far older than that. Village officials are quick to point out that the current multi-year agreement with Illinois-American Water (IAW), is a short-term solution only.
READ: From residents to businesses, Glen Carbon community adapts during boil order
Mayor Bob Marcus spelled out the villages three options Tuesday remain with IAW indefinitely, partner with the Village of Maryville for its water treatment plant expansion and share operational costs or build Glen Carbons own. Returning to Edwardsville Water, which the village used for 25 years until July, is not an option. Construction may begin during the first quarter of 2023.
First up to be interviewed were officials from Juneau and Associates, which has partnered with the village on many engineering and infrastructure projects; and Thouvenot, Wade and Moerchen, Inc., (TWM), which is also a well-known area engineering firm.
On Wednesday, Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, (CMT), another well-regarded company, WHKS and Burns and McDonnell took their turns.
All five companies were interviewed by Village Administrator Jamie Bowden, Public Works Director Scott Slemer and Utility Superintendent John Leezy, along with board trustees Mark Foley and Mike Sonderegger. Trustee Victor Smith was absent.
Juneau pointed to its prior history working on similar projects in Maryville, Bethalto and Canteen Township.
We are familiar with the Village of Glen Carbon's water system and improvements dating back to a 1962 project for drilling test wells at the existing well site on Route 162, read a statement on a provided document.
TWM touted its prior experience, too, and listed Lebanon, Belleville, Springfield and Freeburg as examples of their work for municipalities.
While three of TWMs employees live in Glen Carbon and will see the direct results of this project, we have another 25 who live in Madison County and frequently shop, dine and enjoy recreational activities in the village. We visit the small businesses in the community and understand the impacts that the costs related to this project could have on the businesses and their customers.
Our proposed project manager, Raed Armouti, is highly experienced in managing similar projects for clients through the Midwest, CMT boasted in its literature. Raed has managed the design of several treatment plants and has also managed the construction of several complex treatment plants as well as dozens of pump stations, multiple storage tanks and wells, and tens of miles of water main projects.
CMT lists its recent work in Lincoln and Quincy, plus ongoing work in Sangamon County and upcoming work in Collinsville and Quincy as just some of the reasons the company is qualified to perform the work.
WHKS out of Springfield offers up its experience for Collinsvilles new water treatment plant as just one reason for the village to choose it over the others.
It doesn't stop with construction. Let's talk project closeout, the literature states. WHKS staff will complete project closeout tasks, including preparation of record drawings for village use as well as assist the village with the IEPA loan close-out paperwork. Project Manager Scott Hunt is available to be on-site during the plant start-up and will advise Village staff on any potential adjustments and modifications to the treatment processes.
Burns and McDonnell, out of St. Louis, listed prior projects in Frankfort and Freeburg, Illinois. The others were in Missouri and Kansas.
The village should be in the driver seat when it comes to control over your water supply and the future of your water system. The village needs a detailed and comprehensive evaluation built on data and facts about their new water supply. The village needs a partner who can fully evaluate the options, and a guide to help them through the overall process. Burns & McDonnell is that partner. We are water treatment professionals and will provide an experience-equipped mentality with a fresh perspective to make sure your project is tailored to the villages specific needs, goals and expectations.
BEIJING (AP) China on Tuesday welcomed a virtual meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden as raising hopes for better relations, while the U.S. was more muted on the talks as the world's two biggest powers sought to ratchet down more than a year of tensions.
The leaders appeared to put aside the language of acrimony in their first formal meeting since Biden took office. Xi greeted the U.S. leader as his old friend, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exchange was candid and constructive.
If China-U.S. relations cannot return to the past, they should face the future, Zhao said, calling the meeting conducive to increasing positive expectations ... for U.S.-China relations.
However, both sides held firm to their positions on the issues that divide Washington and Beijing, with Xi warning that the U.S. and Taiwan are playing with fire over the self-governing island that China considers part of its territory.
The two nations were aiming to end a sharp deterioration in relations that accelerated under former U.S. President Donald Trump and had festered since Biden became president in January. The video conference, which lasted more than three hours, took place Tuesday morning in Beijing and Monday evening in Washington.
Both Biden and Xi seemed determined to lower the temperature in what for both sides is their most significant and frequently turbulent relationship on the global stage.
As Ive said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended, Biden told Xi at the start of the meeting.
The White House set low expectations for the meeting, and no major announcements were made. Still, White House officials said the two leaders had a substantive exchange.
Xi echoed Bidens cordial tone in his opening remarks, saying, China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation.
The positive tone sets an example for officials in both countries to try to identify common ground rather than find fault with each other, whether on trade, climate change, or geopolitical issues such as Afghanistan and North Korea, said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a think tank in Beijing,
I see this dialogue as a stabilizer of the bilateral relation," he said. I dont expect this one summit to bring us back to the good old days, but certainly it stops the downward spiral.
The two leaders had an extended discussion on Taiwan, the U.S. said. Tensions have heightened as China has recently dispatched a growing number of fighter jets toward the island, while the U.S. and its allies sail warships though the Taiwan Strait.
Xi blamed the tensions on Taiwan seeking U.S. support to achieve independence and some on the American side using Taiwan to contain China, a Chinese statement on the meeting said.
Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt, the statement said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden reminded Xi that he voted as a senator for the Taiwan Relations Act that went into effect in 1979, legislation that shapes the parameters of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
So he understands deeply, firsthand, that the act makes clear that any effort to shape Taiwans future by other than peaceful means is of grave concern to the United States, said Sullivan, speaking at a webinar hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, on Tuesday.
Chinese military forces held exercises last week near Taiwan in response to a visit by a U.S. congressional delegation to the island.
The White House said Biden reiterated the U.S. will abide by its longstanding One China policy, which recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. Biden also made clear the U.S. strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, a White House statement said.
It said that Biden again raised concerns about China's human rights practices and made clear that he sought to protect American workers and industries from (China's) unfair trade and economic practices. The two also spoke about regional challenges, including North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran.
The meeting could put ties on a more stable footing in the near term, but the two countries have yet to address the long-term structural challenges in their relationship, said Paul Haenle, a former U.S. official and China expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
This really was just an opportunity for the two leaders to make clear their intentions and priorities and concerns about their relationship and to begin really to set the terms of what is a new era in U.S.-China relations, he said.
The U.S. president was joined in the Roosevelt Room for the video call by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a handful of aides. Xi, for his part, was accompanied in the grand East Hall of the Great Hall of the People by a number of advisers.
The high-level diplomacy had a touch of pandemic Zoom meeting informality as the two leaders waved to each other once they saw one another on the screen. Biden would have preferred to meet Xi in person, but the Chinese leader has not left his country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Both leaders gave nods to their history with the other. Biden noted that the two have spent an awful ... lot of time speaking to each other over the years, and have never walked away wondering what the other man is thinking.
Xi, who referred to Biden as his old friend when the then-vice president visited China in 2013, seemed interested in reviving the earlier days of their relationship, saying, I am very happy to see my old friend.
But the public warmth has cooled now that both are heads of state. Biden bristled in June when asked by a reporter if he would press his old friend to cooperate with a World Health Organization investigation into the coronavirus origins.
Despite the tensions, there have been moments of progress in recent months.
Last week, the two countries pledged at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.
The White House has said it views cooperation on climate change as something the two nations should cooperate on despite their differences on other issues.
"None of this is a favor to either of our countries what we do for one another but its just responsible world leadership," Biden told Xi. Youre a major world leader, and so is the United States.
___
Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Colleen Long in Washington and Emily Wang and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed.
That release could not be found.
Joint sitting dumps charter amendment bill
BANGKOK: A joint sitting of parliament rejected a charter amendment bill providing for a peoples constitution at its first reading today (Nov 17).
politics
By Bangkok Post
Wednesday 17 November 2021, 02:12PM
Supporters of the charter amendment bill sponsored by civic groups at the parliament yesterday (Nov 16) for the first day of the joint sitting. Photo: Chanat Katanyu
The bill received only 206 votes from MPs and senators, with 473 votes against. Three MPs and three senators abstained from the vote, reports the Bangkok Post.
The bill required 362 votes from the joint chambers, including one-third of the Senate, or 83 senators, to pass the first reading.
It received only three votes of support from senators. They were Naowarat Pongpaiboon, Pisan Manawapat and Monthian Boontan.
Party-list MP of the Democrat Party Panit Wikitset was among the three MPs who abstained.
The bill had the support of more than 135,000 eligible voters and called for key changes in the 2017 constitution. It was sponsored by Internet Law Reform Dialogue, Re-Solution group, the Progressive Movement and the Move Forward Party.
One of the most controversial proposals was to abolish the Senate, leaving only the House of Representatives in parliament.
Supporters of the bill said the Senate was the product of the coup-makers National Council for Peace and Order, since dissolved.
Senator Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, spokesman for the Senate whip, argued it would allow MPs to monopolise lawmaking. Senators also denied they were proxies of the coup regime.
New entry rules for domestic arrivals to Phuket released in English
PHUKET: The Phuket Info Center, operated by the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior, has published the new rules for domestic arrivals to enter Phuket that came into effect yesterday (Nov 16) in English.
COVID-19tourismhealth
By The Phuket News
Wednesday 17 November 2021, 11:25AM
The notice posted in English yesterday (click to enlarge). Image: Phuket Info Center
The English-language release was posted online yesterday (Nov 16).
The notice was marked to explain the instructions in a simple way. Measures for traveling Entering Phuket from Domestic Channels.
The post follows the announcement on Monday (Nov 14) that domestic arrivals no longer needed to register their travel details through the gophuget.com website.
The post in English yesterday read, verbatim, as follows:
#Phuket Order No. 6245/2564 and Phuket Order No. 7190/2564 (additional order) Travelers entering Phuket via Tha Chatchai water checkpoint (all ports) in Phuket and domestic channels , Phuket Airport Must be qualified and must comply with the following:
Age not over 6 years old
Exempt from test ( No need to have a test for covid-19) if travel with a parent or guardian.
Ages 6 - under 12 years old
Must be tested for COVID-19 by RT PCR or ATK (Antigen Test Kit) method. The test can be used to confirm results for no more than 7 days at a time.
Age from 12 - under 18 years old
Must received 1 dose of Pfizer vaccine for at least 14 days or have been tested for COVID-19 by RT PCR or ATK (Antigen Test Kit) method no more than 7 days
Aged 18 years and over
Must be vaccinated against COVID-19 as prescribed by the province, or be tested for COVID-19 by means of RT PCR or ATK (Antigen Test Kit) which can be used to confirm results for no more than 7 days at a time
All Thai travelers entering Phuket must download the application "Mor Prompt" and present when the officer calls for a check.
** Those who have recovered from COVID-19 symptoms within 90 days can show evidence of fully recovered **
Complete Covid-19 Vaccinations as specified by the province received the vaccine;
Sinovac, complete 2 Vaccinations
Sinopharm, complete 2 vaccinations
AstraZeneca, complete 2 vaccinations
Pfizer, complete 2 vaccinations
Moderna, complete 2 vaccinations
Sputnik V, complete 2 Vaccinations
Complete 2 doses of cross-formula vaccine as prescribed by the Ministry of Public Health.
Johnson & Johnson, 1 dose for at least 14 days.
* Either one of the above *
Simple summary, if the vaccine is not complete as prescribed by the province or has not received any vaccinations the traveller must have a negative test result to be able to enter Phuket.
Effective from November 16, 2021 onwards.
..............................................................................
#Phuket order no. 6245/2564
Regarding travel screening measures for entering Phuket according to the prevention and control measures for Coronavirus Disease 2019
Effective from October 16, 2021 until further notice.
https://www.facebook.com/109168820738303/posts/404080641247118/
Phuket Province Order No. 7190/2564
Subject Amendment Travel screening measures for entering Phuket Eye Prevention and Control Measures for Coronavirus Disease 2019
Effective from November 16, 2021 onwards.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=426507172337798&id=109168820738303&sfnsn=mo
Teen prevented from jumping off Phuket bridge
PHUKET: Quick action prevented another young man from jumping off one of the bridges joining Phuket with the mainland last night (Nov 16).
By Eakkapop Thongtub
Wednesday 17 November 2021, 03:33PM
Police at Tha Chatchai received a call from the young mans parents, warning them that their son Kittsak (last name withheld), 19 years old, was on his way after calling his girlfriend to say goodbye, and to tell her that he was going to jump off one of the bridges.
Soon at the scene to assist officers were Panuphan Jindapol, Phu Yai Baan (village head) of Moo 5, Mai Khao, and rescue workers from the Kusoldharm Phuket Foundation stationed at the bridge, led by Acting Lt Wanlop Boonchan.
At about 8:10pm, the officers recognised Mr Kittisak and his motorbike from the description given by his parents. He had parked part-way along the Thao Srisoonthorn Bridge, leading off the island. They were able to intervene and restrain him from jumping off the bridge.
His parents arrived from the family home in Thai Mueang District, Phang Nga, soon after.
Mr Kittisak was taken into protective custody and transported to Takua Thung Hospital, in Phang Nga.
Two men already this month have jumped from a bridge at the north end of the island into the dangerous fast-moving water in the channel below.
Piyanat Kamnerd, 25, from Takua Thung in Phang Nga, parked his motorbike halfway across the bridge leading onto Phuket and jumped into the water below last Saturday (Nov 13).
Rescue workers have been searching for him since.
Buncha Suksunit, also 25, a resident of Baan Pru Sompan in Moo 8, Tambon Thepkrasattri, in Phuket, parked his pickup truck halfway across Thao Srisoonthorn Bridge, leading off the island, and jumped over the side late on Nov 3.
The bodies of the two men have yet to be found.
If you or anyone you know is in dire need of emotional support and counselling, please contact the Samaritans of Thailand at their 24-hour hotline 02-713-6791 (English), 02-713-6793 (Thai) or Thai Mental Health Hotline at 1323 (Thai).
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)
Today
Cloudy with freezing rain becoming likely after midnight. Low -5C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 90%..
Tonight
Cloudy with freezing rain becoming likely after midnight. Low -6C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 90%.
City_news
breaking featured
Lachine Hospital doctors ready to pay to save ER
Doctors at Lachine Hospital are ready to pay out of their own pockets to bring back respiratory therapists and reopen the hospitals emergency room.
Lachine Hospital physicians are offering incentives of $15,000 per year for two years for the first three respiratory therapists who step up to work at Lachine Hospital.
It has been determined that an investment of $90,000 over three years in order to encourage the return of respiratory therapists will be sufficient to keep the hospitals ER open 24/7 as it has been operating on reduced hours since November 8th due to the lack of therapists.
Since the partial closure of the emergency room, the number of consultations during opening hours has decreased drastically. We know our local Francophone population well, and their financial difficulties in travelling to the city or elsewhere to neighbouring hospitals. We know their health problems including respiratory disorders especially at this time of year. We are concerned that they will stay at home and not seek treatment even if they need it, ER physician at Lachine Hospital, Dr. Fahimy Saoud said.
When the scheduled closure was announced in mid-October, it was estimated that a minimum of two respiratory therapists were required to prevent the ER and ICU from closing. Two demonstrations have taken place in front of the ERs entrance and letters have been sent to Health Minister Christian Dube, Premier Legaults office and a resolution by all doctors at the Lachine Hospital.
Following multiple failed efforts to gain support from the provincial government, Dr. Saba along with his colleagues decided to take the matter into their own hands in order to protect their patients needs. He took the matter so personally that he has launched an open channel requesting that respiratory therapists contact him personally so that he may follow the trajectory of the new candidates and make sure that they are not transferred by the MUHC to downtown hospitals. Lachine Hospital is recognized as the only Francophone hospital on the West Island and all its services including the ER and ICU are guaranteed by a resolution adopted unanimously by the National Assembly on June 7, 2007.
It makes no sense that the Quebec Government and the MUHC are allowing one of Canadas premier community hospitals to partially close its ER and completely close its ICU for a few missing respiratory therapists. Rather than penalizing the population of Lachine with this closure, we want to provide solutions with incentives to a few willing respiratory therapists ER physician at Lachine Hospital, Dr. Danielle De Jong said.
To date, the Quebec Government has not responded to the letters and resolution of Lachine physicians sent over the past few weeks in order to prevent the closure of two of the hospitals core units.
According to Dr. Paul Saba, the MUHC has been moving healthcare workers from Lachine Hospital to downtown because they are incentivized to work there as a result of the critical care bonuses paid by the Quebec Government. Quebecs bonuses are given to downtown MUHC Hospital workers but not to Lachine Hospital workers. Were supposed to be part of the same family. This is an unfair practice and has to stop. Dr. Saba explained.
According to Dr. Saba, it appears that the MUHC is unable to obtain these critical care bonuses for the Lachine Hospital from the Quebec Government. The government has an obligation to provide the same salary incentives for healthcare workers who work at Lachine as for those who work downtown. This is unfair and has created the present crisis. Dr. Saba said.It does not make sense to provide incentives for healthcare workers from abroad when we cant do the same for our healthcare workers in Quebec. It is also noteworthy that nurses who want to work at Lachine and want to do supplementary hours are being forced by this partial closure of the emergency to work elsewhere. If this is not a planned gradual shut down of our emergency room, then what is?
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) More than a decade after a methane explosion killed 29 workers at a New Zealand coal mine, police said Wednesday they have finally found at least two of the bodies thanks to new camera images.
But authorities say the main part of the Pike River mine remains too dangerous to enter so they will not be able to recover the remains.
Police have been investigating the disaster for years, with some family members of the miners hoping they will eventually file criminal charges.
Police Detective Superintendent Peter Read said they had located at least two bodies and possibly a third after a camera was sent down a newly dug hole. He said the bodies were found at the far end of the mine, where methane levels remain high.
Read said imaging technology had improved markedly since the disaster, which helped them make the discovery.
He said they hadnt yet been able to identify the bodies, although they were working with forensic experts to see if that was possible. He said they had previously identified the six or eight miners believed to have been working in that area at the time.
This is only two days away from the eleventh anniversary of the mine explosion, and wed like to acknowledge the families of all the men," Read told reporters. "Its a really stark reminder of the pain and the loss.
He said the discovery would help their investigation.
Read said police wouldnt be releasing the images out of respect to the families and declined to describe the conditions of the bodies.
Its what you might expect after 11 years, but Im not really going into any details of what the images show, he said.
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton was killed in the explosion, said she'd been preparing for the 11th anniversary and was initially shocked by the announcement. She wondered at first if one of the bodies could be her husband but then realized he would have been elsewhere in the mine.
She said she felt some pride because the families had pushed hard for authorities to re-enter a safer part of the mine, which they had finally done in 2019. She said that helped reinvigorate the police investigation.
I think that our men deserve justice," she said.
Osborne said it was unfortunate the bodies couldn't be retrieved.
They all died together and they will all stay together, she said.
An earlier investigation concluded the Pike River Coal company had exposed miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets. The report found the company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before the disaster.
The company, which went bankrupt, didnt contest labor violation charges against it.
Labor violation charges against former chief executive Peter Whittall were dismissed after he and the company made a financial settlement, a development that angered many of the grieving families.
New Zealands Supreme Court later ruled the settlement was unlawful.
ALTON Kicking off the season will be a group effort Friday with the 27th Annual Tree Lighting at Lincoln-Douglas Square in Alton.
A clear but cool night is forecast, with temperatures expected to be around 40 degrees when Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive by trolley at 6 p.m. Friday. The free festivities hosted by Alton Main Street will include caroling, costumed characters, cookies and hot cocoa.
At 6:45 p.m. Mayor David Goins will flip on the lights for 42-foot tree provided by the Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club. Music will be provided by area Girl Scout Troops, and the Great Rivers Choral Society. The Rev. Sheila Goins of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church will bless the tree.
Chris Miller, vice president of Alton Main Street, will serve as emcee with Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club President Steve Schwartz also scheduled to speak.
Salvation Army Capt. Cassy Grey will kick off the Tree of Lights campaign with 2021 Chairpeople Taylor and Lily Freer. People will be able to check out the Salvation Armys Big Red Kettle and help the less fortunate by bringing non-perishable food donations to the event for the Salvation Army's food pantry. The items will be constructed into a giant Castle of Cans at the foot of the Lincoln and Douglas statues during the event.
Holiday crafts also will be available for youth through the Madison County Child Advocacy Center.
From 5:30-7:30 p.m., free trolley transportation will be provided between Lincoln-Douglas Square and the Riverbender.com Community Center at 200 W. 3rd St. After the tree lighting, the community centers will host its Holiday Open House until 10 p.m. with games, crafts, refreshments and visits with Santa & Mrs. Claus. Every child will receive a toy, sponsored by Riverbender.com and Hit-n-Run Food Stores.
Free horse and carriage rides will be offered 7-9 p.m. from the corner of 3rd and Belle streets. Families also can enter a drawing to ride in the carriage with Santa from the Square to the Community Center by posting their favorite photo from a prior Tree Lighting details on how to enter can be found at www.facebook.com/AltonMainStreet.
For more details visit www.DowntownAlton.com. Sponsors include Illinois American Water, Phillips 66 Wood River Refinery, Alton Memorial Hospital, CNB Bank & Trust, 1st Mid-America Credit Union, Poputopia Gourmet Popcorn and Sweets, Picture This & More, Sam's Loans, Sheppard, Morgan & Schwaab, Chiro One, The Salvation Army, Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club, Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau, OSF Saint Anthony's Health Center, the City of Alton, The Telegraph, Riverbender.com, WBGZ Radio and AdVantage.
EDWARDSVILLE Two Wood River residents face methamphetamine-related charges filed Tuesday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.
Delbert L. Spa, 53, of Wood River, was charged Nov. 16 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.
According to court documents, on July 8 Spa allegedly was found to have less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000.
In an unrelated case, Curtis D. Spinks, 57, of Wood River, was charged Nov. 16 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. That case was presented by the Wood River Police Department.
According to court documents, on Nov. 16 Spinks allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000.
Other felony charges filed Nov. 16 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:
Brandon M. Mendez, 22, of Maryville, was charged with five counts of criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony. One case was presented by the Maryville Police Department, another by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Nov. 2, 5 and 15, Mendez allegedly spray-painted Butler Supply in Maryville and on Nov. 4 and 15 spray-painted 54th Street Bar and Grill in Glen Carbon. Bail was set at $50,000 for each separate case.
Jimmy R. Johnson, 21, of Granite City, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Oct. 20 Johnson allegedly damaged an apartment door in the 2400 block of Cleveland Boulevard, causing in excess of $500 damage. Bail was set at $20,000.
Dezirae F. Spencer, 19, of OFallon, Illinois, was charged with criminal damage to government supported property, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison Police Department. On Nov. 15 Spencer allegedly damaged a Madison Police vehicle, causing less than $500 in damage. Bail was set at $20,000.
GODFREY Four fire departments battled a blaze in Godfrey Tuesday afternoon.
Just before 1 p.m., Godfrey firefighters responded to the report of a house on fire in the 5100 block of Little Creek Lane. They arrived to find multiple rooms in the back of the split level home heavily involved in fire.
Godfrey firefighters called for assistance at the scene from Fosterburg, Alton and Brighton firefighters. The black smoke generated as the fire burned through the roof could be seen for miles. Madison County Sheriff's Deputies blocked off Little Creek to all traffic during and after the fire.
Firefighters were able to stop the spread of the flames, but the home suffered extensive damage, especially in the rear of the house.
No injuries were reported in the fire. A LifeStar Ambulance was called to the scene to stand by.
The cause of the fire was under investigation Tuesday afternoon.
COLLINSVILLE A small crowd gathered Tuesday in Collinsville for a public comment on corridor protection studies for the relocated Illinois 3/New Mississippi River Bridge, also known as the Stan Musial Bridge.
The hearings are held every 10 years as long as the project is active.
Mike Myler, a land acquisition manager for District 8 of the Illinois Department of Transportation, said the projects still have some unfinished portions. That includes relocating Interstate 70 east and north of World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, as well as portions of Illinois 3 north and south of I-70.
Currently traffic moves past the racetrack, then diverts to the bridge via connector routes.
Myler said some of the improvements on Illinois 3 to the south are funded and part of IDOTs current long-range plans. The other planned improvements remain unfunded.
Every 10 years, by law, we need to have a hearing to see if it is still a viable and feasible plan, Myler said.
People who were unable to attend Tuesday's event can still submit information for 30 days. Usually the only real participation at such hearings is from businesses or landowners of the affected property or adjacent properties.
Myler said the hearing gives IDOT a chance to make long-term plans. Some businesses can benefit from close highway access, he said, while others dont want it.
What it really does is lets them know we have long-term plans in this area, and they can plan accordingly, he said. Its really more of an informational type thing.
Planning for the bridge began in 1998.
The original plans, unveiled a few years later, called for spending about $1.7 billion for the bridge, approaches and other construction and traffic control.
When it became apparent the funding wasnt there, the project was redesigned with a new cost projection of $659 million.
Officials had long stated there was a real need for additional vehicular traffic spans across the Mississippi River. Part of the issue was that the Poplar Street Bridge was only one of two bridges in the entire country that carried traffic from three interstate highways across a single span. The other was in a rural area with little traffic.
Copies of all the exhibits and an online comment form will be available at https://idot.illinois.gov/projects/Relocated-Route-3_New-Mississippi-River-Bridge-Corridors-of-Protection.html. Comments received by Dec. 16 will become part of the official public record. Comments can also be submitted via email to Michael.Myler@illinois.gov.
Written comments not submitted electronically should be sent to the Illinois Department of Transportation; Attn: Keith Roberts, IDOT Acting Region 5 Engineer; 1102 Eastport Plaza Drive; Collinsville, IL 62234.
IDOT District 8 updates are available on Twitter at @IDOTDistrict8. Area construction details can be found on IDOTs traveler information map on GettingAroundIllinois.com.
John Badman
BETHALTO A private jet comes in for a landing Wednesday over Illinois 140 in Bethalto.
Several small planes were using the airspace over St. Louis Regional Airport under cloudy skies on Wednesday.
EAST ALTON Starting in January, appointments will be required for several services at the Illinois Driver Services facility in East Alton.
The change is part of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse Whites plan to address heavy customer volume caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting Jan. 11, people will need to make appointments at the East Alton office, located at 20 Terminal Drive, Suite 103, for behind-the-wheel road tests, REAL IDs, standard drivers licenses and ID cards.
Vehicle services such as renewing a license plate sticker or applying for a vehicle title will not require an appointment.
Customers may visit ilsos.gov to schedule an appointment up to 10 days in advance during this phase of the program. New appointment slots will be available each day at the site.
Seniors, veterans, persons with disabilities and expectant mothers will be served as walk-ins at all of the designated appointment facilities, and also will have the option to make an appointment.
During the pandemic, my office has continued to serve the public, including face-to-face transactions, in a safe and responsible manner, White said Wednesday in a released statement.
Throughout this time, we also greatly expanded online services, he said. This comprehensive plan further addresses the heavy customer volume at facilities caused by the ongoing pandemic.
Jerseyville also has a driver services facility. White said many small, rural facilities will not require the appointment system because they do not experience the heavy customer volume large facilities encounter and will remain accessible to walk-in customers.
Illinois driver service facilities are open Tuesdays 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Wednesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to noon. Customers and employees are required to wear masks; customers are encouraged to bring their own masks.
Illinois has extended all drivers license and ID card expiration dates to Jan. 1, 2022. The extension does not apply to commercial drivers licenses (CDL) and CDL learners permits. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has extended the federal REAL ID deadline to May 3, 2023.
Whites office also is expanding remote renewal for drivers license and ID card holders. Through the end of 2021, the office is mailing letters to eligible customers with expired drivers licenses and ID cards requiring them to renew online, by phone or by mail. The office estimates this will eliminate the need for about 1 million people to visit a facility.
The office also will continue mailing online renewal letters to drivers and ID card holders 90 days before their cards expire. Many customers will be able to renew online, by phone and by mail, and avoid visiting facilities.
Customers who must visit a facility include first time drivers license or ID card applicants, first-time REAL ID applicants, and drivers ages 75 and older who are required by state law to visit a facility when renewing their license.
White encouraged people to conduct other business online at ilsos.gov. In addition to drivers license and ID card renewals for those who qualify, online services include obtaining a duplicate drivers license or ID card, ordering a driver record and purchasing license plate stickers.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's daughter on Tuesday said she would quit the real estate appraiser business following scrutiny over whether her mother used her influence to aid her application for an appraiser license.
Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, slammed a legislative inquiry and news reporting on the episode in a letter to Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman. She also released a document that a legislative committee was seeking to subpoena. Lawmakers were zeroing in on the timeline of a meeting Noem called last year that included Peters and key decision-makers in a government agency that had moved days earlier to deny her application for an upgrade to her appraiser certification.
I am writing you today to express my disappointment and anger that my good name and professional reputation continue to be damaged by questions and misinformation concerning the Appraiser Certification Program, Peters wrote to Hultman in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. KSFY first reported the contents of the letter.
She told Hultman she would turn in her appraiser license by the end of the year, adding Im angry and I can acknowledge that this has successfully destroyed my business.
The Republican-dominated Government Operations and Audit Committee had requested the document to confirm what Hultman had told them last month that state regulators had already decided to give Peters another chance to win her appraiser certification prior to the meeting in the governors mansion. Noem echoed that defense in a later news conference.
The details of that agreement were discussed and in place prior to that meeting, Hultman told lawmakers at the October meeting.
But the signed agreement with Peters is dated the week after the July 27, 2020 meeting.
The governor's office referred a request for comment to the Department of Labor and Regulation. The department in turn released a letter from Hultman to lawmakers that blamed the AP for giving the impression I testified at the hearing that there was an agreement in place with Ms. Peters before the hearing.
Hultman wrote that an AP reporter created an inaccurate and a false narrative" and that she never remotely gave the impression during her testimony that the agreement had been signed before the meeting.
The AP has not reported that Hultman said the agreement was signed before the meeting. She told lawmakers in October that state regulators had worked out an agreement to allow Peters to seek further education and resubmit work samples to be reviewed for compliance with federal standards.
Hultman also told lawmakers she assumed that the former director of the Appraiser Certification Program, Sherry Bren, was part of the discussion to give Peters another opportunity to win her license.
However, the agreement with Peters was signed by another state employee, Amber Mulder, who was Bren's supervisor. Mulder was also in the meeting with the governor last year.
The committee was set to request final approval for a pair of subpoenas from a ranking legislative committee on Wednesday. Hultman asked for the subpoena for Peters' agreement be dismissed.
Besides pressing for the document that Peters released, the committee also wants to subpoena Bren.
The former director of the program was called into the July 2020 meeting and was later pressured to retire shortly after Peters received her license that November. Bren filed an age discrimination complaint and received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job this year. Noem has said the settlement had nothing to do with her daughter.
GODFREY Pride Inc.s Celebrity Roast is back, giving Riverbend residents a chance to see community leader Zeke Jabusch get some ribbing all in good humor to benefit the nonprofit community beautification effort.
"I'm honored to be a part of the program," Jabusch said.
Jabusch was founder of the North Alton Godfrey Business Council and has been its president since 1990. He also is active in the Benjamin Godfrey Legacy Trail, is past president of the Senior Citizen Plus in Alton, is a board member United Methodist Village, helped organize the walking trail at Asbury Village, is a longtime member of Rotary and Godfrey First United Methodist Church, and is a volunteer with the Salvation Army and Crisis Food Center. He also is a member of Asbury Village's Envision Committee.
He supported the beautification projects of the North Alton Godfrey Business Council; raised funds to build the gazebo and walkway in Glazebrook Park; hosted the Breakfast with Santa with the village of Godfrey; helped raise funds for the All Gods Children Shall Have Shoe program; and volunteered many years with the Christmas Wonderland as Santa Claus. He also raised funds for the nine site plaques for the Benjamin Godfrey Legacy Trail.
In July he received the Godfrey Womens Club 2020 Golden Leaf Award for his civic contributions.
The eighth annual Pride Inc. Celebrity Roast is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16 at the Lewis and Clark Community College Commons in Godfrey. Cocktails are at 5 p.m. Individual tickets are $60; a table of eight costs $450. Tickets are available at www.prideincorporated.org.
We select our roastees based on individuals who give back to the community, have done great things and, somewhere along the line, have or do support the mission of Pride, said Pride Inc.s President Karen Wilson of Godfrey. Theyve demonstrated that they share the same vision that Pride has.
"And also, we need to pick someone who is a good sport that a lot of people want to recognize," she said. "But it takes a person to have a bit of a sense of humor about themselves, and Zeke certainly does. Zeke could roast himself.
I encourage any and everybody, who would enjoy the evening, to come, Wilson said. "Theres no silent auction, no 50/50. It's just a great dinner and a good time."
Wilson became involved with Pride Inc. in 1988 through its Bucket Brigade project. She joined its board in 2003.
Our mission is to promote pride in communities, the importance of pride in communities, through beautification and how your community looks, she explained. How your community looks influences your feelings about your community and influences the feelings that visitors have about your community.
Founded in 1966 by Dr. Gordon Moore, Pride Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education and stimulation of beautification in the 16 communities surrounding the Alton Lake area, also known as the Riverbend. Pride is a non-political entity supported entirely with private funds.
Along with the Bucket Brigade its projects include the continuing beautification of State House Circle, located at College and Central avenues adjacent to OSF Saint Anthonys Health Center. The historic Alton location was under consideration as the capitol of Illinois in 1833. The nonprofit also sells commemorative bricks that are placed at James Killion Park and does restoration at Gordon Moore Park, both in Alton.
Pride also honors local businesses and homeowners who do an outstanding job keeping their properties neat and well-maintained. Each year Pride sends out about 6,000 Pride Eye Awards to deserving recipients. It also selects Homes of the Month May through September and sometimes in October.
We do that for homes both in Alton and Godfrey, with special eye-catching yards that people have worked hard on, Wilson said.
To become involved in Pride Inc. visit www.prideincorporated.org and/or visit its Facebook page.
On Tuesday, the American Trucking Associations named 36 professional truck drivers as finalists for the 2022-2023 term of America's Road Team, a group of professional truck drivers with superior safety records created in 1986 to represent the trucking industry.
"These men and women were selected as finalists for America's Road Team because they have outstanding safe driving records, share a passion for the trucking industry and are role models among their peers," ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. "We owe these professional drivers our gratitude, without them the American economy would come to a halt."
The finalists from Illinois were James Alvarez of United Parcel Service in Darien, Richard Frazer of Yellow in Rockford and Ritch Fundell of FedEx Freight in Tonica. Additionally, Bob Bramwell of ABF Freight Systems in Centerville, Mo. was selected as a finalist.
Captains of America's Road Team, with support from their companies, dedicate a few days each month to attend industry events, speak at schools or meet policymakers on behalf of the trucking industry.
The 36 finalists from 21 states advance to the final round of the selection process, being held January in Arlington, Va. A panel of evaluators, including industry officials and trucking news media representatives, will judge the contenders on their knowledge of the trucking industry, dedication to safety, ability to communicate the industry's messages and overall safe driving record.
The finalists, with a combined total of 75 million safe-driving miles and 923 years as professional truck drivers, are highway safety experts eager to share their experiences with the motoring public, the ATA said in a press release.
The newly chosen 2022-2023 America's Road Team will be announced on Jan. 19 following a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. New Captains, after receiving their signature navy blue America's Road Team blazer, will begin working to share the industry's message of safety, essentiality and sustainability with the motoring public, media, business and community groups, public officials and their fellow truck drivers around the country.
Captains from previous teams continue to serve as ambassadors to the industry and are called upon frequently to participate in safety events, speaking appearances and industry conferences.
"Being named a finalist for America's Road Team is a major achievement for professional truck drivers and ATA congratulates each of them for this accomplishment," Elisabeth Barna, executive vice president of industry affairs, said in a statement. "America's Road Team will continue to serve as a voice for the industry, which benefits from their professionalism, dedication and safety as they educate the public on highway safety, the role trucking plays in our economy and why the trucking industry is a great career option."
To be nominated to serve as an America's Road Team Captain, professional truck drivers must be employed or leased to an ATA member company. Each nominee should have an excellent safety record and should demonstrate an ability to communicate his or her commitment to safety and passion for the industry. Nominees should also portray a positive image of the professional truck driver in all that they do.
This year's finalists haul a diverse assortment of products and materials and range from short-haul drivers to over-the-road drivers operating in all of the lower 48 states. The finalists represent a cross-section of the industry with experience ranging from four years to 43 years as professional truck drivers with anywhere from nearly 400,000 to 3.9 million safe driving miles.
Fears of infection. Loneliness. Worries about physical health.
As the coronavirus spread across borders early in the pandemic, calls to global help lines showed a striking similarity in the toll on mental health from China to Lebanon, Finland to Slovenia.
An analysis of 8 million calls to help lines in 19 countries, published in Nature, reveals a collective response to unprecedented, uncertain times. Callers worries centered on fears of infection, loneliness and physical health. Calls about relationship issues, economic problems and suicide-related issues were generally less prevalent than before the pandemic.
The Swiss and German researchers looked at help lines in 14 European countries, the United States, China, Hong Kong, Israel and Lebanon. They included suicide-prevention hotlines and ones providing crisis counseling.
We were struck by how similar the broad evolution of help-line call patterns looked across nations, said Marius Brulhart, a University of Lausanne economics professor and the studys lead author.
Pooling country-specific data during the pandemics first 12 weeks in 2020, the researchers found that call volumes peaked at six weeks, rising 35% above calls during the same period in 2019.
The researchers also analyzed data through spring 2021 from two of the largest help lines, in France and Germany. Call patterns in those two countries followed upswings and downswings in infections and government restrictions, and the concerns raised were similar to those early in the pandemic.
Strict lockdown and social distancing measures were linked with more calls due to fear, loneliness and suicidal thinking or behavior. Governmental financial support for workers who lost jobs and businesses that lost patrons had the opposite effect, alleviating distress and mental health concerns, the researchers said.
Karestan Koenen, a Harvard mental health researcher, said patterns linking a decline in calls with government assistance is an important takeaway for policymakers.
Analyzing help-line data is an incredibly creative way to assess mental health in the pandemic in an array of countries, she said. In the U.S., crisis help lines have been heavily promoted throughout the pandemic and that may have broadened their use, Koenen noted.
Concerns raised in the calls echo results from surveys showing the pandemics toll on mental health, said Judith Bass, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The idea that fear was part of the early manifestations both makes research sense but also logical sense, Bass said. The virus was an unknown that nobody had experienced before.
The study also showed how prevalent help lines are around the world, Bass said, and they are available in many more countries than were included in the study.
CHARIHO: Charihos girls and boys soccer teams both won Division II titles in dramatic fashion. The girls won in penalty kicks and the boys in the final two minutes of double overtime. The football team reached the D-III title game, as did the field hockey team. The girls volleyball team played in the D-II semifinals. Erin vonHousen was All-State in girls cross country.
STONINGTON: Stoningtons boys soccer team earned its second straight Class M state title, closing the season with 21 straight victories. The field hockey team lost in the Class S title game.
WESTERLY: Westerlys girls volleyball team reached the Division III semifinals, losing to eventual champion Scituate. The football team played in the D-II semifinals. The girls soccer team reached the D-III semifinals. Jake Serra and Kaya West were All-State in cross country.
WHEELER: Wheeler boys and girls soccer teams qualified for the Class S state tournament.
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Rents are rising at their highest level in 13 years as the number of tenants looking for homes outstrips the number of properties available.
The number of homes to let is 43 per cent below the five-year average, according to property listing site Zoopla, which has pushed up demand and therefore rents.
The typical rent increased 4.6 per cent year-on-year between July and September 2021, according to the property portal up from 3 per cent in the previous three months.
It takes 15 days to let a property on average, and the average monthly rent is 968.
The South West of England has seen rents increase the most, rising 9 per cent in a year
Excluding London, where the rental market has been hit by tenants leaving the city during Covid, average UK rental growth reached a 14-year high of 6 per cent in the third quarter.
However, there were signs that renters were returning to the capital.
After 15 months of consecutive falls, Londons rents swung back into positive territory, and increased by 1.6 per cent year-on-year, compared to annual falls of almost 10 per cent at the start of the year.
As well as landlords driving up rents, the increase can also be explained by tenants choosing to move into larger and more expensive homes, Zoopla said.
It said that the desire for more living space during the pandemic was reflected in the rental market as well as among homeowners.
Rents in London lets took a tumble during the pandemic, but they are now on the rise again
Grainne Gilmore, head of research at Zoopla, said: 'The swing back of demand into city centres, including London, has underpinned another rise in rents in Q3, especially as the supply of rental property remains tight.
'Households looking for the flexibility of rental accommodation, especially students and city workers, are back in the market after consecutive lockdowns affected demand levels in major cities.
'Meanwhile, just as in the sales market, there is still a cohort of renters looking for properties offering more space, or a more rural or coastal location.'
The shortage of rental properties has been caused in part by landlords choosing to leave the buy-to-let market, as a result of higher taxes and stricter regulations in recent years.
Competition: The number of homes to let is well below the five-year average, according to the property portal Zoopla, and this is leading to more demand and therefore higher rents
How do rents compare to earnings?
UK monthly rents now account for 37 per cent of an average income for a single tenant occupant, which is in line with the five-year average.
According to Zoopla, the regions registering the highest levels of rental growth were among those that are the most affordable and as such, there has been more room for rents to increase.
Rental growth is close to, or at, a 10-year high across most UK regions - except for in London and Scotland.
Those areas where rents have historically been cheapest are seeing the biggest increases
Year-on-year, rents increased the most in the South West of England (9 per cent), followed by Wales (7.7 per cent) and the East Midlands (6.9 per cent).
Rental demand also increased between July and September, as workers returned to offices which translated to an increase in tenants looking for homes.
Demand for lets in the central zones of Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds has at least doubled over the third quarter of the year compared to the first quarter, according to Zoopla, and in Birmingham demand has increased by 60 per cent - buoyed by the return of office workers and students.
Looking ahead to the new year, Zoopla said rents would continue to increase in 2022, as the shortage of rented homes and the strength of the employment market continued.
'While the level of rental demand might ease in the near term in line with seasonal trends, demand levels will remain higher than usual, especially in city centres, where there is an element of pent-up demand being released,' its report said.
It suggested that that rents could rise above earnings outside of the south of England, leading to a rise of 6 per cent in the UK excluding London by the end of 2021 and a rise of 4 per cent in 2022.
Meanwhile, it expected to London rental growth to be 3.5 per cent in 2022, with rents ultimately exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Im a 65-year-old widow, retired for six years and living on my private pension and savings. I was caught out by the rapid rise in womens state pension age. My husband died two years ago, aged 66.
He had paid towards his state pension all his working life and received it for just one year.
I have never had to rely on benefits, thankfully. However, I wonder if I could be entitled to any of my husbands state pension, more so as he received so little back.
S. S., Southwick, West Sussex.
Cuts: When the new state pension was launched on April 6, 2016, widows benefits were slashed to minimal amounts
Tony Hazell replies: This is an excellent question which I am sure will interest many who read this column. The short answer is that some people can inherit state pension. Generally, the older you are, the more generous the arrangement.
This isnt because the Government is being kind to the very old, but rather because widows benefits have been cut time and again.
In the most extreme cases, the widow of someone who dies in their late 80s could inherit more than 200 per week state pension, whereas one whose partner dies in their late 60s could receive nothing.
Lets start with your case. When the new state pension was launched on April 6, 2016, widows benefits were slashed to minimal amounts.
The top rate of new pension was 155.65 per week at launch. However, additional pensions accumulated under the old system such as graduated pension, Serps and State Second Pension meant some people could receive more.
Anything above the new state pension is known as protected pension, and widows can inherit half of this excess.
So, if someone started with a pension of 165.65, their partner could inherit half of the 10 excess a measly 5 a week.
The new state pension is now 179.60 per week, so someone hitting state pension age today would have to be entitled to more than this for there to be anything to inherit. I am afraid your husband did not have any protected payment, so there is nothing for you to inherit.
Different rules apply to those who were already drawing their pensions under the old regime on April 5, 2016.
For men born before April 6, 1951, and women born before April 6, 1953, their partners pension could be increased to as much as the full amount of the old state pension when they die.
This could give someone with no state pension a maximum of 137.60 per week, depending on their deceased partners National Insurance contribution record.
This will generally benefit women, as men from this era are more likely to have a full NI record. They can also benefit from their partners additional pensions these may be a maximum additional of 181.31 per week.
Half of the Serps built up by men born on or before October 5, 1945, and women born on or before July 5, 1950, can be inherited.
This gradually increases with earlier birth dates, hitting 100 pc for men born before October 6, 1937, and women born before October 6, 1942.
It is also possible to inherit up to 50 per cent of graduated pension, which ran from 1961 to 1975.
Older women especially should be aware of these rules, as any inheritance could give a vital boost to a widows pension.
You have YOUR say Every week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some about our article on how to claim cash if you hit a pothole: My son damaged his car on a huge pothole, but his compensation claim to the council was rejected. He then took it to the small claims court. The council didnt contest, so he won 1,200 by default. H. R., Bristol. The road outside my house was completely relaid around ten years ago and to this day it is still free of potholes. Other roads nearby have the same potholes which are patched up time and again. B. F., Winchester. Councils have waste collection vehicles which drive around every week, covering virtually every street under their control. Surely the drivers should be able to spot potholes and report them? R. E., Bexleyheath. Certain councils seem to prefer to spend money on bus lanes, pot plants and one-way systems. If more was spent on pothole repairs, less cash would need to be spent on extensive repairs to vehicles. R. R., Manchester. My council spent 3,000 in legal fees to defend a claim for 650. The judge said I hadnt proved the pothole I hit was at least 5 in deep and that I should have measured it. It was an A-road, so I would have risked my life doing this. A. A., by email. In my experience, most councils reject claims as a matter of policy and it works because a lot of claimants will give up. Persevere and you may find yourself successful. C. S., Gloucester. Its not just a damage issue. Potholes are a serious safety hazard for cyclists and motorcycle riders. The state of minor roads is shocking. D. E., Emsworth.
Where's godson's 2,500 investment?
My wife and I made an investment of 2,500 with Fidelity for our godson, who was born in 2001. His parents later separated, but we are still in contact with both.
They had to be the first and second named applicants, as we are not related. Now both deny any knowledge of the investment and I am struggling to get a response from Fidelity.
M. R., Hailsham.
Tony Hazell replies: Although your request was simple, it did throw up issues with the General Data Protection Regulation. You were not able to give Fidelity permission to speak to me because the account belongs to your godson.
However, Fidelity did speak with you directly to confirm that the account exists and arrange for your godson to be reunited with your generous gift.
You invested in Fidelitys Managed International Fund, which is now called Global Focus. Every 1,000 invested at launch would now be worth almost 6,500 if the income was reinvested, according to Morningstar.
This shows the power of long-term investing.
HMRC trying to grab an extra 2,232 of tax
Last year, you very kindly sorted out an ongoing dispute I have had with HMRC since 2017.
It had muddled me with another employee at the doctors surgery where I work, attempting to take too much tax.
This problem recurred at the beginning of this year. This time, HMRC is trying to take 2,232 in additional tax.
I have written twice to HMRC without reply. I have also phoned without success.
A. H., Horsham.
Tony Hazell replies: I remember your case well. Your employee number was mixed up with that of a higher-paid colleague, something which HMRC told you could not happen.
HMRC has contacted you to apologise that the same error has occurred again, and paid you 100 compensation.
It has now decided you are actually due a tax refund, which will be sent once it is calculated.
Straight to the point On September 28, I tried to move 50,000 into a bond with Allica Bank. My bank, Barclays, called to check the payment was genuine. The next week I discovered 42,000 had been transferred to my friend instead. J. S., Bedfordshire. You had attempted to pay this friend 42,000 in April 2020 but the money had been held because Barclays could not speak to you to complete fraud checks. When you approved the 50,000 transaction last month, the 42,000 payment was released. Barclays has now returned the money and offered you a goodwill gesture. *** My energy deal with Avro was supposed to be fixed until March next year, but my most recent bill came from a company called Octopus Energy and it seems to be charging me more. How is this fair? P. B., by email. Unfortunately, Avro went bust in September and Octopus Energy has now taken over your account. You have been moved on to Octopus Energys standard variable tariff. This is why your bills are more expensive. *** Cashback firm Complete Savings has taken 15 a month from my account for four years a total of 720. I inadvertently signed up in early 2016 and the payments only stopped last year when my bank card expired. I am struggling to get my money back. M. M., Campbeltown. After investigating, Complete Savings saw that you had not used the service and has refunded you as a gesture of goodwill. *** Mobile network Three has been charging me 35 a month for a Nokia phone I havent used in years. When I called Three, it cancelled the contract but refused to refund me for the previous payments. B. D., Oxford. The firm says it could not cancel your contract without your permission. It had tried to text your Nokia and a letter was posted to your address, but you never responded. You have now been refunded six months worth of bills as a goodwill gesture.
Three of Britains biggest companies saw their shares soar after a flurry of updates showed UK plc is thriving in the wake of the pandemic.
Almost 3billion was added to the combined value of drinks giant Diageo, shopping centre and office owner Land Securities and telecoms group Vodafone after they each said business was booming.
Johnnie Walker and Guinness-maker Diageo turned heads with an ambitious strategy to capture more of the global drinks market in the coming years.
Guinness-maker Diageo turned heads with an ambitious strategy to capture more of the global drinks market in the coming years
Vodafone said lucrative roaming fees were back on track and customers were snapping up new handsets again, while cautious investors breathed a sigh of relief as Land Securities bounded back into profit.
Each company saw their shares pop with Diageo reaching all-time highs despite the wider FTSE 100 lagging and finishing in the red.
Susannah Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: The FTSE 100 may have slipped into negative territory [yesterday] but it is masking a string of stellar performances.
The underlying trend is one of gathering momentum, as the recovery accelerates the demand for drinks, phones and office space and consumers show signs of being desperate to return to pre-pandemic ways of living, working and travelling.
Diageo jumped after it said it expects to smash profit forecasts in its current financial year and predicted sales would rise by 16 per cent. Shares rose 1.2 per cent, or 45.5p, to 3862.5p, but briefly hit 3948.5p.
The group has set itself a target to have 6 per cent of the global market share of alcoholic drinks by 2030. It has about 4 per cent.
Between 2023 and 2025, it has pegged growth to be between 5 per cent to 7 per cent a year.
The company was hit by the on-off closure of pubs, restaurants and bars for much of the last 18 months as governments brought in lockdowns and tight restrictions but is benefiting from reopenings worldwide.
Land Securities climbed by 3.7 per cent, or 26.2p, to 736.4p as boss Mark Allan said a recovery in the central London office market helped it return to profit.
It made 275million in the first half compared with a loss of 835million last year.
Its performance boosted rival British Land, which rose 3.1 per cent, or 16p, to 533.4p.
The property giant, which owns Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and the Piccadilly Lights at Piccadilly Circus, said businesses were keen to find new spaces even though many people are working from home.
And Vodafone was the top blue-chip riser, jumping 4.8 per cent, or 5.4p, to 117.92p, as it said customers finally felt comfortable enough about their finances to start buying handsets again. Phone sales slumped last year.
Total sales rose 5 per cent to 19billion, as the return of overseas travel meant revenue from roaming also climbed.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Tuesday to a ceasefire at their border, the Armenian defence ministry said, after Russia urged them to step back from confrontation following the deadliest clash since a war last year.
Armenia had asked Moscow to help defend it after the worst fighting since a 44-day war last year between ethnic Armenian forces and the Azeri army over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave that killed at least 6,500 people.
That conflict ended after Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, brokered a peace deal and deployed almost 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Turkey took the side of Azerbaijan, which regained swathes of land it lost in an earlier conflict.
In accordance with an agreement mediated by the Russian side, fire ceased on the eastern section of the Armenian-Azeri border, and the situation is relatively stable, Armenias defence ministry said.
Azerbaijans defence ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed the situation on the border by phone, the Kremlin said.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also spoke by phone to the Armenian and Azeri defence ministers by phone, Interfax news agency said.
The Armenian defence ministry said its troops had come under fire from Azerbaijan and that 12 of its soldiers were captured, while two combat positions near the border with Azerbaijan were lost.
Eduard Aghajanian, head of the Armenian parliaments foreign relations committee said that 15 Armenian soldiers had been killed.
The Azeri defence ministry said it had responded to large-scale provocations after Armenian forces shelled Azeri army positions, and that its own operation had been successful.
Frances French foreign ministry had said it was very concerned about the deteriorating situation and called on both countries to respect a ceasefire.
SOURCE: REUTERS
Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it is seeking U.S. authorization of its experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill that cut the chance of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of severe disease by 89% in a clinical trial.
Pfizer said it completed submission of its application for emergency use authorization (EUA) of the drug, Paxlovid, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including data from the drugmakers clinical trial -covid-19-by-89-2021-11-05.
The oral drug could be promising new weapon in the fight against the pandemic, as it can be taken as an early at-home treatment to help prevent COVID-19 hopitalizations and deaths. It could also become a important tool in countries and areas with limited access to vaccines or low vaccination rates.
It is not immediately clear when U.S. regulators will rule on Pfizers application. Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which are developing a competing pill, molnupiravir, completed their EUA submission on Oct. 11.
A panel of outside advisers to the FDA will meet to consider that application on Nov. 30, and it is expected to be available this year.
We are moving as quickly as possible in our effort to get this potential treatment into the hands of patients, and we look forward to working with the U.S. FDA on its review of our application, along with other regulatory agencies around the world, Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in a news release.
The New York-based drugmaker said it has begun the process of seeking authorization in several countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, and plans further international submissions.
Pfizer said earlier on Tuesday it will allow generic manufacturers to supply its COVID-19 pill to 95 low- and middle-income countries through a licensing agreement with international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
SOURCE: REUTERS
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Dubai's biennial Air Show opened Sunday to a world still reeling from the pandemic and an aviation industry hard-hit by the coronavirus, but on the mend.
Boeing and Airbus have traditionally been the stars of the aviation trade show, competing for multibillion-dollar Gulf-based airline purchases and hammering out final details minutes before back-to-back press conferences. This year, however, the five-day exhibition is expected to be more muted than in the past due to the subdued state of flying and travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather, the air show's first day drew eyes toward defense and military hardware from countries like Russia and Israel.
The day's blockbuster commercial deal by Airbus was a sale of 255 new aircraft to Indigo Partners' various low cost carriers. The agreement sees budget carriers Wizz Air purchase 102 new planes, U.S. Frontier with 91, Mexicos Volaris with 39 and South American JetSmart with 23. The package includes a mix of A321neo and A321XLR aircraft. At Airbus' pre-pandemic list prices, the order would clock in at well above $30 billion. The company declined to provide any details on the sale price.
Airbus also secured an order for two additional A330 aerial refueling aircraft with the United Arab Emirates' Air Force, bringing to five the country's Airbus multirole tanker transport fleet.
The star on the tarmac outside the exhibition hall was Russias Checkmate fighter jet, which was shown to the press in a custom-built hangar with a display of laser lights bouncing off a mirrored ceiling. The jet, with a baseline $35 million price tag, is a less costly competitor to the U.S. F-35, which the UAE has been trying to acquire since formally recognizing Israel last year in a deal brokered by the Trump administration. That sale has slowed under U.S. President Joe Biden.
In a dramatic promotional video, the Checkmate soared through burnt orange skies, blasting away targets in the desert as music blared in the background and a thundering voiceover rattled off the planes features.
"The idea was born as we used all the experience that Russia got during its Syria operations and many of the features of the aircraft came from realistic situations that we experienced," said United Aircraft Corporation CEO Yuri Slyusar through a translator at the unveiling. In Syria's devastating civil war, Russian fighter jets have supported President Bashar Assads forces.
UAC is a holding company of state-owned Rostec, Checkmates parent company. Production of the jet is expected to start in 2025.
Also, more than 100 American companies are exhibiting at the air show, including defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
We are committed to deepening and strengthening this vital strategic relationship, said Sean Murphy, the U.S. Embassy's charge daffaires. At the opening of the U.S. pavilion, he also thanked the UAE for its help in the U.S.-led evacuations out of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro roamed the tarmac outside the booth of iconic Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, inspecting the interior of the companys hulking C-390 Millennium transport aircraft, smiling and waving to crowds of reporters.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly surveyed the range of helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft at the Airbus pavilion, surrounded by French airmen in uniform.
Boeing brought its new 777-9 passenger jet from Seattle in the longest flight to date for the aircraft as it undergoes continued tests and awaits regulatory approval. Boeing says it will be the worlds largest and most efficient twin-engine jet. The Middle East's largest carrier, Emirates, has ordered 126 of this 777X, but the Dubai-based airline has expressed frustration with delays around its delivery, which is not expected before late 2023.
Airbus took journalists through a version of the A320neo, which had been converted into a luxury corporate jet replete with a large bed, walk-in shower and sprawling sitting area with couches and coffee tables. China's state-owned defense firm CATIC displayed a range of anti-aircraft missiles, munitions and fighter jets. An Emirati airman inspecting a U.S.-made Chinook CH-47 noted that the transport helicopter had been supporting Emirati forces on recent missions in Yemen and Afghanistan.
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Israeli companies displayed their hardware for the first time at the air show following Israel's normalization of diplomatic ties with the UAE last year. The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries company showed off a range of manned and unmanned naval and aerial drones.
Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems displayed its drone dome that detects and destroys drones with lasers. Emirati defense officials were seen asking about the range and weight of the anti-drone system at the Israeli pavilion. In all, six Israeli companies are taking part in the air show.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz described the UAE-Israel partnership as a strategic asset, saying in a statement that the Defense Ministry's participation reflects the deepening relations" between the two nations. The two countries share deep concerns over Iran, which is set to resume negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers.
The air show is taking place near Dubai's Al Maktoum Airport, a second and smaller international hub to Dubai's main airport, which is the world's busiest for international travel.
With vaccine rollouts ongoing in many nations worldwide, the airline industry as a whole is recovering from last year's roughly $138 billion net loss.
Still, the industry continues to face losses this year and next. The International Air Transport Association forecasts a net loss of $11.6 billion for airlines in 2022, and nearly $52 billion in losses this year.
Although commercial travel remains uncertain amid the pandemic, cargo volumes are already above pre-pandemic levels. Some airlines have ripped out seats on their grounded passenger flights and transformed their aircraft into cargo planes.
On the back of that growing demand, Boeing announced plans to add three conversion lines one in the U.K. and two in Canada to covert commercial aircraft to freight carriers. Boeing also signed an order with Icelease for 11 of its 737 freighters.
___
Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
ALBANY A pair of state senators from New York City, citing the case of a Maryland man sentenced to prison for murder, have proposed legislation that would ban rap music lyrics from being used as evidence against defendants in criminal cases.
State Sens. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, and Jamaal Bailey, D-Bronx, on Wednesday introduced a bill titled "Rap Music on Trial" that they said would "enhance the free speech protections of New Yorkers by banning the use of art created by a defendant as evidence against them in a courtroom."
"The legislation will protect all artists and content creators, including rappers from having their lyrics wielded against them by prosecutors," they said in a statement announcing the bill.
In January, a Maryland appeals court allowed prosecutors to use rap lyrics sung by Lawrence Montague as evidence against him at trial. Montague sang the incendiary lyrics while using a jail telephone and the person he was speaking to recorded it and later posted it on social media. Montague was convicted of killing a man during a drug deal and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Hoylman and Bailey also invoked the 2019 case of artist Daniel Hernandez, known as "Tekashi69," whose rap lyrics they said were used to compel him to become a government witness in order to avoid a more harsh sentence.
The lawmakers said their bill would "guarantee freedom of creative expression in New York by prohibiting prosecutors from using creative expression as criminal evidence against a person without clear and convincing proof that there is a literal, factual nexus between the creative expression and the facts of the case."
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"Art is creative expression, not a blueprint of criminal plans," Hoylman said. "Its time to end the egregious bias against certain genres of music, like rap, and protect the First Amendment rights of all artists."
Bailey said "free speech is enshrined in our federal and state constitutions because it is through this right that we can preserve all of our other fundamental rights. The admission of art as criminal evidence only serves to erode this fundamental right, and the use of rap and hip-hop lyrics in particular is emblematic of the systemic racism that permeates our criminal justice system."
The bill would create rules requiring a "valid nexus between the speech sought to be admitted into evidence and the crime alleged."
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and 11 other lawmakers sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss the northern border, supply chains and other joint issues.
"I appreciate Canadas partnership in reopening the Northern Border and have urged bilateral coordination and continued progress towards fully restoring cross-border travel," Stefanik said after the meeting.
Its not easy to take the city girl out of the city but NYC chef Hannah Wong is doing quite well in her new Hudson Valley home of Kinderhook in Columbia County.
Wong relocated in July to be the executive chef of a trio of food concepts in the Kinderhook Knitting Mill, a 19th century knitting factory turned culinary oasis. Under Wongs direction is a daytime coffee, tea, and lunch spot, Morningbird, which began serving lunch last week; a cocktail lounge called The Nest slated to open in spring 2022; along with a new Indo-Dutch restaurant, the Aviary.
Other shops will join the multi-purpose space: OK Pantry, a general store and soda fountain with a curated selection of Scandinavian and Japanese brands; and the Kinderhook Bottle Shop offering natural wines from smaller producers, both opening in December.
Wong, who is ethnically Korean and grew up with adoptive Chinese parents, is especially drawn to Southeast Asian flavors, which she explored while living in Hong Kong as a Fulbright scholar. After traveling through Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, she says, I fell in love with street food flavors and how vibrant everything was in those countries, in particular the great balance of spice, heat, acid, and sweetness. Im always making sure those different elements are balanced in my food, and theres a full flavor profile for each dish.
She spent the last 10 years cooking in New York City at high-end restaurants like dB bistro Moderne and Gramercy Tavern, before branching out on her own in 2019 with her friend and business partner Yen Ngo. Together they opened Van a, a modern Vietnamese restaurant in the East Village, which was recognized as a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide.
In 2020, just as the pandemic started, Wong was opening her own restaurant, Haema, in Brooklyn, with an eclectic menu of street food-inspired dishes from different parts of Asia. But at the last minute she backed out of the lease and turned Haema into a series of New York City pop-ups instead that riffed upon Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian flavors, sometimes through a western lens: surf and turf fried rice, pho short rib pappardelle, shredded duck spring rolls, kabocha-squash curry.
I was just really feeling like I needed to take some time for myself, she said. I was questioning the value of paying so much to live in the city. Also, its relentless and you dont have a lot of space for yourself. I had been thinking a lot about community and how to build community through the food that I cook.
The pull to Hudson Valley
Morningbird
Meanwhile, Ngo had already purchased a home upstate she still manages Van a in the city and bought the Kinderhook Knitting Mill space, along with local Darren Waterston.
The avian theme, says Kinderhook Knitting Mill creative director and manager Nic Der, took flight after Ngo and Waterson toured the soon-to-be Aviary space. The metal depot behind the mill served as a production facility during World War I when the textile mill shifted gears and began knitting hats, gloves and blankets for soldiers. The airiness of the space inspired the Aviary name; it was only later that the team discovered that there once was an aviary in Kinderhook.
Initially this project didnt appeal to Wong, but then pandemic mentality hit. I did not predict it. But I mean, thats the pandemic, right? It just taught us to be more flexible and think outside the box.
In March 2021, she accepted Ngos invitation to move up to Kinderhook to be the Aviarys executive chef as well as oversee the food at Morningbird and The Nest.
Related: 15 things to see. do, and eat on a day trip to Kinderhook
I had never thought about living upstate before, said Wong, who grew up in New Jersey. It just so happened that this was a good time in my life to make a move. I just packed my bags and moved up in the summer.
Between preparing lunch at Morningbird and preparing for the Aviarys opening, Wong is adapting to life upstate. She leased one of four large apartments in the Kinderhook Knitting Mill building.
It feels like night and day between here and New York City, she said. I go through stages where I feel quite lonely, and I miss my people, but as far as the physical space that it has allowed me Ive never felt so free.
And, of course, shes sampling the local food including Prospect at Scribners Catskill Lodge, and Harvest Smokehouse at Golden Harvest Farms in Valatie, where she now goes twice a week. Their barbeque is really solid, she said. Its very chill and theres a distillery on site.
Shes also a fan of Lil Debs Oasis in Hudson: I love how queer it is. I love the vibe. And the food is always on point. It just feels like an industry kind of restaurant. And shes digging the grilled cheese, craft beer, and homey vibe at Saisonnier in Kinderhook.
Another perk of Hudson Valley living has been the direct access to farms. Its been a great joy for me, Wong said. In the city you cant actually go to the farm and meet the farmer on their turf. Even working in a restaurant, theres a buyer who goes to the farmers market every day.
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Morningbird
Wongs favorites so far are Berry Farms in Chatham and Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, but she also has a soft spot for Troys farmers market. I thought it was just like the cutest thing. And I discovered lots of cool things like there was a fishery that had [smoked] scallops that I ended up using in my fried rice. And this small farm from the Berkshires that was making really incredible cheese.
While shes enjoying the local food scene, she said shes missing true Asian cuisine. She drives to Albany for Chinese food, something she cant find closer, and still travels to Queens for good Thai food.
This lack of diversity, especially when it comes to Asian culture, has been one of the hardest adjustments to her life upstate. Im just not seeing a part of myself reflected in the people around me, she said. Ive sort of adopted a lot of those flavors and that is just what my heart and stomach crave. The Asian population in Columbia County, where Wong lives, is just 2 percent, according to census data.
Infusing Asian flavors in planned menu
Fortunately, Asian flavors are in play at Morningbird, where the egg sandwich comes on a milk bun with lemongrass pork sausage, and the Thai herb salad uses local, slow-cooked trout.
The Aviary menu, meanwhile, is designed to be a mixture of Dutch the historical background of the area and Indonesian. I think the third part of that is the Hudson Valley, Wong said. We want to be working with purveyors here as much as possible. That means getting trout from the Hudson Valley Fishery and meat from Kinderhook Farms or Lovers Leap.
Although the Aviary menu is still in progress, its clear that Wong is infusing these local finds with her signature sophisticated Asian flavors.
The Indonesian rendang stew on the Aviary menu will feature local lamb over a coconut milk polenta, with seasonal vegetables and a spicy sambal sauce. Mackerel crudo will be paired with pickled onions, and beef tartare with smoked beets and lemongrass. Another appetizer, scotch quail eggs, is a perfect representation of the restaurants concept.
Quail eggs are very common in Southeast Asia, Wong explained. And I think wrapping them in sausage and deep frying them is very Dutch. We're going to serve it in a little fried root vegetable nest.
While Wong admits that she is still trying to tap into the rhythm of the town, shes excited to be there, and to be back in the kitchen.
I do feel like time moves differently up here, she said. I find that Im getting up a lot earlier, which is great, and as soon as its like 9 or 10, Im sort of done. Im trying to lean into the pace and the natural cycle of life up here, which I think is something my body is craving.
Shes even looking for a Hudson Valley spot to reopen Haema. Its a concept that I feel like I could open somewhere outside New York City, she said. So, were keeping an eye out on what towns are sort of up-and-coming and looking at spaces, she said.
And shes not alone. Definitely a few chefs I know are starting to spend more time upstate, she said. And thats pretty exciting.
When The Climb premieres Friday at the Madison Theatre in Albany, it will be the first production from Creative Action Unlimited that began as a film instead of a stage project. As with many things over the past 19 months, thank COVID for that.
Uncomfortable with live performances during the pandemic, the companys founder and artistic director, Michael Kennedy, knew she had to adjust to remain active and viable.
I really did not know much about film, she said. But I believe that collaboration is essential. So, when we realized during COVID that we needed to pivot to doing film the most important thing was to create a team that could fill in the gaps of my knowledge and talent.
She found that and more within the team she assembled to help mount The Climb, but dont let her sell herself short. A playwright and theater director, Kennedy has more than 35 years experience working on local stages, as well as in human services.
Pairing her two passions only made sense, and in 2015 she formed Creative Action Unlimited, a message-driven theater and now film company.
When I thought of the concept of the kind of theater I wanted to do, I really wanted to do theater about social issues to create community-wide change.
Those years of hard work, seven running a cash-strapped arts organization, did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm or dedication.
This is what Im known for. This is where my passion is, she said. Ive worked with disenfranchised populations my whole life. There is always more to say about social issues. And to help people see they can step in and make an impact.
The Climb is the perfect distillation of that mission. The third of Creative Actions productions to be filmed two existing stage shows were recorded it pairs well with the one that premiered last month, Whitewashed: The Racism Project. In The Climb, a diverse cast of actors examine the systemic economic oppression of Black people in America over the past 100 years.
The film, and the process of making it, has made a lasting impact on those involved.
Sara Paupini public interest lawyer by day, stage actress by night and weekend feels the significance acutely. After coming off a process like this that is so immersive and requires so much personally, artistically, so much trust, its very different to go back to the traditional theater format. My thought process has changed, the way I want to work has changed.
For others, the influence is different, but no less evident. Michael Lake, another actor both of stage and film, is biracial and grew up in a single-parent household. He said about future work, I think what Creative Action is doing for me is giving me a higher standard at which to hold myself, a level hes found on his next project. He does admit, however, It would be different if the next thing I was doing was like, Im the 'Black Guy' in the play. If it was that then, yeah, it would be a little weird.
Even deciding to audition for the movie brought forth varying responses. Lake remembered, I specifically auditioned for this piece because I wanted to do this work. Paupini showed more hesitancy: I was nervous. Im a white, middle-class woman. What could I add? My voice doesnt need to be amplified.
Tony Pallone, another actor well-known in the local creative community (as well as a writer and frequent contributor to the Times Union), had no trepidations about auditioning. It was the work itself that gave him pause. I was really uncomfortable and part of it was because it was challenging ideas that I have. It was making me think about things in ways I hadnt thought of them before. But those very conflicts became his fuel. I decided to use that kind of narrow-minded and privileged thinking and turn it into writing that I hope will speak to others like me.
Pallone, Lake and Paupini had all known of Kennedy or worked with her before, although not yet with Creative Action Unlimited. What they hadnt bargained for was the level of community and length of service that would be required to bring The Climb to fruition.
They, along with the other members of the cast, embarked on a more than six-month-long exploration of racial dynamics and personal stories. They crafted historical re-enactments, dramatic readings and monologues, many informed by their own lives.
Pallone went so deep with a passage about his own unconscious entitlement and inexperience with some of the social issues involved, he created a raw piece that he now has concerns about certain people seeing and hearing. Paupini mined her years in the trenches of policy and social change for authentic material. And Lake had to look no further than his own life as a Black man in the modern world.
Then the truly hard work began. It was the duration of time that we were working on the project that was the thing that I was unprepared for, Lake said, but acknowledged, having that long, drawn-out process was definitely beneficial, especially for this work because we had to be so honest with each other and we had to be so honest about how we felt about these things.
Paupini especially welcomed the process. What was so appealing about her projects is you spend a significant portion of the rehearsal process writing and crafting the piece. All of us were writers, too, which was new for me and awesome.
The actors are quick to praise their director.
If you go "The Climb" When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19-27 Where: The Madison Theatre, 1036 Madison Ave., Albany Info: 518-621-7122; themadisontheatre.com; creativeactionunlimited.com. Proof of vaccination required at door. See More Collapse
The way shes just produced these things so quickly, its just absurd, Pallone said. We wrapped filming at the end of September and were premiering this thing in November. She wants it available and its going to be.
Paupini added, She could say were going to the moon next week and Id be like, Yeah, were going to the moon next week. Shes just got that leadership quality that youre, like, All right, what do you need, what can we do. And I think people kind of gravitate to that energy and want to help make that a reality.
Kennedy returned the admiration. What a phenomenal group this was to work with. Incredibly talented, creative, open actors. Working within a devised theater framework, her actors serve more than just that one role. They are collaborators, writers, researchers, interviewers.
Theyre providing me with the material I asked for, she said. I have a vision, Im providing the guidance, Im creating the safe space for the work to be done, but the actors who work with us are not just acting. I think this approach to any creative project creates a sense of ownership among the group.
If it seems like Kennedy, a person with no film expertise, magically turned into a moviemaker overnight, shell be the first to tell you the real reason is the c word yet again collaboration. She brought in accomplished stage and film actor as well as jack-of-all-trades John Romeo as cinematographer. He, in turn, took the salary he was given and spread it among three other film professionals to help him and Kennedy give The Climb a high-end finish.
This shift to the film world, although planned from the beginning with The Climb, also brought epiphanies to Kennedy and her cast. She recalled being reminded several times by Romeo that the camera frames scenes instead of her having to do it herself as she does with plays.
Pallones surprise came from the gradual realization that there was no need to worry about entrances, exits and costume changes like with live theater. Of course, that will make it extra difficult when it comes time to, in his words, reverse engineer it now to make it a stage production.
And thats exactly Kennedys intention. The Climb, along with all CAUs previous productions, will be available for groups and organizations to host once the company feels comfortable again. In addition, the three movies can be found on the website.
When it comes to The Climb, though, its cast and collaborators want to make clear that it is not just some message-driven medicine. Lake said it has a certain sardonic humor to it, while Pallone offered, It feels very contemporary and current, despite grappling with a century full of societal ills.
But they in no way want to camouflage or confuse the meaning behind the film. I think its important for everyone to see it, Lake said. It isnt one of those things where theres a select group. No, allies need to see it, people of color need to see it.
Paupini added, If it makes you uncomfortable, if you roll your eyes, if you say, I dont need this, you need it. Other peoples perspectives have value. And just because you cant relate to it doesnt mean you shouldnt hear it and shouldnt at least try to understand that. Its not a falsehood, its a fact.
BALTIMORE (AP) Pope Francis' top envoy to the United States cautioned the country's bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians' support for abortion.
It is sometimes said that there is a lot of confusion about doctrine in the church today, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. However, the argument continues that what is needed is clear teaching. That is true, but the Holy Father says a church that teaches must be firstly a church that listens.
His remarks in the first public session of the gathering in Maryland came as bishops were readying to hold a vote on the document, which has been months in the making and has been surrounded by debate over the taking of communion by President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.
Some bishops argue that it's necessary to send a rebuke to such officials because it's a source of scandal and confusion for them to partake in the sacrament; others have called the document divisive and said it politicizes Communion.
Pierre focused on an initiative of Francis known as the Synod on Synodality, which will involve a series of dialogues in local churches around the world over the next two years.
As we listen to God and to one another, we learn," he told the U.S. bishops. The church needs this attentive listening now more than ever if she is to overcome the polarization facing this country.
A draft of the Communion document mentions abortion only once and doesnt identify Biden or other politicians by name, though it says at one point, Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.
The bishops discussed the document only briefly in open session Tuesday afternoon, with minor suggestions such as making it more accessible for children. No one brought up publicly the issue of politicians and abortion.
However the bishops have had ample time to talk about it more candidly privately in executive sessions that began Monday. Amendments continued to be offered up ahead of final debate and vote scheduled for Wednesday.
The conference cannot dictate a blanket policy on denying Communion to politicians; each bishop has authority in his own diocese.
While some bishops have said they would deny the sacrament to Biden, the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that the president is welcome to receive the sacrament there. Biden has said that Pope Francis, too, told him in a recent private meeting to continue receiving Communion.
The document would require a two-thirds vote for approval.
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the bishops conference, also spoke of listening in his opening remarks, saying he observed Americans being more willing to listen to the church.
After the disruptions of the pandemic, he said, many are searching for God and ready to listen once again to the word of truth.
Mark Sadd, chair of the National Advisory Council, also offered several cautions about the Communion document.
Summarizing reactions of lay people and religious order members on the committees, he said Communion should not be a tool for division or used for partisan purposes. He added that bishops must determine who their main audience is for the teaching, and to consider simplifying the document.
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The gathering is the bishops first in-person national meeting since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. in March 2020. Bishops were asked to wear masks during the session except when they approached a microphone to speak.
Protesters from rivaling political vantagepoints have targeted the gathering.
On Monday a coalition of liberal Catholic groups supporters of racial justice, womens ordination and LGBTQ inclusion protested outside the hotel accommodating the meeting, saying they oppose politicizing Communion.
And on Tuesday another protest, attended by a couple hundred people, was convened at a nearby pavilion by Church Militant, a conservative Catholic news outlet known for its criticism of Francis, its opposition to vaccination mandates and its claims that the church is too tolerant of homosexuality.
Abortion and homosexuality in the priesthood the two big issues killing the church, said one of the protesters, Shawn Marshall of Roanoke, Virginia.
Among the speakers at the demonstration was the Rev. James Altman, who was ordered by his bishop to resign as a parish priest in Wisconsin this year after a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic. Altman refused and raised several hundred thousand dollars from supporters to challenge his removal from public ministry.
The U.S. bishops have betrayed us, denied us, abandoned us, Altman told rallygoers.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The Louisiana inmate whose Supreme Court case was instrumental in extending the possibility of freedom to hundreds of people sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole when they were juveniles was freed on parole Wednesday after spending nearly six decades behind bars.
Henry Montgomery, 75, was released from prison just hours after the parole board's decision and went to the offices of the Louisiana Parole Project, a nonprofit which is supporting him after his release. There he was embraced by tearful staff and former juvenile lifers who were freed as a result of the court case that bears Montgomery's name.
It feels so wonderful," said Montgomery during an interview with The Associated Press. When asked what he plans to do now that he is out of prison, Montgomery said he wanted to pay his respects to his mother and grandmother and other family members who died when he was behind bars.
Montgomery had been convicted in the 1963 killing of East Baton Rouge sheriffs deputy Charles Hurt, who caught him skipping school. Montgomery was 17 at the time. He was initially sentenced to death but the states Supreme Court threw out his conviction in 1966, saying he didnt get a fair trial. The case was retried, Montgomery convicted again but this time sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He served decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
A three-member board voted unanimously in favor of parole. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held on Zoom with Montgomery appearing on camera at Angola.
Hes been in prison for 57 years. He has an excellent ... disciplinary record. He is a low risk by our assessment. Hes got good comments from the warden," said board member Tony Marabella as he voted to approve Montgomery's release with certain conditions including a curfew and that he have no contact with the victim's family.
Montgomery's release owes back to two specific Supreme Court cases. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentencing of life without parole for juvenile offenders was cruel and unusual punishment. But it didnt settle the question of whether that decision applied retroactively or only to cases going forward.
In 2016, the Supreme Court settled the matter when it took up Montgomerys case and extended their decision on such sentences to people already in prison.
The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and releases. Since the courts Montgomery decision, about 800 people who had been sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been released, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. But, until Wednesday, Montgomery remained in prison.
After the Supreme Court decision, he was resentenced in 2017 to life with parole and the state judge who resentenced Montgomery called him a model prisoner who appears to be rehabilitated. But then the parole board rejected his application two times, the most recent rejection coming in 2019.
Andrew Hundley is a former juvenile lifer who was released due to the Montgomery decision and went on to found the Parole Project in 2016 to assist people who have served long prison sentences reenter society. He said many former juvenile lifers who were released and were able to go on with their lives felt a collective sense of guilt that Montgomery whose case made their releases possible was still behind bars. For juvenile lifers still incarcerated, his release carries a different message, Hundley said.
For individuals who continue to be in prison, Henry gives them hope that they may be judged by who they are today and not the worst mistake they ever made," Hundley said.
The Parole Project will help Montgomery with housing, signing up for health care or medications, getting an ID card and learning how to navigate society. The reentry started with a cheeseburger, fries and an orange soda his first meal out of prison and his first cellphone which staff members said they would help him set up.
Montgomery also noted the huge changes that had taken place in Baton Rouge since he was incarcerated freeways that didn't exist decades ago, for example and said he didn't even recognize some places.
Shon Williams was on hand Wednesday to welcome Montgomery. He was a former juvenile lifer who served time in Angola with Montgomery. He recalled Montgomery taking a sign language class in prison that Williams taught despite his arthritis and Montgomery giving him advice in prison to never give up." Williams said he was holding back tears watching Montgomery on Wednesday.
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If it wasnt for him Id still be in Angola," Williams said.
During the hearing, Hundley and others spoke of what Montgomery had accomplished in prison including his years of work at the prison's silk screen shop and the length of his stay. He was also instrumental in establishing a boxing team.
His release was not without opposition. Hurt, the sheriffs deputy who Montgomery killed, was married and had three children. Two of his daughters have met with Montgomery in prison and forgiven him, but family members have opposed his release. A prosecutor from the area where Montgomery's crime occurred spoke against his parole as did one of the deputy's daughters, Linda Hurt Woods.
I do not believe that he should be released at this time," said Woods, saying that the decision shows deep disrespect to law enforcement officers. He made a decision at 17 years old. You know right from wrong at 17. I did.
Montgomery himself said little during the roughly half-hour hearing. He is extremely hard of hearing, and his lawyer often had to repeat questions from the board members. At times Montgomery said he was struggling to find words to express himself.
Im really sorry that I, that this happened," Montgomery said. I am going to have to live with this all my life, the rest of my life. Speaking later to the AP he said: I destroyed my life, they life and the people that I hurt," referring to his own family and that of the slain deputy's.
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Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union.
The move came a day after a melee broke out in the border crisis, with migrants throwing stones at Polish forces massed on their side of the razor-wire fence, injuring 12, and they responded with water cannons and tear gas. Warsaw accused Belarusian forces of instigating the conflict, while the government in Minsk denounced Poland's violent actions.
The migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been stuck at the border since Nov. 8. Most are fleeing conflict or despair at home and want to reach Germany or other western European countries.
The West has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis, which has seen migrants entering the country since summer and then trying to cross into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
On Wednesday, Polands Border Guard tweeted a video showing migrants with bags and backpacks being directed by Belarus forces away from the camp near the Kuznica border crossing, and Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said he had received information they were leaving on buses.
The Belarus state news agency Belta reported they were moved to a heated, warehouse-like building about 500 meters (yards) from the border near Bruzgi, giving them the chance to rest indoors after many days in tents.
One of them, an Iraqi Kurd named Miran Ali, took video in the warehouse and said Belarusian authorities told them they wouldn't be forced to return home. In response, the migrants chanted Belarus! Belarus! Belarus! in gratitude.
This is the joy and happiness of Kurdish people after they were told that they will not be sent back to Kurdistan by force, and that they can wait here until Germany or one of the cities in Germany take them there, Ali said as he recorded the video. These people are expressing happiness and optimism in this cold and ugly camp.
They sat on blankets, most still wrapped in heavy jackets and raincoats.
Belta reported about 1,000 migrants agreed Tuesday to move into the building to wait for the situation to resolve, and it quoted some of them as saying that they are not planning to return to their home countries. Most of the building's space was allocated for the migrants, who were offered food, water, medical aid, mattresses and pillows, the news agency said.
Some migrants opted to stay camped near the border. Polands Defense Ministry posted video showing people and tents there, with some smoke rising from campfires.
The next steps in the crisis are unclear. Although arrangements have been made for flights from Minsk to Iraq to repatriate those who want to return, it is uncertain how many will go. Iraq has appealed for its citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the EU is closed. The first flight from Minsk for the voluntary repatriation to Iraq is expected Thursday.
Belarus also released video from its State Border Committee, alleging it showed Lithuanian border guards with dogs pushing migrants away from the Belarus-Lithuania frontier Tuesday night.
Lithuania denied the claim, releasing its own video of the incident. It blamed Belarusian officials for pushing the group of 13 migrants toward the Lithuanian side and preventing them from returning to Belarus after being stopped by the Lithuanian guards.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Lukashenko for the second time this week, stressing that migrants should be given the chance to return to their home countries with the help of the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.
Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, denied Berlin was planning to bring the migrants to Germany. The road to Belarus is a dead end for most people who want to go to Germany. There are no plans to approve taking people in, he said.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said U.N. aid was starting to reach the migrants and it was important to ensure humanitarian agencies gain permanent access, even if it meant talking to Lukashenko, whose legitimacy is questioned by the West following a disputed 2020 reelection.
It makes sense to also talk to those who have the opportunity to change this situation in Minsk, even when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy, like all other European member states, Germany does not recognize, he said, adding that Merkel has coordinated with other EU partners and remains committed to the blocs stance of tightening sanctions on Minsk.
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Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said there is no military threat at the border from the primarily civilian police and border guards that are there to prevent illegal migration. The presence of the Polish military there is chiefly as a backup, he said on a visit to Montenegro.
Duda stressed that Poland won't accept any international decisions on the border standoff that are made without Warsaw's participation, referring to the talks involving Merkel and Lukashenko.
Information on both sides of the border is hard to verify due to government restrictions. A state of emergency in Poland is keeping journalists, human rights workers and others away from the border along a zone that is 3 kilometers (2 miles) deep, and Belarus limits the presence of independent journalists.
Estonia, which also is affected by migrant movements but to a lesser degree, said it would build a temporary razor wire barrier of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) on its eastern border with Russia as an interim security solution.
This northernmost of the three Baltic nations with a population of 1.3 million, Estonia shares a 294-kilometer (183-mile) land border with Russia and a 340-kilometer border with Latvia. It does not neighbor Belarus.
Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told broadcaster ERR on Tuesday that the crisis stems from Lukashenko's bid to be recognized by the West as president and have EU sanctions lifted, stressing they must stay in place.
In our view, it is important that the European Union remains united and exerts its influence on Belarus through action, Liimets said, adding new sanctions should be imposed as soon as possible.
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Salar Salim in Baghdad, Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed.
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Follow AP's coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
For leading the gut-renovation and overhauls of an 1871 church in Saratoga Springs and an 1881 commercial bakery in Albany into arts venues, Schenectady-based Proctors Collaborative has been named one of this years winners of an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award by the Preservation League of NYS.
The Clinton Avenue Historic Apartments project in Albany also received an excellence award from the league.
The Proctors-led conversions of the 19th-century buildings for its affiliates Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga and Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany overlapped significantly, with UPH opening just before the pandemic in winter 2020 and The Rep pandemic-postponed from its original opening of July 2020 to a March 2021 unveiling. The projects led by Proctors CEO Philip Morris; The Rep's producing artistic director, Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill; and Teddy Foster, executive director of UPH each cost about $14.5 million.
Proctors Collaborative is a vital resource for the Capital-Saratoga Region, Jay DiLorenzo, president of the preservation league, said in a statement accompanying Tuesday's announcement of the 10 annual awards.
Their high-quality performing arts programming reaches a large and diverse population, and the recent restorations and adaptive reuse projects in Albany and Saratoga Springs will allow them to better serve their audiences," DiLoreno continued. "Proctors has long demonstrated a commitment to preservation. Bringing these two very different buildings back to active use will undoubtedly have positive effects on their communities for years to come. The main Proctors theater, in Schenectady, received an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the preservation league in 2008.
Morris said in a statement, "What a fantastic honor. We celebrate our historic properties and their reuse as cultural and community centerpieces. Morris said the Proctors projects were recognized because they are models for how the creative reuse of historic but empty, deteriorating buildings can stimulate the creative and business economies of downtown neighborhoods.
The Rep performed in a rented property at 111 N. Pearl St., about four blocks south of its new home, starting in 1980, soon after relocating to Albany from the Catskills. It had long wanted to renovate 111 N. Pearl but opted to buy a building and move after the landlord refused to sell the property except as part of a package of buildings. It undertook an administrative merger with Proctors in 2011, fully coming under the Proctors umbrella a few years later.
After about 130 years as a Methodist church and then a Baptist church, the UPH building, at 25 Washington St. downtown in the Spa City, was condemned in 2000. A citizens group stepped in to save it. The organization became known as Universal Preservation Hall and affiliated with Proctors in 2015.
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Since 1984, the preservation league's excellence awards have recognized buildings, organizations, people and publications across the state that "exemplify best practices in historic preservation and recognize the people who are using historic preservation to build stronger neighborhoods, create local jobs, provide affordable housing, open our eyes to overlooked history and save the places that are special to all of us," according to the league.
The Clinton Avenue project in Albany was completed this past summer by Home Leasing, a Rochester-based company focused on affordable housing and community development. The $56 million project renovated 70 dilapidated rowhouses along Clinton Avenue and Ten Broeck Street into 210 apartments, 40 of which are set aside for those who formerly were homeless or are at risk of homelessness.
The other honorees announced Tuesday:
SUNY Broome Culinary & Event Center, Binghamton, Broome County
Arbor Gerard Block and the Carroll Street Warehouse Rehabilitation Project, Elmira, Chemung County
Steven Engelhar,| Keeseville, Clinton County
Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo, Erie County
Whitcomb's Garage Adaptive Reuse Project, Whallonsburg, Essex County
Green-Wood's Historic Chapel, Brooklyn, Kings County
Central Presbyterian Church Exterior Restoration, Manhattan, New York County
@syracusehistory (Instagram by David Haas), Syracuse, Onondaga County
Founded in 1974, the preservation league is the only statewide nonprofit focused on historic preservation in New York.
SARATOGA SPRINGS A public hearing this week to discuss the latest draft of a civilian review board proposal started with the council screening a video from July.
It showed protesters and police on Broadway, the city's main thoroughfare. As police advanced toward the protesters, the demonstrators started to move and disperse in the opposite direction. Police ran toward them, tackling some protesters to the pavement.
"I'm trying to put a spotlight on the egregious actions taken by SSPD and the city administration responding for pleas for justice for Black community members," said the unidentified Skidmore College student who sent the video to Mayor Meg Kelly and requested it be shown. "At that peaceful protest ... the police presence at this July 14 protest was huge. Over 20 police people and vehicles were there, yet they claim it was the protesters obstructing downtown activities. The Black community is falsely punished for SSPD's systemic transgressions. To say SSPD was protecting citizens is subterfuge."
The screening of the video Tuesday, allowed by Kelly, came the night after the state Attorney General's Office confirmed it was investigating city police for alleged civil rights violations. The showing of the video itself seemingly marked a shift in how the city has responded to activists' demands.
Typically, at meetings, protesters are limited to express their sentiments about policing to two minutes of speaking by the mayor, or in the extreme, removal from meetings by police. On Tuesday, Kelly let everyone speak for as long as they wanted.
Kelly did not return a Times Union phone call to explain her change of course. But Commissioner of Accounts John Franck speculates that the AG's office investigation and the election, in which Kelly's endorsed Republican candidates lost, prompted her change.
"She always cuts people off after two minutes," Franck said. "But at the last meeting about sidewalks in front of the Caroline Street Elementary School, she let them go on and on. It seemed like a double standard. ... A lot of people are angry and (it) can't be sustained meeting after meeting after meeting like that because our first vote was 10:05 last night. But you got to let people speak."
The dozen or so who spoke criticized the latest plan for the five-member civilian review board that will consider complaints about police misconduct, including abuse of power and excessive force. Many complained that the proposed review board does not have subpoena powers and the mayor would appoint its members, thus giving him or her too much power to stack the board.
The problem is we see it for show, said Anthony Brown-Davis, the man seen in the video sprawled on the ground with four police officers on him. You created a CRB with no subpoena power ... the problem is what you are going to propose and what you have written in the dark catacombs of this organization, you havent consulted with the people who need to be consulted.
Also critical was council member Franck, who wants the city to adopt the model that the city's Police Reform Task Force recommended last March. He was the only dissenting vote when the council would only approve the CRB "in principle" and said the city must move forward to giving the board subpoena power.
Thats a better start than what is being proposed, Franck said.
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Commissioner of Public Works Anthony "Skip" Scirocco said passing anything now would be a waste of time because the new council, coming in January, ran for office on a strong CRB and would toss out anything the current council would approve.
Thus, Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton's second attempt to formalize a plan without subpoena power was killed. But she cautioned before the meeting that she left out subpoena power for a reason.
"Putting subpoena power right off the bat is not the right move for this community," Dalton said. "It would be tantamount to a near- permanent delay" because it would trigger a lawsuit from the police union.
Despite the proposal being canned and the public hearing being closed, members of the public continued for another hour to comment on how police patrol protests. One woman was upset that a third of her tax dollars are going to police, who she said are treating people poorly.
"Justify where the police budget is going," she said. "They are terrorizing the Black community. If they will not be held accountable, the AG will."
SCHENECTADY SUNY Schenectady student trustee Dravid Seecharran is excited about the prospects of soaking up more of his Indian culture in an educational setting.
And a new partnership announced Tuesday between the university and one in India will afford Seecharran, who is of Indian descent from Guyana, and his peers here and abroad the opportunity to do that on everything from culinary arts and tourism to music.
Seecharan, 23, an aviation sciences major who also serves in the U.S. Marine Corps, said it almost seems like a natural fit that the two schools would be working together given the demographics in Schenectady and the region.
Being here at this college, Ive already seen it working with other countries and being part of India, its a good connection, he said, adding that the region has a lot of immigrants from both Guyana and Asia. The Indian population coming here, would feel connected, would feel at home.
SUNY Schenectady President Steady Moono, and Paul Dhinakaran, chancellor and co-founder with his father of the Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (KITT), formally signed a memorandum of understanding between the two schools.
Karunya, a spiritual concept in Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism among other religions, means mercy or compassion.
Moono said the international partnership is consistent with the school's mission.
This checks several boxes in our strategic plan many voices one cause, he told the small crowd at Elston Hall.
Specifically, he mentioned globalization, boosting enrollment and the school's efforts related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
I think its going to be a good partnership, a productive partnership, and frankly a well-thought out partnership, said Moono.
Dhinakaran said he was particularly impressed with the culinary program of SUNY Schenectady, and the music program, and we hope to have joint endeavors to begin those programs.
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Afterward, Moono said he and Dhinakaran began discussing the idea after a colleague who works with international student programs introduced them, which led to even more pointed conversations between their representatives about what that partnership would look like.
The next step is really mapping out the curriculum and also mapping out international students from Karunya who will be coming here, how that will work and all those logistics associated with that, said Moono.
Dhinakaran also talked about the two schools working jointly on research projects.
We have quite a lot of advancements in biotechnology, food sciences, and technology and engineering too, and off course well be happy to have joint research with the faculty members and students, and offer our labs and the Indian perspective for the research process, added Dhinakaran. We are looking forward to many beginnings and ultimately to care for humanity through this mission.
TROY A fight broke out at Troy High School Tuesday, leading to the arrest of five students, police said.
Troy police officers responded to calls for assistance from the school's security and the resource officer in the afternoon. Five youths were arrested and released, police said.
Jonathan Kuttab, an international human rights lawyer, recently came to Albany at the invitation of the local Palestinian Rights Committee and the New York State Council of Churches to speak about his book, "Beyond the Two-State Solution." Kuttab argues that a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is no longer viable and points a way forward where both Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs can live together with security, freedom and dignity in a single, multi-ethnic democratic state.
Kuttab is a co-founder of Al-Haq, an internationally recognized and respected human rights organization that has been critical of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Last month, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Al-Haq and five other leading Palestinian organizations as "terrorist" organizations. Israel has offered no credible evidence to support this claim, but the designation means that the Israeli military has the power to close the organizations' offices and arrest their members.
A federal judge has ruled that a Connecticut man convicted in the 1999 killings of an 8-year-old murder witness and the boys mother will not be getting out of prison anytime soon
A bill making it easier for Idaho residents to get worker compensation if they become ill after taking an employee-mandated vaccine has passed the House and is headed for the Senate
With a high-stakes case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and more forecasts calling for hot and dry weather, New Mexico's top water official says lawmakers can't afford not to adequately fund the state agencies that oversee water resources
[November 17, 2021] AnyDesk Raises Over 60m ($70m) in Series C Round Led by General Atlantic
AnyDesk, one of the world's leading providers of remote desktop software, has secured more than 60m ($70m) in Series C funding in a combination of primary and secondary investment led by its new strategic partner General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. Existing investors Insight Partners, EQT Ventures and Possible Ventures also participated in the round. With this investment, AnyDesk's current valuation reaches 600 million (ca. $650 million). The funds will help to further accelerate AnyDesk's growth as the company develops new products and scales its team. Achim Berg, Operating Partner at General Atlantic, will join the advisory board to support AnyDesk in further expanding into new markets globally. AnyDesk, based in Stuttgart, developed a proprietary software solution that provides users with secure remote access and delivers remote support on any device running across all major operating systems. AnyDesk capitalized on the accelerated shift to a hybrid working environment fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic and expects to pass the milestone of 500 million downloads in December 2021. In 2022, AnyDesk plans to offer its business customers even more functionality with a particular focus on enterprise features and localization for improved ease of use in markets across the globe. Philipp Weiser, Founder and CEO of AnyDesk, said: "It is our vision to help shape a more efficiently connected, digitized world, and our technology is one of the keys that will help us collectively get there without compromising on the reliability and security that our customers expect from us. We are proud to have such a renowned partner as General Atlantic on board for our journey. As an investor with a global reach, General Atlantic will help us to continue scaling and growing in new markets as we strive to connect a rapidly growing global audience through our technology." Achim Berg, Operating Partner at General Atlantic, added: "The tech industry is driving significant innovation in the German business landscape, particularly within the software and IT service sector. AnyDesk is a strong example of the agile, forward-thinking companies that are shaping Germany on a broad scale. We believe in the company's ability to create next-generation solutions that meet the needs of this new era of remote work and are thrilled to support Philipp Weiser and the AnyDesk team as they continue to set new standards for theindustry."
Christian Figge, Managing Director of General Atlantic, said: "We're thrilled to be partnering with AnyDesk on the journey ahead. We were particularly impressed by the activity levels on a global scale based on a technology stack that is built for a connected multi-platform, hybrid working environment world. We will support the company in further extending its offering for enterprise customers globally." About AnyDesk
AnyDesk is one of the world's leading providers of remote desktop software. The scale-ups innovative solutions have already been installed more than 500 million times. In 2020 alone, the number of downloads doubled, making AnyDesk one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Europe. The company is in more than 190 countries, with over 80,000 customers who rely on their software, including internationally renowned companies such as Bosch, McDonald's and Google (News - Alert). The Stuttgart-based company enables users a secure way to remotely access one device to another, with all common operating systems and from cell phones to mainframes. The key factor in AnyDesk's success story is its high, memory-efficient image quality, which enables users to work fluidly with bandwidths as low as around 100 kbps. With this product feature, AnyDesk scores over its global competitors. Further Information: Website | Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
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 445 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 $78 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of June 30, 2021, and more than 215 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto (News - Alert), Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005509/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Axiom Space reveals robust microgravity research portfolio for first-ever private mission to visit International Space Station
The crew activities of Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) will focus on science, education, and outreach, conducting approximately 25 experiments while onboard the ISS
Critical data from studies in human research, life and physical sciences, technology demonstrations, and Earth observation will expand the applicability of microgravity research to new sectors
The crew has submitted over 100 hours of human-tended research to conduct during their stay on station. HOUSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Axiom Space, a leader in human spaceflight and human-rated space infrastructure, announced today the research underpinning its historic Ax-1 mission targeted for launch to the International Space Station in February 2022. On the first fully private mission to ever visit the ISS, the multinational crew of four private astronauts with Axiom's Michael Lopez-Alegria as commander will pioneer a new phase of microgravity utilization amongst non-government entities laying the groundwork for a full realization of low-Earth orbit's possibilities and bringing critical findings back down to Earth. "Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbit's potential for breakthrough innovation and Axiom was founded to push that envelope first with private astronaut missions to ISS, followed by the launch and operation of the world's first commercial space station, and eventually the creation of a rotating city in space and scaled human presence in orbit," said Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space. "We applaud the Ax-1 crew's commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap. We're confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making space's potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time." Ax-1 Mission Research Larry Connor, Ax-1 mission pilot, entrepreneur, and non-profit activist investor, on behalf of Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic: Connor's research projects are the result of long-time partnerships with Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. The Ohio native has helped fund groundbreaking research at both institutions for much of the last decade. Connor's experiments on behalf of Mayo Clinic would provide data on space travel's impact on senescent cells and heart health. Connor is expected to be in charge of maintaining senescent cells cells that have stopped dividing at the ISS. These cells are linked to multiple age-related diseases. "Ninety-five percent of what we're trying to do is to benefit people on Earth," said James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic. "I work in geriatrics. I never thought I'd be working with people headed to space; yet here we are." Connor's ground research with Cleveland Clinic consists of pre- and post-mission high-resolution MRIs to study the effects of the spaceflight environment on spinal and brain tissue. "This is a ground-level attempt to learn what kinds of effects space travel will have on civilians across a spectrum of ages," said Thomas E. Mroz, MD, the Director of the Center for Sine Health and Director of Spine Research at Cleveland Clinic. "There's so much to learn. How long can people stay in space? Or what do they need based on their health, etc."
Mark Pathy, Ax-1 mission specialist, on behalf of The Montreal Children's Hospital, Canadian Research Universities and The Royal Canadian Geographical Society: Under the theme "Caring for People and the Planet," Mark Pathy is expected to take part in scientific research projects in partnership with six Canadian universities and their investigators, as well as proof-of-concepts with two tech startups including the world's first in-space demonstration of two-way holoportation a mixed reality app for special lenses that receives two-way 3D projections as a hologram to communicate between users remotely. He plans to conduct Earth observation activities in partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Western University.
A number of research projects supported by Pathy are led by the clinician-researchers at The Montreal Children's Hospital and Child Health Research at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, including research that aims to help unravel the mysteries surrounding chronic pain and sleep disturbances during space travel, an environment characterized by microgravity, exposure to radiation, and isolation. "I thank Mark Pathy for using the Ax-1 mission to champion the transformational role of philanthropy and research. The Montreal Children's Foundation will benefit from Mark's efforts to help create brighter futures for sick newborns, children, teens, and pregnant women in Montreal and around the world," said Renee Vezina, President of The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. Pathy is expected to take part in additional research projects with other universities across Canada, including research led by Universite de Montreal on Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), which manifests through changes in visual acuity experienced by many astronauts on long-duration space flights and is considered a risk for deep space exploration. Additional research projects are conducted in partnership with researchers at UBC, Ontario Tech, Simon Fraser University, and University of Calgary, which were selected following consultations facilitated by the Canadian Space Agency with the space research community. In addition to human research, Pathy plans to lead Earth observation activities which will contribute to further analysis of the impact of climate change, urbanization, and other factors on the ecology and human habitation of North America. This is led by Western University as well as The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS). He is taking part in a program by RCGS that is intended to engage national and international audiences in addressing the environmental health and sustainability of the Great Lakes and their ecosystem, promoting conservation, restoration, protection, and reconciliation with the water, the land, and the Indigenous peoples of the watershed. Pathy has also integrated additional educational initiatives into his Ax-1 activities, providing STEM curriculum to more than a dozen high schools across Canada. "I am extremely proud of our partnership with Mark, and also delighted to welcome him in the Society's College of Fellows," said John Geiger, CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. "The unique perspectives Mark will be contributing from space will help build a lasting legacy of learning tied to the protection and conservation of our Canadian ecosystem long after his mission is complete," he added. Eytan Stibbe, Ax-1 mission specialist, social impact investor, and Israeli philanthropist, on behalf of the Ramon Foundation and in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency in the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology: Stibbe plans to take part in Ax-1 on behalf of the Ramon Foundation and in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency in the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology. His mission is named "Rakia," after the dome (atmosphere) created by God on the second day after the firmament, which protects life on Earth. During his mission, he will facilitate scientific experiments and will conduct educational and artistic activities to connect the younger generation in Israel and around the globe on the values of peace, innovation, and social responsibility. For the first time, an astronaut will represent Israelis on the International Space Station in Hebrew. The "Rakia" mission marks another milestone in the participation of Israel in human space exploration. "The 'Rakia' mission is a unique opportunity for Israeli entrepreneurs and researchers to advance innovative ideas and will provide a rare platform for them to test their enterprises in a unique study environment, thereby contributing to the international and Israeli research ecosystem," said Inbal Kreiss, Chairwomen of the Scientific and Technological Committee and Head of Innovation of Systems Missiles and Space Group at Israel Aerospace Industries. "The mission gives expression to international collaborations between the world's most prominent academic and research institutions, start-ups and tech companies, medical institutions, and more." "A groundbreaking number of experiments were chosen by a scientific and technological committee and integrated with NASA. The experiments are innovative and trailblazing, arising from diverse disciplines astrophysics, agriculture, optics, communication, biology, healthcare, neurology, and ophthalmology and were chosen based on their potential impact on research and innovative approach. They are expected to lead to technological, scientific, and medical breakthroughs that will impact the quality of human life on Earth and the future of humanity's long-term missions beyond Earth." About Axiom Space Axiom Space is guided by the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human, everywhere. The leading provider of human spaceflight services and developer of human-rated space infrastructure, Axiom operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while privately building its successor a permanent commercial destination in Earth's orbit that will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home. More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com.
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[November 17, 2021] Babel Street Named a Northern Virginia Technology Council Tech 100 Honoree
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Babel Street , the world's leading AI-enabled data-to-knowledge company, has been recognized as a Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) 2021 Tech 100 Company Honoree. Each year, the NVTC Tech 100 awards recognize the top companies and individuals in the national capital region who are driving tech innovation, leading economic growth, and making a positive impact in the community and industry. "This year our industry continued to face unprecedented challenges, but at Babel Street, we adapted and remained focused on empowering our customers' missions and driving technological innovation," said Jeff Chapman, founder and CEO of Babel Street. "We are honored to be recognized as a third time Tech 100 winner from the Northern Virginia Technology Council and are inspired to advance our field and contribute to the region." Babel Street has a deep dedication to perpetual innovation and utilizes unique multilingual AI-driven search capabilities, backed by rigorous data privacy standards. Babel Street focuses on empowering customers with real-time analysis of mssion-critical information to drive successful outcomes. The company's commitment to innovation resulted in recognition for its virtual training hub, Babel University, by the 2021 Brandon Hall Group Gold and Silver awards for Excellence in Learning.
"While our nation continues to adapt to our new normal of living during a global pandemic, I am pleased that Virginia continues to be a leading tech hub of flourishing businesses and career opportunities. I am proud to announce that Babel Street is a 2021 NVTC Tech 100 honoree and is a key contributor to making our region a vibrant and inclusive place to live, work and learn," said Jennifer Taylor, president and CEO of NVTC. NVTC's Tech 100 program attracted 130 nominations across three categories: Company, Executive and NextGen Leader. Of the 64 company honorees, Babel Street was selected by an esteemed panel of judges due to the company's commitment to data stewardship and capabilities in driving innovation for its customer teams.
Babel Street was also named an NVTC Tech 100 company in 2020 and 2019. For more information on Babel Street and leadership, please visit: www.babelstreet.com . About Babel Street Babel Street is the world's leading AI-enabled data-to-knowledge company. The company's technology allows customers to rapidly discover and decipher the insights they need to empower their missions, regardless of origin, language or platform. Babel Street's patented analytics software transforms the most relevant insights for our customers through AI-enabled, cross-lingual, conceptual and persistent search of information from around the world. State-of-the-art linguistics technology deciphers actionable insights from public or private data sources unbound by origin or language. With Babel Street, governments and organizations empower their teams with critical and timely insights on a single pane of glass for immediate analysis, action, and mission success. Babel Street software serves as a force multiplier for customers to uncover threats and opportunities known and unknown, foreign or domestic, physical or cyber and make the world a safer, more prosperous place. Babel Street is privately held and is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area, with offices in London, Canberra and Ottawa. For more information, visit www.babelstreet.com . View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/babel-street-named-a-northern-virginia-technology-council-tech-100-honoree-301426475.html SOURCE Babel Street
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[November 17, 2021] BigBear.ai Announces Leadership Appointments
BigBear.ai, a leading provider of artificial intelligence ("AI"), machine learning, cloud-based big data analytics, and cyber engineering solutions, today announced three strategic leadership appointments to support the Company's growth: Samuel Gordy has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer and President of Federal , effective November 1, 2021;
has been appointed as , effective November 1, 2021; Jeffry Dyer has been appointed as President of Commercial , effective November 1, 2021; and
has been appointed as , effective November 1, 2021; and Claire Morse has been appointed as Chief Human Resources Officer, effective October 18, 2021. "As we continue to execute our growth strategy and prepare to emerge as a publicly traded company later this year, we are focused on attracting and retaining top-notch talent with the skills and expertise to accelerate our progress and ensure we enter the public market on strong footing," said Dr. Reggie Brothers, Chief Executive Officer of BigBear.ai. "We are thrilled to welcome Sam, Jeff and Claire to BigBear.ai and look forward to working with them as we bring our operationalized AI solutions and decision support technology to more organizations in both public and commercial markets." As COO and President of Federal, Samuel Gordy will oversee BigBear.ai's day-to-day business operations and will design, build, manage, and scale the organization to facilitate BigBear.ai's evolution to the next stage of successful and profitable growth in the Federal division. Gordy brings deep experience overseeing the maturation of product strategy in publicly traded companies that do business with the federal government. He joins BigBear.ai from IBM (News - Alert), where he had worked since 2016, most recently as General Manager and Chief Strategy Officer, US Public and Federal Market and previously as General Manager, US Federal and Government Industries. Prior to that, he served in increasingly senior leadership and operational roles at Leidos and SAIC (News - Alert) and served as a US Naval Intelligence Officer. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and received an MBA from George Washington University. As President of Commercial, Jeffry Dyer will be responsible for all aspects of BigBear.ai's growing business in the commercial sector, including oversight of the P&L and leadership of sales, marketing, and product development functions. He brings more than 30 years of sales management and technical sales experience, most recently serving as the Senior Vice President of North American Sales & Operations at Sisense, Inc., a position he had held since 2018. Prior to that, Dyer held a series of senior sales management positions at companies including Skytap, MicroStrategy, EndPlay, Intershop Communications, SAP (News - Alert) America, and Adobe Systems. Dyer attended Seattle University. As Chief Human Resources Officer, Claire Morse will drive strategic human resources initiatives across BigBear.ai's Federal and Commercial divisions, focusing on integration, strategy, and the direction of human resources-related functions. Morse brings extensive human resources leadership experience in technology and government contracting and has a track record of leading human resources functions through mergers and acquisitions. She joins BigBear.ai from Salient CRGT, Inc., where she worked since 2015, most recently as Vice President, People & Culture. Prior to that, she held human resources and employee relations management roles at Bechtel Global Corporation and ManTech International (News - Alert). She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Renewable Natural Resources Policy from Texas A&M University and received her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law. About BigBear.ai
A leader in decision dominance for more than 20 years, BigBear.ai operationalizes artificial intelligence and machine learning at scale through its end-to-end data analytics platform. The company uses its proprietary AI/ML technology to support its customers' decision-making processes and deliver practical solutions that work in complex, realistic and imperfect data environments. BigBear.ai's composable AI-powered platform solutions work together as often as they stand alone: Observe (data ingestion and conflation), Orient (composable machine learning at scale), and Dominate (visual anticipatory intelligence and optimization). BigBear.ai's customers, which include the U.S. Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, the U.S. Federal Government, as well as custmers in the commercial sector, rely on BigBear.ai's high value software products and technology to analyze information, identify and manage risk, and support mission critical decision making. Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, BigBear.ai has additional locations in Virginia, Massachusetts, Michigan, and California. For more information, please visit: http://bigbear.ai/ and follow BigBear.ai on Twitter: @BigBearai.
Participants in Solicitation
BigBear.ai, GigCapital4 and their respective directors and executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitations of proxies from GigCapital4's stockholders in respect of the proposed business combination and related transactions. Information regarding GigCapital4's directors and executive officers is available in its final prospectus prepared and filed with the SEC (News - Alert) on February 10, 2021 under Rule 424(b)(4) promulgated by the SEC pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and related to its previously filed Registration Statement on Form S-1. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests is contained in the definitive proxy statement related to the proposed business combination and related transactions, and which can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Additional Information and Where to Find It
In connection with the proposed business combination, GigCapital4 has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a definitive proxy statement under the rules of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). GigCapital4 will subsequently mail a definitive proxy statement relating to the proposed business combination to its stockholders. This press release does not contain all the information that should be considered concerning the proposed business combination and is not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any other decision in respect of the business combination. Additional information about the proposed business combination and related transactions will be described in GigCapital4's proxy statement relating to the proposed business combination and the respective businesses of GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai. The proposed business combination and related transactions will be submitted to stockholders of GigCapital4 for their consideration. GigCapital4's stockholders and other interested persons are advised to read the definitive proxy statement and other documents filed in connection with GigCapital4's solicitation of proxies for its special meeting of stockholders to be held to approve, among other things, the proposed business combination and related transactions, because these materials will contain important information about BigBear.ai, GigCapital4 and the proposed business combination and related transactions. The definitive proxy statement and other relevant materials for the proposed business combination will be mailed to stockholders of GigCapital4 as of October 5, 2021, which has been established as the record date for voting on the proposed business combinations and related transactions.
Stockholders may also obtain a copy of the definitive proxy statement, as well as other documents filed with the SEC by GigCapital4, without charge, at the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to Brad Weightman, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, GigCapital4, Inc., 1731 Embarcadero Rd., Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA 94303, or by telephone at (650) 276-7040. Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of other financial and performance metrics, projections of market opportunity and market share, and the timing of the consummation of the business combination. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of management of GigCapital4 and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of GigCapital4. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the proposed business combination, including the risk that any required regulatory approvals are not obtained, are delayed or are subject to unanticipated conditions that could adversely affect the combined company or the expected benefits of the proposed business combination or that the approval of stockholders is not obtained; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed business combination; risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to BigBear.ai; risks related to the rollout of BigBear.ai's business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on BigBear.ai's future business; the amount of redemption requests made by GigCapital4's public stockholders; the ability of GigCapital4 or the combined company to issue equity or equity-linked securities in connection with the proposed business combination or in the future. If any of these risks materialize or GigCapital4's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" and in other sections of GigCapital4's filings with the SEC, and in GigCapital4's current and periodic reports filed or furnished from time to time with the SEC. There may be additional risks that neither GigCapital4 nor BigBear.ai presently know or that they currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release, based on information available to GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai as of the date hereof. GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. While GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, GigCapital4 and BigBear.ai specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing GigCapital4's and BigBear.ai's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005554/en/
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[November 17, 2021] British company FarrPoint helping the Government of New Brunswick identify cellular connectivity issues
EDINBURGH, Scotland, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - Digital connectivity consultancy FarrPoint is working with the Government of New Brunswick in Canada, the largest of Canada's three maritime provinces, to deliver a new cellular mapping project across the roads of the 72,908 km province. With New Brunswick's residents and businesses reporting cellular connectivity issues, the Government of New Brunswick has turned to FarrPoint and its Cellular Coverage Mapper tool to capture an accurate picture of the province's current connectivity availability and "not spots". The outcomes of the six-month project will inform the government's policy decisions. FarrPoint's innovative Cellular Coverage Mapper is an autonomous network monitoring tool that provides real-life performance statistics of all available cellular networks. When the mapping is complete, the Government of New Brunswick will have an accurate and reliable understanding of cellular LTE (4G) connectivity across more than 32,000km of roads in the province many of which are in rural and sparsely populated areas where residents depend on connectivity to thrive and prosper particularly important with the significant rise in remote working. The Mapper comprises a small device with magnetic antennas that is placed on the roof of a vehicle and can track the local connectivity levels on the routes it takes. Crucially, unlike other solutions, it does not reuire the expertise of engineers or technicians to man a vehicle with specialist equipment and can be fitted into any vehicle as it drives the route of interest. In many deployments, local governments have placed these on garbage trucks, maximising the use of local vehicle infrastructure to complete the mapping programme. FarrPoint continuously collates and processes the data through its mapping servers as the drives are undertaken, enabling a true picture of cellular network performance to be built. These real-life measurements will supplement the detailed desk top technical modelling which FarrPoint will complete of predicted coverage from the range of cellular towers across the province.
Hon. Ernie Steeves, Minister of Finance with the Government of New Brunswick, said: "Connectivity is a key and basic requirement of living in an area as sparsely populated as New Brunswick. The insight we gain from this project will help us make informed decisions as to how to improve connectivity for our 789,000 residents." Dr Andrew Muir, CEO of FarrPoint, said: "This is exactly the type of project we had in mind when we created our Cellular Coverage Mapper tool. Rather than just relying on carrier data, which makes it difficult to build an accurate, real-life picture of connectivity, the Government of New Brunswick will, at the end of this project, have a holistic view of connectivity in the province and will be able to make more informed decisions as a result.
"With more than 32,000km of road to survey, this will be no small feat but, having delivered many similar projects across the UK including the Highlands and Islands of Scotland we know how valuable this data is in resolving longstanding connectivity issues in rural locations." The project is FarrPoint's first in Canada since opening its an office in Halifax, Nova Scotia early 2020. To date, the business has advised on more than 3.5bn worth of connectivity infrastructure projects, including 1.5 billion in the past year. In the same period, FarrPoint has seen revenues grow by 22% thanks to a number of new clients across multiple sectors. About FarrPoint FarrPoint is an independent technology consultancy which specialises in digital connectivity. It provides independent advice on the commercial and technical considerations of the design of national and regional connectivity strategies, technical planning and modelling, procurement support and implementation assurance. The team comprise a mix of consulting technologists, economists and data scientists who work together to provide experience, expertise and complementary resource to clients in the public and private sectors. www.farrpoint.com @farrpoint View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/british-company-farrpoint-helping-the-government-of-new-brunswick-identify-cellular-connectivity-issues-301426690.html SOURCE FarrPoint
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[November 17, 2021] CTL Hires Mark Jorgensen as New Marketing Manager
PORTALND, Ore., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CTL announced today that Mark Jorgensen has been hired as its new Marketing Manager in support of CTL's US and global sales and marketing organizations. Based out of CTL's US headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon,, Jorgensen will manage CTL's marketing team focusing on demand generation, content marketing, brand awareness, and sales enablement. Jorgensen previously served as a Brand Strategist for Rains | Birchard Marketing where he provided brand strategies for clients in the commercial vehicle industry. Prior to joining CTL, Jorgensen served as Senior Marketing Manager at Consolidated Metco (ConMet), a market leading provider of commercial vehicle components, where he managed global marketing activities. "Mark brings a strong B2B marketing background to CTL, and his skill set will be a valuable addition to our team as we continue to grow and expand into new markets," noted CTL CEO Erik Stromquist. p>Jorgensen, who will report to CTL's Chief Revenue Officer, Mike Mahanay , earned a Bachelor's Degree in Advertising from University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications, and a certificate from the Strategic Innovation Program at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
About CTL
CTL has been manufacturing best-in-class Chromebooks, Laptops, Desktop PCs, Computer Displays, Workstations, and High-End Servers since 1989. CTL's rugged Chromebooks for Education, Chromebox, and Chromebook Tablets have received widespread recognition from noted tech publications such as PC Magazine, ChromeUnboxed.com, Android Police, Android Central, CNET, and Laptop Magazine. CTL's headquarters, sales, and support teams are located in the United States. CTL is a Google for Education Premier Partner, and an Intel Technology Program Platinum Partner. For more information about CTL and to purchase CTL products, visit us at ctl.net . Contact: Mike Mahanay
Email: [email protected]
Number: 800-642-3087
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ctl-hires-mark-jorgensen-as-new-marketing-manager-301425971.html SOURCE CTL
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[November 17, 2021] Desktop Metal Founder and CEO Ric Fulop to Present at the Credit Suisse 25th Annual Technology Conference
Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM) announced today that Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO, will present at the Credit Suisse 25th Annual Technology Conference on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 3:40 p.m. MST in Scottsdale, Arizona. A live webcast of the presentation will be available online from a link at the Events and Presentations section of Desktop Metal's investor relations site, accessible at www.ir.desktopmetal.com. Desktop Metal recommends registering at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the presentation to ensure timely access. A replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of the live presentation at this same website. About Desktop Metal Desktop Metal, Inc., based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is accelerating the transformation of manufacturing with an expansive portfolio of 3D printing solutions, from rapid prototyping to mass production. Founded in 2015 by leaders in advanced manufacturing, metallurgy, and robotics, the company is addressing the unmet challengesof speed, cost, and quality to make additive manufacturing an essential tool for engineers and manufacturers around the world. Desktop Metal was selected as one of the world's 30 most promising Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum, named to MIT (News - Alert) Technology Review's list of 50 Smartest Companies, and the 2021 winner of Fast Company's Innovation by Design Award in materials.
For more information, visit www.desktopmetal.com. Forward-looking Statements:
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks, uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document, including but not limited to the risks and uncertainties set forth in Desktop Metal, Inc.'s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Desktop Metal, Inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005863/en/
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[November 17, 2021] EarlyBird Education Selected as a Regional Semi-Finalist in the Global EdTech Startup Awards 2021
The Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESAwards), the largest edtech competition and community in the world, has chosen EarlyBird Education as a 2021 Regional Semi-Finalist. EarlyBird Education is one of nine companies from the United States and Canada selected to participate in the East Coast Semi-Finals. The GESAwards identify, showcase, and recognize the world's most promising edtech startups. Competition criteria include: address a clear pain point that is relevant to the market, provide an innovative pedagogical approach, offer a relevant user experience, show potential for growth based on a sustainable business model, and demonstrate product viability. EarlyBird Education is the maker of the EarlyBird game-based early literacy assessment. Developed and scientifically validated at Boston Children's Hospital in partnership with faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research, EarlyBird brings together all the relevant predictors of reading in one easy-to-administer assessment. It helps educators identify and support children at risk for dyslexia and other reading difficulties - even before they learn to read.
"It is an honor for EarlyBird Education to be selected as a GESAwards Regional Semi-Finalist and to receive this recognition for the EarlyBird platform," said EarlyBird Education Co-founder and CEO Carla Small. "EarlyBird Education was formed to change the learning trajectory of children worldwide by helping educators identify and address reading difficulties when they can be most successfully overcome. Being part of this prestigious competition will help us showcase EarlyBird and its benefits to a wider audience in the edtech community and accelerate our efforts to transform students' lives." Winners of the GESAwards regional events will go to the global finals event in January 2022. The GESAwards program provides the opportunity to startups from any corner of the world to showcase their products to a global audience, connect and build significant partnerships, facilitate business opportunities, and compete toward being crowned the best edtech startup of the year.
About EarlyBird EarlyBird transforms students' lives through the early detection of reading difficulties, including dyslexia. The cloud-based technology platform includes a game-based screening assessment and dashboard that points teachers to customized action plans and evidence-based resources. With EarlyBird, educators can identify children at risk for reading difficulties in the window when intervention is most effective - before they formally learn to read. For information, visit https://earlybirdeducation.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005200/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Enterprise Communications and Collaboration Professionals to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Enterprise Connect 2022; Cisco and Zoom Are First Announced Keynotes
Enterprise Connect, the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise communications and collaboration, today unveils its Conference Program, which will discuss the hottest industry trends via expert-led conference sessions, as well as announces keynote presentations from Cisco (News - Alert) and Zoom. Enterprise Connect 2022 will take place March 21-24 at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Orlando, Florida. Register here. For more than 30 years, Enterprise Connect (News - Alert) has brought corporate IT decision makers together with industry vendors, analysts, consultants, and channel partners to focus on the issues central to enterprise communications. Over four days, Enterprise Connect offers a conference program that showcases the latest systems, software, services and applications. Eric Krapf, General Manager, Enterprise Connect said, "Enterprise communications and collaboration decision-makers and business leaders face daunting new challenges. Whether they need to build on the changes created by the pandemic, or plan a re-set based on new business realities, Enterprise Connect focuses on the issues central to enterprise communications and collaboration. Through in-depth, expert-led content as well as opportunities to network and explore industry technology providers, the event helps industry professionals optimize their investments in communications and collaboration systems, services, apps and networks." Enterprise Connect also announces the appointment of Lisa Schmeiser as program co-chair, joining Krapf in leading the event's content team. Schmeiser recently took the helm as Editor-in-Chief of No Jitter, the daily news and analysis website owned and produced by Enterprise Connect. As a veteran tech journalist, Schmeiser brings stellar credentials and experience to No Jitter, and her extensive knowledge and connections in the tech industry will ensure that No Jitter continues to serve as a source of insights and industry experts who can contribute to the strength of the Enterprise Connect program. Enterprise Connect Conference Program Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Security and Collaboration, Cisco will present a keynote address on March 22. Patel leverages a diverse set of capabilities to lead the strategy and development for the Security and Collaboration businesses at Cisco and owns P&L responsibility for this multibillion-dollar portfolio. A member of the company's Executive Leadership Team, Patel is helping to redefine Cisco's SaaS (News - Alert) business and strategy to further accelerate the company's transformation and growth. Gary Sorrentino, Global Deputy CIO, Zoom Video Communications will deliver a keynote address on March 23. With nearly 40 years of experience in Information Technology, Sorrentino has served in various IT leadership positions in firms across the financial services industry. A former Managing Director for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, Sorrentino was the Global Head of Client Cyber Awareness and Education. Sorrentino was also the Chief Technology Officer for J.P. Morgan AWM's global technology infrastructure initiatives. In 2014, he assumed a new role as the lead for their Cybersecurity efforts and developed a firm wide "Protect the Client" Cyber program designed to raise cybersecurity awareness among employees and clients. Other roles include Head of Global Infrastructure and Head of Technology Efficiencies at Citi Private Bank, Global Technology (News - Alert) CFO at redit Suisse and North America IT Controller at UBS.
Conference Program offers more than 40 sessions spanning nine tracks that encompass critical industry topics including: Contact Center & Customer Experience
Video Collaboration & A/V
Collaboration Platforms
Practical AI
CPaaS & Communications APIs
Unified Communications & UCaaS
Workplace Strategies
Management & Networks
New: Security & Compliance In addition, Enterprise Connect will present a one-day conference-within-a-conference, "Communications & Collaboration 2025," with sessions focused on helping enterprise IT decision-makers craft their strategic technology plan for the next three years.
View the complete conference program here. Spotlight and IT Hero Awards Nominations are now open for the Women in Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Spotlight Awards and IT Hero Awards. The submission deadline is December 3. The Spotlight Awards recognize and celebrate women who demonstrate outstanding qualities of leadership and expertise in technology. The Spotlight Award will be presented to a select group of women who work within enterprise IT or other organizations involving communications and collaboration technology at non-vendor companies. The award is specifically intended to encourage and recognize women who have chosen to make a career as technologists or technology leaders in the enterprise. Anyone may nominate a candidate for the Spotlight Award and nominees may also submit themselves as potential award candidates. The submission form can be found here. The IT Hero Awards honor enterprise IT professionals and teams who go above and beyond their day-to-day communications/collaboration responsibilities to provide exceptional service, vision, and expertise to their organizations. To be eligible, individuals or teams must work within an enterprise's IT organization with a focus on communications/collaboration for the enterprise. (Enterprise Connect will not consider entries from within the communications/collaboration vendor/service provider community.) The submission form can be found here. Click here for more information or to register to attend Enterprise Connect. Enterprise Connect will also offer a digital component for enterprise communications and collaboration professionals to participate virtually. For media registration click here. Enterprise Connect 2022 will take place March 21-24, 2022 at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, FL. For information on exhibition or sponsorship opportunities, contact Michael Leahy at [email protected]. Stay connected with Enterprise Connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. About Enterprise Connect For more than 30 years, Enterprise Connect has been the leading conference and exhibition for enterprise communications and collaboration in North America. Enterprise Connect brings corporate IT decision makers together with the industry's vendors, analysts and consultants to focus on the issues central to enterprise communications. Enterprise Connect owns and produces No Jitter, (nojitter.com), providing daily blogging and analysis of enterprise communications, and it also serves the community with a weekly email newsletter, research surveys and a Webinar Series. For more information, visit enterpriseconnect.com/orlando. Enterprise Connect is brought to you by Informa Tech. About Informa Tech Informa Tech is a market leading provider of integrated research, media, training and events to the global Technology community. We're an international business of more than 600 colleagues, operating in more than 20 markets. Our aim is to inspire the Technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through research, media, training and event brands that inform, educate and connect. Over 7,000 professionals subscribe to our research, with 225,000 delegates attending our events and over 18,000 students participating in our training programs each year, and nearly 4 million people visiting our digital communities each month. Learn more about Informa Tech. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005122/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Everyone Is Making Net-Zero Pledges. SustainCERT's New Software Will Verify Their Progress
LUXEMBOURG, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SustainCERT S.A. ("SustainCERT"), the leading digital platform for verification of carbon emissions reductions and an official certification body for Gold Standard for the Global Goals, announces today the launch of the alpha version of a Scope 3 software for credible net-zero claims from emission reduction interventions in corporate supply chains. As more companies set net-zero emissions targets, increased scrutiny on their transition plans has exposed significant gaps in credibility around how to measure and report on progress. Measurement and verification will be the decisive factors in distinguishing pledges from consequential action. The lack of scalable solutions to measure climate impact across supply chains has left companies looking to the tech industry for solutions. They need to understand the intricacies associated with their indirect (Scope 3) emissions, and find ways to prove progress from investments in greening their supply chains. This will be key to credible net-zero claims. SustainCERT, the leading platform for verification of carbon emission reductions and removals, is introducing a new product that lets companies track, account, and report verified emission reductions in their supply chains to help meet their net-zero targets. The technology measures and verifies progress towards net-zero efforts, while generating a potential new revenue stream for taking climate action. SstainCERT has begun testing the alpha version of its software with partners including General Mills, the Australian Meat and Livestock Association (MLA) and Rabobank. The new product will be presented later today at the Value Change Initiative Online Summit.
Using SustainCERT's proprietary software, companies can quantify and verify climate impacts from interventions that reduce and remove emissions in their corporate value chain. Once verified, the software generates a unit that can then be exchanged among value chain actors and used for reporting against Scope 3 targets, introducing a new way to incentivise climate action. "Corporates are aiming to do more than just account and report emission data," said Marion Verles, CEO of SustainCERT. "Their challenge now is how to drive collective action in their supply chains to achieve their net-zero ambitions."
With verified accounting and reporting of Scope 3 claims, the new software mitigates greenwashing risks, helps solve the double-counting dilemma, and presents a solution to the big question: how do we get corporations to act now? SustainCERT's Value Change Initiative (VCI), which officially launches today, works closely with Science Based Targets and various organisations including WWF, WRI, and CDP, to develop standards for credible Scope 3 accounting. The guidelines developed through this initiative are foundational to SustainCERT's software algorithm. About SustainCERT
SustainCERT is the leading global carbon emissions accounting and verification platform for carbon markets and corporate value chains. By using technology to simplify processes, SustainCERT helps corporates and project develops quantify and verify carbon emissions accurately and certify corporate claims and carbon credits in line with leading international frameworks such as Gold Standard for the Global Goals, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Sustainable Development Goals. SustainCERT leverages technology to mainstream best-practice impact verification, accelerating progress towards the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. To learn more visit:
www.sustain-cert.com | @Sustain_CERT Media inquiries:
SustainCERT SA
Paris Golab, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Tel: +49 159 0 634 6257
E-mail: [email protected]
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Hagens Berman: Fiat Chrysler Recalls 250,000 Heavy-Duty Dodge Ram Trucks Amid CP4 Pump Defect and Lawsuit
Following a U.S. class-action lawsuit regarding a CP4 fuel pump defect in Fiat Chrysler and Cummins Dodge Ram Heavy Duty trucks, the automaker and its parent company Stellantis have now recalled nearly 250,000 Heavy Duty Ram diesel trucks globally, according to attorneys at Hagens Berman.
The law firm's consumer lawsuit called out FCA and Stellantis for its 2018 - 2020 Cummins-equipped diesel trucks containing a defective CP4 fuel pump that poses an "imminent safety risk to the public," according to the complaint. Today's recall affects the same 2019 - 2020 models.
If you own or lease a 2018 - 2020 Dodge Ram 2500, 3500, 4500 or 5500 Heavy Duty diesel truck with a 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine, find out more about the lawsuit and your rights.
FCA's Recall a "Smoking Gun"
The vehicles affected by the recall are 2019 and 2020 Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickups and Ram 3500, 4500 and 5500 chassis cab trucks that are equipped with 6.7-litre Cummins turbodiesel engines. The recall covers an estimated 222,410 vehicles in the U.S., 20,539 in Canada and 3,525 in other markets outside of North America, according to news reports.
"In our view, Fiat Chrysler's massive global recall of the same trucks included in our lawsuit is a smoking gun," said Steve Berma, managing partner of Hagens Berman and attorney representing affected truck owners.
"The important part we want truck owners, regulators and the public to know is that this defect poses a significant risk to the safety of drivers of Dodge Ram trucks and others sharing the road," Berman added. "Failure of the fuel system from this defect causes sudden and unexpected shutoff of the vehicle's engine while in motion and an inability to restart the vehicle - serious events that could lead to injury or fatalities."
About the Class Action Against FCA
The lawsuit filed Oct. 22, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan states that the defect leaves vehicle owners at risk of sudden and unexpected engine shutoff while in motion. The lawsuit accuses the automaker and engine manufacturer of colluding to conceal the critical fuel pump defect and its safety risk affecting roughly 600,000 owners and lessors.
Here's how the fuel pump defect works:
The CP4 pump uses fuel for lubricating the interior cam, pumping cylinders and rollers, so if fuel used is not sufficiently lubricated - which most U.S. diesel is not - the cam and rollers wear against each other generating tiny metal shavings.
The metal shavings disperse throughout the fuel injection system, causing catastrophic risk: "failure can occur as early as mile one, as the fuel injection disintegration process begins at the very first fill of the tank and start of the engine, with pump components beginning to deteriorate and dispersing metal shavings throughout the internal engine components and fuel supply system."
The lawsuit says FCA, Stellantis and Cummins knew Bosch's CP4 pump design was incompatible with American diesel fuel, and costs to repair each vehicle are at least $10,000, according to attorneys.
Hagens Berman has filed six other class-action lawsuits against Ford (News - Alert), FCA and GM concerning the dangerous CP4 fuel injection pump in other diesel trucks.
Find out more about the class-action lawsuit against FCA for the CP4 fuel injection pump defect in its 2018 - 2020 Dodge RAM trucks.
About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm's determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of "Most Feared Plaintiff's Firm," MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006253/en/
[November 17, 2021] Hexion Joins Future of STEM Scholars (FOSSI) Scholarship Program to Enhance Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Chemical Industry Workforce
For the second consecutive year, Hexion Inc. will support the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI), the chemical industry's collaborative equity, diversity, and inclusion initiative aimed at creating pathways for more underrepresented groups to enter and succeed in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers in the chemical industry. FOSSI provides opportunities for chemical manufacturers, supply chain partners and affiliated industry stakeholders to fund scholarships, provide internship opportunities and facilitate mentoring and leadership training for students majoring in STEM at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). With an investment of nearly $100,000 annually, Hexion will sponsor two scholars over the next four years, joining a growing list of organizations supporting the initiative. The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative is a joint partnership between the American Chemistry Council, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Chemours and the HBCU Week Foundation. "Hexion is pleased to help support this critical, industry-wide initiative to help increase the number of underrepresented professionals in the STEM workforce," said Craig A. Rogerson, Chairman, President and CEO. "Hexion and FOSSI re dedicated to supporting those STEM Scholars who would otherwise not have access to a STEM education by eliminating financial barriers. At Hexion, we are committed to celebrating the diversity of our associates and creating an environment of inclusion. The FOSSI program aligns perfectly with these principles."
In its inaugural year and to support the "Class of 2021," the program received funding from 43 chemical manufacturers and related industry stakeholders, while supporting 151 scholars, at an investment of $7.2 million in 2021. FOSSI scholarship recipients represented 28 states, with students planning to attend 26 HBCUs. In its inaugural year, more than 1,700 high school students across the nation applied for FOSSI scholarships, demonstrating both the urgent need for this program and the enormous pool of untapped talent. FOSSI is currently accepting applications for the Class of 2022 at www.futureofstemscholars.org/fossi/apply. The deadline to apply is February 15, 2022. The FOSSI sponsorship reflects Hexion's global commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The Company's charitable activities primarily focus on causes that support children, the less fortunate, health and wellness, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. For more information, visit Sustainability (hexion.com).
About the Company Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hexion Inc. is a global leader in thermoset resins. Hexion Inc. serves the global adhesive, coatings, composites and industrial markets through a broad range of thermoset technologies, specialty products and technical support for customers in a diverse range of applications and industries. Additional information about Hexion Inc. and its products is available at www.hexion.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005883/en/
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[November 17, 2021] HIMALAYA TECHNOLOGIES FILES AMENDED FORM 10 AND PROVIDES SHAREHOLDER UPDATE
Chicago IL, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himalaya Technologies a/k/a Homeland Resources Ltd. (OTC: HMLA) announces it filed an amended Form 10-12G/A on November 8, 2021 in response to SEC comments requesting additional disclosures regarding its registration of its common shares filed two weeks earlier. The Company is now fully audited for the past two years as per regulatory requirements for registration. The amended filing, which should bring HMLA effective as a fully SEC reporting Company on or around November 26, 2021, can be found at:
https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001409624/000147237521000128/ixform10-12ga.htm The Company recently regained compliance with the State of Nevada and changed its name to Himalaya Technologies, Inc. from Homeland Resources Ltd. to reflect a new chapter of growth. Since the amended filing, regulators have provided no additional comments. As part of the Companys new growth strategy, the Company is updating investors on its numerous growth initiatives: In July 2021, the Company acquired 100% of KANAB CORP. owner and operator of https://www.kanab.club/ from FOMO CORP. (OTC: FOMC) and its affiliates setting the stage for a new model in cannabis social networking which management believes no other major social media Company is able to or will be able to address for the foreseeable future pending federal legalization of cannabis. In the past month, the Company, still in due diligence on transactions, agreed to acquire 100% of OTC WATCH LLC (https://otc.watch/) for 19.9% ownership of Himalaya to offer a new model of social media and stock information to drive traffic and provide transparency to the Street. The business will be run as a wholly owned subsidiary with a dro-down into Kanab Club as a cannabis stock chat center for the world. Additionally, Himalaya has agreed to a 19.9% stock investment in GenBio, Inc. (https://genbioinc.com/), a USA Company providing proprietary anti-inflammatory supplements and immune boosting formulae that fight COVID and other diseases including high blood pressure. Other investments in the AgTech complex are underway that use patented artificial intelligence (AI) to solve food supply chain issues and address the food drought afflicting the country. Terms and conditions, pending, would include the issuance of Series B Preferred Shares convertible into a total of 60% of the Company post potential closings. Today the Company has approximately 117 million common shares issued and outstanding.
Said Vik Grover, CEO: We are building Himalaya Technologies, Inc. into a powerful portfolio of health and wellness including cannabis social media, nutraceutical products and agriculture AI-based technology. Besides completing and launching Kanab Club out of open beta in 2022, we plan a rollout of a FOMO canned beverage to major retailers and establishments after formulation and pre-launch distribution programs are completed. GenBio is in the formulation phase of their superfruit and honey supplements to liquify them and turn them into a consumer drink offering anti-inflammatory and other benefits including fighting acute myocarditis. We are also in late-stage discussions with an industry executive formerly employed by 7-11 who works with major retailers and co-packers to create a manufacturing and distribution platform for the planned FOMO can in 2022. Our affiliate FOMO CORP. recently filed for trademark protection on FOMO for the beverage market and other domains and is targeted to assign this FOMO can branding opportunity to Himalaya. AgTech is another area of great interest which could provide additional value as an investment. We will soon launch our corporate website to provide additional information to investors. Himalaya is ready to come out, launch a new ecosystem in health and wellness, and enter a new chapter. Himalayas affiliate Company, FOMO CORP. (OTC: FOMC), currently holds 150,000 Series B Preferred Shares convertible into common shares of HMLA and fifty million HMLA common stock purchase warrants issued for advisory services.
About Himalaya Technologies, Inc. Himalaya Technologies, Inc. a/k/a Homeland Resources Ltd. is a health and wellness incubator making growth investments. The Company currently owns KANAB CORP., owner and operator of https://www.kanab.club/ and aspires to create a global health and wellness community offering consumer products and services and indoor agriculture technology. Forward Looking Statements: Statements in this press release about our future expectations, including without limitation, the likelihood that Himalaya Technologies, Inc. a/k/a Homeland Resources Ltd. will be able to meet minimum sales expectations, be successful and profitable in the market, bring significant value to Himalayas stockholders, and leverage capital markets to execute its growth strategy, constitute "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 Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and our actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Himalayas business strategy described in this press release is subject to innumerable risks, most significantly, whether the Company is successful in securing adequate financing. No information in this press release should be construed in any form shape or manner as an indication of the Companys future revenues, financial condition, or stock price. Investor Contact: Himalaya Technologies, Inc.
Vikram Grover
CEO
?(608) 708-0750
[email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Israeli Data Security Startup Laminar Emerges from Stealth with $32 Million Series A
Laminar, a public cloud data protection provider, today emerged from stealth with a $32 million Series A investment, bringing the company's total funding to $37 million. The round was led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, with participation from SentinelOne (NYSE: S), TLV Partners and Meron Capital. Founded by Unit 8200 veterans, four-time Google (News - Alert) Capture the Flag champions and lifelong friends Amit Shaked, CEO, and Oran Avraham, CTO, Laminar delivers agentless and asynchronous data security and leakage protection for everything you build and run in the cloud. The Funding According to Crunchbase, cyber companies in Israel have raised about $1.6 billion to date this year, well above last year's record of $1 billion. Laminar's Series A, which also included investments by cybersecurity founders and Fortune 500 CISOs, is one of the largest A rounds for an Israeli security startup with founders under 30 years of age. Laminar will utilize this round of funding to expand its engineering department, build-out its go-to-market team and establish a world-class data security research team. "With its game-changing security platform, Laminar is bringing about the democratization of data in today's fast-paced cloud world," said Emmet B. Keeffe III, founder, Insight IGNITE and operating partner, Insight Partners. "At the end of the day, security is about protecting data-and today's data protection teams are unable to keep up. We're excited to partner with Laminar to capitalize on this immense opportunity and turn CISOs and data security teams into true business enablers." "Data and APIs are mission critical in the functioning of today's digital society," said Tomer Weingarten, CEO, SentinelOne. "Securing data wherever it resides is the foundation of our Singularity XDR platform -- we see Laminar's approach as complementary in helping our customers secure data in a cloud-first world." The Technology With important product validation by hundreds of CISOs over the last year through Insight IGNITE, Laminar is an industry-first public cloud data protection solution that prevents data leakage from everything that you build and run in the cloud. Built specifically for CISOs and data protection teams, Laminar's Cloud Data Security Platform is the only tool on the market that allows them to: Discover and Classify sensitive data continuously for complete visibility
sensitive data continuously for complete visibility Secure and Control to improve risk posture
to improve risk posture Detect and Remediate leaks without interrupting data flow The challenge is how o do this simply and without friction. Legacy solutions require agents or filter traffic through proxies. Laminar has chosen cloud-native approaches that are agentless and asynchronous to have no impact on performance or data flow. Laminar provides continuous monitoring of both managed and unmanaged datastores, compute as well as data egress channels, allowing sanctioned data movements and alerting when something's wrong. This cloud-native approach allows complete, autonomous data observability, including within shadow datastores. With Laminar, data protection teams can reduce the attack surface and detect real-time data leaks.
"As organizations rapidly transition to the cloud and build applications cloud-first, businesses are moving at record pace. These transformations often make life easier. However, for CISOs and data security professionals, their job is more difficult than ever before, and data protection teams are left in the dark," said Shaked. "Data protection teams are blind to where sensitive data resides in the cloud, and legacy data protection solutions are no longer keeping pace with evolving cloud environments," said Josh Jaffe, president of the Global Center for Cybersecurity and longtime Fortune 500 CISO. "Laminar is launching at a time when these teams are in desperate need of cloud-native data security platforms purpose built for cloud environments."
"We've already built a truly world-class team of both offensive and defensive security engineers, and I'm proud to be working with and recruiting some of the best in the world. Part of the joy of working at Laminar is being side-by-side with these amazing individuals. I'm excited to continue to build-out an elite team of engineers and researchers that will help enable our customers to detect and prevent some of the most sophisticated attacks," said Avraham. The Founders The launch and funding would not be possible without Laminar's expert founders. Shaked and Avraham met in high school at 14 and vowed to one day launch a security company together. At just 17, Avraham identified the first iPhone (News - Alert) 3G baseband vulnerability Shaked and Avraham both served in Unit 8200, an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the Israel Defense Forces, focused on collecting signal intelligence and code decryption. While in the military, Shaked also earned a master's degree in AI and deep learning. Following Unit 8200, Shaked went to a late-stage startup called Magic Leap, and Avraham joined a newly launched company Medigate -- giving them valuable internal security experience. Avraham also led a team of renowned offensive security experts to win four out of the last six Google Capture the Flag competitions. "We are friends first and business partners second -- and hope this will come through as we build out our diverse and talented team," said Shaked and Avraham. "We are thrilled to see our hard work coming to life with the launch of Laminar." To learn more about the Laminar Cloud Data Security Platform and the company's founders, visit https://laminarsecurity.com. About Laminar Laminar delivers data leakage protection for everything you build and run in the cloud. Laminar's Cloud Data Security Platform is the only solution on the market that allows you to Discover and Classify continuously for complete visibility, Secure and Control to improve risk posture and Detect Leaks and Remediate without interrupting data flow. Complete data observability for everything running in your public cloud accounts. Both agentless and asynchronous monitoring of datastores, compute as well as data egress channels allows sanctioned data movements and alerts when something's wrong. Data protection teams can reduce the attack surface, detect real-time data leaks and put you back in control of your data. Founded in 2020 by a brilliant team of award winning Israeli red team experts, Laminar is proudly backed by Insight Partners, TLV Partners, and SentinelOne. To find out more please visit http://laminarsecurity.com. About Insight Partners Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @insightpartners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005164/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Mycotopia Therapies Announces Plan to Develop Psychedelic Sublingual Tablet to Help Treat Depression
MIAMI, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mycotopia Therapies Inc. (OTC Pink: TPIA) (the Company), a biopharma company focused on research, technology, and the development of medical psychedelics, announced today it has initiated plans for a psilocybin-based pharmaceutical program by entering into an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture (the Joint Venture) with Agile Pharmaceutical Solutions to develop novel oral dosage forms of psilocybin in the form of a psychedelic sublingual tablet. The two parties plan to attain a Health Canada License for psychedelics to obtain and test psychedelic raw material, for the purpose of creating the psilocybin-based, sublingual tablet to take to market.
Mycotopia Therapies and Agile Pharmaceutical Solutions plan to conduct oversight and development of the tablet in Jamaica and explore the possibility of partnering with Havn Life Sciences (CSE: HAVN) (OTC Pink: HAVLF) in Jamaica for raw materials and developing the tablet. In August Mycotopia Therapies, Inc. announced it had entered into a Psilocybin Supply Agreement with Havn Life Sciences to purchase naturally-derived psilocybin. Should the Joint Venture be granted Health Canada Psychedelics License, the terms of the agreement call for moving the operations to Canada for final testing to prove efficacy of the tablet. Sublingual tablets are placed under the tongue. There, they dissolve rapidly beneath the tongue and enter directly into the tiny blood vessels beneath. Via these capillaries, sublingual drugs can enter the bloodstream much more quickly than oral medications. Sublingual tablets dispense the full amount of medication directly into the bloodstream without experiencing liver metabolism. As a result, physicians can prescribe smaller dosages that are guaranteed to reach their intended target. Because a sublingual dose of medicine is administered and absorbed under the tongue, it bypasses the stomach and its contents on its way to the bloodstream. As a result, sublingual drugs do not interact with foods and other medications before absorption. The dosage does not cause or experience interference by other medications and does not cause the gastrointestinal irritation of some oral medications. Individuals who have trouble swallowing or have pill aversions sometimes avoid taking medications due to the stress caused by oral medications. Sublingual versions of the same medicines can make taking prescription medications much easier, as the tablet does not need to be swallowed. Moe Harati, Ph.D., Founder & CEO of Agile Pharmaceuticals Solutions Inc., said, "This partnership will help us to combine forces and help people live a longer healthier happier life by utilizing Agile Pharmas intellectual property & expertise in developing innovative high-quality products and Mycotopias outreach and resources." Prof. Dr. Bankole Johnson, Medical Advisor to Mycotopia Therapies Board, said, An interesting development, which may allow future further exploration of psychedelics to treat psychiatric disorders. Bankole A. Johnson, DSc, MD, MPhil, FRCPsych is a licensed physician and board-certified psychiatrist throughout Europe and the United States who served as Alumni Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Dr. Johnson's primary area of research expertise is the psychopharmacology of medications for treating addictions, and he is well known in the field fr his discovery that topiramate, a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) facilitator and glutamate antagonist, an effective treatment for alcoholism.
In October 2018, the Food and Drug Administration granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Breakthrough designation allows for an accelerated pathway to approval. Currently, psilocybin is classified as a Schedule I drug in the US as it has not been approved by the FDA for any therapeutic use. According to the National Institute of Mental Health an estimated 19.4 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 7.8% of all U.S. adults. Recent statistics from the World Health Organization show 3.8% of the world's population, approximately 280 million people, have depression. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Over 700 000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds. Ben Kaplan, CEO of Mycotopia Therapies said, "This opportunity to develop a psychedelic sublingual tablet using the intellectual property of Agile Pharmaceutical Solutions is a tremendous opportunity for Mycotopia Therapies. The real opportunity, however, is derived from our two companies working together toward the common goal of revolutionizing how mental illness is treated. The sublingual administration presents an opportunity to possibly set a new standard for psychedelic assisted therapy.
About Mycotopia Therapies Mycotopia Therapies focuses on helping you heal and reclaim your life. Your journey of healing is an understanding of the causes and works to mental wellness through psychedelic enhanced psychotherapy, integrated with a professional team of mental wellness practitioners and cutting-edge technology. Psychedelic therapy is a holistic and spiritual approach providing healing and has shown successful treatment for many years. Additional information on Mycotopia Therapies can be found on the Companys website at: https://www.mycotopiatherapies.com . About Agile Pharmaceutical Solutions Agile Pharmaceutical Solutions is a private biotechnology company in Canada that is focused on psychedelics, pharmaceuticals, and cannabis product innovation and Development, contract research, technology transfer and manufacturing process optimization. Dr. Moe Harati, the founder, and owner of Agile Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a PhD in Chemistry and has worked with a broad research background and training in business administration that makes him able to quickly recognize challenges and provide clear, effective solutions. Dr. Harati is a high energy, tenacious leader that engages and inspires the team to own and execute the business plan with excellence. Over the past 20+ years, he has successfully led technical teams to product development from discovery to commercialization for various brand companies such as Pfizer, Bayer, and Proctor & Gamble. He facilitates fundamental product and process understanding and the advancement of innovative approaches to psychedelics, pharmaceuticals, and cannabis development. Dr. Harati is author and presenter of more than 200 conferences, technical summaries, publications, funding white papers, and training guides. Dr. Harati and his team has proprietary formulations and manufacturing processes for the development of sublingual delivery of drugs for a variety of applications. Agile Pharmaceuticals can deliver a wide range of solutions for all stages of drug development including early discovery, research and development, chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC). http://www.agilepharmaceuticals.com Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be preceded by the words intends, may, will, plans, expects, anticipates, projects, predicts, estimates, aims, believes, hopes, potential or similar words. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: (i) the initiation, timing, progress and results of the Companys research, manufacturing and other development efforts; (ii) the Companys ability to advance its products to successfully complete development and commercialization; (iii) the manufacturing, development, commercialization, and market acceptance of the Companys products; (iv) the lack of sufficient funding to finance the product development and business operations; (v) competitive companies and technologies within the Companys industry and introduction of competing products; (vi) the Companys ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; (vii) loss of key management personnel; (viii) the scope of protection the Company is able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering its products and its ability to operate its business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; (ix) potential failure to comply with applicable health information privacy and security laws and other state and federal privacy and security laws; and (x) the difficulty of predicting actions of the USA FDA and its regulations. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement unless required by law. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in 20/20 Global, Inc.s Registration Statement on Form F-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 24, 2015, as amended, which is available on the SEC's website, http://www.sec.gov. Contact for 20/20 Global and Ehave Media Inquiries and Investor Relation: Gabe Rodriguez Email: [email protected] Phone: (623) 261-9046
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[November 17, 2021] Revalize Further Expands Operations in Europe
Jacksonville-based software company acquires three additional European companies JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Revalize, the worldwide leader in sector-specific revenue operations software for manufacturers, their distributors and their specifiers, today announced the planned acquisition of three European software companies comprising five respected brands. The addition of the companies will both extend the Revalize solution portfolio and its European operations. This strengthened position in Europe accelerates the company's already rapid growth since its formation in June 2021, nearly doubling the planned revenue objectives for the first year of operations. Joining the Revalize solution portfolio are: PROCAD Group , headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany , boasts proven product lifecycle management (PLM) and product data management (PDM) solutions that enable companies to manage their product lifecycles in a world of ever-growing complexity, delivering a substantial efficiency boost to customers in the discrete manufacturing sector. The PROCAD Group was created in 2021 from the merger of PROCAD with keytech , which also specializes in PLM, and ACATEC , a developer of CPQ solutions for manufacturers of complex products. The PROCAD Group brings more than 1,350 customers and more than 250 employees at 12 locations to Revalize. Revalize has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PROCAD, which subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in December.
, headquartered in Karlsruhe, , boasts proven product lifecycle management (PLM) and product data management (PDM) solutions that enable companies to manage their product lifecycles in a world of ever-growing complexity, delivering a substantial efficiency boost to customers in the discrete manufacturing sector. The PROCAD Group was created in 2021 from the merger of PROCAD with , which also specializes in PLM, and , a developer of CPQ solutions for manufacturers of complex products. The PROCAD Group brings more than 1,350 customers and more than 250 employees at 12 locations to Revalize. Revalize has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PROCAD, which subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in December. SpecPage , headquartered in Kussnacht, Switzerland , is a recognized developer of innovative PLM and quality assurance solutions for recipe-based, process manufacturers. The company brings innovative and user-friendly software solutions to manage the unique and complex aspcts of product labelling in the global competition for CPG products. This acquisition brings the SpecPage PLM cloud platform, global support expansion and a comprehensive CPQ integration to Revalize. Revalize closed on the acquisition of SpecPage earlier in October.
, headquartered in Kussnacht, , is a recognized developer of innovative PLM and quality assurance solutions for recipe-based, process manufacturers. The company brings innovative and user-friendly software solutions to manage the unique and complex aspcts of product labelling in the global competition for CPG products. This acquisition brings the SpecPage PLM cloud platform, global support expansion and a comprehensive CPQ integration to Revalize. Revalize closed on the acquisition of SpecPage earlier in October. TENADO, headquartered in Bochum, Germany , is a leading provider of computer-aided design (CAD) software solutions for the metal and wood fabrication trades, mechanical engineering, fire protection and traffic management sectors. TENADO serves craftsmen, carpenters, safety inspectors and transportation planners, and has more than 30,000 active users. Revalize closed on the acquisition of TENADO earlier in November. The inclusion of these brands aligns with Revalize's mission, expands the company's capabilities to support end-to-end, design-to-cash workflows and strengthens its operational presence in Europe. With the expanded offerings and reach, Revalize aims to enhance its market position as the worldwide leader in CPQ and revenue operations solutions for manufacturers, and the only global, at-scale provider of sector-specific manufacturing solutions.
"Europe now accounts for nearly half of our business worldwide. Our multinational customers in the U.S. have been asking us to support their plans with an operational footprint in EMEA; and similarly, the customers of our European businesses need product and service coverage in North America. The addition of these five brands to the Revalize portfolio is a great win for all of our customers and any manufacturer worldwide that wants to build their digital capabilities across the design-to-cash cycle," said Jim Contardi, CEO of Revalize.
Maintaining a flexible, global workforce is part of the Revalize mission. The company will continue to grow its Jacksonville headquarters and staff while supporting offices in regions where it has a high concentration of employees, including in Europe. Learn more about Revalize and its acquisitions, as well as employment opportunities in Jacksonville and beyond, at www.revalizesoftware.com.
About Revalize
Revalize is the global leader in sector-specific software solutions that help manufacturers optimize revenue operations through design applications, engineering simulations, product selection, CPQ, PIM, PLM, visualization, and data analytics. Headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, the company serves over 10,000 customers across the globe. Revalize is a portfolio company of TA Associates and Hg. Learn more at www.revalizesoftware.com. MEDIA CONTACTS: For Revalize
Alex Cruz
Revalize
[email protected]
+1-956-867-1405 Ashley Williams
Wingard
[email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Rosewood Private Investments Announces New IT Services Acquisition
General Informatics (News - Alert), an IT managed services provider and network infrastructure company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Versiant, a fast-growing technology solutions and managed services provider based in Charlotte, NC. Versiant offers a variety of technology solutions to its clients, including innovative Data Analytics and Security services. Versiant also brings a unique and deep expertise across a number of growing verticals, including Maritime, Logistics, Manufacturing, Consumer Products, and Healthcare, amongst others. The acquisition of Versiant fits squarely into General Informatics' mission of leveraging the best combination of technology and services to enhance client operations and help enable their success. Through the partnership, General Informatics and Versiant will each expand their services portfolios, expertise, and geographic reach to continue to provide cutting edge technology solutions to their growing customer bases. "After our first meeting with Versiant, I knew this was the next step for General Informatics," said Don Monistere, CEO and President of General Informatics. "Versiant's geography and unique offering is aligned with our strategic vision, but what makes this partnership even more exciting is Versiant's exceptional client driven team." Ed Reade, CEO of Versiant, stated, "We are excited to be joining forces with one of North America's fastest growing MSP's. Partnering with General Informatics and Rosewood Private Investments to support our aggressive growth strategy seems to be the perfect fit! Don and I are excited about bringing these two fantastic teams together." In 2020, General Informatics partnered with Rosewood Private Investments ("RPI") to develop an aggressive growth plan that includes both organic and acquisitive growth. In the last year, General Informatics has expanded its reach to Mississippi, Alabama, and now the Carolinas. The partnership with RPI has allowed General Informatics, and now Versiant, to continue to invst in the latest technology, attract top talent, and better serve the needs of customers.
This is General Informatics' second acquisition in 2021 and its first outside the state of Louisiana. RPI is excited about the prospects of continuing to build out General Informatics' and Versiant's presence in the Southeast United States. "We look forward to having Don and Ed work together to continue Versiant's impressive growth in the Carolinas and beyond," said Briton Burge, Principal at RPI. "Versiant's vertical expertise and suite of solutions really resonated with the needs and expectations of the market in a continually evolving technology environment."
About General Informatics:
GI is a full-service IT Managed Services Provider ("MSP"), cloud services business, and IT consultancy, which has built a comprehensive suite of services to become one of the region's leading IT partners to state and local governments, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, and private businesses in the Southeast. With offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Birmingham, GI aims to provide its customers with a complete IT solution, including the successful expansion into telecom and infrastructure services. Visit www.geninf.com to learn more. About Versiant:
Versiant started as the IT department for a division of a large Fortune 300 company and now delivers innovative, cost effective managed IT solutions to complex work environments globally. By deeply understanding the needs of its customers and integrating into their operations, Versiant's solutions drive true business value. With over 13 years of experience, Versiant specializes in applications, development, infrastructure, network, data center, cloud, security, compliance, and support. Versiant has expanded its domain expertise in Maritime and Logistics to include Healthcare, Manufacturing, Financial, Aerospace, Government, and other industries. More information can be found at www.versiant.com. About Rosewood Private Investments:
Rosewood has a long history of investing in and creating value within numerous industries. RPI's approach to working with operating partners to strategically grow companies through acquisitions and organic means has proven successful for all stakeholders. Our current holdings are focused on industrial services, fire & life safety services, IT services, and manufacturing technologies. In addition to these areas, we are pursuing new platforms in specialty chemicals, transportation & logistics, and outsourced business services, among others. We welcome any information about investment opportunities within these verticals. Visit www.rosewoodpi.com to learn more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005500/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Sopheon Wins European Research Award of Excellence
Sopheon today announced that it participated in a joint research project that won the ITEA Award of Excellence. The project, PARTNER (Patient Care Advancement with Responsive Technologies and Engagement Together), offers solutions to support the optimal patient journey for chronic diseases through health systems. ITEA is the research, development, and innovation cluster of Eureka, an international network of large industry, subject matter experts, start-ups, academia, and customer organizations established in 1985 to encourage R&D cooperation. This ITEA project was coordinated by BARCO and had 20 participating partners, including Sopheon, from the academic and industrial world in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and South Korea. Sopheon delivered a solution based on its Accolade innovation system with connection to Microsoft (News - Alert) AzureCloud Services. The solution automatically interprets massive data streams from vital sign sensors and other devices and generates meaningful notifications for the users. The Decision Support System (DSS) that Sopheon built contains a series of modules that ensure the interpretation algorithms are legally approved and the interpretation of data is private and secure.
"Sopheon is proud of its contribution to this groundbreaking project and honored to have worked alongside industry leaders from around the world," said Greg Coticchia, CEO of Sopheon. "Leveraging AI and machine learning to provide smart capabilities and predictive insights is vital for enhancing the innovation decision-making process. In this instance, Sopheon's Accolade helped create a solution that is absolutely unique." Enriched by experience with hundreds of long-standing, blue-chip customers, Sopheon provides the ability to control and manage innovation and new product development programs and pipelines more effectively and efficiently. Sopheon solutions deliver an innovation decision command center that gives companies complete visibility, smarter decision-making, and better time to value.
To learn more about how Sopheon is transforming enterprise innovation, visit our website at www.sopheon.com. ABOUT SOPHEON Sopheon (LSE: SPE) partners with customers to provide complete Enterprise Innovation Management solutions, including software, expertise, and best practices to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability. Sopheon's Accolade solution provides unique, fully integrated coverage for the entire innovation management and new product development life cycle, including strategic innovation planning, roadmapping, idea and concept development, process and project management, portfolio management, and resource planning. Sopheon's solutions have been implemented by over 250 customers with more than 60,000 users in over 50 countries. Sopheon is listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange. Sopheon and Accolade are trademarks of Sopheon plc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005132/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Trilantic North America Promotes Dan Siegman to Managing Director
Trilantic North America, a leading, growth-focused private equity firm, announced today the promotion of Dan Siegman to Managing Director. Mr. Siegman has played an integral role in expanding the firm's business services practice, most recently leading an investment in digital marketing firm WebFX and launching Tercera, an IT services platform. He is currently a director of Asset Living, Outdoor Living Supply, Tercera and WebFX. "Dan has contributed tremendous value to our business services team over the years, helping to lead recent investments this year in WebFx and Tercera," said Charlie Ayres, Chairman and Managing Partner of Trilantic North America. "Beyond his involvement in sourcing new deal opportunities and working with portfolio company management teams, Dan has been a fantastic team player and role model for his junior colleagues. We are thrilled to promote him to Managing Director and to see all that he will accomplish in this new rle."
Mr. Siegman joined Trilantic North America in 2013 as a Senior Associate. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Siegman worked at Invus Opportunities, a private equity firm, and at The Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Siegman holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A., summa cum laude, in International Relations and History from the University of Pennsylvania. About Trilantic North America
Trilantic Capital Management L.P. ("Trilantic North America") is a leading, growth-focused middle market private equity firm focused on control and significant minority investments in North America. Trilantic North America's primary investment focus is on the business services, consumer, and energy sectors. Trilantic North America currently manages six private equity fund families with aggregate capital commitments of $9.7 billion. Trilantic North America has been recognized by Inc. Magazine's 2021 list of Top Founder-Friendly Investors and has also been named one of GrowthCap's Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies. For more information, visit www.trilanticnorthamerica.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005411/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Value Change Initiative Launches to Enable Businesses to Achieve Net Zero Value Chains
New 'Value Change Initiative' brings together 60 partners including some of the world's largest corporations and civil society organizations to make Scope 3 carbon emissions easier to measure and reductions easier to incentivize. By providing clarity and confidence in claims made by companies towards their Scope 3 targets, the initiative is set to increase the level of investment and action needed for businesses to stay within a 1.5 degree pathway. LUXEMBOURG, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With an increasing number of companies setting science-based targets and net zero commitments, the challenge remains how; how to achieve 'net zero?' While value chain or "Scope 3" emissions represent a high percentage of many corporate carbon footprints, currently, there is no global regulation or credible guidelines on how companies can report on, account for, and claim reductions in value chain emissions. This has hindered both action and investment in the space. To solve this challenge and accelerate global corporate climate action Gold Standard and SustainCERT have launched the world's first and only multi-stakeholder initiative to help companies deliver on Scope 3 commitments and meet their Science Based Targets. The Value Change Initiative (VCI) brings together 60 partners including some of the worl's largest corporations, key civil society partners and 130 technical experts to collectively innovate to co-create guidance and establish best practice on how impacts of value chain projects can be recognized.
Now with clarity on how to drive down emissions, businesses and investors can understand where to scale their efforts a solution which has sorely been missing from the climate movement. "Scope 3 emissions are the most complex to tackle representing the largest percent of corporate emissions, yet with the least direct ability for companies to control them. By launching The Value Change Initiative, together with our partners, we hope to remove barriers to driving meaningful corporate climate action, reported in a way that investors and consumers alike can trust." - Margaret Kim, CEO, Gold Standard.
"The Value Change Initiative is set up to find ways to collectively innovate, and define best practice; and builds on an increasing number of companies who have committed to net zero, and made commitments to reduce their emissions. Together, we have built a consortium of ambitious companies who together are writing a playbook for positive change." Sandra Genee, Head of the Value Change Initiative. "In the transformation to net-zero, there are two areas that need a paradigm shift. The first is how we approach scope 3 / value-chain decarbonization. The second is how we scale-up climate finance and mitigation beyond a company's value-chain. These two critical topics come together in the SBTi Net-Zero Standard and the Value Change Initiative led by Gold Standard and SustainCERT," said Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Find out more: The initiative has evolved from a programme launched by Gold Standard in 2018 with a core working group led by Danone, MARS, WWF, WRI, and CDP, now including over 60 organisations across eight sectors and more than 130 technical representatives and partners. http://valuechangeinitiative.com/ Contact: SustainCERT
Dino De Francesco,
Communications & Marketing Manager
Email : [email protected]
Phone: +41 78 738 29 22
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[November 17, 2021] Yieldstreet Raises Strategic $50M Follow-On Led By Mayfair Equity Partners
Yieldstreet, a leading multi-asset alternative investment platform, has closed a strategic $50 million follow-on investment, led by London-based Mayfair Equity Partners, a leading technology and consumer growth investor. The latest capital raise, following on from Yieldstreet's Series C funding round, highlights the growing recognition of Yieldstreet's transformational digital platform. Yieldstreet was established to provide retail investors access to alternative investment opportunities previously reserved for institutions and ultra high-net worth individuals. Since its foundation, Yieldstreet has funded over $2.5 billion investments to date and has over 325,000 members on its platform. Mayfair Equity Partners will support Yieldstreet's growth plans by enabling further investment in the Company's technology roadmap and its sales and marketing capabilities. This latest investment will also facilitate Yieldstreet's expansion of its distribution capabilities internationally, as outlined in the original Series C announcement. "All investors, here in the U.S. and around the globe, should have the ability to modernize their portfolios with investments that, until now, have been walled-off. As a leading U.S. multi-asset alternative investment platform, we are looking forward to expanding our capabilities as we grow our U.S. business and service new international investors. Using our data- and insights-driven approach, we will continue to provide retail investors access to the assets they need to build diverse and modern portfolios," said Milind Mehere, Founder and CEO of Yieldstreet. "Our growing investor community continues to remind us that the demand for alternative investments is as great as ever. We firmly believe that the 60/40 portfolio model no longer fits its original purpose. The asset allocation problems facing retail investors in the U.S. are shared by investors globally. We believe Yieldstreet has developed a solution via its digital-first investment platform that will help solve these problems for everyone." said Michael Weisz, Founder and President of Yieldstreet. "Through its simple and user-friendly platform, Yieldstreet has opened up the alternative investment asset class to a broader group of investors than ever before. Simultaneously, Yieldstreet is providing managers of these assets with access to a very large source of capital that had previously been unavailable to them," said Kual Dasgupta, Partner at Mayfair Equity Partners. "Our investment philosophy is rooted in supporting exceptional managers to grow valuable businesses, and Milind, Michael, and their leadership team fit that category perfectly. Working closely together, we will help bring Yieldstreet's innovative platform to more retail investors than ever before."
The investment from Mayfair Equity Partners coincides with rapid growth in Yieldstreet's market, supported by positive demand and supply drivers. On the demand side, retail investors have historically been severely under-allocated to private markets and are expected, according to market research conducted by Oliver Wyman (News - Alert), to double their allocation to alternative assets in the coming years. This is being driven by retail investors' desire for diversification and a lack of correlation to the public markets, as well as Yieldstreet's user-friendly platform offering alternative investments at low minimum commitments. On the supply side, there is growing interest from fund managers to access retail investors who provide funding diversification, and this dynamic is transforming the way alternative assets are distributed to investors. As recently reported by WSJ, trends show a shift in consumer behavior in millenials and succeeding generations shunning the traditional financial advisor led model in pursuit of more control, optionality, transparency and utility. This, paired with the upcoming largest transfer of wealth of (estimated $35T) from Baby Boomers to younger generations in the next decade, support Yieldstreet's thesis.
PJT Partners (corporate finance), Oliver Wyman (commercial due diligence) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (legal) served as advisers to Mayfair Equity Partners. About Yieldstreet:
Yieldstreet is reimagining the way wealth is created by providing access to alternative investments previously reserved only for institutions and ultra-high net worth individuals. 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 foundation in 2015, Yieldstreet has funded over $2.5 billion of investments and is committed to making financial products more inclusive by enabling retail investors to build modern investment portfolios. The company, headquartered in New York City with offices in Brazil, Greece and Malta, is backed by leading venture capital firms, large family offices and private equity investors. Join the movement at www.yieldstreet.com. About Mayfair Equity Partners
Mayfair Equity Partners is a leading tech and consumer growth investor. Its primary focus is on building strong partnerships with exceptional management teams. Mayfair has an established track record in supporting digitally enabled businesses, including OVO Group, a technology-enabled market leader in the retail energy space, Parcel2Go, the UK's leading online marketplace for parcel delivery and international freight shipping services, atHome Group, the market leading property and auto classifieds platform, and Fox International (exited), the leading fishing enthusiast brand platform in Europe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005491/en/
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ALBANY, Ga., Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia & Florida Railway, LLC (GFRR), a managed affiliate of OmniTRAX, the transportation affiliate of The Broe Group, presented a community donation to the Albany Fire Department at a ceremony honoring GFRR's recipients of the inaugural OmniTRAX Safe Shipper Award. The OmniTRAX Safe Shipper Award recognizes companies that model exemplary shipping safety by shipping or receiving loaded cars with no accidental releases during the previous year.
John Bradley
Albany
"Operational safety is a core value at OmniTRAX, and we are proud to recognize our GFRR partners that have modeled exceptional community safety," said OmniTRAX Senior Vice President of Operations. "In their honor, we are pleased to support an important community partner committed to safety, theFire Department."
The 2020 OmniTRAX Safe Shipper Award recipients for the GFRR are: STS Of Albany, Colquitt Ag Service, Poet Group (Formerly Flint Hills Resources), and GP Cellulose, LLC. $1,000 contributions were made in each award winner's name.
"The Albany Fire Department is dedicated to the safety of our community, and we are grateful to community partners like GFRR and OmniTRAX who prioritize safety and contribute the resources to help keep the city and county safe," said Albany Deputy Fire Chief Sebon Burns.
About OmniTRAX, Inc.
As one of North America's largest and fastest growing private railroad and transportation management companies, OmniTRAX's core capabilities range from providing transportation and supply chain management services to railroad and port companies, to providing intermodal and industrial switching operations to railroads, ports and a diverse group of industrial companies. Through its affiliation with The Broe Group and its portfolio of managed companies, OmniTRAX also has the unique capability of offering specialized industrial development and real estate solutions, both on and off the rail network managed by OmniTRAX. More information is available at omnitrax.com.
About The Broe Group
Founded in 1972, The Broe Group is a private, multi-billion-dollar investment group with diversified holdings in real estate, rail, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, water, healthcare and technology throughout 37 North American states and provinces. Its deep operational knowledge derived from owning and operating multi-billion-dollar businesses and the global economic insights gleaned from serving its vast Fortune 500 clientele are strategic differentiators. The Broe Group's entrepreneurial focus enables it to find true value wherever it resides. For more information, visit broe.com.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/georgia-and-florida-railway-honors-shipping-safety-with-community-donation-to-albany-firefighters-301426136.html
SOURCE OmniTRAX
[November 16, 2021] INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation of Snap, Inc. (SNAP) on Behalf of Investors
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Snap, Inc. ("Snap" or the "Company") (NYSE: SNAP) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of federal securities laws. On October 21, 2021, Snap reported weaker-than-expected third quarter earnings due to Apple's (News - Alert) privacy update, revealing that the "changes have adversely affected our targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities, and in turn affected our ability to measure the effectiveness of advertisements on our services." The Company disclosed that demand for its advertisig products had reduced, and thus, so had its prices, resulting in potential serious harm to its business.
On this news, Snap's stock price fell $19.97, or 26.5%, to close at $55.14 per share on October 22, 2021, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased Snap securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116006424/en/
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[November 16, 2021] NASA Invites Media to Webb Telescope Science Briefings
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will hold two virtual media briefings Thursday, Nov. 18, on the science goals and capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope. Participants will preview how the world's largest and most powerful space science telescope will build on the discoveries of other missions to answer fundamental questions about the universe and its origins. Participants will also discuss Webb's four scientific instruments, designed to study a wide range of objects in space, from planets and stars to galaxies and dark energy. The briefings will livestream on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency's website . All times are provided in Eastern. 11 a.m. Briefing on Webb's science goals with the following participants: Greg Robinson , Webb program director, NASA Headquarters in Washington
, program director, NASA Headquarters in John Mather , Webb senior project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
, senior project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Antonella Nota, Webb project scientist and head of the ESA (European Space Agency) office at the Space Telescope Science Institute
project scientist and head of the ESA (European Space Agency) office at the Space Telescope Science Institute Sarah Gallagher , science advisor to the president, Canadian Space Agency
, science advisor to the president, Canadian Space Agency Klaus Pontoppidan , Webb prject scientist, Space Telescope Science Institute
, prject scientist, Space Telescope Science Institute Amber Straughn , Webb deputy project scientist for communications, Goddard
2 p.m. Briefing on Webb's science instruments with the following participants: Eric Smith , Webb program scientist, NASA Headquarters
, program scientist, NASA Headquarters Lee Feinberg , Webb optical telescope element manager, Goddard
, optical telescope element manager, Goddard Marcia Rieke , principal investigator for Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, University of Arizona
, principal investigator for Near-Infrared Camera, Pierre Ferruit, principal investigator for Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph, ESA
Near-Infrared Spectrograph, ESA Gillian Wright , European principal investigator for Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument, U.K. Astronomy Technology Centre
, European principal investigator for Mid-Infrared Instrument, U.K. Astronomy Technology Centre Rene Doyon, principal investigator for Webb's Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph and Fine Guidance Sensor, University of Montreal To participate by telephone, media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of each briefing to Alise Fisher at: [email protected] . Media and members of the public may also ask questions on social media using #NASAWebb.
NASA's media accreditation policy for virtual and onsite activities is available online. NASA's Curious Universe podcast also will debut a special Webb mini-series Tuesday, Nov. 23, exploring the mission's science, engineering, people, and launch. NASA will release episodes every Tuesday leading up to Webb's Dec. 18 launch. The trailer is available online. The Webb telescope, an international partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies, will explore every phase of cosmic history from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it. For more information about the Webb mission, visit: https://nasa.gov/webb View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-invites-media-to-webb-telescope-science-briefings-301426154.html SOURCE NASA
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[November 16, 2021] International LNG industry association releases framework for transparent emissions reporting and neutrality declarations
- Framework sets out criteria for reporting and offsetting emissions that cannot be reduced - Aimed at improving greenhouse gas emissions reporting - Includes a consistent definition of GHG neutrality - Full reporting of methane emissions will be included PARIS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) announced the launch of a comprehensive framework for a consistent industry approach to declaring greenhouse gas neutral LNG cargoes, at a time when the practice of declaring LNG cargoes 'carbon neutral' is increasing. The Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) and GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Neutral Framework is part of a collective industry movement to account for and reduce GHG emissions associated with LNG, an increasingly important source of energy worldwide. Entities at every stage of the LNG life cycle can use it to assess the GHG footprints of their LNG cargoes. The Framework promotes verified and consistent quantification of GHG emissions across the entire value chain, from extraction of natural gas, liquefaction, shipping, regasification to final consumption. Significantly, it creates a transparent practice to declare GHG neutral cargoes through an independently verified Cargo Statement which sets out both emissions and offsets. GIIGNL promotes that emissions are avoided and reduced where possible, and if offsetting is used, it can compensate for residual emissions that cannot otherwise be reduced or avoided. "To fulfil the LNG industry's critical and unique role in supporting the global eonomy to transition to net-zero emissions, it is imperative that our sector consistently and collaboratively accounts for emissions across the entire value chain," said President of GIIGNL, Jean Abiteboul.
"Alongside reducing and offsetting overall emissions, it is our intention that the Framework assists the industry in demonstrating greater transparency." Steve Hill, Executive Vice President, Shell Energy and GIIGNL Regional Vice President for Americas added: "The Framework provides organisations across the industry with a best-practice approach specifically designed to enhance transparency and accuracy in quantifying, reporting, and offsetting emissions associated with LNG cargoes. We are keen to start the groundwork on applying this framework to deliver a test 'GHG neutral' LNG cargo as defined by the Framework."
Michiaki Hirose, Chairperson of Tokyo Gas and GIIGNL Regional Vice President for Asia pointed out that "while corporate strategies to reach GHG neutrality may differ from one company to another, the industry expects to achieve GHG reductions throughout the LNG value chain." Dan Brouillette, President of Sempra Infrastructure and member of the GIIGNL Executive Committee explained: "The tools and pathways provided within the Framework will help LNG organisations create clear and reliable GHG emissions reporting that can be independently verified, supporting them to make good on their climate commitments." "We encourage the industry to begin using the Framework from now on but we understand that alignment will take time as industry participants build necessary resources and capabilities. We look forward to working with all stakeholders so that the global community has the best chance of reaching net-zero climate goals," President Abiteboul concluded. GIIGNL recognises the importance of reducing methane emissions and the Framework requires that they are reported separately in the Cargo Statement, alongside all seven Kyoto Protocol GHGs. Use of the term 'GHG Neutral' represents a full life cycle footprint across the entire cargo value chain, based as much as possible on primary data, supported by a long-term decarbonisation commitment, a delivered emission reduction plan and fully netted with high quality offsets. The Framework does not seek to replace any established standards and methodologies for GHG emissions calculation, footprint determination and offsetting. It integrates established internationally agreed standards and methodologies and provides additional criteria for assessing and reporting GHG emissions associated with the specific case of an LNG cargo. About GIIGNL: GIIGNL is the 'International Group of LNG Importers'. With 86 member companies headquartered in 27 countries, GIIGNL members handle more than 90% of LNG imports worldwide. Over the last 50 years, the association has been playing a unique role in the development of the LNG industry, constituting a forum for exchange of information and experience among its members. SOURCE International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers
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[November 16, 2021] Regtank Announced as Winner of SFF Global FinTech Awards 2021 (MAS - ASEAN FinTech)
SINGAPORE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Regtank Technology was awarded 2nd Place at SFF Global FinTech Awards 2021 (ASEAN FinTech) presented by MAS during Singapore FinTech Festival 2021 by Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS. Organised by MAS in collaboration with the Singapore FinTech Association, the Award Winners were selected amongst four categories: Singapore Founder, ASEAN FinTech, Singapore Financial Institution and Global by an international panel comprising industry experts across multiple fields. "Amongst the 298 applicants and tough competition, being awarded the MAS ASEAN FinTech is a tribute to Regtank's product and solidifies our ability to contribute to the financial sector. We are grateful for the recognition. The team will continue to improve on our solution to live up to our vision of making compliance easy for our customers." Megan Lee, Founder & CEO, Regtank Technology Pte Ltd With 100% positive client feedback on its user experience, Regtank Compliance Solution has benefited organisations by saving up to 50% cost and increased efficiency by saving time. We help clients reduce human error and mitigate risks through the automation and standardised sysem process.
The MAS ASEAN Fintech Award aims to recognise FinTech initiatives that have helped create new growth opportunities, transform industry practices, and promote financial inclusion amidst challenging circumstances as economies around the world look to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Fintech funding in Southeast Asia jumped more than three times in the first nine months of this year to US$3.5 billion compared with full-year 2020, with Singapore accounting for nearly half of the region's deals at US$1.6 billion. Singapore is also fast emerging as the region's leading Institutional crypto-asset hub. These developments generate demand for innovative and cost-effective regulatory technology solutions like Regtank's Compliance Solution and I congratulate RegTank for winning the prestigious MAS ASEAN Fintech Award." Chia Hock Lai, Co-chairman, Blockchain Association Singapore.
Regtank aims to empower fintech companies to effectively manage their entire compliance program on a single platform with higher efficiency and lower costs. At the core, Regtank's Compliance Solution is a risk-based approach (RBA) full suite solution covering the entire process of AML compliance. Additionally, the Regtank team is working on creating a proprietary algorithm of blockchain analysis with AI/Machine Learning technologies. At length, Regtank aims to provide firms with ecosystem-wide mechanisms as a self-sustaining decentralized compliance protocol to transform the compliance landscape in the industry. About Regtank Technology Pte Ltd Regtank is the leading provider of a one-stop software-as-a-service compliance solution, serving to revolutionize the compliance landscape. Regtank today provides risk assessment and management, screening, record keeping, ongoing due diligence, transaction monitoring, blockchain analytics, and the identification of the origin of funds. For more information, you can visit us at https://regtank.com/ . SOURCE Regtank
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[November 16, 2021] UserTesting Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
UserTesting, Inc. ("UserTesting"), a leading provider of human insight, delivered through a video-first, experience testing platform, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 10,000,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $14.00 per share. All of the shares are being offered and sold by UserTesting. In addition, UserTesting has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 1,500,000 shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "USER" on November 17, 2021, and the offering is expected to close on November 19, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are acting as lead book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters for the offering. Piper Sandler, Truist Securities, and William Blair are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Canaccord Genuity, Needham & Company, Oppenheimer & Co., Raymond James, Baird, Loop Capital Markets, and Academy Securities are acting as co-managers for the offering. A registration statement relating to these securities was declred effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 16, 2021. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, or by telephone at (866) 718-1649, or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by telephone at (866) 803-9204 or by email at [email protected].
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About UserTesting
UserTesting has pioneered a video-first, enterprise-grade SaaS (News - Alert) platform that enables organizations to execute customer-centric visions by seeing and hearing the experiences of real people as they engage with products, designs, apps, processes, concepts, or brands. The UserTesting Human Insight platform captures diverse customer perspectives from targeted audiences, who have opted in to share their thoughts, whether for digital, real-world, or omnichannel experiences. The platform generates video-based Customer Experience Narratives, or CxN, typically in less than a day, and often within a few hours. Using machine learning, the platform analyzes and surfaces key moments of insight rapidly and at scale. This helps organizations to free up time and resources and make better customer experience decisions. As of September 30, 2021, UserTesting had more than 2,100 customers, making up more than half of the world's top 100 most valuable brands according to Forbes. UserTesting is headquartered in San Francisco, California. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116006448/en/
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[November 16, 2021] Infor named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for SaaS and Cloud-enabled ERP for Manufacturing in Asia/Pacific 2021
TAIPEI, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that IDC has named Infor a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning 2021 Vendor Assessment report (doc #AP46741021, July 2021). The IDC MarketScape evaluated vendors based on a comprehensive and rigorous framework that reviews key strategy criteria such as cross-application and functional integration capabilities, regional presence, pricing and deployment models, and customer service management. Vendors were also judged on the breadth of industries they serve, range of services, functionality, innovation capabilities and customer satisfaction[1]. "This IDC MarketScape for Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Cloud ERP answers the question of what vendor capabilities exist in region to support manufacturing organizations as they embark on their Industry 4.0 journey," says Stephanie Krishnan, Associate Vice President IDC Asia/Pacific. "According to our data, ERP investment has been consistently at the top of technology choices for Asia/Pacific manufacturers to meet performance and innovation priorities as well as being essential for supporting sustainability outcomes. Asia/Pacific manufacturers require integration, automation, and connectivity to support these priorities. As such, ERP systems that are cloud-based and embed AI, IoT, and analytics are seeing increased traction. Particularly with recent pressures, manufacturers are seeking those vendors that can support them as they pursue these priorities in their digital transformation journey". "More than a year of evolving disruptions and changing customer expectations are accelerating companies' appetites to embrace new business partners, new ways of engaging customers, and new operating procedures. Infor's multi-tenant cloud ERP solutions (CloudSuites) empower businesses to thrive amidst constant changes, advancing Industry 4.0 initiatives, helping to centralize decision-making, improve business performance and enhance operational resiliency," said Chema Aramburu, executive vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, Infor. "Infor being recognized as a Leader underscores our position in the market. We understand the nuances of the industry that our customers operate in, and we are proud to provide purpose-built, out-of-the-box industry-specific solutions that will help them address their unique challenges and unlock new, higher-value revenue streams for their business." Infor CloudSuite solutions are industry-specific and are delivered as cloud services on Amazon Web Services' (AWS') secured and scalable infrastructure. Infor CloudSuites utilize Infor's leading technology platform, Infor OS, to power next-generation user experiences, integration and workflows which can help increase productivity and collaboration. Learn more about Infor industry ERP solutions: https://www.infor.com/solutions/erp/industry-erp
[1] IDC, "MarketScape: Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning 2021 Vendor Assessment," DOC # AP46741021, July 2021
About IDC MarketScape IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position in a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors. About Infor Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. Providing mission-critical enterprise applications to 67,000 customers in more than 175 countries, Infor software is designed to deliver more value and less risk, with more sustainable operational advantages. We empower our 17,000 employees to leverage their deep industry expertise and use data-driven insights to create, learn and adapt quickly to solve emerging business and industry challenges. Infor is committed to providing our customers with modern tools to transform their business and accelerate their own path to innovation. To learn more, please visit www.infor.com. # # # This announcement reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the specific product(s) described herein, all of which is subject to change by Infor in its sole discretion, with or without notice to you. This announcement is not a commitment to you in any way and you should not rely on this document or any of its content in making any decision. Infor is not committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality, even if such is described in this announcement and even if such description is accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should," "will," and/or similar expressions. Many factors can affect Infor's product development plans and the nature, content and timing of future product releases, all of which remain in the sole discretion of Infor. This announcement, in whole or in part, may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Infor or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Infor expressly disclaims any liability with respect to this announcement. SOURCE Infor
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[November 16, 2021] Asia Pacific PropTech Summit 2021 | APPS2021
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- APPS2021 is the largest virtual PropTech event for the APAC region. The Asia Pacific Proptech Summit 2021 will be held from 26-27 November 2021 and is organized by the Malaysia PropTech Association, together with our APAC PropTech partners, and in conjunction with Unissu Ltd from the United Kingdom, a platform "shaping the future of real estate". PropTech (Property Technology) is a fast-growing industry with digital solutions for one of the largest industries in the world, the property industry. According to JLL, a global real estate services company; PropTech startups have grown 300% over the last 12 months creating a total of USD 9.7 billion in funding activities in Q1 2021. APPS2021 is an event for the complete property, real estate, and built industry under the roof of technology. It's the place to meet and greet real estate professionals and PropTech players/solution providers. But also enough to sniff aroun for the curious students and PropTech enthusiasts looking at the industry as a career opportunity.
The APAC region is extremely active when it comes to PropTech, mainly because of the number of large-scale property projects in the region. Hence, the large number of PropTech associations from the Middle East, Europe, and the APAC region, participating in the event. APPS2021 will focus on five main verticals - Plan, Construct, Transact, Manage, and Educate. The event will host renowned industry specialists and subject experts, sharing their knowledge and vast experience with the event delegates.
APPS2021 is a unique opportunity for stakeholders of the property and proptech industries to mingle, discuss, collaborate, and seek enticing partnerships. SUMMIT Over the course of two days, the APPS2021 Summit is lining up 100+ speakers, from more than 18 countries. The Summit intends to deliver knowledge, answer questions, share connections, create network opportunities, and keep the conversation going long after the event. EXPO Apart from the two-day event APPS2021 will host a virtual exhibition, where event delegates can browse and roam around connecting with the players in the industry. The APPS2021 Expo will remain online till 31st March 2022 offering all exhibitors more targeted exposure, and delegates, guests, and visitors more time to explore the industry. Event Verticals: PLAN
CONSTRUCT
TRANSACT
MANAGE
EDUCATE Confirmed Event Partners: Japan Proptech
Proptech BNE
PropTech Indonesia
AsiaPropTech
Proptech For Good
Proptech Turkey
ME PropTech Initiative Dubai
Italian PropTech Network SUPPORTING LOCAL AGENCIES MaGIC
CRADLE
MDEC MEDIA ACCREDITATION www.appsummit.asia CONTACT DETAILS Dr. Daniel Gambero
President
Malaysia PropTech Association
Telephone & WhatsApp (+60) 012 - 980 2292
Email [email protected] SOURCE Malaysia PropTech Association (MPA)
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[November 16, 2021] Malaysia to Spearhead and Drive the Halal Economy at the World Expo 2020 - Halal Cluster Week
DUBAI, UAE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Halal Development Corporation Berhad (HDC) and the Malaysia External Trade and Development Corporation (MATRADE) are set to host the Halal Cluster Week from 15 - 20 November 2021 at the Malaysia Pavilion, in conjunction with the ongoing World Expo 2020 Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Organisers HDC and MATRADE, both agencies under the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), will be using the Halal Cluster Week to showcase the country's extensive capabilities in managing a global halal ecosystem and simultaneously, attract global players to use Malaysia as a viable hub for the production of halal products and services.
At the Halal Cluster Week, HDC will be organizing daily thought leadership and pocket talks sessions, networking engagements and business meeting sessions throughout the five-day business mission to drive investor interest, raise awareness and initiate potential partnerships and collaborations.
"The Halal Cluster Week in Dubai is an opportunity for us to increase global awareness of Malaysia's capabilities in halal production and promotion, be it for halal funding with Islamic finance, or for halal integrity and traceability in the logistic industry which is today one of the key sectors that is ripe for further developmnt and investment," said HDC's CEO Hairol Ariffein Sahari, during the launch of Halal Cluster Week.
MATRADE will be hosting its Halal Business Showcase, featuring business meetings and business matching sessions via the Export Acceleration Mission (EAM) on Digital Halal Ecosystem, where a total of 19 Malaysian halal-certified and export-ready companies to be physically showcasing and offering various halal products and services for the global marketplace.
UAE is a key economic partner for Malaysia and has consistently been Malaysia's major trading partner in the West Asia region. In 2020, amongst the West Asia countries, UAE has been Malaysia's largest trading partner, largest export destination and second largest import source.
From the first 8 months of 2021, total trade with UAE which was valued at RM13.97 billion (USD3.39 billion), increased 8.6% as compared to the corresponding period last year. Malaysia's total exports which was valued at RM6.44 billion (USD1.56 billion) increased by 17.8% while total imports similarly increased by 1.8% to RM7.53 billion (USD1.83 billion).
Malaysia will conclude its partnership with key trading partners through knowledge sharing, logistics and supply chain connectivity and market expansion through digital platform. These include HDC's partnership with the African Institute of Islamic Finance (AIIF), Halal Supply Chain & Logistics training sessions and Malaysia's Halal Digital platform showcase that features the Halal Integrated Platform (HIP) and Digital Augmented Reality Showcase (DASH).
On Islamic Finance, the launch of the Financial Assistance Facility Fund by Standard Chartered Saadiq, in collaboration with HDC is expected to benefit both Malaysian companies expanding overseas and foreign companies planning to establish commercial presence in Malaysia's Halal Industrial Parks.
HDC also announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exchange between HDC and the Chartered Institute Logistics and Transport (CILT) International, which will culminate in the development of the Halal Supply Chain Management System (HSCMS).
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name: Norsida Ahmad
HDC Corporate Communications Div
Tel: +60123249703
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE HALAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION BERHAD (HDC)
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[November 16, 2021] Expanding "Taiwan Experience" to Southeast Asia, TPIsoftware Collaborates with IG Tech Group to Embrace FinTech in Cambodia
TAIPEI, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TPIsoftware and IG Tech Group, the leading system integrator in Cambodia, have signed a strategic partnership agreement with Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs as witness, aiming to combine IG Tech Group's local network in Cambodia's financial and government sectors with TPIsoftware's robust "Taiwan Experience" in FinTech to gear toward digital upgrade in Cambodia's financial industry. With the business matchmaking from the World System Integrator Conference (WISC) sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the two parties exchanged views on potential markets in Cambodia and their mutual interests, and further completed the signing of product distribution of TPIsoftware API management platform, digiRunner. Moreover, TPIsoftware and IG Tech have committed to providing an international digital user experience for Cambodian market. TPIsoftware looks forward to expanding business in the blooming Southeast Asian market. TPIsoftware has established branches in Vietnam and Singapore since 2019, striving to facilitate digital transformation in the new southbound market. Despite the business disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, TPIsoftware have obtained several overseas ustomers, including a major electric car manufacturer in the US, Vietnam's biggest pharmacy retail chain and property insurance corporation. As the Cambodian government is supporting local companies to drive FinTech, this collaborative partnership with Idealink Consulting, the core of IG Tech Group, hopes to accelerate digitization in Cambodia's finance.
"We are honored to have this opportunity to participate in the SIPA led by the MOEA, and partner with Idealink Consulting, the system integrator pioneer in Cambodia," said Ben Yao, CEO of TPIsoftware, "We believe this strong alliance will benefit the Cambodian market, and unlocks business opportunities of smart finance and smart government." "We have seen emerging digital transformation markets because of the rapid economic growth in the Southeast Asian countries, which is a golden opportunity for us to expand our reach. Compared to those iconic international companies, our geographical advantages, 16 years of FinTech commitment, exceptional product and more all give us a competitive edge. We hope to drive Taiwan's export of software services," Ben Yao said.
Sokieng Sieng, Managing Director of IG Tech Group added, "We always look into creating an ecosystem with win-win business partnerships and positive impact to the society. This partnership engagement is our great honor and big stepping-stone to expand our offerings to our privileged customers. We are delighted to announce this official partnership with TPIsoftware to work together towards the goals." About IG Tech Group IG Tech is Cambodia's technology solutions integration, implementation and development group. With its first group member company, Idealink Consulting Ltd. established, core expertise of IG Tech has expanded to areas of IoT, SMART cities and more. About TPIsoftware TPIsoftware is a Taiwanese software provider with focus in APIM, AI chatbots, FinTech and more, delivering services and solutions domestically and overseas. Media Contact: TPIsoftware
Peggy Tsai
+886-2-2658-0508 #1606
[email protected] SOURCE TPIsoftware
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[November 16, 2021] Straive launches an all-new official website as part of its branding evolution
SINGAPORE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Straive (erstwhile SPi Global), a market-leader in technology driven content and data solutions, today unveiled its new and comprehensive official website. An extension of the rebrand earlier this year, the new website marks Straive's next step on its journey of redefining the brand. With 250+ pages live today, the website is a window into Straive's capabilities across EdTech, Data Solutions, Research and Education Content capabilities. Capturing the new visual identity, the website has been developed with an intuitive design to enhance the content consumption experience. Along with Straive's solutions, the website also showcases the technological capabilities across customer segments and the various industries that the company operates in. The website's Insights section features original articles, research, whitepapers, e-briefs, videos, case studies and more to create holistic thought leadership and enable industry knowledge exchange. On the website launch, Ratan Datta, President and CEO, Straiv, said, "The rebranding and the new website are a reflection of our long-term vision and the evolution of Straive as a company. In line with the new visual identity of the brand, our website features a younger, fresher, and a more vibrant appeal while delivering a multitude of insights at the same time. We are hopeful that the new website will offer a meaningful experience to visitors and resonate with their business needs. The new website represents our pledge to keep evolving along with our customers in elevating knowledge to solve the critical problems of our time."
The website also offers a peek into the Life & Culture at Straive and various career opportunities from across the world along with an introduction to the leadership team and an extensive newsroom. To explore our new website, click here.
About Straive (erstwhile SPi Global) Straive (earlier known as SPi Global) is a market leading content technology enterprise that provides data services, subject matter expertise (SME) and technology solutions to multiple domains such as research content, e-Learning/EdTech and data/information providers. With a client-base scoping 30 countries worldwide, Straive's multi-geographical resource pool is strategically located in eight countries- Philippines, India, USA, China, Nicaragua, Vietnam, United Kingdom and the company headquarters in Singapore. For media queries, reach out to Kshitiz Ahuja, Lead- Brand and PR, [email protected] Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687130/Straive_New_Website.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1678685/Straive_New_Logo.jpg SOURCE Straive
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[November 17, 2021] Santhera and ReveraGen Announce Successful FDA Pre-NDA Meeting for Vamorolone in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Pratteln, Switzerland, and Rockville, MD, USA, November 17, 2021 Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) and ReveraGen Biopharma (US: private) announce the successful completion of a first pre-NDA meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for vamorolone for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The FDA considered both the proposed clinical efficacy and safety data sufficient for an NDA filing. Based on the Fast Track Designation for vamorolone, the FDA deemed the plan to pursue a rolling NDA review acceptable. The NDA submission is to commence in Q1-2022. The purpose of the routine Type B pre-NDA meeting was to obtain agreement from the FDA on the sufficiency and adequacy of the clinical data to support an NDA filing of vamorolone for the treatment of DMD. In its conclusions from this meeting, the FDA agreed that (i) the efficacy of vamorolone as demonstrated in the 24-week phase of the pivotal VISION-DMD study supports an NDA application and that (ii) the results from the 24-week double-blind VISION-DMD study phase and the open-label studies provide sufficient safety data to support an NDA filing of vamorolone for the treatment of DMD. Acceptance of the NDA will be subject to FDAs review of the complete filing. Based on the feedback from the FDA, Santhera and ReveraGen will initiate the rolling NDA submission in Q1-2022. As part of the process, additional pre-NDA meetings with the FDA are planned to address other sections of the filing. Vamorolone has been granted Orphan Drug status in the US for DMD and has received Fast Track and Rare Pediatric Orphan designations by the US FDA. While outside of the scope of the pre-NDA meeting and with reference to a PPSR (Proposed Pediatric Study Request)-related question, the FDA also noted in its response that, as a synthetic steroid, vamorolone may have potential public health benefits for other indications. On this basis, Santhera will continue to collaborate with the FDA and evaluate opportunities for indications beyond DMD. We are very pleased with the positive outcome of this first pre-NDA meeting and look forward to initiating our NDA submission. As we are nearing important regulatory milestones on our journey to bring vamorolone to patients, we thank all participants, their families and caregivers, as well as investigators and study personnel, for their commitment to the vamorolone program, said Eric Hoffman, PhD, President and CEO of ReveraGen BioPharma. The feedback from the FDA on our submission plans is encouraging and an important confirmatory step of the progress we have made in advancing vamorolone as a foundational treatment option in DMD. We now look forward to working with the FDA and other regulatory authorities to bring vamorolone to market as soon as possible, said Dario Eklund, Chief Executive Officer of Santhera. Prior to the meeting with the FDA, Santhera and ReveraGen submitted a data package which centered around the positive 24-week results from the pivotal Phase 2b VISION-DMD study in patients aged 4-<7 years. In this study, vamorolone showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful differences from placebo on the primary efficacy endpoint (time-to-stand/TTSTAND velocity), with conistently strong efficacy results across other pre-specified secondary and exploratory efficacy endpoints [1, 2]. The briefing package was supplemented with the open-label Phase 2a long-term treatment data that provide supportive information regarding dose-response, durability of treatment effect, and long-term safety over a 2.5-year follow up period [3]. Vamorolone treatment has been shown to preserve height trajectory and had a significantly lower adverse impact on measures of bone health and behavior changes compared to prednisone [4-7]. In clinical studies, vamorolone was generally safe and well tolerated. The most commonly reported adverse events versus placebo from the VISION-DMD study were cushingoid features, vomiting and vitamin D deficiency. Adverse events were generally of mild to moderate severity.
As previously announced, the FDA's support of an NDA submission for vamorolone based on the 24-week data from the VISION-DMD study triggers a milestone payment of USD 5 million to the licensor ReveraGen, and will enable Santhera to draw down CHF 5 million under the financing agreement with Highbridge Capital Management LLC. Vamorolone was discovered by US-based ReveraGen BioPharma, Inc. and is being developed in collaboration with Santhera who owns worldwide rights to the drug candidate for all indications.
About Vamorolone
Vamorolone is a first-in-class drug candidate that binds to the same receptor as corticosteroids but modifies its downstream activity and as such is a dissociative agonist [8-10]. This mechanism has the potential to dissociate efficacy from typical steroid safety concerns and therefore vamorolone could emerge as a promising alternative to existing corticosteroids, the current standard of care in children and adolescent patients with DMD. Start of US NDA rolling submission for DMD is anticipated in Q1-2022. Vamorolone has been granted Orphan Drug status in the US and in Europe for DMD, and has received Fast Track and Rare Pediatric Disease designations by the US FDA and Promising Innovative Medicine (PIM) status from the UK MHRA for DMD. Vamorolone is an investigational medicine and is currently not approved for use by any health authority. References:
[1] ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03439670
[2] Press release Santhera and ReveraGen Announce Positive and Statistically Highly Significant Topline Results with Vamorolone in Pivotal VISION-DMD Study, June 1, 2021, link
[3] Press release Santhera and ReveraGen Announce New 2.5-year Treatment Data with Vamorolone in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, April 28, 2021, link
[4] Hoffman E. Presented at virtual PPMD Annual Conference, June 22-26, 2021.
[5] Mah JK, et al. 2021. [Manuscript in progress]
[6] Hoffman E, et al. Neurology. 2019 Sep 24; 93(13): e1312e1323
[7] Data on File. ReveraGen Biopharma, Rockville, MD
[8] Heier CR at al. (2013). EMBO Mol Med 5: 15691585.
[9] Reeves EKM, et al (2013). Bioorg Med Chem 21(8):2241-2249.
[10] Liu X, et al. (2020). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 117:24285-24293. About Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a first-in-class dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases as well as an exploratory gene therapy approach targeting congenital muscular dystrophies. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com. Raxone is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals. About ReveraGen BioPharma
ReveraGen was founded in 2008 to develop first-in-class dissociative steroidal drugs for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other chronic inflammatory disorders. The development of ReveraGens lead compound, vamorolone, has been supported through partnerships with foundations worldwide, including Muscular Dystrophy Association USA, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne, Save Our Sons, JoiningJack, Action Duchenne, CureDuchenne, Ryans Quest, Alexs Wish, DuchenneUK, Pietros Fight, Michaels Cause, Duchenne Research Fund, and Jesses Journey. ReveraGen has also received generous support from the US Department of Defense CDMRP, National Institutes of Health (NCATS, NINDS, NIAMS), and European Commission (Horizons 2020). www.reveragen.com
For further information please contact: Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG, Hohenrainstrasse 24, CH-4133 Pratteln
[email protected] or
Eva Kalias, Head External Communications
Phone: +41 79 875 27 80
[email protected] ReveraGen BioPharma
Eric Hoffman, PhD, President and CEO
Phone: + 1 240-672-0295
[email protected]
Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements
This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. # # # Attachment 2021 11 17_FDA-preNDA_e_final
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[November 17, 2021] Fang Receives NYSE's Grant of Extension Regarding Delayed Filing of 2020 Form 20-F
BEIJING, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fang Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN) ("Fang" or the "Company"), a leading real estate Internet portal in China, today announced that it received a notice from NYSE Regulation indicating that NYSE's Listings Operations Committee agreed to provide the Company with an additional trading period through April 25, 2022, subject to reassessment on an ongoing basis, to complete and file the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020 (the "2020 Form 20-F") with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and any subsequent delayed filings pursuant to the NYSE's late filer rules outlined in Section 802.01E of the NYSE Listed Company Manual. The Company has been in ongoing cooperation and correspondence with the NYSE on the late filing issue. NYSE Regulation notified the Company that the NYSE will closely monitor the Company's progress with its interim milestones submitted to the NYSE. Failure to achieve these interim milestones could result in accelerated trading suspension prior to the end of the April 25, 2022 trading period. In addition, in the event that the Company does not complete the filing of the 2020 Form 20-F and any subsequent delayed filings with the SEC by the end of the maximum 12-month cure period on May 17, 2022, the NYSE will move forward with the initiation of suspension and delisting procedures. About Fang Fang operates a leading real estate Internet portal in China in terms of the number of page views and visitors to its websites. Through its websites, Fang provides primaril marketing, listing, leads generation and financial services for China's fast-growing real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors. Its user-friendly websites support active online communities and networks of users seeking information on, and value-added services for, the real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors in China. Fang currently maintains approximately 71 offices to focus on local market needs and its website and database contains real estate related content covering 665 cities in China. For more information about Fang, please visit http://ir.fang.com .
Safe Harbor 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. Such forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the results of the winding-up petition and application for appointment of provisional liquidators. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "is expected to," "anticipates," "aim," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "are likely to," "estimates," "may," "should" and similar expressions, and include, without limitation, statements regarding Fang's future financial performance, revenue guidance, growth and growth rates, market position and continued business transformation. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Fang's control, which may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the impact of Fang's business development strategies, the Fang's ability to continue as a going concern in the future, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of current and future government policies affecting China's real estate market. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Fang's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fang-receives-nyses-grant-of-extension-regarding-delayed-filing-of-2020-form-20-f-301426378.html SOURCE Fang Holdings Limited
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[November 17, 2021] Imugene Announces Clinical Trial Supply Agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer to Evaluate HER-Vaxx in Combination with Avelumab for Treatment of Gastric Cancer
New clinical trial supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc.
Avelumab (BAVENCIO ) to be provided to Imugene for Phase 2 clinical study in HER-2 positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinomas (neoHERIZON)
) to be provided to Imugene for Phase 2 clinical study in HER-2 positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinomas (neoHERIZON) neoHERIZON will assess HER-Vaxx in combination with chemotherapy with or without avelumab in HER-2 positive gastric cancer
SYDNEY, Australia., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imugene (ASX: IMU) today announced a new clinical trial supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (ETR: MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Imugenes HER-Vaxx, a B-cell activating immunotherapy, in combination with avelumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting PD-L1, in patients with HER-2 positive gastric cancer. Avelumab, which is marketed as BAVENCIO, is co-developed and co-commercialized by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. neoHERIZON is an open-label, multi-center, randomized, Phase 2 clinical trial designed to assess the safety and efficacy of perioperative HER-Vaxx combined with chemotherapy with or without avelumab compared to chemotherapy alone in patients with HER-2 positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinomas. The studys primary endpoint is pathologic complete response. Secondary endpoints include safety and biomarker evaluation. We are very excited for the opportunity to treat patients with this new generation of HER-2 targeted B-cell immunotherapy, which has the potential to address significant unmet need in early HER-2 overexpressing gastric cancer that remains a challenging indication with poor prognosis. The combination of chemotherapy and HER-Vaxx alone or in combination with avelumab in this type of gastric cancer may support a better treatment outcome for patients, said Dirk Arnold M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Asklepios Tumorzentrum in Hamburg. Imugene is excited to announce this collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer. HER-Vaxx has shown a tolerable safety profile and encuraging efficacy in patients with metastatic HER-2 positive gastric cancer, and we are looking forward to evaluating HER-Vaxx with avelumab in the perioperative clinical setting, said Leslie Chong, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Imugene. Working together, were committed to finding ways to address the unmet needs of patients living with cancer.
Effective immediately, under the terms of the agreement, Imugene will be the sponsor of the study and will fund the clinical study from existing budgets and resources. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer will provide avelumab for the duration of the study. About Gastric and Gastro-esophageal Cancer
Perioperative (pre- and post-surgery) treatment in gastric or gastro-esophageal cancer remains an unmet need for patients with HER-2 positive tumours. The current standard of care is limited to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery when gastric cancer is diagnosed in its early stages. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been successfully introduced to metastatic gastric cancer. Moving HER-Vaxx into earlier gastric cancer in combination with chemotherapy or an immune checkpoint inhibitor may improve treatment outcomes for patients with this difficult to treat cancer. About HER-Vaxx Imugenes HER-Vaxx is a B-cell peptide cancer immunotherapy designed to treat tumours that over-express the HER-2/neu receptor, such as gastric, breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers. The immunotherapy is constructed from several B cell epitopes derived from the extracellular domain of HER-2/neu. It has been shown in pre-clinical studies and in Phase 1 and 2 studies to stimulate a potent polyclonal antibody response to HER-2/neu, a well-known and validated cancer target. For more information please contact: Leslie Chong
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] Investor Enquiries
[email protected] Media Enquiries
Matt Wright
[email protected]
Follow us on Twitter @TeamImugene
Like us on Facebook @Imugene
Connect with us on LinkedIn @Imugene Limited About Imugene (ASX:IMU) Imugene is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing a range of new and novel immunotherapies that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients to treat and eradicate tumours. Our unique platform technologies seek to harness the bodys immune system against tumours, potentially achieving a similar or greater effect than synthetically manufactured monoclonal antibody and other immunotherapies. Our product pipeline includes multiple immunotherapy B-cell vaccine candidates and an oncolytic virotherapy (CF33) aimed at treating a variety of cancers in combination with standard of care drugs and emerging immunotherapies such as CAR Ts for solid tumours. We are supported by a leading team of international cancer experts with extensive experience in developing new cancer therapies with many approved for sale and marketing for global markets. Our vision is to help transform and improve the treatment of cancer and the lives of the millions of patients who need effective treatments. This vision is backed by a growing body of clinical evidence and peer-reviewed research. Imugene is well funded and resourced, to deliver on its commercial and clinical milestones. Together with leading specialists and medical professionals, we believe Imugenes immuno-oncology therapies will become foundation treatments for cancer. Our goal is to ensure that Imugene and its shareholders are at the forefront of this rapidly growing global market. Release authorised by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Imugene Limited, Level 3, 62 Lygon Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia
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[November 17, 2021] Team of Satellite Industry and Finance Experts Launch the First Satellite-Focused LeaseTech to Disrupt Equipment Financing
GENEVA, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SatLease Capital announced its official take off today, aiming to disrupt the satellite telecommunications industry, revolutionizing the way that firms finance telecommunications equipment. The new venture is focused on serving both maritime and land enterprise customers by generating satellite equipment leasing transactions. SatLease is aiming to fill a void in the current market by offering a unique all-in-one solution while traditional satellite service providers (SSPs) are not in a position to finance the complex equipment required by their customers. This is the first ever independent SaaS Satellite as a Service solution brought to the Service Providers community. "We recognized that there was a growing need not being met in the market," commented SatLease Capital Chairman Erwan Emilian, a longtime veteran of the telecom industry. "We've assembled an elite squad with global satllite and finance experience and expertise second to none, and have already started to finance both land-based and maritime satellite telecom equipment needs for customers around the world."
Some of the benefits offered by SatLease Capital include the ability for end-users to simplify the cost and process of utilizing the very latest satellite telecommunications solutions by making fixed, regular payments instead of having to capitalize a large equipment purchase upfront. Additionally, any scheduled replacements or technology upgrades can be included in the lease, ensuring that customers won't miss out on features and efficiencies as technology advances. The high upfront capital cost of financing equipment is a major inhibitor of growth for service providers who serve the satellite telecom industry and for those who rely on the connectivity services this equipment provides; by delivering an innovative solution to this problem, SatLease Capital is enabling service providers to achieve faster business growth whilst being able to deliver more cost-effective solutions to their customers than ever before.
About SatLease Capital: SatLease Capital was founded in 2021 by a group of satellite telecom industry and finance top guns with the vision of creating an all-in-one solution for maritime and land enterprise customers seeking a simpler and more efficient way to finance their satellite needs. Through a global network of partners and suppliers, the SatLease Capital squad helps end-users of satellite service providers flexibly finance new satellite equipment. For more information, please visit satleasecapital.com.
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[November 17, 2021] Mastercard Continues to Advance Support for Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development and Grow City Possible Network
Mastercard has continued to expand its support for addressing urban challenges and inequalities, working with city leaders and partners around the world, through the City Possible network and capabilities. The unique solutions now reach over 600 communities in more than 50 countries across six continents, helping to foster collaboration and co-creation, drive inclusive economic development, and build resilient communities. City Possible, a partnership model pioneered by Mastercard, has grown from 16 founding members at launch three years ago to 310 city members and candidate cities. As well as welcoming new city members - such as Bogota, Colombia; the High Line in New York City; Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan; the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence; and The Smart City Association Italy formed of 38 cities across Italy - a number of industry and multilateral partners have also joined the network including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Citi. Alongside this, 390 cities are leveraging Mastercard's transit solutions, as the company takes an integrated approach to mobility to accelerate contactless payments on all forms of public transport. Mastercard is working with a range of partners across the ecosystem to deliver a consistent and seamless way to pay, whether it be buses, trains or micro-mobility such as bikes and scooters. The newly launched City Possible Advisory Board are representatives from some of the world's most innovative cities to provide guidance to the City Possible network and drive solution-oriented initiatives to solve the biggest challenges facing cities today. Founding Advisory Board members comprise representatives from City Possible members globally - including Curitiba and Novo Hamburgo in Brazil; Dublin City Council, Ireland; City of Hamilton, Canada; the North Texas Innovation Alliance; and The Smart City Association Italy - with the first meeting to be held later this year. "Technology innovation has a vital role to play in solving big urban problems, in particular by bringing together the scale, expertise and reach of public and private organizations," commented Carlos Menendez, President, Enterprise Partnerships at Mastercard. "Through City Possible, we're focused on delivering innovation, flexibility and trust and, as the network continues to expand, we see increasing opportunities to support each other's work to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive." City Insights: DataDriven Insights Tools and Solutions
Since launch in November 2020, the City Insights digital marketplace has rapidly expanded with over 20 data-driven tools and solutions, including data insights, cybersecurity solutions, and small business resources that are designed specifically for the public sector, contributed by Mastercard and technology partners. More than 50 state and city governments are leveraging the applications from contributors such as Bright Cities, the Cyber Readiness Institute, the Global Cyber Alliance, Marketplace.city, Venture Forward by GoDaddy, UrbanFootprint, and Zencity. City Key: Integrated Access to Services
Mastercard City Key is a digital-first payment and ID solution that enables residents and small businesses to access the economic, social, and cultural services they need, while at the same time making city operations more efficient. Today, over 2.7 million people in more than sixty locations worldwide have used Mastercard City Key cards to access financial aid and services, with 35 new city partnerships signed so far in 2021, including Sao Paulo, New Orleans and Egypt's New Administrative Capital. During this year, Mastercard has worked closely with cities and partners around the world to draw on the collective expertise and resources of all stakeholders to build innovative solutions which support the vulnerable communities that have been most impacted by the pandemic. For example, in Los Angeles, Mastercard worked with the Mayor's Office and Mobility Capital Finance, Inc (MoCaFi) on the launch of Angeleno Connect debit card and mobile app, which is being used to disburse financial assistance directly, connect residents to city services and offer free financial services to unbanked Angelenos. City Possible Summit: Hybrid Community Engagement At this year's Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, City Possible is showcasing how city leaders, private sector companies and many others are coming together to combine strengths and find solutions to enable innovation, accelerate digital access and foster an inclusive economic recovery. Through a hybrid format, the City Possible Summit will engage the community in-person and virtually. Ten engaging live sessions, featuring a world-class speaker line-up and focused on near-term challenges as well as longer-term planning, will cover topics such as ensuring an inclusive economic recovery, enabling small businesses, future-proofing social infrastructure, and managing priorities such cybersecurity, environmental sustainability and urban mobility. For those participating in the Smart City Expo World Congress in person, the City Possible Plaza will act as a meeting point for city leaders and partners from around the world as well as bringing to life the work being done by Mastercard and City Possible network participants. More details on how to register to watch the City Possible Summit virtually with a free Digital Pass can be found at https://citypossible.com/events/city-possible-summit-2021/. About Mastercard (NYSE: MA) 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 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116006484/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Times Professional Learning partners with Nuvepro Hands-on Labs to Enhance its Digital Skills Training
- The collaboration will provide real-world environment for learners to practice their theoretical skills - TPL aims to create ready-to-hire individuals with hands-on expertise BENGALURU, India, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuvepro, the leader in Hands-On Labs solution, today announced that Times Professional Learning (TPL), an education initiative by The Times of India Group, has selected Nuvepro to provide the real-world practice environment to the TPL learners to enhance their digital skills. TPL delivers learning solutions to early-career working professionals and enterprises. Specifically, TPL offers training solutions for the technology sector across a wide range of topics, from Basic Software training to Advanced topics in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. TPL will integrate Nuvepro Hands-On Labs with its learning program to give the unique and seamless experience of theory and practice on the same platform. This means that a TPL technical learner gets world-class learning content on new-age technologies and real-world lab environment to practice and solve problems. TPL has trained thousands of learners across multiple technologies. Big Data and Deep Learning are some of their popular courses that require real-world practice labs to give the students real-life experience and make them industry-ready. The hands-n labs come with challenges and problem statements that sharpen the execution skill of the learners.
Varun Dhamija, Chief Strategy Officer at Times Professional Learning, said "The Hands-on Labs completes the circle of learning and makes our learners job-ready. The real-world challenges help our students to infinitely practice and hone their skills and become experts in the technology. The Hands-On Labs enable us to launch new courses and give lab access to the students within minutes without spending time on lab set up and configuration. So, in totality the combination of world class training program from TPL and real-world environments by Nuvepro, will equip the learners with the required skills and expertise to succeed in their professional lives." Giridhar, CEO, Nuvepro said, "We are very excited for the TPL learners and customers, as they get a unique solution of theory and practice in the same box. We've experienced that the real-world environments and problem statements makes the learners a better choice for the industry employers as the quality of the theoretical and practical knowledge is unparalleled. The industry needs ready-to-hire digital skilled experts and pioneers like TPL have taken it as their mission to bridge the skill gap to make India the world's largest digital skill provider. We are excited to be part of that journey."
About Times Professional Learning Times Professional Learning (TPL) is an education initiative by The Times of India Group with an aim to revolutionize professional education in India. Times Professional Learning is strongly positioned to support India in realising its vision through a workforce whose employability skills are honed and made industry ready. TPL has partnered with some of the biggest names in education in India and in the world, including IIMs, XLRI, Wharton, MIT, Michigan State University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst to fulfil the aspirations of learners looking for world-class education. TPL has built robust infrastructure to make education accessible to learners in the mode they want classroom or online / live interactive. Visit https://timesprofessionallearning.com/ for more information. About Nuvepro Nuvepro is the world's best hands-on labs provider to help tech learners create a real-world environment to practice for their learning and engineering needs. We make hands-on learning and real-world assessments possible. Millions of technology learners from Enterprises, Universities and TechEd platforms use Nuvepro Hands-on Labs to rapidly upskill and reskill by practicing on 1000+ preset and sandbox-like environments. Visit www.nuvepro.com for more information.
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[November 17, 2021] Goldensource And Arabesque Announce New Partnership For Enhanced Investor Access To ESG Data And Insights
New agreement will enable investors to access Arabesque S-Ray's suite of ESG data products hosted on AWS Data Exchange, through GoldenSource ESG Impact.
GoldenSource clients will be able to leverage Arabesque's new solution to help investors meet upcoming disclosure requirements of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
Announcement comes as investor demand for ESG data surges, with one third of all assets under management globally now integrating sustainability factors. LONDON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GoldenSource and Arabesque today announced a new partnership enabling buy-side and sell-side investors to access Arabesque S-Ray's suite of ESG data assets and insights hosted on AWS Data Exchange, through GoldenSource ESG Impact. The partnership will allow GoldenSource clients to leverage S-Ray's ESG metrics and raw emissions data on companies across the world's major stock indices, together with business involvement filters for over 25,000 companies globally. Using big data and a quantitative, algorithmic approach, Arabesque's capabilities draw on more than four million ESG data points daily from over 30,000 sources for performance measurements on sustainability, including corporate net-zero alignment. Through a large network of ESG data provider partners and content specialists, the GoldenSource ESG Impact solution offers full depth and breadth of ESG data coverage, enabling users to make truly informed investment decisions. Going further, GoldenSource inbound APIs enable easy on-boarding of current and future structured and unstructred ESG content from new data sources. This makes it easier to find proxy data for firms for which ESG data is missing; for completing submissions for regulations such as SFDR; and for populating reports that demonstrate investments fall within clients' sustainability mandates.
As part of the agreement, investors will also be able to gain access to Arabesque's new 'SFDR Data Solution', a toolkit developed for asset managers and investment professions to ingest data needed for Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) reporting. Speaking on today's announcement, John Eley, CEO of GoldenSource, said:
"Taking action with ESG data has become an essential capability for financial firms, yet for most practitioners it's a newly established discipline that's evolving rapidly. As such, having Arabesque's deep ESG data sets, created by practitioners for practitioners, via a serviced connection into our solution for taking action on ESG data, brings immediate capability and the flexibility to keep up as things evolve." Dr Daniel Klier, President of Arabesque, added: "More than ever before, investors understand the critical need for high-quality ESG information to facilitate the transition to a more sustainable, net-zero future. Through this partnership with GoldenSource and their market-leading solution, we look forward to enabling institutional investors to leverage Arabesque's range of ESG data assets and products for enhanced decision-making." Today's announcement comes as investor interest in ESG information continues to grow, with more than $35 trillion now invested through ESG strategies, representing about a third of all professionally managed money around the world. 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 its clients. Visit arabesque.com for more information. About GoldenSource GoldenSource's software, services and expertise enables firms in the financial markets to manage risks, comply with regulatory requirements, control costs and run their business better with a trusted source of complete, consistent information. Its products ingest, standardize, validate and deliver mission critical market, reference, customer, ESG, position and transaction data to the people and systems that need it, such as trading, compliance, risk management, settlements, and accounting. GoldenSource provides automated, enterprise-level processing delivered through a cloud or on-premise platform, to achieve the highest levels of data quality and operational efficiency. Visit www.thegoldensource.com for more information. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690436/1103430_image.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690438/1103430_logo_Logo.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690437/1103430_logo_again_Logo.jpg
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[November 17, 2021] Simplilearn, in Collaboration with University Of California Irvine Continuing Education, Launches Professional Certificate Program in Cloud Computing
BENGALURU, India, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Simplilearn , a global digital skills training provider, today launched its Professional Certificate Program in Cloud Computing in collaboration with the University Of California Irvine (UCI), Division of Continuing Education (DCE). The program is designed for professionals who want to upskill in emerging cloud technologies and is best suited for middle and top management professionals with over eight years of work experience. This comprehensive program offers learners the benefit of UCI's academic excellence and Simplilearn's award-winning curriculum to develop a set of in-demand cloud-related skills and accelerate their career trajectory. With 100+ hours of core learning, this six-month intensive Professional Certificate in Cloud Computing is delivered via Simplilearn's high-engagement bootcamp-style learning delivery model. This model provides learners with an effective combination of self-paced videos, instructor-led live virtual classrooms, and interactiv labs. The course is divided into four components: prerequisite courses, mandatory courses, and a capstone project that offers students an opportunity to solve real-world challenges in cloud architecture. The learners will also benefit from the exclusive master classes conducted by the UCI's faculty.
Speaking about the program, Anand Narayanan, Chief Product Officer, Simplilearn, said, "Cloud has been a critical topic among CIOs and IT decision-makers for the past decade. The global pandemic has only served to further drive organizations of all sizes across all sectors to adopt digital and cloud-based technologies in a secure and scalable manner. To address this need, we are happy to collaborate with the UCI DCE to offer a comprehensive Professional Certificate in Cloud Computing. This in-depth program will provide extensive knowledge to learners and open new growth opportunities for them." Upon completion, program graduates will receive a Professional Certificate in Cloud Computing from the University of California Irvine, Division of Continuing Education along with Alumni Status in the DCE chapter to enable interaction amongst the UC Irvine community. Learners will get continuing education credits on program completion which will demonstrate their commitment to ongoing learning. Learners in India will be enrolled in Simplilearn's Job Assistance service.
Speaking on the partnership with Simplilearn, Stephane Muller, Directory of Business and Technology Programs at the UCI DCE said, "Owing to the current scenario, Cloud has become a critical technology domain. From allowing online learning to supporting remote work, Cloud has emerged as indispensable in the pandemic and post-pandemic for business survival. Seeing the surge in demand for Cloud services, it's clear that graduates and young professionals should understand and pursue careers in this domain. We are delighted to partner with Simplilearn to deliver the most updated industry-relevant curriculum to learners and create a job-ready workforce in this field." Simplilearn conducts more than 1,500 live classes, with an average of 70,000 learners who together spend more than 500,000 hours each month on the platform. Programs offered by Simplilearn give learners the opportunity to upskill and get certified in popular domains. About Simplilearn Founded in 2010 and based in San Francisco, California, and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn is the world's #1 online Bootcamp for digital economy skills training. Simplilearn offers access to world-class work-ready training to individuals and businesses around the world. The Bootcamps are designed and delivered with world-renowned universities, top corporations, and leading industry bodies via live online classes featuring top industry practitioners, sought-after trainers, and global leaders. From college students and early career professionals to managers, executives, small businesses, and big corporations, Simplilearn's role-based, skill-focused, industry-recognized, and globally relevant training programs are ideal upskilling solutions for diverse career or/and business goals. For more information, please visit www.simplilearn.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1100016/Simplilearn_Logo.jpg
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[November 17, 2021] BOOM To Host 'AI For Good Summit 2021' To Highlight The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Driving Change
The Summit, to be held on November 18-19, 2021, will host renowned global leaders within the tech industry to discuss how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can solve some of humanity's biggest problems and the need for a robust policy response to facilitate AI's wide-scale use. MUMBAI, India, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BOOM , India's premier verification platform, will launch its maiden virtual event 'AI for Good Summit 2021' focusing on the use and impact of Artificial Intelligence on the future of businesses, industries and the world at large, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era. With the growing adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by companies in almost every sector, it is no longer a question of if AI will change the world, but how and what industries will be affected first, and in what way. However, the accuracy of the results is largely based on its ability to process and analyse large amounts of complex data. Thus, to make the most of AI-led opportunities to break down this data to improve the world and the way we work, several challenges need to be addressed first. Connecting these dots between data, AI and the future, BOOM will host the 2-day summit to bring together thought-leaders, policymkers and business leaders across the globe. Some of these speakers are Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, Information Technology (IT); Government of Telangana; Nitin Aggarwal, Sr. Technical PM, Cloud AI Services, Google, USA; Roberto Croci, Managing Director, Microsoft for Startups MEA, UAE; Aleksa Gordic, Deepminder & AI Epiphany Founder, Serbia; Ibrahim Haddad, Executive Director, LF AI & Data Foundation, USA; Trapti Kalra, Artificial Intelligence Leader, IBM, India; Nitin Sareen, SVP, Consumer Analytics and Marketing Lead at Wells Fargo, India; Akshaya Bhargava, Founder & Executive Chairman, Bridgeweave Ltd., UK; Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder, BOOM and many more.
Through the Summit, these speakers will discuss relevant topics such as: Role of AI In Building Trust in Business
AI & The Pandemic - The Big Takeaways
Autonomous Driving in India and Its Global Impact
and Its Global Impact Open-source Toolkits for Building Trustworthy AI systems
Role Of AI In Building Trust in Business
Democratization of AI: Bridging AI To the Next Billion
Building ML Systems for Fairness at Scale
AI's Role in Preserving Culture & Improving Accessibility to The Disadvantaged
Practitioner Viewpoint on What It Takes to Make AI/ML Work at an Enterprise
Power of AI: Empowering Digital Investors
AI & Ethics Earlier this year, BOOM also launched Decode - a unique vertical dedicated to the intersection of the internet and society, with a special focus on technology, tech policy and law implementation. To know more about Decode, visit: https://www.boomlive.in/decode
The BOOM AI For Good Summit 2021 is an exclusive event with free registration. To access, log into https://www.aiforgood.boomlive.in/ . The virtual event will be also be streamed on BOOM's social media pages on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. About BOOM: Founded by Govindraj Ethiraj, BOOM is an independent media initiative with a trusted readership that seeks verified information. The first Indian member of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), BOOM is one of India's first and leading fact-checking platforms, committed to providing readers journalistically VERIFIED facts since 2014. BOOM is a primary source for accurate and accountable journalism, publishing independently VERIFIED INFORMATION and fact checks across genres, from business and technology to health and medicine. BOOM's work in fighting misinformation encompasses the use of artificial intelligence for good and a strong cyber defence environment. For more details, visit https://www.boomlive.in. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690701/AI_for_GOOD_Summit_2021_Event_Creative_Final.jpg
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[November 17, 2021] Online Blockchain plc: Umbria announces latest partnerships in NFT space
LONDON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Umbria Network is collaborating with a range of exciting NFT projects, built on the Polygon network, to introduce their communities to its game changing cross-chain bridge (Narni). Using the Narni Bridge, it typically takes less than four minutes and often costs just $4-$9 to transfer assets from Ethereum to Polygon. This makes it approximately 10 times cheaper and 10 times faster than other available cross-chain bridges. The speed and cost advantages of the Umbria Narni bridge have led to its adoption by projects including Zed Run, Chicken Derby, House of Kibaa and CryptoIsland. Aavegotchi recently partnered with Umbria to provide its users with the cheapest and fastest way to bridge its GHST token (GHST holders can also earn interest on their GHST by staking their tokens in the bridge pool). Umbria is pleased to announce the following new partnerships and collaborations: Aww, Rats! are a series of 1,000 'vermiNFTs' which live on the Polygon network. They have a unique combination of assigned 'rattributes', rat pieces (fur colour, eyes, tails style, facial expressions, accessories etc) and backstory. Rat owners currently get access to a series of dApps created by the team for styling their Rats and showcasing them (http://awwrats.com/sewer). In the future, holders will additionally get access to tools to help build out their own NFT projects. Go to: http://awwrats.com to find out more. FunkoBits is a project of 10,000 random and unique characters generated with python. FunkoBits recommends the Narni bridge on its OpenSea collection page, which can be viewed here: https://opensea.io/collection/funkobits. Co-lead developer Oscar Chambers has even bought FunkoBits #1. The V2 minting starts on the 24th of November: https://funkobits.com
Matic Mike is a 100% on chain high utility generative NFT built on the Polygon chain with staking, PvP (player vs player), PvE (player vs environment) and upgrading features. A cross between Zed and Anonymice, Matic Mike's goal is to provide competitive features with some comedic relief. The project has partnered with Umbria and endorses Narni as its official Ethereum to Polygon bridge for sending funds to and from Polygon at the lowest rates. Matic Mike has recently launched its PvP battle Royale; take a look: https://maticmike.club/ Elegant Elephants Society (EES) is a herd of 7,500 secret spies aka unique digital collectibles, drawn by hand, assembled by code and living on the Polygon blockchain. Each Elegant Elephant doubles as a Key Card and grants access to members-only benefits. Additionally, 10% of all profits go to charity. Elephant Society strongly recommends using the Umbria Narni Bridge for transferring ETH to wETH. Minting now: https://elegantelephantsociety.com/mint
SPKY FRSH are composable, evolutionary NFTs, built on Polygon using the ERC1155 token standard. The team's mission is to disrupt the NFT industry by building a co-creation ecosystem that enables collectors, brands, and mission driven organizations to engage in social impact causes. Its NFT Avatars aka Spirit of Guide of the Metaverse are a set of 369 Limited Edition NFTs that include three out of 18 Spirit Forces (time, gravity and light). Each Spirit Force is hand crafted with 50+ unique traits, generatively summoned, and staked to one of the 17 UN Sustainability Goals + the Creative Commons. Royalties from secondary sales will be allocated to the FRSH Dao to support impact causes, voted on by its community of NFT holders. The collection can be minted on its website or viewed on Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/spky-frsh Umbria has also been working with Shroom Folk who has been recommending the Narni Bridge to its community. Shroom Folk is a collection of 6666 generative NFTs, which are minting now on the Polygon blockchain. More details about this project here: https://shroomfolk.io/ Umbria's partners gain visibility from an entirely new audience, who are interested in exciting new cryptocurrency and NFT projects. In addition to being included in the partner sections on both the homepage and the bridge page, partner projects are introduced to the Umbria community and are incorporated into Umbria's social media and traditional marketing campaigns. Umbria also provides technical support for a partnered project's community when using Narni for bridging. "We love seeing creative and innovative NFT projects doing great things on Polygon and we're enjoying engaging and improving the experience of their passionate and supportive communities," said Barney Chambers, co-lead developer of Umbria Network. "The feedback has been fantastic as NFT enthusiasts are genuinely amazed by how cheap bridging is with the Narni Bridge. We look forward to opening the door to lots more projects." Got a project on Polygon? Does your community need cheap and fast bridging? Get in touch on Twitter if you'd like to collaborate. About Umbria https://umbria.network/ Umbria is a Decentralised Finance protocol, which is demystifying and simplifying DeFi and getting more people earning greater income on their crypto. The Umbria ecosystem, built on Polygon, has three major protocols: A Cross-chain Asset Bridge: enables the fast and cheap transfer of assets between otherwise incompatible blockchains and cryptocurrency networks. A Staking Pool: users can earn interest on their crypto-assets by providing liquidity to the bridge. A Decentralised Exchange (DEX) an automated liquidity protocol powered by a constant product formula, deployed using smart contracts, governed entirely on-chain. Fast and cheap token swapping UK-publicly listed Online Blockchain plc (LSE: OBC) acts as Umbria's coordinator, administrator and advisor. This provides a level of transparency rare in the DeFi space. Francesca De Franco, [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690751/Online_Blockchain_Umbria.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/online-blockchain-plc-umbria-announces-latest-partnerships-in-nft-space-301426499.html SOURCE Online Blockchain plc
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[November 17, 2021]
WELL Health Ranked Number 133 Fastest-Growing Company in North America on 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WELL Health Inc. , a SaaS digital health leader in patient communications and 2021 Best in KLAS winner in Patient Outreach , today announced it is ranked 133 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 , a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America. WELL Health grew 1027% from 2017 to 2020.
"Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 honors companies disrupting the status quo. At WELL Health, we are doing just that by eliminating the last-mile communication barriers that keep patients from good clinical outcomes and better relationships with their providers," said Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and Founder, WELL Health. "Throughout the pandemic, we helped healthcare providers automate disjointed communications across their entire organization, resulting in reduced staff stress and more patient-centric communications."
WELL Health enables conversations between patients and their providers through secure messaging in the patient's preferred communications channel, mainly SMS/texting, and preferred language (e.g. 19 languages with cultural relevance). WELL Health integrates with the hospital's EHR/EMR, current patient portals and other software to maximize the IT investments already made by the provider.
This past year WELL Health has seen tremendous growth and success, including more than 130 new customers such as Vanderbilt Health , Texas Children's Hospital, and Atlantic Health System . Additionally, WELL Health has:
Secured $45 million Series C funding , bringing total funds raised to $75 million since the company's founding in 2015
, bringing total funds raised to since the company's founding in 2015 Forged new collaborations with EHR leaders, Cerner Corporation and MEDITECH , making WELL Health the patient-communication solution for both of the EHRs' healthcare provider customers
and , making WELL Health the patient-communication solution for both of the EHRs' healthcare provider customers Partnered with Twilio to help healthcare providers rapidly implement secure patient communications, at a time when the need to communicate with patients has never been more critical
to help healthcare providers rapidly implement secure patient communications, at a time when the need to communicate with patients has never been more critical Been named number 10 on Forbes Best Startup Employers in America
in America Ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies for the past two years
Overall, 2021 Technology Fast 500 companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 212% to 87,037% from 2017 to 2020, with median growth of 521%.
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
About Well Health Inc.
WELL Health is a SaaS digital health leader in patient communications and the 2021 Best in KLAS winner in Patient Outreach . The WELL Health intelligent communications hub is the only two-way digital health solution engaging patients throughout their entire care experience. WELL Health enables conversations between patients and their providers through secure, multilingual (19 different languages) messaging in the patient's preferred communications channel: texting, email, telephone, and live chat. WELL Health helps 200,000+ providers facilitate more than 1.1 billion messages for 37 million patients annually. By unifying and automating disjointed communications across healthcare organizations, WELL Health reduces unnecessary provider stress and potential errors, while increasing patient visits and loyalty.
Founded in 2015, WELL Health is based in Santa Barbara, California. WELL Health has been named No. 10 on 2021 Forbes America's Best Startup Employers list, among the 2020 Best Places to Work by Modern Healthcare and ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies for two consecutive years. WELL Health recently announced $45 million in Series C funding, bringing total funds raised to $75 million since its founding in 2015.
For more information, visit https://wellapp.com .
The Role of WELL Health in COVID Vaccine Efforts
Since the COVID vaccine became available in the United States, leading healthcare providers have used WELL Health communications technology to:
Facilitate more than 8 million COVID vaccine appointments
Send more than 51 million COVID-related messages.
Data set from 12/9/2020 to 10/13/2021, pulled by WELL Health Data Insights.
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SOURCE Well Health Inc.
[November 17, 2021] Canada Drives Named One of Canada's Enterprise Fast 15 Winners in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Program For Its Third Consecutive Year
Today, Canada Drives, Canada's largest 100% online car shopping and to-your-door delivery platform, received an Enterprise Fast 15 award, an awards category in the Technology Fast 50 program. This leadership category recognizes the fastest-growing enterprise-level technology, media, and telecommunications companies by revenue-growth percentage over their last four years of operation. It's open to companies that recorded a minimum revenue of $10 million in 2017 and a minimum revenue of $25 million in 2020. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005730/en/ Today's announcement marks the third consecutive year that Deloitte (News - Alert) has named Canada Drives an Enterprise Fast 15 winner. In 2021, the company ranked 11th in the Enterprise Fast 15 category. It's also the sixth time that Canada Drives has been named on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 ranking. This year, the company ranked 479th with a growth rate of 226% during this period. The company has earned its place on the Technology Fast 500 ranking every year since 2016. "We've made substantial strides over the past year with our expansion to Ontario and more recently Alberta. Now more than 24 million Canadians have the ability to purchase a car online," said Cody Green, Co-CEO of Canada Drivs. "With an increase of 226% revenue growth, we've demonstrated that building trust with our customers, developing an incredible service alongside changing consumer habits, and continuing our expansion nationwide is a fundamental model for success."
Canadians in BC, Ontario and Alberta can select from the largest inventory of any online vehicle purchasing and delivery platform in Canada, and have their vehicle delivered to their doorstep and as quickly as the next day. Canada Drives is well positioned to be the most significant player in the online vehicle purchasing industry. The company is backed by years of experience in the auto sales industry as an existing, trusted provider of auto financing for Canadians, as well as $130 million CAD in funding. "We're extremely proud to recognize this year's Enterprise Fast 15 winners, who are showcasing a level of excellence as Canada's elite in the technology sector," stated Anders McKenzie, partner and national leader for the Technology Fast 50 program at Deloitte Canada. "Their bold vision for the future, competitive drive and passion for pushing the boundaries set the pace to catapult Canadian innovation forward."
Eligibility in the Enterprise Fast 15 category requires applicants to meet the same criteria as for Technology Fast 50 nominees except they must have a minimum revenue of $10 million in 2017 and a minimum revenue of $25 million in 2020. About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program is Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program. Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features distinct categories, including the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Enterprise Fast 15, Clean Technology, and Companies-to-Watch. The program also recognizes companies within the North American Technology (News - Alert) Fast 500 ranking, identifying technology companies in the United States and Canada. The 2021 program sponsors include Deloitte, RBC, EDC, Miller Thomson (News - Alert), Clarity Recruitment, and Lafond. For further information, visit www.fast50.ca. About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies - both public and private - in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About Canada Drives Canada Drives is the largest 100% online car shopping and to-you-door delivery platform available in Canada. Customers can shop for certified used vehicles, pay in full or finance, sign all documents and have their vehicle delivered to their doorstep, as quickly as the same day. Through Canada Drives, purchasing a vehicle online saves Canadians time and money, and reduces the stress and pressure often associated with car shopping. Canada Drives has made it possible to shop online for a vehicle with confidence, convenience and ease. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005730/en/
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[November 17, 2021] FranklinCovey Launches New Course: Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity
FranklinCovey (NYSE: FC), one of the largest leadership companies in the world, today announced the launch of Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity. The new course offers individuals, leaders, and organizations a framework to successfully navigate the predictable pattern of workplace change which will lead to improved and accelerated results. (Visit https://www.franklincovey.com/change/) Change happens constantly within every organization, whether it's by choice or by default. But when faced with change, many organizations primarily focus on the process, rather than the people who make successful change happen. As change occurs, people are wired to react in order to survive, which can result in their feeling that change is difficult or threatening. Marche Barney, FranklinCovey Senior Consultant and Change Expert, said, "Change cannot succeed by relying on process alone. It takes everyone in the organization, from executive leadership to first-level leaders and their teams to engage proactively to create success in the midst of change. While many change management processes neglect the human side of change, FranklinCovey's Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity creates a deeper understanding of the human experience of change." While change is inevitable, it follows a predictable pattern. Learning to manage reactions and understand how to navigate change, both functionally and emotionally, allows individuals, including leaders, to consciously determine how to skillfully move forward - even in the most challenging stages. Successful leaders are able to engage their people and lead them through this predictable pattern of change, making it feel less uncertain and more like an opportunity for accelerated growth and achievement. A McKinsey study showed that only 26% of executives believe their organizational transformations were a success. (McKinsey 2015). Workplace change is linked to personal cost,as well. During times of change, employees are 2.5 times as likely to report prolonged stress, 4 times as likely to have physical ailments, and 3 times as likely to look for a new job (American Psychological Association 2017). But there are organizations that beat the odds by engaging in successful change differently, as follows:
FranklinCovey's Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity focuses on three outcomes: Build individual confidence through a predictable pattern of change: employees with increased confidence harness change, turn uncertainty into opportunity, and exceed desired results.
employees with increased confidence harness change, turn uncertainty into opportunity, and exceed desired results. Successfully lead people through the human reactions of change: leaders who understand the fundamental principles of human reactions engage teams to want to achieve and exceed targeted change results.
leaders who understand the fundamental principles of human reactions engage teams to want to achieve and exceed targeted change results. Optimize any change-management process: change effectiveness is not just a process - it is also about people. Equip employees at all levels to accelerate and optimize change, even beyond the initial possibilities. As teams successfully navigate change with its increasing pace and volume, they will decrease its associated costs and increase the creative excitement they bring to achieving and exceeding targeted change results.
Gigi Glazer, Senior Manager, Organizational Development at Ryder System, Inc. who attended a beta of Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity, said, "In one word - awesome. I love this course, the content, tools and animated videos are excellent. This will round out our senior leader training program as they lead change throughout the organization. I can't wait to implement the course at Ryder!" FranklinCovey's Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity course is available to FranklinCovey clients in multiple learning modalities: Live-Online, Live-in-Person, On Demand, digital learning, and virtual certification or consultant-led certification for client facilitators to deliver it. Offered in English-only at launch, it will be translated into French, German, Spanish, Chinese Simplified, Japanese in 2022, with an additional 20 languages to come. Paul Walker, FranklinCovey CEO said, "The ability to change successfully and predictably is key to FranklinCovey's mission to enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere. It's simply unacceptable to take people through the disruption of change, with only a hope that it will be successful. This new course equips individuals and leaders with the mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets to succeed in change, every time." About FranklinCovey FranklinCovey is one of the largest leadership companies in the world with operations in over 160 countries. We transform organizations by building leaders, teams, and cultures that get results and partner with clients to create collective action that leads to breakthrough results for organizations and a more engaging work experience for their people. Available through FranklinCovey All Access Pass, our best-in-class content and solutions, our experts, and our technology and metrics seamlessly integrate together to ensure lasting behavior change at scale. This approach to leadership and organizational change has been tested and refined by working with tens of thousands of teams and organizations in the past 30 years. To learn more, visit www.FranklinCovey.com and enjoy exclusive content across FranklinCovey's social media channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005507/en/
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[November 17, 2021] The University of Pittsburgh and Orange Grove Bio Establish Partnership to Develop and Commercialize Novel Therapeutics
NEW YORK and PITTSBURGH, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orange Grove Bio, a preclinical drug investment and development firm, and the University of Pittsburgh today announced the establishment of a collaboration designed to advance the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics by supporting the translation of scientific discoveries made by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. The newly established partnership will aim to cultivate the Pittsburgh biotech landscape by increasing entrepreneurship, education, and scientific translation of promising technologies. These efforts will be focused in the areas of oncology and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
University of Pittsburgh innovators have a strong track record of achieving impact for their research through commercial translation, said Joe Havrilla, Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This new collaboration with Orange Grove Bio will allow us to further our commercialization efforts and we look forward to the positive impact it will have for our faculty and students and ultimately for patients. Under terms of the partnership, Orange Grove Bio will provide commercialization guidance and support to the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute, an internship program for the universitys Ph.D. students, and educational seminars for primary investigators and researchers at the university. Additionally, as part of these activities, Orange Grove Bios head of chemistry, William H. Miller, Ph.D., has joined the University of Pittsburghs external advisory board for novel technologies. Researchers at the University of Pittsbrgh are engaged in a wide range of cutting-edge research that has the potential to meaningfully impact human health, said Dr. Miller. At Orange Grove, we want to do our part to support these ongoing research efforts and further develop the local biotech environment to enable the development and commercialization of these discoveries.
In addition to working closely with the technology transfer office and supporting educational initiatives, Orange Grove Bio will increase its on-the-ground presence by onboarding new team members from the Pittsburgh area, who will perform critical scientific and business functions. Orange Grove Bios mission is to develop new therapeutic options for patients by harnessing the significant research potential found in universities across the United States. Orange Grove Bio fosters strong relationships with technology transfer offices outside of the traditional medical technology hubs of Boston and San Francisco. Collectively, Orange Grove Bios team possesses more than one hundred years of drug development and company creation experience, allowing it to build and finance innovative programs from the research and development stage to clinical trials.
We believe that the University of Pittsburgh and its talented researchers are well positioned to serve as a hotbed for the incubation of innovative drug development companies capable of delivering the ground-breaking therapies of tomorrow, said Marc Appel, Orange Grove Bios chief executive officer. We are committed to fostering and supporting this rich scientific ecosystem through collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, academic researchers, and investors to drive the commercialization of novel therapies for patients. About the University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh is a top tier research institution with approximately $1 billion in annual external research funding, consistently ranking among the top 10 universities for NIH funding. Pitt and its clinical partner, UPMC, one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, deliver transformative basic, translational and clinical research across a broad spectrum of life science disciplines. About Orange Grove Bio
Orange Grove Bio (OGB) is an emerging, preclinical, capital allocation and asset development biotech company. OGB partners with universities and entrepreneurs to develop innovative treatments for important diseases, particularly cancer and immune disorders.
Contacts: Orange Grove Bio Marc Appel, Chief Executive Officer [email protected] (845) 558-5286 Ryan Fox, Chief Business Operations Officer [email protected] (610) 220-6394 Vida Strategic Partners (on behalf of Orange Grove Bio) Tim Brons [email protected] (415) 674-7402 University of Pittsburgh Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships Joe Havrilla [email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Israel Hi-Tech Venture Capital Online Database 2021
DUBLIN, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Israel Venture Capital Online Database" directory has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Israel Venture Capital Online Database is a comprehensive information resource for high-tech industry in Israel. The database includes over 4,000 Israeli high-tech companies, venture capital and private equity funds, investment companies, technological incubators and Service Providers.
In addition, it provides news updates, topical articles and a search engine allowing fast access to its wealth of data on high-tech companies, venture capital and private equity funds.
It is a "one-stop" source that serves as a gateway to data on the industry, including, among others, breakdowns of financing rounds, information on VC and PE investors (including LPs), and contact details of 11,000 key executives engaged in the Israeli VC arena. The database includes facts on over 4,000 Israeli hi-tech companies, information on Israeli venture capital funds, news updates, relevant articles and more.
This Database is a subscription based service for Israeli and foreign entities wishing to touch base with Israeliventure capital and hi-tech industries.
It provides information on all start ups (seed to revenue stages, both venture backed and non-venture backed companies), info on and all various VC investors operating in Israel (VC funds, investment companies, incubators, foreign investors CVCs, angel investors etc) including LPs, portfolio, management and lots more.
For each start up company, the subscription provides information on their core technology, business description, financing rounds, management team (including contact details - email, mobile phone, current and previous position and short biography).
The subscription also provides various search options; you can either use the Quick Search to find a specific company (startup, VC fund, incubator etc.) or use the Advanced Search to search for startups in a specific sector, stage developing a specific technology, branch or main address and many other search criteria. In addition, in the MEMBERS ZONE the subscriptions provides special reports about all Financing Rounds taking place in Israel, a list of startups actively Seeking Capital, list of Recently Added Seed Companies, Recent Exits and more.
Companies Mentioned (Sample) eToro Ltd.
Tipalti Solutions Ltd.
Rapyd Financial Technologies Ltd.
Snyk Ltd.
Pagaya Technologies Ltd.
Gong.io Ltd.
Wiz Inc.
Deel Inc.
Next Insurance Inc.
Melio Payment Inc.
Vast Data Ltd.
Papaya Global Ltd.
StoreDot Ltd.
Armis Security Ltd.
OwnBackup Ltd.
Cybereason Labs Ltd.
Forter Ltd.
Celsius Network Ltd.
Cato Networks Ltd.
HoneyBook Event Planning Ltd.
Yotpo Ltd.
Via Transportation Ltd.
Trax Solutions Retail Ltd.
Transmit Security Ltd.
Fireblocks Ltd.
Redis Labs Ltd.
NSO Group Technologies Ltd. (Q Cyber)
Landa Corp. (Landa Digital Printing)
Autotalks Ltd.
AppsFlyer Ltd. For more information about this directory visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fmo1ji 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 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/israel-hi-tech-venture-capital-online-database-2021-301426566.html SOURCE Research and Markets
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[November 17, 2021] Northleaf Raises Additional US$4 Billion From Investors As It Continues Global Expansion
Northleaf Capital Partners ("Northleaf" or "the firm") today announced that it has raised an additional US$4 billion in commitments over the past twelve months from North American, European and Asian investors. As a result of recent fundraising across its three core private markets investment programs, Northleaf has now raised more than US$18 billion in capital commitments and serves approximately 200 institutional investors globally. This growth demonstrates strong investor interest in the firm's innovative, mid-market private equity, private credit and infrastructure strategies, long-standing responsible investment framework and well-established track record. "We continue to see strong demand for our mid-market global private markets strategies and are actively working with investors to identify opportunities to generate long-term value for them and the beneficiaries they represent," said Stuart Waugh, Managing Partner at Northleaf. "With support from existing and new investors, Northleaf has generated significant growth across all aspects of our platform." Northleaf recently held the final closing for its second closed-end global private credit fund and a related separately managed account, raising more than US$900 million to invest across the capital structure in performing loans to mid-market private companies. The firm also held the final closing for its third closed-end OECD-focused mid-market infrastructure fund at US$1.4 billion, exceeding its original target fund size. In October 2020, Northleaf established a strategic partnership with Mackenzie Investments and Great-West Lifeco which extended the reach of the firm's investment platform to high-net-worth investors and insurance solutions clients and has contributed to Northleaf's fudraising momentum.
Building on the success of its innovative open-end senior private credit fund ("NSPC") which has raised more than US$1.2 billion since its launch in late 2018, Northleaf recently partnered with new and existing investors to launch Northleaf Essential Infrastructure Fund ("NEIF"), a new, US$800 million open-end infrastructure investment fund. NEIF is building a diversified and growing portfolio of mature mid-market infrastructure investments with stable, long-term cash flows and lower risk profiles. NEIF seeks to provide investors with diversification across geography and subsector, with a focus on contracted and regulated revenue frameworks. Both NSPC and NEIF offer enhanced liquidity options compared to traditional closed-end fund structures. Northleaf has continued to grow its global team, hiring additional investment team members in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. to serve the needs of investors and further enhance its local presence in key markets. The firm recently announced the appointment of Shane Feeney as Managing Director, Global Head of Secondaries, to lead and expand its well-established global secondaries investment program. Prior to joining Northleaf, Feeney served as Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Private Equity at CPP Investments. In addition, Northleaf has expanded its senior business development team on the ground in the U.S. and Australia with the appointment of Sarah Silverman as Managing Director, Business Development (US) and Chris O'Connor as Managing Director, Business Development (Australia & New Zealand). Northleaf also plans to add new offices in other key markets in 2022.
"The continued expansion of our global team and office network reflects the fact that we believe that it is important to have expertise on the ground in our key markets to meet the needs of our investors, portfolio companies and transaction partners, as interest and demand in our mid-market strategies continue to grow," added Waugh. About Northleaf Capital Partners Northleaf Capital Partners is a global private markets investment firm with more than US$18 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments under management on behalf of public, corporate and multi-employer pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. Northleaf's 150-person team, located in Toronto, Chicago, London, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Montreal and New York, is focused exclusively on sourcing, evaluating and managing private markets investments globally. Northleaf's portfolio includes more than 400 active investments in 40 countries, with a focus on mid-market companies and assets. For more information on Northleaf, please visit www.northleafcapital.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005417/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Guerrilla RF Raises Additional $4.4 Million in Subsequent Closings of Private Placement Financing
Guerrilla RF, Inc. ("Guerrilla RF" or "Company"), a leading manufacturer of high-performance monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), announced today it has raised an additional $4.4 million in subsequent closings of its private placement offering. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005446/en/ Guerrilla RF Raises an Additional $4.4 Million in Subsequent Closings of Private Placement Financing (Graphic: Business Wire) Founded in 2013, Guerrilla RF is a leading supplier of MMICs which target wireless infrastructure applications, including 5G and automotive. The Company has a well-established revenue stream with 2020 sales totaling $8.09M. Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, Guerrilla RF has continued to thrive, with sales increasing by 990% over the past three years. The Company has repeatedly been included in Inc. Magazine's annual Inc. 5000 list. Guerrilla RF recently made the top Inc. 500 list for the second year in a row, coming in at No. 421 and 489 for the 2020 and 2021 rankings, respectively. "We are excited and encouraged by the enthusiasm investors are showing in our team and potential," noted Ryan Pratt, founder and CEO. "This additional capital will allow us to further accelerate our growth and expand our product offerings." Guerrilla RF is currently expanding its research and development operations to a new 50,000 square foot facility in Greensboro, North Carolina. The new location will provide the Company with room to expand operations and substantially increase its headcount over the next two years. Guerrilla RF has n extensive portfolio of over 95 high-performance radio frequency (RF) and microwave semiconductor devices. The existing product line includes ultra-low noise amplifiers, gain blocks, driver amplifiers, mixers, RF switches, and linear PAs (power amplifiers) - the critical building blocks for mission-critical, performance-driven wireless applications, including 5G Wireless (News - Alert) Infrastructure, Cellular Repeaters/Boosters, and Automotive Telematics.
As previously announced, Guerrilla RF recently completed a reverse merger and the initial closing of its private placement offering in which it raised over $7 million in gross proceeds. The additional closings bring the aggregate gross proceeds to over $11.5 million. The Company plans to pursue the listing of its common stock on the OTC Markets QB tier. The private placement offering was orchestrated by GP Nurmenkari, Inc. (as consulted by Intuitive Venture Partners), which served as the exclusive placement agent. The Benchmark Company, LLC served as sub-agent. Montrose Capital Partners was the sponsor for this transaction. Mark Tompkins and Jeffrey Shealy were lead investors in the offering.
The securities issued in the merger and sold in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Act") and may not be resold absent registration under, or exemption from registration under, such Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Guerrilla RF Guerrilla RF provides high performance monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) to wireless OEMs in multiple market segments - including 5G/4G macro and small cell base stations, cellular repeaters/DAS, automotive telematics such as SDARS/V2X/GPS/DAB, mission-critical military communications, navigation, and high-fidelity wireless audio. For more information, please visit https://guerrilla-rf.com/raise or follow the company on LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include projections, predictions, expectations, or beliefs about future events or results or otherwise are not statements of historical fact. Such statements are often characterized by the use of qualifying words (and their derivatives) such as "expect," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "project," "anticipate," or other statements concerning opinions or judgments of the Company and its management about future events. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult or impossible to predict and, in some cases, beyond the Company's control. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update information in this release to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005446/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Viz.ai Debuts Viz ANX, the First AI-powered Cerebral Aneurysm Detection Solution at SVIN 2021
Today at the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN) 2021 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Viz.ai, the world leader in AI-powered intelligent care coordination, introduced Viz ANX, the first and only AI-powered suspected cerebral aneurysm detection and care coordination platform. Viz ANX is designed to help ensure every patient who presents with a cerebral aneurysm is quickly identified and receives the correct follow-up, helping prevent a devastating rupture or hemorrhage. The company also introduced Viz SDH, a research-only algorithm supporting the EMBOLISE trial that detects suspected subdural hematoma (SDH) to alert clinicians to potentially eligible study candidates. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005576/en/ Viz.ai is the leader in AI-powered care coordination and has accelerated the time-to-notification of the treatment team by 73 percent and time-to-treatment by percent. The Viz Platform is now utilized in over 850 hospitals across the U.S. and Europe and touches almost two patients every minute. Shown here is a Viz LVO module viewer. High resolution full 3D viewing enables dynamic visualization of the anatomy for faster decision making and improved care coordination. Cerebral aneurysm is challenging to detect and treat because current care pathways are complex and rely on manual identification and triage. If left untreated, an aneurysm can burst or rupture, spilling blood into the surrounding tissue, which is an emergent, life-threatening condition. Approximately 30,000 people suffer a rupture in the U.S. every year. Viz ANX uses artificial intelligence to detect and alert the appropriate care providers of newly detected aneurysms on CTAs. The 510k-pending Viz ANX algorithm will be the first AI software to automatically detect suspected aneurysms. The solution ensures that these aneurysms are captured in a easily accessible and reviewable list and enables one-click referrals to a clinic for follow up, saving valuable time and resources for physicians and helping ensure patients receive proper treatment.
Viz SDH is a research only algorithm that is supporting the EMBOLISE trial. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of embolization of the middle meningeal artery (MMA) using the Onyx Liquid Embolic System (LES) (made by Medtronic) for treatment of symptomatic subacute or chronic subdural hematoma. The SDH algorithm, which includes volumetric segmentation of and measurement of the maximum thickness of the bleed, detects suspected SDH to alert clinicians to potentially eligible study candidates. "We know that the Viz platform is widely successful at leveraging AI to help improve workflows and improve patient outcomes in stroke," said Dr. Ameer Hassan, head of neuroscience and Valley Baptist in Harlingen, TX and president elect of SVIN. "But stroke is just a proof point for how AI can transform patient care and clinical research. By applying the same technology to indications such as aneurysm, I believe we will see further areas of healthcare transformed for better outcomes."
Viz.ai is the leader in AI-powered care coordination and has accelerated the time-to-notification of the treatment team by 73 percent and time-to-treatment by percent.1 The Viz Platform is now utilized in over 850 hospitals across the U.S. and Europe and touches almost two patients every minute. With the launch of Viz ANX and the support of the EMBOLISE trial, Viz.ai is now leveraging its AI-powered care coordination platform to pioneer aneurysm care and clinical research. "The introduction of Viz ANX and Viz SDH are part of our ongoing commitment to improve patient outcomes across healthcare," said Dr. Chris Mansi, co-founder and CEO of Viz.ai. "The value of AI-powered care coordination can help improve workflows, expedite treatment, and ultimately, save lives across so many emergent and less-time sensitive - but equally important - disciplines." Viz.ai will showcase the new Viz ANX and Viz SDH, along with the rest of the Viz Intelligent Care Coordination Platform, at SVIN 2021. The company also will host a symposium at SVIN, entitled, "The impact of artificial intelligence on vascular interventional neurology. Today into the future," featuring Dr. Hassan and Dr. Raul Noguiera, director of neuroendovascular service and neurocritical care service, Marcus Stroke & Neuroscience Center, Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. About Viz.ai, Inc. Viz.ai is the leader in AI-driven intelligent care coordination. Viz.ai's mission is to fundamentally improve how healthcare is delivered in the world, through intelligent software that promises to reduce time to treatment, improve access to care, and increase the speed of diffusion of medical innovation. Viz.ai's flagship product, Viz LVO, leverages advanced deep learning to communicate time-sensitive information about stroke patients straight to a specialist who can intervene and treat. In February 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a De Novo clearance for Viz LVO, the first-ever computer-aided triage and notification software. Viz.ai announced its second FDA clearance for Viz CTP through the 510(k) pathway, offering healthcare providers an important tool for automated cerebral perfusion image analysis. A third FDA clearance was granted in 2020 for Viz ICH, which uses AI to automatically detect suspected intracranial hemorrhage on CT imaging. Also in 2021, the FDA cleared the Viz PE and Viz Aortic modules, making the Viz Platform multi-disciplinary. Viz.ai is located in San Francisco and Tel Aviv and backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Google (News - Alert) Ventures, Greenoaks, CRV, Threshold Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Susa Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Insight Partners. The company was named to the Forbes 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list of the 25 fastest-growing venture-backed startups in 2021 and has been included in the Forbes AI 50 list for the three consecutive years. 1 Elijovich L, DornbosIII D, Nickele C, et al. J NeuroIntervent Surg Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1136/ neurintsurg-2021-017714 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005576/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Vacasa and TPG Pace Solutions to Participate in Fireside Chat with IPO Edge Today at 11:00 AM ET
Vacasa, the leading vacation rental management platform in North America, and TPG Pace Solutions Corp. (NYSE: TPGS), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced that the companies will participate in a fireside chat with IPO Edge this morning at 11:00 AM ET. The live event will feature Vacasa's Chief Executive Officer Matt Roberts, as well as Karl Peterson, Non-Executive Chairman and Director of TPG Pace Solutions, and Managing Partner of TPG Pace Group, who will discuss, among other things: Vacasa's business combination with TPG Pace Solutions;
The professionalization of the vacation rental industry;
Vacasa's technology-driven competitive advantage; and
Vacasa's record third quarter 2021 results. To register for the event, which will include an audience Q&A session and run approximately one hour, click here. About Vacasa Vacasa is the leading vacation rental management platform in North America, transforming the vacation rental experience by integrating purpose-built technology with expert local and national teams. Homeowners enjoy earning significant incremental income on one of their most valuable assets, delivered by the company's unmatched technology that adjusts rates in real time to maximize revenue. Guests can relax comfortably in Vacasa's 35,000+ homes across more than 400 destinations in North America, Belize and Costa Rica, knowing that 24/7 support is just a phone call away. In addition to enabling guests to search, discover and book its properties on Vacasa.com and the Vacasa Guest App, Vacasa provides valuable, professionally managed inventory to top channel partners, including Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. In Summer 2021, Vacasa entered into an agreement to become a publicly traded company through a business combination with TPG Pace Solutions Corp. (NYSE: TPGS; "TPGS" or "TPG Pace Solutions"), a special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"). Interested parties should refer to the definitive proxy statement/prospectus filed by Vacasa, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for important information regarding TPG Pace Solutions, Vacasa and the proposed business combination. For more information, visit https://www.vacasa.com/press. About TPG TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in San Francisco in 1992 with $108 billion of assets under management and investment and operational teams in 12 offices globally. TPG invests across five multi-product platforms: Capital, Growth, Impact, Real Estate, and Market Solutions. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its clients while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across the investment strategy and performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com or @TPG on Twitter (News - Alert).
About TPG Pace Group and TPG Pace Solutions TPG Pace Group is TPG's dedicated permanent capital platform. TPG Pace Group has a long-term, patient and highly flexible investor base, allowing it to seek compelling opportunities that will thrive in the public markets. TPG Pace Group has sponsored seven SPACs and raised more than $4.4 billion since 2015.
TPG Pace Solutions is a publicly listed (NYSE: TPGS) special purpose acquisition company, which raised approximately $285 million in order to seek an acquisition with a company in an industry that complements the experience and expertise of the TPG management team and TPG. For more information, visit https://www.tpg.com/pace-solutions. Additional Information and Where to Find It This Press Release is being made in connection with a proposed business combination involving Vacasa and TPGS. In connection with the proposed transaction, Vacasa, Inc. ("NewCo") has filed with the SEC (News - Alert) a registration statement on Form S-4, which has become effective. TPGS urges investors, shareholders, and other interested persons to read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus as well as other documents filed with the SEC because these documents will contain important information about TPGS, Vacasa, NewCo, and the business combination. Shareholders will be able to obtain a copy of the definitive proxy statement/prospectus, without charge, by directing a request to: TPG Pace Solutions, 301 Commerce St., Suite 3300, Fort Worth, TX 76102. The definitive proxy statement/prospectus can also be obtained without charge at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). Participants in Solicitation TPGS, NewCo, Vacasa, and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of TPGS in connection with the proposed business combination. Investors and security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names, affiliations, and interests of certain of TPGS's executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading TPGS's initial public offering prospectus, which was filed with the SEC on April 9, 2021, the definitive proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination, which was filed with the SEC on November 10, 2021, and other relevant materials filed with the SEC in connection with the business combination when they become available. Other information concerning the interests of participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of their shareholders generally, is set forth in the definitive proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination. Shareholders, potential investors, and other interested persons should read the definitive proxy statement/prospectus carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. Copies of these documents may be obtained for free from the sources indicated above. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements made in this Press Release are "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", "expect", "estimate", "plan", "outlook", and "project" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. Due to known and unknown risks, actual results may differ materially from TPGS's or Vacasa's expectations or projections. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: (i) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the definitive agreement for the business combination between TPGS and Vacasa (the "Business Combination Agreement"); (ii) the ability of the combined company to meet listing standards following the transaction and in connection with the consummation thereof; (iii) the inability to complete the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement due to the failure to obtain approval of the shareholders of TPGS or other reasons; (iv) the failure to meet the minimum cash requirements of the Business Combination Agreement due to TPGS shareholders' redemptions and one or more defaults by the investors in the private placement that is being undertaken in connection with the business combination, and failing to obtain replacement financing; (v) costs related to the proposed transaction; (vi) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (vii) the ability of the combined company to meet its financial and strategic goals, due to, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to pursue a growth strategy and manage growth profitability; (viii) the possibility that the combined company may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; (ix) the continuing or new effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on TPGS and Vacasa and their ability to consummate the transaction; and (x) other risks and uncertainties described herein, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed from time to time in other reports and other public filings with the SEC by TPGS and NewCo. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact TPGS's and Vacasa's expectations and projections can be found in TPGS's and NewCo's periodic filings with the SEC and in the definitive proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC by NewCo. TPGS's and NewCo's SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Neither TPGS nor Vacasa undertakes or accepts any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, subject to applicable law. No Offer or Solicitation This Press Release does not constitute a solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the proposed business combination. This Press Release also does not constitute an o?er to sell or the solicitation of an o?er to buy securities, nor will there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such o?er, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No o?ering of securities will be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom. No Assurances There can be no assurance that the transactions described herein will be completed, nor can there be any assurance, if such transactions are completed, that the potential benefits of combining the companies will be realized. The description of the transactions contained herein is only a summary and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the definitive agreements relating to the transactions, copies of which have been filed as exhibits to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by TPGS with the SEC on August 3, 2021. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005526/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Way2Grow (W2G) Biopharma Corp. Receives Health Canada Approval Notice for Construction of a Controlled Substances Dealer's Licence Level 8 Psychedelic Secure Environ and Psilocybin Production Campus
OSOYOOS, British Columbia, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- Way2Grow Biopharma Corp. (W2G or the Company), a privately held therapeutic corporation existing under the laws of British Columbia, is pleased to announce approval of a Health Canada Dealers Licence Application, in which Health Canada issued notice to W2G to complete the construction of a Level 8 Secure Environ and Psilocybin Production Campus. A Health Canada Dealer Licence and production facility will allow W2G to procure psychedelics as well as propagate, cultivate, harvest and sell psychedelics to pharmacies, clinics and other licenced research facilities for allowable research purposes pursuant to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (the CDSA). Licensing W2G is pioneering a comprehensive Life Science Therapeutic Production Campus with the goal of researching, advancing and manufacturing life science therapeutics. W2Gs Therapeutic Production Campus supports small room, closed-loop, evidence-based therapeutic research and production. The Companys pure cultivation approach is rooted in science, is empirically based, organically grown and evidence driven. W2Gs approach uses standardized tissue culture and micropropagation to cultivate and extract pure organic cannabis and psychedelic therapeutics. Completion of the Level 8 Controlled Substances Dealers Licence will allow W2G to cultivate, extract and store up to $30 million in value of psychedelics compounds, including psilocybin/psilocin (magic mushrooms), N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), Ololiuqui (Morning Glory), mescaline and peyote. W2G will be the first comprehensive Life Science Therapeutic Production Campus specializing in psychedelic and cannabis production, micropropagation, organic cultivation, processing and therapeutic manufacturing in North America. Approval of the Controlled Substances Dealers Licence allows W2G to procure controlled substances by synthesis, propagation, cultivation and harvesting of psychedelic substances. W2G will be permitted to sell psychedelic compounds to other licenced dealers, authorized hospitals, research facilities and academic institutions until such time that psychedelics are prescribed by authorized physicians. To fulfill W2Gs innovative research plans in psychedelic formulations, the Companys plans include EU-GMP-compliant facility construction to allow for the import and export of psychedelics therapeutics to expand evidence-based psychedelics research through global partnerships. W2Gs researchplans include improving breeding programs, standardizing psilocybin production, and the examination of psychedelics combinative efficacy on treating certain health conditions.
W2Gs cultivation relies on a small, closed room approach to growing consistent organic medical psilocybin. Each W2G cultivar or spore starts with a consistent germplasm developed though natural breeding and tissue culture. The future of W2G germplasm development will integrate the use of advanced genomic and genetic engineering to produce novel biotechnologies. Each cultivation room operates under specific growing conditions to maintain optimal production and consistent quality of medicinal compounds. W2G has pioneered a new and strategic comprehensive Life Science Therapeutic Production Campus by combining its expertise in organic cultivation technology with an experienced genetic advancement team, innovative pharmaceutical research plans and intellectual property development, coupled with the highest level of security.
We are excited to enter this next phase of life science therapeutics, and we believe this unique combination will lead to the highest-quality targeted organic therapeutic products. As we enter this next phase of our companys evolution, we will focus on building strategic partnerships to help disseminate our psychedelics research and to expand our distribution, stated W2G CEO Jamie Filipuzzi. About W2G W2G is a privately held therapeutic company in the life science industry. W2G began with a vision to help patients gain better access to high-quality, consistent, organic therapeutics. To achieve this vision, W2G has developed a consistent growth plan using tissue culture and molecular biology. These methods allow for the standardization of the procedures used to ensure quality and consistency of W2Gs therapeutics. W2G's extensive research and intellectual property approach are focused on the development of several new plant-based cultivation techniques, hybrid cultivar development, genetic profiling and tissue culture. By developing a molecular breeding and genetics program, we can identify new bioactive compounds to determine interaction with specific genes responsible for chronic diseases. W2G is located in Osoyoos, British Columbia, and is federally regulated in Canada under the Cannabis Act (S.C. 2018, c. 16) and the Cannabis Regulations (SOR/2018-144)). FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance of Way2Grow. Statements which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, outlook, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including words or phrases such as anticipate, may, will, might, should, could, can, intend, expect, believe, plan, project, continue or similar expressions that suggest future outcomes or the negative thereof or similar variations. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning W2Gs research, development and expansion plans, including its Health Canada application for the Dealer Licence and Section 56 Exemption, and the potential results from such Licensing. Forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and may materially differ from actual results. Further, such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition, including, without limitation, risks arising from a delay in Licensing and financing risks. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law. Contact Information: JJ Filipuzzi, Investor Relations
Phone: (403) 554-5973
Email: [email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Bloomberg Media and Infosys Collaboration Powers New 'Bloomberg Digital Economy Index' Creating Unique Data and AI-driven Content for Business Leaders
- Collaboration delivers insight about the future of technology and the demand for digital skills to Bloomberg's platforms NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, and Bloomberg Media, a leader in global business news, today announced a strategic collaboration to create the Bloomberg Digital Economy Index. Through the partnership, Infosys harnesses analytics and AI to integrate the Index experience on Bloomberg Media's digital platforms and Bloomberg TV. The Index will launch in 2022. The Index measures investment by global CTOs and CIOs into major technology categories. Up-to-the-minute global data will help track growth around technology's impact on demand for future skills across industries and markets. The Index will equip enterprise decision-makers and emerging leaders with insights to navigate an increasingly digital future. Data surfaced by Infosys' insights engine will power the Index across Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg Businessweek and other Bloomberg Media digital channels to provide context to its audience. The Digital Economy Index will also be integrated into Bloomberg Surveillance programming on Bloomberg TV. "This partnership leverages Infosys' powerful AI technology to activate the Bloomberg Digital Economy Index, a first-of-its-kind measurement of technology investment", said Justin Smith, CEO of Bloomberg Media. "These insights will empower business leaders with real-time, actionable data for critical decisions." Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys, said, "As our clients accelerate their tech-powered transformation, feedback loops that bring insights and ideas from data into their digital programs are becoming increasingly important. We are excited to partner with Bloomberg Media to help them transform their editorial experience with contextualized digital insights and deliver immersive business journalism to their readers - many of whom are also our clients." The insights engine aligns with Bloomberg Media's goal to deliver new, data-driven content experiences to a wider audience of global business leaders through brands including Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg Equality, and new programming on the streaming news network Bloomberg Quicktake. About Bloomberg Media Bloomberg Media is a leading, globl, multi-platform brand that provides decision-makers with timely news, analysis and intelligence on business, finance, technology, climate change, politics and more. Powered by a newsroom of over 2,700 journalists and analysts, it reaches influential audiences worldwide across every platform including digital, social, TV, radio, print and live events. Bloomberg Media is a division of Bloomberg L.P. Visit BloombergMedia.com for more information.
About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law. For more information contact [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bloomberg-media-and-infosys-collaboration-powers-new-bloomberg-digital-economy-index-creating-unique-data-and-ai-driven-content-for-business-leaders-301426656.html SOURCE Infosys
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[November 17, 2021] Prebid.org Welcomes Two New Board Members
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prebid.org, the organization that oversees open source Prebid programmatic advertising solutions, today announced the addition of Linda Payson, Vice President of Product at MediaVine, and Stephanie Layser, Vice President of Data, Identity and Ad Tech Products & Platforms at News Corp, to its board, bringing the total number of members to 11. Stephanie will serve as publisher task force board representative, a role previously held by Patrick McCann, Senior Vice President at CafeMedia, who will retain his seat on the board as CafeMedias board representative.
Im delighted to welcome Linda and Stephanie to the Prebid.org board, said Garrett McGrath, Chairman of Prebid.org. Their experience and expertise across all areas of the ad tech landscape will only help to further our position as Prebid grows, and guide the advertising industry towards a more fair, standardized and efficient future as digital advertising continues to mature. As Mediavines Vice President of Product, Linda Payson brings a wealth of expertise in product management, business strategy, operations and client services to Prebid.org. Throughout her more than 20-year tenure in ad tech, she has held senior leadership positions across companies including Iponweb, Yahoo, Razorfish and 24/7 Real Media. She currently oversees Mediavines Product and UX teams, dveloping the companys overall product strategy and working to scale operational practices.
As News Corp's Vice President of Data, Identity and Ad Tech Products & Platforms, Stephanie Layser oversees shared products and platforms across the News Corp portfolio of global brands and has been a constant champion of publisher monetization rights throughout her time in ad tech. Prior to News Corp, Layser founded a digital media consulting business to help publishers more efficiently unlock the power of programmatic advertising. Prior to that, she ran programmatic strategy at Ashton Kutcher's media start-up, A Plus. Layser also previously oversaw programmatic at Dailymail.com and the New York Post. Prebid.org is demonstrating the power of industry collaboration to create open source tools for optimal digital advertising, said Linda Payson, VP of Product at Mediavine. Im pleased to join Prebid.orgs board and contribute to their message of improving the web experience for advertisers, publishers and consumers as the future of media evolves.
It's been exciting to witness Prebid.org expand over the past several years, from a simple technology platform to an industry-leading organization. Prebid has been critical in building a more competitive ecosystem that supports publishers of all sizes, and will continue to strengthen the future of the open web. Im honored to join the board of Prebid.org to help guide the industry at such a pivotal time, said Stephanie Layser, Vice President of Advertising Technology and Operations at News Corp. Prebid.org is an industry-wide initiative supported by a diverse group of over 60 members, representing exchanges, publishers, buyers and third-party developers dedicated to creating standardized solutions for programmatic advertising. Prebid.org manages the open source projects Prebid.js, Prebid Mobile, and Prebid Server, as well as projects focused on Identity, Video and Native. About Prebid.org Formed in September of 2017, Prebid.org is an independent organization designed to ensure and promote fair, transparent, and efficient header bidding across the industry. Funded by dues-paying members, it manages the open source projects Prebid.js, Prebid Mobile, Prebid Server, Prebid Video, Prebid Native, and others. Prebid.org is open to all companies who are part of the programmatic ecosystem, from ad tech vendors to publishers and others. We believe that, working together, we can drive standardized, transparent technology for advertising that will make it easier for buyers and sellers to transact at scale in a fully programmatic ecosystem. Media Contact:
Prebid.org
Charlstie Veith
[email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Reagan Institute Releases Recommendations to Reinvigorate American Manufacturing and Secure Critical Supply Chains
The Reagan Institute's Center for Peace Through Strength today released the findings and recommendations of its bipartisan Task Force on National Security and U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness. John May, Founder and Managing Partner of CORE Industrial Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, served on the Task Force, which included leaders and experts in national security, manufacturing, capital, supply chains, and public policy. Titled, "A Manufacturing Renaissance: Bolstering U.S. Production for National Security and Economic Prosperity," the report focuses on four key recommendations, including scaling up workforce training, establishing public-private partnerships to invest in manufacturing, modernizing the Defense Production Act for the 21st century, and creating a new global forum for geo-economic cooperation. The Task Force found that these targeted, mutually reinforcing steps will be necessary for revitalizing America's manufacturing competitiveness to support economic growth, supply chain resiliency, and national security. The Task Force's final report and recommendations are available here. "It was an honor to serve as part of this vital Task Force, providing a frontline and forward-thinking perspective regarding the private sector's role in shaping the future of manufacturing here in the Midwest, nationwide, and around the globe," said May, who founded CORE in 2018. "Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, is being powered by a new generation of rapidly growing manufacturers, fusing technology with advanced process and engineering design. The success of Industry 4.0 is at the center of the Task Force's recommendations and now is the time to put these ideas into action." The Task Force was co-chaired by Marillyn Hewson, former Chairman, President, and CEO of Lockheed Martin (News - Alert), and David McCormick, the CEO of Bridgewater Associates and a former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. "The economic and national security theat from China cannot be ignored," said Hewson. "There is bipartisan support to take action, and this report identifies steps that we can take to strengthen and leverage investments in infrastructure, facilities, technology, and most importantly, people."
"The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that we can no longer afford to neglect the resiliency of our supply chains and defer capital investment in national security-critical sectors. The pandemic also demonstrated the creative potential inherent in America's economy," said McCormick. "By investing in that potential, we can rebuild a world-class manufacturing sector that helps to keep our country safe." The Task Force identified six major challenges to revitalizing America's manufacturing competitiveness. These include a significant skills gap, unsatisfactory productivity gains, inadequate investment in infrastructure, a fragile supplier ecosystem, insufficient coordination among government actors, and inadequate architecture for international competition.
To address these challenges, the Task Force proposed four signature policy recommendations: Scale up workforce development programs to credential more workers for high-demand trades: We should expand employers' roles in workforce training by repurposing existing federal education grants to allow high school graduates to earn credentialed skills. U.S. manufacturers should commit to fund 500,000 new graduates of trade school and apprenticeship programs over the next decade. Stand up a public-private capability to finance investments in domestic manufacturing sectors critical to national security: The federal government must develop the capability to work with private sector employers, as well as state and local governments, to provide liquidity and low-cost capital to critical domestic manufacturers and infrastructure. Modernize the Defense Production Act for the 21st Century: Update the DPA to enable holistic solutions for critical manufacturing facilities, such as targeted visa approvals for STEM talent, direct project financing, automatic fast-tracking of permits, and investments in workforce training. Establish a new forum of G7 + Quad countries to coordinate on geo-economic issues: The United States should establish a new forum to promote enhanced coordination on topics like growth, data governance, technology standards, and supply chain security. ABOUT CORE INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS: CORE Industrial Partners is a Chicago-based private equity firm with $700 million of capital commitments investing in North American lower middle-market manufacturing, industrial technology and services businesses. CORE's team is comprised of highly experienced former CEOs and investment professionals with shared beliefs, deep experience, and a proven track record of building market-leading businesses. Through our capital, insight, and operational expertise, CORE partners with management teams and strives to build best-in-class companies. For more information, visit www.coreipfund.com. ABOUT THE REGAN FOUNDATION AND INSTITUTE: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is the nonprofit organization created by President Reagan himself and specifically charged by him with continuing his legacy and sharing his principles -individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy and national pride. The Foundation is a non-partisan organization which sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, CA (News - Alert), the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Presidential Learning Center, The Air Force One Pavilion and the award-winning Discovery Center, as well as the Reagan Institute, which carries out the Foundation's work in Washington, D.C. The Reagan Library houses over 55 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers and over 60,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It also serves as the final resting place of America's 40th President and his First Lady. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005862/en/
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[November 17, 2021] State Street Announces Partnerships with MIT's Antionette Schoar, Harvard's Robin Greenwood to Advance Cryptocurrency and Macroeconomic Research Initiatives
State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) announced today that it expanded its academic partnerships with the addition of two esteemed professors from top Boston-based business schools. State Street Associates (SSA), the academic and data science research arm of State Street, will partner with Antoinette Schoar, a finance professor at MIT (News - Alert), who joins in an effort to see clients through risks and opportunities in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies space. Robin Greenwood, a finance and banking professor at Harvard Business School, also joins to advance research on a range of topics, including central bank policy, equity investing, financial crises and behavioral finance. "Our clients continue to watch the cryptocurrency space closely and are increasingly thinking of it as an asset class. Professor Schoar has emerged as a thought leader whose rigorous research is trusted by academics and professional investors alike," said Will Kinlaw, head of Research for State Street's Global Markets arm, which includes State Street Associates. "We are also pleased to partner with Professor Greenwood, who brings deep expertise on a range of investment topics of interest to our clients, such as central bank policy and equity investing. We are delighted to have both on board and are confident that their insights will help our clients better manage risk and capitalize on market opportunities." As the Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Antoinette Schoar is an expert in corporate finance, organizational economics and entrepreneurship. Her current research focuses on the topics of consumer and entrepreneurial finance, and how new financial technologies are impacting those areas. In addition to the work she will be doing with clients in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies space, Schoar will help apply research findings directly with State Street Digital. Launched in June of this year, State Street Digital was created to address the industry's evolving shift to digital finance. The new division builds on State Street's prior digital capabilities and nowincludes crypto, central bank digital currency, blockchain and tokenization. State Street's GlobalLink technology platform is also a component of State Street Digital.
Additionally, Schoar sits as the co-chair and co-director of the NBER Corporate Finance group and is the co-founder of ideas42, a non-profit that uses insights from behavioral economics and psychology to solve social problems. She has also been named one of the top 10 academics influencing the institutional investment industry by aiCIO magazine. Schoar has her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and a diploma in economics from the University of Cologne, Germany. Schoar is scheduled to speak at State Street Live on November 17 with a replay available afterwards on the firm's research platform, State Street Insights. "Cryptocurrencies have become rapidly popularized," commented Dr. Schoar. "This is an opaque market where opportunities are not obvious and risks are not well understood. At the same time, blockchain has the potential to provide new opportunities and applications for financial markets. I am excited to be collaborating with State Street and its clients as they devise strategies to navigate these important trends."
Robin Greenwood, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research at Harvard Business School, is also the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking, the Anne and James F. Rothenberg Faculty Fellow, as well as the faculty director of the Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability project at Harvard Business School. Greenwood's current research takes a particular focus on "macro-level" market inefficiencies such as asset price bubbles and measuring market frothiness. In addition, Greenwood is a member of the Financial Advisory Roundtable of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to his current roles, Greenwood was the chair of the Business Economics Ph.D. program and Finance Unit Head from 2018 to 2021. Greenwood received a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard and B.S. degrees in economics and mathematics from MIT. "State Street has a track record of engagement with the academic community to advance research into real-world challenges," added Robin Greenwood. "I look forward to working with the team at State Street Associates and to engaging with State Street's clients to achieve better outcomes." About State Street Corporation State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors including investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading. With $43.3 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.9 trillion* in assets under management as of September 30, 2021, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs approximately 39,000 worldwide. For more information, visit State Street's website at www.statestreet.com. *Assets under management as of September 30, 2021 includes approximately $60 billion of assets with respect to SPDR products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Global Advisors are affiliated. 3919705.1.1.GBL.RTL View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005845/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Global Industry Study Reveals Fintech Lenders are Evolving Fast and Moving Up Market
Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: QTWO), a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for banking, today released a global research study conducted by Economist Impact in collaboration with Salesforce. Entitled What is shaping the ecosystem of small business lending?, the study reveals a rapidly shifting landscape in small business lending where "partnership thinking" is increasingly the norm, enabling small business lenders to move more quickly, effectively and at scale with the help of technology. The new research shows traditional banks' competitive strategies have evolved away from rivalries with fintechs, such as payment players, peer-to-peer lenders and crowdfunding platforms. More than three quarters (76 percent) of survey respondents see collaboration among traditional banks and fintechs as the future. "Traditional lenders are realizing that collaboration with fintechs is accelerating the speed of innovation and driving a better user experience," said Q2's Chief Strategy Officer Will Furrer. "Q2 is committed to enabling these emerging partnerships and is excited by the faster, easier application and funding experience for borrowers, as well as the increased profitability for the bank and fintech participants." Today, fintech lenders are most active in the smaller loan space (under US$50,000), but are gaining traction in the larger-dollar realms. Although 50 percent of alternative funders have an average loan size of US$50,000 or less; 41 percent are issuing loans between US$50,000 - $500,000; and 7 percent are focusing on loans of US$500,000+, which has been the domain of traditional banks. The size of the global lending industry is large and growing. Data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) reveals that the global average of total credit to non-financial corporations stood at 110 percent of GDP at the end of 2020, up from 95 percent a year earlier. With the arrival of fintechs on the small business lending scene, new battle lines have been drawn between traditional lenders and challenger banks. According to the study, alternative funders are seizing the opportunity to serve the unmet needs of small business borrowers, and they've started to gain market share. Faster and nimbler fintechs are leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, cloud and APIs to issue more small business loans, particularly as COVID-19 exacerbated the need for liquidity among small businesses at the very time tha traditional banks were shying away from increased risk.
Additional insights from the global Economist Impact report include the following: Megatrends Constraining Worldwide Growth - Global lenders report three significant constraints hindering their growth: fallout from the pandemic, scalability of technologies and pressure on margins. Near-Term Impacts - 43 percent say new technologies, such as automated decision making, will have the biggest impact on their businesses over the next 12 - 24 months. This scored well ahead of the pandemic's economic recovery, which ranked second at 36 percent. Personalization is Vital - 71 percent say personalization and individualization is vital for building customer loyalty, with more mature digital banking adopters in North America and Europe strongly agreeing at 92 percent and 94 percent respectively. Newer adopters in Australia/New Zealand strongly agreed at just 28 percent. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) - 73 percent say ESG is playing a role to better address the needs of the underserved and underbanked individuals. As investors increasingly apply these non-financial factors in their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities, they're in alignment with global trends toward considering community-building, non-financial factors in lending. Download the full Economist Impact report, and register for the webinar on December 2, 2021: What is shaping the ecosystem of small business lending?
Salesforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. About Economist Impact
Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. We believe that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress. The services offered by Economist Impact previously existed within The Economist Group as separate entities, including EIU Thought Leadership, EIU Public Policy, Economist Events, EBrandConnect and SignalNoise. Our track record spans 75 years across 205 countries. Along with creative storytelling, events expertise, design-thinking solutions and market-leading media products, we produce framework design, benchmarking, economic and social impact analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling, making Economist Impact's offering unique in the marketplace. Visit www.economistimpact.com for more information. About Q2 Holdings, Inc.
Q2 is a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. With comprehensive end-to-end solution sets, Q2 enables its partners to provide cohesive, secure, data-driven experiences to every account holder - from consumer to small business and corporate. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005299/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Best Health Degrees Releases National Rankings of Counseling Bachelor's Programs
DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Best Health Degrees ( https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/ ), an independent, free online source for information on healthcare degrees and careers, has released three rankings of the best Counseling Bachelor's degree programs in the US: 25 Best Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022
( https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/best-counseling-degrees ) 15 Best Online Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022
( https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/best-online-counseling-degrees ) 10 Most Affordable Online Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022
( https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/accelerated-counseling-degree-online ) The Top 3 Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022 are: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, NC Oregon Institute of Technology - Klamath Falls, OR LeTourneau University - Longview, TX The Top 3 Online Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022 are: Washington State University Global Campus - Pullman, WA Central Washington University - Ellensburg, WA University of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH The Top 3 Fastest Online Counseling Bachelor's Programs for 2022 are: Eastern Kentucky University - Richmond, KY Liberty University - Lynchburg, VA Jessup University - Rocklin, CA A complete list of all institutions ranked is included at the end of this release. "Of all college and univrsity majors, Psychology is the most popular and career opportunities are abundant, according to the American Psychological Association," Best Health Degrees editors explain; "Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects careers for mental health counselors with a bachelor's degree to grow 23 percent through 2024 which is much faster than the national average." As they go on to explain, "If you have a passion for helping people and have good listening skills, excellent communication abilities, along with strong people skills, you have the basic qualities needed to be a Mental Health or Rehabilitation Counselor." The editors state, "An undergraduate degree in psychology with a specialization in counseling will prepare you for entry-level careers working with licensed social workers or psychologists in substance abuse, mental health, and behavioral disorders." They explain, "The Center for Disease Control reported that, in 2019, 19.2% of Americans had received some form of mental health counseling."
Best Health Degrees provides current information that aspiring healthcare professionals need to explore their career options. All Institutions in the Best Counseling Bachelor's Rankings (in alphabetical order):
Alaska Pacific University - Anchorage, AK
Averett University - Danville, VA
Capella University - Minneapolis, MN
Central Washington University - Ellensburg, WA
Clarks Summit University - Clarks Summit, PA
Coker University - Hartsville, SC
Colorado Christian University - Lakewood, CO
Cornerstone University - Grand Rapids, MI
Crown College (MN) - St Bonifacius, MN
Curry College - Milton, MA
Delaware Valley University - Doylestown, PA
East Central University - Ada, OK
Eastern Kentucky University - Richmond, KY
Ecclesia College - Springdale, AR
Emmanuel College (GA) - Franklin Springs, GA
Emmanuel College (MA) - Boston, MA
Faulkner University - Montgomery, AL
Georgian Court University w/ Rutgers School of Health Professions - Lakewood, NJ
Grand Canyon University - Phoenix, AZ
Jessup University - Rocklin, CA
Johnson & Wales University - Providence, RI
Kansas Wesleyan University - Salina, KS
Kentucky Christian University - Grayson, KY
LeTourneau University - Longview, TX
Lesley University - Cambridge, MA
Liberty University - Lynchburg, VA
Life Pacific University - San Dimas, CA
Maryville College (TN) - Maryville, TN
Mid-Atlantic Christian University - Elizabeth City, NC
Morningside College (Iowa) - Sioux City, IA
Oak Hills Christian College - Bemidji, MN
Oklahoma Baptist University - Shawnee, OK
Oregon Institute of Technology - Klamath Falls, OR
Ottawa University - Ottawa, KS
Paine College - Augusta, GA
Prescott College - Prescott, AZ
Regent University - Virginia Beach, VA
Saint Leo University - St Leo, FL
Southern New Hampshire University - Manchester, NH
Southwestern Assemblies of God University - Waxahachie, TX
Trinity College of Florida - Trinity, FL
University of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, NC
University of South Dakota - Vermillion, SD
Washington Adventist University - Takoma Park, MD
Washington State University Global Campus - Pullman, WA
William James College - Newton, MA George Allen
Media Manager, Best Health Degrees
[email protected]
https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/about
(919) 864-2220 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/best-health-degrees-releases-national-rankings-of-counseling-bachelors-programs-301426736.html SOURCE Best Health Degrees
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[November 17, 2021] WattIQ Announces Partnership with My Green Lab to Provide Scientific Community with Asset Intelligence Data
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WattIQ, an enterprise-grade, cloud-based asset intelligence platform, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a partnership with My Green Lab , the world's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the sustainability of scientific research, to provide insight into utilization, condition and energy consumption of critical equipment in the laboratory environment. My Green Lab developed the standard for laboratory sustainability best practices through their My Green Lab Certification program. Designed for individual labs, the certification program requires scientists to implement energy-saving and water-saving measures, reduce waste, and eliminate the use of hazardous/toxic chemicals from their protocols. The certification program is now considered the global gold standard for laboratory sustainability best practices and the cornerstone of My Green Lab's mission to build a global culture of sustainability in science. The program also provides scientists and the teams that support work within laboratories actionable ways to make real and impactful environmental changes. To date, My Green Lab has supported over 700 labs in a variety of sectors engaging over 4,600 scientists from 29 different countries. "On an average, about 22% of the energy consumption in labs is attributed to plug load. Watt IQ's technology provides much-needed transparency on the energy consumtion of lab equipment, which is a major driver of energy consumption," states James Connelly, Chief Executive Officer of My Green Lab. "We are excited that they have become a partner of My Green Lab and believe their solution will be critical to driving down energy consumption and operating a sustainable lab."
My Green Lab certification was recently selected as a key indicator of progress in Race to Zero, the UN-backed global campaign rallying non-state actors including companies, cities, regions, financial, educational, and healthcare institutions to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier, fairer zero carbon world in time (2050). Purchased goods and services are a significant contributor to carbon emissions in the labs but many research labs face the challenge of being unable to continuously monitor and manage the energy usage and utilization of hundreds to thousands of lab assets within a building. WattIQ's asset intelligence platform enables labs of all sizes to easily monitor the energy consumption, utilization, and health of lab equipment.
With this actionable insight, labs can select the most energy efficient equipment, power down high energy equipment when not in use, share or redeploy underutilized equipment instead of buying more, and proactively maintain equipment to extend their useful life. To learn more about WattIQ, visit WattIQ at www.wattiq.io . "This new partnership is going to provide the scientific community with the data and insights needed to lower their carbon impact without compromising research activity. With the right insight and action, labs can lower their purchased goods and services by 20 to 30 percent and increase their operational efficiency in parallel. These are actions that we can take today," says Priya Vijayakumar, CEO of WattIQ . ABOUT WATTIQ: WattIQ is powering the future of asset-light and energy efficient enterprises by providing visibility into utilization, condition and energy usage of electrical assets, removing the critical data blind spots in asset procurement & maintenance across the Enterprise. The data generated helps customers in pharma, biotech, and other industries to enable asset sharing, make critical procurement and maintenance contract decisions, prevent unplanned device failures, and protect valuable products and science. For more information, visit WattIQ at www.wattiq.io . ABOUT MY GREEN LAB My Green Lab is dedicated to creating a culture of sustainability in science. The organization is widely recognized as a leader in developing internationally recognized-standards for laboratories, bringing sustainability to the community responsible for the world's life-changing medical and technical innovations. Laboratories are some of the most resource-intensive spaces in any industry, but they don't have to be. By introducing a new perspective and proven best practices, My Green Lab has helped tens of thousands of people make a positive change to their work and create a culture of sustainability in the lab. For more information, visit My Green Lab at www.mygreenlab.org . MEDIA CONTACT:
Nina Pfister, MAG PR at [email protected] and 781-929-5620. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wattiq-announces-partnership-with-my-green-lab-to-provide-scientific-community-with-asset-intelligence-data-301426313.html SOURCE WattIQ
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[November 17, 2021] Castellum, Inc. Announces Closing of Acquisition of Pax River Business
POTOMAC, Md., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Castellum, Inc. (OTC: ONOV) announces closing the acquisition of certain key assets located at Patuxent River Naval Air Station (Pax), Maryland from the Albers Group . The acquisition brings several key personnel, approximately $2 million in annualized revenue, and key relationships with contractors at Pax River . The acquisition marks both an expansion of Castellums SSI subsidiary s presence at Pax River and the continued leadership of former Pax River commander, Captain (retired) Glen Ives, Castellums Navy/Marine Corps Division head and Chief Growth Officer. This acquisition represents another key step for Castellums growth strategy bystrengthening our support of Navy and Marine Corps programs," said Mark Fuller, President and CEO of Castellum . "Pax River Naval Air Station is here in Castellums home state of Maryland, and therefore, we must have a strong presence there. This accretive transaction also increases our annualized revenue run-rate to over $35 million.
SSI is excited to be expanding our footprint at Pax River, which increases our ability to support Naval Aviation as the nations tip of the spear, said Emil Kaunitz, CEO of SSI. Glens relationships at Pax should allow SSI to further serve our nations naval air capabilities with an increasing presence there while continuing to serve our long-term aircraft carrier customers at Lakehurst in Toms River, New Jersey. I am thrilled to have this special opportunity to work directly with a remarkable and talented group of individuals who have joined our team. Im so honored to continue to serve our Navy and Marine Corps here at the Worlds Finest Naval Air Station Pax River through this acquisition, said Glen Ives, Castellums Chief Growth Officer, and Navy/Marine Corps Division CEO. We are also committed to making new acquisitions consistent with our strategy of bringing great companies together and organic growth opportunities both at Pax and further down the coast in Norfolk and Charleston .
Forward-Looking Statements: This 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. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should carefully review various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters disclosed at www.otcmarkets.com. These risks and uncertainties could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Contact:
Mark Fuller, President & CEO
[email protected]
301-961-4895 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f74696a9-50b6-445a-97a5-19c7106f1002
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[November 17, 2021] MediaWallah Raises Targeted Series A Investment Round
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediaWallah, the identity by design provider to the worlds premier brands, publishers, platforms and agencies, today announced that the company has closed a $2.3m Series A investment round from both previous and new strategic investors. The Series A, made at an equity ownership percentage that is significantly lower than the norm, is specifically earmarked for innovation and expansion of the companys security technology capabilities and commercial teams. MediaWallah took a minimal investment as they are already profitable and growing.
We have been very strategic in our decision to raise this investment round. The timing is right to focus on sales team growth as well as invest in broadening our product offerings. Top tier brands and publishers are building out their addressability solutions now, and demand for our identity-by-design approach has never been greater, said Nancy Marzouk, CEO at MediaWallah. MediaWallah has experienced incredible demand from brands and publishers that are looking for sophisticated, customizable technology that provides them with more agility and transparency than what they can get from large legacy providers. MediaWallah grew 348% between 2017 and 2020, and was recently named to the Inc. 5000, the most pretigious annual ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The company works with firms including Experian and Adobe along with numerous other leading brands in its client and partner portfolio.
The companys next phase of growth will enable brands to thrive in the new first-party-data ecosystem with revolutionary approaches to facilitating ultra-secure first-party data sharing between partners. MediaWallahs suite of cutting-edge offerings is designed to integrate with other marketing and advertising tech architecture at a highly customizable level, while providing the highest quality data available. Demand for highly custom identity solutions is just starting to accelerate. MediaWallahs identity-by-design approach is the obvious choice for sophisticated companies that have unique data needs. The company is perfectly positioned to capture the explosive growth in identity as more companies take control of their strategy, said Bill Wise, Chairman of the Board, MediaWallah.
About MediaWallah MediaWallah provides innovative identity-by-design solutions for the worlds largest brands, publishers, platforms and agencies. MediaWallah is trusted across the industry to deliver a premium, independent solution that provides agility and performance. Discerning companies are planning their future-proof addressability strategies, looking for solutions that work across channels, IDs, data types and partners. Mediawallah helps companies create 360 degree views of customers and prospects so that they can continue to market to them across multiple channels, regardless of the changes to the market landscape. Companies trust MediaWallah to provide agile privacy-first data capabilities - from onboarding to multi-party computation - to ensure that their identity data is kept safe while also delivering maximum value even as market dynamics evolve over time. Media Contact:
Emily Riley
Broadsheet Communications for MediaWallah
[email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Built In Recognized as One of the Fastest-Growing Companies on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500
CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Built In today announced its recognition on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 , a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech companies in North America. Built In has led the tech recruitment space in major U.S. tech markets for a decade. From 2017 to 2020, Built In grew 276%. This represents the third year Built In has earned a spot on this list. "Built In has led the tech recruitment space in major U.S. tech markets for a decade," says Built In's co-founder and CEO, Maria Christopoulous Katris. "Dramatic changes in the tech recruitment landscape, coupled with our exceptional product/market fit, only served to heighten our leadership position. In response to companies' increasingly aggressive hiring goals across the U.S., Built In quickly scaled and innovated solutions to meet the needs of tech professionals and companies. In 2021, we expanded from serving just eight cities to becoming the national platform we are today. I'm proud to be on this list with other organizations that find innovative ways to solve new problems." Companies with strong technology infrastructures were those that best weatheredthe pandemic. Therefore, the demand for tech talent has accelerated. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technology unemployment is at a record low of 1.5% while overall unemployment is at 5%.
"Built In spent a decade building a large, thriving tech community so we had early insights into the changing talent market dynamics," says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer. "It was clear that workers were prioritizing quality of life and leaving large traditional tech cities. We were able to create solutions to address this change and help our users continue to develop their skills and find companies that suited these lifestyle changes. We were able to provide these insights to companies seeking to hire in-demand tech workers so they could better appeal to them locally, nationally and remotely." About Built In
Built In is building the largest platform for tech professionals globally. Each month, three million people visit Built In to learn new tech skills, advance their careers and discover companies with missions they want to join. Built In has been on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 for three consecutive years and earned a place on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list. http://www.builtin.com.
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000 and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a U.K. private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the U.S., Deloitte refers to one or more of the U.S. member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. Built In Contact
Tiffany Meyers
[email protected]
917-741-6750 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/built-in-recognized-as-one-of-the-fastest-growing-companies-on-the-deloitte-technology-fast-500-301425910.html SOURCE Built In
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[November 17, 2021] Tauriga Sciences Inc. Completes Production Run for 18,000 Dark Chocolate, 25mg CBD Infused Medallions
These Dark Chocolate Medallions are Kosher & Halal Certified and Branded Under the Name: TAURI NEW YORK, NY, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a New York based diversified Life Sciences Company, today announced that it has completed its production run for 18,000 dark chocolate, CBD infused (25mg) Medallions. These Medallions will be sold in Packs of 10 for $39.99. This product is Kosher Certified (Authority: Orthodox Union) and Halal Certified (Authority: Etimad). The Arrival of these Dark Chocolate Medallions comes just in time for Hanukkah! The Company is gearing up for a strong Holiday Season 2021, to build upon what has already been a very good quarter (half way through). ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC. Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, engaged in several major business activities and initiatives. The company manufactures and distributes several proprietary retail products and product lines, mainly focused on the Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Edibles market segment. The main product line, branded as Tauri-Gum, consists of a proprietary supplement chewing gum that is Kosher certified, Halal certified, and Vegan Formulated (CBD Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Mint, Blood Orange, Pomegranate), (CBG Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Peach-Lemon, Black Currant), (DELTA 8 THC Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Evergreen Mint), (Vitamin C + Zinc Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Pear Bellini), (Caffeine Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Cherry Lime Rickey), & (Vitamin D3 Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Golden Raspberry). The Companys commercialization strategy consists of a broad array of retail customers, distributors, and a fast-growing E-Commerce business segment (E-Commerce website: www.taurigum.com). Please visit our corporate website, for additional informaion, as well as inquiries, at http://www.tauriga.com
Complementary to the Companys retail business, is its ongoing Pharmaceutical Development initiative. This relates to the development of a proposed Pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum, for nausea regulation (specifically designed for the following indication: Patients Subjected to Ongoing Chemotherapy Treatment). On March 22, 2021, the Company announced that it had Converted its U.S. Provisional Patent Application (filed on March 17, 2020) into a U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application. The Patent, filed with the U.S.P.T.O. is Titled MEDICATED CBD COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURING, AND METHODS OF TREATMENT. On December 18, 2020 the Company disclosed that it had entered into a Master Services Agreement with CSTI to lead the Company's clinical development efforts. The Company is headquartered in Wappingers Falls, New York. In addition, the Company operates two full time E-Commerce fulfillment centers: one located in Montgomery, Texas and the other in Brooklyn, New York.
DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other periodic filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Contact: Tauriga Sciences, Inc. 4 Nancy Court, Suite 4 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Chief Executive Officer Mr. Seth M. Shaw Email: [email protected] cell # (917) 796 9926 Company Instagram: @taurigum Personal Instagram: @sethsms47 Twitter: @SethMShaw Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com Attachment 1) 11_17 PR Image
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[November 17, 2021] Scott Schliebner to join 2M Clinical Inc. as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer
Scott Schliebner, MPH, a leading clinical strategist for drug development of rare diseases, is joining 2M Clinical Inc. on Dec. 1. Schliebner, who most recently was Senior Vice president for Scientific Affairs and Therapeutic Expertise at PRA Health Sciences, has a 25-year successful track record of providing focused, innovative, patient-centered approaches to drug development; improving diversity in clinical trials; and leveraging novel and disruptive technologies to bring new therapies to patients faster. 2M Clinical Inc., based in Arlington, Texas, is a minority owned, technology driven contract research organization (CRO) that provides expert clinical trial services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies looking for innovative solutions for bringing new therapies directly to patients. "I was drawn to the co-founders' vision, and passion, for building a unique and differentiated company focused on patients," Schliebner said. "Their commitment to diversity, equity and improving access to new treatments is a compelling mission that speaks to the focus of my career." Dr. Eddilisa Martin, Cofounder and CEO of 2M Clinical, cited Schliebner's entrepreneurial spirit as a reason for recruiting him to join their team. While at PRA, Schliebner built the Center for Rar Diseases to implement innovative strategies for conducting clinical trials within rare and complex patient populations.
"Scott is a builder," Dr. Martin said. "We've built a solid foundation at 2M Clinical and neighborhoodtrials.com, and we believe with Scott's proven ability as an innovator and strategic thinker that he will help take the company to the next level. There isn't a model for what we're creating here at 2M Clinical. We searched for a bold leader, someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who is prepared to quickly scale up with us. We're excited to tap into Scott's experience and many talents." 2M Clinical created NeighborhoodTrials.com which is a customized, interactive, AI data-driven, web-based platform that uses innovative technology to connect patients, community-based organizations, sponsors, and investigators to clinical trial opportunities with a focus toward underrepresented populations. The Food and Drug Administration acknowledges that clinical trial populations should look like the people who will ultimately use the drug once approved. This objective would best be served by ensuring that a broad representation of people have the opportunity to participate in clinical trials.
"Decentralized trials, and hybrid trial designs that bring clinical trials directly to patients, wherever they are, has been a game-changer for rare disease patients," Schliebner said. "The neighborhoodtrials.com platform has the potential to become a grassroots-led initiative to help broaden access to clinical trials to underrepresented communities across all disease states." Dr. Martin said the company will be expanding how it engages with patients, how it partners with sponsors to execute studies, and how it leverages their collective expertise to bring new therapies to patients more effectively. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005549/en/
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[November 17, 2021] ETC Awarded Contract from the University of North Dakota's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
SOUTHAMPTON, Pa., Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Environmental Tectonics Corporations (OTC Pink: ETCC) (ETC or the Company) Aircrew Training Systems (ATS) unit, announced it was awarded a contract from the University of North Dakotas John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences (UND) for its GAT-HELO, Rotary Wing Spatial Disorientation (SD) Trainer. The GAT-HELO is ETC's most cost-effective, helicopter simulator capable of delivering general flight and spatial disorientation training. The specialized GAT-HELO motion platform is designed to create in flight illusions authentically and safely. The GAT-HELO features a single seat generic cockpit, instructor station, and robust conditional even based scenario editor software - allowing a variety of meteorological conditions, aircraft instrument and engine failure scenarios, autorotation and tail rotor failure, and interactive SD training profiles to be selected or programmed. UND will be using the GAT-HELO to expose undergraduate helicopter pilots to FAA-recognized vestibular and visual illusions found in aviation; enabling them to avoid, recognize, confirm, prevent, and recover from SD.
George Anderson, M.D., and ETCs Chairman indicated that ETC is proud to be partnering with the University of North Dakota in providing its critical aerospace training needs that prepare pilots to better manage the physiological effects of flight, ultimately leading to increased safety.
Robert Kraus, Dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota said, The GAT-HELO will add to our Aerospace Physiology curriculum which already uses a fixed-wing GAT, altitude chamber, and vision laboratory to educate and train undergraduate students as well as corporate customers. This new trainer will provide a cost-effective way for rotary wing pilots to experience realistic spatial disorientation scenarios that cannot be accomplished safely in the air. Additionally, the capabilities of the device will contribute to research partnerships that will help improve aviation safety across the industry. About ETC
ETC designs, manufactures, and sells software driven products and services used to recreate and monitor the physiological effects of motion on humans, and equipment to control, modify, simulate and measure environmental conditions. Our products include aircrew training systems (aeromedical, tactical combat, and general), disaster management systems, sterilizers (steam and gas), environmental testing and simulation systems, and other products that involve similar manufacturing techniques and engineering technologies. ETCs unique ability to offer complete systems, designed and produced to high technical standards, sets it apart from its competition. ETC is headquartered in Southampton, PA. For more information about ETC, visit http://www.etcusa.com/. Forward-looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on managements expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Words and expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, and these statements may include words such as may, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, future, predict, potential, intend, or continue, and similar expressions. We base our forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events or future financial performance. Our forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about ETC and its subsidiaries that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results implied by these forward-looking statements. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Contact: Mark Prudenti, CFO Phone: (215) 355-9100 x1531 E-mail: [email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Introducing ForPaws - An AI-driven Lost & Found service for Pets by Mars Petcare
This Lost & Found service helps users find their missing pets with only a photo of the pet. Users will become part of our incredibly strong community of pet parents, rescues & pet lovers who are all looking out for each other's pets. BENGALURU, India, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MARS Petcare, the world's leading pet food company, announces the launch of a new app called ForPaws. The ForPaws app is a free mobile app that uses bespoke facial recognition technology to help a wide network of kind pet lovers (parents and pet rescues in your city) quickly identify, locate, and reunite lost pets with their families. The app uses a recent photo of the pet to create a Smart ID that is unique to them. In the unfortunate instance that a pet goes missing, ForPaws can use the photo to highlight unique facial features and visual characteristics of the pet, helping people in the ForPaws network connect lost pets with their families. The technology is powered by an advanced machine learning algorithm that constantly improves accuracy rate with the addition of more photos to its database. Every festive season, many pets tend to get frightened and run away due to the bursting of crackers and other loud noises associated with the festivities. With the help of ForPaws, pet owners on the network can rely on the app's artificial intelligence-based image analysis to find their missing pet. Similarly, individuals who come across a lost pet can take a photo and find a match on the app if another user is looking for that pet. The app is initially launching in Bangalore and will be providing this service first for dogs before expanding to more cities and including more pets like cats. "With the increase in smartphone penetration & sharp drop in internet data costs, more & more services are leveraging smart tech to solve consumer pain points. With ForPaws we want to leverage facial recognition technology & a network of pet lovers to solve a serious problem of tracking missing pets & helping them find their way home."
- Mohit Arora, Global Digital Marketing Lead, MARS Petcare The pet food and pet services category is one of the fastest-growing in India. Dogs and cats are now considered members of the family, as confirmed by consumer trends within the pet owner category. A Euromonitor report in 2020 showcased a significant rise in the sale of pet products and forecasted a 68% increase in value growth by 2025. This can be attributed to the rapid growth in pet ownership in the last 18 months, especially during the lockdown period. "We are happy to launch the ForPaws app that can reduce the instances of pet owners losing their pets permanently, through the use of technology and a widespread network of pet lovers. With the rise in the number of pet adoptions in the past few years, the pet care category has witnessed tremendous growth. In addition, there has been an attitudinal shft as pets are now increasingly being seen as members of the family. Mars Petcare is a leader in the pet food category with brands like Pedigree and Whiskas, and making a better world for pets is at the core of our organizational purpose. We hope people will use this app and help pet parents have the joy of recovering their lost pets."
- Ganesh Ramani, Managing Director, MARS Petcare MARS Petcare has been leading the category development in the country through its various initiatives and activities, including the education of pet owners, veterinarians and other stakeholders about the right nutrition and wellness requirements of pets. Mars Petcare works closely with NGOs on adoption, stray feeding, vaccination and neutering programs as well as with school children to sensitize them towards pets and responsible pet parenting. Consequently, MARS Petcare is leveraging its role in the industry to support the use of technology and innovation in petcare, providing impetus to the growth of the category.
About Mars, Incorporated For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands including DOVE, EXTRA, M&M's, MILKY WAY, SNICKERS, TWIX, ORBIT, PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, SKITTLES, BEN'S ORIGINAL, WHISKAS, COCOAVIA, and 5; and take care of half of the world's pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals, BluePearl, Linnaeus, Pet Partners, and VCA. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive. For more information about Mars, visit www.mars.com . Join us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube . Please follow the QR code for more content: Guest Speakers Ms. Priya Chetty Rajgopal - NGO- CJ Memorial Trust An impactful businessperson, CXO search consultant & now civic evangelist, Priya Chetty Rajagopal is well known in business and industry circles. On the Boards of TiE, Bangalore, Akshara Foundation & Civilia, she has been in the People Consulting space from 2004; her previous assignment was as Board Member & Executive Director- Leadership & Board Practice, RGF Executive Search. Priya was nominated Femina Woman of the Year 2017, conferred the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for Excellence in 1997. Priya is the Founder of CJ Memorial Trust is a trust in the memory of a beloved pet CJ, that focuses on promotion of Community Guardianship, and is strong voice in advocacy of ABC, #AdoptDontShop, animal welfare et al. Runs the Facebook groups Cubbon Park Canines, The Global Indie, India Pet Grief Support, Dwiddlywinks (Dogs with Disability) and many more - covering over 15000 members. It has many successes & campaigns to its credit - ##NotWithoutMyDog #BanOnlinePetSales. The Annual CJ Memorial Community Guardian Award is well known recognition champions in dog welfare. Ms Sudha S Narayanan - Charlies Animal Rescue Centre (CARE) CARE is headed by Ms Sudha Narayanan, Founder Trustee of CARE who comes with her immense expertise, knowledge and skills of over two decades. Charlies Animal Rescue Centre CARE is an animal shelter established in January 2013 with the aim of providing timely medical aid to injured and ill animals of the street in Bangalore city. They aim to provide lifesaving veterinary care on par with private veterinary setups to all animals, irrespective of their ownership status. CARE has a rescue helpline, animal ambulance services and a fully equipped veterinary trauma care unit. No animal left behind is main motto. CARE strives to provide dignity to animals, who are old, blind, paraplegic & suffering from chronic diseases and allow them to live out their lives at the shelter in a safe & peaceful environment. CARE is home to many dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, hens, pigs, Guinea pigs, birds & terrpins. Apart from rescue & shelter services, CARE also provides adoptions, humane education in schools, animal cruelty prevention & control and volunteering opportunities. Dr. Shiela Rao, Co-Founder Trustee, CUPA Shiela Rao is a veterinarian and trustee of CUPA (Compassion Unlimited plus Action), an NGO that she co-founded to take animal welfare to the next level. She is also a Trustee of WRRC (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre) and has done extensive research on Captive Elephants in India. She is a veterinarian and an alumnus of the Bangalore Veterinary College in Hebbal. In 1991, along with Ms. Crystal Rogers,and Mrs. Suparna Ganguly and under the guidance and mentorship of Ms. Crystal Rogers, CUPA was started. What started in a single room in Crystal Rogers' house, has, in 30 years, grown into one of the most well-known animal welfare organisations, not just in Bengaluru and India, but also in other countries around the world. She is very active in the domain of Animal Welfare at Bangalore. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1690880/Paws_poster_Fridge_magnet.jpg
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[November 17, 2021] Recent Peer-Reviewed Publication Confirms Patient Satisfaction with Multiple Allergy Immunotherapy Options
New York, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A recent article in the peer-reviewed journal International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology reported the results of a survey offered to individuals with allergic rhinitis. Sarita S. Ballakur MD, et al, conducted a one-time, real world survey assessing patient satisfaction of adults with prescribed allergy immunotherapy (IT) via their chosen delivery method -- either Subcutaneous Immunotherapy (SCIT), also known as allergy shots, Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) using liquid drops, or Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy (OMIT) using a specially designed toothpaste delivery system. Individuals who began their therapy between 2014 and 2019 were enrolled in the survey. Our survey clearly demonstrated that satisfaction with allergy IT is high for all three groups (SCIT, SLIT and OMIT), and they would recommend it to others, said Sarita S. Ballakur, MD, from Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York. Overall, 85 percent of the study participants found allergy IT either extremely helpful, very helpful or somewhat helpful. SCIT was 80 percent, SLIT was 81 percent and OMIT was 100 percent, she added. Of the 79 participants in the study, 33% chose SCIT, 43% chose SLIT and 24% chose OMIT. Almost half of the participants in the study have already completed their full course of IT. This study is very exciting and reveals not only the value of IT across all delivery platforms, but also highlights the importance of providing individuals the ability to choose from a wider range of allergy immunotherapy options to suit their lifestyle, said William Reisacher, MD, a co-author on the study, Otolaryngologist and Director of Allergy Services at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and an Advisor to Allovate. A significant number of participants in the SCIT and SLIT groups found the therapy not helpful (20% and 18%, respectively), compared to 0% in the OMIT group. OMIT patients were also more adherent - in terms of fewer interruptions in therapy - than either SLIT or SCIT, he added. The results of this study are significant as we move closer to apost-COVID-19 world. SCIT has been the gold standard for allergy immunotherapy for decades, but people now have more choices. SLIT and OMIT can be administered at home, eliminating the need for frequent doctor visits for shots. OMIT may also have an advantage in adherence since it is integrated into an individuals existing daily tooth brushing routine.
During this global COVID-19 pandemic, many allergy patients are required to stay at home, reducing their ability to visit physicians offices for allergy treatments, such as allergy shots, said Robert Pomrenke, CEO, Allovate. We hope that results from this survey will help patients become aware of their options, particularly of Allerdent,our OMIT toothpaste.
About Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy (OMIT)
Respiratory allergies affect at least sixty million people in the United States, resulting in 11.1 million visits to the doctor in 2010. One hundred million Europeans suffer from allergic rhinitis and seventy million suffer from asthma. Symptomatic treatment, at a global cost of over $25 billion yearly, keeps symptoms at bay temporarily but does not offer a long-term solution. Allergen-specific immunotherapy is the only treatment method that targets the root cause of allergies, consistently exposing the allergy sufferer's immune system to sufficient amounts of allergenic proteins to desensitize them to allergens over time. Oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) uses a proprietary, specially formulated toothpaste to incorporate and stabilize allergenic proteins that are administered while users brush their teeth. OMIT simplifies long-term daily adherence to immunotherapy for patients, while delivering key agents to broad areas of the oral cavity, including those with the highest density of the immune cells responsible for effecting immunotherapy. About Allovate Therapeutics
Allovate Therapeutics ( www.allovate.com ) is a New York-based biotechnology company founded in 2012 with the goal of improving allergy treatment for all patients. Allovates mission is dedicated to improving the delivery of medical therapy. Allovates lead product, Allerdent, is designed to deliver proteins, such as immunotherapeutic agents, to the immune system while the user brushes their teeth. Allovates licensee, Intrommune Therapeutics, is exploring allergy immunotherapy for life-threatening food allergies.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are identified by certain
words or phrases such as may, will, aim, will likely result, believe, expect, will continue, anticipate,
estimate, intend, plan, contemplate, seek to, future, objective, goal, project, should, will pursue
and similar expressions or variations of such expressions. These forward- looking statements reflect the
companys current expectations about its future plans and performance. These forward-looking statements rely
on a number of assumptions and estimates which could be inaccurate and which are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking
statement made by the company. The company disclaims any obligation or intent to update the forward-looking
statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.
This release does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in the
United States or in any other jurisdiction.
Robert Pomrenke, CEO Allovate [email protected] John F. Kouten JFK Communications, Inc. 609-241-7352 [email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Highmark Interactive Inc. Begins trading on the TSX Venture Exchange
TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highmark Interactive Inc. (Highmark or the Company) is pleased to announce approval for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) under the symbol HMRK on November 17th, 2021. The listing follows the closing of the Companys previously announced qualifying transaction, consisting of the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding securities in the capital of Highmark Innovations Inc. as well as the concurrent closing of the acquisitions of Complex Injury Rehab Inc. and Highmark Health Mississauga.
By fusing proprietary, digital clinical decision support technology with virtual and traditional models of health service, Highmark is committed to delivering better outcomes for people struggling with their brain or mental health. Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, CEO of Highmark, noted, The closing of our qualifying transaction and listing on the TSXV marks a major milestone for our company. We look forward to providing next generation technology leadership through our proprietary platforms. Our AI based engine will generate digital biomarkers which will enable new models of care to be deployed, including predictive analytics for enhanced remote physiologic and therapeutic monitoring. As we continue to execute on our strategy, we look forward to driving shareholder value through ongoing industry disruption. Investor Relations Arrangements Concurrently with completion of the Qualifying Transaction, the Company has entered into agreements with Adelaide Capital Markets Inc. (Adelaide) and Stockhouse Publishing Inc. (Stockhouse) to conduct and provide certain investor relations activities and services on behalf of the company. Adelaide is a full-service investor relations firm based in Toronto, Ontario that provides companies with investor relations activities, including assisting public and private companies in the communication of corporate activities and stakeholder outreach. The agreement with Adelaide is for an initial six-month term, which can be extended upon agreement between the parties, for which the Company agreed to pay Adelaide a total of $60,000 in six equal monthly instalments of $10,000. Adelaide is expected to provide services to the Company including meeting and communicating with analysts, institutional and professional investors, and retail brokers for the purposes of increasing awareness of, and interest in, the Company; (b) introducing the Company to and liaise on behalf of the Company with writers for and publishers of relevant subscriber-based publications, including newspapers, magazines, business publications and financial publications; (c) developing and advising the Company with respect to its communication materials and strategy; and (d) advising the Corporation generally with respect to corporate development. Adelaide is at arms-length to the Company and was founded by Deborah Honig. As of the date hereof, Adelaide does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or its securities, or any right to acquire such an interest. The Client Services Agreement with Stockhouse provides that Stockhouse will provide the Corporation with access to all of Stockhouses publishing products and services for a six-month term for a fee of $40,000.
The Corporation will work with Stockhouse to optimize and plan its program to use the services. The Corporation will have access to over 30 different marketing tools focused on editorial, brand and news amplification on Surge to potentially increase the Corporations reach and investor base. Stockhouse is a leading financial media company and financial portal that serves public companies, financial institutions, media publishers, and brand advertisers with one of the largest communities of active investors in North America. It provides financial news, tools and information that enable its investor community to uncover and share opportunities on high growth investment sectors, market trends, small cap stocks and more. Stockhouse members have access to a wide range of products and tools including portfolio managers, subscription-based expert newsletters, Stockhouse Bullboards, blogs and social networking tools to help navigate their investment options. Stockhouse is one of North Americas largest small-cap investor communities.
The investors relations activities described above are subject to TSXV approval and the Company will satisfy fees from available funds and cash from operations. About Highmark Interactive Highmark Interactive was created to change the paradigm of testing and management for brain and mental health. Highmarks approach is focused on providing real-time data to health providers to support proactive, preventative interventions and targeted care planning to improve health outcomes. In addition to a growing network of virtual, in-person and hybrid clinics, Highmark Interactive offers the worlds first gamified, FDA cleared patient-led assessments as well as digital clinician-led assessments of neurofunction. Together, the technology is used in >300 multidisciplinary rehabilitation clinics globally. Highmark Interactives unique solution is revolutionizing how individuals experience brain and mental health care, as well as unlocking insight for precision medicine and creating a modern model for delivering mental health and neuro rehab services.
Learn more: https://www.highmark.tech/ For further information: Highmark Interactive Inc.
Investor Relations
[email protected] NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This News Release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the current expectations and views of future events of the Corporation. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, targets, expects or does not expect, is expected, an opportunity exists, is positioned, estimates, intends, assumes, anticipates or does not anticipate or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might, will or will be taken, occur or be achieved. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, predictions, indications, 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 managements expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. Forward-looking statements in this Filing Statement include, among other things, statements relating to the expected trading date of the Common Shares on TSXV, potential synergies arising from the acquisitions of Complex Injury and Highmark Health, and the Companys business generally. These statements and other forward-looking information are based on opinions, assumptions and estimates made by the Corporation in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that Highmark believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, as of the date of this Filing Statement, including, without limitation, assumptions that TSXV will grant final acceptance of the Qualifying Transaction and commence trading in accordance with communicated intentions, and certain assumptions about the Corporations business identified in the filing statement. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. In addition, if any of the assumptions or estimates made by management prove to be incorrect, actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Accordingly, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. Although the Corporation believes the assumptions underlying the statements related to the Corporation are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and the risks identified in the filing statement, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
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[November 17, 2021] MobStac Signs 10,000th Customer, Announces QR Code Usage Trends for 2022
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QR code use exploded in 2021, as the pandemic accelerated the need for businesses to create contactless engagement with consumers. QR codes continue to grow exponentially as brands discover ways to enhance their products and services. As this demand continues to climb, MobStac , creators of Beaconstac , a phygital customer engagement platform, today announced it surpassed 10,000 customers doubling its client base from just four months ago .
QR codes are tightly woven into many business operations today, and they are only getting more popular across a variety of use cases, said Sharat Potharaju, founder of MobStac. QR codes are much more than pulling up a menu at a restaurant companies now acknowledge how crucial they are to doing business now and in the future. Cumulative data collected throughout 2021 by MobStac illustrates that companies increasingly realize the important role that QR codes play in connecting with consumers and driving sales and engagement. To learn how companies used QR codes this year and to identify how they plan to use them in 2022, MobStac analyzed data from its growing client roster and found the following: 1: Enterprise-Wide Adoption as QR Code Usage Doubles In 2021, MobStac saw 63 million QR code scans on its Beaconstac platform a 45% increase compared to 2020. The number of QR code scans on its platform is expected to double in 2022 as QR codes become table stakes for doing business and companies use them for a variety of use cases. 2: QR Codes Arrive At the C-Suite Over the past year, businesses realized just how much they can do with QR codes. They are used to collect customer data, enhance the customer experience share brand and product details, and so much more. It is this permeation that has moved QR codes from being a one-off point solution to capture the attention of the C-suite. MobStac continues to see its clients develop a dedicated QR code strategy as part of their business and marketing plans, showing that QR codes are respected as a profitable business tactic.
3: QR Codes Become Information Hubs CPG: Sustainability
92% of CPG brands place QR codes on their product packing, with 20% of CPG brands using them to direct consumers to sustainability information about the product one year ago, this number was 4%. This is especially crucial as consumers pay more attention to the sustainability initiatives of the companies they buy from. Additional sustainability QR code use cases include raw materials sourcing, waste disposal, carbon emissions offsets, information about the products journey to the store shelf, and more.
Hospitality: Expanding beyond menus
As restaurants and hotels began to slowly reopen in May of 2020, QR code adoption skyrocketed as digital menus replaced hard copies. But over the past year and a half, over 30% of the hospitality industry significantly expanded its use of QR codes beyond menus. Now theyre used to deliver myriad information to guests, including booking service appointments, prompting app downloads, ordering goods and services, collecting customer feedback, delivering COVID-19 protocols and more. This trend will stick around next year as the hospitality industry continues to explore additional QR code use cases. Financial institutions: Phygital alignment
The number of financial institutions using MobStacs Beaconstac platform grew 280% over the course of 2021. This exponential growth will continue in 2022 as banks, lenders, and more use QR codes to digitize documents and marketing collateral and align phygital physical and digital consumer experiences. 4: QR to AR: In-Store Experiences Get a Lift A recent study from Deloitte found that almost all smartphone users will be frequent augmented reality (AR) users by 2025. Retailers are taking notice of this trend and using QR codes to direct in-store or online shoppers to an immersive AR experience. Consumers can see a piece of furniture in their home, try on a piece of clothing, or otherwise visualize a product before purchasing it in a store. For more information about MobStac and its QR code platform, visit www.beaconstac.com . About MobStac
MobStac's vision is to enable digital connections with every physical object and place on the planet. Our platform ( Beaconstac ) makes physical products and places talk directly to consumers through digital content and actions, by leveraging smartphone technologies like QR codes, near field communication (NFC) tags, Bluetooth beacons, and geofencing. Over 10,000 businesses and brands in 120+ countries use our Phygital Customer Engagement platform to build direct relationships, grow lifetime revenue, and acquire first-party data in industries ranging from consumer goods, hospitality, retail, and real estate, reaching over 5 million monthly active users. Media Contact:
Becca Reyes
[email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Mutualink Working to Enhance Emergency Communications in 30 Florida Counties
Mutualink is expanding the ability for first responders and law enforcement in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Fort Myers area to get critical lifesaving information through its integrated platform during a school emergency. The platform allows school administrators to share critical pictures, live video, school floor plans, and any other critical information directly with 911 in real-time. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005581/en/ Mutualink's life-saving technology allows schools to communicate with 911 and first responders in real-time during an emergency. (Photo: Business Wire) Mutualink is the leading provider of communications solutions for public safety and is a trusted partner in Alyssa's Law school safety mobile panic alert solutions. Panic buttons integrated with Mutualink provide a direct link to communicate voice, text, video and pictures to authorities in an emergency. In addition, users gain access to the broader Mutualink Network- the largest nationwide ecosystem of government, public safety entities, and secondary response organizations in the world. Law Enforcement Agencies, Fire Departments, Local and County govrnment and Schools are among the various public safety entities in Brevard, Broward, Clay, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Hernando, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Leon, Manatee, Marion, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange (News - Alert), Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St Lucie, Sumter, Valencia, Volusia, and Walton counties- that have joined the Mutualink Network to enhance their emergency communications and protect their communities.
"There are dozens of panic buttons and active shooter alert apps on the market, but the terrifying reality is that some don't provide direct communication with 911 dispatchers and first responders," said Chrissie Coon, Chief Customer Experience Officer. "So in situations where seconds can save lives and information is critical during a response, we want to give school administrators the peace of mind that the panic button solution they are using integrates directly with 911 to get the fastest response." Alyssa's Law requires all Florida public schools to have a mobile panic alarm system in place this school year. The Florida State legislature passed the law in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, who died in the February 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. New Jersey adopted its own Alyssa's law in 2019. Many other states are working to adopt versions of Alyssa's Law.
"We commend community leaders for working hard to select the best solution for their public safety community," said Mark Guthrie, Senior VP & Chief Growth Officer, Mutualink, Inc. "We're honored to be on the teams trusted to equip Florida's educators, first responders, and community leaders with the technology they will rely on in emergencies." Mutualink is part of partnered solution selected and approved by the Florida Department of Education to comply with Alyssa's Law. To learn more about Mutualink, Inc., visit https://mutualink.net/school-safety/ About Mutualink, Inc. Mutualink, Inc. is the leading technology provider of a best-in-class intelligent multimedia network that enables public safety community partners to securely share voice, text, video and data for instant communications and real-time data sharing. Certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act for interoperable communications, partners and clients trust Mutualink, Inc. to provide innovative, scalable, secure solutions they rely on every day and in any emergency. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005581/en/
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[November 17, 2021] ThinkOn Recognized as a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program Winner and a Fastest Growing Company in North America on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 List
TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ThinkOn Inc. is pleased to announce it is ranked 451 on this years Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America. In addition, Deloitte ranked ThinkOn in 47th place on its Technology Fast 50 list for its rapid revenue growth, entrepreneurial spirit, and bold innovation. We are delighted to be included in this years Deloitte rankings both in Canada as well as North America, says Craig McLellan, Founder and CEO, ThinkOn. The entire ThinkOn Team, as well as our partners and customers, are critical to our success. As such, I would like to say thank you to all those people who have allowed us to achieve this identification. I look forward to continuing our growth and, more importantly, providing data protection services that make a difference, delivered by a team of true professionals. To be eligible for Deloittes Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the companys operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000 and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Companies must also have been in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. Each year, the Technology Fast 500 shines a light on leading innovators in technology, and this year is no exception, said Paul Silverglate, vice-chair, Deloitte LL and U.S. technology sector leader. In the face of innumerable challenges resulting from the pandemic, the best and brightest were able to pivot, reinvent, transform, and grow. We celebrate the winning organizations, and especially the talented employees driving their success.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program runs alongside the broader Deloitte North American Technology Fast 500. To qualify for the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, companies must meet the Fast 500 criteria as well as be headquartered and conduct research and development activities within Canada, own proprietary technology, and invest a minimum of five percent of gross revenues in R&D. Deloittes Technology Fast 50 ranking recognizes the world-class achievements and tremendous evolution of the Canadian technology sector. The list distinguishes the 50 fastest growing Canadian technology companies with the highest percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
ThinkOn is proudly Canadian and an industry leader in Canadian cloud security standards. Its alignment with stringent technical requirements and principles on data sovereignty and compliance makes it the go-to cloud provider for the Canadian federal government and other organizations within the broader public and private sectors. As we rise above another year of uncertainty, we are exceptionally proud to announce this years Fast 50 winners, stated Anders McKenzie, partner and national leader for the Technology Fast 50 program at Deloitte Canada. These innovative trailblazers have demonstrated resilience, true commitment to innovation, adaptability, and business leadership as we cope with an ever-changing new normal. The Fast 50 companies act as catalysts, driving growth of Canadian business. About ThinkOn Inc. ThinkOn Inc. is a cloud service provider dedicated to solving complex data problems with its portfolio of turnkey Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions. ThinkOns channel-only distribution model empowers over 150 value-add resellers and managed service providers to service the data needs of more than 1800 businesses in commercial enterprise and public sectors across North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. ThinkOn Cloud Services are engineered for high availability and scalability to securely host, manage, and store all types of data workloads with industry-leading technology platforms. www.thinkon.com About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a U.K. private company limited by guarantee (DTTL), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as Deloitte Global) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the U.S. member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the Deloitte name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. For further information: (press only) contact Sarah Finney, Director of Marketing, ThinkOn, Inc. 1-844-888-4465 [email protected]
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[November 17, 2021] Raytheon Technologies establishes new partnerships to accelerate diversity, equity and inclusion
WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) today announced new strategic partnerships with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers to advance STEM education for students of color. These alliances aim to drive equity in education opportunities while growing the aerospace and defense industry's future talent pipeline and add to a growing list of similar partnerships the company has established over the past year. "By aligning with respected nonprofits such as Thurgood Marshall College Fund and SHPE, we're taking important steps in developing and diversifying the next generation of engineers for our industry while making progress in reaching our company's overall DE&I goals," said Marie Sylla-Dixon, Raytheon Technologies' chief diversity officer. Raytheon Technologies and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund established a partnership offering scholarships and internships to students attending TMCF's publicly supported historically black colleges and universities. The Raytheon Technologies NextGen Pipeline Program will focus on providing real-world skills, experience and potential job placement opportunities for engineering, technology, finance and supply chain students. "At TMCF, we are dedicated to transforming the lives of our scholars by providing them with access to professional development and career opportunities," said Dr. Harry Williams, CEO of TMCF. "We are very excited about the partnership with Raytheon Technologies and know that it will create visibility into industris that may be new to many of our talented students."
Raytheon Technologies and SHPE, the nation's largest association dedicated to fostering Hispanic leadership in STEM fields, also have united to support parents of first-generation and low-income students who are pursuing engineering degrees. The Equipando Padres (Equipping Parents) program will focus on supporting these guardians to better help their children earning engineering degrees. "This program creates structure, processes, and resources that enable Hispanic parents to be an asset for their child," says SHPE's Board Chair, Miguel Alemany. "We are so grateful that Raytheon Technologies understands this key component is missing for many of our students, and that together, we can help more Hispanic engineers succeed."
Today's announcement builds on the company's broader four-pillar DE&I strategy that works to integrate and drive initiatives across talent management, community engagement, supplier diversity and public policy. For more information on Raytheon Technologies' DE&I initiatives, please visit us at www.rtx.com/social-impact/diversity-equity-inclusion About Raytheon Technologies
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. With four industry-leading businesses ? Collins Aerospace Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense ? the company delivers solutions that push the boundaries in avionics, cybersecurity, directed energy, electric propulsion, hypersonics, and quantum physics. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Media Contact
Chris Johnson
C: 202.384.2474
[email protected] Investor Contact
Erin Somers
C: 704.264.6854
[email protected] View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raytheon-technologies-establishes-new-partnerships-to-accelerate-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-301426846.html SOURCE Raytheon Technologies
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[November 17, 2021]
Cologix Announces Support for Google Cloud Interconnect in Vancouver, Expanding Cologix's Google Cloud Offering and Accelerating Access to Cloud at the Edge
- New onramps to Google Cloud Interconnect in Columbus, Minneapolis and Vancouver help customers connect directly and securely to Google Cloud through the Cologix Platform
- Seven markets with direct onramps to Google Cloud available by the end of 2021, Ashburn, Chicago, Columbus, Minneapolis, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver
DENVER, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- Cologix, North America's leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company, announced today that direct connectivity is now available to Google Cloud through Google Cloud Interconnect in Vancouver. The expansion continues with another private, dedicated onramp to Google Cloud in Columbus, Ohio, expected by the end of 2021.
In Vancouver, Cologix provides customers with access to Google Cloud Interconnect from three Cologix data centers, enabling private connections to Google Cloud in order to more quickly and securely access its services and compute capacity.
Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect provides key benefits to enterprises looking to expand hybrid IT cloud infrastructure and eliminate lengthy supply chain timelines for equipment, including:
Private connections to public Internet
Lower latency by traversing the shortest path to Google Cloud
Predictability and optimized speed Scalable, densely connected and customizable colocation opportunities
Faster cloud deployments to safeguard against unpredictable supply chain issues for equipment
Inherently more secure IT infrastructure leveraging the cloud rather than on premise IT solutions for databases, workloads and applications
"By offering additional onramps to Google Cloud across North America, we're supporting low latency and high-bandwidth connectivity requirements for our customers to solve their growing hybrid cloud architectures," said Cologix's President & Chief Revenue Officer Laura Ortman. "We are delighted to expand private, dedicated connectivity to Google Cloud, providing more secure, resilient, reliable and faster connectivity to support cloud infrastructures at the network's edge."
Coming Son to Columbus
Construction is underway at Cologix Columbus campus to add direct connectivity to Google Cloud through a new Google Cloud Interconnect onramp. All three existing data centers will have access to the new Google Cloud Interconnect onramp as well as the new, high density, build-to-suit facility, COL4, directly adjacent to Cologix's Columbus campus.
Live in Minneapolis
Cologix's Minneapolis Google Cloud Interconnect went live this summer, offering direct connectivity to Google Cloud from its four data centers. Additionally, customers can access carriers' long haul and local fiber routes from the Cologix ecosystem in the 511 Building, which is home to Minneapolis/St. Paul's premier interconnection and peering hub.
Leverage Interconnect Automation with Cologix Access Marketplace
Cologix's software-defined interconnection (SDI) solution automates interconnection, enabling simple, scalable, secure connectivity in minutes via a self-service portal to connect to Google Cloud Interconnect and other major cloud providers. Companies looking to customize private connectivity to the cloud can use the automated portal to virtually and dynamically provision circuits with Cologix Access Marketplace.
GCI Access at Cologix
Ashburn
Chicago
Columbus
Minneapolis
Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
Customers interested in accessing Google Cloud's Dedicated Interconnect can contact [email protected] for more details.
Additional Resources
About Cologix Inc.
Cologix provides carrier and cloud neutral hyperscale edge data centers and services across North America. Cologix is the interconnection hub for cloud service providers, carriers and a rich ecosystem of partners who want to deploy applications at the very edge across Canada and the U.S. With a growing portfolio of next generation facilities that meet the unique requirements for hyperscale growth with deep connectivity, Cologix offers massive scale and tailor-made data center solutions to accelerate customers' digital transformation. For on-demand connectivity for scale and control, Cologix Access Marketplace provides fast, reliable, self-service provisioning. For a tour of one of our data centers in Ashburn, Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email [email protected]. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cologix-announces-support-for-google-cloud-interconnect-in-vancouver-expanding-cologixs-google-cloud-offering-and-accelerating-access-to-cloud-at-the-edge-301426078.html
SOURCE Cologix Inc.
[November 17, 2021] Comcast's Internet Essentials Program And Goodwill Industries International Expand Workforce Development Efforts Nationwide
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Comcast's Internet Essentials program announced a significant new partnership with Goodwill Industries International to provide digital skills and workforce development training for thousands of adults with low incomes at Goodwill nonprofit organizations across the United States. In addition, Comcast will install free WiFi access in Goodwill locations to enable people to get online to search for and apply for jobs as well as take digital skills training and certification programs to prepare for entry and mid-level occupations. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, nine out of 10 jobs will require digital skills. Today, the National Skills Coalition estimates that one-third (31 percent) of U.S. workers still lack basic digital skills. "Access to the internet offers a life-changing pathway for workers to get the skills they need to move up the economic ladder and prepare for the jobs of the future, but not everyone is capable of taking full advantage of the technology," said Broderick Johnson, executive vice president, public policy and executive vice president, digital equity, at Comcast Corporation. "Greater internet adoption and increased digital skills will not only lead to higher paying jobs, but also make our country more competitive globally." "Goodwill has a long history of offering job seekers support that sets them up for success. From resume building and interview preparation to connecting job seekers to local employers and community colleges, we provide a range of service to those in need of opportunities," said Steven C. Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "This partnership with Comcast will provide many Goodwill participants with free connectivity and discounted devices, which are essential for people to access training and basic support to move forward. Our partners at Comcast are helping us ensure that those job seekers can gain economic mobility and pursue new beginnings with confidence." Comcast's investment will bring training and free WiFi to the following Goodwill locations nationwide: Palmetto Goodwill ( Charleston, SC ) Goodwill South Florida ( Miami, FL ) Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake ( Baltimore, MD ) Goodwill Houston ( Houston, TX ) Goodwill Easterseals Minnesota ( Saint Paul, MN ) Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Stateline Area, Inc. ( Rockford, IL ) Goodwill Industries Knoxville ( Knoxville, TN ) Goodwill of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia ( Maple Shade, NJ ) Eight Goodwill organizations hav been onboarded and two additional Goodwill markets will be named in the coming months.
Last September, Comcast announced a multi-year program to launch more than 1,000 WiFi-connected "Lift Zones" in community centers nationwide, working with its network of thousands of nonprofit partners and city leaders. Lift Zone sites complement Comcast's Internet Essentials program, which in 10 years has helped connect a cumulative total of more than 10 million people with low incomes to the internet at home. Project UP & Comcast's $1 Billion Commitment to Advancing Digital Equity:
For over a decade, connecting more people to the Internet and the technology they need to participate and excel in an increasingly digital world has been a core focus for Comcast. Looking toward the next ten years, the company is building on that foundation and expanding its impact through Project UP, a comprehensive initiative to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities. Backed by a $1 billion commitment to reach 50 million people, Project UP encompasses the programs and community partnerships across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky that connect people to the Internet, advance economic mobility and open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers, and creators. For more information on Project UP and the latest news on efforts to address digital inequities, including the recent expansion of the Comcast RISE Investment Fund to provide millions in grants to small business owners of color and Comcast's investment in research to increase diversity in the technology and digital fields, visit https://corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up.
About Internet Essentials
Internet Essentials is Comcast's signature digital equity initiative and the nation's largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program. In 10 years, it has helped connect 10 million people with low incomes to broadband internet at home, most for the very first time. Internet Essentials has a comprehensive design that addresses each of the three major barriers to broadband adoption. This includes: multiple options to access free digital literacy training in print, online, and in person; the option to purchase a heavily subsidized, low-cost Internet-ready computer; and low-cost, high-speed Internet service for $9.95 a month, plus tax. The program is structured as a partnership between Comcast and tens of thousands of school districts, libraries, elected officials, and nonprofit community partners. Comcast has never raised the price of the program. For more information about Internet Essentials and Comcast's commitment to education and digital equity, please visit https://corporate.comcast.com/education. To apply, visit www.internetessentials.com or call 1-855-846-8376 for English or 1-855-765-6995 for Spanish. About Goodwill Industries International
Goodwill Industries International is a network of 156 community-based, autonomous organizations in the United States and Canada with a presence in 12 other countries. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps people find employment, Goodwill is recognized with GuideStar's highest rating, the Platinum Seal of Approval. Local Goodwill organizations offer employment opportunities, job placement and training services, and other community-based programs, funded by selling donated clothing and household items in nearly 3,300 stores and at shopgoodwill.com. Last year, more than 20 million people used computers and mobile devices to access Goodwill services, and more than one million people received in-person services. For more information or to find a Goodwill location near you, visit goodwill.org. Follow us on Twitter: @GoodwillIntl and @GoodwillCapHill, and find us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube: GoodwillIntl. Register for our Legislative Action Center via advocate.goodwill.org. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comcasts-internet-essentials-program-and-goodwill-industries-international-expand-workforce-development-efforts-nationwide-301426873.html SOURCE Goodwill Industries International
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[November 17, 2021]
The Venture Center's inaugural summit set to fuel top fintech innovators in getting nextgen solutions to banks and financial services providers
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To continue building on the digital revolution's explosive momentum, the globally recognized producers of fintech accelerators, The Venture Center, today officially launched VenCent, a new fintech summit tailored to foster innovation for banks and financial services providers. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, The Venture Center produces the award winning FIS Fintech and ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerators . Attendance registration for financial services industry leaders is now open.
The inaugural VenCent Fintech Summit will be held April 11 - 13, 2022, in Little Rock, and will provide top-tier networking and solution-driven opportunities. At the conference, VenCent will immerse 750 attendees in live product demonstrations from up to 75 of The Venture Center's fintech accelerator alumni, courses from fintech and finance subject matter experts, and facilitate unlimited collaboration and innovation networking.
"Now more than ever, financial institutions are challenged to innovate quickly. No matter how fast the world moves, education, collaboration, and acceleration will always effectively fuel innovation," said Wayne Miller, executive director of The Venture Center. "Those three principles have guided The Venture Center's accelerator programs, which feature fintech companies handpicked by bankers, for bankers to address financial institutions' most pressing opportunities. After amassing almost 100 fintech accelerator alumni, The Venture Center created VenCent to bring highly impactful fintech companies and the most forward-thinking financial institutions together for an immersive, hands-on innovation experience."
VenCent will provide attendees unprecedented access to nextgen fintech companies from around the world, "Startup Alley," which features the newest solutions going to market, a global fintech audience, and a deeper understanding of bank innovation's regulatory environment. VenCent's featured solution verticals will include cybersecurity, banking-as--service, cryptocurrency, lending automation, data analytics, financial wellness and more.
VenCent Fintech Summit event sponsors include FIS , Visa , Discover, the Independent Community Bankers of America , Arvest , Acxiom , NYDig , Euronet, Simmons Bank , Smiley Technologies , Plinqit, Finzly, William Mills Agency, Stephens Inc ., and Stone Ward.
Registration for Fintech companies and attendees is open now. Visit www.vencentsummit.com to learn more.
About The Venture Center
The Venture Center's immersive accelerator programs are designed to accelerate the growth of early-to-growth-stage companies and help validate their solutions for real-world problems. Our methodology provides a unique opportunity for early-to-growth stage fintech companies to connect with financial institution executives, receive investment, and learn from a comprehensive curriculum aiding in strategically addressing go-to-market, business, and finance challenges. Learn more at www.venturecenter.co . Follow The Venture Center on Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter , and Instagram .
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-venture-centers-inaugural-summit-set-to-fuel-top-fintech-innovators-in-getting-nextgen-solutions-to-banks-and-financial-services-providers-301426059.html
SOURCE The Venture Center
[November 17, 2021] Jobble Partners with indi to Launch indi for Jobblers, a First of its Kind Banking Solution Empowering Gig Workers
BOSTON and PITTSBURGH, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jobble, which supports the job search of millions of independent workers, and indi, which pioneered digital banking solutions for the gig economy, today announced the launch of a debit card to address the need for accessible banking solutions for gig workers. Jobble Partners with indi to Launch indi for Jobblers, a First of its Kind Banking Solution Empowering Gig Workers Supported by PNC Bank and powered exclusively by the Mastercard network, indi for Jobblers is an FDIC-insured banking solution designed for independent workers' unique financial needs, including a debit card and mobile app with tax savings and expense tracking features. Payments from Jobble to the indi for Jobblers card can be made instantly. "The gig economy has proven to be essential to the U.S. economy, and at Jobble, we are doing our part to ensure these workers are supported," Corey Bober, COO and co-founder of Jobble said. "In continuing our mission of supporting the everyday hustle of all independent workers, Jobble is excited to work with indi on a banking solution that meets the specific needs of gig workers, freelancers, side hustlers and independent contractors across the country." An indi for Jobblers account empowers independent workers by: Providing a straightforward and fast application process that does not impact their credit score
Keeping it simple with no fee to apply, no monthly service fee and no minimum balance requirement
Letting them manage their money on-the-go with convenient mobile banking
Creating a personalized Tax Savings Goal to help estimate the amount they should save for taxes
Enrolling them in the Mastercard Easy Savings program for rebates on everyday activities (available at participating merchants)
Easy Savings program for rebates on everyday activities (available at participating merchants) Offering advanced security features including Mastercard ID Theft ProtectionTM, Zero Liability, and Price Protection "Bringing indi and Jobble together in collaboration with Mastercard allows independent workers to browse job opportunities and find work that works for them, get paid quickly with Jobble Gigs, simplify their financial lives i the indi mobile app, and earn rebates at thousands of participating merchant locations nationwide with the Mastercard Easy Savings program," said David Passavant, CEO of numo, the Pittsburgh-based incubator that developed indi.
"The gig economy requires solutions that are people-centric, technology-enabled and inclusive of all," said Sherri Haymond, executive vice president of Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. "In collaboration with PNC, indi for Jobblers not only empowers the gig economy through technology, but also effectively and meaningfully addresses the digital divide for a more inclusive future." indi for Jobblers is available today. Users can get started at https://jobble.com/banking/debit-card and download the indi app on the App Store or Google Play.
About Jobble
Jobble is the epicenter of the gig economy that connects the 70 million essential workers seeking jobs with companies offering flexible work opportunities. Since 2016, Jobble has partnered with over 14,000 gig economy business partners and has over 4,000,000 jobs in over 1,600 cities in all 50 states. We're on a mission to empower the independent worker by providing access to opportunities that maximize daily income potential and providing comprehensive benefits and financial solutions that support them now and in the future.
www.jobble.com About indi
indi is digital banking designed for independent contractors. It includes an FDIC-insured prepaid account, debit card, and mobile app to allow contractors to easily deposit and save money for quarterly taxes, make purchases, and track expenses to maximize tax deductions. indi is provided by numo, a fintech incubator and independent subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., and PNC Bank, N.A., the issuer of the indi debit card. Funds for indi accounts are held at PNC Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. ________________________________________________________________________
indi is a registered mark of numo llc. PNC Bank is a registered mark of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Mastercard and Mastercard ID Theft Protection are trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC. 1Payments must be made at participating merchant locations using your indi card. PIN-based debit transactions and ACH transfers are not eligible. Merchants and rebate offers subject to change. Restrictions apply. For details, visit https://easysavings.mastercard.com/easysavings/common/en_US/index.html#!/home CONTACTS: Jobble:
Julia Ryder
(774) 212-4552
[email protected] PNC:
Alan Aldinger
(412) 768-3711
[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jobble-partners-with-indi-to-launch-indi-for-jobblers-a-first-of-its-kind-banking-solution-empowering-gig-workers-301426356.html SOURCE Jobble Inc
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[November 17, 2021] Salsify Recognized as a Fast Growing Company in North America on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
BOSTON, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Salsify, the Commerce Experience Management (CommerceXM) platform empowering brand manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to win on the digital shelf, today announced it has been recognized on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 , a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 27th year. According to the report, Salsify grew 365% during this period. Salsify works directly with more than 1,000 brands in over 80 countries. The company's Commerce Experience Management (CommerceXM) platform serves as the system of record for products, accelerates time to market for products, facilitates cross-team and cross-organization collaboration at scale, and provides the insights needed to optimize product pages across channels continuously. Earlier this year, Salsify acquired Alkemics , a supplier experience management platform that helps retailers engage with suppliers to serve customers better at every stage of their commercial relationship. Earlier in October, Salsify acquired SKUvantage, which will serve as a basis for the company's expansion into Australia, New Zealand, nd the greater APAC region.
"Over the past year, Salsify has experienced substantial organic growth as well as global expansion through strategic acquisitions," said Mike Milburn, President, Salsify. "This growth is directly attributable to our continued investments in customer success, including at some of the world's largest brands like Mars, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola, Bosch, and GSK. Our products and services help brands, retailers, and distributors win on the digital shelf." About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies both public and private in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About Salsify Salsify helps brand manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in over 80 countries collaborate to win on the digital shelf. The company's Commerce Experience Management (CommerceXM) platform serves as the system of record for products, accelerates time to market for products, facilitates cross-team and cross-organization collaboration at scale, and provides the insights needed to optimize product pages across channels continuously. The result is shopper-centric, frictionless, and memorable commerce experiences. Great commerce experiences that are delivered efficiently improve brand trust, amplify product differentiation and assortments, increase conversion rate, improve profit margins, and speed time to market. Learn how the world's largest brands, including Mars, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola, Bosch, and GSK, as well as retailers and distributors such as E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Metro, and Intermarche use Salsify every day to stand out on the digital shelf. For more information, please visit www.salsify.com . About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. Contact:
Ron Favali
[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/salsify-recognized-as-a-fast-growing-company-in-north-america-on-the-2021-deloitte-technology-fast-500-301426897.html SOURCE Salsify
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[November 17, 2021] ADM Endeavors, Inc. (OTCQB: ADMQ) Announces Building Plans and Expansion
ADM Endeavors, Inc. (OTCQB: ADMQ) announced today with zoning behind us we are actively starting the process to get our new corporate facility built. The new facility will allow us to grow at a faster pace and add new business segments. The new planned segments are a medical scrub storefront, work uniform storefront, learning center, sign shop, and fulfillment center. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005528/en/ ADMQ Building Plan Updates (Graphic: Business Wire) The medical scrub store will be modeled after the existing school uniform store. It will create synergies in that space by turning a seasonal operation into a year-round operation utilizing existing labor and processes. Healthcare is a growing industry, and the new operation will allow us to participate through high margin retail and previously unnamable bids and contracts. The work uniform store will enhance our ability to service our existing uniform contracts and add the higher margin retail customers. The learning center will focus on tutoring. We have a 15,000-family school uniform customer base that we can market to. The tutors will come from teachers at the schools we service. We do not intend the learning center to be a major profit center. It will be set up as break even to better serve the surrounding community. Our company currently outsources signs and banners. The sign shop will allow us to bring this in house and increase margins on this segment. The fulfilment center will enhance service to existing customers that currently use competing fulfilment centers for the products we produce. The center will also allow us to peruse larger customer that need fulfillment. It also will open door for more online retail sales of stock design items. We plan to market all of these segments independently which we feel will dramatically increase our digital footprint through cross links and more search exposure. It is also in our plans to actively peruse the acquisition of similar businesses in our area that can be absorbed into our new facility. This is a great way to grow because quality labor is getting increasingly hard to find and fixed cost will be dramatically cut from their current business model. The planned facility will be 80,000 to 100,000 square feet. Bids are currently being accepted from commercial builders. Funding has tentatively been secured from CapTex bank. ADM Endeavors CEO Marc Johnson said, "We are very excited about the pospect of having a new corporate home. This will be the largest expansion effort we have taken. We know it will be challenging, but we are ready to get started."
About ADMQ: Since 2010, our wholly owned subsidiary, Just Right Products, Inc., has been consistently increasing sales, with sales topping $6.44 million for the last reported 12 months. The Company sells "Anything With A Logo" on its website, www.JustRightProducts.com, developing products ranging from unique business cards to coffee cups, T-shirts to boots, with tens of thousands of other unique products from which to select. Just Right Products, Inc. operates a diverse vertical integrated business in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, consisting of a retail sales division, screen print production, embroidery production, digital production, import wholesale sourcing, and uniforms. www.admendeavors.com
www.fwpromo.com
www.justrightproducts.com
https://uscbdlogo.com
https://247365threads.com/
www.facebook.com/groups/admqshareholders
https://fortworth.academicoutfitters.com/ Forward Looking Statement:
This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "strategy," "expects," "continues," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "would," "will," "estimates," "intends," "projects," "goals," "targets" and other words of similar meaning are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions or economic conditions with respect to the retail industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of management, actions of government regulators, vendors, and suppliers, our cash flows and ability to obtain financing, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005528/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Q4 Inc. Included in Listing of Fastest-Growing Companies in North America on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Awarded to Deloitte's Enterprise Fast 15
Q4 Inc., (TSX: QFOR) ("Q4" or "the Company"), a leading capital markets communications platform, announced its inclusion on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America. Q4 also received an Enterprise Fast 15 award, an awards category in the Technology Fast 50 program. Q4 is a capital markets communication platform that is designed to connect public companies, the buyside and sellside across their most critical workflows, namely investor relations, corporate access, research and deal management. Today, Q4 delivers innovative investor relations and corporate access solutions through their capital markets platform to more than 2,600 public companies and investment banks. Q4 also hosts over 13 million investors and sell-side analysts on its platform monthly to learn more about the companies in which they are invested. With this breadth of scale, Q4 has amassed vast amounts of data yielding proprietary insights into the behavior of capital markets participants. The company is in its early stages of mining those insights to benefit its customers. Q4's trusted, secure and highly scalable platform is designed to help all participants in the capital markets to connect the right company to the right investor, through the right bank at the best time. Going forward, Q4 expects its data and insights will become richer and more beneficial to each segment of the markets it serves, driving efficiencies, better interactions, and smarter decisions across the capital markets. "We are honoured to rank alongside Deloitte's (News - Alert) fastest growing companies, and particularly proud of the growth we have achieved over the last few years," said Founder and CEO Darrell Heaps. "While we are incredibly proud of what we have built to date, we are even more excited about what's to come, as we work to fulfill our mission to unite 3 sides of the capital markets on our platform. We believe bringing corporates, te sellside and buyside together on our platform with integrated applications, shared identity and data, supported by enriched analytics will bring tremendous efficiencies to connecting the right company to the right investor, through the right bank, at the right time, and ultimately drive more effective interactions across the entire market ecosystem."
"Each year the Technology Fast 500 shines a light on leading innovators in technology and this year is no exception," said Paul Silverglate, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. technology sector leader. "In the face of innumerable challenges resulting from the pandemic, the best and brightest were able to pivot, reinvent and transform and grow. We celebrate the winning organizations and especially the talented employees driving their success." "We're extremely proud to recognize this year's Enterprise Fast 15 winners, who are showcasing a level of excellence as Canada's elite in the technology sector," stated Anders McKenzie, partner and national leader for the Technology Fast 50 program at Deloitte Canada. "Their bold vision for the future, competitive drive and passion for pushing the boundaries set the pace to catapult Canadian innovation forward."
About the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Now in its 27th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies - both public and private - in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program is Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program. Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features distinct categories, including the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Enterprise Fast 15, Clean Technology, and Companies-to-Watch. The program also recognizes companies within the North American Technology (News - Alert) Fast 500 ranking, identifying technology companies in the United States and Canada. The 2021 program sponsors include Deloitte, RBC, EDC, Miller Thomson, Clarity (News - Alert) Recruitment, and Lafond. For further information, visit www.fast50.ca. About Q4 Q4 Inc. (TSX:QFOR), is a leading capital markets communications platform that is transforming the way publicly traded companies, investors, and investment banks make decisions to efficiently discover, communicate, and engage with each other. The Q4 end-to-end technology platform facilitates interactions across the capital markets through its IR website products, virtual events solutions, capital markets customer relationship management solution, and shareholder and market analytics tools. The firm is a trusted partner to over 2,600 public companies, including 50% of the S&P 500, as well as top tier investment banks. Q4 is based in Toronto, with offices in New York and London. To learn more about Q4, please visit www.q4inc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006045/en/
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Putnam Investments Names Robert E. Alan Head of Global Consultant Relations
Putnam Investments today announced that Robert E. Alan has rejoined the firm as Head of Global Consultant Relations in the firm's Institutional Management business. In this new role, Alan will oversee a team responsible for coordinating consultant activity worldwide for Putnam's well-established institutional business. Based in Boston, Alan will report directly to Kaitlin M. May, Head of Putnam Institutional Management.
"Putnam has a long history of working closely with the consultant community in addressing the asset management needs of institutional investors around the globe," said May. "As we continue to develop and deepen these critical consultant partnerships, we believe Putnam and its clients will benefit from Rob's extensive experience, trusted relationships, and proven track record in successfully navigating the ever-evolving institutional marketplace."
"I am thrilled to rejoin Putnam at a time when the firm's institutional business has tremendous focus, energy, and momentum," said Alan. "Putnm has built a world-class organization, spanning investment management, consultant relations, business development, and client service - and I look forward to collaborating with my outstanding colleagues in delivering strong results for our institutional clientele."
Before rejoining Putnam, Alan founded New York-based North Broadway Capital Advisors in 2019, an independent consultant firm devoted to providing institutional distribution advisory support to the emerging manager and diverse-, woman- and disabled-owned asset management community. Prior, he led consultant relations efforts in North America for Insight North America (2015-2019) and global consultant relations efforts for Cutwater Asset Management (2011-2014).
Earlier, Alan held senior consultant relations leadership roles at Putnam Institutional Management (2006-2011). He began his career with similar positions at Babson Capital Management and Fidelity Management Trust Company.
Alan earned a B.S. in Finance from Bentley University and an M.B.A. with Finance and Leadership concentrations from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
About Putnam Institutional Management
Putnam Institutional Management serves the investment management needs of a wide array of institutions, including corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, and public and government plans. In total, Putnam managed $101 billion in worldwide institutional assets as of October 31, 2021.
About Putnam Investments
Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a global money management firm with over 80 years of investment experience. At the end of October 2021, Putnam had $201 billion in assets under management. Putnam has offices in Boston, London, Munich, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, visit putnam.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006055/en/
Behavox Professional Services Team Wins 'Most Innovative Technology Partnership With a Financial Institution' Award at Inaugural Canadian RegTech Awards
Behavox, which provides insights to protect enterprises and their employees from illegal, immoral, and malicious behavior, won a joint award with TD Securities for 'Most Innovative Technology Partnership with a Financial Institution' at the inaugural Canadian RegTech Awards on November 16.
Co-organized by the Canadian Regulatory Technology Association, and EY Canada, the Canadian RegTech Awards celebrates the advancement of regulatory technology solutions that help to improve financial regulatory compliance and oversight in Canada.
"Our [Professional Services] team focuses on target operating model improvements and delivering our innovative solutions on time and on budget," said Michael Talbert, Head of Project Management at Behavox.
Lara Morgan, AVP and Product Delivery Leader at TD Securities said: "TD Securiies had real world problems and Behavox delivered real-world solutions."
"The new, high-impact platform, delivered by TD Securities, in partnership with Behavox, facilitates the creation of a holistic surveillance solution. It places TD at the forefront of surveillance by integrating communications, trade, and conduct surveillance into a single platform," said Dan Bosman VP Head of TDS Cross Asset Platform, Data & Innovation.
The Canadian RegTech Awards handed out 18 awards to companies that had proven their ability to solve significant industry problems, demonstrated considerable growth, and provided customers with improved efficiencies and cost savings.
Behavox has won a number of awards for its industry-leading technology, including a listing in Forbes' Fintech 50 as one of the world's most innovative fintech companies.
"It's a privilege to work with forward-thinking organizations like TD Securities that truly care about market integrity and technological innovation," said Fahreen Kurji, Chief Customer Intelligence Officer at Behavox.
Behavox's Innovative technology solves real world problems, such as voice communications being 10x more likely to harbor fraud. Discover how a leading global bank uses Behavox Voice to relieve regulatory pressure
Learn more about how the Behavox Professional Services team can help organizations implement transformative projects within just four months, by booking a demo.
About Behavox Ltd.
Behavox provides AI-powered insights that protect companies and their employees from illegal, immoral, and malicious behavior.
Insights are generated by analyzing communication data from email, instant messaging, voice, and video conferencing platforms. By proactively monitoring these platforms using AI rather than manually reviewing content, employees are protected while maintaining their privacy.
Founded in 2014, Behavox is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Montreal, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, Tokyo, Dallas, and Abu Dhabi.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006058/en/
[November 17, 2021] Carbon Health Appoints Uzair Qadeer as Chief People Officer
Carbon Health, a leading national healthcare provider, today announced the appointment of Uzair Qadeer as Chief People Officer. Qadeer will lead all end-to-end human resources capabilities including talent management, employee experience, benefits, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB). His successes in guiding high-growth organizations equip him to help usher Carbon Health through nationwide expansion in its mission to make high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005598/en/ Uzair Qadeer, Chief People Officer of Carbon Health (Photo: Business Wire) "Both Uzair and Carbon Health share the same vision to create a meaningful environment where all people - employees, providers, clinicians, and patients - feel a deep sense of belonging and drive to improve the health of our communities," said Eren Bali, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Health. "As we continue to transform our patients' lives across the country, I believe that focusing on the experience of our Carbonauts will help us differentiate not only as an employer of choice but also as an innovative and patient cenric healthcare provider."
Qadeer believes that the future is moving away from human resources to human experience, which is the sum of employee experience, patient experience, and digital experience. Creating these connections gives employees better insights into patients' needs, which allows employees to better serve patients and in turn, yield financial results that can be leveraged to reward employees. Qadeer is uniquely suited to drive a differentiated employee experience and strong company culture as Carbon Health, which was #2 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list, grows to more than 90 clinics across 14 states and 2,000 full-time employees. Prior to Carbon Health, Qadeer was Chief Diversity Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where he served on the company's executive management team. Before that, he served as a leader in Deloitte's (News - Alert) human capital consulting business where he focused on redefining every aspect of HR, including organizational development, culture, and talent management. Qadeer also worked at Bristol Myers Squibb in various roles of increasing responsibilities both in the U.S. and in Italy. Qadeer has a track record of helping organizations lead with innovative HR efforts. Qadeer, who also serves on the Board of Directors of Human Resources Leadership Forum, was recently named one of the Top 100 Chief Diversity Officers by the National Diversity Council and was called a "HR Futurist" by American Healthcare Leader Magazine. Qadeer received his master's degree as well as his B.A. and B.S. degrees from Pennsylvania State University.
"I am energized by Carbon Health's mission to make healthcare accessible to everyone by reshaping the patient experience through innovative technologies," said Uzair Qadeer, Chief People Officer at Carbon Health. "I believe that by curating an exceptional employee experience at Carbon Health, and developing a meaningful connection between our employees and our patients, we will turbocharge our journey towards making great care accessible. A chance to be a part of, and help lead, such a powerful and exciting movement is simply irresistible." About Carbon Health Carbon Health is a leading national healthcare provider with a mission to make high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone. Carbon Health offers primary and urgent care to nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Leveraging its unique technology platform, Carbon Health provides its patients with omnichannel care, designed to meet patients where they are by delivering care across a variety of access points, including in-person clinics, virtual care and remote patient monitoring (RPM). Carbon Health also focuses on value-based care and other value-add services to employers, health plans, health systems and other ecosystem partners. Founded in 2015, Carbon Health is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by Atreides, Blackstone Horizon, Dragoneer Investment Group, Brookfield Technology Partners (BTP), Fifth Wall, Lux Capital, Silver Lake Waterman, DCVC, and Builders VC. To access Carbon Health, download the app (iTunes or Google (News - Alert) Play) or visit carbonhealth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005598/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Workers' Compensation Executive Chris Watson Joins Advisory Board of Harvard MedTech
Veteran workers' compensation executive Chris Watson is joining the Advisory Board for Harvard MedTech, a breakthrough digital health company that combines virtual reality, behavioral therapy, and artificial intelligence in a revolutionary new approach to healing trauma and pain. "Harvard MedTech's innovative solution is changing the approach to treating both acute and chronic pain associated with workplace injuries," said Watson. "By providing a non-pharmacological alternative combining virtual reality therapy along with support by behavioral health experts, they are improving people's quality of life by enhancing their ability to deal with pain, reducing opioid utilization, and accelerating return to work. Long-term claims and their costs are minimized and the risk of addiction to narcotics is reduced. This is the solution the workers' compensation industry has been waiting for." "We are delighted to welcome Chris to our Advisory Board, as our company prepares for rapid growth and adoption in workers' compensation," said Shan Padda, Chief Executive Officer, Harvard MedTech. "As a well-respected and seasoned executive in workers' compensation, Chris will be heavily involved in working with me and our senior team in setting the strategic direction forthe firm."
Watson was most recently Chief Operating Officer for One Call Care Management, a leading provider of specialized solutions to the workers' compensation industry. Previously he had served as Chief Operating Officer at Coventry Workers' Compensation Services. His previous positions also include COO at Auto Injury Solutions, President at First Script, VP of Operations at Concentra Network Services, and VP of Provider Relations at Em3. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas A&M University and proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an F/A-18 pilot.
He joins a distinguished group of experts on the Harvard MedTech Advisory Board, including Chris Dimos, Chief Operating Officer at AccentCare and former President of the Retail Solutions team at McKesson Pharmaceutical Solutions and Services, and George Riedl, former President of Pharmacy, Health & Wellness for Walmart U.S., the world's largest retailer. For more information, visit www.Harvardmedtech.com. About Harvard MedTech Harvard MedTech is a breakthrough digital health company that is tapping the new science of how the brain works, combining specially designed virtual reality experiences, psychosocial support, digital engagement and proprietary AI algorithms to retrain neural pathways and alleviate the effects of trauma, including pain, PTSD, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. The company's Vx Therapy model is the first to comprehensively integrate this unique combination of digital technologies with behavioral health interventions, in a virtual application that moves the points of care to the patient's home. This virtual engagement drives high compliance, patient satisfaction and optimal outcomes. It also allows the solution to be affordable and scalable at a population health level. This non-invasive and non-pharmacological approach also provides data that is trackable for a clear assess of its value to patient and health care providers. Visit www.harvardmedtech.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005401/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Manhattan West Real Estate Completes Renovation of The Gates on Beverly Community in Larchmont
Manhattan West Real Estate, a division of modern investment firm Manhattan West, today announced it has completed its renovation project at The Gates on Beverly, a four-building, multifamily community featuring 42 unique apartment units in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles. Centrally located on Beverly Boulevard, The Gates on Beverly features open and airy studio, one-and two-bedroom floor plans: The Diamond, The Arch, and The Vertical. Finished with designer touches and handcrafted details, including solid stone countertops, stainless steel appliances and farmhouse-style kitchen sinks, tenants can enjoy timeless home design in this popular LA neighborhood. All units have been remodeled with updated bathrooms with new vanities and sinks, spacious closets, and in-unit washers, dryers and dishwashers. "Manhattan West is thrilled to rvitalize The Gates on Beverly to provide quality housing at a time when Los Angeles residents need it most," said Adam Norvell, Managing Director - Real Estate, Manhattan West. "Our thoughtful, hands-on approach to design and construction gives us the unique advantage of identifying and restoring vintage buildings that are competitive with the brand-new Class-A projects in our communities."
Acquired by Manhattan West Real Estate in December 2019, The Gates on Beverly underwent substantial upgrades on the building's exterior, while interior units were outfitted with new electrical and plumbing. The building offers several outdoor conversation spaces, ample parking, bike storage, secure building access, and many other appealing amenities for tenants. Lease up of the community started in Q1 2021 alongside continuing renovation and is expected to be fully stabilized by the onset of 2022. For more information regarding The Gates on Beverly, please visit thegatesonbeverly.com.
About Manhattan West Real Estate Manhattan West Real Estate is a community-focused real estate team uniquely positioned as an owner, operator and manager of multifamily and industrial properties. A division of Manhattan West, a modern investment company with a vertically integrated platform of in-house services and investments, Manhattan West Real Estate has sought to add value to its communities it operates in and positively impact the tenants and residents of its buildings. Since inception, the group has focused on targeting value-add and core plus assets. To learn more about us, please visit manhattanwest.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005432/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Transportation Shortage: Three Things School Districts - and Parents/Guardians - Need to Know
CM Regent Insurance Company: WHAT: Student transportation is a struggle for many schools this year due to a critical shortage of bus drivers. Some schools have responded by paying parents/guardians to drive students as an alternative to providing transport by the school or its contracted vendor. In some instances, districts are reimbursing parents/guardians without any formal agreement or contract. At CM Regent Insurance Company, we understand the desire and need to get students back to school. However, here are three things school districts and their stakeholders need to know: Paying parents to transport students sets up a pseudo-employment situation, which could create a liability exposure for the school district. School districts considering this approach should consult with an attorney to review documentation, contracts and hold-harmless language, and policy outline. School districts also should consult with their insurance carrier or agent. If parents are receiving a stipend for transportation, we recommend they do not transport any children other than their own. In the event of an accident, there is potential for a lawsuit filed by a parent who has entrusted another parent to transport their child. The suit could claim the driving parent is an employee of the school. While it's impossible to predict the outcome of such a lawsuit, it is possible the driving parent could be viewed as an independent contractor working for the school to transport students. Therefore, it's possible the driving parent's personal auto policy would deny coverage. At CM Rgent, we strongly encourage districts to provide contracts for each parent as they would with any bus/transportation company, including the usual insurance language/additional insured and proof of insurance. Parents/guardians who are considering driving for their districts should talk to their insurance providers to ensure they have proper protection in place.
About CM Regent Insurance Company
This affiliate company of Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I., leverages Church Mutual's insurance expertise to meet the unique needs of K-12 school districts, colleges and universities. Coverages include commercial property and liability insurance, workers' compensation, school leaders' legal liabilities, excess liability, privacy protection, owner-controlled insurance and a variety of employee benefit products for public schools in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. About Church Mutual Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I., founded in 1897, offers specialized insurance for religious organizations of all denominations, public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities, senior living facilities, secular and non-secular camps and conference centers, and nonprofit and human services organizations throughout the United States. Church Mutual markets most lines of commercial property and liability insurance, including multi-peril, workers' compensation and commercial auto insurance. In addition to insurance, Church Mutual provides a spectrum of value-added solutions that benefit its customers. Church Mutual holds the following honors: A.M. Best Company "A" (excellent) rating
Wisconsin 75 Top Private Company by Deloitte (News - Alert) US, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
Wisconsin 75 Distinguished Performer: Innovation by Deloitte US 2019
2021 Gallup Culture Transformation Award recipient
2020 Women and Diversity Award recipient from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association
Futuremakers Partner by Wisconsin Technical College System
Celent Model Insurer for innovation and emerging technologies
Award in Innovation for entrepreneurialism and innovation by National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
2018-2019 Employer of the Year by Northcentral Technical College 1Church Mutual is a stock insurer whose policyholders are members of the parent mutual holding company formed on 1/1/20. S.I. = a stock insurer. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006103/en/
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[November 17, 2021] LinQuest Awarded Air Force Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC)
LinQuest Corporation, a leader in space systems technology and electronic warfare solutions for U.S. defense and intelligence communities, has been awarded an Eglin Wide Agile (News - Alert) Acquisition Contract (EWAAC) by the U.S. Air Force. The contract is a multi-award, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) acquisition vehicle supporting pre-program activities, technology development, engineering and manufacturing, and production. The contract is being awarded with an initial ceiling value of $46 billion. The EWAAC contract has a 10-year ordering period with The Armament Directorate (AFLCMC/EB) at Eglin AFB in Florida. LinQuest will rapidly develop new technologies solutions, and innovations to provide and expand the digital ecosystem for the Eglin community of customers. With a focus on the Digital Trinity, Enterprise Analytics, and Systems Development, LinQuest will continue delivering products and services from concepts to capabilities for the U.S. Air Force.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to provide innovative solutions for the U.S. Air Force as it continues to expand its digital footprint," said Tim Dills, President and CEO of LinQuest. "We look forward to developing and enhancing essential rapid response systems and technologies through this contract." About LinQuest Corporation
LinQuest is a national security space leader that enables defense and intelligence missions through advanced digital solutions and the development, integration, and operation of mission-critical systems. With a legacy that spans 47 years, LinQuest's 1,500-plus team members work side-by-side with their customers to solve their most complex technical challenges, drive innovation, and deliver fielded solutions for national-security missions. More information can be found on the company's website at www.linquest.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006110/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Insum joins Talan Group - Two companies renowned for digital solutions and innovative approaches join forces
MONTREAL, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - After many years of working together and building upon the strength of their combined assets, Quebec company Insum, renowned for providing highly specialized innovative application solutions and for its expertise in Oracle Database and Oracle Application Express (APEX), has announced that it is joining Talan Group, a firm specializing in digital innovation and transformation. As a result, Talan will acquire Insum. The Quebec company's management will occupy strategic roles within Talan Group and its major stakeholders will maintain shares. With this acquisition, the Insum entity and brand will remain unchanged as will its team, which will continue to grow the company and deliver the best possible solutions on the market. Insum, moreover, foresees additional recruitment in order to support its growth and future projects. This expansion will enable Talan to significantly strengthen its position in North America and internationally as part of its "Ambition 2024" plan to meet growing needs for digital transformation among major groups and public stakeholders. "We are thrilled that Insum is joining Talan.This project dovetails with our "Ambition 2024" plan, which identifies major development areas for our markets in France and worldwide. Insum offers high-level expertise that complements Talan's own. Together, we can offer clients even better Oracle solutions than ever. In addition, with this acquisition, Insum's nearly one hundred employees can count on Talan Group's expertise to deliver their projects and help them grow in their career paths," said Mehdi Houas, president of Groupe Talan.
Strong shared values
This new phase confirms the mutual trust that already exists between the two groups. Both Talan and Insum are driven by the same desire to offer organizations lasting change through the power of innovation and technology and believe in the immense potential of this acquisition. "This association with Talan Group is proof of our Oracle APEX leadership. With our complementary expertise, we can expand our playing field and provide better support to current and future clients. Aligning our services means that we will be able to harness the incredible talent of a group that numbers close to 4,000 employees worldwide. Together, we will be able to execute large-scale projects in countries around the globe. We are thrilled to now be able to fully benefit from the cloud computing and low code sector, which is poised for exponential growth in upcoming years," said Insum cofounders Michel St-Amour, President and Francis Mignault, Executive Vice President.
The market for Oracle-based solutions, particularly APEX, is experiencing tremendous growth and represents a strategic focus for creating value for companies. Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a low-code development platform that allows users to build scalable, secure enterprise applications with world-class features that can be deployed anywhere. About Insum
Insum develops highly specialized innovative application solutions using Oracle Application Express (APEX), a Rapid Application Development tool included with the Oracle database. With offices in Canada, the United States and Peru, Insum is currently the largest consulting firm specializing in Oracle APEX. Its internationally recognized team of experts develops custom application solutions to answer the needs of its broad client base of public and private sector organizations, including financial, government, and higher learning institutions as well as numerous Fortune 500 companies. About Talan
Talan is a consulting firm specializing in digital innovation and transformation. For over 20 years, Talan has been advising, supporting and implementing transformation projects for businesses and public authorities, in France and abroad. With operations on five continents and nearly 4,000 consultants, the group anticipates profits of 400 million euros in 2021, and expects a turnover of 1 billion euros by 2024. The group places innovation at the heart of its development strategy and is involved in areas of technological change affecting major corporations, such as Big Data, the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. Talan takes part in key industry events like Viva Technology and regularly gives talks about the challenges of these revolutionary technologies alongside major industry players and parliamentarians (Syntec Numerique, French Parliamentary Forum on Artificial Intelligence, French Fab Tour, Forum de Giverny, etc.). Media requests:
Veronique Arsenault, President, Exponentiel Conseil
514-238-6836, [email protected] SOURCE Exponentiel conseil
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[November 17, 2021] U.S. Jury Verdicts and Settlements now available on vLex
A new product containing thousands of U.S. jury verdicts and settlements has launched on vLex. Dating back to 1980, this collection of jury verdicts includes professional case evaluations and can be accessed alongside the 20 million U.S. legal documents, and extensive international content, already available from vLex. U.S. Jury Verdicts and Settlements now available on vLex
London, United Kingdom, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- vLex is excited to introduce a jury verdicts and settlements collection with comprehensive coverage of trial court proceedings. As of November 2021, vLex is the only research platform to offer civil jury verdicts alongside U.S. primary law, global news coverage, and international case law, on a single service; significantly reducing the risk of important information being missed.
vLex has partnered with the established authority, Zarins Jury Verdict Review Publications, to launch this new collection. Coverage includes unique summaries of reported cases and detailed trial analyses, including techniques and strategies used by winning atorneys. This collection initially provides coverage on a national level, as well as state-specific coverage for New York, New Jersey, New England, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The civil jury verdicts are available now, and are the latest in a series of new collections on vLex that bring relevant U.S. data sources together, in one location.
We are honored to be working with Zarins Jury Verdict Review Publications, and MEI Global, LLC (MEIG), in launching this new product on vLex. With over 40 years of experience analyzing civil jury verdicts and settlements at the trial court level, we cannot think of a better partner. Combining this expert verdict and settlement analysis alongside our primary law and AI-powered search tools, we will continue to drive value for our users. Susan Cunningham, Director of Strategic Partnerships at vLex.
Learn more about this new collection from vLex.
About vLex vLex is a leading provider of global legal information and technology, providing access to comprehensive primary and secondary collections from over 100 countries, on one platform. Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class service for thousands of lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world. The team of over 200 lawyers, engineers, and editorial experts continually strive to deliver up-to-date legal information and industry-leading, A.I.-powered legal technology.
For enquiries, please contact [email protected] For more information on this exciting collaboration, call vLex on +1 800 335 6202 or email us at [email protected]
For the original news story, please visit https://prdistribution.com/news/u-s-jury-verdicts-and-settlements-now-available-on-vlex.html
Media Company: vLex, Media Name: Matthew Terrell, Media Phone: 1 800 335 6202, Media Email: [email protected]stribution.org Media URL: http://www.vlex.com/
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[November 17, 2021] Truyo and Egnyte Launch COVID-Related Health Data Collection and Privacy Compliance Solution
Truyo, the leader in truly automated consent and data privacy rights management, and Egnyte, a leader in cloud content security and governance, today announced a new solution -- Health-Check Management -- to empower businesses of any size to efficiently and securely collect and maintain employee COVID-related information in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) impending emergency temporary standard and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's (CMS's) new interim final rule. Even with ongoing debate about OSHA's standard, legal consultants see the need for ample preparation. "There's no doubt at least some form of a mandate will be enacted, whether it's at the state or federal level," said Michael Hellbusch, Partner at Rutan & Tucker, LLP. "As soon as systems move from voluntary to mandatory, it means mandatory use of some kind of vaccine credentialing system will be required. Companies will need to prepare now." Health-Check Management's partnerships are in preparation for impending mandates that will require coronavirus vaccinations or weekly testing of workers for organizations with 100 employees or more. Similarly, CMS would impose vaccine requirements for facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Health-Check Management, which is powered by Truyo's privacy platform, in partnership with Egnyte, automates collection of employee vaccination status and testing results and maintains the personal health information in Egnyte's secure environment to facilitate privacy compliance. "This is an incredibly comlex time for employers who are now confronted with having to collect and store highly sensitive health-related information on their employees," said Dan Clarke, president of Truyo. "The impending mandates have a lot of employers worried about how to manage and protect this information, which they haven't previously had to worry about. This goes well beyond simply collecting vaccination statuses or test results. Employers will now have exemption-related personal information that could allow an organizational user to make additional inferences about an employee's health or religious status--and this has a lot of organizations concerned because it increases exposure to breach notification risks."
Health-Check Management, co-developed with Intel (News - Alert) and powered by Truyo and Egnyte, enables organizations to: Set levels of access and restrict access to sensitive medical information
Address immediate risks from potential insider threats
Maintain sensitive health information in a secure environment
Adapt to data retention policies, per mandates
Easily produce reports, as needed
Immutably log data access
Mitigate privacy risk "This is extremely sensitive information and storing it is going to become a major challenge for most companies, especially since most are not equipped to collect and maintain the data," said Jeff Sizemore, Chief Governance Officer at Egnyte. "Most haven't had to deal with this type of medically sensitive information in the history of their operations. There's a lot more to consider beyond simply collecting this information from a submission form or email."
The solution is available on a flexible monthly subscription starting at $250/month for up to 500 employees. To learn more about the Truyo + Egnyte Health-Check Management solution, visit https://bit.ly/health-check-mandate-solution. Additionally, a webinar series on navigating the complexities of the OSHA and CMS mandates will kick off Thursday, Nov. 18 at 8 a.m. PST. For more details, visit https://get.truyo.com/osha-cms-mandate-webinar. About Truyo Truyo, an IntraEdge company, powered by Intel, offers customers true consent and data privacy rights management automation. Specializing in privacy UX, Truyo has a nuanced understanding and a depth of experience in the operational delivery of privacy rights management creating better privacy rights and consent management experiences for users and companies. Through its Truyo Privacy Platform and Health-Check Management Solutions, Truyo enables global organizations to manage complex compliance requirements, minimize risk and deliver fast ROI. For more information, visit truyo.com. About Egnyte Egnyte provides the only unified cloud content governance solution for collaboration, data security, compliance, and threat prevention for multicloud businesses. More than 16,000 organizations trust Egnyte to reduce risks and IT complexity, prevent ransomware and IP theft, and boost employee productivity on any app, any cloud, anywhere. Investors include GV (formerly Google (News - Alert) Ventures), Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Goldman Sachs. For more information, visit egnyte.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006031/en/
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[November 17, 2021] REI Co-Op Makes Waves at the 2021 Algonomy Customer Awards 2021, Wins the Pinnacle of Personalization Award
- The award recognizes REI Co-op's outstanding work in creating hyper-personalized customer experiences for digital shoppers SAN FRANCISCO and BENGALURU, India, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- Algonomy, the leader in Algorithmic Customer Engagement (ACE) solutions, announced REI Co-op, a specialty outdoor retailer, as the winner of the Pinnacle of Personalization Award category at the Algonomy Customer Awards event held recently. REI was selected as a winner among eight finalists shortlisted from over 400 enterprise brands in contention for the Algonomy Customer Excellence (ACE) awards. REI is the US largest consumer co-op, with a growing community of more than 20 million members. It has 171 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The ACE awards recognize retailers and brands setting new benchmarks in the use of AI and Algorithmic Decisioning to create unique and winning customer experiences and business results. The evaluation criteria scored the ACE award participants across six dimensions of personalization success - strength of vision, degree of innovation, level of adoption, speed to market, business results and learning & excellence. REI Co-op hit top scores for their winning efforts in replicating their exceptional in-store customer experience to digital shoppers using innovative personalization strategies an technologies. They were persistent in driving continuous experimentation to ensure shoppers find what they need, and tailor experiences dynamically in real-time for each individual shopper's needs. The REI Co-op team has been quick to adopt new technologies in personalization to make a difference in their customer experience.
REI was ranked ahead of the industry in replicating their signature store experience on online channels with 1:1 personalized recommendations that resulted in 20% higher conversions, sustained increase in engagement and overall growth in digital sales. Kate Froese, Sr. Manager, Customer Platforms, at REI Co-op said, "We're elated to win the Pinnacle of Personalization Award from Algonomy. Our personalization team and partners have worked hard over the past few years to bring our digital-first vision to life: meeting customers where they are, responding to their digital behaviors in real time and connecting them with the outdoors in uniquely personal ways. This award validates our efforts and motivates our team to strive for continued excellence. Our partnership with Algonomy was key in delivering our personalization vision with the right technology."
Atul Jalan, CEO at Algonomy said, "We're very proud of REI Co-op for leading the industry benchmark for personalized customer engagement and creating winning experiences for their customers. We wish them the best in their future endeavors to drive innovation with AI and Algorithms." Learn more about the Algonomy ACE awards at the 2021 Algonomy Customer Summit page. About Algonomy Algonomy (previously Manthan-RichRelevance) empowers leading brands to become digital-first with the industry's only real-time Algorithmic Customer Engagement (ACE) platform with built-in customer activation and analytics for the retail industry. With industry-leading retail AI expertise connecting demand to supply with a real-time customer data platform as the foundation, Algonomy enables 1:1 omnichannel personalization, customer journey orchestration & analytics, merchandising analytics and supplier collaboration. Algonomy is a trusted partner to more than 400 leading retailers, consumer brands, quick serve restaurant chains, convenience stores and more, and our global presence spans over 20 countries. More at https://algonomy.com Media contact:
Amit Jain
[email protected]
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rei-co-op-makes-waves-at-the-2021-algonomy-customer-awards-2021-wins-the-pinnacle-of-personalization-award-301426849.html SOURCE Algonomy
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[November 17, 2021]
Elcomsoft Brings Repeatable, Forensically Sound Extraction and iOS 15 Support to Select iPhone Models
CUPERTINO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. rolls out the second beta of iOS Forensic Toolkit 8.0 for Mac, the company's mobile forensic tool for extracting data from a range of Apple devices. The second beta, which becomes the first publicly available build, expands the ability to perform forensically sound file system extractions from a range of iPhone and iPad devices, now supporting all versions of iOS 14 and 15.
Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit 8.0 beta 2 delivers forensically sound extraction of iPhone 5s, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, and iPhone SE devices with a known or empty passcode. Compared to the first beta, the update brings support for iOS 14 and 15 up to and including iOS 15.1, enabling bootloader-based, forensically sound extraction of supported devices running the latest available versions of iOS.
The chain of custody begins from the first point of data collection to ensure that digital evidence collected during the investigation remains court admissible. With Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit, ElcomSoft introduces a forensically sound extraction solution offering verifiable and repeatable results on subsequent extractions. When using iOS Forensic Toolkit on a supported device, the checksum of the first extracted image will match the checksums of subsequent extractions provided that the device never rebooted and is stored in the powered-off state between extractions.
Learn more about how to use iOS Forensic Toolkit 8.0 b2 to perform forensically sound extraction of iPhone 5s, 6, 6s and SE and about forensically sound extraction.
Pricing and Availability
The availability of the new build is limited. At this time, Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit 8.0 for Mac is available to existing customers who opt to receive pre-release builds and enroll in the beta testing program.
About Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit
Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit provides forensic access to encrypted information stored in popular Apple devices. With this update, Elcomsoft iOS Forensic Toolkit becomes the most advanced iOS acquisition tool on the market.
About ElcomSoft Co. Ltd.
Founded in 1990, ElcomSoft develops state-of-the-art computer forensics tools, provides computer forensics training and computer evidence consulting services. Since 1997, ElcomSoft has been providing support to businesses, law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies. ElcomSoft tools are used by most of the Fortune 500 corporations, multiple branches of the military all over the world, foreign governments, and all major accounting firms.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/elcomsoft-brings-repeatable-forensically-sound-extraction-and-ios-15-support-to-select-iphone-models-301426988.html
SOURCE ELCOMSOFT Co. Ltd.
[November 17, 2021] Cloudli Launches TalkNText - First Small Business-focused Communications App to Combine Voice and Business Texting
NEWARK, Del., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudli Communications , a leading provider of voice, data and messaging solutions, today announced the launch of Cloudli TalkNText , a new mobile-first service that equips small businesses (SMBs) with unified voice and Business Texting capabilities, at a savings of up to 70% over industry-leading UCaaS and Business Texting solutions.* Business Texting is now a mission-critical application for businesses of all sizes, including SMBs: 93% of consumers who prefer to support SMBs also want the option of calling or texting a business, according to a U.S. consumer survey conducted earlier this year . Also, 84% of respondents would respond to texts from businesses, compared to only 34% who said they answer calls from unknown numbers. Cloudli TalkNText is the first single-subscription app to combine business phone with Business Texting eliminating the need for SMBs to maintain two separate, costly plans. Sign up for Cloudli TalkNText today. In addition to supporting standard SMS messaging, TalkNText allows businesses to text-enable their existing landline, so they can send and receive texts from their existing main business number. The new app also lets SMBs share numbers across teams, so anyone can answer client calls and texts immediately. Additional enhanced features included with every TalkNText plan include text message auto-replies, business hour settings, automated attendant, voicemail transcription and more. Developed for small businesses to stay ahead of today's customer experience demands, Cloudli TalkNText plans are designed for the mobile-first consumer. Business calls and texts are sent and received through a mobile or desktop app keeping personal communications separate from business and allowing users to manage calls, text mesages and voicemails from anywhere on a smartphone or laptop.
"TalkNText is a powerful new app tailored for small businesses, that combines two service plans in one, bringing together the best of unified communications with must-have Business Texting capabilities," said Gavin Macomber, CEO of Cloudli. "Our work-from-anywhere unified voice and Business Texting app enables a more convenient, seamless communications experience across customers, partners and team members." With Cloudli TalkNText, companies can streamline communications and offer a better overall consumer experience by leveraging the platform's key features:
Business Texting: Use a Cloudli number or text-enable your own to begin messaging with customers via the TalkNText smartphone or desktop app. Use case: a retailer may want to keep its established number, so Cloudli can enable Business Texting on the existing number without disrupting the voice phone service.
Use a Cloudli number or text-enable your own to begin messaging with customers via the TalkNText smartphone or desktop app. Use case: a retailer may want to keep its established number, so Cloudli can enable on the existing number without disrupting the voice phone service. Shared Phone Numbers: Activate shared phone numbers so team members can respond to customer inquiries on the phone or through text without losing visibility into that customer's journey. Use case: administrative support for a real estate firm can reply to client requests for showings, appraisals, offers and more.
Activate shared phone numbers so team members can respond to customer inquiries on the phone or through text without losing visibility into that customer's journey. Use case: administrative support for a real estate firm can reply to client requests for showings, appraisals, offers and more. Simplified Communications: Texts and calls are brought together in a unified conversation view, making it easier for anyone to pick up the thread and respond. Use case: a personal training business wants to know the last time a customer called before initiating a text message follow-up. Having the call details in the same view makes it easier to add context to your follow-up message.
Texts and calls are brought together in a unified conversation view, making it easier for anyone to pick up the thread and respond. Use case: a personal training business wants to know the last time a customer called before initiating a text message follow-up. Having the call details in the same view makes it easier to add context to your follow-up message. Business Hours: Set business hours to limit work calls to specific times of day, ensuring that your business runs the way you want. Use case: a small business owner can set work-life boundaries by establishing on-hours and off-hours, with specific call handling rules for each, to maintain an elevated customer experience.
Set business hours to limit work calls to specific times of day, ensuring that your business runs the way you want. Use case: a small business owner can set work-life boundaries by establishing on-hours and off-hours, with specific call handling rules for each, to maintain an elevated customer experience. Auto-Replies: Schedule automatic text replies when you're too busy or unavailable, so customers are never left waiting. Use case: a hairstylist can configure a text auto-reply to missed calls, so when a client is in the chair missed callers know when to expect a callback. "We've been impressed with Cloudli's phone and business texting app, which allows our staff to more easily communicate with customers and team members alike - even when we're out of the office," said Stephen Kennedy, Owner, School of Rock, Greenwich, CT. "In addition, Cloudli's support team went above and beyond to procure a local phone number for our upcoming location in Dublin, Ireland. Now customers in Dublin will be able to call our team and we can answer using the Cloudli app, no matter whether we're in the U.S. or in Ireland." Pricing and Availability
Cloudli's TalkNText unified voice and messaging service is available immediately, with three pricing plans starting as low as $9 per user/month. To find the plan that best fits your needs, or to compare pricing plans with other industry-leading voice and messaging providers, visit the Cloudli website . For a limited time, new customers can sign up to Cloudli TalkNText for a free trial . About Cloudli
Cloudli Communications, Inc. delivers feature-rich communications solutions to businesses of all types and sizes, with a track record that spans decades. Today, our solutions include Cloudli TalkNText, a work-from-anywhere unified communications app for SMBs, start-ups and entrepreneurs; VoIP connectivity solutions optimized for businesses of any size; and digital fax solutions that leverage new technologies without disrupting trusted and established workflows. Serving over 7,000 customers in the United States and Canada, Cloudli helps businesses across North America better communicate with their customers how, where and when they want without compromising security, reliability and efficiency. Cloudli is a proud member of the International Franchise Association . Find us on the web , LinkedIn and Twitter . Cloudli Communications Corp. is owned by CPS Capital , a Toronto-based private equity firm. *Savings and feature claims based on comparison of monthly pricing plans published on competitor websites or other publicly available sources as of November 3, 2021 All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies. Cloudli Media Contact
David Haefele
FortyThree, Inc.
[email protected]
831.621.5661 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloudli-launches-talkntext---first-small-business-focused-communications-app-to-combine-voice-and-business-texting-301426999.html SOURCE Cloudli
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[November 17, 2021] Quaker Lobby Honors Senator Todd Young, Representative Rosa DeLauro
Two members of Congress will be honored this week during the Annual Meeting of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) November 17-21. Senator Todd Young (IN) will receive the Edward F. Snyder Award for Peace while Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT) will be given the FCNL Justice Award. The two awards highlight the 77th Annual FCNL Meeting and Quaker Public Policy Institute. Starting today, FCNL will virtually welcome more than 545 members and activists from 48 states. The focus of this meeting is bringing together hundreds of advocates from around the country to support eliminating child poverty and protecting families as Congress prepares a final vote on Build Back Better legislation. Push-back and opposition to this transformational bill will continue until it is sent to the president. Therefore, FCNL's advocates will blanket Congress to ensure expansions to the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit do not get left on the cutting room floor during the legislative process. Aside from lobbying on theBuild Back Better Act, an important part of Annual Meeting is recognition for work on issues Quakers have been making progress on for years.
"Senator Todd Young has been a strong advocate for reasserting Congress' constitutional responsibility to determine when our country goes to war. He's worked carefully with Senators from both parties to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force, which we expect soon. FCNL is grateful that he sees his job as ending endless war, preventing new wars, encouraging diplomacy, and reducing the suffering of those affected by violent conflict," said FCNL General Secretary Diane Randall. The FCNL Justice Award recognizes members of Congress who advance policies for a more just society built on dignity for all people.
"When you consider Members of Congress who embody the spirit of the Justice Award, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro comes immediately to mind. She has been fighting to end the crisis of child poverty and to improve the lives of families who struggle economically for decades. Her tireless leadership for economic justice has been beacon of light for many, many years," said Randall. "Eighteen years ago, she first introduced the Child Tax Credit and worked to make it fully refundable. Her relentless energy and commitment inspire and encourage us to never give up." To learn more, please visit www.fcnl.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006173/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Knobbe Martens Announces New Chairs for Medical Device and Litigation Practice Groups, Diversifying Leadership
Knobbe Martens, one of the leading intellectual property (IP) law firms in the world, announced today that it has appointed new leaders for two of the firm's largest practice groups. Salima Merani, Ph.D. and Sabing Lee will now co-chair the Medical Devices and Procedures group, succeeding former chair Gerard von Hoffmann, who led the practice for over a decade. Sheila Swaroop and Michael Friedland will co-chair the Litigation group, taking over from Joe Cianfrani. "Salima, Sabing, Sheila and Mike are savvy and seasoned attorneys who have the depth of experience needed to meet the demands managing a practice group requires," said Managing Partner Steven Nataupsky. "All four are accomplished attorneys and charismatic leaders with unique styles and backgrounds that complement each other. I also want to commend Gerard and Joe for a job well done and for their years of strong leadership." Dr. Merani has more than 20 years of experience building strategic patent portfolios and negotiating high-stakes agreements for life sciences companies, along with extensive expertise conducting patent due diligence for venture capital and investment firms. She ha received multiple awards and honors in both national and international forums for her legal accomplishments, including being named for the past three years to Managing Intellectual Property's "Top 250 Women of the Year" globally. The prestigious Chambers Guide lauded her as an exceptional strategic advisor, and she was awarded the coveted "Client Choice Award" for IP by the International Law Office (ILO). In just the last few years, Merani has been lead IP counsel in deals worth over $3 billion.
Lee has almost 25 years of experience representing clients in a wide range of technologies, with an emphasis on medical devices including cardiovascular, orthopedic, wound care, and healthcare AI technologies. His practice includes strategic patent procurement, portfolio management, IP due diligence, and general counseling on infringement, licensing, international IP protection, and post-grant proceedings. Among other awards and honors, Lee was recognized from 2018-2021 in Managing IP's "IP STARS" guide for his outstanding IP work. In 2018, Lee was named a "Life Sciences Star" and has received "Star" recognition numerous times in recent years as part of the "Life Sciences Survey" published by Legal Media Group (LMG). Swaroop has more than 20 years of experience representing life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer goods companies in contested matters through trial and appeal. She is a registered patent attorney and litigator. For her outstanding work, Swaroop has been named to The Best Lawyers in America annual list since 2018, and has been recognized as a "Life Sciences Star" by LMG. In the community, she is a founding member and former president of the Howard T. Markey Intellectual Property Inn of Court, which upholds standards of practice and encourages respect for the justice system. She is also a former president of the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California.
Friedland has represented clients in more than 200 IP cases in his 30 years as an attorney. His practice encompasses patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright cases, in industries including consumer products, medical devices, computer software and apparel, among others. He is the co-founder and former president of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange (News - Alert) County, is a member of the International Trademark Association's (INTA) Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and served as a former adjunct professor at Whittier Law School. Mike has been recognized numerous times as an "OC Top Attorney" by OC METRO magazine, and as a leader in trademark law by World Trademark Review (WTR). The appointment of diverse leaders across both gender and ethnic backgrounds underlines the firm's commitment to establishing an environment where all attorneys can succeed. The American Lawyer has consistently named Knobbe Martens among the most diverse law firms of its size. The firm's other DEI initiatives include active outreach and recruitment; internal programs to ensure the firm values the needs and goals of diverse attorneys and staff; and an annual 1L Diversity Scholarship Program for first-year students belonging to groups historically underrepresented in the legal profession. You can learn more about the firm's commitment to diversity here. About Knobbe Martens Consistently ranked among the top intellectual property firms in the nation and worldwide, Knobbe Martens has about 300 lawyers and scientists nationwide and dedicates its practice to all aspects of intellectual property and technology law, including litigation. Knobbe Martens serves a diverse group of clients from multinational corporations to emerging businesses of all stages. The firm is headquartered in Orange County, California, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and enjoys an international reputation for excellence. More information about the firm can be found at www.knobbe.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006183/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Palm Medical Centers Announces Acquisition of Dr. Profet Health and Wellness Center in Hillsborough County
Palm Medical Centers, an MBF Healthcare Partners II, L.P. ("MBF") portfolio company, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Dr. Profet Health and Wellness Center, LLC, a primary care practice in Tampa, Florida, led by Dr. Mario Profet. The medical clinic will become Palm Medical Centers' 8th location in the greater Tampa market, the 6th new office opened in 2021, and the company's 20th location in a growing network spanning Central and South Florida. "The relationship with Dr Profet and the acquisition of his practice serves as an extension of our initiative to provide high-quality care to the rapidly expanding Medicare eligible population in Central Florida," said Fowad Choudhry, CEO of Palm Medical Centers. "Our patient-first approach remains consistent as we continue to expand our network of quality physicians and providers, so they can offer primary care services that are efficient and convenient." As a family practitioner serving the Tampa market for the past four decades, Dr. Profet is acutely aware of the need for accessible, affordable healthcare to residents. "It was important for me to partner with a company that has a proven track record of delivering meaningful results for their patients," said Dr Profet. "I'm excited that my affiliation with Palm Medical Centers will allow me to expand my services and offer personaized care to even more Medicare patients in our community."
Office hours at the 11017 North Dale Mabry location are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. To schedule a tour or to get more information, call 305-913-9444. ABOUT PALM MEDICAL CENTERS
Founded in 2013, Palm Medical Centers is a provider of value-based, capitated primary care services with a focus on high-quality clinical outcomes, cost-effective care, and a patient-centric experience. Operating a network of 19 medical centers across five counties in Florida, Palm Medical Centers serves more than 34,000 Medicare Advantage and managed Medicaid patients. Partnering with numerous managed care organizations, Palm Medical Centers offers comprehensive and integrated medical care to plan members with a focus on quality. In addition to primary care services, the company coordinates cardiology, dentistry, optometry, pediatrics, podiatry, psychiatry, and other specialist services. Palm Medical Centers continues to seek partnership opportunities with high quality providers in existing and new markets. For more information, please visit www.PalmMedicalCenters.com. ABOUT MBF HEALTHCARE PARTNERS II, L.P. MBF Healthcare Partners II, L.P. is a leading middle market healthcare private equity fund based in Coral Gables, Florida. Our strategy is to partner with exceptional management teams while leveraging MBF's operating experience, domain segment knowledge, and tenured relationships to rapidly accelerate value creation. The partners of MBF have substantial operating experience in healthcare and have held senior management positions in both private and publicly traded healthcare companies. MBF principals have managed and helped build some of the nation's most innovative and successful healthcare companies. The firm is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. For more information, please visit www.mbfhp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006190/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Jim Kirchner Joins MIND C-Suite as Chief Revenue Officer
IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MIND Research Institute announced the promotion of Jim Kirchner to Chief Revenue Officer. Kirchner will lead the growth and expansion of all school and donor partner revenues by building relationships and aligning all incoming revenue efforts logistically, logically and strategically to further MIND's mission. He has been with MIND since 2019 and previously held the role of Senior Vice President of Partnerships where he was responsible for leading a nationwide team in expanding the reach of ST Math to school districts across the country. "I am thrilled to announce Jim Kirchner's well-deserved promotion," said Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND. "Jim has worked tirelessly with our Partnerships team to align for success, shepherding us to one of our best years for new school partnerships and program revenue in 2021. I am excited t see this trend continue in his new role."
Kirchner has been founder and CEO of several technology and education companies, as well as Senior Vice President of Sales at Amplify, a curriculum and assessment company. He also is a decorated United States Marine Corps Officer with nearly eight years of active duty service. Kirchner has experience and expertise in business development, market development, product development, managing profit and loss, and acquisitions with both public and private companies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and Managerial Economics from North Carolina State University. "Over the past few years, I've found MIND to be a unique and passionate organization that has the most powerful math solution I have ever experienced," said Kirchner. " I am excited and honored to join MIND's other c-level executives as we continue to advance our mission to ensure that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world's most challenging problems."
About MIND Research Institute:
MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world's most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math, a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. ST Math's unique, patented approach provides students with equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. Visit mindresearch.org. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jim-kirchner-joins-mind-c-suite-as-chief-revenue-officer-301427046.html SOURCE MIND Research Institute
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[November 17, 2021] Capgemini to Add 1,500 Jobs in the U.S. with Launch of Nashville Delivery Center and Expansion of Columbia and Houston Sites
Capgemini today announced plans to launch a new delivery center in Nashville, TN in 2022. The Nashville center will complement the recent expansion of Capgemini (News - Alert) sites in Columbia, SC (2020), and Houston, TX (2021) to better serve clients, improve solution delivery and develop talent. Capgemini's investment in business growth is projected to deliver more than 1,500 new jobs in high-value and fast-growing technology areas, including cloud, artificial intelligence, custom software development, digital customer experience and data. "The establishment of Capgemini's new delivery center is a major milestone that will support the continued acceleration of our business in the U.S.," said Jim Bailey, CEO Americas at Capgemini and Group Executive Board Member. "The Nashville area is rich with diverse talent, an excellent network of local colleges and universities, and strong accessibility. It will provide opportunities for us to further support our current partners and future clients. This investment signals our ongoing commitment to better serving our clients in key markets at every stage of their digital transformation journey." "In recent years, Middle Tennessee has far outpaced national technology job growth rates and is expected to continue on this trajectory for years to come," said Tennessee Governor, Bill Lee. "This region is attractng technology workers from around the country and training a skilled workforce right here in Tennessee. I welcome Capgemini to Tennessee as they create hundreds of new jobs in Nashville."
This launch builds upon Capgemini's existing delivery center locations in the U.S., including the Advanced Technology Development Center in Columbia, SC, which opened in 2018 and brought hundreds of jobs to the region, as well as the Software Development Center in Houston, TX, which has also grown in size. U.S. delivery center expansion continues Capgemini's focus on integrating its global network of development centers to support the increasing need for regional scalability for clients around the world. It's through these centers that diverse teams of industry-leading innovators develop and implement new technology and digital experiences across the client portfolio. The Nashville delivery center will focus specifically on Capgemini's capabilities in enterprise application modernization, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT solutions. This move into the region also aligns with Capgemini's investments in the future of work by recruiting and developing top talent able to collaborate in a highly connected network. Nashville's central location, strong technology talent pipeline and high-growth business climate make it immensely attractive for employees and clients.
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 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, fueled 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 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005125/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Finalists Named in IDC's Inaugural Best in Future of Work North America Awards
International Data Corporation (IDC) today announced finalists in the first annual Future Enterprise Best in Future of Work North America Awards. The new award program was designed to showcase implemented initiatives and projects in North America that display a transformative approach to work to drive new value and competitive differentiation for an organization. IDC (News - Alert) recognizes initiatives across three key categories including Culture, Augmentation, and Space. IDC's 2022 Best in Future of Work North America Awards winning initiatives will be presented at the CIO's Future of Work Summit being held virtually in February 2022. To learn more about the awards program, visit HERE. IDC's Future Enterprise Best in Future of Work North America Awards recognize that globally, organizations are experiencing seismic changes in where and how they work: how technology is changing work culture, digital and physical workspaces, and the ways in which humans and machines collaborate to get work done. Finalists include: Culture Entegris (News - Alert)
Claremont Graduate University
Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterrise Services (OMES)
Augmentation Clark County Nevada
Husch Blackwell
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Space
PVH Technology and Process Group (TPG)
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Southwest Tennessee Community College "The nominations for our first annual Best in Future of Work Awards were outstanding and underscore the interplay of technical and social change as we evolve where and how we work," said Amy Loomis, research director, Future of Work at IDC. "These nine finalists serve as a benchmark for other organizations demonstrating the value of digital transformation across work practices, policies, and technologies." About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005042/en/
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[November 17, 2021] ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp. Announces Pricing of Upsized $265 Million Initial Public Offering
ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp. (the "Company") announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 26,500,000 units at $10.00 per unit. The listing of the units on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") under the symbol "SUAC.U" commenced on November 16, 2021. Each unit consists of one share of the Company's Class A common stock and one-half of one warrant, each whole warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of the Company's Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share. Once the securities constituting the units begin separate trading, we expect that the Class A common stock and warrants will be listed on the NYSE under the symbols "SUAC" and "SUAC.WS," respectively. The Company is a blank check company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to as our initial business combination. While the Company may pursue an initial business combination target in any industry, it currently intends to focus its efforts on identifying businesses in the technology and cybersecurity industries, segments where the SPAC's management, board and advisory teams have unparalleled collective expertise. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ("Citigroup") is acting as sole bookrunner nd representative of the underwriters, and Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC and Roberts & Ryan Investments Inc. are acting as co-managers of the offering. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to 3,500,000 additional units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any.
This offering will only be made by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering and final prospectus, when available, may be obtained from Citigroup, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717 or by telephone at (800) 831-9146. A registration statement relating to these securities has been declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC (News - Alert)"). This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any State or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such State or jurisdiction.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements," including with respect to the proposed initial public offering and the anticipated use of the net proceeds. No assurance can be given that the offering discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the net proceeds of the offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and preliminary prospectus for the Company's offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006217/en/
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[November 17, 2021] This Holiday Season, Nick Offerman Swaps Pinot Grigio for Lagavulin Whisky in an Anything But Average Art Class
NOT YOUR AVERAGE ART CLASS, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nick Offerman and Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch are putting a whisky-inspired spin on 'Paint & Pour' nights with the latest installment from the 'Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky' series that portrays the iconic Yule Log scene in a new medium art. In the latest holiday spot, 'Dram & Draw,' Nick Offerman jests with the paint n' sip phenomenon by breaking out his easel and a bottle of Lagavulin to embrace the fine art of whisky. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8986151-lagavulin-whisky-nick-offerman-anything-but-average-art-class/ The new spot features Offerman at his weekly art class with fellow amateur painters, where he wisely persuades the class to ditch the long stems in favor of his favorite drink, a dram of Lagavulin 16 Year Old. This simple swap unlocks a higher plane of artistic audacity amongst the class.* Offerman's own painting is a retrospective self-portrait that revisits a fireside scene from the now-classic Holiday 2015 Yule Log video as an homage to the longstanding friendship between Nick Offerman and Lagavulin. 'I had no idea what an incredible painter I was until I wielded my brushes with the warm support of my favorite dram,' commented Nick Offerman. Lagavulin will follow up the hero 'Dram & Draw' video with a second piece of holiday content starring Offerman, which will launch on the live-streaming service Twitch. 'Dram & Draw' Part 2 will air during a live experience on December 8th from 6 to 8pm EST during the Crown Channel's Wednesday Fight Night Show. *Although Lagavulin will not actually make you a better artist, it will surely bring holiday cheer to you and yours, especially when sipped responsibly. Visit the 'Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky' YouTube channel to watch this season's new chapter and the complete series, including the legendary ten-hour version of the Yule Log video.
Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky is available for online purchase and home delivery, meaning you can sip and gift all season long without leaving the comfort of your home. Treat your 21+ friends, family or, most importantly, yourself, to a dram this holiday. Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky can be purchased on ReserveBar.com, Drizly.com or the Drizly app where shipping and delivery are available. More information on Lagavulin Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky and its distillery can also be found at www.malts.com/en-row/distilleries/lagavulin/.
About Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman is an actor, writer and woodworker, best known as the character of Ron Swanson on NBC's hit comedy series Parks & Recreation, Karl Weathers in the acclaimed FX series Fargo, the co-host and executive producer of NBC's Making It, in the role of Forest on FX's DEVS, and as Rick Kaepernick in the Netflix series Colin: In Black and White. Recent film credits include Hearts Beat Loud, Lucy In The Sky, The Founder, Bad Times At The El Royale, The Hero, The Lego Movie (1&2), White Fang, and The Little Hours. Offerman has penned five New York Times Bestselling books: Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption, Good Clean Fun, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (written with his wife, Megan Mullally), and most recently Where The Deer And The Antelope Play. In his spare time, he can be found at his woodshop in Los Angeles building hand-crafted items ranging from fine furniture to canoes to ukuleles. About Diageo
Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos, DeLeon and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DGE) and their products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, their people, brands, and performance, visit www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practices. Follow Twitter and Instagram for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA. Please Drink Responsibly.
Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whiskies. 43-56.5% Alc/Vol.
Imported by Diageo, New York, NY. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/this-holiday-season-nick-offerman-swaps-pinot-grigio-for-lagavulin-whisky-in-an-anything-but-average-art-class-301427082.html SOURCE Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky
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[November 17, 2021] Milliman's Arius introduces new API capabilities, streamlined diagnostic tools with latest reserving software release
SEATTLE, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, announced today that it has released the latest version of its Arius insurtech solutions, a family of state-of-the-art reserve analysis systems for property and casualty insurers. This update provides significant enhancements to the systems' analytical, reporting, and data management tools. Arius insurtech solutions is a family of state-of-the-art reserve analysis systems for property and casualty insurers This release provides tools to help actuaries and insurance analysts more easily build and share statistical exhibits among multiple projects, providing more consistent analysis and more efficient management review. It also adds new reports to help users with Canadian and IFRS-17 reporting requirements. In addition, the release includes new API capabilities, additions to the system's role-based security options, and enhanced controls related to editing and managing data files, both in the Arius Enterprise system and in the Triangles on Demand data management solution. Ken Scalf, reserving products manager at Milliman, said, "Our goal with the Arius solutions is to releve the burden of managing the overall reserving process from our clients' shoulders, so they can spend their valuable time helping and advising their business. This release furthers those efforts with additional steps to enhance the overall efficiency and reliability of the actuarial reserving team."
About the Arius family of solutions
The Arius solution set includes Arius Deterministic, Arius Stochastic, Triangles on Demand, and Arius Enterprise. Arius Deterministic and Stochastic are self-contained reserve analysis systems that eliminate the potential spreadsheet risk inherent in tools developed in-house by many insurance actuarial teams. Triangles on Demand (ToD) uses the latest cloud technology to instantly aggregate millions of records of loss and claims data on the fly for review in Arius. Designed specifically for large insurance carriers and self-insureds, Arius Enterprise combines the Arius analysis system and ToD with sophisticated Microsoft Azure-based project, user, and reporting management solutions to address the added efficiency and reliability requirements of sophisticated reserving departments. Milliman's Claim Variability Benchmarks provide benchmark statistics for comparison with an insurer's own data, drawn from statistical analysis of 5,100 companies and over 30 years of activity. More information about the Arius suite of solutions is available at www.actuarialsoftware.com . About Milliman
Milliman is among the world's largest providers of actuarial and related products and services. The firm has consulting practices in healthcare, property & casualty insurance, life insurance and financial services, and employee benefits. Founded in 1947, Milliman is an independent firm with offices in major cities around the globe. For further information, visit milliman.com.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/millimans-arius-introduces-new-api-capabilities-streamlined-diagnostic-tools-with-latest-reserving-software-release-301427083.html SOURCE Milliman, Inc.
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[November 17, 2021] American Water's Cheryl Norton Recognized by Philadelphia Business Journal
American Water (NYSE: AWK), the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company, announced today that Chief Operating Officer, Cheryl Norton, was recently honored by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of their 2021 Women of Distinction. As Chief Operating Officer, Norton is responsible for the successful performance of the company's regulated states. She also leads customer service across the company's footprint, as well as Engineering, Health and Safety, and Environmental and Regulatory Compliance. Norton is also dedicated to being a part of the community and currently serves on the boards of The Cooper Health System and Water Research Foundation. She previously served on the boards of Choose New Jersey, the New Jersey Utilities Association and Cooper's Ferry Partnership.
awards ceremony on Thursday, November 18th. About American Water
With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 7,000 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to 15 million people in 46 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable and reliable water services to our customers to help make sure we keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006171/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Blockdaemon Adds JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments and Tiger Global as Strategic Investors and Acquires Blockchain Analytics Platform Anyblock Analytics to Extend Its NFT Offering
Blockdaemon, the world's largest blockchain infrastructure company for node management and staking, today announced adding two strategic investors, Tiger Global Management and JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments and its growing footprint in Europe through the acquisition of Anyblock Analytics. Blockdaemon has experienced incredible growth over the past year, increasing its valuation by 70x; its revenues by 20x; and its headcount by 5x. In addition, the company launched more than 25,000 nodes, averaging more than $10 billion in staked assets monthly and greatly expanded its presence globally in cloud regions and diversified data centers. Tiger Global Management and JPMorgan Chase's investment demonstrates the respected firms' increased interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain as they become more mainstream. "We are pleased to have Tiger Global and JPMorgan Chase join as strategic investors as we continue to power the blockchain economy around the world with our robust financial infrastructure, making it easier for banks and other institutions to tap into the crypto universe," said Konstantin Richter, CEO and Founder, Blockdaemon. Tiger Global is leading the charge in key tech startup investments focused on long-term investments in high-quality companies in growth stages that are led by stellar management teams and consistent deep engineering talent. "Over the past year, Tiger Global has been strategically investing in the most promising companies in cryptocurrency and Blockdaemon's contributions to the blockchain ecosystem and its rapid growth as a company fits well with our portfolio," said John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global. JPMorgan Chase has been a global leader in blockchain for the last six years and has scaled the work into its Onyx by J.P. Morgan business unit, which aims to re-architect the way that money, information and assets are moving around the world using blockchain. One example of Onyx's offerings is Liink, the first blockchain based information exchange network offered by a global bank to support payments transactions.
"Making a strategic investment in Blockdaemon is a logical next step in our multi-layered approach to investing in blockchain technology and we're pleased to participate in the funding round as they continue to grow and scale their business," said Umar Farooq, CEO, Onyx by J.P. Morgan. The company also announced today that it is acquiring German company Anyblock Analytics, an infrastructure platform, providing API, on-chain analytic tools, monitoring, and node hosting services across various blockchain networks. As part of the acquisition, Anyblock's team will be joining Blockdaemon, continuing Blockdaemon's expansion in Europe by establishing a local presence in Germany.
"All of us are thrilled to join forces with Blockdaemon as our services and teams supplement each other nicely. We want to thank everyone that has gotten us to this point! Now we are looking forward to helping accelerate Blockdaemon's growth even further and extending our relationships in the various ecosystems," said Anyblock CEO Peter Eulberg. The acquisition significantly strengthens Blockdaemon's suite of offerings by expanding its Ubiquity data API capabilities in particular. As Blockdaemon also deepens its infrastructure support for the NFT space, the team and tooling from Anyblock will help support powering transactions behind the NFT ecosystem. "We are also delighted to acquire Anyblock, which will allow us to integrate its Blockchain Data API solution for bridging access to protocols with our suite of APIs -while further expanding our footprint in Germany and Europe," said Konstantin Richter. Galaxy Digital Partners is serving as the exclusive financial advisor, and Cooley LLP and Bird & Bird LLP are acting as legal advisors to Blockdaemon on its acquisition of Anyblock Analytics. About Blockdaemon Blockdaemon is the leading blockchain node infrastructure to stake, scale, and deploy nodes with institutional-grade security and monitoring. Supporting 40+ cutting edge blockchain networks in the cloud and on bare metal servers globally, Blockdaemon is used by exchanges, custodians, crypto platforms, financial institutions and developers to connect commercial stakeholders to blockchains. We power the blockchain economy by simplifying the process of deploying nodes and creating scalable enterprise blockchain solutions via APIs, high availability clusters, auto-decentralization and auto-healing of nodes. For more information, please visit https://blockdaemon.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006244/en/
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[November 17, 2021] iQor Leadership to be Featured as a Panelist on Execs In The Know Exclusive Outsourcing Briefing Event - December 9, 2021
iQor (News - Alert), a managed services provider of customer engagement and technology-enabled BPO solutions, today announced the company will be a panelist on global customer experience (CX) industry leader Execs In The Know's (EITK) upcoming Outsourcing Briefing - a special virtual event designed exclusively for end-user corporate brand practitioners. The Briefing will take place December 9, 2021 from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM ET, followed by a private, corporate peer-to-peer discussion on December 10, 2021 from 11:30 AM-12:30 PM ET. During this highly anticipated event, Execs In The Know's President, Chad McDaniel will be joined by co-host Joy Park, Vice President of Business Partner Strategy and Support at Comcast (News - Alert), and a panel of five industry experts including Martin Lehtio, Chief Operating Officer at iQor. "I am looking forward to sharing our perspective on the outsourcing topics and what we see working to drive a better employee and customer experience," said Martin Lehtio, Chief Operating Officer at iQor. Throughout the two-hour Day 1 agenda, the co-hosts will lead an interactive discussion with the brand practitioners as the panelists share their insights on a variety of outsourcing-specific topics including tackling new labor market realities, maximizing performance in a work-from-home environment, the evolutionof next-generation agent skillsets, and more. Regardless of where a company is at in its outsourcing journey, the Outsourcing Briefing will offer a bounty of best practices, bright ideas, and actionable takeaways for getting greater value from their outsourcing strategies. The event will conclude with a one-hour Day 2, corporate-only group conversation where participants will debrief and discuss key takeaways from the previous day's panel.
"Our Outsourcing Briefing events are always an excellent opportunity for connecting our CX leadership community with both the subject experts and the ideas that can make a big difference on how an outsourcing program performs," said Chad McDaniel. "These events are specially designed for CX end-users, and the agenda is always built around the notion of learning, sharing, actionable ideas, and valuable takeaways." Learn more about the Outsourcing Briefing here: https://execsintheknow.com/events/outsourcing-dec2021/
About iQor At iQor our 35,000 amazing employees spanning 9 countries are passionate about delivering an outstanding Omnichannel customer experience for brands across the globe. Harnessing intelligent CX technology that can scale teams anywhere, our BPO solutions create happy employees and delighted customers. Our irresistible culture results in a smile with each interaction to create optimal customer experiences. We enable diverse teams to scale our BPO digital solutions from local to global to create the CX experience brands demand to win and keep customers. Read, see, and hear more at iQor.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006264/en/
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[November 17, 2021] NRG Energy Recognizes Business Customers During Annual Excellence in Energy Awards
NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) honored its top energy customers for their leadership in energy efficiency, sustainability, and community support during the second annual Excellence in Energy Awards on November 17, 2021. The Excellence in Energy Awards recognizes NRG customers who demonstrate a strong commitment to the planning and achievement of their environmental and community goals. Through the annual celebration of these awards, NRG is shining a spotlight on successes and milestones that are shaping a better future through energy. "Our customers motivate us every day at NRG," said Robert Gaudette, Senior Vice President of NRG Energy, Inc. "We want to honor them for their passion to drive positive change by optimizing their energy solutions and giving back to the community. These awards are about celebrating how organizations can lead the way by taking responsibility for their energy future to benefit their operations and their communities." NRG is honored to announce its 2021 Excellence in Energy Award winners. Sustainability
Each organization demonstrated a significant impact by going above and beyond standard sustainability practices to achieve notable environmental and social benefits. a private research university in Washington D.C.
Oberlin College
Western Pennsylvania Energy Consortium Energy Efficiency
Organizations were recognized for achieving success with new technologies, solutions, and upgrades resulting in energy reduction or savings. Dallas Independent School District
Monmouth Regional High School
Wavecrest Management Team
University of Findlay Community Organizations were recognized for their philanthropic achievements and leadership in their local communities. Mount Washington Tavern
Copperas Cove Church of Christ Award submissions were provided by business customers, brokers, and account managers. Eligible candidates needed to be a mid-market or large business customer with an active electricity or natural gas supply contract with Reliant, NRG Business, or Direct Energy Business. NRG Energy Efficiency, Sustainability, and Demand Response customers were also eligible for consideration. Congratulations to all of the organizations making significant strides on their energy journeys. NRG continues the tradition of recognizing excellence in November 2022 for the next "Excellence in Energy" celebration. About NRG At NRG, we're bringing the power of energy to people and organizations by putting customers at the center of everything we do. We generate electricity and provide energy solutions and natural gas to millions of customers through our diverse portfolio of retail brands. A Fortune 500 company, operating in the United States and Canada, NRG delivers innovative solutions while advocating for competitive energy markets and customer choice, working towards a sustainable energy future. More information is available at www.nrg.com. Connect with NRG on Facebook, LinkedIn (News - Alert) and follow us on Twitter @nrgenergy. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006271/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Snap, Inc. (SNAP) on Behalf of Investors
Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Snap, Inc. ("Snap" or the "Company") (NYSE: SNAP) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your Snap investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information at www.glancylaw.com/cases/snap-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at [email protected] to learn more about your rights. On October 21, 2021, Snap reported weaker-than-expected third quarter earnings due to Apple's (News - Alert) privacy update, revealing that the "changes have adversely affected our targeting, measurement, and optimization capabilities, and in turn affected our ability to measure the effectiveness of advertisements on our services." The Companydisclosed that demand for its advertising products had reduced, and thus, so had its prices, resulting in potential serious harm to its business.
On this news, Snap's stock price fell $19.97, or 26.5%, to close at $55.14 per share on October 22, 2021, thereby injuring investors. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding Snap should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email [email protected]. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times (News - Alert), Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005511/en/
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[November 17, 2021] AM Best Revises Issuer Credit Rating Outlook to Stable for The Order of United Commercial Travelers of America
AM Best has revised the outlook to stable from negative for the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of B (Fair) and the Long-Term ICR of "bb+" (Fair) of The Order of United Commercial Travelers of America (UCT) (Columbus, OH). The outlook of the FSR is stable. The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect UCT's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong as well as its weak operating performance, limited business profile and marginal enterprise risk management. The stable Long-Term ICR outlook reflects UCT's strongest risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR); however, the company maintains an overall small absolute level of capital. The company's operating performance has been weak the past couple of years due to headwinds from the COVID-19 pandemic and higher-than-expected claims. The company maintains modest market positions in a highly competitive accident and health segment in which many of its competitors enjoy significant scale advantages, which limits UCT's business profile. The ratings also reflect UCT's favorable level of risk-adjusted capitalization in support of its insurance and investment risks due to a conservative investment portfolio and the extensive use of reinsurance. AM Best also notes that UCT has implemented an insurance oversight board to help manage its strategic planning, mitigate risks and provide industry expertise. AM Best will continue to moitor UCT's capital level and operating performance over the near term as the oversight board works with the company.
This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
Copyright 2021 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006289/en/
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[November 17, 2021] New Tech-Savvy Health Insurance Company Evry Health Launches in Dallas
Dallas-based Evry Health is serious about delivering reliable, value-based care to Dallas-Fort Worth residents, and recently launched its new, tailor-made healthcare plans via www.evryhealth.com. A business-to-business health insurance company founded in 2017, Evry Health differentiates itself from traditional preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and health maintenance organization (HMOs) by using software automation to lower the cost of healthcare. With no deductibles or copays for in-network care, the company's expansive benefit plans encourage preventative health and access to care. The recently launched B2B health insurance company provides a high-tech, mobile-first experience that reduces the cost most companies are currently paying. Evry Health's investors include Y Combinator, Silicon Valley venture capital funds and local business leaders. The management team, investors and advisors have extensive experience in the fintech, insurance and healthcare industries and have developed and built the necessary networks, processes and software systems to enable Evry Health's launch. CEO and co-founder Chris Gay is no stranger to the Dallas startup scene. A prior insurance company CEO, he founded Dallas-based MileMeter, a full auto insurance carrier that pioneered pay-per-mile insurance. "Great businesses should provide great benefits without breaking the bank," said Gay, who is a Dallas native. "We've been on a mission since 2017 to build the health insurance company we've always wanted for ourselves and our loved ones. With today's technology, signing up for ealthcare or paying a doctor's bill should be as easy as ordering a pizza. We've done the hard work of building a better health insurer from the ground up, so we can charge less, enabling employers to pass these savings on to their employees and to be more competitive in the market."
Evry Health's initial launch is focused on companies with 100-2,000 employees in Dallas, Denton, Collin, Rockwall and Tarrant Counties. Evry Health has built an extensive local medical network, focusing on the highest quality physicians and health systems. A nation-wide network also provides coverage no matter where employees travel to or work from. Evry Health also incentivizes its members to be healthy with tailored wellness plans that come at no cost to the employer or their employees. These specialized, optional wellness solutions provide a wide range of resources, tools and rewards that are different from other health insurance plans, including benefits such as prenatal support, nutritional counseling and mental health, depression and anxiety counseling. Rewards are deposited to an Evry Health Reward Card that members use like any other credit card.
"Typically, mid-sized employers don't have built-in wellness plans at no cost, but we made this an essential part of our business model," Evry Health CFO Jay Startz said. "The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that our health, and more specifically our mental health, is a top priority. We're the technology facilitator to answer your questions, connecting you with your personal care team instead of relying on answering machines or endless phone trees. We're giving businesses this toolkit to take care of themselves and their hard-working employees." Evry Health's headquarters is located in Dallas including its back-office administrative functions and claims centers. The company intends to grow rapidly with hiring plans for 2022 that include staffing operations, customer support, claim administration, software engineers and care coordinators to be a part of its concierge care team for members. "Healthcare is typically one of an employer's largest expenses, but we're out to change that with our customer-centric approach that is better for everyone," Gay said. "Each of Evry's founders has been a business owner and insurance policyholder who has struggled with rising insurance premiums and has a story of personal loss because of our healthcare's shortcomings. We're overhauling the end-to-end healthcare experience, making consumer-focused healthcare more transparent and more accessible for everyone." About Evry Health Headquartered in Dallas, Evry Health is not your standard health plan. We're on a mission to make healthcare affordable, transparent and high quality again by providing expanded benefits at an affordable price, lowering premiums by up to 20%. We're building the health insurance we've always wanted for ourselves focused on helping people live better, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.evryhealth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006298/en/
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[November 17, 2021] The Eighth Annual Social Mobility Index (SMI) Highlights Schools Fighting Against Growing Economic Disparity as Covid-19 Blocks Many Low-Income Students from Pursuing College
CollegeNET, Inc., a leading provider of web-based on-demand technologies for higher education, today released the 2021 Social Mobility Index (SMI). The SMI benchmarks four-year U.S. colleges and universities according to how effectively they enroll students from low-income backgrounds and graduate them into good-paying jobs. The 2021 SMI includes 1,549 four-year institutions. The Top 20 SMI Schools for 2021 CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Long Beach
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
California State University, Fresno
California State University, San Bernardino
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Dominguez Hills
CUNY Brooklyn College
CUNY Lehman College
Texas A & M International University
CUNY Hunter College
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
CUNY Queens College
California State University, Channel Islands
Rutgers University, Newark
CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
CUNY City College
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Bakersfield The 2021 SMI is released while Covid-19 continues to disproportionately impact low-income students, forcing many to abandon, delay or alter their pursuit of a college degree and the potential that degree provides for social mobility. As a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education noted, "The educational gaps that existed before the pandemic-in access, opportunities, achievement, and outcomes-are widening. And we can see already that many of these impacts are falling disproportionately on students who went into the pandemic with the greatest educational needs and fewest opportunities-many of them from historically marginalized and underserved groups." Notable Schools Advancing Social Mobility During the Pandemic The CUNY system in New York City placed seven schools in the 2021 SMI Top 20, including Baruch College, which continues to hold its #1 ranking for the seventh consecutive year. As in 2020, the California State University (CSU) system also dominates the 2021 SMI rankings, accounting for 10 of the Top 20 spots this year. Three CSU schools (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; California State University, Fresno; and California State University, Long Beach) have ranked in the SMI Top 20 for eight consecutive years. Other noteworthy schools gaining ground in their social mobility efforts despite the lingering Covid-19 pandemic include: Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina, (Top 30 ranking for seven of the past eight years); Rutgers University - Newark (#16 ranking in 2021); Old Dominion University (Top 10 percent ranking in 2021); New Mexico State University (Top 15 percent ranking in 2021); University of California, Santa Cruz (Top 15 percent ranking in 2021); University of California, Irvine (Top 5 percent ranking in 2021); University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Top 15 percent ranking in 2021); and Portland State University (Top 10 percent ranking in 2021). Schools Reflect on the Lessons of Covid-19 For institutions such as Wichita State University, where 22 percent of students are from traditionally low-income households, the pandemic has underscored the need to support their most vulnerable populations. "Even before the pandemic hit, Wichita State University prioritized making education accessible and affordable to underrepresented populations," said Dr. Rick Muma, president of Wichita State University. "We know that higher education is a means to boost prosperity and increase socioeconomic status. The health and financial distress that arose from COVID-19 underlined systemic and socioeconomic disparities, many of which could be lessened or eliminated through education." According to Dr. Muma, "Our priority during the pandemic was keeping our students above water - financially, mentally, and academically; so we immediately mobilized to connect with students, using HEERF money to meet the needs of our most vulnerable popuations and giving them the tools they need to complete their educational and career goals."
Schools that improved their SMI ranking over last year are applying strategies that keep their most vulnerable students in school and on track despite the pandemic. At New Mexico State University, which moved up to the top 15 percent on the 2021 SMI, Tony Marin, Assistant Vice-President for Student Affairs, said, "The pandemic proved to be challenging as the Digital Divide exposed the technology needs of our student body. As New Mexico's Land Grant Institution, our presence in every county in the state through our cooperative extension offices provided access to the Internet so students could complete their courses online. Our equipment rental program proved to be an affordable option for our students to have the computer hardware to continue on the path toward degree completion. The University also distributed iPad bundles to every incoming freshman. Further, programs such as the Aggie Accelerate Program provided incoming freshmen opportunities to strengthen their math and English skills in preparation for the fall semester. New Mexico State University continues to make strides towards ensuring that we fulfill our mission to the citizenry of New Mexico by working towards greater social mobility of our students."
Redefining the Notion of Prestige in Higher Education The SMI was founded on the principle that growing disparity in economic opportunity is the most pressing problem of our time and that higher education is in the strongest position to address it. The SMI seeks to redirect the attribution of "prestige" away from colleges that are merely wealthy toward those that are advancing US economic opportunity and social mobility. "Unlike other college rankings that celebrate wealth and its proxies," says CollegeNET President Jim Wolfston, "the SMI helps families and policymakers determine which colleges are addressing the national problem of economic mobility. Administrators have a better chance to help strengthen US economic mobility and the promise of the American Dream if they can identify and learn from colleges that are skilled at doing this." "Given that the US is now the least economically mobile among developed nations," says Wolfston, "it is irresponsible to say an education institution is 'better' because it has a huge endowment, or because it admits students with higher SAT/ACT scores - which are most tightly correlated to family income. It is irresponsible to say an institution is 'better' because it drives up admissions application counts, turns away more students and then boasts about its 'selectivity.' In today's world, where the American Dream is increasingly threatened, real prestige must accord to universities that educate and advance all motivated students, regardless of their economic background. This is the revolution in mission and values that the Social Mobility Index seeks to advance." Higher Education's Vital Role in the Learning Age "Higher Education is the most important asset in the Learning Age," Wolfston explained in his keynote address at Old Dominion University's Social Mobility Symposium. "If we can distribute this vital asset across the economic spectrum, we can optimize our nation's human capital development, prepare the next generation for citizenship and ensure social and economic opportunity. Most importantly, by rejecting the current trend toward on-campus economic homogeneity, a higher education institution can offer its students the chance to encounter a more challenging mix of people with diverse ideas, perspectives and backgrounds. Collisions with the unexpected and unfamiliar are what best sharpen and prepare innovative minds. Thus, economic inclusion is not only a solution to a social justice issue, but also an optimizing strategy for training tomorrow's innovators." Programs That Acknowledge Institutional Excellence CollegeNET recognizes schools that are advancing social mobility through various programs. CollegeNET presents the Social Mobility Innovator Awards to student success leaders from US colleges and universities at the Social Mobility Summit - a forum on economic inclusion and best practices for student success held in Portland, Oregon. CollegeNET has also published an e-book that describes best practices from student success professionals who are pioneering innovative programs that support underserved and underrepresented students' academic, personal and financial needs. Further, CollegeNET sponsors regional conferences to debate and discuss social mobility issues. On-campus events have been held at the University of California, Irvine; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of California, San Diego; Wichita State University; and Winston-Salem State University. CollegeNET is the producer of the new documentary film, RIGGED. The full-length feature explains how the long prevailing Wealthist value system in U.S. higher education limits opportunity and upward mobility and thus undermines U.S. democracy. RIGGED builds on the historical premise that growing economic imbalance ultimately leads to social unrest, political upheaval, and war. Through interviews with authors, historians, educators, and students, RIGGED shows how the value system underlying U.S. higher education constitutes a major risk factor for triggering these historic consequences and how this value system can be changed. Since its release in April, RIGGED has been awarded Best Documentary Feature at three festivals: Toronto Magazine Film Festival, the Mindfield Film Festival, and the World Premiere Film Awards. RIGGED has also been selected for nine upcoming regional and international film festivals and nominated for Best Documentary at the New Vision International Film Festival in Amsterdam. RIGGED is currently streaming on iTunes, Apple (News - Alert) TV, Vudu, and Google Play. Read more about the SMI here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006330/en/
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[November 17, 2021] MedX Health Corp. Announces Inaugural Clinical Trial of Leading-Edge Teledermatology Screening Platform in Turkey
MedX Health Corp. ("MedX" or the "Company") (TSXV: MDX) is pleased to announce an inaugural clinical trial of its leading-edge DermSecure Screening Platform at three university hospitals across Turkey in early 2022. Through its recently announced distribution agreement with Makromed/Arhan Global A.S, MedX's DermSecure Screening Platform will be used in a clinical trial overseen by noted Turkish dermatologist, Dr. Emel Erdal Calikoglu a Professor of Dermatology at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. The clinical trial will also include Kocaeli University, led by Professor of Dermatology, Dr. Dilek Bayramgurler, as well as Bursa Uludag University, led by Professor of Dermatology, Dr. Emel Bulbul Baskan and Associate Professor, Dr. Serkan Yazici. The clinical trial will run for 6 months and involve an estimated 300 patients throughout Turkey. Following its successful completion, MedX and its distribution partner Makromed/Arhan Global A.S, anticipate the technology will become more widely available in clinics, pharmacies and insurance companies across the country. This study builds on MedX's existing European commercialization pilots in the Netherlands and Italy, as part of the company's global commercialization strategy. Additional commercialization pilots are anticipated in the coming months. "There are types of melanoma tumors which we can more effectively treat by early detection. As such, I strongly believe that MedX's SIAscopy and DermSecure can help our fight against melanoma," said Dr. Emel Erdal Calikoglu. "We look forward to seeing the results of this study and bringing MedX's world-class teledermatology device and platform to those dermatology patients who need it most. Using MedX's innovative technology should become part of dermatologists' daily practice." Sylvain Desjeans, MedX CEO, said, "This inaugural clinical trial marks an important first step in establishing our technology and path to reimbursement in medical facilities across Turkey, a market of more than 80 million people. It's a significant milestone in our global commercialization srategy."
"Working with such notable dermatologists as Dr. Calikoglu means securing a strong, credible foothold with the dermatology community in the Turkish market," added Chantal Ward, MedX Director, Medical Affairs. "We eagerly anticipate the results of the study, and the positive impact it will have on skin health patients across the country." Naman Demaghlatrous, MedX Managing Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said, "With the clinical trial and distribution agreement with Makromed, this market shows incredible growth potential for MedX - both in terms of increasing patient access and establishing reimbursement through the Turkish healthcare system. We look forward to leveraging this growth opportunity as one of many in Europe and beyond."
Teledermatology is a subspecialty of dermatology that offers safe and effective virtual care - patient screening and assessment - eliminating the need for in-person appointments with a dermatologist. Unlike other teledermatology screening tools available, MedX's DermSecure Screening Platform features high-resolution image capture technology for moles, lesions and other skin conditions; providing a complete, virtual dermatological assessment by a certified dermatologist within just 72 hours. MedX's leading telemedicine platform allows health-care practitioners to quickly and accurately assess suspicious moles, lesions and other skin conditions via its image capture technology, SIAscopy, and its secure, cloud-based patient management system, DermSecure, which transmits and stores patient data throughout the assessment process. MedX's SIAscopy is the only technology that captures five images, including four spectrophotometric images 2mm below the skin's surface. About MedX: MedX, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, is a leading medical device and software company focused on skin health with its SIAscopy on DermSecure telemedicine platform, utilizing its SIAscopy technology. SIAscopy is also imbedded in its products SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate, which MedX manufactures in its ISO 13485 certified facility. SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate include hand-held devices that use patented technology utilizing light and its remittance to view up to 2 mm beneath suspicious moles and lesions in a pain free, non-invasive manner, with its software then creating real-time images for physicians and dermatologists to evaluate all types of moles or lesions within seconds. These products are cleared by Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and Conformite Europeenne for use in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Brazil and Turkey. Visit https://medxhealth.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This Media Release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006318/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Klue Named One of Canada's Fastest-Growing Tech Companies in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Program
Vancouver-based Klue ranks 12th on list thanks to quadruple-digit revenue growth VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - Klue, the AI-powered industry leader in the fast-growing Competitive Enablement sector, has been announced as a winner of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Awards. The annual awards recognize Canada's 50 fastest-growing technology companies based on highest revenue-growth percentage over a four-year period. Klue ranks 12th on the list of 50 with cumulative revenue growth in excess of 2400% since 2017. Klue Named one of Canada's Fastest-Growing Tech Companies in Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Program Klue's CEO Jason Smith says the award is a reflection of Klue's ability to provide customers with fast, accurate and insightful intelligence that enables revenue teams, and the organization at large to win more deals and grow their business. "Investment in Competitive Enablement is growing exponentially within the most progressive organizations looking to separate themselves from their competitors. It's no longer enough to have a program that simply collects disparate pieces of information," commented Jason Smith, CEO at Klue. "More and more, organizations are turning to Competitive Enablement programs like Klue to provide actionable insights that lead to winning more deals, building the most effective product features and differentiation strategies. It's this desire for actionable insights that has underpinned Klue's growth," he added.
Following a $15 million Series A funding announcement last year, Klue has continued to invest heavily in product development and talent acquisition as a continuation of the company's upward trajectory. This forward momentum is propelling the company towards defining a new category of competitive intelligence known as Competitive Enablement. Klue helps organizations collect and curate valuable competitive intelligence through a combination of publicly available information and insights from employees. This competitive information is then stored in an easily accessible central repository allowing sales, marketing, business intelligence, product, strategy, and executive teams to be several steps ahead of the competition at all times.
"It's truly an honour to be listed alongside some of the most innovative and disruptive technology companies in Canada. We wouldn't have gotten here without our amazingly talented team, partners, and customers. This award belongs to all of them," remarked Smith. Winners in all categories were announced by Deloitte Technology on November 17, with the National Summit & Celebration event taking place November 24 and 25, 2021. About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program is Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program. Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features distinct categories, including the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Enterprise Fast 15, Clean Technology, and Companies-to-Watch. The program also recognizes companies within the North American Technology Fast 500 ranking, identifying technology companies in the United States and Canada. The 2021 program sponsors include Deloitte, RBC, EDC, Miller Thomson, Clarity Recruitment, and Lafond. For further information, visit www.fast50.ca About Klue
Klue is a competitive enablement platform for the modern enterprise. Using Klue, product marketers and enablement teams leverage curated intel from inside their company and across the web to create insights delivered in real-time to the field. Salespeople get access to relevant, digestible competitive insights inside the tools they use every day. Learn more at klue.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/klue-named-one-of-canadas-fastest-growing-tech-companies-in-deloittes-technology-fast-50-program-301427295.html SOURCE Klue
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[November 17, 2021] Tigo Energy Powers Solar Monitoring and Energy Showcases for SCE Energy Solutions in Australia
Tigo Energy Inc., the solar industry's worldwide leader in Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics), announced today that Australia's SCE Energy Solutions has deployed more than 7MW of monitored solar energy across 800 commercial, residential, and rural solar installations. SCE has leveraged the Tigo Energy Intelligence (EI) software platform to expand its service-oriented approach to maximize the benefits of the Tigo platform for its clients across Australia. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006255/en/ SCE Energy Solutions deployed the solar installation of Seven Mile Coffee Roasters in New South Wales, Australia. It leverages Tigo Energy Intelligence (EI) software to monitor solar energy. (Photo: Business Wire) SCE Energy Solutions uses the advanced chart pages for fleet management and kiosk view from Tigo Energy to enable two unique services for clients. Using the data provided by the EI software platform, SCE conducts weekly maintenance checks for system owners to ensure their systems are operating at peak performance. The kiosk view of the EI platform enables SCE to set up a screen for residential and commercial system owners through which they can showcase energy production and their commitment to renewable energy customers, colleagues, and friends. "In the Tigo monitoring system we have the best available technology to improve the ROI for our customers, and it has a tremendously positive impact for the many businesses that previously wastes up to 50 percet of the energy they pay for," said Jon De Martin, CEO and managing director at SCE Energy Solutions. "The kiosk feature of the Tigo Energy Intelligence system provides a powerful way for us to make solar visible, displaying the live energy statistics of our customers' systems, which they can proudly showcase in public spaces at their business locations."
SCE Energy Solutions has used Tigo TS4 Flex MLPE optimizers with remote module level monitoring since 2012. Since that time, SCE has implemented Tigo's technology to service system owners throughout the Commonwealth of Australia, monitor their fleet remotely, and help customers highlight their investments in solar energy. Additionally, SCE provides critical feedback to Tigo for continuous improvement to the platform. "We support installers' revenue and strategic goals through a holistic approach to energy management, and SCE Energy Solutions is the ideal Tigo customer because they push the technological envelope and embrace innovation," says Archie Roboostoff, software vice-president at Tigo Energy. "The SCE team exercises every aspect of our EI software solution to service their customers, reduce truck rolls, optimize energy generation, and maximize solar ROI for customers across Australia. We greatly appreciate the dedication SCE brings to their system owners."
With more than 40,000 sites monitored worldwide, Tigo Energy processes 47,000 data points per second, resulting in almost a petabyte of monitoring and efficiency data. The platform is available on the internet and as a mobile application named Tigo EI on the Apple App Store and Google Play. To see the EI in action for SCE Energy Solutions, please see the unique insights SCE offers into a live solar site in Australia, here: https://ei.tigoenergy.com/p/C-O7B12J5FVS. To learn more about Tigo Energy, visit www.tigoenergy.com. About Tigo Energy Tigo Energy is the worldwide leader in Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics) with innovative solutions that increase solar energy production, decrease operating costs, and significantly enhance safety of solar energy systems. The Tigo TS4 platform maximizes the benefit of solar and provides customers with the most scalable, versatile, and reliable MLPE solution available. Tigo was founded in Silicon Valley in 2007 to accelerate the adoption of solar energy worldwide. Tigo systems operate on seven continents and produce gigawatt hours of reliable, clean, affordable, and safe solar energy daily. With a global team, Tigo Energy is dedicated to making the best MLPE on earth so more people can enjoy the benefits of solar. Find us online at www.tigoenergy.com. About SCE Energy Solutions SCE Energy Solutions is an award-winning sustainability business that prides itself on providing only the highest quality product and latest technologies available for their commercial, rural and residential customers. They have made it their mission to find technologies where clients can gain control of energy costs. This means developing a renewable energy system that is simple & easy to use with predictable payments and a 25-year warranty. We employ a unique five-step-plan: schedule a call, design the best possible system, install that system, get environmentally certified, and then SCE conducts weekly performance checks. They service all areas of Australia and are located in Concord NSW, Australia. For more information, go to www.sce-energysolutions.com.au. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006255/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Airwallex Raises Additional US$100 Million in Series E1 Led by Lone Pine Capital; Valuation Reaches US$5.5b
Airwallex, one of the fastest-growing global fintech platforms, today announced it has raised an additional US$100 million in a Series E1 financing round. This new funding raises Airwallex's valuation to US$5.5 billion and comes just a month after Airwallex announced an oversubscribed Series E round as the company looks to accelerate its global expansion plans. This latest round takes Airwallex's total Series E fundraising to US$300 million, with US$802 million raised in total. Airwallex's Series E1 funding round was again oversubscribed, on the back of strong underlying business performance and momentum. Lone Pine Capital remained the lead for this financing, alongside other existing investors including 1835i Ventures, the venture capital partner to ANZ, and Sequoia Capital (News - Alert) China. This latest raise follows a strong third-qurter performance, where the company recorded a 165% YoY revenue increase, with annualised revenue exceeding US$100 million. The company also made more than 200 additional hires as Airwallex continues to strengthen its presence in its core markets globally.
"Our record performance last quarter demonstrates the tremendous demand from customers who are seeking better solutions to operate their businesses," said Jack Zhang, Co-founder and CEO of Airwallex. "As we approach our sixth anniversary, we want to continue to connect entrepreneurs, business builders, and makers with opportunities in every corner of the world. This new capital injection will allow us to do just that, fuelling M&A opportunities that will accelerate our global expansion plans, pursuing our mission to empower businesses to grow without borders." In the last quarter, Airwallex continued to scale its business across APAC and EMEA, while also achieving early momentum in the U.S. The company launched its virtual employee cards in Hong Kong and the UK, marked its entry into Southeast Asia with licences in Singapore and Malaysia, and continued to onboard new global customers.
"Airwallex's achievements in the last quarter alone showcase the strength of the company's business model and its unique ability to meet their customers' evolving needs in a competitive digital payments market," said David Craver, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Lone Pine Capital. "The future is bright for Airwallex, and we look forward to helping its team unlock greater growth opportunities as it continues to expand globally." About Airwallex Airwallex is a global payments platform with a mission to empower businesses of all sizes to grow without borders, and by doing so, contribute to the global economy. With technology at its core, Airwallex has built a financial infrastructure and platform to help businesses manage online payments, treasury and payout globally, without the constraints of the traditional financial system. Airwallex has secured over US$800 million since it was established in 2015, and is backed by world-leading investors. Today, the business operates with a team of over 1,000 employees across 19 locations globally. For more information, please visit www.airwallex.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117005918/en/
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[November 17, 2021] Terramont Infrastructure Partners Leads Investor Group for the Acquisition of Switzer-CARTY Transportation
Terramont Infrastructure Partners ("Terramont"), a middle market focused North American infrastructure investment firm, has announced the acquisition of Switzer-CARTY Transportation ("Switzer-CARTY" or the "Company"), a leading student transportation company in Ontario. Manulife Investment Management, on behalf of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company ("Manulife"), and Siemens (News - Alert) Financial Services ("Siemens"), the financing arm of global technology company Siemens A.G. (the "Investor Group") also participated in the transaction. Switzer-CARTY, founded in 2011 by industry veterans Jim Switzer and Doug Carty, provides safe, reliable, and essential student transportation services in Canada. Headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area, the company services a diverse set of public school boards and private educational institutions. Led by co-founder and CEO Jim Switzer, Switzer-CARTY serves over 96,000 students daily. Mr. Switzer will continue as CEO and Mr. Carty will join the Board of Directors, with both remaining as shareholders of the company. "Switzer-CARTY's best-in-class service standard and relentless focus on its people and culture is unmatched," said Michael Lehman and Vikram Singh, co-Managing Partners of Terramont Infrastructure Partners. "We are very proud to be working with Jim and Doug, both longstanding transportation industry executives, on the continued growth of the company. A core focus for Terramont is sustainable mobility and Switzer-CARTY is in a unique position to ultimately replace a large number of diesel buses with electric-powered vehicles. Together with Switzer-CARTY, we share a vision of reduced carbon emissions, decreased noise pollution and improved quality of life for the communities we serve. Switzer-CARTY has the opportunity to become the vanguard of sustainable student transportation in North America" Messrs. Lehman and Singh added. "The Switzer-CARTY management team is excited to partner with Terramont and the Investor Group" said Jim Switzer, CEO, "Over the past two years, we have built a strong relationship with Terramont, and believe their investment and operational expertise, combined with an industry-leading management team at Switzer-CARTY, will provide an excellent opportunity and platform for growth for the years ahead". Switzer added, "Switzer-CARTY remains committed to the highest levels of customer service, safety, and employee culture which have been key to our success and our outstanding reputation in the industry". "Jim and Doug have built Switzer-CARTY into a leading provider of reliable student transportation services in Canada with a focus on a more sustainable future," said Daniel Neil, Director, Infrastructure Investments at Manulife Investment Management. "We are excited by the opportunity to work with the management team over the coming years and benefit from their knowledge sharing, operational expertise, and commitment to continuous improvement." Recep Kendircioglu, Head ofInfrastructure Investments at Manulife Investment Management added "We look forward to supporting Switzer-CARTY through its next phase of growth, including electrification of its bus fleet consistent with our approach to investing over the long-term while integrating sustainability objectives."
"Siemens is enthusiastic about this investment, and we are looking forward to playing a pivotal role in the electrification of Switzer-CARTY's fleet of buses," Iti Jain, V.P. Private Equity at Siemens Financial Services added. "In addition to developing innovative technologies, Siemens offers the much-needed capital and know-how to support the adoption of these technologies." About Switzer-CARTY
Switzer-CARTY was founded in 2011 by Jim Switzer and Doug Carty, two veteran transportation and school bus industry executives. The company provides scheduled and charter services to a diverse set of customers across Ontario. With quality of service and respect for the dignity of its employees central to its operations, Switzer-CARTY has earned a stellar reputation for delivering on-time service, keeping children safe, and treating employees and partners with respect.
For more information visit www.switzer-carty.com. About Terramont Terramont Infrastructure Partners is a North American, middle market focused infrastructure investment firm. The firm invests in best-in-class businesses, alongside top-quality management teams. Terramont is focused on companies that are critical to the economy, with every business making a positive, measurable sustainability impact. Focus sectors include renewable power, sustainable energy, transportation, digital, environmental and other infrastructure businesses. Terramont is based in New York and San Francisco.
For more information, please visit www.terramontinfra.com. About Manulife Investment Management Manulife Investment Management is the global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 18 geographies. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement. As of September 30, 2021, Manulife Investment Management's assets under management and administration, including assets managed for Manulife's other segments, totaled CAD $1.1 trillion (US $835 billion). Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit www.manulifeim.com. About Siemens Financial Services Siemens Financial Services (SFS) - the financing arm of Siemens - provides business-to-business financial solutions. A unique combination of financial expertise, risk management and industry knowhow enable SFS to create tailored innovative financial solutions. With these, SFS facilitates growth, creates value, enhances competitiveness and helps customers access new technologies. SFS supports investments with equipment and technology financing and leasing, corporate lending, equity investments and project and structured financing. Trade and receivable financing solutions complete the SFS portfolio. With an international network, SFS is well adapted to country-specific legal requirements and able to provide financial solutions globally. Within Siemens, SFS is an expert adviser for financial risks. Siemens Financial Services has its global headquarters in Munich, Germany, and has approximately 2,900 employees worldwide. www.siemens.com/finance. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006274/en/
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[November 17, 2021]
Common Criteria EAL4+ certification for SDoT Security Gateway Cross Domain Solution
COLOGNE, Germany, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The SDoT Security Gateway received an ISO/IEC 15408 Common Criteria (CC) certification evaluation assurance level (EAL) 4+ from the German Federal Office of Information Security (BSI). INFODAS and its product met one of the most demanding evaluation in the global Cybersecurity industry. Once again SDoT cross domain solutions and their development excel in quality, reliability, integrity and security. The bi-directional High Assurance Guard allows to filter structured and unstructured data and already holds general German, NATO and EU SECRET approvals.
In the past, sensitive systems and data in the military, government agencies or critical infrastructure were isolated. Even today many classified information protection regulations do not reflect the technological advances in cross domain solutions. These practices and regulations prevent end-to-end digitization of mission critical IT environments, dealing with the IT expert shortage and requirements for rapid decision making among government agencies, military units or multi-national partners. Today, only trusted solutions with an CC EAL4+ certification or national security agency approvals can change this reality. They combine a protocol break with in-depth inspection, transformation and monitoring of data transfers, ensuring only correct and authorized information crosses systems at different security levels.
The German BSI ISO/IEC 15408 common criteria standard schema is the global benchmark in Cybersecurity. A growing number of domestic and international end-users expect IT vendors to produce trusted and reliable evidence for the Cybersecurity capabilities of their products. The CC evaluation process applies objective and verifiable criteria on specified evidence. The depth of evaluation is marked by the evaluation assurance level (EAL) from 1-7. Contrary to the popular collaborative protection profiles (cPPs) which are mostly based on CC EAL 1/2, the SDoT Security Gateway had to meet CC EAL4+. This included extensive penetration tests, vulnerablity analysis and source code analysis by independent CC auditors.
The certification process started in 2019 and was conducted by atsec information security GmbH, a German based BSI certified CC auditor, under supervision of the BSI. Beyond the product, INFODAS GmbH had to provide evidence about its research & development practices, product documentation, product support or relevant company processes. The audit benefited from activities related to the German, NATO and EU SECRET approvals. Unlike a common criteria certification that can be initiated by any IT vendor, national security authority approvals require a public sector sponsor.
"The SDoT Security Gateway's CC EAL4+ certification meets customer demands in various sectors and underlines our leading position in the global cross domain solution market. This shows the strength of our team and that true "zero trust security" products can come from Germany", said Dr. Alexander Konen, Director Solutions. According to Hanns Benigno Groeschke, INFODAS' CC expert: "BSI accredited CC auditors are highly regarded around the world: They independently, diligently, relentlessly and systematically apply CC standards. In parallel, the Federal Office of Information Security continuously reviews audit results to ensure the highest quality of their CC certifications".
All elements of the Secure Domain Transition (SDoT) Product Family meet the highest requirements for hardware and software security at the SECRET and below interoperability level (SABI). They are developed and manufactured in Germany with full supply chain transparency. They are available as 19", 1U appliances or smaller deployable sizes for vehicles. Other products include the SDoT Security Gateway Express optimized for near real-time, low latency filtering of structured data such as XML or JSON. Just like the SDoT Diode for unidirectional data transfer up to 9.1 Gbit/s, both products hold a general NATO, EU and German SECRET approvals. They are complemented by the SDoT Labelling Service for NATO STANAG 4774/8 compliant data classification with XML security labels that are cryptographically bound to any data object such as MS Office documents.
About INFODAS connect more.be secure
INFODAS is an independent, family owned business founded in 1974 in Germany. The company develops innovative cross domain solutions based on security-by-design principles and provides Cybersecurity, IT and AI consulting to government, defense and commercial clients. INFODAS SDoT product family cross domain solutions (SDoT Security Gateway, SDoT Diode, SDoT Labelling Service, PATCH.works) are approved up to German, EU, NATO SECRET and are listed in the NATO information assurance catalogue. Combined with OPSWAT Metadefender, Kiosk and Vault, SDoT products protect ensure malware free data entry, storage and retrieval. For the past 15 years SDoT products have been used in the toughest and mission critical environments around the world. They are designed and manufactured in Germany following the security-by-design principle and supply chain transparency.
Contact
Dr. Alexander Schellong
VP Global Business
Tel. +49 (0)221 70912234
[email protected]
SOURCE INFODAS GmbH
Right now we take a peek at local crime scene news from across the metro.
In this collection we consider threats, policy and finish with a peaceful resolution . . . Check-it . . .
Kansas City police response times slowest in south and Northland, data shows KANSAS CITY, Mo. - "You have now until 4 hours for a police officer to respond." This is the response Mark Miller, a burglary victim, said he received each time he called Kansas City, Missouri Police Department's non-emergency number to report a break-in at his home located east of Arrowhead Stadium.
Raytown city building temporarily evacuated due to "suspicious item" RAYTOWN, MO (KCTV) -- The Raytown City Building was temporarily evacuated Tuesday afternoon after police were alerted to a suspicious device. According to Raytown police, they discovered a suspicious device in the personal property of an adult female who had been arrested at police head quarters around 12:30 Tuesday afternoon.
KCMO police say officer fired weapon at suspect's vehicle KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City, Missouri, police said an officer fired their weapon at a suspect's vehicle Monday night. According to police, an officer was on patrol in the area of East 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard around 11 p.m. when the officer saw a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound.
Kansas City man convicted in first homicide of 2018 by: Juan Cisneros Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 56-year-old Kansas City man was convicted by a Jackson County jury of first-degree murder in the first homicide of 2018. Aasim Karim, also known as Demetricus Clark, was convicted in the deadly shooting of Thomas Rice III on January 4, 2018.
'She wants to walk again': KCK teen shot over 8 times, now quadriplegic After being shot over eight times at The Seven Two Apartments in Kansas City, Kansas, N'Deia Porter is now paralyzed from the neck down. As she prepares to return home, her mother is asking for help to make the space accessible.
Study: Less police presence tied to increase in crime KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 2021 study suggests defunding police departments could hurt more than help. Sarit Weisburd, assistant professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel, has conducted numerous studies on the impact of police deterrence in the United States.
KCPD ends standoff with armed suspect after several hours KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Update | According to KCPD, the suspect exited the residence at around 3:45 p.m. and was taken into custody. Original story | Kansas City, Missouri, police are standing off with a potentially armed person in the 5700 block of Indiana Avenue.
Developing . . .
There isn't much consensus as COVID masks come off across the metro.
On the bright side . . . Most people who wore them on their chin throughout the pandemic will no longer have to make all of us endure their charade.
Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .
Parents mixed on some Jackson County school districts' decisions to make masks optional BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - Thousands of students in Jackson County returned to the classroom Monday without masks. When the county ended its mask mandate Friday, some districts made them optional. Parents have divided opinions on the decision. While some are happy, others said this is too soon.
SMSD removes mask mandate for upper grades starting January 3 OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) -- As city and county mask mandates start disappearing, several school boards are re-examining their policies. Monday night, the Shawnee Mission School Board voted to remove its mask mandate for grades 7 through 12. The administration suggested the change begin January 3rd, right after winter break.
Roeland Park City Council votes to let mask mandate expire KANSAS CITY, Mo. - People in Roeland Park will no longer be required to wear masks indoors beginning Tuesday. On Monday night, the City Council voted to let a mask mandate expire at midnight. The indoor mask mandate was implemented in August as COVID-19 cases rose due to the delta variant.
Developing . . .
Tonight a bit of promo from hottie Lindsey inspires us to fashion a quick peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines.
Check the www.TonysKansasCity.com collection . . .
KANSAS CITY FARMLAND SHOUT OUT!!!
Watch Out Kansas City Here I Come! I became a Farm Broadcaster in 1995 and joined the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. I believe there are around 275 Farm Broadcaster members on the air all over the United States. Every November (except last year) the National Convention has been held at the Westin in downtown Kansas City.
Neighbors Help Comeback
Air Canada to bring nonstop flights from Kansas City to Toronto back in 2022 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City International Airport's international travel schedule is already taking off. This season, there will be more nonstop service from Kansas City to Cancun than before the pandemic, according to data from the Kansas City Aviation Department. But the airport's international service could get even busier with the return of Air Canada.
Kansas City Draws
On Success
Kansas City artist directs the visuals in new animated series on Hulu A Kansas City, Missouri, artist is helping create a new show premiering on Hulu, Wednesday. Marvel's Hit Monkey is set to be a new animated drama, driven by Art Director Kevin Mellon's visuals. The show also features the voice of Kansas City's Jason Sudeikis.
Hottie Backstory . . .
Lindsey Pelas Shares Late Night Selfies & Claims She's 'Thirsty' Lindsey's fans absolutely loved the share, and the post racked up over 78,400 likes within 12 hours of going live. "Just wow," one fan wrote, followed by a trio of flame emoji. "We all thirsty," another follower chimed in, referencing Lindsey's caption.
Vaxx Push Back Persists
Biden vaccine mandate legal battle heads to federal appeals court with GOP-appointed majority A federal appeals court with a GOP-appointed majority will decide the fate of President Joe Biden's vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, casting further doubt on the survival of a policy the White House says is central to the fight against Covid-19.
Far East Conversation Cont'd
Biden, Xi agree to arms talks as China looks to bolster nuclear arsenal President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to arms control talks as the communist nation looks to beef up its nuclear stockpile, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday. The world leaders held their most extensive talks to date Monday with a virtual three-hour meeting, during which Biden raised the need for "strategic stability" as tensions with China remain heightened.
Border Hot Mess Around The World
Here's what it's like for migrants trapped between Belarus and Poland For months, the government of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has accelerated the number of visas it grants migrants seeking refuge from war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond. But the visas aren't being issued with the intention of letting the migrants stay in Belarus.
Former Prez Plays For Time
Trump lawyer asks judge to block release of tax returns to U.S. House panel WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump's lawyers on Tuesday urged a judge to block a House of Representatives panel from getting the former U.S. president's tax returns, calling it an invasive and politically motivated request. Trump was the first president in 40 years not to release his tax returns as he aimed to keep secret the details of his wealth and activities of his family company, the Trump Organization.
GaGa Over Panty Peek
Lady Gaga suffers revealing wardrobe malfunction after The Late Show Lady Gaga fell victim to a revealing wardrobe mishap on Monday evening as she left her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The 35-year-old mega star accidentally exposed her nude underwear while wearing a black dress with a high leg slit that caught wind as she left NBC Studios in New York City.
Golden Ghetto Gets Drinking
Tap List | Overland Park To Get First Brewery A couple of weeks ago, Tap List noted local communities that made a "best of" beer cities list. One of those cities, Overland Park, made the list due to its sheer density of craft beer-centric bars, even though it doesn't have a single brewery within its city limits. That's about to change.
Toast To Boozing Season
It's a Wonderful Life: Holiday pop-ups offer KC business owners a second chance, Canary owner says Sophistication is on the menu as Canary Bar and Bistro unveils its first holiday pop-up, Silver Bell Supper Club, a nostalgic cocktail and culinary experience set to pour hope for a pandemic-fatigued Kansas City and inspired by a classic Christmas film. "We're going for a chic Christmas vibe.
Sounds Like An Upgrade
Aging 'Voice of the National Weather Service' may soon sound better A House bill in committee since late September proposes to substantially upgrade the nation's official severe weather alert system, which is aging and full of gaps. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio Modernization Act of 2021 would improve coverage of severe weather alerts and add a backup system for damaged transmitters.
And this is the OPEN THREAD for tonight.
The biggest round of stimmy yet earns enthusiastic local support.
Here's one example out of many . . .
"Now, while this new funding could enhance more the of the bridges project in its entirety, Kansas City, Missouri, Parks and Recreation says an array of projects could provide more local jobs and economic impact to the area.So, the workers that work on this, they live in Kansas City and also, they spend the money in Kansas City," Richard Allen, park planning and park development manager with KC Parks and Rec said.
Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .
$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill could benefit existing projects in the Kansas City-area KANSAS CITY, MO - On Monday, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. Now, some of the funding could benefit existing projects in the Kansas City area, including the Martin Luther King Park Pedestrian Bridge.
'Build Back Better' funds could go to Kansas City's vulnerable citizens KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Workers who care for some of Kansas City's most vulnerable citizens hope desperately needed funding comes from President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act. The nonprofit Life Unlimited is funded by the state of Missouri and matched federally through Medicaid.It provides long-term in-home care and services to more than 1,000 adults living with disabilities in the Kansas City area.
Developing . . .
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.
I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.
More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.
The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.
About me:
I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.
Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).
Age: 42
Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.
I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
The Russian Federations armed formations are intensifying the shelling of settlements located on the side of the demarcation line thats under the Ukrainian government control.
Thats according to the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters which posted the relevant report on Facebook, citing information from the Ukrainian delegation in the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination, Ukrinform wrote.
"The armed formations of the Russian Federation are increasing the number of shellings of settlements located on the side of the line of demarcation controlled by the government of Ukraine," the statement said.
In particular, according to the Ukrainian members of the JCCC, in September 2021, Russian-led armed formations opened fire seven times, in October it was nine times, and this month, as of November 16, eight shellings were recorded.
It has been specified that on November 16, between 7:50 and 8:20 Kyiv time, Russias armed formations shelled the village of Maryinka, using 82 mm mortars.
As they opened fire from the area of the Trudivske settlement, 13 mines landed. As a result of the shelling, a residential building and the adjacent premises in Marynka on 236 Prokofieva Street were destroyed. The distance between the hit zone and the actual line of demarcation of the parties to conflict is nearly 600 meters, which testifies to a deliberate shelling by the Russian armed formations of the residential area," said in a statement.
It was underlined that these facts had been established and properly documented by the monitoring group of the Ukrainian delegation in the JCCC.
The evidence was handed over to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Also, in order to file the relevant information with the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations and launch proceedings into the violation of laws and customs of war under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code, the materials were forwarded to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office," the statement said.
The Ukrainian delegation in the JCCC has stressed that the latest fact is yet another gross violation of the Minsk agreements by the Russian armed formation, as well as the breach of full and comprehensive ceasefire, introduced by agreement of the parties on July 27, 2020.
The main point is that the fact testifies to the complete disregard on the part of the occupation forces for the lives and health of the civilian population, the report concludes.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russian occupation forces on November 16 opened fire nine times, targeting the positions of Ukraines Joint Forces. A Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in one of the attacks.
Photo: @ pressjfo.news
im
Over the past day, the occupiers launched 13 attacks on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in eastern Ukraine.
Over the past day, November 16, 13 ceasefire violations by Russian-occupation troops, including six with the use of the weapons banned under the Minsk agreements, were recorded, the press center of JFO Headquarters posted on Facebook.
Towards Marinka (23km south-west of Donetsk), occupiers fired 82mm mortars and heavy machine guns.
Near Prychepylivka (50km north-west of Luhansk), Russian mercenaries launched two attacks, using grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns and other small arms.
Towards Novotoshkivske (53km west of Luhansk), two attacks, using grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns and other small arms, were launched.
Outside Travneve (51km north-east of Donetsk), Ukrainian positions came under grenade machine gun fire.
In the area of Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk), 120mm mortars were fired.
Near Novozvanivka (70km west of Luhansk), the enemy fired 122mm artillery, 82mm mortars, hand-held antitank grenade launchers and heavy machine guns on Ukrainian positions twice.
Towards Muratove (66km north of Luhansk), the occupiers fired 152mm artillery.
Near Popasna (69km west of Luhansk), 82mm mortars and hand-held antitank grenade launchers were fired.
Towards Pisky (11km north-west of Donetsk), the enemy opened fire from hand-held antitank grenade launchers and small arms.
An UAV, possibly Orlan-10, was spotted flying over the contact line in Luhansk region.
One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in the enemy shelling.
As of 07:00, November 17, one ceasefire violation was recorded.
Without resorting to weapons prohibited under the Minsk agreements, Ukrainian defenders returned fire and forced the enemy to cease shelling.
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Swedish Minister of Defence Peter Hultqvist supports a proposal from the Baltic countries for an EU-led training mission in Ukraine.
"Now all eyes are fixed on Poland and on what is happening at the border, which may mean that Ukraine will be somewhat in the shadows. The issue of Ukraine is always relevant, our solidarity must always be very clear. We consider it very important to highlight the EU's ambitions to contribute to the security and sovereignty of Ukraine," Hultqvist said to Swedish Radio News.
According to the minister, Sweden wants to find out how it can make its contribution.
It is noted that this may mean that Swedish soldiers can be sent to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops against the background of the build-up of Russian forces on the eastern border of Ukraine.
"Of course, we must be open to that," he added.
As reported, the training mission proposal came from the Baltic countries after the reports on the build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.
Earlier, The Mirror wrote that a trained group of up to 600 British troops is ready to be deployed in Ukraine amid fears that Moscow is preparing a military invasion of the neighboring country. Preparations began after the British Ministry of Defence and MI6 intelligence informed the Government about the obvious and real danger to Ukraine and Western countries.
Britain's Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Carter, warned that there was a greater risk of an accidental war breaking out between the West and Russia than at any time since the Cold War.
According to the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, as of early November 2021, a group of troops totaling about 90,000 people was concentrated near the Ukrainian border and in the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.
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State Joint-Stock Holding Company Artem has successfully tested prototypes of a shaped-charge fragmentation warhead for the RS-80 unguided rocket.
Thats according to the press service of Ukraines defense giant Ukroboronprom, Ukrinform reports
It is noted that the warhead destroys enemy targets by forming during the explosion a large number of fragments of a given weight producing high kinetic energy and allowing to engage targets at a considerable distance.
"Test results testify to the right choice of the warhead design, uniform distribution of the fragmentation field, and its high density," the statement says.
Unguided RS-80 aircraft rockets were designed by Artem State Joint-Stock Company. These rockets can be carried by attack and special helicopters, as well as attack aircraft, fighters and bombers in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
RS-80s pierce 400mm-thick armor and have a range of 1,300 to 5,000. The weapons hit aerial targets at a distance of up to 4 km, and surface targets up to 7 km. They are designed to destroy enemy personnel, armored vehicles, fortifications, and other targets.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, in August this year, Artem shipped another batch of RS-80s to the Air Force, having fulfilled the state defense order ahead of schedule.
Photo by Ukroboronprom
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The officials of Ukraine and the UAE discussed bilateral projects in the context of strengthening the role of Ukraine as a contributor to the food security of the Gulf countries.
The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a corresponding statement following a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Senik and UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Head of the Emirati party at the Ukrainian-Emirati Coordination Council Mariam Al-Muhairi.
The main topic of the meeting was the current state of bilateral investment, trade and economic relations between Ukraine and the UAE.
"The parties also discussed new bilateral projects in the context of strengthening Ukraine's role as a contributor to the food security of the Gulf countries, intensifying cooperation in tourism, development of infrastructure projects ..., steps to increase trade and revitalize business ties, in particular in the context of joint investment projects and opportunities to increase Ukrainian agricultural exports to the UAE," reads the statement.
Senik and Al-Muhairi touched upon the issue of intensifying political contacts at high and the highest levels.
The Ukrainian deputy foreign minister pointed out the significant progress of the UAE in combating climate change through innovative national programs and congratulated on the decision to host the next COP28 summit.
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with the British Secretary of State for Defense, Ben Wallace, who is in Kyiv on a working visit.
Thats according to the presidential press service, Ukrinform reports.
Zelensky thanked Ben Wallace for Britain's unwavering support for the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. He welcomed the signing of the Ukrainian-British bilateral Framework Agreement on official credit support for the development of the capabilities of the Ukrainian Naval Fleet.
"The United Kingdom has become our key partner in building up the Ukrainian Fleet. I expect that future security projects planned under the agreement will be effectively implemented," the Ukrainian president stressed.
The president briefed the British defense secretary on the challenges facing Ukraine in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
The interlocutors exchanged views on the international steps needed to restore safe navigation in the region and the importance of further deepening bilateral cooperation in the field of security and defense.
Volodymyr Zelensky stressed the need to take consistent steps to ensure the implementation of Ukraine's aspirations to gain full membership in NATO in the near future.
During the meeting, the president has noted that Ukraine is trying to intensify the work of all negotiation formats in order to achieve peace in the east of the country and restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The president of Ukraine recalled the recent statements by the UK prime minister and the head of the British Foreign Office, which stressed the support for Ukraine in the context of standing against the implementation of Russias Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
Photo: president.gov.ua
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One of the main goals the Kremlin pursues in fueling the migration crisis in Belarus is to divert the attention of the international community from the topic of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In fact, Moscow successfully implemented the same scenario almost six years ago, Ukraines former Ambassador to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2010-2017) Oleksandr Levchenko, told Dom TV, Ukrinform reports.
"Migration crisis is actually a game. It's all been orchestrated in the Kremlin. See, five years ago (in 2015-2016 - ed.), there was a very similar scenario when Syrian refugees were moving from Turkey [to the European Union] through an Orthodox corridor through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary. That is, through countries controlled by the Kremlin, where Moscow enjoys great influence, a flow of refugees has been set up," the diplomat recalled.
As a result of the "Syria" migration crisis, the Kremlin has in fact achieved one of its goals - the topic of Donbas was taken off international headlines.
"While in the period before August 2015, the topic of Donbas had been a priority for the European media, after a month-long migration wave, the media downgraded the issue of Donbas was downgraded to the third or even fourth position," Levchenko said.
Today, Moscow pursues a similar goal, while this time working the scenario out on the borders of Belarus.
"This is Moscow's attempt to divert attention from what is happening on Ukraine's borders. Moscow has every opportunity to set up such a flow of refugees from the Arab world. More precisely, in this case, we are talking more about Iraq. Bringing in these refugees is not a decision that was taken in Minsk as Belarus has no clue how to arrange this. But the Russians have. Why? Thats because Russia is not the main exporter of oil and gas. Russia is the main exporter of instability, war, and conflict," he said.
As reported, a state of emergency may be declared in Ukraines border regions in the event of a threat arising of a mass influx of migrants from the territory of Belarus.
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed on a new package of sanctions against the Belarusian regime. In particular, airlines bringing potential migrants from the Middle East to Minsk will face restrictions and be considered accomplices in human trafficking.
As reported earlier, following EU sanctions, the Lukashenko regime, led by the Kremlin, as experts believe, has created a migration crisis on the borders with Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland. Migrants from Iraq, Syria, and a number of African countries have been arriving in Belarus en masse, while the country's border service forces have been helping them get to the EU borders.
So far, thousands of people remain practically blocked in the border zone. As winter approaches, the situation threatens to escalate into a full-scale humanitarian crisis.
Photo: belta.by
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The EU has an Association Agreement with Ukraine, but it does not provide for a defense alliance, so in the event of an escalation at the borders, Ukraine can continue to count on the European Unions political, diplomatic, economic, and financial assistance.
This was stated by EU High Representative Josep Borrell, who spoke at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday, following a meeting of the EU defense ministers, Ukrinforms own correspondent reported.
Noting that the EU has no military alliance with Ukraine, Borrell said that, if the question arises of what the bloc will do facing the fact of what may happen at the border, the EU will continue to act in exactly the same way, within the efforts that have been taken since Russia seized Crimea and started the war in Donbas. He emphasized that Ukraine could be confident in political, diplomatic, economic, and financial support on the part of the European Union," Borrell said.
He noted that the EU is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. According to the official, the EU has at its disposal the information on the current situation on the eastern border of Ukraine, provided only by the Ukrainian and American partners.
At the same time, Borrell recalled that the bilateral Association Agreement concluded by the EU and Ukraine covers a wide range of issues, while not providing for setting up a military alliance.
Recalling the association deal, as well as the Eastern Partnership, the EU High Representative has noted EUs solidarity with Ukraine and engagement in efforts to protect and uphold Ukraine's territorial integrity, adding that such efforts will continue the same way.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, citing the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense's Main Intelligence Directorate, as of early November, a nearly 90,000-strong grouping of Russian troops had amassed near the Ukrainian border and in the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. The governments of the United States, Germany, and France, NATO Allies, and key EU institutions have expressed solidarity with Ukraine and warned Russia against escalating military tensions around Ukraine.
Photo: College of Europe in Natolin
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Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace have made a joint statement on the situation on Ukraine's border with Russia, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's press service has reported.
According to the report, Reznikov and Wallace said in their statement that an Intergovernmental Framework Agreement was signed in London last week, which "continues progress on joint projects to develop the capabilities of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as agreed in June when the UK, Ukraine and industry signed a Memorandum of Implementation to collaborate to boost Ukraine's naval capabilities."
The meeting in Kyiv is "the next stage in bilateral cooperation for enhancing Ukraine's defense capabilities and increasing interoperability," the statement said.
"Our governments have no desire to be adversarial or seek in any way to strategically encircle or undermine the Russian Federation. We are concerned by Russia's military build-up and activity around the borders of Ukraine. Ukraines national sovereignty and territorial integrity is indisputable," the statement reads.
It also says that the United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and will continue its long-standing determination to support them.
"We are unwavering in that support and together we remain vigilant and united in the defense of our common values and freedoms," the statement said.
A British delegation headed by Wallace arrived on a working visit to Ukraine on November 16.
Wallace also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Photo: mil.gov.ua
German MP Niels Schmid and his colleagues should focus on helping Ukraine become a member of the European Union, which will be the best way to involve the country in addressing the problem of migrants on the border with Belarus.
Thats according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who spoke at a morning show on 1+1 TV on Wednesday, November 17, responding to a question whether the EU intends to involve Ukraine in solving the problem of migrants on the border with Belarus.
The minister noted that at the official level, no proposals similar to those voiced by German MP Nils Schmid have been voiced.
"In general, the best way to engage Ukraine in anything is to accept us in the EU. When we become members of the European Union, then we will fully coordinate our efforts and jointly bear the burden of any problem or the joy of any success, including with Germany," Kuleba said.
In this context, he called on German MP Schmid and his colleagues to focus on achieving a "quite clear and simple goal" - Ukraine's membership in the EU.
"Then we will exchange views. And so far we dont need to be offered any advice," the head of Ukrainian diplomacy concluded.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, Nils Schmid, a member of Germanys Bundestag with the Social Democratic Party, suggested involving Ukraine in resolving the refugee problem on the border between Poland and Belarus.
The lawmaker believes the EU could reach an agreement with Ukraine to ensure that the latter accepts the illegal migrants to remain on its territory while their asylum applications are being considered. Thus, he claimed, a "controlled route" to Poland would be created for migrants.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, commenting on the said statement following an NSDC meeting on November 10 at the request of journalists, suggested that German deputies take home "two or three refugees each."
The Lukashenko regime is widely believed to be responsible for the migration crisis, ongoing from August 2021, on the borders with Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland following EU sanctions imposed on the government.
Migrants from Iraq, Syria, and a number of African countries have been arriving en masse in Belarus before being helped by the countrys security forces to get to the EU border.
According to pundits and some foreign officials, its Russias secret services that are manufacturing the migration crisis at the European Union's borders with Lukashenkos hands. Polish expert on foreign relations Dariusz Materniak said Russia is using a strategy similar to the one they applied in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.
So far, thousands of migrants have been blocked in the border zone. As winter approaches, the situation threatens to escalate into a full-blown humanitarian crisis.
The key partners support Ukraine and are ready to deter Russia from further aggressive actions not only in words but also in concrete actions.
"Over the past week, I have visited Washington and Brussels, where we have mobilized international support for Ukraine on behalf of President Volodymyr Zelensky," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said on the air of 1+1 TV channel on Wednesday morning, November 17.
The minister stressed that Ukraine managed to gain the support of partners.
"Statements are important, they should not be underestimated. But the recipe for success is statements, sanctions, and military support for Ukraine. Unlike the spring, when the partners limited themselves to words of support, they are now working out concrete actions to stick up for Ukraine in countering Russian aggression. They will take these steps to deter Russia from further aggressive actions," the minister assured.
He urged to take threats seriously, but not to panic.
Kuleba noted that the joint statement by the French and German foreign ministers after a trilateral meeting in Brussels was "unprecedentedly clear and tough on Russia." The French and German partners made it clear to Russia that new aggressive actions would have consequences.
The minister noted that Ukraine was working with partners to strengthen the border with Belarus, namely ensuring fortification and physical presence, exchange of intelligence data, enhanced border intelligence in order to provide the highest possible protection of Ukraines northern border.
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Berlin considers that the new Russian decree on "support" for the Ukrainian Donbas runs counter the Minsk agreements and do not normalize the situation.
"Signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 15, a decree that facilitates the delivery of goods from separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine to Russia and their certification as Russian runs counter the spirit and letter of the Minsk agreements," German Foreign Spokesperson Christofer Burger told an Ukrinform correspondent.
These actions contribute to further aggravation in eastern Ukraine, the diplomat noted.
As reported, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree "on the provision of humanitarian support" to the population of the occupied territories of Donbas, according to which goods from the occupied territories of Ukraine will be "equated" with Russian ones. The relevant decree was published on November 15.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba informed his Normandy format colleagues about the decree. According to him, Putin's decree, in fact, "testifies to the further economic integration of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, into the economy of the Russian Federation".
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Germany has decried allegations of political motives behind the decision to suspend the certification process as regards Russias Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
Thats according to a statement by Germanys Ministry of Economy and Energy, released on Wednesday, November 17, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"This regulatory act is not a political move, it is purely about regulatory issues," the ministry spokeswoman said.
The agency noted that the Federal Network Agency is the only body responsible for the certification process. During the audit, the regulator concluded that an operator requesting Nord Stream 2 certification shall organize its work in such a way that it complies with German law.
"This condition must be met," the ministry spokeswoman told a briefing.
Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG has decided to refrain from reformatting an existing company and to establish a subsidiary operating under German law that would own and operate a German section of the pipe. Its the subsidiary that will have to meet the requirements of the Energy Act regarding the independence of the transmission network operator, say German officials.
As soon as the Federal Network Agency receives all the necessary documents (on unbundling), the certification process will be extended within the specified period of 4 months from the date of application.
It was earlier reported that the German regulator had suspended the process of Nord Stream 2 AG certification as an independent transmission network operator. After thoroughly studying the documentation, the Federal Network Agency came to the conclusion that the certification of the Nord Stream 2 operator would be possible only if the operator's work was organized in a way that legally complies with German law, the agency explained. The officials noted that the certification process would remain suspended until the transfer of core assets and human resources to the subsidiary was completed and the Federal Network Agency could verify the completeness of documentation, newly submitted by the subsidiary as a new applicant.
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gas TSO of Ukraine were recently admitted to taking part in the said certification process.
Construction of Nord Stream 2 was completed in early September. The pipeline was laid from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, thus bypassing Ukraine. Russias Gazprom energy giant is a sole shareholder in the project.
According to Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko, the launch of Nord Stream 2 "will strengthen Gazprom's dominance and strike at competition in the markets of Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria and other European countries."
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is negotiating the recognition of electronic COVID-certificates with seven countries that are seen as tourist destinations for Ukrainians outside Europe.
Thats according to Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who spoke at a morning show on 1+1 TV.
Our digital COVID certificates are recognized in all countries of the European Union. We are currently negotiating with seven other countries outside Europe, which I wont name at the moment," he said.
Kuleba clarified that this was about the countries seen by Ukrainians primarily as popular tourist destinations.
Plus, we have a couple of countries in Latin America that already recognize our certificates. Moldova does, too. So we will continue this work," the minister added.
In addition, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy told about the current situation of travel to EU countries for Ukrainians.
There are 27 EU countries. Fifteen, as you said, changed the rules, but, in fact, retained the opportunity for travel, especially for those vaccinated, so I urge everyone who wishes to travel to get vaccinated. The remaining 12 countries of the European Union have not changed any rules at all, so everything remained the same as it was before Ukraine was excluded from the green list," said Kuleba.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on August 19, the EU formally acknowledged that the Ukrainian digital COVID-certificates generated in the Diia application are in line with the European ones.
On November 9, the EU Council said Ukraine and Singapore would be removed from the list of countries and territories off which the national governments of the EU member states were recommended to gradually lift restrictions on non-essential travel amid a pandemic.
Kuleba instructed Ukraines diplomatic missions across the European Union to make efforts to ensure that the U borders and tourist opportunities remain open for Ukrainians open.
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Hollywood actor and producer Sean Penn has arrived in Ukraine for the first time.
As Ukrinform reports, Penn came to Kyiv to shoot a documentary about Ukraine. He was spotted on Instytutska Street. The actor was doing interviews at the site of murder of the Heavenly Hundred [EuroMaidan protesters], TSN reports.
As noted, the shooting is secret and the crew is banned from disclosing any details. The heroes of his interview are asked to maintain confidentiality.
Photo credit: Ihor Poshyvailo, Facebook
Penn has already spent several days in Kyiv. On Monday, he recorded an interview with Leonid Ostaltsev, veteran business owner. Ostaltsev opened a pizzeria after he returned from the war and thought about how to live on. He knew how to make pizza, so got down to this business. Now it is not just a successful restaurant, but a whole direction: several veteran institutions work within one franchise. "Now I have a new friend," Ostaltsev wrote on Instagram after talking to Sean Penn.
Sean Penn and Leonid Ostaltsev / instagram.com/leonid_ostaltsev
Apart from Kyiv, Penn plans to visit the war zone on the front line in the next few days. It is reported that the actor is going to visit Mariupol.
Sean Penn won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008), Golden Globe and Cannes Film Festival awards. Over the past twenty years, he has been volunteering and making documentaries in poor countries.
Photo credit: Alen Fraser
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Some 46% of Ukrainians have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 (with one or two doses), 16% are ready to do so, and 36% are not ready to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot, according to a survey conducted by the Rating Sociological Group on November 10-13, 2021.
The survey was conducted only among the adult population of Ukraine. The number of those vaccinated for COVID-19 has increased from 36% to 46% over the past week. There are relatively more young respondents who do not want to be vaccinated, the survey revealed.
At the same time, 55% of respondents support the mandatory vaccination of certain categories (teachers, doctors, civil servants), and 35% are against it. Almost 40% support the ban on visiting public institutions without a COVID certificate or test, while 53% support it. Almost 30% support the ban on using public transport, while 65% do not.
According to the survey, two-thirds of respondents (61%) believe that Ukraine is able to develop its own vaccine against coronavirus, and 37% do not believe it can. Most of those who are optimistic about the possibilities of the state to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine are among the oldest.
The survey was conducted among residents of Ukraine aged 18 and older in all regions, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A total of 2,500 respondents were interviewed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2%.
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Kali Reyna, Kaylee Woest and Arielle Mathis practice at dress rehearsal for the "State of Human Affairs" showcase, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021, at Evans Auditorium.
Deals worth nearly 1.1 billion U.S. dollars were signed during the 14th China-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Business Summit held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality
CHONGQING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :Deals worth nearly 1.1 billion U.S. Dollars were signed during the 14th China-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) business Summit held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
The two-day summit that concluded Wednesday saw the inking of 18 cooperation agreements including eight deals between Chinese and Latin American companies covering fields of animal husbandry, minerals, automobiles and medical equipment.
China is the second-largest trading partner of the LAC region, and the annual bilateral trade volume has exceeded 300 billion U.
S. dollars for three consecutive years. The LAC region is also the second-largest destination for China's outbound investment, with more than 2,700 China-funded enterprises operating in Latin America and the Caribbean.
First held in 2007, the summit is China's first economic and trade promotion platform for Latin America. The 15th China-LAC Business Summit will be held in Ecuador.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) Oil pumping towards Poland via the Druzhba pipeline has been limited for three days due to unscheduled repair jobs carried out by Gomeltransneft, Igor Demin, an aide to the president of Russia's state oil transport company Transneft, said on Wednesday.
"Since yesterday, Gomeltransneft (Belarus) began unscheduled repairs on one of the legs of the Druzhba oil pipeline, limiting the pumping in the direction of Adamova Zastava (Poland) for approximately three days, while the planned target for the month is not revised," Demin told reporters.
NEOM, Saudi Arabia, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 17th Nov, 2021) His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Chairman of the NEOM Company board of Directors, today announced the establishment of OXAGON, forming the next phase of NEOMs master plan and representing a radical new model for future manufacturing centers, based on NEOMs strategies of redefining the way humanity lives and works in the future.
On the occasion of the announcement on the establishment of the city, Saudi Press Agency quoted His Royal Highness as saying: "OXAGON will be the catalyst for economic growth and diversity in NEOM and the Kingdom, further meeting our ambitions under Vision 2030. OXAGON will contribute to redefining the worlds approach to industrial development in the future, protecting the environment while creating jobs and growth for NEOM. It will contribute to Saudi Arabias regional trade and commerce, and support creating a new focal point for global trade flows. I am pleased to see that business and development have started on the ground and we look forward to the citys rapid expansion."
OXAGON will establish the worlds first fully integrated port and supply chain ecosystem for NEOM. The port, logistics and rail delivery facility will be unified, providing world-class productivity levels with net-zero carbon emissions, setting global benchmarks in the adoption of technology and environmental sustainability.
The agile and integrated physical and digital supply chain and logistics system will allow for real-time planning, resulting in secure on-time delivery, efficiency and cost-effectiveness for industry partners.
At OXAGONs core will be the adoption of the most advanced technologies such as the internet of Things (IoT), human-machine fusion, artificial and predictive intelligence, and robotics, all of which are coupled to a network of fully automated distribution centers and autonomous last-mile delivery assets to drive NEOMs ambitions of creating a seamless integrated, intelligent and efficient supply chain.
The net-zero city will be powered by 100% clean energy and will become a focal point for industry leaders who want to pioneer change to create the advanced and clean factories of the future.
Seven sectors form the nucleus of OXAGONs industrial development, with innovation and new technology creating a vital base for these industries. These industries are sustainable energy; autonomous mobility; water innovation; sustainable food production; health and well-being; technology and digital manufacturing (including telecommunications, space technology and robotics); and modern methods of construction; all powered by 100% renewable energy.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
San Francisco, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :The chief of Activision Blizzard on Tuesday defended his handling of harassment complaints as a group of workers at the video game company called for his departure.
A walkout and a call for Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to leave the company came in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report that he has for years been looped into reports of abuses that included an allegation of rape, but did not share all that he knew with the board of directors.
Some 150 workers took part in a walkout at the California company, joined by colleagues who halted working remotely in solidarity, according to posts shared at an Activision Blizzard workers alliance account at Twitter.
"It's past time for Bobby (Kotick) to step down," read a tweet by the @ABetterABK account.
The Activision Blizzard board voiced support for Kotick's leadership in a message responding to recent stories in the media.
"The board remains confident that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention," it said in a post at the company website.
An Activision spokesperson responding to an AFP inquiry said the Journal story presented a "misleading" view of the company and its chief executive.
"Instances of sexual misconduct that were brought to his attention were acted upon," the spokesperson told AFP.
"At Mr. Kotick's direction, we have made significant improvements, including a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate conduct.
" The California-based maker of "Call of Duty" has been hit by employee protests, departures, and a state lawsuit alleging it enabled toxic workplace conditions and sexual harassment against women.
Kotick defended himself in a release, saying the article on Tuesday "paints an inaccurate" image of him.
"Anyone who doubts my conviction to be the most welcoming, inclusive workplace doesn't really appreciate how important this is to me," Kotick said in the release.
Activision early this month said it was delaying eagerly-awaited sequels to its hit Diablo and Overwatch franchises as it deals with upheaval due to workplace conditions.
"In recent months, we have taken actions that resulted in the departure of a number of individuals across the company," chief operating officer Daniel Alegre said on an earnings call.
"As we have worked with new leadership at Blizzard, and within the franchises themselves, particularly in certain key creative roles, it has become apparent that some of the Blizzard content planned for year will benefit from more development time to reach its full potential."The company recently announced measures intended to strengthen anti-harassment protections.
Kotick has apologized and asked the board to slash his pay to the California legal minimum of $62,500 until the panel "has determined that we have achieved the transformational gender-related goals."
(@ChaudhryMAli88)
Geneva, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :The UN voiced alarm on Tuesday at surging arrests in Ethiopia since the country introduced a state of emergency on November 2.
The United Nations human rights agency said most of those detained in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa as well as in Gondar, Bahir Dar and other locations were of Tigrayan origin.
"According to reports, at least 1,000 individuals are believed to have been detained... with some reports putting the figure much higher," spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva.
The arrests have occurred since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government declared a state of emergency two weeks ago, when Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters threatened to march on the capital.
Lawyers have also said that thousands of Tigrayans have been arbitrarily detained since the announcement of the measures, which allow the authorities to detain without a warrant anyone suspected of supporting "terrorist groups".
Among those arrested since the state of emergency was declared are a number of UN staff.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for the immediate release of the employees in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric Tuesday evening.
"As far as the Secretary-General is aware, the staff members are being held without charge, and no specific information has been provided regarding the reasons for their arrest," Dujarric said.
Throssell said 10 local UN staff as well as 34 drivers subcontracted by the UN were still being held.
"We call for all those still in detention to be immediately released," she said, adding that if that does not happen, "a court or other independent and impartial tribunal should review the reasons for their detention, or they should be formally charged".
She acknowledged that it was "challenging" for the remaining UN rights agency staff to do their work, adding this was why "we have reports of at least 1,000 people detained, but we're not in a position to give a more definitive number".
Detention conditions were generally reported to be "poor", she said, with many of those detained held in overcrowded police stations.
Throssell decried that many of those detained had reportedly not even been informed of the reasons for their detention, let alone formally charged.
"We are also concerned at some reports of ill-treatment in detention," she said, adding that while the agency had no specific evidence of torture in detention, this was clearly a concern.
The war between the Ethiopian authorities and the TPLF has over the past year killed thousands and displaced more than two million people, and has left hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.
The UN says all sides in the conflict have committed serious human rights violations.
(@FahadShabbir)
Raqa, Syria, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :Only a few years ago, Al-Naim square was the grim stage for Raqa's public executions. Today, Nader al-Hussein sits in its new arched design, waiting for his date to arrive.
"This is the best meeting point for lovers, families and friends," the 25-year-old says, sitting on one of the rare public benches in the bustling, war-ravaged north Syria city.
"Before, we used to avoid passing near it so that we wouldn't see blood and horror," Hussein says.
The Al-Naim (Paradise) traffic circle was anything but heavenly when the Islamic State group reigned over Raqa, its former de facto Syrian capital, between 2014 and 2017.
Residents dubbed it the "roundabout of hell".
Jihadists flaunted their implementation of Islamic sharia law in the square, carrying out flagellations, crucifixions and even decapitations on those deemed apostates or criminals.
Their marauding morality police made it impossible for lovers to meet, even in private, without risking death.
"I never dared to meet with my girlfriend in person; we used to speak only over the phone, out of fear that we may be stoned as punishment," Hussein says.
Two years after IS was declared defeated in Syria, the revamped square is a far cry from the barren dirt mound that hosted some of the jihadist group's most repulsive acts.
Arched columns have been built around a new central fountain, replacing the metal fence on whose spikes an IS executioner once impaled the heads he had just severed before posing for a picture.
Benches have been placed near elliptical side pools. At night, multicoloured laser lights turn the square into a rare attraction amid the drab and ghostly concrete jumble of the city, four years after IS left.
- 'Space for families' - The roundabout is central and ringed by cafes and restaurants, making it a popular spot for families and couples alike.
"Al-Naim square has turned from hell into paradise... even lovers come here now," says 24-year-old Manaf, declining to provide his surname and adding that he visited it often.
Around him, children dash between benches while men and women chat and snap photos.
Laughter rises from a picnic spot as street vendors selling red heart-shaped balloons mill about.
In a scene unimaginable just four years ago, Mohammad al-Ali, 37, and his wife sit side-by-side, looking out for their three children as they play around one of the empty pools.
"We never brought the kids here so that they wouldn't see decapitated heads hanging," he told AFP.
"But today, the square is a space for families and children." Life is slowly picking up in Raqa, where levelled buildings and traces of IS insignia provide stark reminders of the dark era of jihadist rule.
It was here that IS stoned people to death, tossed allegedly gay men from rooftops and auctioned off women from the Yazidi minority as slaves.
- 'Death and suffering' - A few kilometres (miles) away from Al-Naim square, another infamous yet smaller roundabout used by IS for executions has also regained its bustle, largely owing to its location near a popular market.
For some, however, a shadow still hangs over the place known as "clock-tower square".
"This roundabout reminds us of the tragedy we lived... it reminds us of death and suffering," says Ahmad al-Hamad, who was passing the square on his wheelchair on the way to the grocer's.
"We used to see the severing of heads and hands, and executions carried out using swords," he says.
Several of Hamad's own relatives were beheaded in the square.
"We used to be scared of even passing near it," he says.
The situation is similar at the nearby Al-Dallah roundabout, named after a large-scale reproduction of a traditional Arabic coffee pot that adorns its centre.
Also a former IS punishing ground, Raqa residents have since dubbed Al-Dallah as "the workers' square", in reference to the day labourers who usually dot its sidewalks in the hope of being picked up for odd jobs.
Abdel Majid Abdallah, one of the workers, says he could never forget how IS used to display prisoners in cages at the roundabout.
"But today it's a place where we come to earn a living," the 35-year-old says.
Wellington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :Eleven years after a New Zealand mine disaster claimed 29 lives, investigators on Wednesday said they had found the remains of at least two of the victims but were unlikely to launch a recovery operation.
The 2010 Pike River Mine disaster was one of New Zealand's worst industrial accidents, shocking the nation and prompting multiple recovery attempts and a charged criminal investigation.
The disaster is believed to have been caused by a blast triggered by a methane build-up.
Only two of the 31 miners on the afternoon shift were able to make their way out.
Tunnel collapses have all but ended efforts to recover the bodies or gain more evidence about the disaster.
But by digging a borehole, experts have now been able to gather images from the furthest reaches of the mine.
Police said they had spotted two sets of human remains and a possible third.
"At this point, we have been unable to identify the remains, however we will consult with forensic experts," Detective Superintendent Peter Read said, adding that because of the location, police would not be able to recover the bodies.
"Based on our investigation, we believe there were six to eight men working in the area where the remains have been located." Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the recovery operation, added "it is unlikely they will be removed... I know some families would like to go further but that won't be possible." Families of the victims said they hoped the discovery would assist with potential prosecutions.
"We've fought hard for years now to get justice for our boys, and this is part of it happening," said Rowdy Durbridge, whose son Daniel died in the explosion.
Anna Osborne, whose husband was among the 29 miners killed, said "what we've seen is starting to give real clarity about what happened down there."The families of the men trapped and killed in the mine battled authorities for several years to retrieve the bodies.
In 2017, the government agreed to fund a recovery operation but this was abandoned in March this year when they said the operation had progressed 2.2 kilometres (around 1.5 miles) from the entrance without success and it was too hard and too expensive to go any further.
Bogota, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :A Colombian nun who was kidnapped and held by jihadists in Mali for more than four years returned to her home country on Tuesday.
"Welcome, welcome, our heart welcomes you," sang a dozen nuns waiting for her at the airport in Bogota, while Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez hugged each one of them.
The 59-year-old nun was taken hostage on February 7, 2017 in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso, where she had been working as a missionary.
"The Lord gave me the joy of having brothers and sisters," said the nun, who was freed on October 9. "I thank you with all my heart." "Your strength amazes me," said Colonel Gustavo Camargo, deputy director of the anti-kidnapping police who had gone to Mali to press for her release.
Returning to her homeland, which was itself plagued by kidnappings in a conflict that lasted more than half a century, Narvaez spoke out for victims of abduction.
"I was thinking of all the suffering that people go through when they are kidnapped right here in Colombia, in the whole world, there in Mali, how many people are left," said the nun, whose mother died in September 2020 while awaiting the release of her daughter.
Kidnappings are common in Mali, mired in unrest of its own, and especially in the center of the country, a hotbed of jihadist violence.
Since March 2012, several areas have been in the hands of groups linked to Al-Qaeda.
Before returning to Colombia, the nun visited Pope Francis at the Vatican.
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ULAN BATOR, Nov. 16 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2021 ) :Mongolia has successfully cultivated and harvested white rice for the first time, the country's food and Agriculture Minister Zagdjav Mendsaikhan said Tuesday.
As a result of 10 years of efforts, a private company has harvested 10 tons of white rice in a two-hectare field in the southwestern province of Bayankhongor this year, Mendsaikhan told a press conference.
"The amount of rice harvested may seem small. However, the tireless effort has proven that it is possible to cultivate rice in Mongolia," he said.
Mongolia has a harsh continental climate, and the amount of rainfall during the warm season has decreased significantly in recent years due to climate change, according to the country's Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Sao Paulo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :When her mother asked an Evangelical pastor to "cure" her transgenderism at age 13, Jacque Chanel never imagined she would one day be an Evangelical pastor herself.
But four decades later, she leads the first trans church in Brazil, a small, colorful sanctuary in Sao Paulo that welcomes worshippers beneath a blue-and-pink banner that reads, "I am trans, and I want dignity and respect." Many who attend her services are homeless, in a country that is often hostile and violent to members of the LGBT community. Brazil is one of the deadliest countries in the world for trans people, with 175 murdered last year.
"We live in a society that mistreats us, that discriminates against us. What I do here is give hope and empowerment to trans people," says Chanel, 56, who launched the church recently in an aging building in the center of Brazil's economic capital.
Chanel -- she chose her first name in homage to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her surname for the French luxury brand -- leads services that are themselves a break with tradition.
Worshippers sit in circles, not rows, and hold hands as she prays. She opens her palms as she addresses them, looking out through her rectangular glasses with the firm gaze of someone who has learned her lessons the hard way.
"I suffered a lot to get here," she says.
- Exorcising demons - Chanel was born "Ricardo," in the city of Belem, in the northern state of Para, where her mother saw her transgenderism as an illness and placed her in the care of an Evangelical pastor.
She remembers him as a father-like figure.
"He didn't accept me being transgender, but at least he respected me," she says.
But her life was upturned again when she learned he had been murdered. Without him, she was no longer welcome in his church.
Brazil's burgeoning Evangelical Christian movement -- around 30 percent of the country's 213 million people -- is largely conservative, and can be hostile to those perceived as violating traditional family values.
That did not stop Chanel from spending years in search of a church that would embrace her.
"They wouldn't have me. They would place a hand on my head and try to exorcise the evil spirits," she says.
When she moved to Sao Paulo, she started attending church with a group of other LGBT community members.
"We would always stay in the back, until one day during services the pastor called us to the front. It was to kick us out," she says.
Determined not to give up her faith, she kept trying different churches, until she found a group of "inclusive Evangelicals," a movement that emerged in the 2000s to welcome LGBT Christians.
"It changed my life. But then it started to seem unjust. There were 300 gays and lesbians, and only two transgender people," she says.
"Is that really inclusive?" She convinced the movement to let her start her own worship group, which gathered some 200 young trans people, and to ordain her as a pastor.
- Changing minds - Chanel opened her church six months ago, at first online, then with in-person services.
She welcomes worshippers with a meal, and also hands out food donations once a week to the poor in central Sao Paulo, whose numbers have grown with the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"When I go into a Catholic church, loads of people look at me, especially when I take communion," says one worshipper, 42-year-old Vanessa Souza.
"Here is different. Nobody looks at me, nobody scrutinizes my clothes or calls me 'transvestite.' I feel at home." Chanel says her services have been attacked as "satanic" by conservative Evangelicals online. But her doors are open to all.
"Trans or not, I invite everyone to our weekly services. We are open to everyone," she says.
She is awaiting her turn for gender confirmation surgery. Sao Paulo's Hospital das Clinicas has a waiting list of more than 1,000 people for the procedure, and performs just one per month.
Chanel is in no hurry for another change, though: she has kept the name Ricardo on her official ID.
"It gives me a chance to teach people every time someone asks the question," she says.
Geneva, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :A Swiss parliamentary committee said Tuesday it would probe the government's decision to purchase 36 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighter jets to replace its ageing fleet.
The management scrutiny committee of the National Council lower house of parliament decided to investigate "the legality and advisability of certain aspects of the evaluation procedure taken for choosing the Swiss military's new combat aircraft", it said in a statement.
A sub-committee will start work in February and publish its findings "in due course".
Switzerland's current air defence set-up will reach the end of its service life in 2030 and the search for a replacement fleet was long and hotly contested.
The F-35A combat aircraft -- already used by the US Air Force and several European countries -- was chosen in June this year ahead of the Airbus Eurofighter, the F/A-18 Super Hornet by Boeing, and French firm Dassault's Rafale.
The Swiss government said the F-35A had a marked technological advantage over the other candidates because it had powerful new systems that ensured information superiority.
At five billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion, 4.7 billion Euros), the procurement costs were around two billion francs cheaper than the second-lowest bidder, said the government.
The decision to buy the F-35As could be challenged at the ballot box, with left-wingers and anti-militarists keen to trigger a public vote.
The parliamentary scrutiny committee "wishes to establish transparency on certain points which have aroused criticism from public opinion", it said.
Its sub-committee will focus on the methods used to assess the competing planes, the room for political manoeuvre with the United States and respect for the principles of public procurement rights.
Switzerland is famously neutral. However, its long-standing position is one of armed neutrality and the landlocked European country has mandatory conscription for men.
South Korea is concerned about Russia's anti-satellite missile test and urges international efforts to use outer space in a peaceful and sustainable manner, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday
SEOUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) South Korea is concerned about Russia's anti-satellite missile test and urges international efforts to use outer space in a peaceful and sustainable manner, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
"We express concerns over the November 15 anti-satellite test and especially over the fact that a large number of orbital debris pieces were generated as a result of the same test," the foreign ministry was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
The foreign ministry called on all countries to use outer space in a peaceful and sustainable way through responsible acts and to cooperate in developing related international norms, according to Yonhap.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that Russia had successfully tested the anti-satellite missile system and hit the inactive Russian Tselina-D spacecraft. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday that the debris of the old satellite resulting from the test did not pose any threat to space activities.
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Sudanese security forces killed three more people at anti-coup protests on Wednesday, a pro-democracy union of doctors said, taking the day's death toll to five
Khartoum, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :Sudanese security forces killed three more people at anti-coup protests on Wednesday, a pro-democracy union of doctors said, taking the day's death toll to five.
Dozens more who rallied against military rule suffered bullet wounds, the union said, as the overall casualty toll in the crackdown rose to 29 dead and hundreds wounded.
Police have denied firing live rounds at protesters.
An emergency court on Wednesday sentenced former MP Ziad el-Elaimy, a prominent figure in Egypt's 2011 revolution, to five years in jail for charges including "spreading false news", his mother said
Cairo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :An emergency court on Wednesday sentenced former MP Ziad el-Elaimy, a prominent figure in Egypt's 2011 revolution, to five years in jail for charges including "spreading false news", his mother said.
Ikram Youssef told AFP that journalists Hisham Fuad and Hossam Moniss, who are also politicians, were handed four-year prison terms, while two activists were sentenced to three years with hard labour, in a decision that cannot be appealed.
The verdicts were only announced after the defendants and their families had left the courtroom, she added.
Elaimy, a lawyer by profession, has also been investigated over efforts to form a so-called "coalition of hope" opposition alliance to run in elections last year.
A key figure of the popular uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak, Elaimy was arrested in June 2019 and added last year to a terrorism list.
He was charged with joining the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed since the 2013 overthrow of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Rights group Amnesty International condemned the court rulings, saying the three politicians had been "detained for over two years without trial simply because they sought to form a parliamentary coalition" last year.
"All involved in the 'Hope Coalition' were subjected to a litany of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, torture and intimidation," Amnesty's Philip Luther said in a statement.
"These politicians and activists should never have been arrested in the first place and yet they have been convicted and sentenced to prison on charges related to their legitimate criticism of the Egyptian authorities."Luther urged the authorities to "cease sham trials by emergency courts which fail to respect international fair trial standards, including the right to appeal".
The authorities have arrested thousands of Morsi supporters since the Islamist's ouster, as well as secular activists, journalists, lawyers and academics.
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KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke to his Montenegrin counterpart Dorde Radulovic by phone to discuss a number of issues, including the situation on the border of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The sides agreed to intensify political dialogue and cooperation in trade and investment, in particular, in the context of preparing the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to Montenegro to attend the summit of the heads of government of the Central European Initiative," the ministry said.
"Dmytro Kuleba informed Dorde Radulovic about the security situation on the temporarily occupied territories and along the state border of Ukraine in the context of the latest aggressive actions by Russia.
Dorde Radulovic reassured (his counterpart) that Montenegro invariably supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," it said.
The top diplomats exchanged views on the security situation in southeastern Europe, the interaction of Ukraine and Montenegro in international organizations and a schedule of contacts of the two states for 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier called alarmist the claims that Russia is allegedly preparing an invasion of Ukraine.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not discuss with Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel sanctions and "recognition," it would be beneath his dignity, Lukashenko's spokeswoman Natalya Eismont told Sputnik
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not discuss with Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel sanctions and "recognition," it would be beneath his dignity, Lukashenko's spokeswoman Natalya Eismont told Sputnik.
Earlier, Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said that Lukashenko had put forward the recognition him as the president and lifting the sanctions as the condition for ending the migration crisis at the EU borders. Allegedly, this condition was voiced by the Belarusian president to Merkel during the phone conversation on Monday.
"It would be beneath the dignity of President Lukashenko to raise such questions during a conversation or to put forward such conditions. Not a single word was said about sanctions, and even more so about some kind of 'recognition' during the conversations. Moreover, there is no such question for the Belarusian society, which elected Lukashenko as the president," Eismont said.
The statement of the Estonian Foreign Minister "means that in principle, Estonia knows nothing about the process that is now going on to resolve the refugee problem and means nothing in it."
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CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) Moldova and Russia will hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in the first half of the next year, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nikolae Popescu said on Wednesday.
"As co-chairman of the Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, I met today in Moscow with (Russian) Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev. In order to intensify trade and economic relations, we agreed to organize a new meeting of the commission and a business forum in the first quarter of 2022," Posecu wrote on his Facebook page.
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More than 20 people were killed and scores injured in an attack on a Tuareg camp in western Niger, a local source told Sputnik
RABAT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) More than 20 people were killed and scores injured in an attack on a Tuareg camp in western Niger, a local source told Sputnik.
Tuareg is an ethnic group living in the Saharan area spanning Algeria, Libya, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
"Twenty two people were killed and dozens were injured in an attack on a Tuareg camp (in western Niger)," the source said.
Niger is located in the African region of the Sahel, notorious for the high level of insecurity due to terrorist activities, illegal migration, and banditry.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan agreed by phone to work together to improve the relations between the United States and Russia, increase trust between the two countries, the Russian Security Council said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan agreed by phone to work together to improve the relations between the United States and Russia, increase trust between the two countries, the Russian Security Council said on Wednesday.
"Russian Security Council Secretary held a phone conversation with US National Security Adviser. During the conversation, Nikolai Patrushev and Jacob Sullivan agreed to work together to improve the atmosphere of Russian-US relations and increase trust between the two countries," the statement says.
The negotiations were held in a constructive manner and took place in the framework of the preparation of upcoming high-level contacts.
Ten people were found dead in an overcrowded ship carrying migrants off the coast of Libya, and were believed to have suffocated, the Doctors Without Borders charity has said
Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Nov, 2021 ) :Ten people were found dead in an overcrowded ship carrying migrants off the coast of Libya, and were believed to have suffocated, the Doctors Without Borders charity has said.
The charity said late on Tuesday that its Geo Barents rescue ship had picked up 99 survivors earlier in the day.
"At the bottom of the overcrowded wooden boat, 10 people were found dead," tweeted the charity, known by its French initials MSF.
It described them as "10 avoidable deaths... 10 persons who died from suffocation, after 13 hours adrift at sea. The deadly central #Med route. How can we accept this in 2021?" Tens of thousands of people seek to enter Europe each year via the central Mediterranean, leaving from Libya and Tunisia and heading most often for Italy.
The route is deadly -- 1,236 people have died in the central Mediterranean so far this year, compared with 858 in the same period of 2020, according to Flavio Di Giacomo of the UN's Migration Agency, the IOM.
He tweeted that the Geo Barents rescue "probably avoided other victims", saying it showed "the need to increase patrols at sea".
MSF said there were currently 186 people on board Geo Barents, including women and children, the youngest of whom is 10 months old.
"Many of them seem traumatised by the horrendous ordeal," it said, calling for a safe port to disembark them.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2021) US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya will travel to Belgium and Lithuania from November 17-20 to meet with senior European Union officials ahead of the upcoming Summit for Democracy that will focus on the global democratic renewal, the State Department said in a press release.
"Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya will travel to Belgium and Lithuania from November 17-20, 2021. In Belgium, Under Secretary Zeya will meet with senior European Union officials and civil society representatives to discuss the upcoming Summit for Democracy, which will bring together global stakeholders to set forth an affirmative agenda for global democratic renewal," the release said on Tuesday.
In meetings with EU officials, Zeya will also discuss other issues, including anti-corruption, human rights and combating anti-Semitism and racism, the release added.
While in Vilnius, Zeya will meet with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and representatives of Belarusian civil society to underscore the United States' support for the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people, according to the release.
US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will travel to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain later on Tuesday to discuss efforts to move the Yemen peace process forward as well as to address US concerns regarding Iran, the State Department said on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2021) US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will travel to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain later on Tuesday to discuss efforts to move the Yemen peace process forward as well as to address US concerns regarding Iran, the State Department said on Tuesday.
"US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will travel today to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Manama, Bahrain, joining an interagency team to coordinate approaches to regional security and a broad range of concerns with Iran," the State Department said in a press release. "Special Envoy Lenderking will also meet with senior officials on efforts to advance an inclusive, UN-led peace process in Yemen and to bring immediate relief to the people of Yemen."
TAMPA USF President Rhea Law has named College of Engineering Professor Sylvia Wilson Thomas, a pioneering researcher whose national leadership and advocacy is opening the field of engineering to historically underrepresented students, as interim vice president for USF Research & Innovation.
In her new duties, Dr. Thomas will lead the division of the university responsible for managing research proposals, grants and contracts, as well as USFs thriving innovation enterprise, which consists of the Technology Transfer Office, the USF Research Park and the Tampa Bay Technology Incubator. Already a member of the USF Research Foundation Board, Dr. Thomas will now serve as the foundations president and CEO.
As a longtime leader in the effort to bring more diversity to engineering, Dr. Thomas has melded her advocacy for students and an ambitious range of projects that has her lab at the forefront of exploring new ways to solve global technological challenges. More recently, Dr. Thomas lab has led several high-profile projects applying advanced circuitry and materials to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her creative, current affairs-driven projects have been supported by a wide-range of funders, from the USF seed grant programs to the National Science Foundation. Dr. Thomas achievements were recognized in 2020 with the BEYA Education STEM Educational Leadership Award at the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards presented by US Black Engineer and Information Technology Magazine.
Dr. Thomas teaches, conducts research, advises, and mentors students in the areas of electrical engineering in her Advanced Materials Bio and Integration Research laboratory. Her work focuses on developing low-cost, low power, miniaturized electronic circuitry, biosensors and advanced materials with greater longevity and durability. Over her more than 20-year career in academia and industry, she has produced 12 patents and patent disclosures.
Originally from the small Mississippi town of Itta Bena, Dr. Thomas was inspired to a career in engineering by her mother Verna B. Wilson, an educator, and her father Dr. Eddie Wilson, a computer science professor at Mississippi Valley State University. After completing a bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Thomas followed in her fathers footsteps and earned a PhD at Howard University.
Leadership, at any level, is not about what you can take; it's about what you can give," she said. "And I thank God for what I am able to give.
All the Colors is a career diversity video series for youth by youth produced by Pasco County Agents for Change and the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation (FCDI) and AMRoC.
One of her most notable roles in working to achieve diversity in STEM is her role on the inaugural Board of Directors for Black Girls Code. Dr. Thomas has been co-director of three NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate Program sites, NSF Research Experience for Teachers programs, and a current NSF Florida Alliance for Graduate Education in the Professoriate (FL-AGEP) Transformation Alliance. Her outreach includes international efforts in Italy, Singapore, Portugal, South Korea, Mexico, and South Africa.
Dr. Thomas is also the USF GEM Consortium Representative and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority PhD Mentor. The GEM Consortium is a network of Fortune 500 corporations, national laboratories, and top research institutions (including USF) that identifies and recruits more than 1,000 college students and working professionals from under-represented groups for advanced degree in engineering and science programs at the nation's elite universities.
In one of her most recent projects, Dr. Thomas is collaborating with the National Research Council of Italy Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials and the Italian Institute of Technology Center for Nano Science and Technology to train students to enhance bio and electronic devices and materials important for healthcare diagnostics, cancer therapies, tissue engineering, drug delivery platforms, wearable and flexible sensors, edible electronics, energy efficiency, vision restoration, and real-time biological monitoring.
In addition to leading a series of projects applying engineering to COVID-19 and systemic racism, Dr. Thomas leads an NSF funded project to collect, synthesize and visualize comprehensive coronavirus data from around the world in partnership with Graph Aware Limited.
Dr. Thomas is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, proceedings and presentations, six book chapters and more than $4.8 million in research funding.
She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer, as well as a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). During her doctoral program, she was named an NSF Materials Research Center of Excellence Fellow and an NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Research Fellow in Korea. Dr. Thomas is involved in various organizations, having served as the first female chair and Florida Senate appointee to the Florida Education Fund Board of Directors and the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies.
Additionally, she serves as the President of the IEEEs Engineering in Medicine and Biology Florida West Coast Section; advisor for the Society of Women Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers. In 2004, she represented IEEE in briefing the United Nations on "Girls and Technology: New Educational Opportunities." Their testimony was intended to elevate global awareness of the need for more women in the engineering and technology fields.
Dr. Thomas has more than 12 years of industry experience, assisting in the success of such companies and organizations as Agere Systems formerly Lucent Bell Labs, Kimberly Clark Corp., IBM, and Procter & Gamble.
Read President Laws appointment message to the USF community here.
Pope Francis urges participants in an online meeting of Justice and Peace Commissions of various national Bishops Conferences to help society correct the contradictions in the economic and political systems revealed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Devin Watkins
The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development is hosting a two-day online conference for Justice and Peace Commissions of national Catholic Bishops Conferences.
Running 17-18 November, the event focuses on the challenges and possibilities facing humanity in the post-pandemic world.
Pope Francis kicked off the conference with a message to encourage participants in their mission to foster human development in their home countries.
Integral development and peace
The Pope recalled that Pope St. Paul VI set up the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace in 1967, and entrusted it with the mission of promoting integral human development as the new name of peace.
Many national Bishops Conferences then set up their own local Justice and Peace Commissions to operate at the national level.
The Commission became part of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2017 under the guidance of the prefect, Cardinal Peter Turkson.
Listen to our report
Social, ecological justice and peace
Pope Francis praised the work of the local commissions as an indispensable service to the social-pastoral work of the Church.
They have the task of spreading knowledge of the social doctrine of the Church, he said, working concretely for the protection of the dignity of the human person and of human rights, with a preferential option for the poor and the most abandoned.
In carrying out that mission, he added, the commissions contribute to the growth of social, economic, and ecological justice, while sowing peace.
Care for environment and fraternity
The Pope encouraged participants in the conference to look to his encyclicals Laudato si and Fratelli tutti for inspiration, and to inculturate the Gospel in their own societies.
In every part of the world, said Pope Francis, integral developmentand therefore justice and peacecan be built only through these two paths: care for our common home, and fraternity and social friendship.
These twin paths, he said, find their origin in the Gospel of Christ, though they can be pursued with the faithful of other Christian confessions and religions.
Unraveling complex contradictions
He encouraged local commission members to work with hope, determination, and creativity, especially in the difficult context that has arisen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pope noted how the pandemic has exacerbated many conflicts, as many nations row back on their commitments to avoid the tragedies of the last century.
The current crisis has highlighted numerous contradictions of the economic and political system, while unresolved challenges remain and require the joint dedication of many parties, he said.
Pope Francis concluded his message to members of Justice and Peace Commissions with an appeal to work together with other civil and religious entities to find solutions to these glaring contradictions.
Once a company makes a profit and is able to meet the basic requirements for remittance, as mentioned in our introductory article, challenges will remain with respect to ensuring that the remittance process goes smoothly.
Whether it be a decision over the method of repatriation or when to take profits, the ways in which investors choose to approach the remittance process can have a significant impact on the quantity and timeframe under which profits will be accessible.
Step 1 Set up a foreign currency bank account
When entering the Vietnamese market, foreign investors who wish to remit profits to their home markets will be required to open a foreign currency bank account. This account is to be utilized for all foreign currency transactions carried out within the country. For FDI activities in Vietnam, investors will are required to open a Direct Investment Capital Account (DICA) or an Indirect Investment Capital Account (IICA).
Actions requiring foreign currency accounts
Specific transactions requiring the use of a foreign currency bank account include:
Receipt of charter capital;
Increased capital expenditure in which the funding of such expenditure originates in third party countries;
Receipt of financing via loans from foreign sources;
Disbursement of loan payments to third parties outside of Vietnam (inclusive of interest); and
Disbursement of dividends and other profits to shareholders, the origins of which have been derived from Vietnam based operations.
For companies that have already established operations in Vietnam, foreign currency accounts will have been set up during the transfer of funds to capitalize on given projects.
Alternatively, those considering Vietnam as a destination for future investment should note that, while the use of foreign bank accounts is important at the latter stage of the remittance process, it is nonetheless crucial to finalize banking arrangements on the front end of the investment. Not only will this be necessary to start operations within the country, but it also ensures that remittances can be carried out in a seamless manner.
Restrictions
When selecting and operating a foreign currency account, investors are faced with a number of restrictions. The following are some of the most pressing issues that investors should prepare for when opening foreign currency account
Institutional selection
When opening a foreign currency account, investors are limited to the selection of a single account with a bank that has been licensed by the SBV. In practice, the only banks that will be able to operate foreign currency accounts for investors are those with this license. While limiting the selection of institutions, a number of large international banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC are able to host foreign accounts. Individual banks should be contacted to ascertain their status with a Vietnamese official.
Currency limitations
When opening foreign currency accounts, investors must select the accounts denomination. At present, foreign firms are limited to one foreign currency account in a single currency. Exceptions to this rule may be made if investors can prove that the denomination of their overseas loans differ from the currency utilized in funding Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects within the country.
Switching banks
Pursuant to the aforementioned limitations on foreign accounts, those seeking to switch banks may be required to close existing accounts prior to establishing relations with new financial institutions. In the event that this course of action is taken, the closure of accounts must be conducted in compliance with procedures outlined by respective banks.
Requisite documentation
Upon the selection of a government-approved bank, the following documentation should be prepared to open the foreign currency account. It should be noted that the specific requirements of banks may vary and that requirements may differ depending on the nature of FDI projects within the country (i.e. 100 percent Foreign Owned Enterprise vs Joint Venture).
Step 2 Settle all tax obligations
According to guidance documents issued by the Ministry of Finance, companies remitting profits from Vietnam must have fulfilled all obligations to government authorities prior to remitting. On an annual basis, the issue of greatest importance in this respect is that of taxation. Most investors will be subject to Corporate Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT) and Special Consumption Tax (SCT). Paying these on time will ensure that profits can be remitted freely.
Corporate Income Tax
The standard CIT rate for all enterprises in Vietnam, both local and foreign is 20 percent.
It should be noted, however, that investment in the following industries will be subject to higher rates of taxation:
Seeking, exploring, and exploiting petroleum and gas deposits is subject to a CIT rate of 32 to 50 percent; and
Seeking, exploring, and exploiting rare minerals such as silver, gold, and gemstones is subject to a CIT rate of 40 or 50 percent.
Value Added Tax
VAT is imposed on the supply of goods and services at three different rates: zero percent, five percent and 10 percent (the standard rate). For goods and services purchased from abroad, VAT applies to the duty paid value of imported goods and services. The importer must pay VAT at the same time that they pay import duties to customs. For some categories of goods and services, which are subject to special consumption tax, VAT applies to the selling price plus the special consumption tax.
Special Consumption Tax
Special consumption tax is a form of excise tax that applies to the production or importation of specific foods and to certain services. Depending on the good in question, taxes levied on production can range from 10 to 75 percent. It is important that companies consult with relevant government bodies prior to investment to ascertain if they will be faced with SCT and the rate at which SCT will be applied.
Social insurance
Outlined under personal income tax legislation, social insurance contribution in Vietnam covers compensation for salary lost due to illness, maternity, work accidents, occupational diseases, retirement, and death. As of 2019, the total mandatory employer contribution to the social, health, and unemployment insurance funds stands at 21.5 percent of an employees monthly wage.
Payment
Enterprises must pay tax in the localities where they are headquartered in. For an enterprise that has a dependent cost-accounting production establishment (including a processing and assembly establishment) operating in a province or city other than where it is headquartered, the tax amount shall be calculated and paid in both the locality where the enterprise is headquartered and the locality where its production establishment is based.
The amount of CIT payable to the province or city where a dependent cost-accounting production establishment is based is the payable CIT amount in a period multiplied by the ratio between expenses incurred by the production establishment and the total expenses incurred by the enterprise.
Step 3 Audit and compliance
Following successful payment of taxes, companies operating within Vietnam will be required to submit tax finalization statements. Not only will these allow government officials to see that the company in question has fulfilled its obligations to the Vietnamese state, but it will also allow for the company to prove that it turned a profit during the year thus complying with Vietnamese remittance standards.
Requisite documentation
In preparation for annual audit and compliance, companies should prepare the following documentation in accordance with up to date Vietnamese Accounting Standards:
Form No. 04-CS/SXK Report on Production and Business Activities;
Form No. 04-CD/GVGL Report on Charter Capital Contribution;
Form No. 03/TNDN CIT Finalization Statement;
Form No. 05/KK-TNCN PIT Finalization Statement;
Form No. 05A/KK-TNCN List of income and deductions of resident employees; and
Form No. 05B/KK-TNCN List of Income and deductions of non-resident and temporary employees.
While completion of an annual audit is important from a compliance perspective, the requirement to present audited financial statements prior to remittances results in a limited window during which profits may be repatriated. In conjunction with restrictions limiting outward remittances to once per annum, the due date for annual financial statements in March is likely to dictate the timeframe during which remittances may be carried out.
Step 4 Withholdings taxation
Prior to remitting profits, investors may be faced with additional taxes determined by their method of remittance. Referred to as withholdings taxation, these taxes are taken by the Vietnamese government as a percentage of the remittance in question.
Currently, remittances are segmented into the following four categories each of which is subject to a differing rate of taxation:
Dividends
No tax is currently imposed on dividends remitted overseas unless paid to individuals who are then subject to a five percent withholding tax unless the rate is reduced under a tax treaty.
Interest
Interest paid to a non-resident is subject to a five percent withholding tax unless the rate is reduced under a tax treaty.
Royalties
Royalties paid to a non-resident are subject to a 10 percent withholding tax unless the rate is reduced under a tax treaty.
Technical service fees
A withholding tax of five percent (corporate tax) and five percent (VAT) generally applies to technical service fees paid to a non-resident. The corporate tax may be exempt under a tax treaty.
Step 5 Foreign exchange
Profit generated by the majority of companies operating in Vietnam will be denominated in Vietnamese Dong (VND). While funds may remain in VND denominated accounts during the duration of their stay within the country, the remittance process requires funds to be transferred into foreign currency accounts, as mentioned earlier.
The transfer of funds into foreign denominated accounts will thus entail the conversion of funds into the currency of the respective account. Unlike the floating exchange rates found in many investors home countries, Vietnam employs a fixed exchange rate with a band of one percent available to individual banks. This results in three rates of exchange that companies should take note of when assessing remittances from Vietnam:
Vietnams Official Exchange Rate: issued regularly by the SBV, this dictates the rate at which the Vietnamese government will buy and sell currency. The most recent rate of exchange issued by the SBV was on October 2 at a rate of 23,163 VND per USD. Banking Rates: set by individual banks, these rates are required to be within a one percentage point band of the rate set by the Vietnamese government. Thus, a significant consideration for companies should surround the ways that individual banks choose to set rates. International Floating Rate: as a point of reference, companies should also take note of the differential between the international rate of exchange found outside of Vietnam and those rates employed within Vietnam. In the case that the differential is significant, companies may choose to hold off on remitting profits until such a time when the differential is lowered.
Step 6 Notification of relevant offices
Following the declaration of corporate income tax and issuance of audited financial statements, the company must report its intention to repatriate profits to the tax bureau. If within seven days, there is no notice from the tax bureau, the profits may be remitted out. The location of a given investment project will dictate the office with which the notification process must be coordinated.
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The use of the drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19 has been controversial in the United States and other Western nations. However, countries in the east have had no qualms in using the drug and have achieved positive results in fighting the pandemic. In Indonesia, COVID-19 cases have dropped significantly after the government authorized ivermectin to treat people infected with the coronavirus.
In early June, Indonesias COVID-19 caseload was 5,000 per day. On June 12, the government banned the use of the drug. The number of cases spiked to over 40,000 per day by July, and 90,000 people died during this period.
Despite being banned, ivermectin was in high demand. After the public and a number of top politicians supported the drug, the Indonesian government finally re-approved its use on July 15. The number of infections plummeted, going below 5,000 per day in October. Only 25.6 percent of Indonesias population was vaccinated as of Oct. 27.
In an article for Wentworth Report, Joanne Nova wrote that Indonesia has managed COVID-19 ten times better than Australia despite having ten times as many people and only one third of the government revenue. Australia, which has vaccinated 70 percent of its population, has twice the number of infections as Indonesia.
During his recent COP26 and G20 meetings, the Indonesian president asked for more vaccine equity rather than promoting the use of ivermectin. He insisted that developed countries must do more to help poorer nations obtain vaccines so that we can overcome this pandemic together.
In an interview with The Gateway Pundit, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko stated that what the Indonesian president did was employ a bait-and-switch tactic.
Theyre saying the reason why theyre staying alive, the patient, is because of the vaccine. In reality, it is because of ivermectin. And the patients that are not vaccinated, are being refused life-saving medication, and theyre dying and then they reach to the conclusion that the reason why they died was that they didnt get the vaccine. In reality, the reason why they died was because the life-saving medication was withheld from them, Zelenko said.
It is not just Indonesia that has benefited from ivermectins use. In India, the drug has been used with immense success in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In September, the state government announced that 33 districts had become COVID-free. Authorities suggested that the early use of ivermectin was one reason for low infection rates at the time.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has categorically asked people to not use ivermectin for treating COVID-19.
Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. Clinical trials assessing ivermectin tablets for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in people are ongoing, the FDAs website states.
In Texas, a hospital recently suspended the privileges of a doctor who had criticized vaccine mandates and promoted the use of ivermectin. According to the Houston Methodist Hospital, the doctor, Mary Bowden, was spreading dangerous misinformation that is not based in science.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Bowdens lawyer Steve Mitby made it clear that the doctor is not against taking vaccinations. She herself is vaccinated as per the hospitals requirements and has treated more than 2,000 COVID-19 patients. The issue is regarding peoples freedom.
Like many Americans, Dr. Bowden believes that people should have a choice and believes that all people, regardless of vaccine status, should have access to the same high-quality health care, Mitby said.
Cambodia has released 26 political, environmental and youth activists facing charges of incitement against the government, which human rights groups said was a positive step but that many more remained incarcerated.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 36 years, is facing calls to improve his administration's human rights record ahead of an Asia Europe summit that it hosts this month.
A justice ministry spokesman, confirming the release of the jailed activists, denied any international pressure and said they were freed partly to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
"This is a normal court procedure, the court didn't pay attention to whether you are activists or not," Chin Malin told Reuters on Wednesday.
"This is a campaign to help solve cases that are stuck in courts and reduce the capacity in crowded prisons," he added.
Among those released between November 5 and 12, 2021 were members of the environment group Mother Nature Cambodia, opposition party activists and the union leader Rong Chhun, Human Rights Watch said. But charges against them have not been dropped.
"The release of 26 wrongfully detained political prisoners is good news, but there is nothing to stop the Cambodian authorities from re-arresting them at any time, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Another 60 political prisoners remain in custody, the rights group said.
"We appeal to the government to release other youth and political activists unconditionally as they should never have been imprisoned for raising critical issues about the environment or rule of law in Cambodia in the public domain," said Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group LICADHO.
On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Hayde Adams discuss the complex political situation and growing humanitarian disaster in Ethiopia. Her guests include Carine Kaneza Nantulya, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, and Heather Murdock, VOA's Middle East correspondent.
Cameroon this week deployed an additional 300 troops to Bui, a northwestern administrative unit that the military says has become a stronghold for separatists. The troops are conducting house-to-house searches for weapons and destroying improvised explosive devices and rebel camps. But Civilians accuse both sides of abuses and rights violations.
Cameroons military says Bui, an administrative unit in the English speaking North West Region, is becoming an epicenter of separatist atrocities. About 35 improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were destroyed by the military within the past two weeks.
Other IEDs planted by separatists, the military says, destroyed vehicles and roads.
Troops sent to restore order in June killed seven fighters including three self-proclaimed separatist generals, authorities said. Four soldiers died while seizing weapons from fighters.
General Valere Nka is commander of government troops fighting the separatists.
He said 300 additional troops have been deployed this week to Bui with a mission to destroy IEDs and separatist camps.
Nka said there is no time to rest for his troops as killings and looting by rebels is still rife in Bui. He said fighters continue to threaten freedoms and liberties of civilians. He said President Paul Biya, who is commander-in-chief of Cameroons armed forces, has instructed the military to destroy separatist camps and neutralize rebels and their self-proclaimed generals.
Nka urged civilians to assist the military in reporting suspects and helping identify their hideouts.
The Presbyterian Church in Bui said dozens of its members, especially motorcycle riders who transport travelers, have fled months of fighting.
Forty-year-old Christopher Tatah said he escaped to the French-speaking western town of Bafoussam. He said government forces seized his motorcycle in Kumbo, the capital of Bui.
When they [the military] come, they break into houses and then they loot. They collect telephones, musical sets and then any other electronical gadget that they need. When they see any motor bike, they just collect and they do not give it back. So, we are pleading. The government should see [negotiate] a way that this war [separatist crisis] should come to an end, he said.
Tatah said civilians accused of collaborating with the military are targeted and tortured by fighters.
He said before leaving Kumbo last Sunday, six civilians were killed when an explosive device planted by fighters detonated.
Separatists have been fighting for the creation of an independent English-speaking state called Ambazonia.
Capo Daniel is a self-proclaimed deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a rebel group in Cameroons western regions. He claims responsibility for the IEDs, but says fighters target only the military. He spoke via the messaging app, WhatsApp.
Those civilians that were affected by those bombs [IEDs] were civilians who were being transported in Cameroonian military vehicles. Those military vehicles are legitimate targets for our forces on the ground. We will continue to target them and any civilians that allow themselves to be transported in military armored personnel carriers will definitely come under fire."
Capo blamed the military for most of the atrocities. Nka said the military has remained professional and respects the rights of citizens.
Deben Tchoffo is the governor of Cameroons Northwest region. He said the troops deployed to Bui this week have been instructed to search homes and seize illegal weapons said to be in wide circulation.
There are some prophets of doom who want to bring chaos in our region by destabilizing the population of the Northwest region. We instructed the administrative authorities and the security forces [the military] to recuperate all those guns, ammunition that are circulating in the region. The process is ongoing. We are going to make sure all those that are still keeping guns and ammunition in the region are brought to book and prosecuted,
Violence erupted in 2017 in Cameroons English-speaking regions when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority. The military reacted with a crackdown and separatist groups took up weapons, claiming that they were protecting civilians. The U.N. says 3,000 people have been killed and more than 50,000 displaced in French-speaking towns and in neighboring Nigeria.
Ahead of planned protests in Cuba this week, the Havana government revoked the media accreditation of five journalists with the Spanish news agency EFE.
The move was quickly condemned by the international community and media analysts, who saw the withdrawal as a sign that Havana had turned its attention to the international press.
Cuban authorities told the three editors, cameraperson and photographer Saturday that they would lose their press credentials, but gave no reason.
Four later had their accreditation restored but EFE President Gabriela Canas said the move was "insufficient."
The move came ahead of this past Mondays Civic March for Change, a protest by dissident groups calling for greater rights. The government in Havana had sought to ban the march from taking place.
With seven journalists employed to cover the Caribbean island, EFE was the largest foreign media organization. But now that number has been reduced.
Last month, an editor for EFE was stripped of media accreditation. Meanwhile, the outlet has been waiting since July for its new bureau chief, Juan Palop, to be granted credentials. He is currently working in Berlin.
The agency, which is run by the Spanish state but is independent from the government in Madrid, has demanded that credentials be restored to all its journalists.
Cuban authorities said this week that Palops credentials will be issued
EFEs Canas believes the communist government targeted the agency because it was the largest foreign media organization in Cuba.
In normal times we are the biggest independent foreign media on the island and we have a strong presence in Latin America and the Spanish speaking world. That is why we think the Cubans have targeted us at this moment, but they have not given us any reasons, she told VOA.
But we are not influenced by foreign powers. We don't generate news; we simply recount news.
With a global staff of 700, EFE operates independently of the Cuban government and any other authorities to report across the world, Canas said.
Its reporters in Havana always ask for both sides of the story, but the government sometimes does not respond to requests for comment, she added.
EFE declined a request from VOA to speak with its journalists in Cuba.
Media restrictions
The Spanish government, the European Union and journalism organizations criticized Havana for restricting the foreign media.
At a conference in Brussels on Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said, I have told [the Cuban authorities] that it is unacceptable to withdraw the accreditation of the EFE journalists. I have had talks with the acting head of the Cuban embassy in Madrid.
Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy representative, described the move as one more step to stop the flow of open and truthful news from [Cuba].
VOA contacted the Cuban Embassy in Madrid for comment but received no reply.
The Cuban government's International Press Center, which controls accreditation for foreign media, did not respond to requests by VOA for comment.
Edith Rodriguez Cachera, vice president of the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in Madrid, said that after a crackdown on independent media during protests in July, Cuba had turned its attention to the international press.
The Cuban dictatorship takes another turn of the screw in its persecution of the press, trying to deactivate the delegation of a foreign press agency. The government of [Cuban] President Miguel Diaz-Canel does not want witnesses to the movement for change which are emerging in Cuba, she said at the conference.
Not content with silencing the entire independent local press with jail and exile, he now wants to do this with the foreign press.
Coverage blocked
Cuban journalists reported on Monday that police and government supporters had surrounded their houses to stop them covering the planned protest.
Camila Acosta, a Cuban journalist who works for the Spanish newspaper ABC and the news website Cubanet, has been under house arrest for four months after her arrest during the July protests.
Many journalists have been unable to leave their homes to do their jobs. They are trying to make us afraid but fear will be the catalyst for social explosion. We cannot give in to their repression. We must carry on, she told VOA from her home in Havana.
The security forces are trying to bully us into giving up our freedom of expression. They are trying to make many independent journalists unable to do their jobs by putting them under house arrest.
Acosta said that security services tried to bully her into giving up her job as a journalist.
Thanks to my family, I can subsist and carry on doing my work. I will never give up, she added.
Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press, told VOA that scores of independent journalists on the island were unable to do their work because they were under effective house arrest. The Miami-based organization supports opposition media in Cuba.
We have heard that there is a heavy police presence outside journalists' homes and there are lots of military vehicles on the streets, he said.
It is another shameful expression of the totalitarian regime in Cuba which seeks to silence anyone who opposes the regime or who wants to report what is really going on.
He said another demonstration is planned for November 27.
They feel that they still owe something to the people and want to carry out another protest against the repression which has existed for the past 60 years, Hernandez said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday condemned intimidation tactics by the Cuban government ahead of the planned march.
Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban foreign minister, responded on Twitter, saying the U.S. should stay out of Cuban affairs.
In a televised statement on Monday, Rodriguez said that the Cuban people had avoided the protests, despite U.S. officials pushing Cubans to do something that they do not want to do.
One can see on our streetsthat none of that has occurred, Rodriguez said.
Some information for this story came from Reuters.
Commercial truck driver Casey Benson knows container ships are stuck off the U.S. west coast. He worries that the port in his hometown of Oakland, California, cannot find enough workers to move goods on and off the ships.
Benson, 47, hopes U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who chatted for the first time Monday night in a virtual meeting, can someday get cargo flowing again despite a trade dispute that has raised tariffs on $550 billion worth of shipments.
"I just hope something is really resolved," he told VOA while exercising along a bayside promenade.
Spirit of cooperation
Benson, along with other Americans that VOA canvassed about the summit, are in favor of cooperation between the two countries.
Biden pushed for reducing the risk of conflict in the competition between China and the U.S. and called out Xi on key issues such as human rights, while Xi defended China's sovereignty.
Americans, including Chinese immigrants, wanted the two leaders to set a foundation for later deals that could improve livelihoods in either country.
"The most pressing problem is to give everyone a win-win," said Zhang Jingyou, a 78-year-old retired doctor who moved to Oakland from Guangzhou in 1998. "A joint win would be for the best. Let everyone develop. Don't spend so much on wars and arms. Use the money for construction. Fix the roads. Let everyone's lives improve a little."
The United States should seek help, said Nick Yale, 65, a former state employee who had just walked through Oakland's Chinatown, a dilapidated district that has seen a spate of violence against Asians over the past year.
"China is obviously a rising power, and the United States is a declining power," said Yale, who married a Chinese American and visited China twice.
"America needs help, too," he said. "We've played our role in the world, and now we are having a lot of problems here at home. I hope that the Chinese can help the United States at this time in terms of investment, cultural exchange, technology."
US-China flashpoints
The U.S. government considers China a strategic competitor, with Beijing seeking to grow its military and economic influence around the world. There have been clashes over tariffs and technology secrets, as well as regional flashpoints that have the potential to spiral into armed conflict, including in the Taiwan Strait and the South China and East China seas.
A 70-year-old Chinese immigrant in Oakland, who requested anonymity, said he expected Xi would stick up for China's claim to Taiwan. China sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has threatened to use force, if needed, against Taiwan despite Biden's commitment to defend it. The immigrant supports unification of the two sides.
Some Americans say the U.S. needs to continue to push China on issues that range from trade and technology theft to human rights concerns.
Biden "raised concerns about the PRC's practices in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as human rights more broadly," the White House said in a statement.
Human rights activists demonstrated outside the White House earlier this week in anticipation of the summit.
"Raising an issue is not nearly enough. We need concrete steps," said 18-year-old university student Tesla Zoksang. The New York-based Tibet activist spent 50 hours outside the White House before the summit to generate attention for what she described as "repressive assimilation" of Tibetans in China. "As far as I know, the Olympics were never mentioned," Zoksang said.
Untouched topics
Zoksang said Biden could have recommended a U.S. diplomatic boycott of China's 2022 Winter Olympics to protest Beijing's treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority group and the Tibetans. Many human rights organizations have called for a boycott, accusing China of genocide of the Uyghurs, which China has denied.
Biden should have also asked Xi about "forced labor" of the Uyghurs in China's northwest, said Washington D.C.-based activist Jewher Ilham.
The D.C.-based advocacy group Hong Kong Democracy Council "wants real action" from the Biden government on Hong Kong's political future, executive director Brian Leung said Tuesday. He said the administration and Congress should pass legislation that opens a "humanitarian pathway for Hong Kongers who have to flee Hong Kong for very imminent political persecutions" in the Chinese territory that has come under increased pressure from Beijing since the protracted street protests of 2019.
An administration official in Washington downplayed expectations before the Biden-Xi meeting, saying Sunday it wasn't about "agreeing to a specific deliverable or outcome."
While many people approached for interviews did not know about the summit or declined to give an opinion, Andreii Semenov, a 44-year-old German-born sailor in Oakland, called the Sino-U.S. relationship a "political game."
Saqib Ul Islam contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Kenya as part of efforts to pull Ethiopia back from the brink of civil war. The visit is the first stop on a three-country tour for Blinken.
Blinken met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss climate change, trade, the COVID-19 pandemic and most urgently, regional security.
At a news conference in Nairobi, Blinken said he and Kenyatta discussed the crisis in Ethiopia and the African effort to resolve it, led by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Our special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is working with high representative Obasanjo to press the parties to end hostilities immediately and without preconditions, to stop human rights abuses and violations, to provide humanitarian access for the millions in northern Ethiopia who are in dire need of life-saving supplies, he said.
The Ethiopian government has been at war with the northern Tigray region for a year, and both sides are accused of committing widespread abuses against the population.
Concern about the situation has grown in recent weeks as Tigrayan and allied forces threaten to march on the capital.
On Sunday, Kenyatta visited Ethiopia, hoping to bridge the gap between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and Tigray regional leaders.
Kenyas Foreign Minister Raychelle Omamo said it's possible to find a solution to the crisis, and said Ethiopians need to work hard on a peaceful resolution to the war.
We believe in the potential of Ethiopia to find a resolution to this crisis. We believe a ceasefire is possible. We believe the other conditions regarding humanitarian access are possible. We must believe in the fortitude and wisdom of the Ethiopian people because, in the end, the solutions will come from them. What we can do as a neighbor is to support, said Omamo.
Meanwhile, Blinken also touted U.S. help to Africa in battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
We provided more than 50 million doses to 43 African countries to date, including 4 million doses here in Kenya. We also gave $1.9 billion in COVID-related assistance across Africa to help meet humanitarian needs, including $76 million to Kenya. And we have done this with no political strings attached. This is about saving lives, that's the only metric that matters, he said.
Secretary Blinken next travels to Nigeria, followed by a visit to Senegal.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened his three-nation tour of the African continent with a warning that several factors have led to a recession of democracy around the world.
Speaking before a group of human rights activists Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, Blinken said even vibrant democracies like Kenya have become increasingly vulnerable to misinformation, corruption, political violence and voter intimidation.
The United States is hardly immune from this challenge, Blinken said in an apparent reference to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capital by supporters of then-President Donald Trump in an attempt to force lawmakers to disqualify Joe Bidens victory in last Novembers presidential election. Weve seen how fragile our own democracy can be.
The top U.S. diplomat told the participants he wanted to hear their perspectives on democratic challenges and their ideas on solving them, as well as how the United States can be helpful to these efforts.
Blinkens remarks were made before scheduled talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Foreign Affairs Ambassador Raychelle Omamo. The U.S. State Department said the trio would discuss the partnerships between their governments with respect to ending the COVID pandemic and investing in health, addressing the climate crisis, building a more inclusive global economy, and strengthening democracy and respect for human rights.
Blinken will also address specific regional issues such as ending the violence in Ethiopia, combating terrorism in Somalia and reviving Sudans transition to a civilian government, the State Department said Tuesday.
Kenya, a member of the United Nations Security Council, is an important player in issues related to regional countries including Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.
Blinkens upcoming visit to Kenya is part of a three-nation tour to Africa that also includes trips to Nigeria and Senegal. His trip is partially aimed at raising Americas profile as a key player in the region as it competes with China.
Despite its large contributions of money and vaccines to contain the coronavirus and other infectious diseases, the United States has had little success in gaining influence in the region.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Nigeria Thursday on the second leg of his three-nation tour of Africa to discuss security issues and other topics.
The State Department said earlier this week that Blinken and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will meet in Abuja to discuss collaborating on international health security, expanding energy access and security, and other issues.
Blinken opened his three-nation tour in Kenya with a warning that several factors have led to a democratic recession of democracy around the world.
During a meeting Wednesday in Nairobi with Raychelle Omamo, Kenya's foreign affairs ambassador, Blinken said, "We're seeing, and we've seen over the last decade or so, what some are calling the democratic recession, democracies falling back.
Blinken also addressed with Kenyan leaders specific regional issues such as ending the violence in Ethiopia, combating terrorism in Somalia and reviving Sudans transition to a civilian government.
Kenya, a member of the United Nations Security Council, is an important player in issues related to regional countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.
Blinkens tour of Africa includes a stop in Senegal. His trip is partially aimed at raising Americas profile as a key player in the region as it competes with China.
Despite its large contributions of money and vaccines to contain COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, the United States has had little success in gaining influence in the region.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
China and the United States will ease restrictions on access for journalists from each other's countries, Chinese state media and the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The official China Daily cited unidentified Chinese foreign ministry sources as saying that a consensus on journalist visas, among other points, was reached before a virtual summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.
Tensions between the world's top two economies on issues ranging from tech and trade to human rights and the coronavirus spilled over into the media sector last year.
Beijing accused Washington of a "political crackdown" on Chinese journalists after it slashed the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work at the U.S. offices of major Chinese state-owned media and limited their authorized stay to 90 days, with an option to extend.
In the tit-for-tat row, China then expelled U.S. journalists from several U.S. newspapers and introduced new visa restrictions on some U.S. media companies.
Under the consensus reached, the United States will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists, China Daily said, adding that the Chinese side has committed to granting equal treatment to U.S. journalists once the U.S. policies come into force.
Both countries will issue visas to journalists based on applicable laws and regulations, it said, adding that journalists will be able to depart freely and return under strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department gave similar details, saying China had committed to permit U.S. journalists already in the country to depart freely and return, which they had previously been unable to do. It said the United States planned to facilitate similar treatment for Chinese journalists.
"We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps," the spokesperson said, adding in reference to the People's Republic of China: "The media environment in the PRC has deteriorated significantly in recent years."
We will continue to work toward expanding access and improving conditions for U.S. and other foreign media, and we will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values, the spokesperson concluded.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In their more than three-hour video call, Biden pressed Xi on human rights, while the Chinese president warned that Beijing would respond to provocations on Taiwan, according to official accounts of the exchange.
The two also agreed to look into the possibility of arms control talks, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 352,000 square kilometers (136,000 square miles) about twice the area of Florida.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The auction comes after a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by Republican states rejected a suspension of fossil fuel sales that Biden imposed when he first took office.
The Democrat campaigned on promises to curb fossil fuels from public lands and waters, which, including coal, account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet even as he's tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening international efforts against global warming, Wednesday's sale illustrates Biden's difficulties gaining ground on climate issues at home.
"We had Trump's unconstrained approach to oil and gas on federal lands and Biden's early attempt to pause drilling. Now it looks like the Biden administration is trying to find a new policy," said researcher Robert Johnston with Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.
The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said in pre-sale documents released Tuesday that it received bids on 307 tracts totaling 6,950 square kilometers (nearly 2,700 square miles). That's the largest total for a single sale since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017. Those seven sales have generated almost $1 billion in total revenue.
Environmental reviews of the Gulf of Mexico sale conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer greenhouse gases than leaving it in the ground.
Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson whose work was cited by judges in one of the cases said the Interior Department's analysis had a glaring omission: They left out greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that would result from having more Gulf oil on the market.
"The math is extremely simple on this kind of stuff," said Erickson, a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute, a nonprofit research group. "If new leases expand the global oil supply, that has a proportional effect on emissions from burning oil. Therefore, giving out these leases in the Gulf of Mexico would be increasing global emissions."
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in recent months changed its emissions modeling methods, citing Erickson's work. But officials said it was too late to use the new approach for Wednesday's lease sale, which they said had been through "a rigorous process with specific timelines."
"The environmental analysis for Lease Sale 257 was already complete and as such does not contain the newer approach to considering the impacts of foreign consumption of oil and gas," the agency said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
Administration officials declined AP's interview requests. For upcoming sales, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said Interior is conducting a more comprehensive emission review than any prior administration, as it appeals the court order that forced their resumption.
Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said he was uncertain that using the new approach would have changed the government's conclusions, since drilling for oil in other parts of the world is less efficient and hauling imports also adds to carbon costs. He described the Gulf as the "backbone of U.S. oil production" and said companies consider it a strong investment.
The continued use of the old analysis rankles drilling opponents who say Biden isn't following through on his climate pledges.
"We're talking about transitioning away from a fossil fuel economy, and they are selling a giant carbon bomb of a lease sale," said attorney Drew Caputo with Earthjustice, which has a lawsuit challenging the Gulf lease sale pending in federal court. "That creates a property right to develop those leases. It's a lot harder to keep the carbon in the ground if you sell the lease."
Some Democrats also objected to the sale. The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, said Biden promised to lead on climate issues but continues running a fossil fuel program with a long history of mismanagement.
"The administration needs to do better," Grijalva said in a statement Tuesday.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.
Industry analysts had predicted some heightened interest in Wednesday's sale since oil prices rose sharply over the past year. It's also a chance for companies to secure drilling rights before the administration or Congress can increase drilling fees and royalty rates or adopt new restrictions on environmental permits, said analyst Justin Rostant with industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
An outright ban on new leases and drilling seems unlikely after the federal court shot down Biden's temporary suspension, he added.
"Different companies have different approaches and different strategies," Rostant said. "Some could think this might be the year to go big."
The death toll from Sundays attack by militants on Burkina Faso military police has risen to 53. The attack is the deadliest on security forces during Burkina Fasos six-year-long battle with Islamist militants.
Burkina Fasos communications minister said Thursday that 49 military police and four civilians were killed in the attack on a military police base in the north.
A security source told VOA Thursday morning that the death toll is likely to rise further.
The attack was the deadliest for the countrys security forces since the battle between the government and armed groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and local bandits began six years ago.
The event has caused a public outcry and small protests, with about 300 people taking to the streets of Ouagadougou on Tuesday.
Adama Tiendrebeogo was among the protesters.
Politically, we say that President [Roch] Kabore has failed in his responsibilities. He took an oath to protect the Burkinabe people who he has failed, so we think he has to leave, he said.
Asked what the mood was among those who had joined the protest, he said that people think its a pity that for six years the country has been at war, and that we are still fighting.
So, there are no solutions, there is no hope, no prospects, the Burkinabe people feel abandoned by their captain, Tiendrebeogo added.
The minister of communication did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.
Meanwhile, the opposition has called for president Kabore, to resign.
A statement by Eddie Kombiego, leader of the opposition CDP party, on Tuesday said, This situation arose because of the notorious incompetence of the Kabore regime.
The government is keen to be seen as taking action. During a Cabinet meeting yesterday, the president sought to blame shortcomings in the military police for the attack.
Two security personnel responsible for the northern area of the country, where the attack took place, were subsequently removed from their posts on Wednesday.
The president also suggested that food supply issues in the military were a problem and needed to be dealt with.
An unverified document, which appeared to have been leaked from the military, circulated on social media earlier this week. It showed the base in Inata, where the attack happened, had been suffering from food supply issues for two weeks.
Personnel from the base were said to have been forced to slaughter local animals for food.
Andrew Lebovich, an analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations, says the Islamist threat is a huge challenge.
On the security front, I think this shows how difficult it is and how much trouble the government has had, even in the face of ongoing security operations, to confront and to deal with the militant threat, particularly near the borders with Mali and Niger. It really is, any place, a quite dire security situation, Lebovich said.
More protests are expected to take place next week.
Maria Ribeiro da Silva, 64, spent a hot afternoon hawking a new contraption to acquaintances and friends who passed by her small grocery store on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and home to more than 12 million people.
Everyone who passed by received the same invitation from her: "Come, come and see my stove. It's beautiful. I made it."
Each guest received the same explanation: "I built a real wood fire oven, with a chimney and everything. No more smoke, no more heat."
It had been almost 50 years since Ribeiro da Silva cooked with firewood. Since she arrived in Sao Paulo in 1974, fleeing drought, hunger and poverty in the impoverished northeast region of Brazil, she has only cooked with gas.
"I spent my childhood using firewood. We didn't have gas. We didn't have the money to have a real stove. But since I arrived in Sao Paulo wood was in the past," she told VOA.
But with the Brazilian economy worsening, and the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poorest parts of the population, firewood has become the only option for millions of families like Ribeiro da Silvas'.
It was a slow and gradual process for Ribeiro da Silva. First, firewood was only used in extreme cases when the gas ran out and there was not enough money to replace it. But when she lost her job as a cleaner at a company in downtown Sao Paulo six months ago, firewood became the primary fuel to cook food.
"Now, I only use the gas stove for simple things like making coffee or heating the food I cooked on firewood. I don't have any more money to buy gas. The price is too high. It's impossible," she said.
Skyrocketing fuel prices
According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, at least 25% of the Brazilian population is using wood as their primary cooking source.
This was before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Due to the pandemic, the Brazilian Statistical Institute stopped carrying out quarterly in-person surveys, so we don't have data for 2020 and 2021," said Adriana Gioda, a professor in the department of chemistry at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and a leading researcher on firewood consumption by Brazilian families.
"But since 2016, when the federal government cut subsidies for residential gas and tied the fuel price policy to the international prices, there has been a steady growth in the use of firewood to make food," she told VOA.
Fuel prices have been rising steadily over the past five years but have skyrocketed since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019. He promised not to interfere with the country's state oil company and allow fuel prices to follow the international market.
This year alone, the price of residential gas rose by an average of 35%. Liquefied petroleum gas is the primary fuel for food production in Brazil, and its cost is linked directly to the price of the oil barrels.
'Back in time'
"In the interior of Brazil, in rural and more isolated areas, using firewood is a tradition. But what impressed us most is that the use of wood is advancing precisely in the most urban areas, in large Brazilian cities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo," Gioda said.
And it is rising in areas such as Jardim Marajoara, a poor neighborhood of migrants from the northeast region of Brazil on Sao Paulo's outskirts, where Ribeiro da Silva lives. It is in these regions that the poorest and those most affected by the economic crisis are concentrated.
Juarez Viana, a bus driver who also lost his job during the pandemic, has turned to firewood to cook. He, like Ribeiro da Silva, lives in a suburb of Sao Paulo that is sprawling into the last green areas of the city. Once a week, he crosses the street and enters a small forest to fetch wood.
"It's hard work, and it seems like I've gone back in time," said Viana, who is also a migrant from the Brazilian northeast. At 49, he remembers cooking with wood as a child. "But it's worth it. We do not have more money to buy gas. The price is out of control. I've never seen anything like this."
"We are going back in time, going back at least half a century," said pulmonologist Elie Fiss, a research director at Hospital Alemao Oswaldo Cruz. "Since the 1960s, we no longer saw respiratory problems related to the use of firewood for cooking. But with so many people going back to the firewood, this is a problem that will soon return to hospitals."
Unidentified gunmen have killed at least 25 people in southwest Niger, officials said Wednesday, the latest in a string of deadly raids along the country's border with Mali.
Attackers on motorcycles stormed the camp of a local self-defense militia near the village of Bakorat in the Tahoua region on Tuesday, said Attawane Abeitane, mayor of the nearby town of Tillia.
A gunfight lasted for several hours before Nigerien security forces arrived and repelled the attackers, Abeitane said. A security official said only one of the defense militia survived.
"These are terrorists who came from outside, and there were many of them," Abeitane said. "There were deaths among the terrorists, and motorcycles were also burned."
No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack. A local affiliate of Islamic State has killed hundreds of people in rural communities near the Malian border this year.
One raid on Bakorat and neighboring villages in March killed 137 people, one of the deadliest days in Niger's recent history. Local officials blamed that attack on Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
In the absence of a permanent military presence, some villages and towns have taken up arms to defend themselves, though security analysts fear this can stoke the violence.
The attack is part of a wider wave of violence that since 2017 has swept across West Africa's Sahel region, a band of arid terrain south of the Sahara Desert.
Some of the worst attacks have been centered in the border region of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the region, and millions have been displaced.
The last time Polenli Combary spoke to her son on the phone, she prayed for God to bless him. Shortly after, she called back, but the line was dead.
Her 34-year-old son was returning a truck used to move the family's belongings from their village in eastern Burkina Faso after jihadis forced everyone to leave. He disappeared in March.
"We will keep searching. ... I'm just praying to God to have him back," said Combary, 53, sitting despondently in the eastern city of Fada N'Gourma where she now lives.
Islamic extremist violence is ravaging Burkina Faso, killing thousands and displacing more than 1 million people.
And people are going missing. Reports of missing relatives quadrupled from 104 to 407 between 2019 and 2020, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which defines a missing person as someone whose whereabouts cannot be accounted for and requires state intervention.
"With the conflict, you have more sudden movements of people. You have more incidents which can lead to separation and disappearance," said Marina Fakhouri, head of protection with the ICRC in Burkina Faso. "Certainly, we are concerned also by the number of families who are coming to us directly to signal that they have a missing relative and need support."
People have previously gone missing in the West African nation due to migration, floods or shocks from climate change, but the magnitude has increased because of the violence, she said.
Tracing people during a conflict and in a context of mass displacement is challenging, can cause tensions within families and communities, and psychological and physical distress. One month after her son disappeared, Combary's husband died of a heart attack due to the shock, she said.
While some families blame the jihadis for the disappearances of their loved ones, many others point to the security forces as the main perpetrators. During a trip to Fada N'Gourma in October and speaking to people in the Sahel province by phone, three families, including Combary's, told The Associated Press they suspect the army is responsible for their missing relatives.
The military has been accused by rights groups of extrajudicial killings and targeting people deemed to be associated with the jihadis. About 70% of families reporting people missing allege it is linked to the security forces, said Daouda Diallo, executive secretary for the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, a civil society group.
There's been a reduction of reported cases affiliated with the military since the end of last year, which Diallo attributes to a report by Human Rights Watch that accused the army of being involved in mass killings, said Diallo. But now the abuses are being committed by volunteer fighters, civilians armed by the state, he said.
"It is sad to see that the violence has been subcontracted to armed civilians or militia in the field," Diallo said.
The Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
Burkina Faso's increasing violence fuels impunity among the security forces, and the abductions and killings highlight the absence of the rule of law, conflict analysts say.
"A significant proportion of the violence is attributed either to jihadist groups or 'unidentified armed men,' making it easy to absolve certain parties of responsibility. It's easy to kill people or make them disappear, but much more difficult to protect them," said Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
Families searching for relatives they believe were taken by state agents say they don't know where to turn. Hamadou Diallo's nephew was allegedly arrested by the army outside Dori town in the Sahel province in 2019, he said. Unaware of any organization that could help other than the military, Diallo stopped searching.
"Nobody had the courage to approach (the army)," he said. "After one or two weeks, if you don't see a family member, that means (they're dead)."
Rights groups say the government is obligated to investigate all cases of disappearances, hold people responsible and use the judiciary and the national human rights commission, said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
"Both institutions need to redouble their efforts on behalf of families whose loved ones went missing at the hands of state security forces or armed Islamists. They have a right to the truth and to justice," she said.
But while families with missing relatives search for answers, they live in limbo.
Fidele Ouali hasn't seen his 33-year-old brother since he disappeared a year and a half ago, he said. A farmer and father of five, Ouali said he was close to his brother, but as time passes, he's finding it harder to remember him.
"All my memories are wiped out," said Ouali. Clutching his brother's birth certificate, which he carries everywhere, Ouali said he is torn between giving up completely and hanging onto the hope that one day he might see his brother again.
Glafira Zhuks belongings fit into one small piece of luggage. The Narodnaya Volya journalist left her home country of Belarus last month after spending 30 days in prison for her reporting earlier this year.
I left the country because I want to be a journalist, and I want to write about my country, Zhuk told VOA from Kyiv. I understood that I can't do it in Belarus because I can immediately be arrested.
Zhuk spent 30 days in prison in May over her coverage of a court case that involved student activists. She was later expelled from the state universitys school of journalism for missing her exams, which took place while she was in prison.
The reporter is one of hundreds to be detained in Belarus since the contested reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020. Journalists working for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, are among those affected.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), of which Zhuk is a member, reported 480 detentions in 2020 alone. The nongovernmental media association continues to track cases despite the countrys Supreme Court legally dissolving it in August 2021.
Suppression of the media has been a regular occurrence during Lukashenkos 26-year presidency, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). But it ramped up in the past 18 months.
Belarus has never been free, Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at CPJ, told VOA. It's quite a phenomenon that Belarusian journalists managed to develop media outlets and continue reporting despite all the restrictions that the authorities had in place.
Its common for journalists in Belarus to be detained for short periods of time a few days or a few hours to prevent them from reporting on specific projects, according to Said. But after the recent election, journalists have faced longer prison sentences.
For instance, two Belsat TV journalists Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Daria Chultsova marked one year in prison on Monday. They were arrested while covering the March of Brave People, a Minsk protest sparked by the death of an anti-government activist.
Similarly, independent journalist Ksenia Lutskina has been in prison for 11 months. She was arrested along with five members of Press Club Belarus on allegations of tax evasion.
Lutskinas situation is especially troubling, says Said, because the journalist has a brain tumor for which she is not receiving medical treatment.
Were concerned about the plight of many jailed journalists because we hear about them having COVID in jail or heart attacks in jail and not getting to see doctors or not getting medicine they need, she told VOA. Sometimes they are in prison cells with 12 or 15 other people when some of them are sick.
Zhuk has previously described how she was kept in a crowded cell without bed linens and was not allowed to shower for the duration of her 30-day detention.
The Belarus Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOAs request for comment.
Letters from prison
To raise awareness about the hundreds of political prisoners, including journalists, in Belarus, four rights organizations created the Letters from Lukashenkas Prisoners project.
The online project organized by Index on Censorship, Belarus Free Theatre, Human Rights House Foundation and Politzek.me publishes letters from prisoners in Belarus. A letter from journalist Andreyeva was among the first.
We really wanted political prisoners to be more than a number. We wanted them to have a voice, Jessica Ni Mhainin, policy and campaigns manager at Index on Censorship, told VOA.
We wanted to show the human side of the crisis and the unnecessary suffering and the fact that theyre being targeted for what we really take for granted: for human rights and freedom of expression, and demonstrating, and freedom of assembly, she said.
Gathering the letters has not been easy, Ni Mhainin said, since censorship in the country has been so strong.
Said faces a similar challenge in collecting information about imprisoned journalists in Belarus. Lawyers who defend journalists in Belarus are forced to sign nondisclosure agreements that prevent them from sharing information, even with family members of those in prison.
Those lawyers who tried to voice any disagreement with this policy, they were stripped of their license, Said told VOA.
Detention of journalists, lengthy prison terms, the closure of media outlets and the removal of independent news websites are just some of the tactics used by authorities under Lukashenkos control, according to CPJ.
Zhuk dreams of one day returning to Belarus, something she believes is not possible as long as Lukashenko is in power.
I know that my country is not free because Lukashenko made such conditions, Zhuk told VOA. It's really hard to live inside such conditions and to understand that you can't be free and you can't remain safe.
But she hopes that situation will change.
That is why I do not buy anything in Kyiv, because I hope that one day I will go home with my little luggage to my flat and live, Zhuk told VOA.
An American journalist who had been held in Myanmar for 176 days returned to the United States on Tuesday.
Danny Fenster, 37, was freed on Monday, days after a Yangon court sentenced him to 11 years in prison on charges filed by the junta.
The release came after negotiations between the Myanmar military government and top U.S. officials, including former congressman and ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson.
"I think journalists are the most vulnerable because when they report the facts, they upset these governments. And so for that reason they're vulnerable. And I think they should be given special attention for protection," Richardson told VOA Tuesday. "I mean, we should protect every political prisoner, hostage, especially American. But I see journalists across the board being more vulnerable everywhere, not just in Southeast Asia but in Russia and Latin America for their reporting, and that's wrong. They're doing their job."
"I just have so much gratitude right now," Fenster told reporters in New York after his flight home, adding that he only had hints about the negotiations to free him.
"I was able to get little hints of what was going on and occasionally got the experience of, outside of the prison, in court, maybe some police aide that could speak a little bit of English would flash a picture on his phone of my entire family wearing T shirts with my face on it on CNN. It was a pretty bizarre thing to see," he said.
Fenster is the second American journalist to be released from Myanmar since a military coup February 1 ousted the democratically elected government. Nathan Maung was detained for 98 days after police in March raided the offices of Kamayut Media where he was working.
Fenster was arrested at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he boarded a flight to the U.S. to see his family in his hometown of Detroit.
At the time, he was working as the managing editor for Yangon-based news site Frontier Myanmar.
The American was held at Insein prison and charged with incitement, unlawful association and visa breaches. Charges of sedition and terrorism were later added.
Fenster's lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, told VOA the junta believed incorrectly that Fenster was still working for the news outlet Myanmar Now.
The outlet is one of several that the military banned after seizing power.
Fenster had sufficient evidence that he had left the company last year, months before the coup, and Myanmar Now confirmed that he no longer worked for the outlet.
But a court on November 12 sentenced Fenster to the lengthy sentence.
Ihar Tsikhanenka and Tommy Walker contributed to this report.
Michelle Wu was sworn in Tuesday as Boston's first woman and first person of color elected mayor in the city's long history.
The swearing-in of the city's first Asian American mayor came two weeks after Wu won the city's mayoral election. Before Wu, Boston had elected only white men as mayor.
"City government is special. We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. Every streetlight, every pothole, every park and classroom, lays the foundation for greater change," Wu said after taking the oath of office.
"After all, Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise: that things don't have to be as they always have been. That we can chart a new path for families now, and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity," she said.
Wu, 36, takes over for a fellow Democrat former acting Mayor Kim Janey who was Boston's first woman and first Black resident to serve in, but who was not elected to, the top post.
Wu said when she first set foot inside the cavernous Boston City Hall, she felt swallowed up by the maze of concrete hallways, checkpoints and looming counters all reminders of why her immigrant family tried to steer clear of such spaces.
But she said her family's struggles eventually brought her to an internship with former Mayor Thomas Menino and ultimately a seat on the Boston City Council where, she said, she learned the ropes of city government and politics.
"Today I know City Hall's passageways and stairwells like my own home," she said.
The swearing-in means Wu will now face the daunting task of trying to make good on a slew of ambitious policy proposals that were the backbone of her campaign.
To push back against soaring housing costs that have forced some former residents out of the city, Wu has promised to pursue rent stabilization or rent control. The biggest hurdle to that proposal is the fact that Massachusetts voters narrowly approved a 1994 ballot question banning rent control statewide.
Another of Wu's top campaign promises is to create a "fare-free" public transit system. Wu has said the proposal would strengthen the city's economy, address climate change and help those who take the bus or subway to school or work.
Like the rent control pledge, Wu can't unilaterally do away with fares on the public transit system. Wu has said she would try to work with partners in state government to make each proposal a reality.
In her comments Tuesday, Wu said it's crucial to tackle the big challenges she has promised while not losing sight of the nitty-gritty of city government.
"Not only is it possible for Boston to deliver basic city services and generational change it is absolutely necessary in this moment," she said. "We'll tackle our biggest challenges by getting the small things right."
Wu, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan, grew up in Chicago and moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School. She has two small children.
Janey made brief comments before Wu was sworn in, thanking the city for the chance to serve as mayor, even for a brief period.
"I know that Boston is in good hands, and I am so proud to call you Madam Mayor," Janey said to Wu.
Janey had been president of the Boston City Council before taking over as mayor, the second of the city's three mayors this year.
She rose to the top post on an acting basis when the city's previous elected mayor, Democrat Marty Walsh, stepped down this year to become U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden. Janey was sworn in March 24.
Janey attempted to use the status of the office in her run to replace Walsh, but she failed to garner enough votes to make it past the preliminary mayoral election that whittled the field down to two candidates City Councilors Wu and Annissa Essaibi George.
Republican Governor Charlie Baker, Democratic U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey and U.S. Represenative Ayanna Pressley attended the swearing-in.
Migrants in a makeshift camp on the western border of Belarus are being taken away by bus, a Polish government official was quoted as saying Wednesday.
Thousands of migrants, primarily from the Middle East, have been stuck in the camp since Nov. 8. Most are escaping conflict and instability at home for opportunities in Germany or other countries in western Europe.
On Tuesday, Polish security forces along the border fired water cannons and tear gas at stone-throwing migrants, after Poland accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenkos government of providing smoke grenades and other weapons to the migrants.
But on Wednesday, a Polish deputy interior minister, Maciej Wasik, reportedly said tensions had deescalated and that the camp, which is now closed, had fewer people.
"I have received information that Lukashenko has provided the first buses which migrants are boarding and leaving," Wasik said, according to The Associated Press. "The camp site near Kuznica is slowly emptying."
The Associated Press reported Wasiks information is hard to verify because of restrictions on journalists on both sides of the Belarusian-Polish border.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that migrants were being sheltered inside a logistics center at the border.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak warned Wednesday in an interview with Polands Radio Jedynka the crisis at the border could last months or even years, according to Agence France-Presse.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
Four construction workers were killed Wednesday in another deadly building collapse in Nigeria's economic capital, Lagos.
Officials of the Lagos state fire service said search teams rescued five workers and that those workers are in stable condition.
Officials say an unknown number of people remains trapped under the debris. The building, a one-story structure in the Magbon area on the outskirts of Lagos, caved in Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier this month, a 21-story building collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos state, killing at least 42 people and raising concerns among both citizens and authorities.
Experts attribute the frequent collapses seen in Nigeria to substandard building materials and poor monitoring by authorities.
"What is government doing to have prevented this occurrence? We can't continue to be wasting lives. Every professional body has a regulatory body, we have the Nigerian Institute of Architects, we have Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria. To what extent are those regulatory bodies delivering on their mandate?" asked Festus Adebayo, founder of the Housing Development Advocacy Network.
After the Ikoyi building collapse, Lagos state authorities set up an independent team to investigate the incident. They also declared three days of mourning in the state for victims, who included the owner of the real estate company that was developing the site.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Nigeria on Thursday as part of a three-nation trip that includes Kenya and Senegal.
Blinken is expected to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, revitalizing democracies, and security issues. Ahead of his visit, Nigerian experts weigh in on the issues and their expectations.
Blinken will meet in Abuja with Nigerian President Muhamadu Buhari and other top government officials, including the vice president and foreign affairs minister.
They will discuss cooperation on global health security, expanding energy access and economic growth, and revitalizing democracy, according to a U.S. State Department release last week.
Political analyst and co-founder of YouthHub Africa, Rotimi Olawale, describes Blinken's visit as timely, especially as many African nations, including Nigeria, have failed to meet targets set by the World Health Organization for vaccinating the public.
"It's an opportunity to strengthen ties with Nigeria. As the world continues to open, Africa has been lagging behind in being able to access vaccines and I hope that that would be top of the agenda as well as issues in security, and support to ensure that the shrinking civil space not only in Nigeria but across the region is also addressed," Olawale said.
Nigeria is battling a range of security threats, including the Boko Haram insurgency, inter-communal clashes and more recently, a wave of mass abductions at schools.
The West African country has also been named among countries with shrinking civil space worsened by issues of police brutality that triggered mass protests last year, and crackdowns on free speech and the media.
While in Abuja, Blinken is expected to talk about U.S.-Africa policy, emphasizing the value of democracy.
This year alone, the continent has witnessed four successful military coups, threatening decades of progress toward democracy, says Olawale.
"There's also democratic challenges across West Africa, actually also across the continent where in the last couple of months we have seen a number of coups in Chad, Guinea, Sudan and in several other countries, where there's been a change to democracy. It's important that Nigeria plays a stabilization role across the continent, that this is also top of the agenda."
President Joe Biden took office in January aiming to bolster ties with Africa shaken by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Shortly after his inauguration, Biden signed an executive order lifting travel bans imposed by Trump on Muslim countries including Nigeria - a move that was widely praised.
Still, Nigerian security analyst Senator Iroegbu says major improvements in Africa policy under the Biden administration have been slow.
"Yes, there was an initial attempt at the beginning of the Biden administration to show that the U.S.-Africa relation will be different. A lot of policy makers in Africa are yet to understand the trajectory the Biden administration is taking when it comes to U.S.-Africa policy. A lot of it is shrouded in secrecy."
These experts hope the Biden administrations plans regarding Africa become much clearer by the time Blinken ends his visit.
Lawmakers in Pakistan approved on Wednesday new anti-rape legislation that would allow speedy convictions and severe sentences, including chemical castration, for rapists.
The bill is a response to a public outcry against a recent surge in incidents of rape of women and children in the country and growing demands for effectively stemming the crime.
The government will be required to establish special courts across Pakistan to expedite trials of rape suspects and decide cases of sexual abuse expeditiously, preferably within four months.
Under the bill, a nationwide register of sex offenders will also be maintained with the help of the National Database and Registration Authority. The identity of victims will be protected and special anti-rape crisis cells will be formed to conduct medical examinations of victims within hours of the crimes.
Those found guilty of gang rape will be sentenced to death or imprisoned for the rest of their lives, and repeat offenders could be subjected to chemical castration.
Critics say fewer than 4% of sexual assault or rape cases in Pakistan result in a conviction.
Rights activists welcomed the legislation but stressed the need for improved policing and prosecution to ensure justice for victims of sexual violence.
Legal experts say that rape cases in Pakistan take years to prosecute and that rapists often escape punishment because political influence leads to faulty police investigations. Moreover, rampant corruption in the lower judiciary can also help rapists in seeking favorable verdicts.
The circumstances often discourage women from seeking justice for fear of being shamed or persecuted by police or even their own relatives in the largely conservative Pakistani society.
Electronic voting
Pakistans parliament also passed a set of other bills Wednesday allowing electronic voting and granting for first-time expatriate Pakistanis the right to vote in national elections.
All the bills approved will come into force once signed by President Arif Alvi, which is a formality.
Opposition parties in the parliament furiously opposed the electronic voting bill, accusing Prime Minister Imran Khans government of paving the ground for rigging in the next elections due in 2023.
Ruling party lawmakers rejected charges that the bill was politically motivated and defended the electronic voting bill, saying it would ensure free and fair elections in Pakistan.
Khan took office in 2018 and has been calling for reforming the countrys decades-old election system that features paper ballots and manual vote-counting, leading to allegations of widespread rigging in all previous polls.
The United States announced sanctions against two high-level Cambodian military officials last week, setting off a storm of invectives from Phnom Penh and ratcheting up tensions related to Chinese development around the strategically located Ream Naval Base.
In statements about the decision, the U.S. specifically cited corruption related to the naval base, which has become a geopolitical flashpoint between the superpowers, as the U.S. worries it may become a Chinese military outpost on the Gulf of Thailand.
On November 10, the U.S. Treasury Department and State Department announced the sanctions against General Chau Phirun, director-general of the Defense Ministry's material and technical services department, and Admiral Tea Vinh, the Royal Cambodian Navy commander and the brother of Defense Minister Tea Banh.
The blacklisting bars the two men and their relatives from traveling to the U.S. and freezes any of their assets in the country, including those belonging to any entity in which they own a majority stake.
The State Department said Chau Phirun and Tea Vinh were involved in corrupt acts that undermined the rule of law and public faith in institutions. It specifically accused Chau Phirun of personally profiting from U.S.-backed improvements to the Ream Naval Base in 2020 and 2021 and inflating the costs of related construction.
U.S. embassy spokesperson Chad Roedemeier in Phnom Penh cited systemic corruption, transnational organized crime and human rights abuses when asked about the action against the generals.
"U.S. officials have regularly raised these concerns with Cambodia's leaders, but regrettably there have been no meaningful changes," he wrote in an email to VOA Khmer on November 11.
The State Department statement also said both men have been designated for public corruption under Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
Neither Chau Phirun nor Tea Vinh responded to VOA Khmer's requests for comment made to their cellphones.
Ministry of Defense spokesperson General Chhum Socheat and Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Koy Kuong did not respond to VOA Khmer's requests for comment. Tea Vinh's son, Tea Vichet, hung up when contacted by VOA Khmer.
Both ministries released statements Friday attributed to anonymous spokespeople rebuffing the U.S. sanctions against the two top Cambodian senior military officials.
"The Ministry of National Defense regards this action as senseless and provocative. The United States has once again tried to destroy the harmony of the Cambodian people," said the Defense Ministry.
"There is no difference between their current actions and their brutal behaviors undertaken in the past which resulted in destruction and tragedy for Cambodia and other countries around the world," it added.
The Defense Ministry added that the U.S. need not worry about the Chinese activity around the Ream Naval Base in Preah Sihanouk province. The base is located on the Gulf of Thailand.
"The modernization at REAM is certainly not a threat to the security of any countries, as alleged. The Ministry of National Defense and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have always shown goodwill towards other countries' sovereignty and regard this as respect of mutual interests and a way of evading friction," the statement said.
"In contrast, the United States constantly displays a disregard for Cambodia's sovereignty to further its own interests and enhance its position in current geo-political rivalry," it added.
"China always opposes unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction by the US side, and opposes gross interference in other countries' internal affairs," said a statement by the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Cooperation between Cambodia and China benefits the two nations, the statement added, and contributes "to peace and stability in the region. The equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Cambodia tolerates no interference from outside forces."
Tensions were heating up over the developments around Cambodia's key port city before the U.S. sanctioned the military leaders.
Following the release of a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month showing that construction was continuing on the naval base, the U.S. embassy accused Cambodia of being opaque about its intentions.
Roedemeier, the U.S. embassy spokesperson, said at the time that it was "aware of consistent, credible reporting that significant construction by the People's Republic of China continues at Ream Naval Base."
At the time, VOA Khmer contacted the Chinese embassies in Phnom Penh and Washington for comment on the new construction at the Ream base. Neither responded.
In its statement last week responding to the latest U.S. sanctions, Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs deplored the "long-arm jurisdiction" of the U.S. in its statement, calling the allegations "groundless" and driven by geopolitical motives.
Chin Malin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and vice chairman of the Cambodia Human Rights Committee, on Thursday accused the U.S. of committing an "anarchic activity" contrary to the principles of international law and order.
He said the U.S. was guilty of the same sins as China and its other geopolitical foes. "It is the anarchy of international politics started by the superpowers," Chin Malin added.
Ruling party spokesperson Sok Eysan said the generals had no plans for visiting the U.S. "From my understanding there will be no effect," he said.
However, Cambodian political observer Sophal Ear, associate dean for undergraduate programs and global development and associate professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, said the latest sanctions were significant as a sign of things to come.
"I think there could be hundreds of names in the future, so adding two more is important and symbolic. Cambodians have not been forgotten," Sophal Ear said in an email sent to VOA Khmer.
VOA's Khmer Service journalist Sok Khemara reported from Washington, and Hul Reaksmey provided additional reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Polish forces at the border with Belarus used water cannons and tear gas Tuesday against stone-throwing migrants, as Warsaw accused Belarusian authorities of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier.
The events marked an escalation in the crisis on the European Union's eastern border, where the West has accused President Alexander Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilize the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies orchestrating the crisis.
The Poland Border Guard agency posted video on Twitter showing water being sprayed across the border at a group of migrants who threw debris, and the Defense Ministry also said tear gas was used against the attackers. Polish authorities said nine of its forces were injured seven policemen, one soldier and a female border guard.
About 2,000 migrants were at the frontier in makeshift camps in freezing weather, but only about 100 were believed to be involved in attacking the Polish forces at the crossing near Kuznica, said Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska. The crossing has been closed since last week.
Police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka later said the migrants there had been "pacified." He also said the attackers had been given smoke grenades by the Belarusians and threw stones at the Polish police, with the events monitored by the Belarusian services using a drone. The Polish Defense Ministry also said Belarus gave some migrants flash-bang grenades.
Belarus' State Border Guard Committee and the Foreign Ministry said they would investigate Poland's actions.
"These are considered violent actions against individuals who are on the territory of another country," committee spokesman Anton Bychkovsky was quoted as saying by Belarus' state news agency Belta.
Lukashenko on Tuesday again rejected accusations of engineering the crisis and said his government has deported about 5,000 illegal migrants from Belarus this fall.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Monday by phone that neither Belarus nor the EU would benefit from an escalation of the crisis. He said he proposed a resolution but did not elaborate, adding that Merkel is discussing it with other EU leaders.
Some of the migrants have children with them at the border in their desperate bid to reach the EU. Most are fleeing conflict, poverty and instability in the Middle East and elsewhere. At least 11 deaths have been reported in recent weeks as the weather has turned colder, and they are trapped in the dank forest between the forces of the two countries.
While some have managed to get into the EU before Poland, Lithuania and Latvia bolstered their borders, passage appears to be much harder now.
Poland has taken a tough stand against the migrants' illegal entry, reinforcing the border with riot police and troops, rolling out razor wire, and making plans to build a tall steel barrier. The Polish approach has largely met with approval from other EU nations, who want to stop another wave of migration.
But Poland also has been criticized by human rights groups and others for pushing migrants back into Belarus and not allowing them to apply for asylum.
"It's very clear that if you see what's been happening to this group of people that their own specific concerns, their particular dignity and their rights have not been treated with the respect that they should have," said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. "And that is why we want them to be able to speak for themselves and to be heard. We don't want these people to be instrumentalized and used as pawns in the disputes involving the countries."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Poland's actions "violate all conceivable norms of international humanitarian law and other agreements of the international community."
Warsaw says Moscow bears some responsibility for the border crisis, given its strong support for Belarus. The Russian government has denied responsibility.
Events at the border have been difficult to verify independently. Poland has imposed a state of emergency, which bars reporters and human rights workers from the area. In Belarus, journalists face severe restrictions on their ability to report.
The EU has been pressuring airlines to stop carrying Syrians, Iraqis and others to Belarus, and the efforts were having some effect. A Beirut travel agency said flights from the Lebanese capital to Minsk had been stopped for now. A Tuesday evening flight by Belarusian carrier Belavia was shown as canceled on the airport's website.
Iraq urged its citizens at the border to return home. About 200 Iraqis in Belarus hoping to travel to the EU have contacted the Iraqi Embassy in Russia about returning home, an embassy spokesman told the Interfax agency. The spokesman said an evacuation flight will leave Thursday from Minsk, and Belarusian authorities have helped bring migrants back from the border.
Two demonstrators were shot dead in Sudans capital Wednesday at a protest over the military's recent coup, according to a pro-democracy doctors group.
The Central Doctors Committee said dozens of other protesters sustained gunshot wounds.
The shootings occurred as protesters gathered across Khartoum and other cities to demonstrate against the October 25 military takeover.
Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas at protesters in several places. They also said mobile phone lines in the country were cut during the demonstrations.
Protest organizers are calling for a full handover of power to civilian authorities and for the leaders of the military takeover to be tried in court.
The coup occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudans transition to democracy.
The coup has threatened to derail the process that began after the ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising in 2019.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed developments in Sudan during a visit Wednesday to Nairobi, where he met with President Uhuru Kenyatta and other officials.
Blinken, in the midst of a five-day trip to Africa that also includes visits to Nigeria and Senegal, said its vital that the transition regain legitimacy that it had.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Sudanese journalists are pushing back against military leaders who seized power in a coup last month, calling on them to respect press freedoms and release several editors and reporters they have detained.
The nation's media advocacy group says it has documented instances of excessive force used against reporters and media houses since the coup.
Journalists in Khartoum organized a silent protest on Tuesday. They held banners with slogans that read, We need free press and Free detained journalists.
Amru Shaban, the secretary-general of the Sudanese Journalists Network, said the military is holding six journalists in all. Among them is Mahir Abu Jukh, the editor-in-chief of the state-owned TV and radio network.
The network gathered information on more than 10 harassment incidents since the military coup on October 25, including threatening phone calls to journalists who are working for international media, Shaban told VOA's South Sudan in Focus program.
Authorities have also intentionally cut off internet services from journalists as part of the systematic crackdown on journalists who are supposed to document the ongoing crimes against Sudanese people," Shaban said.
There has been no public comment from the military leadership since the coup about press freedoms or the crackdown against protesters. A pro-democracy doctors group says two protesters were killed during a demonstration Wednesday.
Security forces used ammunition and tear gas Saturday against demonstrators decrying the coup and military rule.
In the crackdown on journalists, Sudanese forces on Saturday raided the home of El Musalmi El Kabbashi, the bureau chief of Al Jazeera network in Khartoum, and detained him. He was released on Tuesday without charge.
Late last month, Sudanese security forces stormed the building of El Demokrati, an Arabic daily newspaper, and confiscated copies of the printed paper while detaining tops editors.
"The intention of the military is to cripple the media in the country and to prevent journalists from documenting crimes that are committed against the citizens, Shaban told VOA.
Sudanese journalist Mohammed Sayeed told VOA that military harassment and a lack of internet services has curtailed his work in providing information to Sudanese citizens during this crucial time.
It shows that the new system doesnt value the press," he said. "The internet is one of the basic rights for access to information. It became our pen of writing, and the government is now attacking this pen.
A Sudanese court ruled last week that telecommunication companies must restore internet service. The services, however, remain shut down.
Hiba Ali, a reporter working for Al Sudani Arabic daily newspaper, said for that for the past month, the outlet has been unable to print because of the internet shutdown.
It has become clear after the military takeover that press freedom and journalists have become a target," she said. "It is the same attack that has been pursuing political activists and anybody that calls for freedoms and supports the democratic transformation in Sudan.
Depending on whom you ask, the sudden closure of the Kyiv Post is either an attempt to wrest editorial control from its journalists or an internal dispute between the owner and the paper's staff.
But one thing is for certain: Without the renowned English-language newspaper in circulation, audiences who closely follow politics in Ukraine are left without a credible, independent source of information.
The Kyiv Post's 26-year run in Ukraine came to an abrupt end November 8, when the paper's owner, businessman Adnan Kivan, announced that the publication had been suspended.
In a statement issued at the time, Kivan did not provide a reason, saying only, "One day, we hope to reopen the newspaper bigger and better."
But the paper's journalists say they believe the move was an attempt to remove "inconvenient" journalists, and in a statement, they accused Kivan of trying to interfere with the paper's editorial independence.
Government pressure?
Brian Bonner, who worked at Kyiv Post for 13 years, most recently as executive director and editor in chief, told VOA he believes Kivan may have come under pressure over the paper's coverage.
"Like his predecessors, some in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration are thin-skinned. Although Zelenskiy's people and Adnan Kivan insist that he faced no outside pressure, I suspect there was, or at least that recurring complaints about our coverage factored into his decision to close us down," Bonner said.
The paper has taken on big stories in its history, most recently reporting on the Pandora Papers a massive leak of documents that shone a light on how the world's powerful elite, including Ukraine's president, allegedly used secret accounts to hide property worth trillions of dollars. Zelenskiy denies any wrongdoing.
And it has also received complaints, including from "presidents, oligarchs and prosecutors general, to name a few," Bonner said.
But, the veteran journalist says, the president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, recently called to say that the administration wants the Kyiv Post to be open and "very independent."
"That was a welcome message and encouraging sign. I hope it is true," Bonner said, adding that the best thing Ukraine's government can do now is "protect not only journalists but owners of media organizations from harassment."
Blaming staff dispute
In an interview with VOA, Kivan denied being pressured and said a dispute with the paper's staff over plans to expand had left him no choice.
"I feel very sad for that situation," Kivan said. "I was pushed to that corner."
Kivan said he planned to have the paper back up and running soon. "God willing, within days, maximum weeks, we will be open again with a new energy, with the same principles," he said.
Analysts viewed the closure and claims of editorial interference as the further decline of Ukraine's media.
Rights groups including Reporters Without Borders say that while the country has made some positive steps, oligarchs retain a tight grip on the country's news industry, which affects independent reporting.
The shuttering of what was Ukraine's largest English-language news outlet will also impact the ability of the international community to stay informed of events inside the country, analysts say.
The European Union's ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, tweeted: "It was the first English-speaking source for most foreigners something Ukraine now risks losing, with consequences."
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine called it a "sad day for Ukrainian media."
Others saw it as a repressive move.
"Zelenskiy and Yermak are quickly moving towards an authoritarian road. I know Adnan Kivan, and I can't believe he's done this on his own intention. He must have been seriously threatened," Anders Aslund, an economist and Ukraine expert, told VOA.
Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council said that without the Kyiv Post, there will be fewer avenues of independent information.
"As a result of the Kyiv Post going under, the Western community is going to have much less information about Ukraine," Haring said. "Why is it a big deal? It means Ukraine continues going down a wrong path as it seems to be doing now that there will be fewer voices to help Ukraine engage in a course correction."
Changes in ownership
The newspaper has had three owners since American Jed Sunden launched it in 1995. In 2009, it was acquired by businessman Mohammad Zahoor, a British citizen and native of Pakistan, who sold it to Kivan, a Syrian native and Ukrainian citizen, in March 2018.
As editor in chief, Bonner has steered the paper through changes in ownership but has managed throughout to keep a steady hold on the paper's editorial independence.
"It remains hard to own and run a news organization in Ukraine," Bonner told VOA. "There's still hostility within the Ukrainian power structure toward independent journalism. Financially, the business is brutal. I don't know of any major news outlets that are both editorially and financially independent."
Kivan says the paper's principles will not change. Bonner, however, seems less certain.
"In the end, [Kivan] may have simply concluded that his business interests and supporting independent journalism just don't mix. We'll see," Bonner said.
In the meantime, some journalists who were fired from the paper have started their own newsletter.
Iryna Matviychuk contributed to this report. This article originated in VOA's Ukraine Service.
The Taliban foreign minister Wednesday penned an open letter to the U.S. Congress, warning of a mass refugee exodus from Afghanistan unless the United States unblocks more than $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets and ends other financial sanctions against the country.
Amir Khan Muttaqi wrote that the sanctions have not only played havoc with trade and business but also with humanitarian aid to millions of desperate Afghans. Muttaqis office in Kabul released copies of the letter in several languages, including English.
Muttaqi maintained that his government has managed to bring political stability and security to Afghanistan since returning to power last August but growing economic troubles are worsening humanitarian challenges.
Currently the fundamental challenge of our people is financial security and the roots of this concern lead back to the freezing of assets of our people by the American government, said the Talibans chief diplomat.
We are concerned that if the current situation prevails, the Afghan government and people will face problems and will become a cause for mass migration in the region and world, Muttaqi said.
Last week, the Norwegian Refugee Council reported that around 300,000 Afghans have fled to Iran since August and up to 5,000 continue to illegally cross the border into the neighboring country daily.
Washington and Europe have blocked Kabuls access to more than $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets largely held in the U.S. Federal Reserve after the Islamist Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last August.
In an interview with VOAs Afghan Service earlier this week, Republican Representative Michael McCaul was asked if he supported unfreezing Afghan government assets held inside the U.S.
We gave up all of our leverage when we evacuated, when we surrendered Bagram Air Base, which was our intelligence surveillance reconnaissance capabilities in the region. And the only leverage we have left on the Taliban are these assets that we have frozen, he said. So I would not go down that path very lightly without major concessions from the Taliban.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund also have suspended about $1.2 billion in aid money they were supposed to release for Afghanistan this year.
We hope that the members of the American Congress will think thoroughly in this regard and the American officials will view from [the] prism of justice the problems of our people arising from sanctions and unjust partisan treatment, and not approach this humanitarian issue in a superficial manner, Muttaqi said.
The Taliban are struggling to pay doctors, teachers and other government employees. The international sanctions have also made it challenging for the United Nations and other aid groups to pay their staff and sustain Afghan relief operations.
The U.S. administration has frozen the Afghan money over human rights and terrorism concerns under Taliban rule. The Islamist group is also being pressed to govern the country through an inclusive political system, where the rights of Afghan women and minorities are protected.
The U.N. World Food Program has warned that years of conflict, and a prolonged drought, threaten more than half of the countrys estimated population of 40 million people with starvation this winter.
The Taliban issued the letter ahead of Wednesdays debate in the United Nations Security Council on the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and ways to address it.
No country has so far recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government in Kabul. But the unfolding Afghan humanitarian crisis has prompted all major powers, including the U.S., to remain in touch with the new rulers to ensure delivery of urgently needed aid to millions of Afghans to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
Analyst Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official, said Muttaqi's letter fell short of what Kabul will do in the face of U.S. conditions set for granting the Taliban much-needed diplomatic recognition.
Farhadi cautioned the Taliban would be locked in an unending war of logic with the world unless they address international concerns.
From a diplomatic standpoint, to show a positive development, new appointments need to occur in the [acting] government in Kabul. The world needs concrete changes in governance. Steps that are needed to give the U.S. and the world a solid argument for recognition, he said.
Afghanistan was isolated under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 for human rights abuses, including barring women from leaving home unaccompanied and girls from receiving an education.
Since their return to power in August, the Taliban have been repeatedly pledging that they intend to do things differently this time, although girls are still barred from returning to secondary school in most provinces.
The United States risks further damaging its reputation in Afghanistan "and this will serve as the worst memory ingrained in Afghans at the hands of America, Muttaqi said.
"I request the government of the United States of America take responsible stepsso that doors for future relations are opened, assets of Afghanistans Central Bank are unfrozen and sanctions on our banks are lifted.
VOAs Afghan Service contributed to this report.
Turkish authorities arrested businessman Samir Handal, a suspect "of great interest" in the July assassination of Haitis president, according to Haitian Foreign Minister Claude Joseph.
The Monday arrest is the latest in a globe-trotting effort to round up Jovenel Moise's killers as Haiti contends with political instability, fuel shortages, gang violence and hunger made worse by a deadly August earthquake.
Turkey's state-run media reported Handal was being held in Istanbul after court officials issued a 40-day custody order, according to The Associated Press. Handal, who has been identified as a Haitian national by several media outlets, was arrested after his flight touched down in Istanbul during layover on a flight from the United States to Jordan.
Joseph tweeted that he had spoken by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, late Monday after Handal's arrest. Joseph gave no more details about whether Haiti will seek Handal's extradition.
In an interview with The Miami Herald, Joseph called Handal's arrest a "huge step" in the investigation of Moise's death. He said Haiti passed an arrest warrant to Turkey's Foreign Ministry before Handal's flight arrived in Istanbul, rounding out an Interpol Red notice issued Sunday.
"I myself am more than determined to do justice to the president and make sure that it's rendered to his allies, his family and more importantly, the country," Joseph told The Miami Herald. "When we render justice to the president, we render it to the whole nation."
Handal joins more than 40 suspects in custody around the world for Moise's killing, including former Colombian military officer Mario Palacios Palacios, who is being held in Jamaica, and several Haitian police officers. Among the people Haitian authorities have linked to the assassination plot are Venezuelan businessman Antonio Intriago, Haitian American James Solages, former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph and a group of U.S.-trained former Colombian soldiers.
It's unclear whether Handal will be extradited to Haiti, where authorities believe he met with suspected mastermind Christian Emmanuel Sanon to plan Moise's assassination, Reuters reports. Haitian police found Handal's name on three Palestinian passports and seven Haitian passports stowed in Sanon's home.
President Moise was killed at his home in the early hours of July 7. Haitian authorities allege Sanon hired Intriago's Florida-based security company, CTU Security, to help carry out the politically motivated attack in Port-au-Prince. Sanon aspired to take over the presidency, according to Haitian police. The two Haitian Americans implicated in the plot claim they were hired only as interpreters; they, like some of the former Colombian soldiers, said they expected to arrest, not kill, the Haitian president.
In August, only five weeks after the president's death, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 2,200 people. Haiti has struggled to recover amid political instability sparked by Moise's killing, leading to gang rule that has kept the Caribbean country from receiving much-needed humanitarian aid.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Two men who spent decades in prison for the 1965 assassination of Muslim minister and civil rights activist Malcolm X are set to be exonerated, according to news reports Wednesday.
Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, members of the Nation of Islam in 1965 who went by the names Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, respectively, were convicted of shooting Malcolm X, as he began a speech in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.
The men maintained their innocence and were expected to be officially exonerated this week after a recent 22-month investigation.
"These men did not get the justice that they deserved," District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told The New York Times, adding that the full exoneration would likely be official on Thursday.
Islam was released from prison in 1987 and died in 2009, while Aziz was released in 1985.
Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, advocated Black self-determination and rejected integration, putting him at odds with other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.
For 12 years, he was the spokesman for the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim religious and political organization that he broke from shortly before his death.
It remains unclear who killed Malcolm X.
Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
The United Nations expressed alarm Tuesday at surging arrests in Ethiopia since the country introduced a state of emergency November 2.
The U.N. human rights agency said most of those detained in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as well as in Gondar, Bahir Dar and other locations were of Tigrayan origin.
"According to reports, at least 1,000 individuals are believed to have been detained ... with some reports putting the figure much higher," spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva.
The arrests have been occurring since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government declared a state of emergency two weeks ago, when Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters threatened to march on the capital.
Lawyers have also said that thousands of Tigrayans have been arbitrarily detained since the announcement of the measures, which allow authorities to detain without a warrant anyone suspected of supporting "terrorist groups."
Among those arrested since the state of emergency was declared are a number of U.N. staff members.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for the immediate release of the employees in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday evening.
"As far as the secretary-general is aware, the staff members are being held without charge, and no specific information has been provided regarding the reasons for their arrest," Dujarric said.
Throssell said 10 local U.N. staff members and 34 drivers subcontracted by the U.N. were still being held.
"We call for all those still in detention to be immediately released," she said, adding that if that does not happen, "a court or other independent and impartial tribunal should review the reasons for their detention, or they should be formally charged."
She acknowledged that it was "challenging" for the remaining U.N. rights agency staff members to do their work, adding this was why "we have reports of at least 1,000 people detained, but we're not in a position to give a more definitive number."
Detention conditions were generally reported to be "poor," she said, with many of those detained held in overcrowded police stations.
Throssell decried that many of those detained had reportedly not been informed of the reasons for their detention, let alone formally charged.
"We are also concerned at some reports of ill-treatment in detention," she said, adding that while the agency had no specific evidence of torture in detention, this was clearly a concern.
The war between the Ethiopian authorities and the TPLF has over the past year killed thousands, displaced more than 2 million people, and left hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.
The U.N. says all sides in the conflict have committed serious human rights violations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has designated China, Russia and eight other countries as violators of religious freedom.
Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that the 10 countries "engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."
The U.S. secretary of state compiles a list of such countries each year. Other countries on this year's list are Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Eritrea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
Nigeria, which was on the list last year and which Blinken is scheduled to visit this week, was removed.
Algeria, Comoros, Nicaragua and Cuba were added to a watch list for engaging in or tolerating "severe violations of religious freedom."
"In far too many places around the world, we continue to see governments harass, arrest, threaten, jail, and kill individuals simply for seeking to live their lives in accordance with their beliefs," Blinken said.
Blinken began a five-day, three-nation tour of Africa on Wednesday during which he will discuss with leaders rising threats to democracy on the continent, among other issues.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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American journalist Danny Fenster has arrived back home in the United States for an emotional reunion with his family after six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar. Fenster told reporters his homecoming had been a "long time coming." VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. Camera: Ihar Tsikhanenka Produced by: Mary Cieslak
U.S. Navy sailors who refuse to get vaccinated for COVID-19 will be separated from the force and could lose some of their veterans benefits, according to Navy policy released Tuesday.
The deadline for full vaccination is November 28. A sailor can apply for an exemption due to medical or religious reasons but should that request be denied, he or she must start vaccinations within five days of receiving that disapproval.
Beyond that deadline, commands will begin processing them for discharge, Chief of Naval Personnel Public Affairs MC1 Mark Faram said, citing vaccination compliance as a requirement for operational readiness.
Sailors who reject the vaccine could also lose education benefits, promotions and bonus pay.
More than 99% of active duty sailors have received at least one COVID-19 shot, with 95% of that force fully vaccinated. Reserve sailors have until December 28 to get vaccinated.
A Navy official told VOA on Tuesday that the Navy has so far granted six permanent medical exemptions.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo August 25 requiring service members to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face penalties, leaving deadlines for vaccination compliance to the service branches.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin supports the Navys latest policy decision.
The Air Force deadline of November 2 was the first of U.S. military services. At the time, about 10,000 active duty airmen and Space Force guardians remained unvaccinated for COVID-19. Approximately half were seeking religious exemptions, and 800 verbally refused the vaccine, according to Air Force data.
The Air Force and Space Force have granted more than 1,800 exemptions for medical or administrative reasons, such as when a service member is months away from retiring from the force.
Data provided to VOA from the military service branches Tuesday showed 97% of the Air Force and Space Force, 95% of the Army, and 94% of the Marine Corps are fully or partially vaccinated.
Active duty troops are vaccinated at a much higher rate than their Reserve and Guard counterparts, some of whom have deadlines as late as June 30, 2022.
Meanwhile, members of the Oklahoma National Guard are getting conflicting instructions from the Pentagon and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt regarding the vaccine requirement.
The new commander of Oklahomas National Guard, Brigadier General Thomas Mancino, issued an updated COVID-19 vaccine policy Friday saying Guardsmen would not have to be vaccinated.
Mancino was appointed after the states Republican governor fired his predecessor, Major General Mike Thompson.
The Pentagon, however, says the defense secretary has the authority to require vaccines for all members of the force, including members of the National Guard, which answers to state governors and the president.
It is a lawful order and a legal requirement for the Secretary of Defense and his authorities to require that the force be vaccinated against COVID-19, and that includes the National Guard, Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress Tuesday that she believed she would run out of maneuvering room to avoid the nation's first-ever default soon after December 15.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Yellen said that she believed Treasury could be left with insufficient resources to keep financing the government beyond December 15.
Yellen's new date is 12 days later than the December 3 date she provided in a letter to Congress on October 18, after Congress had just passed a $480 billion increase in the debt limit days before as a stopgap measure.
As she has done in the past, Yellen urged Congress to deal with the debt limit quickly to remove the possibility of a potential default on the nation's obligations.
"To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible," Yellen wrote to congressional leaders.
Yellen has repeatedly warned that failure to deal with the debt limit and allowing the government to default would be catastrophic and likely push the country into a recession.
In her letter, Yellen said that the extra time reflected more up-to-date estimates of government revenues and spending and was impacted by the infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law Monday. That legislation requires the transfer by Treasury of $118 billion by December 15 into the Highway Trust Fund.
Yellen said that while she had a "high degree of confidence she will be able to finance the U.S. government through Dec. 15" and complete the Highway Trust Fund transfer, there are scenarios where the government will be left with insufficient resources to finance operations beyond that date, she said.
The need to raise or suspend the debt limit is just one of the budget issues facing Congress. Lawmakers must also approve a budget by December 3, when the current stopgap funding measures run out. Failure to do that would trigger a government shutdown.
And Democrats are aiming to approve a $1.75 trillion measure to expand the social safety net and deal with climate change threats. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she hopes the House can pass this measure, which Republicans oppose, this week. It must also pass the Senate.
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is hosting a General Conference in Paris to mark the organizations 75th anniversary. Leaders, social activists, and artists from around the world took part in a special ceremony to celebrate the occasion.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader, Julius Malema, has denounced calls by some political parties, supporters and civil society organizations pushing for the removal of foreigners from South Africa saying he would rather lose votes in 2024 elections than allow millions of Zimbabweans, Nigerians and others to return home.
In a tweet, Malema said, Someone said to me if you want us to vote for you in 2024 you must abandon this thing of foreigners. Im prepared to go home. Im fine. I will never take a platform and denounce Africans. I will never do it. If it means votes are doing, let them go. Im prepared to go home. But to take a platform and please white minority by pointing a finger at other fellow black brothers, Im not going to do that. When I see a Nigerian or a Zimbabwean or a Congolese or Ghanaian, I see myself.
The EFF can do internal research to see how much this thing is hurting the EFF, but I am not prepared to take a platform to say foreigners must go home. I would rather not be a president of South Africa. I will be a president of my children at home. We will practice Cabinet issues there. I don want. You mean I should go and tell these hungry Zimbabweans to leave and when I tell them to leave, I send them where.
The presence of foreign nationals in the country continues to be a heated debate as parties race to form coalitions for 66 hung municipalities.
Two key king markers - Action SA and the Patriotic Alliance - have made it clear that no illegal foreigners will be allowed to live in their municipalities.
VOA correspondent Thuso Khumalo contributed to this article
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The Department of Defense will send medical teams to two major Minnesota hospitals to relieve doctors and nurses who are swamped by a growing wave of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday.
The teams, each comprising 22 people, will arrive at Hennepin County Medical Center and St. Cloud Hospital next week and begin treating patients immediately, Walz said in a conference call from the Finnish capital of Helsinki. the latest stop on his European trade mission.
Minnesota has become one of the country's worst hotspots for new COVID-19 infections. Hospital beds are filling up with unvaccinated people, and staffers are being worn down by the surge. Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Tuesday that shes ready to expand access to booster vaccines to all adults by the end of the week if the federal government doesnt act first.
Our best defense against this is the vaccine, Walz told reporters. He noted that Minnesota is No. 2 in the county for the number of booster shots given, behind only Vermont, and that first doses have risen 60% over the last week. And we know that that is our way out of this. ... I need Minnesotans to recognize, as we've been saying, this is a dangerous time."
Walz and Malcolm thanked U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar for helping to secure the federal teams and said they hope more will be approved for other Minnesota hospitals, which have already applied for them.
There's just been a tremendous demand for those teams nationwide. At this point in time, there are very, very few teams available to be deployed across the whole nation, so the fact that Minnesota's getting two of them is great good news, Malcolm said.
The Minnesota Nurses Association said the staffing shortage is the result of years of cost-cutting and short-staffing that have left hospitals poorly equipped to handle the pandemic.
There is no shortage of Minnesota nurses who want to work at the bedside and care for patients. There is a shortage of nurses willing to work under the unsafe and unsustainable conditions hospitals have created," the union's president, Mary Turner, said in a statement. For years, hospitals have been understaffing nurses, leaving fewer of us to care for more patients. These decisions have driven nurses away from the bedside and created the current retention crisis.
The governor also announced that a third skilled-nursing facility has agreed to serve as a "hospital decompression" site for patients who no longer need acute hospital care but aren't ready to go home. Cerenity Senior Care-Marian of St. Paul will accept up to 27 patients from Twin Cities hospitals that are close to capacity.
Ten nurses from the federal Public Health Service and 15 nursing assistants from the Minnesota National Guard and private vendors will provide transitional care. Similar sites have already been set up at nursing homes in Brainerd and Shakopee to create additional transitional care beds, which are in short supply.
Walz renewed his calls for the Legislature to approve a series of proposals he made early last month to give hospitals and care centers more flexibility to cope with the surge. A special session needed to pass that plan, plus $250 million in bonuses for frontline workers and drought aid for farmers, has been held up for months over a stalemate between the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic governor, who insists that Republicans agree not to use the session to fire Malcolm, as some have threatened.
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Yokosuka Japan Kanagawa (53.1 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Sleeping and awakened by shaking. Shaking was brief but long enough to awaken me. Intensity 3Eastern Tama, Tokyo Eastern Kanagawa Pref. Western Kanagawa Pref.(02:54 JST) Intensity 3Fujigoko & Eastern Yamanashi Pref.(02:54 JST) | One user found this interesting.
Yokosuka, japan (49.4 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : I was laying in bed, started hearing the whole house shake and almost as if it was slightly swaying in a back and forth motion.
Grand nikko tokyo daiba hotel (60.2 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Lying on the bed and felt vibrations, heard other items in the room moving | One user found this interesting.
Zama, Kanagawa (23.4 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : woke me up | One user found this interesting.
Tokio (50.2 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Weak shaking | One user found this interesting. (reported through (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s
Hayama-machi Japan / Light shaking (MMI IV) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 2-5 s : I was in bed when the familiar rocking woke me up. I knew it was not so intense and not local, so I closed my eyes and slept.
Tokyo / Weak shaking (MMI III) / complex motion difficult to describe / 1-2 s : Weak shaking | One user found this interesting.
Grand nikko tokyo daiba hotel (60.2 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Lying on the bed and felt vibrations, heard other items in the room moving
Grand nikko tokyo daiba hotel (60.2 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Lying on the bed and felt vibrations, heard other items in the room moving
Yokosuka, Kanagawa (49.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 15-20 s
(41.7 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s
Yokosuka, Kanagawa (49.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 15-20 s
Nishi Kunitachi (39.6 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)
Zushi, Kanagawa (43.7 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) : I was sleeping and it starts shaking, i just hear the doors of the closet starts shaking
Aoyama (57.8 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging : Enough to wake me up towards end of it
Minamirinkan, Yamato-shi, Kanagawa (31.5 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)
Yokosuka, Kanagawa (49.1 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s
Tokyo (55.1 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 5-10 s
/ Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s : It was brief but totally woke me up in the middle of the night
Yokosuka, Japan / Light shaking (MMI IV)
Yokohama / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s
/ Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 20-30 s
Fujisawa Kanagawa / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s
Minato ku / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Shaking, it woke me up
Greensboro, NC / not felt
Yokosuka / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short : Woken up due to light shaking
Yokosuka / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s
Minato ku / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Shaking, it woke me up
Fussa / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating
Tokyo / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging
Zama / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s
User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale
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Golcuk, Kocaeli (104.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : I was sitting on the sofa and felt that I shook for 2 or 3 seconds. I knew it was an earthquake and the news shortly after confirmed my doubts. I am safe :)
Adapzari (54.9 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Since 12:30pm i strates feeling very short shakes and vibartions but the strongest shakes happened between 3:30pm and 3:45pm.
istanbul / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s : Ez li ser kursiye runisti bum, qase 2-3 cirkan(saniyeyan) domiya | 2 users found this interesting.
kadikoy (169.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s : I was laying down on the couch when I felt the shaking. | One user found this interesting.
Duzce / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Wir sind eine Strae entlang gegangen neben einer Baustelle. Ich sagte zu meinem Mann: was ist das die Erde bebt! er sagte: Nein das kommt von dem Bagger aber die Hauser wackelten und wir sahen viele Menschen die auf die Straen kamen. Da w
Hendek (28.2 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 5-10 s One user found this interesting. (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 5-10 s
Kucuk Yali Istanbul (161.9 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Sitting at home at table on phone. The bench moved side to side. I'm on 4th floor of apartment building | One user found this interesting.
Istanbul, Sisli/Gulbahar (172.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : light earthquake
Uskudar, Istanbul (169 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt
Istanbul (162.5 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 2-5 s
Istanbul (180 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : Was laying at that moment and felt as if someone is rolling me sideways
Bagiclar (187.8 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s
Esenyurt, Istanbul (198.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s
Basaksehir, Istanbul (192.1 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : im on my bed and my bed start shakin for few seconds
Umraniye, Istanbul (161.8 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)
near Duzce (14.3 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s : Moderate
Beylikduzu (203.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s
Derince, Kocaeli (103.5 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : The lamp started swinging
Eminonu, Istanbul (173.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s
Ugur Mumcu (153.6 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / very short (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / very short
Istanbul, sefakoy (187.8 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt
Bahcelievler, Istanbul (187.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s
Derince, Kocaeli (103.5 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : The lamp started swinging
bayrampasa (182.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / very short
Besiktas (170.6 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s
Esenler, Istanbul (181.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s
Sisli (173.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s
Esenyurt, Istanbul (200.1 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 15-20 s
Umraniye, Istanbul (161.1 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s
Bolu (50.2 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s
Atasehir, Istanbul (164.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / very short
More than 200 delegates from the World Uyghur Congress came together in Prague from November 12 to 14 to attend the General Assembly of that organization, which serves as a public facade for the Islamic Party of Turkestan, formerly known as the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM).
This put-on was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, a US organisation overseen and subsidized by Congress in order to pursue through legal means the objectives of the Five Eyes, the coalition of intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States [1].
These facts shed a stark light on the WUC:
In February 2017, its current president Dolkun Isa organized a seminar in Berlin to concoct terrorist actions in Xinjiang.
On 10 March 2018, Seyit Tumturk, former WUC vice president, recorded an anti-Chinese video with 400 armed Uyghur fighters.
In March 2019, former WUC president Rebiya Kadeer acknowledged that her organization was sending jihadists to Syria, where they still have their own enclave, located in Al-Zanbaki, under Turkish protection [2].
Attorney Rushan Abbas, after serving as a translator for the US Navy at its torture center in Guantanamo, has repeatedly testified before the US Congress denouncing the alleged arrest of a million Uyghurs and their internment in concentration camps due to President Xi Jinpings purported Islamophobia.
Every terrorist organization requires not only organizing but also financing. Behind the individuals who plant bombs and get blood on their hands, there will always be white collars in charge of financing them.
On the day following the international conference on Libya, hosted by France, Saif el-Islam Gaddafi held his first press conference since his fathers assassination. He proudly announced his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for 24 December 2021.
Following in his tracks, Marshal Khalifa Haftar also announced his candidacy.
Two other figures could also make a bid for the presidency: the current Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly.
Bashir Salah Bashir, Muamar Gaddafis former chief of staff, is also rumored to have returned to Libya. He managed to stay alive thanks to the recordings of conversations between the Libyan Leader and President Nicolas Sarkozy, which he kept in his possession. He was the subject of an assassination attempt in South Africa in 2018 in which he was seriously injured. Here again, he survived and was exfiltrated to Dubai.
The political return of Saif el-Islam, announced several times but never confirmed, upset the Western apple cart from one day to the next.
In light of the numerous media inquiries we have received, it is necessary to provide some clarification regarding the Defence Ministrys successful test on November 15 of this year. The test resulted in the destruction of the inactive Russian satellite Tselina-D that had been in orbit since 1982.
The test was conducted in strict conformity with international law, including the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and was not directed against anyone. Considering the timing of the test and the orbital parameters, the debris it produced did not create any threat and does not pose any obstacles or difficulties to the functioning of orbital stations and spacecraft, or to other space activities. This debris was recorded in the main registry of the domestic space control system. Monitoring began instantaneously and will continue until the debris no longer exists.
These actions were part of the Defence Ministrys defence capability plan to prevent sudden harm to national security in space and on Earth by existing and future space technology of other states.
In this context, we should note that since the 1950s the United States has invariably pursued a course towards using space for combat operations and deploying offensive weapon systems with a view to achieving military supremacy and even total domination of space. These goals are spelled out in the updated Defence Space Strategy and the doctrine of the US Space Force.
To achieve these goals, Washington and its allies are carrying out large-scale programmes to develop weapon systems designed to respond to the threat or use of force in space, from space or involving space, including pre-emptive action. I am referring primarily to the creation of a space-based missile defence group (including interceptors) and means of illegally impacting elements of orbital space infrastructure.
Washingtons activities include the testing in orbit of its latest attack systems of different type without any prior notification. This applies to the destruction of its own space equipment as well. For example, on February 20, 2008, an SM-3 anti-missile destroyed a USA-193 satellite. In the 1980s, the Pentagon also tested its anti-satellite systems on the F-15A aircraft platform.
The US X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a reusable robotic spacecraft, also has the potential to weaponise space. It can stay in orbit for a long time, conduct manoeuvres and carry a useful payload. We asked our American colleagues to explain what the specific goals and tasks of the X-37B current mission are, but our inquiries remain unanswered.
Unlike Washington, Russia did not enshrine the goal of achieving military supremacy in outer space in its doctrines. On the contrary, from the very beginning of space exploration, we have adhered to a consistent policy of preventing an arms race in outer space and preserving it for peaceful purposes. In this regard, we believe it is necessary to start, as soon as possible, coordinating an instrument on preventing an arms race in outer space that is binding under international law. There is a basis for such work - the Russian-Chinese draft Treaty on Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT).
The agreement we are proposing could include a ban on placing any types of weapons in outer space, as well as on using the threat or use of force in space, from space or involving space. We also call on the states to assume the following obligations:
not to use space objects as weapons of destruction against any targets on Earth, in the atmosphere or in outer space;
not to destroy, damage, or disrupt the normal functioning, or change the flight trajectory, of other states space objects;
not to create, test or deploy space weapons of any kind for the performance of any task, including for anti-missile defence, or as anti-satellite weapons, for use against targets on Earth or in the atmosphere, and to eliminate such systems that are already in possession of the states;
not to test or use manned spacecraft for military purposes, including anti-satellite activity;
not to assist or encourage other states, groups of states, and international, intergovernmental, or any non-governmental organisations, including non-governmental legal entities established, registered or located on the territory under their jurisdiction and/or control, to participate in the above activities.
As an interim step, we consider Russias international initiative/political commitment on not being the first to place weapons in space, which, at the moment, is the only effective tool for keeping space free of weapons. Thirty states are participating fully.
We reaffirm our willingness to discuss the entire range of space security issues with all stakeholders, including the United States. We are convinced that talks on an international agreement prohibiting the deployment of any types of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force against space objects offer the right path to alleviate tensions and to allay the concerns of states in the context of ensuring the security of outer space activities.
On 12 November 2021, the President of the French Republic, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, the President of the Italian Council of Ministers, the President of the interim Presidency Council of Libya, the Prime Minister of the interim Government of National Unity of Libya, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, co-convened a conference of Heads of State and Government on Libya, in Paris, in support of the implementation of a Libyan-led and owned political process facilitated by the United Nations, leading to a political solution to the Libyan crisis.
The following countries and regional organizations participated in the Conference: Algeria, Chad, China, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of Congo (chair of the African Union), Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kuwait (Chair of the Ministerial Council of the League of Arab States), Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, Niger, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, the Republic of the Congo (Chair of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya), the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the African Union, the European Union, the League of Arab States and the Executive Secretariat of the Group of Five for the Sahel.
a. We, participants, reaffirm our full respect and commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya. We reject all foreign interferences in Libyan affairs.
b. We welcome the progress made towards restoring peace and stability in Libya since the Berlin Conference I, with the signing of the ceasefire agreement on 23 October 2020, the adoption of the Libyan political roadmap in Tunis on 15 November 2020, and the approval of the interim Government of National Unity on 10 March 2021. We reiterate our commitment to the success of the Libyan political process, to the full implementation of the 23 October 2020 ceasefire agreement and to the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021, in accordance with the Libyan political roadmap and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions 2570 and 2571 (2021) and the Berlin II conference conclusions.
c. We acknowledge, since the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement, the outcomes of the Paris and Palermo conferences and other international and regional efforts on Libya, and crucially, the progress made through the Berlin Process on Libya. We welcome the 21 October 2021 Libya Stabilization Conference in Tripoli as an important contribution under Libyan leadership to the international efforts aiming at a political solution to the Libyan crisis, and as a historical milestone ten years after the Libyan Revolution. We commend the commitment of the interim Presidency Council and the interim Government of National Unity to ensuring the success of the political transition through the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021, and to implementing the ceasefire agreement through the comprehensive Action Plan for the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from the Libyan territory.
d. We reaffirm the international communitys continued commitment, in partnership with the Libyan interim executive authority (interim Presidency Council and interim Government of National Unity) and other relevant Libyan authorities, for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Libya through an inclusive Libyan-led and Libyan-owned political process facilitated by the United Nations. We recall the creation of the High National Reconciliation Commission under the auspices of the interim Presidency Council and call on all actors to commit in earnest to national reconciliation.
e. We commend the role of the United Nations in the operationalization of the conclusions of the first and second Berlin conferences and in the implementation of the relevant UNSC resolutions, including 1325, 1970, 2570 and 2571. We express strong support for the ongoing efforts of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to further Libyan-led and Libyan-owned inclusive political, security and economic dialogue tracks, and to monitor and report abuses and violations of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law. We recognize the important role and efforts of neighbouring countries, the Libya Quartet (African Union, League of Arab States, European Union and the United Nations) and the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya in support of the Libyan peace process under the auspices of the United Nations.
POLITICAL
1. We stress the importance for all Libyan stakeholders to commit unequivocally to the holding of free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021 as stipulated in the Libyan political roadmap and endorsed in UNSC resolutions 2570 and 2571 (2021) as well as the conclusions of the second Berlin conference of 23 June 2021, and to accept their outcomes. We commend the technical steps already taken to prepare for the voting, as confirmed by the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), including the registration of 2.8 million Libyans on the electoral lists. We take note of the announcement of the opening of the registration process for presidential and parliamentary candidates, as well as of an electoral timeline for presidential and parliamentary elections starting on 24 December 2021. We also take note of the HNECs announcement that final results for both presidential and parliamentary elections shall be announced simultaneously. We look forward to the formalization by the HNEC of the full electoral calendar and its implementation in a peaceful environment. It is our understanding that, to avoid any vacuum of power, the transfer of power from the current interim executive authority to the new executive authority will take place following the simultaneous announcement by the HNEC of the final results of both presidential and parliamentary elections.
2. We stress the importance of an inclusive and consultative electoral process. We therefore call upon the Libyan stakeholders to take steps, including with the good offices of UNSMIL, to increase mutual trust and build consensus for the upcoming elections on 24 December 2021.
3. We fully support the efforts of the HNEC to put in place the technical basis for successful presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021, including the simultaneous announcement of the final results of parliamentary and presidential elections. We share the aspiration of the Libyan people to exercise the right to vote for their executive and legislative representatives. We recognize the need for Libyan institutions to be unified so as to enjoy a democratic mandate from the people and we encourage the new parliament, once elected, to focus on establishing a permanent constitution that is broadly accepted throughout Libya.
4. We call on all relevant Libyan authorities and institutions to provide the HNEC with the required support to deliver free, fair, inclusive and credible elections, and the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and the inclusion of youth. We urge Libyan leaders and institutions to take specific measures to ensure a substantial representation of women in the new legislature, and to engage civil society in these efforts. We recall that upcoming national presidential and parliamentary elections will enable the Libyan people to elect representative and unified institutions from among all Libyan political actors and will contribute to strengthening the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya. We commend the efforts led by the interim Government of National Unity in coordination with the HNEC to take the necessary measures to ensure the security of the electoral process and a democratic handover of power to the new government resulting from the elections. We underscore UNSMILs role in supporting the 24 December 2021 elections and we express our commitment to fully supporting Libya in the electoral process.
5. We urge all Libyan stakeholders and candidates to respect their commitments towards holding elections on 24 December 2021, to publicly commit to respecting the rights of their political opponents before, during and after the elections, to accept the results of free, fair and inclusive elections, and to commit to the Code of Conduct prepared by the HNEC. We call on all Libyan stakeholders to continue to work together in the spirit of unity once results are announced and to refrain from any actions that could obstruct or undermine the outcome of the elections and the democratic handover of power to the newly elected authorities and institutions. 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 the United Nations Sanctions Committee in accordance with UNSC resolution 2571 (2021). We commit to respecting the Libyan electoral processes and urge all other international actors to do the same.
6. We encourage United Nations Member States and international and regional organizations to provide electoral observers, in coordination with the Libyan authorities, in particular with the interim Government of National Unity and the HNEC.
7. We stress the need for a comprehensive and inclusive national reconciliation process, based on the principle of transitional justice and respect for human rights, led by Libyan authorities, including the High National Reconciliation Commission, with the support of the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, regional and neighbouring countries. We emphasize the role and rights of women, and their full, meaningful and equal participation in political and public life.
SECURITY
8. We reaffirm our commitment to the full implementation of the 23 October 2020 ceasefire agreement and we welcome the reopening of the coastal road. We highly commend the work of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) and we commit to supporting and fully coordinating with the relevant Libyan authorities and the 5+5 JMC and support the latters pivotal role in maintaining and taking steps towards the full and timely implementation of the ceasefire agreement. We welcome the exchange of prisoners and joint security operations under the auspices of the 5+5 JMC.
9. We express our full support for the comprehensive Action Plan for the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from the Libyan territory developed by the 5+5 JMC in line with UNSC resolution 2570 (2021) including through the prompt development of timelines, as a first step towards the full implementation of the 23 October 2020 ceasefire agreement and UNSC resolution 2570. We welcome the meeting that took place in Geneva from 6 to 8 October 2021 in that regard. We commit to facilitating its synchronised, phased, gradual and balanced implementation as set out in the action plan and call on all relevant actors to implement its provisions without delay. We note that the repatriation of mercenaries, foreign fighters, foreign forces and non-state armed actors will require the guidance of the 5+5 JMC with the support of UNSMIL and swift coordination between their countries of origin and Libya. We commend the meeting of the 5+5 JMC with neighbouring countries (Chad, Niger, Sudan) in Cairo from 30 October to 1 November 2021 to agree on a concept of a communication and coordination mechanism. [1]
10. We welcome the arrival of the initial group of UNSMIL ceasefire monitoring team in support of the Libyan Ceasefire Monitoring Mechanism established under the leadership of the 5+5 JMC, we call for its full deployment in accordance with UNSC resolution 2570 (2021) and we urge the Libyan Ceasefire Monitoring Mechanism to rapidly agree on a plan to monitor and verify the presence and withdrawal of all mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces.
11. We call on all relevant actors to implement and enforce UNSC sanctions, including through national and international implementation measures, against breaches of the arms embargo and of the ceasefire. We take note of the work of the European Union Naval Force Mediterranean Operation (EUNAVFOR MED) IRINI concerning the implementation of the arms embargo through inspections of vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya.
12. We welcome ongoing Libyan-led initiatives towards Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of members of armed groups and non-state actors into society, with the involvement of all Libyan institutions including municipalities, Chambers of Commerce and communities, including women, which open the path to a comprehensive, inclusive, nationwide DDR plan as part of a political settlement in Libya. We stress the need for urgent initiatives to assist Libyan authorities in implementing an effective DDR plan. We emphasize the importance for gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence to be addressed in ceasefire monitoring, DDR and Security Sector Reform (SSR) arrangements, vetting of armed security forces, justice, reparations, and recovery and development. We emphasize the importance of the supervision of 5+5 JMC on the full implementation of this DDR plan in coordination with Libyan authorities and UNSMIL.
13. We express our support for SSR and stress the importance of the establishment of a unified, inclusive, accountable civilian-led military and security architecture for Libya and we encourage Libyan authorities to further engage and achieve progress through inclusive dialogue on these issues, sheltered from foreign interference, and especially taking into account the Cairo talks.
14. We reaffirm the need to combat terrorism in Libya by all means in accordance with the UN Charter and international law, recognizing that development, security, and human rights are mutually reinforcing and are vital to an effective and comprehensive approach to countering terrorism. We commend and recognize the important role of Libyans in fighting terrorism in their territory. We call on all parties to dissociate from UN-listed terrorist groups and individuals. We call for the implementation of UNSC resolution 2368 (2017) and other relevant resolutions concerning ISIL (Daesh), Al-Qaida, and designated individuals, groups, and entities, in particular the provisions related to the travel ban, arms embargo and freezing of financial assets. We reaffirm the need for enhanced cooperation to counter the foreign terrorist fighters threat in accordance with UNSC resolution 2322 (2016), and we welcome the establishment of the Libya National Authority on counter-terrorism, in accordance with the United Nations Global counter-terrorism Strategy.
15. We commend the interim Presidency Council for its pro-active role in promoting dialogue with Libyas neighbouring countries, given the regional dimension of the crisis including threats arising from the illicit transfer and accumulation of weapons and the free movement of armed groups and mercenaries and foreign terrorist fighters across borders. We welcome efforts of neighbouring countries in supporting Libyans to restore the stability of their country, including through activating the quadripartite border management agreement between Libya, Sudan, Chad, and Niger and through efforts led by the African Union and the League of Arab States.
ECONOMY
16. We underline the importance of further Libyan steps towards unification of the Central Bank of Libya and for the implementation, without delay, of the recommendations of the international financial audit review. We stress the need for a transparent management and equitable distribution of resources and delivery of public services across the whole country, and we call on the interim Government of National Unity to continue its efforts to restore the unity of Libyan economic and financial institutions and to improve basic services for the benefit of all people in Libya, wherever they live in the country. In this regard, we commend efforts exerted towards the reunification of Libyan sovereign institutions.
17. We call on all stakeholders to respect and safeguard the integrity and unity of Libyan financial institutions and of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), in line with UNSC resolutions 2259 (2015), 2441 (2018) and 2571 (2021). We express concern regarding continuous attempts of armed groups to exert control over the NOC and oil exports, and we affirm that such actions may pose a threat to the peace, security and stability of Libya.
18. We call on the Libyan House of Representatives and the interim Government of National Unity to resume consultations towards approving a balanced and consensual national budget. We stress the importance of regularizing the budget formulation and promulgation process to enhance budgetary governance, transparency and accountability and in the meantime, of publishing information of spending under financial arrangements.
19. We underscore that unified, democratically elected authorities accountable to the people and dedicated to transparency, unity, fighting corruption, and providing for the needs of the people throughout Libya would send a positive signal that assets, once unfrozen, would be managed and used for the stability and development of Libya and for the prosperity of the Libyan people. In this respect, we affirm our intention to ensure that assets frozen pursuant to paragraph 17 of UNSC resolution 1970 (2011) shall be made available to and for the benefit of the Libyan people at a future time to be decided by the UNSC. We commit to helping the relevant Libyan authorities to promote the integrity and unity and good governance of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), including through a credible, comprehensive audit of the LIA and its subsidiaries.
RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS
20. We recall the obligation of the Libyan interim authorities and all actors in Libya to fully respect international law, in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including those regarding the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. We welcome the efforts of the Libyan interim authorities to respect and fulfil their obligations. We urge all actors in Libya to guarantee the full, safe and unhindered access of the United Nations and international humanitarian agencies to all people in need, Libyans and non-Libyans, in coordination with Libyan authorities, including in all places of detention. We underline the importance of access to humanitarian assistance to all people in Libya, in full respect of the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
21. We emphasize that all those responsible for violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, Libyan and foreign, will be held accountable, including through the measures set forth in relevant UNSC resolutions, including 1970 (2011). We recall the urgency of ending all violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Libya including arbitrary arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading conditions of detention and of ensuring access to justice for all, particularly women and girls, on issues of sexual and gender-based violence. In this respect, we acknowledge the work done by the committee of Libyan experts and human rights activists, convened by UNSMIL and OHCHR, to develop appropriate legislation aimed at preventing and combating violence against women.
22. We commit to condemning and acting against all violations and abuses of migrants, acts of migrant smuggling and human trafficking, or facilitation thereof. Noting that Libya is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, we welcome the work of the UNSMIL and UN agencies, funds and programmes in coordinating and supporting the provision of humanitarian assistance and protection for refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers. We recognize the efforts and engagement of the Libyan interim authorities in resolving issues relating to migration despite challenges on the ground. We call for the full implementation of existing measures and for the reporting of violations to the UNSC Sanctions Committee for Libya. We recall that all violations and abuses of migrants, acts of migrant smuggling and human trafficking, as well as all other violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Libya, that constitute a threat to international peace and security, may be a basis for designation for targeted UNSC sanctions including travel ban and the freezing of assets.
23. We recall the necessity to implement the Libyan political roadmaps provisions to respect political and civil rights, democratic principles and equality of all citizens, including the rejection of hate speech, incitement or the use of violence in the political process. We call on all Libyan actors to respect economic, social and cultural rights, as well as fundamental freedoms including the rights to freedom of assembly and association and freedom of expression and recognizing the critical role of civil society in ensuring the legitimacy of electoral processes. Libyan civil society, including human rights defenders and journalists, must be protected as key partners and interlocutors to help ensure peace and stability in the political process.
24. We underline the important role of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council (in Resolution 43/39 of 22 June 2020) in establishing facts and circumstances and documenting alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by all parties in Libya since the beginning of 2016, with a view to ensuring accountability that should also form part of the national reconciliation process, and we take note of the Missions report to the Human Rights Council in September 2021. We call for full, safe and unhindered access of the Mission to all parts of the country to fulfil its mandate. We welcome the efforts and steps made by the interim Government of National Unity towards reforming and restructuring the national human rights institution, and we welcome its continued full cooperation with the Independent Fact-Finding Mission including during its visit to Libya from 23 to 26 August 2021. We welcome the interim Government of National Unitys commitment to respecting and fulfilling Libyan international obligations, including under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. We emphasize the importance of providing technical assistance and capacity building to Libya.
25. We welcome the continued resumption of voluntary humanitarian evacuation and voluntary humanitarian return flights of migrants and refugees out of Libya and we acknowledge the cooperation of Libyan interim authorities in that regard. We are committed to assisting, as appropriate, the Libyan authorities in developing a comprehensive and gender responsive approach to addressing migration and forced displacement, in collaboration with UN agencies and programs, consistent with the principles of regional and international cooperation and in compliance with international law. We underline the positive role played by the United Nations, the African Union, and the European Union as part of the tripartite mechanism and we invite them to intensify their efforts.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is launching a campaign for the rejuvenation of the population and support of family.
It aims, on the one hand, to uphold the value of having many children and, on the other hand, to condemn celibacy and the use of abortion (which remains legal for married women).
The campaign stems from a law introduced by Sheikh Ebrahim Raissis administration and passed last month.
Vice President and Minister for Family and Womens Affairs Ansieh Khazal (pictured) is also advocating in favor of early marriage.
Huthi rebels have seized control of the port of Hodeida, the passageway for 90% of the countrys supplies. They now hold all of Yemens strategic points, except for Aden.
The puppet government recognized by the United Nations no longer has any power.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seeking a way out of the conflict that will allow them to preserve their interests irrespective of their military defeat.
Tekashi 6ix9ine, a rapper cited in introducing the bill. Photo: Walik Goshorn/MediaPunch/Shutterstock/Walik Goshorn/MediaPunch/Shutter
Rappers on trial over the past few years have brought attention to a trend where prosecutors use song lyrics, often depicting violent or criminal activities, as evidence. Two New York lawmakers now want to nip that trend across the state. Senators Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey, Democrats from Manhattan and the Bronx, respectively, introduced a new bill titled Rap Music on Trial on November 17. The bill would limit the way all art, including rap lyrics, can be used in trial, unless it can be proven that the art is literal, factual, and relevant, in addition to providing a distinct probative value to the case. In a press release on the bill, Hoylman and Bailey specifically cited Tekashi 6ix9ine, the New York rapper whose lyrics were used to compel Hernandez into becoming a government witness to avoid harsher sentencing in the high-profile 2019 Nine Trey Gangsters trial. They also note a 2021 ruling in Maryland, in which an appeals court upheld the way rap lyrics were submitted as evidence in the murder trial against Lawrence Montague.
The most notable example of the phenomenon was the case of California rapper Drakeo the Ruler, whose lyrics were used in a case regarding a 2016 murder, and led to him spending years in prison despite being ultimately acquitted. I didnt even think they could do that, he told Rolling Stone of prosecutors using his lyrics, in a story on the new bill. I have never seen rap lyrics used in such a convoluted and distorted way to try to [imply] guilt against somebody who they had little to no evidence committed the crime, his lawyer, John Hamasaki, added. Rappers including Killer Mike, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, 21 Savage, and Fat Joe spoke out against using rap lyrics as evidence in 2019, submitting an amicus brief in a trial brought by Pennsylvania rapper Jamal Knox, a.k.a. Mayhem Mal, who was previously sentenced to two years in prison after a separate trial that involved his lyrics.
In a statement on the bill, Bailey noted that the use of rap and hip-hop lyrics in particular is emblematic of the systemic racism that permeates our criminal justice system. He continued, In many cases, even the mere association with certain genres, like hip-hop and rap, leads to heightened scrutiny in the courtroom and is used to presume guilt, immorality, and propensity for criminal activity. Hoylman told Rolling Stone he thinks the bill can be signed by June 2022, adding hed love to see it become law next session.
The American University of Rome is looking for an instructor to teach the course Social and Cultural Dimensions of Food and Eating for the U.S. accredited social science Master in Food Studies. Policies for Sustainable Production and Consumption. The course involves 45 contact hours during the period from the end of January to mid-May 2022.
The learning objectives are:
1. Frame and address food systems in a social and cross-cultural perspective.
2. Analyze the different individual and collective eating practices and meanings conveyed by both eating habits and patterns and socio-economic determinants.
3. Approach the study of the contemporary food production and consumption systems through a socio-anthropological lens disclosing inequality, access and sovereignty issues and the complexity of their global-local interconnections.
4. Critically unpack the different contemporary foodscapes into their symbolic, social, political, ontological and economic components in order to provide solutions to the challenges of the present and future food systems.
5. Demonstrate a high level of knowledge of the main factors impinging on sustainable food consumption and production at the global level and relate them to their own countries situation.
6. Identify and use the appropriate set of qualitative methodological tools to observe, collect and interpret socio-cultural phenomena related to food and eating.
Required qualifications:
Excellent knowledge of English
Ph.D. in sociology, social and/or environmental and/or cultural anthropology. human and cultural geography.
Previous teaching experience..
Desirable qualifications
Previous teaching experience at the graduate level
Previous teaching experience with North American programs
Professional experience
Please send your motivation letter and CV in English to applications@aur.edu (quote re: FS517/2021)
Deadline for Applications: December 11, 2021
AUR is an equal opportunity employer.
The American University of Rome (AUR) invites applications for a tenure-track, Program Director position in the Business Administration Program (position rank according to experience).
The Position
The Program Director provides leadership for the continued development, assessment, and implementation of a comprehensive business studies degree program. Reporting to the Dean of Academic Affairs, the PD provides day-to-day direction of the department while aligning a strategy and vision with the Universitys plans for a competitive business program for todays college-bound students.
Previous teaching experience in a business program in an American liberal arts context is highly valued. Excellent English communication skills and a collaborative attitude are required. The successful candidate will be expected to teach from among a range of general courses such as: International Business; Management; Organizational Behavior; Marketing; Strategic Business Management. In addition, knowledge in one or more of the following fields is desirable: Entrepreneurship; Economics; Finance; Risk Management, Business Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility; Start-up Design and Innovation; Sustainability and Social Innovation; Non-profit and Leadership Management.
AUR is interested in candidates who can contribute to its vibrant liberal arts curriculum with their international experience and an interdisciplinary approach. This position will enable the successful candidate to work in a dynamic and exceptional environment. The American University of Rome offers not just a special location in a world capital, but also the possibility to further relations already established by the University and the Program itself with major companies and non-governmental organizations.
Required qualifications
Masters in Business Administration (MBA); or Doctor in Business Administration (DBA); or Ph.D. in Business Administration or related field.
Excellent oral and written English.
University teaching, research, and scholarship.
Knowledge of course instructional technologies and online course management systems.
Desirable qualification
Professional business experience.
Program Director Responsibilities
Teach an average of five courses per year.
Advise and monitor the progress of students.
Work and collaborate on the development of an innovative, state-of-the-art program and curriculum (e.g., cooperate in joint degree programs with other departments, creation of new courses).
Organize and promote Program activities (Seminars, Conferences and Publications).
Manage and administer the Business Program (recruitment of adjunct faculty, monitoring the timely implementation of the Program, including advising, organize the semester course scheduling).
Show capacity, knowledge and/or willingness to attract resources (e.g., visiting professors; partnerships with companies; fundraising) engaging in networking activity.
Participate in student-centered service activities and support university initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion.
Serve the University through membership of Committees and other functions coordinated by the Division Chairs, Dean, or President.
Plan and coordinate field trips (in Italy and abroad) and travel courses to sites of interest related to the courses.
Italian working papers required for employment. International candidates must complete the appropriate visa process.
Interested candidates should send a letter of application and CV with three referees to applications@aur.edu (quote re: BAPD/2021 and candidates full name in the subject field).
The letter of application should include a reasoned statement of why the candidate wishes to be in Rome and how the candidate intends to support, expand, and consolidate the courses and activities of AURs Business Program.
Applications without this statement will not be considered.
Deadline for applications: January 25, 2022.
AUR is an equal opportunity employer.
The American University of Rome is looking for an HR Specialist to oversee all Human Resources functions. HR Specialist responsibilities include: preparing compensation packages, creating and maintaining company policies, generating and updating employee contracts and records. Experience with training, staff development and wellness would be an asset. To be successful in this role, candidates must have matured professional experience in recruiting and employee relations, have solid knowledge of Italian labor laws, be able to work efficiently and independently but collaboratively with the universitys leadership team. Ultimately, we seek a candidate who will maintain clear and well-functioning HR practices and procedures.
Responsibilities
Including, but not limited to:
Daily HR administrative tasks and duties
Forecast hiring needs and ensure recruitment process runs smoothly
Prepare and review compensation packages
Draft and issue Italian and American employment contracts as required
Liaise with payroll consultants and supervise the payroll process
Manage the relocation process, including Visa and Residence permits, for employees relocating to Rome
Process documentation with the appropriate government authorities including Tax and Social Security Departments in Italy and the United States
Administer all insurance programs
Implement training and development plans
Plan annual performance review sessions
Update employee records with new hire information and/or changes in employment status
Maintain organizational charts and detailed job descriptions along with salary records
Develop and implement HR policies throughout the organization
Support Director of Finance in preparation and monitor of budget
Process employees queries and respond in a timely manner
Coordinate employee safety, welfare and health legal obligations
Stay up-to-date and comply with changes in labor legislation
Requirements
Bachelor Degree, preferably in Law or Business
Proven work experience as an HR Specialist or HR Generalist
Solid understanding of labor legislation and payroll processes
Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both English and Italian
Team management skills
Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to change
Ability to work on own initiative and manage own workload effectively, whilst working closely in a team
Professionalism in dealing with sensitive information and situations
Detail oriented, organized and have a demonstrated ability to own projects and work streams.
Italian working papers are essential
Salary will be commensurate with the experience in the role.
Please send your motivation letter and CV (quote re: HR/2021) in English to applications@aur.edu
Deadline for Applications: December 31, 2021
AUR is an equal opportunity employer.
Italy's new Green Pass rules for trains are designed to protect public health and avoid a repeat of situations similar to what occurred on 1 September.
A passenger who delayed a high-speed train in Italy for 20 minutes over not having a covid Green Pass now risks a one-year jail term for interrupting a public service.
The incident took place on an Italo train serving the Reggio Calabria-Milan route on 1 September, the day that the Green Pass became mandatory on inter-regional and high-speed trains, reports Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
During the journey the ticket inspector discovered that a passenger did not have a valid Green Pass and when the train stopped in Rome the capital's railway police were waiting for her.
The woman launched into a lengthy argument during which she showed police a photograph of the results of a rapid antigen test that she allegedly did at home the day before using a kit bought at the pharmacy.
The police explained that this "home-made" document, without any proof of the time or identity of the person tested, was not acceptable.
The officers invited the passenger to get off the train immediately, informing her that she would be fined.
However the woman refused to budge, holding the train up for 20 minutes, before eventually being convinced to get off.
Subsequently the woman's lawyers filed "a substantial appeal" to the TAR administrative courts - reports the Corriere - contesting both the fine and the law which she judged as illegitimate "from a constitutional point of view", in violation of European regulations and treaties.
The judges of the administrative court have since ruled that the fine must be contested before an ordinary court and stressed that "constitutional compatibility" cannot be brought before the TAR "as a precautionary measure", reports Corriere della Sera.
The story comes to light as Italy introduces new measures affecting trains and taxis, requiring ticket inspectors "where possible" to check that passengers have the Green Pass before they get on board long-distance and inter-regional trains.
Photo credit: Vivida Photo PC / Shutterstock.com.
Italian governors point to "Austria model" as some regions risk return to yellow zone restrictions amid rise in covid infections.
The Italian government has turned down a request from Italy's regional leaders that any future covid-19 restrictions should apply only to those who have chosen not to get vaccinated.
The regions pressed the government on Tuesday to follow the so-called Austria model with restrictive measures applying only to unvaccinated people, reports newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
This request for a hard-line approach comes amid an increase in covid infections and hospitalisations that puts some Italian regions at risk of returning to 'yellow zones' under Italy's colour-coded system of coronavirus restrictions.
The president of the Liguria region Giovanni Toti, of the centre-right Forza Italia party, said that any future restrictive measures should apply to "people who have not had the vaccine, not to people who have done so correctly".
Toti made the announcement on Tuesday after a phone call with the president of Italy's conference of regions, Friuli Venezia Giulia governor Massimiliano Fedriga, who already stated his preference to follow the Austria model in an interview with newspaper Il Giornale.
"The restrictions cannot be borne by the vaccinated" - said Fedriga of the right-wing Lega party - "It would be excessive to make the situation weigh on those who have taken two or even three doses, protecting themselves and the community."
Fedriga also blamed the recent No Green Pass protests in Trieste for causing "the biggest cluster" of covid-19 infections in Friuli Venezia Giulia since the start of the pandemic.
Attilio Fontana, the Lega governor of Lombardia which was the region hardest hit by covid, wrote on Facebook: "We cannot think of restrictions for these citizens who have shown trust, awareness and a sense of the common good."
The president of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani of the centre-left Partito Democratico, is also in favour of introducing restrictive measures for those who choose not to get vaccinated, saying he believes it is "right" to "limit their movement in public spaces."
"Now we are in the white zone, with the hope of being able to stay there for the whole winter - said Giani - If those who are not vaccinated want to participate in community life, they must be immunised. If they don't, they take advantage of what others have done."
The Lega president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, takes a sceptical view of Italy adopting the so-called Austrian model: "I think it would be difficult for us to apply from a constitutional point of view."
Matteo Renzi, the former Italian premier and leader of the centrist Italia Viva party, said he "would like Italy to adopt the same model as Austria: that is, only those who have not had the vaccine go into lockdown, otherwise we would all have to pay the consequences of those who did not [get vaccinated]."
Asked his views on the matter, Lega leader Matteo Salvini stated: "I refuse to think about new closures, new lockdowns, new limitations."
For now at least, the government has put the brakes on the governors' request, with sources stating that Italy is not in the same situation as Austria and that the nation's intensive care units are under control.
Italy's minister for regional affairs, Mariastella Gelmini, told reporters on Tuesday that there was no talk of "new restrictions at the moment, but we will evaluate."
"The government has taken decisions that allow our country to remain open" - said Gelmini - "We have 84 per cent of citizens vaccinated with two doses, the government monitors the progress of infections with great attention, encourages the third dose, has made decisions about transport, but for the moment we stop here."
In the meantime the public debate in Italy is wide open.
Photo credit: VILTVART / Shutterstock.com.
New Italian coin to mark 30 years since murders of anti-Mafia judges.
Italy is to pay homage to the anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino by issuing a new 2 coin in 2022, on the 30th anniversary of their murders.
The commemorative coin has been designed by Valerio De Seta, based on Tony Gentile's famous photograph of the two judges who were close friends and were killed within months of each other.
Italy will mint a total of three million coins which will have legal tender status and will come into general circulation on 2 January, according to the ministry of economy and finance.
Falcone and Borsellino spent most of their distinguished professional careers as judges and prosecuting magistrates trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia.
Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in a bombing on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci, on 23 May 1992. Falcone's wife and three police officers were also killed in the blast.
Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Palermo, along with five police officers, on 19 July 1992.
The mens' deaths, just 57 days apart, resulted in a huge outpouring of public grief as well as a major crackdown against the Sicilian Mafia, leading to the arrest of Cosa Nostra boss Toto Riina who died in jail in 2017.
Italian bishops condemn 'selfish' and 'irresponsible' protests.
The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) took aim at the No Vax and No Green Pass movements, describing the protests as being in some cases "very far from the Gospel."
The strongly-worded message came from the CEI on Wednesday ahead of next year's Giornata della Vita (Day of Life), during which the issues of abortion, euthanasia and poverty were also addressed by the Catholic bishops.
In contrast to the "so many people who have dedicated themselves to the good of others", the CEI said, "there have been displays of selfishness, indifference and irresponsibility often characterised by a misunderstood affirmation of freedom and a distorted concept of rights."
The bishops didn't stop there. "Very often they were understandably scared and confused people, also victims of the pandemic after all; in other cases, however, such behaviour and talk expressed a vision of the human person and social relationships very far from the Gospel and the spirit of the Constitution."
The bishops offered their "gratitude and encouragement" to medics and volunteers, some of whom "have paid a very high price for their generous dedication", describing them as "the best part of the Church and the country."
The CEI also raised its concerns about the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on families as well as the youngest and oldest in society, many of whom have become victims of poverty, psychological damage and loneliness.
Photo credit: Luca Ponti / Shutterstock.com.
Ive often worried that in their desire to complete deals and secure lucrative compensation, sponsors dont aggressively negotiate the deal price.(14) Targets are fine with this, of course theyd rather agree on the value with the SPAC rather than leave it to an unpredictable IPO process. They tend to rely on optimistic financial projections to justify their prices, which generally isnt possible when going public the traditional way. Plus, unlike in a regular IPO, theres no underwriter with liability for what appears in the merger prospectus. No wonder the post-merger performance of SPAC deals is often disappointing.
Amazon wouldnt give any details about its issues with Visa, only saying that the card company was more intransigent than other payment services in negotiations to reduce costs over time. Visa is not working towards the same goal, it said. Amazon uses MasterCard for its own credit card in the U.K. but it said the relationship was nothing to do with the fight. It uses Visa for Amazon cards in the U.S.
No one in the worlds wealthiest and most innovative country should lack access to potable water, and yet here we are. Lead is a vicious neurotoxin that causes cognitive damage even in small amounts, and it is particularly harmful to children. For three years, 10,000 Americans in Benton Harbor have lived with that threat. Theyre not alone. Several million lead service lines remain in place across the country, largely in low-income areas and communities of color. Bidens infrastructure plan will address a significant portion of this problem, but some analysts estimate that it will take $60 billion four times the new federal outlay to complete the work.
But if they arent fleeing a Taliban-like oppressor or a genocidal dictator like Bashar al-Assad, the Iraqi Kurds are frustrated by the failure of their leaders to redeem the promise of 2003. The economy, overdependent on oil exports, never recovered from the fall of crude prices in 2014. It is too soon to tell if the recent rebound will last long enough to change the outlook. Unemployment has forced many Kurds to leave cities and turn to agriculture.
Starting in 2023, cryptocurrency brokers such as Coinbase will be required to record transactions, tracking them for customers and the IRS, similar to the way stock and bond brokers currently do via tax form 1099-B. Theyll have to disclose the names, addresses and phone numbers of their customers, the gross proceeds from sales and any capital gains or losses. Also, businesses that receive payments of $10,000 or more in crypto must report the identity of the sender to the government, mirroring a similar anti-money laundering rule for cash transactions of that amount.
So why not cut to the chase and hire more people to help edit social media feeds into something healthier and more useful overall? Twitter, Facebook and YouTube already rely on thousands of humans to babysit their content-moderation software, paying them about $37,000 a year, according to Glassdoor. That is a fraction of the salaries paid to engineers, but there are not nearly enough of these so-called content moderators. Twitter and Facebook declined to say how many they have, but Facebook is widely reported to have about 15,000, and YouTube said it has 20,000.
Teyana Taylors 2020 release The Album was her highest charting album to date, and it seemed her stamp on music would last longer. But just as her music career began to ignite, the 30-year-old actress and musician announced her retirement from music following the end of The Last Rose Petal Tour. Packed with punchy features from Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, Future, Lauryn Hill and other big wigs, The Album blends old-school R&B sensibilities with contemporary hip-hop stylings. Taylors solo songs hold their own against the star-studded collaborations, too. One of them, Concrete, layers Taylors buttery vocals with a thumping trap beat that reveals a vulnerable side behind her tough exterior: Tryna get through to you feels like a burden/Why am I so confused if were for certain?/Too much on my mind, too much on the line/Dont know why every time. Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Silver Spring, 8656 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. fillmoresilverspring.com. Sold out.
In this record Im talking about death, and not fearing it, but embracing it as part of the life cycle, Mun says. The songs on 0000+0000 speak of the need to transcend existing socioeconomic structures to make way for new things. In standout tracks Fake Blood and Wednesdays Child, lyrics about political crimes, rampaging corporate culture and generational trauma become compelling testaments to the albums overarching theme: Americas decline as a world power. Part of what this record is sort of alluding to is that there are truths about who we are as Americans and about the world that were living in, that are unavoidable truths, Mun says. You can talk your way around climate change all you want, but its unavoidable.
The conference had a big goal. Part of it was to try to get countries to agree to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions by 45 percent by the year 2030. This is critical to help stop the warming of our planet. But youth climate activists such as Greta Thunberg say countries did not take this goal seriously enough at the conference. They say countries promised to do too little.
How much should you pay? Ideally, a PCR or antigen test should cost nothing. But you may pay a price for a free test. I found two clinics in Long Beach, Calif., to do free PCR tests before my recent flight to Portugal. They promised results in 48 to 72 hours, but clinic workers said it should only take two days, at most. Portugal requires PCR tests be taken within 72 hours before entry. I also took a $175 test through Sameday Health that promised results within 12 hours. Travelers have reported an abundance of similar same-day testing options in their areas.
He told the man that he loved him like a brother and would do anything he could to support him. He wanted him to let the suspected burglars know he had a deal for them. He would not press charges. They would work things out as neighbors, but the men would have to take responsibility for their actions. He called it restorative justice.
Its difficult for everybody who wants a vaccine to get a vaccine, she said. There are also disparities for socioeconomic groups, for African American and Latino families. Issues related to vaccine equity need to be examined, she said, and making sure everyone has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that they can all stay in school.
But Lamberth said he could not reduce Chansleys sentence below the recommended guidelines. What you did here was horrific, the judge said, as you now concede. And obstructing the government as you did is the type of conduct that is so serious that I cannot justify a downward departure. I do think the minimum end of the guidelines is what youve earned because youve done everything right from the time that you started, and youve certainly done everything good today, convinced the court that youre a new person.
On Oct. 25, while speaking to her mother in a parking lot outside the academy, one of the girls said Sundas had inappropriately touched her, police said. The second girl, according to police, also had a music lesson that day and told her parents about inappropriate touching. Authorities interviewed both girls on Oct. 26.
Dominique Butler said the couple had worked their way from little and were proud of what they had accomplished. I think it just didnt sit well with him that someone would come to our house and steal our car, she said.
Mugler said she was moved to pursue a recount after learning about errors in the vote count in some precincts, including one where the total number of votes for Cordoza was transposed from 676 to 767 before that error was corrected.
The U.S. government has not been hard on the Kenyans on their own governance issues, so it will be really interesting to see how much Blinken pushes Kenya, or [if he] sees it as an African Security Council member who is too important to the United States, said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Atlantic Council.
We moralize freely to others about issues from religion to abortion, from politics to climate. But where is an individuals right to decide more important than in how to end ones own life? Not everyone can afford to travel to another country to die with dignity and in comfort. The authors father showed true love. The authors mother should not have had to go to such extremes to carry out her simple wish.
The Constitution does not define the number of judges who should sit on the court; in fact, that number has changed over the years. Rather than increase the number, I would prefer a term or age limit instead, perhaps mandating retirement after 20 or 25 years on the bench or age 70 or 75, whichever came first. There is no evidence that a justice nearing his or her retirement would render any opinion differently. There could be rules established to prevent former justices from contributing to any case before the court.
It takes five of the nine justices to put a ruling on hold, but it is unclear whether the Supreme Court would be inclined to wade into the Jan. 6 controversy. The court might view the separation-of-powers concerns as less significant because Congress and the sitting president are on the same side. The justices also might want to steer clear of deciding such a high-profile political dispute on an emergency basis, at a time when the court has been criticized for how often it makes substantive decisions through the so-called shadow docket.
I know as the governors daughter I am always going to be in the public eye, she wrote. I cant stop these attacks, but I can choose whether to keep being hurt by the fallout.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who spearheaded the censure resolution, pushed back against Gosars efforts to play down the violence portrayed in the video. Speier, who announced Tuesday that she will not seek reelection in 2022, referenced the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), as well as her own experience as a survivor of the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which her then-boss, Rep. Leo Ryan (D-Calif.), and four others were killed in Guyana by members of a cult led by Jim Jones.
Supporters of Julian Assange outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Dec. 10 in London. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
The WikiLeaks founder can still appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a report released Wednesday, Murphys team mapped out how cotton makes its way from Xinjiang fields to garments through an opaque web of suppliers. It says that more than half of Chinas exported cotton go to countries in Asia including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia where it is made into clothing for further export to the rest of the world.
Its often dismissed that young people arent interested in politics, but I think its the societys fault for creating such an atmosphere that has made political talk taboo, Tsuji said. In Japan, its really hard for young people to believe that they can change society. The system seems set and untouchable, and there is very little opportunity to think and make decisions on your own.
Lukashenko claims to have resolved the crisis in his conversation with Merkel without detailing how. But thousands of migrants are left within his borders. That puts Lukashenko in the difficult spot of dealing with a problem of his own making while also trying to protect his self-crafted image as the countrys only guarantor of stability and safety.
E.U. sanctions came after the bloc said Alexander Lukashenko often called Europes last dictator by foes orchestrated the audacious diversion of a Ryanair plane in May to detain a Belarusian journalist. Belarusian officials were also hit with sanctions last year for a crackdown on peaceful protesters after a presidential election in which Lukashenko claimed he swept to victory. The vote has been widely denounced as rigged.
It is possible Scott Morrisons subliminal pitch to fatigued voters elect me and I will do nothing will help him secure another term in office.
Searching for slogans to resolve issues like climate or the economy more broadly, the Prime Minister struck on the clunky: Can-do capitalism, not dont-do governments. It sounded good on the day, except a few people thought they heard him say we need do nothing governments.
Can-do capitalism is the Prime Ministers latest slogan. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Regardless, his new narrative skates over the fact that the number of lives and livelihoods saved in Australia, for which he constantly claims credit, resulted from the actions and interventions of governments including his but mainly the states and territories. Details, details.
Weve got a bit used to governments telling us what to do over the last couple of years, I think we have to break that habit, he said last week in Melbourne. His words may have resonated with angry, lockdown-weary Victorians.
Restraint. This should be the one-word diplomatic mantra for Australia about Taiwan. It should be the opening and closing of every statement an Australian prime minister utters because a descent into war between the worlds superpowers over a neuralgic issue that diplomacy has constrained for 70 years this is the last thing our battered and bruised planet wants.
And it should be the last thing Australia should appear to be talking up. The prospect of such a clash producing a nuclear exchange is spookily high. By installing American facilities on our continent we have made Australia a target. Thats reason enough to plant us in the peace camp.
US marines leave Darwin after a six-month rotation. Credit:Royal Australian Navy
Another reason is that, on China, America can always leave us stranded. Suddenly, the White House is talking a new relationship with Xi Jinping based on negotiations. All the more reason for us to work hard at diplomacy between the two superpowers.
Were left a bit exposed because alone of Americas allies we have said we will join America if theres a showdown, presumably within the first week. Its almost as if in the corridors of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Defence department the hawks are humming the World War I recruiting song, Australia Will Be There.
New York: Highly valuable art acquired during more than 50 years of marriage was sold in a matter of hours in a record-breaking auction, following a New York couples divorce.
Real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda were ordered by a court in 2018 to sell their blue-chip art collection and split the proceeds, amid their divorce proceedings. The art collection spanned decades and included works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly.
Art handlers adjust Mark Rothkos No. 7 at Sothebys auction house. Credit:AP
The Macklowe Collection, as it became known, garnered $US676.1 million ($923.95 million) in sales late on Monday in the presence of more than 300 art lovers, according to auction house Sothebys. The eye-watering figure is based on each of the pieces being a consummate masterpiece, it said.
Its the most valuable single-owner sale ever staged and the most valuable auction ever held in the 277-year history of Sothebys, the auction house said.
Allentown, PA (18103)
Today
Increasing clouds and not as cold with a few showers possible overnight..
Tonight
Increasing clouds and not as cold with a few showers possible overnight.
Reading, PA (19601)
Today
Increasing clouds and not as cold with a few showers possible overnight..
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Increasing clouds and not as cold with a few showers possible overnight.
The Montana Public Service Commission alerts natural gas customers that heating costs will be higher than last winter. Actions taken now can help Montanans manage higher bills.
The delivery rates for natural gas service from companies regulated by the Montana PSC are not changing. However, the price of natural gas itself is driven by market conditions and the cost of natural gas is forecast to be higher due to increased global demand, coupled with limited natural gas production and inventory.
Montanas regulated natural gas utilities, including NorthWestern Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. and Energy West Montana Inc., are forecasting residential bills to be 47% to 62% higher compared with bills last winter, said Erik Wilkerson, executive director of the Montana Public Service Commission. Utilities buy natural gas supplies when the price is lower and also store supplies for use in the winter to mitigate gas supply cost increases for customers, but this year natural gas prices are higher nationally and globally.
Montanans should contact their natural gas utility to learn about options that average annual bills for monthly payments.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Low-Income Energy Assistance pays part of winter energy bills for eligible people and most utilities offer LIEAP recipients discounts on their bills.
The Montana DPHHS Weatherization Program helps participants improve the heating efficiency of their homes. Information on LIEAP and the Weatherization Program is available at https://dphhs.mt.gov/hcsd/energyassistance/.
Montana Energy Share provides emergency bill assistance. To learn more, go to energysharemt.com.
When William Shakespeare died, in the spring of 1616, he left behind a body of work plays like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear, to name a few unparalleled in the English language before or since.
When William Shakespeare died, in the spring of 1616, he left behind a body of work plays like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear, to name a few unparalleled in the English language before or since.
He also left behind his wife, Anne Hathaway, and their two children. And to them, he left his last will and testament. As always with such bequeathals, a question arose: who would be left out, and why?
The bards final composition forms the basis of Shakespeares Will, by Winnipegs Vern Thiessen, a one-woman show that focuses on Hathaway on the day of her husbands funeral, pondering their relationship and her whole life as she avoids reading the document, and perhaps, the realization that she was a mere chorus member in the dramatis personae of William Shakespeares life.
"Everything I was told about Anne Hathaway in school was dismissive of her," says actress Debbie Patterson, who took on the role in a filmed production of the show produced by Shakespeare in the Ruins, streaming Nov. 19 through Dec. 5. "People said she probably was not very smart, that Shakespeare didnt love her very much. It didnt make her sound like a force to be reckoned with."
The truth is, very little is known about Hathaway: she married Shakespeare in 1582, was eight years her husbands senior, and together they had three children, whom she raised as her husband rose to theatrical glory. Much of what else is "known" is conjecture, using what little information is readily available to piece together details of a life long ago ended.
LEIF NORMAN PHOTO A wheelchair-level performance allowed Debbie Patterson to deepen her performance in the one-woman play Shakespeares Will, by Winnipegs Vern Thiessen.
In academic circles, this has created a mysterious aura a problem. But in Thiessens play, and in Pattersons portrayal of the misleading lady, that problem is a solution a chance to build a character where one previously had been lacking.
For Patterson, a founder of Shakespeare in the Ruins and the founding artistic director of local company Sick & Twisted, this was an exhilarating opportunity to explore a hidden point-of-view from a woman whose name is known, but not much more.
She almost didnt get the chance, she says. The Hathaway role was first offered to a different actor when the production was mounted for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centres Shakespeare Fest just prior to the pandemic. When that actor pulled out, Patterson was offered the spot without auditioning.
Of course, Patterson was elated. But she realized the usual approach to the role wearing a long gown, strolling through an Elizabethan drawing room, holding a number of props, a bench wouldnt work for her. "What would I need a bench for?" she wondered in a piece published on the theatre site Howlround. "In my wheelchair, Im already sitting down."
She felt a responsibility to visibly present herself in the play as she is, rather than hiding it or trying to pretend her disability did not exist. She knew they had to "crip" the production, embracing disability and finding new possibilities for the material. In doing so, a perceived "limitation" presents creative opportunities.
"Any time you dont acknowledge the reality of what youre working with, the parameters youre working within, youre doomed to fail," she said. She feels strongly that disability presents limitless possibilities, and isnt a diminishment or a limitation, as is commonly thought in an ableist society.
LEIF NORMAN PHOTO Director Eric Blais translated seaside images in the play. In Debbie Pattersons hands, twigs and driftwood became additional characters.
She approached director Eric Blais, who agreed with his star. An avid fan of puppetry, he then played with a different method to telling the story: using a tabletop sandbox, with Patterson moving behind it and using objects such as twigs, driftwood, and stones, pulled up from the sand, as characterizations of Hathaway, Shakespeare, their children, and memories of their relationship.
"When I sat down with the script, I read it through and made notes of all the repeated images in the text," says Blais. A few jumped out: the beach, sand, the ocean, the shore, life and, of course, death. "It all seemed to dovetail."
Blais then went out and collected the items from the banks of the Assiniboine River, and in Pattersons capable hands, they became vessels of Hathaways story, with pieces of driftwood and twigs serving as castmates. "Shes a little twig to Shakespeares driftwood," says Patterson, who found the puppetry freeing and joyful.
The director says Patterson carries the production. "First and foremost, the audience gets to see Debbie Patterson do her thing, and that in and of itself is worth the price of admission," he says.
On screen, Pattersons performance takes on new layers of intimacy with the audience: the objects, framed and isolated like real actors would be, become central figures, and Patterson keeps the entire thing in focus.
The result doesnt prompt just an answer as to who Hathaway was, but also questions who we are as audience members and consumers of history. Hathaways mysterious aura is as much a result of how women and other groups are treated by society at large as it is a result of how this one woman was treated by one man, who so happens to be the most prolific, successful playwright of all time.
It also asks the audience to consider their own relationships who is cursory and who is central, who is valued and who is not. What will we leave behind for them when were gone, and how will that leave them feeling?
ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
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Six new art studios, replete with pottery wheels, kilns, easels and computer stations await the next generation of Manitoba artists at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Six new art studios, replete with pottery wheels, kilns, easels and computer stations await the next generation of Manitoba artists at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
All that was missing Tuesday morning were the creative minds to put the tools to work.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS All that was missing Tuesday morning were the creative minds to put the tools to work.
The gallery unveiled its WAG Studio at a press conference and announced the renewal of a partnership with the province to provide art-education opportunities for Manitoba students ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12.
The new studios are located on the top floor of Qaumajuq, which itself sits on the former site of the WAGs studios, where prominent Manitoba artists such as Kent Monkman, Wanda Koop, Kenneth Lavallee, Jordan Van Sewell and Tony Tascona learned their craft or taught what they knew to others.
"The expanded learning spaces in which were standing in right now at WAG-Qaumajuq offer in-house and virtual programming that supports the Manitoba curriculum," Stephen Borys, the gallerys director and chief executive officer, said. "This agreement will ensure every student has the opportunity to become artstically literate, to experience artmaking and to think critically and creatively."
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS This agreement will ensure every student has the opportunity to become artstically literate, to experience artmaking and to think critically andcreatively, said Stephen Borys, WAG director and CEO.
The public will get a chance to check out the new spaces and demonstrations at an open house on Friday from 6-9 p.m. Registrations for the open house and for workshops are available online.
The WAG on Tuesday also began accepting registrations for its winter classes here.
Both Borys and Cliff Cullen, Manitobas education minister, stressed partnerships with Indigenous groups to provide artistic opportunities to Indigenous students but also for Indigenous artists to share their knowledge with schoolchildren, whether in a classroom setting or via the internet.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Were connecting with northern students, said Minister of Education Cliff Cullen, left, with WAG CEO Stephen Borys at Tuesdays announcement.
"Were connecting with northern students who can tell the story about some of the art on screen at the same time with students in Manitoba or anywhere else in Canada. Its a marvellous opportunity," Cullen said. "Its a real opportunity for education and what arts can do in terms with education as well."
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The new design puts the kiln just down the hall from where the potters wheels are located.
When the WAG unveiled plans for a new building devoted to Inuit art to be built where those studios stood, some local artists feared the loss of an 85-year tradition of art classes for Winnipeggers and Manitobans.
The studios have been incorporated into Qaumajuq and enlarged, and should more than address the early questions about the Qaumajuq project, Borys says.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The centralized design allows for a really fluid quality to the learning process that we didnt have before, says WAG CEO Stephen Borys.
"We have quadrupled the studio spaces at the WAG. On a good year, pre-COVID, we were able to welcome 25,000 kids a year. We can close to double that with activities and programs," Borys said.
While the areas were designed by Michael Maltzan, the California-based architect who designed Qaumajuq, students from the Interactive Digital Media Program at Sisler High School shared their ideas for the design of a new media laboratory that is part of the studio setup.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The WAG has began accepting registrations for its winter classes at wag.ca/studio.
The new studios also provide easier access to different parts of the artistic process. Kilns, for instance, are just down the hall from the studio where potters wheels are located.
"This also allows us to work right in the WAG-Qaumajuq building, so were not in a separate building," Borys says. "Theres a wonderful flow. A student comes in, visits an exhibition, does a program, a workshop, then comes in here, works in studios, goes back to the galleries. Theres a really fluid quality to the learning process that we didnt have before."
Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com
Twitter: @AlanDSmall
If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more.
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A mother of boys, Norma Dunning says she likes to think of her books as her "girls," even using the pronouns "she" and "her" to refer to her works.
Writer Norma Dunning poses with her book "Tainna: The Unseen Ones" in this undated handout photo. Inuk writer and academic Norma Dunning has won the $25,000 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction for "Tainna: The Unseen Ones." The book of short stories, published by Douglas & McIntyre, centres on the experiences of Inuit who live outside of their home territories. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Emily Welz Studios
A mother of boys, Norma Dunning says she likes to think of her books as her "girls," even using the pronouns "she" and "her" to refer to her works.
One of her girls, "Tainna: The Unseen Ones," has given the Inuk writer a whole lot to be proud of as the 2021 winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Dunning said she didn't know the book of short stories had been submitted for the $25,000 prize until she opened her inbox last month to find out "Tainna" had been named as a finalist.
The Edmonton author, academic and grandmother said the win affords her a level of visibility that she's often denied as an older Indigenous woman.
"For someone who's been a lifelong writer, it's a validation of the work that I put forward," Dunning, 62, said by phone ahead of the awards announcement on Wednesday. "It's just a beautiful reward at the end of it all."
While she's been writing since youth, Dunning said she hadn't considered pursuing her passion at a professional level until her sons started having children of their own.
"Everything I've done has been late," she said. "I started to think I should have others reading this. It's not just for me anymore."
Dunning enrolled in university at age 50, focusing her scholarship on native studies and education sciences, while honing her craft in creative writing courses.
As she rose through the ranks of academia, eventually becoming an instructor at the University of Alberta, Dunning continued to balance research and fiction.
She wrote "Tainna" while working on her PhD dissertation in Victoria. The short story collection, published by Douglas & McIntyre, centres on the experiences of modern-day Inuit living outside their home territories.
"I wrote a lot about the expectations of others when it comes to Inuit," Dunning said, noting that the stories touch on issues such as racism and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Dunning said she hopes the Governor General's prize introduces new readers to "Tainna."
"I love her, and so therefore, I want everyone to read her," she said. "It's a group of stories that really make all of us think about our own perceptions of what Inuit people are or should be."
The Governor General's Literary Awards, which are administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, handed out honours across seven categories in both English and French.
Kingston, Ont.-based poet Sadiqa de Meijer received the non-fiction prize for "alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language," published by Anstruther Books, which explores her transition from speaking Dutch to English.
Tolu Oloruntoba of Surrey, B.C., prevailed in the poetry category for "The Junta of Happenstance," also from Anstruther Books.
The drama award went to Halifax's Hannah Moscovitch for "Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes," published by Playwrights Canada Press.
In young people's literature, Philippa Dowding of Toronto took the text prize for "Firefly," published by DCB, while Winnipeg writer David Robertson and Vancouver artist Julie Flett shared the illustrated books award for "On the Trapline," published by Tundra Books.
The French-to-English translation winner was Erin Moure of Montreal for "This Radiant Life," published by Book*hug Press, based on Chantal Neveu's original work, "La vie radieuse."
Each winner receives $25,000, while the publisher of each winning book receives $3,000 to support promotional activities. Finalists each receive $1,000.
There are separate French-language categories for francophone writing.
Founded in 1936, the Governor Generals Literary Awards give out a total of about $450,000 annually.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II met with the British militarys chief of staff at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, the first time she was seen carrying out a face-to-face engagement since she missed the national Remembrance Sunday service due to a sprained back.
Queen Elizabeth II receives General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the Defense Staff, left, during an audience in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, Wednesday Nov. 17, 2021. General Sir Nick is relinquishing his role as the Chief of Defense Staff at the end of this month. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP)
LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II met with the British militarys chief of staff at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, the first time she was seen carrying out a face-to-face engagement since she missed the national Remembrance Sunday service due to a sprained back.
The 95-year-old monarch looked well as she chatted with Gen. Nick Carter in Windsor Castles Oak Room. The queen, who wore a colorful floral dress, stood to welcome Carter, who is preparing to step down from his role as the armed forces chief at the end of November.
The Oak Room is the queen's sitting room and office, and her elderly pet dorgi Candy - a cross between a corgi and dachshund - was seen greeting Carter as he entered the room.
Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.
Concerns about the monarch's health were raised last month, when she spent a night in a London hospital after being admitted for medical tests. In late October, palace officials said the monarch had been told by doctors to rest for two weeks and only take on light duties.
Those concerns intensified after she pulled out at the last minute from Sundays national Remembrance service to pay tribute to Britains war dead. Buckingham Palace officials, who had said it was the monarchs "firm intention" to make the event, announced Sunday that she decided she had to miss the ceremony because she sprained her back.
Elizabeth is Britains longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch. She is due to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee - marking 70 years on the throne - next year.
During her rest period, the queen has continued to work from home, doing desk-based duties and spending most of her time at Windsor Castle, west of London.
She canceled plans to attend the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, sending a video message instead to world leaders attending this month's conference. She also canceled an earlier trip to Northern Ireland.
The queen held an in-person meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week but was not photographed doing so.
SUMAS, Wash. (AP) Residents of this small U.S. city along the Canadian border were assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes, as Washington state and British Columbia tried to dry out from an intense, days-long rain storm that cut off key roadways and forced hundreds of evacuations.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF RIVER'S NAME TO NOOKSACK INSTEAD OF NOOKSAK - Passersby surround a car whose driver went past a barricade and into the flooded Nooksack River on Main Street, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Ferndale, Wash. The group of citizens went into the river and stopped the car from floating further, before they muscled it back onshore. No one was injured. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
SUMAS, Wash. (AP) Residents of this small U.S. city along the Canadian border were assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes, as Washington state and British Columbia tried to dry out from an intense, days-long rain storm that cut off key roadways and forced hundreds of evacuations.
Skies were sunny Wednesday morning in the area around Sumas, Washington, where about 500 rescues and evacuations were reported.
Were looking at going door-to-door, as waters go down in different parts of town, Sumas Mayor Kyle Christensen told The Seattle Times. Half is on dry ground, half has water.
By Wednesday afternoon, only one river in western Washington had active flood warnings.
The soaking fueled by a so-called atmospheric river that dumped torrents rain on the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia from Saturday through Monday reminded people of western Washingtons record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF RIVER'S NAME TO NOOKSACK INSTEAD OF NOOKSAK - Rescuers rush into the flooded Nooksack River to stop a car with the driver still aboard from floating away on Main Street, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Ferndale, Wash. The group of citizens went into the river and stopped the car, whose driver had gone past a road closed sign, then muscled it back onshore. No one was injured. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
While the weather was improving, the situation remained dire in British Columbia, where the Canadian government was sending in the military to help with floods and mudslides that destroyed parts of several major highways. One death was reported and officials said Wednesday that more deaths were expected.
Immediately across the border from Sumas, police using helicopters and boats had evacuated about 180 residents of a flooded low-lying area of Abbotsford, British Columbia. Evacuations continued Wednesday.
Mayor Henry Braun said Wednesday that conditions were bad overnight because a key pumping station was in danger of being overwhelmed. He said crews spent Tuesday night sandbagging around the station and things were holding steady.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF RIVER'S NAME TO NOOKSACK INSTEAD OF NOOKSAK - Passersby surround a car whose driver went past a barricade and into the flooded Nooksack River, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Ferndale, Wash. The group of citizens went into the river and stopped the car from floating further, before they muscled it back onshore. No one was injured. An atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon, caused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Im feeling much better today than last night, Braun said, although he cautioned the danger had not passed.
Those evacuated in Abbotsford joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.
On Facebook, the City of Sumas said Wednesday that water levels were continuing to drop and it looked like the community wouldn't be affected by additional potential flooding in Abbotsford. It said crews were working hard to clear roads and return power to some parts of town.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF RIVER'S NAME TO NOOKSACK INSTEAD OF NOOKSAK - Kenneth Warner races into the water to help rescue the driver of a car that went into the flooded Nooksack River, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Ferndale, Wash. Warner led a half-dozen citizens into the river, where they stopped the car from floating further and muscled it back onshore. No one was injured. An atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon, caused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days, the city said in another Facebook post.
To the south, a flood warning for Washington's Skagit River will remain in effect until Thursday because it will take time for the floodwaters to drain, the National Weather Service said. Officials recommended that residents of several nearby islands evacuate.
Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide near the small community of Lillooet, British Columbia. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF RIVER'S NAME TO NOOKSACK INSTEAD OF NOOKSAK - Passersby surround a car whose driver went past a barricade and into the flooded Nooksack River, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Ferndale, Wash. About a half-dozen citizens went into the river, where they stopped the car from floating further and muscled it back onshore. No one was injured. An atmospheric rivera huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregoncaused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
British Columbia Premier John Horgan declared a state of emergency Wednesday following the unprecedented flooding.
In Washington's Whatcom County, home to Sumas, the county sheriff's office said on Facebook that authorities and search crews on Wednesday had located a body believed to be a 59-year-old man who had last been seen clinging to a tree after his truck was swept into a flooded field in the town of Everson.
In the city Ferndale, also southwest of Sumas, officials had urged people in homes and businesses Tuesday to evacuate near the rising Nooksack River and bystanders had rescued a man who had driven into floodwaters by mistake.
People walk through floodwaters Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Sumas, Wash. An atmospheric rivera huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregoncaused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Evacuation notices were rescinded Wednesday and the flood warning had ended by Wednesday afternoon. Southwest of Ferndale, authorities said Wednesday that all routes off the Lummi Peninsula, home to the Lummi Nation, were closed because of water over the roads.
Officials in the city of Bellingham said only a few roads there remained closed on Wednesday because of flooding and officials were also assessing damage.
More rain fell in Bellingham from Saturday through Monday about 5.57 inches (14.14 centimeters) than normally falls there during all of November, according to National Weather Service data. The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches (13.2 centimeters) for November, the weather agency said.
A worker in a truck drives by a vehicle stuck in floodwater on a road Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Sumas, Wash. An atmospheric rivera huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregoncaused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Transportation officials on Washington's Olympic Peninsula where the Coast Guard earlier in the week rescued 10 people stranded by floodwaters on Wednesday were also assessing conditions and clearing debris from roads.
Officials said Wednesday that in the far northwest corner of the peninsula, people on the Makah Reservation have been prevented from leaving or entering because of landslides on nearby highways, The Seattle Times reported.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties. On a visit to Whatcom County Wednesday, he said some 500 homes had damage from the storms.
People walk by railroad cars derailed by flooding near tracks at a BNSF rail yard Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Sumas, Wash. People in the small city of Sumas are assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes in the community near the Canadian border. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Inslee said he spoke with the mayors of Everson and Sumas and was astonished at the devastation he saw, The Bellingham Herald reported.
Im told they did top all-time flood levels in some places, he said.
Some of the floodwaters came after warmer rains quickly melted 4 feet of snow that previously fell in the Mount Baker wilderness. Inslee said Whatcom County should prepare for repeated floods and address the causes of climate change.
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Laura Anker cleans up mud from flooding at the Cherry Street Market, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Sumas, Wash. People in the small city of Sumas, Washington, are assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes in the community near the Canadian border. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
We have to realize that were going to face decades of increased floods in our state of Washington, he said.
Inslee promised to use state and federal money including funds from President Joe Bidens recent infrastructure bill to ease the effects of climate change.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of the mayor of Sumas, Washington.
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Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.
NEW YORK (AP) An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.
This photo provided by Nancy Sack shows Carter Lange, Kim Gustavson, Jason Lange, Matthew Gustavson and Travis Gustavson. Nancy Sack's grandson, Travis Gustavson, died at age 21 in Mankato after overdosing on what he thought was heroin but was actually laced with fentanyl.(Katie Tettam /Nancy Sack via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.
Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades, accelerated in the past two years and, according to new data posted Wednesday, jumped nearly 30% in the latest year.
This photo provided by Nancy Sack shows from left, Kim Gustavson, Matthew Gustavson, Isaac Gustavson , Travis Gustavson, and Carter Lange. Nancy Sack's grandson, Travis Gustavson, died at age 21 in Mankato after overdosing on what he thought was heroin but was actually laced with fentanyl. (Katie Tettam/Nancy Sack via AP)
President Joe Biden called it a tragic milestone in a statement, as administration officials pressed Congress to devote billions of dollars more to address the problem.
This is unacceptable and it requires an unprecedented response, said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of National Drug Control Policy.
Experts believe the top drivers of overdose deaths are the growing prevalence of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply and the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment or other support.
The number is devastating, said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues. Its a magnitude of overdose death that we havent seen in this country."
Drug overdoses now surpass deaths from car crashes, guns and even flu and pneumonia. The total is close to that for diabetes, the nation's No. 7 cause of death.
Drawing from the latest available death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 100,300 Americans died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021. It's not an official count. It can take many months for death investigations involving drug fatalities to become final, so the agency made the estimate based on 98,000 reports it has received so far.
The CDC previously reported there were about 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, the highest number recorded in a calendar year. Robert Anderson, the CDC's chief of mortality statistics, said the 2021 tally is likely to surpass 100,000.
2021 is going to be terrible," agreed Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a drug policy expert at the University of California, San Francisco.
The new data shows many of the deaths involve illicit fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid that five years ago surpassed heroin as the type of drug involved in the most overdose deaths. Dealers have mixed fentanyl with other drugs one reason that deaths from methamphetamines and cocaine also are rising.
Drug cartels in Mexico are using chemicals from China to mass produce and distribute fentanyl and meth across America, said Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
This year, the DEA has seized 12,000 pounds of fentanyl, a record amount, Milgram said. But public health experts and even police officials say that law enforcement measures will not stop the epidemic, and more needs to be done to dampen demand and prevent deaths.
The CDC has not yet calculated racial and ethnic breakdowns of the overdose victims.
It found the estimated death toll rose in all but four states Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey and South Dakota compared with the same period a year earlier. The states with largest increases were Vermont (70%), West Virginia (62%) and Kentucky (55%).
Minnesota saw an increase of about 39%, with estimated overdose deaths rising to 1,188 in May 2020 through April 2021 from 858 in the previous 12-month period.
The area around the city of Mankato has seen its count of overdose deaths rise from two in 2019, to six last year to 16 so far this year, said police Lt. Jeff Wersal, who leads a regional drug task force.
I honestly don't see it getting better, not soon, he said.
Among the year's victims was Travis Gustavson, who died in February at the age of 21 in Mankato. His blood was found to show signs of fentanyl, heroin, marijuana and the sedative Xanax, Wersal said.
Gustavson was close to his mother, two brothers and the rest of his family, said his grandmother, Nancy Sack.
He was known for his easy smile, she said. He could be crying when he was a little guy, but if someone smiled at him, he immediately stopped crying and smiled back, she recalled.
Gustavson first tried drugs as kid and had been to drug treatment as a teenager, Sack said. He struggled with anxiety and depression, but mainly used marijuana and different kinds of pills, she said.
The morning of the day he died, Travis had a tooth pulled, but he wasn't prescribed strong painkillers because of his drug history, Sack said. He told his mother he would just stay home and ride out the pain with ibuprofen. He was expecting a visit from his girlfriend that night to watch a movie, she said.
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But Gustavson contacted Max Leo Miller, also 21, who provided him a bag containing heroin and fentanyl, according to police.
Some details of what happened are in dispute, but all accounts suggest Gustavson was new to heroin and fentanyl.
Police say Gustavson and Miller exchanged messages on social media. At one point, Gustavson sent a photo of a line of a white substance on a brown table and asked if he was taking the right amount and then wrote Or bigger?
According to a police report, Miller responded: Smaller bro and Be careful plz!
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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.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, observers say Canada has a lot to complain about. Here are some of the issues that have been chafing north of the border:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, observers say Canada has a lot to complain about. Here are some of the issues that have been chafing north of the border:
Pipelines: In addition to Keystone XL, the Biden administration has shown little enthusiasm for Line 3 and Line 5, two key cross-border upgrade projects spearheaded by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. that have been the targets of widespread protests and legal action in the U.S.
Afghanistan: Canada received little advance warning of the American military's abrupt and chaotic pullout, despite the prominent, costly and bloody role it played over a decade-long deployment as part of the U.S.-led NATO mission in the war-racked country.
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Buy American: The president frequently uses strong protectionist language to assure working-class voters that infrastructure projects will rely heavily on U.S. contractors and suppliers, with stringent conditions for any foreign involvement.
Electric vehicles: Canada's auto industry is up in arms over a proposed U.S. tax credit worth up to $12,500 to would-be EV buyers that critics, including foreign automakers, say is unfairly geared toward American-made vehicles built with union labour.
Hydro-Quebec: A planned transmission line between Quebec and New England, billed as a clean-energy conduit that would have had a dramatic impact on carbon emissions, was rejected by voters in Maine in a referendum earlier this month.
The Canada-U.S. border: The White House didn't open its land borders to fully vaccinated Canadian visitors until early November, three months after fully vaccinated U.S. citizens were allowed to drive into Canada.
USMCA: In addition to the EV tax credit, which auto industry officials in Canada consider a violation of the terms of the new trilateral trade deal, Canada and the U.S. are girding for a protracted battle over access to the Canadian dairy market.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
NEW YORK (AP) The cryptocurrency market gets likened to the Wild West by critics, and now a key player is asking for sheriffs to come to town.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao answers a question during a Zoom meeting interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. Binance is the worlds largest crypto exchange and hosts tens of billions of dollars worth of trades every day. Its calling for a global regulatory framework for crypto markets. (AP Photo)
NEW YORK (AP) The cryptocurrency market gets likened to the Wild West by critics, and now a key player is asking for sheriffs to come to town.
Binance, the worlds largest exchange for trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, says its time for global regulators to establish rules for crypto markets. It released a list of 10 fundamental rights for crypto users this week that it wants to guide discussions with regulators, policymakers and other exchanges.
The company acknowledges that crypto platforms have an obligation to protect users and to implement processes to prevent financial crimes, along with the responsibility to work with regulators and policymakers to set standards to keep users safe.
The call for regulation might seem strange for an industry whose popularity exploded in some part precisely because it sought to operate outside the heavy hand of governments and other authorities. But Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who goes by CZ, says more regulation for the industry is inevitable, and this allows his company to play a role in the discussions. It may also help draw in people who are still hesitant to get into crypto.
This year, most of the regulators around the world are looking at crypto intently, and many of them are communicating with us," Zhao said. So we feel this is the right time to issue a call for a global framework.
We feel that it is important for industry players to have a seat at the table, he said. And we also feel that some regulations, if theyre made in a vacuum, may not have practical considerations in how they are applied, and they dont get applied very well.
Regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrencies has intensified as theyve grown more mainstream. Big businesses, professional investors and even the government of El Salvador are all buying in, even if critics struggle to see the value of digital currencies created by non-governments. Theyre broadening cryptos base beyond its initial core of fanatics and sent Bitcoin last week to a record high of nearly $68,991, more than doubling in 2021.
Binances call for regulation reminds some on Wall Street of the playbook that companies have followed in other disruptive industries after becoming big winners.
Theyre doing what Uber and Lyft did, said Gil Luria, technology strategist at D.A. Davidson. Build a business ahead of regulations. When it gets to a certain scale, acknowledge that regulation will be helpful and then help shape it.
Zhao said that Binance welcomes regulations for many reasons. One of those minor reasons is a selfish reason: that in a regulated industry, the few larger players will remain. The smaller players do get cut off, which is unfortunate for those guys.
The move could also prove to be wise if Binances U.S. business ultimately tries to sell stock on a U.S. exchange, something Zhao hopes will happen in the next few years. A competitor, Coinbase, has already fetched a nearly $74 billion market value on Wall Street following its initial public offering this spring.
Such opportunities for wealth have drawn more new investors into crypto, as well as the eyes of regulators.
Right now, we just dont have enough investor protection in crypto, Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a speech this summer while calling it the Wild West.
This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications, he said. Theres a great deal of hype and spin about how crypto assets work. In many cases, investors arent able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information.
Analysts said they expect Binance to agree to report transactions to U.S. regulators looking for movements involved in the financing of terrorism, among other things. One of Binances fundamental rights also calls for strict regulations on marketplaces that offer derivatives and leveraged instruments, which can be lucrative but also very risky trades for investors.
Most regulators around the world are focusing on know your customer" rules, where financial companies try to verify the identity of who's using their services, Zhao said. They're also keyed in on protections for consumers.
But even there, different countries do have different interpretations and different meanings for these very simple words, Zhao said. In the U.S., for example, the emphasis for anti-money laundering is on blocking financing for terrorism, while Chinese regulators are looking more for people moving money out of the country.
Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University who recently wrote a book titled DeFi and the Future of Finance, said regulators are playing catch-up with complicated and fast-moving technologies, while trying to find a balance between protecting investors and not squashing innovation or driving it to other countries.
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The stakes are rising to get it right. The uncertainty now around what regulation will eventually look like is keeping some big institutional investors like pension funds out of crypto. And thats where the opportunity for even bigger money for the industry lies.
Given all the complexities, Harvey said the best solution may be for the U.S. government to create a new agency to oversee cryptocurrencies and the ecosystem around them, rather than relying on a combination of regulatory bodies.
Its complex, and it just doesnt fit many of the usual regulatory models, he said.
Zhao, who said the only cryptocurrencies he owns are Bitcoin and Binance coin, said some parts of the cryptocurrency world look more like securities, while others look more like commodities or currencies. And the ecosystem is growing by the day as people can create new tokens with just a few clicks of a mouse and keyboard.
He likened it to the early days of the internet, when people were trying to figure out what kind of media it was. Is it radio? TV? Something else?
People may have a tendency to view crypto as a single asset, which I think is a little bit misleading, he said. Crypto is a fundamental technology that can improve on many of the traditional asset types.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A U.S. appeals court has reinstated a ban on lobster harvesting in hundreds of miles of productive fishing waters off the Maine coast to try to protect rare whales.
FILE - A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., March 28, 2018. A federal appeals court on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, reinstated protections for endangered right whales in waters off New England. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A U.S. appeals court has reinstated a ban on lobster harvesting in hundreds of miles of productive fishing waters off the Maine coast to try to protect rare whales.
The Maine Lobstering Union had won emergency relief to stop the closure of lobstering grounds, which federal regulators ruled was needed to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.
But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the closure is back on. Removing the ban prevents the government from performing its task of protecting the whales from death by entanglement in gear, the court ruled.
The government's role is "assuring the right whales are protected from a critical risk of death," the court ruled.
The whales number less than 340 and are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships. The New England lobster fishery has had to contend with a host of new restrictions to try to protect the whales. The new rules make an approximately 950-square-mile area of the Gulf of Maine essentially off limits to lobster fishing from October to January.
The appeals court's ruling sent the case back to the U.S. district court level to resolve any disputes that concern the removal of the banned gear from the restricted area. Previously, the district court ruled there was not enough evidence the whales gather in the area with enough frequency to render it a whale "hot spot."
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Fishermen must now remove gear, and are prohibited from setting or resetting gear in the restricted area, the National Marine Fisheries Service said in a statement Wednesday. The agency, which is an arm of the federal government, said it anticipates it could take up to two weeks for all gear to be removed from the restricted area.
"North Atlantic right whales are in crisis and approaching extinction with fewer than 400 remaining, due primarily to the serious injuries and deaths they have suffered from entanglements and vessel strikes," said agency spokesperson Lauren Gaches in the statement.
Commercial fishing groups have criticized the National Marine Fisheries Service over the right whale rules and said the rules threaten to endanger the future of Maine's iconic fishery while failing to protect the whales.
The Maine Lobstermen's Association will continue to fight the fishing restrictions in court, said Patrice McCarron, the group's executive director.
"Nevertheless, it foreshadows the grave future our lobster fishery faces if NMFSs 10-year whale plan is not rescinded in favor of a plan based on science," McCarron said.
Environmental groups cheered the court's ruling on Wednesday. The courts decision affirms that "reducing entanglements by prohibiting fishing in this area is critical to ensuring the survival of right whales," said Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation.
BOSTON (AP) Pandemic-weary workers at Bostons Museum of Fine Arts went on a one-day strike Wednesday over stalled contract negotiations with management, the latest strike amid an monthslong uptick in labor action nationwide.
Museum curator Victoria Bunting, center, was one of the Union employees to picket in front of the Museum of Fine Arts Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Boston. The union representing about 200 employees held the one-day strike over stalled contract negotiations. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
BOSTON (AP) Pandemic-weary workers at Bostons Museum of Fine Arts went on a one-day strike Wednesday over stalled contract negotiations with management, the latest strike amid an monthslong uptick in labor action nationwide.
Members of the Museum of Fine Arts Union that represents about 200 workers picketed outside the museum starting at around 8:30 a.m. More than 100 people at one point were out holding signs saying No curation without representation and urging people not to cross the picket line to enter the museum.
The union says workers are concerned about pay, safety, workplace diversity and job growth, and that more than 96% of its members had voted in favor of striking.
The museum remained open during the one-day strike and had 900 visitors, down from about 1,200 the prior Wednesday, spokesperson Karen Frascona said. Officials have said they're committed to properly paying workers, despite the financial challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The MFA Union represents public-facing staff, library workers, educators, curators, conservators, and administrative and professional workers. Museum employees voted overwhelmingly last November to join the United Auto Workers Local 2110, a New York-based union representing over 3,000 workers in universities, publishing, museums, law firms and other offices.
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Michelle Millar Fisher, a curator in the contemporary collection, was one of the union employees to picket in front of the Museum of Fine Arts Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, in Boston. The union representing about 200 employees held the one-day strike over stalled contract negotiations. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Officials with the union didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.
The action comes as strikes elsewhere in the country, as well as rare unionization efforts by workers at big companies like Amazon and Starbucks, have made headlines.
More than 10,000 unionized workers at Deere & Co., the Illinois makers of the popular John Deere line of agricultural and construction equipment, walked off the job in mid-October.
Some 1,400 workers for the Michigan-based Kellogg Co. have also been on strike since early October at cereal plants in Omaha, Pennsylvania, Tennessee.
Meanwhile, unions representing 50,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California, Oregon and six other states called off a planned strike this week after reaching a tentative labor deal with the health care network.
A union representing University of California lecturers similarly called off a planned two-day walkout this week after reaching a tentative contract agreement with the UC system.
OTTAWA - Canada is launching free-trade talks with a major group of southeast Asian countries as it seeks to diversify from China and find new ways of coping with a snarled global supply chain.
Economic Development Minister, International Trade Minister and Small Business and Export Promotion Minister Mary Ng speaks with media before attending a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. Canada is launching free-trade talks with a major group of southeast Asian countries, as it seeks to diversify from China and find new ways of coping with a snarled global supply chain. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
OTTAWA - Canada is launching free-trade talks with a major group of southeast Asian countries as it seeks to diversify from China and find new ways of coping with a snarled global supply chain.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng announced the opening of formal trade talks late Tuesday with the Association of South East Asian Nations known as ASEAN after meeting with representatives of that 10-country bloc.
Ng heralded the opening of the talks as a significant milestone in deepening Canada's economic relations with the Indo-Pacific region and driving economic growth as the world copes with supply-chain bottlenecks that have plagued global trade during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a business forum that pursuing a trade deal with ASEAN countries would be a "win-win" that would be key to driving Canada's growth as it emerges from the pandemic.
"Our government is committed to opening up and diversifying more markets for Canadian exporters and businesses to grow," Ng said in an interview.
Ng met virtually Tuesday with ASEAN ministers and representatives of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council. The ministers agreed to a joint statement highlighting the potential for a free-trade agreement to help diversify supply chains, increase trade and investment, and reinforce Canada and ASEAN's shared commitment to open markets and rules-based trade.
Canada already has preferred access to four of ASEAN's 10 countries Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam through the 11-country Pacific Rim trade group known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
"We already have the CPTPP in the Asia-Pacific region. And this adds another 600 million new consumers," said Ng.
She said the region is the third-largest consumer market in the world with a $5 trillion economy.
A deal with ASEAN would open up access to three other large markets Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. The pursuit of a trade deal with ASEAN has been long sought by the government, and the global pandemic has only heightened the need to forge deeper into Asian markets.
An analysis by ASEAN and the federal government estimates that a free-trade deal between them could increase Canadian exports of goods and services to the region by 13.3 per cent.
The early months of the pandemic exposed the overreliance on trade with China as Canada encountered problems gaining access to personal protective equipment and vaccines.
In 2018, Canada launched public consultations that generated submissions from more than four dozen interested parties and individuals.
"Overall, stakeholders expressed support for FTA exploratory discussions with ASEAN and highlighted the significant opportunities for Canadians and Canadian businesses in the ASEAN market notably with non-CPTPP economies (Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand) across a broad range of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and services, among others," said the report, by Global Affairs Canada.
The agriculture sector provided the majority of input with 20 of the 49 submissions on the consultations, and their advice carried a familiar warning about an obstacle that has plagued past Canadian trade negotiations.
"A small number of stakeholders, especially from the supply-managed agriculture sectors, are skeptical of the benefits of a possible ASEAN-Canada FTA. Contributors indicated that support for an agreement would depend on outcomes that provide a carve-out for supply-managed goods," said the report.
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Canada's supply-managed dairy, poultry and egg markets have proven to be major bones of contention during trade talks on the CPTPP, with the European Union and in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, where it sparked the wrath of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Canada's agriculture sector suffered when China imposed restrictions on Canadian canola, pork and beef imports during the dispute involving Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou, and Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The men who became known as the two Michaels spent almost three years in Chinese prisons in apparent retaliation for Canadas arrest of Meng on a U.S. extradition warrant, while the punitive Chinese trade measures cost Canadian canola companies about $2 billion.
"We've been clear as a government that we will protect supply-managed sectors, and we intend to fulfil that," said Ng.
"But we're also looking at opportunities to look at market access in other sectors. We're looking at growth in the digital economy. We're looking at greater access to (financial) services."
In the recent federal election, the Liberals pledged a new Asia-Pacific strategy to deepen trade ties, including new trade deals.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2021.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) District administrators overreached when they permanently expelled a 17-year-old high school student for sending Snapchat messages after school hours that referred to another student as a potential school shooter, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) District administrators overreached when they permanently expelled a 17-year-old high school student for sending Snapchat messages after school hours that referred to another student as a potential school shooter, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The justices said such communications must be analyzed in context and the primary focus should be the speaker's intent.
The Manheim Township School District high school junior, identified as J.S. in court records, was suspended and then expelled over a series of messages sent to a friend in April 2018. The messages ridiculed a third student, saying he looked like a school shooter because he had long hair and wore T-shirts bearing the name of death metal band Cannibal Corpse.
The second student briefly shared J.S.'s Snapchat memes with a group of 20-40 other students before taking them down at the request of J.S. But a recipient told his parent, a district employee, who in turn notified the principal. Police determined there was no threat to school safety and administrators notified parents and teachers about the incident.
J.S. told school officials he was joking and intended the online conversation to remain private, but was nonetheless kicked out of school. A county judge overturned the expulsion and J.S. also won a Commonwealth Court decision.
Of course we dont want people making false threats, but that isnt want happened, J.S.'s lawyer, Lorrie McKinley, said Wednesday. They tried to make this about something that it wasnt.
McKinley said J.S. never returned to the Lancaster County high school, instead ending up in a private cyber school. He is now a college student.
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His mother said it best at the hearing, she said this has blown up his life, McKinley said. I mean, its impacted his career choices, it impacted him pretty much in every way.
District spokesperson ShaiQuana Mitchell released a statement claiming the case involved serious and specific threats of harm and describing the decision as disappointing.
We will continue to be vigilant in our response to any and all safety concerns brought to us by our school community. We will apply the information gained from the ruling to any similar future expulsion cases should they occur, she said.
In the majority opinion, Justice Debra Todd said J.S.'s messages to his friend did not threaten anyone and were sent from his personal phone at home.
While mean-spirited, sophomoric, inartful, misguided, and crude, in our view, J.S.'s memes were plainly not intended to threaten (either student) or any other person, Todd wrote, so they did not constitute a true threat.
The effect on the school community, she said, did not rise to the level of a substantial disruption.
PRAGUE (AP) The Czech Republic and Slovakia both reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a day before the two European Union countries plan to approve new restrictions for unvaccinated people in response to rising infections.
FILE - In this March 16, 2020 file photo a young man wearing a face mask walks across an empty Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has been hit by a steep rise in COVID-19 infections that have reached the levels unseen since late April, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday Oct. 20, 2021. The Czech Republic has recorded a new record high in coronavirus infections in one day since the beginning of the pandemic. The news was announced by the Health Ministry on Wednesday Nov. 17, 2021, a day before the government is set to approve new restrictions tackle the recent wave. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)
PRAGUE (AP) The Czech Republic and Slovakia both reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a day before the two European Union countries plan to approve new restrictions for unvaccinated people in response to rising infections.
Thousands in the capitals of both countries, Prague and Bratislava, used Wednesdays anniversary of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution to rally against their governments upcoming coronavirus restrictions.
The protesters ignored social distancing and didnt wear masks. Police didnt intervene in Prague. In Bratislava, police said two officers sustained injuries after the crowd near the seat of the government detonated fire crackers.
The Czech daily tally soared to 22,479 new cases, eclipsing the previous record set Jan. 7 by almost 5,000 and nearly 8,000 more than just a week ago. The countrys infection rate rose to 813 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, up from 558 a week earlier.
FILE - in this March 22, 2021 file photo, A woman walks by thousands of crosses that are painted at the Old Town Square, to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the death of first Czech COVID-19 patient, in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has been hit by a steep rise in COVID-19 infections that have reached the levels unseen since late April, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday Oct. 20, 2021. The Czech Republic has been hit by a steep rise in COVID-19 infections that have reached the levels unseen since late April, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday Oct. 20, 2021. The Czech Republic has recorded a new record high in coronavirus infections in one day since the beginning of the pandemic. The news was announced by the Health Ministry on Wednesday Nov. 17, 2021, a day before the government is set to approve new restrictions tackle the recent wave. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek/File)
Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech announced Wednesday he would propose new coronavirus restrictions to be approved by the government on Thursday.
We find ourselves in a very serious situation, Vojtech said. There's a real risk that our hospitals will be overwhelmed,"
The key measure being proposed is that most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to attend public events, go to bars and restaurants or use hotels based on coronavirus test results. Only people who are vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID-19 will remain eligible. Similar restrictions are in place in the German state of Bavaria.
They are expected to become effective on Monday.
It's motivation for the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, Vojtech said.
Exceptions include teenagers aged 12 to 18, medical personnel and visitors at hospitals and nursing homes.
Vojtech also urged companies to cancel their traditional Christmas parties and return to working at home wherever possible.
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Slovakia reported 8,342 new virus cases, surpassing the previous record of 7,244 set Friday. The Slovak government is planning new restrictions on unvaccinated people as the country's hospitals are getting overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said his Cabinet would vote Thursday on recommendations from medical experts. Among the proposals, which would be instituted for three weeks, are banning unvaccinated people from nonessential stores, shopping malls, gyms, pools, hotels and mass public gatherings.
Slovakia's Health Ministry said 81% of the country's 2,879 hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
The Czech Republic at 57.9% and Slovakia at 45.3% have vaccination rates well below the average of the EU's 27 nations.
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The departure of Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale raises further questions about the company's direction as it looks to put a boardroom power struggle behind it and focus on the acquisition of rival Shaw Communications, experts say.
Rogers Communications CEO Joe Natale speaks to shareholders during the Rogers annual general meeting in Toronto on Friday, April 20, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The departure of Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale raises further questions about the company's direction as it looks to put a boardroom power struggle behind it and focus on the acquisition of rival Shaw Communications, experts say.
In a statement late Tuesday, the telecommunications giant said Natale was out as CEO, and replaced in the interim by former chief financial officer Tony Staffieri as the board searches for a permanent chief executive to guide its $26-billion takeover of Shaw.
Staffieri is a candidate for the post, Rogers said.
Tyler Chamberlin, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management, says the family feud over chairman Edward Rogers' attempt to replace Natale with Staffieri may be settled, but uncertainty at the top could have trickle-down effects at the company.Edward's mother Loretta Rogers and sisters Martha Rogers and Melinda Rogers-Hixon had fought the move.
"Are these folks going to continue to feud like that? Obviously that's not going to be good for the company, not good for shareholders and not good for the management team who's going to be taking over. And we'll be needing direction from the board," Chamberlin said.
Edward's initial attempt to oust Natale in favour of his No. 2 led instead to Staffieri's departure in September, as well as a board vote to push Edward from his seat at the head of the table.
Edward penned a shareholder resolution without a shareholder meeting to oust the five directors who had defied him. The company filed a legal challenge to his revamped board, sparking a court battle over who actually served on it.
On Nov. 5, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled Edward's declaration legitimate.
"These family squabbles are an interesting backdrop to this dispute that would be more in keeping with a Shakespearean drama," Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick wrote in her decision.
Chamberlin said Natale's exit could lead to a fresh strategic direction following the company's lacklustre performance under the outgoing CEO.
"An underperforming CEO is being replaced by another executive. This happens all the time," he said.
"This isn't about some great scandal, this isn't about some great corruption. It's just about differences in strategic visions and who best should lead this very large, very valuable company."
RBC Dominion Securities Inc. analyst Drew McReynolds said he is looking out for further C-suite changes, but does not believe the executive turnover will impact the regulatory approval process for the Shaw deal.
Three federal agencies are reviewing the potential acquisition, with the country's telecom regulator slated to hold a hearing on Monday.
A narrowing of Canada's telecom landscape, already dominated by Rogers, Telus Corp. and BCE Inc., would reinforce the main providers' control over the market, said Carleton University communications professor Dwayne Winseck.
The Shaw acquisition would hand Rogers critical fibre-optic networks to boost its 5G capabilities and go head to head with Telus and Bell nationwide, Winseck said.
"Rogers doesn't have a lot of that out west. So the major play here really is not about the wireless stuff, it's about Rogers getting hold of fibre infrastructure."
Natale marks the third CEO to be shown the door in eight years, following Guy Laurence in 2016 and Nadir Mohamed in 2013.
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Businesses with dual-class shares such as Rogers can be big profit generators, but the recent boardroom clash also points to the governance risk associated with that structure.
"There's effectively one person in charge of Rogers, and not just as the owner, but capable of dictating the direction of management," said Ben Klass, part of a research team studying ownership concentration in Canadas telecom and media industries.
Companies with dual-class shares issue different sets of common shares that have different voting and control rights. This often gives one group of shareholders an outsized share of those rights, typically the firm's founders, family members or executives.
"The whole feud seems to have been about control. And when one of the people engaged in the feud controls 97 per cent of the company, I think it's fairly clear what's going to happen," Klass said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:SJR.B, TSX:BCE, TSX:T, TSX:QBR.B, TSX:SHOP, TSX:GOOS, TSX:ATD.B, TSX:BBD.B, TSX:CTC.A, TSX:CTC)
BERLIN (AP) A pig farm in northern Germany began culling all of its 4,000 animals Wednesday after a case of African swine fever was confirmed there.
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A man cleans a cattle truck on the premises of a pig breeding farm in Vogelsang, northern Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. A pig farm in northern Germany began culling all of its animals Wednesday after a case of African swine fever was confirmed there this week. (Jens Buettner/dpa via AP)
BERLIN (AP) A pig farm in northern Germany began culling all of its 4,000 animals Wednesday after a case of African swine fever was confirmed there.
The outbreak near Guestrow, about 185 kilometers (115 miles) northwest of Berlin, is the first at a large pig farm in Germany. Cases in wild boars were first reported in Germany last year, followed by outbreaks in smallholdings.
African swine fever is usually deadly for pigs but doesnt affect humans. It has spread in several European countries, leading to large-scale culls of wild boars and farmed pigs.
German farmers had been dreading the arrival of swine fever because of the impact it will have on the pork industry, particularly lucrative exports to Asia.
Denmark, another major pork exporter, recently stepped up measures to prevent African swine fever entering the country from neighboring Germany.
Officials said it was still unclear how the disease entered the farm near Guestrow, where it was detected this week.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) Amanda Metzler, a licensed cannabis grower, has beefed up security around her property and no longer dares to go out alone after dark because of illegal marijuana farms in her region.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) Amanda Metzler, a licensed cannabis grower, has beefed up security around her property and no longer dares to go out alone after dark because of illegal marijuana farms in her region.
Elin Miller, a vineyard owner, said the illegal sites have lured away so many field workers that grape growers and wineries are suffering labor shortages, particularly at harvest time.
Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler says the crime rate, associated with the thousands of illegal marijuana farms that have sprung up this year in southern Oregon, has gone through the roof.
Weve had stabbings, robberies, thefts, burglaries, homicides, sex crimes, motor vehicle accidents, DUIs, all related to the influx of the marijuana-cannabis industry in our in our valley, Sickler said. It is certainly an issue we deal with on a daily basis here.
The three were among witnesses who testified Tuesday before a committee of the Oregon Legislature, in an effort to seek help in stemming the proliferation of illegal grow sites in southern Oregon.
The managers of the sites which were brazenly erected last spring primarily in Jackson and Josephine counties in the largely rural region near the California state line have stolen water from rivers, creeks and aquifers during a severe drought and abused immigrant workers, officials have said.
Many illegal marijuana farms are operating under the guise of being legal hemp farms. Steven Marks, director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, said that tests conducted at some 400 self-proclaimed hemp sites from July 28 to mid-September showed that most plants had higher amounts of THC, the component that gives cannabis its high, than is legally allowed for hemp.
So the upshot is 54% of all the tests we successfully conducted were positive and presumptive for marijuana, Marks said.
Managers of 73 sites told state inspectors to go away, and barred access. Many sites are guarded by gunmen.
Sickler described an explosion of growth in marijuana farms.
We dont have the resources in Jackson County to deal with something like that, Sickler told the House Interim Committee On Economic Recovery and Prosperity.
Rep. Pam Marsh, a Democrat from Ashland in Jackson County, agreed.
I can tell you that on the ground, the ubiquitous presence of these structures, often with very little effort meant to shield them from the public view, has been shocking, Marsh said.
There arent enough inspectors to test for THC content at each site to determine which ones are legal and which are not, officials have said. Police said they do not have the capacity to raid all the suspicious sites, with each raid requiring an investigation and search warrant.
First and foremost, we need to allocate significant funding to support law enforcement and code compliance operations," Marsh told the committee. "Jackson County alone has estimated a cost of $7.3 million a year to enable the county to adequately tackle illegal grows. Josephine County is likely to have a similar need.
Vineyards are also feeling the impact of the illegal pot farms, said Miller, chair of the Oregon Wine Council.
We are already facing challenges finding enough workers to support our operations, particularly during peak harvest seasons, Miller said. The unfair and often illegal labor practices of these illegal operations are compounding that issue by paying workers in cash at significantly higher wages than those of us who ... are adhering to all labor laws.
With tons of marijuana having been recently harvested and the illicit business largely conducted in cash, gunmen are now preying on the illegal farms and marijuana processing sites.
Crews from eight different states have come to Jackson County to perform home invasion robberies of marijuana farms or individuals associated with marijuana industry with money, Sickler said.
Rep. John Lively, the committee chairman, said its members would draft legislation to help the situation. But he pointed out that the next legislative session, which starts in February, is a short one, lasting barely a month, giving little time for a raft of bills to pass committees and both the House and Senate.
And so the more complex the legislation, the more problematic its going to be, Lively said. So how many issues do we try to address or not address in the short session, versus something else?
Marsh warned that there won't be a quick fix.
We know that it will take several years of significant effort, perhaps three to five before we can expect to have the issue corralled, she said.
The illegal farms produce tons of marijuana that is sold outside the state. Officials believe that foreign cartels selected southern Oregon because its part of the the fabled marijuana-growing Emerald Triangle, a zone in which Californias Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties form the major part.
Federal drug agents and representatives of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Oregon met on Tuesday with local law enforcement and other officials to hear about the challenges theyre facing.
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Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel called it a beginning coordination meeting between agencies.
We all are being affected by the illegal market in so many ways that we need to work together as united as we can be, Daniel said in an email. The illegal marijuana market has no borders or boundaries.
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This story has been updated to correct the details of testimony by Amanda Metzler.
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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
As food manufacturers grapple with rising costs and supply chain issues, two of Canada's biggest grocers are signalling the potential for higher prices and the spotty availability of some products in the coming months.
A Loblaws store is seen Monday, March 9, 2015 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
As food manufacturers grapple with rising costs and supply chain issues, two of Canada's biggest grocers are signalling the potential for higher prices and the spotty availability of some products in the coming months.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Metro Inc. released their latest financial results on Wednesday, offering a glimpse at the inflationary pressures and labour challenges hitting the grocery industry.
The situation is expected to lead to higher food prices and brief shortages of some specialty products on store shelves, suggesting the pandemic could have a lasting impact on the food industry.
"There is meaningful commodity price pressures ... and then there's labour supply pressure," Galen G. Weston, Loblaw president and chairman, told analysts during a conference call. "Those two things are creating substantial challenges for our manufacturing base."
Weston said manufacturers are consolidating production into the highest volume products and putting secondary sizes and flavours on allocation, managing limited supplies by limiting retailers to finite amounts of some products.
"What customers will be frustrated to see is something's in stock for a week, and then it's out of stock for four or five weeks," said Weston, adding that he expects to see the instability continue for a few more quarters.
The situation is impacting the entire grocery industry in Canada.
Metro CEO Eric La Fleche told financial analysts that some products "continue to be hard to get supplied and to get the quantities that we would like."
"There are some key items where we are on allocations," he said. "The whole industry is."
It's not just grocery store shelves that are expected to be impacted by the pandemic's ongoing impact. The soaring cost of labour, shipping and commodities are driving up costs for food manufacturers, and many consumer packaged goods companies are seeking price increases.
"We are paying a lot of attention to cost inflation," Loblaw chief financial officer Richard Dufresne told analysts. "The number and size of cost increases requested by vendors has been elevated since the summer."
Loblaw's internal measures of inflation were slightly higher than the average quarterly national food price inflation of 2.6 per cent, the company said.
Metro said food basket inflation was about two per cent in its fourth quarter double the one per cent recorded in the previous quarter.
La Fleche said meat and dairy products were the main drivers leading to higher costs at Metro grocery stores.
Statistics Canada said Wednesday the annual pace of inflation in October rose to 4.7 per cent as the consumer price index posted its largest year-over-year gain since February 2003. The increase followed a 4.4 per cent year-over-year increase in September.
Higher prices could benefit discount grocery chains such as Food Basics for Metro or No Frills for Loblaw.
But Weston said the "acceleration in inflation rates and the lack of predictability in what inflation is going to look like in the coming months and quarters" makes it difficult to predict any sustained trends.
Loblaw beat expectations as it reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago, helped by strong demand in stores and online.
The country's largest grocery and pharmacy chain said it earned a profit attributable to common shareholders of $431 million or $1.27 per diluted share for the 16-week period that ended Oct. 9. The result compared with a profit of $342 million or 96 cents per diluted share in the same period last year.
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Revenue in the quarter totalled $16.05 billion, up from $15.67 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Metro reported its fourth-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago as its sales edged lower.
The Montreal-based grocery and drugstore retailer said it earned $194 million or 79 cents per diluted share for the 12-week period ended Sept. 25, up from a profit of $186.5 million or 74 cents per share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Sales in the quarter totalled $4.09 billion, down from $4.14 billion in the same quarter last year when the company says it saw exceptionally strong sales due to the pandemic.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L), (TSX:MRU)
Parrish & Heimbecker may be a 112-year-old company, but its newest high through-put grain elevator, just outside Dugald, Man. has all bells and whistles that the modern, highly efficient grain industry now expects.
Parrish & Heimbecker may be a 112-year-old company, but its newest high through-put grain elevator, just outside Dugald, Man. has all bells and whistles that the modern, highly efficient grain industry now expects.
Even before the company acquired 10 country elevators from the Louis Dreyfus Company in 2019 it had already been on an aggressive expansion spree building new elevators in Biggar, Sask., Gladstone, Man. and Viking, Alta.
And before the 25,000 tonne capacity elevator was completed earlier this year in Dugald, just a few kilometers outside Winnipeg, it had already started construction on another in Yorkton, Sask.
The company now has 35 grain and crop input locations across Western Canada, four in Eastern Canada and a total of eight terminals on the Great Lakes and the Pacific coast. The company also boasts the largest Canadian-owned flour-milling business, P&H Milling Group with eight mills, and New-Life Mills, a feed mill operation with another five mills.
Coming off the most serious drought in Western Canada in 20 years might not seem like the best time to invest about $50 million in new handling infrastructure, but Parrish & Heimbecker officials say that, on the contrary, it will both help the company in a very competitive marketplace and it will help producers in their efforts to become that much more efficient.
Daryl McCharles, the companys general manager of the western region, said, "This is one of the most challenging years Ive seen and Ive been in this business for a long time. Were working closely with producers to ensure they survive this challenging marketplace."
The new facility, which replaces a de-commissioned elevator the company owned in Transcona, features its own 150 car CN loop track for much quicker turn around.
Whereas the old Transcona elevator would only handle 25 cars at once and could load three cars per hour, the new facility can handle 15 per hour.
SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Parrish & Heimbecker recently opened a new Dugald Grain Elevator & Crop Inputs Centre east of Winnipeg.
As well, it is outfitted with all the technology that ensures that no contaminated grain gets into the system and can track and trace the inputs usually right back to the specific bin on the farmers lot.
Dave Yarycky, the general manager of the Dugald elevator, said the design includes all sorts of safety measures including covered conveyors to eliminate dust.
On the spotless floor on the bowels of the elevator, Yarycky noted that "in an older elevator wed be standing a few inches deep in dust."
After building its own rail loop connecting to the CN main line, P&H has built fertilizer and chemical handling at Dugald as well as seed bins to the product offering providing the kind of one-stop shopping that this regions highly competitive marketplace demands.
Producers in the Winnipeg area enjoy one the most competitive marketplaces in Western Canada when it comes to grain handlers in the market to buy production.
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"Producers around Winnipeg are sharp customers. They are not taking less for their grain than what they want," Yarycky said. "There are five or six mainline grain handlers active in the market and lots of feed mills and end users in the area. That leads to competition which is great for the producer. Thats why we have to be on the ball to give the best service and the best price."
To help lure customers, the facility includes a 6,800 tonne fertilizer shed something that is not always available where there is rail access, a 7,800 square foot heated chemical shed and seed treatment facility.
With wheat prices over $8 per bushel and canola prices above $16 per bushel, savvy producers can do well with what yield they do have.
Zach Harrison, P&Hs construction engineer in charge of the construction at Dugald and the Yorkton facility that is being built, said the company is always learning new and more efficient ways to go about the process.
"This one will help improve our place in the market," Harrison said. "What P&H has done over recent years is we have got larger in the crop input operation adding fertilizer, chemicals, herbicide and seeds providing a full service facility. We can give the farmer everything they need to produce a high yielding crop."
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Ontario wants to ramp up domestic production of electric and hybrid cars over the next decade, but the government isn't planning to offer incentives for residents to buy them.
An electric car is plug into a charging station at Lansdowne Mall in Peterborough, Ontario on Sunday June 17, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives
Ontario wants to ramp up domestic production of electric and hybrid cars over the next decade, but the government isn't planning to offer incentives for residents to buy them.
"Motor vehicle manufacturing has been a way of life in Ontario," Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Guelph, Ont., where he unveiled his government's plans for the auto sector.
He said the sector is a "cornerstone" of well-paying jobs, but the industry is changing as consumers look for a different type of vehicle.
"The industry is shifting rapidly and preparing to build the cars of the future," he said. 'As a government, we must ensure our manufacturing sector keeps pace."
The government's proposed plan to produce 400,000 vehicles by 2030 involves partnering with the auto sector on new automaker mandates for hybrid and battery electric vehicles, establishing a battery assembly plant and increasing Ontario-made auto part exports.
It also relies on a longstanding government goal to mine in northern Ontario for minerals used in batteries, and highlights a plan to train more auto workers.
The electric-friendly approach represents an ideological policy shift for Ford. He cancelled the previous Liberal government's rebate of up to $14,000 for electric vehicle buyers, calling it a support for rich people.
The Progressive Conservatives also stopped building charging stations after forming government. Private companies have stepped in to build more and there is currently total of around 4,000 charging outlets in the province, according to the Ministry of Transportation.
On Wednesday, Ford and other cabinet ministers indicated they had not decided to bring back any of the cancelled incentives alongside the new production focus.
Ford said his government "will see what the market dictates" when it comes to offering rebates on purchasing electric vehicles. He gave a similar response when asked whether the Progressive Conservative government would invest in charging infrastructure.
Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said the government has chosen to put its money behind production and job creation.
"Our decision was to support the supply side," he said. "We've opted to fund the critical minerals, the battery production, and the parts makers through a couple of various programs that we have."
He said the government is looking at growth forecasts for the sector to decide on whether to build more charging stations.
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Ontario Green party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford has sent the wrong message on electric vehicles by cancelling the rebate and getting rid of charging stations.
He said the Greens propose equalizing costs of electric and combustion engine car sales to make electric cars more attractive to buyers, especially given high gas prices another issue Ford has pledged to tackle.
"Ford can talk all he wants about saving people money at the pumps. The best way to save people money at the pumps is to get big oil out of our lives and electrify our transportation system," Schreiner said.
The Opposition New Democrats criticized the government's plan as inefficient without incentives like rebates and charging stations.
Doug Fords sudden flip-flop on electric vehicles is late, weak and badly incomplete," auto critic Wayne Gates said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - There's plenty of room and lots of good reasons for Canada and the United States to find common ground on tax credits for electric vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday on the eve of a key meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departs on a government plane, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 in Ottawa. Trudeau is flying to Washington for meetings at the White House. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - There's plenty of room and lots of good reasons for Canada and the United States to find common ground on tax credits for electric vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday on the eve of a key meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden.
Otherwise, it could well become "the dominant issue" in a Canada-U.S. relationship that's already facing "real challenges," Freeland warned during a rooftop news conference at a downtown D.C. hotel.
Both countries are pursuing fundamentally the same goal, Freeland said: encouraging the move away from gas-powered internal combustion engines in an effort to slow the impact of climate change around the world, while simultaneously encouraging post-pandemic economic growth.
But Bidens proposed EV tax credit which would effectively cut Canadian-made vehicles and parts out of a lucrative incentive worth up to $12,500 to a prospective U.S. car buyer would work counter to their shared goals.
"Job 1 for us is just raising awareness," Freeland said something she's confident the Canadian delegation accomplished Wednesday during meetings with senior congressional leaders on Capitol Hill.
"I think job 2 and this is a very Canadian approach is, we don't want to just show up and say, 'Here's a problem.' We'd like to show up and say, 'Here's the problem, and here are some ways that we can solve the problem.'"
Freeland didn't elaborate on what some of those potential solutions might be, but her message was clear: there's room for the U.S. to manoeuvre so that the objectives of the measure remain intact, but Canada doesn't get left out in the cold.
She cited the newly forged North American trade deal, known south of the border as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, as evidence that the two countries know how to work together.
"We sort of said, 'Guys, like, we all spent a lot of time negotiating this agreement that had support obviously from Republicans, it was a Republican administration but it had support from Democrats too,'" Freeland said.
"'Do you really want to violate it in such a significant way?'"
Electric vehicles will be a major part of Thursday's discussions with Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador not just on tax incentives, but also where the U.S. auto sector is going to get the critical minerals and rare-earth elements so vital to the manufacture of EV batteries.
When global supply chains are under pressure, as they have been since the onset of COVID-19, the U.S. "could do worse" than relying on Canada to provide a reliable and affordable supply of raw materials, Trudeau said.
"It is a two-way street. We do well when we're working together," the prime minister told a question-and-answer session hosted by the Wilson Center.
China is the world's leading supplier of those minerals and pandemic-induced bottlenecks have created major shortages something Trudeau alluded to when he said some other countries have lower production costs because they "don't care" about environmental or labour standards.
Conservative Leader Erin OToole called on the prime minister to deliver "tangible results" for Canadians at the summit, saying the relationship between Canada and the U.S. has been getting worse over the past year.
"Under Justin Trudeau's watch, the United States has doubled tariffs on softwood lumber, put in place stringent Buy America policies threatening Canadian jobs, launched trade disputes against our agriculture sector, and cancelled pipeline projects," O'Toole said in a statement.
He urged the prime minister to obtain guarantees that Biden will include Canadian-assembled cars in an electric-vehicle tax credit, carve out Canadian exemptions for Buy America policies and support the continuation of Enbridge Inc.'s cross-border Line 5 pipeline.
None of those things are likely to emerge from meetings with the president that are only scheduled to last a few hours.
OToole also called for a North American supply chain resilience strategy that includes Canada's rare-earth minerals as a source for battery and electric-vehicle production.
Trudeau faces mounting pressure to address Canada's misaligned COVID-19 border restrictions with his North American counterparts as well.
On Monday, four bipartisan U.S. senators wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly to ask Canada to align border restrictions with its southern neighbours, especially when it comes to Canadas requirement for a negative molecular COVID-19 test for incoming travellers.
"It is important for both of our nations economies that fully vaccinated individuals are able to travel between Canada and the U.S. with ease," wrote senators Amy Klobuchar, Susan Collins, Chuck Schumer and Mike Crapo three of whom were on hand Wednesday when Trudeau arrived for his Senate meeting.
The prime minister seemed at ease and relaxed as he worked the room upon his arrival, even eliciting a thin smile from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when the group lined up for a photograph.
"Mitch to my left," Trudeau cracked. "Look at that."
On the other side of the sprawling Capitol complex, Trudeau met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of Congress with a specific interest in Canadian matters, including New York Rep. Brian Higgins.
Higgins, a Democrat, has been championing the complete reopening of the Canada-U.S. border for months and said he remains frustrated that Canada still requires a PCR test to enter.
"The fractured approach to border management by both the U.S. and Canadian governments is contributing to public confusion, anger and frankly, it makes no sense," Higgins said after the meeting.
"Testing is not only unnecessary, it is prohibiting a cross-border exchange critical to fostering economic recovery in both nations."
Trudeau later promised news before the end of the week on the testing requirement but refused to confirm reports that Canada plans to exempt Canadian travellers returning from trips of less than 72 hours.
"We are looking at making steps to loosen up requirements while at the same time keeping Canadians safe," Trudeau said, adding there'll be "an announcement in the coming days."
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Trudeau capped the evening with a visit to an annual gala hosted by the Canadian American Business Association atop the ritzy Hay-Adams hotel, a stone's throw from the White House.
His government's climate change agenda is "not just about clean air and fresh water, although that'd be enough, but also about opportunities, good jobs, and a strong future for everyone," Trudeau said.
"These are things on which, as countries and as friends, we are so deeply aligned. Canadians and Americans get regardless of the various pushes and pulls of politics that there is a clear direction forward that more and more people are seeing, more and more people know that they want to be part of."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
With files from Laura Osman in Ottawa
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled John Manley's surname and said he served as foreign affairs minister under Stephen Harper.
WASHINGTON (AP) Pressed to address gaping inequality in global COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic.
A health worker gives a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a man during a vaccination campaign at a community health center in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
WASHINGTON (AP) Pressed to address gaping inequality in global COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration took steps Wednesday to make billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production to share with the world and prepare for the next pandemic.
Under the new initiative, the government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is soliciting pharmaceutical companies with proven ability to make the more-effective mRNA vaccines to bid for U.S. investment in scaling up their manufacturing. Pfizer and Moderna produce the two U.S.-approved mRNA shots.
The White House hopes the move will build capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year.
The initiative comes as the Biden White House has faced growing pressure at home and abroad over inequity in the global vaccine supply as the U.S. moves toward approving booster shots for all adults while vulnerable people in poorer nations wait for their first dose of protection.
According to an analysis by the ONE Campaign, an international aid and advocacy organization, only 4.7% of people living in low-income countries have received a first dose. Wealthy nations administered more than 173 million booster shots, while lower-income countries have administered about 32 million first shots.
The Biden administration believes increasing capacity of COVID-19 shots will help ease a global shortage of doses, particularly in lower- and middle-income nations, stopping preventable death and limiting the development of potentially new, more dangerous variants of the virus.
FILE - A dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is prepared at Lurie Children's hospital, Nov. 5, 2021, in Chicago. The Biden administration is making billions of dollars available to drugmakers to scale up domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines in the hopes of building capacity to produce an additional 1 billion shots per year to share globally. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
The goal of this program is to expand existing capacity by an additional billion doses per year, with production starting by the second half of 2022, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said.
On Wednesday, Zients announced that the U.S. has now donated 250 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally the most of any nation with a goal of sharing more than 1.1 billion shots by the end of 2022.
There are no firm agreements yet with Moderna or Pfizer to take up the U.S. on the investment, but the Biden administration hopes that the enhanced manufacturing capacity, through support for the company's facilities, equipment, staff or training, will by mid-2022 allow more COVID-19 doses to be shared overseas as well as help prepare for the next public health emergency.
The administration is prioritizing the mRNA vaccines, which have proven to be more effective against preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 than the Johnson & Johnson viral vector vaccine, which uses a harmless virus that carries genetic material to stimulate the immune system. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made with a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA that tells the body to make harmless copies of the spike protein so its trained to recognize the virus.
Robbie Silverman, senior advocacy manager at Oxfam America, welcomed Bidens plan to invest into vaccine manufacturing capacity but said it was nowhere near sufficient.
What the world really needs is distributed regional manufacturing capacity of vaccines, and it sounds like this investment is focused on building U.S. capacity, he said. We desperately need the companies who have a monopoly over the COVID vaccines to transfer their technology, and we need the U.S. government to use its leverage."
Silverman estimated that without companies transferring their knowledge of how to make COVID-19 vaccines, it would take manufacturers elsewhere double the time needed to start making doses, noting that billions of vaccines against other diseases are routinely made in developing countries.
Silverman said that while the U.S. should have negotiated more provisions about vaccine equity when it was securing its own supply, it was not too late to act. He said the U.S. should support the proposed waiver that was drafted by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization, calling for patents on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to be suspended. And he said the U.S. could invoke the Defense Production Act to target critical ingredients for COVID-19 shots.
The U.S. government has lots of tools at its disposal to push pharmaceutical companies, he said, noting that it had invested billions of dollars into creating Modernas COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. needs to make sure these companies, which they funded, are prioritizing public health rather than profits.
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Ava Alkon, a senior policy and research officer at Doctors Without Borders, said that the billion doses that might be produced with the U.S. investment were still far from the figure needed to immunize the world. The World Health Organization has estimated that 11 billion doses are needed.
Alkon said that since any manufacturers newly drafted into making COVID-19 doses would not be able to produce any supplies for several months, a more immediate solution is needed. We believe that the U.S. can distribute many more doses than it already has on an ongoing basis, she said, calling for the U.S. to be more transparent about how many extra doses it has. She said some estimates suggest the U.S. could have at least 500 million surplus vaccines by the end of the year.
In a statement, Moderna said it hadnt yet reviewed the Biden administrations proposal, but that it looked forward to discussing it with the administration and understanding whether there is a role that we could play in supporting the governments efforts to address pandemic preparedness. Pfizer declined comment.
The New York Times first reported on the new initiative.
___
AP writers Maria Cheng in London and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress Tuesday that she believed she would run out of maneuvering room to avoid the nation's first-ever default soon after Dec. 15.
FILE - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a meeting with President Joe Biden and business leaders about the debt limit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Washington. On Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, Yellen told Congress that she believed she would run out of maneuvering room to avoid the nations first-ever default soon after Dec. 15. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress Tuesday that she believed she would run out of maneuvering room to avoid the nation's first-ever default soon after Dec. 15.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Yellen said that she believed Treasury could be left with insufficient resources to keep financing the government beyond Dec. 15.
Yellen's new date is 12 days later than the Dec. 3 date she provided in a letter to Congress on Oct. 18. That letter was based on the fact that Congress had just passed a $480 billion increase in the debt limit as a stop-gap measure.
As she has done in the past, Yellen urged Congress to deal with the debt limit quickly to remove the possibility of a potential default on the nation's obligations.
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To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible, Yellen wrote to congressional leaders.
Yellen has repeatedly warned that failure to deal with the debt limit and allowing the government to default would be catastrophic and likely push the country into a recession.
In her letter, Yellen said that the extra time reflected more up-to-date estimates of government revenues and spending and also was impacted by the infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday. That legislation requires the transfer by Treasury of $118 billion by Dec. 15 into the Highway Trust Fund.
Yellen said after that while she had a high degree of confidence she will be able to finance the U.S. government through Dec. 15 and complete the highway trust fund transfer, there are scenarios where the government will be left with insufficient resources to finance operations beyond the Dec. 15 date, she said.
The need to raise or suspend the debt limit is just one of the budget issues facing Congress. Lawmakers must also approve a budget by Dec. 3 when the current stop-gap funding measures runs out. Failure to do that would trigger a government shutdown.
And Democrats are aiming to approve a $1.75 trillion measures to expand the social safety net and deal with climate change threats. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she hopes the House can pass this measure, which Republicans oppose, this week. It must also pass the Senate.
VANCOUVER - British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday following unprecedented flooding that has displaced residents, severed access to multiple highways and killed thousands of livestock while many more animals are in danger of dying.
People who were stranded by high water due to flooding are rescued by a volunteer operating a boat in Abbotsford, B.C., on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER - British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday following unprecedented flooding that has displaced residents, severed access to multiple highways and killed thousands of livestock while many more animals are in danger of dying.
Premier John Horgan said the declaration will help preserve basic access to services and supplies for communities across the province, which has experienced yet more weather-related havoc months after historic wildfires and a heat dome that claimed the lives of nearly 600 people.
Horgan said the government will introduce travel restrictions to ensure essential goods and medical and emergency services can reach communities.
He has also asked the federal government for help in responding to the disaster.
"The province has now formally requested that deployment of federal resources, including the Armed Forces, to assist with evacuations, managing of supply chains and resupply chains, security in inundated areas as well as restoration of safe drinking water and other logistics assistance," he said.
"I also want to thank the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, who were immediate in their offer of assistance."
Horgan asked B.C. residents not to hoard items, saying people shouldn't be buying more food than they need so their neighbours can also access necessary supplies.
He said no alert system could have protected motorists who were stranded overnight on highways from mudslides and homeowners from flooding in parts of the province. That includes Abbotsford, where police and firefighters worked tirelessly to rescue residents after water from the overflowing Nooksack River in Washington state gushed into the Fraser Valley community and rose rapidly.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government is connecting with local authorities and the province to learn more about the ongoing situation.
The federal government will assist with cleanup and rebuilding "after the impacts of these extreme weather events," Trudeau said from Washington, where he was to attend a meeting Thursday with the presidents of the United States and Mexico.
B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth echoed the sentiments of Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun, who has urged any residents remaining in the Sumas Prairie farming area to immediately leave due to the potential failure of a pump station.
He said the first priority is to re-establish connection from the Lower Mainland to the Interior and northern parts of the province after slides severed roadways and stranded hundreds of people in multiple locations following record-breaking rainfall.
Farmers tried desperately to move their livestock as floodwaters swamped parts of the Fraser Valley, but their attempts were mostly unsuccessful.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said "roads were disappearing" beneath farmers and thousands of animals died.
"We have many, many more that are in difficult situations and we're seeing an animal welfare issue develop. They need attention and so with my colleagues, we're developing routes so that veterinarians can access farms and get to the animals as soon as possible," she said.
"There will have to be euthanizations that happens. But there are also animals that have survived, that are going to be in critical need of food in the next 24 hours."
Over 300 people trapped between two mudslides on Highway 7 near Agassiz were airlifted by helicopter after spending the night in their vehicles.
Chelsey Hughes said she is thankful to have survived a slide that slammed into her car before it landed in a swamp as she was driving along the highway. Now she's thinking of others who are dealing with similar harrowing experiences.
Hughes, 24, was heading home on Sunday when she saw a tree starting to fall as a slide shoved her car about a kilometre off the road and down an embankment.
"Then the car stopped moving and I was just shocked. I was afraid to move because I didn't know if I was injured," she said after spending about five hours shivering on top of her car without a jacket next to another vehicle with four university students sharing one jacket atop their vehicle.
When Hughes finally connected with a 911 dispatcher, he helped her monitor one student's condition after he had an asthma attack before they finally saw the lights of rescuers.
They spent an hour hiking out, she said of the traumatic events that unfolded Sunday night before nine of them were taken to hospital in Chilliwack.
Hughes said she travels with snacks, water and a tarp in the truck of her car but quickly realized she couldn't reach any of those supplies, which were submerged in the rising, muddy water.
The Surrey resident and yoga instructor is now thinking about the family of a woman who died while driving along Highway 99 near Lillooet as crews search for at least two others who went missing along that route.
"I think that could have been any one of us, and there's nothing that you can do. When we got hit by that landslide, we just had to surrender."
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said his province is ready to provide assistance to B.C.
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"On behalf of Alberta, we stand behind British Columbians who have been affected by this flooding and damage," Kenney said. "So many Albertans are originally from B.C. They have relatives and family there, so I know that we're all concerned."
Kenney said his province will be directly affected by the weather events in the neighbouring province when it comes to supply chains.
"This will become very acute now for Alberta and the rest of Canada with the disruption of parts of the Trans-Canada Highway and some other roadways," he said, adding trucking and rail traffic would now have to transit through Washington and Montana.
"But our first concern is for those people whose lives and homes have been affected and we just want to be there to support them."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.
Note to readers: This is a corrected version. A previous story said Chelsey Hughes was rescued along with three university students.
Manitoba has no clue how many classrooms fail to meet ventilation standards, and it does not intend to mandate schools to monitor indoor air quality during the fourth wave of COVID-19.
Manitoba has no clue how many classrooms fail to meet ventilation standards, and it does not intend to mandate schools to monitor indoor air quality during the fourth wave of COVID-19.
A group of concerned doctors pressed provincial officials on the status of ventilation in K-12 schools during a virtual meeting on Nov. 9.
Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, an intensive care specialist and professor of internal medicine at the University of Manitoba. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)
"It was quite illuminating and profoundly disappointing that there is no plan," said Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, an intensive care specialist and professor of internal medicine at the University of Manitoba.
"Here we are heading into the fourth wave, and ICUs are increasingly under strain. It's remarkable we're putting kids in classrooms, probably hundreds of classrooms in hundreds of schools, that are failing standards."
Jacobsohn said he and his colleagues were taken aback when officials among them, Dr. Jazz Atwal, deputy chief provincial public health officer, and deputy education minister Dana Rudy could not say how many of the approximately 800 schools in Manitoba meet modern ventilation criteria.
Back-to-school guidelines recommend systems be adjusted to increase the frequency of fresh air exchange, encourage outdoor education, and keep windows open to improve air quality.
In September, the province also called on schools who had not recently had their ventilation inspected to get a professional assessment. It asked them to repurpose classrooms without operable windows or other access to a fresh air supply, if possible.
In September, the province called on schools who had not recently had their ventilation inspected to get a professional assessment. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Ideally, mechanical ventilation systems with high performance filters (MERV-13 or better) can be adjusted to allow for complete air replacement with no recirculation as often as possible, there are frequent hourly air exchanges, and systems operate around the clock to achieve "complete flushing," as per national standards.
Canadian guidelines indicate portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters can reduce the concentration of some viruses from the air, but caution their effectiveness in reducing transmission of COVID-19 has yet to be demonstrated.
Dr. Dan Roberts, who was on last weeks call, said he was "disappointed" Manitoba remains uninterested in mandating ventilation assessments and related reporting, in addition to using rapid testing in schools.
"Good intentions and guidelines are not enough. They dont ensure anything in the middle of a disaster," said Roberts, an intensive care physician, who noted he provided officials with a new study on the effectiveness of HEPA filters last week.
He takes issue with Manitobas position that divisions oversee ventilation when the province has mandated masks.
Good intentions and guidelines are not enough. They dont ensure anything in the middle of a disaster." Dr. Dan Roberts, intensive care physician
"The facilities themselves are under the purview of the local school board, that's their jurisdiction. We certainly remind them of the guidelines and criteria that are there, and we will provide any expertise that we can to help in that discussion," said Education Minister Cliff Cullen.
Should ventilation improvements be required, as a result of inspections, divisions are expected to use their sum of safe schools funding a total of $40 million was distributed to divisions on a per pupil basis to cover costs, said a provincial spokesperson.
The spokesperson indicated just under half of divisions have reported spending part of their allocation on ventilation-related expenses.
Jacobsohn said schools should be required to collect CO2 data from classrooms using inexpensive monitors so the public has a better understanding of the quality of ventilation.
Should ventilation improvements be required, divisions are expected to use its safe schools funding to cover costs. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)
A doctor colleague who attended the Nov. 9 meeting sent their child to school with a monitor both at the start of the year and late last month to gauge how CO2 levels changed when dropping temperatures meant windows had to be closed. The September results showed levels mirrored outdoor levels, but Jacobsohn and Roberts said follow-up measurements indicated carbon dioxide spiked significantly.
CO2 concentrations in outdoor air typically range from 300 to 500 parts per million.
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Mechanical engineer Matt Froese said it's important to contextualize readings so they tell an accurate story about occupants' breathing in a space and how well air circulates indoors. For instance, Bunsen burners in science labs emit CO2, said Froese, adding 800 ppm is typically a good range.
With COVID-19 cases climbing, Jacobsohn said schools could use readings to decide whether its necessary to temporarily use community facilities or switch to remote learning to limit the potential of transmission and keep Manitobans healthy and out of hospitals.
"Our concern comes from the fact that we know that the hospital system is really under siege," added Roberts. "It never recovered from the last two waves."
with files from Alan Small
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
The provincial government says it wont reveal the vaccine status of individuals who die from COVID-19 because it could identify them.
The provincial government says it wont reveal the vaccine status of individuals who die from COVID-19 because it could identify them.
Its a bogus argument. And its robbing the province of an important tool that could be used to fight vaccine hesitancy.
The vast majority of Manitobans who die from COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated, according to provincial data. But when public-health officials report individual deaths, they dont reveal the persons vaccination status.
Government has an obligation to protect the identities of those who fall ill from COVID-19, as they do with all private health information. They are legally required to do so under the provinces Personal Health Information Act.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE/FREE PRESS FILES Its a stretch to argue that releasing the vaccine status of those who die from COVID-19 could identify them.
However, its a stretch to argue that releasing the vaccine status of those who die from COVID-19 could identify them. The province publishes the age range, gender and health district of individual COVID-19 deaths, but not vaccine status.
Public-health officials say the more information they release about patients, the greater the chance a persons identity could be revealed.
"That information could identify an individual, so it would not be appropriate to include," was the only explanation given to the Free Press in a statement from a government spokesperson.
The provincial government is missing a golden opportunity to highlight how COVID-19 vaccines save lives. If they released the immunization status of individuals who die from the disease, it would send a powerful message of how effective vaccines are at preventing severe illness.
JOHN WOODS/FREE PRESS FILES The provincial government is missing a golden opportunity to highlight how COVID-19 vaccines save lives.
The province does publish aggregate data on the number of fully vaccinated people who have died from COVID-19. The statistics are buried in Manitoba Healths weekly respiratory surveillance reports. According to the most recent report released this week, there have been 31 deaths among fully immunized Manitobans since the province began administering vaccines nearly a year ago. Thats a fraction of Manitoba's 1,274 COVID-19 deaths. Since the first group of Manitobans were fully immunized in early February, 92 per cent of 413 COVID-19 deaths were among those who did not have both doses of the vaccine.
Not surprisingly, the majority of COVID-19 deaths are from the Southern Health region, where vaccine uptake is the lowest in the province.
Since Oct. 1, 34 of 63 COVID-19 deaths (54 per cent) have been from Southern Health, a region that represents roughly 15 per cent of the provinces population.
Those are revealing numbers. But they dont have the same impact that regular reporting of individual deaths (and their vaccination status) would.
The province releases details about new infections, hospitalizations and deaths on weekdays (greater detail is provided in twice-weekly news bulletins). The reports include a breakdown of vaccine status for new cases and hospitalizations, but not for deaths.
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Provincial officials may be reluctant to do so because of the sensitivity around deaths and the fear that releasing vaccine status could be seen as casting blame. By concealing that information, the province is holding back critical information that could help convince the unvaccinated to get the shot.
People are still dying in large numbers from COVID19 and many more are becoming severely ill.
People are still dying in large numbers from COVID-19 and many more are becoming severely ill. Some have developed long-term (in some cases lifelong) ailments. Rising case numbers are clogging up hospitals, burning out medical staff and forcing administrators to cancel tens of thousands of surgeries and other elective procedures to make room for COVID-19 patients. Failure to contain the most recent wave of the disease could result in more economic shutdowns, resulting in additional bankruptcies and unemployment. The stakes are high.
The evidence is overwhelming that vaccines substantially reduce severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths. So why wouldnt the province use every tool at its disposal to highlight the latter, including regular reporting of how many people who die from COVID-19 were not vaccinated?
It seems like a giant missed opportunity.
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
A coalition of consumers says Manitoba Hydro needs to stop leaving its customers in the dark when it comes to the big picture of the Crown corporation's long-term financial health.
A coalition of consumers says Manitoba Hydro needs to stop leaving its customers in the dark when it comes to the big picture of the Crown corporation's long-term financial health.
On Monday, the publicly-owned power company filed a rate application with the Public Utilities Board requesting a five per cent interim increase in electricity rates to take effect Jan. 1.
The increase would cost the average residential customer who uses electricity to heat a home an additional $10 per month and $5/month for those who don't, Hydro said in a news release Tuesday.
The five per cent increase it is now seeking is larger than the 3.5 per cent increase Hydro president and chief executive officer Jay Grewal in June told a legislative committee was needed.
Manitoba Hydro has blamed the need for the rate increase on the ongoing drought, which, it says, has reduced 2021 export sales by $400 million and is expected to lead to a loss this fiscal year of between $190 million and $200 million.
The Consumers Coalition which includes Harvest Manitoba, Consumers Association of Canada (Manitoba), and Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg is questioning Hydros financial assumptions, and wants to see the long-term outlook for the hydroelectricity producer.
"We appreciate there is a drought in Manitoba, however, this is an expected part of the business cycle that Manitoba Hydro plans and prepares for," Gloria Desorcy, Manitoba executive director Consumers Association of Canada, said in a news release.
"What increase is actually justified? We dont know as Manitoba Hydro has not had a full hearing into the rates it charges customers for three years, leaving consumers in the dark about its big-picture financial health."
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Since the last full rate hearing took place in 2018, Manitoba Hydro has brought into service both the Bipole III transmission line and the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line, as well as the first unit of the Keeyask generating station, the coalition noted.
It also confirmed a 30-year export sale with Saskatchewan Power, and completed Strategy 2040, a comprehensive review of its operations and forecasts, which has not been made public.
"The current export crunch at Hydro highlights how important it is for the PUB to order a full status update hearing into Hydros finances in 2022," the Consumers Coalition said.
It said it is confident the PUB will lead an efficient interim rate process, "while recognizing the need to return to consistent, orderly, transparent and evidence-based processes with a view to Manitoba Hydro's short-, medium- and long-term financial health."
The Crown corporation was directed by the provincial government to file an application with the Public Utilities Board earlier this year, after it scrapped Bill 35 (Public Utilities Ratepayer Protection and Regulatory Reform Act) and its associated 2.5 per cent electricity rate increase that was to take effect Dec. 1.
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Ahead of next Tuesday's speech from the throne, the opposition New Democrats have released their own version that calls for an inquiry into Manitoba's pandemic response.
Ahead of next Tuesday's speech from the throne, the opposition New Democrats have released their own version that calls for an inquiry into Manitoba's pandemic response.
"It is often said that those who fail to learn from history will end up repeating it," said the party's alternative throne speech, released Wednesday.
"With recommendations from this independent inquiry we can make positive and lasting changes to improve the lives of Manitoba families."
The inquiry would look at the entire government's approach to the pandemic and review provincial decisions and actions that contributed to higher case counts and deaths, larger outbreaks, longer lockdowns and more stress on Manitobas hospitals and health-care workers, it said.
If the Progressive Conservative government fails to call a "robust" inquiry led by independent, non-partisan experts into how it handled the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, the NDP will call one if it wins the next provincial election and forms government, Leader Wab Kinew said in a press release.
Throughout the pandemic, the acuity of mental illness, addictions and overdose deaths have increased, the speech said; the number of overdose deaths doubled in 2020 and Manitoba is track to exceed that number in 2021, it said.
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Meanwhile, the number of Manitobans without housing has increased.
"Manitobans want a government that learns from their mistakes and fixes problems instead of making them worse," Kinew said in the press release.
"Our province had some of the worst outcomes in the country we have a responsibility to those who lost loved ones to find out why," he said. "This inquiry would look forward and give us recommendations for a brighter future and a more resilient health-care system. We cant change what happened in the pandemic but we can learn from it. We cant afford not to."
Later Wednesday, Premier Heather Stefanson was asked about holding an inquiry. She responded by saying her government would focus on fighting the virus.
"Were in a fourth wave right now. We need to ensure that were expending our resources and our time, effort and energy to ensuring that were focusing on the safety and health of Manitobans," she said.
Staff
Premier Heather Stefanson has apologized for not making herself available to answer questions from reporters but says, however, she is not hiding.
Premier Heather Stefanson has apologized for not making herself available to answer questions from reporters but says, however, she is not "hiding."
It's been more than two weeks since she was sworn in as premier and held a news conference and for good reason, she said Tuesday after a Manitoba Metis Federation event in Winnipeg.
"I've been very, very busy," Stefanson said when the Free Press asked why she's not been out front, answering tough questions about rising COVID-19 numbers in the province.
"I've been in back-to-back to meetings and out at events and things like that," she said, after laying a wreath at a ceremony commemorating the 136th anniversary of Manitoba founder Louis Riel's execution.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Heather Stefanson at an event commemorating Louis Riel on the anniversary of his execution at the MMF head office in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
When asked why she had time last week to be interviewed by controversial radio host Dave Wheeler, Stefanson sighed and said: "You know what? Please work through our staff."
When told her staff wasn't responding to interview requests, she apologized.
"We're not trying to be hiding or anything like that, as you can see," Stefanson said at the MMF building downtown.
The premier has been showing up at such events without prior media notification, posting pictures of herself on social media after attending functions. The MMF event news release, for instance, mentioned dignitaries would be in attendance, without mentioning the premier.
I've been in back-to-back to meetings and out at events and things like that." Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson
On Tuesday, she also spoke at the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak assembly, tweeting about it afterward.
When asked if she thinks there is a crisis in Manitoba with rising COVID-19 hospital admissions and outbreaks at schools and, specifically, Third Crossing Manor personal care home in Gladstone the new premier expressed concern, adding it's being addressed.
Honouring Riel Leaders of all political stripes and levels of government gathered Tuesday to lay a wreath in honour of Manitoba Metis leader, Louis Riel. Every year on the anniversary of his execution that took place136 years ago the Manitoba Metis Federation holds a ceremony to honour Riel and remind Manitobans of his contribution to Canada. click to read more Leaders of all political stripes and levels of government gathered Tuesday to lay a wreath in honour of Manitoba Metis leader, Louis Riel. Every year on the anniversary of his execution that took place136 years ago the Manitoba Metis Federation holds a ceremony to honour Riel and remind Manitobans of his contribution to Canada. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman spoke at the event, along with Liberal MP Terry Duguid (Winnipeg South), NDP Opposition Leader Wab Kinew and Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, as well as Metis leaders and elders. In attendance were Metis veterans, RCMP officials and Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth. Riel fought to protect the land and rights of the Red River Metis and led his provisional government in the creation of the Manitoba Act. He led the Metis in the Red River Resistance and the Northwest Resistance not to prevent settlement in the region but to secure the rights of the Metis and First Nations people who lived there, the MMF said in a handout. Riel was 41 when he was tried and subsequently hanged as a traitor at the Northwest Mounted Police barracks in Regina. His body was brought back to the Red River Settlement for burial at St. Boniface Cathedral, where his grave site remains. Close
"I am concerned about the numbers, that they're on the rise. That's why (chief provincial public health officer) Dr. (Brent) Roussin was out along with (Health) Minister (Audrey) Gordon and talking about further restrictions in some of those areas," she said. "We'll do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of Manitobans."
Stefanson said shes getting ready for the Nov. 23 throne speech and an "exciting" legislative session. "Stay tuned and you'll see a lot more of me, I promise, in the days and months and years ahead."
The first female premier of Manitoba says she is planning to hold a news conference "as soon as possible."
"I have just been on the ground running and that's what Manitobans are expecting me to do. We are also empowering our ministers to do their jobs; they've been out and doing their jobs," Stefanson said, alluding to former premier Brian Pallister's controlling leadership style.
"Things will be a little bit different."
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson speaks at Brandon Sun editorial board meeting. (Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun)
Attending the MMF event, for one thing, was different, as Pallister had a rancorous relationship with federation president David Chartrand.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for David Chartrand," Stefanson said. "We have good relationships here with the Manitoba Metis Federation, and look forward to continuing that dialogue with them and working with them.
"We need to work together towards reconciliation and there's lots of opportunities."
At the MKO assembly Tuesday, Stefanson said she would be meeting with Grand Chief Garrison Settee later this week for his input on the throne speech that sets the tone for the coming legislative session.
The speech usually includes an Indigenous land acknowledgement, that in the new legislative session could become part of the daily proceedings of the house, along with the traditional prayer.
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When asked about court action taken by her Progressive Conservative party leadership rival, Shelly Glover, and if the party has explained the alleged election irregularities that are the basis of Glover's complaint, Stefanson wouldn't comment.
"It's disappointing that she's taken this path," said the premier, who has asked the court for intervenor status in the case aiming to have the result of the leadership race declared invalid.
"I'm focusing on doing my job which is representing Manitobans."
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
A seven-year-old girl who was attacked by a pack of wild dogs on a northern First Nation will require extensive reconstructive surgery.
A seven-year-old girl who was attacked by a pack of wild dogs on a northern First Nation will require extensive reconstructive surgery.
Shamattawa Chief Eric Redhead said Tuesday the child's injuries were so serious that a doctor cared for her as she was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Winnipeg from the remote reserve, instead of a nurse or a paramedic.
He said at least five dogs were involved.
"A local carpenter heard the attack and ran and saved that child's life. He got the girl to the nursing station. If it hadn't been for him, I don't think we would be having this conversation.
"I spoke to him briefly. He had to fight them off."
"A local carpenter heard the attack and ran and saved that child's life. He got the girl to the nursing station. If it hadn't been for him, I don't think we would be having this conversation." Shamattawa Chief Eric Redhead
The girl was outside on Thursday when the dogs pounced.
"Remembrance Day was a really wonderful day and she was out playing outside her home when she was attacked," said Redhead.
"She was in really bad shape when she left. She will make a full recovery, but she will need extensive surgery."
Community members of the fly-in community, which is more than 700 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, had no choice but to kill dozens of so-called rez dogs to protect residents.
"We had to put down a large number of dogs over the weekend," he said. "Over 100. Every dog roaming freely, unfortunately, had to be put down. We don't like to do it, but we had to do it.
"It's not the first attack recently. There have been others. People were injured. We have to protect our children and our band members."
"We had to put down a large number of dogs over the weekend. Over 100. Every dog roaming freely, unfortunately, had to be put down. We don't like to do it, but we had to do it." Chief Eric Redhead
The problem of wild dogs has afflicted remote communities in the past; domesticated dogs go astray, have several litters and join other packs of dogs that can terrorize residents.
Donnelly Rose Eaglestick, a 24-year-old mother, was killed by a pack of dogs at Little Grand Rapids First Nation in May 2017.
In Shamattawa, a six-year-old boy was attacked in April 2013, and suffered serious injuries to his head and neck.
RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said the latest dog attack occurred on the afternoon of Remembrance Day and the criminal investigation has concluded.
"(The) RCMP determined the dogs did not belong to anyone and there was no criminality," said Courchaine.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES "Right now, we partner with vets who have portable clinics, and the Winnipeg Humane Society, but if we had our own we could do many more spay-and-neuter clinics," said Lindsay Gillanders, a spokeswoman for Manitoba Underdogs Rescue.
Lindsay Gillanders, a spokeswoman for Manitoba Underdogs Rescue, which operates spay-and-neuter clinics in remote communities and finds homes for northern dogs, said the attack shouldn't have happened.
"I'm angry because it is a completely preventable thing. We are 100 per cent volunteer and donation based. We get no government money.
"But we know when we run spay-and-neuter clinics in these communities, we can reduce the animal population. We know it works."
"This just breaks my heart."
Gillanders said the canine population can get out of control quickly because one dog can produce about 20 puppies a year. Each of the young dogs is able to produce 20 pups within a year of being born.
"They compete for females to mate with, they compete for food, and then they form packs and that's when they can get into trouble."
"The government has a say in pet ownership and they have a say in wildlife, but these animals are domestic animals who have gone wild so they fall in a crack." Chief Eric Redhead
Gillanders said on the organization's goal is to own a portable veterinary clinic.
"Right now, we partner with vets who have portable clinics, and the Winnipeg Humane Society, but if we had our own we could do many more spay-and-neuter clinics," she said. "With fewer dogs, there wouldn't be dogs getting hit by vehicles, others freezing to death, or what happened here.
"We hope there are no more little girls or boys or adults who get hurt again."
Redhead hopes the government can step in to help alleviate the persistent and dangerous problem. He also said the community does work with outside organizations to spay and neuter rez dogs, and get canines adopted out, but the pandemic has curtailed those efforts.
"It's kind of weird," he said. "The government has a say in pet ownership and they have a say in wildlife, but these animals are domestic animals who have gone wild so they fall in a crack.
"I can imagine what the province is spending on the care of this child. They should be spending (that) on prevention. Spay-and-neuter clinics are the long-term solution.
"I don't want to have another conversation like this."
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
A Manitoba teen sexually assaulted by a now-retired RCMP officer when she was nine years old says she continues to live in fear of being attacked.
A Manitoba teen sexually assaulted by a now-retired RCMP officer when she was nine years old says she continues to live in fear of being attacked.
"I am living the consequences of your actions," the girl wrote in a victim-impact statement provided to court for the sentencing Tuesday of 61-year-old Robert Dowd.
"I have felt intruded by you every single day and it is still there seven years later," the girl wrote. "I cant work alone, I cant walk the hallways at school alone."
Provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson sentenced Dowd to 18 months in jail and one year of supervised probation, describing the assault as "repugnant."
I have felt intruded by you every single day and it is still there seven years later. I cant work alone, I cant walk the hallways at school alone. Sexually assaulted Manitoba teen's victim-impact statement
The girl said she has lost the ability to trust anyone and feels guilt for "ruining" her family. Court heard the girl has battled depression since the assault, started cutting herself and has twice attempted suicide.
"I feel there is not a soul on this planet who understands what you put me through," she said. "I lost my youth because of you. I never got to be the carefree kid who lived life to the fullest."
Dowd was first convicted of assaulting the girl following a trial in 2017. That conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered, after the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled last year the original sentencing judge erred in assessing Dowds credibility.
Dowd continued to maintain his innocence Tuesday. "I am innocent of what I have been accused of," Dowd told Eyrikson before learning his fate. "At no time did I touch that girl inappropriately. I will continue my fight to prove my innocence."
Dowds sentence is eight months longer than the one imposed by the original trial judge. Dowds lawyer Sarah Inness argued imposing a longer sentence would effectively punish him for appealing his original conviction.
I feel there is not a soul on this planet who understands what you put me through. I lost my youth because of you. I never got to be the carefree kid who lived life to the fullest.
Eyrikson said the longer sentence recognizes the direction of a 2020 Supreme Court of Canada decision that ruled sentences for child-sex offenders should increase as societys understanding of the harm inflicted on children deepens.
"The focus in this matter is on the harm done," Eyrikson said. "Despite the strong presumption I should follow along with the original sentencing judges submission, I have found that the (Supreme Court ruling) amounts to a reset," he said.
Court heard evidence at trial Dowd assaulted the victim when he was off duty during a bonfire party in the Interlake. Prosecutors alleged Dowd was alone with the girl "stargazing" when he put his hands under her clothes and fondled her for approximately three minutes.
Dowd denied the allegation, testifying at trial the only time he was alone with the girl was when he took her to his motor home to use the bathroom.
Eyrikson, at a hearing last July convicting Dowd, said he had "significant difficulty" with his testimony.
She knew right from wrong at nine years old. She stood her ground, she didnt back down from him, she wasnt scared to face him I just hope that other young girls can use her as a role model and step up and not suffer in silence. Victim's mother
Dowd told court he showed the girl how to use the toilet and waited outside for her for 10 minutes before he "lost track of her" and left.
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Court heard testimony Dowd and the girl arrived back at the bonfire at the same time.
"It was clear from his evidence he was making sure this nine-year-old girl was safe and supervised while he was with her, then when (she) finishes in the bathroom, he simply abrogates this responsibility and leaves her on her own," Eyrikson said in July
"This, on a cold, dark night, by all accounts, leaving her in an RV she has never been in before. This is a former RCMP officer and grandfather. It defies common sense and logic that he does nothing further to make sure she got back safely to the campfire."
The girl disclosed the assault to her father hours later, provided two statements to police and testified at the trial.
"We are so proud of her," the girls mother said outside court Tuesday. "She knew right from wrong at nine years old. She stood her ground, she didnt back down from him, she wasnt scared to face him I just hope that other young girls can use her as a role model and step up and not suffer in silence."
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Manitoba's surgery backlog is growing by the day and there's no clear timeline to indicate when and how the promised task force will deal with it.
Manitoba's surgery backlog is growing by the day and there's no clear timeline to indicate when and how the promised task force will deal with it.
Doctors have been pushing for quick action, and estimate more than 130,000 surgeries and diagnostic tests are in the queue.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon's office did not provide any update or comment Tuesday on the state of Manitoba's surgery backlog, except to say the task force will be announced after the throne speech.
The task force must be set up within days, not weeks, of Premier Heather Stefanson setting out her government's priorities in the Nov. 23 throne speech, a Doctors Manitoba spokesperson said in a statement.
"We have heard from both the premier and health minister that addressing the surgical backlog is a top priority for them, and that is very encouraging," spokesman Keir Johnson stated.
"The minister has said the task force will be announced following the government's speech from the throne. We hope to see the task force formed within days of the throne speech, not weeks. The backlog is getting bigger by the day, and the wait list is growing longer. Patients need to see some action to address the backlog."
Shared Health announced on Friday it will shift focus to intensive-care units and cancel surgery slates at Pan Am Clinic, Misericordia Health Centre and Victoria Hospital, as well as suspend endoscopy diagnostic procedures at Seven Oaks General Hospital as of Nov. 19. Patients who are affected will be contacted by their surgeon's office.
Johnson said that will increase the backlog during this fourth wave, and that's worrisome.
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"Physicians are very concerned that our hospitals are once again not ready for an increase in COVID admissions. Because of this, nurses are being redeployed from surgery to ICU, and surgical care is being triaged as a result," he said.
"This is devastating news that will only add to the massive backlog of over 130,000 surgical and diagnostic procedures."
Doctors Manitoba, which represents more than 4,000 physicians, recommended in June that the province establish a task force to clear the backlog a move that showed progress in B.C. Manitoba promised earlier this fall to setting up the task force, and Stefanson said upon becoming premier this month that clearing the backlog was one of her priorities.
The deputy health minister asked Doctors Manitoba for the names of potential members of the task force. The group said it should include front-line health-care workers as well as external experts. it submitted its list in the summer, "but as far as we know this group has not yet been convened," Johnson stated.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @thatkatiemay
WE all suffer in minor or major ways with the growing climate crisis. Sometimes in silent stress, or in major ways, such as in deciding not to have children. During the recently concluded COP26 the United Nations summit the worlds governments tried to agree on measures to lessen future impacts of global warming. The verdict is out on whether they succeeded, or at what level was there success.
Opinion
WE all suffer in minor or major ways with the growing climate crisis. Sometimes in silent stress, or in major ways, such as in deciding not to have children. During the recently concluded COP26 the United Nations summit the worlds governments tried to agree on measures to lessen future impacts of global warming. The verdict is out on whether they succeeded, or at what level was there success.
But to measure success, we first need to understand the mechanism of environmental destruction that got us into this mess in the first place. What is the root cause of our environmental problems. Once we know this, then we can adapt our lifestyle and hopefully make things better.
Advice on what to do to help the environment has been non-stop and preachy. Also confusing. Do I compost, recycle, invest in green energy, go geothermal, go off the grid, use less paper, dont use my cell phone, give to the right charity, stop traveling? The possibilities are complex and endless.
Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, offers some clarity: Significantly cutting CO2 emissions without reducing economic growth will require far more than individual actions. It is absurd for middle-class citizens in advanced economies to tell themselves that eating less steak or commuting in a Toyota Prius will rein in rising temperatures.
As the current pandemic has taught us, our ecological footprint is mostly determined by wealth. Study after study finds the primary metric of a persons ecological damage is proportional to their income. Being green has only marginal effects. Household consumption food, housing, transportation, clothes and other personal services is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Even excessive purchasing of toilet paper is a contributing factor. Everything you eat or wear, or every time you drive, adds to total global emissions.
As the current pandemic has taught us, our ecological footprint is mostly
determined by wealth.
Wealthy consumers with more than $100,000 annual household income accounted for 22 per cent of the total Canadian population, but were responsible for more than one-third of the total carbon footprint, whereas the poorest 50 per cent accounted for just 12 per cent. Every $100,000 of income produces 60 tons of CO2 equivalent per household.
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Rich people emit more carbon, even when they recycle and buy canvas tote bags full of organic veggies. With wealth comes opportunities for consumption. Thats why the global wealthy are responsible for such a grossly disproportionate percentage of lifestyle consumption emissions. Very few people, including those who think of themselves as environmentally conscious, are willing to make a significant lifestyle change that is as drastic as reducing their income.
However, the current COVID-19 crisis has given us a glimpse into what this change could mean. We can learn from our governments response to the epidemiological disaster to stave off the ecological one. In both cases, governments need money to fight the war, whether it be a pandemic or global carbon emissions heating the planet toward destruction.
Even fairly radical individual lifestyle changes are meaningless at the level of global problems, unless they are multiplied by many millions. To imagine lifestyle choices making a substantial dent in global warming is to imagine a goodly portion of the worlds rich voluntarily living an impoverished lifestyle that is relatively ascetic even by Canadian middle-class standards. I just find it very difficult to imagine anyone voluntarily giving up their income.
There is a societal solution that does not require governments shutting down economies or individuals voluntarily giving up their hard-earned income. It will take democracies voting for governments that will lower individual economic value in order to live life more simply. It will take politicians taxing the rich and creating income security. Everyone needs a minimal salary to live sustainably without the expectation of living in the middle class, where excess wealth causes excess destruction.
We need to shift our lifestyle to a more simple one one that slows economic growth and might even make us happier.
Steven Ferguson is an adjunct professor in biological sciences at the University of Manitoba and a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
New Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson and senior ministers have gone to considerable lengths to distance themselves from many unpopular aspects of the legacy of former premier Brian Pallister. The strike by University of Manitoba faculty is an opportunity to show how the new PC team is different from the old.
New Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson and senior ministers have gone to considerable lengths to distance themselves from many unpopular aspects of the legacy of former premier Brian Pallister. The strike by University of Manitoba faculty is an opportunity to show how the new PC team is different from the old.
About 1,200 professors and librarians went on strike Nov. 2 after contract talks broke down over salary increases. There is a discouraging sense of deja vu to seeing professors on the picket line instead of lecturing to a class the last U of M faculty strike, in 2016, lasted for 21 days.
Ms. Stefanson and Advanced Education Minister Wayne Ewasko might say they want to stay out of the matter and let collective bargaining proceed without direct government interference but, like it or not, the past actions of their government are at the crux of the job action.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A striking professor marches outside the Manitoba Legislature.
Faculty say they are striking because Mr. Pallisters government imposed restrictive measures that froze wages in 2016, giving U of M professors some of the lowest salaries of Canadian research universities. They say this rock-bottom pay scale makes it hard to attract and keep good staff, with the inevitable result that students will look to other provinces for a highly regarded education.
Faculty also say the province is playing a behind-the-scenes role in the ongoing negotiations, imposing a mandate to restrict wage increases to a certain level. For its part, the province says mandates are not unusual and, as a main funder of the universitys budget, it must be a responsible steward of the public purse.
Meanwhile, sitting on the sidelines or, more accurately, sitting at home waiting for the resumption of studies for which they have paid tuition are U of M students.
Many adults regard their years of post-secondary education as life highlights, a stimulating time of discerning ones gifts, preparing for careers and expanding networks of friends. Studying at university is commonly looked back upon as hard work, but as a stage of life that is exciting and often fun.
For current U of M students, however, their university studies have been grim. The COVID-19 pandemic that hit Manitoba in 2020 robbed them of rich in-person university experiences. They missed stimulating face-to-face discussions with professors, the chance to participate in extracurricular university activities and memorable social opportunities such as, perhaps, sitting near a fellow student who is sending out signals of possible romantic interest.
COVID-19 consigned these students to the second-rate substitute of virtual learning, but many had recently returned to campus for the in-person university experience, albeit with pandemic precautions. Then, two weeks ago, both in-person learning and online lectures were cancelled for most students as faculty went on strike.
The U of M students dont have an official seat at the bargaining table, where negotiators continue to meet this week to work toward an agreement, but the students should be foremost on the minds of the U of M bargaining team, the faculty association and the government.
The province should use its representatives on the university board of governors to signal a new flexibility aimed at reaching a deal that lets the university resume its important role of educating the next generation of Manitobans. Such signalling should be tried before resorting to heavy hammers such as arbitration or back-to-work legislation.
The long-term goal for Manitoba should be to ensure a higher-education system of competitive quality, which means paying faculty fairly. The short-term goal should be to let students resume classes as soon as possible, before the semester is lost.
Child-sized COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be available in Manitoba next month, the province said Wednesday, outlining its rollout plans to offer protection to approximately 125,000 kids.
Child-sized COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be available in Manitoba next month, the province said Wednesday, outlining its rollout plans to offer protection to approximately 125,000 kids.
Pending Health Canada's approval of Pfizer-BioNTech's two-dose pediatric regimen which could come by the end of this week, the Toronto Star reported children between the ages of 5 and 11 could get their first shots by the middle of December, vaccine task force medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer told a news conference.
Pediatric vaccine FAQ with Dr. Joss Reimer What Reimer has to say about child COVID-19 vaccinations click to read more Q: What if my child is 11 and turning 12 early in the new year? What we are telling parents is that its great to get your kids protected as soon as possible, Reimer said. So if your child is turning 12 in January or February, go ahead and get the pediatric dose for them as soon as you can. The second dose is really important to boost that protection and provide them with an even higher level, but its better to get the protection sooner than to wait for a higher dose. Reimer said some kids may get one pediatric dose and one full-size dose, depending on when their birthday occurs. Q: What if my child had COVID-19? Reimer said children who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have recovered do not have to wait to get the vaccine once it is approved. Right now the only requirement would be that any individual, child or adult, has recovered from their illness, she said. Q: What about proof of vaccination? Once a child is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 they will be able to request and receive proof of their immunization, including the QR codes issued by the Manitoba government. However, at this time there are no plans to change public-health orders to require proof of vaccination for kids age five to 11. Manitoba public health may look at introducing vaccination requirements in the future for younger kids, Reimer noted. Close
"Certainly if Health Canada approves things sooner, we will be ready to go sooner as well, and look forward to having that vaccine available as soon as we have it in the province," Reimer said. "And it would be wonderful if that was in November."
Doses will be available through provincial and regional clinics, building off of the vaccine campaign for adults and youths, but there will be a heavy reliance on physicians' offices and pharmacies in Winnipeg.
There are currently 480 medical clinics and pharmacies signed up to deliver COVID-19 vaccines and each location is responsible for ordering doses from the province based on demand from their clients.
Doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be approved for use in children ages five to 11 by the end of November. (Mario Tama / Getty Images files)
Keir Johnson, a spokesman for Doctors Manitoba, said there has been good collaboration between the province and local physicians in planning the pediatric rollout and hundreds of family doctors are on standby to deliver doses.
"We know many parents will have questions about this vaccine, and physicians are ready to provide you with the facts to make a fully informed decision about vaccination," Johnson said.
"Many patients want to access these new vaccines in their doctor's office, a convenient place they know, with a medical professional they trust."
Public opinion research commissioned by the province indicated about 75 per cent of all Manitoba parents intend to have their young children vaccinated.
About 80 per cent of respondents said getting vaccinated by their primary health-care provider is their preferred option, but parents and caregivers are not opposed to going to the first available location.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon announced regulatory changes Wednesday that will allow pharmacists to administer shots to kids as young as five years old. Previously, they couldn't immunize children under age seven.
"We appreciate the action on this request," said Ashley Hart, president of Pharmacists Manitoba. "We believe that this policy change will help avoid the mass confusion and frustration which we had anticipated if there were an age discrepancy between the age of eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines, and the age which pharmacists are permitted to vaccinate."
Appointments aren't available yet, but when they are, they'll be booked through the existing vaccine hotline or online at protectmb.ca for provincial and regional clinics and directly with medical clinics and pharmacies.
Doses will be available through provincial and regional clinics, building off of the vaccine campaign for adults and youths, but there will be a heavy reliance on physicians' offices and pharmacies in Winnipeg. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File
Premier Heather Stefanson encouraged parents and caregivers to get children immunized as soon as they can.
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"We all want our children to be able to attend school and participate in their normal social activities," Stefanson said. "Achieving high vaccination rates in both adults and children will be key in controlling spread of the virus."
School-based clinics will also form a significant part of the provinces strategy to get doses to youngsters, particularly for families that face barriers to immunization related to transportation, child care or access to health services.
Depending on when vaccines become available, school-based clinics are expected to run before and after the winter break.
Regional health authorities will set the clinics' schedules based on whats happening within a specific school, community need and available resources, with some clinics held in school after class is dismissed, the task force said.
More than 6,000 Manitoba children between the ages of 5 and 11 have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began; 27 were admitted to hospital and seven required intensive care.
danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
PARIS (AP) A far-right TV pundit who is expected to run for the French presidency goes on trial Wednesday for allegedly inciting racial hatred with his comments on unaccompanied migrant children.
A woman walks past a poster of hard-right political talk-show star Eric Zemmour reading in French " Our Trump" in Biarritz, southwestern France, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. Provocative anti-immigration commentator Eric Zemmour is drawing national attention in France as he floats a possible presidential bid that could shake up the campaign for the April election. ( AP Photo/Bob Edme)
PARIS (AP) A far-right TV pundit who is expected to run for the French presidency goes on trial Wednesday for allegedly inciting racial hatred with his comments on unaccompanied migrant children.
Eric Zemmour, who has two prior hate speech convictions, is being tried on charges of "public insult" and "incitement to hatred or violence" against a group of people due to their ethnic, national, racial or religious origin.
The essayist and commentator on former political talk shows is widely expected to soon announce his candidacy in France's April presidential election. Adopting an attitude much like former former U.S. President Donald Trump, Zemmour is finding fervent audiences for his anti-Islam, anti-immigration invective in the early stages of the race.
Zemmour previously was convicted of incitement to racial hatred after justifying discrimination against Black and Arab people in 2010, and of incitement to religious hatred for anti-Islam comments in 2016. He was respectively sentenced to pays court costs and a 5,000-euro ($5,660) fine.
The trial opening Wednesday focuses on September 2020 comments he made on French news broadcaster CNews about children who migrate to France without parents or guardians. If found guilty, he faces a sentence of up to one year in prison and a 45,000-euro ($51,000) fine.
French far-right media pundit Eric Zemmour poses prior to a televised debate with French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon on Sept.23, 2021 in Paris. French far-right TV pundit Eric Zemmour, expected to run for the presidency, stands trial Wednesday in Paris for inciting racial hatred after comments on unaccompanied migrant children. He has already been convicted twice for hate speech. (Bertrand Guay, Pool Photo via AP, File)
"Theyre thieves, theyre murderers, theyre rapists. Thats all they are. We must send them back," Zemmour said. "These people cost us money."
Zemmour was not present Wednesday at the Paris court. In a statement, he denounced "an attempt to intimidate (him)" from prosecutors and anti-racist groups. He maintained his comments and said he won't attend the trial "because the political debate doesn't take place in courts."
The verdict is expected to be delivered at a later date.
The head of the managing board of Canal +, CNews parent company, Jean-Christophe Thiery, is also on trial in the case, as the person legally in charge of the television show. The French media watchdog, the Superior Audiovisual Council, imposed a 200,000-euro fine in March on CNews for broadcasting comments inciting hatred.
Civil plaintiffs in the case include several local councils representing divisions handling child care and anti-racism groups including SOS Racisme, the Human Rights League and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
"We refuse for these comments to be trivialized and to target foreign non-accompanied minors who come to seek protection in France, as well as all those who work to help them," said the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Zemmours lawyer, Olivier Pardo, argued in favor of nullifying the charges and suggested the trial is politically motivated, noting that the local councils represented at the Paris court are headed by a leftist majority.
Zemmour is also set to go on trial on charges of "racial insult" after he told another TV pundit, Hapsatou Sy, that her first name was "an insult to France." Sy has filed a formal complaint. No trial date has been set.
Zemmour has repeatedly said he wants to ban parents from giving children foreign names, similar to an 1803 law restricting choice to typical French names, mostly of Christian origin.
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Zemmour has also been tried in several other cases, where he was acquitted.
A Paris court in February acquitted Zemmour on a charge of contesting crimes against humanity illegal in France for arguing in a 2019 television debate that Marshal Philippe Petain, head of Vichys collaborationist government during World War II, saved Frances Jews from the Holocaust.
In its verdict, the court said Zemmours comments negated Petains role in the extermination. But in acquitting Zemmour, it said hed spoken in the heat of the moment.
Yet Zemmour in recent weeks has repeated similar comments and lawyers contesting his acquittal plan to cite that point as evidence when their appeal is heard in January.
___
Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying Jan. 6 rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the assault on the Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. Congress is set to hear from former security officials about what went wrong at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. That's when when a violent mob laid siege to the Capitol and interrupted the counting of electoral votes. Three of the four testifying Tuesday resigned under pressure immediately after the attack, including the former head of the Capitol Police. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying Jan. 6 rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the assault on the Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
Chansley, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, was among the first rioters to enter the building. He has acknowledged using a bullhorn to rile up the mob, offering thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and scratching out a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence saying, "Its Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!"
FILE - This image provided by The Alexandria (Va.) Sheriff's Office shows Jacob Chansley, who was sentenced on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, to 41 months in prison for his felony conviction for obstructing an official proceeding. Though he wasn't accused of violence, Chansley acknowledged he was among the first 30 rioters in the building, offered thanks while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and wrote a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
Though he isnt accused of violence, prosecutors say Chansley, of Arizona, was the "public face of the Capitol riot" who went into the attack with a weapon, ignored repeated police orders to leave the building and gloated about his actions in the days immediately after the attack.
Before he was sentenced, Chansley told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth it was wrong for him to enter the Capitol and that he accepts responsibility for his actions. He emphasized he wasnt an insurrectionist and is troubled with the way he was portrayed in news stories in the aftermath of the riot.
"I have no excuse," Chansley said. "No excuses whatsoever. My behavior is indefensible."
The judge said Chansleys remorse appeared to be genuine but noted the seriousness of his actions in the Capitol. "What you did was terrible," Lamberth said. "You made yourself the center of the riot."
The image of Chansley holding a flagpole topped with a spear tip and looking as if he were howling was one of the most striking to emerge from the riot. He previously called himself the "QAnon Shaman" but has since repudiated the QAnon movement, which is centered on the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cannibals.
He is among 650 people charged in the riot that forced lawmakers into hiding as they were meeting to certify President Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. More than 120 defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges of demonstrating in the Capitol that carry a maximum of six months in prison.
Chansley and Scott Fairlamb, a New Jersey gym owner sentenced last week for punching a police officer during the attack, have received the longest prison sentences out of the 38 Capitol riot defendants who been punished so far.
Chansley, who has been in jail for 10 months, sought to be sentenced to time served. His lawyer, Albert Watkins, said his client has longstanding mental health problems that were worsened by being held in solitary confinement due to COVID-19 protocols and is in dire need of mental health treatment.
In the year before the Capitol riot, Chansley appeared in costume at pro-Trump events, protests over face mask requirements and at a gathering of Trump supporters in November 2020 outside an election office in downtown Phoenix where votes from the presidential race were being counted.
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His attorney has said Chansley was "horrendously smitten" by Trump and believed like other rioters that Trump had called him to the Capitol, but later felt betrayed after Trump refused to grant him and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon.
Watkins has said Chansley had been under pressure from family members not to plead guilty because they believed Trump would be reinstated as president and pardon him.
After spending his first month in jail, Chansley said he re-evaluated his life, felt regret for having stormed the building and apologized for causing fear in others.
He twice quit eating while in jail and lost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) until he was given organic food.
The judge had previously rejected Chansleys claims that the six-foot flagpole he carried during he riot wasnt a weapon and that the metal spear tip was an ornament, saying the sharpened six-inch point could have been used to stab people from a distance. _____
Billeaud reported from Phoenix.
EIE Open Day 2021
From sniffing for an internet connection to estimating poverty from space, Open Day had you covered.
The impact of Covid-19 on how we live, work and play was a central theme in this years Open Day for fourth-year students in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE) in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.
The EIE Open Days aims to develop engineering innovations for solutions to everyday challenges. This year the School has a record number of 132 final year electrical and information engineering students.
It was the second year that the School hosted Open Day online and the first time that students could showcase their capstone projects for the year on the exciting platform Gather Town, a virtual, interactive, custom 2D-world.
This is the crowning glory of four years of hard work. Electrical engineers are involved in everything from studying lightning to telecommunications to controlling things to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Projects are identified by academic staff and students, and each pair of students work together to find a solution to unique complex engineering problems, Professor Estelle Trengove, Head of School, said in her welcoming address to the more than 300 avatars of students, family members, academics, and members from related industries, gathered in the main conferencing hall in the EIE Gather Town.
Covid-19 has pivoted us to do things differently with emergency remote teaching and this group of undergraduates are the first to have spent nearly half (two years) of their undergrad studies learning online.
Trengove also saluted students and staff in their academic achievements, whilst recognising that it has been a very difficult and tiring time for some who are dealing with the loss of loved ones due to Covid-19.
Lets gather
Following the welcoming address, participants and visitors steered their avatars and walked around the exhibition halls in the EIE Gather Town to engage with students about their projects in real-time using the video chat function. Students were also able to display their project posters, videos and other virtual content during their presentation.
Sniffing for connection
Thokozani Msezane, fourth-year information engineering student, tackled the digital divide, one of the biggest challenges facing South Africa today. His project, Sniffing the education usage of an internet connection, looked at wireless technologies that can bring temporary internet connectivity to schools in underprivileged areas by linking them to close-by well-resourced internet connected areas.
Crucial to such a solution, Msezane said, would be the need for a system that can monitor the educational usage of the network to show efficacy and persuade charitable organisations to assist with the provision of free internet.
Using a packet sniffer and metadata of packets to classify websites accessed on an internet connection as educational and non-educational, the classifier showed an average accuracy of 89% when dealing with a known set of websites.
Are you convinced yet?
Masks, hand washing and social distancing are the cornerstones of non-pharmaceutical measures to combat Covid-19 infection. Convincing people to adhere to these is a daunting task and the persuasiveness of messages are crucial to this end.
Students Taliya Weinstein and Greshon Koral investigated how non-verbal features of Covid-19 speeches on YouTube impact the persuasiveness of these speeches. Their project, titled: The impact of acoustic features on the persuasiveness of Covid-9 lifestyle speeches, measured the impact as a function of the videos scaled like-to-dislike ratio and they used a machine learning model to quantify the impact of the acoustic features.
Their results show that it is possible to quantify the impact of persuasiveness with only acoustic features, and that time-energy features best determine the persuasive impact of a Covid-19 speech.
Keep your distance, please!
While the world is slowly opening up as more people are vaccinated, physical distancing will remain an essential intervention to mitigate the spread and impact of Covid-19.
Ntita Icon Mayimele and Mukela Zenith Mabunda embarked on finding a Distance detector that can alert people if the recommended distance, a prescribed distance of two metres by the World Health Organisation, is breached when they come into contact with others. This project investigated how three electronic sensors infrared, lidar and ultrasonic can be used on a distance detector device to encourage social. The team measured each sensors range, accuracy, precision, and costs for feasibility, and its accuracy and precision in varying ambient conditions such as temperatures and humidity.
The suitability of the sensor was based on the correctness and consistency of the measurements compared to the competing sensors, the team explained.
The ultrasonic sensors won the race as they show minimal errors in measurements even in varying conditions. The sensors can also alert the wearer through a vibration monitor or LED to where the warning is coming from.
Side flashes
In their project, How metal objects influence side flashes from lightning current path, Samukele Sikhakhane and Siyabonga Khoza set out to investigate the likelihood that you would be struck by a side flash if you have a metal object on you and you stood at a certain distance from a lightning conductive object, such as a tree, as it is struck by lightning.
A side flash occurs when lightning strikes a taller object and the current jumps from the taller object to an object nearby. The pair used a lightning generator in the High Voltage facilities at Wits University to simulate how a side flash will impact on a metal object placed at various distances from the lightning strike.
We found that at certain distances, if you have a metal object on you, it is highly likely that you could be struck by a side flash that discharges onto you after striking a tall object nearby, said Sikhakhane.
The result of their project is another tool in the box to be used in public lightning awareness and safety campaigns, the team hopes.
Estimating poverty from space
This project, Estimating poverty in Johannesburg from satellite images, by Kirsten Hay and Romario Ferrao built on earlier studies that combined satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty.
They first successfully replicated the primary study but found that the models from it showed poor results for Johannesburg, leading them to develop new models that showed improved ward-level and strong regional level predictions that capture the change in wealth in the city over time.
Their results show that the predicted wealth of regions in Johannesburg over time roughly correlate to economic trends in the city.
ROME, N.Y. -- A Rome man who led New York State Police on a chase through three counties on Nov. 4 was arrested again a week later by Rome police.
On Thursday, Nov. 11, Rome police were called to an auto shop on East Dominick Street for a larceny in progress around 1:15 p.m.
The responding officer found 54-year-old Edward Tucker in a red Chevy pickup truck trying to leave the parking lot. The officer parked his marked vehicle at the exit in an attempt to stop Tucker from leaving the lot. According to police, Tucker drove toward the officer who then had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit.
Police say Tucker drove over a curb and fled the scene.
Around 8 p.m. that same day, Tucker was located and arrested. He was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, but police say more charges are possible.
Tucker was arraigned on this charge and other unrelated charges. For the combined charges, bail was set at $18,000 cash or $36,000 bond.
Tucker is facing more than a dozen other charges from the Nov. 4 pursuit through Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, including driving while intoxicated and possession of a controlled substance.
FLORA, Ind. (WLFI) The Carroll Consolidated School Corporation met on Tuesday night to discuss a variety of topics, all of which were passed. These included a resolution to purchase a five thousand dollar new FOB system that would include additional FOB readers on three new doors, an appointment of a new library board member, Beth Zootman, a raise for teachers who are involved with running extra curricular activities, and a purchase of two new busses.
The meeting concluded with a contract hearing for the superintendent, Keith Thackery.
He requested a salary increase from his current contract's 111 thousand dollars, to his new proposed contract's total of 114 thousand dollars, in addition to an increase in HSA dollars and medical insurance.
The next meeting to approve Thackery's request will be on December 14, 2021. If you would like to learn more about the meeting or how to voice your opinion on these issues, head to their website here.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)Purdue University's Animal Sciences Research and Education Center is preparing for two Indiana grown turkeys. The turkeys will be pardoned by President Joe Biden.
This is the first time Purdue will receive pardoned turkeys. Both turkeys were raised at Farbest Farms. It's a Southern Indiana based turkey producer.
Indiana's State Poultry Association President, Rebecca Joniskan said Indiana is the fourth largest turkey producing state in the nation. She said this is great for the State of Indiana.
"We are very well suited to care for these turkeys as they get to live out their pardoned lives in West Lafayette," said Joniskan.
Farmbest Farms Owner, Phil Seger said it's a great honor.
"I think it is a tremendous honor to be able to go the White House to present this year's National Thanksgiving Turkey and then to bring those turkeys back home," said Seger.
Joniskan said they'll know the names of the turkeys Thursday. The turkeys will officially be welcomed at Purdue's Memorial Mall on November 29th.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHI) - Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has issued a statement regarding the state's current public health emergency.
The governor issued the public health emergency back in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, his office said he is asking his team to find ways to "responsibly allow the state public health emergency to expire."
You can find his full statement below.
"When extending the last state public health emergency for another 30 days, I asked my team to bring me a plan that would allow us to wind it down responsibly. They have presented me a plan that identifies three key items that must be preserved if I am to responsibly allow the state public health emergency to expire.
To carry this out, I am working with Senator Bray and Speaker Huston to consider passing three key statutory changes to continue protecting Hoosiers by allowing for the continuation of enhanced federal matching funds for Medicaid expenditures, the continuation of the enhanced benefit for those receiving federal food assistance and extend the ability to efficiently vaccinate our 5- to 11-year-olds."
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) The Wabash Township advisory board meets Tuesday night as uncertainty engulfs the fire department.
The meeting comes on the heels of a virtual town hall hosted by Trustee Jennifer Teising. She's been at odds for months with township board members about the long-term future of the fire department.
But they seem one step closer to restoring the township's paid fire crew.
"Our understanding is she's starting to come on board when it comes to that idea," Board President Angel Valentin says of an unconventional solution to save the department. "We've been talking about it since June. It hasn't happened."
He's talking about efforts to negotiate a contract between the township and its firefighters, wresting some control from Teising.
"We would be placing the authority in the hands of the department and I think that they'll be more of a rational actor, to say the least, and I think that means we'll be able to get the paid guys back," he says.
Teising faced outrage over the summer when she laid off the township's three paid firefighters.
"We didn't have to lose the paid firefighters," she says. "All of this was completely unnecessary ... We already had the money for a temporary solution."
But she laid them off anyway, saying board members and firefighters couldn't produce a long-term funding plan. But as trustee, that's her responsibility.
"The board has really had to go above and beyond what the usual board has to deal with when it comes to the financial responsibilities of the township," he says.
According to Teising, it was all just a big misunderstanding.
"My office and the township counsel have been trying to schedule a meeting with the firefighter association since April to get a contract in place and to come to an agreement, to mediate," she says.
But Valentin says that's not true.
"We've been asking for one since before she let go of the firefighters and so we're hoping that that'll come through and actually happen," he says.
The board is expected to approve a 2022 salary resolution authorizing pay for firefighters. Valentin says that will pave the way for upcoming contract negotiations.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) The next story for News 18's Winter Weather Preparedness series; how to prep your gutters before harsh winter weather hits.
News 18 spoke with Gerry Murray from Gutter Covers of Indiana. He said keeping your gutters clean and free of leaves and debris is the key. Depending on how many trees surround your home this can be necessary just once a season, or once a week.
Murray said its important to keep the buildup from getting so high in the gutter that water can't flow down properly. Over time, the weight of debris and water can cause the gutter system to pull away from the house.
Since gutter cleanout often involves a ladder, Murray says to use an abundance of caution to avoid falling.
Getting your gutters cleaned out before temperatures drop can keep the weather from freezing the buildup in place.
For those who might want to get their gutters professionally cleaned, Murray says that service can cost up to $200 depending on how many feet of gutter is on a home.
Gutter Covers could be a more permanent solution for those who need it.
"It reduces, I hate to say eliminate, but it reduces greatly the need to clean your gutters," Murray told News 18. "Because, obviously the covers, the purpose is to keep the leaves and debris out."
Some of Murray's covers are manufactured right here in Greater Lafayette.
"[The price of gutter covers] could be anywhere from maybe $1,500 [to] $4,000," Murray said. "Again it depends on the kind of product you have, how many linear feet of gutter you have. Sometimes people don't do the whole house."
As much as it may help, Murray says the covers don't always completely do away with the need for gutter cleanout.
Murray also says the key is tackling gutter cleanout before clogged gutters lead to bigger problems, like erosion around a home's foundation, or even water entering a basement or crawlspace.
Photo taken on Feburary 6, 2019 shows an actress performing at Shenyang Palace Museum. [Xinhua/Pan Yulong]
SHENYANG, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) The Shenyang Palace Museum in northeast China's Liaoning Province celebrated the 95th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday.
The museum, one of the two well-preserved ancient palace complexes in China, currently has over 50 exhibition halls open to the public, said Li Shengneng, person-in-charge of the museum.
Shenyang Palace Museum, where the former imperial complex of three emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was located, was set up in 1926 and opened to the public in 1929. In 2004, it was added to the World Cultural Heritage List.
The museum has witnessed a thriving cultural and creative industry. It is estimated that the total revenue of cultural and creative products sold in the museum surpassed 1.25 million yuan (about 195,750 U.S. dollars) during the Labor Day holiday in May this year alone.
(Source: Xinhua)
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. [Xinhua/Yue Yuewei]
The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
The two Presidents agreed that their meeting is candid, constructive, substantive and productive.
The meeting helps increase mutual understanding, adds to the positive expectation of the international community for this relationship, and sends a powerful message to the two countries and the world.
BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping had a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday. The two sides had thorough and in-depth communication and exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations and on important issues of mutual interest.
President Xi pointed out that both China and the US are at critical stages of development, and the "global village" of humanity faces multiple challenges. As the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the US need to increase communication and cooperation, each run their domestic affairs well and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development. This is the shared desire of the people of the two countries and around the world, and the joint mission of Chinese and American leaders.
Sound, Stable China-US Relationship Urged
President Xi stressed that a sound and stable China-US relationship is required for advancing the two countries' respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. China and the US should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation. President Xi expressed his readiness to work with President Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction. Doing so will advance the interests of the two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community.
President Xi pointed out that the most important event in international relations over the past 50 years was the reopening and development of China-US relations, which has benefited the two countries and the whole world. The most important event in international relations in the coming 50 years will be for China and the US to find the right way to get along. History is a fair judge. What a statesman does, be it right or wrong, be it an accomplishment or a failure, will all be recorded by history. It is hoped that President Biden will demonstrate political leadership and steer America's China policy back on the track of reason and pragmatism.
President Xi highlighted that a review of the experience and lessons learned in growing China-US relations shows that for the two countries to get along in the new era, three principles must be followed. First, mutual respect. The two countries need to respect each other's social systems and development paths, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and respect each other's right to development. They need to treat each other as equals, keep differences under control, and seek common ground while reserving differences. Second, peaceful coexistence. No conflict and no confrontation is a line that both sides must hold. The US side has suggested coexistence between China and the US. One more word can be added to make it peaceful coexistence. Third, win-win cooperation. With their interests deeply intertwined, China and the US stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. The world is big enough for the two countries to develop individually and collectively. The right thing to do is to choose mutual benefit over zero-sum game or the I-win-you-lose approach.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. [Xinhua/Huang Jingwen]
President Xi identified four priority areas where China and the US should focus their efforts on.
First, shouldering responsibilities of major countries and leading global response to outstanding challenges. China-US cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-US cooperation. The global initiatives China has proposed are all open to the US. We hope the reverse is also true. Second, acting in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit to move forward exchanges at all levels and in all areas and generate more positive energy for China-US relations. President Xi expressed his readiness to stay in touch with President Biden through multiple means to set the direction and inject more momentum into bilateral relations. The two countries, with broad common interests in a wide range of areas including economy, energy, mil-to-mil, law-enforcement, education, science and technology, cyber, environmental protection and sub-national interactions, should complement each other to make the cake bigger for China-US cooperation. The two sides could fully harness the dialogue channels and mechanisms between their diplomatic and security, economic and financial, and climate change teams, in an effort to advance practical cooperation and resolve specific issues. Third, managing differences and sensitive issues in a constructive way to prevent China-US relations from getting derailed or out of control. It is only natural for the two countries to have differences. The key is to manage them constructively so that they don't magnify or exacerbate. China will certainly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. It is important that the US properly handle the relevant issues with prudence. Fourth, strengthening coordination and cooperation on major international and regional hotspot issues to provide more public goods to the world. The world is not tranquil. China and the US need to work together with the rest of the international community to defend world peace, promote global development, and safeguard a fair and equitable international order.
President Xi compared China and the US to two giant ships sailing in the ocean. It is important for the two sides to keep a steady hand on the tiller, so that the two giant ships will break waves and forge ahead together, without losing direction or speed, still less colliding with each other.
Chinese People's Aspiration for Better Life Cannot Be Stopped
President Xi explained China's development path and strategic intentions. The just concluded sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee took stock of the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC in the past 100 years. Over the past century, the CPC has kept to its founding aspiration and mission of striving for the happiness of the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. A lot has been accomplished in this direction, but that is far from enough. More needs to be done. President Xi said that when he took office, he said publicly that the Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the goal to strive for. The Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the biggest internal driver for China's development and an inevitable trend of history. Any attempt to stop this historical trend will be rejected by the Chinese people, and will by no means succeed. President Xi said that as China's leader, serving the 1.4 billion Chinese people and working with them for a better life is a great challenge and a great responsibility. "I shall put aside my own well-being and live up to people's expectations," President Xi said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. [Xinhua/Huang Jingwen]
President Xi pointed out that the Chinese people have always loved and valued peace. Aggression or hegemony is not in the blood of the Chinese nation. Since the founding of the People's Republic, China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries. China has no intention to sell its own development path around the world. On the contrary, China encourages all countries to find development paths tailored to their respective national conditions.
President Xi stressed that opening-up is a fundamental state policy and a hallmark of China. China will not change its determination to open up at a higher level. China will not change its determination to share development opportunities with the rest of the world. And China will not change its determination to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. The new development paradigm that China is working to establish is aimed at expanding domestic market, fostering both domestic and international circulations with greater scope and scale, and building a business environment that is more market-oriented, law-based and up to international standards. All this will provide a bigger market and more opportunities to other countries.
President Xi highlighted China's commitment to peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity. Drawing ideological lines or dividing the world into different camps or rival groups will only make the world suffer. The bitter lessons of the Cold War are still fresh in memory. We hope that the US side can meet its word of not seeking a "new Cold War" with concrete actions.
President Xi stated China's principled position on the Taiwan question. He noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and ascribed the tensions to the repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China. Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt. The one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiques are the political foundation of China-US relations. Previous US administrations have all made clear commitments on this question. The true status quo of the Taiwan question and what lies at the heart of one China are as follows: there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China, and the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China. Achieving China's complete reunification is an aspiration shared by all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts. That said, should the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. [Xinhua/Ding Lin]
Multilateralism Without China-US Cooperation Is Incomplete
President Xi highlighted that civilizations are rich and diverse, and so is democracy. Democracy is not mass produced with a uniform model or configuration for countries around the world. Whether a country is democratic or not should be left to its own people to decide. Dismissing forms of democracy that are different from one's own is in itself undemocratic. China is ready to have dialogues on human rights on the basis of mutual respect, but we oppose using human rights to meddle in other countries' internal affairs.
President Xi pointed out that China and the US need to uphold the international system with the UN at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Multilateralism without China-US cooperation is incomplete.
On trade ties, President Xi described the China-US economic and trade relations as mutually beneficial in nature. Business is business. Economic and trade issues between the two countries should not be politicized. The two sides need to make the cake bigger for cooperation. China takes seriously the wishes of US business community to travel to China more easily, and has agreed to upgrade fast-track arrangement, which will further enhance economic and trade exchanges between China and the US and boost the recovery of the two economies. The US should stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese businesses. It is imperative for China and the US to maintain communication on macroeconomic policies, support world economic recovery and guard against economic and financial risks. The US should be mindful of the spillover effects of its domestic macro policies, and adopt responsible macroeconomic policies.
On energy security, President Xi noted the need for China and the US to call on the international community to jointly protect global energy security, strengthen cooperation on natural gas and new energy, and work with other countries to keep global industrial and supply chains safe and stable.
On climate change, President Xi recalled China-US cooperation that helped bring about the Paris Agreement. He pointed out that, as both countries are transitioning to green and low-carbon economy, climate change can well become a new highlight of cooperation. President Xi reiterated his belief that clear water and green mountains are as valuable as gold and silver, and that we must protect the environment the way we protect our own eyes, and treat the environment the way we treat our own lives. Today, ecological conservation has become a household concept and social consensus in China. China will make the world's biggest cut in carbon emission intensity in the shortest time frame in history, a task that will require extraordinary efforts. China means what it says. It only commits to what it can deliver, and never makes a promise it cannot keep. China is still the largest developing country in the world. The issue of unbalanced and inadequate development still stands out. All countries need to uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strike a balance between addressing climate change and protecting livelihoods. What the world needs is less finger-pointing or blame game, but more solidarity and cooperation. Words matter, but actions matter even more. Developed countries need to earnestly fulfill their historical responsibilities and due obligations, and maintain policy consistency.
On public health, President Xi pointed out that the pandemic once again proves that humanity lives in a community with a shared future. There is no higher priority than people's lives. Solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon for the international community to defeat COVID-19. Response to any major disease must be based on science. Politicizing diseases does no good but only harm. The pressing priority in the global COVID response is to address the vaccine deficits and close the vaccination gap. President Xi said that he suggested making COVID vaccines a global public good at the early stage of the pandemic last year, and put forth a Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative just recently. China is among the first to offer vaccines to developing countries in need, delivering over 1.7 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to the world. We will consider making additional donations in light of the needs of developing countries. COVID-19 will not be the last public health crisis facing humanity. China and the US need to call for the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for global public health and communicable disease prevention and control, and promote further international exchanges and cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via video link, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 16, 2021. [Xinhua/Yue Yuewei]
US Has No Intention to Conflict with China
President Biden said that the US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relations in the world. As two major countries, the US and China have a responsibility to the world as well as to our people. The two sides need to have open and candid dialogues to enhance understanding of each other's intentions, and make sure that competition between the two countries is fair and healthy and does not veer into conflict. President Biden echoed President Xi's comment that history is a fair judge, and that they should make the relationship work and not mess it up. China has been a major power since 5,000 years ago. Biden reiterated that the US does not seek to change China's system, the revitalization of its alliances is not anti-China, and the US has no intention to have a conflict with China. Biden reaffirmed the US government's long-standing one-China policy, stated that the US does not support "Taiwan independence", and expressed the hope for peace and stability to be maintained in the Taiwan Strait. The US is willing to work with China on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, increase communication, reduce misperception, and handle differences constructively. Biden emphasized the need for the US and China to work more closely in areas where their interests align, respond to global challenges such as the COVID pandemic and climate change, and deliver better lives to the two peoples. We should encourage the younger generation to interact more and be more exposed to each other's culture, which will help make the world a better place.
The two sides also exchanged views on Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear issue, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and other international and regional issues of mutual interest.
The two Presidents agreed that their meeting is candid, constructive, substantive and productive. It helps increase mutual understanding, adds to the positive expectation of the international community for this relationship, and sends a powerful message to the two countries and the world. The two sides agreed to maintain close communication in different forms and steer China-US relations back on the right track of sound and steady development, for the good of the people in both countries and around the world.
Ding Xuexiang, Liu He, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi were present at the meeting.
(Source: Xinhua)
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A view from Clwyd Souths Member of the Senedd
Wrexham.com has invited Wrexham & Clwyd South constituency Members of Parliament and Members of the Senedd to write a monthly article with updates on their work in Parliament and the Senedd, and closer to home. (You can view an archive here).
Clwyd South MS Ken Skates writes
It was an honour to attend the remembrance service in Cefn Mawr yesterday and lay a wreath at the war memorial in memory of the brave men and women who gave their lives for our futures.
The Minister responsible for veterans support in Wales, Hannah Blythyn, last week thanked past and present Armed Forces personnel for their bravery as the nation remembered their sacrifices.
This time of year is always a very poignant and timely reminder for us all people of all ages to remember those who have lost their lives in conflict all to help preserve our freedom and way of life.
They will never be forgotten.
Last week, I joined Welsh Government Minister Dawn Bowden on her visits to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct the first transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site and then at Chirk Castle after my meeting there with National Trust chief executive Tim Parker.
Its always a pleasure welcoming Ministers to Clwyd South, especially to two of the jewels in its crown, and Im always incredibly proud to show what our area has to offer.
I enjoyed getting out and talking to residents in Chirk with Cllr Frank Hemmings (second right) on recently, and discussing a range of local issues.
Well be back in Chirk in soon, and I will be holding more street surgeries in different areas of the constituency over the coming weeks and months.
I will be holding my next advice surgery with North Wales Police in Llangollen later this week.
Surgeries are an important fixture in elected members diaries and provide a valuable opportunity to sit down face-to-face with constituents, discuss issues of concern and to offer support and advice.
Clearly, the pandemic put paid to public surgeries for much longer than we expected or hoped, but now restrictions allow its important that we resume them.
By teaming up with the police it means people can raise any concerns or information directly with them in confidence which they might otherwise not report, as well as speak to me about anything else they need help with. We are hopeful these one stop shop-style surgeries will help local people if there are a number of issues they want to discuss.
The surgery takes place on Friday, November 19, from 10am-midday. Appointments can be booked by emailing ken.skates@senedd.wales or calling my office on 01978 869058.
On Friday I welcomed Mark Hooper from Banc Cambria to Clwyd South for further discussions on how a Community Bank of Wales could benefit local communities and to press the case for one of the first branches in Wales to come to our area.
I raised the issue of local bank closures in the Senedd earlier this year after previously launching the Community Bank plans during my time as Economy Minister.
Banc Cambria is working with the Welsh Government to create the UKs first community bank, and I am hopeful that Clwyd South as the North Wales constituency hit hardest by bank closures will be chosen as one of the projects pilot areas.
The Community Bank will provide everyday banking throughout Wales. Unlike other banks, it will be owned and controlled by members not outside shareholders.
It was really a very productive morning showing Mark around Ruabon with Cllr Dana Davies and also visiting Cefn Mawr to talk to local high street businesses about their banking needs.
Over the coming weeks before my next Wrexham.com column, my commitments include meeting with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board over plans for a new health centre in Cefn Mawr and the latest cross-party meeting on Kronospan.
Finally, I would like to wish the team at Glyn Wylfa in Chirk the best of luck at the UK Social Enterprise Awards in London next month.
Glyn Wylfa opened in 2013 with support from the Welsh Labour Government and has gone from strength to strength since, expanding year on year.
The team to do a wonderful job, and its fantastic to see Clwyd South represented at the awards again after the recent success of Plas Madoc Leisure Centre. Pob lwc!
If you need advice or support, please email ken.skates@senedd.wales and include your home address and a contact number. You can also find regular coronavirus updates on my Facebook page and sign up to my weekly newsletters here.
Wrexham.com has invited Wrexham & Clwyd South constituency Members of Parliament and Members of the Senedd to write a monthly article with updates on their work in Parliament and the Senedd, and closer to home. (You can view an archive here).
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Welsh retail workers faced appalling violent, threats and abuse from customers during pandemic, new survey reveals
Almost 90 per cent of retail workers have been verbally abused during the pandemic, a new survey has revealed.
The study, carried out by Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers), also found that 64 per cent of staff have been threatened by customers over the last 12 months.
Retail workers are now being urged not to suffer in silence after the findings which include the views of nearly 3,500 staff were released as part of the annual Respect for Shopworkers week (15 21 November)
Interim results also found that 11 per cent of workers had been assaulted and 46 per cent said they were not confident that reporting abuse, threats and violence will make a difference.
Seven per cent of those who had been assaulted did not report the incident.
In North Wales one worker surveyed spoke of the verbal abuse and rudeness experienced by customers, along with one physical attack.
Another still has flashbacks after being robbed at knifepoint with another member of staff
There are similar experiences from workers from across Wales, who have experienced racial abuse, threats, sexual harassment, discrimination and intimidation and bullying from customers who refuse to follow coronavirus guidelines or wear a mask.
Paddy Lillis Usdaw General Secretary said: It is heart-breaking to hear these testimonies from Welsh shopworkers who deserve far more respect than they receive.
Our latest survey results clearly show the scale of the appalling violence, threats and abuse faced by shopworkers and demonstrate the need for a protection of shopworkers law.
It is shocking that 9 in 10 of our members working in retail are suffering abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence.
So it is extremely worrying that over half are not confident that reporting these issues will make any difference and 7% of those assaulted did not report the incident.
The new protection of workers law in Scotland is welcome and we urge the UK Government to extend it to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Retail staff across the UK have a crucial role in our communities and that role must be valued and respected, they deserve the protection of the law.
This is a hugely important issue for our members and they are saying loud and clear that enough is enough. The alarm bells are ringing and it is time for the Government to make a difference.
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The jury in the murder trial of fascist shooter Kyle Rittenhouse deliberated on Tuesday without reaching a verdict. The jury will return and continue deliberations until a verdict is reached or until they are deadlocked with neither side able to prevail.
The 12-person anonymous jury retired for deliberations at 9:15 in the morning following an unusual and bizarre spectacle presided over by Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder. The judge, who has barely concealed his sympathy for Rittenhouse throughout the trial, requested that Rittenhouse draw from a raffle tumbler the numbers of the six jurors who were to be dismissed from the original pool of 18 who sat up to this point in the trial.
While a process for randomly selecting the six jurors to be dismissed is standard procedure, having the defendantin this case, Rittenhousedraw the names is by all accounts unprecedented, having more in common with a beauty pageant or a reality television show than a solemn criminal proceeding in a court of law.
Kyle Rittenhouse,, accused of shooting three people during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin last year, waits for a motion hearing, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Kenosha, Wis. (Mark Hertzberg/Pool Photo via AP)
Rittenhouse was 17 years old on August 25, 2020, when he shot and killed two men, maimed a third man and nearly struck a fourth man in Kenosha during protests against police violence that had been under way for three nights. The brutal shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man, seven times by a white Kenosha police officer was the trigger for the protests across the city that lasted for 10 days.
The teenage shooter and former police youth cadet traveled to Kenosha from his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, to join an armed and right-wing militia that had appointed itself to the task of protecting property during the demonstrations.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and seriously injured Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. Rittenhouse is also charged with endangering the life of reporter Richie McGinnis when he fired his rifle at Rosenbaum.
If convicted on the intentional and unintentional murder charges, Rittenhouse, who is now 18, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. At their lunch break, the jurors, who were reported to be seven women and five men, requested additional printed copies of the jury instructions that were provided by Judge Schroeder prior to the presentation of closing arguments by the prosecution and the defense on Monday.
Throughout the trial, Rittenhouse and his lawyers have not challenged the prosecutions claim that he shot and killed or injured his victims. Instead, the legal defense has been based on the claim that Rittenhousewho had previously expressed a desire to shoot people he claimed were shopliftingwas defending himself against a violent mob and people who were rioters and looters.
Rittenhouses attorney Mark Richards was permitted by Judge Schroeder during his closing argument to express open hostility to the Kenosha anti-police violence protesters and essentially to suggest that Rittenhouses victims deserved to die because they were lawless left-wing radicals.
This contrasts with the judges persistent blocking of prosecution from entering into evidence any of the right-wing political affiliations of the shooter Rittenhouse, including his joining with fascist Proud Boys from Wisconsin and flashing white-power hand signals on the day of his release on bail with money raised by the very same political forces.
Prosecutor and Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, despite the restrictions placed upon him by Judge Schroeder, characterized Rittenhouse in his closing argument as a wannabe soldier who set into motion the deadly chain of events in Kenosha by bringing a rifle to a protest that it was illegal for him to possess in the first place and pointing it at protesters.
Judge Schroeder has thus far declined to rule on the defense motion for a mistrial with prejudice. The judge is apparently waiting until after the jury returns a verdict before ruling on whether the charges should be thrown out, meaning that if a jury returns a guilty verdict, it is still in danger of being overturned by the judge. If the judge were to grant this motion it would mean that the trial would be declared ended and the prosecution would not be able to refile charges against Rittenhouse.
While the jury deliberated, outside the courthouse protesters demanding justice for the victims of the shooter confronted right-wing supporters of Rittenhouse. Among those supporting the defendant were the infamous McCloskeys from St. Louis, who made national headlines for pointing firearms at demonstrators during the George Floyd protests in their neighborhood in June 2020.
Mark McCloskey, who was pardoned by Missouri Governor Mike Parson on August 3, made a statement across the street from the courthouse advocating for vigilante violence against demonstrators, saying that he was there to support people who are exercising their Second Amendment rights to defend themselves particularly when the government abdicates that duty and fails to protect their citizens.
McCloskey, who announced his Republican candidacy on Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight last May, is running for US Senate in Missouri to replace Senator Roy Blunt, who decided not to run for reelection in the aftermath of the 2020 US elections.
The Republican Party has openly embraced Rittenhouse, aiming to elevate him to the status of a national savior. JR Majewski, a 2022 Republican candidate for US Congress in Ohio, posted an image of Rittenhouses face photoshopped onto the body of Marvel Comics superhero Captain America.
The subtitle of Jon Grinspans recently published book, The Age of Acrimony, is somewhat misleading. It reads, How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 18651915.
Americans were and are divided into mutually antagonistic classes, however. A more accurate description would be, at least in part, How US capitalism established the modern two-party system of bourgeois rule. As the author shows, this included the effective disenfranchisement of the poorest and most exploited sections of the working classthe restriction, not the fixing, of democracy.
Grinspan, the curator of political history at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, has written an interesting and informative book, even if limited both in its scope and by its theoretical outlook. He deals with the half-century following the US Civil War.
Book cover of "Age of Acrimony"
The Second American Revolution ended chattel slavery, and the Reconstruction Period was characterized by significant reforms, including the extension of the right to vote to several million former slaves. It soon gave way to counterrevolution, however. The Republican Party abandoned Reconstruction. The Compromise of 1877, which installed Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in the White Houseafter a bitterly disputed election in which Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular votein exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the former Confederacy, was a fundamental turning point.
The shift reflected the dominant interests of the ascendant bourgeoisie. Having established its supremacy through the Civil War, it was more than willing to make a deal with its former foes. Slavery did not return, but it was supplanted by the Jim Crow system of segregation, terror and second-class citizenship for the African-American population in the South, while the North led the way in the massive industrialization of the country.
President Rutherford B. Hayes
Republicans continued to wave the bloody shirt well into the 1880s and even later, using memories of the Civil War to appeal to a broader base that remembered the fight against slavery. The Democrats rebuilt their electoral fortunes, based both upon the former slaveholders and their supporters in the South, and the growing patronage machines in the northern cities, resting on the growth of industry and the working class, including several million immigrants.
Election campaigns during the 1870s were a time of torchlight parades and mass activity. The large voter turnouts included newly enfranchised African-Americanswomens suffrage would not arrive for almost another half-century.
Party affiliation was emphasized, but political issues receded into the background in the years after Reconstruction. This was a time when the class struggle erupted in such battles as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Partisanship was a way to divert attention from the class issues and the need for the political independence of the working class. Voters were instead divided along tribal lines, into the two big parties of big business. Although much has changed in the past 150 years, similar techniques are used today.
Grinspan writes about the fears of the ruling class during this period:
Racist pogroms tore apart southern cities, and ethnic and class tensions caused riots in Manhattan in 1870, 1871 and 1874. Across the Atlantic, Paris exploded in 1871, as the revolutionary Paris Commune seized control of the city, before being brutally put down by the French state, which massacred twenty thousand. Americans frightened themselves with predictions of their own coming commune Then, in the spring of 1877, one hundred thousand railroad workers struck around the United States, protesting the wage cuts that had shrunk their earnings by nearly one-quarter since 1873. The movement was crushed by state militias and federal troops, killing about one hundred strikers. Fearing communes abroad and strikers at home, the wealthy began to talk about the coming fall of civilization, pointing to various barbarians at various gates.
The reference to the Paris Commune is particularly significant, reflecting the international character of the class struggle as the system of capitalist production grew. Both Democrats and Republicans began to rely on growing middle-class layers as a force for political stability, a buffer and a means of silencing a revolutionary movement within the working class.
Blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
The subsequent decades continued to be ones of explosive class struggle as well as political instability. The irrepressible conflict that led to the Civil War reemerged in another form, this time the conflict between expanding capitalism and the powerful working class that grew alongside it.
Between 1865 and 1901, three US presidents (Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley) were assassinated. Grinspan briefly mentions the infamous Haymarket frame-up of Chicago anarchists in 1886. He writes:
Cities were training militias, passing vagrancy laws, and restricting public rallies with permitting requirements. And across the nation, strikers were met with truncheons and rifles. The National Guard was called out 328 times between 1886 and 1895. In 1894, an Ohioan named Jacob Coxey led a ragtag assembly of unemployed protesters in the first march on Washington. Coxeys army, as they were called, were beaten and arrested for trampling on the grass around Capitol Hill. To the well-to-do of the 1890s, public gatherings seemed newly ominous.
The Civil War marked the completion of the bourgeois revolution in the United States. The abolition of slavery cleared the path for the system of free labor across the country. The Gilded Age, in which Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt and Carnegie became household names, was marked by extremes of inequality never previously seen. It also saw explosive class struggles. The Great Railroad Strike was followed by the Homestead and Pullman strikes in 1892 and 1894, respectively, brutally suppressed by the state.
This was the context within which the ruling class began to move away from the kind of mass democracy it had earlier utilized, in favor of respectability and civility in politics. Mass political involvement was deemed too dangerous at a time of mass struggle.
During this same period, lynching was rapidly increasing in the South, and poll taxes and other methods effectively disenfranchised the freed slaves and their children, but also many poor whites. In the Northern states the techniques were different, but the results were somewhat similar. As Grinspan describes it in his book, as well as in an article in the Washington Post several months ago, reformers could not simply disenfranchise their lower classes. But perhaps, they schemed, they might make participation unappealing enough to discourage turnout. Among other techniques, states passed new registration laws and literacy requirements, moved polling places into unfriendly neighborhoods, and most employers stopped letting their workers take time off to vote.
Republicans William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt won 1900 presidential election
This all accompaniedparadoxically it would seemthe Progressive Era of the first two decades of the 20th century. It was not, in fact, at all inconsistent. Many reformers found the infringement of voting rights perfectly acceptable, just as they supported the contemporaneous efforts to restrict immigration, efforts that led to the passage of the draconian Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which imposed quotas that reduced immigration from southern and eastern Europe to a small fraction of previous levels, while banning immigration from most of Asia.
The reformist wing of the ruling class saw measures such as antitrust laws, factory inspections, the end of child labor and similar legislation as necessary to forestall revolution. This became especially urgent after the 1905 Revolution in Russia, to which the author briefly alludes. The reforms that ascendant American capitalism could then afford were not the result of the sudden growth of charity among the employers. They came in response to the continuing development of the class struggle, including the founding and early growth of the Industrial Workers of the World. This period also corresponded to the emergence of the United States as an imperialist power, able to bribe a labor aristocracya thin layer of labor bureaucrats and privileged workers.
Not surprisingly, Grinspan discounts the growth of the socialist movement, barely mentioning Eugene Debs in an aside. He separates the relatively small socialist movement from the great stirrings of the working class, and accepts the falsehood that socialism was alien to the US. He neglects to mention the enormous impact in the US of the 1917 Russian Revolution, as well as internationally, and the leadership role of socialists and communists in the building of the industrial unions in the US in later decades.
The infringements on voting met with a good deal of success. Voter turnout fell from a high of 82.6 percent of eligible voters in 1876 to 48.9 percent in 1924. Grinspan writes: From 1896 to 1900, turnout fell 6.1 percent. It crashed another 8 percent by 1904, plunged 6.6 percent in 1912, and crashed a full 12.4 percent by 1920. By 1924, he continues, for the first time in the history of American democracy, stay-at-homes made up the majority of eligible voters.
The collapse of voting was most extreme in the Deep South, where Jim Crow voting laws disenfranchised Black voters, discouraged poor Whites, and enthroned a small, White, wealthy, Democratic electorate. On average, half as many Southerners voted after 1900 as before. This was not confined to the disenfranchisement of African-Americans. In Florida, turnout dropped 52 percent; in South Carolina it fell 65.6 percent between 1880 and 1916. Just 17.5 percent of eligible South Carolinians voted in 1916
Grinspan is informative when demonstrating that race was not the only factor, and not even the biggest factor, in the hollowing out of American democracy over the last century. Voter turnout fell during this period, he writes, especially among populations who were poorer, younger, immigrants or African-Americans. Election Day in the 19th century was a thrilling holiday. In the 20th century, it required literacy, identification papers, education, leave from work
He refers to Joe Bidens hypocritical warning about new voting laws that risk backsliding into the days of Jim Crow, and adds, there is a stronger, subtler parallel: the deliberate discouragement of working class voters, around 1900, by wealthier Americans scared that hordes of native and foreign barbarians, all armed with the ballot would replace them at the polls.
The Jim Crow measures, accompanied by violence or the threat of violence, were the most blatant, but they were part of a broader pattern. As Grinspan notes, while the Voting Rights Act of 1965 fought racial discrimination in voting, the discouragements preventing low-income participation have never been addressed. He points out that the 66 percent turnout in the polarized election of 2020 was the highest percentage in 120 years and was far below the participation of eligible voters in the late 19th century. Thus, during a century when American imperialism regularly posed as the symbol of democracy, it was effectively disenfranchising many millions of its own citizens.
While Grinspan himself may shrink from this conclusion, his study and the statistics he compiles confirm the words of Lenin, the leader of the 1917 October Revolution, on the nature of democracy under capitalism:
Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for the poor.
Vladimir Lenin
This book brings its survey of US voting up only to the early 20th century, but it is necessary to consider at least briefly what has happened since 1915, and where American democracy stands today. The relatively stable two-party system inaugurated in the early 20th century has endured, with some minor challenges, until fairly recently. The American working class has remained politically disenfranchised, failing to build mass parties as happened in Europe and elsewhere.
This can be ascribed in part to the remaining resources of US imperialism, as the leading global capitalist power. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelts New Deal was able to pose as the friend of labor and steal the political thunder of fascistic figures like Huey Long.
Even more decisive, however, was the crisis of working-class leadership, and above all the role of Stalinism, in systematically betraying the working class internationally. In the US, the Stalinists were crucial in helping to tie the insurgent labor movement to Roosevelts Democrats, and in the post-World War II period the anticommunist trade union bureaucracy, basing itself on the temporary postwar boom, took over the task of strangling the movement of the working class.
The last four decades, however, have witnessed a fundamental change. Everywhere the existing parties and trade unionsincluding the Stalinistshave been transformed and integrated into the capitalist state. Racial politics, in the form of the identity politics embraced by the Democrats, has supplemented racism and xenophobia as a means of dividing the working class. The accelerating crisis and decline of American capitalism has led, especially since the stolen election of 2000, to new and more extreme attacks on basic democratic rights.
This is part of the explosive growth of inequality, a Second Gilded Age even more extreme than the first. This level of inequality is not compatible with rights that have been won or tolerated in the past. This is the significance of the emergence of Trump, the ongoing transformation of the Republicans into a fascist party, and the complicity and bankruptcy of the Democrats in the face of the fascist danger.
This deepening onslaught on the working class is provoking a response, visible today in such developments as the growing strike wave as well as the mass protests against police killings. A period of revolutionary struggle has opened up, in the US and internationally.
The defense of the right to vote is bound up with the struggle for the political independence of the working class. It must answer the capitalist states suppression of democracy with genuine workers democracy and a workers state. The fight for socialism, smashing the capitalist classs stranglehold on economic life, is the only answer to the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of war and fascist dictatorship.
Almost two years into a pandemic that has claimed the lives of close to 30,000 Canadians, Canadas Liberal government has admitted what scientific experts have long insistedaerosols play a major role in the transmission of COVID-19.
Indeed, research has conclusively demonstrated that aerosols are the virus principal means of transmission.
Yet up until late last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which is overseen by the federal Liberal government, stubbornly insisted that respiratory droplets are far and away the most important means by which COVID-19 is transmitted. This is because highlighting the key role aerosols play in spreading the virus points to the dangers people face when they congregate in workplaces, schools, buses and subway cars, and thus cuts across the ruling elites drive to corral working people to return to work amid the pandemic.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, with his British counterpart Boris Johnson, who infamously declared in Oct. 2020, no more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands! (Jeff J Mitchell/Pool Photo)
Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam tweeted the new public health advice concerning aerosols late Friday afternoon. Since the outset of the pandemic, weve learned a lot about the SARS2 virus that causes COVID-19, the tweet read. Importantly, weve learned how the virus can linger in fine aerosols and remain suspended in the air we breathe. Much like expelled smoke lingers in poorly ventilated spaces, the SARS2 virus can remain suspended in the air, with those in close proximity to the infected person inhaling more aerosols, especially in indoor and poorly ventilated spaces.
The PHAC has not followed up Tams tweets, which appear to have been timed to minimize their impact, with a public information offensive to alert the population as to the dangers of aerosol transmission. Nor is it advocating any policy changes to prevent a surge of infections, as people increasingly congregate indoors during the cold winter months.
The PHACs belated admission constitutes a devastating indictment of the political establishments prioritization of corporate profits over human life, which has gone hand-in-hand with a systematic repudiation of a science-based response to the virus.
Until Tams tweet, the federal government had treated aerosol transmission of COVID-19 as little more than an afterthought. Not until November 2020, long after scientific investigations had demonstrated the centrality of airborne spread, did the PHAC even admit that aerosol transmission was possible. Moreover, as the CBC noted at the time, this change to the PHACs COVID-19 guidance was done quietly, and was not accompanied by any campaign to warn the public of the danger of aerosol transmission, let alone any changes in government policy.
The federal governments insistence that droplets were the main mode of transmission, a claim followed by provincial governments across the country, was driven by political motives. The ruling elites profits before life pandemic policy, based on forcing workers back into unsafe workplaces so they could churn out profits for corporate Canada, required that airborne transmission be denied or at least downplayed. This enabled governments to avoid imposing any responsibilities on employers for taking adequate precautions to stop the airborne spread of COVID-19, while at the same time removing any obligation from governments to fund basic upgrades to improve ventilation and air quality in schools, colleges and other public buildings.
Speaking at the October 24 webinar How to end the pandemic organized by the World Socialist Web Site, Prof. Jose Luis Jimenez, a chemistry professor at the University of Colorado (Boulder), addressed this issue directly. Noting that governments and public health authorities around the world have concentrated above all on transmission via droplets that are inhaled at close proximity or transferred via contact with surfaces, he remarked, Droplets and surfaces are more convenient for governments, organizations and companies. If you get infected, you didnt wash your hands, you didnt keep your distance, you didnt wear your mask well, so the responsibility is mostly yours. But if it was airborne, your employer or your government didnt provide you with good ventilation, and they have a horror of that.
One of the most notorious examples of this outlook in practice came in the fall of 2020, when provincial governments across the country reopened schools with virtually no protections against virus transmission. Campaigners who pushed for the use of HEPA filters and other ventilation devices in overcrowded and poorly ventilated classrooms were contemptuously dismissed by the authorities, while the education trade unions connived with provincial governments to suppress opposition among teachers and education workers to the reckless return to in-person learning. The back-to-school drive, as a study carried out in Montreal later demonstrated, played a crucial role in fuelling Canadas second pandemic wave, which claimed over 10,000 lives last fall and winter.
Similar devastating scenarios played out at numerous workplaces. Over 600 Amazon employees at the companys massive Heritage Road facility in Bramptonmore than 10 percent of the workforcewere infected by COVID-19 in a massive outbreak last winter. Thousands of workers crammed elbow-to-elbow in meatpacking plants also got infected in Quebec and Alberta, with several losing their lives.
There is no indication that the Trudeau Liberal government, or any of its provincial counterparts, intend to pull back in the slightest from their back-to-work/back-to-school drive in response to Tams admission about the dangers of aerosols. On the contrary, Tams statement came as governments move to dismantle all remaining public health measures aimed at limiting the virus spread. Despite resurgent infections, the Ontario Progressive Conservative government led by Doug Ford is pressing ahead with a timeline that will see the abolition of all public health measures, including mask-wearing, by March.
In Quebec, the hard-right Coalition Avenir Quebec government lifted a mask mandate for high school students on Monday and eliminated restrictions on karaoke bars and dance venues. COVID-STOP, a group of health care experts, attacked the government for refusing to acknowledge aerosol transmission, which it says accounts for between 85 and 100 percent of all COVID-19 transmission. Nima Machouf, an epidemiologist and member of COVID-STOP, said in response to the lifting of the mask mandate in high schools, Its like replaying last years movie. We were expecting that the government would have learned from it. The timing is not right.
In fact, the situation being provoked by the ruling elite this winter is arguably even worse than a year ago. Under conditions in which the significantly more infectious Delta variant is dominant, and the immunity provided by vaccines is beginning to wane, even the inadequate protective measures deployed earlier in the pandemic are being tossed aside. The health care system, which has operated at the breaking point for close to two years, is even less equipped to deal with an influx of patients than it was 12 months ago, with thousands of overworked, mentally-exhausted health care workers having left the profession.
Nonetheless, the ruling elite is determined to resist taking even the most basic public health measures to reduce COVID-19s further spread. Tams admission that the virus is transmitted by aerosols was itself somewhat contradictory, with the Chief Public Health Officer unable to even bring herself to recommend high-quality N95 masks or equivalents for workplaces and other indoor settings. Instead, she merely suggested that a well-fitted and well-constructed mask should be worn.
Nicolas Smit, an Ontario-based engineer and scientist who has been a strong advocate for better access to personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the pandemic, told the WSWS in an interview that protections for workers must be strengthened following the governments admission that COVID-19 is transmitted primarily through the air. There have been a lot of outbreaks at Canada Post facilities, for example, he said. Federal workers should get N95 masks at a minimum.
Smit added that the revised PHAC guidance makes a big difference to how the threat of infection in schools should be viewed. Classrooms now become a danger zone, he continued. As we enter the winter, it will be harder to open windows. Theyre going to have to use other methods of protection and technology, like N95 masks and elastomeric respirators, he said. But in Ontario, you have teachers getting suspended for wearing N95 masks.
Workers who have based themselves on the science ignored by the ruling elite and fought for improved PPE over recent weeks have been met with intimidation and reprisals from their employers and trade unions. In Ontario, a campaign initiated by the biostatistician and educator Ryan Imgrund, and supported by hundreds of teachers, calling for only N95 masks to be worn in schools was viciously denounced by the teachers trade unions. Teachers who wore N95s to school were suspended by their school boards, including some with immunocompromised children at home.
These events underscore that if science-based policies to combat the pandemic are to be implemented, they must be enforced through a mass movement led by the working class. This movement must be guided by the understanding that the only way to prevent an airborne virus like COVID-19 from inflicting further mass infection and death on workers across Canada and internationally is to fight for its elimination.
This requires the immediate closure of all nonessential production and in-person learning in schools, with full compensation paid to all workers from the vast wealth being hoarded by the pandemic profiteers. It also requires the development of a comprehensive program of testing, isolation of infected people, contact tracing and vaccinations, to bring community transmission down to zero.
The following is a report delivered by Peter Symonds,the national editor of the WSWS in Australia, to a meeting of electoral members of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) on November 14. The meeting was one of a series being held by the SEP as it campaigns against anti-democratic new electoral laws that have trebled the number of members required to achieve the party registration needed to have the partys name placed on election ballot papers.
1. We have in these meetings been discussing the murderous policy of herd immunity and living with the virus that has now been adopted by virtually every country in the world. The results have been devastating.
The pandemic continues to ravage the world. The total number of confirmed cases is now over 250 million and the total number of deaths is more than 5 milliona terrible toll that finds its parallels only in the tragedies of major wars.
In those countries that have championed herd immunity, the figures are horrendous.
In the United Kingdom, according to the latest update on November 13 from the World Health Organisation, there were 42,401 new cases in the previous 24 hours. The total number of cases was nearly nine and a half million, and the total death toll was over 142,000.
In the United States, there were nearly 88,000 new infections in the previous 24 hours. Total cases were well over 46 million, and total deaths were over 750,000 and rapidly heading toward 800,000.
2. All of this is now accepted by governments and the media as the new normal and immense pressure is being exerted for people to do the same. We are seeing it here with the ending of restrictions in every state, the opening of schools, of borders, both state and national, regardless of the deadly consequences.
China stands out as the great exception. Rigorous public health measures, including wholesale testing and contact tracing, lockdowns and other restrictions, now supplemented by mass vaccinations, not only suppressed the initial outbreak last year in Wuhan but have limited the outbreaks that have occurred since then. All of those have resulted from infections being brought into China from outside.
The latest World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics for November 13 are a stark contrast with the rest of the world.
In the previous 24 hours, there were just 110 new cases in China. The cases were quite widespread but there is a serious effort to contain and suppress them. All of this is in marked contrast to the rest of the world. In the same 24 hours here in Australia, with a population that is tiny compared to China, there were 1,589 cases.
Overall, there have been just over 127,000 cases in China and about 5,700 deaths. The vast majority of these took place in the first few months of last year when Chinese authorities were struggling to deal with the outbreak in Wuhan of what was then an unknown respiratory disease. They rapidly identified the cause, and worked out measures to treat, contain and suppress it. And they made that information available to the WHO and the world.
A worker in protective suits with a loud speaker stands watch as service sector workers wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus line up during a mass COVID-19 testing in Beijing on Oct. 29, 2021.
Amid all the talk in the media that it is impossible to eliminate COVID-19, the experience in China demonstrates the opposite. Elimination is possible, but only if carried out on a co-ordinated international basis.
The SEP and the International Committee of the Fourth International have very fundamental political differences with the Chinese Communist Party that go to the heart of the struggle of the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism. It is not the place here to go into the complex history of the three revolutions in China and the evolution of the regime that emerged after the Third Chinese Revolution in 1949.
It is enough to say that the legacy of those huge social and political upheavals does live on, principally in the sentiments of masses of ordinary people who take the issue of the priority of social needs, including the welfare of the population amid the pandemic, over private profit very seriously. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, which faces an enormous social and economic crisis, is thus under pressure to take this seriously as well and its handling of the pandemic has widespread popular support.
3. What has begun, however, is a rising drumbeat of demands in the US and international media for China to abandon its elimination strategy. It is particularly marked in the financial pressthe Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and here in the Australian Financial Review.
A comment in the Financial Times by the columnist Gideon Rachman, for example, is entitled Chinas self-isolation is a global concern. Its underline, Beijings zero-Covid policy is damaging international business and global governance, speaks volumes about the hypocrisy, criminal indifference to suffering and death, and underlying motives of the ruling elites for whom Rachman speaks.
What Rachman writes is very revealing. He declares: When much of the globe was in lockdown, the extreme nature of Chinas measures seemed less remarkable. But as most of the world returns to something close to normality, Chinas self-isolation is increasingly anomalous.
There are many things that can be said this statement, but the central thrust of what is being argued is that China must accept what has now been imposed by the ruling classes around the world. Something close to normality means ending the public health measures necessary to protect the population and prevent deaths in the interests of profit. The daily toll of cases and lives lost, increasingly including children, is what must be accepted in China.
Rachman is highly indignant over what he describes as the worst control-freak tendencies of the Communist party, citing the case of more than 30,000 people who were locked inside Disneyland Shanghai and tested, after the discovery of a single case of Covid.
The CCP regime has indeed a vast police-state apparatus, which it uses, above all, to suppress the working class. And there may indeed be cases of bureaucratic overkill in dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19, but this was not one of them. As we all know, the Delta strain is highly infectious and thus spreads very rapidly with deadly consequences, even in highly vaccinated populations.
All public health measures are in a sense bureaucratic. This is what is seized upon by the extreme rightwing to demand the abolition of such measuresall in the name of individual rights, including, that means, the right to infect others.
Rachman expresses no outrage at the fact that the British government, indeed the entire political establishment, allows the virus to run rampant in the United Kingdom, with deaths continuing in the hundreds every week. This is the new normal. In the United States, more people die each week from COVID-19 than have died overall in China.
The economic and political factors driving the open up campaign
4. Why is there this vicious campaign to demand that China open up? There are two main reasonsthe first economic, and the second political.
Rachman blurts out the first when he declares: The effects on international business are already apparent. China continues to trade and invest with the outside world. But business ties are fraying. Foreign chambers of commerce in China report that international executives are leaving the country and not being replaced. Hong Kongs role as a global business centre has taken a battering.
In a world economy built on the globalisation of production, any restrictions or the shutting down of any industry or any country affects supply chains around the world, impacting on profits and the stability of the financial system. The disruption is particularly great when it comes to Chinathe worlds largest manufacturer.
Articles have also appeared in the financial press complaining about the disruption of supply chains in South East Asia where countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam have succumbed to pressure to end public health measures. The fact that an open campaign is underway to force China to open up also indicates that the sudden dropping of restrictions here not only came from big business in Australia but also internationally.
The second political reason is bound up with the developing public opposition in the working class around the world to the sacrifice of the health and lives of working people in the pursuit of profits. The ruling classes cannot tolerate any exceptionespecially one so large and obvious as Chinato the mantra that it is impossible to eliminate COVID-19 and everyone has to learn to live with it, and one should add, die with it.
Will Beijing will bow to this pressure? That depends over several factors, above all on what the working class in China and internationally does.
China is not a socialist or communist country. The Chinese Communist Partys claim that it is presiding over socialism with Chinese characteristics is absurd. After more than four decades of capitalist restoration, it is the capitalist market that dominates over every aspect of life and the economy in China. Undoubtedly, there is pressure on the regime from domestic big business as well as international finance capital.
But there is also the potential for the eruption of widespread opposition among Chinese workers if they are forced back to work in unsafe conditions and their children forced back into unsafe schools. The Chinese Communist Party is well aware that it is sitting on top of a social time bomb and to date has maintained its strict elimination policyat least within its borders. Its nationalist outlook means it is incapable of making any broad appeal to the one social force that could fight for it on a world scalethe international working class.
5. The open attack in the international media on Chinas COVID-19 policy is part of a far broader US-led confrontation with China over the past decadefirst under Obama then Trump and now Biden.
It is beyond the scope of this report to deal in any great detail with the reckless US efforts to undermine China diplomatically and economically, and to engage in a huge military build-up throughout the Asian region. This includes that strengthening of military alliances, strategic partnerships and basing arrangements in preparation for what would be a disastrous war between the worlds two largest economies, both nuclear-armed.
The latest is the AUKUS agreement involving the US, Britain and Australia that, among other things, will provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. As former Prime Minister Paul Keating, one of a tiny handful of critics, pointed out this week, these submarines only have one purposeto assist the US in a war with China by confining its navy to Chinas coastline.
The Biden administration has not only continued the aggressive, anti-China policies of the Trump administration but further intensified them on all frontsthe hypocritical denunciations of China over human rights issues, trade war measures and punitive economic measures against Chinese corporations such as Huawei, as well as provocative military operations in areas close to the Chinese mainland.
To touch very briefly on one of the most dangerous signs of the accelerating war drive, the Biden administration is recklessly inflaming tensions over Taiwanarguably the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. While accusing China of plotting aggression against Taiwan, the US is actively undermining the One China policy that was the basis of the diplomatic relations with China established in 1979. The willingness of Washington to sacrifice diplomatic relations is a sure indication that it is preparing for war.
And the time frame is short. The top US generalchairman of the joint chiefs of staff Mark Milleyrecently put it in a very roundabout way: he didnt expect war with China over Taiwan in the next two years. In other words, after two yearsall bets are off!
The US-led drive to war is not simply a product of bad individuals or policies, but is rooted in the capitalist system itself, and its division of the world into competing nation states. US imperialism regards China and its massive economic expansion as the chief threat to the dominant position that it established in global capitalism after World War II. The US is prepared to use all means, including military, to arrest its historic decline and subordinate China to its economic and strategic interests. Anyone who believes that the potentially catastrophic effects of such a war will deter the ruling class should ponder the fact that they have already been willing to sacrifice millions of lives in the COVID-19 pandemic in the pursuit of profit.
6. The pandemic, the rising danger of war and other deeply troubling problems confronting humanity, such as climate change, are fuelling a radicalisation of workers and young people internationally. The solution to these crises is not to be found in futile appeals to the powers that be, but in the development of a unified revolutionary movement of the working class to put an end to the bankrupt and outmoded system of capitalism.
The electoral laws that we are campaigning against are just one element of the efforts to prevent above all a genuine socialist perspective from being enunciated. I would urge everyone here to redouble their efforts to sign up electoral members to the Socialist Equality Party and to seriously consider, if you are not already, applying to become full SEP members.
In its latest update on children and COVID, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) noted that over the past week more than 122,000 children were infected with SARS-CoV-2, a 22 percent rise from two weeks ago. For 14 consecutive weeks, child COVID cases have remained above 100,000. This brings the total number of children who have tested positive as of November 11 to more than 6.6 million.
Though children make up 22.2 percent of the US population, they currently comprise 27 percent of all reported weekly COVID cases. Eleven more children died in the course of the week, bringing the total number who have perished since the beginning of the pandemic to 625, according to official figures.
Students, some wearing protective masks, arrive for the first day of school at Sessums Elementary School in Riverview, Florida, August 10, 2021 (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
In a typical flu season, the average number of pediatric deaths is approximately 130. Last years flu season saw only one child die, in part due to the limited measures in place to control the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the country.
Though it has been repeatedly stated that children rarely face severe consequences from COVID, these comparisons highlight the dangers the coronavirus poses to them. The terrible toll on children is somewhat overshadowed by the greater magnitude of devastation the pandemic has wrought on the population as a whole. At the same time, politicians and special interest groups, with the support of the corporate media and the teachers unions, have deliberately downplayed the real dangers children face, in accord with their drive to fully reopen the schools on the basis of in-person instruction.
Schools remain a prime vector for the spread of the virus. It is impossible to objectively discuss COVID and children without also taking into consideration the entire COVID-19 landscape.
Since the end of October, cases have been steadily rising in the US, with the seven-day average of cases nearing 85,000. Though deaths across the country have continued their decline, they remain high, with a daily average of 1,129. Hospitalizations, a more accurate and meaningful measure of severe infections, have increased in line with the surge in new infections. There are currently more than 47,100 people receiving treatment for COVID in US hospitals.
Essentially every region in the US is presently experiencing a rise in cases or a persistently high number of cases. The situation in the Midwest and Northeast is particularly troubling, with infection rates soaring. Michigan is once more at the epicenter of the rapidly shifting COVID map. In its latest COVID update, the state government astoundingly reported over 23,000 new cases.
According to the New York Times COVID dashboard, the daily average of cases stands at 7,174 in Michigan, a 68 percent increase over 14 days. On a per-capita basis, 72 per 100,000 are becoming infected. The number hospitalized is closing in on 3,000, with a 31 percent increase in admissions over the past two weeks. Pediatric hospitalizations for COVID are also on the rise. The seven-day positivity rate has reached 16 percent.
The sudden surge has once again caught public health and state officials off-guard, though principled scientists had warned of such a development. Back in September, 26 percent of all Michigan COVID cases were occurring in people younger than 20. Of the 181 outbreaks in that month, 104 developed in K-12 schools, underscoring the relationship between infection among school children then and community transmission now. AAP updates noting the recurrent rise in infections among children in conjunction with the increase in cases across the US offer further corroboration of these observations.
In Michigan, many school districts have been forced to close and revert once again to online classes in the last few days, particularly in rural areas where vaccination uptake has been lowest. Yesterday, state health officials reported 87 new outbreaks linked to schools over the past week, resulting in more than 521 infections among staff and students. In total, the state has reported 576 active outbreaks, an increase of 7 percent from the previous weeks figure of 539.
Due to an alarming rise in cases in Detroit, the Public School Community District sent school board members an urgent email requesting their input as to whether the district should switch to remote learning on Fridays only. In a statement to WXYZ News, the district wrote, Due to staff feedback, the district is reviewing options to infuse more online learning days between now and January to address mental health breaks for staff and students, improve the cleanliness of schools, and acknowledge rising COVID rates.
The shocking statement, asking permission from the board to reduce the exposure of students and staff to the dangers posed by the deadly virus, is like asking for permission to vacate a burning building. Paralysis, inaction and indecision have dominated local officials caught in the web of mechanisms imposed by the capitalist state and both big business parties to ensure the full opening of the economy and maximization of corporate profit in the face of catastrophic levels of suffering and death.
The teachers unions, fully integrated into the corporate establishment and the state, play the central role in suppressing opposition among educators and staff and forcing them to work in unsafe schools.
In the course of a single week, the number of school staff in Detroit infected rose from 20 to 52. The number of students infected increased from 198 to 292, while 921 students and staff were quarantined. And yet, Terrence Martin, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, told WXYZ TV in Detroit, Were hoping with one less day of face-to-face contact, that can help control the spread. [Emphasis added].
There are about 28 million children aged 5 to 11 in the US. Only 360,000 have so far been partially vaccinated. This accounts for less than 2 percent within this age group.
Several polls have reported that roughly 30 percent of parents surveyed will not allow their children to be vaccinated. As of last month, less than 50 percent of 12- to 17-year-old adolescents were fully vaccinated, a total of 12.4 million. Across nine states, less than a third of eligible teens have been inoculated.
Not only are a significant majority of children and adolescents unvaccinated and vulnerable to the immediate ramifications of infection, they will also be at risk from the long-term complications many will experience following their bout with the acute phase of the disease.
In a recent systematic review of Long COVID published in JAMA Network Open, the authors found that 50 percent of people who survived COVID-19 experienced various physical and psychological symptoms six months or more after their initial recovery.
They suffered a noticeable decline in their general sense of well-being, loss of weight, extreme fatigue, and even pain. One-quarter had problems concentrating, a condition now better known as brain fog. Almost one-third were dealing with repeated episodes of anxiety. Additionally, symptoms of shortness of breath were common. Stomach upsets and chest pains were frequent complaints. These maladies will have untold consequences for this generation of children over several years, if not decades.
The current wave of COVID infections among children is the product of the Republican and Democratic parties insistence on and success in forcing schools to reopen, in close collaboration with the teachers unions. By the end of September, the research firm Burbio had reported that 98 percent of schools were open for business, becoming the primary mechanism for the present surge across the country. With the holidays around the corner, the situation creates a perfect storm, with millions of Americans planning to celebrate with family and friends.
President Biden remarked, A year ago, we were heading into a Thanksgiving where public health experts were advising against traveling or gathering with family and friends. Last Thanksgiving, for the first time, it was just four of us. Later this month, our tables and our hearts are going to be filled, thanks to the vaccines.
And health care workers will be attempting to resuscitate and save the lives of soaring numbers of patients who were needlessly infected, including many children.
Deere workers: Join the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee to carry forward the fight! Email deerewrfc@gmail.com, or by text at (484) 514-9797 to get involved.
Follow live updates on Wednesdays vote at Deere
On Tuesday, striking Deere workers voiced their opposition to the companys so-called last, best and final offer, which the United Auto Workers union is forcing workers to vote on today.
In its latest show of contempt for the will of its members, the UAWs contract proposal is almost entirely unchanged from the second union-backed deal workers voted to reject on November 2.
Deere workers on strike in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The only modest modifications, as the UAW described them, are to a regressive pay-for-performance incentive system, CIPP, which is widely hated by workers. While the changes to CIPP could entail a relative pay bump for a portion of Deeres workforce, the added income would be entirely dependent on even more grueling production goals and sweatshop conditions.
In a statement that has been widely circulated among workers in recent days, the John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee called for a no vote and denounced the UAWs move as a sellout. The rank-and-file committee also urged workers to form teams to oversee the balloting in order to prevent any vote rigging by the UAW.
This new offer is pathetic! a veteran worker at one of the companys plants in Waterloo, Iowa told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter. All they did was put lipstick on a pig by offering to give us more of our own money each week.
CIPP is a joke! We call it Cut In Personal Pay. No one wants it, yet the International and Local think its a good thing. All it does is pit union members against each other. Deere just needs to get rid of CIPP and just give us a decent raise instead of nickel and diming us every year.
The worker said that Deere is acting as though the ratification of the contract is a done deal. Salary folks have come through some gates and said theyd see us at work Thursday. Theyre taking down barricades and expecting us back at work on Thursday, but we have not even voted yet.
He said workers are concerned that the UAW may again try to rig the vote, as they suspect it did in 2015, when it claimed its agreement with Deere passed by just 180 votes. My union brothers and sisters already suspect that fix is in and the International has teamed up with the company before our vote tomorrow.
However, he said that many workers who had previously voted in favor of the second tentative agreement were now opposed to the deal because of Deeres arrogant propaganda campaign in recent weeks. I can tell you it shouldnt pass because those yes votes last time have become no votes this time. Why? Well, there is A LOT of animosity towards Becky Guinn, Waterloos manager, who had sent out over 150 emails to politicians, businesses, and media outlets telling them they should not support us because the second offer was so generous and we were just being greedy. THAT re-energized and re-unified us.
Expressing widely held sentiments, he added, We are never going to be in this position again! This is our time to fight!
While Waterloo has been the center of opposition to the companys and UAWs deals, workers at other Deere plants also voiced their disgust with the contract and the attempts to intimidate them into accepting it. Its an improvement, but not what we deserve, a worker at Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois, told the WSWS. Deere doesnt give a damn about us. A worker at the parts distribution center in Milan, Illinois, said, Im voting no, its the same contract with numbers moved around. The company manipulates the CIPP plan to where the workers dont make money.
In a powerful statement, a Deere worker in Des Moines and member of the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee said, Tomorrow we will find out if we were strong enough to resist scare tactics unleashed against us by John Deere while our union stood by watching and rooting for the company, hoping to break us and make us submit to its demands.
Addressing himself to his fellow workers, he continued: Do not forget years and years of struggle that working men and women faced and overcame so we can enjoy the fruits of their victories. Unlike us, they did not have the favorable conditions we have today, yet they prevailed and delivered the working class benefits we enjoy today. Our predecessors had to fight for every little thing: eight-hour workdays, child labor laws, vacations, breaks, overtime pay and the rights to organize, to collectively bargain, to have health care and retirement. Nobody gave them these things out of the goodness of their heart. They stood up to corporations, politicians and their strikebreakers, they resisted physical violence so they, their families, and us today can have all of these things.
So what are we afraid of today? Ask yourself that question. Are we going to stand up for ourselves, our families, and generations to come? Or are we going to concede to the company in its demands without making a real stand? Unity is what makes our strength, and the company knows that. This fear of it is why the company is trying to divide us.
I urge you to see through these scare tactics, hold the line, and vote NO tomorrow for the better future of all working class people in the USA and the world whose support we have.
UAW and Deere ratchet up pressure campaign
The workers determination to continue the fight is all the more significant given the immense pressure being brought to bear on them by Deere, the UAW and the corporate-controlled media.
With farm equipment parts being delayed weeks due to the strike, orders for new equipment continuing to pile up, and its fourth-quarter earnings report due next week, Deere has grown increasingly desperate to find some means of getting workers back into the plants. It has combined lies about the ground-breaking character of the agreement with threats that it will hire replacement workers and ramp up production overseas should the strike continue.
The UAW has gone along with and supplemented these strikebreaking efforts. The union has starved workers on the picket lines on just $275 a week, despite maintaining a nearly $800 million strike fund, and has kept workers entirely in the dark on its talks with the company. What little local officials have said has parroted the corporate lies that Deere must remain competitive and thus cannot afford workers demands for major wage increases, the restoration of retiree health benefits, and an end to CIPP and mandatory overtime.
In the votes tomorrow, the UAW is doing everything it can to isolate workers. At Waterloowhere workers have angrily denounced union officials at the last two ratification meetingsit has divided workers into 12 one-hour voting blocks. However, on Facebook workers at Waterloo have discussed arriving to the vote en masse and staying to ensure the ballot count is not manipulated by union officials.
Broad sections of workers in manufacturing, food production, film and television, health care, public education and elsewhere have been seeking to go on the offensive in recent months, with more than 40 strikes in the US since October 1. The reemergence of class struggle has been fueled by growing outrage among workers over the horrific toll of the pandemic and its disastrous handling by the ruling class. While workers have been forced to confront deadly working conditions on miserably inadequate wages, corporations such as Deere have reaped record profits, and the billionaires have seen their fortunes surge by $2 trillion.
The anxiety in ruling circles over the further destabilization of social equilibrium has been expressed in the pages of the corporate press. On Tuesday, the Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos (whose own wealth has grown nearly $90 billion since March last year), wrote, The historic strikes at Deere, best known for its John Deere-branded machinery, are a stark example of the pandemics impact on the economy. The gyrations that coronavirus caused in global commerce have upended not only supply and demand but workers attitudes, causing many to question for the first time in decades what theyre willing to tolerate.
Confronting a rising tide of working class anger, the capitalist elite has thus far largely sought to rely on the trade union bureaucracies for support. The pro-corporate unions, having facilitated a decades-long assault on workers jobs, wages and benefits, have been attempting to hold back workers from striking wherever possible, most recently announcing last-minute tentative agreements at Kaiser Permanente and in the film and TV industry.
Where the unions have been unable to prevent struggles, such as at Volvo Trucks, Deere, Warrior Met Coal, Nabisco and Frito-Lay, they have responded by seeking to starve strikers and demoralize them into submission.
However, despite attempts by the company and the media to slander workers at Deere as greedy, the strike continues to receive widespread and growing support. A Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Sunday showed that a majority of Iowas residents support the strike, with sentiment in favor cutting across self-reported political affiliations. Significantly, support was particularly strong among young people under 35, with 72 percent saying they sided with the strikers.
Workers are increasingly organizing outside the company-controlled unions to share information and coordinate their struggles. The Deere Strike Rank-and-File Solidarity Committeeformed by workers at Deere, in the auto and parts industries, public education, health care, and film industriesissued a statement Monday night urging the working class to rally in support of the strike and defend it against the attempted sabotage of the UAW.
A film and TV worker from California in the committee drew comparisons to their own struggle against the IATSE unions betrayal. On Monday, IATSE declared that its sellout contract with the studios and Hollywood producers had been ratified, despite the fact that a majority of workers voted against it, based on the unions undemocratic Electoral College-type voting system.
We are following what is happening at Deere and Kaiser, she said. It is chilling to notice just how the leaders of all the unions spread misinformation, manipulate and try to keep the rank and file from talking to one another. Its eye-opening. But the terrible conditions and the betrayal of the leaderships are forcing workers to fight. We are realizing that the leaders are hostile to our interests.
As we have become very deeply embroiled in this contract conflict, weve looked around and seen its happening to all different workers, that youre not alone anymore, she continued. It makes me think of the amount of power that we have. When we come together, nothing can stop this kind of solidarity, so we have to begin building a bridge between us. We can make these really important changes, I really do believe that.
It is two years exactly since the earliest documented case of COVID-19, which scientists have traced to November 17, 2019. Two years later, while lockdowns, social distancing and contact tracing policies have blocked the circulation of COVID-19 in China after less than 5,000 deaths, Europe is deep in yet another wave. Yesterday, over 290,000 people were diagnosed with COVID-19, and 4,141 died in Europe.
Thus, even if the pandemic stabilized and somehow did not accelerate further, over 400,000 people would die this winter. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that with current policies, 500,000 more people will die of COVID-19 in Europe by February 1. Virologist Christian Drosten of Berlins Charite hospital has warned of 100,000 more deaths in Germany alone.
A crowded COVID-19 isolation room at the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, Romania, October 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Europe is currently reporting 2 million COVID-19 cases per week. Last week, daily infections set records in Germany (50,377), the Netherlands (20,168), Austria (13,152), and Greece (8,613) and continued at high levels in Britain (37,243), Russia (36,818) and the Czech Republic (11,514). Frances daily new cases nearly doubled over the last week from 10,050 to 19,778 yesterday. Over 1,000 deaths were recorded last week in Russia (8,593), Ukraine (4,590), Germany (1,194), Bulgaria (1,147), Poland (1,119) and Britain (1,083).
Yet governments across Europe are rejecting social distancing and especially strict lockdowns that can halt circulation of the virus on the present, massive scale. Only the international mobilization of the working class, fighting for scientific policies of social distancing and contact tracing, can stop the transmission of the virus, end the pandemic and avert a massive loss of life.
The strategy of the European ruling class is expressed most bluntly by the British government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson infamously stated, No more fing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Now, London proposes to allow the virus to spread across the population and become endemic, as UK Secretary of State for Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi said earlier this month: [w]e will, I hope, be the first major economy to transition from pandemic to endemic
If London boasts of its strategy of herd immunity via mass infection, the mitigation strategy of other European governments is not substantially different. Berlin, amid its greatest ever surge of COVID-19, is moving to end its official declaration of an epidemic situation of national scope, ending the legal basis for public health measures against the virus. In Paris, Health Minister Olivier Veran has boasted that vaccines are 100 percent effective against lockdowns.
This would mean that every year thousands would die in Europe and millions worldwide of COVID-19. Arguments for this politically criminal strategy are being advanced on French television by Martin Blachier, a physician who left medical practice to run a public health expertise consultancy and promote state policy on the news. A week ago, he told CNews: We are at the beginning of a phenomenon of pandemic resurgence, and there is no reason for it to stop.
Blachier called for governments to avoid any change in policy. The hysteria over this resurgence that is seizing Western Europe, which has high vaccination rates, is a bit exaggerated. I think we must calm down! We are not in the same situation as last year. We must above all not get in the same frame of mind as we were in last year!
If Blachier is worried, it was because in the spring of 2020, strikes erupted in Italy, Spain, France, Britain and beyond, as workers in nonessential industries demanded the right to shelter at home until the virus was contained. This terrified the ruling class, which was forced to allow public health personnel to implement lockdowns that massively reduced infections. This also cut across plans to use the pandemic to massively enrich the financial aristocracy, whatever the cost in lives.
Ultimately, it was not until workers could be forced back into workplaces to make profits for the banks that massive bank and corporate bailouts could be poured into the pockets of the super-rich. After the announcement of 2 trillion in European Central Bank and European Union bailouts last summer, the net worth of Europes billionaires rose by $1 trillion, while 1 million people died in Europe, in what the BMJ (former British Medical Journal ) correctly called a policy of social murder.
Now as the latest winter surge erupts, the Dutch and Austrian governments have announced partial lockdowns. These inadequate measures keep workers on the job and youth in school to keep making profits for the banks but limit the ability of the population (or the non-vaccinated population, in Austria) to meet others outside work. Most contagion occurs in workplaces, schools and medical facilities, however, and such measuresimposed during last years deadly winter surgedo not stop mass contagion and death from COVID-19.
This break with official opposition to lockdowns is manifestly a pre-emptive response to growing criticisms of state policy by medical professionals and social anger among workers.
Yesterday, hospitals in the southern Dutch province of Limburg warned that they could not cope with the onrush of COVID-19 patients and are again approaching collapse. We are heading straight for a health care blockage, and the entire system is grinding to a standstill, they declared in a public statement. We are convinced that other parts of the Netherlands will soon follow.
On Monday night, however, Blachier went on LCI to defend the policy of mass infection and denounce any move to re-establish social distancing policies. He admitted, the infection levels we should reach by December 15 will be the highest we have ever seen. In terms of infections, well probably get pretty high. Nonetheless, he demanded that nothing be changed. We must go towards vaccination and not go back to social distancing like the Netherlands. For me its crazy that they are doing that today.
To be blunt, such declarations are politically criminal. As the World Socialist Web Site warned in August, Vaccination is a powerful tool. However, disconnected from a broader strategy aimed at rapidly reducing new infections to zero and thus eradicating COVID-19, vaccination and other mitigations amount to nothing more than palliative care.
Thus German health authorities reported that in the four weeks ending October 10, 55.4 percent of symptomatic cases were breakthrough infections of vaccinated patients. Vaccine effectiveness wanes over time, moreover, and in this time period, 28.8 percent of vaccinated COVID-19 patients over age 60 required intensive care unit treatment.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus again warned, COVID-19 is surging in countries with lower vaccination rates in Eastern Europe but also in countries with some of the worlds highest vaccination rates in Western Europe. Its another reminder, as we have said again and again, that vaccines do not replace the need for other precautions. Vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization, severe disease and death. But they do not fully prevent transmission.
The working class must be mobilized again, this time to compel not only the adoption of lockdowns to initially slash contagion but a long-term policy of vaccination, contact tracing and other public health measures to eliminate the virus. It cannot be done in the grip of union bureaucracies that back state mitigation policies. It entails building the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) and arming workers across Europe and worldwide with a socialist perspective of fighting to expropriate the ill-gotten wealth of the super-rich and end the pandemic.
On Friday, government representatives of more than 30 countries gathered in Paris for a fraudulent peace conference ostensibly devoted to organizing a transition to democracy in Libya. The event was jointly hosted by France, Germany and Italy, and was also attended by US Vice President Kamala Harris.
In reality, the very same imperialist powers who professed their commitment to the self-determination and stability of Libya are directly responsible for plunging what was previously among the most advanced countries in Africa into a devastated society.
French President Emmanuel Macron, center , German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi attend a conference on Libya in Paris, November 12, 2021. (Yoan Valat/Pool Photo via AP)
Ten years ago, Washington, Paris and London launched a seven-month war on Libya, cynically justified under the banner of human rights, involving a campaign of aerial bombardments and support for Islamist and tribal militia forces. The war led to the overthrow of the Libyan government and the lynching of its former President Muammar Gaddafi. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton infamously rejoiced at his grisly murder.
Ten years on, the infrastructure and social fabric of the country is destroyed, while it has been in a permanent state of civil war, with rival militia gangsters backed by competing regional and imperialist powers battling for control over the country and its lucrative oil reserves.
The Paris conference communique nonetheless grotesquely affirmed its respect for the sovereignty, the independence, the territorial integrity and national unity of Libya and our firm commitment to them. We are opposed to all foreign interference in the country. While it pledged to support democracy, among its main participants was Macrons leading ally in Africa, Egyptian military dictator General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who took power in a 2013 coup and has since ruled Egypt through mass executions, torture and arbitrary detention of protesters and journalists.
The Libya conference was ostensibly held to promote the upcoming elections on December 24 as a path to stability in the country. It is still unclear if the elections will actually be held. The Guardian newspaper, a vocal supporter of the 2011 Libyan war, admitted that there is a strong chance that [the] militia will seek to intimidate voters.
In the decade since the NATO war, the different local militias that NATO de facto placed in power have carried out war crimes, including mass killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and the expulsion of thousands of people from their hometowns. These were documented in a recent UN report, which avoided any mention of the NATO war and its responsibility for creating the present bloodshed in Libya.
There is currently no constitution governing the election, and candidates have not been announced, just over a month before polling day. Registration for candidates opened last week. Current Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah has still not announced his candidacy, and current electoral law states that any current office holder must announce his candidacy three months before the vote. The date of the vote remains unclear: presidential and legislative elections had previously been scheduled for the same date, but the legislative elections were pushed back to January in October.
It has been speculated that there will be election bids by Gaddhafis son, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, and ex-CIA asset Khalifa Haftar. Haftar is the head of the so-called Libyan National Army, one of the countrys two main factions based in the east of the country, that has been backed by France, Russia, Egypt and the UAE.
The rival Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, which has been backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy, has already proclaimed that it will not accept the election results if Haftar is declared the winner. Chairman of the High Council of State Khaled Al-Meshri stated in televised comments that the group would resort to violence to prevent Haftar from taking office. An unstable truce has held since 2020 between the different factions.
The day before the Paris summit, Haftars forces claimed that they would dismiss some 300 foreign fighters active in Libya, ostensibly to show their commitment to a de-escalation of the conflict. No information has been provided about the fighters countries of origin. The announcement was clearly coordinated with Paris in order to provide legitimacy to the conferences call for the withdrawal of foreign fighters from Libya.
The French government has particularly demanded that Russia and Turkey withdraw their mercenaries from the country, absurdly presenting Paris as a defender of Libyan sovereignty.
In a press conference on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that a first step has been taken with the announcement by the Libyan military committee for the retreat of 300 mercenaries. It is only a beginning. Turkey and Russia must also immediately withdraw their mercenaries and military forces, whose presence threaten the security and stability of the country and the entire region.
The statements point to intensifying geo-political conflicts and military tensions across the region and internationally. In April, Turkey summoned Greek and French ambassadors after a joint Greek-French naval excursion into territorial waters claimed by Turkey, while France has backed Greek claims over the territory.
The conference was also held amid a rapid escalation of tensions between Russia and the NATO powers over a border conflict in Eastern Europe, with the EU and NATO states illegally denying entry to thousands of refugees at the Polish-Belarusian border and accusing Moscow of carrying out hybrid warfare against NATO.
There is an escalating struggle for control over the geo-strategically and economically important region of northern Africa. France has waged a neo-colonial war in Mali and the Sahel since 2013, under the banner of combating terrorism. In September, the Malian government announced that it had requested that Russias Wagner security forces be deployed to the country in response to a French announcement of a withdrawal of occupying forces.
A further element in the European powers determination to set up a neo-colonial government in Libya is that countrys key role in enforcing the European Unions criminal refugee policy in the Mediterranean Sea.
The EU provides Libyan militias with funding and naval equipment to catch refugees who seek to travel by boat across the Mediterranean to Europe. From there they are thrown into prisons, tortured and held in inhumane conditions, and either held hostage until their families can pay their ransom or literally sold into slavery. These conditions are a conscious policy on the part of the European powers to deter refugees from exercising their democratic right to claim asylum in Europe.
The fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic is building before our very eyes at full power. The daily rate of new cases has reached the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic, with a continuing rising trend. Seven hundred people die every week in our country, with a continuing rising trend. Every day of waiting costs human lives, warns a letter signed by 35 well-known professors and scientists addressed to Germanys federal and state governments.
Initiated by the Braunschweig virologist Melanie Brinkmann and the Cologne internist Michael Hallek, the letter was signed by the well-known intensive care physicians Christian Karagiannidis and Uwe Janssens, among others. Dozens of other scientists have since joined them.
The scientists leave no doubt that the disaster in Germany could have been prevented and that the government is responsible for thousands of COVID-19 deaths. Once again, the time for early action has passed despite all warnings, they write, and express their deep disappointment about the repeated negligent treatment of the well-being of the people who depend on the protection by the state.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel [Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via AP]
For them it is incomprehensible that decision-makers in this country have allowed such a situation, despite the existence of effective tools to stop the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Although scientists have clearly communicated various relevant recommendations for action, these were unfortunately only hesitantly, incompletely or not sustainably implemented. The letter added, Urgently necessary infrastructure for pandemic control, such as contact tracing, testing and vaccination centres have been dismantled.
In the fourth wave, pandemic management is not succeeding in the ways that should be expected in light of Germanys prosperity and its technological and administrative capabilities. Instead, politicians shift responsibility for crushing the fourth wave to the individual. Such an attitude is totally inappropriate during a national health crisis of this magnitude.
Scientists are not politicians. Their letter does not address the question of why the established parties ignored all the findings and warnings of science and instead accepted 5 million infected people and 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the number of which threatens to double this winter. Instead, they appeal to the same politicians, whose irresponsibility they denounce in harsh words, to fully meet their responsibilities and to base their decisions much more strongly than before on scientific findings.
But this will not happen. The systematic disregard for scientific knowledge by those responsible in the federal and state governments is neither a mistake nor a misunderstanding. It is the result of a policy that systematically subordinates the health and life of people to the profit interests of capital.
The principle of profits before life has determined the coronavirus policy of the governments from the beginning. Not only in Germany, but with very few exceptionsin particular China, and initially also New Zealand, Singapore and Australia, where the number of infected and dead remained very lowall governments have followed this brutal policy.
Lockdowns were only imposed when the intensive care units overflowed and working class opposition threatened to spiral out of control. As soon as bailouts were handed to the banks and big business, and the pandemic situation relented slightly, restrictions were lifted again despite urgent warnings from scientists. In Germany, there was never a lockdown at all for workplacesone of the most important sources of infection. Schools were kept open after the first lockdown, despite the lack of protective measures, so that parents were available to return to the labour force. Young people were and are being deliberately infected, in spite of the devastating health consequences.
Combined with the billions in COVID-19 aid from the federal government, the governments pandemic policy led to an unprecedented orgy of enrichment. Many companies are posting record profits despite a drop in sales, the DAX has climbed from one record high to the next after two years of the pandemic, and the wealth of the 100 richest Germans rose by 19 percent to 722 billion. The working class is bearing the costs in the form of death, contamination, welfare cuts, real wage cuts and job losses.
The consequence of this policy is a fourth wave of the pandemic, which dwarfs all previous ones. The seven-day incidence, the average of the daily infections per 100,000 inhabitants, which was in the single-digit range at times in the summer, has reached a new record of 303 and continues to rise steeply. Sixteen districts now have an incidence of over 900. The front-runner is the district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains with 1,303. This means that 1.3 percent of the population was infected within a week.
The seven-day incidence rate is similarly high in Europe at 264 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Slovenia is the front-runner with 1,058, followed by Croatia with 918 and Austria with 851.
The number of deaths is also rising exponentially again. In the past week, 1,159 people died of COVID-19 in Germany, 10 times as many as in the summer. The intensive care units in the east and south of the country are already overflowing.
Nevertheless, the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democratsthe parties set to compose the incoming federal governmentare stepping up the profits before life policy of the grand coalition before they have even formed a new government. On Thursday they intend to use their majority in the federal parliament, despite urgent warnings from doctors and scientists, to let the epidemic situation of national scope expire. This means that the containment of the pandemic will be left to the federal states, which are deprived of the ability to take necessary measures such as curfews, contact restrictions, school closings and vaccination mandates.
The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, called this decision absurd in view of the incidence rate of around 300. The winter is going to be cold. Its up to us that it doesnt become bitter and deadly, he told the Rheinische Post. Anyone who said no vaccination mandate and never again lockdown did not understand the epidemiology of the virus, he added.
The situation in schools is particularly devastating. In some districts, the seven-day incidence among children and adolescents is now over 900 infections per 100,000 people. So far, only about half of those over 12 and none of those under 12 have been vaccinated. Seven million out of 11 million students have no protection against the virus. Hans-Peter Meidinger, President of the German Teachers Association, recently warned of a loss of control over the pandemic in Germanys schools this winter.
Nevertheless, all politicians, led by Britta Ernst (SPD), the chairman of the Conference of Education Ministers and spouse of the designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, insist that schools remain open. In most schools, even in the second year of the pandemic, the most elementary safety measures are absent.
I just cant understand why the schools are unprepared for the autumn and winter again, virologist Isabella Eckerle, who co-signed the scientists letter, said in an interview with Der Spiegel. There were so many warnings. And there are now many recommendations for protective measures in schools, the effectiveness of which has been proven in valid studies. The summer should have been used intensively for this. It really hurts to watch how we slide back into a situation that is about to get out of control, she added.
The Socialist Equality Party (Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei, SGP) and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), of which the SGP is the German section, have explained from the start that the fight against the pandemic must not only take place on the medical front, but also and above all on the political and social front.
The virus can be defeated and eliminated. This requires a policy that is strictly based on scientific knowledge and deploys all available meansvaccinations, masks, lockdowns, school and factory closings, support for the affected children and families, etc.as part of a coordinated strategy.
Such a policy faces fierce opposition from the global capitalist class and its henchmen in the mainstream parties, who oppose any measure that jeopardizes their profits and wealth. For this reason, the only way to fight the pandemic is to mobilize the working class. Overcoming the resistance of the ruling elite requires a socialist program that places the needs of societyespecially the health and life of childrenabove the profit interests of capital.
The SGP and its international sister organizations have established the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) to lead and coordinate the global fight against the pandemic. The World Socialist Web Site has also organized two webinars with leading scientific experts from around the world to forge an alliance between scientists and the working class. The last, of Oc tober 24, was seen by more than 10,000 people from over 100 countries.
Join the IWA-RFC today and take forward the global fight necessary to end the pandemic and save millions of lives around the world.
There is significant anger among ordinary people over the fatal shooting of an Aboriginal man by police in western Sydney on November 9. The incident is the latest instance of police violence, with an increasing resort to deadly force during confrontations that could have been peacefully de-escalated.
Stanley Russell was shot several times at a family home in the suburb of Seven Hills. Officers from the local Blacktown police area command claimed that Russell confronted them with an axe and knife. No evidence, however, has been presented to corroborate the presence of the weapons, or that they were in Russells possession. Police camera footage has not been made available.
Four New South Wales (NSW) police officers arrived at the house shortly before 11:30 am to serve a warrant on Russell. Within minutes he was dead. Neighbours reported hearing up to five shots. Police reportedly administered CPR, but at 11:51 am, with paramedics on the scene, Russell was declared dead.
Stanley Russell [Credit: NTIV]
There is little first-hand evidence to establish the exact sequence of events, which remains murky.
The shooting took place at the home of Russells aunt, Pam, where he was staying. Pam reportedly answered the door, and police asked for Russell. She was ordered to remain outside. Don Craigie, Stanley Russells uncle, has told the media Pam reported that there was no axe at the house. After being shut out of her home, she heard gunshots and was prevented from re-entering the house.
Following the tragedy, no knife or axe has been presented as evidence. Frequently, after violent incidents, police parade weapons before the press. In many police shootings, hazy and uncorroborated assertions that the victim possessed a weapon have been used to justify the use of deadly violence.
Since the killing of Russell, the response of the police has been to offer assurances that his death is being investigated by a police Critical Incident Investigation team. This is being used to suppress evidence relating to the tragedy, on the grounds that it remains under investigation.
Such an in-house investigation will inevitably result in a whitewash. Time and time again, internal investigations, involving the police supposedly scrutinising their own conduct, have asserted that there was no alternative but to use lethal force, even when this was clearly not the case.
The death of Stanley Russell compounds the tragedy of his family.
Edward Russell, Stanleys older brother, died in custody in 1999 at Sydneys Long Bay jail, in circumstances which were entirely preventable. Edward was a known suicide risk, and he was left with material with which he could commit suicide. As with other deaths in custody, there has been no satisfactory inquiry or resolution to Edwards death.
Helen Russell, Stanleys mother, said: Stanleys older brother Edward died ... because the NSW prison system failed completely in its duty of care to Edward. The same can be said of the failure of a duty of care to Stanley Russell. Helen made the basic point, reported by NITV news, that They didnt have to shoot him They couldve used a taser on him or capsicum spray.
The killing of Stanley Russell is a concentrated expression of the conditions facing the Aboriginal population, one of the most vulnerable and oppressed sections of the working class. Social problems, caused by brutal government policies, which have left most Aboriginal people in poverty, are met with state violence. In Russells case, his family described him as a good man who suffered various social issues, including mental health problems connected with sexual abuse as a child.
While there is no question that Aboriginal people are disproportionately targeted for police violence, the ever-greater turn of state authorities to brutal methods is fundamentally a class question.
This is demonstrated by the broader record of fatal police shootings, in which the common denominator is that the victims were almost invariably poor, working class and/or suffered mental health issues.
In 2018, an episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporations 7:30 program reported that of the 35 people fatally shot by police in NSW between 1997 and 2017, at least 19, or more than half, were suffering from a mental illness.
Nationally, a 2013 Australian Institute of Criminology study found that police fatally shot 105 people between 1989 and 2011. At least 42 percent of the victims suffered a mental illness. The most common issue was schizophrenia.
Numerous tragic cases could be cited in which the actions of police can be described only as state murder.
In 2015, Courtney Topic, who had Aspergers syndrome, was in a disoriented state at a fast food takeaway in a working-class western Sydney suburb. She was sipping coffee, and carrying a kitchen knife. Within seconds of police arriving, she was fatally shot.
In 2017, Danukul Mokmool, a 30-year-old man with a history of mental illness and drug addiction, who had also grown up in poverty in western Sydney, was killed by police near Central Station. Although Mokmool was clearly distressed, and armed only with a pair of scissors, police responded with lethal force, shooting him four times in the head and chest.
In 2019, Todd McKenzie, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was shot by police after a nine-hour standoff at his own home in the mid-north coast of NSW. McKenzie was not a threat to anyone, but efforts to de-escalate the situation were not conducted.
In all these instances, the police have faced no repercussions.
The WSWS explained in examining the case of Todd McKenzie: Decades of funding cuts by both Labor and Liberal governments have decimated mental health services. The 1983 Richmond Report, commissioned by the NSW Labor government, recommended the closure of mental institutions across the state, forcing many people with mental illnesses into homelessness, dilapidated boarding-houses, or prison.
Given the lack of places at specialised mental health facilities, hospital emergency departments, already overcrowded and under-resourced, are increasingly having to cope with patients undergoing psychotic episodes resulting from mental illness and drug addiction.
Far from any serious attempt to improve mental health services, or address any of the other social crises confronting the working class, the response of the state is the continued build-up of the police force.
This build-up is continuing apace. In 2018, the current Liberal-National government in NSW announced it would boost the police force by recruiting 1,500 new officers, the largest influx in 30 years. The four-year project, costing more than half a billion dollars, is set to be completed next year.
The neighbouring state of Victoria has the largest police force of any jurisdiction in the country, with 22,000 officers, or 327 for every 100,000 people. The ratio is orders of magnitude greater than hospital beds, doctors or nurses per population. Demonstrating the bipartisan character of the police build-up, the Victorian Labor government announced in 2016 that it was hiring 3,100 additional police, the largest increase in state history, at a cost of $2 billion.
The mentally-ill and vulnerable are only the first victims. The massive expansion of state forces is directed against the working class and its mounting social and political opposition.
The developing political radicalisation has found expression in the issue of police violence, with the killing of George Floyd by American cops in Minneapolis last year provoking some of the largest international demonstrations in history. The multi-racial protests included rallies of tens of thousands of people in Sydney, Melbourne and elsewhere in Australia.
Despite its obligations under the signed 2015 Minsk Accords peace agreement, the Ukrainian government is continuing to ramp up its military capabilities against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. In late October, it deployed Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones there for the first time ever.
In response to an ostensible shelling by separatists, Ukraine used the TB2 drone to destroy a Russian-made howitzer, provoking the deployment of Russian troops to the Ukrainian border and the renewed risk of a full-scale war between Moscow and NATO-backed Kiev.
Polish soldiers erect a fence on the Belarusian border (Photo: Attila Husjenow/Instagram)
The attack in the separatist-controlled village of Hranitne, which was reported on favorably by the New York Times on Tuesday, is another demonstration that the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky is committed to a policy of escalation as it seeks to reintegrate the breakaway provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
For the past year the Ukrainian ruling class has sought to deepen military ties with the Turkish government, with both powers seeking to diminish Russian naval control over the strategic Black Sea region. The Ukrainian government offered Ankara advanced missile technology and in exchange received the coveted Turkish-made armed aerial drones.
Drones played a pivotal role in Azerbaijans defeat of Russian-backed Armenia last year in the Nagarno-Karabakh war, and the Ukrainian oligarchy quickly became enamored with their potential use against its own Russian-backed separatists.
Kiev received the first shipment of drones in July and plans to purchase approximately 50 of the TB2 drones. In September, the two sides signed a memorandum to create a joint drone training and maintenance center in Ukraine.
Russia has predictably reacted with hostility to the use of drones in Ukraine, which could spark a new wave of targeted bombings and assassinations by Kiev in the more than seven-year-long war that has claimed the lives of over 14,000.
Speaking Saturday on Russian state television about drones and Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin accused the Zelensky government of violating the 2015 Minsk accords, which specifically ban the use of aerial weapons:
Now the current president cheerfully reports theyre using Bayraktars, that is, unmanned aerial vehicles. Europe said something incomprehensible and the US even supported it and officials in Ukraine openly say that they used them and will use them further.
With Russian troops now amassed across its northern border in response to its drone use, the Zelensky government has continued to duplicitously depict Russia as the aggressor while domestically preparing for war and refusing to abide by the 2015 Minsk peace accords that call for a cease fire, free elections, and a special federated status for the breakaway provinces.
Speaking of the reported Russian troop buildup, Zelensky hypocritically stated via a recorded video speech, I hope the whole world can now clearly see who really wants peace and who is concentrating nearly 100,000 soldiers at our border.
In reality, the right-wing government of Zelensky, which originally came to power thanks to mass opposition to the militaristic, nationalist policies of former President Petro Poroshenko, has taken increasingly reckless actions in order to provoke Russia and gain military and economic support from its imperialist backers, namely the United States, France and Germany.
In March of this year, Zelensky and the countrys National Security and Defense Council provocatively approved a strategy that is aimed at retaking Crimea and reintegrating the strategically important peninsula. This step ultimately led to a similar Russian troop buildup along the border last spring, although Moscow later withdrew its forces.
In addition to the purchase of Turkish drones, Zelenskys foreign policy since that time has only increased the risk of all-out war between the two countries.
Following the pull-back of Russian forces, the Zelensky government spent the summer begging for NATO membership and held a number of joint military and naval drills that were openly directed against Russia.
In August, the Zelensky government held its inaugural Crimea Platform summit, which brought together its imperialist backers in Kiev. Zelensky took photos with world leaders and declared Crimea is Ukraine.
In response, the Russian government openly declared its opposition to Ukraines NATO accession, stating, President Putin has repeatedly noted the issue of the potential broadening of NATO infrastructure on Ukrainian territory, and (he) has said this would cross those red lines that he has spoken about before.
NATOs major powers have recklessly backed Kievs escalation. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Putin via a phone conversation that he would be prepared to defend Ukraine in case of war between the two countries.
Our willingness to defend Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity was reiterated by the president, a French adviser to Macron told reporters regarding the phone call between the leaders of the two nuclear-armed countries.
The US has sent a missile destroyer, the tanker USNS John Lenthall and the staff ship USS Mount Whitney, to participate in the US Joint Forces Command Europe military drills in the Black Sea.
This past Sunday, the British press reported that the UK was preparing to send 600 troops to Ukraine.
Ukraine itself has deployed 8,500 troops to its side of the border with Russia and announced that parts of its naval fleet would move from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, whose waters are claimed by Russia.
The tensions between Moscow and Kiev are escalating as the conflict between neighboring Poland and Belarus escalates over a refugee crisis in which thousands of desperate migrants seeking safe harbor in the EU have been trapped at the border and brutalized by Polish forces. Russia, which is allied to Belarus government, is accused of playing a central role in orchestrating the crisis.
Deere workers: Join the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee to carry forward the fight! Email deerewrfc@gmail.com, or text (484) 514-9797 to find out more about getting involved.
UAW says contract passed in re-vote, 61 to 39 percent, amid union threats
The United Auto Workers union announced Wednesday evening that its contract re-vote at John Deere passed by a margin of 61 to 39 percent, in a sham election marred by widespread intimidation and legitimate fears of ballot-rigging.
In spite of the all-out efforts by the UAW, management and the corporate media to get the deal passed, there remained substantial opposition to the contract. Workers in Waterloo, Iowa, the center of opposition to each of the UAW-company agreements, defied concerted attempts by the union to break their resistance, rejecting the contract by a margin of 56 to 44 percent. Waterloo is the site of the largest local at Deere, with 3,000 workers out of the 10,000 nationwide.
The Deere workers have carried out a courageous struggle for five weeks, their first strike in 35 years. They twice defied the UAW and rejected its backroom deals with the company, the first time by 90 percent, widely viewing the proposals as grossly inadequate and insulting. With the company making record profits and experiencing a labor shortage, workers fought with a rediscovered determination and assertiveness, demanding major raises to make up for decades of wage stagnation, and the restoration of retiree health benefits and other concessions previously given up by the UAW.
Summing up the feelings of many, a worker at the parts distribution center in Milan, Illinois, told the WSWS, They said we got everything we asked for. Far from it.
Many others expressed their disgust with the UAW and the contract in comments on Facebook. Heres goodbye to all my free time, my weekends, my friends and loved ones, a worker in Waterloo commented. Another pointed to the impact of the union starving workers on the picket lines with grossly inadequate strike pay, saying they were positive it only passed since so many couldnt live off $275 a week let alone get another job to help make ends meet until they got a decent contract.
A third Waterloo worker said simply: We were sold out.
Workers reported an overall atmosphere of intimidation and pressure in the lead-up to the vote, with union officials using scare tactics to convince workers that nothing more could be won and that another contract rejection would only lead to disaster.
No contract ratified under these conditionsif indeed a majority even actually voted for itcan be accepted as legitimate or legally binding. The very fact that the UAW forced workers to vote again on a deal they already rejected, together with threats of retaliation if they voted it down again, should make the agreement null and void.
The fight at Deere is far from over, as the company and UAW both will seek to enforce brutal levels of speedup and overtime in order to make up for lost production, sparking renewed resistance and struggles sooner rather than later.
While the UAW and management will continue to try to foment divisions, workers have already begun to push back and appeal for unity. Im not happy but there is nothing gained by being angry and bashing the yes voters, a worker in Waterloo, Iowa, told the WSWS. They voted their own conscience, and the UAW fed their fears and anxiety. I say we strive for a better outcome. We should continue to build the John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee.
Read more
Updated vote totals
East Moline, Illinois (Local 865): YES 60% (yes) - 40% (no)
Moline, Illinois (Local 434): YES 79% (yes) - 21% (no)
Atlanta, Georgia (Local 472): YES 78% (yes) - 22% (no)
Waterloo, Iowa (Local 838): NO 44% (yes) - 56% (no)
Dubuque, Iowa (Local 94):
Davenport, Iowa (Local 281): YES 77% (yes) - 23% (no)
Des Moines, Iowa (Local 450): YES 456/64% (yes) - 262/36% (no)
Milan, Illinois (Local 79): 402/66% (yes) - 206/34% (no)
Ottumwa, Iowa (Local 74): YES 401/75% (yes) - 136/25% (no)
Coffeyville, Kansas (Local 2366):
Denver, Colorado (Local 186):
UAW elections chair in Davenport threatened workers with retaliation for opposing contract
The UAW elections chairman for Local 281 in Davenport, Iowa, Phil Gonterman, threatened to use his position as an inspector to retaliate against workers who vocally opposed the second tentative agreement between the UAW and Deere. The comments were made in the Our Davenport Works Facebook Group and were shared with the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter by a worker who wished to remain anonymous.
I hope any welder-machinist that talked big and bad about how they were voting it down based on their stupid hamster wheel brain understanding doesnt hate red, Gonterman wrote sometime after the second vote on November 2. Because Im going to f**k their lights out for every quality issue. Yeah, you all know who you are.
UAW Local 281 Elections Chair Phil Gonterman threatening workers with retaliation for opposing the contract
The worker said that the vote today was carried out in an atmosphere of intimidation. We had to do all of our votes in the wide open for UAW Local 281 with no privacy and people could see how you were voting.
That a UAW election chair made such thuggish threats and nevertheless continued to oversee the vote todaywhile hardly surprising given the UAWs known corruption, bribetaking and criminal track recordfurther confirms that the entire process overseen by this union has been undemocratic and illegitimate. No contract supposedly agreed to by workers under such obvious duress and intimidation can be considered legally binding.
Gonterman has not been alone in his threats. In a Facebook comment, Local 281 Vice President Brian Ripple said he hoped Deere would shift work from the Waterloo, Iowa, plantsthe center of opposition to each of the pro-company UAW dealsto Mexico.
Ripples statement was in reply to a post by Gonterman seeking to whip up reactionary nationalist divisions and scare workers with threats of outsourcing should the contract again be rejected. Whos coming to visit me in Mexico when Im making Deere equipment in 3 years? Gonterman wrote.
Ripple replied, Id say Waterloo might be a better candidate to ship out.
UAW Local 281 Vice President Brian Ripple calling for work at Waterloo to be outsourced
The latest revelations of the vicious pressure campaign and conflicts of interests by UAW officials underscore what the WSWS has repeatedly warned: the UAW bureaucracy, from the local level to the very top, function as paid enforcers for management, tasked with ramming through the companys terms and suppressing opposition among workers.
Workers must draw the necessary conclusions and join and build the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which has presented the only organized resistance to the conspiracies and attacks of the UAW and company.
Wait for results begins as voting draws to a close at several locals
We're still waiting on results but that may not be known until later tonight. Polling closed at the locals in Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa at 1pm central time. Polls have also just closed at the Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois at 4pm central. The closing times at other locations were not immediately available. Waterloo, the largest local and center of opposition to the TA, continues voting until 7pm central, under an undemocratic voting method which splits workers up alphabetically into a dozen different voting sessions.
The only results so far have been from the small parts distribution center in Atlanta Georgia. Workers voted for the contract by 77 percent to 22 percent. This was also the first local to report in the last vote. This is a larger margin than when it voted to earlier this month in favor of the contract by 63 to 37 percent. However, this is not necessarily an indicator of the national results as the number of voters at the local is less than 1 percent of the total. However, turnout at the plant, where the UAW campaigned heavily for a 'yes' vote, did decline from 92 to 83, according to one worker.
While the tentative agreement was rejected two weeks ago by a 10 point margin, the 'no' votes were heavily concentrated in a few large locals, especially Waterloo and Dubuque. Several, mostly smaller locals around the country voted in favor of the deal by smaller margins. This means that, for the UAW and management, the path towards ratification--aside from the ever-present danger of ballot-stuffing, which workers must be on guard against--appears to depend on two factors.
First, they must increase the margin of victory at those locals, such as Des Moines, Ottumwa and Davenport, which voted in favor of the contract two weeks ago. Second, both the margin and the turnout at the major centers of opposition, above all Waterloo, must decline by a sufficient amount to reduce the weight of the 'no' votes at these locations in the national totals.
Significantly, Deere management, which had been on a PR blitz in recent weeks, taking out targeted ads on social media to campaign for the deal and contacting hundreds of local businesses near Deere plants in an attempt to mobilize opposition to the strike, has gone completely radio silent since the UAW announced the re-vote on Friday. In fact, the PR offensive continues, but with the UAW as the mouthpiece. Workers at Waterloo have reported that UAW officials and helpers have been campaigning aggressively for a yes vote at the union hall yesterday and today.
However, opposition to the contract remains high. For workers, the path towards defeating the re-vote depends upon their vigilance against ballot stuffing by the union and upon their ability to defy the union's campaign aimed at isolating and demoralizing them. Workers report that some who had voted in favor of the contract have now said they have flipped to a 'no' vote on principle, in opposition to the union's attempt to override the results from two weeks ago.
More information will be posted as we receive it.
Mack Trucks workers issue statement in support of a no vote at Deere
The Mack Trucks Rank-and-File Committee, founded in the midst of the strike at Volvo Trucks earlier this summer, has published the following statement:
The Mack Trucks Workers Rank-and-File Committee expresses its strong solidarity with striking workers at John Deere and calls on them to vote down the sellout contract put forward by the United Auto Workers by the widest possible margin.
You are not alone. Right now, across many industries and across the globe many workers are striking or pushing for strike action to fight for their own rights and material gains.
Workers are realizing their value, rising inflation pushes more and more of us into battle against the corporations attempts to push us further into poverty. But far from carrying out a fight to maintain our living standards, the UAW is shielding the companies, setting up a series of hurdles in a bid to force workers to accept concessions.
The tactics the UAW is employing at John Deere, forcing you to re-vote on a contract you already rejected, are the same sellout tactics that it pioneered against our Volvo Trucks coworkers at New River Valley Volvo earlier this year to shut down their five-week strike.
Read the full statement
Even more autoworkers around the country back the Deere strike
A worker at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant wrote in to support for the striking John Deere workers. When he heard that the UAW was ignoring to the demands of workers, he drew connections with his experiences at CAP.
Thats like what was happening to us here. I started in [late 2019] and brought it to the attention of the UAW reps that [our group] needed a raise because of what was in the contract. And now over a year and a half later, they finally figured out we needed a raise and thats what we had been asking since negotiations.
They took some things away in the last contract and said they would give a $9,000 signing bonus. Well, you have to think in the long term. $9,000 was nothing, now everythings going up [with inflation]. And they didnt want us to go on strike.
What I would say to [the striking Deere workers] is, You shouldnt be underpaid. You have to draw a line in the sand. Fight for what you believe in.
A General Motors worker and veteran of the 2019 GM strike said, I witnessed how the bought-off UAW fast-tracked another garbage contract during the GM strike. GM had made $35 billion in gross profit the year before and the UAW accepted their poor-mouth this is all we can give. Stay strong.
A Dana worker said, 'Deere revote is a load of crap. Theyre [UAW] trying to stall them out while guys on picket line trying to make this right. The company has resources, share it with people who gave you the profits. Its not right, like Dana profiting off of us.'
A Ford autoworker added, 'Good day to all strikers, hope you all are holding up well. Today is an important day for all of you and I wish you well. Stay strong, keep your head up, and stay warm. I believe in you and your fight. God bless you, we all are all counting on you to help the rest of us when out contract comes up.
'From your friend at Ford.'
Other workers sent in short statements:
Keep up the good fight, one said. Dont let corporate America push you around. I support you all the way.
Another wrote, Don't let the UAW sell you out, like they did to the Volvo workers in Virginia. Stay strong and stay out until you get the contract you want.
I am behind you 100 percent, a steelworker in Indiana said.
Vote that third TA down! More statements of support from workers
The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter continues to receive statements of support from workers and readers. Send in your statements of support to autoworkers@wsws.org.
One wrote, Stay strong and only trust your gut, not those who sit at the bargaining table. Demand to read the whole agreement and look at that signing bonus. That is the real factor. Our past has proven if its large they're hiding the stink!
Another worker wrote, To all those fighting and sacrificing to make our country a better place for our children, we support you!
'The battle will not be won until we all join together. The UAW leadership must be the first group to be dealt with! Fire them! Forcibly remove them, whatever it takes! Only then, can we deal directly with the criminals on the executive team!
Much love and total support!
Another said, I support your strike as it continues. I hope you can hang in until you get everything you want. You are all an inspiration! I pray for your safety as I know strikes can become violent. I have little experience with unions but have learned a lot lately as I continue to monitor the strikes. My dad was in a union and I remember him being on strike, probably in the early to mid-60s. I have always felt I would have done better working under a union. You have shown me that is not the case as the unions are in corporates pockets. Vote that third TA down!
UAW locals banning all discussion on their Facebook pages in lead-up to the vote
With balloting already underway, UAW locals at John Deere are continuing to prohibit all discussion on their Facebook pages. For weeks, page administrators have turned off commenting on all posts, whether they are related to the contract or not. The obvious purpose of this, much like the staggered voting schedule at Waterloo, is to deny workers a forum to express their opposition to the contract.
What else will the UAW not allow Deere workers to criticize? Apparently, the unions log splitting machine and chili dogs:
More Deere workers call for defeat of sellout contract
A Waterloo Deere worker sent the following statement to the World Socialist Web Site:
If we accept this offer, we lose money. Dont let this be the companys last stand by manipulating us by telling us what we could potentially make. Anyone who has been with this company long enough knows how CIPP works and that it is a tool the company uses to keep our pay down. Vote no, stand strong, not only for you, but for our future generations.
Another Waterloo worker described the full-court press by the local UAW to pass the contract:
I was at my local hall yesterday and was subjected to a hall employee trying to convince me that this was the contract we need. Maybe since she is getting close to retirement she thinks its good. For us it is NOT! It is only a decent contract if you intend to retire before the next contract. UAW SELLOUT CONTRACT is what this is AGAIN!
Send your comments and statements to autoworkers@wsws.org.
Auto parts worker backs no vote at Deere
A Faurecia auto parts worker member of the John Deere strike solidarity committee from Saline, Michigan sent the following statement:
I don't think its fair [that voting in Waterloo, Iowa will be separated into 12 groups voting an hour apart], and I think that's a way for them to control the vote. They are probably having somebody talk to each one of those groups to pressure them into accepting the contract. That is deceitful. They are underhanded. The workers already spoke. They said bring them a new contract. The union is an agent of the company. They are not listening to what 90 percent of the workers want. They are trying to force through what management wants. No matter what the workers want, the union is going to keep pushing a re-vote until they get what they want. That is a political tactic. They will falsify the vote if they can get away with it. They might as well stop saying there is a contract vote because they are just doing whatever the company wants and you don't have any rights. The union represents the company. When we got our contract, it was totally different from what they went over during the informational meeting. That was just lies. People were raising their hands asking questions, and the union was just telling lies. We need the rank and file committees to directly represent us. We need to get rid of the unions. The corporations have the unions doing their dirty job for them. It's like slave labor. Without the workers they dont have production, they dont have anything.
Editorial cartoon: UAW President Ray Curry gets his marching orders
Waterloo no voter reports on the mood among Deere workers
The WSWS received the following comment from an Deere worker. Send your own statements to autoworkers@wsws.org.
I just got home from voting NO here in Waterloo.
[My coworkers] believe there's no way the International is going to let this be voted down again even though they voted NO too.
They believe the company and the union have been in cahoots from the beginning and both want us back before Uncle John announces their 4th quarter earnings on the 24th and the union wants us back in so we can pay our dues for the month of November.
I pray enough folks are still mad as hell at Uncle John, Becky Guinn, the union, and the lack of retirement healthcare & full pension that they continue HOLDING THE LINE.
If this thing goes to arbitration or whatever, at least I can sleep at night knowing I fought the whole way and DID NOT QUIT.
UAW Local president uses scare tactics against no vote
The Des Moines Register reports that Chad Kaiser, president of UAW Local 94 in Dubuque, has issued threats on Facebook that a no vote would result in the company declaring an impasse and hiring strikebreakers.
According to the paper, Kaiser wrote that Deere could make a strong case that it has bargained in good faith with the union since late August, meaning UAW officials would struggle to convince a judge to force the company back to the table.
It continues, Kaiser, the Dubuque UAW leader, wrote that Deere, in an impasse, could hire permanent, non-union replacements. While companies have to put unionized employees on a preferential list for rehiring after a strike, managers don't have to fire replacements or bring back all of the strikers immediately. They also do not have to bring employees back based on seniority rules.
However, there are growing signs that the strike is beginning to seriously impact Deeres financials. Reuters reports: The striking workers are getting a good amount of community support, which further reinforces their push, UBS analyst Steven Fisher, citing a professor of labor relations, wrote in a research note.
Deere has so far refused to comment on the impact of the strike on production, but Bernstein analyst Chad Dillard estimates the company will forecast fiscal 2022 net income below Wall Street expectations, in part due to the strike impact, when it reports results next Wednesday.
Deere workers denounce UAW sellout deal and call for continued strike action
Send in your statements of support for the strike at autoworkers@wsws.org.
This new offer is pathetic! a veteran worker at one of the companys plants in Waterloo, Iowa, told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter. All they did was put lipstick on a pig by offering to give us more of our own money each week.
CIPP is a joke! We call it Cut In Personal Pay. No one wants it, yet the International and Local think its a good thing. All it does is pit union members against each other. Deere just needs to get rid of CIPP and just give us a decent raise instead of nickel and diming us every year.
The worker said that Deere is acting as though the ratification of the contract is a done deal. Salary folks have come through some gates and said theyd see us at work Thursday. Theyre taking down barricades and expecting us back at work on Thursday, but we have not even voted yet.
In a powerful statement, a Deere worker in Des Moines and member of the Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee said, Tomorrow we will find out if we were strong enough to resist scare tactics unleashed against us by John Deere while our union stood by watching and rooting for the company, hoping to break us and make us submit to its demands.
Addressing himself to his fellow workers, he continued, Do not forget years and years of struggle that working men and women faced and overcame so we can enjoy the fruits of their victories. Unlike us, they did not have the favorable conditions we have today, yet they prevailed and delivered the working-class benefits we enjoy today. Our predecessors had to fight for every little thing: eight-hour workdays, child labor laws, vacations, breaks, overtime pay and the rights to organize, to collectively bargain, to have health care and retirement. Nobody gave them these things out of the goodness of their heart. They stood up to corporations, politicians, and their strikebreakers, they resisted physical violence so they, their families, and us today can have all of these things.
So what are we afraid of today? Ask yourself that question. Are we going to stand up for ourselves, our families, and generations to come? Or are we going to concede to the company in its demands without making a real stand? Unity is what makes our strength, and the company knows that. This fear of it is why the company is trying to divide us.
I urge you to see through these scare tactics, hold the line, and vote NO tomorrow for the better future of all working-class people in the USA and the world whose support we have.
Read the article
Three reasons why Deere cannot endure a long strike
More than 10,100 John Deere workers, on strike for more than a month, are voting Wednesday on what the company calls its last, best and final offer. Defying the will of the striking workers, the United Auto Workers is forcing workers to vote on a contract that is virtually identical to the one they voted down on November 2.
The John Deere Workers Rank-and-File Committee has called on workers to reject the sellout deal, which ignores workers demands for a $10 an hour wage to make up for 25 years of UAW-backed concessions, as well as fully paid retiree health benefits for every generation of Deere workers. Throughout the US and, in fact, the world workers are looking to the Deere strikers to defy the blackmail by Deere and the union and to press forward and expand their struggle.
The strike has already had a significant impact on Deere, but the UAW is acting to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
However, an examination of the companys situation makes it clear that it cannot weather a long strike.
Read the article
The Deere strike is in danger!
Over the weekend, workers from Deere, the auto and film production industries, and educators met to discuss the urgent issues confronting the Deere strike, which is in its second month and has reached a critical turning point.
For more information on joining the Deere Strike Rank-and-File Solidarity Committee, email deerewrfc@gmail.com or text (484) 514-9797.
* * *
The Deere Strike Rank-and-File Solidarity Committee calls on all working people to come to the defense of the strike by 10,000 John Deere workers, which the United Auto Workers union is seeking to shut down and betray.
Last Friday night, the UAW announced that it was scheduling a vote for this Wednesday on the companys so-called last, best and final offer. The contract proposal contained only modest modifications, the UAW admitted, to the agreement workers already voted to reject by 55 percent on November 2.
In fact, the latest contract changes would promote even greater speedup and unsafe working conditions via the companys pay-for-performance scheme, CIPP. At the same time, yet another pro-corporate joint UAW-management committee would be established, tasked with overseeing corrective actions to those teams whose productivity falls behind the companys grueling benchmarks.
The UAW is once again attempting to trample on workers democratic rights, just as they did at Volvo Trucks earlier this year.
With the company making record profits and struggling to hire and meet rising demand, Deere workers are saying: The era of concessions and givebacks is over! Now is the time to go on the offensive and win back everything the unions have bargained away over the last 40 years.
The time has come to show the powers-that-be what real solidarity and the collective strength of the working class looks like.
The Deere Strike Rank-and-File Solidarity Committee is composed of Deere workers, auto and auto parts workers, educators, nurses, and others who want to see this struggle succeed.
Read the full statement
Lauren Perry and Jenny Vu
GoFundMe Lauren Perry and Jenny Vu
Lauren Perry and Jenny Vu are still on their road to recovery after being seriously injured on what was supposed to be a happy birthday trip.
The Oklahoma couple and their Irish Setter named Ivan who did not suffer any injuries recently decided to travel to Washington State to celebrate Perry's 24th birthday, according to NBC affiliate KFOR.
"I was so excited," Perry told the outlet, explaining that on the day of their accident they made a 2.5 hour trip to visit Ruby Beach.
During their beach day, Perry and Vu "stopped for a moment" at an area a few feet away from the shore line to take some pictures and videos, according to a GoFundMe set up to help cover their medical expenses.
However, things took a sudden turn when Perry turned around just in time "to see a huge wave coming their way," per the GoFundMe. "The girls tried to get away in time, but it was too late."
Reflecting on what was going through her mind during the scary moment, Perry told KFOR that she wanted to help Vu to safety.
"I had time to say, 'Go Jenny run!' " Perry recalled. "I tried to push her forward just as it crashed."
The couple later found out that they were hit by a rogue wave, which is "very unpredictable" and "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Lauren Perry and Jenny Vu
GoFundMe Lauren Perry and Jenny Vu
After being struck by the wave, they were pushed "face first" into rocks below, and were also struck in the water by a driftwood tree, according to the GoFundMe.
"All I remember is just water covering my entire body, and I told myself to close my eyes and hold my breath," Vu told KFOR. "And so when I did, a giant tree hit me, and I blacked out."
Although Perry was able to get the attention of some bystanders who came to their aide, she remembers being incredibly concerned that they wouldn't make it.
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"I kept screaming out, 'Is Jenny alive? Is Jenny okay?'" she told Fox affiliate KOKH.
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Things then took another turn for the couple.
After being rushed to Forks Hospital, where "doctors and nurses did everything they could to stabilize" them, the couple were sent off to a second hospital in an ambulance, according to the GoFundMe.
Halfway through the trip, "the ambulance blew a tire...and crashed into a tree," per the fundraising campaign. "Lauren and Jenny were not fully strapped down correctly to the gurneys and were flung around during the accident."
"I just remember screaming this entire time because we were in so much pain at this point," Vu recalled to local CBS station KWTV.
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Upon arriving at the second hospital, Vu learned that she had 10 "fractured ribs, lacerations on her liver, internal bleeding, pulmonary contusion, a broken pelvis, and a concussion," per the GoFundMe.
Meanwhile, Perry suffered from "internal bleeding, lacerations on her liver, a broken pelvis, and [a] pulmonary contusion."
Both needed pelvis surgery.
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Although Perry and Vu have since been released from the hospital, they still have a long road to recovery in front of them.
Doctors recently told Perry she may be able to start walking again in 10-12 weeks, but doctors do not have a timeframe for when Vu who can get the bar in her pelvis removed next month will be able to start walking, according to KWTV.
Due to their injuries, the pair have also been unable to return to work at Tinker Air Force Base, per the GoFundMe.
RELATED: Texas Bride, 34, Paralyzed After Being Hit by Large Wave During Honeymoon in Maui
The couple says the entire process has been incredibly difficult.
"It's been hard. We're 24, and we've had our home we built. We had our dogs. We had our careers we were starting," Perry told ABC affiliate KOCO. "We worked so hard to get where we were at, and it's like we don't even get to be there and enjoy it."
"It's still unreal to me," added Vu. "I feel like it's all a dream, [and] any moment we will wake up from this."
Those interested in donating to their GoFundMe can do so here.
Two crew members have been injured during the production of Sylvester Stallone action film The Expendables 4, which is currently filming in Greece.
According to producer Millennium, one injury involved a painter falling from a height during pre-production. The painter required hospital treatment but were told has now recovered.
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The second injury occurred more recently when a stuntman backed up a slow-moving vehicle over a camera assistants foot. We are told the assistant has now recovered.
A representative from the production told us: The production of Expendables 4 is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of all crew.
Scott Waugh is directing the Lionsgate actioner, which is filming in Thessaloniki, northern Greece. Joining Stallone in the fourth instalment are Megan Fox, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Andy Garcia, Iko Uwais, 50 Cent, Levy Tran, Tony Jaa, and Randy Couture.
The lucrative franchise is no stranger to incident. In 2011, a stuntman died and another was injured during filming in Bulgaria. 26-year-old Kun Liu was killed while performing on an inflatable boat on the Ognyanovo dam. A year later his parents filed suit against Millennium Films for wrongful death.
Over the years, a number of the veteran actors starring in the franchise have described their own injuries, some of which can likely be attributed to age.
In 2014, Stallone said during promotion for The Expendables 3: When I do The Expendables I break my neck, my spine, and dislocate shoulders. I fell on my back and had to put some metal in there.
Terry Crews described a near-death experience on the same shoot involving Jason Statham driving a truck into the Black Sea, while Antonio Banderas said he got a lingering knee injury on the first day of production while running to jump into a helicopter.
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Following the Rust tragedy, producers are under renewed pressure to ensure stringent health and safety measures on set.
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At least 125 people have joined a lawsuit against musicians Travis Scott and Drake seeking $750 million in damages after a crowd crush turned deadly at the Astroworld festival in Houston earlier this month.
Headline performer Scott, whose legal name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, had been joined briefly onstage by Drake as a surprise guest for about 50,000 fans.
Ten people died due to compression in the crowd, as audience members were squeezed so tightly together that many of them had trouble moving and breathing. Eight of them were killed Nov. 6 on the festival grounds, while two others died later as a result of their injuries, including a 9-year-old boy who had been watching the show perched atop his fathers shoulders.
Leading the plaintiffs is the family of Axel Acosta, a 21-year-old Washington state native who was mortally injured in the crowd. Houston attorney Tony Buzbee is representing the group the latest to sue over the disastrous Astroworld festival.
Axel Acosta loved and adored Travis Scott and the other performers at Astroworld, read a copy of the complaint obtained by People. The feeling was not mutual; certainly, neither Travis Scott nor his exclusive partners, streaming service, record labels, handlers, entourage, managers, agents, hangers on, promoters, organizers, or sponsors cared enough about Axel Acosta and the other concertgoers to make an even minimal effort to keep them safe.
Apple, which was filming the show, is also named in the suit, along with Live Nation Entertainment, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment, Epic Records, Scotts Cactus Jack Records, event security and other organizers.
When Axel collapsed, he was trampled by those fighting to prevent themselves from being crushed, the suit reads. As he lay there under a mass of humanity, dying, the music played and streamed on for almost forty minutes.
A makeshift memorial to those who died at the Astroworld festival sits outside Houston's NRG Park. (Photo: Brandon Bell via Getty Images)
Scott has faced searing criticism for being slow to take action during his set; he played on for another 37 minutes after officials declared the scene in front of him a mass casualty event, according to the Houston Chronicle. Its not uncommon for performers to stop a show because of something they see happening in the crowd, but lawyers for the rapper said Scott could not tell what was happening from the stage.
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An attorney for Scott did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest suit.
Dozens of Astroworld-related lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the tragedy; civil rights attorney Ben Crump has filed nearly 100 lawsuits so far, working with a team of other attorneys.
The dead included teens and several young adults; the oldest victim was 27.
Scott said shortly after the event that he was absolutely devastated by what took place.
He offered to pay victims funeral costs and urged attendees to seek therapy through BetterHelp. Some accused the rapper of seeking to profit from his fans trauma with the new business partnership.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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The post Young Dolph Shot and Killed in Memphis appeared first on Consequence.
The rapper Young Dolph was shot and killed inside of a Memphis, Tennessee bakery on Wednesday afternoon, according to FOX 13.
Citing law enforcement sources, FOX 13 reports that Young Dolph walked into Makedas Butter Cookies around 1:00 p.m. local time when a car drove up and opened fire.
APA, the talent agency that represented Young Dolph, confirmed his passing in a statement: All of us at APA are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of our dear friend and client, Young Dolph. The world has lost an icon, a great man and beloved artist who has been taken too soon. His dedication, drive, hard work and loyalty to all those around him always came first and he will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this most difficult time.
Consequence has reached out to Young Dolphs representatives for more information.
Young Dolph (whose real name was Adolph Robert Thorton Jr.) was born in Chicago, but moved to Memphis at the age of two. After cutting his teeth as a mixtape rapper throughout the early 2010s, Dolph found mainstream success as a featured guest on O.T. Genasis 2015 single, Cut It, which peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later certified double platinum.
Dolph released his studio debut, King of Memphis, the following year after signing a multi-million partnership deal between his label Paper Route Empire and the distribution company Empire. It was his first of what would be six albums to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Top Rap Albums chart.
In fact, with each release Young Dolph topped a previous high water mark. He followed up King of Memphis with a pair of albums in 2017; Bulletproof, released in April of that year, became the rappers first Top 40 entry on the Billboard 200. Arriving just seven months later, Dolphs third album Thinking Out Loud, placed at No. 16.
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Following a Top 15 entry with Role Model in 2018, Young Dolph cracked the Top 10 in three consecutive years. He released a pair of collaborative albums with protege Key Glock, 2019s Dum and Dummer and 2021s Dum and Dummer 2, as well as 2020s Rich Slave. The latter project, buoyed by appearances from Megan Thee Stallion and G Herbo, became the best-selling project of Dolphs career, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
Over the years, Young Dolph also appeared on tracks alongside Lil Baby, Gucci Mane, Lil Durk, 2 Chainz, and Ty Dolla $ign.
Young Dolph had been targets of shootings twice before. In February 2017, someone fired 100 bullets at Dolphs vehicle, but the rapper managed to escape unharmed, and later released a single about the incident called 100 Shots. In September 2017, he survived a shooting outside of a retail store in Hollywood. Fellow rapper Yo Gotti and his associate Corey McClendon were initially named as persons of interest in the second shooting, but neither man was ultimately charged.
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Young Dolph Shot and Killed in Memphis
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Just a few months ago, boosters weren't even a consideration in the country's COVID vaccine regimen. But now, more than 30 million people in the U.S. have gotten an additional shot, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only certain groups of people are currently eligible to get a booster: The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have authorized an additional dose for Moderna and Pfizer recipients who are 65 years old and older or younger and at higher risk. But as more and more virus experts note that boosters might be essential to the vaccine process, changes to existing requirements could be on the way.
RELATED: You Need a Booster Before This Date, Virus Experts Warn.
On Nov. 17, Moderna released a statement announcing that it had filed for an expansion of its booster's emergency-use authorization. The vaccine manufacturer is asking the FDA to authorize its 50-microgram booster dose for all adults 18 and older once they are at least six months out from their second shot, with no stipulations.
"The Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine is authorized for adults ages 18 and above regardless of occupational risk factors in many international markets," the vaccine manufacturer noted in its announcement.
Pfizer also recently filed an application with the FDA to expand eligibility for its booster. The agency is aiming to grant this authorization as early as Nov. 18, and a CDC committee is scheduled to meet Nov. 19 about boosters, which could allow younger adults to get a Pfizer booster as early as this weekend, The New York Times reported on Nov. 16. And Moderna's may not be far behind. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Nov. 17 that the agency plans to "act swiftly" on expanding booster doses as soon as the FDA reviews the data and provides authorization, per CNBC.
Some states are no longer waiting for official guidance from the FDA and CDC, however. According to ABC News, officials from nine states in the U.S. have already moved to either formally or informally offer booster shots to their residents 18 and older: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.
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"I've been very frustrated with the convoluted messaging out of the CDC and the FDA. Everybody should get the booster after six months," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said during an episode of CBS News' Face the Nation on Nov. 14 The data is incredibly clear that it increases your personal protection level. That's why my parents got it. I got it. My family members got it."
RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.
Even top White House COVID adviser Anthony Fauci, MD, recently said that there should be no limits on which adults are allowed to get an additional shot anymore. "Right now, don't make it complicated," he told Insider on Nov. 16. "Make it really simple. If you had a primary vaccination, get a booster."
According to Fauci, most adults who are currently eligible for boosters in accordance with FDA and CDC guidance have not gotten boosted, likely because they're confused about the eligibility requirements. The latest data from the CDC shows that only around 15 percent of all fully vaccinated people have gotten an additional shot, including just 36 percent of those 65 years and older, despite everyone in this age group being eligible.
"We have got to get almost everybody who's gotten the primary vaccination regimen, we've got to get all of them boosted," Fauci told Insider.
Some health experts have asked that more safety data be released before individuals more at risk for the rare but severe vaccine reaction myocarditis get another shot. That includes young men under the age of 30, who are slightly more likely to experience heart inflammation after an mRNA vaccine, and Moderna's vaccine in particular.
Fauci told Insider it's important to note "that all the safety data indicate that the benefit-risk ratio for younger people" will "still weigh heavily in the form of the benefit." He is confident that for the vast majority of people, it will be safe and effective to get a booster dose.
RELATED: Don't Get a Moderna Booster Before Asking This, Experts Warn.
The royal family is, well, super wealthy (and it doesn't take too many episodes of The Crown to confirm). From elegant tiaras to expansive wardrobes, there's no end to the number of perks a member of the royal family might receive. And the properties? Castles, estates, and more fill the British royals' portfolios.
But what about Queen Elizabeth herself? Turns out, the 95-year-old reigning monarch actually has quite the hefty net worth. And yes, she does get paid to rule.
Here's everything you need to know about the Queen's sizable fortune:
The Queen owns a lot of expensive properties.
Much of the Queen's wealth comes from the properties she owns, like the $140 million Balmoral Castle and the $65 million Sandringham House. She also owns marine land all around the United Kingdom, as well as some farms, according to Reader's Digest. The Queen inherited all of her estates from her father (King George VI, for anyone who knows their royal history!).
Photo credit: Andrew Milligan - PA Images - Getty Images
However, the Queen does not own Buckingham Palace. It technically belongs to the Crown Estatebut, of course, they let her use it whenever she likes.
Queen Elizabeth has also collected and inherited tons of valuables over the years.
The Queen also owns plenty of impressive artifacts and curios. She inherited one of the world's largest stamp collections from her grandfather. It's valued at around $134 million, according to The Sun, and some of the stamps are worth over $2 million alone.
She inherited most of her mother's estate, tooall $94 million of it, per the BBC. From china to horses to an entire collection of Faberge eggs, the list of items the Queen added to her assets is pretty long.
She is also the proud owner of many private furniture and jewelry collections, per Reader's Digest. And that includes the dozens of tiaras that the ladies in the royal family wear for weddings and other major events. The Queen's own coronation regalia contains one stone that's so massive, it even has its own name: The Cullinan II diamond weighs in at a whopping 317 carats, according to Vogue Australia.
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In addition to that, there's artwork, investments, and more. The Queen's personal assets total around $500 million, per Forbesnot too shabby.
And, yep, the Queen does get paid to rule.
Just like the President gets paid, so does Queen Elizabeth (kind of). She receives a stipend from the government each year, according to Reader's Digest, and the money is connected to her position. The stipend includes taxpayer money and the Duchy of Lancaster, another collection of commercial properties that helps fund the Queen's private income. These homes aren't a part of the Crown Estate, though.
Her stipend is called the Sovereign Grant, and it's paid to the Queen each spring. Oh, and it's no small amount: The most recent grant totaled a whopping $120 million, per Forbes. 25 percent (or around $30 million) goes to the royal family, while the other 75 percent (a.k.a. $90 million) goes to the British Treasury.
But there are rumors that the Queen might be worth even more.
Recently, a bombshell report from The Guardian argued that the Queen successfully lobbied the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her embarrassing private wealth from the public back in the 1970s. The law supposedly placed a veil of secrecy over the Queens private shareholdings and investments until at least 2011.
However, not everyone agrees that this really happened. A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace rejected the idea, stating that any assertion that the sovereign has blocked legislation is simply incorrect. Interesting.
Give it to me straight: Just how much is the Queen really worth?
Queen Elizabeth's net worth totals a stunning $600 million, according to Reader's Digest. If that sounds huge, it's because it is. The Queen's fortune ranks in at exactly double Paris Hilton'salthough she's still not a billionaire, like Rihanna.
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Retired police officer John Murray (second right) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, after he won his High Court bid to hold Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's ex-aide jointly liable for the fatal shooting of Pc Yvonne Fletcher 37 years ago. (PA)
A retired police officer who cradled his colleague Yvonne Fletcher as she lay dying has said justice over her fatal shooting is "finally achieved" after a High Court judge found a former aide to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was jointly liable for her shooting.
John Murray, 66, said he had now fulfilled a promise to his fellow officer to find those responsible for killing.
PC Fletcher was shot and killed in 1984 while policing a demonstration against then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi outside the countrys embassy in central London. The 25-year-old was killed by rounds a fired from a first-floor window.
My promise to Yvonne Fletcher to find those responsible for the shooting and to get justice has taken a huge step forward after all these years, he said in a statement, released after the ruling.
Today, we have proven that we were right all along. Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was responsible for Yvonnes death. Everything we have done leading up to this verdict has been for Yvonne. Today we have finally achieved justice for Yvonne.
Retired police officer John Murray accompanied by Donna Griffin of the Metropolitan Womens Police Association (PA)
He added that the High Court trial should not have been necessary, claiming that the government had prevented a criminal prosecution from proceeding by it refusing to allow vital evidence to be admitted.
As part of a decades-long pursuit of justice for his friend and colleague, Mr Murray brought a civil claim, for a nominal amount of 1, against Mr Mabrouk, who had been a member of the pro-Gaddafi Libyan Revolutionary Committee that controlled the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
Mr Mabrouk had previously been arrested in connection with PC Fletchers death in 2015, but two years later the Metropolitan Police said that charges could not be brought as key evidence needed to be kept secret to protect national security.
In all proceedings, Mr Mabrouk has denied any wrongdoing in regard to PC Fletchers death and has pointed to the fact that he had been arrested earlier in the day, before she was shot.
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Despite this, Mr Murrays lawyers accused Mr Mabrouk of being jointly liable for the shooting, during the three-day trial at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. They argued that while Mr Mabrouk did not fire any of the shots himself, he had been instrumental in the orchestration of a plan to use violence at the demonstration where PC Fletcher was killed.
Mr Murrays lawyers presented to the court disclosed material from the Mets investigations in 1984 and 2015, a ballistics report, transcripts from the inquest into PC Fletchers death, and photos of the shooting.
Phillippa Kaufmann QC, one of Mr Murrays barristers, also read aloud accounts from unnamed Libyan witnesses. She argued that their accounts linked Mr Mabrouk with a plan to use violence at the demonstration.
Ms Kaufmann claimed that Mr Mabrouk told a man who was setting up barriers ahead of the protest that we have guns here today, there is going to be fighting.
The court also heard that Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials received warnings ahead of the protest, over potential consequences, which Ms Kaufmann suggested meant that knowledge of a plan to use violence went way up the hierarchy in Libya.
She added that it was inconceivable that Mr Mabrouk was not at the heart of decision-making in relation to the use of armed violence against the anti-Gaddafi protesters at the embassy in 1984.
Mr Mabrouk did not take part in the court proceedings but previously noted that Libya had admitted responsibility for PC Fletchers death, and paid compensation to her mother. The court heard that Mr Mabrouk had been excluded from the UK in 2019 over his suspected involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Yvonne Fletcher (PA)
In the ruling delivered on Tuesday, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said: Mr Murray has succeeded in showing that the defendant Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk is jointly liable with those who carried out the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher, for the battery inflected upon her.
I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that there existed a common design to respond to the planned anti-Gaddafi protest by using violence.
He said that the evidence presented to the court pointed to Mr Mabrouk being an active participant in a common design to fire upon the demonstrators.
And he added that there seemed to be little doubt that the actions of the gunmen were orchestrated and sanctioned by Gaddafi, who could not tolerate dissent or disagreement and who was prepared to approve murder on the streets of London.
Mr Justice Spencer said that he would award the damages sought by Mr Murray to vindicate his 37-year fight to bring to justice at least one of those responsible for the death of his colleague.
He told the court that PC Fletcher had died as a result of a cowardly attack in which armed gunmen opened fire from the first-floor windows of the embassy on unarmed and unsuspecting lawful demonstrators.
The judge also hailed the incredible bravery of Mr Murray and others those who rushed to the fallen police officers aid.
The judgement was met with applause in a courtroom packed with Mr Murrays supporters.
Following the ruling, PC Fletchers family released a statement through the Metropolitan Police. We acknowledge the courts judgement which has been made today, they said.
It serves as a reminder to us all how tragic the events at St James Square, on the 17th of April 1984, has had a devastating and lifelong effect on Yvonnes family and colleagues.
Yvonne will always be in our thoughts and we will continue to be in close contact with New Scotland Yard regarding all aspects of her case.
The statement added that the family would not be making any additional statements.
With additional reporting from PA
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Most common sayings and expressions have unclear origins, but we can look back to the furthest recorded evidence of them to get an idea of when and where they came from.
That being said, here are 22 sayings that have some interesting origins:
1. "A sight for sore eyes"
First We Feast
Writer Jonathan Swift, probably most famous for Gulliver's Travels, used the phrase in the 1700s. The quote: "the sight for you is good for sore eyes" was found in a work titled A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation.
2. "Bite the bullet"
Warner Bros.
Sometime between the 18th and 19th century, the expression originated from outdated medical practices, especially for soldiers. Back in the day, to distract patients (since anesthesia was not a thing yet), doctors would have them bite down on a literal bullet.
3. "Hands down"
Buena Vista Pictures
Dating back to the 19th century, the phrase refers to horse jockeys loosening their grip on the reins when their horse had a strong lead in a race.
Giddy up.
4. "Crocodile tears"
CBS Television Distribution
This phrase originated from the belief that crocodiles cry but the tears produced by crocodiles are not emotionally driven.
I assume whoever verbally used this phrase first was a sassy individual.
5. "Cat got your tongue?"
Warner Bros.
An example of an expression being lost to time, but there are some theories.
With the least clear origins of the bunch on this list, some believe it is related to ancient Egyptians cutting out tongues and feeding them to cats, while others believe it originated from flogging crew members aboard vessels.
6. "Caught red-handed"
Sting International
A saying with origins dating back to 15th-century Scotland. Caught red-handed is referred to being found with blood on your hands after they have committed a crime. Pretty simple.
7. "Waking up on the wrong side of the bed"
Warner Bros. Pictures
A Roman superstition... positive forces await on the literal right side of the bed. However, if you get out of bed on the left side, that's some bad energy right there.
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8. "Running Amok"
Disney
The word "amok" comes from the Malay word "mengamok," which means to make a furious and desperate charge. Captain Cook used the phrase to describe the behavior of Malay tribesmen.
9. "Can't hold a candle"
This one dates back to the 17th century, and its meaning is related to one's incompetence. The saying came from talking about an apprentice who was not even skillful enough to hold a candle for his master. In short, they are worthless as an apprentice. Romolotavani / Getty Images/iStockphoto
10. "Break the ice"
Warner Bros.
Dating back to the 17th century, writer Samuel Butler used the expression in the poem Hudibras which read: "...At last broke silence, and the Ice."
11. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"
This one has gone through a plethora of iterations. As far as the English version, the saying as we know it is found in Interesting Letters of Pope Clement XIV, which read, "...that when we are at Rome, we should do as the Romans do." Filippobacci / Getty Images
12. "Rub the wrong way"
NBC
Meow. The origins of this phrase refers to cats, specifically rubbing their fur in the wrong direction as written in Mary Hughes' Aunt Mary's Tales in 1819. While the origins of this one are debated, the Americanized version of this expression no doubt came from Mary Hughes.
13. "Barking up the wrong tree"
DreamWorks Pictures
Dating back to the 1800s, this common phrase relates to hunting with packs of dogs. Not too much to this one, if a dog was barking up the wrong base of the tree, odds are the prey escaped or the doggo was just incorrect.
14. "Paint the town red"
Warner Bros.
A lot of controversy about the origins of this one. But people in the UK believe it references the Marquis of Waterford and friends in 1837, who went on a night of drinking through the English town of Melton Mowbray.
Whereas people in the US cite 1884, and the Oxford English Dictionary quotes the Chicago Advance (1897): "The boys painted the town [New York City] red with firecrackers [on Independence Day]."
15. "Bury the hatchet"
New Line Cinema
There is a Native American origin for this one. When two tribes decided to settle their differences and live in harmony, the chief of each tribe buried a war hatchet in the ground to signify their agreement.
16. "Cold feet"
Nickelodeon
One of the earliest pieces of evidence for the phrase "cold feet" comes from poet Stephen Crane. In 1896, he released Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. In it, Crane wrote, "I knew this was the way it would be. They got cold feet."
The expression is used most for backing out of engagements, but the origin of the saying refers to simply losing interest in something.
17. "Show your true colors"
HBO
More nautical lingo!
Lowering your colors aboard a ship to hide your nation's flag is a strategic move. In a naval battle, if you hoist your flag high after hiding it, you are showing your true colors.
As a Master & Commander fan, I love this expression and its origins.
18. "Put a sock in it"
USA Network
I wish I had a whacky story about a man shoving a sock puppet into the mouth of another man, but this one is pretty basic. It is simply British slang used in the 20th century to request a talkative or noisy person simply "shut their lips."
19. "Steal your thunder"
NBC
This idiom might have the funniest origin, and came from the 18th century. Dramatist John Dennis created an idea for a thunder machine for his play Appius and Virginia, but it didn't work.
Fast-forward to the little-known production Macbeth, and alas, his idea was stolen for the play's production. Oh, the drama!
20. "Spill the beans"
Disney Television Animation
Okay. Okay. I'll spill the beans.
Like most on here, it is pretty controversial where exactly the phrase originated, but one explanation dates back to ancient Greece. People would vote anonymously using white and black beans as a simple "yay" or "nay."
21. "Rule of thumb"
Warner Bros.
The origin is actually uncertain, but the earliest record is by Scottish preacher James Durham: "Many profest Christians are like to foolish builders, who build by guess, and by rule of thumb (as we use to speak), and not by Square and Rule."
22. "By and large"
Warner Bros.
By and Large Marge? Get it? No?
Anyway, the saying "by and large" actually originated from sailing lingo. Specifically, when the wind is blowing from some compass point behind a ship's direction of travel then it is said to be "large."
Michigan catapulted Tuesday to the worst COVID-19 hot spot in the nation, as the seven-day case rate rose to 503.8 per 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals statewide say they're feeling the pressure as the number of COVID-19 patients has climbed nearly 50% in the last month from 2,097 patients admitted with confirmed cases of the virus on Oct. 18 to 3,082 on Monday, according to state data.
"The current growth in COVID-19 hospitalizations is very concerning," said John Karasinski, a spokesman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, which represents all 133 community hospitals in the state.
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"They're seeing a stark increase in hospitalizations in just the past few days. ... We have both this stark surge of COVID-19 patients, but we also have hospitals that have been dealing with staffing challenges and staffing shortages, as well as high volumes of non-COVID patients. And we've been seeing that pent-up demand of non-COVID admissions since this past summer."
That means potentially long waits at emergency rooms, hospitals that have to postpone nonemergency medical procedures and some that can't accept new patient transfers, he said.
"All of our hospitals are available for all emergencies," Karasinski said, "but we do want to set the expectations for those in the general public that there are high wait times and if they have an issue that may not be an emergency to contact their primary care physician or to go to an urgent care clinic to try to ... balance loads that our hospitals are seeing right now."
Henry Ford Health System had admitted 330 people Tuesday to its five hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19. That's an almost 60% increase in the COVID-19 patient census in just the last three weeks, said Dr. Adnan Munkarah, Henry Ford's executive vice president and chief clinical officer.
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Respiratory therapist Eralda Bendaj, 31, of Wixom, talks with a COVID-19 patient as she performs a home oxygen study to check his blood oxygen levels to see whether he will need oxygen once he is discharged from Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills, Mich. on Dec. 17, 2020.
More: Flu rips through University of Michigan campus, bringing CDC to Ann Arbor
More: Beaumont doctor: 'Metro Detroit is again becoming a hotspot' for COVID-19
"We were hoping that we would be in a better situation this Thanksgiving than we were last year, especially with the availability of the vaccines," Munkarah said.
"We've been watching with ... trepidation and worry, the number of COVID cases climb and rise throughout our community and around the state. ... The vast majority of the patients continue to be unvaccinated patients. So when we look at general admissions for COVID, 70 to 75% of those patients have been unvaccinated."
Bob Riney, Henry Ford's COO and president of health care operations, said the latest COVID-19 surge has forced the Detroit-based hospital system to postpone some medical procedures.
"There have been a couple of days where we have had to curtail some procedures in a couple of our hospitals because the overall volume, and particularly the growth of COVID, put us at capacity," Riney said.
A Lansing ambulance crew weaves a gurney past occupied beds in the hallway in Sparrows emergency center.
More: Michigan COVID-19 survivor says vision of the Blessed Solanus Casey saved his life
More: Get a COVID vaccine booster, doctors say, as delta spread ratchets up in Michigan
"We evaluate that on a day-to-day basis and are doing everything we can to make sure that becomes an exception, not by any means the norm."
On the west side of the state, Spectrum Health reported Tuesday that it is seeing the highest rate of positive coronavirus tests of any point in the pandemic.
Of the 1,000 coronavirus tests processed by the Grand Rapids-based health system on Monday, 22.6% were positive, said Dr. Darryl Elmouchi, president of Spectrum Health West Michigan.
"Over the weekend, we had 25% positivity and our rolling average seven-day positivity, which is 22.6% within our laboratory, is the highest we've ever seen."
COVID-19 admissions across Spectrum's 14 hospitals climbed to 367 Tuesday, he said, adding that this surge "throws hospitals across our state well over what is a manageable capacity.
"The biggest risk that I think we all run going forward is that more and more patients doesn't mean that there we have access to more and more staff across the state," Elmouchi said.
Dr. Nick Gilpin, Beaumont Healths director of infection prevention and epidemiology, said Thursday that COVID-19 admissions to the Southfield-based health system's eight hospitals were approaching 400.
"We're seeing community numbers increase. And I think with more cold weather on the way, with people starting to make plans for the holidays to get together, I think it's an important time just to let everyone know that we've got to stay vigilant," Gilpin said.
Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the state health department, told the Free Press on Tuesday that the state's COVID-19 trends are being monitored closely.
"We are continually reassessing our statewide response to the pandemic," she said. "We urge all Michiganders to employ the mitigation strategies that have been proven to work including vaccination, wearing masks, social distancing, washing their hands and getting tested for COVID-19 and staying home if they are feeling ill."
People who've yet to take COVID-19 vaccines, Sutfin said, are fueling coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths.
Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department registered nurse Dawn Hynds draws a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a community vaccination event at Northport Public School in Northport on Sept. 16, 2021.
Statewide, 73% of cases, 69% of hospitalizations and 74% of deaths from the virus have been among people who were unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated, she said, from Sept. 27-Oct. 26.
When people hear about vaccine breakthough cases, Riney said, "it would be easy to draw a false conclusion that ... the vaccines aren't working."
The average age of fully vaccinated patients at Henry Ford is 10 years older than those who are unvaccinated and hospitalized, Riney said. .
"The majority have some other underlying complex clinical conditions that make them compromised," Riney said. "So the facts really still support that the unvaccinated population is being hit dramatically different than the vaccinated population as it relates to the activity that we're seeing today."
With just 54.1% of the state's population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Riney said Michigan is vulnerable.
Ford employee Chris Yates receives a COVID-19 vaccination shot at Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock on April 19, 2021.
"It's that population that is filling our state's hospitals. And then that allows ... for the virus to live, mutate and persist," he said.
Anyone who is eligible for coronavirus booster shots, hospital leaders say, should get them now. There's a chance eligibility could expand for booster doses in the near future.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC could authorize boosters for all adults by the end of the week, addressing concerns about waning immunity.
While boosters for all U.S. adults might help cut down on breakthrough infections, it won't come soon enough to help Michigan hospitals in crisis now.
As of Monday, 10 Michigan hospitals reported they were at 100% capacity:
Detroit Receiving Hospital & University Health Center
Hurley Medical Center
McLaren Flint
MidMichigan Medical Center - Gratiot
Munising Memorial Hospital
ProMedica Coldwater Regional Hospital
Sparrow Eaton
Spectrum Health Kelsey Hospital
St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea
St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital
Twenty more reported they were at 90% or higher capacity:
Ascension Providence Hospital Novi
Ascension St. Mary's Hospital
Beaumont Hospital - Troy
Beaumont Hospital - Wayne
Beaumont Hospital - Trenton
Covenant Healthcare
Henry Ford Macomb Hospital
McLaren - Macomb
McLaren Greater Lansing
McLaren Northern Michigan - Petoskey
McLaren Port Huron Hospital
Metro Health Hospital
ProMedica CV Hickman Hospital
Sparrow Hospital - Lansing
Spectrum Health - Big Rapids Hospital
Spectrum Health - Blodgett Hospital
Spectrum Health - Butterworth Hospital
Spectrum Health - Pennock Hospital
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital
University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Center
Since the pandemic began, there have been 1,209,712 confirmed cases of the virus and 22,862 COVID-19 deaths in Michigan, according to the state health department.
Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan is now worst COVID hot spot in nation; hospitals at capacity
Princess Eugenie Princess Beatrice
Dave Benett/Getty Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie enjoyed a rare sisters' night on the town.
Queen Elizabeth's two granddaughters attended an intimate dinner hosted by Sofia Blunt to launch the Loci vegan sneaker in aid of Blue Marine Foundation in London on Wednesday. Eugenie, who recently attended the COP26 climate change conference in Scotland, is an ambassador for the ocean protection organization.
Both of the sisters are new moms. Princess Beatrice, 33, welcomed her first child with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, a daughter they named Sienna Elizabeth in tribute to her grandmother, in September. Princess Eugenie, 31, also welcomed her first child this February of this year with husband Jack Brooksbank: a son named August Philip Hawke, honoring their grandfather Prince Philip who died in April at age 99.
RELATED: Princess Beatrice's Daughter Sienna Has Officially Taken Her Place in the Royal Line of Succession
Princess Eugenie and HRH Princess Beatrice
Dave Benett/Getty Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice
Following the arrival of Princess Beatrice's daughter, Princess Eugenie shared a sweet post on Instagram showing their close sibling bond.
"To my dearest Beabea and Edo, Congratulations on your new angel," Eugenie captioned the post. "I can't wait to meet her and I'm so proud of you. We're going to have so much fun watching our children grow up. Love Euge."
The new aunt continued, "To my new niece I love you already and think you're just awesome from the photos.. we're going to have so much fun together. Love your Auntie Euge."
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Beatrice and Eugenie recently traveled to Greece with their husbands to attend the royal wedding of Princess Diana's godson Prince Philippos to Nina Flohr.
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Edo, as Princess Beatrice's husband is called, also shared photos from the trip to Greece on his personal Instagram page at the Acropolis in Athens, including a shot with his son Christopher Woolf (who is known as "Wolfie"). The father and son duo took in the remains of the massive ancient citadel, with Edoardo sporting a hat in the sun while his son rocked green shorts and a striped shirt.
Edo had Wolfie from his previous relationship with American architect and designer Dara Huang. When Princess Beatrice and Edo announced the name of their daughter Sienna Elizabeth, born last month, they included that "Wolfie is the best big brother to Sienna."
Watch: Everything to Know About Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie
Ohio State football will do something familiar on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021.
That's when ESPN's flagship college football show, "College GameDay" will make its 20th appearance in Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio State hasn't hosted the show since 2019 when the Buckeyes beat Penn State 28-17 on Nov. 23. Nearly two years later, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and the rest of the pregame show crew are back.
The last time the show was in Columbus, Eddie George was the guest picker, and he went 9-3 in his picks, including correctly taking the Buckeyes (like he was going pick against OSU) to beat Penn State.
Football fans hold up signs as ESPN College GameDay broadcasted from the Ohio State campus before Saturday's NCAA football game against Penn State at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on November 23, 2019. [Barbara J. Perenic/Dispatch]
GameDay and Ohio State have a history. The first time Ohio State hosted the show was in 1996. OSU beat Penn State in that g, 38-7.
That broadcast was important because GameDay has become known for a tradition that started that day. Corso, the former Indiana head coach, dawned the Brutus the Buckeye head gear as he picked Ohio State to win.
Corso remembered the moment before Ohio State played Alabama in the national title game in January.
It's Corso's final pick of the season
His first-ever headgear pick was Ohio State, and he's taking the Buckeyes again tonight! #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/0uznds5baM College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) January 12, 2021
Here is some more Ohio State, 'College GameDay' history.
How many times has Ohio State won after hosting GameDay?
Ohio State is 14-5 in games that followed the on-campus show.
The last loss came in 2017 when Baker Mayfield threw for 386 yards against Ohio State and won 31-16.
That's the same game Mayfield tried to plant the Oklahoma flag at midfield. Note: The Buckeyes play on a field turf, so it didn't really work.
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Ohio State won its first seven games when hosting "GameDay".
ESPN analysts Kirk Herbstreit, right, and Lee Corso broadcast from the set of ESPN's College Gameday before a NCAA Division I college football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, November 23, 2019 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. [Joshua A. Bickel/Dispatch]
Ohio State's record when hosting 'GameDay' in Columbus
Here are the result for every game that followed Ohio State hosting ESPN College "GameDay":
Oct. 5, 1996: No. 3 Ohio State 38, No, 4 Penn State 7
Oct. 4, 1997: No. 7 Ohio State 23, No, 8 Iowa 7
Oct.3, 1998: No. 1 Ohio State 28, No, 7 Penn State 9
Sept. 12, 2002: No. 6 Ohio State 25, No. 10 Washington State 7
Nov. 23, 2002: No. 2 Ohio State 14, No. 12 Michigan 9
Aug. 30, 2003: No. 2 Ohio State 28, No. 17 Washington 9
Nov. 15, 2003: No. 4 Ohio State 16, No. 11 Purdue 13 (OT)
Sept. 10, 2005: No. 2 Texas 25, No. 4 Ohio State 22
Sept. 23, 2006: No. 1 Ohio State 28, No. 24 Penn State 6
Nov. 18, 2006: No. 1 Ohio State 42, No. 2 Michigan 39
Oct. 25, 2008: No. 3 Penn State 13, No. 10 Ohio State 6
Sept. 12, 2009: No. 3 USC 18, No. 8 Ohio State 15
Nov. 13, 2010: No. 7 Ohio State 38, Penn State 24
Nov. 21, 2015: No. 9 Michigan State 17, No. 2 Ohio State 14
Nov. 26, 2016: No. 2 Ohio State 30, No. 3 Michigan 27 (2 OT)
Sept. 9, 2017: No. 5 Oklahoma 21, No. 2 Ohio State 16
Oct. 28, 2017: No.6 Ohio State 39, No. 2 Penn State 38
Nov. 24, 2018: No. 10 Ohio State 62, No. 4 Michigan 39
Nov. 23, 2019: No. 2 Ohio State 28, No. 9 Penn State 17
The Penn State-Ohio State game has been an "ESPN College GameDay" matchup 11 times, tied for the most in the show's history.
Ohio State-Michigan has been the game six times and Ohio State-Michigan State will make its fifth appearance this weekend.
What's Ohio State's record when a part of ESPN 'College GameDay'?
This is the 51st time Ohio State has been part of the College GameDay Show, either has host or the opponent of the host. Ohio State is 35-15 all-time in those games.
Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How many times has Ohio State hosted GameDay? Some OSU facts
Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert checks election returns in November 2020. The Summit prosecutor's will not to pursue charges in a recent book controversy.
Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert will not face criminal charges following the firestorm he set off in September by demanding the school board resign or face criminal charges over false allegations of allowing child pornography into a college-level class.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh Tuesday released her decision, along with a blistering rebuke of the mayor in a six-page report detailing her offices investigation into the false claim and the scores of threats against school board members that followed.
While my offices report into this matter may seem harsh, the reckless conduct by Hudsons Mayor resulted in threats, fear, and hate-filled words from around the country, Walsh said in a statement.
Walsh, who also lives in Hudson, is a Democrat. Shubert, who holds a ceremonial position as mayor of Hudson, is a Republican.
Timeline: Events in Hudson book controversy following mayor's threat to charge school board
The report, released hours before a regularly scheduled Hudson City Council meeting, for the first time laid out how the issue began at a political fundraiser. (Read the full report at bottom of this story.)
It also suggests the lack of cooperation by two witnesses State Sen. Kristina Roegner and Summit County Domestic Relations Administrative Judge Katarina Cook hindered prosecutors.
Shubert and Cook did not immediately return calls on Tuesday. Roegner, also a Hudson resident, declined to answer questions, but released a statement of her own denying involvement and saying the prosecutor was trying to convict people in the press because she couldn't prove a case in court.
"Naming people in her letter and releasing it to the media is a purposeful and malicious attempt to create harm and borders on prosecutorial misconduct," Roegner said.
What we know: What do 1,200 pages of email supporting, criticizing, threatening Hudson's mayor, school board say?
Shubert was held out as a hero in some national conservative circles after video of his school board ultimatum went viral and was picked up by conservative outlets across the country.
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And the school board was demonized, the report said, some afraid to leave their homes.
Despite Shubert's calls for them to resign, incumbent board members Steve DiMauro, Alisa Wright and David Zuro were reelected earlier this month in the race against conservative challengers Diane Demuynck and Mark Justice.
Both Demuynck and Justice were in favor of more review of books and academic materials, and were anti-mask.
More: Hudson school board race heads down homestretch in turbulent year
How it started
Shubert told investigators he first learned about the book 642 Things to Write About just hours before he called for the resignation of the school board.
Roegner, another Hudson Republican, told him about the book at a fundraiser for a Stow city council member, the report said.
Two of the prompts in the book suggested writing about sex scenes one you would show you mother, and one you wouldnt.
The mayor said he shared images from the book with another Republican, Summit County Domestic Relations Administrative Judge Katarina Cook.
She told him the the book amounted to child pornography, Shubert told the Beacon Journal at the time. Cook later told a reporter she was reacting as a mother not a judge.
The mayor and Roegner left the fundraiser and both headed directly to the school board, the report said.
Roegner, the report said, left before the mayor spoke, saying:
"It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom," Shubert told the board. "I've spoken to a judge this evening. She's already confirmed that. So I'm going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged."
Both City Council members and residents subsequently called on Shubert to apologize for his comments to the board, but he refused.
After the mayor refused to apologize, a group of residents launched a petition drive in early October to recall Shubert from office.
Resident Karen Farkas said she and other organizers decided to stop collecting signatures based on recent election results, feedback they received from some community members and financial reasons.
"Since there is no deadline to collect signatures, the petition drive would resume should the mayor take any actions deemed detrimental to the school board, city officials, residents or the city," Farkas said.
'Extremely troubling'
The report concluded that the book which contains no pictures, drawings or graphics is not pornographic.
Shubert later told investigators he has hearing issues and may not have heard the judge correctly, when he thought she said it was child pornography, the report said.
The judge declined to talk to investigators, the report said.
Yet the report points out that weeks after Shubert gave the ultimatum, when it was clear the book was not child pornography, Shubert appeared to stand by accusations, accepting praise from U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel.
In a Facebook video Oct. 18 just weeks before the school board election Mandel claimed the Hudson school board was "pushing all this inappropriate sexual stuff on little kids in the schools.
Mandel then explained Shubert's ultimatum to the board and said, 'This guy's a hero of mine. He should be a hero of moms and dads, and Judeo-Christian values, and just traditional American values throughout this country."
Shubert, the report said, nods along as Mandel speaks. Then he turns to the camera, waves and says: "Hello everyone. Good to see you."
The report called the repeated embrace of the false claim "extremely troubling."
Repercussions of mayor's claims
During this time, two school board members documented a total of more than 150 calls and emails, which were turned over to police, the report said.
Because of its working relationship with the schools, Hudson police turned the threats over to county prosecutors for an independent investigation, the report said.
School board members told investigators they feared for the safety of themselves and their families, the report said.
They felt apprehensive about leaving their homes, compelled to close their curtains, and had friends who declined to socialize with them based upon fears for their personal safety, the report said.
The Beacon Journal has already detailed many of the threats, some of which called board members perverts, devil worshipers or anti-Semitic slurs or threatened them harm.
Some of the people who made the threats could have been charged with misdemeanors and felonies, including aggravated menacing, ethnic intimidation and other crimes, the report said.
But investigators have so far be unable to figure out who they are. Investigators tracked some of the emails to an encrypted server in Switzerland but dont know who sent them.
They ran into the same issue with some unidentified calls from out of state.
Other calls were vile and offensive including one made from someone who had previously threatened a U.S. Senator but not criminal, the report said.
Is Mayor Shubert to blame?
Prosecutors said its unclear if Shubert acted knowingly or was just a pawn, the report said.
It is clear that Craig Shubert had aided, abetted, and incited these individuals with his baseless unsupported statements that led to these potential crimes, the report said.
Roegner and Cook could have helped investigators sort that out, the report said, but both declined to cooperate.
Should Judge Cook or State Senator Kristina Roegner cooperate and speak with our investigators, we could better evaluate or reevaluate the intent of Craig Shubert, the report said.
Unless that happens, the report found that while Craig Shuberts behavior was ill-advised and inappropriate, there is not sufficient evidence to file criminal charges at this time."
College-level class
Hudson City School District Superintendent Phil Herman Tuesday thanked the prosecutor's office for the investigation.
"The report from that investigation underscores important facts and the conclusion from the Prosecutors Office speaks for itself," he said.
Herman said it's been a "painful time for our school district but also a time when our communitys character emerged in the resounding call for respectful discourse, particularly when difficult concerns are raised.
The report said teachers in Hudson didnt assign specific writing prompts from the book. Students were instead allowed to choose their own prompts.
We have no evidence that any student wrote on any of the prompts in question, the report said, referring to anything sexually explicit.
Even if they had, the book was one of many used in a College Credit Plus creative writing class at Hudson High School, in association with Hiram College.
The class is part of a statewide program allowing high school students to earn college credit for courses approved and taught in a program associated with a college or university.
The program, the report said, started in the fall of 2015 and was recently updated by the Ohio Legislature with a disclaimer that such courses may include material with "graphic, explicit, violent or sexual nature" that will not be modified.
Parents must sign a waiver for their children to enroll in College Credit Plus, acknowledging adult content.
The report points out that Roegner who first raised issues about the writing prompts book with the mayor was one of the sponsors of the bill that included that language.
Read the report
Hudson School Board Report by Darrin Werbeck on Scribd
Roegner statement
The following statement was released by State Sen. Kristina Roegner, who declined to answer questions from reporters.
"Much like the abusive tactics of the U.S. Attorney General to intimidate parents, a rogue county prosecutor is trying to blame parents and elected officials for having the audacity to appear at a public school board meeting to learn more about what is happening inside their taxpayer funded schools.
This so called report issued by the Summit County Prosecutors Office is nothing more than a thinly veiled sham. Indeed, it reads more like a negative campaign attack ad targeting a Mayor who is Republican by a Prosecutor who is Democrat. Sending armed investigators to the homes of over a dozen Hudson residents who dared speak their concerns at the Hudson Board of Education meeting was a disturbingly inappropriate intimidation tactic very much in line with the recent treatment nationally of concerned parents as domestic terrorists. Parents are rightfully concerned about what is taught in our schools and the concerted effort to divorce parents from the classes, coursework, and education of their children.
Regarding any suggestion that I was involved with the Mayors comments or that they were in anyway politically motivated are patently false. Like the Mayor, the majority of parents, staff and school board members, I was genuinely and deeply disturbed by several of the writing prompts in question. I briefly attended a school board meeting consistent with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. I did not speak at the meeting. I was there to listen and hear what parents and teachers had to say about this issue. Due to scheduling constraints, I had to leave prior to public comments. Finally, I did not encourage anyone to email or call members of the school board.
Naming people in her letter and releasing it to the media is a purposeful and malicious attempt to create harm and borders on prosecutorial misconduct. The County Prosecutor is attempting to convict innocent people in the press because she cannot prove her case in a court of law. Individuals are innocent until proven guilty in Ohio unless you are before the Summit County Prosecutor."
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Prosecutor criticizes Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert for sparking threats
Today
Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight
Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Tomorrow
A mainly sunny sky. High 68F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, has said he is filing a report with police in connection with slanderous tape recordings that were allegedly made when municipal officials were discussing property deals.
The mayor insisted at a press conference on Tuesday that the recordings were made with the aim of deposing the city administration.
He insisted that the recordings had been released unlawfully.
Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss told the press conference that the voices on the recording were unknown to him, and he denied the related allegations.
Earlier, Fidesz group leader in Budapest, Zsolt Lang, called for a meaningful investigation to be carried out by a special committee, saying that more and more audio recordings and documents are turning up concerning plans to sell property owned by the municipality.
On Tuesday, the Fidesz-KDNP group in the Budapest assembly repeated its call on Karacsony to convene an extraordinary session of the city assembly for Thursday or Friday to discuss the affair.
On its Facebook page, the group issued a statement accusing Karacsony of refusing to face the facts regarding the discussions in connection with municipal property, and it called on the mayor to commence proper fact-finding regarding the City Hall case.
Update: Oxy Neuron India Pvt Ltd has clarified that they have bagged portable inverters order from Tesla Power USA and not Tesla Inc.
Tesla has placed a bulk order for portable inverters with a Noida-based startup, possibly making first of such deals in the country. Oxy Neuron India Pvt Ltd, incubated at the Startup Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) situated at IIT Kanpur, said on Tuesday that it has bagged its first order of 'Magic Box Smart Inverter' from Tesla India. It later clarified that the order has been received from Tesla Power USA and not Tesla Inc.
The 'Magic Box Smart Inverter' starts at Rs 25,000 and comes in three models of 1KW, 2KW and 3 KW units, claiming to give almost double-battery backup. "We have received our first order of Magic Box Inverter from Tesla India. The government's support to startups is a boost for startups like ours to develop more and more innovative products," said E.R. Ashutosh Verma, Founder of Oxy Neuron.
"The inverter is expected to solve the issue of electricity backup in rural India," he added. The inverter is an Internet of Things (IoT) device that can be managed from a mobile app. It claims the 15-year battery life with the 5-year replaceable guarantee.
"We are thrilled to be part of such innovation which is on way to revamp and begin a new phase in rural India," said Vikash Prakash from IIT Kanpur's SIIC. Oxy Neuron India has innovated solar, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen-based original medical and agricultural products in collaboration with Exalta India.
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Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed the state officials to take strict action against the government employees caught violating the liquor ban.
Sharing more information, Chaitanya Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), said on Tuesday."CM Nitish Kumar chaired a high-level meeting on the liquor ban. He has given instructions to identify and take action against the personnel of police stations that haven`t taken any action regarding the liquor ban."
A total of 32 people died in the state after consuming spurious liquor, the recent death being reported from Muzaffarpur.
Before the meeting, Bihar Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said that everyone knows the opinion of the government on the liquor ban and the meeting is being held to implement the law properly in the state.
BJP leader Jivesh Kumar Mishra said, "We urge all the political parties to come together on this in the public interest. The crime rate has decreased in Bihar after the liquor ban and parties should rise above politics and support this for the welfare of the people."
Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that the crime rate in Bihar has come down after the liquor ban and he stands against liquor.
Meanwhile, slamming Janata Dal United-led Bihar government, over the deteriorating law and order situation, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha on Monday said that a chief minister with 40 seats is incapable to govern the state.
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New Delhi: McDonalds has inked a deal with ITC to include the cigarette-to-FMCG conglomerates B Natural range of mixed fruit beverages with its Happy Meal - one of the most popular food combo in the fast-food chain.
The new Happy Meal combo with B Natural juices will be first available across all McDonalds restaurants in West and South India. Besides the juice, the meal also includes a choice of a McAloo Tikki burger or a McEgg Happy Meal burger and a cup of hot corn, according to a statement by Westlife Development.
Westlife Development is the same company that operates the majority of McDonalds outlets in West and South India. In the past, the quick-service restaurant has experimented with its meal quite a few times to make the combo more wholesome.
For instance, in the US, the company reduced the portion of french fries to add fresh fruits or vegetables to the Happy Meal combo. Notably, Happy Meal is one of the most popular food orders made by children at the fast-food chains outlets across the world.
The company said that the recent addition to the combo is part of McDonalds #25ActsofHappy campaign. With the campaign, the company aims to provide sweet surprises to commemorate 25 years.
Arvind R.P., director of marketing and communications, McDonalds India (West and South), said, At McDonalds, we have always been cognizant of the needs and demands of our ever-evolving consumers. Children are an integral part of the McDonalds family, and we are excited to bring this new wholesome Happy Meal to them." Also Read: Nirmala Sitharaman at CII Summit: Check 7 key takeaways from FMs speech
Previously, the company had launched the Good Food Journey initiative in 2018, according to a report by Mint. The Indian firm said that it reportedly re-engineered its existing menu to make it more wholesome and nutritious". Also Read: Tarsons Products IPO: Initial offer subscribed 77.49 times on last day of issue
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New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal, on Wednesday, November 17, pointed out his concerns about the ongoing air pollution and poor air quality in Delhi and surrounding areas.
Mittal said, We talk about 5 million people dying of the pandemic; we dont talk about how many people have been choked around the world." He highlighted that he would fly back to Delhi which is covered in smog.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore the business tycoon said that We cant live like this. He also pointed out that the world has completely pivoted to the need to tackle climate change.
Taking note of the disparities in the approaches to curb air pollution, Mittal said, "You cant have the disparities we are seeing today. The whole approach of being insular and looking after your own countries, your own communities, needs to stop".
We are actually moving in a reverse direction right now, where wealthy nations are taking care of themselves. Large parts of the world are unvaccinated today. We need to turn this clock back into more cooperation, common prosperity for the world, rather than a few select nations," he was quoted as saying by Mint.
The air quality in Delhi has remained in the 'very poor' category for the past few days. On Tuesday, November 16, the air quality remained in the 'very poor' category for the third consecutive day. Also Read: Post Office FD Scheme: Claim tax benefits under Section 80C, grow your money without market fluctuation worries
The national capitals overall air quality index (AQI) at 6:20 AM on Tuesday was at 331, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). Also Read: Yamaha YZF-R15S V3.0 launched in India with a unibody seat variant, Priced at Rs 1.57 lakh for Racing Blue colour
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Mumbai: For the second time in a week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday expressed his concerns over cryptocurrencies, saying there are "far deeper issues" involved in virtual currencies that could pose a threat to the country's economic and financial stability.
The statement comes within a few days of the Prime Minister holding a meeting on the cryptocurrencies amid worries over misleading claims of huge returns on cryptocurrency investment.
On Monday, PTI had reported that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance discussed the pros and cons of crypto finance with various stakeholders, and several members were in favour of regulating crypto currency exchanges rather than an outright ban on such currencies.
The government is likely to introduce a bill on cryptocurrencies during the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29, according to the PTI report.
While addressing the 8th SBI Banking and Economic Conclave, Das pointed out that when the RBI says it has serious concerns on crypto currencies, there are far deeper issues involved and a deeper discussion is needed.
"When the RBI, after due internal deliberation, says that there are serious concerns on macro economic and financial stability, there are deeper issues, which need much deeper discussions and much more well informed discussions,? he noted.
On the recent meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on crypto currencies, Das said he was not privy to what the Standing Committee discussed and deliberated.
The governor doubted the current trading numbers in crypto currencies and said the investors are being lured to open accounts by offering credit.
"We have received a lot of feedback that credit has been provided to open accounts and various other kinds of incentives are being provided to open accounts, but the total account balance is just about Rs 500, Rs 1,000 or Rs 2,000, and that covers about 70 to 80% of the accounts," he said.
Das, however, said the value of transactions and trading in virtual currencies has gone up but the number of accounts is exaggerated.
The RBI governor at an event on Wednesday last had said that new-age currencies pose serious threats to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country and also doubted the number of investors trading on them as well their claimed market value.
On March 4, 2021, the Supreme Court had set aside an RBI circular of April 6, 2018, prohibiting banks and entities regulated by it from providing services in relation to virtual currencies.
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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday (November 17) reiterated that Indias economy is witnessing an uptick. Speaking on the sidelines of the CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2021, she said that the industry should now start taking risks and invest in capacity creation that will help cut reliance on imports.
Here are the top 7 takeaways from Nirmala Sitharamans speech at CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2021:
Economic Recovery
One of the major points on which the finance minister spoke about was the revival of Indias economy after the pandemic-driven slowdown. Sitharaman said that there are clear signs of an uptick in the economy.
Appeal to Industry
She also appealed to the industry to increase the capacity without any delay. I appeal to the industry not to further delay increasing capacity, not to further delay looking at areas to partner in technology, she said.
Offer more jobs
Sitharaman also appealed to the industry to offer more jobs to reduce income disparity and cut down on importing finished goods reduce and instead ramp up investment in manufacturing.
Take Risks
She also urged the industry to take more risks to improve Indias growth. At a time when India is looking at the impetus to growth, I want Indian industry to be a lot more risk-taking and understand what India wants, she said.
Become Self-Reliant
At the Global Economic Policy Summit 2021, Sitharaman said that India must become more self-reliant, after the pandemic disrupted supply chains and showed the risks of depending on exports for essential risks.
Reduce Dependency
She also urged that India should aim to reduce dependency on other countries. "Even as we want to be linked with the global value chains, we have to understand and take cognizance of the risks it has posed us," Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said India had to import protective equipment and testing kits during the initial phase of the pandemic. She also added India will need to build manufacturing centres at scale to reduce dependency in the future. Also Read: IT Department conducts searches in relation to fintech company offering loans via mobile app
Hailed Indias Startup Ecosystem
Sitharaman said that the startup ecosystem in India and hailed the 36 companies that turned unicorns in the past 12 months. Also Read: RBI slaps penalty on Shri Kanyaka Nagari Sahakari Bank, Chandrapur, here's why
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New Delhi: The Haryana government on Wednesday (November 17) announced that schools will resume physical classes with 100 per cent capacity from December 1.
Schools in Haryana to resume classes with 100 per cent capacity from December 1: State Govt ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2021
Haryana had reopened schools for classes 4 and 5 on September 1. For grade 9 to 12 students, the physical classes commenced from July 16, and for Classes 6 to 8 from July 23. The state government had resumed classes for 1 to 3 students from September 20.
Earlier, schools in Haryana had reopened for Classes 9 to 12 from July 16 amid decline in COVID-19 cases.
Notedly, the Haryana government on Sunday had closed all schools till November 17 in view of alarming air pollution.
The Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas on Tuesday convened a meeting with the Centre, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, and emerged with a slew of emergency steps to tackle air pollution.
In the Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, proposed steps to deal with air pollution including banning entry of all trucks in the national capital except vehicles carrying essential goods, shutting of schools and 50 per cent attendance in offices of GNCTD to reduce air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
Meanwhile, Haryana reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the caseload to 7,71,463, according to the Health Department's bulletin on Tuesday. With no coronavirus-related death reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll remained unchanged at 10,051. Presently, there are 123 active COVID-19 cases in the state.
(With agency inputs)
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 17, 2021) appointed a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
The top court said that the appointment of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain has been made to ensure transparency, fairness, and absolute impartiality.
The SC also reconstituted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and included three senior IPS officers, who are not natives of Uttar Pradesh. SB Shirodkar, Deepinder Singh and Padmaja Chauhan were named in it.
The apex court will now hear the case next after the charge sheet is filed and a report is received from the retired judge.
The development comes after the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday had agreed to the Supreme Court's suggestion that a former judge of its choice may be appointed to supervise the state SIT's probe on a day-to-day basis into the case. The top court, while taking note of the state's consent, had red-flagged the issue of involvement of mostly low-ranking police officers in the ongoing SIT probe in the case and had sought names of IPS officers, who are of UP cadre but not the native of the state, for being included in the investigation team.
Prior to this, the bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana 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 a day-to-day basis.
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 the probe into the case.
This is to be noted that the police have so far arrested 13 accused, including Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra, in connection with the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight persons including four farmers were killed during a farmers' protest.
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New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested seven persons in connection with the online child sexual abuse case following searches at 77 locations across 14 states around the country.
The seven accused were arrested from various places including Delhi, Dhenkanal (Odisha), Noida (U.P.), Jhansi (U.P.), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) in the ongoing investigation.
The CBI alleged that the accused were sharing the links of Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) videos on certain websites.
The agency has filed 23 separate cases on the allegations related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Initial findings suggest that network spread across various continent and nationals of Pakistan, Canada, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Yaman, Egypt, Ghana, America, UK and Belgium are involved, said CBI in a statement.
A special unit Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/ Investigation (OCSAE) was created in CBI for matters pertaining to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As per initial information collected there are more than 50 groups having more than 5000 offenders sharing child sexual abuse material. Many of these groups also have involvement of foreign nationals. It is initially learnt that there may be involvement of nationals of around 100 countries spread across various continents, the agency said.
A number of electronic gadgets/mobiles/laptops etc. have so far been recovered during searches, it added.
The CBI said that it is coordinating with its sister agencies through formal and informal channels to carry out the investigation.
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Washington: China is engaged in a "border war" with India and is posing a grave threat to its neighbours, top Republican lawmaker John Cornyn has told the US Senate, giving details of his visit to New Delhi and Southeast Asia to understand the challenges faced by countries in the region.
Senator John Cornyn, who is also the India Caucus Co-Chair, and his Congressional colleagues have just returned from a visit to India and Southeast Asia to get firsthand experience of the challenges being posed by China.
The most urgent and grave threats are against countries closer to China's borders, Cornyn told members of the Senate on Tuesday. Last week, I had the chance to lead a congressional delegation visiting Southeast Asia to gain a better understanding of the threats and challenges in the region, he said.
It (China) threatens freedom of navigation in international waters, and it's guilty of gross human rights abuses against its own people, namely the Muslim minority Uyghurs. It's engaged in a border war with India and it threatens to invade the Republic of China, otherwise known as Taiwan, Cornyn said.
Cornyn said that they travelled to India where "we met with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and Cabinet officials to discuss threats posed by China as well as other shared priorities.
The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.
As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area in August and in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in February.
However, India and China failed to make any headway at their 13th round of military talks on October 10 in resolving the standoff in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.
In the Philippines, he said, they caught a ride on a navy aircraft in disputed waters. Within minutes of leaving Philippine airspace, they spotted a Chinese spy ship engaged in intelligence-gathering operations off the Philippine coast.
Cornyn said that during the visit, "one of the main topics was the timetable for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan."
"In every way possible, Taiwan is a stark contrast to the People's Republic of China. It's a true democracy, with elections whose results are not predetermined. It's a free-market economy that adheres to the rule of law, and it shares the same basic values we embrace in the United States -- freedom of speech, freedom of press, religion, and assembly, he said.
During the trip, Cornyn said he and his colleagues had the opportunity to hear from the military leadership and key foreign partners in the region and gain a better understanding of ongoing and anticipated security threats mainly from China.
China has already co-opted a formerly democratic Hong Kong; that's building missile batteries and aircraft runways for its bombers on artificial islands in the South China Sea, he said.
Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square miles South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars of international trade pass each year. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China has impeded commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the ownership of territory belonged to China for hundreds of years.
Over the last five years, China has rapidly built artificial islands housing significant military infrastructure on what had been low-lying reefs. The United States has criticised China for militarising the islands by constructing long runways used by jet fighters and deploying anti-aircraft missiles.
The US insists that freedom of navigation has to be maintained in the South China Sea and has been sending military flights, naval patrols and training missions around the strategically vital region.
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Lucknow: Hectic political activities have picked up in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the state assembly elections next year. From issues of public interest to populist announcements, the process of highlighting issues has begun in the right earnest. However, even as the opposition parties make their own claims, various initiatives rolled out by the Uttar Pradesh government in promoting micro, small and medium scale industries (MSMEs) is overshadowing all other issues.
And not without reason too. In the last four-and-a-half years, 76,73,488 people have got loans of Rs 2,42,028 crore for doing business in the MSME sector under the Yogi government. Due to the efforts of the government, about two crore people have got employment from the loans given to this sector. And it is for this reason that no matter what opposition parties claim or say, they are not able to reach out to among the businessmen who are rock-solid in their backing of the state government.
The MSME sector of the state is making a new record in the country. 14 per cent of the units of the country are housed in UP and due to the industrial policies of the state government, investment in this sector is increasing continuously. New MSME units are being established in every district. Even during the global crisis of Corona, more than one-and-a-half lakh new units were installed in this sector.
Due to the special attention given by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a new core vote bank of MSME businessmen in UP is ready for the BJP. Taking cognizance of this, people associated with the business world are saying that this sector will also play an important role in the upcoming elections.
There is also a reason for this claim of people associated with the business world. When Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took over the reins of UP in the year 2017, the business activities in UP were sluggish and lacklustre. The condition of the MSME sector was also in the doldrums. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath decided to improve the industrial environment of the state and he rolled out many policies to promote industrial investment.
He got the Investor Summit organised and emphasized providing loans to entrepreneurs to set up their units in the MSME sector. The Chief Minister's initiative had both immediate and far-reaching consequences. In the Investor Summit, 1045 investors submitted investment proposals worth Rs 4.28 lakh crore to the government.
Out of this, more than three lakh crore rupees are being invested in Noida and many other districts. Similarly, a large number of people showed interest in setting up their units in the MSME sector. Seeing the enthusiasm shown by the MSME sector in the state for setting up new units, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved the setting up of MSME Park to bring in maximum investment in this sector.
Under this, the state's first MSME park is being set up in Sectors 29 and 32 of Yamuna Expressway Development Authority (YIDA). Apart from this, soon similar parks are being built in Agra, Kanpur, Moradabad, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur. These six districts have a large number of MSME units.
Along with these steps being taken for the development of this sector, the state government did not allow any MSME unit to be closed even during the Corona pandemic. Then, the industrial lockdown was not done to save the life and livelihood of the government. This decision of the government has proved to be a lifeline for the MSME units of the state. The new entrepreneurs of the state established new units, showing entrepreneurship even in this tragedy.
According to government figures, MSME is the most important sector after the agriculture sector in terms of providing employment in UP. In terms of the number of MSMEs, the share of Uttar Pradesh in the country is 14.2 per cent. Through the MSME sector, the state has been exporting more than Rs 1.14 lakh crore for three consecutive years.
How the Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath has given priority to MSMEs of UP can also be understood from these government figures. In the financial year 2016-17, during the SP government, 6,35,583 MSMEs were provided loans worth Rs 27,2 02 crores. Whereas in 2017 as soon as the government changed, in the financial year 2017-18, a loan of Rs 41,193 crore was provided to 7,87,572 MSMEs in the Yogi government.
In the financial year 2018-19, 10,24,265 MSME entrepreneurs have been given loans worth Rs 47,764 crore and in 2019-20, Rs 62,831 crore has been given to 17,45,472 MSME entrepreneurs. In the financial year 2020-21, 34,80,596 MSME units have been provided loans worth Rs 63,038 crore. 16,002 crore loans have been provided to 1,25,408 new MSME units from 1st April to 10th November this year.
According to these figures of the government, 89.99 lakh MSMEs are registered in the sector in the state. There are three to five functions in one MSME unit. More than four crore people are employed in the MSME sector. From the year 2016 till now, loans worth Rs 2,42,028 crore have been provided to 76,73,488 people in the MSME sector in the state.
Taking cognizance of these figures of the MSME sector, industrial organizations claim that big and small entrepreneurs will play an important role in the upcoming elections. Chetan Bhalla, an ice cream trader associated with IIA, says, in the last four and a half years, the business society has been taken care of from the level of the government, the government has paid attention to making them easily available from land to loans to set up enterprises.
Due to this record investment came in the state and a large number of people got employment. Industries did not suffer from recession. Overall, it can be said that the efforts of the government in the MSME sector of UP have strengthened. To maintain this situation, the MSME sector will play an important role in the upcoming elections. MSME sector thus is not the only flagship of the state government but an out-and-out winner and a game-changer for the state.
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Washington: The US has issued a level two and three travel advisories for India and Pakistan, saying while American citizens are urged to reconsider travel to Pakistan due to terrorism and sectarian violence, those going to India must exercise increased caution due to crime and terrorism.
In its advisory issued on Monday for India, the US State Department urged US citizens not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir due to terrorism and civil unrest, and also within 10 kilometres of the India-Pakistan border due to the potential for armed conflict.
"Indian authorities report rape is one of the fastest-growing crimes in India. Violent crimes, such as sexual assault, has occurred at tourist sites and in other locations," it said.
Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and government facilities, it said.
The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in rural areas from eastern Maharashtra and northern Telangana through western West Bengal as US government employees must obtain special authorisation to travel to these areas, the notice said.
The department in its advisory for Pakistan urged US citizens not to travel to Balochistan province and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, including the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), due to terrorism and kidnapping, and also in the immediate vicinity of the Line of Control due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.
"Terrorist groups continue plotting attacks in Pakistan. A local history of terrorism and ongoing ideological aspirations of violence by extremist elements have led to indiscriminate attacks on civilians as well as local military and police targets," it said.
"Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting transportation hubs, markets, shopping malls, military installations, airports, universities, tourist locations, schools, hospitals, places of worship, and government facilities," it said.
Terrorists have targeted US diplomats and diplomatic facilities in the past, the advisory on Pakistan said.
Pakistan's security environment has improved since 2014 when Pakistani security forces undertook concerted counter-terrorist and counter militant operations. There are greater security resources and infrastructure in the major cities, particularly Islamabad, and security forces in these areas may be more readily able to respond to an emergency compared to other areas of the country. While threats still exist, terrorist attacks are rare in Islamabad, the advisory said.
The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. Citizens in Pakistan due to the security environment, it said.
Indo-Pak relations deteriorated after India announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories in August 2019. The move angered Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties with India and expelled the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad.
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New Delhi: On November 15, a passenger travelling on a Delhi-Mumbai IndiGo flight developed some serious health complaints. When Union Minister of State for Economy Dr Bhagwat Karad, who was also travelling on the same plane, came to know about the situation, without delaying or worrying about any ministerial protocol, he helped the passenger.
Dr Karad's action received wide appreciation and on Tuesday (November 16), Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised his "great gesture". "A doctor at heart, always! Great gesture by my colleague," Modi said. The Indigo airline also offered its gratitude and sincere appreciation to the minister and said his voluntary support for helping out a fellow passenger is ever so inspiring.
A doctor at heart, always! Great gesture by my colleague @DrBhagwatKarad. https://t.co/VJIr5WajMH Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 16, 2021
A release from the office of the Union minister of state for finance here said the passenger complained of giddiness mid-air due to a blood pressure issue and Karad reached out and provided first aid.
See the video by clicking here.
The minister helped stabilise the passenger after he fell down, the release from the office of the Union minister of state for finance added.
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Kashmir: Five terrorists including The Resistance Front (TRF) commander killed in twin encounters in two villages of Kulgam district of south Kashmir.
Security forces claim that they have killed five terrorists including a TRF commander in two separate encounters in two villages of south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
Two encounters took place at Pombay and Gopalpora villages of Kulgam district.
A police officer said Joint team of Police, army and CRPF launched a Cordon and Search Operation on specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Pombay and Gopalpora villages. Both villages are located adjacent to each other. He added as the searching party cordoned the suspected spot, exchange of fire happened and an encounter started.
Jammu & Kashmir: An encounter is going on between security forces and terrorists in Pombai area of Kulgam Three terrorists have been killed in the encounter, as per Kashmir Zone Police (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/xbnYNDgLdf ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2021
First contact was established with terrorist in Pombay village and after 20 minutes another contact got established in Gopalpora village.
In those two encounters, three terrorists were killed in Pombay and two were killed in Gopalpora, IGP Kashmir said, adding that all five killed terrorists are believed to be locals.
GP Kashmir Vijay Kumar in a tweet said that TRF commander Afaq Sikandar is among two militants killed in Gopalpora.
Both the operation ended and police claimed that they have also recovered arms and ammunition from the twin encounter spots.
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Kolkata: The BSF on Wednesday (November 17) sought to allay the misgiving about extension of its jurisdiction bringing it into conflict with state police, insisting the border guarding force does not have policing powers or authority to register an FIR and investigate a case. Additional Director General of the force YB Khurania also trashed as "baseless" the claim of a ruling TMC MLA in West Bengal that male troopers molest women while frisking them, underlining that only women personnel body-search females.
The officer said the BSF coordinates with all state agencies for securing the international border. "The impression in some quarters that the notification would bring BSF in conflict with state police is baseless. The enhanced jurisdiction will help BSF to strengthen the hands of the police. BSF has no policing powers as it does not have powers to register FIR or to carry out an investigation," Khurania told a press conference.
His assertions came a day after the West Bengal assembly passed a resolution against the Centre's decision to extend BSF's jurisdiction, dubbing the step as an "attack" on the country's federal structure as law and order is a state subject, becoming the second state after Punjab to do so. The central government recently amended the BSF Act to authorise the force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a larger 50 km stretch, instead of 15 km, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.
Khurania said there are "vested interests" in border areas who do not want the hands of the BSF and state police to be strengthened for managing trans-border crimes better. "The powers given to the BSF are very limited. The apprehensions of interference are uncalled for. Even now, when we conduct raids, we inform the state police and are also accompanied by them," he said.
The enhanced jurisdiction is an enabling provision aimed at strengthening efforts of State Police. BSF has been acting in close coordination with police to conduct Ops, patrolling, deploying joint Nakas & establishing Anti Human Trafficking units along Indo-Bangladesh border: BSF ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2021
The officer, while touching upon the issue of alleged molestation of women in border areas, said the BSF is a disciplined force and any act of misdemeanour is not taken lightly. "We have mahila praharis (women guards) in the eastern command who are used for frisking women. We have CCTVs. Unfortunately, such things are being said. BSF is a disciplined force. Any act of misdemeanour is not taken lightly. If proven, stringent action is taken. Whenever such an incident takes place we order inquiries and we also inform police. We have a zero-tolerance policy on such matters," he asserted.
TMC MLA Udayan Guha had, in his speech in the assembly on Tuesday, alleged BSF personnel touch women "inappropriately" under the pretext of frisking operations. "We have seen the kind of atrocities that BSF perpetrates on people. A child who has witnessed his mother being touched inappropriately under the garb of frisking, when she returns from the field, can never be patriotic, no matter how many times you chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' in front of him," Guha had said, provoking denunciation by the BJP, which termed his comments an "insult" to security forces.
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New Delhi: Amid outrage over the Hyderpora encounter, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday (November 17) held agitation along with party leaders against the alleged killing of civilians.
Protesting outside the PDP office, Mufti as quoted by ANI said, "I am protesting because this government kills civilians in the name of militancy. Nobody knows if militants are being killed. Three civilians have been killed recently. The government refuses to hand over their dead bodies to the families despite the latter's demand.
I am protesting because this govt kills civilians in the name of militancy. Nobody knows if militants are being killed; 3 civilians have been killed recently. Govt refuses to hand over their dead bodies to the families despite the latter's demand: PDF chief Mehbooba Mufti pic.twitter.com/nQStxVg5Jb ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2021
Mufti told mediapersons that the kin of the slain civilians are holding protests in Srinagar and demanding handover of their bodies.
As per PTI, the PDP chief alleged that since the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was enforced, there has been no accountability for the killings of the innocents.
The protest comes after four people, including two civilians, were killed in a gunfight by security forces during an anti-terror operation on Monday evening.
Earlier on Tuesday, the former J&K Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had demanded a judicial inquiry into the Hyderpora encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. "It is unfortunate that three civilians were killed in the (Hyderpora) encounter. It has become a fashion to brand civilians killed in encounters as OGWs. They have no proof to show that they were Over Ground Workers (OGWs). Such incidents cause more anger among people against us. We want a judicial inquiry into this incident. Strict punishment should be given to the guilty," Mufti had said.
As per the J&K police, Haider, a Pakistani terrorist, and his local associate Mohammad Amir, along with two civilians - Altaf Bhat and Mudassir Gul - were killed in an encounter in Hyderpora locality, where an illegal call centre and a terror hideout were allegedly being run.
(With agency inputs)
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For the next two days, as many as seven-eight states/UTs will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in isolated area, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. Andaman & Nicobar Islands, coastal and south interior Karnataka, north Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana - these places will receive showers in isolated places today (November 17) and tomorrow (November 18).
In a press release dated November 16, IMD stated light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over coastal and south interior Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Puducherry & Karaikal and Coastal Andhra Pradesh during next 5 days and over Rayalaseema during next 3 days. Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Tamilnadu, Puducherry & Karaikal and Coastal Andhra Pradesh today, November 17, and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls over north Tamilnadu, Puducherry & Karaikal and south Coastal Andhra Pradesh on November 18 are also expected.
In Goa, both north and south, thunderstorm accompanied with lightning are expected in isolated places.
Strong winds (speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph) very likely over southwest Bay of Bengal, along and off south Andhra Pradesh-north Tamilnadu coasts on November 17 and 18. Strong winds (speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph) very likely over eastcentral Arabian Sea along and off Maharashtra coast on 17th; over Eastcentral Arabian Sea on 18th and over Central and adjoining north Arabian Sea on 19th November, 2021. The IMD has alerted fishermen not to venture into these above area.
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The Civil Aviation Ministry of India (MoCA) has allowed airlines to serve hot meals on all domestic flights. The air carriers were barred from serving in-flight meals, which have a duration of less than two hours, since April 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry has also permitted resumption of magazine and reading materials for passengers on domestic flights, the order noted.
"The airlines, operating flights on domestic sectors may provide meal services on board, without restriction on duration of the flight," the ministry's order said on Tuesday. The decision to resume meals and magazines has been taken as "Covid caseload" has reduced due to "proper implementation of appropriate Covid behaviour protocol", it mentioned.
When the scheduled domestic flight services were resumed on May 25 last year after the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, the ministry had allowed the airlines to serve in-flight meals under certain conditions.
Earlier, Vistara, a Tata-SIA alliance airliner announced to re-introduced in-flight meals across cabins on its domestic network. The domestic airline has also resumed serving hot vegetarian meals in the Economy Class on its flights within India. Vistara has laid out a detailed plan to keep the inflight menu new and refreshed. As per the company, a lot of travellers preferred Vistara over other domestic airlines due to good quality in-flight meal. Vistara says they will be refreshing meals every three days which includes options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
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In Economy Class, breakfast options include Masala Uttappam, Medu Vada, Idli with sambar etc.; lunch and dinner options include Vegetable Biryani with Dal Makhani, Jeera Pulao with Chana Masala, and more; while Masala Pao with Bhaji, Hot Garlic Vegetables with Noodles, etc. will be served as snacks on relevant flights.
Apart from Vistara, the other brands serving fresh hot meals in the cabin were Air India and Air Asia, all three belonging to the Tata Group. Other brands like IndiGo and SpiceJet serve pre-packed meals and stopped selling fresh food including sandwiches during COVID-19.
With inputs from PTI
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New York: Underlining that Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against New Delhi, India at United Nations Security Council slammed Islamabad for raking up the Kashmir issue and called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation.
"I would like to categorical about India`s position, the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation," Dr Kajal Bhat, Counsellor at India`s Permanent Mission to the UN, said on Tuesday (local time).
#WATCH | Counsellor/Legal Adviser at India's Permanent Mission to the UN Dr Kajal Bhat in a strong response slamming Pakistan for again raking up the Kashmir issue at the UNSC pic.twitter.com/AmbBMFTIU1 ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2021
"I am constrained to take the floor once again to respond to some frivolous remarks made by the representative of Pakistan earlier today," Bhat said before beginning her response at UNSC.
Stressing that this is not the first time that the representative of Pakistan has misused platforms provided by the UN to propagate falls and malicious propaganda against India, Bhat said that Pakistan`s representatives "sought in vain to divert the world`s attention from the sad state of his country, where the terrorist enjoy free pass by the lives of ordinary people especially those belonging to the minority communities are turned upside down.
"She also emphasised that member states are aware that Pakistan has an established history and policy of harbouring, aiding and actively supporting terrorists. "This is the country that has been globally recognised as one openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists as a matter of state policy," Bhat said.
India`s Counsellor also underlined that Pakistan "holds the ignoble record of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UNSC".
Stating that New Delhi desires normal neighbourly relations with all countries including Pakistan, she said that India is "committed to addressing outstanding issues if any, bilaterally and peacefully in accordance with the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration".
"However, any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror hostility and violence," Bhat said.
Stressing that the onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere, she said, till then India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross border terrorism.
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New Delhi: The Embassy of Israel in partnership with NGO KHUSHII and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute has organised Womens Health Clinic in urban slums of South Delhi and North Delhi between November 15 and 19.
The initiative aims to increase awareness of women's health issues including cancer prevention and early detection that are important to effective treatment.
An Israeli medical delegation from Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre came to India to take part in the clinic. It was led by Dr Ronit Almog, a senior obstetric & gynecologist. The delegation included four senior physicians who are specialists in the field of womens health - obstetric & gynecologist, women oncologist and breast surgeon.
Ambassador of Israel to India HE Naor Gilon expressed gratitude to doctors, community health specialists and all partners involved in organising the five-day event.
We are happy to be part of this important collaboration that promotes womens health and awareness education. Israel and India share strong values of friendship, but as important are the relations between the Indian and Israeli people. Through cooperation and the combination of India and Israels medical prowess, we can find effective solutions that will help both peoples, as well as the world, said Gilon.
The health clinics were organised for five days in Sangam Vihar, South Delhi, and Mukandpur, North Delhi.
The clinics provided, free of cost, services including blood pressure, blood sugar check-ups, physician check-ups, disbursement of medicines, gynecological check-ups and pap smear tests were also conducted. Upon examination, individuals who needed further tests and attention were referred to specialist doctors for free diagnosis and treatment at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute.
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NEW DELHI: The independent news and digital content monitoring body, News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has dismissed a complaint lodged by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) against a programme aired on Zee News.
On November 13, 2021, News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBSA), formerly known as News Broadcasting & Standards Authority (NBSA), dismissed the Complaint filed by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) against a programme aired by Zee News on alleged illegal occupation of land by Muslims in J&K.
The NBDSA dismissed the complaint on the ground that the same is barred by limitation and the delay cannot be condoned by the authority. It may be noted that the CJP had filed a complaint against a Zee News show titled, "DNA: Jammu mein zameen ke islamikaran ka DNA test.
In its complaint, the CJP had claimed that the Zee News anchor showed the viewers a Jihad diagram propagating various types of jihad in the country categorizing them as soft jihad and hard jihad.
The complainant further alleged that in a country that is walking a tight rope when it comes to dealing with communal issues, such a brazen display of cooked up concepts and types of Jihad is an attempt to create and propagate Islamophobia amongst the masses.
Questioning the intent of the show, the CJP alleged that the show put forth a point that 90 % per cent of land in Jammu is owned by Muslims despite it being a Hindu majority region and that the anchor termed it as a conspiracy to turn Hindu-populated Jammu into a Muslim dominated region.
Responding to the complaint, the NBDSA called the broadcaster and the complainants for a hearing on 28 October 2021. Advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Yugant Sharma appeared for Zee Media before the NBDSA and opposed the complaint claiming that the same was barred by limitation and the CJP did not disclose the said fact and even did not file an application seeking condonation of delay along with the complaint.
Thereafter, the CJP filed an application for condonation of delay and the reply to the same was filed by Zee News.
Counsel appearing for the complainant stated that the complainant reiterated that in the first instance there was a delay of 6 days and at the second instance there was a delay of 2 days, the reasons of which had been sufficiently explained and therefore, the delay should not stand as a bar to ensuring that the ends of justice are met, especially since the delay was not intentional and was beyond the complainant's control.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal while opposing the application for condonation of delay argued that the complaint was filed by CJP against the show that was broadcast on 11 March 2020 on 24 March 2020 - that is 13 days after the show was aired, however, the complaint has to be made within 7 days from the date of the first broadcast till 18.03.2020, as per the mandate of proviso of Regulation 8.1.6. of the NBDSA Regulations, therefore, the delay is wholly unexplained.
Zee News counsels further argued that the complaint by the CJP was made to the broadcaster on 24.03.2020 and the period for filing of reply was within 7 days but the same was not filed and thereafter complaint was to be filed within 14 days after 7 days till 14.04.2020 as per the mandate of Regulation 8.2 of the NBDSA Regulations.
But the complaint was filed with the Authority on 16.04.2020 - 2 days after the expiry of the period prescribed by the regulations, which clearly shows negligent conduct and deliberate inaction on part of the complainant.
Considering the submissions of the legal counsels appearing for the parties, NBDSA dismissed the complaint and noted that under the News Broadcasting Standards Authority Regulations (Regulations), it had to consider whether it had the power to condone the delay in filing the complaints at three levels of redressal of grievances.
First, at the broadcaster level, under Proviso 1 to Regulation 8.1.6 when the complaint is to be made to the broadcaster within 7 days from the date of the first broadcast. Secondly, at the second level of redressal, under Regulation 8.2 within 14 days from the date of receipt of a response from the broadcaster or in the alternative if the broadcaster fails to respond, within 14 days from the date when the period of 7 working days provided to the broadcaster to respond expires.
And third, at the time of issuance of show cause notice by NBDSA to the broadcaster under Regulation 8.7.
NBDSA observed it is clear that there is no power vested with it to condone the delay of a complaint filed with the broadcaster, which is beyond the period of 7 days from the date of broadcast, as the said provisions do not specifically give the Authority any power to condone the delays in filing complaints.
In view of the fact that NBDSA has no powers under the Regulations to condone any delay in filing of a complaint at the first level of redressa1, NBDSA could not entertain the same on merits. NBDSA, therefore, decided to dismiss the complaint filed by CJP on the ground that it was filed beyond the period of limitation permitted under the regulations.
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (November 18) will deliver a keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue on the theme India's technology evolution and revolution.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, Modi will deliver the address at The Sydney Dialogue on November 18 around 9 am. An initiative of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, The Sydney Dialogue is being organised from November 17-19.
As per PTI, the PM will speak on the theme of India's technology evolution and revolution, following introductory remarks by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Australian PM and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will also deliver keynote address at the event.
The Sydney Dialogue aims to bring together political, business and government leaders to debate, generate new ideas, and work towards common understandings of the opportunities and challenges posed by emerging and critical technologies, the news agency reported.
On Wednesday, Australian PM Morrison termed Bengaluru the world's fastest-growing technology hub and announced a new Consulate General in Karnatakas capital city. "I'm pleased to let you know that Australia is also seeking to establish a new Consulate General in Bengaluru," Morrison said at The Sydney Dialogue. "Bengaluru is the world`s fastest-growing technology hub - of course we want to be part of it. It is home to a third of India`s unicorn companies," ANI quoted him as saying.
Further, Morrison said that India and Australia are already cooperating on cyber security, critical and emerging technologies, critical minerals, digital economy. "There is much we can do with India in this area - some of which I have already touched on today, including as part of our Quad partnership," he added.
(With agency inputs)
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Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off vehicles for the first phase of the Ration Aapke Gram scheme, aimed at delivering a monthly quota of PDS ration to beneficiaries from Janjatiya community in their own villages every month.
"We will cover 89 tribal-dominated blocks of the state," said the Chief Minister.
MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off vehicles
for Ist phase of Ration Aapke Gram scheme, aimed at delivering monthly quota of PDS Ration to beneficiaries from janjatiya community in their own villages every month We'll cover 89 tribal-dominated blocks of the State: CM Chouhan pic.twitter.com/3iojsrlkjc ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2021
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the `Ration Aapke Gram` scheme in Madhya Pradesh. It is aimed at delivering the monthly quota of PDS Ration to beneficiaries from the Janjatiya community in their own villages every month so that they don`t have to travel to the Fair Price Shop to collect their ration.
The state government had organised Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas Mahasammelan at Jamburi Maidan, Bhopal, where the Prime Minister launched multiple initiatives for the welfare of the Janjatiya community.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan thanked the Prime Minister for his decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Lord Birsa Munda as `Janjatiya Gaurav Divas`.
Shivraj told ANI, "I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Lord Birsa Munda as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas. It`s the proper display of valour of our tribal warriors. I thank the Prime Minister for portraying the contributions of numerous freedom fighters correctly."
(With Agency Inputs)
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Hyderabad: Grappling with good production of rice in last Kharif and Rabi season while sizeable percentage of it unable to find its way to Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns apart from facing political backlash and a possible farmers' ire, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his urgent intervention for clear rice procurement policy.
The FCI is following certain policies which are creating confusion in the minds of farmers and as well as the state governments. The target of procurement is not fixed for the entire year in one go. Even though the production is increasing year by year, the procurement is not keeping pace,'' wrote KCR.
Stating that due to unclear policies of FCI, the Chief Minister said it is becoming difficult for the states to plan an appropriate cropping pattern and then explain the same to farmers. For instance the rice production in Telangana during 2021 Kharif was 55.75 LMT (lakh metric tonnes) while the procurement was only 32.66 LMT which is just 59 % of the production. This was less than the 78 % procured in Kharif during 2019-20. Such wide variations in procurement levels does not allow the state to implement a rational cropping pattern.''
While partly putting the blame on Piyush Goyal, Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution system while copying the letter to him too, KCR has now requested the Government of India to direct the FCI on three major issues: 1) Complete the procurement of balance 5.00 LMTs rice produced in Rabi 2020-21. 2) Enhance the target beyond 40.00 LMTs for procurement of rice during the ongoing Kharif 2021-22 to 90 % of the production as done in Punjab and 3) To confirm target of procurement of rice from the state of Telangana during Rabi season.''
While stating that he will wait for Prime Minister's reply to his letter for next couple of days, KCR had already declared that tomorrow (November 18), all his party's MPs and MLAs, MLCs apart from other elected representatives will stage a dharna in Hyderabad and submit a memorandum to the governor on this issue.
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New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday (November 16, 2021) faced an embarassing situation when teachers at a state-level award ceremony in Jaipur responded with a "yes" to a question about the prevalence of bribery in transfers pertaining to the education department.
Gehlot was talking about the need for a transparent transfer policy for teachers where they clearly know about the duration of their tenures.
"We hear sometimes money has to be paid for transfers. I don't know if it is true...is money paid?" he asked.
"Yes," the teachers in the audience collectively answered as they cheered the question being put to them.
The Chief Minister, apparently taken aback by the answer, responded 'kamaal hai' (it's surprising) and looked at Rajasthan Minister for School Education Govind Singh Dotasra present on the dais.
"It is very painful that teachers are eager to get transfers done by paying money. I feel a policy should be made and you should get to know if the tenure is for one, two, three years...Money will not change hands and you will not have to go to the MLA (with requests)," he then responded.
WATCH:
#WATCH | At a felicitation program for teachers, in Jaipur, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot asks them if they need to pay money for a transfer. The teachers respond with "Yes". The CM says, "It's very unfortunate that teachers need to pay money for transfer. A policy should be made..." pic.twitter.com/YWAl9QTkSH ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2021
The Congress leader said that teachers should ensure quality education in schools.
"Your duty is that there should be no slackness in your role. Leave the rest to us. Your duty is that education in schools is proper," Gehlot said.
He also urged teachers to inculcate the right values among children and said that teachers had talked of transfer policy and that is a "serious issue".
"Give a suggestion on this to the minister. Transfer policy should be such that there is no heartburn," the Chief Minister said.
He said people approached elected representatives for transfers who in turn put pressure on the minister.
(With ANI inputs)
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New Delhi: Delhi University (DU) has invited applications for Assistant Professor posts. Interested candidates can apply on the official website at du.ac.in.
The recruitment drive will fill a total of 251 vacancies in DU. The deadline to apply for the posts is November 22, 2021.
Candidates can check out the official DU notification HERE.
Delhi University Recruitment 2021: Vacancy details
Unreserved category (UR) 90
SC 38
ST 20
OBC 69
EWS 25
PwBD 9
Delhi University Recruitment 2021: Application fees
For UR/OBC/EWS candidates, the application fee is Rs 500, while SC, ST, PwBD category and women candidates are exempted from paying any fees.
The DU recruitment drive will fill Assistant Professor posts in the Academic Pay Level 10 as per the 7th Central Pay Commission Pay Matrix.
ALSO READ: CSIR NIIST Recruitment 2021: Apply for Project Associate posts
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New Delhi: Superstar Akshay Kumar, who is currently shooting for his film 'Ram Setu', also starring Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha shared in an emotional post on Wednesday, saying that he is missing his late mother Aruna Bhatia.
Taking to his Instagram handle, Akshay posted a video in which he looks emotional, thinking of his beloved mother. In the video, he can be seen in his 'Ram Setu' avatar. A piece of religious music can be heard playing in the background.
He added a caption in Hindi, which roughly translates to, "Just like that... missing maa a lot today," along with adding a broken heart emoticon.
Akshay's mother Aruna Bhatia passed away on September 8, two days after she was admitted to the intensive care unit of a Mumbai Hospital. The actor, who lost his mother a day before his birthday, had taken to Twitter to announce the sad news of his mother's demise.
"She was my core. And today I feel an unbearable pain at the very core of my existence. My maa Smt Aruna Bhatia peacefully left this world today morning and got reunited with my dad in the other world. I respect your prayers as I and my family go through this period. Om Shanti," he wrote.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Akshay has films like 'Raksha Bandhan' with Bhumi Pednekar, 'Bachchan Pandey' co-starring Kriti Sanon and 'Atrangi Re' also featuring Dhanush and Sara Ali Khan, in the pipeline.
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has once again sparked controversy with her thoughts on Indias battle for independence against British rule. The Panga actor said last week at a summit that India's independence was a bheekh (handout). At the time, she also claimed that the country got its real Independence after 2014 when the PM Modi-led BJP government came into power. She stood by her statement on Tuesday and advised people to choose their heroes wisely.
Taking to her Instagram Stories, Kangana shared an old newspaper article and wrote, "Either you are a Gandhi fan or Netaji supporter. You cant be both, choose and decide."
The newspaper had an old article from the 1940s with the headline, Gandhi, others had agreed to hand over Netaji.
In her next IG Story, Kangana, who is known for her controversial remarks, said that freedom fighters were "handed over" to the British by those "who had no courage" to fight oppression but were "power-hungry" and "cunning".
Taking a dig at Mahatma Gandhi, she added, "Those are the ones who taught us, if someone slaps you offer another cheek for one more slap and that is how you will get aazaadi. That's not how one gets aazadi, one can only get bheekh like that. Choose your heroes wisely."
Kangana further claimed that Gandhi "never supported" Bhagat Singh or Subhas Chandra Bose.
"So you need to choose who you support because just placing them all in one box of your memory and every year wishing them all on their birth anniversaries is not enough. In fact, it is not just dumb, it is highly irresponsible and superficial. One must know their history and their heroes," the actor added.
Her recent comments regarding India's independence struggle has drawn flak from several politicians and others. Many have even demanded that the Centre take back Kanganas Padma Shri honour for insulting the country's independence battle. Kangana had received the prestigious award from President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony hosted at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the capital on November 8.
MUMBAI: Comedian Vir Das, who is known for giving controversial statements, is being brutally trolled by online users for his I come from two Indias monologue that apparently insults the nation.
You come from an India, @VirDas, where you make a living by insulting your own nation!! You come from an India, that allows your disgusting, derogative nonsense to pass off as freedom of speech!! You come from an India, that has tolerated your slander for way to long!!#Shame pic.twitter.com/YGRfDqQknj Priti Gandhi - (@MrsGandhi) November 16, 2021
Meanwhile, an advocate Ashutosh Dubey has filed a case against Das defaming and spoiling the image of India in the USA.
I have filed the complaint against Vir Das Indian Comedian with @CPMumbaiPolice @MumbaiPolice for defaming & spoiling the image of India in the USA, which is inflammatory. He wilfully spelled inciting & derogatory statements against India, Indian women, & the PM of India. pic.twitter.com/xQuLuGwGZv ADV. ASHUTOSH J. DUBEY (@AdvAshutoshBJP) November 16, 2021
Das, who is currently in the US, had uploaded a video on YouTube, titled "I come from two Indias" that was part of his recent performance at the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC.
In the six-minute video, Das talks about the duality of the country and mentions some of the most topical issues India is facing, from its battle against COVID-19, incidents of rapes, crackdown against comedians to the farmers' protests.
A section on Twitter posted clips and pictures from his monologue, specifically the part where the comedian said, I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them during the night."
In view of the controversy, Das issued a statement on Tuesday clarifying that his comments in his monologue "I come from two Indias weren't intended to insult the country.
The 42-year-old took to Twitter and posted a note, stating that his intention was to sever as a reminder that the country, despite its issues, was "great."
"The video is a satire about the duality of two very separate India's that do different things. Like any nation has light and dark, good and evil within it. None of this is a secret. The video appeals for us to never forget that we are great. To never stop focusing on what makes us great.
"It ends in a gigantic patriotic round of applause for a country we all love, believe in, and are proud of. That there is more to our country than the headlines, a deep beauty. That's the point of the video and the reason for the applause," his statement read.
Das wrote that people cheer for the country with hope and not "hate" and asked his followers to not be misled by edited clips.
"Please do not be fooled by edited snippets. People cheer for India with hope, not hate. People clap for India with respect, not malice. You cannot sell tickets, earn applause, or represent great people with negativity, only with pride. I take pride in my country, and I carry that pride across the world.
"To me, a room full of people anywhere in the world, giving India an ovation is pure love. I ask of you, the same thing I asked of that audience...To focus on the light, remember our greatness, and spread the love," he added.
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NEW DELHI: Ahead of Gurpurab on November 19, the Centre will reopen the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor on Wednesday for Sikh devotes to the holy shrine in Pakistan that was closed since March last year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Corridor provides rare visa-free travel from India to Pakistan and vice versa for pilgrims to pray at Holy Gurudwara Darbar. The Centre had earlier decided to reopen the Corridor ahead of Gurpurab, the birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikhism - Guru Nanak.
The Gurudwara, notably, is considered to be one of the holiest places in Sikhism and is believed to be the final resting place of Guru Nanak.
Taking to Twitter, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said, "In a major decision, that will benefit large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM Narendra Modi govt has decided to re-open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17. This decision reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and our Sikh community."
"The nation is all set to celebrate the Prakash Utsav of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji on 19th of November and I am sure that PM Narendra Modi govts decision to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib corridor will further boost the joy and happiness across the country," Shah added.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday welcomed the Centre's decision of reopening the Kartarpur corridor and said the state cabinet will be part of the "Jatha", which will visit the historic shrine in Pakistan on November 18.
"I thank them. The entire cabinet will be part of the first 'Jatha' (group) which will visit and pay obeisance on November 18," CM Channi told reporters.
Besides Channi, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, former CM Amarinder Singh, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal also hailed the Centre's move.
The Kartarpur corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district.
The 4.7-km-long corridor was opened with much fanfare in November 2019 on the occasion of Gurpurab. Recently, several Punjabi leaders had also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had requested him to open the corridor.
The development came amid India gradually opening up for international travellers as the number of daily COVID-19 cases continues to decline.
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Bengaluru: Kannada actor late Puneeth Rajkumar would be honoured with the 'Karnataka Ratna' award posthumously, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced on Tuesday.
Delivering his address at the 'Puneeth Namana' programme organised by Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce to pay tributes to the star who passed away recently, Bommai said, "Puneeth would be awarded the 'Karnataka Ratna' posthumously."
"Apart from this honour, my cabinet will also take decisions on getting national awards and honours for Puneeth. A memorial too would be built in the honour of Puneeth to make his name and memories immortal," Bommai declared.
Recalling his association with Appu, as Puneeth was fondly called, the Chief Minister said, "he was close to me. He was a fountain of talent and it was evident from his childhood days itself. He has the distinction of being the only actor who got the national award as a child artist."
"It was wonderful to watch how Puneeth as a child actor used to incarnate himself in to the character overcoming the father-son relationship while acting with his late father Dr Rajkumar," he said.
Thanking Puneeth's fans for the manner in which they conducted themselves after his death and during his funeral, Bommai said as the saying goes "Sharanarannu Maranadalli Nodu", see the greatness of a man in his death, it reflected the great character and personality of Puneeth.
The country has a vast history, but there were very few who had the real great character. "Appu has made it to history as a man of such character," the Chief Minister said.
Recalling his gesture of kissing Appu's forehead while he paid his last respects to Puneeth before the funeral rites, which drew diverse comments, the Chief Minister clarified, "it was from my heart. I gave the kiss on behalf of 6 crore people of the state," he said.
Bommai profusely thanked Dr Rajkumar's family members, their fans and personnel of various departments of the government for their cooperation in enabling a smooth and dignified funeral for Puneeth.
New Delhi: The legendary film personality of Kannada cinema, Puneeth Rajkumar succumbed to a heart attack on Friday, October 29, 2021. His sudden death sent shock waves across the nation, with many political leaders and celebrities mourning his demise. His wife Ashwini Revanath (Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar) has for the first time broken her silence after her husband's death.
Late star Puneeth Rajkumar's wife Ashwini Revanath took to her Instagram handle and penned an emotional letter to fans. She wrote: The untimely death of Sri, Puneeth Rajkumar has been shocking not only to the family but also to the entire state of Karnataka. It is hard to imagine the extent of pain this loss would have brought on you, the fans who made him the Power Star. Despite the pain that you have gone through, you have not lost your calm and not let any unpleasant incidents occur, ensuring a respectful farewell to Puneeth Rajkumar.
It is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge the condolences from millions; not only cinephiles but people of all ages from India and abroad alike. I am in tears when I see thousands of you follow your dear Appu's path and register for eye donation. He will live on in these good deeds that you do by keeping him as an ideal and also in the zeal that his memory inspires in you. On behalf of our entire family, heartfelt gratitude to all the fans and every individual for your love and support.
It was her first and only post on the social media handle.
The 46-year-old power star suffered a heart attack after he complained of chest pain on Friday morning and was rushed to Vikram Hospital in Bengaluru. His mortal remains were kept for public view at Kanteerava Stadium. Thousands of people across the state thronged to pay their last respects to their favourite star.
Puneeth Rajkumar's mother Parvathamma is also laid to rest in the same premises.
Many big wigs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, MK Stalin, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other South stars such as Mammootty, Chiranjeevi, Sonu Sood, Jr NTR, Sudhir Babu, Siddharth among others were left grieving.
The son of the matinee idol, the late Rajkumar, and Parvathamma, he was fondly called 'Appu' by his fans.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that late legendary Kannada star Puneeth Rajkumar would be honoured with the 'Karnataka Ratna' award posthumously.
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Washington: After convening a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that Washington is "not going to change its Taiwan policy", reported Sputnik.
"We are not going to change our policy at all," Biden said. "They have to decide - they, Taiwan, not us - and we are not encouraging independence. We are encouraging that they do exactly what the Taiwan Act requires," Sputnik quoted Biden as saying.
On Monday (local time), Biden held a virtual meeting with Xi for over three hours. Both leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations on issues of fundamental importance shaping the development of China-US relations.
The meeting saw the two leaders locking horns on the issue of Taiwan. Xi had said that China will be compelled to take resolute measures, should the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence" "provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line.
"Chinese President had noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and ascribed the tensions to attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use the issue to contain China, Xinhua news agency reported."
Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire," Xi said. "Whoever plays with fire will get burnt.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing. China has threatened that "Taiwan`s independence" means war.
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WASHINGTON/BEIJING: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed at a virtual meeting to look into the possibility of arms control talks, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. Biden and Xi agreed to "look to begin to carry forward discussion on strategic stability," Sullivan said in a reference to U.S. concerns about China`s nuclear and missile buildup.
"You will see at multiple levels an intensification of the engagement to ensure that there are guardrails around this competition so that it doesn`t veer off into conflict," Sullivan said in a Brookings Institution webinar.
Sullivan did not elaborate on what form the discussions on strategic stability could take but went on to say: "That is not the same as what we have in the Russian context with the formal strategic stability dialogue. That is far more mature, has a much deeper history to it. There`s less maturity to that in the US-China relationship, but the two leaders did discuss these issues and it is now incumbent on us to think about the most productive way to carry it forward."
Washington has repeatedly urged China to join it and Russia in a new arms control treaty. Beijing says the arsenals of the other two countries dwarf its own. It says it is ready to conduct bilateral dialogues on strategic security "on the basis of equality and mutual respect." It was the two leaders` most in-depth exchange since Biden took office in January.
Although they spoke for about three-and-a-half hours, the two leaders appeared to do little to narrow differences that have raised fears of an eventual conflict between the two superpowers.
The United States had envisioned the meeting putting stability into a relationship increasingly troubled over a litany of issues, including what Washington views as Beijing`s aggressive actions toward self-ruled Taiwan.
Sullivan said Xi and Biden discussed a broad range of global economic issues, including how the United States and China can work together to ensure world energy supply and price volatility do not imperil the global economic recovery. "The two presidents tasked their teams to coordinate on this issue expeditiously," he said.
In the meeting Biden pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights and Xi warned that China would respond to provocations on Taiwan.
A senior US official said in a briefing after the meeting that the U.S. aim was not to ease tensions, nor necessarily was that the result, and there were no breakthroughs to report.
China`s state media cited unnamed Chinese foreign ministry sources as saying the two sides would ease restrictions on access for journalists from each other`s countries.
The China Daily newspaper said a consensus on journalist visas, among other points, was reached before the virtual meeting.
Officials at the White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Beijing accused Washington of a "political crackdown" on Chinese journalists after it slashed the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work at U.S. offices of major Chinese state-owned media and limited their authorized stay to 90 days, with an option to extend.
China, already accused internationally of not respecting press freedoms, then expelled U.S. journalists at several U.S. newspapers and introduced new visa restrictions on some U.S. media companies.
Biden, Xi discuss how to 'align' stances on Iran nuke issue
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping talked about how they might harmonize their positions ahead of the Nov. 29 resumption of indirect US-Iranian talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a top US official said on Tuesday.
Officials from Iran and the six nations that struck the pact - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - will meet in Vienna to see if Tehran and Washington can agree to resume compliance with the deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear program to gain relief from US, EU and UN sanctions.
In 2018 then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact among the major powers known as the P5+1 and Iran and restored harsh U.S. sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions about a year later.
"The two presidents had the chance to talk about how we can align our perspectives heading into that (Nov. 29) meeting so that the P5+1 is united in dealing with Iran and trying to pave the way for a return to the (deal)," White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a virtual think tank appearance.
The US-Iranian talks are indirect, with officials from the other nations shuttling between them, because Iran refuses direct contact with US officials.
While China favours reviving the agreement, it has tended to place the onus on the United States, rather than Iran, blaming Washington for having abandoned the deal and giving Tehran an economic lifeline by buying Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
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